February 1, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On Feb. 1, 1960, four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where they’d been refused service. Go to article »
Check out what Melinda Gates is reading. She’s offering a glimpse at her bookshelf and talking about her new favorite.

Pandas enjoy snow. A lot.

A four-year-old girl found a dinosaur footprint on a Welsh beach, and it is being described as the “finest found in a decade” by experts.
Lily Wilder and her family were walking their dog in Barry when she spotted the fossilised footprint in the rocks. It’s believed to be around 220 million years old, and you can see it here.

It’s truly amazing to think that this Anglo-Saxon treasure trove, found in the outline of a huge 89ft-long ship, had been there for well over 1,000 years. Now the ship is set to sail again after restorers began rebuilding it from scratch.
Isn’t it remarkable to think of what is out there, connecting past to present and waiting to be rediscovered. Last year alone saw some major archaeological discoveries and I’m absolutely sure there will be more to come.

Organizers of the Nordic countries’ most important festival, the Goteborg Film Festival, decided to accentuate the pandemic’s sense of solitude as well as film’s ability to bring comfort by offering a chance for one person to screen the films on an isolated island off the west coast of Sweden. 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A man visits the Sistine Chapel on Monday,  the reopening day of the Vatican museum
CREDIT: ANDEAS SOLARO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

A man uses a snow plow to clear off a sidewalk in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, USA
CREDIT: MICHEAL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES

Winter swimmers in fancy costumes dive into a partly frozen lake in Shenyang, China, with air temperatures of minus 23 degrees Celsius

CREDIT: STR/AFP VIA GETTy IMAGES

Ski resort workers block the road to the Frejus tunnel crossing the border with Italyto protest against the French government’s decision to close the resorts for the 2020/2021 winter
CREDIT: PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Market Closes for February 1^st, 2021 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1869, the New York Stock Exchange required listed companies to register their securities to prevent “watered stock,” or the manipulated over-issuance of shares by insiders.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose on Monday with the broader market, led by mining companies and tech firms. The S&P/TSX Composite index rose 2.1% in Toronto, the most since June as the Reddit-fueled surge in silver prices pushed mining stocks higher. Silver miners were among the top stocks Monday after price of the precious metal jumped to an almost eight-year high. All eleven sectors closed in the green. Meanwhile, Canadian pension plans returned 10% last year, thanks to a strong recovery in equity markets around the world, according to data from Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $12.65 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.6% to $1,859.55 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.7% to C$1.2860 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield fell slightly to 0.880%
By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 2.1 percent at 17,692.45 in Toronto. The move was the biggest gain since June 5 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 1.8 percent. Today, materials stocks led the market higher, as all sectors gained; 211 of 221 shares rose, while 10 fell. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 5.6 percent. Silvercorp Metals Inc. had the largest increase, rising 25.7 percent.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater gain 15
times. The next day, it declined eight times for an average 4.1
percent and advanced seven times for an average 1.7 percent
* The index advanced 2.2 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 percent below its 52-week high on
Jan. 8, 2021 and 58.4 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.2 percent in the past 5 days and rose 1.5 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
26 on a trailing basis and 16.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.9 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.68t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 13.42 percent compared with
11.98 percent in the previous session and the average of 9.05 percent over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 88.8502| 3.8| 52/0
Information Technology | 85.6412| 4.8| 10/0
Financials | 45.4314| 0.9| 24/2
Energy | 44.9153| 2.2| 21/1
Industrials | 40.2718| 1.9| 28/1
Consumer Discretionary | 17.0571| 2.6| 12/1
Consumer Staples | 10.5417| 1.7| 11/0
Real Estate | 8.7241| 1.6| 25/1
Utilities | 5.4764| 0.6| 14/2
Communication Services | 5.2993| 0.6| 7/0
Health Care | 3.2075| 1.2| 7/2
US
By Rita Nazareth and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Stocks had their biggest rally in about 10 weeks as several strategists said the recent explosion of speculative buying won’t derail the bull market in equities. In a broad-based advance led by technology and retail companies, the S&P 500 rebounded from last week’s selloff as the Nasdaq 100 jumped 2.5%. Heavyweights Amazon.com Inc. and Google’s parent Alphabet Inc., which are set to report earnings Tuesday, climbed at least 3.6%. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and some other day-trader favorites led the Reddit-fueled rally top Monday, while GameStop Corp. tumbled. Tesla Inc. soared after an analyst more than doubled his price target on the electric-car maker, saying “fireworks aren’t over.” Silver rose to an almost eight-year high, extending a surge that started with the retail investor frenzy sweeping through markets.
The battle between retail traders and hedge funds is unlikely to cause a significant setback for markets, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Major drawdowns have usually occurred when there’s a worse outlook for growth, as well as signs of overvaluation beyond price-earnings ratios and credit spreads, strategists led by John Normand wrote. Few markets show signs of extraordinary price momentum or excessive leverage, according to them. “The retail versus hedge fund conflict unfolding currently should be much less severe than the roughly 10% drops that have been occurring almost annually for the past two decades,” JPMorgan strategists noted. “Our bubble tracker based on extreme price momentum, valuations and investor leverage isn’t flashing red at the asset class level, even if it might at the security level.” While stretched valuations make markets vulnerable to a correction, investors should consider using “volatility opportunistically to select stocks in quality franchises with strong valuation support and cyclical leverage,” according to Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “Patience, more than greed, is likely to be rewarded,” she wrote in a note to clients. “Our view remains constructive.”

These are some key events coming up:
* Earnings season is full steam ahead as companies report
results, including Alibaba, GlaxoSmithKline, Ferrari, Exxon
Mobil, BNP Paribas and Yum! Brands.
* The Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy decision comes Tuesday.
* Wednesday sees the EIA crude oil inventory report.
* The Bank of England sets rates on Thursday and an Indian
central bank policy decision comes then too.
* The U.S. January payrolls report is due Friday, providing a first look at hiring in 2021.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 surged 1.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1.2%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 1.9%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index climbed 0.3%.
* The euro sank 0.6% to $1.2058.
* The Japanese yen depreciated 0.3% to 104.96 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell less than one basis point to 1.07%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield climbed less than one basis point to -0.52%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield dipped one basis point to 0.321%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude jumped 2.8% to $53.67 a barrel.
* Gold strengthened 0.6% to $1,859.19 an ounce.
* Silver strengthened 7.1% to $28.91 per ounce.
–With assistance from Joanna Ossinger, Andreea Papuc, Adam Haigh, Anchalee Worrachate, Claire Ballentine and Kamaron Leach.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

When you appeared in this world, you cried, and all the people around you rejoiced. 
You have to live your life in such a way that when you leave this world,
you will rejoice, and all the people around you will cry. –Indian Wisdom.

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