March 4, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

-from V. Sackville-West:
So cosmopolitan, these English tulips,
To cottager as native as himself!
Aliens, that Shakespeare neither saw nor sang.
Alien Asiatics, that have blown
Between the boulders of a Persian hill
Long centuries before they reached the dykes
To charm van Huysum and the curious Brueghel,
And Rachel Ruysch, so nice so leisurely
That seven years were given to two pictures.

Tulip, dulband, a turban; rare
Persian that wanders in our English tongue.

How fair the flowers unaware
That do not know what beauty is!
Fair, without knowing they are fair,
With poets and gazelles they share
        Another world than this.

They can but die, and not betray
As friends or love betray the heart.
They can but live their pretty day
And do no worse than simply play
        Their brief sufficient part.

They cannot break the heart, as friend
Or love may split our trust for ever.
We never asked them to pretend:
Death is a clean sufficient end.
        For flower, friend, or lover.

   -from The Garden, Spring, 1939-1946.

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. – Lewis Grizzard

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The interior of a Rolls-Royce Serenity luxury car is seen during the second press day ahead of the 85th International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday. Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Buddhist monks pray at Wat Dhammakaya temple in Pathum Thani province, Thailand, during Makha Bucha Day ceremonies Wednesday. Makha Bucha marks the anniversary of Lord Buddha’s mass sermon to the first 1,250 newly-ordained monks 2,558 years ago. Sakchai Lalit/AP

Market Closes for March 4^th, 2015     

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell a second day, to a one- month low, as commodity producers and financial shares declined after the Bank of Canada decided against a second straight interest-rate cut.

     Bank of Nova Scotia dropped 1 percent to lead losses among the nation’s largest lenders. Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc. retreated at least 2.4 percent. Avigilon Corp. plunged 16 percent to pace declines among technology shares. Bombardier Inc. sank to a 10-year low after the company canceled its 2015 investor day and Qatar Airways Ltd. said it won’t buy any CSeries jets.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 51.01 points, or 0.3 percent, to 15,082.84 at 4 p.m., the lowest since Feb. 4. The benchmark Canadian equity gauge has advanced 3.1 percent this year.

     The Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate unchanged at 0.75 percent as exported crude oil prices and inflation have remained close to policy makers’ assumptions and a weaker currency will boost non-energy exports.

     Eighteen of 23 economists in a Bloomberg News survey expected no change, following a surprise rate cut in January.

     U.S. firms added 212,000 jobs in February, short of analysts’ estimates for a 219,000 increase, according to data from ADP Research Institute ahead of Friday’s scheduled non-farm payroll report.

     Bank of Nova Scotia, the nation’s third-largest lender, fell 1 percent for a second day of losses as financial stocks slipped 0.2 percent as a group. The industry accounts for about a third of the overall S&P/TSX. Six of the 10 main industries fell.

     Bombardier slumped 4.6 percent to the lowest since April 2005. The stock has fallen 12 percent in the past four days. The aerospace manufacturer in February shook up its management as the founding Beaudoin family brought in outsider Alain Bellemare as chief executive officer after years of delays in its aircraft programs and mounting losses.

US

By Jeremy Herron and Emma O’Brien

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks retreated for a second day, while the dollar rallied as investors assessed data on jobs and service industries for clues to the timing of interest-rate increases. The euro slid to an 11-year low and gold fell.

     All but one of 10 industry groups dropped in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which was down 0.4 percent by 4 p.m. in New York, still within 1 percent of a record. European stocks halted a two-day drop. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index returned to a decade high as the 19-nation euro touched its weakest level since September 2003. Gold futures fell 0.3 percent. U.S. oil advanced 2 percent, while Brent crude slipped 0.5 percent.

     Companies added fewer workers to U.S. payrolls in February compared with the previous month, private data showed before Friday’s official monthly jobs report, while service industries unexpectedly expanded at a faster pace in February. The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book showed most of the U.S. economy continued to grow from January through mid-February, as spending and manufacturing rose. The European Central Bank is expected to unveil more details on its quantitative easing plans Thursday.

     “It’s just across-the-board selling,” said Thomas Garcia, the head of equity trading at Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management Inc. “It just seems like a little profit taking in front of the ECB meeting tomorrow and the payroll number. I doubt that they will say anything that would spook the markets, just fear of the unknown.”                         

     The market value of global equities has grown by more than $6 trillion since mid-October amid a wave of central-bank monetary easing and signs of strength in the U.S. economy. While the S&P 500 climbed to fresh records four times in February, its 2 percent advance this year through Tuesday trails all but two of the 24 developed markets tracked by Bloomberg.

     The S&P 500 halted its slide Wednesday at 1 percent after it touched the average price for the past 21 days of 2,088.39.

     The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.3 percent in a second day of declines, after closing Tuesday within 1.4 percent of a record reached in 2000. It has taken two bull markets and more than 4,500 days for the Nasdaq to get close to making up all the ground lost in the dot-com collapse. The index surged 7.1 percent in February, its best month since 2012.

     “We had a nice little run here and I just think we’re running out of gas,” Michael Block, chief equity strategist at Rhino Trading Partners LLC in New York, said by phone. “There’s not any leadership in stocks among sectors. The ECB should sound accommodative and the jobs report this week should be good, so if we can’t push higher after that then we’ve got a problem.”

     Among stocks moving Wednesday, Alcoa Inc. sank 3.9 percent as industrial companies tumbled 0.8 percent. Energy companies in the S&P 500 lost 0.2 percent, while phone stocks fell the most, down 1.2 percent.

     Health-care shares were the only group in the benchmark to advance, as Tenet Healthcare Corp. and HCA Holdings Inc. rallied more than 5.8 percent amid questioning during a Supreme Court challenge to insurance subsidies under the U.S.’ Obamacare program.

     Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often provides the court’s swing vote in important cases, said Wednesday there is a “powerful” point to the Obama administration’s argument that the health-care law would fall apart if the subsidies were ruled unlawful.

     Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. jumped 6.1 percent to the highest level since 2001 after winning expanded U.S. approval for its lung cancer drug more than three months ahead of schedule. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index climbed 0.6 percent, touching an intraday record.                        

     Economic reports this week could give clues on when the Federal Reserve may raise benchmark rates from near zero. Wednesday’s ADP National Employment Report showed payrolls rose by 212,000 workers in February, after rising by a revised 250,000 in January. Economists had projected a 219,000 increase for last month.

     The Labor Department’s report due Friday is projected to show the world’s largest economy added 235,000 jobs last month, down from 257,000 in January. Broad-based strength in the labor market supports consumer spending and the economy, even as a slump in fuel costs prices limits hiring in the energy industry.

     In Europe, the Stoxx 600 gauge rose 0.8 percent as Standard Chartered Plc drove banks higher, with the U.K. lender capped its best day since October. ING Groep NV gained 1.2 percent after the biggest Dutch bank said it will sell its remaining stake in Voya Financial Inc., completing an exit from its former U.S. insurance unit. ITV Plc added 5.7 percent after saying it plans a special dividend.                          

     The Stoxx 600 earlier erased gains after an index tracking euro-area manufacturing and services increased less than economists forecast. While the purchasing managers index rose to a seven-month high, it was less than initially estimated. Investors are waiting for a meeting of the ECB Thursday for details on the region’s stimulatory bond buying program announced in January.

     “It’s worth noting that the market may want to increase their short euro exposure ahead of the ECB actually starting their QE program,” said Sam Lynton-Brown, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in London. “While the announcement led to euro weakness, we also think the flow impact of QE is going to be very important.”

     The euro weakened against all but three of its 16 major peers Wednesday. The currency declined 0.9 percent to 132.60 yen, and fell to a record against New Zealand’s dollar. The Australian dollar also slumped to a record versus the kiwi.

     Portugal’s bonds rose with debt in Spain and Italy. The yield on 10-year Portuguese securities declined five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 1.88 percent, approaching the record 1.739 percent set on Monday.

     The Micex slid 2.7 percent in Moscow, falling for the first time in three days. Activity in Russian service industries shrank for a fifth consecutive month in February, at the fastest rate of decline since March 2009 as demand weakened.

     The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5 percent Wednesday, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 1.7 percent.

     A purchasing managers’ index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics on Chinese services climbed to 52 for last month from January’s reading of 51.8. Premier Li Keqiang is expected to announce a 2015 economic growth goal of around 7 percent on Thursday, when the National People’s Congress starts its annual meeting. That would be a drop from last year’s 7.5 percent.

     Gold futures due in April dropped for a third day, declining to $1,200.90 an ounce, while silver, platinum and palladium all slid at least 0.3 percent in the spot market.

     West Texas Intermediate crude rose to $51.53 a barrel in New York, climbing for a second day, while Brent for April settlement fell to $60.71 a barrel in London.

     U.S. crude inventories climbed to 444.37 million barrels last week, the highest level since the government’s Energy Information Administration began compiling weekly data in 1982. Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI futures, increased by 536,000 to 49.2 million barrels. Cushing supplies have more than doubled since November.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

We would be happy to do the millions of things that we are not able to do.

The will is there, but we are not able to fulfill our desire.  Thus when we feel a desire,

but we are unable to realize that desire, we undergo a reaction we call suffering.

What is the cause of desire?  I am, only me.

As a result, I myself am the cause of all of the suffering that I have known.

Swami Vivekananda

As ever,

Carolann

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.

                                       -Margaret Fuller, 1810-1850

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7