Dear Friends,
Tangents: Happy Friday!
Just back from the J.P. Morgan Investment conference in NYC last night. AI continues to be the hot topic of conversation. The dominance as a theme in investing is projected to continue. The numbers from Open AI and Anthropic are staggering.
October 17, 1912: Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, widening the conflict.
On Oct. 17, 1931, mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 1939.
October 17, 1899: San Franciso earthquake.
Diwali, the five-day Hindu festival of lights, kicks off this weekend, with the main event taking place on Monday. Celebrated by more than a billion people across India, Nepal, Singapore and Malaysia, not to mention communities across the rest of the world, it is one of the biggest events in Hinduism and also celebrated in Jainism and Sikhism. Diwali follows the Hindu lunar calendar, marking the darkest night of the year, and with it, the triumph of good over evil
| Stalagmites adhere to a single mathematical rule, scientists discover |
Scientists discover all stalagmites growing from cave floors follow a mathematical rule that explains how these mineral formations develop into different shapes. Read More.
| 5,000 years ago, Stone Age people in China crafted their ancestors’ bones into cups and masks |
Archaeologists in China found a collection of human bones that showed signs of being “worked” like any other natural material. Read More.
| ‘Most pristine’ star ever seen discovered at the Milky Way’s edge — and could be a direct descendant of the universe’s first stars |
Astronomers have discovered a surprisingly “pristine” red giant with the lowest concentration of heavy elements ever seen in a star. It is likely a direct descendant of one of the
universe’s first stars. Read More.
| Record-breaking ‘dark object’ found hiding within a warped ‘Einstein ring’ 10 billion light-years away |
Researchers have found a suspected clump of dark matter lurking within the luminous halo of a well-known “Einstein ring.” The mysterious object, the smallest of its kind ever seen, could help shed light on the universe’s missing matter. Read More.
This carbon-absorbing bridge is inspired by bones
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have come up with a novel design that can reduce concrete’s environmental impact.
New details released about the death of Diane Keaton
Actress Diane Keaton died on Saturday after falling ill with a common type of infection in the US, according to a death certificate obtained by CNN.
Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist and founding member of the glam rock band Kiss, died Thursday following a recent fall, his agent said. He was 74.
Separately, Susan Stamberg, the first woman to host a national news program, died Thursday at age 87. Stamberg was known as a “founding mother” of National Public Radio.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY
Rijeka, Croatia
Croatian freediver Vitomir Maricic, 40, relaxes underwater during a training session. Maricic went beyond what seemed possible for a human body by holding his breath for an astonishing 29 minutes and three seconds under water
Photograph: Damir Sencar/AFP/Getty Images
Paris, France
An exclusive presentation at Drouot auction house of an oil painting entitled ‘The Child and his Toys’, a major piece by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Photograph: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images
Hull, UK
A general view of the Hull Fair 2025 in Yorkshire, one of the largest travelling fairs in Europe, which features over 250 rides. The fair features an array of rides alongside traditional attractions such as palm reading and stalls packed with food, treats and games
Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Market Closes for October 17th , 2025
| Market Index |
Close | Change |
| Dow Jones |
46190.61 | +238.37 |
| +0.52% | ||
| S&P 500 | 6664.01 | +34.94 |
| +0.52% | ||
| NASDAQ | 22679.97 | +117.43 |
| +0.52% | ||
| TSX | 30108.48 | -350.32 |
| -1.15% |
International Markets
| Market Index |
Close | Change |
| NIKKEI | 47582.15 | -695.59 |
| -1.44% | ||
| HANG SENG |
25247.10 | -641.41 |
| -2.48% | ||
| SENSEX | 83952.19 | +484.53 |
| +0.58% | ||
| FTSE 100* | 9354.57 | -81.52 |
| -0.86% |
Bonds
| Bonds | % Yield | Previous % Yield |
| CND. 10 Year Bond |
3.093 | 3.077 |
| CND. 30 Year Bond |
3.592 | 3.583 |
| U.S. 10 Year Bond |
4.0088 | 3.9745 |
| U.S. 30 Year Bond |
4.6053 | 4.5844 |
| BOC Close | Today | Previous |
| Canadian $ | 0.7133 | 0.7117 |
| US $ |
1.4019 | 1.4050 |
| Euro Rate 1 Euro= |
Inverse | |
| Canadian $ | 1.6339 | 0.6120 |
| US $ |
1.1693 | 0.8552 |
Commodities
| Gold | Close | Previous |
| London Gold Fix |
4261.95 | 4204.60 |
| Oil | ||
| WTI Crude Future | 57.54 | 57.46 |
Market Commentary:
|
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 1.2%, or 350.32 to 30,108.48 in Toronto.
Today, materials stocks led the market lower, as 4 of 11 sectors lost; 137 of 214 shares fell, while 76 rose.
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 6.3%.
Orla Mining Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 10.9%.
Insights
* In the past year, the index had a similar or greater loss 15 times. The next day, it advanced eight times for an average 1.6% and declined seven times for an average 1.6%
* This year, the index rose 22%, heading for the best year in at least 10 years
* So far this week, the index rose 0.9%
* The index advanced 22% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 15% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 2.3% below its 52-week high on Oct. 15, 2025 and 35.5% above its low on April 7, 2025
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.3 on a trailing basis and 18.6 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 2.4% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$4.87t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 11.05% compared with 10.35% in the previous session and the average of 7.58% over the past month
Index Points
Materials | -329.8068| -6.0| 4/47
Energy | -42.7885| -0.9| 11/28
Financials | -17.6512| -0.2| 4/20
Information Technology| -1.9743| -0.1| 4/5
Utilities | 0.0160| 0.0| 8/6
Health Care | 0.8438| 1.0| 3/1
Real Estate | 3.9743| 0.8| 14/4
Consumer Discretionary| 5.1393| 0.5| 6/3
Industrials | 6.8076| 0.2| 9/20
Communication Services| 7.8000| 1.2| 3/2
Consumer Staples | 17.3207| 1.7| 10/1
Agnico Eagle Mines | Ltd | -57.1700| -6.3| 12.0| 117.3
Wheaton Precious | Metals | -40.9100| -8.1| -1.0| 81.1
Barrick Mining | -39.8900| -6.7| 10.8| 109.6
Shopify | 7.0700| 0.4| -46.6| 44.4
Canadian Pacific | Kansas | 7.6520| 1.1| -19.2| 3.0
Couche-Tard | 8.5610| 2.2| -21.7| -6.0
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A jittery week on Wall Street ended on a positive note for stocks as President Donald Trump’s remarks soothed anxiety around trade tensions while regional banks rebounded.
Bonds, gold and silver fell.
The bounce in equities sent the S&P 500 to its best week since August, with Trump expressing optimism that talks with Chinese officials could yield an agreement to defuse the tariff spat between the world’s two biggest economies.
A batch of solid results from various regional lenders lifted the industry after a rout triggered by concern over credit quality in the economy.
The White House signaled efforts to calm fears of a full- blown trade war that could have a seismic effect on the global economy.
“I think we’re doing very well.
I think we’re getting along with China,” Trump said. He also indicated that he believed his planned meeting with President Xi Jinping this month would go ahead.
“October has brought a spooky uptick in market swings,” said Keith Lerner at Truist Advisory Services. “After an extended rally and elevated investor sentiment, markets were vulnerable to negative surprises.
We would view deeper pullbacks as opportunities to lean in, as the bull market still deserves the benefit of the doubt.”
The S&P 500 rose 0.5%.
A closely watched exchange-traded fund tracking regional banks climbed 1.6%.
Zions Bancorp and Western Alliance Bancorp – which had led the recent industry selloff – rallied at least 3.1%.
Oracle Corp. sank about 7% on concerns about fulfilling AI cloud demand.
Treasury two-year yields rose from the lowest since 2022.
The dollar was little changed at the end of its worst week since August.
US regional bank executives sought to calm shaken investors Friday, after revelations of new loan charge-offs linked to fraud sparked the biggest selloff in six months on Thursday.
Several lenders released third-quarter results that showed fewer provisions for loan losses than analysts had predicted.
Despite all the uncertainties that shook markets this week, stocks actually got big inflows as investors put cash to work.
Equity funds drew $28.1 billion while cash had $24.6 billion outflows for the week ended Oct. 15, Bank of America Corp. said, citing EPFR Global data.
Another factor that has unsettled traders in recent days is the US government shutdown, which has frozen a whole swath of key releases.
Applications for US unemployment benefits fell last week, according to analyses of unadjusted state-level filings released during the federal shutdown.
Initial claims decreased to about 215,000 in the week ended Oct. 11 from an estimated 234,000 in the prior week, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of the figures.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists also saw a decline, estimating initial jobless claims totaled about 217,000 last week.
Even with little sign of resolution on the shutdown front, recent commentary from Federal Reserve speakers has spurred investors to add dovish exposure.
Fed Bank of St. Louis President Alberto Musalem said he could support another rate reduction to bolster a slowing labor market, but emphasized officials should make decisions meeting by meeting given economic uncertainty.
“The lack of economic data does not seem to be a problem for the Fed, and we expect another 25-basis-point rate reduction at the October meeting,” Morgan Stanley economists led by Michael Gapen said in a note.
Looking ahead, TD Securities strategists expect the September consumer price index due Oct. 24 to show that core inflation lost modest speed, as cooling services prices — led by housing — offset a likely acceleration in goods inflation that reflects more tariff passthrough.
“There remain many reasons to be bullish on the market,” said Nicholas Bohnsack at Strategas.
“Perhaps chief among them, corporate profits have continued to follow through on estimates that have also been generously revised higher after the post- Liberation Day shake off.”
“Although the equity bull market is now entering its fourth year, we believe it has further to run,” said Ulrike Hoffmann- Burchardi at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Her firm upgraded equities to “attractive” this month, citing fresh momentum behind the artificial-intelligence trend, supportive Fed policy and a better US growth outlook.
“Investors should review current allocations to equities and ensure they are at least consistent with, or modestly higher than, their long-term strategic asset allocation targets,” she said.
“If investors are currently under allocated to equities, we believe they should reallocate excess cash, bond, or high yield credit holdings toward stocks.”
Meantime, Charles Schwab Corp.’s chief executive officer said retail investors are eager to trade when there is more volatility.
“Our clients trade more when there is more volatility, and they tend to be somewhat countercyclical,” Schwab CEO Rick Wurster said Friday in a Bloomberg Television interview.
“The last few weeks, they’ve been buying dips and selling rips.”
Corporate Highlights:
* Oracle Corp. sank after giving its long-range financial outlook, suggesting investors anticipated a bigger boost from its investment in AI infrastructure.
* American Express Co. reported earnings that beat expectations after unveiling the long-anticipated Platinum credit card refresh last month.
* Morgan Stanley priced an $8 billion investment-grade bond sale on Friday, the third such deal by a major Wall Street firm this week following the release of third-quarter results.
* Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co. shares fell after President Donald Trump said the price of the blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic could come down to just $150 a month.
* CME Group Inc. is planning to debut financial contracts tied to both sports games and economic indicators by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the matter.
* OpenAI has paused depictions of Martin Luther King Jr. after users generated “disrespectful” deepfake videos of the civil rights leader using its artificial intelligence tool Sora.
* Newcleo Ltd., a struggling UK nuclear startup, has agreed to invest as much as $2 billion to develop uranium fuel facilities in the US with American reactor developer Oklo Inc., a move aimed at expanding the supply chain for the fledgling small- reactor sector.
* Porsche AG is in talks with Michael Leiters, the former head of McLaren Automotive Ltd., to take over as chief executive officer and turn around the struggling 911 maker.
* Man Group Plc, the world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund, saw its assets soar to a record in the three months through September, as clients poured more money into long-only products and performance improved.
* Verisure Plc reported a data breach to the Swedish police after information stored on third-party systems was accessed by an unauthorized party, just over a week after the firm’s blockbuster Stockholm IPO.
* Suez SA, a French water and waste-treatment company partly owned by BlackRock Inc., has paused a process to sell Chinese assets as it wants to keep growing in the world’s second-largest economy for longer, people familiar with the matter said.
* Cambricon Technologies Corp. reported a 14-fold surge in quarterly revenue, one of the starkest signs yet of how China’s chipmakers are benefiting from a national drive to replace restricted Nvidia Corp. gear during a domestic AI development boom.
* BYD Co., the world’s largest EV manufacturer, is recalling over 115,000 vehicles in its crucial home market due to technical defects, raising concerns about quality control in the Chinese giant’s rush to keep costs down.
* Reliance Industries Ltd.’s quarterly profit fell short of expectations, as weakness in its petrochemical business offset gains in refining and consumer units.
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What Bloomberg Strategists Say…
“Yes, credit jitters are back, but this looks more like an unexpected stress test than a systemic shock.
Congratulations, we may have just survived the two-day regional banking crisis of 2025.”
—Brendan Fagan, FX Strategist, Markets Live.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%
* The MSCI World Index rose 0.1%
* Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 1%
* The Russell 2000 Index fell 0.6%
* SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF rose 1.6%
* Zions rose 5.8%
* Western Alliance rose 3.1%
* Oracle fell 6.9%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro fell 0.1% to $1.1670
* The British pound was little changed at $1.3437
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 150.49 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 1.3% to $106,501.26
* Ether fell 0.6% to $3,829.85
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.00%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 2.58%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.53%
* The yield on 2-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 3.46%
* The yield on 30-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.60%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
* Spot gold fell 2.3% to $4,227.85 an ounce
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Be magnificent!
As ever,
Carolann
In an argument, you are not arguing for truth but for yourself. –Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881.
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 (Text Only)
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com