September 26, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Carolann is away from the office for conference, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

See the ‘amazing’ facial reconstruction of a Bronze Age woman discovered crouching in a 4,200-year-old grave
The skeletal remains of the ‘Upper Largie Woman’ were found in a quarry in Scotland. Now, scientists have reconstructed the Bronze Age woman’s face.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx capsule returns to Earth with a sample from the ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid Bennu
A capsule containing 2 ounces of rocky material from the “potentially hazardous” asteroid Bennu has landed safely in the Utah desert after a seven-year mission in space.

‘Spooky’ octopus spotted during a deep-sea expedition
Researchers spotted a rare Dumbo Octopus while exploring the sea floor off the coast of Hawaii. Watch the video here.

Now you can speak to ChatGPT — and it will talk back
The artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT can now hear, see and speak after OpenAI gave the chatbot its most humanlike update yet. 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Seoul, South Korea
Military academy personnel take part in a parade to celebrate South Korea’s 75th Armed Forces Day
Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

Florence, Italy
Eleonora Pucci, a restorer, cleans dust and debris from Michelangelo’s statue of David at the Galleria dell’Accademia. The process takes place every two months
Photograph: Vandeville Eric/ABACA/Shutterstock

London, England
A hummingbird hawk moth feeds on nectar in a garden in London. The moths are an increasingly regular migrant moth usually seen in July and August, though warming weather has seen a growing number that are able to overwinter in the UK
Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Market Closes for September 26^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a heart attack, sparking a 6.62% drop in the Dow. The fall remains one of the index’s worst daily losses of the past 100 years.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.2% at 19,556.15 in Toronto.
The index dropped to the lowest closing level since June 23 after the previous session’s increase of 0.1%.
Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 197 of 227 shares fell, while 28 rose.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.4%.
Westshore Terminals Investment Corp. had the largest drop, falling 10.0%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss 18 times. The next day, it declined 12 times for an average 0.7% and advanced six times for an average 1.1%
* This year, the index rose 0.9%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This quarter, the index fell 3%, heading for the biggest decline since the second quarter of 2022
* This month, the index fell 3.6%
* The index advanced 6.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 16% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 6.2% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 9.4% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 3.3% in the past 5 days and fell 1.4% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.8 on a trailing basis and 14 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$3.14t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 12.98% compared with 13.72% in the previous session and the average of 12.17% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -68.8823| -1.1| 1/27
Materials | -44.9442| -1.9| 6/45
Industrials | -42.2744| -1.6| 1/25
Information Technology | -24.8430| -1.7| 3/8
Utilities | -16.1255| -1.9| 3/13
Communication Services | -13.2641| -1.8| 0/5
Consumer Discretionary | -11.1590| -1.6| 0/13
Real Estate | -10.9298| -2.3| 0/21
Energy | -8.0420| -0.2| 12/28
Consumer Staples | -2.5239| -0.3| 2/8
Health Care | -1.4683| -2.3| 0/4
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | -20.6300| -3.4|n/a | 48.1
Canadian Pacific | | | |
Kansas | -17.8900| -2.7|n/a | -0.2
RBC | -15.2100| -1.3|n/a | -6.6
MEG Energy | 2.0150| 4.1|n/a | 36.3
Cenovus Energy | 3.0100| 1.2|n/a | 4.7
Canadian Natural | | | |
Resources | 15.3400| 2.4|n/a | 15.9
US
By Vildana Hajric and Isabelle Lee
(Bloomberg) — US stocks sank Tuesday as confidence in the economy waned and investors contemplated a protracted period of high interest rates.
The dollar extended its winning streak for a fifth day.
An equity selloff deepened in the afternoon session with the S&P 500 Index falling 1.5% and the Nasdaq 100 sliding 1.5%.
The equities benchmarks fell to the lowest since early June after a report showed consumer confidence in the world’s biggest economy stalled this month, dropping to 103 from a revised 108.7 in August, and missing the median estimate of 105.5 in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Wall Street’s fear gauge — the Cboe Volatility Index or VIX — ratcheted higher closing at the highest since May.
“The market is in the hands of the bears right now,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial. “It’s a wall of worry, uncertainty hovering over the market. You wouldn’t say that the selloffs have been tremendously dramatic —in fact, they’ve been kind of orderly. But there’s still that uncertainty.”
Separate reports also showed purchases of new homes fell to a five-month low while home prices in the US rose to a record high over the summer as buyers battled over a tight supply of listings.
Investors will be looking for other signs that consumers may be feeling pinched when the warehouse club, Costco Wholesale Corp., reports after the bell.
“Consumer attitudes in recent months appear even more sensitive than normal to inflation generally and gasoline prices specifically,” Stephen Stanley, chief US economist at Santander, wrote. “While the Fed is focused mainly on core, the average consumer is spending a substantial portion of their budget on food and energy and are unwilling to ignore those prices.”
Yields on Treasuries drifted back up after reaching decade highs on Monday.
A $48 billion Treasury auction of two-year notes was awarded at 5.085%, the highest since 2006.
The Bloomberg dollar index advanced, setting a fresh 2023 peak in its strongest close since early December.
Oil resumed its climb, moving back above $90 a barrel.
Tech giants, namely Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Google-parent Alphabet Inc. dragged on the US stock gauges. The threat of tight policy is undoing some of the market’s biggest gains this year in high-flying tech stocks. These growth companies are prized for their long-term prospects but hold less appeal when future profits get discounted at higher rates. That’s reflected in growing short positions against the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index.
Positioning in the Nasdaq 100 is now one-sided net short at $8.1 billion, with all long positions unwound, according to Citigroup Inc. strategists.
One Fed speaker after another in the past week has delivered emphatic messages that they will keep policy tighter for longer if the economy is stronger than expected.
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said he expects the US central bank will need to raise interest rates one more time this year.
“Investors are beginning to realize that a ‘higher for longer’ interest rate environment is a likely outcome and are slowly adjusting to the ‘new normal,’” Paul Nolte, a senior wealth manager at Murphy & Sylvest Wealth Management, wrote in a note. “Higher-for-longer has been the mantra of the Fed for a few months. It is only recently that the markets have been taking them at their word.”
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co., floated the idea US interest rates could reach 7%, a worst-case scenario that could catch consumers and businesses off-guard.
Meanwhile, a warning that a US government shutdown would reflect poorly on America’s credit rating from Moody’s Investors Service kept traders focused on an end-of-month deadline. 
Key events this week:
* ECB’s Philip Lane speaks on monetary policy, Tuesday
* China industrial profits, Wednesday
* US durable goods, Wednesday
* Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, GDP, Thursday
* Fed Chair Jerome Powell town hall meeting with educators while Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee make speeches, Thursday
* Eurozone CPI, Friday
* Japan unemployment, industrial production, retail sales, Tokyo CPI, Friday
* US consumer spending, wholesale inventories, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Friday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.5% as of 4:01 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1%
* The MSCI World index fell 1.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.0571
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2156
* The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 149.05 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.2% to $26,243.75
* Ether rose 0.1% to $1,589.06
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.55%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 2.81%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.33%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1% to $90.58 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.9% to $1,918.50 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Alice Atkins, Richard Henderson, Alex Nicholson and Cecile Gutscher.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,
 
Shabnam
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

Shabnam Mohammadpourmarzbali
Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff
Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

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