May 29, 2009

The U.S. economy may be on track for recovery later this year but growth is likely to be muted, unemployment elevated and government regulation of markets on the rise.Those are the predictions of some of the nation's leading mutual fund managers and financial advisers gathering this week in Chicago to swap stories, share strategies and look ahead to the coming months.The financial industry professionals are trying to sort through the conflicting economic indicators and the resulting rallies and retreats in the stock market at the Morningstar Investment Conference, one of the largest such gatherings held each year.

The conference itself has seen the impact of economic pressures. Attendance this year is down about 25 percent from last year with about 1,000 fund managers and financial advisers and product vendors attending, Morningstar said.One expert who said he believes recovery will be slow is bond fund manager Bill Gross, who oversees $720 billion in fixed securities for California-based PIMCO.He said the nation's total output of goods and services, the gross domestic product, will grow only at 1 to 2 percent instead of the usual 2 to 3 percent for the next several years.