Category: Newsletters

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy first day of Spring!

It’s the Spring Equinox tonight.

Matthew Cappucci wrote the following article for The Washington Post this morning, which I found interesting:
An unusually early spring equinox arrives late Thursday night, as days continue to grow longer as sunsets arrive later.
The shifting seasons are marked by the vernal equinox. Equinoxes occur twice a year — once to usher in fall, and once to herald the arrival of spring.
During most years, the spring equinox falls between March 20 and 22. But for those in the United States, that’s not the case this year. In fact, space.com reports that the March 19 equinox is earlier than any in the past 124 years.
When and what is the vernal equinox?
The vernal equinox isn’t a day; it’s a precise moment that strikes at 11:49 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday night. In that instant, the sun’s most direct rays will cross the equator from the Southern Hemisphere into the Northern Hemisphere. And after that, they’re ours for the taking over the next six months.
And with that, spring will arrive — spelling an end to a winter that for many on the East Coast was over before it began.
Earth’s tilted axis is the reason for the season. Our planet is 23.5 degrees off kilter from the vertical, meaning that at certain times of the year some of us receive more direct sunlight than others.
During the spring and summer months, the Northern Hemisphere leans toward the sun. That allows us to soak up the most intense sunlight, with increasing temperatures as we approach June, July and August.
We experience the greatest solar heating in June around the time of the summer solstice, but because of a phenomenon known as “seasonal lag” many of us don’t experience our warmest temperatures until July.
Once we pass the autumnal equinox in September, our tilt, combined with Earth’s position amid its annual orbit around the sun, means our lean is now away from the sun. It’s the Southern Hemisphere’s turn to soak up extra vitamin D.
It’s also why Christmas is a summer holiday in Australia.
Equal day and equal night? Not so fast.
Despite the term “equinox,” originating from Latin words that translate to “equal night,” the length of day vs. night is not in balance on the equinox.  Sunrise is defined as the moment the upper limb of the sun pokes over the horizon — the first hints of sunlight. Sunset occurs when the last glimmers of sunlight disappear below the horizon. Because we’re taking the first-up, last-down approach to defining day length, rather than tracking when a single point on the sun is above the horizon, our day is a couple of minutes longer than 12 hours.
Moreover, our day can sometimes be stretched a bit by mirages. No, mirages don’t only occur in the desert. When the air’s temperature (and therefore its density) and amount of bending light change significantly in various levels of the atmosphere, we can sometimes see the sun even after it has set below the horizon.
The result? Some folks could experience a day as much as 12 hours 20 minutes long on the equinox if they lived near the North Pole.
The days are lengthening rapidly
The spring equinox also marks the point at which day length is growing the fastest. It’s kind of like a pendulum; with one extreme representing winter and the other summer, the pendulum is moving the fastest as it swings past the center point — the spring equinox.
In the nation’s capital, the days are growing longer by 2 minutes 32 seconds every day. In Boston, that figure jumps to 2 minutes 52 seconds. In Miami, the shift is a little less impressive — only about 90 seconds daily.
Areas closer to the equator experience the least day-to-day variation. As you go poleward, it’s more extreme. That’s why the Arctic Circle is sunlit all night in the summertime, but you can see two months of straight darkness as “polar night” settles in each winter.
The position of sunrise and sunset change
The spring and fall equinoxes are the only times when every place on Earth should experience a sunrise that is due east, as well as a sunset perfectly west.
Over the coming three months, sunrise and sunset positions in the Northern Hemisphere will continue to scoot to the north as the sun traces a longer path throughout the sky. During the winter, the sun retreats farther south, and so do the points at which it’s visible over the horizon.
The bottom line?
Spring has sprung! Summer is just a few short months away.

An ode to snowmen.
As we officially say goodbye to winter today, our Surfacing team spoke with an artist obsessed with photographs of that season’s most ephemeral friend. Eric Oglander’s collection contains
contains hundreds of antique photographs of snowmen and their creators.
“Seeing one of these photographs is neat. Seeing 300 creates a thread through human history that ties us together,” he said. “That might sound sappy, but that’s OK.”
Happy spring! -The New York Times.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

David Hockney has created a cheering artwork to boost spirits while he is in self-isolation in France
CREDIT: TELEGRAPH, MARCH 19, 2020

An osprey swoops down to catch a meal after returning from their African migration, Horn Mill, Rutland, UK
CREDIT: RUSSELL PARSONS/SWNS

Participants swing a burning thatch sheaf attached at one end of rope creating a mystical ring of fire during the “Hiburi-Shinji’ ritual at Aso Jinja Shrine in Japan
CREDIT: THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Market Closes for March 19^th ,2020 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	20087.19	+188.27
		+0.95%
S&P 500	2409.39	+11.29
		+0.47%
NASDAQ	7150.578	+160.734 +2.3%
TSX	12170.52	+449.10
		+3.83%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16552.83	-173.72
		-1.04%
HANG SENG	21709.13	-582.69
		-2.61%
SENSEX	28288.23	-581.28
		-2.01%
FTSE 100*	5151.61	+71.03 +1.40%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.000	1.050
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.427	1.462
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.1404	1.1684
U.S. 30 Year Bond	1.7848	1.7580

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.68912	0.69176
US $	1.45112	1.44559
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.54770	0.64612
US $	1.06646	0.93768

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1498.20	1536.20
Oil
WTI Crude Future	25.22	20.37

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1720, shares in the South Sea Co., the hot new seller of speculative annuities, took off on the sharpest upswing the British stock market had ever seen, rocketing from 218 to 320 by March 21 on rumors of financial chaos in France. By year-end the shares were nearly worthless, and investors nearly beat several stockbrokers to death.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian equities rose Thursday as investors continue to digest global stimulus plans while also on the lookout for buying opportunities.
After sliding as much as 3.1% at the open, the S&P/TSX Composite erased that slump, rising to close 3.8% higher. All eleven sectors rose, with cannabis and energy producers among some of the biggest gainers.
Pot stocks rallied after Bank of America said that people cooped up at home has spurred higher demand for marijuana. Hexo Corp. was the No. 1 stock on the benchmark with a 56% surge. Oil and gas stocks joined the rally in crude after U.S. President Donald Trump said he could get involved in the standoff between Saudi Arabia and Russia that had roiled the commodities market.
The Canadian government has taken steps to stave off a recession and is already indicating it will do more. But its federal deficit will likely blow past C$100 billion ($69 billion) this year, according to one economist. Scotiabank’s Rebekah Young said in an interview with Bloomberg News that the stimulus package will probably need to double in order to stabilize the economy.
Meanwhile, investors may be assessing potential buying opportunities after fears of a recession and the oil price sent the S&P/TSX Composite through a key support level to the lowest since 2012 on Wednesday. “People were basically selling anything that they could” ahead of today, Mark Wisniewski, senior portfolio manager of Toronto-based Ninepoint Partners said. Liquidity in the market also may not have been as strong as it should have been, he added.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $13.50 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.8% to $1,474 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.1% to C$1.4518 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield fell 4.7 basis points to 1.001%
From Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 3.8 percent at 12,170.46 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 7.6 percent.
TC Energy Corp. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 9.8 percent. Hexo Corp. had the largest increase, rising 55.8 percent.
Today, 188 of 230 shares rose, while 41 fell; all sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater gain once
* So far this week, the index fell 11 percent
* This quarter, the index fell 29 percent, heading for the biggest decline in at least 10 years
* The index declined 25 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 17 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 32.3 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 7.1 percent above its low on March 19, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 2.7 percent in the past 5 days and fell 32 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.2 on a trailing basis and 11.7 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 4.3 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$1.79t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 73.75 percent compared with 72.33 percent in the previous session and the average of 30.82 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 105.1666| 2.8| 17/9
Energy | 102.0529| 7.6| 28/1
Materials | 65.0841| 4.6| 39/8
Industrials | 46.4795| 3.2| 24/7
Communication Services | 45.0692| 5.8| 8/0
Consumer Discretionary | 30.8492| 8.3| 15/1
Utilities | 23.8506| 3.6| 15/1
Information Technology | 12.6877| 1.6| 9/1
Health Care | 11.1320| 10.2| 10/0
Consumer Staples | 6.3802| 1.1| 8/3
Real Estate | 0.3457| 0.1| 15/10
US
By Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks edged higher as investors gave a tepid vote of confidence to the battery of economic and financial measures from global policy makers aimed at easing the market turmoil. Oil soared and the dollar extended its rally.
     The Nasdaq Composite Index led gains as bargain hunters snapped up tech shares, with Tesla Inc., Twitter Inc. and Netflix Inc. all up at least 5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed back above 20,000. Crude surged the most on record as Middle East producers began to show signs of strain and President Donald Trump said he would get involved in the oil price standoff at the “appropriate time.” “Investors are digesting the coming fiscal tsunami and the implication of central banks pulling out all the stops,” said Ed Campbell, a portfolio manager and managing director at QMA.
     “We’re seeing some stabilization today. I would definitely hesitate to call a bottom.” Treasury yields dipped. Stocks gained in Europe after falling across most of Asia. Sovereign bonds soared in Italy, Spain and Portugal after the region’s central bank boosted its efforts to stabilize the economy and capital markets. The yen, so often a haven amid market stress, slumped in a sign of the extraordinary demand for the greenback, which strengthened for an eighth day to its highest in at least 15 years. WTI oil jumped as much as 36% after a plunge that had taken it to almost $20 a barrel on Wednesday.
     Investors took a break from what has been a wave of selling to evaluate the unprecedented policy actions taken to fight the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump sought to reassure skeptical Republicans that he’s aiming to help workers through the crisis, not necessarily corporations, a priority made all the more urgent after data showed U.S. jobless claims came in higher than expected.
The latest efforts to mitigate the damage include the Bank of England cutting its bank rate and increasing its bond buying program, the European Central Bank launching a 750 billion euro ($815 billion) debt-buying plan, and the Federal Reserve’s support for money-market mutual funds. South Africa cut interest rates and Germany may authorize emergency debt issuance.
     But looming over everything is the question of how long the economic downturn will last as coronavirus cases surged in the U.S. and Europe. The number of dead in Italy has surpassed those in China.
     “There’s a lot of panic, but there are buyers on Wall Street looking for opportunities,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist for the Leuthold Group. “The issue is we don’t know where this is going to be in two months.”
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index rose 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time; the Nasdaq Composite added 2.3%.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 2.9%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 3.1%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 2.4%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 1.3%.
* The euro sank 2.2% to $1.0677.
* The British pound fell 0.6% to $1.1534.
* The Japanese yen weakened 2.4% to 110.78 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 1.16%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield rose four basis points to -0.20%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield fell 7 basis points to 0.72%.
* Japan’s 10-year yield climbed three basis points to 0.08%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 25% to $25.43 a barrel.
* Gold weakened 0.4% to $1,479.78 an ounce.
–With assistance from Gregor Stuart Hunter, Cormac Mullen, Adam Haigh, Todd White, Andrew Cinko and Sophie Caronello.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Achilles wrath to Greece the direful Spring
Of Woes unnumber’d, heavenly Goddess, sing!
The Wrath which hurl’d to Pluto’s gloomy Reign
The Soul of mighty Chiefs untimely slain.
-Homer, c. 8^th century BCE, The Illiad, l

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:

First the good news: The futures are pointing to higher stock prices for Thursday morning due to the ECB announcing a massive stimulus package.
Now the reality of today: S&P closed down 5% after yesterday’s 5% gain, Nasdaq closed down 4.7% and the TSX gave up 7.6% today; oil, West Texas Intermediate closed down 25% to $20.37/barrel, and I never thought I’d ever live to tell you this, but the 3-month US Treasury had a negative yield today.  That means a three month Treasury Bill guaranteed the investor a loss at maturity.  T-bills are discount instruments, meaning you buy them at a discount and they mature at par, e.g. $97 investment matures at $100.  Today, the 3-month bill maturing at $100 cost the investor $104.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.  Don’t lose faith. -Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

What some people are using to stay entertained…
The internet. There are several places that offer free trials to stream movies and shows. The Met is offering free streaming of operas. Museums have virtual tours. And celebrities (like Ben Platt, John Legend, and Keith Urban) hosted virtual dance parties and concerts. Oh, and if you’re still trying to figure out how to best WFH (with or without kids around), we have a guide for that. –The Skimm.

All the virtual concerts, plays, museums and other culture you can enjoy from home 
Ballgown and monocle not required (unless you’re feeling fancy). -CNN.

On March 18, 1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 capsule and remained outside the spacecraft for 20 minutes, secured by a tether. Go to article »

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Flowers are stored prior to their destruction at the flower auction in Aalsmeer.
CREDIT: LEX VAN LIESHOUT/ AFP

A labourer sprays disinfectant in Jordan’s archaeological city of Petra south of capital Amman.
CREDIT: KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP

Fons Americanus, by artist Kara Walker, on show in the near empty Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, all Tate Galleries will be shut until May.
CREDIT: DOMINIC LIPINSKI/PA

A woman sits on the sand at Arpoador beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Firemen began blaring recordings that urge beachgoers to stay home as a measure to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus , on Monday, one day before Rio’s Gov. Wilson Witzel decreed a state of emergency.
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/SILVIA IZQUIERDO

Market Closes for March 18^th ,2020 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	19898.92	-1338.46
		-6.30%
S&P 500	2398.10	-131.09
		-5.18%
NASDAQ	6989.844	-344.938 -4.70%
TSX	11721.42	-963.79
		-7.60%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16726.55	-284.98
		-1.68%
HANG SENG	22291.82	-971.91
		-4.18%
SENSEX	28869.51	-1709.58
		-5.59%
FTSE 100*	5080.58	-214.32 -4.05%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.050	0.970
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.462	1.430
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.1684	1.0572
U.S. 30 Year Bond	1.7580	1.6685

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.69176	0.70414
US $	1.44559	1.42017
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.57710	0.63408
US $	1.09097	0.91662

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1536.20	1487.70
Oil
WTI Crude Future	20.37	26.95

Market Commentary:
On this day in 2008, the Fed cut its short-term interest-rate target three-quarters of a percentage point to 2.25%, sending the Dow industrials up 420 points, or 3.5%, at 12392.66. Shares of Lehman Brothers Holdings, which had been under sharp pressure, soared more than 46% after it released first-quarter earnings.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 7.6 percent at 11,721.75 in Toronto. The index dropped to the lowest closing level in at least a year. The move follows the previous session’s increase of 2.6 percent. Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 217 of 230 shares fell, while 12 rose. Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 10.2 percent. Inter Pipeline Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 29.8 percent.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss three times. The next day, it advanced after all three occasions
* This quarter, the index fell 31 percent, heading for the biggest decline in at least 10 years
* The index declined 28 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 18 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 34.8 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 3 percent above its low on March 18, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 18 percent in the past 5 days and fell 34 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.7 on a trailing basis and 11.2 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 4.4 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$1.94t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 72.33 percent compared with 69.72 percent in the previous session and the average of 27.76 percent over the past month

================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -317.5019| -7.7| 0/26
Energy | -191.0483| -12.5| 4/26
Materials | -142.8154| -9.1| 1/45
Real Estate | -65.7796| -14.3| 0/25
Industrials | -58.6946| -3.9| 3/28
Utilities | -56.0494| -7.9| 0/16
Consumer Discretionary| -51.1344| -12.1| 0/16
Communication Services| -38.9377| -4.8| 0/8
Information Technology| -25.2771| -3.0| 1/9
Health Care | -10.9771| -9.1| 0/10
Consumer Staples | -5.5805| -1.0| 3/8
US
By Jeremy Herron
(Bloomberg) — Financial markets spasmed, sending U.S. stocks down more than 5% and Bloomberg’s dollar index up to a record, as the economic fallout from the pandemic outpaced the massive response from governments and central banks. The S&P 500 fell as much as 9.8%, before a late-session bounce trimmed the decline, with investors craving more government spending to offset the impact from the virus. After markets closed, the Senate cleared the second major bill responding to the coronavirus pandemic and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the government might take an equity position as part of an aid package. Futures on the S&P500 that trade till 4:15 p.m. in New York trimmed declines. Sovereign debt tumbled around the world and municipal bonds extended the deepest rout since 1987 as markets braced for the potential flood of spending. Oil sank 24% to an 18-year low. The dollar strengthened a seventh straight day. The pound hit its lowest level against the greenback since 1985. Dollar-funding markets remained strained, although improved from extreme levels in recent days. Stocks fell to session lows after Trump offered few details at a press briefing on the specifics his Treasury secretary is discussing with Congress. The Federal Reserve dusted off crisis- era programs to stabilize financial markets.
Governments have pledged or are considering massive fiscal support to offset the economic shock from the pandemic, with the Trump administration moving toward a big package, but the virus continues to spread at a pace that is forcing massive shutdowns across the globe. “The missing fundamental ingredient for a sustainable recovery in risk appetite is some evidence that the growth of global Covid-19 infection rates is peaking,” said Paul O’Connor, head of multi-asset at Janus Henderson Investors. “Clearly, we are not there yet.” The planned U.S. stimulus could amount to $1.2 trillion, aiming to stave off the worst impact of a crisis that already looks set to plunge many of the world’s economies into recession. Meantime, the Federal Reserve reintroduced additional crisis-era tools to stabilize financial markets. Those responses came after stresses appeared in the short-term funding markets. “I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet in terms of liquidity,” Mark Konyn, chief investment officer at AIA Group in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg TV. “It’s a question of when the fiscal measures will have the most efficacy.”

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index fell 5.2% to 2,398 as of 4 p.m. New York time.
*The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 6.3% to the lowest in more than three years.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 4.7%.
*The MSCI All-Country World Index declined 7% to the lowest in more than three years.
Currencies
*The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 2.1%, hitting the highest in more than three years with its seventh straight advance and the largest rise in almost four years.
*The Japanese yen depreciated 0.7% to 108.43 per dollar, the weakest in more than two weeks.
*The euro declined 1.5% to $1.0836, the weakest in more than three weeks.
*The British pound decreased 4.1% to $1.1561, reaching the weakest on record with its seventh consecutive decline.
Bonds
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose 14 basis points to 1.21%.
*Britain’s 10-year yield increased 20 basis points to 0.756%, the highest in almost 10 weeks on the biggest climb in more than six years.
*Germany’s 10-year yield advanced 16 basis points to -0.27%, hitting the highest in eight weeks with its seventh straight advance.
*Ireland’s 10-year yield gained 15 basis points to 0.499%, reaching the highest in about 10 months on its fifth consecutive advance.
Commodities
*West Texas Intermediate crude fell 17% to $22.52 a barrel.
*Gold depreciated 2.2% to $1,494 an ounce, the weakest in 12 weeks.
–With assistance from Robert Brand and Vildana Hajric.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

The soul is dyed the  color of its thoughts.  Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day.  The content of your character is your choice.  Day by day, what you do is who you become. -Heraclitus, c. 540 BCE-c. 480 BCE.

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

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

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Today, in summary:  North American stocks rallied after yesterday’s sell-off; the  US dollar strengthened; Canadian  banks slashed prime by half a per cent.

Thoughts on Intrinsic value by Seth Klarman and Warren Buffet:
It is all too easy to let the market dictate your actions when it starts falling. Research shows that humans feel losses more than profits, so wanting to cut your losses and run from a position is only human.
Concentrating on the price you paid for a security can compound this desire. Let’s say you paid $1,000 for 100 shares in XYZ Corp. If the market drops 30%, and the stock follows suit, that investment is worth $700 today. After losing 30% in a short space of time, many investors might be persuaded to give up on XYZ Corp and invest elsewhere.
However, this is the wrong way of looking at the market, according to the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio).
Forget book cost
Speaking at the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) annual meeting of shareholders in 2009, Buffett advocated a different approach. Rather than concentrating on the value or the price paid for a particular security, he advised investors to use intrinsic value as a marker of value.
Specifically, when responding to a shareholder who asked Buffett for his views on whether to sell a basket of stocks if some of them “had doubled in a short time period,” the CEO of Berkshire replied:
“We would own the half of dozen or so stocks we like best…it wouldn’t have anything to do with what our cost on them was. It would only have to do with our evaluation of their price versus value. It doesn’t make any difference what the cost is. And incidentally, if they went down 50%, we would say the same thing. …
The cost basis doesn’t have anything to do with the fund. When Charlie and I ran funds, we didn’t worry about whether something was up or down. We worried about what it was worth compared to what it was selling for. And we tried to have most of our money in a relatively few — very few — positions which we thought we knew very well. We do the same thing now. We’d do the same thing a hundred years from now.”
Buffett then handed the microphone over to his right-hand man, Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio), who summarised “he’s tactfully suggesting that you adopt a different way of thinking.”
Buffett’s advice here is similar to that of Klarman. Both value investors concentrate on two things when they buy a security:

1. Risk, defined as the risk of a permanent capital impairment
2. Intrinsic value and the gap between price and value

If the intrinsic value of a security has not changed and its risk has not increased, then no matter what the market is telling them, these gurus will hold onto the position.
At the end of the day, a company is worth its intrinsic value. It is not worth the arbitrary value the market is placing on the stock at any point in time. Intrinsic value is what matters for value investors, and this does not change overnight.
In times of market uncertainty, investors should concentrate on value and ignore the noise from the rest of the market.

Life for people around the world is beginning to look very different:
One of my friends emailed me last night to tell me about the Italian response to the medical crises, which intrigued me, so I looked it up in The New York Times.  Isn’t this a great response?

Italians remain essentially under house arrest. That hasn’t stopped them from a cacophony of music — sung and played from their balconies, from the southern islands to the Alps to Milan, above.

St Patrick’s Day:
St. Patrick’s Day: In the fourth century, Ireland’s patron saint was sold into slavery.  After six years as a cowherd he escaped to France, where he dreamed that the people of his country were summoning him back.  On his return to Ireland he traveled widely, founding hundreds of churches and schools and convincing people to become Christians.  He used the three-leaf shamrock to explain the Holy trinity – the idea that God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one.  On this day Irish people the world over celebrate by wearing a shamrock.-  From The Book of Holidays Around the World.

The leprechaun, traditionally an evil sprite in Irish lore, didn’t become associated with the holiday until Disney’s 1959 film, Darby O’Gill and the Little People gave him a friendlier persona.
The number of people with Irish ancestry in more than 150 countries worldwide is now said to be more than 70 million  – almost twenty

1905 – Franklin D. Roosevelt married his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, in New York City. President Theodore Roosevelt, FDR’s fifth cousin, gave his niece away. Go to article »

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The Clifton Suspension Bridge in Britstol, UK, joins Tourism Ireland’s Global Greenings campaign to mark St. Patrick’s Day.
CREDIT: ADAM GASSON/PA WIRE

The world’s most colourful spider was captured with multiple camera flashes to show it in all its vivid, rainbow glory in Bangalore, India. The tiny peacock spider measures just 0.3 inches (0.75cm) in length –  but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in its luminous hues of pink.
CREDIT: PAVAN TAVREKERE/SWNS.COM

A swan swims in the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic.
CREDIT: GABRIEL KUCHTA/GETTY IMAGES

A paddle of 14 ducklings follow their mother as they forage for food along the Kennet  & Avon Canal, between Bradford on Avon and Bath, UK.
CREDIT: BEN BIRCHALL/PA WIRE

Market Closes for March 17^th ,2020 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	21237.38	+1048.86
		+5.20%
S&P 500	2529.19	+143.06
		+6.00%
NASDAQ	7334.781	+430.189 +6.23%
TSX	12685.21	+324.81
		+2.63%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17011.53	+9.49
		+0.06%
HANG SENG	23263.73	+200.16
		+0.87%
SENSEX	30579.09	-810.98
		-2.58%
FTSE 100*	5294.90	+143.82 +2.79%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	0.970	0.775
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.430	1.250
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.0572	0.7182
U.S. 30 Year Bond	1.6685	1.2841

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.70414	0.71407
US $	1.42017	1.40042
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.56170	0.64033
US $	1.09966	0.90937

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1487.70	1562.80
Oil
WTI Crude Future	26.95	28.70

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1997, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, two months short of its 101st birthday, got a jolt of juice as the editors of The Wall Street Journal replaced “old-economy” stocks Bethlehem Steel, Texaco, Westinghouse Electric and Woolworth with Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Travelers Group and Wal-Mart.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 2.6 percent at 12,685.21 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 9.9 percent. Today, materials stocks led the market higher, as 7 of 11 sectors gained; 126 of 230 shares rose, while 104 fell. Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 6.3 percent. Silvercorp Metals Inc. had the largest increase, rising 41.2 percent.

Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater gain two times. The next day, it declined after both occasions
* This quarter, the index fell 26 percent, heading for the biggest decline in at least 10 years
* The index declined 21 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCIAC Americas Index lost 12 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 29.4 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 6.7 percent above its low on March 16, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 15 percent in the past 5 days and fell 29 percent 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 11.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 4.1 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$1.89t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 69.72 percent compared with 69.03 percent in the previous session and the average of 25.64 percent over the past month

================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 132.1521| 9.2| 38/9
Financials | 77.9305| 1.9| 11/15
Industrials | 53.6374| 3.7| 19/12
Communication Services | 47.1615| 6.1| 6/2
Utilities | 36.8032| 5.4| 16/0
Information Technology | 35.7710| 4.5| 7/3
Consumer Staples | 14.0181| 2.5| 8/3
Health Care | -0.0432| 0.0| 6/4
Real Estate | -3.3717| -0.7| 10/15
Consumer Discretionary | -15.5230| -3.5| 2/14
Energy | -53.7266| -3.4| 3/27
US
By Jeremy Herron and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rebounded from the biggest rout since 1987 as the U.S. government stepped up its efforts to offset the financial damage caused by the coronavirus. Treasuries tumbled. The S&P 500 closed up almost 6% after trading in the red earlier, continuing a streak of volatility last seen during the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average notched a 5.2% gain. Treasuries eased, erasing all of the nearly 25 basis point drop in yields on Monday. The Trump administration moved to send checks to Americans as soon as in two weeks to stave off the financial effects of an unprecedented upheaval in social interactions that looks set to plunge the world into recession. It also asked Congress for hundreds of billions in aid. The Federal Reserve reintroduced additional crisis-era tools to stabilize financial markets.
“What we’re seeing now is the exponential growth in the policy response to the exponential growth in the spread of the virus,” said Conor Sen, portfolio manager at New River Investments and contributor to Bloomberg Opinion. The policy responses came after stresses appeared in the short-term funding and front-edit credit markets. The three-month dollar Libor rate jumped the most since 2008, and similar maturity cross currency basis swaps for euro-dollar, a proxy for how expensive it is to get the greenback, traded at the widest since 2011. “This is a little bit unlike anything else we’ve had before because of the unknown length and the unknown implications of it,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. We’ll “continue to see these crazy swings.” With the coronavirus grinding the global economy toward a standstill and central banks central banks dramatically stepping up efforts to stabilize capital markets and liquidity, The Trump Administration asked Congress for more than $1 trillion to combat the virus’s effects, a third attempt to juice government spending.
     “A bear market does not preclude rallies,” said Eleanor Creagh, market strategist at Saxo Capital Markets. “The biggest rallies can be in bear markets — erratic swings are exacerbated by the present high-volatility regime and strained liquidity conditions. With VIX remaining significantly above the long-term equilibrium, alarm bells are still sounding and traders should be wary of relief rallies.” Data showed U.S. retail sales fell in February, indicating the main driver of the economy, consumer spending, had begun to slow even before outbreak containment measures began. Companies began to scramble for cash, with Kraft Heinz, Caesars and MGM drawing down credit lines.
These are the main moves in major assets:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index gained 5.99% to 2,528.96 as of 4 p.m. New York time.
*The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 5.2% to 21,237.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 6.2% to 7,334.
*The MSCI All-Country World Index climbed 3.6% to 424.45.
Currencies
*The euro dipped 1.6% to $1.1008, the weakest in almost three weeks on the biggest dip in 21 months.
*The Japanese yen depreciated 1.7% to 107.66 per dollar, the weakest in more than two weeks.
Bonds
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose 28 basis points to 1%, the highest in almost two weeks.
*The yield on 30-year Treasuries gained 32 basis points to 1.60%, the highest in almost two weeks.
*Germany’s 10-year yield climbed three basis points to -0.43%,reaching the highest in more than three weeks on its sixth straight advance.
*Britain’s 10-year yield increased 12 basis points to 0.554%, the highest in more than three weeks.
Commodities
*West Texas Intermediate crude declined 6.4% to $26.87 a barrel, the lowest on record.
*Gold strengthened 1.2% to $1,532.63 an ounce, the first advance in more than a week.
–With assistance from Claire Ballentine and Dan Murtaugh

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

God made the grass, the air and the
rain; and the  grass, the air and the
rain made the Irish; and the Irish
turned the grass, the air and the rain
back into God.
–Sean O’Faolain, 1900-1991, in Holiday, 1958.

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!

Another day on the roller coaster -do not worry, this ride will end some day soon.  Keep in mind that it is a medical crises, not a financial crises.
There are incredible buys right now – so many extremely undervalued businesses.  People are behaving irrationally.  Just think for a moment of the businesses with great balance sheets and terrific free cash flows that will survive and some that will even thrive during this medical crises.  Amazon hired 100,000 new workers today to keep up with the demand.  Of course e-commerce will escalate as people stay away from shopping centers and order everything that they can on-line.  Yet in spite of a solid balance sheet showing top line revenue growing at double digits, US $55 billion in the bank and ~US$22 billion of free cash flow, panicked investors knocked $95.85 US off Amazon’s share price today!  Analysts’ consensus estimates is a 12-month share price target for Amazon +43% higher than where the shares closed today.

Fifteen years ago, the market closes from my nightly Newsletter were the following:

Since then, we’ve had the global financial crises of 2008, the Ebola outbreak, H1N1, any number of other downward triggers I could cite, yet still the NASDAQ closed at 6904.594 today, +243% higher than it did 15 years ago, or +16.2%/annum on annualized basis.  All the other indices are also substantially higher than they were fifteen years ago.
The Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by 1% last night and they could be down to zero by Wednesday.  The Bank of Canada lowered rates half a percentage point on Friday and they will probably drop to zero here as well.
My thoughts are with everyone at this strange time, as routines pause and we adjust to living in a new way for the health of communities across the world.  
We need to find peace and beauty and harmony in our lives right now. 
In search of those very things, Gary and I went to Butchart Gardens last Saturday to see if the spring flowers were blooming.  Butchart has a Spring Prelude Special on until the end of the month that includes entry fee and a two-course lunch. 

We will survive
Gloria Gaynor has recast her heartbreak anthem in the name of prevention, encouraging people to properly wash their hands for at least 20 seconds while belting out her classic tune. If disco isn’t your thing, here are more songs from across the decades that can help you curb germs while you rock. (Click to jam — and scrub.)-CNN.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The Connemara Mountains on the west coast of Ireland which have been transformed, in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, by Finnish artist Kari Kola into the ‘worlds largest outdoor light artwork’ called savage beauty.
CREDIT: CHRISTOPHER LUND

Alberta (45699 Galatea in disguise) Passing over Dent Head Viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales. The London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Jubilee Class is a class of steam locomotive designed for main line passenger work. 191 locomotives were built between 1934 and 1936.They were built concurrently with the LMS stanier Class 5 4-6-0.
CREDIT: CHARLOTTE GRAHAM FOR THE TELEGRAPH

Wildfires burn on the slopes around Table Mountain, as seen from Camps Bay. Wildfires in Capetown, South Africa.
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

Airplanes are parked on a runway at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday. Due to the coronavirus, Lufthansa had to cancel half of its flights.
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/MICHAEL PROBST

Market Closes for March 16^th ,2020 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	20188.52	-2997.10
		-12.93%
S&P 500	2386.13	-324.89
		-11.98%
NASDAQ	6904.594	-970.281 -12.32%
TSX	12360.40	-1355.93
		-9.89%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17002.04	-429.01
		-2.46%
HANG SENG	23063.57	-969.34
		-4.03%
SENSEX	31390.07	-2713.41
		-7.96%
FTSE 100*	5151.08	-215.03 -4.01%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	0.775	0.849
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.250	1.334
U.S.    10 Year Bond	0.7182	0.9764
U.S. 30 Year Bond	1.2841	1.334

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.71407	0.72231
US $	1.40042	1.38445
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.56408	0.63935
US $	1.11687	0.89536

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1562.80	1570.70
Oil
WTI Crude Future	28.70	31.73

Market Commentary:
On this day in 2000, as investors began “rotating” out of the internet and into the Old Economy, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged a record 499.19 points, putting the index up 8.35% for the previous two days. For the first time ever, investors turned over more than 500 million shares just in the first hour of New York Stock Exchange trading. “Things that used to take weeks to happen now happen in days,” marveled Bill Schneider, head trader at Warburg Dillon Read.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks plunged about 10% as measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus only intensified concerns the economy is heading into a recession. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government will restrict the entry of all non-residents into Canada except Americans, while U.S. President Donald Trump urged social distancing and schools and restaurant services across North American will shut down to fight the pandemic. The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 9.9% to the lowest level since February, 2016, bringing its losses to 31% from the Feb. 20 peak.  Ten of eleven sectors fell on the Canada benchmark, while materials closed in the green. Air Canada, shares fell 28% today alone on the government travel ban and is now down 62% this year. Dramatic rate cuts from global central banks, including the Fed on Sunday and the Bank of Canada on Friday, appear to have done little to calm investors who see global growth virtually grinding to a halt.
     Royal Bank of Canada was the first to cut its prime rate to 2.95% from 3.45%, matching the Canadian central bank’s cut. Oil’s spectacular collapse deepened, with West Texas Intermediate futures settling under $29 per barrel in New York as widening global efforts to fight the spread of the coronavirus looked set to trigger the most severe contraction in annual demand in history. Gold  extended losses after its worst week in almost four decades, with investors “selling whatever they can” as the widening economic impact of the coronavirus spurred panic across markets. Gold and silver equities however, defied slumps in their respective commodities, led by a jump in levered ETFs, which saw massive weakness and volatility last week. The Bank of Canada will likely take the overnight rate to 0.25% from 0.75% ahead of the next scheduled decision on April 15, according economists from Bloomberg Intelligence. Given the extent of pandemic-driven unknowns, the central bank may want to pull a page from the Fed’s emergency playbook and jettison the forecasting exercise over the near term. Andrew Husby, Bloomberg Economics
“We continue to recommend investors refrain from buying the dips, and carrying above-average exposure to gold equities, even amid recent weakness in the commodity,” Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce portfolio strategists including Ian de Verteuil wrote in a note to clients early Monday. CIBC is among banks calling for a recession this year domestically along with in the United States. Royal Bank of Canada thinks the country will fall into a recession this year after taking a double hit from falling oil prices and the global impact of coronavirus on economic activity. Meanwhile, Bank of America said Friday Canada will experience negative GDP growth during the second and third quarters of this year. The numbers of shares traded on the benchmark S&P/TSX last week hit its highest level since at least 1985, when Bloomberg started compiling data.
–With assistance from Aoyon Ashraf and Divya Balji.
US
By Jeremy Herron and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — The stomach-turning ride on global financial markets took a dramatic turn Monday, with U.S. stocks plunging the most since 1987 after President Donald Trump warned the economic disruption from the virus could last into summer. The S&P 500 sank 12%, extending losses as Trump spoke said the economy could fall into a recession. Equities opened sharply lower after central bank stimulus around the world failed to mollify investors worried about the damage the coronavirus is inflicting on economies. The negative superlatives for American stocks are piling up. The S&P wiped out its gain in 2019 and is now down almost 30% from its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 13%, falling 3,000 points to close at two-year low. The Russell 2000 had its worst day on record, losing more than 14%.
“This is different. The thing that is scarier about it is you’ve never been in a scenario where you shut down the entire economy,” said Steve Chiavarone, a portfolio manager with Federated Investors. “You get a sense in your stomach that we don’t know how to price this and that markets could fall more.” While the Fed cut rates toward zero and stepped up bond buying, investors continued to clamor for a massive spending package to offset the pain from closures of schools, restaurants, cinemas and sporting events. Companies around the world have scaled back activity to accommodate government demands to limit social interaction

Here are some of Monday’s key moves across major assets:
* All 11 groups in the S&P 500 fell, with eight of them down at least 10%.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average’s tumble from its record reached 30%.
* Brent crude dipped below $30 a barrel for the first time since 2016.
* Treasury yields retreated across the curve with moves mostpronounced on the short end.
* Shares tumbled in Asia and Europe, where the continent is now reporting more new virus cases each day than China did at its peak as more countries lock down.
* The yen surged, the Swiss franc rallied and the dollar fluctuated.
* Gold failed again to capitalize on the rush to havens and reversed an earlier gain to tumble.
* Bonds declined across most of Europe, where a measure of market stress hit levels not seen since the 2011-2012 euro crisis.

     The Fed and other central banks have dramatically stepped up efforts to stabilize capital markets and liquidity, yet the moves have so far failed to boost sentiment or improve the rapidly deteriorating global economic outlook. An International Monetary Fund pledge to mobilize its $1 trillion lending capacity also had little impact in markets. The problem is, bad news keeps stacking up. The New York Fed’s regional gauge of factory activity plunged. Ryanair Holdings Plc said Monday it will ground most of its European aircraft while a consultant said the pandemic will bankrupt most airlines worldwide before June unless governments and the industry step in. Nike Inc. and Apple Inc. announced mass store closings.
“In normal circumstances, a large policy response like this would put a floor under risk assets and support a recovery,” Jason Daw, a strategist at Societe Generale SA in Singapore, wrote in a note. “However, the size of the growth shock is becoming exponential and markets are rightfully questioning what else monetary policy can do and discounting its effectiveness in mitigating coronavirus-induced downside risks. ”The yen rebounded from Friday’s plunge after the Fed and five counterparts said they would deploy foreign-exchange swap lines. Australian equities fell almost 10%, the most since 1992,even after the Reserve Bank of Australia said it stood ready to buy bonds for the first time — an announcement that sent yields tumbling. New Zealand’s currency slumped after an emergency rate cut by the country’s central bank. Meanwhile, China reported Monday that output and retail sales tumbled in the past two months.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 11.98% as of 4 p.m. in New York.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 12.93%
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 4.9%, paring a drop that reached 10%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index declined 6.3%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index decreased 3.7%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%.
* The euro gained 0.5% to $1.1162.
* The Japanese yen strengthened 1.8% to 105.94 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on two-year Treasuries sank 14 basis points to 0.35%.
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined 22 basis points to 0.73%.
* The yield on 30-year Treasuries declined 22 basis points to 1.31%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield climbed seven basis points to -0.47%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 9.2% to $29.05 a barrel.
* Gold weakened 4.3% to $1,463.30 an ounce.
* Iron ore sank 2.5% to $86.10 per metric ton.

–With assistance from Claire Ballentine, Elena Popina and Elizabeth Stanton.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.  Nothing can
be done without hope and confidence. -Helen Keller,1880-1968

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

Dear Friends, 
 
Tangents: Happy Friday!

It’s Friday the 13th. For all our sakes, let’s hope it’s a lucky one. 
 
Well, it has so far turned out to be a lucky Friday for investors with the markets gaining back  most of yesterday’s declines – +~10%.  The Bank of Canada slashed interest rates another 50 basis points to 0.75% and many people in my world figure they’ll be zero before long.  With most dividend paying blue chip shares yielding 5%/annum or more, many very undervalued on a fundamental basis, it’s a pretty good option compared to negative real yields on fixed income securities.
 
1969 – Apollo 9 returned to Earth after a mission to test the lunar module.. Go to article »
 
3.141592653589793238462643383279502… and counting.
Pi, as we all learned in school (and are reminded every March 14, on Pi Day, which is tomorrow), is defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The famous mathematical ratio is estimated to more than 22 trillion digits.
We looked back at some of our past coverage on this auspicious day with an essay by the mathematician Steven Strogatz, who wrote that π is the perfect symbol for our species’ long effort to tame infinity, and another by the columnist Natalie Angier on the multiplicities of infinity in science. -The New York Times.
 
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A worker makes her way along rows of daffodils, removing any rogue varities, at Taylors Bulbs in Holbeach, Lincolnshire. PA Photo. The fourth generation family company plant over 35 million bulbs every year, and have held the Royal Warrant at Bulb Growers to Her Majesty The Queen since 1985.
CREDIT: JOE GIDDENS/PA WIRE

Dancers from Riverdance at the Queen’s House in Greenwich, London where they have been invited by Tourism Ireland to perform at iconic locations across the capital to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
CREDIT: DAVID PARRY/PA WIRE

A woman dressed as a priestess lights the Olympic flame during the Olympic ceremony in ancient Olympia, ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
CREDIT: ARIS MESSINIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Members of the International Space Station (ISS) expedition, NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy (L), Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin (C) and Ivan Vagner (R) attend their final exams at the Russian cosmonaut training center in Star City outside Moscow, Russia.
CREDIT: YURI KOCHETKOV/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Market Closes for March 13^th ,2020 
 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23185.62	+1985.00
		+9.36%
S&P 500	2711.02	+230.38
		+9.29%
NASDAQ	7874.875	+673.073   +9.35%
TSX	13716.33	+1207.88
		+9.66%

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17431.05	-1128.58
		-6.08%
HANG SENG	24032.91	-276.16
		-1.14%
SENSEX	34103.48	+1325.34
		+4.04%
FTSE 100*	5633.11	+128.63   +2.46%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	0.849	0.609
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.334	1.111
U.S.    10 Year Bond	0.9764	0.8407
U.S. 30 Year Bond	1.334	1.4339

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.72231	0.71858
US $	1.38445	1.39163
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.53493	0.65149
US $	1.10869	0.90196

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1570.70	1653.75
Oil
WTI Crude Future	31.73	31.50

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1986, Microsoft went public at an initial offering price of $21 a share, raising $61 million just one day after Oracle’s own IPO.  Microsoft closed the day at $28.
 
Note: I just calculated that  a $1000 investment in Microsoft at the IPO price in 1986 is worth $2.43 million US today!   That’s a fairly strong endorsement of the merits of investing for the long term! -Carolann.
The computer can’t tell you the emotional story.  It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what’s missing is the eyebrows. -Frank Zappa, 1940-1993
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 9.5 percent at 13,702.88 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since rising 9.8 percent on Oct. 14, 2008 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 12.3 percent. Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as 10 of 11 sectors gained; 194 of 230 shares rose, while 36 fell. Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 17.9 percent. Frontera Energy Corp. had the largest increase, rising 24.4 percent.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 15 percent, heading for the biggest decline in at least 10 years
* This quarter, the index fell 20 percent, heading for the biggest decline in at least 10 years
* The index declined 15 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 5.4 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 23.7 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 10.1 percent above its low on March 12, 2020
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.6 on a trailing basis and 12.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.8 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$1.91t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 62.91 percent compared with 54.70 percent in the previous session and the average of 19.65 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 586.0638| 14.9| 26/0
Energy | 248.5573| 15.6| 29/1
Industrials | 118.6833| 7.7| 30/1
Communication Services | 82.7408| 10.7| 7/1
Utilities | 64.9010| 9.5| 16/0
Consumer Staples | 58.5818| 10.4| 11/0
Information Technology | 38.6161| 4.4| 10/0
Consumer Discretionary | 27.2557| 5.6| 12/4
Real Estate | 23.7070| 4.7| 25/0
Health Care | 11.0142| 8.7| 8/2
Materials | -52.2308| -3.6| 20/27
US
By Sarah Ponczek and Katherine Greifeld
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks jumped the most since 2008 as President Donald Trump joined other world leaders in seeking to reassure investors that they’ll step up efforts to protect the economy from the coronavirus fallout. The S&P 500 rose more than 9%, providing some respite after stocks’ worst day since 1987, as Trump declared a national emergency to help combat the virus, moved to prop up energy prices, declared a moratorium of federal student-loan interest and said the private sector will help with efforts to expand testing. That added to optimism about a robust public policy response after the Federal Reserve said it was buying $37 billion of bonds across maturities. Oil soared as Trump said the U.S. will step up purchases for strategic reserves. The dollar surged along with Treasury yields and stress in the credit markets showed signs of easing. Precious metals fell, with silver down almost 9% and palladium posting its worst week on record. After days of no or inadequate action, policy prescriptions came fast Friday. As Trump announced his plans, Congress was also working on a relief bill. The European Union prepared to suspend government spending rules, and regulators in Italy and Spain banned short-selling on some stocks. China’s central bank said it would pump in $79 billion to bolster the economy.
     The latest on the policy efforts and other virus updates. Other markets remained exceptionally volatile. The yen tumbled. Ten-year Treasuries swung from gains to losses. Sovereign bonds sank across most of Europe for a second day amid criticism of European Central Bank measures to address the pandemic. The dollar headed for its best week since 2016. “It’s possible we’re just recovering a portion of yesterday’s losses on the idea that there were no terrible headlines this morning,” said Christopher Jacobsen, a strategist at Susquehanna Financial Group. “The market had priced in the extreme dour outcome and the lack of news flow this morning to confirm that worst-case scenario resulted in just a bit of a relief rally.” Even with Friday’s gains, global equities posted their worst week since 2008 as investors price in a severely weaker economic outlook. Cases are continuing to grow across the world and restrictions on people and businesses are weighing on sentiment. The Bank of Japan on Friday followed an earlier move from the Federal Reserve to inject liquidity. “It seems that the more severe things become in the short term, the more extreme will be the fiscal and monetary policy response,” Mark Dowding, chief investment officer at BlueBay Asset Management, wrote to investors. “It is very conceivable that the full boost from such measures will only really kick in just as activity rebounds, with pent up demand leading to a turbo-charged recovery in the second half of the year in the wake of an economic contraction in the context of the first half.”
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index climbed 9.2% at the close of trading in New York.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 1.4%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped 2.5%.
* The MSCI All-Country World Index rose 5.3%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 1%.
* The euro decreased 0.8% to $1.1097.
* The Japanese yen weakened 3.4% to 108.33 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose 18 basis points to 0.98%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield jumped 20 basis points to -0.55%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 5.6% to $33.31 a barrel.
* Gold fell 3.3% to $1,524.49 an ounce.
–With assistance from Gregor Stuart Hunter, Cormac Mullen, Adam Haigh and Todd White.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
 
Be magnificent!
As ever,
 
Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something.
                                                                                   -H. Jackson Brown Jr., b. 1941
 

Carolann
 
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 markets did not respond well today to Donald Trump’s address to the nation from the Oval Office last night.
His national address on Wednesday night failed to unify or reassure a nation on edge, our chief White House correspondent writes in an analysis.-The New York Times.

This has created a buying opportunity in my view.  Many blue-chip, dividend paying, excellent businesses are currently trading at less than 5X earnings in the US.
In Canada, with the sharp downturn in the share prices of the Canadian Banks, CIBC is now yielding 8.10%/annum whereas the yield on the 10-year Canada bond is 0.60% – yes you get 60 cents per year for the next 10 years on a $100 investment, before tax and before inflation.  CIBC wins this argument.  What investors are missing here is that this is not a financial crises like 2008 – it is a pandemic caused by a virus that will be a temporary set back to the economy until it is contained.

Here are some TV shows to watch if you just want to feel happy right now 
And yes, it is completely OK to crave some escape. -CNN.

Ancient shell shows days were shorter 70 million years ago.

We’re better equipped to look for extraterrestrial life than ever.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Visitors walk along the long wooden U Bein Bridge that connects the two banks of Taungthaman Lake as  the sun sets in Mandalay, central Myanmar.
CREDIT: THEIN ZAW/AP

Homer Homer by Cool Shit (Dave Glass) is seen during Sculpture by the Sea at Cottesloe Beach in Perth, Australia.
CREDIT: PAUL KANE/GETTY IMAGES

Indian revellers dance during celebrations to mark Holi, the Hindu festival of colours in Prayagraj, India.
CREDIT: RAJESH KUMAR SINGH/ AP

Market Closes for March 12^th ,2020 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	21200.62	-2352.60
		-9.99%
S&P 500	2480.64	-260.74
		-9.51%
NASDAQ	7201.801	-750.250 -9.43%
TSX	12508.45	-1761.64
		-12.35%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	18559.63	-856.43
		-4.41%
HANG SENG	24309.07	-922.54
		-3.66%
SENSEX	32778.14	-2919.26
		-8.18%
FTSE 100*	5237.48	-639.04 -10.87%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	0.609	0.658
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.111	1.031
U.S.    10 Year Bond	0.8407	0.8711
U.S. 30 Year Bond	1.4339	1.3643

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.71858	0.72671
US $	1.39163	1.37606
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.55490	0.64313
US $	1.11732	0.89500

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1653.75	1655.70
Oil
WTI Crude Future	31.50	32.98

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1986, daily trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange exceeded 200 million for the first time, as 210 million shares changed hands.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 12.3 percent, or 1,761.64 to 12,508.45 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since falling 25.5 percent on May 1, 1940. Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 229 of 230 shares fell, while 1 rose. Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 16.5 percent. Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund had the largest drop, falling 34.4 percent.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 23 percent, heading for the biggest decline in at least 10 years
* This quarter, the index fell 27 percent, heading for the biggest decline in at least 10 years
* The index declined 22 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 13 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 30.4 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 0.5 percent above its low on March 12, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 24 percent in the past 5 days and fell 30 percent 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 11.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 4.2 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.18t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 54.70 percent compared with 40.07 percent in the previous session and the average of 16.97
percent over the past month
================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================
Financials | -576.6485| -12.8| 0/26
Energy | -351.3307| -18.1| 0/30
Materials | -167.7306| -10.4| 0/47
Industrials | -159.6775| -9.4| 0/31
Communication Services| -112.0202| -12.7| 0/8
Utilities | -98.9108| -12.7| 0/16
Information Technology| -85.1677| -8.8| 0/10
Consumer Staples | -69.2315| -10.9| 0/11
Consumer Discretionary| -66.3277| -11.9| 1/15
Real Estate | -53.6026| -9.6| 0/25
Health Care | -20.9734| -14.2| 0/10
US
By Claire Ballentine, Vildana Hajric and Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — In a week that brought the wildest market swings since the financial crisis, Thursday hammered investors with something crazier — a 10% drop in the Dow, the end of the longest bull market on record and the biggest sell-off since 1987’s Black Monday. President Donald Trump finally offered some attempt at fiscal stimulus, but the measures fell flat. The European Central Bank took a stab by easing capital constraints and boosting liquidity, and losses only deepened. Not even an unprecedented plan for $5 trillion in bond-buying from the Federal Reserve could mollify investors rattled by the growing likelihood that the coronavirus will plunge the global economy into recession. At the end of the day, U.S. stocks smoldered 27% below records set barely three weeks ago. Europe’s benchmark index suffered its worst day in history. Brazil’s Ibovespa tumbled as much as 20% at one point, extending this year’s loss to almost 50% in dollar terms. Canada’s main gauge was off more than 12%, it’s worst day since 1940. Ten-year Treasury yields erased declines and inched higher as policy makers’ liquidity pledge recalled the quantitative easing used during the financial crisis.
     Oil and precious metals fell, with palladium sinking more than 20%. The S&P 500 wiped out all its gains since the end of 2018. Now investors are trying to guess at the effectiveness of policy makers’ measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus and limit its economic damage.Trump’s travel ban and tepid fiscal measures failed to impress most observers. Spirits were further damped by new bans on public gatherings in the U.S. and professional sports leagues’ move to suspend operations. “Markets likely need more. More innovation from central banks, more targeted help for the most vulnerable parts of the economy — and action from fiscal authorities to stop this transitory shock from developing into a more prolonged insolvency crisis,” said Seema Shah, a global investment strategist for Principal Global Investors. “Emotion is now driving markets.”
On another bruising day across markets:
* The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Nasdaq 100 indexes are all in a bear market now, with losses from February closing records extending well past 20%.
* The slump triggered the second 15-minute trading halt this week shortly after the U.S. open.
* The MSCI All-Country World Index extended losses to enter bear-market territory.
* The cost of insuring debt issued by Europe’s investment grade companies surged to the highest since 2016.
* Japanese stocks closed more than 4% lower even after another liquidity pledge from the country’s central bank. Australian shares sunk deeper into a bear market despite a stimulus plan there.
* Oil extended losses past 5%. Bitcoin took a dive. Gold fell below $1,600 an ounce.

More bad news about the impact of the coronavirus further sapped investor spirits. The leading U.S. infectious-disease official said the testing system in the country is “a failing.” The European Union warned the sickness threatens to exceed health-care capacity across the region “in a few weeks or even days.” The National Hockey League followed the National Basketball Association’s lead and suspended its season, while Major League Baseball said opening day would be delayed. “We need to see what is effectively a ‘declaration of war’ against the virus and full support to offset the economic damage that war will cost,” said Peter Tchir, head of macro strategy at Academy Securities LLC. “Whatever has gone on this week, it’s not a liquidity crunch.” Meanwhile, signs that companies in the hardest-hit industries were drawing down credit lines to battle the effects of the virus on their businesses added to anxiety. “The risks have definitely risen,” said Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA. “The question is how long will this last and I don’t think anybody can predict that at this point.”
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index declined 9.5% at the close of trading in New York; the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 10%.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 11%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped 5.4%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index sank 6.6%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 1.1%.
* The euro weakened 0.6% $1.1204.
* The Japanese yen fell 0.5% to 105.1 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose one basis point to 0.88%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield fell one basis point to -0.75%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 0.26%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude declined 5.8% to $31.07 a barrel.
* Gold weakened 4% to $1,569.79 an ounce.

–With assistance from Sophie Caronello, Min Jeong Lee, Adam Haigh and Anchalee Worrachate.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often
a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
                      -Will Durant,1885-1981

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 a roller coaster market right now – yesterday up 5%, today down 5% – all driven by irrational emotion and herd behavior.  Many of you who are reading this have been clients of mine for many years, many of you for three decades or more, so you know well what my response to this type of market volatility is.  Do nothing – this too will pass.  I’ve been writing this nightly Newsletter to my clients for many years – in my first few years in the business I used to send it by post on a monthly basis – times change!

Well it’s worth pointing out that exactly 14 years ago, in 2006 (the 11^th of March was a Saturday), that is 2 years before the global financial crises of 2008 which was the worst correction since 1929, the S&P closed at 1281.58.  Today, it closed at 2741.38, an increase of +114%.  The NASDAQ closed at 2262.04 14 years ago.  Today, despite 2008 and all the other corrections along the way, it closed at 7952.05, an increase of +252%. Nothing can detract from the fact that over the long term, the greatest wealth creation in the world has been generated by owning good quality businesses.

Always remember Warren Buffet’s words of wisdom, “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”

And the cogent words of another of the world’s greatest investors, Peter Lynch, “The key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them.”
 
Here are the market numbers from my Newsletter on March 10, 2006:

1985 – Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed the late Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko. Go to article »

Solved: The mystery of the expansion of the universe. -Bloomberg.

The Tiniest Dinosaur in History
Inside a tiny piece of amber from Myanmar — about 99 million years old — is the skull of what a team of scientists say is the smallest known bird and, therefore, dinosaur, ever discovered.
The creature has more teeth in its mouth than any other known bird species, suggesting it was a predator that hunted other creatures, and raising questions about bird evolution.
But the discovery isn’t without controversy. A growing number of scientists want to boycott research involving amber from Myanmar over the Rohingya genocide and the sourcing of the stone from mines in conflict zones. – from The New York Times

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A Tate Modern Gallery assistant interacts with the ‘Silver Clouds” installation, at a press view of major new Andy Warhol exhibition at Tate Modern, London.
CREDIT: DOMINIC LIPINSKI/PA

The Super Worm Moon rises above Brooklyn and the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
CREDIT: GARY HERSHORN/CORBIS NEWS

Members of the Jewish Community celebrate the festival of Purim in Stamford Hill, north London.
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK/NEIL HALL

Contortionist Elberel performs on stage at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, during the launch of the Cirque Berserk! 2020 tour.
CREDIT: JANE BARLOW/PA

Market Closes for March 11^th ,2020 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23553.22	-1464.94
		-5.86%
S&P 500	2741.33	-140.85
		-4.89%
NASDAQ	7952.051	-392.202 -4.70%
TSX	14270.09	-688.00
		-4.60%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19416.06	-451.006
		-2.27%
HANG SENG	25231.61	-160.90
		-0.63%
SENSEX	35697.40	+62.45
		+0.18%
FTSE 100*	5876.52	-83.71 -1.40%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	0.658	0.662
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.031	0.943
U.S.    10 Year Bond	0.8711	0.7951
U.S. 30 Year Bond	1.3643	1.2873

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.72671	0.72730
US $	1.37606	1.37495
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.55179	0.64442
US $	1.12770	0.88676

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1655.70	1672.50
Oil
WTI Crude Future	32.98	34.36

Market Commentary:
On this day in 2008, the Federal Reserve agreed to lend $200 billion to Wall Street investment banks in a move aimed at taking hard-to-trade mortgage securities temporarily out of circulation. The Dow industrials surged 417 points, or 3.6%, to 12156.81, their biggest one-day gain in five years, but doubts grew on Wall Street about the viability of Bear Stearns.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 4.6 percent at 14,270.09 in Toronto. The index dropped to the lowest closing level in at least a year. The move follows the previous session’s increase of 3.1 percent. Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 227 of 230 shares fell, while 3 rose. Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 4.9 percent. ShawCor Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 19.9 percent.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss once
* This quarter, the index fell 16 percent, heading for the biggest decline in at least 10 years
* The index declined 11 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 3 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 20.6 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 0.6 percent above its low on March 11, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 15 percent in the past 5 days and fell 20 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.2 on a trailing basis and 13 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.7 percent on a trailing 12- month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.29t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 40.07 percent compared with 38.15 percent in the previous session and the average of 14.68 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -199.6009| -4.2| 0/26
Materials | -114.2065| -6.6| 0/47
Energy | -95.4821| -4.7| 1/29
Industrials | -68.5361| -3.9| 0/31
Information Technology| -44.5021| -4.4| 0/10
Utilities | -43.1541| -5.2| 0/16
Consumer Discretionary| -31.8431| -5.4| 1/15
Communication Services| -29.7582| -3.3| 0/8
Real Estate | -29.6152| -5.1| 0/25
Consumer Staples | -21.1044| -3.2| 1/10
Health Care | -10.1983| -6.5| 0/10

US
By Jeremy Herron and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Stocks plunged around the world, oil tumbled and the stress in U.S. credit markets deepened after the World Health Organization called the virus spread a pandemic and the Trump administration remained unable to detail any stimulus measures to combat the economic fallout. The latest bout of virus-fomented turmoil tipped Dow Jones Industrial Average into a bear market, ending the longest bull run in the history of American equities. The blue-chip slumped 5.9% Wednesday and ended 20% below its February closing record. The S&P 500 dipped into bear territory before closing 19% below its high. The WHO declaration rattled already on edge that the spreading virus will upend global growth. President Donald Trump didn’t keep his promise to detail stimulus plans, and late Wednesday said he the U.S. may not need to take those measures “if we get rid of the problem very quickly.” He plans to make a statement at 8 p.m. in Washington. European officials signaled a growing willingness to move soon to combat the virus’s effects on the region’s economy. Signs that companies in the hardest-hit industries were drawing down credit lines to battle the effects of the virus on their businesses added to anxiety. The New York Stock Exchange said it will restrict access to its trading floor, the Wall Street Journal reported. “We have no idea when the coronavirus, the spread, is going to subside. That uncertainty is going to continue to create alot of volatility,” said David Spika, the president of GuideStone Capital Management. “We have no idea how to model it, we have no idea what to expect from it.”
Here are the main moves in global markets:
* Private equity titan Blackstone Group Inc. asked companies it controls to draw down their bank credit lines to help prevent any liquidity shortfalls.
* All but 10 stocks in the S&P 500 retreated Wednesday, with every industry down at least 3.9%.
* Boeing plunged 18% after it said it plans to draw down all of a $13.8 billion loan. Hilton Worldwide lost 9% when it said it would draw some of its credit line.
* An index of consumer services providers that includes hotels, cruise operators, Starbucks and Chipotle plunged 8.3%.
* European equities wiped out a 2.3% advance sparked by an emergency rate cut in the U.K.
* Municipal bonds tumbled, sending rates on 10-year benchmark state and local government debt higher by 22 basis points, the most since records began in 2011.
* The yen surged 1%, while the euro advanced with the pound.
* Crude sank 4.2% to sink below $33 a barrel.
* Asian equities lost 1.7%.

U.S. stocks extended their three-week slide as investors grappled with the potential economic hit from the virus that is upending daily routines around the world. Policy makers are seeking to assure traders they’re on alert, with the ECB indicating it may move as soon as this week, the Bank of England cutting rates and German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledging to do “whatever is necessary” to bolster the economy. In the U.S., the Trump administration continues to promise “major” stimulus, but details remain uncertain. Democrats plan to urge the president to declare a national state of emergency. Markets are now growing worried that whatever does come will not have the ability to stave off a major blow to the world’s largest economy. “Every day we get whipsawed back and forth, and what we’re seeing today is general disappointment that fiscal policy is not at all clear in how it’s going to stimulate the economy,” said Michael Reynolds, an investment strategy officer at Glenmede Trust Co. Meanwhile, Joe Biden cemented his position as front-runner for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination with primary victories Tuesday, further easing concerns among those opposing Bernie Sanders’s progressive platform.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

You laugh at me because I’m different, I laugh at you because you’re all the same.
                                                                            -Lady Gaga, b. 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:

1496 ~ Christopher Columbus concluded his second visit to the Western Hemisphere as he left Hispaniola for Spain.  Go to article »
1862~ paper money issued in the US
1875~ Telephone invented.

The Earth and the moon aren’t made of exactly the same stuff.
 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Spring has sprung for these lambs, they were born at Bocketts Farm near Leatherhead in Surrey, which is due to welcome 440 lambs by mid April.
CREDIT: OLIVER DIXON/TRIANGLE NEWS

The Worm Moon setting behind Stonehenge in Wiltshire.
CREDIT: NICK BULL/PICTUREEXCLUSIVE.COM

Supermoon shines over Camlica mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.
CREDIT: ERDEM SAHIN/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Market Closes for March 10^th ,2020 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	25018.16	+1167.14
		+4.89%
S&P 500	2882.23	+135.67
		+4.94%
NASDAQ	8344.254	+393.578 +4.95%
TSX	14958.09	+443.85
		+3.06%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19867.12	+168.36
		+0.85%
HANG SENG	25392.51	+352.05
		+1.41%
SENSEX	35634.95	-1941.67
		-5.17%
FTSE 100*	5960.23	-5.54 -0.09%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	0.662	0.537
CND. 30 Year Bond	0.943	0.738
U.S.    10 Year Bond	0.7951	0.5407
U.S. 30 Year Bond	1.2873	0.9953

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.72730	0.7323
US $	1.37495	1.3656
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.55217	0.64426
US $	1.12889	0.88582

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1672.50	1668.64
Oil
WTI Crude Future	34.36	31.13

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1999, Nasdaq introduced Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock, a unit investment trust that functioned like a mutual fund but traded like a stock.  The units, trading under the symbol QQQ, held shares in each of the stocks in the technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 index. The shares closed the first trading day at $51.062.  Today they closed at
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 3.1 percent at 14,958.09 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since rising 4 percent on Nov. 30, 2011 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 10.3 percent. Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as all sectors gained; 173 of 230 shares rose, while 54 fell. Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.9 percent. Ballard Power Systems Inc. had the largest increase, rising 17.8 percent.
Insights
* This quarter, the index fell 12 percent, heading for the biggest decline since the third quarter of 2011
* The index declined 6.5 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 3.6 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 16.8 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 3.3 percent above its low on March 10, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 8.9 percent in the past 5 days and fell 16 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.9 on a trailing basis and 13.7 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.5 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.22t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 38.15 percent compared with 36.64 percent in the previous session and the average of 13.09 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 161.6236| 3.6| 25/1
Industrials | 88.5079| 5.3| 30/1
Information Technology | 58.1292| 6.1| 9/1
Energy | 37.7037| 1.9| 16/14
Communication Services | 33.8190| 3.9| 8/0
Materials | 23.4012| 1.4| 37/9
Consumer Staples | 14.7924| 2.3| 7/4
Consumer Discretionary | 13.0060| 2.3| 12/3
Health Care | 6.8155| 4.5| 7/2
Real Estate | 5.8208| 1.0| 17/8
Utilities | 0.2309| 0.0| 5/11
* The benchmark 10-year bond fell and the yield rose 10.8 basis points to 0.645 percent

US
By Jeremy Herron and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — U.S. rallied back from the worst rout since the financial crisis on expectations the Trump administration will implement stimulus measures to counter the economic impact from the coronavirus. Treasuries fell and oil jumped. The S&P 500 rallied 4.9% as investors digested a trickle of news that President Donald Trump and his team are looking at measures including cutting payroll taxes and aiding ailing businesses like airlines and cruise operators. Stocks whipsawed throughout another wild day on Wall Street, wiping out a gain of 3.5% to turn negative before a furious rally in the final two hours of trading delivered the biggest gain since December 2018. “It’s market March Madness at the moment, complete with surprising losses, upsets, and comebacks,” said Mike Loewengart, managing director of investment strategy at E*Trade Financial.

Among the major moves:
* The S&P 500 rose 4.9% as of 4 p.m. in New York.
* Airlines rallied after Trump’s comments. He did not offer details on what he’d do for the group that’s among the hardest hit, as event cancellations mount.
* Energy companies jumped 5% with oil surging.
* Apple spiked higher by 7.2%.
* The CBOE Volatility Index fell below 50.
* The 10-year Treasury yield topped 0.75%. German 10-year rates stood at -0.79%
* West Texas Intermediate surged 11% to climb above $34 a barrel.

Volatility continued to grip global financial markets rattled by the virus and an all-out oil price war. U.S. stocks plunged the most since 2008 on Monday, and further selling took futures 20% from records before the rally sparked by Trump’s promise for action Tuesday. The S&P 500 is down 15% from its record. So far, the president has criticized the Federal Reserve and Democratic congressional leaders without providing details of his proposals. With markets on edge, signs had started to mount that governments around the world are awaking to need for stimulus measures to combat the virus that is threatening to plunge the global economy into recession. At the same time, measures to contain the coronavirus continue to undermine prospects for corporate earnings, and raise the danger of a funding crisis, while the oil price crash threatens a swath of defaults among producers. Italy added nationwide travel restrictions to its effective lockdown of the northern region of the country.“A strong rebound today, if it in fact holds, does not mean the volatility, or even the worst, is behind us. Rather, investors should expect continued gyrations both up and down until there is greater certainty on coronavirus,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. Elsewhere, Japanese government bonds tumbled after an auction of five-year debt flopped.
Here are some key events coming up:

* The European Central Bank’s policy decision comes Thursday amid expectations it may ease policy.
* The U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer unveils the government’s 2020 budget on Wednesday.
* The U.S. core consumer price index, due Wednesday, is expected to remain subdued in February.

Have a great night!

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.
                                                             -James Baldwin, 1924-1987

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: Full moon tonight!
Don’t forget to glance up at the night sky.

Take some encouragement after today’s markets’ response to the collapse in the price of oil over the weekend from what the futures are currently doing.  I’m looking at the futures right now at 4:45 pm ahead of tomorrow’s opening and the futures are presently up, pointing to a rebound in share prices tomorrow. 

Gary and I went to Seattle for the weekend to see a brilliant new opera on Charlie Parker.  For all the talk of an epicenter for Coronavirus, the opera was full, the restaurants were full.  

-from CNN today:
Purim, which celebrates the bravery of Queen Esther, is observed by Jews the world over, with children often dressing in costume. Meantime across India, Hindus mark the start of spring with the colorful festival of Holi. Both begin Monday and end Tuesday. -CNN.

Olympic fire begins to glow
The flame lit at the Temple of Hera begins a one-week relay across Greece on Thursday before it’s handed over to Tokyo organizers. They’re still planning for a complete Games, despite fears over the novel coronavirus

Let them eat … pi!
Saturday’s date is 3.14, which also happens to be the approximate ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, or pi. To celebrate, you could recite pi to the 10,000th digit. Or you could sing along to Billboard’s top Pi Day songs, starting with this classic.

141 BC – Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne of the Han Dynasty in China and rules for 54 years. Go to article »

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, took part in their final engagement before they decamp for western Canada, and an uncertain new life as semi-royals.
Westminster Abbey, the venue for the couple’s last official ceremony honoring the British Commonwealth, was laden with symbols of the life they are leaving behind: It is where Queen Elizabeth, his grandmother, was crowned in 1953; where Prince William, his brother, was married in 2011; and where 30 kings and queens are buried, going back to 1066. -NYTimes.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A line of swimmers takes part in the International Women’s Day Sunrise Swim in Edinburgh, Scotland. For more International Women’s Day.
CREDIT: ANNA MOFFAT/PA

Steam locomotive 60103 The Flying Scotsman makes its way along the Mid Hants Railway’s Watercress line between Ropley and Alton in Hampshire.
CREDIT: ANDREW MATTHEWS/PA WIRE

Artisans walk with bulls made of papier-mache and paste paper, decorated with pain in various shades and filled with hundreds of rockets, crackers and shoes, in Tulpepec, Mexico. The paper bulls are then burned at the International Fair of the Pyrotechnics.
CREDIT: HECTOR ALFARON/AGENCIA PRESS SOUTH/NURPHOTO

Market Closes for March 9^th ,2020 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23851.02	-2013.76
		-7.79%
S&P 500	2746.56	-225.81
		-7.6%
NASDAQ	7950.676	-624.942 -7.29%
TSX	14514.24	-1660.78
		-10.27%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19698.76	-1050.99
		-5.07%
HANG SENG	25040.46	-1106.21
		-4.23%
SENSEX	35634.95	-1941.67
		-5.17%
FTSE 100*	5965.77	-496.78 -7.69%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	0.537	0.728
CND. 30 Year Bond	0.738	0.961
U.S.    10 Year Bond	0.5407	0.7891
U.S. 30 Year Bond	0.9953	1.3127

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.7323	0.74479
US $	1.3656	1.34267
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.5575	0.6421
US $	1.1406	0.8767

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1668.64	1659.60
Oil
WTI Crude Future	31.13	41.28

 

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1929, just in time to suffer through the worst depression in modern history, the forerunner of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange was established.

Canada
By Jacqueline Thorpe, Divya Balji and Susanne Barton
(Bloomberg) — Canadian markets were battered on all fronts as the collapse in oil sent shockwaves through a country with one of the biggest exposures to the commodity among the Group of Seven. Stocks cratered more than 10% with the biggest drop since Black Monday in October 1987, the loonie weakened and government bond yields plunged to fresh records as investor pessimism deepened for an economy that barely eked out any growth in the fourth quarter and is already grappling with the coronavirus. The slump in oil will exact another heavy toll on the natural resource-dependent country, which generates about 9% of its gross domestic product from energy and has the biggest exposure to the sector on its stock market at  15%.“The oil price crash will do irreparable damage to the Canadian economy and stock market,” said Ed Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda Corp. in New York. “Canadians will have to brace for lower prices for the foreseeable future and the oil sector will have to consolidate. Even when virus fears ease, the oil-dependent Canadian economy snapback rally will lag their peers,” he said.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index hit a circuit breaker earlier Monday after sliding almost 9% and fell further to 10% when trading reopened. The benchmark bounced around and eventually closed at 14,514.24. The loonie plunged 1.8% against the greenback as of 4:01 p.m. West Texas Intermediate, the North American benchmark, was down 25%, the biggest descent since 1991, after tumbling as much as 34%. “The Canadian dollar is embattled with risks to already weak economic growth coming from all angles,” Simon Harvey a London-based market analyst at Monex Europe Ltd. and Monex Canada Inc., said by email. “Markets are coming to the realization that rate cuts by the Bank of Canada will soon lose their effectiveness on supporting the economy, especially with the latest risk of a lower oil price for longer.” Harvey sees the loonie falling further away from the C$1.30 area if the oil-price rout is sustained while Bipan Rai, North American head of FX strategy at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce expects the C$1.40 to breached in the next two quarters. The loonie “needs to weaken further given the high degree of oil exports as a percentage of Canada’s goods exports,” Rai said. U.S. dollar “bulls may require some patience as price action is overbought, but ‘buy the dip’ is still the right strategy for” the dollar-loonie currency pair. With the Canadian dollar’s correlation to oil prices, it’s bound to keep weakening. “The currencies of any country for which the oil sector is a significant growth generator are having an awful day and won’t stabilize until oil finds a bottom,” said Kit Juckes, a strategist at Societe Generale SA, said in an email Monday.
The loonie “is likely to underperform the Australia and New Zealand dollars for example, as long as oil prices are falling.” The yield on Canada’s 10-year benchmark fell to as low as 0.225% on Monday and the five-year note hit 0.276%, according to Bloomberg data. Traders are now betting on the Bank of Canada, which last week lowered its policy rate to 1.25%, to cut another 50 basis points by its next scheduled meeting in April and another 25 basis points by July.

US
By Claire Ballentine and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks plunged more than 7.5% in the worst day on Wall Street since the financial crisis, as a full- blown oil price war rattled financial markets already on edge over the spreading coronavirus. Treasury yields plummeted, crude sank 20% and credit markets buckled. The S&P 500 sank the most since December 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 2,000 points and small caps lost more than 9% as investors fled risk assets with virus cases surging and the Trump administration so far unwilling to step in to soften the expected economic blow.

In a dramatic day across assets globally:
* All but nine S&P 500 companies were lower Monday, with energy producers routed by 20%. Exxon Mobil and Chevron were down more than 12%. Banks lost 11%, with an ETF that tracks regional banks had for its worst day since 2009. Apple sank 7.9% and Dow Chemical plunged 22%.
* The rout began at the open, with losses reaching 7% four minutes in, triggering NYSE circuit breakers that halted trading for 15 minutes. The markets will close if losses reach 20%. The measure is down almost 19% from its Feb. 19 all-time high, threatening to end the record-long bull market that began 11 years ago to the day.
* Crude tumbled the most since the Gulf War in 1991, after an OPEC+ alliance that had contained global production disintegrated. WTI and Brent slumped by about 25%.
* The 10-year Treasury yield fell below 0.5% before climbing back to 0.57%, and the 30-year yield dropped under 0.9%, taking the whole U.S. yield curve below 1% for the first time in history.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell the most since 2016 on trading volumes exceeding three times the 100-day average. Several of the region’s gauges look set to enter bear markets. Japanese stocks entered one earlier when they tumbled almost 6%.
* A U.S. derivatives index that measures the perceived risk of corporate credit surged by the most since Lehman Brothers collapsed.
* Exchange rates including the yen saw sharp moves as traders struggled to establish where new ranges might be. The yen was up about 3% versus the dollar while the euro and Swiss franc both strengthened more than 1%.

The oil-price crash threatened to upend politics and budgets around the world, exacerbate strains in high-yield credit and add pressure on central bankers trying to avert a recession. It typically would have proved a boon to consumers, but the coronavirus is increasingly keeping them at home. Investors are clamoring for some policy response from the Trump administration, which has so far signaled that it believes the spread is under control. “The market was poised and vulnerable to this volatility and crude oil has just exacerbated it,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Schwab Center for Financial Research. “The coronavirus itself has been the main cause of the correction, but now it’s being exaggerated even further.” President Donald Trump and his economic team will weigh measures later Monday to contain the fallout from coronavirus and a sudden crash in oil prices, with funding for a temporary expansion of paid sick leave and aid for battered U.S. energy producers among possible steps. A Bloomberg gauge of financial stress for the U.S. has deteriorated at the fastest pace since the great financial crisis. “When there’s panic, there tends not to be accurate pricing of assets,” Kristina Hooper, Invesco’s chief global market strategist, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters. “The sell-off today to me is emblematic of that. It really is a knee-jerk reaction to what’s happened over the weekend.”

Here are some key events coming up:
* The European Central Bank’s policy decision comes Thursday amid expectations it may ease policy.
* The U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer unveils the government’s 2020 budget on Wednesday.
* The U.S. core consumer price index, due Wednesday, is expected to remain subdued in February.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index sank 7.6% to 2,745.92 as of 4 p.m. New York time, the lowest since June.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 7.7%.
The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 6.8%.
The MSCI All-Country World Index sank 5.6% to 485.98, the lowest in more than 13 months on the biggest tumble in more than 11 years.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index decreased 0.3%.
The euro surged 1.6% to $1.1464, the strongest in more than 13 months on the biggest jump in almost four years.
The Japanese yen appreciated 3.2% to 102.13 per dollar, the strongest in more than three years on the largest surge in almost four years.
The British pound gained 0.6% to $1.3125, reaching the strongest in more than five weeks on its fifth consecutive advance.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries sank 21 basis points to 0.55%, the lowest on record with the largest tumble in more than eight years. The yield on 30-year Treasuries fell 31 basis points to 0.98%, the lowest on record with the biggest fall on record. Germany’s 10-year yield decreased 15 basis points to -0.856%, hitting the lowest on record with its eighth straight decline. Britain’s 10-year yield dipped seven basis points to 0.159%, reaching the lowest on record with its 15th straight decline.
Commodities
Gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,676.60 an ounce. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 25% to $30.96 a barrel, the most since 1991.
–With assistance from Todd White.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.
-C.S. Lewis, 1898-1963

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!

Elizabeth Warren was “incredibly competent, pragmatic, intelligent and well-spoken — in other words, she never had a chance,” Seth Meyers said.-The New York Times.

1836 – Battle of the Alamo: After 13 days of fighting, over 1500 Mexican soldiers overwhelm the Texan defenders, killing up to 257 Texans including William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett.

1912 – Oreo sandwich cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Co., which later became Nabisco.  Go to article »

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A Sumatran owl is seen in Palembang City.
CREDIT: SIGIT PRASETYA/OPN IMAGES/BARCROFT MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Royal Ballet Swan Lake Choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, Great Britain.
CREDIT: ELLIOTT FRANKS

Farmers create beautiful patterns as they harvest seagrass sedge in Vung Liem, a rural district in Vietnam.
CREDIT: TRUNG ANH/SOLENT NEWS

Nik and Erendira Wallenda perform over the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua. Erendira hung by her teeth and Nik walked a high wire across the 1,800 foot walk, 1,800 feet above the 1,800 degree lava.
CREDIT: TIM BOYLES/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Market Closes for March 6^th ,2020 

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	25864.78	-256.50
		-0.98%
S&P 500	2972.37	-51.57
		-1.71%
NASDAQ	8575.617	-162.978 -1.87%
TSX	16175.02	-378.97
		-2.29%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	20749.75	-579.37
		-2.72%
HANG SENG	26146.67	-621.20
		-2.32%
SENSEX	37576.62	-893.99
		-2.32%
FTSE 100*	6462.55	-242.88 -3.62%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	0.728	0.846
CND. 30 Year Bond	0.961	1.170
U.S.    10 Year Bond	0.7891	0.9184
U.S. 30 Year Bond	1.3127	1.5468

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.74479	0.74609
US $	1.34267	1.34032
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.51795	0.65878
US $	1.13055	0.88452

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1659.60	1641.85
Oil
WTI Crude Future	41.28	45.90

Market Commentary:
The number one thing that has made us successful, by far, is obsessive, compulsive  focus on the customer as opposed to obsession over the competitor. -Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon b. 1964.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 2.3 percent, or 378.97 to 16,175.02 in Toronto. The index dropped to the lowest closing level since Aug. 26. Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 207 of 230 shares fell, while 22 rose. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 5.3 percent. Vermilion Energy Inc. had the largest drop, falling 18.5 percent.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss once
* So far this week, the index fell 0.5 percent
* This quarter, the index fell 5.2 percent, heading for the biggest decline since the fourth quarter of 2018
* The index advanced 0.5 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 6.3 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 10 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 1.8 percent above its low on March 8, 2019
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.1 on a trailing basis and 14.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2 percent on a trailing 12- month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.53t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 18.54 percent compared with 17.44 percent in the previous session and the average of 10.15 percent over the past month

US
By Randall Jensen and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell for a second straight day, but rallied into the close to pare steep losses. Treasury yields sank amid fears mounting that the government response to the spreading coronavirus won’t prevent an economic slump. The S&P 500 slid 1.7%, furiously trimming losses in the final hour of trading that reached as much as 4%, and ending slightly higher for the roller-coaster week. Indexes were whipsawed over the past five days as the spreading virus shook investor confidence and spurred action from central banks and governments. Treasuries fell to all-time lows, with the 10-year yield dropping as far as 0.66%. The dollar slid for the sixth time in seven days. West Texas crude plunged 10%, the biggest drop in more than five years. A derivatives index that investors use to hedge against losses rose the most since at least 2011. Investors have grown increasingly anxious that the Trump administration’s preference for forgoing fiscal stimulus in favor of pressuring the Federal Reserve into more action will fall short of propping up the economy as airlines cancel routes and events get delayed around the nation.
“As long as we’re seeing cases climb, it’s going to drive volatility in the market,” Shawn Cruz, manager of trader strategy at TD Ameritrade, said by phone.“What you’re seeing is almost a coordinated response to try to counteract that drop in sentiment, the fear of what the actual economic impact’s going to be.” While concerted efforts from central banks and governments to soften the blow from the virus spurred gains across equity markets earlier in the week, investors are back to taking risk off the table and piling into the world’s safest and most liquid assets. The number of coronavirus cases globally surpassed 100,000 as more infections were reported in the Europe and Iran. Markets mostly shrugged off the latest U.S. jobs report, which showed the biggest gain in nearly two years, because it only reflected conditions before the virus outbreak began snarling global supply chains and intensified across America.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index dropped 1.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1%.
* The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.9%.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 3.7%.
* Germany’s DAX Index fell 3.4%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
* The British pound increased 0.5% to $1.3015.
* The euro advanced 0.7% to $1.1312.
* The Japanese yen strengthened 0.8% to 105.37 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell 19 basis points to 0.72%.
* The yield on two-year Treasuries declined nine basis points to 0.50%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield decreased two basis points to -0.71%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 10.1% to $41.31 a barrel, the most since 2015.
* Brent crude settled down 9.4%, the most since December 2008
* Gold rose 0.1% to $1,670.30 an ounce.

–With assistance from Jonathan Ferro, Adam Haigh and Constantine Courcoulas.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
                                                -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