June 24, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Full moon tonight.  St. Jean Baptiste Day>Quebec parties.

“In the 1930s the Maine Farmer’s Almanac began publishing Native American names for the full Moons of the year. According to this Almanac, the Algonquin tribes of what is now the northeastern United States called this the Strawberry Moon. The name comes from the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries in the northeastern United States.
An old European name for this full Moon is the Mead Moon or Honey Moon. Mead is a drink created by fermenting honey mixed with water and sometimes with fruits, spices, grains, or hops. In some countries, mead is also called honey wine (though in others honey wine is different). Some writings suggest that the time around the end of June was when honey was ready for harvesting, which made this the “sweetest” Moon.
The word “honeymoon” traces back to at least the 1500s in Europe. The tradition of calling the first month of marriage the “honeymoon” may be tied to this full Moon because of the custom of marrying in June or because the “Honey Moon” is the “sweetest” Moon of the year.
Another European name for this full Moon is the Rose Moon. Some sources indicate the name “Rose Moon” comes from the roses that bloom this time of year. Others indicate that the name comes from the color of the full Moon this time of year.
For Buddhists, this full Moon is the Poson Poya. The Poson holiday in Sri Lanka celebrates the introduction of Buddhism in 236 BCE.” –by  Gordon Johnston, NASA Science.

June 24, 1497~Discovery of Newfoundland.
On June 24, 1997, the Air Force released a report on the so-called “Roswell Incident,” suggesting the alien bodies witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were actually life-sized dummies. Go to article » 
The Roswell Incident Fact vs. Fiction

Could alien astronomers have spotted Earth?  Honk if you see us, aliens. 

On sale: $125,000 balloon trips to the edge of space.  Six figures, just to get that close to leaving the planet and then come back down? No, no. Set us free!

The Late Night Hosts on Voting Rights:
“The Senate voted yesterday to block the For the People voting rights bill, but not until they got their voting paperwork in order. Let’s see, I got my license, passport, tax returns, high school yearbook. OK, I think I’m ready for my riddle.” — SETH MEYERS

“Yes, the Senate’s founding purpose: to do nothing. It’s right there in Article I: ‘All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate, where one wizened, ancient turtle man, with no regard for anything but the self-preservation of his own power, shall, with his pockets stuffed with greasy bags full of money, strangle the hope of all who dare to dream of true democracy, and recognize April as National Jazz Month.’”— STEPHEN COLBERT, on Senator Mitch McConnell’s saying the Senate was fulfilling its “founding purpose”

“Yep, Democrats wanted things like automatic voter registration and Election Day to be a national holiday, while Republicans wanted every polling place to be at a yacht club.” — JIMMY FALLON

“Senate Republicans haven’t been this happy since Kenny G started touring again.” — JIMMY FALLON 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The almost full Strawberry Supermoon rises up in the hazy evening sky from behind St Michaels Tower on Glastonbury Tor in Somerset
CREDIT: GRAHAM HUNT / ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Eruption at Mount Etna in Catania, Italy. The volcano is erupting every 24 hours, the paroxysmal events have exceeded the threshold of 40 in 2021, it had not happened for two decades
CREDIT: ALLEGRA/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Comedy Pet Photography Awards 2021 picture by Sophie Bonnefoi : Inquisitive Chicks Description: Cutie and Speedy are two chicks hatched from eggs placed in an incubator at home in August 2020. The first 3 months they spent most of their time with me. They just loved looking at the screen of my iPad when I was replying to emails or chatting on FaceTime. On the photo they are only 9 days old.
CREDIT: SOPHIE BONNEFOI

Market Closes for June 24^th, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1971, Fred Smith founded a company to compete with the U.S. Postal Service. His goal was to deliver packages overnight—by routing everything, no matter where it originated, through Memphis. He called his new outfit Federal Express—and before long, a new verb (“to FedEx”) had entered the language
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose as traders digest economic data and global reopenings, and U.S. President Joe Biden set a tentative bipartisan $579 billion infrastructure deal. The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 0.3%, with cannabis producers including Canopy Growth Corp. leading health care stocks higher. Enbridge Inc. is set to raise $1 billion by issuing what would be the first sustainability-linked bond sold by a North American pipeline company. Meanwhile south of the border, President Joe Biden celebrated his tentative deal with a group of Democratic and Republican senators on a $579 billion infrastructure plan, saying it would create millions of jobs while fulfilling a major piece of his economic agenda.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $13.85 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,773.85 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.1% to C$1.2322 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield fell 0.07 percentage point to 1.413%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.3 percent at 20,215.12 in Toronto. The index advanced to the highest closing level since June 16 after the previous session’s decrease of 0.2 percent. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.0 percent. Westport Fuel Systems Inc. had the largest increase, rising 7.0 percent. Today, 144 of 231 shares rose, while 82 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 8.1 percent
* This month, the index rose 2.5 percent
* So far this week, the index rose 1.1 percent
* The index advanced 32 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 42 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.4 percent below its 52-week high on June 16, 2021 and 33.5 percent above its low on June 24, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.4 percent in the past 5 days and rose 3.5 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.3 on a trailing basis and 16.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.6 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.17t
* 30-day price volatility little changed to 7.78 percent compared with 7.78 percent in the previous session and the average of 9.01 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Financials | 32.9473| 0.5| 21/7
* Energy | 12.1900| 0.5| 18/5
* Health Care | 9.0060| 3.3| 9/1
* Industrials | 7.9745| 0.3| 18/10
* Consumer Discretionary | 6.7587| 0.9| 11/2
* Consumer Staples | 3.4779| 0.5| 12/1
* Materials | 2.6233| 0.1| 32/20
* Communication Services | -1.0296| -0.1| 2/5
* Real Estate | -2.4193| -0.4| 7/19
* Utilities | -2.5224| -0.3| 6/8
* Information Technology | -18.2710| -0.8| 8/4
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Brookfield Asset | | | |
* Management | 18.1600| 3.0| -20.9| 21.0
* Manulife Financial | 4.9970| 1.6| 6.2| 6.8
* Enbridge | 4.5080| 0.7| -56.5| 21.3
* Brookfield | | | |
* Renewable Partners | -1.8500| -2.8| 69.7| -17.5
* Blackberry | -1.8820| -3.2| -74.2| 85.4
* Shopify | -19.8200| -1.4| -9.1| 26.8

US
By Rita Nazareth and Kamaron Leach
(Bloomberg) — Stocks climbed to a record as President Joe Biden’s bipartisan $579 billion infrastructure deal added to optimism the economic recovery will keep pushing ahead.  The dollar fell. Companies that stand to benefit the most from a rebound in activity outperformed — with financial and energy shares leading gains in the S&P 500. Caterpillar Inc., the world’s biggest maker of mining and construction equipment, jumped alongside raw-material producers such as U.S. Steel Corp. and Nucor Corp. Banks rallied before the results of the Federal Reserve’s stress tests, while Tesla Inc. extended its three-day advance to almost 10%. The bipartisan legislation is expected to move through Congress alongside a separate bill that would spend trillions more on what Biden called “human infrastructure” that the GOP opposes.
Earlier Thursday, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and his Philadelphia counterpart Patrick Harker urged more spending on infrastructure investment — noting that it could boost  U.S. productivity and growth. “Infrastructure spending strengthens an already very strong economic growth outlook,” said Jeff Buchbinder, equity strategist at LPL Financial.  Those investments will “bolster the outlook for corporate profits and should keep this bull market going strong well beyond 2021,” he added. Data Thursday showed applications for U.S. state unemployment insurance fell slightly last week, though were higher than forecast, while orders for durable goods rose in May at the fastest pace since January. Shares of the fastest-growing U.S. companies have stopped moving in lockstep with the cheapest stocks.  The shift is evident from the correlation between the S&P 500 Pure Growth and Pure Value indexes during the past 200 trading days, which plummeted after setting an eight-year high in April 2020. Elsewhere, the pound fell after the Bank of England pushed back against speculation that a surge in inflation means it’s preparing to boost interest rates — saying the economy still needs support.

Here are some events to watch this week:
* U.S. personal income/spending, University of Michigan sentiment on Friday

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.6%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
* The euro was little changed at $1.1935
* The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.3936
* The Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 110.84 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 1.49%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to -0.19%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 0.74%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.2% to $73.26 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,774.70 an ounce
–With assistance from Sunil Jagtiani, Namitha Jagadeesh, Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine.
Have a wonderful evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?  -George Eliot,  1819-1880.

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