Van Kampen Investment Advisory Corp

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.'s Van Kampen Investment Advisory and its former chief investment officer agreed Wednesday to pay $125,000 to settle charges that they failed to disclose the impact of hot initial public offerings on a mutual fund's performance. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Van Kampen, based in Oakbrook, Ill.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.'s Van Kampen Investment Advisory and its former chief investment officer agreed Wednesday to pay $125,000 to settle charges that they failed to disclose the impact of hot initial public offerings on a mutual fund's performance. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Van Kampen, based in Oakbrook, Ill.

Municipal bondholders may well be the most resilient investors around, returning to the market even after they were bounced out. Many bond buyers were left scrambling for new investments last week as state and local governments redeemed as much as $8 billion in municipal bonds before their maturities. The record early redemptions of bond principal, known as "calls," were a shock to investors accustomed to earning 10% or more on tax-free bonds issued a decade ago.

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules Tuesday that could make mutual fund advertisements clearer, especially in cases where fund companies tout performance that isn't necessarily current. Existing SEC rules allow fund ads to include returns for one-, five- and 10-year periods that are current to the end of the most recent quarter.

Bond prices rose Monday in a rally that traders attributed in part to the dollar's higher value overseas and a belief that the Federal Reserve isn't as worried about inflation as earlier thought. Trading was light, however, reflecting reluctance by many bond investors to act before some possibly significant announcements from Washington later this week, notably the size of the Treasury's next quarterly refunding and the Labor Department's unemployment figures for July.