Pension Pulse

Sean Conlon and Lisa Kailai Han of CNBC report the S&P 500 slips Friday, but index posts best week since November after fragile Iran ceasefire deal:  The S&P 500 fell slightly on Friday, but the index managed to post a solid weekly gain as traders kept an eye on the fragile two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. The broad market index dropped 0.11% to end at 6,816.89, while the Nasdaq Composite moved higher by 0.35% and closed at 22,902.89, bolstered by gains in key semiconductor stocks such as Nvidia and Broadcom . The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 269.23 points, or 0.56%, ending at 47,916.57. Still, the S&P 500 added about 3.6% this week, and the Nasdaq rose about 4.7% in the period. The Dow, meanwhile, gained 3% on the week. The indexes posted their best weekly performances since November. President Donald Trump on Friday accused Iran of “short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” saying in a Truth Social post ...

The Canadian Press reports  La Caisse to form European logistics joint venture with Prologis:  Quebec investment manager La Caisse has signed a deal with Prologis, Inc. to form a joint venture focused on acquiring, developing and operating logistics properties in Europe. Under the plan, La Caisse will hold a 70 per cent stake, while Prologis will own 30 per cent. Prologis will be the operating partner and provide specialized asset management and development expertise. The joint venture will have about $1.6 billion in seed assets combining income-generating properties and development sites contributed by both partners. It will include logistics operations across France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. La Caisse and Prologis have worked together since 2019, when they formed a logistics joint venture in Brazil. Natasha Voase of Bloomberg also reports  Prologis, Caisse in US$1.2 billion logistics joint venture for European assets: La Caisse de De...

Jeffrey Jones of the Globe and Mail reports investors still back green guidebook as Middle East war upends energy markets, taxonomy council chair says:  War in the Middle East is not swaying institutional investors from pushing for a Canadian guidebook certifying green investments, according to the newly appointed chair of the council charged with putting the document into use. Marlene Puffer, a veteran pension-fund executive, has been appointed to lead investment and sustainability experts in developing a green and transitionary investing guidebook. The goal of the document is to attract at least $115-billion in capital needed annually for Canada to meet its net-zero targets by 2050. The government of Prime Minister Mark Carney formalized the process last December by naming a pair of organizations to co-ordinate the development of the document, or taxonomy, which is aimed at ensuring investments meet specific climate objectives and are not merely greenwashing exercis...

Michael Cole of Mingtiandi reports  La Caisse commits $693M to Australia’s NextDC in first APAC data centre deal: La Caisse has made its first direct investment in a data centre strategy in Asia Pacific, with the Canadian pension fund manager committing A$1.0 billion ($693 million) to a subordinated hybrid securities offer by NextDC. The Quebec-based organisation has made a binding commitment to take up the full size of the offer, according to an announcement filed with the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday, with NextDC said to be using the capital to fund construction of its contracted pipeline through to fiscal 2029. “The announcement of the hybrid securities offer and the La Caisse commitment represent another step toward NextDC delivering on a material step-change in the scale of our business as we deliver on the Company’s contracted forward order book across the period to FY29,” chief executive Craig Scroggie said. The deal lifts NextDC’s pro-forma liquidi...

Leo de Bever, former CEO of AIMCo, sent me a short comment on why he feels the Maple 8 should invest more wisely at home: The Canadian Maple 8 argues that investing more in at-home is unwarranted because it conflicts with ‘prudent’ geographic risk diversification. It implicitly assumes that all Canadian assets are highly correlated and that no domestic investments could improve on the current asset mix. The real reason is simpler. I used to invest in faraway places and rarely got a reaction. When you invest at home, everyone has an opinion, and boards and portfolio managers become worried about personal returns on risk. The economic models we used when I was at the Bank of Canada in the 1970s assumed that the bulk of domestic savings went into domestic investment, thereby building a stronger economy. Much greater capital mobility has made that less of a given. Inadvertently, the Maple 8 (with rare exceptions) exports capital and imports innovation . I have found tha...