April 27, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1805- US marines attack Tripoli.
1972 Apollo 16 returned to Earth after a manned voyage to the moon. Go to article »

The pandemic has made ghost kitchens and online-only, small-menu restaurants the hot new thing. — Sarah Halzack 

Archaeologists find a 1,600-year-old mosaic.

Free will is an illusion, science is starting to think, because it must.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The pink supermoon sets behind the Statue of Liberty in New York City, USA. This week’s supermoon is dubbed the “pink” moon because of its timing close to flower blooming season.
CREDIT: JOHN ANGELILLO/UPI/SHUTTERSTOCK

Rebecca Olarescu, a Masters screendance student at the London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS), performs during a dramatic sunrise at the fountains near Tower Bridge ahead of International Dance Day on 29th April
CREDIT: GUY CORBISHLEY/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Gardener Jose Marques, 63, tends to 20,000 bulbs planted in the 18th century garden at Dunsborough Park Tulip Festival in Ripley, Surrey
CREDIT: OLIVER DIXON

Michael Francis Connelly won the Grand Prize Water in the Whalebone Magazine 2021 Photo contest with this picture of an octopus. He says that he bonded with the eight-legged creatures after spending a lot of time with them free-diving in Oahu, Hawaii. He no longer thinks of them as sushi, instead always returning them to the reef after handling.
CREDIT: MICHAEL FRANCIS CONNELLY/ WHALEBONE MAGAXINE/ TRIANGLE NEWS

Surfer Vincent Schneider rides an artificial wave in the “Alaia Bay” surf wavepool during a press day, in Sion, Switzerland
CREDIT: VALENTIN FLAURAUD/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Market Closes for April 27^th, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1791, Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born in Charlestown, Mass., to the Rev. Jedidiah Morse and Elizabeth Breese Morse. After working as a successful portrait painter, Morse demonstrated the world’s first working telegraph in 1844.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian shares were little changed as a rally in energy stocks were matched by a decline in mining companies.
The S&P/TSX Composite index was flat in Toronto. Energy stocks were the best performers as oil climbed with the OPEC+ alliance and BP Plc pointing to signs of a robust demand recovery taking shape in parts of the world. Materials stocks, including miners, were the worst performers as gold prices fell.
Meanwhile, the lumber market has clearly entered its “frenzied stage.” Prices in Chicago rose to previously uncharted heights before plunging Tuesday. The wild swings – which touched exchange limits in both directions — are coming as peak home-building season in the U.S. clashes with a lumber supply chain that’s being dogged by everything from trucking delays to worker shortages.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at about a $12.10 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,776.48 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar little changed at C$1.2400 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield rose to 1.561%
By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 19,175.09 in Toronto.
Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.4 percent. Cargojet Inc. had the largest increase, rising 5.0 percent.
Today, 104 of 229 shares rose, while 120 fell; 4 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 2.5 percent
* The index advanced 31 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 48 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.1 percent below its 52-week high on April 16, 2021 and 35.2 percent above its low on May 14, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.7 percent in the past 5 days and rose 2.3 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.4 on a trailing basis and 17.1 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$3t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 8.42 percent compared with 8.54 percent in the previous session and the average of 9.90 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 27.4830| 1.2| 17/5
Financials | 15.9252| 0.3| 19/8
Consumer Discretionary | 4.0139| 0.5| 4/7
Real Estate | 3.9547| 0.6| 19/7
Industrials | -0.0651| 0.0| 21/8
Health Care | -1.8399| -0.7| 2/8
Utilities | -2.0440| -0.2| 3/13
Consumer Staples | -2.9265| -0.4| 1/12
Communication Services | -5.1084| -0.5| 2/6
Information Technology | -9.0981| -0.5| 6/5
Materials | -25.7553| -1.1| 10/41
================================================================
US
By Vildana Hajric and Kamaron Leach
(Bloomberg) — U.S. technology stocks fell as investors turned their attention to a batch of earnings from industry heavyweights that have helped drive the market to all-time highs.
The Nasdaq 100 dropped for the first time in three sessions, weighed down by declines in tech heavyweights including Tesla Inc. and Alphabet Inc. The S&P 500 closed little changed after swinging between gains and losses throughout the day. United Parcel Service Inc. soared to a record after beating Wall Street’s profit estimates.
Tesla ended a two-day streak of gains after its results failed to impress investors. 3M Co. was the biggest drag on the Dow Jones Industrial Average after it warned that higher costs for raw materials and transportation is a worsening threat.
Google parent Alphabet climbed more than 4% postmarket, erasing its cash-session decline after profit and revenue exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. Microsoft Corp. reversed a gain and dropped 3.5% after reporting revenue that missed the highest analysts’ estimates.
Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are set to release results
later this week.
While the earnings season has been generally strong so far, investors may be waiting for more robust beats to fan the next move higher. Four out of five S&P 500 companies that have released results have either met or beaten expectations. On average, shares have gained less than 0.1% after the reports,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Earnings optimism already was largely embedded into expectations moving into the current earnings period, so investors are looking for substantially outsized positive results, without which stock price advances will be muted and, like today, could take a hit,” said Greg Bassuk, chief executive officer at AXS Investments.
Meanwhile, U.S. data this week are expected to show growth accelerated to an annualized 6.8% in the first quarter. A Conference Board measure Tuesday showed consumer confidence reached the highest since February 2020 as Americans grew more upbeat about the economy and job market.
Such reports aren’t shifting the Federal Reserve’s highly accommodative stance, with the central bank expected to keep policy unchanged at this week’s meeting. “Since the last Fed meeting, strong economic expectations have started to make their way into the data,” said Lauren Goodwin, economist and portfolio strategist at New York Life Investments. “We’re seeing that reflected not only on the economic side but also in pretty impressive earnings reports on the whole.”
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid as investors weighed the scope for further gains. HSBC Holdings Plc rose after saying quarterly earnings more than doubled and returning to profit in Europe and the U.S.
The Bloomberg Commodity Index climbed for a seventh day as copper extended a rally on the Biden administration’s plans for a large infrastructure package. Oil climbed after OPEC+ projected a strong recovery beyond near-term demand destruction from India’s Covid-19 surge.
Here are some key events to watch this week:
* Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference Wednesday following the Fed meeting
* Joe Biden makes his first address as president to a joint session of Congress Wednesday
* U.S. GDP is forecast to show growth strengthened in the first  quarter, bolstered by government stimulus Thursday
* For live updates and commentary on the markets see the MLIV blog

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4:01 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed
* The MSCI Emerging Markets Index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro was little changed at $1.2089
* The British pound was little changed at $1.3906
* The Japanese yen fell 0.6% to 108.74 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced six basis points to 1.62%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.25%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 0.77%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.1% to $63 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.3% to $1,776 an ounce
–With assistance from Andreea Papuc, Haslinda Amin, Emily Barrett and Claire Ballentine.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work,  and give orders.  Instead, teach  them to yearn for the vast  and endless sea. –Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1900-1944.

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