November 28, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Full moon tonight. Take a look at the night sky and marvel at the beauty. J

November 28, 1813: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 premieres in Vienna, showcasing the composer’s innovative and emotional musical style.

November 28, 2001: Enron Corp., once the world’s largest energy trader, collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion deal to take it over.  Go to article >>

Why don’t we remember being babies?
The inability to remember your first few years of life is called infantile amnesia. But why does it happen.  Read More.

Big blob of hot water may be making El Niño act weirdly
El Niño is in full swing and will likely remain “strong” this winter, but its effect on weather patterns in the U.S. depends on the behavior of an unusually warm blob in the western Pacific,
experts say. Read More.

AI can predict when massive rogue waves will strike next
Rogue waves are giant walls of water that are highly unpredictable and can cause immense damage — but artificial intelligence has now been used to work out when and where they might strike. Read More.

Taylor Swift is sending her ‘Eras Tour’ to streaming services.
The pop star’s wildly successful concert film will be available on streaming platforms starting on her birthday, December 13.

Stephen Colbert is calling in sick
The “Late Show” host canceled his shows this week to recover from surgery for a ruptured appendix.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Wuhan, China
Fog shrouds residential buildings in the city in central Hubei province
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Adapting for tomorrow – Salinas de Maras, Peru
The ponds in Salinas de Maras have been used for salt extraction since the pre-Inca period, and have been in continuous operation since then. Located in the Sacred Valley, the Salinas consist of approximately 4,500 salt pans, set in stepped terraces of irregular stone walls that follow the Qaqahuiñay hill. These traditional salt mining practices have a lower environmental impact than industrial methods, such as mining and evaporation from brine ponds
Photograph: Marina Abello/EPOTY23

Hong Kong
A mural depicting a resting cat by the street artist Vladi is photographed by a man outside a hotel
Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for November 28th,2023

Market
Index
Close Change
Dow
Jones
35416.98 +83.51
+0.24%
S&P 500 4554.89 +4.46
+0.10%
NASDAQ  14281.76 +40.76
+0.29%
TSX 20036.77 +4.11
+0.02%

International Markets

Market
Index
Close Change
NIKKEI 33408.39 -39.28
-0.12%
HANG
SENG
17354.14 -170.92
-0.98%
SENSEX 66174.20 +204.16
+0.31%
FTSE 100* 7455.27 -5.46
-0.07%

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond
3.582 3.652
CND.
30 Year
Bond
3.378 3.431
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.3207 4.3866
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.5053 4.5379

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous  
Canadian $ 0.7371 0.7342
US
$
1.3567 1.3621

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro=
Inverse   
Canadian $ 1.4927 0.6699
US
$
1.1002 0.9089

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold
Fix 
2013.70 2000.85
Oil
WTI Crude Future  76.41 74.86

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1895, the first automobile race in U.S. history was held in Chicago. It took the winner, Frank Duryea, more than 10 hours to complete the 54-mile course, traveling at around 7 miles per hour through a snowstorm. The race helped set the stage for the era of the automobile, which would reshape the American economy in the 20th century.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 20,036.77 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.4%.
Barrick Gold Corp. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 5.0%. Osisko Mining Inc. had the largest increase, rising 6.8%.
Today, 107 of 227 shares rose, while 118 fell; 2 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.

Insights
* This year, the index rose 3.4%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This month, the index rose 6.2%, heading for the biggest advance since January
* The index declined 0.9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 15% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.9% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 7.2% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.4% in the past 5 days and rose 6.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.3 on a trailing basis and 14.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.17t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 12.87% compared with 13.48% in the previous session and the average of 14.30% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 56.1344| 2.5| 39/13
Energy | 23.8911| 0.7| 21/19
Utilities | -0.2234| 0.0| 8/7
Health Care | -0.2892| -0.5| 1/3
Real Estate | -1.6667| -0.4| 8/12
Consumer Discretionary | -2.0384| -0.3| 5/9
Communication Services | -3.9717| -0.5| 1/4
Consumer Staples | -6.1216| -0.7| 1/9
Information Technology | -6.1607| -0.3| 4/7
Industrials | -7.6841| -0.3| 9/17
Financials | -47.7714| -0.8| 10/18
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Barrick Gold | 13.7400| 5.0|n/a | 2.0
Canadian Natural | | | |
Resources | 12.9100| 1.9|n/a | 18.0
Agnico Eagle Mines | 11.5500| 4.8|n/a | 3.0
Bank of Montreal | -6.3800| -1.2|n/a | -11.6
RBC | -7.9050| -0.7|n/a | -7.8
Bank of Nova Scotia| -22.4500| -4.5|n/a | -13.2

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Treasuries extended their November rally, the dollar fell and stocks edged higher on speculation the Federal Reserve is done with interest-rate hikes and will be able to ease policy next year.
Fed swaps are now anticipating over 100 basis points of rate cuts by the end of 2024. In a speech entitled “Something Appears to Be Giving,” Governor Christopher Waller — one of the most-hawkish officials — said he’s “increasingly confident that policy is currently well positioned to slow the economy and get inflation back to 2%.” While acknowledging the many uncertainties, his colleague Michelle Bowman refrained from telegraphing an imminent hike.
To Peter Williams at 22V Research, the chances of a dovish pivot or reset seem to be increasing even as Fed-induced recession odds recede.
“It is growing expectations that the Fed and other major central banks are basically done with hiking interest rates,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and Forex.com. “Markets are getting a bit over excited, but traders
are just looking to take advantage of the momentum — and will be asking questions later.”
Two-year yields dropped 14 basis points to around 4.75%.
The dollar fell to its lowest since August.

After swinging between small gains and losses, the S&P 500 managed to close with a small advance.
The gauge, which is trading near “overbought” levels, is still headed toward one of its biggest November gains on record.
Bitcoin climbed back above $38,000.
Also speaking Tuesday, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said the inflation slowdown this year has been the biggest such drop in 71 years. His New York counterpart John Williams called the decline encouraging.
On the economic front, US consumer confidence rose for the first time in four months in November, aided by more optimistic views about the outlook for the labor market.

Home prices hit a fresh record high, according to seasonally adjusted data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller.
The good news for investors is that recession isn’t here yet, this makes an end-of-year rally likely, according to Lauren Goodwin at New York Life Investments.  In past economic cycles, markets don’t tend to price in recession until jobless claims are rising and earnings are in outright decline — signs that recession has already arrived, she noted. “Modest slowdowns in inflation and employment growth mean that a ‘Fed relief rally,’ accompanied by rallies in stocks, bonds and credit as we are seeing now, can be sustained,” Goodwin said. “Our concern is that this late cycle limbo is no different than those of the past: a moment of Goldilocks before the very reason that inflation is moderating – slowing economic growth and employment – becomes clear in the data.”
The most-active investors in the Treasury market are as bullish as they’ve ever been, according to a weekly survey conducted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. since 1991.
JPMorgan’s Treasury client survey for the week ended Nov. 27 found that 78% of active clients were positioned long relative to their benchmark, up from 56% the previous week. None of them were positioned short for a second straight week, for a 78% net long position that was the biggest in the history of the survey. The remaining respondents were neutral.
Meantime, the recent sharp pullback in volatility as year-end approaches creates hedging opportunities given the cloudy outlook for equities, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategist Christian Mueller-Glissmann. “After the recent equity rally, we believe there is an attractive entry point to hedge the risk of a retracement,” he noted. “Cross-asset volatility has continued to reset lower, supported by markets further embracing the ‘inverse’ Goldilocks backdrop in the US with faster-than-expected inflation normalization and growth remaining resilient.”
Bank of America Corp. clients were net buyers of US equities last week, with institutional and retail investors leading purchases while hedge funds offloaded shares.

Clients funneled $2.6 billion into US stocks, with inflows to both individual names and exchange-traded funds, quantitative strategists led by Jill Carey Hall said.
This month’s rally in the S&P 500 is now running out of steam, according to Citigroup Inc. strategist Chris Montagu. He said futures flows last week were “mixed,” leaving net positioning in the benchmark index looking “slightly bearish.”
A Bloomberg Intelligence model known as the Market Regime Index — which clusters periods into three phases dubbed accelerated growth (green), moderate growth (yellow) and decline (red) — has remained stuck in the middle for the past nine months. That suggests that equity-return expectations should remain average until the Fed shifts away from raising interest rates to cutting them, according to BI’s chief equity strategist Gina Martin Adams and senior associate analyst Gillian Wolff.
Hedge funds piled into bullish dollar bets this month despite the currency’s slide on softening US economic data and increasing expectations that the Fed’s most aggressive rate-hiking cycle in a generation is near an end.
A metric of leveraged funds’ net longs on the greenback against eight currencies rose to its highest level since February 2022 as of Nov. 21, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission aggregated by Bloomberg.

It stood at net long 103,042 contracts, just above a previous year-to-date high seen in April, after bottoming around a net short position of around 72,000 contracts in March.
“The US dollar has been weakening across the board as the market becomes increasingly convinced that the next move from the US central bank will be to cut interest rates, possibly as early as the second quarter,” Razaqzada noted.
Elsewhere, oil snapped a three-session losing streak as OPEC+ members continued negotiations over output levels.

Corporate Highlights:
* The long-awaited delivery event of Tesla Inc.’s Cybertruck on Thursday is a “big moment” for the company, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said.
* Morgan Stanley was downgraded at Societe Generale to hold.
* Micron Technology Inc., the largest US maker of computer memory semiconductors, warned that it’s spending more than expected on operations.
* Boeing Co. was upgraded at RBC Capital Markets to outperform as the shares are in the early stages of “a significant shift in sentiment” amid strong demand.
* PG&E Corp. said it will pay out a dividend for the first time in about six years as part of efforts by the California utility giant to restore its financial health after emerging from bankruptcy.
* Zscaler Inc., a security software company, affirmed a forecast for 2024 calculated billings that fell slightly short of estimates at the midpoint.
* Bristol Myers Squibb Co. agreed to pay as much as $2.3 billion to collaborate with Avidity Biosciences Inc. on developing drugs to treat rare heart conditions.
* Adobe Inc.’s planned $20 billion purchase of design software maker Figma Inc. risks being blocked by Britain’s competition watchdog unless it offers up remedies to solve competition issues.
* Panama’s top court ruled against a law approving a contract with First Quantum Minerals Ltd., throwing into doubt the future of one of the world’s biggest copper operations.

Key events this week:
* New Zealand rate decision, Wednesday
* OECD releases biannual economic outlook, Wednesday
* Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence, Wednesday
* Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey speaks, Wednesday
* US wholesale inventories, GDP, Wednesday
* Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester speaks, Wednesday
* Fed releases its Beige Book, Wednesday
* China non-manufacturing PMI, manufacturing PMI, Thursday
* OPEC+ meeting, Thursday
* Eurozone CPI, unemployment, Thursday
* US personal income, PCE deflator, initial jobless claims, pending home sales, Thursday
* China Caixin Manufacturing PMI, Friday
* Eurozone S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, Friday
* US construction spending, ISM Manufacturing, Friday
* Fed Chair Jerome Powell to participate in “fireside chat” in Atlanta, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.3%

Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0988
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2693
* The Japanese yen rose 0.8% to 147.49 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3.3% to $38,265.88
* Ether rose 2.5% to $2,065.51

Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined five basis points to 4.33%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined five basis points to 2.50%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.17%

Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2% to $76.38 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 1.4% to $2,041.36 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jason Scott, Tassia Sipahutar, Alex Nicholson, Carter Johnson, Masaki Kondo, Michael Msika, Michael Mackenzie and Edward Bolingbroke.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing. -F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940.

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

November 27, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents: Happy Monday.

 

November 27, 2005: World’s first successful partial face transplant takes place.  Drs. Bernard Devauchelle, Benoit Lengelé, and Jean-Michell Dubernard used donor tissue to reconstruct the fade of Isabelle Dinoire in Amiens, France.  Isabelle Dinoire’s face had been mauled by a dog.

 

1942: The French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis. Go to article >>

 

Scottish Egyptian sculpture mystery finally solved

Archaeologists in Scotland may have discovered how ancient Egyptian artifacts that were unearthed in school grounds between 1952 and 1984 became buried there. Read More.

 

JWST discovers 2 of the oldest galaxies in the universe

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a cosmic ‘peanut’ and ‘fluff ball’ that happen to be two of the four oldest galaxies in the known universe. Read More.

 

Best Cyber Monday deals for telescope and binoculars

Black Friday has been and gone, but you can still find an excellent deals on telescopes for stargazing and binoculars for animal spotting this Cyber Monday. Read More.

 

Earth slammed by ultra-powerful ‘goddess particle’

Researchers recently detected an “ultra-high-energy” cosmic ray, which is the most powerful since the famous “Oh My God” particle was detected in 1991. They have no idea where it came from. Read More.

 

How to take care of poinsettias through winter and beyond.  Move over pumpkins, it’s poinsettia time.

 

People steal a lot of strange stuff from hotels. (h/t Andrea Felsted)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

California, US

An unusual rainbow cloud at Butterfly beach in Montecito.  Photograph: Amy Katz/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock.

Ruka, Finland

An aerial view of the start of the men’s race during the FIS Cross-Country World Cup skiing competition.  Photograph: Federico Modica/NordicFocus/Getty Images

Nevşehir, Turkey

An aerial view of the snow-covered fairy chimneys after snowfall in Cappadocia, which is preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images.

Market Closes for November 27th,2023

Market
Index 
Close  Change 
Dow
Jones
35333.47 -56.68
-0.16%
S&P 500  4550.43 -8.91
-0.20%
NASDAQ  14241.02 -9.83
-0.07%
TSX  20032.66 -70.45
-0.35%

International Markets

Market
Index 
Close  Change 
NIKKEI  33447.67 -177.86
-0.53%
HANG
SENG
17525.06 -34.36
-0.20%
SENSEX  65970.04   -47.77
-0.07%
FTSE 100* 7460.70 -27.50
-0.37%

Bonds

Bonds  % Yield  Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond 
3.652 3.717
CND.
30 Year
Bond 
3.431 3.494
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.3866 4.4665
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.5379 4.5973

Currencies

BOC Close  Today  Previous  
Canadian $   0.7342 0.7334
US
$ 
 
1.3621 1.3636

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro= 
Inverse   
Canadian $   1.4919 0.6703
US
$ 
 
1.0954 0.9129

Commodities

Gold Close  Previous  
London Gold
Fix 
2000.85 1992.85
Oil
WTI Crude Future  74.86 N.A.

Market Commentary:

📈 On this day in 1991, both houses of Congress passed legislation bailing out the dying savings and loan industry. The vote wasn’t recorded by the customary roll call, infuriating constituents.

Canada

By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.4%, or 70.45 to 20,032.66 in Toronto.

The index dropped to the lowest closing level since Nov. 14.
Canadian National Railway Co. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.0%.

Lithium Americas Corp. had the largest drop, falling 5.5%.
Today, 126 of 227 shares fell, while 99 rose; 7 of 11 sectors were lower, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index rose 3.3%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This month, the index rose 6.1%, heading for the biggest advance since January
* The index declined 1.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.9% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 7.2% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.1% in the past 5 days and rose 6.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.3 on a trailing basis and 14.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.18t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 13.48% compared with 13.45% in the previous session and the average of 14.32% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -46.6646| -1.3| 4/35
Industrials | -38.5146| -1.5| 12/14
Financials | -22.2138| -0.4| 10/18
Utilities | -7.6685| -0.9| 0/15
Consumer Staples | -2.7059| -0.3| 4/7
Communication Services | -1.4421| -0.2| 2/3
Consumer Discretionary | -1.1901| -0.2| 4/10
Health Care | 0.0538| 0.1| 3/1
Real Estate | 0.9898| 0.2| 16/4
Materials | 6.9503| 0.3| 34/18
Information Technology | 41.9657| 2.4| 10/1
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian National | -19.6300| -3.0|n/a | -5.2
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -19.2700| -3.0|n/a | -6.0
Canadian Natural Resources | -17.0300| -2.5|n/a | 15.8
Agnico Eagle Mines | 5.1890| 2.2|n/a | -1.7
Barrick Gold | 6.1350| 2.3|n/a | -2.8
Shopify | 35.5200| 4.4|n/a | 113.8

US

By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Treasuries extended their powerful November advance as traders weighed mixed US government debt sales amid bets the Federal Reserve is done with interest-rate hikes.
A $55 billion auction of five-year bonds saw strong demand, following a soft $54 billion sale of two-year notes.

Benchmark 10-year yields dropped to around 4.4%.

Stocks struggled after a rally that sent the market toward one of its biggest melt-ups of the last 100 years — putting the S&P 500 near technically “overbought” levels.

Industrial and financial shares underperformed.

Retailers saw a mild advance as Cyber Monday kicked off.

The world’s biggest bond market has clawed its way back after spending chunks of 2023 underwater — heading toward its best month since March.

The Bloomberg US Treasury Index recently shifted to a positive return for the year as signs of slowing inflation and measured jobs growth unleashed a rally that sent yields tumbling from their highest in more than a decade.
“The market appears to have embraced the idea that slowing economic data will hasten the arrival of market-friendly rate cuts, even though the Fed has continued to telegraph otherwise,” said Chris Larkin at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. “This week will provide plenty of opportunities for traders to decide whether that cooling trend is intact.”

Traders will be closely watching another batch of economic data this week, including the Fed’s preferred measure of underlying inflation.

US sales of new houses fell in October after a downward revision to the prior month as decades-high mortgage rates weighed on demand.

The Fed Bank of Dallas manufacturing index for November came in softer than expected.
Bets that policymakers are done with the rate-hiking cycle have fueled a rally in the S&P 500 this month, sinking short-term volatility expectations.

While some used the opportunity to buy protection on the cheap, it’s been far from ubiquitous — and calls saying the market environment is getting too placid are on the rise.
“The technical backdrop in the stock market right now is critically important,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co. “This does not mean that we’re about to see an important top in the stock market. It could just mean that we’ll see a mild pullback or even a ‘sideways’ correction at some point in the next week or two to work off this overbought condition.”
Volatility has collapsed, both the bond and equity markets have stabilized while the dollar has fallen significantly — which should be enough for investors to feel cautiously optimistic, according to Mark Hackett at Nationwide.  “At this point in the year, the direction of the current market – which is positive – is historically the direction the market finishes the year since there are few indicators that could drastically change its route,” Hackett noted. “But, in order for this to be true, we’ll need to see a ‘goldilocks’ approach from the Fed – not too weak and not too strong on policy.”

More than 60% of respondents in the latest MLIV Pulse survey expect stocks to provide better returns than bonds over the next month.

That’s the highest level of excitement about equities that the survey registered since the question about the two assets was first asked in August 2022.
Wall Street forecasters have turned more optimistic about the outlook for next year as investor sentiment improves and expectations of a recession are dialed back.
Deutsche Bank Group AG strategists led by Binky Chadha expect the benchmark to hit 5,100 by the end of 2024 — implying gains of about 12% from current levels — against a backdrop of cooling inflation and a rebound in corporate earnings.
Strategists at Bank of America Corp. and BMO Capital Markets also expect the S&P 500 will advance again in 2024, pushing it back over early 2022’s record high.

Less optimistic calls from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Société Generale still predict that equity prices will drift a little higher by the end of 2024, even if they remain just shy of the previous peak.
“Markets are priced for a soft landing, and thus for consumer spending to hold up,” said Jason Draho at UBS Global Wealth Management. “We think that view will ultimately be justified. In the meantime, investors are likely to obsess over consumer spending data during the next few weeks, and any market reaction to it should be taken with a grain of salt until we know how the holiday season turned out.”

In earnings, Crowdstrike Holdings Inc. will underscore how businesses are prioritizing cybersecurity after recent high-profile corporate hacks, while Salesforce Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. are expected to post slower sales growth when they report this week, as overall corporate expenditure tightens.
Elsewhere, gold was back above $2,000.

Oil dropped as easing geopolitical tensions and oversupply signals outweighed hopes that OPEC and its allies will deepen production cuts on Thursday.

Corporate Highlights:
* Kraft Heinz Co.’s board approves a buyback for up to $3 billion common shares of the maker of Jell-O and Oscar Mayer hot dogs.
* Elliott Investment Management has revived calls for changes at Crown Castle Inc. after disclosing a roughly $2 billion stake in the tower operator.
* Foot Locker Inc., a sports-apparel retailer, was downgraded to sell from neutral at Citigroup Inc.
* Shopify Inc. said merchants set a Black Friday record with a combined $4.1 billion in sales.
* A top-performing European fund manager is calling time on “hype” around weight-loss drugs that has sent Novo Nordisk A/S’s stock price rallying more than 50% this year.
* Volkswagen AG signaled it’s willing to push for staff reductions at its namesake brand to reduce expenses and improve profitability.
* Bayer AG hired several teams of bankers for a strategy simulation game that studied various breakup scenarios, according to people familiar with the matter. Their conclusion: Sweeping changes to the troubled German conglomerate won’t be easy.
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has shuttered its quantum computing research lab, a sign that the Chinese e-commerce and cloud operator is considering more cutbacks to bulk up the bottom line.

Key events this week:
* Meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Tuesday-Wednesday.
* ECB governing council member Pablo Hernandez de Cos and Bank of England Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden speak, Tuesday
* US Conference Board consumer confidence, Tuesday
* Fed Governor Chris Waller speaks, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speak, Tuesday
* New Zealand rate decision, Wednesday
* OECD releases biannual economic outlook, Wednesday
* Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence, Wednesday
* Germany CPI, Wednesday
* Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey speaks, Wednesday
* US wholesale inventories, GDP, Wednesday
* Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester speaks, Wednesday
* Fed releases its Beige Book, Wednesday
* China non-manufacturing PMI, manufacturing PMI, Thursday
* OPEC+ meeting, Thursday
* Eurozone CPI, unemployment, Thursday
* US personal income, PCE deflator, initial jobless claims, pending home sales, Thursday
* Dell earnings, Thursday
* China Caixin Manufacturing PMI, Friday
* Eurozone S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, Friday
* US construction spending, ISM Manufacturing, Friday
* Fed Chair Jerome Powell to participate in “fireside chat” in Atlanta, 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 0.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%
* The euro rose 0.2% to $1.0956
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2629
* The Japanese yen rose 0.5% to 148.63 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 2.2% to $36,804.5
* Ether fell 3.8% to $1,995.7
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined eight basis points to 4.38%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined 10 basis points to 2.55%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 4.21%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.7% to $74.99 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,014.05 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Matthew Burgess, Tassia Sipahutar, Pearl Liu, Alex Nicholson, Elena Popina, Tatiana Darie and Kasia Klimasinska.

Have a lovely evening.

 

Be magnificent!

As ever,

 

Carolann

There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction. 

One has to go abroad in order to find the home one has lost. –Franz Kafka, 1883-1924.

 

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

November 24, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

November 24th, 1859: Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species published.  One of the most influential books of all times, On the Origin of Species, put forth the theory of evolution and described the process of natural selection.
1963: Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.  Go to article >>

Seamount twice the size of world’s tallest building mapped
Scientists aboard the Falkor (too) research vessel have documented, for the first time, an extinct volcano towering 5,250 feet above the seabed in the Pacific Ocean. Read More.

James Webb telescope reveals gargantuan ‘Mothra’ star
The James Webb and Hubble space telescopes have combined forces to image a cluster of galaxies 4.3 billion light-years away in one of the most colorful pictures of the universe ever taken. Read More.

Earth successfully received a message beamed from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, located some 10 million miles away.  Full Story: Live Science (11/23)

Earth slammed by powerful ‘goddess particle’ cosmic ray
Researchers recently detected an “ultra-high-energy” cosmic ray, but they have no idea where it came from. Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Kadoma, Japan
Haein Lee of South Korea performs in the women’s short programme during the ISU Grand Prix of figure skating – the NHK Trophy – near Osaka.  Photograph: Tomohiro Ohsumi/AP.

New Delhi, India
Monkeys cross a street amid heavy smog conditions.  Photograph: Money Sharma/AFP/Getty Images.

​​​​​​​Rome, Italy
A dog waits for a bone-shaped dessert served at the Fiuto restaurant, the first in Italy to serve dogs.  Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images.
Market Closes for November 24th,2023

Market
Index
Close Change
Dow
Jones
35390.15 +117.12
+0.33%
S&P 500 4559.34 +2.72
+0.06%
NASDAQ  14250.86 -15.00
-0.11%
TSX 20103.11 -13.55
-0.07%

International Markets

Market
Index
Close Change
NIKKEI 33625.53 +173.70
+0.52%
HANG
SENG
17559.42 -351.42
-1.96%
SENSEX 65970.04 -47.77
-0.07%
FTSE 100* 7488.20 +4.62
+0.06%

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond
3.717 3.710
CND.
30 Year
Bond
3.494 3.519
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.4665 N.A.
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.5973 N.A.

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous  
Canadian $ 0.7334 0.7301
US
$
1.3636 1.3697

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro=
Inverse   
Canadian $ 1.4919 0.6703
US
$
1.0941 0.9140

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold
Fix 
1992.85 1997.55
Oil
WTI Crude Future  N.A. N.A.

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1998, America Online said it would take over Netscape Communications for roughly $4.2 billion.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite declined slightly to 20,103.11 in Toronto.

The move follows the previous session’s little change.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 0.5%.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 2.6%.
Today, 103 of 227 shares fell, while 120 rose; 8 of 11 sectors were lower, led by information technology stocks.

Insights
* This year, the index rose 3.7%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This month, the index rose 6.5%, heading for the biggest advance since January
* So far this week, the index fell 0.4%
* The index declined 1.2% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.6% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 7.5% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.3 on a trailing basis and 14.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.19t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 13.45% compared with 13.62% in the previous session and the average of 14.32% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology | -6.8305| -0.4| 2/9
Industrials | -4.3506| -0.2| 14/12
Utilities | -3.1162| -0.4| 5/10
Consumer Discretionary | -3.0800| -0.4| 6/8
Energy | -0.6262| 0.0| 23/16
Real Estate | -0.4759| -0.1| 9/11
Communication Services | -0.0378| 0.0| 2/3
Health Care | -0.0172| 0.0| 2/2
Materials | 0.2110| 0.0| 34/17
Consumer Staples | 0.3086| 0.0| 4/7
Financials | 4.4742| 0.1| 19/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | -3.6770| -0.5|n/a | 104.8
Brookfield Corp | -3.2900| -0.7|n/a | 9.0
Restaurant Brands | -2.9250| -1.4|n/a | 8.2
Manulife Financial | 2.1730| 0.7|n/a | 9.3
TD Bank | 2.5670| 0.2|n/a | -4.9
RBC | 2.9280| 0.3|n/a | -6.6

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks barely budged in a holiday-shortened session while Treasuries fell, with this month’s rally in global bonds showing signs of stalling.
The S&P 500 closed little changed at 1 p.m. New York, while notching its fourth straight week of gains.

Cryptocurrency-linked shares rallied as Bitcoin inched further above $37,000.
Nvidia Corp. slid after a news report the company has told customers in China it’s delaying the launch of a new artificial-intelligence chip.

Ten-year US yields approached 4.5%.
Treasuries followed a slide in European bonds that was caused by concerns of burgeoning supply.

Germany will suspend a constitutional limit on net new borrowing for a fourth consecutive year after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government was forced into a radical budget overhaul by a ruling last week from
the nation’s top court.
“In this early close Black Friday, we open to much higher Treasury yields because of what happened yesterday in Germany,” said Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities. “A court ruling is causing Germany to suspend their debt ceiling, which has led 10-year German Bunds to rise. Other European rates followed, and so have US Treasuries.”
Meantime, investors flocked into equities at the fastest pace in almost two years, according to Bank of America Corp.’s Michael Hartnett, as wagers of peak interest rates grow.
Global stock funds have seen inflows of about $40 billion in the two weeks through Nov. 21 — the most since February 2022, Hartnett wrote in a note, citing EPFR Global data.

Still, cash funds remain the winner with additions of nearly $1.2 trillion so far in 2023, compared with $143 billion into equities, while bond funds broadly registered outflows.
“We had a nice bounce off of an oversold condition at a seasonally appropriate time,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “It was predicated on the Fed ending its hiking cycle, so that’s OK. But it now seems predicated on a rapid easing cycle, which may require a much worse economy than investors expect.”
In economic news, employment declined at US service providers and manufacturers in November for the first time since mid-2020 amid tepid demand and elevated costs, a survey from S&P Global showed.

Corporate Highlights:
* Macy’s Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Gennette told Bloomberg Television interview that the retailer had a “great day online yesterday during Thanksgiving.”
* iRobot Corp., the vacuum-cleaner maker that Amazon.com Inc. is proposing to buy in a billion-dollar deal, soared on a news report that European Union regulators plan to clear the merger.
* Fisker Inc. surged after the electric-vehicle startup filed its delayed third-quarter results, and said it has made a strategic shift to improve the pace of deliveries in the US and Europe.

Looking into next week’s earnings, Zscaler Inc. and Crowdstrike Holdings Inc. will underscore how businesses are prioritizing cybersecurity after recent high-profile corporate hacks.
Salesforce Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. are expected to post slower sales growth as overall corporate expenditure tightens.
Elsewhere, OPEC+ is close to resolving a dispute over output quotas that forced the group to postpone a pivotal meeting, as it reviews the demands made on African members by an earlier deal.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 was little changed as of 1 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.1%

Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
* The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0941
* The British pound rose 0.6% to $1.2607
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 149.52 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.7% to $37,873.5
* Ether rose 1.7% to $2,105.02

Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced eight basis points to 4.48%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.64%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.28%

Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.5% to $75.92 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.5% to $2,001.39 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Garfield Reynolds, Sagarika Jaisinghani and Isabelle Lee.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens
unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments. –William E. Borah, 1865-1940.

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

November 23, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve. American Thanksgiving Day.

November 23, 1976: First person to dive 100 meters in the sea without breathing equipment.  Frenchman Jacques Mayol, who is also sometimes known as Dolphin Man, was 49 years old at the time.  He broke his own record 7 years later by diving 105 meters.
1936: Life magazine premiered.

Indigenous Mexicans migrated to California 5,200 years ago
New research challenges the idea that languages from prehistoric Mexico spread along with maize farming in California.

A new series of experiments has shown that the mysterious “E-prime layer,” which surrounds Earth’s outer core, is created by water that leaks deep into our planet’s interior.  Full Story: Live Science (11/22)

James Webb telescope discovers 2 of the oldest galaxies
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a cosmic ‘peanut’ and ‘fluff ball’ that happen to be two of the four oldest galaxies in the known universe.  Read More.

World’s 1st CRISPR therapy approved. Here’s how it works.
U.K. regulators have approved the use of a CRISPR therapy called Casgevy to treat two inherited blood disorders. But what is it and how does it work? Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Agra, India
A tourist takes a picture of the Taj Mahal amid heavy smog.  Photograph: Pawan Sharma/AFP/Getty Images.

New York, US
The Macy’s inflation team works on giant balloons as they prepare for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.  Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images.

Dalian, China
Cars navigate heavy snowfall in China’s north-eastern Liaoning province
Photograph: AFP/Getty Image
Market Closes for November 23rd,2023

Market
Index
Close Change
Dow
Jones
Market Closed N.A.
S&P 500 Market Closed N.A.
NASDAQ  Market Closed N.A.
TSX 20116.66 +2.70
 +0.01%

International Markets

Market
Index
Close Change
NIKKEI Market Closed N.A.
HANG
SENG
17910.84 +176.24
+0.99%
SENSEX 66017.81 -5.43
-0.01%
FTSE 100* 7483.58 +14.07
+0.19%

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond
3.710 3.657
CND.
30 Year
Bond
3.519 3.468
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
N.A. 4.4042
U.S.
30 Year Bond
N.A. 4.5371

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous  
Canadian $ 0.7301 0.7303
US
$
1.3697 1.3693

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro=
Inverse   
Canadian $ 1.4936 0.6695
US
$
1.0906 0.9169

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold
Fix 
1997.55 2006.60
Oil
WTI Crude Future  N.A. 76.75

Market Commentary:
The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient. -Warren Buffett.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 20,116.66 in Toronto.
Canadian National Railway Co. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.2%.

Cargojet Inc. had the largest increase, rising 2.9%.
Today, 112 of 227 shares rose, while 110 fell; 4 of 11 sectors were higher, led by industrials stocks.

Insights
* This year, the index rose 3.8%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This month, the index rose 6.6%, heading for the biggest advance since January
* So far this week, the index fell 0.3%
* The index declined 0.8% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.5% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 7.6% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.3% in the past 5 days and rose 5.6% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.4 on a trailing basis and 14.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.19t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 13.62% compared with 13.64% in the previous session and the average of 14.36% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Industrials | 13.8525| 0.5| 15/11
Energy | 10.5542| 0.3| 34/5
Real Estate | 0.2215| 0.0| 10/11
Communication Services | 0.0167| 0.0| 1/3
Consumer Discretionary | -0.0038| 0.0| 9/5
Health Care | -0.1823| -0.3| 2/2
Utilities | -0.8882| -0.1| 4/11
Information Technology | -1.4173| -0.1| 7/4
Financials | -2.6632| 0.0| 16/11
Materials | -7.1403| -0.3| 13/37
Consumer Staples | -9.6502| -1.1| 1/10
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian National | 7.7950| 1.2|n/a | -2.0
Canadian Pacific | | | |
Kansas | 5.0790| 0.8|n/a | -2.9
Canadian Natural Resources | 3.6650| 0.5|n/a | 18.8
Suncor Energy | -3.2040| -0.8|n/a | 4.1
Shopify | -3.5940| -0.4|n/a | 105.7
Couche-Tard | -5.5530| -1.3|n/a | 32.7

US
All markets closed.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there. –Albert Einstein, 1879-1955.

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

November 22, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States.  Go to article >>

1859: On The Origin of Species published by Charles Darwin.
1819: George Eliot, b.
1890: Charles DeGaulle b.
1899: Hoagie Carmichael, b.
1958: Jamie Lee Curtis, b.
1984: Scarlett Johansson, b.

2,000 ancient clay stamps discovered in Turkey
Researchers found thousands of clay stamps used to seal official Roman documents inside a former city archive in Doliche.  Read More.

‘Devil comet’ headed for Earth loses its iconic horns
The latest and most violent eruption of the cryovolcanic comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, which will make its long-awaited closest approach to Earth next year, shows that the icy object may have lost its iconic devil horns for good.  Read More.

The Rolling Stones are going on a tour sponsored by AARP
After 60 years, The Rolling Stones are still going strong! Find out the latest details about the band’s upcoming concert tour.

Elusive street artist Banksy appears to reveal his real name
Shielded by his anonymity, Banksy’s distinctive graffiti art has popped up around the world. But a newly resurfaced interview appears to provide a key clue about his identity.

This high school is preparing the next generation of aviation experts
Take a look inside a high school dedicated to helping students explore careers in the aviation industry. Watch the video here

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Tokyo, Japan
A staff member stands within the interactive artwork during a preview of the teamLab Borderless exhibition at Mori Building Digital Art Museum.  Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images.

Cocoa Beach, US
The launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.  Photograph: Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today/AP.

​​​​​​​Kazipur Upazila, Bangladesh
Drivers transport paddy straw, a rice byproduct, in small trucks for sale to wholesalers.  Photograph: Syed Mahabubul Kader/Zuma/Shutterstock.
Market Closes for November 22nd,2023

Market
Index
Close Change
Dow
Jones
35273.03 +184.74
+0.53%
S&P 500 4556.62 +18.43
+0.41%
NASDAQ  14265.86 +65.88
+0.46%
TSX 20113.96 +3.99
+0.02%

International Markets

Market
Index
Close Change
NIKKEI 33451.83 +97.69
+0.29%
HANG
SENG
17734.60 +0.71
SENSEX 66023.24 +92.47
+0.14%
FTSE 100* 7469.51 -12.48
-0.17%

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond
3.657 3.649
CND.
30 Year
Bond
3.468 3.474
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.4042 4.3984
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.5371 4.5521

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous  
Canadian $ 0.7303 0.7298
US
$
1.3693 1.3702

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro=
Inverse   
Canadian $ 1.4908 0.6708
US
$
1.0888 0.9184

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold
Fix 
2006.60 1968.70
Oil
WTI Crude Future  76.75 77.42

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1808, travel industry pioneer Thomas Cook was born in Melbourne, England. After serving as a Baptist missionary, he chartered a train to bring travelers to a temperance convention. Cook’s travel agency went on to bring the “Grand Tour” of Europe and other iconic travel experiences to the masses.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 20,113.96 in Toronto.

The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.7%.
Today, consumer staples stocks led the market higher, as 6 of 11 sectors gained; 122 of 227 shares rose, while 104 fell.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.7%.

George Weston Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6.7%.
Insights
* This year, the index rose 3.8%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This month, the index rose 6.6%, heading for the biggest advance since January
* The index declined 0.5% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.5% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 7.6% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.3% in the past 5 days and rose 5.2% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.3 on a trailing basis and 14.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.18t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 13.64% compared with 13.93% in the previous session and the average of 14.39% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Consumer Staples | 22.1877| 2.5| 11/0
Information Technology | 13.1119| 0.8| 5/6
Real Estate | 4.6495| 1.0| 19/2
Utilities | 2.9566| 0.4| 11/4
Industrials | 0.5617| 0.0| 16/10
Health Care | 0.0072| 0.0| 3/1
Communication Services | -1.0966| -0.1| 3/2
Consumer Discretionary | -1.1246| -0.2| 7/7
Materials | -1.8666| -0.1| 19/32
Financials | -8.6357| -0.1| 17/11
Energy | -26.7418| -0.7| 11/29
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 13.2900| 1.7|n/a | 106.6
Couche-Tard | 9.0300| 2.2|n/a | 34.5
Brookfield Corp | 5.1850| 1.1|n/a | 10.4
RBC | -7.9050| -0.7|n/a | -6.5
TD Bank | -11.0400| -1.0|n/a | -4.9
Canadian Natural Resources | -12.9100| -1.9|n/a | 18.2

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Treasury yields rose after data showed a further increase in consumer year-ahead inflation expectations, with some traders taking profits on dovish Federal Reserve wagers.
In a thin trading session ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, two-year US yields hit 4.9%.

The S&P 500 edged higher.
Amazon.com Inc. climbed ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Microsoft Corp. gained on news Sam Altman will return to lead OpenAI.

Nvidia Corp. dropped after its results.
The dollar advanced.
Oil declined.
Americans expect inflation will climb at an annual rate of 4.5% over the next year, up from the 4.4% expected earlier in the month, according to the final November reading from the University of Michigan. They see costs rising 3.2% over the next five to 10 years, data Wednesday showed.
“For a data-dependent Fed, this is not good news as they do not want to see consumer inflation expectations become unanchored, since historically it becomes increasingly difficult to reset consumer psychology towards a lower inflationary environment,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial.
In other economic news, applications for US jobless benefits fell last week after a run of increases, a slight reprieve in what otherwise has been a gradually cooling labor market.

Durable goods orders declined in October by more than expected as commercial aircraft bookings retreated and demand weakened for business equipment.
The stand-out theme in the SOFR options market Wednesday has been the liquidation of dovish hedges — which has picked up in a sign that traders are taking profits on dovish Fed wagers placed as far back as September.
Equities extended their November gains.

The S&P 500 will rally to a record high next year, helped by positive sentiment and resilient valuations, according to Lori Calvasina at RBC Capital Markets.
“The sentiment set up is constructive for now,” Calvasina wrote in a note, saying that an indicator of investor appetite that’s proved reliable in 2023 is sitting in a range typically followed by 10% gains in the S&P 500 over 12 months.

“Valuations can stay higher than many investors realize,” as cooling inflation should support price-to-earnings multiples, she wrote.
Elsewhere, oil slumped as the OPEC+ meeting that had been set for the weekend was delayed, dimming traders’ expectations that the cartel will intervene to tighten supplies.

Corporate Highlights:
* Boeing Co.’s largest 737 Max variant was given so-called type-inspection authorization by the Federal Aviation Administration that clears the path for the next phase of flight testing for the long-delayed model.
* Broadcom Inc. completed its takeover of software maker Vmware Inc. following an unexpectedly long 18-month process that culminated in the deal getting approval in China.
* Deere & Co. forecast smaller-than-expected profit next year, with slowing equipment demand from farmers starting to weigh on the world’s largest tractor maker.
* Autodesk Inc. was downgraded by Piper Sandler after the company’s tepid growth rate and tempered margin expectations.
* Guess? Inc., a clothing company, reported net revenue that missed estimates.
* Nordstrom Inc., a department store chain, reported total revenue that missed estimates.
* Urban Outfitters Inc., a clothing retailer, reported comparable sales for its namesake banner that missed estimates.
* Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. was downgraded by Morgan Stanley, which noted the rocket company has no planned revenue-generating flights from mid-2024 to 2026.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.4% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.1%

Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.0887
* The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.2495
* The Japanese yen fell 0.8% to 149.59 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 2.1% to $37,598.9
* Ether rose 4.5% to $2,074.67

Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.41%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.56%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 4.15%

Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.3% to $76.73 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.4% to $1,989.81 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Rob Verdonck, Tassia Sipahutar, Robert Brand, Sagarika Jaisinghani and Edward Bolingbroke.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience – the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men – each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient – they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself.
For this each man must look into his own soul. –John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917-1963.

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

November 21, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
November 21, 1995: Dow Jones tops 5000 for the first time. (P.S. It closed at 35,088.29 today, i.e., here’s one way to get rich – buy stocks and hold for the long term).
November 21st, 1962: War between China and India ends.  The month-long war began over a border dispute between the two countries and ended with a  unilateral ceasefire by the Chinese.
1783: Man’s first flight in a  balloon.

1985: The first version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Windows 1.0, was released.  Go to article >>

Goldie Hawn, b. 1945.
Voltaire, b. 1694

‘Napoleon’ releases in US theaters this week
Director Ridley Scott spoke with CNN about his creative endeavors and the historical epic releasing Wednesday starring Joaquin Phoenix.

A never-before-seen glimpse of the heart of the Milky Way
The James Webb Space Telescope captured a stunning new image of our home galaxy, released by NASA on Monday.

The more than 3,000-year-old site along a riverbank in Serbia contains the footprints of dozens of Bronze Age structures.  Full Story: Live Science (11/20).

JWST discovers ‘Cosmic Vine’ of 20 connected galaxies
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a massive chain of 20 galaxies in the early universe, raising questions about the formation of the largest structures in the cosmos. Read More.

Civil War weapons recovered from South Carolina river
Civil War weapons, including an unexploded ordnance, were found during a cleanup project in a South Carolina river.  Read More.

Baboon mummy DNA reveals location of mysterious city
New DNA study on a baboon mummy from ancient Egypt suggests that the lost realm of Punt and the port city of Adulis may have been in the same place, separated by time.  Read More.

A single stamp sold for $2 million at auction.

Area man with no car leaves his town millions after death.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Guangzhou, China
The Canton Tower and skyscrapers are illuminated during a rehearsal for the Guangzhou international light festival in Guangdong.  Photograph: VCG/Getty Images.

New York, US
People gather as Saks Fifth Avenue unveils its holiday windows.  Photograph: John Lamparski/Getty Images.

Nature photographer of the year 2023 and mammals category winner – He Looks to the Heavens, Jacquie Matechuk (Canada)
Jacquie Matechuk says: ‘Spanning more than 8,000 km, the Andean mountain range occupies more than a quarter of the land surface in Ecuador. Rich in biodiversity, it’s also home to a unique species called the spectacled bear. Until planning this trip, I knew nothing about them. But as a certified bear guide, I was excited to expand my knowledge and understanding of a new species.’
Photograph: Jacquie Matechuk/2023 NPOTY
Market Closes for November 21st,2023

Market
Index
Close Change
Dow
Jones
35088.29 -62.75
-0.18%
S&P 500 4538.19 -9.19
-0.20%
NASDAQ  14199.98 -84.55
-0.59%
TSX 20109.97 -136.50
-0.67%

International Markets

Market
Index
Close Change
NIKKEI 33354.14 -33.89
-0.10%
HANG
SENG
17733.89 -44.18
-0.25%
SENSEX 65930.77 +275.62
+0.42%
FTSE 100* 7481.99 -14.37
-0.19%

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond
3.649 3.652
CND.
30 Year
Bond
3.474 3.467
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.3984 4.4198
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.5521 4.5709

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous  
Canadian $ 0.7298 0.7284
US
$
1.3702 1.3728

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro=
Inverse   
Canadian $ 1.4949 0.6689
US
$
1.0911 0.9165

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold
Fix 
1968.70 1981.05
Oil
WTI Crude Future  77.42 77.60

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act—or the “Financial Services Modernization Act”—essentially repealing the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which banned banks from the brokerage business.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.7% at 20,109.97 in Toronto.

The move was the biggest since falling 0.9% on Nov. 7 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.4%.
Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.0%. TransAlta Corp. had the largest drop, falling 6.4%.
Today, 162 of 227 shares fell, while 64 rose; 10 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.

Insights
* This year, the index rose 3.7%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This month, the index rose 6.6%, heading for the biggest advance since January
* The index advanced 0.7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 14% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.5% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 7.6% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.4% in the past 5 days and rose 5.2% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.4 on a trailing basis and 14.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.21t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 13.93% compared with 13.91% in the previous session and the average of 14.43% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -54.0138| -0.9| 9/19
Industrials | -27.1927| -1.0| 4/22
Energy | -21.8992| -0.6| 7/33
Consumer Discretionary | -12.8373| -1.7| 0/14
Consumer Staples | -12.4981| -1.4| 0/11
Utilities | -11.1270| -1.4| 1/14
Real Estate | -4.7597| -1.0| 2/18
Information Technology | -4.1115| -0.2| 3/8
Communication Services | -3.5483| -0.5| 1/4
Health Care | -0.9137| -1.6| 0/4
Materials | 16.4005| 0.7| 37/15
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
TD Bank | -11.2900| -1.0|n/a | -3.9
Brookfield Corp | -10.0700| -2.1|n/a | 9.2
Canadian Natural Resources | -8.7820| -1.3|n/a | 20.4
Agnico Eagle Mines | 4.0820| 1.8|n/a | -3.5
Wheaton Precious Metals | 4.4630| 2.2|n/a | 21.7
Barrick Gold | 6.1350| 2.3|n/a | -4.4

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks, bonds and the dollar barely budged after the Federal Reserve minutes reiterated the central bank’s cautious approach on interest rates, with traders gearing up for Nvidia Corp.’s results.
The S&P 500 edged lower after hitting “overbought” levels and the Nasdaq 100 underperformed.

As the earnings season winds down, questions on the sustainability of the advance led by the “Big Seven” group of mega-caps have resurfaced, with Nvidia declining from a record.
The bar was set high for the world’s most-valuable chipmaker, whose shares have more than tripled this year — leaving little room for error.
Some $6 trillion in market capitalization has been added to the US equity benchmark in 2023 in a rally fueled by the artificial intelligence boom, Corporate America’s resilience and bets the Fed will pivot to rate cuts next year.

The gains left the index about 5% away from reclaiming its all-time high.
For a market surge that has been predicated squarely on the belief the central bank has completed its hiking cycle and rate cuts are due in 2024, the Fed minutes just underscored the most-recent messaging — officials are still not prepared to declare victory and they have no intention so far to ease policy, according to Quincy Krosby at LPL Financial.
“Today’s sluggish market is a more a function of a short-term overbought market, rather than a market that believes it misinterpreted the Fed,” Krosby noted. “Still, the market believes that the Fed is finished and that the economy will require help with rate cuts in 2024, regardless of the Fed’s messaging.”
“The stock market is once again priced for perfection,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co.  “Since the stock market is more ‘overbought’ right now — than it was ‘oversold’ three weeks ago — investors will need to remain very nimble as we move through the end of November and into December.”
Short-term charts on the S&P 500 are currently sporting a negative divergence between price action (approaching recent 2023 highs) and momentum (lower highs), according to Dan Wantrobski, at Janney Montgomery Scott.  “This is a sign that buying power is weakening even as the S&P looks to test into the low-4600 zone,” Wantrobski noted.
“Markets are now vulnerable to profit taking/consolidation over the near-term. We also believe they are still vulnerable to elevated volatility/correction within the first half of 2024.”
Hedge funds are holding their most-concentrated wagers on US equities than any time in the past 22 years, according to data from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The most popular bets remain in mega cap tech, with Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. in Goldman’s list of “Hedge Fund VIPs” this quarter.
To Savita Subramanian at Bank of America Corp., the S&P 500 is set for a fresh high in 2024 because US companies have adapted to higher rates and weathered macroeconomic jolts.

She sees the gauge at a record 5,000 by the end of 2024, which is 10% higher than Monday’s close. Next year will be “a stock picker’s paradise,” they said.
US stocks have “much more upside potential” as they approach decisive bullish breakouts, wrote BofA’s technical strategist Stephen Suttmeier.

If the S&P 500 could surpass the low 4,600s, it would confirm a “bullish cup and handle” pattern from early 2022 — triggering more gains, he added.
“Our base case is for further modest equity gains in 2024, with the S&P 500 Index ending the year around 4,700,” said Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer for the Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management.  As inflation continues to fall and growth moderates, we are even more positive on quality fixed income. But an unusually wide range of risks could still spoil the outlook.”
For investors stashing record sums in cash, US bond managers overseeing a combined $2.5 trillion have a bit of advice: It’s time to put that money to work.  

That’s the message from Capital Group, DoubleLine Capital, Pacific Investment Management Co. and TCW Group.
Signs of ebbing inflation and softer growth have fueled a 3.6% surge in the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index in November, leaving it with a return of about 0.7% for 2023.

That’s still well short of what cash has earned this year.
But it shows what a real turning point could deliver after a year marked by head fakes over price pressures and Fed policy.
“If people are moving into cash because of 5% rates, we could see that money start trickling back into markets soon.  Inflation is coming under control, and the bond market is now preparing for the Fed to start cutting rates in March,” said Callie Cox at eToro.

Corporate Highlights:
* Lowe’s Cos. cut its forecast, underscoring the shift away from big home-renovation projects after the pandemic boom.
* Best Buy Co.’s same-store sales fell by more than expected in the third quarter after what the retailer called “uneven consumer demand.”
* Kohl’s Corp. reported a seventh-straight drop in comparable sales, pointing to an ongoing decline in foot traffic and a broader shift away from consumer spending on discretionary goods like apparel.
* Abercrombie & Fitch Co. boosted its forecast on the back of stronger-than-expected third-quarter sales as the retro brand’s comeback continues to resonate with teens and young millennials.
* Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. raised its profit forecast as strong demand for sports gear overcame concerns of a slowdown in spending ahead of the holiday season.
* Broadcom Inc.’s deal with software maker VMware Inc. has received a list of conditions it must meet to get approval from Chinese regulators, the final hurdle for the companies’ $61 billion merger.
* Zoom Video Communications Inc. reported better-than-expected revenue on strong enterprise sales.
* Ford Motor Co. is reducing capacity and hiring plans at a battery plant it’s building in Michigan because it sees weaker demand for electric vehicles.

Key events this week:
* Eurozone consumer confidence, Wednesday
* US initial jobless claims, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, durable goods, Wednesday
* Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem speaks, Wednesday
* Eurozone S&P Global Manufacturing & Services PMI, Thursday
* Thanksgiving holiday — US markets closed — Thursday
* ECB publishes account of October policy meeting, Thursday
* Germany IFO business climate, Friday
* US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, Friday
* Black Friday, traditional kick-off for the US holiday shopping season
* ECB’s Christine Lagarde 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 fell 0.2%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.2%

Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0912
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2536
* The Japanese yen was unchanged at 148.39 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.3% to $36,957.33
* Ether fell 1.6% to $1,992.87

Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.40%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 2.57%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.10%

Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
* Spot gold rose 1.1% to $1,999.09 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jason Scott, Tassia Sipahutar, Pearl Liu, Thyagaraju Adinarayan, Robert Brand, Michael Mackenzie and Elena Popina.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car. -Lawrence Summers, b. 1954.

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

November 20, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Monday.

On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.  Go to article >>

November 20, 1985: Windows 1.0 released.  Nearly two years after it was announced, Microsoft released its first graphical operating system.

World’s ‘most sought-after’ whisky sells for $2.7 million
This bottle of whisky set the highest record for any spirit or wine sold under the hammer, according to Sotheby’s auction house in London.

10 abandoned places reclaimed by nature
With a lack of human interference, these derelict sites are being reclaimed by plant and animal species.

See 10 decades of Thanksgiving Day parade balloons
Float down memory lane with a visual history of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Roman coins and gems unearthed at ‘magical place’
During ongoing excavations at Claterna, an ancient Roman site in Italy known as the “Pompeii of the North,” archaeologists unearthed 3,000 coins and 50 gems. Read More.

Astronomers spot aurora on the sun for the 1st time
Scientists have spotted an aurora signal caused by electrons accelerating through a sunspot on our star’s surface for the first time ever. Read More.

Scientists just observed Mars’ eerie green nightglow in the visible light spectrum for the very first time.  Full Story: Live Science (11/17)
​​​​​​​
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Anqing, China
A hardened road can be seen winding through a villages in the hinterland of the Dabie mountain range in Anhui province.  Photograph: Costfoto/NurPhoto/Shutterstock.

Tokyo, Japan
Mount Fuj is silhouetted during sunset behind the highrise buildings of the Shinjuku area of the Japanese capital.  Photograph: Richard A Brooks/AFP/Getty Images.

Chandigarh, India
Devotees perform religious rituals as they offer prayers to the solar deity Surya during the Hindu festival of Chhath Puja.  Photograph: AFP/Getty Images.
Market Closes for November 20th,2023

Market
Index
Close Change
Dow
Jones
35151.04 +203.76
+0.58%
S&P 500 4547.38 +33.36
+0.74%
NASDAQ  14284.54 +159.06
+1.13%
TSX 20246.47 +70.70
+0.35%

International Markets

Market
Index
Close Change
NIKKEI 33388.03 -197.17
-0.59%
HANG
SENG
17778.07 +323.88
+1.86%
SENSEX 65655.15 -139.58
-0.21%
FTSE 100* 7496.36 -7.89
-0.11%

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond
3.652 3.678
CND.
30 Year
Bond
3.467 3.490
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.4198 4.4354
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.5709 4.5889

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous  
Canadian $ 0.7284 0.7288
US
$
1.3728 1.3721

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro=
Inverse   
Canadian $ 1.5020 0.6658
US
$
1.0941 0.9140

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold
Fix 
1981.05 1980.10
Oil
WTI Crude Future  77.60 75.89

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1991, fashion chain Cascade International said Chairman Victor Incendy had disappeared. Incendy had claimed that Cascade had between 255 and 400 stores; in reality, there were fewer than 30. Cascade’s stock was once valued around $200 million. The company’s stores were sold off for $370,000.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.4%, or 70.7 to 20,246.47 in Toronto.

The index advanced to the highest closing level since Sept. 18.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.7%.

Lithium Americas Argentina Corp. had the largest increase, rising 7.2%.
Today, 150 of 227 shares rose, while 70 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.

Insights
* This year, the index rose 4.4%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This month, the index rose 7.3%, heading for the biggest advance since November 2020
* The index advanced 1.3% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 14% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.9% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 8.3% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.7% in the past 5 days and rose 5.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.4 on a trailing basis and 14.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.19t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 13.91% compared with 14.34% in the previous session and the average of 14.46% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 25.4148| 0.4| 18/10
Information Technology | 19.7824| 1.2| 9/2
Energy | 12.0596| 0.3| 32/7
Materials | 6.9726| 0.3| 32/19
Real Estate | 3.3376| 0.7| 15/5
Consumer Staples | 1.8578| 0.2| 5/6
Consumer Discretionary | 1.1997| 0.2| 11/2
Health Care | 0.5526| 1.0| 2/1
Utilities | 0.4166| 0.1| 8/6
Industrials | -0.4267| 0.0| 16/10
Communication Services | -0.4715| -0.1| 2/2
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 13.2100| 1.7|n/a | 103.0
Brookfield Corp | 10.3700| 2.2|n/a | 11.5
Constellation Software | 4.1690| 1.0|n/a | 53.8
Canadian National | -3.1340| -0.5|n/a | -2.2
Suncor Energy | -3.5700| -0.8|n/a | 7.0
Franco-Nevada | -4.6180| -2.1|n/a | -12.4

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market extended its powerful November rally ahead of Nvidia Corp.’s results, with Wall Street also breathing a sigh of relief as a $16 billion sale of 20-year Treasuries lured bond buyers.
Shortly after the auction results, US 10-year yields reversed course and fell to around 4.4%.

The S&P 500 closed at the highest since August while the Nasdaq 100 hit a 22-month high.
Both Nvidia and Microsoft Corp. climbed to fresh peaks amid a revival of the artificial-intelligence bid.
In late trading, Zoom Video Communications Inc. rose on better-than-expected sales.
The dollar dropped to an 11-week low.
“We remain positive on equities and expect a broadening of the rallies recently experienced as the US economy continues on a sustainable economic expansion albeit at a modest pace,” said John Stoltzfus, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer Asset Management.

Traders have also been fixated on Treasury sales, especially after the US recently offered an unusually large premium to sell 30-year securities.
Those auctions have been exerting a growing sway over stocks, underscoring how the path of interest rates is gripping markets of late.
The 20-year bond auction drew yields of 4.78%, compared with the pre-sale level of 4.79%.
After a more than three-decade hiatus, the Treasury resurrected 20-year bonds in May 2020.

Before Monday’s auction, it had not sold the securities during the Thanksgiving week.
They’ve traded at a discount to other long-term maturities — which caused a degree of apprehension ahead of the sale.
“Treasuries offer extremely attractive yields,” according to Principal Asset Management. “And while the potential for capital appreciation might be limited in the face of an impending economic slowdown, the assurance of a steady income from Treasuries makes them a solid option for investors prioritizing stability heading into an uncertain 2024.”
To Peter Boockvar, author of the Boock Report, the auction was actually fairly mixed, with traders focusing more on the lower yield relative to the pricing right before it — rather than the below average bid to cover.
Due to its somewhat “orphaned status” and small size, “I don’t know what to make of the auction in terms of messaging,” he noted.
As the earnings season winds down, investors will be on the lookout for results from a handful of retailers and tech companies.
Nvidia’s quarterly results Tuesday could exceed sky-high investor expectations thanks to strong demand for generative AI.
Best Buy Co., Nordstrom Inc. and Lowe’s Cos. are set to post slumping sales, reflecting the slowdown in discretionary spending.
The S&P 500 is set to rise toward its all-time high early next year, pullback midyear and then rally back toward the highs, according to strategists at Societe Generale SA.
“The S&P 500 should be in ‘buy-the-dip’ territory, as leading indicators for profits continue to improve,” wrote Manish Kabra. “Yet, the journey to the end of the year should be far from smooth” he added, citing an economic downturn, a looming credit selloff, and ongoing quantitative tightening as hurdles traders still need to face.
To some market watchers, the S&P 500’s rally is looking increasingly unsustainable.

Strategists tracked by Bloomberg predicted on average in mid-October that the gauge would end the year at 4,370 — but it is already been trading above 4,500.
To power back to its previous peak, the S&P 500 needs more than just the earnings recovery that appears to be underway — rate cuts are necessary, too.

That’s according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s fair-value model of the US stock benchmark, which says the consensus 2024 price target on the gauge looks too lofty.
The typical post-earnings recession rebound is expected to come against a backdrop of sustained higher interest rates.
That’s likely to limit potential upside for the S&P 500 to around levels the gauge is currently trading at, even in the best-case scenario, based on projections by BI equity strategists Gina Martin Adams and Michael Casper.
“The market as a whole has not yet eclipsed its early-2022 highs, reflecting the push and pull between optimism for a Fed-engineered soft landing and the potential underestimation of economic headwinds,” said Jason Pride and Michael Reynolds at Glenmede.
Meantime, some of Wall Street’s top strategists are divided when it comes to Corporate America’s earnings outlook next year.
While Citigroup Inc.’s Scott Chronert expects profits to hold up even if the economy slips into a recession, JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategist Mislav Matejka says diminishing pricing power would crimp overall revenue and margins regardless of whether growth contracts.
A Citigroup index shows downgrades to US earnings estimates have outnumbered upgrades for nine weeks in a row — the longest streak since February.

Chronert does expect analysts’ estimates for 2024 to drop in the coming quarter — but that would only lower the bar for companies, he said.
And as the dollar rally stalled, it will take some firm real-sector data to challenge the current dovish Fed narrative, according to Win Thin, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
“The US economy continues to grow above trend even as the rest of the world slips into recession, while price pressures remain persistent enough that the Fed will not be able to cut rates as soon and by as much as the market thinks,” Thin noted.
“That said, the dollar remains vulnerable until we see a shift in market sentiment and expectations.”
To Solita Marcelli at UBS Global Wealth Management, the dollar should remain stable in the first months of 2024 due to robust economic growth and high interest rates relative to the rest of the world.
Elsewhere, oil extended gains as traders boosted bets that the OPEC+ alliance will intervene in the market to bolster prices.

Corporate Highlights:
* Nearly all of OpenAI’s employees have threatened to quit and follow ousted leader Sam Altman to work at the company’s biggest  investor, Microsoft, unless the current board resigns, leaving the future of the high-profile artificial intelligence startup increasingly uncertain.
* Boeing Co. rallied after Deutsche Bank AG upgraded the shares to buy as aircraft deliveries are beginning to accelerate.
* NRG Energy Inc. is replacing Chief Executive Officer Mauricio Gutierrez following a dispute over the company’s $2.8 billion acquisition of Vivint Smart Home Inc. — a transaction Elliott Investment Management LP has called the “worst deal” of the decade in the power and utilities industry.
* Bayer AG dropped the most in its history after suffering major courtroom and drug-development setbacks that raise pressure on its new leader to outline a turnaround plan.
* Bristol Myers Squibb Co. and 2seventy bio Inc. slumped after saying the Food and Drug Administration will convene an advisory committee meeting to review data around an application for a cancer drug, and that a decision on the application won’t be made by the target action date of Dec. 16.
* C3.ai Inc., a software maker that has worked to capitalize on interest in artificial intelligence, cut workers last week, citing employee performance and the need for cost savings.

Key events this week:
* ECB President Christine Lagarde and German Finance Minister Christian Lindner speak, Tuesday
* US existing home sales, Tuesday
* FOMC issues minutes from the Nov. 1 policy meeting, Tuesday
* Nvidia’s earnings, Tuesday
* Canada’s update to the government’s fiscal and economic outlook, Tuesday
* Eurozone consumer confidence, Wednesday
* US initial jobless claims, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, durable goods, Wednesday
* Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem speaks, Wednesday
* Eurozone S&P Global Manufacturing & Services PMI, Thursday
* Thanksgiving holiday — US markets closed — Thursday
* ECB publishes account of October policy meeting, Thursday
* Germany IFO business climate, Friday
* US S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, Friday
* Black Friday, traditional kick-off for the US holiday shopping season
* ECB’s Christine Lagarde 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 1.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.7%

Currencies

* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.2% to $1.0942
* The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.2507
* The Japanese yen rose 0.9% to 148.34 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.4% to $37,540.81
* Ether rose 2.5% to $2,033.75

Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.41%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.61%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 4.12%

Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.3% to $77.60 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.2% to $1,977.69 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Carter Johnson, Ye Xie, Matthew Burgess, Tassia Sipahutar, Robert Brand, Jeran Wittenstein, Elizabeth Stanton, Alexandra Semenova, Sagarika Jaisinghani, Edward Bolingbroke and Vassilis Karamanis.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As always,

Carolann
How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes. –Willaim Shakespeare, 1564-1616.

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

November 17, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday!
Carolann is away from the office for a conference, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

November 17, 1558: Queen Elizabeth I of England ascended to the throne upon the death of her half-sister Queen Mary.
November 17, 1800: Congress met in Washington, DC, for the first time.

What will happen if the Iceland volcano finally erupts?
Experts have warned that an underground magma tunnel between a pair of Icelandic towns could erupt at any moment. But what will this eruption look like? And how far-reaching will its effects be?

4,000-year-old tomb may contain Norway’s 1st farmers
Archaeologists in Norway have discovered a stone-lined tomb from the late Neolithic that holds the remains of at least five people.

2,800-year-old ivory carved with sphinx discovered in Turkey
The artifact is from an Iron Age settlement at Hattusa that was established after the city was abandoned by the Hittites.

Astronauts accidentally drop tool bag during spacewalk
A tool bag that gave astronauts the slip during a spacewalk at the International Space Station is surprisingly bright and can be seen from Earth with binoculars.

James Webb telescope detects ‘fluffy’ alien planet that rains sand
Clouds of silicate sand exist high in exoplanet WASP-107b’s atmosphere, new James Webb Space Telescope observations reveal.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Kuwait City, Kuwait
The top of the al-Hamra tower appears above heavy fog
Photograph: Yasser al-Zayyat/AFP/Getty Images

A female deer and a male stag make each other’s acquaintance during rutting season at Bushy Park, south-west London.
Photograph: SWNS/Lesley Marshall

Las Vegas, US
Kevin Magnussen of Denmark drives the Haas F1 VF-23 Ferrari during practice before the Formula One Grand Prix of Las Vegas in Nevada
Photograph: Jared C Tilton/Formula One/Getty Images
Market Closes for November 17th,2023

Market
Index
Close Change
Dow
Jones
34947.28 +1.81
+0.01%
S&P 500 4514.02 +5.78
+0.13%
NASDAQ  14125.48 +11.81
+0.08%
TSX 20175.77 +122.70
+0.61%

International Markets

Market
Index
Close Change
NIKKEI 33585.20 +160.79
+0.48%
HANG
SENG
17454.19 -378.63
-2.12%
SENSEX 65794.73 -187.75
-0.28%
FTSE 100* 7504.25 +93.28
+1.26%

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond
3.678 3.675
CND.
30 Year
Bond
3.490 3.495
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.4354 4.4355
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.5889 4.6146

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous  
Canadian $ 0.7288 0.7271
US
$
1.3721 1.3753

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro=
Inverse   
Canadian $ 1.4969 0.6680
US
$
1.0910 0.9166

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold
Fix 
1980.10 1958.20
Oil
WTI Crude Future  75.89 72.90

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1927, President Calvin Coolidge declared that America was “entering upon a new era of prosperity.” Although Coolidge may not have been the first to use the words “new era,” his remarks christened the bull market of the 1920s.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.6% at 20,175.77 in Toronto.

The index advanced to the highest closing level since Sept. 20 after the previous session’s little change.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.7%. Park Lawn Corp. had the largest increase, rising 4.7%.
Today, 139 of 227 shares rose, while 87 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.

Insights
* This year, the index rose 4.1%, heading for the best year since 2021
* So far this week, the index rose 2.7%
* The index advanced 1.5% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 14% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.2% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 7.9% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.4 on a trailing basis and 14.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.17t
* 30-day price volatility little changed to 14.34% compared with 14.33% in the previous session and the average of 14.45% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 85.6759| 2.4| 36/4
Financials | 35.2981| 0.6| 21/7
Consumer Discretionary | 7.7962| 1.0| 11/3
Information Technology | 7.5778| 0.4| 7/4
Health Care | 1.4570| 2.7| 4/0
Real Estate | 1.2916| 0.3| 13/8
Communication Services | 0.8822| 0.1| 3/2
Utilities | -0.4519| -0.1| 10/5
Consumer Staples | -0.5762| -0.1| 5/6
Industrials | -0.8144| 0.0| 12/14
Materials | -15.4387| -0.7| 17/34
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural | | | |
Resources | 25.1200| 3.7|n/a | 21.4
Suncor Energy | 16.1100| 4.0|n/a | 7.9
Enbridge | 13.5800| 2.0|n/a | -12.7
Barrick Gold | -3.6810| -1.4|n/a | -7.2
Nutrien | -4.0440| -1.5|n/a | -21.5
Brookfield Corp | -4.2870| -0.9|n/a | 9.1

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — US stocks saw small moves after a $2.7 trillion rally in November that was fueled by bets the Federal Reserve will end its hiking cycle to prevent a recession.

The dollar erased its 2023 advance.
The S&P 500 traded above 4,500, notching its third straight week of gains — the longest run since July.

Piles of derivatives contracts tied to stocks and indexes matured — which typically amplifies instability.
Applied Materials Inc. sank on a report it faces a US criminal probe for allegedly violating export restrictions to China. Homebuilders rose as new home construction picked up.
Equities have made a rapid about-face to “overbought” from “oversold” levels — spurring calls they were due for a breather.
Global stock funds attracted $23.5 billion in the week through Nov. 15, the second-biggest inflows of the year, Bank of America Corp. noted, citing data from EPFR.
After an “epic risk rally,” investors should offload those assets as technical and macroeconomic headwinds are building, according to Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at BofA. “Fade it,” he noted.
The dollar saw its worst week in four months amid bets the currency has already peaked, with softer-than-expected economic data reinforcing bets the Fed is done with rate hikes.

Ten-year US yields were little changed.
Oil climbed, but posted its fourth straight weekly drop on supply pressures.
Following a softer-than-expected inflation report, the Bloomberg US Aggregate index has gained 1.2% this week through
Thursday and is up 0.4% for the year. The benchmark, which tracks $25 trillion of investment-grade government and corporate debt, posted a record loss of 13% in 2022 and declined 1.5% the previous year.

The index has never slid three straight years.
Franklin Templeton’s Sonal Desai said this week’s bond- market rally has gone too far, too fast. “Markets are priced for beyond the perfect landing,” she told Bloomberg Television. “There do remain risks to inflation and there isn’t enough data to support the rate cuts priced for next year.”
Traders also kept a close eye on the latest Fedspeak. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr reiterated officials are likely at or near the end of their tightening campaign.

Yet Fed Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly said policymakers aren’t certain inflation is on a path to their 2% target.
“While it is unlikely the Fed will raise rates, investors are jumping ahead too quickly embracing rate cuts,” said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Private Wealth US. “Some time in 2024, the Fed will start to lower rates. But we are in a waiting game.”
After the recent rally, the S&P 500 has been consolidating in a tight range, with the gauge having “bandwidth” to pull back further over the short run — without breaking the initial
support at 4,350-4,400, said Dan Wantrobski at Janney Montgomery Scott.
Meantime, valuations of high-quality stocks — those with high profitability and low leverage — have become significantly more expensive compared to both the overall market and their low-quality counterparts, an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence found.
The other times in the recent past when quality commanded such high valuation premiums were in 2020 and 2008-2009, both times of turmoil. These periods pushed people to seek safety in high-quality investments, leading to the valuation spikes.
“Quality stocks have historically outperformed in the late stages of the business cycle, including in periods of economic contraction, which should offer portfolio protection if the economy slows more than we expect,” said Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer for the Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management.
As earnings season draws to a close, so does the S&P 500’s profit recession. Earnings are up 4% year-over-year with over 90% of S&P 500 firms having reported results for the third quarter, meaning a three-quarter streak of earnings declines is likely done, data compiled by BI show.
Traders are gearing up for a few more earnings from retailers and tech companies next week.
Best Buy Co., Nordstrom Inc. and Lowe’s Cos. are set to post slumping sales, while Nvidia Corp.’s quarterly results could still exceed sky-high investor expectations thanks to strong demand for generative artificial intelligence.

Corporate Highlights:
* Sam Altman, one of the most prominent figures in the world of artificial intelligence, is leaving OpenAI with the company’s board saying he wasn’t always “candid” and that it had lost confidence in him as a leader.
* Amazon.com Inc. is cutting hundreds of employees in the division responsible for its voice-activated Alexa assistant, according to a memo sent to employees.
* ChargePoint Holdings Inc. announced the sudden resignation of its longtime chief executive officer while posting disappointing quarterly revenue.
* Gap Inc. reported profit that exceeded forecasts and a smaller-than-expected drop in comparable sales.
* Ross Stores Inc., a discount department store chain, reported comparable sales that beat estimates.
* Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday lowered its outlook for Tyson Foods Inc. as it expects the largest US meat producer to keep burning cash in the coming 12 to 18 months.
* Elon Musk’s SpaceX is poised to launch its deep-space Starship rocket system Saturday from South Texas for the second time ever.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 was little changed
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed
* The MSCI World index rose 0.3%

Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0908
* The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.2460
* The Japanese yen rose 0.7% to 149.69 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.5% to $36,503.45
* Ether fell 0.6% to $1,943.44

Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.44%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.59%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined five basis points to 4.10%

Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.9% to $75.75 a barrel
* Spot gold was little changed
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Farah Elbahrawy, Esha Dey, Jessica Menton, Katrina Compoli and Alexandra Semenova.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Shabnam
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”– Herman Melville

Shabnam Mohammadpourmarzbali
Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff
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

November 16, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Carolann is away from the office for a conference, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

November 16, 2023: National Fast-Food Day!

Cult temples and sacrificial pit unearthed at Roman camp
Archaeologists in Germany have unearthed the foundations of two temples and a shallow circular ditch at an ancient Roman camp.

Supervolcano ‘megabeds’ discovered at bottom of sea
Four huge deposits from supervolcano eruptions over the last 40,000 years have been discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, pointing to catastrophic events in Europe every 10,000 to 15,000 years.

Crabs keep evolving from sea to land – and back again
True crabs evolved to migrate between marine and land environments multiple times throughout their 250-million-year-old history, new study finds.

Building blocks of life may have formed on space dust
Far from any galaxy, icy grains of dust in deep space may be able to form organic molecules, a new preprint study finds.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Tourists visit the temple in Siem Reap province. Prime minister Hun Manet has opened a new airport 25 miles from the Angkor temples park, the country’s main tourist destination, in a drive to boost the tourism sector
Photograph: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images

Durham, UK
Durham Cathedral is lit up during a preview of Lumiere 2023, the UK’s light art biennial, held in Durham and Bishop Auckland. For four nights, the medieval city will become a nocturnal art experience hosting works made with light
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

​​​​​​​Birds in the landscape shortlist
Wetlands dawn by Diana Andersen. It was a magically still and misty morning at the Alcoa wetlands in Wellard, Western Australia, with a flock of pelicans and a couple of pied stilts waiting for the rising sun. I liked the changing light on the birds from left to right in relation to the rising sun
Market Closes for November 16th,2023

Market
Index
Close Change
Dow
Jones
34945.47 -45.74
-0.13%
S&P 500 4508.24 +5.36
+0.12%
NASDAQ  14113.67 +9.83
+0.07%
TSX 20053.07 -4.82
-0.02%

International Markets

Market
Index
Close Change
NIKKEI 33424.41 -95.29
-0.28%
HANG
SENG
17832.82 -246.18
-1.36%
SENSEX 65982.48 +306.55
+0.47%
FTSE 100* 7410.97 -75.94
-1.01%

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond
3.675 3.754
CND.
30 Year
Bond
3.495 3.561
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.4355 4.5314
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.6146 4.6953

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous  
Canadian $ 0.7271 0.7309
US
$
1.3753 1.3682

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro=
Inverse   
Canadian $ 1.4925 0.6700
US
$
1.0851 0.9216

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold
Fix 
1958.20 1969.05
Oil
WTI Crude Future  72.90 76.66

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1904, British physicist John A. Fleming invented the thermionic two-electrode valve, or diode, later known as the vacuum tube. This technology soon made the radio possible and later powered the earliest modern computers.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite declined slightly to 20,053.07 in Toronto, ending a 5-day gain.

The loss follows the previous session’s increase of 0.2%.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.6%.

Lithium Americas Argentina Corp. had the largest drop, falling 8.1%.
Today, 128 of 227 shares fell, while 97 rose; 7 of 11 sectors were lower, led by energy stocks.

Insights
* This year, the index rose 3.4%, heading for the best year since 2021
* So far this week, the index rose 2%
* The index advanced 0.5% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.8% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 7.3% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.4% in the past 5 days and rose 2.2% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.2 on a trailing basis and 14.3 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.17t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 14.33% compared with 14.36% in the previous session and the average of 14.43% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -46.2363| -1.3| 5/35
Consumer Discretionary | -4.9726| -0.7| 1/13
Real Estate | -2.9156| -0.6| 4/17
Financials | -2.0643| 0.0| 14/14
Health Care | -1.4626| -2.6| 0/3
Communication Services | -0.4091| -0.1| 2/3
Utilities | -0.2474| 0.0| 8/7
Consumer Staples | 5.7160| 0.7| 6/4
Information Technology | 7.4382| 0.4| 6/5
Industrials | 16.8360| 0.6| 16/10
Materials | 23.5040| 1.1| 35/17
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural | | | |
Resources | -11.1400| -1.6|n/a | 17.0
Suncor Energy | -9.6990| -2.3|n/a | 3.8
Enbridge | -6.1980| -0.9|n/a | -14.4
Thomson Reuters | 5.8620| 3.1|n/a | 21.8
Barrick Gold | 6.0090| 2.3|n/a | -5.9
Wheaton Precious | | | |
Metals | 6.7700| 3.5|n/a | 19.3

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Treasuries climbed after the latest economic figures underscored a gradual slowdown, reinforcing speculation the Federal Reserve will end its most-aggressive hiking campaign in decades.
Ten-year yields fell eight basis points to around 4.45%.

Following a rally that sent stocks near “overbought” levels, the S&P 500 was little changed. Walmart Inc. slumped amid a cautious tone on the outlook for consumers, while Macy’s Inc. rose on a profit beat.
Cisco Systems Inc. sank after a bearish forecast.
In late trading, Applied Materials Inc. slid on a news report it faces a US criminal probe for violating export restrictions to China.
Oil tumbled below $73.
Wall Street kept a close eye on another batch of economic data on Thursday, with continuing applications for US unemployment benefits rising to the highest in almost two years.
Factory production fell by more than expected, largely reflecting a strike-related pullback in activity at automakers and parts suppliers. Meantime, homebuilder sentiment hit the lowest in 2023.
“The lags in monetary policy are catching up with the economy now — from input costs to industrial production to labor,” said Jamie Cox at Harris Financial Group. “Now, the fight shifts from inflation to preserving economic growth and
averting recession. Rate cuts are closer than people think.”
Fed Governor Lisa Cook noted she is attuned to the risk of an unnecessarily sharp economic slump, pointing to strain in some sectors from tighter financial conditions.

Fed Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester told CNBC she hasn’t decided whether another hike is still needed, adding officials have time to see how the economy is evolving.
While it’s still too early for the Fed to declare victory over inflation — and rate cuts are still far off — figures like the recent ones will tamp down lingering concerns about an additional hike, according to Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley.
“The question now is whether this type of ‘Fed-friendly data’ will continue to provide bullish momentum for the stock market,” he noted.
Equities wavered after a rally from “oversold” levels that was driven by bets the central bank is done with rate hikes — and turbocharged by short covering. The S&P 500 is still on pace for its best month in over a year.
“The risk/reward is not as favorable after the move up. Still, the weight of the evidence suggests modest upside in this rally remains, albeit after an expected near-term pause,” said Keith Lerner at Truist Advisory Services.
The market is still subject to some volatility going forward and is certainly data-dependent, said Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at EverBank.
“There’s a back-and-forth with the markets and the Fed, and that’s going to lead to more volatility as we go forward — through the end of the year and actually into next year,” he added.
The recent stock market rally was a result of investors realizing the Fed is likely finished with its rate-hiking campaign, according to James Demmert, chief investment officer at Main Street Research.
“Further short covering, along with institutional and retail investors being underweight stocks, will likely continue to drive the market higher into year-end,” he said.
A murky economic outlook and alluring returns on cash kept investors out of stocks this year despite their defiant run.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. thinks the wariness will persist into 2024.
“We expect positive returns to equities, but a 5% return risk-free in cash remains a competitive alternative,” David Kostin, the bank’s chief US equity strategist, said. “In the current interest rate environment, the 3-month Treasury bill yields 5.5%, similar to the earnings yield on the S&P 500 index.”
Global stocks will outperform bonds in 2024 as they navigate a “soft-ish” economic landing, Barclays Plc strategists said, becoming the latest to strike an optimistic tone on the asset class.
The team led by Ajay Rajadhyaksha turned overweight on global equities over core fixed income and said they expect “mid- to high single-digit returns” in both the US and Europe next year.

That forecast stands even as bond yields stay elevated and earnings expectations for the S&P 500 “seem too optimistic to us,” they wrote.
Meantime, money-market fund assets rose to an all-time high for the second-straight week as interest rates north of 5% and volatility in fixed-income markets drove investors to havens.
Elsewhere, oil plummeted as trend-following trades accelerated losses that were kicked off by swelling inventories and the failure of key technical support levels.

Corporate Highlights:
* Apple Inc. has fallen further behind in its multibillion- dollar effort to make a modem chip for the iPhone, stymied by the complexity of replacing an intricate Qualcomm Inc. component.
* Amazon.com Inc. customers will be able to buy Hyundai Motor Co. vehicles on the e-commerce giant’s website starting next year.
* Gap Inc. reported third-quarter profit that exceeded forecasts and a smaller-than-expected drop in comparable sales.
* Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. will close most of its stores and pharmacies on Thanksgiving Day, giving thousands of workers an unexpected day off amid walkouts and layoffs.
* Walt Disney Co., battling activist investors and struggling to adapt to changes in consumer viewing habits, plans to address employees in a companywide town hall after Thanksgiving.
* Intel Corp. was upgraded to buy at Mizuho Securities, which said the chipmaker was lining up significant new server products in the next six months.
* Bath & Body Works Inc. anticipates a continuation of softer topline trends in the fourth quarter.
* General Motors Co. employees voted to ratify the labor agreement reached with the United Auto Workers, ending a costly and drawn-out process that included a six-week strike.
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has called off a spinoff of its giant cloud business after the US tightened curbs on advanced chips for China.
* SpaceX is delaying the long-awaited second launch of its massive Starship rocket by one day to Saturday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said.

Key events this week:
* US housing starts, Friday
* US Congress faces a midnight deadline to pass a federal spending measure, Friday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, Boston Fed President Susan Collins and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly speak, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.1%

Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro was little changed at $1.0847
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2409
* The Japanese yen rose 0.4% to 150.74 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 4.5% to $35,943.5
* Ether fell 4.5% to $1,956.01

Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined eight basis points to 4.45%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined five basis points to 2.59%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined eight basis points to 4.15%

Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 4.9% to $72.90 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 1.1% to $1,981.17 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric and Isabelle Lee.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Shabnam
“Change is the end result of all true learning.”– Leo Buscaglia

Shabnam Mohammadpourmarzbali
Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff
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

November 15, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Carolann is away from the office for a conference, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

Minnesota has gotten more than 2,500 design submissions for its new state flag
Minnesota is asking for help in redesigning its state flag! See a few of the designs submitted by residents.

NASA and Japan to launch world’s 1st wooden satellite
The magnolia wood LignoSat is an attempt to make space junk biodegradable. NASA and Japan’s space agency (JAXA) could launch it as soon as 2024.

The ‘world’s skinniest hotel’ measures nine feet across
A remarkably skinny hotel in Indonesia has just seven rooms, with each big enough for a double bed and small bathroom. Take a look inside.

Mysterious ‘lunar swirls’ may be close to an explanation
No one knows what causes lunar swirls, but new evidence shows they may be tied to certain elevations on the moon’s surface.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Yancheng, China
An aerial view of a herd of elk travelling across the Dafeng national nature reserve in the eastern Jiangsu province
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Paris, France
A giant decorated Christmas tree in the central atrium at the Galeries Lafayette department store
Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

​​​​​​​Pushkar, India
Herders rest beside their animals before an annual camel fair in the desert state of Rajasthan
Photograph: Himanshu Sharma/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for November 15th,2023

Market
Index
Close Change
Dow
Jones
34991.21 +163.51
+0.47%
S&P 500 4502.88 +7.18
+0.16%
NASDAQ  14103.84 +9.46
+0.07%
TSX 20057.89 +34.17
+0.17%

International Markets

Market
Index
Close Change
NIKKEI 33519.70 +823.77
+2.52%
HANG
SENG
18079.00 +682.14
+3.92%
SENSEX 65675.93 +742.06
+1.14%
FTSE 100* 7486.91 +46.44
+0.62%

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond
3.754 3.688
CND.
30 Year
Bond
3.561 3.500
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.5314 4.4492
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.6953 4.6280

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous  
Canadian $ 0.7309 0.7303
US
$
1.3682 1.3693

 

Euro Rate
1 Euro=
Inverse   
Canadian $ 1.4848 0.6735
US
$
1.0852 0.9215

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold
Fix 
1969.05 1931.15
Oil
WTI Crude Future  76.66 78.26

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1867, the first practical stock ticker was introduced in New York. The gizmo made continuous nationwide transmission of stock prices possible for the first time.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fifth day, climbing 0.2%, or 34.16 to 20,057.89 in Toronto.

The index advanced to the highest closing level since Sept. 20.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.4%.

Tilray Brands Inc. had the largest increase, rising 5.1%.
Today, 114 of 227 shares rose, while 109 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by information technology stocks.

Insights
* This year, the index rose 3.5%, heading for the best year since 2021
* The index advanced 0.3% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 12% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.8% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 7.3% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.7% in the past 5 days and rose 3.1% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.2 on a trailing basis and 14.3 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.17t
* 30-day price volatility little changed to 14.36% compared with 14.36% in the previous session and the average of 14.44% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology | 41.0752| 2.5| 8/3
Financials | 26.3980| 0.4| 22/6
Utilities | 9.8935| 1.2| 12/3
Consumer Discretionary | 5.0625| 0.7| 12/2
Communication Services | 2.5934| 0.3| 3/1
Real Estate | 1.1333| 0.2| 10/11
Health Care | 1.0318| 1.9| 3/1
Industrials | -2.2531| -0.1| 13/12
Materials | -3.2523| -0.1| 20/30
Consumer Staples | -20.7877| -2.3| 2/9
Energy | -26.7364| -0.7| 9/31
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 25.7300| 3.4|n/a | 97.5
Constellation | | | |
Software | 9.8400| 2.3|n/a | 50.9
Nutrien | 9.0520| 3.4|n/a | -19.4
Couche-Tard | -6.0170| -1.5|n/a | 30.1
Metro Inc | -8.2760| -6.8|n/a | -6.1
Canadian Natural | | | |
Resources | -10.2300| -1.5|n/a | 19.0

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks extended their November gains on speculation the Federal Reserve will be able to achieve a soft landing as the US economy remains fairly resilient and inflation shows signs of cooling.
The S&P 500 topped 4,500 — though it rose at a much slower pace relative to the previous session, when equities were turbocharged by short covering and bets the Fed’s hiking cycle is over.

Retailer Target Corp. soared on solid earnings, while Nvidia Corp. halted a 10-day rally.
In late trading, Cisco Systems Inc. sank on a disappointing forecast.
Treasuries fell, with traders reloading bearish bets after global bonds came close to erasing their 2023 slide.
Wall Street waded through a batch of economic data for clues on the outlook for the Fed’s next steps.

Retail sales slowed in October and prior months were revised higher — suggesting some resiliency going into the holiday season.
Prices paid to US producers unexpectedly declined by the most since April 2020.
“We got more Goldilocks today,” said David Russell, global head of market strategy at Trade Station. “Price growth is moderating, but with strong demand on the sidelines. The soft landing is taking shape.”
This month’s rally in equities has driven the S&P 500 closer to its record on a total return basis, reached in January 2022.

In the year after a new all-time high has been made — following an extended period without a new high — the gauge rose nine out of 10 times, according to data compiled by Bespoke Investment Group.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Kostin became the latest Wall Street strategist to come out with a bullish call.

A supportive mix of factors awaits US stocks, with the economy set to avoid a recession, earnings rising and valuations remaining steady, he wrote.
“At this time next year, portfolio managers will look back and realize the best investment strategy for 2024 was to follow Taylor Swift’s advice in the song from her 1989 album: ‘All You Had To Do Was Stay’ – invested,” Kostin said. The song “reflects our baseline forecast that despite intermittent volatility, fund managers will ultimately be rewarded for staying invested through the end of next year.”
The S&P 500 staged a trend-line breakout over the past few sessions, and this can “tee up a retest of the 2023 highs within the low-4,600+ zone”, said Dan Wantrobski at Janney Montgomery Scott.
“Keep in mind that the index is now pressing into overbought territory and thus is likely to see some profit-taking/consolidation ahead,” he noted.
To Anthony Saglimbene at Ameriprise Financial, there’s an “entrenched disinflation trend,” and stocks are reacting positively to that because it likely means the Fed is done raising rates.
Given the strong consumer, it is only reasonable to assume that corporate profits will continue to grow — adding fuel to the fire for the year-end rally, according to Chris Zaccarelli at Independent Advisor Alliance.
“We have continued to stay long equities, despite the recent pullback — and have been adding duration in fixed income since Treasuries hit 5%, and we believe that the year-end rally will broaden out,” he noted.
Meantime, Treasuries retreated Wednesday in a move that was less a direct response to the economic data — and more a function of relief that consumption wasn’t further undermined by the labor-market softening, according to Ian Lyngen at BMO Capital Markets.
The bond market is at risk of leaning too heavily toward rate cuts next year as “the inflation problem is far from being solved,” according to Daniel Ivascyn, chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co.
T. Rowe Price says bets on Fed easing next year are overblown, and expects growth in the US and higher interest rates versus other major economies to support the dollar.
Fidelity International sees those higher-for-longer US interest rates risking dragging the economy into a downturn that would benefit the greenback.
Elsewhere, oil fell after a government report showed swelling US crude inventories.

Corporate Highlights:
* Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks Inc. missed Wall Street estimates for billings and lowered its estimates for the full year.
* Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said it will seek a new chief executive officer, cut costs and weigh options for several business lines as part of a sweeping overhaul under pressure from activist Elliott Investment Management.
* SpaceX received approval for the second launch of its groundbreaking Starship rocket, ending an almost seven-month hiatus and inching Elon Musk closer to his goal of sending humans to the moon and beyond.
* Value Act Capital has built a stake in Walt Disney Co., a person with knowledge of the matter said, adding more activist pressure to the US media and entertainment giant as it battles historic shifts in its industry.
* Sanofi is working with an adviser to start preparations for a planned separation of its consumer health division, people with knowledge of the matter said.
* Alstom SA, a train maker, flagged a possible equity raise alongside job cuts and asset sales to help shore up its balance sheet.

Key events this week:
* China new home prices, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, industrial production, Thursday
* Walmart earnings, Thursday
* Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, New York Fed President John Williams and Fed vice chair for supervision Michael Barr speak, Thursday
* Bank of England deputy governor Dave Ramsden and ECB President Christine Lagarde speak at event, Thursday
* US housing starts, Friday
* US Congress faces a midnight deadline to pass a federal spending measure, Friday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, Boston Fed President Susan Collins and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly speak, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 was little changed
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.6%

Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0843
* The British pound fell 0.7% to $1.2410
* The Japanese yen fell 0.7% to 151.42 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 5.5% to $37,560.5
* Ether rose 3.2% to $2,045.2

Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced nine basis points to 4.54%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 2.64%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 4.23%

Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.2% to $76.57 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.2% to $1,959.39 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Emily Graffeo, Garfield Reynolds, Ruth Carson and Esha Dey.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Shabnam
“A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” —Serena Williams

Shabnam Mohammadpourmarzbali
Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff
Queensbury Securities Inc.,
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