June 4, 2024, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
June 4, 1783: The Montgolfièr brothers demonstrate the first hot air balloon.  The flight of the Montgolfière lasted about 10 minutes.
June 4, 1940: The Allies completed the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk, France. Go to article >>

June 4, 1942: Battle of Midway.
June 4,1989: Tiananmen Square Massacre, China.

Socrates, philosopher, b. 470 BC.
Angelina Jolie, b. 1975.

Don’t drink before your nap on the plane, health experts say
Trying to get through your long-haul flight with a glass of wine and a nap? Research shows that tactic can hurt your health — and your sleep.

Skull of an extinct, massive ‘thunder bird’ discovered in Australia
A rare fossil discovery has given scientists their first face-to-face encounter with the extinct “thunder bird.”

Kylian Mbappé joins Real Madrid from Paris Saint-Germain
Real Madrid announced the signing of French superstar Kylian Mbappé on Monday, ending one of the longest-running transfer sagas in soccer.

2,000-year-old rock art, including nearly 140-foot-long snake, may mark ancient territories in Colombia, Venezuela
Archaeologists used cameras and drones to fully map 14 massive rock art sites scattered across Venezuela and Colombia. Read More.

China lands Chang’e 6 sample-return probe on far side of the moon
China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft successfully touched down on the far side of the moon on Sunday (June 2). China has now landed two missions on the moon’s mysterious far side. Read More.

‘Fossil viruses’ embedded in the human genome linked to psychiatric disorders
Certain stretches of ancient viral DNA in the human genome may increase the chances of developing three neuropsychiatric disorders. Read More.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

You Are On Bondi Bidjigal Land!
Photograph: Anne Zahalka

Stars and Stripes – Bird behaviour finalist
Two crimson rosellas face off
Photograph: Jason Moore

​​​​​​​Castleton, England
The garland king is paraded through the town on Garland Day
Photograph: Molly Darlington/Reuters
Market Closes for June 4^th, 2024

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1968: The S&P 500 closed above 100 for the first time. It had taken the index almost 10 years to double, and would take another 17 years for it to double again.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.6%, or 138.51 to 21,978.18 in Toronto.
Today, materials stocks led the market lower, as 4 of 11 sectors lost; 137 of 222 shares fell, while 81 rose.
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 5.0%.
SSR Mining Inc. had the largest drop, falling 8.8%.
Insights
* This quarter, the index fell 0.9%
* The index advanced 9.8% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 23% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.6% below its 52-week high on May 21, 2024 and 17.6% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.3% in the past 5 days and was little changed in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.6 on a trailing basis and 15.2 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$3.51t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 10.70% compared with 10.69% in the previous session and the average of 9.53% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | -110.0760| -4.0| 3/47
Energy | -53.4919| -1.3| 5/34
Financials | -17.5971| -0.3| 14/11
Real Estate | -0.3994| -0.1| 7/12
Health Care | 0.1767| 0.3| 2/2
Consumer Discretionary| 0.6609| 0.1| 7/6
Utilities | 1.9998| 0.2| 7/8
Communication Services| 4.5747| 0.6| 4/1
Consumer Staples | 5.5615| 0.6| 9/2
Information Technology| 9.5596| 0.6| 5/5
Industrials | 20.5085| 0.7| 18/9
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Agnico Eagle Mines | -16.2500| -5.0| 38.7| 22.4
Barrick Gold | -15.0000| -5.1| 26.7| -5.8
Canadian Natural | | | |
Resources | -13.8300| -1.8| 195.5| 13.0
TD Bank | 8.4540| 0.9| -46.9| -11.1
Waste Connections | 8.7360| 2.2| -7.5| 15.0
Shopify | 13.3700| 1.9| -14.1| -19.6
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The bond market climbed as signs of labor-market cooling reinforced speculation the Federal Reserve will be able to cut rates this year.
Just a week away from the Fed meeting, the so-called JOLTS report showed US job openings hit the lowest since 2021.
The figures lifted Treasuries, with 10-year yields extending a four-day plunge to almost 30 basis points.
Fed swaps are now pricing in a first cut in November — and higher odds of a September reduction.
Despite the dovish bets, stocks struggled to gain much traction as the bad-news-is-good-news narrative failed to entice many traders.
To Bill Adams at Comerica Bank, the bright side of the story is that the risk of wage-price pressures fueling inflation is falling, which has the Fed breathing easier than a few years ago.
That’s probably why Fed Chair Jerome Powell took it in stride when inflation accelerated earlier this year, saying hikes were unlikely, he noted.
“The evidence is accumulating that the Fed should begin easing,” said Ronald Temple, chief market strategist at Lazard.
Treasury 10-year yields fell six basis points to 4.33%.
The S&P 500 edged up to around 5,290.
Oil fell to the lowest in about four months after OPEC+’s plan to loosen its production curbs this year deepened the market’s bearish sentiment.
Copper slid below $10,000.
Bitcoin topped $70,000.
The combination of spending/inflation data, ISM Manufacturing and JOLTS figures have reinforced the notion that investors are increasingly looking beyond the “Goldilocks” narrative toward something a bit more consistent with the
flagging trajectory of consumption,” said Ian Lyngen and Vail Hartman at BMO Capital Markets.
“There is nothing to imply that the real economy is on the precipice of a recession, however, rather than a no-landing for the labor market appears less likely than it did during the first quarter,” he noted.
“Goldilocks is edging toward the door, but has yet to leave the building.”
To Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com, while the JOLTS data has caused bond yields to fall, this has been offset by concerns over economic and earnings growth.
“Thus, stocks have not responded in the usual way of cheering on weaker-than-expected data,” he noted.
“The questions, are we finally headed for a long overdue correction now? The S&P 500 outlook is not bearish yet from a technical viewpoint, but the potential is there for that to change in the coming days.”
Bank of America Corp. clients fled US equities for a fifth-straight week, withdrawing $5.7 billion from the asset class in the five-day period ended last Friday.
The outflow was the biggest since last July and the fourth-largest in bank’s data history, quantitative strategists led by Jill Carey Hall said.
Institutional and hedge fund clients were net sellers as retail investors bought.

Corporate Highlights:
* Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger took the stage at the Computex show in Taiwan to talk about new products he expects will help turn back the tide of share losses to peers, including AI leader Nvidia Corp.
* Nvidia Corp. is still working on the certification process for Samsung Electronics Co.’s high-bandwidth memory chips, a final required step before the Korean company can begin supplying a component essential to training AI platforms.
* Paramount Global, the parent of CBS and MTV, is considering joint-venture options for its streaming service and has identified $500 million in annual savings to boost profitability even as it prepares for a probable sale.
* CoreWeave Inc., a closely held cloud computing provider, has offered to acquire Bitcoin miner Core Scientific Inc. for about $1 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
* Airbus SE is negotiating a major sale of A330neo aircraft to China, with talks gaining momentum since President Xi Jinping visited his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron last month.
* Stellantis NV is willing to drop some of its suppliers and make car parts on its own to lower costs in the expensive shift to electrification.

Key events this week:
* China Caixin services PMI, Wednesday
* Eurozone S&P Global Services PMI, PPI, Wednesday
* Canada rate decision, Wednesday
* US ADP Employment, S&P services PMI, ISM services, Wednesday
* Eurozone retail sales, ECB rate decision, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, trade, Thursday
* China trade, forex reserves, Friday
* Eurozone GDP, Friday
* US unemployment rate, nonfarm payrolls, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.1% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World Index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.0880
* The British pound fell 0.3% to $1.2772
* The Japanese yen rose 0.8% to 154.79 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.7% to $70,301.01
* Ether rose 0.6% to $3,794.77
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined six basis points to 4.33%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined five basis points to 2.53%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.18%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.2% to $73.32 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 1% to $2,327.37 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain. -Mark Twain, 1835-1910.

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