SECURITIES

Standard & Poor’s to Rate Bond Mutual Funds: The credit-rating company known for its grades on individual bonds is planning to start rating bond mutual funds for market risk. S&P;’s service comes as savers continue to pour money into “fixed-income” mutual funds in search of higher yields, sometimes under the belief that their principal is always safe. The new ratings will try to account for changes in interest rates, the value of the dollar and other factors that might hurt the prices of bonds and the mutual funds that buy them.