June 23, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:  
1868~Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the “Type-Writer.”  Go to article »

2016~ Brexit referendum: UK votes to leave the European Union.

South African brothers vanish, and so does $3.6 billion in Bitcoin.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Museum director Taco Dibbits explains how Rembrandt’s biggest painting the Night Watch just got bigger with the help of artificial intelligence in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Right above Dibbits, left, one of the added parts is seen, the Dutch national museum and art gallery reveals findings from a long-term project to examine in minute detail Rembrandt van Rijn’s masterpiece the Night Watch. 
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/PETER DEJONG

Hymn to the Big Wheel by Liz West is unveiled as part of the Summer Lights festival at Canary Wharf
CREDIT: DAVID PARRY/PA WIRE

The Royal Ballet’s Beauty Mixed Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The Anemoi World Premiere by Valentino Zucchetti 
CREDIT: ELLIOT FRANKS

A deer amongst the poppies in a field in Salisbury. A drop in temperatures has been forecast this week as two weather fronts slowly move across the UK. Rain and cloud are expected to blanket the UK before a weather front of much heavier rain moves in
CREDIT: MARTIN COOK / SWNS

Market Closes for June 23^rd, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1836, with the U.S. national debt eliminated the year prior and the federal budget running a surplus, President Andrew Jackson’s plan to distribute it to the states was enacted. Jackson declared that the U.S. would “always” have a budget surplus. Yet by the time it was paid out, it had already shrunk to 25% less than the government’s original estimate
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities closed lower Wednesday in a session lacking direction. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.2% with ten of eleven sectors lagging. Empire Co. led the market lower after reducing same-store sales for the full year. Enbridge Inc.’s embattled plan to build a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac for its Line 5 oil pipeline will need a more thorough review from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the latest setback for the project opposed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. BlackBerry Ltd. shareholders voted to keep Prem Watsa as lead director, despite complaints from a proxy advisory firm and a prominent investor that he failed to ensure the company’s executive pay is aligned with its performance.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $14.00 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold barely budged at ~$1,778.38 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.02% to C$1.2303 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield rose 1.7 basis points to 1.422%
By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.2 percent at 20,164.39 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s increase of 0.2 percent. Franco-Nevada Corp. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.4 percent. Equinox Gold Corp. had the largest drop, falling 6.3 percent. Today, 134 of 231 shares fell, while 96 rose; 10 of 11 sectors were lower, led by consumer staples stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 7.8 percent
* This month, the index rose 2.2 percent
* The index advanced 30 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 37 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.6 percent below its 52-week high on June 16, 2021 and 33.1 percent above its low on June 24, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.3 percent in the past 5 days and rose 3.3 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.3 on a trailing basis and 16.8 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.6 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.18t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 7.78 percent compared with 8.33 percent in the previous session and the average of 9.06 percent over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Consumer Staples | -7.1634| -1.0| 3/10
* Communication Services | -5.4919| -0.6| 1/6
* Utilities | -5.0719| -0.5| 5/11
* Financials | -4.8064| -0.1| 12/16
* Energy | -3.8793| -0.1| 13/9
* Real Estate | -3.2677| -0.5| 7/19
* Industrials | -3.1662| -0.1| 14/16
* Materials | -2.5388| -0.1| 23/30
* Consumer Discretionary | -1.7383| -0.2| 5/8
* Information Technology | -0.8969| 0.0| 5/7
* Health Care | 1.7471| 0.6| 8/2
================================================================
| | |Volume VS | YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Franco-Nevada | -3.3480| -1.4| -3.6| 12.8
* BCE | -3.0200| -0.8| -64.0| 11.6
* Enbridge | -2.9580| -0.4| -52.0| 20.6
* Bank of Nova Scotia | 2.5320| 0.4| -7.6| 16.2
* Teck Resources | 2.6910| 3.1| 1.1| 19.5
* First Quantum | | | |
* Minerals | 3.1500| 3.0| 6.5| 22.9

US
By Rita Nazareth and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Stocks traded in a tight range Wednesday as investors assessed prospects for an economic recovery and continued Federal Reserve support amid the threat of inflation. Treasuries fell. The S&P 500 drifted between gains and losses throughout the day, with companies tied to a broader reopening of the economy – – such as retail and financial shares — outperforming. A rally in Tesla Inc. drove the Nasdaq Composite to a fresh record even as the gauge rose just 0.1%.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tumbled as the Supreme Court dealt a blow to investors in their challenge to the U.S. collection of more than $100 billion in profits from government-sponsored enterprises. The economy will likely meet the Fed’s threshold for tapering its asset purchases sooner than people think, noted Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, who’s penciled in a rate hike next year. His Atlanta counterpart Raphael Bostic said the central bank could decide to slow its asset purchases in the next few months.  Meantime, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her department may exhaust emergency measures to avoid breaching the debt limit as soon as August unless Congress acts to avert a potential default that would be “catastrophic.” Data Wednesday showed U.S. manufacturing activity expanded in June at the fastest pace in records dating back to 2007.
Meantime, sales of new homes unexpectedly fell last month as elevated home prices continued to weigh on affordability.  The reports came a day after Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated his views that policy makers will be patient in waiting to lift rates despite higher inflation. “You’ve got this inflation issue that has captured the imagination of investors for the first time in a long time,”  said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Private Wealth Management. “I don’t have a great case for why the market takes another leap forward here over the summer. It’s going to be more of a churn, and we usually do get a little bit more volatility because volumes are down.” One-month correlations between the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Treasury Index and the S&P 500 Total Return Index have fallen back below zero.  Stocks and bonds moving in lockstep create headaches for fund managers who use fixed-income securities to diversify their portfolios and protect them against a selloff in equities.

Here are some events to watch this week:
* Bank of England interest rate decision Thursday
* The Fed releases Thursday the results of stress tests on the largest U.S. banks
* U.S. wholesale inventories, initial jobless claims, GDP, durable goods due Thursday
* U.S. personal income/spending, University of Michigan sentiment on Friday

These are some of the main moves in financial markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 was little changed
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
* The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro fell 0.1% to $1.1924
* The British pound was little changed at $1.3959
* The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 110.99 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose three basis points to 1.49%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to -0.18%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.78%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $73.26 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,775.40 an ounce
–With assistance from Andreea Papuc, Namitha Jagadeesh, Cormac Mullen and Claire Ballentine.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

There is only one way to get anybody to do anything.  
And that is by making the other person want to do it. -Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955.

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