Month: June 2014

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Sadly we didn’t get a triple-crown winner at Belmont Stakes Saturday.  California Chrome tied at 4^th place.

The cartoon Donald Duck was born on this day in 1934.

Prime Numbers:

1: Rank of the boy’s name Noah and girl’s name Sophia in their popularity for infants born in the US last year.  Noah displaced Jacob, the most popular for 14 years.  Sophia has been No. 1 for three years.

7: Number of hurricanes predicted in the Atlantic Basin this summer, including two major ones that will make landfall.  That would make it a below- average season.

103: Estimated age of what is considered to be the world’s oldest killer whale.  The female, officially known as J2, is referred to as “Granny.”

500: Number of London police officers who will wear video cameras on their uniforms as part of a year long trial.

6 Million: Estimated number of surveillance cameras now deployed in London.

CNN launched a series on May 29^th on “the 60’s”.  We’ve caught a few of the series and it is really well done.  The series executive producer is Tom Hanks, and he is also one of many celebrities who reflect on the era’s lasting influence.  There are 10-parts, so you might be interested in watching the remaining parts in the series, really worth checking out.

Photos of the day

Tonalist, left, with Joel Rosario up edges out Commissioner with Javier Castellano up to win the 146th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race, Saturday, in Elmont, N.Y. Matt Slocum/AP

Amateur sailors set out for London on final leg in the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race in New York Harbor, Saturday. At 40,000 miles and 11 months long, the Clipper Race is the world’s longest ocean race and the only event of its kind for amateur sailors. Only the skippers are professionals. Darren Ornitz/Reuters

Market Closes for June 9^th, 2014

Market   Index	Close	Change
Dow   Jones	16943.10	+18.82
		+0.11%
S&P 500	1951.27	+1.83    +0.09%
NASDAQ	4336.242	+14.843    +0.34%
TSX	14871.21	+32.31
		+0.22%

International Markets

Market   Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15124.00	+46.76
		+0.31%
HANG   SENG	23117.47	+166.47
		+0.73%
SENSEX	25580.21	+183.75
		+0.72%
FTSE 100	6875.00	+16.79
		+0.24%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.   10 Year Bond	2.324	2.321
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.843	2.841
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.6095	2.5932
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.4447	3.4388

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.91683	0.91486
US   $	1.09072	1.09306
Euro Rate   1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.48240	0.67458
US   $	1.35910	0.73578

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1253.12	1253.44
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	104.41	102.66
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada
By Eric Lam

June 9 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a seventh day, the longest streak since February, as commodity prices climbed and real-estate shares advanced after housing starts rose more than expected in May.

Semafo Inc. increased 1.3 percent as gold traded higher for the second time in three sessions. Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. and NuVista Energy Ltd. rallied at least 2.2 percent as crude rose to a three-month high. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc. added 4 percent after analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald LP raised the stock’s rating on rising auction proceeds. Home Capital Group Inc. rose 1.3 percent to pace gains among financial stocks.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index increased 32.31 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,871.21 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge is 1.4 percent away from its record closing high of 15,073.13 on June 18, 2008. The price-to- earnings ratio for the benchmark equity gauge is 19.9, the highest since 2011.

Home Capital Group increased 1.3 percent to C$50.56, a record. Canadian housing starts were 198,324 units at a seasonally adjusted annual pace in May, Ottawa-based Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said on its website. Economists had forecast a 185,000 advance.

Ritchie Bros. jumped 4 percent to C$26.26, the most since December. Eight of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX advanced.

Peter Prattas, analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, boosted Ritchie Bros. to a buy from a hold after the equipment auctioneering company on June 6 reported a 30 percent increase in May gross auction proceeds to $299 million, compared with $230 million a year ago.

“Momentum is building in auction proceeds providing us greater confidence that Ritchie Bros. can achieve the higher end of its 2014 guidance,” Prattas said in a note today.

US
By Oliver Renick and Callie Bost

June 9 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, with benchmark indexes extending records, as small-cap shares rallied and Family Dollar Stores Inc. advanced with Analog Devices Inc. amid deals activity.

Family Dollar jumped 13 percent as a filing showed Carl Icahn has amassed a 9.4 percent stake. Analog Devices jumped 5 percent after agreeing to buy a chipmaker for about $2 billion. Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. more than tripled after Merck & Co. agreed to buy the drugmaker for $3.9 billion. Tyson Foods Inc. fell 6.5 percent after the company said it made a binding offer for Hillshire Brands Co. Apple Inc. traded at $93.70, reflecting a seven-for-one stock split.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.1 percent to 1,951.27 at 4 p.m. in New York, capping its seventh record close in the past eight sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 18.82 points, or 0.1 percent, to a record 16,943.10. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies climbed 0.9 percent for a fourth day of gains. About 5.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 15 percent below the three-month average.

“There’s a fair amount of skepticism over if we are at peak valuations,” Michael Arone, the Boston-based chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors’ U.S. Intermediary Business, said by phone. State Street Corp. oversees $2.4 trillion in assets. “My view is the Goldilocks economy is back — not too cold, not too hot, but just right. What we’re starting to see is companies starting to do capital expenditures and M&A to invest in their businesses.”

The S&P 500 advanced 1.3 percent to a record 1,949.44 last week as the European Central Bank lowered interest rates and a report showed that the U.S. economy created more jobs than expected. The index has continued to climb to records even as the U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years during the first quarter.

Federal Reserve officials are watching the labor market as they move to complete their bond-purchase program late this year and start considering the timing of the first interest-rate increase since 2006. Central-bank stimulus has helped propel the S&P 500 higher by as much as 188 percent from its bear-market low in March 2009.

The ECB’s stimulus sent European bond yields to all-time lows and helped boost the region’s equities to near the highest in six years.

The U.S. stocks benchmark has rebounded 7.5 percent since a selloff in small-cap and Internet shares spread to the broader market, dragging the index to a two-month low in April. The measure trades at 16.5 times the projected earnings of its members, up from a multiple of 14.8 at the start of February.

The Russell 2000 has advanced 4.4 percent in the past four sessions to the highest since April 3. The gauge has rallied 7.5 percent from a February low and is now up 1 percent in 2014.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index climbed 3.9 percent to 11.15. The gauge, known as the VIX, fell 5.9 percent last week to 10.73, the lowest level since February 2007.

“Growth is slow, GDP is slow, we have rate cuts all around, and we’re banking that all-time highs are going to get better,” Keith Rosendahl, chief investment strategist at Venice, Florida-based research firm Interactive Portfolio, LLC, said in a phone interview. “With the merger activity, I think people are trying to buy growth.”

Six of the 10 main S&P 500 groups advanced today, with industrial shares adding 0.6 percent to pace gains. Utility stocks lost 0.7 percent.

Family Dollar jumped 13 percent to $68.62, the highest this year. Icahn and his affiliates bought 10.7 million shares and options for about $265.8 million, according to a June 6 regulatory filing. The billionaire may push for operating changes and ask the company to explore strategic alternatives, as well as potentially seeking board seats, according to the filing.

Dollar General Corp. rallied 7.4 percent to $62.25. Jefferies Group LLC raised its rating on the stock to buy from hold after Icahn’s purchase of Family Dollar shares. The move may lead to a merger with Dollar General, Jefferies said. Dollar Tree Inc. gained 0.7 percent to $55.50, a seventh straight gain that is the longest streak since November.

Hillshire jumped 5.3 percent to $62.06, while Tyson slid 6.5 percent to $37.50. Tyson has made a unilaterally binding offer of $63 a share for the maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park hot dogs, it said in a statement. Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. dropped 6.7 percent to $24.51 after saying it withdrew a competing proposal.

Idenix Pharmaceuticals soared 229 percent to $23.79 after Merck said it has agreed to acquire the maker of experimental Hepatitis C drugs for $24.50 a share in cash, or about $3.85 billion. Merck, the second-biggest U.S. drugmaker, gained 0.2 percent to $57.94.

Gilead Science Inc., the developer of Sovaldi, a competing hepatitis C treatment, fell 4.1 percent to $79.01.

Analog Devices rose 5 percent to $55.31. The semiconductor manufacturer agreed to acquire Hittite Microwave Corp. for about $2 billion. The purchase price of $78 a share is 29 percent more than Hittite’s closing price on June 6. Hittite rose 29 percent to $77.90.

Morgan Stanley added 0.1 percent to $31.98. The bank agreed to sell its stake in oil-transportation company TransMontaigne Inc. to NGL Energy Partners LP for $200 million as part of the bank’s effort to reduce capital used by the commodities business. NGL added 2.2 percent to $42.86.

Apple shares climbed 1.6 percent to $93.70. The shares closed Friday at $645.57. Apple said on April 23 it was doing the split so shares would be available to a wider pool of investors.

NeuStar Inc. sank 8.4 percent to $24.43. An e-mail marked confidential that was posted briefly on June 6 on the Federal Communications Commission website indicated the agency may transfer a contract with Neustar to Ericsson AB. The FCC has yet to award the new five-year contract for telephone-number switching, a service that NeuStar has handled since 1997.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. fell 2.9 percent to $199.05. Wynn Macau Ltd., a resort owned by the Las Vegas-based company and traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, was downgraded to hold from buy at Deutsche.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

The infinite oneness of the Soul is the eternal sanction of all morality.

You and I are not only brothers – every literature voicing man’s struggle towards freedom

has preached that – but you and I are really one.

This is the dictate of Indian philosophy.

This oneness is the rationale of all ethics and all spirituality.

Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

 

Carolann

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.

-José Ortega Y Gasset, 1883-1955

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 June 6, 1944, the D-Day invasion of Europe took place during World War II as Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  This world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The peace we seek , founded upon decent trust and cooperative effort among nations, can be fortified, not by weapons of war but by wheat and by cotton, by milk and by wool, by meat and by timber and by rice.  These are words that translate into every language on earth.  These are needs that challenge this world in arms.

–Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890-196

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. –Ernest Hemingway, 1898-1961, A Farewell to Arms.

Photos of the day

One of three helicopters showered a million rose petals on the Statue of Liberty during a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. Richard Drew/AP

World War II veterans joke as they sing along to wartime classic ‘We’ll Meet Again’ during a ceremony in Arromanches, France. World leaders and veterans gathered by the beaches of Normandy to mark the 70th anniversary of World War Two’s D-Day landings. Leon Neal/Reuters

Market Closes for June 6^th, 2014

Market   Index	Close	Change
Dow   Jones	16924.28	+88.17
		+0.52%
S&P 500	1949.38	+8.92    +0.46%
NASDAQ	4321.398	+25.171    +0.59%
TSX	14833.12	+32.94
		+0.22%

International Markets

Market   Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15077.24	-2.13
		-0.01%
HANG   SENG	22951.00	-158.66
		-0.69%
SENSEX	25396.46	+376.95
		+1.51%
FTSE 100	6858.21	+44.72
		+0.66%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.   10 Year Bond	2.321	2.331
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.841	2.854
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.5932	2.5833
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.4388	3.4354

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.91486	0.91545
US   $	1.09306	1.09236
Euro Rate   1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.49117	0.67061
US   $	1.36421	0.73302

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1253.44	1253.23
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.66	102.48
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada
By Gerrit De Vynck

June 6 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a sixth day to the highest level since 2008, as Air Canada rallied and oil producers advanced after U.S. payrolls exceeded their pre- recession peak in a sign the economy is strengthening.

Air Canada rose 5.4 percent after National Bank Financial raised its ratings on the airline. Major Drilling Group International Inc. fell 8.2 percent after missing analyst revenue estimates for the last quarter. Saputo Inc. climbed 3.1 percent to a record.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 38.72 points, or 0.3 percent, to 14,838.90 at 4 p.m. in Toronto for a sixth day of gains, the longest winning streak since February. The benchmark index is 1.6 percent away from an all-time closing high of 15,073.13 on June 18, 2008.

Crude for July delivery rose 0.2 percent in New York, the first increase in three days, after the U.S. Labor Department said the number of jobs grew 217,000 in May, following a 282,000 gain in April, for a fourth straight month employment has increased by more than 200,000.

Lightstream Resources Ltd. added 2.3 percent to C$8.04 and Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. increased 2.1 percent to C$9.09 to pace gains as energy stocks rose 0.3 percent as a group.

Suncor Energy Inc. increased 1.2 percent to C$42.85 as Credit Suisse Securities featured it on a list of Canadian stocks that could benefit if interest rates move.

Air Canada climbed 5.4 percent to C$10.47, the highest close since February 2008. National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen said in a note Canada’s two biggest airlines will benefit from strengthening fairs for domestic flights. WestJet Airlines Ltd. rose 2.7 percent to C$26.34.

Major Drilling dropped 8.2 percent to C$7.70, the largest drop since April 2013, as it reported fourth-quarter revenue of C$82.6 million, compared to an average analyst estimate of C$90.2 million.

Teck Resources Ltd. fell 1.8 percent to C$23.64 after it said yesterday its Alaska unit would not build a proposed 52- mile pipeline to move wastewater from its Red Dog mine.

USA
By Jeremy Herron and Joseph Ciolli

June 6 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks climbed to records, leading global equities higher with the dollar, after better- than-forecast hiring data boosted optimism in the world’s largest economy. Copper tumbled a fourth day.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.4 percent at 4 p.m. in New York, extending an all-time high. The MSCI All-World Index advanced to within two points of its record to close at a six-year high. The dollar rose 0.1 percent to $1.36444 per euro. Ten-year Treasuries had the biggest weekly slide in three months. European bond yields dropped to all-time lows after the region’s central bank added stimulus. Russian equities capped a 20 percent rally from a March low as President Vladimir Putin met with Ukraine’s leader in France. Copper sank 1.3 percent to cap its worst week since March.

U.S. employers added 217,000 workers in May, sending payrolls past the pre-recession peak for the first time as the economy gained traction. Yields on Spanish, Belgian and Irish 10-year securities fell to all-time lows a day after the European Central Bank took deposit rates negative, the first major institution to do so, and offered liquidity to lenders to encourage credit growth.

“The market likes this steady state of economic improvement,” Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management LLC in New York, which helps manage about $1.5 billion in assets, said in a phone interview. “A really weak number would raise economic concerns that the economy is rolling over, and a too-strong number would cause concern about the Fed accelerating its tightening timetable. It’s a sweet spot for the market.”

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 217,000 in May, versus 282,000 in April and a gain of 215,000 projected by economists in a Bloomberg survey. The unemployment rate held at 6.3 percent. The share of working-age people in the labor force matched a 36-year low, suggesting the recovery remains uneven.

Federal Reserve officials are watching the labor market as they move to complete their bond-purchase program late this year and start considering the timing of the first interest-rate increase since 2006. Central-bank stimulus has helped propel the S&P 500 higher by as much as 188 percent from its bear-market low in March 2009. The index has added 1.2 percent in the past five days and is poised for a third straight weekly gain.

“The data was surprisingly right on the line,” Bill Schultz, who oversees $1.2 billion as chief investment officer at McQueen Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview. “It painted a portrait of an economy that’s growing, albeit gradually — not too fast, not too slow. The markets have risen this week in anticipation of this, plus what happened overseas with the ECB rate movement.”

The S&P 500 gained 1.3 percent in the past five days for a third week of gains. The equities benchmark has rebounded 7.4 percent since a selloff in small-cap and Internet shares spread to the broader market, dragging the index to a two-month low in April. The measure trades at 16.5 times the projected earnings of its members, up from a multiple of 14.8 at the start of February.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index fell 8.1 percent to 10.73, the lowest level in since February 2007. Volatility is diminishing, with the VIX staying within three points of an all-time low, as confidence grew that a flood of central-bank monetary stimulus worldwide will propel the global economy, extending the five-year bull market in equities.

The U.S.’s AA+ credit rating was affirmed by Standard & Poor’s, which cited the resiliency and diversity of the economy, almost three years after downgrading the nation for the first time amid political wrangling.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on May 7 that “a high degree of monetary accommodation remains warranted,” and that there will be “considerable time” before the central bank raises its benchmark rate as slack in the jobs market keeps inflation below its 2 percent target.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries rose one basis point to 2.60 percent. The rate fell as much as five basis points earlier on concern about the labor participation rate, which remained at the lowest since March 1978. The rate has climbed 12 basis points this week, the most since the five days ended March 7, and rose as high as 2.64 percent yesterday, the most since May 13.

The rate on similar maturity Italian bonds slid 18 basis points to 2.75 percent. Spain’s 10-year yields fell 19 basis points to 2.63 percent, the least since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 1993.

“Even as the Fed has started to tighten its monetary policy, the rest of world is still easing,” Jerry Braakman, chief investment officer of First American Trust in Santa Ana, California, said by phone. His firm oversees $1.1 billion. “You still have a lot of central bank liquidity being pumped into the system. There is more upside than downside in the market now.”

The MSCI All-World Index advanced 0.6 percent to 426.58, 0.3 percent below its all-time high of 427.63 from October 2007. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index added 0.9 percent, extending this week’s gain to 1.7 percent.

Russia’s Micex Index rose 1 percent, capping its best week in a month and recovering 20 percent from a low on March 14.  Putin held his first talks with Ukraine’s newly elected president, Petro Poroshenko, as France used the backdrop of D- Day commemorations to ease tensions over the separatist unrest in eastern Ukraine.

Mexico’s central bank unexpectedly reduced its key interest rate to a record low as the economy struggles to recover. The equities benchmark jumped 1.4 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.2 percent, erasing a weekly gain and the Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.5 percent. The yuan traded in Hong Kong jumped the most in a week after the central bank raised the currency’s daily fixing by the most in five months.

The International Monetary Fund said yesterday China’s policy makers still have tools to keep economic growth at a medium to high level. Trade data on June 8 may show exports climbed 6.7 percent from a year earlier in May, more than April’s 0.9 percent growth, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

Copper fell 1.3 percent to settle at $3.051 a pound in New York. An investigation of metals storage at China’s Qingdao port will make banks cautious about commodity financing, and any lending curbs might weigh on copper, according to Macquarie Group Ltd.

West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 0.2 percent to settle at $102.66 in New York after adding as much as 0.6 percent. Investors speculated the jobs data would signal higher demand. Gold futures pared earlier declines after falling the most in a week as stock gains diminished demand for the precious metal as an alternative investment.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Love can come into being only when there is total self-abandonment.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The high sentiments always win in the end, leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat

always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time.

When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

-George Orwell, 1903-1950

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:

And on this day:

On June 5, 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded just after claiming victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested.
2004 – Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died in Los Angeles at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

1883 – Economist John Maynard Keynes was born.

I was in NYC last weekend and came across this article in the New York Post:

THE ROAD TO D-DAY – AND ONWARD

By Victor Davis Hanson

Seventy years ago this June 6, the Americans, British and Canadians stormed the beaches of Normandy in the largest amphibious invasion of Europe since the Persian king Xerxes invaded Greece in 480 BC.

About 160,000 troops landed on five Normandy beaches and linked up with airborne troops in a masterful display of planning and courage.  Within a month, almost a million troops had landed in France and were heading eastward toward the German border.  Within 11 months, the war with Germany was over.

The western front required the diversion of hundreds of thousands of German troops.  It weakened Nazi resistance to the Russians while robbing the Third Reich of its valuable occupied European territory.

The impatient and long-suffering Russians had demanded of their allies a second front commensurate with their own sacrifices.  Their Herculean efforts by war’s end would account for two out of every three dead German soldiers – at a cost of 20 million Russian civilian and military casualties.

Yet for all the sacrifices of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin was largely responsible for his war with Nazi Germany.  In 1939, he signed a foolish non-aggression pact with Hitler that allowed the Nazis to gobble up Western democracies.  Hitler’s Panzers were aided by Russians in Poland and overran Western Europe fueled by supplies from the Soviets.

The Western Allies had hardly been idle before D-Day.  They had taken North Africa and Sicily from the Germans and Italians.  They were bogged down in brutal fighting in Italy.  The Western Allies and China fought the Japanese in the Pacific, Burma and China..

America and the British Commonwealth fought almost everywhere.  They waged a multiform war on and under the seas.  They eventually destroyed Japanese and German heavy industry with a costly and controversial strategic bombing campaign.

The Allies sent friends such as the Russians and Chinese billions of dollars worth of food and war materiel.

In sum, while Russia bore the brunt of the German land army, the Western Allies fought all three Axis powers everywhere else and in every conceivable fashion.

Yet if D-Day was brilliantly planned and executed, the followup advance through France in June 1944 was not always so.  The Allies seemed to know the texture of every beach in Normandy, but nothing about the tick bocage just a few miles inland from Omaha Beach.  The result was that the Americans were bogged down in the French hedgerows for almost seven weeks until late July – suffering about 10 times the casualties as were lost from the Normandy landings.

So how did the Allies get from the beaches of Normandy to Germany in less than a year?  Largely by overwhelming the Wehrmacht with lots of good soldiers and practical war materiel.  If German tanks, mines, machine guns and artillery were superbly crafted, more utilitarian American counterparts were good enough – and about 10 times as numerous.  Mechanically intricate German Tiger and Panther tanks could usually knock out durable American Sherman tanks, but the Americans produced almost50,000 of the latter, and the Germans less than 8,000 of the former.

Over Normandy, UK and US fighter aircraft were not only as good or better than German models but were far more numerous.  By mid-1944, Germany had produced almost no four-engine bombers.  The British and Americans built almost 50,000 that by 1944 were systematically leveling German cities.

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt were far more pragmatic supreme commanders than the increasingly delusional and sick Adolf Hitler, American war planners such as George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower and Alan Brooke understood grand strategy better than the more experienced German chief of staff.  Allied field generals such as George S. Patton and Bernard Montgomery were comparable to German legends like Gerd von Rundstedt or Erwin Rommel, who were worn out by 1944.

The German soldier was the more disciplined, experienced, armed and deadly warrior of World War II.  But his cause was bad, and by 1944 his enemies were far more numerous and far better supplied.  No soldiers fought better on their home soil than did the Russians, and none more resourcefully abroad than the British Tommy and the American GI, when bolstered by ample air, armor and artillery support.

Omaha Beach to central Germany was about the same distance as the Russian Front to Berlin.  But the Western Allies covered the same approximate ground in about a quarter of the time as had the beleaguered Russians.

D-Day ushered in the end of the Third Reich.  It was the most brilliantly conducted invasion in military history, and probably no one but a unique generation of British, Canadians and Americans could have pulled it off.

General George Smith Patton’s message to Eisenhower after he crossed the Seine in World War II:

Dear Ike, Today I spat in the Seine.

-from The American Treasury, C. Fadman.

Photos of the day

British World War II veteran Frederick Glover poses for a photograph as soldiers parachute down during a D-Day commemoration paratroopers launch event in Ranville, western France on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the World War II Allied landings in Normandy. D-Day ceremonies on June 6 this year mark the 70th anniversary of the launch of ‘Operation Overlord’, a vast military operation by Allied forces in Normandy. Thomas Bregardis/AP

History enthusiasts wearing World War Two US military uniforms re-enact a D-Day landing on Omaha Beach in Vierville sur Mer, on the coast of Normandy, France. Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

Market Closes for June 5^th, 2014

Market   Index	Close	Change
Dow   Jones	16836.11	+98.58
		+0.59%
S&P 500	1940.40	+12.52    +0.65%
NASDAQ	4296.227	+44.584    +1.05%
TSX	14793.20	-3.59
		-0.02%

International Markets

Market   Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15079.37	+11.41
		+0.08%
HANG   SENG	23109.66	-42.05
		-0.18%
SENSEX	25019.51	+213.68
		+0.86%
FTSE 100	6813.49	-5.14
		-0.08%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.   10 Year Bond	2.331	2.350
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.854	2.861
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.5833	2.6039
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.4354	3.4413

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.91545	0.91395
US   $	1.09236	1.09415
Euro Rate   1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.49252	0.67001
US   $	1.36632	0.73189

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1253.23	1243.80
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.48	102.64
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Gerrit De Vynck

June 5 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a fifth day as losses among telecommunications companies were overshadowed by gains in mining and industrial companies.

Telus Corp. fell 0.9 percent to lead losses among telecommunications companies. Transcontinental Inc. added 2.1 percent after second-quarter earnings beat analyst estimates.  Detour Gold Corp. rose 7.9 for the best performance among mining shares.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 3.39 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 14,800.18 at 4 p.m.  Telecommunications companies have risen 7.6 percent this year as Telus and BCE Inc. add mobile phone subscribers.

The European Central Bank cut its deposit rate to minus 0.1 percent in a bid to ward off deflation. The stimulus announcement didn’t have a big effect on the Canadian market because the move was expected, said Irwin Michael, who helps oversee C$900 million ($820 million) as a fund manager at ABC Funds in Toronto.

“It was the worst-kept secret, we knew they would have to do something,” Michael said by phone. “They’ve got to get things moving there so we’re not surprised.”

Energy companies fell 0.2 percent as a group. ShawCor Ltd., Cameco Corp. and Husky Energy Inc. fell the most among energy companies on the benchmark index, dropping at least 1.4 percent.

Material producers rose 0.8 percent and industrial companies gained 0.6 percent.

Transcontinental rose 2.1 percent to C$15.41. The Montreal- based company, which owns newspapers and prints advertising fliers, made 47 Canadian cents per share in the second quarter compared with an average estimate from analysts of 43 Canadian cents.

Cogeco Cable Inc. fell 3.4 percent to C$61.80 as TD Securities cut its rating. The company is up 29 percent this year.

Just Energy Group Inc. rose 6.5 percent to C$6.55 after saying it would pay down debt and sell its water heater business for C$505 million.

Detour Gold gained 7.9 percent to C$11.35 after Raymond James Ltd. raised its rating on the stock to a strong buy from outperform and the price of gold climbed the most in two weeks.

USA

By Joseph Ciolli

June 5 (Bloomberg) — U.S. equity benchmarks rose to records and the Russell 2000 Index rallied to the highest since April, as European Central Bank stimulus boosted optimism in the global economy before tomorrow’s jobs report.

Twitter Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. soared more than 3 percent as Internet shares jumped after hedge fund manager David Tepper expressed renewed confidence in U.S. equities. Ciena Corp.

surged 18 percent as earnings beat analyst estimates. Sprint Corp. dropped 4 percent after people with knowledge of the matter said it is nearing a price agreement for a potential acquisition of T-Mobile US Inc.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.7 percent to 1,940.46 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 98.58 points, or 0.6 percent, to 16,836.11. Both gauges closed at all-time highs. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies jumped 2 percent. About 5.9 billion shares changed hands today on U.S. exchanges, 5.8 percent below the three-month average.

“Mario Draghi is taking a sledgehammer to the disinflationary environment in the eurozone,” said Chad Morganlander, a fund manager at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which oversees $160 billion, from Florham Park, New Jersey. “His actions are well beyond expectations.”

ECB President Mario Draghi reduced the deposit rate to minus 0.1 percent from zero, making the institution the world’s first major central bank to use a negative rate. Policy makers lowered the benchmark rate to 0.15 percent from 0.25 percent.

In a bid to get credit flowing to parts of the economy that need it, the ECB also opened a 400-billion-euro ($542 billion) liquidity channel tied to bank lending and officials will start work on an asset-purchase plan. A worsening in the euro area’s economic outlook and a prolonged spell of slow inflation prompted the ECB to act to preserve the fragile recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

“The stimulus from Europe is a positive thing, especially when you compare it to the fact that the U.S. is starting to ease up,” Joe Bell, senior equity analyst at Cincinnati-based Schaeffer’s Investment Research Inc., said in a phone interview.

“Stimulus is being added from a different market.”

In the U.S., data showed fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits over the past month than at any time in seven years, a sign the labor market continues to strengthen. The four-week average for jobless claims fell to 310,250 in the period ended May 31, the lowest since June 2007, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington.

A private report on payrolls yesterday indicated companies in the U.S. added fewer jobs than forecast in May, before tomorrow’s Labor Department data on employment. That report may show private payrolls, which exclude government agencies, increased 210,000 in May after a 273,000 gain in the month prior, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

Fed officials are watching the labor market as they move to complete their bond-purchase program late this year and start considering the timing of the first interest-rate increase since 2006. Central-bank stimulus has helped propel the S&P 500 higher by as much as 187 percent from its bear-market low in March 2009.

The Fed said in its Beige Book business survey yesterday that the economy expanded at a modest to moderate pace last month as auto sales led household spending and the labor market improved. The survey, released two weeks before policy makers meet in Washington, supports Chair Janet Yellen’s view that the economy is rebounding from a 1 percent contraction in the first quarter caused largely by harsh winter weather.

Tepper, founder of $20 billion hedge-fund firm Appaloosa Management LP, said today in an interview with CNBC that his concerns over the market have eased. On May 15, he described the market as ‘‘kind of dangerous’’ and expressed nervousness because the economy wasn’t expanding at a sufficient pace.

The S&P 500 has rebounded 6.9 percent since a selloff in small-cap and Internet shares spread to the broader market, dragging the index to a two-month low in April. It advanced 2.1 percent in May for a fourth consecutive monthly increase. The measure trades at 16.4 times the projected earnings of its members, up from a multiple of 14.8 at the start of February.

The Russell 2000 has also seen a recovery. The gauge has increased 5.3 percent since reaching a low in May. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index is at the highest level in 13 years, while the Nasdaq Composite Index is 1.4 percent below a 14-year high reached in March.

The Dow Jones Internet Composite Index rose 1.5 percent, the most in two weeks, as 39 of the 41 companies in the gauge increased.

Twitter rose 3 percent to $33.89. Pacific Crest rated the shares outperform, projecting a gain in their price to $45 in 12 months. The company has jumped 6.7 percent in the past three days, paring its loss for the year to 47 percent. Amazon.com surged 5.5 percent to $323.57 after breaking above its average price for the past 50 days. TripAdvisor Inc. and Pandora Media Inc. added more than 2.8 percent.

Ciena surged 18 percent, its biggest gain since 2011, to $22.48. The provider of fiber-optic networking gear for carriers such as AT&T Inc. reported second-quarter revenue and profit that exceeded analyst forecasts.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index fell 3.3 percent to 11.68 today. The gauge of U.S. equity volatility known as the VIX dropped to 11.36 on May 23, its lowest level since March 2013.

All 10 major industries in the S&P 500 rose, with industrial and financial shares gaining the most. Phone companies were little changed as a group.

Sprint dropped 4 percent to $9.02. The third-largest U.S. wireless carrier is nearing an agreement that could value T- Mobile US Inc. at almost $40 a share, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The deal covering the price, capital structure and termination fee could be announced as soon as July, the people said.

T-Mobile fell 2.3 percent to $33.49.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

How does seeing the difference permit unity?

Quite simply, because physically speaking there cannot be unity, since the physical plane consists of shapes,

and all shapes are different.

Unity only exists in the heart.  It is a feeling:  love.

And in love the notion of self disappears; only the other remains.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Never, never, never give up.

-Winston Churchill, 1874-1965

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:

June – the sixth month, probably named from the Roman gens or clan name Junius, related to juvenis, “young.”  Some sources take the name from Juno, however.  Its old Dutch name was Zommermaand – “summer month” – while the Anglo-Saxons called it Seemonath – “dry month” –In the French Revolutionary calendar, the equivalent month was Prairial –“meadow month” – corresponding to the period 21 May to 19 June.

The Glorious First of June: June 1, 1794, when the Channel Fleet under Lord Howe gained a decisive victory over the French under Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse.  Off Ushant, six French ships were captured and one sunk, but the convoy of corn ships, which they were escorting, got through to Brest.

Number of the Day
$1 Billion

The size of a fund that U.S. President Barack Obama has proposed to bolster European security, part of his latest attempt to reassure allies in the region that the U.S. would act if Russia’s aggression in Ukraine spreads.

Photos of the day

A black bear lies in a hammock in a residential backyard in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Friday evening. The bear used the hammock for more than 15 minutes before being startled when the lights were turned on. Rafael C. Torres/Reuters

Instruments are left on the ground during a break as members of the Royal Marines Band rehearse for The Beating Retreat in London. The Beating Retreat, traditionally a celebration of Prince Philip’s birthday, will be held on Horse Guards Parade on Wednesday. Neil Hall/Reuters

Market Closes for June 3^rd, 2014

Market   Index	Close	Change
Dow   Jones	16722.34	-21.29
		-0.13%
S&P 500	1924.24	-0.73    -0.04%
NASDAQ	4234.082	-3.117    -0.07%
TSX	14734.69	+53.93
		+0.37%

International Markets

Market   Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15034.25	+98.33
		+0.66%
HANG   SENG	23291.04	+209.39
		+0.91%
SENSEX	24858.59	+173.74
		+0.70%
FTSE 100	6836.30	-27.80
		-0.41%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.   10 Year Bond	2.342	2.281
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.853	2.809
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.5967	2.5267
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.4388	3.3683

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.91661	0.91753
US   $	1.09098	1.08988
Euro Rate   1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.48661	0.67267
US   $	1.36272	0.73383

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1245.20	1243.56
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.66	102.47
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

June 3 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a third day, sending the benchmark index to a one-month high, as energy shares advanced with the price of oil and Dollarama Inc. helped lead a gauge of consumer stocks higher.

Centerra Gold Inc. jumped 6.5 percent after Bank of Nova Scotia raised its rating on the stock. Enerflex Ltd. added 7.8 percent for a second day of gains following an acquisition. Toronto-Dominion Bank paced gains among financial firms. Dollarama rose to the highest since its 2009 initial public offering.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index added 53.93 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,734.69 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge fell 0.3 percent in May to snap a 10-month winning streak, the longest since 1983. The price-to-earnings ratio for the benchmark equity gauge is 19.7, the highest since 2011.

“It’s a grinding-out type of atmosphere today,” said Greg Eckel, fund manager at Morgan Meighen & Associates Ltd. in Toronto. His firm manages C$1.4 billion ($1.28 billion). “In an atmosphere of calm it keeps grinding higher. It’s got that momentum until there’s an event that changes that or clear data that changes that sentiment.”

Birchcliff Energy Ltd. rose 2.7 percent to C$14.04 and Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. increased 1.8 percent to C$6.85 as natural gas futures advanced for a second day in New York. Gas rose 0.4 percent to settle at a four-week high on speculation bursts of hotter U.S. weather will stoke demand.

Enerflex, an oilfield services company, jumped 7.8 percent to a record C$18.99. Enerflex has rallied 16 percent in two days since agreeing to acquire some units of Axip Energy Services LP for $430 million.

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. gained 1.2 percent to C$18.87 as consumer staples stocks added 0.6 percent as a group. Dollarama rose 0.2 percent to C$93.08 for a fifth day of gains.

Six of 10 industries rose today on trading volume 15 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Toronto-Dominion, the nation’s largest lender by assets, added 0.7 percent to C$54.35, extending a record high with a third day of gains.

Centerra Gold climbed 6.5 percent to C$3.94. Scotia analysts upgraded the stock a day after it sank 20 percent as the company threatened to shut a Kyrgyzstan mine if it did not receive government permits this month. Analyst Trevor Turnbull said he expects the company to get the approval.

Iamgold Corp. jumped 12 percent to C$3.71, the most since August. The company said it had no news pending and didn’t know why the shares rose.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. sank 1.7 percent to C$22.56 and Teck Resources Ltd. slipped 1.2 percent to C$24.19. Copper fell 1.1 percent in New York, the most in four weeks.

B2Gold Corp. lost 3.4 percent to C$2.53, the lowest since January, after agreeing to buy Papillon Resources Ltd. for about $570 million to gain access to a project in Mali. The Vancouver- based company is looking to gain control of Papillon’s Fekola gold project in Mali. The combined company may produce more than 900,000 ounces from five mines by 2017, B2Gold said in a statement.

USA

By Joseph Ciolli

June 3 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks were little changed, following all-time highs for benchmark indexes yesterday, as investors awaited a European Central Bank decision on stimulus measures and a report on American employment in May.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. dropped 15 percent after cutting its earnings forecast because of mounting costs and slow first-quarter sales. Quiksilver Inc. slumped 41 percent after the surfwear retailer posted a wider loss than analysts had predicted. Hillshire Brands Co. jumped 9.5 percent after confirming that Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. has increased its bid for the food producer.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,924.24 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 21.29 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,722.34. Both gauges reached records yesterday. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies dropped 0.2 percent. About 5.2 billion shares changed hands today on U.S. exchanges, 18 percent below the three-month average.

“Traders are sitting on their hands, waiting for the response from the ECB before setting their bets up,” Chad Morganlander, a fund manager at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which oversees $160 billion, said by phone from Florham Park, New Jersey. “There’s an overall anticipation that the ECB will be aggressive and that the jobs numbers on Friday will be better than expected.”

Data today showed euro-area inflation slowed more than economists forecast in May, cranking up pressure on the ECB to deploy measures as soon as this week to kindle prices and drive growth. With ECB President Mario Draghi warning about the risk of a negative price spiral, the Governing Council is considering measures from negative interest rates to conditional liquidity for banks.

Draghi is likely to signal that any interest-rate cut won’t necessarily be the final one, according to two euro-area central bank officials. The ECB president will probably reiterate his commitment to keep borrowing costs at present or lower levels, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks aren’t public. While a final decision won’t be made until June 5, policy makers are debating a cut of 10 or 15 basis points in both the benchmark and deposit rates, the people said.

A Commerce Department report showed U.S. factory orders climbed 0.7 percent in April. Economists estimated a rise of 0.5 percent.

A release tomorrow may show companies added fewer workers in May, while the Labor Department’s report on Friday will probably show the unemployment rate remained near its lowest level since September 2008.

“Between the ECB on Thursday and the non-farm payroll on Friday, people are pretty much set in their positioning,” Rick Fier, director of equity trading at Conifer Securities LLC in New York, said a phone interview. “We’ve been having a nice run and we’re down small. There’s nothing that’s going to happen before Thursday that’s going to get people to change one way or the other.”

The S&P 500 has continued to climb to records even as the U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years during the first quarter, amid optimism that a recovery is under way. Federal Reserve policy makers said at their April meeting that the economy has strengthened after adverse weather took its toll. Central-bank stimulus has helped propel the S&P 500 higher by as much as 184 percent from its bear-market low in March 2009.

The S&P 500 has rebounded 6 percent since a selloff in small-cap and Internet shares spread to the broader market, dragging the index to a two-month low in April. It advanced 2.1 percent in May for a fourth consecutive monthly increase. The measure trades at 16.3 times the projected earnings of its members, up from a multiple of 14.8 at the start of February.

Analysts predict that profit for S&P 500-listed companies will increase 7.5 percent this year, while sales will climb 3.3 percent, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

“The market bounces back and forth, but fundamentally nothing much has changed,” Ivo Weinoehrl, a fund manager at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, said by telephone from Frankfurt. “The economy is definitely improving after a disappointing first quarter, and we’re still expecting earnings growth of 7 to 8 percent. We’re in a stable environment, but it’s nothing to get excited about and I don’t see the real pick- up coming through just yet.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 2.5 percent to 11.87 today. The gauge of U.S. equity volatility known as the VIX dropped to 11.36 on May 23, its lowest level since March 2013.

Six out of 10 major industries in the S&P 500 declined, with phone, consumer-staples and raw-materials companies dropping the most.

Krispy Kreme dropped 15 percent to $16.19 after predicting earnings of 69 cents to 74 cents a share for the current financial year. It had forecast as much as 79 cents. Costs related to executive compensation and new business management software exceeded its estimates, according to a statement. First-quarter sales rose 0.8 percent to $121.6 million, less than the $125.8 million estimated by analysts.

Quiksilver tumbled 41 percent, its biggest slide ever, to $3.41. The company posted an adjusted loss of 15 cents a share in the fiscal second quarter, wider than the 2-cent loss projected by analysts. Sales of $408 million missed estimates by about $40 million. Quiksilver predicted that sales in North America and Europe would drop during the six months through October.

Casino companies declined as May revenue from Macau rose 9.3 percent, falling short of the average analyst estimate for growth of 14.5 percent. Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp. decreased more than 2.6 percent.

Hillshire rallied 9.5 percent to $58.65. The maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park hot dogs said it will hold talks with Pilgrim’s Pride and rival bidder Tyson Foods Inc. after the former raised its offer to $55 a share from $45. Tyson, which fell 3 percent to $42.08 today, offered $50 a share last week.

Pilgrim’s Pride slid 2.2 percent to $25.34.

Applied Materials Inc. increased 4.4 percent to $21.42, the highest since 2008. Jefferies & Co. initiated coverage yesterday on the largest supplier of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, rating it a buy with a price target of $28.

Dollar General Corp. rose 3.9 percent to $56.41. The discount retailer said in a conference call that it plans to spend $1.1 billion on share buybacks. The company earlier reported quarterly earnings that fell short of analyst estimates.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The key to an easy relationship with other people is not to impose your ego,

nor to crush the ego of others.

Swami, Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

I pray that you all put your shoes way under the bed at night so that you gotta get on your knees in the morning

to find them.  And while you’re down there, thank God for grace and mercy and understanding.

We all fall short of the glory, we all got plenty.

-Denzel Washington, 1954-

Telling a group of young actors his lessons for success, which included remembering to be thankful.

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:

Michael Bloomberg’s Commencement address at Harvard University, May 29^th:

Repressing free expression is a natural human weakness, and it is up to us to fight it at every turn.  Intolerance of ideas – whether liberal or conservative – is antithetical to individual rights and free societies, and  it is no less antithetical to great universities and first-rate scholarship.

There is an idea floating around college campuses – including here at Harvard – that scholars should be funded only if their work conforms to a particular view of justice.  There’s a  word for that idea: censorship.  And it is just a modern-day form of McCarthyism.

Think about the irony:  In the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left wing ideas.  Today, on many college campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even as conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species.  And perhaps nowhere is that more true than here in the Ivy League.

In the 2012 presidential race, according to Federal Election Commission data, 96% of all campaign contributions from Ivy League faculty and employees went to Barack Obama.

Ninety-six percent.  There was more disagreement among the old Soviet Politburo than there is among Ivy League donors.

That statistic should give us pause – and I say that as someone who endorsed President Obama for re-election – because let me tell you, neither party has a monopoly on truth or God on its side.

When 96% of Ivy League donors prefer one candidate to another, you have to wonder whether students are being exposed to the diversity of views that a  great university should offer.

Diversity of gender, ethnicity and orientation is important.  But a university cannot be great if its faculty is politically homogenous.  In fact, the whole purpose of granting tenure to professors is to ensure that they feel free to conduct research on ideas that run afoul of university politics and societal norms.

When tenure was created, it mostly protected liberals whose ideas ran up against conservative norms.

Today, if tenure is going to continue to exist, it must also protect conservatives whose ideas run up against liberal norms.  Otherwise, university research – and the professors who conduct it – will lose credibility.

Great universities must not become predictably partisan.  And a liberal arts education must not be an education in the art of liberalism.

The role of universities is not to promote an ideology.  It is to provide scholars and students with a neutral forum for researching and debating issues- without tipping the scales in one direction, or repressing unpopular views.

Requiring scholars – and commencement speakers, for that matter – to conform to certain political standards undermines the whole purpose of a university.

This spring, it has been disturbing to see a number of college commencement speakers withdraw – or have their invitation rescinded – after protests form students and – to me, shockingly – from senior faculty and administrators who should know better,

It happened at Brandeis, Haverford, Rutgers, and Smith.  Last year, it happened at Swathmore and John Hopkins, I’m sorry to say.

In each case, liberals silenced a voice – and denied an honorary degree – to individuals they deemed politically objectionable.  That is an outrage and we must not let it continue.

If a university thinks twice before inviting a commencement speaker because of his or her politics, censorship and conformity – the mortal enemies of freedom – win out.

And sadly, it is not just commencement season when speakers are censored.

Last fall, when I was still in City Hall, our Police Commissioner was invited to deliver a lecture at another Ivy League institution – but he was unable to do so because students shouted him down.

Isn’t the purpose of a university to stir discussion, not silence it?  What were the students afraid of hearing?  Why did administrators not step in to prevent the mob from silencing speech?  And did anyone consider that it is morally and pedagogically wrong to deprive other students  the chance to hear speech?

…As a former chairman of John Hopkins, I strongly believe that a university’s obligation is not to teach students what to think but to teach students how to think.  And that requires listening to the other side, weighing arguments without prejudging them, and determining whether  the other side might actually make some fair points.

If the faculty fails to do this, then it is the responsibility of the administration and governing body to step in and make it a priority.  If they do not, if students  graduate  with ears and minds closed, the university has failed both the student and society.

Photos of the day

WWII veteran Jack W. Schlegel, 91, who parachuted near Sainte-Mere-Eglise on June 6,1944, with the 508th Parachute Infantry Division of the 82nd Airborne, poses with well-wishers as he visits the American War cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer on the Normandy coast in France. World leaders will attend ceremonies in Normandy June 6, marking the 70th anniversary of the Allied beach landings on D-Day. Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

A couple stands near the installation Sombras del Bosque (Shadows of the Woods), made with deer antlers, by Mexican artist Fernando Gonzalez Gortazar at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City. Gonzalez Gortazar is an architect, sculptor and urban designer. He received the Henry Moore Prize in 1989. Claudia Daut/Reuters

Market Closes for June 2^nd, 2014

Market   Index	Close	Change
Dow   Jones	16743.63	+26.46
		+0.16%
S&P 500	1925.33	+1.76    +0.09%
NASDAQ	4237.199	-5.419    -0.13%
TSX	14673.57	+69.41
		+0.48%

International Markets

Market   Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	14935.92	+303.54
		+2.07%
HANG   SENG	23081.65	+71.51
		+0.31%
SENSEX	24684.85	+467.51
		+1.93%
FTSE 100	6864.10	+19.59
		+0.29%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.   10 Year Bond	2.281	2.247
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.809	2.779
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.5267	2.4785
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.3683	3.3269

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.91753	0.92213
US   $	1.08988	1.08445
Euro Rate   1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.48208	0.67473
US   $	1.35986	0.73537

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1243.56	1249.48
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.47	102.71
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada
By Eric Lam

June 2 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a second day as commodities producers advanced after manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace this year in China.

Enerflex Ltd. jumped 7.9 percent after agreeing to acquire some units of Axip Energy Services LP for $430 million. Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. and Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. added at least 3.2 percent to pace gains among energy stocks. HudBay Minerals Inc. and Teck Resources Ltd. rose more than 1.3 percent as copper advanced. Centerra Gold Inc. plunged 20 percent after threatening to halt its Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan if it doesn’t receive government approvals for its mine plan.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 76.56 points, or 0.5 percent, to 14,680.72 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge fell 0.3 percent in May to snap a 10-month winning streak, the longest since 1983.

“Financials and energy have to be up for our market to be up, and I see that’s the story today,” said Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Ltd. in Toronto. His firm manages about C$4.7 billion ($4.31 billion). “Companies with copper exposure are up. People are being selective in the commodities they are trading. The reaction is a bit muted as people are recognizing China’s going through an economic shift here with some less emphasis on infrastructure building.”

China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed to 50.8 in May, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing in Beijing reported yesterday. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a 50.7 median estimate. April’s reading was 50.4.

HudBay Minerals advanced 2.2 percent to C$9.77 and Lundin Mining Corp. rose 3.9 percent to C$5.91. Copper advanced the most in three weeks in New York, rising 1.4 percent. Teck Resources, the largest diversified miner in Canada, added 1.4 percent to C$24.50. Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp. jumped 6.4 percent to C$29.88, the biggest increase since October 2011.

Rogers Communications Inc. rose 1.4 percent to C$44.60 and Telus Corp. added 1.4 percent to C$41.45 as telephone stocks increased 1.1 percent as a group, the second-biggest gain in the S&P/TSX with seven of 10 industries advancing. Trading volume was 6 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Enerflex soared 7.9 percent to C$17.62, the biggest increase since 2011, after agreeing to buy Axip’s international contract compression and processing business as well as its after-market business. The deal includes Axip’s gas treating facilities in Mexico, Argentina and Peru.

Advantage Oil & Gas jumped 3.2 percent to C$6.73 and Legacy Oil & Gas rose 3.5 percent to C$8.80 as the S&P/TSX Energy Index rallied 0.8 percent for a fourth day of gains.

Centerra Gold slumped 20 percent to C$3.70, the biggest decrease since October. Centerra will shut all mine and mill operations at its Kumtor mine by June 13 if the company doesn’t get the government permits and approvals it seeks, the Toronto- based company said in a statement.

USA
By Joseph Ciolli

June 2 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose to a record, after erasing an early loss, as the Institute for Supply Management twice corrected the reading in its May manufacturing index.

Broadcom Corp. rose 9.3 percent after saying it will explore options for its cellular baseband business. American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust Inc. jumped 9.7 percent after Ventas Inc. agreed to buy it. The Dow Jones Internet Composite Index slid 0.6 percent, with Groupon Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. dropping more than 2.9 percent to pace declines.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 1,924.97 at 4 p.m. in New York, reversing an earlier loss of as much as 0.4 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 26.46 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,743.63, also reaching an all-time high. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies fell 0.5 percent.

“The correction improved market direction modestly,” Stephen Carl, principal and head equity trader at New York-based Williams Capital Group LP, said in a phone interview. “Going forward, you’re looking for expected improvement in the ISM number, so maybe this just adds to it. Overall, it wasn’t a big, meaningful change, but there was certainly a reaction in the market.”

The ISM originally said its May manufacturing index fell to 53.2 from 54.9 a month earlier, before correcting it twice, once to 56 and a second time to 55.4. Fifty is the dividing line between growth and contraction. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a gain to 55.5.

The ISM corrected the index more than two hours after its initial 10 a.m. release, saying that it had applied the wrong seasonal adjustment to the data.

Other factory reports from around the world were mixed. Manufacturing in the euro area grew at a slower pace amid weakness in France. Manufacturing in China expanded in May at the fastest pace in five months.

Forecasts for a rebound in U.S. growth in the second quarter and stimulus from central banks in Japan and Europe, along with higher-than-estimated corporate earnings, helped send the value of global shares to a record $64 trillion in May.

The S&P 500 ended the month at a record after shrugging off a report showing the U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years during the first quarter. Federal Reserve policy makers said at their April meeting that the economy has strengthened after adverse weather took its toll. Central-bank stimulus has helped propel the S&P 500 higher by as much as 184 percent from its bear-market low in March 2009.

Economic data later this week include reports on U.S. factory orders and car sales, as well as the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly payrolls report on June 6.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 1.6 percent today to 11.58. The gauge of U.S. equity volatility known as the VIX dropped to 11.36 on May 23, its lowest level since March 2013.

Investors also will be looking to Europe this week as Mario Draghi confronts the threat of deflation, preparing to unleash an array of measures to jolt the economy and ignite prices. From negative interest rates to conditional liquidity for banks, the European Central Bank president and his colleagues have signaled all options are up for discussion when they meet on June 5.

Of 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, 44 expect the ECB to become the first major central bank to take interest rates into negative territory by cutting its deposit rate. All but 2 of 58 respondents said the benchmark rate would also be reduced.

ISM’s corrected number was “probably good enough to keep intact the slow grinding higher, but data later this week from the ECB and BLS will trump all other releases,” Ryan Larson, the Chicago-based head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., said in an interview.

The S&P 500 has rebounded 6 percent since a selloff in small-cap and Internet shares spread to the broader market and dragged the gauge to a two-month low in April. It advanced 2.1 percent in May for a fourth straight monthly increase. The measure trades at 16.3 times the projected earnings of its members, up from 14.8 times four months ago.

Today’s decline in the Dow Jones Internet gauge was paced by a 6.5 percent fall in Groupon and a 2.9 percent slide for LinkedIn as technology shares had the third-largest drop among 10 main industries in the S&P 500. Twitter Inc. lost 2.1 percent.

ARC Healthcare rallied 9.7 percent to $10.91 after Ventas said it will pay $2.6 billion in cash and stock to expand its elderly-housing business and add medical-office buildings. Ventas slid 2.8 percent to $64.93 for the second-biggest decline in the S&P 500.

Broadcom climbed 9.3 percent to $34.84. The maker of communications chips has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. to assist in exploring options. Baseband chips are used to connect phones to cellular networks, a business dominated by Qualcomm Inc.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped 7.4 percent to $6.94 after saying a trial showed its Iclusig drug was effective against gastrointestinal tumors in some patients. The Food and Drug Administration lifted a ban on the enrollment of new patients for the trial, Ariad said.

Protective Life Corp. surged 12 percent to $58.51. Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Co., Japan’s second-largest life insurer, is in talks to buy Protective Life for about 500 billion yen ($4.9 billion), said people with knowledge of the matter. Dai-Ichi Life said it’s considering buying a U.S. insurer and ways to fund the acquisition including a public offering of shares, adding that no decision has been made.

MeadWestvaco Corp. increased 5.9 percent to $42.96. Starboard Value LP, the activist fund led by Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smith, amassed a stake of about 5.6 percent in MeadWestvaco, urging the packaging company to cut costs and boost profits.

Express Scripts Holding Co. slid 2 percent to $70.04. The St. Louis-based pharmacy benefit manager, which handles more than 1 billion prescriptions a year, was downgraded to market perform from outperform at Cowen & Co.

Frontier Communications Corp. decreased 1.2 percent to $5.72. The broadband and telecommunications company entered into a new $350 million senior unsecured delayed draw term loan facility and a $750 million revolving credit facility.

Apple Inc. fell 0.7 percent to $628.65. The company introduced new health and messaging features for the software powering the iPhone and iPad, laying the groundwork for a busy second half of the year as the company works to emerge from a stretch of slowing growth. The shares have rallied 12 percent this year.

About 4.9 billion shares changed hands today on U.S. exchanges, 23 percent below the three-month average. About 1.8 billion shares traded each day in S&P 500 companies last month, the fewest since 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. When the gauge hit an all-time high on May 23, only about 20 of its 500 companies reached 52-week highs, the data show. That’s the lowest number in a year.

When volume and breadth wane even as stocks surge, it’s a warning sign that has preceded losses in the past, according to Sundial Capital Research Inc. in Blaine, Minnesota. Hayes Miller, who helps oversee $57 billion at Baring Asset Management Inc., says the skepticism shows investors distrust a rally built on Fed stimulus.

“Breadth is suggesting that the market is topping,” Miller, the Boston-based head of multi-asset allocation for Baring, said in a May 28 telephone interview. “This is not a good starting point for buying equities at this price. We all know that investors are induced into risk assets by central bank policies, which keep your safer options very unattractive.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

At one pole of my existence,

I am one with the stones and the tree branches.

Thus, I must submit to the yoke of the universal law.

It is this, in the end, that is the very basis of my life.

And that force comes from that which is closely bound up in the unity of the world,

which is in full communication with all things.

But at the other pole, I am distinct from all of the rest.

Here, I have broken the barriers of equality

and I find myself alone, as an individual.

I am absolutely unique, I am me, I am incomparable.

The whole of the mass of the universe can not crush this individuality that is mine.

I maintain it, despite the formidable gravitation of all that exists.

It is small in appearance, but great in reality.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

-Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

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:

Some of us heard the singing of angels, harmonies in a heavenly choir,
or at least the music of the spheres.
We had come so far from where we started, and weren’t nearly approaching
where we had to be, but we were on the road to becoming better.
I thought if I wrote a book, I would have to examine the quality in the
human spirit that continues to rise despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Rise out of physical pain and the psychological cruelties.
Rise from being victims of rape and abuse and abandonment to the
determination to be no victim of any kind.
Rise and be prepared to move on and ever on.
I remembered a children’s poem from my mute days in Arkansas that seemed
to say however low you perceive me now, I am headed for higher ground.
I wrote the first line in the book, which would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
“What you looking at me for.  I didn’t come to stay.”

-Maya Angelou, April 4, 1928- May 28, 2014
-from A Song Flung Up to Heaven.

Caught the opening night of Lionel Ritchie’s new tour in Vancouver last night and it was fantastic!  It’s a 41-city tour, so check out the locations on line and try to get to one of the concerts.  He is an amazing artist.

Photos of the day

Spiritual dancers perform during a memorial service for American author and poet Maya Angelou at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina May 29. Angelou, whose groundbreaking memoir ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ earned her international acclaim with its unflinching account of rape and racism in the segregated South, died on Wednesday at age 86. Chris Keane/Reuters

Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes 2014 winner California Chrome stands while being bathed at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. California Chrome needs to win the Belmont Stakes in New York on June 7 to become just the 12th horse and the first in 36 years to complete US horse racing’s Triple Crown. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Market Closes for May 30^th, 2014

Market   Index	Close	Change
Dow   Jones	16717.17	+18.43
		+0.11%
S&P 500	1923.57	+3.54    +0.18%
NASDAQ	4242.617	-5.330    -0.13%
TSX	14604.16	+15.21
		+0.10%

International Markets

Market   Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	14632.38	-49.34
		-0.34%
HANG   SENG	23081.65	+71.51
		+0.31%
SENSEX	24217.34	-16.81
		-0.07%
FTSE 100	6844.51	-26.78
		-0.39%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.   10 Year Bond	2.247	2.258
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.779	2.788
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.4785	2.4608
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.3269	3.3212

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.92213	0.92280
US   $	1.08445	1.08365
Euro Rate   1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.47843	0.67640
US   $	1.36330	0.73352

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1249.48	1255.66
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.71	103.58
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada
By Gerrit De Vynck

May 30 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, trimming the benchmark index’s first monthly decline since June, as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. rallied after boosting its bid for Allergan Inc.

Valeant reversed earlier declines to jump 1.7 percent after increasing the cash portion of its offer for the maker of Botox. Cott Corp. rose 3.5 percent after the beverage company’s U.K. unit bought Aimia Foods Ltd. Midway Gold Corp. fell 9.1 percent after saying it would sell $25 million in new shares.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 15.21 points, or 0.1 percent, to 14,604.16 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, trimming its decline this week to 0.7 percent. The equities benchmark fell 0.4 percent in May, ending the longest streak of gains since 1983.

“Perhaps the rally’s a little bit expended here so its time to move some capital,” said Brian Huen, managing partner at Red Sky Capital Management Ltd in Toronto. “If you look at the sentiment as well as the action in the market, there’s certainly an air of cautiousness.” Huen said. He helps manage about C$350 million ($320 million).

Equities were lower until the Valeant bid, as a report showed Canada’s gross domestic product grew at a 1.2 percent annualized rate in the first quarter, compared with 2.7 percent in the previous three months. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast growth of 1.8 percent.

Severe weather that struck North America this winter added another hurdle for exporters and businesses that the Bank of Canada said will need to take over as drivers of growth in order to eliminate spare economic capacity. The central bank has held its benchmark rate at 1 percent since 2010 as Canada has struggled to emerge from the global recession with much speed.

Five of the 10 main groups in the S&P/TSX rose today, with health-care shares jumping 1.4 percent to pace gains.

Valeant rose 1.7 percent to C$142.34 after raising its unsolicited offer to $72 cash and 0.83 of a Valeant share for each Allergan share. The previous offer was for $58.30 in cash and the same amount of stock.

Cott gained 3.5 percent to C$7.64. The maker of Stars & Stripes Cola said the Aimia purchase will be funded with cash on hand and an existing lending facility.

Midway Gold fell 9.1 percent to 90 Canadian cents after saying it would sell 30 million shares for 83 cents each.

Kingsway Financial Services Inc. gained 2.5 percent to C$7.02 after it said it had regained full compliance with the New York Stock Exchange’s listing standards.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lost 2.1 percent to C$95.66 after Macquarie Capital Markets cut its rating on the bank’s stock to the equivalent of a sell from the equivalent of a hold.

Element Financial Corp. rose 1.6 percent to C$13.65 after Reuters reported it was close to buying PHH Corp.’s vehicle fleet leasing unit for $1.35 billion.

US
By Lu Wang

May 30 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, with benchmark indexes climbing to records, as utility and consumer-staple shares rallied and investors weighed data showing an uneven recovery in the American economy.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Lorillard Inc. climbed at least 1 percent, pacing gains among companies whose earnings are less tied to economic swings. U.S. Steel Corp. dropped 4.6 percent to lead losses among commodities producers. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. dropped 12 percent after quarterly results missed estimates.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 Index added 0.2 percent to 1,923.57 at 4 p.m. in New York, bringing its gain in the holiday-shortened week to 1.2 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 18.43 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,717.17, surpassing its previous record from May 13.

“The outlook for the market for the rest of the year remains constructive,” Sam Wardwell, an investment strategist at Pioneer Investments in Boston, said in a phone interview. His firm manages about $249 billion globally. “It’s not so much we don’t have a belief where the market is going, we just don’t know what route it’s going to take to get there.”

Small-cap and technology companies produced losses today, halting a recovery from a selloff that began in early March. The Russell 2000 Index slipped 0.5 percent, trimming its weekly gain to 0.7 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.1 percent, paring its gain this week to 1.4 percent.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, a gauge of options prices known as VIX, slipped 1.5 percent to 11.40 today. The measure closed for a fifth straight day below 12, the longest stretch since February 2007, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“The market is almost trading directionally sideways,” Kevin Mahn, president and chief investment officer of Hennion & Walsh Asset Management in Parsippany, New Jersey, said in a phone interview. His firm oversees more than $600 million. “There is no volatility and investors are waiting for the next signal whether they put more in or take more out.”

Eight of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 advanced today. Consumer-staples and utility stocks rose the most, adding more than 0.7 percent. Wal-Mart, a discount retailer, increased 1 percent to $76.77. Lorillard, a cigarette maker, rallied 3.2 percent to $62.17.

Commodity shares were the only groups to decline, as oil and copper prices fell. U.S. Steel slipped 4.6 percent to $23.04 for the biggest retreat in the S&P 500.

About 6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the busiest trading in two weeks.

The S&P 500 has rebounded 5.9 percent since the selloff in small-cap and Internet shares spread to the broader market and dragged the gauge to a two-month low in April. It advanced 2.1 percent in May for a fourth consecutive monthly increase, and is up 4.1 percent this year.

The gauge closed at a record yesterday, shrugging off a report showing the U.S. economy contracted for the first time in three years from January through March.

Data showed today that consumer spending unexpectedly fell in April after the biggest surge in almost five years as incomes slowed. Consumer confidence in the world’s largest economy fell more than forecast in May, a sign consumer spending may be slow to pick up in the second quarter, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of sentiment.

Business activity in the Chicago area expanded in May for a thirteenth straight month. The Institute for Supply Management- Chicago Inc.’s business barometer rose to 65.5 in May from 63 a month earlier, according to a report today. A reading above than 50 signals expansion.

Federal Reserve policy makers said at their April meeting that the economy has strengthened after adverse weather took its toll. Central-bank stimulus has helped propel the S&P 500 higher by 184 percent from its bear-market low in March 2009. The gauge now trades at 16.3 times the projected earnings of its members, up from a multiple of 14.8 times four months ago.

Lions Gate, the studio behind ‘‘The Hunger Games” movies, slipped 12 percent to $26.13. Revenue fell 8.1 percent to $721.9 million for the quarter through March 31, the company said.

Analysts had predicted $823.7 million on average. Adjusted earnings per share were 42 cents, also missing the 43-cent average estimate.

Express Inc. lost 7.5 percent to $12.61. The retailer predicted earnings of 74 cents to 90 cents a share this year, down from a previous forecast of as much as $1.23. First-quarter profit fell to 6 cents a share, missing estimates.

Infoblox Inc. sank 37 percent to $12.96. Chief Executive Officer Robert Thomas will leave after almost a decade at the network and data-services provider, according to a statement. Profit for the 12 months ending July 31 will be as much as 32 cents per share, down from a previous forecast for as much as 34 cents. Sales will probably not exceed $246 million, less than the $252.6 million average analyst estimate.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

He whom I have searched for has come to meet me,

and he who calls me Other has become me!

Kabir, 1440-1518

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Success is getting what you want.  Happiness is liking what you get.

-H. Jackson Brown, Jr., 1940-

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7