Author: Carolann

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Full moon tonight.  Happy Passover.  St. George’s Day,, England.

On April 23, 1968, 300 Columbia students barricaded the office of the college dean, charging the university with supporting the Vietnam War and violating Harlem residents’ civil rights. Go to article >>
April 23, 2005: The first YouTube video is posted.  The 18-second clip “Me at the zoo” shows ci-founder Jawed Karim at San Diego Zoo.

William Shakespeare, b. 1564 d. 1616
Miguel Cervantes, d. 16156.
Michael Moore, filmmaker, b. 1954

‘I nearly fell out of my chair’: 1,800-year-old mini portrait of Alexander the Great found in a field in Denmark
The miniature bronze portrait depicts Alexander the Great with his wavy hair and crown of ram horns. Read More.

George Washington’s stash of centuries-old cherries found hidden under Mount Vernon floor
Enslaved people picked the cherries around 250 years ago, likely in pre-Revolutionary War times.  Full Story: Live Science (4/23

Haunting photo of Earth and moon snapped by China’s experimental lunar satellites
China’s experimental moon satellites Tiandu-1 and 2 are testing lunar communications and navigation tech. Recently, they shared this image of the lunar surface with a ghostly Earth in the background. Read More.

James Webb telescope’s ‘shocking’ discovery may hint at hidden exomoon around ‘failed star’
JWST’s surprise discovery of methane emissions and likely aurorae over a distant brown dwarf could indicate this “failed star” is orbited by an active moon. Read More.

Detecting cancer in minutes possible with just a drop of dried blood and new test, study hints
Early tests suggest that a new tool that requires only a single drop of blood could detect three of the deadliest forms of cancer. Read More.

How moving from the US to a ‘blue zone’ transformed this family’s life
This couple abandoned life in Texas and moved to Costa Rica. Seven years later, they’re feeling the benefits.

Taylor Swift’s new album shatters streaming records
Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department” became the most-streamed album in a single day on Spotify in just 12 hours.

Indian teenager becomes the youngest challenger for world chess title
This 17-year-old chess prodigy has an opportunity to dethrone the reigning world champion from China later this year.

Could asteroid mining become a reality?
Minerals are in short supply on Earth. Some startups believe we should be extracting metals from asteroids to fulfill high demand.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Sydney, Australia
Members of the Bondi Board Riders Club, various local sporting clubs, and lifeguards participate in a paddle-out at Bondi Beach to honour the victims of the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbings
Photograph: Steven Saphore/EPA

New York, US
The Pink Moon, illuminated at 99%, rises behind the Statue of Liberty as the sun sets in New York City, as seen from Jersey City, New Jersey
Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

​​​​​​​Qingyuan, China
An island is flooded after heavy rains in southern China’s Guangdong province.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for April 23^rd, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38503.69	+263.71
		+0.69%
S&P 500	5070.55	+59.95
		+1.20%
NASDAQ	15696.64	+245.33
		+1.59%
TSX	22011.72	+139.76
		+0.64%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37552.16	+113.55
		+0.30%
HANG SENG	16828.93	+317.24
		+1.92%
SENSEX	73738.45	+89.83
		+0.12%
FTSE 100*	8044.81	+20.94
		+0.26%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.760	3.752
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.666	3.661
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6004	4.6085
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7272	4.7127

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7319	0.7298
US $	1.3662	1.3702

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4622	0.6839
US $	1.0702	0.9344

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2334.95	2334.95
Oil
WTI Crude Future	82.85	83.14

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1985: Coca-Cola introduced New Coke, outraging customers who preferred the original formula. Within months, the old version was revived as Coca-Cola Classic.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fifth day, climbing 0.6%, or 139.76 to 22,011.72 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 1% on April 5.
Today, information technology stocks led the market higher, as all sectors gained; 175 of 224 shares rose, while 49 fell.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.6%.
Tilray Brands Inc. had the largest increase, rising 7.2%.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 0.7%
* The index advanced 6.4% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.6% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 17.8% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.7% in the past 5 days and was little changed in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.4 on a trailing basis and 15 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.47t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.22% compared with 8.05% in the previous session and the average of 7.95% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology | 47.6296| 2.6| 9/1
Financials | 25.8179| 0.4| 20/7
Industrials | 19.9211| 0.6| 23/4
Energy | 18.3432| 0.5| 35/6
Materials | 9.4490| 0.4| 39/11
Communication Services | 5.4910| 0.8| 5/0
Consumer Discretionary | 5.4175| 0.7| 10/3
Consumer Staples | 3.3913| 0.4| 9/2
Utilities | 2.7882| 0.3| 12/3
Health Care | 1.1174| 1.7| 3/1
Real Estate | 0.3945| 0.1| 10/11
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 37.5700| 4.6| 13.1| -2.0
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 8.8620| 1.2| 73.6| 14.2
Brookfield Corp | 8.4980| 1.6| 3.5| 3.7
Lundin Mining | -2.4820| -3.4| -21.4| 40.7
Intact Financial | -2.6550| -1.0| -37.5| 8.3
Ivanhoe Mines | -3.7100| -4.7| 105.9| 41.2
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A rally in tech heavyweights lifted the broader stock market, with the group’s high-stakes earnings seen by Wall Street investors as a major test of the bull run in equities.
In late hours, Tesla Inc. soared despite an earnings miss, with Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle giant disclosing plans for more affordable models.
The stock halted a seven-day plunge that drove it to “oversold” levels, climbing alongside other members of the “Magnificent Seven” cohort of mega-caps.
Treasuries briefly extended gains after a solid $69 billion sale of two-year notes — but quickly returned to levels seen ahead of the auction — with 10-year yields little changed.
After notching several record highs this year, equities lost traction in April amid signals the Federal Reserve will hold rates higher for longer.
The slide has made stocks more attractive as it removed market froth, with investors now focused on corporate earnings, according to Citigroup Inc. strategists.
“We would view the recent pullback as a buying opportunity,” Citi’s Mihir Tirodkar and Beata Manthey said.
“Bullish positioning has unwound and now looks more neutral, particularly in the US. The current earnings season could refocus investor attention on solid underlying fundamentals.”
The S&P 500 rise to around 5,070, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 added 1.5%.
Nvidia Corp., the poster child of the artificial-intelligence boom, led a surge in chipmakers.
United Parcel Service Inc. — an economic barometer — reported profit that beat estimates.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. closed at an all-time high.
Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson said the bar is high for US firms to deliver on earnings, particularly for mega-cap technology names, which face tough comparisons from the growth they showed last year.
But more interesting to him will be how shares react to the results.
“The theme is that it’s a very unbalanced economy and that’s the theme we’ve had for a while, so post-Covid, it’s just been a very unpredictable environment for a lot of reasons,” Wilson said. “Some of those things we got really wrong. And I think we’re trying to figure out kinda what the next stage is.”
Equities saw their biggest back-to-back advance in two months.
That’s after a selloff that sent the S&P 500 down over 5% in April through Friday.
The most-important aspect of the market set-up heading into this week’s earnings was its “oversold” condition, according to Dan Wantrobski at Janney Montgomery Scott.
“Thus, if earnings come in strong over the days ahead, stocks are effectively spring-loaded for a bigger counter-trend rally than we have seen thus far,” he said.
Based on the median and average pullbacks, downside from current levels would be limited to somewhere between 2% to 5% — which would also correspond to S&P 500 levels where there’s strong technical support, said Keith Lerner at Truist Advisory Services.  “Pullbacks are the admission price to the market,” he noted. “The weight of the evidence in our work suggests the market’s risk/reward has improved following the recent setback.  Therefore, we view the recent pullback as an opportunity for those investors who have excess cash or are underweight equities relative to their target allocations.”
Ahead of a busy period of quarterly earnings, Bank of America Corp.’s corporate clients stepped up purchases of their own stock.
Buybacks accelerated in the five-day period through April 19 — and are tracking above typical seasonal levels for the seventh consecutive week — quantitative strategists led by Jill Carey Hall wrote Tuesday in note to clients.
Besides Tesla, Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. are also due to report earnings this week.
And stakes are high.
Profits for the “Magnificent Seven” group — which also includes Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Nvidia Corp. — are forecast to rise 38% in the first quarter from a year ago, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data.
The group of tech mega-caps is crucial to the S&P 500 since the companies carry the heaviest weightings in the benchmark.
After this year’s advance, valuations have gotten lofty.
After the latest selloff, the Magnificent Seven still traded at a combined 31 times forward earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
To Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management, the group will likely be able to extend its positive performance.
“After all, the strong balance sheet characteristics and secure competitive market positions of the Magnificent Seven imply that a significant correction is unlikely, despite their valuations drawing comparisons to the 2000s tech bubble,” she noted.
And despite all the macroeconomic fears, tech balance-sheets may shelter the sector from elevated rates, according to BI strategists led by Gina Martin Adams.
“While tech stocks have above-average and median duration relative to the rest of the market, the group also carries relatively little debt and maintains a far superior interest-rate coverage ratio to the rest of the index’s sectors,” they
noted.   
“Big Tech is carrying S&P 500 earnings growth this quarter, but the other 495 companies in the index will have to come into their own starting in the second quarter,” said Nicholas Colas at DataTrek Research. “Markets clearly believe this will occur, which is why large caps have held in fairly well, even as rates and geopolitical risks have risen.”
Brace for more declines in stock markets, warns Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s tactical specialist Scott Rubner.
Answering a barrage of questions from clients on whether the pullback in stock markets meant enough equity exposure was reduced last week, Rubner said “my reply is no.”
He noted that Goldman clients have been reducing exposure on any uptick in stocks.
Goldman’s trading desk estimates that commodity trading advisers, or CTAs that surf the momentum of asset prices through long and short bets in the futures market, are modeled to sell stocks over the next week, no matter which way markets go.
To Mark Newton at Fundstrat, the stock rebound doesn’t mean the lows are in — but they look close — and breadth looks to have bottomed out.
“Technology has pulled back to good support, and should stabilize/rally post earnings,” he noted. “Value has taken a temporary lead over growth — which should prove temporary.”

Corporate Highlights:
* Apple Inc.’s iPhone sales in China fell 19% during the March quarter, according to data from an independent research firm that marked the gadget’s worst performance there since Covid struck around 2020.
* Spotify Technology SA reported it swung to a profit in the first quarter as the audio-streaming giant boosted subscribers and added new features.
* PepsiCo Inc. posted stronger-than-expected sales growth thanks to robust demand in its international divisions, while volumes dropped in North America.
* Halliburton Co., the world’s biggest provider of fracking work, posted its best earnings for a first quarter in a dozen years despite a shrinking business in the shale patch that it said isn’t likely to recover this year.
* General Motors Co. expects better profit this year after a strong first quarter, as robust truck sales in the US led the automaker to raise 2024 guidance by $500 million.
* General Electric Co. raised the full-year profit guidance for its aerospace business, driven by an increase in revenue from commercial aircraft engines and services.
* JetBlue Airways Corp. forecast worse-than-expected sales this quarter, blaming excess flying capacity in the critical Latin America market
* Philip Morris International Inc. raised its full-year outlook after strong sales of its heated tobacco and nicotine pouch products.
* UnitedHealth Group Inc. found files containing private information on a vast number of Americans whose data may have been compromised in a February cyberattack that upended the US health system.
* Lockheed Martin Corp.’s first-quarter operating income beat expectations as it delivered more fighter jets and missile systems.
* RTX Corp.’s profit beat Wall Street estimates as the aerospace and defense giant works through the costly recall of its best-selling jet engine.
* Kering SA warned that profit will plunge in the first half of the year as the crisis at Gucci, its biggest brand, deepens.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%
* The MSCI World index rose 1.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.4% to $1.0702
* The British pound rose 0.8% to $1.2449
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 154.82 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin was little changed at $66,486.04
* Ether rose 0.9% to $3,218.9
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.60%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.50%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 4.24%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.7% to $83.32 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.2% to $2,322.91 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Sagarika Jaisinghani and Jessica Menton.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
You can never be overdressed or overeducated. –Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900.

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Monday.  Today is Earth Day.

April 22, 1945: Adolf Hitler admits defeat after learning teat Soviet forces had entered Berlin.
1955: Congress orders all US coins bear the motto “In God We Trust.”
2010:  The Deepwater Horizon oil platform, operated by BP, sank into the Gulf of Mexico two days after a massive explosion that killed 11 workers.  Go to article >>

Jack Nicholson, b. 1937.
Charles Mingus, bassist, b. 1922.
Germaine de Stael, salonnaire, b. 1766.
Henry Fielding, novelist, b.1707.

April’s full ‘Pink Moon’ blooms amid a meteor shower tomorrow. Here’s how to get the best view.
April’s full moon, nicknamed the Pink Moon, rises on Tuesday (April 23), but will appear bright and full on Monday and Wednesday as well. Here’s how to see it at its best. Read More.

A pink moon will brighten the night sky this week
Despite its cool name, April’s full moon will probably look like any other. Here’s why it’s called the pink moon.

Rare ‘porcelain gallbladder’ found in 100-year-old unmarked grave at Mississippi mental asylum cemetery
Archaeologists have discovered the burial of a woman with a rare “porcelain gallbladder” who was interred at the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum’s cemetery 100 years ago. Read More.

Scientists may have pinpointed the true origin of the Hope Diamond and other pristine gemstones
Researchers suggest that the famed Golconda diamonds, including the Hope Diamond and Koh-i-noor, may have originated from a volcanic outcrop nearly 200 miles from where they were mined. Read More.

‘Uncharted territory’: El Niño to flip to La Niña in what could be the hottest year on record.
A quick flip from El Niño to La Niña is coming soon, but what does that mean for the U.S.? Full Story: Live Science (4/22).

Giving a hoot on Earth Day: How to protect owls in your own backyard
It can be tough to survive in a world altered by humans. Here’s what you should do if you want owls — or any birds — in your backyard.

Northern lights create dazzling spectacle in the sky
The northern lights could easily be described as Earth’s greatest light show. Watch this stunning video to learn why the lights are starting to appear in some unexpected parts of the world.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Frankfurt, Germany
The moon sets behind buildings on the outskirts of the city
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Gold Coast, Australia
Olympic breakdancing athlete Jeff ‘B-Boy J Attack’ Dunne poses during a portrait session
Photograph: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Northumberland, UK
‘Low Hauxley, near Amble. I was hoping for a sunrise, but it was too cloudy. However, the sun soon came out, giving some great light on the rocks and dunes. Coquet Lighthouse is in the background.’
Photograph: David Eberlin
Market Closes for April 22^nd, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38239.98	+253.58
		+0.67%
S&P 500	5010.60	+43.37
		+0.87%
NASDAQ	15451.30	+169.29
		+1.11%
TSX	21871.96	+64.58
		+0.30%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37438.61	+370.26
		+1.00%
HANG SENG	16511.69	+287.55
		+1.77%
SENSEX	73648.62	+560.29
		+0.77%
FTSE 100*	8023.87	+128.02
		+1.62%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.752	3.739
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.661	3.647
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6085	4.6207
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7127	4.7106

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7298	0.7266
US $	1.3702	1.3763

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4597	0.6851
US $	1.0653	0.9387

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2334.95	2379.70
Oil
WTI Crude Future	83.14	83.14

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1980, market guru Joe Granville made a prescient call when he told his 1,500 premium paying subscribers to buy stocks. The next day, the Dow surged 4%. Over the longer term, Granville’s advice wasn’t so lucrative. His followers lost 98% of their money between 1980 and 1987, according to financial newsletter expert Mark Hulbert.
By Bloomberg Automation
Canada
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fourth day, climbing 0.3%, or 64.58 to 21,871.96 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since April 12.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.0%.
Celestica Inc. had the largest increase, rising 5.2%.
Today, 120 of 224 shares rose, while 101 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 1.3%
* The index advanced 5.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 21% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.3% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 17% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.6% in the past 5 days and fell 0.5% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.2 on a trailing basis and 14.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.46t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.05% compared with 8.01% in the previous session and the average of 8.12% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 39.5012| 0.6| 20/7
Industrials | 27.4739| 0.9| 17/10
Information Technology | 17.7755| 1.0| 9/1
Consumer Staples | 12.6718| 1.4| 9/2
Energy | 11.9370| 0.3| 20/20
Consumer Discretionary | 10.4302| 1.4| 10/2
Real Estate | 6.8915| 1.5| 19/2
Utilities | 5.9193| 0.7| 8/6
Communication Services | 4.7020| 0.7| 4/1
Health Care | -1.0069| -1.5| 1/3
Materials | -71.7143| -2.7| 3/47
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | 13.3700| 1.0| 174.9| 1.4
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 13.0300| 1.7| 21.7| 12.9
Couche-Tard | 8.6810| 2.2| -4.7| -0.3
Franco-Nevada | -6.7170| -3.0| 14.0| 10.4
Agnico Eagle Mines | -8.7680| -2.9| 26.9| 17.4
Barrick Gold | -12.5200| -4.3| -1.9| -6.0
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks climbed after a $2 trillion selloff, with investors hanging their hopes on whether big tech will meet the lofty expectations for artificial intelligence during the busiest week of the earnings season.
About 180 companies in the S&P 500 — representing over 40% of its market capitalization — are due to report this week.
Stakes are high for the “Magnificent Seven” mega-caps, whose profits are forecast to rise nearly 40% from a year ago, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
The focus on earnings comes after a rout fueled by geopolitical fears and signals the Federal Reserve will be in no rush to cut rates.
“Just beating consensus estimates for earnings won’t be enough,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co. “We’re going to have to see much better guidance from Corporate America if the stock market is going to resume its advance.”
Strategists at Wall Street’s top banks are split on whether companies can deliver on robust forecasts.
While Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson said he expects profit growth to improve as the economy strengthens, his counterpart at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Mislav Matejka, argues that hot inflation, a stronger dollar and geopolitical tensions are clouding the outlook.
Nearly two-thirds of 409 respondents in Bloomberg’s Markets Live Pulse survey said they expect earnings to give the US equity benchmark a boost.
That’s the highest vote of confidence for profits since the poll began asking the question in October 2022.
The S&P 500 topped 5,000 — halting a six-day rout.
The Nasdaq 100 rose 1%, with Nvidia Corp. leading gains in big tech.
Apple Inc. was named a top pick for 2024 at Bank of America Corp. on optimism over its upcoming results.
Treasuries wavered ahead of a flurry of bond auctions that will test investors’ appetite after yields hit the highest in 2024.
Hedge funds are getting back to buying global equities, shrugging off broader market volatility to gobble up tech stocks at the fastest pace in two months, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk.
New long positions outpaced short sales last week while single stocks saw “the largest notional buying in over a year,” the traders wrote in a note — marking a bullish turn in sentiment after hedge funds had been selling for the prior three weeks.
US earnings updates this week will be key to see if they can keep buoying risk appetite in a higher-for-longer rate environment, according to the BlackRock Investment Institute’s weekly commentary.
“We’re overweight US stocks and see the AI theme broadening,” BII noted.
The challenge to S&P 500 returns this earnings season is that companies will have to produce earnings — and outlooks — that support the already elevated multiples, according to Megan Horneman at Verdence Capital Advisors.
To Marko Kolanovic at JPMorgan, while price action may depend on earnings and could stabilize near-term, the market selloff likely has further to go.
“We remain concerned about continued complacency in equity valuations, inflation staying too hot, further Fed repricing, and a profit outlook where the implied acceleration this year might end up too optimistic,” he noted.
“Concerns about rising interest rates, stubborn inflation, and geopolitical risks aren’t going anywhere — but this week, the tech sector may be ‘calling the shots’,” said Chris Larkin at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley.
Indeed, the stakes are high for America’s technology behemoths to start delivering on artificial intelligence promises with their earnings poised to decelerate, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists.
Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. report results this week — kicking off earnings for the so-called Magnificent Seven.
With AI seen as the key to future profits, its contributions to the earnings mix is a the key focus for traders, a BofA team including Ohsung Kwon and Savita Subramanian said.
Big tech companies are running out of steam as the earnings momentum once enjoyed by the sector faces a cool down, according to UBS Group AG’s Jonathan Golub.
He cut the sector recommendation on the “Big Six” technology stocks — Alphabet, Apple, Amazon.com Inc., Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia — to neutral from overweight.
“Earnings momentum is turning decidedly negative following a surge in profit growth,” Golub said.
US stocks are being supported by company fundamentals, but elevated implicit growth expectations and sentiment are now headwinds, according to Citigroup Inc. strategists.
The team led by Scott Chronert says their analysis projects a 76% probability of first-quarter profits exceeding bottom-up consensus.
However, the likelihood of earnings upside falls to 49% for the remainder of 2024 — suggesting corporates may be reticent to raise guidance.
This week is consequential for markets, with big tech earnings and Friday’s key inflation data having the potential to redefine the near-term trajectory of the market, according to Jeremy Straub at Coastal Wealth.
“If big tech earnings and Friday’s inflation data disappoint, that could extend the duration and depth of this current stock market correction,” he noted. “While it’s possible the stock market has further room to decline, we remain
constructive on stocks for 2024.”
Tempered expectations for Fed interest-rate cuts have rattled US stocks the past few weeks.
But history shows there may be nothing to fear: If the past is any guide, equity markets are likely to fare well in an era of higher-for-longer interest rates.
During previous periods of elevated bond yields, the S&P 500 posted an average price return of 13.9%, compared to an average gain of 6.5% during times rates were falling, according to data from BMO Capital Markets going back to 1990.
“We believe stronger-than-expected growth trends in the US recently should be a positive for the economy and corporate profits, at least through the first half of this year,” said Anthony Saglimbene at Ameriprise. “However, the price paid for that firm fundamental backdrop likely leaves inflation elevated and interest rates higher for longer than most expected at the start of the year.”

Corporate Highlights:
* Verizon Communications Inc. reported continued customer losses and lagging revenue.
* Truist Financial Corp. posted lower first-quarter lending profits than analysts expected as it was forced to pay customers more for deposits with interest rates remaining elevated, and the bank trimmed its revenue guidance for the rest of the year.
* Informatica Inc. said it’s not engaged in takeover talks following reports that discussions with Salesforce Inc. had cooled.
* Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. agreed to divest more stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers, seeking to make their planned $24.6 billion merger more appealing to antitrust authorities.
* Viking Holdings Ltd. and its existing shareholders are seeking to raise as much as $1.1 billion in a New York initial public offering, with the cruise operator looking to go public as the travel industry rebounds from its pandemic-era slump.
* ASML Holding NV is weighing options to expand its presence in the Netherlands, after the government committed €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) to infrastructure and education spending in the region where the company’s headquarters are located.
* Tesla Inc.’s weekend move to slash prices across its range in China risks triggering a new round in the nation’s bruising price war, with Li Auto Inc. immediately responding with discounts and cash rebates on new models.
* Reliance Industries Ltd., led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit as a continued weakness in its petrochemicals business and higher taxes offset growth in its consumer unit and a large surge in other income.

Key events this week:
* Eurozone S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Services PMI, Tuesday
* US new home sales, Tuesday
* Tesla, PepsiCo earnings, Tuesday
* BOE chief economist Huw Pill speaks, Tuesday
* Germany IFO business climate, Wednesday
* US durable goods, Wednesday
* IBM, Boeing, Meta Platforms earnings, Wednesday
* US GDP, wholesale inventories, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Microsoft, Alphabet, Airbus earnings, Thursday
* Japan rate decision, Tokyo CPI, inflation and GDP forecasts, Friday
* US personal income and spending, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Exxon Mobil, Chevron earnings, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.9% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.8%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro was little changed at $1.0652
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2352
* The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 154.83 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3% to $66,580.85
* Ether rose 1.3% to $3,189.85
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.61%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 2.49%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.20%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $82.85 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 2.6% to $2,329.51 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jessica Menton, Ryan Vlastelica, Alexandra Semenova, Sagarika Jaisinghani, Kasia Klimasinska, Jan-Patrick Barnert and Elena Popina.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
Do the best you can until you know better.  Then when you know better, do better. –Maya Angelou, 1928-2014.

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.
April 19, 1770: British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia.
On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 500. (Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.)
Go to article >>

1775: Battle of Lexington & Concord: Start of American Revolution.
1932: Herbert Hoover suggests a 5-day work week.
1993: Branch Davidian fire, Waco, TX.

Ashley Judd, b. 1968.
Kate Hudson, b. 1979.

Ancient artists high on hallucinogens carved dancer rock art in Peru, study suggests
The research notes similarities between the carvings in southern Peru and the ayahuasca-induced art of the Amazon’s Tucano people. Read More.

Alien life may thrive on purple planets, new study of extreme bacteria suggests
On many exoplanets, the best clue that life is present may be a purple hue. New research into some of Earth’s most extreme bacteria explains why. Read More.

Weird magnetic quasiparticle could be used as a new type of bit in advanced computing systems, scientists find
Scientists want to replace electrons with so-called ‘nanobubbles’ to store data more densely and efficiently in advanced components that would replace RAM and flash storage. Read More.

Sony World Photography Awards 2024: Winners announced
The prestigious competition showcases the year’s best images from photographers around the world. See the winning images here.

Amsterdam bans building of new hotels
The Netherlands’ Amsterdam will no longer allow new hotel buildings to be built as part of its fight against mass tourism.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Las Vegas, US
Phish perform during night one of their four-night run at Sphere in Nevada
Photograph: Rich Fury/Sphere Entertainment/Getty Images for Sphere Entertainment

A fox in a garden in Clapham, London, UK, pauses by some tulips. The vixen has a litter of cubs in a nearby den
Photograph: Anna Watson/Alamy Live News

​​​​​​​Guwahati, India
Hindu devotees offer prayers to the sun god on the banks of the river Brahmaputra during the Chaiti Chhath Puja festival.
Photograph: Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for April 19^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37986.40	+211.02
		+0.56%
S&P 500	4967.23	-43.89
		-0.88%
NASDAQ	15282.01	-319.49
		-2.05 %
TSX	21807.38	+98.93
		+0.46%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37068.35	-1,011.35
		-2.66%
HANG SENG	16224.14	-161.73
		-0.99%
SENSEX	73088.33	+599.34
		+0.83%
FTSE 100*	7895.85	+18.80
		+0.24%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.739	3.755
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.647	3.665
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6207	4.6326
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7106	4.7303

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7266	0.7263
US $	1.3763	1.3767

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4673	0.6815
US $	1.0662	0.9379

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2379.70	2390.35
Oil
WTI Crude Future	83.14	82.73

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1895, the Railroad Gazette published the first description of the “electric tabulating machine,” a new data-processing device that used electrical signals to read, count and sort punch cards on which data was represented by an array of holes. The Tabulating Machine Co. was one of the ancestors of IBM.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the third day, climbing 0.5%, or 98.93 to 21,807.37 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest gain since April 9.
Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.8%.
Osisko Mining Inc. had the largest increase, rising 4.9%.
Today, 134 of 224 shares rose, while 83 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 0.4%
* The index advanced 5.4% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 19% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.6% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 16.7% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.2 on a trailing basis and 14.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.45t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.01% compared with 7.93% in the previous session and the average of 8.55% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 45.1994| 0.7| 21/5
Energy | 35.4734| 0.9| 28/11
Utilities | 7.9779| 1.0| 11/4
Communication Services | 5.1310| 0.8| 5/0
Industrials | 4.9660| 0.2| 12/14
Consumer Staples | 4.4442| 0.5| 8/3
Materials | 2.6926| 0.1| 26/21
Consumer Discretionary | 1.8047| 0.2| 7/6
Real Estate | 0.6077| 0.1| 12/9
Health Care | -0.1401| -0.2| 2/2
Information Technology | -9.2337| -0.5| 2/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Enbridge | 19.3200| 2.8| 111.6| 0.6
TD Bank | 12.7800| 1.3| -21.5| -6.7
RBC | 10.3300| 0.8| 231.6| 0.4
Celestica | -3.5840| -7.1| 141.0| 44.4
Canadian Natural Resources | -3.9750| -0.5| -25.7| 21.3
Constellation Software | -5.3050| -1.0| 5.8| 11.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A selloff in the world’s largest technology companies hit stocks, with the industry that has powered the bull market getting ready to report earnings next week.
Equities extended their slide from a record, with the S&P 500 breaking below 5,000 and the Nasdaq 100 falling over 2%.
More than half of the “Magnificent Seven” cohort of tech mega-caps will announce results in the next few days — leaving investors wondering whether those firms are going to live up to the high expectations set for artificial intelligence.
Just Friday, a pair of AI darlings — Nvidia Corp. and Super Micro Computer Inc. — sank at least 10%.
Profits for the seven biggest growth companies in the S&P 500 — Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Nvidia, Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. — are on course to rise 38% in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg
Intelligence. When excluding them, the rest of the index’s profits are anticipated to shrink by 3.9%.
“Investors are expecting not just strong results — but strong guidance,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial. “Any disappointment from the mega-tech names reporting could push this week’s oversold market deeper into oversold territory.”
The S&P 500 saw its sixth consecutive drop — the longest losing streak since October 2022.
The plunge in Nvidia wiped out over $200 billion in value, with the Nasdaq 100 down the most this year.
Netflix Inc. tumbled, taking the shine off stellar financial results following management’s decision to stop reporting quarterly subscriber data.
Treasury 10-year yields declined one basis point to 4.62% — almost erasing an earlier plunge of 14 basis points.
Oil trimmed a major advance to trade only marginally higher after Iranian media appeared to downplay the effect of Israeli strikes.
Tech came under heavy pressure this week after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. scaled back its outlook for a chip market expansion and ASML Holding NV posted disappointing orders.
That’s raised some eyebrows on whether those forecasts are a sign of what’s to come as other giants prepare to post earnings. Intel Corp.’s numbers are also due next week.
The S&P 500 saw its worst week since March 2023, extending a drawdown from its all-time high to more than 5%.
After a 10% gain in the first quarter — the strongest start to a year since 2019 — investors have been increasingly skeptical about how much further it could go over the near term, even accounting for the continued strength in the economy.
A drumbeat of hawkish Fed-speak and a flare-up in inflation worries weighed heavily on sentiment.
While the latest tensions in the Middle East seemed contained, traders opted for a cautious stance.
Nothing can be taken for granted, and markets may remain on edge — especially considering the looming weekend risk, according to Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com.
He added that inflation continues to be a focal point due to its potential influence on monetary policy.
“Geopolitical and political uncertainty join inflation, rates, and the Fed in pressuring markets, driving a rapid and dramatic shift in the complexion of markets and the attitude of investors,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide.
Investors are pulling money out of equities as a strong US economy and sticky inflation fuel concerns that the Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists.
A team led by Michael Hartnett wrote in a note that good economic news is now bad news for stocks, a shift in mindset from the first quarter when “good news = good.”
Evidence of this is the $21.1 billion investors redeemed from stock funds in the two weeks through Wednesday, the most in a fortnight since December 2022, BofA said, citing data from EPFR Global.
The US stock market’s retreat from all-time highs set late last month is giving investors parked in cash an opening to buy in, according to Sinead Colton Grant, chief investment officer of BNY Mellon’s wealth management arm.
The three-week slump in the S&P 500 Index is a healthy consolidation by traders after it soared 10% in the first quarter, on top of a 24% gain in 2023, she said.
From here, Colton Grant expects the rally to not only resume but broaden based on strong earnings growth and continuing economic momentum, potentially pushing the S&P 500 beyond the higher end of her 5,000-5,400 target range before 2024 closes out.

Corporate Highlights:
* Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. says an illegal form of short selling might be behind the battering of its stock and it’s asking regulators at Nasdaq Inc. to step in.
* Procter & Gamble Co., the maker of Pampers diapers and Dawn dish soap, reported quarterly sales that fell short of Wall Street estimates, overshadowing an improved profit outlook.
* SLB, the world’s biggest oil-services provider, said it is gearing up for a rebound in activity in the Northern Hemisphere during the second quarter after starting off the year with typical seasonal slowness.
* Super Micro Computer Inc. sank after the maker of servers announced the date of its third-quarter results but didn’t pre-announce results.
* The US Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an incident where a passenger was apparently granted unauthorized access to the cockpit of a United Airlines Holdings Inc. charter flight traveling from Denver to Toronto.
* Nordstrom Inc.’s founding family has notified the board of its interest in taking the company private.
* Mondi Plc walked away from a possible bidding battle for UK packaging rival DS Smith Plc, a move that secures a deal for US bidder International Paper Co.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.9% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 2.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.8%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.1% to $1.0655
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2373
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 154.61 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.2% to $64,297.01
* Ether rose 1% to $3,101.31
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.62%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.50%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.23%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $83.22 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.4% to $2,387.75 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jessica Menton, Farah Elbahrawy, Esha Dey and Alexandra Semenova.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. –Eric Hoffer, 1902-1983.

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.
April 18, 1775: Paul Rever’s Midnight Ride.
April 18, 1783: American Revolution – George Washington issues General Order announcing the end of  hostilities with Britain.
2011: Standard & Poor’s lowered its long-term outlook for the U.S. government’s fiscal health from “stable” to “negative.”

Conan O’Brien, comedian, b.1963.
Albert Einstein, physicist, d. 1955.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. -Albert Einstein.

Former pop star turns 50. See her best looks
Is 90s pop more your groove? See how this star built a stellar fashion legacy.

Caitlin Clark’s salary draws attention to gender pay gap in sports
Caitlin Clark, the first pick in the WNBA draft this week, will be paid just under $77,000 this year. The top NBA pick will make $10.5 million. Read why the gender pay gap in professional sports is far from closed.

Taylor Swift to release new album Friday
Taylor Swift’s army of fans are anxiously awaiting the release of her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” If history is any guide, it will likely shatter sales and chart records.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Tagulandang island, Indonesia
Authorities have closed an airport and residents fled their homes as Mount Ruang volcano erupts. A warning has been issued over the danger of falling ash and rocks, hot volcanic clouds and the possibility of a tsunami
Photograph: Hendra Ambalao/AP

New York, US
Students from the Youth America Grand Prix break the Guinness World Record for the most ballet dancers en pointe simultaneously
Photograph: John Nacion/Getty Images

Frankfurt, Germany
A gosling and its mother
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP
Market Closes for April 18^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37775.38	+22.07
		+0.06%
S&P 500	5011.12	-11.09
		-0.22%
NASDAQ	15601.50	-81.87
		-0.52%
TSX	21708.44	+52.39
		+0.24%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	38079.70	+117.90
		+0.31%
HANG SENG	16385.87	+134.03
		+0.82%
SENSEX	72488.99	-454.69
		-0.62%
FTSE 100*	7877.05	+29.06
		+0.37%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.755	3.700
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.665	3.624
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6326	4.5873
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7303	4.7022

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7264	0.7262
US $	1.3767	1.3770

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4654	0.6824
US $	1.0643	0.9396

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2390.35	2390.35
Oil
WTI Crude Future	82.73	85.36

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1906, the Great Quake levelled San Francisco, wreaking $500 million in damage. One banker, A.P. Giannini, hastily drove a horse-drawn wagon to the ruined headquarters of his company, Bank of Italy, where he rummaged through the rubble, retrieving $2 million in gold, coins and securities.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.2%, or 52.39 to 21,708.44 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 0.5% on April 9.
Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.7%.
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 8.9%.
Today, 119 of 224 shares rose, while 97 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 0.9%
* The index advanced 4.9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 20% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 16.1% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.8% in the past 5 days and fell 0.6% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.2 on a trailing basis and 14.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.44t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 7.93% compared with 8.38% in the previous session and the average of 8.70% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 31.9361| 1.2| 33/11
Financials | 16.2980| 0.2| 20/7
Utilities | 8.8906| 1.1| 14/1
Energy | 2.0312| 0.1| 10/31
Communication Services | 0.9465| 0.1| 3/2
Real Estate | 0.4312| 0.1| 14/7
Health Care | 0.4174| 0.6| 2/2
Consumer Discretionary | -0.2489| 0.0| 4/8
Consumer Staples | -0.4143| 0.0| 5/6
Information Technology | -2.2256| -0.1| 3/7
Industrials | -5.6743| -0.2| 11/15
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Enbridge | 11.5900| 1.7| 193.9| -2.2
TD Bank | 7.0710| 0.7| -52.5| -7.9
First Quantum Minerals | 6.4880| 8.9| 127.9| 48.3
Thomson Reuters | -2.9150| -1.3| -15.9| 7.3
Canadian Natural Resources | -3.4500| -0.4| -53.1| 21.9
Brookfield Corp | -5.8980| -1.1| 52.4| 0.0
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The world’s biggest bond market extended this month’s selloff after solid economic readings and hawkish Fed-speak reinforced speculation that interest rates will remain higher for longer.
Treasuries fell across the US curve — with two-year yields once again near the 5% mark.
When asked about the possibility of hiking, Fed Bank of New York President John Williams said that while that is “not” his baseline expectation, it’s possible, if warranted.
The S&P 500 dropped for a fifth straight session — its longest losing run since October.
“Most of the data this week show the economy is still firing on all cylinders,” said Chris Larkin at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. “That’s going to be a challenge for the Fed’s rate-cutting plans.”
Treasury 10-year yields rose five basis points to 4.63%.
The S&P 500 fell to almost 5,000, with its most influential group — technology — leading declines.
Netflix Inc. posted its best start to the year since 2020, attracting more new customers than anyone expected thanks to a strong slate of original programs and a crackdown on password sharing.
In addition to remarks from Fed’s Williams, his Atlanta counterpart Raphael Bostic said he’s comfortable keeping interest rates steady, reiterating he doesn’t think it will be appropriate to lower borrowing costs until toward the end of the year.
“Fed-speak is making us increasingly nervous,” said Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities.
He added that if the two-year US yield breaks 5%, the next level to watch would be 5.2%.
In economic data, jobless claims remained subdued, consistent with a healthy job market.
Separately, the Philadelphia Fed factory index topped estimates.
While existing-home sales fell, the pace was roughly in line with the median forecast of economists.
Market-implied expectations for Fed rate cuts — which have collapsed in the past two weeks — declined further this week after Chair Jerome Powell signaled policymakers will wait longer than previously anticipated to ease policy.
An initial quarter-point reduction remains priced in for November.
The Fed may not cut interest rates at all this year with inflation remaining high, said JPMorgan Chase & Co. President Daniel Pinto.
“It may take a bit longer until they can cut rates,” Pinto said at a Semafor event in Washington, adding that the likelihood of a rate hike is “very, very low” amid widespread skepticism that inflation will ease any time soon.
The Fed isn’t in any hurry, as a rate cut that comes too early would be “painful” and probably cause a recession, he said.
The market’s biggest worry right now is inflation, which is re-accelerating and throwing cold water on the idea of any rate cuts in 2024, let alone one or two, according to Michael Landsberg, chief investment officer at Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth Management.  “We are firmly in the camp of no rate cuts in 2024,” he said. “We believe investors should prepare for a higher for longer regime when it comes to both inflation and interest rates and that investment portfolios should be positioned for these dynamics for the foreseeable future.”
“With rate cuts delayed, rather than canceled, in our view, we still expect the yield on the 10-year US Treasury to end the year around 3.85%, said Mark Haefele at UBS Global Wealth Management. “Once the Fed begins cutting rates this year, the bond market will likely continue to price a sequence of further cuts into 2025 and beyond.”
While timing the market is hard, investors can more confidently add duration exposure, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists led by Mark Cabana, who recommend “going long” five-year Treasuries.
The trade is supported by “Fed unlikely to hike, risk asset sensitivity to rates and cleaner duration positioning,” they noted.

Corporate Highlights:
* Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai announced changes to Google’s workplace teams structure, saying the moves will help the company develop artificial intelligence products and services faster and more efficiently.
* Micron Technology Inc., the largest US maker of computer-memory chips, is poised to get $6.1 billion in grants from the Commerce Department to help pay for domestic factory projects, part of an effort to bring semiconductor production back to American soil.
* D.R. Horton Inc. increased sales expectations for its full fiscal year as the US housing market heads into its key spring selling season.
* Alaska Air Group Inc. expects second-quarter profits will top analyst estimates, signaling that the carrier is recovering from a near-catastrophe on one of its planes that triggered the temporary grounding of a key Boeing Co. aircraft model.
* Las Vegas Sands Corp. said remodeling at an entertainment center and a hotel in Macau will crimp results this year.
* eBay Inc.’s embrace of artificial intelligence has turned the stock’s most bearish analyst into its biggest fan, with Morgan Stanley seeing a further 25% gain for the shares over the next year.
* DNA testing firm 23andMe Holding Co.’s Chief Executive Officer Anne Wojcicki said she’s considering taking the struggling company private, less than three years after it began selling shares.
* Blackstone Inc. collected more fees from big retail funds and credit strategies during the first quarter, compensating for the slower pace of deal exits.
* L’Oréal SA reported better-than-expected first-quarter sales as strength in Europe and North America helped offset a slowdown in shopping by Chinese travelers.

Key events this week:
* Japan CPI, Friday
* BOE Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden and ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel speak, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed
* The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0644
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2437
* The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 154.62 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 4.4% to $63,518.01
* Ether rose 3.1% to $3,065.7
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced five basis points to 4.63%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 2.50%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 4.27%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
* Spot gold rose 0.8% to $2,380.08 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
Have  a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The beginning is the most important part of the work. –Plato, c. 470-399 BCE.

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On April 17, 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Go to article >>
April 17, 1991: First time the Dow tops 3,000.
1932: Haile Selassie ends slavery, Ethiopia.

Explosive ‘devil comet’ 12P will soon be at its brightest and best. Here’s how to see it before it disappears.
The explosive green ‘devil comet’ 12P/ Pons-Brooks is about to reach its closest point to the sun. Here’s how to see the rare visitor at its best and brightest.  Full Story: Live Science (4/16)

AI pinpoints where psychosis originates in the brain
Scientists have moved a step closer to understanding the basis of the hallucinations and delusions that characterize schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Read More.

Watch hammerhead sharks swim in ‘cyclones’ around ancient volcano in rare footage
Filmmakers have captured hundreds of hammerhead sharks circling a volcanic island off Costa Rica for a new Netflix wildlife series. Read More.

A software billionaire is betting big on a wild climate fix.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Congjiang, China
A bolt of lightning crosses the sky over the terraced fields in south-western Guizhou province
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

London, UK
The former British Olympic artistic swimmers Asha Randall and Katie Clark perform with Sisy Wang and Emily Kuhl in a large water tank to mark 100 days before the start of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris
Photograph: Matt Crossick/PA Media Assignments

​​​​​​​Thockrington, UK
The northern lights (aurora borealis) illuminate the sky just before midnight in Northumberland
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Market Closes for April 17^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37753.31	-45.66
		-0.12%
S&P 500	5022.21	-29.20
		-0.58%
NASDAQ	15683.37	-181.88
		-1.15%
TSX	21656.05	+13.17
		+0.06%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	37961.80	-509.40
		-1.32%
HANG SENG	16251.84	+2.87
		+0.02%
SENSEX	72943.68	-456.10
		-0.62%
FTSE 100*	7847.99	+27.63
		+0.35%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.700	3.731
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.624	3.642
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.5873	4.6674
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7022	4.7626

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7262	0.7233
US $	1.3770	1.3826

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4697	0.6804
US $	1.0673	0.9369

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2390.35	2344.20
Oil
WTI Crude Future	85.36	85.36

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1837, John Pierpont Morgan was born in Hartford, Conn., to Juliet Pierpont and Junius Spencer Morgan, a merchant and stockbroker. The sickly baby, whom his parents called “Bub” and his friends called “Pip,” grew up to become the most powerful financier in American history.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 21,656.05 in Toronto, ending a 5-day loss.
The gain follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.4%.
Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 0.9%.
Goeasy Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6.3%.
Today, 108 of 224 shares rose, while 114 fell; 5 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 4.9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 20% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.2% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 15.9% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 2.4% in the past 5 days and fell 0.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.1 on a trailing basis and 14.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.44t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 8.38% compared with 8.43% in the previous session and the average of 8.73% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 19.9017| 0.8| 34/16
Information Technology | 14.3264| 0.8| 8/2
Financials | 6.9153| 0.1| 13/14
Utilities | 4.9961| 0.6| 10/5
Consumer Staples | 2.6823| 0.3| 8/2
Communication Services | -0.8990| -0.1| 2/3
Health Care | -1.2379| -1.9| 1/3
Consumer Discretionary | -1.8346| -0.2| 5/8
Real Estate | -4.4212| -0.9| 5/15
Energy | -6.1288| -0.2| 14/27
Industrials | -21.1260| -0.7| 8/19
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
TD Bank | 8.8080| 0.9| -18.6| -8.6
Constellation Software | 8.5070| 1.7| 55.6| 13.0
Shopify | 5.9110| 0.7| 64.2| -7.3
Canadian Natural Resources | -5.4750| -0.7| -59.3| 22.5
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -5.6690| -0.8| -6.9| 10.2
TFI International | -8.3350| -7.0| 244.1| 10.3
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market suffered its longest losing streak since January as a handful of big techs sold off — despite a slide in bond yields.
Equities fell for a fourth straight day, with the S&P 500 extending a drop from its all-time high to more than 4%.
Chipmakers bore the brunt of the selling after ASML Holding NV’s orders tumbled.
Nvidia Corp. led losses in mega-caps.
A tug of war between bulls and bears unfolded amid the expiration of VIX options — with Wall Street’s favorite volatility gauge whipsawing.
After a 10% stock rally in the first quarter — the strongest start to a year since 2019 — investors have been increasingly skeptical about how much further the market could go over the near term, even accounting for the continued
strength in the economy.
“The combination of geopolitical uncertainty, rising interest rates, Fed hawkishness, and inflation frustration have combined to put bears temporarily in charge,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide.
The S&P 500 slid to around 5,030. The Nasdaq 100 dropped over 1%.
Just a day after Jerome Powell thew cold water on rate-cut bets, dip buyers emerged in the Treasury market, with two-year yields dropping further below 5% and $13 billion sale of 20-year bonds drawing solid demand.
The US economy has “expanded slightly” since late February and firms reported greater difficulty in passing on higher costs, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book survey of regional business contacts.
Powell signaled this week that policymakers will wait longer than previously anticipated to cut rates following a series of surprisingly high inflation readings.
Fed officials narrowly penciled in three cuts in forecasts published last month — but investors are now betting on just one to two this year, futures markets show.
“Fed Chair Powell was downright hawkish,” said Win Thin and Elias Haddad at Brown Brothers Harriman. “The Fed wants the market to do the tightening for them. Financial conditions remain too loose and so some combination of higher yields, wider spreads, stronger dollar, and lower equities is needed to tighten conditions.”
While global equities are facing tactical headwinds, this is just a consolidation phase and stocks are expected to keep rising this year, according to UBS strategists led by Andrew Garthwaite.
They noted positive developments including artificial intelligence pushing productivity and earnings higher, lower warranted equity risk premium, likely falling labor costs and less worries on margin pressures.
The equity risk premium for US equities — a measure of the differential between stocks and bonds’ expected returns — is now deep in negative territory, something that hasn’t happened since early 2000s.
While this is not necessarily a negative indicator for the stock market, it all depends on the economic cycle.
The lower ERP can be seen as a promise of a future boost in corporate profits, but also that a bubble is in the making.
Fundamentals and technical trends for equity markets still appear supportive, suggesting the recent pullback should prove temporary, according to HSBC strategists led by Max Kettner, who are using the decline to add to their bullish stance.
“Sentiment and positioning are not flashing a warning signal, though real money investors have started to extend their constructive stance on equities lately, they wrote.
US corporate earnings are set for a “healthier runway” through 2024 and investors are growing more confident that companies can meet expectations, according to Morgan Stanley strategists.
The market is watching for profits to bottom in the first quarter before sequentially recovering in the second quarter and eventually expanding in the back half of the year, a team including Michelle Weaver and Michael Wilson wrote.

Corporate Highlights:
* Morgan Stanley sold $8 billion of bonds Wednesday, following its release of higher-than-expected quarterly revenue, as it joined rivals JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. in tapping the US investment-grade market this week.
* Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. soared on Wednesday to recoup a sliver of the billions in market value it shed in the three weeks since its debut as a public company.
* United Airlines Holdings Inc. surged after the carrier forecast better-than-expected profit this quarter, tempering concerns that Boeing Co. aircraft delays and regulatory pressure will put expansion plans at risk.
* President Joe Biden vowed to keep United States Steel Corp. American-owned and called for higher tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum as he sought to woo union workers ahead of November’s election.
* Microsoft Corp.’s $13 billion investment into OpenAI Inc. is set to avoid a formal investigation by European Union merger watchdogs, calming fears that the relationship could be forced apart.
* Jane Street Group LLC generated $10.6 billion in net trading revenue last year, as the proprietary-trading firm continues to cement its presence as a dominant market-maker.
* U.S. Bancorp reduced the outlook for a key driver of its profit for the year as lenders face pressure to pay more for deposits.
* Abbott Laboratories raised the lower end of its annual profit forecast as strong sales in medical devices drove first-quarter earnings and revenue above expectations.

Key events this week:
* Taiwan Semiconductor earnings, Thursday
* US Conf. Board leading index, existing home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Fed Governor Michelle Bowman speaks, Thursday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Thursday
* Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks, Thursday
* BOE Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden and ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel speak, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0672
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2454
* The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 154.33 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 3.1% to $61,112.01
* Ether fell 2.2% to $3,004.54
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined eight basis points to 4.59%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 2.47%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.26%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3% to $82.77 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.4% to $2,373.16 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jessica Menton, Michael Msika, Sagarika Jaisinghani and Farah Elbahrawy.
Have a wonderful evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement. –Will Rogers, 1879-1935.

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
April 16, 2003: The Treaty of Accession admits 10 new countries to the European Union, including Poland, Cyprus, and the Czech Republic.
April 16, 2003: Michael Jordan played his last NBA game as his Washington Wizards ended their season with a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.  Go to article >>

Charlie Chaplin, b.1889.
Margarethe, former Queen of Denmark, b.1940.

Most massive stellar black hole in the Milky Way discovered ‘extremely close’ to Earth
Astronomers found the most massive stellar-mass black hole in the galaxy after spotting a star “wobbling” nearby. The baby monster is the 2nd-closest black hole to Earth ever detected. Read More.

32 astonishing ancient burials, from ‘vampire’ decapitations to riches for the afterlife
Archaeologists have discovered lavish and grisly burials the world over. Read More.

Top total solar eclipses to look out for over the next decade
Want to experience totality again? Here are the next seven total solar eclipses across the world, from Alaska to Australia. Read More.

2,000-foot-wide ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid has just made its closest approach to Earth
The 2,000-foot-wide asteroid 2013 NK4 just made its closest approach to Earth in recorded history, sailing by at about eight lunar distances. You can still see the massive rock with a backyard telescope.
Full Story: Live Science (4/15)

Tired of your laptop battery degrading? New ‘pulse current’ charging process could double its lifespan.
Using pulse current charging, or a constant current divided with a few short breaks, lithium-ion batteries hold up better over hundreds of charging cycles and can last twice as long. Read More.

Olympic torch lit in Greece ahead of Paris 2024 Games
The flame for the 2024 Paris Olympics was lit in Olympia earlier today — the birthplace of the ancient Olympics! See images from the ceremony.

Beyoncé is sending Levi’s and Western boot sales soaring
Country fashion is having a moment, thanks to the fanfare surrounding Beyoncé’s new album “Act II: Cowboy Carter.”

Meet the winners of this year’s Boston Marathon
A marathon victory is no easy feet. Here are the winners from Monday’s race.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

London, England
Gallery assistants view a painting called The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula during a press preview of The Last Caravaggio exhibition at the National Gallery
Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Tel Aviv, Israel
Youths play on a beach
Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

​​​​​​​New York, US
A model walks the runway in a dress from the Dior pre-autumn 2024 women’s collection at Brooklyn Museum
Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters
Market Closes for April 16^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37798.97	+63.86
		+0.17%
S&P 500	5051.41	-10.41
		-0.21%
NASDAQ	15865.25	-19.77
		-0.12%
TSX	21642.88	-97.33
		-0.45%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	38471.20	-761.60
		-1.94%
HANG SENG	16248.97	-351.49
		-2.12%
SENSEX	72943.68	-456.10
		-0.62%
FTSE 100*	7820.36	-145.17
		-1.82%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.731	3.741
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.642	3.635
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6674	4.6014
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7626	4.7167

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7233	0.7249
US $	1.3826	1.3795

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4679	0.6812
US $	1.0616	0.9420

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2344.20	2344.20
Oil
WTI Crude Future	85.36	85.41

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1998, Cendant stock crashed 46%. The once-popular growth stock had disclosed “potential accounting irregularities” resulting from its binge-buying of other companies.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the fifth day, dropping 0.4%, or 97.33 to 21,642.87 in Toronto.
The index dropped to the lowest closing level since March 6.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.4%.
First Majestic Silver Corp. had the largest drop, falling 8.2%.
Today, 129 of 224 shares fell, while 87 rose; 9 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 5.2% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 21% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.3% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 15.8% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 3.2% in the past 5 days and fell 0.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.1 on a trailing basis and 14.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.45t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.43% compared with 8.31% in the previous session and the average of 8.75% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -51.7734| -0.8| 10/17
Materials | -16.8727| -0.7| 18/29
Industrials | -15.9054| -0.5| 12/15
Energy | -9.7595| -0.2| 21/17
Utilities | -8.9890| -1.2| 1/13
Consumer Staples | -7.8008| -0.9| 4/7
Real Estate | -2.5895| -0.5| 3/18
Communication Services | -1.8449| -0.3| 1/4
Consumer Discretionary | -0.6443| -0.1| 8/5
Health Care | 0.8129| 1.2| 3/1
Information Technology | 18.0450| 1.0| 6/3
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | -18.4900| -1.4| 64.8| -0.7
Barrick Gold | -14.6000| -5.0| 92.1| -4.8
Enbridge | -14.5600| -2.1| 107.5| -4.5
Shopify | 3.4620| 0.4| 42.6| -8.0
Suncor Energy | 6.0440| 1.3| -26.4| 22.3
Constellation Software | 8.2260| 1.7| 34.9| 11.1
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The world’s biggest bond market was hammered anew, with the two-year yield briefly hitting 5% as Jerome Powell signaled policymakers are in no rush to cut interest rates.
The Federal Reserve chief said it will likely take longer to have confidence on inflation — adding that it’s appropriate to give restrictive policy time to work.
Treasury yields climbed to fresh 2024 highs, though bonds pared some losses as dip buyers emerged.
The dollar saw its best five-day gain since October 2022.
Equities fell.
To Jeffrey Roach at LPL Financial, Powell’s comments signal the Fed will likely stay on hold for longer than originally planned.
“If you were looking for bits of easing or dovish talk from Powell, you did not miss it. He didn’t give it,” said Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities.
The S&P 500 dropped to around 5,050.
Bank of America Corp. sank as charge-off for soured loans topped estimates, while Morgan Stanley climbed as traders delivered solid revenue.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. led gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average after its results.
Treasury 10-year yields rose six basis points to 4.66%.
Powell’s remarks represent a shift in his message following a third straight month in which a key measure of inflation exceeded analyst forecasts.
It also shows officials see little urgency to cut rates and suggests that any reductions in 2024 may come relatively late in the year, if at all.
“The outlook for inflation has not deteriorated as much as the bond market seems to think,” said Neil Dutta at Renaissance Macro Research. “If three months of poor inflation data gets them to do push back, what will three months of better inflation do? All Powell is doing is following the market, taking three months of bad inflation data and assuming it forward.”
To Jamie Cox at Harris Financial Group, the Fed has a “free pass” to sit on rates longer while the labor market remains strong, consumption is unaffected, and the typical consequences of hiking rates quickly aren’t apparent in the economy.
“Markets need to focus on the fact that rates are sufficiently restrictive, instead of how many cuts are in the pipeline,” Cox added.
Policymakers around the world are struggling to confront a surging greenback and lofty US interest rates, according to Mohamed El-Erian.
“Authorities are a little bit frozen around the world as to how do you react to a generalized dollar strengthening?” El-Erian, the president of Queens’ College, Cambridge and a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, told Bloomberg Television Tuesday.  “How do you react to a generalized increase in interest rates in the US?”
Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said Tuesday that while there has been considerable progress in lowering inflation, the Fed’s task of sustainably restoring 2% inflation is “not yet done.” His San Francisco counterpart Mary Daly reiterated late Monday there’s no urgency to adjust interest rates, pointing to solid economic growth, a strong labor market and still-elevated inflation.
After starting the year by pricing in as many as six rate cuts in 2024, or 1.5 percentage points of easing, traders are now doubtful there will even be a half point of reductions.
Most Wall Street economists have dialed back forecasts as well, setting up a dour scenario for US yields including a possible repeat of maturities breaching 5% as they did last October.
Amid all the anxiety, the widely watched MOVE index, an options-based measure of expected volatility in Treasuries, spiked to the highest since January.
State Street Global Advisors is standing by a contrarian call for the Fed to cut interest rate as soon as June despite a string of hot economic data that has spurred most traders to push back bets to later in the year.
The asset manager remains convinced the central bank will start monetary easing well before the US presidential election in November to avoid being seen influencing the result, according to Chief Investment Officer Lori Heinel.
The inflation backdrop still supports this move given policy works with a long lag and the quality of recent data prints has been low, she said.
Exposure to stocks is now so high that any weakness is likely to set off a bigger slump once investors start to cut back on their long positions, according to top Wall Street strategists.
There are $52 billion of long positions on the S&P 500 and 88% of them are in a loss, a situation that Citigroup strategist Chris Montagu sees as a risk for the market.
A BofA survey showed that investors have raised their allocation to equities to net 34% overweight — the biggest since January 2022 — in a poll conducted from April 5-11 among 224 participants with $638 billion in assets under management.
A separate note showed BofA clients were net sellers of US equities for a third consecutive week.
Clients pulled a net $800 million from US stocks in the five-day period through April 12 as the S&P 500 Index slumped for the week, quantitative strategists led by Jill Carey Hall said Tuesday in a note.
“A stock-market correction is unfolding right now triggered by Middle East tensions, rising bond yields and worries about delayed Fed rate cuts,” said James Demmert at Main Street Research. “Stocks have been due for a pullback for quite some time.”
BlackRock Inc.’s Robert Kapito says the stock market is poised to benefit as investors deploy their outsized holdings of cash.
There’s almost $9 trillion sitting in money market funds and the same amount in cash alternatives at banks, Kapito, president of the world’s largest asset manager, said at the Asia Pacific Financial and Innovation Symposium in Melbourne on Tuesday.
“Rising bond yields are a sign that the global economy and corporate profits are strong and resilient,” said Demmert at Main Street Research. “While this economic and corporate strength may result in fewer than expected or even no rate cuts for the foreseeable future, that isn’t something that will ruin this new bull market.”
“In the early phase of a new business cycle, it’s earnings — not the Fed – that drive stocks. Earnings have been far better than expected and we envision a similar outcome as earnings season is once again in full swing,” he concluded.

Corporate Highlights:
* Lockheed Martin Corp.’s delay in delivering F-35 jets with computer hardware and software upgrades is likely to persist until August or September, according to a Pentagon official.
* Seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster is mulling a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as it looks to restructure its debt, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
* PNC Financial Services Group Inc. missed estimates for net interest income in the first quarter, a sign that the Pittsburgh-based lender has continued to grapple with muted loan growth.
* The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. reported first-quarter revenue that topped estimates as the oldest US lender benefited from higher market values and increased client activity.
* UnitedHealth Group Inc. beat Wall Street’s profit expectations and affirmed its outlook for the year, despite the costs associated with a cyberattack on one of its subsidiaries that has roiled the health-care industry.
* Johnson & Johnson’s first-quarter drug sales narrowly outpaced Wall Street expectations as the company beat profit estimates, a step towards boosting profitability after the spinoff of its consumer division.
* LVMH sales growth slowed at the start of the year as wealthy consumers reined in spending on pricey Louis Vuitton handbags and Hennessy Cognac.
* Adidas AG raised its profit target for the year amid strong demand for classic sneakers like the Samba and a boost from \sales of its diminishing stockpile of Yeezy footwear

Key events this week:
* Eurozone CPI, Wednesday
* Fed issues its Beige Book, Wednesday
* Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester speaks, Wednesday
* Fed Governor Michelle Bowman speaks, Wednesday
* BOE Governor Andrew Bailey speaks, Wednesday
* Taiwan Semiconductor earnings, Thursday
* US Conf. Board leading index, existing home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Fed Governor Michelle Bowman speaks, Thursday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Thursday
* Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks, Thursday
* BOE Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden and ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel speak, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 was little changed
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.8%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0622
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2431
* The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 154.64 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.6% to $62,747.05
* Ether fell 0.8% to $3,058.86
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced six basis points to 4.66%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 2.49%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 4.30%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.1% to $85.30 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.3% to $2,390.07 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Farah Elbahrawy, Sagarika Jaisinghani, Esha Dey, Natalia Kniazhevich, Alexandra Semenova, Carter Johnson and Anya Andrianova.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. –Marcus Aurelius, 121 AD-180 AD.

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Monday.
April 15^th, 1912: RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27 am off Newfoundland as the band plays on with the loss of between 1,490 and 1,635 people.  Go to article >>

April 15, 1955: First McDonald’s opens.

Drowned land off Australia was an Aboriginal hotspot in last ice age, 4,000 stone artifacts reveal
The landscape features in the dreamtime stories of Australia’s Indigenous people. Read More.

Ancient Indigenous lineage of Blackfoot Confederacy goes back 18,000 years to last ice age, DNA reveals
A new DNA study of living and historical members of the Blackfoot Confederacy in the U.S. and Canada suggests that they share a lineage with people from the last ice age. Read More.

Are we in a 6th mass extinction?
If we continue on our current trajectory, the sixth mass extinction is inevitable and the times we’re living through now will be part of that geological period. Read More.

There’s a baby star ‘sneezing’ in the constellation Taurus and it could solve a longstanding cosmic mystery
In a rare observation, scientists found a baby star “sneezing” gas, dust and magnetic energy out of its disk. This behavior could help solve a longstanding mystery about how stars form without tearing themselves apart. Read More.

Exercise may reverse sign of aging by ‘flushing’ fat from muscle
Researchers say they’ve identified a kind of fat that plays a major role in aging and can be controlled with short-term exercise. Read More.

Concertgoers enjoy eventful weekend at Coachella
No Doubt performed their long-awaited reunion set at the music festival in Indio, California. The crowd was also surprised by big guest appearances — including Will Smith dressed in his iconic “Men in Black” look.

Scottie Scheffler clinches second Masters title
Scheffler won his second green jacket over the weekend and solidified himself as the preeminent force in men’s golf.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Athens, Greece
Performers who will take part in the flame-lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics join a rehearsal at the ancient Olympia site
Photograph: Petros Giannakouris/AP

Frankfurt, Germany
Rape fields are in full blossom in the outskirts of Frankfurt
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

​​​​​​​Kahramanmaras, Turkey
People look out from the Ali Rock glass observation terrace, which is built on steep cliffs above a lake
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Market Closes for April 15^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37735.11	-248.13
		-0.65%
S&P 500	5061.82	-61.59
		-1.20%
NASDAQ	15885.02	-290.07
		-1.79%
TSX	21740.20	-159.79
		-0.73%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39232.80	-290.75
		-0.74%
HANG SENG	16600.46	-121.23
		-0.23%
SENSEX	73399.78	-845.12
		-1.14%
FTSE 100*	7965.53	-30.05
		-0.38%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.741	3.649
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.635	3.550
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.6014	4.5216
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7167	4.6294

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7249	0.7306
US $	1.3795	1.3587

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4649	0.6826
US $	1.0619	0.9417

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2344.20	2401.50
Oil
WTI Crude Future	85.41	85.66

Market Commentary
📈 On April 14, 2021, Bernie Madoff, the architect of one of the largest financial frauds in American history, died in prison. He had been serving a 150-year sentence for running a Ponzi scheme that swindled more than $17 billion from investors.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the fourth day, dropping 0.7%, or 159.79 to 21,740.20 in Toronto.
The index dropped to the lowest closing level since March 8.
Today, energy stocks led the market lower, as 9 of 11 sectors lost; 177 of 224 shares fell, while 44 rose.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.0%.
BlackBerry Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 10.2%.
Insights
* The index advanced 5.6% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.9% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 16.3% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 2.3% in the past 5 days and fell 0.5% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.3 on a trailing basis and 15 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.47t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 8.31% compared with 7.98% in the previous session and the average of 8.92% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -55.3501| -1.4| 3/38
Financials | -39.5235| -0.6| 3/24
Information Technology | -23.9099| -1.3| 1/9
Materials | -22.4388| -0.9| 11/36
Industrials | -11.0027| -0.4| 5/22
Real Estate | -6.7619| -1.4| 1/20
Utilities | -6.0023| -0.8| 4/11
Consumer Discretionary | -1.6682| -0.2| 5/8
Health Care | -0.7433| -1.1| 1/3
Communication Services | 0.7196| 0.1| 2/3
Consumer Staples | 6.9011| 0.8| 8/3
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | -16.4300| -2.0| -13.6| 23.1
Shopify | -16.2100| -2.0| 45.7| -8.4
Barrick Gold | -8.0990| -2.7| -1.5| 0.1
Loblaw | 2.6930| 1.8| -0.1| 16.3
BCE | 2.7420| 1.0| 1.4| -14.4
Couche-Tard | 3.3190| 0.9| -18.9| -2.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Tech mega-caps dragged down stocks as bond yields jumped after hot retail sales spurred bets the Federal Reserve will be in no rush to cut rates.
Oil whipsawed on geopolitical angst.
In a volatile session, the S&P 500 erased an earlier advance and fell over 1%. Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp. led declines in the rate-sensitive technology space.
Volatility perked up, with the premium for one-month put options to protect against a pullback in US equities hitting the highest since October. Wall Street’s “fear gauge” — the VIX — hit levels unseen this year.
“Stocks began to violate uptrends and pull back,” said Craig Johnson at Piper Sandler. “Interest rates are expected to stay higher for longer. A more cautious and tactical approach is favored as earnings season gets underway.”
The S&P 500 broke below 5,100, dropping to the lowest in almost two months.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 slid over 1.5%.
Both gauges breached their 50-day moving averages — seen as a bearish signal by several chartists.
Banks outperformed on a surprise profit from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Treasury 10-year yields spiked nine basis points to 4.62%, while those on two-year notes came closer to 5%.
Bonds were also under pressure as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. tapped the US high-grade bond market, the first in a likely parade of bond sales from banks after results.
West Texas Intermediate reclaimed its $85 mark — after briefly falling below it — and gold climbed on fears of escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Top Israeli military officials reiterated the country has no choice but to answer Iran’s weekend attack.
US retail sales rose by more than forecast in March and the prior month was revised higher, showcasing resilient consumer demand that keeps fueling a surprisingly strong economy.
As long as a robust labor market supports household demand, there’s a risk that inflation will become entrenched.
“If the S&P 500 is going to avoid its first three-week losing streak since last September, investors will need to move past concerns that rate cuts will be delayed because of sticky inflation,” said Chris Larkin at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley.  “In the near-term, that could come down to the tone set by the first full week of earnings season, but geopolitical tensions in the Middle East remain a wild card.”
The strong tailwind from easy financial conditions continues to boost inflation and growth, including consumer spending in March, said Torsten Slok at Apollo Global Management, who continues to bet the Fed will not cut interest
rates in 2024.
“The markets have been buoyed by strong corporate profits and the elixir of lower rates, but it seems like those two things are increasingly at odds with each other, so we would exercise some caution in the near term,” said Chris Zaccarelli at Independent Advisor Alliance.
Expectations for monetary policy have been shifting toward a later start to Fed rate cuts, which officials have said requires a higher degree of confidence that inflation is on a sustainable path back toward their 2% target.
Traders are no longer fully pricing in a rate cut before November.
“In our view it’s not about ‘higher for longer’ when it comes to the Fed’s rate regime rather, it’s a continuation of the ‘pause for now’ until inflation gives up its stickiness,” said John Stoltzfus at Oppenheimer Asset Management.
Due to the heightened concern that the Fed will be “slower to lower” interest rates, investors now worry that these sticky inflation readings will be viewed as a catalyst for correction, said Sam Stovall at CFRA.
For all 24 corrections since World War II, it took the S&P 500 only four months to recover all that was lost in the decline, he added.
Better yet, since 1990, the market got back to breakeven in only three months.
“Therefore, history once again reminds us that, for long-term investors, it has typically been better to buy than bail,” Stovall said.
Stubborn inflation, a robust economy and signals from Fed officials that interest rates will remain higher for longer have derailed traders’ optimism for an interest rate cut by summer.
But that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily worried about the stock market.
Soothsayers at Jefferies JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and State Street Corp. agree that the strength in economic data and corporate earnings is enough to keep this year’s stock market rally going — whether or not interest rates are dialed back.
Stickier inflation stemming from strong economic momentum is better for US equities than stagflation, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists led by Ohsung Kwon.
“If inflation is sticky because of momentum in the economy, that’s not necessarily bad for stocks,” they wrote, adding “but stagflation is.”
“Recent inflation data has laid to rest the notion of a Goldilocks US economy. Instead, investors and the Fed will have to put up with a bumpier disinflation path than they assumed at the start of the year,” said Jason Draho at UBS Global Wealth Management. “But overall macro conditions of trend-level growth, slow and bumpy disinflation, and a Fed ready to exercise its put of rate cuts is still supportive for risk assets.”
Don’t bank on an upbeat corporate earnings season to drive equities higher as much of the optimism is already priced in following the record-breaking rally this year, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists led by Mislav Matejka wrote.  “Equities have already had a good run into the results, suggesting that investors are more optimistic than the downbeat earnings projections by sell-side analysts convey,” they said.
“We need to see clear earnings acceleration in order to justify current equity valuations, which we fear might not come through.”
Strategists at BlackRock’s Investment Institute see signs of earnings growth broadening beyond US technology behemoths to other sectors like industrials and materials in this reporting period.
Strong economic data and corporate earnings have supported risk appetite so far this year despite a jump in bond yields, but “earnings will need to deliver on high expectations,” team led by global chief investment strategist Wei Li said Monday in a weekly commentary note.
An improving outlook for the US economy and continued easy financial-market conditions have prompted Wells Fargo Investment Institute to boost its outlook for the US stock market and corporate earnings estimates.
The investment adviser raised its S&P 500 Index 2024 year-end forecast to range of 5,100 to 5,300.
“A point of emphasis is that these year-end targets allow for potential market disappointments related to the track of inflation and the federal funds rate,” strategists at WII wrote.

Corporate Highlights:
* Two of Tesla Inc.’s top executives have left in the midst of the carmaker’s largest-ever round of job cuts, as slowing electric-vehicle demand leads the company to reduce its global headcount by more than 10%.
* Lockheed Martin Corp. beat rival Northrop Grumman Corp. in a $17 billion contest to continue development and eventual production of the US’s next-generation missile interceptor warhead, according to two people familiar with the decision.
* M&T Bank Corp. boosted its 2024 outlook for net interest income, a key source of revenue.
* The union for American Airlines Group Inc. pilots warned members to be vigilant amid a “significant spike” in safety-and maintenance-related problems at the carrier.
* Clearlake Capital Group LP has made a sweetened bid to acquire Blackbaud Inc., offering $80 a share about a year after its last approach was rebuffed by the cloud software provider.
* Charles Schwab Corp.’s first-quarter net revenue topped estimates as the retail brokerage tries to put 2023’s turbulence behind it.

Key events this week:
* China property prices, retail sales, industrial production, GDP, Tuesday
* Germany ZEW survey expectations, Tuesday
* US housing starts, industrial production, Tuesday
* Morgan Stanley, Bank of America earnings, Tuesday.
* Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson speaks, Tuesday
* BOE Governor Andrew Bailey speaks, Tuesday
* IMF publishes its latest world economic outlook, Tuesday
* Eurozone CPI, Wednesday
* Fed issues its Beige Book, Wednesday
* Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester speaks, Wednesday
* Fed Governor Michelle Bowman speaks, Wednesday
* BOE Governor Andrew Bailey speaks, Wednesday
* Taiwan Semiconductor earnings, Thursday
* US Conf. Board leading index, existing home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Fed Governor Michelle Bowman speaks, Thursday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Thursday
* Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks, Thursday
* BOE Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden and ECB Governing Council member Joachim Nagel speak, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7%
* The MSCI World index fell 1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.0625
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2447
* The Japanese yen fell 0.7% to 154.24 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.8% to $63,338.62
* Ether rose 1.1% to $3,101.54
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced nine basis points to 4.62%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 2.44%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced 10 basis points to 4.24%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
* Spot gold rose 1.7% to $2,385.37 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Alexandra Semenova, Sagarika Jaisinghani, Yongchang Chin, Alex Longley, Julia Fanzeres, Felice Maranz, Ye Xie, David Marino and Kasia Klimasinska.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930.

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.
April 12,1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.  The Soviet Cosmonaut’s flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing.
April 12, 1981: The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first test flight.  Go to article >>

Franklin D. Roosevelt, d.. 1945.
David Letterman, b. 1947.
1955: Polio vaccine.

Car-size asteroid discovered just days ago flies 30 times closer to Earth than the moon
A newly discovered asteroid got within 12,000 miles of Earth on a harrowing, ultra-close approach. The space rock won’t return for 70 years. Read More.

Uranus and Neptune aren’t made of what we thought, new study hints
A study suggests the ice giants Uranus and Neptune aren’t quite as watery as previously thought. They may also contain huge amounts of frozen methane, potentially solving the puzzle of how they formed. Read More.

Toxic formaldehyde in hair-straightening products to be banned
Experts explain what the expected FDA ban on formaldehyde in hair-straightening products really means for everyday Americans. Read More.

Watch derpy robots show off their soccer skills thanks to new AI training method
Short, stumpy robots learned how to play soccer — and improved their skills dramatically thanks to a new AI training technique that combines several pre-existing methods. Read More

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry have two new Netflix shows in production
An upcoming Netflix series curated by Meghan “will celebrate the joys of cooking & gardening, entertaining, and friendship,” the streaming giant said.

Creating a board game is more complicated than you think
Designers, artists, marketers and publishers of some of the most popular board games tell CNN exactly what it takes to turn an idea into reality.

Taylor Swift’s music is back on TikTok
The pop star’s hit songs are back on TikTok ahead of her latest album’s release. Read about the ongoing dispute with her music distributor, Universal Music Group, over royalties.

Russian hackers steal US government emails with Microsoft
Microsoft has notified “several” US federal agencies that Russian hackers may have stolen emails via a major software breach.

Foxes were once humans’ best friends, study says
Scientists believe this extinct fox species may have been domesticated 1,500 years ago by hunter-gatherers.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Grindavík, Iceland
A volcano that erupted three times between December and February continues to spew lava and emit smoke as the northern lights appear over the town
Photograph: Marco di Marco/AP

A bird perches on an elephant as the larger animal moves through Amboseli national park in Kajiado, Kenya
Photograph: Monicah Mwangi/Reuters

​​​​​​​Geese walk through pear trees in full bloom in a village in Qingdao, Shandong province, China
Photograph: Costfoto/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
Market Closes for April 12^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	37983.24	-475.84
		-1.24%
S&P 500	5123.41	-75.65
		-1.46%
NASDAQ	16175.06	-267.11
		-1.62%
TSX	21899.99	-210.12
		-0.95%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39523.55	+80.92
		+0.21%
HANG SENG	16721.69	-373.34
		-2.18%
SENSEX	74244.90	-793.25
		-1.06%
FTSE 100*	7995.58	+71.78
		+0.91%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.649	3.730
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.550	3.609
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.5216	4.5865
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.6294	4.6784

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7255	0.7306
US $	1.3784	1.3587

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4693	0.6806
US $	1.0660	0.9381

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2401.50	2345.65
Oil
WTI Crude Future	85.66	86.21

Market Commentary:
📈 On April 13, 1989, American Continental filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and regulators seized its main subsidiary, Lincoln Savings & Loan Association, after discussions to sell the ailing thrift collapsed. American Continental Chairman Charles Keating would later face charges over the bank’s demise, which came to symbolize the broader savings-and-loan crisis.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the third day, dropping 1%, or 210.12 to 21,899.99 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 2.3% on Feb. 13.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.2%.
MTY Food Group Inc. had the largest drop, falling 9.9%.
Today, 192 of 224 shares fell, while 30 rose; all sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 1.6%, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Oct. 27
* The index advanced 7.1% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 25% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.1% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 17.2% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.4 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% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.51t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 7.98% compared with 7.71% in the previous session and the average of 9.33% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -61.1547| -0.9| 3/24
Energy | -39.0904| -1.0| 7/33
Information Technology | -32.0299| -1.7| 0/10
Materials | -27.0312| -1.0| 6/44
Utilities | -10.7763| -1.4| 2/13
Industrials | -10.1413| -0.3| 4/23
Communication Services | -9.8779| -1.4| 1/4
Consumer Discretionary | -9.8128| -1.3| 1/12
Consumer Staples | -4.8879| -0.6| 3/8
Real Estate | -4.2573| -0.9| 2/18
Health Care | -1.0558| -1.6| 1/3
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | -15.6400| -1.2| 9.6| 1.2
Constellation Software | -15.2400| -3.0| -29.7| 9.0
Canadian Natural Resources | -14.4000| -1.7| -5.9| 25.6
Whitecap Resources | 0.6690| 1.5| 18.9| 19.8
Agnico Eagle Mines | 0.9390| 0.3| 16.9| 16.5
Waste Connections | 1.9270| 0.5| -35.1| 16.4
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The financial world was roiled by a flare-up in geopolitical risks that sent stocks sliding — while spurring a flight to the safest corners of the market such as bonds and the dollar.
Oil rose.
Equities saw their worst day since January after a news report that Israel was bracing for an attack by Iran on government targets.
Approximately 40 launches were identified crossing from Lebanese territory, some of which were intercepted, the Israel Defense Forces wrote in a post on X.
US President Joe Biden said he expects Iran will attack Israel sooner rather than later — and his message to Iran is “don’t” do it.
Wall Street’s “fear gauge” — the VIX — spiked to levels last seen in October.
To Matt Maley at Miller Tabak, investors have been much too complacent about geopolitical issues.
“Since gold and oil markets have been pricing in a meaningful impact on the marketplace from this crisis, it’s not out of the question that the stock market will follow those other markets and see an outsized reaction before long,” Maley
noted.
The S&P 500 fell 1.5% Friday, with banks and chipmakers leading losses.
The gauge posted its biggest weekly drop in 2024.
Treasury 10-year yields sank seven basis points to 4.52%.
Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities also cited “massive short covering” and rate locking before an expected flurry of debt issuance by banks after earnings.
The dollar notched its best week since September 2022.
Brent oil settled above $90.
Gold topped the $2,400-an-ounce mark before erasing gains.
Treasuries rallied sharply, following the market’s worst two days since February, in which yields reached year-to-date highs after inflation readings savaged expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts this year.
Two-year yields — which briefly topped 5% this week — plunged on Friday.
“Risk was off the menu on Friday,” said Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com. “Investors were lighting up on risk exposure ahead of the weekend, fearing risk assets could gap lower should something happen.”
A direct confrontation between Israel and Iran would mean a significant escalation of the Middle East conflict and would lead to a significant rise in oil prices, according to Commerzbank analysts including Carsten Fritsch.
Escalating geopolitical tensions — most recently in the Middle East, but also including attacks on Russian energy infrastructure by Ukraine — have spurred bullish activity in the oil options market.
There’s been elevated buying of call options — which profit when prices rise — in recent days, with implied volatility jumping.
Jose Torres at Interactive Brokers says the latest developments illustrate how investor sentiment and high equity valuations are vulnerable to geopolitical conflicts, persistent inflation and oil prices.
“Investors have pushed back their expectations for the start of the Fed’s easing cycle — with geopolitics possibly replacing the Fed as one of the market’s top volatility influencers,” he noted.
As Wall Street’s earnings season kicked off, big banks’ results offered the latest window into how the US economy is faring amid an interest-rate trajectory muddied by persistent inflation.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. both reported net interest income — the earnings they generate from lending — that missed estimates amid increasing funding costs.
Citigroup Inc.’s profit topped analysts’ estimates as corporations tapped markets for financing and consumers leaned on credit cards — signs that a prolonged period of elevated interest rates will benefit big banks.
“Many economic indicators continue to be favorable.  However, looking ahead, we remain alert to a number of significant uncertain forces,” JPMorgan’s Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said.
He cited the wars, growing geopolitical tensions, persistent inflationary pressures and the effects of quantitative tightening.
Meantime, the latest economic data did little to alter the reduced risk appetite on Friday — with consumer sentiment down as inflation expectations rose.
BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said he expects the Fed to cut rates twice at the most this year, and that it will be difficult for the central bank to curb inflation.
Fink told CNBC he would “call it a day and a win” if the inflation rate gets to between 2.8% and 3%, which is above the Fed’s 2% target.
Pacific Investment Management Co. warned that the Fed could pivot back toward interest rate hikes if US inflation moves higher — with the asset manager preferring to buy bonds in other markets.
“If inflation starts to re-emerge then there’s a possibility that the Fed hikes instead of delivering any cuts,” Mohit Mittal, chief investment officer for core strategies at Pimco, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
Traders also kept an eye on the latest Fed speak.
A slew of officials emphasized Friday that there is no urgency to lower interest rates, pointing to still-elevated inflation and a robust labor market.
That included comments from both the Boston Fed’s Susan Collins as well as San Francisco’s Mary Daly.
Atlanta’s Raphael Bostic repeated his view for one rate cut toward the end of the year, and Kansas City’s Jeffrey Schmid noted he prefers a “patient” approach to reductions.
While shifting expectations around the timing and pace of the first cuts are likely to create further yield volatility in the near term, UBS’s Chief Investment Office thinks the more important point is that the US central bank remains set to start easing this year.
With a low probability of the Fed needing to hike rates further, CIO maintains their positive outlook on quality bonds.
“We continue to favor quality bonds in our global portfolios and recommend investors lock in attractive yields before rates fall this year,” said Solita Marcelli at UBS Global Wealth Management. “We like those with 1–10-year duration, as
well as sustainable bonds.”  “We also think investors should consider an active exposure to fixed income to improve diversification,” she concluded.

Corporate Highlights:
* United States Steel Corp. shareholders voted in favor of a $14.1 billion takeover offer by Nippon Steel Corp., leaving the fate of the deal for the iconic American steelmaker to the realm of US regulators and politics.
* BlackRock Inc.’s long-term investment funds took in $76 billion of net inflows in the first quarter, helping to push the world’s largest money manager to a record $10.5 trillion of client assets.
* Exxon Mobil Corp. formally approved its sixth Guyanese oil development that will make the Latin American nation a bigger crude producer than OPEC member Venezuela.
* Beijing has ordered telecom carriers like China Mobile Ltd. to replace foreign chips in their core networks by 2027, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
* Activist investor Barington Capital Group L.P. is calling on Paramount Global to end exclusive talks with media mogul David Ellison and consider rival proposals, including one from Apollo Global Management Inc.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2%
* The MSCI World index fell 1.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.7%
* The euro fell 0.8% to $1.0637
* The British pound fell 0.8% to $1.2447
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 153.26 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 5.2% to $66,823.88
* Ether fell 8.8% to $3,214.92
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined seven basis points to 4.52%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined 10 basis points to 2.36%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 4.14%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $85.54 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 1.3% to $2,342.74 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Alex Longley, Jack Wittels, Julia Fanzeres, Jack Ryan, Sybilla Gross, Caleb Mutua, Carter Johnson and Michael Mackenzie.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.  The best is the enemy of the good. –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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.
April 11, 1814: Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as emperor of France and was banished to the island of Elba.  Go to article >>.
1945: Liberation of Buchenwald.
1968: US Civil Rights Act passed into law.
April 11, 1976: The Apple I computer, created by Steve Wozniak is released.

Viking Age women with cone-shaped skulls likely learned head-binding practice from far-flung region
The skull modifications were found on the skeletons of three women buried on Gotland almost 1,000 years ago. Read More.

Total solar eclipse reveals tiny new comet moments before it was destroyed by the sun
On April 8, just a few hours before the solar eclipse, an amateur astronomer discovered a small “sungrazer” comet in close proximity to our home star. The newfound object was photographed during totality before disintegrating into nothingness later the same day. Read More.

Superfast drone fitted with new ‘rotating detonation rocket engine’ approaches the speed of sound
Engineers have successfully flown a drone at near-supersonic speeds thanks to a new type of engine that burns like a rocket and could one day lead to hypersonic
Mach 9 commercial flights. Read More.

German museum worker fired after hanging his own art in gallery
An aspiring artist landed in big trouble with his employer — and the police — after hanging his own artwork in a famous museum.

A graffiti ‘takeover’ roils downtown Los Angeles
CNN spoke with a man who said his graffiti crew was involved in tagging the famous Oceanwide Plaza complex in downtown Los Angeles. Read how he hopes to redefine public perception of the medium.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

London, UK
A visitor at the press preview of Suspended States, an exhibition by the British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare at Serpentine South.
Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock

Frankfurt, Germany
Hares run on a field in the city’s outskirts
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

​​​​​​​London, UK
‘I have been taking pictures from this location for many years, and this is the latest view from the East India DLR station.’
Photograph: Colin Page
Market Closes for April 11^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38459.08	-2.43
		-0.01%
S&P 500	5199.06	+38.42
		+0.74%
NASDAQ	16442.20	+271.84
		+1.68%
TSX	22110.11	-89.02
		-0.40%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39442.63	-139.18
		-0.35%
HANG SENG	17095.03	-44.14
		-0.26%
SENSEX	75038.15	+354.45
		+0.47%
FTSE 100*	7923.80	-37.41
		-0.47%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.730	3.695
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.609	3.547
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.5865	4.5435
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.6784	4.6223

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7306	0.7307
US $	1.3587	1.3586

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4683	0.6811
US $	1.0728	0.9321

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2345.65	2356.10
Oil
WTI Crude Future	86.21	86.21

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1792, New York investor Henrietta Colden summed up the aftermath of March’s stock-market crash as follows: “The depravity of the human mind was exhibited in its worst stage; the speculators were daily boxing in the streets, cursing and abusing each other like pick pockets, and trying every fraud to prey on each others distresses.”
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.4%, or 89.02 to 22,110.11 in Toronto.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.6%.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. had the largest drop, falling 5.7%.
Today, 124 of 224 shares fell, while 97 rose; 8 of 11 sectors were lower, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 0.7%, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Nov. 10
* The index advanced 8.3% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 26% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.2% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 18.3% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.3% in the past 5 days and rose 1.6% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.5 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% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.52t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 7.71% compared with 7.64% in the previous session and the average of 9.51% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -44.1781| -1.1| 13/27
Industrials | -27.0336| -0.9| 11/16
Financials | -26.2064| -0.4| 6/21
Utilities | -3.9032| -0.5| 6/9
Consumer Staples | -1.3109| -0.1| 3/8
Real Estate | -1.2117| -0.2| 10/10
Communication Services | -0.7949| -0.1| 2/3
Health Care | -0.4861| -0.7| 3/1
Consumer Discretionary | 2.0634| 0.3| 5/8
Information Technology | 6.0244| 0.3| 7/3
Materials | 8.0036| 0.3| 31/18
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -12.3800| -1.6| -29.3| 13.1
Canadian Natural Resources | -12.3800| -1.5| -13.9| 27.8
Suncor Energy | -11.6400| -2.4| -28.2| 23.6
Wheaton Precious Metals | 5.8590| 2.6| -22.3| 10.2
Brookfield Corp | 7.5980| 1.4| -47.8| 2.2
Constellation Software | 8.5880| 1.7| 12.0| 12.4
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The world’s largest technology companies drove a rebound in stocks, with traders bracing for a deluge of results from Corporate America that will test this year’s $4 trillion rally.
Earnings season kicks into full swing Friday, with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. reporting.
A solid economy is expected to fuel a rise in profit growth for S&P 500 companies — and strong margins from big tech will be key.
Also helping sentiment was an inflation report that trailed estimates a day after a hot price reading curbed bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts.
“It’s not going to be Fed rate cuts that drive the market going forward, rather it’s going to be earnings,” said George Ball, chairman of Sanders Morris. “Corporate earnings are much stronger than people have anticipated even in this elevated interest-rate environment.”
The S&P 500 hovered near 5,200, while the Nasdaq 100 added 1.6%.
Alphabet Inc. got closer to the $2 trillion mark, Amazon.com Inc. hit a record high and Apple Inc. jumped on news it plans to overhaul its Mac line.
Financial shares came under pressure, with Morgan Stanley tumbling on a news report regulators are probing its wealth arm.
Globe Life Inc. sank after a short-seller call.
Treasury 10-year yields rose two basis points to 4.57%.
A sale of 30-year bonds garnered lackluster demand.
The euro dropped after the European Central Bank signaled cooling inflation will soon allow it to cut rates.
Wall Street projects S&P 500 members will show 3.8% annual growth in earnings per share for the first-quarter reporting period, data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence show.
That performance could at the very least offer support for a struggling and still-pricey market, assuming companies deliver as projected.
Profits for the so-called Magnificent Seven companies in the S&P 500 — Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Nvidia Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. — are on course to rise 38% in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
“The next challenge is earnings season, with the reaction to news likely to pave the path forward for equities,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide.
Indeed, earnings will be watched closely to see whether growth can justify an S&P 500 price-earnings ratio that’s roughly 20% above its 10-year average.
At 21 times profits, that translates to an earnings yield of 4.8% — a multiple that looks increasingly unfavorable with 10-year Treasury yields rising to 4.5%.
In fact, the valuation edge by stocks now sits near the smallest in two decades.
“We find ourselves in an environment where stocks appear fully valued, market interest rates are climbing and the consensus expectation for Federal Reserve rate cuts is dwindling,” said John Lynch at Comerica Wealth Management. “It
is therefore imperative, in our opinion, that corporate profits continue to expand to justify current levels of equity valuation and investor sentiment.”
On Friday, Wall Street will be closely watching banks’ outlook and commentary around key profit drivers like net interest income and investment banking.
Fewer interest rate cuts could bolster net interest income prospects for many large-cap banks and lead to upward guidance revisions.
Since hitting a trough in October, the group has soared past the broader market’s gains.
“Investors will be looking towards bank CEO comments for continued signs of a resilient economy and confirmation of a soft landing in 2024,” said Christine Short at Wall Street Horizon.
The same headwinds and tailwinds are in play for banks this year as in 2023, she noted.
“High interest rates still help banks maintain healthy levels of net interest income, but on the flipside have negative implications when they lead to loan defaults from borrowers that can no longer contend with higher costs,” Short added. “The promise of lower interest rates had fueled a rally in the banks this year, but with a tight labor market and stubbornly high inflation readings, that expectation has sputtered.”
Traders also kept a close eye on the latest economic data.
US producer prices increased in March from a year earlier by the most in 11 months, though certain categories that feed into the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge were more muted.
While the latest PPI reading was constructive, investors should be prepared for fewer rate cuts this year — one or two — and for a first potential move not until the July meeting, according to Larry Tentarelli at Blue Chip Daily Trend Report.
“Although we understand the relief with which this report will be received, there is nothing very encouraging contained within it — and the best that can be said is that there was ‘no new bad news’ either,” said Michael Shaoul at Marketfield Asset Management.
Fed Bank of New York President John Williams said the central bank has made “tremendous progress” toward better balance on its inflation and employment goals, but added there’s no need to cut in the “very near term.”
His Richmond counterpart Thomas Barkin said the US central bank still has work to do to contain price pressures and can take its time before cutting interest rates.
Fed Bank of Boston President Susan Collins said it may take more time than previously thought to gain the confidence to begin easing policy, possibly warranting fewer rate reductions this year.

* Tesla Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is set to visit India and meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sparking speculation about the US company’s investments in the South Asian nation just ahead of the start of national elections.
* Ford Motor Co. slashed prices of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck by as much as 7.5% as the automaker prepares to resume deliveries this month following a halt earlier this year over an undisclosed quality issue.
* Nike Inc. was raised to buy at Bank of America Corp., which said consensus estimates “finally look achievable” after projections for fiscal 2025 dropped 35% over the past two years.
* CarMax Inc. reported profits that missed Wall Street’s expectations as high monthly payments scare off would-be used-car buyers.
* Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. agreed to buy Alpine Immune Sciences Inc. for a total equity value of about $4.9 billion, adding the biotech company’s immune treatments in its biggest acquisition ever.
* Dish Network Corp., the satellite-TV provider saddled with more than $20 billion in debt and losing customers, has received financing offers from private credit firms, according to people with knowledge of the matter

Key events this week:
* China trade, Friday
* US University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Citigroup, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo due to report results, Friday.
* San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed
* The MSCI World index rose 0.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro fell 0.1% to $1.0729
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2560
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 153.21 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1% to $70,482.01
* Ether rose 0.1% to $3,518.39
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.57%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 2.46%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 4.20%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.7% to $85.62 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 1.7% to $2,372.98 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jessica Menton, Carly Wanna, Denitsa Tsekova, Lu Wang, Sagarika Jaisinghani, Alexandra Semenova and Bre Bradham.
Have a  lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The only impossible journey is the one you never begin. –Tony Robbins, b.1960.

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

April 10, 1947:  Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey announced he had purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals, paving the way for Robinson to become the first black to play in the major leagues. Go to article >>
April 10, 2001: Mercy killings become legal in the Netherlands, legalizing euthanasia for patients with unbearable, terminal illness.

1849: Safety pin patented.
1942: Bataan Death March.

Eclipse from space: See the moon’s shadow race across North America at 1,500 mph in epic satellite footage
Satellite images show the moon’s gigantic shadow sweeping across North America during the April 8 total solar eclipse. Astronauts on board the ISS also captured stunning shots of the enormous dark patch. Read More.

Part of the San Andreas fault may be gearing up for an earthquake
The Parkfield section of the San Andreas fault is sending mixed messages before a time of expected increased seismic risk. Read More.

77,000 baby salmon survive truck crash in Oregon by leaping into nearby creek
A truck that was transporting 102,000 spring Chinook salmon to the Imnaha River in northeastern Oregon crashed in a road bend, spilling most of its cargo into a nearby creek. Read More.

5 desserts for celebrating Eid al-Fitr
Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the monthlong Ramadan fast. Here are a few delicious dishes to include in the festivities.

The world’s oldest tattoos
Ötzi the Iceman, whose 5,300-year-old body was found by hikers in the Tyrolean Alps, has 61 tattoos. Scientists now think they understand the technique behind them.

Jay Leno granted conservatorship of wife Mavis Leno’s estate
A judge granted Jay Leno’s request for a conservatorship of his wife’s estate, saying the move is “necessary and appropriate” as she battles dementia.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Dorset, UK
An aerial view of a large cliff fall at Hive Beach in Burton Bradstock
Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

Paris, France
Anouk Garnier climbs up a rope under the Eiffel Tower during an attempt to beat a rope climb record
Photograph: Laurent Cipriani/AP

​​​​​​​Lapland, Finland
‘-20C outside, thigh-deep in snow and with the last gasps of a battery in a soon-to-be-frozen camera – I got the shot.’
Photograph: Steven Hyde
Market Closes for April 10^th, 2024

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	38461.51	-422.16
		-1.09%
S&P 500	5160.64	-49.27
		-0.95%
NASDAQ	16170.36	-136.28
		-0.84%
TSX	22199.13	-162.65
		-0.73%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39581.81	-191.32
		-0.48%
HANG SENG	17139.17	+311.10
		+1.85%
SENSEX	75038.15	+354.45
		+0.47%
FTSE 100*	7961.21	+26.42
		+0.33%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.695	3.556
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.547	3.472
U.S.    10 Year Bond	4.5435	4.3616
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.6223	4.4964

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7307	0.7367
US $	1.3586	1.3574

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4703	0.6801
US $	1.0742	0.9309

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2356.10	2356.10
Oil
WTI Crude Future	86.21	85.23

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1792, the New York legislature enacted a law banning public stock auctions, the first known securities law in American history, following a stock-market crash a month earlier.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.7% at 22,199.13 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 2.3% on Feb. 13 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.5%.
Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as 10 of 11 sectors lost; 155 of 224 shares fell, while 66 rose.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.1%.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP had the largest drop, falling 4.4%.
Insights
* The index advanced 9.5% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 25% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.8% below its 52-week high on April 9, 2024 and 18.8% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.4% in the past 5 days and rose 2.1% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.5 on a trailing basis and 15.2 times estimated earnings of
its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.54t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 7.64% compared with 7.31% in the previous session and the average of 9.59% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -105.6657| -1.5| 7/20
Information Technology| -38.0849| -2.0| 1/9
Utilities | -15.0351| -1.8| 1/14
Real Estate | -12.2215| -2.4| 1/20
Consumer Discretionary| -7.1695| -0.9| 2/9
Communication Services| -5.4890| -0.8| 0/5
Materials | -4.6016| -0.2| 14/36
Consumer Staples | -4.4559| -0.5| 2/9
Industrials | -1.6917| -0.1| 6/21
Health Care | -1.5097| -2.2| 0/4
Energy | 33.2709| 0.8| 32/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | -26.9400| -3.1| 17.6| -4.6
Brookfield Corp | -22.1000| -4.0| 10.6| 0.8
TD Bank | -17.6200| -1.8| 18.5| -8.0
Canadian National | 6.9480| 1.0| 4.0| 7.8
Suncor Energy | 10.5600| 2.2| -36.3| 26.6
Canadian Natural Resources | 12.1500| 1.5| -42.9| 29.7
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street traders sent stocks and bonds sliding after another hot inflation report signaled the Federal Reserve will be in no rush to cut rates this year.
Oil climbed as geopolitical jitters resurfaced.
Equities extended their April losses, with the S&P 500 down about 1% as the consumer price index beat forecasts for a third month.
In a hawkish reprice of the Treasury curve, 10-year yields topped 4.5% and Fed swaps are now showing bets on only two rate cuts for 2024.
A sharp reversal in oil also weighed on sentiment, with Bloomberg News reporting the US and its allies believe major missile or drone strikes by Iran or its proxies on Israel are imminent.
As the Fed rides the “last mile” toward its 2% inflation goal, the concern is that price pressures may not be just a “bump in the road” — with the higher-for-longer rate narrative taking hold.
Minutes of the last Fed meeting showed “almost all” officials judged it would be appropriate to pivot “at some point” this year.
But inflation since then has upended market bets.
“It’s often said that the Fed takes the escalator up and the elevator down when setting rates,” said Richard Flynn at Charles Schwab. “But for the path downwards in this cycle, it looks like they will opt for the stairs.”
The Fed minutes also showed policymakers “generally favored” slowing the pace at which they’re shrinking the asset portfolio by roughly half.
The S&P 500 dropped to around 5,160.
Treasury two-year yields surged 23 basis points to 4.97%.
The dollar saw its biggest advance since January.
A weak $39 billion sale of 10-year bonds also boosted yields.
Brent crude climbed back above $90.
The March core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy costs, increased 0.4% from February, according to government data out Wednesday.
From a year ago, it advanced 3.8%, holding steady from the prior month.
These inflation figures — alongside the jobs report released last week — complicate the timing of the Fed’s rate cuts, according to Tiffany Wilding at Pacific Investment Management Co.
Not only there’s now a strong case to push out the timing of the first reduction past mid-year, it also strengthens the odds that the US will ease policy at a more gradual rate than its developed-market counterparts, she noted.
“Inflation right now is like the ‘stubborn child’ that refuses to heed the parent’s call to leave the playground,” said Jason Pride at Glenmede. “As a result, investors should be prepared for a higher-for-longer monetary regime.”
That doesn’t mean rates are going higher — but the distance to a rate cut is another quarter, according to Jamie Cox at Harris Financial Group.
“You can kiss a June interest-rate cut goodbye,” said Greg McBride at Bankrate. “There is no improvement here, we’re moving in the wrong direction.”
To Neil Dutta at Renaissance Macro Research, Fed officials are still cutting this year — but they won’t be starting in June.
“I think July is probable, which means two cuts remain a reasonable baseline,” Dutta said. “If the Fed does not get a cut off in July, however, investors will need to worry about path dependency. As an example, would September be too close to the election? If not June, then July. If not July, then December.”
At the start of the year, the amount of easing priced in for 2024 exceeded 150 basis points.
That expectation was based on the view that the US economy would slow in response to the Fed’s 11 rate hikes over the past two years.
Rather, growth data has broadly exceeded expectations.
While Fed Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly stressed that financial conditions are weighing on the economy, many market-based measures suggest otherwise.
Stocks have added $12 trillion in value since October alone, contributing to readings in a gauge of financial conditions tracked by Bloomberg that are looser now than before the Fed began tightening.
“Easy financial conditions continue to provide a significant tailwind to growth and inflation. As a result, the Fed is not done fighting inflation and rates will stay higher for longer,” said Torsten Slok at Apollo Global Management. “We
are sticking to our view that the Fed will not cut rates in 2024.”
Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers went a step further to say that one would have to “take seriously the possibility that the next rate move will be upwards rather than downwards.”
Such a likelihood is somewhere in the 15% to 25% range, he told Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin.
Despite early evidence of a re-heating economy, the bar for Fed hikes at this stage is quite high, according to Lauren Goodwin at New York Life Investments.
“A signal that interest rates could move higher would likely be met with a rapid tightening in market financial conditions,” she noted. “We believe there is enough evidence of gradually expanding cracks in the economy to keep further
tightening off the table unless inflation accelerates meaningfully.”
Another hot CPI reading may have been “the final nail in the coffin” for a June rate cut, but it remains to be seen whether 2024 will turn out to be a two-cut year, or something less, according to Chris Larkin at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley.
To Chris Zaccarelli at Independent Advisor Alliance, the Fed still has a bias to cut rates and is likely to do so in either July or September.
Still, if inflation remains sticky, that may be the only rate cut we get this year.
“Goldilocks has left the building,” he added. “Inflation isn’t coming down anymore and rate-cut hopes are going to be pushed off even further into the future.”
Traders and policymakers alike risk reading too much into the hotter-than-expected US inflation print that jolted markets and called into question the central bank’s interest-rate cutting cycle, according to a top macro strategist at Citadel.
“It was never going to be a steady path. We’re seeing bumps, and the bumps are just part of the game,” Angel Ubide at Citadel told Bloomberg Television. “Unless there’s a policy mistake — and I’m not saying that there will be — we should see inflation converging gradually towards 2%,” he said.
As the hot inflation print all but removed the possibility of rate cuts in the near future, that leaves earnings as a last leg of support for the resilient stock market rally that began last year.
“The reaction to the CPI report adds further fuel to the belief that equity markets are in for a period of sluggishness,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide. “As the focus shifts to earnings season, investors may watch with a different lens, with strong results potentially further adjusting rate cut assumptions, returning us to a ‘good news is bad news’ posture.”
To Jose Torres at Interactive Brokers, risk assets are approaching a fork in the road.
“If the Fed implicitly accepts price pressures between 3% and 4%, the inflation put has been born, providing another stabilizing force on top of the traditional Fed and dividend puts,” Torres said. “But if the central bank remains committed to 2%, hell or high water, then a meaningful equities correction will occur. This correction could be significant, with equity valuations expanding mainly due to expectations that the Fed will make significant rate cuts this year.”
Torres said that would help sustain corporate earnings while reducing the likelihood of the economy entering a recession.
“We find ourselves in an environment where stocks appear fully valued, market interest rates are climbing and the consensus expectation for Federal Reserve rate cuts is dwindling,” said John Lynch at Comerica Wealth Management. “It
is therefore imperative, in our opinion, that corporate profits continue to expand to justify current levels of equity valuation and investor sentiment.”
With banks slated to unofficially kick off first-quarter earnings this week, their results will be watched closely to see whether growth can justify an S&P 500 price-earnings ratio that’s roughly 20% above its 10-year average.
At 21 times profits, that translates to an earnings yield of 4.8%, a multiple that looks increasingly unfavorable with 10-year Treasury yields rising to 4.5%.

Wall Street’s Reaction to CPI Data:
* David Kelly at JPMorgan Asset Management:
That’s the sound of the door slamming shut on a June rate cut.

* Quincy Krosby at LPL Financial:
The Fed’s last mile just got longer and bumpier. The Fed may still be able to cut in June, but the narrative is getting increasingly difficult. 

* Matthew Weller at Forex.com and City Index:
No matter how you slice the data, it’s hard to argue that inflation is falling. For a central bank that was looking for any sign that inflation was continuing to fall toward its target, this report will be a big disappointment for the Federal
Reserve.

* Jeff Schulze at ClearBridge Investments:
This inflation release effectively takes June off the table for the first rate cut and should push the odds out further with a coin toss in July or September.

* John Leiper at Titan Asset Management:
This reinforces our view that the market remains too optimistic on rate cuts this year given the underlying strength of the US economy.

* Charles Hepworth at GAM Investments:
For the June rate cut optimists, this reading is a bit of blow. Markets have been wrestling with the likelihood of the Federal Reserve delivering on three rate cuts this year, but on these numbers, two rate cuts may now be the more likely outcome.

* Neil Birrell at Premier Miton Diversified Funds:
The US economy is running along at quite a pace and a June rate cut looks less and less likely – July or September is the call now. The Fed has got some head scratching to do and if
other central banks were waiting for the Fed to move, they have
got a conundrum on their hands now.
* Lindsay Rosner at Goldman Sachs Asset Management:
The rates market needs to seriously consider the likelihood of higher-for-longer at minimum lasting through the Summer and potentially through the end of the year. This number did not eclipse the Fed’s confidence, it did, however, cast a shadow on it.

* Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management:
This marks the third consecutive strong reading and means that the stalled disinflationary narrative can no longer be called a blip. In fact, even if inflation were to cool next month to a more comfortable reading, there is likely sufficient
caution within the Fed now to mean that a July cut may also be a stretch.

Corporate Highlights:
* President Joe Biden reiterated his support for US workers opposed to a Japanese company’s bid to acquire United States Steel Corp., while stopping short of calling again for continued domestic ownership. .
* Meta Platforms Inc. is deploying a new homegrown chip to help power its artificial intelligence services, aiming to decrease its reliance on semiconductors from Nvidia Corp. and other outside companies.
* Delta Air Lines Inc. expects earnings to exceed Wall Street’s projections for the second quarter as the carrier benefits from a step-up in corporate travel and steady leisure demand heading into summer.
* Macy’s Inc. named two new directors nominated by activist investor Arkhouse Management Co., which agreed to end its effort to seek majority board representation as it attempts to acquire the department-store operator.
* Apple Inc. assembled $14 billion of iPhones in India last fiscal year, doubling production in a sign it’s accelerating a push to diversify beyond China.
* Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s quarterly revenue grew at its fastest pace in more than a year, shoring up expectations that a global boom in AI development is fueling demand for high-end chips and servers.
* UBS Group AG faces a “substantial” increase in regulatory capital requirements under reforms that the Swiss government is advocating for in the wake of the collapse of Credit Suisse.

Key events this week:
* China PPI, CPI, Thursday
* Eurozone ECB rate decision, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, PPI, Thursday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Thursday
* Boston Fed President Susan Collins speaks, Thursday
* China trade, Friday
* US University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Citigroup, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo due to report results, Friday.
* San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.9% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.9%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.8%
* The euro fell 1.1% to $1.0743
* The British pound fell 1.1% to $1.2540
* The Japanese yen fell 0.8% to 152.95 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.3% to $69,997.81
* Ether rose 0.3% to $3,521.72
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 18 basis points to 4.55%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 2.44%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced 12 basis points to 4.15%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.3% to $86.31 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.9% to $2,331.31 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Liz Capo McCormick, Jessica Menton, Carly Wanna, Natalia Kniazhevich, Denitsa Tsekova, Lu Wang, Ryan Vlastelica, Sagarika Jaisinghani, Alexandra Semenova, Carter Johnson and Felice Maranz.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin  again, this time more intelligently. –Henry Ford, 1863-1947.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
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Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

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