PIMCO to Launch New Global Fund

PIMCO registered with the SEC to launch PIMCO Global Opportunities Fund. The filing indicates that the fund will be a flexible hybrid. It will invest in securities that are economically tied to at least three countries, including possibly the U.S. and emerging markets. The fund will have the freedom to invest across the market-cap spectrum. Holdings can include common stock, preferred stock, U.S. and non-U.S. sovereign government debt, bank loans, high-yield bonds, and defaulted securities. Its benchmark will be the MSCI World Index. PIMCO has not yet named portfolio managers for the fund.

Third Avenue's Whitman Stepping Back
Third Avenue Management has appointed Curtis Jensen as the firm's sole chief investment officer. He had shared the role with Marty Whitman, Third Avenue's founder, since 2003. Jensen is also the portfolio manager of  Third Avenue Small-Cap Value (TASCX). The fund's 10-year return of 8.3% tops 71% of its small-blend peers. Jensen joined the firm, which has $16 billion in assets under management, in 1995.

Whitman, 85, remains comanager of  Third Avenue Value (TAVFX). Ian Lapey joined him as comanager of the fund in July 2009. Third Avenue Value's 10-year return of 8.2% places it in the top decile of the world-stock category.

TCW Rolls Out Emerging-Markets Fund
The TCW Group has launched the TCW Emerging Markets Equities Fund. It will invest across market caps in the emerging-markets universe. The fund will be managed by veteran emerging-markets investors Mark Madden and David Robbins, and the two will be supported by a team of five research analysts.

DoubleLine Capital Poaches More TCW Alums
DoubleLine Capital LP, the investment-management firm founded by Jeffrey Gundlach following his departure from The TCW Group in late 2009, has hired Luz Padilla, former lead portfolio manager of TCW Emerging Markets Income (TGEIX) and managing director of TCW's emerging-markets fixed-income group. Two senior members of Padilla's former team, senior analysts Mark Christensen and Su Fei Koo, have also joined DoubleLine.

Loomis Sayles Hires Wells Fargo Bond Veteran
Lynne Royer, a portfolio manager on  Evergreen Core Bond , Evergreen Short-Intermediate Bond , and Wells Fargo Total Return Bond, has left Wells Fargo. Tom O'Connor and Troy Ludgood, who have been managing these strategies for years, remain at Wells Fargo.

Royer will join Loomis Sayles as vice president and co-head of a core bond strategy. This move follows December's announcement that Royer's longtime Wells Fargo colleague Bill Stevens would also join Loomis Sayles.

Reshuffling Continues at AllianceBernstein
Aryeh Glatter, a member of the relative value team and comanager of  AllianceBernstein Balanced Shares (CABNX), has left the firm. Craig Ayers, another member of the relative value team who wasn't officially named as a manager, left during previous layoff rounds in early 2009. Frank Caruso is now the fund's sole manager. He has been a named manager on the fund since 2002 and has been on the team since 1994. Caruso also runs  AllianceBernstein Growth & Income (CABDX) and AllianceBernstein Focused Growth & Income (ADGAX).

Jimmy Pang, a portfolio manager who was part of the International Large Cap Growth portfolio oversight group (which oversees  Bernstein International Portfolio  and  Bernstein Tax-Managed International  ), has also left the firm.

Robert Scheetz, a portfolio manager on  AllianceBernstein International Growth (AWPAX) and  AllianceBernstein Global Thematic Growth (ALTFX), will transition to the consultant relations team in 2010. No announcements have been made about a replacement, and the other managers on the funds remain in their roles.

AllianceBernstein Focused Growth & Income's name will change to AllianceBernstein Core Opportunities on March 1. Its benchmark changed from the Russell 1000 Value Index to the S&P 500 on Nov. 30.

Three Sentinel Funds Make Changes
Sentinel has announced changes to three funds managed by Chuck Schwartz and Betsy Pecor. Effective Jan. 29, the fund family is closing the A, B, and C shares of  Sentinel Small Company (SAGWX) to new investors. The fund recently reached $2 billion in assets. Its I shares remain open for now.

Sentinel Small/Mid Cap  will be liquidated by the end of January. This move streamlines Schwartz and Pecor's duties, given that they also manage  Sentinel Mid Cap Growth  and Small Company.

Finally, Sentinel Mid Cap Growth's name will change to Sentinel Mid Cap, effective in late March. Its benchmark is also changing to the S&P 400. (It had been the S&P 400 Growth.)

RS Investments Launches Three Bond Funds and Drops Fees for Two Funds
RS Investments closed out 2009 with the launch of three new fixed-income funds: RS Strategic Income, RS High Yield Municipal Bond, and RS Floating Rate.

The firm also announced that it was lowering expense ratios for  RS Small Cap Growth (RSEGX) and  RS Select Growth (RSDGX) as of Jan. 1. Expenses for both will be capped at 1.35%.

Etc.
Federated Clover Mid-Value , which has $2.3 million in assets, will be liquidated Feb. 19. The board decided on Nov. 13 to liquidate the fund because it failed to attract new assets. The fund became part of Federated's lineup when the asset manager bought Clover Capital Management in 2008.

Vanguard has settled a recent federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in its hiring practices. The fund family settled the suit for $300,000 but did not admit liability.

Dreyfus announced a change in pricing for  Dreyfus Strategic Value (DAGVX). Dreyfus will waive its fees and assume expenses on the fund through Jan. 11, 2011. During that time, expenses for the fund's A shares will not exceed 0.98%.

After being closed to new investors since the end of 2003,  Wells Fargo Advantage Small Cap Value   reopened its doors for all share classes except Class B shares. Existing shareholders of Class B shares can continue to reinvest.

Mark Brett joined the portfolio-management team of  American Funds Intermediate Bond Fund of America (AIBAX), while Wesley Phoa and Fergus MacDonald joined the management team of  American Funds U.S. Government Securities (AMUSX).

Sycuan Value  will liquidate all assets by Jan. 29.

Fund analysts Katie Rushkewicz, David Falkof, and Harry Milling contributed to this report.