March 19, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

Spring equinox tonight, 2:37 am or Saturday morning at 2:37 am depending on perspective.  Either way, tomorrow is the first full day of Spring. J

March 19, 1882: First stone laid for the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudi.

On March 19, 2003, President George W. Bush ordered the start of the war on Iraq, declaring: “On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine
Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war.”  Go to article »

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A parakeet eats a cherry blossom in St. James’s Park, London
CREDIT:TOBY MELVILLE/REUTERS

Horst Hildenbrand (R), still acting night watchman of the town of Altlandsberg in germany and his successor, Ulrich Handke, stand with lantern, horn and halberd in the evening in front of the caretaker’s house on the grounds of the former Hohenzollern Castle
CREDIT:PATRICK PLEUL / AVALON

A pair of jewelled and enamelled gold elephants, a gift from Lord Mountbatten to Edwina Mountbatten to commemorate their twenty-fourth wedding anniversary in 1946, is displayed as part of the Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma, to be aucioned at Sotheby’s on March 24
CREDIT: PAUL GROVERS FOR THE TELEGRAPH

An Emirati falconer trains his falcon before the end of the season in the United Arab Emirates’ al-Dhafra desert 
CREDIT: KARIM SAHIB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Market Closes for March 19^th, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1720, shares in the South Sea Co., the hot new seller of speculative annuities, took off on the sharpest upswing the British stock market had ever seen, rocketing from 218 to 320 by March 21 on rumors of financial chaos in France. By year-end the shares were nearly worthless and investors nearly beat several stockbrokers to death.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were little changed on Friday, with gains in health care and consumer discretionary stocks offset by losses in communications services and industrials. The S&P/TSX Composite rose about 0.1% in Toronto, paring an earlier loss of 0.6%. Six of 11 sectors rose. Meanwhile, oil came back from a sell-off that investment banks from Goldman Sachs to Morgan Stanley said was excessive and offered an opportunity to buy, with physical crude markets still showing signs of strength in the long run.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $10.50 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.4% to $1,743.06 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.1% to C$1.2503 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield fell to 1.586%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 18,854.00 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.8 percent. Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.1 percent. Trillium Therapeutics Inc. had the largest increase, rising 6.3 percent. Today, 143 of 219 shares rose, while 74 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 8.1 percent
* So far this week, the index was unchanged
* The index advanced 55 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI
AC Americas Index gained 67 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1 percent below its 52-week high on
March 17, 2021 and 68.8 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
27.7 on a trailing basis and 16.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.91t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.68 percent compared with
11.74 percent in the previous session and the average of 13.86 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 28.2126| 1.2| 19/3
Consumer Discretionary | 10.8377| 1.4| 12/1
Information Technology | 7.1496| 0.4| 9/1
Utilities | 5.1149| 0.6| 12/4
Health Care | 4.9135| 1.7| 9/0
Real Estate | 0.9205| 0.2| 18/8
Materials | -1.9798| -0.1| 28/20
Consumer Staples | -2.7123| -0.4| 7/4
Communication Services | -6.2179| -0.7| 0/7
Industrials | -13.6165| -0.6| 14/15
Financials | -15.0868| -0.3| 15/11
US
By Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — Technology shares closed higher and Treasury yields retreated from the highest levels of the day as investors weighed the risk of inflation with economic growth accelerating. The S&P 500 edged lower in the last minutes of trading to close just in the red, while lenders weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average after the Federal Reserve let a capital break for big banks expire. The decision had also triggered a spike in 10-year Treasury yields earlier in the day. Facebook Inc. helped the tech heavy Nasdaq 100 recover from Thursday’s slump. Traders were whipsawed at the end of trading amid quadruple witching, a major expiration of options and futures contracts that often exacerbates swings in asset prices. “The rising interest rates story is still dominating the moves in both the equity and the bond markets,” said Craig Fehr, an investment strategist at Edward Jones & Co. “I don’t think  that where we’re at today with rates is going to undermine the broader economic recovery.” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated in a Wall Street Journal editorial that the central bank will provide aid to the economy “for as long as it takes.”
Though the Fed has concluded the threat that Covid-19 poses to the economy isn’t nearly as severe as it was a year ago in deciding to let the bank measure expire, the regulator also said that it’s going to soon propose new changes to the so-called supplementary leverage ratio, or SLR. The goal is to address the recent spike in bank reserves that has been triggered by the government’s economic interventions during the pandemic. “The markets will digest this as banks still have breathing room and we’ll move on, but we’ll keep a watch on how banks respond in terms of their deposit collection and Treasury purchases,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer for Bleakley Advisory Group. “The reason why this issue even became so heated is solely because the Treasury is issuing so much debt to fund the spending habits of Congress, but also because of QE where the Fed is already creating massive amounts of reserves.”
Oil, one of the most-favored reflation trades, gained. But it was still heading for the biggest weekly slump since October after a selloff driven by inflation concerns and a cooling physical market. In Europe, bond yields retreated while the Stoxx Europe 600 index declined, led by banks and retailers. China’s CSI 300 share gauge slumped on acrimonious U.S.-China talks. Russia’s ruble gained after the country’s central bank unexpectedly raised its policy rate and signaled further tightening. Brazil and Turkey delivered larger-than-expected rate increases this week.
These are some of the main moves in financial markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index declined 0.1% to 3,913.09 as of 4:02 p.m. New
York time, the lowest in more than a week.
The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.8% to 13,215.23.
The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.8% to 13,215.23.
The Nasdaq 100 Index advanced 0.6% to 12,866.99.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.8% to 423.35, the largest drop in two weeks.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index advanced 0.1% to 1,140.30, the highest in more than a week.
The euro decreased 0.1% to $1.1904.
The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.3863, the weakest in more than a week on the biggest fall in a week.
The Japanese yen was little changed at 108.90 per dollar.
Bonds
The yield on two-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 0.15%.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed two basis points to 1.73%, the highest in about 14 months.
The yield on 30-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 2.44%.
Germany’s 10-year yield decreased three basis points to -0.29%, the largest dip in more than two weeks.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude gained 2.5% to $61.48 a barrel,
the first advance in more than a week and the biggest rise in two weeks.
Gold strengthened 0.4% to $1,742.51 an ounce.

–With assistance from Lu Wang.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Character is destiny.   –Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939

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