The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is appointing Maxime Aucoin as executive vice-president of depositors and total portfolio. In the new role, Aucoin, who’s currently responsible for portfolio construction, asset allocation and currency management, will also be responsible for economic and financial analysis, global strategy and depositor advisory services. With 10 years of […]
The strength of the U.S. dollar and the ongoing war in Europe will hamper North American and other global institutional investors in 2023, though some will still find value in other continents, according to a new report from the Capital Group Inc. “Even if you think economies outside Canada and the U.S. are headed for […]
Consensus expectations for U.S. inflation and interest rates in 2023 are overly optimistic, said Robert Forsyth, head of SPDR exchange-traded funds strategy and research at State Street Global Advisors SPDR, during a session at the Canadian Investment Review‘s 2022 Defined Benefit Investment Forum. “Our view is that the futures market is still pricing in an […]
Canadian institutional investors should have a strategic allocation to emerging market debt, Ward Brown, fixed income portfolio manager at MFS Investment Management, explained during his session. EM debt has two of the key characteristics needed for a strategic allocation. First, it is a good diversifier because it has low correlations with other assets commonly found […]
This year has been a difficult one for emerging market currencies, but there are signs that 2022 will give investors reason to be optimistic. “For the first time in 20 years, U.S. growth is outperforming EM growth,” said Fernando Grisales, senior emerging market portfolio manager at Schroders, during his presentation at the 2021 Global Investment […]
As places of economic activity, flood plains have their advantages — just ask the ancient Mesopotamians or the staff of the Winnipeg-based Teachers’ Retirement Allowance Fund. “Those of you who have been to our offices will know we’re right at the intersection of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. We are right in the flood plain […]
The term cryptocurrency may evoke a number of different images, from lightning-fast computers fuelling get-rich-quick schemes to shady rooms where hackers plot multi-million dollar digital heists. And while there may be some truth to those perceptions, cryptocurrency is a growing sector that many institutional investors are eyeing with increasing interest. Indeed, in mid-December 2020 Bitcoin’s […]
Despite several bumps in the decade since the 2008/09 financial crisis, the swift and brutal crash in global equity prices when the coronavirus was declared a pandemic sent pension investors reaching for their playbooks to implement defensive strategies to mitigate the damage. “People have worked very hard at just acting on the set strategies that […]
European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde warned Wednesday that the economy could face a “bumpy,” “stop-start” recovery despite good news about vaccine development. The top central banker for the 19 European Union countries that use the euro currency said there was a risk that fearful consumers could drag out the rebound, and that governments and […]
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the U.S. dollar hard, disrupting a dynamic that Canadian pension funds have taken advantage of for years. Unhedged exposure to the U.S. dollar has been a boon for Canadian pensions as they’ve reaped the extra returns from the favourable conversion of asset income back into Canadian currency. But the outlook for the […]