November 2017 – Carolann Steinhoff

November 30, 2017

November 30, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: St. Andrew’s Day, Christian calendar.

Winston Churchill, statesman, b. 1874
Abbie Hoffman, activist, b. 1936
Mark Twain, writer, b. 1835.
On Nov. 30, 1995, President Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland.
Go to article »

Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough. -Mark Twain.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

An army dog stands up as retiring soldiers salute their guard post before retirement in Suqian, Jiangsu province, China.
CREDIT: REUTERS

Security guards at a Christmas market at Red Square in Moscow.

French president Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the inauguration ceremony of the solar energy power plant in Zaktubi, near Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Market Closes for November 30^th, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	24272.35	+331.67 +1.39%

S&P 500	2647.58	+21.51 +0.82%

NASDAQ	6873.973	+49.583 +0.73%

TSX	16067.48	+99.76
		+0.62%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22724.96	+127.76
		+0.57%
HANG SENG	29177.35	-446.48
		-1.51%
SENSEX	33149.35	-453.41
		-1.35%
FTSE 100*	7326.67	-66.89
		-0.90%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.889	1.881
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.230	2.234
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.4097	2.3864
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.8269	2.8229

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.77550	0.77736
US $	1.28949	1.28641

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.53429	0.65177
US $	1.18984	0.84045

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1280.20	1283.85

Oil
WTI Crude Future	57.40	57.30

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1988, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts wins the bidding war to do a leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco for more than $25 billion, setting the high-water mark for the LBO craze and junk-bond binge of the 1980s.
Number of the Day
1.28 trillion
The kilowatt hours of electricity generated by natural gas in the U.S. last year, supplanting coal as the top source of electricity in the country for the first time.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks gained as energy shares surged the most in a year, offsetting a decline in the financial sector.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 100 points or 0.6 percent to 16,067.48. Energy stocks jumped 2.6 percent, the biggest gain since Nov. 30, 2016, as OPEC and its allies agreed to extend production cuts to the end of 2018.
Industrials rose 1.7 percent, spurred by a sector-wide advance. New Flyer Industries Inc. gained 3.3 percent and Air Canada rose 3.2 percent.
Financials fell 0.3 percent as a drop in Toronto-Dominion Bank offset a gain in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Lundin Mining Corp. tumbled 16 percent, the most since 2011. At least five analysts downgraded it after its production outlook missed expectations
* Enbridge Inc. rose 6.3 percent as a share sale and lowered dividend-growth forecast eased funding concerns
* Toronto-Dominion Bank fell 2.4 percent, the most since April, after earnings disappointed investors, while Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce rose 2.9 percent, the most in 21 months, on strong results Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $17.10 discount to WTI
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.40 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold fell 0.7 percent to $1,273.20 an ounce, the lowest in four weeks
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.2 percent to C$1.2897 per U.S. dollar, the lowest since July
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield rose one basis point to 1.89 percent
US
By Brendan Walsh
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks posted record highs after John McCain backed the Senate tax bill and the biggest technology stocks rebounded from their worst selloff in more than a year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed past 24,000 after the statement of support from the Arizona Republican as the measure headed for a marathon debate, while the S&P 500 capped its longest monthly winning streak since 2007. Treasuries extended their slide, with the 10-year yield breaking above 2.4 percent. The euro and pound strengthened as Brexit negotiators moved closer to a divorce agreement.
An up-or-down vote on the Senate’s tax bill could happen before the end of this week. While McCain’s support helped bring the measure one step closer to passing, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said it “would be very difficult” for her to support the proposal in its current form. The party can only afford to lose two of its 52 members to pass the bill without Democratic support. Bob Corker of Tennessee, Jeff Flake of Arizona, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin are all seen as potential “no” votes.
Data showed U.S. consumer spending settled back in October to a still-decent pace after the biggest increase since 2009, as a post-storm surge in auto sales cooled. Incomes remained robust and inflation showed progress toward the Federal Reserve’s goal. Treasuries sank, driving the benchmark 10-year yield to the highest in a month.
Oil posted its longest streak of monthly gains since early 2016 after an OPEC-led coalition of major crude producers followed through on a long-awaited extension of supply cuts.
Here are some key events scheduled for the remainder of this week:
* Japan’s CPI may show a sharp divergence between headline and core inflation, Bloomberg Intelligence said ahead of the releases on Friday.
* In China, the private Caixin manufacturing PMI is due on Friday.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index rose 0.8 percent to a record at the close in New York.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.3 percent.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index dropped 0.9 percent.
* Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 0.6 percent to the highest in three weeks.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index dipped 1.9 percent, the most since May.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed.
* The euro increased 0.4 percent to $1.1898.
* The British pound rose 0.9 percent to $1.3523, the strongest in more than two months.
* The Japanese yen slipped 0.6 percent to 112.6 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose three basis points to 2.42 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield dipped two basis points to 0.37 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield fell one basis point to 1.33 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate was little changed at $57.31 a barrel.
* Gold declined 0.7 percent to $1,277.20 an ounce.
* Copper rose 0.1 percent to $3.0715 a pound.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The end to be sought is human happiness combined with full mental and moral growth.
This end can be achieved under decentralization.
Centralization as a system is inconsistent with a non-violent structure of society.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth
is putting on its shoes. -Mark Twain, 1835-1910

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

November 29, 2017

November 29, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
C.S. Lewis, author, b. 1878
Louisa May Alcott, author, b. 1832
1989: Czechoslovakia ends Communist rule.

Also on this day, in 1929, American explorer Richard Byrd and three companions make the first flight over the South Pole, flying from their base on the Ross Ice Shelf to the pole and back in 18 hours and 41 minutes.

The True Story Behind Turkey’s Ancient ‘Underwater Castle’
-By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | November 28, 2017
Last week, a story about a 3,000-year-old castle discovered beneath the waters of Lake Van, in Turkey, went viral. But what’s the real story behind this Atlantis-like discovery?
It turns out that the story is more complicated and mysterious than recent news reports suggest, Live Science found after speaking with several archaeologists as well as the leader of the photography team who discovered the castle.
Parts of the “castle,” a term that the discoverers use to describe it, likely date to the Middle Ages, which lasted from about A.D. 476 to 1450, and it may not be an entirely new discovery: Reports from surveys of the Lake Van area conducted in the 1950s and 1960s noted the existence of the structure. It’s not clear when the castle was washed underwater. [See Photos of the Remains of the Underwater Castle in Turkey]
For instance, some of those reports indicated that medieval castle builders at Lake Van actually reused ancient material dating back to about 1000 B.C. to create the castle walls. The reports also mention a wall that plunges into the lake that has inscriptions on it that discuss an ancient king named “Rusa” and his interactions with a god named “Haldi.”
What has really been found?
For the past 10 years, a team led by Tahsin Ceylan, an underwater photographer, has been exploring the waters beneath Lake Van, documenting natural features like microbialites (living, organic rock structures that are similar in some ways to coral) as well as archaeological sites, such as a Russian ship that dates to 1915.
In 2016, this team, which does not include an archaeologist, found a structure outside the harbor of Adilcevaz, a town in Turkey that has been inhabited for thousands of years. We “came across some sort of wall outside the harbor in one of our dives. Later [we] found out that it is a castle’s wall that starts within the harbor and continues outside,” Ceylan told Live Science. [Image Gallery: Stone Structure Hidden Under Sea of Galilee]
“The castle is approximately 1 kilometer [less than a mile] long and has a solid structure.”
The castle is made primarily of cut stones, Ceylan said, adding that the team had found a lion drawing on one of them, supporting the idea that Urartians — a people who flourished in Turkey about 3,000 years ago — may have built the structure. Lions were a popular motif among the people of Urartu.
Media reports suggested that an archaeologist was part of the team. “Our team of divers does not include an archaeologist — that is something the press added on their own,” Ceylan said. “In our statement that we’ve sent to the press, we indicated that [given] the fact it was built with cut stones and one of the stones has a lion figure carved on it, the castle might belong to [the] Urartian civilization that lived here 3,200 years ago. But we specifically stated that archaeologists are the sole deciders on the matter. But the press made their own assumptions from this statement,” Ceylan said.
Archaeologists weigh in
The archaeologists that Live Science talked to thought that many of the remains the team found likely date to the Middle Ages. The underwater remains seem to consist of “Medieval castle walls and probably an Urartian site,” said Geoffrey Summers, an archaeological research associate at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. The remains have been “known for a long time” from survey reports, Summers said.
Summers looked at a high-resolution image of the lion drawing, saying he thinks it looks more medieval than something from the Urartian kingdom.
Kemalettin Köroğlu, an archaeology professor at Marmara Üniversitesi, agreed that much of the underwater remains are actually medieval. He noted that some of the images show masonry between the ashlar wall stones (which are a type of stone that is square cut). “The walls [seem] medieval or late antique period rather than Urartu. Urartian never used any material between ashlar wall stones to connect each other,” Köroğlu said.
It’s possible that some of the 3,000-year-old Urartian remains seen in the photos were actually reused by castle builders during the Middle Ages, said Paul Zimansky, a history professor at Stony Brook University in New York. He also said that he needs to conduct more research.
Earlier explorers
A vast collection of surveys and documents published by archaeologists who surveyed the Lake Van area in the 1950s and 1960s includes mentions of both Urartu and medieval remains in the area.
One intriguing paper, by archaeologists Charles Allen Burney and G.R.J. Lawson, published in 1958 in the journal Anatolian Studies, discusses a “medieval castle at Adilcevaz, on the north shore of Lake Van,” whose builders had reused blocks that had been constructed by the Urartians 3,000 years ago.
Another intriguing report published in 1959 in the journal Anatolian Studies by a scholar named P. Hulin reports on a “lofty wall of later than Urartian times” that runs “into the lake.” While investigating the wall, Hulin apparently discovered inscriptions dating back about 2,700 years that mention an Urartian king named Rusa. The inscriptions are fragmentary, and Hulin could make out only a small amount of the writing. The inscriptions discuss Rusa, who appears to be interacting with Haldi, an Urartian god.
The archaeologists and divers that Live Science spoke to all agree that more research is needed to determine what exactly these underwater remains consist of. “The area needs to be thoroughly researched by [an] archaeologist,” Ceylan said. “For the time being, there is no team here to conduct dives and researches on the castle.”
Originally published on Live Science.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A shaman implores the spirits on the eve of the start of the 1^st edition of the Marathon des Sables Peru in Cahuachi, the Ica desert. Runners compete in the race of approximately 250km dividend into 6 stages in self-sufficiency conditions.
CREDIT: JEAN PHILLIPE KSIAZEK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The new spokeless Bailang River Bridge Ferris Wheel in Weifang, Shandong Province of China. The wheel measures 145 metres tall, ten metres taller than the London Eye.

Organ Tuner Chris Wintle at work in the organ loft of Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, as he tunes one of over 3000 pipes in the loft which make up the organ in time for the Christmas services.
Market Closes for November 29^th, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23940.68	+103.97 +0.44%

S&P 500	2626.07	-0.97 -0.04%

NASDAQ	6824.391	-87.967 -1.27%

TSX	15967.72	-61.93
		-0.39%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22597.20	+110.96
		+0.49%
HANG SENG	29623.83	-57.02
		-0.19%
SENSEX	33602.76	-15.83
		-0.05%
FTSE 100*	7393.56	-67.09
		-0.90%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.881	1.840
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.234	2.203
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.3864	2.3259
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.8229	2.7577

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.77736	0.78053
US $	1.28641	1.28118

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.52463	0.65590
US $	1.18518	0.84375

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1283.85	1291.85

Oil
WTI Crude Future	57.30	57.99

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
20%
The S&P 500’s technology sector is on pace to post 20% earnings growth in the third quarter, far outpacing the broader index’s expected earnings growth rate of 6.4%.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to a two-week low as weaker commodity prices and a rotation out of the year’s best- performing sectors weighed on most indexes.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 62 points or 0.4 percent to 15,967.72. Technology shares tumbled 2.7 percent amid a broader global decline in tech stocks.
The materials index lost 1.3 percent as both precious and base metal prices fell. Guyana Goldfields Inc. tumbled 8.1 percent and Hudbay Minerals Inc. fell 4.9 percent.
Financials were among the few gainers, adding 0.4 percent as a record annual profit from Royal Bank of Canada boosted its shares 0.9 percent.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Restaurant Brands International Inc. fell 2.1 percent as the U.S. tax debate continued, weighing on companies with lower tax rates
* Dollarama Inc. lost 2.3 percent after a BMO downgrade, saying it sees no reason for recent gains
* Aurora Cannabis Inc. tumbled 14 percent after CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. adopted a shareholder rights plan
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil widened to a $17.25 discount to WTI after regulators said the Keystone pipeline will have to operate at a 20% pressure reduction
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.38 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold fell 1 percent to $1,282.10 an ounce, the lowest in more than a week.
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.4 percent to C$1.2863 per U.S. dollar, the lowest since Nov. 1
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield rose four basis points to 1.88 percent
US
By Robert Brand and Sarah Ponczek
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks gave up early gains as a selloff in technology shares from Apple Inc. to Amazon.com Inc. dragged down major indexes. Treasuries dropped after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen called economic growth “increasingly broad based.”
The Nasdaq 100 Index fell as much as 2.2 percent as signs of a rotation from the year’s leaders emerged anew. As tax legislation proceeded through the Senate, the FANG block of megacap tech shares that paced gains throughout the year fell the most in 22 months. All 15 members of the S&P 500 Semiconductor Index retreated, led by Micron Technology, Lam Research Corp. and Applied Materials Inc.
“The large tech companies already have low effective tax rates because they were gaming the system,” Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC, said by phone. “Any reform would have to close the loopholes, which obviously they’re trying to do, so they don’t benefit.”
Stocks started the day higher on speculation the Senate would pass cuts to corporate taxes, with banks pacing gains on bets that industry will benefit most. Yellen’s comments added to optimism that growth is poised to accelerate. The dollar fluctuated, while 10-year Treasury yields rose.
In testimony prepared for her appearance Wednesday before the congressional Joint Economic Committee, Yellen repeated that she anticipates the Fed will continue gradually raising interest rates and trimming its balance sheet. The Fed’s Beige Book economic report said the U.S. economy grew at a modest to moderate pace through mid-November as price pressures strengthened and the labor market tightened.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced with banks outperforming after Yellen’s proposed replacement, Jerome Powell, signaled that he won’t add to financial regulations. Retailers got a leg up after the strongest euro-zone confidence data since 2000 underscored the region’s economic resilience. Core European bonds fell and the euro gained as data showed German inflation accelerated in November.
In the U.K., gilts dropped and sterling jumped as investors brought forward their expectations for the next interest-rate increase by the Bank of England after Brexit negotiators agreed to an outline divorce deal. The FTSE 100 stock index fell the most in five weeks.
Elsewhere, oil declined before OPEC meets to decide on prolonging supply cuts past the end of March. Industrial metals extended a slide.
Here are some key events coming up this week:
* In China later this week, the official and Caixin manufacturing PMIs are expected to show mostly steady momentum.
* Japan industrial production is forecast to have rebounded in October, but CPI may show a sharp divergence between headline and core inflation, Bloomberg Intelligence said.
* OPEC meets in Vienna on Thursday.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 fell less than 0.05 percent as of 4:02 p.m. New York time, the biggest decline in a week.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.2 percent.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index sank 0.9 percent.
* Germany’s DAX Index gained less than 0.05 percent.
* The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 1.3 percent, the biggest decline in almost 15 weeks.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained less than 0.05 percent.
* The euro rose 0.1 percent to $1.1854.
* The British pound advanced 0.5 percent to $1.3412, the strongest in two months.
* The Japanese yen sank 0.3 percent to 111.86 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed five basis points to 2.38 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield gained five basis points to 0.39 percent, the highest in two weeks.
* Britain’s 10-year yield climbed nine basis points to 1.338 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.1 percent to $57.38 a barrel.
* Gold dipped 0.7 percent to $1,285.24 an ounce, the weakest in more than a week.
* Copper fell 0.7 percent to $6,760 a ton.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

It is quite proper to resist and attack a system but,
to resist and attack its author is tantamount to resisting and attacking oneself.
For we are all tarred with the same brush.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content.
-Louis L’Amour, 1908-1988

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

November 28, 2017

November 28, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

1962, Jon Stewart, comedian, b.

On Nov. 28, 1943, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II.
Go to article »

Also on this day in 1895, the first automobile race in U.S. history is held on a 54-mile course that runs from Chicago to Evanston and back. The winner finishes after averaging a speed of about 7 mph.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A general view shows a giant Christmas tree and the art deco glass dome in Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris.

Decorations are displayed at the Christmas market is Regensburg, Germany.

This picture shows Steve Tsai, an APP designer of Zihun, displaying his smart phone showing traditional Chinese characters during an interview in Taipei. Concerns in Taiwan are growing over the survival of the traditional Chinese characters used only in Taiwan and Hong Kong as the system of simplified characters created by China in the 1950s has been adopted by all other ethnic Chinese societies and become the predominant way of writing Chinese.
Market Closes for November 28^th, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23836.71	+255.93 +1.09%

S&P 500	2627.04	+25.62 +0.98%

NASDAQ	6912.539	+33.839 +0.49%

TSX	16029.64	-12.48
		-0.08%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22486.24	-9.75
		-0.04%
HANG SENG	29680.85	-5.34
		-0.02%
SENSEX	33618.59	-105.85
		-0.31%
FTSE 100*	7460.65	+76.75
		+1.04%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.840	1.867
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.203	2.225
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.3259	2.3330
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7577	2.7708

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78053	0.78700
US $	1.28118	1.27066

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.51796	0.65878
US $	1.18482	0.84401

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1291.85	1294.90

Oil
WTI Crude Future	57.99	58.11

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
$48 billion
SoftBank will offer to buy shares of Uber from existing stakeholders at price that values the company at $48 billion, a nearly 30% discount to its most recent valuation.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks declined a second day as Bank of Nova Scotia fell the most in seven months, weighing on financials.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 12 points or 0.1 percent to 16,029.64. Canada’s third-largest lender fell 2.1 percent after 4Q profit and revenue missed estimates on a slump in capital markets activity. The financial index lost 0.2 percent.
Consumer discretionary shares were the biggest gainers, adding 0.9 percent. Cineplex Inc. rose 3.7 percent amid reports of merger talks between two of its peers.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. added 0.8 percent after earlier gaining as much as 3.6 percent. Quarterly earnings beat the highest analyst estimate
* Home Capital Group Inc. rose 2 percent, shrugging off news that West Face Capital has provided a draft statement of claim alleging misrepresentation
* Stelco Holdings Inc. gained 1 percent. BMO initiated coverage with an outperform rating
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil narrowed to a $16.70 discount to WTI as TransCanada resumed service on its Keystone pipeline
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.40 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold was little changed at $1,294.90 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.4 percent to C$1.2821 per U.S. dollar, the lowest in more than a week
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield lost two basis points to 1.84 percent, the lowest in three months
US
By Randall Jensen
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose to records as corporate tax cuts inched closer to reality after passing another hurdle in the Senate. The dollar extended gains and Treasuries traded little changed.
The S&P 500 Index gained the most in more than two months as the Senate budget committee advanced the Republican tax bill. Lenders saw the largest rally since March after Federal Reserve chair nominee Jerome Powell signaled a lighter touch on financial regulations. Shrugging off a ballistic missile launch by North Korea, 10-year Treasury yields fluctuated near 2.33 percent and the dollar rose for a second day.
In commodities, copper slid the most in two weeks, while West Texas crude traded below $58 a barrel after touching the highest level in more than two years before OPEC and its allies meet this week.
Meanwhile, the Senate tax bill is headed for a marathon debate this week after the budget committee voted Tuesday along party lines to send the Republican plan to the floor. Republican holdouts, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, dropped their objections shortly before the vote.
“This week is about Senate republicans and the ability to get the wavering republican senators on board,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.
Earlier, Powell faced his Senate confirmation hearing in Washington, saying during testimony the case for a December rate hike “is coming together.” In a statement ahead of the meeting, the current member of the board of governors signaled broad support for how the Fed operates, regulates and guides the economy.
Elsewhere, sterling pared losses after a report said the U.K. and European Union reached an agreement-in-principle on settlement ahead of a meeting next week.
Here are some key events coming up this week:
* The U.S. Senate as soon as this week could debate and vote on tax-cut legislation.
* President Trump will meet with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders Tuesday to discuss a federal spending plan to prevent a partial shutdown and keep the government open after current funding expires Dec. 8.
* In China, the official and Caixin manufacturing PMIs are expected to show mostly steady momentum.
* Japan industrial production is forecast to have rebounded in October, but CPI may show a sharp divergence between headline and core inflation, Bloomberg Intelligence said.
* The second print of third-quarter U.S. GDP on Wednesday may be revised up thanks to consumer spending and inventory accumulation, Bloomberg Intelligence said. The core PCE deflator, the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, is due Thursday.
* OPEC meets in Vienna on Thursday.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index rose 1 percent to 2,627.04 as of 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Down Jones Industrial Average rose 257 points to 23,837, the biggest gain since Sept. 11.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.6 percent, the biggest advance in a week.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index climbed 0.2 percent.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2 percent.
* The euro fell 0.5 percent to $1.1845, the biggest drop in a week.
* The British pound rose 0.4 percent to $1.3365.
* The Japanese yen decreased 0.4 percent to 111.48 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 2.33 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield fell less than one basis point to 0.34 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 1.253 percent.
* Japan’s 10-year yield declined less than one basis point to 0.04 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3 percent to $57.91 a barrel.
* Gold dropped 0.1 percent to $1,293.09 an ounce.
* Copper declined 1.9 percent to $3.09 a pound, the lowest in more than a week.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers
and thus harm not only that being but with him the whole world.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
-Alan Kay, b. 1940

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

November 28, 2017

November 27, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Jimmy Hendrix, guitarist, b. 1942
Bruce Lee, actor, b. 1940

POINTS OF PROGRESS:
SWEDEN
The Scandinavian nation has opened a mall that sells only recycled and upcycled products. ReTuna, named after the town of Eskilstuna in which it’s located, allows customers to drop off unwanted goods for staff to restore and repair for resale. The mall also has a training college that teaches recycling, a restaurant, conference facilities, and a shop for local entrepreneurs and artisans to sell their items.
The World Economic Forum/Good News Network

INDIA
The South Asian giant plans to sell only electric cars by 2030. The ambitious plan has both an economic and an environmental aim. While it is part of the government’s broader push for a renewable energy revolution, the overhaul of the country’s auto industry is also expected to save India $60 billion on diesel and gas costs, as well as reduce carbon emissions by 37 percent by 2030. India, a signatory of the Paris climate agreement, is home to some of the world’s most polluted cities. Quart, CNN TECH.

BENIN
A 20-year forest restoration project in the African nation’s south is helping protect and revive endangered plants and monkeys. Professors from two Beninese universities worked with local assistants to restore tiny remnants of depleted forest that harbor 64% of all critically endangered red-bellied monkey. Science Daily
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Mount Agung’s eruption is seen between Balinese temple at Kubu sub-district in Karangasem Regency on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.

Years of the dragon: it took artist Jim Poolman, pictured, 12 years and more than 50,000 horseshoes to create this dragon sculpture after being told by the curator of The Sculpture Park, in Farnham, Surrey, that his original vision was not big enough.

A white bronze turkey is seen amongst Norfolk black turkeys hatched in June and raised free range for Christmas are seen ready for market on David McEvoy’s Turkey farm in Termonfeckin, Ireland.
Market Closes for November 27^th, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23580.78	+22.79 +0.10%

S&P 500	2601.42	-1.00 -0.04%

NASDAQ	6878.520	-10.641 -0.15%

TSX	16042.12	-65.97
		-0.41%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22495.99	-54.86
		-0.24%
HANG SENG	29686.19	-180.13
		-0.60%
SENSEX	33724.44	+45.20
		+0.13%
FTSE 100*	7383.90	-25.74
		-0.35%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.867	1.888
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.225	2.233
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.3330	2.3418
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7708	2.7638

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78331	0.78700
US $	1.27664	1.27066

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.51874	0.65844
US $	1.18964	0.84059

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1294.90	1290.50

Oil
WTI Crude Future	58.11	58.85

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1991, Congress passes legislation bailing out the savings and loan industry. The bill authorizes $25 billion for the bailout and up to $35 billion in new borrowings to finance the government’s purchase of bad loans.

Number of the Day
4%
The number of people visiting U.S. stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday fell 4% from last year, according to RetailNext Inc. Meanwhile, online sales increased 18% over that period.
Canada
By Carolina Wilson
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were less than 100 points shy of their closing record as energy stocks held back the benchmark Toronto index.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 66 points or 0.4 percent to 16,042.12 at the market close. Healthcare stocks were the biggest gainers, rising 0.5 percent.
The energy sector fell almost 2 percent as West Texas intermediate tumbled 1.8 percent and hedge funds trimmed bullish Brent bets ahead of OPEC’s meeting later this week.
Stocks
* Sierra Wireless gained 11 percent. It climbed the most intraday in five months as Raymond James upgraded to buy owing to the outlook for internet connectivity in automobiles
* Cameco fell 7.2 percent. CCO fell the most intraday in a month after spot uranium posted biggest the biggest weekly loss since May
* MEG Energy fell 6.7 percent. MEG faces a heavy debt burden and tight liquidity after reporting 3Q results
* Kirkland Lake gained 6.5 percent. It was upgraded to buy at Desjardin.
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $17.00 discount to WTI
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.31 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold gained 0.5 percent to $1,293.40 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar was unchanged at C$1.2763 per U.S. dollar
* The Canadian 10-year government bond yield fell to 1.865% from 1.886% Friday
US
By Sarah Ponczek and Julie Verhage
(Bloomberg) — U.S. equities ended Monday little changed as declining oil prices pulled down energy stocks at the start of a busy news week.
West Texas Intermediate crude slipped after U.S. drillers expanded operations while OPEC and Russia prepare to discuss longer supply curbs. The S&P 500 Index fell less than 0.05 percent, giving up early gains, as companies including Marathon Oil Corp. and Newfield Exploration Co. dropped.
“After rallying to a two-and-a-half year high, WTI is stumbling lower ahead of the OPEC meeting later this week, as fears creep in that a production cut extension may not be formally announced,” Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Clipper Data, said in an email.
Western Digital Corp., Seagate Technology Plc and Micron Technology Inc. dragged on the Nasdaq 100 Index after Morgan Stanley downgraded Western Digital. Reports of North Korea preparing a missile launch may also have affected markets, as the yen moved higher.
Meanwhile, investors are gearing up for a big week, with U.S. President Donald Trump scheduled to address Senate Republicans Tuesday ahead of a potential vote on a tax overhaul. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen testifies before the congressional Joint Economic Committee in Washington, and the confirmation hearing for her nominated successor, Jerome Powell, begins. Adding to the mix are data on U.S. GDP, prices and jobs.
“To me, Powell is probably going to largely continue the existing policy,” Jerry Paul, senior vice president of fixed income and portfolio manager at Icon Funds in Denver, said by phone. “But the real question is what’s the real composition of the Fed gong to look like in 2018? People keep talking about the Fed’s intentions for 2018, but we’ve largely got an empty board there.”
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell as defensive sectors such as real estate and utilities outperformed cyclical shares, with Deutsche Bank AG recommending a switch. The euro declined and German bonds gained as the country moved closer to forming a new government.
Nickel led a slump in industrial metals, with copper declining for the first time in seven sessions. Precious metals had a better day, with gold and platinum rising.

Here are some key events coming up this week:
* The U.S. Senate as soon as this week could debate and vote on tax-cut legislation.
* Minnesota Fed President Neel Kashkari, New York Fed President Bill Dudley, Philadelphia Fed’s Pat Harker are among other Fed speakers this week.
* President Trump will meet with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders Tuesday to discuss a federal spending plan to prevent a partial shutdown and keep the government open after current funding expires Dec. 8.
* Bank of England publishes annual stress tests Tuesday alongside its Financial Stability Review looking at the health of U.K. banks.
* In China, the official and Caixin manufacturing PMIs are expected to show mostly steady momentum.
* Japan industrial production is forecast to have rebounded in October, but CPI may show a sharp divergence between headline and core inflation, Bloomberg Intelligence said.
* The second print of third-quarter U.S. GDP on Wednesday may be revised up thanks to consumer spending and inventory accumulation, Bloomberg Intelligence said. The core PCE deflator, the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, is due Thursday
* OPEC meets in Vienna on Thursday.

  These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index fell less than 0.05 percent as of 4:04 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.5 percent.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index fell 0.3 percent.
* Germany’s DAX Index declined 0.5 percent.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index dipped 1 percent.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.1 percent.
* The euro decreased 0.3 percent to $1.19, the first decline in a week.
* The British pound declined 0.1 percent to $1.332.
* The Japanese yen climbed 0.4 percent to 111.10 per dollar, the strongest in 10 weeks.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 2.33 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield fell two basis points to 0.34 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield gained less than one basis point to 1.253 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.8 percent to $57.89 a barrel.
* Gold increased 0.4 percent to $1,293.58 an ounce, the highest in over five weeks.
* Copper declined 0.9 percent to $6,942 a ton.
Asia
* Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average sank 0.2 percent.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 0.3 percent.
* Japan’s 10-year yield climbed one basis point to 0.043 percent, the highest in more than a week.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

When you have an ideal will you think it helps rid you of “what is,” but it never does.
You may preach non-violence for the rest of your life
and all the time be sowing the seeds of violence.
Krishnamurti

As ever,

Carolann

A signature always reveals a man’s character – and sometimes even his name
-Evan Esar, 1899-1995

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

November 24, 2017

November 24, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Interesting story out this week:
Rare 400-Year-Old Map Traces Indigenous Roots in Mexico
By Megan Gannon, Live Science Contributor | November 22, 2017

A rare, indigenous-made map of Mexico from the era of the Nahuatl people’s first contact with Europeans is now in the collection of the U.S. Library of Congress.
The library announced on Nov. 21, 2017 that it acquired the so-called Codex Quetzalecatzin(also known as the Mapa de Ecatepec-Huitziltepec) and that a digitally preserved copy is now online.
For more than 100 years, the map had passed through private collections, including that of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. [Cracking Codices: 10 of the Most Mysterious Ancient Manuscripts]
According to the Library of Congress, few manuscripts of this kind have survived into the present, and the codex, created in 1593, is a rare example of the many maps that were produced for the Spanish Empire to document the histories of local families —and their resources.
The manuscript shows the genealogy of the members of the “de Leon” family, indigenous Nahuatl people who were descended from a political leader named Quetzalecatzin. The map also illustrates the land and property this family owned, using Aztec-style graphic symbols for riversand roads, and hieroglyphic writing.
But there are also traces of Spanish influence in the manuscript. Some hieroglyphic labels are translated with the Latin alphabet. The names of indigenous elites —like “don Alonso” and “don Matheo”—imply that some locals had been baptized with Christian names.
The map also “shows churches, some Spanish place names and images suggesting a community adapting to Spanish law and rule,” said John Hessler, curator of the Jay I. Kislak Collection for the Archaeology of the Early Americas of the Library of Congress.
“The codex shows graphically the kinds of cultural interactions taking place at an important moment in American history,” Hessler said in a statement. “In a sense, we see the birth of what would be the start of what we would come to know as the Americas.”
The map covers some recognizable geographic terrain. It features the church of Todos Santos in modern-day Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec, the now-drained Lake Texcoco and the Atoyac River.
Original article on Live Science.

On Nov. 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy.
Go to article »

One thing you will probably remember well is any time you forgive and forget. -Franklin P. Jones
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Polar bears gather around the carcass of a bowhead whale on the shore of Russia’s Wrangel Island.

Visitors wearing traditional Japanese kimonos walk under the colourful autumn leaves at Enkakuji Buddhist temple in Kamakura, west of Toyko, Japan.

6 year old Josh Thomson, on holiday from Bathgate with his family, enjoys the snow at the Cairngorms in Scotland.
Market Closes for November 24^th, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23557.99	+31.81 +0.14%

S&P 500	2602.42	+5.34 +0.21%

NASDAQ	6889.160	+21.799 +0.32%

TSX	16108.09	+33.79
		+0.21%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22550.85	+27.70
		+0.12%
HANG SENG	29866.32	+158.38
		+0.53%
SENSEX	33679.24	+91.16
		+0.27%
FTSE 100*	7409.64	-7.60
		-0.10%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.888	1.891
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.233	2.237
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.3418	2.3187
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7638	2.7392

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78700	0.78636
US $	1.27066	1.27168

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.51660	0.65937
US $	1.19321	0.83808

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1290.50	1290.35

Oil
WTI Crude Future	58.85	57.97

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks closed near a record high amid higher oil prices and retail optimism, with all but one sector in the green.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 34 points or 0.2 percent to 16,108.09, the highest in nearly three weeks. The weekly gain was 0.7 percent.
Consumer discretionary stocks added 0.6 percent as Black Friday deals drew shoppers to bricks-and-mortar stores. Dollarama Inc. rose 1.2 percent.
The energy sector gained 0.3 percent as the price of crude jumped 1.6 percent. Russia and OPEC have reportedly reached the outline of a deal to extend production cuts.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Aurora Cannabis Inc. jumped 7.4 percent and CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. fell 1.3 percent. Aurora launched a hostile takeover bid for CanniMed, while CanniMed said Aurora’s share price is inflated
* The Stars Group Inc. rose 1.1 percent after reaching a deal to sell its holdings of NYX Gaming Group Ltd. to Scientific Games Corp.
* Empire Co. Ltd. gained 1.1 percent. The Globe and Mail reported that the Sobeys grocery chain, owned by Empire, is cutting 20 percent of its office staff
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $17.25 discount to WTI
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.42 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold fell 0.4 percent to $1,291.80 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar was unchanged at C$1.2713 per U.S. dollar The Canada 10-year government bond yield fell one basis point to 1.89 percent
US
By Andrew Dunn and Robert Brand
(Bloomberg) — A rally in oil and optimism at the mall buoyed U.S. stocks to a record at the traditional start of the American holiday shopping season.
Retailers sought to build on positive earnings as consumers descended on stores looking for “Black Friday” bargains. Meanwhile, West Texas crude reached a two-year high, boosting shares in energy companies. Macy’s Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. were among the S&P 500 Index’s top performers in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, as were Hess Corp. and Marathon Oil Co.
Stocks in Europe pared earlier gains as the euro headed for a two-month high, while bonds fell as Germany moved closer to ending a political impasse and business confidence in the region’s biggest economy improved. Higher Treasury yields weren’t enough to sustain early gains in the dollar, which headed for a third weekly loss.
Iron ore climbed to a two-month high, while industrial metals headed for the best weekly gain in six. Crude rose as OPEC and Russia were said to have agreed on a framework to extend supply cuts.
Germany’s biggest opposition party said it’s open to talks on backing a government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, offering a way to restore political stability to Europe’s biggest economy. A jump in German business confidence in October added to positive sentiment, with global stocks heading into the final weeks of 2017 at record highs as investors place their faith in economic growth and an earnings’ expansion.

Here are some key events scheduled for the remainder of the week:
* November preliminary U.S. Markit manufacturing and services PMIs.
* South Africa faces credit-rating reviews from Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings.
* Colombia’s central bank announces its policy decision, with analysts in a Bloomberg survey divided on whether it’s set to maintain rates at 5 percent or cut by 25 basis points.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index gained 0.21 percent Friday.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.1 percent.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index declined 0.1 percent.
* Germany’s DAX Index jumped 0.4 percent.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index rose 0.1 percent.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.2 percent to the lowest in eight weeks.
* The euro increased 0.7 percent to $1.1931, the strongest in two months.
* The British pound rose 0.2 percent to $1.3331, the strongest in eight weeks.
* The Japanese yen decreased 0.3 percent to 111.56 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries increased two basis points to 2.34 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield gained one basis point to 0.36 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield gained less than one basis point to 1.25 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude increased 1.6 percent to $58.95 a barrel, the highest in more than two years.
* Gold declined 0.2 percent to $1,288.59 an ounce.
* Copper rose 0.6 percent to $7,002 a ton, hitting the highest in a month.
Asia
* The Topix index rose 0.2 at the close in Tokyo, bouncing from a drop of 0.6 percent. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average was up 0.1 percent, reversing a 0.6 percent decline. Both indexes are up over the week, their 10th weekly advance in 11.
* Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index decreased 0.1 percent.
* The Hang Seng Index rose 0.5 percent and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong climbed 1.4 percent after a 1.9 percent slide on Thursday.
* The Shanghai Composite Index was little up 0.1 percent.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

Propaganda can never tell the truth; truth can never be propagated.
Krishnamurti

As ever,

Carolann

Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
-Jessamyn West, 1902-1984

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

November 23, 2017

November 23, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1936 – Life magazine premiered.
On Nov. 23, 1943, during World War II, United States forces seized control of the Tarawa and Makin atolls from the Japanese.
Go to article »

In his review of Mary Oliver’s book of poems, Devotions – a collection that spans five decades – Danny Heitman, notes that Oliver is primarily a writer about the natural world. “Like Henry David Thoreau, who famously did a lot of travelling in Concord, Mass., Oliver was mostly inspired by her long walks within the woods and along the shoreline of Provincetown, Mass….Oliver is perhaps the most peripatetic poet since William Wordsworth. Like Wordsworth, Oliver deftly communicates physical movement in her poems, even though many of them ostensibly celebrate the serenity of standing still. In “The Dog Has Run Off Again,” the grammatically fastidious Oliver nevertheless forgoes conventional punctuation to simulate a rushing current:

but it has been raining all night
and the narrow creek has risen
is a tawny turbulence is rushing along
over the mossy stones
is surging forward
with a sweet loopy music
and therefore I don’t want to entangle it
with my own voice
calling summoning
my little dog to hurry back

The creek’s momentum chimes with an emotional current in the narrator, who’s overcome by the wonder of the landscape:

look the sunlight and the shadows are chasing each
other
listen how the wind swirls and leaps and dives up and
down
who am I to summon his hard and happy body
his four white feet that love to wheel and pedal
trough the dark leaves
to come back to walk by my side, obedient

Oliver’s poems are often an exercise in ecstasy, charting those moments when the temporal is touched by the transcendental. A continuing theme of her work is the way that such perceptions can suddenly alter an ordina4ry hour, as in her poem “Drifting”:

I was enjoying everything: the
rain, the path
wherever it was taking me, the
earth roots
beginning to stir.
I didn’t intend to start thinking
about God,
it just happened.

Danny Heitman in a columnist with The Advocate newspaper in Louisiana and the author of A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A six-year-old boy plays in front of yellow ginkgo leaves at a park in Tokyo.

Details of the lighting are pictured on the ceiling of the Executive Board meeting room at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva.

A villager hangs hand-made noodles up to dry in Linyi, Shandong province, China.
Market Closes for November 23rd, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23526.18	Closed

S&P 500	2598.51	Closed

NASDAQ	6867.363	Closed

TSX	16075.02	+1.44
		+0.01%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22523.15	+106.67
		+0.48%
HANG SENG	29707.94	-295.55
		-0.99%
SENSEX	33588.08	+26.53
		+0.08%
FTSE 100*	7417.24	-1.78
		-0.02%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.891	1.905
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.237	2.250
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.3187	2.3205
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7392	2.7415

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78636	0.78720
US $	1.27168	1.27032

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.50688	0.66362
US $	1.18495	0.84391

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1290.35	1286.95

Oil
WTI Crude Future	57.97	57.97

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were virtually unchanged with trading volume well below average because of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, as gains in commodity stocks offset declines in most other sectors.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose less than 1 point to 16,074.30 on volume that was 73 percent below the 100-day average. The materials sector posted the biggest gain, adding 0.5 percent as copper prices rose. A strike at the world’s biggest copper mine pointed to potential supply risks in 2018.
Energy shares gained 0.3 percent as crude prices rose above $58 a barrel to a two-year high. An outage in TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone pipeline is adding to optimism that the U.S. glut is waning.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Metro Inc. fell 2.5 percent to a two-month low. RBC downgraded the stock, saying it needs to deliver better underlying results to support its valuation
* Calfrac Well Services Ltd. gained 5 percent after the Wilks brothers added to their holdings in the company, bringing their total stake to 20 percent
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $17.25 discount to WTI
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.42 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold fell 0.1 percent to $1,291.32 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.2 percent to C$1.2716 per U.S. dollar after retail sales grew less than expected in September
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield fell one basis point to 1.89 percent, the lowest since early September
US
MARKETS CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The supreme consideration is man.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends.
-Jacques Delille, 1738-1813

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

November 23, 2017

November 22, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1859: Charles Darwin published On The Origin of Species.
On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States.
Go to article »

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The 41.6-meter-tall Tianzi Hotel which is in the shape of Chinese deities Fu, Lu and Shou in Langfang City, Hebei Province of China.
CREDIT: VISUAL CHINA GROUP/GETTY IMAGES

A dog wears a mask equipped with cameras and a transmission device which allows a human partner to “see” through his eyes on a remote screen, during the Milipol internal state security exhibition in Villepinte, Paris.

A grey seal basks under a rainbow on a beach on the Lincolnshire coast.
Market Closes for November22^nd, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23526.18	-64.65 -0.27%

S&P 500	2598.51	-0.52 -0.02%

NASDAQ	6867.363	+4.887 +0.07%

TSX	16083.15	+6.50
		+0.04%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22523.15	+106.67
		+0.48%
HANG SENG	30003.49	+185.42
		+0.62%
SENSEX	33561.55	+83.20
		+0.25%
FTSE 100*	7419.02	+7.68
		+0.10%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.905	1.923
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.250	2.263
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.3205	2.3559
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7415	2.7584

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78720	0.78232
US $	1.27032	1.27825

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.50151	0.66599
US $	1.18199	0.84603

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1286.95	1280.35

Oil
WTI Crude Future	57.97	56.72

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
54
The S&P 500 on Tuesday notched its 54th record close of 2017, the most records in a calendar year since 1995.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks posted a small loss on lower-than-normal volume as trading eased off ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slipped three points or less than 0.1 percent to 16,073.58, the first drop in five trading days. Telecom stocks were the biggest decliner, losing 0.6 percent as Rogers Communications Inc. fell 1.6 percent.
The materials sector rose 0.5 percent as gold prices rose 0.8 percent. Energy and financial shares were flat.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Open Text Corp. fell 3.2 percent after Macquarie downgraded the stock to underperform, arguing Constellation Software Inc. offers the same advantages without the risks
* Metro Inc. lost 1.3 percent. Fourth-quarter earnings per share matched analyst estimates
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $17.25 discount to WTI, the widest gap since 2015. The Keystone pipeline has not yet set a restart date following a spill in South Dakota
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.42 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold rose 0.8 percent to $1,292.20 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.6 percent to C$1.2704 per U.S. dollar, the biggest gain since September
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield fell one basis point to 1.91 percent
US
By Sarah Ponczek and Julie Verhage
(Bloomberg) — The dollar suffered its biggest decline in more than eight months, while U.S. stocks ended the day lower, after minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting indicated officials expect inflation to remain persistently low even as support for an interest-rate increase grows.
Bloomberg’s dollar spot index fell to the lowest level since October as Fed officials meeting earlier this month saw an interest-rate increase in the near term even as divisions persisted over the policy path forward amid tepid inflation. Treasuries added to gains, pushing the 10-year yield to 2.32 percent, and oil rallied.
“They are still discussing the inflation issue internally and that seems to be the major source of disagreement as one would expect,” Brad Bechtel, a currency strategist at Jefferies LLC, said in a message. “December seems firmly on the table but 2018 remains a bit of a wild card. The USD move is a bit of position unwind ahead of the long holiday weekend given that most will be out of the office Friday.”
The S&P 500 Index fell 0.1 percent the day before Thanksgiving. Trading volume was more than 20 percent below the 30-day average.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who’s leaving the central bank in February, has warned that tightening monetary policy too quickly risks stranding inflation below the Fed’s 2 percent target, giving investors yet more to think about as the bond market in the world’s biggest economy hints at concern over the pace of U.S. economic expansion.
“There’s nothing antithetical about raising rates when the economy is doing well,” Mark Spellman, a portfolio manager at Alpine Funds in Purchase, New York, said by phone before the minutes came out. “We don’t have a dollar problem, we don’t have an inflation problem. This is just purely: We were at zero rate policy for so many years, emergency rates, and we’re normalizing.”
West Texas crude rose to its highest price in more than two years, as a drop in U.S. stockpiles added optimism to a rally underpinned by hopes for an OPEC deal extension.
Sterling swung between gains and losses before rising even as growth forecasts for the U.K. were cut in the latest budget, while Britain’s exporter-heavy FTSE 100 Index stayed higher. Germany’s DAX Index and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index both declined.
The yen rose to a nine-week high against the dollar. The euro gained as efforts continued to end Germany’s political impasse. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party is betting on a revived alliance with the Social Democrats to dodge the risk of new elections after coalition talks with two other parties broke down, according to people familiar with discussions in Berlin.
Here are some key events coming up this week:
* Minutes from the European Central Bank’s October meeting due on Thursday could show dissent in the discussion about tapering.
* In Asia, Singapore 3Q GDP is due on Thursday. New Zealand October trade and South Korea November consumer confidence are due later in the week.

These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index fell 0.1 percent at 4:06 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.3 percent.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index gained 0.1 percent.
* Germany’s DAX Index fell 1.2 percent, its biggest drop in almost two weeks.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index jumped 0.7 percent to the highest in more than six years.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index decreased 0.7 percent.
* The euro rose 0.7 percent to $1.1822.
* The British pound gained 0.6 percent to $1.332, hitting its strongest in almost eight weeks.
* The Japanese yen climbed 1.1 percent to 111.20 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell three basis points to 2.33 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined less than one basis point to 0.35 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield rose less than one basis point to 1.275 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.1 percent to $58.01 a barrel.
* Gold rose 0.9 percent to $1,291.65 an ounce.
Asia
* Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.4 percent.
* South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.4 percent.
* The Hang Seng Index jumped 0.6 percent as Chinese financial shares climbed. The Shanghai Composite Index also gained 0.6 percent.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.7 percent.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Every man has an equal right
to the necessities of life,
even as birds and beasts have.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

All money is a matter of belief.
-Adam Smith, 1723-1790

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

November 23, 2017

November 21, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
November 21, 1783: Man’s first flight in a balloon.
Goldie Hawn, actress, b. 1945
Voltaire, author, b. 1694
Harpo Marx, comedian, b. 1888
Marlo Thomas, actor, b. 1937
Bjork, singer/songwriter, b. 1965

Also on this day in 1980, 76% of U.S. televisions that are turned on are tuned in to “Dallas” to find out who shot J.R. Ewing.
On Nov. 21, 1995, the presidents of three rival Balkan states agreed to make peace in Bosnia, ending nearly four years of terror and ethnic bloodletting that have left a quarter of a million people dead in the worst war in Europe since World War II.
Go to article »

When you pray, move your feet. – African proverb.

INTERESTING ARTICLE: 8000-YEAR OLD ROCK ART INCLUDES THE WORLD’S OLDEST IMAGES OF DOGS

– by Megan Gannon, November 20, 2017
Etched into the rock walls of dried-out valleys and slopes in the Arabian Peninsula, the 8,000-year-old hunting scenes even feature some dogs on leashes. Those images —the oldest archaeological evidence of dog leashes —suggest humans were controlling and training dogs even before they settled down into farming communities.
The dog carvings come from the rock-art sites of Shuwaymis and Jubbah in northwestern Saudi Arabia. While documenting thousands of rock-art panels there, Maria Guagnin, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, counted 156 dogs at Shuwaymis and 193 at Jubbah.
Similar to the modern Canaan breed in their appearance, the dogs in the engravings have pricked ears, short snouts and curled tails —and they look distinct from the hyenas and wolves depicted elsewhere in the rock-art panels, according to a study by Guagnin and her colleagues, published online Nov. 16 in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, as first reported by Science magazine. [What Your Dog’s Breed Says About You]
The dogs are often shown helping humans hunt lions, ibexes, gazelles, horses and other prey. Some dogs in the hunting packs are on leashes, tethered to the waists of hunters (whose hands are then free to shoot arrows). The researchers speculated that these leashed dogs might represent young dogs in training, older ones at risk of injury or valuable scent dogs.
This suggests not only are some human populations controlling their hunting dogs by the Pre-Neolithic, but that some dogs may perform different hunting tasks than others,” Guagnin and her colleagues wrote. “Some may be used only to track prey scents, while others are used to corral and attack prey, protect human hunters, or help haul meat back to camp.”
Genetic and archaeological evidence suggests that dogs were domesticated from a gray wolf ancestor at least 15,000 years ago, and perhaps as early as 40,000 years ago. Archaeologists still debate when and where this took place, and how humans controlled dogs or used them for activities like hunting in prehistory.
The rock-art sites of Shuwaymis and Jubbah fill in a piece of that puzzle. The images have not been directly dated, but Guagnin has estimated that they date back 8,000—or possibly even 9,000 —years, to the pre-Neolithic era, before farming got its start. That would mean domestic dogs were in the Arabian Peninsula much earlier than previously believed. (The oldest dog remains ever found in the region date to the fourth millennium B.C. in what is now Yemen.)
The images also rival 8,000-year-old paintings of dogs on pottery from Iran, previously thought to be the oldest depictions of dogs. Additionally, the hunting scenes represent the earliest known evidence of dog leashes in the archaeological record worldwide, the study claims.
Originally published on Live Science.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A new bronze cast of George Frederik Watt’s 20-foot high statue of a horse and horseman ‘Physical Energy’ goes on display at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly, London.

Participants crossing the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge as they compete in the 2017 Qingdao International Marathon on the Sea in Qingdao, China.
Market Closes for November 21^st, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23590.83	+160.50 +0.69%

S&P 500	2599.03	+16.89 +0.65%

NASDAQ	6862.477	+71.763 +1.06%

TSX	16076.65	+72.25
		+0.45%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22416.48	+154.72
		+0.70%
HANG SENG	29818.07	+557.76
		+1.91%
SENSEX	33478.35	+118.45
		+0.36%
FTSE 100*	7411.34	+21.88
		+0.30%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.923	1.955
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.263	2.294
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.3559	2.3666
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7584	2.7801

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78232	0.78019
US $	1.27825	1.28174

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.50106	0.66619
US $	1.17431	0.85156

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1280.35	1286.20

Oil
WTI Crude Future	56.72	56.09

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1995, the Dow Jones topped 5000 for the first time.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canada’s stock rally appears to be back on track, with stocks rising the most in nearly two months as a global risk-on trade boosted equities around the world.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 72 points or 0.5 percent to 16,076.65, the highest close in eight trading days. Materials stocks rose 0.9 percent as copper added 1.2 percent, breaking out above a four-week downtrend.
The real estate sector gained 0.9 percent as bond yields fell, while consumer discretionary stocks added 0.8 percent.
Cogeco Communications rose 3.9 percent.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Alamos Gold Inc. added 6.1 percent after its purchase of Richmont Mines received final court approval
* Calfrac Well Services Inc. rose 3.5 percent. Morgan Stanley said the firm could sell its international assets at the right price
* Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund fell 2.9 percent after declaring force majeure at a Vancouver plant
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $16.25 discount to WTI, the widest gap since 2015, as restarting the Keystone pipeline following a leak may take longer than expected
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.42 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold rose 0.5 percent to $1,281.70 an ounce
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.3 percent to C$1.2780 per U.S. dollar amid signs of progress in negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield fell three basis points to 1.92 percent
US
By Sarah Ponczek and Julie Verhage
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks hit a new high, while the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso scored gains after a report of progress in negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement.
While the approaching Thanksgiving holiday gives traders a chance to pause, equities are heading into the end of the year near their peaks, with investors optimistic about global growth and company earnings. The S&P 500 Index passed the 2,600 mark Tuesday, reaching its highest level on record. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its 2018 target for the index to 2,850 from 2,500, citing an expansion in profits and valuations.
“Investors can be reassured by the strength and durability of the current economic cycle,” Peter Oppenheimer, Goldman’s chief global equity strategist, said in a note. “While it has already been a long cycle, the unwinding of the financial crisis has also meant that, until recently, it has been sub-par in terms of strength — as is often the case following financial crises.”
The loonie rose and the peso hit a five-week high after Juan Pablo Castanon, head of Mexico’s business chamber, said in an interview that negotiators were close to finishing work on telecom, energy and digital commerce provisions of Nafta. The dollar declined. The euro climbed after dropping the most in three weeks the day before.
Gilts advanced amid reports Prime Minister Theresa May has the backing of ministers to offer the European Union more money to break the Brexit deadlock. West Texas crude gained while gold rose after Monday’s big decline.
Officials have said the European Central Bank is likely to make multiple small adjustments to its guidance on monetary policy next year rather than any major change in language as it ends quantitative easing. Political developments in Germany are being closely watched even though some have concluded that economic growth won’t be threatened by the collapse in talks between Angela Merkel and potential coalition partners. The German Chancellor said she would prefer new elections if she can’t put together a majority.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced and German shares outperformed. The MSCI Emerging Market Index reached its highest in more than six years.
Earlier, stocks in Asia recovered some of their recent losses, with Chinese equities rallying as investors reassessed a crackdown on shadow banking that had shaken confidence. The Australian dollar dropped to a five-month low after suggestions from the central bank that interest rates will stay lower for longer. Turkey’s lira hit a record low against the dollar but pared some of the drop after its central bank tightened liquidity.
Here are some key events coming up this week:
* Minutes from the European Central Bank’s October meeting due on Thursday could show dissent in the discussion about tapering.
* In Asia, Singapore 3Q GDP is due on Thursday. New Zealand October trade and South Korea November consumer confidence are due later in the week.
* Reports on sales of previously owned homes and durable goods orders for October are due in the U.S.
* The minutes from the Fed’s latest policy meeting are out on Wednesday.
* The U.K. announces its budget Wednesday.
* Argentina, Hungary, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa set monetary policy this week.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index climbed 0.65 percent at 4:0 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.4 percent.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index increased 0.3 percent.
* Germany’s DAX Index jumped 0.8 percent.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index increased 1.4 percent to the highest in more than six years. Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2 percent.
* The euro increased less than 0.05 percent to $1.1736.
* The British pound decreased less than 0.05 percent to $1.3232.
* The Mexican peso jumped 1 percent to 18.8037 per dollar; the loonie gained 0.3 percent to C$1.2776 per U.S. dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 2.36 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield fell one basis point to 0.35 percent, the lowest in almost two weeks.
* Britain’s 10-year yield decreased two basis points to 1.274 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1 percent to $56.97 a barrel.
* Gold increased 0.2 percent to $1,279.77 an ounce.
* Copper gained 1.2 percent to $6,909 a ton.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

I must confess that I do not draw a sharp line
or any distinction between economics and ethics.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,
Carolann

The family is one of life’s masterpieces.
-George Santayana, 1863-1952

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

November 20, 2017

November 20, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Robert F. Kennedy, senator, b. 1925
Edwin Hubble, American astronomer, b. 1889
On Nov. 20, 1945, 24 Nazi leaders went on trial before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.
Go to article »

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Visitors look at the monumental painting “The Market of Our Democracy” by Russian painter Ilya Glazunov exhibited at his gallery in downtown Moscow.

A man drives a carriage during the 20^th edition of a parade of horses throughout the streets of Paris leading up to the 2017 Paris Horse Salon.

Swans on the racecourse as runners and riders clear ‘Ruby’s Double’ during the Donohue Marquees Risk of Thunder Steeplechase during day two of the Winter Festival as Punchestown Racecourse, Country Kildare.

London’s Regent Street was transformed into a festive wonderland today as over 800,000 revellers enjoyed the Hamleys annual Christmas Toy Parade.

Capillary Formation from Multi-Cellular Spheroids by Alex Justin which has been entered in the Cambridge University engineering department’s 13^th annual photo competition.
Market Closes for November 20^th, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23430.33	+72.09 +0.31%

S&P 500	2582.14	+3.29 +0.13%

NASDAQ	6790.715	+7.924 +0.12%

TSX	16004.40	+5.83
		+0.04%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22261.76	-135.04
		-0.60%
HANG SENG	29260.31	+61.27
		+0.21%
SENSEX	33359.90	+17.10
		+0.05%
FTSE 100*	7389.46	+8.78
		+0.12%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.955	1.972
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.294	2.296
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.3666	2.3736
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7801	2.8237

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78019	0.78273
US $	1.28174	1.27758

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.50426	0.66478
US $	1.17361	0.85207

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1286.20	1284.35

Oil
WTI Crude Future	56.09	56.55

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1991, fashion chain Cascade International announces that its chairman, Victor Incendy, has disappeared — along with more than 200 of Cascades stores. Incendy had claimed that Cascade had between 255 and 400 outlets — but in reality, there are fewer than 30.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canada’s equity benchmark eked out a small gain as increases in pipeline shares offset declines in other commodity stocks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 6 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 16,004.40, the highest in a week. Energy shares fell 0.4 percent even as pipeline stocks rose after Nebraska approved an alternate route for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline.
The telecom index rose 0.5 percent and consumer- discretionary stocks gained 1 percent, offsetting a 0.8 percent decline in materials.
In other moves:
Stocks
* TransCanada Corp. rose 1.6 percent after Nebraska’s ruling removed one of the last hurdles to its $8 billion pipeline, which has been in the works since 2008
* Aurora Cannabis Inc. jumped 6.2 percent and CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. rose 2 percent. Aurora plans to take its C$582-million takeover bid directly to CanniMed’s shareholders
* Bombardier Inc. fell 1 percent. The company is selling $1 billion of bonds to refinance notes maturing in 2019
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $15.75 discount to WTI, the widest gap since December 2016, as traders continue to weigh the fallout from a TransCanada pipeline spill
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.41 discount to Henry Hub, unchanged from Friday
* Gold fell 1.6 percent to $1,275.30 an ounce, the biggest drop in two months
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.4 percent to C$1.2817 per U.S. dollar, the lowest since Nov. 1
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield rose two basis points to 1.96 percent
US
By Sarah Ponczek and Julie Verhage
(Bloomberg) — The dollar gained and stocks rose, driving gold to its biggest drop in two months, as Congress took a holiday break from tax talks and markets absorbed political developments in the Americas and Europe.
At the start of a truncated Thanksgiving week, investors were unfazed by the news that Fed Chair Janet Yellen had tendered her resignation. The S&P 500 Index climbed after two down weeks, although it gave up some of the gains late in the session on reports that the U.S. is poised to sue to block AT&T Inc.’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Inc.
“Very near term, stocks face cross currents associated with year-end tax-related strategies as well as a potential postponement in tax reform legislation that could cause the pause in the rally to linger,” Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Baird, said in a note Monday. “But any weakness that does develop is anticipated to be limited in both time and price.”
As the dollar gained, precious metals declined, with gold recording its biggest drop since September. Silver and platinum also fell. West Texas intermediate crude retreated after surging the most in two weeks in the previous trading session.
Yellen submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump, effective upon the swearing in of her replacement, Jerome Powell. The Fed minutes are due out Wednesday, which will allow investors to gauge officials’ eagerness to boost the benchmark interest rate in December, a move widely expected by the market. Treasuries edged lower.
From a monetary policy perspective, the news of Yellen’s resignation “shouldn’t really affect anything,” Ernie Cecilia, the chief investment officer at Bryn Mawr Trust Co., said by phone. “If anything, Jerome Powell should be close to a continuation of the kind of monetary policy that Janet was doing. So I wouldn’t think there would be any kind of ripple on the monetary side.”
In Europe, a month of exploratory coalition talks in Germany ended in a dramatic collapse on a dispute over migration policy. The upshot is that the region’s dominant country remains hamstrung on the global stage, potentially affecting everything from policy toward the European Union, Turkey and Russia to government spending. Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she’s skeptical about forming a minority government and would prefer new elections if she can’t put together a majority.
Nevertheless, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced and Germany’s DAX rebounded from a seven-week low, with investors judging that the talks’ failure won’t threaten the economy. The euro declined.
Pound and gilts traders will focus on a potential downgrade to the U.K. growth outlook this week and the government’s efforts toward agreeing on a Brexit “divorce” bill. Sterling was boosted on Monday by reports that the U.K. was preparing to make an enhanced divorce bill offer to the EU ahead of crucial talks starting next month.
Chilean stocks posted their worst rout in six years after surprise election results dashed expectations that billionaire Sebastian Pinera would easily win next month’s presidential run- off. The IPSA index dropped 5.9 percent, its worst performance since August 2011.

Here are some key events coming up this week:
* Minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia’s November meeting are due Tuesday, while those from the European Central Bank’s October meeting due out on Thursday could show dissent in the discussion about tapering.
* Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gives a talk at New York University.
* Reports on sales of previously owned homes and durable goods orders for October are due in the U.S.
* The minutes from the Fed’s latest policy meeting are out on Wednesday.
* On Tuesday, Taiwan updates on October unemployment and Hong Kong’s October CPI is out. Singapore 3Q GDP is due on Thursday. New Zealand October trade and South Korea November consumer confidence are due later in the week.
* The U.K. announces its budget Wednesday.
* Argentina, Hungary, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa set monetary policy this week.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index increased 0.13 percent at 4:03 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index jumped 0.7 percent to 386.39.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index increased 0.1 percent.
* Germany’s DAX Index jumped 0.5 percent.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index climbed 0.4 percent , the first gain in a week.
* The euro dipped 0.5 percent to $1.173.
* The British pound climbed 0.2 percent to $1.3235, the strongest in almost three weeks.
* The Japanese yen declined 0.5 percent to 112.62 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 2.36 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield gained less than one basis point to 0.36 percent, the lowest in more than a week.
* Britain’s 10-year yield fell less than one basis point to 1.292 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.8 percent to $56.09 a barrel.
* Gold sank 1.2 percent to $1,277.33 an ounce.
* Copper gained 0.8 percent to $6,828 a ton.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Economic equality is the master key to nonviolent independence.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves.
-Gilbert Highet, 1906-1978

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

November 17, 2017

November 17, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday!

On this day in 1970, Stanford Research Institute scientist Douglas Engelbart obtains a patent for his X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System. Today, we know it as the computer mouse.

Also on this day in 1816, Lord Byron wrote to Thomas Moore:
My gondola is, at this present , waiting for me on the canal; but I prefer writing to you in the house, it being autumn – and rather an English autumn than otherwise. It is my intention to remain at Venice during the winter, probably, as it has always been (next to the East) the greenest island of my imagination. It has not disappointed me; though its evident decay would, perhaps, have that effect upon others. But I have been familiar with ruins too long to dislike desolation. Besides, I have fallen in love, which, next to falling into the canal (which would be of no use, as I can swim) is the best or the worst thing I could do. I have got some extremely good apartments in the house of a “Merchant of Venice”, who, is a good deal occupied with business, and has a wife in her twenty-second year. Marianna (that is her name) is in her appearance altogether like an antelope. –from The Book of Days.

Art News:
A painting by Leonardo da Vinci that preserves the artist’s own handprints sold for more than $450 million at auction November 15th, “obliterating the previous world record for the most expensive work of art at auction,” according to Christie’s Auction House.
At one time, though, the very same painting went for a song — in 1958, it sold for a mere 45 British pounds, which is the equivalent of 990.50 pounds ($1,304) today. That’s because it wasn’t until the late 2000s that anyone realized the painting was a da Vinci. [Leonardo Da Vinci’s 10 Best Ideas]
Art experts now estimate that the painting — titled “Salvator Mundi,” or “Savior of the World” — was made around 1500. But between the mid-1600s and 2005, this piece of da Vinci’s work was lost. The painting now known to be his was thought to be a copy by one of his students, and it was heavily damaged by crude attempts at conservation.
According to Christie’s, the reconstructed history of the painting goes something like this: da Vinci painted it around 1500, leaving behind a few sketches by his hand that tie him to the imagery. At some point, Charles I of England, a great art collector, acquired the piece. It probably hung in his wife’s chambers. Charles I was executed in 1649 after a civil war between the Royalists and the English and Scottish parliaments, which were seeking to curb the monarchy’s power. The artwork was sold in October 1951 to a mason named John Stone. [11 Hidden Secrets in Famous Works of Art]
Stone kept the painting until 1660, when Charles I’s son Charles II returned from exile to retake the English throne. (The intervening years had been a short-lived experiment in republican government run by Oliver Cromwell.) Stone then returned the da Vinci to the new king. Its path then becomes murky. It probably stayed at the Palace of Whitehall in London until the late 1700s, passing from Charles II’s possession to his brother James II, when that monarch took the throne, according to Christie’s. No one knows what happened next. The painting disappears from the historical record until 1900, when it was sold not as a da Vinci but as a work of Bernardino Luini, one of the great master’s students.
The painting bounced from hand to hand, including in the 1958 auction, when it sold for not much more than what people pay for an iPhone X today. It wasn’t until after 2005, when the painting appeared in an auction of a U.S. estate, that anyone realized what it really was.
In 2011, the painting was unveiled as a real da Vinci at an exhibit at The National Gallery in London.
Christ’s skin tone is blended with a technique called sfumato, in which the artist presses the heel of his hand into the paint to blur it. Infrared imaging of the painting revealed that these handprints are still pressed into the paint, particularly on the left side of the forehead.
The painting was sold for $80 million in 2013 to Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, who then sold it for $127.5 million the following year to Russian investor Dmitry Rybolovlev. The markup led to a viscious legal battle between Rybolovlev and Bouvier. Rybolovlev is now being investigated in Monaco over whether he improperly used his political clout against Bouvier in that dispute, The Guardian recently reported. Rybolovlev’s name has also surfaced in the ongoing investigation about potential links between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, according to The Guardian, as Rybolovlev once bought a Florida property from Trump for $95 million.
The previous record-holder for the priciest “old master” painting was “Massacre of the Innocents” by Peter Paul Rubens, which sold for $76.7 million in 2002, according to Christie’s. The previous record-holder for the most expensive da Vinci was his “Horse and Rider,” which sold for $11,481,865 at Christie’s in 2001.
Original article on Live Science.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

An aerial view of the Ephesus is seen in Selcuk district of Izmir, Turkey. With recent findings, establishment dating back to 6,000 B.C., (Neolithic age) Ephesus antique city, which is in the UNESCO’s World Heritage List, attracts millions of foreign and domestic tourists from all over the world annually starting by 1920.

A minibus loaded with balloons drives along the coastal road by the beach in Gaza City.

A dog stands in the middle of an interactive light display during the opening evening of the Durham Lumiere event. The Lumiere festival is the UK’s largest light festival and comes to the City of Durham for the fifth time bringing large scale projections and light installations across the city to landmark locations.
Market Closes for November 17^th, 2017

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	23358.24	-100.12 -0.43%

S&P 500	2578.84	-6.80 -0.26%

NASDAQ	6782.789	-10.502 -0.15%

TSX	15994.25	+58.88
		+0.37%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	22396.80	+45.68
		+0.20%
HANG SENG	29199.04	+180.28
		+0.62%
SENSEX	33342.80	+235.98
		+0.71%
FTSE 100*	7380.68	-6.26
		-0.08%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.937	1.972
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.276	2.296
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.3417	2.3736
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7770	2.8237

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78273	0.78376
US $	1.27758	1.27591

Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.50626	0.66390
US $	1.17901	0.84814

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1284.35	1280.00

Oil
WTI Crude Future	56.55	55.14

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
$7,998
The fresh record hit by bitcoin Friday morning in Asia, after the digital currency recovered from a slump of more than 25% over four days. Bitcoin has risen more than 700% this year.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a second day but not enough to prevent a weekly decline, the first since early September.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 63 points or 0.4 percent to 15,998.57, but fell 0.3 percent on the week.
On Friday, the materials sector gained 1.1 percent as both base and precious metals prices rose. Eldorado Gold Corp. added 6.6 percent and Semafo Inc. gained 4.7 percent.
The energy index added 0.6 percent, failing to keep up with the 2.6 percent jump in the price of crude. NexGen Energy Ltd. rose 8.7 percent and Baytex Energy Corp. gained 6.3 percent.
In other moves:
Stocks
* Teck Resources Ltd. rose 3.4 percent. The miner is paying a supplemental dividend of 40 cents per share and buying back stock equivalent to another 40 cents a share
* TransCanada Corp. fell 0.9 percent. The company had to shut its Keystone oil pipeline after a spill in South Dakota, days before a Nebraska regulator will decide whether an extension to the pipeline can proceed
* Mainstreet Health Investments Inc. jumped 13 percent. The company is buying Care Investment Trust for $425 million
Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $15.65 discount to WTI, the widest gap since January, following the Keystone spill
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.38 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold rose 1.4 percent to $1,296.50 an ounce, the biggest gain since May
FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar was little changed at C$1.2761 per U.S. dollar
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield fell four basis points to 1.94 percent after inflation eased for the first time in four months
US
By Randall Jensen
(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks failed to add to the best rally in two months as the Treasury yield curve flattened further, raising concern about economic growth. The dollar dropped as the yen and gold gained.
The S&P 500 Index slipped Friday to cap a second week of losses. The spread between two- and 10-year Treasury yields hit the tightest level in a decade. The greenback remained linked to political developments in Washington, where the Senate girded for negotiations on its version of tax reform. The risk-off tone comes before a week shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.
It’s been tumultuous week in the U.S. as shares saw the biggest gain and the largest drop in two months after touching records a week earlier. Investors are trying to gauge whether benchmarks will continue a march to all-time highs on strong earnings and faster growth spurred by corporate tax cuts or if they will be pulled down amid lofty valuations, the flattest yield curve in a decade and a selloff in junk bonds.
The odds American firms will get a tax break improved Thursday after the House approved its version of the legislation. The Senate is still debating its own plan, trying to reduce the 10-year debt impact below $1.5 trillion. Adding to the discussion, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said Friday the government’s debt-to-GDP is possibly at unsustainable levels.
Elsewhere, bitcoin hovered under $8000. Commodities rebounded from the recent selloff. West Texas crude jumped to around $56 a barrel as Saudi Arabia moved to dispel doubts over Russia’s readiness to extend output curbs. The Japanese yen gained the most in more than two months against the dollar.
Emerging market shares headed for the highest close in six years.

  These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index fell 0.3 percent to 2,578.80 as 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.3 percent., falling for the eighth time in nine days.
* Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 0.2 percent to the highest in a week.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index increased 1.2 percent, set to close at the highest level since August 2011.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4 percent, touching the lowest in more than three weeks.
* The euro gained 0.2 percent to $1.1791.
* The British pound rose 0.1 percent to $1.3210.
* The Japanese yen climbed 0.9 percent to 112.09 per dollar, the biggest gain since Sept. 8.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell three basis points to 2.345 percent, falling for the third day this week.
* Germany’s 10-year yield dipped two basis points to 0.36 percent, the lowest in more than a week.
* Britain’s 10-year yield gained one basis point to 1.294 percent.
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude advanced 2.6 percent to $56.59 a barrel.
* Gold gained 1.2 percent to $1,293.99 an ounce, the biggest gain in more than two months.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Every exit is an entry to somewhere else.
-Tom Stoppard, b. 1937

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

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