Month: March 2015

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Had a terrific time at the car show at the Vancouver Convention Center this past weekend.  Virtually all new 2015 models for every car and SUV you can think of were featured.  Greeting visitors at the entrance was a 1920 model Ford with its high polished wooden frame and matching wooden spoke wheels.   Quite a contrast to the latest electric models from Tesla and BMW!  The BMW electric sports vehicle is beautiful.  The  new Mercedes-Benz AMG GT S evokes the carmaker’s classic 1950s and ‘60s SL models – only built with 21^st-century technology.  The display card describes it as “sporting a feather-weight aluminum space frame paired with a 503-horsepower twin-turbo V8 that hits 60 mph in 3.7 seconds – it’s part beauty, part beast.”  Porsche brought along a Spyder that costs a cool $1 million.  The new  2015 Rolls Royce and latest Bentley models are sublime, if you can say that about engineering and design.  Aston Martin’s latest contribution is the ultimate in elegance and understatement.  However, no one really liked what they did to the Jaguar – the new models are too boxy – much prefer the elegant lines of its ancestors.  Alpha Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini – all feature incredible designs.  There was a trip down memory lane with Corvettes featured from the 1960’s , every model of every year  (in pristine condition) up to the present.  Ford brought along a robot, bearing a strong resemblance to the Tin man in the Wizard of Oz, and just as articulate, though there was no human being under the metal.  The kids were enthralled and he departed the room with the message, “May the Ford be with You!” 

The big kids were afforded the thrill of getting behind the wheel of a simulated steering wheel and whizzing down a race track as the holographic environs whizzed by.

I smiled when I remembered a display at a museum in Stuttgart that I visited last summer.  It was the remark attributed to a Viennese nobleman who was shown Daimler’s and Maybach’s prototype of what is generally recognized as the world’s first 4-wheeled automobile.  He said, “It’s interesting but I don’t think it’ll replace the horse.’

No trip to the convention center is complete without a visit to Bella Gelateria for what is rated the world’s best gelato.   If you haven’t tried the Dulce Leche flavor yet, you’re missing out – it’s amazing! 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A man takes a picture of cherry blossoms in full bloom in Tokyo, Monday. Toru Hanai/Reuters

A rainbow fills the sky during stormy weather near Sehnde in the Hannover region of northern Germany, Sunday. Julian Stratenschulte/dpa/AP

Market Closes for March 30^th, 2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17976.31	+263.65
		+1.49%
S&P 500	2086.24	+25.22   +1.22%
NASDAQ	4947.441	+56.223   +1.15%
TSX	14908.39	+95.97
		+0.65%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19411.40	+125.77
		+0.65%
HANG SENG	24855.12	+368.92
		+1.51%
SENSEX	27975.86	+517.22
		+1.88%
FTSE 100	6891.43	+36.41
		+0.53%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.371	1.369
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.991	1.994
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.9475	1.9527
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5479	2.5314

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78849	0.79281
US $	1.26825	1.26133
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.37310	0.72828
US $	1.08267	0.92364

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1185.50	1195.75
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	48.68	48.87

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, rebounding from a two- week low, as Catamaran Corp. and Amaya Inc. surged on deal news amid a global rally in equities on bets China will stimulate its economy.

     Catamaran soared 25 percent after agreeing to be acquired by UnitedHealth Group Inc. in a $12.8 billion deal. Amaya added 8.3 percent after agreeing to sell its Cadillac Jack Inc. electronic gaming unit to AGS LLC for C$476 million ($376 million). Teck Resources Ltd. was halted in late trading after the company said it’s not in merger discussions with Antofagasta Plc. The shares had rallied 11 percent during the regular session. Iamgold Corp. lost 6.6 percent as gold slumped the most in three weeks.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 95.97 points, or 0.7 percent, to 14,908.39 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, snapping a three-day slide. The benchmark equity gauge lost 0.9 percent last week and is down 2.1 percent in March. The guage is headed for a 1.9 percent gain in the quarter.

     Eight of 10 industries in the index rallied Monday on trading volume 21 percent lower than the 30-day average. Catamaran jumped 25 percent to a record as health-care stocks soared 6.4 percent as a group for the biggest advance.

     Canadian stocks joined a global rally with the MSCI All- Country World Index rising 0.7 percent to halt a four-day decline after China took steps to boost the world’s second- largest economy. China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the U.S.

     Teck had earlier rallied 11 percent, the biggest increase since May 2009, after people familiar said the Vancouver-based miner and London-based Antofagasta have held early-stage talks to discuss a possible merger.

     In a statement after markets closed, Teck said it is aware of the reports and it is “not in discussions with Antofagasta in relation to any form of transaction.” The company said there are no other corporate developments that would move its share price significantly.

US

By Oliver Renick

     (Bloomberg) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its biggest advance in eight weeks as equities extended quarterly gains amid corporate mergers and optimism central banks will support global growth.

     Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. added more than 2.3 percent as oil companies and banks rallied. Catamaran Corp. jumped 24 percent after UnitedHealth Group Inc. agreed to buy it. Horizon Pharma Plc rose 18 percent after saying it will acquire Hyperion Therapeutics Inc. A Standard & Poor’s index of homebuilders climbed after pending home sales in February rose more than forecast.

     The Dow climbed 263.65 points, or 1.5 percent, to 17,976.31 at 4 p.m. in New York, its best gain since Feb. 3. The S&P 500 Index advanced 1.2 percent to 2,086.24, headed for its longest streak of quarterly increases since 1998. With a 0.2 percent increase on Friday, the index completed its first back-to-back gain after 28 days, the longest drought since 1994. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.2 percent.

     “There was the China central bank comment about stimulus overnight, the economic news this morning was a little bit mixed, and it seems people are putting cash to work thinking maybe earnings are going to come in better than expected,” Larry Peruzzi, the Boston-based director of international trading at Cabrera Capital Markets LLC, said by phone. “The biggest thing in today’s market is there’s no huge negative.”                          

     Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Friday that the central bank will probably raise rates this year, with subsequent increases taking place gradually, without following a predictable path. China’s central bank chief said the government can do more to support growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

     First-quarter profits for S&P 500 companies are forecast to decline for the first time since 2009. Companies will see a contraction of 5.8 percent for the three-month period, according to economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings growth forecasts for the quarter were positive as recently as January, the data show.

     Consumer purchases rose less than projected in February, indicating the biggest part of the U.S. economy will find it hard to sustain momentum after the best quarter since 2006. Adjusted for inflation, spending declined for the first time in almost a year. Incomes climbed 0.4 percent in February for a second month, propelled by a jump in dividends.                           

     A separate report showed more Americans than forecast signed contracts to purchase previously owned homes in February, indicating a pickup in the housing market ahead of the spring selling season. The index of pending sales increased to the highest since June 2013. An S&P gauge of homebuilder stocks added 1.5 percent to its highest since June 2007.

     The U.S. economy grew at a slower pace in the fourth quarter than economists had estimated, a Commerce Department update showed on Friday.

     Other reports this week may show the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing gauge slipped in March, while payrolls rose at a slower pace.

     All ten primary groups in the S&P 500 advanced Monday, after the benchmark last week fell the most since January, extending a monthly loss. About 5.8 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, about 14 percent below the three-month average.

     Energy and financial companies paced today’s rally, rising at least 1.4 percent. Newfield Exploration Co., Exxon Mobil and Phillips 66 gained at least 2.4 percent. JPMorgan Chase and Travelers Cos. climbed at least 2.3 percent to bolster the financial group.                        

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index fell 3.7 percent to 14.51. The gauge, know as the VIX, jumped 16 percent last week, the most since January.

     Catamaran jumped 24 percent after UnitedHealth’s OptumRx agreed to buy the provider of pharmacy benefit management services for about $12.8 billion. PBM competitor Express Scripts Holding Co. added 3.7 percent, the most in more than three months. UnitedHealth advanced 2.5 percent to a record.

     Horizon Pharma climbed 18 percent to an all-time high after agreeing to buy Hyperion Therapeutics for $1.1 billion to gain drugs to treat rare metabolic diseases. Hyperion added 7.6 percent.

     Teva Pharmaceutical increased 0.9 percent after agreeing to buy Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc. for about $3.5 billion in cash to gain drugs that curb tics and other movement disorders. Teva will begin a tender offer of $101 a share for Auspex, which rallied 42 percent.

     DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. rose 6.6 percent to its highest since November after its “Home” film delivered $54 million in opening-weekend ticket sales, beating projections.

     Analog Devices Inc. jumped 10 percent, the most since May 2009, after analysts at Barclays Plc upgraded the stock to overweight from equalweight and set a target price of $70, 10 percent above where shares now trade.

     Altera Corp. lost 3.5 percent after soaring 28 percent Friday following a report that Intel Corp. was in talks to buy the company. Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore downgraded Altera to equalweight from overweight, while Macquarie Research analyst Deepon Nag cut shares to neutral from outperform. Intel slipped 1.7 percent, one of two Dow components that fell.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Freedom is a state of mind – not freedom from something.

Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Life is like riding a bicycle.  You don’t fall off unless you stop peddling.

                                                      -Claude D. Pepper,1900-1989

 

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

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:

Unwanted of prolific March; then fling
The sterile cherries in a canopy
Translucent branches over and among
The pavement of the flowers, in a wild
Storm of successive blossom, lightly swung,
So lightly it would seem that they took wing
Also, in notes ethereal, and with Spring
Taught us again the sense of being young…

             -V. Sackville-West, The Garden

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Cast members Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews are interviewed during the 50th anniversary screening of ‘The Sound of Music’ at the opening night gala of the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles Thursday. Kevork Djansezian/Reuters

A rainbow is seen over Italy’s Court of Cassation palace in Rome Friday. Italy’s highest court is expected to rule on whether to uphold the conviction of Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Remo Casilli/Reuters

Market Closes for March 27^th, 2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17712.66	+34.43
		+0.19%
S&P 500	2062.11	+5.96   +0.29%
NASDAQ	4891.219	+27.857   +0.57%
TSX	14827.75	-42.05
		-0.28%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19285.63	-185.49
		-0.95%
HANG SENG	24486.20	-10.88
		-0.04%
SENSEX	27458.64	+1.06
		—
FTSE 100	6855.02	-40.31
		-0.58%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.369	1.427
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.994	2.039
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.9527	1.9894
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5314	2.5798

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.79281	0.80093
US $	1.26133	1.24856
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.37346	0.72809
US $	1.08890	0.91836

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1195.75	1203.15
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	48.87	51.43

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to a two-week low, capping the third weekly decline in four, as commodities producers tumbled with the price of gold and oil.

     Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp. lost 6.2 percent as the price of iron ore retreated to the lowest in more than six years. Penn West Petroleum Ltd. and Pengrowth Energy Corp. lost at least 3.8 percent as oil trimmed a weekly advance. Yamana Gold Inc. dropped 1.4 percent as gold fell for the first time in eight sessions. BlackBerry Ltd. rose 2.5 percent after posting a surprise profit after cutting costs.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 57.38 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,812.42 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the lowest close in two weeks. The benchmark equity gauge has lost 0.9 percent this week.

     Teck Resources Ltd. tumbled 3 percent and Franco-Nevada Corp. lost 2.5 percent as raw-materials producers declined 0.3 percent as a group. Four of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX retreated on trading volume 31 percent lower than the 30-day average.

     Bullion for immediate delivery fell 0.4 percent to $1,200.13 an ounce in New York, the first drop in eight sessions. The metal’s seven-day rally to Thursday was the longest run of advances since 2012.

     Bonavista Energy Corp. declined 4.7 percent and Surge Energy Inc. fell 4.3 percent as the S&P/TSX Energy Index retreated 1 percent. Futures slipped 5 percent in New York, bringing crude’s gain for the week to 6.9 percent.

     BlackBerry added 2.5 percent, the biggest gain a month. The former leading smartphone maker, whose global market share has fallen to less than 1 percent, cut costs such as research and development, with total operating expenses down more than 60 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.

US

By Callie Bost and Oliver Renick

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks gained as takeover speculation fueled a late-day rally in chipmakers, overshadowing comments by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen that an interest-rate increase may be warranted this year. Treasuries rose and the dollar dropped for a second straight week. Oil slid.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 0.2 percent at 4 p.m. in New York, trimming its worst weekly slide since January. Biotechnology shares rebounded from a four-day drop. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.3 percent and the euro was little changed at $1.09. The yield on 10-year Treasuries slid four basis points to 1.95 percent. U.S. oil sank more than 6 percent in extended trading and copper dropped from a two-month high.

     Stocks rose late in the session after fluctuating for most of the day. Chipmakers led gains after the Wall Street Journal reported that Intel Corp. was in talks to buy Altera Corp., triggering a 2.8 percent surge in a gauge of chipmakers. Yellen said an interest rate increase may be warranted later this year and subsequent moves will be gradual without following a predictable path.

     “The Intel news sparked the imagination of some and created a little bit of short-covering and the stock market pulled into positive territory,” Yousef Abbasi, the global market strategist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC in New York, said by phone. “Yellen continues to be incredibly elusive, but delivering the right message for the markets. She admits the underlying economy is weak. She’s tiptoeing both sides of the argument here.”

     Reports today showed the biggest gain in consumer spending in eight years fueled a 2.2 percent expansion in the U.S. economy last quarter, while consumer confidence fell less than forecast in March, capping the best quarter since 2004.                          

     Officials in the U.S. are mulling tightening policy, harsh winter weather, a stronger dollar, a port slowdown and a global oil glut have translated into weaker-than-expected spending at the same time profits for S&P 500 companies are forecast to decline for the first time since 2009.

     Altera’s rally helped pare losses in the worst week for chip stocks since October. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rallied 2.8 percent on Friday, driven higher as Altera jumped to $44.39 from $34.58. Other companies posting gains of more than 5 percent were Skyworks Solutions Inc., Xilinx Inc. and Intel.

     “It’s about what these chipmaker companies are going to be valued at, so they’re going to go higher,” Thomas Garcia, the head of equity trading at Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management Inc., said by phone. “They’ve gotten pretty beat up since the beginning of the year so if you’re short the semiconductors you may think about covering here.”                         

     The S&P 500 fell 2.2 percent this week, trimming its gain for the year to 0.1 percent, after coming within 0.5 percent of its all-time high on March 20. The measure hasn’t increased for two straight days since Feb. 17, the longest stretch since 1994.

     The Nasdaq Composite Index, which came within 0.4 percent from its 2000 record, slumped 2.7 percent this week, the most since October. The index added 0.6 percent Friday as semiconductor and biotechnology companies rebounded.

     Dow Chemical Co. jumped 1.9 percent after a deal to sell most of its chlorine business. Energy companies declined with oil prices, as Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. slipped about 0.9 percent.

     Companies will see a 5.8 percent drop in earnings for the first three months of 2015, analyst estimates show. Alcoa Inc.unofficially kicks off the earnings season when it reports first-quarter results on April 8.

     The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against 10 major peers, was up 0.2 percent on Friday and down 0.3 percent this week. The gauge tumbled 2.2 percent last week, the biggest drop since October 2011, after the Fed revised forecasts for inflation and growth downward.

     The benchmark 10-year note yield fell for the first time in three days. The rate rose two basis points this week after falling 31 basis points during the previous two weeks. The yields touched 1.85 percent March 25, the least since Feb. 6.

     Haven demand for Treasuries increased Friday as Germany said it’s yet to receive Greece’s proposals for economic reforms, which are crucial to unlocking financial aid to the Mediterranean nation.

     Greece aims to submit its reform commitments by March 30 with a view to euro-area finance ministers meeting to approve the list on April 1, a Greek Finance Ministry official said in Athens Friday. A meeting or call with creditor officials may have to take place during the weekend, the official said.

     German two-year rates dropped as low as minus 0.256 percent, the lowest since Bloomberg began collecting the data in 1990.

     ECB President Mario Draghi said on Thursday he’s confident that his bond-buying program will hit its targets.

     The ECB said that it had settled public-sector purchases of 26.3 billion euros ($28.5 billion) as of March 20 after starting a quantitative-easing program aiming to buy 1.1 trillion euros of public-sector bonds by September 2016. The ECB move helped send the euro down more than 10 percent against the dollar this quarter.

     “Central banks are still a critical aspect of equities as an asset class,” Ian Williams, a market strategist at Peel Hunt LLP in London, said by telephone. “We’re at the point where the beneficial effects of QE have just started. It’s showing up in the sentiment indicators, but it’s not showing up in the hard economic data yet.”                          

     The Stoxx 600 rebounded after its worst two-day slump since the start of January. Still, the gauge capped a 2.1 percent weekly decline, the biggest this year. That trimmed its quarterly gain to 15 percent.

     West Texas Intermediate crude fell 6 percent to $48.35 a barrel in electronic trading, halting its longest run of daily gains in more than a month. Futures rose almost 6 percent this week. Brent oil slipped 5.3 percent, cutting its weekly gain to about 1.4 percent. The Norwegian krone weakened 0.6 percent to 7.96178 per dollar. Norway is western Europe’s biggest oil producer.

     Saudi jets bombed the capital of Yemen into the early morning hours on Friday, and strikes will continue “as long as necessary,” said Ahmed Asseri, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition leading the campaign.

     “While we’ve got no actual supply disruption it’s pretty clear that the market is focused on the potential here, which is enormous,” Michael McCarthy, a chief markets strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone, referring to the situation in Yemen. “We’re likely to see a further increase in volatility as the price reacts to developments.”

     Gold declined, ending the longest rally since 2012, as crude oil fell and investors exited funds backed by the metal.Prices slipped 0.4 percent to $1,200.13 an ounce.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

When a man has an idea of what he must be and how he must act,

and undermines this by not ceasing to act in the opposite way,

he must realize that his principles, his beliefs, his ideals,

will inevitably fall prey to hypocrisy and dishonesty.

It is the ideal that begets the opposite of itself.

 

Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Attitude is everything.

 -Diane von Furstenberg, 1946-

 

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

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 in 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a historic peace agreement ending three decades of hostility between the two countries and creating diplomatic and commercial ties. The Camp David Accords laid the groundwork for the treaty, which was signed by the two countries leaders in a ceremony at the White House.

Birthday: Robert Frost, poet, March 26, 1874.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by.  And that has made all the difference in the world. –Robert Frost

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A basenji puppy looks out as he is held by a soldier watching the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment parade in Hyde Park in London Thursday. 160 horses were paraded accompanied by the mounted Band of the Life Guards and Band of the Blues and Royals. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

A teddy bear wearing a shirt with the word ‘flight attendant’ is placed between flowers and candles outside the Germanwings headquarters at the Cologne Bonn airport Wednesday. An Airbus operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline crashed in a remote snowy area of the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 on board including 16 schoolchildren. Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

Market Closes for March 26^th, 2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17678.23	-40.31
		-0.23%
S&P 500	2056.15	-4.90   -0.24%
NASDAQ	4841.271	-35.249   -0.72%
TSX	14869.80	-59.57
		-0.40%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19471.12	-275.08
		-1.39%
HANG SENG	24497.08	-31.15
		-0.13%
SENSEX	27457.58	-654.25
		-2.33%
FTSE 100	6895.33	-95.64
		-1.37%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.427	1.340
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.039	1.982
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.9894	1.9285
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5798	2.5089

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.80093	0.79926
US $	1.24856	1.25116
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.35748	0.73666
US $	1.08724	0.91976

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1203.15	1195.60
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	51.43	48.66

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, after tumbling the most in two weeks yesterday, as Air Canada led declines in transportation shares and banks stumbled a second day.

     Air Canada lost 2.6 percent as oil climbed to the highest in three weeks. Athabasca Oil Corp. increased 2.4 percent. National Bank of Canada fell 1.9 percent as bank shares retreated a second day.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 59.57 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,869.80 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the lowest close since March 16. The benchmark equity gauge fell 1 percent yesterday. Trading volume was 8.1 percent lower than the 30-day average today.

     B2Gold Corp. declined 3.9 percent and Novagold Resources Inc. lost 4.9 percent as raw-materials producers slumped 1.2 percent as a group, a second straight drop. The industry accounts for about 11 percent of the broader exchange.

     National Bank of Canada declined 1.9 percent and Toronto- Dominion Bank retreated 0.5 percent. National Bank agreed yesterday to buy a 21 percent stake in Cote d’Ivoire financial group NSIA Participations, spending a maximum C$116 million on the investment.

     Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. gained 3.6 percent and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose 1.6 percent as about three stocks rose for every two that fell in the S&P/TSX Energy Index.

     Crude futures surged 4.5 percent to $51.43 a barrel in New York. Saudi Arabia led a coalition of 10 Sunni-ruled nations in airstrikes against Shiite Houthi positions after an appeal from Yemen’s president. Yemen is located near the center of the global energy trade.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell for a fourth day, the longest losing streak since January, as declines in consumer and transportation companies overshadowed a rebound in technology shares.

     American Airlines Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. lost at least 0.9 percent as oil climbed to a three-week high. International Business Machines Corp., Apple Inc. and Intel Corp. added more than 0.6 percent, even as SanDisk Corp. plunged 18 percent amid a lower first-quarter revenue projection.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.2 percent to 2,056.15 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge closed below its average price in the past 100 days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 40.31 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,678.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.3 percent, after its biggest drop in 11 months yesterday.

     “What we’re beginning to see is a lot of investors doubting the resiliency of the market,” Jeff Sica, president and CEO of advisory firm Circle Squared Alternative Investments, which oversees $1.5 billion, said in a phone interview. “They’re much less willing to step up after big selloffs.”

     The S&P 500 is down 2.5 percent this week, and erased its gains for the year, after Friday coming within 0.5 percent of its all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite Index rallied to close within 23 points of its March 2000 record Friday, and then tumbled 3.2 percent through Thursday amid declines in semiconductor and biotechnology shares. It’s on track for its biggest weekly retreat since October.                        

     The S&P 500 fell more than 3.3 percent on two separate occasions in January, only to recover its full loss within a week both times. The benchmark equity gauge slipped 3.6 percent in early March and came within 10 points of reclaiming that level before this week’s four-day selloff.

     That marks the S&P 500’s longest string of consecutive decreases since Jan. 15. It’s the fourth time in 2015 the index has fallen three straight days or more. The gauge saw just 10 such streaks in all of 2014. The S&P 500 has gone 27 days without posting back-to-back gains, the longest stretch since 1994.

     U.S. equities have struggled to reach new highs amid weaker-than-forecast economic data. A report yesterday showed durable-goods orders unexpectedly fell in February, following data last week that showed factory production fell and housing starts slowed.  Jobless claims Thursday fell by 9,000 to 282,000 in the seven days ended March 21, the lowest level since mid- February.

     Many of Wednesday’s biggest decliners reversed course and rallied today, particularly those in the technology sector. Apple Inc. and Intel Corp., two of the three worst performers in the Dow yesterday, rebounded more than 0.6 percent.

     Micron Technology Inc. and IBM rose more than 0.3 percent, after earlier climbing at least 1.3 percent, after dropping more than 2.3 percent Wednesday.

     “A lot of people use these opportunities to get into large-cap tech companies, which look appealing from both a value and growth combination viewpoint,” Kevin Divney, chief investment officer at Beaconcrest Capital Management LLC, said in a phone interview. “At the same time, the lower-quality stocks are still getting hit.”                       

     Energy companies in the S&P 500 jumped as much as 1.2 percent early as Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, led air strikes against Yemen on Thursday after the latter’s government collapsed. Shares erased the advance to end down 0.2 percent, even as oil prices posted their best five-day winning streak in six years.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 2.3 percent to 15.80, adding to its biggest weekly advance since January. The gauge, known as the VIX, fell 19 percent last week.

     Eight of the S&P 500’s 10 main groups fell, led by utility and consumer shares. Raw materials and technology gained. About 7 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 3.2 percent above the three-month average.

     Staples Inc. slid 3.2 percent, while Best Buy Co. and Macy’s Inc. decreased more than 2.2 percent. Retail stocks in the index fell 1 percent, extending a two-day loss to 2.5 percent, the most since January.

     Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. slipped 6.2 percent amid an investigation by federal regulators after “60 Minutes” reported earlier this month that it sold flooring with high levels of formaldehyde.

     Union Pacific Corp. and American Airlines paced a drop in industrial companies, falling more than 1.4 percent. Union Pacific extended its retreat to a sixth day, the longest losing streak since August. The Dow Jones Transportation Average is heading for its worst week since October, down 5.1 percent.

     The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index dropped 1.4 percent after yesterday’s biggest decline since October. The gauge has lost 7.6 percent this week, after reaching a 14-year high on March 2.

     SanDisk slid 18 percent on Thursday, its worst drop since February 2009. The company is seeing lower demand for its chips, which are sold directly to consumers in the form of memory cards and to makers of mobile phones and tablets.

     Alcoa Inc. unofficially kicks off the earnings season when it reports quarterly results on April 8, and profits for S&P 500 companies are forecast to decline for the first time since 2009. Companies will see a contraction of 5.6 percent for the three- month period, according to economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings growth forecasts for the quarter were positive as recently as January, the data show.

     Stocks are also entering a stretch of the year when companies customarily suspend share repurchases before reporting quarterly results, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. While the data isn’t conclusive, owning stocks during those periods has generated a return that trails the market average over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     Technology stocks could have the most to lose in the absence of buybacks. Computer and software makers repurchased more shares than any other industry in 2014 at $122 billion, according to data compiled by Barclays.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

As an individual, a specific entity, you have physical, mental, and nervous limits, among others.

If you know your own limits and try to stay within these limits,

you are free.

Swami Prajnanpad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

It is a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the best,

you very often get it.                       -W. Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965                                       

 

 

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

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 in 1982, former Canadian professional ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky became the first player in National Hockey League history to pass 200 points in a season. He finished the season with 92 goals and 120 assists for a total of 212 points.

Birthdays:

Aretha Franklin, March 25, 1942
Elton John, March 25^th, 1947
Sarah Jessica Parker, March 25^th, 1965

Old New Year’s Day was on this date until 1751:  The Buddhist Magha Puja.
Christianity celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Social activists participate in a rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday in remembrance of those killed on the night of March 25, 1971, a day ahead of the country’s declaration of independence from Pakistan. A.M. Ahad/AP

Andrea Bunar delivers the mail by boat in the village of Luebbenau, Germany, Wednesday during a media event. For 118 years, the German mail service, Deutsche Post, has delivered the mail by boat from March to October in this area. The Spreewald landscape is irrigated with more than 200 small canals and is an official UNESCO biosphere reserve. Markus Schreiber/AP

Market Closes for March 25^th, 2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17718.54	-292.60
		-1.62%
S&P 500	2061.05	-30.45   -1.46%
NASDAQ	4876.520	-118.208   -2.37%
TSX	14929.92	-151.34
		-1.00%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19746.20	+32.75
		+0.17%
HANG SENG	24528.33	+128.63
		+0.53%
SENSEX	28111.83	-49.89
		-0.18%
FTSE 100	6990.97	-28.71
		-0.41%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.340	1.302
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.982	1.940
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.9285	1.8731
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5089	2.4643

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.79926	0.79991
US $	1.25116	1.25015
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.37275	0.72847
US $	1.09718	0.91143

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1195.60	1191.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	48.66	47.11

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in two weeks, following a three-day rally, as a decline in banks and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. overshadowed gains in energy shares.

     Valeant dropped 3.4 percent for a second straight decline after unit Bausch & Lomb Inc. was among a group of contact lens makers accused of price fixing. Royal Bank of Canada lost 1.3 percent to pace declines among financials shares, which account for one-third of the broader index. Bombardier Inc. jumped 2.8 percent after the aircraft maker said it is in talks with Asian and North American carriers that may lead to more orders in the coming months.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 151.89 points, or 1 percent, to 14,929.37 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest drop since March 10. The benchmark gauge rallied 1.4 percent in the previous three sessions and is up 2 percent in the quarter.

     Nine of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX retreated on trading volume 2.5 percent above the 30-day average.

     Royal Bank, the nation’s largest lender, sank 1.3 percent and Bank of Nova Scotia lost 1.6 percent to lead declines in the S&P/TSX Banks Index. The group fell 1.3 percent, halting a three-day rally.

     Valeant notched its biggest decline since October. Bausch & Lomb, along with Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc. and two other makers of disposable contact lens, curtailed price competition by conspiring to set minimum resale prices for their products, according to a consumer lawsuit. The claims in the antitrust class action, filed in a U.S. court in San Francisco, have not been proven.

     Energy shares in the S&P/TSX rose added 0.5 percent as West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 3.6 percent to $49.21 a barrel in New York.

     Dollarama Inc. jumped 2.7 percent after posting fourth- quarter earnings ahead of analysts’ expectations and raising its quarterly dividend.

     Bombardier added 2.8 percent. The company plans to upgrade its regional jets that have been neglected as Bombardier struggles to build its CSeries jet. Changes such as new winglets and a modified wing would improve the jets’ fuel efficiency, the company said.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     (Bloomberg) — Stringing together gains in the American stock market has become next to impossible.

     Knocked down 1.5 percent Wednesday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has now gone 26 days without posting gains in back-to- back sessions, the longest stretch since 1994, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Losses in biotechnology and chip companies dragged U.S. stocks to a third day of declines, interrupting another run at a record for the Nasdaq Composite Index as investors sold the year’s best-performing equities.

     “You have markets that are pretty gun-shy,” Michael Ball, who oversees about $800 million as president of Weatherstone Capital Management Inc. in Denver. “Whatever the news story of the day, it seems to counteract a lot of what we saw the prior day.”

     The S&P 500 slipped 1.5 percent to 2,061.05 on Wednesday. The gauge hasn’t increased for two straight days since Feb. 17, including a three-day retreat of 2.2 percent since closing within 10 points from a record high on Friday.

     Flat for the year, the benchmark U.S. equity index sits at a level it first reached on Nov. 21. Since then, stocks in the gauge rose as much as 2.6 percent to an all-time peak of 2,117.39 before sliding back to the current price.

     Investors never came close to a streak like this one last year. The longest stretch without back-to-back gains in 2014 was 11 days, data compiled by Bloomberg show.                        

     Wednesday’s losses, the worst for the Nasdaq since April, were spurred by selloffs in semiconductor and biotechnology companies. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index dropped 4.6 percent, the most since October amid decreases of more than 2.9 percent in Nvidia Corp., Micron Technology Inc., Broadcom Corp. and Intel Corp.

     The first quarter’s best performing stocks are the ones falling the most now. Biogen Inc. and First Solar Inc., which surged more than 35 percent in 2015 through last Friday’s trading, slipped more than 3.8 percent. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF, which increased 21 percent year-to-date through Friday, fell 4.1 percent.

     “We’re seeing a loss of momentum from last week,” Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Milwaukee-based RW Baird & Co., which oversees $110 billion, said in a phone interview. “The market is priced for perfection in terms of valuations. Perhaps it has to go through some kind of consolidation period to get through this next earnings period.”

     The S&P 500 trades at 18.36 times earnings, compared with a trailing five-year average of 15.64 times, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Wednesday’s biggest decliners are also marked by historically elevated valuations, with both the Philadelphia Semiconductor and Nasdaq Biotechnology Indexes trading above their five-year profit multiples.

     Companies will start to report first-quarter earnings next month, and profits are forecast to decline for the first time since 2009. S&P 500 results will see a contraction of 5.6 percent for the three-month period, according to economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings growth forecasts for the quarter were positive as recently as January, the data show.

     Stocks are also entering a stretch of the year when companies customarily suspend share repurchases before reporting quarterly results, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. While the data isn’t conclusive, owning stocks during those periods has generated a return that trails the market average over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.                       

     Technology stocks could have the most to lose in the absence of buybacks. Computer and software makers repurchased more shares than any other industry in 2014 at $122 billion, according to data compiled by Barclays.

     Orders for durable goods unexpectedly dropped in February, according to data released at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, a sign the slowdown in global growth may be weighing on American manufacturers. Still, the S&P 500 fluctuated around little changed after the market opened until around 11:30 a.m., when it began its decline.

     “This market has less to do with data dependence and a lot to do with asset prices and volatility,” Michael Block, chief equity strategist at Rhino Trading Partners LLC in New York, said in a phone interview. “Earnings season is going to be important.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

 

The absurd denial of the truth is natural in man.

Man does not want to be, but to appear to be.

He does not want to see what he is, but tries only to see himself as the person

other people take him for, when they talk about him.

Swami Prajnanpad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.

                               -Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865

 

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

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:

Spring
  -Gerard Manley Hopkins

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –        
   When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;         
   Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush         
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring         
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
   The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush         
   The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush         
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.         

What is all this juice and all this joy?         
    A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,         
    Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,          
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,         
    Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.    

Source: Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics, 1985)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Although spring has officially arrived, a fresh accumulation of snow lends a wintry appearance to the Madison, Wis., area Monday. John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal/AP

Girls carry clean water to their homes in an Islamabad slum, in Pakistan, Tuesday. There is a scarcity of fresh drinking water in Pakistan among a population of around 180 million. B.K. Bangash/AP

Market Closes for March 24^th, 2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18011.14	-104.90
		-0.58%
S&P 500	2091.50	-12.92   -0.61%
NASDAQ	4994.727	-16.247   -0.32%
TSX	15081.26	+124.05
		+0.83%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19713.45	-40.91
		-0.21%
HANG SENG	24399.60	-94.91
		-0.39%
SENSEX	28161.72	-30.30
		-0.11%
FTSE 100	7019.68	-17.99
		-0.26%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.302	1.308
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.940	1.949
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.8731	1.9094
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.4643	2.5111

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.79991	0.79891
US $	1.25015	1.25171
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.36491	0.73265
US $	1.09180	0.91592

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1191.50	1186.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	47.11	46.85

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a third day, climbing to a two-week high, as grocers advanced to lead gains in consumer shares and energy producers extended a rally.

     Penn West Petroleum Ltd. and RMP Energy Inc. climbed at least 5.6 percent to lead energy shares to a third straight gain. Metro Inc. increased 2.6 percent to pace gains among consumer-staples shares. Eldorado Gold Corp. jumped 4.1 percent for the biggest rise in almost a month as gold advanced to a two-week high.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 124.05 points, or 0.8 percent, to 15,081.26 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark gauge has advanced 1.4 percent in the past three sessions to extend its gain this year to 3.1 percent.

     Penn West increased 5.9 percent and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose 1.6 percent as energy shares gained 1.4 percent as a group. Eight of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX rose on trading volume 14 percent lower than the 30-day average.

     Teck Resources Ltd. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. each lost 2.1 percent even as copper capped a fourth day of gains. China’s preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics for March was 49.2, down from February’s 50.7 and the lowest since April 2014. Numbers less than 50 indicate contraction.

     Eldorado Gold rallied 4.1 percent and Yamana Gold Inc. gained 2.4 percent. Gold rose 0.3 percent to the highest level in two weeks, settling at $1,191.40 an ounce on speculation U.S. policy makers will hold off on raising interest rates until later this year.

     Royal Bank of Canada added 0.4 percent and Toronto-Dominion Bank increased 0.6 percent as the S&P/TSX Banks Index rose a third day. The group has rallied 1.7 percent in that period.

     Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. increased 4 percent and Loblaw Cos. rose 2.5 percent as consumer-staples stocks rallied 2.8 percent as a group to an all-time high.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropping for a second day, as a report on consumer prices showed signs inflation is perking up.

     Utilities slid 1.2 percent. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Biogen Inc. lost more than 2.3 percent, leading declines in health-care companies. Genworth Financial Inc. and Legg Mason Inc. fell at least 1.7 percent. Google Inc. and Netflix Inc. rose more than 2 percent.

     The S&P 500 slipped 0.6 percent to 2,091.50 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.3 percent to close 1 percent below its record set in 2000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 104.90 points, or 0.6 percent to 18,011.14. About 5.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 13 percent below the three-month average.

     “The market is looking for new direction, but it hasn’t seen it yet,” Bill Schultz, who oversees $1.2 billion as chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview. “That’s why we’re churning and trading in a pretty narrow range.”

     The S&P 500 and Dow had earlier risen to within 1 percent of records they reached on March 2. The S&P 500 has gone 25 consecutive sessions without back-to-back advances, the longest since a 25-day stretch in 2001.

     Fed Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues last week opened the door to an interest-rate increase as soon as June, while indicating in their forecasts they’ll go slow once they start.

     San Francisco Fed President John Williams said in remarks prepared for delivery in Sydney Tuesday that a discussion should happen mid-year about tightening policy, even as he lowered his growth forecast.

     Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the world largest economy expanded at a rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter and the pace to pick up to 3 percent in the second three months.

     Data today showed the cost of living in the U.S. excluding food and fuel rose more than forecast in February, reflecting broad-based gains that helped keep a floor under inflation.

     The so-called core consumer-price index climbed 0.2 percent for a second month, a Labor Department report showed Tuesday in Washington. A broader measure of prices overall also climbed 0.2 percent, the first advance in four months, as fuel costs stabilized.

     Purchases of new homes in the U.S. unexpectedly rose in February to a seven-year high as stronger job gains helped bolster industry activity amid severe weather. Sales climbed 7.8 percent to a 539,000 annualized pace, the most since February 2008.

     The S&P 500 earlier rose as much 0.2 percent before retreating in afternoon trading to cap a second day of losses. In a repeat of Monday’s trading, selling accelerated into the close and the index ended at its low for the session. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.4 percent to within 20 points of its all-time high before giving back the gains to end at its low for the day.

     The Nasdaq index has rebounded 3 percent since March 11. It crossed 5,000 earlier this month before losing 3.2 percent in nine days.

     Health-care stocks have bolstered the rally as the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index rose 6.2 percent to a record last week. The index is down 2.9 percent since Friday, its biggest two-day drop in three months.

     Google climbed 2.2 percent Tuesday after saying it hired Ruth Porat, Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer, to succeed Patrick Pichette as its new CFO in May. Netflix increased 3.1 percent, the most since Feb. 3, after analysts from Cantor Fitzgerald LP and Barclays Plc boosted their ratings on the company.                        

     Electronic Arts Inc. and EBay Inc. added more than 1.2 percent, while Facebook Inc. advanced 1 percent. The social networking company extended its winning streak to seven days, its longest since July 2013. Twitter Inc. jumped 6.2 percent to its highest since October.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 1.6 percent to 13.62. The gauge, know as the VIX, fell 19 percent last week, its biggest five-day decline since January.

     All of the S&P 500’s 10 main groups fell, led by utilities, health-care and financial shares.

     Asset managers Legg Mason and Franklin Resources Inc. slipped more than 1.6 percent. Progressive Corp. fell 1.3 percent after saying it will begin increasing rates for some risky customers who participate in a program that allows the company to electronically monitor driving habits.

     The Dow Jones Transportation Average decreased for a second straight day, falling 0.7 percent. The drop was paced by Delta Air Lines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., which slipped more than 1.1 percent, pushing the Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index down 0.7 percent.                       

     S&P 500 energy companies slid 0.8 percent as Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. lost 4.7 percent. Oil services companies Noble Corp. and Tesoro Corp. slipped more than 2.2 percent.

     Whiting Petroleum Corp. plummeted 19 percent, the most since November, after giving up on finding a buyer and instead selling shares and raising debt to clean up its balance sheet. The largest oil producer in North Dakota’s Bakken shale region is tapping capital markets after shopping itself to Exxon Mobil Corp. and at least three other companies, according to people familiar with the matter.

     Freeport-McMoRan Inc. slid 0.8 percent. The world’s largest publicly traded copper producer cut its dividend by 84 cents as it tries to fund mining and energy projects in the face of lower commodity prices.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

The spiritual can never be attained,

until the material has been extinguished.

 

Swami Vivekananda

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

                                                                 -J.K. Rowling, 1965-

 

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

March 23^rd, 1922, Mahatma Gandhi, at his trial on a charge of sedition:

Non-violence is the first article of my faith.  It is the last article of my faith.  But I had to make my choice.  I had either to submit to a system which I considered has done an irreparable harm to my country or incur the risk of the mad fury of my  people bursting forth when they understood the truth from my lips.  I know that my people have sometimes gone mad.  I am deeply sorry for it; and I am therefore, here, to submit not to a light penalty but to the highest penalty.  I do not ask for mercy.  I do not plead any extenuating act.  I am here, therefore, to invite and submit to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen. –from The Book of Days.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

President Barack Obama poses with six-year-old Girl Scouts from Tulsa, Okla., during the White House Science Fair Monday in the Red Room of the White House in Washington. The Girl Scouts used Lego pieces to design a battery-powered page turner to help people who are paralyzed or have arthritis. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Elisabeth Moss (from l. to r.), Christina Hendricks, January Jones and Jon Hamm attend the unveiling of a bench in honor of the ‘Mad Men’ series in front of the Time & Life Building on Monday in New York. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Market Closes for March 23^rd,  2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18116.04	-11.61
		-0.06%
S&P 500	2104.42	-3.68   -0.17%
NASDAQ	5010.973	-15.446   -0.31%
TSX	14957.21	+14.80
		+0.10%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19754.36	+194.14
		+0.99%
HANG SENG	24494.51	+119.27
		+0.49%
SENSEX	28192.02	-69.06
		-0.24%
FTSE 100	7037.67	+15.16
		+0.22%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.308	1.299
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.949	1.933
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.9094	1.9259
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5111	2.5022

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.79891	0.79678
US $	1.25171	1.25505
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.37112	0.72933
US $	1.09540	0.91291

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1186.25	1183.10
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	46.85	45.72

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a second day, following the biggest weekly advance in six, as commodities producers gained after New York crude climbed. Railway shares tumbled.

     Surge Energy Inc. and Pengrowth Energy Corp. increased at least 6.4 percent as West Texas Intermediate crude rebounded from near a six-year low. AGF Management Ltd. jumped 4.9 percent to pace gains among financial shares. Centerra Gold Inc. added 5.8 percent as gold climbed to a two-week high. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co. retreated at least 2 percent for a fifth straight day of losses.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 14.80 points, or 0.1 percent, to 14,957.21 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark gauge advanced 1.4 percent last week, the biggest gain since Feb. 6. It has gained five of the past six sessions.

     Surge Energy jumped 6.5 percent for a second straight increase as energy shares rose 0.3 percent as a group. Six of 10 industries advanced on trading volume 19 percent lower than the 30-day average.

     New York benchmark crude added 1.9 percent to settle at $47.45, erasing an earlier slide after the dollar extended its decline, boosting the appeal of commodities denominated in the U.S. currency.

     Sherritt International Corp. rallied 6 percent for a second straight advance, after the company said a worker strike at its Ambatovy mine in Madagascar wouldn’t affect 2015 production guidance.                      

     Teck Resources Ltd. increased 4.6 percent and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. rallied 4.2 percent as copper climbed to an 11- week high on concerns supply will be limited to lead base metals higher in London. Raw-materials producers in the S&P/TSX jumped 1.3 percent.

     Railroad stocks tumbled in Canada and the U.S. after Kansas City Southern Corp. cut its forecast for revenue growth in 2015. A Canadian Pacific potash train derailed near Wetaskiwin, Alberta on March 22, a company spokesman said.

     Canadian Pacific sank 2.5 percent for a fifth straight decline, the longest losing streak since Jan. 7. Canadian National lost 2 percent.

     Industrials shares plunged 1.5 percent as a group, most in the broader index. The industry has declined 2.4 percent in five days of declines.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks retreated after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed within four points of a record, as a drop in transportation companies overshadowed gains in shares of consumer-staples producers.

     The Dow Jones Transportation Average dropped 2 percent , led lower by Kansas City Southern Corp.’s 8 percent plunge after it cut its outlook for revenue growth in 2015. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index fell 2.2 percent after setting a record Friday. Oreo maker Mondelez International Inc. and Reynolds American Inc. rose more than 1.6 percent.

     The S&P 500 slipped 0.2 percent to 2,104.42 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.3 percent from a 15- year high. The Russell 2000 Index fell 0.1 percent after reaching a record on Friday. About 5.9 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 14 percent below the three-month average.

     “I don’t see any reason to think we need to take another leg up to start the week today,” Michael James, a Los Angeles- based managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities Inc., said in a phone interview. “The market is going to remain in a trading range, and we’re in the upper band right now.”

     The S&P 500 and Dow are less than 1 percent from records they last reached on March 2. The Nasdaq Composite jumped on Friday to a 15-year high, almost erasing its losses since the end of the dot-com bubble. The S&P 500 rose 2.7 percent last week, with the dollar weakening, as concern eased about an interest-rate increase.

     The Nasdaq gauge has rebounded 3.3 percent since March 11. It crossed 5,000 earlier this month before losing 3.2 percent in nine days. The index was bolstered by a rally in health-care stocks. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index jumped 6.2 percent through Friday for its biggest weekly gain since October.

     The S&P 500 has gone 24 consecutive sessions without back- to-back advances, the longest since a 24-day stretch in 2008. In 2014, gains came much easier as the measure never fell four days in a row.

     The benchmark equity gauge rose as much as 0.3 percent Monday, less than three points from its all-time record reached on March 2. The Nasdaq Composite came within 18 points of its March 2000 peak of 5,048.62 before closing down on the day.

     The Nasdaq index approached a record the same week that its biggest member, Apple Inc., entered a much older gauge, the Dow Jones Industrial Average. At 44, the Nasdaq has been around less than half as long as the Dow, and has spent about one-third of its life trying to claw back from the dot-com crash.                        

     Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said raising interest rates from near zero “likely will be warranted before the end of the year,” and subsequent increases probably won’t be uniform or predictable.

     “A smooth path upward in the federal funds rate will almost certainly not be realized,” as the economy will encounter shocks such as the surprise plunge in oil prices or future geopolitical crises, Fischer said Monday in remarks prepared for delivery to the Economic Club of New York.

     San Francisco Fed President John Williams will deliver a speech via videoconference to the Australian Business Economists. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Paris Monday that it is appropriate to raise rates this year.

     Sales of previously owned homes fell short of a 5 million annual rate in February for a second month, showing an industry struggling to gain traction amid rising prices and a lack of inventory.

     Closings rose 1.2 percent to a 4.88 million annual rate, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday in Washington. The median value of a house climbed 7.5 percent from the same month last year.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index increased 3 percent to 13.41. The gauge, know as the VIX, fell 19 percent last week, its biggest five-day decline since January.

     Six of the S&P 500’s 10 main groups retreated, led by a 0.8 percent slide among industrial companies.

     Kansas City Southern slipped 8 percent after announcing updated 2015 guidance, pushing the Dow Jones Transportation Index down 2 percent. The company now sees low single-digit revenue growth for the year, reducing a January outlook forecasting a mid-single-digit increase. Union Pacific Corp. and CSX Corp. lost more than 3.9 percent.                    

     Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. dropped 4 percent after the company said its cystic fibrosis drug Kalydeco combined with an experimental drug helped patients’ breathing less than analysts forecast. Celgene Corp. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. decreased more than 2.1 percent.

     Consumer-staples producers in the S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent. Mondelez added 1.6 percent, while tobacco company Reynolds American gained 2.3 percent and Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.advanced 0.3 percent.

     Tiffany & Co. rallied 5.8 percent after a 4 percent selloff Friday. Darden Restaurants Inc. added 3.7 percent to hit an all- time high for a second day.

     Apple, EBay and International Business Machines Corp. rose more than 1 percent as technology shares gained 0.1 percent.

     Tenet Healthcare Corp. jumped 4.9 percent after saying it will combine its outpatient surgery centers with closely held United Surgical Partners International Inc. in a joint venture, expanding its bet on facilities that are becoming more popular with patients.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

As long as you pursue pleasure, you are attached to the sources of pleasure;

and as long as you are attached to the sources of pleasure,

you cannot escape pain and sorrow,  The soul shines in the hearts of all living beings.

When you see the soul in others, you forget your own desires and fears,

and lose yourself in the service of others.

The soul shines equally in people on the farthest island, and in people close at hand.

 

Mundaka Upanishad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?

                     -Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C.

 

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

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:

First day of Spring!

Innumerable, the small flow’rs that stitch
Their needlework on canvas of the ground.
In the low foreground of their tapestry
They startle and exceedingly enrich.
There’s a profusion hardly to be counted
When flow’r from bulb appears with each new
       Spring,
Like to a spring of water newly founted,
Breaking the earth, and each an Easterling.

              -V. Sackville-West, The Garden.

On this day in 1852, John P. Jewett & Co. publishes a novel by a Connecticut schoolteacher, adapted from a serial that had appeared in a magazine beginning the year before. It was an instant success, catapulted its author to international fame, and become a rallying point for the anti-slavery movement. It even helped drive the conflict that led to the Civil War. But in 1852, its author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wasn’t sure that anybody would even want to read her novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A dog wears protective glasses prior to the solar eclipse in Regent’s Park in London Friday. Unfortunately, due to heavy cloud cover, the eclipse was not visible in London. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

A total solar eclipse is seen in Longyearbyen on Svalbard, Norway. A partial eclipse was visible on Friday, the first day of northern spring, across parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia. The total eclipse of the sun was only visible in the Faroe Islands and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean. Jon Olav Nesvold/NTB scanpix/Reuters

Market Closes for March 20^th, 2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18127.65	+168.62
		+0.94%
S&P 500	2108.06	+18.79   +0.90%
NASDAQ	5026.418	+34.039   +0.68%
TSX	14942.41	+68.48
		+0.46%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19560.22	+83.66
		+0.43%
HANG SENG	24375.24	-93.65
		-0.38%
SENSEX	28261.08	-208.59
		-0.73%
FTSE 100	7022.51	+60.19
		+0.86%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.299	1.312
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.933	1.951
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.9259	1.9685
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5022	2.5291

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.79678	0.78714
US $	1.25505	1.27042
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.35806	0.73634
US $	1.08193	0.92427

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1183.10	1166.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	45.72	43.96

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, capping the biggest weekly advance in six weeks, as commodity producers rallied after the dollar tumbled.

     First Quantum Minerals Ltd. jumped 10 percent to pace gains among raw-materials producers as copper surged 3.8 percent.  Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. and Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. increased at least 5.9 percent as New York crude rallied. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. slid 2.3 percent. Corus Entertainment Inc. slumped 11 percent after Canadian regulators mandated “a la carte” cable television options.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 67.62 points, or 0.5 percent, to 14,941.55 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark gauge advanced 1.4 percent this week, the most gain since Feb. 6.

     Trading volume was 65 percent higher than the 30-day average amid a quarterly event known as quadruple witching day, when futures and options contracts on indexes and individual stocks expire.

     The members of the S&P/TSX were been revised after the market close, with stocks including Lightstream Resources Ltd. and Legacy Oil & Gas removed and replaced with Concordia Healthcare Corp. and Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust, according to a release from S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC.

     Corus Entertainment slumped 11 percent and DHX Media Ltd. lost 2.8 percent after Canada’s communications regulator said cable companies must let customers choose the channels they want, one of the first countries in the world to mandate a la carte pay-TV.

     Legacy Oil & Gas rallied 6 percent and Pacific Rubiales increased 11 percent as energy producers gained 0.7 percent as a group. Four of 10 industries advanced.

     West Texas Intermediate crude jumped 4 percent to $45.72 a barrel in New York, the biggest gain since Feb. 12. The dollar retreated from its strongest level in at least a decade after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its forecast for interest rates amid moderating economic growth.

     First Quantum Minerals climbed 10 percent and Teck Resources Ltd. rose 7.1 percent as raw-materials shares gained 1.9 percent, the most in the S&P/TSX. Copper jumped the most in 22 months after Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia remained shut for a fifth day due to worker protests.  The mine is the world’s second-largest for the metal by capacity.

US

By Callie Bost and Lu Wang

     (Bloomberg) — Global stocks powered to their best weekly rally in nearly two years, sending two of the biggest equity benchmarks to the brink of records, on speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve will leave interest rates at zero past mid-year while European policy makers press stimulus.

     The MSCI All-Country World Index surged 3.2 percent for the five days, pushing the Nasdaq Composite Index to within 7 points of wiping out all its losses since the Internet bubble. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index soared 1.9 percent to close 0.4 percent from its March 2000 high.

     Global equities added more than $1.5 trillion this week as the Fed acknowledged that economic growth has moderated, indicating it is in no rush to raise interest rates. Equities also benefited as pressure eased from a surging dollar and plunging oil. A gauge of the U.S. currency had the steepest weekly slide in three years while crude rebounded for its first gain in five weeks.

     “The animal spirit is starting to heat up,” Jim O’Donnell, who oversees about $6 billion as chief investment officer at Forward Management LLC in San Francisco, said in a phone interview. “You’ve got the combination of three very large, meaningful central banks easing, that’s lighting up the fire under those equity markets.”

     Other benchmark indexes also gained during the week. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 2.7 percent to 2,108.10 in the five days, 0.4 percent away from a record. In London, the FTSE 100 Index hit a fresh record, climbing above 7,000 for the first time. The Russell 2000 Index gained 2.8 percent to an all-time high.                         

     The Nasdaq Composite jumped 3.2 percent to 5,026.42, approaching an all-time high of 5,048.62 reached in March 2000. The gauge of predominantly technology stocks has rebounded 3.6 percent since March 11. It crossed 5,000 earlier this month before losing 3.2 percent in nine days.

     The index was bolstered by a rally in health-care stocks. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index jumped 6.2 percent for its biggest weekly gain since October, closing at an all-time high. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. soared 14 percent, while Amgen Inc. jumped 10 percent and Biogen Idec Inc. increased 15 percent to a record.

     The Nasdaq Composite approached an all-time high the same week that its biggest member, Apple Inc., entered a much older gauge, the Dow Jones Industrial Average. At 44, the Nasdaq has been around less than half as long as the Dow, and has spent about one-third of its life trying to claw back from the dot-com crash.

     As the Nasdaq has closed in on its record over the last few years, gains have been much more spread out than they were during the 1990s Internet bubble. Since the start of 2012, the Nasdaq 100 Index, a basket of the gauge’s biggest stocks, is up96 percent, compared with 93 percent for the broader measure.

     Over the same period at the end of the Internet bubble, the Nasdaq 100 climbed 450 percent — 208 percentage points more than the Nasdaq Composite. That happened because gains were concentrated in the biggest companies, with Cisco Systems Inc. climbing 844 percent over the interval and Microsoft Corp. rising 383 percent. Since 2011, the biggest gainer in the Nasdaq 100 is Regeneron, at 782 percent.

     The current rally has also hewn much closer to the advance in broader benchmarks. Since the start of 2012, the Nasdaq Composite has risen at a 24.3 percent annualized rate, compared with 19.9 percent over that stretch for the S&P 500. Over the same interval of days ending on March 10, 2000, the Nasdaq rose at a yearly rate of 53.3 percent, compared with 23.1 percent in the S&P 500.

     The S&P 500 seesawed between gains and losses every day during the week. The gauge has gone 23 consecutive sessions without back-to-back advances, the longest since a 23-day stretch in June 2010. In 2014, gains came much easier as the measure never fell four days in a row.

     The S&P 500 added 1.2 percent March 18 after the Fed said higher interest rates in April are unlikely and it won’t tighten until it is “reasonably confident” inflation will return to its target and the labor market improves further.

     The U.S. central bank also dropped an assurance it will be “patient” in raising interest rates and lowered its assessment of the economy, saying growth has “moderated somewhat.”

     Data during the week reinforced the Fed’s view: manufacturing output nationally and in the New York area was below forecast and beginning home construction plunged in February.

     “Clearly the impetus this week started with Janet Yellen,” Bill Schultz, who oversees $1.2 billion as chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said by phone. “With that came a weaker dollar and a turnaround in oil as well, so these things that had worked against the market so much up until this week are correcting or stabilizing.”

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index dropped 19 percent to 13.02, the lowest since Dec. 5. The gauge of S&P 500 options prices climbed 20 percent in the first two weeks of March.

     As the Fed has wound down its quantitative easing program and signaled a rate increase, the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan are expanding their stimulus programs.

     The euro has fallen versus the U.S. currency for eight straight months as monetary policies worldwide have diverged. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index sank 2.2 percent in the latest week, the most since October 2011.

     The MSCI gauge of emerging-market stocks jumped 3.2 percent, while Asian-Pacific equities added 2.5 percent. The Nikkei 225 rallied 1.6 percent to the highest since 2000 and Japan’s Topix gained 1.3 percent to touch a seven-year high.

     Nine out of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 advanced as health-care and utilities added more than 4.2 percent.

     Energy stocks rose 3.4 percent in their best week since Feb. 6 as crude prices advanced 2 percent. Chevron Corp. surged 5.3 percent and Transocean Ltd. jumped 10 percent.

     Technology shares added 2.9 percent. Facebook Inc. climbed 7.4 percent in five consecutive days of gains, while Salesforce.com Inc. increased 4.8 percent and Yahoo! Inc.climbed 5.1 percent.

     Apple increased 1.9 percent. The company joined the Dow on March 19 with the fifth-highest weighting in the index at 4.6 percent. The company accounts for 15 percent of the Nasdaq 100 Index and 3.9 percent of the S&P 500.

     Even with Apple in the average, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is now the biggest weighting in the 118-year-old gauge after a stock split this week by Visa Inc. Goldman Sachs rose 2 percent.

     “It’s nice,” Forward Management’s O’Donnell said of the equity market’s advance toward records. “It makes everybody feel good. A lot of times, you get a spring-time rally, snow melts, flowers start blooming and the animal spirit just makes you want to buy stocks.”

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

When a man is  deprived of the foundation that provides him everything,

his poverty loses its best virtue, simplicity, to become no more than disgraceful and sordid.

His wealth is no longer splendid, but becomes merely extravagant.

His appetites no longer remain within natural limits; they no longer have the one goal

of meeting the needs of his life; they become an end in themselves,

setting fire to his existence, and dancing madly by the light of the flames.

 

Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Givers have to set limits because takers rarely do.

                                                   -Irma Kurtz

 

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

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:

New Mark Knopfler CD now available: Tracker.  A true master songwriter.  See his web site for upcoming tour dates….Europe this spring and summer and North America starting in  September.  His first North American tour date is Vancouver on September 10^th and tickets on sale now.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Sheep graze in the meadow in front of the Mont Saint-Michel off France’s Normandy coast on Thursday. The Mont Saint-Michel 11th century abbey is expected to be entirely surrounded by the English Channel following exceptionally high spring tides. Parts of the French coast will be on alert for the so-called ‘tide of the century,’ with tidal coefficients of 118 and 119 respectively on March 20 and 21. Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

A Kashmiri fisherman cleans his Shikara, or traditional boat, as he prepares to head home after a days work on the Dal Lake in the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday. The Srinagar-Jammu highway, connecting the Kashmir valley to the rest of the country, on Thursday re-opened for one-way traffic after remaining closed for four consecutive day following heavy rain and snowfall at some places. Dar Yasin/AP

Market Closes for March 19^th, 2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17959.03	-117.16
		-0.65%
S&P 500	2089.27	-10.23   -0.49%
NASDAQ	4992.379	+9.551   +0.19%
TSX	14873.93	-88.31
		-0.59%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19476.56	-67.92
		-0.35%
HANG SENG	24468.89	+348.81
		+1.45%
SENSEX	28469.67	-152.45
		-0.53%
FTSE 100	6962.32	+17.12
		+0.25%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.312	1.321
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.951	1.971
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.9685	1.9199
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5291	2.5104

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78714	0.79434
US $	1.27042	1.25890
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.35532	0.73784
US $	1.06682	0.93736

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1166.00	1147.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	43.96	44.66

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Michelle F. Davis

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks dropped, halting a three-day advance, as energy and raw-materials shares fell with oil prices.

     RMP Energy Inc. tumbled 25 percent as fourth-quarter earnings missed analyst estimates and the company cut its capital expenditures budget for 2015. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. retreated 2.6 percent as the fertilizer producer said tax-rule changes will cut 2015 profit.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slid 88.31 points, or 0.6 percent, to 14,873.93 at the close in Toronto. The gauge yesterday gained 0.4 percent after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its estimate for where the benchmark interest rate will be by the end of 2015. The S&P/TSX has advanced 1.7 percent in 2015.

     Seven of 10 industries in the benchmark equity gauge dropped, led by a 2.2 percent retreat in energy shares. Raw- materials companies lost 1.2 percent. Trading volume was 12 percent below the 30-day average.

     Stocks dropped today after oil resumed its slump as attention returned to an unprecedented glut in U.S. crude inventories. Canadian equities rallied yesterday after Fed officials said the central bank won’t raise borrowing costs until the labor market improves further and it is “reasonably confident” inflation will return to its target.

US

By Callie Bost

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, after a rally Wednesday on the Federal Reserve’s policy statement, as banks retreated and energy companies slumped with the price of oil.

     Transocean Ltd. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. dropped more than 4.4 percent to pace declines in energy stocks after the group posted their best gain in a month yesterday. Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley fell more than 1.7 percent. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index rose 1.9 percent to a record. Apple Inc. slid in its first day in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.5 percent to 2,089.27 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow declined 117.16 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,959.03 after rising 1.3 percent Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.2 percent after briefly climbing above the 5,000 level for the second straight day. About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 7.5 percent below the three-month average.

     “It would appear from the reaction yesterday, investors would rather have interest rates stay lower for longer than see the economy improve,” Bruce McCain, who helps oversee more than

$25 billion as chief investment strategist at the private- banking unit of KeyCorp in Cleveland, said by phone. “We’re stepping back a little from what occurred yesterday and we might be in for a period of consolidation.”

     The S&P 500 has gone 22 consecutive sessions without back- to-back gains, the longest since a 23-day stretch in June 2010. It never fell four days in a row in 2014.

     The dollar rebounded from its biggest drop versus the euro in six years. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the currency’s performance against 10 major peers, gained 1.3 percent, halting a three-day drop.                          

     The S&P 500 climbed 1.2 percent yesterday after the Fed said data suggest economic growth has moderated. The central bank said higher interest rates in April are unlikely and it won’t tighten until it is “reasonably confident” inflation will return to its target and the labor market improves further.

     While the Fed dropped an assurance it will be “patient” in raising rates, the word’s removal doesn’t mean it will be impatient, Chair Janet Yellen said in a press conference.

     The U.S. benchmark gauge had rebounded 2.9 percent through Wednesday from a low on March 11. It fell 3.6 percent in the seven sessions following a record on March 2 amid concern a surging U.S. dollar will hurt corporate earnings and as oil slid more than 12 percent.

     “We had a big rally yesterday and there’s a tiny bit of profit-taking here,” Andrew Wilkinson, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut, said by phone.                      

     The S&P 500 is 1.3 percent from its all-time high, while the Dow is about 1.8 percent below its record set March 2. The Russell 2000 Index is at a record, and the Nasdaq Composite Index sits 1.1 percent below its highest-ever level in March 2000.

     Apple joined the Dow today with the fifth highest weighting in the index at 4.7 percent. The company accounts for 15 percent of the Nasdaq 100 Index and 4 percent of the S&P 500.

     While Apple enters the average, it’s Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that will see its influence on the 118-year-old gauge solidified, garnering the biggest weighting after a stock split this week by Visa Inc.

     With Goldman Sachs primed to become the biggest piece of the Dow, earnings for banks in the S&P 500 are forecast to decline in each of the next two quarters. They will see profit contract 0.7 percent in the first quarter, followed by a 2.9 percent decrease in the second quarter, strategist data compiled by Bloomberg show.

      Jobless claims rose by 1,000 to 291,000 in the seven days ended March 14, from a revised 290,000 in the prior period, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of 51 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 293,000.

     Philadelphia Fed’s factory index for March declined more than economists forecast. A Conference Board index of leading indicators, a measure of the outlook for the next three to six months, climbed 0.2 percent in February, following a similar rise in January.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 0.7 percent to 14.07. The gauge, know as the VIX, is down 12 percent this week, on track for its biggest weekly decline in a month.

     Nine of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 declined Thursday. Energy shares dropped 1.7 percent as oil futures slid as much as 4.3 percent. Caterpillar Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. fell at least 1.5 percent, leading the Dow lower.

     Raw-material and financials shares sank more than 0.9 percent. Steelmaker Nucor Corp. tumbled 6.4 percent after it cut its first-quarter earnings forecast, and blamed a surge in foreign imports for a drop in prices. Allegheny Technologies Inc. and miner Freeport-McMoran Inc. slid more than 3.2 percent.

     Regions Financial Corp., Prudential Financial Inc. and Citigroup fell at least 1.9 percent to pace a drop in S&P 500 financial companies.

     Health-care stocks advanced 0.5 percent to a record as Cerner Corp. climbed 3 percent. Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst Matthew Gillmor upgraded the shares to outperform, the equivalent of buy, and raised his price target to $77. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index surged 1.9 percent, also reaching an all-time high.

     Williams-Sonoma Inc. dropped 1.9 percent. The San Francisco-based seller of cookware and home furnishings reported fourth-quarter sales that fell short of analysts’ estimates and forecast lower-than-expected earnings per share for its upcoming fiscal year.

     Facebook added 2.3 percent to a record after the social- networking company will give users the ability to send money to friends through its Messenger application. The feature will help Facebook keep up with the many other social apps that let friends exchange funds, including Venmo, Snapchat and EBay Inc.’s PayPal.

     Wynn Resorts Ltd. jumped 5.9 percent. Brean Capital LLC analyst Bryan Maher assigned a buy rating to the casino operator with a target price of $174, 42 percent above Wynn’s closing price yesterday. Shares have plunged 15 percent this year.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Those who are focused on the objects of the senses, become attached to those objects.

From attachment comes desire; and from desire comes anger; from anger comes confusion of mind;

from confusion of mind comes loss of memory; from loss of memory comes loss of intelligence;

and from loss of intelligence comes destruction.

The Bhagavad Gita

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Work is not always required.  There is such a thing as sacred idleness.

                                                     -George MacDonald, 1824-1905

 

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

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 smile for you – courtesy of one of my clients:

Why Men Don’t Write Advice Columns… 

Dear Walter,

I hope you can help me here. The other day, I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn’t driven more than a mile down the road when the engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband’s help. When I got home I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was in our bedroom with the neighbors daughter. I am 32, my husband is 34, and the neighbors daughter is 22. We have been married for ten years.

When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that they had been having an affair for the past six months. I told him to stop or I would leave him. He was let go from his job six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. He won’t go to counselling and I’m afraid I can’t get through to him anymore.

Can you please help?

Sincerely, Sheila

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

Dear Sheila:

A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the vacuum pipes and hoses on the intake manifold and also check all grounding wires. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the injectors.

I hope this helps,
Walter

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The aurora borealis, or the northern lights, over Derwent water near Keswick, England, Wednesday. The northern lights are the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun. Owen Humphreys/AP

A woman works in the mustard fields of Khokana in Lalitpur, Nepal on Wednesday. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

Market Closes for March 18^th, 2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18076.19	+227.11
		+1.27%
S&P 500	2099.50	+25.22   +1.22%
NASDAQ	4982.828	+45.394   +0.92%
TSX	14962.24	+63.71
		+0.43%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19544.48	+107.48
		+0.55%
HANG SENG	24120.08	+218.59
		+0.91%
SENSEX	28622.12	-114.26
		-0.40%
FTSE 100	6945.20	+107.59
		+1.57%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.321	1.417
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.971	2.049
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.9199	2.0524
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5104	2.6057

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.79434	0.78192
US $	1.25890	1.27890
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.36416	0.73305
US $	1.08361	0.92284

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1147.25	1150.75
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	44.66	43.46

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a third day, erasing an earlier loss as gold and oil surged after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated interest rates will rise slower than they previously estimated.

     Athabasca Oil Corp. jumped 8.8 percent as energy shares rallied. Torex Gold Resources Inc. surged 8.5 percent as gold climbed the most since January. First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp. retreated more than 2.1 percent as base metals slipped. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. dropped 1.2 percent as suppliers of the fertilizer struggled to secure a pricing deal with China.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 63.71 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,962.24 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, erasing an earlier loss of as much as 0.5 percent before the Fed decision. The gauge has advanced 2.3 percent in 2015.

     Four of 10 industries in the benchmark equity gauge advanced, led by a 2.1 percent rally in energy shares. Trading volume was 2 percent below the 30-day average.

     Stocks surged as investors saw the Fed statement as doing little to speed up the schedule for higher interest rates. Officials said they’d wait for confidence that economic growth is pushing up prices while at the same time noting that growth has moderated.

     The policy statement sent the dollar lower, which led to a rally in crude. West Texas Intermediate crude rebounded 2.8 percent to $44.66 a barrel in New York, rising for the first time in seven days, after the Fed decision. Earlier, the price plunged to as low as $42.03, the lowest level in six years, after U.S. stockpiles rose.

     Athabasca Oil surged 8.8 percent. Energy producers account for about 21 percent of the S&P/TSX.

US

By Jeremy Herron

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rallied with Treasuries, while the dollar tumbled after the Federal Reserve said data suggest economic growth has moderated and officials indicated interest rates will rise at a slower pace than previously estimated. Crude oil rebounded and gold jumped.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index surged 1.2 percent to a two-week high by 4 p.m. in New York, erasing an earlier drop of 0.6 percent. The Russell 2000 Index of small-cap companies jumped to a record, while the Nasdaq Composite Index briefly breached 5,000 points. Two-year Treasury yields slid the most in six years and 10-year rates tumbled 13 basis points. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index sank the most since 2009. U.S. oil snapped its longest slump since July, adding 2.8 percent to $44.66 a barrel, while gold advanced the most since January.

     Stocks jumped as investors viewed the Fed statement as doing little to speed up the schedule for raising U.S. interest rates. Officials said they’d wait for confidence that economic growth is pushing up prices while at the same time noting that expansion has moderated. Fed officials also lowered their estimate for where the federal funds rate will be by end-2015 to 0.625 percent, versus a December forecast of 1.125 percent.

     “There’s not enough time between now and June to say inflation expectations have bottomed out, which probably pushes you out to September,” John Canally, chief economic strategist at LPL Financial Corp., which oversees $475.1 billion, said by phone. “The statement about the economy softening a bit raises the market’s awareness that the economy is under-performing where the Fed wants it to be, which pushes them out.”

     The central bank said a rate rise in April is unlikely and it won’t tighten policy until it is “reasonably confident” inflation will return to its target and the labor market improves further.                          

     Fed-funds futures trading showed a 40 percent chance the central bank will raise its benchmark rate to at least 0.5 percent by September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Prior to Wednesday’s policy statement, the odds were 54 percent.

     While the Fed dropped an assurance that it will be “patient” in raising interest rates, Chair Janet Yellen said it doesn’t mean the central bank will be impatient. She also said the central bank is likely to remain “highly accommodative” even after its first rate hike.

     “What was unexpected is that their expectations for growth in the economy came down, as did their expectation for inflation,” Kevin Caron, a market strategist and portfolio manager who helps oversee $170 billion at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Florham Park, New Jersey, said by phone. “Consequently, even though they removed the patient language, they’re also telling the market through these reduced expectations that the path for interest-rates increases is going to be relatively shallow.”

     Yellen is preparing for an exit from the most aggressive easing in the Fed’s 100-year history. The central bank is trying to reconcile a strong labor market with falling inflation as it moves closer to lifting borrowing costs this year.

     The S&P 500 has more than tripled since its bear-market low in March 2009, propelled higher by unprecedented central-bank monetary stimulus and a rise in corporate profits.

     “An increase in the target range for the federal funds rate remains unlikely at the April” meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement Wednesday in Washington. The panel said it will be appropriate to tighten “when it has seen further improvement in the labor market and is reasonably confident that inflation will move back to its 2 percent objective over the medium term.”

     Officials added the phrase “patient” in their December statement, removing a reference to “considerable time” in describing how the central bank plans to normalize its monetary stance. Yellen has said the promise to be “patient” means the FOMC would probably wait at least two meetings before raising rates.

     The Fed must contend with the effects of a higher dollar. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which measures the U.S. currency against 10 leading peers, had been trading near the highest level in data going back to 2004.

     A stronger currency can limit the pace of expansion by making U.S. exports more expensive, and it threatens to further restrain inflation, which has lagged behind the Fed’s goal for 33 straight months.

     The dollar index has gained 20 percent in the past year through Tuesday and is up more than 4 percent since the Fed last met on Jan. 28, amid faster growth in the U.S. relative to other economies and expectations for rate increases this year.                         

     The S&P 500 now sits 0.9 percent below its March 2 record after falling as much as 3.6 percent from that level on concern that the stronger dollar will hurt corporate profits. The Nasdaq Composite has jumped 2.7 percent since March 11 to close 1.3 percent below its record from the dot-com era.

     All 10 of the main S&P 500 groups advanced at least 0.5 percent on Wednesday, paced by a 2.9 percent jump in energy producers. Transocean Ltd. rallied 8.8 percent and Denbury Resources Inc. surged 7.6 percent.

     Oracle Corp. rose 3 percent after boosting its dividend by 25 percent. The software maker reported fiscal third-quarter sales that missed analysts’ estimates, hurt by the strength of the dollar and weak corporate demand for cloud software.

     FedEx Corp. dropped 1.4 percent after it became the latest multinational company to say the currency will cut into full- year profit. The operator of the world’s largest cargo airline narrowed its full-year profit forecast.

     West Texas Intermediate slid to as low as $42.03 a barrel earlier in the day, after data showed U.S. crude stockpiles climbed to another 30-year high. Brent oil gained more than 4 percent to settle at $55.91 a barrel in London.

     Gold for immediate delivery climbed 1.6 percent to $1,167.58 an ounce in New York, its biggest one-day increase since Jan. 30.

     Through March 17, gold prices were down almost 3 percent in 2015 on concern that U.S. rates would be increased, cutting the appeal of the metal, which generally offers returns through price gains. The benchmark rate has been near zero since 2008.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Free yourself from anger and desire, which are the causes of sin and conflict,

and thereby make yourself whole.  This is the essence of yoga;

this is the means by which you come to know the soul, and thereby attain the highest spiritual state.

Learn to meditate.  Close your eyes; calm your breathing; and focus your attention

on the center of consciousness.  Thus you will master the senses, the emotions, and the intellect –

and thereby free yourself from desire and anger.

The Bhagavad Gita

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

                                                      -Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

 

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

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 in 1901, 71 paintings by the late Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh were shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris, drawing worldwide attention. Van Gogh, who was known for his post-impressionist style, had committed suicide 11 years earlier without any idea that his work would go on to receive such acclaim. In his lifetime, he sold just one painting.

 
AN IRISHMAN’S PHILOSOPHY

There are only two things to worry about.
Either you are well or you are sick.
If you are well,
Then there is nothing to worry about.
But if you are sick,
there are two things to worry about.
Either you will get well or you will die.
If you get well,
there is nothing to worry about.
If you die,
there are only two things to worry about.
Either you will go to heaven or hell.
If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.
But if you go to hell,
you’ll be so damn busy shaking hands with friends
you won’t have time to worry!

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Smoke trails in the colors of the Italian national flag are released by The ‘Frecce Tricolori’ Italian Air Force acrobatic squad as they flew over Rome, Tuesday, to mark the 154th anniversary of the Italian Unification in 1861. Gregorio Borgia/AP

With the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial in the background, the fountain on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, is dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day, Tuesday, prior to President Barack Obama’s motorcade taking the president to Capitol Hill for a ‘Friends of Ireland’ luncheon. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Market Closes for March 17^th, 2015     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17849.08	-128.34
		-0.71%
S&P 500	2074.20	-6.99   -0.34%
NASDAQ	4937.434	+7.926   +0.16%
TSX	14898.53	+35.77
		+0.24%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	19437.00	+190.94
		+0.99%
HANG SENG	23901.49	-48.06
		-0.20%
SENSEX	28736.38	+298.67
		+1.05%
FTSE 100	6837.61	+33.53
		+0.49%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.417	1.437
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.049	2.074
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.0524	2.0735
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.6057	2.6488

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78192	0.78276
US $	1.27890	1.27754
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.35473	0.73816
US $	1.05929	0.94402

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1150.75	1150.75
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	43.46	43.88

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a second day after erasing earlier declines loss as energy producers rallied with producers of essential consumer items.

     Athabasca Oil Corp. jumped 8.4 percent to lead gains among oil and gas producers. Toronto-Dominion Bank and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. paced advances among financial firms, while Bank of Montreal dropped 0.7 percent after lowering the interest rate for one of its mortgages. Chartwell Retirement Residences climbed 1 percent after agreeing to sell assets to Brookdale Senior Living Inc. and HCP Inc. for $849 million.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 35.77 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,898.53 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, erasing an earlier loss of as much as 0.9 percent. The gauge has advanced 1.8 percent in 2015.

     Six of the 10 main industries in the benchmark rose on trading volume 12 percent lower than the 30-day average. Energy producers paced gains, with a 1.5 percent advance. The group accounts for about 21 percent of the S&P/TSX by weighting.

     Couche-Tard rose 2.4 percent. The company agreed to acquire certain retail and commercial operations from A/S Dansk Shell in Denmark for an undisclosed amount, expanding its presence in Europe. Couche-Tard also reported third-quarter profit and revenue that fell short of analysts’ projections as consolidated margins narrowed.

     Enbridge Inc. rallied 2.89 percent and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. climbed 1.4 percent. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 42 cents to settle at $43.46 a barrel in New York, after earlier falling to as low as $42.63 ahead of a government report Wednesday forecast to show U.S. inventories extended a record high.

     Policy makers with the Fed began a two-day meeting with Chair Janet Yellen to hold a press conference after the rate announcement on Wednesday. Recent economic data from factory output to consumer sentiment unexpectedly fell, suggesting the Fed may not be in a rush to raise rates.

     Data Tuesday showed U.S. housing starts plunged 17 percent in February, the most since February 2011, to an 897,000 annualized rate after January’s revised 1.08 million pace due largely to bad winter weather. Building permits increased, suggesting the slowdown is temporary.

US

By Callie Bost

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks retreated from the biggest rally in more than a month as commodity and consumer shares slumped before the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision.

     Raw-material companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 1.2 percent. Caterpillar Inc. and DuPont Co. retreated more than 1.9 percent, while consumer staples lost 0.7 percent.

     The S&P 500 dropped 0.3 percent to 2,074.28 at 4 p.m. in New York, after earlier falling as much as 0.8 percent. The gauge rose 1.3 percent on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 128.34 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,849.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2 percent, boosted by Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. About 6.1 billion shares changed hands on U.S.exchanges, 10 percent below the three-month average.

     “Markets have had big daily swings recently, but they haven’t gone anywhere,” Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Milwaukee-based RW Baird & Co., which oversees $110 billion, said by phone. “This is simply because of the uncertainty surrounding interest rates in the U.S. and the state of the U.S. economy.”

     The S&P 500 has lost 2 percent from its March 2 record as concerns mounted that the surging dollar will hurt corporate earnings. Fed officials will assess the economy and debate the timing of the first interest-rate increase since 2006. The Fed may remove wording describing its stance to raising rates as “patient.”

     Speculation that a strengthening economy is pushing the central bank closer to a rate increase has weighed on U.S. equities, making them among the worst-performing developed markets this year. Fed stimulus helped spur a six-year bull market that made the S&P 500 more than triple since a low in in 2009.

     Beginning home construction plunged in February on colder- than-usual temperatures and snowstorms in parts of the U.S., while an increase in building permits indicated the drop may prove temporary.

     Housing starts slumped 17 percent, the most since February 2011, to an 897,000 annualized rate after January’s revised 1.08 million pace, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday in Washington. The median estimate of 80 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 1.04 million. Ground-breaking in the Northeast plummeted by the most on record.

     Investors are weighing whether weaker than-expected U.S. economic data could temper the outlook for higher rates. The Bloomberg ECO U.S. Surprise Index, which measures whether data beat or missed forecasts, dropped to the lowest level since 2009.                        

     Nine of the 10 main groups in the S&P 500 declined, with raw-material companies and consumer staples losing more than 0.7 percent.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 0.3 percent to 15.66. The gauge of S&P 500 options prices posted its second consecutive weekly gain March 13.

     Chemical companies DuPont and LyondellBasell Industries NV fell at least 3 percent, leading the materials group 1.2 percent lower. DuPont sank 3.1 percent after a 4.3 percent fall Monday, its worst two-day decline since October 2012.

     Macerich Co. slumped 3.5 percent, the most since June 2013, after it rejected an unsolicited takeover bid of more than $20 billion from Simon Property Group Inc., saying it substantially undervalues the mall owner.

     Leucadia National Corp. sank 2.7 percent, leading financial companies lower after Jefferies Group, an investment bank owned by Leucadia, said fixed-income revenue dropped 56 percent to $126 million in the first quarter amid fewer high-yield bond offerings.

     Beverage companies weighed on consumer staples, as Molson Coors Brewing Co., Coca-Cola Enterprises and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. declined more than 1.5 percent.

     Energy shares slid 0.5 percent, after an earlier decline of more than 1 percent. Oil briefly erased a drop of almost 3 percent after reaching a six-year low. Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. and Marathon Oil Corp. fell more than 1.7 percent.

     Weight Watchers International Inc. slipped 2 percent, paring an earlier drop of more than 10 percent, after Credit Suisse Group AG cut the shares to underperform, and said product and marketing changes rolled out in January were less effective than expected.

     American Airlines Group Inc. added 6.9 percent after Standard & Poor’s said it will add the carrier to the S&P 500, effective after the close of trading on Friday.

     Apple climbed 1.7 percent after a person with knowledge of the matter said it plans to start accepting non-Apple devices as trade-ins, as the company seeks to extend market-share gains against smartphones based on Google Inc.’s Android software.

     With almost all members of the S&P 500 having reported fourth-quarter earnings, 74 percent have exceeded profit estimates while 56 percent surpassed sales projections.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

We are always comparing what we are with what we should be.

This measuring ourselves all the time against something or someone

is one of the primary causes of conflict. Now why is there any comparison at all?

If you do not compare yourself with another

you will be what you really are.

Krishnamurti

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

May you live a long life full of gladness and health.

                                                Irish Blessing

 

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7