February 16, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.
February 16, 2006: The last Mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.

February 16, 1968: The nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala. Go to article » 

Da Vinci understood key aspect of gravity centuries before Einstein, lost sketches reveal: Leonardo da Vinci may have had an understanding of gravity that was “centuries ahead of his time,” his sketchbooks reveal.
Da Vinci’s sketches, which were forgotten for decades, show triangles formed by sand-like particles pouring from a jar. These falling grains depicted experiments to show that gravity was a form of acceleration more than 400 years before Einstein did, a new study argues. Full Story: Live Science (2/15)

In ‘extremely rare’ attack, polar bear killed mother and child in Alaska. Now we know why.  Last month, a polar bear killed a woman and her 1-year-old child in Alaska. It was the first fatal polar bear attack recorded in the U.S. in more than 30 years.  Now, a new report sheds light on what may have caused the tragic event. Full Story: Live Science (2/14)

Elusive Planet Nine could be surrounded by hot moons, and that’s how we’d find it: The elusive “Planet Nine,” which may or may not lurk in the outer reaches of the solar system, could be surrounded by a small swarm of potential moons, a new study reveals.
What’s more, these moons could be the key to finding the missing planet. Full Story: Live Science (2/15)

A Hebrew Bible more than 1,000 years old and described as “one of the most important and singular texts in human history” will soon go up for sale. An auctioneer said the “astonishing record” will likely fetch up to $50 million after it concludes an exhibition tour to Israel and the US.

Record-breaking dinosaur footprint discovered on the Yorkshire coast.  Archaeologists said this massive footprint provides more evidence that Jurassic dinosaurs once roamed northern England.

Webb telescope uses celestial Pandora’s box to see distant galaxies.  View a detailed image of Pandora’s Cluster, a mega cluster of galaxies that allowed astronomers to peer into the distant universe.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Baghdad, Iraq
Iraqi Shia Muslim pilgrims gather to pray at the shrine of the 8th-century imam Musa al-Kadhim in the Kadhimiya district
Photograph: Murtadha Ridha/AFP/Getty Images

Peterborough, UK
Peterborough Cathedral sits on the horizon as the sun tries to break through the mist and air pollution at sunrise
Photograph: Paul Marriott/Rex/Shutterstock

London, UK
Whorled (Here After Here After Here), an outdoor installation by Jitish Kallat at Somerset House
Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock
Market Closes for February 16^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1990, Cisco Systems went public on the Nasdaq, selling 2.8 million shares at an initial offering price of $18 per share. By the end of the decade, adjusting for stock splits, the stock was worth more than 300 times as much as that.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.6% at 20,606.42 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest loss since Feb. 6 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.1%.
Today, information technology stocks led the market lower, as 5 of 11 sectors lost; 131 of 237 shares fell, while 100 rose.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline and had the largest move, decreasing 15.5%.
Insights
* So far this week, the index was little changed
* The index declined 3.6% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 9.3% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 7.2% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 15.3% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and rose 1.1% 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 12.7 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$3.29t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 7.25% compared with 8.11% in the previous session and the average of 10.99% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology| -104.6984| -7.5| 2/12
Energy | -34.1848| -0.9| 7/32
Industrials | -6.3756| -0.2| 10/15
Utilities | -1.6384| -0.2| 5/11
Real Estate | -1.1885| -0.2| 12/11
Health Care | 0.0090| 0.0| 3/3
Consumer Staples | 0.4599| 0.1| 4/6
Communication Services| 1.3740| 0.1| 3/3
Financials | 3.7114| 0.1| 12/16
Consumer Discretionary| 4.1785| 0.6| 8/7
Materials | 18.6741| 0.8| 34/15
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | -90.7800| -15.5| 48.7| 28.5
Cenovus Energy | -11.0700| -4.5| 151.6| -5.4
Suncor Energy | -8.1950| -1.9| -7.6| 6.3
Nutrien | 6.5000| 1.8| 72.0| 6.1
Teck Resources | 8.6790| 5.0| 211.9| 15.4
Manulife Financial | 12.8700| 3.8| 211.4| 12.3
US
By Isabelle Lee and Emily Graffeo
(Bloomberg) — US equity indexes closed firmly in the red Thursday after two Federal Reserve officials said they were considering 50 basis-point interest rate hikes to battle persistently high inflation.
The S&P 500 Index fell 1.4% and the Nasdaq 100 sank 1.9%.
Yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury surged past 3.8% to the highest level this year.
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said she had seen a “compelling economic case” for rolling out another 50 basis-point hike, and St. Louis President James Bullard said he would not rule out supporting a half-percentage-point increase at the Fed’s March meeting, rather than a quarter point.
Their warnings came after US producer prices rebounded in January by the most since June.
New home construction retreated for a fifth month in January as elevated mortgage rates continue to keep a lid on housing demand.
Weekly jobless claims fell to 194,000, below expectations of 200,000.
“You will not sustainably get to 2% inflation when you have a labor market that is this tight,” Steve Chiavarone, senior portfolio manager and head of multi-asset solutions at Federated Hermes, said by phone. “It is so completely out of whack.”
“The data that’s been coming in I think is confusing a lot of investors and confusing the market overall,” Kristen Bitterly, head of North America investments at Citi Global Wealth, said in an interview. “We believe that the rally that
we’ve seen is actually a very technically driven rally.”
“Overall, layoffs remain low, suggesting companies remain reluctant to reduce their workforce for now,” wrote Rubeela Farooqi, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics. “A rapid rise in interest rates has yet to impact the labor market.  But an adjustment is likely over coming months as the cumulative and lagged effects of restrictive monetary policy spread more broadly through the economy.”
Thursday’s economic prints added further details for Fed policymakers plotting the path for rate hikes, after Wednesday’s US retail sales in January jumped by the most in almost two years.
Investors have been upping their bets on how far the Fed will raise rates this tightening cycle.
They now see the federal funds rate climbing past 5.2% in July, according to trading in the US money markets.
That compares with a perceived peak rate of 4.9% just two weeks ago, and the central bank’s current 4.5% to 4.75% target range.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.3%.
So far this year the 30-member blue-chip gauge is up about 2%, compared with a roughly 7% gain in the S&P 500.
The 5 percentage-point gap between the two makes the Dow’s start to a year the weakest relative to the S&P 500 since 1934, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Bitcoin optimism continued as the cryptocurrency briefly topped $25,000 for the first time since August as traders’ fears of a US regulatory crackdown abated.
Oil futures fell as investors weighed evidence of higher energy demand in China against a large increase in US crude stockpiles.

Key events:
* France CPI, Russia GDP Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.4%, more than any closing loss since Jan.18 as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.9%, more than any closing loss since Jan. 30
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3%, more than any closing loss since Jan. 18
* The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1% to the highest since Jan. 6
* The euro fell 0.1% to $1.0675
* The British pound fell 0.3% to $1.1993
* The Japanese yen surged 0.2%, more than any closing gain since Feb. 7
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.5% to the highest in about eight months
* Ether rose 1% to the highest since Sept. 12
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced five basis points to 3.85%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.48%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 3.50%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.7% to $78.03 a barrel
* Gold futures were little changed
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Elena Popina, Cristin Flanagan and Angel Adegbesan.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,
Carolann
Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. –John Donne, 1572-1631.

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