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) – Eager buyers formed huge lines last week for a chance to buy Apple’s iPad 2 before it sold out.

Fund companies, excited to cash in on the “Post-PC” era of tablets and smart phones are trying to turn the Next Big Thing into the Next Big Investment.

BOSTON, March 15 (Reuters) – Eager buyers formed huge lines
last week for a chance to buy Apple’s iPad 2 before it sold
out.

Fund companies, excited to cash in on the “Post-PC” era of
tablets and smart phones are trying to turn the Next Big Thing
into the Next Big Investment.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Billionaire hedge-fund manager Carl Icahn is returning outside investors’ capital, marking the end of an era as he joins a string of prominent stock pickers who no longer want the headaches of overseeing other people’s money.

Icahn, known for a knack of picking winners and his ability to face off with captains of industry, says he has grown weary of overseeing others’ money as markets are becoming more unpredictable and investors more demanding.

BOSTON (Reuters) – The Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF, which has managed to rise to trade at a 10 percent premium over the value of its net assets since the Egyptian stock market shut a month ago, is in danger of plunging once the local market reopens.

The Egyptian cabinet has announced that the stock market, which has been closed since January 28, will reopen on Tuesday, Investors are bracing for a huge sell-off, and new circuit breakers have been imposed.

BOSTON (Reuters) – With stocks falling and oil surging on Mideast turmoil, getting into an ETF based on crude prices might seem a great way to invest in a few barrels.

But the way new ETFs are trading it’s more like getting half barrels with a lot of suds on top.

BOSTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) – With stocks falling and oil
surging on Mideast turmoil, getting into an ETF based on crude
prices might seem a great way to invest in a few barrels.

But the way new ETFs are trading it’s more like getting
half barrels with a lot of suds on top.

BOSTON (Reuters) – The latest headlines about Google and Apple pit the companies against each other in a heated battle for smartphone supremacy, but both will end up winners, according to fund manager David Rolfe.

Rolfe, who runs a concentrated portfolio of just 20 to 25 stocks at the new Riverpark/Wedgewood Fund, says the history of technological development shows the market will easily support two or even three major platforms in the end.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Financial advisers and fund managers are starting to challenge some of the most common and cherished investing axioms of the municipal bond market.

The near-disappearance of bond insurance, well-publicized financial troubles of some states and cities, as well as recent selling pressures, have increased both the risks and the complexity for individuals who want to invest in tax-exempt debt.

BOSTON (Reuters) – The usual flurry of brokerage firm traders seeking to join hedge funds after the payout of annual bonuses could be more of a blizzard this year, with compensation shrinking on Wall Street and a regulatory crackdown in the offing.

Wall Street’s leading banks cut bonuses by an average of 5 percent for all employees, according to a Reuters survey conducted last month. But executive recruiters say the drop for traders was more severe, closer to 25 percent to 30 percent, because of weaker results and the expected implementation of the Volcker rule ending proprietary trading at the banks.