December 27, 2019 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Carolann is out of the office today, I will be writing the Newsletter on her behalf.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A swan rises from the water of the curling pond on the Colzium Lennox Estate, Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire, on Christmas Day.
CREDIT: CAT PERKINTON/SWNS

Competitors and the spectator fleet, right, race along at start of the 75^th Sydney Hobart yacht race in Sydney Harbour, Australia.
CREDIT: ROLEX/KURT ARRIGO VIA AP

This composite image shows the moon as it moves in front of the sun in a rare “ring of fire” solar eclipse as seen from Tanjung Piai in Malaysia.
CREDIT: SADIQ ASYRAF /AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Market Closes for December 27^th, 2019  

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1928, portfolio manager Walter Morgan founded the nation’s first “balanced” mutual fund, the Industrial and Power Securities Co., which invested in both stocks and bonds. Later renamed the Wellington Fund, it eventually formed the nucleus of the Vanguard Group of Investment Cos.
Canada
By Divya Balji and Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities fell slightly as the market resumed trading after a two-day holiday. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.1% to 17,168.21 at the close in Toronto. Pot stocks were the biggest losers as Hexo Corp. plunged 18% after the company announced an equity offering at a 14% discount. Gold posted its biggest weekly advance in more than four months, with a decline in the dollar boosting demand for the metal as an alternative asset.
TC Energy climbed to a record high, after KKR & Co. and Alberta Investment Management Corp. agreed to buy a stake in its C$6.6 billion project that will bring Canadian natural gas to an export facility in British Columbia.
Commodities
* Spot gold price was flat at around $1,510.95 an ounce
* WTI was little changed at $61.66 per barrel
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.3% to C$1.3085 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government yield fell to 1.598%

US
By Rita Nazareth and Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — For stock traders, the middle months of 2019 got crazy enough that one veteran called them weirder than the financial crisis. The beginning and end, on the other hand, have featured tranquility with few precedents in financial markets. The S&P 500 started the year by rising in nine of the first 10 weeks. Now it’s closing it out with gains in 11 out of the past 12, a feat of concerted advances that occurred only once before since 1985. The Nasdaq Composite Index just missed climbing for a 12 straight day, the most in a decade, and, up 12.7%, is on pace for its best fourth quarter since 2004. While a category of Wall Street wags starts panicking when gains come this easy, people who heeded warnings about euphoria after the Nasdaq surged 16.5% in the first quarter missed a 16.7% jump since it ended. Gains don’t always beget losses in the stock market — ask everyone who has watched the Faang stocks triple after they sold them in 2013. Stocks ended Friday mixed as traders assessed a rally that’s added more than $5 trillion to equities this year, but the S&P 500 notched a fifth straight weekly advance and the Nasdaq Composite jumped above 9,000 for the first time. Blue-chip companies led the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record high.
The dollar slid against most of its major peers. Treasuries rose. Oil rebounded from Friday’s lows as a government report showed U.S. crude inventories sank. While it’s been a big December melt-up for the S&P 500, technical warning signs of a climax may be brewing. The index is edging ever closer to the upper band of its trading envelope, while its GTI Global Strength Indicator — a measure of upward and downward movements of successive closing prices — reveals the deepest overbought territory in all of 2019. “There’s almost no identifiable news/events that would derail the rally over the next few days,” according to Tom Essaye, a former Merrill Lynch trader who founded “The Sevens Report” newsletter. Still, nearly “all of the December gains have come on almost no material news — and that should temper the optimism a bit,” he wrote. Earlier Friday, equities got a lift from reports of strong holiday-season revenue, with e-commerce sales jumping, which reassured traders that American consumers are feeling confident. A solid rebound for industrial profits in China also buoyed sentiment, with investors now looking to the initial trade deal with the U.S. to sustain gains in the new year.
These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index was little changed at 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.2%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index jumped 0.5%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index sank 0.4%.
* The euro jumped 0.7% to $1.1176.
* The Japanese yen strengthened 0.2% to 109.43 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries dipped two basis points to 1.87%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield fell one basis point to -0.26%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 0.755%.
Commodities
* The Bloomberg Commodity Index increased 0.1%.
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed.
* Gold climbed 0.1% to $1,515.20 an ounce.

–With assistance from Christopher Anstey, Todd White, Robert
Brand, Nancy Moran and Sophie Caronello.

Have a great evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Isabel

I am different, not less.
                          – Temple Grandin , 1947–

Isabel Luo,
Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com