March 3, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I recently came across a speech given by J.K. Rowling, the creator of the immensely-successful Harry Potter series, on the benefits of failure.  I found it both moving inspiring.  I hope you do too, so I thought I’d share it with you.  Maybe you know someone who needs to hear its message right now, so please pass it along.

Rowling gave the commencement address at Harvard University on June 5, 2008, and the quote below is from its timeless message:

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become.  Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels.  However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.  I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.

So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature.  A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages.  Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor…

I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.  An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.  The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun.  That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.  I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.  I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.  Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.  I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.  And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.  It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.  Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.  I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.  You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.  Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.

March 3, 1955 – Elvis Presley’s first TV appearance
On March 3, 1991, in a case that sparked a national outcry, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.  Go to article »

A new technique is revealing centuries of secrets locked away in letters — without even opening the envelopes. See how this cool virtual-reality project works, along with the tales it’s beginning to tell.

What’s better than invisible ink…Locked letters.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Lisa Bowerman inside Stump Cross Caverns, Situated between Wharfdale and Nidderdale in the beautifully rugged county of North Yorkshire just above Pateley Bridge. The caves were discovered in 1860 by lead miners, Stump Cross Caverns has a rich history going back hundreds of millions of years. Over the last few years new passageways have been opened up with remains of prehistoric creatures such as wolverine and reindeer found in the caves. Stump Cross Caverns began 300 million years ago, during the Caboniferous period. What is now the Yorkshire Dales was then covered by a shallow sea, filled with underwater plants and animals. The limestone rock you can see today is the remains of billions of shells and debris, gradually solidified under pressure. 
CREDIT: JAMES HARDISTY/YORKSHIRE POST/SWNS

Incredible photos capture the underwater moment a kingfisher dives to catch a fish. Air bubbles caused by the bird as it dives under the surface are shown in breathtaking detail. Photographer Han Bouwmeester took the stunning photos from his garden in the village of Goor, in the Netherlands, where he has an aquarium that the animal visits for a snack.
CREDIT: HAN BOUWNEESTER/SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY

United States Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron “Thunderbirds” and the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, debut the Super Delta formation consisting of six F-16 Fighting Falcons and six F/A-18 Super Hornets over a C-130J Super Hercules at Naval Air Facility El Centro
CREDIT: ANDREW SARVER/AFP

A woman wearing a face mask walks past a mural painting featuring an angel’s wings and halo, at a shopping mall in south west Berlin
CREDIT: JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP
Market Closes for March 3^rd, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1882, in Lugo, Italy, Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi was born. In 1903 he emigrated to Boston, renaming himself Charles Ponzi, and created a financial phenomenon—promising to double investors’ money every three months by speculating in foreign postage stamps. Bostonians lost over $10 million on the scheme, and Ponzi’s name became synonymous with any con that pays new investors out of the money that belongs to the old ones.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities fell alongside U.S. stocks Wednesday after the renewed bout of Treasury volatility spurred a surge in bond yields. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.6%, with tech and health care stocks leading the drop. Energy and consumer discretionary rose. Oil jumped the most in more than a week after a U.S. government report showed a record drop in domestic fuel inventories from the aftermath of a deep freeze that shuttered refineries in several states. Gold resumed its slide as rising U.S. Treasury yields and focus on an economic recovery dented the metal’s allure. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stressed the government will do “whatever it takes” to support Canada’s recovery and suggested it’s too early to declare victory despite data that show surprising strength in the economy.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at an $11.45 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 1.3% to $1,715.49 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.1% to C$1.2646 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield rose 6.7 basis points to 1.398%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.5 percent at 18,320.67 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s increase of 0.7 percent. Today, information technology stocks led the market lower, as 6 of 11 sectors lost; 109 of 219 shares fell, while 108 rose. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 6.6 percent. Ballard Power Systems Inc. had the largest drop, falling 9.0 percent.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 5.1 percent
* The index advanced 12 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 28 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.4 percent below its 52-week high on
Feb. 16, 2021 and 64 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.9 percent in the past 5 days and rose 2.3 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
26.8 on a trailing basis and 16.7 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.85t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 15.28 percent compared with
15.18 percent in the previous session and the average of 13.97 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology| -103.1318| -5.1| 1/9
Materials | -29.3789| -1.3| 15/35
Industrials | -10.9601| -0.5| 16/13
Utilities | -10.1796| -1.2| 3/13
Health Care | -6.2278| -2.1| 3/6
Consumer Staples | -1.9763| -0.3| 4/6
Communication Services| 1.8575| 0.2| 4/2
Real Estate | 2.8115| 0.5| 16/10
Consumer Discretionary| 9.5647| 1.3| 9/4
Financials | 9.7159| 0.2| 15/11
Energy | 36.9591| 1.6| 22/0
US
By Rita Nazareth and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — The renewed bout of Treasury volatility spurred a surge in bond yields on Wednesday, dragging down stocks as investors grappled with concern over stretched valuations. A selloff in high-flying giants such as Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. outweighed gains in banks and energy producers. The Nasdaq 100 slumped to a two-month low, bringing its losses from a February peak to about 8%. The S&P 500 extended its slide into a second day, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average outperformed. Benchmark U.S. government yields approached 1.5%, with bonds pricing in the highest five-year inflation expectations since 2008.
Traders also assessed data pointing to a slow and uneven economic recovery from the depths of the pandemic. The rout in Treasuries has rattled nerves across the globe amid warnings of excessive optimism among equity investors after the S&P 500 surged 70% in 11 months, notching the best start for a bull market in nine decades. While there haven’t been any signs of panic, concerns over lofty valuations have emerged. The stock benchmark’s earnings yield was about 1.7 percentage points above 10-year rates: the smallest advantage in three years. “Volatility has picked up a little bit, we’ve had bigger up days and down days,” said James Ragan, director of wealth management research at D.A. Davidson. “The focus is still on rising interest rates and how that’s impacting valuations on some of the higher multiple sectors.”
Data Wednesday showed that growth at U.S. service providers slowed to a nine-month low in February, when severe winter weather gripped much of the nation and limited activity. Meanwhile, the number of employees at U.S. businesses rose by less than expected, underscoring the jobs market’s struggle to recover despite a decline in Covid-19 infections in recent weeks. The U.S. economy expanded modestly in the first two months of the year and sentiment among business owners is picking up as vaccinations bolster the prospects for growth, according to the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book. President Joe Biden has agreed to moderate Democrats’ demands to narrow eligibility for stimulus checks, but party leaders in the Senate are resisting a push to trim extra unemployment benefits as they try to consolidate support for the $1.9 trillion relief-bill, a Democratic aide said. Elsewhere, oil jumped on a government report showing a record drop in domestic fuel inventories in the aftermath of a deep freeze that shuttered refineries in the U.S. South.

Some key events to watch this week:
* OPEC+ meeting on output Thursday.
* U.S. factory orders, initial jobless claims and durable goods orders are due Thursday.
* The February U.S. employment report on Friday will provide an
update on the speed and direction of the nation’s labor market recovery.
These are some of the moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 slid 1.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was little changed.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 1.1%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index advanced 1.4%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.3%.
* The euro decreased 0.2% to $1.2066.
* The Japanese yen depreciated 0.3% to 106.97 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries jumped eight basis points to 1.47%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield climbed six basis points to -0.29%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield rose nine basis points to 0.779%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude advanced 2.6% to $61.28 a barrel.
* Gold slid 1.4% to $1,714.77 an ounce.
* Silver fell 2.3% to $26.16 per ounce.

–With assistance from Cormac Mullen, Andreea Papuc, Emily Barrett, Anchalee Worrachate, Yakob Peterseil and Lu Wang
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

A goal is a dream with a deadline. -Napoleon Hill.

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