January 17, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday!

1773- Captain James Cook becomes the first person to cross Antarctic Circle 66˚ 33’ S.

On this day in 1792, the dollar sign ($) was born, as it showed up for the first time on a federal document—a U.S. Treasury bond issued to George Washington.

On Jan. 17, 1893, Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown as a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate. Go to article »

The billionaires are about to descend on Davos. –Bloomberg.

Al Capone, b. 1899
Muhammed Ali, “The Greatest” boxer, b. 1942
Benjamin Franklin, b. January 17, 1706

Some Benjamin Franklin Words of Wisdom:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

There never was a good war and a bad peace.

If you’d know the power of money, go and borrow some.

Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.

Dost thou love life?  Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A picture taken with a drone shows vehicles moving on a road between hoar-frost covered trees near Debrecen, Hungary.
CREDIT: ZSOLT CZEGLEDI/EPA-EFE/REX

Guests attend the opening of the exhibition ‘Symbiotic Seeing’ by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson at the Kunsthaus in Zurich, Switzerland.
CREDIT: WALTER BIERI/EPA-EFE/REX

A cormorant sits on a perch in the River Thames Bridge is seen during sunrise on a winter’s morning.
CREDIT: SWNS

Tourists look at the Perito Moreno glacier, near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina.
CREDIT: REUTERS/AUSTIN MARCARIAN

The monument Levenslicht, or Light of Life, by artist Daan Roosegaarde, considering of 104,000 light-emitting stones for the number of Dutch Holocaust victims is unveiled in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/ PETER DEJONG.

Market Closes for January 17^th, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Google parent Alphabet became the fourth U.S. company ever to achieve a $1 trillion market value Thursday, punctuating a powerful rally in shares of large internet stocks to start 2020. The search-engine giant joins peers Apple, Amazon and Microsoft as the only firms to reach the threshold during intraday trading. Apple and Amazon accomplished the feat in the summer of 2018, while Microsoft hit $1 trillion for the first time in April of last year.
Canada
By Kristine Owram and Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks notched their best week since August after posting five consecutive record closes. The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.4% Friday to 17,559.02, bringing its weekly gain to 1.9%. Health-care stocks led the gain as cannabis stocks rallied to close out their best week since 2018. The only negative was energy stocks, which fell slightly as Canadian crude prices remained near the widest discount to West Texas Intermediate in more than a year. Today, 144 of 234 shares rose, while 87 fell. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.1%, after S&P Dow Jones Indices said the company will be added to the S&P/TSX 60 Index next week. Ballard Power Systems Inc. had the largest increase, rising 9.3%.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $24.40 discount to WTI
* Spot gold rose/fell 0.4% to $1,556.90 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.2% to C$1.3070 per U.S. dollar
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield rose 1 basis point to 1.57%
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 25.4916| 0.5| 20/6
Industrials | 9.3759| 0.5| 17/13
Utilities | 9.1037| 1.1| 16/0
Communication Services | 7.6176| 0.8| 8/0
Consumer Discretionary | 6.2436| 0.9| 14/3
Information Technology | 5.6503| 0.5| 5/5
Materials | 4.4783| 0.2| 25/23
Health Care | 3.4143| 1.5| 5/5
Real Estate | 3.0251| 0.5| 17/8
Consumer Staples | 1.4706| 0.2| 6/5
Energy | -1.6138| -0.1| 11/19

US
By Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — Stocks extended this week’s relentless push to all-time highs as positive U.S. and China economic data, low interest rates and easing trade tensions propelled investor optimism. The dollar strengthened and gold climbed. The benchmark S&P 500 Index, along with the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite, set record highs for an eighth consecutive trading session. Boeing Co. slumped after a Fitch downgrade, weighing on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index closed at a record, posting its biggest gain since mid-December. “The headwinds of last year have dissipated and we’ve gotten more clarity on the backdrop. That clarity is helping to solidify marginal improvement in risk assets,” said Jack Janasiewicz, a portfolio manager at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions, which oversees $1 trillion “The big one is going to earnings, and so far so good.” The longest-dated Treasuries dipped after the U.S. announced plans for a new 20-year bond. The dollar increased against its major peers including the euro and pound, with the latter reversing gains while gilts turned higher after U.K. retail sales data disappointed.
Investors in risk assets headed into the weekend looking confident after the completion of an initial Sino-American trade deal and solid results from the biggest banks on Wall Street. U.S. markets are closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The earnings season continues to ramp up next week with Procter & Gamble Co. and Intel Corp. reporting, but for now most economic data is supporting sentiment: China GDP was in line with estimates, while housing starts surged in the U.S. “At this stage of the game we’ve got a Fed that’s committed to staying on hold, you’ve got a belief that there’s a signal of easing, and some improvement in the economic data globally,” Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab, said on Bloomberg Television. “That’s helping propel markets.” Elsewhere, oil slumped for a second week as optimism following the signing of the America-China trade agreement offset signs that supplies remain plentiful. Emerging-market equities also climbed for a seventh week of gains.
These are the major market moves:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index climbed 0.4% to 3,329.46 as of 4:02 p.m. New York time, the highest on record.
*The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2% to 29,347.62, reaching the highest on record with its fifth consecutive advance.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3% to 9,388.95, the highest on record.
*The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1% to 424.56, the highest on record with the biggest increase in more than a month.
*The MSCI All-Country World Index increased 0.4% to 579.17, hitting the highest on record with its fifth straight advance.
Currencies
*The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.2% to 1,194.36, the highest in more than three weeks on the biggest climb in more than a week.
*The euro fell 0.4% to $1.1093, the weakest in more than three weeks on the largest drop in more than a week.
*The Japanese yen was little changed at 110.14 per dollar.
*The British pound dipped 0.5% to $1.3014.
Bonds
*The yield on two-year Treasuries declined less than one basis point to 1.57%.
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries increased two basis points to 1.83%.
*Britain’s 10-year yield decreased one basis point to 0.632%, reaching the lowest in 11 weeks on its sixth straight decline.
*Germany’s 10-year yield rose less than one basis point to -0.22%.
Commodities
*Gold strengthened 0.3% to $1,557.03 an ounce, the highest in a week.
*West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.3% to $58.70 a barrel, the highest in a week.
–With assistance from Elena Popina.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can.
                                              -Will Rogers, 1879-1935.

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