Fidelity Investments, the biggest US-based fund group, may announce job cuts in the weeks ahead, as the longest bear market since the 1970s squeezes profits in its mutual fund business, analysts said.
Fidelity saw US$4.1 billion leave its stock and bond mutual funds in September, putting its long-term assets on pace to end the year at their lowest level since 1997, according to Financial Research Corp, Fidelity's workforce, which totaled 28,700 in 1998, has grown to about 32,500 today.
"It's amazing Fidelity has been able to withstand any measurable layoffs this long," said Jim Lowell, editor of Fidelity Investor, a monthly newsletter based in Needham, Massachusetts. Lowell said Fidelity competitors Janus Capital Corp and Putnam Investments have already cut hundreds of jobs.
Fidelity's stock and bond fund assets fell 27 percent in the year through September as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost more than a quarter of its value. While assets at most fund companies have dropped, Fidelity has garnered less in new sales than rivals like Vanguard Group, which has gained as investors have shifted billions from stocks to bonds.
Vanguard, the largest seller of bond funds, has taken in US$26.2 billion in new cash this year through September, more than five times the US$5.2 billion received by Fidelity, according to FRC. If money market funds are included, Fidelity said it has taken in US$31.5 billion this year through September, compared with US$11.5 billion in all of 2000.
Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley said the Boston-based company has no plans for company-wide job reductions. She said each Fidelity business unit makes its own staffing decisions.
"There is no cross-company directive to do across-the- board-layoffs," Crowley said. "Our business units are given significant autonomy in both good markets and bad to make their decisions in how best to run their business."
To be sure, Fidelity is more than mutual funds. It's the US' largest manager and administrator of 401(k) plans, has a brokerage business and a unit that manages companies' benefit plans and services such as payrolls. As of Sept. 30, it had total assets of US$813.1 billion.
Still, mutual funds accounted for 50 percent of Fidelity's US$11.1 billion in revenue and two-thirds of its US$2.17 billion in pretax profit last year. Fidelity is privately held by Chairman Edward "Ned" Johnson III and his family.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS