November 2, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Day of the Dead, Mexico.
               All souls Day, Roman Catholic.

On Nov. 2, 1976, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter defeated Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford, becoming the first U.S. president from the Deep South since the Civil War.  Go to article »

Daniel Boone, frontiersman, b. 1734.
Marie Antoinette, Queen Consort of Louis XVI of France, b. 1755.

Microsoft unveiled a PowerPoint about its own PowerPoint metaverse.

Facebook is shutting down facial recognition.

The metaverse is already here: It’s Minecraft.

Has a treatment for Alzheimer’s been sitting on pharmacy shelves for decades?

PHOTOS OF THE DAY
Performers wait to march in a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) procession through Olvera Street
CREDIT: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Jewel-toned leaves illuminate an autumn day in Shandong province
CREDIT: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock
High school students help to bury victims of the second world war in Johannis cemetery. The remains, most likely of civilians, were found during construction work in the city last year
CREDIT: Matthias Rietschel/AP

Market Closes for November 2^nd, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
     On this day in 1920, the first widespread commercial radio broadcast hits the air. The broadcast was made by Leo Rosenberg, speaking through a retooled telephone mouthpiece from a wooden shack on the roof of a Westinghouse factory. His first words were: “We shall now broadcast the election returns.”
Canada
By Alex Wittenberg
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities trailed U.S. peers to close lower on the day, as Bausch Health Cos.’s revenue miss weighed down the health care sector and oil prices fell. The S&P/TSX Composite fell 0.4% to 21,170.01 in Toronto. The move follows the previous session’s increase of 1%. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 3.1%. Bausch Health had the largest drop, falling 9.3%. Today, 141 of 233 shares fell, while 87 rose; 7 of 11 sectors were lower, led by information technology stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index rose 21%, heading for the best year in at least 10 years
* The index advanced 35% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 40% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 0.7% below its 52-week high on Oct. 26, 2021 and 36% above its low on Nov. 2, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is unchanged in the past 5 days and rose 5.1% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.6 on a trailing basis and 16.4 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.5% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.35t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 10.32% compared with 10.23 percent in the previous session and the average of 10.24 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Information Technology | -46.3944| -1.9| 9/6
* Materials | -34.2960| -1.4| 11/41
* Energy | -27.3610| -0.9| 2/21
* Health Care | -8.2071| -4.1| 1/7
* Utilities | -3.2815| -0.4| 3/12
* Communication Services | -3.0483| -0.3| 1/6
* Real Estate | -2.4739| -0.4| 6/18
* Consumer Discretionary | 0.7325| 0.1| 6/7
* Consumer Staples | 6.0639| 0.8| 10/3
* Industrials | 7.9023| 0.3| 15/15
* Financials | 33.3562| 0.5| 23/5
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Shopify | -45.8800| -3.1| 9.0| 27.4
* Nutrien | -17.5100| -5.0| 110.8| 37.2
* Suncor Energy | -11.2800| -3.3| 26.3| 49.7
* Waste Connections | 4.7030| 1.6| -24.4| 30.8
* Bank of Montreal | 4.8130| 0.8| 3.3| 41.2
* Royal Bank of  Canada | 13.7500| 1.1| 11.1| 25.0

US
By Rita Nazareth and Emily Graffeo
(Bloomberg) — The relentless rally in stocks pushed major U.S. benchmarks to their all-time highs just a day before the Federal Reserve’s policy decision. Underpinning that strength is the fact that profit margins have held up incredibly well, despite soaring commodity prices and supply-chain snarls. Many companies have been able to pass through rising costs to consumers, with the majority beating earnings estimates. Regardless of what the Fed may say or do Wednesday, there’s a perception the U.S. will still have comparatively low rates, which bodes well for stocks. “The fundamentals are very, very strong here and the backdrop is also very strong because we see economic growth delayed, not derailed into 2022,” Katie Nixon, chief investment officer for the wealth management business at Northern Trust, told Bloomberg Television. “The Fed is going to be on hold for longer than the market thinks. So it really is a constructive environment for risk assets.”
Treasury two-year yields joined a global slide in short-term rates that was unleashed by the Australian central bank’s dovish statement ahead of the Fed decision. With U.S. policy makers expected to start scaling back their asset-purchase program soon, economists surveyed by Bloomberg are closely divided on whether a rate liftoff will be next year or early 2023. “The Fed has managed expectations perfectly in terms of preparing the markets for what is likely to be speed tapering,” said Win Thin, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman. “Most officials seem to agree that it’s better to get tapering over as quickly as possible in order to leave the Fed maximum flexibility to hike rates when needed.”

Some corporate highlights:
* Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. soared in late trading after announcing accelerated share buybacks and the launch of a new digital marketplace for merchandise from third-party producers.  Lyft Inc. reported third-quarter revenue 73% higher than last year. T-Mobile US Inc. missed analysts’ subscriber-growth estimates.
* Pfizer Inc. climbed Tuesday after boosting its forecast for the year on the strength of its Covid-19 vaccine sales. It also projected 2022 revenue for the shot above analysts’ expectations.
* Avis Budget Group Inc. soared amid a flurry of retail-crazed activity as the rental-car company said it will play a big role in the adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S.
* Tesla Inc. slipped as billionaire Elon Musk cast doubt on Hertz Global Holdings Inc. plan to buy 100,000 electric vehicles and downplayed the deal’s potential.

After the recent rally in equities, technical indicators are signaling heightened volatility. Not only is the S&P 500 pushing the limits of its trading envelope — built around moving price averages — but the widening of its upper and lower bands can also be a precursor to greater swings.  Furthermore, the gauge’s 14-day relative strength index is above 70, which is seen by some traders as a threshold for being considered overbought.
Here are some events to watch this week:
* Fed rate decision, U.S. factory orders and durable goods, Wednesday
* OPEC+ meeting on output, Thursday
* Bank of England rate decision, Thursday
* U.S. trade, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* U.S. unemployment, nonfarm payrolls, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.4% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
* The MSCI World index rose 0.1%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
* The euro fell 0.2% to $1.1581
* The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.3616
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 113.95 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 1.54%
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to -0.16%
* Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 1.04%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.6% to $83.51 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,789.10 an ounce

–With assistance from Andreea Papuc, Srinivasan Sivabalan, Sophie Caronello, Nathan Hager and Kamaron Leach.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

An example of a really responsible system is the system the Romans used when they built an arch. 
The guy who created the arch stool under it as the scaffolding was removed. 
It’s like packing your won parachute. -Charles Munger, b. 1924.

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