Month: March 2023

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

March 31, 1889: French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower to mark its completion.  Go to article >  
1959: Dalai Llama flees Tibet.

Rene Descartes, philosopher, b. 1596.

World’s population could plummet to 6 billion by the end of the century, study suggests.
Population growth could grind to a halt by 2050, before decreasing to as little as 6 billion humans on Earth in 2100, a new analysis of birth trends has revealed.   The forecast is both good and bad news for humanity.
Full Story: Live Science (3/30)

Extremely flat explosion dubbed ‘the Cow’ defies explanation
A weird cosmic explosion that stunned scientists in 2018 just got even stranger.  A new analysis of the polarized light from the first recorded fast blue optical transient  explosion, nicknamed “the Cow,” revealed that the blast is the most asymmetrical explosion ever seen by astronomers.  Full Story: Live Science (3/30)

Stressed plants ‘scream,’ and it sounds like popping bubble wrap:  When deprived of water or snipped with scissors, plants emit a flurry of staccato “screams” that are too high-frequency for humans to hear, a study suggests.   When lowered into a range that human ears can detect, these stress-induced pops sound like someone furiously tap dancing across a field of bubble wrap.  Full Story: Live Science (3/30)

The secrets to extreme longevity may be hiding with nuns… and jellyfish
Studying centenarians and supercentenarians could help scientists better understand what allows some people to live so long.  Is their longevity just luck, or is it due to good genes and other factors?   Full Story: Live Science (3/30)

The 14 best new books to read in April

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The week in wildlife
A starfish lies on the sand and is one of hundreds washed up on to the beach with sea coal in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, UK. Sea coal is found on beaches due partly to erosion of underwater seams but also as a historical result from the dumping of waste from coal mines. [This caption was amended on 31 March 2023. An earlier version said underwater “streams”]
Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

The week in wildlife
Large blue butterflies are endangered globally and are very rare in the UK.
Photograph: Keith Warmington

The week in wildlife
A hare during a rain shower in Kidderminster, UK
Photograph: Lee Hudson/Alamy Live News
Market Closes for March 31^st, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	33274.15	+415.12
		+1.26%
S&P 500	4109.31	+58.48
		+1.44%
NASDAQ	12221.91	+208.44
		+1.74%
TSX	20099.89	+158.90
		+0.80%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	28041.48	+258.55
		+0.93%
HANG SENG	20400.11	+90.98
		+0.45%
SENSEX	58991.52	+1031.43
		+1.78%
FTSE 100*	7631.74	+11.31
		+0.15%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.907		2.935
CND. 30 Year Bond		3.016		3.035
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4752		3.5450
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6516		3.7277

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7398	0.7395
US $	1.3517	1.3523
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4655	0.6824
US  $	1.0843	0.9223

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1965.80	1965.00
Oil
WTI Crude Future	75.67	74.37

Market Commentary:
📈 On March 31, 1996, Chase Manhattan and Chemical Banking merged, forming what then was the largest bank-holding company in America.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the sixth day, climbing 0.8%, or 158.9 to 20,099.89 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since March 8.
Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as 10 of 11 sectors gained; 174 of 234 shares rose, while 59 fell.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.0%.
BlackBerry Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 14.4%.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 3.7%
* This month, the index fell 0.6%
* So far this week, the index rose 3.1%, heading for the biggest advance since the week ended Nov. 11
* The index declined 8.2% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 10% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 9.5% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 12.5% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.1 on a trailing basis and 13.2 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$3.2t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.84% compared with 12.60% in the previous session and the average of 10.46% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 51.8270| 0.9| 28/1
Industrials | 35.2828| 1.3| 25/2
Information Technology | 32.5954| 2.5| 11/1
Consumer Discretionary | 13.2629| 1.8| 13/2
Energy | 11.9406| 0.4| 28/12
Consumer Staples | 6.5627| 0.8| 9/2
Materials | 5.8471| 0.2| 24/27
Real Estate | 5.3310| 1.1| 19/2
Health Care | 0.9903| 1.5| 3/2
Utilities | 0.9669| 0.1| 11/5
Communication Services | -5.6987| -0.6| 3/3
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move|% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 15.6000| 3.0| 5.4| 37.8
Brookfield Corp | 12.3300| 2.9| -8.0| 3.4
Canadian National | 9.0980| 1.4| -22.1| -0.9
BCE | -2.7700| -0.7| -25.7| 1.8
Telus | -3.6450| -1.4| 22.5| 2.7
Rogers Communications | -4.5010| -2.9| 30.2| -1.2
US
By Isabelle Lee and Peyton Forte
(Bloomberg) — Technology shares extended the week’s US stocks rally after a key measure of inflation cooled last month, suggesting the Federal Reserve may be close to ending its rate-hiking campaign.
Treasuries rose.
Excluding food and energy, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures price index — rose 0.3% in February, slightly below the median estimate.
Meanwhile, the PCE price index was up 5% from a year earlier, a deceleration from January but far higher than the Fed’s 2% goal.
The S&P 500 rose 1.4% — bringing its weekly gains to 3.5%, the most since November — while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 gained 1.7%, helping it to notch its biggest quarterly gain since June 2020.
“Overall, it was a round of data consistent with the peak inflation narrative but also with the Fed’s insistence that there remains work to be done to re-establish price stability,” Ian Lyngen of BMO Capital Markets wrote in a note.
Treasuries also ended the quarter of wild swings higher on Friday as investors have struggled to adjust for recent bank failures and the shifting outlook for interest rates.
The two-year yield fell to around 4.03% Friday while the 10-year maturity dipped to 3.47%.
The dollar strengthened against major peers.
“The S&P 500 has done well to recover from banking sector concerns over the past few weeks,” wrote Michael Gibbs, director of equity portfolio and technical strategy at Raymond James.  “However, the rally has been a bit more uneven beneath the surface, reflecting the confusion inherent within the current backdrop.”
While technology stocks have risen to the highest since August 2022, propelling gains in the broader market, the percentage of stocks above their 50-day moving average has contracted, Gibbs said.
Only a small number of shares actually account for the US rally.
“Extremely narrow rallies are not healthy ones at all, so it is going to be essential for the bulls to see more groups participate in the rally going forward,” Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co., wrote. “If they don’t,
it will only be a matter of time before a correction in the big-cap tech names turns this nice rally into an ugly decline.”
Citigroup Inc. strategists said the focus among investors
is set to shift from worries about high interest rates to the
risks of a recession, and as that happens, US stocks look more
attractive than those in Europe.
A Citi team led by Beata Manthey upgraded US stocks to overweight from underweight on Friday as they “perform more defensively than other markets” during earnings recessions.
They expect global earnings-per-share to contract 5% in 2023 and say that analysts are likely to slash profit estimates even further.
Elsewhere in markets, oil traded in New York saw a weekly gain of 9% amid ongoing disruption to Iraqi exports.
Bitcoin notched its best quarter since March 2021 with a gain of about 70%.
And Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank-check firm taking Donald Trump’s media company public, rallied after he became the first former president to be indicted.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.4% as of 4:04 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.7%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.6% to $1.0844
* The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.2334
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 132.76 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.9% to $28,416.49
* Ether rose 1.7% to $1,826.2
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined eight basis points to 3.47%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined eight basis points to 2.29%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 3.49%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.6% to $75.56 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,987.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. –William Cowper, 1731-1800.

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.

March 30, 1858: pencil with attached eraser patented by Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia

On March 30, 1981, President Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John W. Hinckley Jr. Also wounded were White House news secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a District of Columbia police officer.  Go to article >  

Maimonides, physician, b. 1135.
Vincent Van Gogh, artist, b. 1853
Sean O’Casey, playwright, b.1880.
Eric Clapton, musician, b. 1945.

These US restaurants and chefs are James Beard Award finalists.  View the finalists for this year’s James Beard Awards, one of the culinary world’s highest honors. Some of these chefs and restaurants might even be in your area.

Rare T-Rex skeleton set to be auctioned next month.  This dinosaur skeleton is expected to fetch nearly $9 million when it goes under the hammer. Its teeth are quite impressive — and frightening…

Object mistaken as a galaxy is actually a black hole pointed directly at Earth
In a distant galaxy, a supermassive black hole spewing radiation at near light speed has shifted its angle by a whopping 90 degrees to point directly toward Earth — a sharp turn that’s puzzling physicists.
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the hungry black holes at the cores of many other galaxies.  Full Story: Live Science (3/29)

DeepMind’s AI used to develop tiny ‘syringe’ for injecting gene therapy and tumor-killing drugs
Scientists have developed a molecular “syringe” that can inject proteins, including cancer-killing drugs and gene therapies, directly into human cells.  And the researchers did it using an artificial intelligence (AI) program made by Google’s DeepMind called AlphaFold.  Full Story: Live Science (3/29)

We’re nowhere near reaching the maximum human life span, controversial study suggests
Scientists have long debated the greatest possible age of a person, with previous studies placing the limit at up to 150 years.   But in the past 25 years, no one has surpassed the record for the world’s oldest person, held by Jean Louise Calment, who died at age 122 in 1997.  Full Story: Live Science (3/29)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The sun rises in front of the Christ the Redeemer statue
Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

London, UK
The Patagotitan mayorum, the most complete giant dinosaur ever discovered, displayed during the press preview of the Natural History Museum’s new exhibition Titanosaur: Life as the Biggest Dinosaur
Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Planica, Slovenia
Slovenia’s Rok Oblak in action during the Men’s HS240 at the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
Photograph: Borut Živulovič/Reuters
Market Closes for March 30^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32859.03	+141.43
		+0.43%
S&P 500	4050.83	+23.02
		+0.57%
NASDAQ	12013.47	+87.23
		+0.73%
TSX	19940.99	+103.34
		+0.52%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27782.93	-100.85
		-0.36%
HANG SENG	20309.13	+116.73
		+0.58%
SENSEX	57960.09	+346.37
		+0.60%
FTSE 100*	7620.43	+56.16
		+0.74%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.935		2.938
CND. 30 Year Bond		3.035		3.039
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.5450		3.5639
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.7277		3.7587

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7395	0.7374
US $	1.3523	1.3561
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4746	0.6782
US  $	1.0905	0.9170

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1965.00	1962.85
Oil
WTI Crude Future	74.37	72.97

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1999, Priceline.com went public in one of the hottest initial public offerings ever. Shares priced at $16 and ended the day at $69, up 331%. A month later, the stock topped $162. A mere year and a half after the IPO, Priceline.com stock traded under $5, making it a symbol of the dotcom crash.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fifth day, climbing 0.5%, or 103.34 to 19,940.99 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since March 9.
Constellation Software Inc/Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.4%.
Filo Mining Corp. had the largest increase, rising 6.6%.
Today, 191 of 234 shares rose, while 39 fell; 10 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 2.9%
* This month, the index fell 1.4%
* So far this week, the index rose 2.3%, heading for the biggest advance since the week ended Jan. 13
* The index declined 9.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13% 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
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.5% in the past 5 days and fell 1.4% 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 13.1 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$3.19t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.60% compared with 12.51% in the previous session and the average of 10.36% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 25.2221| 0.4| 26/2
Industrials | 18.0612| 0.7| 23/4
Materials | 13.2836| 0.5| 41/10
Consumer Staples | 9.5505| 1.1| 11/0
Utilities | 9.5411| 1.1| 16/0
Communication Services | 7.9777| 0.8| 6/0
Information Technology | 7.5459| 0.6| 8/3
Consumer Discretionary | 4.3751| 0.6| 13/2
Energy | 4.1710| 0.1| 24/15
Real Estate | 3.9976| 0.8| 20/1
Health Care | -0.3904| -0.6| 3/2
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Constellation Software | 7.8180| 2.4| 62.5| 20.2
Brookfield Corp | 4.4380| 1.1| 1.5| 0.5
Couche-Tard | 4.1350| 1.2| -12.1| 13.6
Agnico Eagle Mines | -1.9830| -0.9| -23.1| -1.2
Shopify | -3.3020| -0.6| -18.4| 33.8
US
By Isabelle Lee and Carly Wanna
(Bloomberg) — Technology stocks propelled US stocks higher as Federal Reserve officials reiterated their resolve to lower inflation.
The S&P 500 gained 0.6% — even with financials under pressure — while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 0.9%, pushing further into a bull market.
Treasuries were little changed and the dollar was weaker against major peers.
The gains come as market watchers digested a round of Fed commentary suggesting more monetary tightening was necessary, even after the collapse of three US banks earlier this month.
Boston Fed President Susan Collins said tightening was needed.
Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said the Fed can raise rates more if inflation risks persist.
And Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said he’s committed to getting inflation back to 2% and that it’s not yet fully clear what impact the financial-system turmoil will have.
“With cracks in the banking system becoming apparent, the Fed’s job has become even harder,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.
“Recession risk remains in focus given the Fed’s historical track record of struggling to tighten policy while easing the economy to a soft landing.”
President Joe Biden’s administration also called on regulators Thursday to tighten the rules for mid-sized banks in response to the recent bank failures.
Stress in the financial sector has increased the chance of the Fed tipping the economy into a recession with its rate hikes.
However, Collins echoed remarks by Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week that pain in the banking sector may be worth 25 basis points of tightening.
Tighter credit conditions could remove the need for more hikes later, she said.
Analysts have agreed, saying it could be the equivalent of a far more aggressive hike.
“The plausible range is anything from nearly zero to 200bp or more in the event that stress were to broaden and deepen,” Krishna Guha, Evercore ISI head of central bank strategy, wrote.
“We will all need to update as the data comes in and that updating could be quite rapid.”
Investors expect US rates to sit around 4.3% by the end of the year, around 70 basis points lower than the current level.
However, several strategists have said markets are wrong to expect rate cuts this year.
The labor market remains robust, though US unemployment claims ticked up for the first time in three weeks.
And high inflation — as measured by the so-called PCE Core Deflator due Friday — is expected to have persisted last month.
Elsewhere in markets, oil rebounded, gold gained and Bitcoin traded around $28,000.
Key events this week:
* China PMI, Friday
* Eurozone CPI, unemployment, Friday
* US consumer income, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Friday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 4:02 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.9%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World index rose 1.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.6% to $1.0907
* The British pound rose 0.6% to $1.2391
* The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 132.65 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.5% to $27,970.47
* Ether fell 1.3% to $1,780.87
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 3.55%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 2.37%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 3.52%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.9% to $74.34 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.7% to $1,999 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well. –John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1874-1960.

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: Hump Day.
On March 29, 1973, the last United States troops left South Vietnam, ending America’s direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.  Go to article >  
March 29, 1999: Dow Jones tops 10,000 for the first time ever.
March 29, 1990: The Czechoslovak parliament is unable to reach an agreement on what to call the country after the fall of Communism, sparking the so-called Hyphen War.

China discovers strange glass beads on moon that may contain billions of tons of water.  Chinese researchers may have discovered billions of tons of water inside strange glass spheres buried on the moon, and they could be used as a future water source for moon bases, a new study suggests.
The tiny glass spherules could be so abundant that they store up to 330 billion tons (300 metric tons) of water across the moon’s surface.  Full Story: Live Science (3/28)

2,000 mummified rams’ heads were gifted to long-dead ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II.  More than 2,000 mummified rams’ heads have been unearthed at an ancient temple in Egypt, around 430 miles (692 kilometers) south of Cairo.
The severed skulls were likely prepared as an offering to the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, around 1,000 years after he died.  Full Story: Live Science (3/29)

Gargantuan black hole 30 billion times the mass of the sun is one of the largest ever discovered.  Astronomers have discovered one of the largest black holes ever found — an ultra massive monster roughly 30 billion times the mass of the sun — using a space-time trick predicted by Albert Einstein.
The colossal black hole lurks 2.7 billion light-years from Earth in the brightest galaxy of the galaxy cluster Abell 1201.  Full Story: Live Science (3/28)

Brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected defies explanation.  The brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected is revealing new mysteries as scientists study it in greater detail.  Astronomers have found that the evolution of the radio waves released by an enormous stellar explosion seen in 2022 was slower than models predicted, raising new questions.  Full Story: Live Science (3/28)

An Old Master’s secret ingredient?  Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli and Rembrandt may have used egg yolk in their oil paintings, according to a new study.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Colombo, Sri Lanka
Hindu worshippers take part in an annual festival at Vishnu temple
Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

Mammoth Lakes, US
A person walks between snow banks covering condominiums in the Sierra Nevada mountains after another storm. After years of drought, the state snowpack average for California may reach a record high
Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Fuzhou, China
Tourists pick tea leaves in Fujian province
Photograph: VCG/Getty Images
Market Closes for March 29^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32717.60	+323.35
		+1.00%
S&P 500	4027.81	+56.54
		+1.42%
NASDAQ	11926.24	+210.16
		+1.79%
TSX	19837.65	+180.12
		+0.92%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27883.78	+365.53
		+1.33%
HANG SENG	20192.40	+407.75
		+2.06%
SENSEX	57960.09	+346.37
		+0.60%
FTSE 100*	7564.27	+80.02
		+1.07%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.938		2.946
CND. 30 Year Bond		3.039		3.039
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.5639		3.5715
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.7587		3.7765

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7374	0.7354
US $	1.3561	1.3598
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4703	0.6801
US  $	1.0842	0.9223

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1962.85	1946.25
Oil
WTI Crude Future	72.97	73.20

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1989, Michael Milken was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and securities fraud while head of Drexel Burnham Lambert’s junk-bond desk—placing him at the heart of an insider-trading scandal that came to epitomize Wall Street in the 1980s. Mr. Milken went on to serve less than two years in prison.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fourth day, climbing 0.9%, or 180.12 to 19,837.65 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 1.2% on March 3.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 5.1%.
Aritzia Inc. had the largest increase, rising 7.4%.
Today, 173 of 234 shares rose, while 58 fell; all sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 2.3%
* This month, the index fell 1.9%
* The index declined 10% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 14% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 10.7% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 11% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.6% in the past 5 days and fell 1.9% 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 13 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 12.51% compared with 12.09% in the previous session and the average of 10.26% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 58.8888| 1.0| 22/6
Energy | 52.3942| 1.6| 32/8
Information Technology | 26.4032| 2.1| 6/6
Consumer Staples | 9.7851| 1.2| 10/1
Utilities | 9.5457| 1.1| 16/0
Consumer Discretionary | 9.3958| 1.3| 13/2
Industrials | 6.5945| 0.2| 22/4
Real Estate | 5.4648| 1.1| 21/0
Health Care | 1.2958| 2.0| 5/1
Communication Services | 0.2904| 0.0| 3/3
Materials | 0.0571| 0.0| 23/27
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 25.2700| 5.1| 10.6| 34.7
Enbridge | 18.8800| 2.7| -24.4| -3.0
Brookfield Corp | 14.9900| 3.7| 37.8| -0.6
Canadian Pacific | -2.5690| -0.4| 2.2| 2.0
Agnico Eagle Mines | -2.8340| -1.3| -46.2| -0.3
Barrick Gold | -3.4060| -1.1| -61.5| 8.3
US
By Isabelle Lee and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — US stocks advanced as risk appetite continued to recover from turmoil in the banking sector, led by gains in technology and financial shares.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 entered a bull market, rising 20% from a December low.
The S&P 500 powered back above 4,000, with 92% of components ending higher — the first time that has happened in 2023, according to Susquehanna.
Meanwhile, the CBOE Volatility index closed at the lowest in three weeks.
US Treasuries were little changed and the dollar strengthened as investors digested the latest remarks by Fed officials and looked ahead to core PCE data for the clues on how the Fed’s path for interest rates might change after turbulence in the financial sector upended market expectations.
Financial stocks were hit hard by the collapse of three US banks this month but were able to stage a rally Wednesday, even after a report the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was mulling a squeeze on big banks to help cover the almost $23 billion in costs from the bank failures.
Wall Street strategist are struggling to predict how US stocks might react in the months ahead, given the uncertainty of the Fed’s path forward.
Their average year-end target for the S&P 500 has stayed at 4,050 for a third straight month in a streak of inaction not seen since 2005.
“The Fed remains in a very difficult position (largely of its own doing),” wrote Chris Senyek of Wolfe Research in a note.
“With banks stabilizing, inflation still way above target, the labor market still historically strong, and the Fed desperately needing to rebuild credibility, our sense is that the FOMC will hike by 25 basis points on May 3.
However, Powell does not like to surprise markets, so this is far from a certainty.”
Fed Chair Jerome Powell pointed to Fed officials’ forecast for another quarter percentage-point hike this year when asked by lawmakers Wednesday when the central bank will stop raising interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. However, traders are pricing in roughly 50-50 odds that move will occur at the Fed’s next meeting in May.
With easing concerns about the safety of bank deposits, Peter Tchir of Academy Securities said analysts are turning their attention back to examining the economy and prepping for upcoming earnings.
In the latest batch of corporate results, Lululemon Athletica Inc. jumped after its earnings and outlook topped estimates.
A profit drop at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. could spell trouble for other bank earnings.
Meanwhile, weaker homebuying demand from a March survey of real estate agents could be a potential early sign buyers are unnerved by the turmoil in the banking sector.
Gold fell, Bitcoin extended its climb to $28,500, and oil erased an earlier gain from a decline in US crude stockpiles.
Key events this week:
* Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence, Thursday
* US GDP, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Boston Fed President Susan Collins and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin speaks at event. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also speaks, Thursday
* China PMI, Friday
* Eurozone CPI, unemployment, Friday
* US consumer income, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Friday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.4% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.9%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0840
* The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.2313
* The Japanese yen fell 1.5% to 132.83 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 4% to $28,408.45
* Ether rose 1.9% to $1,808.65
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 3.57%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 2.33%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 3.47%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $72.97 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,982 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Honor is a harder master than law. –Mark Twain, 1835-1910.

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:
On March 28, 1979, America’s worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa. Go to article >  

Dusty old painting turns out to be Brueghel ‘masterpiece’.  This 17th-century painting was hiding in a family home for years. It’s expected to fetch up to 800,000 euros ($865,000!) at a Paris auction today.

Was Stonehenge an ancient calendar? A new study says no.
Stonehenge wasn’t a prehistoric solar calendar but served mainly as a memorial to the dead, according to new research by scientists who study ancient astronomy.  Full Story: Live Science (3/28)

Mysterious aurora-like phenomenon ‘STEVE’ appears during strongest solar storm for more than half a decade.
A bizarre, aurora-like phenomenon known as STEVE made several appearances across the United States and parts of the United Kingdom last week, after a powerful solar storm slammed into Earth without warning.
Full Story: Live Science (3/28)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Kyiv, Ukraine
Members of the Berehynia Kyiv Academic Theatre of Ukrainian Folklore perform their Vidrodzennia (Renaissance) concert during an award ceremony
Photograph: Ukrinform/REX /Shutterstock

Suqian, China
Crowds gather on a bridge to see the blossoming pear flowers
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Beijing, China
A model for the Dieyingchongchong collections by designer Dong Yaer has final makeup applied backstage during the China Fashion Week
Photograph: Andy Wong/AP
Market Closes for March 28^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32394.25	-37.83
		-0.12%
S&P 500	3971.27	-6.26
		-0.16%
NASDAQ	11716.08	-52.76
		-0.45%
TSX	19657.53	+32.79
		+0.17%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27518.25	+41.38
		+0.15%
HANG SENG	19784.65	+216.96
		+1.11%
SENSEX	57613.72	-40.14
		-0.07%
FTSE 100*	7484.25	+12.48
		+0.17%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.946		2.895
CND. 30 Year Bond		3.039		3.012
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.5715		3.5299
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.7765		3.7604

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7354	0.7321
US $	1.3598	1.3659
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4748	0.6780
US  $	1.0844	0.9222

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1946.25	1993.80
Oil
WTI Crude Future	73.20	72.81

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1979, a minor malfunction occurred in a cooling mechanism at a power plant in Pennsylvania. One technical error followed another until the malfunction escalated into a “meltdown.” Three Mile Island became synonymous with troubles in American nuclear power, which once held out the promise of cheap, safe, clean energy for all.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the third day, climbing 0.2%, or 32.79 to 19,657.53 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since March 14.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.7%.
Spartan Delta Corp. had the largest increase, rising 7.2%.
Today, 122 of 234 shares rose, while 110 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 1.4%
* This month, the index fell 2.8%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 14% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 11.5% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 10% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is unchanged in the past 5 days and fell 2.8% 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 12.9 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 12.09% compared with 12.06% in the previous session and the average of 10.15% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 26.4330| 0.8| 29/10
Materials | 23.0422| 0.9| 41/10
Consumer Staples | 5.9132| 0.7| 9/2
Consumer Discretionary | 2.8286| 0.4| 8/7
Industrials | 1.5308| 0.1| 10/17
Utilities | 1.1451| 0.1| 10/6
Communication Services | -0.6245| -0.1| 4/2
Health Care | -1.2506| -1.9| 0/6
Real Estate | -5.1268| -1.1| 2/19
Financials | -5.3990| -0.1| 7/21
Information Technology | -15.7069| -1.2| 2/10
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | 9.0990| 1.7| -55.2| -2.7
TD Bank | 9.0570| 0.9| -32.6| -8.9
Cenovus Energy | 5.4380| 2.6| -40.5| -13.3
Enbridge | -4.4740| -0.6| -49.4| -5.6
RBC | -6.0280| -0.5| 3.7| -0.1
Shopify | -10.9800| -2.2| -14.3| 28.2
US
By Emily Graffeo and Isabelle Lee
(Bloomberg) — A slide in technology shares halted a three-day advance in US stocks as investors continued to recalibrate bets on the Federal Reserve’s path forward on interest rates.
Treasuries drifted lower.
The Nasdaq 100 slumped 0.5% — paring a March advance to 4.7% — with tech stalwarts from Apple Inc. to Alphabet Inc. among the biggest drags.
Tech stocks had found favor in recent weeks with the rotation out of financials following the collapse of three US banks.
However, the trade has started to unwind with increased speculation turbulence in the banking sector will be contained.
Two-year Treasury yields edged to just above 4%, while a gauge of the dollar notched its lowest close in eight weeks.
“Part of the giant bid in Treasuries last week was fear of contagion in financials,” said Tom Hearden, senior trader at Skylands Capital LLC.
“That’s abated so far this week” with thin markets, off side positioning, and a financial contagion bid.
The moves come as investors prepare for a raft of data on the American economy this week, including the central bank’s preferred measure of inflation, which is likely to factor into the Fed’s next rate decision.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said “appropriate monetary policy can continue to put downward pressure on inflation” despite the turmoil in banking.
Meanwhile, US consumers appear to have shrugged off the bank failures, with the latest consumer confidence figures unexpectedly higher in March.
Swaps traders have priced in more than a 50% probability the Fed will lift rates by a quarter point at its next meeting, with plans to ease then sharply thereafter.
However, several strategists have joined BlackRock Investment Institute in saying markets are wrong in expecting imminent rate cuts.
“Recent events in the US and European banking sectors have not altered our macroeconomic views,” wrote Joe Davis, chief global economist at Vanguard, in a note. “The Federal Reserve still has work to do to bring down inflation — a task that was always going to be a challenge, likely to entail higher unemployment and tighten credit and financial conditions.”
In Europe, stocks fell after French prosecutors said banks including Societe Generale SA and BNP Paribas SA face collective fines of more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) as part of a probe into tax fraud and money laundering.
Elsewhere, oil was higher after a clash between Iraq and its Kurdish region curtailed exports.
Gold gained and Bitcoin traded around $27,400.
Key events this week:
* EIA Crude Oil Inventory Report, Wednesday
* Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence, Thursday
* US GDP, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Boston Fed President Susan Collins and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin speaks at event. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also speaks, Thursday
* China PMI, Friday
* Eurozone CPI, unemployment, Friday
* US consumer income, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Friday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0847
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2343
* The Japanese yen rose 0.6% to 130.80 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.4% to $27,436.29
* Ether rose 4.7% to $1,787.59
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 3.55%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 2.29%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced nine basis points to 3.46%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.8% to $73.40 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 1.1% to $1,992.80 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric and Namitha Jagadeesh.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Sometimes it is not enough to do our best; we must do what is required. –Winston Churchill, 1874-1965.

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 Monday.
March 27, 1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida. Go to article >  

Men’s NCAA tournament Final Four is set.  You probably weren’t expecting the brackets to look like this! Here are the teams headed to the Final Four following victories by San Diego and Miami.

‘Succession’ Season 4 opener sets the stage for battles to come.  The two-time Emmy-winning HBO show kicked off its final flight of episodes, offering a glimpse into the intense drama ahead. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

Most powerful solar storm in 6 years caused auroras all over the US. And nobody saw it coming.
The strongest solar storm to hit Earth for six years sparked stunning auroras across the U.S., with intense light displays appearing as far south as Alabama and Northern California. Yet no one saw it coming.
The March 24 solar storm was the result of a “stealth” coronal mass ejection. Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

Your native language may shape the wiring of your brain
A person’s native language may shape how their brain builds connections between different hubs of information processing, a new brain scan study reveals.
The observed differences in these language network structures were related to linguistic characteristics in the native languages of the study participants. Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

Heat waves are hitting the deep ocean floor, with potentially catastrophic results
Heat waves are happening at the bottom of the ocean, a new study finds.  And these so-called “bottom marine heat waves” can be devastating because they last longer than surface heat waves and affect many key species, such as lobster and cod. Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

Black holes may be swallowing invisible matter that slows the movement of stars
For the first time, scientists may have discovered indirect evidence that large amounts of invisible dark matter surround black holes.  The discovery, if confirmed, could represent a major breakthrough in dark matter research.
Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

2 megamouth sharks caught on video for the 1st time ever
Stunning new footage shows a pair of extremely elusive megamouth sharks (Megachasma pelagios) swimming together off the coast of San Diego.  The video, captured by fishers in early September 2022, may show the deep-dwelling beasts in a courtship ritual. Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

RIP, penmanship.

A company makes clothes to hide from AI.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Northumberland, England
Daffodils around the base of Warkworth Castle
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Edinburgh, Scotland
Sunrise over the Queensferry crossing, Forth Road Bridge and Forth Bridge on the Firth of Forth
Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

Saitama, Japan
Canada’s Keegan Messing backflips over Maxime Deschamps during the world figure skating championships
Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters
Market Closes for March 27^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32432.08	+194.55
		+0.60%
S&P 500	3977.53	+6.54
		+0.16%
NASDAQ	11768.84	-55.12
		-0.47%
TSX	19624.74	+123.26
		+0.63%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27476.87	+91.62
		+0.33%
HANG SENG	19567.69	-347.99
		-1.75%
SENSEX	57653.86	+126.76
		+0.22%
FTSE 100*	7471.77	+66.32
		+0.90%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.895		2.746
CND. 30 Year Bond		3.012		2.908
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.5299		3.3762
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.7604		3.6438

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7321	0.7275
US $	1.3659	1.3746
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4750	0.6780
US  $	1.0798	0.9261

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1993.80	1977.95
Oil
WTI Crude Future	72.81	69.31

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1980, Texas oil barons Nelson Bunker Hunt and W. Herbert Hunt failed spectacularly to corner the market in silver after the metal plunged from $21.62 to $10.80 an ounce in a single day.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.6%, or 123.26 to 19,624.74 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 2% on Jan. 6.
Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.0%.
Athabasca Oil Corp. had the largest increase, rising 7.2%.
Today, 164 of 235 shares rose, while 69 fell; 8 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 1.2%
* This month, the index fell 2.9%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 11.7% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.8% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.5% in the past 5 days and fell 3.1% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.6 on a trailing basis and 12.8 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$3.13t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.06% compared with 11.95% in the previous session and the average of 9.94% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 44.8970| 1.4| 36/4
Financials | 41.2854| 0.7| 20/9
Consumer Staples | 12.2737| 1.5| 11/0
Utilities | 9.2427| 1.1| 14/2
Information Technology | 7.0483| 0.5| 9/4
Industrials | 6.1291| 0.2| 20/7
Real Estate | 4.7771| 1.0| 19/1
Consumer Discretionary | 1.8014| 0.3| 5/10
Health Care | -0.0754| -0.1| 2/4
Communication Services | -1.9656| -0.2| 1/5
Materials | -2.1527| -0.1| 27/23
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
TD Bank | 19.1100| 2.0| 15.3| -9.7
Canadian Natural Resources | 10.2400| 1.9| -21.9| -4.3
RBC | 9.1820| 0.8| -37.0| 0.4
Barrick Gold | -2.1890| -0.7| -24.6| 8.8
Franco-Nevada | -2.4210| -0.9| -29.8| 6.5
Brookfield Corp | -2.4650| -0.6| -6.5| -4.0
US
By Peyton Forte and Emily Graffeo
(Bloomberg) — Gains in financial shares lifted US stocks, while Treasuries retreated as fears of broader contagion from the banking turmoil eased.
Tech shares slumped after last week’s rally.
The S&P 500 rose on Monday, with financial firms in the index up more than 1%. Energy producers also advanced.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 ended the session 0.7% lower capping a two-week advance.
The two-year Treasury yield topped 4%.
A gauge of regional lenders climbed roughly 2.5% as First Citizens BancShares Inc. rallied more than 50% after agreeing to buy SVB Financial Group’s Silicon Valley Bank.
First Republic Bank jumped on a Bloomberg report that US authorities are considering expanding an emergency lending facility that would give the lender more time to bolster its balance sheet.
“The market is being pushed and pulled between banks and tech stocks. As the banks have rebounded a lot of money has come out of tech stocks which have held up the market the past two weeks,” said Joe Gilbert, portfolio manager at Integrity Asset Management. “There is a lot of churning going on under the surface right now. Plus the back up in interest rates puts cold water on the tech trade.”
The weekend may have brought some relief to the banking sector, but it will continue to be closely watched.
A gauge of regional US banks has lost roughly 30% since early February.
“You have a massive tug of war between the fact that people know the fundamental outlook is poor, but a lot of people were already either short or long cash, or just generally positioned away from US equity markets, so you could argue positioning is ripe for a squeeze,” said Huw Roberts, head of analytics at Quant Insight. “The most obvious catalyst to my mind that resolves the tug of war would be a new development in terms of the credit crunch.”
Market jitters were still on display on Monday as banking stocks pulled back from an early rally and the S&P 500 retreated from a key technical level.
“There’s no doubt that the response so far has prevented the situation from becoming much worse and confidence will gradually improve as long as no other banks fall into difficulties,” Craig Erlam, a senior market strategist at Oanda
wrote. “That’s obviously a big if at this point.”
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to around 3.54% while the interest rate-sensitive two-year jumped to 4.02%.
Such an inverted yield curve — where the short-term rate is higher than the long-term — continues to signal a downturn ahead.
Fed Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari warned over the weekend that the strain on the financial sector had the US on the brink of a recession.
The usually hawkish Kashkari avoided making a prediction about the central bank’s May meeting.
“Recent bank turmoil gives us increased conviction that a deeper-than-expected recession is going to hit this year,” Chris Senyek of Wolfe Research said. He also sees “blow up” risks rising. “We’re already seeing early signs of deterioration in CRE and Autos, and we believe that widening spreads signal more trouble ahead.”
US stocks have largely been shrugging off recession fears with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both advancing over the past two weeks.
JPmorgan’s chief strategist Marko Kolanovic said the first quarter “will likely mark the high point for equities this year,” recommending investors stay defensive in a research note.
“We view the most vulnerable areas as unprofitable companies that depend on steady flow of equity capital to fund operations and tight carry trades implemented over the last 10 to 20 years,” Kolanovic wrote.
One of Wall Street’s most prominent bears, Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson was also cautious on stocks, saying earnings estimates and valuations need to come down.
“Given the events of the past few weeks, we think guidance is looking more and more unrealistic, and equity markets are at greater risk of pricing in much lower estimates ahead of any hard data changes,” Wilson wrote in a note on Monday.
Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, told Bloomberg TV that many US stocks were expensive and unappealing ahead of a looming economic slump.
“If you’re looking outside of the US, valuations are still pretty cheap,” she said. “There’s very little to be attractive about this US market at this stage.”
Investors will be closely watching data on the personal consumption expenditures price index, which is the Fed’s preferred measure of underlying price pressure, that will come out later this week for direction on the US central bank’s rate path.
On Monday, traders were once again leaning toward a quarter-point rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting.
“If they do raise rates again – especially if they say or imply that May isn’t the last one – then we could get a risk off rally again, with defensives outperforming cyclicals,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent
Advisor Alliance.
Elsewhere, European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel pushed for this month’s decision statement to signal possible interest-rate increases in future, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
In a further indication of risk-on sentiment, oil rose and gold slipped. 
Key events this week:
* US wholesale inventories, US Conf. Board consumer confidence, Tuesday
* EIA Crude Oil Inventory Report, Wednesday
* Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence, Thursday
* US GDP, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Boston Fed President Susan Collins and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin speaks at event. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also speaks, Thursday
* China PMI, Friday
* Eurozone CPI, unemployment, Friday
* US consumer income, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Friday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.2% as of 4:00 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
* The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0797
* The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.2287
* The Japanese yen fell 0.7% to 131.59 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 2.9% to $27,006.81
* Ether fell 3.3% to $1,704.21
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 16 basis points to 3.54%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 10 basis points to 2.23%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 3.37%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 5.4% to $73 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 1.3% to $1,975.70 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Vildana Hajric and Carly Wanna.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity. –Sean O’Casey, 1880-1964.
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.

March 24^th, 1877: The annual university boat race between Oxford and Cambridge ends in a dead heat.
1989: Exxon Valdez oil spill.
On March 24, 1989, one of the nation’s worst oil spills occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude. Go to article > 

Ancient Egyptian pharaoh-sphinx statues unearthed at sun temple: Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered broken statues of ancient royalty at a sun temple in Heliopolis, an archaeological site that was once a major city near what is now Cairo. The stone-carved fragments include depictions of the pharos Ramesses II, Ramesses IX, Horemheb and Psamtik II. Full Story: Live Science (3/23)

James Webb telescope spots dust storm raging on a giant planet nearly 20 times the size of Jupiter
Forty light-years away, an extraterrestrial sandstorm rages on a planet orbiting two stars.  Although this might sound like Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine, this sandstorm was spotted on a gaseous world up to 20 times the size of Jupiter, using the James Webb Space Telescope’s powerful detectors. Full Story: Live Science (3/23)

Aliens could be hiding in ‘terminator zones’ on planets with eternal night
Imagine if one side of the Earth always faced the sun. Half of the planet would be stuck in perpetual daylight, the other shrouded in permanent night.  But for aliens in other solar systems, our doomsday scenario may be their everyday — and life might get along just fine. Full Story: Live Science (3/23)

Researchers have sequenced Ludwig van Beethoven’s DNA.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The week in wildlife
A bee pollinates the flower of a tree in Cieza, Spain. As the trees start to flower, the bees start to pollinate them so the flowers months later turn into peaches and apricots
Photograph: Marcial Guillén/EPA

Guiyang, China
Crabapple blossoms in south-western Guizhou province
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The week in wildlife
A frog waits patiently for a mate in a garden pond in Killearn, Stirling, UK
Photograph: Kay Roxby/Alamy Live News
Market Closes for March 24^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32237.53	+132.28
		+0.41%
S&P 500	3970.99	+22.27
		+0.56%
NASDAQ	11823.96	+36.56
		+0.31%
TSX	19501.49	+41.57
		+0.21%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27385.25	-34.36
		-0.13%
HANG SENG	19915.68	-133.96
		-0.67%
SENSEX	57527.10	-398.18
		-0.69%
FTSE 100*	7405.45	-94.15
		-1.26%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.746		2.747
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.908		2.932
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.3762		3.4266
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6438		3.6978

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7275	0.7292
US $	1.3746	1.3714
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4789	0.6762
US  $	1.0759	0.9295

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1977.95	1949.35
Oil
WTI Crude Future	69.31	69.96

Market Commentary:

📈 On this day in 1777, the U.S. foreign debt was born. Farmers General of France, a group that collects taxes from French citizens on salt, tobacco and other products, agreed to lend the U.S. 2 million livres (roughly $381,000 at the time). The loan was repayable in bales of tobacco.

Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.2% at 19,501.49 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.4%.
Today, utilities stocks led the market higher, as 9 of 11 sectors gained; 124 of 235 shares rose, while 104 fell.
Brookfield Corp. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.4%. Badger Infrastructure Solutions Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6.8%.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.6%
* This month, the index fell 3.6%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.6%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.2% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.1% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.5 on a trailing basis and 12.7 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 11.95% compared with 11.91% in the previous session and the average of 9.73% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Utilities | 15.2362| 1.8| 16/0
Industrials | 11.6799| 0.4| 14/12
Materials | 10.0597| 0.4| 31/19
Consumer Staples | 6.8420| 0.8| 9/2
Communication Services | 4.8636| 0.5| 4/2
Financials | 3.2668| 0.1| 10/19
Real Estate | 0.9653| 0.2| 14/6
Energy | 0.1660| 0.0| 17/21
Health Care | 0.1450| 0.2| 3/2
Consumer Discretionary | -3.2815| -0.5| 2/13
Information Technology | -8.3816| -0.6| 4/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Brookfield Corp | 9.6620| 2.4| -53.6| -3.4
Canadian National | 6.2870| 1.0| -22.0| -2.9
Enbridge | 6.1500| 0.9| -59.6| -4.7
Nutrien | -6.8230| -1.9| -5.4| -0.3
Suncor Energy | -6.8930| -1.8| -58.0| -7.4
Shopify | -8.7490| -1.7| -27.6| 31.3
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A reversal in the bank selloff that rattled markets Friday spurred a rebound in stocks, which also gained amid assurances from authorities about financial stability and growing speculation that policymakers will have to
stop raising rates to prevent a recession.
After a slide that reached 1% in the first hour of trading, the S&P 500 snapped back and notched its second straight week of gains.
A gauge of US financial heavyweights climbed from its lowest level since November 2020.
Beaten-down regional lenders drove the recovery, with Citizens Financial Group Inc. and Zions Bancorporation adding at least 2.9%.
First Republic Bank tumbled once again, extending this year’s rout to 90%.
Top US regulators said after a meeting Friday that while some banks are coming under stress, the overall financial system is still sound.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and the panel heard a presentation from the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on the latest market developments.
Global authorities continued trying to instill calm in financial markets following the recent failure of some US regional lenders and the near-collapse of banking giant Credit Suisse Group AG before its government-brokered takeover by rival UBS Group AG.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told European Union leaders that the region’s banking sector is strong, according to people familiar with the matter.
An earlier slump in lenders was triggered by a plunge in Deutsche Bank AG shares, with the cost of insuring its debt against default climbing, in sudden moves that some attributed to hedge funds seeking to profit from the broader turmoil roiling the financial industry.
The decline prompted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to publicly back the lender, calling it a “a very profitable bank.”
To Mark Haefele at UBS Global Wealth Management, regulations brought in after the global financial crisis, combined with the magnitude of policymakers’ responses over the last couple of weeks, mean the recent financial turmoil is
unlikely to evolve into something akin to the 2008–2009 meltdown.
“Confidence is still fragile, volatility is likely to remain high, and policymakers may yet have to go further to ensure that faith in the global financial system stays solid,” Haefele noted. “Nonetheless, financial conditions are likely to
tighten, increasing the risk of an economic hard landing even if central banks ease off on interest rate hikes.”
Banks are often in the frontline when recession fears grow as they are the channel through which credit flows through the economy.
Traders abandoned wagers that the Fed will raise interest rates in May and added to bets that its next shift will be a rate cut as early as June — even as Chair Jerome Powell said that cuts are not his “base case.”
For the ECB and the Bank of England, traders no longer price in additional quarter-point rate hikes.
The move came as global bonds rallied, with Treasury two-year yields falling to the lowest level since September.
Echoing Powell’s determination to restore price stability, three officials said this week’s tightening was clearly needed to rein in an economy running hot. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard also said that he now forecasts raising rates to 5.625% this year, which is 50 basis points more than the median projection of his colleagues.
Earlier in the day, Fed Bank of New York data showed a gauge of US inflation activity slowed to the lowest since 2021.
Jeffrey Gundlach, DoubleLine Capital LP’s chief investment officer, sees the Fed cutting rates “substantially” soon, according to posts on Twitter.
He also warned of “red alert recession signals” emanating from the US yield curve.
Investors are fleeing to cash in the biggest rush since the onset of the pandemic as concerns of an economic slowdown mount, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists who see equity and credit markets slumping in coming months.
“Credit and stock markets too greedy for rate cuts, not fearful enough of recession,” a team led by Michael Hartnett wrote.
The strategist, who was correctly bearish through last year, said investment-grade spreads and stocks will be taking a hit over the next three to six months.
Global cash funds had inflows of nearly $143 billion, the largest since March 2020 in the week through Wednesday — adding up to more than $300 billion over the past four weeks, according to the note citing EPFR Global data. Money market funds assets have soared to more than $5.1 trillion, the highest level on record.
Prior surges coincided with large Fed interest rate cuts in 2008 and 2020, Hartnett said.
Investors are steering clear of corporate America’s most-vulnerable borrowers, even as credit markets rally on bets that the worst of the global banking crisis may be over.
The gap in spreads between the two weakest tiers of corporate debt typically issued — B and CCC — has widened dramatically since the end of February after three US regional banks failed and Credit Suisse Group AG was hastily taken over.
It now costs CCC issuers on average 531 basis points more than B rated issuers to sell bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%
* The euro fell 0.7% to $1.0759
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2227
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 130.76 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.7% to $27,846.95
* Ether fell 3% to $1,764.21
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined six basis points to 3.37%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 2.13%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined eight basis points to 3.28%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.1% to $69.18 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.8% to $1,997.70 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from John Viljoen, Vildana Hajric, Isabelle  Lee, Peyton Forte, Angel Adegbesan, Carly Wanna and Emily Graffeo.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

The seven principals of conduct with people are forbearance, forgiveness, humility, generosity, compassion, good counsel, justice, and fairness.  -Al-Sadiq, 702-765.
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.

1994 Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings broke Gordie Howe’s National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.  Go to article > 

March 23, 2023: First ever tweet by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey “just setting up my twttr” sells for $2.9 million I digitally autographed version. (NFT)

Apple is getting into the movie business …
… and maybe into soccer, too.

Back from the dead: Blockbuster’s website has a second life.

That’s a tonic: New Zealand’s government is investing in gin.

1st ever analysis of Beethoven’s DNA sheds light on the mystery of his death
The world renowned composer Ludwig van Beethoven was infected with hepatitis B when he died, according to the first ever DNA analysis of the deaf musician’s remains.
The genetic analysis, conducted on five locks of Beethoven’s hair, also revealed that he had a high risk of liver disease.  Full Story: Live Science (3/22)

China is hunting the world’s most elusive particles a mile beneath the ocean floor.  China is building a detector deep beneath the ocean surface to hunt for the world’s most elusive subatomic particles.
Every second, tens of trillions of these ghostly neutrinos stream through Earth (and your body) without interacting with anything.  Full Story: Live Science (3/22)

Alien mothership lurking in our solar system could be watching us with tiny probes, Pentagon official suggests
Could an alien mothership be hovering around the solar system, sending out tiny probes to explore planets? According to a Harvard scientist and a Pentagon official, it’s possible.
In a draft paper, the pair said it is feasible an extraterrestrial spaceship could be in our galactic neighborhood.  Full Story: Live Science (3/22)

Extinction-level asteroid impacts could be far more common than we thought, controversial study suggests
Earth may have been pummeled by large space rocks more often than previously estimated, controversial new research suggests, raising the risk that a species-ending impact could come sooner than we think.
The study focused on the largest-known impact craters from the past million years, and the authors argue that these craters were originally far bigger than they look now.  Full Story: Live Science (3/22)
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

London, UK
Coventry Street in the West End is decorated with Ramadan illuminations to mark the start of the Islamic holy month
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Mammoth Lakes, US
Heavy snow buries buildings in Sierra Nevada, California. Following the driest three-year stretch on record, a series of destructive, and sometimes deadly, atmospheric river storms has been sweeping through the state since early winter, bringing torrential rains, wide spread flooding and one of the snowiest winters on record in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

Northumberland, UK
The Milky Way core rises over Bamburgh lighthouse
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Market Closes for March 23^rd, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32105.25	+75.14
		+0.23%
S&P 500	3948.72	+11.75
		+0.30%
NASDAQ	11787.40	+117.44
		+1.01%
TSX	19459.92	-72.86
		-0.37%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27419.61	-47.00
		-0.17%
HANG SENG	20049.64	+458.21
		+2.34%
SENSEX	57925.28	-289.31
		-0.50%
FTSE 100*	7499.60	-67.24
		-0.89%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.747		2.729
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.932		2.899
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4266		3.4341
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6978		3.6516

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7292	0.7281
US $	1.3714	1.3734
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4855	0.6732
US  $	1.0832	0.9232

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1949.35	1952.50
Oil
WTI Crude Future	69.96	70.80

Market Commentary: 
📈 On this day in 1987, the S&P 500 index closed above 300 for the first time, less than a year and a half after crossing 200.  Today it closed at 3948.72.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.4%, or 72.86 to 19,459.92 in Toronto.
Cenovus Energy Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 5.1%.
Capstone Copper Corp. had the largest drop, falling 7.6%.
Today, 125 of 235 shares fell, while 106 rose; 6 of 11 sectors were lower, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.4%
* This month, the index fell 3.8%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.4%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.4% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 8.9% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.4% in the past 5 days and fell 3.6% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.6 on a trailing basis and 12.8 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$3.13t
* 30-day price volatility little changed to 11.91% compared with 11.92% in the previous session and the average of 9.54% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -45.9165| -1.4| 4/35
Financials | -39.3113| -0.7| 9/20
Industrials | -18.9294| -0.7| 12/15
Utilities | -9.2624| -1.1| 3/12
Real Estate | -1.4342| -0.3| 7/14
Health Care | -0.8631| -1.3| 2/4
Consumer Discretionary | 1.2068| 0.2| 9/6
Communication Services | 3.4133| 0.4| 6/0
Consumer Staples | 4.3110| 0.5| 9/2
Information Technology | 12.6345| 1.0| 12/0
Materials | 15.5972| 0.6| 33/17
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Cenovus Energy | -11.0600| -5.1| 43.0| -17.9
Canadian Pacific | -10.4700| -1.6| -0.7| 1.6
TD Bank | -9.5570| -1.0| 23.8| -11.8
Constellation Software | 4.3700| 1.4| 1.7| 15.1
Barrick Gold | 4.6210| 1.5| -30.9| 8.1
Shopify | 9.0800| 1.8| -0.6| 33.6
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market shrugged off losses, with traders piling into some of the world’s largest technology companies that are seen by many on Wall Street as a kind of shelter in times of stress and economic uncertainties.
Gains in mega-caps like Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. put the Nasdaq 100 near the threshold of a bull market after an almost 20% surge from its December low.
In the wake of the banking turmoil that has rattled markets around the globe and added to recession fears, the cohort of tech stalwarts that are flush with cash has largely outperformed this month.
Banks remained under pressure even after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s remarks that the US would be ready for any necessary additional deposit actions.
Shorter-dated Treasury yields were down once again, with swaps linked to policy meeting dates now showing the central bank benchmark ending 2023 around three quarters of a point below its new, post-decision level.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell insisted Wednesday that rate cuts are not his “base case.”
“The push-and-pull between financial market stability and inflation that is receding more slowly than anyone would prefer will further complicate an already significant challenge for the Fed, increasing the risk of a policy misstep and keeping the door open for a potential recession on the horizon,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.
In other corporate news, Block Inc. tumbled after Hindenburg Research said it’s betting on a decline in the stock, alleging the payments company led by Jack Dorsey facilitated fraudsters who took advantage of government stimulus programs during the pandemic.
Block called Hindenburg’s claims “inaccurate and misleading” and said it’ll explore legal action.
Now hedge funds couldn’t have picked a worse time to turn bullish on the dollar.
After betting against the greenback for 13 straight weeks, speculators flipped to a net long position in the week ended March 14, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The shift came days just before the Fed tempered its language around how much additional policy tightening might be needed, sending the dollar sliding.
A gauge of the greenback is down for a sixth straight session — its longest losing streak since April 2021.
On the economic front, applications for US unemployment benefits unexpectedly eased for a second week, underscoring a still-tight job market in which employers are reluctant to reduce headcount.
Sales of new homes unexpectedly rose in February after a downward revision to the prior month, suggesting the housing market is beginning to stabilize after a tumultuous year.
Elsewhere, the Bank of England pushed ahead with another interest rate increase despite turmoil in the banking sector, predicting the UK economy will avoid a recession for now and that inflation remains a risk.
The pound rose, and investors priced in more certainty of at least one more rate hike later this year.

Key events this week:
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, Friday
* US durable goods, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%
* The euro fell 0.1% to $1.0841
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2290
* The Japanese yen rose 0.7% to 130.54 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3.5% to $28,360.29
* Ether rose 4.8% to $1,821.05
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined six basis points to 3.38%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined 13 basis points to 2.20%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined nine basis points to 3.36%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.3% to $69.25 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 2.6% to $2,018.70 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from John Viljoen, Angel Adegbesan, Isabelle Lee, Carly Wanna and Vildana Hajric.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result. –Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900.

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: Ramadan begins today.
March 22,1960: The laser is patented for the first time by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow.  However, the term ‘LASER’ is actually an acronym for Light Amplification by  Simulated Emission of Radiation, which was coined by Gordon Gould.
March 22, 1972: Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. Go to article > 
1945: Arab League formed, Cairo.

‘Vibrant’ Roman mosaic discovered under supermarket construction site.  More incredible Roman finds were discovered in Britain. This time, it was on land earmarked for a grocery store.

The universe might be shaped like a doughnut, not like a pancake, new research suggests: The universe could, in fact, be a giant doughnut, despite all of the evidence suggesting it’s as flat as a pancake, new research suggests.  Strange patterns found in echoes of the Big Bang could be explained by a universe with a more complicated shape.  Full Story: Live Science (3/21)

Trilobites had a hidden third eye, new fossils reveal : Trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods, had a hidden third eye — and sometimes even a fourth or fifth, new research suggests.  Paleontologists knew that, like other arthropods such as insects and spiders, these hard-shelled prehistoric sea creatures had a pair of compound eyes. But scientists recently discovered a median eye located in the middle of the long-dead creatures’ foreheads.
Full Story: Live Science (3/21)

Where is Stonehenge, who built the prehistoric monument, and how?
Stonehenge is a massive stone monument located on Salisbury Plain in southern England.  It was built roughly 4,000 to 5,000 years ago and was part of a larger sacred landscape. Full Story: Live Science (3/21)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Tokyo, Japan
Visitors ride boats next to blooming cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi Park
Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters

Eskisehir, Turkey
An underwater view of Sakaryabasi, which was designated a natural protection area by the ministry of environment and urbanisation in 2020 and is the beginning of the Sakarya River
Photograph: Tahsin Ceylan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Gizhou, China
A cherry garden of the Guian New Area, covering an area of about 1,600 hectares, has attracted a large flow of tourists during the blossom season
Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
Market Closes for March 22^nd, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32030.11	-530.49
		-1.63%
S&P 500	3936.97	-65.90
		-1.65%
NASDAQ	11669.96	-190.15
		-1.60%
TSX	19532.78	-122.14
		-0.62%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27466.61	+520.94
		+1.93%
HANG SENG	19591.43	+332.67
		+1.73%
SENSEX	58214.59	+139.91
		+0.24%
FTSE 100*	7566.84	+30.62
		+0.41%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.729		2.890
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.899		2.994
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4341		3.6094
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6516		3.7321

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7281	0.7293
US $	1.3734	1.3712
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4913	0.6706
US  $	1.0859	0.9209

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1952.50	1969.35
Oil
WTI Crude Future	70.80	69.33

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1811: The New York state legislature passed the world’s first law granting limited liability to common stockholders—a revolutionary concept that protected investors from ever losing more than their initial investment.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.6% at 19,532.78 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s increase of 0.7%.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.4%.
Advantage Energy Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 7.0%.
Today, 168 of 235 shares fell, while 64 rose; 8 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.8%
* This month, the index fell 3.4%
* The index declined 12% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 14% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.1% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.3% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.8% in the past 5 days and fell 3.3% 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 12.8 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 11.92% compared with 11.84% in the previous session and the average of 9.37% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -50.0782| -0.8| 4/25
Energy | -39.0843| -1.2| 5/35
Industrials | -23.2694| -0.8| 5/22
Information Technology | -20.0533| -1.5| 1/11
Real Estate | -7.0067| -1.4| 0/21
Utilities | -6.1912| -0.7| 1/14
Communication Services | -4.8629| -0.5| 0/6
Health Care | -1.7576| -2.5| 1/5
Consumer Discretionary | 0.5618| 0.1| 6/9
Consumer Staples | 4.2990| 0.5| 7/4
Materials | 19.6130| 0.8| 34/16
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | -17.1200| -1.4| -27.9| 0.5
Canadian Pacific | -11.2400| -1.7| 63.9| 3.2
Canadian Natural Resources | -9.6310| -1.7| -53.8| -5.2
Agnico Eagle Mines | 3.4940| 1.6| -11.9| -1.9
Wheaton Precious Metals | 3.8380| 2.0| -11.7| 19.1
Barrick Gold | 5.5940| 1.9| -43.1| 6.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market sold off after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s remarks rattled bank shares and Jerome Powell dashed hopes the Federal Reserve would cut rates this year.
Her testimony to lawmakers that the government is not considering providing “blanket” deposit insurance to stabilize the banking system sent financial shares into a tailspin that weighed on broader indexes.
Equities initially rallied after the Fed hiked by a quarter percentage point as expected and kept its year-end rate projection intact.
The market also gave up gains after Powell said he’s prepared to keep raising rates until inflation shows signs of cooling.
“Her comments clearly affected bank stocks negatively, but her comments roughly coincided with Powell’s comments that they will continue to do what take to fight inflation, including raising rates more than anticipated. So it’s tough to untangle them,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. 
In a broad-based selloff, the S&P 500 dropped 1.7%. All 22 stocks in the KBW Bank Index retreated, with the measure of US financial heavyweights down almost 5%.
Treasury two-year yields plunged 24 basis points to around 3.9%.
A dollar gauge retreated for a fifth straight day — its longest losing streak since April 2021.
The swap market shows a bit more than a one-in-two chance that officials will add another 25 basis points to their benchmark in May.
Expectations for cuts deepened, though, with the market suggesting that the effective fed funds rate will drop to around 4.18% in December.
That’s below what was expected in earlier trading before the decision.
“I would not expect the market to take these rate cuts out in the near term and could very well price in more cuts if the data deteriorates from here,” Matthew Hornbach, global head of macro strategy at Morgan Stanley told Bloomberg Television.
Powell himself, though, said in response to questioning that officials “just don’t” see rate cuts this year and that they will raise rates higher than expected if that is needed.
“Rate cuts are not in our base case,” he said.
Key events this week:
* Eurozone consumer confidence, Thursday
* BOE interest rate decision, Thursday
* Swiss National Bank rate decision and press conference, Thursday
* US new home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies to a House Appropriations subcommittee, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, Friday
* US durable goods, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.6%
* The euro rose 0.9% to $1.0863
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2274
* The Japanese yen rose 1% to 131.21 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 4.7% to $26,840.87
* Ether fell 4.3% to $1,724.27
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined 17 basis points to 3.44%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 2.33%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 3.45%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5% to $70.01 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 1.7% to $1,991.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Peyton Forte, Isabelle Lee, Michael MacKenzie and Alexandra Harris.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Regret for the things we did can be tempered with time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. –Sydney J. Harris, 1917-1986.

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:
March 21, 1963 Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates.  Go to article > 
March 21,2006: the social media site Twitter is founded.
March 21,1965: Selma, Alabama Civil Rights March.

Johann Sebastien Bach, b. 1685.

Bumblebees solve puzzles by watching other bumblebees.  Like humans, bumblebees are capable of socially learning behavior and passing on the knowledge to others in their colonies, a new study shows.

During his Monday night monologue, Jimmy Kimmel joked that indictments were “in the air.”
“It’s really magical,” he said. “It’s the calm before the Stormy.”

“But, yeah, Donald Trump paid Stormy Daniels to keep this story quiet, and here we are, still talking about it seven years later, so that would be another failed Trump business venture.” — AL FRANKEN
“You’ve got to give it to him. It’s not often that everyone sends out a save-the-date for their own arrest.” — JIMMY FALLON

“Police are going to be like, ‘You have the right to remain silent — now, but also in general. Just think about it. Just something to think about.’” — JIMMY FALLON

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Twin Bridges, US
Houses are buried in snow in California. The Lake Tahoe region is preparing for more snow in the coming days after near-record levels so far this season
Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Turin, Italy
A visitor views images by the American photographer, reporter and artist Eve Arnold, part of the Eve Arnold, The Work exhibition at Camera Torino
Photograph: Roberto Serra/Iguana Press/Getty Images

Nowruz, which has been celebrated for at least 3,000 years, is one of the most important celebrations in the greater Persian world, which includes the countries of Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and portions of western China and northern Iraq
Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock
Market Closes for March 21^st, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32560.60	+316.02
		+0.98%
S&P 500	4002.87	+51.30
		+1.30%
NASDAQ	11860.11	+184.57
		+1.58%
TSX	19654.92	+135.49
		+0.69%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	MARKET CLOSED	N.A.
HANG SENG	19258.76	+258.05
		+1.36%
SENSEX	58074.68	+445.73
		+0.77%
FTSE 100*	7536.22	+132.37
		+1.79%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.890		2.816
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.994		2.939
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.6094		3.4847
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.7321		3.6655

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7293	0.7318
US $	1.3712	1.3666
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4768	0.6771
US  $	1.0770	0.9285

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1969.35	1962.10
Oil
WTI Crude Future	69.33	67.64

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1868: In London, the prospectus for the earliest known mutual fund was published, as the Foreign and Colonial Government Trust offered its shares to the public for £85.  It invested in emerging markets bonds: Argentina, Australia, Chile, Egypt, Peru, Turkey and the U.S.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.7%, or 135.49 to 19,654.92 in Toronto.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.7%.
Precision Drilling Corp. had the largest increase, rising 8.7%.
Today, 152 of 235 shares rose, while 81 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 1.4%
* This month, the index fell 2.8%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 11% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 11.5% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 10% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and fell 3% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.6 on a trailing basis and 12.8 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$3.13t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.84% compared with 11.70% in the previous session and the average of 9.21% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 71.6686| 1.2| 27/2
Energy | 68.2301| 2.1| 39/1
Information Technology | 19.7877| 1.6| 9/3
Industrials | 5.5021| 0.2| 20/7
Consumer Discretionary | 3.5011| 0.5| 11/4
Health Care | 2.9429| 4.4| 6/0
Real Estate | -1.4427| -0.3| 6/14
Consumer Staples | -3.2083| -0.4| 6/5
Communication Services | -3.3186| -0.3| 2/4
Utilities | -9.1823| -1.0| 7/9
Materials | -24.6918| -1.0| 19/32
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 23.1500| 4.7| -11.0| 33.4
Canadian Natural Resources | 16.1600| 3.0| -18.7| -3.5
RBC | 11.7900| 1.0| -26.7| 1.9
Agnico Eagle Mines | -5.0450| -2.3| -53.2| -3.5
Franco-Nevada | -6.1640| -2.4| -35.7| 4.6
Barrick Gold | -7.7970| -2.6| -40.4| 4.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street’s favorite volatility gauge tumbled as a rebound in stocks deepened, with a surge in banks and assurances from global authorities easing concerns that the recent financial tumult would lead to a full-blown crisis.  Call it calm.
Or call it calm before the storm.
Whatever the case, the coordinated actions to resolve the banking turmoil have restored a semblance of order for now.
The market’s so-called fear gauge, or VIX, headed toward its biggest two-day plunge since May.
In the run-up to the Federal Reserve decision, traders are betting on another 25 basis-point hike, with officials forging ahead with the battle against inflation and signaling commitment to financial stability.
“This is an easier market backdrop,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. “Expectations of a dramatic about-face for monetary policy are diminishing. Market expectations for near-term Fed rate decisions are now within the realm of the possible. That is good news.”
The S&P 500 topped 4,000, extending its advance above the key 200-day moving average.
After briefly exceeding 30 last week for the first time since October, the CBOE Volatility Index plummeted to around 22.
Every stock in a measure of US financial heavyweights climbed.
First Republic Bank surged 30% — its best day ever — amid optimism over a new plan under discussion to aid the regional lender.
Now the rally in the riskier corners of the market doesn’t mean an all-clear at this stage.
To Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co., investors should be careful about the conclusions they draw from the recent equity advance as there are at least two ways to look at it.
“One is to think that the stock market is looking past this mini-crisis and sees that the economy (and thus earnings) are going to grow quite nicely once we get past this problem,” Maley said. “The other way to look at it is to think that the situation is still quite a dicey one, and the authorities are pumping so much short-term liquidity into the system that the stock market cannot decline over the near term.”
Several strategists are indeed growing concerned, with Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson saying the risk of a credit crunch is increasing materially.
The S&P 500 might find a floor at 3,800, but investors should sell into any rallies if the benchmark reaches 4,100 to 4,200, Bank of America Corp.’s Michael Hartnett wrote.
BofA’s latest global survey of fund managers showed a systemic credit event has replaced stubborn inflation as the key risk to markets.
The polling took place from March 10-16, while money managers were witnessing the collapse of US lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and monitoring the turmoil at Credit Suisse before its historic takeover by UBS.
The likelihood of a recession is rising again for the first time since November, with the survey showing a net 42% of participants expecting a slowdown over the next 12 months.
Another worrisome development is the extreme volatility in short-term government bonds that has now dragged into a ninth straight day.
Treasury two-year notes, which are normally considered a low-risk investment, saw its yield surge as much as 21 basis points to 4.18% Tuesday.
John Hancock Investment Management’s Matthew Miskin is certain the Fed has run out of runway for a soft landing, and he’s pointing to turbulence in the bond market to make that case.
“When the two-year Treasury yield starts acting like a meme stock, you’ve got some problems,” Miskin said Tuesday on Bloomberg Television. “The bond market is saying, ‘yeah, you’re going to raise rates but it’s going to be a mistake and you’re going to be cutting in the not so distant future.’”
Key events this week:
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to appear at Senate subcommittee hearing, Wednesday
* FOMC rate decision, news conference from Chair Jerome Powell, Wednesday
* EIA crude oil inventory report, Wednesday
* Eurozone consumer confidence, Thursday
* BOE interest rate decision, Thursday
* Swiss National Bank rate decision and press conference, Thursday
* US new home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies to a House Appropriations subcommittee, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, Friday
* US durable goods, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1%
* The MSCI World index rose 1.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0771
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2220
* The Japanese yen fell 0.9% to 132.46 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.4% to $28,188.66
* Ether rose 1.9% to $1,795.4
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 11 basis points to 3.59%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 17 basis points to 2.29%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 3.37%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.5% to $69.33 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 2% to $1,960.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Angel Adegbesan, Carly Wanna, Peyton Forte and Felice Maranz.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
I’ll study and get ready, and then the chance will come. -Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865.

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.  Spring Equinox at 5:24 EST in the Northern Hemisphere.  😊

March 20, 1916: Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
March 20, 1997: Liggett Group settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry markets cigarettes to teenagers and agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.  Go to article > 
 
Ovid, writer, b. 43 BC.
Henrik Ibsen, writer, b.1828.

Northern delights: What makes the Finns so damn happy?

7,000-year-old cult site in Saudi Arabia was filled with human remains and animal bones: Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia have discovered ancient human remains buried near hundreds of scattered animal bones inside a 7,000-year-old desert monument, a ritual site used by a prehistoric cult.   The remains, those of an adult male approximately in his 30s, were found inside a mustatil, a structure that takes its name from the Arabic word for rectangle.
Full Story: Live Science (3/17) 
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Luxor, Egypt
This undated photo shows a mural, part of a zodiac diagram found on the ceiling of the Temple of Esna in Luxor, Egypt. A complete zodiac diagram was found on the ceiling of a Roman-era temple in the southern Egyptian province of Luxor, the country’s ministry of tourism and antiquities said
Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

Shawnee, US
A motorist is silhouetted against the setting sun in the state of Kansas on the eve of the vernal equinox, that marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere with the day and night being roughly equal in duration
Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP

Tokyo, Japan
People enjoy cherry blossoms
Photograph: Androniki Christodoulou/Reuters
Market Closes for March 20^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32244.58	+382.60
		+1.20%
S&P 500	3951.57	+34.93
		+0.89%
NASDAQ	11675.54	+45.03
		+0.39%
TSX	19519.43	+131.71
		+0.68%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	26945.67	-388.12
		-1.42%
HANG SENG	19000.71	-517.88
		-2.65%
SENSEX	57628.95	-360.95
		-0.62%
FTSE 100*	7403.85	+68.45
		+0.93%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.816		2.779
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.939		2.909
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4847		3.4286
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6655		3.6197

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7318	0.7280
US $	1.3666	1.3736
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4650	0.6826
US  $	1.0720	0.9328

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1962.10	1922.75
Oil
WTI Crude Future	67.64	66.74

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1602, the Western world’s first major publicly traded company was born, as the Dutch legislature granted a monopoly on trade to the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or Dutch East India Company, which dealt in booming consumer products like cloves, tea, black pepper and Chinese porcelain. In 1609, the company’s directors declared that investors couldn’t sell their shares back to the company, but only to other investors—giving birth to the modern stock market.  The Dutch East India Company lasted 196 years.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.7% at 19,519.43 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.8%.
Today, energy stocks led the market higher, as 7 of 11 sectors gained; 143 of 235 shares rose, while 85 fell.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.6%.
Spartan Delta Corp. had the largest increase, rising 5.8%.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.7%
* This month, the index fell 3.5%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.1% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.2% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.4% in the past 5 days and fell 4.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.5 on a trailing basis and 12.7 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$3.1t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.70% compared with 11.46% in the previous session and the average of 9.08% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 64.5126| 2.0| 36/3
Financials | 31.6804| 0.5| 17/12
Materials | 18.6890| 0.8| 31/17
Communication Services | 12.8518| 1.3| 5/1
Consumer Staples | 8.5343| 1.1| 9/2
Consumer Discretionary | 3.6426| 0.5| 7/8
Real Estate | 0.4523| 0.1| 13/7
Health Care | -1.6488| -2.4| 2/4
Industrials | -2.0542| -0.1| 13/14
Utilities | -4.7740| -0.5| 4/11
Information Technology | -5.8846| -0.5| 6/6
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD |Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | 13.5500| 2.6| -1.3| -6.3
RBC | 12.3600| 1.0| -43.8| 1.0
Suncor Energy | 9.9850| 2.7| -20.1| -5.4
Canadian Pacific | -2.1870| -0.3| -33.7| 4.8
Canadian National | -2.8550| -0.4| -44.8| -2.0
Shopify | -11.8200| -2.3| -25.5| 27.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks finished higher as regulators worldwide rushed to shore up market confidence, with the recent financial turmoil spurring speculation on a slower pace of tightening from major central banks.
An earlier flight-to-safety bid waned, with all 11 groups in the S&P 500 gaining.
A gauge of US lenders climbed after last week’s 15% rout.
First Republic Bank plunged 47% to a record low, missing out on a rebound by its regional peers led by New York Community Bancorp.
UBS Group AG rose as investors focused on the upside of its Credit Suisse Group AG takeover.
Following the biggest weekly surge for the Nasdaq 100 since November, the tech-heavy measure underperformed as a recovery in risk appetite sent Treasuries slumping.
Global central banks witnessed no dash for dollars after uniting with the Federal Reserve to ease access to supplies of the US currency — an indication that the latest bout of banking turbulence may not be causing undue stress to the financial system.
To a large extent, the market feels the turmoil is not systemic and there will be a solution to “contain the damage,” according to Chuck Cumello, chief executive officer at Essex Financial Services.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be other “landmines” out there, so that’s going to be a challenge, he added.
“Monday’s session was relatively tame versus what we anticipate will be a week of elevated realized volatility,” said Ian Lyngen at BMO Capital Markets. “Conviction is scarce in the current environment and this observation applies not only to the Fed, but also to the evolution of the banking sector stress.”
Just a couple of weeks ago, investors were betting the Fed would raise rates close to 6% and the European Central Bank would hike past 4%.
Now markets imply the tightening cycles are almost over and wager on four rate cuts in the US by year-end.
Overnight indexed swaps price in a 75% chance of a quarter-point hike by the Fed this week.
Swap traders currently see the Fed’s benchmark ending the year around 4% — a whole percentage point below the central bank’s rate estimate in the December “dot plot” that comes as part of the quarterly economic projections.
In keeping with the theme of instilling confidence in the banking system, Fed Chair Jerome Powell will possibly reiterate that further progress needs to be made toward the goal of price stability, Lyngen noted.
A “dovish hike” remains our bias, he added.
“We expect a 25 bp hike and higher dots in the dot plot,” said Chris Low, chief economist at FHN Financial. “50 bp would be reckless, but no hike would suggest the bank crisis supplants the fight against inflation. 25 bp seems just right. Of course, our view from midtown Manhattan may not be quite the same as the Fed’s from central DC. If the Fed chooses not to hike, the language they use to couch that choice in will be key to shaping the entire yield curve.”
Market easing expectations have “run wild” because the media blackout has restrained Fed-speak, according to Win Thin at Brown Brothers Harriman.
While nobody knows the extent to which the recent turmoil is impacting the rate hike debate, Fed officials will likely fall in line with ECB President Christine Lagarde, who last week stressed that there is no trade-off between price and financial stability.
“This was a very strong statement that suggests any banking sector issues won’t derail the tightening cycle,” he noted. “We think this view is held by pretty much every central bank, including the Fed, which supports our call for a 25 bp hike this week.”
Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson said the stress in the banking system marks what’s likely to be the beginning of a painful and “vicious” end to the bear market in US stocks.
“This is exactly how bear markets end — an unforeseen catalyst that is obvious in hindsight forces market participants to acknowledge what has been right in front of them the entire time,” Wilson wrote.
Bank failures, market turmoil and ongoing economic uncertainty as central banks battle high inflation have increased the chances of a “Minsky moment,” according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Marko Kolanovic.
The term, named for the late American economist Hyman Minsky, refers to the end of an economic boom that has encouraged investors to take on so much risk that lending exceeds what borrowers can repay.
At that point, any destabilizing event may force investors to sell assets for cash to repay their loans, sparking a market meltdown.
“Even if central bankers successfully contain contagion, credit conditions look set to tighten more rapidly because of pressure from both markets and regulators,” Kolanovic wrote.
The Federal Home Loan Bank System issued $304 billion in debt last week, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public data.
That’s almost double the $165 billion that liquidity-hungry lenders tapped from the Fed.
In the likely volatile period ahead, high-quality, defensive assets should be sought out, while diversification will be increasingly important, said Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management.
Keith Lerner at Truist Wealth, says he also prefers staying defensively positioned even as the market appears to be fairly resilient.
“Although a Fed pause or pivot could trigger a short-term rally, we don’t see this as a cure-all, especially if the economy falls into recession later this year,” Lerner added.
“The Fed’s reaction function to current events will likely be less aggressive in providing monetary support relative to past periods given the conundrum of still-elevated inflation.”
The banking-sector turmoil combined with a previous increase in funding pressures has left financial markets also keenly attuned to what the Fed will say about its $8.6 trillion balance sheet.
Until this month that had been shrinking as part of the Fed’s efforts to return it back to pre-pandemic levels.
But now it has started to expand again as the Fed acts to bolster the banking system through a slate of emergency lending programs.
Its latest step came Sunday, when it moved with other central banks to boost US dollar liquidity.
Some say financial-stability concern may spur policymakers to dial back the runoff of its bond portfolio, a process known as quantitative tightening that’s designed to drain reserves from the system.  
Key events this week:
* US existing home sales, Tuesday
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to appear at Senate subcommittee hearing, Wednesday
* FOMC rate decision, news conference from Chair Jerome Powell, Wednesday
* EIA crude oil inventory report, Wednesday
* Eurozone consumer confidence, Thursday
* BOE interest rate decision, Thursday
* Swiss National Bank rate decision and press conference, Thursday
* US new home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies to a House  Appropriations subcommittee, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, Friday
* US durable goods, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.9% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.7%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0723
* The British pound rose 0.9% to $1.2279
* The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 131.43 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $27,890.29
* Ether fell 2.3% to $1,758.27
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced five basis points to 3.48%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.13%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 3.31%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.2% to $67.57 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.5% to $2,000.60 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Vildana Hajric, Emily Graffeo, Carly Wanna, Angel Adegbesan, Peyton Forte and Edward Bolingbroke.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
The simplest questions are the most profound.  Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going?
What are you doing? -Richard Bach, b. 1936.

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

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
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Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

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