April 12, 2018 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

1945: Polio vaccine announced.
1961: First man in space, Yuri Gagarin, USSR.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A man walks through the installation ‘Aural’ by James Turell at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany. Credit: The Telegraph

People attend a press visit of the immersive exhibition “Klimt Hundertwasser Poetic_Ali” showing the work of Austrian painters Gustav Klimt and Friedensreich Hundertwasser, at l’Atelier des Lumieres, the first digital Art Centre in Paris, France. 
Credit: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

The Golden Horse of Maoling which has joined other artefacts from the Han Dynasty at an exhibition entitled China’s First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors at Liverpool Museum. 
Credit: Paul Cooper for the Telegraph
Market Closes for April 12^th, 2018

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1837, William Procter, an English candlemaker, and James Gamble, an Irish soapmaker, opened shop in Cincinnati. Both men had intended to head further west but couldn’t face traveling hundreds of miles more on rugged roads. The business boomed, and soon each man put up $3,596.47 to launch Procter, Gamble and Co.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose to the highest in a week but were unable to keep pace with bigger gains in U.S. markets, as losses in miners and telcos offset gains in tech and consumer shares.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 11 points or 0.1 percent to 15,269.27. Consumer discretionary shares rose 1 percent as index member Shaw Communications Inc. gained 9.8 percent, the most since 2004. Shaw’s new wireless subscribers were more than double analyst expectations.
     Shaw’s success in the competitive market sent shares of its peers in the telecom index down 0.7 percent. Materials lost 0.6 percent as both base and precious metals fell.
     In other moves:
                          Stocks
* Lucara Diamond Corp. rose 3 percent after unearthing a 472- carat diamond in Botswana
* Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. gained 5.5 percent after Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said “failure is not an option” on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion
* Second Cup Ltd. jumped 33 percent to the highest since 2015. The coffee chain is planning to develop a network of cannabis dispensaries
                         Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $14.90 discount to WTI, the narrowest gap since mid-November
* Gold fell 1.3 percent to $1,338.40 an ounce, the biggest drop this month
                         FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.1 percent to C$1.2589 per U.S.dollar
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield rose seven basis points to 2.28 percent, the highest in nearly two months. The Canadian government plans to sell C$3 billion of 2020 bonds next week
US
By Sarah Ponczek and Janine Wolf
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks gained and Treasuries retreated as President Donald Trump said he’s considering rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal he pulled out of shortly after taking office. Crude added to this week’s climb, and the dollar rose.
     The S&P 500 Index was up roughly 0.8 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added almost 300 points, or 1.2 percent, as investors assessed the changing trade dynamics. Trump also said that a decision on any military retaliation in Syria will come “fairly soon,” one day after he tweeted a warning to “get ready” for a missile attack.
     “The tone of what was coming out of the White House, the tweet from the president yesterday, was cause for concern and creates a risk-off kind of a feeling,” said Tom Wright, director of equities at JMP Securities. “And then today you get a much different kind of a message, and so we have a pretty broad based rally across all sectors.”
     In addition, Trump defused some of the trade war chatter with China, saying that the two countries may not end up levying new tariffs on each other following conciliatory remarks on Tuesday by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
     Banks and finance firms were among the biggest gainers after asset management giant BlackRock Inc. reported first- quarter earnings that topped analysts’ estimates. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are scheduled to release theirs on Friday.
     “It’ll be nice in a way to hopefully focus a little bit more on company fundamentals for a period of time,” Wright said.
     Investors also are weighing minutes from the most recent Federal Reserve meeting, which showed officials leaning toward a slightly faster pace of policy tightening.
     “It’s very clear from (Fed Chairman) Jerome Powell’s comments, that it would take a lot more damage to the stock market for the Fed to factor that in as a reason to slow down the pace of rate hikes,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial Inc. “He’s made it very clear that the market participants should not expect the Fed to come to the immediate rescue of a market that is volatile.”
     The euro fell after a report that European industrial output unexpectedly declined for a third consecutive month. Government bonds of most euro-region countries rose after minutes of the latest policy meeting of the European Central Bank struck a dovish tone.
     Here are the main moves in markets:
                           Stocks
* The S&P 500 climbed 0.8 percent to 2,663.99, while the Nasdaq 100 Index rose 1.1 percent.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.7 percent.
* The MSCI All-Country World Index added 0.4 percent.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index was little changed.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index decreased 0.5 percent.
                           Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.1 percent, the first advance in a week.
* The euro sank 0.3 percent to $1.2325, the largest decrease in more than two weeks.
* The British pound rose 0.4 percent to $1.4226 on its fifth consecutive advance.
* The Japanese yen fell 0.4 percent to 107.25 per dollar, the weakest in a week.
                            Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries increased five basis points to 2.8321 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield climbed two basis points to 0.515 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield gained seven basis points to 1.456 percent, the highest in three weeks.
                            Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5 percent to $67.12 a barrel.
* Copper decreased 1.8 percent to $3.06 a pound.
* Gold sank 1.3 percent to $1,335.41 an ounce.
–With assistance from Adam Haigh, Todd White and Samuel Potter.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Only the paranoid survive.
   -Andrew Grove, 1936-2016
Dictum on how he ran his company, Intel.

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