Institutional asset owners in the Northern Trust universe posted mixed results for the first quarter, thanks primarily to uncertainty regarding U.S. tariffs, ongoing global inflation and geopolitical tensions, data released May 7 showed.
For the quarter ended March 31, the universe posted an overall median return of 0.7%. Among asset owner types, corporate pension funds had the strongest performance with a median return of 2.2% during the period, while public pension funds returned a median 1.1%, and foundations and endowments returned a median 0.5%.
“The first quarter of 2025 unfolded amid a backdrop of uncertainty, with U.S. equities riding high at the start and then falling as new global tariffs in February and March shifted market sentiment," said John Turney, global head of total portfolio solutions at Northern Trust Asset Servicing, in a news release. “Our Universe data shows that institutional plans with higher equity allocations struggled in comparison with plans that allocate more to fixed income and alternative asset classes.”
Northern Trust's domestic equity universe posted a median return of -4.6% for the three months ended March 31, underperforming the S&P 500 index’s return of -4.3% for the period but surpassing the Russell 3000 index’s return of -4.7%. Northern Trust’s non-U.S. equity universe, meanwhile, returned a median 4.9%, below the MSCI World ex-U.S. Net’s return of 6.2%.
Northern Trust's U.S. fixed-income universe posted a positive return of 2.6% for the first quarter.
Overall, the corporate pension fund universe benefited from a higher median allocation to fixed income, which Northern Trust estimated was 54.5% of overall assets. For the one, three and five years ended March 31, corporate plans posted annualized median returns of 4.3%, 0.6% and 4.7%, respectively.
Foundations and endowments posted annualized median returns of 6.2%, 4.9% and 10.9%, respectively, for the same periods, while public pension funds posted annualized median returns of 5.8%, 4.0% and 10.1%, respectively.
The Northern Trust universe consists of 377 U.S. institutional funds with combined assets of more than $1.4 trillion.
