Vanguard's after tax reporting is no biggy
From TheStreet.com
The after tax reporting announced by The Vanguard Group is likely to have little impact on the industry or on return-obsessed investors. TheStreet.com says, the change is not likely to show up in the company's ads because it has never touted its returns in advertising in the first place. Vanguard's problem may be average mom-and-pop investor. Because Vanguard uses the highest marginal tax rates when calculating tax-adjusted numbers, it will overstate the tax bite for small investors.

SoGen sells asset management biz
From The Wall Street Journal
As reported yesterday, Societe Generale said it would sell its 80.1% stake in Societe Generale Asset Management to Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder Inc., a New York investment firm. In early 1999, Liberty Financial Cos. backed out of buying the firm for up to $216 million. Industry analysts predict the French bank will fetch about $100 million for this sale including SoGen's four mutual funds. The transaction will bring assets under management at Arnhold to about $6.6 billion, with about 45% of that in mutual funds.

Healthcare hurts biotech
From The Wall Street Journal
When it comes to healthcare and biotech, one is hot and the other is not. The category of health/biotechnology funds, as grouped by fund-tracker Lipper Inc., is down 3.2% so far this year through Friday. Investors are not happy with the results that they have seen and have yanked $262.9 million out of the category over the past six weeks, according to AMG Data Services, a fund-flow tracker in Arcata, Calif. On the other side of the coin are funds like the Rydex Biotechnology Fund that topped Lipper's health/biotech category with a return of 43.67%, while Rydex Health Care Fund is one of the category's poorer performers with a decline of 13%.

Gen Xers save for retirement
From Investor's Business Daily
Gen Xers are well on their way to retirement according to a survey of more than 1,400 investors in 1998 that looked at the savings habits of three generations of Americans: Generation X, Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation. The study found that the average investor born in 1965 or later has a median income of $44,000. Gen X has already accumulated and average of $26,000 in financial assets. Some $10,000 of that money is invested in mutual funds. Three funds on average represent 38% of their household financial assets and nearly 90% have invested at least some of their savings in stock funds.  

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