Pension Pulse

Jason Magder of the Montreal Gazette reports they're off: REM starts shuttling people across Montreal area: They’ve been running with sandbags to simulate body weight for about a year, but on Friday, the trains on the Réseau express métropolitain began shuttling their first people. The first new transit network since the Montreal métro in 1966 was inaugurated on Friday, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier François Legault and Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante on hand to mark the event. “This proves we can accomplish great things when we work together,” Trudeau said at the ceremony in Brossard. “Efficient public transit improves the lives of people.” Politicians cut the ribbon, then boarded the white and lime green trains with invited guests for their maiden voyage toward downtown’s Central Station on Friday morning under grey skies. “It’s beautiful on the bridge to see Montreal,” Legault said. “It’s fast. I was surprised by how fast it was, and I hope that p...

Sarah Ming and Alex Harring of CNBC report the S&P 500 closes nearly 1% higher on softening inflation data, nabs 3rd week of gains:  Stocks rose Friday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closing out their third winning weeks in a row as a measure of inflation closely watched by the Federal Reserve came in at its lowest in nearly two years. The Dow jumped 176.57 points, or 0.50%, to 35,459.29. The S&P 500 added 0.99% to 4,582.23. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.90% to 14,316.66. All three major averages notched weekly gains with the 30-stock average up by about 0.66%. On Thursday, the Dow ended a 13-day win streak, a length not seen since 1987. The S&P advanced 1.01%, and the tech-heavy index is up 2.02%. This week, investors cheered data showing cooling inflation and stronger-than-expected earnings reports that supported the case the U.S. could avoid a recession. On Friday, June data for the personal consumption expenditures price index con...

Cianan Brennan of the Irish Examiner reports Ireland's lottery firm to be sold to French operator in €350m deal: The company that operates Ireland’s national lottery is to be sold to the operator of France’s own lottery in a deal worth €350m. The full share capital of Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI), currently majority owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan with minority stakes held by An Post, is to be sold to La Francaise des Jeux, pending approval by the lottery regulator. That approval is expected to be delivered some time before the end of 2023. The deal has been in gestation for several months after PLI was put up for sale earlier this year. PLI said that the sale will see the “vast expertise” of the French operator brought to bear on the Irish operation, while nothing will change in terms of how the lottery itself raises funding, given the lottery itself will remain in Irish State ownership. Vivienne Jupp, chair of PLI, said that the company had “moved fro...

Richard Burrett, Chief Sustainability Officer at Earth Capital , wrote a guest comment on the future of the corporation: Every business has an impact on societal well-being, either positive such as the production of socially useful goods and services or negative such as pollution. This is particularly true of the investment sector. As intermediaries making decisions on which entities obtain finance and which do not, investors play a unique role in shaping the economy. There is a growing understanding too of the need for corporate social purpose. Colin Mayer CBE, Professor of Management at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and Fellow of the British Academy, led a programme to look at the future role of business. The Future of the Corporation programme was launched in 2017 and concluded its main phase of activity in 2021. Its extensive research and engagement sought to consider the role of business in society, with new thinking and evidence to elaborate on why purpose ...