Personal Finance News

Insurers Jump In as Obama Opens the Door for Annuities in Retirement Funds Insurers and mutual-fund companies are starting to sell retirement accounts with built-in annuities in response to concerns Americans will outlive their savings.

China Sovereign Fund Becomes Oil ETF's No. 4 Holder, Buys SPDR Gold Trust China Investment Corp., the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, invested for the first time in the U.S. Oil Fund, an exchange-traded crude-futures fund, joining Morgan Stanley & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group among the top holders.

S&P 500 Plunge Fails to Shake Gabelli in Bet Technology Leads U.S. Economy The combination of record earnings growth and the fastest withdrawals from mutual funds since before credit markets froze is creating opportunities for Mario Gabelli.

Fund Losses of $2 Billion in Emerging Markets Signal Repeat of '04 Profits The biggest tumble in developing- nation stocks in 11 months is making investment strategists at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as bullish as ever.

BlackRock, T. Rowe Skirt Fund Blowups to Win Clients as Legg Mason Shrinks BlackRock Inc. and Franklin Resources Inc. won the most new assets among publicly traded U.S. fund managers last year after limiting losses during the financial crisis that drove clients away from Legg Mason Inc. and AllianceBernstein Holding LP.

Greenspan Sees `Slow' Recovery, Would Be `Very Concerned' If Stocks Drop Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said a U.S. economic recovery is “going to be a slow, trudging thing,” and that he “would get very concerned” if stock prices continue to fall.

Pimco's El-Erian Favors Brazil Bonds, Yuan Forwards, Says Greece Needs Aid Mohamed A. El-Erian, whose company runs the world’s biggest mutual fund, favors investments in emerging markets on expectations they’ll outpace developed economies in growth and wealth.

Relative Value's Fertig Digs Out Closed-End Fund Discounts to Beat S&P 500 The U.S. closed-end fund market is small, illiquid and dominated by individual investors as opposed to institutions, Maury Fertig says. That’s why he and fellow Salomon Brothers institutional bond sales veteran Bob Huffman focused on the area when they started Relative Value Partners LLC in 2004.

Emerging Equity Funds Post Biggest Outflows in 24 Weeks on Greece, Profits Emerging market equity funds lost $1.6 billion in weekly withdrawals, the biggest outflows in 24 weeks, as earnings and Greece’s debt woes raised concerns that the global recovery may falter, EPFR Global said.

Technology Stocks Are Cheap Given Profit Outlook, T. Rowe's Eiswert Says Earnings at technology companies such as Intel Corp. may top analysts’ estimates by as much as 20 percent in 2010, a sign valuations are too low, according to the manager of T. Rowe Price Group Inc.’s global technology fund.

Mortgage Rates on 30-Year Loans Climb to 5.01% in First Rise in Five Weeks Mortgage rates in the U.S. rose for the first time in five weeks, threatening to slow the housing market’s recovery as government incentives near expiration.

Touradji Hedge Fund Buys Steel Companies Betting on Economic Turnaround Touradji Capital Management LP, the New York hedge-fund firm that oversees about $2.7 billion, bought steel companies in the fourth quarter as the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program helped lift demand for the metal.

Goldman Sachs Decline Signals S&P 500 Rally Has Peaked: Technical Analysis Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s decline below its average price in the last 200 days and the stock’s failure to rally to new highs since October are stoking bearishness among technical analysts.

Peter Lynch Legacy Eroded by `Lost Decade' for Boston's Fidelity, Putnam Boston mutual-fund companies, with three in the U.S. top 10 in 1999, begin this year with a shrunken share of the industry and a dependence on traditional stock-picking that is losing favor among retail investors.

El-Erian Says Retreat in Stocks Will Worsen on U.S. Joblessness, Economy Mohamed A. El-Erian, whose firm runs the world’s biggest mutual fund, said the largest stock market decline in 11 months may worsen amid persistent U.S. joblessness and economic growth that trails analysts’ forecasts.

Stanford Beats Harvard as Fundraising at Colleges Plummets Most Since 1969 Donations to U.S. colleges and universities fell by 12 percent, the most in at least four decades, as a result of the recession, the Council for Aid to Education said.

Citibank to Keep Free Checking Services Through 2010 in Cuomo Agreement Citigroup Inc.’s Citibank agreed to a year delay in adding fees on more than 1 million U.S. consumers who signed up for checking accounts that were advertised as “free,” the New York Attorney General said.

Obama Small Businesss Tax Credit May Not Cover IRA Cost, Trade Group Says A tax credit for U.S. small businesses proposed in President Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion fiscal 2011 budget may not cover the set-up costs of a mandatory retirement savings plan, a Washington-based trade group said.