Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec today released its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2016. The annualized weighted average return on its clients' funds reached 10.2% over five years and 7.6% in 2016.

Upbeat global earnings are confirming that the benefits of reflation ? rising wages, growth and inflation ? are spreading beyond the U.S. We see room for more upside for corporate profits, especially in Europe and Japan.

Hines, the international real estate firm, has announced the sale of five buildings at Brindleyplace in Birmingham, UK to an entity owned by clients of HSBC Private Bank and advised by HSBC Alternative Investments (HAIL) for a contract sales price of £260 million...

The recently theorised phenomenon of "disruption" is defined as a process whereby a product, a service or a solution disrupts the rules on an already established market. Technological progress, along with the globalisation of trade and demographic changes are now helping to spread it to every sector of the economy.

I recently met with a number of companies in Mexico. Obviously it is a very topical time to be in that part of the world, given everything President Trump has said and done to shift the tone of the US's relationship with its southern neighbour. I came away from the trip feeling that the prospects for Mexican companies are better than many investors fear.