May 2015 – Page 3 – Carolann Steinhoff

May 5, 2015

April 30, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Tonight is known as Beltane , Wicca or Witch’s Night in Europe: It began as an ancient Celtic (Scottish Gaelic bealtainn) festival whereupon fires were lit on hill tops, and cattle were driven between the flames. A person born “between the Beltanes”, i.e., in the week beginning on May Day, is said to have power and influence over all living things. At the height of spring Beltane begins, celebrating all that is powerful and sensual in nature. Herbs make potent curs; hawthorn flowers are everywhere. It is the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice; lovers adorn each other with ribbons hanging from the Maypole.

We were there last night when the dark drew down:
We set the bonfires leaping.
Then we vanished in the heather
and we couldn’t be found until
the dawn came creeping.

-Celtic rock group Annwn

Easter celebrations borrow from the pre-Christian, pagan Beltane festival. The ancient Celts saw joy and life as one with suffering, death and rebirth. So it is in the Easter tradition that Mary, the mother, watches her son suffer and die. Then he is sealed in a cave, for the way of resurrection lies in deepest earth. Mary Magdalene is the first to find him risen, for Christ is also the lover, and only with the beloved can new life be sown.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Horses from a circus cavort on a meadow covered with dandelions in Aukrug, northern Germany, Thursday. Carsten Rehder/dpa/AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel feeds a lemur during her visit to the bird park in Marlow, northeastern Germany, Thursday. Merkel is scheduled to open the enclosure for penguins in the bird park. Stefan Sauer/dpa/AP

Market Closes for April 30^th, 2015

Market

Index

Close

Change

Dow

Jones

17840.78

-194.75

-1.08%

S&P 500

2082.65

-24.20

-1.15%

NASDAQ

4941.426

-82.218

-1.64%

TSX

15241.79

-105.55

-0.69%

International Markets

Market

Index

Close

Change

NIKKEI

19520.01

-538.94

-2.69%

HANG

SENG

28133.00

-267.34

-0.94%

SENSEX

27011.31

-214.62

-0.79%

FTSE 100

6960.63

+14.35

+0.21%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.589	1.587
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.183	2.191
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.0388	2.0458
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7475	2.7587

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.82916	0.83222
US $	1.20604	1.20161

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.35337	0.73889
US $	1.12216	0.89113

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1180.25	1209.00

Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	59.63	58.58

In most admired companies key priorities are teamwork, customer focus, fair treatment of employees, initiative, and innovation. In average companies the top priorities are minimizing risk, respecting the chain of command, supporting the boss, and making budget. –Bruce Pfau, Fortune.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Oliver Renick

(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in more than a month, paring its April gain, as data showed the economy stalled in February and falling gold prices overshadowed a rally in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.

Raw-materials companies lost 1.4 percent. Pretium Resources Inc. and Goldcorp Inc. slid more than 5.1 percent as gold prices tumbled. Valeant jumped 2.1 percent, extending a rally to 7 percent over three days.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 122.82 points, or 0.8 percent, to 15,224.52 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, ending the month with an advance of 2.2 percent. The benchmark Canadian gauge added 1.9 percent in the first quarter despite a decline of 2.2 percent in March.

Canada’s gross domestic product was unchanged in February, compared with economists’ forecast for a contraction, as a plunge in oil rigging and drilling was offset by gains in consumer spending.

Output remained at an annualized C$1.65 trillion ($1.37 trillion), Statistics Canada said Thursday in Ottawa, while the median forecast in a Bloomberg economist survey was for a 0.1 percent contraction.

Pretium lost 5.1 percent as gold erased its gains for the year. Goldcorp lost 6.2 percent after reporting first-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates.

ARC Resources Ltd. declined 2.3 percent, pacing a fourth loss in five days for energy shares. The group gained 7 percent in April,its biggest advance since 2011, as oil rallied 25 percent.

Nine of 10 industries in the benchmark gauge retreated today, led by consumer-staples companies. Volume was 24 percent above the 30-day average for this time of day.

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. added 2.3 percent as the food manufacturer reported first-quarter revenue that topped estimates.

By Jennifer Kaplan and Joseph Ciolli

(Bloomberg) — A selloff in technology and small-cap shares sent the Russell 2000 Index toward its worst week since October and pared a monthly gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Apple Inc. lost 2.7 percent after reports it found a defect in its new watch. Yelp Inc. plunged 23 percent as its earnings and outlook disappointed investors, and Google Inc. fell 2.3 percent. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index dropped 3.1 percent. Energy companies pared their biggest monthly gain in more than a year. LinkedIn Corp. dropped 23 percent in late trading as its second-quarter forecast missed estimates.

The S&P 500 declined 1 percent to 2,085.51 at 4 p.m. in New York, below the index’s average price for the past 50 days. The Russell 2000 Index slumped 2.2 percent, its biggest drop in more than a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 195.01 points, or 1.1 percent, to 17,840.52, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.6 percent. About 8.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 28 percent above the three-month average.

“The weakness is building on itself, and it’s being led by sectors like biotech, which are bleeding over into the broader market,” said Robert Pavlik, who helps oversee $9 billion as chief investment strategist at Boston Private Wealth. “There’s pressure on Apple. After the big run we’ve been having in the overall market, we’re getting a setback here. A pullback in a market seeing a lot of volatility is going to happen from time to time.”

Data today showed that consumer spending in March posted the the biggest increase since November, while February’s gain was larger than previously estimated. Incomes were little changed reflecting a drop in dividend payments. A separate report showed applications for U.S. jobless benefits declined last week to the lowest level in 15 years.

The S&P 500 has gained 0.9 percent in April after a 1.7 percent decline in March. The advance has been driven by a 6.6 percent rally among energy companies as oil prices had their best monthly increase since May 2009. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.8 percent this month, and briefly erased its dot-com- era decline after 15 years.

Small-cap stocks, meanwhile, have underperformed with the Russell 2000 Index down 2.6 percent in April. The gauge has declined in four of the last five days, dropping 4 percent over the stretch. Energy companies are the only one of the Russell’s nine main groups with a monthly gain, up almost 12 percent. Consumer staples lagged the most, down 5.9 percent.

Gradually, investors are unwinding bets on smaller companies that they had favored on grounds that their domestic focus would insulate them from the effects of a rallying dollar. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index saw its biggest monthly retreat since 2011.

Of the S&P 500 members that have already released earnings results this season, 74 percent beat profit projections and 47 percent topped sales estimates.

Analysts have tempered their predictions for an earnings slump, now projecting a first-quarter drop of 2.9 percent, compared with April 10 calls for a 5.6 percent decline.

All of the S&P 500’s 10 main groups fell Thursday, led by technology and health-care companies. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index climbed 8.7 percent to 14.55. The gauge, known as the VIX, is on track for its biggest weekly gain since January.

Apple slid 2.7 percent, down for a third consecutive day, after the company was said to have found a defect in a key component of its watch during production, forcing it to limit supply of the new device, the Wall Street Journal reported.

LinkedIn plunged 23 percent at 4:55 p.m. After the market closed, the company forecast revenue that missed analysts’ estimates, citing the strong dollar and slower-than-expected growth.

Salesforce.com Inc. lost 2.5 percent, following a nearly 12 percent jump on Wednesday to an all-time high after a report that the company is working with financial advisers to help field takeover offers. Autodesk Inc. declined 4.6 percent after an analyst downgrade.

Yelp slumped 23 percent, its biggest drop since going public three years ago, after reporting first-quarter sales and profit that missed analysts’ estimates. Its second-quarter sales outlook was also below estimates.

Health-care companies in the benchmark index retreated for the fourth time in five days. Varian Medical Systems Inc. and orthopedic device maker Zimmer Holdings Inc. lost at least 4.8 percent after lowering their profit outlooks.

Biogen Inc. and Celgene Corp. slipped more than 2.6 percent as the Nasdaq Biotech index dropped 3.3 percent amid a five-day losing streak, its longest in more than two years. Biogen is also the worst-performing stock in April among the S&P 500’s health-care group, losing 11 percent.

Harman International Industries Inc. fell 7 percent, its biggest slide in more than two years, after the maker of Harman Kardon and JBL audio equipment posted quarterly profit and sales that trailed analysts’ estimates and cut its full-year earnings forecast.

Rockwell Automation Inc. advanced 5.6 percent, its biggest gain since 2012, after earnings were better than analysts’ predictions.

Equinix Inc. rose 4.5 percent to a record after reporting earnings yesterday that beat analysts estimates. The information technology company also raised its 2015 revenue forecast.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

We are trying to understand violence as a fact, not as an idea,

as a fact which exists in the human being, and the human being is myself.

I must be in a state of mind that demands to see this thing right to the end

and at no point stops and says I will go no further.

Now it must be obvious to me that I am a violent human being…

Krishnamurti

As ever,

Carolann

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads

armed with nothing but their own vision.

-Ayn Rand, 1905-1982, The Fountainhead, 1957.

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

May 5, 2015

April 29, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

April, from A Countrywoman’s Notes by Rosemary Verey:

A regular end-of-April expedition we look forward to going to going to see is the wild Pulsatilla vulgaris. There they are in their hundreds on a steep west-facing limestone bank, their blue heads hanging down, To get the best view of them you must walk across the hillside, always looking upward. The stems are only an inch or two long, which helps, which helps to camouflage the flowers. One year on our way home we suddenly saw a pair of hoopoes, presumably going to their summer breeding-ground. Their very distinctive crests make them easily recognizable. One quickly flew over the hedge into the adjoining field and the other kept immediately in front of our car for a matter of 100 yards or more as we drove slowly along; it was an afternoon to remember. The bank of pulsatillas is a site specially protected by the Gloucestershire Trust for Nature Conservation. Obviously the plants must not be dug up or picked and the owner of the farm has agreed to keep grazing animals off the site in early spring to allow enough time for the full development of the flowers and seed dispersal. The Trust does valuable work, with 50 nature reserves and a network of protected sites. It is also very active in the field of education, with projects for adults and to encourage schoolchildren to become interested in the world about them.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Bluebells bloom in the Hallerbos in Halle, Belgium, Wednesday. Bluebells grow in ancient woodlands where they may dominate the understorey to produce carpets of violet–blue flowers. Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

Farmworkers are busy in a colorful field of tulips near Schwaneberg, Germany, Wednesday. Jens Wolf/dpa/AP

Market Closes for April 29^th, 2015

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18035.53	-74.61
		-0.41%
S&P 500	2106.85	-7.91 -0.37%

NASDAQ	5023.645	-31.777 -0.63%

TSX	15347.34	+1.27
		+0.01%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	20058.95	+75.63
		+0.38%
HANG SENG	28400.34	-42.41
		-0.15%
SENSEX	27225.93	-170.45
		-0.62%
FTSE 100	6946.28	-84.25
		-1.20%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.587	1.554
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.191	2.159
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.0458	1.9955
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7587	2.6937

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.83222	0.83122
US $	1.20161	1.20305

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.33621	0.74839
US $	1.11220	0.89912

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1209.00	1209.00

Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	58.58	57.06

Of a stock’s move, 31% can be attributed to the general stock market, 12% to the industry influence, 37% to the influence of other groupings, and the remaining 20% is peculiar to the one stock. –Benjamin F. King, Markets and Industry Factors in Stock Price Behavior, January 1966.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were little-changed for a second day as investors weighed earnings from Open Text Corp. to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and the possibility the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates.

Open Text plunged 6.3 percent as third-quarter sales were hampered by currency effects. Valeant rallied 3.7 percent after the drugmaker increased its earnings estimates for the year. Painted Pony Petroleum Ltd. climbed 6 percent as oil jumped to a four-month high after U.S. stockpiles fell.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 1.27 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 15,347.34 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, erasing an earlier loss of as much as 0.7 percent. The benchmark Canadian equity gauge climbed 1.99 points Tuesday and is up 3 percent in April.

Open Text sank 6.3 percent, as a sixth day of losses left it at an October low. Technology shares in the broader index slumped 2.2 percent as a group, as six of 10 industries retreated on trading volume 4 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Fed policy makers said they expect the U.S. economy to pick up after data earlier Wednesday showed growth ground to a virtual halt in the first quarter, suggesting the first rate increase since 2006 is still in play some time this year.

U.S. stocks slipped 0.4 percent, while the dollar pared declines and Treasuries retreated.

Canadian Energy Services & Technology Corp. jumped 7.4 percent and PrairieSky Royalty Ltd. rose 4.4 percent as energy stocks increased 0.2 percent. U.S. oil prices surged to a four- month high after stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma fell for the first time since November.

Bombardier Inc. climbed 2.1 percent. Chinese locomotive makers CSR Corp. and China CNR Corp. are considering an acquisition of a controlling stake in Bombardier’s train business, said a person familiar with the matter.

By Jennifer Kaplan and Lu Wang

(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined after the economy barely grew in the first quarter and investors weighed the timing for a possible interest-rate increase as the Federal Reserve said part of the weakness was transitory.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.4 percent to 2,106.85 at 4 p.m. in New York, after earlier falling as much as 0.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 74.61 points, or 0.4 percent, to 18,035.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index retreated 0.6 percent, and the Russell 2000 Index fell 1 percent. About 7.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 11 percent above the three-month average.

“It confirms people’s view that the Fed won’t raise interest rates in June – that’s certainly driven home today by GDP growth,” said Kristina Hooper, a U.S. investment strategist at Allianz Global Investors in New York. The firm oversees $499 billion. “But there is still some question mark because the Fed is blaming part of downturn in the first quarter on transitory factors.”

Fed officials have said they expect to raise rates this year for the first time since 2006 as the economy nears full employment, and that their decision will be guided by the latest data. They had said last month that they would be unlikely to raise rates at their April meeting.

A run of disappointing economic data has cast doubt on how quickly the Fed can meet its goals for full employment and stable prices.

“Economic growth slowed during the winter months, in part reflecting transitory factors,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement Wednesday. “The pace of job gains moderated,” it said, and “underutilization of labor resources was little changed.”

An earlier report showed growth almost ground to a halt in the first quarter, held back by severe winter weather and slumping business spending and exports.

Gross domestic product, the volume of all goods and services produced, rose at a 0.2 percent annualized rate after advancing 2.2 percent the prior quarter. The median forecast of 86 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 1 percent gain.

“If they had taken out the word ’transitory,’ you probably would have had the equity market turn positive,” said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial Inc., in Newark, New Jersey. Prudential oversees more than $1 trillion in assets. “Just having that in there shows the Fed does believe it was, in fact, transitory i.e. we are going to be pushing into a rebound soon.”

The S&P 500 has risen 1.9 percent this month, rebounding from a drop in March, after earnings from companies including Merck & Co. and Microsoft Corp. beat analysts’ estimates. About 74 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings this season have beaten analysts’ profit projections, while 48 percent topped sales estimates.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index climbed 7.9 percent, the most in two weeks, to 13.39. The gauge, known as the VIX, fell more than 11 percent last week.

Seven of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 declined, with health-care and consumer staples shares dropping 0.8 percent.

Humana Inc. slumped 7.2 percent, leading the losses among health-care stocks, after the company’s earnings trailed predictions. Cigna Corp. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. each lost more than 3.3 percent. Cigarette makers Reynolds American Inc. and Altria Group Inc. fell at least 2.9 percent, their biggest slide in almost two months, to pace the drop in consumer shares.

Airlines were among the worst performers in the session amid a jump in oil prices. A Bloomberg gauge of U.S. carriers fell 3.1 percent. Spirit Airlines Inc. retreated 9.3 percent, while American Airlines Group Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc. lost more than 2.5 percent.

An S&P measure on homebuilders slid 1.3 percent, near a three-month low, even as a report on pending sales of previously owned homes showed a pickup in activity. Toll Brothers Inc. and DR Horton Inc. declined at least 1.7 percent.

U.S. Steel Corp. sank 12 percent, its biggest drop since 2011, after reporting a surprise first-quarter loss and cutting its full-year earnings forecast after a flood of imports prompted the nation’s second-largest producer of the metal to idle capacity.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. lost 17 percent to its lowest level in 29 months after quarterly profit missed projections amid a sharp drop in betting in Macau, and the casino company cut its dividend by two-thirds.

Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. plunged 13 percent, the most in nine months and the biggest drag today on the Russell 2000, after higher chicken-wing costs squeezed profit in the first quarter.

Twitter Inc. slid 8.9 percent, after tumbling 18 percent Tuesday on the early release of its results. It’s the worst two- day drop since the micro-blogging site went public in Nov. 2013.

First-quarter revenue fell short of estimates and Twitter cut its sales forecast as the company struggles to attract more users and advertisers.

Energy companies rose 0.7 percent as oil gained after a government report showed crude inventories at the biggest U.S. oil hub fell for the first time in 21 weeks. Transocean Ltd. and Consol Energy Inc. paced the advance, rising at least 6.4 percent. Noble Corp and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. each climbed more than 2.7 percent.

Genworth Financial Inc. jumped 12 percent, the most in more than three years, after the company’s chief executive said he’s willing to sell the entire insurer, though he’ll continue with a plan to seek buyers for individual units.

Mondelez International Inc. increased 5.2 percent to a four-month high. The maker of Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers posted first-quarter profit and sales that exceeded analyst projections after cutting costs and raising product prices.

GoPro Inc. rallied 13 percent as results topped forecasts, helped in part by overseas sales that rose to about half of the company’s revenue.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. climbed 8.3 percent to an all-time high after saying it’s exploring steps to increase shareholder value and hired Lazard as an adviser.