November 24, 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

November 24^th, 1859: Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species is published, which put forth the theory of evolution and described the process of natural selection.
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. -Charles Darwin, 1809-1882.

On Nov. 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy. Go to article »

Benedict de Spinoza, philosopher, b. 1632.
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, painter, b.1864.
Dale Carnegie, b. 1888.

Can plants that suck metals from soil replace mining?
NASA’s mission to smack an asteroid. Making travel plans? We asked a VIP concierge for his insider tips. 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY
Corals fertilise billions of offspring by casting sperm and eggs into the Pacific Ocean. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is spawning in an explosion of colour as the World Heritage-listed natural wonder recovers from life-threatening coral bleaching episodes
CREDIT: Gabriel Guzman/Calypso Productions/AP
A first-of-its-kind asteroid deflection spacecraft lifts off overnight from Vandenberg Space Force Base on a 10-month mission to collide with an asteroid
CREDIT: Gene Blevins/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
A man plays a saxophone during a vigil for Ahmaud Arbery outside the Glynn county courthouse as jury deliberates whether Greg McMichael, his son, Travis McMichael, and William Bryan murdered him
CREDIT: Marco Bello/Reuters

Market Closes for November 24^th, 2021

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

MARKET COMMENTARY:
     On this day in 1998, America Online took over Netscape Communications for roughly $4.2 billion.
CANADA
By Stefanie Marotta
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities climbed for the second consecutive day as companies in the technology sector offset losses in consumer staples. The S&P/TSX Composite rose 0.4%, or 94.66, to 21,548.43 in Toronto. The gain was the biggest since it rose 0.9% on Nov. 12. Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 3.3%. Docebo Inc. had the largest increase, rising 5.5%. Today, 129 of 233 shares rose, while 101 fell; 7 of 11 sectors were higher, led by information technology stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index rose 24 percent, heading for the best year in at least 10 years
* This month, the index rose 2.4 percent
* The index advanced 25 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 28 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.1 percent below its 52-week high on Nov. 16, 2021 and 25.8 percent above its low on Nov. 30, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.5 percent in the past 5 days and rose 1.6 percent 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 16.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.4 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.38t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 8.73 percent compared with 9.05 percent in the previous session and the average of 9.75 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
* Information Technology | 58.6264| 2.4| 8/6
* Energy | 26.7429| 0.9| 14/8
* Financials | 15.5736| 0.2| 13/15
* Real Estate | 5.7217| 0.9| 22/2
* Industrials | 4.5750| 0.2| 21/9
* Communication Services | 3.5768| 0.4| 5/2
* Health Care | 3.1247| 1.7| 9/0
* Materials | -0.9528| 0.0| 27/27
* Consumer Discretionary | -1.6023| -0.2| 5/8
* Utilities | -2.9060| -0.3| 4/12
* Consumer Staples | -17.8191| -2.3| 1/12
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points| | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move |% Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
* Shopify | 51.7600| 3.3| 47.9| 43.3
* Canadian Natural Resources | 11.0400| 2.5| 17.0| 79.8
* Suncor Energy | 7.6590| 2.2| 3.4| 58.0
* Magna International | -3.1440| -1.5| 8.2| 16.0
* Canadian Pacific | -3.1940| -0.7| -28.0| 7.1
* Couche-Tard | -13.1600| -4.6| 239.0| 11.1

US
By Emily Graffeo and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — Stocks climbed as investors shrugged off tapering concerns highlighted in minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting. The dollar gained and the Treasury yield curve flattened as short-end rates rose. The S&P 500 rose, after briefly dipping following release of the minutes, with real estate and energy stocks leading gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 outperformed major benchmarks. Trading volume has been less than average ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. A gauge of the dollar jumped to the highest since July 2020. Data earlier today showed a resilient U.S. consumer despite accelerating inflation. The Nov. 2-3 meeting minutes noted the committee “would not hesitate to take appropriate actions to address inflation pressures.”
Since then, inflation surged to the highest rate since 1990 and Fed officials have said it may be appropriate to discuss quickening the pace of tapering at the December meeting. That’s triggered a jump in Treasury yields, with the two-year rate soaring to the highest since early March 2020 and markets bringing forward bets on rate hikes. “We need to be careful here about loading up on risk,” Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, said on Bloomberg TV. “We want to own some cyclicality to play this continued rebound and this continued unfolding of the recovery here, but we want to just pump the brakes a little bit.” U.S. personal spending rose in October from a month earlier by more than expected, while a closely watched inflation measure posted the largest annual increase in three decades.
In addition, data showed 199,000 people made initial jobless claims in the period ended Nov. 20, the least since 1969, while orders placed with U.S. factories for business equipment rose in October by more than forecast, highlighting solid momentum for capital investment at the start of the fourth quarter. “There are hints that the job market is pretty good in today’s numbers,” Marvin Loh, global macro strategist at State Street Corporation, said on Bloomberg TV. “If there are signs that the job market is going to heal itself faster then let’s say than the second half of next year, rate hikes are going to be live. But having said that, we’re already pricing in mid-2022 and starting to think about May of 2022, so I don’t see how much more we can get from an aggressive side of things.” Damping inflation is now center-stage for policy makers, with ultra-loose, pandemic-era stimulus set to be wound down. At the same time, investors are on the edge over the resurgence in Covid-19, notably in Europe.

Oil edged slightly lower a day after U.S. stockpiles rose and the day after the announcement of a coordinated release crude from strategic reserves. The White House announced on Tuesday a release of 50 million barrels from its reserves in coordination with the U.S., China, Japan, India, the U.K., and South Korea. The Mexican peso tumbled after President Lopez Obrador tapped Deputy Finance Minister Victoria Rodriguez to lead Banxico.
Here are some key events this week:
* Bank of Korea policy decision Thursday
* U.S. Thanksgiving Day: U.S. equity, bond markets closed Thursday
* Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey speaks with Mohamed El Erian at a Cambridge Union event. Thursday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed
* The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%
* The euro fell 0.4% to $1.1206
* The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.3331
* The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 115.37 per dollar
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 1.63%
* Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.23%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 1.00%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $78.26 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,790 an ounce
–With assistance from Robert Brand, Andreea Papuc, Sunil Jagtiani, Akshay Chinchalkar and Srinivasan Sivabalan.
Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s  or my grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true we slide, almost without noticing, back to superstition and darkness.  The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously-influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), the lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of
celebration of ignorance. -Carl Sagan, 1934-1996; The Demon-Haunted World, 1995.

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