June 14, 2024, Newsletter

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Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.
Flag Day, USA.

June 14, 1919: Alcock and Brown take off for the first non-stop transatlantic flight, reaching Ireland from Newfoundland in 16 hours
June 14, 2009: Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson broke Red Auerbach’s record by winning his 10th NBA title.
 
1951: Univac computer unveiled.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, writer, b. 1811.
Che Guevara, revolutionary, b. 1928.

Part 2 of ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 will turn up the heat
The tea is piping hot, dear readers. New episodes of “Bridgerton” have debuted on Netflix.

Painting found at bus stop could sell for $32 million
A twice-stolen painting by Italian Renaissance master Titian, once found at a bus stop in London, could fetch $32 million at auction.

Taylor Swift’s fans danced so hard it registered as seismic activity
Earthquake readings were detected four miles from the star’s Edinburgh concert. Seismologists said it was triggered by enthusiastic Swifties!

James Webb telescope discovers most distant supernova ever seen
The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted a supernova dating to just 1.8 billion years after the Big Bang, as well as 80 others in the early universe. The ancient explosions could help scientists figure out the mysteries of how the cosmos evolved. Read More.

2,500-year-old slate containing drawings of battle scenes and paleo-alphabet discovered in Spain
Archaeologists discovered the stone tablet at a Tartessian site in southwestern Spain. Read More.

An encounter with ‘something outside of the solar system’ may have triggered an ice age on Earth
Two million years ago, an encounter with a cold cloud of gas and dust could have caused our planet’s “protective giant bubble” to draw back, potentially cooling our planet, new research claims. Read More
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Ganderbal, Kashmir
Hindus pray during a religious festival at the Kheer Bhawani temple at Tullamulla village.
Photograph: Farooq Khan/EPA
Omaha, Nebraska, US
A severe thunderstorm hits Omaha.
Photograph: Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald/AP
Winged formation … bee-eaters line up on a branch in Konya, Turkey
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Market Closes for June 14th, 2024

Market
Index 
Close  Change 
Dow
Jones
38589.16 -57.94
-0.15%
S&P 500  5431.64 -2.1
-0.04%
NASDAQ  17688.88 +21.32
+0.12%
TSX  21641.39 -56.72
-0.26%

International Markets

Market
Index 
Close  Change 
NIKKEI  38814.56 +94.09
+0.24%
HANG
SENG
17941.78 -170.85
-0.94%
SENSEX  76992.77 +181.87
+0.24%
FTSE 100* 8146.86 -16.81
-0.21%

Bonds

Bonds  % Yield  Previous % Yield
CND.
10 Year Bond 
3.285 3.327
CND.
30 Year
Bond 
3.216 3.272
U.S.   
10 Year Bond
4.2132 4.2442
U.S.
30 Year Bond
4.3452 4.3964

Currencies

BOC Close  Today  Previous  
Canadian $   0.7282 0.7276
US
$ 
 
1.3734 1.3744
Euro Rate
1 Euro= 
Inverse   
Canadian $   1.4701 0.6802
US
$ 
 
1.0705 0.9342

Commodities

Gold Close  Previous  
London Gold
Fix 
2310.80 2310.80
Oil
WTI Crude Future  78.62 78.62

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 2000, the Justice Department alleged members of the country’s five biggest organized-crime families conspired to manipulate securities. Prosecutors said the bull run and tech mania had made stock manipulation the white-collar crime of choice.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.3%, or 59.01 to 21,639.10 in Toronto.
The index dropped to the lowest closing level since March 6.
Today, financials stocks led the market lower, as 7 of 11 sectors lost; 152 of 222 shares fell, while 67 rose.
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.8%.
BlackBerry Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 6.9%.

Insights
* This quarter, the index fell 2.4%
* So far this week, the index fell 1.7%, heading for the biggest decline since the week ended Oct. 27
* The index advanced 8.1% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 23% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 4.1% below its 52-week high on May 21, 2024 and 15.8% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.4 on a trailing basis and 14.7 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.44t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.18% compared with 11.31% in the previous session and the average of 10.02% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | | Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Financials | -30.1480| -0.5| 10/17
Energy | -29.0051| -0.7| 6/33
Consumer Staples | -20.0075| -2.1| 1/9
Communication Services | -10.6854| -1.5| 0/5
Utilities | -7.3093| -0.9| 3/12
Real Estate | -2.0642| -0.5| 3/17
Consumer Discretionary | -0.5119| -0.1| 2/11
Health Care | 0.0133| 0.0| 1/3
Industrials | 3.4078| 0.1| 7/20
Materials | 4.1284| 0.2| 31/18
Information Technology | 33.1598| 1.9| 3/7
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD |Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Couche-Tard | -15.2500| -3.8| 34.8| -2.7
Bank of Nova Scotia| -7.7400| -1.4| 34.7| -1.2
Bank of Montreal | -5.9960| -1.0| -35.1| -12.4
Dollarama | 4.4720| 1.9| -0.6| 29.7
Canadian Pacific Kansas | 6.2030| 0.9| 6.8| 0.7
Shopify | 34.2700| 4.6| 10.9| -9.9

US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A renewed wave of anxiety gripped global markets as concern over a political crisis in France deepened, driving stocks down while spurring a flight to haven assets — from bonds to gold and the US dollar.
Traders took some risk off the table, with French shares this week losing roughly $210 billion in value — about the size of Greece’s economy — after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election.
Since then, France’s bonds were at the heart of the rout, with the premium investors demand to own 10-year debt over safer German peers jumping by a record this week.
ECB Officials See No Cause for Alarm Over French Market Turmoil.
“The situation in Europe is starting to get a little dicey,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co.
“The move is still a long way from developing into another sovereign-debt crisis, but with concerns about sky-high sovereign debt levels and bloated budgets, the developments in Europe (and particularly France) are raising some concerns in the marketplace.”
In the US, stocks also struggled to gain traction after a gauge of consumer sentiment sank to a seven-month low as high prices continued to take a toll on views of personal finances.
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said she still sees inflation risks as tilted to the upside despite welcome news in the latest data.
The S&P 500 closed mildly lower, led by a drop in industrial shares.
Tech outperformed, with Adobe Inc. up 15% on a strong outlook.
The Stoxx Europe 600 slid 1%.
France’s CAC 40 Index extended losses to over 6% on the week, the most since March 2022.
Societe Generale SA, BNP Paribas SA and Credit Agricole SA sank more than 10% each this week.
Treasury 10-year yields declined four basis points to 4.21%.
The dollar hit its highest since November.
The euro was among the worst-performing major currencies against the greenback this week.
What Macron’s Snap Vote Means for Debt Risk European Central Bank officials see no cause for alarm in the market turbulence that has engulfed France in the past few days, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
A spokesperson for the ECB declined to comment.
Trader anxiety grew after a coalition of France’s left-wing parties presented a manifesto to pick apart most of Macron’s seven years of economic reforms and set the country on a collision course with the European Union over fiscal policy.
“While we’re typically of the mind that what happens in Paris stays in Paris (or at least Europe), the current episode has taken on a more troubling character for global financial markets than might otherwise have been the case,” said Ian Lyngen at BMO Capital Markets. “Chatter regarding the potential for the election outcome to ultimately lead France out of the European Union has been difficult to completely dismiss as ‘wild speculation’, especially in light of the experience with Brexit.”
To Thierry Wizman at Macquarie Group, France is moving toward one of two extreme political scenarios.
“Neither of assemblage is dedicated to pro-market principles, nor fiscal responsibility, nor, possibly the single currency.”
ECB’s Lagarde Says Disinflation in Euro Zone Will Be Bumpy European stock funds suffered a fourth week of outflows at about $600 million, while cash funds had additions of $40.4 billion — the biggest among all the asset classes, according to a note from Bank of America Corp.
About $6.3 billion flowed into global stock funds in the  week through June 12, with US equities registering an eighth week of inflows, according to the note citing EPFR Global data.
Europe is the only region seeing outflows this year.
European stock flows are at risk of further unwind without a positive catalyst to reassure foreign investors in the near term, Barclays Plc says.
Strategists led by Emmanuel Cau closed their overweight stance earlier this week and advise caution on region for now — citing the political situation in France.
“We struggle to see a compelling reason to overweight continental Europe, even while it has become more consensus year-to-date,” they wrote.
Transactions of more than $1 million among the dollar-denominated bonds of major French banks have proliferated in recent days and are now much more frequent than large-ticket trades in their euro-area peers, based on Trace data compiled by Bloomberg.
That’s hit the debt of lenders like BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole.
Elsewhere, the Bank of Japan is making investors wait until its July meeting for details on its paring of bond buying, leaving the yen vulnerable to further declines.
The central bank’s decision Friday to stand pat on interest rates was widely expected, but traders were surprised by it just flagging a cut in debt purchases without laying out any figures or a timeline.
“The Bank of Japan sent the already anemic yen into a tailspin when it declined to provide a timeline for scaling back its bond purchasing, which many investors believe is essential for shoring up the country’s currency,” said Jose Torres at Interactive Brokers.


Corporate Highlights:

* The European Commission plans to allege that Apple Inc. stifles competition on its mobile app store, Financial Times reported, citing three people with close knowledge of the investigation.
* The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how titanium with potentially falsified records made its way from an obscure Chinese producer onto commercial jets manufactured by Airbus SE and Boeing Co.
* Home Depot Inc. is sounding out investors for a corporate bond sale that could total $10 billion to help fund its acquisition of SRS Distribution Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.
* Red Lobster and Fortress Investment Group, a major lender that may end up owning the seafood chain out of Chapter 11, struck a deal with a key creditor group to avert potential hurdles to the sale of the restaurant operator and its continued use of $100 million in bankruptcy financing.


Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks
* The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%
* The MSCI World Index fell 0.3%

Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.3% to $1.0704
* The British pound fell 0.6% to $1.2688
* The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 157.29 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.8% to $65,497.72
* Ether fell 2.1% to $3,405.55

Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 4.21%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined 11 basis points to 2.36%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 4.06%

Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2% to $78.46 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 1.2% to $2,332.88 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Andre Janse van Vuuren, James Hirai, Macarena Muñoz, Jan-Patrick Barnert, Alice Gledhill, Sagarika Jaisinghani, Tasos Vossos, Matthew Burgess, Chiranjivi Chakraborty and Winnie Hsu.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
Courage is contagious.  When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened. -Billy Graham, 1918-2018.

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