September 6, 2023, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
September 6, 1522: The first successful circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition.
September 6, 1916: The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in Memphis, Tenn., by Clarence Saunders.  Go to article >>
1920: First radio broadcast of a prize fight.

Watch child’s reaction to military father’s surprise return.  After a yearlong deployment, an Ohio soldier made a surprise visit to his son’s second grade class dressed as a mascot. Watch the video here.

Fierce falcon photo takes top prize in bird photography contest.  Without feather ado, here are the extraordinary images from this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year award.

Scientists say they pinpointed moment humanity almost went extinct.  Researchers say the global population dwindled to around 1,280 reproducing individuals about 900,000 years ago. Read about the “provocative” study.

CRISPR used to ‘reprogram’ cancer cells into healthy muscle in the lab
In a new study, stopping skeletal-muscle cancer cells from making a specific protein forced them to turn into healthy muscle cells. Read More

Teen unearths 34 million-year-old whale skull on her family’s Alabama timber farm
The huge, ancient whale skull was discovered during a summer dig on a high school student’s family property where fossilized shark teeth
had previously been found. Read More.

Eerie, ultra-detailed photo of a lightning ‘sprite’ exposes one of nature’s least understood phenomena
An astronomer in Slovakia captured the rare luminous phenomenon as it briefly flashed in Earth’s upper atmosphere during a thunderstorm. Read More.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Kocaeli, Turkey
A sea urchin viewed through an underwater camera.  Photograph: Tahsin Ceylan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.

Dhaka, Bangladesh
Children dressed up as Radha and Lord Krishna during the Janmashtami festival as the community marks the birth of Lord Krishna.
Photograph: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters

Guna Yala Comarca, Panama
An aerial view of the island of Cartí Sugdupu in the Caribbean Sea where hundreds of residents are preparing to move away to escape rising seas that threaten to engulf their homes in the coming decades. The government is building 300 houses on mainland Panama to relocate the Guna Indigenous people.
Photograph: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images
Market Closes for September 6^th, 2023

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 1993, a consultant named Peter de Jager published “Doomsday 2000,” the first major article to warn about what became known as the “Y2K” bug. The world spent hundreds of billions of dollars to reprogram computers. On Jan. 1, 2000, when worldwide meltdown was widely forecast by doomsayers, nothing happened.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite fell for the second
day, dropping 0.9%, or 186.8 to 20,226.96 in Toronto. The move
was the biggest since falling 1.9% on Aug. 15.
Today, energy stocks led the market lower, as 10 of 11
sectors lost; 168 of 226 shares fell, while 54 rose.
Enbridge Inc. contributed the most to the index decline,
decreasing 5.9%. Northland Power Inc. had the largest drop,
falling 6.1%.
Insights
* This year, the index rose 4.3%, heading for the best year since 2021
* This quarter, the index rose 0.4%
* The index advanced 6% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 14% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is 3% below its 52-week high on Feb. 2, 2023 and 13.2% above its low on Oct. 13, 2022
* The S&P/TSX Composite is down 0.3% 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 15.3 on a trailing basis and 14.5 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$3.23t
* 30-day price volatility rose to 12.26% compared with 11.97% in the previous session and the average of 11.07% over the past month
================================================================
| Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | -51.7333| -1.4| 14/25
Financials | -41.1435| -0.7| 4/24
Industrials | -36.2563| -1.3| 2/24
Utilities | -17.1755| -2.0| 0/16
Materials | -15.3175| -0.6| 13/36
Consumer Discretionary | -8.2916| -1.1| 3/11
Communication Services | -7.4287| -1.0| 0/4
Information Technology | -7.0174| -0.4| 3/8
Consumer Staples | -2.8527| -0.3| 3/7
Health Care | -1.1183| -1.7| 1/3
Real Estate | 1.5388| 0.3| 11/10
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Enbridge | -40.4200| -5.9| 153.1| -14.4
TD Bank | -12.5600| -1.2| 21.5| -6.8
Canadian National | -10.9400| -1.7| 16.6| -7.2
Cenovus Energy | 1.9220| 0.7| -26.6| 5.6
Magna Intl | 2.1620| 1.5| -20.6| 6.7
Sun Life Financial | 3.0000| 1.1| -31.5| 7.0
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — Stocks declined, while Treasury yields climbed after a stronger-than-estimated reading on the US services industry bolstered speculation the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer.
The S&P 500 closed below 4,500 and the Nasdaq 100 fell almost 1% — with Apple Inc. leading a slide in big tech amid higher bond rates.
The company also dropped on a news report that Chinese agencies are barring the use of iPhones at work.
Two-year yields topped 5%. Swap contracts showed bets on a Fed hike in November rising to about 60%.
The dollar edged higher, following a rally that prompted Japan and China to defend their currencies.
Equities remained lower after the Fed’s Beige Book said growth in the US economy and jobs market slowed in July and August, and many businesses expect wage increases to ease broadly in the near term.
The Institute for Supply Management’s US services index rose to a six-month high in August — hitting 54.5.
Readings above 50 indicate expansion, and the figure topped all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
“The ISM Services Sector report underscores the resilience of the largest portion of the economy,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial. “Unfortunately, the prices-paid component moved in the wrong direction — similar to the higher prices paid in the manufacturing report — edging markedly higher.
This is certainly not good news for a data-dependent Fed.”
Fed Bank of Boston President Susan Collins said policymakers will need to be patient as they assess economic data to figure out their next steps and that further tightening
may still be required.
Meantime, former Fed Bank of St. Louis chief James Bullard noted officials should continue to pencil in one additional hike this year when they update their projections
later this month.
Following a string of stronger-than-expected reports on everything from consumer spending to residential investment, economists have been boosting their forecasts for gross domestic product.
That marks a sharp turnaround from three months ago — the last time policymakers updated their own numbers — when the consensus view was that the economy would stall in the current quarter.
And it may be enough to prompt Fed officials to scale back their estimates for rate cuts in 2024.
Traders in recent months have trimmed bets on the degree of Fed easing they see next year — to about 100 basis points from well over 150 basis points early in 2023.
The two big challenges the Fed faces at this stage are the risks that inflation could become entrenched and the risks that the consumer could falter when excess savings dry up, according to Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial.
“Given the data, the Fed will most likely deliver a hawkish pause at the next meeting,” Roach added. “The hard data is not yet convincing enough to establish strong views about the subsequent meetings. Investors should still find opportunities in the market but it could be a bumpy ride.”
To Ben Jeffery at BMO Capital Markets, the ISM print is the only top-tier data of relevance this week.
Once the dust settles, traders’ attention will return to the corporate-issuance calendar — with the “bearish implications” it holds for Treasuries.
Financial institutions, including several foreign banks, are leading at least 10 companies tapping the US investment-grade primary market Wednesday — one day after both volume and deal count hit yearly highs.
Elsewhere, the loonie wavered as the Bank of Canada held rates steady and kept the door open to more hikes, with economists seeing a historic tightening cycle at its likely
endpoint.
European shares slipped as German factory orders plunged.
The pound slid after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey suggested UK rates may not have to rise any further, saying a “marked” drop in inflation is likely this year and that monetary policy is probably “near the top of the cycle.”

Corporate Highlights
* Microsoft Corp. and Apple face fresh investigations from European Union regulators as part of the bloc’s landmark digital markets clampdown, which could end up forcing significant changes in how the firms do business in the region.
* AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. sank as it plans to sell shares less than three weeks after getting court approvals that opened the door for the movie-theater operator to raise money to pay down its debt.
* The most advanced version of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 jet won’t be delivered until next April at the earliest and possibly as late as June because of persistent testing issues, the Pentagon said. The shares fell.
* Roku Inc., the maker of set-top boxes consumers use to watch Netflix Inc. and other streaming services, climbed after announcing plans to cut about 10% of its workforce, consolidate office space and review its content portfolio.
* Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. plan to offer live sports at no additional cost on its Max streaming service for a limited period of time later this year, betting basketball, baseball and hockey will lure new customers, according to people familiar with the matter. The shares dropped.
* WeWork Inc. is renegotiating nearly all of its leases with landlords and plans to exit “unfit and underperforming” locations, Chief Executive Officer David Tolley said.
* Walt Disney Co. agreed to move up the date at which it must begin the process of buying Comcast Corp.’s one-third stake in the Hulu streaming service to Sept. 30 from January.
* Luxury-goods stocks slumped in Europe, wiping out more than $25 billion in market value, after Richemont Chairman Johann Rupert said inflation is starting to dent demand across the region.

Key events this week:
* China trade, forex reserves, Thursday
* Eurozone GDP, Thursday
* US initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem to speak on the Economic Progress Report, Thursday
* Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks, Thursday
* New York Fed President John Williams participates in moderated discussion at the Bloomberg Market Forum, Thursday
* Japan GDP, Friday
* Germany CPI, Friday
* US wholesale inventories, consumer credit, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell 0.7% as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.9%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%
* The MSCI World index fell 0.5%
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
* The euro was little changed at $1.0727
* The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2505
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 147.69 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin fell 0.1% to $25,673.16
* Ether was little changed at $1,630.23
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.29%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 2.65%
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.53%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.2% to $87.72 a barrel
* Gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,941.90 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!
As ever,

Carolann
We forge the chains we wear in life. –Charles Dickens, 1812-1870.

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