March 15, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: The Ides of March.
44 B.C. Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius. Go to article »
1767: Andrew Jackson, 7^th US President, b.
1917: Czar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates his throne.
2019: more than 1.5 million students participate in climate change protests around the world as part of Fridays for Future, a movement started by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

Ford will ship Explorers without all the parts — and add them later.  Well, having most of a car is better than no car at all, right?

The Rolling Stones announce new ‘Sixty’ tour.  The legendary band isn’t done rocking yet! They’ve scheduled 14 shows this summer in celebration of their 60th anniversary.

Holes the size of city blocks are forming in the Arctic seafloor.  Sounds like a deep issue… Scientists say this is the result of a frozen layer of Earth’s surface thawing underneath the seabed.

World’s oldest mummy found in Portugal Roughly 60 years ago, an archaeologist snapped photos of several skeletons buried in 8,000-year-old graves in southern Portugal. Now, a new analysis of these previously undeveloped photos suggests that the oldest human mummies don’t hail from Egypt or even Chile, but rather Europe.  More than a dozen ancient bodies were found in Portugal’s southern Sado Valley during excavations in the 1960s, and at least one of those bodies had been mummified, possibly to make it easier to transport before its burial, researchers said after analyzing the images and visiting the burial grounds.
Full Story: Live Science (3/14) 

A Russian oligarch’s $700 million superyacht wants to reunite with its $600 million superyacht cousin.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

FRANCE-WEATHER-ENVIRONMENT. This photograph taken on March 15, 2022 shows sand from Sahara that fell overnight covering the snow, in Piau-Engaly ski ressort, southern France. – Orange cars, dusty subway corridors, a blocked and yellowish horizon: a thin layer of sand from the Sahara fell on March 14, 2022 night in Madrid and a good part of Spain, before going up towards France.
CREDIT:  Bastien Arberet/AFP/Getty Images

Newly born spring lambs on Nethermorton Farm at Moreton Morrell College in Warwickshire
CREDIT: Jacob King/PA

Racegoers arrive for day one of the Cheltenham festival
CREDIT: Mike Egerton/PA

Market Closes for March 15^th, 2022

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1933, the New York Stock Exchange reopened after closing for two weeks during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s bank holiday. Pent-up investors busted loose in a bullish stampede, whooping and hollering as they propelled the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its biggest one-day percentage gain yet on record, a 15.3% leap to close at 62.10.
Canada
By Geoffrey Morgan
(Bloomberg) — Canadian information technology stocks led a rally in Toronto on Tuesday as oil and commodities fell.
The S&P/TSX Composite edged up to 21,187.84.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 7.6%.
Lightspeed Commerce Inc. had the largest percentage increase, rising 8.5%.
Today, 125 of 239 shares rose, while 110 fell; 4 of 11 sectors were higher, led by information technology stocks.
Consumer staples and energy posted the biggest declines.
Insights
* This quarter, the index was little changed
* The index advanced 12% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 5.4% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.8% below its 52-week high on Nov. 16, 2021 and 14.8% above its low on March 25, 2021
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and fell 1.5% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.9 on a trailing basis and 13.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.37t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 12.61% compared with 13.01% in the previous session and the average of 13.58% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Information Technology | 43.8286| 3.4| 11/5
* Financials | 6.9933| 0.1| 16/12
* Consumer Discretionary | 5.5603| 0.8| 11/3
* Health Care | 0.4028| 0.3| 6/2
* Industrials | -0.7298| 0.0| 19/12
* Utilities | -0.9757| -0.1| 8/6
* Real Estate | -1.4353| -0.2| 9/13
* Materials | -2.3324| -0.1| 34/18
* Communication Services | -5.0126| -0.5| 1/6
* Consumer Staples | -16.0277| -2.0| 3/8
* Energy | -30.4135| -0.9| 7/25
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Shopify | 38.9300| 7.6| -33.3| -59.4
* TD Bank | 11.7700| 1.0| 0.7| 3.0
* Royal Bank of Canada | 9.7900| 0.7| -12.6| 4.3
* Nutrien | -10.5500| -2.1| 34.5| 30.9
* Manulife Financial | -11.6100| -3.4| -13.4| 1.7
* Suncor Energy | -14.7000| -3.7| -28.2| 19.9

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks rallied as oil tumbled and a widely watched manufacturing-gauge came in much weaker than expected, easing fears about more aggressive Federal Reserve tightening that could stifle economic growth.
Beaten-down tech shares led gains in the S&P 500, with the Nasdaq 100 outperforming after a plunge of more than 20% from a record.
West Texas Intermediate crude sank below $100 a barrel amid signals that Iran nuclear talks may resume, paving the way for more oil supply to come into the market while intensifying lockdowns in China introduced risks to global demand.
Treasury two-year yields were little changed ahead of the Fed’s policy decision.
Prices paid to U.S. producers rose strongly in February, underscoring inflationary pressures that will likely set the stage for the Fed’s first rate hike since 2018 on Wednesday.
Still, officials will have to balance curbing higher prices without crashing the economy into a recession.
A separate report Tuesday showed New York state manufacturing activity weakened considerably in early March as orders fell and delivery times lengthened.
Ukraine and Russia will resume talks on Wednesday as a key adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the negotiations “difficult and viscous,” but acknowledged there is room for compromise. President Joe Biden will travel to Brussels next week to meet with NATO allies and take part in a summit of European Union leaders as Russia presses on with its invasion of Ukraine.
Comments:
* “Tentative optimism about Ukraine cease-fire talks and tumbling energy prices have shifted focus away from growth concerns back onto inflation and central bank policy,” wrote Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management. “While the war in Ukraine adds to the uncertainty, we expect the Fed to signal a strong commitment to getting inflation under control.”
* “The Fed is entering the tightening cycle conservatively, given the potential economic impact from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but hot inflation is still expected to be the key driver of Fed action in the months ahead,” said Lindsey Bell, Ally’s chief markets and money strategist. “Tomorrow I’ll be keeping a close eye on the economic projections for clues into where we go from here.”
* “There are a number of headwinds facing economies and markets right now, which should mean a continuation of heightened volatility,” wrote Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco. “But in my view, none should be a deterrent for investors with a longer-term investing horizon.”
Elsewhere, the yuan erased losses on a news report that Saudi Arabia is in active talks with Beijing to price some of its oil sales to the Asian nation in the currency.
Base metals slid as coronavirus outbreaks in China threatened to curtail the country’s economic output, hitting demand in the world’s top consumer of raw materials.
Here are some key events to watch this week:
* EIA crude oil inventory report, Wednesday
* FOMC rate decision and Fed Chair Jerome Powell news conference, Wednesday
* Bank of England rate decision, Thursday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde, Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel, Governing Council member Ignazio Visco and Chief Economist Philip Lane speak at a conference, Thursday
* Bank of Japan rate decision, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 2.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 3.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.8%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%
* The euro rose 0.1% to $1.0952
* The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.3044
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 118.29 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 2.15%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 0.33%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 1.58%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 7.4% to $95.34 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 2.2% to $1,917.70 an ounce
–With assistance from Andreea Papuc, Robert Brand, Emily Graffeo, Vildana Hajric and Isabelle Lee.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Conquer rage with humility,
conquer evil with goodness,
conquer greed with generosity,
and conquer lies with truth.
             The Dhammapada

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