Pension Pulse

Lisa Kailai Han, Chloe Taylor, and Fred Imbert of CNBC report stocks tumble Friday as losses mount from Iran war impact, Dow and Nasdaq near correction:  Stocks tumbled in volatile trading Friday as the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran showed no sign of abating and oil prices continued their ascent. The Dow Jones Industrial average shed 443.96 points, or 0.96%, ending at 45,577.47. The S&P 500 fell 1.51% and closed at 6,506.48, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.01% and settled at 21,647.61. The small-cap Russell 2000 declined more than 2% and slipped into correction territory — that is, a 10% decline from its latest high. At their lows of the day, the Dow and Nasdaq traded in correction territory, but ultimately closed shy of the 10% threshold. The moves come after Iran and Israel exchanged strikes overnight, while the former also launched new attacks against energy sites in the Persian Gulf region. The Wall Street Journal reported , citing U.S. officials, that the Pe...

Julie Shu and Cassandra Robertson of The Century Foundation wrote a comment on how pension funds can support growth and build an economy that supports workers: Private equity firms have increasingly come under fire for actions that are making life more difficult and unaffordable, such as driving up the prices of single-family homes , closing hospitals that aren’t profitable enough, and laying off workers at companies they have purchased. New efforts by public pension funds are hoping to counter these bad practices and instead promote investments that benefit communities and workers.  Public pension funds have the ability to drive investment in our economy to promote shared prosperity while seeking competitive risk-adjusted returns. These funds represent over $6 trillion in capital, and are the collective retirement savings of millions of teachers, firefighters, nurses, sanitation workers, and other public employees who have earned these benefits through years of...

 Sarah Rundell of Top1000Funds reports on how CalSTRS' One Fund approach navigates uncertainty: Scott Chan is shocked the market hasn’t reacted more to the crisis emulating from the US-Israel-Iran conflict. But the CalSTRS CIO is confident its one fund approach allows it to position dynamically and ensure diversification no matter what is presented. So warned CalSTRS’ CIO Scott Chan speaking at the $392 billion pension fund’s March investment committee meeting, explaining to trustees that many unknowns lie below that will impact global trade flows, the equity bull market, and in the shape of currents like AI and America’s burgeoning housing crisis, young people’s ability to tap into the American dream. The impact of the conflict in Iran is also gathering force below the surface of an apparently benign market. Chan said he “was shocked” that the market hasn’t reacted more to the crisis – notwithstanding the sharp rise in oil prices. He attributed the abse...

Mary McDougall and Alexandra Heal of the Financial Times report Canadian pension funds count cost of private equity slump: A number of Canada’s biggest investors lost money on their private equity holdings last year as a downturn in the buyout sector continued to weigh on returns at some of the world’s largest retirement funds. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which manages C$279bn ($206bn) of assets, and the C$145bn Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System reported returns of minus 5.3 per cent and minus 2.5 per cent respectively for their private equity portfolios in 2025. For OTPP, it was the worst performance for this asset class since 2008 and for Omers since 2020. La Caisse, Quebec’s C$517bn state pension fund, also reported weak private equity results. The group said its PE portfolio returned 2.3 per cent last year, well below the 12.6 per cent gain in its benchmark index, half of which is made up of listed stocks. The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, which pub...

Monte Stewart of Canada CRE News reports  Sagard, La Caisse are investing $490M in US-based IOS Properties: Sagard Real Estate and La Caisse are launching a partnership to invest about $490 million in industrial outdoor-storage properties across major U.S. infill markets. The partnership will pursue an industrial outdoor storage (IOS) strategy focused on key U.S. seaport markets where tenant demand is driven by proximity to major ports, population centres and trade infrastructure, said the companies. Priority markets include Southern California, the greater New York City and northern New Jersey region, the San Francisco Bay Area, Houston, and the Baltimore–Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The initiative brings together Sagard Real Estate (SRE), a U.S.-based real estate investment advisor and subsidiary of Montreal-based Sagard, and La Caisse. The partnership has an initial target gross asset value of CAD 490 million (US$360 million), with the option to scale ...