December 31, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Happy New Year!

Carolann is away from office this afternoon, I’ll be writing the newsletter on behalf of her.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY
Sydney harbour
CREDIT: Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images
Betty White was best-known as Rose Nylund in the Golden Girls. 1922-2021
CREDIT: PR
A fieldfare at the Tsitsin botanical garden in Moscow, Russia
CREDIT: Vasily Fedosenko/Tass

Market Closes for December 31^st, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1857, Britain’s Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada. Go to article »
Canada
By Geoffrey Morgan
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks closed out their best year in over a decade amid a rebound in oil prices, despite the S&P/TSX Composite Index dipping on the last trading day of 2021.
The benchmark rose 22% this year, its best annual performance since a roughly 31% rise in 2009.
It was buoyed by a resurgence in energy stocks, which had underperformed for several years but rebounded in 2021 along with crude prices as demand bounced back from the pandemic.
“Coincidentally, (2009) was the year coming out of the last bear market,” said Craig Basinger, chief market strategist at Purpose Investments Inc. in Toronto, referring to the recovery that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Basinger said Canada’s benchmark index performs well during economic rebounds, and did so again this year as the world recovered from the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite its best year in over a decade, the key Canadian index still underperformed its U.S. counterpart by about five percentage points.
The S&P 500 Index rose 27% and posted 70 record highs in 2021.
Canada’s financial and energy industries account for the majority of the rise in the Composite index this year, said Jeff Mo, portfolio manager with Mawer Investment Management in Calgary. “It’s a very narrow universe, where you have a situation where two sectors are contributing to 75% of the performance,” he said, adding that U.S. equity performance was more broad-based.
Insights
* This year, the index rose 22%, heading for the best year in at least 10 years
* This quarter, the index rose 5.7%
* This month, the index rose 2.7%
* So far this week, the index was little changed
* The index advanced 22% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 24% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.6% below its 52-week high on Nov. 16, 2021 and 22.7% above its low on Jan. 29, 2021
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.2 on a trailing basis and 16.1 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.6% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.41t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 15.44% compared with 15.42% in the previous session and the average of 14.54% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Information Technology | -43.3700| -1.9| 2/14
* Financials | -34.7686| -0.5| 5/22
* Consumer Staples | -4.0291| -0.5| 3/9
* Health Care | -2.5149| -1.5| 2/6
* Industrials | -0.8321| 0.0| 14/15
* Consumer Discretionary | -0.5066| -0.1| 7/6
* Communication Services | -0.4283| 0.0| 5/2
* Materials | 1.7716| 0.1| 32/18
* Real Estate | 1.9005| 0.3| 20/3
* Utilities | 2.0252| 0.2| 13/3
* Energy | 8.9385| 0.3| 24/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Shopify | -31.0200| -2.2| -50.7| 21.2
* Brookfield Asset Management | -7.7050| -1.0| -5.9| 46.3
* TD Bank | -3.2480| -0.3| 0.8| 34.8
* Imperial Oil | 1.2610| 1.9| -37.7| 88.8
* Suncor Energy | 1.5960| 0.5| -69.2| 48.2
* Enbridge | 1.9440| 0.3| -59.3| 21.4

US
By Stephen Kirkland and Emily Graffeo
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks ended the year with a rally few predicted back in January, even after a slide late in the final trading day.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both fell on Friday in a choppy session with thin volumes. But that performance follows a banner year for equities, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 surging about 27%, surpassing even the most bullish outlooks at the start of the year.
The benchmark S&P 500 closed the year out at 4766, down less than 30 points from its 70th record close reached mid-week. That’s still a far cry from levels predicted by analysts in a January survey, where the top projection was 4,400 and average of 22 estimates was 4,074.
Trading was light as investors drew a line under a strong year for global equities as economies recovered from the pandemic.
Bond investors are nursing losses as many central banks move toward tighter monetary settings to fight inflation.
How the coronavirus and those policy shifts shape economic reopening are key for the outlook.
“If there is one thing that we have learned this year, it is that the U.S. economy has proven to be resilient in the face of pandemic-related challenges,” said Brett Ryan, senior U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. While omicron and fiscal uncertainty present risks, “the economy would still expand at a well-above- trend pace even if these risks are realized,” he said
Elsewhere, the dollar was lower against most of its Group- of 10-peers on Friday, while oil declined, paring the biggest annual advance since 2009.
Bitcoin rallied for a second session, paring its biggest monthly drop since May to trade around $48,000.
Traders are continuing to monitor China’s struggling property developers. A Chinese state-owned enterprise will take a 29% stake in China South City Holdings Ltd., in the latest sign of the authorities stepping up support for ailing real- estate firms.
The spotlight was also on talks by telephone between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said Putin was satisfied with the outcome of the discussions. The U.S. and its allies have raised alarm over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.3% as of 4:00 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
* The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.1378
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.3530
* The Japanese yen was unchanged at 115.08 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 1.51%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.18%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.97%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.9% to $75.52 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.9% to $1,830.90 an ounce
–With assistance from Sunil Jagtiani, Vildana Hajric and Robert Brand.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Isabel

I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. – Vincent Van Gogh, 1853 – 1890

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff,

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

Tel: 778.430.5808
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