August 4, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.
August 4, 1914: In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Great Britain enters World War I, officially declaring war on Germany.
August 4, 1987: The Federal Communications Commission voted to rescind the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and TV stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues. Go to article »
1962: Nelson Mandela arrested.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet, b. 1792.
Louis Armstrong, musician, b. 1900.
Wm. Schumann, composer, b. 1910.

Ancient Egyptian temple to the sun cult uncovered near Cairo:  Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a 4,500-year-old temple dedicated to the Egyptian sun god Ra at the site of Abu Ghurab, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Cairo.   The temple was built sometime during ancient Egypt’s fifth dynasty (circa 2465 B.C. to 2323 B.C.) — a “period in which the cult of the sun reached its apex with the construction of a new type of monument specifically devoted to the sun god, commonly known as ‘Sun Temple,'” said Massimiliano Nuzzolo, co-director of the archaeological dig and a researcher at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Full Story: Live Science (8/4) 

James Webb telescope snaps mesmerizing image of Cartwheel Galaxy:  A stunning new image from the James Webb Space Telescope captures the gorgeous Cartwheel Galaxy in never-before-seen detail. The telescope’s composite image, released Tuesday (Aug. 2) furthers our understanding of the peculiar wheel-like star system.   The Cartwheel Galaxy is a chaotic galaxy shrouded in hot dust, 500 million light-years from Earth. And it hides a violent past.  Full Story: Live Science (8/4) 

AI’s snapshot of 200 million proteins will make drug discovery easier. — Lisa Jarvis

Missing: $500 million in copper.

Why the human brain is so efficient.

Notable Numbers:
54
Families in South Korea who volunteered to share data on everything from sleeping habits to trash volumes to help city planners design a new town.  The experiment – Busan’s Eco Delta Smart City – is one of the more far-reaching attempts around the world to create “smart cities”, which aim to use data to optimize city planning and public services.
4
Legs on Pompeii’s newest archaeologist, a robotic “dog” form US technology firm Boston Dynamics.  “Spot” patrols the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Italian city to monitor structural weaknesses and evaluate potential dangers of collapse.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

An extremely rare sea slug has been spotted for the first time in the UK, according to Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust. The multi-coloured sea slug, Babakina anadoni, measures 2cm in length and was photographed by a diver near Melledgan, an uninhabited rock island in Scilly
CREDIT: Cornwall Wildlife Trust

People watch lava flowing from a newly erupted volcano in a fissure on the Reykjanes peninsula, south-west of Reykjavík
CREDIT: Jeremie Richard/AFP/Getty Images

The Luxor Obelisk and Arc de Triomphe before sunset. ‘Paris Henge’, when the sun sets in alignment with the Arc de Triomphe, happens twice a year
CREDIT: Stefano Rellandini/AFP/Getty Images

Birkenhead, UKA hoard of newly uncovered Nazi treasures found aboard a rare German submarine which was sunk by allied forces during the Second World War
CREDIT: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Market Closes for August 4^th, 2022

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1790, Congress enacted Alexander Hamilton’s plan to fund the public debt, ending years of turmoil and haggling over the junk bonds issued by the federal and state governments during the Revolution, making government spending possible, and giving birth to the American securities markets.
Canada
By Ana Paula Barreto Pereira
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities staged a broad rally Thursday as most sectors closed in the green.
Energy trailed, declining 3.1%, as oil fell on data showing lower-than-expected demand in the U.S.
The S&P/TSX Composite rose for a second day, climbing 0.2%, or 31.1 to 19,577.04 in Toronto.
Materials stocks led the market higher, as 9 of 11 sectors gained; 147 of 238 shares rose, while 87 fell.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.2%.
Torex Gold Resources Inc. had the largest increase, rising 14.3%.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 0.6%
* The index declined 3.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 7.8% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 11.9% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 7.7% above its low on July 14, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.7% in the past 5 days and rose 2.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.8 on a trailing basis and 12 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.12t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 16.55% compared with 17.09% in the previous session and the average of 19.05% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Materials | 55.0882| 2.6| 42/7
* Industrials | 44.7163| 1.8| 22/7
* Utilities | 12.4012| 1.2| 15/1
* Consumer Staples | 12.0002| 1.5| 9/2
* Consumer Discretionary| 10.2760| 1.5| 5/7
* Financials | 5.1848| 0.1| 20/9
* Real Estate | 1.1793| 0.2| 15/8
* Communication Services| 0.7585| 0.1| 5/2
* Health Care | 0.6733| 0.9| 4/3
* Information Technology| -4.1746| -0.3| 8/6
* Energy | -107.0071| -3.1| 2/35
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Canadian Pacific | 14.2900| 2.2| -40.8| 12.2
* Restaurant Brands | 11.4700| 7.6| 30.2| -1.0
* Barrick Gold | 9.4430| 3.9| 50.7| -15.6
* Cenovus Energy | -14.5600| -7.6| 127.8| 33.5
* Enbridge | -15.3600| -1.9| 121.8| 12.5
* Suncor Energy | -18.0200| -4.5| 31.7| 24.7
US
By Isabelle Lee and Denitsa Tsekova
(Bloomberg) — US stocks wavered on Thursday as traders parsed various corporate earnings against a backdrop of aggressive interest-rate hikes by global central banks.
The US yield curve remained inverted as recession fears persisted.
The S&P 500 ended the session little changed after fluctuating throughout the session.
The Nasdaq 100 closed up higher for the second straight day after swinging between modest gains and losses.
While the tech-heavy index was buoyed by Amazon.com Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. later in the session, it was also dragged down by Fortinet Inc. after the firm trimmed its service-revenue forecast.
Eli Lilly & Co., which dropped after missing Wall Street expectations for second-quarter revenue, weighed on the S&P 500 Index.
Thin liquidity in the summer also tends to amplify market moves.
Treasury yields wobbled throughout the session, with the 10-year rate around 2.66% after pushing past 2.80% on Wednesday.
A flurry of economic data that released this week assuaged fears of a downturn while hinting at stabilizing growth.
But the bond market, especially the persistently inverted Treasury yield curve, is flashing warnings on the economy amid a global wave of monetary tightening.
All eyes will be on the US jobs report on Friday for further clues about the Federal Reserve’s path of rate hikes.
“There’s an intense tug-of-war happening in the economy and markets,” said Dan Suzuki, deputy chief investment officer at Richard Bernstein Advisors. “On one side, you have a narrative that reasonable growth is going to support continued inflation pressure and keep the Fed hiking. The other narrative is that slowing growth is going to ease inflation and allow the Fed to stop hiking.”
On Thursday, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester reiterated the central bank’s promise to bring down inflation by raising interest rates.
Her counterparts, this week, have also been backing this hawkish stance, forcing markets to recalibrate after initially expecting a dovish pivot Fed Chair Jerome Powell hinted at last week.
US-China tension also remains among the uncertainties clouding the outlook.
China likely fired missiles over Taiwan during military drills on Thursday, Japan said, part of Beijing’s biggest cross-strait exercises in decades after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-ruled island.
West Texas Intermediate stayed below $90 a barrel, a level last seen in the weeks leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Gold advanced and Bitcoin fell.

What to watch this week:
* US employment report for July, 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 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.8% to $1.0246
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2170
* The Japanese yen rose 0.7% to 132.88 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined five basis points to 2.66%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 0.80%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 1.89%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.6% to $88.33 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 1.9% to $1,810.30 an ounce
–With assistance from Cecile Gutscher, Tassia Sipahutar, Garfield Reynolds, Vildana Hajric, Julia Fanzeres, Cindy Wang and Isabel Reynolds.
Have  a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you….
You may know your society is doomed. –Ayn Rand, 1905-1982.

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