November 21, 2024, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.  World Hello Day. 💛

November 21, 1962: War between China and India ends.  The month long war began over a border dispute between the two countries and ended with a unilateral ceasefire by the Chinese.
November 21, 2010 Debt-struck Ireland applied for a massive EU-IMF loan to stem the flight of capital from its banks. Go to article .

1783: Man’s first flight in a balloon.
1995: Dow tops 5000 for the first time.

Voltaire, writer, b. 1694.
Harpo Marx, comedian, b. 1888.
Goldie Hawn, b. 1945.

Lucy’s last day: What the iconic fossil reveals about our ancient ancestor’s last hours
From a distance, it might have looked like a small child was wending her way through the waving grass along a vast lake. But a closer look would have revealed a strange, in-between creature — a big-eyed imp with a small head and an apelike face who walked upright like a human.  She may have looked warily over her shoulder as she walked, on alert for sabre-toothed cats or hyenas. But she likely had no idea it was her last day on Earth.
Roughly 3.2 million years later, her skeleton was unearthed by paleoanthropologists and the stunningly complete fossil was nicknamed “Lucy.” Her remarkable species, Australopithecus afarensis, may have been our direct ancestor.  Our discoveries about Lucy have transformed our understanding of humanity’s tangled family tree. In fact, anthropologists have learned so much about Lucy and her kind that we can now paint a picture of how she lived and died.  Read More.

This spot will be key to the inevitable collapse of a key Atlantic current
New modeling research reveals that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is particularly vulnerable to shifts in the Irminger Sea from increasing Arctic meltwater. Read More.

1,600-year-old amulet depicting King Solomon spearing the devil found in Turkey
The “King Solomon” pendant likely belonged to a cavalry soldier stationed at the ancient Byzantine city of Hadrianopolis. Read More.

‘Quantum hard drives’ closer to reality after scientists resolve 10-year-old problem
Scientists in Australia say they’ve cracked a key hurdle facing the development of scalable quantum computers and practical quantum data storage. Read More.

CMA Awards 2024: See who won
Country music stars were honored Wednesday at the 58th Annual CMA Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. See the list of winners here.

Headliners announced for 2025 Coachella fest
Several popular artists are set to perform at the next Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Southern California.

Duct-taped banana sells for $6.2 million at New York art auction
Art collectors were clamoring to buy this conceptual piece … Truthfully, I don’t see the ap-peel.

Longtime ‘Simpsons’ voice actor hangs up her mic
Pamela Hayden, who voices Bart Simpson’s friend Milhouse Van Houten, is stepping away from the role after 35 years.

Life in the world’s most polluted city
The sky in New Delhi is enveloped with smog, leaving many residents with persistent coughs, lung issues and stinging eyes. Several people told CNN they feel suffocated by the city’s intense pollution.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Dublin, Ireland
‘Early sun and autumn mists with two young bucks in Phoenix Park.’
Photograph: Colin Whitston

Loch Shiel, UK
Snow turns the Glenfinnan viaduct in the Highlands into a winter wonderland. Built from 1897 to 1901, the viaduct overlooks the Glenfinnan Monument and carries the West Highland railway line
Photograph: Dave Johnston

​​​​​​​New York, US
‘A view of the Manhattan skyline taken from the top of the Empire State Building.’
Photograph: Bernard Van Overmeire
Market Closes for November 21, 2024

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1985, the S&P 500 closed above 200 for the first time. It had taken the index more than 17 years to double.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fourth day, climbing 1.4%, or 354.22 to 25,390.68 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 1.6% on Aug. 8.
Today, energy stocks led the market higher, as 9 of 11 sectors gained; 179 of 219 shares rose, while 38 fell.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.6%.
TransAlta Corp. had the largest increase, rising 5.9%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater gain five times. The next day, it advanced after all five occasions
* This year, the index rose 21%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This month, the index rose 5.1%
* So far this week, the index rose 2%
* The index advanced 26% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 31% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is at its 52-week high and 27.5% above its low on Nov. 28, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.4% in the past 5 days and rose 2.7% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.2 on a trailing basis and 17.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.95t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 9.07% compared with 8.22% in the previous session and the average of 7.78% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 89.9019| 2.0| 40/1
Financials | 81.8878| 1.0| 23/3
Information Technology | 59.2714| 2.4| 10/0
Industrials | 54.4676| 1.8| 21/6
Materials | 38.3030| 1.3| 42/7
Consumer Staples | 12.0427| 1.3| 7/3
Consumer Discretionary | 10.9942| 1.3| 8/3
Utilities | 10.9163| 1.2| 14/1
Real Estate | 2.5692| 0.5| 11/8
Health Care | -0.1280| -0.2| 2/2
Communication Services | -5.9895| -0.9| 1/4
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | 44.2500| 2.6| 2.3| 30.4
Shopify | 29.4500| 2.4| -14.4| 44.3
Constellation Software | 19.5500| 3.1| 13.0| 41.4
Bank of Nova Scotia | -1.8100| -0.3| -1.7| 21.7
BCE | -3.0060| -1.3| 12.8| -28.6
Telus | -3.0330| -1.3| 24.8| -9.3
US
By Cristin Flanagan
(Bloomberg) — Stocks ended the day higher as traders contemplated a new US administration keen on deregulation.
Bitcoin blew past $98,000 while the dollar gained and Treasury yields rose.
The S&P 500 advanced 0.5% after a choppy morning session spurred by swings in Nvidia Corp. and angst about the war in Ukraine.
The Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.4% after dropping more than 1% earlier in the day.
The fierce rally in Nvidia hit a speed bump following outlook that missed Wall Street’s high expectations.
The stock resumed its climb in the final hours of trading to end the day in the green but shy of its latest all-time high.
Bitcoin extended its post-election run and is rapidly approaching $100,000 on bets President-elect Donald Trump’s support for crypto and looser regulation will usher in a boom for the industry.
The planned departure of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler is expected to give a boost to deregulation and digital assets.
A report suggested Chris Giancarlo, a former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was being weighed as the first “crypto czar” under the incoming administration.
Trump’s pick to overhaul the Justice Department, Matt Gaetz, withdrew himself from consideration of the post amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Uncertainty over who Trump will name to the top spot at the Treasury remains up in the air and weighed on US bonds.
“The contest for the Treasury Secretary appears to have come down to Bessent, Rowan, and Warsh – all of whom fall into the category of qualified adults in the room,” according to BMO’s Ian Lyngen. Though, “clarity is always preferable from the market’s perspective.”
Yields on the 10-year Treasury steadied at 4.42% and the dollar rebounded after mixed labor data.
Jobless claims came in lower than expected while continuing claims, a gauge of the number of people receiving benefits, rose to a three-year high.
Among notable stock movers, Snowflake Inc. surged more than 30% while shares of MicroStrategy Inc., the largest publicly traded corporate holder of Bitcoin, sank on a short-seller report from Andrew Left’s Citron Research.
Turkey Trot Strategists at market research firm Fundstrat expect US stocks to climb into the US holiday week, followed by some weakening in December.
“The Nvidia earnings report leaves the likelihood of a Thanksgiving rally intact,” they wrote. “The AI trajectory has not changed all that much, but the market’s immediate reaction is less important than the fact that the uncertainty over Nvidia’s results is behind us.”
To Tom Essaye, founder of The Sevens Report, this week’s conflicting reports from Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. suggest some restraint from American consumers, who should be watched closely.
“The state of the labor market and consumer spending are indicative of a soft landing and that’s a good thing,” the former Merrill Lynch trader said. “But they are also vulnerable to deterioration from here and if that occurs, then a hard landing becomes substantially more likely and that would be a decided negative for stocks.”
Housing is another worry as mortgage rates in the US started climbing again with the average for a 30-year fixed loan 6.84%, up from 6.78% last week.
Geopolitical Storm Escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war gave oil and gold prices a boost, pushing WTI crude futures to around $70 a barrel.
Ukraine reported that Russia fired an intercontinental ballistic missile during an overnight attack, while a Kremlin spokesman called Kyiv’s earlier use of UK Storm Shadow missiles a new escalation.
“Geopolitics always has a potential of introducing volatility in the market and we have seen that with what is happening in Ukraine,” Themis Themistocleous, chief investment officer, EMEA at UBS Wealth Management told Bloomberg Television. “We have been advising clients to include oil into
their portfolio, or derivatives of oil, to be able to hedge against potential volatility.”
In Asia, shares of India’s Adani Group units tumbled and the conglomerate scrapped a $600 million dollar bond sale after US prosecutors charged its billionaire founder, Gautam Adani.
The company denied the US allegations that it was participating in a scheme that involved promising to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar-energy contracts. 

Key events this week:
* Eurozone HCOB Manufacturing & Services PMI, Friday
* US University of Michigan consumer sentiment, S&P Global Manufacturing & Services PMI, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets: 
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1%
* The MSCI World Index rose 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.6% to $1.0480
* The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.2596
* The Japanese yen rose 0.6% to 154.50 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3.7% to $97,967.01
* Ether rose 8.8% to $3,350.97
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.42%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 2.32%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 4.44%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.2% to $70.24 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.8% to $2,671.67 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Mark Tannenbaum, Divya Patil, Margaryta Kirakosian, Allegra Catelli, John Viljoen and Alex Nicholson.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
You don’t love because, you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults. –William Faulkner, 1897-1962.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com