Boston-based Fidelity Investments, the biggest mutual fund firm, yesterday said it has launched two new internationally focused stock funds.
Fidelity opened its Total International Equity Fund and International Growth Fund, its first international offerings since May 2006, as outperforming overseas stock indexes and a falling dollar are drawing more US investors.
"International is a big growth area for the mutual fund industry as a whole. A lot of Americans have woken up to the fact that they might be underexposed to overseas markets," said Dan Lefkovitz, a fund analyst at the research firm Morningstar.
"And Fidelity's foreign equity fund lineup is not nearly as big or perhaps as robust as it is on the domestic side," Lefkovitz said. Fidelity offers 37 international equity funds out of a total of 367 funds.
Fidelity said Total International will be managed by George Stairs and Jed Weiss. It will invest mostly in growth and value stocks of overseas developed markets, with a small exposure to emerging markets and small-cap stocks. International Growth will be managed by Weiss.
Fidelity also launched the Dynamic Strategies Fund, which will invest through other Fidelity funds, ETFs, and individual securities. It will be run by Jurrien Timmer and Andrew Dierdorf.
