Despite geopolitical concerns and supply chain disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East, the Northern Trust All Funds Over $100 Million plan universe reported a robust median return of 6.6% for the second quarter of 2026.
The returns apply to the performance of 368 large U.S. institutional investment plans with combined assets of approximately $1.6 trillion that subscribe to Northern Trust’s performance measurement services.
Public funds posted a 6.6% median return during the second quarter; corporate ERISA funds had a median return of 4.5%; and foundation and endowments registered a 7.0% median return.
According to Northern Trust, institutional investors benefited from surging U.S. equity markets, which were spurred by rallying large-cap technology stocks, particularly semiconductor and artificial intelligence hardware companies. Northern Trust’s U.S. Equity Program universe returned a median 14.9% for the quarter, and 22.2% for the year to date, while its Non-U.S. Equity Program universe had a median return of 11.7%.
Meanwhile, fixed-income markets were lukewarm during the quarter, which Northern Trust attributed to the U.S. Federal Reserve maintaining its federal funds rate target range at 3.50% to 3.75%, while indicating an increasingly restrictive policy outlook amid rising inflation.
“Institutional investors benefited from strong market performance across both U.S. and international equities during the second quarter,” Nadia Cobalovic, Northern Trust Asset Servicing’s global head of integrated portfolio services, said in a statement. “Broad participation across sectors and regions helped support portfolio returns, while ongoing market uncertainty reinforced the value of maintaining diversified, long-term investment strategies.”
The public funds covered by Northern Trust registered median one-, three- and five‑year returns of 13.5%, 11.2% and 6.8%, respectively, with U.S. equities remaining the funds’ the largest holding at a median allocation of 28.4%, up from 26.9% the previous year.
Foundations and endowments had median one-, three- and five‑year returns of 15%, 12.3% and 7.0%, respectively. For those funds, the median allocation to private equity declined to less than 25% as investments strategies shifted toward public equities.
Corporate plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act reported one-, three- and five-year median returns of 9.4%, 7.4% and 2.1%, respectively. U.S. fixed-income holdings remained the largest allocation for this group of investors, rising to more than 56%, the highest level on record for the universe, the firm reported.
Tags: corporate pension funds, endowments and foundations, Equities, fixed income strategies, investment returns, Northern Trust Universe, public pensions