Category: Events

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Monday.
March 27, 1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida. Go to article >  

Men’s NCAA tournament Final Four is set.  You probably weren’t expecting the brackets to look like this! Here are the teams headed to the Final Four following victories by San Diego and Miami.

‘Succession’ Season 4 opener sets the stage for battles to come.  The two-time Emmy-winning HBO show kicked off its final flight of episodes, offering a glimpse into the intense drama ahead. (HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

Most powerful solar storm in 6 years caused auroras all over the US. And nobody saw it coming.
The strongest solar storm to hit Earth for six years sparked stunning auroras across the U.S., with intense light displays appearing as far south as Alabama and Northern California. Yet no one saw it coming.
The March 24 solar storm was the result of a “stealth” coronal mass ejection. Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

Your native language may shape the wiring of your brain
A person’s native language may shape how their brain builds connections between different hubs of information processing, a new brain scan study reveals.
The observed differences in these language network structures were related to linguistic characteristics in the native languages of the study participants. Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

Heat waves are hitting the deep ocean floor, with potentially catastrophic results
Heat waves are happening at the bottom of the ocean, a new study finds.  And these so-called “bottom marine heat waves” can be devastating because they last longer than surface heat waves and affect many key species, such as lobster and cod. Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

Black holes may be swallowing invisible matter that slows the movement of stars
For the first time, scientists may have discovered indirect evidence that large amounts of invisible dark matter surround black holes.  The discovery, if confirmed, could represent a major breakthrough in dark matter research.
Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

2 megamouth sharks caught on video for the 1st time ever
Stunning new footage shows a pair of extremely elusive megamouth sharks (Megachasma pelagios) swimming together off the coast of San Diego.  The video, captured by fishers in early September 2022, may show the deep-dwelling beasts in a courtship ritual. Full Story: Live Science (3/24)

RIP, penmanship.

A company makes clothes to hide from AI.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Northumberland, England
Daffodils around the base of Warkworth Castle
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Edinburgh, Scotland
Sunrise over the Queensferry crossing, Forth Road Bridge and Forth Bridge on the Firth of Forth
Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

Saitama, Japan
Canada’s Keegan Messing backflips over Maxime Deschamps during the world figure skating championships
Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters
Market Closes for March 27^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32432.08	+194.55
		+0.60%
S&P 500	3977.53	+6.54
		+0.16%
NASDAQ	11768.84	-55.12
		-0.47%
TSX	19624.74	+123.26
		+0.63%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27476.87	+91.62
		+0.33%
HANG SENG	19567.69	-347.99
		-1.75%
SENSEX	57653.86	+126.76
		+0.22%
FTSE 100*	7471.77	+66.32
		+0.90%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.895		2.746
CND. 30 Year Bond		3.012		2.908
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.5299		3.3762
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.7604		3.6438

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7321	0.7275
US $	1.3659	1.3746
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4750	0.6780
US  $	1.0798	0.9261

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1993.80	1977.95
Oil
WTI Crude Future	72.81	69.31

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1980, Texas oil barons Nelson Bunker Hunt and W. Herbert Hunt failed spectacularly to corner the market in silver after the metal plunged from $21.62 to $10.80 an ounce in a single day.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.6%, or 123.26 to 19,624.74 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 2% on Jan. 6.
Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.0%.
Athabasca Oil Corp. had the largest increase, rising 7.2%.
Today, 164 of 235 shares rose, while 69 fell; 8 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 1.2%
* This month, the index fell 2.9%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 11.7% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.8% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.5% in the past 5 days and fell 3.1% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.6 on a trailing basis and 12.8 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$3.13t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.06% compared with 11.95% in the previous session and the average of 9.94% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 44.8970| 1.4| 36/4
Financials | 41.2854| 0.7| 20/9
Consumer Staples | 12.2737| 1.5| 11/0
Utilities | 9.2427| 1.1| 14/2
Information Technology | 7.0483| 0.5| 9/4
Industrials | 6.1291| 0.2| 20/7
Real Estate | 4.7771| 1.0| 19/1
Consumer Discretionary | 1.8014| 0.3| 5/10
Health Care | -0.0754| -0.1| 2/4
Communication Services | -1.9656| -0.2| 1/5
Materials | -2.1527| -0.1| 27/23
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
TD Bank | 19.1100| 2.0| 15.3| -9.7
Canadian Natural Resources | 10.2400| 1.9| -21.9| -4.3
RBC | 9.1820| 0.8| -37.0| 0.4
Barrick Gold | -2.1890| -0.7| -24.6| 8.8
Franco-Nevada | -2.4210| -0.9| -29.8| 6.5
Brookfield Corp | -2.4650| -0.6| -6.5| -4.0
US
By Peyton Forte and Emily Graffeo
(Bloomberg) — Gains in financial shares lifted US stocks, while Treasuries retreated as fears of broader contagion from the banking turmoil eased.
Tech shares slumped after last week’s rally.
The S&P 500 rose on Monday, with financial firms in the index up more than 1%. Energy producers also advanced.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 ended the session 0.7% lower capping a two-week advance.
The two-year Treasury yield topped 4%.
A gauge of regional lenders climbed roughly 2.5% as First Citizens BancShares Inc. rallied more than 50% after agreeing to buy SVB Financial Group’s Silicon Valley Bank.
First Republic Bank jumped on a Bloomberg report that US authorities are considering expanding an emergency lending facility that would give the lender more time to bolster its balance sheet.
“The market is being pushed and pulled between banks and tech stocks. As the banks have rebounded a lot of money has come out of tech stocks which have held up the market the past two weeks,” said Joe Gilbert, portfolio manager at Integrity Asset Management. “There is a lot of churning going on under the surface right now. Plus the back up in interest rates puts cold water on the tech trade.”
The weekend may have brought some relief to the banking sector, but it will continue to be closely watched.
A gauge of regional US banks has lost roughly 30% since early February.
“You have a massive tug of war between the fact that people know the fundamental outlook is poor, but a lot of people were already either short or long cash, or just generally positioned away from US equity markets, so you could argue positioning is ripe for a squeeze,” said Huw Roberts, head of analytics at Quant Insight. “The most obvious catalyst to my mind that resolves the tug of war would be a new development in terms of the credit crunch.”
Market jitters were still on display on Monday as banking stocks pulled back from an early rally and the S&P 500 retreated from a key technical level.
“There’s no doubt that the response so far has prevented the situation from becoming much worse and confidence will gradually improve as long as no other banks fall into difficulties,” Craig Erlam, a senior market strategist at Oanda
wrote. “That’s obviously a big if at this point.”
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to around 3.54% while the interest rate-sensitive two-year jumped to 4.02%.
Such an inverted yield curve — where the short-term rate is higher than the long-term — continues to signal a downturn ahead.
Fed Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari warned over the weekend that the strain on the financial sector had the US on the brink of a recession.
The usually hawkish Kashkari avoided making a prediction about the central bank’s May meeting.
“Recent bank turmoil gives us increased conviction that a deeper-than-expected recession is going to hit this year,” Chris Senyek of Wolfe Research said. He also sees “blow up” risks rising. “We’re already seeing early signs of deterioration in CRE and Autos, and we believe that widening spreads signal more trouble ahead.”
US stocks have largely been shrugging off recession fears with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both advancing over the past two weeks.
JPmorgan’s chief strategist Marko Kolanovic said the first quarter “will likely mark the high point for equities this year,” recommending investors stay defensive in a research note.
“We view the most vulnerable areas as unprofitable companies that depend on steady flow of equity capital to fund operations and tight carry trades implemented over the last 10 to 20 years,” Kolanovic wrote.
One of Wall Street’s most prominent bears, Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson was also cautious on stocks, saying earnings estimates and valuations need to come down.
“Given the events of the past few weeks, we think guidance is looking more and more unrealistic, and equity markets are at greater risk of pricing in much lower estimates ahead of any hard data changes,” Wilson wrote in a note on Monday.
Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, told Bloomberg TV that many US stocks were expensive and unappealing ahead of a looming economic slump.
“If you’re looking outside of the US, valuations are still pretty cheap,” she said. “There’s very little to be attractive about this US market at this stage.”
Investors will be closely watching data on the personal consumption expenditures price index, which is the Fed’s preferred measure of underlying price pressure, that will come out later this week for direction on the US central bank’s rate path.
On Monday, traders were once again leaning toward a quarter-point rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting.
“If they do raise rates again – especially if they say or imply that May isn’t the last one – then we could get a risk off rally again, with defensives outperforming cyclicals,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent
Advisor Alliance.
Elsewhere, European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel pushed for this month’s decision statement to signal possible interest-rate increases in future, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
In a further indication of risk-on sentiment, oil rose and gold slipped. 
Key events this week:
* US wholesale inventories, US Conf. Board consumer confidence, Tuesday
* EIA Crude Oil Inventory Report, Wednesday
* Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence, Thursday
* US GDP, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Boston Fed President Susan Collins and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin speaks at event. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also speaks, Thursday
* China PMI, Friday
* Eurozone CPI, unemployment, Friday
* US consumer income, PCE deflator, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Friday
* New York Fed President John Williams speaks, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.2% as of 4:00 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
* The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0797
* The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.2287
* The Japanese yen fell 0.7% to 131.59 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 2.9% to $27,006.81
* Ether fell 3.3% to $1,704.21
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 16 basis points to 3.54%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 10 basis points to 2.23%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 3.37%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 5.4% to $73 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 1.3% to $1,975.70 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Vildana Hajric and Carly Wanna.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity. –Sean O’Casey, 1880-1964.
Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

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

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

March 24^th, 1877: The annual university boat race between Oxford and Cambridge ends in a dead heat.
1989: Exxon Valdez oil spill.
On March 24, 1989, one of the nation’s worst oil spills occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude. Go to article > 

Ancient Egyptian pharaoh-sphinx statues unearthed at sun temple: Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered broken statues of ancient royalty at a sun temple in Heliopolis, an archaeological site that was once a major city near what is now Cairo. The stone-carved fragments include depictions of the pharos Ramesses II, Ramesses IX, Horemheb and Psamtik II. Full Story: Live Science (3/23)

James Webb telescope spots dust storm raging on a giant planet nearly 20 times the size of Jupiter
Forty light-years away, an extraterrestrial sandstorm rages on a planet orbiting two stars.  Although this might sound like Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine, this sandstorm was spotted on a gaseous world up to 20 times the size of Jupiter, using the James Webb Space Telescope’s powerful detectors. Full Story: Live Science (3/23)

Aliens could be hiding in ‘terminator zones’ on planets with eternal night
Imagine if one side of the Earth always faced the sun. Half of the planet would be stuck in perpetual daylight, the other shrouded in permanent night.  But for aliens in other solar systems, our doomsday scenario may be their everyday — and life might get along just fine. Full Story: Live Science (3/23)

Researchers have sequenced Ludwig van Beethoven’s DNA.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The week in wildlife
A bee pollinates the flower of a tree in Cieza, Spain. As the trees start to flower, the bees start to pollinate them so the flowers months later turn into peaches and apricots
Photograph: Marcial Guillén/EPA

Guiyang, China
Crabapple blossoms in south-western Guizhou province
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The week in wildlife
A frog waits patiently for a mate in a garden pond in Killearn, Stirling, UK
Photograph: Kay Roxby/Alamy Live News
Market Closes for March 24^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32237.53	+132.28
		+0.41%
S&P 500	3970.99	+22.27
		+0.56%
NASDAQ	11823.96	+36.56
		+0.31%
TSX	19501.49	+41.57
		+0.21%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27385.25	-34.36
		-0.13%
HANG SENG	19915.68	-133.96
		-0.67%
SENSEX	57527.10	-398.18
		-0.69%
FTSE 100*	7405.45	-94.15
		-1.26%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.746		2.747
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.908		2.932
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.3762		3.4266
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6438		3.6978

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7275	0.7292
US $	1.3746	1.3714
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4789	0.6762
US  $	1.0759	0.9295

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1977.95	1949.35
Oil
WTI Crude Future	69.31	69.96

Market Commentary:

📈 On this day in 1777, the U.S. foreign debt was born. Farmers General of France, a group that collects taxes from French citizens on salt, tobacco and other products, agreed to lend the U.S. 2 million livres (roughly $381,000 at the time). The loan was repayable in bales of tobacco.

Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.2% at 19,501.49 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.4%.
Today, utilities stocks led the market higher, as 9 of 11 sectors gained; 124 of 235 shares rose, while 104 fell.
Brookfield Corp. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.4%. Badger Infrastructure Solutions Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6.8%.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.6%
* This month, the index fell 3.6%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.6%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.2% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.1% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.5 on a trailing basis and 12.7 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$3.12t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.95% compared with 11.91% in the previous session and the average of 9.73% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Utilities | 15.2362| 1.8| 16/0
Industrials | 11.6799| 0.4| 14/12
Materials | 10.0597| 0.4| 31/19
Consumer Staples | 6.8420| 0.8| 9/2
Communication Services | 4.8636| 0.5| 4/2
Financials | 3.2668| 0.1| 10/19
Real Estate | 0.9653| 0.2| 14/6
Energy | 0.1660| 0.0| 17/21
Health Care | 0.1450| 0.2| 3/2
Consumer Discretionary | -3.2815| -0.5| 2/13
Information Technology | -8.3816| -0.6| 4/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Brookfield Corp | 9.6620| 2.4| -53.6| -3.4
Canadian National | 6.2870| 1.0| -22.0| -2.9
Enbridge | 6.1500| 0.9| -59.6| -4.7
Nutrien | -6.8230| -1.9| -5.4| -0.3
Suncor Energy | -6.8930| -1.8| -58.0| -7.4
Shopify | -8.7490| -1.7| -27.6| 31.3
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A reversal in the bank selloff that rattled markets Friday spurred a rebound in stocks, which also gained amid assurances from authorities about financial stability and growing speculation that policymakers will have to
stop raising rates to prevent a recession.
After a slide that reached 1% in the first hour of trading, the S&P 500 snapped back and notched its second straight week of gains.
A gauge of US financial heavyweights climbed from its lowest level since November 2020.
Beaten-down regional lenders drove the recovery, with Citizens Financial Group Inc. and Zions Bancorporation adding at least 2.9%.
First Republic Bank tumbled once again, extending this year’s rout to 90%.
Top US regulators said after a meeting Friday that while some banks are coming under stress, the overall financial system is still sound.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and the panel heard a presentation from the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on the latest market developments.
Global authorities continued trying to instill calm in financial markets following the recent failure of some US regional lenders and the near-collapse of banking giant Credit Suisse Group AG before its government-brokered takeover by rival UBS Group AG.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told European Union leaders that the region’s banking sector is strong, according to people familiar with the matter.
An earlier slump in lenders was triggered by a plunge in Deutsche Bank AG shares, with the cost of insuring its debt against default climbing, in sudden moves that some attributed to hedge funds seeking to profit from the broader turmoil roiling the financial industry.
The decline prompted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to publicly back the lender, calling it a “a very profitable bank.”
To Mark Haefele at UBS Global Wealth Management, regulations brought in after the global financial crisis, combined with the magnitude of policymakers’ responses over the last couple of weeks, mean the recent financial turmoil is
unlikely to evolve into something akin to the 2008–2009 meltdown.
“Confidence is still fragile, volatility is likely to remain high, and policymakers may yet have to go further to ensure that faith in the global financial system stays solid,” Haefele noted. “Nonetheless, financial conditions are likely to
tighten, increasing the risk of an economic hard landing even if central banks ease off on interest rate hikes.”
Banks are often in the frontline when recession fears grow as they are the channel through which credit flows through the economy.
Traders abandoned wagers that the Fed will raise interest rates in May and added to bets that its next shift will be a rate cut as early as June — even as Chair Jerome Powell said that cuts are not his “base case.”
For the ECB and the Bank of England, traders no longer price in additional quarter-point rate hikes.
The move came as global bonds rallied, with Treasury two-year yields falling to the lowest level since September.
Echoing Powell’s determination to restore price stability, three officials said this week’s tightening was clearly needed to rein in an economy running hot. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard also said that he now forecasts raising rates to 5.625% this year, which is 50 basis points more than the median projection of his colleagues.
Earlier in the day, Fed Bank of New York data showed a gauge of US inflation activity slowed to the lowest since 2021.
Jeffrey Gundlach, DoubleLine Capital LP’s chief investment officer, sees the Fed cutting rates “substantially” soon, according to posts on Twitter.
He also warned of “red alert recession signals” emanating from the US yield curve.
Investors are fleeing to cash in the biggest rush since the onset of the pandemic as concerns of an economic slowdown mount, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists who see equity and credit markets slumping in coming months.
“Credit and stock markets too greedy for rate cuts, not fearful enough of recession,” a team led by Michael Hartnett wrote.
The strategist, who was correctly bearish through last year, said investment-grade spreads and stocks will be taking a hit over the next three to six months.
Global cash funds had inflows of nearly $143 billion, the largest since March 2020 in the week through Wednesday — adding up to more than $300 billion over the past four weeks, according to the note citing EPFR Global data. Money market funds assets have soared to more than $5.1 trillion, the highest level on record.
Prior surges coincided with large Fed interest rate cuts in 2008 and 2020, Hartnett said.
Investors are steering clear of corporate America’s most-vulnerable borrowers, even as credit markets rally on bets that the worst of the global banking crisis may be over.
The gap in spreads between the two weakest tiers of corporate debt typically issued — B and CCC — has widened dramatically since the end of February after three US regional banks failed and Credit Suisse Group AG was hastily taken over.
It now costs CCC issuers on average 531 basis points more than B rated issuers to sell bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%
* The euro fell 0.7% to $1.0759
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2227
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 130.76 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.7% to $27,846.95
* Ether fell 3% to $1,764.21
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined six basis points to 3.37%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 2.13%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined eight basis points to 3.28%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.1% to $69.18 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.8% to $1,997.70 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from John Viljoen, Vildana Hajric, Isabelle  Lee, Peyton Forte, Angel Adegbesan, Carly Wanna and Emily Graffeo.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

The seven principals of conduct with people are forbearance, forgiveness, humility, generosity, compassion, good counsel, justice, and fairness.  -Al-Sadiq, 702-765.
Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Senior Investment Advisor

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

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.

1994 Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings broke Gordie Howe’s National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.  Go to article > 

March 23, 2023: First ever tweet by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey “just setting up my twttr” sells for $2.9 million I digitally autographed version. (NFT)

Apple is getting into the movie business …
… and maybe into soccer, too.

Back from the dead: Blockbuster’s website has a second life.

That’s a tonic: New Zealand’s government is investing in gin.

1st ever analysis of Beethoven’s DNA sheds light on the mystery of his death
The world renowned composer Ludwig van Beethoven was infected with hepatitis B when he died, according to the first ever DNA analysis of the deaf musician’s remains.
The genetic analysis, conducted on five locks of Beethoven’s hair, also revealed that he had a high risk of liver disease.  Full Story: Live Science (3/22)

China is hunting the world’s most elusive particles a mile beneath the ocean floor.  China is building a detector deep beneath the ocean surface to hunt for the world’s most elusive subatomic particles.
Every second, tens of trillions of these ghostly neutrinos stream through Earth (and your body) without interacting with anything.  Full Story: Live Science (3/22)

Alien mothership lurking in our solar system could be watching us with tiny probes, Pentagon official suggests
Could an alien mothership be hovering around the solar system, sending out tiny probes to explore planets? According to a Harvard scientist and a Pentagon official, it’s possible.
In a draft paper, the pair said it is feasible an extraterrestrial spaceship could be in our galactic neighborhood.  Full Story: Live Science (3/22)

Extinction-level asteroid impacts could be far more common than we thought, controversial study suggests
Earth may have been pummeled by large space rocks more often than previously estimated, controversial new research suggests, raising the risk that a species-ending impact could come sooner than we think.
The study focused on the largest-known impact craters from the past million years, and the authors argue that these craters were originally far bigger than they look now.  Full Story: Live Science (3/22)
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

London, UK
Coventry Street in the West End is decorated with Ramadan illuminations to mark the start of the Islamic holy month
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Mammoth Lakes, US
Heavy snow buries buildings in Sierra Nevada, California. Following the driest three-year stretch on record, a series of destructive, and sometimes deadly, atmospheric river storms has been sweeping through the state since early winter, bringing torrential rains, wide spread flooding and one of the snowiest winters on record in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

Northumberland, UK
The Milky Way core rises over Bamburgh lighthouse
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Market Closes for March 23^rd, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32105.25	+75.14
		+0.23%
S&P 500	3948.72	+11.75
		+0.30%
NASDAQ	11787.40	+117.44
		+1.01%
TSX	19459.92	-72.86
		-0.37%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27419.61	-47.00
		-0.17%
HANG SENG	20049.64	+458.21
		+2.34%
SENSEX	57925.28	-289.31
		-0.50%
FTSE 100*	7499.60	-67.24
		-0.89%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.747		2.729
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.932		2.899
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4266		3.4341
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6978		3.6516

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7292	0.7281
US $	1.3714	1.3734
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4855	0.6732
US  $	1.0832	0.9232

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1949.35	1952.50
Oil
WTI Crude Future	69.96	70.80

Market Commentary: 
📈 On this day in 1987, the S&P 500 index closed above 300 for the first time, less than a year and a half after crossing 200.  Today it closed at 3948.72.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.4%, or 72.86 to 19,459.92 in Toronto.
Cenovus Energy Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 5.1%.
Capstone Copper Corp. had the largest drop, falling 7.6%.
Today, 125 of 235 shares fell, while 106 rose; 6 of 11 sectors were lower, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.4%
* This month, the index fell 3.8%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.4%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.4% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 8.9% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.4% in the past 5 days and fell 3.6% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.6 on a trailing basis and 12.8 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$3.13t
* 30-day price volatility little changed to 11.91% compared with 11.92% in the previous session and the average of 9.54% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -45.9165| -1.4| 4/35
Financials | -39.3113| -0.7| 9/20
Industrials | -18.9294| -0.7| 12/15
Utilities | -9.2624| -1.1| 3/12
Real Estate | -1.4342| -0.3| 7/14
Health Care | -0.8631| -1.3| 2/4
Consumer Discretionary | 1.2068| 0.2| 9/6
Communication Services | 3.4133| 0.4| 6/0
Consumer Staples | 4.3110| 0.5| 9/2
Information Technology | 12.6345| 1.0| 12/0
Materials | 15.5972| 0.6| 33/17
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Cenovus Energy | -11.0600| -5.1| 43.0| -17.9
Canadian Pacific | -10.4700| -1.6| -0.7| 1.6
TD Bank | -9.5570| -1.0| 23.8| -11.8
Constellation Software | 4.3700| 1.4| 1.7| 15.1
Barrick Gold | 4.6210| 1.5| -30.9| 8.1
Shopify | 9.0800| 1.8| -0.6| 33.6
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market shrugged off losses, with traders piling into some of the world’s largest technology companies that are seen by many on Wall Street as a kind of shelter in times of stress and economic uncertainties.
Gains in mega-caps like Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. put the Nasdaq 100 near the threshold of a bull market after an almost 20% surge from its December low.
In the wake of the banking turmoil that has rattled markets around the globe and added to recession fears, the cohort of tech stalwarts that are flush with cash has largely outperformed this month.
Banks remained under pressure even after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s remarks that the US would be ready for any necessary additional deposit actions.
Shorter-dated Treasury yields were down once again, with swaps linked to policy meeting dates now showing the central bank benchmark ending 2023 around three quarters of a point below its new, post-decision level.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell insisted Wednesday that rate cuts are not his “base case.”
“The push-and-pull between financial market stability and inflation that is receding more slowly than anyone would prefer will further complicate an already significant challenge for the Fed, increasing the risk of a policy misstep and keeping the door open for a potential recession on the horizon,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.
In other corporate news, Block Inc. tumbled after Hindenburg Research said it’s betting on a decline in the stock, alleging the payments company led by Jack Dorsey facilitated fraudsters who took advantage of government stimulus programs during the pandemic.
Block called Hindenburg’s claims “inaccurate and misleading” and said it’ll explore legal action.
Now hedge funds couldn’t have picked a worse time to turn bullish on the dollar.
After betting against the greenback for 13 straight weeks, speculators flipped to a net long position in the week ended March 14, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The shift came days just before the Fed tempered its language around how much additional policy tightening might be needed, sending the dollar sliding.
A gauge of the greenback is down for a sixth straight session — its longest losing streak since April 2021.
On the economic front, applications for US unemployment benefits unexpectedly eased for a second week, underscoring a still-tight job market in which employers are reluctant to reduce headcount.
Sales of new homes unexpectedly rose in February after a downward revision to the prior month, suggesting the housing market is beginning to stabilize after a tumultuous year.
Elsewhere, the Bank of England pushed ahead with another interest rate increase despite turmoil in the banking sector, predicting the UK economy will avoid a recession for now and that inflation remains a risk.
The pound rose, and investors priced in more certainty of at least one more rate hike later this year.

Key events this week:
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, Friday
* US durable goods, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%
* The euro fell 0.1% to $1.0841
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2290
* The Japanese yen rose 0.7% to 130.54 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3.5% to $28,360.29
* Ether rose 4.8% to $1,821.05
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined six basis points to 3.38%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined 13 basis points to 2.20%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined nine basis points to 3.36%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.3% to $69.25 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 2.6% to $2,018.70 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from John Viljoen, Angel Adegbesan, Isabelle Lee, Carly Wanna and Vildana Hajric.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result. –Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900.

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

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

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Ramadan begins today.
March 22,1960: The laser is patented for the first time by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow.  However, the term ‘LASER’ is actually an acronym for Light Amplification by  Simulated Emission of Radiation, which was coined by Gordon Gould.
March 22, 1972: Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. Go to article > 
1945: Arab League formed, Cairo.

‘Vibrant’ Roman mosaic discovered under supermarket construction site.  More incredible Roman finds were discovered in Britain. This time, it was on land earmarked for a grocery store.

The universe might be shaped like a doughnut, not like a pancake, new research suggests: The universe could, in fact, be a giant doughnut, despite all of the evidence suggesting it’s as flat as a pancake, new research suggests.  Strange patterns found in echoes of the Big Bang could be explained by a universe with a more complicated shape.  Full Story: Live Science (3/21)

Trilobites had a hidden third eye, new fossils reveal : Trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods, had a hidden third eye — and sometimes even a fourth or fifth, new research suggests.  Paleontologists knew that, like other arthropods such as insects and spiders, these hard-shelled prehistoric sea creatures had a pair of compound eyes. But scientists recently discovered a median eye located in the middle of the long-dead creatures’ foreheads.
Full Story: Live Science (3/21)

Where is Stonehenge, who built the prehistoric monument, and how?
Stonehenge is a massive stone monument located on Salisbury Plain in southern England.  It was built roughly 4,000 to 5,000 years ago and was part of a larger sacred landscape. Full Story: Live Science (3/21)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Tokyo, Japan
Visitors ride boats next to blooming cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi Park
Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters

Eskisehir, Turkey
An underwater view of Sakaryabasi, which was designated a natural protection area by the ministry of environment and urbanisation in 2020 and is the beginning of the Sakarya River
Photograph: Tahsin Ceylan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Gizhou, China
A cherry garden of the Guian New Area, covering an area of about 1,600 hectares, has attracted a large flow of tourists during the blossom season
Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
Market Closes for March 22^nd, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32030.11	-530.49
		-1.63%
S&P 500	3936.97	-65.90
		-1.65%
NASDAQ	11669.96	-190.15
		-1.60%
TSX	19532.78	-122.14
		-0.62%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27466.61	+520.94
		+1.93%
HANG SENG	19591.43	+332.67
		+1.73%
SENSEX	58214.59	+139.91
		+0.24%
FTSE 100*	7566.84	+30.62
		+0.41%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.729		2.890
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.899		2.994
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4341		3.6094
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6516		3.7321

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7281	0.7293
US $	1.3734	1.3712
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4913	0.6706
US  $	1.0859	0.9209

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1952.50	1969.35
Oil
WTI Crude Future	70.80	69.33

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1811: The New York state legislature passed the world’s first law granting limited liability to common stockholders—a revolutionary concept that protected investors from ever losing more than their initial investment.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.6% at 19,532.78 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s increase of 0.7%.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.4%.
Advantage Energy Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 7.0%.
Today, 168 of 235 shares fell, while 64 rose; 8 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.8%
* This month, the index fell 3.4%
* The index declined 12% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 14% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.1% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.3% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.8% in the past 5 days and fell 3.3% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.7 on a trailing basis and 12.8 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$3.15t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.92% compared with 11.84% in the previous session and the average of 9.37% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -50.0782| -0.8| 4/25
Energy | -39.0843| -1.2| 5/35
Industrials | -23.2694| -0.8| 5/22
Information Technology | -20.0533| -1.5| 1/11
Real Estate | -7.0067| -1.4| 0/21
Utilities | -6.1912| -0.7| 1/14
Communication Services | -4.8629| -0.5| 0/6
Health Care | -1.7576| -2.5| 1/5
Consumer Discretionary | 0.5618| 0.1| 6/9
Consumer Staples | 4.2990| 0.5| 7/4
Materials | 19.6130| 0.8| 34/16
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | -17.1200| -1.4| -27.9| 0.5
Canadian Pacific | -11.2400| -1.7| 63.9| 3.2
Canadian Natural Resources | -9.6310| -1.7| -53.8| -5.2
Agnico Eagle Mines | 3.4940| 1.6| -11.9| -1.9
Wheaton Precious Metals | 3.8380| 2.0| -11.7| 19.1
Barrick Gold | 5.5940| 1.9| -43.1| 6.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market sold off after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s remarks rattled bank shares and Jerome Powell dashed hopes the Federal Reserve would cut rates this year.
Her testimony to lawmakers that the government is not considering providing “blanket” deposit insurance to stabilize the banking system sent financial shares into a tailspin that weighed on broader indexes.
Equities initially rallied after the Fed hiked by a quarter percentage point as expected and kept its year-end rate projection intact.
The market also gave up gains after Powell said he’s prepared to keep raising rates until inflation shows signs of cooling.
“Her comments clearly affected bank stocks negatively, but her comments roughly coincided with Powell’s comments that they will continue to do what take to fight inflation, including raising rates more than anticipated. So it’s tough to untangle them,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. 
In a broad-based selloff, the S&P 500 dropped 1.7%. All 22 stocks in the KBW Bank Index retreated, with the measure of US financial heavyweights down almost 5%.
Treasury two-year yields plunged 24 basis points to around 3.9%.
A dollar gauge retreated for a fifth straight day — its longest losing streak since April 2021.
The swap market shows a bit more than a one-in-two chance that officials will add another 25 basis points to their benchmark in May.
Expectations for cuts deepened, though, with the market suggesting that the effective fed funds rate will drop to around 4.18% in December.
That’s below what was expected in earlier trading before the decision.
“I would not expect the market to take these rate cuts out in the near term and could very well price in more cuts if the data deteriorates from here,” Matthew Hornbach, global head of macro strategy at Morgan Stanley told Bloomberg Television.
Powell himself, though, said in response to questioning that officials “just don’t” see rate cuts this year and that they will raise rates higher than expected if that is needed.
“Rate cuts are not in our base case,” he said.
Key events this week:
* Eurozone consumer confidence, Thursday
* BOE interest rate decision, Thursday
* Swiss National Bank rate decision and press conference, Thursday
* US new home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies to a House Appropriations subcommittee, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, Friday
* US durable goods, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.6%
* The euro rose 0.9% to $1.0863
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2274
* The Japanese yen rose 1% to 131.21 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 4.7% to $26,840.87
* Ether fell 4.3% to $1,724.27
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined 17 basis points to 3.44%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 2.33%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 3.45%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5% to $70.01 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 1.7% to $1,991.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Peyton Forte, Isabelle Lee, Michael MacKenzie and Alexandra Harris.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Regret for the things we did can be tempered with time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. –Sydney J. Harris, 1917-1986.

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

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

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
March 21, 1963 Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates.  Go to article > 
March 21,2006: the social media site Twitter is founded.
March 21,1965: Selma, Alabama Civil Rights March.

Johann Sebastien Bach, b. 1685.

Bumblebees solve puzzles by watching other bumblebees.  Like humans, bumblebees are capable of socially learning behavior and passing on the knowledge to others in their colonies, a new study shows.

During his Monday night monologue, Jimmy Kimmel joked that indictments were “in the air.”
“It’s really magical,” he said. “It’s the calm before the Stormy.”

“But, yeah, Donald Trump paid Stormy Daniels to keep this story quiet, and here we are, still talking about it seven years later, so that would be another failed Trump business venture.” — AL FRANKEN
“You’ve got to give it to him. It’s not often that everyone sends out a save-the-date for their own arrest.” — JIMMY FALLON

“Police are going to be like, ‘You have the right to remain silent — now, but also in general. Just think about it. Just something to think about.’” — JIMMY FALLON

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Twin Bridges, US
Houses are buried in snow in California. The Lake Tahoe region is preparing for more snow in the coming days after near-record levels so far this season
Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Turin, Italy
A visitor views images by the American photographer, reporter and artist Eve Arnold, part of the Eve Arnold, The Work exhibition at Camera Torino
Photograph: Roberto Serra/Iguana Press/Getty Images

Nowruz, which has been celebrated for at least 3,000 years, is one of the most important celebrations in the greater Persian world, which includes the countries of Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and portions of western China and northern Iraq
Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock
Market Closes for March 21^st, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32560.60	+316.02
		+0.98%
S&P 500	4002.87	+51.30
		+1.30%
NASDAQ	11860.11	+184.57
		+1.58%
TSX	19654.92	+135.49
		+0.69%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	MARKET CLOSED	N.A.
HANG SENG	19258.76	+258.05
		+1.36%
SENSEX	58074.68	+445.73
		+0.77%
FTSE 100*	7536.22	+132.37
		+1.79%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.890		2.816
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.994		2.939
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.6094		3.4847
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.7321		3.6655

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7293	0.7318
US $	1.3712	1.3666
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4768	0.6771
US  $	1.0770	0.9285

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1969.35	1962.10
Oil
WTI Crude Future	69.33	67.64

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1868: In London, the prospectus for the earliest known mutual fund was published, as the Foreign and Colonial Government Trust offered its shares to the public for £85.  It invested in emerging markets bonds: Argentina, Australia, Chile, Egypt, Peru, Turkey and the U.S.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.7%, or 135.49 to 19,654.92 in Toronto.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.7%.
Precision Drilling Corp. had the largest increase, rising 8.7%.
Today, 152 of 235 shares rose, while 81 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 1.4%
* This month, the index fell 2.8%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 11% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 11.5% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 10% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and fell 3% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.6 on a trailing basis and 12.8 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$3.13t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.84% compared with 11.70% in the previous session and the average of 9.21% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 71.6686| 1.2| 27/2
Energy | 68.2301| 2.1| 39/1
Information Technology | 19.7877| 1.6| 9/3
Industrials | 5.5021| 0.2| 20/7
Consumer Discretionary | 3.5011| 0.5| 11/4
Health Care | 2.9429| 4.4| 6/0
Real Estate | -1.4427| -0.3| 6/14
Consumer Staples | -3.2083| -0.4| 6/5
Communication Services | -3.3186| -0.3| 2/4
Utilities | -9.1823| -1.0| 7/9
Materials | -24.6918| -1.0| 19/32
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 23.1500| 4.7| -11.0| 33.4
Canadian Natural Resources | 16.1600| 3.0| -18.7| -3.5
RBC | 11.7900| 1.0| -26.7| 1.9
Agnico Eagle Mines | -5.0450| -2.3| -53.2| -3.5
Franco-Nevada | -6.1640| -2.4| -35.7| 4.6
Barrick Gold | -7.7970| -2.6| -40.4| 4.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street’s favorite volatility gauge tumbled as a rebound in stocks deepened, with a surge in banks and assurances from global authorities easing concerns that the recent financial tumult would lead to a full-blown crisis.  Call it calm.
Or call it calm before the storm.
Whatever the case, the coordinated actions to resolve the banking turmoil have restored a semblance of order for now.
The market’s so-called fear gauge, or VIX, headed toward its biggest two-day plunge since May.
In the run-up to the Federal Reserve decision, traders are betting on another 25 basis-point hike, with officials forging ahead with the battle against inflation and signaling commitment to financial stability.
“This is an easier market backdrop,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. “Expectations of a dramatic about-face for monetary policy are diminishing. Market expectations for near-term Fed rate decisions are now within the realm of the possible. That is good news.”
The S&P 500 topped 4,000, extending its advance above the key 200-day moving average.
After briefly exceeding 30 last week for the first time since October, the CBOE Volatility Index plummeted to around 22.
Every stock in a measure of US financial heavyweights climbed.
First Republic Bank surged 30% — its best day ever — amid optimism over a new plan under discussion to aid the regional lender.
Now the rally in the riskier corners of the market doesn’t mean an all-clear at this stage.
To Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co., investors should be careful about the conclusions they draw from the recent equity advance as there are at least two ways to look at it.
“One is to think that the stock market is looking past this mini-crisis and sees that the economy (and thus earnings) are going to grow quite nicely once we get past this problem,” Maley said. “The other way to look at it is to think that the situation is still quite a dicey one, and the authorities are pumping so much short-term liquidity into the system that the stock market cannot decline over the near term.”
Several strategists are indeed growing concerned, with Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson saying the risk of a credit crunch is increasing materially.
The S&P 500 might find a floor at 3,800, but investors should sell into any rallies if the benchmark reaches 4,100 to 4,200, Bank of America Corp.’s Michael Hartnett wrote.
BofA’s latest global survey of fund managers showed a systemic credit event has replaced stubborn inflation as the key risk to markets.
The polling took place from March 10-16, while money managers were witnessing the collapse of US lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and monitoring the turmoil at Credit Suisse before its historic takeover by UBS.
The likelihood of a recession is rising again for the first time since November, with the survey showing a net 42% of participants expecting a slowdown over the next 12 months.
Another worrisome development is the extreme volatility in short-term government bonds that has now dragged into a ninth straight day.
Treasury two-year notes, which are normally considered a low-risk investment, saw its yield surge as much as 21 basis points to 4.18% Tuesday.
John Hancock Investment Management’s Matthew Miskin is certain the Fed has run out of runway for a soft landing, and he’s pointing to turbulence in the bond market to make that case.
“When the two-year Treasury yield starts acting like a meme stock, you’ve got some problems,” Miskin said Tuesday on Bloomberg Television. “The bond market is saying, ‘yeah, you’re going to raise rates but it’s going to be a mistake and you’re going to be cutting in the not so distant future.’”
Key events this week:
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to appear at Senate subcommittee hearing, Wednesday
* FOMC rate decision, news conference from Chair Jerome Powell, Wednesday
* EIA crude oil inventory report, Wednesday
* Eurozone consumer confidence, Thursday
* BOE interest rate decision, Thursday
* Swiss National Bank rate decision and press conference, Thursday
* US new home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies to a House Appropriations subcommittee, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, Friday
* US durable goods, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1%
* The MSCI World index rose 1.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0771
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2220
* The Japanese yen fell 0.9% to 132.46 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.4% to $28,188.66
* Ether rose 1.9% to $1,795.4
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 11 basis points to 3.59%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 17 basis points to 2.29%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 3.37%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.5% to $69.33 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 2% to $1,960.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Angel Adegbesan, Carly Wanna, Peyton Forte and Felice Maranz.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
I’ll study and get ready, and then the chance will come. -Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865.

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

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

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Monday.  Spring Equinox at 5:24 EST in the Northern Hemisphere.  😊

March 20, 1916: Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
March 20, 1997: Liggett Group settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry markets cigarettes to teenagers and agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.  Go to article > 
 
Ovid, writer, b. 43 BC.
Henrik Ibsen, writer, b.1828.

Northern delights: What makes the Finns so damn happy?

7,000-year-old cult site in Saudi Arabia was filled with human remains and animal bones: Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia have discovered ancient human remains buried near hundreds of scattered animal bones inside a 7,000-year-old desert monument, a ritual site used by a prehistoric cult.   The remains, those of an adult male approximately in his 30s, were found inside a mustatil, a structure that takes its name from the Arabic word for rectangle.
Full Story: Live Science (3/17) 
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Luxor, Egypt
This undated photo shows a mural, part of a zodiac diagram found on the ceiling of the Temple of Esna in Luxor, Egypt. A complete zodiac diagram was found on the ceiling of a Roman-era temple in the southern Egyptian province of Luxor, the country’s ministry of tourism and antiquities said
Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

Shawnee, US
A motorist is silhouetted against the setting sun in the state of Kansas on the eve of the vernal equinox, that marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere with the day and night being roughly equal in duration
Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP

Tokyo, Japan
People enjoy cherry blossoms
Photograph: Androniki Christodoulou/Reuters
Market Closes for March 20^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32244.58	+382.60
		+1.20%
S&P 500	3951.57	+34.93
		+0.89%
NASDAQ	11675.54	+45.03
		+0.39%
TSX	19519.43	+131.71
		+0.68%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	26945.67	-388.12
		-1.42%
HANG SENG	19000.71	-517.88
		-2.65%
SENSEX	57628.95	-360.95
		-0.62%
FTSE 100*	7403.85	+68.45
		+0.93%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.816		2.779
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.939		2.909
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4847		3.4286
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6655		3.6197

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7318	0.7280
US $	1.3666	1.3736
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4650	0.6826
US  $	1.0720	0.9328

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1962.10	1922.75
Oil
WTI Crude Future	67.64	66.74

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1602, the Western world’s first major publicly traded company was born, as the Dutch legislature granted a monopoly on trade to the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or Dutch East India Company, which dealt in booming consumer products like cloves, tea, black pepper and Chinese porcelain. In 1609, the company’s directors declared that investors couldn’t sell their shares back to the company, but only to other investors—giving birth to the modern stock market.  The Dutch East India Company lasted 196 years.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.7% at 19,519.43 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.8%.
Today, energy stocks led the market higher, as 7 of 11 sectors gained; 143 of 235 shares rose, while 85 fell.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.6%.
Spartan Delta Corp. had the largest increase, rising 5.8%.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.7%
* This month, the index fell 3.5%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.1% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.2% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.4% in the past 5 days and fell 4.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.5 on a trailing basis and 12.7 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$3.1t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.70% compared with 11.46% in the previous session and the average of 9.08% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 64.5126| 2.0| 36/3
Financials | 31.6804| 0.5| 17/12
Materials | 18.6890| 0.8| 31/17
Communication Services | 12.8518| 1.3| 5/1
Consumer Staples | 8.5343| 1.1| 9/2
Consumer Discretionary | 3.6426| 0.5| 7/8
Real Estate | 0.4523| 0.1| 13/7
Health Care | -1.6488| -2.4| 2/4
Industrials | -2.0542| -0.1| 13/14
Utilities | -4.7740| -0.5| 4/11
Information Technology | -5.8846| -0.5| 6/6
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD |Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | 13.5500| 2.6| -1.3| -6.3
RBC | 12.3600| 1.0| -43.8| 1.0
Suncor Energy | 9.9850| 2.7| -20.1| -5.4
Canadian Pacific | -2.1870| -0.3| -33.7| 4.8
Canadian National | -2.8550| -0.4| -44.8| -2.0
Shopify | -11.8200| -2.3| -25.5| 27.5
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks finished higher as regulators worldwide rushed to shore up market confidence, with the recent financial turmoil spurring speculation on a slower pace of tightening from major central banks.
An earlier flight-to-safety bid waned, with all 11 groups in the S&P 500 gaining.
A gauge of US lenders climbed after last week’s 15% rout.
First Republic Bank plunged 47% to a record low, missing out on a rebound by its regional peers led by New York Community Bancorp.
UBS Group AG rose as investors focused on the upside of its Credit Suisse Group AG takeover.
Following the biggest weekly surge for the Nasdaq 100 since November, the tech-heavy measure underperformed as a recovery in risk appetite sent Treasuries slumping.
Global central banks witnessed no dash for dollars after uniting with the Federal Reserve to ease access to supplies of the US currency — an indication that the latest bout of banking turbulence may not be causing undue stress to the financial system.
To a large extent, the market feels the turmoil is not systemic and there will be a solution to “contain the damage,” according to Chuck Cumello, chief executive officer at Essex Financial Services.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be other “landmines” out there, so that’s going to be a challenge, he added.
“Monday’s session was relatively tame versus what we anticipate will be a week of elevated realized volatility,” said Ian Lyngen at BMO Capital Markets. “Conviction is scarce in the current environment and this observation applies not only to the Fed, but also to the evolution of the banking sector stress.”
Just a couple of weeks ago, investors were betting the Fed would raise rates close to 6% and the European Central Bank would hike past 4%.
Now markets imply the tightening cycles are almost over and wager on four rate cuts in the US by year-end.
Overnight indexed swaps price in a 75% chance of a quarter-point hike by the Fed this week.
Swap traders currently see the Fed’s benchmark ending the year around 4% — a whole percentage point below the central bank’s rate estimate in the December “dot plot” that comes as part of the quarterly economic projections.
In keeping with the theme of instilling confidence in the banking system, Fed Chair Jerome Powell will possibly reiterate that further progress needs to be made toward the goal of price stability, Lyngen noted.
A “dovish hike” remains our bias, he added.
“We expect a 25 bp hike and higher dots in the dot plot,” said Chris Low, chief economist at FHN Financial. “50 bp would be reckless, but no hike would suggest the bank crisis supplants the fight against inflation. 25 bp seems just right. Of course, our view from midtown Manhattan may not be quite the same as the Fed’s from central DC. If the Fed chooses not to hike, the language they use to couch that choice in will be key to shaping the entire yield curve.”
Market easing expectations have “run wild” because the media blackout has restrained Fed-speak, according to Win Thin at Brown Brothers Harriman.
While nobody knows the extent to which the recent turmoil is impacting the rate hike debate, Fed officials will likely fall in line with ECB President Christine Lagarde, who last week stressed that there is no trade-off between price and financial stability.
“This was a very strong statement that suggests any banking sector issues won’t derail the tightening cycle,” he noted. “We think this view is held by pretty much every central bank, including the Fed, which supports our call for a 25 bp hike this week.”
Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson said the stress in the banking system marks what’s likely to be the beginning of a painful and “vicious” end to the bear market in US stocks.
“This is exactly how bear markets end — an unforeseen catalyst that is obvious in hindsight forces market participants to acknowledge what has been right in front of them the entire time,” Wilson wrote.
Bank failures, market turmoil and ongoing economic uncertainty as central banks battle high inflation have increased the chances of a “Minsky moment,” according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Marko Kolanovic.
The term, named for the late American economist Hyman Minsky, refers to the end of an economic boom that has encouraged investors to take on so much risk that lending exceeds what borrowers can repay.
At that point, any destabilizing event may force investors to sell assets for cash to repay their loans, sparking a market meltdown.
“Even if central bankers successfully contain contagion, credit conditions look set to tighten more rapidly because of pressure from both markets and regulators,” Kolanovic wrote.
The Federal Home Loan Bank System issued $304 billion in debt last week, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public data.
That’s almost double the $165 billion that liquidity-hungry lenders tapped from the Fed.
In the likely volatile period ahead, high-quality, defensive assets should be sought out, while diversification will be increasingly important, said Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management.
Keith Lerner at Truist Wealth, says he also prefers staying defensively positioned even as the market appears to be fairly resilient.
“Although a Fed pause or pivot could trigger a short-term rally, we don’t see this as a cure-all, especially if the economy falls into recession later this year,” Lerner added.
“The Fed’s reaction function to current events will likely be less aggressive in providing monetary support relative to past periods given the conundrum of still-elevated inflation.”
The banking-sector turmoil combined with a previous increase in funding pressures has left financial markets also keenly attuned to what the Fed will say about its $8.6 trillion balance sheet.
Until this month that had been shrinking as part of the Fed’s efforts to return it back to pre-pandemic levels.
But now it has started to expand again as the Fed acts to bolster the banking system through a slate of emergency lending programs.
Its latest step came Sunday, when it moved with other central banks to boost US dollar liquidity.
Some say financial-stability concern may spur policymakers to dial back the runoff of its bond portfolio, a process known as quantitative tightening that’s designed to drain reserves from the system.  
Key events this week:
* US existing home sales, Tuesday
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to appear at Senate subcommittee hearing, Wednesday
* FOMC rate decision, news conference from Chair Jerome Powell, Wednesday
* EIA crude oil inventory report, Wednesday
* Eurozone consumer confidence, Thursday
* BOE interest rate decision, Thursday
* Swiss National Bank rate decision and press conference, Thursday
* US new home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies to a House  Appropriations subcommittee, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, Friday
* US durable goods, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.9% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.7%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0723
* The British pound rose 0.9% to $1.2279
* The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 131.43 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $27,890.29
* Ether fell 2.3% to $1,758.27
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced five basis points to 3.48%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.13%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 3.31%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.2% to $67.57 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.5% to $2,000.60 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Vildana Hajric, Emily Graffeo, Carly Wanna, Angel Adegbesan, Peyton Forte and Edward Bolingbroke.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
The simplest questions are the most profound.  Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going?
What are you doing? -Richard Bach, b. 1936.

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

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

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.  Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

March 17, 1992: A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%.

The world’s greatest places of 2023, according to TIME:  Looking for some travel inspo? Consider adding some of these stunning destinations to your bucket list.

Notre Dame is held together by a first-of-its-kind ‘iron skeleton,’ catastrophic fire revealed: In 2019, a fire broke out inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, severely damaging the iconic medieval building.
However, the catastrophic fire gave researchers an opportunity to study the building’s architecture like never before. Full Story: Live Science (3/15)

Watch ‘unprecedented’ animation showcasing 100 million years of Earth history: New “unprecedented” animations of the Earth show how the planet’s surface has shifted and changed over the past 100 million years.
These animations are the most detailed view of the history of Earth’s topography ever, depicting the rise of mountains, the development of basins, and the transport of large masses of sediments around the globe through erosion.
Full Story: Live Science (3/16)
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The week in wildlife – in pictures
A bird perches on a branch of a cherry tree at Ueno park in Tokyo. Japan’s meteorological agency announced cherry trees came into bloom in the Tokyo area on 14 March
Photograph: Yoshio Tsunoda/Aflo/Rex/Shutterstock

The week in wildlife – in pictures
Jellyfish and plankton off Shetland, Scotland. The picture won Henley Spiers the Coast and Marine award from the British Wildlife Photography Awards
Photograph: Henley Spiers

Dublin, Ireland
A reveller prepares for the St Patrick’s Day parade
Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Market Closes for March 17^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	31861.98	-384.57
		-1.19%
S&P 500	3916.64	-43.64
		-1.10%
NASDAQ	11630.52	-86.76
		-0.74%
TSX	19387.72	-151.29
		-0.77%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27333.79	+323.18
		+1.20%
HANG SENG	19518.59	+314.68
		+1.64%
SENSEX	57989.90	+355.06
		+0.62%
FTSE 100*	7335.40	-74.63
		-1.01%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.779		2.915
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.909		2.987
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4286		3.5770
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6197		3.7109

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7280	0.7290
US $	1.3736	1.3717
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4725	0.6791
US  $	1.0722	0.9327

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1922.75	1923.40
Oil
WTI Crude Future	66.74	68.35

Market Commentary:
📈 This day in 1821 was one of the quietest in Wall Street history. Not a single share changed hands. After a turbulent week, traders might be hoping for such a calm day today.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.8% at 19,387.72 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s increase of 0.8%.
Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as 8 of 11 sectors lost; 153 of 236 shares fell, while 81 rose.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.5%.
Precision Drilling Corp. had the largest drop, falling 5.9%.
Insights
* This quarter, the index was unchanged
* So far this week, the index fell 2%
* The index declined 11% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 12% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.7% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 8.5% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.4 on a trailing basis and 12.6 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$3.13t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.46% compared with 11.37% in the previous session and the average of 8.86% over the past month
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -107.1095| -1.8| 7/22
Industrials | -54.9630| -2.0| 3/23
Energy | -40.8503| -1.3| 8/31
Consumer Staples | -8.8675| -1.1| 2/9
Consumer Discretionary| -8.8029| -1.2| 3/12
Real Estate | -7.6627| -1.5| 0/22
Information Technology| -7.6555| -0.6| 6/8
Health Care | -1.0072| -1.4| 1/5
Communication Services| 1.4980| 0.2| 3/3
Utilities | 1.5875| 0.2| 6/10
Materials | 76.8203| 3.3| 42/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | -31.1900| -2.5| 123.8| 0.0
Canadian Pacific | -20.3200| -2.9| 183.6| 5.1
Canadian National | -18.0400| -2.6| 88.1| -1.6
Agnico Eagle Mines | 11.8100| 5.7| 63.0| -0.8
Franco-Nevada | 12.5300| 5.0| 131.2| 6.8
Barrick Gold | 12.5800| 4.3| 96.9| 7.2
US
By Carly Wanna and Angel Adegbesan
(Bloomberg) — Technology stocks were the beneficiary of a tumultuous week for global markets as concern mounted that the turmoil rocking the banking sector will tip the global economy into recession.
The Nasdaq 100 rose 5.8% to notch its best week since November, despite a slump Friday, as investors snapped up old standby favorites in the tech sector, including Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc., on bets the Federal Reserve would temper its tightening path.
“They’ve been on a strong run so far this year. Much of the stress now obviously is focused in financials. And it may be that the money has shifted into tech,” Kelly Bogdanova, a vice president and portfolio analyst at RBC Wealth Management, said in a phone interview. “If you look at the entire tech group, the valuations had come down a lot, especially in communication services. And those stocks took a hit late last year.”
The S&P 500 also carved out a 1.4% weekly gain even as banking stocks dragged the index to a 1.1% drop Friday.
The financial sector was the worst performing with First Republic Bank, the latest US lender to signal stress, plunging over 70% on the week despite the larger banks throwing a lifeline to the regional lender Thursday.
Credit Suisse Group AG added to the sector’s woes after Reuters reported that at least four big banks, including Deutsche Bank AG, were curbing trading with the troubled Swiss lender.
A gauge of regional banks fell 15% over the past five days.
“When an extreme event happens and impacts the financial system, it usually takes markets more than just a few days to work through it,” Bogdanova said. “We can’t rule out more knock on effects.”
The policy-sensitive two-year swung more than 20 basis points for the seventh straight session as traders recalibrated rate-hike wagers.
Yields fell across the curve Friday after a softer-than-expected reading on inflation expectations.
An index of the dollar weakened.
Banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. banded together in a show of support for First Republic on Thursday.
While the rescue attempt initially boosted sentiment, billionaire investor Bill Ackman was among those questioning whether it would be enough to halt the crisis.
Meanwhile, US banks borrowed a combined $164.8 billion from two Federal Reserve backstop facilities in the most recent week, a sign of escalated funding strains in the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure.
“The Fed’s rate hiking cycle was already feeling restrictive, so now that we have rising risks of more bank bailouts and even tighter credit standards, the growth outlook for the economy is rather bleak,” Ed Moya, a senior market
analyst at Oanda, wrote. “Next week will be huge as markets are unsure if the Fed will continue to tighten or given this week’s banking turmoil decide to hold.”

Markets were also digesting a 50 basis points rate hike by the European Central Bank.
By making it clear that stress points in the banking industry — as well as economic data — will guide future rate decisions, ECB Chief Christine Lagarde paved the way for bond-market gyrations to remain elevated for the remainder
of the year as traders try to figure out when the hiking cycle will end.
Market pricing for the Fed’s March 21-22 meeting has lurched between another quarter-point hike, and the first rate pause in more than a year.
US overnight indexed swaps are now pricing for close to a coin-flip probability of a quarter-percentage point Fed rate hike next week.
Wall Street remains divided on which way the central bank should move.
Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at iCapital, told Bloomberg Television that the confidence signaled by a 25 basis point hike from the Fed would not go “that far.”
“They have to pause,” said Amoroso. “The biggest signal of confidence would be to say, we are attuned to the issue. We want to take the time to make sure we have the right approach in place before we resume that rate hiking cycle. To me that would be the best approach.”
BlackRock Investment Institute does not expect cracks in the financial sector to deter central banks from raising rates further to contain inflation.
It expects both the ECB and the Fed to “go as far as possible to distinguish their inflation fighting campaigns from measures to deal with bank troubles and safeguard the financial system,” a team of BlackRock analysts wrote in a note.
Jack Manley, global market strategist at JPMorgan Investment Management expects some kind of Fed reprieve next week and that could bring markets a “sigh of relief.”
“Financial stability is more important than inflation. And the Fed’s going to have an awfully hard time transmitting monetary policy through a banking system that it’s broken,” Manley told Bloomberg Television.
Bitcoin reached its highest level since June amid a broad rally in cryptocurrencies.
Other tokens such as Ether, Solana and Polkadot surged as well.
Oil had its worst week so far this year.
Gold rose.
These are the main market moves:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.6%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0662
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2170
* The Japanese yen rose 1.3% to 131.99 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 8.6% to $26,885.52
* Ether rose 5.3% to $1,747.32
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined 15 basis points to 3.42%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined 18 basis points to 2.11%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined 14 basis points to 3.28%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3.1% to $66.23 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 3% to $1,998.30 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Robert Brand and Felice Maranz.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,
Carolann
Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men. -J.F. 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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.
March 16, 1968: General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.

March 16, 1926: Rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket, in Auburn, Mass. Go to article >

Pilot makes first-ever plane landing on Dubai’s Burj Al Arab helipad.  A stunt pilot successfully brought his aircraft to a stop in just 68 feet on top of a Dubai skyscraper. See the images here.

NASA reveals new spacesuit design.  These spacesuits, developed for NASA by Axiom Space, look quite different than the puffy white outfits you may be envisioning.

Da Vinci’s mother was an enslaved teenager trafficked to Italy, new documents suggest: Leonardo da Vinci’s mother was kidnapped and enslaved as a teenager in the Caucasus and sent to Italy, a new analysis of nearly 600-year-old documents suggests. The documents, discovered by an Italian historian, suggest that da Vinci’s mother, Caterina, was kidnapped and torn from her home by the Black Sea in Circassia before being shipped to Venice.
Full Story: Live Science (3/15)

60,000-mile-tall ‘plasma waterfall’ snapped showering the sun with impossibly fast fire: An Astro photographer has snapped a stunning shot of an enormous wall of plasma falling down toward the solar surface at impossibly fast speeds after being spat out near the sun’s south pole.
Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, who is based near Rafaela in Argentina, captured the striking image on March 9 using specialized camera equipment. Full Story: Live Science (3/15)
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Chennai, India
People take a sunrise walk along Edward Elliot’s beach
Photograph: Idrees Mohammed/EPA

Spor Etter Jern (Forest of the Finns)
This work draws on historical slash and burn farming methods and shamanistic tradition to investigate what it means to be a Forest Finn today, when agricultural methods have disappeared and the native language is no longer spoken
Photograph: Terje Abusdal

Springing forth
‘Two young beech seedlings wait for spring, sheltered by mother trees and succoured by their mycorrhizal connections. In the foreground, moss and fungi return the substance of a grandmother generation back into the soil. Picture taken on Ranmore Common, Surrey.’
Photograph: Peter Stott
Market Closes for March 16^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32246.55	+371.98
		+1.17%
S&P 500	3960.28	+68.35
		+1.76%
NASDAQ	11717.28	+283.23
		+2.48%
TSX	19539.01	+160.17
		+0.83%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27010.61	-218.87
		-0.80%
HANG SENG	19203.91	-335.96
		-1.72%
SENSEX	57634.84	+78.94
		+0.14%
FTSE 100*	7410.03	+65.58
		+0.89%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.915		2.786
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.987		2.893
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.5770		3.4548
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.7109		3.6430

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7290	0.7266
US $	1.3717	1.3763
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4562	0.6867
US  $	1.0614	0.9422

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1923.40	1907.55
Oil
WTI Crude Future	68.35	67.61

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1930, Julius H. Barnes, leader of President Herbert Hoover’s National Business Survey Conference, declared that “the spring of 1930 marks the end of a period of grave concern,” adding, “American business is steadily coming back to a normal level of prosperity.” The Depression would last another nine years.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.8% at 19,539.01 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 1.2% on March  3 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 1.6%.
Today, industrials stocks led the market higher, as 10 of 11 sectors gained; 166 of 236 shares rose, while 61 fell.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.0%.
Tilray Brands Inc. had the largest increase, rising 9.9%.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 0.8%
* So far this week, the index fell 1.2%
* The index declined 9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 10% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 9.3% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 2.7% in the past 5 days and fell 5.2% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.5 on a trailing basis and 12.6 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$3.1t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.37% compared with 10.93% in the previous session and the average of 8.65% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Industrials | 57.7527| 2.1| 25/1
Financials | 32.4127| 0.5| 26/3
Information Technology | 17.2695| 1.3| 10/4
Energy | 15.2139| 0.5| 30/7
Consumer Discretionary | 9.9991| 1.4| 12/2
Utilities | 9.7966| 1.1| 12/3
Consumer Staples | 6.8599| 0.8| 6/5
Communication Services | 2.1471| 0.2| 3/3
Health Care | 1.9325| 2.7| 5/1
Real Estate | 1.2328| 0.2| 15/7
Materials | -0.1593| 0.0| 22/25
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Pacific | 20.5800| 3.0| 79.3| 8.3
Canadian National | 17.1600| 2.6| -8.8| 1.1
Shopify | 11.5200| 2.3| 8.8| 30.4
Barrick Gold | -2.3210| -0.8| -11.3| 2.8
Nutrien | -2.5170| -0.7| -1.4| 0.8
Wheaton Precious Metals | -3.1250| -1.7| 3.7| 12.5
US
By Carly Wanna and Angel Adegbesan
(Bloomberg) — US stocks ended the day higher after a First Republic Bank rescue package was secured, sparking a rebound in shares of embattled regional lenders.
Treasuries fell after the European Central Bank delivered a rate hike that added to bets the US central bank will also raise next week.
The S&P 500 notched its largest one-day advance since January after the biggest banks in the US agreed to contribute $30 billion in deposits to First Republic.
The regional lender’s shares had tumbled more than 60% before Thursday as investors speculated the bank could be the next to fail after two high-profile demises touched off the crisis last week.
An index of regional banks closed higher, the gauge is still down over 20% this March.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 2.7%% to a one-month high.
Tech has become more sensitive to interest rates, said Tony Welch, chief investment officer at SignatureFD.
“When economic growth becomes more scarce, you want to look to those industries and sectors that can produce the growth.  Tech is certainly one of those that can potentially be a better grower,” Welch said.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s prepared remarks presented to Capitol Hill Thursday “did a good job of boosting confidence about the banking system,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management.
“They’d like to see the support come from the private sector and that is likely going to be now the first of many larger, more sound banks supporting some of those banks that might have impaired balance sheets,” Hogan said of the big lenders coming to the regional bank’s aid.
The First Republic news comes after a lifeline from Swiss regulators overnight stabilized Credit Suisse Group AG, easing worries that the European lender would lead to a cascading crisis in that region.
The idea of a forced combination with a larger rival, UBS Group AG, was shot down on Thursday and receipts in Credit Suisse ended the session unchanged.
The cost to insure the Swiss bank’s debt has been rising.
“That the market is reacting relatively positively to the fact that we are applying some guardrails here shouldn’t necessarily be a catalyst for markets to move much higher,” said Meera Pandit, JPMorgan Asset Management global market strategist on Bloomberg TV. “There is still some vulnerability here to a correction because we don’t know how this continues to evolve.”
Markets were also digesting a European Central Bank rate hike and comments from the ECB president that inflation is projected to remain too high for too long.
The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point next week.
Rising odds for that move sent two-year Treasury yields back above 4%, though they remained lower than they were just a week ago.
Government securities swung in the session with yields eventually climbing.
A measure of Treasury market volatility touched levels last seen in the midst of the global financial crisis this week.
FedEx Corp. shares jumped in afterhours trading following earnings from the delivery company that beat estimates and its outlook for the year was boosted.
United Parcel Service Inc. also climbed.
Quarterly triple witching, where contracts for index futures, equity index options and stock options all expire, could amp up swings in Friday’s trading.
All eyes are now on the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week, with traders debating whether the central bank will increase interest rates.
Market pricing suggests the Fed will soon pivot and will start cutting rates this year.
Data Thursday showed first-time unemployment claims dropped more than analysts’ estimates last week, while housing starts and building permits exceeded expectations, underscoring the economic resilience that’s allowed the Fed to tighten aggressively over the past year.
“Central banks appear to be willing to push through the problems higher rates are causing in order to address inflation,” Louis Navellier, chief investment officer of Navellier & Associates wrote in his daily newsletter.
He views the ECB’s rate increase as a “test run” ahead of the next Fed meeting.
“All else being equal, more restrictive lending increases recession risk,” he said. “Expect lots of volatility in the near term and remain cautious as this banking crisis plays out.”
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.8% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 2.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%
* The MSCI World index rose 1.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
* The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0614
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2118
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 133.47 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 2.5% to $25,003.38
* Ether rose 1.8% to $1,683.68
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced 11 basis points to 3.57%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 16 basis points to 2.29%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced 10 basis points to 3.43%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.7% to $68.09 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,924.40 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Emily Graffeo and Isabelle Lee.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.  -R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983.

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

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

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: THE IDES OF MARCH.
Julius Caesar, d. 44 BC.
1917: Czar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates his throne.

March 15, 1985: The first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered by the Symbolics Computer Corp. of Massachusetts.  Read article

March 15, 2019: More than 1.5 million students participate in climate change protests around the world as part of Fridays for Future, a movement started by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

‘Unstable’ moons may be obliterating alien life across the universe: The moon crashing into Earth may sound like an unrealistic doomsday scenario or the stuff of sci-fi disasters. But for some planets in other star systems, such catastrophic collisions may be common.
New research uses computer simulations to show that collisions between exoplanets and their moons (called exomoons) may actually be a regular occurrence, which could be disastrous for any budding alien life on those planets.
Full Story: Live Science (3/15)

‘Very, very rare’ gold and silver medieval treasure unearthed in the Netherlands: A metal detectorist in the Netherlands has discovered dazzling gold and silver treasures that were buried in a medieval swamp 800 years ago, possibly during wartime.
The hoard includes four golden ear pendants, two strips of gold leaf and 39 silver coins. Full Story: Live Science (3/14)

Technology behind ChatGPT is about to get even more powerful.  The artificial intelligence tool that stunned the tech industry has an advanced version on the way. Check out some of its new capabilities.

They bought an ‘ancient’ Italian home for around $9,000. There were many surprises in store.  Home renovations often involve unforeseen costs and hidden surprises… especially if you decide to fix up a 14th-century apartment.

Webb telescope spots a star on the brink of exploding.  View the rare and tumultuous sight 15,000 light-years away from Earth.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Frankfurt, Germany
People walk though a park as snow falls
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Florida, US
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for Nasa on a resupply mission to the International Space Station launches from pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center as seen from Lori Wilson park in Cocoa Beach
Photograph: Malcolm Denemark/AP

​​​​​​​Zhejiang province, China.
Cherry blossoms bursting into bloom in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province, China.
Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
Market Closes for March 15^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	31874.57	-280.83
		-0.87%
S&P 500	3891.93	-27.36
		-0.70%
NASDAQ	11434.05	+5.90
		+0.05%
TSX	19378.84	-315.32
		-1.60%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27229.48	+7.44
		+0.03%
HANG SENG	19539.87	+291.91
		+1.52%
SENSEX	57555.90	-344.29
		-0.59%
FTSE 100*	7344.45	-292.66
		-3.83%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.786		2.896
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.893		2.928
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.4548		3.6778
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.6430		3.7970

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7266	0.7307
US $	1.3763	1.3686
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4558	0.6869
US  $	1.0578	0.9454

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1907.55	1911.30
Oil
WTI Crude Future	67.61	71.33

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1999, less than three months after breaking the 1,200 barrier, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closed above 1,300 for the first time, finishing the day at 1,307.26.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.6% at 19,378.84 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest loss since Nov. 9 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.5%.
Today, energy stocks led the market lower, as 8 of 11 sectors lost; 188 of 236 shares fell, while 44 rose.
Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.7%.
Africa Oil Corp. had the largest drop, falling 8.7%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss 13 times. The next day, it declined 10 times for an average 0.7% and advanced three times for an average 1.4%
* This quarter, the index was little changed
* The index declined 8.5% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 9.4% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 12.8% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 8.4% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 4.8% in the past 5 days and fell 6.5% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.3 on a trailing basis and 12.6 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$3.15t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 10.93% compared with 10.06% in the previous session and the average of 8.49% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -161.3457| -4.8| 0/39
Financials | -113.4967| -1.9| 1/28
Materials | -35.8333| -1.5| 15/34
Information Technology| -19.6840| -1.5| 2/11
Real Estate | -8.7211| -1.7| 1/20
Consumer Staples | -3.9404| -0.5| 10/1
Consumer Discretionary| -3.4772| -0.5| 3/12
Health Care | -1.4449| -2.0| 0/7
Utilities | 1.5167| 0.2| 4/12
Communication Services| 2.1867| 0.2| 4/2
Industrials | 23.2221| 0.9| 4/22
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Enbridge | -26.8800| -3.7| -22.1| -4.8
Canadian Natural Resources | -26.4900| -4.7| 85.9| -7.2
Suncor Energy | -26.1100| -6.5| 1.7| -6.2
Fortis | 4.4680| 2.4| 7.3| 4.5
Barrick Gold | 8.7950| 3.1| 18.8| 3.6
Canadian Pacific | 40.5100| 6.3| 193.6| 5.1
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Volatility gripped financial markets as fresh turmoil at Credit Suisse Group AG days after the collapse of some American regional banks spurred a frantic rush for shelter, evoking memories of the 2008 global financial crisis and bolstering speculation that major central banks will have to curb their hawkishness to prevent a harsher economic landing.
Equities trimmed a slide that at one point topped 2% for the S&P 500 as Switzerland’s central bank and financial regulator said Credit Suisse will receive a liquidity backstop if needed, in an effort to arrest the slump in confidence around the troubled lender.
A gauge of US financial heavyweights like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. also pared losses, but still sank to the lowest level since November 2020.
First Republic Bank led a rout in US regional peers after being cut to junk by two major credit firms.
Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge touched its highest level since October after being relatively subdued for the most part this year.
As investors dashed to the safest corners of the market, gold reversed an earlier slide and the dollar rallied against all of its developed-market peers except the Japanese yen.
Bond yields plunged globally as mounting financial-stability concerns prompted traders to abandon bets on additional rate hikes and begin pricing in cuts by the Federal Reserve.
They priced in a drop of more than 100 basis points in the US policy rate by year-end and downgraded the odds of additional tightening by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
Banks that trade with Credit Suisse rushed to safeguard their exposure with the lender on Wednesday, snapping up contracts that will compensate them if the crisis rocking the Zurich-based firm deepens.
So intense was the demand for the derivatives, known as credit-default swaps, that they spiked to levels that signal the lender is in deep financial distress — something unseen at a major global bank since at least the
throes of the financial crisis.
The renewed bout of banking turbulence spurred some worrisome remarks from prominent Wall Street voices.
As Credit Suisse nosedived, economist Nouriel Roubini — who’s known as “Dr. Doom” — said the troubled lender might be “too big to be saved.”
BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink noted that the banking crisis could worsen, worrying aloud about cracks in the financial system that formed during more than a decade of easy money and low interest rates.
Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio expects problems to start mounting in the fallout from contractions in debt and credit markets, saying the recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank was just a “canary in the coal mine.”
“Are the dominoes starting to fall?” Fink, chairman of the world’s largest asset manager, said in a letter on Wednesday.  “It’s too early to know how widespread the damage is.”
With the banking turmoil rippling through financial markets, Bob Michele, the chief investment officer of JPMorgan Asset Management, warned of an economic hard landing.
He now expects the Fed to pause rate hikes next week, saying that a recession is “inevitable” and that the best investment strategy right now is to stick to high quality bonds.
Michele reckoned the whole Treasury yield curve will come down to as low as 3% by August, but he stopped short of predicting the end of a hiking cycle.
The 10-year rate is currently near 3.5%.
Now that’s not to say everyone is buying the idea of a “financial crisis 2.0” at this stage.
Lisa Shalett at Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division stopped short of buying into the latest mega-bear-case on equities — namely that the failure of three American banks would be a prelude to a crisis such as the one that laid global economies low in 2008.
She says the collapse of a few regional lenders was mostly driven by poor risk management at a time when the Fed is aggressively tightening monetary policy to slow the economy.
While more banks are likely to fall, Shalett considers the threat to the broad financial industry and economy as contained.
“Remember, in the great financial crisis, there was a lot of this that was about cross-counterparty credit risk,” she told Bloomberg Television. “This is less about immediate contagion.”
No matter how bullish or bearish traders are, there seems to be consensus on at least one thing: volatility should continue dominating the financial world for now amid so many uncertainties.
“The emotions of investors remain high, and shrinking liquidity is pouring gasoline on volatility in the equity and bond market,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “The market remains susceptible to continued pressure until confidence in the system returns.”
Key events this week:
* Eurozone rate decision, Thursday
* US housing starts, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Janet Yellen appears before the Senate Finance Committee, Thursday
* US University of Michigan consumer sentiment, industrial production, Conference Board leading index, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9%
* The MSCI World index fell 1.1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.9%
* The euro fell 1.4% to $1.0580
* The British pound fell 0.8% to $1.2060
* The Japanese yen rose 0.8% to 133.21 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.9% to $24,406.63
* Ether fell 3.1% to $1,651.65
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined 22 basis points to 3.47%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined 29 basis points to 2.13%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined 17 basis points to 3.32%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 4.5% to $68.09 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.5% to $1,921.40 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Robert Brand.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. –A.A. Milne, 1882-1956.

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

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

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: It’s Pi Day! That’s a perfect excuse to stop being intimidated by pie-making and enjoy these pie recipes for bakers of every level.

3.14: On Pi Day, celebrate the history of the fundamental number.
On March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and one of the great thinkers of the ages, was born. Following his death on April 18, 1955, his obituary appeared in The Times. Go to obituary »
March 14, 1794: Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin – a device for removing the seeds from cotton fiber, resulting in more profitable agricultural production.

This professional golfer’s lucky charm: grandma: At 88 years old, Scottie Scheffler’s grandmother was notably present on the sidelines of all 72 holes during last week’s TPC Sawgrass tournament — which Scheffler won.

Why it was ‘no accident’ the Obama White House was ‘scandal-free’: Former first lady Michelle Obama said her family was extra mindful of their actions while in the White House. Watch the video here.

Atmospheric rivers are the new hurricanes.

Beer-flavored popsicles.

Roman-era tomb scattered with magical ‘dead nails’ and sealed off to shield the living from the ‘restless dead’: In ancient Roman times, people may have feared the “restless dead,” according to the discovery of a cremation tomb sprinkled with intentionally bent nails and sealed not only with two dozen bricks but also a layer of plaster, a new study finds.
The unusual grave had 41 bent and twisted nails scattered along the edges of its cremation pyre, 24 bricks that had been meticulously placed on the still-smoldering pyre, and a layer of lime plaster on top of that.
Full Story: Live Science (3/13)

10 discoveries that prove Einstein was right about the universe – and 1 that proves him wrong: Despite the technical limitations of his time, Albert Einstein published his famous theory of general relativity in 1915, which made predictions about the nature of the universe that would be proven accurate time and again for more than 100 years to come.
Here are 10 recent observations that proved Einstein was right about the nature of the cosmos a century ago — and one that proved him wrong.  Full Story: Live Science (3/14)

Bizarre sand dunes on Mars are ‘almost perfectly circular,’ and scientists don’t know why: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured stunning images of almost perfectly round sand dunes on the surface of the Red Planet.  While sand dunes of all shapes and sizes are common on Mars, circular dunes like these are a rare sight. Full Story: Live Science (3/14
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Mars
An image from Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows circular sand dunes on the surface of the planet
Photograph: Nasa/JPL-CalTech/University of Arizona/Reuters

London, UK
Shire horses spread seeded soil around the moat beside the Tower of London with a chain harrow. The process is part of a long-term transformation of the moat into a biodiverse landscape, one that will be rich with wildflowers
Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

London, UK
Two gallery assistants pose next to Glasgow Docks, by LS Lowry, estimated at £1.1-£1.5m, at Christie’s auction house for the Modern British and Irish Art evening sale
Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for March 14^th, 2023

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	32155.40	+336.26
		+1.06%
S&P 500	3920.56	+64.80
		+1.68%
NASDAQ	11428.15	+239.31
		+2.14%
TSX	19694.16	+105.26
		+0.54%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	27222.04	-610.92
		-2.19%
HANG SENG	19247.96	-448.01
		-2.27%
SENSEX	57900.19	-337.66
		-0.58%
FTSE 100*	7637.11	+88.48
		+1.17%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		2.896		2.765
CND. 30 Year Bond		2.928		2.807
U.S.    10 Year Bond		3.6778		3.5374
U.S. 30 Year Bond		3.7970		3.6864

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7307	0.7286
US $	1.3686	1.3725
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4689	0.6808
US  $	1.0734	0.9316

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1911.30	1861.25
Oil
WTI Crude Future	71.33	74.80

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1821, the market was open but not a single share of stock changed hands in one of the quietest days in Wall Street history.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.5% at 19,694.16 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 1.2% on March 3 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.9%.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.4%.
Ecn Capital Corp. had the largest increase, rising 9.4%.
Today, 178 of 236 shares rose, while 57 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 1.6%
* The index declined 7% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 6.9% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 11.3% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 10.2% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 2.9% in the past 5 days and fell 4.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.7 on a trailing basis and 12.8 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$3.13t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 10.06% compared with 10.40% in the previous session and the average of 8.36% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 48.4956| 0.8| 25/4
Information Technology | 30.2296| 2.4| 13/1
Materials | 21.5156| 0.9| 40/10
Utilities | 8.0794| 0.9| 15/1
Consumer Staples | 5.6911| 0.7| 9/2
Real Estate | 4.9830| 1.0| 17/5
Industrials | 4.4913| 0.2| 19/7
Consumer Discretionary | 3.9509| 0.6| 10/5
Health Care | 0.0151| 0.0| 5/2
Communication Services | -1.8241| -0.2| 5/1
Energy | -26.0881| -0.8| 20/19
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 20.5700| 4.4| -5.0| 27.4
RBC | 14.3400| 1.1| -18.8| 4.3
Nutrien | 8.4870| 2.3| -1.6| 5.3
Canadian Pacific | -5.9160| -0.9| 57.4| -1.1
Suncor Energy | -7.0880| -1.7| -41.4| 0.3
Canadian Natural Resources | -11.5600| -2.0| 159.7| -2.6
US
By Carly Wanna
(Bloomberg) — US stocks rallied into the close as traders wagered the worst of the banking turmoil has passed.
Treasuries fell.
The S&P 500 recovered much of its lost gains in the late afternoon session after a Russian fighter jet colliding with a US drone tamped down the initial enthusiasm.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq notched its biggest one-day gain in six weeks.
The relief rally in banking stocks was crimped as the KBW Bank Index ended the day with a 3.2% gain.
Remarks from ratings companies on the financial sector underscored the fragile sentiment as markets were jolted by the biggest American bank failures since the financial crisis.
Moody’s Investors Service cut its outlook on the sector on the heels of the trio of banking collapses over the past few days.
First Republic Bank triggered a volatility halt after S&P Global Ratings placing the company on watch negative.
The two-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.3%— following a three-day swoon that was the biggest in decades amid the tumult — after data showed inflation remained elevated in February.
Swaps traders once again expect the Fed to lift rates by a quarter percentage point. Odds of an increase had slipped to nearly 50-50 on Monday.
US consumer prices rose 0.4% in February, meeting economists’ forecast.
The closely watched core CPI number — which excludes food and energy — increased 0.5%, just ahead of the median estimate of 0.4%.
“The market is indecisive right now. It’s completely undecided on which way we’re supposed to go,” said Liz Young, head of investment strategy at SoFi. “At the end of yesterday it tried to price in what it thought CPI was gonna do and then CPI came in. It’s like we’re not sure what’s good and what’s bad anymore. And we’re stuck in this purgatory.”
Tom Essaye, a former Merrill Lynch trader who founded “The Sevens Report” newsletter, expects that the data will keep the Fed on track to raise rates 25 basis points next week.
“Given the bank troubles, this report isn’t bad enough to put 50 bps back on the table, but if the Fed wants to maintain credibility on inflation, then this report says they have to hike again next week and not signal they are done,” Essaye wrote.  “Overall, this is an inflation update that, taken as a sole input, would suggest that a 25 bp hike next week is a foregone conclusion,” said Ian Lyngen, rates strategist at BMO Capital Markets. “Alas, the regional banking stress leaves next week’s decision as a wild card until there is greater clarity on the success of limiting the contagion to the rest of the banking sector from SVB/Signature.”
Elsewhere in markets, oil extended declines.
Gold slid after rising in the three previous sessions as traders turned to haven assets.
Here’s what else Wall Street is saying:

Peter Chatwell, head of global macro strategies trading at Mizuho International: “Although the number was higher in core MoM than expected, it is probably not sufficiently so to corner the Fed into hawkishness at the next meeting. Therefore risk assets are able to breathe a sigh of relief here, as the Fed probably has the option to go easy at the next meeting, if they feel the banking system requires it.”
Wolf von Rotberg, equity strategist at Bank J. Safra Sarasin: “The CPI number is no game changer. After the events last week, a 50bps appeared unlikely going into the data print today and the slightly stronger than expected core inflation print puts speculation of a Fed pause to a rest.”  “The Fed is on track for another 25bps hike next week.  Equities should rebound somewhat as the Fed becomes more predictable for now. But the impact from higher rates on the economy is just starting to be felt and will likely become more and more visible as the year moves on.”
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown: “Policymakers may still feel forced to press pause on rates, despite evidence the hot inflation is still a risk, unwilling to be blamed for making a bad situation worse. While smaller banks remain under pressure, there are concerns that bigger banks could become more risk averse in lending, which could dip the economy into a sharper downturn.
James Athey, investment director at Abrdn: “Equity markets are still priced for a rosy future which looks increasingly fanciful with each passing day. I’m sure the lack of further selloff in the rates markets today will comfort some but the reality is that treasuries can sense what equities are blissfully or willfully ignoring – this sort of monetary tightening from such an extreme starting position is unequivocal bad news for a fragile and highly levered system.”
Brian Nick, chief investment strategist at Nuveen: “Every 24 hour period that passes where nothing else goes wrong, for the time being, maybe for the next week or so, is going to be encouraging and probably contributing to an upswing in equity prices across the board. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to leave this crisis, assuming that we’ve seen the worst of it, without any impairment at all.”  “It’s a go-ahead for 25 basis points.”
Charles Hepworth, investment director at GAM Investments: “Continued hawkishness should still be warranted, or at least that’s what the Fed will likely want to state.  It puts the Fed in a tight spot. Higher interest rates amid banking
turmoil might not be what investors want to see. However, a pause in a 0.25% hike next week only delays the inevitable.”  

Key events this week:
* China retail sales, industrial production, medium-term lending, surveyed jobless rate, Wednesday
* Eurozone industrial production, Wednesday
* US business inventories, retail sales, PPI, empire manufacturing, Wednesday
* Eurozone rate decision, Thursday
* US housing starts, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Janet Yellen appears before the Senate Finance Committee, Thursday
* US University of Michigan consumer sentiment, industrial production, Conference Board leading index, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.7% as of 4:01 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 2.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0741
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2178
* The Japanese yen fell 0.7% to 134.15 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3.4% to $25,052.27
* Ether rose 3% to $1,722.92
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced nine basis points to 3.66%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 16 basis points to 2.42%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced 12 basis points to 3.49%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 4.3% to $71.56 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,908.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Allegra Catelli, Sagarika Jaisinghani and Vildana Hajric.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. – Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968.

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