April 5, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On April 5, 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union. Go to article »

Explore the hidden details of this stunning 17th-century portrait of the emperor who built the Taj Mahal.

Japan just saw the earliest bloom of its legendary cherry blossoms in 1,200 years. Pretty — but also a sign of climate change.

Grounded by the pandemic, the travel photographer Roff Smith spent the year pedaling the roads around his home in a faded seaside town in Sussex, on the southern coast of England, resulting in a series of poetic self-portraits.  He learned that you don’t need to jet off to the far side of the world to experience the romance of difference.  “It lies waiting on your doorstep — if you look,” he writes. “When I push off down the street, the world becomes big again, the way it used to be when I was a child: rich in detail, ripe for discovery.”

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Peach trees in bloom on the Taurus Mountains in Mersin, Turkey 
CREDIT: SERKAN AVCI/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

People talk during a sunny day at Yamashita park in Yokohama, Japan
CREDIT: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Sunset over Stonehenge in Wiltshire
CREDIT: NICK BULL/PICTUREEXCLUSIVE.COM

Market Closes for April 5^th, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1990, the estimated cost of bailing out failed savings & loan companies—pegged just one year earlier at $158 billion—was revised by government forecasters to a minimum of $285 billion to $350 billion. “We all erred dramatically on the side of underestimating the problem,” said U.S. Senator Jake Garn (R., Utah). 
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities gained Monday though lost some of their early spark. The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 0.2%, with materials and utilities leading advancers. Energy and tech retreated. Oil plunged the most in nearly two weeks as growing delays in Europe’s reopening and looming Iranian supply damped hopes for a swift decline in global inventories. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest lender, waded into the burgeoning debate over whether Justin Trudeau’s government should take immediate steps to cool the nation’s hot housing market, issuing a report that cautioned against rushing to implement new constraints.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $9.80 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.05% to $1,727.98 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.4% to C$1.2521 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield rose 5 basis points to 1.555%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.2 percent, or 36.47 to 19,026.79 in Toronto. Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.2 percent. NexGen Energy Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 10.3 percent. Today, 128 of 230 shares rose, while 96 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 45 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 67 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.3 percent below its 52-week high on April 5, 2021 and 48.3 percent above its low on April 3, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.5 percent in the past 5 days and rose 3.3 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.1 on a trailing basis and 16.9 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$2.96t
* 30-day price volatility little changed to 12.00 percent compared with 12.00 percent in the previous session and the average of 12.53 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Financials | 24.5121| 0.4| 20/5
* Materials | 19.4811| 0.8| 28/23
* Industrials | 8.7076| 0.4| 19/11
* Utilities | 4.3151| 0.5| 8/7
* Consumer Discretionary | 2.7928| 0.4| 7/6
* Consumer Staples | 1.6608| 0.2| 11/2
* Communication Services | 0.9288| 0.1| 4/4
* Real Estate | -0.2150| 0.0| 16/8
* Health Care | -1.1852| -0.4| 4/6
* Information Technology | -8.1290| -0.4| 5/6
* Energy | -16.4051| -0.7| 6/18

US
By Rita Nazareth and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — Stocks rallied to a record after solid U.S. economic data added to evidence the recovery is gaining momentum. The dollar fell while Treasuries were little changed. Oil sank. Most major groups in the S&P 500 rose, with the gauge extending gains into a third session. The Nasdaq 100 advanced 2%. Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. jumped as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the company didn’t commit copyright infringement when it used Oracle Corp.’s programming code in the Android operating system.
Tesla Inc. rallied after blowout delivery numbers from the electric-vehicle maker. GameStop Corp. slumped on plans to sell up to $1 billion worth of additional shares. Traders pushed up the value of stocks after data highlighted an economic pickup as more Americans are vaccinated against the coronavirus, restrictions are rolled back and fiscal relief takes hold. U.S. service providers had the fastest growth on record in March as orders jumped to new highs. The figures from the Institute for Supply Management followed a Friday report showing that employers added the most jobs in seven months. “It’s hard to look around and find a lot of reasons to be negative,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird. “We had a big beat on March payrolls, Treasuries have mostly been unchanged. It’s one of those situations where good news is actually good news.”
Despite the gains in stocks in recent days, speculators have been pulling back their bets for lower volatility. Net short non-commercial positions in Cboe Volatility Index futures have shrunk for six straight weeks to their lowest since the beginning of December. The U.S. equity volatility benchmark fell to its lowest in over a year on Thursday as the S&P 500 closed at a record high.
Some key events to watch this week:
* The 2021 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group take place virtually.
* U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is among the participants of a climate discussion on Tuesday.
* Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell takes part in a panel about the global economy on Thursday.
* The Fed publishes minutes from its March meeting on Wednesday.
* Japan releases its balance of payments numbers Thursday.
* China’s consumer and producer prices data are due Friday.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.4% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.1%.
* The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.7%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.3%.
* The euro increased 0.4% to $1.1811.
* The Japanese yen appreciated 0.4% to 110.21 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on two-year Treasuries sank two basis points to 0.17%.
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 1.71%.
* The yield on 30-year Treasuries declined less than one basis point to 2.35%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 4.3% to $58.78 a barrel.
* Gold was little changed at $1,728.26 an ounce.
–With assistance from Emily Barrett, Joanna Ossinger, Alex Nicholson, Vildana Hajric, Kamaron Leach and Cormac Mullen.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers
it in order to recount it. –Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1927-2014

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