March 15, 2024, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday, the Ides of March.

March 15, 1985: The world’s first internet domain name , symbolics.com, is registered by the Symbolics Computer Corporation of Massachusetts.  Go to article >>

Julius Caesar, d.44 BC.
Czar Nicolas II of Russia abdicates his throne.

‘Flow state’ uncovered: We finally know what happens in the brain when you’re ‘in the zone’
Researchers say they’ve found the answer to competing hypotheses about how the brain functions in a “flow state.”
Full Story: Live Science (3/14)

Organic molecules swirling around unborn stars hint at origins of Earth-like worlds
Complex organic molecules spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope may hint at how habitable planets form. Read More.

‘Imagine a lush tropical island slipping beneath the waves’: Drowned island the size of Iceland found off Brazil
An undersea volcanic plateau in the southwestern Atlantic was a tropical island 45 million years ago.  Read More.

James Webb telescope confirms there is something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe
Depending on where we look, the universe is expanding at different rates. Now, scientists using the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes have confirmed that the observation is not down to a measurement error. Read More.

Winged ‘basilisk’ on medieval pilgrim’s badge discovered in Poland
Such badges were common among Christian pilgrims in the Middle Ages, but it’s not clear what the basilisk represents. Read More.

World’s largest computer chip WSE-3 will power massive AI supercomputer 8 times faster than the current record-holder
Cerebras’ Wafer Scale Engine 3 (WSE-3) chip contains four trillion transistors and will power the 8-exaFLOP Condor Galaxy 3 supercomputer one day. Read More.

British Wildlife Photography Awards 2024: The winning images
These stunning photos show surprising wildlife in the British Isles.

Shohei Ohtani reveals his new wife’s identity
Two weeks after making the surprise announcement of his marriage, Major League Baseball star Shohei Ohtani has revealed his new wife’s identity — and she’s also a top athlete.

A cosmic ‘poke’ by NASA receives surprising response from Voyager 1
A “poke” sent to the Voyager 1 probe received a response that could help NASA restore reliable communication with the aging spacecraft 15 billion miles away.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Ajmer, India
A ladybird on a stalk of wheat
Photograph: Himanshu Sharma/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Beijing, China
A magnolia tree in bloom
Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

​​​​​​​Badakhshan, Afghanistan
Boys fly kites on a hilltop
Photograph: Omer Abrar/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for March 15^th, 2024

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 more.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite advanced slightly to 21,849.15 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 0.6%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.4%.
NorthWest Healthcare Properties Real Estate Investment Trust had the largest increase, rising 8.6%.
Today, 128 of 225 shares rose, while 91 fell; 6 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 4.2%
* So far this week, the index rose 0.5%
* The index advanced 13% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 31% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.7% below its 52-week high on March 13, 2024 and 16.9% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.3 on a trailing basis and 15 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$3.46t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.89% compared with 11.92% in the previous session and the average of 12.06% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 23.9407| 1.0| 39/13
Industrials | 9.6422| 0.3| 17/9
Utilities | 5.5749| 0.7| 11/3
Consumer Staples | 5.1659| 0.6| 5/6
Communication Services | 4.3342| 0.6| 4/1
Health Care | 1.0749| 1.7| 3/1
Real Estate | -0.5929| -0.1| 8/12
Financials | -1.7467| 0.0| 12/15
Energy | -3.1129| -0.1| 23/14
Consumer Discretionary | -6.6215| -0.8| 5/8
Information Technology | -18.3668| -0.9| 1/9
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Couche-Tard | 6.0880| 1.4| 368.6| 7.3
Cameco | 4.7880| 2.9| 436.6| -2.6
First Quantum Minerals | 4.7010| 6.8| 109.4| 38.3
Restaurant Brands | -7.4320| -3.1| 418.3| 3.3
Canadian Natural Resources | -10.0600| -1.3| 117.8| 13.2
Shopify | -13.3800| -1.5| 316.3| 1.3
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks fell at the end of a jittery week as tech sold off and a pile of options expiring Friday amplified market swings.
Wall Street faced a quarterly episode ominously known as triple witching — in which derivatives contracts tied to stocks, index options and futures matured — compelling traders en masse to roll over their existing positions or to start new ones.
About $5.3 trillion were set to expire, according to Rocky Fishman, founder of derivatives analytical firm Asym 500.
“It’s a day in which the direction of the market is very, very difficult to predict,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak.
“The ‘internals’ get so skewed by the expiration that they don’t tell us anything. It will be important that investors don’t use today’s action when trying to decipher what is going to happen in the marketplace next week and beyond.”
The options event came at a critical juncture for markets positioning for next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting. A
recent pickup in inflation has intensified the debate around the degree of easing officials will signal for 2024.
The S&P 500 dropped to around 5,115, with trading volume that was well above the average of the past month.
The Nasdaq 100 fell over 1%.
Adobe Inc. sank on a weak sales outlook.
Nvidia Corp. saw a 10th straight weekly gain — with its artificial intelligence conference just days away.
Treasury 10-year bonds saw their worst week this year.
“This week has been remarkably confusing on multiple fronts,” said Florian Ielpo at Lombard Odier Asset Management.
“The macroeconomic news flow has made it clear that the US economy is unexpectedly slowing down, while inflation is decelerating at a slower pace. Instead of focusing on the economic slowdown, markets have fully embraced the inflation narrative.”
Traders in interest-rate swaps pushed bets on the timing of the full first, quarter-point Fed cut to the central bank’s July meeting.
Fed officials last released quarterly forecasts in December, anticipating three quarter-point cuts in 2024, and they’re set to release an update of those projections — known as the dot plot — on March 20.
Economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. changed their forecast for the Fed’s monetary-policy rate cuts over the course of all of 2024 to 75 basis points. Previously they expected a total of 125 basis points.
The glide path to the Fed’s 2% inflation target is anything but smooth and the final mile to the finish line is likely to take some time and a lot more data to gauge its progress, according to Carol Schleif at BMO Family Office.
“The earliest possible cut could be June, though we wouldn’t be shocked to see that delayed to later in the year if the data continues to come in hot as recent data has,” she noted. “Our base case is for three total rate cuts in 2024,
though it’s possible that the Fed cuts rates even fewer times if the economic data surprises to the upside.”
The rally in equity markets could falter if sticky inflation prompts the Fed to turn more hawkish next week and signal fewer-than-expected rate cuts, according to Barclays Plc strategists led by Emmanuel Cau.
“With the Fed so far endorsing current market pricing of three cuts starting in June, investors continue to see the glass half full on the soft landing narrative,” they wrote.
Investors are dismissing the risk of stagflation, sending record flows into US equities, according to Bank of America Corp.
US equity funds got $56 billion in the week through March 13, strategist Michael Hartnett wrote in a note, citing EPFR Global.
Technology stocks had the largest inflow among sectors, at $6.8 billion, rebounding from a record outflow.
Hartnett said a “new bout of stagflation means outperformance of gold, commodities, crypto, cash, a big steepening of the yield curve, and a very contrarian equity barbell of resources & defensives.”

Corporate Highlights:
* Nippon Steel Corp. said it’s determined to complete its $14.1 billion acquisition of United States Steel Corp., even after President Joe Biden stated the company should stay in US hands.
* JD.com Inc. said it will not make an offer for British electronics retailer Currys Plc, just days after US buyout firm Elliott Investment Management also walked away.
* Binance Holdings Ltd. has tightened requirements for listing new digital tokens, stepping up efforts to bolster investor protections on its platform.
* Boeing Co. has sent a so-called multi-operator message to operators of the 787 jetliner following an in-flight incident involving the long-distance jet a few days ago, in which the plane briefly and rapidly lost altitude, injuring multiple
people on board.
* United Airlines Holdings Inc. is close to securing three dozen or more Airbus A321neo jets from aircraft lessors as it looks to replace Boeing Co. 737 Max 10 orders that are at least five years behind schedule, according to people familiar with the matter.
* Madrigal Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s drug Rezdiffra gained the first US approval to treat a potentially deadly liver disease that affects millions worldwide, succeeding in an area where some bigger rivals have failed.
* Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc plunged after a jury awarded an Illinois woman $60 million in damages, saying the company’s Enfamil baby formula led to the death of her premature baby.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.1%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.7%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0889
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2738
* The Japanese yen fell 0.5% to 149.06 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 2.9% to $68,640.2
* Ether fell 4.4% to $3,672.6
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.31%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.44%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 4.10%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $80.99 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.2% to $2,157.30 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Lu Wang, Carter Johnson and Farah Elbahrawy.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.  Because almost everything – all external expectation, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. – Steve Jobs, 1955-2011.

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