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 […]
Health care and consumers staples are sectors that typically perform well, even in moments of market stress. But during the coronavirus crisis, these sectors have provided slightly less downside protection, says Ramiz Chelat, global equities portfolio manager at Vontobel Asset Management. On the consumer staples front, the coronavirus shutdown is impacting consumption outside of the […]
The novel coronavirus pandemic has been an enormous human tragedy and its ultimate impact on the global economy remains impossible to predict. For many companies, the damage is likely to be severe, perhaps permanent, and this has been justifiably reflected in depressed share prices. But a key lesson from previous crashes is that periods of […]
The novel coronavirus has introduced unprecedented volatility to financial markets and is taking its toll on pension plans. We’ve seen sharp corrections in most equity markets. At its lowest point in the correction to date, the S&P 500 lost 34 per cent of its value, from its peak in February. The TSX, which has also […]
Stock picking with the right process and the right temperament works. And, contrary to popular claims, value investing is not dead. Those who claim it is dead, substantiate this by providing evidence that picking cheap stocks, meaning stocks with low price-to-earnings or price-to-book ratios, has been ineffective since the onset of the great recession. What […]
It’s been long understood that asset owners are driving changing behaviours in corporate governance, said Donna Anderson, head of corporate governance in the U.S. equity division at T. Rowe Price Group Inc., speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s Plan Sponsor Exchange conference in February. One example, she noted, is the tremendous influence of Japan’s Government […]
When it comes to emerging markets equities, it’s important to look for compounders that will create value over time, says Andrew Miller, chief investment officer for emerging markets equities at Mondrian Investment Partners Ltd. “Obviously, all of us that operate in the stock market and invest in the stock market, whether you’re a fund manager […]
In the end, the mighty bull was slayed by a tiny virus. The longest bull market in U.S. history can now be said to have lasted almost 11 years and rewarded investors with a return of 529 per cent based on the performance of the S&P 500, including dividends. The bull officially ran from March […]
Will a company’s expansion of its pension plan increase the likelihood of pension service providers buying up its shares? A new paper, which is set to be published in the Contemporary Accounting Research journal, digs into how a company’s pension fund growth may affect the types of investors it attracts. The paper specifically looks at […]
The virus outbreak in China has put South Korea’s economy into an “emergency situation,” its president says. Japan is on the brink of recession and big manufacturers are forecasting a whole world of woe. As many Chinese finally go back to work after their longest Lunar New Year holiday ever, the economic fallout from the […]