Global economy – Benefits Canada.com

Institutional investors facing inflation risk, ESG opportunities in 2021

mschmit — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 11:00:53 +0000

While institutional investors are facing headwinds from unexpected inflation and geopolitical realignment in 2021, the coming year will also see rebounds for corporate earnings and equities, according to two new research papers from Mercer. “Non-stop social and technological change has increased at a rate as exciting as it’s bewildering and COVID-19 has resulted in an […]

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Vaccines providing an injection of hope for institutional investors

mschmit — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 04:45:51 +0000

While there’s still a period of uncertainty ahead, the deployment of coronavirus vaccines is already having a positive effect on markets, according to a webinar hosted by FTSE Russell on Wednesday. In November, the global and U.S. equities markets saw double-digit returns following vaccine announcements by pharmaceutical firms Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca, said […]

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Vaccine news a shot in the arm for value investing

mschmit — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 05:00:58 +0000

Now is the time for institutional investors to buy value, small cap and cyclical stocks and hold steady while the economy builds back, says Bill Callahan, an investment strategist at Schroders. Indeed, energy and financial sector stocks saw gains Monday as investors are rotating from growth and large cap stocks after Moderna Inc. released data […]

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What U.S. election uncertainty means for institutional investors

mschmit — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 05:45:41 +0000

Whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump ultimately wins the White House, the stock market is already a clear winner this week. While there were fears that a longer than usual wait to determine the winner of the U.S. presidential race would lead to wild market volatility, that didn’t come to pass. But signs were there over the […]

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Despite market uncertainty, Canada maintains No. 9 position in global retirement rankings

mschmit — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 11:00:57 +0000

Canada’s retirement income system scored ninth place for the second year in a row, securing a “B” rating in spite of uncertainty in the markets as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The annual global pension index by Mercer and the CFA Institute noted the pandemic’s effects on the global pension fund markets aren’t only widespread […]

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Is value investing still relevant in a volatile market?

mschmit — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 04:45:35 +0000

Back in December 2018, I wrote an article asking whether it was a good time for pension plan sponsors to revisit value investing. At that time, public equity markets were having a difficult quarter and traditional value strategies didn’t perform as well as expected, failing to provide the much-touted protection in down equity markets. Flash forward to […]

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Is gold really a good hedge for inflation?

mschmit — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 11:15:33 +0000

Since the mid-1970s, gold prices have increased in periods when investors were concerned about future inflation. Currently, gold prices are near highs comparable to January 1980, when concerns about stagflation were prevalent, and to August 2011, during widespread concerns about the impacts of quantitative easing. A new paper by Claude Erb, a retired managing director […]

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91% of institutional investors say pandemic will lead to a global recession: survey

mschmit — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 11:15:19 +0000

A majority (79 per cent) of institutional investors see a global economic slowdown as the top threat to their portfolios in the next 12 months, according to a new survey by Schroders. Prompted by coronavirus-related concerns, it’s a big jump from the 49 per cent of respondents that said the same in 2019. Those concerns are also […]

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Institutional investors looking to raise emerging market exposures: research

mschmit — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 04:30:25 +0000

Historically, many institutional investors have been wary of emerging markets despite their growing role in the global economy, but the tide may be shifting, according to new research by Vontobel Asset Management. “In many cases, [institutional investors and discretionary wealth managers’] allocations to emerging market assets have stalled in single figures as a percentage of […]

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Is inflation back on institutional investors’ minds?

mschmit — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 05:15:19 +0000

While massive monetary policy response didn’t drive inflation following the 2008/09 financial crisis, institutional investors are mulling over whether things may be different this time. The global economy has rarely seen such a swift willingness to engage with economic calamity on both monetary and fiscal levels, says Erik Weisman, chief economist and fixed income portfolio manager at MFS […]

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