July 22, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: July 22, 1376 ~ Pied Piper of Hamelin
The story is that the town of Hamelin (Hameln), in Westphalia, was infested with rats in 1284, and that a mysterious piper in a parti-colored suit appeared in the town and offered to rid it of the vermin for a certain sum, which offer was accepted by the townspeople. The Pied Piper fulfilled his contract but the payment was not forthcoming.  On the following St. John’s Day he reappeared and played his pipe. This time all the children followed him and he led them to a mountain cave, where all disappeared save two: one blind, the other dumb or lame.  Another version is that they were led to Transylvania where they formed a German colony.  The story, familiar in England from Robert Browning’s poem (1842), appeared earlier in James Howell’s Familiar Letters (1645-55).  The Legend has its roots in the story of the children’s crusade.  The confusion of dates is because the Brothers Grimm cite 26 June 1284 as the date the Pied Piper led the children out of the town, while the poem by Robert Browning gives it as 22 July 1376. –Brewer’s.

Scientists capture the first images of a planetary system around a Sun-like star. -Bloomberg.

1942- Warsaw Ghetto Jews (300,000) are sent to Treblinka Extermination Camp.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Tourists and alpinists visit the Aiguille du Midi near the Mont-Blanc in Chamonix, France
CREDIT: REUTERS/DENIS BALIBOUSE

The Milky Way shines brightly in the clear night sky above St Catherine’s Chapel at Abbotsbury in Dorset.
CREDIT: GRAHAM HUNT/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

French salt farmer Stephane Bouleau harvests salt in the salt marshes of Batz-sur-Mer near Guerande, France
CREDIT: REUTERS/STEPHAN MAHE
Market Closes for July 22nd , 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1946, the Bretton Woods Agreement was signed in Mount Washington, N.H., pegging major foreign currencies to the U.S. dollar, fixing the gold price at $35 per ounce and laying the groundwork for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks edged higher Wednesday while U.S. shares also rose.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 0.1%, with six of the benchmark’s 11 main sectors higher. Communication services fell  after an earnings miss from Rogers Communications Inc.
Silver futures climbed to the highest in almost seven years and gold continued its march toward a record on expectations there’ll be more stimulus to help the global economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Canada’s oil-sands producers are taking their time at restoring production, leaving the country’s normally congested pipelines with room to spare.
And Canadian National Railway Co. is prepared to park equipment and furlough workers if there is a second wave of virus shutdowns this fall, CEO Jean-Jacques Ruest said.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $9.50 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 1.4% to ~$1,868 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.4% to C$1.3412 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield edged lower to 0.508

By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 16,171.06 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.1 percent. Canadian National Railway Co. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 0.9 percent. Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. had the largest increase, rising 14.1 percent.
Today, 116 of 221 shares rose, while 101 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 4.2 percent
* The index declined 2.1 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI  AC Americas Index gained 9.1 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 10 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 44.7 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.7 percent in the past 5 days and rose 4.2 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$2.46t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 18.64 percent compared with 18.86 percent in the previous session and the average of 19.66 percent over the past month

================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 19.3037| 0.8| 31/17
Industrials | 7.7686| 0.4| 13/15
Real Estate | 4.9930| 1.0| 21/6
Consumer Staples | 4.2846| 0.6| 8/3
Consumer Discretionary | 3.8109| 0.7| 11/2
Information Technology | 0.5614| 0.0| 4/6
Health Care | -1.1541| -0.7| 2/7
Energy | -2.5480| -0.1| 7/16
Utilities | -4.6905| -0.6| 6/9
Communication Services | -9.6384| -1.1| 2/6
Financials | -14.5907| -0.3| 11/14
US
By Amena Saad and Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose for a fourth day as investor optimism over the likelihood for a new spending bill and potential coronavirus vaccines outweighed concern about an escalation of tensions with China. The dollar weakened to the lowest level since March.
The S&P 500 jumped to a five-month high, with utilities, real estate and industrial shares leading the gains. Trump administration officials are said to be discussing a short-term extension of unemployment insurance before the benefits lapse.
Futures had retreated overnight on news that the U.S. ordered China’s Houston consulate to quickly close.
“You are going to have that volatility, but people are looking through a lot of it,” said Victoria Fernandez, chief market strategist for Crossmark Global Investments. “People are doing that now for just about everything.” Progress on combating the virus’s impact also contributed to sentiment. Pfizer Inc. shares rallied after saying the government ordered up to 600 million doses of its vaccine candidate against Covid-19. Treasuries were little changed, while silver continued its tear, climbing to the highest level in almost seven years.
Fresh Sino-U.S. tension including new charges of Chinese hacking had added to potential risks weighing on investors who recently drove global equities to a five-month high. After the success of a European rescue package this week, Senate Republicans and the Trump administration are struggling to reach consensus on another stimulus plan.
“I’m more concerned going into the August, September period: what’s going to then be the next catalyst to take the broader market higher,” Andrew Sheets, a cross-asset strategist at Morgan Stanley, said on Bloomberg TV. It’s going to be “a tougher period for stocks,” he said.
Earnings remained in focus. Texas Instruments Inc. dropped after urging caution. Snap Inc. tumbled following a miss on its user-growth targets.
Elsewhere, oil in New York dropped from a four-month high on signs of a surprise gain in U.S. crude stockpiles.
Here are some key events coming up:
* Quarterly earnings gather steam, with reports due from Blackstone Group, Roche, Intel, Unilever, Canadian Pacific, Daimler, Hyundai and Mattel.
* U.S. weekly jobless claims come on Thursday.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index increased 0.6% to 3,276.08 as of 4:01 p.m. New York time, the highest in five months.
*The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.6% to 27,005.66, the highest in six weeks on the biggest gain in a week.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.2% to 10,706.13.
*The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.9% to 373.44, the biggest dip in four weeks.
Currencies
*The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index decreased 0.3% to 1,191.97, the lowest in more than 19 weeks.
*The euro gained 0.4% to $1.1574, the strongest in about 21 months.
*The Japanese yen weakened 0.4% to 107.20 per dollar, the largest dip in four weeks.
Bonds
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries decreased one basis point to 0.60%, the lowest in three months.
*Germany’s 10-year yield dipped three basis points to -0.49%, the lowest in almost two months on the largest decrease in almost three weeks.
*Britain’s 10-year yield dipped two basis points to 0.12%, the lowest on record.
Commodities
*West Texas Intermediate crude decreased 0.2% to $41.84 a barrel.
*Gold strengthened 1.4% to $1,868.52 an ounce, the highest in about nine years on the biggest jump in almost 11 weeks.
*Copper dipped 1.1% to $2.93 a pound, the first retreat in a week.
–With assistance from Claire Ballentine and Vildana Hajric.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

It would be very nice if at the end of our lives we could feel that we’d never done anyone any harm.
                                           -Agatha Christie, 1890-1976

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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com