In the News
Weighing Your Next Move
Moving corporate cash to boost returns by a basis point or two could earn a CFO or treasurer a well-deserved dressing-down. But that doesn’t mean that finance executives who manage growing pools of idle cash can stand pat with their current investing strategies. Safety and liquidity require constant vigilance —
Consumer spending drops in September
TEXT OF INTERVIEWS Stacey Vanek-Smith: This morning, some not so good news. Consumer plunged in September, its biggest drop in nine months. Now that’s a big deal considering consumer spending makes up about 70 percent of our economy. To help us suss this out is Lance Pan. He’s the director
Buyer’s Remorse
On February 7, 2008, Joseph Broce, assistant treasurer of Ashland Corp., authorized Oppenheimer Co. to buy $15 million worth of auction-rate securities (ARS) on Ashland’s behalf. The money was from a 2005 asset sale that netted the chemical company more than $1 billion in cash. Ashland wanted to keep the
Industry, SEC Spar Over Money Funds
The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering making significant changes to money market mutual funds because there is still a danger that these funds could be unable to meet redemptions when investors begin to step off the sidelines en masse and move back into equity markets. At a seminar on
Financial advisers are at risk of getting caught in a classic “bond bear trap” — reaching for yield in a low-interest-rate environment, then getting hammered when rates ultimately rise. “We see this time and time again — when the Fed lowers rates, people go out very long [on the yield
Expect lower yields from money market mutual funds in the coming months as a result of reforms being contemplated by the SEC and Investment Company Institute, according to a white paper released this month and announced today by Capital Advisors Group Inc. of Newton, Mass. Proposals from the Washington-based ICI
With money fund assets at a record high, the guarantee program prompted by the Primary Fund’s troubles is expected to be extended, possibly to Sept. 18 ¿ a year after the guarantees started. Fund companies have paid more than $800 million so far in fees to extend government backing to
More Than Zero
Battered by volatile markets and burned by flaws in structured debt, companies face hard choices about where to invest cash. They commonly have three priorities now, say experts: liquidity, capital preservation, and transparency. “If an investment has the hint of structure, treasurers will pass on it,” says Karl D’Cunha, a
Cash: Irrational Insecurity?
“For years, corporate investors stuck to what were considered safe investments. Now we know that nothing is safe,” says Lee Epstein, president and CEO of Money Market One, a broker-dealer based in San Francisco that specializes in corporate cash. “You have to consider that the unthinkable can happen. It’s the
New Investment Options
Not surprisingly, most corporate financial execs today are placing safety and liquidity top-of-mind when choosing between investments, says Ben Campbell, president of Capital Advisors Group, a Newton, Mass.-based investment advisory firm. Late last year, in fact, CFOs aggressively moved to quality, as evidenced by Uncle Sam’s December auction of $30