December 6, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1917: Finland declares independence from the Russian Empire.
1994: Orange County, Calif., filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about $2 billion. Go to article »

The Elgin Marbles may finally return to Greece, 200 years after being removed by British nobility:  The British Museum and the Greek government are reportedly in talks about returning the Parthenon Marbles — also called the Elgin Marbles — to Greece, according to media reports.
The marbles are a series of sculptures that once decorated the exterior of the Parthenon, a temple on the acropolis of Athens that was built between about 447 B.C. and 432 B.C. and is dedicated to the goddess Athena.
Full Story: Live Science (12/6)

Woman’s name and tiny sketches hidden in 1,200-year-old manuscript: Researchers have discovered secret scribbles and sketches that were scratched into a medieval manuscript more than 1,200 years ago.
The hidden markings, made without ink, were found in the pages of an early medieval book housed at a University of Oxford library in England.  Full Story: Live Science (12/5)

Watch the ‘Cold Moon’ eclipse Mars during the final full moon of 2022: December’s full moon — also nicknamed the Cold Moon — officially begins at 11:09 p.m. ET (4:09 a.m. UTC on Dec. 8), although the moon will also appear bright and full in the sky beginning on Tuesday, Dec. 6, and lasting until Thursday, Dec. 8.  Full Story: Live Science (12/6)

Search for alien life just got 1,000 times bigger after new telescope joins the hunt
One of the world’s largest telescopes has just joined the hunt for signs of alien life elsewhere in the cosmos.  Since 2016, the Breakthrough Listen project has been quietly using radio telescopes to listen for unusual radio signals, or techno signatures, from potential advanced extraterrestrial civilizations within the Milky Way. But now, the MeerKAT Telescope — an array of 64 individual dishes in South Africa, and currently the largest radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere — has joined the party.  Full Story: Live Science (12/5)

You could be the proud owner of this $218 million private island
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Kraków, Poland
Products prepared for sale are displayed at the Ukrainian Christmas market. With the help of UNHCR, Ukrainians who fled the war and found refuge in Kraków organised a market where visitors can buy handmade gifts
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Versailles, France
The sculpture group Apollo on his Chariot is lifted by crane during restoration work. Apollo on his Chariot was created by Jean-Baptiste Tuby after a drawing by Charles le Brun and is inspired by the legend of the sun god
Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Salisbury, England
A crane is used to manoeuvre a 32-ft Norway spruce from Longleat Forest, at Salisbury Cathedral. The tree will remain in place until Candlemas (2 February)
Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
Market Closes for December 6^th, 2022

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1994, Orange County, Calif., filed for bankruptcy protection after Robert Citron, its chief investment officer, lost billions of dollars speculating on derivatives and betting that interest rates would not rise. When asked, a year earlier, why this wasn’t risky, Citron said, “I am one of the largest investors in America. I know these things.”
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the third day, dropping 1.2%, or 252.09 to 19,990.17 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 1.6% on Nov. 9.
Today, energy stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 184 of 236 shares fell, while 49 rose.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 4.1%. Canopy Growth Corp. had the largest drop, falling 16.4%.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 5.8%, poised for the worst year since 2018
* This quarter, the index rose 8.4%, heading for the biggest advance since the second quarter of 2020
* The index declined 4.2% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 15% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 10% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 11.8% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.4% in the past 5 days and rose 2.8% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.3 on a trailing basis and 12.7 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$3.23t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 15.30% compared with 14.87% in the previous session and the average of 17.82% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -83.7140| -2.3| 2/36
Financials | -58.6189| -0.9| 6/23
Information Technology | -28.5101| -2.4| 1/13
Industrials | -28.3797| -1.0| 4/23
Utilities | -9.6659| -1.1| 5/11
Consumer Discretionary | -8.9467| -1.2| 1/12
Materials | -8.8389| -0.4| 16/34
Communication Services | -8.5712| -0.9| 0/7
Consumer Staples | -7.4235| -0.9| 3/8
Health Care | -6.8019| -7.3| 0/6
Real Estate | -2.6209| -0.5| 11/11
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | -18.3800| -4.1| 47.4| -69.4
Bank of Montreal | -18.1100| -2.9| 32.5| -5.2
Canadian Natural Resources | -16.4000| -2.7| 17.1| 44.4
Agnico Eagle Mines | 2.6390| 1.2| -21.4| 3.2
Teck Resources | 3.0050| 1.9| 19.8| 39.0
Bank of Nova Scotia| 3.2030| 0.6| -7.3| -23.7
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks slumped amid gloomy economic warnings from bank chiefs at a time when concerns about the impacts of Federal Reserve policy on growth and corporate earnings are running rampant.
A rout in tech giants like Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. weighed heavily on the market, with the Nasdaq 100 down 2% and the S&P 500 suffering a fourth straight loss.
All but two firms in the KBW Bank Index of financial heavyweights fell.
As traders sought safety, the dollar rose with Treasuries.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon warned about pay and job cuts, citing “some bumpy times ahead.”
Bank of America Corp. is slowing hiring as fewer employees leave ahead of a possible economic contraction, chief Brian Moynihan said.
Morgan Stanley will reduce its global workforce by about 2%, while JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon told CNBC a “mild to hard recession” may hit next year.
“We have not yet seen the bottom on equity prices,” said Lauren Goodwin, portfolio strategist at New York Life Investments. “While this phase of equity market volatility is likely to end in the next few months, earnings have not yet
adapted to a recessionary environment.”
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s Lisa Shalett said some of the biggest companies may see earnings hit far more than expected next year as economic growth slows and inflation erodes the purchasing power of consumers.
“A lot of corporate guidance is delusional,” Shalett told Bloomberg Television. “It’s going to be a rude awakening for a lot of folks.”
As shaky as markets look, one indicator looks solid: analysts’ view on the companies they cover.
After slashing their share-price targets over the summer at a pace seen only a handful of other times in history, they’re rolling back their skepticism and reducing the number of decreases relative to increases to a level last seen at the
onset of the rout in January, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
To Katie Nixon at Northern Trust Wealth Management, the potential lack of earnings growth in 2023 may be a limiting factor to market performance amid the already elevated valuation level.
“Markets have never bottomed before a recession has begun,” said David Bailin, chief investment officer at Citi Global Wealth. “If there is in fact going to be a recession next year, if we are going to see a period of unemployment rising in the country, then we would expect that markets would have to settle down from where they are today over the course of the next several months.”
Key events this week:
* EIA crude oil inventory report, Wednesday
* Euro zone GDP, Wednesday
* US MBA mortgage applications, Wednesday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, Thursday
* US PPI, wholesale inventories, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.4% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%
* The MSCI World index fell 1.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.0469
* The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.2137
* The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 136.97 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin was little changed at $16,986.24
* Ether fell 0.5% to $1,252.77
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined five basis points to 3.52%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined eight basis points to 1.80%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 3.08%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3.4% to $74.34 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,784.40 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric, Isabelle Lee, Emily Graffeo, Elena Popina and Eva Szalay.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary.  It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body.
It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. -Winston Churchill, 1874-1965.

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