October 5, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Here are nine new songs to kick off your week, including tracks by Maren Morris and Jorja Smith. -NYT.

Some planets may be better for life than Earth. -Bloomberg.

Discoverers of Hepatitis C vaccine win Nobel Prize

On Oct. 4, 1957, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into orbit.  Go to article »
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A mountaineering team including a Bahraini prince completed the first summit this autumn season of a Himalayan peak in Nepal, after the government made an exception to a coronavirus ban on foreign arrivals.
CREDIT: TASHI LAKPA SHERPA/ SEVEN SUMMIT TREKS/ AFP

Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) cub on ice, Svalbard, Norway.
CREDIT: MEDIADRUMIMAGES/PHILP DALTON/NA

This snow monkey looks like it’s playing a bad game of hide and seek in the Japanese Alps in Japan.
CREDIT: ROIE GALITZ/SOLENT NEWS

Britain’s last timber railway bridge will begin a £25 million facelift – to keep trains chugging over the track. The grade -II listed Barmouth Bridge, North Wales, was built over 150 years ago and it the only wooden bridge left in use for trains.
CREDIT: SIMON TURTON/WALES NEWS
Market Closes for October 5^th, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1993, Daimler-Benz became the first German company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose Monday for a third-straight session, gaining alongside U.S. shares after President Donald Trump said he planned to leave the hospital Monday evening.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 1.3%, the most since Sept. 9. Health care and tech rallies were among leaders as all sectors gained.
Meanwhile, oil climbed the most since May in New York, rallying in tandem with equity markets on optimism over the potential for more U.S. fiscal relief. Gold and silver also rose.
Cineplex Inc. plunged 29% to a record low on Monday, following the decline of cinema stocks after Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer delayed the release of the James Bond movie ‘No Time to Die’ until April due to the pandemic. Canada is drafting a new Covid-19 aid program that will subsidize rent for businesses without putting the onus on commercial landlords to request that help.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $9.90 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.7% to $1,913.47 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.3% to C$1.3265 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield rose 5.1 basis points to 0.613%
By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the third day, climbing 1.3 percent, or 210.94 to 16,410.19 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 1.8 percent on Sept. 9.
Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as all sectors gained; 191 of 223 shares rose, while 28 fell.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.0 percent. Aphria Inc. had the largest increase, rising 13.8 percent.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 3.8 percent, heading for the worst year since 2018
* The index was little changed in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 15 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 8.7 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 46.9 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1 percent in the past 5 days and rose 1.2 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.2 on a trailing basis and 23.5 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$2.48t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 15.54 percent compared with 15.14 percent in the previous session and the average of 13.74 percent over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 51.5733| 1.1| 26/0
Materials | 43.3901| 1.7| 45/5
Information Technology | 37.7967| 2.3| 10/0
Energy | 26.1904| 1.5| 22/1
Industrials | 18.1868| 0.9| 22/6
Utilities | 11.1730| 1.3| 16/0
Consumer Discretionary | 8.1313| 1.4| 10/3
Health Care | 6.4766| 4.3| 8/2
Consumer Staples | 4.5139| 0.6| 10/1
Communication Services | 2.9462| 0.3| 7/0
Real Estate | 0.5506| 0.1| 15/10
US
By Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks closed at the highest levels of the day amid optimism that President Donald Trump will leave the hospital and lawmakers will move closer to providing more stimulus. Treasury yields jumped and the dollar weakened.
The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average all rebounded from Friday’s swoon in the wake of Trump’s coronavirus disclosure. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. rallied after Trump was given an experimental antibody treatment made by the drug maker. Energy, health care and technology shares were the biggest gainers in the S&P, pushing the benchmark index up by the most in almost four weeks.
“Fiscal stimulus continues to be a wild card for the market, and uncertainty around the health of the president certainly looms large,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investment product at E*Trade Financial. “So while there’s a lot of noise out there, experienced traders may find bullish opportunities.” Trump said on Twitter that he’ll leave Walter Reed hospital Monday evening after being treated since Friday for Covid-19. With less than a month until Election Day, Trump’s hospitalization has jolted the presidential campaign, forcing him to scrap rallies and other events as polls show him trailing Joe Biden nationally and in swing states.
On the stimulus front, Trump tweeted from the hospital that a deal needs to get done. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was optimistic on Friday that a bipartisan stimulus bill can be done. “Absent of vaccine breakthrough, we’re in an economy that is modestly recovering from the lows of March and April, but it can only go so far,” said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management’s Ascent Private Wealth Group. “Areas of the economy that are susceptible are still feeling the pain. That’s why we need so much stimulus from the Federal Reserve and Congress.” Traders also pointed to polls suggesting a stronger lead for Biden and the possibility that a clear winner will emerge from the Nov. 3 election. U.S. markets have been nervous in recent weeks about a close election and the risk of a long and messy legal battle.
Elsewhere, consumer companies and banks led a broad advance among European stocks. Equities in Asia notched gains, while crude oil rebounded from a three-week low and gold advanced.
Here are some key events coming up:
* The Reserve Bank of Australia is forecast to keep interest rates and its three-year yield target unchanged at 0.25% on Tuesday
* Also Tuesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane deliver keynote addresses at the NABE conference
* On Wednesday, the minutes of the Sept. 15-16 meeting of the FOMC could be especially fruitful for Fed watchers, beginning with details of the debate on conditions necessary to trigger a rate increase
* The U.S. Vice Presidential debate takes place in Salt Lake City on Wednesday
* Though the final formal round of talks is over, the British government expects trade negotiations to continue up to the EU summit in mid-October.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index climbed 1.8% to 3,408.56 as of 4:01 p.m. New York time, the highest in a month on the largest increase in almost four weeks.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.7% to 28,148.18, the highest in more than a month on the biggest jump in almost 12 weeks.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 2.3% to 11,332.48, the highest in more than a month on the largest increase in almost four weeks.
*The Nasdaq 100 Index gained 2.3% to 11,509.06, the biggest rise in more than a week.
*The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.8% to 365.63, the highest in  more than two weeks on the largest advance in a week.
Currencies
*The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index sank 0.4% to 1,169.13, the lowest in more than two weeks on the biggest dip in more than five weeks.
*The Japanese yen depreciated 0.5% to 105.77 per dollar, the weakest in more than three weeks on the largest decrease in five weeks.
*The euro climbed 0.6% to $1.1783, the strongest in more than two weeks.
Bonds
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed seven basis points to 0.78%, the highest in almost four months on the largest surge in a month.
*The yield on 30-year Treasuries climbed nine basis points to 1.58%, reaching the highest in almost four months on its sixth straight advance and the biggest surge in a month.
*Germany’s 10-year yield increased three basis points to -0.51%,  the highest in more than a week on the largest climb in more than three weeks.
*Britain’s 10-year yield rose four basis points to 0.288%, the highest in almost five weeks.
Commodities
*West Texas Intermediate crude surged 6.2% to $39.36 a barrel, the largest jump in 20 weeks.
*Gold strengthened 0.6% to $1,911.48 an ounce, the highest in two weeks.
*Copper declined 0.4% to $2.97 a pound.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.
                                                           -Claude Monet, 1840-1926

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