Month: April 2024

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Beltane, Wicca.

Walpurgisnacht, Witch’s Night, Europe.  Beltane – the ancient Celtic union of goddess and god, water and light.  All fires are extinguished at sunset on Beltane Eve, the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.  It is a celebration of all that is powerful and sensual n nature. Atop the Maypole, a womb-like inverted basket in hung with ribbons.  Dancers of each sex grasp the ribbons, facing one another,  The dancers weave, the ribbons intertwine…

We were there last night when the dark drew down: we set the bonfires leaping.
Then we vanished in the hear and we couldn’t be found until the dawn came creeping. –Celtic rock group Annwn

April 30, 1975: The fall of Saigon marks the end of the Vietnam War.

Deepest blue hole in the world discovered, with hidden caves and tunnels believed to be inside
Scientists have yet to reach the bottom of the Taam Ja’ Blue Hole in Mexico’s Chetumal Bay, which new measurements hint could be connected to a labyrinth of submarine caves and tunnels. Read More.

Earth from space: Lava bleeds down iguana-infested volcano as it spits out toxic gas
A satellite image of the Galápagos Islands’ La Cumbre volcano shows lava seeping from the iguana-covered mountain days into an ongoing, months-long eruption. Read More.

Why do people hear their names being called in the woods?
Auditory pareidolia is a phenomenon in which people can hear familiar sounds from seemingly static background noise. Read More.

Black hole ‘traffic jams’ are forcing cosmic monsters to collide, new study finds
Supermassive black holes may create conditions akin to “cosmic intersections with failed traffic lights” that make collisions between smaller stellar-mass black holes inevitable. Read More.

Quantum computing breakthrough could happen with just hundreds, not millions, of qubits using new error-correction system
Scientists have designed a physical qubit that behaves as an error-correcting “logical qubit,” and now they think they can scale it up to make a useful quantum computer using a few hundred. Read More.

Amateur archaeologists unearth mysterious Roman object
This 12-sided object is considered “one of archaeology’s great enigmas” and experts are still unsure what the Romans used it for.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Paris, France
Employees of the Louvre return the painting Liberty Leading the People (1830) by Eugène Delacroix to its original spot after its restoration. The picture goes back on display on 2 May after six months of restoration work
Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

Nochten, Germany
The Boxberg coal-fired power plant stands behind the newly inaugurated PV-Park Boxberg solar energy park.
Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Vienna, Austria
Images are projected on to a wall during a conference titled Humanity at the Crossroads, the former imperial palace
Photograph: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for April 30^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37815.92	-570.17
		-1.49%
S&P 500	5035.69	-80.48
		-1.57%
NASDAQ	15657.82	-325.26
		-2.04%
TSX	21714.54	-297.08
		-1.35%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	38405.66	+470.90
		+1.24%
HANG SENG	17763.03	+16.12
		+0.09%
SENSEX	74482.78	-188.50
		-0.25%
FTSE 100*	8144.13	-2.90
		-0.04%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.816	3.750
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.674	3.627
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6798	4.6136
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7839	4.7315

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7258	0.7321
US $	1.3778	1.3659

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4699	0.6803
US $	1.0668	0.9374

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2333.55	2333.55
Oil
WTI Crude Future	81.93	83.85

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in in 1999, shares in Priceline hit $162, a 914% rise from the travel website’s IPO a month earlier, fueled by froth from the dotcom frenzy.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.3% at 21,714.54 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 2.3% on Feb. 13 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.2%.
Today, energy stocks led the market lower, as 9 of 11 sectors lost; 185 of 224 shares fell, while 36 rose.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.4%.
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 9.5%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss seven times. The next day, it declined four times for an average 0.3% and advanced three times for an average 0.6%
* This month, the index fell 2%
* The index advanced 5.2% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 20% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 16.2% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.4% in the past 5 days and fell 2% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.2 on a trailing basis and 14.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.5t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 9.08% compared with 8.08% in the previous session and the average of 7.85% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -99.4661| -2.4| 1/40
Materials | -81.8349| -3.1| 2/47
Industrials | -44.5069| -1.5| 7/20
Financials | -32.2780| -0.5| 4/22
Information Technology | -31.3342| -1.7| 1/9
Consumer Staples | -11.2038| -1.2| 1/10
Real Estate | -2.0547| -0.4| 7/13
Consumer Discretionary | -0.6768| -0.1| 2/11
Utilities | -0.6669| -0.1| 8/7
Communication Services | 2.0019| 0.3| 2/3
Health Care | 4.9225| 7.5| 1/3
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | -20.0900| -2.4| 53.5| -6.3
Canadian Natural Resources | -18.8200| -2.4| -61.7| 20.2
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -16.2900| -2.3| 79.0| 3.0
Tilray Brands | 5.2430| 41.9| 229.2| 11.8
TD Bank | 7.6910| 0.8| -23.2| -4.6
Restaurant Brands | 7.7970| 3.5| 44.0| 0.9
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market sank in the final stretch of April and bond yields climbed on concern that stubborn inflation will force the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer.
On the eve of the Fed decision, a broad gauge of US labor costs closely watched by policymakers jumped the most in a year.
The data signaled wage pressures, reinforcing bets that officials will keep rates unchanged at a two-decade high Wednesday — and are unlikely to lower them anytime soon.
That perception combined with a plunge in consumer confidence weighed heavily on equities — which suffered their worst month since September.
The last time Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke he pointed to the lack of further progress in bringing inflation down, and to enduring strength in the labor market.
The latest inflation signals — in tandem with expectations for a robust employment report on Friday — aren’t likely to lead him to change his tune.
“The markets are in full fear-mode going into tomorrow’s Fed announcement,” said Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities. “Rates won’t go down in the near future and equities are having trouble justifying their price.”
The S&P 500 fell 1.6%, the most since January.
In late hours, Amazon.com Inc. climbed as earnings beat estimates.
Starbucks Corp. posted its first sales decline in more than three years.
Treasury two-year yields topped 5% — the highest level since November.
The dollar notched its fourth consecutive monthly advance — the longest winning run since September 2022.
“Stocks, bonds, and the dollar are all frontrunning the possibility of a frowning Powell at tomorrow’s interest rate decision,” said Jose Torres at Interactive Brokers. “This morning’s data justifies an increasingly hawkish committee.”
A survey conducted by 22V Research shows that only 16% of investors polled expect a “risk-on” reaction to Wednesday’s Fed decision, 44% said “risk-off,” and 40% “negligible/mixed.”
The tally also revealed that two thirds of respondents still expect a rate cut in 2024.
US consumer confidence fell in April to the lowest since mid-2022 as Americans’ views of the labor market and their outlook for the economy deteriorated.
A broad gauge of labor costs closely watched by the Fed increased the most in a year, illustrating persistent wage pressures that are keeping inflation elevated.
“With inflation data continuing to be surprisingly hot for the past quarter, the narrative that these surprises are all attributable to ‘one offs’ in individual components is becoming harder to sustain,” said Joe Davis at Vanguard. “Time will tell, but the data suggest that what we call a ‘deferred landing’ is more likely than the long anticipated ‘soft landing’.”
To Krishna Guha at Evercore, the disappointment on wages will make the Fed less confident in the outlook for inflation.
“This will manifest itself in a harder tone,” he said “with policymakers clearly open to a more extended hold beyond the initial delay for the first cut from June to July/ September — if there is not a clear stepdown in inflation in the coming months.”
Sticky US inflation this year isn’t necessarily bad news for the stock rally as higher yields are a reflection of strong economic growth, according to HSBC strategists led by Max Kettner.
“If the Fed’s cuts turn out to be more like the recalibration in the mid-1990s and 2019, it may not necessarily be bad news for risk assets,” they wrote.
Bank of America Corp. clients posted their largest inflows to US equities in eight weeks during the five-day period ended Friday.
All major client groups — institutions, hedge funds, and retail investors — were net buyers last week, quantitative strategists led by Jill Carey Hall said in a note to clients Tuesday.
Net inflow totaled $3 billion, largest in two months, per B of A.
The recent rebound in equity markets was not driven by a change in investor flows, but rather by the unwind of profitable bearish positions, Citigroup Inc. strategists led by Chris Montagu wrote.
They also noted that the bounce couldn’t continue on de-risking flows alone — and should be supported by new bullish inflows.
Despite its reputation, May has historically been a positive month for the equity market, although gains have been backend-loaded towards the last week of the month, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
May tends to be a positive month with an average gain of 0.93% dating back to 1983 and 0.68% over the last 10 years, the firm said.
“The six months from May through October haven’t necessarily been a negative period for equities, but historically, it is the weakest six-month stretch on the calendar,” Bespoke noted.

Corporate Highlights:
* McDonald’s Corp. results fell short of expectations in the first quarter, hampered by slowing growth in the US and the reverberations of the Israel-Hamas war.
* Coca-Cola Co. issued a more optimistic 2024 forecast after first-quarter results outpaced Wall Street’s expectations as customers in markets around the world continue to pay higher prices and drive volume growth.
* 3M Co. plans to slash its dividend, ending more than six decades of boosting the payout each year as it enters a new era following the spinoff of its health-care products division.
* Eli Lilly & Co.’s brighter outlook for 2024 raised the potential ceiling for new weight-loss drugs even further in the eyes of analysts and investors.
* PayPal Holdings Inc.’s payment volume climbed 14% in the first quarter on increased consumer spending globally, giving a boost to the firm’s shares in early trading.
* Meta Platforms Inc.’s social media platforms Facebook and Instagram are under investigation from the European Union amid concerns they’re failing to cull targeted disinformation peddled by Russia that aims to sow discord on the continent.
* Walmart Inc.’s deal to buy smart-TV maker Vizio Holding Corp. will undergo an in-depth antitrust review by the Federal Trade Commission, Vizio said Tuesday.
* Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. warned of pressured margins for the remainder of the year, even as quarterly earnings beat estimates.
* Paramount Global replaced Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish, appointing a management committee as the board negotiates a possible change in control of the company.
* MicroStrategy Inc. posted a first-quarter loss after taking an impairment charge against the value of its roughly $13 billion in Bitcoin holdings even though the cryptocurrency surged during the period.

Key events this week:
* Holiday across much of Europe, Wednesday
* Treasury’s quarterly refunding announcement, Wednesday
* US ADP employment change, JOLTS job openings, ISM Manufacturing, Wednesday
* Federal Reserve rate decision, Wednesday
* Eurozone S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, Thursday
* US factory orders, initial jobless claims, trade, Thursday
* Apple earnings, Thursday
* Eurozone unemployment, Friday
* US unemployment, nonfarm payrolls, ISM Services, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.9%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.5%
* The MSCI World index fell 1.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.6%
* The euro fell 0.5% to $1.0672
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2495
* The Japanese yen fell 0.9% to 157.72 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 5.5% to $59,476.83
* Ether fell 7.4% to $2,941.03
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced seven basis points to 4.68%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 2.58%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 4.35%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.2% to $81.60 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 1.8% to $2,292.50 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Sagarika Jaisinghani and Alexandra Semenova.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts.  Think only on those things that are in line with your principals
and can bear the light of day.  The content of your character is your choice.
Day by day, what you do is who you become. –Heraclitus, c. 6th century BC- c. 5^th century BC.

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.
On April 29, 1992, deadly rioting that claimed 54 lives and caused $1 billion in damage erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped
brutal beating of Rodney King.  Go to article >>
Duke Ellington, b. 1899.
Emperor Hirohito, b.1901.
Uma Thurman, b. 1971.

Lasers reveal prehistoric Irish monuments that may have been ‘pathways for the dead’
Archaeologists used lidar to detect a cluster of rare Neolithic monuments hidden in farmland in Ireland. Read More.

Jupiter may be the reason why Earth has a moon, new study hints
The great planetary instability, which saw Jupiter and the other gas giants wander chaotically through the solar system, coincides with the collision that formed Earth’s moon. Could the two events be linked? Read More.

Can humans see ultraviolet light?
Ultraviolet has very short and energetic wavelengths that are shorter than violet on the visible spectrum. But can people see UV? Read More.

What we learned during the 2024 NFL Draft
The 2024 NFL Draft drew to a close on Saturday as 257 players were selected by teams from across the league. Read the highlights here.

Prince Harry will be back in Britain soon
The Duke of Sussex will return to the UK in May to celebrate a milestone anniversary of the Invictus Games, the biennial sporting competition he founded a decade ago.

These are the hot new restaurants at the mall
Applebee’s, Chili’s and other national brands used to dominate every corner of the American mall. These restaurants are now taking their place.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
A girl stands next to a sculpture by the Swiss artist Al Meier at an international outdoor art exhibition where artworks by 88 artists are on display
Photograph: Gian Ehrenzeller/EPA

Ajmer, India
A squirrel drinks from an earthen pot on a hot summer afternoon
Photograph: Himanshu Sharma/AFP/Getty Images

​​​​​​​Moscow, Russia
Participants in the Moscow half marathon
Photograph: Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
Market Closes for April 29^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38386.09	+146.43
		+0.38%
S&P 500	5116.17	+16.21
		+0.32%
NASDAQ	15983.09	+55.19
		+0.35%
TSX	22011.62	+42.38
		+0.19%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37934.76	+306.28
		+0.81%
HANG SENG	17746.91	+95.76
		+0.54%
SENSEX	74671.28	+941.12
		+1.28%
FTSE 100*	8147.03	+7.20
		+0.09%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.750	3.816
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.627	3.695
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6136	4.6630
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7315	4.7754

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7321	0.7316
US $	1.3659	1.3669

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4646	0.6828
US $	1.0722	0.9327

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2333.55	2343.10
Oil
WTI Crude Future	83.85	85.17

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1901, total daily trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange exceeded 2 million for the first time, as 2,471,258 shares changed hands.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the third day, climbing 0.2%, or 42.38 to 22,011.62 in Toronto.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.6%. NexGen Energy Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6.1%.
Today, 142 of 224 shares rose, while 77 fell; 8 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 0.7%
* The index advanced 6.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.6% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 17.8% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.6% in the past 5 days and fell 0.7% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.4 on a trailing basis and 14.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.49t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.08% compared with 8.07% in the previous session and the average of 7.79% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 22.4957| 0.5| 35/6
Materials | 16.9982| 0.6| 32/16
Information Technology | 7.9025| 0.4| 5/5
Utilities | 5.0883| 0.6| 12/3
Communication Services | 3.0253| 0.4| 5/0
Consumer Discretionary | 2.8351| 0.4| 10/3
Health Care | 0.6035| 0.9| 3/1
Consumer Staples | 0.3276| 0.0| 6/5
Financials | -0.9644| 0.0| 14/13
Real Estate | -2.8503| -0.6| 7/12
Industrials | -13.0766| -0.4| 13/13
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 13.1700| 1.6| -3.2| -4.0
Nutrien | 7.5360| 3.0| 123.1| -0.9
Barrick Gold | 4.0500| 1.4| -34.6| -1.0
Bank of Montreal | -4.2080| -0.7| 105.9| -5.9
Canadian National | -6.6240| -1.0| 37.3| 1.8
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -7.3630| -1.0| 222.7| 5.4
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks rose as a solid earnings season propped up the market despite bets the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer.
After pulling back for the most part in April, equities staged a rebound toward the end of the month.
Early results from the reporting season suggest that over 80% of US companies are beating expectations.
First-quarter earnings are now on track to increase by 4.7% from a year ago, compared with the pre-season estimate of 3.8%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.
Following strong results from its “Magnificent Seven” counterparts, Amazon.com Inc. is seen joining the pack this week with a jump in sales.
Apple Inc. likely had a tougher time, with profit expected to be lower as iPhone sales slid.
Chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. probably eked out revenue growth.
“Last week, Big Tech enthusiasm outweighed concerns about sticky inflation,” said Chris Larkin at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. “This week, we’ll find out if Amazon and Apple can keep that momentum going, but traders will also be taking the temperature of the latest jobs data and what the Fed has to say about inflation and rate cuts.”
The S&P 500 topped 5,100. Tesla Inc. soared 15% after receiving in-principle approval from Chinese officials to deploy its driver-assistance system in the world’s biggest auto market.
Apple Inc. rallied on a bullish analyst call. Boeing Co. raised $10 billion from a bond sale that attracted about $77 billion of orders.
US 10-year yields fell five basis points to 4.62%.
The Treasury ramped up its estimate for federal borrowing for the current quarter to $243 billion, more than most dealers had anticipated.
The yen climbed on speculation Japan intervened to support its beleaguered currency for the first time since 2022.
Investors are faced with a call on whether the weakness in stocks seen earlier this month was only a blip or if delayed policy easing will pull the market back down again.
The answer may lie in the market playbook of the 1990s, when equities more than tripled in value despite years of rates that were hovering around current levels.
“One of the important things investors learned last week is that the economy is less sensitive to interest rates in this cycle,” said Jeff Roach at LPL Financial. “The Fed is ‘backed into a corner’ as some sectors of the economy appear immune to interest rates.”
At this rate, Roach expects the Fed to stay on hold longer than would happen in a normal cycle, “which increases the odds of either stagflation or a bumpy landing.”
Markets could remain volatile this week, but UBS’s Chief Investment Office continues to see the current environment as supportive for US equities — driven by solid earnings growth, a potential Fed pivot later this year, and accelerating
artificial-intelligence investment.
“We remain constructive on US equities, and expect AI-related companies to drive strong earnings growth in the years ahead,” said Solita Marcelli at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“It is key for investors to hold a healthy strategic allocation to tech stocks, but also advocate diversified exposure across regions and sectors.”
Meantime, Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson said the pressure from higher Treasury yields is taking the shine off an upbeat earnings season for Corporate America.
The strategist noted that although the share of companies beating analysts’ profit estimates was “strong,” the reaction in share prices was still muted as valuations were inflated following a record-breaking rally this year.
“While markets may enjoy the earnings results from the big tech companies, when earnings season is over, investors will be left justifying high market multiples in the face of interest rates that are likely to remain higher for longer,” said Megan Horneman at Verdence Capital Advisors.
The US stock market is likely to repeat the late summer swoon that kicked in last August, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Marko Kolanovic, who says the prospect of higher-for-longer interest rates weighing on growth poses a risk to this year’s rally.
“We remain concerned about the repeat of last summer’s drawdown, where the growth-policy tradeoff could move away from the Goldilocks narrative, together with a continued risk of concentration reversal, too steep projections for earnings acceleration this year, and positioning unwind.”
Since the October 2022 bear-market trough, stock gains have been driven mostly by multiples expansion linked to hopes for imminent Fed rate cuts and lower normalized rates — but the evolving narrative has been frustrating, according to Lisa Shalett at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
“While Fed pauses are typically supportive of stocks, long periods of ‘higher for longer’ can end poorly, with some part of the economy ultimately stressed, as with emerging markets in 1997, tech stocks in 2001 and housing/banking in 2007,” she noted. “This cycle’s candidates could be low-end consumers, small businesses dependent on credit and commercial real estate owners.”
“Equity markets have been in a sideways churn for two months as bulls and bears wrestle for control,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide. “Following the dramatic run since October, a pause is not unexpected or unhealthy.”
He added that it is hard to see a dramatic breakout in either direction in the near term — as both sides have a compelling argument and expectations are not overly optimistic or pessimistic.
Despite concern that the Fed will be in no rush to cut rates, the appetite for technology stocks last week wasn’t lost on hedge funds.
Tech saw the largest net buying since December 2022 by the group, driven by an increase in long positions and short-covering, data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s prime brokerage show.
The dominance of the “Magnificent Seven” may soon give way to a broadening of earnings growth that is supportive of a variety of equity asset classes, according to Glenmede’s Jason Pride and Michael Reynolds.
In the fourth quarter, for instance, earnings growth from the group of mega-caps is forecast to lag the rest of the market, with “equity analysts appear to be anticipating more abundant opportunities for profit growth beyond the market darlings,” they said.
The likelihood that rates will remain elevated for months to come has made a long-awaited rebound in the beaten-down stocks of smaller companies seem more elusive.
Even as forecasts for policy easing are pushed out, sectors within the group poised to benefit from an economic recovery and with low refinancing risk are still well-positioned to outperform their large-cap counterparts, Bank of America Corp.’s strategists led by Jill Carey Hall said last week in a note.
Current multiples imply 9% annualized returns for the Russell 2000 over the coming 10 years, compared to just 2% per year for the Russell 1000, per BofA’s estimates.

Corporate Highlights:
* The Redstone family and independent film producer David Ellison have offered concessions to make a possible change in control at Paramount Global more appealing to the company’s other investors, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
* Domino’s Pizza Inc.’s same-store sales in the US exceeded first-quarter expectations, a promising sign for the company’s continued turnaround.
* SoFi Technologies Inc. gave guidance for second-quarter revenue and earnings that was less than analysts expected.
* WeWork Inc. and its major financial backers including SoftBank Group Corp. have struck a new restructuring deal to get the ailing workspace provider out of bankruptcy, spurning a competing financing proposal from co-founder Adam Neumann.
* The activist investor battling to replace Norfolk Southern Corp.’s leadership won the backing of Glass Lewis & Co., raising pressure on the railroad in the final days before a crucial shareholder vote.
* UMB Financial Corp. agreed to acquire rival Heartland Financial USA Inc. for about $2 billion in an all-stock transaction poised to be the year’s largest US regional-bank deal.
* Chinese automaker BYD Co.’s first-quarter revenue missed estimates as aggressive price cuts across most of its lineup ate into its financial performance.

* Japan unemployment, industrial production, retail sales, Tuesday
* China Caixin manufacturing PMI, non-manufacturing PMI, manufacturing PMI, Tuesday
* Eurozone CPI, GDP, Tuesday
* US employment cost index, Conf. Board consumer confidence, Tuesday
* Amazon, Samsung, HSBC earnings, Tuesday
* Labour Day holiday across much of Europe, Wednesday
* Treasury’s quarterly refunding announcement, Wednesday
* US ADP employment change, JOLTS job openings, ISM Manufacturing, Wednesday
* Federal Reserve rate decision, Wednesday
* Eurozone S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, Thursday
* US factory orders, initial jobless claims, trade, Thursday
* Apple earnings, Thursday
* Eurozone unemployment, Friday
* US unemployment, nonfarm payrolls, ISM Services, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, 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 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0721
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2561
* The Japanese yen rose 1.4% to 156.04 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.1% to $62,963.44
* Ether fell 3.8% to $3,184.75
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined five basis points to 4.62%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 2.53%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 4.29%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.4% to $82.71 a barrel
* Spot gold was little changed

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Sagarika Jaisinghani and Alexandra Semenova.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
It is nothing to die; it is frightful not to live. –Victor Hugo, 1802-1885.

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.  Richter Scale Day.

April 26, 1937: Massacre, Guernica, Spain.
On April 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere; at least 31 Soviets died immediately & causing tens of thousands of deaths across Europe in the coming decades due to cancer caused by the radioactive fallout.

John James Audubon, artist, b. 1785.
Frederick Law Olmstead, landscaper, b.1822.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher, b. 1889.
Charles Richter, scientist, b. 1900.

Blades fall off Moulin Rouge windmill in Paris
The blades atop the iconic cabaret fell off this week, but all shows will go on as planned, a spokesperson for the venue said.

Venice begins charging entry fee for day-trippers
Italy’s canal city has begun charging an entry fee for people visiting for the day, a controversial measure to tackle chronic over-tourism at peak times.

Highlights from the 2024 NFL Draft
For the first time, five quarterbacks were taken in the top 10 of the NFL Draft. Follow the live list of picks and selections here.

Hundreds of black ‘spiders’ spotted in mysterious ‘Inca City’ on Mars in new satellite photos
Every spring, creepy black “spiders” sprout up on Mars as buried carbon dioxide ice releases dusty geysers of gas. New ESA images show the phenomenon has begun in the strange Inca City formation. Read More.

Plato’s burial place finally revealed after AI deciphers ancient scroll carbonized in Mount Vesuvius eruption
Researchers used AI to decipher an ancient papyrus that includes details about where the Greek philosopher is buried.  Read More.

Scientists find one of the oldest stars in the universe in a galaxy right next to ours
An ancient star discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud has revealed the chemical fingerprint of the early universe. It hints that conditions were not the same everywhere when the first stars forged the elements for life. Read More.

China green-lights mass production of autonomous flying taxis — with commercial flights set for 2025
The EHang EH216-S autonomous flying taxi is the first eVTOL ready for mass production and could lead the way for flying cars around the world. Read More.

World’s thinnest gold leaf, dubbed ‘goldene,’ is just 1 atom thick
Goldene is the latest 2D material to be made since graphene was first created in 2004. Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Marrakech, Morocco
A crescent moon over Jemaa el-Fnaa, the city’s main square
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Hawaiian surfer Gabriela Bryan shared a wave with a pod of dolphins as she won her first World Surf League tour event at the Margaret River Pro in western Australia. “That wave was sent to me by someone, the dolphins in it. It was magical,” she said
Photograph: World Surf League

​​​​​​​A giraffe walks through a rainbow at the Zimanga Private Game Reserve in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa
Photograph: Calvin Kotze/Animal News Agency
Market Closes for April 26^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38239.66	+153.86
		+0.40%
S&P 500	5099.96	+51.54
		+1.02%
NASDAQ	15927.90	+316.14
		+2.03%
TSX	21969.24	+83.86
		+0.38%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37934.76	+306.28
		+0.81%
HANG SENG	17651.15	+366.61
		+2.12%
SENSEX	73730.16	-609.28
		-0.82%
FTSE 100*	8139.83	+60.97
		+0.75%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.816	3.868
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.695	3.743
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6630	4.7039
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7754	4.8123

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7316	0.7322
US $	1.3669	1.3657

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4618	0.6841
US $	1.0695	0.9350

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2343.10	2320.25
Oil
WTI Crude Future	85.17	85.17

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1973, the Chicago Board Options Exchange opened, becoming the first marketplace for trading listed options—on 16 stocks.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.4%, or 83.86 to 21,969.24 in Toronto.
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain and had the largest move, increasing 12.5%.
Today, 156 of 224 shares rose, while 63 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 0.9%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.7%
* The index advanced 7.9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 25% in the same period * The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.8% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 17.5% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.3 on a trailing basis and 14.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.47t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.07% compared with 8.00% in the previous session and the average of 7.81% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 44.1729| 1.7| 45/5
Financials | 28.2266| 0.4| 19/8
Information Technology | 7.5806| 0.4| 5/5
Consumer Staples | 2.6420| 0.3| 7/3
Energy | 2.0466| 0.0| 27/13
Consumer Discretionary | 1.9774| 0.3| 10/3
Real Estate | 0.7527| 0.2| 13/5
Industrials | 0.7405| 0.0| 20/7
Health Care | 0.4540| 0.7| 4/0
Utilities | -1.7519| -0.2| 6/9
Communication Services | -2.9871| -0.4| 0/5
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
First Quantum Minerals | 10.0500| 12.5| 59.2| 68.4
Brookfield Corp | 9.9970| 1.8| -16.1| 5.3
Shopify | 9.6260| 1.2| -39.5| -5.5
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -3.3230| -0.5| -12.4| 6.5
Waste Connections | -3.7820| -0.9| 11.1| 13.0
Enbridge | -8.3210| -1.1| 20.2| 2.6
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A rally in the world’s largest technology companies lifted stocks, with Wall Street also breathing a sigh of relief after the latest inflation data came roughly in line with estimates.
Equities notched their best week in 2024 after Microsoft Corp. and Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. sent a clear message to investors: Our spending on artificial intelligence and cloud computing is paying off.
That came as a positive signal for many traders wondering whether the main engine of the bull market would be able to live up to the high bar set for the industry.
The latest results from large technology companies have reinforced the group’s strong fundamentals, helping offset worries about the macroeconomic backdrop, according to Solita Marcelli at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“With tech fundamentals staying robust, in particular from big tech in the first quarter, we continue to highlight the recent correction has provided interesting entry points for tech and AI-related stocks,” Marcelli said.
The S&P 500 closed around 5,100, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 climbed almost 2%.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 4.67%.
The dollar rose.
To Clark Bellin at Bellwether Wealth, Friday’s inflation report keeps rate cuts on the table for 2024, but more likely towards the end of the year.
“We believe the stock market can power through these elevated interest rates, as earnings are still fairly strong and companies are figuring out how to still thrive in this high interest rate environment,” he noted.
Bellin says investors should continue to be on the lookout for opportunities in the market and consider taking advantage of the recent pullback, where “many quality stocks went on sale.”
“Every new inflation print has elevated importance, and the market was in need of an ‘in-line’ print to confirm that the Fed wasn’t starting to lose this battle,” said John Kerschner at Janus Henderson Investors. “Although inflation is still too high for the Fed’s comfort, if progress does continue, it still may be reasonable to assume one, maybe two, cuts in 2024.”
The US equity market will continue to rely on a handful of mega-caps stocks for direction until an uptick in real interest rates ignites recession fears, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists led by Michael Hartnett.
That concentration will remain intact until real 10-year yields — rates adjusted to reflect the true cost of funds — rise to around 3%, “or higher yields combine with higher credit spreads to threaten recession,” they wrote.
Elevated bond yields adjusted for inflation, seen as a proxy for tight financial conditions, are a common way for stock-market bubbles to burst.

Corporate Highlights:
* Intel Corp., the biggest maker of personal computer processors, gave a lackluster forecast for the current period, indicating that it’s still struggling to return to the top tier of the chip industry.
* Snap Inc. offered positive signs that its efforts to revamp its digital advertising business are gaining popularity with marketers — boosting revenue and providing stronger competition with powerhouses Google and Meta Platforms Inc.
* Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. declined after disappointing first-quarter performances.
* AbbVie Inc. lifted its full-year profit guidance as newer anti-inflammatory treatments like Rinvoq and Skyrizi take over for Humira, the blockbuster arthritis drug that fueled the company’s growth for more than 15 years.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0700
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2498
* The Japanese yen fell 1.4% to 157.90 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.6% to $63,767.27
* Ether fell 1.2% to $3,135.52
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 4.67%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 2.57%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.32%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
* Spot gold rose 0.3% to $2,339.99 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Michael Msika.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
Sing away sorrow, cast away care. –Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616.

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

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

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.  Anzac Day, Australia, New Zealand.  Holocaust Day, Israel.
April 25, 1901: First licence plates issued.
1915: Battle of Gallipoli.
April 25, 1959: The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.  Go to article >>
April 25, 1974: The Carnation Revolution – in Portugal, the fascist Estado Novo is overthrown in a bloodless coup.

Oliver Cromwell, revolutionary, b. 1599
Ella Fitzgerald, b. 1917.

An honest review of the Apple Vision Pro
With an initial $3,500 price tag, the Apple Vision Pro will likely take some time before usage reaches any kind of critical mass. Industry experts say sports and other live events may intrigue more consumers.

Streaming and texting on the moon?
NASA is partnering with a major cellular company to install a simple 4G network on the moon later this year. It could lay the groundwork for an off-world internet similar to Earth’s.

2024 NFL Draft begins today
The first round of the 2024 NFL Draft begins at 8 p.m. ET. Take a look at the venue in Detroit where many top athletes and fans are set to gather in the coming hours.

Reggie Bush is getting 2005 Heisman Trophy back
Football star Reggie Bush is getting his 2005 Heisman Memorial Trophy back after having had to relinquish the award in 2010.

DNA analysis spanning 9 generations of people reveals marriage practices of mysterious warrior culture
Researchers reconstructed the relationships among nearly 300 Avars, people from a 1,500-year-old mysterious warrior culture in the Carpathian Basin. Read More.

Enormous explosion in ‘Cigar Galaxy’ reveals rare type of star never seen beyond the Milky Way
An incredibly brief, ultrabright explosion has led astronomers to a newfound magnetic star outside the Milky Way, which could be the first of many extragalactic magnetars, according to new research. Read More.

‘We have combined two marvels of modern medicine’: Woman gets pig kidney and heart pump in groundbreaking procedures
In a medical first, doctors transplanted a gene-edited pig kidney into a human patient after giving her a new heart pump. Read More.

Giant prehistoric salmon had tusk-like teeth, just like a warthog’s
The largest salmon species ever discovered, Oncorhynchus rastrosus may have used its distinctive, tusk-like teeth to compete with rivals, defend against predators and dig nests. Read More.

PHOTOS OF THEE DAY

New York, US
The full pink moon rises above 42nd Street in New York City, as seen from Weehawken, New Jersey
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Toby’s Inlet, Australia
A mass stranding of whales in Western Australia
Photograph: AAP/Parks and Wildlife, Western Australia

​​​​​​​Rayong, Thailand
Aerial picture shows a breakwater installed to prevent coastal erosion along the Saeng Chan beach in Thailand’s Rayong province. Breakwaters are offshore concrete walls installed to reduce the erosive and damaging effects of strong waves out at sea
Photograph: Amaury Paul/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for April 25^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38085.80	-375.12
		-0.98%
S&P 500	5048.42	-23.21
		-0.46%
NASDAQ	15611.76	-100.99
		-0.64%
TSX	21885.38	+11.66
		+0.05%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37628.48	-831.60
		-2.16%
HANG SENG	17284.54	+83.27
		+0.48%
SENSEX	74339.44	+486.50
		+0.66%
FTSE 100*	8078.86	+38.48
		+0.48%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.868	3.795
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.743	3.695
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.7039	4.6417
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.8123	4.7712

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7322	0.7297
US $	1.3657	1.3705

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4655	0.6824
US $	1.0730	0.9320

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2320.25	2328.45
Oil
WTI Crude Future	85.17	84.17

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1931, Pynchon & Co., one of Wall Street’s most prestigious brokerage firms, went bust. Pynchon had bet much of its own money on new-media issues it helped underwrite, including Fox Films, whose shares had tumbled.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 21,885.38 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.6%.
Teck Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain and had the largest move, increasing 8.7%.
Today, 109 of 224 shares rose, while 113 fell; 2 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 1.3%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.4%
* The index advanced 7.1% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 24% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.2% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 17.1% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.8% in the past 5 days and fell 0.3% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.2 on a trailing basis and 14.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.47t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 8.00% compared with 8.23% in the previous session and the average of 7.97% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 57.1321| 2.2| 42/7
Energy | 28.0607| 0.7| 31/10
Consumer Staples | -0.2631| 0.0| 5/6
Health Care | -0.4958| -0.8| 1/2
Industrials | -0.7673| 0.0| 8/19
Communication Services | -3.5956| -0.5| 1/4
Consumer Discretionary | -3.6016| -0.5| 2/11
Real Estate | -3.8192| -0.8| 5/16
Utilities | -4.7365| -0.6| 5/10
Financials | -19.8747| -0.3| 9/18
Information Technology | -36.3838| -2.0| 0/10
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Teck Resources | 17.3800| 8.7| 85.3| 20.8
Enbridge | 9.8070| 1.4| 20.4| 3.8
Barrick Gold | 8.5900| 3.1| -1.8| -2.5
Constellation Software | -5.7790| -1.1| -36.9| 11.3
Bank of Nova Scotia | -8.2320| -1.5| 62.8| -2.1
Shopify | -22.6300| -2.7| 10.1| -6.6
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street was rattled by data that showed exactly what investors did not want to hear: a sharp slowdown in the world’s largest economy and stubborn inflationary pressures.
Treasuries sold off, with yields hitting fresh 2024 highs as the economic figures revived the “stagflation” chatter — bringing more uncertainty to the path of Federal Reserve policy.
Swap traders pushed back the timing of the first rate cut to December.
Equities also struggled, but trimmed most of an earlier slide amid a surge in two heavyweights: Nvidia Corp. and Tesla Inc.
Their rally offset a post-earnings plunge in fellow mega-cap Meta Platforms Inc.
Intel Slips After Revenue Forecast Misses Analyst Estimates The latest economic data interrupted a run of strong demand and muted price pressures that had fueled optimism for a “soft landing.”
Gross domestic product increased at a 1.6% annualized rate, trailing all forecasts.
A closely watched measure of underlying inflation advanced at a greater-than-expected 3.7% clip.
“This report was the worst of both worlds: economic growth is slowing and inflationary pressures are persisting,” said Chris Zaccarelli at Independent Advisor Alliance. “The Fed wants to see inflation start coming down in a persistent manner, but the market wants to see economic growth and corporate profits increasing.”   If neither are headed in the right direction, he said, then that’s going to be “bad news” for markets.
The S&P 500 dropped to around 5,050, trimming this week’s gains.
Meantime, 10-year yields rose six basis points to 4.70%.
A $44 billion offer of seven-year notes was sold roughly in line with forecasts.
“The day the music died,” Bill Gross, the co-founder of Pacific Investment Management Co., posted on X. “10 year Treasury moving to 4.75%. Why own bonds?” He also said: “Stick to value stocks, avoid tech for now.”
Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Officer Howard Lutnick expects the Fed to cut rates a single time this year, just ahead of the US presidential election.
“I’m thinking September, and it’s not really to move the economy — it’s to show off a little bit,” Lutnick said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg Television.
The latest economic data must harden the tone from the Fed next week some, said Krishna Guha at Evercore.
“The Fed still goes into a holding pattern circling the airport until it gets a better read on forward inflation dynamics,” he said.
It appears economic growth is “coming back down to earth” after an unusually strong second half of last year, said Mike Reynolds at Glenmede.
The combination of slower growth and sticky inflation will undoubtedly increase the whispers around potential “stagflation risk,” potentially complicating the Fed’s job, according to Jim Baird at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.
“Stagflation chatter will surely pick up in the wake of these figures, but we’re less concerned with such an outcome as long as the labor market remains so strong,” said Ian Lyngen at BMO Capital Markets.
To Jeff Roach at LPL Financial, the economy will likely decelerate further in the following quarters as consumers are probably near the end of their spending splurge.
“We should expect inflation will ease throughout this year as aggregate demand slows, although the path to the Fed’s 2% target still looks a long ways off,” he noted.
Fed’s Goolsbee Says Central Bank Needs to ‘Recalibrate’ Policy.
In the short term, Thursday’s numbers don’t appear to be a green light for either stock bulls or bears, said Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley.
“The uncertainty is unlikely to ease pressures in a market experiencing its deepest pullback since last year,” he noted.
The most-relevant setback in the data is the acceleration of core inflation, according to David Donabedian at CIBC Private Wealth US.
“We are not far from all rate cuts being backed out of investor expectations,” he said, adding Fed Chair Jerome Powell will possibly deliver a more hawkish tone during next week’s Fed meeting.
Traders will scrutinize Powell’s comments for clues about the latest thinking around easing policy.
He’s previously said that growth can run at a faster rate without stoking inflation.
Swap traders now see only about 35 basis points of Fed rate reductions for all of 2024, well below the more than six quarter-point reductions they expected at the start of the year.
High Commodity Costs Hurt Rate Cut Prospects, World Bank Says
“The main story remains ‘The Fed vs. The Economy’,” said Scott Helfstein at Global X.
He believes the central bank is not apt to make any major moves ahead of the election in September or November.
So, it comes down to the July and December meetings.
“There is a lot of data that will come out before December — but one cut in 2024 looks reasonable,” he concluded.
Zaccarelli at Independent Advisor Alliance says he’s looking ahead to Friday’s PCE numbers because slowing inflation is the number one issue for the Fed.
In addition, he noted that the rate cut (or even rate increase) debate has been heating up — and that’s what’s injected so much uncertainty into bond and stock markets lately.
“Our base case remains that inflation will slow in the months ahead, allowing the Fed to start trimming rates in September,” said Brian Rose at UBS Global Wealth Management.

Corporate Highlights:
* American Airlines Group Inc. expects a return to profit heading into the busy summer travel season after bad weather and delays linked to air traffic congestion weighed on the carrier’s early-year results.
* Southwest Airlines Co. is slowing growth, ending service at four airports and offering voluntary leaves to address “significant challenges” stemming in part from reduced deliveries of Boeing Co. planes.
* Airbus SE will further increase production of its advanced A350 widebody jet as the plane-maker benefits from surging demand for long-distance travel and the crisis engulfing its arch-rival Boeing Co.
* Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. boosted its full-year profit forecast as demand for cruises continued to surge, prompting record price hikes.
* Caterpillar Inc. reported first-quarter results that showed machinery sales slipping from a year earlier and warned that the trend is expected to continue in its second quarter.
* Comcast Corp. reported a steeper-than-expected loss of internet subscribers.
* International Business Machines Corp.’s weak consulting unit sales disappointed investors, overshadowing its acquisition of software firm HashiCorp Inc.
* Ford Motor Co., rapidly retooling its electric vehicle strategy in a decelerating market for plug-ins, posted first-quarter results that beat expectations on strong sales of work trucks.
* Nasdaq Inc.’s profit fell the most in 14 years as firms continue to wait for the economy to stabilize before going public.
* Merck & Co. raised its annual profit and revenue forecast as the blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda continued to dominate the treatment landscape.
* Harley-Davidson Inc.’s first-quarter revenue beat estimates despite high borrowing costs and tighter consumer budgets.
* First Citizens BancShares Inc., which scooped up Silicon Valley Bank after the lender failed last year, lifted its guidance for lending income for 2024.
* Hertz Global Holdings Inc. reported a loss that was nearly three times worse than analysts expected as it accelerated sales of electric vehicles to reduce its fleet of Tesla Inc. models that have weighed on profits for the past year.

Key events this week:
* Japan rate decision, Tokyo CPI, inflation and GDP forecasts, Friday
* US personal income and spending, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Exxon Mobil, Chevron earnings, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0729
* The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.2513
* The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 155.63 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1% to $64,705.41
* Ether rose 1% to $3,161.87
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced six basis points to 4.70%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 2.63%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.36%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.2% to $83.77 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,332.94 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Procrastination is the thief of time. –Edward Young, 1681-1765.

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:
April 24, 1898: Spain declares war on U.S.
1800: Library of Congress established.
1962: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal. Go to article >>
April 24^th, 1990: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched into Earth orbit, later delivering some of the most spectacular images of the far reaches of the Universe.

Shirley MacLaine, b. 1934.
Barbra Streisand, b. 1942.

Prince Louis photo released to mark sixth birthday
Britain’s Prince and Princess of Wales released a new photo of Prince Louis to mark his sixth birthday. It’s the first image to be released by the royal family since a photo-editing scandal erupted last month.

French recipes that will make you feel like a gourmet chef
Homemade croissants, anyone? These delicious recipes will help satisfy your cravings for French cuisine.

4 solar flares simultaneously erupt from the sun in rare ‘super’ explosion
In the early hours of Tuesday (April 23), quadruple solar flares near-simultaneously exploded from across the sun’s surface, and there’s a good chance that one of these outbursts launched a solar storm toward Earth. Read More.

Massive heat wave and a supercell thunderstorm caused deadly, baseball-sized hailstones to rain down on Spain
A giant-hail event that hit Girona in northwest Spain in 2022 was fueled by climate change, with a marine heatwave helping to intensify the storm that killed a small child. Read More.

Strange ‘minimoon’ orbiting alongside Earth may be a piece of the far side of the moon, new research hints
The near-Earth asteroid Kamo’oalewa, which orbits alongside our planet as a ‘minimoon,’ may have originated from Giordano Bruno crater on the far side of the moon, new research suggests. Read More.

Explosive black hole flare from the center of our galaxy reconstructed from ‘a single flickering pixel’ using AI and Einstein’s equations
An explosive flare from the Milky Way’s central black hole has been translated from ‘a single flickering pixel’ into a detailed 3D model using AI and Einstein’s general relativity equations.  Full Story: Live Science (4/22)

Ancient, 30-foot ancestor of great white shark unearthed in Mexico quarry
“Exceptionally preserved” fossils of an ancient shark that lived alongside the dinosaurs has finally revealed what the predator looked like — and why it may have gone extinct. Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Ankara, Turkey
The sun sets over Tuz Lake, a Unesco-protected area known for its water naturally turning pink because of algae in the summer and for its massive flamingo colony
Photograph: Hakan Nural/Anadolu/Getty Images

Hanover, Germany
A visitor plays paper, scissors, stone with an SVH servo-electric 5 finger gripping hand at a technology fair
Photograph: Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images

​​​​​​​Lier, Norway
‘There is still a lot of snow on the ground in March in the south-east of the country. But the days when the clouds and mist stay low and swirl around the valley landscape are a real treat to see.’
Photograph: Ann Thomstad
Market Closes for April 24^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38460.92	-42.77
		-0.11%
S&P 500	5071.63	+1.08
		+0.02%
NASDAQ	15712.75	+16.11
		+0.10%
TSX	21873.72	-138.00
		-0.63%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	38460.08	+907.92
		+2.42%
HANG SENG	17201.27	+372.34
		+2.21%
SENSEX	73852.94	+114.49
		+0.16%
FTSE 100*	8040.38	-4.43
		-0.06%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.795	3.760
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.695	3.666
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6417	4.6004
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7712	4.7272

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7297	0.7319
US $	1.3705	1.3662

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4661	0.6821
US $	1.0698	0.9347

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2328.45	2334.95
Oil
WTI Crude Future	84.17	82.85

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1956: In a first, the New York Stock Exchange allowed its opening bell to be rung by an outside guest—Leonard Ross, who won $100,000 on a TV quiz show largely on the strength of his knowledge of stock-market trivia.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.6% at 21,873.72 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 0.7% on April 15 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.6%.
Today, industrials stocks led the market lower, as 6 of 11 sectors lost; 126 of 224 shares fell, while 92 rose.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 6.3%.
Equinox Gold Corp. had the largest drop, falling 7.8%.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 1.3%
* The index advanced 5.8% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.3% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 17% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1% in the past 5 days and fell 0.5% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.3 on a trailing basis and 14.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.49t
* 30-day price volatility little changed to 8.23% compared with 8.22% in the previous session and the average of 7.97% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Industrials | -89.8631| -2.9| 7/19
Financials | -41.2946| -0.6| 10/17
Information Technology | -21.5722| -1.2| 4/6
Communication Services | -7.6020| -1.1| 0/5
Real Estate | -1.7895| -0.4| 3/18
Health Care | -0.0665| -0.1| 1/2
Consumer Discretionary | 0.6846| 0.1| 6/7
Utilities | 1.4471| 0.2| 9/5
Consumer Staples | 2.4799| 0.3| 7/4
Materials | 6.7375| 0.3| 23/25
Energy | 12.8433| 0.3| 22/18
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -49.1300| -6.3| 160.2| 7.0
Canadian National | -34.0900| -4.8| 91.9| 1.1
Shopify | -17.6500| -2.1| -20.2| -4.0
Brookfield Corp | 3.8990| 0.7| 3.2| 4.5
Agnico Eagle Mines | 4.5230| 1.5| -10.9| 20.1
Enbridge | 6.6860| 0.9| -3.3| 2.4
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks struggled to gain much traction, with Wall Street traders gearing up for economic data that will help shape the views on the Federal Reserve’s next steps.
In late trading, Meta Platforms Inc. tumbled after a disappointing revenue forecast.
Equities fluctuated after their biggest gain in two months.
Mega-caps were mixed, with Tesla Inc. surging after Elon Musk vowed to launch less-expensive vehicles and Nvidia Corp. sliding.
Treasuries remained under pressure after a $70 billion sale of notes failed to assuage concerns about more losses.
For weeks, traders have been scaling back bets on how many rate cuts they expect from the Fed amid a string of resilient US data.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict gross domestic product likely cooled to around 2.5% in the first quarter, while suggesting persistent inflationary pressures.
“Tomorrow’s pivotal GDP report comes as market participants hope for a soft number that would lead to rate cuts sooner rather than later,” said Jose Torres at Interactive Brokers. “We expect a stronger-than-projected figure. It would be great for revenue growth prospects, but bad for the timing and extent of rate cuts.”
The S&P 500 closed slightly above 5,070.
Treasury 10-year yields rose four basis points to 4.64%.
The yen weakened beyond 155 per dollar, fueling intervention jitters.
Buoyed by strong economic data and persistent inflation, traders have sought higher yields for holding government bonds as they revise down their expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts, according to Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com.
However, higher yields and rates signal the cost of servicing US federal debt is becoming burdensome, he noted.
Interest rates staying elevated longer, along with economic uncertainty and geopolitical turmoil have lessened the appeal of some of the stock market’s cheapest strategies.
Investors this month have pulled some $200 million out of value based exchange-traded funds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.
In contrast, growth stocks have attracted more than $3 billion in inflows — despite a shaky stock market that’s raised concerns of more downside to come.
That diminished interest in cheap stocks comes on the heels of lackluster performances of common value products.
To Katrina Dudley at Franklin Templeton, valuations are fair — therefore companies need to continue to deliver on earnings growth.
“For the market overall, we’ll be watching guidance,” said Matt Palazzolo at Bernstein Private Wealth Management. “While it’s good to know how companies did from January to March — it’s more important now to have a sense for managements’ expectations for the balance of the year.”
With several high-profile earnings reports this week, Mark Hackett at Nationwide says those figures will further test investors’ comfort.
While the cohort of seven mega-caps has done well in the last two years because of their superior earnings-per-share growth relative to the broader market, this advantage could decrease in 2024 and even more significantly in 2025, Hackett noted.  “The Magnificent Seven are not nearly as powerful as they once were, and this broadening of the market is creating pockets of opportunity for the rest of the S&P 500,” he noted. “We see this as a positive development for investors looking to diversify away from the recent market leaders,” he added.
Meantime, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. indicator is flashing a resounding buy signal in US stocks, after it hit a threshold that typically precedes better-than-average gains.
The bank’s US Tactical Positioning Monitor hit a level that reflects an “attractive set-up” for the S&P 500, according to a team led by Andrew Tyler, JPMorgan’s head of US market intelligence.
The stock gauge has historically gained around 3% in the subsequent 20 days after a similar four-week change in positioning, compared to a roughly 1% gain in all periods, according to the note.

Corporate Highlights:
* International Business Machines Corp. is nearing a deal to acquire software company HashiCorp Inc. for about $35 per share, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
* Boeing Co. Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun said the embattled plane-maker is making progress toward turning around its manufacturing and that it will hit its mid-decade cash-flow goal, even after reporting a major outflow in the first three months of the year it slows output
* B. Riley Financial Inc.’s auditors signed off on its annual report, while flagging concerns about weak internal controls.
* Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s investments into artificial intelligence startups will get deeper scrutiny from the UK’s antitrust watchdog.
* AT&T Inc. beat analysts’ estimates for profit in the first quarter as it added more wireless phone customers than expected.
* Biogen Inc. reported first-quarter profit that beat expectations as the biotech giant’s new Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi gained traction and cost cuts took hold.
* Visa Inc. reported a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street predictions as US credit-card spending climbed.
* Humana Inc. pulled its guidance for next year amid mounting pressures in its Medicare business.
* Hasbro Inc. reported first-quarter earnings that beat estimates, a promising sign for the company’s turnaround efforts.
* Mattel Inc. reported a smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss, benefiting from fast sales of its Hot Wheels miniature cars and lower costs.
* Citigroup Inc. turned bearish on Molson Coors Beverage Co., expecting sales trends will weaken as benefits from last year’s Bud Light boycott fade.
* SunPower Corp. will eliminate more than 25% of its workforce as the company copes with a prolonged slump in the rooftop solar business.

Key events this week:
* US GDP, wholesale inventories, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Microsoft, Alphabet, Airbus earnings, Thursday
* Japan rate decision, Tokyo CPI, inflation and GDP forecasts, Friday
* US personal income and spending, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Exxon Mobil, Chevron earnings, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro was unchanged at $1.0701
* The British pound rose 0.1% to $1.2464
* The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 155.30 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 3.6% to $63,938.36
* Ether fell 2.4% to $3,133.35
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 4.64%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced nine basis points to 2.59%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced nine basis points to 4.33%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.5% to $82.93 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.1% to $2,319.55 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Alexandra Semenova and Carly Wanna.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
Ambition does not see the earth she treads on: The rock and the herbage are of one substance to her. –Walter Savage Landor, 1775-1864.

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: Full moon tonight.  Happy Passover.  St. George’s Day,, England.

On April 23, 1968, 300 Columbia students barricaded the office of the college dean, charging the university with supporting the Vietnam War and violating Harlem residents’ civil rights. Go to article >>
April 23, 2005: The first YouTube video is posted.  The 18-second clip “Me at the zoo” shows ci-founder Jawed Karim at San Diego Zoo.

William Shakespeare, b. 1564 d. 1616
Miguel Cervantes, d. 16156.
Michael Moore, filmmaker, b. 1954

‘I nearly fell out of my chair’: 1,800-year-old mini portrait of Alexander the Great found in a field in Denmark
The miniature bronze portrait depicts Alexander the Great with his wavy hair and crown of ram horns. Read More.

George Washington’s stash of centuries-old cherries found hidden under Mount Vernon floor
Enslaved people picked the cherries around 250 years ago, likely in pre-Revolutionary War times.  Full Story: Live Science (4/23

Haunting photo of Earth and moon snapped by China’s experimental lunar satellites
China’s experimental moon satellites Tiandu-1 and 2 are testing lunar communications and navigation tech. Recently, they shared this image of the lunar surface with a ghostly Earth in the background. Read More.

James Webb telescope’s ‘shocking’ discovery may hint at hidden exomoon around ‘failed star’
JWST’s surprise discovery of methane emissions and likely aurorae over a distant brown dwarf could indicate this “failed star” is orbited by an active moon. Read More.

Detecting cancer in minutes possible with just a drop of dried blood and new test, study hints
Early tests suggest that a new tool that requires only a single drop of blood could detect three of the deadliest forms of cancer. Read More.

How moving from the US to a ‘blue zone’ transformed this family’s life
This couple abandoned life in Texas and moved to Costa Rica. Seven years later, they’re feeling the benefits.

Taylor Swift’s new album shatters streaming records
Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department” became the most-streamed album in a single day on Spotify in just 12 hours.

Indian teenager becomes the youngest challenger for world chess title
This 17-year-old chess prodigy has an opportunity to dethrone the reigning world champion from China later this year.

Could asteroid mining become a reality?
Minerals are in short supply on Earth. Some startups believe we should be extracting metals from asteroids to fulfill high demand.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Sydney, Australia
Members of the Bondi Board Riders Club, various local sporting clubs, and lifeguards participate in a paddle-out at Bondi Beach to honour the victims of the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbings
Photograph: Steven Saphore/EPA

New York, US
The Pink Moon, illuminated at 99%, rises behind the Statue of Liberty as the sun sets in New York City, as seen from Jersey City, New Jersey
Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

​​​​​​​Qingyuan, China
An island is flooded after heavy rains in southern China’s Guangdong province.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for April 23^rd, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38503.69	+263.71
		+0.69%
S&P 500	5070.55	+59.95
		+1.20%
NASDAQ	15696.64	+245.33
		+1.59%
TSX	22011.72	+139.76
		+0.64%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37552.16	+113.55
		+0.30%
HANG SENG	16828.93	+317.24
		+1.92%
SENSEX	73738.45	+89.83
		+0.12%
FTSE 100*	8044.81	+20.94
		+0.26%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.760	3.752
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.666	3.661
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6004	4.6085
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7272	4.7127

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7319	0.7298
US $	1.3662	1.3702

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4622	0.6839
US $	1.0702	0.9344

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2334.95	2334.95
Oil
WTI Crude Future	82.85	83.14

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1985: Coca-Cola introduced New Coke, outraging customers who preferred the original formula. Within months, the old version was revived as Coca-Cola Classic.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fifth day, climbing 0.6%, or 139.76 to 22,011.72 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 1% on April 5.
Today, information technology stocks led the market higher, as all sectors gained; 175 of 224 shares rose, while 49 fell.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.6%.
Tilray Brands Inc. had the largest increase, rising 7.2%.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 0.7%
* The index advanced 6.4% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.6% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 17.8% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.7% in the past 5 days and was little changed in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.4 on a trailing basis and 15 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.47t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.22% compared with 8.05% in the previous session and the average of 7.95% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology | 47.6296| 2.6| 9/1
Financials | 25.8179| 0.4| 20/7
Industrials | 19.9211| 0.6| 23/4
Energy | 18.3432| 0.5| 35/6
Materials | 9.4490| 0.4| 39/11
Communication Services | 5.4910| 0.8| 5/0
Consumer Discretionary | 5.4175| 0.7| 10/3
Consumer Staples | 3.3913| 0.4| 9/2
Utilities | 2.7882| 0.3| 12/3
Health Care | 1.1174| 1.7| 3/1
Real Estate | 0.3945| 0.1| 10/11
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 37.5700| 4.6| 13.1| -2.0
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 8.8620| 1.2| 73.6| 14.2
Brookfield Corp | 8.4980| 1.6| 3.5| 3.7
Lundin Mining | -2.4820| -3.4| -21.4| 40.7
Intact Financial | -2.6550| -1.0| -37.5| 8.3
Ivanhoe Mines | -3.7100| -4.7| 105.9| 41.2
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A rally in tech heavyweights lifted the broader stock market, with the group’s high-stakes earnings seen by Wall Street investors as a major test of the bull run in equities.
In late hours, Tesla Inc. soared despite an earnings miss, with Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle giant disclosing plans for more affordable models.
The stock halted a seven-day plunge that drove it to “oversold” levels, climbing alongside other members of the “Magnificent Seven” cohort of mega-caps.
Treasuries briefly extended gains after a solid $69 billion sale of two-year notes — but quickly returned to levels seen ahead of the auction — with 10-year yields little changed.
After notching several record highs this year, equities lost traction in April amid signals the Federal Reserve will hold rates higher for longer.
The slide has made stocks more attractive as it removed market froth, with investors now focused on corporate earnings, according to Citigroup Inc. strategists.
“We would view the recent pullback as a buying opportunity,” Citi’s Mihir Tirodkar and Beata Manthey said.
“Bullish positioning has unwound and now looks more neutral, particularly in the US. The current earnings season could refocus investor attention on solid underlying fundamentals.”
The S&P 500 rise to around 5,070, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 added 1.5%.
Nvidia Corp., the poster child of the artificial-intelligence boom, led a surge in chipmakers.
United Parcel Service Inc. — an economic barometer — reported profit that beat estimates.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. closed at an all-time high.
Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson said the bar is high for US firms to deliver on earnings, particularly for mega-cap technology names, which face tough comparisons from the growth they showed last year.
But more interesting to him will be how shares react to the results.
“The theme is that it’s a very unbalanced economy and that’s the theme we’ve had for a while, so post-Covid, it’s just been a very unpredictable environment for a lot of reasons,” Wilson said. “Some of those things we got really wrong. And I think we’re trying to figure out kinda what the next stage is.”
Equities saw their biggest back-to-back advance in two months.
That’s after a selloff that sent the S&P 500 down over 5% in April through Friday.
The most-important aspect of the market set-up heading into this week’s earnings was its “oversold” condition, according to Dan Wantrobski at Janney Montgomery Scott.
“Thus, if earnings come in strong over the days ahead, stocks are effectively spring-loaded for a bigger counter-trend rally than we have seen thus far,” he said.
Based on the median and average pullbacks, downside from current levels would be limited to somewhere between 2% to 5% — which would also correspond to S&P 500 levels where there’s strong technical support, said Keith Lerner at Truist Advisory Services.  “Pullbacks are the admission price to the market,” he noted. “The weight of the evidence in our work suggests the market’s risk/reward has improved following the recent setback.  Therefore, we view the recent pullback as an opportunity for those investors who have excess cash or are underweight equities relative to their target allocations.”
Ahead of a busy period of quarterly earnings, Bank of America Corp.’s corporate clients stepped up purchases of their own stock.
Buybacks accelerated in the five-day period through April 19 — and are tracking above typical seasonal levels for the seventh consecutive week — quantitative strategists led by Jill Carey Hall wrote Tuesday in note to clients.
Besides Tesla, Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. are also due to report earnings this week.
And stakes are high.
Profits for the “Magnificent Seven” group — which also includes Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Nvidia Corp. — are forecast to rise 38% in the first quarter from a year ago, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data.
The group of tech mega-caps is crucial to the S&P 500 since the companies carry the heaviest weightings in the benchmark.
After this year’s advance, valuations have gotten lofty.
After the latest selloff, the Magnificent Seven still traded at a combined 31 times forward earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
To Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management, the group will likely be able to extend its positive performance.
“After all, the strong balance sheet characteristics and secure competitive market positions of the Magnificent Seven imply that a significant correction is unlikely, despite their valuations drawing comparisons to the 2000s tech bubble,” she noted.
And despite all the macroeconomic fears, tech balance-sheets may shelter the sector from elevated rates, according to BI strategists led by Gina Martin Adams.
“While tech stocks have above-average and median duration relative to the rest of the market, the group also carries relatively little debt and maintains a far superior interest-rate coverage ratio to the rest of the index’s sectors,” they
noted.   
“Big Tech is carrying S&P 500 earnings growth this quarter, but the other 495 companies in the index will have to come into their own starting in the second quarter,” said Nicholas Colas at DataTrek Research. “Markets clearly believe this will occur, which is why large caps have held in fairly well, even as rates and geopolitical risks have risen.”
Brace for more declines in stock markets, warns Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s tactical specialist Scott Rubner.
Answering a barrage of questions from clients on whether the pullback in stock markets meant enough equity exposure was reduced last week, Rubner said “my reply is no.”
He noted that Goldman clients have been reducing exposure on any uptick in stocks.
Goldman’s trading desk estimates that commodity trading advisers, or CTAs that surf the momentum of asset prices through long and short bets in the futures market, are modeled to sell stocks over the next week, no matter which way markets go.
To Mark Newton at Fundstrat, the stock rebound doesn’t mean the lows are in — but they look close — and breadth looks to have bottomed out.
“Technology has pulled back to good support, and should stabilize/rally post earnings,” he noted. “Value has taken a temporary lead over growth — which should prove temporary.”

Corporate Highlights:
* Apple Inc.’s iPhone sales in China fell 19% during the March quarter, according to data from an independent research firm that marked the gadget’s worst performance there since Covid struck around 2020.
* Spotify Technology SA reported it swung to a profit in the first quarter as the audio-streaming giant boosted subscribers and added new features.
* PepsiCo Inc. posted stronger-than-expected sales growth thanks to robust demand in its international divisions, while volumes dropped in North America.
* Halliburton Co., the world’s biggest provider of fracking work, posted its best earnings for a first quarter in a dozen years despite a shrinking business in the shale patch that it said isn’t likely to recover this year.
* General Motors Co. expects better profit this year after a strong first quarter, as robust truck sales in the US led the automaker to raise 2024 guidance by $500 million.
* General Electric Co. raised the full-year profit guidance for its aerospace business, driven by an increase in revenue from commercial aircraft engines and services.
* JetBlue Airways Corp. forecast worse-than-expected sales this quarter, blaming excess flying capacity in the critical Latin America market
* Philip Morris International Inc. raised its full-year outlook after strong sales of its heated tobacco and nicotine pouch products.
* UnitedHealth Group Inc. found files containing private information on a vast number of Americans whose data may have been compromised in a February cyberattack that upended the US health system.
* Lockheed Martin Corp.’s first-quarter operating income beat expectations as it delivered more fighter jets and missile systems.
* RTX Corp.’s profit beat Wall Street estimates as the aerospace and defense giant works through the costly recall of its best-selling jet engine.
* Kering SA warned that profit will plunge in the first half of the year as the crisis at Gucci, its biggest brand, deepens.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%
* The MSCI World index rose 1.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.4% to $1.0702
* The British pound rose 0.8% to $1.2449
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 154.82 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin was little changed at $66,486.04
* Ether rose 0.9% to $3,218.9
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.60%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.50%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 4.24%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.7% to $83.32 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.2% to $2,322.91 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Sagarika Jaisinghani and Jessica Menton.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
You can never be overdressed or overeducated. –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: Happy Monday.  Today is Earth Day.

April 22, 1945: Adolf Hitler admits defeat after learning teat Soviet forces had entered Berlin.
1955: Congress orders all US coins bear the motto “In God We Trust.”
2010:  The Deepwater Horizon oil platform, operated by BP, sank into the Gulf of Mexico two days after a massive explosion that killed 11 workers.  Go to article >>

Jack Nicholson, b. 1937.
Charles Mingus, bassist, b. 1922.
Germaine de Stael, salonnaire, b. 1766.
Henry Fielding, novelist, b.1707.

April’s full ‘Pink Moon’ blooms amid a meteor shower tomorrow. Here’s how to get the best view.
April’s full moon, nicknamed the Pink Moon, rises on Tuesday (April 23), but will appear bright and full on Monday and Wednesday as well. Here’s how to see it at its best. Read More.

A pink moon will brighten the night sky this week
Despite its cool name, April’s full moon will probably look like any other. Here’s why it’s called the pink moon.

Rare ‘porcelain gallbladder’ found in 100-year-old unmarked grave at Mississippi mental asylum cemetery
Archaeologists have discovered the burial of a woman with a rare “porcelain gallbladder” who was interred at the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum’s cemetery 100 years ago. Read More.

Scientists may have pinpointed the true origin of the Hope Diamond and other pristine gemstones
Researchers suggest that the famed Golconda diamonds, including the Hope Diamond and Koh-i-noor, may have originated from a volcanic outcrop nearly 200 miles from where they were mined. Read More.

‘Uncharted territory’: El Niño to flip to La Niña in what could be the hottest year on record.
A quick flip from El Niño to La Niña is coming soon, but what does that mean for the U.S.? Full Story: Live Science (4/22).

Giving a hoot on Earth Day: How to protect owls in your own backyard
It can be tough to survive in a world altered by humans. Here’s what you should do if you want owls — or any birds — in your backyard.

Northern lights create dazzling spectacle in the sky
The northern lights could easily be described as Earth’s greatest light show. Watch this stunning video to learn why the lights are starting to appear in some unexpected parts of the world.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Frankfurt, Germany
The moon sets behind buildings on the outskirts of the city
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Gold Coast, Australia
Olympic breakdancing athlete Jeff ‘B-Boy J Attack’ Dunne poses during a portrait session
Photograph: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Northumberland, UK
‘Low Hauxley, near Amble. I was hoping for a sunrise, but it was too cloudy. However, the sun soon came out, giving some great light on the rocks and dunes. Coquet Lighthouse is in the background.’
Photograph: David Eberlin
Market Closes for April 22^nd, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38239.98	+253.58
		+0.67%
S&P 500	5010.60	+43.37
		+0.87%
NASDAQ	15451.30	+169.29
		+1.11%
TSX	21871.96	+64.58
		+0.30%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37438.61	+370.26
		+1.00%
HANG SENG	16511.69	+287.55
		+1.77%
SENSEX	73648.62	+560.29
		+0.77%
FTSE 100*	8023.87	+128.02
		+1.62%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.752	3.739
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.661	3.647
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6085	4.6207
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7127	4.7106

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7298	0.7266
US $	1.3702	1.3763

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4597	0.6851
US $	1.0653	0.9387

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2334.95	2379.70
Oil
WTI Crude Future	83.14	83.14

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1980, market guru Joe Granville made a prescient call when he told his 1,500 premium paying subscribers to buy stocks. The next day, the Dow surged 4%. Over the longer term, Granville’s advice wasn’t so lucrative. His followers lost 98% of their money between 1980 and 1987, according to financial newsletter expert Mark Hulbert.
By Bloomberg Automation
Canada
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fourth day, climbing 0.3%, or 64.58 to 21,871.96 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since April 12.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.0%.
Celestica Inc. had the largest increase, rising 5.2%.
Today, 120 of 224 shares rose, while 101 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 1.3%
* The index advanced 5.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 21% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.3% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 17% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.6% in the past 5 days and fell 0.5% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.2 on a trailing basis and 14.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.46t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.05% compared with 8.01% in the previous session and the average of 8.12% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 39.5012| 0.6| 20/7
Industrials | 27.4739| 0.9| 17/10
Information Technology | 17.7755| 1.0| 9/1
Consumer Staples | 12.6718| 1.4| 9/2
Energy | 11.9370| 0.3| 20/20
Consumer Discretionary | 10.4302| 1.4| 10/2
Real Estate | 6.8915| 1.5| 19/2
Utilities | 5.9193| 0.7| 8/6
Communication Services | 4.7020| 0.7| 4/1
Health Care | -1.0069| -1.5| 1/3
Materials | -71.7143| -2.7| 3/47
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | 13.3700| 1.0| 174.9| 1.4
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 13.0300| 1.7| 21.7| 12.9
Couche-Tard | 8.6810| 2.2| -4.7| -0.3
Franco-Nevada | -6.7170| -3.0| 14.0| 10.4
Agnico Eagle Mines | -8.7680| -2.9| 26.9| 17.4
Barrick Gold | -12.5200| -4.3| -1.9| -6.0
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks climbed after a $2 trillion selloff, with investors hanging their hopes on whether big tech will meet the lofty expectations for artificial intelligence during the busiest week of the earnings season.
About 180 companies in the S&P 500 — representing over 40% of its market capitalization — are due to report this week.
Stakes are high for the “Magnificent Seven” mega-caps, whose profits are forecast to rise nearly 40% from a year ago, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
The focus on earnings comes after a rout fueled by geopolitical fears and signals the Federal Reserve will be in no rush to cut rates.
“Just beating consensus estimates for earnings won’t be enough,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co. “We’re going to have to see much better guidance from Corporate America if the stock market is going to resume its advance.”
Strategists at Wall Street’s top banks are split on whether companies can deliver on robust forecasts.
While Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson said he expects profit growth to improve as the economy strengthens, his counterpart at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Mislav Matejka, argues that hot inflation, a stronger dollar and geopolitical tensions are clouding the outlook.
Nearly two-thirds of 409 respondents in Bloomberg’s Markets Live Pulse survey said they expect earnings to give the US equity benchmark a boost.
That’s the highest vote of confidence for profits since the poll began asking the question in October 2022.
The S&P 500 topped 5,000 — halting a six-day rout.
The Nasdaq 100 rose 1%, with Nvidia Corp. leading gains in big tech.
Apple Inc. was named a top pick for 2024 at Bank of America Corp. on optimism over its upcoming results.
Treasuries wavered ahead of a flurry of bond auctions that will test investors’ appetite after yields hit the highest in 2024.
Hedge funds are getting back to buying global equities, shrugging off broader market volatility to gobble up tech stocks at the fastest pace in two months, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk.
New long positions outpaced short sales last week while single stocks saw “the largest notional buying in over a year,” the traders wrote in a note — marking a bullish turn in sentiment after hedge funds had been selling for the prior three weeks.
US earnings updates this week will be key to see if they can keep buoying risk appetite in a higher-for-longer rate environment, according to the BlackRock Investment Institute’s weekly commentary.
“We’re overweight US stocks and see the AI theme broadening,” BII noted.
The challenge to S&P 500 returns this earnings season is that companies will have to produce earnings — and outlooks — that support the already elevated multiples, according to Megan Horneman at Verdence Capital Advisors.
To Marko Kolanovic at JPMorgan, while price action may depend on earnings and could stabilize near-term, the market selloff likely has further to go.
“We remain concerned about continued complacency in equity valuations, inflation staying too hot, further Fed repricing, and a profit outlook where the implied acceleration this year might end up too optimistic,” he noted.
“Concerns about rising interest rates, stubborn inflation, and geopolitical risks aren’t going anywhere — but this week, the tech sector may be ‘calling the shots’,” said Chris Larkin at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley.
Indeed, the stakes are high for America’s technology behemoths to start delivering on artificial intelligence promises with their earnings poised to decelerate, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists.
Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. report results this week — kicking off earnings for the so-called Magnificent Seven.
With AI seen as the key to future profits, its contributions to the earnings mix is a the key focus for traders, a BofA team including Ohsung Kwon and Savita Subramanian said.
Big tech companies are running out of steam as the earnings momentum once enjoyed by the sector faces a cool down, according to UBS Group AG’s Jonathan Golub.
He cut the sector recommendation on the “Big Six” technology stocks — Alphabet, Apple, Amazon.com Inc., Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia — to neutral from overweight.
“Earnings momentum is turning decidedly negative following a surge in profit growth,” Golub said.
US stocks are being supported by company fundamentals, but elevated implicit growth expectations and sentiment are now headwinds, according to Citigroup Inc. strategists.
The team led by Scott Chronert says their analysis projects a 76% probability of first-quarter profits exceeding bottom-up consensus.
However, the likelihood of earnings upside falls to 49% for the remainder of 2024 — suggesting corporates may be reticent to raise guidance.
This week is consequential for markets, with big tech earnings and Friday’s key inflation data having the potential to redefine the near-term trajectory of the market, according to Jeremy Straub at Coastal Wealth.
“If big tech earnings and Friday’s inflation data disappoint, that could extend the duration and depth of this current stock market correction,” he noted. “While it’s possible the stock market has further room to decline, we remain
constructive on stocks for 2024.”
Tempered expectations for Fed interest-rate cuts have rattled US stocks the past few weeks.
But history shows there may be nothing to fear: If the past is any guide, equity markets are likely to fare well in an era of higher-for-longer interest rates.
During previous periods of elevated bond yields, the S&P 500 posted an average price return of 13.9%, compared to an average gain of 6.5% during times rates were falling, according to data from BMO Capital Markets going back to 1990.
“We believe stronger-than-expected growth trends in the US recently should be a positive for the economy and corporate profits, at least through the first half of this year,” said Anthony Saglimbene at Ameriprise. “However, the price paid for that firm fundamental backdrop likely leaves inflation elevated and interest rates higher for longer than most expected at the start of the year.”

Corporate Highlights:
* Verizon Communications Inc. reported continued customer losses and lagging revenue.
* Truist Financial Corp. posted lower first-quarter lending profits than analysts expected as it was forced to pay customers more for deposits with interest rates remaining elevated, and the bank trimmed its revenue guidance for the rest of the year.
* Informatica Inc. said it’s not engaged in takeover talks following reports that discussions with Salesforce Inc. had cooled.
* Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. agreed to divest more stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers, seeking to make their planned $24.6 billion merger more appealing to antitrust authorities.
* Viking Holdings Ltd. and its existing shareholders are seeking to raise as much as $1.1 billion in a New York initial public offering, with the cruise operator looking to go public as the travel industry rebounds from its pandemic-era slump.
* ASML Holding NV is weighing options to expand its presence in the Netherlands, after the government committed €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) to infrastructure and education spending in the region where the company’s headquarters are located.
* Tesla Inc.’s weekend move to slash prices across its range in China risks triggering a new round in the nation’s bruising price war, with Li Auto Inc. immediately responding with discounts and cash rebates on new models.
* Reliance Industries Ltd., led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit as a continued weakness in its petrochemicals business and higher taxes offset growth in its consumer unit and a large surge in other income.

Key events this week:
* Eurozone S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Services PMI, Tuesday
* US new home sales, Tuesday
* Tesla, PepsiCo earnings, Tuesday
* BOE chief economist Huw Pill speaks, Tuesday
* Germany IFO business climate, Wednesday
* US durable goods, Wednesday
* IBM, Boeing, Meta Platforms earnings, Wednesday
* US GDP, wholesale inventories, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Microsoft, Alphabet, Airbus earnings, Thursday
* Japan rate decision, Tokyo CPI, inflation and GDP forecasts, Friday
* US personal income and spending, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Exxon Mobil, Chevron earnings, 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 1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.8%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro was little changed at $1.0652
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2352
* The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 154.83 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3% to $66,580.85
* Ether rose 1.3% to $3,189.85
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.61%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 2.49%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.20%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $82.85 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 2.6% to $2,329.51 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jessica Menton, Ryan Vlastelica, Alexandra Semenova, Sagarika Jaisinghani, Kasia Klimasinska, Jan-Patrick Barnert and Elena Popina.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
Do the best you can until you know better.  Then when you know better, do better. –Maya Angelou, 1928-2014.

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.
April 19, 1770: British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia.
On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 500. (Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.)
Go to article >>

1775: Battle of Lexington & Concord: Start of American Revolution.
1932: Herbert Hoover suggests a 5-day work week.
1993: Branch Davidian fire, Waco, TX.

Ashley Judd, b. 1968.
Kate Hudson, b. 1979.

Ancient artists high on hallucinogens carved dancer rock art in Peru, study suggests
The research notes similarities between the carvings in southern Peru and the ayahuasca-induced art of the Amazon’s Tucano people. Read More.

Alien life may thrive on purple planets, new study of extreme bacteria suggests
On many exoplanets, the best clue that life is present may be a purple hue. New research into some of Earth’s most extreme bacteria explains why. Read More.

Weird magnetic quasiparticle could be used as a new type of bit in advanced computing systems, scientists find
Scientists want to replace electrons with so-called ‘nanobubbles’ to store data more densely and efficiently in advanced components that would replace RAM and flash storage. Read More.

Sony World Photography Awards 2024: Winners announced
The prestigious competition showcases the year’s best images from photographers around the world. See the winning images here.

Amsterdam bans building of new hotels
The Netherlands’ Amsterdam will no longer allow new hotel buildings to be built as part of its fight against mass tourism.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Las Vegas, US
Phish perform during night one of their four-night run at Sphere in Nevada
Photograph: Rich Fury/Sphere Entertainment/Getty Images for Sphere Entertainment

A fox in a garden in Clapham, London, UK, pauses by some tulips. The vixen has a litter of cubs in a nearby den
Photograph: Anna Watson/Alamy Live News

​​​​​​​Guwahati, India
Hindu devotees offer prayers to the sun god on the banks of the river Brahmaputra during the Chaiti Chhath Puja festival.
Photograph: Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for April 19^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37986.40	+211.02
		+0.56%
S&P 500	4967.23	-43.89
		-0.88%
NASDAQ	15282.01	-319.49
		-2.05 %
TSX	21807.38	+98.93
		+0.46%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37068.35	-1,011.35
		-2.66%
HANG SENG	16224.14	-161.73
		-0.99%
SENSEX	73088.33	+599.34
		+0.83%
FTSE 100*	7895.85	+18.80
		+0.24%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.739	3.755
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.647	3.665
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6207	4.6326
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7106	4.7303

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7266	0.7263
US $	1.3763	1.3767

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4673	0.6815
US $	1.0662	0.9379

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2379.70	2390.35
Oil
WTI Crude Future	83.14	82.73

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1895, the Railroad Gazette published the first description of the “electric tabulating machine,” a new data-processing device that used electrical signals to read, count and sort punch cards on which data was represented by an array of holes. The Tabulating Machine Co. was one of the ancestors of IBM.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the third day, climbing 0.5%, or 98.93 to 21,807.37 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest gain since April 9.
Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.8%.
Osisko Mining Inc. had the largest increase, rising 4.9%.
Today, 134 of 224 shares rose, while 83 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 0.4%
* The index advanced 5.4% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 19% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.6% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 16.7% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.2 on a trailing basis and 14.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.45t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.01% compared with 7.93% in the previous session and the average of 8.55% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 45.1994| 0.7| 21/5
Energy | 35.4734| 0.9| 28/11
Utilities | 7.9779| 1.0| 11/4
Communication Services | 5.1310| 0.8| 5/0
Industrials | 4.9660| 0.2| 12/14
Consumer Staples | 4.4442| 0.5| 8/3
Materials | 2.6926| 0.1| 26/21
Consumer Discretionary | 1.8047| 0.2| 7/6
Real Estate | 0.6077| 0.1| 12/9
Health Care | -0.1401| -0.2| 2/2
Information Technology | -9.2337| -0.5| 2/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Enbridge | 19.3200| 2.8| 111.6| 0.6
TD Bank | 12.7800| 1.3| -21.5| -6.7
RBC | 10.3300| 0.8| 231.6| 0.4
Celestica | -3.5840| -7.1| 141.0| 44.4
Canadian Natural Resources | -3.9750| -0.5| -25.7| 21.3
Constellation Software | -5.3050| -1.0| 5.8| 11.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A selloff in the world’s largest technology companies hit stocks, with the industry that has powered the bull market getting ready to report earnings next week.
Equities extended their slide from a record, with the S&P 500 breaking below 5,000 and the Nasdaq 100 falling over 2%.
More than half of the “Magnificent Seven” cohort of tech mega-caps will announce results in the next few days — leaving investors wondering whether those firms are going to live up to the high expectations set for artificial intelligence.
Just Friday, a pair of AI darlings — Nvidia Corp. and Super Micro Computer Inc. — sank at least 10%.
Profits for the seven biggest growth companies in the S&P 500 — Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Nvidia, Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. — are on course to rise 38% in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg
Intelligence. When excluding them, the rest of the index’s profits are anticipated to shrink by 3.9%.
“Investors are expecting not just strong results — but strong guidance,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial. “Any disappointment from the mega-tech names reporting could push this week’s oversold market deeper into oversold territory.”
The S&P 500 saw its sixth consecutive drop — the longest losing streak since October 2022.
The plunge in Nvidia wiped out over $200 billion in value, with the Nasdaq 100 down the most this year.
Netflix Inc. tumbled, taking the shine off stellar financial results following management’s decision to stop reporting quarterly subscriber data.
Treasury 10-year yields declined one basis point to 4.62% — almost erasing an earlier plunge of 14 basis points.
Oil trimmed a major advance to trade only marginally higher after Iranian media appeared to downplay the effect of Israeli strikes.
Tech came under heavy pressure this week after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. scaled back its outlook for a chip market expansion and ASML Holding NV posted disappointing orders.
That’s raised some eyebrows on whether those forecasts are a sign of what’s to come as other giants prepare to post earnings. Intel Corp.’s numbers are also due next week.
The S&P 500 saw its worst week since March 2023, extending a drawdown from its all-time high to more than 5%.
After a 10% gain in the first quarter — the strongest start to a year since 2019 — investors have been increasingly skeptical about how much further it could go over the near term, even accounting for the continued strength in the economy.
A drumbeat of hawkish Fed-speak and a flare-up in inflation worries weighed heavily on sentiment.
While the latest tensions in the Middle East seemed contained, traders opted for a cautious stance.
Nothing can be taken for granted, and markets may remain on edge — especially considering the looming weekend risk, according to Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com.
He added that inflation continues to be a focal point due to its potential influence on monetary policy.
“Geopolitical and political uncertainty join inflation, rates, and the Fed in pressuring markets, driving a rapid and dramatic shift in the complexion of markets and the attitude of investors,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide.
Investors are pulling money out of equities as a strong US economy and sticky inflation fuel concerns that the Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists.
A team led by Michael Hartnett wrote in a note that good economic news is now bad news for stocks, a shift in mindset from the first quarter when “good news = good.”
Evidence of this is the $21.1 billion investors redeemed from stock funds in the two weeks through Wednesday, the most in a fortnight since December 2022, BofA said, citing data from EPFR Global.
The US stock market’s retreat from all-time highs set late last month is giving investors parked in cash an opening to buy in, according to Sinead Colton Grant, chief investment officer of BNY Mellon’s wealth management arm.
The three-week slump in the S&P 500 Index is a healthy consolidation by traders after it soared 10% in the first quarter, on top of a 24% gain in 2023, she said.
From here, Colton Grant expects the rally to not only resume but broaden based on strong earnings growth and continuing economic momentum, potentially pushing the S&P 500 beyond the higher end of her 5,000-5,400 target range before 2024 closes out.

Corporate Highlights:
* Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. says an illegal form of short selling might be behind the battering of its stock and it’s asking regulators at Nasdaq Inc. to step in.
* Procter & Gamble Co., the maker of Pampers diapers and Dawn dish soap, reported quarterly sales that fell short of Wall Street estimates, overshadowing an improved profit outlook.
* SLB, the world’s biggest oil-services provider, said it is gearing up for a rebound in activity in the Northern Hemisphere during the second quarter after starting off the year with typical seasonal slowness.
* Super Micro Computer Inc. sank after the maker of servers announced the date of its third-quarter results but didn’t pre-announce results.
* The US Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an incident where a passenger was apparently granted unauthorized access to the cockpit of a United Airlines Holdings Inc. charter flight traveling from Denver to Toronto.
* Nordstrom Inc.’s founding family has notified the board of its interest in taking the company private.
* Mondi Plc walked away from a possible bidding battle for UK packaging rival DS Smith Plc, a move that secures a deal for US bidder International Paper Co.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.9% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 2.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.8%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.1% to $1.0655
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2373
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 154.61 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.2% to $64,297.01
* Ether rose 1% to $3,101.31
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.62%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.50%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.23%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $83.22 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.4% to $2,387.75 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jessica Menton, Farah Elbahrawy, Esha Dey and Alexandra Semenova.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. –Eric Hoffer, 1902-1983.

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.
April 18, 1775: Paul Rever’s Midnight Ride.
April 18, 1783: American Revolution – George Washington issues General Order announcing the end of  hostilities with Britain.
2011: Standard & Poor’s lowered its long-term outlook for the U.S. government’s fiscal health from “stable” to “negative.”

Conan O’Brien, comedian, b.1963.
Albert Einstein, physicist, d. 1955.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. -Albert Einstein.

Former pop star turns 50. See her best looks
Is 90s pop more your groove? See how this star built a stellar fashion legacy.

Caitlin Clark’s salary draws attention to gender pay gap in sports
Caitlin Clark, the first pick in the WNBA draft this week, will be paid just under $77,000 this year. The top NBA pick will make $10.5 million. Read why the gender pay gap in professional sports is far from closed.

Taylor Swift to release new album Friday
Taylor Swift’s army of fans are anxiously awaiting the release of her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” If history is any guide, it will likely shatter sales and chart records.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Tagulandang island, Indonesia
Authorities have closed an airport and residents fled their homes as Mount Ruang volcano erupts. A warning has been issued over the danger of falling ash and rocks, hot volcanic clouds and the possibility of a tsunami
Photograph: Hendra Ambalao/AP

New York, US
Students from the Youth America Grand Prix break the Guinness World Record for the most ballet dancers en pointe simultaneously
Photograph: John Nacion/Getty Images

Frankfurt, Germany
A gosling and its mother
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP
Market Closes for April 18^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37775.38	+22.07
		+0.06%
S&P 500	5011.12	-11.09
		-0.22%
NASDAQ	15601.50	-81.87
		-0.52%
TSX	21708.44	+52.39
		+0.24%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	38079.70	+117.90
		+0.31%
HANG SENG	16385.87	+134.03
		+0.82%
SENSEX	72488.99	-454.69
		-0.62%
FTSE 100*	7877.05	+29.06
		+0.37%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.755	3.700
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.665	3.624
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6326	4.5873
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7303	4.7022

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7264	0.7262
US $	1.3767	1.3770

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4654	0.6824
US $	1.0643	0.9396

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2390.35	2390.35
Oil
WTI Crude Future	82.73	85.36

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1906, the Great Quake levelled San Francisco, wreaking $500 million in damage. One banker, A.P. Giannini, hastily drove a horse-drawn wagon to the ruined headquarters of his company, Bank of Italy, where he rummaged through the rubble, retrieving $2 million in gold, coins and securities.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.2%, or 52.39 to 21,708.44 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 0.5% on April 9.
Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.7%.
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 8.9%.
Today, 119 of 224 shares rose, while 97 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 0.9%
* The index advanced 4.9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 20% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 16.1% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.8% in the past 5 days and fell 0.6% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.2 on a trailing basis and 14.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.44t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 7.93% compared with 8.38% in the previous session and the average of 8.70% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 31.9361| 1.2| 33/11
Financials | 16.2980| 0.2| 20/7
Utilities | 8.8906| 1.1| 14/1
Energy | 2.0312| 0.1| 10/31
Communication Services | 0.9465| 0.1| 3/2
Real Estate | 0.4312| 0.1| 14/7
Health Care | 0.4174| 0.6| 2/2
Consumer Discretionary | -0.2489| 0.0| 4/8
Consumer Staples | -0.4143| 0.0| 5/6
Information Technology | -2.2256| -0.1| 3/7
Industrials | -5.6743| -0.2| 11/15
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Enbridge | 11.5900| 1.7| 193.9| -2.2
TD Bank | 7.0710| 0.7| -52.5| -7.9
First Quantum Minerals | 6.4880| 8.9| 127.9| 48.3
Thomson Reuters | -2.9150| -1.3| -15.9| 7.3
Canadian Natural Resources | -3.4500| -0.4| -53.1| 21.9
Brookfield Corp | -5.8980| -1.1| 52.4| 0.0
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The world’s biggest bond market extended this month’s selloff after solid economic readings and hawkish Fed-speak reinforced speculation that interest rates will remain higher for longer.
Treasuries fell across the US curve — with two-year yields once again near the 5% mark.
When asked about the possibility of hiking, Fed Bank of New York President John Williams said that while that is “not” his baseline expectation, it’s possible, if warranted.
The S&P 500 dropped for a fifth straight session — its longest losing run since October.
“Most of the data this week show the economy is still firing on all cylinders,” said Chris Larkin at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. “That’s going to be a challenge for the Fed’s rate-cutting plans.”
Treasury 10-year yields rose five basis points to 4.63%.
The S&P 500 fell to almost 5,000, with its most influential group — technology — leading declines.
Netflix Inc. posted its best start to the year since 2020, attracting more new customers than anyone expected thanks to a strong slate of original programs and a crackdown on password sharing.
In addition to remarks from Fed’s Williams, his Atlanta counterpart Raphael Bostic said he’s comfortable keeping interest rates steady, reiterating he doesn’t think it will be appropriate to lower borrowing costs until toward the end of the year.
“Fed-speak is making us increasingly nervous,” said Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities.
He added that if the two-year US yield breaks 5%, the next level to watch would be 5.2%.
In economic data, jobless claims remained subdued, consistent with a healthy job market.
Separately, the Philadelphia Fed factory index topped estimates.
While existing-home sales fell, the pace was roughly in line with the median forecast of economists.
Market-implied expectations for Fed rate cuts — which have collapsed in the past two weeks — declined further this week after Chair Jerome Powell signaled policymakers will wait longer than previously anticipated to ease policy.
An initial quarter-point reduction remains priced in for November.
The Fed may not cut interest rates at all this year with inflation remaining high, said JPMorgan Chase & Co. President Daniel Pinto.
“It may take a bit longer until they can cut rates,” Pinto said at a Semafor event in Washington, adding that the likelihood of a rate hike is “very, very low” amid widespread skepticism that inflation will ease any time soon.
The Fed isn’t in any hurry, as a rate cut that comes too early would be “painful” and probably cause a recession, he said.
The market’s biggest worry right now is inflation, which is re-accelerating and throwing cold water on the idea of any rate cuts in 2024, let alone one or two, according to Michael Landsberg, chief investment officer at Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth Management.  “We are firmly in the camp of no rate cuts in 2024,” he said. “We believe investors should prepare for a higher for longer regime when it comes to both inflation and interest rates and that investment portfolios should be positioned for these dynamics for the foreseeable future.”
“With rate cuts delayed, rather than canceled, in our view, we still expect the yield on the 10-year US Treasury to end the year around 3.85%, said Mark Haefele at UBS Global Wealth Management. “Once the Fed begins cutting rates this year, the bond market will likely continue to price a sequence of further cuts into 2025 and beyond.”
While timing the market is hard, investors can more confidently add duration exposure, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists led by Mark Cabana, who recommend “going long” five-year Treasuries.
The trade is supported by “Fed unlikely to hike, risk asset sensitivity to rates and cleaner duration positioning,” they noted.

Corporate Highlights:
* Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai announced changes to Google’s workplace teams structure, saying the moves will help the company develop artificial intelligence products and services faster and more efficiently.
* Micron Technology Inc., the largest US maker of computer-memory chips, is poised to get $6.1 billion in grants from the Commerce Department to help pay for domestic factory projects, part of an effort to bring semiconductor production back to American soil.
* D.R. Horton Inc. increased sales expectations for its full fiscal year as the US housing market heads into its key spring selling season.
* Alaska Air Group Inc. expects second-quarter profits will top analyst estimates, signaling that the carrier is recovering from a near-catastrophe on one of its planes that triggered the temporary grounding of a key Boeing Co. aircraft model.
* Las Vegas Sands Corp. said remodeling at an entertainment center and a hotel in Macau will crimp results this year.
* eBay Inc.’s embrace of artificial intelligence has turned the stock’s most bearish analyst into its biggest fan, with Morgan Stanley seeing a further 25% gain for the shares over the next year.
* DNA testing firm 23andMe Holding Co.’s Chief Executive Officer Anne Wojcicki said she’s considering taking the struggling company private, less than three years after it began selling shares.
* Blackstone Inc. collected more fees from big retail funds and credit strategies during the first quarter, compensating for the slower pace of deal exits.
* L’Oréal SA reported better-than-expected first-quarter sales as strength in Europe and North America helped offset a slowdown in shopping by Chinese travelers.

Key events this week:
* Japan CPI, Friday
* BOE Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden and ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel speak, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee 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 0.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed
* The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0644
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2437
* The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 154.62 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 4.4% to $63,518.01
* Ether rose 3.1% to $3,065.7
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced five basis points to 4.63%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 2.50%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 4.27%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
* Spot gold rose 0.8% to $2,380.08 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
Have  a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The beginning is the most important part of the work. –Plato, c. 470-399 BCE.

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 April 17, 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Go to article >>
April 17, 1991: First time the Dow tops 3,000.
1932: Haile Selassie ends slavery, Ethiopia.

Explosive ‘devil comet’ 12P will soon be at its brightest and best. Here’s how to see it before it disappears.
The explosive green ‘devil comet’ 12P/ Pons-Brooks is about to reach its closest point to the sun. Here’s how to see the rare visitor at its best and brightest.  Full Story: Live Science (4/16)

AI pinpoints where psychosis originates in the brain
Scientists have moved a step closer to understanding the basis of the hallucinations and delusions that characterize schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Read More.

Watch hammerhead sharks swim in ‘cyclones’ around ancient volcano in rare footage
Filmmakers have captured hundreds of hammerhead sharks circling a volcanic island off Costa Rica for a new Netflix wildlife series. Read More.

A software billionaire is betting big on a wild climate fix.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Congjiang, China
A bolt of lightning crosses the sky over the terraced fields in south-western Guizhou province
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

London, UK
The former British Olympic artistic swimmers Asha Randall and Katie Clark perform with Sisy Wang and Emily Kuhl in a large water tank to mark 100 days before the start of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris
Photograph: Matt Crossick/PA Media Assignments

​​​​​​​Thockrington, UK
The northern lights (aurora borealis) illuminate the sky just before midnight in Northumberland
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Market Closes for April 17^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37753.31	-45.66
		-0.12%
S&P 500	5022.21	-29.20
		-0.58%
NASDAQ	15683.37	-181.88
		-1.15%
TSX	21656.05	+13.17
		+0.06%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37961.80	-509.40
		-1.32%
HANG SENG	16251.84	+2.87
		+0.02%
SENSEX	72943.68	-456.10
		-0.62%
FTSE 100*	7847.99	+27.63
		+0.35%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.700	3.731
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.624	3.642
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.5873	4.6674
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7022	4.7626

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7262	0.7233
US $	1.3770	1.3826

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4697	0.6804
US $	1.0673	0.9369

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2390.35	2344.20
Oil
WTI Crude Future	85.36	85.36

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1837, John Pierpont Morgan was born in Hartford, Conn., to Juliet Pierpont and Junius Spencer Morgan, a merchant and stockbroker. The sickly baby, whom his parents called “Bub” and his friends called “Pip,” grew up to become the most powerful financier in American history.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 21,656.05 in Toronto, ending a 5-day loss.
The gain follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.4%.
Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 0.9%.
Goeasy Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6.3%.
Today, 108 of 224 shares rose, while 114 fell; 5 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 4.9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 20% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.2% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 15.9% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 2.4% in the past 5 days and fell 0.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.1 on a trailing basis and 14.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.44t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 8.38% compared with 8.43% in the previous session and the average of 8.73% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 19.9017| 0.8| 34/16
Information Technology | 14.3264| 0.8| 8/2
Financials | 6.9153| 0.1| 13/14
Utilities | 4.9961| 0.6| 10/5
Consumer Staples | 2.6823| 0.3| 8/2
Communication Services | -0.8990| -0.1| 2/3
Health Care | -1.2379| -1.9| 1/3
Consumer Discretionary | -1.8346| -0.2| 5/8
Real Estate | -4.4212| -0.9| 5/15
Energy | -6.1288| -0.2| 14/27
Industrials | -21.1260| -0.7| 8/19
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
TD Bank | 8.8080| 0.9| -18.6| -8.6
Constellation Software | 8.5070| 1.7| 55.6| 13.0
Shopify | 5.9110| 0.7| 64.2| -7.3
Canadian Natural Resources | -5.4750| -0.7| -59.3| 22.5
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -5.6690| -0.8| -6.9| 10.2
TFI International | -8.3350| -7.0| 244.1| 10.3
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market suffered its longest losing streak since January as a handful of big techs sold off — despite a slide in bond yields.
Equities fell for a fourth straight day, with the S&P 500 extending a drop from its all-time high to more than 4%.
Chipmakers bore the brunt of the selling after ASML Holding NV’s orders tumbled.
Nvidia Corp. led losses in mega-caps.
A tug of war between bulls and bears unfolded amid the expiration of VIX options — with Wall Street’s favorite volatility gauge whipsawing.
After a 10% stock rally in the first quarter — the strongest start to a year since 2019 — investors have been increasingly skeptical about how much further the market could go over the near term, even accounting for the continued
strength in the economy.
“The combination of geopolitical uncertainty, rising interest rates, Fed hawkishness, and inflation frustration have combined to put bears temporarily in charge,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide.
The S&P 500 slid to around 5,030. The Nasdaq 100 dropped over 1%.
Just a day after Jerome Powell thew cold water on rate-cut bets, dip buyers emerged in the Treasury market, with two-year yields dropping further below 5% and $13 billion sale of 20-year bonds drawing solid demand.
The US economy has “expanded slightly” since late February and firms reported greater difficulty in passing on higher costs, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book survey of regional business contacts.
Powell signaled this week that policymakers will wait longer than previously anticipated to cut rates following a series of surprisingly high inflation readings.
Fed officials narrowly penciled in three cuts in forecasts published last month — but investors are now betting on just one to two this year, futures markets show.
“Fed Chair Powell was downright hawkish,” said Win Thin and Elias Haddad at Brown Brothers Harriman. “The Fed wants the market to do the tightening for them. Financial conditions remain too loose and so some combination of higher yields, wider spreads, stronger dollar, and lower equities is needed to tighten conditions.”
While global equities are facing tactical headwinds, this is just a consolidation phase and stocks are expected to keep rising this year, according to UBS strategists led by Andrew Garthwaite.
They noted positive developments including artificial intelligence pushing productivity and earnings higher, lower warranted equity risk premium, likely falling labor costs and less worries on margin pressures.
The equity risk premium for US equities — a measure of the differential between stocks and bonds’ expected returns — is now deep in negative territory, something that hasn’t happened since early 2000s.
While this is not necessarily a negative indicator for the stock market, it all depends on the economic cycle.
The lower ERP can be seen as a promise of a future boost in corporate profits, but also that a bubble is in the making.
Fundamentals and technical trends for equity markets still appear supportive, suggesting the recent pullback should prove temporary, according to HSBC strategists led by Max Kettner, who are using the decline to add to their bullish stance.
“Sentiment and positioning are not flashing a warning signal, though real money investors have started to extend their constructive stance on equities lately, they wrote.
US corporate earnings are set for a “healthier runway” through 2024 and investors are growing more confident that companies can meet expectations, according to Morgan Stanley strategists.
The market is watching for profits to bottom in the first quarter before sequentially recovering in the second quarter and eventually expanding in the back half of the year, a team including Michelle Weaver and Michael Wilson wrote.

Corporate Highlights:
* Morgan Stanley sold $8 billion of bonds Wednesday, following its release of higher-than-expected quarterly revenue, as it joined rivals JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. in tapping the US investment-grade market this week.
* Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. soared on Wednesday to recoup a sliver of the billions in market value it shed in the three weeks since its debut as a public company.
* United Airlines Holdings Inc. surged after the carrier forecast better-than-expected profit this quarter, tempering concerns that Boeing Co. aircraft delays and regulatory pressure will put expansion plans at risk.
* President Joe Biden vowed to keep United States Steel Corp. American-owned and called for higher tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum as he sought to woo union workers ahead of November’s election.
* Microsoft Corp.’s $13 billion investment into OpenAI Inc. is set to avoid a formal investigation by European Union merger watchdogs, calming fears that the relationship could be forced apart.
* Jane Street Group LLC generated $10.6 billion in net trading revenue last year, as the proprietary-trading firm continues to cement its presence as a dominant market-maker.
* U.S. Bancorp reduced the outlook for a key driver of its profit for the year as lenders face pressure to pay more for deposits.
* Abbott Laboratories raised the lower end of its annual profit forecast as strong sales in medical devices drove first-quarter earnings and revenue above expectations.

Key events this week:
* Taiwan Semiconductor earnings, Thursday
* US Conf. Board leading index, existing home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Fed Governor Michelle Bowman speaks, Thursday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Thursday
* Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks, Thursday
* BOE Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden and ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel speak, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0672
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2454
* The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 154.33 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 3.1% to $61,112.01
* Ether fell 2.2% to $3,004.54
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined eight basis points to 4.59%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 2.47%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.26%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3% to $82.77 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.4% to $2,373.16 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jessica Menton, Michael Msika, Sagarika Jaisinghani and Farah Elbahrawy.
Have a wonderful evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement. –Will Rogers, 1879-1935.

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