Should we be worried? Should we be worried? This $300-billion man is dumping stocks and buying bonds.
Eric Lam, Bloomberg News | May 1, 2015 | Last Updated: May 1 2:07 PM ET
TD Asset Management Inc. says the bull market in stocks is nearing an end
and is moving into the safety of fixed income to avoid mounting economic
and political risks.
Bruce Cooper, 50, chief investment officer at the investing arm of
Toronto-Dominion Bank, said the firm pulled back on its six-year preference
for stocks and is buying fixed-income products across its portfolio, especially
corporate bonds.
“I’m not going to get rich buying a core portfolio of bonds at current rates,
” Cooper said in an April 29 interview at Bloomberg’s office in Toronto. “If
we’re up against the goalposts and the market falls 15 per cent, I can’t do
anything except apologize to my clients. If I’m in the middle, I can say we
reduced risk.”
TD Asset Management, which runs the lender’s mutual funds and portfolios
for institutional investors, manages about $300 billion, including $140 billion
in fixed income and $80 billion in equities.
It’s the second-largest asset manager in Canada after Royal Bank of Canada,
according to Dec. 31 rankings from Toronto-based Investor Economics.
TD’s more defensive stance contrasts with continued investor optimism in
stocks, from North America to Europe. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index
surged to a record April 24 and has rallied about 140 per cent since the
financial crisis in 2009. Canada’s benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index
has climbed about 65 per cent in the same period, putting its record from last
September into view.