February 16, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Full Moon tonight.  February’s full moon is called the Snow Moon.

On this day in 1959, Fidel Castro became prime minister of Cuba after overthrowing dictator Fulgencio Batista.
1932: First patent issue for a tree to James Markham for a peach tree.
1937: Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont, received a patent for nylon.  Go to article »
2005: The Kyoto Protocol an international treaty aimed at reducing the emission of gases that contributes to global warming comes into effect, following its ratification by Russia. Russia’s ratification was necessary for Kyoto to go into force because the treaty stipulated that not only a majority of countries approve it, but that the signatory nations constituter 55 per cent of the world’s emissions.

New York Fashion Week show staged with 7-foot-tall holographic models.  Because, why not? Fashion has no boundaries!

Exercise helps your brain feel better, a study has shown.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Traffic signs on a closed road
CREDIT: Nacho Doce/Reuters

Reaching Out artwork by the British artist Thomas J Price at the Chillida Leku museum
CREDIT: Ander Gillenea/AFP/Getty Images

Mia Hansson works in the Cambridgeshire town on her full-size replica of the Bayeux tapestry, which has so far taken her almost six years to stitch
CREDIT: Joe Giddens/PA

Monarch butterflies at El Rosario sanctuary, the winter home of Monarch butterflies
CREDIT: Claudio Cruz/AFP/Getty Images

Market Closes for February 16^th, 2022

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1822, Francis Galton was born near Sparkbrook, England. After studying medicine, exploring Africa and obsessively measuring everything he could find, he developed the statistical concept of “reversion to the mean,” or the inevitable tendency of above-average results to be followed by below-average results (and vice versa).
Canada
By Geoffrey Morgan
(Bloomberg) — A drop in Canadian tech stocks weighed on the S&P/TSX Composite Index, which fell 0.6% to 21,383.64 in Toronto.
Shopify Inc., until recently the country’s most valuable company, fell 17% for its worst ever trading day after guiding toward lower future revenue growth.
The cloud-based commerce company contributed the most to the index decline and had the largest percentage move on the index.
Today, 8 of 11 sectors lost; 125 of 240 shares fell, while 110 rose.
Insights
* The index advanced 16% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 11% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.9% below its 52-week high on Nov. 16, 2021 and 19.3% above its low on Feb. 26, 2021
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1% in the past 5 days and was little changed in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 19 on a trailing basis and 14.6 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$3.43t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 13.43% compared with 13.30% in the previous session and the average of 12.68% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Information Technology| -160.0382| -9.4| 2/14
* Consumer Staples | -6.3043| -0.8| 3/8
* Financials | -5.6146| -0.1| 11/17
* Utilities | -3.4391| -0.4| 4/11
* Communication Services| -0.8053| -0.1| 1/6
* Consumer Discretionary| -0.7462| -0.1| 5/9
* Industrials | -0.6420| 0.0| 8/22
* Health Care | -0.1955| -0.1| 4/3
* Real Estate | 2.5609| 0.4| 15/9
* Energy | 9.6190| 0.3| 13/16
* Materials | 46.6953| 1.8| 44/10
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
| Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Shopify | -151.0000| -17.1| 135.7| -46.1
* TC Energy | -4.5000| -1.0| 50.9| 13.0
* Brookfield Asset Management | -4.4060| -0.6| 1.4| -6.4
* TD Bank | 10.6300| 0.8| -16.1| 11.1
* Canadian Natural Resources | 11.0700| 2.0| 0.2| 28.0
* Barrick Gold | 22.9300| 7.1| 98.5| 17.3

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks closed higher as the latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes brought some relief to traders already pricing in aggressive monetary tightening.
The equity market rebounded after the central bank document came out at 2 p.m. in Washington, with the S&P 500 erasing losses.
Commodity, industrial and retail companies outperformed the cohort of technology shares that has thrived during the era of near-zero interest rates.
Two-year Treasury yields – which are more sensitive to imminent Fed moves — retreated with the dollar.
Fed officials concluded at their January gathering that inflation was running too high, warranting a rate hike soon and potentially justifying a faster pace of tightening.
“A number of participants commented that conditions would likely warrant beginning to reduce the size of the balance sheet sometime later this year,” they said.
A rate increase in March is fully priced into markets, and there’s been some betting that the central bank could hike by as much as 50 basis points.
Comments
* “No real surprises from the last Fed meeting, which is typically a good thing as the market tends to respond well to certainty,”  said Mike Loewengart, managing director of Investment Strategy
at E*TRADE Financial.
* “On balance, there was nothing in the minutes that suggested the Fed would be more aggressive than what the market has already priced in,” said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for
Allianz Investment Management.
* “The fear that investors had coming into the release of the minutes was a very aggressive conversation potentially around balance-sheet reduction or maybe more chatter about a 50 basis
point rate hike in March,” said Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management. “I don’t think that any of those fears of even more aggressive hawkish language came through in today’s minutes.”
Traders also kept a close eye on the latest geopolitical developments.
High-level diplomacy continues in a bid to defuse the situation around Ukraine.
Western officials voiced reservations about Russian announcements that some of its forces are being drawn down.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there’s no proof of de-escalation and it appears Russia is continuing its military build-up.
The Kremlin denied the claim.
The great rotation on Wall Street into stock funds and out of bonds risks falling apart.
Defying the worst January for the S&P 500 since 2009, investors have sunk $152 billion into equities this year, after a gangbusters 2021 for both stock returns and flows, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
But strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou warns stock managers are set to join their outflow-lashed peers in the bond world as upcoming Fed rate hikes spur volatility just like in 2018.
Some corporate highlights:
* Shopify Inc., which provides software and other services that underpin the websites of many small businesses, gave a weaker outlook for growth this year.
* Video-game platform Roblox Corp. reported bookings that missed estimates, reflecting a retreat from the pandemic-inspired boost over the last two years.
* ViacomCBS Inc., which is changing its name to Paramount Global, reported disappointing earnings and sparked concerns about the cost of its foray into streaming.
* Las Vegas Sands Corp. was cut to junk by S&P Global Ratings, which cited a slower recovery in the Macau gaming market due to omicron cases.
* Airbnb Inc. beat revenue and profit estimates, bucking a resurgent wave of Covid-19 infections and heading into this year even stronger than before the pandemic.
* Kraft Heinz Co.’s earnings topped estimates as price hikes helped the maker of Philadelphia cream cheese offset higher costs.

Elsewhere, the European Central Bank is “quite likely” to lift interest rates in 2022 to combat an unprecedented surge in euro-area prices but mustn’t “rock the boat” as it tightens monetary policy, according to Governing Council member Martins Kazaks.
Meantime, global financial regulators said digital assets could soon threaten financial stability due to their scale, structural vulnerabilities and increasing interconnectedness with the traditional financial system. Areas of concern include the use of leverage, technological fragilities and liquidity shortages, according to a report Wednesday by the Financial Stability Board.
Here are some key events this week:
* G-20 finance ministers, central bank governors meet, Thursday through Feb. 18
* Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard speak, Thursday
* U.S. Monetary Policy Forum: speakers including Fed officials Charles Evans, Christopher Waller and Lael Brainard, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.4%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
* The euro rose 0.2% to $1.1379
* The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.3592
* The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 115.43 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 2.02%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 0.28%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 1.52%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.9% to $90.32 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.9% to $1,872.20 an ounce
–With assistance from Andreea Papuc, Sunil Jagtiani, Abigail
Moses, Cecile Gutscher, Peyton Forte, Emily Graffeo and Elaine Chen.
Have lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Life is the sum of all your choices. –Albert Camus,  1913-1960.

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