September 15, 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.  Happy Rosh Hashanah.

Emma Osman wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal the following inspirational words:

There’s a shift in the air when September arrives. The leaves begin to turn; you grab a sweater for the morning commute; children head to school with new backpacks and uniforms. It’s a time of fresh starts. There are new teachers, new classes, new friends, excitement and anticipation.
This is the second autumn in which I am not part of the back-to-school club. As I watched my younger sister pack her bags for college, I felt a bit wistful. Luckily, my Jewish mother is more than willing to teach a lesson. She reminded me that in the Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah—which begins Sept. 15—marks the new year, offering every one of us a new beginning. We eat apples and honey in hope of a sweet year, and we usher in a period of reflection, taking stock of our mistakes, sins and regrets. Ten days later, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, our fast offers us a period of introspection and repentance. We ask God for forgiveness and for a blank slate in the coming year.
Though I attend temple with my family each year, I’ve seldom truly concentrated on the meaning of our High Holiday rituals, perhaps because in the past I’ve been too caught up in the chaos of the first few weeks of school. But this year, as I watched my sister take part in the back-to-school rituals, I chose to heed my mother’s reminder and look more deeply into my faith.
I might be past my years of school-supply runs and first-day jitters, but I’ve found the same sense of renewal while celebrating Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The fall is a chance to refocus. It gives us a moment to start fresh, if we allow it to. And I might just get a new pack of pencils while I’m at it.   (Ms. Osman is an assistant social media editor for the Journal editorial page).

Ocean Photographer of the Year 2023: Otherworldly images show beauty of oceans.  Thousands of entrants submitted their underwater and coastal images to the contest. View the winning images here.

September 15, 1928: Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin while studying influenza.  To date, this discover is estimated to have saved over 200 million lives.
2008: 2008 Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection – the largest in U.S. history.  Go to article >>

*NSYNC to release first new song in over 20 years.  All five members of the boy band haven’t recorded a new song together since 2001! Here’s what we know about the new track set to be released on September 29.

Johnson & Johnson is replacing its iconic logo.  The company is replacing its distinctive cursive logo, which has been in use for 135 years.

No one ‘expected to find what we did’: 4,000-year-old Canaanite arch in Israel may have been used by cult
Archeologists discovered the mysterious arch at the end of a narrow, underground passageway that was sealed with sediment shortly after it was built in the Middle Bronze Age. Read More.

Mystery of ‘living fossil’ tree frozen in time for 66 million years finally solved
The Wollemi pine was thought to have gone extinct 2 million years ago until it was rediscovered by a group of hikers in 1994. Now, scientists have decoded its genome to understand how it’s survived, almost unchanged, since the time of the dinosaurs.  Read More.

James Webb telescope sees potential signs of alien life in the atmosphere of a distant ‘Goldilocks’ water world
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected potential traces of dimethyl sulfide, a chemical only known to be created by phytoplankton on Earth, in the atmosphere of an exoplanet believed to have its own liquid ocean. Read More.

Evidence of mysterious ‘recurring nova’ that could reappear in 2024 found in medieval manuscript from 1217
The star T CrB flares up every 80 years. A document from 1217 could help confirm its regularity. Read More.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

New York, US
Surfers take to the rough waters of Rockaway Beach as Hurricane Lee heads towards the eastern seaboard.  Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Guadalajara, Mexico
A group of Escaramuzas in traditional costume arrive for International Charro and Charreria Day cultural celebrations.  Photograph: Ulises Ruiz/AFP/Getty Images

​​​​​​​New York, US
An attendee at the 11th Diner en Blanc in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The pop-up event, the location of which is revealed hours beforehand, draws guests who dress head to toe in white for an under the stars dining experience.  Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images.
Market Closes for September 15^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 This is an inauspicious day for investment banks. On this day in 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed. And on the same date in 1890, Britain’s Baring Brothers warned it could go bust, after loans to markets like Argentina went sour. The Bank of England had to step in to prevent panic.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fifth day, climbing 0.3%, or 54.5 to 20,622.34 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level since July 31.
Bank of Montreal contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.1%.
Iamgold Corp. had the largest increase, rising 6.8%.
Today, 126 of 226 shares rose, while 97 fell; 5 of 11 sectors were higher, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* This year, the index rose 6.4%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This quarter, the index rose 2.3%
* So far this week, the index rose 2.7%
* The index advanced 5.4% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 13% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 1.1% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 15.4% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.6 on a trailing basis and 14.7 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.3% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.26t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 11.63% compared with 11.74% in the previous session and the average of 11.45% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | 33.4911| 1.4| 39/10
Financials | 32.1909| 0.5| 21/6
Utilities | 3.1320| 0.4| 11/5
Energy | 3.0358| 0.1| 23/16
Consumer Discretionary | 0.8389| 0.1| 7/7
Industrials | -0.0630| 0.0| 8/18
Health Care | -0.2738| -0.4| 1/3
Communication Services | -1.9543| -0.3| 2/3
Real Estate | -2.3051| -0.5| 9/12
Consumer Staples | -5.2361| -0.6| 3/8
Information Technology | -8.3717| -0.5| 2/9
================================================================
| | |Volume VS || Index | | 20D AVG |YTD Change Top Contributors |Points Move| % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Bank of Montreal | 6.6430| 1.1| 189.9| -1.9
RBC | 6.4280| 0.5| 241.5| -2.5
Wheaton Precious | | | |
Metals | 5.5750| 3.0| 334.6| 13.1
Couche-Tard | -2.2230| -0.6| 282.4| 23.3
Loblaw | -2.4410| -2.0| 385.9| -3.6
Shopify | -6.8040| -0.9| 169.2| 80.7
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks fell, with a massive options event amplifying volatility and traders weighing the impacts of a strike that hit Detroit automakers while sifting through economic data before the Federal Reserve decision.
Big tech led losses Friday, with giants like Nvidia Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. down over 3.5%.
The S&P 500 erased this week’s gain, while the Nasdaq 100 dropped almost 2%.
A gauge of chipmakers sank on a news report that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has asked major suppliers to delay shipment of high-end equipment.
Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. whipsawed.
Treasury yields rose.
The dollar was little changed.
Wall Street’s widely watched equity-volatility gauge — the VIX — climbed from the lowest level since 2020.
Piles of derivatives contracts tied to stocks, index options and futures expired Friday — compelling traders to roll
over their existing positions or to start new ones.
This time, it coincided with the rebalancing of benchmark indexes including the S&P 500, another catalyst for more share transactions.
“Options expiration forces people to adjust their positions, and this is an especially powerful expiration that can add fuel to market moves,” said Callie Cox at eToro.
“This is especially prevalent in individual stocks, where trading in the shares and options can be thin. Brace for swings, but try not to tap out of this market until we see convincing evidence of a recession.”
From a fundamental standpoint, the challenges the labor market is facing – with the United Auto Worker strike and looming government shutdown being the two biggest – are concerning for markets,” according to Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “If the strike expands, investors can expect to see an impact on the broad economy and pressure on supply chains and corporate profit margins,” he noted.
To Ian Lyngen at BMO Capital Markets, while the Fed will likely not respond to a single strike, “the overall paradigm of workers demanding persistently higher wages presents another dynamic that will keep rates higher for longer in an effort to continue to moderate labor demand.”
US inflation expectations fell to the lowest in more than two years as consumers grew more optimistic about the economic outlook.
Even so, sentiment fell to 67.7 — below the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
A measure of New York state factory activity unexpectedly expanded amid new orders.
Production at factories barely rose in August, restrained by a drop in output of motor vehicles.
A resilient US economy will prompt the Fed to pencil in one more interest-rate hike this year and stay at the peak level next year for longer than previously expected, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Equity funds saw the biggest weekly inflow in 18 months amid growing investor confidence the US economy is headed for a soft landing, according to Bank of America Corp.
Global stocks attracted $25.3 billion in the week to Sept. 13 — the most since March 2022 — according to EPFR Global data cited by BofA.
But amid the renewed optimism on the US economy, strategist Michael Hartnett sees a bearish broader picture, with cash and Treasuries having attracted the bulk of inflows and both asset classes on track for a record year. 

Corporate Highlights
* Charles Schwab Corp. said it has been temporarily affected by attrition from clients as it integrates TD Ameritrade, leading to a decline in net new money for the firm last month.
* Planet Fitness Inc. announced the immediate departure of its chief executive officer, who’s held the position for more than a decade.
* Adobe Inc. provided a sales outlook that met analysts’ expectations, but disappointed investors who expected demand for the company’s artificial intelligence tools would boost revenue.
* Walt Disney Co. has now fielded at least one offer for its ABC TV network, local stations and some cable channels, and more may come as the company seeks to shed what it considers non-core assets and focus on streaming.
* Discover Financial Services is exploring the potential sale of its student-loan business as the company seeks to clean up operations in the aftermath of a series of regulatory lapses, according to people familiar with the matter.
* Grocery delivery business Instacart is preparing to price its initial public offering on Monday after boosting its price range following a strong trading debut by Arm Holdings Plc, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 1.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.8%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.6%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.2% to $1.0661
* The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.2385
* The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 147.85 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.6% to $26,414.08
* Ether fell 0.4% to $1,621.74
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 4.33%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 2.68%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced eight basis points to 4.36%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1% to $91.10 a barrel
* Gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,943.90 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Vildana Hajric.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
A great man is always willing to be little. –Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882.

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