March 6, 2025, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Carolann is away from the office for a Bloomberg Invest Conference “Unlocking Opportunity Across Markets” in New York, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

March 6, 1834: The former town of York was incorporated on March 6, 1834, reverting to the name Toronto to distinguish it from New York City.
March 6, 1865: US President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Ball
March 6, 1899: The Bayer company officially registered the trademark for Aspirin
March 6, 1912: Oreo sandwich cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Co., which later became Nabisco. Go to article
March 6, 1964: Boxing legend Cassius Clay joins the Nation of Islam and changes his name to “Muhammad Ali,”

Powerful ‘equinox auroras’ may arrive soon: Why changing seasons can bring the best northern lights
Expect an uptick in aurora sightings near the spring equinox on March 20, as celestial geometry swings in favor of geomagnetic disturbances.

‘Planet parade’ ends with a rare conjunction of Venus and Mercury at sunset. Here’s how to watch.
The two innermost planets, Venus and Mercury, will shine together low in the western sky at sunset on March 10. Here’s how to get the best view before they disappear.

2,400-year-old puppets with ‘dramatic facial expression’ discovered atop pyramid in El Salvador
These striking puppets suggest that Indigenous people in what is now El Salvador had rituals that were more connected to the rest of Central American culture than previously thought.

Scientists realize ‘Viking’ shipwreck is something else entirely
A more than 500-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Sweden isn’t a Viking vessel after all, scientists have found.

Scientists discover simpler way to achieve Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’ thanks to AI breakthrough — bringing quantum internet closer to reality
AI has helped physicists discover a simpler way of achieving quantum entanglement. This finding could make it easier to develop quantum communication technologies.

‘Queen of icebergs’ A23a grounds off South Atlantic wildlife haven
The world’s largest iceberg has run aground just off the coast of South Georgia. But what does this mean for the wildlife there?

Poll: Should we bring back woolly mammoths?
Colossal scientists just created “woolly mice” in another step towards their ultimate goal of resurrecting woolly mammoths. But should we be tinkering with extinct species? Take our poll and have your say.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Istanbul, Turkey
A view of the half moon over the Sultan Ahmed Mosque last night
Photograph: Isa Terli/Anadolu/Getty Images

Dresden, Germany
A member of the media visits the exhibition Space by German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans at the Albertinum
Photograph: Jens Schlueter/AFP/Getty Images

Northumberland, UK
The Milky Way in a spectacular display over Bamburgh Lighthouse in the early hours
Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Market Closes for March 6^th, 2025

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.2% at 24,584.04 in Toronto.
The move follows the previous session’s increase of 1.2%.
Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as 8 of 11 sectors lost; 157 of 220 shares fell, while 62 rose.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.6%.
Aecon Group Inc. had the largest drop, falling 16.1%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss 12 times. The next day, it declined seven times for an average 1% and advanced five times for an average 0.5%
* This quarter, the index fell 0.6%
* So far this week, the index fell 3.2%, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Sept. 22
* The index advanced 14% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 12% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 5% below its 52-week high on Jan. 30, 2025 and 14.5% above its low on June 17, 2024
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 2.2% in the past 5 days and fell3.7% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.4 on a trailing basis and 14.9 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.9% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$4.01t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 13.91% compared with 13.63% in the previous session and the average of 11.41% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -139.9480| -1.7| 3/22
Information Technology| -81.5141| -3.2| 1/9
Materials | -35.2262| -1.1| 12/37
Energy | -30.4650| -0.8| 17/26
Utilities | -18.6490| -1.9| 2/13
Industrials | -9.8252| -0.3| 9/19
Real Estate | -6.4724| -1.3| 1/18
Health Care | -1.0490| -1.5| 1/3
Consumer Discretionary| 5.4923| 0.7| 7/4
Communication Services| 10.5015| 1.7| 4/1
Consumer Staples | 20.3777| 2.2| 5/5
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Shopify | -47.0200| -3.6| 33.1| -4.2
Brookfield Corp | -40.4200| -5.1| 112.4| -9.0
Enbridge | -22.7500| -2.4| -41.1| -2.4
Canadian National | 8.6510| 1.6| 23.4| -0.1
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 12.7000| 1.8| 39.6| 7.7
Couche-Tard | 14.9900| 3.9| 40.6| -7.1
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street traders continued to navigate intense, quick and sharp market swings amid a slew of tariff headlines, with stocks getting pummeled after almost wiping out their losses.
The S&P 500 slid 1.8% and the Nasdaq 100 sank 2.8%, with the tech-heavy gauge on the brink of a technical correction.
Sentiment was so fragile that equities failed to stage a rebound even after President Donald Trump’s decision to delay levies on Mexican and Canadian goods covered by the North American trade deal.
The dollar saw its longest losing streak since September, while the peso and the loonie rose.
Treasury trading was fairly muted.
The new chapter on the trade war was unveiled days after the US announced its largest tariff increase in a century.
Trump argued that foreign countries are “ripping us off” and that tariffs would put the US on a stronger footing.
When asked for his thoughts on the stock selloff, he told reporters that “it’s globalists who see how rich our country is going to be and they don’t like it.”
“Volatility seems like the only certainty as policies are implemented, challenged, modified, then often re-implemented,” said Chris Low at FHN Financial.
A slide in tech shares dragged down the market, with Nvidia Corp. leading losses in megacaps.
In late hours, Broadcom Inc. gave an upbeat revenue forecast, reassuring investors that spending on artificial-intelligence computing remains healthy.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. issued a weak profit outlook and announced plans to eliminate about 3,000 jobs.
Just 24 hours ahead of the US payrolls report, data showed jobless claims fell, offering some relief after other figures pointed to a worsening labor-market.
The employment print is expected to show a pick in job growth.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rejected the idea that tariff hikes will ignite a new wave of inflation.
Separately, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller repeated his assessment that the impact on prices from tariffs likely won’t be significant.
While he wouldn’t support lowering rates in March, Waller sees room to cut two, or possibly three, times this year.
The S&P 500 hovered near its closely watched 200-day moving average.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%.
A gauge of the Magnificent Seven megacaps sank 2.9%.
The Russell 2000 slid 1.6%.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose one basis point to 4.29%.
A dollar gauge dropped 0.1%.
“Right now, trade policy is dominating market action,” said Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley.
“Until the tariff smoke clears, it could continue to be a bumpy ride for traders and investors.”
To Steve Chiavarone of Federated Hermes, the market “isn’t really forgiving” at this stage.
“At the end of the day, we think we are just in a period of max uncertainty and a bit of an economic soft patch,” he noted.
“That said, we think this gives way to a much better second half.”
The recent rout in the S&P 500 is finally giving one group its chance to shine.
Low-volatility stocks are outperforming the overall market and living up to expectations of doing well when things sour.
After two underwhelming years, it has become the best-performing investment theme in 2025, among 13 tracked by Bloomberg Intelligence.
While the S&P 500 sinks from a record, two of the largest low-volatility exchange-traded funds — the Invesco S&P 500 Low- Volatility ETF (SPLV) and the MSCI USA Min-Vol Factor ETF (USMV) — are clocking their best relative performances in a few years.
All that is happening as traders gear up for Friday’s jobs data.
Payrolls rose by 160,000 in February, a slight improvement from the 143,000 increase a month earlier yet softer than during the final months of 2024, according to the median projection of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
The unemployment rate is seen holding at 4%.
A survey conducted by 22V Research shows 84% of the investors we polled are watching payrolls closer than normal.
Some 53% of survey respondents think Friday’s data will be “risk-off,” 28% “risk-on” and 19% “mixed/negligible.”
“Investors have turned their focus back to payrolls this month after being more focused on average hourly earnings last month,” said Dennis DeBusschere, founder of 22V.

Corporate Highlights:
* The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Alphabet Inc. and its CEO Sundar Pichai as part of its ongoing investigation into the biggest tech companies’ relationships with the Biden administration.
* OpenAI and Oracle Corp. plan to begin filling a massive new data center in Texas with tens of thousands of powerful AI chips from Nvidia Corp. in the coming months, part of a push to get the first facility for their $100 billion Stargate infrastructure venture up and running.
* Boeing Co. Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg told employees that tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump risk driving up costs, highlighting the fragility of a finely tuned supply-chain network that now faces disruption.
* Macy’s Inc. is the latest retailer to post better-than- expected results only to issue a downbeat annual outlook for sales and profit, citing “external uncertainties.”
* Kroger Co. forecast higher-than-expected sales guidance, seeking to pacify concerns as questions linger about its chief executive officer’s abrupt exit.
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. took the wraps off a model that it claims performs as well as DeepSeek with just a fraction of the data required.

Key events this week:
* Eurozone GDP, Friday
* US jobs report, Friday
* Fed Chair Jerome Powell gives keynote speech at an event in New York hosted by University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Friday
* Fed’s John Williams, Michelle Bowman and Adriana Kugler speak, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.8% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 2.8%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%
* The MSCI World Index fell 1.3%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index fell 2.9%
* The Russell 2000 Index fell 1.6%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0787
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2878
* The Japanese yen rose 0.7% to 147.82 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.5% to $88,990.84
* Ether fell 1.6% to $2,199.76
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.29%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 2.83%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.66%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.1% to $66.24 a barrel
* Spot gold fell 0.3% to $2,910.55 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Margaryta Kirakosian, Julien Ponthus, Sujata Rao and Divya Patil.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Shab
“Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.” — Twyla Tharp

Shab Mohammadpour
Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff
Queensbury Securities Inc.
340A – 730 View Street
Victoria BC  V8W 3Y7
Tel: 778-430-5851
Fax: 778-430-5828