Active fund managers continue to beat indexes
From The Boston Globe
Fund managers beating stock market indexes is something that has not been heard for a long time, but it is happening. Tables have turned and relative fund performance beginning Oct. 8 last year, when the stock market hit a bottom, and particularly last week has been practically bullish. Nearly half of all growth mutual funds that invest in large stocks - 43.3% - beat the S&P 500 rally during that period, according to Morningstar Inc. In addition, the average growth fund return was a whopping 54.9% over that span, according to Lipper Inc. in New York.

Exit fees debated in U.S. District Court
From The Wall Street Journal
Scudder Kemper Investments Inc. has found itself in the center of a legal fight that sheds light on an increasingly common but controversial matter in the mutual-fund industry -- the levying of exit fees on investors who sell shares upon the conversion of a closed-end fund to regular mutual-fund status. The U.S. District Court in New York City will be the backdrop of the fee discussion on Thursday. Fund activist Phillip Goldstein has brought a case seeking an injunction to block a redemption fee from going into effect at Scudder New Europe Fund unless shareholders approve the expense in a separate vote. Scudder's plan to institute the fee is part of a detailed plan to open the fund that is scheduled to go before shareholders next week. The fee won't be voted on separately. Typically, fund redemption charges last less than a year. In Scudder's case, its proposed 2%-of-assets fee would apply to any investor in the closed-end fund who seeks to cash out during the fund's first year as an open-end mutual fund.

E*Trade increases global push with TIR acquisition
From The Wall Street Journal
In an effort to improve their international operations, E*Trade Group Inc. agreed to buy a global trade-execution and settlement company, TIR Holdings Ltd., for $122 million in E*Trade stock. The acquisition of TIR should speed up E*Trade's planned development of a global, electronic-trading system, analysts said, and put pressure on the company's U.S. rivals to beef up their own international businesses. TIR is a Cayman Islands company with six "dealing centers" around the world, as well as memberships in several large stock exchanges. TIR has mainly served institutional clients with presence in 35 countries.

 

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