August 1, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Lammas.

A sturgeon supermoon will light up the sky tonight, creating a luminous spectacle for millions around the world. This type of lunar phenomenon occurs when the moon nears its closest point to Earth while appearing full — and it only happens three to four times per year.

1914: World War I begins as Germany declares war on Russia, setting off a chain of events that leads to a global conflict.
1981: The music video channel MTV made its debut. Go to article >>
1990: World Wide Web established.
1789: US Customs established.

The best photos of the 2023 Women’s World Cup: We’ve entered the final round of matches in the group stage at the Women’s World Cup, with nations vying for a place in the knockout round. View awesome photos captured at the tournament and keep up with the current standings here.

AMC Theaters just had its best week in history.  Thanks to “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” the world’s largest theater chain earned its largest single-week admissions revenue since the company’s founding in 1920.

Will the US run out of water?
“The issue is not about running out of water, it’s about having water in the right place,” Lis Mullin Bernhardt, from the United Nations Environment Programme, told Live Science. Read More.

See stunning likeness of Zlatý kůň, the oldest modern human to be genetically sequenced
Researchers created a facial approximation of a 45,000-year-old woman with Neanderthal ancestry. Read More

Iron Age warrior woman was buried with a sword and a mirror Archaeologists in England used a tooth enamel analysis to confirm that a 2,000-year-old burial contained a female warrior.
Full Story: Live Science (7/31)

Russian scientists have grown watermelons in the coldest place on Earth
The agricultural feat was part of an experiment at Vostok Station, a year-round Russian research station in Antarctica. Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Maine, US: People walk along the beach at Scarborough under dark clouds. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Zaragoza, Spain: Two storks are silhouetted against the super sturgeon moon.  Photograph: Javier Belver/EPA

​​​​​​​London, UK: Models of megalodon fins on the River Thames for a photoshoot for the film Meg 2: The Trench.  Photograph: Jack Hall/Getty Images
Market Closes for August 1, 2023,

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1981, MTV began broadcasting. Showing non-stop music videos, the cable TV channel jolted the faltering recorded-music business around the world.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.5% at 20,532.93 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s increase of 0.5%.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 0.8%.
SilverCrest Metals Inc. had the largest drop, falling 21.5%.
Today, 151 of 228 shares fell, while 73 rose; 8 of 11 sectors were lower, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 4.3% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 11% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.5% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 14.9% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and rose 1.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.4 on a trailing basis and 14.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.26t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 10.25% compared with 10.58% in the previous session and the average of 10.59% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | -45.6620| -1.8| 2/48
Financials | -36.1535| -0.6| 8/20
Utilities | -10.7433| -1.2| 1/13
Consumer Discretionary | -3.0859| -0.4| 8/7
Consumer Staples | -2.1784| -0.3| 3/8
Health Care | -1.1144| -1.8| 1/3
Real Estate | -0.4949| -0.1| 9/12
Information Technology | -0.0175| 0.0| 3/8
Communication Services | 0.3182| 0.0| 2/3
Energy | 1.2847| 0.0| 21/18
Industrials | 4.1413| 0.1| 15/11
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | -10.3100| -0.8| 31.3| 1.9
Bank of Montreal | -7.3840| -1.2| 1.7| -1.3
Bank of Nova Scotia| -7.2080| -1.3| -42.3| -1.2
Shopify | 4.5310| 0.6| -0.7| 90.6
Canadian Natural Resources | 5.4460| 0.9| -44.3| 7.6
Waste Connections | 6.5400| 2.0| 91.5| 5.8
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The rally that drove the stock market up almost 30% from its October lows took a little break at the start of the new month amid calls for a near-term pullback.
Just a few days ahead of the all-important jobs report, data suggested some softening in demand for workers in a still tight labor market.
The numbers weren’t enough to entice investors, who also grappled with a mixed bag of corporate earnings.
The S&P 500 finished the session with a small loss.
Bonds fell, with the 30-year yield hitting its highest since November as the Treasury prepares to ramp up issuance of longer-dated securities.
“It looks like stocks on Wall Street are taking a breather from the relentless rally,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and Forex.com.
While many traders are afraid of standing on the way of the rally, we could see some downside action — with investors likely to “sit on their hands” in the run-up to employment data and earnings from giants Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
In late trading, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. gained after the company topped second-quarter estimates and said it was making further inroads in artificial-intelligence computing.
Starbucks Corp. dropped as its quarterly sales fell short of analysts’ estimates, a sign that momentum may be slowing for the coffee giant amid higher prices and tighter pocketbooks.
Bank of America Corp. strategist Savita Subramanian noted there’s no reason to fret just yet about the equity market.
BofA’s Sell Side Indicator — which tracks sell-side strategists’ recommended stock allocations — is still in neutral territory despite increased allocations and stands closer to a “buy” rather than a “sell” signal.
“Rising equity allocations and falling bond allocations mark a reversal from the bond love and equity hate that built during 2022,” Subramanian added.
Equities have come a long way in a short period of time, but looking at different time frames, the gains don’t look quite as impressive, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
In the case of the S&P 500, over the last 12 months, it’s still up about 11%, but on a two-year basis, performance looks much less attractive at a little over 4%.
“That hardly looks like a market that has become unanchored from reality,” Bespoke strategists wrote.
Oppenheimer Asset Management’s John Stoltzfus lifted his target on the S&P 500 index to a Street high, a day after Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson, one of the market’s leading doomsayers, sounded less bearish than usual.
Stoltzfus now sees the S&P 500 index hitting 4,900 by the end of the year, leaving room for another 7% gain.
The target would mark a new record for the gauge, and one that plays out against bearish predictions by prominent Wall Street names such as Wilson, JPMorgan’s Marko Kolanovic and Bank of America
Corp.’s Michael Hartnett.
* Tesla Inc. is the subject of another probe by US regulators, this time focusing on driver complaints about vehicles possibly at risk of losing control of steering. The shares fell.
* Uber Technologies Inc. reported its first-ever operating profit, but that milestone was eclipsed by a pace of growth that has decelerated from pandemic highs, sending the shares down the most in nine months.
* JetBlue Airways Corp. slashed its full-year profit forecast over signs of a slowdown in domestic demand, becoming the latest carrier to warn of a shift toward international routes and renewing questions about the durability of a post-pandemic surge in US travel.
* Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. slipped after the company issued guidance for the third quarter that missed Wall Street’s expectations.
Key events this week:
* China Caixin Services PMI, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, PPI, Thursday
* Bank of England rate decision, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, productivity, factory orders, ISM Services, Thursday
* Eurozone retail sales, Friday
* US unemployment rate, non-farm payrolls, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.5%
* The euro fell 0.1% to $1.0982
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2773
* The Japanese yen fell 0.8% to 143.40 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.3% to $29,281.63
* Ether was little changed at $1,851.93
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced seven basis points to 4.03%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 2.56%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced nine basis points to 4.40%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2% to $81.67 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 1.3% to $1,982.30 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jason Scott, Richard Henderson and John Viljoen.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent.

As ever,

Carolann
You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument. –Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784.

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