The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec’s assets reached $434 billion by the end of 2023, up $32 billion from a year earlier. Its annual return just missed the benchmark portfolio against which the pension fund manager measures its performance. Its five-year and 10-year returns of 6.4 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively, both beat their benchmarks. (The Logic)

Talking point: CDPQ’s results reflect market volatility that chief executive Charles Emond described as “historic.” Losses in the fund’s real estate holdings (down 6.2 per cent and its only asset class with a negative return) counteracted strong returns in its credit and stock portfolios (the latter of which was almost exclusively driven by a rebound in Big Tech stocks). “The volatility that we’re talking about, that we’ve been talking about since 2020, is a new reality,” Emond said in a press conference Thursday. That makes it hard for the fund to apply its standard investment playbook, he said. “You need to be agile enough to correct your trajectory if needed.”