April 23, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

William Shakespeare, b. 1564.
Michael Moore, filmmaker, b. 1954.
Miguel Cervantes, author, d. 1616

1985 The Coca-Cola Co. announced it was changing its secret formula for Coke. (Negative public reaction forced the company to revert to the original version.)  Go to article »

What do you call a bunch of black holes?

Newly discovered pterosaur was adorable. 

How NASA’s bet on SpaceX’s Starship will change space travel.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A long exposure shows the Lyrid meteor shower over St Michael’s Chapel at Rame Head, Cornwall
CREDIT: SAM WHITFEIELD/APEX

Lightning strikes a building during a thunderstorm in Bangkok, Thailand
CREDIT: MLADEN ANTONOC/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

A solar photographer was delighted after capturing the “clearest photo of the Sun” he has ever taken 
CREDIT:@COSMIC_BACKGROUD / SWNS.COM

Market Closes for April 23^rd, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1856, Granville T. Woods was born in Columbus, Ohio. With only a fourth-grade education, he became one of the greatest African-American inventors. Among his dozens of patents: the multiplex telegraph, which made train travel vastly safer by enabling moving trains to signal their location to stations and other trains, and improved overhead power lines for trains, which made trolleys possible, revolutionizing urban life.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities fell this week after volatility surrounding the economic recovery and coronavirus cases. The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 0.4% Friday, with health care and financials leading the charge. Consumer staples lagged. On the deal front, Kansas City Southern is preparing to take a key first step to opening takeover talks with Canadian National Railway Co., according to people familiar with the matter, as the battle for the U.S. railroad operator heats up.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at about a $12 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.4% to $1,776.47 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.3% to C$1.2474 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield fell 1.6 basis points to 1.513%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.4 percent at 19,102.33 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.6 percent. Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as 7 of 11 sectors gained; 123 of 229 shares rose, while 103 fell. Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.8 percent. Acuity Ads Holdings Inc. had the largest increase, rising 7.8 percent.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 2.1 percent
* So far this week, the index fell 1.3 percent, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Feb. 26
* The index advanced 34 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 52 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.4 percent below its 52-week high on April 16, 2021 and 34.6 percent above its low on May 14, 2020
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.3 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$2.97t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.63 percent compared with 8.57 percent in the previous session and the average of 10.31 percent over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Financials | 60.3625| 1.0| 24/3
* Energy | 7.4836| 0.3| 15/8
* Consumer Discretionary | 6.2439| 0.8| 9/4
* Health Care | 4.1367| 1.7| 7/3
* Industrials | 3.8922| 0.2| 18/11
* Information Technology | 2.4474| 0.1| 6/4
* Real Estate | 1.2482| 0.2| 15/11
* Communication Services | -1.5662| -0.2| 4/4
* Utilities | -3.3967| -0.4| 5/11
* Consumer Staples | -4.2829| -0.6| 2/11
* Materials | -5.8621| -0.2| 18/33

US
By Rita Nazareth and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — Stocks climbed after strong economic data added to evidence the recovery is gaining momentum, with traders also assessing a batch of corporate earnings. The dollar retreated. Most major groups in the S&P 500 advanced, led by financial and material shares. A gauge of smaller companies outperformed major benchmarks, while Tesla Inc. and Apple Inc. paced gains in mega cap stocks. Blue chips Honeywell International Inc., American Express Co. and Intel Corp. weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average after their quarterly results. Equities whipsawed this week amid a flare-up in global coronavirus cases and news that the White House plans to propose almost doubling the capital-gain tax rate for the wealthy. Investors also waded through corporate outlooks and economic readings, with data showing U.S. new-home sales rebounded in March to the highest since 2006. Meanwhile, output at manufacturers and service providers reached a record high in April. “It’s evident the U.S. economy continues to be on the right track,” Jeff Schulze, investment strategist at ClearBridge Investments, said this week. “What the market is going to be looking for is continued economic momentum. This is the beginning of a more sustained move toward value and cyclicals.”

Other corporate highlights:
* Kimberly-Clark Corp., the maker of Scott toilet paper, reported a steep sales decline that signaled the potential end of a boon triggered by the pandemic.
* Schlumberger, the world’s biggest crude contractor, said it expects a gradual recovery of oil demand to boost overseas work through the end of this year.

Comparing U.S. stocks to high-yield bonds makes equities “look less stretched,” according to Jeroen Blokland, a manager
of multi-asset funds at Robeco. While the Cboe Volatility Index, or the VIX, set a 14-month low last week, the yield spread for
the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate High-Yield Index reached its narrowest since July 2007 in the previous week.
“Equities are relatively attractive versus high yield” on this basis, he wrote in a blog post.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%
* The Russell 2000 Index rose 1.8%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.7% to $1.2096
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 107.89 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 1.55%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.26%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.74%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.2% to $62 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.3% to $1,776 an ounce
–With assistance from Emily Barrett, Joanna Ossinger, Cecile Gutscher and Vildana Hajric.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people,
but care more about their opinions than our own. -Marcus Aurelius, 121 AD-180 AD.

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