September 21, 2018 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: HAPPY FRIDAY!

Leonard Cohen,  b. September 21, 1934

CITY CHRIST
  -by Leonard Cohen
He has returned from countless wars,
Blinded and hopelessly lame.
He endures the morning streetcars
And counts ages in  a Peel Street room.

He is kept in his place like a court jew,
To consult on plagues or hurricanes,
And he never walks with them on the sea
Or joins their lonely sidewalk games.

1938 – A hurricane struck parts of New York and New England, causing widespread damage and claiming more than 600 lives.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The Sky Disc of Nebra, made of bronze and gold, from 1,600 BC. displayed at an archeological exhibition in Berlin. Credit: Markus Schreiber/AP

A child like in the exhibition “Children’s Biennial – Dreams & Stories” in the Japanese Palace Dresden, Germany on the installation “Well” by Mark Justiniani. The first Children’s Biennial in Europe. Credit: Sebastian Kahnert/Alamy

Daredevil kayaker Dane Jackson rides the white water rapids towards the rainbow, as he makes his way along the river, in White Salmon, Washington. Credit: John Webster/Caters
Market Closes for September 21^st, 2018

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 2008, in the depths of the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve converted Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs into traditional bank-holding companies, bringing them under the supervision of bank regulators.
Canada
By Carolina Wilson
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks barely climbed on Friday, rising to their highest since the end of August, as negotiations for a U.S. trade deal continued. The loonie weakened, snapping a three-day advance against the greenback.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose less than 0.1 percent, with real estate and industrial companies leading gains. Healthcare names fell the most, declining 2.2 percent, as pot stocks pressured the benchmark. The massive swings in cannabis-related stocks continued as Tilray Inc. saw its biggest two-day drop since coming public.
                           Stocks
* Trican Well Service fell 6.2 percent after two analyst downgrades on Thursday; RBC cut its rating to sector perform and Raymond James lowered its recommendation to outperform
* AltaGas Ltd. climbed 5.9 percent, far outperforming a 0.5 percent advance in Canadian energy stocks 
* Gibson Energy Inc. rose 5.1 percent after NBF and National Bank upgraded their ratings
* Uni-Select Inc. gained 5 percent after being rated a new hold at TD, but with a C$24 price target
                          Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $33.75 discount to WTI
* Gold fell 0.6 percent to $1,203.50 an ounce FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.1 percent to C$1.29166 per U.S. dollar
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield gained to 2.43%
US
By Vildana Hajric and Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — Declines in tech giants including Apple Inc., Amazon Inc. and Facebook Inc. dragged on equity benchmarks, helping erase the session’s gains on a day when quarterly rebalancing spurred volatile trading.
     The S&P 500 Index was little changed Friday but still ended the week up after reaching a record high Thursday. Quadruple witching — when futures and options on indexes and individual stocks expire — and the largest revision to the Global Industry Classification Standard since 1999 may be behind the slide and the higher-than-average volumes.  “Bottom line, new highs are positive in the medium term, but I wouldn’t be chasing stocks at these levels and at a minimum, digestion of this rally shouldn’t surprise anyone,” Tom Essaye, a former Merrill Lynch trader who founded “The Sevens Report” market newsletter, wrote to clients. “Are things better than they were last week? Yes. Are they good enough to get the S&P 500 through 3,000 and above? No, not yet, at least in my opinion.”
     Earlier, the bullish mood that characterized most of the week buoyed global equity markets. Stocks rallied in Europe and Asia, and the MSCI All-Country World Index was poised for a seven-month high. Treasury yields held above 3 percent. The dollar and commodities gained.
The pound sank after Prime Minister Theresa May said the U.K. and European Union were “at an impasse” on Brexit. The euro slipped from a three-month high after data showed euro-area expansion edged lower in September. Italian bonds climbed as Finance Minister Giovanni Tria prepares a draft budget. In Japan, news that the BOJ is trimming purchases of debt maturing in more than 25 years helped boost 20-year and 30-year government bond yields.
Raw materials, stocks and emerging-market assets are all rallying as investors bet the global economic expansion is intact despite the latest data from Europe and the escalating trade war. The Bloomberg Commodity Index climbed to its highest level in more than a month, fueled by gains in crude oil and copper.
     Emerging-market stocks and currencies extended a rally.  Indian stocks bucked the developing-nation trend, however, as a plunge in banks set off an exodus from financial shares.
The big rearrangement of the GICS takes effect Sept. 24, with the creation of the communication services group. The new industry category will include three of the four FANG stocks —
Facebook, Alphabet and Netflix — and could force investors who track indexes based on the classification to reshuffle their money.
These are the main moves in markets:
                           Stocks 
* The S&P 500 Index fell less than 0.05 percent as of 4:04 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.4 percent.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index climbed 1.7 percent. 
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index rose 1.4 percent to a three-week high.
* The MSCI All-Country World Index increased 0.3 percent.
                           Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index advanced 0.2 percent, the biggest gain in a week. 
* The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.1749. 
* The British pound sank 1.4 percent to $1.3081, the biggest drop in almost a year. 
* The Japanese yen declined 0.1 percent to 112.55 per dollar.
                           Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries gained less than one basis point to 3.06 percent, a four-month high. 
* Germany’s 10-year yield decreased one basis point to 0.46 percent. 
* Britain’s 10-year yield fell three basis points to 1.553 percent. 
                          Commodities
* The Bloomberg Commodity Index increased 0.6 percent to the highest in six weeks.
* West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.7 percent to $70.84 a barrel. 
* Gold fell 0.7 percent to $1,198.74 an ounce.
–With assistance from Adam Haigh and Robert Brand.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.
                                                               -Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903

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