Category: Newsletters

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
February 5, 1675: The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins official operations, playing a critical role in astronomy and timekeeping, including defining the Prime Meridian.
February 5, 1937: President Roosevelt proposed increasing the number of Supreme Court justices; critics charged Roosevelt was attempting to “pack” the court. Go to article

Hank Aaron, baseball player, b.1934.

Ocean plate from time of Pangaea is now being torn apart under Iraq and Iran
What was once the floor of an ancient ocean is still shaping the landscape between Arabia and Eurasia. Read More.

Jupiter’s ‘tormented moon’ Io just unleashed the most powerful volcanic event ever seen
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has discovered a giant volcanic hot spot on the surface of Jupiter’s hellish moon Io. The eruptions in this area are chucking out six times the energy being produced by all Earth’s power stations, researchers say.  Read More.

How much did SpaceX’s Starship Flight 7 explosion pollute the atmosphere?
Scientists are not sure how much metallic dust remained in the atmosphere after the most recent SpaceX rocket ‘disassembly.’ Read More.

New laser-based artificial neuron processes enormous data sets at high speed
A new artificial neuron that spikes like human brain cells could be used to process data at ultrafast speeds.  Read More.

What’s happening in Santorini?
Over 6,000 residents have recently left the Greek island of Santorini after hundreds of earthquakes. Local officials say the intense seismic activity may continue for many more days, if not weeks.

Google updates its AI ethics policy
Google has erased its promise not to use artificial intelligence technology for weapons or surveillance. Here’s what we know.

Just deal with it in the morning
A new study shows why tackling a problem in the morning may be beneficial.

Light pollution is getting worse
Light pollution negatively impacts wildlife and humans, but the solutions are surprisingly simple. Read about the movement to preserve natural darkness.

The Super Bowl is often a snapshot in time and the NFL is in a unique position to capture and lift the imagination of the country. — An NFL spokesperson, confirming that the phrase “Choose Love” will be stenciled in the back of one end zone at Sunday’s Super Bowl. The other end zone will have the message “It Takes All of Us.” According to The Athletic, this will be the first time that the words “End Racism” are not used in the big game since 2021.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Ashford, England
Mist covers Hoad’s Wood as the sun rises over Kent
Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Toronto, Canada
A flock of Canadian geese at Rouge Beach in Rouge national urban park, Ontario
Photograph: Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu/Getty Images

​​​​​​​Heron Island, Australia
A green sea turtle hatchling attempts to find its way to the ocean. The hatchlings often face predators such as seagulls and reef sharks, resulting in an estimated survival rate of one in 1,000
Photograph: James Gourley/Getty Images
Market Closes for February 5, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44873.28	+317.24
		+0.71%
S&P 500	6061.48	+23.60
		+0.39%
NASDAQ	19692.33	+38.31
		+0.19%
TSX	25569.84	+290.49
		+1.15%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39027.58	+196.10
		+0.50%
HANG SENG	20597.09	-192.87
		-0.93%
SENSEX	78271.28	-312.53
		-0.40%
FTSE 100*	8623.29	+52.52
		+0.61%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.951	3.013
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.136	3.193
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.4261	4.5105
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.6388	4.7459

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6983	0.6980
US $	1.4321	1.4328

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4891	0.6715
US $	1.0398	0.9617

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2843.55	2826.10
Oil
WTI Crude Future	71.03	73.16

MARKET COMMENTARY:
🌷 On this day in 1637, “Tulip mania” hit its peak in the Netherlands, with the price of the rare Witte Croonen tulip bulb up 2,506% in 33 days. Over the next five years, the bulbs lost an annual average of 76% of their value.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 1.1%, or 290.49 to 25,569.84 in Toronto.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.1%.
Finning International Inc. had the largest increase, rising 12.6%.
Today, 154 of 221 shares rose, while 62 fell; 10 of 11 sectors were higher, led by information technology stocks.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater gain 12 times. The next day, it advanced nine times for an average 0.4% and declined three times for an average 1%
* The index advanced 23% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.2% below its 52-week high on Jan. 30, 2025 and 24.9% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.4% in the past 5 days and rose 2% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21 on a trailing basis and 17.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.97t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 10.89% compared with 10.53% in the previous session and the average of 11.08% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology | 70.2713| 2.5| 10/0
Financials | 61.8555| 0.8| 20/5
Materials | 61.0854| 1.9| 37/13
Industrials | 40.4620| 1.3| 19/8
Energy | 18.4272| 0.4| 18/22
Consumer Discretionary | 11.0248| 1.4| 9/2
Utilities | 10.4153| 1.1| 12/3
Real Estate | 8.0042| 1.7| 18/2
Communication Services | 7.9119| 1.3| 3/2
Health Care | 1.1771| 1.7| 4/0
Consumer Staples | -0.1279| 0.0| 4/5
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 31.0100| 2.1| 14.7| 14.0
Brookfield Corp | 15.6700| 1.9| -7.5| 3.3
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd | 15.1700| 3.2| 66.3| 25.5
Thomson Reuters | -2.8170| -1.2| 207.5| 2.9
FirstService | -3.2430| -4.3| 261.9| -4.2
Nutrien | -5.4260| -2.1| -18.7| 15.2
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks bounced back as gains in most major industries overshadowed underwhelming earnings from some tech heavyweights.
Bonds climbed after a weak reading on US services.
Some 350 companies in the S&P 500 rose, with the benchmark erasing earlier losses.
Nvidia Corp. led gains in chipmakers.
But a gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” mega caps sank 1.5% as Alphabet Inc.’s results drove Google’s parent to its worst plunge in over a year.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. tumbled 6.3% on a disappointing outlook.
Treasury yields reached 2025 lows.
The dollar fell.
QUALCOMM SEES 2Q REV. $10.3B TO $11.2B, EST. $10.35B Wall Street has been whipsawed by uneven economic data, trade tensions and questions on whether the billions of dollars spent on artificial intelligence will start to pay off.
To Mark Hackett at Nationwide, the flurry of market-moving headlines in the first few weeks of 2025 serves as a stark reminder to investors that volatility can emerge unexpectedly.
“The ultimate performance of equity markets by year’s end is far less significant than how investors navigate the volatility encountered throughout the year,” he said.
Last week, DeepSeek’s emergence as an AI threat wiped half a trillion dollars of value off Nvidia.
Last night, Alphabet’s results sparked questions about its capital expenditures from the cohort of big techs that has powered the bull market.
While the “Magnificent Seven” have made up more than half of the S&P 500’s gains over the past two years, their profit growth is decelerating.
“Within the US stock market, we like large caps — particularly S&P 493 companies — which should expand profit margins as they adopt productivity-boosting technologies,” said Ed Yardeni, founder of his namesake research firm.
“We do not believe the Mag Seven are grossly overvalued. However, we see room for the S&P 493 to outperform.”
The S&P 500 rose 0.4%.
The Nasdaq 100 added 0.4%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7%.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. pared losses to 1% after saying it contacted the US Securities and Exchange Commission with concerns about investor Bill
Ackman’s since-deleted X post suggesting the company overstated profits.
Uber Technologies Inc. slid 7.6% on a weak gross bookings guidance.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined nine basis points to 4.42%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%.
“Volatility has been the story this week, with the stock market trying to find its footing as it navigates a shifting tariff landscape and mixed earnings,” said Daniel Skelly, head of Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management Market Research & Strategy Team.
“The S&P 500 hit new record highs less than two weeks ago, but taking a step back, it’s really been in a ‘choppy consolidation’ since early December.”
Given ongoing tariff uncertainty, Skelly says “international” sectors like IT hardware and equipment, autos, and parts of the consumer goods space may be more vulnerable.
Meantime, domestically-oriented areas of the market, such as financials, may attract investor interest.
Legendary short seller Jim Chanos says no one can see the biggest risks facing US markets over the next six to 12 months — because the challenges are going to be unpredictable events, like the recent DeepSeek concern that wiped out roughly $1 trillion in market value from US stocks.
“The real risks will be something like DeepSeek that comes out of left field that changes people’s thinking,” Chanos said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Wednesday.
“By definition, we do not know what that is.”
As the earnings season rolls in, one thing Bespoke Investment Group strategists are keeping a close eye on is the percentage of stocks reporting “triple plays.”
That’s when a company exceeds analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines while boosting forward guidance.
So far this year, 75% of stocks have beaten consensus earnings-per-share estimates, while 66% have exceeded revenue estimates, they said.
While those rates are strong relative to history, we’ve also seen 8% of companies lower guidance — compared to just 5% that have raised guidance.
“When triple plays were super common in 2021, share prices were reacting much less positively to them,” Bespoke strategists said.
“Now that triple plays have become less common again, the stocks that are reporting triple plays are reacting more positively.”
Over the last three months through Tuesday, there have been exactly 100 stocks that have reported triple plays, Bespoke noted.
And these stocks have averaged a one-day share price gain of more than 10% in response.
As traders gear up for Friday’s jobs report, data showed employment at US companies picked up in January by more than forecast, highlighting resilient labor growth despite mounting uncertainty.
Federal Reserve officials are closely tracking developments in the jobs market as they assess how much to lower interest rates this year.
A rapid pickup in the unemployment rate last summer was a key driver behind policymakers’ decision to lower rates by a full percentage point in 2024.
That said, the job market has showed renewed strength since then, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell describing it last week as “pretty stable.”
A survey conducted by 22V Research shows only 24% of respondents think Friday’s data will be “risk-on.”
Thirty percent said “risk-off” while 46% “mixed/negligible.”
“Investors have turned their focus to average hourly earnings this month after being far more focused on payrolls and the u-rate last month,” said Dennis DeBusschere at 22V.

Corporate Highlights:
* MicroStrategy Inc., the software maker that has been tapping capital markets to fund purchases of Bitcoin, announced on Wednesday that the company would now be doing business under the name Strategy.
* Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.’s sales rose less than expected, highlighting the high bar the company set by defying an industrywide traffic slowdown in recent years.
* Walt Disney Co. reported fiscal first-quarter results that topped analysts’ estimates, fueled by the blockbuster film Moana 2 and higher income from its streaming services.
* Johnson Controls International Plc jumped following a boost in its profit forecast and the hiring of a new chief executive officer.
* Match Group Inc. named Zillow Group Inc. co-founder Spencer Rascoff as its new chief executive officer, replacing Bernard Kim who has struggled to end a persistent decline in subscribers to the company’s flagship dating app Tinder.
* Snap Inc. issued a disappointing earnings outlook, taking away from stronger-than-expected revenue gains in the last quarter.

Key events this week:
* Eurozone retail sales, Thursday
* UK rate decision, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Fed’s Christopher Waller, Lorie Logan speak, Thursday
* Amazon earnings, Thursday
* US nonfarm payrolls, unemployment, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Fed’s Michelle Bowman, Adriana Kugler speak, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.4% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%
* The MSCI World Index rose 0.5%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index fell 1.5%
* The Russell 2000 Index rose 1.1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
* The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0405
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2502
* The Japanese yen rose 1.1% to 152.70 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.8% to $97,327.01
* Ether rose 4.7% to $2,764.03
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined nine basis points to 4.42%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 2.37%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined eight basis points to 4.44%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2% to $71.22 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,862.27 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Robert Brand, Margaryta Kirakosian and Winnie Hsu.

Have a lovely evening everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress. –Joseph Joubert, 1724-1824.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
February 4, 1977 The album “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac was released. Go to article.
February 4, 2004: Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard roommates, revolutionizing social media and global communication.

1985: Torture abolished by the UN.

Charles Lindbergh, aviator, b.1902.
Betty Frieden, feminist writer, b.1921

12 pivotal moments in the history of robotics, from Isaac Asimov to self-driving cars
From Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics to bipedal machines you can buy today, here are 12 important milestones in the development of robots. Read More.

Ice age Europeans as young as 10 years old rocked cheek piercings 30,000 years ago
A study of Paleolithic skeletons from Central Europe suggests people’s teeth were worn down and crowded together because of cheek piercings. Read More.

Photo gallery: Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious festival
The world’s largest religious festival is in full swing, with millions of Hindu devotees making the pilgrimage to a holy city in northern India to bathe in its sacred waters. See photos here.

Super Bowl ticket prices are plummeting
The cheapest ticket for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans has fallen below $4,000 on the secondary market, or around 50% cheaper compared to last year’s record-breaking game. Read why the prices are deflated.

Human brain samples contain an entire spoon’s worth of nanoplastics
Human brains today contain 50% more plastic than in 2016, a new study found. The brains of people diagnosed with dementia had the most.

China to send flying robot to search for water on the moon’s far side
*Sings* Fly me to the moon … Let me play among the stars …

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Paris, France
The Eiffel Tower is obscured by fog
Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

A musher competes with his dogs during the Sedivackuv Long 2025 sled dog race near the Czech-Polish border in the Orlicke mountains

Obihiro, Japan
Heavy machinery is used to clear a road in Hokkaido prefecture as snow falls across northern Japan
Photograph: Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for February 4, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44556.04	+134.13
		+0.30%
S&P 500	6037.88	+43.31
		+0.72%
NASDAQ	19654.02	+262.06
		+1.35%
TSX	25279.35	+37.59
		+0.15%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	38798.37	+278.28
		+0.72%
HANG SENG	20789.96	+572.70
		+2.83%
SENSEX	78583.81	+1397.07
		+1.81%
FTSE 100*	8570.77	-12.79
		-0.15%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.013	3.073
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.193	3.252
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.5105	4.5555
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7459	4.7908

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6980	0.6930
US $	1.4328	1.4429

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4871	0.6724
US $	1.0380	0.9634

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2826.10	2812.05
Oil
WTI Crude Future	73.16	72.53

MARKET COMMENTARY:
📈 Facebook turns 21 today. On this day in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and three others launched thefacebook.com, aiming to create a digitized student directory. It hit a million users by December that year.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.1% at 25,279.35 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 1.1%.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.5%.
TMX Group Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 8.3%.
Today, 148 of 221 shares rose, while 71 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 20% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 21% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.3% below its 52-week high on Jan. 30, 2025 and 23.5% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.6% in the past 5 days and rose 0.8% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.9 on a trailing basis and 17.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.97t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 10.53% compared with 10.71% in the previous session and the average of 11.09% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 50.0776| 1.2| 36/7
Information Technology | 38.4087| 1.4| 4/6
Materials | 14.1662| 0.5| 32/18
Consumer Staples | 7.3339| 0.8| 10/0
Industrials | 6.0806| 0.2| 19/9
Real Estate | 2.8354| 0.6| 15/4
Health Care | 0.0263| 0.0| 3/1
Communication Services | -0.5477| -0.1| 3/2
Consumer Discretionary | -2.0668| -0.3| 5/5
Utilities | -3.1754| -0.3| 10/5
Financials | -75.5510| -0.9| 11/14
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 35.3400| 2.5| -9.7| 11.6
Celestica | 10.5300| 7.3| 14.1| 42.5
Canadian Natural Resources | 9.9040| 1.5| -29.5| 0.0
Bank of Montreal | -13.4400| -1.9| 8.4| -0.1
Brookfield Corp | -26.1200| -3.0| 6.6| 1.4
RBC | -31.4200| -1.8| -20.6| -2.0
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Technology shares got hit in late hours as Alphabet Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s quarterly figures failed to inspire.
A $329 billion exchange-traded fund tracking the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) slipped after the close of regular trading.
Alphabet lost 7% as its revenue missed expectations after growth in the cloud business slowed.
AMD slid 5% as disappointing results for its data center division signaled the company is not making gains on Nvidia Corp. in artificial-intelligence computing.
In regular hours, a wave of dip buying lifted stocks after a wild day for financial markets, with big tech leading the way.
Following a slide fueled by uncertainties over a trade war, the S&P 500 rose almost 1%.
A Bloomberg gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps climbed 1.7%.
Meta Platforms Inc. rose for a 12th consecutive session — its longest winning streak ever.
“Short-term market jitters have proven good short-term buying opportunities,” said Craig Johnson at Piper Sandler.
The latest reading on US job openings underscored a gradual slowdown on the labor front.
To Krishna Guha at Evercore, the data eases upside risks into Friday’s employment report in a way that is helpful for the Federal Reserve and markets.
Meantime, the first volleys in the latest US-China trade war made clear that Xi Jinping is taking a more cautious approach than during Donald Trump’s first term.
After the US leader gave a last-minute reprieve to both Canada and Mexico, his 10% tariffs on China took effect on Tuesday.
Within seconds, Beijing announced additional tariffs on roughly 80 products to take effect on Feb. 10.
“There is a reasonable likelihood that the ultimate impact from these tariffs may be less than expected,” said Todd Ahlsten at Parnassus Investments.
“These tariffs may also represent the first round of an ultimate negotiation, which could reduce their ultimate impact.”
The S&P 500 rose 0.7%.
The Nasdaq 100 climbed 1.3%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%.
Palantir Technologies Inc. soared 24% on a bullish forecast.
Merck & Co. sank 9.1% after halting shipments to China of its Gardasil vaccine. Estée Lauder Cos. sank 16% on a disappointing revenue outlook.
A UBS Group AG basket of stocks at risk from the proposed tariffs rebounded after losing over 6.5% in two days.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined five basis points to 4.51%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.7%.
The Mexican peso slid 0.6%.
Canada’s loonie rose 0.8%.
As Corporate America reports fourth-quarter results, a chasm is opening between the seven biggest companies in the S&P 500 and everyone else.
The giants are boosting their spending at a rapid pace, while the others are barely treading water.
The biggest companies — often called the Magnificent Seven — have been increasing their business outlays on things like property and equipment, spending 40% more on the category in 2024 than the year before, according to strategists at Societe Generale SA. The rest of the S&P 500 grew capital expenses by just 3.5% last year, the strategists added.
“The release of a seemingly more efficient AI model by Chinese startup DeepSeek has renewed questions about AI capex,” said BlackRock Investment Institute strategists including Jean Boivin and Wei Li.
“We are in the AI buildout, with total capital investment by the “magnificent seven” mostly mega cap tech stocks on par with government R&D.”
The strategists say they see a “broadening set of AI beneficiaries” and stay overweight US stocks.
Technology was the only sector to decline in January as the S&P 500 managed a 2.7% gain for the month, well above the average January decline of 0.1% since 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.
“US stocks managed gains in January and bounced around all-time highs, but there’s turmoil beneath the surface,” said BI strategists Gina Martin Adams and Michael Casper.
“Our market pulse index suggests sentiment is manic — a warning sign of a vulnerable market just as tariffs resurface as a major risk.”
The strategists noted there was limited turnover in component factors in January, with pairwise correlations, high minus low leverage performance and high-yield spreads in manic territory.
The three other factors — price breadth, defensive minus cyclical sector performance, and low vs. high volatility performance — are neutral.
From 2012-23, in the three months after repeat Pulse readings above 0.6 (manic), the Russell 3000 delivered an average 2.9% total return and the S&P 500 outperformed the Russell 2000 by 178 basis points.
Stronger returns tend to follow panic readings.
The Russell 3000 had an average return of 9% three months later, and small caps led their large brethren by 133 basis points.
“This week will no doubt be a busy one as we follow the ‘telenovela’ that is the evolving tariff wars,” said Kristina Hooper at Invesco.
“I would reiterate the importance of knowing your time horizon and acting accordingly. For the vast majority, that means to stay calm, diversified, and carry on.”
How about investors looking to be more tactical within their portfolio?
“Short-term selloffs are likely to present buying opportunities for those with a long enough time horizon if we see a similar scenario to the 2018-2019 tariff wars unfold again,” Hooper noted.
Nonetheless, a period of trade policy uncertainty could potentially weigh on markets until greater clarity emerges, she said.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that while we may see lots of drama, we may not see a meaningful long-term market impact,” Hooper said.
“The market impact of the 2018-2019 US-China trade war subsided quickly once a resolution was reached.”

Corporate Highlights:
* Apple Inc. rolled out a new app for creating event invitations and made changes to its AppleCare+ customer support for iPhones, part of a broader push to generate more subscription revenue.
* Salesforce Inc. is cutting jobs as its latest fiscal year gets underway, according to a person familiar with the matter, even as the company simultaneously hires workers to sell new artificial intelligence products.
* PayPal Holdings Inc. reported slowing growth in its card- processing business even as fourth-quarter earnings topped analysts’ estimates.
* Spotify Technology SA posted another quarter of better-than- expected subscriber growth in the fourth quarter, helping the Swedish music company record its first-ever annual profit.
* Fox Corp.’s quarterly sales and earnings beat Wall Street forecasts, in part, on higher political ad spending. The company also revealed plans to launch a new streaming service before the end of the year.
* PepsiCo Inc. will respond to value-seeking US consumers with more variety in package sizes and healthier offerings, but won’t reduce prices across the board, the company said.
* Clorox Co. raised sales and earnings guidance for the current year while also reporting better-than-expected quarterly results, showing that the bleach maker’s business continues to recover from a 2023 hack that disrupted operations.
* Pfizer Inc.’s fourth quarter beat expectations on strong sales of its Covid vaccine and pill, bolstering its sales as it seeks to fend off criticism from an activist investor that has argued the company squandered its pandemic gains and needs a new path forward.
* Centene Corp. reported a fourth-quarter profit beat that was aided by a settlement related to payments for patients insured though Obamacare plans.
* Estée Lauder Cos. said it plans to eliminate between 5,800 to 7,000 positions in a corporate restructuring meant to return the flagging company to sales growth under its new chief executive officer.
* Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. is weighing asset divestitures as part of a plan to slash costs as the crop trading giant faces a downturn in profits.
* Apollo Global Management Inc.’s plan to tap wallets of rich clients is paying off, with its wealth business raking in record capital last year and boosting assets from the sector 50%.
* KKR & Co. raised its forecast for earnings from long-term private equity wagers and announced that it will increase its ownership in three investments.
* Grab Holdings Ltd. is weighing a takeover of rival GoTo Group at a valuation of more than $7 billion, accelerating talks for a combination to end years of losses in Southeast Asia’s competitive internet market.

Key events this week:
* China Caixin services PMI, Wednesday
* Eurozone HCOB Services PMI, PPI, Wednesday
* US trade, Wednesday
* Fed’s Austan Goolsbee, Tom Barkin, Michelle Bowman, Philip Jefferson speak, Wednesday
* Eurozone retail sales, Thursday
* UK rate decision, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Fed’s Christopher Waller, Lorie Logan speak, Thursday
* Amazon earnings, Thursday
* US nonfarm payrolls, unemployment, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Fed’s Michelle Bowman, Adriana Kugler speak, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%
* The MSCI World Index rose 0.8%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 1.7%
* The Russell 2000 Index rose 1.4%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.7%
* The euro rose 0.4% to $1.0385
* The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.2488
* The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 154.27 per dollar
* The Mexican peso fell 0.6% to 20.4932
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.8% to 1.4318
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 3.2% to $98,672.92
* Ether fell 3% to $2,733.22
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined five basis points to 4.51%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 2.40%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.52%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.8% to $72.57 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 1% to $2,844.09 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Martin Keohan, Phil Kuntz, Robert Brand, Margaryta Kirakosian and Aya Wagatsuma.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou, 1928-2014.

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

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

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Monday.

February 3, 1928: The New York Daily News publishes the first color photograph in a newspaper, marking a milestone in print journalism.
February 3, 1971: Apollo 14 astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Edgar D. Mitchell landed on the lunar surface during the third successful manned mission to the moon. Go to article.

Gertrude Stein, writer, b.1874.
Simone Weil, mystic, b. 1909.

Today in history: Amelia Earhart, the world-famous aviator, visits Seattle in 1933 and speaks at the Civic Auditorium. It is less than nine months since Earhart’s flight on May 20, 1932, made her the first woman — and second person — to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. During an earlier visit, Earhart visits with fellow aviation pioneer William Boeing and inspects the Boeing Aircraft Factory. Earhart disappears July 3, 1937, over the Pacific Ocean as she attempts to circumnavigate the earth at the equator. (Compiled from HistoryLink.org)

Bayeux Tapestry: A 1,000-year-old embroidery depicting William the Conqueror’s victory and King Harold’s grisly death
A long roll of cloth embroidered with key scenes from British history is a unique medieval chronicle. Read More.

Grammy’s red carpet fashion
Some of the celebrities’ looks were just as striking as the performances. See the best fashion moments from the Grammy’s red carpet.

How Alexander the Great redrew the map of the world
He conquered land across three continents and never lost a battle before dying at just 32 years old. Read about Alexander the Great’s legacy and how he redrew the map of the world

Was Alexander the Great eaten by sharks? Inside the wild theories for what happened to the iconic ruler’s body.
Alexander the Great is one of the most famous rulers of the ancient world. As king of Macedonia from 336 B.C. to 323 B.C., he conquered an enormous empire, stretching from the Balkans to modern-day Pakistan. But his reign was brought to an abrupt halt when he died at the age of 32. His cause of death is highly disputed, and his tomb has been lost for centuries.
Hundreds have searched for the tomb, to no avail, and theories of its location range from his homeland of Macedonia (now Greece) to Egypt. But researchers say they are closer than ever before to finding this renowned resting place. Read More

Earth’s crust is peeling away under California
A section of the upper mantle and crust under the Sierra Nevada mountains is peeling away, in a process that may mimic how the continents were formed. Read More.

Why is DeepSeek such a game-changer? Scientists explain how the AI models work and why they were so cheap to build.
DeepSeek’s V3 and R1 models took the world by storm this week. Here’s why they’re such a big deal. Read More.

New fabric can heat up almost 50 degrees to keep people warm in ultracold weather
A new smart fabric converts light into heat and can raise temperatures by more than 54 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) after just 10 minutes in the sun.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Xiangyang, China
Artists perform a dragon dance to celebrate the lunar new year in Hubei province, central China
Photograph: VCG/Getty Images
A musher competes with his dogs during the Sedivackuv Long 2025 sled dog race near the Czech-Polish border in the Orlicke mountains
CREDIT: THE GUARDIAN. COM/FEB 03, 2025
Santorini, Greece
Landslides caused by earthquake tremors throw up clouds of dust along a stretch of the island’s rocky cliff face. The latest tremors prompted some people to sleep outdoors and others to leave the island by plane or ferry. More than 200 minor earthquakes were recorded at sea or on surrounding islands, with the strongest – of magnitude 4.6 – striking the waters between Santorini and Amorgos on Sunday afternoon
Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for February 3, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44421.91	-122.75
		-0.28%
S&P 500	5994.57	-45.96
		-0.76%
NASDAQ	19391.96	-235.48
		-1.20%
TSX	25241.76	-291.34
		-1.14%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	38520.09	-1052.40
		-2.66%
HANG SENG	20217.26	-7.85
		-0.04%
SENSEX	77186.74	-319.22
		-0.41%
FTSE 100*	8583.56	-90.40
		-1.04%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.073	3.065
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.252	3.240
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.5555	4.5387
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7908	4.7867

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6930	0.6878
US $	1.4429	1.4539

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4900	0.6711
US $	1.0325	0.9686

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2812.05	2787.25
Oil
WTI Crude Future	72.53	72.53

MARKET COMMENTARY:

📈 On this day in 1913, the ratification of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution established Congress’s right to enact a federal income tax.

Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 1.1%, or 291.34 to 25,241.76 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since falling 1.2% on Jan. 10.
Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as 9 of 11 sectors lost; 143 of 222 shares fell, while 74 rose.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 5.7%. Goeasy Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 8.3%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss 10 times. The next day, it declined six times for an average 0.8% and advanced four times for an average 0.7%
* The index advanced 20% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 20% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.4% below its 52-week high on Jan.30, 2025 and 23.3% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and rose 0.7% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.9 on a trailing basis and 17.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$4.02t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 10.71% compared with 10.22% in the previous session and the average of 11.11% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -150.2854| -1.8| 6/20
Industrials | -81.8661| -2.5| 5/23
Energy | -27.7155| -0.7| 12/28
Information Technology| -19.3302| -0.7| 5/5
Consumer Staples | -13.0182| -1.4| 1/9
Consumer Discretionary| -11.0700| -1.4| 2/9
Real Estate | -7.0815| -1.5| 3/16
Utilities | -6.2991| -0.7| 5/10
Health Care | -0.9633| -1.3| 1/3
Communication Services| 2.7282| 0.5| 3/2
Materials | 23.5457| 0.8| 31/18

================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD |Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -43.1500| -5.7| 197.1| 4.6
RBC | -40.5400| -2.3| 25.7| -0.1
Canadian National | -30.9300| -5.3| 143.5| -1.5
Constellation Software | 9.2460| 1.4| 21.7| 8.4
Waste Connections | 10.2500| 2.1| 95.3| 10.6
Agnico Eagle Mines | | | |
Ltd | 10.8500| 2.3| 89.7| 22.9
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street traders trying to catch up on every new headline around President Donald Trump’s tariff negotiations were faced with a renewed bout of volatility across asset classes.
The S&P 500 trimmed most of a slide that earlier approached 2%. That was after Trump agreed to delay 25% tariffs against Mexico for one month, following a conversation with his counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum. The talks spurred a quick turnaround in currencies, with the peso going from worst to best performer among its major counterparts in a matter of minutes.
The dollar almost wiped out a rally that was earlier shaping out to be the best since the onset of the pandemic. Canada’s loonie pared losses.
“This is a very fluid and evolving situation,” said Victoria Greene at G Squared Private Wealth. “For now, our baseline thesis is the bulk of these are transitory and likely more watered down with concessions. We are on top of developments and watching how this may affect earnings, the US dollar and inflation.”
The delay with Mexico bolsters the view that Trump sees tariffs as a negotiating ploy — but is still reluctant to inflict economic pain on Americans. His move to invoke an emergency and impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China is the most extensive act of protectionism taken by a US president in almost a century.
Among the biggest uncertainties is how a resilient US economy would handle the impact of a trade war, in case it materializes. That concern was evident in the bond market, where short-dated Treasury yields climbed as longer ones moved in the opposite direction.
“While we believe that tariffs are primarily a negotiating tool for President Trump, it’s very difficult to say whether these tariffs will be short-lived or if there is a scenario where a deal is struck that reduces the tariffs,” said Yung-Yu Ma at BMO Wealth Management.
The S&P 500 fell 0.8%. While carmakers, chip and industrial shares all bounced from session lows, they continued to lead losses. Defensive groups gained, underscoring the market’s bid for safety. The Nasdaq 100 slid 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.3%. A gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” mega caps sank 1.7%. The Russell 2000 slipped 1.3%. A UBS Group AG basket of stocks at risk from the proposed tariffs sank 3.1%. Wall Street’s favorite volatility gauge — the VIX — topped 18.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.53%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%. The Mexican peso climbed 1.3%. The Canadian dollar fell 0.2%.
To David Lefkowitz at UBS Global Wealth Management, while tariff announcements could generate volatility, “in our base case we don’t think the Trump administration will take actions that materially dent the outlook for economic or corporate profit growth.”
“At this point, we are doubtful that the tariffs on Canada and Mexico will be long lasting, if enacted at all,” said Keith Lerner and Michael Skordeles at Truist Advisory Services.
“Nevertheless, until there is clarity on the duration or magnitude of tariffs, these actions inject uncertainty into supply chains and pricing for many companies – large and small – across North America.”
At J.P. Morgan Asset Management, David Kelly says investors have every reason to be concerned about a trade war, which has the potential to impart a stagflationary impulse to the investment environment, boosting inflation and interest rates while dragging on growth and profits.
“If this scenario unfolds, U.S. equities with the highest valuations are likely the most vulnerable while non-US assets and real assets could provide ballast to portfolios,” Kelly said. “Most of all, investors should ensure that they are well diversified and balanced as we head into much stronger and uncertain trade winds.”
“Trade acquiescence is what the US economy needs to skirt turbulence and widen the path toward non-inflationary growth,” said Jose Torres at Interactive Brokers. “A ramp-up in trade rhetoric and disagreements concerning global commerce will weigh on revenues, costs and margins, challenging corporate America’s ability to grow earnings.”
There’s a risk of a 5% slump in US stocks over the coming months as the latest round of tariffs by the Trump administration crimp earnings forecasts, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists.
“These announcements have come as a shock to many investors who expected tariffs would only be imposed if trade negotiations failed,” Goldman strategist David Kostin wrote in a note. “Our economists describe the outlook as unclear but believe there is a substantial probability that the tariffs on Canada and Mexico will be temporary.”
Kostin said that if sustained, the latest tariffs would reduce his S&P 500 earnings forecasts by about 2% to 3%, not accounting for the impact from further tightening in financial conditions or changes in consumer and corporate behavior. He also warned the S&P 500’s fair value could slump about 5% over the near term due to the hit to both earnings and equity valuations.
The onset of tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China raises the risk that the S&P 500 will experience at least one 5%-10% drawdown this year, RBC Capital Markets strategists led by Lori Calvasina said.
The team is on guard for a pullback early in the year, given positioning, valuations and that the index price remains high, noting note that optimism that tariffs were just a negotiating tactic contributed to the complacency.
Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson said equity markets had so far been sanguine about the possibility of sustained levies, but that view “is likely to be tested the longer these tariffs stay on.” Hedge funds dumped US equities for a fifth straight week, according to data from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s prime brokerage, as the AI threat from China’s DeepSeek and Trump’s promise to impose steep levies on America’s biggest trading partners rippled through markets. The funds ramped up short sales in single stocks and long sales in macro products, the data show.
Retail investors, however, seem to have wagered the president wouldn’t risk the economic and market impact that many predict tariffs will bring. That group poured $2.1 billion into US stocks on Friday, according to an analysis by Emma Wu, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s global quantitative and derivatives strategist. An inflow of more than $2 billion has occurred just nine times in the past three years, with five of those instances already occurring in 2025.

Wall Street on Tariffs:

* Neil Dutta at Renaissance Macro Research: Tariffs represent a negative supply shock. That is, growth weakens while inflation firms up. I don’t think the Fed is hiking into a negative supply shock. Yes, the Fed is worried about inflation expectations, but they also don’t welcome additional labor market cooling. We already know wage growth is slowing. The growth effects will dominate inflation considerations. I would be buying bonds here.
* Emily Roland and Matt Miskin at John Hancock Investment Management:

The impact of the tariffs to us comes back to the US dollar. If the dollar can strengthen it helps the US buy foreign goods cheaper and that can mitigate some of the tariff cost. The dollar can also be a currency that benefits from a risk-off environment while the euro for example tends be more risk-on. A way to potentially hedge tariff risks is by leaning into US dollar exposure.
* Keith Lerner and Michael Skordeles at Truist Advisory Services:

From a stock market perspective, our “Bull in a China shop” outlook title remains fitting. The primary market uptrend remains intact, but the latest tariff developments underscore the potential for disruptions and broken pieces that we expected to be part of the investment narrative in 2025.
* Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer, BMO Wealth Management:

We wouldn’t be too eager to put the bulk of cash on the sidelines to work all at once. The reality of the economic disruption from the tariffs will quickly become apparent, and this is only Round 1 of a Trade War, so being ready for opportunities over the course of a few months is more advisable.
Be patient and opportunistic; there may be a time to be aggressive, but it is not upon us yet.

Corporate Highlights

* Nippon Steel Corp. and United States Steel Corp. claimed former President Joe Biden unfairly prejudged their $14.1 billion merger and gave the companies no chance for feedback on a “sham” national security review before he blocked the deal.
* Tyson Foods Inc.’s quarterly earnings beat even the highest of analyst estimates as stronger chicken profits helped offset losses in its beef business, prompting the company to raise its 2025 profit estimate.
* MicroStrategy Inc. said it didn’t buy any Bitcoin in the prior week, halting a string of 12 consecutive weekly purchases that began in late October.

Key events this week:

* US factory orders, US durable goods, Tuesday
* Alphabet earnings, Tuesday
* Fed’s Raphael Bostic, Mary Daly, Philip Jefferson speak, Tuesday
* China Caixin services PMI, Wednesday
* Eurozone HCOB Services PMI, PPI, Wednesday
* US trade, Wednesday
* Fed’s Austan Goolsbee, Tom Barkin, Michelle Bowman, Philip Jefferson speak, Wednesday
* Eurozone retail sales, Thursday
* UK rate decision, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Fed’s Christopher Waller, Lorie Logan speak, Thursday
* Amazon earnings, Thursday
* US nonfarm payrolls, unemployment, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
* Fed’s Michelle Bowman, Adriana Kugler speak, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.8% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%
* The MSCI World Index fell 1.1%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index fell 1.7%
* The Russell 2000 Index fell 1.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro fell 0.6% to $1.0296
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2403
* The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 154.70 per dollar
* The Mexican peso rose 1.3% to 20.4139
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.2% to 1.4569
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 4.3% to $101,213.53
* Ether fell 6.8% to $2,708.08
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.53%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 2.39%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined five basis points to 4.49%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5% to $72.89 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,817.29 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Phil Kuntz, Robert Brand, Catherine Bosley and Matthew Burgess.
Have a lovely evening everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.  The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. –Winston Churchill, 1874-1965.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

January 31, 2001: Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Go to article

These artists are performing at the Grammys
Music’s biggest night is happening Sunday and the lineup of scheduled performers is pretty impressive.

America’s hottest restaurant
Despite a recent restaurant slowdown, this American chain saw its sales increase by a whopping 31% last quarter.

A food fight with chopsticks?
The “prosperity toss” is one of Lunar New Year’s most fun culinary traditions!

A New Zealand mountain has been granted personhood
A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday. Read about Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name.

‘Stranger Things’ creators tease new supernatural show set in a retirement community
The brothers behind the hit Netflix show “Stranger Things” shared new details about their upcoming projects.

Newly discovered near-Earth asteroid isn’t an asteroid at all — it’s Elon Musk’s trashed Tesla
Astronomers have retracted the discovery of a new asteroid after realizing the object was the remains of Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster and its driver “Starman,” which were
launched into space in 2018. Read More.

Are Atlantic Ocean currents weakening? A new study finds no, but other experts aren’t so sure.
A new study suggests the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has not weakened since the 1960s — but there’s no doubt the circulation will slow in the future, experts say. Read More.

Alexander the Great quiz: How well do you know the famous king and conqueror from the ancient world?
How much do you know about Alexander the Great? Read More.

A cosmic ‘CT scan’ shows the universe is far more complex than expected
“This process is like a cosmic CT scan, where we can look through different slices of cosmic history and track how matter clumped together at different epochs.” Read More.

Could we travel to parallel universes?
Let’s explore the possibility of traveling to universes beyond our own — if they so exist, that is. Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A robin perched on a tree sings out, his breath visible in the crisp air in Kidderminster, UK
Photograph: Lee Hudson/Alamy Live News

Van, Turkey
A waterfall frozen solid as temperature drops to -15C (5F) at night
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

​​​​​​​Wehrheim, Germany
A pair of storks are back in their nest after returning from southern regions
Photograph: Michael Probst/AP
Market Closes for January 31, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44544.66	-337.47
		-0.75%
S&P 500	6040.53	-30.64
		-0.50%
NASDAQ	19627.44	-54.31
		-0.28%
TSX	25533.10	-275.15
		-1.07%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39572.49	+58.52
		+0.15%
HANG SENG	Market Closed	N.A.
SENSEX	77500.57	+740.76
		+0.96%
FTSE 100*	8673.96	+27.08
		+0.31%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.065	3.121
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.240	3.291
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.5387	4.5325
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7867	4.7764

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6878	0.6898
US $	1.4539	1.4497

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.5066	0.6637
US $	1.0363	0.9650

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2787.25	2756.30
Oil
WTI Crude Future	72.53	72.73

MARKET COMMENTARY
📈 On this day in 1940, the U.S. government issued its first monthly Social Security check. The recipient: Ida May Fuller, a 65-year-old retired legal secretary in Ludlow, Vt., who lived another 35 years.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.1% at 25,533.10 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 1.2% on Jan. 10 and follows the previous session’s increase of 1.3%.
Today, energy stocks led the market lower, as 10 of 11 sectors lost; 185 of 222 shares fell, while 34 rose.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.7%. Imperial Oil Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 6.6%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss 11 times. The next day, it declined seven times for an average 0.8% and advanced four times for an average 0.7%
* This month, the index rose 3.3%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.3%
* The index advanced 21% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 24% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.3% below its 52-week high on Jan. 30, 2025 and 24.8% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.3 on a trailing basis and 17.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$4.06t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 10.22% compared with 12.00% in the previous session and the average of 11.08% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -84.7998| -2.0| 1/42
Financials | -59.9976| -0.7| 6/20
Materials | -42.0506| -1.3| 4/44
Industrials | -36.6001| -1.1| 1/27
Information Technology | -24.6896| -0.9| 2/8
Consumer Discretionary | -15.3976| -1.9| 0/11
Consumer Staples | -5.9506| -0.6| 1/9
Communication Services | -3.1637| -0.5| 2/2
Real Estate | -3.1199| -0.6| 8/12
Health Care | -0.8040| -1.1| 1/3
Utilities | 1.4308| 0.2| 8/7
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | -25.0600| -1.7| 42.9| 10.9
Enbridge | -24.1000| -2.5| 31.9| 3.0
RBC | -14.7700| -0.8| -11.0| 2.2
Algonquin Power | 1.1820| 3.5| 59.1| 1.4
Brookfield Renewable Partners | 2.7710| 6.2| 23.7| -3.0
Celestica | 11.1200| 8.2| 126.7| 35.3
US
By Rita Nazareth and Emily Graffeo
(Bloomberg) — Fast-changing news on tariffs flummoxed traders across asset classes Friday, shattering the calm spurred earlier by receding anxieties around the tech sector.
A White House assertion that President Donald Trump plans to impose levies on China, Mexico and Canada this weekend sent the dollar up as stocks got hit.
The S&P 500 erased a rally that approached 1%.
The greenback notched its best week since November, with the WhiteHouse saying Trump intends to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada as well as a 10% levy on China Saturday.
The US also denied a news report that the president planned to delay the implementation by a month, which earlier drove the dollar marginally lower.
The loonie lost 0.2% while the peso was little changed.
Oil came under intense volatility.
Speaking Friday, Trump said he would impose tariffs on a wide range of imports in the coming months, including steel, aluminum, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, as well as semiconductors, ramping up his threats to hit trading partners with new levies.
“Bulls have tried their best to keep calm and carry on through all the turbulence this week, but the pressure of uncertainty keeps them from peacefully grazing on stocks,” said Max Gokhman at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions.
“Going into the weekend it seems like even staff closest to the Oval Office don’t have all the details and so some bulls are going back to the barn to sit out a likely storm.”
The slide in equities came after a relatively positive start to the day, with the market briefly erasing losses that were driven by concern that a cheap artificial intelligence-model from Chinese startup DeepSeek could make valuations of the booming technology tough to justify.
The market barely budged after the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge came in line with estimates, though it still remained well above the central bank’s 2% target.
Traders have had to contend with “headline ping-pong similar to 2017/2019 as various outlets publish various unsourced stories which the administration quickly refutes, leading to wild whipsaw price action,” said Brent Donnelly, president of Spectra Markets.
The S&P 500 fell 0.5%.
The Nasdaq 100 lost 0.1%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.8%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.55%.
With four of the Magnificent Seven’s earnings behind us, investors may be sighing with relief that neither DeepSeek angst nor serious signs of a slowdown in overall demand emerged.
The implications for tech earnings are profound, with hundreds of billions of dollars in capital spending deployed but profits still largely elusive.
The ramifications are also immense for a stock market that spent the better part of two years rallying almost solely on the promise of AI.
US big tech stocks are set to become the “Lagnificent 7” this year, Bank of America Corp.’s Michael Hartnett warned, suggesting investors should buy cheap international stocks instead of chasing pricey US shares.
The strategist, who coined the popular “Magnificent Seven” term to refer to the handful of tech stocks that powered the S&P 500’s 70% rally since late-2022, said investors have become overexposed to US equities after they attracted record inflows in January.
“US exceptionalism now exceptionally expensive, exceptionally well-owned,” the strategist wrote.
“‘Magnificent 7’ becomes ‘Lagnificent 7,’ supports broadening of US and global equity and credit markets.”
To Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co., this week’s developments have put at least somewhat of a lid on the earnings growth than can be expected on the AI phenomenon.
“It is our opinion that it’s not going to take very long before the stock market will need to adjust to the idea that although the AI phenomenon could/should continue to be a positive factor, it’s likely that it’s not going to be as powerful as the market has been pricing-in over the past six months,” Maley noted.
Slowing demand growth for artificial intelligence chips, coupled with the entry of DeepSeek, will dominate the narrative when Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Qualcomm Inc. and Arm Holdings Plc report results.
Alphabet Inc. will also face questions on how it will mitigate the costs of developing its AI tools in light of DeepSeek’s performance and lower cost.
Still, strong demand for cloud services will buoy result for the Google owner and its Magnificent Seven counterpart Amazon.com Inc.
“DeepSeek remains a major theme,” said John Belton at Gabelli Funds.
“It is clear that DeepSeek did achieve some exciting engineering breakthroughs which will help other AI labs build models more efficiently.
But many headline figures associated with these breakthroughs are misleading.
This is more evolutionary than revolutionary, and consistent with natural/normal tech progress where we’d expect compute efficiencies over time.”
DeepSeek’s emergence roiled markets earlier this week, but investors see limited scope for the Chinese artificial intelligence startup to dent the performance of the Magnificent Seven, the latest Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey showed.
Of the 260 respondents, 88% said the debut of the startup’s latest model — which wiped $784 billion from the S&P 500 on Monday — will have little to no impact on the shares of the US technology behemoths in coming weeks.
Few are cutting their exposure to the S&P 500, an index dominated by the massive tech companies.
Retail traders poured $8.1 billion into US stocks in the week through Wednesday — the most in two years, according to an analysis by Emma Wu, JPMorgan’s global quantitative and derivatives strategist.
This week’s exchange-traded fund flows made up half of the imbalance at $4.6 billion while single stocks accounted for slightly less than half of the retail imbalance at $3.5 billion.
“We expect the greater efficiency from new, lower-cost algorithms to lead to increased economic productivity, which is supportive of the broader equity market,” said Solita Marcelli at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“In addition to these potential productivity gains, we believe the combination of solid US economic activity, healthy earnings growth, lower borrowing costs, and the potential for greater capital market activity will lead stocks higher over the balance of 2025.”
The firm sees the S&P 500 reaching 6,600 by the end of the year.

Corporate Highlights:
* Apple Inc. gave a reassuring revenue forecast for the current quarter, helping boost shares of the world’s most valuable company after its holiday results showed jarring declines for China and the iPhone.
* Intel Corp. issued a revenue forecast for the current period that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
* Exxon Mobil Corp. beat earnings estimates as strong production growth cushioned the drop in oil prices and refining margins, easing investor concerns about an increase in capital spending.
* Chevron Corp. raised dividends by 5% even as profit underperformed expectations amid shrinking crude prices and fuel-making margins.
* Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. suspended the quarterly dividend it’s paid for the past 92 years in a bid to conserve cash and revive the business.
* AstraZeneca Plc abandoned plans to invest £450 million ($558 million) in a UK vaccine manufacturing plant, following protracted wrangling with the new Labour government over the level of state funding for the site.
* AbbVie Inc. rose the most in just over four years after it forecast 2025 earnings above Wall Street’s average expectation as two key medicines gained ground.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8%
* The MSCI World Index fell 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%
* The euro fell 0.1% to $1.0378
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2402
* The Japanese yen fell 0.5% to 155.07 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 3.2% to $101,645.36
* Ether rose 1.9% to $3,307.89
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.55%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 2.46%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.54%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $73.15 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.2% to $2,800.83 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Phil Kuntz, Martin Keohan, Margaryta Kirakosian, Sujata Rao and Chiranjivi Chakraborty.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. 💛

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend. –Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.  Holiday of the Three Hierarchs, Greece.

January 30, 1963: Coca-Cola introduces its first diet soda, Tab, paving the way for the diet beverage industry.
January 30, 1969: The Beatles performed in public for the last time in a 45-minute gig on the roof of their Apple Records headquarters in London.  Go to article

January 30, 1972: Bloody Sunday, Northern Ireland.
January 30,1948: Mahatma Gandhi assassinated.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32^nd  US President, b. 1882.

Some Super Bowl commercials this year are selling for $8 million
Fox, the broadcaster of this year’s Super Bowl, is commanding $8 million for some of its 30-second commercial spots during the big game. Sources say the network has made at least 10 of these deals.

Soccer team inside the Arctic Circle has Champions League aspirations
Bodø/Glimt is an unlikely presence among Europe’s soccer elite, but this Norwegian team representing a town of 55,000 people inside the Arctic Circle has grand ambitions.

Britain’s Princess Beatrice gives birth to second daughter
Princess Beatrice has given birth to a daughter named Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi, Buckingham Palace announced. See a photo here.

Carbon-conscious travelers can now sail across the Atlantic in a wind-powered cargo ship
Described as “the world’s largest cargo ship with sails,” the Anemos has opened its cabins to offer passengers a low-carbon trip across the Atlantic.

1,900-year-old papyrus ‘best-documented Roman court case from Judaea apart from the trial of Jesus’
A newly translated papyrus found in Israel provides information about criminal cases and slave ownership in the Roman Empire. Read More.

Ocean warming 4 times faster than in 1980s — and likely to accelerate in coming decades
Ocean warming has more than quadrupled in recent decades and is likely to accelerate even faster if humanity fails to address climate change, scientists find. Read More.

Asteroid Bennu contains the ‘seeds of life,’ OSIRIS-REx samples reveal
Scientists have found all five nucleobases alongside minerals essential for life as we know it on the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu. Read More.

RIP Marianne Faithfull.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Toronto, Canada
The CN Tower is illuminated with green lights to mark the national day of remembrance of the Quebec City mosque attack and action against Islamophobia
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Reindeer walk the road in Kvaløya, an island in northern Norway
Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

​​​​​​​Beijing, China
A dancer performing the traditional lion dance during lunar new year celebrations
Photograph: Andrés Martínez Casares/EPA
Market Closes for January 30, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44882.13	+168.61
		+0.38%
S&P 500	6071.17	+31.86
		+0.53%
NASDAQ	19681.75	+49.43
		+0.25%
TSX	25808.25	+334.96
		+1.31%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39617.15	+103.18
		+0.26%
HANG SENG	Market Closed	N.A.
SENSEX	76759.81	+226.85
		+0.30%
FTSE 100*	8646.88	+89.07
		+1.04%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.121	3.173
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.291	3.336
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.5325	4.5405
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7764	4.7774

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6898	0.6942
US $	1.4497	1.4405

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.5059	0.6641
US $	1.0387	0.9627

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2756.30	2751.90
Oil
WTI Crude Future	72.73	72.62

MARKET COMMENTARY:
📈 On this day in 2000, 17 dot-com companies spent a total of nearly $38 million on network television ads during Super Bowl XXXIV. By the next Super Bowl, at least three had gone into Chapter 11, largely due to the money spent on the promotions
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the third day, climbing 1.3%, or 334.96 to 25,808.25 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 1.4% on Nov. 21.
Today, materials stocks led the market higher, as all sectors gained; 165 of 222 shares rose, while 54 fell.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.4%.
Celestica Inc. had the largest increase, rising 14.3%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater gain seven times. The next day, it advanced six times for an average 0.6% and declined 0.3% once
* This month, the index rose 4.4%
* So far this week, the index rose 1.3%
* The index advanced 22% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 23% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is at its 52-week high and 26.1% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.5% in the past 5 days and rose 4.8% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.3 on a trailing basis and 17.7 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$4.01t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.00% compared with 11.40% in the previous session and the average of 11.09% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 104.7090| 3.4| 44/5
Information Technology | 76.6366| 2.8| 8/2
Financials | 54.4781| 0.7| 15/11
Industrials | 34.0273| 1.1| 18/10
Energy | 26.0676| 0.6| 26/16
Utilities | 15.7204| 1.7| 12/3
Real Estate | 7.2277| 1.5| 20/0
Consumer Staples | 5.6256| 0.6| 6/4
Communication Services | 4.6336| 0.8| 3/1
Consumer Discretionary | 4.4798| 0.5| 9/2
Health Care | 1.3394| 1.9| 4/0
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 34.8300| 2.4| 24.6| 12.8
RBC | 26.1700| 1.5| -15.9| 3.1
Brookfield Corp | 25.9200| 3.0| 4.7| 8.7
Loblaw | -2.1730| -1.2| 28.2| -3.4
Nutrien | -3.0070| -1.1| -8.2| 17.8
Sun Life Financial | -3.8720| -1.1| 98.8| -2.1
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks whipsawed in the final stretch of Wall Street trading, with tech under pressure ahead of Apple Inc.’s results.
Oil edged up while Mexico and Canada’s currencies slumped as President Donald Trump said he would follow through on his threat to impose 25% tariffs on both countries.
Despite a slide in the S&P 500’s most-influential group —technology — about 80% of the gauge’s companies advanced.
Buoyed by data showing a surge in consumer spending, economically sensitive corners of Wall Street such as small caps largely outperformed.
The US equity benchmark’s equal-weighted version — one that gives Target Corp. as much clout as Nvidia Corp. —climbed 1%, fueling hopes the bull market would broaden out.
That would help reduce concerns around the “concentration risk” from the tech mega caps that have come to dominate benchmark indexes.
Those jitters were on full display earlier this week when an artificial intelligence-model from Chinese startup DeepSeek added to doubts on whether valuations of the technology that has powered the torrid rally from the market lows would be tough to justify.
“This bull market is still ‘breathing,’ and we should expect more stock participation in the months ahead if the economy cooperates and rates quiet down,” said Callie Cox at Ritholtz Wealth Management.
It’s not that the AI story is “doomed,” but “there are so many opportunities in unloved sectors that have been ignored for so long.”
While the bulk of the growth in S&P 500 earnings continues to come from the high-flying tech mega caps, growth is projected to come in at the slowest pace in almost two years.
Robust results are a much-needed driver for US stocks after as Wall Street dialed back expectations for interest-rate cuts this year.
Upbeat outlooks from industry heavyweights like Tesla Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. also buoyed trading.
While the majority of companies have so far exceeded expectations, disappointing forecasts have been met with selloffs, with Microsoft Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. being the latest examples.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5%.
The Nasdaq 100 added 0.5%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5%.
A gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” mega caps was little changed.
The Russell 2000 of small firms gained 1.1%.
In late hours, Intel Corp. reported sales and profit forecasts fell far short of analysts’ projections.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined was little changed at 4.53%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed.
The US economy expanded at a solid pace at the end of 2024, despite drags from a strike at Boeing Co. and much leaner inventory investment.
Consumer spending, which comprises the largest share of economic activity, advanced at a 4.2% pace — the first time since late 2021 that outlays have exceeded 3% in consecutive quarters.
The acceleration was the biggest since early 2023 and was led by a pickup in motor vehicle sales.
To Neil Birrell at Premier Miton Investors, while the data is all a bit historic now, the economy is “doing just fine.”
“Overall, the economy is on firm footing heading into 2025, which should support risk assets given the strong linkage between economic growth and corporate profits,” said Josh Jamner at ClearBridge Investments.
At Strategas, Don Rissmiller says that even if that pace is starting to slow, the Federal Reserve can likely continue its policy pause for a few more months — to gather more data.
Weekly jobless claims data released at the same time unexpectedly declined, a sign of labor market strength.
The Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged as expected — after cutting them at each of their three previous meetings since September — and indicated that stalled progress toward lower inflation warranted a patient approach.
“‘Remaining patient’ and ‘no rush’ seem to be how the FOMC plans on operating into the middle of the year, with a bumpy path for inflation giving the Fed pause before reading too much into gains that could prove idiosyncratic,” said Marvin Loh and Hope Allard at State Street Global Markets.
“The US consumer has been unstoppable, supported by wealth creation, a strong labor market, and lending. Still, inflation is still a bit too high for the Fed’s liking and the bar to a March rate cut is rising,” said Ellen Zentner at Morgan Stanley
Wealth Management.
On Friday, the attention will shift to the Fed’s favored inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures index.
It’s expected to show a small acceleration in price hikes by increasing 2.5% from a year earlier, up from 2.4% in the previous month, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Monthly US household spending figures on Friday will likely point to momentum heading into 2025.
Economists also expect the personal income and spending report to show a slight pickup in the personal consumption expenditures index from a month earlier.
“Friday’s PCE is likely to show that inflation is still elevated and above the Fed’s target, and it comes at a time when markets are hyper jittery about a trifecta of other issues, including big tech, AI and Federal Reserve uncertainty,” said Carol Schleif at BMO Private Wealth.
As the earnings season rolls in, concerns over Apple Inc.’s first-quarter results have met with 11th-hour optimism that it could eventually benefit from the same force that recently wreaked havoc on the tech sector.
The emergence of Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is seen as a positive for Apple as cheaper AI models could contribute to a long-anticipated — and so far unrealized — iPhone upgrade cycle and re-acceleration in growth.
The outlook for AI and iPhones will be in focus with results due after market close. 

Corporate Highlights:
* An American Airlines Group Inc. regional jet collided with a military helicopter near Washington on Wednesday leaving no survivors, marking one of the deadliest US air disasters in recent decades.
* Southwest Airlines Co. warned that costs will climb faster than expected as it grapples with heavy labor expenses, undercutting gains from strong demand for leisure travel.
* The US Federal Trade Commission is probing whether Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. illegally coordinated to limit driver pay in New York City, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg News.
* The US Justice Department sued to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks Inc., arguing the tie-up would harm competition in the market for enterprise wireless equipment used by large companies, universities and hospitals.
* Caterpillar Inc. warned that revenues will be “slightly lower” in 2025 as demand concerns weigh on the outlook of the heavy equipment maker.
* Mastercard Inc. reported earnings that beat estimates as the firm diversifies beyond its traditional payment network into anti-fraud services, data analysis and global money movement.
* Rogers Communications Inc. beat analysts’ fourth-quarter estimates as wireless service revenue gained and subscribers bought more expensive devices.
* Cigna Group reported cost pressures from surprisingly high catastrophic medical claims that are likely to persist.

Key events this week:
* US personal income & spending, PCE inflation, employment cost index, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World Index rose 0.6%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index was little changed
* The Russell 2000 Index rose 1.1%
* S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index rose 1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro fell 0.1% to $1.0410
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2438
* The Japanese yen rose 0.6% to 154.24 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.2% to $104,968.45
* Ether rose 2.9% to $3,232.19
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.52%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 2.52%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 4.56%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4% to $72.90 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 1.3% to $2,796.16 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric, Margaryta Kirakosian, Allegra Catelli and Divya Patil.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results. –Willie Nelson, b. 1933.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Today is Lunar New Year.  Even if you grew up celebrating this day, you might not know the reasons behind some of the traditions; here’s the significance of the red envelopes you might see. Take a virtual tour around the globe through these joyful photos.

January 29, 1886: The automobile patent is issued to Karl Benz for the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, widely  regarded as the first modern car, revolutionizing transportation.
January 29, 1900 The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia. Go to article.

Emmanuel Swedenborg, inventor, philosopher, b. 1688.
Thomas Paine, revolutionary, b. 1737.
Anton Chekhov, writer, b. 1860.
W.C. Fields, actor, b. 1880.

People who can’t ‘see with their mind’s eye’ have different wiring in the brain
People with aphantasia still generate brain activity when attempting to visualize, but that image may be getting lost in translation, a new study suggests. Read More.

New glowing molecule, invented by AI, would have taken 500 million years to evolve in nature, scientists say
An artificial intelligence model has created a new protein that researchers say would have taken 500 million years to evolve in nature — if nature were capable of producing such a thing. Read More.

Boom Supersonic XB-1 smashes the sound barrier, becoming the 1st civil aircraft to go supersonic in US history.  By achieving a top speed of Mach 1.1, Boom Supersonic has broken records and is on course to revive supersonic passenger travel.

Last ice age quiz: How much do you know about Earth’s frosty past?
How did woolly mammoths survive the last ice age? And how thick was the ice over New York City? Test your knowledge by taking our quiz. Read More.

‘Stranded’ astronauts?
Elon Musk on Tuesday said SpaceX will bring home two Starliner astronauts who have been on the International Space Station longer than expected. However, NASA announced that plan months ago.

Why you should clean exercise equipment
The number of harmful bacteria on gym equipment may be whey beyond your expectations … Read why you should frequently sanitize gym surfaces, especially yoga mats.

The Middle East’s first super-luxury train will gleam gold
Dream of the Desert is a train set to whisk people across Saudi Arabia — in style, according to the designs that have just been released.

This designer is making waves with her ‘four-dimensional’ fashion
She’s the sister of Nigerian soccer legend Sunday Oliseh, but with her fashion label Tesslo, Tessy Oliseh-Amaize is making a name for herself in the US fashion scene.

1000 Yen:  That’s how much it will cost violators who are caught smoking in Osaka, Japan, after local officials this week announced a citywide ban on cigarettes and vapes. The 1,000 yen fine (about $6) is             intended to “beautify” the city ahead of hosting the World Expo later this year.

“The supply has been improving, but still not enough to meet with demand”. –— Ryan Delany, the chief analyst at Coffee Trading Academy, a research company that focuses on the global coffee market. This week, coffee prices hit a new high after the Trump administration threatened a 25% tariff on Colombia — the third largest coffee-producing country in the world.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Dublin, Ireland
‘Morning breaks in Howth.’
Photograph: Fran Cassidy

Arizona, US
‘Antelope Canyon – nature’s abstract painting.’
Photograph: Art Seaman

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
‘The city at dusk. Is it the only snow we will have this year? It melted in a couple of days.’
Photograph: Stéphane Maïcon
Market Closes for January 29, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44713.52	-136.83
		-0.31%
S&P 500	6039.31	-28.39
		-0.47%
NASDAQ	19632.32	-101.27
		-0.51%
TSX	25473.29	+53.83
		+0.21%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39396.84	-17.94
		-0.05%
HANG SENG	Market Closed	N.A.
SENSEX	76532.96	+631.55
		+0.83%
FTSE 100*	8557.81	+23.94
		+0.28%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.173	3.203
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.336	3.364
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.5405	4.5323
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7774	4.7754

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6942	0.6940
US $	1.4405	1.4409

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.5022	0.6657
US $	1.0428	0.9589

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2751.90	2742.40
Oil
WTI Crude Future	72.62	73.17

MARKET COMMENTARY:
📈 On this day in 1886, Karl Benz received a German patent for his “motorwagen,” a frail and ungainly vehicle with three wheels and a wooden chassis. It was the world’s first automobile.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.2%, or 53.84 to 25,473.30 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since Dec. 11.
Celestica Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 6.6%.
NexGen Energy Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6.7%.
Today, 121 of 222 shares rose, while 96 fell; 4 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 3%
* The index advanced 20% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.4% below its 52-week high on Dec. 9, 2024 and 24.5% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.6% in the past 5 days and rose 2.7% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21 on a trailing basis and 17.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$4t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.40% compared with 11.51% in the previous session and the average of 11.05% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 39.1303| 0.9| 35/7
Materials | 27.9525| 0.9| 36/13
Financials | 6.7688| 0.1| 14/11
Consumer Staples | 6.0926| 0.6| 6/4
Information Technology | -0.3175| 0.0| 4/5
Health Care | -0.8582| -1.2| 1/3
Industrials | -3.1995| -0.1| 16/12
Utilities | -4.1355| -0.4| 3/12
Consumer Discretionary | -4.6905| -0.6| 3/7
Communication Services | -5.5936| -0.9| 1/4
Real Estate | -7.3115| -1.5| 2/18
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Celestica | 7.2860| 6.6| 91.0| 9.3
Canadian Natural Resources | 7.0950| 1.1| -38.4| -0.3
Cameco | 6.9500| 3.3| 35.3| -2.2
Waste Connections | -4.0850| -0.9| 14.0| 5.9
Shopify | -6.2860| -0.4| -1.5| 10.1
RBC | -9.9120| -0.6| 81.2| 1.6
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks slipped and bond yields rose, though both pared bigger moves as early concern that the Federal Reserve was growing more worried about inflation got tamped down by Chair Jerome Powell in a press conference.
The S&P 500 trimmed by about half a slide that earlier approached 1%.
Big tech remained under pressure ahead of the start of the group’s earnings season.
In late hours, Microsoft Corp. tumbled 5.5% after its cloud revenue missed estimates.
The Federal Open Market Committee kept the federal funds rate in a range of 4.25%-4.5%.
In a statement, officials repeated that inflation remains “somewhat elevated” but removed a reference to it having made progress toward their 2% goal.
Later, Powell clarified the reference to inflation was just a decision to shorten the sentence, rather than send any sort of meaningful signal.
“Never mind, says Powell,” noted Peter Boockvar, author of The Boock Report.
“Jay Powell in his presser said the tweaks in comments on the labor market and inflation in the FOMC statement should not be interpreted as a signal.”
To Krishna Guha at Evercore, Powell’s press conference is coming across as “appreciably less hawkish” than the statement updates.
The S&P 500 fell 0.5%.
The Nasdaq 100 dropped 0.3%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.3%.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.55%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed.
The loonie pared losses after the Bank of Canada cut rates, but dropped guidance on any further adjustments to borrowing costs.

Wall Street’s Reaction to Fed:
* Ivan Feinseth at Tigress Financial Intelligence:
Overall, nothing is really changed in the Fed’s outlook. Powell believes that inflation remains on a slow but steady downtrend and the labor market and housing markets have started to firm which has helped to lift the stock prices.
* Scott Colyer at Advisors Asset Management:
Powell’s comments are simply that they want to see more information but that they feel they have made long term progress on inflation and the labor markets remain strong.
This is a win on both mandates.
* Frank Monkam at Buffalo Bayou Commodities:
I don’t think the Fed did anything catastrophic yet.
They were hawkish a little bit, but there’s nothing really to derail a potential move of the lows if earnings were to come in favorably.
I think it’s a good opportunity to keep in some dry powder going into earnings and buy the dip in US stocks.
* David Russell at TradeStation:
The statement was a little hawkish, but policymakers are on hold with a long break until the March meeting.
Data between now and then will set the tone for that next big decision.
* Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management:
Yet, in terms of guidance, the reality is that the Fed is simply trying to respond to the data and the new administration’s policies as they unfold.
At times like these, when government policy – particularly tariff policy – is so uncertain, they do not have a forecasting edge.
Keeping policy rates on hold until a clear direction starts to emerge is sensible.
But make no mistake, if next month brings a second consecutive soft inflation print, coupled with a slight weakening in jobs growth, we may start to hear a renewed dovish tone to Fedspeak.
* Sameer Samana at Wells Fargo Investment:
We would continue to focus on why the Fed won’t cut anytime soon, specifically a strong economy and labor, which bodes well for solid corporate earnings growth.
We would be buyers of U.S. large-cap, and the energy, communications services, financials, and industrials sectors on pullbacks.
* Greg McBride at Bankrate:
The progress toward 2% inflation has stalled out, and the Fed knows it.
They gave no indication in their post-meeting statement that a resumption of rate cuts is likely at the next meeting in March.
It will take a run of good inflation data to get us there, whenever that may be.
* Jeffrey J. Roach at LPL Financial:
With the data we have currently, the Fed would likely hold rates unchanged at their March 19 meeting.
Solid income growth for most households over the past year has kept services inflation elevated.
Businesses are expanding operations, consumers have a healthy appetite for travel and leisure, and animal spirits are still elevated.
These conditions make it difficult for the Fed to cut rates without reigniting broad inflation pressures.
Aside from the Fed decision, traders focused on the start of the mega cap earnings season.
While profits from the Magnificent Seven behemoths are still rising — and far outpacing the rest of the market — growth is projected to come in at the slowest pace in almost two years.
Those briefings have headier stakes now, thanks to DeepSeek. The US tech behemoths are under increasing scrutiny for their spending on artificial intelligence and the meager returns they’re generating from the technology, as virtually all of Wall Street tries to understand how the Chinese AI upstart managed, seemingly overnight, to catch up at what appears to be a sliver of the cost.
The recent volatility among tech giants has been particularly worrisome for Wall Street, as the S&P 500’s leadership hasn’t been this concentrated in more than 20 years.
Data shows that less than one-third of index members were able to outperform the S&P 500 during the past two years, as Bank of America Corp. strategist Michael Hartnett has called out.
That resembles the run-up to the dot-com bubble at the end of the 1990s, when a similarly slim cadre of stocks were beating the benchmark.
The risks for markets from such concentration have been on display this week, as the DeepSeek jolt wiped out half a trillion dollars of Nvidia’s market value.
“The DeepSeek correction in tech stocks has not changed the overall concentration problem in the S&P 500,” said Torsten Slok at Apollo.
“Investors in the S&P 500 continue to be dramatically over-exposed to the tech sector.”
The tech-led selloff in US equities at the start of this week was just a blip, given the positive outlook for the economy, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists.
That slump isn’t a harbinger of a sustained decline in stocks, the Goldman team led by Peter Oppenheimer wrote in a note.
“Most bear markets are triggered by expectations of falling profits driven by fears of recession,” which has a low probability of occurring in the next 12 months, the strategists said.
US stocks are at a critical juncture where a disorderly selloff in artificial intelligence-related stocks risks sinking the broader market, according to Pictet Wealth Management.
Although US equities remain a top pick at the firm, valuations look vulnerable after a 70% rally in the S&P 500 since late 2022 that was driven by a small group of tech stocks, according to Geraldine Sundstrom, head of investment offering at Pictet Wealth.
“This type of concentration typically doesn’t last forever and we feel stocks will mean revert to an environment where the performance is broader,” Sundstrom said at a media roundtable event in London.
The advent of cheaper artificial intelligence models is a “net positive” for global equity markets as it will fuel incremental growth, bring forward efficiency gains and drive inflation lower, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists Dubravko Lakos-Bujas.
“The DeepSeek selloff is an example of an unexpected surprise that cut right through the market’s crown jewels, the Magnificent Seven,” said David Laut at Abound Financial.
“While the markets have staged a nice rebound since Monday’s declines, a larger correction doesn’t happen without the crown jewels being stolen or at least threatened, and that’s exactly what happened on Monday. A larger correction in AI is still possible.”
Laut also noted that this week’s stock market volatility is a window of what to expect this year. 

Corporate Highlights:
* Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. launched a financial- services and fintech brand dubbed Truth.Fi, with a focus on crypto and customized exchange-traded funds.
* Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. representatives met with Donald Trump’s antitrust enforcers on Tuesday over its $14 billion bid to buy Juniper Networks Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
* Apple Inc. has been secretly working with SpaceX and T-Mobile US Inc. to add support for the Starlink network in its latest iPhone software, providing an alternative to the company’s in- house satellite-communication service.
* ASML Holding NV reported booking orders worth twice as much as analysts expected, as the artificial intelligence boom fuels demand for its chipmaking machines.
* Nasdaq Inc. Chief Executive Officer Adena Friedman said she expects a strong environment for initial public offerings in the second quarter and balance of 2025 as investors gain confidence from stabilizing interest rates and inflation.
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. published benchmark scores and touted what it called world-leading performance with its new artificial intelligence model release.
* Starbucks Corp. reported better-than-expected quarterly results, luring back lapsed customers with coffee-focused ads and by removing extra charges for nondairy milk.
* T-Mobile US Inc. reported fourth-quarter results that beat analysts’ projections, benefiting from continued growth in wireless subscribers and home internet customers.
* Cigna Group plans to limit patients’ out-of-pocket expenses for medications as the insurer faces pressure from Washington over its role in prescription costs.
* Bankrupt Spirit Airlines Inc. rejected a new acquisition offer from the parent of Frontier Airlines but said it remains open to a long-discussed combination of the budget carriers.
* Spotify Technology SA won dismissal of a lawsuit alleging it made a change to its premium service that cheated songwriters out of royalties.
* A judge ordered Paramount Global to hand over some internal files to a pension fund that’s raising questions about the acquisition by Skydance Media, which shifts control of the storied Hollywood studio to producer David Ellison.

Key events this week:
* Eurozone ECB rate decision, consumer confidence, unemployment, GDP, Thursday
* US GDP, jobless claims, Thursday
* Apple, Deutsche Bank earnings, Thursday
* US personal income & spending, PCE inflation, employment cost index, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.5% as of 3:59 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%
* The MSCI World Index fell 0.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.0411
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2439
* The Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 155.35 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 4% to $104,279.26
* Ether rose 2.8% to $3,138.57
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.55%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.58%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.62%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.2% to $72.91 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.3% to $2,755.12 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jessica Menton, Natalia Kniazhevich, Margaryta Kirakosian, Sujata Rao and Aya Wagatsuma.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Training is potent. Training toward higher and higher, and ever higher ideals is worth any man’s thought and labor and diligence. –Mark Twain, 1835-1910.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
January 28, 1986: Challenger Space Shuttle explosion, 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members.  Go to article

January 28, 1958: The first Leo brick design is patented, creating one of the most iconic and enduring toys in history.

1,200-year-old remains of dismembered pregnant woman in Ecuador hint at ‘enigmatic’ sacrifice to thwart El Niño
The unusual burial of a woman and fetus in prehistoric Ecuador may reflect the community’s fear of her power. Read More.

Over 400 gold and silver Roman-era coins unearthed in the Netherlands depict rulers from Rome, Britain and Africa.

We may finally know what causes Mars’ gigantic, planet-wide dust storms
Mars’ southern hemisphere absorbs a lot of the sun’s energy during the Red Planet’s spring, and that may be causing Mars’ dust storms, a new study suggests. Read More.

Thieves steal ancient artifacts in museum heist
A 2,500-year-old gold helmet was among the valuable items taken during a heist at the Drents Museum in the Netherlands.

Tourists look forward to flight routes connecting China and India
China and India have agreed to resume direct commercial flights for the first time in five years. Here’s what travelers should know.

Do you need new workout clothes?
Expensive doesn’t mean better when choosing athletic apparel, experts say.

To have one of those in Maine was pretty shocking.  — A resident in York County, Maine, after a magnitude 3.8 earthquake rattled parts of the New England region on Monday. The startling quake in an unexpected area should serve as a wake-up call for businesses, schools and homeowners everywhere to consider having safety protocols for earthquakes, the resident said.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Lerwick, Shetland Islands
Members of the Up Helly Aa festival’s ‘Jarl Squad’ pose with a replica Viking longship after the morning parade in Lerwick. Up Helly Aa dates back to the 1880s and celebrates Viking culture and the heritage of the Shetland Islands
Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Lambs born at Noah’s Ark Zoo farm in Wraxall, Somerset, have been named Nik and Nak after a brand of potato crisps
Photograph: Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm/SWNS

​​​​​​​Paris, France
Visitors take photographs on their phones of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Mona Lisa, at the Louvre museum
Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP
Market Closes for January 28, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44850.35	+136.77
		+0.31%
S&P 500	6067.70	+55.42
		+0.92%
NASDAQ	19733.59	+391.76
		+2.03%
TSX	25419.45	+130.30
		+0.52%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39016.87	-548.93
		-1.39%
HANG SENG	20225.11	+27.34
		+0.14%
SENSEX	75901.41	+535.24
		+0.71%
FTSE 100*	8533.87	+30.16
		+0.35%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.203	3.200
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.364	3.353
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.5323	4.5464
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7754	4.7815

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6940	0.6948
US $	1.4409	1.4392

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.5029	0.6654
US $	1.0434	0.9584

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2742.40	2776.80
Oil
WTI Crude Future	73.17	73.17

MARKET COMMENTARY:
📈 On this day in 2002, Global Crossing, a poster child of dot-com era investment mania, filed for bankruptcy protection. The company, launched by former Drexel Burnham junk-bond trader Gary Winnick five years earlier, spent some $15 billion building fiber-optic networks in 27 countries before going under.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.5% at 25,419.45 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 0.9% on Jan. 17 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.7%.
Today, information technology stocks led the market higher, as 5 of 11 sectors gained; 96 of 222 shares rose, while 119 fell.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain and had the largest move, increasing 9.6%.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 2.8%
* The index advanced 20% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 23% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.6% below its 52-week high on Dec. 9, 2024 and 24.2% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.5% in the past 5 days and rose 2.5% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.9 on a trailing basis and 17.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.98t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.51% compared with 11.52% in the previous session and the average of 11.04% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology | 160.6340| 6.3| 10/0
Financials | 20.5341| 0.2| 12/14
Materials | 3.9362| 0.1| 29/18
Communication Services | 1.8642| 0.3| 4/1
Real Estate | 1.5846| 0.3| 11/6
Consumer Discretionary | -0.2930| 0.0| 5/6
Health Care | -0.8360| -1.1| 1/3
Consumer Staples | -4.2988| -0.5| 3/7
Utilities | -9.2527| -1.0| 1/14
Industrials | -18.3603| -0.6| 10/18
Energy | -25.2175| -0.6| 10/32
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 126.1000| 9.6| 51.8| 10.6
Constellation Software | 16.9000| 2.7| 38.9| 6.1
CIBC | 9.5270| 1.6| -40.7| 2.2
Canadian National | -7.7130| -1.3| -2.5| 3.7
Canadian Natural Resources | -11.0900| -1.7| -7.9| -1.4
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -12.6200| -1.7| -2.5| 9.6
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The world’s largest technology companies climbed after a selloff that shook global markets, with traders gearing up for the start of the mega cap earnings season and the Federal Reserve decision on rates.
Equities rebounded, with the S&P 500 up about 1% and the Nasdaq 100 rising 1.6%.
Following a plunge that erased almost $600 billion in value, Nvidia Corp. rallied 8.8%.
Microsoft Corp. is in talks to acquire the US arm of ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, according to President Donald Trump.
The software giant rose 2.9%.
While tech bounced back, most shares in the US equity benchmark actually fell — a reversion of the move in the previous session.
Still, a relative sense of calm prevailed after a rough start to the week on concern that a cheap artificial intelligence-model from Chinese startup DeepSeek could make valuations of the technology that has powered the bull market tough to justify.
“Was it a bit unnerving? Yes, for some. Should you panic? Not at all,” said Kenny Polcari at SlateStone Wealth.
“If you talk to anyone that bought stock yesterday, they loved the opportunity to buy some of these names at a deep discount. In the end, no matter how this plays out, competition is good. And remember, you get what you pay for.”
A key test for AI bulls will be the start of the big-tech reporting season on Wednesday.
While earnings from the so-called Magnificent Seven behemoths are still rising — and far outpacing the rest of the market — the group’s profit growth is projected to come in at the slowest pace in almost two years.
“The dust is now settling after Monday’s long overdue AI reckoning, and while we still believe in the AI-driven productivity story, investing in this sector going forward may not be as easy as it was over the past two years,” said Emily Bowersock Hill at Bowersock Capital Partners.
“We expect investors to be more discerning and selective when it comes to AI investing.”
As the Fed’s two-day meeting began, investors have accepted that officials probably won’t be cutting rates this time.
But they’re looking for any signal from Chair Jerome Powell on which way inflation is going.
A survey conducted by 22V Research shows 67% of respondents expect the reaction to the Fed Wednesday to be “mixed/negligible,” 21% said “risk-off” and 12% “risk-on.”
A gauge of the Magnificent Seven megacaps climbed 2.7%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3%.
The Russell 2000 added 0.2%.
Boeing Co. rose 1.1% as its chief is optimistic the company can return to a key production target for its 737 airliner this year.
JetBlue Airways Corp. tumbled 28% after projecting higher costs this year than Wall Street expected.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.54%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%.
A punishing selloff in technology stocks on Monday spelled opportunity for dip-buyers prowling in the $11 trillion ETF arena.
As the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (ticker QQQ) sank nearly 3% on Monday, spooked by Chinese startup DeepSeek’s AI progress, investors poured $4.3 billion into the tech-heavy fund — its biggest one-day haul since 2021.
The same impulse drove a record $1 billion into the GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF (NVDL), and almost $1.3 billion into the Direxion Daily Semiconductors Bull 3x Shares (SOXL), Bloomberg data show, despite double-digit plunges in both funds.
Craig Johnson at Piper Sandler noted that the fact that more stocks rose than fell during Monday’s selloff was a “a clear sign of strength beyond the AI sector as this market rally broadens out.”
At Wolfe Research, Chris Senyek said while the focus on DeepSeek rattled markets to start the week, the reaction was overblown in the short term.
“With that said, this news flow probably caps P/E multiples for data center driven industrials and power names to which AI enthusiasm had spread,” he said.
“This makes upcoming earnings season all that more important.”
Against a backdrop of healthy demand and stubborn inflation, officials are widely expected to hold borrowing costs steady.
At their December confab, policymakers signaled just two interest-rate cuts this year.
“Simply put, the strong US fundamental story of strong growth, elevated inflation, and a more hawkish Fed continues to favor higher US yields and a stronger dollar,” Win Thin at Brown Brothers Harriman, wrote in a note.
By some measures, this Fed meeting is expected to be relatively uneventful for the stock market.
Options traders are betting on modest swings in equities, with the S&P 500 forecast to move 0.8% in either direction on Wednesday, below the 1.1% average realized move on Fed days over the past 18 months, data compiled by Piper Sandler show.
“Markets are not expecting a cut and will focus on what the Fed projects for the rest of 2025,” said Bowersock Hill.
“Both inflation and interest rates are going to remain higher for longer – we would not be surprised to see one rate cut in 2025, or even none.”

Corporate Highlights:
* Uber Technologies Inc. is working on a new paid offering that would let commuters lock in prices for frequent rides ahead of time, rivaling a popular feature that Lyft Inc. launched five months ago.
* Starbucks Corp. is reorganizing its top ranks as part of Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol’s plan to win back customers by speeding up service and making cafes feel more upscale.
* Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. reported a full-year profit forecast that blew past expectations as cruise demand continues to ramp up. It also announced its first foray into the river cruise market.
* Chevron Corp., investor Engine No. 1 and GE Vernova Inc. formed a partnership to develop natural gas-fired power plants next to data centers, aiming to tap into artificial intelligence’s surging demand for electricity.
* Defense company Lockheed Martin Corp.’s earnings per share forecast for 2025 fell short of the average analyst estimate.
* Aerospace and defense manufacturer RTX Corp. is “fully prepared” to support President Donald Trump’s ambitions to build an orbital missile defense system to protect the US.
* Kimberly-Clark Corp., the maker of Scott toilet paper and Huggies diapers, reported profit that missed expectations as its turnaround plan runs up against broader challenges.
* LVMH’s sales of fashion and leather goods declined in the fourth quarter, casting doubt on the prospects for a quick recovery in luxury demand.

Key events this week:
* US Fed rate decision, Wednesday
* Tesla, Microsoft, Meta, ASML earnings, Wednesday
* Canada rate decision, Wednesday
* Eurozone ECB rate decision, consumer confidence, unemployment, GDP, Thursday
* US GDP, jobless claims, Thursday
* Apple, Deutsche Bank earnings, Thursday
* US personal income & spending, PCE inflation, employment cost index, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.9% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%
* The MSCI World Index rose 0.6%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 2.7%
* The Russell 2000 Index rose 0.2%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%
* The euro fell 0.6% to $1.0431
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2441
* The Japanese yen fell 0.6% to 155.51 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin was little changed at $101,308.68
* Ether fell 1.9% to $3,100.09
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.54%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 2.56%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.61%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1% to $73.93 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.8% to $2,763.63 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Rheaa Rao, Margaryta Kirakosian, Robert Brand and Winnie Hsu.

Have  a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret. –Nido Qubein, b. 1948.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Monday.  It’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

January 27,1880 American inventor Thomas Edison receives a patent for the incandescent light bulb, revolutionizing modern lighting and industry. Go to article.
January 27, 1973: Vietnam Peace Agreement signed.

Wolfgang A. Mozart, composer, b. 1756.
Lewis Carroll, writer, b. 1832.
Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer, b. 1948.

AI can now replicate itself — a milestone that has experts terrified
Scientists say AI has crossed a critical ‘red line’ after demonstrating how two popular large language models could clone themselves. Read More.

Scientists discover pristine ancient forest frozen in time in Rocky Mountains
A melting ice patch in the Rocky Mountains uncovered an ancient forest, and these trees have stories to tell about dynamic landscapes and climate change.

A 2025 guide to Lunar New Year
What is Lunar New Year? And why do people wear red as part of the celebrations? Learn answers to these questions and more as we slither into the Year of the Snake.

Photo Gallery: McDonald’s in more than 55 countries
An award-winning food photographer experienced firsthand how McDonald’s incorporates local flavors into its menu items. See photos here.

Photo Gallery: McDonald’s in more than 55 countries
An award-winning food photographer experienced firsthand how McDonald’s incorporates local flavors into its menu items. See photos here.

Do you dread the blaring sound of your alarm clock?
Health experts explain why your phone may not be the best alarm clock if you want a good night’s sleep. Read More.

Bad Dürrenberg headdress: An elaborate 9,000-year-old headpiece worn by a female shaman in Europe
A lavish 9,000-year-old grave in central Germany revealed the burial of a powerful female shaman. Read More.

Pamukkale: Turkey’s ‘cotton castle’ of white limestone that inspired an ancient cult
The Pamukkale travertines are limestone slopes and thermal water pools that have attracted visitors since before the days of Ancient Greece, when the spa town of Hierapolis was founded at the top. Read More.

Degree in hand, jobs out of reach
Read why recent college graduates are struggling in a competitive job market.

It was really the greatest moment. It felt as if I used every ounce of energy I had.  — Teenage snowboarder Hiroto Ogiwara, after making history at the X Games in Aspen by landing the first known 2340 in a competition — an impressive trick which consists of rotating six and a half times in the air. Watch the moment here.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Huanghan, China
Tourists visit Huangshan mountain as the spring festival approaches in Anhui province
Photograph: Shi Yalei/VCG/Getty Images

Kataragama, Sri Lanka
Devotees visit the Kiri Vehera Buddhist temple
Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

A swan also looks a bit perplexed at a frozen lake in Kidderminster, UK
Photograph: Lee Hudson/Alamy Live News
Market Closes for January 25, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44713.58	+289.33
		+0.65%
S&P 500	6012.28	-88.96
		-1.46%
NASDAQ	19341.84	-612.46
		-3.07%
TSX	25289.15	-179.34
		-0.70%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	38982.33	-583.47
		-1.47%
HANG SENG	20197.77	+131.58
		+0.66%
SENSEX	75366.17	-824.29
		-1.08%
FTSE 100*	8503.71	+1.36
		+0.02%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.200	3.278
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.353	3.421
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.5464	4.6214
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.7815	4.8453

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6948	0.6951
US $	1.4392	1.4386

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.5037	0.6650
US $	1.0449	0.9570

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2776.80	2776.80
Oil
WTI Crude Future	73.17	74.93

MARKET COMMENTARY:
📈 On this day in 1999, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt warned the growing class of investors trading online to beware the dangers of fast and easy trading: “Investment should be for the long-run, not for minutes or hours.”
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.7% at 25,289.15 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 0.9% on Jan. 13 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.1%.
Today, energy stocks led the market lower, as 6 of 11 sectors lost; 152 of 222 shares fell, while 69 rose.
Celestica Inc. contributed the most to the index decline and had the largest move, decreasing 28.0%.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 2.3%
* The index advanced 20% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.1% below its 52-week high on Dec. 9, 2024 and 23.6% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.5% in the past 5 days and rose 2% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.8 on a trailing basis and 17.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$4.01t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.52% compared with 11.69% in the previous session and the average of 10.98% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -100.2476| -2.3| 4/39
Information Technology| -46.9861| -1.8| 1/9
Materials | -45.5682| -1.5| 1/49
Utilities | -11.5775| -1.2| 6/9
Financials | -10.6419| -0.1| 11/15
Consumer Staples | -2.9969| -0.3| 3/7
Health Care | 0.2299| 0.3| 3/1
Consumer Discretionary| 2.7703| 0.3| 7/4
Real Estate | 4.0735| 0.8| 17/2
Communication Services| 14.7582| 2.5| 4/1
Industrials | 16.8386| 0.5| 12/16
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Celestica | -39.9200| -28.0| 469.5| -5.2
Cameco | -36.8200| -15.0| 215.0| -7.6
TC Energy | -18.6100| -3.8| 1.0| -1.9
Canadian National | 7.6740| 1.3| -39.4| 5.1
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 9.5450| 1.3| 4.9| 11.4
Waste Connections | 10.4100| 2.3| -7.4| 5.9
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street had a rough start to the week on concern that a cheap artificial intelligence-model from Chinese startup DeepSeek could make valuations of the technology that has powered the bull market tough to justify.
From New York to London and Tokyo, equities got hammered.
While the slide came after a torrid rally to all-time highs, Monday’s selloff was triggered by a rise of DeepSeek’s latest AI model to the top of the Apple’s appstore.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.5% and the Nasdaq 100 sank 3%.
A closely watched gauge of chipmakers plunged the most since March 2020.
Nvidia Corp.’s 17% plunge erased $589 billion from its market capitalization — the largest in market history.
In a rush for safety, defensive industries like consumer staples and health care were bid.
Treasuries rallied, driving yields to the lowest levels this year.
Haven currencies including the yen and the Swiss franc climbed.
Energy firms expected to profit from unprecedented AI demand sank, led by a 21% beatdown for Constellation Energy Corp.
The crypto world got hit.
“What was shaping up to be a big week in the markets got even bigger with the disruption in the AI space,” said Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley.
“That could make this week’s mega cap tech earnings even more critical to market sentiment.”
Monday’s plunge drove new fissures into a market narrative that prevailed since the re-election of Donald Trump in November, the America-first, tech-fueled uber bullishness that saw a clear upward path for risky assets spurred by deregulation, tax cuts and even government sponsorship of AI investment.
Treasury yields slid sharply as haven-seeking investors laid aside concern – for today, anyway – that the new president’s policies will stoke inflation.
The severity of the selloff in US assets was proportionate to the weightings of AI-enabled firms in the biggest stock indexes.
Even after a recent paring to curb their influence the cohort of Nvidia, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. account for about 40% of the Nasdaq 100.
It’s roughly 30% in the S&P 500, leaving both gauges significantly exposed to concerted drops in those names.
“The sudden, adverse market reaction to DeepSeek indicates that some of the key assumptions that have been driving the AI trade, and hence major indices, are getting reassessed today,” said Steve Sosnick at Interactive Brokers.
“Part of the today’s sudden adverse market reaction was a direct result of a ‘wave of complacency’ that overtook the equity market.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7%.
A gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” mega caps slid 2.7%. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell 9.15%.
The Russell 2000 slipped 1%. Wall Street’s favorite volatility gauge — the VIX — soared the most since about mid-December.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined nine basis points to 4.53%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%.
Bitcoin slid 2.9% to $101,481.84.
To Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management, valuations remain extended, and while vulnerabilities were expected this year, developments like DeepSeek highlight the need for diversification beyond the Magnificent Seven.
“I’m hoping this moment encourages everyone to look beyond tech stocks,” said Callie Cox at Ritholtz Wealth Management.
“Not because the AI story is doomed, but because there are so many opportunities in unloved sectors that have been ignored for so long. The guts of the market’s foundation are still good, so it’s likely that the dip will be bought here.”
At G Squared Private Wealth, Victoria Greene says that she’s “not convinced the bubble has burst,” but would be “silly” not to evaluate the potential risks.
“We are looking carefully at how the market progresses from here and if action needs to be taken to protect and shift portfolio allocations,” she noted.
“We are not panickers, so tend to be buyers of big dislocations that are happening in tech, energy, and infrastructure today.”
Paul Marino at Themes ETFs, says he likes the fact that people are skeptical.
“Anything that goes straight up to the sky parabolic, that’s when I get worried as a long-term investor,” he said.
The next leg lower for the biggest US tech stocks may come from the retail crowd, according to Tony Pasquariello at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
“Tactically speaking, I suspect the next few days bring a hurried reduction of length by the retail community,” Pasquariello wrote in a note to clients Monday, adding that hedge funds have been aggressively reducing exposure for months, so this is really about the response of households.
However, he’s a true believer in the structural supremacy of US tech companies, which “arguably have only more incentive to spend.”
“We don’t know whether this is the ‘Sputnik Moment’ for stocks, but this is certainly a wakeup call that we are not the only game in town,” said Paul Nolte at Murphy & Sylvest Wealth Management.
“To put these very high valuations in the stocks thinking they have cornered the market is a huge mistake and that is being re-rated.”
To Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co., the idea that DeepSeek’s latest AI model is much more cost effective, and runs on much less-advanced chips, is raising some serious questions about what kind of earnings can be drawn from the AI phenomenon.
“If these companies look like they’re going to have a tough time maintaining their earnings growth (chip stocks) or a tough time reaching their earnings growth goals (the “picks and shovels” companies), it’s going to create some serious headwinds for today’s expensive stock market, he noted.
In fact, the slide in tech came at a time when the Nasdaq 100 is trading at 27 times estimated forward earnings, which is significantly above its 10-year average of 22.
Nvidia, which has led the way on AI technology, has a valuation multiple of 32.
All focus will be on earnings announcements from the likes of Microsoft and Apple this week to restore confidence in the so-called Magnificent Seven group of companies.
Investors are heading into yet another pivotal Big Tech earnings cycle with the companies’ shares near record highs and valuations stretched.
A key distinction this time: The group’s profit growth is projected to come in at the slowest pace in almost two years.
“This should be a fairly good earnings season, but the bar has been raised and they may not be able to live up to high expectations,” said Dan Taylor, chief investment officer at Man Numeric.
“It will be very difficult for the group to perform the way it did last year, especially as valuations have increased.”
“We think big tech can keep delivering on earnings, but misses could revive concerns that big capital spending on AI won’t pay off – one of three triggers to dial down our pro-risk view,” BlackRock Investment Institute strategists including Jean Boivin and Wei Li.
Metrics like capex-to-sales ratios and free cash flows suggest that, for now, mega cap tech firms are not overextended, they said.
Overinvestment should be assessed in aggregate, in our view, given AI’s potential to unlock new revenue streams across the economy, they concluded.
So what exactly is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, the chief of AI-driven quant hedge fund High-Flyer.
The company develops AI models that are open-source, meaning the developer community at large can inspect and improve the software.
Its mobile app surged to the top of the iPhone download charts in the US after its release in early January.
The app distinguishes itself from other chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT by articulating its reasoning before delivering a response to a prompt.
The company claims its R1 release offers performance on par with OpenAI’s latest and has granted license for individuals interested in developing chatbots using the technology to build on it.

Corporate Highlights:
* UBS Group AG has begun a wave of job cuts in its home market Switzerland, with hundreds of employees receiving notice in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.
* Estée Lauder Cos is reviewing its portfolio of beauty brands, people with knowledge of the matter said, as the cosmetics company transitions to new leadership and looks to boost its share price.
* AT&T Inc. posted fourth-quarter results that beat Wall Street projections, including better-than-expected increases in mobile- phone customers and fiber-based internet subscribers, driven by seasonal promotions and bundled product offerings.
* Activist investor Ancora Holdings Group has nominated nine candidates for United States Steel Corp.’s board and is pushing for the company to abandon a takeover by Nippon Steel Corp.
* SoFi Technologies Inc., a fintech lender, published a forecast for profit that missed analysts’ estimates.
* MicroStrategy Inc. bought Bitcoin for a 12th consecutive week and unveiled details for the sale of perpetual preferred stock to help finance additional purchases of the cryptocurrency.

Key events this week:
* US consumer confidence, durable goods, Tuesday
* Fed rate decision followed by news conference by Chair Jerome Powell, Wednesday
* Canada rate decision, Wednesday
* Tesla, Microsoft, Meta, ASML earnings, Wednesday
* Eurozone ECB rate decision, consumer confidence, unemployment, GDP, Thursday
* US GDP, jobless claims, Thursday
* Apple, Deutsche Bank, Thursday
* ECB rate decision followed by news conference by President Christine Lagarde, Thursday
* US personal income & spending, PCE inflation, employment cost index, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%
* The MSCI World Index fell 1.1%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index fell 2.7%
* Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell 9.1%
* The Russell 2000 Index fell 1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0488
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2491
* The Japanese yen rose 0.9% to 154.59 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 2.9% to $101,481.84
* Ether fell 4.5% to $3,149
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined nine basis points to 4.53%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 2.53%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.59%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.1% to $73.07 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 1.1% to $2,741.48 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric, Margaryta Kirakosian, Allegra Catelli and Catherine Bosley.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
What comes from the heart, goes to the heart. –Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

January 24, 1935: The first canned beer is sold by the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company, revolutionizing the beverage industry and consumer convenience.
January 24, 2008: French bank Societe Generale announced it had uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud by a single futures trader.  Go to article

Edith Wharton, writer, b. 1862.
John Belushi, comic actor, b. 1949.

Nature’s hidden secrets are unveiled in photography competition
There were over 11,000 entries in the 2024 Close-up Photographer of the Year competition. These photos emerged victorious.

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Novak Djokovic retires from Australian Open semifinal due to injury
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Neanderthals’ blood type may help explain their demise, new study finds
Human populations that left Africa evolved quickly whereas Neanderthals stayed the same, according to an analysis of blood group systems. Read More.

More than 1,300 coins buried buried during Roman emperor Nero’s reign found in England
A hoard of 1,368 coins, most of them silver, was discovered in England. Why they were buried is a mystery.  Read More.

Potentially deadly ‘chirping waves’ detected in baffling location near Earth, and scientists are stumped
Chorus waves are mysterious, chirping signals produced by spiraling plasma inside our planet’s magnetic field. But a new detection suggests scientists may understand less
about them than first thought. Read More

‘Queen of icebergs’ A23a is barreling toward a remote South Atlantic island. Millions of animals could be at risk
Iceberg A23a is fast approaching the remote British island of South Georgia and the Sandwich islands. Read More.

PHOTOS  OF THE DAY

Ayrshire, Scotland
Waves and gale-force winds hit the coast next to Turnberry lighthouse
Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

North Tyneside, England
A man takes dogs for a walk on a windswept beach at Tynemouth Longsands
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

​​​​​​​A male northern cardinal puffs up his feathers against the cold at Colonel Samuel Smith Park on the shore of Lake Ontario in Toronto, Canada
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Market Closes for January 24, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44424.25	-140.82
		-0.32%
S&P 500	6101.24	-17.47
		-0.29%
NASDAQ	19954.30	-99.38
		-0.50%
TSX	25468.49	+34.41
		+0.14%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	39931.98	-26.89
		-0.07%
HANG SENG	20066.19	+365.63
		+1.86%
SENSEX	76190.46	-329.92
		-0.43%
FTSE 100*	8502.35	-62.85
		-0.73%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.278	3.325
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.421	3.462
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.6214	4.6354
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.8453	4.8640

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6951	0.6957
US $	1.4386	1.4374

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.5107	0.6619
US $	1.0501	0.9523

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2776.80	2751.80
Oil
WTI Crude Future	74.93	74.93

MARKET COMMENTARY:
📈 On this day in 1848, workers dredging a stream in Coloma, Calif., struck a bed of soft yellow rock. James Marshall, scooping up a dozen pure gold nuggets exclaims, “Boys, I’ve got ‘er now!” The California gold rush was on.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the ninth day, climbing 0.1%, or 34.41 to 25,468.49 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since Dec. 11.
Brookfield Corp. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.4%.
Bird Construction Inc. had the largest increase, rising 5.3%.
Today, 113 of 222 shares rose, while 104 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 3%
* So far this week, the index rose 1.6%, heading for the biggest advance since the week ended Nov. 22
* The index advanced 21% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 25% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.4% below its 52-week high on Dec. 9, 2024 and 24.4% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21 on a trailing basis and 17.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$4.01t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.69% compared with 11.83% in the previous session and the average of 10.93% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 28.7898| 0.3| 13/13
Materials | 26.3333| 0.9| 36/14
Information Technology | 22.8948| 0.9| 4/5
Consumer Discretionary | 6.3470| 0.8| 9/2
Communication Services | 2.3263| 0.4| 3/2
Real Estate | 1.3227| 0.3| 15/3
Health Care | 0.3439| 0.5| 1/2
Utilities | -0.3734| 0.0| 7/7
Consumer Staples | -6.7819| -0.7| 5/5
Industrials | -20.8686| -0.6| 11/17
Energy | -25.9233| -0.6| 9/34
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Brookfield Corp | 20.1900| 2.4| 3.6| 6.0
Shopify | 15.3800| 1.2| 2.3| 1.0
Constellation Software | 9.6410| 1.5| 45.4| 4.2
Nutrien | -5.8060| -2.2| -50.0| 17.7
Suncor | -6.8680| -1.4| -39.4| 8.9
Canadian Natural Resources | -7.3910| -1.1| -57.1| 1.3
USA
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A relentless rally in stocks took a breather near all-time highs, but the market still notched its best start to a presidential term since Ronald Reagan was sworn in to power in 1985.
While a rout in chipmakers weighed on trading Friday, the S&P 500 still climbed 1.7% this week.
That was after President Donald Trump talked up policies to boost the economy and lower taxes, while appearing to soften his stance toward tariffs on China — even as he continued to threaten sweeping action.
The dollar saw its biggest weekly drop since November 2023.
The MOVE Index of expected Treasury volatility hit the lowest since about mid-December.
“It is early days, but nothing that President Donald Trump has said or done has caused a bad reaction in financial markets,” said Chris Iggo at AXA Investment Managers.
“Quite the contrary. It is paying to stay invested.”
An important test to that risk-on mode will be next week’s start of the big-tech earnings season.
Investors are eager to see whether demand for artificial intelligence will live up to sky-high expectations.
The group was buoyed earlier in the week as SoftBank Group Corp., OpenAI, and Oracle Corp. formed a $100 billion joint venture to fund AI infrastructure, an effort unveiled with President Trump.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% Friday.
The Nasdaq 100 slid 0.6%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%.
A Bloomberg gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps dropped 0.4%.
The Russell 2000 retreated 0.3%.
Among corporate highlights, Meta Platforms Inc. climbed on plans to invest as much as $65 billion on AI projects in 2025.
Cryptocurrency-linked firms rallied following Trump’s executive order favoring the industry.
Nvidia Corp. led losses in big tech.
A disappointing forecast from Texas Instruments Inc. sent the shares down 7.5%.
In the run-up to next week’s Federal Reserve decision, bonds rose amid data showing a drop in US consumer sentiment and a slight pullback in the growth pace of business activity — though companies remained upbeat about the outlook.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 4.62%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.5%.
Oil saw its first weekly drop this year, with Trump calling for lower prices, which tends to ease concerns about inflation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he’s ready to discuss energy issues with the US president.
To David Lefkowitz at UBS Global Wealth Management, while US equities will likely be more volatile this year due to periodic concerns about the return on AI investment spending, tariffs and interest rates, any dip will likely be a buying opportunity.
“In our base case, we expect higher tariffs, but we don’t think they will rise to a level that alters the economic growth trajectory,” he noted.
Wall Street also waded through a slew of economic data on Friday, with the highlight being a drop in US consumer sentiment for the first time in six months.
Consumers expect prices will climb at an annual rate of 3.2% over the next five to 10 years.
They see costs rising 3.3% over the next year, the highest since May.
“Despite Wall Street’s recent concerns surrounding inflation, we’ve been able to lean on a fairly strong economy and labor market, while the stock market remains near all-time highs,” noted Bret Kenwell at eToro.
Similar findings from eToro’s quarterly retail investor survey also suggests a feeling of cautious optimism, as a majority of investors expect the bull market to continue in 2025.
However, there’s also a focus on raising cash and being underexposed to assets they expect to do well this year — like AI stocks, he said.
“We’re interpreting investors’ responses as optimistic, but viewing their actions as somewhat cautious, perhaps looking to buy the dip sometime this year. The survey also found that inflation was the top concern among retail investors,” Kenwell noted.
“Disappointment in the stickiness of near-term inflation is likely the main culprit for a dip in consumer sentiment,” said Jeffrey Roach at LPL Financial.
“The Fed still has credibility as long-term inflation expectations remain well anchored. Inflation data make it unlikely that the Fed will cut rates at the March meeting and the probability of a cut in May is a coin flip.”
After cutting rates three times in late 2024, Fed policymakers are expected to hold rates steady until they see inflation make more downward progress toward their 2% target.
Money markets and economists surveyed by Bloomberg are unanimous in expecting Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues to keep the key benchmark rates in a range of 4.25% to 4.5% next week.
Looking further ahead, rate swaps now favor two quarter-point reductions by year-end, compared to just one such cut seen last week.
“Given our expectation for a somewhat uneventful Fed pause, we look for a modest Treasury market reaction unless Chair Powell surprises with a dovish press conference,” said Oscar Munoz and Gennadiy Goldberg at TD securities.
“We remain long duration and expect the curve to steepen in 2025, but to remain flatter in the near-term.”
To James Egelhof at BNP Paribas Securities Corp., Powell will probably be asked about the tail risk of rate hikes at the press conference.
“We expect him to reply cautiously by indicating they are less likely, but could come into view if needed to secure a soft landing for inflation and growth,” the BNP chief US economist noted.
“The US economy doesn’t get in big trouble until profits fade,” said Don Rissmiller at Strategas.
“With US animal spirits around investment rising, productivity gains are plausible (though not guaranteed). Profits are generally a leading indicator for the economy, however, so we have time to see how this story develops. Stay tuned.”
As the earnings season rolls in, four of the so-called Magnificent Seven companies are expected to report slower quarterly sales next week with cautious consumer sentiment and the adverse effects of a stronger dollar seen as common themes.
While the outlook for Apple Inc. remains clouded by tepid demand for iPhones, investors expect sales momentum to pick up later this year for Tesla Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
“The breakout to record highs has been impressive, given that markets have been sluggish in six of the last seven earnings seasons, reinforcing the ‘buy the dip’ theme that has been a growing trend since the pandemic,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide.
“If the market is able to sustain this breakout, a tailwind begins to develop as the buyback window reopens.”

Corporate Highlights:
* Tobacco stocks gained as a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars was withdrawn by the Trump administration.
* Verizon Communications Inc. reported fourth-quarter financial results that beat analysts’ estimates, including gains in new mobile-phone and broadband customers.
* American Express Co. profits increased 12% as well-heeled consumers spent more than analysts expected on their credit cards over the holidays, a tailwind the firm said it expects will continue.
* Texas Instruments Inc. gave a disappointing earnings forecast for the current period, hurt by still-sluggish demand and higher manufacturing costs.
* Boeing Co. suffered another quarter of fresh charges and losses, highlighting the long road ahead for Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg as he tries to stabilize the US aircraft manufacturer.
* Novo Nordisk A/S’s experimental shot delivered as much as 22% weight loss in an early-stage trial, boosting investors’ hopes for the drugmaker’s pipeline.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%
* The MSCI World Index was little changed
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index fell 0.4%
* The Russell 2000 Index fell 0.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.5%
* The euro rose 0.8% to $1.0495
* The British pound rose 1.1% to $1.2487
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 155.91 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.8% to $105,023.51
* Ether rose 2.7% to $3,335.91
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 4.62%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.57%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.63%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
* Spot gold rose 0.6% to $2,771.32 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Lu Wang, Cecile Gutscher, Julien Ponthus, Robert Brand, Sujata Rao, Winnie Hsu and Jason Scott.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed. –Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.

January 23, 1957: Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, leading to the creation of the iconic Frisbee and transforming outdoor recreation.
In 1973, President Nixon announced an accord to end the Vietnam War.
January 23, 1991: Allied forces in the Persian Gulf War announced that they had achieved air superiority after some 12,000 sorties.  Go to article.

John Hancock, statesman, b. 1737.
Edouard Manet, artist, b. 1832.
Elizabeth Blackwell, first female MD, b.1849.

Scientists discover new, 3rd form of magnetism that may be the ‘missing link’ in the quest for superconductivity
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There’s a steep fee to climb Mount Everest
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Trash or treasure?
A marble statue believed to be more than 2,000 years old was found abandoned in a garbage bag near the Greek city of Thessaloniki, police said.

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PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Seoul, South Korea
A customer reads one of the more than 30,000 books crammed into a second-hand store in an underground shopping centre
Photograph: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu/Getty Images

London, UK
A visitor examines an installation at Somerset House’s new exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet
Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock

​​​​​​​West Sumatra, Indonesia
Visitors to the Palupuah forest inspect a spectacular Rafflesia arnoldii, the world’s largest flower
Photograph: Adi Prima/Anadolu/Getty Images
Market Closes for January 23, 2025

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	44565.07	+408.34
		+0.92%
S&P 500	6118.71	+32.34
		+0.53%
NASDAQ	20053.68	+44.34
		+0.22%
TSX	25434.08	+122.58
		+0.48%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	40100.79	+141.92
		+0.36%
HANG SENG	19700.56	-78.21
		-0.40%
SENSEX	76520.38	+115.39
		+0.15%
FTSE 100*	8565.20	+20.07
		+0.23%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	3.325	3.305
CND. 30 Year Bond	3.462	3.437
U.S. 10 Year Bond	4.6354	4.6028
U.S. 30 Year Bond	4.8640	4.8194

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.6957	0.6949
US $	1.4374	1.4391

 

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.4977	0.6677
US $	1.0420	0.9597

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	2751.80	2737.80
Oil
WTI Crude Future	74.93	75.71

MARKET COMMENTARY:
📈 On this day in 2002, Kenneth Lay resigned as chairman and chief executive of Enron. His departure came a little over a month after the energy-trading powerhouse filed for bankruptcy—then the biggest in U.S. history.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the eighth day, climbing 0.5%, or 122.58 to 25,434.08 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since Dec. 11.
Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as 9 of 11 sectors gained; 127 of 222 shares rose, while 89 fell.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 0.8%.
Badger Infrastructure Solutions Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 8.8%.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 2.9%
* So far this week, the index rose 1.5%, heading for the biggest advance since the week ended Nov. 22
* The index advanced 21% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 25% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.6% below its 52-week high on Dec. 9, 2024 and 24.3% above its low on Feb. 13, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.4% in the past 5 days and rose 2.8% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21 on a trailing basis and 17.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.99t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.83% compared with 11.81% in the previous session and the average of 10.87% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 45.5261| 0.6| 22/4
Industrials | 36.1178| 1.1| 21/6
Consumer Discretionary | 11.2620| 1.4| 9/2
Consumer Staples | 10.3393| 1.1| 8/2
Utilities | 9.8746| 1.1| 12/2
Information Technology | 5.9609| 0.2| 5/5
Materials | 5.3846| 0.2| 23/25
Communication Services | 0.9476| 0.2| 4/1
Health Care | 0.1621| 0.2| 2/1
Real Estate | -0.4249| -0.1| 9/11
Energy | -2.5852| -0.1| 12/30
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | 14.5700| 0.8| 90.9| 1.3
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 14.4500| 2.0| -24.0| 10.5
Canadian National | 9.8060| 1.7| 10.2| 4.6
ARC Resources | -1.6190| -1.5| -29.3| 1.3
Shopify | -3.1430| -0.2| -32.5| -0.2
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd | -3.1610| -0.7| -4.8| 13.4
USA
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks closed at all-time highs as oil fell after President Donald Trump urged OPEC to lower crude prices and said he will push for interest-rate cuts.
A drop in oil, which tends to ease concerns about inflation, pushed the policy-sensitive two-year yield down.
About 320 shares in the S&P 500 rose, with the gauge topping the 6,100 milestone.
Tech shares, which weighed heavily on the market throughout most of the session, rebounded in the final stretch of Wall Street trading.
Trump said he signed executive actions related to artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies.
Traders eagerly anticipating fresh insights into Trump’s trade policies, got a more moderate tone regarding tariffs, which helped “soothe investor nerves,” according to Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com.
“Trump, rightly or wrongly, wants to see a positive supply shock in the energy sector,” said Neil Dutta at Renaissance Macro Research.
“That in turn will bring down inflation expectations, which in turn, will bring down rates.”
The S&P 500 added 0.5%.
The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.9%.
A Bloomberg gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” gained 0.2%.
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell 0.4%.
The Russell 2000 added 0.5%.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slid 0.2%.
The yen climbed, with the Bank of Japan expected to raise its benchmark rate Friday by the most in 18 years.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.65%.
“If Trump can enact pro-growth measures while inflationary pressures abate, a rotation into cyclicals, smaller-cap names, and non-US assets is likely to materialize,” said Hal Reynolds at Los Angeles Capital Management.
However, given the heightened levels of policy risk, the firm’s “Dynamic Alpha Stock Selection Model” continues to slightly prefer larger cap companies across the globe whose strong returns can be justified by their fundamentals.
To James Demmert at Main Street Research, the stock market is in a “calm before the storm mode” ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve decision press conference and the start of the big-tech earnings season — “both of which are likely to cause market volatility.”
Demmert sees any further consolidation or correction in stocks as an opportunity for investors.
“We are still early in the AI and technology-led business cycle and bull market, which is now roughly two years old, and may last for another five years,” he noted.
The S&P 500’s recent leg higher missed an important ingredient: inflows from big-money managers.
For those betting on a further rally, that’s a welcome development.
A measure of aggregate positioning among rules-based and discretionary investors fell to a two-month low, according to Deutsche Bank AG’s data.
And commodity trading advisors cut their long stock exposure to the level last seen in the aftermath of a market rout in August, data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk show.
From a contrarian perspective, such skepticism bodes well for stock-market bulls because it means more dry powder to buy equities down the road, should the biggest fears fail to materialize.
“We continue to expect near-term volatility,” said Mark Haefele at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“But we also believe US equities have room to grind higher as growth momentum continues.”

Corporate Highlights:
* American Airlines Group Inc. warned of a surprise loss to start the year as it tries to win back business travelers and battle high costs, disappointing investors following a string of bullish forecasts from other large carriers.
* Alaska Air Group Inc. beat Wall Street’s estimates to close out 2024 and forecast a better-than-expected start to the new year, giving the carrier a boost as it plans a significant overseas expansion.
* Electronic Arts Inc. warned its financial results would be weaker than expected due to poor sales results of two titles released over the holidays.
* General Electric Co. exceeded Wall Street expectations for profit and sales in the final months of the year as the jet engine maker worked through supply-chain limitations and capitalized on a strong maintenance backlog.
* Union Pacific Corp.’s quarterly earnings topped Wall Street estimates, and the railroad said it’s 2025 outlook remains the same despite a mixed economic forecast.
* Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s sales projections missed analyst estimates, countering the impact of better-than-expected results last quarter.
* Elevance Health Inc.’s medical costs were lower than expected in the fourth quarter, relieving investor anxiety and helping the insurer meet profit expectations.
* ByteDance is exploring a deal to keep TikTok running in the US without selling its operations there, according to board member Bill Ford.

Key events this week:
* Bank of Japan policy meeting, Friday
* Eurozone HCOB Manufacturing & Services PMI, Friday
* US University of Michigan consumer sentiment, existing home sales, S&P Global Manufacturing & Services PMI, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%
* The MSCI World Index rose 0.5%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 0.2%
* Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell 0.4%
* The Russell 2000 Index rose 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0418
* The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.2354
* The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 156.00 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.1% to $102,897.7
* Ether fell 0.6% to $3,237.47
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.65%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.55%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.64%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.6% to $74.25 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.1% to $2,753.69 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Robert Brand, Julien Ponthus, Divya Patil, Catherine Bosley and Rob Verdonck.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder. –Mason Cooley, 1927-2002.

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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com