Mutual Funds Managed Investing: Global Funds Becoming Stay-at-Homes
Some big investors are still betting on stocks "made in America" despite concern about a lurking market lull.</br></br>John Templeton, founder of the $6 billion Templeton Group of Mutual Funds, says about 65% of the group's assets are invested in U.S. stocks. That proportion is one of the highest in 12 years, says Mr. Templeton, an early proponent of global investing.</br></br>Global funds can invest as much as 75% of their assets in the U.S.; international funds confine themselves to overseas investments. But in the shrinking world of investing, many U.S. funds keep their trading "passports" ready to invest at least a small portion of their assets overseas.</br></br>Fidelity Investment's $7.3 billion Magellan Fund, for instance, has toned down its foreign accent but still has 12% of its assets overseas. That's down from 20% earlier this year.</br></br>Mr. Templeton says a U.S. bear market featuring a big drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average is likely in the not-too-distant future. "But it will be temporary," he contends. The pivot cited repeatedly by market analysts is any sharp increase in interest rates. That, they say, could stop the aging bull market.