December 02, 2019 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

1804 – Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.  Go to article »
1859 – Georg Seurat, painter, b.

Everybody’s looking for the future.  They’re never in the present.  So when they arrive at the future, it’s not there not present for it.  If you get the idea that this is the moment you have, it is the only moment that you have, then you live in the present, and you move with the flow, because this is the point of arrival. Right now.  -Deepak Chopra.

ICYMI
America braces for a possible french fry shortage.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Waves batter Tynemouth pier at sunrise on a cold, sub zero beginning to December on the north east coast, England.
CREDIT: ALAN DAWSON/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Fireworks at the end of the Winter Festival in Oban on the west coast of Scotland as part of the celebrations for St. Andrew’s Day.
CREDIT: NICK EDGINGTON/BAV MEDIA

Japanese monkeys soak in a hot spring at a Hakodate Tropical Botanical Garden in Hakodate, northern Japan.
CREDIT: YOHEI FUKAI/AP

Market Closes for December 02^nd, 2019  

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1719, the first great modern “stock bubble” hit its peak, as shares in the Mississippi Co. reached their all-time high of 10,025 livres each in trading on the rue Quincampoix (the Wall Street of Paris). The Mississippi Co. was financier John Law’s scheme to refinance the French debt and colonize North America, but its success was contingent on an ever-growing supply of new investors. The supply maxed out Dec. 2, and it was all downhill from there.  A year later, the stock had lost roughly 70%.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks retreated as global trade risks appeared to grow and domestic consumer confidence fell for a second month. The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 0.3% to 16,981.47, the lowest in more than a week. Software stocks were weak on both sides of the border as trade tensions ratcheted up again, with Celestica Inc. down 2.9% and Constellation Software Inc. falling 1.9%. Financials slid 0.5% ahead of earnings from five of Canada’s largest banks this week. Centerra Gold Inc. had the largest drop, falling 11% after a rock slide at its flagship mine in Kyrgyzstan. Today, 146 of 233 shares fell, while 80 rose; 7 of 11 sectors were lower.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $20.60 discount to WTI, the widest gap in three weeks
* Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,468.70 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.2% to C$1.3300 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield gained 7 basis points to 1.54%
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -29.5720| -0.5| 6/19
Energy | -10.2219| -0.4| 6/25
Industrials | -8.8171| -0.5| 8/23
Information Technology | -7.2374| -0.8| 3/6
Communication Services | -7.2133| -0.8| 1/6
Real Estate | -2.3022| -0.4| 6/19
Health Care | -1.4432| -0.7| 2/8
Utilities | 0.5322| 0.1| 9/6
Consumer Discretionary | 1.0048| 0.1| 9/7
Consumer Staples | 1.4329| 0.2| 7/3
Materials | 5.1171| 0.3| 26/21
US
By Rita Nazareth and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks dropped on concern over global trade risks and disappointing factory data. The dollar and bonds declined. The S&P 500 Index fell the most in almost eight weeks on concern the U.S. will slap fresh tariffs on China and after President Donald Trump reinstated levies on steel and aluminum from Argentina and Brazil. The risk-off mood spread to Europe, where shares had the biggest slump in two months. The greenback  slid against most major peers, while Treasury 10-year yields jumped. The latest developments on trade overshadowed hope that the world’s two largest economies were close to signing the first part of a trade deal. Meantime, an unexpected decline in U.S. manufacturing showed the sector lacked momentum in an environment of corporate investment cutbacks, subdued global demand and a still-simmering trade war. “It’s all part of the same narrative, right?” Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets, told Bloomberg TV. “There’s a narrative problem in the manufacturing space and the narrative problem obviously stems from trade. Until you actually can sign this deal, I think that manufacturing will remain under pressure.”
The American manufacturing miss countered signs of recovery in China and Europe. It also revived concern about the U.S. economy and could reignite bets on further Federal Reserve easing, according to Eimear Daly, a currency strategist at Macquarie Bank. Earlier Monday, Trump again called on the Fed to loosen monetary policy. Traders also monitored the latest on retail after Black Friday hit a record $7.4 billion in U.S. online sales. American shoppers are on track to spend an estimated $9.4 billion on Cyber Monday — a record — boosting an already robust holiday shopping season. Yet a gauge of retailers in the S&P 500 dropped on Monday, joining broader market losses.
More on corporate news:
* Roku Inc. sank after Morgan Stanley cut its rating and warned that revenue and gross profit growth may “slow meaningfully” next year.
* Apache Corp. tumbled after the company’s update on an exploratory oil well off the coast of Suriname offered little indication as to whether it will be commercially viable.
* Biogen Inc. slumped after being downgraded at Robert W. Baird, which warned investors ahead of a company presentation at a medical meeting later this week.

Elsewhere, oil rebounded from the biggest weekly loss since October on speculation OPEC+ could defy expectations by deepening production cuts.
Here are some key events coming up this week:
* Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering is scheduled to be priced on Thursday.
* Friday brings the U.S. jobs report, where estimates are for non-farm payrolls to rise by 190,000 in November.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.9% to 3,113.87 at 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index sank 1.6%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index jumped 0.7%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slid 0.3%.
* The euro rose 0.6% to $1.1081.
* The Japanese yen added 0.5% to 108.97 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose four basis points to 1.82%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield jumped eight basis points to -0.28%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield rose climbed basis points to 0.739%.
Commodities
* The Bloomberg Commodity Index was little changed.
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.4% to $55.96 a barrel.
* Gold decreased 0.3% to $1,468.60 an ounce.
–With assistance from Adam Haigh, Yakob Peterseil, Sam Potter and Sarah Ponczek.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
                                                      -Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962

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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com