April 30, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.  Beltane, Wicca.

On April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces.  Go to article »

World’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge opens in Portugal.  Acrophobes, look away! 

You can now buy a seat on a Bezos-backed Blue Origin rocket.  Wanna get away? Like, really really away?

Tiny cabins become hot property for pandemic getaways.  “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately … and ignore my constant work emails

Kamala Harris to be first vice president with wax figure at Madame Tussauds.  Meeting your own hyper-realistic wax figure must be quite a trip. 

Dark matter may be destroying itself in exoplanets.

An amateur mapmaker found a 2,500-year-old treasure. (h/t Scott Kominers)

A clock’s accuracy may depend on its entropy. 

Books by Stacey Abrams, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Michael Lewis are among 15 new reads for May. 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

May Day King and Queen Morgan pandolfino and Stephan Duross, who would normally lead the Greenmen of Glastonbury, continue the tradition of Beltane celebrations in Glastonbury
CREDIT: JAON BRYANT/APEX

Ruchama Lubin-Desir, 36, filmed the moment a huge alligator walked across a street that was busy with cars, in Tampa, Florida, US
CREDIT: RUCHAMA LUBIN-DESIR / CATERS NEWS AGENCY

A draft horse ploughs plots of vines at Chateau de Rouillac in Leognan, south-western France
CREDIT: MEHDI FEDOUACH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Imbabura Tree Frog
CREDOT: DAVID WEILLER/WENN

A dad has its beak full as it has trouble keeping up to feed a trio of hungry chicks in the Voronezh region of Russia.
CREDIT: SERGEY SAVVI/SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY

Visiting tank engine Prairie no.5526 passes bluebells on the Chawton curve
CREDIT: RUSELL SACH FOR THE TELEGRAPH

Market Closes for April 30^th, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1999, Priceline.com, which had gone public at $16 a share exactly one month earlier, closed the day at $162.375—giving the tiny Internet company a one-month return of 914.84% and a total market value of $23 billion. But it was all downhill from there, as Priceline.com ended up trading for less than $6 per share by October 2000.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell on Friday, after tech stocks continued to underperform. They S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.8% in Toronto, most since April 20. All of the sectors closed in the red, with tech and materials being the worst performers. Eldorado Gold was the worst performer, falling 8.2%, after first-quarter results missed estimates. Meanwhile, Aurinia  Pharmaceuticals was the biggest gainer, rising 10%.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at about a $12.00 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,767.55 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar was flat at C$1.2289 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield fell slightly to 1.547%
By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.8 percent, or 147.59 to 19,108.33 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since falling 0.9 percent on April 20. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 4.2 percent. Eldorado Gold Corp. had the largest drop, falling 8.2 percent. Today, 168 of 229 shares fell, while 59 rose; all sectors were lower, led by information technology stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 2.2 percent
* So far this week, the index was little changed
* The index advanced 29 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 46 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.7 percent below its 52-week high on April 29, 2021 and 34.7 percent above its low on May 14, 2020
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.5 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$3.01t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.87 percent compared with 8.50 percent in the previous session and the average of 9.67 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Information Technology | -57.1023| -3.0| 3/8
* Materials | -32.5280| -1.4| 4/47
* Financials | -32.0521| -0.5| 8/19
* Energy | -9.4964| -0.4| 7/16
* Industrials | -6.7149| -0.3| 6/24
* Consumer Discretionary | -3.9724| -0.5| 2/11
* Utilities | -1.8104| -0.2| 9/7
* Communication Services | -1.2625| -0.1| 2/6
* Consumer Staples | -1.0837| -0.2| 5/8
* Real Estate | -1.0688| -0.2| 10/15
* Health Care | -0.4793| -0.2| 3/7

US
By Rita Nazareth and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Stocks dropped from a record as traders assessed corporate earnings, economic data showing potential inflation pressures and hawkish remarks from a Federal Reserve official. The dollar climbed. The S&P 500 trimmed its biggest monthly advance since November, with energy and technology shares leading losses on Friday.  Twitter Inc. sank as the social media company posted a sluggish start to the year in its advertising business. Despite living up to Wall Street’s profit expectations, Chevron Corp. slid after disappointing investors who were anticipating a revival of buybacks. Signs of excess risk taking in markets show it’s time to start debating a reduction in bond purchases, said Robert Kaplan, president of the Dallas Fed, breaking ranks with Chairman Jerome Powell.
Data showed personal incomes soared in March by the most in monthly records back to 1946, powered by fiscal stimulus. A key measure of consumer prices that the Fed officially uses for its target had the biggest increase since 2018. With the S&P 500 rallying more than 10% in the first four months of 2021, the adage of “sell in May and go away” may be on many investors’ minds. However, JPMorgan Chase & Co. urged traders to get ready for a revival of the reflation trade as the economic reopening gathers pace.
Meanwhile, Credit Suisse Group AG’s Jonathan Golub raised his forecast for the stock benchmark, citing a “red-hot economy fueling earnings.”  Still, for Ralph Bassett, head of North American equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments, companies have done so well that the market is getting to a point where a lot of that optimism may be priced in. “The setup is very good, but with multiples where they are, the upside risks are just really becoming less likely at this stage,” he said. The S&P 500 has had better months, but never before has a rally been so widespread, according to one measure tracked by Bloomberg. During 18 sessions in April through trading on Thursday, 95% or more of the index’s members traded above their 200-day moving average.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.7%
* The euro fell 0.8% to $1.2023
* The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 109.29 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 1.62%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to -0.20%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.84%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.3% to $64 a barrel
–With assistance from Maria Tadeo, Emily Barrett, Srinivasan Sivabalan, Cecile Gutscher, Claire Ballentine and Kamaron Leach.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become. -Steve Jobs, 1955-2011.

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