December 10, 2018 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
December 10, 1896: Alfred Nobel d.

This evening in Stockholm, Nobel laureates will feast on a banquet with Swedish royalty after receiving their Nobel Prizes. It’s one of many traditions associated with the 117-year-old honors.

But another — in which laureates are awakened at the Grand Hotel Stockholm by young women in white carrying candles — may be fading into history.

The chemistry Nobel laureate William Knowles and his wife, Nancy, receiving the Queen of Lights in 2001.  Bertil Ericson/Associated Press

The ceremony reflects a Swedish custom honoring St. Lucia, who represents the triumph of light over darkness.

But a manager at the hotel said that the tradition would not continue this year “due to fire risk” in the laureates’ rooms. A version will still take place in the lobby and in one of the hotel’s restaurants.

Not every Nobel laureate enjoyed the wake-up call.

When women wearing white came to the American novelist Saul Bellow in 1976, for example, he was irritated.

“I scowled, and then my face formed the smile which is obligatory on such occasions,” he later told a biographer. -from The New York Times, December 10, 2018

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Police look at a burnt car in Beaubourg street in Paris, on Sunday, a day after a “yellow vest” protests as part of a fourth weekend of nationwide protests in France. Credit: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images

A pram inside an abandoned home in Northern Ireland. These haunting images capture abandoned homes across Northern Ireland – complete with old prams, uneaten food tins, toys and dusty wedding photographs. Captured by an urban explorer known as Unseen Decay they show rural houses that have been empty for up to 30 years. Atmospheric images show old wooden beds still with the sheets on, wardrobe full of clothes, birthday cards and religious texts. Credit: Unseen Decay/Mercury Press

Participants make their way in the 9^th Edition of the Nautic SUP Paris Crossing stand up paddle competition on the river Seine in Paris, France. Credit: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes
Market Closes for December 10^th, 2018

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1984, Stanford professors Sandy Lerner and Leonard Bosack founded Cisco Systems to make improved network-switching equipment. The company went public in 1990, with shares peaking at $80.06 in March 2000 before tumbling alongside other tech stocks. The stock closed Friday at $46.44, giving Cisco a market value of about $210 billion. 
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks clawed back from their session low, as the U.S. market advanced on a technology rally.
     The S&P/Toronto Stock Exchange Composite Index closed lower by 0.5 percent after an intraday decline of 1.3 percent. Auto parts and energy were the worst performing sectors.
     Auto-parts makers continue to lag as U.S.-China trade tension and demand concern weigh on the sector. The suppliers and automakers will get some relief if tariff rhetoric abates or a firm truce is achieved in 2019, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kevin Tynan. “Talk of tariffs driving input costs higher, which weighed heavily in 2018, may abate as global new-vehicle demand is late-cycle enough to be acutely susceptible to external macroeconomic shocks in key regions,” Tynan said.
     The energy sector took a beating as oil prices fell to their worst in two weeks due to growing doubts about whether OPEC and its allies can deliver enough output cuts to offset oversupply. Telecommunication stocks also closed lower today amid concern over equipment supplied by Huawei Technologies Co.
Stocks
* Aphria Inc. gained 8.7 percent, erasing Friday’s loss. 
* Badger Daylighting Ltd. rose 7.1 percent after saying David Calnan is resigning from the board. 
* Shopify Inc. climbed 4.2 percent, along with the broader tech sector.
* Goldcorp Inc. was among the best performing gold miners, up 2.9 percent, even as gold fell. The miners got a boost as geopolitical tensions and volatility in equity markets bolstered haven demand prospects.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $12.75 discount to WTI
* Gold futures fell 0.25 percent to $1,249.50 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar dropped 0.6 percent to C$1.3406 per U.S. dollar, as of 4:12 pm
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield dropped 2.0 basis points to 2.056 percent
US
By Sarah Ponczek and Brendan Walsh
     (Bloomberg) — Gut-wrenching volatility extended into a 12th week Monday as U.S. equities plunged and recovered, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversing a 508-point decline as tech shares bounced.
     Major U.S. indexes finished in the green, buoyed by rallies in Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The pound tumbled as traders took a grim view of the outlook for the U.K. after Theresa May delayed a crucial Brexit vote. The dollar jumped and oil dropped.
     Investors found an excuse to buy the dip Monday after the S&P 500 fell to the lowest intraday level since April, continuing a volatile period for U.S. equities. Traders may need to steel themselves for the possibility of the U.K. leaving the European Union without a deal, another worry amid already fragile sentiment in financial markets and lingering trade-war fears.
     But for now, traders were happy to buy shares of the biggest tech companies. “Tech is running this market; it’s unbelievable,” Tom Essaye, a former Merrill Lynch trader who founded “The Sevens Report” market newsletter, said in an interview.
     U.K. Prime Minister May postponed a key parliamentary Brexit vote rather than risk a bruising defeat, and wouldn’t commit to a new date for a vote. The EU Court of Justice said that Britain could unilaterally choose to change tack and stay in the union, while European Council President Donald Tusk made clear the deal would not be renegotiated.
     Auto companies led the retreat in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index as concern about the strength of China’s economy lingered.
     Elsewhere, Asian stocks fell. India’s rupee weakened as exit polls showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party was set for tight electoral contests in key states and as the central bank governor, Urjit Patel, resigned. Oil erased some of Friday’s rally triggered by OPEC and its allies agreeing on production cuts. Emerging-market shares and currencies fell.
Here are some key events on the calendar this week:
* The European Central Bank is set to cap asset purchases at its final policy meeting of 2018 on Thursday. 
* China industrial production, retail sales data for November is due Friday. 
And these are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2 percent at the close of trading in New York.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 1.9 percent.
* The MSCI All-Country World Index dipped 0.8 percent with its fifth consecutive decline.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 2 percent.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.5 percent.
* The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.1354.
* The Japanese yen decreased 0.5 percent to 113.26 per dollar.
* The British pound sank 1.3 percent to $1.2562, the weakest in almost 20 months.
* The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency Index sank 0.8 percent, the most in two months.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 2.85 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.24 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 1.19 percent, the lowest in 16 weeks.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate tumbled fell 3.3 percent to $50.89 a barrel.
* Copper slipped 1.3 percent to $2.725 a pound.
* Gold dipped 0.4 percent to $1,244.05 an ounce.
–With assistance from Haidi Lun, Shery Ahn, Cormac Mullen, Adam Haigh, Eddie van der Walt and Christopher Anstey.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words toward anyone, for neither diminishes the strength of the enemy.
-Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469-1527

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

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

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