August 23, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
August 23, 1991: The World Wide Web, commonly known as the Web, an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet is opened to the public for the first time.

August 23, 2011: Judges in New York put an end to the sensational sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, setting him free after prosecutors questioned the credibility of the hotel housekeeper who’d accused the French diplomat. Go to article »

Welcome to Miniatur Wunderland.  Check out this interesting place where you’ll find tiny replicas of some of the world’s most popular destinations: Venice, Machu Picchu and Las Vegas, to name just a few. 

Chinese censors change ending of latest ‘Minions’ movie.  The ending of the recent animated film “Minions: The Rise of Gru” looks a little different in China. Here’s why. 

Europe’s drought is probably the continent’s worst in 500 years. 

4 billion-year-old chunk of Earth’s crust found below Australia: A 4-billion-year-old piece of Earth’s crust the size of Ireland is lurking beneath Western Australia, new research finds.  This piece of crust is among the oldest on Earth, though not the oldest. That honor goes to rocks of the Canadian Shield on the eastern shore of the Hudson Bay, which have been dated to 4.3 billion years old. (The Earth is 4.54 billion years old.) Because Earth’s crust is constantly being churned up and pushed back into the mantle by plate tectonics, most of the planet’s rocky surface was formed within the last couple billion years. Full Story: Live Science (8/22) 

Weird quantum experiment shows protons have more ‘charm’ than we thought: Protons may have more “charm” than we thought, new research suggests.

A proton is one of the subatomic particles that make up the nucleus of an atom. As small as protons are, they are composed of even tinier elementary particles known as quarks, which come in a variety of “flavors,” or types: up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top. Typically, a proton is thought to be made of two up quarks and one down quark. But a new study finds it’s more complicated than that.  Full Story: Live Science (8/19) 
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Landmarks fall dark as the city switches off decorative lights in areas including the Bund, North Bund and the Lujiazui financial area across the Huangpu river for two days in response to a nationwide heatwave that has sent power demands soaring
CREDIT: China News Service/Getty Images

David Lawless and his son Toby work with shirehorses Cosmo and Boy to harvest the wildflower meadow at King’s College. The heavy horses from Waldburg Shires stable are helping to cut the meadow before turning and carting the hay on a traditional wain, with the bales used to propagate more wildflower meadows across the city, and the hay offered to local farmers as winter feed for livestock
CREDIT: Joe Giddens/PA

A wild boar and a Ceylon spotted deer roam in a meadow in the Yala national park
CREDIT: AFP/Getty Images

Market Closes for August 23^rd, 2022

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1890, the Bovespa (Bolsa de Valores de Sao Paulo, or Sao Paulo Stock Exchange), Brazil’s central securities market, was founded.
Canada
By Stefanie Marotta
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities rose slightly as materials and energy stocks pulled the index higher, even as most sectors
fell. The S&P/TSX Composite edged up to 19,985.35 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.7%.
Nutrien Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.4%.
Hudbay Minerals Inc. had the largest increase, rising 9.4%.
Today, 137 of 238 shares rose, while 99 fell; 3 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 1.5%
* The index declined 2.4% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 9.5% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 10% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 10% above its low on July 14, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.4% in the past 5 days and rose 5.3% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.5 on a trailing basis and 12.4 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$3.19t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 12.97% compared with 13.28% in the previous session and the average of 15.64% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Energy | 78.0044| 2.2| 37/1
* Materials | 53.2761| 2.4| 47/3
* Consumer Discretionary | 0.9333| 0.1| 7/6
* Health Care | -0.9346| -1.3| 2/5
* Utilities | -2.9946| -0.3| 5/10
* Real Estate | -6.0705| -1.1| 0/23
* Communication Services | -6.3729| -0.6| 1/6
* Consumer Staples | -7.2572| -0.9| 2/9
* Information Technology | -14.8060| -1.4| 8/6
* Industrials | -17.8794| -0.7| 15/14
* Financials | -65.4670| -1.0| 13/16
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Nutrien | 19.7500| 4.4| 23.0| 31.2
* Suncor Energy | 15.3900| 3.7| 84.0| 40.4
* Canadian Natural Resources | 10.6600| 1.9| 29.7| 38.8
* Shopify | -9.3640| -2.8| -28.3| -75.9
* Royal Bank of Canada | -11.1300| -0.9| -20.2| -5.8
* Bank of Nova Scotia| -35.1900| -5.3| 87.5| -14.5
US
By Robert Brand
(Bloomberg) — Stocks retreated after weak economic data, with traders awaiting more clarity on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path from the Jackson Hole central bankers’ symposium later this week.
The S&P 500 saw its third straight day of losses in a session of below-average trading volume.
Treasury 10-year yields topped 3%, while the dollar halted a four-day rally.
Traders are bracing for hawkish talk at the Jackson Hole event after recent comments from Fed officials convinced many investors the central bank will continue to tighten aggressively, even into a slowing economy.
Data Tuesday showed sales of new US homes fell for the sixth time this year to the slowest pace since early 2016, while business activity  contracted for a second straight month, reflecting softer demand at both manufacturers and service providers.
“For the moment, global sentiment is both skittish and volatile,” said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor. “There is little cause for optimism on the immediate horizon, with any glimmers of economic hope yet to take hold on a sustainable basis.”
Directors at two of the Fed’s 12 regional branches — St. Louis and Minneapolis — favored a 100 basis-point increase in the discount rate in July, signaling internal pressure for a bigger move than policy makers delivered last month.
Citigroup Inc.’s Beata Manthey said the recent rally in stocks has gone too far given the prospect of sticky inflation and the need for further interest-rate rises to tame it.
While the strategist said she’s still bullish on equities over the longer term, she added that markets don’t go up in a straight line.
Quantitative tightening by the US central bank is set to kick into gear next month, presenting another potential headwind for equities.
“The near-term outlook for equity markets remains challenging,” said Mathieu Racheter, head of equity  strategy at Julius Baer. “The impact of quantitative tightening on financial markets have yet to be felt, while the earnings downgrade cycle has just started.”
In corporate news, Zoom Video Communications Inc. plummeted after its results showed that the transition from an essential Covid-era tool to an enterprise business platform is going to take longer than expected.
Macy’s Inc. climbed after cutting its full-year forecasts for profit and revenue in what Citigroup called a “prudent” move.
Elsewhere, US natural gas prices tumbled after the operators of a key export terminal damaged in an explosion earlier this year announced a delay to the timeline for restart.
West Texas Intermediate settled above $93 a barrel after getting an extra boost as the dollar weakened, making commodities priced in the currency more attractive.
What to watch this week:
* US durable goods, MBA mortgage applications, pending home sales, Wednesday
* US GDP, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Kansas City Fed hosts its annual economic policy symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Thursday
* ECB’s July minutes, Thursday
* Fed Chair Powell speaks at Jackson Hole, Friday
* US personal income, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, 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 was little changed
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.3% to $0.9969
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.1829
* The Japanese yen rose 0.5% to 136.81 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced five basis points to 3.06%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 1.32%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 2.58%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.7% to $93.66 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.7% to $1,760 an ounce
–With assistance from Andreea Papuc.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

It ain’t over till it’s over. -Lawrence Peter Berra “Yogi”, 1925-2015.

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