April 22, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

It’s Earth Day, and while conversations about the climate crisis and global emissions may feel overwhelming, there are also plenty of people and organizations doing incredible work to restore Earth’s biodiversity.

Earth Day  est. 1970 ~This year’s specials include a Greta Thunberg documentary, a David Attenborough extravaganza and Cher rescuing an elephant.

On Design: This is not your average stained glass.

Amazon is opening a hair salon in London.  If Alexa suggests you should get bangs, don’t trust her. 

Forget Atlanta: China now has the world’s busiest airport.

When the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet spends six months in the International Space Station, his grub will be a far cry from John Glenn’s apple sauce in 1962. He’ll enjoy a menu that includes lobster, beef bourguignon and almond tarts with caramelized pears, made by Michelin-starred chefs.   Still, the meticulously prepared dishes cannot be exactly like food on Earth: Much of it is freeze-dried, with the water extracted, to reduce its size and volume, and sometimes heated to high temperatures to kill off germs.
“It needs to remind people of their experiences of eating food on Earth,” said Ryan Dowdy, who has managed food on the space station.  Bon appétit.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Cheery trees in Greenwich, London
CREDIT: PAUL GROVER FOR THE TELEGRAPH

A spaniel named ‘Pickle’ jumps through a blanket of bluebells near their peak at the National Trust’s Basildon Park near Goring-on-Thames in Berkshire, where careful management of the estate’s ancient woodland by trust staff and volunteers enables the bluebells to thrive
CREDIT: JONATHAN BRADY/PA

Roses are on display in preparations for Sant Jordi celebrations at the Flower and Ornamental Plant wholesale Market in Vilassar de Dalt, Barcelona, Spain
CREDIT: ENRIC FONTCUBERTA/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK SOURCE

Buddhist monks light 330,000 candles in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest flaming image during Earth Day celebrations at the Wat Dhammakaya Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand
CREDIT: LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Market Closes for April 22^st, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     The price of iron ore—one of the world’s most traded commodities—rose to $187.75 a metric ton on April 20, according to S&P Global Platts. It has risen 17% over the past month, extending a rally that began when prices were below $100 a ton less than a year ago.
On this day in 1980, market guru Joe Granville signaled his 1,500 premium subscribers to buy stocks. The next day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 4% to close at 789.85. “I don’t think that I will ever make a serious mistake on the stock market for the rest of my life,” crowed Mr. Granville—who freely admitted he didn’t even invest his own money in stocks.  However, financial newsletter expert Mark Hulbert later calculated that Mr. Granville’s followers lost 98% of their money following his advice between 1980 and 1987.

Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities dipped Thursday in a volatile session, with U.S. President Joe Biden thinking about doubling the capital gains tax rate for wealthy individuals to 39.6%.  The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.6% to its lowest since April 5. All 11 sectors declined, with tech and materials leading the drop. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier Francois Legault called for stricter federal rules at Canada’s air and land borders as the country grapples with a third wave of Covid-19 cases.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at about a $12.00 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.5% to $1,784.10 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.01% to C$1.2498 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield edged lower to 1.517%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.6 percent at 19,031.64 in Toronto. The index dropped to the lowest closing level since April 5 after the previous session’s increase of 0.5 percent. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 4.2 percent. Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 7.0 percent. Today, 154 of 229 shares fell, while 73 rose; 9 of 11 sectors were lower, led by information technology stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 1.8 percent
* So far this week, the index fell 1.7 percent, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Feb. 26
* The index advanced 33 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 50 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.8 percent below its 52-week high on April 16, 2021 and 34.9 percent above its low on April 22, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.5 percent in the past 5 days and rose 1.2 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.2 on a trailing basis and 17 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.99t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 8.57 percent compared with 8.66 percent in the previous session and the average of 10.43 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Information Technology | -50.1659| -2.7| 0/11
* Materials | -34.9603| -1.4| 4/48
* Energy | -22.9853| -1.0| 5/18
* Consumer Staples | -6.6675| -0.9| 3/10
* Utilities | -3.3703| -0.4| 2/14
* Communication Services | -2.4269| -0.3| 3/5
* Health Care | -2.4247| -1.0| 2/8
* Consumer Discretionary | -0.4693| -0.1| 8/4
* Real Estate | -0.1548| 0.0| 11/14
* Financials | 0.2521| 0.0| 17/10
* Industrials | 11.7423| 0.5| 18/12

US
By Kamaron Leach and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks had their biggest slide in five weeks after President Joe Biden was said to propose almost doubling the capital-gain tax for the wealthy. The dollar advanced. The S&P 500 turned lower after Bloomberg News reported that for those earning $1 million or more, the new top rate, coupled with an existing surtax on investment income, means that federal tax rates for rich investors could be as high as 43.4%. Speculation arose that some traders may sell shares before any change is made to capture the lower rate. “Sticker shock over some of these tax figures will be hard to shake off for some investors,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, wrote in a note. “Some traders are looking for an excuse to lock in profits and they might choose to use this tax story as their catalyst.”
Equities whipsawed throughout the session amid mixed economic data and renewed concern the pandemic was worsening. All major groups in the S&P 500 fell, led by material, energy and tech shares. AT&T Inc. jumped after beating earnings estimates. Intel Corp. — the biggest chipmaker — slid in afterhours trading as it reported a drop in data-center revenue and a steep slump in gross profit margin. Elsewhere, Bitcoin declined for the sixth time in seven days, extending losses after the higher capital gains proposal was revealed. Investors already face a capital-gains tax if they hold the cryptocurrency for more than a year.

Here are some key events to watch this week:
* U.S. releases new home sales data Friday.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.9% at 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.7%.
* The MSCI All-Country World Index declined 0.2%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.2%.
* The euro declined 0.2% to $1.2014.
* The Japanese yen appreciated 0.1% to 107.98 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 1.54%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield rose one basis point to -0.25%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield was unchanged at 0.74%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5% to $61.66 a barrel.
* Gold fell 0.5% to $1,783.50 an ounce.
–With assistance from Justina Lee, Andreea Papuc, Cecile Gutscher, Claire Ballentine, Dave Liedtka and Katie Greifeld.
Have  a great night.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.-Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890.

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