March 22, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Ramadan begins today.
March 22,1960: The laser is patented for the first time by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow.  However, the term ‘LASER’ is actually an acronym for Light Amplification by  Simulated Emission of Radiation, which was coined by Gordon Gould.
March 22, 1972: Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. Go to article > 
1945: Arab League formed, Cairo.

‘Vibrant’ Roman mosaic discovered under supermarket construction site.  More incredible Roman finds were discovered in Britain. This time, it was on land earmarked for a grocery store.

The universe might be shaped like a doughnut, not like a pancake, new research suggests: The universe could, in fact, be a giant doughnut, despite all of the evidence suggesting it’s as flat as a pancake, new research suggests.  Strange patterns found in echoes of the Big Bang could be explained by a universe with a more complicated shape.  Full Story: Live Science (3/21)

Trilobites had a hidden third eye, new fossils reveal : Trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods, had a hidden third eye — and sometimes even a fourth or fifth, new research suggests.  Paleontologists knew that, like other arthropods such as insects and spiders, these hard-shelled prehistoric sea creatures had a pair of compound eyes. But scientists recently discovered a median eye located in the middle of the long-dead creatures’ foreheads.
Full Story: Live Science (3/21)

Where is Stonehenge, who built the prehistoric monument, and how?
Stonehenge is a massive stone monument located on Salisbury Plain in southern England.  It was built roughly 4,000 to 5,000 years ago and was part of a larger sacred landscape. Full Story: Live Science (3/21)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Tokyo, Japan
Visitors ride boats next to blooming cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi Park
Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters

Eskisehir, Turkey
An underwater view of Sakaryabasi, which was designated a natural protection area by the ministry of environment and urbanisation in 2020 and is the beginning of the Sakarya River
Photograph: Tahsin Ceylan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Gizhou, China
A cherry garden of the Guian New Area, covering an area of about 1,600 hectares, has attracted a large flow of tourists during the blossom season
Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
Market Closes for March 22^nd, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1811: The New York state legislature passed the world’s first law granting limited liability to common stockholders—a revolutionary concept that protected investors from ever losing more than their initial investment.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.6% at 19,532.78 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s increase of 0.7%.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.4%.
Advantage Energy Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 7.0%.
Today, 168 of 235 shares fell, while 64 rose; 8 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.8%
* This month, the index fell 3.4%
* The index declined 12% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 14% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.1% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.3% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.8% in the past 5 days and fell 3.3% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.7 on a trailing basis and 12.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.15t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.92% compared with 11.84% in the previous session and the average of 9.37% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -50.0782| -0.8| 4/25
Energy | -39.0843| -1.2| 5/35
Industrials | -23.2694| -0.8| 5/22
Information Technology | -20.0533| -1.5| 1/11
Real Estate | -7.0067| -1.4| 0/21
Utilities | -6.1912| -0.7| 1/14
Communication Services | -4.8629| -0.5| 0/6
Health Care | -1.7576| -2.5| 1/5
Consumer Discretionary | 0.5618| 0.1| 6/9
Consumer Staples | 4.2990| 0.5| 7/4
Materials | 19.6130| 0.8| 34/16
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | -17.1200| -1.4| -27.9| 0.5
Canadian Pacific | -11.2400| -1.7| 63.9| 3.2
Canadian Natural Resources | -9.6310| -1.7| -53.8| -5.2
Agnico Eagle Mines | 3.4940| 1.6| -11.9| -1.9
Wheaton Precious Metals | 3.8380| 2.0| -11.7| 19.1
Barrick Gold | 5.5940| 1.9| -43.1| 6.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market sold off after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s remarks rattled bank shares and Jerome Powell dashed hopes the Federal Reserve would cut rates this year.
Her testimony to lawmakers that the government is not considering providing “blanket” deposit insurance to stabilize the banking system sent financial shares into a tailspin that weighed on broader indexes.
Equities initially rallied after the Fed hiked by a quarter percentage point as expected and kept its year-end rate projection intact.
The market also gave up gains after Powell said he’s prepared to keep raising rates until inflation shows signs of cooling.
“Her comments clearly affected bank stocks negatively, but her comments roughly coincided with Powell’s comments that they will continue to do what take to fight inflation, including raising rates more than anticipated. So it’s tough to untangle them,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. 
In a broad-based selloff, the S&P 500 dropped 1.7%. All 22 stocks in the KBW Bank Index retreated, with the measure of US financial heavyweights down almost 5%.
Treasury two-year yields plunged 24 basis points to around 3.9%.
A dollar gauge retreated for a fifth straight day — its longest losing streak since April 2021.
The swap market shows a bit more than a one-in-two chance that officials will add another 25 basis points to their benchmark in May.
Expectations for cuts deepened, though, with the market suggesting that the effective fed funds rate will drop to around 4.18% in December.
That’s below what was expected in earlier trading before the decision.
“I would not expect the market to take these rate cuts out in the near term and could very well price in more cuts if the data deteriorates from here,” Matthew Hornbach, global head of macro strategy at Morgan Stanley told Bloomberg Television.
Powell himself, though, said in response to questioning that officials “just don’t” see rate cuts this year and that they will raise rates higher than expected if that is needed.
“Rate cuts are not in our base case,” he said.
Key events this week:
* Eurozone consumer confidence, Thursday
* BOE interest rate decision, Thursday
* Swiss National Bank rate decision and press conference, Thursday
* US new home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies to a House Appropriations subcommittee, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, Friday
* US durable goods, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.6%
* The euro rose 0.9% to $1.0863
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2274
* The Japanese yen rose 1% to 131.21 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 4.7% to $26,840.87
* Ether fell 4.3% to $1,724.27
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined 17 basis points to 3.44%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 2.33%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 3.45%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5% to $70.01 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 1.7% to $1,991.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Peyton Forte, Isabelle Lee, Michael MacKenzie and Alexandra Harris.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Regret for the things we did can be tempered with time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. –Sydney J. Harris, 1917-1986.

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