Institutional

The release of Warren Buffett's annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders comes this weekend amid a year in which the famed holding company's stock price has lagged the broader market by the most since 2009.

Well-known fixed income manager PIMCO has taken issue with a proposal recently floated by its former managing director Neel Kashkari, now president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, to break up the big U.S banks.

Amid negative interest rates and attempts by several global central bank heads to reassure markets that ammunition exists for additional stimulus if need be, the head of the Swiss National Bank said on Tuesday that there are limits to how loose monetary policy can be.

The Federal Reserve's next policy move is much more likely to be a rate hike than a rate cut, according to a new survey of primary dealers published on Thursday by the New York Fed, although a return to zero rates over the next two years is a rising possibility.

Bridgewater's Ray Dalio has referenced Milton Friedman's "helicopter money" in comments about the limited ability of the U.S. Federal Reserve to boost growth through lowering interest rates and quantitative easing, and warned that currency volatility is necessarily higher when interest rates can't go any lower.

Global brokerage and trading services provider Convergex has announced an enhancement of the securities lending offerings within its Convergex Prime Services unit.

FOMC chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers Wednesday that the U.S. Federal Reserve is unlikely to reverse its plan to raise interest rates further this year, but also acknowledged tighter credit markets, volatile financial markets, and uncertainty over Chinese economic growth have raised risks to the U.S. economy.

State Street is reportedly close to inking a deal to acquire GE’s $115 billion asset management business as the U.S. industrial conglomerate continues to shed unloved assets.

New York Fed president William Dudley has said financial conditions are "considerably tighter" than when the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates in December, a development policymakers will have to take into consideration should it persist.

Famed investment manager Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor for Allianz, cited today's move by the Bank of Japan to lower one of its main interest rates under zero as an example of what countries are willing to do in order re-inflate their economies.