March 13, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 1969, “The Love Bug” opened in theaters across the U.S. The movie is a Walt Disney film about a down-on-his-luck auto racer who goes on a winning streak after teaming up with a Volkswagen Beetle named Herbie. Because of its box-office success, it spawned other cinematic spinoffs including the 2005 movie “Herbie: Fully Loaded” with Lindsay Lohan.

And tomorrow is the most magical day of the year: Pi Day.
 
It’s also the most magical year of the century: Pi Year.

That is, tomorrow’s date is 3/14/15, which matches up nicely with the first five digits of pi, the ratio of every circle’s circumference to its diameter: 3.1415.

C/d = π. (kjoonlee)

What’s more, at precisely 9:26:53 am, we’ll have Pi Second: an even more magical time at which the date and time match up with the first 10 digits of pi, 3.141592653.

But it doesn’t stop there. As University of Toronto statistician Jeffrey S. Rosenthal has pointed out, at an infinitesimally brief moment just after 9:26:53.58979 am but slightly before 9:26:53.5898 am, we’ll have Pi Instant.

At this impossibly short moment, our particular civilization’s way of marking the amount of time elapsed since an arbitrary datein history will match perfectly with every single digit of pi, an irrational number that literally never ends (when expressed in abase 10 numbering system, or any system that uses a natural number as its base).

Pi will ring throughout the land. It will extend to infinity. For the briefest of moments, pi will fill the gap in your soul.

The ancient Babylonians knew of pi’s existence nearly 4000 years ago. Illustration: Pi Island by fdecomite licensed under CC BY 2.0

Savor this moment. Appreciate it. Think of circles.

It won’t happen again until 2115, when you’ll probably be dead.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Yang Jini, South Korean chief curator of gallery IHN, places leaves to complete the artwork ‘Untitled,’ by South Korean artist Kim Myeongbeom, during the VIP preview of the art fair ‘Art Basel’ in Hong Kong Friday. Art Basel stages modern and contemporary art shows and is held annually in Basel, Switzerland, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong. Kin Cheung/AP

Nico de Boinville celebrates winning the 15.20 Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase on Coneygree at the Cheltenham Festival Friday in England. Dylan Martinez/Livepic/Reuters

Market Closes for March 13^th, 2015     

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, capping a second weekly loss, as the nation’s unemployment rate jumped to a five- month high while financial companies and energy producers retreated with the price of oil.

     Canadian Energy Services & Technology Corp. and Gran Tierra Energy Inc. retreated at least 5.8 percent as oil posted a fourth weekly decline. Canexus Corp. lost 14 percent after slashing its quarterly dividend. Cascades Inc. slumped 11 percent after revenue and earnings fell short of analysts’ estimates.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 39.23 points, or 0.3 percent, to 14,731.49 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The S&P/TSX has tumbled 1.5 percent this week, and briefly erased gains for the year both today and on Tuesday.

     Penn West Petroleum Ltd. dropped 5.2 percent and Surge Energy Inc. lost 3.1 percent as energy stocks declined 0.4 percent as a group. Seven of 10 industries in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge retreated on trading volume 16 percent lower than the 30-day average.

     West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery slid 4.7 percent in New York to $44.84, extending the week’s decline to 9.6 percent, the biggest weekly slump since December. The International Energy Agency said record crude inventories in the U.S. may begin to strain the country’s storage capacity.

     Canada’s jobless rate rose to 6.8 percent, the highest since September, from 6.6 percent in January. Nationwide employment fell by 1,000 positions, ahead of the average economists’ estimate of a 5,000 job decline according to a survey by Bloomberg News.

     Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. rose 3.3 percent, snapping a three-day slide. The drugmaker will issue about $10 billion of debt to help fund its proposed acquisition of Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

     Salix is the target of a bidding war, with Endo International Plc offering $175 a share in cash and stock for the company, versus Valeant’s agreement last month to pay $158 a share entirely in cash.

US

By Callie Bost

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its third straight weekly decline, as a dollar rally weighed on raw-material and industrial companies.

     International Business Machines Corp. and United Technologies Corp. lost more than 2 percent. Halliburton Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. declined as crude oil retreated amid rising supplies. Raw material companies slid 1 percent.

     The S&P 500 Index slipped 0.6 percent to 2,053.4 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge pared losses of as much as 1.2 percent as energy companies trimmed declines in the final half hour of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 145.91 points, or 0.8 percent, to 17,749.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.4 percent. About 6.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 2.1 percent below the three-month average.

     “We need the dollar and oil to settle down or we’re going to see more big moves,” Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab Corp., said by telephone. “A lot of this volatility we’ve seen recently is related to most of the data indicating that the Fed’s rate hike is very likely coming in June.”

     The dollar advanced against the euro, rebounding from a drop on Thursday that was the most since Feb. 5. A dollar gauge against its major peers has jumped 8 percent this year, set for the biggest quarterly gain since 2008.

     The U.S. currency’s rise to a 12-year high versus the euro has helped drag American stocks down 3 percent since a record on March 2, amid concern earnings growth will be lower than investors project.                      

     Consumer confidence declined in March to a four-month low as optimism about the U.S. economy was tempered by weaker income expectations and a rebound in gasoline prices.

     The University of Michigan said Friday its preliminary consumer sentiment index decreased to 91.2 this month from 95.4 in February. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a reading of 95.5.

     An earlier report showed wholesale prices in the U.S. unexpectedly declined in February for a fourth consecutive month, reflecting cheaper food and a slump in profit margins among wholesalers and retailers.

     Overall, U.S. economic data have been falling short of prognosticators’ expectations by the most in six years. The Bloomberg ECO U.S. Surprise Index, which measures whether data beat or miss forecasts, fell to the lowest since 2009, when the nation was in the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

     All 10 main groups of the S&P 500 declined as utilities and and raw-material shares fell at least 1 percent, leading losses. IBM and United Technologies slid at least 2 percent for the worst drops in the Dow.                          

     Miner Freeport-McMoran Inc. lost 4 percent and specialty metals producer Allegheny Technologies Inc. fell 5.8 percent to pace declines among raw-material companies. Alcoa Inc. slipped 1.7 percent.

     Energy companies in the S&P 500 dropped 0.5 percent after falling as much as 1.5 percent and briefly touching a two-year low. Halliburton decreased 2 percent, while Dow components Chevron and Exxon slumped at least 0.4 percent as West Texas Intermediate crude prices fell to the lowest in six weeks.

     Financial companies in the benchmark index lost 0.7 percent after rising 2.2 percent Thursday in their second-strongest advance this year. Charles Schwab Corp. slumped 2.3 percent, reversing yesterday’s 1.2 percent climb. Morgan Stanley slid 2 percent after Thursday posting its best gain since June.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index gained 3.8 percent to 16, after its biggest drop in a month Thursday. The gauge, known as the VIX, rose 14 percent last week, its biggest jump in five weeks.

     Harley-Davidson Inc. fell 3.4 percent to its lowest level since October after a report that the motorcycle maker is laying off 169 workers at a Kansas City, Missouri, factory.

     Herbalife Ltd. jumped 8.2 percent. The FBI is investigating a contractor hired by Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP and whether false statements were made to regulators, said two people familiar with the matter.

     Ackman accused Herbalife of misleading distributors, misrepresenting sales and selling a commodity product at inflated prices. His fund bet $1 billion against Herbalife’s shares.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

Our responsibility is no longer to acquire, but to be.

Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,
 

Carolann

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.

                            -Amelia Earhart, 1897-c.1939

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