February 27, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Birthday: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet

Longfellow, the second of eight children, was born in Portland, Maine, and it is the wilderness and the sea that supplies his poetry, like Song of Hiawatha, Evangeline, and The Courtship of Miles Standish, with their images and meaning.  He wrote poems as a young man during his years at Bowdoin College and then turned to academic writing and translation as a professor of modern languages at Harvard.   His store of languages included French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Icelandic, Swedish, and some Finnish.

In 1854, at the age of 47, a skilled lecturer known for his courtesy to his students, he left academia and pursued his literary ambitions with remarkable publishing success.

In July 1861, his wife Fanny’s dress caught fire while she was using sealing wax.  She ran to Longfellow whose efforts to beat out the flames left him critically burned; Fanny died hours later.  The scars on Longfellow’s face made shaving impossible and from then on, he was the bearded man with the mane of white.

He finished his last poem, The Bells of San Blas, on March 15, 1882.  He died nine days later on March 24, 1882.

The Bells of San Blas

BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

What say the Bells of San Blas 
To the ships that southward pass 
        From the harbor of Mazatlan? 
To them it is nothing more 
Than the sound of surf on the shore,— 
        Nothing more to master or man. 

But to me, a dreamer of dreams, 
To whom what is and what seems 
        Are often one and the same,— 
The Bells of San Blas to me 
Have a strange, wild melody, 
        And are something more than a name. 

For bells are the voice of the church; 
They have tones that touch and search 
        The hearts of young and old; 
One sound to all, yet each 
Lends a meaning to their speech, 
        And the meaning is manifold. 

They are a voice of the Past, 
Of an age that is fading fast, 
        Of a power austere and grand; 
When the flag of Spain unfurled 
Its folds o’er this western world, 
        And the Priest was lord of the land. 

The chapel that once looked down 
On the little seaport town 
        Has crumbled into the dust; 
And on oaken beams below 
The bells swing to and fro, 
        And are green with mould and rust. 

“Is, then, the old faith dead,” 
They say, “and in its stead 
       Is some new faith proclaimed, 
That we are forced to remain 
Naked to sun and rain, 
        Unsheltered and ashamed? 

“Once in our tower aloof 
We rang over wall and roof 
        Our warnings and our complaints; 
And round about us there 
The white doves filled the air, 
       Like the white souls of the saints. 

“The saints! Ah, have they grown 
Forgetful of their own? 
        Are they asleep, or dead, 
That open to the sky 
Their ruined Missions lie, 
        No longer tenanted? 

“Oh, bring us back once more 
The vanished days of yore, 
        When the world with faith was filled; 
Bring back the fervid zeal, 
The hearts of fire and steel, 
        The hands that believe and build. 

“Then from our tower again 
We will send over land and main 
        Our voices of command, 
Like exiled kings who return 
To their thrones, and the people learn 
        That the Priest is lord of the land!” 

O Bells of San Blas, in vain 
Ye call back the Past again! 
        The Past is deaf to your prayer; 
Out of the shadows of night 
The world rolls into light; 
       It is daybreak everywhere.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

People walk through the Dark Hedges, a tunnel-like avenue of intertwined beech trees planted in the 18th-century, in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, on Monday. Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

Men parade through the village of Stein, Switzerland, during the traditional Swiss carnival ‘Bloch’ on Monday. The ‘Bloch’ is an adorned tree log that symbolizes a gift to workers. It is dragged through villages in the Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden in eastern Switzerland. Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone/AP

A dog catches a ball on Whiterocks beach at sunset in Portrush, Northern Ireland, on Monday. Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Market Closes for February 27^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Lu Wang
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, with the key benchmark gauge hitting a three-week low, as investors pared bets ahead of a major speech by U.S. President Donald Trump and the Bank of Canada’s decision on interest rates this week.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index slipped 0.5 percent to 15,463.51 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, extending declines for a fourth straight session after reaching a record high last week. Gold miners tumbled, leading a 3.6 percent slump among materials producers, while health-care and energy companies advanced.
     Trump is scheduled to address the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, when he’s expected to propose major defense-spending increases and big cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, State Department and other federal agencies, according to a person familiar with the plan. Stocks have rallied across the globe amid optimism that Trump’s pro-growth agenda will help strengthen the world’s largest economy.
     In Canada, the central bank is expected to keep its monetary policy unchanged Wednesday.
     In other movers:
     * Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. climbed 3.3 percent. The drug company said it hired about 250 sales people at its Salix gastrointestinal-disorder unit in the past three months, scaling up the staff by almost 40 percent.
     * Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. slipped 5.8 percent as the company said Chief Financial Officer Steeve Thibeault plans to retire in May.
US
By Oliver Renick
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced Monday to record highs as investors awaited a speech tomorrow by U.S. President Donald Trump that’s expected to provide more details on his policies.
     The S&P 500 Index added 0.1 percent to 2,369.73 at 4 p.m. in New York while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 16 points to 20,837.44. The 30-member index has climbed for 12 straight sessions, the longest streak since 1987, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
* Energy shares higher, up 0.9% with oil up 0.4%
* “Safety” stocks from staples, utility and phone shares all down at least 0.5% in reversal from last week
* The U.S. president is expected to lay out his plans for tax and health-care reform and infrastructure spending before a joint session of Congress Tuesday
** Trump will propose boosting defense spending by $54 billion in his first budget plan and offset that by an equal amount cut from the rest of the government’s discretionary budget, according to administration officials
* This week’s economic releases include gross domestic product and personal spending tomorrow
* Strategists expect the S&P 500 to end the year at 2,364, according to the average of 19 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
* With more than 90% of S&P 500 firms having reported earnings so far, about three-quarters have beat profit estimates and about half have exceeded sales forecasts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Nine companies are reporting results today
* VIX up 5.4% to above 12 for the first time in more than a month
* ECONOMY:
** Orders for U.S. durable goods rebounded in January, a sign companies remained upbeat at the start of the year
** Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in January
** Dallas Fed manufacturing activity at 24.5 vs 22.1 in the prior month
* EARNINGS:
** After-market Monday: Tenet Healthcare (THC), Workday (WDAY), Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ), Exelixis (EXEL), Priceline Group (PCLN), Albemarle (ALB), EOG Resources (EOG), Frontier Communications (FTR)
** Pre-market Tuesday: Medicines (MDCO), Domino’s Pizza (DPZ), Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX), Platform Specialty Products (PAH), NRG Energy (NRG), AutoZone (AZO), Target (TGT)
* Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.1% at the close, paring an earlier drop of as much as 0.4%

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Never under any circumstances ask “how.”
When you  use the word “how” you really want someone to tell you what to do,
some guide, some system, someone to lead you by the hand so that you lose your freedom,
our capacity to observe, your own activities, your own thoughts, your own way of life.
Krishnamurti

As ever,

Carolann

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.
                                                                                        -Vernon Law, b. 1930

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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com