2009's Wild Waves

By William Samuel Rocco (Morningstar) — The managers of core domestic-equity funds have faced an exceptionally turbulent environment in the first half of 2009. They confronted terrible conditions this winter. The U.S. market continued to plummet through early March, as ongoing troubles in the financials and other sectors, worries about the global recession and the government responses to it, and other issues caused investors to remain quite leery of equities. Consequently, after plunging in 2008, large-cap funds dropped an average of 22% in 2009 through March 9.

But the skippers of large-cap offerings have encountered a very favorable climate in recent months. The U.S market has rebounded sharply this spring. Simply put, the plethora of compelling bargains, the improvements made by certain banks and other corporations, and a growing belief that the worst of the global recession was over--or, at least, that the end was in sight--induced investors to pursue stocks and to take on risk once again. As a result, core domestic-equity funds have jumped 37% from March 10 through June 26 on average. (Read More).

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NEW YORK (AP) -- General Motors' bid to sell its "good" parts into a new company and emerge from bankruptcy protection began Tuesday as hundreds of lawyers converged on a Manhattan courthouse.

GM, whose June 1 filing for bankruptcy protection was the fourth-largest in U.S. history, is hoping to avoid a lengthy sale hearing that could drag out the process and postpone its emergence from Chapter 11. Last month, objections from a group of bondholders and others dragged out rival Chrysler LLC's sale hearing for three days...(read more)