Mutual fund news, closings, manager changes

— -- The average stock mutual fund gained 7% the first half of 2012, according to Lipper — a record that was helped considerably by the Dow Jones industrial average's 278-point leap on the last trading day of the half.

What's in store for the rest of the year? We asked three mutual fund experts for their best pick for the remainder of 2012. Their e-mailed responses (edited for clarity and space):

Dan Wiener, editor, The Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors.

Wiener has been the foremost independent authority on Vanguard funds for more than 20 years.

"My number one pick is PrimeCap Odyssey Aggressive Growth (POAGX) for investors who are looking for a long-term growth holding.

"What I like is that they tend to overweight two sectors that I think have some of the greatest long-term potential today, and for the foreseeable future — health care and technology.

"On a month-to-month basis, the PrimeCap managers only beat the market about 55% of the time, so you can see many periods of underperformance. However, when they beat the market, they more than make up for the times when they don't. Since inception in late 2004, POAGX is up about 105%, vs. 41% for the S&P 500 index. The fund is up 18.2% this year."

David Snowball, editor, MutualFundObserver.com:

Snowball, a professor at Augustana College, is also proprietor of MutualFundObserver.com.

"I suppose, in a voting-with-my-feet way, the answer might be Seafarer International Growth & Income (SFGIX), which I've publicly committed to invest in within the next couple weeks. Andrew Foster performed brilliantly at Matthews Asian Growth & Income (MACSX), which was the least volatile (hence most profitable) Asian fund for years. With Seafarer, he's able to sort of hedge a MACSX-like portfolio with limited exposure to non-Asian emerging markets. The strategy makes sense, and Mr. Foster has proven able to consistently execute it."

The other fund in which I'm making reasonably large, regular investments (OK, large by small college teacher standards — $500 every month or two) is RiverPark Short Term High Yield (RPHYX), one of the most misunderstood funds I cover. It functions as a cash management fund for me — 3% to 4% returns with (so far) negligible volatility. Its greatest problem is its name, which suggests that it invests in short-term, high-yield bonds (which, in general, it doesn't) or that it was the risk profile of a high-yield fund (ditto)."

Jim Lowell, editor,Fidelity Investor:

Lowell has been watching fund giant Fidelity for decades.

"I want to stay invested in the emerging markets where populations and consumers are growing, but the markets are selling off on Eurozone fears. No-load Fidelity Total Emerging Markets (FTEMX), a new fund (launched in November), is run by one of the most seasoned, veteran managers of emerging market stocks and bonds, John Carlson. He runs the only tactically balanced emerging markets fund that I know of: currency to hedge currency and debt, debt to hedge stocks, stocks to outgrow the current fear driven need for either hedge.

"I also like the U.S. greenback relative to other currencies; preferring the PowerShares Dollar Bull (UUP) ETF as a flight to safety paired with U.S. megacap multinationals, which I view as fundamentally attractive, relative to large-cap names globally. If conditions worsen there and here, they're holding enough cash and correlated with enough domestic consumer consumption to weather even a worst case event better than in 2008-2009. The simplest way to buy blue chips: the State Street Global SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) ETF."