April 1, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.  Happy April 1^st!

April is the month of golden Aphrodite (Etruscan apru), modest, gentle goddess of love and beauty.  She is the spirit of youth in everything.  The intensity of nature’s splendor all but overwhelms us…

April 1, 2004: Google launches Gmail, and five years later the number of people using the e-mail service surpasses one billion.

On April 1, 1945, American forces invaded Okinawa during World War II.  Go to article »

1970: TV ads for cigarettes banned.

‘Game of Thrones’ prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ will premiere this summer.  Are we ready to be hurt again, GOT fans? Yes, yes we are.  

A Japanese ‘killing stone,’ said to contain an evil 9-tailed fox spirit, has split in two.  Not now, evil 9-tailed fox spirit.

A plastic bag’s 2,000-mile journey shows the messy truth about recycling.

Scientists finally mapped the full human genome : All 3 billion letters of our genetic code have been sequenced, scientists announced yesterday. The last breakthrough happened in 2003, when it was 92% mapped. –Live Science (3/31).

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A woman walks her children to school in the snow in Poleymieux-au-Mont-d’or
CREDIT:  Laurent Cipriani/AP

Children go to school during snowfall
CREDIT: Villar López/EPA

The Toto memorial, dedicated to the dog who appeared in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, at the Hollywood Forever cemetery. The Los Angeles city council unanimously voted in March to designate the 123-year-old cemetery – where film stars such as Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and Burt Reynolds are buried – a historical-cultural monument
CREDIT: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Market Closes for April 1^st, 2022

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1930, in one of the biggest “suckers’ rallies” of all time, the total market value of New York Stock Exchange-listed companies hit $67.5 billion, up roughly 40% from its trough in the Great Crash of 1929. By year-end, however, stocks were down more than 40% from here
Canada
By Stefanie Marotta
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities rose, snapping a two-day losing streak as materials and energy climbed.
The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.3% at 21,952.95 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.8%.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.4%.
Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. had the largest increase, rising 7.1%.
Today, 138 of 239 shares rose, while 98 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index was little changed, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Feb. 18 * The index advanced 16% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 12% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1% below its 52-week high on March 31, 2022 and 16.9% above its low on April 1, 2021
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.5 on a trailing basis and 14.1 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.6% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.49t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.94% compared with 12.26% in the previous session and the average of 13.05% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Materials | 59.3540| 2.0| 42/10
* Energy | 47.9507| 1.3| 29/4
* Information Technology | 18.6347| 1.3| 9/7
* Communication Services | 14.2801| 1.3| 6/1
* Utilities | 9.6523| 1.0| 11/5
* Real Estate | 0.6091| 0.1| 11/11
* Financials | -0.2399| 0.0| 9/19
* Health Care | -0.6825| -0.5| 3/4
* Consumer Discretionary | -2.1608| -0.3| 5/9
* Consumer Staples | -7.6343| -0.9| 3/8
* Industrials | -76.9920| -2.9| 10/20
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 15.8600| 2.4| -35.1| -50.3
Canadian Natural Resources | 11.8800| 1.9| -34.0| 47.6
Agnico Eagle Mines | 8.2540| 3.5| -41.6| 17.8
Bank of Nova Scotia| -4.3890| -0.6| 232.1| -0.5
Canadian National | -32.1800| -4.6| 11.9| 2.9
Canadian Pacific | -34.1300| -5.2| -1.6| 7.5
US
By Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — U.S. equities advanced in the final minutes of trading and Treasury yields surged Friday as a solid U.S. jobs report buttressed the Federal Reserve’s case to use aggressive interest-rate hikes to tackle inflation.
The S&P 500 ended higher after earlier fluctuations while the U.S. yield curve extended its recent flattening as investors evaluated the economic outlook amid tightening monetary policy and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The dollar gained as U.S. payrolls slightly missed expectations and the March unemployment rate fell to 3.6%.
Meanwhile, an ISM manufacturing survey disappointed, with higher-than-expected prices paid.
“Although today’s job report was a little softer than expected, it still paints a picture of a steaming labor market,” said Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors.
“The final vestiges of Covid-19 are close to being fully eradicated from U.S. economic data – the unemployment rate is just a touch above the pre-pandemic level and the number of people on temporary layoff is back to where it was before March 2020.”
Investors begin a new quarter wondering if the fighting in Ukraine, the isolation of Russia and the Fed’s increasingly hawkish turn will engender still more volatility and losses for stocks and bonds.
Raw materials are the only key asset class to deliver major gains so far in 2022 as global stocks finished the quarter with their first loss since the pandemic bear market.
“It is officially the first week pointing consistently towards a slower economic activity worldwide,” said Florian Ielpo, head of macro at Lombard Odier Asset Management.
Ielpov says positioning signals are on the bearish side and an internal model of his is showing a consumption slowdown could hurt earnings across the second quarter.
Declines in oil prices moderated Friday as the U.K. is expected to join the U.S. in releasing more oil from its reserves as part of an effort to lower prices and reduce reliance on Russian supplies.
Russia’s Gazprom PJSC has started telling clients how to pay for gas in rubles. Meanwhile, European Union leaders said they told China they expect the country to help persuade Russia to end the war.
Russian stocks gained for a third day, the longest winning streak since trading resumed on March 24, as talks between Ukraine and Russia resumed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is preparing a response to Ukraine’s proposals on ending hostilities.
So far the Russian government has stayed current on its debt obligations. JPMorgan Chase & Co. processed a nearly $447 million payment for dollar debt due in 2030 on Thursday.
Another deadline is approaching on April 4.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 4:02 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.1049
* The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.3114
* The Japanese yen fell 0.7% to 122.51 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 2.38%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.55%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 1.61%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.7% to $99.55 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 1.4% to $1,927.20 an ounce
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee and Abigail Moses.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit , reason, passion, desire. –Aristotle, 384 BCE-322 BCE.

Carolann

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