February 9, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On Feb. 9, 1943, the World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an American victory over Japanese forces.  Go to article »
February  9, 1972 ~British government declares state of emergency after month-long coal miners’ strike.

Carole King, songwriter, b. 1942

Scientists visit very old cave paintings, find an even older fossil. (h/t Ellen Kominers) 

You should try a ‘Shultz hour’
When George Shultz — who died Saturday at 100 — was secretary of state under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, he developed a weekly ritual. He closed the door to his office and sat down with a pen and a pad of paper. For the next hour, Shultz tried to clear his mind and think about big ideas, rather than the minutiae of government work.
Only two people could interrupt him, he told his secretary: “My wife or the president.”
Shultz told me that story when I interviewed him a few years ago, and it has stuck with me, because it’s even more useful advice today than it was four decades ago. These days, we are constantly interrupted by minutiae, via alerts and text messages. They can make it impossible to carve out time to think through difficult problems in new ways or come up with creative ideas.
Letting your mind wander, Sandi Mann, a British psychologist, has said, “makes us more creative, better at problem-solving, better at coming up with creative ideas.” The Dutch have a word for this concept: niksen, or the art of doing nothing. (And here’s a GQ interview in which the journalist Manoush Zomorodi argues that boredom could open the mind to creativity, problem-solving and more ambitious life goals.)
Shultz’s biggest accomplishment in government was precisely such a fresh idea: a recognition — which most other Reagan advisers lacked — that Mikhail Gorbachev was serious about reforming the Soviet Union.
As Amos Tversky, a pathbreaking psychologist, said, “You waste years by not being able to waste hours.” –NY Times.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The Kraken house float, on Memphis St., in Lakeview, is one of thousands in the New Orleans area decorated in celebration of Mardi Gras in Louisiana, USA
CREDIT: KATHLEEN FLYNN/REUTERS

Dubai’s Burj Khalifa is lit up in red with an slogan reading in Arabic, “Mission accomplished” as the UAE’s “Al-Amal” — Arabic for “Hope” — probe successfully enters Mars’ orbit, making history as the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission
CREDIT: GLUSEPPE CACACE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

An early morning swimmer plays with the snow at the beach in Thorpe End, Essex, as bitterly cold winds from Storm Darcy continue to grip much of the nation
CREDIT: VICTORIA JONES/PA

A resident clears the sidewalk in front of her front door of snow in Wernigerode, Germany
CREDIT: MATTHIAS BEIN/AP
Market Closes for February 9^th , 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1585, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierborse) was established.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks gained for a seventh straight session Tuesday, with Canopy Growth Corp.’s earnings sparking a rally in marijuana companies. The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.4%, with health-care and information technology leading the way. Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF jumped 13%, most since February 2018. Shopify Inc. rose 6.1%, leading tech stocks higher after expanding Shop Pay to merchants selling on Facebook and Instagram. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin asked President Biden to reconsider his decision to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline and warned against other energy policy moves that could hinder “safety, jobs and energy security.”
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $10.90 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.4% to $1,837 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.3% to C$1.2699 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield fell 1.5 basis points to 0.997%

By Bloomberg Automation:
    (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the seventh day, climbing 0.4 percent, or 78.36 to 18,408.62 in Toronto. Today, information technology stocks led the market higher, as 4 of 11 sectors gained; 87 of 220 shares rose, while 128 fell. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 6.1 percent. Aphria Inc. had the largest increase, rising 24.5 percent.
Insights
* The index advanced 4.3 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI
AC Americas Index gained 19 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.1 percent below its 52-week high on
Feb. 9, 2021 and 64.8 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 3 percent in the past 5 days and rose 2 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
27.1 on a trailing basis and 17.5 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$2.84t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 13.93 percent compared with
14.03 percent in the previous session and the average of 10.41 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology | 77.0216| 3.7| 3/7
Health Care | 26.1647| 8.3| 7/2
Financials | 7.7619| 0.1| 14/12
Industrials | 6.2682| 0.3| 13/15
Consumer Discretionary | -0.3644| -0.1| 7/6
Real Estate | -0.5790| -0.1| 7/18
Communication Services | -3.0640| -0.3| 3/3
Consumer Staples | -3.8838| -0.6| 7/3
Utilities | -5.1773| -0.6| 5/11
Materials | -11.8391| -0.5| 12/38
Energy | -13.9711| -0.7| 9/13
US
By Olivia Raimonde
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks halted a six-day winning streak as investors debated whether commitments by the Federal Reserve and the Biden administration to let the economy run hot will spark destabilizing inflation. The S&P 500 Index edged lower from an all-time high after a 5.4% surge this month fueled by signs the Biden administration intends to pass a sizable aid bill while the central bank promises to keep rates pinned near zero. The Nasdaq 100 Index  eked out a gain, while small caps notched the longest rally since December 2019. Treasuries advanced and the dollar fell for a third straight session. Stretched valuations are giving investors pause as they cheer advancing vaccination efforts, rising stimulus prospects and a slowdown in coronavirus infections across the globe.
With inflation expectations near the highest since 2013, questions have also begun to be raised about when the so-called reflation trade in bonds could start to threaten equities. “We are getting to the point where we have to start worrying about the risk of how do we pull back on that stimulus, will it cause the economy to overheat, are these valuations becoming too expensive,” Saira Malik, Nuveen head of global equities, said on Bloomberg TV. “That is something we are going to be grappling with as the year goes on.” Elsewhere, Brent oil hovered around $60 a barrel on signs the global market is tightening and demand is improving. Bitcoin pared an earlier jump to a record after Tesla Inc. bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency.

Here are some key events coming up:
* Earnings season continues with companies including Cisco Systems, Societe Generale and L’Oreal.
* EIA crude oil inventory report comes Wednesday.
* Sweden will set monetary policy on Wednesday.
* Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak on a webinar Wednesday.
* The U.S. consumer price index comes Wednesday.
* Lunar New Year public holidays begin in nations across Asia, with China breaking for a week.
* Bank of Russia’s policy decision comes Friday.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.1%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.4%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index gained 0.7%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.5%.
* The euro advanced 0.6% to $1.2118.
* The British pound gained 0.5% to $1.3809.
* The onshore yuan strengthened 0.2% to 6.436 per dollar.
* The Japanese yen strengthened 0.6% to 104.57 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries decreased two basis points to 1.15%.
* The yield on two-year Treasuries rose to 0.115%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield was flat near -0.45%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield fell to 0.461%.
* Japan’s 10-year yield advanced less than one basis point to 0.073%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $58.32 a barrel.
* Brent crude added 0.9% to $61.12 a barrel.
* Gold futures strengthened 0.1% to $1,836.10 an ounce.
–With assistance from Anil Varma.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882

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