February 3, 2021 Newletter

Dear Friends,

1947 – Coldest North American temperature recorded -81℉, Yukon Territories, Canada.
Gertrude Stein, writer, b. 1874.  “A rose is a rose is a rose.”
Simone Weil, mystic, b. 1909. “To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”

On the  Impeachment, the Late Night Hosts:
“After that, Trump’s legal team filed a brief that claims that he isn’t responsible. It wasn’t that hard to write. His lawyers just copied and pasted his defense from the last impeachment: Control-F ‘Ukraine,’ replace with ‘riot.’” — JIMMY FALLON

“On the very first page of their first legal filing, they wrote, ‘to the honorable members of the Unites States Senate.’ They misspelled ‘United States.’ And we’re off!” — JIMMY KIMMEL

“There was actually a typo on the first page of the Trump brief, but I’m sure it was a long, complicated legal term. Nope, it’s just — just the name of our country, that’s it.” — JIMMY FALLON

“Yes, the ‘Unites States Senate,’ both Republicarnts and Democrabs.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The SpaceX Starship SN9 explodes into a fireball after its high altitude test flight from test facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, U.S
CREDIT: GENE BLEVINS/REUTERS
A woman takes a selfie under festive decorations for the upcoming Lunar New Year outside a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand
CREDIT: MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Well-known ice-cream seller Pasquale Marucci has a funeral with a convoy of ten ice-cream vans in  Eastleigh, Hampshire
CREDIT: PAUL JACOBS
Cawdor Estate near Nairn in Scotland posted this photo of snow drifts higher than their Toyota Hilux
CREDIT: MIKE MERRITT

Market Closes for February 3^rd, 2021 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1964, a direct feed to the stock ticker at the New York Stock Exchange was extended overseas for the first time, as Switzerland got a real-time link to follow share prices in New York.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equity markets extended their gains into third day, helped by outperformance in pot stocks. The S&P/TSX Composite index rose 0.2% in Toronto, bringing its climb in the last three days to 3.3%. Marijuana stocks in the health care sector led the gains after GW Pharmaceuticals agreed to be acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $7.2 billion in cash and stock. Aphria, Canopy Growth and Cronos were among the best performers on the TSX. Meanwhile, Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Lawrence Schembri said the central bank’s research suggests any adjustments to the inflation targeting mandate should be incremental. “Maybe
there’s an opportunity to overshoot the target a little bit or tolerate an overshoot if we want to be aggressive in reducing the risk of being at the effective lower bound,” Schembri said. “We might be willing to tolerate a small overshoot or, like the Fed has done, actually aim for an overshoot. And that’s a question we are pondering right now.”
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $11.50 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.2% to $1,833.83 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar was flat at C$1.2782 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield rose 4 basis points to 0.948%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the third day, climbing 0.2 percent, or 41.42 to 17,915.91 in Toronto. The index advanced to the highest closing level since Jan. 21. Today, energy stocks led the market higher, as 6 of 11 sectors gained; 118 of 220 shares rose, while 100 fell. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.6 percent. ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. had the largest increase, rising 14.1 percent.
Insights
* The index advanced 3.1 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI
AC Americas Index gained 19 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.8 percent below its 52-week high on
Jan. 8, 2021 and 60.4 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.8 percent in the past 5 days and rose 2.8 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
26.4 on a trailing basis and 17.1 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$2.77t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 13.56 percent compared with
13.58 percent in the previous session and the average of 9.44 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 35.6595| 1.7| 20/1
Health Care | 15.6183| 5.4| 6/3
Materials | 13.4173| 0.6| 33/18
Financials | 13.3824| 0.3| 18/7
Consumer Discretionary | 5.6925| 0.8| 9/4
Consumer Staples | 1.1298| 0.2| 3/8
Communication Services | -0.4708| -0.1| 4/3
Utilities | -2.4540| -0.3| 8/8
Real Estate | -5.1252| -0.9| 3/23
Industrials | -15.3756| -0.7| 10/19
Information Technology | -20.0477| -1.0| 4/6
US
By Rita Nazareth and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Stocks almost wiped out their advance as a drop in technology and retail shares dragged down the Nasdaq 100. Treasuries retreated. Oil climbed. The S&P 500 closed with a small gain following its biggest two-day rally in almost three months. Energy and financial shares outpaced tech even after Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. hit a record on stellar results, while Amazon.com Inc. slumped. Banks climbed as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley issued bullish calls on the industry. GameStop Corp., the poster child for Redditors looking to squeeze short sellers, and movie- theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. rebounded following Tuesday’s plunge.
After the close of regular trading, Qualcomm Inc. slumped as the biggest maker of chips that connect smartphones to wireless networks reported disappointing revenue. EBay Inc. climbed as profit topped Wall Street estimates. A widely watched segment of the Treasury yield curve reached its steepest level in almost five years even as the U.S. decided not to increase auction sizes for long-maturity notes and bonds at next week’s quarterly refunding sales. Data showed companies added more jobs than forecast in January, while growth at service providers accelerated. The scattered signs of a pickup in activity come as President Joe Biden tries to win congressional passage of a $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said stock prices reflect optimism about the economic recovery. “There has been a ton of noise in the stock market these past few weeks, so it’s encouraging to see solid economic reads,” said Mike Loewengart, managing director of investment strategy at E*Trade Financial Corp. “There may be signs of overextension when it comes to single stocks, but under the surface there is an economy regaining serious momentum.” Normalcy has yet to return to the Cboe Volatility Index even after its biggest two-day decline in about three years.
Tuesday’s close was 31% higher than the average since VIX calculations began in 1990, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. There hasn’t been a below-average close in about a year. VIX futures are indicating that “volatility will remain elevated for many months,” Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research LLC, wrote Tuesday in a report. Elsewhere, crude climbed as OPEC+ said it will keep pushing to quickly clear the oil surplus left behind by the pandemic — a bullish signal for prices that have already surged to a one-year high.
These are some key events coming up:
* The Bank of England sets rates on Thursday and an Indian central bank policy decision is due Friday.
* 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 advanced 0.1% at 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.3%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 1.1%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed.
* The euro dipped 0.1% to $1.2035.
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 105.02 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose three basis points to 1.13%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield climbed three basis points to -0.46%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield jumped two basis points to 0.371%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude increased 2% to $55.85 a barrel.
* Gold lost 0.2% to $1,833.85 an ounce.
* Silver rose 0.6% to $26.83 per ounce.
–With assistance from Andres Guerra Luz, Adam Haigh, Yakob Peterseil, David Wilson, Claire Ballentine and Kamaron Leach.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom,
one must observe. -Marilyn Vos Savant, b. 1946.

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