August 08, 2019 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

August 8 is Happiness Happens Day, a day to celebrate all things happy. Created by the Secret Society of Happy People in 1999 as Admit You‘re Happy Day, this unofficial holiday encourages people to be open about their happiness and to share it with others.

On Aug. 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon announced he would resign following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal. Go to article »

Did people say that back then, too? -By Melissa Mohr
…we’ve been talking about words and phrases that are surprisingly old, and this week we have one final set of examples: computer, hipster, dude, and “No pain, no gain.” This was a bit of a trick question, because all four of these happen to be old.
     The very first computers were actually people, as you may know from the book and movie “Hidden Figures.” These tell the story of the female African American mathematicians who worked for NASA calculating, or computing, the trajectories for spaceflights in the 1960s. These women are perhaps the most famous “computers,” but the word has been used in this sense since 1613. In the mid-19th century, it began to refer to a machine that could perform simple mathematical functions, a calculator, in essence. By the 1950s, these machines were evolving into the programmable computers we know today.
     The first hipsters were musicians in Harlem in the 1920s and ’30s, who wore zoot suits (long jackets with padded shoulders and baggy trousers pegged at the ankle), played jazz, and had their own slang: jive. We know a lot about this language because Cab Calloway, the famous band leader, published the “Hepsters Dictionary” in 1938. He defined the hepster or hep cat as “a guy who knows all the answers.” In the 1920s, hepsters were hip to the jive; in the 2010s, hipsters are hep to the artisanal coffee. 
     “No pain, no gain” is not just the mantra of muscle-bound people lifting weights at the gym. It is a venerable English proverb, first found in a collection of such sayings from 1577: “[T]hey must take pain that look for any gain.” It reflects the difficulty of this earthly life. In the 1980s, Jane Fonda seems to have popularized the proverb in relation to exercise when she encouraged people to “feel the burn” while following her aerobic workout videos.
     t’s perhaps not as surprising that dude is old, since the American West is full of dude ranches that seem to link the word to cowboy life. Dude originally had more to do with Yankee Doodle than with ranching, though. A doodle was a fop in the 18th century, a man who took too much care over his ostentatious clothes, just as Yankee Doodle was a “dandy” who tried to pass himself off as one of the “macaroni,” a set of ultra-fashionable 1770s young men.
      Doodle eventually became dude, so a dude ranch is not where real cowboys gather, but where delicate city slickers can go to get a taste of ranch life. In the 1960s, dude was rehabilitated to mean a cool guy, a later version of the hepster, and now often simply means guy, with neither positive nor negative connotation.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Cast members of the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night take to the River Ouse to celebrate the play, which runs until the 1 September in York.
CREDIT: DANNY LAWSON/PA

Acrobats Nikki Rummer and JD Brousse perform arial hand to hand Circus Lane in Edinburgh, Scotland
CREDIT: DUNCAN MCGLYNN

A worker putting salad seeds to grow onto a water basin at the Sfera Agricola hydroponic farm in Gavorrano, Italy. The Italian tomato is prized around the world, but its flavour has sourced in recent years over reports of mafia infiltration, slave labour and toxic fires that poison water sources. Southern Europe’s biggest hydroponics farm is out to change all that, by growing pesticide-free crops in environmentally-friendly greenhouses – and getting bumblebees to do the hard work.
CREDIT- ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Market Closes for August 8th, 2019

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.9 percent, or 139.31 to 16,404.53 in Toronto. The move was the biggest gain since June 18. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.3 percent. TMX Group Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 12.1 percent. Today, 189 of 239 shares rose, while 45 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.

Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater gain 11 times. The next day, it advanced nine times for an average 0.5 percent and declined twice for an average 0.2 percent
* So far this week, the index rose 0.8 percent, heading for the biggest advance since the week ended July 5
* The index advanced 0.5 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 2.6 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.6 percent below its 52-week high on April 23, 2019 and 19.1 percent above its low on Dec. 24, 2018
* The S&P/TSX Composite is unchanged in the past 5 days and fell 0.4 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.5 on a trailing basis and 15.1 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.49 trillion
* 30-day price volatility rose to 6.75 percent compared with 6.32 percent in the previous session and the average of 6.37 percent over the past month
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 37.9585| 0.7| 24/2
Energy | 29.6264| 1.1| 32/7
Materials | 22.0632| 1.2| 39/6
Information Technology | 20.2696| 2.3| 10/0
Industrials | 19.8370| 1.1| 25/5
Consumer Staples | 6.6386| 1.0| 9/1
Utilities | 2.6015| 0.4| 13/3
Real Estate | 1.7587| 0.3| 16/9
Health Care | 1.4167| 0.5| 9/2
Consumer Discretionary | -0.9890| -0.1| 10/5
Communication Services | -1.8841| -0.2| 2/5
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 13.7800| 4.3| 21.6| 150.6
TD Bank | 8.8760| 0.9| -13.2| 10.6
Canadian National | 7.3320| 1.2| -26.9| 22.9
CI Financial | -2.7790| -8.8| 200.0| 6.0
Canadian Tire | -2.8460| -4.8| 224.5| -4.5
Restaurant Brands | -4.5690| -2.4| 11.1| 42.0
Biggest Gainers | % Change |Points Move|20D AVG (%)| (%)
================================================================
TMX Group | 12.1| 3.1360| 132.3| 60.7
Inter Pipeline | 8.7| 5.5390| 246.9| 22.2
Cott | 7.4| 1.1850| 158.1| -7.3

Biggest Losers | % Change |Points Move| (%) | (%)
================================================================
Iamgold | -14.6| -2.6070| 244.9| -8.6
NuVista Energy | -9.4| -0.3380| 431.7| -50.2
AG Growth | | | |
International | -9.0| -0.6080| 389.9| -1.4

* The benchmark 10-year bond was little changed at 1.241 percent
* The S&P 500 Index advanced 1.9 percent
US
By Vildana Hajric and Brendan Walsh
(Bloomberg) — Equities rallied after China’s stronger-than-expected daily fixing of its currency eased fears about a worsening trade conflict. The S&P 500 Index posted its biggest advance in two months, building on gains in Europe and Asia and erasing its loss for the week. A surge in technology companies pushed the Nasdaq Composite up more than 2%. Treasury yields edged lower and the dollar weakened. Oil climbed. Thursday’s move by the People’s Bank of China was seen as an effort to stabilize its currency and went some way toward easing market concern that peaked Monday, when a weak reference rate spurred concern that the trade war was heating up. Despite evidence of some renewed risk appetite, stocks are still well off the record highs reached last month and traders remain jumpy about the potential for escalation in the conflict.
“For now, as far as volatility, the worst is over,” Rick Bensignor, the founder of Bensignor Group and a former strategist for Morgan Stanley, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters. “China’s smartly doing what they can. On their part, I think it’s a good tactical move.” The dollar extended its decline after President Donald Trump said a strong greenback was hurting U.S. manufacturers and urged the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. The Stoxx Europe 600 rose the most in seven weeks. A gauge of Asia stocks increased as China’s Shanghai Composite rebounded from the lowest level since February. The Australian dollar gained from its lowest level in a decade. Bitcoin hovered below $12,000, a level it’s failed to close above for one month.
Oil snapped a three-day losing streak after Saudi Arabia contacted other producers to discuss options to stem a rout that’s been driven by the worsening China trade conflict. Here are the main moves in markets (all sizes and scopes are on a closing basis):
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index increased 1.9% at the close of trading in New York; the Nasdaq Composite added 2.2%.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index jumped 1.7%, the biggest increase in more than seven weeks.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.6%, the largest increase in almost three weeks.
* The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 0.9% for the biggest increase in more than five weeks.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.2%.
* The onshore yuan rose 0.2% to 7.0451 per dollar.
* The euro slipped 0.1% to $1.1187.
* The Australian dollar jumped 0.7% to $0.6807 for the biggest increase in three weeks.
* The Japanese yen climbed 0.3% to 106.01 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 1.72%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield increased two basis points to -0.56%, the first advance in two weeks.
* Britain’s 10-year yield rose four basis points to 0.52%.
Commodities
* Gold rose 0.1% to $1,502.94 an ounce.
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.2% to $52.75.
–With assistance from David Ingles, Adam Haigh, Andreea Papuc,
Laura Curtis and Andrew Dunn.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old.
                                       -Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745

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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com