April 5, 2019 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday!
Birthdays:
Spencer Tracy, actor, born 1900.
Bette Davis, actor, born 1908.
Gregory Peck, actor, born 1916.

Today is Tomb Sweeping Day is Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites, pray to their ancestors, and make ritual offerings.  The holiday recognizes the traditional reverence of one’s ancestors in Chinese culture.  It falls on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either 4 or 5 April in a given year. –from Wikipedia.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Sir David Attenborough was joined by the Duke of Cambridge, Prince of Wales and Duke of Sussex at the premiere of his Netflix series Our Planet at the Natural History Museum in London. CREDIT: EDDIE MULHOLLAND FOR THE TELEGRAPH

An eagle eyed bird of prey successfully caught a fish with a mid-air snatch in these fantastic split second photographs. Wildlife photographer Nicolas Reusens, 43, took the stunning shots in Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan and it was safe to say this particular eagle wasn’t a fish out of water when it came to hunting. CREDIT: NICOLAS REUSENS/CATERS NEWS

Photographer John Fatkin captured these jaw-dropping images of a rainbow and ferry on the River Tyne, UK, with the iconic red-painted Herd Groyne Lighthouse. CREDIT: TOM FATKIN/COVER IMAGES

These are icebergs, but as you’ve never seen them before as algae in the water has turned them completely turquoise. The stunning jadebergs are formed when seawater containing algae freezes on the bottom of a glacier. Photographer of five years Nicholas Cullen, 30, was lucky enough to capture the rare phenomenon during a trip across the Southern Ocean of East Antarctica earlier this year. CREDIT: NICHOLAS CULLEN/CATERS NEWS
Market Closes for April 5^th, 2019

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1990, the “thrift crisis” was everywhere at once. The estimated cost of bailing out failed savings-and-loan companies—pegged just one year earlier at $158 billion—was revised by government forecasters to a minimum of $285 billion to $350 billion.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks gained for a fifth day, their longest winning streak since January, as a strong jobs report from south of the border offset Canada’s first employment drop in seven months.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 0.5 percent to 16,396.15, bringing its weekly gain to 1.8 percent. Energy shares rose 1.7 percent on the back of higher crude prices, which capped their longest run of gains since 2017.
Strength in pot stocks boosted the health-care index to a gain 1.3 percent. Aurora Cannabis Inc. rose 2.8 percent and Aphria Inc. added 1.1 percent after both won licenses to grow medical marijuana in Germany.
In other moves:
Stocks
* SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. lost 1.6 percent after agreeing to sell a 10 percent stake in a Toronto-area toll highway for as much as
C$3.25 billion
* Shopify Inc. rose 1.3 percent, regaining some of Thursday’s 4 percent drop. Analysts at Baird said Shopify continues to take market share despite competitive concerns, a day after short-seller Citron Research warned of headwinds
* Hudbay Minerals Inc. rose 0.7 percent after earlier gaining as much as 1.7 percent. The miner has agreed to nominate two directors backed by a dissident investor
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $8.30 discount to WTI
* Gold rose 0.1 percent to $1,290.40 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.2 percent to C$1.3387 per U.S. dollar after the country lost 7,200 jobs in March
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield was little changed at 1.70 percent
US
By Vildana Hajric and Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks pushed toward all-time highs, the dollar strengthened and the Treasury yield curve flattened after a report showed the economy is adding jobs with few signs of inflation and President Donald Trump pressured the Federal Reserve to sustain growth. “On the bigger picture, it looks like a very strong labor market is a good sign for the economy, but low inflation is also attractive for financial markets,” said John Vail, chief global strategist at Nikko Asset Management, which has around $202 billion in assets under management. “So it’s a bit of a Goldilocks situation.”
The S&P 500 index rose for a seventh consecutive day, the longest rally since 2017, and approaching the record high reached in September. The benchmark, along with the Dow and Nasdaq indexes, finished at six-month highs. Global stocks edged higher earlier following remarks from both China and the U.S. that progress was being made in trade talks. The pound weakened after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May asked the EU to delay Brexit to June 30.
Payrolls rose by 196,000 in March, a Labor Department report showed. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey saw an increase of 177,000. Wage gains eased and the unemployment rate held near a 49-year low.
“This report came out right in the sweet spot, where it still showed that employment and the labor market are still solid, which will underpin a strong consumer moving forward,” said Shawn Cruz, TD Ameritrade’s manager of trader strategy. Even so, Trump said the Fed should cut interest rates and stop shrinking its balance sheet, maintaining his pressure on the central bank over its monetary policy. The Fed’s interest rate increases last year outraged the president, who even discussed firing the central bank’s chairman, Jerome Powell. “He’s made these kinds of comments before,” said Olivia Engel, chief investment officer for active quantitative equities at State Street Global Advisors. “I think the market is focused on other things like the real sources of earnings, the real state of the economy.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping is pushing for a rapid conclusion to the negotiations with the U.S., while Trump on Thursday talked up prospects for a “monumental” agreement that may still be some weeks away. The improved tone in the talks has helped drive the recent rally in equities, with the MSCI All Country World Index touching a six-month high this week. Elsewhere, West Texas crude strengthened above $62 a barrel, preserving its fifth straight weekly advance. Bitcoin climbed and hovered around $5,000.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index rose 0.5 percent as of 4:01 p.m. New York time, while the Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.6 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.2 percent.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.1 percent.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index increased 0.4 percent.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.1 percent.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.2 percent.
* The euro was little changed at $1.1218, while the yen weakened 0.1 percent to 111.67 per dollar.
* The British pound weakened 0.3 percent to $1.3036.
* The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency Index was little changed.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell two basis points to 2.50 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield rose one basis point to 0.05 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield rose three basis points to 1.12 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate rose 1.9 percent to $63.28 a barrel.
* Gold was little changed at $1,292 an ounce.
* The Bloomberg Commodity Index rose 0.2 percent, the fifth consecutive daily gain.
–With assistance from Michael P. Regan.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.
                                             -Duc de la Rochefoucauld, 1613-80

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