March 15, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: The Ides of March.

Julius Caesar, d. 44 BC.
Andrew Jackson, 7^th President, b. 1767.
1917 – Czar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates his throne.

On March 14, 1900, Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act. Go to article »

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket for the 9th time
The launch sends more Starlink satellites into orbit, with the goal of blanketing the planet in high-speed broadband.

The virus has extinguished a centuries-old tribe in the Amazon. The last member of the Juma people died from Covid last month.

Tucked away in an unlikely corner of the European Union, an immense conservation project is underway.

Academy Award nominations came out this morning, and for the first time, two women were nominated for best director. The picks brimmed
with snubs and surprises. Here’s the list of Oscar nods. –Seattle Times.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Red Square, Moscow. After a mild winter Moscow is experiencing snowstorms. According to weather forecasts, the temperature is set to drop to -6°c; blizzard and gusting wind are also expected
CREDIT: VALERY SHARIFULIN//TASS VIA GETTY IMAGES

First night at the opera and the world premier for the Northern Ballet’s production of Geisha. Choreography by Kenneth Tindall and performed at Leeds Grand Theatre
CREDIT: ELLIOT FRANKS

Wayuu girls perform the traditional La Yonna dance, in Tres Bocas, northern Colombia
CREDIT: JUAN BARRETO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Market Closes for March 15^th, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1817, the New York Stock Exchange prohibited the “fictitious sales,” or wash sales, that had enabled speculators to manipulate individual stocks without even owning them. Nevertheless, the practice continued unabated for decades.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks advanced for seventh consecutive days, while U.S. stocks hit another record high. The S&P/TSX Composite index rose 0.6% in Toronto. All but financials sectors were in the green, while communication services stocks outperformed amid Rogers Communication agreeing to buy Shaw Communications in a $16 billion deal. Pot stocks also gained after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state is very close on legalizing marijuana. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought to reassure Canadians that every Covid-19 vaccine approved in the country is safe even as the European Union’s three biggest economies suspended use of AstraZeneca Plc’s shot.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at an $11.00 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.3% to $1,731.52 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar was flat at C$1.2472 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield fell about 5 basis points to 1.538%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the seventh day, climbing 0.5 percent, or 103.43 to 18,954.75 in Toronto. Today, communication services stocks led the market higher, as 10 of 11 sectors gained; 131 of 219 shares rose, while 86 fell. Shaw Communications Inc. contributed the most to the index gain and had the largest move, increasing 41.6 percent.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 8.7 percent
* The index advanced 38 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI
AC Americas Index gained 49 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.1 percent below its 52-week high on
March 15, 2021 and 69.7 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 2.7 percent in the past 5 days and rose 2.7 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
27.9 on a trailing basis and 17 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.7 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.92t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.53 percent compared with
12.69 percent in the previous session and the average of 14.26 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Communication Services | 31.6554| 3.6| 5/2
Materials | 27.2639| 1.2| 38/11
Information Technology | 25.1848| 1.4| 8/2
Health Care | 11.2033| 3.9| 8/1
Industrials | 6.5145| 0.3| 12/17
Consumer Discretionary | 5.7275| 0.8| 7/6
Utilities | 5.0982| 0.6| 13/3
Energy | 4.8500| 0.2| 9/12
Real Estate | 3.1357| 0.5| 17/9
Consumer Staples | 0.6533| 0.1| 7/4
Financials | -17.8691| -0.3| 7/19

US
By Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks closed at a record high for a third consecutive trading session amid growing optimism over the budding economic recovery and progress on vaccines. Long-term Treasury yields edged lower. The benchmark S&P 500 Index gained for a fifth straight trading session, led by the utilities and real estate sectors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also closed at a record and finished up for a seventh session in a row. Apple Inc., Tesla Inc. and Facebook Inc. led the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 higher. Crude oil pared a loss of more than 2%. “U.S. equities have become a buy high, sell higher asset class on the heels of economic reopening optimism, vaccination progress and additional government stimulus,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist for U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
“We’re maintaining our glass half full orientation for equities and that’s a function of favorable fundamental sentiment and technical trends.” Yields on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes declined from the more than one-year high reached last week. Brent crude dropped overnight, erasing a gain after a raft of economic data from China added to signs of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Concerns about tightening liquidity weighed on Chinese shares, with the CSI 300 Index closing down 2.2%. Investors remain preoccupied with rising long-term borrowing costs and their implications for reflation trades and the rotation in the stock market from growth to value shares. In the U.S., investors are also considering the potential impact of higher taxes and how that could affect corporate profit growth. President Joe Biden is planning the first major federal tax hike since 1993 to help pay for a long-term economic program, according to people familiar with the matter.
The White House is expected to propose a suite of tax increases, mostly mirroring Biden’s 2020 campaign proposals, according to four people familiar with the discussions. ”I think the market will wait a bit longer on the Biden tax story,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance. “People are going to want to know what is actually proposed, and more importantly, what is likely to make it through Congress.” Elsewhere, Bitcoin pulled back after a weekend rally that sent prices above $61,000 for the first time. The largest cryptocurrency was trading at about $56,000 on Monday.
These are some key events this week:
* Fed Chair Jerome Powell will likely reaffirm his no-tightening policy stance at the Fed policy meeting Wednesday.
* Bank of England rate decision Thursday. BOE is expected to leave monetary policy unchanged.
* Bank of Japan monetary policy decision and Governor Haruhiko Kuroda briefing Friday.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index increased 0.6% to 3,968.77 as of 4:01 p.m. New
York time, hitting the highest on record with its fifth consecutive advance.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5% to 32,952.28,
reaching the highest on record with its seventh consecutive advance.
The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1% to 13,459.71, the highest in two weeks.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was unchanged at 423.08.
The MSCI All-Country World Index advanced 0.4% to 677.32, the highest in more than three weeks.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.1% to 1,139.79.
The euro dipped 0.2% to $1.1932.
The British pound decreased 0.2% to $1.3902.
The Japanese yen depreciated 0.1% to 109.10 per dollar, the weakest in more than nine months.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 1.60%.
The yield on 30-year Treasuries decreased three basis points to 2.35%.
Britain’s 10-year yield fell two basis points to 0.798%.
Germany’s 10-year yield fell three basis points to -0.33%, the
lowest in almost two weeks on the largest fall in two weeks.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude declined 0.2% to $65.45 a barrel.
Gold strengthened 0.3% to $1,731.74 an ounce, the highest in almost two weeks.

–With assistance from Kamaron Leach.
Have a nice evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears:
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.  The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones. -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