January 22, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,
Tangents:

January 22, 1970 – The Boeing 747 went on its first regularly scheduled commercial flight, from New York to London.  Go to article »
Lord Byron, b. 1788.

On January 21, 1821, Lord Byron wrote in his Ravenna Journal:
Rode out, a usual, and fired pistols.  Good shooting – broke four common, and rather small, bottles, in four shots, at fourteen paces, with a common pair of pistols and indifferent powder…

Tomorrow is my birthday – that is to say, at twelve o’ the clock, midnight, i.e., in twelve minutes, I shall have completed thirty and three years of age !!!! – and I go to my bed with a heaviness of heart at having lived so long, and to so little purpose.

It is three minutes past twelve.  `’ Tis the middle of the night by the castle clock’ [the opening line of Coleridge’s Christabel], and I am now thirty-three!

THE ISLES OF GREECE
         -by Lord Byron
The isles of Greece! the isles of Greece
    Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
    Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set.
The Scian and the Teian muse,
    The hero’s harp, the lover’s lute,
Have found the fame your shores refuse:
    Their place of birth alone is mute
To sounds which echo further west
Than your sires’ ‘Islands of the Blest.
The mountains look on Marathon—
    And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
    I dream’d that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians’ grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.
A king sate on the rocky brow
    Which looks o’er sea-born Salamis;
And ships, by thousands, lay below,
    And men in nations;—all were his!
He counted them at break of day—
And when the sun set, where were they?….

….Place me on Sunium’s marbled steep,
    Where nothing, save the waves and I,
May hear our mutual murmurs sweep;
    There, swan-like, let me sing and die:
A land of slaves shall ne’er be mine—
Dash down yon cup of Samian wine!

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Some members of The Brighton sea swimming club take a dip in the sea off Brighton at sunrise.
CREDIT: DAVID MCHUGH/BRIGHTON PICTURES

Finishing touches are made to the floor of The Blackpool Tower Ballroom. After being stripped back to the original wood and sanded, almost 100 litres of varnish are now being applied to ensure it is ready for visitors when the ballroom re-opens on Saturday.

The floor is over 100 years old and must be carefully preserved every year to ensure it remains in the very best condition for the thousands of dancers who grace it every week .
CREDIT: ANDY JONES/CAG PHOTOGRAPHY LTD

A woman photographs  the  Mediterranean sea as waves hit the breakwater during a storm in Barcelona, Spain.

A winter storm lashed much of Spain for a third day, leaving 200,000 people without electricity, schools closed and roads blocked by snow. It killed four people. Massive waves and gale-force winds smashed into seafront towns, damaging shops and restaurants.
CREDIT: EMILIO MORENATTI/AP PHOTO

Late afternoon sunlight reflects off narrowboats and barges moored on Regent’s Canal in London, Britain.
CREDIT: TOBY MELVILLE/REUTERS

Workers are seen as the sun sets behind a construction site in London, Britain.
CREDIT: HENRY NICHOLLS/REUTERS

Market Closes for January 22^nd , 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
In 1968, in an emergency move, the New York Stock Exchange closed 90 minutes early, at 2 p.m. The early close, reported The Wall Street Journal, was meant to help inundated trading clerks catch up on a “deluge of paper work that has resulted from a recent sustained period of unusually heavy trading.” The day’s total volume: 10,630,000 shares. Each side of each trade -both the buy and the sell- had to be recorded by hand on a separate piece of paper, and at any given time up to $1 billion worth of trades were going unmatched because of missing paperwork.

Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.2 percent at
17,599.86 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.1 percent.
Bank of Nova Scotia contributed the most to the index gain,
increasing 1.0 percent. Aphria Inc. had the largest increase, rising 8.8 percent.
Today, 122 of 234 shares rose, while 107 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.

Insights
* This month, the index rose 3.1 percent
* The index advanced 16 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 25 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.4 percent below its 52-week high on Jan. 22, 2020 and 16.2 percent above its low on Jan. 23, 2019
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.1 percent in the past 5 days and rose 2.8 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.9 on a trailing basis and 15.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.9 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.71t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 3.69 percent compared with 3.88 percent in the previous session and the average of 4.71 percent over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 17.7480| 0.3| 18/9
Communication Services | 9.4723| 1.0| 6/2
Information Technology | 5.1913| 0.5| 10/0
Utilities | 3.7502| 0.4| 12/3
Consumer Discretionary | 2.2042| 0.3| 9/7
Real Estate | 2.1525| 0.3| 21/4
Health Care | 1.7003| 0.7| 5/5
Consumer Staples | -1.0868| -0.2| 3/8
Materials | -2.5942| -0.1| 18/28
Energy | -3.9953| -0.1| 5/25
Industrials | -6.9697| -0.4| 15/16
* The benchmark 10-year bond rose and the yield fell 6.5 basis points to 1.451 percent

US
By Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks edged higher in volatile trading as investors considered the potential for a virus that emerged in China to eventually dent economic growth. Oil tumbled on concern the market is oversupplied. The S&P 500 Index ended the day up less than 0.1%, lifted by gains in technology shares and positive earnings reports but held back by concern that the deadly respiratory illness could spread, even as China moved to contain the outbreak. IBM rose the most in four months after revenue beat estimates. Tesla Inc.’s market value soared past $100 billion.
With stocks trading near records, investors are on alert for any developments that could derail the momentum. They have taken a cautious stance amid concern the coronavirus that has already killed 17 people could turn into a global pandemic. “The fear is that it could hurt growth, that this could continue to have an impact on global markets that are already reeling from the impacts of trade,” said Matt Forester, chief investment officer at BNY Mellon’s Lockwood Advisors.Elsewhere, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index dipped as Italian banks slumped amid a fresh bout of political turmoil West Texas oil fell below $58 a barrel as ample global supplies offset the loss of exports from Libya. The pound strengthened after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal cleared its final hurdles in Parliament.

Here are some events to watch out for this week:
* Companies including Texas Instruments Inc., Intel Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co. will post results.
* Policy decisions are due from central banks in Indonesia and the euro region.
* The World Economic Forum, the annual gathering of global leaders in politics, business and culture, continues in Davos, Switzerland.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index rose less than 0.1% at the close of trade in New York.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.1%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.6%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%.
* The British pound jumped 0.6% to $1.3134.
* The euro rose 0.1% to $1.109.
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 109.87 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 1.77%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield dipped one basis point to -0.26%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.63%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 2.9% to $56.67 a barrel.
* Gold was little changed at $1,558.55 an ounce.–With assistance from Christopher Anstey, Andrew Janes, Adam
Haigh, Todd White, Robert Brand, Sheela Tobben, Vildana Hajric and Sarah Ponczek.
Have  a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
                                -Euripides, c.485 BCE-406 BCE

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