July 4, 2019 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Independence Day, USA.

Happy 4^th of July!

 The Gift of Outright

     -by Robert Frost

The land was ours before we were the land’s.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England’s, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

 ~Spoken by the Poet at the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

 July 4, 1905 – House of Commons passes bills establishing Alberta and Saskatchewan as provinces.  Go to article >>

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A woman poses for a photo at the sunflower field in Edirne, Turkey
CREDIT: SALIH BARAN/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

A sculpture celebrating Aston Martin and the 70^th anniversary of the car company’s first race at Goodwood displayed outside Goodwood, ahead of the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend.\
CREDIT: PAUL MELBERT

Aerial view of fields in Wick near Pershore, Worcestshire which has now closed to the public so that the flowers can be harvested to make 100% biodegradable confetti.
CREDIT:TRISTAN POTTER/SWNS

A person gestures while observing a solar eclipse at Incahuasi, Chile
CREDIT: REUTERS/JUAN JOSE GONZALEZ GALAZ
Market Closes for July 4^th, 2019

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.  –Warren Buffet, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks ended Thursday’s session slightly higher in thin trading given the July 4 U.S. holiday. Gains in industrial shares were offset by a decline in marijuana stocks.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.08% to 16,588.85 in Toronto. Industrials were led by airline stocks, while the health-care index slid as cannabis stocks retreated.
     Meanwhile, Toronto home sales jumped again in June, nudging prices higher and narrowing affordable options for buyers. A total of 8,860 homes changed hands in Canada’s biggest city in the month, up 10% from the same month a year earlier, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported Thursday.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Richelieu Hardware rose 11% after reporting second quarter earnings 
* Lightspeed POS Inc. gained 6.2% 
* MEG Energy rose 3.9% after 6-day for decline; additional energy stocks also rose after several days of decline
* OceanaGold fell 5.6% after the company filed injunction against restraint of operations at Didipio 
* CES Energy Solutions Corp. lost 4.8% 
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $13.10 discount to WTI
* Gold fell 0.2% to $1,416.19 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar was little changed at C$1.3055 per U.S. dollar
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield rose 1 basis point to 1.47%
US
By Laura Curtis
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stock futures and European shares edged higher Thursday in a lackluster session marked by thin trading volumes thanks to the American holiday. Brazilian stocks surged and the real gained as a congressional committee voted to advance the pension-reform bill. Gold slipped but stayed above $1,400 and WTI futures fell.
     The Stoxx Europe 600 Index finished modestly higher, with real estate firms and banks lifting the gauge. Contracts on the S&P 500 Index also nudged up after Asia’s benchmark finished higher overall thanks to gains in Japan and South Korea. Trading volumes were well below average across the board, with U.S. markets shut for the July 4 holiday and investors counting down to Friday’s American jobs report.
     Core European bonds climbed, with German 10-year yields sliding below the European Central Bank’s deposit rate for the first time. Treasuries aren’t trading thanks to Independence Day. The dollar was slightly lower in the wake of accusations from President Donald Trump that the European Union and China engage in currency manipulation, while the euro edged higher. Thursday’s holiday in the U.S. is giving many investors a breather after a hectic few weeks in which bonds surged and stocks hit records as they tracked every twist in the trade war, tried to second guess central bankers and analyzed every data point. Next up, a U.S. jobs report that will be closely monitored for clues on the Federal Reserve’s next move.
     “Friday’s data is important to the extent that it will calibrate expectations for what the Fed could deliver later this month,” said Ned Rumpeltin, European head of FX strategy at Toronto-Dominion Bank in London. “It is more about confirming the market’s current bias rather than setting fresh expectations.”
     On the currency-war front, Trump in a Twitter post Wednesday said China and Europe are playing a “big currency manipulation game” and “pumping money into their system” to compete with the U.S. He said America should match their efforts “or continue being dummies” who watch other countries manipulate currencies.
Here are some key events coming up:
* U.S. equity markets close Thursday for the Independence Day holiday.
* The U.S. jobs report is due Friday and is projected to show non-farm payrolls rose by 160,000 in June, rebounding from 75,000 the month prior.
Here are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* Futures on the S&P 500 Index increased 0.1% as of 2:16 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.1%, reaching the highest in 12 months.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index decreased 0.1%, the first retreat in a week.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.3% to the highest in two months.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index jumped 0.5%.
* Brazil’s Ibovespa index surged as much as 1.9% to a record high.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%.
* The euro increased less than 0.05% to $1.1283.
* The British pound gained less than 0.05% to $1.258.
* The Japanese yen climbed less than 0.05% to 107.78 per dollar.
* The Brazilian real climbed 0.8% to 3.7956 per dollar, the strongest in three months.
Bonds
* Britain’s 10-year yield dipped two basis points to 0.673%, the lowest in almost three years.
* Germany’s 10-year yield decreased two basis points to -0.402%.
Commodities
* Gold dipped 0.2% to $1,415.48 an ounce.
* West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 0.9% to $56.80 a barrel.
–With assistance from Anchalee Worrachate.

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.

                                                  -John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917-1963

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