March 31, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

To One Who Has Ceased to Be – After John Keats
                                  -by Rachael Boast
Above the gorge of the world’s wide river
You stand alone – with nothing to think on,
No thought to hold to, no herein and no hereafter,
All that remains of you is Vision;
How to make a poem from  the honey trees
Of the zenith you worded so will in advance
Like one inclined to speak with their eyes,
Like an angle of the astral silence
Or celestial legend of time – for you were
Fair creature of the antique hour,
And for you there is nothing on earth
Of knowing more incomplete than ever
Thinking to know a thing.  I miss you –
I halt at his precipice when I think of you.

I love this poem.  Last month marked the 200^th anniversary of John Keats’ death from tuberculosis in Rome at the age of 25.  Boast’s poem was written in response to Keats’ sonnet “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be”.  It was written by Keats in January 1818, but was only published posthumously in 1848.

March 31, 1889 – Eiffel Tower opens.
On March 31, 1968, President Johnson stunned the country by announcing he would not run for another term of office.  Go to article »
1855 – Charlotte Brontë, writer, d. March 31, 1855.
René Déscartes, philosopher, b.  March 31,1596.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A white-tailed sea-eagle tussles with a fox in Rausuu, Japan.
CREDIT: FAHAD ALENEZI/BPOTY/COVER-IMAGES.COM

Rock climber Nina Arthaud hangs from a climbing wall on a hot air balloon’s basket – 10,000ft above the beautiful French countryside near Anse and Villefranche
CREDIT: BASTEIN DE LATTRE / SWNS.COM

Gardener Michael Holah cleans out stray weeds in the water at Hever Castle Water Maze in Kent ahead of its reopening
CREDIT: OLIVER DIXON

One of the most important tiaras to appear to the market in recent years is pictured in Geneva, Switzerland
CREDIT:ROBERT HRADIL/GETTY IMAGES FOR SOTHEBY’S

Market Closes for March 31st, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     In 1854, U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry convinced the Japanese imperial government to sign the Treaty of Kanagawa, opening Japan to U.S. trade for the first time.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equity markets pared gains to close little changed Wednesday, as telecom and media stocks fell. The S&P/TSX Composite index was flat, erasing an earlier advance of as much as 0.4%. Communication services stocks and financials dropped the most while tech outperformed. Five of 11 sectors declined. Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications fell after Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said late Tuesday that their proposed deal has “very serious” competitive issues. The Bank of Canada is seeing “worrying” signs that some Canadians are taking on too much debt to buy into the nation’s hot housing market. In an interview with the Financial Post, Governor Tiff Macklem said there is evidence that loan levels relative to home values are growing — an indication that some borrowers could be overextending. He also warned people have begun to make purchases based on the belief prices will continue rising.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at a $10.40 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 1.3% to $1,707.39 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.5% to C$1.2567 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield rose to 1.555%

By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite declined slightly to 18,700.67 in Toronto. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.4 percent. BlackBerry Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 10.5 percent. Today, 115 of 231 shares fell, while 113 rose; 5 of 11 sectors were lower, led by financials stocks.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 7.3 percent
* This month, the index rose 3.5 percent
* The index advanced 40 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI
AC Americas Index gained 56 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.8 percent below its 52-week high on
March 17, 2021 and 45.9 percent above its low on April 1, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.4 percent in the past 5 days and rose 3.5 percent in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
27.6 on a trailing basis and 16.6 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$2.91t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.27 percent compared with
11.42 percent in the previous session and the average of 13.05 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -61.2374| -1.0| 6/22
Energy | -15.5218| -0.7| 7/17
Communication Services | -15.0130| -1.6| 1/7
Consumer Staples | -4.5865| -0.7| 5/7
Real Estate | -3.3197| -0.6| 5/19
Utilities | 1.0918| 0.1| 10/6
Consumer Discretionary | 1.2995| 0.2| 5/8
Health Care | 4.6574| 1.7| 8/2
Industrials | 11.6308| 0.5| 16/14
Materials | 25.5526| 1.2| 41/11
Information Technology | 50.5490| 2.9| 9/2

US
By Claire Ballentine and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Technology shares led U.S. stocks higher, regaining favor on the last day of a quarter where they trailed the rest of the major market sectors, with President Joe Biden set to unveil his next stimulus plan. Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Tesla Inc. pushed the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 up 1.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial finished lower with investors favoring growth over value shares again. The benchmark S&P 500 set an intra-day high, retreating from a record closing level in the last moments of trading.
Oil fell after an OPEC+ panel meeting ended without an oil policy recommendation. The dollar weakened, but still posted its best quarter in a year. The Bloomberg Commodity Index and developing-nation currencies climbed. “The message is pretty clear that he intends to go big,” said Shawn Snyder, head of investment strategy at Citi Personal Wealth Management. “It’s really really huge fiscal tailwinds.” Data for March showed U.S. private employers added the most jobs in six months, adding to evidence that the vaccine drive and business reopenings are encouraging hiring. Investors, rattled this week by the meltdown at Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management, are turning their attention to growth and inflation as volatility spurred by the forced sales subsides. While Europe’s struggle with inoculations and the resurgence of the coronavirus have tempered growth expectations, the U.S. vaccine rollout is surpassing targets. “We continue to be in this rotational kind of market and in particular some of what had been — to use a supermarket term — the hot pockets of speculative excess,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. “But it obviously has not taken the market down with it more broadly, nor did the spectacle of Archegos do that either, so there’s clearly still resilience in the market.”
The fallout from the Archegos liquidation continued to play out. Discovery Inc.’s Class B shares surged as much as 115% before paring some gains and triggering several volatility halts. The gain far outpaced the advance in Class A shares, which trade with significantly more daily volume. Ten-year Treasury yields rose for the fourth time in five days, trading near a 14-month high. Gold steadied after a two- day slump. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped after a gathering among producers ended without any recommendations on output, according to delegates.
Some key events to watch this week:
* OPEC+ meets to discuss production levels for May on Thursday.
* China Caixin PMI due Thursday.
* U.S. employment report for March on Friday.
* Good Friday starts the Easter weekend in countries including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Australia and Canada.

These are some of the main moves in financial markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index increased 0.4% to 3,972.90 as of 4:06 p.m. New York time.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 0.3% to 32,981.55.
The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.5% to 13,246.87, the highest
in more than a week on the largest climb in almost three weeks.
The Nasdaq 100 Index gained 1.5% to 13,091.44, the highest in almost two weeks.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.2% to 429.60, the largest fall in more than a week.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index decreased 0.2% to 1,152.21.
The euro rose 0.1% to $1.1726.
The British pound increased 0.3% to $1.3782.
The Japanese yen depreciated 0.3% to 110.74 per dollar, hitting the weakest in about a year with its sixth straight decline.
Bonds
The yield on two-year Treasuries gained one basis point to
0.16%, the highest in three weeks on the biggest rise in more than a week.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries gained three basis points to 1.74%, the highest in about 14 months.
The yield on 30-year Treasuries jumped four basis points to 2.41%.
Britain’s 10-year yield increased two basis points to 0.845%, the highest in more than a week.
Germany’s 10-year yield fell one basis point to -0.29%.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude decreased 2% to $59.36 a barrel.
Gold strengthened 1.3% to $1,707.49 an ounce, the biggest increase in three weeks.
–With assistance from David Wilson and Srinivasan Sivabalan.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought. –Matsuo Chuemon Munefusa, 1644-1694

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