July 15, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: St  Swithin’s Day, England.

July 15th is St Swithin’s Day, named for the ninth century Anglo Saxon bishop of Winchester.
According to traditional folklore, whatever the weather on St Swithin’s Day, it will continue for the next 40 days.
St Swithin was bishop of Winchester from 852 to 862. After his death he requested he be buried in the churchyard, so that passers by may step over his grave and that it may be exposed to the elements.
However, his tomb was moved inside on 15 July 971, and shortly afterwards a huge storm hit, which people took as a sign of the saint’s displeasure at his wishes being ignored.
The Encyclopedia Britannica says: “The first textual evidence for the weather prophecy appears to have come from a 13th or 14th century entry in a manuscript at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.”
Since then the legend has said that if it rains on St Swithin’s Day it will continue to do so for the next 40 days. But if it is sunny, the sun will shine for 40 days straight.  -Alex Finnist.

The pandemic has changed how we sleep. -Bloomberg.

How Athens accidentally struck on a brilliant apartment design. -Bloomberg.
Electric-car subsidies make Renaults free in Germany.

Nearly a month into the coronavirus lockdown, Kleon Papadimitriou, a Greek student in Aberdeen, Scotland, was feeling homesick and looking for a way home. With flights to much of Europe canceled, he hopped on his bike.
Two thousand miles and 48 days later, Mr. Papadimitriou, 20, finally arrived in Athens. Along the way, he got lost and suffered flats, bad weather and steep climbs. He made stops in Leeds, England; Stuttgart, Germany, where his grandmother lives; Italy, where he had a pepperoni pizza and beer in the Alps before heading to Venice; and then a port to the south for a ferry to Greece.
His parents met him in Patras, Greece, and the three of them cycled the final stretch to Athens together. –The New York Times.

July 15, 2010 – BP stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico after 85 days using a 75-ton cap lowered onto the well earlier in the week. Go to article »
Rembrandt, artist, b. 1616.
Linda Ronstadt, singer, b. 1946
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Comet Neowise over Stonehenge, Wiltshire. The comet which was discovered on 27 March 2020 by the Neowise space telescope, will make its closet approach to Earth on July 23, passing the planet at a distance of 103 million km-about 400 times further away than the moon. Comets are ‘cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the Sun’, leftover from the formation of the solar system, according to Nasa. Their size can range from a few nukes wide to tens of miles wide – but as they orbit closer to the sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet. As these substances stream off the comet, they form a spectacular gas and dust cloud that tails behind them for millions of miles – and can often be seen from earth with the naked eye.
CREDIT: PETER GREIG/BAV MEDIA

Four young hungry swallows are perched on a bush with their beaks wide open as they eagerly await to be fed.
CREDIT: BRIAN DAVIES/ SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY

Rainfall water is seen at the center of a lotus leaf at Shinobazu Pond in Tokyo, Japan. The seasonal rain front is still generating rainfall across the country as heavy rain triggered landslides in western Japan.
CREDIT: FRANCK ROBICHON/ EPA – EFE/SHTTERSTOCK

People walk on the beach as the sun rises in Scharbeutz at the Balitic Sea, Germany.
CREDIT: MICHAEL PROBST/AP
Market Closes for July 15th , 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1916, William Boeing, a Yale-educated aeronautical engineer, incorporated the Pacific Aero Products Co. in Seattle with $100,000 in capital; he kept 998 of the original 1,000 shares of stock for himself. In 1917 he renamed his firm the Boeing Airplane Co., which went on to make jet travel an accepted part of everyday life.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canada’s stock benchmark rallied for a second day, climbing over a milestone that hasn’t been seen since March as investor confidence burgeoned over the development progress of a vaccine for Covid-19 and after the Bank of Canada said interest rates will stay low for some time.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index surged about 1% in Toronto, putting it above the 16,000 mark, its highest level since March 6. Two major drug developers surged in the U.S. after promising trial results were reported on a potential vaccine for the coronavirus. Health care, real estate and consumer discretionary were among the best performing sectors while, tech and materials were among the worst.
Bank of Canada’s pledge to keep interest rates at historically low levels for years to come also gave Canadian stocks a boost Wednesday. The central bank also promised to keep the benchmark there until unemployment falls closer to levels seen before the virus outbreak and inflation returns sustainably to their 2% target. The Canadian dollar strengthened about 0.8% against the greenback, coming close to its pre-pandemic level. Mining companies may raise as much as $3 billion by selling a share of future output in so-called streaming deals, according to the head of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. The coronavirus outbreak has spurred volatility in metals prices, and the climate for streaming deals is improving as base-metals companies look to extract value from the precious-metals byproducts that are often found with copper, lead or zinc, Chief Executive Officer Randy Smallwood said in an interview.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $7.30 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.1% to $1,811.91 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.8% to C$1.3511 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield stayed flat around 0.538%

By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 1 percent, or 154.88 to 16,063.33 in Toronto. The index advanced to the highest closing level since March 6.
Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.5 percent. Air Canada had the largest increase, rising 13.8 percent.
Today, 184 of 221 shares rose, while 37 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* The index declined 2.7 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 6.3 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 10.6 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 43.8 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.8 percent in the past 5 days and rose 4.6 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.1 on a trailing basis and 24.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.42t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 20.05 percent compared with 20.14 percent in the previous session and the average of 20.06 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 60.0039| 1.3| 22/3
Industrials | 27.0741| 1.5| 26/2
Energy | 22.0008| 1.1| 22/2
Consumer Discretionary | 14.8325| 2.7| 12/1
Real Estate | 14.7721| 3.0| 27/0
Communication Services | 10.4486| 1.2| 8/0
Utilities | 8.9547| 1.1| 13/3
Health Care | 8.6685| 5.3| 9/0
Consumer Staples | 4.7270| 0.7| 10/1
Materials | -0.7601| 0.0| 27/23
Information Technology | -15.8442| -1.0| 8/2
US
By Sarah Ponczek and Amena Saad
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks climbed to a more than a one- month high amid optimism about progress in developing a vaccine for coronavirus. The dollar weakened and crude oil increased.
The S&P 500 gained 0.9%, briefly drifting back into positive territory for the year. Varying reports on trade tensions between the U.S. and China buffeted shares. The tech- heavy Nasdaq 100 swung between gains and losses all day before closing in the green as some investors rotated into value shares. The Federal Reserve said the economy showed signs of a nascent recovery at the beginning of July.
“The virus vaccine is inspiring more bullish emotions,” said Michael Zigmont, Head of Trading & Research at Harvest Volatility Management LLC. “Forget valuations, forget earnings, forget economic news.” Moderna Inc. surged to a record after the drugmaker reported promising trial results. AstraZeneca Plc rose on optimism about its vaccine efforts. The vaccine developments brought a rush of optimism to financial markets that have struggled to make headway recently in the face of new outbreaks across the U.S. and Asia.
“These are obviously some very encouraging developments, particularly on the Covid front,” said Candice Bangsund, portfolio manager of global asset allocation at Fiera Capital Corp. “This has allowed markets to continue thriving even despite rising cases throughout the U.S and has helped to counter ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions.” President Donald Trump has indicated to aides that he doesn’t want to further escalate tensions with Beijing, and has ruled out additional sanctions on top officials for now, according to people familiar with the matter. China reportedly summoned the U.S. ambassador regarding the Hong Kong Autonomy act signed Tuesday by Trump.
Elsewhere in markets, oil gained after a report pointed to a drop in U.S. crude stockpiles. Atlantia SpA surged 25% as Italy’s government moved to resolve a long-running dispute linked to a 2018 bridge collapse.
In Asia, shares in Hong Kong underperformed, while those in Shanghai fell amid signs policy makers are uneasy over the pace of recent gains.
Here are some key events coming up:
* China releases second-quarter GDP on Thursday as well as key economic indicators for June.
* The European Central Bank meets to set monetary policy on Thursday, with President Christine Lagarde holding a virtual press conference afterward.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index gained 0.9% to 3,226.56 as of 4:05 p.m. New York time, the highest in more than five weeks.
*The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.9% to 26,870.10, the highest in five weeks.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.6% to 10,550.49.
*The MSCI All-Country World Index gained 1.1% to 549.55, the highest in more than 20 weeks on the biggest rise in more than a week.
Currencies
*The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4% to 1,203.39, the lowest in five weeks on the largest fall in a week.
*The euro climbed 0.1% to $1.1408, the strongest in more than four months.
*The Japanese yen appreciated 0.3% to 106.93 per dollar, the strongest in more than three weeks on the largest climb in two weeks.
Bonds
*The yield on two-year Treasuries declined less than one basis point to 0.15%.
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries gained one basis point to 0.63%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield climbed less than one basis point to -0.44%.
Commodities
*West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.8% to $41.03 a barrel, the highest in almost 19 weeks.
*Gold strengthened 0.2% to $1,812.20 an ounce, the highest in almost nine years.
*Copper dipped 1.4% to $2.89 a pound, the largest dip in almost five weeks.

–With assistance from Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

No man becomes wise by chance. –Aesop, 620-564 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