The 100 largest U.S. corporate defined benefit pension plans saw their funding status improve by $23 billion during July. Robust investment gains of 2.04% helped cause the deficit dropped to $158 billion in July from $182 billion at the end of June. The last time the pension deficit was below $200 billion was on July 31, 2011, when it stood at $184.6 billion. July was the best performing month for investments so far in 2013. The market value of assets increased by $26 billion as a result of July’s investment gain, bringing the Milliman 100 PFI asset value up to $1.382 trillion, up from $1.356 trillion at the end of June.