Month: February 2013

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I recently came back from visiting family in Jamaica.  It has been 9 years since I was last there and it is just as beautiful as I remember it.  What I love most about Jamaica is that not only do you get the beautiful clear ocean water, but you also get the gorgeous view of the mountains. Jamaica is a third world country so with the beauty, there is also struggle for a lot of families and it is seen when you drive through the country.  You have people selling fruits, vegetables, coconuts – anything really to make money.  With minimum wage being $50 US dollars per week, you can only imagine how excited Jamaican’s are when a car pulls over to buy something from their shop.  It was hard for me at times understanding the strong accents and use of “Patois” (Jamaican slang) when buying fruits and vegetables, but after a few days I picked up on it again. For example, if I wanted to say “What’s going on” or “See you tomorrow” in Patois, it would be “Wa gwan” and “”See you inna di lights”. It was quite the adventure trying to have conversations with the locals, but overall a very memorable trip – “ya mon”!

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Today In History:

1827 – New Orleans held its first Mardi Gras celebration.

1867 – Dr. William G. Bonwill invented the dental mallet.

1896 – The “Charlotte Observer” published a picture of an X-ray photograph made by Dr. H.L. Smith. The photograph showed a perfect picture of all the bones of a hand and a bullet that Smith had placed between the third and fourth fingers in the palm.

1922 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 19th Amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote.

1949 – Chaim Weizmann became the first Israeli president.

1974 – “People” magazine was first issued by Time-Life (later known as Time-Warner).

1981 – Chrysler Corporation was granted an additional $400 million in federal loan guarantees. Chrysler had posted a loss of $1.7 billion in 1980.

1997 – In Ireland, divorce became legal. .

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

Photo of the Day – February 27^th, 2013

Kashmiri boatmen wait for customers as mountains stand covered with snow in the background, at Dal Lake in Srinagar, India. Snowfall in the Indian portion of Kashmir has disrupted power supply and road traffic between Srinagar and Jammu, the summer and winter capitals of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state. Mukhtar Khan/AP

Market Closes for February 27^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14075.37	+175.24    +1.26%
S&P 500	1517.39	+20.45    +1.37%
NASDAQ	3162.57	+32.610    +1.04%
TSX	12730.12	+69.68
		+0.55%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11253.97	-144.84
		-1.27%
HANG  SENG	22577.01	+57.32
		+0.25%
SENSEX	19152.41	+132.27
		+0.72%
FTSE 100	6325.88	+55.44
		+0.88%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.863	1.862
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.527	2.529
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8980	1.8826
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0984	3.0800

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02340	1.02584
US   $	0.97713	0.97481
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34389	0.74411
US  $	1.31316	0.76152

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1597.01	1614.35
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.76	92.63
BRENT	113.87	114.80

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Lindsey Rupp

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a second day amid better-than-estimated U.S. economic data and as European shares rebounded on gains in Italian bonds.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. jumped 3.2 percent and Canadian National Railway Co. climbed 1 percent to pace gains in transportation shares. Goldcorp Inc. fell 1.6 percent and Barrick Gold Corp. lost 1.4 percent as gold futures slipped for the first time in three days. Financial shares added 0.4 percent ahead of banks’ earnings announcements tomorrow.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 71.95 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,732.39 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The S&P/TSX has risen 2.4 percent this year.

“People are feeling a little bit confident,” Peter Buchanan, senior economist at CIBC World Markets, said in a phone interview. “We’ll have to see if that confidence is warranted. Gold has traditionally been an inflationary hedge, but in the last year or two demand has clearly been driven by recession fears.”

Gold futures fell 1.2 percent to settle at $1,595.70 an ounce on the Comex in New York today. The metal is set to drop for a fifth month, the longest run of monthly losses since 1997, on signs global economic growth is improving, curbing demand for gold as a protection of wealth.

Goldcorp declined 1.6 percent to C$33.90 and Barrick Gold slid 1.4 percent to C$31.63.

Equities advanced as U.S. data showed contracts to purchase previously owned homes climbed more than forecast in January.

Orders for U.S. durable goods excluding transportation equipment increased in January by the most in a year. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank has the “tools” necessary to scale back record stimulus and avert a rise in inflation expectations, in congressional testimony that was identical to his remarks yesterday.

Stocks in Europe rebounded as Italy sold 6.5 billion euros ($8.5 billion) of five- and 10-year bonds in its first auction following inconclusive election results that pushed yields to a four-month high yesterday.

Canadian Pacific Railway jumped 3.2 percent to C$124.58 and Canadian National Railway climbed 1 percent to C$101.68.

Jefferies Group Inc. analyst Peter Nesvold called 2013 “the Year of Transports” in a note today, citing strength in auto sales and housing prices, increasing diesel consumption and better-than-anticipated airfreight volumes.

Royal Bank of Canada rose 0.4 percent to C$63.48. Toronto- Dominion Bank added 0.2 percent to C$84.29. Both are scheduled to report earnings tomorrow. Royal Bank, Toronto-Dominion and the country’s four other main lenders are expected to post a 6.9 percent increase in per-share profit excluding some items for the quarter, according to Darko Mihelic, an analyst at Cormark Securities Inc. in Toronto.

The nation’s banks, ranked the world’s soundest by the World Economic Forum for five straight years, face a consumer- lending slowdown as Canadians struggle with record debt levels and a cooling housing market.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. rose 2.1 percent to C$19.27 after the company extended its C$5.1 billion ($5 billion) hostile takeover bid for Canada’s Inmet Mining Corp. by 12 days.

Inmet shareholders will now have until March 11 to accept the cash-and-stock offer, Vancouver-based First Quantum said today in a filing. The bid was previously due to expire today. Inmet gained 2.4 percent to C$66.89.

US

By Rita Nazareth and Sarah Pringle

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for a second day, as better- than-estimated housing data bolstered economic optimism and European shares rebounded amid gains in Italian bonds.

FedEx Corp., operator of the world’s largest cargo airline and an economic bellwether, added 2.5 percent to pace gains in transportation shares. Priceline.com Inc., the biggest online travel agency by market value, added 3.4 percent after revenue growth in international markets pushed profit past estimates.

Target Corp. slumped 1.1 percent as earnings fell amid the worst holiday-season store sales performance in four years. Apple Inc. tumbled 1 percent after its annual shareholder meeting.

The S&P 500 rose 1.3 percent to 1,515.96 at 2:34 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 165.07 points, or 1.2 percent, to 14,065.20. The 30-stock gauge is less than 1 percent away from its October 2007 record. Trading in S&P 500 companies was about 9.6 percent below the 30-day average at this time of day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The housing market is proving a positive delta to the economy for this quarter and year,” David Katz, who oversees about $825 million as chief investment officer at New York-based Matrix Asset Advisors Inc, said in a phone interview. “The rally is driven by improvement in sentiment from Europe coupled with positive data.”

Equities rose as contracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes climbed more than forecast in January, a sign the industry will keep strengthening this year. Orders for U.S. durable goods excluding transportation equipment climbed in January by the most in a year, indicating business investment is holding up.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank has the “tools” necessary to scale back record stimulus and avert a rise in inflation expectations, in congressional testimony that was identical to his remarks yesterday to the Senate Banking Committee.

American stocks also joined a rally in Europe as Italy sold,6.5 billion euros ($8.5 billion) of five- and 10-year bonds in its first auction following inconclusive election results that pushed yields to a four-month high yesterday.

The S&P 500, which is trading less than 3.5 percent from its record, has gained 6.3 percent this year as lawmakers agreed on a compromise on taxes and amid better-than-estimated earnings. About 75 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have released quarterly results beat profit estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The index trades at 15 times reported earnings, below the average since 1954 of 16.4.

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 rose today as commodity and industrial shares had the biggest gains. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to economic growth added 2.1 percent, its largest advance since Jan. 2.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average rallied 3.1 percent, its biggest advance since March. FedEx added 2.5 percent to $105.77 and United Parcel Service Inc. rose 1.4 percent to $83.05. The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index jumped 2.4 percent.

“Our call — that 2013 is poised to be ‘The Year of Transports’ — has gradually gained steam,” Peter Nesvold, an analyst at Jefferies Group Inc., wrote in a note today. He cited the strength in car and housing prices.

Priceline added 3.4 percent to $701.63. The company is racing with smaller rival Expedia Inc. to sell hotel reservations in Europe and Asia, where consumers are warming to booking travel online. Expedia, whose growth has lagged behind Priceline’s in recent years, said last month that international sales accounted for almost half of its fourth-quarter sales, a sign of improving growth opportunities abroad.

Coach Inc. advanced 3.5 percent to $48.12. The largest U.S. luxury-handbag maker rose after DealReporter said there is speculation the company may consider a sale. Coach is speculated to be exploring a sale, DealReporter said today, citing two bankers it didn’t name. Andrea Resnick, a spokeswoman for Coach, said the company doesn’t comment on speculation or rumors, “particularly unsubstantiated ones.”

LinkedIn Corp. gained 7.6 percent to $169.68 after Wunderlich Securities recommended buying the shares. The 12- month share-price estimate is $195.

Verisk Analytics Inc. jumped 9.3 percent to $58.91. The supplier of actuarial and risk data to lenders and insurers gained after fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts’ estimates on increased health-care revenue.

Deere & Co. rose 1.5 percent to $87.82. The world’s largest agricultural-equipment maker raised its quarterly dividend by 11 percent to 51 cents a share from 46 cents previously. The increase is the 11th since early 2004, the Moline, Illinois- based company said today in a statement. The boosted dividend is payable May 1 to holders of record on March 28.

Target dropped 1.1 percent to $63.34. Chief Executive Officer Gregg Steinhafel struggled to increase sales during the holidays after a luxury goods line co-branded with Neiman Marcus Group Inc. flopped with shoppers.

First Solar Inc. slumped 15 percent to $26.67. The biggest maker of thin-film solar panels said its “expected revenue” fell 15 percent last year and its goal for this year is to avoid slipping further. The shares plunged the most in five months.

Apple fell 1 percent to $444.70. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, saying he’s in “very, very active” talks about what to do with the company’s growing cash pile, did little to assuage investors seeking more clarity on his plans.

Apple shares slipped as Cook ended the company’s annual shareholder meeting without giving any additional insight on what he’ll do with the company’s $137.1 billion in cash and investments. Shareholders re-elected Apple’s board, approved Ernst & Young LLP as accountant and passed a non-binding measure on executive compensation.

Cook is under growing pressure to use increased dividends, stock buybacks or a new class of preferred shares to compensate investors after Apple shares have lost more than a third since peaking in September. The calls grew louder amid signs of slowing sales and profit growth and increasingly acute competition from Samsung Electronics Co. and Google Inc.

The CEO said he and other executives are “focused on the long term” and aren’t happy with the falling stock price.

Shareholders re-elected the company’s board and approved a non- binding measure on the executive compensation policy. Investors had been asked to vote on the board and Apple’s pay structure. The results were released at a meeting today at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Chief Executive Officer  is being urged to return some of the $137.1 billion on Apple’s balance sheet to investors in the form of increased dividends, stock buybacks or new class of preferred shares. The calls have grown louder as the stock has fallen by about a third from a September peak amid concerns about slowing sales and profit growth.

At the meeting, Cook told shareholders the company is in “very, very active” discussions on cash. The CEO said he and other executives were “focused on the long term” and aren’t happy with the falling stock price.

“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” – Audrey Hepburn

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Tel: 778-430-5808

Fax: 778-430-5838

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I am sorry I was not able to send out the newsletter on Friday as all of the servers were down.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Today In History:

1793 – The department heads of the U.S. government met with U.S. President Washington for the first Cabinet meeting on U.S. record.

1901 – The United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.

1913 – The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized a graduated income tax.

1930 – The bank check photographing device was patented.

1933 – The first aircraft carrier, Ranger, was launched.

1940 – The New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens played in the first hockey game to be televised in the U.S. The game was aired on W2WBS in New York with one camera in a fixed position. The Rangers beat the Canadiens 6-2.

1948 – Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.

1950 – “Your Show of Shows” debuted on NBC.

1956 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before a Communist Party congress in Moscow.

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken” ― Oscar Wilde

Photos of the Day – February 25^th, 2013

A student has her face painted as part of her nature-inspired costume before participating in a parade for the Caracol festival in Makati city, metro Manila. Romeo Ranoco/Reuters

Sled dogs run at the 23. International Sled Dog Race in Oberhof, central Germany. Jens Meyer/AP

Market Closes for February 25th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13784.17	-216.40    -1.55%
S&P 500	1487.85	-27.25    -1.83%
NASDAQ	3116.251	-45.567    -1.44%
TSX	12650.87	-50.76
		-0.40%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11662.52	+276.58
		+2.43%
HANG  SENG	22820.08	+37.64
		+0.17%
SENSEX	19331.69	+14.68
		+0.08%
FTSE 100	6355.37	+19.67
		+0.31%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.865	1.944
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.527	2.585
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8637	1.9619
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0617	3.1525

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02577	1.02121
US   $	0.97488	0.97923
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34045	0.74602
US  $	1.30661	0.76534

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1592.95	1581.40
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.80	92.77
BRENT	115.03	116.13

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Sarah Pringle and Eric Lam

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, reversing earlier gains in the final hour of trading, as partial voting results spurred concern about prospects for a stable government in Italy and a worsening of Europe’s debt crisis.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender, slumped 1 percent and Manulife Financial Corp., the largest insurer, tumbled 2.1 percent. Suncor Energy Inc. lost 1.8 percent as crude slipped. Inmet Mining Corp. slid 2.8 percent after reaching an agreement with Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. over their Panamanian mines. Eldorado Gold Corp. added 6.3 percent and Goldcorp Inc. climbed 1.3 percent. Cineplex Inc. rose 1 percent after analysts predicted it would hit record highs.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 50.76 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,650.87 in Toronto, erasing earlier gains of as much as 1 percent. The benchmark gauge is up 1.8 percent in 2013. Trading on Canadian exchanges was 3.5 percent higher than the 30-day average today.

“No matter what people say they’re looking over their shoulders at the Dow and I was surprised the Canadian market hung in as long as it did before people lost their nerve,” David Cockfield, managing director and fund manager with Northland Wealth Management, said from Toronto. His firm manages about C$200 million ($195 million). “We haven’t worried about Europe for a while, so it’s about time. The fact Berlusconi is making a big comeback just discourages everybody.”

Italy may require another vote after the four-way race that ended today was poised to result in a divided parliament.

Forecasts by IPR Marketing and state broadcaster RAI showed Pier Luigi Bersani winning the lower chamber and Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister of Italy, with a blocking minority in the Senate. Bersani, who led in opinion polls throughout the two- month race, campaigned to maintain the budget rigor of outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Banks fell 0.6 percent as a group in the S&P/TSX, erasing earlier gains of as much as 1.2 percent. Royal Bank dropped 67 Canadian cents to C$63.59 and National Bank of Canada declined 1 percent to C$77.30. Manulife dropped 31 Canadian cents to C$14.84, its lowest close since Feb. 8.

Financial companies are scheduled to begin reporting earnings tomorrow, including results from Bank of Montreal, followed by Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion and National Bank of Canada on Feb. 27.

Suncor, Canada’s largest energy company by market value, lost 58 Canadian cents to C$31.37 and Cenovus Energy Inc. slipped 1.2 percent to C$32.40. Crude for April delivery slumped 1 percent to $92.18 a barrel in electronic trading at 5:18 p.m. in New York, the lowest level since Dec. 28.

Inmet fell C$1.89 to C$65.52. The developer of the $6.2 billion Cobre Panama copper project said it agreed with Petaquilla to settle certain claims relating to their adjacent Panamanian projects. Inmet will purchase from Petaquilla as much as $100 million a year of aggregates over three years for use at Cobre Panama, the companies said in a statement.

Petaquilla gained 2 percent to 51 Canadian cents.

Eldorado jumped 62 Canadian cents to C$10.42 and Goldcorp added 42 Canadian cents to C$33.64.

The S&P/TSX Gold index climbed 2.4 percent, its biggest gain since Jan. 10, as 29 of 31 members advanced. Gold futures for April delivery rose 0.9 percent, the most in three weeks, to settle at $1,586.60 an ounce in New York as Russia and Kazakhstan’s central banks increased bullion reserves last month.

Cineplex rose 34 Canadian cents to C$33.44. The operator of 70 percent of Canadian movie theaters is forecast by analysts to advance beyond a record as acquisitions and the addition of in- seat liquor service increases revenue.

US

By Rita Nazareth and Sarah Pringle

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, giving benchmark indexes their biggest losses since November, as partial election results spurred concern about prospects for a stable government in Italy and a worsening of Europe’s debt crisis.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. slumped 6.8 percent after agreeing to sell a stake in an Oklahoma oilfield to China Petrochemical Corp. for less than one-third of its estimated value. ITT Educational Services Inc. tumbled 17 percent after disclosing that U.S. regulators subpoenaed documents related to private loan programs for its students. Hertz Global Holdings Inc., the largest publicly traded U.S. auto-rental chain, gained 1.7 percent after projecting profit and sales that beat estimates.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated 1.8 percent to 1,487.85 at 4 p.m. New York time. The benchmark measure advanced as much as 0.7 percent earlier today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 216.40 points, or 1.6 percent, to 13,784.17.

About 7.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 18 percent above the three-month average.

“We don’t want to see more chaos out of Europe,” Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at the private-banking unit of KeyCorp in Cleveland, said in a phone interview. His firm oversees more than $20 billion. “Any question about whether or not Italy would be committed to austerity measures after the elections gets investors concerned.”

Stocks erased gains on concern Italy may be left with a hung parliament as partial election results suggested Silvio Berlusconi may have built a blocking minority in the Senate to deny victory to Pier Luigi Bersani. Bersani, who led in opinion polls throughout the two-month race, campaigned to maintain the budget rigor of outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti. Bets Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will nominate a central bank chief who favors stimulus pushed stocks higher earlier today.

This week’s March 1 deadline to avoid automatic U.S. spending cuts may get investors’ attention. It marks another fiscal showdown between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans. If Congress doesn’t act, federal spending will be reduced by $85 billion in the final seven months of this fiscal year and by $1.2 trillion over the next nine years.

The S&P 500 has gained 4.3 percent this year as U.S. lawmakers agreed on a compromise on taxes in January and amid better-than-estimated corporate earnings. About 75 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have released quarterly results beat profit estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The index trades at 14.7 times reported earnings, below the average since 1954 of 16.4.

“Continued earnings momentum and rising corporate confidence suggest improved capital spending this year,” said James Paulsen, the chief investment strategist at Minneapolis- based Wells Capital Management, which oversees about $325 billion.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, surged 34 percent to 18.99. The gauge had the biggest jump since August 2011 after sliding to the lowest level since April 2007 on Feb. 19.

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 fell today as financial and commodity shares had the biggest losses. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index, which includes shares of companies most tied to economic growth, slid 2.5 percent, the most since June 25. A measure of 11 homebuilders in S&P indexes dropped 3.9 percent.

Chesapeake Energy declined $1.39 to $19.11. Sinopec, as China’s second-largest energy producer is known, will pay $1.02 billion in cash for a 50 percent interest in 850,000 acres Chesapeake controls in the Mississippi Lime formation, the companies announced in separate statements. The price equates to $2,400 an acre, less than the $7,000 to $8,000 at which Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake valued the asset in a July presentation.

ITT Educational tumbled $3.10 to $15.53. The Securities and Exchange Commission demanded documents relating to “actions and accounting” for the private loan programs, which helped students pay for education costs that weren’t covered by state, federal and other funding sources, Carmel, Indiana-based ITT said Feb. 22 in a filing.

Dynavax Technologies Corp. dropped 32 percent to $2.01. The drugmaker seeking to bring its first product to market fell after U.S. regulators rejected the company’s hepatitis B vaccine.

Affymax Inc. sank 85 percent to $2.42 after the drugmaker and partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. voluntarily recalled an anemia treatment for kidney dialysis patients after reports of three fatal reactions.

Hertz gained 31 cents to $19.04. Adjusted earnings per share for 2013 will rise to $1.82 to $1.92, on sales of as much as $10.95 billion, the Park Ridge, New Jersey based company said today in a statement. Analysts projected $1.73 a share on revenue of $10.6 billion, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., added 0.5 percent to $13.25. Sales of BlackBerry 10 devices are above the company’s “ambitious” expectations and production has been increased, chief executive officer Thorsten Heins told Frankfurt Allgemeine.

Barnes & Noble Inc. added 11 percent to $15.06 after Chairman Leonard Riggio said he will offer to buy the stores and website of the chain he founded more than 40 years ago as it struggles to navigate the rising popularity of digital books.

Zynga Inc. rose 7.5 percent to $3.43. The biggest maker of online social games surged on optimism that other U.S. states may follow Nevada in legalizing real-money gambling over the Internet.

CME Group Inc., the world’s largest futures exchange, has approached Deutsche Boerse AG to consider beginning talks on a merger, according to four people familiar with the situation.

A combination of Chicago-based CME and Deutsche Boerse would unite the biggest futures exchanges in the U.S. and European markets. CME shares have rallied 15 percent this year, giving it a market capitalization of $19.4 billion. Deutsche Boerse climbed 1 percent through Feb. 22, bringing its value to 9 billion euros ($11.9 billion).

The companies met again last month to debate whether to begin formal takeover talks and haven’t yet made a decision, the people said. No offer has been made, nor have terms been discussed, they said.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Bees suck nectar from many different flowers, and then make honey.

One drip of honey cannot claim to come from one flower, and another drop of honey from another flower,

the honey is a single consistent whole.

In the same way, all beings are one even though they are not aware of this.

The tiger and the lion, the wolf and the boar, the worm and the moth, the gnat and the mosquito,

all come from the soul, and are part of the soul.

Chandogya Upanishad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

If you don’t drive your business,

you will be driven out of business.

-B. C. Forbes, 1880-1954

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

February 21^st, 1758, Thomas Gray wrote to Thomas Wharton: “Would you know, what I am doing?  I doubt, you have been told already, and hold my employment cheap enough: but everyone must judge of his own capabilities, and cut his amusements according to his disposition.  The drift of my present studies is to know, wherever I am, what lies within reach, that may be worth seeing.  Whether it be building, ruin, park, garden, prospect, picture, or monument; to whom it does, or has belonged, and what has been the characteristic, and taste of different ages.  You will say, this is the object of all antiquaries, but pray, what antiquary ever saw these objects in the same light, or desired to know them for a like reason?  In short say what you please, I am persuaded, whenever my list is finished, you will approve it, and think of no small use.  My spirits are very near the freezing pint, and for some hours of the day this exercise by its warmth and gentle motion serves to raise them a few degrees higher.

From today’s Globe & Mail: how to host the “best ever” dinner party…Nigella’s secret – globeandmail.com/video.

Photo of the Day – February 21^st, 2013

Horses are seen at an equestrian centre in Jucu village near Cluj-Napoca, 426 km (265 miles) northwest of Bucharest. Bogdan Cristel/Reuters

Market Closes for February 21^st, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13880.62	-46.92    -0.34%
S&P 500	1502.42	-9.53    -0.63%
NASDAQ	3131.492	-32.918    -1.04%
TSX	12639.97	-74.08
		-0.58%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11309.13	-159.15
		-1.39%
HANG  SENG	22906.67	-400.74
		-1.72%
SENSEX	19325.36	-317.39
		-1.62%
FTSE 100	6291.54	-103.83
		-1.62%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.982	2.017
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.605	2.636
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9740	2.0087
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1639	3.1991

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.01781	1.01708
US   $	0.98250	0.98321
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34275	0.74474
US  $	1.31925	0.75801

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1575.80	1563.30
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.44	94.46
BRENT	115.75	116.64

Market Commentary:

Canada

by Eric Lam

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to the lowest level in more than a month as energy shares slid amid a drop in crude and weaker-than-estimated earnings from Bombardier Inc. and Tim Hortons Inc.

Bombardier plunged 9.1 percent after pushing back initial deliveries of one of its business jets to 2014 and reporting earnings that missed analysts’ estimates. Tim Hortons dropped 3 percent after announcing 2013 guidance and fourth-quarter earnings below forecasts. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest energy company, and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. lost at least 1.6 percent as crude fell the most in three months.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 74.08 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,639.97, the lowest level since Jan. 16. The S&P/TSX has risen 1.7 percent this year.

“After the drubbing we’ve taken in the resource sectors, we’ve had a bit of shellshock,” said Bob Decker, a fund manager with Aurion Capital Management, who helps manage about C$6 billion ($5.89 billion), from Toronto. “Tim Hortons, with their soft guidance and share buyback, is giving the message of slow growth to the market.”

Energy and bank shares contributed the most to losses in the S&P/TSX as six of 10 industries retreated. Trading volume was 29 percent above the 30-day average.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender, lost 0.8 percent to C$63.96, retreating from an all-time high yesterday.

Suncor dropped 1.6 percent to C$31.49, the lowest in five months, while Canadian Natural Resources sank 1.9 percent to C$29.99. Crude for April delivery tumbled 2.5 percent to $92.84 a barrel in New York, the lowest settlement this year. A U.S. government report showed crude stockpiles climbed 4.14 million barrels last week to 376.4 million, the highest since July.

Bombardier, based in Montreal, fell 39 Canadian cents to C$3.89 after pushing back initial deliveries of its Learjet 85 business aircraft and saying its train unit wouldn’t meet a 2013 profit target.

The company reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of 10 cents a share, short of the 12-cent average analyst estimate.

Bombardier said its total backlog at the end of 2013 rose to a record $66.6 billion from $55.8 billion a year earlier.

Tim Hortons, the biggest coffee and doughnuts chain in Canada, sank C$1.50 to C$49.30. The Oakville, Ontario-based company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 70 Canadian cents, compared with estimates of 71 cents.

The company forecast 2013 earnings of C$2.87 to C$2.97, below analysts’ expectations of C$3. It anticipates weaker comparable sales in the first quarter due to economic concerns, a competitive environment and unfavorable weather.

Yamana Gold Inc. climbed 5 percent to C$15.43 after the gold producer reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 26 cents, exceeding analysts’ forecasts of 25 cents.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Marrone said in an interview with Bloomberg that he doesn’t have the appetite for an acquisition and will focus on putting three mines into commercial production this year.

US

By Sarah Pringle and Nikolaj Gammeltoft

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, following the biggest drop since November for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as concern grew that the U.S. Federal Reserve may slow the pace of stimulus and investors weighed corporate earnings.

VeriFone Systems Inc. lost 43 percent after the maker of credit-card terminals forecast second-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates because of weak economic conditions in Europe. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rose 1.5 percent as the world’s biggest retailer reported earnings that topped forecasts.

Hewlett-Packard Co. rallied 6.7 percent after regular trading as its outlook exceeded estimates.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent, or 9.53 points, to 1,502.42 at 4 p.m. in New York. The benchmark index lost 1.2 percent yesterday amid concern that the Fed will scale back economic stimulus. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 46.92 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,880.62 today. About 7.7 billion shares exchanged hands on U.S. exchanges today, 25 percent above the three-month average.

“The timeliness of the Fed’s comments coming out took a little bit of the excess out of the stock market,” Tim Hartzell, who helps manage about $400 million as chief investment officer at Sequent Asset Management in Houston, said in a phone interview. “Equities really had gotten ahead of itself with just the belief that there’s always going to be $85 billion come into the market from the Fed.”

Several participants at the Federal Open Market Committee’s Jan. 29-30 meeting said the central bank should be ready to vary the pace of its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases, minutes from the meeting showed yesterday, spurring concern stimulus will be curtailed.

The S&P 500 has gained 5.4 percent this year as U.S. lawmakers agreed on a compromise budget and companies reported better-than-estimated earnings. The benchmark gauge is 4 percent below its 2007 all-time high of 1,565.15, while the Dow is 2 percent from its record high of 14,164.53.

About 72 percent of the 433 companies in the S&P 500 that have released quarterly results since Jan. 8 have exceeded profit estimates, and 65 percent beat sales estimates, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“People are taking some profits and watching to see what the next catalyst is,” Neil Massa, senior equity trader at Boston-based John Hancock Asset Management, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $233 billion. “It’s a healthy sell off. We’ve gone up so much, it’s a good opportunity to take a breather. I don’t think it’s a sign of a continuing trend.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, or VIX, climbed 3.7 percent to 15.22. That followed a jump of 19 percent yesterday, the biggest advance since November 2011.

Volatility will likely increase with the March 1 deadline for automatic federal budget cuts approaching, said New York- based Russ Koesterich, the chief investment strategist at BlackRock. Republicans and President Barack Obama are seeking to assign blame for who would be at fault if the cuts, known as sequestration, take effect.

Investors holding more U.S. equities than the benchmark they track should reduce exposure, Koesterich said at a briefing in Sydney. “Part of what we’d suggest again is lowering the allocation a bit to the U.S. and second of all, being cautious of the parts of the market that are dependent upon U.S. consumption.”

Stocks extended losses today as the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index dropped to minus 12.5, the lowest reading since June, from minus 5.8 in January. Readings lower than zero signal contraction in the area covering eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. The median forecast of 58 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected an increase to 1.

Jobless claims increased by 20,000 to 362,000 in the week ended Feb. 16, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. Among other economic data, the index of U.S. leading indicators rose for a second month in January, climbing 0.2 percent. Purchases of existing houses, tabulated when a contract closes, increased 0.4 percent to a 4.92 million annual rate.

Investors sold shares of companies most tied to economic growth, sending the Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index down 0.9 percent. Raw-material shares retreated 0.9 percent for the biggest drop among 10 groups in the S&P 500, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average slipped 0.8 percent. The KBW Bank Index lost 1.2 percent as 22 of its 24 companies slid.

Bank of America Corp. tumbled 3.2 percent to $11.42 for the biggest drop in the Dow. Caterpillar Inc. sank 1.8 percent to $91.53. Home Depot Inc. lost 3.1 percent to $64.38.

Semiconductors performed the worst among 24 groups in the S&P 500, slipping 2 percent. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. dropped 3.7 percent to $2.60. Micron Technology Inc. slid 2.5 percent to $7.68, and Intel Corp. fell 2.3 percent to $20.25.

Hewlett-Packard rose 6.7 percent to $18.25 as of 4:45 p.m. in New York. The shares surged 2.4 percent during regular trading ahead of the release of the company’s earnings, with most of the gain coming in the final hour. The largest personal- computer maker forecast fiscal second-quarter profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates, helped by cost-cutting measures and recovering demand for enterprise services.

VeriFone tumbled $13.65 to $18.24. Earnings excluding some items will be 45 cents to 50 cents a share in the quarter ending in April, San Jose, California-based VeriFone said. Analysts on average had predicted profit of 80 cents a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Tesla Motors Inc. dropped 8.8 percent to $35.16. The maker of electric cars headed by billionaire Elon Musk reported a fourth-quarter loss that was larger than analysts expected, blaming a jump in operating costs during the start of production.

PG&E Corp., the owner of California’s largest utility, dropped 4 percent to $41.41. The company fell the most since August 2011 after forecasting 2013 earnings below the average analyst estimate.

Carlyle Group LP, the second-largest U.S. private-equity company, tumbled 7.8 percent to $33.80, the most since going public in May. Washington-based Carlyle, the most active U.S. private-equity buyer in 2012, reported fourth-quarter profit that fell short of analysts’ estimates as the firm’s fund holdings appreciated at a slower pace.

Wal-Mart rose $1.05 to $70.26. The retailer rose as fourth- quarter profit topped analysts’ estimates and the company raised its dividend, overcoming concerns that tax increases would hurt earnings this year.

Safeway Inc. soared $2.84 to $22.97 for the biggest advance in the S&P 500. The second-largest U.S. grocery chain reported fourth-quarter profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates on higher store sales.

Boeing Co. rallied 1.6 percent to $76.01. The Chicago-based company will present a battery redesign for the 787 Dreamliner tomorrow in a bid to satisfy regulators’ safety concerns and get the jet back into the air within weeks, people with knowledge of the proposal said.

Imax Corp. increased 4.3 percent to $26.27, its highest level in 11 months. The designer of digital imaging and sound technologies reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 23 cents, beating analyst estimates for 16 cents. The company said that growing international demand for movies shown in its large-screen format helped double fourth-quarter profit.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

 

Be magnificent!

 

The spirit of democracy

is not a mechanical thing

to be adjusted by abolition of forms.

It requires a change of heart.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

It’s easy to make a buck.  It’s a lot tougher

to make a difference.

-Tom Brokaw, 1940-

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Numbers~

17,425, 170 – the number of digits in a new, rare prime number known as a Mersenne prime, discovered using a global network of computers.  It is reportedly the largest prime number found to date.

14000 – Level at which the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed on February 1, 2013, the first time it had closed that high since 2007.

101 – Age of Fauja Singh, the world’s oldest marathoner.  He says he will retire from competition after a charity 10K run at Hong Kong’s marathon on February 24^th.

Sources: Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, Runner’s World.

Don’t forget if you haven’t sent your contributions into me yet!  March 1^st is the RSP deadline to get the deduction and  save taxes on your 2012 return!

Maximum contribution for 2012 is $22,970; for 2013 it is increasing to $23,820.

And your TFSA contribution room has increased this year to $5,500 from $5,000.

Photo of the Day – February 20^th, 2013

A Vietnamese man from the Pa Then minority group jumps into a fire during a ritual ceremony at the Vietnam Ethnic Minority Cultural Village, outside Hanoi. They believe that jumping into a fire without any protection will help them gain more special energy from God to challenge life’s difficulties and fight evils. Kham/Reuters

Market Closes for February 20th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13927.54	-108.13    -0.77%
S&P 500	1511.95	-18.99    -1.24%
NASDAQ	3164.410	-49.185    -1.53%
TSX	12714.05	-96.16
		-0.75%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11468.28	+95.94
		+0.84%
HANG  SENG	23307.41	+163.50
		+0.71%
SENSEX	19642.75	+7.03
		+0.04%
FTSE 100	6395.37	+16.30
		+0.26%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.017	2.021
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.636	2.642
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.0087	2.0278
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1991	3.2098

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.01708	1.01187
US   $	0.98321	0.98827
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.35083	0.74029
US  $	1.32815	0.75293

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1563.30	1604.70
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	94.46	96.66
BRENT	116.64	119.49

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Leslie Picker

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, giving the benchmark index its biggest loss since January, as home resale prices slid for a fifth month and commodities dropped amid speculation a hedge fund was selling positions.

OceanaGold Corp. and Premier Gold Mines Ltd. slumped at least 6.3 percent as gold futures fell for a fifth straight day.

Industrial Alliance Insurance & Financial Services Inc. lost 4.1 percent after Canaccord Genuity Corp. cut the insurer to hold from buy. Silver Wheaton Corp. retreated 6.3 percent after the company’s chief executive officer said it is seeking a second purchase this year after buying Vale SA’s gold.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 96.16 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,714.05, the biggest drop since Jan. 31. The S&P/TSX has risen 2.3 percent this year.

“It’s somewhat of a dour mood for commodities right now,” Paul Vaillancourt, managing director at Montreal-based Fiera Capital Corp., which oversees $66 billion, said in a telephone interview. “There’s a general slowdown. GDP numbers are not impressive. Earnings growth has cooled. Housing prices’ rate of growth is decelerating in Canada, which makes for a less euphoric backdrop.”

Canadian home resale prices fell for a fifth straight month in January, the longest string of declines since the country’s 2009 recession, according to the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index. Government data in the U.S. showed builders broke ground on the most single-family homes in more than four years, while total housing starts trailed economists’ estimates.

Gold futures for April delivery slipped 1.6 percent to settle at $1,578 an ounce on the Comex in New York. The metal fell for a fifth straight day, the longest slump in more than a year. Silver futures led the losses among the S&P GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials, retreating as much as 4 percent.

Commodity producers had the biggest decline among 10 groups in the benchmark equities index. OceanaGold fell 16 Canadian cents to C$2.38. Premier Gold Mines lost 32 Canadian cents to C$2.78.

“Commodities will give investors the most challenges,” Patrick Blais, senior equity analyst at Toronto-based Manulife Asset Management Ltd., which oversees C$238 billion, said in a telephone interview. “Canada is very resource-driven. Just the demand for oil as well as base metals and gold — there’s definitely a slowdown in demand for those products.”

Silver Wheaton lost C$2.27 to C$32.77. The world’s largest buyer of precious-metal output rights from copper, zinc and lead mines is seeking a second purchase this year after paying $1.9 billion for gold from Vale, Chief Executive Officer Randy Smallwood said.

MEG Energy Corporation, the Canadian oil-sands developer, fell 3 percent to C$33.45. Legacy Oil + Gas Inc., an intermediate oil and natural gas company, dropped 4.3 percent to C$6.66.

Talisman Energy Inc. declined 0.8 percent to C$12.60. The Calgary-based company plans to fire 90 employees as it reduces spending on gas operations, it said in a statement today.

West Texas Intermediate oil for March delivery tumbled 2.3 percent to close at $94.46 a barrel on speculation that a commodity fund is selling positions. Gasoline futures slid for a second day from the highest level since September.

“There is a rumor that a fund is blowing up,” Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group Inc. in Villanova, Pennsylvania, told Bloomberg News. Schork has spent 17 years in physical commodity and derivatives trading including stints at Glencore Ltd. and Novarco Ltd., Marc Rich’s last venture in the global energy trading, and his clients include OPEC and major oil companies. “Metals are getting hit and it’s spreading over to oil.”

Health-care and financial stocks were the only industries to gain among the 10 groups in the S&P/TSX, adding at least 0.1 percent. Bank of Nova Scotia rose 1.5 percent to C$60.01 after Barclays Plc raised its recommendation to overweight from equalweight.

Industrial Alliance Insurance fell C$1.59 to C$37 after Mario Mendonca, an analyst at Canaccord, cut the company to hold from buy and lowered its price estimate to $C40.

Bombardier Inc. gained 4.4 percent to C$4.28. The planemaker said Russia’s Ilyushin Finance Co. converted a letter of intent into an order for CSeries jets that could be worth at least $2.56 billion.

Softchoice Corp. added 18 percent to C$15. The business-to- business direct marketer of software products reported fourth- quarter earnings that topped analysts’ estimates and boosted its quarterly dividend.

US

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft and Sarah Pringle

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell from five-year highs, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest decline since November, as minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed a debate over further stimulus action.

Apple Inc. fell 2.4 percent after Foxconn Technology Group, the biggest assembler of Apple products, froze hiring across China. Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury-home builder, lost 9.1 percent as it reported earnings that missed estimates.

Caterpillar Inc. slid 2.5 percent after saying global retail machine sales dropped. OfficeMax Inc. dropped 7 percent after agreeing to be bought by Office Depot Inc. for $1.17 billion.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 1.2 percent to 1,511.95 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 108.13 points, or 0.8 percent, to 13,927.54. About 7.5 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 22 percent above the three-month average. The VIX, the benchmark gauge of U.S. equity options, jumped the most in 15 months on growing demand for protection from losses.

“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think about where the next potential source of weakness or worry is going to be, and that’s going to be when the Fed steps back from their quantitative easing program,” Brian Barish, president of Denver, Colorado-based Cambiar Investors, which manages about $7 billion, said in a phone interview.

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s Jan. 29-30 meeting released today showed policy makers were divided about the strategy behind Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s program of buying bonds until there is “substantial” improvement in a U.S. labor market burdened with 7.9 percent unemployment.

Some said an earlier end to purchases might be needed, and others warned against a premature withdrawal of stimulus.

Several policy makers said the central bank should be ready to vary the pace of their $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.

Equities retreated after yesterday’s 0.7 percent rally in the S&P 500 pushed the benchmark gauge’s price-to-earnings ratio to 15.1, the highest level since July 2011, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The S&P 500 has gained 6 percent this year, touching the highest level since October 2007, as U.S. lawmakers agreed on a compromise budget and companies reported better-than-estimated earnings. The benchmark gauge is 3.4 percent below its 2007 all- time high of 1,565.15, while the Dow is 1.7 percent from its record high of 14,164.53.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, surged 19 percent to 14.68 today, the most since November 2011. The VIX has retreated 19 percent this year.

About 71 percent of the 413 companies in the S&P 500 that have released quarterly results since Jan. 8 have exceeded profit estimates, and 66 percent beat sales estimates, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Devon Energy Corp. and Ameren Corp. were among companies reporting today.

Stocks extended losses and the S&P GSCI Spot Index tumbled 1.1 percent today on speculation that a commodity fund is liquidating. Raw-material shares had the biggest decline among 10 groups in the S&P 500, sliding 2.8 percent, the most since October.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. fell 6 percent to $32.22, while Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. slid 4.9 percent to $27.29.

CF Industries Holdings Inc. stumbled 5.2 percent to $207.07. The largest U.S. maker of nitrogen fertilizer reported fourth-quarter sales declined to $1.48 billion from $1.72 billion a year earlier, less than the $1.58 billion average of 13 estimates.

Apple declined $11.14 to $448.85. Foxconn halted recruitment until the end of March after more employees returned from the Chinese New Year break than a year earlier, Bruce Liu, a spokesman for the Taipei-based company, said today in a phone interview. The decision wasn’t related to iPhone 5 production, he said.

An S&P gauge of homebuilders lost 6.7 percent, the most since June, as all 11 stocks retreated. Work began on 613,000 one-family houses at an annual rate last month, the most since July 2008 and up 0.8 percent from December’s 608,000, Commerce Department figures showed today. Total housing starts dropped to a 890,000 rate, less than forecast and restrained by a slump in construction of multifamily units.

Toll Brothers dropped $3.34 to $33.56, the most since December 2008. The Horsham, Pennsylvania-based company reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates as the average selling price of its homes fell.

Caterpillar slid $2.38 to $93.22. The biggest maker of construction and mining said global retail machine sales dropped 4 percent in the three months through January. The company last month reported the first decline in retail machine sales in more than 2 1/2 years.

Joy Global Inc. rallied 2.7 percent to $65.25 as the world’s biggest producer of underground mining machines may seek acquisitions. While Joy is focused on integrating past deals, the company may seek purchases after accumulating more cash, Chief Executive Officer Michael Sutherlin said at a Barclays Plc investor conference today.

Office Depot dropped 17 percent to $4.18 and OfficeMax slipped 91 cents to $12.09, reversing earlier gains. Both stocks rallied yesterday in anticipation of the acquisition.

The deal will combine companies with revenue totaling about $18 billion compared with more than $24 billion in sales last year for Staples Inc. The company may accelerate the closing or selling of hundreds of stores after Starboard Value LP, an activist fund that became Office Depot’s largest shareholder in September, pushed for expense reductions.

Garmin Ltd. tumbled 9.4 percent to $35.54 for the biggest retreat in the S&P 500. The biggest maker of navigation devices declined the most in more than three years after forecasting 2013 sales and profit that missed estimates, as consumers switch to smartphones for maps and directions. The Schaffhausen, Switzerland-based company also posted fourth-quarter per share profit of 68 cents, missing the average analyst estimate of 73 cents.

NetSpend Holdings Inc. surged 29 percent to $15.81 after Total System Services Inc. agreed to buy the provider of prepaid debit cards for about $1.4 billion in cash.

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. advanced 14 percent to $12.72 after saying fourth-quarter bookings, which represent future sales, increased 12 percent to $181 million from the previous quarter.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

The end to be sought is human happiness combined with full mental and moral growth.

This end can be achieved under decentralization.

Centralization as a system is inconsistent with a non-violent structure of society.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Business is a combination of war and sport.

-André  Maurois, 1885-1967

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

If you have no plans for the weekend yet, consider heading down to Seattle for the 25^th anniversary of the Northwest Flower & Garden Show.  It is the biggest show of its kind in North America – after Philadelphia’s garden show, of course.  Six acres of gardening and flora design at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle!  This 25^th anniversary year should be especially wonderful with the theme being Hollywood movies.  Apparently, there’s even a Vespa parked in one of the gardens, its creation inspired by the 1953 movie Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.

I don’t know why I saved this when I first read it,  but I did; maybe you will like it too…

English Gardens

England’s romantic gardens, with their billowing masses of roses and rustic cottages, are emblematic of the country itself.  Many visitors come with the express purpose of seeing the country’s famous garden sights.

Early in the 1700’s, English gardens resembled the formal classical gardens of Italy and France.  Then began a movement, spurred on first by romantically inclined writers and poets, for more “natural” gardens.  Alexander Pope, a poet and essayist, lobbied for a return to the “amicable simplicity of unadorned nature” in an essay on gardening in the 1713 Guardian.  In his Epistle to Burlington, he proclaimed:  “In all, let nature never be forgot….Consult genius of the place.”  The English landscape style went on to be finessed by three designers;  William Kent, Lancelot(Capability) Brown, and Humphrey Repton.  You’ll see their work at many of England’s historic homes.

Not all gardens are residential.  You’ll find some enchanting ones in the cloisters of cathedrals.  Monks and nuns carefully tended these peaceful green spaces, growing the food they needed, as well as medicinal herbs.

For comprehensive information on English public gardens, the National Trust is the best place to start.  The agency also suggests itineraries at www.nationaltrutst.org.uk.

This list of gardens is cited by www.gardenvisit.com as being outstanding examples of garden design.   They provide the perfect skeleton for a garden lover’s trip to England:

Biddulph Grange, Blenheim Palace, Castle Howard, Chatsworth, Great Dixter, Hampton Court Garden, Harewood House, Wisley, Rousham Landscape Garden, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Stowe Landscape Gardens, Studley Royal, Hidcote Garden, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, Leonardslee Gardens, and Levens Hall Garden.

THE MOSS ROSE: It’s hard to imagine a greater honor for a horticulturist than having a plant named after you.  Such is the case for the noted horticulturist Nancy Moss, whose family has carefully perfected the Moss rose.  Portulaca grandiflora is a hardy, drought-resistant flowering plant that comes in an array of bright colors.  –from Lande’s Snapshots.

Photo of the Day – February 19^th, 2013

Cuba’s best-known dissident, blogger Yoani Sanchez, addresses a news conference at the auditorium of the Chamber Executives of shopkeepers in Feira de Santana, Brazil. Sanchez is on an 80-day tour, after she was granted a passport under Cuba’s sweeping immigration reform that went into effect this year. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

Market Closes for February 19th, 2013:

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14035.67	+53.91    +0.39%
S&P 500	1530.94	+11.15    +0.73%
NASDAQ	3213.595	+21.565    +0.68%
TSX	12810.21	+123.58
		+0.97%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11372.34	-35.53
		-0.31%
HANG  SENG	23143.91	-238.03
		-1.02%
SENSEX	19635.72	+134.64
		+0.69%
FTSE 100	6379.07	+60.88
		+0.96%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.021	2.016
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.642	2.629
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.0278	2.0017
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.2098	3.1753

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.01187	1.00640
US   $	0.98827	0.99364
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.35443	0.73832
US  $	1.33854	0.74708

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1604.70	1610.10
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	96.66	95.86
BRENT	119.49	120.39

Market Commentary:

Canada:

By Eric Lam

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose the most in three months, led by gains among banks, after a measure showing an increase in German investor confidence added to signs of a European economic recovery.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender, surged 1.8 percent. Bank of Nova Scotia and Toronto-Dominion Bank rose at least 1.1 percent. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest energy producer, gained 1.2 percent as the price of crude rallied. Great-West Lifeco Inc. added 2.4 percent after agreeing to acquire Irish Life Group Ltd. Atlantic Power Corp. slid 3.6 percent after an analyst with RBC Capital Markets said the company may lower its dividend.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 123.58 points, or 1 percent, to 12,810.21 in Toronto for the biggest gain since Nov. 19. The S&P/TSX has risen 3 percent for 2013.

Canadian markets were closed yesterday for the Family Day holiday.

“Financials are rebounding with the positive news worldwide with the German investor confidence number and a Canadian company willing to make an acquisition in Ireland,” Anish Chopra, managing director and fund manager with TD Asset Management Ltd., said on the phone from Toronto. His firm manages about C$204 billion ($201.5 billion). “It all bodes well for banking institutions in Canada.”

Investor confidence in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, jumped in February to 48.2 from 31.5 in January, the ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim said. That’s more than economists forecast and the highest level since April 2010.

Great-West added 65 Canadian cents to C$27.43. Canada’s second-largest insurer agreed to acquire Irish Life from Ireland’s government for C$1.75 billion as it seeks to expand European operations.

Banks and energy stocks contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX as nine of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was in line with the 30-day average.

The S&P/TSX Financials Index rose 1.3 percent to 1,844.15 points, its highest level since December 2007. Royal Bank gained 1.8 percent to C$64.43, an all-time high. TD Bank advanced 1.3 percent to C$83.84. Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce added at least 0.9 percent.

“We’re also getting a rally in the safety sectors of the pipelines, utilities and telecoms. Investors seem to be gravitating to high-quality, dividend-paying equities,” Chopra said.

Enbridge Inc. gained 1 percent to C$44.81 and TransCanada Corp. added 1.3 percent to C$47.39. Rogers Communications Inc., Canada’s largest wireless carrier, jumped 2.5 percent to C$48.49. Telus Corp. rose 2.2 percent to C$69.32.

Canadian National Railway Co. increased 0.7 percent to C$101.50. The Montreal-based railway named Jim Vena, 54, its new chief operating officer after Keith Creel left earlier this month to be president and COO of rival Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.

Suncor climbed 38 Canadian cents to C$32.13, its biggest gain in more than two weeks. Cenovus Energy Inc. advanced 1.8 percent to C$32.76. Crude for March delivery, which expires tomorrow, added 0.8 percent to settle at $96.66 a barrel in New York.

Atlantic Power, based in Boston, lost 42 Canadian cents to C$11.17 after Nelson Ng, analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said the company may lower its dividend by at least 30 percent after it reports its fourth-quarter earnings results on Feb. 28.

US:

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft and Sarah Pringle

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, sending benchmark indexes to their highest levels in five years, on increasing optimism over dealmaking and a report showing rising investor confidence in Germany.

Office Depot Inc. soared 9.4 percent and OfficeMax Inc. surged 21 percent as a person familiar with the matter said the companies have discussed a merger and may announce a deal as early as this week. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. rose more than 1.3 percent as financial shares rallied. Google Inc. jumped 1.8 percent, surpassing $800 for the first time.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 0.7 percent to 1,530.94 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 53.91 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,035.67. Both indexes closed at their highest levels since October 2007. About 6.5 billion shares exchanged hands on U.S. exchanges, 6.5 percent above the three-month average. U.S. equity markets were closed yesterday for the Presidents Day holiday.

“More deals out there do create a good sentiment,” Kevin Divney, chief investment officer at Beaconcrest Capital Management in Boston, said in an phone interview. “CEOs now are looking further out, and that’s been the issue the past four years. If we can extend horizons it makes for better strategic decisions.”

The S&P 500 completed its seventh consecutive weekly advance on Feb. 15, climbing 0.1 percent for the five days amid optimism over corporate merger activity and better-than- estimated economic data. The benchmark gauge is 2.2 percent below its 2007 all-time high of 1,565.15, while the Dow is 0.9 percent from its record high of 14,164.53.

Almost $40 billion in deals were announced in the U.S. on Feb. 14, bringing the total this month to more than $140 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That already surpassed the total of $99.6 billion during the first two months of 2012.

The S&P 500 has climbed 7.3 percent in 2013 as U.S. lawmakers agreed on a compromise federal budget and earnings topped analyst estimates. About 71 percent of the 402 companies in the S&P 500 that have released results in the earnings season have exceeded profit projections, and 66 percent have beaten sales estimates, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

German investor confidence jumped more than economists forecast in February to the highest in almost three years, data showed today, adding to signs that Europe’s largest economy is rebounding from its slump.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index reached its lowest level since April 2007, slipping 1.2 percent to 12.31. Declines in the VIX, as the gauge of S&P 500 Index volatility is known, came before gains in the S&P 500 in 2009 and at the end of 2011.

Nine out of 10 groups in the S&P 500 advanced, with consumer-staples and energy shares climbing at least 1 percent.

The KBW Bank Index added 0.6 percent, as Bank of America gained 1.3 percent to $12.19. Citigroup jumped 1.5 percent to $44.50, its highest level since May 2011, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. reached a more than four-year high after adding 1.2 percent to $49.45.

Office Depot, the second-largest office-supplies retailer, added 43 cents to $5.02 and OfficeMax rallied $2.25 to $13. The companies have discussed a stock swap that would create a single office-supply retailer to compete with Staples Inc., said the person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the talks remain private. Office Depot has explored options since September, when activist fund Starboard Value LP became its largest shareholder.

Staples climbed 13 percent to $14.65 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500.

Google advanced $13.96 to $806.85, the highest since the company went public in August 2004. Google is benefiting as more advertisers place promotions on its website, buoyed by the growing number of users who access the service on smartphones and tablets.

Best Buy Co. gained 2.7 percent to $17.33 after Alan Rifkin, an analyst at Barclays Plc, raised the retailer of electronic goods to overweight, the equivalent of buy, from equal weight.

“We believe Best Buy is taking the necessary steps to improve operations by cutting costs out and driving efficiencies,” Rifkin wrote in a report today. “We are confident that management will work to defend share.”

General Mills Inc. added 1.9 percent to $45.43. The maker of Cheerios cereal said profit would rise at a high single-digit percentage rate in fiscal 2014 and reiterated its earnings forecast for this year. Analysts project an increase of 8 percent to $2.90 per share, according to the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Sealed Air Corp. jumped 9 percent to $21.15. The packaging manufacturer, based in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, posted fourth- quarter revenue of $1.98 billion, topping the $1.94 billion average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

An index of homebuilders dropped 1.2 percent, with nine of its 11 members declining. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder confidence index fell to 46 from January’s 47, a report from the Washington-based group showed today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 50 economists called for a rise to 48.

PulteGroup Inc. tumbled 1.8 percent to $19.95 and D.R. Horton Inc. lost 1.6 percent to $23.29.

Humana Inc. tumbled 6.4 percent to $73.01 for the biggest drop in the S&P 500. The second-biggest private Medicare insurer said the U.S. government’s preliminary Medicare Advantage payment rates were less than the company anticipated. The proposed rates also sent other insurers’ shares down.

United Health Group Inc., the largest U.S. health insurance provider, fell 1.2 percent to $56.66. Cigna Corp. lost 1.1 percent to $60.43.

Casino companies retreated as HSBC Global Research said Macau’s gambling revenue lagged behind its projection for the first 17 days of February. VIP, or high-stakes, gamblers may have stayed away to avoid crowds during the New Year holiday, HSBC said.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. dropped 2.1 percent to $120.39 after CLSA Ltd. downgraded Wynn Macau, the Hong Kong-listed unit of billionaire Steve Wynn’s Las Vegas-based company, to outperform from buy. Las Vegas Sands Corp., which operates casinos and convention centers in the U.S., Macau and Singapore, tumbled 3.1 percent to $51.25.

Price swings in U.S. stocks are narrowing the most since the Great Depression, a signal of reviving investor confidence that has fueled a four-year-old bull market.

Average daily price moves for the S&P 500 have fallen to 0.43 percent in 2013 from an average 1.08 percent in the past five years, the steepest decline for any corresponding period since the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The last time the annual average was this low was 1995, when the S&P 500 surged 34 percent and doubled in the following four years.

Stocks gain an average of 17 percent during years when the gyrations are so small, the data going back to 1928 show.

The combination of declining volatility and the best start to a year since 1997 is prompting bears to warn that investors are growing complacent as the rally ages. Bulls cite smaller fluctuations as another reason to buy, on top of rising earnings forecasts, below-average valuations and the biggest deposits in equity mutual funds in nine years.

“Switching from net outflows to net inflows has been a big part of volatility being dampened,” Michael Shaoul, the chairman and chief executive officer at Marketfield Asset Management, said in a Feb. 14 phone interview.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

It is quite proper to resist and attack a system but,

to resist and attack its author is tantamount to resisting and attacking oneself.

For we are all tarred with the same brush.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

About the time we can make the ends meet

somebody moves the ends.

-Herbert Hoover, 1874-1964

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I started to read a book last night entitled Quiet –The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking (Random House, 2012).  The author is Susan Cain.

The book begins with a quote that I want to share with you:

A species in which everyone was General Patton would not succeed, any more than would a race in which everyone was Vincent van Gogh.  I prefer to think that the planet needs athletes, philosophers, sex symbols, painters, scientists; it needs the warmhearted, the hardhearted, the coldhearted, and the weakhearted.  It needs those who can devote their lives to studying how many droplets of water are secreted by the salivary glands of dogs under which circumstances, and it needs those who can capture the passing impression of cherry blossoms in a fourteen-syllable poem or devote twenty-five pages to the dissection of a small boy’s feelings as he lies in bed in the dark waiting for his mother to kiss him goodnight….Indeed the presence of outstanding strengths presupposes that energy needed in other areas has been channeled away from them.  –Allen Shawn

Note: The markets were closed in both Canada and the US today.  This information is from Friday’s market information:

Market Closes for February 15th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13981.76	+8.37    +0.06%
S&P 500	1519.79	-1.59    -0.10%
NASDAQ	3192.030	-6.627    -0.21%
TSX	12686.63	-35.1
		-0.28%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11173.83	-133.45
		-1.18%
HANG  SENG	23444.56	+31.31
		+0.13%
SENSEX	19468.15	-29.03
		-0.15%
FTSE 100	6328.26	+0.90
		+0.01%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.016	1.999
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.629	2.613
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.0017	1.9974
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1753	3.1765

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00640	1.00083
US   $	0.99364	0.99917
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34518	0.74339
US  $	1.33663	0.74815

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1610.10	1634.95
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	95.86	97.31
BRENT	120.39	120.41

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Sarah Pringle and Eric Lam

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for a third day as gold and oil producers retreated and factory sales dropped the most in almost four years.

Goldcorp Inc., the second-biggest gold miner by market value, lost 2 percent after quarterly sales fell short of analysts’ estimates and the metal traded below $1,600 for the first time since August. Energy producers slid as oil dropped amid declining euro-area exports. BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion Ltd., fell 5.5 percent to extend its loss for the week to 14 percent. Rogers Communications Inc. soared 4.1 percent after posting better-than-estimated profit.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 35.16 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,686.63 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark index lost 0.9 percent this week, the biggest weekly loss in three months. About 796 million shares traded hands on Canadian exchanges today, 4.3 percent above the three-month average. The market is closed Monday for Family Day.

“Commodities have not been in favor, that’s for certain,” Ian Nakamoto, director of research with MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Inc., said from Toronto. His firm manages about $4 billion. “No one wants to push the market up significantly higher, but when the market comes down it seems like people are willing to step in. I still think it’s a forgiving market.”

Canadian factory sales fell 3.1 percent in December, the most since May 2009, as car assembly plants experienced longer- than-usual seasonal shutdowns, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Existing home sales rose for the first time in four months in January on gains in Toronto and Vancouver, the Canadian Real Estate Association said today.

Commodity producers had the biggest decline among 10 groups in the benchmark index. Gold traders are the most bearish in more than a year on mounting speculation that improving economic growth from the U.S. to China will curb demand for this year’s worst-performing precious metal. Twenty analysts surveyed by Bloomberg this week expect prices to fall next week, while 11 were bullish and three were neutral, making the proportion of bears the highest since Dec. 30, 2011.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, slumped 1.9 percent to C$31.82.

Goldcorp tumbled 68 Canadian cents to C$33.99, its lowest level since July. The company reported fourth-quarter sales of $1.44 billion, missing the $1.56 billion average of eight estimate, as rising prices for labor, raw materials and equipment pressured the company. Goldcorp also struggled last year with seismic activity that affected output at the Red Lake mine in Ontario, its top producer, and water shortages at the Penasquito operation in Mexico.

Energy producers also retreated, as Suncor Energy Inc. slumped 1.4 percent to C$31.75 and Penn West Petroleum Ltd. tumbled 4.2 percent to C$10.20.

Crude for March delivery fell 1.5 percent to $95.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. U.S. industrial production unexpectedly shrank and euro-area exports declined the most in five months, raising concern that fuel demand may be weakened.

Westshore Terminals Investment Corp. dropped 5.3 percent to C$27.02, the most since August 2011. The operator of North America’s largest coal-export facility said it will cap dividend payments to help pay for the replacement of aging equipment.

BlackBerry tumbled 82 Canadian cents to C$14.23. The stock dropped 14 percent in the week. Jim Balsillie, Research In Motion’s co-chief executive officer until January 2012, cut his last formal ties to a company he helped build for two decades when he reported yesterday that he no longer holds a stake.

Balsillie had been the third-largest shareholder.

Phone companies had the largest gain among groups in the S&P/TSX, as all five companies  advanced.

Rogers Communications rallied C$1.85 to C$47.32. Canada’s largest wireless carrier reported fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates, helped by consumer spending on data- hungry devices such as Apple Inc.’s new iPhone 5. Chief Executive Officer Nadir Mohamed announced plans to step down next January, a surprise move that sent Rogers in search of a new leader for the second time in four years.

Telus Inc., Canada’s No. 3 carrier, jumped 1.5 percent to C$67.81. The Vancouver-based phone company posted fourth-quarter revenue of C$2.85 billion, better than the average analysts’ estimate of C$2.82 billion.

US

By Lu Wang and Leslie Picker

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell, snapping three days of gains, as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. tumbled and investors weighed economic data.

Wal-Mart slipped 2.2 percent amid the worst sales start of a month in seven years. Agilent Technologies Inc. fell 5.2 percent after cutting its full-year forecast. CBS Corp. climbed 4 percent after forecasting growth in licensing fees and an increase in its share buybacks. MeadWestvaco Corp. rallied 13 percent after Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management LP took a stake in the packaging company.

The S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent to 1,519.79 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 8.37 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,981.76. About 6.7 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 9.7 percent above the three-month average, as options on stocks, equity indexes and exchange-traded products were set to expire. The market is closed Feb. 18 for Presidents Day.

Wal-Mart’s sales slowdown “is a sign that the consumer is not as ready to come back as maybe Wall Street was hoping,” Terry L. Morris, who helps oversee about $2.6 billion at Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based National Penn Investors Trust Co., said by phone. “Maybe the market is a little ahead of itself at assuming better growth than what’s actually there.”

Among economic reports, U.S. consumer confidence rose in February to a three-month high and manufacturing in the New York region unexpectedly expanded. Industrial production nationwide posted a surprise contraction in January as factories took a breather after the biggest back-to-back gain in three decades.

Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers began talks in the Russian capital today to find some common ground on currencies, with investors seeking clarity on how comfortable they are with a sliding yen. Russia, who holds the G-20’s rotating presidency this year, wants to head off a global currency war by pushing policy makers to make stronger commitments against exchange-rate manipulation.

In the U.S., lawmakers face a deadline to agree on a deal avoiding scheduled budget cuts, a process known as sequestration. Senate Democrats unveiled a $110 billion plan yesterday to delay federal spending cuts, including tax increases Republicans already say they won’t accept. The plan would postpone the March 1 start of more than $1 trillion in cuts until 2014, replacing them with defense-spending reductions, a halt in direct payments to farmers and a tax increase imposing a minimum 30 percent rate on top earners.

“At this point, it just looks like the market may be interested in pausing and pondering,” John Stoltzfus, chief market strategist at New York-based Oppenheimer & Co., said in a telephone interview. “Perhaps even a modest downside bias while we look to the March 1 deadline in Washington.”

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent this week, completing a seventh straight week of gains, the longest streak since January 2011. It has climbed 6.6 percent in 2013 as U.S. lawmakers reached a budget compromise. The benchmark gauge has more than doubled since bottoming in March 2009 as the Federal Reserve conducted three rounds of bond buying to lower interest rates and boost economic growth.

The index is trading at 15 times reported earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the multiple reached the highest level since July 2011, it’s below the six- decade average of 16.4, the data show.

Four out of the 10 groups in the S&P 500 fell today as energy and financial companies dropped the most, sinking at least 0.3 percent. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, dropped 1.6 percent to 12.46.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, dropped $1.52 to $69.30. Sales slumped this month as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News. The numbers “are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Wal-Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said in a Feb. 12 e-mail to other executives.

Agilent slipped $2.33 to $42.25. The scientific-testing equipment company lowered its full-year sales forecast, citing a potential slowdown in government spending and demand in the cell-phone market.

Transocean Ltd. fell 5.1 percent to $56.26. Deutsche Bank AG cut the rating for the world’s largest offshore driller to sell from hold, citing an increase in out-of-service time at its fleet.

CBS advanced $1.70 to $44.64. The owner of the most-watched U.S. television network will get $500 million in cable and broadcast licensing fees this year, halfway toward its goal of $1 billion by 2017, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Ianniello said. The broadcaster added $1 billion to its budget for Class B stock repurchases this year, almost double what it had previously planned.

MeadWestvaco climbed $3.97 to $35.65 after Trian disclosed it bought 1,595,125 shares in the fourth quarter. Peltz, 70, is known for taking stakes in companies and then engaging management in efforts to increase shareholder value.

Gap Inc. climbed 4.9 percent to $32.88. The biggest U.S. specialty-apparel retailer may have hired a financial adviser after receiving interest from Japan’s Fast Retailing Co., CNBC reported, citing StreetAccount. Edie Kissko, a spokeswoman for Gap, declined to comment.

Office Depot Inc. advanced 2 percent to $4.59. The second- largest U.S. office-supply chain is in talks to sell the remaining 50 percent of its Mexican unit to Grupo Gigante SAB, said people familiar with the situation.

Burger King Worldwide Inc. rose 4.7 percent to $17.36 after posting fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates. The fast-food chain boosted its dividend 25 percent to 5 cents a share.

Herbalife Ltd. climbed 1.2 percent to $38.74. Carl Icahn reported a 13 percent stake in Herbalife yesterday and said he would seek talks with the nutritional supplements company.

Strategic alternatives for Herbalife may include taking it private, he said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

That economics is untrue which ignores or disregards moral values.

The extension of the law of nonviolence in the domain of economics means nothing less

than the introduction of moral values as a factor to be considered with regulating international commerce.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

 

Carolann

 

Home is not where you live but where

they understand you.

-Christian Morgenstern, 1871-1914

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness. –Bertrand Russell

Photos of the Day – February 14^th, 2013

A man leaves the water after swimming at Sydney’s Coogee beach at sunrise. Daniel Munoz/Reuters

People walk through ‘Heartwalk,’ a Times Square Valentine Heart in New York, Feb. 12, 2013. The heart was made from boards salvaged from boardwalks from New York and New Jersey that were damaged by hurricane Sandy. Keith Bedford/Reuters 

Male Shetland pony, Silver (l.), and female, Zorka, are seen dressed up as a groom and bride at the Royev Ruchey Zoo, on the suburbs of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Employees of the zoo arranged a wedding between the ponies to mark Valentine’s day. Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

Market Closes for February 14th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13973.39	-9.52    -0.07%
S&P 500	1521.38	+1.05    +0.07%
NASDAQ	3198.658	+1.782    +0.06%
TSX	12721.79	-53.49
		-0.42%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11307.28	+55.87
		+0.50%
HANG  SENG	23413.25	+198.09
		+0.85%
SENSEX	19497.18	-110.90
		-0.57%
FTSE 100	6327.36	-31.75
		-0.50%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.999	2.040
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.613	2.645
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9974	2.0277
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1765	3.2338

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00083	1.00155
US   $	0.99917	0.99846
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33662	0.74815
US  $	1.33551	0.74878

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1634.95	1641.85
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.31	97.01
BRENT	120.41	120.47

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for a second day as Encana Corp. and Cenovus Energy Inc. tumbled after reporting results.

Encana slumped 7 percent after cutting its planned spending for 2013 as it seeks to boost output of oil and natural gas liquids. Cenovus Energy Inc. dropped 2.6 percent as it swung to a loss after taking a charge on its Suffield assets in southeast Alberta. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, climbed 3.3 percent after saying it’s open to anything that boosts shareholder value. Kinross Gold Corp. jumped 5.2 percent after adjusted earnings beat estimates.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 48.42 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,726.86 at 2:17 p.m. in Toronto.

The S&P/TSX has risen 3 percent over the past 12 months, underperforming every developed market in the world except Italy and Spain, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“It’s a bit of a drifting market, there’s some general exhaustion and we’re looking for the next catalyst,” said Bob Decker, fund manager with Aurion Capital Management, who helps manage about C$6 billion ($6 billion). “The golds have a bit of a bounce in them after the earnings reports. Management is clearing the decks of some of their past mistakes. Encana is suffering from weaker natural gas and their guidance for liquids production was disappointing.”

Energy stocks contributed most to losses in the S&P/TSX as six of 10 industries retreated. Trading volume was 3.3 percent above the 30-day average at this time of the day.

Encana tumbled C$1.36 to C$18.12. The company is cutting its planned spending for 2013 to $3 billion to $3.2 billion, from a June forecast of $4 billion to $5 billion. A glut in North American supply because of shale-gas drilling has reduced profits for producers of the heating- and power-plant fuel, which fell to a 10-year low in April.

Canada’s largest natural gas producer also reported a narrower net loss in the fourth fourth-quarter, to $80 million, or 11 cents a share, from $476 million, or 65 cents, a year earlier.

Cenovus dropped 85 Canadian cents to C$31.75. The oil producer planning to triple production within a decade recorded a C$393 million impairment related to its Suffield assets, mainly due to estimated declines in future natural gas prices.

Sun Life Financial Inc., a Canadian insurer, dropped 3.1 percent to C$29.06. The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted profit of 76 cents a share, beating the 63-cent average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Michael Goldberg, analyst with Desjardins Securities Inc., said core earnings, which ignores discontinued U.S. annuity and variable insurance operations, came in at 46 cents a share, below expectations.

“Its continuing core earnings were much lower than expected,” Goldberg said in a note. “The lower continuing core earnings are likely to leave investors uncertain about what level is sustainable.”

Kinross climbed 41 Canadian cents to C$8.32 for the second- largest advance in the S&P/TSX. The third-largest producer of gold in Canada took a $3.09 billion writedown on its Tasiast mine in Mauritania after revising an expansion plan. Earnings excluding the writedown and other items were 24 cents, beating the 21-cent average of 21 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Barrick advanced C$1.04 to C$32.76. The world’s largest producer of gold said it’s open to anything that boosts shareholder value and it has been approached by many buyers interested in its assets.

“We continue to actively pursue opportunities to optimize our existing portfolio,” Barrick Chief Executive Officer Jamie Sokalsky said today on a conference call.

The company also posted an unexpected fourth-quarter loss after taking a $3 billion writedown on a Zambian copper mine it bought in 2011.

BlackBerry, which unveiled its new line of smartphones on Jan. 30, climbed 5.7 percent to C$14.76, erasing earlier losses of as much as 7.2 percent.

Jim Balsillie, who served until January last year as co- chief executive officer of the company formerly known as Research in Motion Ltd., cut his 5.1 percent ownership stake.

Balsillie reported owning zero shares in RIM as of Dec. 31 in a U.S. regulatory filing dated today. Investors who hold an equity stake in a company of less than 5 percent aren’t required to disclose when they buy or sell the shares.

US

By Leslie Picker and Lu Wang

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed to a five-year high as a drop in jobless claims and Warren Buffett’s deal for H.J. Heinz Co. overshadowed concern over shrinking economies in Europe and Japan.

Heinz surged 20 percent after Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and 3G Capital agreed to buy the company in a deal valued at about $23 billion. Constellation Brands Inc. soared 37 percent after Anheuser-Busch InBev NV offered to cede full control of U.S. distribution for Corona beer in a bid to salvage its deal for Grupo Modelo. US Airways Group Inc. dropped 4.6 percent after agreeing to an $11 billion merger with AMR Corp.’s American Airlines.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 1,521.38 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 9.52 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,973.39. About 6.4 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, 4.1 percent above the three-month average.

“Corporate America is a little more optimistic,” Ted Harper, who helps manage about $8 billion for Frost Investment Advisors LLC in Houston, said by phone. “Companies have repositioned, they have become far leaner and are looking for opportunities to deploy capital incrementally for growth.”

Global economic data today showed the recession in the euro area deepened, with the worst performance in almost four years.

In Japan,  gross domestic product shrank an annualized 0.4 percent, amid falling exports and a business-investment slump.

Equities erased early losses as Labor Department figures showed U.S. jobless claims decreased by 27,000, the most in a month, to 341,000 in the week ended Feb. 9. The level of filings trailed any projection in a Bloomberg survey in which the median forecast was 360,000.

The S&P 500 has climbed 6.7 percent in 2013 as U.S. lawmakers reached a budget compromise. It has more than doubled since bottoming in March 2009 as the Federal Reserve conducted three rounds of bond buying to lower interest rates and boost economic growth.

Seven out of 10 groups in the benchmark index advanced today as energy companies gained the most, rising 0.5 percent.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, fell 2.5 percent to 12.66.

Heinz rallied $12.02 to $72.50 and Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares jumped 1 percent to $149,240. Both companies closed at a record high.

Buffett’s Berkshire and 3G Capital agreed to buy Heinz as the billionaire chairman increases his bets on consumer products. The buyers will pay $72.50 a share, compared with yesterday’s closing price of $60.48, according to a statement.

The deal is valued at about $28 billion including debt.

Other consumer stocks gained. Campbell Soup Co., the world’s largest soup maker, climbed 1.4 percent to $38.72 while General Mills Inc., the maker of Cheerios cereal, advanced 3.1 percent to $44.31.

Constellation surged $11.87 to a record $43.75. InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, offered to cede full control of Corona distribution in the U.S. to Constellation for $2.9 billion after U.S. regulators sued to block its purchase of Grupo Modelo.

Constellation will gain Modelo’s brewery in Piedras Negras, which is located in Mexico near the Texas border, and perpetual rights for the Corona and Modelo brands in the U.S., Leuven, Belgium-based AB InBev said.

US Airways slipped 67 cents to $13.99 after the company said it will combine with AMR’s American Airlines to create the world’s largest carrier. AMR’s bankruptcy creditors will own 72 percent of the new company, and US Airways stockholders will get 28 percent.

About $36 billion in deals were announced in the U.S. today, bringing the total to $145.8 billion so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That already surpassed the total of $99.6 billion during the first two months of 2012.

“We’re positive on the fact that M&A will continue to move higher,” said Jeff Morris, the Boston-based head of U.S. equities for Standard Life Investments, in a phone interview.

His firm oversees $263 billion in assets. “If we can get some clarity in Washington and if the economy continues to grow, I think you’ll see more and more companies use M&A.”

Record corporate profits and cheap borrowing costs are attracting buyers even as stock prices soar to a five-year high.

The S&P 500 is 2.8 percent below its record of 1,565.15 reached in October 2007. The Dow is about 1.4 percent below its all-time high of 14,164.53.

About 73 percent of the 388 companies in the S&P 500 that have released results so far in the quarter exceeded profit projections. Sixty-seven percent have surpassed sales estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Phone stocks fell the most among S&P 500 groups today, sinking 2 percent. CenturyLink Inc. plunged 23 percent to $32.27 after cutting its dividend by 26 percent to 54 cents a share and forecasting first-quarter sales that missed analysts’ estimates.

Cisco Systems Inc. slipped 0.7 percent to $20.99. The world’s largest maker of computer-networking gear forecast third-quarter revenue will increase 4 percent to 6 percent from a year earlier, indicating revenue of $12.1 billion to $12.3 billion. Analysts on average predicted sales of $12.2 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

MetLife Inc. retreated 2.2 percent to $36.69. The largest U.S. life insurer said fourth-quarter profit declined 87 percent on costs tied to lower interest rates and annuities.

General Motors Co. fell 3.2 percent to $27.75. The automaker’s fourth-quarter profit trailed analysts’ forecasts as Europe losses weighed down the results.

Whole Foods Market Inc. dropped 9.7 percent to $87.50. The largest natural-foods store in the U.S. lowered its sales forecast for fiscal 2013. Sales may increase as much as 11 percent in fiscal 2013, compared with a previous estimate for growth of as much as 12 percent, Whole Foods said.

TripAdvisor Inc. fell 7.1 percent to $43.55. The online travel-recommendation service spun off from Expedia Inc. said it expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to grow at a percentage rate of “high single digit” in 2013. The forecast “came in lower than expected,” Anthony DiClemente, an analyst at Barclays Plc, wrote in a note.

Weight Watchers International Inc. tumbled 17 percent to $44.91. The company forecast annual earnings of $3.50 to $4 a share, compared with the $4.75 average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Non-possession is allied to non-stealing.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it

doesn’t keep us from buying it.

-William Feather, 1889-1981

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I went to a lecture last night to hear Valerie Plame Wilson.  It was scintillating.  Valerie is married to Joe Wilson, who wrote an op-ed column in the New York Times in 2003, questioning Bush’s motive for the Iraqi war when intelligence sources revealed there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction.  After that incident, as political payback, Valerie’s covert identity as an CIA spy was leaked to the press by Senior White House officials.  It resulted in the loss of her career and privacy.  In retaliation she wrote the New York Times best –selling autobiography, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.  Her story was made into a major motion picture, Fair Game, starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.  You can watch it on Netflix.

She  denounced the media as being manipulated and the obvious vacuum of serious investigative journalism, which she maintains, no longer exists.

Photos of the Day – February 13^th, 2013

A skier makes his way down from top of the mountain at the plateau of Rosa Khutor, a venue for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics near Sochi. Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Banana Joe, an Affenpinscher, stands after winning the 137th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in New York, February 12, 2013. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Market Closes for February 13th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13982.91	-35.79    -0.26%
S&P 500	1520.33	+0.90    +0.06%
NASDAQ	3196.875	+10.382    +0.33%
TSX	12775.28	-13.74
		-0.11%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11251.41	-117.71
		-1.04%
HANG  SENG	23215.16	+38.16
		+0.16%
SENSEX	19608.08	+47.04
		+0.24%
FTSE 100	6359.11	+20.73
		+0.33%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.040	1.996
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.645	2.612
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.0277	1.9770
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.2338	3.1886

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00155	1.00223
US   $	0.99846	0.99778
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34690	0.74245
US  $	1.34482	0.74360

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1641.85	1652.30
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.01	97.51
BRENT	120.47	120.49

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Sarah Pringle

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell as a slump in technology and raw-material shares offset a rally in financial companies amid corporate earnings.

Gold producers declined as Barrick Gold Corp. and Eldorado Gold Corp. dropped at least 2.6 percent. BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., fell 8.1 percent, retreating for a fourth straight day. Thomson Reuters Corp. slid 2.3 percent after predicting tightening profit margins. Talisman Energy Inc. rallied 2.1 percent after posting a fourth-quarter profit for the first time in four years.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slid 13.74 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,775.28 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark gauge has gained 2.8 percent this year. About 753 million shares traded hands on Canadian exchanges today, or 1.6 percent below the three-month average.

“People are focused on earnings, you’ve seen stock selection become more important,” Jeff Young, chief investment officer at NexGen Financial Corp, said in a phone interview. The Toronto-based firm manages just over C$1 billion. “It’s turning into a more normalized market, but whether we’re completely out of the woods in the macro side, the reality is nothing’s really been fixed.”

Gold producers fell as the price of the metal slipped 0.3 percent to $1,645.10 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Barrick Gold lost 83 Canadian cents to C$31.72. Eldorado Gold dropped 35 Canadian cents to C$10.68, its lowest level since August.

BlackBerry slumped C$1.25 to C$14, for the worst performance in the benchmark index. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company, which is rolling out its new BlackBerry 10 lineup, has tumbled 18 percent over the past four days. The stock has rallied 19 percent this year on optimism that the phones can make the company competitive again with Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy lineup.

Chorus Aviation Inc. tumbled 3.6 percent to C$4.34 after Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. sold its stake in the regional airline. Chorus operates regional flights for Air Canada, the country’s largest carrier, under the Jazz and Air Canada Express banners. Fairfax, an insurer and investment management company based in Toronto, was the third-biggest holder of Chorus stock.

Thomson Reuters stumbled 70 Canadian cents to C$30.02. The provider of financial news and information services predicted slow growth and tightening profit margins in 2013, and announced plans to cut 2,500 jobs. Thomson Reuters is midway through an effort to turn around its financial and risk-management operations, Chief Executive Officer James C. Smith said in today’s statement.

CAE Inc. slid 2 percent to C$10.58. The simulation manufacturer posted third-quarter revenue of C$522.1 million, falling short of the average estimate of C$546.3 million.

Financial shares rose as a group. Genworth MI Canada Inc. rallied 1.3 percent to C$24.88 and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce climbed 0.7 percent to C$83.33.

Talisman jumped 26 Canadian cents to C$12.82, its highest level since October. The Calgary-based oil and natural gas producer with operations on six continents posted per-share net income of 37 Canadian cents. Hal Kvisle, who took over as chief executive officer in September, has announced plans to reduce spending, cut debt and exit certain regions, including Peru, to refocus the company on near-term cash flow.

Orko Silver Corp., based in Vancouver, surged 22 percent to C$2.60, its highest level since March. Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp., an Idaho-based silver producer, offered to buy Orko Silver for C$379.9 million in cash and shares in an attempt to trump a rival bid from First Majestic Silver Corp.

Coeur d’Alene tumbled 10 percent to C$21.09, while First Majestic Silver rose 1 percent to C$18.17.

US

By Lu Wang and Leslie Picker

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — Most U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the highest level since October 2007, as investors weighed economic reports and President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

General Electric Co. climbed 3.6 percent after agreeing to sell its remaining stake in NBC Universal to Comcast Corp. for $16.7 billion. Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, jumped 3 percent. Retailers in the S&P 500 rose as a group after government data showed purchases increased in January for the third consecutive month. McDonald’s Corp. lost 1.2 percent after Obama announced his plan to raise the minimum wage.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.1 percent to 1,520.33 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 35.79 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,982.91. Four stocks gained for every three that fell on U.S. exchanges, with about 6 billion shares changing hands, 2.9 percent lower than the three-month average.

“I think the bias has been consistently green on the screen,” Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, which oversees $55 billion, said in a telephone interview. “We didn’t hear anything shockingly different from Obama’s speech that would have pulled investors’ enthusiasm for stocks out of the marketplace.”

The S&P 500 has rallied 6.6 percent in 2013 as U.S. lawmakers reached a budget compromise. It has more than doubled since bottoming in March 2009 as the Federal Reserve conducted three rounds of bond-buying to lower interest rates and boost economic growth. The index is 2.9 percent below its record of 1,565.15 reached in October 2007.

Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour and pledged to expand trade with Europe in the State of the Union speech late yesterday. He also proposed spending $50 billion on “urgent” infrastructure projects. He lauded steps by companies such as Apple Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Ford Motor Co. to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

The president repeated his demand that Republicans accept raising tax revenue along with spending cuts as part of any “balanced” approach to his goal of $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction over a decade. He said the balance could be achieved by “getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and well-connected.”

“What I sense today is the ongoing zig and zag of the market after there’s been a major speech given by the president and just trying to sift out what it means,” Matthew Kaufler, fund manager at Federated Clover Investment Advisors, said in a phone interview. The Rochester, New York-based firm manages about $3 billion.

McDonald’s lost $1.10 to $94 for the biggest drop in the Dow. The company’s franchisees, as well as other restaurant chains, spent money lobbying against minimum-wage increases.

Brinker International Inc., owner of the Chili’s and Maggiano’s dining chains, slipped 3.2 percent to $31.99, while Darden Restaurants Inc. retreated 2 percent to $45.86.

Retail sales in the U.S. rose 0.1 percent last month, matching the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, which showed household spending is holding up even as an increase in the payroll tax takes a bigger bite from paychecks.

Retailers gained 0.6 percent among 24 groups in the S&P 500. Netflix Inc. added 4.7 percent to $186.27. Amazon increased 4.2 percent to $269.47. The world’s largest online retailer is expanding its content licensing agreement to bring shows from CBS Television Distribution and Showtime Networks to Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service.

Six out of the 10 groups in the S&P 500 rose as industrial and raw-material shares gained at least 0.3 percent. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, advanced 2.7 percent to 12.98.

GE rallied 81 cents to $23.39 and Comcast advanced $1.16 to $40.13. The cable company will buy GE’s 49 percent stake in NBC Universal, following through on its purchase of a controlling stake two years ago. The sale will result in a pretax gain of about $1 billion for GE and it will use proceeds to help increase repurchases of its shares by $10 billion a year, the company said.

Comcast also released its fourth-quarter results, saying net income rose to 56 cents a share from 47 cents a year earlier. Sales climbed almost 6 percent to $15.9 billion.

U.S. Airways Group Inc. gained 2.7 percent to $14.66. The board of bankrupt American Airlines parent AMR Corp. is meeting to vote on an $11 billion merger after the two sides reached a tentative agreement that would create the world’s largest air carrier, people familiar with the matter said.

Lorillard Inc. gained 4.9 percent to $41.68. The cigarette maker posted quarterly earnings that exceeded analysts’ estimates for the first time in a year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company boosted its dividend 6.5 percent to 55 cents a share.

Groupon Inc. surged 5.4 percent to $5.58. A local e- commerce marketplace Groupon began a few months ago in Chicago and New York will boost revenue as it expands nationwide over the coming quarters, according to Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., who raised the online coupon provider to buy from neutral.

The KBW Bank Index, made up of 24 U.S. lenders, lost 0.6 percent. Citigroup Inc. fell 0.8 percent to $44, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped 0.9 percent to $48.68 and Bank of America Corp. declined 0.6 percent to $12.17. A Sheldon H. Solow-led New York realty company sued the three banks and several others for allegedly conspiring to manipulate the U.S. dollar Libor rate.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. tumbled 20 percent to $29.29.

The biggest U.S. iron-ore producer cut its quarterly dividend by 6 percent after the price of the commodity declined and a Canadian mining project was delayed.

WellPoint Inc. fell 4.6 percent to $63. The second-biggest U.S. health insurer named Joseph Swedish, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Catholic hospital system Trinity Health Corp., as its next leader after a six-month search. He replaces Angela Braly, who left WellPoint last year amid investor discontent over the insurer’s performance.

Dean Foods Co. slipped 9.2 percent to $16.70. The largest U.S. dairy processor said total volume will decline in a percentage of “low single digits” this year.

Deere & Co., the world’s largest agricultural-equipment maker, fell 3.5 percent to $90.68. U.S. farm cash receipts for crops, one indicator for equipment sales, will fall 1.7 percent as corn and soybean prices decline, the Moline, Illinois-based company said today in a presentation on its website.

Industrywide farm equipment sales in the U.S. and Canada will be unchanged to 5 percent higher in fiscal 2013, which ends Oct. 31, Deere said. The company got 64 percent of sales from that region in fiscal 2012.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

It is this desire to express himself that leads him to search for riches and power.

But he must understand that to accumulate material wealth is not to find this fulfillment.

What brings him back to himself is the interior light, and not exterior objects.

Rabindranath Tagore1861-1901

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority,

it is time to pause and reflect.

-Mark Twain, 1835-1910

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Daybreak

By Liu Xiaobo

Over the tall ashen wall, between

the sound of vegetables being chopped

daybreak is bound and severed

dissipated by a paralysis of spirit

 

What is the difference

between the light and the darkness

that seems to surface through my eyes’

apertures, from my seat of rust

I can’t tell if it’s the glint of chains

in the cell, or the god of nature

behind the wall

The day’s dissidence

makes the arrogant

sun stunned to no end

 

Daybreak a vast emptiness

you in  a far place

with nights of love stored away

Extract from June Fourth Elegies by Liu Xiaobo

Today is Shrove Tuesday and for those of you who follow the cultural tradition of having pancakes for dinner, Rowleigh Leigh (chef at Le Café Anglais in London) offers this recipe from the weekend edition of the Financial Times:

Recipe for orange & frangipane pancakes

The full article can be found at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/196bec24-66de-11e2-a805-00144feab49a.html

Photos of the Day – February 12^th, 2013

A reveller performs during the ‘Grand Parade of Tradition’ as part of Carnival celebrations in Barranquilla, Colombia, Feb.10, 2013.

Joaquin Sarmiento/Reuters

A reveller from the Mangueira samba school participates during the annual carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome, Feb. 11, 2013.

Sergio Moraes/Reuters

Market Closes for February 12th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14018.70	+47.46    +0.34%
S&P 500	1519.43	+2.42    +0.16%
NASDAQ	3186.494	-5.511    -0.17%
TSX	12789.02	+40.87
		+0.32%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11369.12	+215.96
		+1.94%
HANG  SENG	23215.16	+38.16
		+0.16%
SENSEX	19561.04	+100.47
		+0.52%
FTSE 100	6338.38	+61.32
		+0.98%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.996	1.957
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.612	2.574
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9770	1.9499
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1886	3.1635

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00223	1.00235
US   $	0.99778	0.99766
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34779	0.74196
US  $	1.34479	0.74361

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1652.30	1667.20
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.51	95.72
BRENT	120.49	119.34

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose as energy companies advanced after Cnooc Ltd. won approval to acquire the U.S. assets of Nexen Inc. and crude oil climbed to the highest price in more than a week.

Nexen gained 2 percent as Cnooc cleared the last regulatory hurdle for the Chinese company’s $15.1 billion acquisition of the energy producer. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose 3.4 percent as crude gained 0.5 percent. Gran Tierra Energy Inc. jumped 7.4 percent after the company announced an oil discovery in Peru. Agrium Inc. lost 2 percent after appointing two directors to its board as talks to avert a proxy fight with activist investor Jana Partners LLC fell apart.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 40.87 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,789.02 in Toronto. The S&P/TSX has risen 3.2 percent over the past 12 months, underperforming every developed market in the world except Italy and Spain, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Giving the TSX a bit of a lift today is the final approval for the Nexen-Cnooc deal,” said Michael O’Brien, director and fund manager with TD Asset Management Inc. in Toronto. He manages about C$3 billion ($3 billion). “It’s a bit of a relief that we have a firm date now.”

Energy stocks contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX as eight of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was 2.6 percent above the 30-day average at this time of the day.

Nexen, based in Calgary, climbed 55 Canadian cents to C$27.48. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. approved the deal between Nexen and Cnooc, China’s biggest oil and natural gas producer. The acquisition is expected to close the week of Feb. 25, Nexen said in a statement today. Nexen owns oil and gas drilling and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, accounting for about 8 percent of its output.

Canadian Natural Resources gained C$1.04 to C$31.55 to pace gains among energy companies.

Crude for March delivery added 48 cents to settle at $97.51 a barrel in New York, the highest level since Feb. 1. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted a demand forecast for its crude, saying it will have to provide 29.8 million barrels a day in 2013, a 0.3 percent increase from a January estimate.

Gran Tierra rose 41 cents to C$5.95 after finding crude oil in the Bretana Norte well of Block 95 in the Peruvian Amazon jungle. Gran Tierra is testing the reservoir’s productivity and expects results in late February.

Toromont Industries Ltd. advanced 2.8 percent to C$22.90 after Ben Cherniavsky, analyst with Raymond James Ltd., raised his rating for the stock to outperform from market perform while increasing his price target to C$25.75 from C$21. The equipment dealer reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 59 cents a share, compared with analysts’ consensus estimate of 45 cents.

Agrium fell C$2.29 to C$112.71. The largest agricultural retailer in North America appointed Mayo Schmidt, former chief executive officer of Canadian grain handler Viterra Inc., and David Everitt, a retired Deere & Co. executive, at the end of three days of talks with Jana that failed to reach a compromise.

Jana, the New York-based hedge fund, is Agrium’s largest shareholder with a 6.2 percent stake and has sought to replace five of Agrium’s 11 directors. The activist investor has said the current board lacks experience in farm-product retailing and has also proposed spinning off Agrium’s retail network to boost profitability.

TransCanada Corp. lost 1.4 percent to C$47.56 after posting fourth-quarter profit short of analysts’ expectations. The Calgary-based company, which transports 20 percent of North America’s natural gas, said profit fell as shipments of the fuel on some pipelines declined.

Alacer Gold Corp. slumped 8.4 percent to C$4.16, its lowest since May 2010, after the company that explores for gold in Australia and Turkey had its rating reduced to underweight from neutral at JPMorgan by analyst Joseph Kim.

US

By Leslie Picker and Lu Wang

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, sending benchmark indexes to five-year highs, as earnings topped estimates and investors awaited President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. gained at least 2.8 percent as banks rallied. Avon Products Inc. soared 20 percent amid better-than-estimated profit and a plan to consider options for its Silpada jewelry unit. Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. rose 8.8 percent after raising its forecast in anticipation of a jump in same-store sales. Coca-Cola Co. fell 2.7 percent as volume sales missed forecasts. Apple Inc. lost 2.5 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.2 percent to 1,519.43 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 47.46 points, or 0.3 percent, to 14,018.70. Both gauges closed at the highest level since 2007. About 5.9 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, 3.7 percent lower than the three-month average.

“This market is front-running better economic and earnings news,” John Augustine, who helps manage $27 billion as chief market strategist at Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp, said in a phone interview. “We all think of a correction coming in February. Guess what, we probably won’t get a correction in February. This market has got upward momentum.”

About 74 percent of the 355 companies in the S&P 500 that have released results during the earnings season have exceeded profit projections, and 66 percent have beaten sales estimates, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The S&P 500 has rallied 6.5 percent in 2013 as U.S. lawmakers reached a budget compromise. It has more than doubled since bottoming in March 2009 as the Federal Reserve conducted three rounds of bond-buying to lower interest rates and boost economic growth.

The gauge is 2.9 percent below its record of 1,565.15 reached in October 2007, while the Dow is about 1 percent from its all-time high of 14,164.53.

“Every strategist I’ve talked to says that we’re due for a 5 percent, 7 percent correction, and the reason why we haven’t seen it is because investors are buying on dips,” Diane Jaffee, the New York-based group managing director for U.S. equities who oversees about $5.9 billion in assets at TCW Group Inc., said in a phone interview. “The thought process is that people are willing to forgo the first 10 or 20 percent of the market rise to make sure it will really do it, and now they want in for the last 20 or 30 percent because they have more confidence.”

Obama is due to deliver his State of the Union address at 9 p.m. in Washington. He will make proposals for spending on infrastructure, clean energy and education, according to an administration official briefed on the speech. Obama will argue that fostering economic growth remains the best strategy to narrow a federal budget gap that has exceeded $1 trillion in each of the last four years.

Seven of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 rose today as financial, phone and industrial companies performed the best, adding at least 0.4 percent. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index, a measure of companies whose earnings are most tied to economic swings, climbed 1 percent.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, fell 2.3 percent to 12.64.

The KBW Bank Index, made up of 24 U.S. lenders, gained 1.1 percent. Bank of America advanced 3.3 percent to $12.25, Citigroup jumped 2.8 percent to $44.35 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. gained 1.2 percent to $154.11. All three banks reached their highest levels since 2011. JPMorgan Chase & Co. added 1 percent to $49.14, it’s highest price since October 2008.

Investors are the most optimistic on banks since the top of the bull market in 2007, bolstered by record-low interest rates and an improving outlook for global growth and profits, a Bank of America Corp. survey showed. A net 6 percent of global fund managers, who together oversee about $555 billion, said they were overweight banks, the highest since February 2007.

Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer Harvey M. Schwartz said the banking industry’s average return on equity will rise above 12 percent as some firms shrink or exit businesses.

“I think the industry will migrate to higher returns because it will have to,” Schwartz, 48, said today at the Credit Suisse Financial Services Forum in Miami. It might be a “question of excess capacity coming out over a long period of time,” he said.

Avon Products jumped $3.51 to $20.79 for the biggest gain since at least 1974. The world’s largest door-to-door cosmetics seller reported fourth-quarter adjusted profit that topped analysts’ estimates as new Chief Executive Officer Sheri McCoy trimmed costs. McCoy said on a conference call that she would seek strategic alternatives for the company’s Silpada jewelry unit, where sales fell 18 percent in the fourth quarter.

Michael Kors, named for the designer who founded the company, increased $5 to $62. Profit excluding certain items will be as much as $1.82 a share in fiscal 2013, compared with a previous estimate of as much as $1.50, Michael Kors said.

Analysts estimated $1.57 a share, according to the average of 14 projections compiled by Bloomberg.

Masco Corp. rallied 12 percent to $20.01 for the second- largest gain in the S&P 500. The home improvement and building products maker reported fourth-quarter earnings and sales that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

An S&P 500 gauge of homebuilders advanced 4.5 percent, the most since December, as all of its 11 members gained. D.R. Horton Inc. jumped 4.9 percent to $24.05, PulteGroup Inc. added 5.3 percent to $20.32 and Lennar Corp. increased 4.1 percent to $40.87.

Fossil Inc. rose 3 percent to $110.65 after the maker of the namesake watch brand said its fourth-quarter sales increased 14 percent to a record $947.7 million, surpassing estimates.

J.M. Smucker Co. gained 2.5 percent to $90.92 after the Orrville, Ohio-based food products company was raised to outperform, the equivalent of a buy, from market perform by Alexia Howard, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Coca-Cola lost $1.05 to $37.56 for its biggest drop since October 2011. The world’s largest soft-drink maker said global volume sales rose 3 percent during the fourth quarter. That missed the 5.4 percent growth estimated by Mark Swartzberg, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.

Facebook Inc. declined 89 cents to $27.37. Carlos Kirjner, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in New York, downgraded the stock to market perform, the equivalent of hold, from outperform, citing a potential slowdown in price-per-ad growth in North America and Europe. BTIG LLC analyst Rich Greenfield also cut the social network, to sell from neutral, saying its mobile growth was not enough.

Apple retreated $12.03 to $467.90, ending a three-day rally. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said the iPhone maker will “thoroughly consider” a push by Greenlight Capital Inc.’s David Einhorn to use some of its $137.1 billion in cash and securities for preferred stock. The shares have lost more than 30 percent from a record in September amid concern over slowing sales growth and tightening competition.

Dun & Bradstreet Corp. sank 7.7 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $78.68. The 171-year-old provider of business data and risk-management services reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates on sluggish North American sales.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

If the recognized leaders of mankind who have control over the engines of destructions

were wholly to renounce their use, with full knowledge of its implications, permanent peace can be obtained.

This is clearly impossible without the Great Powers of the earth renouncing their imperialistic design.

This again seems impossible without great nations ceasing to believe in soul-destroying competition

and to desire to multiply wants and, therefore, increase their material possessions.

Mahatma Gandhi,1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Every man dies.  Not every man really lives.

-William Wallace, d. August 23^rd, 1305

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Anat Cohen has been ranked the world’s greatest clarinetist for six years in a row.  Last night we listened to an interview she gave on Fresh Air with Terry Gross.  Her latest CD is Claroscuro – it is amazing!  You  can find her at anatcohen.com  and watch the Claroscuo EPK.  You can also listen to her interview with Terry Gross at npr.org/programs/fresh-air/.  It will give you an insight to the inspiration for her music derived from American jazz greats like Louis Armstrong to the klezmer music of her native Israel, the Cantors’ singing in synagogues to South American rhythms…Worth it – I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Photos of the day February 7th^t, 2013

Horticulturist Elisa Biondi works on a display of vanda orchids at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London. Over 4,500 orchids are being displayed for an orchid festival as well as 550 bromeliads and 350 assorted foliage plants. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

A boy practising karate on the beach is silhouetted against the setting sun in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you. –Nathaniel Hawthorne

Market Closes for February 7th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13944.05	-42.47    -0.30%
S&P 500	1509.39	-2.73    -0.18%
NASDAQ	3165.134	-3.345    -0.11%
TSX	12755.92	-5.67
		-0.04%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11357.07	-106.68
		-0.93%
HANG  SENG	23177.00	-79.93
		-0.34%
SENSEX	19580.32	-59.40
		-0.30%
FTSE 100	6228.42	-66.92
		-1.06%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.995	1.996
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.600	2.599
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9568	1.9603
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1703	3.1694

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99788	0.99580
US   $	1.00213	1.00422
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33603	0.74848
US  $	1.33888	0.74689

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1672.95	1677.85
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	95.83	96.62
BRENT	118.26	117.70

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Sarah Pringle

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, after a two-day gain in the benchmark index, as a slump in energy producers and disappointing earnings offset a report showing building permits rose to a record last year.

Energy shares dropped as crude oil slid 0.8 percent. Teck Resources Ltd. tumbled 6 percent after forecasting weakness in coal markets. Gildan Activewear Inc. fell 4.2 percent after its second-quarter forecast fell short of estimates. Manulife Financial Corp., Canada’s largest insurer, climbed 0.9 percent after beating earnings estimates. BlackBerry jumped 6 percent after adding former executives from Verizon Communications Inc. and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB to its board.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slipped 5.67 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,755.92 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. About 844 million shares traded hands on Canadian exchanges today, or 11 percent above the three-month average.

Four of 10 industry groups in the index declined. The gauge has gained 2.6 percent this year.

“People will be watching near-term earnings more,” Bob McWhirter, fund manager with Selective Asset Management Inc., said in a phone interview. The Toronto-based firm manages about C$3 million ($3 million). One of the focuses will be revenue “because the argument has been that a lot of the rise in earnings has been because of cost cutting, not so much as sales.”

Data today showed Canadian building permits climbed to a record C$80.5 billion in 2012 even as the year ended with sharp back-to-back declines. New home prices rose 2.3 percent in December from a year ago, Statistics Canada said in a separate report.

Energy producers contributed most to declines in the S&P/TSX. Cenovus Energy Inc., the Calgary-based oil producer, slid 1.4 percent to C$32.90, while Encana Corp., Canada’s largest natural gas producer, fell 2.1 percent to C$19.28.

West Texas Intermediate oil for March delivery dropped 79 cents to $95.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest level in two weeks. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the euro’s strength could hamper an economic recovery, curbing fuel demand.

Teck tumbled the most in the S&P/TSX, dropping C$2.19 to C$34.45. Canada’s largest diversified miner forecast weakness in coal markets until at least the middle of the year. The company’s Chief Executive Officer Don Lindsay said it may consider acquisitions in copper mining to help offset an expected decline in the company’s output of the metal.

Gildan Activewear, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of t-shirts to makers of printed clothing, sank C$1.52 to C$35. The company, which was the top-performer in the benchmark index in 2012, forecast second-quarter earnings below analysts’ estimates. Gildan said it will be affected by lower net selling prices for its printwear business, short-term manufacturing inefficiencies, the timing of the Easter holiday shutdown, and some cost inflation.

Iamgold Corp., a producer with mines in Canada, West Africa and South America, advanced 1 percent to C$8.74. The company is considering a share buyback or extra dividend to boost shareholder returns after its stock slumped and it curbed spending on expansion. Iamgold shares have tumbled 48 percent in the past year.

BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., rallied 96 Canadian cents to C$16.94. A week after unveiling a new smartphone lineup, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company bolstered its board by adding Dick Lynch, a retired executive video president of Verizon, and Bert Nordberg, the former chief executive officer at Sony Ericsson. The stock has climbed 30 percent this week so far.

T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest U.S. mobile-service provider, said its tests of the new BlackBerry Z10 are going well and it’s aiming to be the first American carrier “out of the gate” with the phone next month.

Manulife added 13 Canadian cents to C$14.54. The company posted fourth-quarter net income of C$1.06 billion as wealth- management revenue in Asia reached a record. Chief Executive Officer Donald Guloien has said Asian markets including China, Malaysia and Singapore will become the fastest-growing segment of the company’s earnings, due to demand for wealth-management and pension products.

Cineplex Inc., Canada’s largest movie theater operator, jumped 1.6 percent to an all-time high of C$32.97. The Toronto- based company posted record sales and attendance in 2012 with superhero blockbusters such as “Marvel’s The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”

US

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft, Leslie Picker and Sarah Pringle

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, after a two-day advance in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as corporate earnings reports disappointed and European policy makers warned the euro’s advance could hamper the region’s recovery.

Sprint Nextel Corp. fell 0.5 percent as the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier reported a drop in monthly contract subscribers. Akamai Technologies Inc. tumbled 15 percent after its forecast missed estimates. Apple Inc. rallied 3 percent as the iPhone maker said its management team and board of directors have been in “active” talks to return more cash to holders after David Einhorn urged the company to do so.

The S&P 500 slid 0.2 percent to 1,509.39 at 4 p.m. in New York. It earlier fell as much as 0.9 percent and is poised for its first weekly drop of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 42.47 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,944.05. About 6.6 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, 5.6 percent higher than the three-month average.

“We’ve moved so far so fast that the market’s just looking for any kind of sign to take something off the table,” Mark Freeman, who oversees about $14.1 billion as chief investment officer at Westwood Holdings Group Inc. in Dallas, said in a phone interview. “The market really needs a positive catalyst to take it higher.”

The S&P 500 has rallied 5.8 percent in 2013 as U.S. lawmakers reached a budget compromise and companies reported better-than-estimated earnings. The benchmark equity gauge is about 3.6 percent below its record high reached in October 2007.

It has more than doubled since bottoming in March 2009 as the Federal Reserve conducted three rounds of bond-buying to lower interest rates and boost economic growth.

Stocks worldwide fell after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi signaled policy makers are concerned that the euro’s advance could damp inflation and hamper an economic recovery.

“The exchange rate is not a policy target, but it is important for growth and price stability,” Draghi said at a press conference in Frankfurt today after the ECB kept its benchmark rate at a record low of 0.75 percent. “We want to see if the appreciation is sustained, and if it alters our assessment of the risks to price stability.”

The euro fell 0.9 percent to $1.34 today. It reached a 14- month high against the dollar this month and a three-year high against the yen. It has climbed 11 percent on a trade-weighted basis since Draghi pledged on July 26 to do whatever is needed to preserve Europe’s monetary union, a comment that helped end the turmoil raging through the region’s bond markets.

“There’s concern that Europe will implode,” Jeff Sica, president and chief investment officer at Morristown, NJ-based SICA Wealth Management, which oversees more than $1 billion in assets, said in a phone interview. “Investors are worried about what the contagion effect is going to be on the U.S. economy.”

Applications for jobless benefits dropped to 366,000 in the week ended Feb. 2, Labor Department figures showed today.

Economists forecast 360,000 claims, according to the median in a Bloomberg survey. A separate report showed productivity, the measure of employee output per hour, decreased at a 2 percent annual rate, the worst performance in almost two years, after a 3.2 percent gain in the prior three months.

“It’s frustrating not to see the employment number improving more than it is, but at least it’s heading in the right direction,” Jeffrey Davis, chief investment officer at Boston-based Lee Munder Capital Group, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $5 billion. “There’s pretty good momentum in the market. I don’t think it will be disrupted by these numbers.”

The CBOE Volatility Index for the S&P 500, known as the VIX, jumped 0.7 percent to 13.50. The gauge is up 4.7 percent so far this week, poised for the biggest weekly rally of the year.

Eight out of 10 groups in the S&P 500 declined today.

Material, energy and financial stocks fell the most, losing at least 0.4 percent as investors sold shares of companies most tied to economic growth. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of 30 U.S. companies erased 0.6 percent. All 11 stocks in the S&P Supercomposite Homebuilding Index retreated, as the gauge slumped 1.2 percent.

Sprint dropped 3 cents to $5.74 after the number of monthly contract subscribers fell by 243,000 in the fourth quarter.

Analysts expected a subscriber loss of almost 206,000, according to an average of eight estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Akamai, a company that helps customers speed the delivery of online content, tumbled $6.32 to $35.26 after forecasting first-quarter revenue of $352 million to $362 million, short of the $369.8 million estimate.

Teradata Corp. tumbled 7.1 percent to $61.82. The data- storage software company forecast profit this year will be between $3.05 and $3.20 a share, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $3.15.

News Corp. slipped 2.3 percent to $27.56 after cutting its profit outlook because of declining ratings for shows such as “American Idol” and “X Factor.” The media company said operating income will grow by a “mid-to high-single-digit” percentage for the fiscal year ending in June, down from an earlier forecast of growth that could exceed 10 percent.

Prudential Financial Inc., the No. 2 U.S. life insurer, dropped 2.8 percent to $56.90 after posting a fourth-quarter loss on costs tied to fluctuation of currencies including the yen, which tumbled versus the dollar in the fourth quarter.

Yelp Inc. lost 4.6 percent to $21.35. The website that lets consumers review local businesses reported a wider fourth- quarter loss than analysts estimated as it boosted spending on expansion into new markets.

U.S. retailers fell even after reporting monthly same-store sales gains. Gap Inc. lost 3 percent to $32.23. The largest U.S. apparel chain boosted sales 8 percent last month, double the average estimate of 4 percent. Limited Brands Inc. erased 3.3 percent to $45.68 even after posting a 9 percent gain in same- store sales, or almost three times the average projection.

Apple climbed $13.52 to $468.22. The Cupertino, California- based company said in a statement today that it’s in “active discussions” about returning cash to shareholders.

Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital Inc., an Apple investor, urged the world’s most valuable company to return more of its $137.1 billion in cash. Greenlight asked fellow holders to vote against a proposal — outlined in the company’s annual proxy statement – – that would eliminate preferred stock. Greenlight sued to block the measure, asking a federal court in Manhattan to bar Apple from certifying votes cast in its favor.

American Express Co. jumped 2.6 percent to $62.14, for the biggest gain in the Dow. Chief Executive Officer Ken Chenault and Group President Steve Squeri on investor day focused on the flexibility of the company’s model to generate “attractive earnings growth even in a less robust top-line environment,” Citigroup Inc. analyst Donald Fandetti wrote in a note dated today. Fandetti recommends investors buy shares of the biggest U.S. credit-card issuer by purchases.

O’Reilly Automotive Inc. rallied 8.1 percent to $100.04 for the third-biggest gain in the S&P 500. The auto-parts chain forecast earnings in 2013 of at least $5.57 a share, exceeding the $5.44 average profit estimate by analysts.

Yahoo! Inc., the biggest U.S. Web portal, rose 2.4 percent to $20.32 after Pivotal Research Group LLC analyst Brian Wieser raised his recommendation on the shares to buy from hold.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Unity is an intellectual concept.

On an emotional level unity is serenity, equality, and equilibrium.

Swami Prajnanpad,1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

All life is an experiment.  The more experiments

you make the better.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, FCSI

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7