July 18, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1936: Spanish Civil War begins.

1999:  David Cone of the New York Yankees pitched the 14th perfect game in modern major league baseball history in a game against the Montreal Expos.  Go to article >>

Nelson Mandela, South African leader, b.1918.
Hunter S. Thompson, writer, b. 19396.

1964: Nelson Mandela, antiapartheid revolutionary and future President of South Africa, is sentenced to life imprisonment, becoming a symbol of resistance and later a global icon of peace.

These people will be aboard Virgin Galactic’s first space tourism flight: The first Olympian and the first mother-daughter duo to venture to space will be aboard Virgin Galactic’s private astronaut mission in August.

The world’s new largest office building is bigger than the Pentagon.  With 7 million square feet of floor space, it may be easy to get lost in this mammoth building in India.

‘Building blocks of life’ discovered on Mars in 10 different rock samples
NASA’s Perseverance rover has found an intriguing menagerie of organic molecules in a Martian crater, but their source remains unclear. Read More

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Agra, India: The flooded banks of the Yamuna River beside the Taj Mahal.  Photograph: Pawan Sharma/AFP/Getty Images

Istanbul, Turkey:  The TQ Samsun bulk carrier transits the Bosphorus strait during the early hours. It is the last grain ship, carrying corn and rapeseed, to leave Ukraine under the Black Sea grain initiative. Russia notified the UN that it would not extend the Turkey/UN-brokered deal.  Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images.

Washington DC, US:  A dragonfly sits on a lotus flower during the Lotus and Water Lily festival at Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens. The festival occurs every year when the flowers are at peak bloom. The flowers tend to close as the sun grows more intense and the temperature rises.  Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images.
Market Closes for July 18^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1968: Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, engineering refugees from Fairchild Semiconductor, established N.M. Electronics to miniaturize electronic circuitry onto silicon chips.  N.M., which generated $2,672 of revenue in its first year, soon changed its name to Intel.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.7% at 20,376.57 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since May 15 after the previous session’s decrease of 0.2%.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.9%. Endeavour Silver Corp. had the largest increase, rising 7.0%.
Today, 164 of 229 shares rose, while 60 fell; 5 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 9.6% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 19% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.2% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 14% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.5% in the past 5 days and rose 2% 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 14.2 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.4% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.2t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 9.97% compared with 9.90% in the previous session and the average of 11.06% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 58.2929| 1.8| 39/1
Financials | 48.7600| 0.8| 22/6
Materials | 44.9385| 1.8| 44/5
Industrials | 7.9489| 0.3| 16/10
Consumer Discretionary | 6.7860| 0.9| 12/3
Health Care | -0.0897| -0.2| 1/3
Communication Services | -0.6059| -0.1| 3/2
Real Estate | -1.5195| -0.3| 9/11
Utilities | -2.7002| -0.3| 7/9
Consumer Staples | -2.8503| -0.3| 3/7
Information Technology | -9.1710| -0.6| 8/3
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | 16.5700| 2.9| 0.4| 0.9
Nutrien | 10.6500| 3.8| 46.2| -16.0
Brookfield Corp | 10.2700| 2.3| -16.2| 8.4
BCE | -2.5520| -0.7| 61.2| -3.8
Waste Connections | -3.9630| -1.2| 155.4| 2.7
Shopify | -17.2800| -2.3| 98.1| 88.4
US
By Isabelle Lee
(Bloomberg) — US equities rose Tuesday as results from Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley bolstered bank shares, and a rally in stocks linked to artificial intelligence resumed.
Bank of America delivered a surprise gain from its core Wall Street businesses.
Morgan Stanley executives pointed to an improved outlook.
And in technology, Microsoft Corp. set an expensive price tag on new AI products, buoying the sector.
The S&P 500 gained 0.7% while Treasury yields pared earlier losses as the corporate updates were coupled with disappointing economic data.
Figures on industrial production and retail sales missed estimates, and traders are now fully pricing in a quarter-point hike at the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week.
Signs of slowing inflation and an improving economic picture have led traders to dial back wagers on how high the US overnight benchmark rate will go.
However, quarterly forecasts from policy makers have shown a median expectation of two more quarter-point increases this year in order to bring the rate of inflation in line with the Fed’s target.
“The current picture on the consumer is a bit blurry. It seems that excess savings buoyed retail activity in recent months but consumers are quickly depleting those excess reserves and starting to use credit to support spending habits,” Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial, said.
His comments were echoed by Rubeela Farooqi, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, who said consumers continue to face constraints from higher borrowing costs and elevated prices.
“However, a still-strong labor market, positive real disposable incomes and a gradual easing in price pressures appears to be supporting consumption for now.”
In Europe, stocks and bonds were also higher after ECB council member Klaas Knot said monetary tightening beyond next week’s European Central Bank meeting was anything but guaranteed — suggesting officials could soon pause their campaign of interest-rate hikes.
The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.6% while the yield on 10-year German securities fell nearly 10 basis points to 2.4%, touching a roughly two-week low.
“It’s clear that it’s the receding inflation narrative which is driving everything,” said Gilles Guibout, a portfolio manager at Axa Investment Managers in Paris. “Investors are feeding on hope: hope that US rates will get down sooner and hope that China will launch a stimulus package to beef up consumption.”
The wild card is China, where a stuttering recovery is leading to disquiet among investors considering the knock-on effects from a slowdown in the world’s growth engine.
Equities in mainland China and Hong Kong fell Tuesday.
Elsewhere, gold rose, oil gained and the dollar was little changed. 
Key events this week:
* Eurozone, UK CPI, Wednesday
* US housing starts, Wednesday
* China loan prime rates, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, existing home sales, Conf. Board leading index, Thursday
* Japan CPI, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.7% as of 4:08 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.8%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro was little changed at $1.1230
* The British pound fell 0.3% to $1.3040
* The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 138.89 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.6% to $29,743.3
* Ether rose 0.2% to $1,893.89
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 3.79%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined nine basis points to 2.39%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined 10 basis points to 4.33%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.1% to $75.71 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 1.3% to $1,981.40 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Cecile Gutscher, Tassia Sipahutar, Joe Easton and Julien Ponthus.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. –Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826.

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