February 18, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,
Tangents:

1930 – Photographic evidence of Pluto was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. Go to article »

Yoko Ono turns 87 years young today.

At Least
By Ha Jin

You don’t need to appear everywhere,
attending parties and conferences randomly.
That would show you are still
diffident about your art
and would also debase you.

People who see you in person
might think you’re too common,
your achievement due to luck
like a blind cat that stumbles on a dead mouse.

Your frequent appearance
would dishearten others
because you exist far away,
at the end of their imagination —
you should be watched but not reached.

Look, this skyful of stars,
which one of them
doesn’t shine or die alone?
Their light also comes
from a deep indifference.

Ha Jin has published novels, poetry, stories and essays and has won a National Book Award, a PEN/Hemingway Award and two PEN/Faulkner Awards for his fiction. He teaches at Boston University. “A Distant Center” [Collection of Poems] was published in 2018 by Copper Canyon Press. -from The New York Times, February 16, 2020.

PHOTOS  OF THE DAY

Cyborg grasshoppers have been engineered to sniff out explosives. The team at Washington University in St. Louis, US fitted grasshoppers with tiny, lightweight sensor backpacks that were able to record and wirelessly transmit the electrical activity of their antennal lobes almost instantaneously to a computer.
CREDIT: BARANIDHARAN RAMAN/WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

English Heritage Collections Curator Dr Olivia Fryman gives a recently donated 1930s gold telephone a final brush up before it goes on public display for the first time at Eltham Palace in London. A rare golden telephone which survived World War Two bombings raids is returning to its Art Deco mansion home at Eltham Palace after being rescued from a skip.
CREDIT: JIM HOLDEN

A walker battles with his umbrella in the wind as water cascades down the dam wall of Wet Sleddale reservoir near Shap in Cumbria, UK, this morning after days of heavy rain from Storm Dennis.
CREDIT: ANDREW MCCAREN/LNP

Market Closes for February 18^th , 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1700, Daniel Bernoulli, one of the giants of probability theory and the father of modern risk analysis, was born in Basel, Switzerland.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 17,858.34 in Toronto. Barrick Gold Corp. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.6 percent. Eldorado Gold Corp. had the largest increase, rising 10.5 percent. Today, 111 of 232 shares rose, while 117 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 13 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 21 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.1 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 12, 2020 and 13.3 percent above its low on Feb. 15, 2019
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.7 percent in the past 5 days and rose 1.7 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18 on a trailing basis and 16 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$2.74t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 6.50 percent compared with 6.53 percent in the previous session and the average of 5.41 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 39.3531| 2.1| 29/17
Communication Services | 9.5503| 1.0| 5/3
Utilities | 6.3018| 0.7| 12/3
Real Estate | 3.6688| 0.6| 20/5
Information Technology | 0.4791| 0.0| 2/8
Health Care | 0.2521| 0.1| 4/6
Consumer Staples | -0.7238| -0.1| 4/6
Consumer Discretionary | -6.1494| -0.9| 8/9
Energy | -8.5997| -0.3| 9/21
Industrials | -14.8020| -0.7| 8/22
Financials | -19.3544| -0.3| 10/17

* The benchmark 10-year bond rose and the yield fell 3.6 basis points to 1.329 percent

US
By Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — Stocks slumped after Apple Inc.’s warning that sales will miss forecasts spooked investors who had hoped for a limited economic impact from the deadly coronavirus that originated in China. Treasuries rose and the dollar strengthened. The S&P 500 Index fell from a record as the iPhone maker warned of production and demand disruptions due to the epidemic, while gains for Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. provided a slight lift to the Nasdaq 100. Apple suppliers including Dialog Semiconductor Plc and AMS AG helped drag down European stocks. HSBC Plc tumbled the most since 2009 after it said it will slash jobs in a restructuring, while also flagging risks from the virus. Government bonds climbed, while the euro weakened after a German investor-confidence index plunged. Gold rallied. Investors are still trying to judge the corporate and economic impact from the coronavirus, even as the growth rate of cases in China’s Hubei province — the epicenter of the disease — continues to stabilize.
It’s a turnaround from Monday, when sentiment was lifted by Chinese policy makers’ moves to support companies hit by the prolonged shutdown of large parts of the country. BHP Group said commodity prices will take a hit if the fallout extends beyond the end of next month.“The market has largely ignored what’s going on with the coronavirus in terms of what impact it might have, but I’m not sure that’s entirely appropriate,” said Jeff Mills, chief investment officer at Bryn Mawr Trust. “It’s likely to be temporary and the economy may bounce back, but this is different than what we saw with SARS. China is a much larger more entwined piece of the global economy.” Elsewhere, equity benchmarks in Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong saw declines of over 1%. The Australian dollar weakened after the Reserve Bank of Australia said it reviewed the case for a further rate cut at its last meeting, but didn’t go ahead. Emerging-market stocks and currencies fell.
Here are some key events coming up:
* Earnings season rolls on, with results from Deere & Co. set for Friday.
* Minutes of the most recent Federal Reserve meeting are published on Wednesday.
* Indonesia is expected to cut interest rates on Thursday, following emerging-market peers that have already moved.
* Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs are scheduled to meet Feb. 22-23 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and are expected to discuss efforts to support growth amid the coronavirus threat.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index declined 0.3% at the close of trading in New York; the Nasdaq 100 added 0.1%.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.4%.
* The MSCI Emerging Markets Index decreased 1.2%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.2%.
* The euro decreased 0.4% to $1.0794.
* The British pound slipped 0.1% to $1.3.
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 109.86 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 1.55%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield fell one basis point to -0.41%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield decreased three basis points to 0.61%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed at $52.05 a barrel.
* Gold strengthened 1.4% to $1,602.96 an ounce.

–With assistance from Benjamin Dow, Andreea Papuc, Joanna Ossinger and Robert Brand.
Have a great night!

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

We tend to get what we expect.
                                   -Norman Vincent Peale, 1898-1993

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