Investments

U.S. stocks back in vogue: Russell survey

The U.S. economy should sustain its recovery, despite the expiry of the Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing, according to a survey of Canadian investment managers. In fact, the latest Russell Investments Investment Manager Outlook found that the American stock market is seen as holding the most promise. Sixty-two percent of respondents were bullish […]

By Staff |July 4, 2011

2 min read

Risk in a wrapper

Earlier this year, the CFA Institute’s annual conference in Edinburgh, Scotland featured two speakers addressing two very different, but ultimately related types of risk. Unrewarding risks The most critical component of portfolio risk management is identifying and eliminating unrewarding risk, according to Guy Stern, investment director and head of multi-asset fund management at Standard Life […]

By Dean DiSpalatro |June 30, 2011

4 min read

Inflation glass half full: expert

Statistics Canada’s recently released inflation figures are a mainly positive sign both for the Canadian economy and investors, suggests Serge Pépin, head of investments at BMO Investments Inc. “There’s a good side and a bad side to inflation,” he said. “When inflation is rising, it usually means there’s good economic growth behind it, so you […]

By Dean DiSpalatro |June 30, 2011

3 min read

Weekly Pulse: Greek code blue averted…again

After a difficult week last week, equity investors were still in a selling mood on Monday as global economic concerns and a confidence vote in Greece weighed on investor sentiment. Eventually the Greek Prime Minister survived the confidence vote, providing some relief to the markets until Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hosted his quarterly Q&A session after the Fed lowered its U.S. GDP growth forecasts for 2011 and 2012. Mr. Bernanke noted that the U.S. economy had slowed recently and attributed that performance to higher commodity prices and the global supply chain disruption caused by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.

By Gareth Watson |June 27, 2011

4 min read