September 25, 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday.
September 25, 1676: Greenwich Mean Time established.
William Faulkner, writer, b.1897
Dmitri Shostakovich, composer, b. 1906

On Sept. 25, 1957, with 300 United States Army troops standing guard, nine black children were escorted to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, days after unruly white crowds had forced them to withdraw.  Go to article »

David Attenborough, who has worked on some of the greatest nature documentaries, joined Instagram yesterday with a warning: “The world is in trouble.” He also set a record, becoming the user who reached one million followers the fastest. -The NY Times.

Most of us are stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. –The NY Times.

Daniel Boulud’s relaunched restaurant will have sponsors.-Bloomberg.

Crows are even smarter than we thought.

From the late-night comedy show hosts last night:
During a Wednesday news conference at the White House, President Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses the election, saying, “We’ll have to see what happens.”
“Well, so much for that Nobel Peace Prize,” Jimmy Kimmel joked in his Thursday night monologue.

“You can’t just squat the White House!” — JIMMY KIMMEL

“So if Trump loses the election, getting him out of the White House will be like trying to get a bird out of your living room. It’s like, ‘Oh, I got ’em. Hold on, OK.? Nobody move — he’s behind the curtain! Nobody move! Shut the door! Shut the door!’”— JIMMY FALLON

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A general view as a runner eases down after finishing in The British Stallion Studs EBF Premier Fillies’ Handicap at Newmarket Racecourse in Newmarket, England. Owners are allowed to attend if they have a runner at the meeting otherwise racing remains behind closed doors to the public due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
CREDIT: ALAN CROWHURST/GETTY IMAGES

Seventeen new Anglican deacons (priests in their first year of ministry) are to be ordained at Wells Cathedral, UK, this weekend, in a socially distanced service which will be streamed to Facebook due to coronavirus restrictions which prevent their families attending.
CREDIT: APEX NEWS AND PICTURES

Environmental activist and campaigner Mya-Rose Craig, 18, holds a cardboard sign reading “youth strike for climate” standing on the ice flow in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, hundreds of miles above the Arctic Circle.
CREDIT: REUTERS/ NATALIE THOMAS

John Lewis & Partners will launch its Christmas Shop at its flagship shop on Oxford Street, London, UK and online with a virtual 3D shop tour. The shop will host its largest ever Christmas Tree Forest, a one stop gift emporium and festive footpath decorations. The specialised department will be located on the rd floor of Oxford Street and is designed to be a joyful and safe environment to shop in.
CREDIT: PAUL GROVER FOR THE TELEGRAPH
Market Closes for September 25th, 2020 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1928, engineers and brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin incorporated the Galvin Manufacturing Corp. in Chicago, after taking over the bankrupt Stewart Storage Battery and its design for a battery eliminator, which allowed home radios to run on ordinary household current. Later the Galvins rechristened their firm with a racy name combining “motion” and “radio”: Motorola
Canada
By Michael Bellusci
(Bloomberg) — Canadian equities fell for a second straight week amid ongoing uncertainty about the economic recovery. Materials shares were among the laggards.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 1% Friday, with ten of eleven sectors higher, led by information technology and utilities. Even with Friday’s gain, the benchmark fell 0.8% on the week.
Canada’s stock market is on pace for its first monthly loss since the coronavirus pandemic rocked global markets in March, signaling investors should brace for a wild ride ahead. Tourmaline Oil Corp. is betting investors have an appetite for more Canadian energy stocks, offering up the biggest initial share sale to come out of Alberta’s oil patch in three years, through the formation of Topaz Energy Corp.
Gold is on track for its biggest weekly fall since March, coming under pressure from a surging dollar and damped inflation expectations.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $10.60 discount to West Texas Intermediate
* Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,862 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar fell 0.2% to C$1.3388 per U.S. dollar
* The 10-year government bond yield fell 1.6 basis points to 0.541%

By Bloomberg Automation:
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the second day, climbing 1 percent, or 153.09 to 16,065.35 in Toronto.
Shopify Inc. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 6.1 percent. Cascades Inc. had the largest increase, rising 8.2 percent.
Today, 149 of 223 shares rose, while 73 fell; 10 of 11 sectors were higher, led by information technology stocks.
Insights
* So far this week, the index fell 0.8 percent
* This quarter, the index rose 3.5 percent
* This month, the index fell 2.7 percent
* This year, the index fell 5.8 percent, heading for the worst year since 2018
* The index declined 4.3 percent in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 10 percent in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 10.6 percent below its 52-week high on Feb. 20, 2020 and 43.8 percent above its low on March 23, 2020
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.6 on a trailing basis and 23.1 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$2.43t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 14.93 percent compared with 14.57 percent in the previous session and the average of 11.97 percent over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Information Technology | 65.6182| 4.3| 9/1
Financials | 25.7740| 0.6| 20/6
Industrials | 19.8518| 1.0| 21/7
Utilities | 15.1590| 1.8| 16/0
Communication Services | 8.5882| 1.0| 7/0
Real Estate | 7.4984| 1.5| 26/1
Energy | 6.8282| 0.4| 7/16
Consumer Discretionary | 5.9743| 1.1| 10/3
Health Care | 0.8853| 0.6| 6/3
Consumer Staples | 0.2467| 0.0| 8/3
Materials | -3.3462| -0.1| 19/33
US
By Rita Nazareth and Claire Ballentine
(Bloomberg) — Stocks climbed as dip buyers appeared after the market slide, tempering a cloudy outlook for a U.S. stimulus package.
Tech companies led gains in the S&P 500 as the Nasdaq 100 jumped 2.3%. Real-estate, industrial and consumer-discretionary shares rose at least 1.4%, while energy producers almost erased losses. Boeing surged on a news report the top U.S. aviation regulator plans to test-fly the grounded 737 Max on Wednesday.
Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruises rallied after being upgraded at Barclays, which said the “worst is in the past” for cruise companies. The benchmark gauge still posted its fourth straight weekly drop — the longest streak since August 2019.
     The dollar advanced. Equities fell earlier Friday as a last-ditch attempt by Democrats and the White House to restart negotiations on new stimulus drew skepticism in Congress that a deal could be reached and written into law by the November election. There’s a perception that the two sides still remain far apart on the size of a relief package. Amid mounting signs that the pace of recovery will ebb with an uptick in global coronavirus cases and lack of further government aid, investors have once again turned back to the companies flush with cash and tested in times of crisis. “If I were to be unsure about a stimulus package, unsure about whether there will be a vaccine, there’s no better thing than to hide out in the megacap tech stocks because they work in an economy-closed scenario,” Andrew Slimmon, senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 increased 1.6% at 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.1%.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.4%.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.3%.
* The euro dipped 0.4% to $1.1625.
* The Japanese yen depreciated 0.2% to 105.61 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries decreased one basis point to 0.65%.
* Britain’s 10-year yield fell three basis points to 0.189%.
* Germany’s 10-year yield decreased three basis points to -0.53%.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 0.5% to $40.12 a barrel.
* Gold depreciated 0.3% to $1,862.66 an ounce.
* Silver weakened 1% to $22.91 per ounce.
–With assistance from Adam Haigh, Namitha Jagadeesh, Robert Brand, Todd White, Cormac Mullen and Vildana Hajric.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
​​​​​​​
In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.
                                   -Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1933-2020

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