May 17,2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
May 17, 1527: The Pánfilo de Narváez expedition, sent by Spain to conquer Florida, is lost at sea.
May 17, 1792: The New York Stock Exchange was founded by brokers meeting under a tree on what is now Wall Street. Go to article > 
1844: rubber band patented.

The 76th Cannes Film Festival began this week: The glamorous event kicked off Tuesday with the premiere of Johnny Depp’s Louis XV period drama, “Jeanne du Barry.”

Solar ‘super flares’ millions of times stronger than anything today may have sparked life on Earth
Intense solar storms may have delivered Earth its earliest building blocks of life, new research suggests. Read More

NASA spots sign of El Niño from space: ‘If it’s a big one, the globe will see record warming’
The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite recorded Kelvin waves moving eastward across the Pacific — a phenomenon often considered a precursor to El Niño. Read More

Ancient Romans sacrificed birds to the goddess Isis, burnt bones in Pompeii reveal
The ancient remains of at least 10 birds have been found at a temple of Isis in the Roman city of Pompeii, indicating that birds were a key feature of worshipping the goddess. Read More

‘Face blindness’ could be rare long COVID symptom, case report hints
A new case report provides the first account of “face blindness” emerging after a COVID-19 infection. Read More
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Bridlington, England
Nesting gannets at Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, where about 500,000 seabirds flock to find a mate and raise their young.  Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

London, England
Marketing manager Joanna Roche sits in Jimi Hendrix’s bedroom in the newly restored house where, separated by a wall & 200 years, musicians George Frideric Handel and Jimi Hendrix have both lived. Handel & Hendrix in London reopens to visitors this week.  Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

Antalya, Turkey
Crocuses bloom on Taşeli plateau.  Photograph: Seyit Konyali/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Market Closes for May 17^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1792, the ancestor of the New York Stock Exchange was born. Twenty-four brokers gathered under a tree and signed the Buttonwood Agreement, pledging to “not buy or sell from this day for any person whatsoever, any kind of Public Stock at a less rate than one quarter per cent Commission.”
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.3% at 20,296.43 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s decrease of 1.5%.
Today, financials stocks led the market higher, as 7 of 11 sectors gained; 152 of 232 shares rose, while 78 fell.
Brookfield Corp. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.5%. Bausch Health Cos. had the largest increase, rising 24.1%.
Insights
* The index declined 0.9% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 1.1% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3.5% below its 52-week high on June 2, 2022 and 13.6% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1% in the past 5 days and fell 1.7% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.1 on a trailing basis and 13.4 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$3.23t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 9.74% compared with 9.87% in the previous session and the average of 9.53% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | 51.3526| 0.8| 25/4
Energy | 27.0544| 0.8| 36/4
Information Technology | 7.6064| 0.5| 8/4
Health Care | 4.2525| 6.2| 4/2
Real Estate | 3.5067| 0.7| 14/6
Consumer Discretionary | 2.7006| 0.4| 11/4
Consumer Staples | 0.7411| 0.1| 6/5
Communication Services | -5.0796| -0.6| 2/3
Utilities | -6.0546| -0.6| 6/9
Industrials | -11.4401| -0.4| 19/8
Materials | -20.2723| -0.8| 21/29
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Brookfield Corp | 10.1200| 2.5| -4.4| -1.9
TD Bank | 9.6200| 0.9| -23.1| -6.2
Canadian Natural Resources | 7.6170| 1.3| -3.6| 0.2
Canadian Pacific Kansas | -5.6230| -0.8| -23.0| 9.7
Canadian National | -6.2440| -0.9| -0.1| -0.4
Barrick Gold | -6.3650| -2.1| -25.2| 6.8
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — The stock market climbed on speculation that a narrower group of Washington negotiators will break a deadlock on raising the US debt ceiling and avoid an unprecedented default.
Equities halted the recent trading lull, with gains in the S&P 500 topping 1% and the Nasdaq 100 hitting the highest since August.
Treasuries dropped, with yields on 10-year notes approaching 3.6%.
President Joe Biden expressed confidence there will be no default, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said reaching an agreement this week is “doable.”
“We don’t want to get too excited as the two sides reportedly remain far apart,” said Win Thin, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman. “However, we get the sense that there is a real effort to avert a debt ceiling catastrophe as the X-date of June 1 is fast approaching. Stay tuned.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief Jamie Dimon said the US government “probably” will not default on its debts.
He joined other top executives of major banks in a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to discuss the debt limit.
The amount of money the US has on hand to pay its bills sank to $87 billion on May 15, increasing the chances the government will run out of cash by early June if the debt limit isn’t raised or suspended by then.
The Treasury’s bank account has been under downward pressure recently because of measures being taken to avoid breaching the $31.4 trillion debt cap.
“We all know the US Treasury is about to run out of ways to pay its bills, but we have seen this movie too many times before,” said Chun Wang at Leuthold Group. “While, theoretically, there is a threat of default, we certainly don’t recommend planning our lives around it. The script is very predictable: political posturing and grandstanding will go on until the 11th hour, and then a deal will be hastily put
together to avoid a default.”
If history is any guide, the debt-ceiling turmoil tends to be short-lived, without much impact on stocks before or after a resolution, Wang added.
However, the August 2011 instance caught many investors by surprise, with equities slumping for a week or so before stabilizing.
Assuming the date of resolution is June 1, the current pattern is “uncomfortably similar to August 2011,” he noted.
To Amy Wu Silverman at RBC Capital Markets, while markets are betting on a rocky end to the debt-ceiling debate, if they are wrong, investors may miss out on the gains.
“The tale of optimism does not exist,” she told Bloomberg Television. “Is there a possibility of a congressional miracle?  If it at all comes in a little bit easier than we expect, that right tail is very cheap.”
Also helping sentiment Wednesday was a rally in regional banks after Western Alliance Bancorp reported growth in deposits, easing worries about the health of the industry.
Target Corp. stood by its annual outlook after posting higher-than-expected profit in the first quarter, even as “softening sales trends” threaten to crimp short-term results.
Key events this week:
* US initial jobless claims, Conference Board leading index, existing home sales, Thursday
* Japan CPI, Friday
* ECB President Christine Lagarde participates in panel at Brazil central bank conference, Friday
* New York Fed’s John Williams speaks at monetary policy research conference in Washington; Fed Chair Jerome Powell and former chair Ben Bernanke to take part in panel discussion, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 1.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.2%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.6%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.0840
* The British pound was little changed at $1.2493
* The Japanese yen fell 0.9% to 137.60 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 1.7% to $27,405.7
* Ether rose 0.5% to $1,830.52
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 3.58%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 2.34%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 3.84%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.7% to $72.74 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.3% to $1,986.40 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Cecile Gutscher.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
‘Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause – and of obstinacy in a bad one. –Laurence Sterne, 1713-1768.

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