September 4, 2014 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 1888, George Eastman — one of the pioneers behind photography — earned a patent for roll film. He registered the trademark “Kodak,” which became one of the most well-known film brands in the 20th century.

September 4^th, 1781 – The city of Los Angeles was founded.

September 4^th, 2014 – Comedienne Joan Rivers dies.

Photos of the Day

The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire look at a piece by Chinese artist Xu Bing entitled ‘Tao Hua Yuan: A Lost Village Utopia’ during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House in central England. Darren Staples/Reuters

The Turanor PlanetSolar catamaran, the world’s largest solar-powered boat, travels on the Venetian Lagoon in Venice. Manuel Silvestri/Reuters

Market Closes for September 4^th, 2014    

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, retreating from an all-time high, as gold and oil slumped after the European Central Bank unexpectedly cut interest rates and announced a bond-buying program.

     Manulife Financial Corp. dropped 1.4 percent after agreeing to purchase the Canadian operations of Standard Life Plc for about C$4 billion ($3.7 billion). Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. gained 3.5 percent for a third straight advance.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 80.84 points, or 0.5 percent, to 15,576.79 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge closed at a record 15,657.63 yesterday.

     The Canadian equities benchmark has surged 14 percent this year, making it the second-best performer among developed equity markets behind Denmark. Trading volume in the S&P/TSX was 9 percent higher than the 30-day average today.

     The ECB cut interest rates and will start buying assets, easing the flow of funding for the region’s economy while holding back for now on larger-scale action. In committing cash to the market for asset-backed securities, Mario Draghi is making good on his pledge to help rekindle an asset class that can funnel loans to the real economy and ease funding conditions for banks.

     Manulife, Canada’s largest life insurer, slipped 1.4 percent to C$22.05, the biggest drop in a month. The firm’s acquisition of Standard Life’s Canadian business will enhance the company’s ability to increase its dividend and add 3 cents annually to earnings per share over the next three years, Manulife Chief Executive Officer Donald Guloien said on a conference call yesterday.

     Detour Gold Corp. sank 4.9 percent to C$12.09 and Semafo Inc. dropped 7.4 percent to C$4.51. Gold for December delivery lost 0.6 percent to $1,263.10 an ounce in New York. Silver Standard Resources Inc. plunged 8.6 percent to C$8.75.

     Painted Pony Petroleum Ltd. decreased 6.2 percent to C$13.26 to pace declines in the S&P/TSX Energy Index. Crude for October delivery dropped 1.1 percent in New York as refineries reduced operating rates.

     Couche-Tard climbed 3.5 percent to C$36.70, extending a record, after CIBC World Markets Inc. analyst Perry Caicco raised his rating for the convenience store operator to sector outperform, the equivalent of a buy. He has a 12-month price target of C$44 for Couche-Tard.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell a third day, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its longest slump since June, as energy producers sank with oil prices to overshadow new stimulus from the European Central Bank.

     Energy shares sank 1.3 percent for the biggest drop among the 10 main S&P 500 groups, as crude fell 1.1 percent in New York. Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. each lost 0.8 percent to pace declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. PVH Corp. surged 9.6 percent after the owner of the Calvin Klein clothing brand posted profit that topped estimates. Fastenal Co. rose 4 percent after reporting a sales increase.

     The S&P 500 dropped 0.2 percent to 1,997.65 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow lost 8.7 points to 17,069.58. Both gauges earlier climbed to intraday records. More than 5.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 1.8 percent above the three-month average.

     “The market is kind of tired,” Walter Todd, who oversees about $1 billion as chief investment officer for Greenwood, South Carolina-based Greenwood Capital Associates LLC, said in a phone interview. “We saw such a quick bounce off the 1,900 level in early August straight up to a new high. In the very near-term, you’ve got a variety of headwinds and exhaustion around the move higher.”

     The S&P 500 has fallen 0.3 percent in the past three days after ending last month at a record. The index gained 3.8 percent in August, the biggest increase since February, and topped 2,000 for the first time.

     The ECB cut interest rates and will start buying assets, boosting the flow of funding for the euro-area economy while stopping short of broad-based quantitative easing. The move boosted European stocks and sent two-year note yields below zero in eight countries.

     The U.S. equity gauge slipped yesterday as Apple Inc. dropped after a competitor unveiled new products and amid conflicting reports about progress on a peace plan for Ukraine.

     The country’s ’s eastern provinces teetered between war and peace as President Petro Poroshenko moved to halt the combat and pro-Russian rebels sought to consolidate gains made in more than five months of fighting.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P options prices known as the VIX, climbed 2.3 percent today to 12.64 for a third day of gains and the longest winning streak since Aug. 1. The gauge lost 29 percent last month, the biggest drop in almost three years.

     U.S. data today showed service providers expanded in August at the fastest pace in nine years, a sign of growing momentum in the broadest sector of the economy. Applications for unemployment benefits in the were little changed last week, while a separate report indicated firms added fewer jobs in August than estimated. The Labor Department’s monthly jobs report is due tomorrow.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

It is this desire to express himself that leads him to search for riches and power.

But he must understand that to accumulate material wealth is not to find this fulfillment.

What brings him back to himself is the interior light, and not the exterior objects.

Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,

Carolann

Be yourself.  The world worships the original.

                  -Ingrid Bergman, 1915-1982

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7