Month: December 2022

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

1927: The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.

On Dec. 30, 1972, the United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.  Go to article » 

Rudyard Kipling, b.1865.
Patti Smith, b. 1946.
Tiger Woods, b. 1975.

On December 31^st, 1850, Edward FitzGerald wrote to Frederick Tennyson:
I have written enough for tonight: I am now going to sit down and play one of Handel’s overtures as well as I can –
Semele, perhaps, a very grand one – then lighting my lantern trudge through the mud to Pardon Crabbe’s.  Before I take my pen again to finish this letter the New Year will have dawned on some of us.  “Thou fool! this night thy soul may be required of thee!”  Very well: while it is in this body I will wish my dear old F.T. a happy New Year.  And now to drum out the Old with Handel.  Goodnight.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

New York, US
Photographers record a confetti test run in preparation for New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square
Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Hadera, Israel
Sandbar sharks swim next to a snorkeller in the Mediterranean Sea
Photograph: Ariel Schalit/AP

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Christ the Redeemer statue is illuminated in the colours of the Brazilian national flag in honour of the footballer Pelé, who has died at 82
Photograph: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for December 30^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	33147.25	-73.55
		-0.22%
S&P 500	3839.50	-9.78
		-0.25%
NASDAQ	10466.48	-11.61
		-0.11%
TSX	19384.92	-100.97
		-0.52%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	26094.50	+0.83
		—
HANG SENG	19781.41	+40.27
		+0.20%
SENSEX	60840.74	-293.14
		-0.48%
FTSE 100*	7451.74	-60.98
		-0.81%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		3.302		3.269
CND. 30 Year Bond		3.278		3.238
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.8748		3.8145
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.9630		3.8983

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7383	0.7384
US $	1.3546	1.3543
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4498	0.6897
US  $	1.0703	0.9343

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1813.75	1803.35
Oil
WTI Crude Future	80.26	78.40

Market Commentary:
The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient. -Warren Buffett.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.5% at 19,384.92 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s increase of 1%.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.1%.
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 3.9%.
Today, 137 of 236 shares fell, while 94 rose; 8 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 8.7%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 5.1%
* This month, the index fell 5.2%
* So far this week, the index fell 0.6%
* The index declined 9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 20% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.7% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 8.5% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.8 on a trailing basis and 12.3 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.15t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.96% compared with 12.92% in the previous session and the average of 14.25% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -52.6886| -0.9| 6/23
Materials | -20.8676| -0.9| 9/38
Industrials | -19.3963| -0.7| 11/15
Information Technology | -8.6507| -0.8| 5/9
Utilities | -8.0485| -0.9| 1/15
Consumer Staples | -6.9190| -0.8| 4/7
Consumer Discretionary | -4.7457| -0.7| 8/7
Real Estate | -0.4115| -0.1| 10/12
Health Care | 0.2988| 0.4| 5/2
Energy | 7.3727| 0.2| 31/7
Communication Services | 13.1104| 1.4| 4/2
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | -13.0700| -1.1| 27.0| -5.2
TD Bank | -10.9000| -1.0| 106.6| -9.6
Canadian National | -9.2400| -1.4| -50.8| 3.5
Suncor Energy | 4.0980| 1.0| -82.6| 35.7
Rogers Communications| 5.7820| 3.9| 52.3| 5.2
Shaw Communications | 10.0300| 9.1| 797.6| 1.6
US
By Stephen Kirkland
(Bloomberg) — US stocks fell on the last trading day of 2022, closing out the worst year in more than a decade for global equities and bonds.
Even after a surge in dip-buying in the last hour of trading, the S&P 500 ended lower for a third day in the holiday shortened week, leaving the benchmark down 20% in 2022.
The Nasdaq 100 closed down, shedding a third of its value this year as tech stocks emerged as some of the most vulnerable to rising rates.
In an all-to-familiar playbook for 2022, Treasury yields rose on the final trading day of the year, with 10-year rate touching a seven-week high.
The dollar extended its slide, with the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index falling to a six-month low.
Losses this week scuppered hopes for a rally to close out 2022 — a year when inflation reasserted itself to wipe a fifth in value from global stocks, the worst run since the financial crisis.
Bonds lost 16% of value, the biggest decline since at least 1990 for one leading measure, as central banks raced to slow rising consumer prices by hiking interest rates around the world.
“We’ve never seen a market environment like this where both stocks and bonds were down simultaneously,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. “The good news is that we will soon put the year in the rearview mirror. The bad news is that 2023 could be a bumpy ride, at least for the first few months. Weaker economic trends will likely form heading into 2023 as the Fed battles inflation, but a mild recession may help set stocks up for a better second half of the year.”
Concern about the spread of Covid-19 that surfaced this week also weighed on markets, with The Times reporting the UK will require all travelers arriving from China test negative for Covid.
The European Commission has asked EU member states to review Covid testing and sequencing procedures and to consider scaling them back up amid increased concern about the virus spreading from China.

After a banner year for stocks in 2021 that saw the S&P 500 climb to consecutive record highs, few foresaw the selloff that ensued. But after rising to yet another all-time high on Jan. 3, fortunes quickly turned as the Federal Reserve signaled determination to rein in inflation.
That foreshadowed the onset of the most aggressive rate-hike path in decades, leaving stocks and bonds tumbling in its wake.
With US stocks dragged into a bear-market, the drop in Treasuries sent benchmark 10-year yields to 3.8% from 1.5% at the start of the year.
That could present a different outlook for fixed income in 2023 and a revival of the widely followed 60/40 portfolio that got hammered in 2022.
“While stocks will struggle with slowing economic activity and the loss of inflated earnings from inflation, bonds are earning a decent income with the potential for price appreciation as yields come off their peak,” said Bryce Doty,
senior portfolio manager for Sit Investment Associates. “The Fed is nearly done raising rates – we expect no raise at the Fed’s May meeting – and inflation is slowing.”
Elsewhere, emerging-market stocks were set for the first weekly advance in three, though the benchmark index remains on track for a decline of more than 20% in 2022.
Oil dipped, adding to a three-day run of declines on worries about a rise in crude stockpiles and concerns that  rising Covid-19 infections in China would slow demand in one of the world’s top oil importers.
Bitcoin is ending the year limply, slipping about 0.8% to bring its decline in 2022 to more than 64%.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.4% to $1.0705
* The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.2088
* The Japanese yen rose 1.3% to 131.25 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin was little changed at $16,598.9
* Ether rose 0.4% to $1,199.1
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced six basis points to 3.87%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 13 basis points to 2.57%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 3.67%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.6% to $80.41 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,829.90 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jan-Patrick Barnert, Richard Henderson, Vildana Hajric, Robert Brand and Peyton Forte.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.  Happy New Year!

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.  -T.S. Eliot, 1888-1965.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com
 

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.

1890: Massacre at Wounded Knee.
On Dec. 29, 1940, during World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.  Go to article » 

2006: The UK settles its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt.

Pablo Casals, cellist, b. 1876.
Grigori Rasputin, b. 1916.
Marianne Faithful, b. 1946.
Jude Law, b. 1972.

These three robot sisters could be the friendly face of AI: Say hello to humanoid figures Sophia, Grace and Desdemona.

Even with increasingly digital lives, there’s a lot of interest in analog. Throwback tech fascinates us. Are we secretly yearning for the good old days?

The USGS mapped the sea floor off Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

Ten bonkers Pele goals.

RIP, Pele.
Photos of the Day

London, UK
Luke Jerram’s artwork Museum of the Moon is on show in the Old Royal Naval College’s Painted Hall in Greenwich. It is a Nasa imagery-based artwork depicting a lunar scene, displayed against the hall’s baroque interior
Photograph: Rasid Necati/Anadolu Agency/Getty

Ile Saint-Paul, French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Saint Paul Island in the southern Indian Ocean is an important breeding site for seabirds. A scientific research cabin on the island is used for short scientific or ecological campaigns, but there is no permanent population. It’s a volcanic island, triangular in shape, and measures about 5km at its widest point
Photograph: Patrick Hertzog/AFP/Getty

Kyiv, Ukraine
Residents take shelter inside a metro station during an air raid alert. Russian missiles targeted cities across Ukraine in the early hours of 29 December
Photograph: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Market Closes for December 29^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	33220.80	+345.09
		+1.05%
S&P 500	3849.28	+66.06
		+1.75%
NASDAQ	10478.09	+264.80
		+2.59%
TSX	19485.89	+201.79
		+1.05%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	26093.67	-246.83
		-0.94%
HANG SENG	19741.14	-157.77
		-0.79%
SENSEX	61133.88	+223.60
		+0.37%
FTSE 100*	7512.72	+15.53
		+0.21%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		3.269		3.290
CND. 30 Year Bond		3.238		3.278
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.8145		3.8827
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.8983		3.9702

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7384	0.7352
US $	1.3543	1.3602
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4439	0.6926
US  $	1.0661	0.9380

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1803.35	1800.70
Oil
WTI Crude Future	78.40	78.96

Market Commentary:
Time is your friend; impulse is your enemy. -Jack Bogle, 1929-2019.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 1% at 19,485.89 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 1.4% on Dec. 21 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 1.1%.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 7.1%.
Lightspeed Commerce Inc. had the largest increase, rising 12.2%.
Today, 191 of 236 shares rose, while 43 fell; all sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 8.2%, poised for the worst year  since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 5.6%
* This month, the index fell 4.7%
* So far this week, the index was little changed
* The index declined 8.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 20% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.3% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.9% in the past 5 days and fell 3.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.9 on a trailing basis and 12.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.12t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.92% compared with 12.44% in the previous session and the average of 14.34% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 75.5900| 1.3| 28/1
Information Technology | 38.9145| 3.6| 13/1
Energy | 28.3930| 0.8| 35/4
Industrials | 22.8019| 0.9| 24/2
Communication Services | 9.3728| 1.0| 6/0
Utilities | 8.8953| 1.0| 16/0
Real Estate | 8.3064| 1.7| 22/1
Consumer Discretionary | 5.4595| 0.8| 10/5
Consumer Staples | 1.9635| 0.2| 5/6
Health Care | 1.9001| 2.8| 6/1
Materials | 0.1799| 0.0| 26/22
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 25.9600| 7.1| -35.5| -72.7
TD Bank | 12.2800| 1.1| 76.8| -8.7
Brookfield Corp | 11.1400| 2.7| -53.4| -29.9
Teck Resources | -1.6120| -1.0| -38.9| 42.8
Loblaw | -1.7390| -1.4| -64.2| 16.0
Dollarama | -1.7850| -1.1| -62.4| 26.3
US
By Stephen Kirkland
(Bloomberg) — US stocks rose in a broad-based rally and Treasury yields fell as data allayed fears of a supercharged jobs market that would support a more aggressive policy path.
A gauge of the dollar fell.
The S&P 500 notched their biggest one-day gain this month, albeit in thin holiday trading, to claw back all of the losses suffered in the previous two days.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 outperformed, with Tesla Inc. climbing more than 8% and tech giants including Apple Inc. Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. also among the biggest gainers.
Asian technology stocks rose earlier amid signs China is easing a regulatory crackdown.
Yields on 10-year Treasuries fell six basis points, halting a week-long, 20-basis-point climb that weighed on risk sentiment.
The dollar fell against all of its Group-of-10 peers.
Investors took solace in US jobs data that failed to reveal unwanted surprises, while underscoring the resilience of the labor market in the face of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening.
Initial unemployment claims rose slightly to 225,000, in line with expectations, in the week ended Dec. 24.
Continuing claims rose to 1.7 million in the week ended Dec. 17, the most since early February.
The rally is a ray of light as a dismal year for stocks and bonds draws to a close.
Global equities have lost a fifth of their value in 2022, the largest decline since 2008 on an annual basis, with tech bearing the brunt of the selloff.
An index of global bonds has slumped 16% amid sticky inflation and rising
interest rates.
Read more: From Meta to Coinbase: The Stocks That Torched
Traders in 2022
“I’m actually not so afraid of tech,” Sylvia Jablonski, CEO and CIO at Defiance ETFs, said on Bloomberg TV. “I do think you’re going to see a recovery later in the year in a lot of these stocks and I think that investors are a little bit too
afraid of them right now. They’re going to miss out on a rebound opportunity in the next let’s say 6-9 months.”
Risk sentiment also got a boost earlier after Italy said it didn’t find any new concerning Covid-19 mutations in the recent arrivals from China.
Concerns over risks from the spread of Covid sparked a selloff on Wednesday after health officials there found almost half of the passengers on two flights to Milan tested positive.
The US and Italy on Wednesday joined an increasing number of nations requiring Covid tests for travelers from China.
More market commentary:
* Tom Essaye, a former Merrill Lynch trader who founded The Sevens Report newsletter:
** “Markets enter 2023 at important transition points. One path is paved with continued disinflation, resilient earnings, moderating growth, a balanced labor market, and higher stock and bond prices. The other path is paved with sticky inflation, slowing growth, a continued tight labor market and lower stock and bond prices. Data points at the start of the year will offer important clues as to which path the markets are taking.”
* Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank:
** “Going into the new year, I think investors are going to be focusing on the same things we were focusing on this year and that’s where the central banks are going to take interest rates, and are the inflation numbers going to force them to continue to be very aggressive with the rate hikes or will we see the cooling off that is expected and therefore will we see the markets rebound because the Fed takes a less aggressive stance.  Another focus going into the New Year is China, China with the reopening.”
* Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at Oanda Europe Ltd.:
** “Investors are going into 2023 with a cautious mindset, prepared for more rate hikes, and expecting recessions around the globe. And then there’s China and its u-turn on Covid prevention. It’s been quite the shift from fighting every case to living with the virus and that creates enormous uncertainty for the start of the year.”
Elsewhere in markets, oil extended losses after US data showed a rise in crude stockpiles and concerns mounted that a rapid surge of infections in China would slow demand in one of the world’s top oil importers. 

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 2.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1%
* The MSCI World index rose 1.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.5%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0670
* The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.2067
* The Japanese yen rose 1.1% to 133.02 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.5% to $16,594.69
* Ether rose 0.8% to $1,195.85
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined six basis points to 3.83%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 2.44%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 3.66%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.5% to $78.60 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,821.70 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Richard Henderson, Peyton Forte and Vildana Hajric.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.  To one without faith, no explanation is possible -Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1879: Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, /Scotland, United Kingdom collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75 persons.
2005: Former top Enron Corp. accountant Richard Causey pleaded guilty to securities fraud and agreed to help pursue convictions against Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.  Go to article » 

Fourteen discoveries made about human evolution this year.

Vandals destroyed 22,000-year-old sacred cave art.  An indigenous group is devastated and police are searching for the culprits.

Protective gold idols and ‘rejuvenating’ amulets found in ancient Egyptian burials:  Archaeologists have discovered about 20 ancient burials in the city of New Damietta, Egypt, about 95 miles (153 kilometers) northeast of Cairo, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.  The burials date back to the 26th dynasty (circa 688 B.C. to 525 B.C.), a time when Egypt was independent of foreign rulers and its capital was located at Sais, a city in the Nile Delta.  Full Story: Live Science (12/22)

Attila the Hun raided Rome due to starvation, not bloodlust, study suggests:  Attila the Hun has been depicted as a bloodthirsty barbarian with an “infinite thirst for gold” and power.  But a new study proposes an alternative explanation for his violent incursions: Attila may have carried out his desperate raids to save his people from drought and starvation.  Full Story: Live Science (12/22)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Fort Erie, Canada
On the Ontario shoreline of Lake Erie, following a winter storm that swept through much of the province.
Photograph: Zuma Press/Alamy Live News

Cypress, US
This snowy owl on the chimney of a home in California looks down on a crowd of bird watchers and photographers it has attracted
Photograph: Mark Rightmire/AP

Hangzhou, China
A humanoid robot plays the piano at a restaurant in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province
Photograph: VCG/Getty
Market Closes for December 28^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32875.71	-365.85
		-1.10%
S&P 500	3783.22	-46.03
		-1.20%
NASDAQ	10213.29	-139.94
		-1.35%
TSX	19284.10	-222.55
		-1.14%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	26340.50	-107.37
		-0.41%
HANG SENG	19898.91	+305.85
		+1.56%
SENSEX	60910.28	-17.15
		-0.03%
FTSE 100*	7497.19	+24.18
		+0.32%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		3.290		2.897
CND. 30 Year Bond		3.278		2.969
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.8827		3.5846
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.9702		3.6306

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7352	0.7327
US $	1.3602	1.3648
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4445	0.6923
US  $	1.0621	0.9415

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1800.70	1792.55
Oil
WTI Crude Future	78.96	75.61

Market Commentary:
In the world of investing being average means you are one of the best students in the class. -Robert R. Julian.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.1% at 19,284.10 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 1.2% on Dec. 19 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.8%.
Today, energy stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 197 of 236 shares fell, while 38 rose.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.4%.
Tilray Brands Inc. had the largest drop, falling 7.9%.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 9.1%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 4.6%
* This month, the index fell 5.7%
* The index declined 9.2% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 13.2% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 7.9% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.4% in the past 5 days and fell 5.4% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.8 on a trailing basis and 12.2 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.16t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.44% compared with 12.11% in the previous session and the average of 14.45% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -68.1703| -1.9| 2/37
Financials | -58.2488| -1.0| 4/25
Industrials | -22.5949| -0.9| 5/21
Information Technology | -17.2958| -1.6| 3/11
Communication Services | -14.8448| -1.6| 0/6
Utilities | -11.9835| -1.4| 2/14
Materials | -9.3382| -0.4| 15/34
Real Estate | -8.1827| -1.6| 2/21
Consumer Staples | -7.0723| -0.9| 1/10
Health Care | -3.0967| -4.3| 0/7
Consumer Discretionary | -1.7189| -0.2| 4/11
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | -13.9900| -2.4| 12.1| 41.5
Enbridge | -12.0200| -1.6| -35.6| 6.9
Shopify | -11.7500| -3.1| -25.2| -74.5
Dollarama | 1.6660| 1.1| -41.6| 27.7
Franco-Nevada | 1.9850| 0.8| -45.4| 6.4
First Quantum Minerals | 3.1750| 2.9| -35.9| -5.3
US
By Stephen Kirkland
(Bloomberg) — US stocks fell for a second day on concern that the end of China’s zero-Covid policy could lead to a rise in cases around the world.
The S&P 500 dropped to the lowest level since early November, albeit in thin holiday trading, with volume about 20% below the 30-day average.
Tech shares remained under pressure, even as Tesla Inc. halted a seven-day rout prompted by concerns about ebbing demand.
The 10-year Treasury yield pushed to 3.88% and a gauge of the dollar rose to highs of the day late in the session.
Sentiment soured after Italian health authorities said they would begin testing all arrivals from China for Covid after almost half of the passengers on two flights to Milan were found to have the virus.
If a new strain is found, officials may impose stricter curbs on travel from China, the Health Ministry said.
The US said later it would require all air passengers aged 2 years and older originating from China to get a Covid-19 test no more than two days before their departure.
The still-cautious mood is damping hopes for a rally in the last trading week of 2022 after a brutal year for financial markets.
Global equities have lost a fifth of their value, the largest decline since 2008 on an annual basis, and an index of global bonds has slumped 16%.
The dollar has surged 7% and the US 10-year yield has jumped to above 3.80% from just 1.5% at the end of 2021 as the Federal Reserve pursued an aggressive rate-hike path to rein in inflation.
“We think investors have become way too pessimistic given where we are in the rate hiking cycle,” wrote Nancy Tengler, CEO and chief investment officer at Laffer Tengler Investments.
Following one of the fastest rate-hiking regimes in history, “we expect the economy to slow materially or enter recession at some point in 2023.
To be sure a severe recession would be bearish for stocks, yet given the resilience of the U.S. economy and the tight labor market, we are expecting a slowdown or shallow and brief recession.
That could allow stocks to rally in the second half of 2023.”
In a bid to revive Hong Kong as a finance hub, the city will end some of its last major Covid rules, scrapping gathering limits to vaccination checks and testing for travelers.
Still, while the dismantling of Covid curbs may be a boost for the global economy, there’s concern about inflation pressures that could prompt the policy makers in the US to maintain tight monetary policy.
“Now that we’re almost a year into this bear market, at its low I think we were almost off 30%, we’ve seen enough to let us know that OK, we want to be on-guard for additional opportunities in that new year,” said Wells Fargo Investment Institute’s Sameer Samana on Bloomberg TV.  
On China reopening, “being as quickly as it’s happening probably complicates the Fed’s job with respect to putting a little bit of a bid under oil prices, putting a little bit of a bid under inflation globally, to aggregate demand.
That’s going to be one of the biggest things that we’ll be watching in the first half.”
The Fed’s aggressive tightening policy is taking a toll on the housing market.
Data Wednesday showed US pending home sales fell for a sixth month in November to the second-lowest on record.  
With borrowing costs roughly double where they were at the start of the year, home sales, and therefore prices, have been declining for months.
Elsewhere in markets, oil dipped amid thin liquidity as investors weighed the fallout from a Russian ban on exports to buyers that adhere to a price cap. 
Key events this week:
* US initial jobless claims, Thursday
* ECB publishes economic bulletin, Thursday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%
* The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0609
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2020
* The Japanese yen fell 0.7% to 134.48 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.6% to $16,584.91
* Ether fell 1.4% to $1,193.93
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 3.88%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 2.50%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 3.66%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.1% to $78.64 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.6% to $1,812 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Richard Henderson, Robert Brand, Peyton Forte and Vildana Hajric.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude…

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That does not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not… –William Shakespeare, 1564-1616.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Chanukah.
1777:  Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter. Go to article »

Pope Francis orders Vatican to return Parthenon sculptures to Greece.  These 2,500-year-old sculptures have been held in the Vatican for more than a century. The pope is now giving them to the Greek Orthodox Church.

Cecily Strong bids farewell to ‘Saturday Night Live’.  The actress’ departure is another gut punch to the show’s lineup. Watch some of the emotional moments from her farewell here.

Does gravity make you age more slowly?  Einstein’s theory of general relativity upended humanity’s understanding of the universe more than a century ago, and since then, scientists have discovered that the steady march of time is anything but steady. Among the haunting implications of general relativity is that time passes more quickly at the top of every staircase in the world than it does at the bottom, because the closer an object is to Earth, the stronger the impacts of gravity are.  If time is linked to gravity, does that mean that people on top of mountains age faster than people at sea level do? Does increased gravity actually make people age more slowly?
Full Story: Live Science (12/17)

Grapefruit-size fireball from mysterious Oort Cloud could rewrite the history of the solar system: A dazzling fireball that ended its cosmic journey over central Alberta, Canada could change astronomers’ understanding of how the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.  Caught on camera on Feb. 22, 2021, the grapefruit-size rocky meteoroid is thought to have come from the Oort Cloud, a reservoir of celestial objects that encircles the entire solar system and separates it from interstellar space.  Full Story: Live Science (12/16)

American black bears are evolving to have cinnamon-colored coats, study finds: Some American black bears in the western United States have evolved to have cinnamon-colored fur.  The new hue is likely due to a genetic variant similar to one that causes albinism in humans, a new study finds.  Full Story: Live Science (12/16)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Berlin, Germany
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, speaks during the celebrations of the Hanukkah festival at the Heinz Galinski Jewish elementary school. The eight-day holiday, the Jewish Festival of Lights, marks the rededication of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem
Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

Suva, Fiji
A family spends time on the beach as the sun sets
Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

Vancouver, Canada
People walk down the middle of a street as snow falls. Temperature are dropping to dangerously cold extremes in some regions of British Columbia as snowfall send tires spinning in parts of Vancouver. Environment Canada says wind chill values are dropping near -40C or colder in the Chilcotin, Cariboo, Prince George and other central British Columbia communities
Photograph: Canadian Press/Rex/Shutterstock
Market Closes for December 19^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32757.54	-162.92
		-0.49%
S&P 500	3817.66	-34.70
		-0.90%
NASDAQ	10546.03	-159.38
		-1.49%
TSX	19200.76	-242.52
		-1.25%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27237.64	-289.48
		-1.05%
HANG SENG	19352.81	-97.86
		-0.50%
SENSEX	61806.19	+468.38
		+0.76%
FTSE 100*	7361.31	+29.19
		+0.40%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.897		2.814
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.969		2.874
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.5846		3.4822
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6306		3.5451

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7327	0.7302
US $	1.3648	1.3694
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4478	0.6907
US  $	1.0608	0.9427

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1792.55	1783.55
Oil
WTI Crude Future	75.61	74.29

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1868, at $120 a share, Cornelius Vanderbilt bought 130,000 more shares of the New York Central Railroad, which he already controlled.  Then Vanderbilt convened an emergency evening meeting of the board of directors, who dutifully declared an 80% dividend. That sent the stock up to $165 over the next two days, at which point Vanderbilt dumped his new shares for a $5.5 million profit.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the fourth day, dropping 1.2%, or 242.52 to 19,200.76 in Toronto.
The index dropped to the lowest closing level since Oct. 25.
Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 215 of 236 shares fell, while 20 rose.
Brookfield Corp. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.5%. Mag Silver Corp. had the largest drop, falling 11.5%.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 9.5%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 4.1%
* The index declined 7.4% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 18% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 13.6% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 7.4% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 4.1% in the past 5 days and fell 3.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.7 on a trailing basis and 12.1 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.4% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.14t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 15.64% compared with 15.32% in the previous session and the average of 15.30% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -55.2314| -0.9| 4/25
Industrials | -49.9133| -1.9| 2/24
Materials | -43.5524| -1.9| 3/47
Energy | -26.2944| -0.8| 5/33
Utilities | -19.1926| -2.2| 0/16
Communication Services | -12.2912| -1.3| 0/6
Information Technology | -11.6580| -1.0| 2/12
Consumer Discretionary | -10.6205| -1.5| 0/15
Real Estate | -8.7579| -1.7| 1/22
Health Care | -3.9362| -5.0| 0/7
Consumer Staples | -1.0802| -0.1| 3/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Brookfield Corp | -15.2900| -3.5| -12.4| -30.8
Canadian National | -11.9400| -1.7| -20.8| 5.3
RBC | -11.5400| -0.9| -8.7| -5.6
Cenovus Energy | 1.1460| 0.5| -9.0| 57.7
Brookfield Asset | | | |
Management | 2.7310| 3.0| 37.3|n/a
Canadian Natural Resources | 6.0440| 1.1| 113.8| 38.7
US
By Peyton Forte
(Bloomberg) — US stocks dropped for a fourth session as traders assessed the Federal Reserve’s path next year after central bank officials vowed to keep raising rates until they’re confident inflation is coming down meaningfully.
The S&P 500 closed at its lowest level in more than a month, dragged by declines in big-tech firms.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 slid 1.4%.
Treasuries fell, led by longer-dated securities, as traders speculated about the potential for a hawkish pivot from the Bank of Japan.
The benchmark 10-year yield rose the most since October.
The dollar wavered as investors weighed the Fed’s rate outlook ahead of fresh economic data this week.
Investors are still on the edge after recent remarks from  the Fed and other hawkish central banks across the globe.
Risk assets have taken a hit since US policymakers last week signaled a peak rate that was above market expectations.
Sentiment remained sour after former New York Fed President and Bloomberg Opinion columnist William Dudley told Bloomberg Television on Monday that optimistic markets could only make the central bank tighten even more.
European Central Bank Governing Council Member and Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel saying it will take some time until inflation slows to the central bank’s 2% target also dampened the mood on Monday.
“Those who were in the camp of a year-end rally are now second-guessing their investment thesis,” wrote JC O’Hara, chief market technician at MKM Partners. “The markets may have placed a little too much faith in Santa Claus and the rally he typically brings.”
But some investors are looking past fears of an economic recession triggered by higher interest rates, and are betting instead that inflation might be peaking, which would allow the Fed and its peers some leeway in their tightening policy.
“I’m kind of more in the camp of they hike in February, and I do think they’ll hike again in March, but that’s probably it,” Matt Brill, head of US investment grade and senior portfolio manager at Invesco, said on Bloomberg Television. “We’re 90%-95% of the way done here. I think the floor has sort of been set and the worst is certainly behind us.”
Meanwhile, US homebuilder sentiment sank in December to a level not seen in over a decade outside of the pandemic, amid high mortgage rates and construction costs.
Earlier, global equity investors were somewhat heartened by a vow from China’s top leaders to boost the economy next year by reviving consumption and supporting the private sector.
Oil climbed. 
Key events this week:
* China loan prime rates, Tuesday
* Bank of Japan interest rate decision, Tuesday
* US housing starts, Tuesday
* EIA Crude Oil Inventory Report, Wednesday
* US existing home sales, US Conference Board consumer confidence, Wednesday
* US GDP, initial jobless claims, US Conf. Board leading index, Thursday
* US consumer income, new home sales, US durable goods, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.9% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%
* The MSCI World index fell 1.1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.2% to $1.0604
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2144
* The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 137.01 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.9% to $16,594.34
* Ether fell 0.5% to $1,176.27
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 11 basis points to 3.59%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 2.20%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced 17 basis points to 3.50%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.8% to $75.65 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,796.30 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric and Sujata Rao.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
You have your whole future ahead of you.  Perfection doesn’t happen right away. –Haruki Murakami, b. 1949.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.
1773: The Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard to protest tea taxes. Go to article »
1937: Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.

Ludwig Von Beethoven, composer, b. 1770.
Jane Austen, novelist, b.1775
Noel Coward, playwright, b. 1899.
Margaret Mead, anthropologist, b.1901

15 of 2022’s most extraordinary discoveries: A Van Gogh self-portrait. A massive pink diamond. A route that could lead to Cleopatra’s long-lost tomb. View the full list of stunning finds made this year.

Harvard University appoints first Black president: Congratulations are in order for Claudine Gay. Currently the school’s Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, she’ll become the first person of color and the second woman to hold the role of Harvard University’s president.

Uber Eats launches robot delivery service in Miami: Would you like fries with that? Autonomous, “remotely-supervised” robots are now delivering some customers’ orders in Florida’s Miami-Dade county, with Uber Eats planning to expand the scheme in other US cities next year.

4,000-year-old ‘shaman’ burial near Stonehenge has a golden secret: About 4,000 years ago, two people were buried near Stonehenge with grave goods described as a “shaman’s costume” when they were discovered in the 19th century.  But a new analysis of stone tools also found in the grave reveals they have traces of gold on their surfaces, indicating they were used to craft the precious metal. Full Story: Live Science (12/15) 

The world’s biggest hotel aquarium exploded, sending 1,500 fish into the lobby.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Jerusalem
Fireworks light the sky to mark the lighting of the Christmas tree at the Jaffa Gate in the old city of Jerusalem.
Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

Kyiv, Ukraine
A woman walks in a snow-covered park after a fresh snowfall in the centre of the Ukrainian capital. Moscow has said no ‘Christmas ceasefire’ was on the cards after nearly 10 months of war in Ukraine, with fighting looking set to drag on through the winter.
Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images
Kyrgyzstan
A snow leopard, slowly returning in numbers thanks to the introduction of more sustainable grazing methods and the training of herders as conservation guards, looks into a remote camera in Kyrgyzstan.
Photograph: Philippe Matheini and Michael BoothUnited Nations Environment Programme/United Nations Environment Programme/Reuters
Market Closes for December 16^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32920.46	-281.76
		-0.85%
S&P 500	3852.36	-43.39
		-1.11%
NASDAQ	10705.41	-105.12
		-0.97%
TSX	19443.28	-157.35
		-0.80%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27527.12	-524.58
		-1.87%
HANG SENG	19450.67	+82.08
		+0.42%
SENSEX	61337.81	-461.22
		-0.75%
FTSE 100*	7332.12	-94.05
		-1.27%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.814		2.783
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.874		2.820
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4822		3.4463
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.5451		3.4947

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7302	0.7320
US $	1.3694	1.3661
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4500	0.6897
US  $	1.0588	0.9445

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1783.55	1808.05
Oil
WTI Crude Future	74.29	76.11

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1685, under orders from the British Governor General, workmen finished laying out a 36-foot-wide street of stone and dirt in lower Manhattan. The thoroughfare, which ran along a wall, was naturally named Wall Street.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the third day, dropping 0.8%, or 157.35 to 19,443.28 in Toronto.
The index dropped to the lowest closing level since Nov. 9.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.4%.
Dye & Durham Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 8.0%.
Today, 150 of 236 shares fell, while 83 rose; 9 of 11 sectors were lower, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 8.4%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 5.4%
* So far this week, the index fell 2.5%
* The index declined 6.3% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 18% in the same period * The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.5% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 8.8% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.8 on a trailing basis and 12.2 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.17t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 15.32% compared with 15.19% in the previous session and the average of 15.84% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -76.2596| -2.2| 5/33
Financials | -24.7025| -0.4| 12/18
Industrials | -22.9669| -0.9| 10/16
Utilities | -15.0712| -1.7| 0/16
Consumer Discretionary | -7.1351| -1.0| 4/10
Communication Services | -6.3434| -0.7| 1/6
Information Technology | -5.4588| -0.5| 5/9
Real Estate | -5.3451| -1.1| 3/19
Health Care | -1.8819| -2.3| 3/4
Consumer Staples | 1.2837| 0.2| 7/4
Materials | 6.5443| 0.3| 33/15
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | -19.3700| -3.4| 84.6| 37.2
TC Energy | -9.6990| -2.5| 102.7| -6.2
Franco-Nevada | -8.9950| -3.6| 344.0| 3.7
Wheaton Precious | | | |
Metals | 2.6160| 1.6| 183.1| -1.7
Agnico Eagle Mines | 3.1140| 1.4| 107.3| 4.1
Barrick Gold | 4.6390| 1.7| 117.4| -3.8
US
By Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — US stocks suffered their longest weekly losing streak since September, with investors concerned that the Federal Reserve’s resolve to keep raising rates could tip the economy into a recession.
The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 closed the session lower for a third day.
The quarterly triple witching expiration of equity derivatives also amplified market moves on Friday.
US Treasuries were mixed, with short-term bonds rallying on Friday.
The policy-sensitive two-year yield ended the week nearly 19 basis points lower than where it started.
The dollar was little changed.
Oil notched a weekly gain.
Investors had cheered the softer-than-expected inflation data earlier this week. But that euphoria faded as Fed officials hammered home the message that rates will go higher for longer until they’re confident inflation has been subdued.
While the Fed raised rates by an expected 50 basis points on Wednesday, risk assets have been on the back foot ever since policymakers signaled a peak rate that was above market expectations.
A wave of rate hikes and hawkish outlooks from central banks across the globe, including the European Central Bank, further bruised sentiment this week.
Traders also contended with a flurry of US data this week showing the economy cooling, even as the labor market stays strong.
Softening in the labor market remains a big target for the Fed.
“The market has been in a tug-of-war between better-than-feared economic data juxtaposed with concerns about the potential for the Fed to over-tighten monetary policy and push the economy into a recession,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. “That tug-of-war will likely continue in the first quarter of 2023 unless and until the Fed gets to their terminal Fed Funds rate.” 
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.9%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9%
* The MSCI World index fell 2.4%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0594
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2162
* The Japanese yen rose 0.8% to 136.66 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 3% to $16,884.02
* Ether fell 4.7% to $1,204.88
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 3.48%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced seven basis points to 2.15%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced nine basis points to 3.33%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.4% to $74.30 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.8% to $1,802.70 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Srinivasan Sivabalan and John McCorry.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.  J

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. –Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.

1961: Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death by an Israeli court. – Go to article »
1989: General Augusto Pinochet defeated; democracy returns to Chile.

Sitting Bull, d. 1890
J. Paul Getty, b. 1892
Don Johnson, actor, b. 1949
Edna O’Brien, author, b. 1932

Bloomberg 50: The People Who Defined 2022: This is our sixth annual look at those in business, politics, science and technology, finance and entertainment whose accomplishments deserve recognition. No one story dominates the Bloomberg 50 this year more than Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, and the effort by one man in particular to face him down, but there are a lot of people who managed shape the direction of yet another tumultuous year for the world.

Impatient dog drives off without owner: Watch this dog cause a fender bender after jumping behind the wheel. Who knows, maybe he was in a rush for his morning puppuccino…

Meet the world’s new richest person: Elon Musk is no longer the richest person on the planet, dropping to the second spot behind this French businessman who keeps a very low profile.

13.5 billion years:

 

That’s how long it took for some of the light in this new “wide-field” image of the universe to reach Earth. The stunning image, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, shows never-before-seen galaxies as well as some of the faintest objects visible in space.

Ancient Egyptian ‘masterpiece’ is so realistic, researchers identified the exact bird species it depicts:  An ancient Egyptian “masterpiece” painting of birds flying and perching within a verdant marsh is so detailed, modern researchers can tell exactly which species artisans illustrated more than 3,300 years ago.  The painting was discovered about a century ago on the walls of the palace at Amarna, an ancient Egyptian capital located about 186 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cairo. Full Story: Live Science (12/14)

Aliens haven’t contacted Earth because there’s no sign of intelligence here, new answer to the Fermi paradox suggests: Why haven’t aliens gotten in touch? Maybe they think Earth is boring. A new preprint paper published to the arXiv database suggests that intelligent extraterrestrials might not find planets that host life particularly interesting. Full Story: Live Science (12/15)

The 52 new books that top business leaders are recommending.

The top 10 wines of 2022, from $35 to $35,000.

Fusion power could become a reality in the next decade.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Seoul, South Korea
Visitors wearing traditional Hanbok costume walk through the Gyeongbok Palace grounds
Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

Washington DC, US:
House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, unveils her official portrait
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Rome, Italy
Visitors view artworks at the Bob Dylan Retrospectrum exhibition at the Maxxi museum
Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP
Market Closes for December 15^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	33202.22	-764.13
		-2.25%
S&P 500	3895.75	-99.57
		-2.49%
NASDAQ	10810.53	-360.36
		-3.23%
TSX	19600.63	-291.02
		-1.46%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	28051.70	-104.51
		-0.37%
HANG SENG	19368.59	-304.86
		-1.55%
SENSEX	61799.03	-878.88
		-1.40%
FTSE 100*	7426.17	-69.76
		-0.93%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.783		2.821
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.820		2.858
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4463		3.4737
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.4947		3.5267

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7320	0.7383
US $	1.3661	1.3545
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4520	0.6887
US  $	1.0628	0.9409

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1808.05	1823.55
Oil
WTI Crude Future	76.11	77.28

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1886, for the first time, total daily trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange exceeded 1 million shares.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 1.5%, or 291.02 to 19,600.63 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 1.6% on Nov. 9.
Today, materials stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 201 of 237 shares fell, while 32 rose.
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 14.7%.
TransAlta Renewables Inc. had the largest drop, falling 17.0%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss 20 times. The next day, it declined 13 times for an average 0.8% and advanced seven times for an average 1.2%
* This year, the index fell 7.6%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 6.3%, heading for the biggest advance since the second quarter of 2021
* So far this week, the index fell 1.7%
* The index declined 5.6% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 18% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 11.8% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.7% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.8% in the past 5 days and fell 2% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.9 on a trailing basis and 12.3 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month  basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.22t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 15.19% compared with 14.77% in the previous session and the average of 16.07% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | -79.6578| -3.3| 2/48
Financials | -56.0952| -0.9| 3/27
Energy | -43.5757| -1.2| 12/25
Industrials | -43.0080| -1.6| 4/23
Information Technology | -25.0117| -2.2| 1/13
Consumer Staples | -13.2351| -1.5| 1/10
Communication Services | -11.6525| -1.2| 0/7
Utilities | -6.7697| -0.8| 4/12
Consumer Discretionary | -5.9718| -0.8| 1/13
Real Estate | -4.7440| -0.9| 3/18
Health Care | -1.2897| -1.6| 1/5
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
First Quantum Minerals | -18.3600| -14.7| 241.4| -8.9
Shopify | -17.2400| -4.1| 3.0| -71.5
Canadian Pacific | -11.9100| -1.8| 30.9| 14.7
Northland Power | 1.5080| 2.4| 64.5| 5.0
Restaurant Brands | 1.8960| 1.0| 183.6| 20.1
Fairfax Financial | 2.0790| 1.7| 110.3| 29.3
US
By Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Stocks dropped and the dollar rallied after a wave of rate hikes from central banks this week, with the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank warning of more pain to come.
The S&P 500 fell more than 2%, closing at its lowest level in more than a month.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 dropped more than 3%.
Stocks in Europe also closed Thursday lower after the ECB’s upward revision to 2024 inflation projections.
Oil snapped a three-day rally.
Commodities from oil to copper were under pressure as fears of a global economic slowdown and waning demand mounted.
The dollar climbed the most since September as investors sought haven assets.
Risk assets have been on the back foot since Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated his hawkish stance on Wednesday and policymakers signaled a peak rate that was above market expectations.
The ECB and the Bank of England were among major central banks that followed suit with hikes of half a percentage point.
The BOE tempering its pace of monetary tightening was interpreted as a sign that rates could peak at a lower level than expected.
While the Fed and ECB also slowed the tempo of their hikes, Powell and ECB President Christine Lagarde hammered home their resolve to remain persistent as they battle inflation.
This didn’t sit well with investors, who hoped for a dovish shift in tone.
Traders are also digesting a bevy of US data Thursday showing the economy cooling, even as a labor market stays strong.
Softening in the labor market remains a big target for the Fed.
“The pullback in the market today — we aren’t surprised by it,” Nadia Lovell, UBS Global Wealth Management senior US equity strategist, told Bloomberg Television on Thursday. “This is a market that has traded on the hope that the Fed will not do what they say they will do. Yesterday they sent a clearly different message.”
Lovell doesn’t think a recession is already priced in and said she expects repricing in the first half of 2023 to account for slower growth.
Key events this week:
* Eurozone S&P Global PMI, CPI, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 2.5% as of 4:03 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.2%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 1%
* The euro fell 0.6% to $1.0623
* The British pound fell 2% to $1.2176
* The Japanese yen fell 1.6% to 137.68 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 2.3% to $17,423.09
* Ether fell 3% to $1,271.7
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 3.45%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 14 basis points to 2.08%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 3.24%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.5% to $76.12 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 1.7% to $1,787 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee and John McCorry.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Don’t mind anything anyone tells you about anyone else.  Judge everyone and everything for yourself. –Henry James, 1879-1947.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1939: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
1979: The album “London Calling” by the Clash was released. Go to article »
1911: Amundsen reaches the South Pole.
Nostradamus, b. 1503.

Listen to a Martian dust storm engulf the Perseverance rover in eerie, world-first audio recording: A towering dust storm that engulfed the Mars Perseverance rover in September 2021 was a colossal 390.4 feet (119 meters) tall, the first-ever audio recording of a dust devil on the surface of Mars reveals.   The recording, an analysis of which was published Tuesday (Dec. 13) in the journal Nature Communications, also reveals brand-new information about how these short-lived phenomena move dust around on the Red Planet.  Full Story: Live Science (12/13)

James Webb Space Telescope captures ‘extraordinary’ clouds in the atmosphere of Saturn’s alien moon Titan: Scientists spotted something exciting on Saturn’s moon Titan in images taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in early November — clouds. Specifically, clouds in Titan’s northern hemisphere.  To a casual observer, clouds might be a dime a dozen. But to scientists, clouds can reveal a lot about the atmosphere of a planet (or in this case, a moon). Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a thick atmosphere, so studying clouds helps scientists understand how Titan’s atmosphere works — and why it has an atmosphere in the first place.
Full Story: Live Science (12/14)

Why is Christmas celebrated on Dec. 25?  birth date of Jesus Christ is not known with certainty, why was this day selected?  There are two major theories as to why Christmas is celebrated on Dec. 25. One, sometimes called the “history of religion” hypothesis, suggests that Christmas supplanted one or more pagan holidays. The other theory, often called the “computation” or “calculation” hypothesis, suggests that early Christians used some form of calculation to arrive at Dec. 25 as Jesus’ birthday.  Full Story: Live Science

Disease-riddled skeletons suggest leprosy and smallpox ravaged medieval German village: More than one-third of the individuals buried in an early medieval cemetery in Germany suffered from infectious diseases, a new study reveals.  Researchers from Kiel University in Germany examined the DNA and skeletal remains of 70 people who were buried in the community cemetery located in Lauchheim Mittelhofen, a town in what is now present-day Germany. Full Story: Live Science (12/13)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Yan’an, China
Icicles and a rainbow form over the Hukou waterfall
Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Frankfurt, Germany
Icelandic horses feed at a stud farm
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Málaga, Spain
The festival of Rondeles in the village of Casarabonela, a tradition dating back to the 18th century in which millers thank the Virgin Mary for the olive harvest
Photograph: Lorenzo Carnero/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Market Closes for December 14^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	33966.35	-142.29
		-0.42%
S&P 500	4000.46	-19.19
		-0.48%
NASDAQ	11170.89	-85.92
		-0.76%
TSX	19915.98	-107.48
		-0.54%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	28156.21	+201.36
		+0.72%
HANG SENG	19673.45	+77.25
		+0.39%
SENSEX	62677.91	+144.61
		+0.23%
FTSE 100*	7495.93	-6.96
		-0.09%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.821		2.847
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.858		2.836
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4737		3.5067
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.5267		3.5363

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7383	0.7381
US $	1.3545	1.3548
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4467	0.6912
US  $	1.0681	0.9362

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1823.55	1786.60
Oil
WTI Crude Future	77.28	75.39

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1900, German physicist Max Planck, in a lecture at the German Physical Society, introduced the theory of quantum mechanics. Today its principles of discontinuity and packets of emitted energy underlie sectors of the U.S. economy, including semiconductors, lasers and medical MRI devices.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.7% at 19,891.65in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 1.2% on Dec. 6 and follows the previous session’s little change.
Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.3%.
Transcontinental Inc. had the largest drop, falling 7.5%.
Today, 154 of 237 shares fell, while 78 rose; 10 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 6.3%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 7.8%, heading for the biggest advance since the fourth quarter of 2020
* The index declined 3.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 15% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 10.5% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 11.3% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.4% in the past 5 days and was little changed in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.1 on a trailing basis and 12.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.24t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 14.77% compared with 14.61% in the previous session and the average of 16.35% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -51.8165| -0.9| 8/22
Industrials | -19.7317| -0.7| 14/13
Energy | -16.4884| -0.5| 19/19
Materials | -13.5634| -0.6| 8/39
Communication Services | -7.7758| -0.8| 3/4
Utilities | -7.5200| -0.8| 5/11
Information Technology | -6.9743| -0.6| 3/11
Consumer Staples | -6.8915| -0.8| 2/9
Real Estate | -1.3910| -0.3| 8/13
Health Care | -0.9806| -1.2| 1/6
Consumer Discretionary | 1.3112| 0.2| 7/7
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
TD Bank | -14.3100| -1.3| -26.2| -9.8
Canadian Pacific | -13.0600| -1.9| -13.6| 16.8
Canadian National | -8.6100| -1.2| -34.1| 9.8
Rogers Communications| 2.3890| 1.6| -60.1| 1.9
Dollarama | 2.6190| 1.7| 5.5| 28.1
First Quantum Minerals | 4.3210| 3.6| -4.9| 6.8
US
By Isabelle Lee
(Bloomberg) — US stocks snapped a two-day rally after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated his hawkish stance but signaled the central bank is getting “close” to reaching the end of a tightening cycle that pushed rates from near zero to 4.5% since March.
While Wednesday’s volatile session saw the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 swing between gains and losses, the indexes ended lower after the Fed raised rates by half a percentage point and signaled more increases are to come.
The hawkish decision and subsequent comments from Powell likewise whipsawed Treasuries, with rates spiking higher before coming back to pre-decision levels. The dollar dropped for a second session.
Powell indicated the Fed intends to keep at its battle with inflation, as officials projected rates would end next year at 5.1%.
But his assertion that the cycle could be near an end was enough to ease the worst of the stock declines on Wednesday.
The Fed also projects economic growth to slow to next year, with inflation remaining well above its 2% target.
“Powell was crystal clear that the Fed is basically indifferent to inter-meeting moves in financial conditions but that they control those conditions over time,” said Gerard MacDonell of 22V Research.
Some investors saw the silver lining in Powell’s remarks.
“The most encouraging of Powell’s comments is the acknowledgment of how core inflation is coming down more than expected as evidenced by new rental leases coming at levels significantly below data being used to calculate core consumer price index,” said Bryce Doty, senior vice president at Sit Investment Associates. “This is a big deal given that housing is the largest component of core CPI. Therefore, we wouldn’t be surprised if Powell uses this as a primary reason for halting rate increases at their May meeting.”
Key events this week:
* China medium-term lending, property investment, retail sales, industrial production, surveyed jobless, Thursday
* ECB rate decision and ECB President Lagarde briefing, Thursday
* Rate decisions for UK BOE, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thursday
* US cross-border investment, business inventories, empire manufacturing, retail sales, initial jobless claims, industrial production, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global PMI, CPI, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4%
* The MSCI World index rose 1.1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
* The euro rose 0.4% to $1.0679
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2424
* The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 135.26 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin was little changed at $17,772.42
* Ether fell 0.9% to $1,308.22
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 3.47%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 1.94%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 3.31%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.7% to $77.42 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.3% to $1,819.90 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric and Emily Graffeo.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Sakim had taught me to be wary of evidence given by others, for in all evidence there is some interpretation.
The eyes see, the mind explains.  But does the mind explain correctly?  The mind only has what experience and education
have given it, and perhaps that is not enough.  Because one has seen does not mean one knows. –Louis L’Amour, 1908-1988.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Luciadagen: Lucia’s Day, Sweden

1642: Dutch navigator Abel Tasman first sights South Island, New Zealand.
2007: Shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, approved a takeover by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.  Go to article »

Christopher Plummer, b. 1929.
Jamie Foxx, b. 1967.

New Zealand is banning tobacco.

How to see the stunning Geminid meteor shower light up the sky on Dec. 14: The annual Geminids meteor shower reaches its peak on Wednesday (Dec. 14).   The peak of the Geminid meteor shower offers skywatchers the opportunity to view what is regarded as the most consistent and reliable meteor shower of the year while at its best  — as long as they are willing to brave the frigid weather of mid-December.  Full Story: Live Science (12/12)

Nuclear fusion reactor ‘breakthrough’ is significant, but light-years away from being useful:  Scientists have just announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion ignition: For the first time the heart of a powerful fusion reactor has briefly generated more energy than was put into it.  But experts are urging caution, saying that the breakthrough, while hugely significant, is still a long way from safe, limitless nuclear energy.
Full Story: Live Science (12/13)

Notre Dame’s spire had 2 hidden coffins beneath it. Now, scientists know who was buried there.  The day after the world watched Notre Dame Cathedral burn three years ago, archaeologists were called to survey the damage; they found two unusual lead sarcophagi dating to centuries ago, but it was anyone’s guess who was buried within them.  Now, researchers have announced their findings: the sarcophagi contain the remains of two wealthy men, one ecclesiastical who may have had the “disease of kings,” and the other young and noble, but whose remains hinted at a hard life. Full Story: Live Science (12/13)

See Mars ‘peek out’ from behind the moon in stunning eclipse photo:  An awe-inspiring new image has captured the moment a tiny and unusually vibrant Mars rose from behind the moon’s crater-covered surface during a recent eclipse.  The Red Planet was temporarily obscured from Earth’s view by the passing moon during an event known as a lunar occultation, which occurs roughly twice a year and lasts for around an hour.
Full Story: Live Science (12/13)

Crispr just cured a girl’s cancer. — Lisa Jarvis
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Nagykanizsa, Hungary
Morning fog above a field during sunrise
Photograph: György Varga/EPA

Frankfurt, Germany
The sun rises over the frozen trees of the Taunus region
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

​​​​​​​Rabat, Morocco
Boys play football on a beach ahead of the country’s football team’s first ever semi-final in the Fifa World Cup due to take place tomorrow against France in Qatar
Photograph: Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP
Market Closes for December 13^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	34108.64	+103.60
		+0.30%
S&P 500	4019.65	+29.09
		+0.73%
NASDAQ	11256.81	+113.07
		+1.01%
TSX	20023.46	+3.76
		+0.02%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27954.85	+112.52
		+0.40%
HANG SENG	19596.20	+132.57
		+0.68%
SENSEX	62533.30	+402.73
		+0.65%
FTSE 100*	7502.89	+56.92
		+0.76%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.847		2.924
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.836		2.876
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.5067		3.6113
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.5363		3.5751

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7381	0.7333
US $	1.3548	1.3637
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4405	0.6942
US  $	1.0633	0.9405

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1786.60	1796.15
Oil
WTI Crude Future	75.39	73.17

Market Commentary:
India’s imports of Russian oil are set to hit a record this month, driven by a deeper discount on the country’s crude. Russian crude loadings bound for India rose to 1.56 million barrels this month so far, accounting for over half of Russia’s exports, according to Kpler data. That’s up from 1.16 million last month.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 20,023.46 in Toronto.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.9%.
OceanaGold Corp. had the largest increase, rising 11.6%.
Today, 163 of 237 shares rose, while 73 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 5.7%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 8.6%, heading for the biggest advance since the second quarter of 2020
* The index declined 3.5% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 15% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 9.9% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 12% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and fell 0.4% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.2 on a trailing basis and 12.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.17t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 14.61% compared with 15.17% in the previous session and the average of 16.42% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 42.7409| 1.2| 29/9
Materials | 34.6250| 1.4| 42/8
Real Estate | 5.4396| 1.1| 20/2
Consumer Staples | 5.4344| 0.6| 8/3
Utilities | 4.2158| 0.5| 13/3
Information Technology | 3.2971| 0.3| 8/6
Industrials | 0.8678| 0.0| 17/10
Health Care | -0.0626| -0.1| 3/4
Communication Services | -2.3753| -0.2| 2/5
Consumer Discretionary | -4.9019| -0.7| 6/8
Financials | -85.5352| -1.4| 15/15
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | 11.2200| 1.9| 31.3| 46.2
Barrick Gold | 10.8500| 3.9| 44.3| -1.6
Suncor Energy | 7.6960| 2.0| -32.5| 33.2
Bank of Montreal | -10.4000| -1.8| 104.7| -9.8
RBC | -18.9100| -1.5| 42.9| -3.0
TD Bank | -31.1000| -2.7| 73.3| -8.6
US
By Isabelle Lee
(Bloomberg) — US stocks advanced on Tuesday as investors mulled whether latest data showing prices rose less than forecast last month would prompt the Federal Reserve to alter its aggressive approach to battling inflation.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 capped a volatile session with a gain after data indicated the worst of inflation has likely passed.
While the soft consumer price index data was briefly celebrated with a surge in equities, the indexes pared those gains as investors turned their focus to what the latest numbers mean for the Fed’s path of rates.
Treasuries surged, with the policy-sensitive two-year yield dropping as much as 24 basis points after the CPI data released.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s closely watched measure of services prices that excludes energy and rents continued to moderate.
While the Fed is largely expected to raise rates by half a percentage point Wednesday, investors will be watching what officials say for further policy clues.
Swap markets are now favoring a quarter-point hike as early as the Fed’s February meeting.
Still, some investors are cautious about overstating the latest CPI print.
“While the war against inflation is turning, we are a long way off declaring victory and the Fed will keep its hawkish stance for a while longer, even if it does potentially force a recession,” said Richard Carter, head of fixed interest research at Quilter Cheviot.
Following the Fed, the European Central Bank will announce its rate decision Thursday.
Markets will also contend with decisions from the Bank of England and monetary authorities in Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, Switzerland and Taiwan.
Key events this week:
* FOMC rate decision and Fed Chair news conference, Wednesday
* China medium-term lending, property investment, retail sales, industrial production, surveyed jobless, Thursday
* ECB rate decision and ECB President Lagarde briefing, Thursday
* Rate decisions for UK BOE, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thursday
* US cross-border investment, business inventories, empire manufacturing, retail sales, initial jobless claims, industrial production, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global PMI, CPI, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.9%
* The euro rose 0.9% to $1.0629
* The British pound rose 0.7% to $1.2360
* The Japanese yen rose 1.5% to 135.62 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3.3% to $17,750.42
* Ether rose 3.4% to $1,318.35
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined nine basis points to 3.52%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 1.93%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced 10 basis points to 3.30%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.2% to $75.50 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 1.7% to $1,822.90 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Natalia Kniazhevich and Michael Msika.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity. -Johann Lavater, 1741-1801.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Monday.
December 12, 1963: Kenya (formerly British East Africa) declares independence from UK.
1914: The New York Stock Exchange re-opened for the first time since July 30. The market had shut down when World War I broke out. Go to article »

Frank Sinatra, b. 1915.
Gustave Flaubert, b.1821.
Jennifer Connelly, b. 1970.

See 3-year-old’s reaction after spotting her family during dance recital.  This precious little girl was overcome with emotion when she saw her family supporting her in the crowd. See the adorable video here.

Nelly Cheboi named CNN’s Hero of the Year.  This woman quit her lucrative job as a software engineer to help children in need. Watch the moment CNN’s Hero of the Year was announced.

The tourist attractions you can’t visit in 2023.  You can scratch these places off your list… some of these attractions are either under renovation or are saying a permanent goodbye.

Brock Purdy leads San Francisco 49ers in shocking win.  The 22-year-old rookie quarterback was the last pick of this year’s draft. But to everyone’s surprise, he outdueled Tom Brady in a 35-7 blowout win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Céline Dion’s muscle spasms caused by rare disorder: What is stiff-person syndrome?
Singer Céline Dion was recently diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called stiff-person syndrome, which has caused her to experience severe muscle spasms, the iconic performer announced Dec. 8 in an Instagram video.
“We now know this is what’s been causing all of the spasms that I’ve been having,” Dion said in the video. “Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal chords to sing the way I’m used to.” Full Story: Live Science (12/9)

Nobody took John F. Clauser’s quantum experiments seriously. 50 years later, he’s collecting a Nobel Prize.
On Oct. 4, 80-year-old John F. Clauser woke up in his California home to the news that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. He received the prize at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on Dec. 10 together with Anton Zeilinger and Alain Aspect for their work on quantum entanglement.
It was a moment of celebration for Clauser, whose ground breaking experiments with particles of light helped to prove key elements of quantum mechanics. Full Story: Live Science (12/9)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Pacific Ocean
Navy divers secure Nasa’s Orion capsule during recovery operations after it splashed down following a successful uncrewed Artemis I moon mission, seen from aboard the USS. Portland in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico
Photograph: Caroline Brehman/AFP/Getty Images

Washington DC, US
The annual Zoo Lights decorations are displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Gateshead, England
A dusting of snow decorates the Angel of the North in Gateshead
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Market Closes for December 12^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	34005.04	+528.58
		+1.58%
S&P 500	3990.56	+56.18
		+1.43%
NASDAQ	11143.74	+139.12
		+1.26%
TSX	20019.70	+72.63
		+0.36%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27842.33	-58.68
		-0.21%
HANG SENG	19463.63	-437.24
		-2.20%
SENSEX	62130.57	-51.10
		-0.08%
FTSE 100*	7445.97	-30.66
		-0.41%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.924		2.882
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.876		2.835
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.6113		3.5783
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.5751		3.5590

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7333	0.7306
US $	1.3637	1.3687
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4367	0.6960
US  $	1.0536	0.9491

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1796.15	1790.15
Oil
WTI Crude Future	73.17	71.02

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1914, the New York Stock Exchange reopened after closing in July amid jitters over the outbreak of World War I. By the end of 1915, the stock market had risen nearly 82% as Western Europe supplied its war effort with American-made goods and weapons.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.4% at 20,017.61 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 0.9% on Nov. 30 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.1%.
Canadian National Railway Co. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.8%.
Filo Mining Corp. had the largest increase, rising 11.4%.
Today, 146 of 237 shares rose, while 83 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 5.7%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 8.5%, heading for the biggest advance since the second quarter of 2020
* The index declined 4.2% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 16% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 9.9% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 12% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.1% in the past 5 days and fell 0.5% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.3 on a trailing basis and 12.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.18t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 15.17% compared with 15.19% in the previous session and the average of 16.51% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 28.3112| 0.8| 30/8
Industrials | 26.1859| 1.0| 24/3
Information Technology | 16.0453| 1.4| 12/2
Utilities | 7.2832| 0.8| 14/2
Consumer Discretionary | 2.0502| 0.3| 7/7
Consumer Staples | 0.9498| 0.1| 5/6
Real Estate | 0.8092| 0.2| 10/7
Materials | 0.7991| 0.0| 23/28
Health Care | 0.4498| 0.5| 4/2
Communication Services | -2.0794| -0.2| 2/4
Financials | -8.1816| -0.1| 15/14
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian National | 12.6400| 1.8| 69.9| 11.4
RBC | 11.7100| 0.9| 6.5| -1.6
Suncor Energy | 9.2170| 2.4| 3.1| 30.6
First Quantum Minerals | -5.0150| -4.0| -5.2| 3.7
CIBC | -5.7250| -1.6| 121.6| -21.9
Brookfield Corp | -16.1000| -3.4| -14.3| -25.6
US
By Isabelle Lee and Emily Graffeo
(Bloomberg) — US stocks advanced with investors gearing up for Tuesday’s reading on consumer prices.
US Treasuries ended Monday lower, erasing earlier gains.
The S&P 500 rose 1.4%, notching its best session in nearly two weeks.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 also climbed more than 1%.
Treasury yields rose, with the 10-year rate around 3.61%.
The dollar advanced.
All eyes will be on the US consumer price index reading on Tuesday, which is expected to show prices, while still high, are continuing to decelerate.
The S&P 500 — in a best-case scenario — could rally as much as 10% on a softer CPI reading, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s sales and trading desk.
However, the chances of that happening is about 5%, according to their analysis.
A cooler inflation reading from the prior month spurred a 5.5% daily surge, with the index notching its best post-CPI day ever.
A subdued CPI print would justify the Federal Reserve’s projected half-point move on Wednesday and shed light on whether markets can expect rate cuts in late 2023.
While central bank officials have indicated a downshift in the pace of rate hikes, they have also emphasized that borrowing costs will need to remain restrictive for some time.
“I wouldn’t read anything into the move today. The move will be after CPI one way or another,” John McClain, portfolio manager at Brandywine Global, said. “People are getting lulled into a false sense of security on a soft landing. The Fed isn’t cutting anytime soon. This is just going to be a longer cycle compared to 2020.”
Following the Fed, the European Central Bank will announce its rate decision Thursday, and may also opt for a half-point hike.
Markets will also contend with decisions from the Bank of England and monetary authorities in Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, Switzerland and Taiwan.
Key events this week:
* US CPI, Tuesday
* FOMC rate decision and Fed Chair news conference, Wednesday
* China medium-term lending, property investment, retail sales, industrial production, surveyed jobless, Thursday
* ECB rate decision and ECB President Lagarde briefing, Thursday
* Rate decisions for UK BOE, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thursday
* US cross-border investment, business inventories, empire manufacturing, retail sales, initial jobless claims, industrial production, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global PMI, CPI, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.4% as of 4:01 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.6%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0535
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2271
* The Japanese yen fell 0.9% to 137.73 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin was little changed at $17,130.18
* Ether rose 0.2% to $1,267.06
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 3.61%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 1.94%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 3.20%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.4% to $73.41 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 1.1% to $1,791.40 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Srinivasan Sivabalan.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

God save us from people who mean well. -Vikram Seth, b. 1952

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.
December 9, 1868: the world’s first traffic light was erected near Westminster Bridge in London; however, it was removed a month later after a gas leak caused one of the lights to explode.

2002 United Airlines filed the biggest bankruptcy in aviation history after losing $4 billion in the previous two years.  Go to article »

Full crew for SpaceX’s privately funded moon mission announced.  A Japanese fashion mogul has invited DJ Steve Aoki and seven other lucky people to join him on a trip around the moon — free of charge.

Gold-and-garnet cross necklace found buried with wealthy medieval British woman: Archaeologists in England have unearthed medieval bling — an elaborate silver cross with human faces and a necklace made of gold with semiprecious gems and Roman coin pendants — in the grave of what might be an early female Christian leader, such as an abbess or potentially even royalty.  The team made the discovery during the ground breaking for a housing development in Northamptonshire, England. Full Story: Live Science (12/8)

How did the Milky Way form?  The exact origins of the Milky Way are shrouded in mystery. But astronomers believe that our home galaxy started out more than 13 billion years ago, and that it was much smaller than its present-day size.  How did it grow so much to reach its current size? For that, we can likely thank eons of galactic cannibalism.  Full Story: Live Science (12/8)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Shenyang, China
A winter swimming enthusiast in a partly frozen lake after snowfall at Shenyang, in north-eastern China’s Liaoning province
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Lyon, France
A projection at La Place des Terreaux during the city’s festival of light
Photograph: Yannis Vlamos/Sipa/Rex/Shutterstock

Consett, UK
The sun rises over the snowy County Durham town as a cold snap grips the country
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Market Closes for December 9^th, 2022

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	33476.46	-305.02
		-0.90%
S&P 500	3934.38	-29.13
		-0.74%
NASDAQ	11004.62	-77.38
		-0.70%
TSX	19947.07	-22.12
		-0.11%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27901.01	+326.58
		+1.18%
HANG SENG	19900.87	+450.64
		+2.32%
SENSEX	62181.67	-389.01
		-0.62%
FTSE 100*	7476.63	+4.46
		+0.06%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.882		2.794
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.835		2.737
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.5783		3.4856
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.5590		3.4364

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7306	0.7358
US $	1.3687	1.3591
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4426	0.6932
US  $	1.0540	0.9488

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1790.15	1782.20
Oil
WTI Crude Future	71.02	71.46

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1906, Grace Murray Hopper (nee’ Grace Brewster Murray) was born in New York City. She invented the COBOL computer language, one of the first software programs enabling computers to be used by non-mathematicians. She also coined the term “bug” for an electronic glitch when, in 1945, she captured a moth that had been fluttering around inside a computer and causing electrical relays to fail.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the sixth day, dropping 0.1%, or 22.12 to 19,947.07 in Toronto.
The index dropped to the lowest closing level since Nov. 17.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.2%.
OceanaGold Corp. had the largest drop, falling 6.5%.
Today, 122 of 236 shares fell, while 105 rose; 8 of 11 sectors were lower, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 6%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 8.1%, heading for the biggest advance since the second quarter of 2020
* So far this week, the index fell 2.6%, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Sept. 23
* The index declined 4.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 17% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 10.2% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 11.6% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.2 on a trailing basis and 12.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.18t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 15.19% compared with 15.21% in the previous session and the average of 17.25% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -18.5168| -0.5| 10/25
Industrials | -11.6355| -0.4| 14/12
Materials | -8.7389| -0.4| 14/35
Consumer Discretionary | -7.1748| -1.0| 3/10
Communication Services | -1.4263| -0.1| 1/6
Health Care | -0.7798| -0.9| 3/4
Real Estate | -0.3921| -0.1| 14/7
Consumer Staples | -0.2422| 0.0| 7/4
Utilities | 2.9751| 0.3| 10/6
Information Technology | 4.5465| 0.4| 9/5
Financials | 19.2710| 0.3| 20/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Pacific | -8.1310| -1.2| -29.6| 18.5
Dollarama | -6.0710| -3.6| -25.3| 30.2
Canadian National | -4.7500| -0.7| 13.7| 9.4
Nutrien | 3.6730| 1.0| -16.8| 10.2
Bank of Nova Scotia| 4.2710| 0.8| -34.9| -23.3
TD Bank | 8.2100| 0.7| 5.5| -6.6
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stock traders took risk off the table at the end of a week that saw recession fears resurface and a hotter-than-estimated inflation print with the Federal Reserve decision just around the corner.
A late-day slide in equities shattered the calm that prevailed throughout most of the trading session, with the S&P 500 closing near Friday’s lows.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its worst weekly drop since September.
Treasury 10-year yields climbed, approaching 3.6%.
In the run-up to the Fed meeting, all eyes will be on Tuesday’s consumer inflation data — which is forecast to show prices, while much too high, continued to decelerate.
Swaps signaled bets policymakers will raise rates by 50 basis points Wednesday after four straight 75 basis-point hikes.
Officials including Chair Jerome Powell have been indicating a downshift, while stressing borrowing costs will need to remain restrictive for some time to beat inflation.
“Bottom line: the Fed has already come to terms with the fact that they are likely risking a recession, to anchor inflation longer-term,” said Don Rissmiller at Strategas. “The job is not done. Rate hikes can likely slow down to 50 bp, but we are still looking at policy tightening (and staying tight) in 2023.”
Financial conditions have eased dramatically since the October consumer-price reading, so the Fed will likely use the December meeting to walk those back, according to Cliff Hodge at Cornerstone Wealth.
The most straightforward way to do so would be the Summary of Economic Projections — specifically the so-called dot plot, he noted.
“We think the markets are too sanguine on rates after the first quarter, and we expect Powell to take a more hawkish tone and for the dots to indicate higher rates for a longer period of time than what is currently being priced in by the futures markets,” Hodge said. “A ‘hawkish’ step-down so to say.”

The Fed is set to keep rates at their peak throughout 2023, dashing hopes markets have priced in for rate cuts in the second half, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
The Federal Open Market Committee’s median projection is expected to show the benchmark peaking at 4.9% in 2023 — reflecting a 4.75%-5% target range — compared to 4.6% seen in September.
That would deliver a hawkish surprise to investors — who currently bet rates will be cut by a half percentage point in the second half of next year, though they too see rates peaking around 4.9%.
The current range is between 3.75% and 4%.
While many investors are impatient for the Fed to deliver its last rate hike, history shows they should be wary of doing so while inflation remains elevated, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists.
An analysis by Michael Hartnett showed that stocks outperformed after the Fed stopped increasing rates during periods of disinflation in the past 30 years.
However, during the era of high inflation in the 1970s and 1980s, equities had fallen after the last hike, they wrote. In the current cycle, they expect the Fed to raise rates for the last time in March 2023.
After analyzing 15 economic downturns going back to 1929, strategists at Bloomberg Intelligence found a strong link between the length of recessions and the time it took the S&P 500 to reclaim its previous high.
In all instances, it’s taken the gauge about 386 days to reach the bottom and 573 days to recover to peak levels.
But if the bottoming process took longer than average, the road to reclaim a previous peak has then lasted 1,997 days, six times the length of the ascents that came after a quicker-than-average bottoming process.
Stocks might be on track for their worst returns since the global financial crisis, but the market has endured the most daily routs in almost five decades, according to data compiled by Bloomberg as of Wednesday’s close.
Those selloffs are calculated by a so-called hit ratio that measures the number of gains versus losses as a percentage of the total number of trading days.
That ratio stands at 43%, the S&P 500’s lowest since 1974.
An annual hit ratio lower than 50% has only been seen 10 other times in the past 48 years, and the recovery has been painfully slow in most cases.
Still, some of the world’s biggest investors predict that stocks will see low double-digit gains next year.
Seventy one percent of respondents in a Bloomberg News survey expect equities to rise, versus 19% forecasting declines.
For those seeing gains, the average response was a 10% return.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.0530
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2255
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 136.71 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.5% to $17,099.03
* Ether fell 1.3% to $1,261.63
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 10 basis points to 3.58%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 11 basis points to 1.93%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced nine basis points to 3.18%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
* Gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,807.30 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Elena Popina

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com