April 29, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.  It’s Arbor Day.
On April 29, 1992, deadly rioting that claimed 54 lives and caused $1 billion in damage erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.  Go to article »

Duke Ellington, b. 1899.
Emperor Hirohito, b. 1901.

Is everything falling apart?

Sixty-year-old McDonald’s fries found in bathroom wall. 

Three meteorites contain the molecular building blocks of DNA and its cousin RNA, scientists recently discovered. A subset of these building blocks had been detected in meteorites before, but the rest of the collection seemed mysteriously absent from space rocks — until now.   The new discovery supports the idea that, some four billion years ago, a barrage of meteorites may have delivered the molecular ingredients needed to jump-start the emergence of the earliest life on Earth, the researchers say.  Full Story: Live Science (4/28) 

The definition of a second, the most fundamental unit of time in our current measurement system, hasn’t been updated in more than 70 years (give or take some billionths of a second).  But in the next decade or so, that could change: Ultraprecise atomic optical clocks that rely on visible light are on track to set the new definition of a second.  Full Story: Live Science (4/29) 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The Milky Way shines at 2.30am above boats moored on Ullswater in the Lake District.
CREDIT: Owen Humphreys/PA

People enjoy a walk in a poppy field near Neve Michael in the Elah Valley.
CREDIT: Abir Sultan/EPA

Australians stand during the Anzac Day dawn service in Currumbin. The service is held at the time of the original Gallipoli landing during the first world war.
CREDIT: Chris Hyde/Getty

Market Closes for April 29^th, 2022

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1901, daily trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange exceeded 2 million for the first time.
Canada
By Geoffrey Morgan
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks posted their worst month in over two years in April, as rising interest rates to combat inflation have weighed on financial stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite fell almost 5.2% in April to 20,762.00 in Toronto, for its biggest monthly decline since March 2020.
Financial stocks have led the market lower as the S&P/TSX Composite Financial Index has fallen 6.7% in April, which is also its biggest monthly decline since March 2020.
On Friday, TC Energy Corp. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 5.2%.
NFI Group Inc. had the largest percentage drop, falling 15.0%.
All sectors lost; 210 of 239  shares fell, while 28 rose.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss four times. The next day, it declined three times for an average 0.7% and advanced 0.1% once
* This month, the index fell 5.2%
* So far this week, the index fell 2%
* The index advanced 7.8% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 3.4% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 6.5% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9% above its low on May 4, 2021
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17 on a trailing basis and 13.1 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.38t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 13.79% compared with 12.97% in the previous session and the average of 11.71% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Financials | -85.3832| -1.3| 5/23
* Energy | -74.2193| -2.0| 4/30
* Industrials | -68.9987| -2.8| 1/29
* Information Technology | -31.7232| -2.6| 1/15
* Communication Services | -23.4776| -2.1| 0/7
* Materials | -18.0421| -0.7| 11/40
* Utilities | -17.3414| -1.7| 0/16
* Real Estate | -15.8194| -2.7| 1/22
* Consumer Discretionary | -12.1925| -1.8| 3/11
* Consumer Staples | -9.5369| -1.1| 1/10
* Health Care | -2.3194| -1.9| 1/7
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* TC Energy | -25.0800| -5.2| 6.4| 15.5
* Brookfield Asset | | | |
* Management | -20.2700| -3.1| 41.6| -16.1
* Canadian Pacific | -17.1900| -2.8| 33.6| 3.3
* Tourmaline Oil | 2.7710| 2.0| 23.2| 66.6
* Teck Resources | 2.8990| 1.8| -7.7| 40.4
* Agnico Eagle Mines | 10.1900| 4.6| 34.7| 11.3

US
By Vildana Hajric and Isabelle Lee
(Bloomberg) — Technology stocks extended losses Friday as shares of what were once market darlings at the height of the pandemic headed for their worst monthly drop since the global financial crisis.
Amazon.com Inc. led the decline with a 14% drop, the worst since 2006, as the ecommerce giant’s buildout during the pandemic proved to be too much amid waning consumer demand.
The Nasdaq 100 retreated 4.5%, bringing its losses to 13% for the month, the most since October 2008. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 was 3.6% lower, with every major sector in the red.
A busy earnings season has largely helped temper losses during a turbulent year, even with the notable disappointments.
Yet fears of tightening monetary policy at the Federal Reserve, combined with Covid-19 lockdowns in China and Russia’s war in Ukraine, has dented sentiment, especially for frothy growth  shares that have future profits at risk. Shares of Apple Inc. also declined 3.7% after warning of supply constraints.
“Key tech giants have been keeping the stock averages from falling even further than they already have, so it looks like April is going to end on a sour note,” wrote Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co., noting benchmark gains Thursday on results from Meta Platforms Inc. “But experience tells us that these kinds of wild intraday moves (and wild day-to-day moves) that we have experienced on many days in recent weeks are signs of an unhealthy market.”
Tech companies are set to show a profit contraction of 1.2% for the first quarter, compared with growth of 12% for the rest of the market, according to Credit Suisse’s Jonathan Golub.
Large tech firms have also beat earnings by 2.3% versus 8.6% for the rest, his data shows.
The losses come as investors are assessing risks from a number of macro headwinds amid economic data that paints a positive picture of business demand.
The U.S. yield curve flattened Friday as traders priced in a more aggressive Fed following data that showed U.S. spending was higher than expected.
That followed a report Thursday pointing to solid consumer demand despite a surprise contraction in economic growth last quarter.
The figures underscore the debate about how much scope the U.S. central bank has to tighten policy before the economy cracks.
Traders are now pricing in a near-equal chance that policy makers will raise interest rates by 75 basis points in June, following a half-point move that’s expected at their meeting next week.
“What’s happening here is we’re moving away from this period in which a rising tide is lifting all boats,” Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, said on Bloomberg TV. “We no longer have ultra-accommodative Fed policy. We no longer have fiscal stimulus and speculative risk taking. And now we are getting to see what the fundamentals actually look like for technology firms, and we are seeing a big divergence between some of the winners and the losers.”
Treasuries declined, taking the 10-year U.S. yield to 2.90%.
In foreign-exchange markets, the yen snapped a slide while staying near 20-year lows.
The euro, pound and commodity-linked currencies made gains while the dollar dipped.
Oil fell, erasing earlier gains.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 3.6% as of 4:01 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 4.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.8%
* The MSCI World index fell 1.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0547
* The British pound rose 0.9% to $1.2574
* The Japanese yen rose 0.8% to 129.78 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced eight basis points to 2.91%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 0.94%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 1.91%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1% to $104.35 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.4% to $1,898 an ounce
–With assistance from Cecile Gutscher, Macarena Munoz, Michael Msika and Sunil Jagtiani.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

The most tender plants can push their way through the hardest rocks, and it is the same with kindness.
Nothing can stop a truly kind and sincere person. -Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862.

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