May 9, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
May 9, 1978: The bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who’d been abducted by the Red Brigades, was found in an automobile in the center of Rome. Go to article >
1960: The first birth control pill is approved.  The US Food & Drug Administration announced that it would add birth control as a new indication for the drug “Enovid”.
1945: Victory Day, Russia.

Billy Joel, musician, b. 1949.
Candace Bergen, actress, b. 1946.

Summer movie season is back and this year’s lineup is packed.  Movie fans are eagerly awaiting these summer flicks releasing “only in theaters” in the coming months. (Pro tip: Secure your tickets in advance for the best seats!)

The Westminster Dog Show is here.  Thousands of dogs are in New York this week for the canine equivalent of the Olympics. Which breed do you think has the most pet-ential to be named best in show?

Webb telescope spies evidence of hidden planets around nearby star.  Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe massive belts of dust around a nearby star that suggest hidden planets are orbiting it.

Buckingham Palace releases official coronation portraits.  Coronation festivities have come to an end. View the official photos of the newly-crowned King, Queen and members of the royal family.

The end of Wendy’s drive-through line is near.

8-year-old girl unearths Stone Age dagger by her school in Norway
While playing outside her school in Norway, an 8-year-old girl found an unexpected treasure — a flint dagger crafted by Stone Age people 3,700 years ago. Read More

Mysterious ‘golden’ fossils from the Jurassic aren’t what they seem
Fossils found in Germany’s Posidonia Shale don’t get their gleam from fool’s gold after all. Read More

4 of Uranus’ biggest moons have secret, underground oceans, new study suggests
A reanalysis of Voyager data suggests that four of Uranus moons may have oceans tucked between their cores and icy crusts. Read More

Astronomers find remnants of the oldest stars in the universe
A gas cloud 13 billion light-years away may be the resting place of some of the earliest stars in the universe. Read More

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Wertheim, Germany
A hare sits on the race track of a stud farm near Frankfurt. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Orny, Switzerland
A farm surrounded by rapeseed Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Seoul, South Korea
Novice monks react after getting their heads shaved during an event to celebrate the upcoming Vesak Day, birthday of Buddha, at Jogye temple. Nine children began experiencing Buddhist priests’ lives as novice monks for three weeks at the temple. Photograph: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Market Closes for May 9^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day 1894: Benjamin Grossbaum was born in London, to a homemaker and an importer of Austrian china. His family later changed its surname to Graham, and he became the godfather of securities analysis and value investing.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 20,585.73 in Toronto.
Teck Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.3%.
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. had the largest increase, rising 12.2%.
Today, 128 of 232 shares rose, while 102 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 2.9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 2.9% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.1% below its 52-week high on June 2, 2022 and 15.2% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.9% in the past 5 days and rose 1.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.3 on a trailing basis and 13.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.27t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 9.37% compared with 9.36% in the previous session and the average of 10.32% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 21.3652| 0.6| 30/10
Industrials | 13.2425| 0.5| 15/12
Materials | 5.1095| 0.2| 29/20
Consumer Staples | 4.0710| 0.5| 5/6
Utilities | 2.8842| 0.3| 11/5
Consumer Discretionary | 0.4731| 0.1| 9/6
Health Care | -0.5366| -0.8| 3/3
Information Technology | -2.3349| -0.2| 6/6
Real Estate | -3.0242| -0.6| 4/16
Communication Services | -3.4858| -0.4| 0/5
Financials | -37.1961| -0.6| 16/13
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Teck Resources | 6.1320| 3.3| -0.7| 20.8
Brookfield Corp | 4.8630| 1.2| 20.5| 1.2
SNC-Lavalin Group | 4.7570| 12.2| 493.8| 50.4
Bank of Nova Scotia| -11.5900| -2.1| -3.7| -0.7
TD Bank | -12.0200| -1.2| -53.7| -7.2
RBC | -18.4800| -1.5| -58.0| 1.7
US
By Cristin Flanagan and Peyton Forte
(Bloomberg) — US equities slumped ahead of a critical inflation report while the debt ceiling impasse dragged on investor sentiment.
The dollar edged higher.
The S&P 500 ended Tuesday 0.5% lower with PayPal Holdings Inc. the worst performer on the index after outlook disappointed.
The Nasdaq 100 slid 0.7%.
Stock gauges have been stuck in narrow trading ranges as traders weigh the potential end of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes against the possibility of an economic slowdown.
Investors are tracking efforts in Washington to end a standoff over the US debt ceiling, with President Joe Biden due to sit down with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Tuesday as the two face pressure to forge a deal.
McCarthy rejected the idea of a short-term debt-limit extension ahead of the meeting.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the debt limit could be breached as soon as June 1.
See Bloomberg’s Debt-Ceiling Anxiety Tracker: Key Seven-Day
“The meeting is unlikely to generate major breakthroughs on the debt-ceiling impasse, though it might finally focus more attention on the issue,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management, wrote. “The most likely scenario is Congress will pass an extension until September 30, when the fiscal year ends. This would set up a larger battle on the 2024 budget and the debt ceiling, all at once.”
The S&P 500 has been stuck trading between 3,800 and 4,200 this year.
Equities could finally break out of that range and move higher if, “data points more convincingly towards a soft landing, there are no more regional bank failures, core inflation drops faster than expected, the Fed confirms the pause and a debt ceiling deal is reached,” said Tom Essaye, founder of The Sevens Report newsletter.
Bears, according to Jonathan Krinsky, chief market technician at BTIG, are looking for the benchmark to fall below 3,800.
“The bullish argument is that the market is so resilient and it can’t crack despite all the widely known problems,” Krinsky wrote. On the other hand, “if the market is so strong, why hasn’t it been able to break out above 4,200 despite spending so much time just below it, a VIX that broke below 16, and many tech names up over 20% YTD? The reason is breadth and credit.”
Signs of tightening credit were apparent in a Fed poll of lending officers Monday.
The first quarter survey showed demand for loans weakened, heightening recession worries.
Fed officials including New York Fed President John Williams are watching for signs of a credit crunch.
Williams said he wasn’t including a rate cut in his forecast for this year at an event Tuesday. He left the door open on the odds of a Fed pause.
Swaps suggest traders are expecting at least a 50 basis points in cuts by the end of 2023.
Sentiment was also hurt by a report showing a steep drop in Chinese imports last month, a sign that the economy’s recovery from Covid lockdown isn’t as strong as many had hoped.
Oil traded at $73.50 a barrel.
Traders are awaiting the monthly US inflation report, due Wednesday.
Economists expect headline CPI to rise by 5% on a year-on-year basis, showing that price pressures are still uncomfortably high for the Federal Reserve.
Yields on the policy-sensitive two-year rose to 4.0% with the 10-year at 3.5%.
An index of dollar strength climbed, gold also gained.
PacWest Bancorp ended the day up 2.3%, leading gains among lending peers in the KBW Regional Banking Index.
Key events this week:
* US President Joe Biden scheduled to meet with congressional leaders on debt limit, Tuesday
* US CPI, Wednesday
* China PPI, CPI, Thursday
* UK BOE rate decision, industrial production, GDP, Thursday
* US PPI, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Group of Seven finance minister and central bank governors meet in Japan, Thursday
* US University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Fed Governor Philip Jefferson and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard participate in panel discussion on monetary policy at Stanford University, Friday.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro fell 0.4% to $1.0963
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2620
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 135.22 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.6% to $27,730.97
* Ether rose 0.7% to $1,854.83
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 3.53%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 2.35%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced seven basis points to 3.86%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4% to $73.48 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.4% to $2,041.90 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

A critic is a man created to praise greater men than himself, but he is never able to find them. –Richard Le Gallienne, 1866-1947.
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