October 15, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

1918-Mata Hari executed.
Virgil, b. 70 BC
John Kenneth Galbraith, b. 1908
P.G. Wodehouse, b. 1881
Friedrich Nietzsche, b. 1844
Duchess Sarah Ferguson, b. 1959

Take a tour through New York City’s East Village, the neighborhood that used to be the home of punks and poets. -NY Times.

1964 – It was announced that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been removed from office. Go to article »

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight, England, as the Island Line train passes a rainbow.
CREDIT: SIENNA ANDERSON/PICTUREEXCLUSIVE.COM

Head gardener John Moore trims the Boston Ivy at Churchill College at Cambridge University as the leaves turn red in the autumn weather in the sculpture by Nigel Hall
CREDIT: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRPHY

People gather for the public unveil of the newest work by artist Luciano Garbati, ‘Medusa With The Head of Perseus’, at Collect Pond Park in Manhattan, New York
CREDIT: REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID
Market Closes for October 15^th, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1982, the Garn-St. Germain Act, which partially deregulated interest rates, was enacted. Congress thought it was rescuing the savings & loan industry by enabling S&Ls to compete more aggressively for loans and deposits. Signing the bill, Pres. Ronald Reagan said, “It provides a long-term solution for troubled thrift institutions… All in all, I think we hit the jackpot.” But the S&Ls ended up competing themselves into a giant hole, and taxpayers got stuck bailing them out with hundreds of billions of dollars in emergency aid.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian shares reversed their earlier losses to rise for the first time this week, led by communication services stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.3% in Toronto, paring earlier losses of as much as 1%. Communication services and consumer discretionary stocks were the best performers, while health-care companies were the worst.
Meanwhile, Canada’s main opposition party is cautioning the central bank against financing Justin Trudeau’s spending plans beyond immediate pandemic emergency measures, thrusting the Bank of Canada into a political firestorm.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $9.25 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.3% to $1,907.28 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.5% to C$1.3218 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield fell to 0.566%

By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.3 percent at 16,501.03 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.3 percent. Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 0.9 percent. Aritzia Inc. had the largest increase, rising 13.1 percent.
Today, 129 of 223 shares rose, while 88 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by industrials stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 0.4 percent
* This year, the index fell 3.3 percent, heading for the worst year since 2018
* The index advanced 0.5 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 16 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 8.2 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 47.7 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.4 percent in the past 5 days and rose 0.4 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.3 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$2.52t
* 30-day price volatility little changed to 15.54 percent compared with 15.55 percent in the previous session and the average of 14.64 percent over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Industrials | 12.9546| 0.6| 18/9
Financials | 11.6150| 0.3| 13/12
Communication Services | 8.2755| 1.0| 6/0
Utilities | 6.3668| 0.7| 15/1
Energy | 5.6354| 0.3| 11/12
Consumer Discretionary | 4.4135| 0.7| 8/5
Information Technology | 2.1199| 0.1| 6/4
Real Estate | 1.9293| 0.4| 20/7
Consumer Staples | 1.8351| 0.3| 8/3
Health Care | -1.3348| -0.8| 4/6
Materials | -8.2015| -0.3| 20/29
US
By Rita Nazareth and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Stocks pared losses as traders awaited news on negotiations over a fresh round of stimulus amid a resurgence in coronavirus cases around the globe. The dollar climbed.
In a volatile session, the S&P 500 came off session lows as banks rebounded from a two-day selloff. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democrats that a Covid-19 relief package won’t wait until January as she was scheduled to have another call with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. President Donald Trump said he’d go over $1.8 trillion in stimulus. Equities slumped earlier as Europe’s biggest cities clamped down to curb the virus, adding to concern that further restrictions could cause more economic damage.
Investors also assessed data showing an unexpected surge in jobless claims to the highest since August — a troubling sign for a labor market whose recovery from the pandemic was already slowing. Covid-19’s recent march across the Midwest has caught up with the region’s most populous states: Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. Governments around the world are grappling with how to devise targeted strategies that slow the spread of the virus, without resorting to the kind of broad national lockdowns that have decimated the economy.
“What we see the market doing today is reflecting what we think is still a lot of uncertainty,” said David Spika, president of GuideStone Capital Management. “So we do think it’s appropriate for the market to be consolidating some here.”
Elsewhere, the U.K.’s chief Brexit negotiator, David Frost, said he’s “surprised” and “disappointed” by the European Union’s stance at summit talks in Brussels Thursday.
     Here are some key events coming up:
* European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde leads off the virtual annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group. Through Oct. 18.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.2% at 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 2.1%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped 1.2%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.4%.
* The euro decreased 0.4% to $1.1704.
* The British pound fell 0.8% to $1.2912.
* The Japanese yen weakened 0.2% to 105.38 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries decreased less than one basis point to 0.72%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield fell three basis points to -0.61%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield sank four basis points to 0.18%.
Commodities
* The Bloomberg Commodity Index climbed 0.5%.
* West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 0.8% to $40.72 a barrel.
* Gold strengthened 0.2% to $1,904.62 an ounce.
–With assistance from Adam Haigh, Todd White, Cecile Gutscher, Lynn Thomasson, Katherine Greifeld and Claire Ballentine.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

I’m always asking that question: ”What do you want to be remembered for?”  
If you are fortunate, someone with moral authority will ask that question early enough
in your life so that you will continue to ask it as you go through life.  It is a question
that induces you to renew yourself, because it pushes you to see yourself as a
different person – the person you can become.
                                                                    –Peter F. Drucker, 1909-2005
​​​​​​​
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