March 31, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

March 31, 1889: French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower to mark its completion.  Go to article >  
1959: Dalai Llama flees Tibet.

Rene Descartes, philosopher, b. 1596.

World’s population could plummet to 6 billion by the end of the century, study suggests.
Population growth could grind to a halt by 2050, before decreasing to as little as 6 billion humans on Earth in 2100, a new analysis of birth trends has revealed.   The forecast is both good and bad news for humanity.
Full Story: Live Science (3/30)

Extremely flat explosion dubbed ‘the Cow’ defies explanation
A weird cosmic explosion that stunned scientists in 2018 just got even stranger.  A new analysis of the polarized light from the first recorded fast blue optical transient  explosion, nicknamed “the Cow,” revealed that the blast is the most asymmetrical explosion ever seen by astronomers.  Full Story: Live Science (3/30)

Stressed plants ‘scream,’ and it sounds like popping bubble wrap:  When deprived of water or snipped with scissors, plants emit a flurry of staccato “screams” that are too high-frequency for humans to hear, a study suggests.   When lowered into a range that human ears can detect, these stress-induced pops sound like someone furiously tap dancing across a field of bubble wrap.  Full Story: Live Science (3/30)

The secrets to extreme longevity may be hiding with nuns… and jellyfish
Studying centenarians and supercentenarians could help scientists better understand what allows some people to live so long.  Is their longevity just luck, or is it due to good genes and other factors?   Full Story: Live Science (3/30)

The 14 best new books to read in April

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The week in wildlife
A starfish lies on the sand and is one of hundreds washed up on to the beach with sea coal in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, UK. Sea coal is found on beaches due partly to erosion of underwater seams but also as a historical result from the dumping of waste from coal mines. [This caption was amended on 31 March 2023. An earlier version said underwater “streams”]
Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

The week in wildlife
Large blue butterflies are endangered globally and are very rare in the UK.
Photograph: Keith Warmington

The week in wildlife
A hare during a rain shower in Kidderminster, UK
Photograph: Lee Hudson/Alamy Live News
Market Closes for March 31^st, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On March 31, 1996, Chase Manhattan and Chemical Banking merged, forming what then was the largest bank-holding company in America.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the sixth day, climbing 0.8%, or 158.9 to 20,099.89 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since March 8.
Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as 10 of 11 sectors gained; 174 of 234 shares rose, while 59 fell.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.0%.
BlackBerry Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 14.4%.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 3.7%
* This month, the index fell 0.6%
* So far this week, the index rose 3.1%, heading for the biggest advance since the week ended Nov. 11
* The index declined 8.2% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 10% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 9.5% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 12.5% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.1 on a trailing basis and 13.2 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.2t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.84% compared with 12.60% in the previous session and the average of 10.46% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 51.8270| 0.9| 28/1
Industrials | 35.2828| 1.3| 25/2
Information Technology | 32.5954| 2.5| 11/1
Consumer Discretionary | 13.2629| 1.8| 13/2
Energy | 11.9406| 0.4| 28/12
Consumer Staples | 6.5627| 0.8| 9/2
Materials | 5.8471| 0.2| 24/27
Real Estate | 5.3310| 1.1| 19/2
Health Care | 0.9903| 1.5| 3/2
Utilities | 0.9669| 0.1| 11/5
Communication Services | -5.6987| -0.6| 3/3
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
| Index | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors |Points Move|% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | 15.6000| 3.0| 5.4| 37.8
Brookfield Corp | 12.3300| 2.9| -8.0| 3.4
Canadian National | 9.0980| 1.4| -22.1| -0.9
BCE | -2.7700| -0.7| -25.7| 1.8
Telus | -3.6450| -1.4| 22.5| 2.7
Rogers Communications | -4.5010| -2.9| 30.2| -1.2
US
By Isabelle Lee and Peyton Forte
(Bloomberg) — Technology shares extended the week’s US stocks rally after a key measure of inflation cooled last month, suggesting the Federal Reserve may be close to ending its rate-hiking campaign.
Treasuries rose.
Excluding food and energy, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures price index — rose 0.3% in February, slightly below the median estimate.
Meanwhile, the PCE price index was up 5% from a year earlier, a deceleration from January but far higher than the Fed’s 2% goal.
The S&P 500 rose 1.4% — bringing its weekly gains to 3.5%, the most since November — while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 gained 1.7%, helping it to notch its biggest quarterly gain since June 2020.
“Overall, it was a round of data consistent with the peak inflation narrative but also with the Fed’s insistence that there remains work to be done to re-establish price stability,” Ian Lyngen of BMO Capital Markets wrote in a note.
Treasuries also ended the quarter of wild swings higher on Friday as investors have struggled to adjust for recent bank failures and the shifting outlook for interest rates.
The two-year yield fell to around 4.03% Friday while the 10-year maturity dipped to 3.47%.
The dollar strengthened against major peers.
“The S&P 500 has done well to recover from banking sector concerns over the past few weeks,” wrote Michael Gibbs, director of equity portfolio and technical strategy at Raymond James.  “However, the rally has been a bit more uneven beneath the surface, reflecting the confusion inherent within the current backdrop.”
While technology stocks have risen to the highest since August 2022, propelling gains in the broader market, the percentage of stocks above their 50-day moving average has contracted, Gibbs said.
Only a small number of shares actually account for the US rally.
“Extremely narrow rallies are not healthy ones at all, so it is going to be essential for the bulls to see more groups participate in the rally going forward,” Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co., wrote. “If they don’t,
it will only be a matter of time before a correction in the big-cap tech names turns this nice rally into an ugly decline.”
Citigroup Inc. strategists said the focus among investors
is set to shift from worries about high interest rates to the
risks of a recession, and as that happens, US stocks look more
attractive than those in Europe.
A Citi team led by Beata Manthey upgraded US stocks to overweight from underweight on Friday as they “perform more defensively than other markets” during earnings recessions.
They expect global earnings-per-share to contract 5% in 2023 and say that analysts are likely to slash profit estimates even further.
Elsewhere in markets, oil traded in New York saw a weekly gain of 9% amid ongoing disruption to Iraqi exports.
Bitcoin notched its best quarter since March 2021 with a gain of about 70%.
And Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank-check firm taking Donald Trump’s media company public, rallied after he became the first former president to be indicted.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.4% as of 4:04 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.7%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.6% to $1.0844
* The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.2334
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 132.76 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.9% to $28,416.49
* Ether rose 1.7% to $1,826.2
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined eight basis points to 3.47%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined eight basis points to 2.29%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 3.49%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.6% to $75.56 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,987.50 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. –William Cowper, 1731-1800.

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