Tariff shock wiped $169B from state, local US pension funds

by Venus Feng

The top 25 state and local US pension investment funds suffered an estimated paper loss of $169 billion in public equities after US President Trump’s tariff announcement.  

The losses came in the four trading days between April 3 and April 8, following US Trump’s announcement on global tariffs, according to a report by Equable Institute, a New York-based the bipartisan nonprofit organization that focuses on pensions. For the whole year so far, the top funds have lost an estimated $249 billion, according to the group.   

The total losses for the whole US public retirement system will likely be “significantly higher,” the institute said. Equable Institute analyzed the data by tracking some of the top investment funds that manage commingled assets from multiple pension plans. 

“The financial market shock of the last few days is exactly the kind of negative scenario that fragile pension funds should be concerned about,” the report said. 

The institute warned that beyond portfolio losses, state and local pension funds could see tightening cash flow in the coming years if the bigger tariffs lead to a prolonged economic recession. Retirement funds usually set long-term targets. 

The report projected the value of the funds’ public equities from assets reported as of April 8, using an S&P 500 benchmark. The approach doesn’t capture actual changes in positions that happened in the first quarter, and it doesn’t measure the specific ways pension funds invested in public equity. However, as a benchmark this approach generally is within a 99% accurate measurement of the change in public plan assets, it said. 

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