March 15, 2019 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday!
The Ides of March
Beware the Ides of March ~ Said as a warning of impending and certain danger.  The allusion is to the warning received by Julius Caesar before his assassination:
What is still more extraordinary, many report that a certain soothsayer forewarned him of a great danger which threatened him on the Ides of March, and that when the day was come, as he was going to the senate-house, he called to the soothsayer, and said, laughing, “The Ides of March are come,” to which he answered softly, “Yes , but they are not gone.”
Plutarch, Julius Caesar (Langhorne Translation), 2^nd century AD.
In the ancient Roman calendar, the 15^th day of March, May, July and October, and the 13^th day of all the other months.  The day always fell eight days after the Nones. – from Brewer’s.

44 BC –  Julius Caesar d.
1917 – Czar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates his throne.
1972 – “The Godfather,” Francis Ford Coppola’s epic gangster movie based on the Mario Puzo novel and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, premiered in New York.  Go to article »

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A man holds a handful of vermilion powder as he gets ready to throw it to mark the commencement of Holi in Kathmandu. Credit: Reuters/Navesh Chitrakar

Girls of She ethnic group and Yao ethnic group hang strings of windbells above the 140-meter-long glass bridge to welcome tourists at Jiulong River National Park, Chenzhou, China. Credit: Yang Huafeng/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images

Ten year old Olympic skateboarder, Sky Brown skates in London, UK. Credit: Paul Cooper for the Telegraph
Market Closes for March 15^th, 2019

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
“I remember the $0.05 hamburger and a $0.40-per-hour minimum wage, so I’ve seen a tremendous amount of inflation in my lifetime.  Did it ruin the investment climate?  I think not.” – from The Tao of Charlie Munger.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a fourth day in five amid strength in pot stocks and financials, bringing the benchmark’s weekly gain to 0.9 percent.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 0.3 percent Friday to close at 16,140, the highest in nearly six months. It joined a global rally sparked by China’s commitment to continued targeted stimulus. Health-care stocks led the gains, rising 2.3 percent as Aurora Cannabis Inc. added 7.6 percent to the highest since October. The pot stock gained 24 percent this week after billionaire investor Nelson Peltz joined the firm as a strategic adviser.
     Energy was the only weak spot, falling 0.5 percent as crude prices retreated for the first time this week. Precision Drilling Corp. slid 5.1 percent.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Westshore Terminals Investment Corp. slid 12 percent to the lowest since 2017 after one of its customers warned there is “substantial doubt” it can remain viable as a going concern
* Imperial Oil Ltd. lost 1 percent. It is delaying a C$2.6 billion oil-sands project in Canada by at least a year
* AutoCanada Inc. closed down 6.2 percent after falling as much as 18 percent in intraday trading. The company said its chief financial officer and president of U.S. operations have resigned and it posted an unexpected fourth-quarter loss
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $10.00 discount to WTI
* Gold rose 0.6 percent to $1,302.90 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.1 percent to C$1.3349 per U.S. dollar
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield fell four basis points to 1.72 percent, the lowest since mid-2017, amid data that showed home sales dropped sharply in February
US
By Jeremy Herron and Vildana Hajric
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks joined a global advance in equities sparked by China’s renewed commitment to stimulus as investors grew more confident that central banks will remain accommodative. Treasuries rose.
     The S&P 500 Index headed for its best week since November, with technology shares surging after a strong earnings report from Broadcom. Volumes jumped and trading was volatile amid the expiration of futures and options on both indexes and stocks.
     The 10-year Treasury yield dipped below 2.6 percent. Equities from Tokyo to London rose after the Chinese government said it would cut value-added taxes, reinforcing expectations for an eventual pick-up in the world’s second-largest economy.
     Broadcom surged to a record after its forecast, lifting semiconductor stocks, and Boeing reversed losses and posted a small gain after a report it plans to upgrade software in its grounded 737 Max jets. Adobe declined after reporting disappointing results and Tesla fell sharply after its latest model was met with mixed reviews.
     Global stocks ended the week on a solid footing, wiping out the losses last week that were the worst of the year. Investor attention will turn to a packed calendar in the days ahead.
     Central banks in the U.S., the U.K. and Brazil will all announce policy decisions, while European Union leaders meet for discussions likely to be dominated by Britain’s request to extend its withdrawal timescale. Boeing shares may remain active as the plane maker’s lawsuit risks soared around the 737 Max groundings.
     Elsewhere, West Texas crude slipped as the International Energy Agency said OPEC nations have enough spare capacity to make up for any supply shock from the escalating crisis in Venezuela. The pound strengthened at the end of a week made volatile by critical votes on Brexit in Parliament. Prime Minister Theresa May won the endorsement of British politicians to seek a Brexit delay.
And these are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent at the close of trade in New York. It added 2.9 percent this week.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.7 percent.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.8 percent.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index rose 0.9 percent.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2 percent.
* The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.1321.
* The British pound rose 0.4 percent to $1.3291.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell four basis points to 2.59 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield fell one basis point to 1.21 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield fell less than one basis point to 0.08 percent.
Commodities
* WTI crude slipped 0.3 percent to $58.41 a barrel.
* Gold gained 0.4 percent to $1,301.87 an ounce.
–With assistance from Kristine Aquino, Adam Haigh, Ksenia Galouchko, Todd White and Eddie van der Walt.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Men at some times are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings. -William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

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