June 27, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1954: The world’s first nuclear power plant is activated.  The reactor at Obninsk in present day Russia remained in operation for 48 years.  Today there are some 400 atomic power plants worldwide.  The technology remains controversial, especially due to the unsolved long-term storage of the highly dangerous nuclear waste.

1972: The video game company Atari was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in Santa Clara, Calif. Go to article  

1859: Happy Birthday to You song composed.

Helen Keller, b.1880.
The world is full of suffering, but it is also full of people overcoming it. -Helen Keller.

A tourist was caught on camera carving his and his partner’s names into the Colosseum.  When in Rome, don’t do this.

Face of ‘elite’ 7th-century girl buried in a bed with gold and jewels revealed after 1,300 years.  A forensic artist has created a facial reconstruction of a 16-year-old girl who was wearing an ornate gold cross and buried in a bed 1,300 years ago.  Read More

4,500-year-old ‘Stonehenge’ sanctuary discovered in the Netherlands.  Archaeologists have discovered a 4,500-year-old sanctuary in the Netherlands that marks the solstices and equinoxes, and was also used as a burial ground.  Read More

What caused the last ice age to end around 10,000 years ago?  Full Story: Live Science (6/24)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Whyte Lake, Canada Air tankers drop water on a brush fire burning in West Vancouver. The fire burned about 3 hectares by late afternoon on Monday and forced the closure of a nearby highway Photograph: PJ Heller/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock

Haian, China
Farmers working in a rice field are captured in an aerial image in eastern Jiangsu province Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Muslims gather on the Mount of Mercy in the Plain of Arafat during the hajj pilgrimage.  Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
Market Closes for June 27^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1967: The world’s earliest known cash machine, a forerunner of today’s ATMs, began dispensing paper money at a Barclays bank branch in Enfield Town, England.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.7%, or 145.77 to 19,733.09 in Toronto.
Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.3%.
Tfi International Inc. had the largest increase, rising 7.9%.
Today, 150 of 229 shares rose, while 74 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index fell 1.8%
* This month, the index rose 0.8%
* The index advanced 2.5% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 12% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 5.3% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 10.4% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and fell 0.9% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.8 on a trailing basis and 13.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.5% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.11t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.06% compared with 11.49% in the previous session and the average of 11.64% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 68.9841| 1.2| 28/1
Industrials | 35.6281| 1.3| 23/3
Information Technology | 21.7000| 1.4| 11/0
Consumer Discretionary | 13.1249| 1.7| 12/2
Real Estate | 7.3874| 1.6| 19/1
Communication Services | 3.6370| 0.4| 5/0
Utilities | 2.6765| 0.3| 9/6
Consumer Staples | 1.4897| 0.2| 5/6
Health Care | 0.8683| 1.4| 4/1
Materials | -1.4226| -0.1| 18/31
Energy | -18.6770| -0.6| 16/23
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
RBC | 15.6400| 1.3| -14.0| -1.6
Brookfield Corp | 10.9500| 2.7| -38.0| -0.2
TD Bank | 9.8480| 1.0| 161.9| -8.7
Nutrien | -1.9060| -0.7| -47.0| -21.2
TC Energy | -2.0720| -0.5| 75.2| -1.1
First Quantum Minerals | -2.5860| -2.1| -10.5| 9.9
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market welcomed the latest data underscoring economic resilience even if that means the potential for still tight Federal Reserve policy.
Tech mega-caps led the rebound in equities, with the Nasdaq 100 up almost 2% and the S&P 500 halting a two-day drop.
Tesla Inc. rallied after a 6% plunge, Snowflake Inc. jumped on an artificial intelligence-related partnership with Nvidia Corp. and Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms Inc. gained as Citigroup
Inc. lifted its target.
Alphabet Inc. underperformed with an analyst saying Google’s owner was moving “too fast” in AI.
For the first time since early 2022, the consumer confidence report showed that a larger percentage of people expected higher stock prices relative to lower equity values, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
While the return of bullish sentiment could be a contrarian indication of a negative reversal, the research firm noted that hasn’t be the case historically.
Since 1987, there have only been three other periods showing net negative readings in bullish sentiment of at least nine months, Bespoke said.
In the year after two of those negative streaks, the S&P 500 rallied 10.9% and 19%, respectively — and after a record 18-month run, the equity gauge climbed even more.
“US stocks are bouncing back after some strong US economic data gave a boost to consumer discretionary stocks and as investors piled back into AI trades,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. “The strong consumer confidence report will likely suggest expectations are not for the labor market to deteriorate quickly, which should confirm expectations that a
recession will not happen this year, but most likely next.”
For Kara Murphy at Kestra Investment Management, it’s also important to consider that while consumers are continuing to spend, a lot of that confidence is indeed driven by strength in
the labor market.
“Are there inflationary expectations still built into the labor market that the Fed really needs to worry about?” Murphy added.
In fact, Treasuries declined as the strong data fueled speculation that the Fed will resume raising interest rates after this month’s pause.
In the run-up to the results of the Fed’s stress test, a $2.9 billion exchange-traded fund tracking regional lenders was up over 1.5%.
Analysts largely expect banks to sail through the tests even as regulators explore more stringent requirements in the aftermath of a few collapses in the financial industry.
Several bank executives have recently been trying to temper shareholder expectations regarding dividend increases and stock buybacks — which had been the focus of investors in previous years.
Tuesday’s rebound in stocks extended the S&P 500’s rally in June, with the gauge heading toward its fourth consecutive month of gains — the longest winning streak since August 2021.
The equity market made a pivotal shift this month, exiting a phase typically associated with the worst return prospects and powering into a stage that’s tied to a more favorable outlook.
A Bloomberg Intelligence model known as the Market Regime Index — which clusters periods into three phases dubbed accelerated growth (green), moderate growth (yellow) and decline (red) — has flipped out of the cautious red zone that it’s been
stuck in for 15 straight months and into yellow.
That signals brighter times ahead for stocks, according to BI’s Gina Martin Adams and Gillian Wolff.
In other corporate news, American Equity Investment Life Holding Co. surged to a record on a $4.3 billion Brookfield bid.
Carnival Corp. rallied as several analysts increased their targets for the cruise line operator.
Delta Air Lines Inc. rose after boosting its earnings expectations. 
Key events this week:
* US wholesale inventories, goods trade balance, Wednesday
* Fed to unveil results of annual banking industry stress test, Wednesday
* Policy panel with ECB’s Christine Lagarde, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, BOJ’s Kazuo Ueda and BOE’s Andrew Bailey speak, Wednesday
* Eurozone economic confidence, consumer confidence, Thursday
* US GDP, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic speaks, Thursday
* China manufacturing PMI, non-manufacturing PMI, balance of payments, Friday
* US personal income and spending, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0963
* The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.2752
* The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 144.01 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.7% to $30,669.98
* Ether rose 2.4% to $1,895.41
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 3.76%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 2.36%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced seven basis points to 4.38%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.3% to $67.75 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,923.20 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jason Scott, Tassia Sipahutar, Sujata Rao, Carly Wanna, Emily Graffeo and Isabelle Lee.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage. –Lao Tzu, 6^th c. BC-5^th c. BC.

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