The Mortgage Bankers Association is predicting that 2009 will be another rocky year for the housing sector, with housing starts falling 22.9%, new-home sales declining 31% and new-home prices falling another 5.1%.
Despite the economic downturn, investors with more than $100,000 in assets were still optimistic about investing in green ventures, according to a survey released today by Allianz Global Investors.
A rocky history notwithstanding, the U.S. Global Investors Global Mega Trends Fund (MEGAX) hopes to turn the corner in 2009 by focusing heavily on infrastructure-related investing.
The deepening recession and rising unemployment took a toll on homebuilding giant Centex Corp. in the final three months of 2008 as the company saw new-home sales plunge 80%.
A Luxembourg investment partnership has agreed to purchase two private-equity funds from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy estate.
Forward Management LLC of San Francisco, adviser to the Accessor Funds, announced today the launch of a mutual fund that gives investors access to “frontier” equity markets which are smaller, less liquid and less developed.
The default rate for issuers of U.S. corporate junk bonds — bonds that Standard & Poor’s rates BB+ and below — is expected to “catapult” to an all-time high of 13.9% by December, S&P said in a report today.
The housing market continued its downward spiral in December, with new-home construction plummeting to a record low, according to data released today by the Department of Commerce.
Pacific Investment Management Co. of Newport Beach, Calif., has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch the Treasury Money Market and Government Money Market funds.
Hedge funds experienced record net redemptions of $155 billion in 2008, which when combined with a performance decline of 18.3% for the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite index for the year, dropped total industry assets 25% to $1.4 trillion as of Dec. 31.
According to preliminary data from Hennessee Group LLC in New York, total hedge-fund assets declined by 39% to $1.21 trillion in 2008 — their lowest level since 2006.
The mysterious disappearance of a Florida hedge fund manager five days ago has prompted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission to join the investigation, published reports said.
Actively managed equity mutual funds suffered record net outflows of $208.3 billion last year, while equity index funds enjoyed net inflows of $28 billion, according to estimates from Morningstar Inc.
Two trade groups that represent the investment management industry want the Securities and Exchange Commission to hold a public hearing on the liquidation plan for a money market fund that collapsed in September.
Grail Advisors LLC said today that it has filed a registration statement for two actively managed exchange traded funds, the Grail American Beacon International Equity ETF and the Grail American Beacon Large Cap Value ETF.
The two money management operations have been divisions of the same parent company since last January when Rydex of Rockville, Md., was acquired by Security Benefit Corp. of Topeka, Kan.
The number of properties facing foreclosure proceedings jumped 81% and the number of American households losing their homes through foreclosure surged 66% in 2008, according to two studies.
Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. of Tokyo today announced the launch of Nomura Partners Funds Inc., a group of mutual funds with an Asian and global focus.
Putnam Investments of Boston today announced that it has launched four target absolute-return mutual funds designed to seek annualized total returns of 1%, 3%, 5% or 7% above those of U.S. Treasuries over a period of three years or more.
Foreign investors plan to spend significantly more money on U.S. real estate in 2009 than they did last year.
