BOSTON (Reuters) – Time to brace for leaner times in America.

Underneath all the angst over Standard & Poor’s warning to downgrade the United States’ AAA credit rating within two years, investors say the most important message is that austerity is around the corner.

And that means investors are looking to invest in so-called defensive stocks that can grow revenue even in bad times. Treasury bonds and non-U.S. bonds including emerging market securities rather than companies that rely heavily on a robust economy and low interest rates.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Investment advisers and fund managers tried to look past a market-wrenching downgrade of the U.S. credit outlook and pointed out that bonds, defensive stocks and non-U.S. dollar investments will survive better in a slowing economy.

Standard & Poor’s on Monday downgraded its credit outlook for the United States to “negative,” citing the risk that policymakers may not reach agreement on slashing the huge federal budget deficit. The warning heightens pressure on Congress to agree to more cuts.

BOSTON, April 6 (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc may be best known
for its huge institutional bond accounts and iShares
exchange-traded funds, but the firm is planning a massive
expansion in old-fashioned mutual funds and related retail
offerings.

Already the world’s largest asset manager, New York-based
BlackRock (BLK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) wants to double its $300 billion U.S. retail
business by the end of 2014, Frank Porcelli, managing director
and head of U.S. retail, told Reuters.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Europe’s frayed economic union is being hit at regular intervals by bad news from its ‘fringe’ members.

Once-stalwart countries like Ireland and Spain moved to that edge last year and their rehabbing is far from complete.

BOSTON, April 5 (Reuters) – Europe’s frayed economic union
is being hit at regular intervals by bad news from its ‘fringe’
members.

Once-stalwart countries like Ireland and Spain moved to
that edge last year and their rehabbing is far from complete.

BOSTON (Reuters) – MFS Investment Management and Janus Capital Group have climbed back from crises over the past decade to win back investor confidence with improved performance and reduced risk taking.

Boston-based MFS, a unit of Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial, and Janus, based in Denver, were among just four large fund firms awarded for consistent and top performance over the past three years by Lipper, a unit of Thomson Reuters.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Japan’s stock market, usually one of the world’s dullest, has turned into a gripping 24-hour roller coaster fueled by fear and punctuated by only short moments of relief.

The action takes place even when Tokyo’s own market is shut for the day and is informed by a constant flow of news that often sheds little light on what is happening inside the containment vessels.

BOSTON (Reuters) – As a broad sell-off struck world markets Tuesday amid Japan’s unfolding nuclear calamity, many professional investors were ready to pounce.

At the open of U.S. trading, the Standard & Poor’s dropped almost 3 percent led by weakness in insurance and technology stocks along with a 7 percent plunge in industrial giant General Electric Co (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which designed the troubled Japanese plant’s reactors.

BOSTON, March 15 (Reuters) – As a broad sell-off struck
world markets Tuesday amid Japan’s unfolding nuclear calamity,
many professional investors were ready to pounce.

At the open of U.S. trading, the Standard & Poor’s dropped
almost 3 percent led by weakness in insurance and technology
stocks along with a 7 percent plunge in industrial giant
General Electric Co (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which designed the troubled
Japanese plant’s reactors.

BOSTON (Reuters) – As a broad sell-off struck world markets Tuesday amid Japan’s unfolding nuclear calamity, many professional investors were ready to pounce.

At the open of U.S. trading, the Standard & Poor’s dropped almost 3 percent led by weakness in insurance and technology stocks along with a 7 percent plunge in industrial giant General Electric Co, which designed the troubled Japanese plant’s reactors.