December 18, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Monday.
December 18, 1803: The U.S. purchases the Louisiana Territory from /France, doubling the size of the country.
On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful man-powered airplane flight, near Kitty Hawk, N.C.  Go to article >>

Antonio Stradivari, violin maker, b. 1737.
Paul Klee, artist, b. 1879.
Steven Spielberg, b. 1947.
Brad Pitt, b. 1964.
Christina Aguilera, b. 1980.
Katie Holmes, b. 1978.

‘Healing bowl’ marked with double-headed dragon found
Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered an 800-year-old healing bowl emblazoned with drawings of a scorpion, dog and double-headed dragon, meant to protect against animal bites.  Read More.

Medieval ‘curse tablet’ discovered in German latrine
A rolled-up piece of lead found in Germany was a 15th-century “curse tablet” for summoning Satan.
Full Story: Live Science (12/15)

Sargasso Sea now hottest, most acidic in recorded history
The Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean is now at least 30% more acidic and 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was 40 years ago.  Read More.

JWST finds universe’s smallest ‘failed star’
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted what may be the smallest known brown dwarf, a “failed star” that’s only three or four times larger than Jupiter.  Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A yak grazes by snow-covered mountains, in an area that has been badly affected by flood-related incidents, near the Gamoo Bhr glacial lake

Venice, Italy
Rowers take part in a Christmas regatta on the Grand Canal
Photograph: Stefano Mazzola/Getty Images

​​​​​​​Teotihuacán, Mexico
Hot-air balloons fly over the pre-Hispanic city famed for its two pyramids
Photograph: Jorge Nunez/Zuma Press/Shutterstock
Market Closes for December 18^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1899, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 8.7%, on news of heavy casualties in the war against rebels in the Philippines.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.5% at 20,622.71 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 1.2%.
Bank of Montreal contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.8%.
Algoma Steel Group Inc. had the largest increase, rising 5.1%.
Today, 132 of 225 shares rose, while 88 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index rose 6.4%, poised for the best year since 2021
* This quarter, the index rose 5.5%, heading for the biggest advance since the fourth quarter of 2021
* The index advanced 6.1% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 23% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.1% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 10.3% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 1.5% in the past 5 days and rose 2.2% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.2 on a trailing basis and 14.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.24t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 10.18% compared with 10.60% in the previous session and the average of 12.23% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 40.9072| 1.2| 36/5
Financials | 26.0066| 0.4| 15/11
Industrials | 13.3101| 0.5| 15/11
Consumer Discretionary | 11.8897| 1.6| 8/5
Materials | 8.6440| 0.4| 33/17
Consumer Staples | 4.0530| 0.5| 8/3
Health Care | 0.0148| 0.0| 3/1
Real Estate | -1.0803| -0.2| 5/14
Communication Services | -1.9546| -0.3| 1/4
Information Technology | -2.4577| -0.1| 6/4
Utilities | -5.7815| -0.7| 2/13
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Bank of Montreal | 10.9900| 1.8| -41.2| 2.7
Canadian Natural | | | |
Resources | 10.3800| 1.6| -16.8| 12.8
RBC | 9.9050| 0.8| -34.5| 4.0
Telus | -2.0340| -0.8| -8.3| -9.1
TD Bank | -6.6450| -0.6| -7.9| -5.3
Constellation | | | |
Software | -8.1670| -1.8| 15.2| 57.3
US
By Cristin Flanagan
(Bloomberg) — The relentless rally in US stocks extended Monday, buoyed by a burst of deals as traders largely ignored tempered messaging from Federal Reserve officials.
On the heels of a seven-week bull run, the S&P 500 rose 0.5% as more than $40 billion of mergers and acquisitions hit the wire Monday after months of disappointing volumes. The Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.6%, to close at a record for the second consecutive session.
Wall Street’s fear gauge — the VIX — continued to hover around 12, within striking distance of recent multi-year lows.
“This week we’ll see whether the stock market’s seasonal tendency to rally in the second half of December bumps up against potential exhaustion amid one of the strongest short-
term rallies of the past several years,” Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley, said.
Whether or not the S&P 500 can extend its rally for an eighth week may be determined by near-term data readouts including durable goods orders, personal consumption expenditures — the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation — and the final third quarter gross domestic product estimate.
“The S&P 500 has closed higher seven weeks in a row only 20 other times since 1964, and it’s stretched the run to eight weeks 12 of those times,” Larkin wrote in emailed commentary.
While stocks largely shrugged off Federal Reserve officials seeking to rein in expectations for earlier and deeper-than-expected rates cuts, the rally in Treasuries took a breather Monday.
Yields climbed with the rate on the two-year around 4.5% and the 10-year approaching 4%. The dollar steadied as the yen weakened.
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester were the latest to join a growing chorus of central bank officials tempering market optimism after their New York counterpart John Williams last week said bets on a March reduction were premature.
“The Fed has been stressing the narrative that monetary policy is now in a data-dependent mode; a stance with which investors surely agree.” Ian Lyngen, a strategist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote. “The difference is that the market is wagering that the data breaks lower more quickly than the Committee.”
Across the pond, European Central Bank Governing Council member Bostjan Vasle took a cautious tone following ECB President Christine Lagarde’s comments last week that the bank had not discussed cuts at all.

Corporate Highlights:
* Brain signals in patients taking weight-loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic may contribute to lowering heart disease and deaths, researchers said.
* A consortium backed by Clearlake Capital and Insight Partners has agreed to buy Alteryx Inc. in a deal valuing the software developer at $4.4 billion including debt.
* Nippon Steel Corp. agreed to buy United States Steel for $14.1 billion in cash, in a deal to end months of uncertainty about the future of the historic American metal producer.
* Illumina said it will sell Grail Inc. following an appeals court finding that the acquisition of the cancer detection startup violated antitrust laws.
* Farfetch Ltd. found a backer in e-commerce company Coupang Inc., which agreed to lend $500 million, buy the assets and delist the troubled fashion platform’s shares.
* SunPower Corp. plunged the most in 15 years after the rooftop solar installer said it has breached a credit agreement and there is “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue operating.
* Shares of Vodafone Group Plc rallied after Billionaire Xavier Niel’s Iliad proposed combining its Italian business with Vodafone’s local operations.

Key events this week:
* RBA Dec. policy meeting minutes, Tuesday
* Bank of Japan decision, Tuesday
* Canada inflation, Tuesday
* Eurozone inflation, Tuesday
* Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks, Tuesday
* New Zealand issues half-year economic and fiscal update, Wednesday
* China loan prime rates, Wednesday
* UK inflation, Wednesday
* Bank Indonesia rate decision, Thursday
* US GDP, Thursday
* Nike earnings, Thursday
* Japan inflation, Friday
* UK GDP, 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 0.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed
* The MSCI World index rose 0.1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.2% to $1.0918
* The British pound fell 0.3% to $1.2646
* The Japanese yen fell 0.5% to 142.91 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.3% to $41,987.88
* Ether fell 2.3% to $2,186.14
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 3.95%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 2.08%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 3.69%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.7% to $72.67 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.3% to $2,026.60 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Alex Nicholson, Michael G. Wilson, Pearl Liu, Robert Brand and Edward Dufner.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
The secret of life , though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. –Paulo Coelho, b.  1947.

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