Dear Friends,
Tangents: Happy Friday.
June 26, 1945: The United Nations Charter is signed, creating the UN and giving the post-war world a new forum for diplomacy, peacekeeping and international law.
June 26TH, 2000: Rival scientific teams completed the first rough map of the human genetic code. Go to article.
Abner Doubleday invented baseball, b. 1819.
Pearl S. Buck, writer, b. 1892.
When hope is taken away from the people, moral degeneration follows swiftly after. – Pearl S. Buck.
| NASA rover finds record-breaking trove of complex organic molecules on Mars |
Data from NASA’s Perseverance rover confirms the presence of macromolecular carbon on Mars – another potential piece of the puzzle in the search for life. Read more.
| Some of the last surviving Neanderthals were remarkably diverse — suggesting inbreeding didn’t doom them |
Some Neanderthals living in northwestern Europe after 52,500 years ago were surprisingly diverse, suggesting that they didn’t all go extinct due to inbreeding. Read more.
| Scientists find thousands of earthquakes in a perfectly straight line in Alaska, revealing a hidden ‘microplate’ |
Tiny earthquakes that emerge in a strikingly linear pattern revealed the Yakutat microplate, which may be focusing volcano and earthquake activity. Read more.
| ‘This is the next jump in technology’: World’s first sub-1nm chip keeps Moore’s Law alive a little longer |
IBM’s NanoStack architecture has helped scientists cram 100 billion transistors onto a computer chip, delivering 50% better performance and consuming 70% less energy than the current generation. Read more.
| New chip harnesses quantum computing’s biggest weakness — and tries to turn it into a strength |
A new quantum computing chip turns destructive noise into a programmable feature, helping scientists study signal loss and error correction to build more effective systems in the future. Read more.
As a company grows, everything needs to scale, including the size of your failed experiments. -Jeffrey Preston Bezos.
Royal renovation nears completion
Britain’s King Charles will not live at Buckingham Palace after its 10-year refurbishment finishes next year. Here’s why.
Battle relic found
An iron cannonball that may have played a role in the 1836 Battle of the Alamo was unearthed in Texas this month.
Huge jet flies mere feet above the ground
A viral video that shows a Boeing 777 flying just feet above the ground has drawn the attention of the FAA.
Could you have saved the shots that shaped soccer penalty history?
With the 2026 World Cup entering the knockout stages, penalty shootouts could decide who moves on. In this fun CNN interactive game, you’ll play goalkeeper and guess where each shooter is aiming and try to save all five shots. Good luck – you’ve got this.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY
Loretz-d’Argenton, France
A lone sunflower stands in a field of grain in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in western France
Photograph: Stéphane
London, UK
Ground staff brave the sun to prepare the courts before next week’s start of the Wimbledon tennis tournament
Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images
Chamonix, France
Alpinists walk near the Aiguille du Midi during a heatwave, as high temperatures raise concerns about glacier melt
Photograph: Pierre Albouy/Reuters
Market Closes for June 26th, 2026
| Market Index |
Close | Change |
| Dow Jones |
51876.11 | -44.51 |
| -0.09% | ||
| S&P 500 | 7354.02 | -3.47 |
| -0.05% | ||
| NASDAQ | 25297.62 | -60.98 |
| -0.24% | ||
| TSX | 34980.00 | +129.79
+0.37% |
International Markets
| Market Index |
Close | Change |
| NIKKEI | 69360.88 | -3005.46 |
| -4.15% | ||
| HANG SENG |
22671.86 | -405.05 |
| -1.76% | ||
| SEN SEX | 77100.47 | +109.25 |
| +0.14% | ||
| FTSE 100* | 10508.02 | -21.87 |
| -0.21% |
Bonds
| Bonds | % Yield | Previous % Yield |
| CND. 10 Year Bond |
3.386 | 3.384 |
| CND. 30 Year Bond |
3.795 | 3.787 |
| U.S. 10 Year Bond |
4.3686 | 4.3922 |
| U.S. 30 Year Bond |
4.8640 | 4.8611 |
| BOC Close | Today | Previous |
| Canadian $ | 0.7048 | 0.7042 |
| US $ |
1.4189 | 1.4199 |
| Euro Rate 1 Euro= |
Inverse | |
| Canadian $ | 0.6187 | 1.6161 |
| US $ |
0.8778 | 1.1391 |
Commodities
| Gold | Close | Previous |
| London Gold Fix |
4001.80 | 4024.45 |
| Oil | ||
| WTI Crude Future | 69.23 | 72.61 |
Market Commentary:
On this day in 2000, Celera Genomics Group, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Energy jointly announced that they had completed the sequencing of the human genome, which could ultimately unlock the mysteries of human health. Celera’s stock promptly lost 11% of its value. Wall Street had bought on the rumor and decided to sell on the news.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.4%, or 129.79 to 34,980.00 in Toronto.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.6%.
BlackBerry Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 10.3%.
Today, 146 of 220 shares rose, while 72 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by information technology stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 6.8%
* This month, the index rose 0.6%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.4%
* The index advanced 31% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 20% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.8% below its 52-week high on June 17, 2026 and 31.7% above its low on June 26, 2025
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.7 on a trailing basis and 16.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$5.5t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 13.56% compared with 14.16% in the previous session and the average of 13.91% over the past month
Index Points
Information Technology | 59.0537| 2.4| 8/1
Materials | 58.0553| 1.0| 49/11
Industrials | 27.3509| 0.7| 19/11
Real Estate | 7.6386| 1.6| 18/0
Utilities | 7.3647| 0.6| 10/4
Consumer Discretionary | 4.2586| 0.4| 4/4
Health Care | -1.1308| -1.0| 2/3
Consumer Staples | -2.3893| -0.2| 5/5
Communication Services | -3.1855| -0.5| 2/3
Energy | -8.3670| -0.1| 16/20
Financials | -18.8766| -0.2| 13/10
Shopify | 62.4900| 4.6| 10.8| -25.0
Barrick Mining | 9.5110| 1.6| -18.8| -11.5
Franco-Nevada | 9.3790| 2.3| 13.8| 7.3
TD Bank | -10.1900| -0.5| 36.9| 31.4
RBC | -10.8700| -0.4| -16.4| 23.1
Celestica | -27.1000| -6.6| -11.5| 17.9
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street traders kept driving a rotation out of high-profile chipmakers and into a broader category of companies tuned to improving growth prospects, with stocks wavering at the end of a volatile week.
While the S&P 500 closed little changed, most of its shares rose as signs of economic resilience fueled speculation that Corporate America will keep powering ahead.
In a sign of rotation, its equal-weighted version — which strips out market- value biases — reached record highs.
A drop in oil prices also helped sentiment.
Another burst of selling hit semiconductor firms after a surge that put the group on track for its best- ever quarter.
“Investor sentiment has turned increasingly pessimistic amid the technology selloff and sharp rotation, but the broader market is telling a different story,” Said Mark Hackett at Nationwide.
“Rather than the start of a major downturn, this looks more like a period of consolidation beneath the surface.”
He noted that the fundamental backdrop remains supportive, with consumers still spending, businesses investing, and earnings expectations continuing to move higher.
While the gyrations in tech can be unsettling, Hackett says periods like this often set the stage for the next leg of the bull market.
The violent swings in high-profile tech names in recent days have underscored how quickly the optimism surrounding artificial intelligence is giving way to valuation worries.
While there’s a predominant view that the AI trade isn’t over, the idea of everything going up in a straight line appears to be waning by the day.
After a remarkable rally in recent months, investors have become increasingly sensitive to stretched valuations and rising infrastructure costs associated with AI, according to Fawad Razaqzada at Forex.com.
“While some degree of profit-taking was perhaps inevitable, the latest moves also raise broader questions about whether expectations for the sector have simply run too far ahead of commercial reality,” he said.
At Gabelli Funds, John Belton says he would characterize the recent tech moves as more of a “pause” than a “selloff.”
Chipmakers are still within a striking distance of all-time highs while software firms have given back the majority of a rally staged earlier in the quarter.
Meanwhile, mega caps have failed to keep up with the market despite strong fundamentals.
“Are the hyperscalers set up to be left behind in the AI era? I would not count them out and believe that they are building platforms which will help drive AI diffusion across the economy for years to come,” Belton added.
Corporate Highlights:
* OpenAI is rolling out a preview version of a more capable new artificial intelligence model to select partners before making it available more widely in the coming weeks, following pressure from the Trump administration to stagger the release.
* SoftBank Group Corp. slumped on concerns that OpenAI may hold off on an initial public offering until next year and delay returns for its Japanese backer.
* Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. are preparing to announce hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth in new investments on Monday, according to South Korean media reports this week.
* Onsemi has agreed to buy Synaptics Inc., a firm that specializes in semiconductors for smart devices, in an all-stock deal that values the company at about $6.2 billion.
* Boeing Co. secured an order from China Southern Airlines Co. valued at $3.62 billion, marking an important win for the US manufacturer after seeing orders dry up from Asia’s largest aviation market in the past decade.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed
* The MSCI World Index fell 0.2%
* Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell 5.3%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.2% to $1.1388
* The British pound was little changed at $1.3200
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 161.76 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.7% to $59,755.62
* Ether rose 1.1% to $1,575.93
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.37%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.85%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.73%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3.5% to $69.39 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 1.1% to $4,071.81 an ounce
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Be magnificent!
As ever,
Carolann
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. –Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882.
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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828