September 17, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1759 – The French surrendered Quebec to the British.  Go to article »
1862 – Battle of Antietam, 25000 killed.
1997 – Apple Inc names co-founder Steve Job interim CEO.
Jim Carrey will play Joe Biden on ‘SNL’.  Seems promising, but we’re gonna have to see the white wig first.-CNN

Elon Musk’s next big thing is 40,000 satellites beaming broadband all over the world, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. He hopes low-Earth orbits
will help him succeed where so many others have failed. -Bloomberg.

How much would you pay to live in the Rockefeller apartment?-Bloomberg.

DNA shows Vikings weren’t all Scandinavian. (h/t Scott Kominers)-Bloomberg.

How Italian fishermen solved overfishing and revived the sea. (h/t Alistair Lowe)

There’s a 5D chess game where the pieces time-travel.-Bloomberg.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, named STAN is on display during a press preview at Christie’s Rockefeller Center, in New York City. The skeleton of a 40-foot (12-meter) dinosaur nicknamed “Stan”, one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever found, will be auctioned in New York next month and could set a record for a sale of its kind. Discovered in 1987 near Buffalo, South Dakota, the 188-bone skeleton took more than three years to excavate.
CREDT:ANGELA WEISS/AFP

Firefighters standing on their fire truck watch as the Bobcat Fire burns on hillsides behind homes in Monrovia, California
CREDIT: RINGO CHIU/ AFP

Turkish painter Nazife Bilgin Hazar reproduces Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” on a wall of a building in Mersin, Turckey
CREDIT: SERKAN AVCI/ANADOLU AGENCY

Children try to burst soap bubbles during hot weather at Brighton beach in Brighton Britain.
CREDIT: REUTERS/HANNAH MCKAY

Market Closes for September 17th, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1998, stock markets took a world-wide pounding after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress there were no plans for coordinated global interest-rate cuts. Despite the Russian debt crisis, Mr. Greenspan said he saw no immediate need to relieve the “peripheral gusts” of “financial turmoil.” The Dow slumped 2.7% and the Nasdaq lost 2.6%. Analysts were uniformly pessimistic, but in three weeks the U.S. stock market bottomed out and then headed straight up.
Canada
By Aoyon Ashraf
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equity markets fell on Thursday for a second day after tech and materials underperformed.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.3% in Toronto. Tech, materials and energy sectors were the worst performers, while consumer staples were the best.
Meanwhile, shares of Canadian apartment companies dropped after the country’s largest province said it plans to freeze residential rents in 2021. New rules announced Thursday apply to the vast majority of rental units in Ontario. Without the change, owners of rent-controlled apartments, condos and houses would have been able to boost rents by 1.5% next year. The legislation also extends a ban on evictions of small businesses.
Among banks, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has cut a number of portfolio managers, analysts and traders as part of a plan to reduce staff by almost 5%, according to people familiar with the matter.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $11.25 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.5% to $1,948.92 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar rose 0.2% to C$1.3151 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield fell slightly to 0.570%
By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second day, dropping 0.3 percent, or 48.94 to 16,246.72 in Toronto.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index decline, decreasing 2.0 percent. Vermilion Energy Inc. had the largest drop, falling 5.8 percent. Today, 118 of 221 shares fell, while 99 rose; 6 of 11 sectors were lower, led by materials stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index was little changed
* This quarter, the index rose 4.7 percent
* This year, the index fell 4.8 percent, heading for the worst year since 2018
* The index declined 3.5 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 11 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 9.6 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 45.4 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.4 percent in the past 5 days and fell 2.5 percent 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 23.5 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$2.48t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 12.45 percent compared with 12.53 percent in the previous session and the average of 11.15 percent over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Materials | -27.7554| -1.1| 20/29
Information Technology | -21.4800| -1.4| 2/8
Energy | -11.7555| -0.6| 8/16
Financials | -4.2080| -0.1| 12/13
Real Estate | -2.3732| -0.5| 6/19
Consumer Discretionary | -1.6199| -0.3| 9/4
Communication Services | 0.2275| 0.0| 3/5
Health Care | 0.5663| 0.4| 1/8
Utilities | 1.7327| 0.2| 12/4
Consumer Staples | 6.7852| 1.0| 9/2
Industrials | 10.9527| 0.6| 17/10
US
By Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell and Treasuries gained as investors mulled whether the levels of stimulus being provided is enough amid a gradual economic recovery.
The benchmark S&P 500 dropped for a second day, though it found some support after bouncing off its 50-day moving average.
Technology shares were the biggest decliners, with Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. weighing on the Nasdaq Composite. Investors snapped up long-term Treasuries, capturing a brief spike higher in yields following the Federal Reserve’s policy decision Wednesday. Although Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will remain accommodative after relaxing its inflation policy, he didn’t provide clarity as to just how high it can go and for how long. That, along with the lack of fresh details on the Fed’s plans for its bond-buying program, sparked long-end demand. “It remains to be seen how the long-term projection of near zero interest rates and more free-flying inflation will actually play out for the economy,” said Mike Loewengart, managing director of investment strategy at E*Trade Financial Corp. “The somewhat dour tone from the Fed could weigh on investors.”
Meanwhile, the number of Americans applying for jobless benefits resumed its decline. Continuing claims also fell by almost 1 million in the week ended Sept. 5. All eyes remain on central bankers and their role in propping up economies still reeling from the coronavirus shock. Bank of England policymakers said they were exploring negative rates to counter ongoing risks to the labor market after voting unanimously to maintain their key interest rate at 0.1%, causing the pound to slide to an intraday low and pushing gilts higher. Earlier the Bank of Japan kept its asset-purchases and bond-yield targets in place. Recent flare-ups of the virus and a fading post-pandemic recovery have renewed calls for more fiscal support as well. Fed officials have stressed in recent weeks that the U.S. recovery is highly dependent on the nation’s ability to better contain infections, and that further fiscal stimulus is likely needed to support jobs and incomes. “Consumer sentiment data and the employment picture still reflect a fragile economic recovery,” said Matt Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investments. “Powell did not bring up the need for further fiscal support multiple times yesterday just for the sake of it. Monetary policy has its limits, the lack of fiscal policy support leaves significant risks to this recovery.”
Elsewhere, crude oil climbed above $40 a barrel. Natural gas prices tumbled the most in almost two years after a bigger- than expected increase in stockpiles revived concerns that the glut of the fuel will increase. Gold declined.

    These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
*The S&P 500 Index declined 0.8% to 3,357.02 as of 4:02 p.m. New York time, the largest drop in a week.
*The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% to 27,901.71, the first retreat in a week.
*The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.3% to 10,910.28, the largest drop in a week.
*The Nasdaq 100 Index sank 1.5% to 11,080.95, the lowest in more than a week.
*The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.5% to 371.23, the first retreat in a week.
Currencies
*The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index sank 0.3% to 1,160.88, its fifth straight decline and the biggest dip in more than a week.
*The British pound was little changed at $1.2971, the strongest in more than a week.
*The euro increased 0.3% to $1.1847.
*The Japanese yen appreciated 0.2% to 104.70 per dollar, the strongest in about six months.
Bonds
*The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 0.69%, the biggest drop in a week.
*The yield on 30-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 1.43%, the largest drop in a week.
*Germany’s 10-year yield fell one basis point to -0.49%, the lowest in more than a week.
*Britain’s 10-year yield dipped three basis points to 0.185%.
Commodities
*West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 2.3% to $41.08 a barrel, the highest in two weeks.
*Gold weakened 0.6% to $1,948.03 an ounce, the largest decrease in two weeks.
*Natural gas fell 12.1% to $1.99 per MMBtu, the lowest in almost seven weeks.
–With assistance from Kamaron Leach, Liz Capo McCormick and Lu Wang.
Have a great night.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
He who awaits much can expect little.
-Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1927-2014

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