The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that investment returns for Canada's defined-benefit pension plans roared back to life last year with an average return of 9.1 per cent, recouping most of the losses suffered in a tumultuous 2022, according to a new Royal Bank of Canada report. The Globe's James Bradshaw writes that strong gains recorded in 2023 were capped off by a strong fourth quarter, when returns averaged 8.2 per cent, which was one of the best performances for pension funds over the past two decades. As investors became increasingly optimistic that central banks might start cutting benchmark interest rates in the near term, stock and bond markets both surged and generated positive returns for investors. Last year's gains were nearly a mirror image of the sharp losses many plans endured one year earlier, when the average loss was 10.3 per cent -- the worst annual performance since the global financial crisis in 2008 -- as equities and fixed-income securities fell in tandem. The strongest returns were driven by the lofty performance from "Magnificent Seven" members Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. They dominate the MSCI World Growth Index, for instance, which returned 33.3 per cent last year.