February 25, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
February 25, 1964 – Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) becomes heavyweight champ.
February 25, 1570  – Pope Pius V excommunicated England’s Queen Elizabeth I. Go to article>>

Auguste Renoir, painter, b. 1841

Dunkin’ is now selling avocado toast.  Breakfast is about to get more bougie. 

No flat map of our round world can be perfect, but a new one aims to be better.

“Klara and the Sun,” the eighth novel by the Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro, portrays a future in which artificial intelligence has encroached on every sphere of human life. Read the review.

New study suggest supermassive black holes could form from dark matter

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Flames and smoke billowing from a crater, as seen from the southern side of the Mt Etna volcano, tower over the city of Pedara. Europe’s most active volcano has been steadily erupting since last week, belching smoke, ash, and fountains of red-hot lava
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/SALVATORE ALLEGRA

Big Bang Online Science Festival 2021 Launch, Pictured is The Veil Nebula, a huge, feathery cloud of heated gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus – pictured by 16-year-old Scottish astro-photographer Helena Cochrane from Wigtown, Dumfries & Galloway
CREDIT: HELENA COCHRANE

Workers dry huge sheets of coloured cotton by throwing them down a grassy hillside. The fabric is dyed with bright colours before intricate patterns of dots and lines are made on the material.  Surakarta, Java, Indonesia
CREDIT: PRASAD MALGAONKAR/SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY

Market Closes for February 25^th, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1862, Pres. Abraham Lincoln signed the Legal Tender Act, putting the U.S. government in the business of printing paper money. Previously, most money had been printed privately by local banks.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell Thursday after a selloff in global bonds deepened. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 1.4% to its lowest level since February 5. Nine of eleven sectors dropped. Consumer staples remained a bright spot after earnings beats, with Maple Leaf Foods Inc. and Loblaw Cos. advancing. Canada’s largest banks have managed to reignite earnings growth — even when compared with pre-pandemic times. Meanwhile, stock bulls had been brushing aside the risk of higher yields, saying it’s a vote of confidence in the economic recovery that bodes well for corporate earnings. But the rout in fixed income may signal some market adjustments where stocks can’t be spared. In a note earlier this month, Goldman strategists said that stocks typically fall on average in a given month when rates increase by two or more standard deviations, which is 36 basis points in today’s terms.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $11.00 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 1.9% to $1,771.22 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.7% to C$1.2605 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield rose 15 basis points to 1.460%, highest since Jan. 2020

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.4 percent at 18,223.54 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since falling 1.8 percent on Jan. 29 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.8 percent. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.7 percent. Aphria Inc. had the largest drop, falling 8.9 percent. Today, 157 of 219 shares fell, while 62 rose; 9 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 5.1 percent
* So far this week, the index fell 0.9 percent
* The index advanced 6.1 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI
AC Americas Index gained 23 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.9 percent below its 52-week high on
Feb. 16, 2021 and 63.1 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.3 percent in the past 5 days and rose 1.8 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
27.3 on a trailing basis and 16.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.86t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 14.33 percent compared with
13.58 percent in the previous session and the average of 12.85 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -74.1028| -1.3| 7/19
Materials | -67.3040| -2.9| 6/44
Information Technology | -56.4740| -2.9| 0/10
Energy | -47.2461| -2.1| 2/20
Health Care | -10.8474| -3.7| 2/7
Real Estate | -5.7915| -1.0| 7/19
Consumer Discretionary | -5.3486| -0.7| 5/8
Utilities | -4.2617| -0.5| 5/11
Industrials | -4.1063| -0.2| 13/16
Communication Services | 4.2361| 0.5| 5/2
Consumer Staples | 10.2553| 1.7| 10/1
US
By Claire Ballentine and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Tech shares led a rout in U.S. stocks while the selloff in global bonds deepened, with the benchmark Treasury yield spiking to a one-year high and debt from the U.K. to Australia coming under pressure. The Nasdaq 100 tumbled 3.6%, the most since October, as investors rotated away from pandemic-era winners toward companies poised to benefit from an end to lockdowns. About 10 stocks fell for every one that gained on the S&P 500. Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF extended its decline, leaving it 15% lower for the week. Stocks popular with the day-trader crowd surged once again, with GameStop Corp. doubling at one point before ending 19% higher. Earnings that came after the close were mixed.
Airbnb Inc. rose about 4% in late trading after reporting sales that beat estimates, while DoorDash Inc. fell about 14% after losses more than doubled from a year earlier. Beyond Meat Inc. added about 7% after announcing a partnership with McDonald’s.  Ten-year Treasury yields spiked after tepid demand at an auction for government bonds, surging as much as 23 basis points to 1.6%, the highest since last February. The increase forced a crucial group of investors such as holders of mortgage securities to sell Treasuries, which in turn led to further increases in yields. Across markets, investors are betting on a sunnier outlook for the global economy, with U.S. jobless claims data the latest to support that idea. But some traders worry that resurgent growth is already priced into stocks, and they’re staring down the risk that accelerating inflation is just around the corner, a development that would dent the appeal of equities.
“It’s all about interest rates,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Schwab Center for Financial Research. Tech “has been a relative outperformer. As it led on the way up, it will likely lead on the way down too.” In remarks this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell offered reassurance that policy would continue to be supportive and look beyond a temporary pick-up in inflation, especially from a low base. That’s given the bond market enough reason to keep driving yields higher. The 10-year U.S. yield adjusted for inflation rose to its highest level since June, a warning sign for riskier assets that have benefited from exceptionally loose financial conditions amid the pandemic. Elsewhere in markets, Asian bourses closed broadly higher. Bitcoin traded just below $50,000.

Some key events to watch this week:
* Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20
will meet virtually Friday. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will be among the attendees.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index fell 2.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.4%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index surged 0.8%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index added 0.2%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.6%.
* The euro climbed 0.1% to $1.2173.
* The British pound fell 0.8% to $1.4024.
* The Japanese yen weakened 0.3% to 106.22 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries increased 15 basis points to 1.52%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield jumped seven basis points to -0.23%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield increased five basis points to 0.78%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4% to $63.45 a barrel.
* Gold weakened 1.8% to $1,773.03 an ounce.
–With assistance from Joanna Ossinger, Lu Wang, Andreea Papuc, Emily Barrett, Cecile Gutscher and Dave Liedtka.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Champions aren’t made in gyms.  Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, a vision.
They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will.
But the will must be stronger than the skill. -Muhammed Ali, 1942-2016.

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