The Dow Jones Industrial average tumbled 222 points today, ending the day at 7580. The S&P 500 ended the day at 927, dropping 28.36 and the Nasdaq composite fell 52.35 to 1503.19. All numbers are based on preliminary closing prices.
The first-ever global standards for measuring and presenting investment performance are expected to be published within two months by AIMR.
If widely accepted, the voluntary standards will enable money managers to meet a single standard in measuring performance and will make it easier to penetrate foreign markets. Marking the biggest change from existing U.S. and U.K. guidelines, the global standard will include a simplified version of AIMR's independent verification test.
The standards, which will be effective Jan. 1, 2000, address the construction of composites and calculation of performance. Eventually, the standards will require a five-year track record for existing firms, monthly portfolio valuations, time-weighted rates of return adjusted for cash flows, trade-date accounting, use of appropriate benchmarks for composites, and full disclosure of results.
U.S. pension assets reached $7.296 trillion by Sept. 30, up 23% from a year earlier, according to the Flow of Funds report from the Federal Reserve. Private pension funds were valued at $3.547 trillion; public pension funds, $2.067 trillion; pension fund reserve assets at life insurance companies were $1.24 trillion; and federal government insurance and pension reserves were $441.2 billion.
Truck Drivers & Warehouse Workers Union, Chicago, terminated Killian Asset Management as a balanced manager for its pension fund.
The firm ``didn't perform well for the last year,'' said Thomas Hurt, fiscal administrator for the $170 million fund. Officials at Killian would not comment on the termination.
The firm's $22 million portfolio was divided between U.S. equity manager Bank of America, balanced manager Duff & Phelps, and U.S. bond manager Mid-City National Bank. Fund officials do not plan to conduct a manager search. Segal assisted.
The PBGC ruled that Kane Transfer Co.'s withdrawal from the Freight Drivers and Helpers Union Local 557 Pension Fund did not hurt the plan.
The trucking industry union pension fund had asked the PBGC to declare that the decision of Kane and other employers to stop making contributions damaged the fund.
Kane stopped making contributions in December 1993. In total, 29 contributing employers withdrew between 1986 and 1994. But the PBGC found that, in January 1996, the fund's assets slightly exceeded the liabilities.
Depository receipt trading volume hit 15 billion shares in 1997, a 23% rise over 1996, according to The Bank of New York.
Non-U.S. companies from 46 countries raised $19 billion through 145 depositary receipt offerings in the U.S. and European public and private markets. DRs of companies in the U.K., Mexico and the Netherlands were the most actively traded in 1997.
