June 16, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:  Happy Friday.  Happy Father’s Day weekend!

On June 16, 1933, President Roosevelt opened his New Deal recovery program, signing bank, rail, and industry bills and initiating farm aid.  Go to article

June 16, 2010: The world’s first country-wide total tobacco ban goes into effect in Bhutan.  It is still legal in the South Asian country to smoke in a private setting, but obtaining tobacco products legally is close to impossible.

Mercedes-Benz is bringing ChatGPT into its cars.  The powerful software in Mercedes’ new vehicles will be able to engage in realistically human-like dialog… like a built-in carpool buddy.

Netflix is opening a restaurant.  You can’t share passwords, but you can share food! Netflix is taking its content “from screen to table” with a new pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles.

The only skyscraper in Paris is about to turn 50.  And many Parisians still hate it.

‘Octagonal’ sword from Bronze Age burial in Germany is so well preserved it shines.
Archaeologists in Germany have unearthed a sword from a Bronze Age burial, and the weapon is in such good condition that it still gleams.  Read More

Vast cemetery of Bronze Age burial mounds unearthed near Stonehenge
Archaeologists have discovered a vast cemetery of Bronze Age burial mounds ahead of a building development near Stonehenge. Read More.

Quantum computers could overtake classical ones within 2 years, IBM ‘benchmark’ experiment shows
True quantum supremacy, in which quantum computers overtake classical digital ones, could be here surprisingly soon. Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Paris, France
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic reacts during his defeat of Norway’s Casper Ruud in the men’s singles final of the French Open at the Court Philippe-Chatrier. Djokovic said he was as motivated as ever to continue pushing forward after winning a men’s record 23rd grand slam title. ‘[The] journey is still not over,’ he said. ‘I feel, if I’m winning slams, why even think about, you know, ending the career that already has been going on for 20 years’.  Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

London, England
A member of the massed bands of the Household Division faints due to heat exhaustion while participating in the colonel’s review at Horse Guards Parade in London. At least three guardsmen fainted in the heat during the military parade as temperatures in the UK hit 30C for the first time this year.  Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA.

Sekenani, Kenya
A group of Maasai women dance to traditional songs during a Maasai cultural festival in Sekenani. The Maasai people are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting Kenya and northern Tanzania. The festival is a popular gathering and celebration of the Maasai cultural heritage and aims to showcase the community’s traditional activities and fashion.  Photograph: Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images.
Market Closes for June 16^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1812: The State of New York chartered a new institution called City Bank of New York, capitalized at $2 million, with $800,000 already raised. Today, it is global behemoth Citigroup.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.3% at 19,975.37 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since falling 0.4% on June 7 and follows the previous session’s increase of 0.1%.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.2%.
Mag Silver Corp. had the largest drop, falling 6.4%.
Today, 126 of 232 shares fell, while 104 rose; 7 of 11
sectors were lower, led by information technology stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index fell 0.6%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.4%
* The index advanced 5.1% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 19% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 4.2% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 11.8% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.1 on a trailing basis and 13.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.19t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 10.85% compared with 11.82% in the previous session and the average of 11.24% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology | -23.8993| -1.5| 4/8
Energy | -16.3386| -0.5| 17/23
Financials | -8.9945| -0.1| 14/15
Utilities | -6.8082| -0.8| 8/8
Consumer Staples | -4.8254| -0.6| 3/8
Real Estate | -4.4672| -0.9| 3/18
Health Care | -0.1085| -0.2| 2/4
Consumer Discretionary | 1.7978| 0.2| 7/8
Communication Services | 3.8084| 0.5| 3/2
Materials | 3.8605| 0.2| 29/19
Industrials | 4.0086| 0.1| 14/13
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | -15.8600| -2.2| 114.5| 81.9
Canadian Natural Resources | -7.3830| -1.3| 42.1| -3.5
Manulife Financial | -6.3240| -1.9| 70.9| 3.7
Barrick Gold | 3.1810| 1.2| 248.9| -5.0
Enbridge | 3.3750| 0.5| 46.9| -6.5
Canadian National | 4.6390| 0.7| 177.5| -2.4
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A seemingly unstoppable advance fueled by Wall Street’s obsession over anything related to artificial intelligence took a breather on Friday, with the market facing the test of a massive options expiration.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 underperformed major benchmarks, led by losses in giants Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. — which had recently closed at all-time highs.
A worrisome warning from Micron Technology Inc. weighed on chipmakers, while Adobe Inc. climbed on a bullish forecast.
The S&P 500 halted a six-day  winning streak, but still notched its best week since March.
Stock traders caught between the fear of missing out on this year’s rally and mounting concerns about an overbought market had something else to cope with this week: positioning.
With an estimated $4.2 trillion in options contracts tied to stocks and indexes scheduled to mature, traders would typically need to either roll over existing positions or start new ones.
The impact of derivatives on trading this week was so significant that, at one point, the market’s favorite volatility gauge was climbing alongside the S&P 500.
The so-called VIX finally gave in, and with Friday’s plunge, it ended up erasing this week’s advance.
“The market could see some wild swings in either direction for no fundamental (or even technical) reason at all,” wrote Matt Maley, chief market strategist Miller Tabak + Co. “So nobody should read anything into today’s movement.”
Indeed, the market seemed to have ignored certain developments that would otherwise be considered catalysts for trading.
That was the case with data showing a slump in consumer year-ahead inflation expectations and the latest geopolitical news.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia has delivered its first tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, three months after announcing the plan that threatens to ratchet up tensions with the US and its allies over the war in Ukraine.
Not even hawkish Fed-speak had much of an impact or any impact at all in Friday’s trading.
“The market caught a renewed bid from traders suffering from FOMO and ‘chasing’ the market higher,” said Tom Essaye, a former Merrill Lynch trader who founded The Sevens Report newsletter. “We are not bearish stocks right now, but we are growing cautious on the very near-term direction of the market given how quickly the market priced in a very Goldilocks macroeconomic environment based on only limited evidence of improvement in the current major market influences.”
The S&P 500 may have entered a technical bull market last week, but Bank of America Corp.’s Michael Hartnett said Friday he’s not convinced this is the start of a “brand, new shiny bull market.”
The current market looks more like 2000 or 2008, with a “big rally before big collapse,” Hartnett wrote.
Equities had about $22 billion inflows in the week through June 14, while bonds had $6.7 billion of additions, BofA said in a note, citing EPFR Global data.
In other corporate news, iRobot Corp. soared after Amazon.com Inc.’s proposed $1.7 billion deal to buy the robot vacuum firm was given the all-clear by the UK’s antitrust agency.
Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc., Richard Branson’s space-tourism venture, surged after announcing that its long-awaited first commercial passenger mission will take off as soon as June 27.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.4% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%
* The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0936
* The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.2822
* The Japanese yen fell 1.1% to 141.84 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3.3% to $26,393.75
* Ether rose 3.2% to $1,721.52
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced five basis points to 3.76%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 2.47%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.41%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.5% to $71.66 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,968.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric and Isabelle Lee.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to. –W.C. Fields, 1880-1946.

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