Today in Globe Business

Bounce in market provides local surge

With some of the biggest US car makers fighting for survival, it might not seem the best time to buy auto stocks.

Yet among the best performing mutual funds now is Fidelity Investments’ Select Automotive fund, which is up an eye-popping 95 percent since the beginning of the year.

With the Dow Jones industrial average inching up toward the 10,000 barrier, the current stock rally has been a boon for local investment firms such as Fidelity. Many companies have funds that are posting above-average returns, with Putnam Investments and Eaton Vance in particular beating a majority of their competitors. And many firms are now seeing customers increase contributions to their investment accounts.

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Boston again lands biggest biotech convention

The world’s largest annual gathering of the biotechnology industry is once again coming to Boston, despite warnings that new state regulations would deter convention organizers from bringing such events back to the state.

Earlier this year, Massachusetts officials passed what was dubbed the “gift ban,’’ regulations that limit the contributions, gratuities, and meals pharmaceutical and medical device firms can give to doctors. At the time, Robert Coughlin, president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, warned that the new rules, which were considered to be the most stringent in the nation, would make event organizers think twice before coming back to Boston.

“Massachusetts is now seen as the most unfriendly state in the nation toward industry,’’ Coughlin said in March. “In these tough economic times, you don’t want to send a chilling message to an industry that’s a growth industry.’’

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BOSTON CAPITAL: Victims don't forget

The worst kind of financial scams are all about violating personal trust. That’s why victims don’t forgive and they don’t forget.

Today’s example: The lingering case of Gerald Issokson and his Dorchester real estate finance Ponzi scheme. Many years after Issokson misappropriated his first dollar, the case is scheduled to be in front of a judge yet again in Suffolk Superior court tomorrow.

The scale of the Issokson scam sounds almost quaint by today’s post-Madoff standards. The losses were measured in millions of dollars, not billions, and the names of the victims could fit on a single piece of paper. But Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley still called it the largest white-collar crime case ever handled by his office when Issokson was sentenced to prison in 2004.

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