February 25, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday. J
Feb. 25^th, 1991: An Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 Americans during the Persian Gulf War.  Go to article »

Fe. 25, 1947: Soviet NKVD forces in Hungary abduct Béla Kovács, secretary-general of the majority Independent Smallholders’ Party (a liberal to socialist party) and deport him to the USSR in defiance of Parliament.  His arrest is an important turning point in the Communist takeover of Hungary.  In 1956, national uprising in Hungary is viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and troops.

August Renoir, painter, b. 1841.

Breakthrough paves way for map of the world under Earth’s surface.

Netflix picks up ‘Vikings: Valhalla’ from History channel.  Add this to your watch-list if you enjoy epic battles and violent drama.

The Philippines’ best breakfast foods.  Just prepare to be hungry after viewing these mouth-watering pictures. Enjoy! 

Stephen Colbert called it “a dark day.”
“Over the last five years, we’ve seen democracy repeatedly undermined, tragic, unprecedented firestorms, a global pandemic,” Colbert said. “Well this morning, Vladimir Putin looked at all of that and said, ‘Hold my vodka.’”
“Then, as the invasion began, the ex-prez took to Russian state media — sorry, I misread that: Fox News.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

“Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war last night against Ukraine, and this is nice: Trump offered to host the after party.” — SETH MEYERS

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Everton Simpson transplanting staghorn coral harvested from a nursery in the White River fish sanctuary off Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The former spear fisher and scuba-diving instructor is a ‘coral gardener’, part of grassroots efforts to rescue Jamaica’s coral reefs.
CREDIT: David J Phillip/AP

A polar bear cub takes its first steps outside in an enclosure at the zoological and botanical park
CREDIT: Sébastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images

Penguins of the Lasta-Rica circus are given a tour of the Bryansk Regional Art Museum. The penguins came to the circus in March 2020, but all the events were cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bryansk circus is opening after 10 months of down time
CREDIT: Vyacheslav Prokofyev/TASS

Market Closes for February 25^th, 2022

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1862, President 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 Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 1.7%, or 344.06 to 21,106.00 in Toronto. The move
was the biggest gain since Jan. 31.
Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as all sectors gained; 197 of 240 shares rose, while 41 fell.
Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.3%. Baytex Energy Corp. had the largest increase, rising 14.2%.
Terminal users can read more in our markets live blog.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater gain two times. The next day, it advanced after both occasions
* This month, the index was little changed
* So far this week, the index rose 0.5%
* The index advanced 16% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.2% below its 52-week high on Nov. 16, 2021 and 17.7% above its low on Feb. 26, 2021
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.5 on a trailing basis and 14.4 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$3.32t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 14.62% compared with 13.71% in the previous session and the average of 13.24% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Financials | 155.1610| 2.3| 26/2
* Energy | 63.3810| 2.0| 31/1
* Materials | 46.6656| 1.8| 42/11
* Industrials | 32.9849| 1.4| 23/7
* Information Technology | 11.5998| 0.8| 10/5
* Consumer Staples | 11.0862| 1.5| 8/3
* Consumer Discretionary | 8.2313| 1.1| 11/3
* Communication Services | 6.8152| 0.7| 6/1
* Real Estate | 4.3307| 0.7| 23/1
* Utilities | 1.9238| 0.2| 12/4
* Health Care | 1.8713| 1.3| 5/3
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* TD Bank | 29.2500| 2.3| -19.2| 7.9
* Royal Bank of Canada | 26.9700| 2.0| -6.5| 4.6
* CIBC | 26.9000| 5.6| 62.4| 11.0
* Stantec | -1.6690| -3.3| 114.4| -10.2
* CCL Industries | -2.2250| -3.6| 171.3| -12.6
* Agnico Eagle Mines | -2.3040| -1.1| -16.9| -2.0

US
By Isabelle Lee and Cecile Gutscher
(Bloomberg) — U.S. equities rose for a second day as economic data and uncertainty due to Russia’s war in Ukraine caused traders to pull back on bets the Federal Reserve will aggressively hike interest rates next month.
The S&P 500 advanced, with eight of the 11 sectors jumping more than 2%.
Meanwhile, gains in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 lagged as geopolitical tensions continued to weighed on richly-valued technology shares.
While global stocks are staging a powerful bounce, the rebound remains small compared with the day-after-day declines that came in the weeks before the invasion.
It’s coming in a market where fund managers cut positions furiously in January and February, loaded up on options-market insurance and plowed into short sales — precautions that may be feeding the velocity
of the turnaround.
Russia said it was willing to hold talks with Kyiv.
However, there was no indication of Ukraine acceding to demands nor signs of a halt in fighting.
The U.S. plans to join allies in sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Treasuries were flat while the dollar and gold retreated, signaling flagging demand for havens.
Crude oil in New York fell to about $92 a barrel.
“What we are experiencing right now is a relief rally that basically caused many short sellers to cover their shorts. But I don’t think the volatility has concluded,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA Research. “At least in the near term, Wall Street is saying it’s time to go back to stocks — instead of being in cash or possibly being in Treasuries.”
A prolonged conflict could deliver a major blow to global markets and slow the normalization of central bank policy that’s expected this year.
Yet on the other hand, disruptions of raw materials and food could also stoke already-high prices and heap
pressure on central banks to act faster to curb inflation.
The Federal Reserve reiterated its view Friday that it will “soon” be time to raise interest rates.
Markets still see around six quarter-point increases by the Fed, but bets on other central bank’s hiking cycles have been pared in recent days.
“This conflict implies a further deterioration of the  already tricky growth-inflation trade-offs central banks have been facing, making the upcoming decisions particularly hard,”  Silvia Dall’Angelo, senior economist at the international business of Federated Hermes, wrote in a note to clients.
“Downside growth risks from the geopolitical backdrop mean that they are likely to proceed gradually and cautiously.”
In contrast, Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance, said the idea that risk assets should rally because the Fed was less likely to raise rates seemed like a “head fake.”
“The market has been incredible sanguine about the impact of the war in Ukraine, completely missing the reason the Fed is raising rates and why they can’t slow down their pace of tightening,” he said. “With inflation likely to be exacerbated by disruptions due to war, the Fed needs to do the opposite of what they would normally do, and that’s to fight an even bigger threat of inflation.”
U.S. consumer spending advanced by more than expected last month, despite inflation and the omicron virus variant.
Yet, consumer sentiment was still down sharply from January, according to a University of Michigan index.
“Solid economic growth confirms that the Fed does or can move forward with higher interest rates,” said CFRA’s Stovall.
“Inflation says it needs to and higher economic activity says it has the ability to.”
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 2.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.5%
* The MSCI World index rose 2.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.5%
* The euro rose 0.7% to $1.1266
* The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.3412
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 115.54 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 1.97%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced six basis points to 0.23%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 1.46%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.5% to $92.37 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 1.8% to $1,891.80 an ounce
–With assistance from Jennifer Bissell-Linsk, Emily Graffeo and Ben Sharples.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

It isn’t where you came from, it’s where you’re going that counts. -Ella Fitzgerald, 1917-1996.

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