April 8, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Passover begins today at sundown.
                   Full moon tonight.
Did you see the Super Pink Moon last night? You’ll get another chance tonight to gawk at the largest-appearing moon of 2020. Here’s the science behind the sight. -from The Seattle Times.

By Dina Kraft Correspondent, CSM:
This year was to have marked the 51st Kraft Family and Friends Seder. It’s still happening – not in person, but over four time zones via Zoom.
Passover is the Jewish holiday that commemorates the children of Israel’s exodus from slavery in Egypt. It is called the Festival of Freedom, one that this year is being held while most of the planet is under de-facto house arrest.
Here in Israel a three-day curfew has just begun. And at its height – Wednesday night until Thursday morning – people won’t be able to roam more than 100 meters from home.
The ceremonial meal marking the beginning of the holiday is a festive song- and food-filled night. During the meal we are commanded to retell the story of leaving Egypt, so that the next generation should know who they are, where they came from, and that in every generation there is a Promised Land that awaits.
I find comfort in that sentiment now, that we will be free again. This shall pass, and we will emerge – hopefully changed for the better, wiser, more compassionate for the suffering of others, and aware in ways that only hardship can remind us of how connected and dependent on one another we truly are.

Animals are retaking the world from locked-down humans.-Bloomberg.

RIP John Prine.  I met John Prine on several occasions many years ago when I lived in Montreal and shared an apartment with a couple of people when I was in college. He was friends with one of my room mates who also happened to be an awesome guitar player, and John came over many times and stayed if he was in Montreal on concert tour.  I remember him to be a very quiet, unpretentious guy….and of course very talented. 

We know this much
             -SAPPHO
Death is an evil;
we have the gods’
word for it; they too
would die if death
were a good thing.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The supermoon, was expected to be 14% bigger and 30% brighter in the sky as it reaches its closest point to Earth, known as its perigee. The multi exposure image, made up of 7 frames showing the moon in the different stages as it rises above The Wallace Monument, Scotland.
CREDIT: ALASDAIR MACLEAOD/DAILY RECORD

The full moon rise above Hohenzollern castle in Hechingen, Germany.
CREDIT: RONALD WITTEK/EPA

Easter bunnies and Easter eggs are placed in Ernst Langert’s Easter barn in the South Thuringian village Hellingen, Germany. Despite the coronavirus crises, the Langert family decorated their Easter barn with more than 30,000 Easter eggs and 500 Easter bunnies like every year. Unfortunately they cannot open their tourist attraction to the public during the Easter time.
CREDIT: JENS MEYER/AP

A London-based couple spent about four hours crafting a miniature institution, all for the enjoyment of their nine-month-old gerbils.

Market Closes for April 8th ,2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1890, a backwoods prospector named Leonidas (Lon) Merritt scratched together $918 to buy 600 acres of land in the Mesabi Range near Duluth, Minn., at a land auction. He soon hit the world’s richest vein of fine iron ore, cutting raw-material costs for the U.S. steel industry from $5-$6 per ton of ore to just $2 to $3 per ton, a 60% drop in five years. But Merritt over expanded his Lake Superior Consolidated Iron Mines Co., and John D. Rockefeller ended up snatching it away for barely over $1 million. By 1905, Minnesota would produce 51% of all iron ore in the U.S.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks continued their winning streak for a third day amid optimism for another round of stimulus and an oil price rally. The S&P/TSX Composite index rose 2.3%, taking the benchmark 24% higher from its March 23 low. Real estate, tech and health care were the top performing sectors. Oil posted its first gain of the week just before the world’s top producers meet to discuss potential output cuts against a backdrop of demand destruction from the coronavirus. In the U.S., President Donald Trump’s top health advisers are developing medical criteria for safely reopening the economy in coming weeks should trends showing a crest in the coronavirus outbreak hold steady. Meanwhile, Canada’s government is working with banks on more relief measures to help consumers cope with the fallout from the pandemic, Royal Bank of Canada Chief Executive Officer David McKay said. Canada will release jobs numbers tomorrow, which should provide an early look at the industries and workers who took the first blows from the pandemic-induced shutdown. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index advance, increasing 9.7% after falling 4.2% yesterday. Chorus Aviation Inc. had the largest gain, rising 21%. Rogers Communications Inc. was the biggest drag on the index, declining 3.3% after rising the last two days. HEXO Corp had the biggest drop, falling 26%, after company announced a C$40 million public offering. The Canadian dollar weakened 0.3% to C$1.4036 per U.S. dollar and the 10-year government bond yield fell about 2 basis points to 0.81%.
By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the third day, climbing 2.3 percent, or 311.57 to 13,925.71 in Toronto. The index advanced to the highest closing level since March 11. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 9.7 percent. Chorus Aviation Inc. had the largest increase, rising 20.9 percent. Today, 197 of 230 shares rose, while 32 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater gain nine times. The next day, it declined five times for an average 5.7 percent and advanced four times for an average 2.3 percent
* The index declined 15 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 6.8 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 22.5 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 24.6 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 8.1 percent in the past 5 days and fell 14 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.9 on a trailing basis and 15.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.8 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.08t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 90.76 percent compared with 90.38 percent in the previous session and the average of 74.76 percent over the past month
============================================
| Index Points | | Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
============================================
Financials | 109.4520| 2.6| 24/2
Information Technology | 54.1848| 6.1| 10/0
Industrials | 40.2853| 2.5| 27/4
Energy | 31.8821| 1.8| 29/1
Real Estate | 28.3837| 6.6| 26/0
Consumer Discretionary | 21.3066| 4.6| 15/0
Materials | 18.0524| 1.1| 33/13
Utilities | 16.8462| 2.2| 16/0
Health Care | 6.6241| 4.9| 9/1
Consumer Staples | -2.1856| -0.3| 6/5
Communication Services | -13.2480| -1.5| 2/6
US
By Claire Ballentine and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks climbed back into bullish territory on optimism for another round of stimulus and an eventual move toward reopening the economy. Oil surged amid expectations for production cuts. The benchmark S&P 500 Index rose as much as 3.4%, sending the gauge 20% over its March 23 low, which tradition says signals a bull market. Real estate, energy and utilities led the gains in all 11 market sectors. “Markets appear to be weighing the good with the bad,” said Mike Loewengart, managing director of investment strategy at E*Trade Financial. “In lieu of real-time economic data, we’re seeing the markets latch onto signs of optimism around the pandemic.” Oil spiked a few minutes ahead of the close after Algeria confirmed that the OPEC+ emergency meeting will discuss an output cut of 10 million barrels per day. A spokeswoman for Russian energy ministry said the nation will commit to cuts based on its proportion of the total production. Earlier, Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the start of a turnaround in the fight against the coronavirus could come after this week. President Donald Trump tweeted about reopening sooner rather than later.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index ended little changed after euro- area finance chiefs failed to agree on a $540 billion economic package to respond to the pandemic. While stock are rallying, many investors remain reluctant to take big risks while forecasts are for the virus to grow rapidly in some of the biggest economies — the U.S., Japan, Germany, France and the U.K. They’re also concerned that fiscal stimulus measures will be too late or not enough. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty in markets,” said Kevin Caron, portfolio manager for Washington Crossing. “Whether it’s some tentative plans or at least a vision to get the economy restarted again, that’s all something the market can ponder.” Elsewhere, Italian bonds took a hit and the euro headed for its seventh drop in eight days against the dollar as the officials struggled to reconcile visions for how to recover from the virus. France’s first-quarter output shrank the most since World War II, the latest indicator of the severity of the shock to the world’s biggest trading region. These are some of the major moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index climbed 3.1% to 2,742.70 as of 3:25 p.m. New York time, the highest in almost four weeks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.1% to 23,350.69, the highest in almost four weeks.
The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 2.4% to 8,075.09, the highest in almost four weeks.
The MSCI All-Country World Index increased 1.9% to 461.66, the highest in almost four weeks.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed at 1,256.15.
The Japanese yen strengthened 0.1% to 108.82 per dollar.
The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0863.
The British pound climbed 0.6% to $1.2392.
Bonds
The yield on two-year Treasuries fell two basis points to 0.25%.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries gained two basis points to 0.76%, the highest in more than a week.
Germany’s 10-year yield increased less than one basis point to -0.31%, the highest in more than a week.
Britain’s 10-year yield decreased three basis points to 0.384%.
Commodities
Gold strengthened 0.1% to $1,648.93 an ounce.
West Texas Intermediate crude gained 9.3% to $25.83 a barrel.

Have a great night

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
                                                                        -J.K. Rowling, b. 1965
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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com