April 10, 2013 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

New Moon in Aries today.

FLYING MACHINES

A German chocolate company created futuristic postcards in 1900 of what it imagined the world would look like in 2000.  The images are amusing and oddly prescient, showing innovations that are fairly true to life today, such as moving walkways, snow-creating machines, and commonplace air travel.  Check them out at http://bit.ly/futurepostcards. -from CSM, April ,2013.

We’ll have to wait and see if this comes true:  Computer login via thoughts?  Computer passwords may soon be a thing of the past, replaced by “passthoughts” that users only have to think to have applied.  Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, say they’re studying the feasibility of brainwave-based computer authentication as a substitute for passwords, reports United Press International.  Recent developments in biosensor technologies could make using electronencephalograms, or brainwave measurements. Possible.  New consumer-grade headsets using just a single dry-contact sensor resting against the user’s forehead could provide an

EEG  signal from the brain’s left frontal lobe.  Experiments show the principle of passthoughts is workable, the researchers said. –from The G & M, 04/10/13.

Photos of the day – April  10th, 2013

Raindrops sit on a closed daffodil blossom in Hamburg, Germany. Bodo Marks/AP

People watch a furniture creation by ‘Mosa’ factory on display at the Milan Design Fair, in Milan, Italy. The Milan furniture and design week fair is a six-day event which ends next Sunday. Antonio Calanni/AP

Market Closes for April 10th, 2013

Market 

Index

Close Change
Dow 

Jones

14802.24 +128.78 

 

+0.88%

S&P 500 1587.73 +19.12 

 

+1.22%

NASDAQ 3297.253 +59.395 

 

+1.83%

TSX 12534.91 +50.86

 

+0.41%

 

International Markets

Market 

Index

Close Change
NIKKEI 13288.13 +95.78

 

+0.73

 

HANG 

SENG

22034.56 +164.22

 

+0.75%

 

SENSEX 18414.45 +187.97

 

+1.03%

 

FTSE 100 6387.37 +74.16

 

+1.17%

 

Bonds

Bonds % Yield Previous % Yield
CND. 

10 Year Bond

1.806 1.774
CND.  

30 Year

Bond

2.442 2.395
U.S.  

10 Year Bond

1.8034 1.7502
U.S.  

30 Year Bond

3.0030 2.9377

Currencies

BOC Close Today Previous
Canadian $ 0.98546 0.98394

 

US  

$

1.01475 1.01633
Euro Rate 

1 Euro=

Inverse 

Canadian  

$

1.32525 0.75457
US 

$

1.30599 0.76572

Commodities

Gold Close Previous
London Gold  

Fix

1558.75 1585.47
Oil Close Previous 

 

WTI Crude Future 94.64 94.20
BRENT 106.15 106.43

 

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft and Eric Lam

April 10 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a third day, the longest winning streak in a month, as energy producers and banks advanced amid higher-than-forecast Chinese imports.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender, and Bank of Nova Scotia added more than 1.8 percent. Arc Resources Ltd. and Husky Energy Inc. gained at least 2.7 percent as natural gas surged and oil erased an earlier loss. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, plunged to a four-year low after a report that a Chilean court ordered work halted at the company’s Pascua Lama mine.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 50.86 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,534.91 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has added 1.7 percent this week, erasing its loss for the year. Trading volume was in line with the 30- day average.

“China imports were up, it’s getting people excited again for the commodity side,” said Irwin Michael, portfolio manager with ABC Funds in Toronto. His firm oversees about C$800 million ($788 million). “With the banks, people are coming to terms with the fact the Canadian housing market is not going to crash.”

Imports to China, Canada’s second-largest trading partner behind the U.S., rose by an above-forecast 14 percent in March, the nation’s customs administration said today in Beijing.

Data yesterday showed Canadian housing starts unexpectedly increased for a second month in March and building permits rose in February, evidence that low borrowing costs are supporting construction.

Oil prices rose 0.5 percent to $94.64, the highest settlement since April 2, erasing losses of as much as 0.9 percent earlier in the day. The Chinese import data, Japanese stimulus plans and speculation that corporate earnings will beat estimates sent U.S. equities to record highs, bolstering speculation that fuel consumption will climb.

Natural gas futures rose 1.7 percent to settle at $4.085 per million British thermal units, the first gain in three days, following forecasts for below-normal temperatures through mid- April in the western U.S. Arc Resources added 3.4 percent to C$27.48, the highest in more than two years. Husky Energy advanced 2.7 percent to C$29.92.

Bank shares rallied, with the S&P/TSX Financials index advancing 1.3 percent, the most in eight months. Royal Bank gained 2 percent to C$61.38. Scotiabank rose 1.8 percent, the biggest jump in almost 10 months, to C$58.39.

Bombardier Inc., based in Montreal, climbed 0.5 percent to C$4.09 after announcing it signed a deal to sell as many as 30 of its new CSeries jets to Porter Airlines. The full order would be worth as much as $2.08 billion based on list prices, Bombardier said.

Raw materials producers were the only group among 10 in the index to decline, falling 2.9 percent today to extend the S&P/TSX Materials Index’s loss this year to 16 percent.

Gold producers slumped 4.9 percent as a group, the lowest close since December 2008. The metal’s price slid the most in five months, dropping 1.8 percent to settle at $1,558.80 an ounce.

Barrick tumbled 8.6 percent to C$24.81, the lowest level since October 2008. Chile’s Radio Cooperativa reported an appeals court accepted an injunction filed by indigenous communities against the Pascua-Lama gold project. The company said in an e-mail it has not been notified by the court and had no comment.

Rio Alto Mining Ltd., which is developing the La Arena gold and copper project in Peru, dropped 2.6 percent to C$4.51 after suspending operations at the mine late yesterday when a worker died in an accident while digging a trench. The company has not said when operations will resume.

US

By Lu Wang

April 10 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rallied, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its highest level ever, as China’s imports grew, Japan reiterated its stimulus plans and investors speculated earnings will beat estimates.

All 10 industries in the S&P 500 advanced, with technology and health-care companies rallying more than 1.7 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which counts on computer and software makers for about half its weighting, surged 1.8 percent. Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. jumped at least 2.3 percent as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. predicted a rebound in industry sales. Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. added more than 1.2 percent, pacing gains among financial shares.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent to 1,587.73 at 4 p.m. in New York, as minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting showed officials debated when to curtail stimulus efforts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 128.78 points, or 0.9 percent, to a record 14,802.24. About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, in line with the three-month average.

“A lot of it is sentiment,” Rex Macey, who oversees $20 billion as chief investment officer at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors in Atlanta, said by telephone. “People who were not in the market and people had been nervous are starting to feel as if it’s safe to go back in the water. They don’t feel there is a recession around the corner,” he said. “The market is expecting some bad reports for earnings. We think there might be some surprise to the upside.”

Imports to China rose 14.1 percent in March from the year earlier, leaving the nation with an unexpected trade deficit. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said “bold monetary easing” will reverse persistent deflation in his nation. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank will take all steps necessary to meet a 2 percent inflation target even as he indicated policy adjustments are unlikely every month. The European Central Bank will keep rates low and continue injecting liquidity into the banking system, Governing Council member Christian Noyer said on Europe 1 radio.

The S&P 500 jumped the most since Feb. 27 today, topping a record intraday high of 1,576.09 set in October 2007, and is up 2.2 percent so far this week for its best three-day rally since the beginning of January. The index has more than doubled from its 12-year low in March 2009, helped by the Fed’s unprecedented bond purchases and three straight years of profit growth.

Several Fed officials said the central bank should taper its bond-buying program later this year and stop it by the end of 2013 if labor market conditions improve, according to minutes from the March meeting released today. Fed Chairman Ben S.

Bernanke said on April 8 that economic conditions were far from where he would like them to be.

“Bernanke has made it very clear as of late that while the economy is recovering quite well from recent lows, it is still very far from where he would like it,” Ryan Larson, the Chicago-based head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., said by e-mail. “I think that is trumping the fact that some of the members might want purchases to end sooner.”

U.S. President Barack Obama released his proposed 2014 budget to Congress today, more than two months past the Feb. 4 deadline, after Democrats and Republicans deadlocked over taxes and spending. Under the plan, President Obama wants to again rely on the top-earning U.S. households for most of the tax increases he’s proposing.

Constellation Brands Inc. and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. are among six companies in the S&P 500 reporting earnings today.

Members of the benchmark gauge will post a 1.8 percent profit decline in the first quarter, according to analysts’ projections compiled by Bloomberg.

Companies whose growth is most tied to economic swings led today’s rally. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index climbed 1.6 percent, and the Dow Jones Transportation Average jumped 1.8 percent.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, slipped 3.7 percent to 12.36. The gauge, known as the VIX, is down 31 percent this year and reached its lowest level since February 2007 last month.

Betting on banks and software makers during earnings season has rewarded investors during the bull market. Since April 2009, the industries have generated stock market gains averaging about 2 percent in the two weeks after Alcoa Inc. marked the start of the earnings season, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

That compared with a gain of 1.7 percent for the S&P 500 in those weeks.

The KBW Bank Index climbed 1.4 percent, with 23 of its 24 members advancing. Citigroup added 2.7 percent to $45.06 while JPMorgan gained 1.2 percent to $49.25. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo & Co. are scheduled to report earnings on April 12.

The S&P 500 Information Technology Index soared 1.8 percent to the highest level since Oct. 17. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged the most since Jan. 2.

Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, rallied 2.3 percent to $22.26. Micron jumped 5.4 percent to $10.09. Sales in the chip industry will grow 4 percent this year, after falling 2 to 3 percent in 2012, said Morris Chang, chief executive officer at Taiwan Semiconductor, the world’s largest contract producer of chips.

Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, climbed 2.8 percent to $29.92. The Food and Drug Administration assigned the company’s palbociclib compound a breakthrough designation under a new regulation that’s aimed to expedite the development and review of drugs that may demonstrate substantial improvements in treatment for serious diseases, Pfizer said.

Facebook Inc. gained 3.7 percent to $27.57. General Motors Co. said it will test advertisements on the world’s largest social-network service a year after the automaker quit running marketing messages on Facebook’s website.

Health Management Associates Inc., the operator of acute- care hospitals, plunged 16 percent to $10.53 after it reduced the high end of its 2013 earnings forecast.

Other hospital stocks also fell. Community Health Systems Inc. lost 3.8 percent to $42.26. Tenet Healthcare Corp. slipped 5.5 percent to $41.14. Deutsche Bank AG cut the three stocks to hold from buy.

 

Have  a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

This is a good point to understand that the sum and substance of this lecture

is that there is but One Existence, and that One Existence seen through different constitutions

appears either as the earth, or heaven, or hell, or gods, or ghosts, or men, or demons, or world,

or all these things.

Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902


As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know

where you stand.

-Hayley Williams, 1988-


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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7