Tausi Insider

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board eked out a gain of 0.2 per cent in a fiscal second quarter that was tough for investors, adding $1-billion to the fund’s assets in spite of broad weakness in public and private equities as well as fixed income markets. CPPIB’s investment returns outperformed The S&P Global LargeMidCap index, a measure of stocks CPPIB uses as 85 per cent of its benchmark reference portfolio, which fell 1.46 per cent in the quarter in Canadian-dollar terms. But CPPIB narrowly trailed the performance of Canadian defined-benefit pension plans in the quarter, in which assets were up 0.5 per cent, according to Royal Bank of Canada’s RBC I&TS All Plan Universe. In the first nine months of the year, those pension plans have lost 13.7 per cent. Gains in U.S. dollar-denominated investments, which were boosted by foreign exchange rates, and positive returns from energy and infrastructure investments helped keep returns positive after CPPIB lost $23-billion in the...

As any sports fan knows, streaks and slumps are part of the game. Many believe that a team that has won five games in a row is more likely to win the sixth game than lose it. Fans believe that a basketball player who has been missing free-throws all game is more likely to miss the next attempt. Whether it is teams not winning games (or championships) for years, or star players being either red-hot or sporting goose-eggs on the score sheet, streaks and slumps are part of the reality of sports. But it is also the reality that faces every investor. The belief that a basketball player is more likely to sink the next basket after a string of hits than after a miss is called the “hot hand fallacy.” It is known as the recency bias, a behavioural bias that affects investors as well. This bias means we place a higher value on recent events than on events in the distant past. In an experiment to analyze investment behaviour, subjects could bet on a series of coin tosses based on the opinion o...

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe takes part in a news conference on Dec. 5. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press A local coffee shop in Ottawa’s downtown core is looking forward to some more frequent foot traffic once federal workers head back to the office on a more regular basis. “I’m just personally excited to see more people around and kind of feel like we’re back into before times,” said Kyle Macleod, a manager at Manhattan’s Coffee Co. The Treasury Board’s decision to stick with hybrid work means public servants will be back to in-person work two to three days a week starting early next year, to be fully implemented by the end of March. Departments were able to make their own arrangements for a hybrid workplace model during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Treasury Board will now apply a consistent approach. The reaction from public servants has been mixed, but the return-to-office news is being greeted by the city and local business community as a boon for commerce and public transit r...

A retired money manager confessed something to me this week. “I never thought it would come to this,” he said, with the embarrassed look of a fitness instructor caught digging into a tub of rocky road ice cream. “I finally did it, though. I broke down and bought a GIC.” For my friend, a guaranteed investment certificate is a symbol of professional surrender. He has spent several successful decades picking stocks both for his former employer and for his own portfolio. He is a staunch believer in the long-term benefits of stock ownership. But a few months ago, he decided he was simply not seeing many areas of the Canadian or U.S. stock markets where the potential reward over the next year outweighed the risk. So he edged away from his lifelong love affair with equities and put a portion of his portfolio into one of the safest, most boring investments imaginable. Many other people are also discovering the allure of GICs. Since the start of the year, Canadians have pumped roughly $120-bi...

A Boeing Co 737 Max made its first passenger flight in China in nearly four years on Friday, marking a major milestone in the U.S. plane maker’s attempt to rebuild its business in the world’s second-largest aviation market. The China Southern Airlines Co Ltd domestic flight from Guangzhou to Zhengzhou departed at 0445 GMT using a Max plane, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24. The best-selling Boeing model was grounded in March 2019 after fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, but returned to service around the world starting in late 2020 after modifications to the aircraft and pilot training. “Boeing continues to work with global regulators and customers to safely return the 737 Max to service worldwide,” the plane maker said. The company’s shares were down about 0.5 per cent in U.S. premarket trading. China is the last major market to resume flying the Max amid ongoing trade tensions with the United States, and the return comes as domestic travel demand rebounds af...

European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde speaks during the 53rd annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 19. LAURENT GILLIERON/The Associated Press The European Central Bank pushed back on Thursday against market bets that it would slow the pace of its interest rate hikes given recent falls in inflation and easing pressure to keep up with policy moves by other central banks. Traders had recently trimmed their expectations for how much the ECB would raise borrowing costs, comforted by data showing lower inflation in both the euro zone and the United States and related talk of smaller hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve. But ECB President Christine Lagarde and fellow policy maker Klaas Knot said investors were underestimating the ECB’s determination to bring inflation in the 20-nation euro zone back to its 2 per cent target, from 9.2 per cent last month. “I would invite them to revise their positions,” Lagarde said during a panel conversation in...

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe takes part in a news conference on Dec. 5. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press A local coffee shop in Ottawa’s downtown core is looking forward to some more frequent foot traffic once federal workers head back to the office on a more regular basis. “I’m just personally excited to see more people around and kind of feel like we’re back into before times,” said Kyle Macleod, a manager at Manhattan’s Coffee Co. The Treasury Board’s decision to stick with hybrid work means public servants will be back to in-person work two to three days a week starting early next year, to be fully implemented by the end of March. Departments were able to make their own arrangements for a hybrid workplace model during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Treasury Board will now apply a consistent approach. The reaction from public servants has been mixed, but the return-to-office news is being greeted by the city and local business community as a boon for commerce and public transit r...

A retired money manager confessed something to me this week. “I never thought it would come to this,” he said, with the embarrassed look of a fitness instructor caught digging into a tub of rocky road ice cream. “I finally did it, though. I broke down and bought a GIC.” For my friend, a guaranteed investment certificate is a symbol of professional surrender. He has spent several successful decades picking stocks both for his former employer and for his own portfolio. He is a staunch believer in the long-term benefits of stock ownership. But a few months ago, he decided he was simply not seeing many areas of the Canadian or U.S. stock markets where the potential reward over the next year outweighed the risk. So he edged away from his lifelong love affair with equities and put a portion of his portfolio into one of the safest, most boring investments imaginable. Many other people are also discovering the allure of GICs. Since the start of the year, Canadians have pumped roughly $120-bi...