While Alberta Investment Management Corp. noted markets’ “mixed performance” in the first half of the year, the pension fund’s “long-term returns remained robust,” it said. Its four-year and 10-year returns were eight per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively. Mid-year returns were up from 4.5 per cent for the same period last year. (The Logic)

Talking point: The fund—which manages about $169 billion on behalf of several pension, endowment, insurance and government clients in Alberta—attributed the positive returns to its public equities portfolio, which made up for the challenging bond market. Chief investment officer Marlene Puffer told The Globe and Mail she is cautiously optimistic about the rest of 2024, thanks in part to anticipated interest-rate cuts in the U.S. In another sign the market is stabilizing, Puffer said investors are coming to terms with the price of secondary shares, helping propel global deal activity to US$68 billion in the first half of the year, up from US$43 billion from a year earlier.