March 20th 2024, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: It’s the UN International Day of Happiness today.

These are the world’s happiest countries in 2024
See which country has held onto its top ranking for seven years straight.

March 20, 1602: Dutch East India Company established.
1852: Uncle Tom’s Cabin published.
March 20, 1916: Albert Einstein presents his general theory of relativity.  The revolutionary theory describes the interdependency of matter on the one hand and space and time on the other.
On March 20, 1995, in Tokyo, 12 people were killed, more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the poisonous gas sarin leaked on five separate subway trains. Go to article >>
Ovid, b. 43 BC.
Henrik Ibsen, b. 1828.

2,000-year-old carvings of celestial bodies and animals discovered on rocky cliffs in Brazil
Archaeologists identified 16 sites with representations of human footprints, animals and celestial bodies. Read More.

Lavish, 800-year-old tombs in China may hold remains of Great Jin dynasty elites.  Three newfound brick tombs date to the Golden Khanate, a non-Chinese people who ruled in northern China centuries ago.
Full Story: Live Science (3/19)

‘This is a journey, not a destination’: Stunning map of the Milky Way’s center exposes new mysteries about our galaxy
A stunning new map of the magnetic fields at the Milky Way’s center charts never-before-seen features, and raises new questions about how our galaxy’s central engine works. Read More.

Brutal footage shows orca mom and son team up to drown another pod’s calf
First of its kind footage captures the moment an orca mom and her son drown a calf in an extremely rare case of infanticide. Read More.

Rumors swirl about the next James Bond
Who will be the next 007? Well, it remains a mystery for now … but some tabloids are saying one actor already has a formal offer on the table.

1,800-year-old Roman statue discovered in a parking lot
Construction workers in the UK have uncovered a marble head that appears to be dated to the 1st century or 2nd century!

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

London, UK
A member of a painting crew abseils from the top of the London Eye. The attraction is getting a fresh coat of paint, with an estimated 5,000 litres needed to cover the 135-metre high wheel
Photograph: James Manning/PA Wire

Wellington, South Africa
Pro and amateur cyclists take part in stage 3 of the Absa Cape Epic MTB race. This year, 600 teams will tackle 617km with 16,500m of climbing over eight days
Photograph: Kim Ludbrook/EPA

Olathe, US
A motorist is silhouetted by the setting sun as they drive through an intersection on the first day of spring in the state of Kansas
Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP
Market Closes for March 20^th, 2024

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1602, the Western world’s first major publicly traded company was born, as the Dutch legislature granted a monopoly on trade to the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or Dutch East India Co., which dealt in booming consumer products like cloves, tea, black pepper and Chinese porcelain. In 1609, the company’s directors declared that investors couldn’t sell their shares back to the company, but only to other investors—giving birth to the modern stock market.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 0.8%, or 185.13 to 22,045.71 in Toronto.
The move was the biggest since rising 0.9% on March 7.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 4.3%.
Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. had the largest increase, rising 7.0%.
Today, 171 of 224 shares rose, while 50 fell; 9 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 5.2%
* This month, the index rose 3.2%
* The index advanced 13% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 32% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is at its 52-week high and 17.9% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.3% in the past 5 days and rose 3.9% in the past 30 days
* 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% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.47t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.53% compared with 11.34% in the previous session and the average of 11.94% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 54.8490| 2.4| 49/1
Financials | 49.2503| 0.7| 24/3
Information Technology | 48.9783| 2.5| 10/0
Industrials | 18.9942| 0.6| 20/7
Utilities | 6.8947| 0.8| 15/0
Consumer Discretionary | 5.5664| 0.7| 11/2
Communication Services | 4.0219| 0.6| 3/2
Real Estate | 3.6432| 0.7| 14/6
Health Care | 0.2242| 0.3| 2/1
Energy | -3.0609| -0.1| 17/23
Consumer Staples | -4.2320| -0.5| 6/5
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 38.0000| 4.3| -3.0| 6.3
RBC | 12.5900| 1.0| 1.1| 1.0
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 11.0800| 1.4| -46.8| 15.3
TC Energy | -4.4970| -1.1| 248.5| 4.4
Fairfax Financial | -4.5680| -1.9| -11.2| 24.3
Waste Connections | -6.5390| -1.6| -32.7| 16.2
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street traders sent stocks to fresh all-time highs as the Federal Reserve signaled it’s on track to cut interest rates for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.
In a historic move, the S&P 500 topped 5,200 on speculation that the end of the most-aggressive Fed hiking cycle in a generation will keep fueling Corporate America’s profits.
Gains in equities were almost broad-based, with areas that have been lagging this year — like small caps — rallying.
Short-term Treasuries outperformed, with traders now seeing higher odds of a first Fed move in June.
Fed officials maintained their outlook for three cuts this year and moved toward slowing the pace of reducing their bond holdings, suggesting they aren’t alarmed by a recent uptick in inflation. While Jerome Powell continued to highlight officials would like to see more evidence that prices are coming down, he also said it will be appropriate to start easing “at some point this year.”
“The sum total of this ‘no news is good news’ press conference is that markets continue to have a green light to run higher,” said Chris Zaccarelli at Independent Advisor Alliance.
“This Fed isn’t going to stand in the way of the bull market.”
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 1.2%, with Apple Inc. and Tesla Inc. pacing a rally in mega-caps.
In late hours, Micron Technology Inc. gave a strong revenue forecast, buoyed by demand for artificial intelligence hardware.
Two-year yields declined seven basis points to 4.6%.
The dollar retreated.

Wall Street’s Reaction to Fed:
* Krishna Guha at Evercore:  No whipsaw this time. Chair Powell’s March press conference maintained and extended the “bullish-dovish message” from the first set of Fed releases.
Big take-away: this is a Fed that wants to cut rates – not before it is responsible to do so — but as soon as it is responsible to do so.
* Peter Boockvar author of The Boock Report:  Jay Powell clearly leaned dovish today as even a strong labor market he said would not stop the beginning of rate cuts.  And this is why the short-end yield fell as it did.
* Sonu Varghese at Carson Group:  The details are quite dovish, because they’re leaving rate cuts on the table even while projecting slightly higher inflation and more economic growth.
* Neil Birrell at Premier Miton Investors:  They want that soft landing and are playing the game to achieve it.
* Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management:  This Summary of Economic Projections suggests that the Fed is willing to risk cutting rates before inflation is close to target and while GDP growth is above-trend. History teaches us
this is a risky path.
* Whitney Watson at Goldman Sachs Asset Management:  Despite recent bumps in the inflation road, major central banks remain on track for rate cuts in the coming months and high-quality fixed income bonds stand to benefit.
*  Michelle Cluver at Global X:  Overall, this was a highly encouraging set of data that fed into markets, increasing the probability that the Fed may lower interest rates as soon as the June FOMC meeting.
* Jason Pride at Glenmede:  Make no mistake about it, the Fed still has inflation firmly in its sights. Investors should expect rate cuts to come into focus once the Fed becomes more confident that inflation is in the neighborhood of its 2% target, which could happen in the back half of this year.
* Christian Hoffmann at Thornburg Investment Management:  Don’t take “data dependent” off of your Fed bingo card just yet. Fixed income will continue to grapple between expectations for lower rates which is good for bonds against more tolerance for inflation which is bad for bonds.”

Corporate Highlights:
* The US will award Intel Corp. $8.5 billion in grants and as much as $11 billion in loans to help fund an expansion of its semiconductor factories, marking the largest award from a program designed to reinvigorate the domestic chip industry.
* Boeing Co. predicted a massive cash drain for the first quarter as regulatory scrutiny and slower output of its 737 Max jetliner following a January mid-air accident take their toll on its finances.
* Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp. refuted an earlier report that said it was exploring a sale of its golf-equipment arm, saying it was unaware of any of talks to sell the business.
* Short seller Hindenburg Research targeted data center owner Equinix Inc. Wednesday, alleging that the company manipulates its accounting and is selling an “AI pipe dream.” A representative for Equinix said the firm is investigating the claims.
* Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.’s board proposed a 50-to-1 stock split to broaden the burrito chain’s investor base after a 13,000% run-up in the stock since its initial public offering.
* JPMorgan Chase & Co. unexpectedly lifted its dividend 9.5% in the wake of a record annual profit and as regulators signal they may rethink proposals for tightening capital rules.

Key events this week:
* Eurozone S&P Global Services PMI, S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, Thursday
* Bank of England rate decision, Thursday
* US Conference Board leading index, existing home sales, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Nike, FedEx earnings, Thursday
* Japan CPI, Friday
* Germany IFO business climate, Friday
* Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks, Friday
* ECB’s Robert Holzmann and Philip Lane speak, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.9% as of 4:01 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.8%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
* The euro rose 0.5% to $1.0919
* The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2781
* The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 151.24 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 3.1% to $65,714.01
* Ether rose 2.9% to $3,375.02
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.28%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 2.43%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.02%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.1% to $81.68 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 1.2% to $2,183.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Before the rain stops we hear a bird.  Even under the heavy snow we see snowdrops and some new growth. –Shunryu Suzuki, 1904-1971.

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