January 24, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,
 
Tangents:
2008: French bank Société Générale announced it had uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud by a single futures trader.  Go to article » 
1935: first canned beer.
 
Odd Lots: The electric vehicle revolution is on and it’s going to change everything. 
 
We’re one step closer to those flying cars we were promised. (h/t Mike Smedley)
 
The Tao of Wee Man.
 
Oumuamua is still a mystery.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Children walk in front of The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough at the National Gallery. The painting was last publicly displayed in Britain 100 years ago and is on loan from the Huntington Gallery in San Marino, California
CREDIT: Hannah McKay/Reuters

A newlywed American couple pose during a photo shoot near the Acropolis
CREDIT:  Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

British rowers (front to back) Charlotte Irving, Kat Cordiner and Abby Johnston pose on their way to breaking the world record for a female trio crossing the Atlantic. Raising money for Cancer Research UK, Cordiner, who has secondary ovarian cancer, and her teammates arrived in Antigua on Sunday evening after completing the 3,000-mile journey from La Gomera in the Canary Islands in 42 days, seven hours and 17 minutes
CREDIT: Cancer Research UK/PA

Market Closes for January 24^th, 2022
 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1848, workers dredging a stream to speed up the waterflow into the sluiceway of John Sutter’s sawmill in Coloma, Calif., struck a bed of soft yellow rock. James W. Marshall, scooping up a dozen pure gold nuggets in his wool top hat, exclaimed, “Boys, I’ve got ‘er now!” The California gold rush was on.
Canada
By Stefanie Marotta
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities fell 0.2%, recovering from a 3.4% intraday tumble amid an earlier global market rout.
Major U.S. indices rebounded from the mid-day slump to close higher.
Companies in the energy and real estate sectors led losses as oil prices fell and interest rate hikes loom.
Toronto-Dominion Bank contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.1 percent.
First Majestic Silver Corp. had the largest drop, falling 5.1 percent.
Today, 153 of 241 shares fell, while 83 rose; 8 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 3.1 percent
* The index advanced 15 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 12 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 5.6 percent below its 52-week high on Nov. 16, 2021 and 18.9 percent above its low on Jan. 29, 2021
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 4.5 percent in the past 5 days and fell 3.1 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.6 on a trailing basis and 14.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.3t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 12.40 percent compared with 12.55 percent in the previous session and the average of 13.81 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Financials | -56.9505| -0.8| 3/25
* Energy | -38.2293| -1.3| 10/22
* Materials | -19.6539| -0.8| 15/39
* Real Estate | -5.6325| -0.9| 4/20
* Communication Services | -4.7709| -0.5| 2/4
* Utilities | -2.0811| -0.2| 6/9
* Industrials | -1.7162| -0.1| 13/15
* Health Care | -0.4039| -0.3| 4/4
* Consumer Discretionary | 3.3577| 0.5| 8/6
* Consumer Staples | 9.3105| 1.3| 6/5
* Information Technology | 66.6637| 4.0| 12/4
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* TD Bank | -13.6300| -1.1| 24.4| 2.3
* Canadian Natural Resources | -13.2500| -2.6| 162.0| 16.6
* Royal Bank of Canada | -12.8000| -0.9| 88.1| 6.8
* Brookfield Asset Management | 5.5080| 0.8| 70.5| -11.3
* Couche-Tard | 6.8010| 2.4| 59.6| -6.1
* Shopify | 60.8400| 7.0| 156.7| -31.8
US
By Rita Nazareth and Emily Graffeo
(Bloomberg) — A stock selloff that at one point rivaled any of the last two years was all but wiped out as dip buyers emerged by Monday’s close, the latest breathtaking reversal in markets rattled by geopolitical tensions and the Federal Reserve’s campaign against inflation.
In a session marked by explosive trading volume and wild market swings, the S&P 500 rebounded after tumbling as much as 4% earlier in the day.
Retail, industrial and energy companies led gains in the benchmark gauge.
The dollar pared gains, while 10-year Treasuries were little changed.
Concerns over the Fed’s imminent rate hike have weighed on risk assets.
A team of Oppenheimer strategists led by John Stoltzfus wrote in a Monday note that the stock market recovery may come sooner than expected and “it’s time to make shopping lists and look for ‘babies that got thrown out with the bath water.’” 
“Look at this oversold condition that we’re in, and the longer-term upward trend that the market is still in, and combine that with the fact that credit spreads are so well behaved right now,” Victoria Fernandez, chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments Inc. told Bloomberg Television.  “There’s still some support for the equity markets, there’s just going to be quite a bit of volatility.”
Speculators who scrapped bullish bets on the dollar at the fastest pace in more than 18 months are now missing out on the currency’s rally ahead of the Fed decision on Wednesday.
Net-long aggregate speculative positions versus major peers have dropped the most since June 2020, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
U.S. President Joe Biden was set to hold a call with European leaders as western nations work to strike a unified position on Russia.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said it would boost its deployments in eastern Europe in a bid to deter a new invasion in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied he’s planning an attack.

What to watch this week:
* IMF launches the World Economic Outlook update Tuesday.
* U.S. U.S. Conf. Board consumer confidence Tuesday.
* Fed monetary policy decision Wednesday.
* EIA crude oil inventory report Wednesday.
* U.S. new home sales, wholesale inventories Wednesday.
* South African Reserve Bank rate decision Thursday.
* U.S. initial jobless claims, durable goods, GDP Thursday.
* Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence Friday.
* U.S. consumer income, University of Michigan consumer sentiment Friday.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.5%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.7%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.1324
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.3487
* The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 113.96 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 1.77%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to -0.11%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 1.13%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.6% to $83.81 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,845.70 an ounce
–With assistance from Sunil Jagtiani, Robert Brand, Elaine Chen and Vildana Hajric.
 
Have a lovely evening.
 
Be magnificent!
As ever,
 
Carolann
 
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. –Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930.
 
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