The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Quebec's Caisse pension fund booked a 4.2-per-cent gain on its investments in the first half of the year, carving out a middle path amid market swings as the largest U.S. tech stocks soared, bonds tumbled and real estate continued to struggle. The Globe's James Bradshaw writes that the Caisse's first-half results fell short of the internal benchmark of 4.6 per cent it uses to measure performance, but chief executive officer Charles Emond said the difference can largely be chalked up to the unusual dominance of the Magnificent Seven stocks, which include Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Nvidia. Mag 7 stocks accounted for 73 per cent of the S&P 500's returns in the first six months of 2024, according to the Caisse, and that level of concentration "is not going to last," Mr. Emond told The Globe. In the meantime, however, pension funds with mandates to control risks on behalf of pensioners by diversifying their investments are in a tough spot, often watching the broader market's returns outpace their own. The Caisse's portfolio of stocks gained 13.6 per cent in the first half of the year, beating a 13.2-per-cent benchmark. Its bond portfolio lost 1.7 per cent.