April 13, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Thomas Jefferson, b.1743.

April 13, 1962: Silent Spring published by Rachel Carson.

Houston, we’ve had a problem.  
Astronaut James Lovell Jr. uttered these immortal words 50 years ago today when an explosion aboard Apollo 13 cut short the third US lunar landing mission in 1970. The three-man crew survived the infamous incident. Listen to intriguing audio from the Apollo 13 mission here.  -from CNN.

From The New York Times:
Jotting down your feelings during the pandemic may help you make sense of them. And, who knows, maybe your coronavirus diary will give future generations a valuable window into this period.
We have advice from experts on how to start that journal.
“It’s incredibly useful both for us personally and on a historical level to keep a daily record of what goes on around us during difficult times,” said Ruth Franklin, an award-winning author.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A lone beachgoer walking on Narrawallee Beach in Molly mook as a rainbow appeared in the sky at the sunset, Australia.
CREDIT: DAVID GRAY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Newborn Lambs born at Bocketts Farm in Surrey today. Easter weekend would have been the farms busiest of the year but due to Covid-19 they are closed. Normally they would expect around 1500 visitors a day.
CREDIT: OLIVER DIXON

A young girl runs through the carpet of bluebells in Wanstead Park, London.

Market Closes for April 13th , 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities fell Monday, lacking any significant catalysts as investors awaited a barrage of corporate earnings. The S&P/TSX Composite Index retreated 0.6% in Toronto, clawing back losses of as much as 2% in early trading. Real estate led seven of eleven sectors lower, falling 3.6%. “We view near-term weakness in equity markets as an opportunity to add exposure to a new intermediate-term uptrend,” Canaccord Genuity’s technical analyst Javed Mirza told clients in a note over the weekend. Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has forced many companies to withdraw their forecasts for the second quarter or the entire year, making this an unusual earnings season. “We’re really going to be relying on what we see from the CEOs of companies trying to give us some sort of forecast of what Q2 and Q3 might look like,” Sadiq Adatia, chief investment officer at Sun Life Global Investments, said in an interview on BNN Bloomberg television. “They may not even give us that,” sparking a negative market reaction, he said. Companies in Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index are poised to see a dividend decline of 1% for the second quarter compared to a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, while the S&P 500 is expected to post 5% dividend growth. Canadian banks are seeing the pace of mortgage-deferral requests easing up a bit, three weeks into a program that gives homeowners a break from making payments because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $18.50 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.8% to $1,474 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.7 to C$1.3864 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield fell 1.5 basis points to 0.747%
By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.6 percent at 14,075.94 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since falling 1.2 percent on April 3 and follows the previous session’s increase of 1.7 percent. Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.0 percent. Aurora Cannabis Inc. had the largest drop, falling 13.1 percent. Today, 144 of 230 shares fell, while 84 rose; 7 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* The index declined 14 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 6.6 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 21.7 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 26 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 8.8 percent in the past 5 days and fell 5.9 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 14 on a trailing basis and 16.2 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.7 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.16t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 90.50 percent compared with 90.77 percent in the previous session and the average of 82.44 percent over the past month
==================================================
| Index Points | | Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
==================================================
Financials | -122.8953| -2.8| 2/24
Industrials | -32.8223| -2.0| 8/23
Real Estate | -17.1055| -3.6| 2/24
Consumer Discretionary| -13.4774| -2.7| 3/12
Utilities | -12.8880| -1.6| 2/14
Energy | -10.9803| -0.6| 10/18
Health Care | -3.5903| -2.4| 1/9
Consumer Staples | 1.7532| 0.3| 6/5
Communication Services| 6.4999| 0.8| 5/3
Information Technology| 23.1689| 2.4| 7/3
Materials | 91.6600| 5.0| 38/9
US
By Rita Nazareth and Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell before the start of one of the most uncertain earnings seasons on record as the coronavirus pandemic rattles the global economy. The S&P 500 Index pared losses after dropping as much as 2.5%, with gains in consumer discretionary, technology and communication companies offsetting declines in other major groups. Oil slipped as investors weighed whether an unprecedented deal by the world’s biggest producers to cut output could stabilize the market. Treasuries and the dollar retreated. With the coronavirus pandemic sowing chaos across the world, the investment community has been lost in a fog when it comes to corporate profits. As the earnings season kicks off this week, traders might get a sense of how bad the hit to global earnings could be as the outbreak upends the global economy. “Companies, analysts, traders, investors and strategists to some extent are ‘flying into earnings season without instruments’,” John Stoltzfus, the chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer & Co., wrote to clients. “The unprecedented nature of the economic shutdown, social distancing and sheltering in place ordered by officials provides an overhang of uncertainty.” The S&P 500 is trading below the 2,800 level — a major support line in 2019 that served as resistance the prior year. With one of foggy earnings season kicking off this week, there may be few catalysts to push stocks higher. “We’re in for a tough year,” said Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy at Bank of America Corp. in a Bloomberg Television interview. Earnings are going to be down “by about 30%,” she added.
In focus this week:
* U.S. banks and financial firms begin reporting first-quarter earnings, led by JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.
* Bank Indonesia rate decision and briefing Tuesday
* South Korea holds parliamentary elections and the Bank of Canada has a rate decision Wednesday
* Also Wednesday, U.S. retail sales are poised to fall in March by the most ever seen
* China releases GDP, industrial production and retail sales and jobless figures Friday

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 declined 1% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.3%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index declined 0.5%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.2%.
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.0916.
* The Japanese yen appreciated 0.7% to 107.68 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on two-year Treasuries gained two basis points to 0.25%.
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed four basis points to 0.76%.
* The yield on 30-year Treasuries increased five basis points to 1.39%.
Commodities
* The Bloomberg Commodity Index decreased 0.1%.
* West Texas Intermediate crude decreased 0.4% to $22.68 a barrel.
* Gold increased 0.7% to $1,765.30 an ounce.

–With assistance from Cormac Mullen, Constantine Courcoulas, Todd White,
Vildana Hajric, Claire Ballentine, Sophie Caronello and Nancy Moran.

Have  a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active;  it is concentrated strength.
                                                         -Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton, 1803-1873.

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