March 24, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Spring
  -Gerard Manley Hopkins

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –        
   When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;         
   Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush         
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring         
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
   The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush         
   The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush         
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.         

What is all this juice and all this joy?         
    A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,         
    Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,          
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,         
    Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.    

Source: Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics, 1985)

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Although spring has officially arrived, a fresh accumulation of snow lends a wintry appearance to the Madison, Wis., area Monday. John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal/AP

Girls carry clean water to their homes in an Islamabad slum, in Pakistan, Tuesday. There is a scarcity of fresh drinking water in Pakistan among a population of around 180 million. B.K. Bangash/AP

Market Closes for March 24^th, 2015     

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a third day, climbing to a two-week high, as grocers advanced to lead gains in consumer shares and energy producers extended a rally.

     Penn West Petroleum Ltd. and RMP Energy Inc. climbed at least 5.6 percent to lead energy shares to a third straight gain. Metro Inc. increased 2.6 percent to pace gains among consumer-staples shares. Eldorado Gold Corp. jumped 4.1 percent for the biggest rise in almost a month as gold advanced to a two-week high.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 124.05 points, or 0.8 percent, to 15,081.26 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark gauge has advanced 1.4 percent in the past three sessions to extend its gain this year to 3.1 percent.

     Penn West increased 5.9 percent and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose 1.6 percent as energy shares gained 1.4 percent as a group. Eight of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX rose on trading volume 14 percent lower than the 30-day average.

     Teck Resources Ltd. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. each lost 2.1 percent even as copper capped a fourth day of gains. China’s preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics for March was 49.2, down from February’s 50.7 and the lowest since April 2014. Numbers less than 50 indicate contraction.

     Eldorado Gold rallied 4.1 percent and Yamana Gold Inc. gained 2.4 percent. Gold rose 0.3 percent to the highest level in two weeks, settling at $1,191.40 an ounce on speculation U.S. policy makers will hold off on raising interest rates until later this year.

     Royal Bank of Canada added 0.4 percent and Toronto-Dominion Bank increased 0.6 percent as the S&P/TSX Banks Index rose a third day. The group has rallied 1.7 percent in that period.

     Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. increased 4 percent and Loblaw Cos. rose 2.5 percent as consumer-staples stocks rallied 2.8 percent as a group to an all-time high.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropping for a second day, as a report on consumer prices showed signs inflation is perking up.

     Utilities slid 1.2 percent. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Biogen Inc. lost more than 2.3 percent, leading declines in health-care companies. Genworth Financial Inc. and Legg Mason Inc. fell at least 1.7 percent. Google Inc. and Netflix Inc. rose more than 2 percent.

     The S&P 500 slipped 0.6 percent to 2,091.50 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.3 percent to close 1 percent below its record set in 2000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 104.90 points, or 0.6 percent to 18,011.14. About 5.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 13 percent below the three-month average.

     “The market is looking for new direction, but it hasn’t seen it yet,” Bill Schultz, who oversees $1.2 billion as chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview. “That’s why we’re churning and trading in a pretty narrow range.”

     The S&P 500 and Dow had earlier risen to within 1 percent of records they reached on March 2. The S&P 500 has gone 25 consecutive sessions without back-to-back advances, the longest since a 25-day stretch in 2001.

     Fed Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues last week opened the door to an interest-rate increase as soon as June, while indicating in their forecasts they’ll go slow once they start.

     San Francisco Fed President John Williams said in remarks prepared for delivery in Sydney Tuesday that a discussion should happen mid-year about tightening policy, even as he lowered his growth forecast.

     Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the world largest economy expanded at a rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter and the pace to pick up to 3 percent in the second three months.

     Data today showed the cost of living in the U.S. excluding food and fuel rose more than forecast in February, reflecting broad-based gains that helped keep a floor under inflation.

     The so-called core consumer-price index climbed 0.2 percent for a second month, a Labor Department report showed Tuesday in Washington. A broader measure of prices overall also climbed 0.2 percent, the first advance in four months, as fuel costs stabilized.

     Purchases of new homes in the U.S. unexpectedly rose in February to a seven-year high as stronger job gains helped bolster industry activity amid severe weather. Sales climbed 7.8 percent to a 539,000 annualized pace, the most since February 2008.

     The S&P 500 earlier rose as much 0.2 percent before retreating in afternoon trading to cap a second day of losses. In a repeat of Monday’s trading, selling accelerated into the close and the index ended at its low for the session. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.4 percent to within 20 points of its all-time high before giving back the gains to end at its low for the day.

     The Nasdaq index has rebounded 3 percent since March 11. It crossed 5,000 earlier this month before losing 3.2 percent in nine days.

     Health-care stocks have bolstered the rally as the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index rose 6.2 percent to a record last week. The index is down 2.9 percent since Friday, its biggest two-day drop in three months.

     Google climbed 2.2 percent Tuesday after saying it hired Ruth Porat, Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer, to succeed Patrick Pichette as its new CFO in May. Netflix increased 3.1 percent, the most since Feb. 3, after analysts from Cantor Fitzgerald LP and Barclays Plc boosted their ratings on the company.                        

     Electronic Arts Inc. and EBay Inc. added more than 1.2 percent, while Facebook Inc. advanced 1 percent. The social networking company extended its winning streak to seven days, its longest since July 2013. Twitter Inc. jumped 6.2 percent to its highest since October.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 1.6 percent to 13.62. The gauge, know as the VIX, fell 19 percent last week, its biggest five-day decline since January.

     All of the S&P 500’s 10 main groups fell, led by utilities, health-care and financial shares.

     Asset managers Legg Mason and Franklin Resources Inc. slipped more than 1.6 percent. Progressive Corp. fell 1.3 percent after saying it will begin increasing rates for some risky customers who participate in a program that allows the company to electronically monitor driving habits.

     The Dow Jones Transportation Average decreased for a second straight day, falling 0.7 percent. The drop was paced by Delta Air Lines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., which slipped more than 1.1 percent, pushing the Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index down 0.7 percent.                       

     S&P 500 energy companies slid 0.8 percent as Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. lost 4.7 percent. Oil services companies Noble Corp. and Tesoro Corp. slipped more than 2.2 percent.

     Whiting Petroleum Corp. plummeted 19 percent, the most since November, after giving up on finding a buyer and instead selling shares and raising debt to clean up its balance sheet. The largest oil producer in North Dakota’s Bakken shale region is tapping capital markets after shopping itself to Exxon Mobil Corp. and at least three other companies, according to people familiar with the matter.

     Freeport-McMoRan Inc. slid 0.8 percent. The world’s largest publicly traded copper producer cut its dividend by 84 cents as it tries to fund mining and energy projects in the face of lower commodity prices.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The spiritual can never be attained,

until the material has been extinguished.

Swami Vivekananda

As ever,

Carolann

It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

                                                                 -J.K. Rowling, 1965-

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