December 13, 2024, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:  Happy Friday.  Full moon this weekend. Luciadagen, Lucia’s Day, Sweden.

Mary Todd Lincoln, 1rst Lady, b. 1818.
Christopher Plummer, actor, b.1929.
Jamie Foxx, actor, b. 1967.
Taylor Swift, singer-songwriter, b.1989.

Satellites reveal stunningly detailed maps of Earth’s seafloors
A newly-deployed satellite has created the most-detailed map yet of the ocean floor, finding hundreds of hills and underwater volcanoes that were previously missed. Read More.

Our sun may be overdue for a ‘super flare’ stronger than billions of atomic bombs, new research warns
Observations made using a new method have revealed that sun-like stars produce cataclysmic super-flares once every hundred years. Could our sun create one soon? Read More.

Scientists spot ‘L-shaped structures’ and ‘weird things’ near monster black hole in epic new Hubble telescope images
New Hubble Space Telescope images of a black hole-powered quasar reveal ‘weird’ structures and gigantic jets of energy that scientists are just beginning to explain. Read More.

What are ‘attachment styles,’ and is there science to back them up?
Attachment styles are real, but there are a lot of misconceptions about how they work. Read More.

Google and Samsung are taking on Apple with a mixed-reality headset
The two companies are joining forces to release a mixed-reality headset that will compete with Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest 3.

Sake made in space could sell for $500,000 a glass
Asahi Shuzo, the company behind the popular Japanese sake brand Dassai, plans to blast sake ingredients to the International Space Station. They hope to ferment a brew that’s truly out of this world.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Inner Mongolia, China
A herdsman tames horses on snow-covered grassland in East Ujimqin Banner of Xilin Gol League, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Malelane, South Africa
David Ravetto of France watches the elephants in Crocodile River, Kruger National Park, flanking the 13th green on day two of the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek Country Club.
Photograph: Warren Little/Getty Images
Bristol, England
Three children receive ‘best Christmas present ever’ bionic arms. Colette Baker, Finley Jarvis and Zoey Pidgeon-Hampton with their new Open Bionics arms.
Photograph: Tom Wren/SWNS
Market Closes for December 13, 2024

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1961, the longest bull market on record finally ended. Since it began in 1949, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen more than 350%. Over the next six months it fell 27%.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.5%, or 136.41 to 25,274.30 in Toronto.
The index dropped to the lowest closing level since Nov. 20.
Waste Connections Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.4%.
Enghouse Systems Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 12.9%.
Today, 158 of 219 shares fell, while 58 rose; all sectors were lower, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index rose 21%, poised for the best year since 2021
* This quarter, the index rose 5.3%
* So far this week, the index fell 1.6%, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Sept. 6
* The index advanced 23% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 28% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.2% below its 52-week high on Dec. 9, 2024 and 25.6% above its low on Dec. 13, 2023
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.9 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 rose to 8.01% compared with 7.74% in the previous session and the average of 8.40% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | -52.4174| -1.7| 5/44
Energy | -29.3766| -0.7| 10/31
Industrials | -23.5338| -0.7| 9/17
Financials | -10.9489| -0.1| 13/13
Communication Services | -6.8127| -1.1| 0/5
Consumer Discretionary | -4.7680| -0.6| 3/8
Real Estate | -4.5852| -0.9| 2/17
Consumer Staples | -1.4300| -0.1| 4/6
Utilities | -1.0815| -0.1| 8/7
Information Technology | -1.0630| 0.0| 3/7
Health Care | -0.3822| -0.5| 1/3
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Waste Connections | -11.2300| -2.4| 54.2| 29.4
Shopify | -8.0620| -0.6| -37.0| 58.2
Cameco | -7.3530| -3.0| -19.7| 35.3
Manulife Financial | 2.7430| 0.5| -32.7| 50.5
Bank of Nova Scotia| 2.9310| 0.4| -34.3| 22.4
Celestica | 9.7950| 9.1| 67.2| 263.9
US
By Cristin Flanagan
(Bloomberg) — This year’s frontrunners, big technology stocks, set a record while Treasuries sank as investors braced for a slowdown in the pace of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cuts ahead of a meeting next week.
The Nasdaq 100 climbed for the fourth week in a row powered by a Friday surge in Broadcom Inc. across the entire chip-technology complex.
The tech-heavy gauge rose 0.8% to an all-time high for the second time in three days while other major US stock indexes struggled.
The S&P 500 slid 0.6% this week while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.8%.
Shares in Broadcom Inc. jumped 24% to a record after predicting a boom in demand for its artificial intelligence chips and reaching a $1 trillion market value.
Peers Marvell Technology Inc., Micron Technology Inc. and Nvidia Corp. also rose.
A widely expected quarter-point interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, could juice up this year’s seemingly unstoppable climb.
The S&P 500 — fueled mostly by tech names — has rallied 27% so far in 2024, and strategists polled by Bloomberg predict it will outpace European peers again in 2025.
While Wall Street has applauded the rally, that the rest of the equity market has largely lagged tech behemoths has been a growing concern for some.
“Tech stocks have reminded investors over the past week that the AI/quantum computing movement isn’t dying down anytime soon,” said Tom Essaye, founder of The Sevens Report.
Still, “strength in tech masked what was an average performance for the rest of the market.”
A Bespoke Investment Group analysis noted that there hasn’t been a single session in December where more stocks in the S&P 500 gained than declined.
By their calculations hat’s the longest streak in more than 20 years.
Around a third of stocks in the benchmark advanced Friday while the vast majority traded lower.
An equal-weighted gauge of the S&P 500 slid.
Meanwhile, the world’s biggest bond market sank deeper, with Treasuries set for their worst week in more than two months.
The yield on the 10-year benchmark rose to 4.40%.
“The market is readying for another move from the Fed that is more likely than not to be characterized as a hawkish cut,” BMO’s Ian Lyngen wrote to clients Thursday.
After a series of mixed data this week — including accelerating wholesale inflation and higher-than-expected jobless claims — swaps traders have pared back wagers on the Fed’s easing path.
They are now pricing in around three quarter-point rate cuts over the next 12 months.
A week ago they had seen better than 50/50 odds of a fourth cut and there may be more pullbacks to come.
The US central bank’s three-year outlook won’t fully incorporate “Trump shocks,” according to Evercore ISI’s Krishna Guha, “implying the median three could really be two on a fully marked-to-market basis.”
“The Fed is adopting a high optionality approach around a baseline that seeks to keep policy dynamically well-positioned as we move into the high-uncertainty Trump period,” the former New York Fed official said.
In currency markets, a Bloomberg gauge of dollar strength steadied against a basket of currencies, notching a second straight week of gains.
Timothy Graf, head of EMEA macro strategy at State Street Global Markets expects more gains for the greenback, noting the Fed’s easing cycle could prove shallow relative to Europe, where economic growth is weaker.
Swap markets aren’t pricing a cut from the Bank of England at next week’s meeting, despite weak data Friday.
The pound weakened after Britain’s economy unexpectedly contracted for a second straight month in October.
The euro strengthened after the European Central Bank sounded less dovish on rates than some expected following a policy announcement Thursday, forcing traders to pare policy-easing bets for next year.
China Letdown Asian shares fell as a key economic meeting in China pledged to boost consumption but failed to offer details on fiscal stimulus.
A gauge of world stocks marked its worst week in nearly a month.
“The news flow has been underwhelming,” Beata Manthey, head of European equity strategy at Citigroup Inc., said of announcements from China. “The markets want numbers. We didn’t get the numbers.”
However, Chinese 10-year government bond yields slid below 1.8% for the first time in history, as authorities vowed to cut policy rates and banks’ reserve ratios.
Investors also poured $5.6 billion into Chinese stock funds over the past week, Bank of America Corp. strategists said, attributing the inflows to the policy-easing pledges.
WTI crude futures climbed past $71 a barrel for the first time in December, up nearly 6% this week on the prospect for tighter US sanctions against Iran and Russia.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.8%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
* The MSCI World Index fell 0.2%
* S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index fell 0.4%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.3% to $1.0496
* The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.2618
* The Japanese yen fell 0.7% to 153.66 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.9% to $101,662.76
* Ether rose 1.3% to $3,915.62
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced seven basis points to 4.40%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 2.26%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 4.41%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.6% to $71.11 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 1.3% to $2,646.74 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Michael Msika, Sagarika Jaisinghani, Sujata Rao, John Viljoen and Robert Brand.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them – the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas. –Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, 1821-1881.

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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com