March 22, 2021 Newletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Happy Monday everyone.

1894 Hockey’s first Stanley Cup championship game was played in Montreal. That city’s Amateur Athletic Association beat the Ottawa Capitals 3-1. Go to article »

TripAdvisor’s top 25 all-inclusive resorts for your post-Covid trip.  From a picturesque mountain lodge in Chile to an oceanfront oasis in Mexico, here are 25 award-winning resorts you’ll want to add to your post-pandemic travel bucket list. 

And finally, the photographer Anne Geddes, the original baby-picture influencer, has a new project in the age of Instagram and the coronavirus. 
Her 1990s photography books of little babies in pea pods and flower beds sold millions. Now marooned at home, she is posting baby pictures from parents around the world in her pandemic project, called, simply, “Joy.”  The messages were all the same,” Ms. Geddes said about the photos people sent her. “One mother said, ‘I’m sending you my heart.’”

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Sunday hikers look at streams of red lava bubbling and flowing from the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland
CREDIT: JEREMIE RICHARD/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The sun rises this morning behind the lighthouse at Whitby pier on the Yorkshire coast
CREDIT: ANDREW MCCAREN/LNP

Brian the lamb was fostered by Ruby Clough, four, after its mother died in childbirth and sister soon after. The farmer was only too happy to let Ruby do the hard work needed to raise a vulnerable baby that needed special attention and regular bottle feeds
CREDIT: SWNS

Kew horticulturalist Joanna Bates tends to a ‘Yellow Hearts to Remember’ planting tribute to remember those lost to COVID-19, a year since the first British lockdown began
CREDIT: TOBY MELVILLE/REUTERS

Market Closes for March 22^nd, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1811, the New York state legislature passed the “Act Relative to Incorporations for Manufacturing Purposes,” the world’s first law granting limited liability to common stockholders—a revolutionary concept that protected investors from losing more than their initial investment and helped New York quickly become the industrial and financial capital of the world.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities fell Monday after a decline in industrial and cannabis companies. The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 0.2%, the lowest since March 10. Railway stocks Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. And Canadian National Railway Co. tumbled after the former’s plan to buy Kansas City Southern. Gold declined amid concern that Treasury yields may rise further as investors brace for key U.S. bond auctions. Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar remained as the best-performing Group-of-10 currency this year.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $10.50 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.4% to $1,739 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar slipped 0.2% to C$1.2525 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield slid 3.7 basis points to 1.553%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.2 percent at 18,815.13 in Toronto. The index dropped to the lowest closing level since March 10 after the previous session’s increase of 0.1 percent. Today, industrials stocks led the market lower, as 6 of 11 sectors lost; 122 of 231 shares fell, while 107 rose. Canadian National Railway Co. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.4 percent. Cascades Inc. had the largest drop, falling 8.1 percent.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 7.9 percent
* This month, the index rose 4.2 percent
* The index advanced 59 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 75 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.2 percent below its 52-week high on
March 17, 2021 and 68.4 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.7 percent in the past 5 days and rose 2.2 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
27.8 on a trailing basis and 16.8 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 11.35 percent compared with
11.68 percent in the previous session and the average of 13.76 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Industrials | -47.3956| -2.1| 13/16
Financials | -23.8554| -0.4| 7/21
Materials | -18.8099| -0.8| 15/36
Energy | -15.9926| -0.7| 4/20
Health Care | -6.1777| -2.1| 2/8
Consumer Discretionary | -5.9438| -0.8| 5/8
Real Estate | 3.8324| 0.7| 20/6
Consumer Staples | 5.4345| 0.8| 10/3
Communication Services | 9.0445| 1.0| 6/2
Utilities | 9.6754| 1.1| 15/1
Information Technology | 51.3187| 2.8| 10/1
US
By Claire Ballentine and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Tech companies led U.S. equity gains as a dip in Treasury yields provided a tailwind for stocks. The S&P 500 Index climbed 0.7% and the Nasdaq 100 fared even better as the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell from the highest levels in about 14 months. Small-cap shares underperformed. The bond market remains in focus this week amid a slate of auctions and moves by the Federal Reserve to let a key bank capital exemption lapse. The dollar weakened slightly and oil edged higher after its worst week since October. Turkey’s markets tumbled after the central bank governor was ousted.
Steadier yields provided relief after last week’s Treasury selloff served as a stark reminder of concern that a stronger economic recovery could fuel inflation, despite reassuring comments from policy makers. At the same time, traders are betting that growth will swell corporate profits as vaccines work to curb the global pandemic. “The rise in long-term yields has kind of affected every move we’ve seen in equity markets, from the big selloff in the higher growth stuff to the rotation into the more economically sensitive sectors,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird. “Any time there is some rate stabilization, it’s kind of the spark for tech to capture a little bit of gains.”
There’s no sign yet that faster economic growth will deliver unwanted inflation or a need to adjust monetary policy, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said Monday. For unwanted inflation to take hold, expectations for price increases would have to really move and begin to get factored into business decisions and wage bargaining, he added. In European markets Monday, gains in tech were offset by declines in travel firms on the Stoxx 600 Index. Banks exposed to Turkey fell after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved to replace the country’s third central bank chief in less than two years, sparking a decline of 7% in the lira. Asian shares slipped.

These are some key events to watch this week:
* Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are expected to make their first joint appearance before the
U.S. House Financial Services committee to testify on Fed and Treasury pandemic policies Tuesday.
* The U.S. Treasury holds auctions of two-, five- and seven-year debt.
* EIA crude oil inventory report on Wednesday.
* On Friday, February U.S. personal income and spending data arrives.

These are some of the main moves in financial markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index increased 0.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.2%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.3%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index was little changed.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slipped 0.1%.
* The euro strengthened 0.3% to $1.1937.
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.3863.
* The Japanese yen strengthened 0.1% to 108.79 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell four basis points to 1.68%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to -0.31%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield decreased two basis points to 0.81%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.2% to $61.55 a barrel.
* Gold weakened 0.3% to $1,739.60 an ounce.

–With assistance from Katie Greifeld, Emily Barrett, Andreea Papuc and Yakob Peterseil

Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Nothing is easier than self-deceit.  For what each man wishes,
that he also believes to be true. –Demosthenes, 384 BC-322 BC.

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