How Will Investors Take Negative Fund Statements?
From Chicago Tribune
The fallout from 2000 is about to begin, warns the paper. It points out that fund investors are going to start receiving annual statements and reports showing red for the first time since 1994. The article lays out a list of questions investors should ask before the react to the bad news by selling. Is this still the fund I bought? Did the fund lose more than it should? How did the fund do compared to its peers? Now that I have lived through the downside volatility, can I stand it? Have I been fooling myself?

REITs Are Back
From Washington Post
Is real estate the hot sector for 2001? The paper claims that amid the tech shakeout, REITs are back. REITs returned 26 percent in 2000, according to data compiled by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

American Funds Adds Shares
From Los Angeles Times
American Funds hometown paper reports that the fund group is offering a new share class for professional financial advisors. "The F shares reflect the growth of fee-based business," the paper quotes a spokesman for Capital Research and Management, as saying. Historically, the firm has sold only "A" shares. Last March, it broke from tradition when it started offering "B" shares.

Tech Managers Hang Tough
From Los Angeles Times
Tech fund managers are keeping a stiff upper lip. During the initial week of 2001 tech funds continued to fall. Quoted in the article are Deb Koch, co-manager of the Strong Advisor Technology fund, Kevin Landis, manager of San Jose-based Firsthand Technology Value fund, Dennis McKechnie, managing director of PIMCO Equity Advisors in New York and portfolio manager of the PIMCO Innovation fund and the PIMCO Global Innovation fund, Craig Callahan, chief investment officer at Meridian Investment Management, investment advisor for the ICON Information Technology fund. Tech Fund Dangers
From Investor's Business Daily
In what may be a case of closing the barn door after the horse has escaped, the paper is warning investors that tech funds may be "seductive but dangerous." The article points out that investors placed $24.13 billion into tech funds in 1999 and another $44.46 billion in 2000. Yet the average tech fund dropped 36.15% in 2000. Bottom line: the article suggests investors stay in tech funds at least five years, or that they "jump into and out" the funds "depending on fundamental and technical conditions."

Seligman Large Cap Value
From Wall Street Journal
The paper profiles Neil T. Eigen, manager of the Seligman Large Cap Value Fund, and lauds him for staying true to his "die-hard value" style since 1969. "Graybeards like me stayed the course because we've seen manias before and they always end badly," explains Eigen. "You want to invest in companies with proven records of product, earnings, cash flows and dividends, and these are value stocks."

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE