July 2nd, 2024, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
July 2, 1776: US Declaration of Independence.
July 2, 1964: US Civil Rights Act.

July 2, 2002: Steve Fossett completes the first solo around-the-world balloon flight.  It took him 13 days in a balloon called Spirit of Freedom to cover 20,000 miles.

Hermann Hesse, writer, b.1887.

4,000-year-old rock art in Venezuela may be from a ‘previously unknown’ culture
Archaeologists in Venezuela have discovered 20 previously unknown rock art sites that are thousands of years old. Read More.

12,000-year-old Aboriginal sticks may be evidence of the oldest known culturally transmitted ritual in the world
Aboriginal artifacts in Australia that were likely used for ritual spells may be evidence of the oldest culturally transmitted ritual on record. Read More.

How does CRISPR work?
CRISPR is a versatile tool for editing genomes and has recently been approved as a gene therapy treatment for certain blood disorders. Read More.

When did humans start wearing shoes?
The oldest known sandals are from Oregon, but there may be older shoes out there. Read More.

Earth from space: Green River winds through radioactive ‘labyrinth of shadows’
This 2018 astronaut photo shows a striking section of the Green River as it winds through Utah’s “Labyrinth Canyon.” The canyon’s steep walls cast long shadows that hide many secrets, including caves and abandoned uranium mines.
Read More.

Royal talent: Drawings by teenage Queen Victoria to go up for auction
A set of 19th-century drawings by a teenage Queen Victoria will be put up for auction in London next week. See the sketches here.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Xinjiang, China
Tourists take in the scenery at the Bayanbulak Grassland
Photograph: Costfoto/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Jakarta, Indonesia
People visit an art exhibition by the advertising agency Genexyz at Grand Indonesia shopping mall
Photograph: Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters

​​​​​​​Michigan, US
A woman loses her hat as waves crash into the Saint Joseph Lighthouses near Tiscornia beach
Photograph: Don Campbell/AP
Market Closes for July 2^nd, 2024

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1890: The Shearman Anti-Trust Act became law, allowing the Justice Department to investigate and break up industrial monopolies, in a backlash against the monopolistic excesses of “robber barons.”
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.4% at 21,953.80 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since June 12 after the previous session’s decrease of 0.3%.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 0.9%.
International Petroleum Corp. had the largest increase, rising 6.5%.
Today, 139 of 226 shares rose, while 81 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* The index advanced 8.9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 23% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.7% below its 52-week high on May 21, 2024 and 17.4% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.5% in the past 5 days and fell 1.4% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.6 on a trailing basis and 14.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.48t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.09% compared with 11.02% in the previous session and the average of 10.81% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 40.2875| 0.6| 21/5
Energy | 39.8550| 1.0| 33/7
Information Technology | 12.7121| 0.7| 8/2
Consumer Staples | 10.8953| 1.2| 10/1
Real Estate | 2.3963| 0.5| 16/4
Health Care | 0.6579| 1.1| 3/0
Utilities | -1.3998| -0.2| 6/9
Consumer Discretionary | -1.8123| -0.2| 7/6
Materials | -4.0832| -0.2| 25/24
Industrials | -6.0166| -0.2| 10/18
Communication Services | -15.4690| -2.3| 0/5
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | 13.0500| 0.9| 88.1| 9.7
Canadian Natural Resources | 8.2420| 1.1| -35.7| 13.5
Suncor Energy | 7.5490| 1.6| -52.8| 24.8
Nutrien | -4.5630| -1.9| 115.4| -8.5
Restaurant Brands | -5.4180| -2.5| -55.7| -9.3
BCE | -9.3730| -3.3| 72.5| -17.9
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street traders sent stocks to all-time highs as bond yields fell, with traders looking at prospects for Federal Reserve rate cuts after Jerome Powell cited signals the US is back on a disinflationary path.
For the first time in its history, the S&P 500 closed above 5,500 to extend a blistering 2024 rally that has left analysts scrambling to update their targets.
It was the gauge’s 32^nd record this year.
Tesla Inc. surged 10% to lead gains in mega-caps, though Nvidia Corp. failed to gain traction.
The Nasdaq 100 hit the 20,000 mark.
The S&P 500 will rally to new peaks by the end of the year as economic strength outweighs market risks, according to Lori Calvasina at RBC Capital Markets.
She raised her year-end target to 5,700 from 5,300 — among the highest on Wall Street — despite the fact that the market has “gotten a bit ahead of itself.”
“Our suspicion is that 2024’s economy will end up being strong enough to justify a strong move in the S&P 500 for the year as a whole,” Calvasina said.
Data Tuesday showed job openings unexpectedly rose, interrupting a trend that underscored a slowdown in labor seen as key for Fed easing.
Powell said there’s been a “substantial” move toward better balance between the supply of and demand for workers.
He described the job market as strong, but said it is cooling off appropriately so.
To Krishna Guha at Evercore, Powell’s comments were notably upbeat on inflation progress — while also incrementally careful on the balance of risks and employment.
“There was no explicit signal on cuts, but these were assessments that would plausibly support a cut in September,” Guha said.
The record-setting surge in US equities, driven chiefly by American technology behemoths, is once again igniting comparisons to prior boom-and bust cycles on Wall Street.
But parallels to the dot-com era and stock-market frenzies of the past are so far exaggerated, if history is any guide.
While the S&P 500 has posted an 85% advance since 2019, even despite some drawdowns over the period, major bull runs of the 20th century dwarf that return.
The US stock benchmark soared 220% in the last five years of the Internet bubble at the turn of the century, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data, and 238% in the same-period stretch of the Roaring Twenties.
Deutsche Bank AG strategists expect US earnings to rise by an above-average 13% for the second quarter, driven by mega-cap growth and tech stocks.
The outlook is for a sixth straight quarter of above average beats.
However, the team led by Binky Chadha expects market reaction to be subdued as stocks have rallied in the run-up to the season.
Wall Street is now gearing up for a slew of economic data that will hit the tape on Wednesday — when the market closes early ahead of Thursday’s holiday.
That’s ahead of the all-important US payrolls reading due Friday.
Economists expect the report to show employers added about 195,000 payrolls in June and the unemployment rate held at 4%.
To Jose Torres at Interactive Brokers, the next three months of inflation reports will be crucial for both investor sentiment and policymakers’ timing for turning dovish.
“June will likely show continued disinflation, but the potential results for July and August are less clear, raising the question of how many months of favorable data are needed before the Fed moves,” he noted.

Corporate Highlights:
* Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co. fell as President Joe Biden demanded price cuts on their weight loss and diabetes drugs. Separately, Lilly won US approval for an Alzheimer’s treatment.
* Lennar Corp. and D.R. Horton Inc. dropped after being downgraded by Citigroup Inc. on concerns about a “sluggish” housing market.
* Paramount Global is in exclusive talks to sell its Black Entertainment Television network to buyers that include BET Chief Executive Officer Scott Mills and Chinh Chu, who runs the New York-based private equity firm CC Capital.
* PG&E Corp. cut power to about 2,000 homes and businesses in Northern California as triple-digit temperatures, strong winds and low humidity heightened the risk of wildfires.
* Robinhood Markets Inc. is considering offering cryptocurrency futures in the US and Europe in the coming months, according to people familiar with the commission-free investing and trading platform’s plan.

Key events this week:
* China Caixin services PMI, Wednesday
* Eurozone S&P Global Eurozone Services PMI, PPI, Wednesday
* US Fed minutes, ADP employment, ISM Services, factory orders, initial jobless claims, durable goods, Wednesday
* Fed’s John Williams speaks, Wednesday
* UK general election, Thursday
* US Independence Day holiday, Thursday
* Eurozone retail sales, Friday
* US jobs report, Friday
* Fed’s John Williams speaks, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World Index rose 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0746
* The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.2686
* The Japanese yen was unchanged at 161.46 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 2.2% to $61,874.51
* Ether fell 1.5% to $3,410.95
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 4.43%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.60%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 4.25%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.4% to $83.03 a barrel
* Spot gold was little changed

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Alexandra Semenova, Farah Elbahrawy, Jessica Menton, Elena Popina, Julien Ponthus, Robert Brand and Aya Wagatsuma.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. -Book of Proverbs, 16:18.

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