Pension Pulse

Grace O'Donnell , Jake Conley and Ines Ferré of Yahoo Finance report the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq post weekly losses as semiconductors get smoked: US stocks declined on Friday, with the major indexes posting weekly losses led by declines in the semiconductor sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by about 0.7%, while the S&P 500 declined by 1%. The Nasdaq Composite shed 1.4% following a downbeat day on Wall Street and the release of the world's most powerful open AI model . The S&P 500 dropped more than 1.5% for the week while the Nasdaq declined 2.9%. The Dow lost nearly 1% over the past five sessions.   A sell-off in chip stocks dampened sentiment on Friday as the PHLX Semiconductor Index ( ^SOX ) entered a bear market. However, the sector closed off its session lows as investors bought the dip. "Magnificent Seven" stocks closed out the Friday session and week mixed, with Apple ( AAPL ) gaining 6% for the week, while Alphabet ( GOOG ,...

Today, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced that Cathy Cranston was appointed Board Chair, starting next year: July 16, 2026 – Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is pleased to announce that Cathy Cranston will be appointed Board Chair, effective January 1, 2027. She has been an esteemed member of the board since 2019 and currently serves as the Chair of the People & Compensation Committee and as a Member of the Investment and Enterprise Risk Committees.  Ms. Cranston’s appointment was made by the Ontario Government and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, who are the plan’s co-sponsors. She will succeed current Board Chair Steve McGirr when he retires from the board at the end of 2026 after successfully serving his full term. Ms. Cranston built a 32-year career in progressive roles at BMO Financial Group, most recently as Treasurer. She previously held senior roles including Head of Financial Strategy, Capital and Funding, and Chief Financial Officer, Priva...

William Melhado of the Sacramento Bee reports  CalPERS reports one of the strongest years of investment returns over the last decade: California's largest public pension system reported on Monday a net investment return of 14.8% over the last 12 months, one of the strongest years in the last decade. Bolstered by a particularly successful year in the stock market, the California Public Employees' Retirement System now has 85% of the money to cover its future pension benefits, CEO Marcie Frost announced Monday morning at the board of administration's offsite meeting in Monterrey. The reported returns are still preliminary and will be finalized in the coming months. The massive pension fund's assets totaled more than $637 billion as of June 30, the end of the fiscal year. The strong returns, which were led by public and private equity, were higher than last year's returns of 11.6% and the assumed rate of return of 6.8%. The retirement system...

Barbara Shecter of the National Post reports  Carney investment summit attracts global asset manager backed by Australian super pensions: A multibillion-dollar global investment manager backed by some of Australia’s largest pension funds will be leading a delegation to the Canada Investment Summit this fall, aiming to pour as much as $10 billion into Canadian infrastructure over the next decade if conditions are right. IFM Investors Pty Ltd. (IFM), which specializes in infrastructure and manages more than $242 billion on behalf of institutional investors, including AustralianSuper and the Australian Retirement Trust, confirmed a delegation will attend the summit to be hosted by the federal government in Toronto on Sept. 14 and 15. “IFM is coordinating the participation of the Australian Super Funds to the summit,” Gian-Carlo Peressutti, executive director of public affairs at the global asset manager, said in a statement.   Prime Minister Mark Carney met directly wit...