Month: March 2013

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

My friend sent this poem to me recently. I think is so beautiful and hope you do too.  It is from Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom.

BEANNACT

For Josie

On the day when

the weight deadens

on your shoulders

and you stumble,

may the clay dance

to balance you.

 

And when your eyes

freeze behind

the gray window

and the ghost of loss

gets in to you,

may a flock of colors,

indigo, red, green

and azure blue

come to awaken in you

a meadow of delight.

 

When the canvas frays

in the curach of thought

and a stain of ocean

blackens beneath you,

may there come across the waters

a path of yellow moonlight

to bring you safely home.

 

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

may the clarity of light be yours,

may the fluency of the ocean be yours,

may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

 

And so may a slow

wind work these words

of love around you,

an invisible cloak

to mind your life.

-John O’Donahue

Market Closes for March 12^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14450.06	+2.77    +0.02%
S&P 500	1552.47	-3.75    -0.24%
NASDAQ	3242.321	-10.552    -0.32%
TSX	12880.50	+22.01
		+0.17%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	12314.81	-34.24
		-0.28%
HANG  SENG	22890.60	-200.22
		-0.87
SENSEX	19564.92	-81.29
		-0.41%
FTSE 100	6510.62	+6.99
		+0.11%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.908	1.944
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.608	2.631
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.0156	2.0576
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.2139	3.2596

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.97460	0.97466
US   $	1.02607	1.02600
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33686	0.74802
US  $	1.30289	0.76752

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1593.55	1581.90
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.54	92.06
BRENT	110.37	110.75

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

March 12 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a third day, led by gains among metals and energy producers, as gold and crude prices rallied.

Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Ltd. surged 29 percent after agreeing to sell part of a deposit to Tata Steel Ltd. Rubicon Minerals Corp. and Colossus Minerals Inc. added at least 14 percent, as the price of gold capped the longest rally in six months. Petrominerales Ltd. and Talisman Energy Inc. gained more than 1 percent after crude rose for a fourth day. Endeavour Silver Corp. climbed 12 percent as earnings surpassed forecasts.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index increased 20.09 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,878.58 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The S&P/TSX has risen 3.6 percent this year and closed today at its highest level since July 2011. Trading volume was 5.7 percent higher than the 30-day average.

“We have a rebound in gold and base metals today that’s helping the market,” said Stephen Gauthier, fund manager with Fin-XO Securities Inc., in Montreal. He helps oversee about C$550 million ($536 million). “I was surprised to see commodity prices rally so strong. No doubt the strength of the U.S. market is having a positive impact.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.2 percent today after a seven-day rally left the benchmark U.S. equity gauge within nine points of its record high yesterday. The index has added 8.9 percent this year.

Raw-materials stocks rose the most in the S&P/TSX, adding 1.7 percent as a group. The S&P/TSX Gold index rose 2.6 percent, as gold for April delivery climbed 0.9 percent to settle at $1,591.70 an ounce in New York. Gold rose for a fourth day, the longest streak since Aug. 21.

Colossus Minerals surged 21 percent to C$2.98. Rubicon Minerals jumped 14 percent to C$2.42 after the gold explorer agreed to negotiate with the Wabauskang First Nation on development of Rubicon’s Phoenix Gold project in Ontario. The sides had been headed for a legal showdown.

Teck Resources Ltd., a metals miner, gained 0.9 percent to C$31.62, as copper rose 1.1 percent for a second day of gains.

Silver advanced 1.1 percent.

Labrador Iron Mines soared 29 percent to 84 Canadian cents.

The iron ore producer agreed to sell a 51 percent interest in its Howse deposit to Tata Steel Minerals Canada for C$30 million. Tata also has an option to increase its stake to 70 percent for C$25 million.

Endeavour Silver jumped 12 percent to C$6.67 after reporting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that topped analysts’ estimates. The Vancouver-based company also forecast a 14 percent to 22 percent increase in silver equivalent production in 2013.

Talisman Energy rose 1 percent to C$12.56. SMB Offshore NV agreed to pay the Canadian oil and gas producer $470 million to settle a dispute over an oil platform. Petrominerales gained 2.1 percent to C$6.84. Crude for April delivery advanced 0.5 percent to settle at $92.54 a barrel in New York, for a fourth day of gains.

US

By Sarah Pringle and Nikolaj Gammeltoft

March 12 (Bloomberg) — Most U.S. stocks fell as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index snapped a seven-day rally that drove the benchmark gauge to within nine points of its record high.

Apple Inc. slumped 2.2 percent as IDC predicted the company will lose market share in the tablet market. Citigroup Inc. dropped 1.4 percent as financial shares retreated amid speculation bank debt will face scrutiny by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Costco Wholesale Corp., the largest U.S. warehouse-club chain, gained 1.3 percent after second-quarter profit rose 39 percent.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 1,552.48 at 4 p.m. in New York, after reaching the highest level since October 2007 yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to end higher for an eighth straight day, its longest winning streak in two years. It added 2.77 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to a record 14,450.06. Three stocks fell for every two that climbed on U.S. exchanges, as 5.8 billion shares traded hands, 8 percent below the three-month average.

“After setting new all-time highs for several consecutive days, the market may be a little tired, and rightly so,” Ryan Larson, the Chicago-based head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., said in an interview. His firm oversees $250 billion. “With little in the way of catalysts, it would not be surprising to see the streak end. That being said, as long as central bank accommodation remains, any pullback should be short-term in nature.”

More than $10 trillion has been restored to U.S. equity values during the four-year bull market as the S&P 500 more than doubled from the bottom in 2009, fueled by corporate earnings that topped estimates and monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve. The Dow recouped all its losses from the financial crisis in less than 65 months, more than a year faster than the recovery from the Internet bubble.

U.S. equity funds attracted $4.9 billion in the first week of March, the most in more than a month, according to data from EPFR Global.

The S&P 500 is valued at 15.3 times earnings, a 22-month high. That’s still 7.3 percent below an average of 16.6 over the last decade. The Dow is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.1, the highest level in almost two years and 11 percent below its 10-year average of 15.8. About 85 percent of stocks in the S&P 500 yesterday closed above their average price from the past 50 days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, rose 6.1 percent to 12.27. The gauge, known as the VIX, dropped 8.2 percent yesterday to its lowest level since February 2007.

“There’s really not of lot of meat and potatoes today,” Stephen J. Carl, head equity trader at New York-based Williams Capital Group, said over the phone. “We’ve had two days of really not a lot of economic data. We’re also just keeping our eyes on oversees and the financial community there.”

Banks, technology shares and industrial companies retreated the most out of 10 groups in the benchmark index, dropping at least 0.5 percent. An S&P gauge of homebuilders sank 1.9 percent as all 11 members declined.

Red Hat Inc. tumbled 4.8 percent to $50.60, while Google Inc. fell 0.9 percent to $827.61.

Apple slumped 2.2 percent to $428.43. Google’s software will power more tablets than Apple Inc.’s operating system for the first time this year as smaller, cheaper alternatives to the iPad gain favor with consumers, according to IDC.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek cut his price target on Apple to $420 from $500, citing delayed iPhone 5S and low-cost iPhone introductions due to problems with new casing colors.

Financial shares dropped, with the KBW Bank Index slipping 0.7 percent from the highest level since April 2010. Citigroup fell 1.4 percent to $46.95, retreating from a two-year high.

A planned international limit on bank indebtedness will be on the agenda of every meeting of the Basel group this year as regulators seek to wean lenders off their addiction to debt, according to three people familiar with the talks. Regulators are preparing to fight lenders over the details of the so-called leverage ratio as they seek to toughen rules on the minimum amount of capital they must use to back their investment. The Basel group will meet tomorrow.

Salesforce.com Inc. lost 2.8 percent to $180.79. The largest maker of online customer-management software plans to offer $1 billion in convertible senior notes in a private placement to institutional investors. A portion of proceeds from the notes will be used for acquisitions, investments in technology and capital expenditures, the San Francisco-based company said today in a statement.

Caterpillar Inc., the biggest maker of construction and mining equipment, fell 1.6 percent, the most in the Dow, to $89.74. Tigress Financial Partners LLC initiated research coverage of the company with an underperform rating.

CVS Caremark Corp. slid 1.1 percent to $52.08. Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the drugstore chain to neutral from buy.

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. dropped 7.8 percent to $24.47.

The silica producer said GGC USS Holdings, an affiliate of Golden Gate Capital, will sell 8.5 million shares of the company’s common stock in an underwritten offering.

J.C. Penney Co. rose 4 percent to $15.65. The department- store chain that last month posted the lowest annual sales in more than two decades said speculation that Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson plans to leave the company is wrong.

Boeing Co. climbed 1.5 percent to $84.16. The Chicago-based company won a jet order from Ryanair Holdings Plc valued at $15.1 billion at list price, selling 170 of its 737-model planes as that aircraft is phased out in favor of the Max version, people familiar with the matter said.

Costco advanced 1.3 percent to $103.75. The company said second-quarter net income rose to $547 million, or $1.24 a share. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey had projected profit of $1.06.

Yum! Brands Inc. climbed 1.3 percent to $68.73. The owner of the KFC restaurant chain said first-quarter same-store sales fell 20 percent in China, less than the 25 percent drop analysts had estimated. Yum, which has more than 5,200 restaurants in China, is trying to revive sales in the country after a probe of a former chicken supplier.

VeriFone Systems Inc. jumped 6 percent to $21.68. Douglas Bergeron was dismissed as chief executive officer after missing analysts’ estimates for second-quarter profit amid diminished demand for credit-card terminals. The shares were raised to positive from neutral by Susquehanna International Group equity analyst Meghna Ladha.

Merck & Co. rallied 3.2 percent to $45.04, the most since July. The company said it is continuing a study of its cholesterol lowering drug Vytorin after an interim review of the data by an outside committee. The announcement “suggests no safety issues,” said Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst with ISI Group in New York, in a note to clients.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, added 0.9 percent to $73.60. Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said that a slowdown in sales at the end of January wasn’t “disastrous.” Sales returned to normal by the end of February after being hurt by delayed tax returns the previous month, Holley said today at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2013 Consumer & Retail Conference in New York.

Jefferies Group LLC raised its year-end estimate for the S&P 500 by 6.9 percent on earnings that beat estimates and speculation investors will shift money to stocks from bonds.

Sean Darby, the firm’s Hong Kong-based chief global equity strategist, boosted his 2013 forecast to 1,673 from a previous estimate of 1,565.

“While we acknowledge that the economy is ‘work in progress’ and equity valuations are trading slightly above fair value, the improvement in the earnings picture coupled with subdued bond yields ought to allow equity prices more room to inflate,” Darby wrote in a note to clients today.

Have  a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

I have found that life persists in the midst of destruction

and therefore there must be a higher law than that of destruction.

Only under that law would a well-ordered society

be intelligible and live worth living.

And if that is the law of life,

we have to work it out in daily life.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Either you run the day or the day

runs you.

-Jim Rohn, 1930-2009

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: We were in Seattle on the weekend and saw Seattle Opera’s fabulous production of La Bohème.  If you have a chance, try to get down to see the art treasures from Kenwood House, London.  The exhibition is on until May 19^th and features major works by Gainsborough, Hals, Reynolds, Romney, Turner, and Van Dyck.  Most of the paintings are in North America for the very first time, while Kenwood House is being renovated. The most amazing painting of all is Rembrandt’s self-portrait which he completed later in his life, Portrait of the Artist.  This is a rare opportunity to see this amazing painting.  It has never traveled outside of Europe.  This is the collection assembled by Irish brewing magnate, Edward Cecil Guinness, first Earl of Iveagh.

Image: Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, Leiden 1606–1669 Amsterdam). Portrait of the Artist, ca. 1663–65. Oil on canvas; 45 x 37 in. English Heritage, The Iveagh Bequest (Kenwood), London

Market Closes for March 11^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14447.29	+50.22    +0.35%
S&P 500	1556.22	+5.04    +0.32%
NASDAQ	3252.874	+8.507    +0.26%
TSX	12858.49	+22.88
		+0.18%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	12349.05	+65.43
		+0.53%
HANG  SENG	23090.82	-1.13
		—
SENSEX	19646.21	-37.02
		-0.19%
FTSE 100	6503.69	+20.05
		+0.31%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.944	1.938
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.631	2.624
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.0576	2.0541
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.2596	3.2546

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.97466	0.97231
US   $	1.02600	1.02848
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33818	0.74728
US  $	1.30436	0.76666

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1581.90	1578.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.06	91.95
BRENT	110.75	111.75

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

March 11 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose to a 19-month high, erasing losses from earlier in the day, as energy companies rallied and BlackBerry surged on takeover speculation.

BlackBerry jumped 14 percent, the most in five weeks, after a report said Lenovo Group Ltd. might consider buying the smartphone maker. Pengrowth Energy Corp. rallied 5.4 percent as it closed an asset sale. Nevsun Resources Ltd. plunged 10 percent ahead of the company’s removal from an exchange-traded fund of gold-mining stocks.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 22.88 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,858.49 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, its highest closing level since July 2011. The benchmark equity gauge fell as much as 0.2 percent earlier in the day, after Chinese production data missed estimates. Trading volume was 19 percent lower than the 30-day average.

“There’s some thinking that energy stocks in Canada were oversold, and we’re seeing a bit of that following through today,” Robert McWhirter, president of Selective Asset Management Inc., said on the phone from Toronto.

Energy shares contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX, as six of 10 groups advanced. Petrominerales Ltd. added 4.7 percent to C$6.70. Pengrowth Energy gained 5.4 percent to C$5.50. The company said it will repay all outstanding bank debt after completing the sale of a non-core asset for C$316 million.

Oil rose 11 cents to $92.06, the highest settlement since Feb. 27. Crude fell as much as 1.2 percent earlier in the day after China industrial output and retail sales grew in the first two months of the year at slower-than-forecast rates. China is a major consumer of Canadian resources.

“We had some mildly negative numbers out of China, nothing too bad,” said David Cockfield, fund manager with Northland Wealth Management. The firm manages C$225 million ($219 million).

Technology stocks climbed 4.1 percent as a group, the biggest daily jump since Jan. 11. BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., surged 14 percent to C$15.29 for its largest advance since Feb. 4. Lenovo Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing told a French financial newspaper that a deal with the smartphone maker “could possibly make sense, but first I need to analyze the market and understand what exactly the importance of this company is.”

AT&T Inc. said it will begin taking orders for BlackBerry’s new Z10 device tomorrow. The phone will go on sale in the U.S. on March 22.

Petrobank Energy & Resources Ltd. dropped 4.4 percent to 65 Canadian cents after S&P said the stock will be removed from the benchmark Canadian equity gauge starting on March 18. Colossus Minerals Inc. and Nordion Inc. will also be pulled. Colossus rose 1.2 percent to C$2.47, and Nordion slid 3.9 percent to C$6.87.

Element Financial Corp. is the only company that will be added to the measure. Its shares rose 1 percent to C$8.89.

Nevsun Resources slumped 10 percent to C$3.62 after Market Vectors said it plans to remove the stock from the Market Vectors Global Junior Gold Miners ETF. The company is transitioning to copper production this year.

US

By Sarah Pringle

March 11 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed within nine points of its record high and a gauge of market volatility slipped to the lowest level in six years as Apple Inc. rallied and banks advanced.

Apple jumped 1.4 percent, erasing earlier losses.

BlackBerry surged 14 percent following a report that Lenovo Group Ltd. may consider buying the smartphone maker. Ford Motor Co. added 2.8 percent as deliveries in China jumped. Financial shares rose as Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. climbed at least 1.7 percent. Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. fell 11 percent after forecasting profit that was less than analysts estimated.

The S&P 500 added 0.3 percent to 1,556.22 at 4 p.m. in New York, the highest level since October 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 50.22 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,447.29, its fifth straight record close. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index dropped to its lowest level since 2007. About 5.4 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, 14 percent below the three-month average.

“The path of least resistance continues to be higher,” Jordan Irving, who helps oversee $175 million at Irving Magee Investment Management in Philadelphia, said in a phone interview. “The latest batch of economic data out of the U.S. was OK. If you’re lagging you might want to try to get a little juice in there to catch up.”

More than $10 trillion has been restored to U.S. equity values during the four-year bull market as the S&P 500 more than doubled from the bottom in 2009, fueled by corporate earnings that topped estimates and monetary stimulus from the Fed. The Dow recouped all its losses from the financial crisis in less than 65 months, more than a year faster than the recovery from the Internet bubble.

U.S. equity funds attracted $4.9 billion in the first week of March, the most in more than a month, according to data from EPFR Global.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, dropped 8.2 percent to 11.56 today, the lowest level since February 2007. The gauge, known as the VIX, fell 18 percent last week and is down 36 percent for the year.

Stocks slumped earlier as government data showed China’s industrial production increased 9.9 percent in the first two months of the year, less than the 10.6 percent gain projected in a Bloomberg survey. Retail sales in China rose 12.3 percent, also trailing economists’ estimates, separate figures showed. In the euro area, German exports rose more than economists forecast in January, data showed.

“The fundamentals continue to support a higher stock market,” Eric Green, director of research and fund manager at Penn Capital Management, said over the phone. The Philadelphia- based firm oversees about $7 billion. “In the very short term, is a pullback a possibility? Absolutely. If we get a pullback, likely a lot of people will step in.’”

Nine of 10 groups in the S&P 500 advanced, as banks, raw- material producers and health-care shares climbed at least 0.4 percent. Citigroup added 2 percent to $47.60, while Wells Fargo climbed 1.7 percent to $37.13. Telephone shares were the only group to decline in the benchmark index.

Apple rallied 1.4 percent to $437.87. The company will announce plans for its growing pile of cash by next month, Howard Ward, chief investment officer at Gamco Investors Inc., said in an interview today on Bloomberg Radio’s “Surveillance” with Tom Keene.

The shares fell as much as 1.5 percent earlier in the day, after being downgraded to outperform from buy by Credit Agricole Securities equity analyst Avi Silver.

BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., surged 14 percent to $14.90, for the biggest advance in more than a month. Lenovo’s chief executive officer, Yang Yuanqingl, told the Les Echos paper that a deal with Waterloo, Ontario- based BlackBerry “could possibly make sense, but first I need to analyze the market and understand what exactly the importance of this company is.”

Genworth Financial Inc. soared 6.7 percent to $10.50. The provider of life insurance and mortgage guaranties gained the most in the S&P 500 on speculation the company will benefit from the rebound of the housing market. Scotia Capital upgraded the company two levels to sector outperform, the second-highest of the bank’s four ratings. Barron’s said March 9 the insurer will reward investors.

Ford Motor rallied 2.8 percent to $13.34. Ford reported deliveries in China surged more than 40 percent during the first two months of the year.

Boeing Co. rose 2.1 percent to $82.94, the highest level since May 2008. The company said it is boosting monthly airplane production rates for its 737 and 787 programs.

Dell Inc. climbed 1.5 percent to its highest level since May at $14.37. The personal computer maker, which is facing mounting shareholder resistance to a proposed $24.4 billion leveraged buyout, will let billionaire Carl Icahn review its books as he pushes alternatives to the deal. Dell’s board is seeking bids higher than the $13.65 a share offer by Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management LLC to take the company private.

Dick’s Sporting Goods tumbled 11 percent to $45.11, the most since November 2008. The largest U.S. sporting-goods chain forecast annual profit that was less than analysts estimated on costs to remodel stores and improve its Web operations, amid competition from the online and new retail locations operated by brands like Nike Inc. and Adidas AG. Kroger Co., which operates locations under the Ralphs, Food 4 Less and Dillons names, slipped 0.7 percent to $30.95.

Hilliard Lyons cut its recommendation on the stock to long-term buy from buy, with analyst Jeffrey Thomison saying the company’s earnings this year “will face a difficult comparison” with the growth reported last year. The shares have advanced 19 percent so far this year.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

A state of harmony with nature,

with all beings of creation,

itself leads to our harmony with humans.

If we lose our relationship with nature,

we lose inevitably

our relationship with humans.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

 

Act as if what you do makes a difference.

It does.

-William James, 1842-1910

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:

As I walked to the office this morning, I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful cherry blossoms blooming.  As soon as I see the cherry blossoms, I know that Spring is just around the corner.  With the break of sunshine, the blooming of flowers, one can’t help but smile.  Spring and “springtime” refer to the season, and also to the ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, and re-growth.  With Spring time coming, this also means Daylight Savings and the clocks going forward.  Did you know Benjamin Franklin was the first American to propose Daylight Saving Time in 1784. However, it wasn’t fully implemented in the US until after the Second World War. Note in your calendars, this Sunday, March 10^th, clocks will go forward an hour!!!

Happy Daylight Savings Everyone!

March 20^th, 2013 will mark the first day of Spring this year!!!

Today in History

1887 – The telescopic fishing rod was patented by Everett Horton.

1894 – A dog license law was enacted in the state of New York. It was the first animal control law in the U.S.

1907 – The British House of Commons turned down a women’s suffrage bill.

1910 – In France, Baroness de Laroche became the first woman to obtain a pilot’s license.

1910 – The King of Spain authorized women to attend universities.

1911 – In Europe, International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time.

1917 – Russia’s “February Revolution” began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg. The revolution was called the “February Revolution” due to Russia’s use of the Old Style calendar.

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

Photos of the Day – March 8^th, 2013

A female diver clad in ‘Orihime,’ or Vega, costume feeds fish to mark the Japanese traditional star festival Tanabata at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, 2010. Itsuo Inouye/AP

China’s first female astronaut Liu Yang waves as she comes out of the re-entry capsule of Shenzhou-9 spacecraft in Siziwang Banner of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region June, 2012. Liu and two other crew members emerged smiling from the capsule that returned safely to earth from a 13-day mission to an orbiting module that is a prototype for a future space station. Wang Jianmin/Xinhua/AP

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” – Soren Kierkegaard

Market Closes for March 8^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14397.07	+67.58    +0.47%
S&P 500	1551.18	+6.92    +0.45%
NASDAQ	3244.367	+12.281    +0.38%
TSX	12835.61	+9.09
		+0.07%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	12283.62	+315.54
		+2.64%
HANG  SENG	23091.95	+320.51
		+1.41%
SENSEX	19683.23	+269.69
		+1.39%
FTSE 100	6483.58	+44.42
		+0.69%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.938	1.885
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.624	2.581
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.0541	1.9965
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.2546	3.2024

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.97231	0.97134
US   $	1.02848	.02350
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33747	0.74768
US  $	1.30043	0.76898

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1578.25	1579.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	91.95	91.56
BRENT	111.75	112.02

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

March 8 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, sending the benchmark index to a 19-month high and its third straight weekly gain, as gold and energy shares advanced after better-than- forecast jobs data.

Semafo Inc. and Iamgold Corp. climbed more than 5.5 percent as the price of gold rose for a second day. Niko Resources Ltd. jumped 7.5 percent on news it received “significant” offers for some assets. Athabasca Oil Corp. and Encana Corp. advanced at least 1.6 percent as oil increased. SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. fell 6.2 percent as Canada’s biggest engineering company forecast lower profit this year than analysts estimated.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 9.09 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,835.61 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the highest close since July 2011. The S&P/TSX added 0.5 percent this week.

Trading volume was 6.8 percent higher than the 30-day average.

“The market liked the jobs numbers but didn’t get carried away,” said John Kinsey, fund manager with Caldwell Investment Management, who helps manage about C$1 billion ($972.1 million).

“I think it confirms what we’ve been seeing out of the U.S., which is that the economy is gaining some traction.”

U.S. employment rose more than forecast and unemployment unexpectedly dropped, touching its lowest level since December 2008, Labor Department figures showed today. Canada’s jobs data also showed better-than-predicted gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average extended its record high, and the S&P 500 index traded within 1 percent of its all-time mark.

Oil for April delivery rose 0.4 percent to settle at $91.95 a barrel in New York, after falling as much as 0.8 percent earlier. Prices advanced 1.4 percent this week, the most since the five days ended Feb. 1.

Niko Resources added 45 Canadian cents to C$6.48. The company, which explores for oil and gas in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa, said it is in talks to sell non-core assets.

Athabasca Oil advanced 3.8 percent to C$9.65 and Encana, Canada’s largest natural gas producer, gained 1.6 percent to C$19.92.

Raw-materials companies advanced 0.8 percent, contributing the most to the S&P/TSX’s gains, as gold and silver prices rose. Banro Corp. jumped 10 percent to $1.96, after falling the most in four years yesterday on news its chief executive officer was resigning.

Semafo rose 14 Canadian cents to C$2.62, and Iamgold added 35 Canadian cents to C$6.75. Gold for April delivery rose 0.1 percent to settle at $1,576.90 an ounce.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. rose 6.2 percent to C$20.42 ahead of a March 11 deadline for its C$5 billion hostile takeover bid for Inmet Mining Corp. The bid received approval from Canada’s ministers of industry and state today, even as Inmet’s board sent a letter to shareholders advising them to reject the offer.

Inmet shares added 1.2 percent to C$68.52. The company said it is in talks to sell a minority stake in its Cobre Panama copper project.

Financial stocks fell. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lost 0.6 percent to C$82.78. Royal Bank of Canada slid 0.4 percent to C$62.43.

SNC-Lavalin slumped C$2.84 to C$43.01. Net income this year will probably climb 10 percent to 15 percent as softer commodity prices and challenges in the hydrocarbon and chemicals business erode gains from other units, SNC said. Analysts had predicted earnings of C$2.84 a share this year, a 39 percent increase.

The Montreal-based firm also reported fourth-quarter profit of 63 Canadian cents a share, missing analysts’ estimates of 92 cents according to a Bloomberg survey.

MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. fell 4.2 percent to C$69.70 after the satellite maker announced yesterday it will issue 3.6 million shares to help pay down outstanding debt.

US

By Inyoung Hwang and Sarah Pringle

March 8 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index approaching a record high, as data showed employers added more jobs than forecast last month and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 1,550.97 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 65.74 points, or 0.5 percent, to 14,395.23.

“People are starting to hire, and in fact they have been hiring for a few quarters,” Carla Ann Harris, managing director and senior client advisor at Morgan Stanley, said in a television interview on Bloomberg’s “Market Makers.” “Some of the caution with respect to the payrolls is starting to abate. You’ll probably see a faster pace as people start to move towards growth as opposed to maintaining the status quo because of the uncertainty they feel in the market.”

Employment rose 236,000 last month after a revised 119,000 gain in January that was smaller than first estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 90 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected an advance of 165,000. The jobless rate dropped to 7.7 percent.

Hiring in construction jumped by the most in almost six years.

The S&P 500 rallied 2.2 percent this week, its biggest gain in two months, as jobless-benefit claims fell to a six-week low and investors speculated that central banks will continue with stimulus measures. The benchmark equity gauge is less than 1 percent below the record of 1,565.15 reached in October 2007 and the Dow is at an all-time high.

About 82 percent of stocks in the S&P 500 yesterday closed above their average price from the past 50 days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Federal Reserve has embarked on three rounds of stimulus to boost the economy and Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has pledged to continue to buy bonds until the U.S. labor market improves. Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s January meeting showed policy makers were divided about the strategy and some officials said an earlier end to purchases might be needed.

“They were great numbers relative to where we’ve been, but the question is whether they were too good, too fast in the eyes of the Fed,” Ryan Larson, the Chicago-based head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., said by telephone. His firm oversees $250 billion. “While we continue to make all-time highs, it continues to be live by the Fed, die by the Fed.”

Global stocks rose earlier as a report showed gross domestic product in Japan expanded an annualized 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter, the Cabinet Office said. A preliminary estimate had shown the world’s third-biggest economy contracted 0.4 percent in the period. China’s exports increased 21.8 percent in February from a year earlier, the customs administration said. That beat the 8.1 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Equities briefly pared gains after Italy’s credit rating was cut one level by Fitch Ratings. An inconclusive election in February produced political paralysis in the nation, threatening Italy’s ability to respond to a recession and the European debt crisis.

 

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.” – Robert Frost

 

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:

When searching for events that happened on March 7^th, I came across one event that caught my eye.  The board game Monopoly was invented.  This game has been one of my all time favorite games since I was young. To this day, I still play ever couple of weeks. Did you this game was invented to teach the benefits of the Single Tax concept and sought to point out the folly of a system of property ownership in which all players attempt to become “monarch of the world.” The game was even adapted for teaching economics at various schools, including Columbia University where the game-board took on New York City street names. Here’s an interesting fact about the game I will leave you with:  The longest game of Monopoly ever played was 1680 hours which is 70 days!

 

 

Today in History

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell received a patent (U.S. Patent No. 174,465) for his telephone.

1901 – It was announced that blacks had been found enslaved in parts of South Carolina.

1906 – Finland granted women the right to vote.

1911 – Willis Farnworth patented the coin-operated locker.

1933 – The board game Monopoly was invented.

1935 – Malcolm Campbell set an auto speed record of 276.8 mph in Florida.

1936 – Hitler sent German troops into the Rhineland in violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles.

1954 – Russia appeared for the first time in ice-hockey competition. Russia defeated Canada 7-2 to win the world ice-hockey title in Stockholm, Sweden.

1955 – “Peter Pan” was presented as a television special for the first time.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin

Photos of the Day – March 7^th, 2013

Ocean waves crash over a seawall and into houses along the coast in Scituate, Mass. A nor’easter is bringing wind-whipped, wet snow to Massachusetts, and coastal flooding is expected in communities still recovering from February’s blizzard. Steven Senne/AP

Electricians check the electricity pylon situated amid farmland in Chuzhou, Anhui province. China Daily/Reuters

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” –Mahatma Gandhi

Market Closes for March 7^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14329.49	+33.25    +0.23%
S&P 500	1544.26	+2.80    +0.18%
NASDAQ	3232.086	+9.721    +0.30%
TSX	12826.52	-5.44
		-0.04%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11968.08	+35.81
		+0.30%
HANG  SENG	22771.44	-6.40
		-0.03%
SENSEX	19413.54	+160.93
		+0.84%
FTSE 100	6439.16	+11.52
		+0.18%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.885	1.848
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.581	2.548
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9965	1.9375
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.2024	3.1517

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.97134	0.96896
US   $	1.02350	1.03203
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34913	0.74122
US  $	1.31057	0.76302

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1579.50	1584.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	91.56	90.43
BRENT	112.02	111.90

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

March 7 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, after closing at a 19-month high yesterday, as a drop in gold producers and banks offset a rally in energy shares fueled by higher oil prices and crude exports.

Banro Corp. plunged 22 percent after its chief executive officer stepped down. Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc. dropped at least 2.2 percent. Canadian Western Bank slid 4.8 percent as first-quarter earnings missed analysts’ expectations.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil producer, and Cenovus Energy Inc. rose at least 0.5 percent after oil gained the most in three weeks.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 5.44 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,826.52 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark index fluctuated between gains and losses before closing lower to break a two-day winning streak.

Trading volume was 3.6 percent below the 30-day average. The S&P/TSX has risen 3.2 percent this year.

“The market is playing a bit of a waiting game given the strength it’s added the last little while, breaking some key levels, with the Dow hitting an all-time high,” said Brian Huen, managing partner at Toronto-based Red Sky Capital Management Ltd., which oversees C$225 million ($218 million) in assets. “So where do we go from here? The market is waiting for the next catalyst.”

Raw-materials stocks contributed most to losses in the S&P/TSX, falling 0.8 percent as a group. An index of gold producers tumbled 1.6 percent.

Banro slumped 49 Canadian cents to C$1.78, its biggest decline in more than four years, after the gold miner active in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Chief Executive Officer Simon Village had left his position. The company did not give a reason for the departure.

Barrick, the world’s largest gold miner, dropped 2.3 percent to C$29.90. Goldcorp slid 2.2 percent to C$33.68.

Canadian Western plunged the most since July 2009, losing C$1.46 to C$28.91, after the lender reported adjusted earnings of 58 Canadian cents a share. That missed by 2 cents the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Canada’s trade deficit in January narrowed to C$237 million, its lowest level in almost a year, on higher exports of crude and bitumen, Statistics Canada said. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the deficit would be C$600 million, based on the median of 20 estimates.

“The situation in Venezuela has created some uncertainty, so we may see a pickup of Canadian heavy crude exports to the U.S.,” Huen said, referring to the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on March 5.

Suncor increased 17 Canadian cents to C$31.45, and Cenovus added 1.3 percent to C$32.40. The price of crude for April delivery rallied 1.3 percent to settle at $91.56 a barrel, after U.S. unemployment benefit applications dropped to a six-week low.

Encana Corp., Canada’s largest natural gas producer, climbed 4 percent to C$19.61. Natural gas for April delivery surged 3.2 percent to settle at a 13-week high after a government report showed U.S. inventories fell by more than forecast last week.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. advanced 3 percent, or 94 Canadian cents, to C$32.10. The oil and gas producer raised its quarterly dividend 19 percent to 12.5 Canadian cents a share. It also reported fourth-quarter net income of C$352 million, down 58 percent from C$832 million a year ago.

The company said today it plans to either sell or bring in a partner for some of its Montney liquefied natural gas holdings in British Columbia. Several companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp., are exploring LNG terminals in British Columbia to export gas from the Montney shale base.

Petrominerales Ltd. plunged 9.1 percent, extending losses to a sixth day after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of estimates. The Calgary-based company, which is exploring for oil and gas in Colombia and Peru, tumbled 67 Canadian cents to C$6.72, its lowest level since January 2009.

Rogers Communication Inc., Canada’s biggest wireless carrier, slid 1.3 percent to C$48.98, after the government said it will limit the amount of wireless spectrum Canada’s largest telecommunications providers can buy. Telus Corp. declined 1.5 percent to C$69.70.

Canada’s major wireless operators will each be able to buy only one of four blocks of spectrum considered by the industry to be the most desirable, Christian Paradis, the federal Industry Minister, said in a statement today. The government expects the auction, set to begin Nov. 19, will raise C$897 million.

US

By Claudia Carpenter and Inyoung Hwang

March 7 (Bloomberg) — Stocks rose, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching a third straight record, as U.S. jobless claims dropped. The euro gained as the European Central Bank said the economy may stabilize this year, while Japan’s yen weakened to 95 per dollar for the first time since 2009.

The Dow rose 0.2 percent to 14,329.49 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.2 percent at 4 p.m. in New York.

Brazil’s Bovespa extended its two-day rally to 5.2 percent, the most since July. U.S. Treasuries fell for a fourth day. The euro climbed 1.1 percent to $1.3105, rebounding from its 2013 low, while the yen weakened against all 16 major peers. Spain’s 10- year bond yield fell 11 basis points to 4.89 percent as the nation sold debt. Natural gas jumped more than 3 percent to lead gains in commodities.

The S&P 500 climbed to within 1.4 percent of its 2007 record as jobless claims unexpectedly fell by 7,000 to 340,000 last week, bolstering optimism before tomorrow’s monthly employment report. The ECB kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low today and President Mario Draghi said data suggests the economy will stabilize in the first half of this year.

“This is now two straight days we’ve had a positive reading on the labor market and one of the big concerns in the market has been whether this is jobless prosperity and ergo can it continue?” Uri Landesman, president of New York-based hedge fund Platinum Partners, which manages about $1.2 billion, said by telephone. “I’m still skeptical but the data the last two days would support the fact that it’s not jobless prosperity,” he said. “The data’s been strong and if the bulls are still in control of the market, that should take us through resistance.”

The Dow rose 0.3 percent yesterday to extend an all-time high as an ADP Research Institute report indicated faster-than- forecast growth in jobs and the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book said the economy was growing. Data tomorrow may show U.S. employers added 165,000 people to payrolls in February and the unemployment rate held at 7.9 percent, according to the median economist forecast.

Bank of America Corp. advanced 2.9 percent and JPMorgan Chase & Co. added 1.2 percent to pace gains in financial shares, which led an advance among seven of the 10 main industry groups in the S&P 500. After markets closed, the Fed said 17 of the 18 largest U.S. banks could withstand a deep recession and maintain capital above a regulatory minimum. Only Ally Financial Inc., the auto lender majority-owned by U.S. taxpayers, fell below a 5 percent Tier 1 common ratio, a regulatory minimum and measure of financial strength.

Boeing Co. jumped 2.5 percent after winning orders for 27 jets in the past week. Emirates, the largest operator of the Boeing 777 aircraft, said the company is getting closer to offering a new version that will seek to defend its lead against Airbus SAS in the wide-body market.

Trading volume for S&P 500 stocks was about 11 percent below the 30-day average. Ciena Corp. jumped 17 percent, the most in 18 months, and JDS Uniphase Corp. surged 7.6 percent as Ciena posted quarterly earnings that topped estimates. Time Warner Inc. climbed 2.4 percent after saying it will spin off its magazine business. PetSmart Inc. tumbled 6.6 percent as forecasts for earnings and sales growth missed projections.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes climbed for a fourth straight day, rising six basis points to 1.995 percent, the highest since Feb. 20. The U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the currency against six major peers, slipped 0.4 percent to 82.10 today after reaching its strongest level in more than six months yesterday.

For the first time in four years the dollar is participating in a rally that has sent stocks higher as traders in the $4-trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market bet the world’s largest economy will only strengthen. That’s unusual because the greenback has tended to move in the opposite direction to equities in recent years as investors sought a haven from the global financial crisis, sovereign bailouts in Europe and slower growth.

“This is potentially a clear turning point for the U.S. dollar,” said John Horner, a currency strategist in Sydney at Deutsche Bank AG, the world’s top foreign-exchange trading firm as measured by Greenwich Associates. “We’re now starting to get toward the point where good U.S. data is good for the U.S. dollar and good for U.S. markets, and that’s a quite different scenario to what we’ve seen over the past few years.”

Household wealth in the U.S. climbed in the fourth quarter to the highest level in five years, propelled by a gain in home prices that is helping repair family finances. Net worth for households and non-profit groups increased by $1.17 trillion from October through December, or 1.8 percent from the previous three months, to $66.1 trillion, the Federal Reserve said today.

Concern about Europe’s debt crisis eased as the Spanish Treasury met its maximum target at a debt auction in Madrid today. Demand for the 2018 note was 2.32 times the amount sold, up from 2.24 last month. The 10-year benchmark yield was 4.917 percent, down from 5.202 percent on Feb. 21, the Bank of Spain said. That’s the lowest yield since November 2010.

The advance in Spanish bonds pushed the 10-year yield to the lowest since January. Portugal’s 10-year yield fell 22 basis points to 5.93 percent, also the least since January, after the nation’s credit rating outlook was raised to stable from negative by S&P, which said European lenders will probably extend support to the government and make the nation’s fiscal tightening “more sustainable.”

U.K. 10-year bond yields rose six basis points to 2.01 percent while the pound slipped more than 1 percent against the euro, Swedish krona and Danish krone. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee led by Governor Mervyn King maintained its target for quantitative easing at 375 billion pounds ($565 billion). The decision was forecast by 29 of 39 economists in a Bloomberg News survey, with the remainder having predicted an expansion of at least 25 billion pounds.

The euro’s advance lifted it from yesterday’s low of $1.2965, the weakest level since Dec. 11. The 17-nation currency appreciated 1.9 percent to 124.33 yen and climbed 1.1 percent to 87.29 British pence. ECB President Mario Draghi stuck to his view that the euro region will gradually recover and said the bank’s monetary policy “will remain accommodative for as long as needed.”

The euro’s rise is unsustainable as investment dwindles and countries in southern Europe struggle to revive growth and reduce unemployment, said Julian Callow, chief international economist at Barclays Plc. The euro, which traded as strong as $1.3117 today, should be at $1.15, Callow said in an interview on Bloomberg Radio’s “Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Michael McKee.

“We’re still in a significant fiscal contraction in the euro zone,” Callow said. “There’s still a lot of deleveraging in the private sector if you look at the figures for bank lending, which is contracting very sharply still in southern Europe. That goes hand in hand with an ongoing contraction in the investment cycle.”

The euro-zone economy will shrink 0.3 percent in 2013, marking the first back-to-back annual contraction since the single currency’s birth in 1999, the European Commission forecast last month. A report today showed the French unemployment rate rose to a 13-year high of 10.6 percent in the fourth quarter as companies eliminated tens of thousands of jobs to cope with a stalled economy.

Aggreko Plc jumped 10 percent in London, the most since 2008 on a closing basis, after the world’s largest provider of mobile power supplies reported higher annual profit and forecast “double digit” average revenue growth over the next five years. Adidas AG climbed 6.6 percent to a record as the second- largest sporting-goods maker forecast an increase in earnings.

Aviva Plc, the U.K.’s second-biggest insurer, plunged 13 percent, the most in almost four years, after cutting its second-half dividend by 44 percent. National Express Group Plc slid 11 percent as the rail and bus operator’s biggest investor, Elliott Advisors, sold a 9.9 percent stake.

Sugar, natural gas and lean hogs jumped more than 2.8 percent to lead gains in 20 of 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index. Natural gas surged 3.2 percent to a 13-week high of $3.582 per million British thermal units after government data showed U.S. inventories fell by more than forecast last week as cold weather boosted demand.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of shares fell 0.3 percent, retreating from 19-month high reached yesterday, as Chinese and South Korean stocks slumped. The yen weakened after Bank of Japan’s Masaaki Shirakawa’s final meeting amid speculation his successor will expand monetary stimulus and debase the currency.

China’s exports probably grew 8.1 percent last month, slowing from January’s 25 percent gain, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed before tomorrow’s trade report.

The Shanghai Composite Index slid 1 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI lost 0.8 percent, declining for the first time in three days.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slipped 0.2 percent. The Bovespa index advanced 1.6 percent today, adding to yesterday’s 3.6 percent rally, as companies owned by the Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista gained after he signed a financing arrangement with Grupo BTG Pactual. Shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange jumped 0.9 percent, climbing for a sixth day. The counting of presidential votes continues in Kenya, with partial results showing Uhuru Kenyatta, a deputy prime minister, in the lead.

The South Korean won weakened against all 16 major peers except the yen. The UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea for conducting a nuclear test explosion in violation of its previous prohibition.

Have a great evening everyone!!!!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“Every goal, every action, every thought, every feeling one experiences, whether it be consciously or unconsciously known, is an attempt to increase one’s level of peace of mind.” – Sydney Madwed

 

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:

When searching for events that happened on March 7^th, I came across one event that caught my eye.  The board game Monopoly was invented.  This game has been one of my all time favorite games since I was young. To this day, I still play ever couple of weeks. Did you this game was invented to teach the benefits of the Single Tax concept and sought to point out the folly of a system of property ownership in which all players attempt to become “monarch of the world.” The game was even adapted for teaching economics at various schools, including Columbia University where the game-board took on New York City street names. Here’s an interesting fact about the game I will leave you with:  The longest game of Monopoly ever played was 1680 hours which is 70 days!

 

 

Today in History

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell received a patent (U.S. Patent No. 174,465) for his telephone.

1901 – It was announced that blacks had been found enslaved in parts of South Carolina.

1906 – Finland granted women the right to vote.

1911 – Willis Farnworth patented the coin-operated locker.

1933 – The board game Monopoly was invented.

1935 – Malcolm Campbell set an auto speed record of 276.8 mph in Florida.

1936 – Hitler sent German troops into the Rhineland in violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles.

1954 – Russia appeared for the first time in ice-hockey competition. Russia defeated Canada 7-2 to win the world ice-hockey title in Stockholm, Sweden.

1955 – “Peter Pan” was presented as a television special for the first time.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin

Photos of the Day – March 7^th, 2013

Ocean waves crash over a seawall and into houses along the coast in Scituate, Mass. A nor’easter is bringing wind-whipped, wet snow to Massachusetts, and coastal flooding is expected in communities still recovering from February’s blizzard. Steven Senne/AP

Electricians check the electricity pylon situated amid farmland in Chuzhou, Anhui province. China Daily/Reuters

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Market Closes for March 7^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14329.49	+33.25    +0.23%
S&P 500	1544.26	+2.80    +0.18%
NASDAQ	3232.086	+9.721    +0.30%
TSX	12826.52	-5.44
		-0.04%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11968.08	+35.81
		+0.30%
HANG  SENG	22771.44	-6.40
		-0.03%
SENSEX	19413.54	+160.93
		+0.84%
FTSE 100	6439.16	+11.52
		+0.18%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.885	1.848
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.581	2.548
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9965	1.9375
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.2024	3.1517

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.97134	0.96896
US   $	1.02350	1.03203
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34913	0.74122
US  $	1.31057	0.76302

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1579.50	1584.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	91.56	90.43
BRENT	112.02	111.90

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

March 7 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, after closing at a 19-month high yesterday, as a drop in gold producers and banks offset a rally in energy shares fueled by higher oil prices and crude exports.

Banro Corp. plunged 22 percent after its chief executive officer stepped down. Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc. dropped at least 2.2 percent. Canadian Western Bank slid 4.8 percent as first-quarter earnings missed analysts’ expectations.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil producer, and Cenovus Energy Inc. rose at least 0.5 percent after oil gained the most in three weeks.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 5.44 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,826.52 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark index fluctuated between gains and losses before closing lower to break a two-day winning streak.

Trading volume was 3.6 percent below the 30-day average. The S&P/TSX has risen 3.2 percent this year.

“The market is playing a bit of a waiting game given the strength it’s added the last little while, breaking some key levels, with the Dow hitting an all-time high,” said Brian Huen, managing partner at Toronto-based Red Sky Capital Management Ltd., which oversees C$225 million ($218 million) in assets. “So where do we go from here? The market is waiting for the next catalyst.”

Raw-materials stocks contributed most to losses in the S&P/TSX, falling 0.8 percent as a group. An index of gold producers tumbled 1.6 percent.

Banro slumped 49 Canadian cents to C$1.78, its biggest decline in more than four years, after the gold miner active in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Chief Executive Officer Simon Village had left his position. The company did not give a reason for the departure.

Barrick, the world’s largest gold miner, dropped 2.3 percent to C$29.90. Goldcorp slid 2.2 percent to C$33.68.

Canadian Western plunged the most since July 2009, losing C$1.46 to C$28.91, after the lender reported adjusted earnings of 58 Canadian cents a share. That missed by 2 cents the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Canada’s trade deficit in January narrowed to C$237 million, its lowest level in almost a year, on higher exports of crude and bitumen, Statistics Canada said. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the deficit would be C$600 million, based on the median of 20 estimates.

“The situation in Venezuela has created some uncertainty, so we may see a pickup of Canadian heavy crude exports to the U.S.,” Huen said, referring to the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on March 5.

Suncor increased 17 Canadian cents to C$31.45, and Cenovus added 1.3 percent to C$32.40. The price of crude for April delivery rallied 1.3 percent to settle at $91.56 a barrel, after U.S. unemployment benefit applications dropped to a six-week low.

Encana Corp., Canada’s largest natural gas producer, climbed 4 percent to C$19.61. Natural gas for April delivery surged 3.2 percent to settle at a 13-week high after a government report showed U.S. inventories fell by more than forecast last week.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. advanced 3 percent, or 94 Canadian cents, to C$32.10. The oil and gas producer raised its quarterly dividend 19 percent to 12.5 Canadian cents a share. It also reported fourth-quarter net income of C$352 million, down 58 percent from C$832 million a year ago.

The company said today it plans to either sell or bring in a partner for some of its Montney liquefied natural gas holdings in British Columbia. Several companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp., are exploring LNG terminals in British Columbia to export gas from the Montney shale base.

Petrominerales Ltd. plunged 9.1 percent, extending losses to a sixth day after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of estimates. The Calgary-based company, which is exploring for oil and gas in Colombia and Peru, tumbled 67 Canadian cents to C$6.72, its lowest level since January 2009.

Rogers Communication Inc., Canada’s biggest wireless carrier, slid 1.3 percent to C$48.98, after the government said it will limit the amount of wireless spectrum Canada’s largest telecommunications providers can buy. Telus Corp. declined 1.5 percent to C$69.70.

Canada’s major wireless operators will each be able to buy only one of four blocks of spectrum considered by the industry to be the most desirable, Christian Paradis, the federal Industry Minister, said in a statement today. The government expects the auction, set to begin Nov. 19, will raise C$897 million.

US

By Claudia Carpenter and Inyoung Hwang

March 7 (Bloomberg) — Stocks rose, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching a third straight record, as U.S. jobless claims dropped. The euro gained as the European Central Bank said the economy may stabilize this year, while Japan’s yen weakened to 95 per dollar for the first time since 2009.

The Dow rose 0.2 percent to 14,329.49 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.2 percent at 4 p.m. in New York.

Brazil’s Bovespa extended its two-day rally to 5.2 percent, the most since July. U.S. Treasuries fell for a fourth day. The euro climbed 1.1 percent to $1.3105, rebounding from its 2013 low, while the yen weakened against all 16 major peers. Spain’s 10- year bond yield fell 11 basis points to 4.89 percent as the nation sold debt. Natural gas jumped more than 3 percent to lead gains in commodities.

The S&P 500 climbed to within 1.4 percent of its 2007 record as jobless claims unexpectedly fell by 7,000 to 340,000 last week, bolstering optimism before tomorrow’s monthly employment report. The ECB kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low today and President Mario Draghi said data suggests the economy will stabilize in the first half of this year.

“This is now two straight days we’ve had a positive reading on the labor market and one of the big concerns in the market has been whether this is jobless prosperity and ergo can it continue?” Uri Landesman, president of New York-based hedge fund Platinum Partners, which manages about $1.2 billion, said by telephone. “I’m still skeptical but the data the last two days would support the fact that it’s not jobless prosperity,” he said. “The data’s been strong and if the bulls are still in control of the market, that should take us through resistance.”

The Dow rose 0.3 percent yesterday to extend an all-time high as an ADP Research Institute report indicated faster-than- forecast growth in jobs and the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book said the economy was growing. Data tomorrow may show U.S. employers added 165,000 people to payrolls in February and the unemployment rate held at 7.9 percent, according to the median economist forecast.

Bank of America Corp. advanced 2.9 percent and JPMorgan Chase & Co. added 1.2 percent to pace gains in financial shares, which led an advance among seven of the 10 main industry groups in the S&P 500. After markets closed, the Fed said 17 of the 18 largest U.S. banks could withstand a deep recession and maintain capital above a regulatory minimum. Only Ally Financial Inc., the auto lender majority-owned by U.S. taxpayers, fell below a 5 percent Tier 1 common ratio, a regulatory minimum and measure of financial strength.

Boeing Co. jumped 2.5 percent after winning orders for 27 jets in the past week. Emirates, the largest operator of the Boeing 777 aircraft, said the company is getting closer to offering a new version that will seek to defend its lead against Airbus SAS in the wide-body market.

Trading volume for S&P 500 stocks was about 11 percent below the 30-day average. Ciena Corp. jumped 17 percent, the most in 18 months, and JDS Uniphase Corp. surged 7.6 percent as Ciena posted quarterly earnings that topped estimates. Time Warner Inc. climbed 2.4 percent after saying it will spin off its magazine business. PetSmart Inc. tumbled 6.6 percent as forecasts for earnings and sales growth missed projections.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes climbed for a fourth straight day, rising six basis points to 1.995 percent, the highest since Feb. 20. The U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the currency against six major peers, slipped 0.4 percent to 82.10 today after reaching its strongest level in more than six months yesterday.

For the first time in four years the dollar is participating in a rally that has sent stocks higher as traders in the $4-trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market bet the world’s largest economy will only strengthen. That’s unusual because the greenback has tended to move in the opposite direction to equities in recent years as investors sought a haven from the global financial crisis, sovereign bailouts in Europe and slower growth.

“This is potentially a clear turning point for the U.S. dollar,” said John Horner, a currency strategist in Sydney at Deutsche Bank AG, the world’s top foreign-exchange trading firm as measured by Greenwich Associates. “We’re now starting to get toward the point where good U.S. data is good for the U.S. dollar and good for U.S. markets, and that’s a quite different scenario to what we’ve seen over the past few years.”

Household wealth in the U.S. climbed in the fourth quarter to the highest level in five years, propelled by a gain in home prices that is helping repair family finances. Net worth for households and non-profit groups increased by $1.17 trillion from October through December, or 1.8 percent from the previous three months, to $66.1 trillion, the Federal Reserve said today.

Concern about Europe’s debt crisis eased as the Spanish Treasury met its maximum target at a debt auction in Madrid today. Demand for the 2018 note was 2.32 times the amount sold, up from 2.24 last month. The 10-year benchmark yield was 4.917 percent, down from 5.202 percent on Feb. 21, the Bank of Spain said. That’s the lowest yield since November 2010.

The advance in Spanish bonds pushed the 10-year yield to the lowest since January. Portugal’s 10-year yield fell 22 basis points to 5.93 percent, also the least since January, after the nation’s credit rating outlook was raised to stable from negative by S&P, which said European lenders will probably extend support to the government and make the nation’s fiscal tightening “more sustainable.”

U.K. 10-year bond yields rose six basis points to 2.01 percent while the pound slipped more than 1 percent against the euro, Swedish krona and Danish krone. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee led by Governor Mervyn King maintained its target for quantitative easing at 375 billion pounds ($565 billion). The decision was forecast by 29 of 39 economists in a Bloomberg News survey, with the remainder having predicted an expansion of at least 25 billion pounds.

The euro’s advance lifted it from yesterday’s low of $1.2965, the weakest level since Dec. 11. The 17-nation currency appreciated 1.9 percent to 124.33 yen and climbed 1.1 percent to 87.29 British pence. ECB President Mario Draghi stuck to his view that the euro region will gradually recover and said the bank’s monetary policy “will remain accommodative for as long as needed.”

The euro’s rise is unsustainable as investment dwindles and countries in southern Europe struggle to revive growth and reduce unemployment, said Julian Callow, chief international economist at Barclays Plc. The euro, which traded as strong as $1.3117 today, should be at $1.15, Callow said in an interview on Bloomberg Radio’s “Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Michael McKee.

“We’re still in a significant fiscal contraction in the euro zone,” Callow said. “There’s still a lot of deleveraging in the private sector if you look at the figures for bank lending, which is contracting very sharply still in southern Europe. That goes hand in hand with an ongoing contraction in the investment cycle.”

The euro-zone economy will shrink 0.3 percent in 2013, marking the first back-to-back annual contraction since the single currency’s birth in 1999, the European Commission forecast last month. A report today showed the French unemployment rate rose to a 13-year high of 10.6 percent in the fourth quarter as companies eliminated tens of thousands of jobs to cope with a stalled economy.

Aggreko Plc jumped 10 percent in London, the most since 2008 on a closing basis, after the world’s largest provider of mobile power supplies reported higher annual profit and forecast “double digit” average revenue growth over the next five years. Adidas AG climbed 6.6 percent to a record as the second- largest sporting-goods maker forecast an increase in earnings.

Aviva Plc, the U.K.’s second-biggest insurer, plunged 13 percent, the most in almost four years, after cutting its second-half dividend by 44 percent. National Express Group Plc slid 11 percent as the rail and bus operator’s biggest investor, Elliott Advisors, sold a 9.9 percent stake.

Sugar, natural gas and lean hogs jumped more than 2.8 percent to lead gains in 20 of 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index. Natural gas surged 3.2 percent to a 13-week high of $3.582 per million British thermal units after government data showed U.S. inventories fell by more than forecast last week as cold weather boosted demand.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of shares fell 0.3 percent, retreating from 19-month high reached yesterday, as Chinese and South Korean stocks slumped. The yen weakened after Bank of Japan’s Masaaki Shirakawa’s final meeting amid speculation his successor will expand monetary stimulus and debase the currency.

China’s exports probably grew 8.1 percent last month, slowing from January’s 25 percent gain, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed before tomorrow’s trade report.

The Shanghai Composite Index slid 1 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI lost 0.8 percent, declining for the first time in three days.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slipped 0.2 percent. The Bovespa index advanced 1.6 percent today, adding to yesterday’s 3.6 percent rally, as companies owned by the Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista gained after he signed a financing arrangement with Grupo BTG Pactual. Shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange jumped 0.9 percent, climbing for a sixth day. The counting of presidential votes continues in Kenya, with partial results showing Uhuru Kenyatta, a deputy prime minister, in the lead.

The South Korean won weakened against all 16 major peers except the yen. The UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea for conducting a nuclear test explosion in violation of its previous prohibition.

Have a great evening everyone!!!!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“Every goal, every action, every thought, every feeling one experiences, whether it be consciously or unconsciously known, is an attempt to increase one’s level of peace of mind.” – Sydney Madwed

 

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:

Dine Around Victoria is happening right now until March 10^th, 2013.  What is Dine around Victoria you ask? It is various restaurants in Victoria who offer select three-course menus for $20, $30 or $40 per person.  It is a great way to try out new restaurants that our beautiful city has to offer, without spending a lot on a meal you may not like.  Some of the restaurants included in this year’s Dine Around Victoria are: Chez Michael, Harbour House, Lure, Bon Rouge Bistro and many other fabulous restaurants.  For more information on Dine Around Victoria, take a look at Tourism Victoria’s website.

One restaurant that I absolutely recommend you try (not part of the Dine Around Victoria special) is Brasserie L’Ecole, located on Government Street in Victoria.  With the menu changing nightly, the chef/owner’s approach is to use seasonal, locally available products cooked in a Classic French-country style.  Great food, paired with a great wine gives this unique, intimate restaurant the ultimate atmosphere for a date/anniversary evening!  To look at the changing menu, please visit their website at:  www.lecole.ca

Enjoy!

Today in History

1808 – At Harvard University, the first college orchestra was founded.

1834 – The city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.

1886 – “The Nightingale” was first published. It was the first magazine for nurses.

1899 – Aspirin was patented by German researchers Felix Hoffman and Hermann Dreser.

1939 – In Spain, Jose Miaja took over the Madrid government after a military coup and vowed to seek “peace with honor.”

1941 – Les Hite and his orchestra recorded “The World is Waiting for the Sunrise”.

1947 – Winston Churchill announced that he opposed British troop withdrawals from India.

1960 – Switzerland granted women the right to vote in municipal elections.

1985 – Yul Brynner played his his 4,500th performance in the musical “The King and I.”

“Where there is love there is life.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Photos of the Day – March 6^th, 2013

This image provided by NASA shows an image captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory of a blast of plasma streaming from the sun in August 2012. Scientists say a solar eruption was detected on March 5, 2013 and was headed toward Mars. NASA’s Curiosity rover will postpone some activities but other Mars missions will operate normally. NASA/AP

A swan swims in the river Spree where willows are reflected during sunny weather in Berlin, Germany. Jens Kalaene/dpa/AP

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” – Winston Churchill

Market Closes for March 6^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14296.24	+42.47    +0.30%
S&P 500	1541.46	+1.67    +0.11%
NASDAQ	3222.365	-1.765    -0.05%
TSX	12831.96	+95.92
		+0.75%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11932.27	+248.82
		+2.13%
HANG  SENG	22777.84	+217.34
		+0.96%
SENSEX	19252.61	+109.44
		+0.57%
FTSE 100	6427.64	-4.31
		+0.07%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.848	1.815
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.548	2.510
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9375	1.8927
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1517	3.1032

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.96896	0.97407
US   $	1.03203	1.02662
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33921	0.74671
US  $	1.29751	0.77070

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1584.25	1577.18
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	90.43	90.82
BRENT	111.90	112.87

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

March 6 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose to a 19-month high as the central bank said its interest-rate policy is likely to be unchanged for some time amid slowing growth in the world’s 11th-largest economy.

Trilogy Energy Corp. surged 13 percent after it boosted cash flow and oil reserves in the fourth quarter and an analyst raised the energy company’s stock rating. BlackBerry climbed 7.4 percent after its chief executive officer said the latest line of smartphones was luring customers from rivals. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. rose to a record as the company said it was ahead of schedule with a job-reduction plan.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index increased 95.92 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,831.96 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the highest close since July 2011. The S&P/TSX has gained 3.2 percent this year.

“The rising market today is a combination of the follow- through from the strong markets of the past few days and the fact that interest rates appear to be unchanged for a period of time,” said Anish Chopra, managing director and fund manager with TD Asset Management Ltd., from Toronto. His firm oversees about C$204 billion ($198 billion).

The Bank of Canada kept the benchmark rate on overnight loans between commercial banks at 1 percent. It said inflation will “remain low in the near term” in an economy with “material excess capacity.”

Statistics Canada said March 1 that output expanded at a 0.6 percent annualized pace in the fourth quarter, slower than Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney’s 1 percent forecast from January. The 0.5 percent inflation rate seen in that month remains well below his 2 percent target.

“The Canadian economy isn’t growing as fast as the U.S.,” Chopra said. “So you’re seeing the implications of that in how the Bank of Canada is positioning its rates, that it could stay at 1 percent for quite a while.”

Global stocks rose to the highest in more than 4 1/2 years today, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average extended its record as a private report showed faster-than-forecast U.S. jobs growth and the Federal Reserve said the economy is growing.

Raw-materials stocks contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX, rising 3.4 percent as a group. Eight of 10 index groups advanced. Trading volume was in line with the 30-day average.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, rose 4.4 percent to C$30.61. Goldcorp Inc. climbed 4.7 percent to C$34.44. Gold for April delivery settled unchanged at $1,574.90 an ounce in New York. The metal rose 0.6 percent to $1,583.60 in electronic trading at 4:36 p.m., after the U.S. central bank said the economy grew at a modest to moderate rate across most of the country.

Trilogy Energy jumped C$3.50 to C$29.65 for its biggest percentage gain since February 2011. Funds flow from operations jumped 71 percent in the fourth quarter and reserves grew by the equivalent of 19.2 million barrels of oil, the company said yesterday.

Gordon Currie, senior analyst with Salman Partners, raised the stock to buy from hold and said the oil and gas producer could afford to increase its dividend. “Trilogy has a relatively low dividend compared to peer group companies,” he said in a client note. Trilogy’s dividend yield is about 1.4 percent, compared with 3.2 percent for the S&P/TSX Energy Index.

BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., increased 95 Canadian cents to C$13.85 after CEO Thorsten Heins, in an interview with the Spanish newspaper Expansion, said he was “a little surprised” that the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone was attracting customers from other platforms.

“Operators are supporting us a lot because they want BlackBerry 10 to be an alternative to Samsung and Apple,” Heins said in an interview with the newspaper during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week.

Canadian Pacific rose 38 Canadian cents to C$129.80 after Chief Executive Officer Hunter Harrison, speaking today at a transportation conference in New York, said the company has already cut more than 3,000 jobs and is ahead of its schedule to eliminate more than one-fifth of its workforce by 2016.

Torstar Corp. tumbled 12 percent to C$7, its largest daily drop in four years, after the publisher of the Toronto Star newspaper reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 49 Canadian cents a share. The result fell short of the average estimate of 53 cents, according to a Bloomberg survey of eight analysts.

US

By Charles Stein

March 6 (Bloomberg) — Investors pulled money from mutual funds that buy U.S. stocks for the first week this year, just before the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record.

Domestic stock funds experienced redemptions of $1.13 billion in the week ended Feb. 27, according to the Washington- based Investment Company Institute. The funds had won deposits in the previous seven weeks, ICI data show.

Last week’s redemptions underscore investors remain wary of U.S. equities as lawmakers in Washington debate how to trim the federal budget deficit. Domestic stock funds suffered withdrawals in each of the past six years, as fund managers failed to protect clients from losses during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. Investors poured $18.56 billion into domestic stocks funds in January, the biggest monthly deposits in nine years, as stocks rallied and the U.S. economy showed signs of strengthening.

“I think we are going to have to wait a few more months before we know what is happening,” Geoff Bobroff, a mutual fund consultant based in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, said in a telephone interview.

Investors started pulling money from U.S. stock funds in 2007, and accelerated withdrawals after a 38 percent decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in 2008. They instead sought out the perceived safety of bond funds, even as the stock market more than doubled from a 12-year low in March 2009.

The Dow rose 0.3 percent to 14,295.09 at 1:53 p.m. in New York, after reaching a record yesterday to surpass its previous peak in October 2007.

A private jobs report today from ADP Research Institute bolstered optimism that the U.S. job market will keep expanding this year. Employers added 198,000 positions last month, ADP said, topping the median economist forecast for 170,000.

In January, investors added money to both stock and bond funds, a pattern that continued in February, according to ICI data. Funds that buy international stocks have been more popular than their domestic counterparts, with such funds winning $2.18 billion in deposits last week, the ICI said.

“I still think people perceive the international arena as a better growth option,” Greggory Warren, an analyst with Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., said in a telephone interview.

Warren said he remains skeptical that investors are ready to return to stocks in a big way. In a Feb. 4 note, he pointed out that in past years, retail investors pulled back from stocks whenever markets declined. “We are not convinced this is the start of a trend,” he wrote.

Investors still favor bond funds, ignoring warnings that bonds lose value if interest rates rise. Bond funds drew $4.99 billion in the week ended Feb. 27, with taxable fixed-income funds gathering $4.41 billion and those investing in municipal debt getting $579 million.

“I am concerned that the general public doesn’t quite understand the pricing of bonds and interest rates and the inverse correlation between the two,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. President Gary D. Cohn said in a Feb. 11 interview on Bloomberg Television.

Dan Fuss, whose Loomis Sayles Bond Fund beat 97 percent of peers in the last three years, said in a January interview that the fixed-income market is more “overbought” that at any time in his 55-year career.

“For heaven’s sake, don’t go out and borrow money to buy bonds right now,” he said.

Concern that investors will shift their allocations to equities from bonds in a so-called great rotation is overblown, DoubleLine Capital Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Gundlach said yesterday in a webcast organized by his firm.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!!!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

 

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:

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul. – J.W. Goethe.

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it. –Dalai Lama XIV

Photos of the Day –March 5th, 2013

Seagulls fight over bread thrown into the Serpentine lake in London’s Hyde Park. Temperatures in the capital rose to 13 degrees Celsius (55 Fahrenheit) making Tuesday the warmest day of the year so far. Alastair Grant/AP

A woman walks alongside the East Side Gallery, a part of former Berlin Wall. Protests have stalled the removal of a small part of the East Side Gallery for the construction of a luxury apartment building. Markus Schreiber/AP

Market Closes for March 5th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14253.77	+125.95    +0.89%
S&P 500	1539.79	+14.59    +0.96%
NASDAQ	3224.130	+42.099    +1.32%
TSX	12736.04	+28.63
		+0.23%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11683.45	+31.16
		+0.27%
HANG  SENG	22560.50	+22.69
		+0.10%
SENSEX	19143.17	+265.21
		+1.40%
FTSE 100	6431.95	+86.32
		+1.36%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.815	1.807
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.510	2.506
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8927	1.8755
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1032	3.0864

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02662	1.02707
US   $	0.97407	0.97364
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33976	0.74640
US  $	1.30484	0.76638

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1577.18	1574.15
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	90.82	90.12
BRENT	112.87	110.98

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Sarah Pringle and Jeremy Herron

March 5 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, as financial companies and energy producers rallied, after investors speculated central banks will continue stimulus measures and oil ended a three-day losing streak.

Bank of Nova Scotia rose 0.7 percent after Canada’s third- largest bank posted better-than-estimated earnings and boosted its dividend. Encana Corp. and Cenovus Energy Inc. added at least 1 percent. WestJet Airlines Ltd. climbed 4.3 percent to a record after saying February traffic and capacity increased.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 28.63 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,736.04 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark index has gained 2.4 percent this year. Trading was in line with the 30-day average.

Efforts to bolster economic growth are “providing a positive backdrop, in that while the Fed and other central banks might not provide additional stimulus, they’re certainly not going to take their foot off the gas pedal,” Philip Petursson, managing director of the portfolio advisory group with Manulife Asset Management Ltd., said from Toronto. His firm manages about $238 billion.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said yesterday the U.S. central bank should press on with $85 billion in monthly bond buying while tracking possible costs and risks from the unprecedented program. U.S. stocks jumped today, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record close of 14,253.77.

Canadian financial companies rallied 0.4 percent as a group, contributing the most to the S&P/TSX index’s gains, as Bank of Nova Scotia climbed 42 Canadian cents to C$61.32. The stock rose to a record earlier in the day, adding as much as 1.5 percent after the lender’s first-quarter per-share earnings of C$1.27 beat the C$1.25 average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Scotiabank joined Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank in posting higher quarterly profit, even as Canada’s economic growth began to stagnate on record levels of household debt. Royal Bank added 0.2 percent to C$63.76 and Toronto- Dominion rose 0.5 percent to C$85.43. Both banks reported their results last week.

Energy producers advanced 0.3 percent after oil climbed from its lowest level in 2013 and China vowed to maintain its growth target. Encana increased 21 Canadian cents to C$18.23 and Cenovus rose 31 Canadian cents to C$32.13.

China retained an expansion goal of 7.5 percent for this year and plans a 10 percent increase in fiscal spending to support economic growth, the government said. “It gives confidence to the market that there’s a growth commitment on that side of the world, and that’s being felt over here,” Petursson said. Oil climbed 0.8 percent to settle at $90.82 a barrel in New York.

Raw-material producers advanced 0.1 percent as a group after rallying as much as 1.7 percent earlier. Teck Resources added 0.9 percent to C$30.53. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. gained 0.5 percent to C$40.43.

WestJet surged 98 Canadian cents to a record C$24.05. The Calgary-based discount carrier said February traffic climbed 7.3 percent and capacity rose 3.1 percent.

TMX Group Ltd., the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange, is considering more acquisitions to expand its business, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Kloet said. “We are not standing still,” he said. “We will acquire, when appropriate and strategic, key assets — both small and large — that advance our business.”

TMX has expanded through acquisitions since Kloet joined the company as CEO in 2008, most recently agreeing to buy Equity Financial Holdings Inc.’s transfer agent and corporate trust services business. TMX rose 1.1 percent to C$55.86 today.

US

By Inyoung Hwang and Sarah Pringle

March 5 (Bloomberg) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to a record, erasing losses from the financial crisis, as China vowed to maintain its growth target and investors bet central banks will continue stimulus measures.

All 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 27 out of 30 stocks in the Dow rose. Apple Inc. rallied 2.6 percent for its first gain in five days. Qualcomm Inc. jumped 2 percent as it increased its dividend by 40 percent and set up a $5 billion share buyback plan. J.C. Penney Co. sank 11 percent after its second-biggest shareholder sold part of its stake.

The Dow rose 125.95 points, or 0.9 percent, to 14,253.77 at 4 p.m. in New York, surpassing its previous closing high of 14,164.53 as well as its intraday peak of 14,198.1 from Oct. 11, 2007. The S&P 500 added 1 percent to 1,539.79 today. The benchmark gauge is less than 2 percent below its record high.

About 6.5 billion shares exchanged hands, 2.8 percent above the three-month average.

“People are now starting to realize that it is a bull market,” Laszlo Birinyi, president of Birinyi Associates Inc. in Westport, Connecticut, said in an interview on Bloomberg Radio’s “Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Michael McKee.

“It’s not going to come back, you’ve missed the train, and the train still has a long way to go. But you better get on it.”

The bull market in U.S. equities enters its fifth year this month. The S&P 500 has surged 128 percent from a 12-year low in 2009 as companies reported better-than-estimated earnings and the Federal Reserve embarked on three rounds of bond purchases to stimulate the economy.

U.S. stock indexes advanced this week amid optimism the Fed will maintain stimulus measures to support the economic recovery. Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said yesterday the U.S. central bank should press on with $85 billion in monthly bond buying while tracking possible costs and risks from the unprecedented program.

Global equities also rose today as China pledged to support economic expansion. The nation will keep its growth target at 7.5 percent for this year and plans a 10 percent jump in fiscal spending, the government said during the start of the National People’s Congress today.

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of U.S. non- manufacturing businesses, which covers about 90 percent of the economy, rose to 56 in February from the prior month’s 55.2, the Tempe, Arizona-based group said today. Readings above 50 signal expansion. The ISM services survey covers industries ranging from utilities and retailing to housing, health care and finance.

“This is clearly a day where investors are looking to put risk on,” Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Standard Life Investments Ltd., who helps manage over $263.9 billion, said in a phone interview. The Edinburgh, U.K.-based firm manages over $263.9 billion. “Services are a much, much larger part of all economies now than the manufacturing sector.”

Birinyi, who was one of the first money managers to tell clients to buy before the bull market began in March 2009, said technology, materials and energy stocks are the best choices today. Salesforce.com Inc., the largest maker of online customer-management software, is an example of a well-performing cyclical stock, he said.

Cisco Systems Inc., United Technologies Corp., Boeing Co. and Hewlett-Packard Co. had the biggest gains in the Dow, rising at least 2 percent. Technology, industrial and consumer- discretionary stocks added the most among 10 groups in the S&P 500, advancing at least 1 percent.

Investors bought shares of companies most tied to economic growth, sending the 30-member Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index up 1.4 percent. The Dow Jones Transportation Average, a gauge of 20 shipping companies, climbed to a record, adding 1.5 percent.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, known as the VIX, fell for the third day, losing 3.8 percent. The gauge has lost 25 percent this year.

Apple rallied $11.09 to $431.14. The company is planning on releasing its iPhone 5S in August, iMore reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. An updated iPad is getting “serious consideration” and may be introduced around April, the technology news website said. Apple shares have tumbled 19 percent in 2013.

Sears Holdings Corp. increased 5.6 percent to $46.63. Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert bought 1.24 million shares of the retailer yesterday, while his hedge fund ESL Investments Inc. sold the same amount for the same price, according to a filing yesterday.

Qualcomm jumped $1.34 to $67.97. The largest seller of semiconductors for mobile phones will increase its quarterly cash dividend to 35 cents from 25 cents, rewarding investors after rising demand for smartphones that run on its technology spurred sales growth. The new share repurchase plan replaces an older $4 billion plan that had $2.5 billion remaining.

Genworth Financial Inc. surged 3.3 percent to $9.39. The seller of life insurance and mortgage guaranties has climbed 10 percent in two days and is up 25 percent this year. Barclays Plc analyst Mark C. DeVries raised his rating on mortgage insurers MGIC Investment Corp. and Radian Group Inc. to overweight from underweight in a note today.

Apollo Group Inc. jumped 3.1 percent to $16.70 after six days of losses. The for-profit educator was raised to hold from sell by Deutsche Bank AG analyst Paul Ginocchio, who cited the stock’s valuation in a note dated today.

American Apparel Inc. surged 19 percent to $1.53 as the retailer projected sales of $654 million to $660 million in 2013. That beat the $650.2 million average of two analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

BMC Software Inc. climbed 3.7 percent to $42.32. The maker of programs to manage corporate computer networks has attracted renewed buyout interest from private-equity funds, people with knowledge of the situation said.

KKR & Co. and TPG Capital have separately expressed interest, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. BMC held similar talks last year amid pressure from activist investor Elliott Associates LP before deciding to buy back $1 billion in shares.

J.C. Penney declined $1.78 to $14.96, its lowest level since March 2009, after people familiar with the matter said Vornado Realty Trust sold 10 million shares in the department- store company at $16.40 apiece through Deutsche Bank AG.

“There are more tailwinds than headwinds,” Joseph Tanious, a New York-based global market strategist for JPMorgan Funds, which oversees $400 billion, said by phone. On the ISM number, he said, “This is all coming on the back of better- than-expected economic data partly from around the world but also from Europe. There’s some very dovish sentiment from central bankers and policy makers around the world as well.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Water, you are the one that brings us life.  You are the source of nourishment that gives us strength.

We rejoice at your existence.

We drink you with joy, as babies drink their mothers’ milk

And when we swallow you, we receive love.

Water, carry away all my sins and my failures, all that has been bad in my life.

I seek you today; I shall plunge into your wetness.

Drown me in splendor.

The Vedas

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

-Susan Jeffers

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:

Birthday: Antonio Vivaldi was born on this day in 1675.

Poem:

The Art of Fugue

-by Fiona Sampson

A curtain brims;

its white lip appears,

dashing and slovenly

like the girl on the Tube

with her bedroom hair.

 

I miss that girl

crossing the Green

in heels and feather trim

whom I so nearly

and never was.

Oh, waking

is a rising to light,

something humming

deep and dirty

moves through a suspended life,

in the dawning bedroom

 

the jacket on a chair-back

is a gesture

suddenly stilled:

and the girl crossing the Green

turns her head on a pillow

barred with light.

From Coleshill (Chatto & Windus)

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.  –Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Photos of the Day –March 4th, 2013

Masaai women line up at dawn to vote in a general election in Kumpa, Kenya. Five years after more than 1,000 people were killed in election-related violence, Kenyans went to the polls on Monday to begin casting votes in a nationwide election seen as the country’s most important – and complicated – in its 50-year history. Riccardo Gangale/AP

A Hindu sadhu (holy man) applies paint to his forehead at his ashram on the premises of Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. Hindu holy men from Nepal and India come to this temple to take part in the Shivaratri festival, which this year falls on March 10. Celebrated by Hindu devotees all over the world, Shivaratri is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

Market Closes for March 4th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14127.82	+38.16    +0.27%
S&P 500	1525.20	+7.00    +0.46%
NASDAQ	3182.031	+12.287    +0.39%
TSX	12707.41	-65.71
		-0.51%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11652.29	+45.91
		+0.40%
HANG  SENG	22537.81	-342.41
		-1.50%
SENSEX	18877.96	-40.56
		-0.21%
FTSE 100	6345.63	-32.97
		-0.52%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.807	1.799
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.506	2.495
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8755	1.8412
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0864	3.0506

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02707	1.02660
US   $	0.97364	0.97409
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33802	0.74737
US  $	1.30277	0.76759

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1574.15	1576.23
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	90.12	90.68
BRENT	110.98	111.44

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

March 4 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for a second day, led by raw-materials and energy producers, on concern changes in China’s government policy may stunt growth in the world’s second-biggest economy.

Cenovus Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. slipped at least 2.5 percent as the price of crude briefly fell below $90 for the first time in 2013. Agrium Inc. dropped 1.7 percent after its chairman urged shareholders to vote against a board slate backed by an activist investor. Aurizon Mines Ltd. gained 2.8 percent after agreeing to sell itself to Hecla Mining Co. in a deal valued at C$796 million ($774 million).

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 65.71 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,707.41 at 4 p.m. in Toronto.

Materials companies erased 2.6 percent, the most among the index’s 10 groups, and energy producers slid 0.6 percent.

Trading volume was 1.8 percent above the 30-day average. The S&P/TSX has risen 2.2 percent this year.

“The market had been getting close to new highs and people are getting uncomfortable,” said Paul Harris, a fund manager with Avenue Investment Management in Toronto, which oversees about C$300 million. “India and China, those stock exchanges have come off a fair bit in the last little while. People have seen the market run up a lot in the last two to three months and were expecting a pullback.”

The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index fell 3.7 percent today, the most since August 2011, after China’s cabinet last week ordered tighter mortgage rules to cool the property market. The Chinese government is seeking higher downpayments on second-home loans and stricter enforcement of sales-tax policy.

Separately, data yesterday showed China’s service industries grew last month at the weakest pace since September, adding to speculation that demand growth is slowing in the world’s second-biggest oil-consuming country.

Canadian Natural Resources slumped 2.5 percent to C$31.26 and Cenovus lost 2.8 percent to C$31.82. Crude for April delivery fell 0.6 percent to settle at $90.12 a barrel in New York. It slid as much as 1.5 percent to $89.33 earlier in the day.

Fifty-two of the 61 members in the S&P/TSX Materials Index declined, even as gold snapped a three-day losing streak on speculation that central banks will continue stimulus measures to spur economic growth. Gold futures for April delivery rose 10 cents to settle at $1,572.40 an ounce at 1:50 p.m. on the Comex in New York.

Yamana Gold Inc. decreased 6.3 percent to C$14.22, Iamgold Corp. slid 6 percent to C$6.32 and Silver Wheaton Corp. lost 4.7 percent to C$31.09.

Agrium lost C$1.87 to C$105.43 after Victor Zaleschuk, chairman of the Calgary-based company, sent a letter to shareholders asking them to re-elect the existing board at the seed and fertilizer supplier’s annual general meeting April 9.

He called an opposing slate from New York-based hedge fund Jana Partners LLC “a Trojan horse tactic” designed to break up Agrium. Jana has pressed the company to spin off its farm-supply retail network.

Atlantic Power Corp. plunged 17 percent to C$6.06, its lowest level since November 2008. The loss extended a 29 percent decline on Mar. 1 after the electric power company cut its annual dividend 65 percent to 40 Canadian cents a share.

“Even after a 29 percent share price decline, we believe it is too early for value investors to step in,” said Nelson Ng, analyst with RBC Capital Markets.

Aurizon added 12 Canadian cents to C$4.47. The cash-and- stock offer from U.S.-based Hecla Mining, which operates silver mines in Alaska and Idaho, comes after Aurizon rejected on Jan. 23 a C$780 million unsolicited bid from its largest shareholder, Alamos Gold Inc. Alamos climbed 0.9 percent to C$14.24.

US

By Inyoung Hwang and Sarah Pringle

March 4 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its highest level since 2007, as speculation the Federal Reserve will continue stimulus measures overshadowed concern over spending cuts and China’s economy.

Airlines rallied while industrial and energy stocks fell as oil dropped to its lowest level since December. Yahoo! Inc. jumped 3.5 percent after an analyst at Barclays Plc raised his rating on the company. Homebuilders advanced as D.R. Horton Inc. and Ryland Group Inc. rose at least 3.2 percent. Google Inc. jumped 1.9 percent to a record, while Apple Inc. retreated 2.4 percent to its lowest level in more than a year.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.5 percent to 1,525.20 at 4 p.m. in New York, after falling as much as 0.4 percent earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 38.16 points, or 0.3 percent, to 14,127.82, its highest level since October 2007. About 6 billion shares exchanged hands on U.S. exchanges today, 4.4 percent below the three-month average.

“Excluding this quarter, which will be impacted by the sequester, the economy probably strengthens as the year goes on,” Michael Mullaney, chief investment officer at Boston-based Fiduciary Trust Co., which manages $9.5 billion, said by telephone. “The Fed is going to be our friend for an extended period of time, and as the old adage goes, don’t fight the Fed.”

The bull market in U.S. equities is entering its fifth year this month after the S&P 500 surged 124 percent from a 12-year low in 2009 amid better-than-estimated corporate earnings and three rounds of bond purchases by the Fed to keep interest rates low and stimulate the economy. The S&P 500 has climbed 6.9 percent this year and is trading at 2.6 percent below its record of 1,565.15 reached in October 2007. The Dow is less than 0.3 percent from its high of 14,164.53.

Stocks rose as Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said the U.S. central bank should press on with $85 billion in monthly bond buying while tracking possible costs and risks from the unprecedented program.

“Turning to the potential costs of the Federal Reserve’s asset purchases, there are some that definitely need to be monitored over time,” Yellen said today in a speech in Washington. “At this stage, I do not see any that would cause me to advocate a curtailment of our purchase program.”

Equities fell early in the trading day as China’s services industries expanded last month at the slowest pace since September. The non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 54.5 in February from 56.2 in January, the Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

Automatic cuts in U.S. federal spending, half of which are in defense programs, went into effect March 1 following a congressional impasse. The government will reduce spending by $1.2 trillion over the next nine years, including $85 billion in this fiscal year. The budget cuts, known as sequestration, will cause a 0.6 percentage-point reduction in economic growth this year, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated.

Even as President Barack Obama phoned Democratic and Republican legislators over the weekend, Obama’s aides and congressional leaders signaled the budget reductions would continue for weeks, possibly months.

Both sides indicated that revisiting the reductions would begin after they resolve a confrontation over legislation that’s needed to keep federal agencies running beyond March 27, placing a premium on avoiding a government shutdown.

A Bloomberg gauge of U.S. airlines rallied 4.1 percent to 44.93, its highest level in more than two years. Industrial and energy companies in the S&P 500 declined. Crude prices briefly fell below $90 a barrel for the first time in 2013 on growing speculation that demand growth is slowing in China.

Delta Air Lines Inc. surged 5.6 percent to $15.65, its highest level since February 2008. The Atlanta-based carrier increased the lower end of its guidance for unit revenue to 4.5 percent from 4 percent.

United Continental Holdings Inc. climbed 5.3 percent to $28.82 and Alaska Air Group Inc. added 4.1 percent to a record $54.53.

Caterpillar Inc., the biggest maker of construction and mining equipment, retreating 1.8 percent to $89.75 for the largest decline in the Dow. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. erased 5.8 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $23.78. Joy Global Inc., the maker of underground mining equipment, slid 3 percent to $60.18.

Consumer discretionary companies in the S&P 500 rose 1 percent to a record. Best Buy Co. surged 3.6 percent to $17.77 and Target Corp. jumped 3.6 percent to $66.44, its highest level in more than five years.

An S&P group of homebuilders rallied 2.3 percent as all 11 members advanced. D.R. Horton climbed 3.2 percent to $23.24, while Ryland Group added 3.5 percent to $36.95.

The KBW Bank Index rose 1.2 percent to 54.79, as 22 of its 24 members gained. Capital One Financial Corp. rallied 2.4 percent to $53.12 and Citigroup Inc. added 2 percent to $42.94.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, slumped 8.8 percent to 14.01. The gauge has tumbled 22 percent in 2013.

Yahoo jumped 76 cents to $22.70, its highest level since July 2008. Anthony J. DiClemente, equity analyst at Barclays, raised his rating on the company to overweight from equalweight, noting that Yahoo’s minority stakes in Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. and Yahoo Japan Corp. are not fully reflected in its shares.

Google, the operator of the world’s largest search engine, advanced $15.31 to a record $821.50. The stock has rallied 16 percent this year. Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said last week the company wants to keep money on hand in order to be able to invest quickly when needed.

Apple fell for a fourth day to its lowest level since January 2012, sliding $10.42 to $420.05. The shares have tumbled 40 percent since setting a record in September, amid concern that the company’s growth is being hurt by higher production costs and stiffer competition from rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co. Investors are looking to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to demonstrate that Apple has more blockbuster products in the pipeline to reignite sales.

Hess Corp. rallied 3.5 percent to $68.84. The oil company targeted by Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. will exit energy trading, marketing and retail businesses to focus on exploration and production, according to a statement today. The company also plans to buy back as much as $4 billion in shares.

AutoNation Inc. increased 1.8 percent to $44.24. The largest U.S. retailer of new cars and trucks said that total retail vehicle sales climbed 6 percent in February.

Warren Buffett, who built Berkshire Hathaway Inc. into a $250 billion company with funds from insurance units, said in his annual letter to shareholders on March 1 that low interest rates create “dim prospects” for the industry that fueled his firm’s growth.

The billionaire also said other CEOs who held back investment last year because of doubts about the economy missed an opportunity. The future of the U.S. has been uncertain since the country’s Declaration of Independence in 1776, he wrote.

“American business will do fine over time. And stocks will do well just as certainly,” Buffett said. “Since the basic game is so favorable, Charlie and I believe it’s a terrible mistake to try to dance in and out of it based upon the turn of tarot cards, the predictions of ‘experts,’ or the ebb and flow of business activity. The risks of being out of the game are huge compared to the risks of being in it,” he said, referring to Vice Chairman Charles Munger.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

How can you regard yourself as subject and other beings as objects,

when you know that all are one?

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The idea of waiting for something makes it

more exciting.

-Andy Warhol, 1928-1987

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:

March: The month is so called from Mars.  The old Dutch name for it was Lentmaand.  The old Saxon name was hrethmonath, perhaps meaning “rough month” , form its boisterous winds.  This subsequently became lenctenmonath, “lengthening “ because in this month, the days notably lengthen J.  In the French Revolutionary Calendar the corresponding month was called Ventose, meaning windy, and it extended from February 20^th to March 21^st. – excerpted from Brewster’s.

When I discover who I am, I’ll be free- Ralph Ellison, writer, born March 1^st,1914

Photos of the Day –March 1st, 2013

Competitors ski during the Cross Country men’s 4x10km Relay competition at the Nordic Ski World Championships in the northern mountain resort of Tesero in Val di Fiemme, Italy. Yves Herman/Reuters

A German police officers reacts to protesters as they protect a part of the former Berlin Wall in Berlin. Construction crews stopped work on removing a small section from one of the few remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall to make way for a condo project after hundreds of protesters blocked their path. Markus Schreiber/AP

Market Closes for March 1st, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14089.66	+35.17    +0.25%
S&P 500	1518.20	+3.52    +0.23%
NASDAQ	3169.744	+9.554    +0.30%
TSX	12773.12	-48.71
		-0.38%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11606.38	+47.02
		+0.41%
HANG  SENG	22880.22	-140.05
		-0.61%
SENSEX	18918.52	+56.98
		+0.30%
FTSE 100	6378.60	+17.79
		+0.28%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.799	1.837
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.495	2.524
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8412	1.8756
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0506	3.0856

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02660	1.03058
US   $	0.97409	0.97033
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33654	0.74820
US  $	1.30191	0.76810

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1576.23	1579.65
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	90.68	92.05
BRENT	111.44	112.79

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

March 1 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for the first time in four days after data showed the economy grew at its slowest pace since 2011 and a measure of China’s manufacturing missed forecasts.

Atlantic Power Corp. plunged 29 percent as the electric power company cut its dividend 65 percent after reporting worse- than-estimated fourth-quarter earnings. Cenovus Energy Inc. and Suncor Energy Inc. slumped at least 1.1 percent as the price of crude slipped to its lowest level this year.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 48.71 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,773.12 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The S&P/TSX rose 0.6 percent for the week.

“On the global scene you have softer PMI data in China and in the U.K.,” 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 reminding people that this isn’t a straight-line recovery, that there will be bumps in the road. There are still things that need to heal.”

The official Purchasing Managers’ Index in China was 50.1 in February, the weakest in five months and down from 50.4 in January, a report from the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing showed today in Beijing. A gauge of U.K. manufacturing based on a survey of purchasing managers slid to 47.9 last month from a revised 50.5 in January, according to Markit Economics and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

Canada’s gross domestic product grew at a 0.6 percent annualized pace from October to December, the slowest since the second quarter of 2011, as gains in investment and consumer spending were blunted by companies scaling back inventories.

Raw-materials companies contributed the most to losses in the S&P/TSX as seven of 10 industries retreated. Trading volume was 2.2 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Barrick Gold Corp. dropped 3.4 percent to C$30.20 after gold for April delivery fell 0.4 percent to settle at $1,572.30 an ounce in New York, capping a fourth straight week of declines.

Atlantic Power lost C$2.96 to C$7.30, for its biggest decline since listing in 2004. The company cut its annual dividend 65 percent to 40 Canadian cents a share after reporting a wider loss than analysts forecast.

Cenovus lost 65 Canadian cents to C$32.74 and Suncor slipped 35 Canadian cents to C$30.90 as crude for April delivery tumbled 1.5 percent to settle at $90.68 a barrel, the lowest level since December.

US

By Sarah Pringle

March 1 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, erasing earlier losses in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as better-than- estimated data on consumer confidence and manufacturing offset concerns about federal spending cuts.

Groupon Inc. rallied 13 percent after firing its chief executive officer. Salesforce.com Inc. jumped 7.6 percent after posting better-than-estimated results for the fourth quarter.

Apple Inc. fell 2.5 percent to its lowest level in more than a year. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. lost 1.4 percent as metals tumbled on a report showing China’s manufacturing slowed.

The S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 1,518.20 at 4 p.m. in New York, after dropping as much as 0.9 percent earlier. The benchmark index climbed 0.2 percent this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 35.17 points, or 0.3 percent, to 14,089.66. About 6.8 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 7.4 percent above the three-month average.

“The sequester panic, if this was 18 months ago, we could have seen multi-hundred point swings in the market,” Kevin Divney, chief investment officer at Beaconcrest Capital Management in Boston, said in a phone interview. “What has happened is that the policy makers have lost credibility with the stock market.”

Democrats and Republicans are in a standoff over how to replace the cuts, known as sequestration, totaling $1.2 trillion over nine years. Of that total, $85 billion would occur in the remaining seven months of this fiscal year. President Barack Obama said the automatic spending cuts set to kick in today will be a “slow grind” on the economy and that it may take weeks to win over enough lawmakers from both parties to reach a deal on a replacement deficit-cutting plan.

“There seems to be some belief that some sort of deal will come up that would postpone the sequestration,” Jordan Irving, who helps oversee $175 million at Irving Magee Investment Management in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview. “We didn’t think the deal would get done, so it’s just another headwind to the overall economy. I think people are going to take the weekend to really look at this.”

U.S. stocks rose as American factories expanded in February at the fastest pace in almost two years. The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index climbed to 54.2, the highest reading since June 2011, the Tempe, Arizona-based group said today.

Consumer spending in the U.S. rose in January even as incomes dropped by the most in 20 years, showing households were weathering the payroll-tax increase by socking away less money in the bank. Outside the U.S., data showed China’s manufacturing slowed for a second month while factory output in the euro area contracted for the 19th straight month.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said the Fed should press on with $85 billion in monthly bond buying, warning that a premature withdrawal of stimulus risks hobbling the recovery.

“We need to be careful not to undermine our own policies and remove accommodation prematurely, as the Japanese did,” Evans said yesterday in a speech in Des Moines, Iowa.

The S&P 500, which is trading at about 3 percent below its record, has gained 6.5 percent this year as lawmakers agreed on a compromise on taxes and amid better-than-estimated earnings.

The benchmark index rose 1.1 percent in February, capping a four-month rally, the longest stretch since September. The Dow is 0.5 percent from its record high reached in October 2007.

Eight of 10 groups in the S&P 500 advanced today as health- care and consumer-discretionary companies rose the most, climbing at least 0.5 percent. A Bloomberg gauge of U.S. airlines rallied 2.4 percent to $43.16, its highest level since December 2010. All 10 members advanced, as Delta Air Lines Inc. jumped 3.9 percent to $14.82 and United Continental Holdings Inc. gained 2.5 percent to $27.38, a two-year record high.

Groupon advanced 13 percent to $5.10. The daily-deals company ousted Andrew Mason as chief executive officer a day after reporting results that disappointed investors. Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis will oversee the company as it seeks a successor.

Salesforce.com increased 7.6 percent to $182. The largest maker of online customer-management software rose to a record high after reporting sales and profit that topped estimates as it expanded in marketing and customer-service tools.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. jumped 8.5 percent to $553.40 for the largest advance in the S&P 500. The manufacturer of surgical systems rebounded following yesterday’s 11 percent loss amid a safety probe by U.S. regulators of the company’s robots.

Deckers Outdoor Corp. advanced 15 percent to $46.62 after the owner of the Ugg brand forecast a gain of about 7 percent in 2013 revenue that exceeded analysts estimates.

Gap Inc. rose 2.9 percent to $33.87. The biggest U.S. specialty-apparel retailer posted fourth-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates, fueled by its best holiday shopping season in six years.

Best Buy Co. rose 4.6 percent to $17.16. The company posted adjusted profit that topped analysts’ estimates and said the retailer will focus on continuing its turnaround after failing to receive a takeover offer from its founder.

Chief Executive Officer Hubert Joly, who took over in September, has closed stores and matched rivals’ prices to reverse the retailer’s slide, all while founder Richard Schulze was analyzing the company’s financial data in preparation for a potential takeover offer. Best Buy said today that it didn’t receive an offer from Schulze by its deadline yesterday.

Apple dropped 2.5 percent to $430.47, its lowest level since January 2012. David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital Inc. will drop its lawsuit against Apple over a preferred share measure after the iPad maker agreed to withdraw the disputed proposal.

Greenlight won an injunction Feb. 22 barring Apple from moving forward with a shareholder vote on the measure that could have curtailed the company’s ability to issue preferred shares.

Freeport-McMoRan, the biggest industrial metals user, fell 1.4 percent to $31.49 as copper and aluminum fell to three-month lows.

Coal producers slumped, as Consol Energy Inc. dropped 4.7 percent to $30.64 and Peabody Energy Corp. tumbled 4.6 percent to $20.56. European coal for 2014 fell as much as 0.7 percent to a record $97.50 a ton as Deutsche Bank AG said China’s anti- pollution efforts may turn the country into a net exporter of the fuel in 2015.

Halliburton Co. erased 2.1 percent to $40.63, while Chesapeake Energy Corp. slide 2.4 percent to $19.67. Caterpillar Inc. slumped 1.1 percent to $91.36 and Alcoa Inc. lost 0.9 percent to $8.44 for the biggest declines in the Dow.

Warren Buffett mocked executives who held back investments because of “uncertainty” in the economy and said he will probably accelerate capital expenditure at his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. this year.

“There was a lot of hand-wringing last year among CEOs who cried ‘uncertainty’ when faced with capital allocation decisions despite many of their businesses having enjoyed record levels of both earnings and cash,” Buffett wrote in an annual letter to shareholders of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire posted online today. “We will keep our foot to the floor and will almost certainly set still another record for capital expenditures in 2013. Opportunities abound in America.”

The S&P 500 has returned 24 percent on average in years it’s risen in both January and February, a bullish sign for 2013, according to S&P.

The index climbed in both January and February 26 times since 1945, Sam Stovall, S&P’s New York-based chief equity strategist, wrote in a note. All 26 years ended with positive returns when including dividends, the data show. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities returned 5.2 percent in January and 1.4 percent in February this year including dividends.

“Even though the investing community faces economic and legislative hurdles in the near and long term, equity prices have risen in both January and February signaling, in our view, that many of these worries are unwarranted,” Stovall wrote in the note dated Feb. 25. “Since 1945, bucking the typical groundhog giveback has been a plus.”

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

I often ask myself at what point can a man and a beast that cannot talk recognize each other.

From the early paradise, at the dawn of creation, runs the path where their hearts meet.

Although their connection has long been forgotten,

traces of their continuing association has not been erased.

And, suddenly, in a wordless harmony,

a dim memory awakens and the beast looks on the face of the man with tender trust

and the man casts his eyes upon the beast with an amused tenderness.

It is as if two friends, both wearing masks, meet

and vaguely recognize each other through their disguises.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

So little done, so much to do.

-Cecil Rhodes, 1853-1902

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:

Today’s number ~ 598 – Years since a pope abdicated.  The last pope to resign was Gregory Xll in 1415 in order to end a civil war.

Reminder: Tomorrow is the last day for RSP contributions to reduce your taxable income for the 2012 tax year.

Photos of the Day – February 28th^th, 2013

A pedestrian walks down a path in a park under snow-covered trees following a snowfall in Montreal. Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press/AP

Passengers commute across the Yangon River as seagulls fly, in Yangon, Myanmar. Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP

Market Closes for February 28th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14054.49	-20.88    -0.15%
S&P 500	1514.68	-1.31    -0.09%
NASDAQ	3160.190	-2.067    -0.07%
TSX	12821.83	+89.44
		+0.70%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11559.36	+305.39
		+2.71%
HANG  SENG	23020.27	+443.26
		+1.96%
SENSEX	18861.54	-290.87
		-1.52%
FTSE 100	6360.81	+34.93
		+0.55%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.837	1.863
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.524	2.527
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8756	1.8980
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0856	3.0984

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.03058	1.02340
US   $	0.97033	0.97713
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34646	0.74269
US  $	1.30651	0.76540

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1579.65	1597.01
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.05	92.76
BRENT	112.79	113.87

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, for a third straight monthly gain, as Canadian National Railway Co. surged on increased North American rail traffic and Royal Bank of Canada climbed after reporting higher earnings.

Canadian National, which operates railroads, added 2.9 percent as weekly rail traffic in North America rose 4.7 percent. Royal Bank added 0.9 percent after posting better-than- expected earnings and raising its dividend. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lost 0.9 percent after reporting a decline in profit. Catamaran Corp. a pharmacy services provider, dropped 2.1 percent after its 2013 revenue projection trailed estimates.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 89.44 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,821.83 in Toronto. The S&P/TSX climbed 1.1 percent in February, for a third month of gains.

“It’s all about sentiment right now, the crowd is bullish so full speed ahead,” Keith Richards, a fund manager with ValueTrend Wealth Management, said in a phone interview from Barrie, Ontario. The firm manages about C$100 million. “People are buying because they’re afraid to lose on the upside, which is a sign the market top is approaching.”

Bank stocks contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX as eight of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume is 27 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Royal Bank, the nation’s largest lender, added 54 Canadian cents to C$64.02 after posting adjusted first-quarter earnings of C$1.38 a share, ahead of the C$1.32 average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The bank raised its quarterly dividend 5 percent to 63 Canadian cents a share.

Toronto-Dominion Bank climbed 0.7 percent to C$84.85.

First-quarter profit climbed 21 percent on higher Canadian and U.S. consumer bank results. The bank raised its quarterly dividend.

CIBC slipped 74 Canadian cents to C$83.14 after reporting a 4.4 percent drop in profit to C$798 million.

Canadian National gained C$2.98 to C$104.66, an all-time high. North American rail traffic rose 4.7 percent year-over- year to 672,000 units in the week ended Feb. 23, Lee Klaskow, an analyst with Bloomberg Industries, said in a report today.

Catamaran declined C$1.20 to C$55.57. The company, which provides technology services for the pharmacy and health-care industries, said it expects $14.2 billion to $14.6 billion in revenues in 2013, short of analysts’ expectations of $14.9 billion. Catamaran sees 2013 adjusted earnings per share of $1.81 to $1.88, with consensus estimates at $1.84.

Barrick Gold Corp. dropped 1.1 percent to C$31.27 and Goldcorp declined 0.7 percent to C$33.66. Gold for April delivery fell 1.1 percent to settle at $1,578.10 an ounce in New York, capping its fifth straight month of declines for the longest losing stretch in 16 years.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks erased gains in the final minutes of trading as investors prepared for rebalancing of benchmark indexes and after a Senate vote kept $85 billion of automatic spending cuts in place.

J.C. Penney Co. plunged 17 percent after posting its lowest annual sales in more than two decades. Sears Holdings Corp., the retailer controlled by hedge-fund manager Edward Lampert, slumped 5.2 percent after posting a fourth-quarter loss that was larger than it forecast. Intuitive Surgical Inc. dropped 11 percent as the provider of robots used in surgery is being probed by U.S. regulators over the safety of its products.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.1 percent to 1,514.68 at 4 p.m. in New York, after rising as much as 0.6 percent earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 20.88 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,054.49. The measure is less than 1 percent away from its October 2007 record. About 7 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, or 11 percent above the three-month average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“While we don’t expect massive impact from the impending spending cuts, there always remains a certain fear of the unknown and an anticipation of increased volatility into that uncertainty,” E. William Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management in Philadelphia, said in a telephone interview. His firm manages about $115 billion.

The Dow had earlier climbed to within 16 points of its 2007 record. MSCI Inc. made changes to global and U.S. equity indexes at the close of trading, a process known as rebalancing that can lead to swings in affected stocks. Gains also fizzled as the Senate rejected a pair of partisan proposals to replace $85 billion in automatic spending cuts set to begin tomorrow.

“Sequestration in the U.S. is one of the key issues of the moment,” William Murray, a spokesman at the International Monetary Fund told reporters in Washington today. “What it means is we’ll have to reevaluate our growth forecasts in the U.S. and also our other forecasts.”

The economy in the U.S. managed to barely expand in the fourth quarter, erasing a previously estimated contraction, as the smallest trade deficit in almost three years helped overcome the biggest plunge in defense spending since the Vietnam War era. Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, showing companies were looking beyond looming government spending cuts and maintaining staffing.

The S&P 500, which is trading at about 3 percent below its record, has gained 6.2 percent this year as lawmakers agreed on a compromise on taxes and amid better-than-estimated earnings.

The index rose 1.1 percent in February, capping a four-month rally, the longest stretch since September.

J.C. Penney tumbled 17 percent to $17.57 after the department-store chain lost $4.3 billion in sales in the first year of Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson’s turnaround plan.

The company yesterday said its net loss in the quarter ended Feb. 2 widened to $552 million from $87 million a year earlier.

The Plano, Texas-based retailer’s annual revenue slid 25 percent to $13 billion, the lowest since at least 1987.

Sears lost 5.2 percent to $45. The loss narrowed to $489 million, or $4.61 a share, from a loss of $2.4 billion, or $22.63, a year earlier, the Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company said today in a statement. Sears had predicted a loss of $280 million to $360 million. Revenue fell 1.8 percent to $12.3 billion, exceeding the two analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg as domestic like-for-like sales improved.

Intuitive Surgical plunged 11 percent to $509.89. The regulators have asked surgeons at key hospitals to list any complications they may have seen with Intuitive’s robots, which cost $1.5 million each and were used last year in almost 500,000 procedures. The doctors were also surveyed on which surgeries the robots might be most and least suited for, and asked to discuss their training, according to copies of the survey obtained by Bloomberg News.

Groupon Inc. slumped 24 percent to $4.53 after forecasting sales that missed analysts’ estimates. After the close of trading, the company said it removed Andrew Mason as chief executive officer. Pressure had been mounting on the company to seek a new CEO as Mason struggled to cope with a drop in demand for daily coupons, which make up most of its revenue. The shares jumped 3.5 percent as of 5:14 p.m. in New York.

Cablevision Systems Corp. slipped 9.6 percent to $13.99.

The fifth-largest U.S. cable provider by subscribers posted a fourth-quarter operating loss and missed revenue estimates after Superstorm Sandy devastated New York-area homes.

NII Holdings Inc. retreated 11 percent to $4.82. The seller of Nextel mobile-phone service in Latin America fell after a fourth-quarter loss that included a writedown of its assets in Chile.

Limited Brands Inc. rose 2.3 percent to $45.52. The owner of Victoria’s Secret lingerie chain said fourth-quarter net income rose 14 percent as sales grew. The company known for its supermodels called “Angels” is planning its first stores in Hong Kong, where surging demand from shoppers has sent retail rents to a record.

Mylan Inc. jumped 3.6 percent to $29.61. The second-biggest stand-alone generic drug-maker agreed to buy the injectable medicine unit of India’s Strides Arcolab Ltd. for $1.6 billion as it targets becoming among the top three global providers.

Amerisafe Inc. added 12 percent to $32.62. The workers’ compensation insurer for industries including construction and logging gained after fourth-quarter profit beat estimates.

Warren Buffett once said that shunning dividends in his early years running Berkshire Hathaway Inc. allowed him to refocus the company on better businesses, much as a person would overcome “a misspent youth.”

The 82-year-old billionaire is now focused on his legacy as he prepares the company he’s overseen for almost five decades for new management. Using his annual letter tomorrow to outline a dividend strategy could help explain to shareholders how the company’s next leaders should approach the challenge of allocating profits.

“It may ease the burden on the successors” if they are able to initiate a dividend, said Richard Cook, co-manager of the Cook & Bynum Fund, which counts Berkshire among its largest holdings. Berkshire and its units “generate a lot of cash.”

Buffett has sought to teach shareholders about business, investing and corporate governance through the annual letters and meetings held in Omaha, Nebraska, where Berkshire is based.

As the company grew with investment gains and acquisitions, so did its cash pile, which reached $47.8 billion at the end of September. That’s made the task of allocating the funds more difficult, because it’s hard to find worthwhile, large investments, Buffett has said.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Between me and the smallest animal,

the difference is only in manifestation,

but as a principle he is the same as I am,

he is my brother, he has the same soul as I have.

Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed

in imitation.

-Herman Melville, 1819-1891

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