March 5, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.

1770 – Boston Massacre.

Dr. Seuss books are taking over Amazon’s bestseller list.  They will buy them on their phone, they will buy them from their home. 

Amazon’s first physical store outside the US doesn’t have a checkout line and is known as ‘just walk out’ shopping.  What’s something that feels illegal but isn’t?

Keep your eyes peeled to see Jupiter and Mercury align in the sky and an asteroid flyby this weekend.  Isn’t it great that space always has something cool for us to watch?

11 devices that’ll turn your place into a smart home. Turning on the lights by flicking a switch is soooo 2020. This list of genius gadgets will make you feel like you’re living in 2040.

And finally, finding light in the deep sea.  Scientists have identified the largest glow-in-the-dark species with a spine — on land or sea — that has ever been found. Kitefin sharks, which grow to almost six feet in length, emit blue-green light.  Working off the coast of New Zealand, researchers figured out the strange biochemical process that makes them glow: Tests showed that the shark light is regulated by a hormonal on-off switch triggered by melatonin.  “It makes us fall asleep,” said the lead researcher, “but it’s lighting up the shark.”

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A high-resolution image of Mars which was shot by Tianwen-1 probe, released by the China National Space Administration 4th March, 2021
CREDIT: CNSA VIA AP

the Tianwen-1 probe en route to Mars.
CREDIT:CNSA VIA AP

The surface of Mars directly below NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is seen using the Rover Down-Look Camera 
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-CALTECH

The landing of NASA’s Perseverance on Mars is live streamed on the Piccadilly Lights in central London
CREDIT: GUY BELL / ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Members of NASA’s Perseverance rover team react in mission control after receiving confirmation the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars
CREDIT: BILL INGALLS/NASA/REUTERS
Market Closes for March 5^th, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1923, Montana’s Old-Age Pension Law—the first state law that provided retirement pensions and stood up to constitutional challenges—was enacted, setting a key precedent for the creation of Social Security a decade later.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rebounded, with the U.S. shares, after investors bought into the earlier decline in equity markets. The S&P/TSX Composite index rose 1.4%, most since Feb. 1, after briefly falling as much as 0.7% on Friday. Communication services and industrials led the rally, while tech stocks were the worst performers. Hudbay Minerals was the best performing stock, rising 11% as copper prices rebounded from a selloff. Martinrea International was the worst performing stock, falling 9.9 after reporting earnings and getting downgraded by TD. Meanwhile, Canada is a step closer to building a nationwide marketplace to trade carbon credits as part of the Trudeau government’s bid to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the country.
Commodities
* Western Canadian Select crude oil traded at an $11.50 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold rose 0.07% to $1,698.63 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar was mostly unchanged at C$1.2656 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year Canada government bond yield was also unchanged around 1.498%
By Bloomberg Automation:
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 1.4 percent at 18,380.96 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since rising 2.1 percent on Feb. 1 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 1.1 percent. Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as 8 of 11 sectors gained; 167 of 219 shares rose, while 50 fell. Royal Bank of Canada contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.5 percent. Hudbay Minerals Inc. had the largest increase, rising 11.4 percent.
Insights
* This quarter, the index rose 5.4 percent
* So far this week, the index rose 1.8 percent
* The index advanced 11 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI
AC Americas Index gained 28 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.1 percent below its 52-week high on
Feb. 16, 2021 and 64.5 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of
26.9 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$2.81t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 16.01 percent compared with
15.55 percent in the previous session and the average of 14.18 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 96.3856| 1.7| 22/4
Industrials | 46.1597| 2.1| 24/5
Energy | 43.1582| 1.9| 18/4
Materials | 42.6303| 2.0| 42/8
Communication Services | 23.0533| 2.7| 7/0
Consumer Discretionary | 9.5684| 1.3| 8/5
Consumer Staples | 8.6006| 1.3| 11/0
Real Estate | 0.9985| 0.2| 16/8
Health Care | -0.0654| 0.0| 4/5
Utilities | -1.4300| -0.2| 10/6
Information Technology | -13.8230| -0.8| 5/5

​​​​​​​US
By Rita Nazareth and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — Dip buyers drove a rebound in stocks after an earlier bout of selling pushed the Nasdaq 100 down 10% from a record. All major groups in the S&P 500 advanced, while the tech- heavy gauge climbed more than 1.5% as giants Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. erased their losses. Robinhood Markets Inc., the trading platform behind the boom-and-bust swing in GameStop Corp.’s shares, has chosen the Nasdaq for its eventual initial public offering, according to a news report. Earlier Friday, equities retreated as U.S. jobs data topped estimates, fueling anxiety the economy could run too hot and kick up inflation.
Benchmark 10-year yields stabilized after hitting 1.6%. Friday’s turnaround in financial markets wiped out the S&P 500’s drop for the week. The intense volatility of the past few days was a test to stock bulls who see the recent spike in Treasury yields as an indication of brighter prospects for the economy and corporate profits. While concern over equity valuations have emerged, several analysts say that as long as data continue to improve, any selloff would present dip-buying opportunities. “Many investors are going to be buying these dips here, capital continues to be pouring into equities,” said Tony Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens Bank.
Bond yields are still “incredibly low, so equity yields are still very attractive to investors,” he added. U.S. Treasury yields have been rising because of a much stronger economic outlook and are not a cause for worry — or a call to policy action — said Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard. His remarks follow Chairman Jerome Powell’s Thursday caution that rising yields had caught his eye and he would be “concerned by disorderly conditions in markets or persistent tightening in financial conditions.” “As a central banker I am always concerned if there is disorderly trading or something that looks panicky,” Bullard said Friday in an interview with Wharton Business Radio. “That would catch my attention. But I think we are not at that point.”

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.9% at 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid 0.8%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.6%.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index decreased 0.6%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.4%.
* The euro dipped 0.4% to $1.1917.
* The Japanese yen depreciated 0.4% to 108.36 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose less than one basis point to 1.57%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield climbed one basis point to -0.30%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield increased three basis points to 0.756%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 3.9% to $66.29 a barrel.
* Gold rose 0.1% to $1,698.65 an ounce.

–With assistance from Joanna Ossinger, Emily Barrett, Cecile Gutscher, Robert Brand, Lu Wang, Vildana Hajric and Vivien Lou Chen.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Defeat is not the worst of failures.  Not to have tried is the true failure. –George Edward Woodberry, 1865-1930.

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