June 13, 2024, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday Eve.
JUNE 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central solar system.
The U.S. space probe Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system as it crossed the orbit of Neptune.  Go to article >>

William Butler Yeats, poet, b.1865.
1963: Medgar Evars assassinated.

Ship of renowned polar explorer Ernest Shackleton found on ocean floor
Shipwreck experts found Ernest Shackleton’s last vessel on the ocean floor 62 years after its sinking. Read about his legacy and daring expeditions

Boston Celtics take 3-0 lead over Mavericks in NBA finals
The Celtics are now one victory away from clinching an NBA record 18th championship. Game 4 is scheduled for Friday.

‘I’m not retired.’ Rihanna sets the record straight
The superstar singer and entrepreneur is speaking out about rumors floating in the air of pop culture.

‘At least 150,000 tons’ of water frost discovered atop Mars’ tallest volcanoes
Once thought impossible to exist, water frost found atop Mars’ Tharsis region volcanoes could come in handy for future human exploration missions, new research suggests. Read More.

Mysterious 4,000-year-old ‘palace’ with maze-like walls found on Greek island of Crete
Archaeologists in Crete have discovered a 4,000-year-old structure that the Minoans may have used for rituals. Read More.

Why can’t we see colors well in the dark?
In the dark, vivid colors seem to fade to gray and they’re hard to tell apart. Why is that? Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

California, US
Some of the 249 flags planted in Dana Point on Flag Day
Photograph: Jeff Gritchen/AP

Narathiwat province, Thailand
A museum worker preserves an old copy of the Qur’an at the Museum of Islamic Cultural Heritage, which exhibits dozens of scriptures that are up to 1,000 years old
Photograph: Madaree Tohlala/AFP/Getty Images

​​​​​​​London, England
Christie’s gallery assistants adjust a gown from the Dressed to Scale autumn/winter 1998-1999 collection during a photocall for the auction Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection
Photograph: Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for June 13^th, 2024

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1986, real-time market data took a big leap forward (for better and for worse) as Standard & Poor’s began disseminating the value of the S&P 500-stock index every 15 seconds. Previously, the index price was updated once a minute.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.2% at 21,698.11 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 1.6% on May 29 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.3%.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.4%.
BlackBerry Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 9.2%.
Today, 179 of 222 shares fell, while 39 rose; 10 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss 14 times. The next day, it declined eight times for an average 0.4% and advanced six times for an average 0.5%
* This quarter, the index fell 2.1%
* So far this week, the index fell 1.4%, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended April 12
* The index advanced 8.5% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 23% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.8% below its 52-week high on May 21, 2024 and 16.1% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 2.4% in the past 5 days and fell 2.5% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.5 on a trailing basis and 14.8 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 11.31% compared with 10.76% in the previous session and the average of 9.95% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -86.5580| -1.3| 1/26
Energy | -74.0080| -1.9| 5/35
Materials | -46.0341| -1.7| 7/41
Information Technology | -19.8761| -1.1| 3/7
Industrials | -16.1357| -0.5| 6/21
Consumer Staples | -8.2591| -0.9| 2/8
Communication Services | -7.2725| -1.0| 2/3
Utilities | -4.6609| -0.6| 2/13
Real Estate | -1.0111| -0.2| 5/14
Health Care | -0.4211| -0.7| 1/3
Consumer Discretionary | 0.7838| 0.1| 5/8
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | -25.1100| -3.4| 552.2| 8.0
TD Bank | -14.7900| -1.6| 91.1| -12.9
RBC | -13.9900| -1.0| -46.5| 7.0
Celestica | 2.1830| 3.5| -28.1| 100.9
Cameco | 2.2510| 1.0| 3.1| 27.3
AtkinsRealis Group Inc | 3.9350| 5.8| 94.8| 35.9
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks closed at a fresh all-time high as tech rallied, with Treasury yields sinking on bets the Federal Reserve will cut rates this year amid signs of disinflation.
Equities rebounded after a brief drop, with the S&P 500 notching a fourth consecutive record — its 29th this year.
Treasuries climbed across the curve, with 10-year yields breaking below 4.3%.
A $22 billion sale of 30-year debt saw strong demand.
Heightened political risk in France drove the  premium on the nation’s 10-year bonds to the widest since 2017 over German peers.
The producer price index unexpectedly declined the most in seven months, adding to evidence that inflationary pressures are moderating.
Several categories that are used to calculate the Fed’s preferred inflation measure — the personal consumption expenditures price index — were softer in May than a month earlier.
“The latest data in hand nudge the door a little wider open for the Fed to begin making an interest rate cut later this year,” said Bill Adams at Comerica Bank, which forecasts Fed reductions in September and December.
The S&P 500 topped 5,430. Tesla Inc. jumped after Elon Musk said shareholders backed his compensation package. Broadcom Inc. led a rally in chipmakers after announcing solid earnings and a 10-for-1 stock split.
GameStop Corp. climbed as Keith Gill, known as “Roaring Kitty,” posted on X.
Treasury 10-year yields fell eight basis points to 4.24%.
Aside from France’s political jitters, the European Union’s bonds got hit as bets they would soon be added to key sovereign benchmarks received a blow, undermining the bloc’s efforts to broaden the appeal of its debt.
Fear of missing out on the technology rally is running as rampant among active mutual funds as it’s ever been.
Mutual funds have been upping their technology positions since the beginning of 2024 to catch the group’s rally — while cutting exposure everywhere else.
That’s pushed their overweight on the group to an all-time high, data compiled by Barclays Plc strategists show.
A historically strong start to the year for the US stock market should continue into the second half of 2024, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s asset management division.
While the move may look more like a grind than a rocket ride after the S&P 500’s double-digit return since January, solid earnings, the end of the Fed’s monetary-tightening campaign and economic strength will continue to lift US equities in the coming months, strategists at the firm led by David Kelly wrote.
They recommend buying large-cap shares and a mix of value and growth stocks.
US large caps look more expensive relative to bond markets than at any point in the last two decades, though this may have little meaning for equity returns and may not imply a bubble has emerged in stocks, according to Bloomberg Intelligence strategists led by Gina Martin Adams.
“The most recent historical precedent shows relative value is a poor predictor of returns,” they wrote.
Stocks spent the better part of the bull market in the 1980s and ‘90s at worse relative value levels and still posted remarkable annualized growth, according to BI.
Valuation excesses are also only evident via the market-cap weight, with the equal-weighted index near its pre-pandemic norm and nine of 11 sectors’ relative valuations below average.
Traders continued to keep a close eye on the macroeconomic picture.
The producer price index unexpectedly declined the most in seven months, adding to evidence that inflationary pressures are moderating.
Several categories that are used to calculate the Fed’s preferred inflation measure — the personal consumption expenditures price index — were softer in May than a month earlier.
The PPI report came on the heels of a soft reading on consumer prices that offered some reassurance that progress toward the Fed’s 2% inflation target has resumed.
US officials penciled in just one interest-rate cut this year and forecast more cuts for 2025, reinforcing policymakers’ calls to keep borrowing costs high for longer to suppress inflation.
The Fed’s “dot plot” showed four policymakers saw no cuts this year, while seven anticipated just one reduction and eight expected two cuts.
“This is still just one month and the takeaway from the June Fed meeting stands: a much more sustained downshift extending across the coming months will be needed for the Fed to move on rates,” said Krishna Guha at Evercore.
But this is exactly the kind of data Jerome Powell needs to steer a wary FOMC to two cuts, he added.
The Fed’s favored inflation gauge is set for the smallest advance since November following two better-than-expected reports on prices out this week.
Several analysts expect the so-called core PCE gauge, due later this month, advanced just 0.1% in May.
Such a print would help bolster the case for two interest-rate cuts this year.

Corporate Highlights:
* Boeing Co. said it’s inspecting undelivered 787 Dreamliners after discovering that fasteners were incorrectly installed on a section of the carbon-composite aircraft, underscoring the heightened scrutiny on quality lapses at the embattled manufacturer.
* Ford Motor Co. will sell its lineup of electric vehicles through all 2,800 of its US dealers in a bid to boost sales of battery-powered models now being shunned by mainstream buyers.
* Snowflake Inc. plans to close its own investigation this week into a hacking campaign that ensnared as many as 165 of its customers.
* John R. Tyson was suspended from his role as chief financial officer of Tyson Foods Inc. after an arrest for allegedly driving while intoxicated, the company said in a Thursday statement
* The US Supreme Court sided with Starbucks Corp. over the National Labor Relations Board in a decision that will make it more difficult for the agency to win temporary reinstatement of workers fired during labor disputes.

Key events this week:
* Bank of Japan’s monetary policy decision, Friday
* Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks, Friday
* US University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.2% as of 4:01 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
* The MSCI World Index fell 0.4%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro fell 0.6% to $1.0741
* The British pound fell 0.3% to $1.2765
* The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 157.07 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 2.1% to $66,632.76
* Ether fell 2% to $3,482.52
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined eight basis points to 4.24%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 2.47%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.12%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.6% to $78.03 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.9% to $2,303.53 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
We are all here for some special reason.  Stop being a prisoner of your past.  Become the architect of your future. –Robin Sharma, b. 1964.

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