August 11, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Wish upon a shooting star tonight:
Earth passes through cosmic debris all year long as it revolves around the sun. The results are meteor showers that can light up night skies. Tonight, the Perseids are putting on a show. The meteor shower is active from July 17 to Aug. 26 and will peak Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Here’s how to watch.  The Perseids, seen above in 2018, occur when Earth runs into debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle, a 17-mile wide dirty snowball that takes about 133 years to orbit the sun. The moon will be about half full tonight, which could interfere with viewing in some places, but usually between 160 and 200 meteors dazzle the night sky every hour during the display’s peak. -The New York Times.

Here’s how to watch the Perseid meteor shower
When everything on Earth is chaos, just look to the flaming rocks above. –CNN 

Night of the Shooting stars. –Bloomberg.

Tuscany’s medieval “wine windows” are back in use during the pandemic. (h/t Ellen Kominers)-Bloomberg.

Stop procrastinating, maybe later. –Bloomberg.

Visit the shores of Cape Cod, where oyster farming is a way of life. –The NY Times.

On Aug. 11, 1965, deadly rioting and looting broke out in the predominantly black Watts section of Los Angeles. Go to article »
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Morning fog shrouds lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center as the sum rises in New York City as a man runs through the 9/11 Empty Sky Memorial in Jersey City, New Jersey
CREDIT: GARY HERSHORN/GETTY IMAGES

The Mayflower II makes its way through the Cape Cod Canal on its way to its homeport in Plymouth, Mass.
CREDIT: MERRILY/ CAPE COD TIMES VIA AP

Wildebeests (Connochaetes taurinus) cross the Mara river during their migration to the greener pastures, between the Maasai Mara game reserve and the open plains of the Serengeti, Southwest of Nairobi, in the Maasai Mara game reserve, Kenya
CREDIT: REUTERS/THOMAS MUKOYA

Mount Sinabung spews thick ash and smoke into the sky in Karo, North Sumatra
CREDIT: ANTO SEMBIRING/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Market Closes for August 11^th , 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1928, accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Herbert Hoover declared: “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.  The poorhouse is vanishing from among us… We shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from the nation.” Unfortunately, just over one year later, the Great Depression arrived, proving Hoover tragically wrong.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian shares fell, led by mining stocks weighed down by gold and silver’s decline.
The S&P/TSX Composite index fell 0.7% in Toronto after rising on Monday. The precious metal miners tumbled after the price of gold tumbled as bond yields spiked higher.
In the deals front, Brookfield Asset Management’s infrastructure arm is in talks to acquire Blackstone’s minority stake in liquefied natural gas terminal operator Cheniere Energy Partners, according to people familiar with the matter.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $11.70 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 5.7% to ~$1,912.69 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.3% to C$1.3308 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield rose 7 basis points to 0.567%
By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.7 percent at 16,497.01 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since falling 0.8 percent on July 31 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.4 percent.
Today, materials stocks led the market lower, as 4 of 11 sectors lost; 118 of 221 shares fell, while 98 rose. Barrick Gold Corp. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 9.0 percent. First Majestic Silver Corp. had the largest drop, falling 12.0 percent.
Insights
* The index advanced 1 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 13 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 8.2 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 47.7 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.8 percent in the past 5 days and rose 5 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.8 on a trailing basis and 24.7 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.54t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 10.75 percent compared with 10.85 percent in the previous session and the average of 15.32 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | -151.6285| -5.9| 7/43
Information Technology| -35.9340| -2.2| 1/9
Health Care | -4.0066| -2.4| 2/7
Utilities | -3.6886| -0.4| 5/11
Energy | 0.6918| 0.0| 9/14
Consumer Staples | 0.9890| 0.1| 6/5
Real Estate | 1.1903| 0.2| 17/8
Industrials | 3.3971| 0.2| 15/13
Consumer Discretionary| 5.5426| 1.0| 7/5
Communication Services| 6.9167| 0.8| 7/0
Financials | 68.0369| 1.5| 22/3
US
By Claire Ballentine and Katherine Greifeld
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks turned sharply lower in the final hour of trading as investors sold some of the rally’s biggest winners amid concern a spending package from Washington is not imminent.
The S&P 500 fell for the first time in eight trading sessions, with some traders citing comments from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying stimulus talks are at a stalemate as a catalyst. The Nasdaq 100 fell for a third day. Treasury yields jumped before this week’s debt auctions and gold tumbled the most in seven years.
“There’s some profit taking going on, they’re looking to rotate into some of the stuff that hasn’t performed as well,” said Keith Gangl, portfolio manager for Gradient Investments.
A broad rally from industrial goods to health-care shares sent the Stoxx Europe 600 Index to its best increase in a week.
Adding to the earlier optimism was President Donald Trump announcement Monday that he’s considering a tax cut on capital gains, as well as rising hopes for an effective Covid-19 vaccine.
“It seems like a market in the final stages of a rally where investors try and play catch up in the highest beta/most cyclical areas, such as small caps, energy, financials,
industrials,” said Sameer Samana, Wells Fargo Investment’s senior global market strategist. “It is a risk-on market, but with a slightly different flavor than the one we saw while real rates and the dollar were declining.”
Elsewhere, the resignation of Lebanon’s government after the devastating explosion in Beirut threatened to upend prospects of a debt restructuring deal in the next few months.
Here are some key events coming up:
* Earnings include E.ON, Deutsche Telekom, Carlsberg, Tencent and JD.com.
* New Zealand’s central-bank policy decision is due on Wednesday.
* U.S. CPI for July is scheduled for Wednesday.
* China releases a slew of data for July on Friday, including industrial production and retail sales.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index dipped 0.8% to 3,333.76 as of 4:01 p.m. New York time, the first retreat in more than a week and the largest decrease in more than two weeks.
*The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.4% to 27,688.29, the first retreat in more than a week.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 1.7% to 10,782.82, the lowest in more than a week on the largest decrease in more than two weeks.
*The MSCI All-Country World Index decreased 0.1% to 563.77.
Currencies
*The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.1% to 1,181.46, the highest in a week.
*The euro was little changed at $1.1733, the weakest in almost two weeks.
*The Japanese yen depreciated 0.5% to 106.54 per dollar, the weakest in more than two weeks on the largest fall in more than a week.
Bonds
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed four basis points to 0.63%, the highest in more than three weeks on the biggest surge in more than two months.
*Germany’s 10-year yield jumped five basis points to -0.48%, the highest in more than two weeks on the largest surge in almost six weeks.
*Britain’s 10-year yield jumped seven basis points to 0.2%, the highest in five weeks on the biggest surge in more than four months.
Commodities
*West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 1% to $41.49 a barrel.
*Gold depreciated 5.4% to $1,916.58 an ounce, the weakest in more than two weeks on the biggest tumble in more than seven years.
*Copper decreased 0.6% to $2.84 a pound.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Don’t be afraid of hard work.  Nothing worthwhile comes easily.
                                         -Gertrude Belle Elion, 1918-1999

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