October 6, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Le Corbusier, architect, b. 1887.

Scientists find intact brain cells in skull of man killed in Vesuvius eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.  Leave the brain cells alone. It’s 2020, OK? Who knows what could happen!

Three scientists were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics today for their work on understanding black holes, which the committee called “one of the most exotic phenomena in the universe.” -NYT.
Take a virtual tour of Nupi Keithel, a 16th-century bazaar in the Indian state of Manipur where all of the vendors are women.-NYT.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named 21 fellows who are being honored this year for their “exceptional creativity” in a wide range of fields and specialties. Known as the “genius” grant, this year’s recipients include the writers N.K. Jemisin and Jacqueline Woodson and the playwright Larissa FastHorse, above. Here’s the full list.
The National Book Award announced the 25 finalists across five categories — fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature. The winners will be named in November.-NYT.

 On Oct. 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was shot to death by Islamic militants while reviewing a military parade.  Go to article »
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A picture taken from Geneva, Switzerland at sunrise shows a ray of light touching “le Mole” mountain, located in the French Alps.
CREDTI: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Conservation semi-feral Welsh Mountain Ponies graze with the stunning landscape of Worm’s Head, Gower, Wakes, in the background. Located at the most Westerly point of the Gower, legend has it that the Vikings believed the rock formation looked like a sleeping dragon, therefore, giving the Norse name “Wurme” meaning dragon or serpent.
CREDIT: JOANN RANDLES/ COVER IMAGES

A Tasmanian devil walking in the wild in mainland Australia. Tasmanian devils have been released into the wild on Australia’s mainland 3,000 years after the feisty marsupials went extinct there, in what conservationists described as a “historic” step.
CREDIT: HANDOUT/AUSSIE ARK/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Market Closes for October 6^th, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1846, George Westinghouse, Jr., was born in Central Bridge, N.Y. He later invented the Westinghouse air brake, making train travel safe and comfortable,
and founded the Westinghouse Electric Co.
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities reversed an earlier gain Tuesday after President Trump ended stimulus talks until after the election.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 1.1%, with 10 of 11 sectors falling. Materials led the decline as gold extended its drop after Trump signaled a stop to fiscal stimulus talks. Real estate shares advanced.
Ontario raised C$1.5 billion ($1.13 billion) through its largest-ever sale of green bonds in a fresh sign that environmental, social and governance debt is gaining traction in Canada.
Minority shareholders at a GMP Capital Inc. meeting voted 95% in favor of the firm acquiring shares it doesn’t already own in Richardson GMP Ltd. wealth manager.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $9.65 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 1.5% to $1,885 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.3% to C$1.3306 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield fell 4.5 basis points to 0.575%
By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.1 percent at 16,236.13 in Toronto. The move was the biggest since falling 2 percent on Sept. 23 and follows the previous session’s increase of 1.3 percent.
Barrick Gold Corp. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 4.5 percent. Centerra Gold Inc. had the largest drop, falling 15.3 percent.
Today, 158 of 223 shares fell, while 60 rose; 10 of 11 sectors were lower, led by materials stocks.
Terminal users can read more in our markets live blog.
Insights
* This year, the index fell 4.8 percent, heading for the worst year since 2018
* The index declined 1.3 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 14 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 9.7 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 45.3 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is little changed in the past 5 days and was little changed in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.9 on a trailing basis and 23.3 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.2 percent on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$2.51t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 15.84 percent compared with 15.54 percent in the previous session and the average of 13.84 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | -95.6280| -3.8| 6/46
Information Technology | -29.8492| -1.7| 3/7
Energy | -21.7096| -1.2| 4/18
Consumer Staples | -6.9241| -1.0| 2/8
Communication Services | -6.1966| -0.7| 1/6
Industrials | -5.5373| -0.3| 9/19
Health Care | -3.5885| -2.3| 4/6
Consumer Discretionary | -2.8490| -0.5| 1/12
Financials | -1.2325| 0.0| 5/21
Utilities | -0.7816| -0.1| 10/4
Real Estate | 0.2285| 0.0| 15/11
US
By Claire Ballentine and Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks tumbled and bonds soared after President Donald Trump said he is ending stimulus talks until after the election, just hours after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell renewed his warning that the economy will stumble without additional fiscal support.
The benchmark S&P 500 slumped 1.4% after Trump tweeted his comments late in the trading session, erasing a gain of as much as 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite indexes also turned negative. Treasuries surged and the dollar jumped against most its major peers. An ETF that tracks the largest tech stocks fell an additional 0.6% in late trading after a House panel proposed a series of far-reaching antitrust reforms to curb the power of U.S. technology giants including Amazon.com Inc. And Alphabet Inc.
“It was certainly a surprise to the market that had started to price in another stimulus,” Ed Clissold, chief U.S. equity strategist at Ned Davis Research, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “It’s going to be difficult for the economy to gain much traction until there is another round of stimulus.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had called on Republicans to get on board with a version of the stimulus bill the House passed last week with only Democratic votes. But significant gaps remained between the Democrats’ $2.2 trillion
proposal and a $1.6 trillion offer backed by the White House. “Over the past few trading sessions the market had rallied around stimulus
talks and now it’s almost a slap in the face,” said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Financial Group
There are also lingering concerns about the trajectory of the pandemic and its effect on the economy. New York City’s seven-day average of daily cases is approaching Mayor Bill de Blasio’s warning threshold of 550. In France, the country’s statistics agency, downgraded its growth forecast to zero.
Elsewhere, the pound weakened after a report that the European Union has no plans to offer concessions to Boris Johnson before next week’s Brexit deadline.
Oil rose further after the biggest gain since May.
Here are some key events coming up:
* On Wednesday, the minutes of the Sept. 15-16 meeting of the FOMC could be especially fruitful for Fed watchers, beginning with details of the debate on conditions necessary to trigger a rate increase
* The U.S. Vice Presidential debate takes place in Salt Lake City on Wednesday
* Though the final formal round of talks is over, the British government expects trade negotiations to continue up to the EU summit in mid-October.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index declined 1.4% to 3,360.75 as of 4:00 p.m. New York time, the largest drop in almost two weeks.
*The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.3% to 27,770.65, the biggest drop in almost two weeks.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 1.6% to 11,154.61.
*The Nasdaq 100 Index sank 1.9% to 11,291.27.
*The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.1% to 365.88, the highest in more than two weeks.
Currencies
*The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.4% to 1,173.78, the biggest rise in almost two weeks.
*The euro fell 0.3% to $1.1751.
*The British pound decreased 0.6% to $1.2907, the biggest dip in two weeks.
*The Japanese yen strengthened 0.1% to 105.60 per dollar.
Bonds
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries decreased four basis points to 0.75%, the biggest tumble in four weeks.
*Germany’s 10-year yield advanced less than one basis point to -0.51%, the highest in more than a week.
*Britain’s 10-year yield declined less than one basis point to 0.287%, the first retreat in a week.
Commodities
*West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 2.3% to $40.13 a barrel.
*Gold weakened 1.3% to $1,888 an ounce, the biggest drop in almost two weeks.
*Copper declined 0.7% to $2.94 a pound.
–With assistance from Lu Wang.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
                                          -Anaïs Nin, 1903-1977

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