The increase in U.S. corporate debt issued in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak could be a warning signal to credit investors, according to a recent blog post by MSCI’s Research’s managing director, Andy Sparks, and executive director, Gergely Szalka. As many companies headed into the current crisis with an already heavy debt burden, new […]
Since 2004, Canada has held a AAA rating from all major ratings agencies, but on June 24, it suffered a blow when Fitch Ratings Inc. downgraded the country to AA+. “The rating downgrade reflects the deterioration of Canada’s public finances in 2020 resulting from the coronavirus pandemic,” said the Fitch in a rating action commentary […]
While it may seem counter intuitive to add higher-risk securities to a portfolio during times of severe market stress, doing so can be part of a prudent rebalancing strategy, according to a paper from T. Rowe Price Inc. “Regularly reorienting to targeted long-term asset allocations helps ensure that all risk exposures in the portfolio are […]
Canadian institutional investors are operating in a landscape that has changed dramatically since the initial market and policy reactions to the coronavirus pandemic. “A lot has changed over the last five to six months,” said Michael Sager, vice-president and client portfolio manager for multi-asset and currency management at CIBC Asset Management Inc., during a webinar hosted […]
Investors were already feeling the pressures of historically low interest rates. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. The Bank of Canada cut its overnight interest rate at the end of March to an all-time low of 0.25 per cent and announced a plan to spend $5 billion per week on Government of Canada bonds. This came […]
The last decade of persistently low interest rates, exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis, has created challenges for institutional investors looking to generate income on their bond investments. The challenge has been more acute for pension funds and foundations, who rely on bond investments to fund their ongoing benefit and program obligations. Moreover, indications from global […]
The market value of assets in Canadian employer-sponsored pension plans rose to $2.09 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2019, up 2.3 per cent from the previous quarter, according to new data from Statistics Canada. All investment categories saw growth, led by real estate (4.9 per cent) and public equities (4.5 per cent), with mortgages […]
Vestcor Investment Management Corp. returned 11.76 per cent in 2019, with total assets under management rising to $18.5 billion, according to its 2019 annual report. The organization, which manages the investment and administration for several of New Brunswick’s public sector pension plans, said the long-term annualized gross pension fund return since it began its business […]
Confronted with an economy gripped by recession and high unemployment, the Federal Reserve made clear Wednesday that it will keep supplying all the help it can by buying bonds to maintain low borrowing rates and forecasting no rate hike through 2022. The Fed has cut its benchmark short-term rate to near zero. Keeping its rate […]
When the coronavirus pushed equity markets off a cliff, Canadian defined benefit pension plans had to mobilize to address a number of concerns. The Canadian National Railway Co. pension recently shifted towards a more defensive investment strategy, said Marlene Puffer, president and chief executive officer for the CN investment division of the company, at a […]