Patience and a clear head reduce Y2K fears
From Investor's Business Daily
Mutual fund managers are saying the millennium bug might depress stocks temporarily but won't result in a stock market sell-off. Shareholders biggest Y2K concerns are that corporate profits will be reduced and share prices will decline or a decrease in corporate profits could spark inflation causing several interest rate hikes before before 2000. Some believe that mutual fund's computer systems will crash wiping out account records. Fund managers are attempting to alleviate the public's fears by saying that some of these things may happen but they will be short lived and handled with patience and a clear head.

Bogle goes to the public
From The New York Post
The New York Post says yesterday's New York Times editorial written by John Bogle is a cry to the public. Either way shareholders are standing behind the Vanguard founder. Online chat rooms run by the likes of Morningstar and the Motley Fool have been filled with fans affirming their undying love for Bogle and their concern that without him on the board, Vanguard will change for the worse.

More stringent fund manager rules
From The Wall Street Journal
Federal regulators have pulled in the leash on mutual fund managers by passing more-stringent disclosure rules for those who trade for their own accounts. The new rules however, stopped short of banning managers from trading for themselves in IPOs and private-placement transactions. The SEC is requiring that portfolio managers disclose their personal securities holdings to employers annually and ask for their permission when buying or selling IPOs or private placements. The rule changes will go into effect in October and become mandatory next March.

Other related stories:

USA Today

The Boston Globe

Shareholders clamor
From The Wall Street Journal
The $268 billion TIAA-CREF teachers' fund Teachers has prided itself on its ability to influence companies it invests in to adopt more shareholder-friendly strategies. Now shareholders of the Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund are making demands of their own. A group of the pension fund's investors has begun efforts persuading the fund to invest in "socially responsible" companies that are seeking to improve their workplace, environment or local community. But TIAA-CREF isn't budging.

Wooing the traders
From The Wall Street Journal
Just a week after a study showing that 70% of all day traders will wind up in the red, Charles Schwab has sent new trading software to thousands of its best clients and plans to give them professional-style stock quotes later this year. E*Trade Group Inc. and Fidelity Investments are also reaching out to their most active traders. As Schwab tries to position itself in the ranks of more respectable brokers like Merrill Lynch, the company still has to fight hard to keep customers from defecting to firms that cater to high-tech, active traders.

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