May 5, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

CINCO DE MAYO~ Mexican national holiday recognizing the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla in 1862, in which Mexican troops under General Ignacio Zaragoza, outnumbered three to one, defeated invading French forces of Napoleon III.  The Anniversary is observed by Mexicans everywhere, with parades, festivals, dances and speeches. 
Portland, Oregon, sister city of Guadalajara, Mexico, celebrates Cinco de Mayo every year in Waterfront Park, with usually more than 300,000 attending.   -From Chase’s Calendar of Events.

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Go to article »

UK man has been tattooing himself every day during the lockdown
My friend, just bake bread like the rest of us. -CNN

And finally, a cornucopia of beauty:
About 90 percent of the flora and fauna on Madagascar is found nowhere else on Earth. Macus Westberg spent a month exploring the island nation, where he found a panoply of unique plants and animals, from endemic orchids to chameleons, giraffe-necked weevils and the bizarre-looking aye-aye, the world’s largest nocturnal primate.
It’s the latest in our series The World Through a Lens, in which photojournalists transport us on journeys we can’t take right now, but can dream about. -from The New York Times.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A pair of owlets find comfort as they cuddle up to a toy owl at Liberty’s Owl, Raptor& Reptile Centre in Ringwood, Hants. The tawny owls are 14&16 days old and hatched during lockdown meaning they are yet to be seen by the public and will likely have fledged before the doors to the centre reopen again.
CREDIT: TELEGRAPH MAY 5, 2020

Parents Gabriel and Grace take their 8 new arrivals at The Bishops Palace in Wells, Somerset, UK, for their first swimming lesson in the palace moat.
CREDIT: APEX

Gardener Naomi Kashiwazaki pictured amongst the stunning flower garden, full of forget-me-nots, wallflowers, euphorbia, tulips and other spring flowers at Loseley Park Gardens in Guildford, Surrey, UK. The annual spring show which was due to take place was sadly cancelled due to COVID -19 would normally attracted around 4000-5000 visitors.
CREDIT: OLIVER DIXON
A couple wears a face mask as they enjoy the sun in park full of flowers, in Milan, Italy, Monday, May 4, 2020. Italy began stirring again Monday after a two-month coronavirus shutdown, with 4.4 million Italians able to return to work and restrictions on movement eased in the first European country to lock down in a bid to stem COVID -19 infections.
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/ANTONIO CALANNI

Two southern giraffes interact at the Dresden Zoo in Dresden, eastern Germany. Due to the contact restrictions that were implemented in a bid to slow down the spread of the SARS -CoV-2 coronavirus causing the COVID-19 disease, the zoo had been closed for several weeks. The animal park reopened as Germany begins to loosen certain lockdown measures.
CREDIT: FILIP SINGER/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Market Closes for May 5^th, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1818, Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks held on to gains amid worsening U.S.-China tensions and as Federal Reserve officials warned of more damage to the economy.
The S&P/TSX Composite index rose 0.5% in Toronto, paring some of its earlier gains of as much as 1.4%. Tech was the best performing sector, with a further rally in Shopify Inc., which is reporting its earnings before the market opens Wednesday.
Some analysts are skeptical that the e-commerce company’s outlook will be strong enough to justify a stock price that has surged to record levels. Oil futures in New York rose for a fifth day as production cuts started to whittle down a supply glut and more economies ease their coronavirus lockdowns. MEG Energy Corp. and Cenovus Energy Inc. were among the best energy stocks.
Meanwhile, More than a third of Canadians believe their discretionary spending won’t recover to pre-crisis levels after stores and businesses reopen, according to a Nanos Research survey conducted for Bloomberg News. Just over 5% of respondents expect their purchases to increase and 54% think they’ll spend the same amount on non-essential items.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $4.80 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.4% to about $1,708.70 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.3% to C$1.4051 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield fell slightly to 0.568%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.5 percent, or 66.52 to 14,811.56 in Toronto.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.1 percent. MEG Energy Corp. had the largest increase, rising 16.2 percent.
Today, 130 of 230 shares rose, while 95 fell; 8 of 11 sectors were higher, led by information technology stocks.
Insights
* The index declined 10 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 3.9 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 17.6 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 32.6 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and rose 14 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.3 on a trailing basis and 19.7 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.5 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.24
* 30-day price volatility fell to 39.03 percent compared with 50.54 percent in the previous session and the average of 75.43 percent over the past month
=====================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
=====================================================
Information Technology | 33.2049| 2.7| 7/3
Materials | 20.7604| 0.9| 19/27
Energy | 18.4606| 0.9| 19/10
Utilities | 14.8594| 1.9| 16/0
Industrials | 7.5185| 0.4| 19/11
Real Estate | 3.3319| 0.8| 18/8
Communication Services | 1.4736| 0.2| 5/3
Health Care | 0.2494| 0.2| 5/5
Consumer Staples | -0.6479| -0.1| 6/5
Consumer Discretionary | -3.5260| -0.7| 5/8
Financials | -29.1372| -0.7| 11/15
US
By Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks closed higher despite a late-day swoon as optimism that more economies are moving toward easing their coronavirus lockdowns outweighed cautionary comments from Federal Reserve officials. Oil surged.
The S&P 500 rose for a second day, led by gains in health care, utilities and information technology companies. The benchmark index’s gain of almost 2% was cut in half in the last hour of trading after Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida warned the economy will need more government support. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said the central bank’s efforts are “very much an experiment.” President Donald Trump continued to blame China for the global pandemic, stoking fears the trade war will reignite.
“There was a lot of cold water from Clarida on economic data,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director and market strategist at Robert W Baird & Co. “Technicals are really important right now. As we approach the end of the day there was that failure of breaking through those key resistance levels.” Oil posted its longest run of daily gains in more than nine months as production cuts start to whittle down a supply glut.
Futures in New York rose for a fifth day, gaining more than 20%.
European stocks gained. The euro fell as investors scrutinized a verdict from Germany’s top judges over the legality of European Central Bank stimulus. They ruled that some actions taken by the country’s Bundesbank to participate in the asset purchase program were unconstitutional. Markets were closed in Japan, China and South Korea.
Here are some key events coming up:
* The Bank of England has a policy decision on Thursday.
* Friday brings the U.S. jobs report for April, expected to show a severe impact from the pandemic. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists calls for a 21 million plunge in payrolls.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index gained 0.9% to 2,868.44 as of 4:20 p.m. New York time.
*The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.6% to 23,883.09.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.1% to 8,809.12.
*The MSCI All-Country World Index rose 1% to 480.04.
Currencies
*The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.1% to 1,250.37.
*The Japanese yen appreciated 0.2% to 106.51 per dollar, the strongest in seven weeks.
*The euro decreased 0.6% to $1.0842.
*The British pound was little changed at $1.2438.
Bonds
*The yield on two-year Treasuries was unchanged at 0.19%, the lowest in more than eight years.
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 0.66%, the highest in a week.
*Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to -0.58%.
*Britain’s 10-year yield decreased three basis points to 0.206%, the lowest in eight weeks.
Commodities
*West Texas Intermediate crude gained 20.5% to $24.58 a barrel, hitting the highest in more than two weeks with its fifth consecutive advance. Gold weakened 0.3% to $1,708.18 an ounce.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
                                                                     -Eric Hoffer, 1902-1983

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