BOSTON, Feb 2 (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.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Several of the largest U.S. asset managers delivered stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday, helped by rising stock markets, but weaker net sales suggested investors remain risk-averse.

While earnings for the December quarter were healthy in many ways, net sales — or flows — remain the key metric for the companies, and the figures released by Invesco Ltd, Franklin Resources and Janus Capital Group Inc showed the uncertainties facing the industry.

BOSTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – BlackRock’s (BLK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) iShares
exchange-traded fund unit filed to open two quantitative equity
strategy funds, the market leader’s first foray into that type
of offering.

The planned new products, the iShares MSCI USA Minimum
Volatility Index Fund and the iShares EAFE Minimum Volatility
Index Fund, will aim to reduce losses from the stock markets’
worst periods using mathematical techniques developed by index
provider MSCI Inc (MSCI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

BOSTON (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc’s (BLK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) profit soared 77 percent in the fourth quarter, beating all expectations, as the world’s largest asset manager benefited from increased hedge fund fees and inflows into its massive exchange-traded fund business.

With both actively and passively managed funds contributing, the behemoth with $3.6 trillion (2.3 trillion pounds) of assets under management — created when Chief Executive Laurence Fink bought Barclays’s (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) investment unit for $15 billion just over a year ago — finally appears to be paying off for investors.

BOSTON (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc’s (BLK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) profit soared 77 percent in the fourth quarter, beating all expectations, as the world’s largest asset manager benefited from increased hedge fund fees and inflows into its massive exchange-traded fund business.

With both actively and passively managed funds contributing, the behemoth with $3.6 trillion (2.27 trillion pounds) of assets under management — created when Chief Executive Laurence Fink bought Barclays’s (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research) investment unit for $15 billion just over a year ago — finally appears to be paying off for investors.

BOSTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc (BLK.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the
world’s largest money manager, said it has stopped buying back
its shares, aiming to preserve its public float as it lays the
groundwork to be included in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Acknowledging for the first time that BlackRock was aiming
to be added to the index, Chief Financial Officer Anne Marie
Petach said on Tuesday she believed all criteria had been met.

BOSTON (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc (BLK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest asset manager, reported a big jump in fourth-quarter profit and revenue on Tuesday, aided by the global stock market rally.

Earnings, excluding certain items, totaled $670 million, or $3.42 per share, up 77 percent from $379 million, or $2.39 per share, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 61 percent to $2.49 billion.

BOSTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc (BLK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the
world’s largest asset manager, is expected to report healthy
gains in fourth quarter profit and revenue on Tuesday, aided in
no small measure by the global stock market rally.

And with markets on an upswing, the $3.4 trillion behemoth
created when chief executive Laurence Fink bought Barclays
Plc’s [BARCBB.UL] investment unit for $15 billion just over a
year ago finally appears to be paying off for investors.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Vanguard Group canceled plans to open a line of tax-exempt bond exchange-traded funds as municipal bond prices tumbled and index tracking concerns hit competitors’ ETFs.

In a brief filing on Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Vanguard said it was withdrawing its registration statements filed in June for a short-term, an intermediate-term and a long-term muni ETF.

BOSTON (Reuters) – After the stock market’s fourth-quarter bang, investors expected a bigger boom than they got from leading custody banks State Street (STT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Bank of New York Mellon (BK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The rally did lead to more custody and management fees for the quarter, but not enough to impress investors. And continued low interest rates held back profits from short-term investments and lending.