Month: November 2013

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I love this – especially  “make each day your masterpiece”.

John Wooden’s Seven Point Creed, given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammar school:

• Be true to yourself.
• Make each day your masterpiece.
• Help others.
• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
• Make friendship a fine art.
• Build a shelter against a rainy day.
• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Photos of the day

Burial Hill in Plymouth is one of the oldest cemeteries in the US. English settlers, the Pilgrims, built their first fort and meeting house on this hill. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

School groups walk through the English Village at Plimoth Plantation. The ‘First Thanksgiving’ was celebrated by the Pilgrims in Plimoth after their first harvest in the New World in 1621. This feast lasted three days, and was attended by about 53 Pilgrims and 90 American Indians. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

A statue of Massasoit, Sachem, or leader, of the Wampanoags, stands on a hill overlooking Plymouth Harbor. Massasoit was known as ‘Protector and Preserver of the Pilgrims.’ According to English sources, Massasoit prevented the failure of the Plymouth Colony and the almost certain starvation that the Pilgrims faced during the earliest years of the colony’s establishment. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Market Closes for November 28^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16097.33	Closed
S&P 500	1807.23	Closed
NASDAQ	4044.750	Closed
TSX	13370.83	+8.77
		+0.07%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15727.12	+277.49
		+1.80%
HANG  SENG	23789.09	-17.26
		-0.07%
SENSEX	20534.91	+114.65
		+0.56%
FTSE 100	6654.47	+5.00
		+0.08%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.537	2.549
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.140	3.145
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7373	2.7373
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8150	3.8150

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94447	0.94384
US   $	1.05880	1.05951
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.44028	0.69431
US  $	1.36030	0.73513

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1242.48	1237.73
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.30	92.30
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a second day as gold producers advanced after the metal snapped two days of losses. DHX Media Ltd. surged after agreeing to buy several television channels from BCE Inc.

DHX Media jumped 24 percent after buying Family Channel, Disney XD and other channels from Bell Media, a unit of BCE, for about C$170 million ($161 million) in cash. Detour Gold Corp. climbed 14 percent and Iamgold Corp. rose 2.7 percent. Air Canada, the best-performing stock in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index this year, added 2.1 percent for a second day of gains.

The S&P/TSX rose 8.77 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 13,370.83 at 4:33 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 7.5 percent this year. U.S. markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Gold’s been down the past few days so it’s rebounded a bit today, as the U.S. dollar is down,” said Anish Chopra, a fund manager with TD Asset Management Inc. in Toronto. He helps manage C$216 billion at the firm. “U.S. markets are a real driver of market activity and when they’re closed it’s usually a very quiet day.”

Raw-materials stocks added 0.9 percent as a group as six of 10 industries advanced in the S&P/TSX. Trading volume was 73 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Detour Gold, the worst-performing stock in the S&P/TSX this year, jumped 14 percent to C$4.13, the most since July. Detour has slumped 83 percent this year.

Iamgold advanced 2.7 percent to C$4.53 as gold for immediate delivery increased 0.5 percent at 4:55 p.m. in London.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest diversified miner by market value, gained 2.8 percent to C$25.95 and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. rallied 3.8 percent to C$17.93 to break four days of losses as global copper inventories declined for a 19th session to 429,200 tons.

DHX Media, the Halifax-based TV and movie programming producer, surged 24 percent to a record high of C$5.19 after agreeing to buy channels from BCE.

The company plans to pay using a combination of debt and cash on hand, and projects the deal to close in 2014 pending regulatory approval.

The channels will “greatly expand the scale of our business,” Dana Landry, chief financial officer at DHX, said in a statement. The channels would have increased DHX’s revenue by more than 70 percent in the past 12 months, Landry said.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., the convenience store and gas bar operator, rose 1.5 percent to C$77.96 to extend a record high and pace gains among consumer staples stocks.

Couche-Tard has jumped 6 percent in the past five days. The Laval, Quebec-based company reported better-than-forecast second-quarter adjusted earnings and raised its quarterly dividend on Nov. 26.

Output in Canada probably grew at an annualized pace of 2.4 percent in the third quarter, its fastest pace in two years, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Statistics Canada will release quarterly and monthly GDP figures tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. in Ottawa.

Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline, increased 2.1 percent to C$7.15 to extend a five-year high. The stock has soared 309 percent this year.

USA

Markets closed for Thanksgiving.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed.

I want the cultures of all the lands to blow about my house as freely as possible.

But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

A moment’s insight is worth a lifetime

of experience.

-Justice Holmes, 1841-1935.

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:

American Thanksgiving tomorrow and the financial world stands still.

Kitchen Chemistry: For the chemistry involved in creating holiday food, the American Chemical Society’s web site offers a collection of articles and videos discussing everything from why it’s safe to cook turkey for less time to the science behind thickening gravy.  Check it out at http://bit.ly/thanksscience.

Photos of the day

A male cardinal feeds on sunflower seeds at Frances Slocum State Park in Wyoming, Pa. Mark Moran/The Citizens’ Voice/AP

Colorful holiday lights glow from under the glass domes of the US Botanic Garden, with orange streaks from a passing city bus, on Capitol Hill in Washington. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Market Closes for November 27^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16097.33	+24.53    +0.15%
S&P 500	1807.23	+4.48    +0.25%
NASDAQ	4044.750	+27.001    +0.67%
TSX	13362.06	+12.29
		+0.09%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15449.63	-65.61
		-0.42%
HANG  SENG	23806.35	+125.07
		+0.53%
SENSEX	20420.26	-4.76
		-0.02%
FTSE 100	6649.47	+13.25
		+0.20%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.549	2.522
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.145	3.111
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7373	2.7077
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8150	3.7982

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94384	0.94855
US   $	1.05951	1.05424
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.43844	0.69520
US  $	1.35765	0.73649

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1237.73	1242.81
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.30	93.68
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Aubrey Pringle

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, after falling the most in two months yesterday, amid an unexpected increase in U.S. consumer confidence and a decline in U.S. jobless claims.

Novagold Resources Inc. jumped 7.9 percent, pacing gains among raw-materials producers. Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. and Lightstream Resources Ltd., both oil exploration companies, dropped at least 1.4 percent amid a report showing U.S. crude stockpiles continued to increase. Trinidad Drilling Ltd. fell 5.3 percent after reporting its plan to raise C$150 million ($142 million) through a stock sale.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 12.29 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,362.06 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge is little changed for the month, and up 7.5 percent so far in 2013. Trading volume today was 21 percent below the 30-day average.

“Any sort of data that points to consumers being more willing to spend is a positive for the markets,” Jeff Young, chief investment officer at NexGen Financial Corp., said in a phone interview. The Toronto-based firm manages about C$950 million. “If the consumer is more confident and starts to spend more, that translates into higher revenues for companies.”

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of U.S. consumer sentiment in November unexpectedly rose to 75.1 from 73.2 a month earlier. Fewer Americans than projected filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the labor market is showing resilience.

Seven of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX advanced, led higher by raw-materials producers. The group added 0.8 percent, halting a five-day losing streak. Novagold Resources surged 7.9 percent to C$2.45, it’s biggest increase since Oct. 17, and Detour Gold Corp. rose 4 percent to C$3.63.

Iamgold Corp. added 2.1 percent to C$4.41, rebounding from a 4.2 percent slide yesterday. The company said it will build a 5-megawatt solar farm in Suriname to minimize energy costs. The project will cost as much $14 million and start producing energy in the third quarter of next year, Toronto-based Iamgold said.

Industrial stocks added 0.6 percent, as Air Canada rose 1.9 percent to C$7, its highest since June 2008. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. added 1 percent to C$161.18 and Canadian National Railway Co. climbed 1 percent to C$118.61.

Energy companies retreated for a third day, as the price of oil fell to the lowest level in almost six months after government data showed U.S. crude stockpiles climbed for a 10th week. Oil is Canada’s biggest export, while the U.S. is its largest trading partner.

Canadian Oil Sands fell 1.6 percent to C$19.81, while Lightstream Resources dropped 1.4 percent to C$5.41.

Trinidad Drilling fell 5.3 percent to C$9.92. The company plans to sell 15 million shares at C$10 each and use the proceeds to finance capital expenses and for general corporate purposes.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. lost 3.4 percent to C$17.28 for its eighth retreat in nine sessions. The company said today it “strongly disputed” a claim by noteholders that a default has occurred on bonds issued by Inmet Mining Corp., a company it bought this year.

Slower growth in consumer debt and a cooler housing market will allow the Bank of Canada to wait until early 2015 to raise interest rates as it waits for a pick-up in exports, the International Monetary Fund said.

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz last month abandoned his bias to raise interest rates and issued a monetary policy report that said a forecast increase in exports and business investment had been delayed. Canada’s inflation was an annual 0.7 percent in October, Statistics Canada said Nov. 22, below the bottom of the central bank’s target band.

Policy makers “should remain focused on sustaining growth until the rotation to exports and business investment gains firmer momentum, while assuring that the gradual unwinding of domestic imbalances continues and that the fiscal position is maintained on a sustainable trajectory,” the IMF said today.

USA

By Lu Wang and Aubrey Pringle

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) —  U.S. stocks rose, extending a third monthly gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as Hewlett- Packard Co. led a technology rally while data on employment and consumer confidence boosted optimism in the economy.

Hewlett-Packard jumped 9.1 percent after the maker of personal computers posted revenue and profit that topped analysts’ estimates. Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. rose at least 3.4 percent, leading a rally among refiners.

Schlumberger Ltd. and Noble Energy Inc. fell at least 1.7 percent as crude slid to the lowest level in almost six months.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to a record 1,807.23 at 4 p.m.

in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 24.53 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,097.33, an all-time high. About 4.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the slowest trading since Aug. 26. U.S. equity markets will be closed tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Today’s data “is in some sense a re-affirmation that things are going along pretty decently,” Bill Schultz, chief investment officer who oversees about $1.1 billion at McQueen Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said by phone.

“Are we going to get higher rates again? Is tapering still out there? The market is playing with what’s going to come next and how we position going forward given a number of uncertainty still sitting out there.”

The S&P 500 has climbed 2.9 percent in November as data on housing and retail sales exceeded economists’ forecasts, stoking optimism that the world’s largest economy will sustain growth when the Federal Reserve starts reducing its monetary stimulus.

Data today showed fewer Americans than projected filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the labor market is showing resilience. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment in November unexpectedly rose to 75.1 from 73.2 a month earlier.

The median forecast of 65 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 73.1 after a preliminary reading of 72.

The Conference Board’s index of U.S. leading indicators, a gauge of the economic outlook for the next three to six months, rose for a fourth straight month in October, reflecting gains in factory orders and applications to begin new-home construction.

A separate report showed government shutdown hurt business confidence, with orders for U.S. durable goods dropping 2 percent in October, as projected by economists. The MNI Chicago Report business barometer fell less than expected in November.

“Things are slowly improving, confidence is coming back,” Eric Marshall, who oversees $1.5 billion as president and portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas, said in a phone interview. “Stocks may still be attractive relative to where the interest rate environment is now. Going forward, we can still get a little more multiple expansion, but not much. The real driver for stocks will be earnings.”

The S&P 500 has rallied 27 percent this year, heading for the biggest annual gain since 1998, as the Fed continued the pace of monetary stimulus. The rally pushed equity valuations near their highest level since the end of 2009, with the benchmark gauge trading for about 16.3 times its companies’ projected earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three rounds of Fed bond purchases have helped push the S&P 500 up 167 percent from a bear-market low in 2009. Fed policy makers have been scrutinizing data to determine whether the economy is strong enough to withstand a reduction in their $85 billion a month in bond purchases.

Four out of five investors expect the Fed to delay a decision to begin reducing the stimulus until March 2014 or later, according to a Bloomberg Global Poll on Nov. 19.

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economy probably will grow more slowly next year than some forecasters predict and indicated that a near-record U.S. stock market isn’t in a bubble.

“This does not have the characteristics, as far as I’m concerned, of a stock market bubble,” Greenspan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “It could come out that way but I don’t see it at this stage.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, rose 1.1 percent today to 12.95. The gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX is down 28 percent this year.

Eight of 10 S&P 500 industry groups gained as technology companies rose the most, climbing 1 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.7 percent for a fifth straight gain, after yesterday closing above 4,000 for the first time in 13 years.

Hewlett-Packard surged 9.1 percent to $27.36, the highest since February 2012. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman got a boost in her turnaround efforts last quarter as businesses snapped up technology products. Results were buoyed by corporate demand for servers, personal computers and networking equipment.

Apple Inc. advanced 2.4 percent to $545.96, the highest level since January. The waiting time for the company’s iPhone 5S smartphones has shortened as Foxconn Technology Co. boosted production, the Wall Street Journal reported. Apple is shipping iPhone 5S within three to five business days, down from a two- to-three week wait last month, the report said, citing the company’s online stores in China and U.S.

Marathon Petroleum advanced 3.4 percent to $84.34 and Valero increased 3.7 percent to $45.97, as refiners rallied. The contract for West Texas Intermediate traded at the widest discount since March to Brent oil in London, indicating U.S. companies may be able to maintain favorable prices for crude.

Falling crude prices weighed on other energy companies, dragging the group down 0.7 percent for the worst performance among 10 S&P 500 industries. Oil slumped as much as 2 percent in New York to the lowest level since June 3 after government data showed U.S. crude stockpiles climbed for a 10th week.

Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services provider, declined 1.7 percent to $87.95. Noble Energy sank 4.5 percent to $69.87.

Analog Devices slipped 2.8 percent to $48.54. Adjusted earnings will be between 44 cents and 52 cents a share in the first quarter, the company said in a statement. That compares with the average analyst projection of 56 cents.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Never under any circumstances ask “how.”

When you use the word “how” you really want someone to tell you what to do,

some guide, some system, someone to lead you by the hand so that you lose your freedom,

your capacity to observe, your own activities, your own thoughts, your own way of life.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Here’s a new day.  O pendulum

move slowly.

-Harold Monro, 1879-1932.

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:

An inspiring story for you from today’s Wall Street Journal:

A Pianist Who Survived Hitler Plays Today at 110

The world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor still plays Bach and Schubert.

By Caroline Stoessinger

That music can bring happiness is obvious. But is it also the key to a long life?

Pianist Artur Rubinstein retired from the concert stage after his 89th birthday. Mieczyslaw Horsowski played his final concert at age 99 and taught a lesson the week before he died in 2003, just one month before his 101st birthday. But the world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor, Alice Herz-Sommer, trumps both of these legendary artists.

On Tuesday, she turns 110. Ms. Herz-Sommer no longer plays Bach and Schubert at concert level. Some days, her arthritic fingers fail to cooperate. And she must rely on her prodigious musical memory, as she can no longer see to read a score. But the woman who made her debut as a soloist with the Czech Philharmonic before her 21st birthday in 1924 still plays.

Ms. Herz-Sommer was well on her way to an international career when the Nazis invaded Prague, the city of her birth, on March 15, 1939. Forbidden as a Jew from playing public concerts, she continued to practice long hours in her apartment until the day in July 1943 when she, her husband, Leopold Sommer, and Rafi, their 6-year-old son, were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Having heard rumors of concerts in the camp from Leopold, who worked for the Prague Jewish Community Organization, she faced the imprisonment with cautious optimism. “How bad can it be if we can make music?” she remembers thinking.

But from the moment she was herded inside the camp’s gates at age 40, Ms. Herz-Sommer confronted the horrific reality of life in Hitler’s waiting room for Auschwitz. Thousands disappeared, only to be replaced with new shipments of human cargo. In September 1944, Leopold was shipped to Auschwitz. She would never see her husband again.

Before Hitler came to power, it had been a common practice in Germany to hold concerts in factories. Many of the managers in the factories were elevated to positions of authority in the Nazi regime, and so encouraging music in the concentration camps must have seemed a logical step—even if it meant being entertained by musicians slated to be murdered.

“Once one commandant had a prisoner orchestra and concerts, others proudly followed suit,” Anita Lasker Wallfisch, the only cellist in the Girls’ Auschwitz Orchestra, once told me. The Nazis exploited the concerts for publicity, most prominently in a 1944 propaganda film, “Hitler Gives the Jews a City.”

Yet Jewish prisoners were forbidden to bring sheet music or instruments into Theresienstadt. The one piano used for concerts was in extremely poor condition, the buildings were unheated, and the Nazis rarely permitted rehearsals. But as best they could, the performers shared the eternal sounds of Mozart, Bach and Dvorak with those trapped in Hitler’s “model” camp. Ms. Herz-Sommer played more than 100 concerts during her 21 months in Theresienstadt for an audience of fellow prisoners.

“Music was our food,” Ms. Herz-Sommer has said often since those days. “Through music we were kept alive.” She greets visitors today in her tiny London flat with the same radiant smile that must have given much comfort to her fellow inmates as she performed.

After the war, Ms. Herz-Sommer fled the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia to raise Rafi, who had also survived the camp, in the new state of Israel. She eked out a living teaching there at the Music Academy of Jerusalem, before settling in England in 1986. Despite all she has endured, Ms. Herz-Sommer seems joyful when practicing piano or listening to classical music programs on the radio. “I think, no I am sure,” she says, “I am one of the happiest people in the world.”

Ms. Stoessinger, a pianist, is the author of “A Century of Wisdom: Lessons From the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer” (Spiegel & Grau, 2012).

Photos of the day

A murmuration of starlings flies over the town of Gretna, Scotland. The starlings visit the area twice a year in the months of November and February. Owen Humphreys/PA/AP

Salam, 5, an African lion, stands on the branches of a tree at the Ramt Gan safari near Tel Aviv, Israel. Tree-climbing lions are relatively uncommon and are best known for their populations in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park and Tanzania’s Lake Manyara national Park. Ariel Schalit/AP

Market Closes for November 26^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16072.80	+0.26    —
S&P 500	1802.75	+0.27    +0.01%
NASDAQ	4017.749	+23.176    +0.58%
TSX	13349.77	-122.45
		-0.91%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15515.24	-103.89
		-0.67%
HANG  SENG	23681.28	-3.17
		-0.01%
SENSEX	20425.02	-180.06
		-0.87%
FTSE 100	6636.22	-58.40
		-0.87%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.522	2.557
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.111	3.126
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7077	2.7328
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.7982	3.8239

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94855	0.94988
US   $	1.05424	1.05277
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.43038	0.69912
US  $	1.35678	0.73704

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1242.81	1249.12
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.68	93.92
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in two months, as gold producers dropped after Morgan Stanley cut its rating on Iamgold Corp. and Eldorado Gold Corp. and an investor sold shares of technology stock CGI Group Inc.

Iamgold and Eldorado Gold fell at least 4.2 percent. CGI Group declined 2.5 percent after investor Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec sold some of its shares. Detour Gold Corp. sank 7.4 percent for a seventh day of losses.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. rose 3 percent after reporting higher-than- estimated earnings and boosting its dividend.

Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia lost more than 1.4 percent to pace declines among lenders.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index retreated 122.45 points, or 0.9 percent, to 13,349.77 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, for its steepest slide since September. The benchmark equity gauge has dropped 0.9 percent this month to trim its 2013 advance to 7.4 percent.

“It’s the commodities sector that’s hurt the most today, and it’s a continuing trend that Canada has been out of favor,” said Ian Nakamoto, director of research with MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Inc. in Toronto. The firm manages about C$4.7 billion ($4.5 billion). “There’s uncertainty over energy in terms of Iran, and the potential for more supply is never good for a commodity. The mood and luster for gold just isn’t there.”

Raw-materials stocks slumped 1.4 percent as a group, the biggest decline in the S&P/TSX as nine of 10 industries retreated. Trading volume was 18 percent higher compared with the 30-day average at this time of the day.

Detour Gold sank 7.4 percent to C$3.49, the lowest close since December 2008. The stock has slumped 37 percent in the past seven days.

Chief Executive Officer Gerald Panneton resigned yesterday without providing a reason. He will be replaced by Paul Martin, the chief financial officer, on an interim basis. Detour Gold has plunged 86 percent this year.

Eldorado Gold fell 4.5 percent to C$6.11 and Iamgold lost 4.2 percent to C$4.32. The S&P/TSX Gold Index declined 2.3 percent, a four-month low.

Morgan Stanley reduced its ratings for Eldorado Gold to equal-weight, the equivalent of a hold, from overweight, and dropped Iamgold to underweight, the equivalent of a sell.

Gold for December delivery was little changed in New York.  The metal pared an earlier gain of as much as 1.3 percent after improving data on U.S. building permits and home prices.

Suncor Energy Inc. declined 1.8 percent to C$36.59 and Husky Energy Inc. lost 1.3 percent to C$29.89. Crude slipped 0.4 percent ahead of a report from the Energy Information Administration tomorrow that will probably say inventories rose 750,000 barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Iran on Nov. 24 agreed to curtail its nuclear activities in return for easing some sanctions on oil, auto parts, gold and precious metals.

CGI Group, the information-technology company that worked on the Obamacare health exchange software, fell 2.5 percent to C$39.70. Caisse de Depot, the Quebec pension fund, will sell 9.96 million shares of CGI Group to rebalance its investment portfolio.

As part of the transaction, CGI Group will buy back C$100 million worth of the shares, or about 25 percent of those sold by the pension fund.

Royal Bank, the nation’s largest lender, decreased 1.4 percent to C$70.51 and Bank of Nova Scotia tumbled 1.6 percent to C$65.42. The S&P/TSX Banks Index slumped 1.1 percent, the most since June.

Alimentation Couche-Tard, the convenience store operator, climbed 3 percent to a record C$76.17 after reporting second- quarter adjusted earnings of $1.32 a share compared with analysts’ estimates of $1.23. The company also raised its quarterly dividend to 10 Canadian cents a share from 8.75 cents.

Chorus Aviation Inc. surged 29 percent to C$3.52, a record gain, after an arbitration panel ruled in favor of the company’s Jazz Aviation unit in a dispute with Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline.  Air Canada, the top-performing stock in the S&P/TSX this year with a 293 percent advance, slipped 0.3 percent to C$6.87.

USA

By Lu Wang and Aubrey Pringle

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks pared gains in the final minutes of trading as investors rebalanced portfolios, offsetting a rally among homebuilders and technology shares. The Nasdaq Composite Index topped 4,000 for first time in 13 years.

Lennar Corp. and PulteGroup Inc. climbed at least 4.4 percent amid better-than-expected industry data. Apple rose 1.8 percent, pacing gains among technology companies. Tiffany & Co. jumped 8.7 percent after profit topped analysts’ estimates and the jeweler boosted its forecast. Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. rose 11 percent after Men’s Wearhouse Inc. offered to buy the apparel company for about $1.54 billion. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. fell 5.4 percent as the gaming company said it bought back all 12 million shares held by Icahn Group.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained less than 1 point to 1,802.75 after earlier rising as much as 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed at 16,072.80. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.6 percent to 4,017.75, the highest close since September 2000. About 6.1 billion shares changed hands, in line with the three-month average.

“We’ve been riding a pretty good wave of momentum that’s taken the market higher than most people had expected at the beginning of the year,” Jeff Layman, chief investment officer of BKD Wealth Advisors in Springfield, Missouri, said by phone.

His firm has $2.4 billion under management. “Much of that has been driven by multiple expansion, not underlying earnings growth. As we close out this year and get into 2014, that dynamic will probably change. We think it’ll be a return to focus on earnings growth.”

Stocks trimmed gains in the final 30 minutes of trading as investors sold U.S. equities to mimic changes in MSCI indexes that took effect at the close.

Apple, Oracle Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. are among companies that face the biggest decrease in weighting in the MSCI review, according to Societe Generale SA.

The S&P 500 traded higher for most of today’s session, touching an intraday record of 1,808.42, as data showed the housing market sustained progress even as borrowing costs climbed.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values indicated home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose by the most since February 2006 in the 12 months through September. A Commerce Department report counted more applications for home construction issued in October than at any time in the past five years.

In a separate report, confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly declined in November to a seven-month low as Americans grew more pessimistic about the labor-market outlook.

“We’re tending to move in a positive direction,” Kate Warne, a St. Louis-based investment strategist at Edward Jones & Co., said by phone. Her firm oversees $746 billion. “We’re getting data in a sweet spot. It’s positive but not so positive as to raise worries about the Fed moving sooner and yet it continues to show that the economy is gaining some traction.”

Policy makers have been scrutinizing data to determine whether the economy is strong enough to withstand a reduction in their $85 billion a month in bond purchases.

Three rounds of Federal Reserve bond purchases have helped push the S&P 500 up more than 166 percent from a bear-market low in 2009. Four out of five investors expect the Fed to delay a decision to begin reducing the stimulus until March 2014 or later, according to a Bloomberg Global Poll on Nov. 19.

The S&P 500 has rallied 26.4 percent this year, challenging 2003 for the biggest annual gain since 1998, as economic data and corporate earnings have surpassed estimates. Companies in the gauge will report a 5.6 percent increase in profits for the current quarter and earnings will grow 9.9 percent next year, according to forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.

The index is trading for about 17 times its companies’ reported earnings. While the valuation is at the highest level since May 2010, it’s still below the multiples at the market’s two previous peaks, when the ratio reached 17.5 in October 2007 and 31 in March 2000, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index added 0.2 percent today to 12.81. The gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX is down 29 percent this year.

Three of 10 S&P 500 industries gained, with technology and consumer-discretionary companies climbing at least 0.4 percent.

Apple jumped 1.8 percent to $533.40, the highest since January. China Mobile Ltd.’s selling of iPhone will provide a tailwind to Apple’s 2014 earnings estimates, according to Peter Misek, an analyst with Jefferies LLC.

Shares of Apple trimmed an earlier gain of as much as 2.4 percent as investors anticipated MSCI changes. Exxon Mobil slipped 0.9 percent to $94.27 while Oracle added 0.4 percent to $34.93 after rising as much as 1.1 percent.

An S&P index of homebuilders surged 4.1 percent as all its 11 members gained. Lennar climbed 5.1 percent to $36.05.

PulteGroup advanced 4.4 percent to $18.95, the highest since July.

Tiffany rallied 8.7 percent to a record $88.02 for the biggest advance in the S&P 500. The world’s second-largest largest luxury jewelry retailer’s profit climbed and it boosted its annual earnings forecast as the rising U.S. stock market gave wealthy consumers the confidence to snap up higher-priced merchandise.

Jos. A. Bank jumped 11 percent to $56.29 and Men’s Warehouse added 7.5 percent to $50.60. Men’s Wearhouse is turning the tables on Jos. A. Bank, which last month made an unsolicited $2.3 billion offer for its larger rival. Men’s Wearhouse rejected that bid, saying it undervalued the company, and the offer expired after a Nov. 14 deadline.

Hormel Foods Corp., the maker of Spam and Jennie-O turkeys, advanced 5.9 percent to a record $44.95 after the company reported quarterly earnings that beat analysts’ estimates and boosted its dividend to 20 cents a share, up from 17 cents.

Workday Inc. surged 13 percent to $82.60 after the maker of online human-resources software said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of as much as $138 million, exceeding the average analyst projection for $129 million.

Take-Two Interactive dropped 5.4 percent to $16.01. The maker of the “Grand Theft Auto” games bought the shares at yesterday’s closing price of $16.93. The New York-based company also said Icahn representatives Brett Icahn and Nelson Cho have resigned from its board. Icahn Group was Take Two’s largest shareholder.

Hewlett-Packard Co. slipped 0.9 percent to $25.09. After the market’s close, the company reported quarterly revenue and profit that topped analysts’ estimates, boosted by corporate demand for servers, computers and networking equipment. The stock jumped 6.6 percent to $26.75 in extended trading.

Utilities dropped 1 percent for the worst performance among 10 S&P 500 industries. CenterPoint Energy Inc. slumped 5.2 percent to $23.58 and OGE Energy Corp. fell 6.9 percent to $35.32. The utility owners and partner ArcLight Capital Partners LLC said they plan to raise about $500 million next year in an initial public offering of Enable Midstream Partners LP.

Nuance Communications Inc. tumbled 18 percent to $13.10, the lowest in more than four years, after projecting full-year sales that missed analysts’ forecasts. The maker of speech- recognition software said it expects full-year 2014 adjusted revenue of $2.03 billion to $2.09 billion. Analysts on average had estimated $2.1 billion.

The S&P 500 will probably fall 10 percent in the next 12 months before rebounding to end 2014 at 1,900, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The 1,900 forecast implies about a 5 percent advance from today’s level. The 25 months since the index’s last 10 percent drop is the longest stretch without such a decline since 2007, according to S&P.

“It will be less smooth sailing,” David Kostin, the bank’s chief U.S. equity strategist, said on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers” program. “The likelihood is we will have something that will prompt a reduction — a retreat in the market. But overall the market should be rising, and that’s because the U.S. economy will be getting better.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

To grow is to go beyond what you are today.

Stand up as yourself.  Do not imitate.

Do not pretend to have achieved your goal, and do not try to cut corners.

Just try to grow.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul

on fire.

-Ferdinand Foch, 1851-1929.

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:

A Navajo Song, expressing the harmony of nature:

In beauty may I walk

From the Navajo

translated by Jerome K. Rothenberg

In beauty                                               may I walk

All day long                                            may I walk

Through the  returning seasons                may I walk

Beautifully will I possess again

Beautifully birds

Beautifully joyful birds

On the trail marked with pollen                may I walk

With grasshoppers about my feet             may I walk

With dew about my feet                          may I walk

With beauty                                           may I walk

With beauty before me                            may I walk

With beauty behind me                           may I walk

With beauty above me                            may I walk

With beauty all around me                      may I walk

In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty,

lively, may I walk

In old age, wandering

It is finished in beauty

It is finished in beauty

**********************************************

On this day in 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter opened and entered King Tut’s tomb for the first time in more than 3000 years.

Also on this day in 1952, Agatha Christie’s, The Mousetrap, the longest continuously running play in history, opened in London.

Photos of the day

A visitor looks at the art work titled ‘Dinosaur Skeleton,’ which is constructed out of 80,020 Lego bricks, during the ‘The Art of the Brick’ exhibition at the Brussels Stock Exchange. The exhibition features large Lego art works by US Lego artist Nathan Sawaya. Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Munich’s town hall is illuminated during the Christmas market at dusk before the official lighting of the Christmas tree. The first official record of this pre-Christmas market dates back to 1628. Michael Dalder/Reuters

Market Closes for November 25^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16072.54	+7.77    +0.05%
S&P 500	1802.48	-2.28    -0.13%
NASDAQ	3994.574	+2.924    +0.07%
TSX	13478.66	+0.32
		—

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15619.13	+237.41
		+1.54%
HANG  SENG	23684.45	-11.83
		-0.05%
SENSEX	20605.08	+387.69
		+1.92%
FTSE 100	6694.62	+20.32
		+0.30%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.557	2.574
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.126	3.147
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7328	2.7427
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8239	3.8292

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94988	0.95103
US   $	1.05277	1.05149
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.42451	0.70199
US  $	1.35328	0.73894

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1249.12	1243.63
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.92	94.49
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for the first time in three sessions as oil slid after Iran and world powers reached an interim accord on the country’s nuclear program.

Detour Gold Corp., the worst-performing stock in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index this year, plunged 12 percent after its chief executive officer resigned. Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. sank 17 percent to a 10-year low after saying second-quarter gold production was lower than previously reported. BlackBerry Ltd. gained 1.4 percent after the smartphone maker announced the departures of three top executives.

The S&P/TSX fell 6.12 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,472.22 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 8.4 percent this year, the third-worst performer among developed markets, ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore.

“People are sitting on the fence, waiting to see whether some of the economic indicators turn more positive,” said David Cockfield, fund manager with Toronto-based Northland Wealth Management. The firm manages about C$225 million ($213.2 million). “There’s not enough enthusiasm on the other side of the market to drive things higher.”

Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear activities and in return won an easing of “certain sanctions” on oil, auto parts, gold and precious metals. The deal was announced yesterday after five days of talks in Geneva.

Energy stocks sank 0.4 percent as a group, one of five industries to decline among 10 in the S&P/TSX. Trading volume was 15 percent above the the 30-day average at this time of the day.

Suncor Energy Inc. decreased 1.9 percent to C$37.24 and Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. slipped 1.1 percent to C$20.15. Crude for January delivery retreated 0.8 percent to settle at $94.09 a barrel in New York for a second day of declines.

Detour Gold plunged 12 percent to C$3.77, the lowest since December 2008. Gerald Panneton, who had served as CEO since 2006, resigned and will be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Paul Martin on an interim basis while the board looks for a replacement.

Detour Gold faces “near-term challenges,” Michael Kenyon, the executive chairman, said in a statement. The stock has slumped 85 percent this year, the worst performer in the benchmark equity gauge.

Kirkland Lake Gold sank 17 percent to C$2.54, the lowest close since April 2003. The gold mining company, which is developing a project at Kirkland Lake, Ontario, said it produced 31,387 ounces of gold at the site in the second quarter, short of a Nov. 13 report of 34,935 ounces.

The correction came after a review of inventory procedures and mill protocols, the company said in a statement.

BlackBerry, the Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker, added 1.4 percent to C$6.60. The company said Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka has been replaced by James Yersh, while Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear and Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben are leaving the company.

Bidulka will stay on as a special adviser to Chief Executive Officer John Chen for the rest of the fiscal year, BlackBerry said in a statement. Chen took over BlackBerry on Nov. 4 after previous CEO Thorsten Heins stepped down following a failed attempt by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. to acquire the company.

Sears Canada Inc. added 1.9 percent to C$18.25, the highest close since June 2011. A Sears spokesman said a New York Post report yesterday that Eddie Lampert, CEO of Sears Holdings Corp., was looking to sell Sears Canada was false.

Martinrea International Inc., a metal parts maker based in Vaughan, Ontario, slid 8.8 percent to C$8.39 for a fourth day of losses. The company on Nov. 22 said it had received a reply and statement of defense from Nat Rea, former vice chairman of Martinrea, and plans to respond in a filing this week.

The company has filed a counterclaim against an earlier lawsuit from Rea in September alleging breach of fiduciary duties by some directors and officers of the company related to transactions involving certain suppliers. The claims have not been proven in court.

USA

By Lu Wang

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell, after seven consecutive weekly gains that lifted the gauge to a record, as energy shares retreated following Iran’s agreement to limit its nuclear program.

Schlumberger Ltd. and Noble Corp. declined more than 3.2 percent as crude oil slipped. An index of airlines reached an almost seven-year high amid optimism fuel costs may drop. Alcoa Inc. climbed 3.8 percent and Caterpillar Inc. rose 1.8 percent after analysts recommended buying the shares.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.1 percent to 1,802.48 at 4 p.m. in New York, erasing earlier gains of as much as 0.2 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 7.77 points, or 0.1 percent, to an all-time high of 16,072.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.1 percent to 3,994.57, after briefly surpassing 4,000 for the first time since September 2000. About 5.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, about 7.8 percent below the three-month average.

“The market is not necessarily over-extended, but probably moderately rich,” Cam Albright, director of asset allocation at the investment advisory unit of Wilmington Trust, said by phone from Wilmington. The firm oversees about $79 billion. “It’s probably difficult to envision this market getting a lot more upside unless it has this continued success on earnings and economic growth. The deal with Iran takes some of the risk premium out of the marketplace for the moment at least.”

Iran agreed yesterday to curtail nuclear activities in return for easing of some sanctions on oil, auto parts, gold and precious metals, an accord that broke a decade-long deadlock.

The S&P 500 has rallied 26 percent this year, closing for the first time above 1,800 on Nov. 22, as the Federal Reserve continued to buy $85 billion of bonds a month to stimulate economic growth. The gauge is challenging 2003 for the best annual gain since 1998.

The index is trading for about 17 times its companies’ reported earnings. While the valuation reached the highest level since May 2010, it’s still below the multiples at the market’s two previous peaks, when the ratio reached 17.5 in October 2007 and 31 in March 2000, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Minutes from the latest Fed meeting indicated the central bank may reduce monetary stimulus in coming months. Four out of five investors expect the Fed to delay a decision to begin reducing the stimulus until March 2014 or later, according to the Bloomberg Global Poll of investors, traders and analysts who are subscribers. Just 5 percent are looking for a move at its Dec. 17-18 meeting, the Nov. 19 poll showed.

“The most bullish thing you could have is the Fed says, ‘Hey, we feel comfortable enough to step away,’” Warren Koontz, the co-manager of the Loomis Sayles Value Fund in Boston, said in a phone interview. Loomis Sayles & Co. manages about $191 billion. “The underpinning of the stock market is probably pretty good.”

The S&P 500 last week capped its longest winning streak since February as reports showed retail sales beat estimates and fewer Americans than expected filed for jobless benefits.

Data today from the National Association of Realtors showed pending home sales fell 0.6 percent in October, a fifth month of declines, amid higher borrowing costs. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 1 percent gain from the month before.

“The real strong rebound in housing that we saw between 2011 and the first quarter of this year has tapered off now,” Charlie Smith, chief investment officer of Pittsburgh-based Fort Pitt Capital Group Inc., said in a phone interview. His firm oversees $1.5 billion. “The question people have is, ‘Can the uptrend in housing be sustained by what classically has been growth in income and therefore the ability to get loans?’”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 4.3 percent today to 12.79. The gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX trimmed its 2013 decline to 29 percent.

Seven of the 10 main S&P 500 groups fell. Energy shares slumped 0.8 percent for the worst performance, as prices for crude, gasoline and heating oil fell following the interim deal with Iran.

Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services provider, dropped 3.2 percent to $89.81. Noble, an offshore rig contractor, slipped 4.1 percent to $37.94.

ADT Corp. slumped 5.8 percent to $41.46. The largest provider of home security agreed to buy back 10.2 million shares from Corvex Management LP for $44.01 each. Keith Meister, founder of Corvex, will resign from ADT’s board of directors.

The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index added 1.6 percent to the highest level since February 2007, on optimism a decline in fuel costs will help profit. Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 2 percent to a record $29.17 and United Continental Holdings Inc. gained 3.4 percent to $39.83.

Alcoa gained 3.8 percent to $9.59. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. upgraded the shares of the largest U.S. aluminum maker to buy from neutral. The brokerage said the stock may climb to $11.

“We believe that the market is not fully appreciating Alcoa’s solid position in growing value-added and high-margin aluminum products for the aerospace and automotive industries,” analysts Sal Tharani and Chelsea Bolton wrote.

Caterpillar added 1.8 percent to $84.40. Bank of America Corp. raised the world’s largest maker of mining equipment to buy from neutral, saying the power-systems business will help earnings next year.

Health-care companies rose the most among 10 S&P 500 industries, climbing 0.4 percent. Mylan Inc., a generic drugmaker, advanced 3.6 percent to $44.22. The stock has gained 11 of the past 12 sessions to close at a record. Biogen Idec Inc. increased 3.6 percent to $295.88.

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc., a provider of kidney care services, jumped 8.9 percent to $61.55 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. U.S. regulators scrapped a proposed 9.4 percent reduction in Medicare payments to dialysis providers.

Laszlo Birinyi, president of Birinyi Associates Inc., said the four-year bull market will keep going because optimism about the rally hasn’t overtaken concern about company earnings and valuations.

The lack of exuberance shows people aren’t fully invested and have money left to buy shares, according to Birinyi, one of the first money managers to advise clients to buy in 2009.

“We still haven’t heard the story about the barista in Starbucks who’s made a lot of money in the market,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart” with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson on Nov. 22. “We’re not there yet.”

Investors have added to options that provide protection in the event of a market plunge, based on the CBOE SKEW Index. The gauge uses the prices of short-term, out-of-the-money S&P 500 options to calculate the market’s perception of the probability for a tail-risk event.

The SKEW index rose to 137 on Nov. 18 as the Fed considered scaling back its bond-purchasing program and American lawmakers prepared for another round of budget talks.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Every day a man must solve the problem

of widening the field of his life and adjusting his burdens.

These are too complex and numerous for him to carry himself,

but he knows that by being methodical he can lighten the load.

When the burdens are too complicated and difficult to manage, he must understand the reason:

he has not found a system that will put everything in place and distribute the weight he carries more evenly.

The search for this system is actually the search for the whole, for synthesis;

it is our effort to create harmony, thanks to an interior adaptation,

in the heterogeneous complex of exterior material.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Willfully anticipating, in ignorance and in hope – this was how

most people lived.

-Jhumpa Lahiri, 1967-

The Lowland, 2013

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:

The poet, Robert Frost, recited his poem, The Gift Outright,  at John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s inauguration.  Caroline Kennedy wrote of that day , “By asking Frost to read that day, my father expressed his belief in the power of language and connected the inaugural ceremony to an enduring tradition of using poetry, in a sense, to sanctify an occasion.

A snowstorm had blanketed the Capitol the night before, but the morning was glistening bright.  When Frost stood to read the poem he had written for the occasion, the glare was so strong he couldn’t see the words on the page.  He recited ‘The Gift Outright’ from memory.  The contrast between his age and my father’s youth, the poet’s frailty and the power of his words gave the moment a special significance.

Three years later, at the dedication of a library named for Robert Frost, President Kennedy said, ‘The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power, or power uses us ….

When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.  When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence.  When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.  For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.’ ”

THE GIFT OUTRIGHT

–Robert Frost

The land was ours before we were the land’s.

She was our land more than a hundred years

Before we were her people.  She was ours

In Massachusetts, in Virginia,

But we were England’s, still colonials,

Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,

Possessed by what we now no more possessed.

Something we were withholding made us weak

Until we found out that it was ourselves

We were withholding from our land of living,

And forthwith found salvation in surrender.

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright

(the deed of gift was many deeds of war)

To the land vaguely realizing westward,

But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,

Such as she was, such as she would* become.

*At my father’s request, Robert Frost substituted “would” to “will”  when he spoke at the inauguration.  Frost did not recite his poetry.   Believing that poetry should capture the speech of the common man, he told people that he “said” his poems.  –Caroline Kennedy.

Photos of the day

Tourists are reflected in the ceiling of Anish Kapoor’s stainless steel Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Women made up as La Catrina, a popular figure in Mexico known as ‘The Elegant Skull,’ stand together while participating in the Catrina Festival in Saltillo. Daniel Becerril/Reuters

Market Closes for November 22^nd, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16064.77	+54.78    +0.34%
S&P 500	1804.76	+8.91    +0.50%
NASDAQ	3991.649	+22.495    +0.57%
TSX	13478.34	+3.01
		+0.02

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15381.72	+16.12
		+0.10%
HANG  SENG	23696.28	+115.99
		+0.49%
SENSEX	20217.39	-11.66
		-0.06%
FTSE 100	6674.30	-7.03
		-0.11%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.574	2.623
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.147	3.196
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7427	2.7842
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8292	3.8875

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.95103	0.95059
US   $	1.05149	1.05198
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.42557	0.70148
US  $	1.35576	0.73760

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1243.63	1242.35
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	94.49	95.09
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, paring earlier gains in the final minutes of trading that erased a weekly gain, as financial shares climbed amid higher-than-estimated consumer spending to offset declines among commodities producers.

Manulife Financial Corp. and Sun Life Financial Inc. each added 1.3 percent to lead insurers and banks higher. Bank of Montreal added 0.5 percent to a record. Pretium Resources Inc. surged 80 percent after saying gold recovered from an ore sample at its British Columbia project surpassed targets. Bombardier Inc. advanced 0.9 percent after reporting orders and commitments for as many as 38 aircraft from the Dubai Airshow.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 3.01 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 13,478.34 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, paring an earlier gain of as much as 0.3 percent. The benchmark equity gauge fell 4.23 points in the past five days and is up 8.4 percent this year.

“There’s nothing negative in the market so this is a slow plodding upward,” said Kevin Headland, a fund manager with Manulife Asset Management Ltd. in Toronto. The firm manages about C$248 billion ($235 billion). “There’s still room to buy, especially those that have missed the run-up, so there’s some end-of-year buying.”

Canadian retail sales rose more than three times faster than economists forecast in September on the biggest gain at new car dealerships in more than four years. Sales rose 1 percent to a record C$40.7 billion, according to a Statistics Canada report.

Gildan Activewear Inc. increased 2.7 percent to C$50.94, the most since Aug. 1. Tim Hortons Inc. gained 1.1 percent to C$62.82 as consumer discretionary stocks were little changed, paring an earlier advance.

Manulife, the nation’s largest insurer, gained 1.3 percent to C$20.37, the highest since April 2010. Sun Life Financial rose 1.3 percent to C$38.04 as financial stocks climbed 0.2 percent as a group. Five of 10 industries advanced in the S&P/TSX on trading volume 16 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Bank of Montreal, the nation’s fourth-largest bank, added 0.5 percent to C$74.01, a record high.

Pretium soared 80 percent to C$5.53, its biggest gain on record. The Vancouver-based company said it produced 4,215 ounces of gold from 8,090 metric tons of rock, ahead of a target of 4,000 ounces from its Valley of the Kings project in British Columbia.

Bombardier advanced 0.9 percent to C$4.72 to pace gains among industrial stocks. The plane and train maker’s shares have risen five of the past six sessions and are up 26 percent this year.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, lost 3.3 percent to C$17.21 and Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. retreated 4.3 percent to C$4.47 as gold for December delivery was little changed in New York. Prices yesterday tumbled to $1,235.80, the lowest since July 9.

Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. fell 1.4 percent to C$6.34 and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. dropped 1.3 percent to C$34.82 as crude for January delivery slid 0.6 percent in New York on rising inventories in the U.S.

“The softness in commodity prices were weighing on the TSX today,” said Youssef Zohny, portfolio manager with Stenner Investment Partners of Richardson GMP Ltd. in Vancouver. The firm manages about C$16 billion. “Investors are on hold until they see next month’s economic data.”

Martinrea International Inc., a maker of metal parts and assemblies in the automotive industry, slumped 13 percent, the most in four years, to C$9.20. The stock has plunged 18 percent in the past three days.

USA

By Nick Taborek

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, capping a seventh week of gains for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, after the pace of hiring increased and drugmakers rallied on favorable decisions by European regulators.

Health-care stocks in the S&P 500 jumped 1.2 percent as a group, led by Biogen Idec Inc. and Gilead Sciences Inc. Time Warner Cable Inc. surged 10 percent on renewed takeover speculation. United Continental Holdings Inc. climbed 3.9 percent after billionaire David Tepper said his “big play in the market” is airlines. International Business Machines Corp. slid 1.5 percent after billionaire Stan Druckenmiller said he’s shorting the shares.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.5 percent to a record 1,804.76 at 4 p.m. in New York. The advance pushed the U.S. equity benchmark to a 27 percent gain for the year, poised to be the biggest annual increase since 1998. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 54.78 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,064.77. About 5.6 billion shares changed hands in the U.S., 8 percent below the three-month average.

“I don’t see any reason why the market shouldn’t go up,”  Karyn Cavanaugh, a vice president and market strategist at ING U.S. Investment Management in New York, said in a phone interview. Her firm oversees $196 billion. “There’s not really any bad news. We have a little bit of a pullback and then people jump in and say, ’Hey, I want a piece of this.’”

The Dow advanced 0.6 percent this week, finishing its seventh straight weekly gain, the longest streak since January 2011. The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent during the past five days.

David Tepper, the hedge-fund manager who runs Appaloosa Management LP, said stock markets are not inflated as economies in the U.S., Europe and China are on “firm ground.” He said that while he remains bullish on U.S. stocks, markets may fall 5 percent to 10 percent when the Fed curbs its stimulus program.

“I know there’s talk about bubbles, this is not one,” Tepper said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Stephanie Ruhle at the Robin Hood Investors Conference in New York yesterday.

Job openings in the U.S. climbed to a five-year high in September, indicating employers were confident about demand before the federal government shutdown. The Labor Department report showed the number of people hired increased to 4.59 million in September, the most since August 2008, from 4.56 million. The hiring rate rose to 3.4 percent from 3.3 percent in August.

The S&P 500 rallied yesterday after three days of losses as data showed weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest level since September and a confidence survey indicated American consumers became less pessimistic this month.

“It’s hard to ignore all the tailwinds to this market,” Chris Bouffard, chief investment officer of the Mutual Fund Store in Overland Park, Kansas, which oversees $8.5 billion, said in a phone interview. “We’ve got low oil, that’s definitely helping consumers, especially going into the key holiday spending period. Buybacks and dividends are doing very well.”

Economic stimulus from the Fed has helped the S&P 500 soar 167 percent since its March 2009 low. The gauge traded for about 17 times its companies’ reported earnings at its last record on Nov. 15, the highest valuation since May 2010.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, slid 3.2 percent today to 12.26. The measure is down 32 percent this year.

Biogen Idec surged 13 percent to $285.62, the biggest gain in more than two years. The company’s multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera won designation as a “new active substance” in Europe, giving it added protection against generic copies and paving the way for approval there. The pill is projected to be the company’s top-seller by 2015.

Gilead rallied 3.7 percent to a record $74.27. The drug company received a positive recommendation for its hepatitis C treatment from the European Medicines Agency.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. climbed 6.3 percent to $293.68. An experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug the company is developing with Sanofi eased symptoms and damage caused by the disease in a clinical trial, advancing its prospects to compete in the market.

United Continental rose 3.9 percent to $38.54. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. also lifted its rating on the world’s biggest airline to buy from neutral.

Time Warner Cable jumped 10 percent to $132.92. Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. have discussed a joint bid for the company to divide its assets between them, people with knowledge of the matter said. The talks between Comcast and Charter were preliminary, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

Foot Locker Inc. rallied 4.1 percent to $38.27. The largest U.S. athletic shoe retailer posted third-quarter earnings of 68 cents a share, exceeding the average analyst estimate by 2 cents.

Ross Stores Inc. tumbled 5.7 percent to $75.67 for the biggest decline in the S&P 500. The retailer of discount designer wear lowered its forecast for fourth-quarter earnings to no more than $1.01 a share, after previously predicting as much as $1.03. That fell short of the average analyst estimate of $1.08.

Gap Inc. fell 1.3 percent to $41.31. The biggest U.S. specialty-apparel retailer maintained its annual profit forecast range, signaling that the holiday-shopping quarter may fall short of analysts’ estimates.

Intel Corp. lost 5.4 percent to $23.87. The world’s largest maker of semiconductors said revenue will be approximately unchanged in 2014. The company predicts the personal-computer market, measured by units, to be down in the “low single- digit” percent, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith said.

IBM fell 1.5 percent to $181.30. Stan Druckenmiller, who boasts one of the hedge-fund industry’s best long-term track records of the past three decades, said he’s betting against the shares because the company’s business will be replaced by technology such as cloud computing.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. slid 2.3 percent to $34.15. The retailer was cut to market perform from outperform at Wells Fargo Securities.

 

Have  a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

The phrase ‘to meditate’ does not only mean to examine, observe, reflect, question, weigh;

it also has, in the Sanskrit, a more profound meaning, which is ‘to become.’

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy

of growth.

-John f. Kennedy, 1917-1963

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:

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun,

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells.

 

Who hath not seen the oft amid they store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a  half-reaped furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spared the next swath and all its twined flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with a patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozing hours by hours.

 

Where are the songs of Spring?  Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too-

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue:

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats  mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The re-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

 

-John Keats

Photos of the day

Smoke billows from a new island off the coast of Nishinoshima (l.) a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, far south of Tokyo The Japan Coast Guard and earthquake experts said a volcanic eruption has raised the new island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo. The coast guard issued an advisory Wednesday warning of heavy black smoke from the eruption. Kyodo News/AP

Students of the Japanese martial art Ninjutsu perform during training inside the Tijuca forest in Rio de Janeiro, November 20. Ninjitsu training, practiced by the shinobi also known as ninjas, involve unconventional warfare tactics, team infiltration and camouflage. Pilar Olivares/Reuters

Market Closes for November 21^st, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16009.99	+109.17    +0.69%
S&P 500	1795.85	+14.48    +0.81%
NASDAQ	3969.155	+47.885    +1.22%
TSX	13475.33	+45.32
		+0.34%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15365.60	+289.52
		+1.92%
HANG  SENG	23580.29	-120.57
		-0.51%
SENSEX	20229.05	-406.08
		-1.97%
FTSE 100	6681.33	+0.25
		—

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.623	2.635
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.196	3.203
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7842	2.7987
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8875	3.9110

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.95059	0.95663
US   $	1.05198	1.04533
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.41743	0.70550
US  $	1.34740	0.74217

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1242.35	1243.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	95.09	93.33
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, snapping three days of losses, as gains among oil producers overshadowed a decline in gold prices amid speculation the Federal Reserve will trim asset purchases in coming months.

Whitecap Resources Inc. and Crew Energy Inc. climbed at least 3.5 percent as crude surged the most in seven weeks.

Detour Gold Corp. and Rio Alto Mining Ltd. lost more than 7.6 percent as the price of gold tumbled. Gildan Activewear Inc. retreated 3.3 percent after 2014 forecasts fell short of analysts’ estimates. Lightstream Resources Ltd. sank 7.9 percent after announcing a dividend cut and reduced capital spending.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 45.32 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,475.33 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 8.4 percent this year, the third-worst performer among the world’s developed markets, ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore.

“Today is a bounce-back from the down days that we’ve had,” said John Kinsey, a fund manager with Caldwell Securities Ltd., said from Toronto. The firm manages about C$1 billion ($952 million). “Yesterday was a knee-jerk reaction to the Fed minutes. Energy seems to be pretty solid here.”

U.S. policy makers expect economic data will signal further improvement in the labor market and “warrant trimming the pace” of bond purchases in coming months, according to minutes from the Fed’s October meeting released yesterday. Stocks have rallied this year, bolstered by the Fed’s $85 billion in monthly asset purchases.

Whitecap Resources rallied 5.5 percent to C$12.36 and Crew Energy increased 3.5 percent to C$5.61 to pace gains among energy stocks. Nine of 10 industries advanced in the S&P/TSX on trading volume 13 percent above the 30-day average at this time of the day.

Crude for January delivery climbed 1.7 percent to $95.44 a barrel in New York, after a report showed jobless claims in the U.S. fell by 21,000 to 323,000 last week.

Bombardier Inc., the world’s third-largest plane maker, advanced 0.4 percent to C$4.68 after the planemaker said it had received firm orders and commitments for as many as 38 aircraft worth up to $2.01 billion at the Dubai airshow.

Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline, climbed 4.5 percent to C$6.98, the highest since June 2008. The stock is the top performer in Canada this year with a 299 percent advance.

Detour Gold declined 9 percent to C$4.44 and Rio Alto Mining retreated 7.6 percent to C$1.58 as gold for December delivery tumbled 1.1 percent to $1,243.60 an ounce in New York, the lowest since July 9.

Endeavour Silver Corp. lost 0.7 percent to C$4.11 and Silvercorp Metals Inc. fell 0.7 percent to C$2.71 as silver prices declined for a second day.

Gildan Activewear slipped 3.3 percent to C$49.60, for its biggest loss since February. The clothing maker forecast first- quarter earnings of 33 cents to 35 cents a share, short of analysts’ estimates for 41 cents.

Gildan also reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 83 cents a share, trailing analysts’ projections of 84 cents.

Lightstream Resources, an oil exploration and production company, tumbled 7.9 percent to C$5.57, a record low. The company said it will reduce its 2014 capital spending program by about 25 percent from estimated 2013 levels, and targeted more than C$600 million in non-core asset sales by the end of 2015.

The company also cut its dividend 50 percent to 4 Canadian cents a month, for annual cash savings of C$40 million a year.

USA

By Nick Taborek

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its first close above 16,000, as data showed improvement in the job market and companies including Union Pacific Corp., Johnson Controls Inc. and Ace Ltd. said they would repurchase shares.

Union Pacific, Johnson Controls and Ace advanced at least 1.4 percent. Micron Technology Inc. rallied 6.3 percent, the most since August, as David Einhorn, president of Greenlight Capital Inc., recommended the shares. General Motors Co. gained 1.1 percent after the U.S. Treasury Department said it plans to sell its remaining stake in the company. Target Corp. lost 3.5 percent after reporting profit that trailed analysts’ estimates on a loss in its Canadian unit.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 0.8 percent to 1,795.85 at 4 p.m. in New York, erasing most of the decline from the past three days. The Dow average rose 109.17 points, or 0.7 percent, to a record 16,009.60.

“After three consecutive negative days it’s reasonable to expect a breather at least in the beginning of the day,” Lawrence Creatura, a Rochester, New York-based fund manager at Federated Investors Inc., which oversees about $364 billion, said in a phone interview. “There is some good news in the labor report too in that it does indicate a degree of improvement.”

Investors are pouring more money into stock mutual funds in the U.S. than they have in 13 years, attracted by a market near record highs and stung by bond losses that would deepen if interest rates rise. Stock funds won $172 billion in the year’s first 10 months, the largest amount since they got $272 billion in all of 2000, according to Morningstar Inc. estimates.

The move marks a reversal from the four years through 2012, when investors put $1 trillion into fixed income as the financial crisis drove many to redeem from stocks and miss out as the S&P 500 almost tripled from its low. The U.S. equity benchmark traded for about 17 times its companies’ reported earnings at its last record on Nov. 15, the highest valuation since May 2010.

The S&P 500 rose above 1,800 for the first time on Nov. 18 before erasing the advance. The equity benchmark dropped during the first three days of the week after forecasts from Best Buy Co. and Campbell Soup Co. disappointed investors and minutes from a Federal Reserve meeting indicated the central bank may reduce monetary stimulus in coming months.

U.S. jobless claims in the week ended Nov. 16 dropped by 21,000 to 323,000, the fewest since the week ended Sept. 28, from a revised 344,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The median forecast of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a drop to 335,000.

American consumers became less pessimistic in November about the economic outlook as the effect of last month’s partial government shutdown dissipated, according to data from the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index released. The gap between positive and negative expectations for the economy shrank to minus 14 from a two-year low of minus 31 in October.

Financial stocks in the S&P 500 collectively climbed 1.5 percent, the most among 10 main groups. Ace, an insurer with operations in more than 50 nations, led gains in the industry with a 3.8 percent advance to $101.53. The company said that it is targeting $1.5 billion in share repurchases through the end of next year.

Johnson Controls, the largest U.S. auto-parts maker, climbed 4.4 percent to $50.35 after boosting a stock-repurchase program by $3 billion. Union Pacific Corp. added 1.4 percent to $160.78. The largest U.S. railroad authorized a buyback plan of as much as $9.5 billion in stock.

GM increased 1.1 percent to $38.12. The Treasury said it plans to sell its 31.1 million common shares in the company, as soon as year end depending on market conditions and trading volumes. The wind-down of the U.S. stake in GM would bring to an end a linchpin of the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Target dropped 3.5 percent to $64.19. The second-largest discount retailer in the U.S. is generating lower sales in Canada than projected as rivals cut prices. Earnings slid to 54 cents a share, from 96 cents a share a year earlier, the company said.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. jumped 14 percent to $70.57. The maker of Keurig-brand single-cup pods and machines reported fourth-quarter profit that surpassed analysts’ estimates as K-Cup and brewer sales rose. Excluding some items, the company reported profit of 89 cents a share. Analysts estimated 75 cents, on average.

Micron rallied 6.3 percent to $19.99 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Einhorn told investors to buy the shares at the Robin Hood Investors Conference today, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the presentation was private and closed to media.

Williams-Sonoma Inc. gained 7.6 percent to $59.74. The home accessories retailer raised its profit forecast after same-store sales rose faster than analysts’ estimated in the third-quarter.

Philip Morris International Inc. fell 3 percent to $86.60.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its rating on the shares. The world’s largest publicly traded tobacco company said yesterday that fewer shipments to Europe and Russia will crimp profit growth.

GameStop Corp. lost 6.9 percent to $48.80. The video game retailer forecast fourth-quarter profit below analysts’ estimates.

Dollar Tree Inc. fell 4.5 percent to $56.28. The retailer reported third-quarter profit that fell short of analysts’ estimates and lowered the top end its full-year revenue forecast.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

In the song of the rushing torrent,

hold onto the joyful assurance:

I will become the sea.

And this is not a vain supposition;

it is absolute humility, because it is the truth.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Do not pray for easy lives.

Pray to be stronger men.

-John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963

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:

A recent news item gives us this to contemplate:

40 MILLION – habitable Earth-size planets in the galaxy, perhaps, based on a new analysis of NASA data.

Individualism, private property, the law of accumulation of wealth and the law of competition….are the highest result of human experience, the soil in which, so far, has produced the best fruit.  –Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919.

Photos of the day

A kite surfer makes the most of the strong winds and dramatic stormy weather at Rest Bay, Porthcawl, Wales. Ben Birchall/PA/AP

Sculptor Sven Morawietz of Germany pauses on his throne sculpture based on Disney’s newest movie ‘Frozen’ at the Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival in Bruges, Belgium. Some 28 artists from all over the world made 55 sculptures out of 250 tons of ice depicting characters from Disney movies.Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Market Closes for November 20th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	15900.82	-66.21    -0.41%
S&P 500	1781.37	-6.50    -0.36%
NASDAQ	3921.270	-10.283    -0.26%
TSX	13430.01	-12.76
		-0.09%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15076.08	-50.48
		-0.33%
HANG  SENG	23700.86	+43.05
		+0.18%
SENSEX	20635.13	-255.69
		-1.22%
FTSE 100	6681.08	-16.93
		-0.25%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.635	2.564
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.203	3.107
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7987	2.7096
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.9110	3.8035

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.95663	0.95645
US   $	1.04533	1.04553
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.40467	0.71191
US  $	1.34375	0.74419

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1243.25	1275.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.33	93.34
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Aubrey Pringle

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for a third day as gold companies tumbled after U.S. Federal Reserve officials said they may reduce economic stimulus “in coming months” as the economy improves.

Semafo Inc. lost 8.7 percent as the price of gold plummeted. Maple Leaf Foods Inc. fell 1 percent as the food producer was said to have drawn bids for its bread unit. Trican Well Service Ltd. added 1.7 percent after the pressure pumping company’s rating was upgraded by Raymond James.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index dropped 12.76 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,430.01 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge has climbed 8 percent this year.

“There’s some uncertainty now whether the tapering will begin sooner,” Tim Lazaris, chief investment officer at Red Sky Capital Management Ltd., said by phone from Toronto. “Commodity prices are dropping here post the Fed minutes, primarily gold and that’s taking the materials sector down.”

Fed officials said they might reduce their $85 billion in monthly bond purchases “in coming months” as the economy improves, minutes of their last meeting show. Policy makers will probably pare that pace to $70 billion at their March 18-19 meeting, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey conducted Nov. 8. The U.S. is Canada’s biggest trading partner.

Five of 10 main S&P/TSX industries dropped on trading volume 1.1 percent above the 30-day average, with raw-materials sliding 2.2 percent.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index tumbled 3.8 percent, with all 24 members retreating. Gold for immediate delivery lost 2.5 percent to $1,244.20 an ounce, the lowest level since July 10.

Speculation that policy makers may reduce monetary stimulus in upcoming months curbed demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation. Semafo plunged 8.7 percent to C$2.84 while Dundee Precious Metals Inc. dropped 8.5 percent to C$3.56.

Maple Leaf Foods fell 1 percent to C$16.43. The Toronto- based food producer has drawn bids for its bread unit from Grupo Bimbo SAB, Flowers Foods Inc. and several private-equity firms, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

Maple Leaf, which owns 90 percent of Canada Bread Co., said in October it would explore options for the stake, including a possible sale as it divests assets to focus on its meat business.

Energy producers gained 0.6 percent for the best group performance. Tourmaline Oil Corp. jumped 3.4 percent to $41.92.

Trican Well Service added 1.7 percent to C$12.40 after Raymond James equity analyst Andrew Bradford raised his rating of the pressure pump producer’s stock to outperform from market perform. Bradford made a similar upgrade to Calfrac Well Services Ltd. The provider of oilfield equipment gained 1.4 percent to C$31.60.

Air Canada climbed 1.8 percent to C$6.68 after the Montreal-based carrier began discussions with Cargojet, a Canadian freight company, to explore strategic commercial cooperation in an attempt to expand the reach of both carriers’ air cargo services domestically and internationally. The partnership would increase revenues and reduce operating costs, according to a statement released by the two companies today.

USA

By Nick Taborek

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks dropped, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a third day of losses, after minutes from the Federal Reserve signaled the central bank may reduce bond purchases in the coming months.

J.C. Penney Co. jumped 8.4 percent as its sales decline abated in the third quarter. Yahoo! Inc. advanced 2.9 percent after the owner of the largest U.S. Internet portal boosted its stock-buyback plan by $5 billion. Deere & Co. rose 2.1 percent as it forecast better-than-estimated annual earnings on rising demand for construction and forestry machinery. Lowe’s Cos., the second-biggest home improvement retailer, slipped 6.2 percent after profit trailed analysts’ projections.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent to 1,781.37 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 0.4 percent to 15,900.82 and has topped 16,000 for three straight days before returning below the threshold. About 5.9 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, in line with the three-month average.

“We’ve also had a very, very good year, so this may be a decision-making point for those who have enjoyed a very good return in the equity market,” Paul Mangus, head of equity strategy and research for Wells Fargo Private Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina, said in a phone interview. His firm manages $170 billion. “The minutes were a continuation of what the FOMC has been saying all along.”

The S&P 500 has rallied 25 percent in 2013, poised for its best year in a decade, following stimulus from the Fed and better-than-estimated earnings. The gauge traded for about 17 times its companies’ reported earnings at its last record on Nov. 15, the highest valuation since May 2010.

Policy makers expected that the economic data will show ongoing improvement in the labor market and “thus warrant trimming the pace of purchases in coming months,” according to the record of the Federal Open Market Committee’s Oct. 29-30 gathering. Stocks pared gains earlier as Fed Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said a reduction in bond buying is “on the table” for the next policy meeting in December.

As of yesterday, four of five investors expected the Fed to delay a decision to begin reducing its bond buying until March 2014 or later, with just 5 percent looking for a move next month, according to the latest Bloomberg Global Poll. Only one in 20 said the central bank will begin to reduce its purchases at its Dec. 17-18 meeting, according to the poll yesterday of investors, traders and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, was little changed at 13.40 today. The measure is down 26 percent this year.

J.C. Penney jumped 8.4 percent to $9.44. Chief Executive Officer Mike Ullman showed progress in reviving the department- store chain ahead of the holiday-shopping season. Revenue in the quarter ended Nov. 2 fell 5.1 percent to $2.78 billion, less than the 27 percent drop in the same period last year. Gross margin, or the percentage of sales left after the cost of goods sold, will improve in the fourth quarter, J.C. Penney said.

Yahoo advanced 2.9 percent to $35.62. The company is returning more cash to shareholders as Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer seeks to revive growth. The company will also sell $1 billion in convertible debt maturing in 2018, in a private placement, according to a statement.

Deere climbed 2.1 percent to $84.52. The company said it sees sales of construction and forestry equipment advancing by about 10 percent in the current financial year, partly because of the recovery in the U.S. economy and an increase in housing starts.

Herbalife Ltd. gained 6.5 percent to $70.24. Bill Stiritz, chief executive officer of Post Holdings Inc., the Raisin Bran maker, boosted his holding in Herbalife to 6.4 percent and said he’ll seek talks with the nutrition company.

Stiritz, who previously reported a 5.3 percent stake, said last week that he’s willing to take part in a leveraged buyout of the company that would reward shareholders and help Herbalife fend off allegations by hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who for a year has accused it of operating an illegal pyramid scheme.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. jumped 3.3 percent to $69.14.

The company yesterday received the backing of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration for a drug treating a rare metabolic disease that can affect growth. Vimizim should be approved for Moriquio A syndrome, which can cause joint deformities and contractures, a panel of advisers to FDA voted.

Lowe’s fell 6.2 percent to $47.33. Third-quarter earnings- per-share amounted to 47 cents, falling short of the 48 cents analysts had projected. The company also predicted full-year profit will be $2.15 a share, compared with the $2.19 analysts estimated.

J.M. Smucker Co. slid 6.5 percent to $101.49 for the biggest decline in the S&P 500. The maker of peanut butter and fruit spreads cut its sales forecast and said price reductions are hurting margins.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

When a man possesses in his being the notion of God, that is the miracle of miracles.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

 

Carolann

The truth of the matter is, we always know the right thing

to do.  The hard part is doing it.

-Norman Schwarzkopf, 1934-2012.

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: On this day, November 19^th, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered what is now considered one of the greatest speeches in American history, The Gettysburg Address:

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…”

For more, see www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd.

Photo of the day

Comet ISON glows brightly in this five-minute exposure taken at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) on November 8 at 5:40 a.m. EST. At the time of this picture, Comet ISON was 97 million miles from Earth, heading toward a close encounter with the sun on November 28. ISON is now visible with a good pair of binoculars.

Aaron Kingery/NASA/MSFC/Handout via Reuters

Although not as intense as a burst last week, the increase is adding to speculation over whether the comet, formally known as C/2012 S1, will survive its Nov. 28 solar flyby.

The comet is projected to sweep past the sun a scant 1.2 million miles above its surface. If it does survive, its first pass through the solar system will be its last. The encounter with the sun will kick ISON out into interstellar space, researchers calculate.

Market Closes for November 19^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	15967.03	-8.99    -0.06%
S&P 500	1787.87	-3.66    -0.20%
NASDAQ	3931.553	-17.512    -0.44%
TSX	13442.60	-15.46
		-0.11%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15126.56	-37.74
		-0.25%
HANG  SENG	23657.81	-2.25
		-0.01%
SENSEX	20890.82	+40.08
		+0.19%
FTSE 100	6698.01	-25.45
		-0.38%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.564	2.526
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.107	3.079
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7096	2.6658
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8035	3.7552

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.95645	0.95859
US   $	1.04553	1.04319
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.41830	0.70507
US  $	1.35654	0.73717

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1275.50	1276.07
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.34	93.03
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Aubrey Pringle

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, after reaching a two-year high last week, as a slump in technology and industrial shares offset a rise in gold producers while investors watched for signs the U.S. Federal Reserve will continue monetary stimulus.

TransCanada Corp. retreated 1.2 percent after the natural- gas transmission company pushed the start date for the Keystone XL pipeline project into 2016. Alacer Gold Corp. and Barrick Gold Corp. gained at least 1.3 percent, pacing advances among gold miners. Sears Canada Inc. climbed to a two-year high after the retailer reported a rise in same-store sales and said it will pay a special dividend to shareholders.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 15.46 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,442.6 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, after gaining as much as 0.3 percent earlier in the day. The gauge has climbed 8.1 percent this year.

“We’re at the end of the earnings cycle, so the focus goes away from individual stocks reporting earnings to more macro events like tapering,” Ian Nakamoto, director of research with MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Inc., said in a phone interview from Toronto. The firm manages about C$4 billion. “The FOMC release their minutes tomorrow, so any other hints on what they’re thinking in terms of tapering might give us some clues.”

Equities have rallied this year as the U.S. Fed embarked on a monthly $85 billion bond-buying program to stimulate the economy. Fed policy makers will probably scale back the pace of asset purchases at their March 18-19 meeting, according to the median of 32 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists on Nov. 8. The central bank tomorrow releases the minutes from the October meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cut its global growth forecasts for this year and next as emerging-market economies including India and Brazil cool. The world economy will probably expand 2.7 percent in 2013 and 3.6 percent in 2014, instead of the 3.1 percent and and 4 percent predicted in May, the Paris-based OECD said in a semi-annual report today.

The Bank of Canada will probably raise its benchmark lending rate at the end of next year to avoid a build-up of inflation, the OECD said. The first increase in the 1 percent rate since 2010 is projected to be in the fourth quarter of 2014, with the central bank raising it to 2.25 percent by the end of 2015, the OECD said.

Investors have been paring bets on higher borrowing costs after Governor Stephen Poloz unexpectedly dropped the central bank’s rate-increase bias at its last announcement Oct. 23, citing greater slack in the economy.

Six of 10 S&P/TSX industries fell on trading volume in line with the 30-day average. Technology companies declined 1.2 percent for the worst performance. BlackBerry Ltd. fell for a fourth straight session losing 1.7 percent to $6.31. Industrial shares slipped 0.7 percent today.

TransCanada retreated 1.2 percent to C$46.75, the lowest since Oct. 24. Facing delays from a U.S. review of its Keystone XL pipeline, the natural gas transmission company pushed the forecast startup date for the $5.4 billion project into 2016.

Calgary-based TransCanada hopes for U.S. approval in early 2014, Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling said today at an investor presentation in Toronto.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index gained 0.6 percent as miners advanced. Barrick Gold rose 1.3 percent to C$18.67 and Alacer Gold added 2.3 percent to C$2.25.

Gold and silver equities are “bottoming” and will go on to outperform the metals when a recovery finally begins, said Peter Grosskopf, the chief executive officer of Canadian money manager Sprott Inc. While both commodities have declined this year, they will eventually erase the losses and rise to records as more money is printed around the world, Grosskopf said in a Nov. 15. phone interview. Gold and silver producers will emerge stronger from the downturn as the weak are “weeded out,” he said.

Coastal Energy Co. surged 27 percent to C$18.84 after Cia.

Espanola de Petroleos SA, an oil refiner owned by Abu Dhabi, agreed to buy Coastal Energy as the Middle East sheikdom adds to crude and natural-gas assets in Southeast Asia. The venture will take on Coastal Energy’s C$51 million of net debt as part of the deal, due to close in the first quarter.

Sears Canada jumped 6.4 percent to C$17.87, the since June 2011, after the company said it will pay a special dividend of C$5 on Dec. 6. The retailer also posted its first quarterly same-store sales increase since 2008, boosted by stronger demand for apparel, accessories and home items.

Intertape Polymer Group Inc., a producer of plastic packaging for industrial use, jumped 6.8 percent to C$13.37 for the biggest increase in the benchmark index. The company was upgraded to a buy rating from market perform by Cormark Securities analyst Sarah Hughes.

USA

By Nick Taborek and Lu Wang

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell after disappointing forecasts from Best Buy Co. and Campbell Soup Co. while investors awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to gauge the prospect of continued stimulus.

Best Buy slid 11 percent, the most in almost a year, after saying it will work to keep pace with competitors’ discounts in the holiday season, hurting fourth-quarter profitability.

Campbell Soup fell 6.2 percent after cutting its profit forecast. Home Depot Inc. gained 0.9 percent after boosting its earnings forecast as rising home prices spurred homeowners to splurge on renovations. Tyson Foods Inc. climbed 4.6 percent for a sixth day of gains as sales beat analysts’ expectations.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.2 percent to 1,787.87 at 4 p.m. in New York. Yesterday, the gauge briefly surpassed 1,800 for the first time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 8.99 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 15,967.03. About 5.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, about 3 percent below the three-month average.

“The economy is not doing badly, and the Fed is remaining very aggressive and very friendly toward the market,” Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at RW Baird & Co., said by phone from Sarasota, Florida. His firm oversees $100 billion.

“We’ve had a big run. My suspicion is that the market might go sideways now for a little while before we encounter a year-end rally in December.”

The S&P 500 is up 25 percent this year, putting it on track for the biggest annual gain since 2003, as the Fed kept its monetary stimulus to spur economic growth and corporate earnings topped analysts’ estimates.

Bernanke is scheduled to speak in Washington today after Fed Bank of New York President William Dudley said yesterday that while he’s “more hopeful” the U.S. economy is strengthening, it’s not enough to warrant stimulus cuts yet.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, among the most vocal advocates for additional easing from the Fed, said today that while the central bank is going to deliver highly accommodative policy until it can get the economy where it wants, the biggest challenge is credibility.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cut global growth forecasts for this year and next as emerging- market economies including India and Brazil cool. The world economy may expand 2.7 percent this year and 3.6 percent next year, instead of the 3.1 percent and 4 percent predicted in May, the Paris-based OECD said in a report today. Growth in the U.S. will be 1.7 percent and 2.9 percent this year and next, broadly similar to the outlook in May.

The Fed will release minutes of its October policy meeting tomorrow. The document will reveal more details behind the decision to press on with $85 billion in monthly asset purchases.

Policy makers will probably pare that pace to $70 billion at their March 18-19 meeting, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Three rounds of monetary stimulus have helped propel the S&P 500 up 165 percent from a bear-market low in 2009.

Wall Street strategists have played catch-up in their U.S. stock-market forecasting for most of the year. Yesterday’s average prediction for the S&P 500 stood at 1,733, or almost 59 points below the index’s closing value. The gap dwindled to this year’s low of minus 70 points at the end of last week from a high of 84 points on Jan. 8.

John Stoltzfus, chief market strategist at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, today boosted his 2013 projection for the S&P 500 by 4.7 percent to 1,812, citing the market’s strength. The index will end next year at 2,014, he forecast.

“Recent improvements in the tone of U.S. economic data suggest to us that prospects are good for investors to see a continuation of the economic recovery that could drive earnings higher in the year ahead,” Stoltzfus wrote in a note.

The S&P 500 trades at 16.9 times reported operating profit, a 20 percent increase from the beginning of 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last week, the benchmark’s valuation reached the highest level since May 2010.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, rose 2.2 percent today to 13.39. The measure is down 26 percent this year.

Six out of the 10 main S&P 500 industries declined as industrial and utility shares fell more than 0.6 percent for the worst performance.

Best Buy declined 11 percent to $38.78. Sales were little changed at $9.36 billion in the period ended Nov. 2, trailing the $9.37 billion analysts estimated on average.

Campbell Soup lost 6.2 percent to $39.20. The company said profit this year will be less than it previously estimated after a recall and changes in retailers’ buying patterns hurt first- quarter results.

Salesforce.com Inc. slipped 5 percent to $52.74. The biggest maker of customer-management software forecast fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 6 cents a share at most. Analysts on average estimated 7 cents.

Home Depot gained 0.9 percent to $80.38. The one-and-a-half year gain in the U.S. housing market is giving consumers the confidence they need to remodel kitchens and bathrooms. The number of transactions in the quarter increased 4 percent to 344.3 million while the average purchase climbed 3.2 percent to $56.27, Home Depot said.

Tyson Foods added 4.6 percent to $30.78. The largest U.S. meat processor yesterday posted higher-than-expected quarterly revenue after a gain in prices and sales volumes for beef and chicken.

Boston Scientific Corp. climbed 3.4 percent to $11.96. The company’s Vercise deep brain stimulation system received CE Mark approval, as it met certain European product standards, for treatment of dystonia.

Tesla Motors Inc., the electric-car maker under an investigation by U.S. auto regulators, climbed 3.7 percent to $126.09, rebounding from a 10 percent decline yesterday. Craig Irwin, an analyst with Wedbush Securities Inc., said the probe was “entirely expected” and may be positive as it’s likely to lead to an independent confirmation of credibility of the company’s design.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the probe today in a website posting following three fires in five weeks after roadway mishaps. The NHTSA said it would look into the fire risks from the cars’ undercarriages striking objects. The probe involves 13,108 Model S vehicles.

United Continental Holdings Inc. added 3.9 percent to $37.80. The world’s biggest airline said it will cut $2 billion in annual spending with half of the savings coming from lowering fuel expense.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

It is you who must help the universe.

Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Talent is God given.  Be humble.

Fame is man-given.  Be grateful.

Conceit is self-given.  Be careful.

-John Wooden, 1910-2010

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:

MY NOVEMBER GUEST

-Robert Frost

My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,

Thinks these dark days of autumn rain

Are beautiful as days can be;

She loves the bare, the withered tree;

She walks the sodden pasture lane…

Not yesterday I learned to know

The love of bare November days

Before the coming of the snow,

But it were vain to tell her so,

And they are better for her praise.

Photos of the day

A rainbow shines over buildings after heavy rain poured in Gaza City. Adel Hana/AP

A tree stands above a fog-covered valley near Oberbuergen, Switzerland. Urs Flueeler/Keystone/AP

Market Closes for November 18^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	15976.02	+14.32    +0.09%
S&P 500	1791.53	-6.65    -0.37%
NASDAQ	3949.066	-36.902    -0.93%
TSX	13458.06	-24.51
		-0.18%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15164.30	-1.62
		-0.01%
HANG  SENG	23660.06	+627.91
		+2.73%
SENSEX	20850.74	+451.32
		+2.21%
FTSE 100	6723.46	+30.02
		+0.45%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.526	2.558
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.079	3.116
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.6658	2.7051
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.7552	3.7929

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.95859	0.95778
US   $	1.04319	1.04408
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.40866	0.70989
US  $	1.35034	0.74056

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1276.07	1287.95
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.03	93.73
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, after the benchmark index reached a two-year high, as a drop in commodity shares offset an advance among banks.

Kinross Gold Corp. and Eldorado Gold Corp. retreated at least 3.8 percent as gold fell for the first time in three days.

Manulife Financial Corp. and Sun Life Financial Inc. added more than 1.5 percent. Bombardier Inc. increased 0.2 percent after announcing aircraft orders.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slipped 24.51 points, or 0.2 percent, to 13,458.06 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, erasing a gain of as much as 0.2 percent.

“Most of the earnings are behind us now, although the banks still have to report,” said Michael O’Brien, a fund manager with TD Asset Management Inc. in Toronto. He helps manage about C$216 billion ($207 billion) with the firm. “The biggest thing is people will continue to watch the macro data as the Fed has said for a few months their decisions will be data dependent. The big fear of investors is the Fed beginning tapering too early.”

Equities rallied this year as the U.S. Federal Reserve embarked on a monthly $85 billion bond-buying program to stimulate the economy. Fed policy makers will probably scale back the pace of asset purchases at their March 18-19 meeting, according to the median of 32 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists on Nov. 8.

Foreign purchases of Canadian equities hit a four-year high in September as investors sought to take advantage of a stock rally. Non-resident investors acquired C$10.79 billion ($10.36 billion) of Canadian stocks after selling C$2.19 billion a month earlier, Statistics Canada said in a report. The S&P/TSX has climbed 11 percent since June 28, on track for the biggest six- month advance since 2010, data show.

Five of 10 S&P/TSX industries fell on trading volume in line with the 30-day average. Commodity shares sank more than 0.7 percent.

Kinross Gold retreated 4.1 percent to C$5.11 and Eldorado Gold lost 3.8 percent to C$6.59 as gold futures for December delivery fell 1.2 percent to $1,272.30 an ounce in New York.

Financial shares climbed 0.5 percent as a group for the best return among 10 main industries. Sun Life added 1.5 percent to C$37.43 for a fourth day of gains and the highest close since 2009. Manulife, the nation’s largest insurer, gained 1.8 percent to C$19.86.

Bombardier climbed 0.2 percent to C$4.65. The Montreal- based company said it has come to separate agreements to sell as many as eight Q400 aircraft to Palma Holding Ltd. and as many as four of the same aircraft to Air Cote d’Ivoire. The value of the combined contracts is worth as much as $423 million.

Boeing Co., the world’s largest planemaker, said it will team up with Bombardier to offer a low-cost maritime surveillance plane based on the Canadian manufacturer’s Challenger 605 business jet.

Cott Corp. climbed 2.7 percent, the most in the S&P/TSX, to C$8.88. Levin Capital Strategies LP reported a 5.3 percent stake in the beverage producer, according to a regulatory filing.

BRP Inc., the maker of Ski-Doo snowmobiles and three- wheeled motorcycles, added 0.4 percent to C$28.20. The stock has rallied 31 percent since its May debut, the best performer among Canada’s largest initial public offerings this year as revenue climbs on sales of its year-round products including all-terrain vehicles and its Can-Am Spyder three-wheel roadsters.

BRP, based in Valcourt, Quebec, raised C$262.3 million in its May stock sale and topped the 4 percent average increase of 10 companies that raised at least $100 million from IPOs in Canada this year, data show.

USA

By Nick Taborek and Nikolaj Gammeltoft

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) — Most U.S. stocks fell after the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 16,000 for the first time, spurring concern that equities have risen too far, too fast.

Consumer companies and commodity stocks led the retreat.

Microsoft Corp. slid 1.7 percent after Bank of America Corp. cut its rating to underperform from neutral. Tyson Foods Inc., the largest U.S. meat processor, advanced 2.3 percent after reporting revenue above analysts’ estimates on a gain in prices and sales volumes for beef and chicken.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.4 percent to 1,791.53 at 4 p.m. in New York. Earlier, it topped 1,800. About three stocks fell for each that rose in the gauge. The Dow average gained 14.32 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,976.02. About 6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, in line with the three-month average.

“We’ve moved pretty far pretty fast,” Kevin Caron, a Florham Park, New Jersey-based market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which oversees about $150 billion. “Obviously there’s a potential for a little bit of a pullback.”

While four years of earnings growth and the Federal Reserve’s near-zero interest rate have led the S&P 500 on a 165 percent rally since March 2009, they have also driven valuations to a three-year high. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, speaking at the Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit, said he is “very cautious” on equities.

The S&P 500 trades at 17 times reported operating profit, a 20 percent increase from the beginning of 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last week, the benchmark’s valuation reached the highest level since May 2010.

“As we keep going and making new highs, we get into new territory and the air keeps getting thinner and thinner up here,” Tim Hartzell, who helps manage about $425 million as chief investment officer at Sequent Asset Management, said via phone from Houston. “Everybody is watching Yellen and feel comfortable that she’ll continue QE, maybe even put more into the system.”

U.S. stocks have risen for the past six weeks, reaching all-time highs as Janet Yellen signaled she will continue stimulus efforts as the central bank’s chairman. New York Federal Reserve Bank President William C. Dudley today said he’s “getting more hopeful” the U.S. economy is gaining strength as the drag from fiscal policy wanes. The central bank’s monetary policy is likely to be accommodative for a long time, he said.

The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee is buying $85 billion of bonds every month and won’t taper its purchases until its March 18-19 meeting, according to the median estimate of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News Nov. 8.

China’s leaders vowed to allow more private investment in state-controlled industries and expand farmers’ land rights as part of the ruling Communist Party’s biggest package of economic reforms since the 1990s. Chinese stocks rose, with the benchmark index for mainland companies in Hong Kong surging the most since December 2011.

“To the extent that these reforms might lead to some higher estimates of growth in the coming years, that would be welcomed by investors,” John Carey, a portfolio manager at Pioneer Investment Management, which oversees $20 billion.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, rose 7.5 percent to 13.10. It has fallen 27 percent this year.

Eight out of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 fell, with consumer discretionary companies retreating 0.7 percent to pace declines. Phone stocks rallied 0.6 percent as a group for the biggest gain.

Consol Energy Inc. fell 4 percent to $34.56. The coal producer was cut to neutral from buy at Citigroup Inc. by analyst Brian Yu, who said in a note that the outlook for metallurgical coal looks worse than base metals. Peabody Energy Corp., the largest U.S. coal producer, lost 3.7 percent to $19.36.

Microsoft declined 1.7 percent to $37.20. Bank of America analyst Kash Rangan cut the shares to underperform from neutral, citing the risk that the board will select a chief executive officer that disappoints investors.

Tesla Motors Inc. fell 10 percent to $121.58. Safety officials in California are investigating an industrial accident at the company’s sole Model S plant that injured three workers.

The electric-car maker led by Elon Musk has fallen 25 percent since Nov. 1.

Nvidia Corp. dropped 2.4 percent to $15.78. The shares were cut to underweight, or sell, from equalweight, or hold, at Morgan Stanley.

Boeing added 1.7 percent to $138.36. The company took an early lead over rival Airbus SAS in the biennial Dubai expo, signing up Etihad Airways PJSC for its new 777X wide-body planes as well as for more 787 Dreamliners.

Tyson climbed 2.3 percent to $29.42. The company said fiscal fourth-quarter sales rose 7 percent to $8.89 billion, beating the $8.87 billion average of 12 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Cheap is converging with expensive in the American equity market, narrowing options for investors looking for bargains after the broadest rally on record lifted almost 90 percent of the S&P 500 this year. A measure of the dispersion of price- earnings ratios in the S&P 500 compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. narrowed to 41 percent in June, the lowest on record, and held around that level since.

Investors this week will scrutinize minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee from its Oct. 29-20 meeting and public remarks by Fed officials. The minutes are set to be released on Nov. 20. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is due to speak tomorrow, while Fed Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard will deliver a speech on Nov. 20.

“This week is crucial, there is a lot of Fed speak,” Quincy Krosby, a market strategist for Newark, New Jersey-based Prudential Financial Inc., which oversees more than $1 trillion, said by telephone. “Investors want to get a little bit more color and atmospherics from the minutes.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

This glorious soul we must believe in.   Out of that will come power.

Whatever you think, that you will be.  If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be;

if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be; if you think yourselves impure, impure you will be;

if you think yourselves pure, pure you will be.  This teaches us  not to think ourselves as weak, but as strong,

omnipotent, omniscient.  No matter that I have not expressed it yet, it is in me.

All knowledge is in me, all power, all purity, and all freedom.  Why cannot I express this knowledge?

Because I do not believe in it.  Let me believe in it, and it must and will come out.

This is what the idea of the Impersonal teaches.

Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

We would often be sorry if our wishes

were gratified.

-Aesop, 620-564 BC

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 Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

I’ve heard of “Bring your child to work day”, but never “Bring your parent to work day”.  On November 7^th, LinkedIn launched international Bring your parents to work day at 17 of its international offices.  A studied showed that one in three Canadian parents don’t really know what their offspring do at the office.  For example, when asked “How was work”, the general response is “good”.  Bringing parents into the office is a way to bridge that gap.  Google, is another company in which has adapted to the “Bring your parent to work day”.  Danielle Restivo, employee of Linkedin was partly responsible for the launch of this and opened up the conversation in the LinkedIn offices.  It happened when her mother wrote a note to her saying: “I love you. You’re wonderful.  Can you write me one paragraph on what you do.”  Danielle Restivo, writes “From an employer perspective, this type of [parental engagement] event is a home run,” meaning that it makes employees happy, makes companies look good and ultimately results in, well, results, which is of course the point.  What are your thoughts on this new culture that seems to be adapting to offices?

“Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.”
Alice Walker

Photos of the Day:

A bald tree stands in front of autumnally colored vineyards near Ueberlingen at Lake Constance, southern Germany. Felix Kaestle/dpa/AP

Members of Brazilian indigenous ethnic groups dance during the XII Games of the Indigenous People, in Cuiaba November 14th. Paulo Whitaker/Reuters

Market Closes for November 15^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	15961.70	+85.48    +0.54%
S&P 500	1796.65	+6.03    +0.34%
NASDAQ	3985.968	+13.227    +0.33%
TSX	13482.48	+51.10
		+0.38%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15165.92	+289.51
		+1.95%
HANG  SENG	23032.15	+383.00
		+1.69%
SENSEX	20399.42	+205.02
		+1.02%
FTSE 100	6693.44	+27.31
		+0.41%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.558	2.559
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.116	3.114
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7051	2.6935
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.7929	3.7885

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.95778	0.95563
US   $	1.04408	1.04643
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.40935	0.70955
US  $	1.34969	0.74091

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1287.95	1287.65
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.73	94.02
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Lu Wang and Nick Taborek

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, capping a second week of gains for the benchmark index, on speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve will maintain monetary stimulus and as China’s ruling party announced changes to economic policy.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. added 0.8 percent amid speculation an agreement to sell OAO Uralkali by its owners may defuse a dispute between Russia and Belarus that roiled the global soil nutrient market. Bonavista Energy Corp. climbed 3.9 percent as Scotia Capital Inc. boosted the stock’s rating. West Fraser Timber Co. slipped 4.7 percent as RBC Capital Markets downgraded shares of the lumber producer.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 51.18 points, or 0.4 percent, to 13,482.56 at 4 p.m. in Toronto.

Trading in the benchmark gauge’s shares was 8.6 percent below the 30-day average. The index advanced 0.8 percent this week, its fifth weekly gain in six.

“Yellen is going to continue Bernanke’s policies of extremely low short-term rates and being very slow to pull back from quantitative easing, so that is stimulative for risk assets,” Todd Johnson, a portfolio manager at Winnipeg, Manitoba-based BCV Asset Management, said in a phone interview.

His firm oversees C$550 million ($526 million).

Equities rose yesterday after Janet Yellen, nominated to succeed Ben Bernanke as the next chairman of the Fed, said the central bank should take care not to withdraw stimulus, or quantitative easing, too early from an economy that is operating well below potential.

China’s government vowed to allow more private investment in the state sector, loosen its one-child policy and better protect farmers’ rights to land, according to the Communist Party policy decision published today by the official Xinhua News Agency today.

The document, covering 60 measures, follows a communique issued Nov. 12 after a four-day party conclave in Beijing that omitted detailed policies for the world’s second-largest economy.

“China’s growth is very positive for Canada, and liberalizing their financial sector and encouraging private sector consumption is a significant step forward for China’s normalization,” Johnson said.

Manufacturing in the New York region unexpectedly contracted in November, a report on the New York Fed’s general economic index showed today. In Canada, economic data were mixed, with factory sales rising in September to the highest in more than a year while existing home sales fell 3.2 percent in October from the previous month.

Potash Corp. rose 0.8 percent to C$33.85. Billionaire Suleiman Kerimov and his business partners in Uralkali, a rival potash producer, may reach an agreement to sell their joint 33 percent stake as soon as next week, according to four people with knowledge of their discussions.

A sale may defuse a dispute between Russia and Belarus sparked by Uralkali’s July withdrawal from a partnership that marketed 40 percent of global exports. The falling-out and Uralkali’s plan to boost output roiled the $20 billion market for the soil nutrient. Belarus has called for a change in the company’s ownership before a reconciliation is possible.

Bonavista Energy rallied 3.9 percent to C$12.71. The oil and natural gas producer was raised to sector outperform from sector perform at Scotia Capital by equity analyst Patrick Bryden. The 12-month target price is C$18 a share.

Finning International Inc. advanced 5.8 percent to C$25.54.

The seller of Caterpillar Inc. equipment was raised to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital Markets by equity analyst Sara O’Brien after the company yesterday said third- quarter revenue beat estimates.

Raw-materials producers has the worst performance out of 10 groups in the S&P/TSX, falling 0.7 percent. OceanaGold Corp. dropped 5.2 percent to C$1.83 and Centerra Gold Inc. retreated 5.7 percent to C$3.15.

West Fraser Timber slid 4.7 percent to C$91.32. The lumber producer was cut to sector perform from outperform at RBC Capital Markets by equity analyst Paul Quinn.

US

By Lu Wang

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose for the sixth straight week, sending benchmark indexes to all-time highs, after Janet Yellen signaled she will continue Federal Reserve stimulus efforts as the central bank’s chairman.

Macy’s Inc. jumped 11 percent for the week, leading a rally among retailers, as better-than-estimated earnings boosted optimism about the holiday shopping season. PulteGroup Inc. and D.R. Horton Inc. climbed more than 7.4 percent as homebuilders advanced. Exxon Mobil Corp. gained 2.7 percent as Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed a stake. Cisco Systems Inc. tumbled 8.4 percent after forecasting its first quarterly sales decline in four years.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 1.6 percent to 1,798.18 over the five days, extending the index’s longest weekly advance since February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 199.92 points, or 1.3 percent, to 15,961.70. Both gauges reached records on each of the last three days of the week.

“Janet Yellen induced euphoria for the market,” Kristina Hooper, a U.S. investment strategist at Allianz Global Investors in New York, said in a phone interview. The firm oversees $436 billion. “We certainly have seen more excitement about the stock market than we’ve seen in a long time.”

Equities rallied as Yellen, nominated to be the next chairman of the Fed, said the economy and labor market are performing “far short of their potential” and must improve before the central bank can begin reducing monetary stimulus.

The remarks show Yellen is committed to the Fed’s strategy of attempting to boost the economy and lower 7.3 percent unemployment, more than four years after the U.S. began to recover from the longest and deepest recession since the Great Depression.

Economic data during the five days showed more Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits during the week ended Nov. 9, while factory production picked up in October. A separate report showed manufacturing in the New York area unexpectedly contracted this month.

Fed policy makers will probably scale back the pace of $85 billion in monthly bond buying at their March 18-19 meeting, according to the median of 32 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists on Nov. 8. Fed Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said reducing bond purchases “ought to be on the table at upcoming meetings” by the Federal Open Market Committee, scheduled Dec. 17-18.

Central bank support has helped propel the S&P 500 higher by 166 percent from its March 2009 low. The gauge has rallied 26 percent so far in 2013, heading for its best year in a decade, and is trading at 16.3 times projected earnings, above the five- year average of 14 times profit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bargains are hard to find nowadays, according to Sandy Villere III, a New Orleans-based fund manager at Villere & Co.

The firm’s $1.1 billion Villere Balanced Fund, which beat 99 percent of its peers over the past five years, is holding a maximum 15 percent in cash, he said.

“We’re finding many companies that are now getting a little bit over-extended, so we’re selling,” Villere said in an interview. His firm oversees $2.8 billion. “We can’t find good opportunities to buy.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures future market swings implied by S&P 500 options, slipped 5.5 percent for the week to 12.19, a three-month low.

The gauge has retreated 32 percent this year.

Consumer-discretionary companies had the largest advance among groups in the S&P 500, climbing 2.5 percent, as all 10 industries increased. Health-care and consumer-staples shares added more than 1.6 percent. Utilities and telephone stocks had the worst performance, each with a 0.8 percent gain.

Macy’s jumped 11 percent to a record $51.09. The second- largest U.S. department-store company posted fiscal third- quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as better local selections boosted sales, signaling stronger demand headed into the holidays.

Of the 463 S&P 500 companies that have announced earnings so far, 75 percent topped analysts’ income forecasts while 54 percent beat revenue estimates, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Profits for the gauge increased 4.9 percent in the third quarter and will gain 5.8 percent in the final three months of the year, estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

J.C. Penney Co. surged 9.7 percent to $9.03. Jana Partners LLC, the $7 billion hedge-fund firm run by Barry Rosenstein, took a stake in the struggling retailer last quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gilford Securities analyst Bernard Sosnick said J.C. Penney likely achieved sales goals and “perhaps more” for Veterans Day weekend.

An S&P index of homebuilders rose 5 percent as all 11 members advanced. D.R. Horton rallied 8 percent to $19.59. The largest U.S. homebuilder by revenue reported a higher quarterly profit as it increased prices amid a nationwide housing recovery. PulteGroup rose 7.4 percent to $18.10.

Exxon, the world’s biggest oil company by market value, advanced 2.7 percent to $95.27. Berkshire Hathaway reported a stake valued at about $3.7 billion as of Sept. 30. Exxon has advanced 10 percent this year, trailing the S&P 500’s gain.

FedEx Corp. climbed 4.6 percent to $138.65. Billionaire investors George Soros and John Paulson joined Daniel Loeb in taking stakes last quarter in the operator of the world’s largest cargo airline. Soros Fund Management LLC owned a $173 million stake and Paulson & Co. held $73.8 million in the shares at the end of the third quarter. Loeb’s Third Point LLC acquired a stake valued at $228.2 million.

Office Depot Inc. climbed 9.7 percent to $5.53. Bank of America Corp. raised its rating on the stock to buy from underperform, citing potential cost savings following its merger with OfficeMax Inc. and the appointment of Roland Smith as chief executive officer.

Twitter Inc. added 5.6 percent to $43.98 in its second week of trading. Shares of the unprofitable microblogging service have soared 69 percent since being priced at $26 on Nov. 6 amid speculation profits will surge as the company expands in markets like mobile advertising.

Cisco tumbled 8.4 percent, the most since May 2012, to $21.54. The world’s largest maker of computer-networking equipment gave quarterly profit and sales forecasts that missed analysts’ estimates on sluggish emerging-market demand and weak corporate spending.

The outlook dragged down other technology shares. Hewlett- Packard Co. lost 2.8 percent to $25.21 while Xilinx Inc. and Jabil Circuit Inc. retreated at least 2.2 percent.

Kohl’s Corp. slid 5.4 percent to $53.95. The retailer reported third-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates and trimmed its full-year outlook.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” – Albert Camus

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

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