December 2, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
George Seurat, b.1859
1804 Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.  Go to article »
1976- Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.

A 1,020-year-old mochi shop in Kyoto, Japan, has endured wars, plagues and natural disasters, offering a lesson in resilience. -The NY Times.

You can find the best albums of 2020 here, along with lists focused on jazz and classical music.
Our solar system is both fairly usual and rare. -Bloomberg.

A century-old mystery about the leaf insect, solved:
One variety of the insect is native to Papua New Guinea. Hiding in forest canopies, the females, above right, are almost impossible to see in nature, and not much had been known about their mates — until 13 eggs were laid by a captured female. Five hatched.
“These small leaf insects were so precious, like jewels in our laboratory,” marveled the manager of the Montreal insectarium that nurtured them.
Two eventually matured into sticklike creatures — including the one above left — that resembled an entirely different genus whose species had been described only from the male. Science has now united the males and females into a single unique species.

Virtual Travel: Pretend you’re in Tokyo: Listen to the funky music of Cornelius, make crispy nori chips and read books by Japanese authors beyond Haruki Murakami.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The morning mist rises around Tewkesbury Abbey
CREDIT: JACK BOSKETT MEDIA LTD

Pigeons fly over the Gateway of India at sunrise in Mumbai
CREDIT: PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP

Zhang Shupeng in flight during a wingsuit jump from Tianmen mountain in Zhangjiajie, China’s Hunan province
CREDIT: WANG ZHAO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

A lorry is driving on a slush-contaminated road while in the foreground a traffic sign (sign 113 StVO) indicates the danger of slippery roads in Baden-Württemberg, Germany
CREDIT: PHILIPP VON DITFURTH/DPA PICTURE ALLIANCE/AVALON

Market Closes for December 2^nd, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 2001, Enron, the seventh-largest corporation in the U.S., went bankrupt, filing  for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code.

Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian shares rose for a second straight session while U.S. shares also edged higher. The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 0.4%, with cannabis growers leading the charge. Energy shares also rallied as oil jumped the most in a week after a surprise decline in U.S. crude inventories. Gold rose to a one-week high on the murky outlook for U.S. stimulus negotiations, while investors weighed prospects for the coronavirus vaccine. The House Rules Committee advanced legislation that would decriminalize marijuana, although the Senate is not set to consider similar legislation at this time. National Bank of Canada Chief Executive Officer Louis Vachon expects an increase in mergers and acquisitions to bolster the company’s financial-markets business in the year ahead, propping up results as a boom in trading cools off.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $12 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.8% to $1,829.99 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.1% to C$1.2920 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield rose 2.3 basis points to 0.759%

By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.4 percent, or 61.28 to 17,358.21 in Toronto. Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.6 percent. Aurora Cannabis Inc. had the largest increase, rising 11.3 percent. Today, 108 of 222 shares rose, while 112 fell; 8 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 7.7 percent
* This year, the index rose 1.7 percent, poised for the best year since 2019
* The index advanced 2.2 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 19 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.4 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 55.4 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.3 percent in the past 5 days and rose 11 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.2 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$2.65t
* 30-day price volatility little changed to 15.43 percent compared with 15.43 percent in the previous session and the average of 15.36 percent over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | | Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 35.2283| 1.8| 22/1
Information Technology | 14.1690| 0.8| 7/3
Financials | 11.4587| 0.2| 11/15
Consumer Staples | 7.5386| 1.1| 5/5
Health Care | 7.4863| 3.6| 7/3
Consumer Discretionary | 3.2228| 0.5| 7/6
Communication Services | 2.1932| 0.3| 5/2
Materials | 1.2010| 0.1| 25/27
Real Estate | -5.2146| -0.9| 4/22
Industrials | -7.9090| -0.4| 12/15
Utilities | -8.1075| -0.9| 3/13

US
By Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks registered a record high for a second consecutive day amid renewed optimism over U.S. stimulus talks and a rebound in crude oil. Treasury yields rose, while the dollar touched a more than two-year low. The S&P 500 edged up 0.2%, closing at an all-time high, led by gains in energy companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. Salesforce.com Inc. weighted on tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes with analysts calling its purchase of Slack Technologies Inc. expensive. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for immediate talks and said a bipartisan $908 billion aid proposal should be the foundation for negotiations. “It’s a push-and-pull of market positioning,” said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management’s Ascent Private Wealth Group. “It’s just this two step forward, one step back that we’ve watched in the stock market for a number of months now.” Oil snapped a three-day slide after a surprise decline in U.S. crude inventories and signals that OPEC+ made progress toward a widely anticipated deal on output curbs. Earlier, Pfizer Inc. climbed after its shot was cleared for deployment in the U.K. as soon as next week.
Britain’s pound slumped after the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier reportedly told envoys the outcome of any deal is still too close to call. After vaccine breakthroughs fueled record monthly gains for global stocks, markets appear to have priced in an improved health outlook, and investors are turning some of their attention to bonds. One of the year’s biggest spikes in Treasury  yields on Tuesday has spurred speculation about the potential impact of rising rates on stocks and corporate debt. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated Wednesday that there was no rift between the central bank and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over the sunsetting of emergency lending programs. Powell emphasized the need for more stimulus before a Congressional committee. “We’re watching the size of the fiscal stimulus package and the timing of it, which is really important,” said Michael Greenly, a senior portfolio manager at UBS Private Wealth Management. “We’re also watching if there’s going to be longer restrictive social distancing policies, which could affect the economy on some levels. But even with that, the recent data’s suggested that the economic recovery is continuing.”
Elsewhere, the offshore yuan erased gains after President- elect Joe Biden told the New York Times he won’t soon remove tariffs on Chinese goods. Gold rose for a second day. Bitcoin hovered around $19,000 after nearly reaching $20,000 on Tuesday.

These are some key events coming up:
* The U.S. employment report on Friday is expected to show more Americans headed back to work in November, though at a slower pace than October.
* German factory orders for October are due Friday.

Here are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2% to 3,668.99 as of 4:01 p.m. New York time, the highest on record.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.2% to 29,884.78.
The Nasdaq Composite Index was little changed at 12,349.37.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.1% to 391.69.
The MSCI All-Country World Index jumped 0.3% to 626.59, the highest on record.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.1% to 1,135.62, the lowest in more than two years.
The euro rose 0.3% to $1.2102, the strongest in more than two years.
The Japanese yen depreciated 0.2% to 104.51 per dollar, the weakest in more than a week.
The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.3366, the largest drop in almost three weeks.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 0.94%, the highest in three weeks.
Germany’s 10-year yield gained one basis point to -0.52%, the highest in three weeks.
Britain’s 10-year yield increased one basis point to 0.354%, the highest in three weeks.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.3% to $45.13 a barrel, the first advance in a week.
Gold strengthened 0.7% to $1,828.75 an ounce, the highest in more than a week.
–With assistance from Todd White.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude…
-William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

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