January 29, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,
Tangents: Happy Friday.

Full moon should be visible again tonight.  The first full moon in January is called the wolf moon and it rose last night.
There’s nothing canine about it—the wolf moon just is the name for January’s full moon. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, it most likely has early Native American origins, since wolves were more often heard howling in the dead of winter. But it’s also sometimes referred to as the “Cold Moon” or “Frost Exploding Moon” by the Cree, the “Spirit Moon” by the Ojibwe and the “Center Moon” by the Assiniboine people (with the idea that it roughly marks the middle of winter), per Space.com. And NASA has a lengthy list of even more names for this moon.
Other than being the first full moon of the calendar year, January’s wolf moon will also be at its highest point in the sky for northern hemisphere viewers. That’s because the sun and full moon are opposite each other, and when the sun is low (i.e., in winter), the moon is high. That means anyone in North America will get a front-row seat to see the wolf moon.

An afternoon nap could improve your cognitive abilities, study says.  Say no more. 

Mysterious kick just after Big Bang may have created dark matter. 

’And then the socialist lizard men shot jagged laser things out of the cloud. And that angered the sky so much it went ‘Roar!’ and the sky wept, and then, thanks to QAnon, the sky stopped crying and a rainbow appeared. And we shot it with our guns because rainbows are gay. The defense rests.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT

PHOTOS OF THE DAY
The full moon rises above the horizon in Tirana, Albania
CREDIT: FLORION GOGA/REUTERS
An Arctic fox in Svalbard
CREDIT: VLADIMIR ALEKSEEV.WWW.TPOTY.COM
A plane flies towards cumulonimbus clouds above Lyon, central France
CREDIT: LAURENT CIPRIANI/AP

Market Closes for January 29^th, 2021 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1997, the U.S. Treasury auctioned off its first issue of inflation-indexed securities.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities fell for a third week, and fourth in five, as traders studied the latest corporate earnings and the implications of day traders pouring into stocks. The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 1.8% Friday, with all eleven sectors lower. Information technology was the weakest group, falling 2.8%. Wealthsimple Inc., a commission-free Canadian online brokerage with more than 350,000 clients, is warning traders about the risks of investing in some highly speculative stocks, but isn’t planning to halt trading in those shares.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced sweeping new restrictions on international travel in a bid to stem the spread of new variants of Covid-19. Meanwhile, Trudeau said Friday the delay in receiving Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine was temporary.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $13.25 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.2% to $1,846.40 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.4% to C$1.2781 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield rose 7.6 basis points to 0.891%
By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.8 percent at 17,337.02 in Toronto. The index dropped to the lowest closing level since Dec. 1 after the previous session’s increase of 1.3 percent. Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as all sectors lost; 192 of 221 shares fell, while 28 rose. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.8 percent. Westshore Terminals Investment Corp. had the largest drop, falling 6.3 percent.
Insights
* This month, the index fell 0.6 percent
* So far this week, the index fell 2.9 percent, heading for the
biggest decline since the week ended Oct. 30
* The index declined 1 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC
Americas Index gained 15 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 4 percent below its 52-week high on
Jan. 8, 2021 and 55.2 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
25.5 on a trailing basis and 16.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.73t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.98 percent compared with
10.67 percent in the previous session and the average of 8.75 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -99.5335| -1.9| 0/26
Information Technology | -51.6618| -2.8| 0/10
Industrials | -49.1089| -2.3| 3/26
Energy | -36.4350| -1.8| 1/21
Materials | -25.9796| -1.1| 15/37
Consumer Discretionary | -16.2073| -2.4| 0/13
Communication Services | -16.1488| -1.8| 1/6
Consumer Staples | -7.9630| -1.2| 1/10
Real Estate | -6.8180| -1.2| 0/25
Utilities | -5.1958| -0.6| 6/10
Health Care | -5.1240| -1.9| 1/8
US
By Kamaron Leach and Robert Brand
     (Bloomberg) — Global equities slumped in a broad retreat that extended across industries amid lingering concerns that retail trading was creating havoc and as traders mulled an uncertain outlook for deploying coronavirus vaccines. Treasury yields rose. The S&P 500 Index fell almost 2%, turning negative for the year and posting its biggest weekly decline in three months as day traders’ bids for heavily-shorted stocks fueled speculation hedge funds would need to reduce their market exposure. GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. soared in a return of volatility for stocks popular in internet chat rooms as brokerages said they would start to ease trading restrictions imposed after wild swings this week. Global stocks also fell the most since late October, partly on the turmoil caused by hordes of day traders hatching stock bets that roiled hedge funds and strained trading platforms.
Meanwhile, investors were left to ponder the outlook for the pandemic as Johnson & Johnson said its one-shot vaccine generated strong protection against Covid-19, though it was less effective against the South Africa variant. The European Union escalated the fight over vaccine supplies with an emergency plan to restrict exports. “Extended and stricter lockdowns do not bode well for the economy,” said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING Groep. “Demand from China could also weaken on the back of lockdowns.” The Stoxx Europe 600 dropped almost 2% in a broad decline. Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB fell after warning it’s still in “crisis mode,” with 40% of stores shut. Bootmaker Dr. Martens Plc jumped 22% as it ended its first day of trading in London.
     Elsewhere, a glut of liquidity sent short-term U.S. dollar borrowing costs to a record low. But in China, a money-market rate surged to the highest in almost six years, reflecting tighter financial conditions even after the central bank extended credit for the first time this week.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index fell 1.9% at 4 p.m. in New York.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 1.9%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific index fell 1.6%.
* The MSCI Emerging Markets index dropped 1.6%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%.
* The euro strengthened 0.1% to $1.2135.
* The British pound slipped 0.2% to $1.3698.
* The yen dropped 0.5% to 104.73 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose four basis points to 1.09%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield climbed two basis points to -0.52%.
* The U.K.’s 10-year yield rose four basis points to 0.325%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2% to $52.22 a barrel.
* Gold rose 0.1% to $1,844.93 an ounce.
–With assistance from Lu Wang, Adam Haigh, Cecile Gutscher and Cormac Mullen.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Often man is preoccupied with human rules and forgets the inner law.
                               -Louis-Joseph Antoine, the Healer, 1846-1912

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