August 26, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1491 – Christopher Columbus, explorer b.
1883 – Krakatoa erupts: 36,000 killed.
1996 – US President Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing major shift in welfare policy.

On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was declared in effect.  Go to article »

An illustrated guide to a lesser-known part of the suffragists’ legacy: redefining what a woman “should” look like.-The NY Times.

A robot tried to fix value investing and ended up buying Amazon. -Bloomberg.

Paleontologist runs on a Scottish beach, finds an unexpected dinosaur bone.-Bloomberg.

The suit, proclaimed dead, is alive and well for top tailors

Roomba’s parent company says the household robots just got a lot smarter with a ‘genius update’
Is …. is that a threat? –CNN
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A magnificent rainbow stretches across the sky as it appears to emerge from a quaint chapel in the Austrian hills.
CREDIT: EMANUELE BATTIST/SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY

The Red Arrows -Edinburgh
CREDIT: DAVE CULLEN EDINBURGHELITEMEDIA.CO.UK

Storm Francis batters the small Welsh seaside resort of Porthcawl in Bridgend, UK. With gale force winds and massive waves.
CREDIT: GRAHAM M. LAWRENCE/LNP
Market Closes for August 26th, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1919, Coca-Cola Co. successfully sold shares to outsiders for the first time, as a syndicate of banks and brokers from around the country bought 417,000 shares to resell to retail investors at an initial offering price of $40. An earlier attempt at a stock offering in 1892 failed miserably.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equity markets gained with tech stocks leading the advance, mainly driven by Shopify Inc.’s rally.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 1% in Toronto. The benchmark’s tech index rose 4.2%, the most since July 29.
Shopify gained after Jamie Murray of Murray Wealth Group wrote that its shares will return 7% per annum over the next eight years assuming it’s valued at a similar multiple to Salesforce.com Inc.
Royal Bank of Canada, after posting record profit in capital markets in the fiscal third quarter, will probably see more gains from advising on mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and leveraged financing, Chief Financial Officer Rod Bolger said. Shares rose 1.5%.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at an $11.75 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold was rose 1.3% to $1,952.78 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.2% to $1.3149 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield rose 2 basis points to 0.611%
By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 1 percent at 16,789.97 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since rising 1.2 percent on Aug. 4 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.1 percent.
Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as 6 of 11 sectors gained; 135 of 221 shares rose, while 82 fell.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 5.1 percent. BlackBerry Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6.4 percent.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 3.8 percent
* The index advanced 4.3 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 21 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 6.6 percent below its 52-week high on  Feb. 20, 2020 and 50.3 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.3 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 25.5 on a trailing basis and 24.8 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$2.53t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 9.48 percent compared with 9.43 percent in the previous session and the average of 11.55 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 82.3147| 1.7| 21/4
Information Technology | 70.5914| 4.2| 10/0
Materials | 55.9851| 2.2| 44/4
Consumer Discretionary | 5.8383| 1.0| 9/3
Industrials | 3.0275| 0.2| 18/10
Utilities | 0.1693| 0.0| 8/8
Health Care | -0.1622| -0.1| 3/6
Real Estate | -0.1764| 0.0| 14/12
Consumer Staples | -1.8842| -0.3| 5/6
Communication Services | -3.9339| -0.4| 1/7
Energy | -39.2694| -1.9| 2/22
US
By Vildana Hajric and Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — Stocks extended a streak of record gains amid rising expectations for loose monetary policy while the economy shows signs of recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
The dollar weakened and gold appreciated.
Surging technology shares pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes to fresh highs for a fourth consecutive day, while the MSCI All-Country World Index climbed to a record. The S&P has jumped about 55% from its March lows. Salesforce.com Inc. leaped 26% after the software developer’s revenue easily beat estimates, signaling clients responded to the pandemic by upgrading technology systems. U.S. orders for durable goods rose in July by more than double estimates, indicating factories will help support the economic rebound in coming months. ”The continued market juggernaut is certainly impressive,” said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Private Wealth Management. “The idea that we’re going to have a rip-roaring rebound in the third quarter has been supported by the data.”
Gains in Germany’s stocks pulled European equities higher as the country extended a program that has kept millions of people from losing their jobs in the region’s biggest economy.
Shares fell in Shanghai and Sydney. Crude oil traded near its most costly in five months as Hurricane Laura bore down on key refining facilities on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
As global economies reopen, investors are focusing on the progress of a coronavirus vaccine while showing cautious optimism about controlling fresh outbreaks. Traders are also awaiting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech on Thursday about the central bank’s monetary policy framework review, which is expected to entail a new inflation strategy.
“We’re in a slow melt-up sort of driven by Fed liquidity and backstops in the fixed income markets,” said Marc Chaikin, founder of Chaikin Analytics. “It’s giving people with money on the sidelines almost no opportunity to get in comfortably.”
Elsewhere, soybean futures climbed to a seven-month high in Chicago after people familiar with the matter said China is set to buy a record amount from America this year.
Here are some key events coming up:
* The U.S. Republican National Convention runs this week.
* The Bank of Korea sets monetary policy and will hold a briefing on Thursday.
* Fed Chair Powell speaks at an event on Thursday

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index climbed 1% to 3,478.81 as of 4:01 p.m. New York time, hitting the highest on record with its fifth consecutive advance and the largest increase in two weeks.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3% to 28,332.53, the highest in six months.
* The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 1.7% to 11,665.06, hitting the highest on record with its fifth consecutive advance and the largest increase in two weeks.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.9% to 373.12, the highest in two weeks.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.2% to 1,169.69, the lowest in more than a week.
* The euro decreased 0.1% to $1.1827.
* The Japanese yen strengthened 0.4% to 106 per dollar, the largest rise in more than a week.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed one basis point to 0.69%, the highest in more than a week.
* Germany’s 10-year yield increased two basis points to -0.42%, the highest in almost two weeks.
* Britain’s 10-year yield gained four basis points to 0.302%, the highest in 11 weeks.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 0.1% to $43.38 a barrel, the highest in almost six months.
* Gold strengthened 1.2% to $1,952.28 an ounce, the highest in more than a week on the biggest climb in more than a week.
* Copper rose 1.2% to $2.99 a pound, the largest advance in a week.
–With assistance from Claire Ballentine.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
                                                                                                  -Voltaire, 1694-1778

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