January 23, 2025, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.

January 23, 1957: Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, leading to the creation of the iconic Frisbee and transforming outdoor recreation.
In 1973, President Nixon announced an accord to end the Vietnam War.
January 23, 1991: Allied forces in the Persian Gulf War announced that they had achieved air superiority after some 12,000 sorties.  Go to article.

John Hancock, statesman, b. 1737.
Edouard Manet, artist, b. 1832.
Elizabeth Blackwell, first female MD, b.1849.

Scientists discover new, 3rd form of magnetism that may be the ‘missing link’ in the quest for superconductivity
Scientists have found an elusive third form of magnetism that could help solve a longstanding puzzle about superconductors. Read More.

Florida’s snowfall record smashed as historic storm blasts Gulf Coast
A historic winter snowstorm has reached the Gulf Coast, smothering the region in Arctic air and dropping record-breaking amounts of snow on northern Florida. Read More.

Hubble telescope spots ‘blue lurker’ star feeding off of its conjoined siblings
A rare breed of star recently discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope spins faster by feeding on its stellar siblings. Read More.

Boom Supersonic’s next-generation XB-1 passenger plane 1 step away from breaking the sound barrier
Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 demonstrator craft could become the first commercial jet to break the sound barrier since Concorde after acing its 11th test. Read More.

Why some Instagram users aren’t able to unfollow Trump and JD Vance
Some social media users, including celebrities, are posting complaints that Meta won’t let them unfollow President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and first lady Melania Trump on Instagram. Here’s what we know.

There’s a steep fee to climb Mount Everest
Nepal will increase the permit fees for climbing Mount Everest by more than 35% to $15,000, making the world’s tallest peak more expensive for mountaineers for the first time in nearly a decade.

Trash or treasure?
A marble statue believed to be more than 2,000 years old was found abandoned in a garbage bag near the Greek city of Thessaloniki, police said.

Feeling bored has a purpose. Here are 5 things to know about boredom
Many try to avoid boredom, but it serves a purpose. A neuroscientist explains why people get bored and how to turn boredom into motivation.

This animal is bouncing back from the brink of extinction
Animal conservationists in Australia have launched an initiative to bring back miniature kangaroo lookalikes.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Seoul, South Korea
A customer reads one of the more than 30,000 books crammed into a second-hand store in an underground shopping centre
Photograph: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu/Getty Images

London, UK
A visitor examines an installation at Somerset House’s new exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet
Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock

​​​​​​​West Sumatra, Indonesia
Visitors to the Palupuah forest inspect a spectacular Rafflesia arnoldii, the world’s largest flower
Photograph: Adi Prima/Anadolu/Getty Images
Market Closes for January 23, 2025

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

MARKET COMMENTARY:
📈 On this day in 2002, Kenneth Lay resigned as chairman and chief executive of Enron. His departure came a little over a month after the energy-trading powerhouse filed for bankruptcy—then the biggest in U.S. history.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the eighth day, climbing 0.5%, or 122.58 to 25,434.08 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since Dec. 11.
Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as 9 of 11 sectors gained; 127 of 222 shares rose, while 89 fell.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 0.8%.
Badger Infrastructure Solutions Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 8.8%.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 2.9%
* So far this week, the index rose 1.5%, heading for the biggest advance since the week ended Nov. 22
* The index advanced 21% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 25% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.6% below its 52-week high on Dec. 9, 2024 and 24.3% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.4% in the past 5 days and rose 2.8% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21 on a trailing basis and 17.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.99t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.83% compared with 11.81% in the previous session and the average of 10.87% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 45.5261| 0.6| 22/4
Industrials | 36.1178| 1.1| 21/6
Consumer Discretionary | 11.2620| 1.4| 9/2
Consumer Staples | 10.3393| 1.1| 8/2
Utilities | 9.8746| 1.1| 12/2
Information Technology | 5.9609| 0.2| 5/5
Materials | 5.3846| 0.2| 23/25
Communication Services | 0.9476| 0.2| 4/1
Health Care | 0.1621| 0.2| 2/1
Real Estate | -0.4249| -0.1| 9/11
Energy | -2.5852| -0.1| 12/30
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | 14.5700| 0.8| 90.9| 1.3
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 14.4500| 2.0| -24.0| 10.5
Canadian National | 9.8060| 1.7| 10.2| 4.6
ARC Resources | -1.6190| -1.5| -29.3| 1.3
Shopify | -3.1430| -0.2| -32.5| -0.2
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd | -3.1610| -0.7| -4.8| 13.4
USA
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks closed at all-time highs as oil fell after President Donald Trump urged OPEC to lower crude prices and said he will push for interest-rate cuts.
A drop in oil, which tends to ease concerns about inflation, pushed the policy-sensitive two-year yield down.
About 320 shares in the S&P 500 rose, with the gauge topping the 6,100 milestone.
Tech shares, which weighed heavily on the market throughout most of the session, rebounded in the final stretch of Wall Street trading.
Trump said he signed executive actions related to artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies.
Traders eagerly anticipating fresh insights into Trump’s trade policies, got a more moderate tone regarding tariffs, which helped “soothe investor nerves,” according to Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com.
“Trump, rightly or wrongly, wants to see a positive supply shock in the energy sector,” said Neil Dutta at Renaissance Macro Research.
“That in turn will bring down inflation expectations, which in turn, will bring down rates.”
The S&P 500 added 0.5%.
The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.9%.
A Bloomberg gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” gained 0.2%.
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell 0.4%.
The Russell 2000 added 0.5%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slid 0.2%.
The yen climbed, with the Bank of Japan expected to raise its benchmark rate Friday by the most in 18 years.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.65%.
“If Trump can enact pro-growth measures while inflationary pressures abate, a rotation into cyclicals, smaller-cap names, and non-US assets is likely to materialize,” said Hal Reynolds at Los Angeles Capital Management.
However, given the heightened levels of policy risk, the firm’s “Dynamic Alpha Stock Selection Model” continues to slightly prefer larger cap companies across the globe whose strong returns can be justified by their fundamentals.
To James Demmert at Main Street Research, the stock market is in a “calm before the storm mode” ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve decision press conference and the start of the big-tech earnings season — “both of which are likely to cause market volatility.”
Demmert sees any further consolidation or correction in stocks as an opportunity for investors.
“We are still early in the AI and technology-led business cycle and bull market, which is now roughly two years old, and may last for another five years,” he noted.
The S&P 500’s recent leg higher missed an important ingredient: inflows from big-money managers.
For those betting on a further rally, that’s a welcome development.
A measure of aggregate positioning among rules-based and discretionary investors fell to a two-month low, according to Deutsche Bank AG’s data.
And commodity trading advisors cut their long stock exposure to the level last seen in the aftermath of a market rout in August, data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk show.
From a contrarian perspective, such skepticism bodes well for stock-market bulls because it means more dry powder to buy equities down the road, should the biggest fears fail to materialize.
“We continue to expect near-term volatility,” said Mark Haefele at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“But we also believe US equities have room to grind higher as growth momentum continues.”

Corporate Highlights:
* American Airlines Group Inc. warned of a surprise loss to start the year as it tries to win back business travelers and battle high costs, disappointing investors following a string of bullish forecasts from other large carriers.
* Alaska Air Group Inc. beat Wall Street’s estimates to close out 2024 and forecast a better-than-expected start to the new year, giving the carrier a boost as it plans a significant overseas expansion.
* Electronic Arts Inc. warned its financial results would be weaker than expected due to poor sales results of two titles released over the holidays.
* General Electric Co. exceeded Wall Street expectations for profit and sales in the final months of the year as the jet engine maker worked through supply-chain limitations and capitalized on a strong maintenance backlog.
* Union Pacific Corp.’s quarterly earnings topped Wall Street estimates, and the railroad said it’s 2025 outlook remains the same despite a mixed economic forecast.
* Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s sales projections missed analyst estimates, countering the impact of better-than-expected results last quarter.
* Elevance Health Inc.’s medical costs were lower than expected in the fourth quarter, relieving investor anxiety and helping the insurer meet profit expectations.
* ByteDance is exploring a deal to keep TikTok running in the US without selling its operations there, according to board member Bill Ford.

Key events this week:
* Bank of Japan policy meeting, Friday
* Eurozone HCOB Manufacturing & Services PMI, Friday
* US University of Michigan consumer sentiment, existing home sales, 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 0.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%
* The MSCI World Index rose 0.5%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 0.2%
* Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell 0.4%
* The Russell 2000 Index rose 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0418
* The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.2354
* The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 156.00 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.1% to $102,897.7
* Ether fell 0.6% to $3,237.47
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.65%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.55%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.64%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.6% to $74.25 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.1% to $2,753.69 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Robert Brand, Julien Ponthus, Divya Patil, Catherine Bosley and Rob Verdonck.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder. –Mason Cooley, 1927-2002.

Carolann

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