December 18, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday
Antonio Stradivari, violin maker, b. 1737
Paul Klee, painter, b. 1879
Steven Spielberg, film-maker, b. 1947
Brad Pitt, actor, b. 1964
Katie Holmes, actor, b. 1978

1917 the 18^th Amendment to the US Constitution, authorizing prohibition of alcohol, is approved by the US congress and sent to the states for ratification.
1987 Ivan F. Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street’s biggest insider-trading scandal. Go to article »

Atlantic City is blowing up an abandoned Trump casino, and for the right price, you could be the one to push the button 
Truly a gift for the person who has everything.

The NFL plans to honor health care workers by inviting some who’ve been vaccinated to Super Bowl LV
They deserve it.

Good Spirits: How do you make Chartreuse? Only two people know the full recipe for the French liquor — and they’re not talking.
Stephen Colbert compared President Trump’s health adviser to a comic book villain.

WHAT TO LISTEN TO

Here are this year’s 10 best episodes of “The Daily,” according to the team that makes the podcast.
Finally, time to pop the bubbly, from The NY Times:

“It’s been a dismal year,” our wine critic Eric Asimov writes, “but let’s look at the bright side: It’s nearly over.” That means bubbles can still feel right to mark the occasion, so Eric picked 10 sparkling wines — from Champagne and elsewhere — well worth drinking at multiple price points.

Simply emblazoning “Champagne” on a label is no guarantee of quality. But if you’re committed to the region, Eric created this guide to finding the best Champagne for you, including 10 excellent big houses and 10 small grower-producers (and a glossary so you can sound like you know what you’re talking about).

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Indonesian photographer Dikye Ariani showed a mother common tailorbird as it fed an insect to its young, near Jakarta, winning Dikye a first-place runners up prize in the Wildlife / Macro category of the LightsFlare International Photography Awards.
CREDIT: DIKYE ARIANI/LIGHTSFLARE INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS / INDONESIAN PHOTOGRAPHER DIKYE ARIANI SHOWED A MOTHER COMMON TAILORBIRD AS IT FED AN INSECT TO ITS YOUNG, NEAR JAKARTA, WINNING DIKYE A FIRST-PLACE RUNNERS UP PRIZE IN THE WILDLIFE /MACRO CATEGORY OF THE LIGHTSFLARE INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS.

A woman walks through the early morning mist in Sefton Park, Liverpool, UK.
CREDIT: PETER BYRNE/PA WIRE

Tom Lahaye-Goffart of Belgium competes during the men’s 10 km sprint race at the Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria.
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/MATTHIAS SCHRADER

Swimmers braving the cold morning air and choppy seas at the beach to take an early morning dip at West Bay in Dorset, UK, shortly after sunrise. 
CREDIT: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NEWS UK

Christmas cakes are created as Santa Claus with face mask at the bakery Schuerener Backparadies in Dortmund, Germany. As the number of cases of the COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is still rising throughout Germany, the government has imposed a second hard lockdown with businesses closing from 16 December on until 10 January 2021.
CREDIT: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NEWS UK

Market Closes for December 18^th, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1899, rocked by news of heavy casualties in the battle against rebels in the Philippines, the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its fifth-worst daily percentage loss of all time, plunging 8.7%, or 5.57 points, to close the day at 58.27.

Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities fell Friday, with broad declines in real estate and mining stocks, and the benchmark index ended with its first weekly loss since October. The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 0.7% Friday, with financial, technology and energy shares also dragging it down. BlackBerry Ltd. plunged 16%; a disappointing earnings report brought an abrupt reversal to what had been epic rally. Precious metals stocks fell. A number of analysts predict the rally that drove some of the world’s largest miners to multiyear highs will extend into 2021 as the economy recovers from the steepest slump since the Great Depression. Oil rose for its seventh straight week as talks on a U.S. virus relief package added to optimism that Covid-19 vaccines will boost the demand outlook.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $14.60 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold dipped about $1,880 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.5%. It was at C$1.2782 per U.S. dollar as of 4:40 p.m. New York time.
* The 10-year Canada government bond yields 0.749%. That’s about 4 basis points higher than a week ago.

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.7 percent at 17,534.63 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s increase of 0.5 percent. Franco-Nevada Corp. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.6 percent. BlackBerry Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 15.8 percent. Today, 165 of 222 shares fell, while 55 rose; 9 of 11 sectors were lower, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index was little changed, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Oct. 30 * This quarter, the index rose 8.8 percent
* This year, the index rose 2.8 percent, poised for the best year since 2019
* The index advanced 3 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 18 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.4 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 56.9 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.2 on a trailing basis and 23.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.71t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 10.02 percent compared with 10.03 percent in the previous session and the average of 13.44 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | | Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | -36.7334| -1.5| 6/45
Financials | -34.6614| -0.7| 2/24
Energy | -16.0257| -0.8| 8/14
Information Technology | -15.3749| -0.8| 1/9
Real Estate | -8.5315| -1.5| 3/23
Utilities | -6.9044| -0.8| 3/13
Consumer Staples | -2.5644| -0.4| 5/6
Health Care | -0.5106| -0.2| 4/6
Industrials | -0.0529| 0.0| 9/19
Communication Services | 1.0578| 0.1| 5/2
Consumer Discretionary | 1.9913| 0.3| 9/4

US
By Kamaron Leach and Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell after Republican demands left Congress without a deal on a federal spending bill. Tesla Inc. edged higher in heavy trading ahead of its inclusion in the S&P 500. The benchmark index halted a three-day winning streak, though ended well of session lows with a late rally in a flood of trading volume associated with the quarterly expiration of options and futures on stocks and indexes. Almost 200 million shares of Tesla traded hands, four times the 30-day average, as funds benchmarked to the S&P 500 adjusted ahead of the carmaker’s Monday debut.
Stocks spent the session lower as the likelihood that Congress would reach an aid deal ahead of the weekend dwindled. Crude topped $48 a barrel in New York. The dollar rose for the first time in five days. The 10-year Treasury yield moved back above 0.93%. Gold slipped. Copper topped $8,000 a ton for the first time in more than seven years on rising demand and supply bottlenecks. Congress continues to wrangle over a legislation that would give people and businesses a lifeline to withstand the increasing economic toll caused by the pandemic. A bid by Republicans to constrain the Federal Reserve’s crisis lending programs is threatening to derail negotiations. The virus continued to rage across the country, forcing more jurisdictions to enact tighter restrictions.
“Markets have been pretty strong obviously in November and first part of December, so if we get a little bit of a selloff that shouldn’t surprise people a whole lot,” Keith Gangl, a portfolio manager at Gradient Investments, said in an interview. “It’s quadruple witching so it’s usually a little bit of different actions at the end of the day so we’ll see if that happens”
Here are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index fell 0.4% at 4 p.m. in New York.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dipped 0.4%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 0.4%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index declined 0.3%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%.
* The euro dipped 0.2% to $1.2239.
* The British pound decreased 0.6% to $1.3509.
* The onshore yuan weakened 0.1% to 6.54 per dollar.
* The Japanese yen weakened 0.2% to 103.32 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose one basis point to 0.94%.
* The yield on two-year Treasuries was flat at 0.121%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined less than one basis point to -0.57%.
* Japan’s 10-year yield decreased less than one basis point to 0.01%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield sank five basis points to 0.24%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.2% to $48.93 a barrel.
* Brent crude dipped 0.1% to $51.46 a barrel.
* Gold strengthened 0.1% to $1,886.61 an ounce.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.
                                                -Laurence Sterne, 1713-1768

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

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

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