May 2, 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

2000: Bill Clinton orders the US military to stop scrambling satellite signals used by civilians as of midnight.  The decision meant that Global Positioning System receivers will be ten times more accurate and his landmark decision to open up the GPS signal was the catalyst that triggered the launch of navigation systems “GPS” popularly known today.

On May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, was killed by United States forces in Pakistan. Go to article »

Leonardo da Vinci, d.1519.
Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, b.1903.
1611: King James Bible published.

President Biden roasts Fox News during WH Correspondents’ Dinner.  The President didn’t hold back! Watch the moment Biden aimed a few fiery jabs and jokes at Fox reporters over the weekend.

The Met Gala is today.  It’s fashion’s biggest night! Check out some images from the galas of yesteryear before the glamorous and glitzy event this evening.

Watch Stanley Tucci make truffle pasta for crew.  *Chef’s kiss* The real question is… who doesn’t love truffle pasta? Check out this mouth-watering video and tune into the new season of ‘Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy’ for more delicious Italian cuisine!

A rare solar eclipse Saturday (April 30) stunned viewers across Antarctica, the southern tip of South America, and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.  While much of the event took place in remote areas, live cameras on Earth and satellites in space allowed people around the world to witness the moon blocking as much as 64% of the sun. The eclipse happened during a Black Moon, which is the second new moon in a single month.
Full Story: Live Science (5/1) 

After nearly 13.8 billion years of nonstop expansion, the universe could soon grind to a standstill, then slowly start to contract, new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests.
In the new paper, three scientists attempt to model the nature of dark energy — a mysterious force that seems to be causing the universe to expand ever faster — based on past observations of cosmic expansion. In the team’s model, dark energy is not a constant force of nature, but an entity called quintessence, which can decay over time.  Full Story: Live Science (5/2) 

But does time really exist?
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Spectators attend the traditional May Day concert at San Giovanni Square
CREDIT: Angelo Carconi/EPA

Cousins Nastya, 16, (left) and Polina, 15, bring flowers to their mothers for a birthday at their home as heavy shelling is heard in the distance while the Russian invasion continues
CREDIT: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

Flamingos fly over a river
CREDIT: Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images

Market Closes for May 2^nd, 2022

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1963, Edward C. Johnson II, the head of Fidelity Investments, started a small mutual fund and gave it to his son, Ned, to run.  He called it the Magellan Fund.
CANADA
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.3%, or 69.78 to 20,692.22 in Toronto.
Today, real estate stocks led the market lower, as 7 of 11 sectors lost; 169 of 239 shares fell, while 67 rose.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 1.5%. Sandstorm Gold Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 7.2%.
Insights
* The index advanced 8.3% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index lost 2.1% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 6.8% below its 52-week high on April 5, 2022 and 8.6% above its low on May 4, 2021 * The S&P/TSX Composite is down 1.5% in the past 5 days and fell 5.7% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17 on a trailing basis and 13 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.8% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.32t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 13.41% compared with 13.79% in the previous session and the average of 11.68% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Real Estate | -22.7283| -3.9| 1/22
* Industrials | -18.2481| -0.8| 8/22
* Financials | -16.2163| -0.3| 10/18
* Materials | -15.4929| -0.6| 11/40
* Energy | -13.0971| -0.4| 7/26
* Utilities | -11.3875| -1.1| 3/13
* Communication Services | -8.7462| -0.8| 0/7
* Health Care | 1.1385| 0.9| 5/3
* Consumer Staples | 1.4937| 0.2| 3/7
* Consumer Discretionary | 3.0714| 0.4| 8/6
* Information Technology | 30.4378| 2.6| 11/5
================================================================
| | |Volume VS |
| Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change
Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Canadian Pacific | -9.1390| -1.5| 2.1| 1.7
* Fairfax Financial Holdings | -7.6900| -6.3| 18.0| 6.2
* Waste Connections | -7.0500| -2.2| 12.5| 0.5
* Couche-Tard | 5.2570| 1.6| 59.9| 9.6
* Nutrien | 6.0260| 1.3| -20.8| 34.4
* Shopify | 26.4300| 6.1| 13.3| -66.5

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks closed higher at the start of a week that’s likely to be marked by unnerving market gyrations, with the Federal Reserve expected to deliver its biggest interest-rate hike in two decades.
Dip buyers emerged after the worst month for the S&P 500 since the onset of the pandemic, sending the benchmark gauge up after a slide that reached 1.7% earlier Monday.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 outperformed amid a rally in giants like Microsoft Corp. and Tesla Inc.
Treasury 10-year yields traded near 3%, climbing alongside the dollar.
Oil rose as surging refined-products markets led prices higher.
Fears of an economic slowdown, persistently high inflation and an increasingly aggressive tightening rhetoric by Fed officials have weighed on risk appetite, spurring volatility across financial markets and pushing equities near oversold
levels.
“As we turn the calendar to May, we may see a short-term oversold bounce, however, we still have several reasons for concern,” wrote JC O’Hara, chief market technician at MKM Partners. “We believe our longer-term equity indicators are not yet oversold enough to have a high conviction ‘buy’ call. We also believe managers have started to reprice stocks using recession like multiples. If that is the case, we are still overvalued.”
The shift away from easy money is poised to accelerate as a pandemic bond-buying blitz by central banks swings into reverse, threatening another shock to the global economy.
Analysts project the Fed will boost rates by 50 basis points Wednesday to tackle the hottest inflation in four decades, and begin trimming its balance sheet at a maximum pace of $95 billion a month – a quicker shift than most envisaged at the start of 2022.

More Comments:
* “An appointment for a root canal has sounded better than having to watch this stock market lately,” wrote strategists at Bespoke Investment Group. “Just when you think things can’t get any worse in this market, they do, as every bounce has been quickly repudiated with stocks grinding down to new lows for the year.”
* “On the positive side, the market is currently so oversold, any good news could lead to a vicious bear market rally,” wrote Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. equity strategist Michael Wilson.  “We can’t rule anything out in the short term but we want to make it clear this bear market is far from completed, in our view.”
* “Sentiment measures have reached extremes, while the market has historically traded higher after a four-week losing streak.  However, given the current technical backdrop of lower lows and lower highs, an advance at this juncture should be considered a countertrend rally and not suggestive of a bottom being set,”  wrote Craig W. Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Sandler.
Elsewhere, at least a dozen other central banks are due to deliver policy decisions in the coming week, with multiple rate hikes expected. They may vary in size from 15 basis points anticipated by economists for Australia, to a quarter-point in the U.K., to whole percentage points in Brazil and Poland.
Some corporate highlights:
* Tesla needs more time to file a regular disclosure ahead of its annual shareholders’ meeting, pushing back a potential detailing of plans for issuing new shares and a possible stock split.
* Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid pill for treating Covid-19 failed to show benefit as a preventive therapy in a trial.
* Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading division clocked more than $100 million in revenue on 32 separate days, offering another glimpse into an extraordinary run through markets disrupted by war and unpredictable central bank actions.

Key events this week:
* Reserve Bank of Australia rate decision, Tuesday
* U.S. factory orders, durable goods, Tuesday
* Fed rate decision, briefing with Chair Jerome Powell, Wednesday
* EIA crude oil inventory report, Wednesday
* Bank of England rate decision and briefing, Thursday
* OPEC+ convenes virtually for a regular meeting, Thursday
* U.S. April jobs report, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%
* The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%
* The euro fell 0.4% to $1.0506
* The British pound fell 0.7% to $1.2490
* The Japanese yen fell 0.4% to 130.20 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced six basis points to 2.99%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 0.97%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1% to $105.73 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 2.6% to $1,861.80 an ounce
–With assistance from Andreea Papuc, Abigail Moses, Vildana Hajric and Isabelle Lee.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it. -Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900.

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