November 22, 2016 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States.
Go to article »

MEANWHILE IN MASSACHUSETTS
   –by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy

Meanwhile in Massachusetts Jack Kennedy dreamed

Walking the shore by the Cape Cod Sea
Of all the things he was going to be.

He breathed in the tang of the New England fall
And back in his mind he pictured it all…

He would heed that touch: he didn’t know how
Part he must serve, a part he must lead
Both were his calling, both were his need…

But now he was here with the wind and the sea
And all the things he was going to be.

He would build empires
And he would have sons
Others would fall
Where the current runs

He would find love
He would never find peace
For he must go seeking…

All of the things he was going to be
All of the things in the wind and the sea.
                                  -October 1953

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Visitors look at humanoid robots depicting Katsushika Hokusai (r.) and his daughter Oei on Tuesday, in a life-sized model of Hokusai’s atelier on the opening day of the Sumida Hokusai Museum in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward. The museum, which is dedicated to Japanese woodblock print artist Katsushika Hokusai, creator of some of the most iconic art of the genre, opened Tuesday in the neighborhood he lived in some two centuries ago. Eugene Hoshiko/AP

Indigenous men from Pataxó occupy the entrance of the Planalto Palace during a protest against agribusinesses and in demand of the demarcation of their ancestral lands, in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters
Market Closes for November 22^nd, 2016

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything
                                                       -Darrell Huff, 1913-2001
(How to Lie With Statistics, 1954)
Canada
By Eric Lam
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a fourth day to reach the highest level in 17 months, as major banks and consumer staples advanced with retail sales posting the biggest one-month gain since April.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 15,100.38 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, trading at the highest level since June 2015. The equity benchmark is up 16 percent in 2016, making it the top performer among developed markets tracked by Bloomberg. Canadian shares are about 11 percent more expensive than their peers in the S&P 500 Index.
     Canada’s equity benchmark joined gains around the world as the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 19,000 for the first time. The MSCI All-Country World Index of developed and developing markets is up 3.6 percent this year and is headed for its biggest annual increase since 2013. Copper posted the highest closing price in 16 months to pace gains in metals as emerging markets advanced.
     Canadian retail businesses posted a 0.6 percent rise in sales in September, the biggest gain since April and in line with forecasts, in what may be one of the first indications the government’s new child benefits are being spent. Retailer Hudson’s Bay Co. added 0.4 percent to halt a five-day slide.
     Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., the gas station and convenience store operator, rose 0.9 percent for a second up day after boosting its quarterly dividend. Couche-Tard also reported second-quarter earnings and sales that were short of estimates.
     Financial services stocks, which account for about a third of the S&P/TSX, climbed 0.4 percent while raw-materials producers gained 1.2 percent to pace gains in the index. Gold prices advanced a second day.
     Gaming company Amaya Inc. retreated 6 percent, the biggest drop in five weeks. A Dubai investment firm, KBC Aldini Capital Ltd., denied it’s backing a $6.7 billion offer by Amaya founder David Baazov to take the gaming company private and said it has filed a complaint with U.S. securities regulators, the Globe and Mail reported.
     Energy producers slipped 0.2 percent, one of three industries lagging the index. Crude prices fell, trading near $48 a barrel in New York. Investors are awaiting the results of an official meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Nov. 30 in Vienna discussing a deal to cut back on production to balance supply. Talks Tuesday didn’t resolve the question of whether Iraq and Iran will participate in any production cuts.
     Natural resource producers are the top-performing companies in the Canadian market this year, with materials stocks climbing 42 percent on a rebound in commodities prices from gold to crude. Investors have shrugged off a series of market surprises– from the U.K. Brexit vote in June to Trump’s surprise U.S. presidential win earlier in November — to propel global markets higher.
US
By Rita Nazareth and Lukanyo Mnyanda
     (Bloomberg) — All four major U.S. stock benchmarks rallied to records, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average topping 19,000 for the first time. Metals climbed, while oil was little changed.
     The Dow Average rose alongside the S&P 500 Index, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Russell 2000 Index to all-time highs. The MSCI All Country World Index extended this month’s advance and emerging-market shares surged. Copper jumped to its highest since July 2015. Oil closed near $48 a barrel after an OPEC committee failed to agree on Iranian and Iraqi output levels. European bonds rallied on bets policy makers will extend their stimulus program.
     Equities rose on speculation the world’s largest economy is strong enough to withstand higher borrowing costs. The market- implied odds of a Federal Reserve hike in December reached 100 percent, according to Bloomberg calculations based on futures. A rate increase “could well become appropriate relatively soon,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen said last week. The fresh stock highs also came as American companies ended a five-quarter profit slump.
     “We’ve finally broken through to new records,” said Heinz- Gerd Sonnenschein, an equity strategist at Deutsche Postbank AG in Bonn, Germany. “We can move on to pricing in the improving outlook: there are strong signs that the U.S. economy is in good shape and that bodes well for corporate earnings.”
     Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly climbed in October to the highest level since February 2007, a sign of momentum in the housing market a month before a jump in borrowing costs, National Association of Realtors data showed Tuesday. Reports on new home sales, durable goods and manufacturing are due Wednesday, as well as minutes from this month’s Fed meeting. U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
     MSCI’s global gauge rose 0.3 percent at 4 p.m. in New York.
     The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2 percent to 2,202.94, the Dow Average and the Nasdaq added at least 0.3 percent. The Russell 2000 gained for a 13th day in the longest run since 1996.
     The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.2 percent as Anglo American Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. rose at least 4.9 percent. Enel SpA led gains in utilities after announcing a plan to cut costs and dispose assets of about 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion).
     The MSCI Emerging Markets Index extended a two-day rally to 1.7 percent as benchmark gauges from Brazil to China and Russia advanced.
     The Bloomberg Commodity Index posted its biggest three-day advance since June. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Monday that investors should bet on higher prices in the next year as manufacturing picks up around the world, the first time the bank has recommended an overweight position for the asset class in more than four years.
     Gold extended a rebound from the lowest in more than five months, while copper paced gains in industrial metals. Iron ore and steel in China surged to their daily limits.
     Oil ended the session little changed after rising and falling about 2 percent. The talks in Vienna Tuesday haven’t resolved the question of whether the group’s second and third- largest members will participate in any production cuts, and the matter will be put off until the meeting of ministers on Nov. 30, according to two delegates. While Libya’s OPEC governor Mohamed Oun said the meeting ended with a consensus that will be presented to ministers, he didn’t comment on Iran and Iraq’s role.
     The dollar fluctuated against its major peers as traders looked beyond the Federal Reserve’s December policy meeting in search of fresh impetus.
     Before losing steam, the dollar had tracked Treasury yields higher as futures traders fully priced in an interest-rate hike for the Fed’s Dec. 14 policy decision partly on speculation that President-elect Donald Trump’s economic policies will fuel inflation.
     “The dollar is flying after Donald Trump’s victory, and the rally should continue into early 2017 — thereafter, the greenback could weaken,” Royce Mendes, an economist at CIBC World Markets, wrote in a note. “Although that’s fully priced into markets, the delivery of the first hike since 2015 could see markets add to expectations for further tightening, giving the dollar a temporary boost.”
     The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the currency against 10 major peers, rose 0.1 percent. The greenback gained 0.2 percent to 111.07 yen.
     China’s central bank raised its yuan fixing for the first time in 13 days as the dollar’s ascent eased. The rand climbed after the South African government said it would delay a plan to build new nuclear power plants, allaying concern that the cost of the program would strain fiscal targets.
     Bonds climbed across Europe, finding relief after weeks of being whipsawed by political headlines and speculation about higher U.S. interest rates. With the next ECB policy decision due in December, investors are looking for clues in a series of recent remarks from officials who pledged to maintain current levels of monetary stimulus.
     Officials from the ECB are signaling they “are not intending to reduce its monetary stimulus soon,” said Marius Daheim, a senior rates strategist at SEB AG in Frankfurt. “That points to divergence between monetary policy in the U.S., where we are looking for a rate hike in December by the Fed, and the ECB maintaining its steady hand and continuing with its ultra- loose monetary policy. That’s what is creating this payback.”
     ECB President Mario Draghi said on Monday that the central bank is “committed to preserving the very substantial degree of monetary accommodation necessary to secure a sustained convergence of inflation toward” the target of just under 2 percent. This followed comments from Governing Council members Benoit Coeure and Francois Villeroy de Galhau on Monday signaling the time to start scaling down the QE program has not yet arrived.
     The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 2.32 percent, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader Data.

Have  a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The absurd denial of the truth is natural in man.
Man does not want to be, but to appear to be.
He does not want to see what he is, but tries only to see himself as the person
other people take him for, when they talk about him.
Swami Prajnanpad

As ever,

Carolann

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.  Design is how it works.
                                                                 -Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com