May 15, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Birthday: May 15, 1856, L. Frank Baum
When L. (Lyman) Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for children, it was not so much as a  piece of fiction, but as a real tale they could  lose themselves in.  Born on this day in 1856, Baum did many things until he joined illustrator Maxfield Parish in 1897 to create his first book, Mother Goose in Prose.  In 1900, he wrote the instantly successful story of Dorothy and the Tin Man, Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West, Toto and Aunt Em – characters now familiar to an astonishing number of people all over the world.  Baum followed up with thirteen more books about Oz until his death in 1919.
We’re off to see the Wizard,
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
You’ll find he is a whiz of a Wiz!
If ever a Wiz!  there was…

www.thewizardofoz.warnerbros.com
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn’s installation called ” Support” is seen on Ca’ Sagredo palace during the 57th La Biennale of Venice, in Venice, Italy.

Ryoichi Ando (R), 27, a virtual-reality researcher and an inventor of “Bubble Jumper,” competes with his opponent as they demonstrate the sport in Tokyo, Japan.
Market Closes for May 15^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1997, Amazon.com Inc. goes public with a market capitalization of $660 million.
Numbers of the Day
4
The number of times the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen or risen by 1% or more this year, the least for any comparable period since 1965.
8 million
The approximate number of U.S. households that have abandoned traditional pay television or eschewed signing up entirely over the past five years. The surge in cord-cutting has set off a race among media companies to be included in new “skinny” streaming bundles that are reshaping the American TV landscape.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks gained the most in more than a week amid a broad-based rally spurred by higher commodity prices.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 92 points or 0.6 percent to 15,629.47, its biggest gain since May 5. Banks, industrials and energy companies pushed the benchmark higher. 
     Crude prices jumped 2 percent to $48.78 a barrel. Saudi Arabia and Russia said they favor extending oil-output cuts through the first quarter of 2018. Precision Drilling Corp. gained 5.3 percent after it told investors it expects to have an additional five rigs contracted and activated over the next three weeks.
     In other moves:
* Badger Daylighting Ltd. tumbled 9.7 percent, adding to Friday’s 14 percent loss, as the cost of training workers hurt its profit and a prominent short-seller said the shares are overvalued
* Eldorado Gold Corp. lost 7.8 percent. The miner reached a C$590-million deal to acquire Integra Gold Corp.
* Aimia Inc. lost 7 percent. The loyalty-program operator was cut to junk by S&P after Air Canada said it won’t renew its contract
* Premium Brands Holdings Corp. gained 5.3 percent, a record high, following strong first-quarter earnings
US
By Oliver Renick
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks climbed after equities posted their first back-to-back drop in almost a month, as commodity prices staged an early advance and financial shares rallied.
     The S&P 500 Index rose 0.5 percent to 2,402.32 at 4 p.m. in New York, a fresh record and first close above 2,400. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.4 percent to 20,981.94, shy of its March 1 high, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.5 percent to a record 6,149.67. Stocks on Friday extended a weekly drop as April consumer prices and retail sales reinforced expectations for tepid economic growth.
* Small-caps up 0.8%
* Nine of 11 S&P 500 industry groups higher
* S&P 500 Financials up 0.8% on gains in all but one company; Navient (NAVI) and Charles Schwab (SCHW) add at least 2.3%
* Energy shares up 0.6% as WTI oil adds 2.2%
** Crude higher after Saudi Arabia and Russia favored extending a production-cut deal for another nine months — longer than expected
* Materials stocks ahead 0.8% as Bloomberg Commodity Index pares early gains to end up 0.1% for 4th straight advance
* Utility, real estate and telecom shares lag broader market
* 10-year Treasury yield up less than 2bps
* Stock movers (moves at least 2 standard deviation away from 20-day avg percent change):
** Up movers: Cisco (CSCO), Halliburton (HAL), Netapp (NTAP), Qorvo (QRVO), J&J (JNJ)
** Down movers: none
* STREET WRAPS:
** Moody’s Analytics Deal Is Good Fit With Bad Price
** Cyber Attack Is Wake-Up Call on Security Spending
** Lower U.S. Sales, Margin Erosion Weighs on Glenmark* Volume 11% below 30-day average in S&P 500 at this time
** Volume movers: Symantec (SYMC), Qorvo (QRVO), Regency Centers (REG), Ralph Lauren (RL), Cisco (CSC) all trading with volume at least 2.5x 30-day average
* VIX up to 10.4
** Volatility movers: Boston Properties (BXP), Mettler-Toledo (MTD), Comerica (CMA), Borgwarner (BWA), Paccar (PCAR) have highest put/call volume ratio in S&P 500
* POLITICS:
** North Korea boasted on Monday that a new rocket could carry a “large-size heavy nuclear warhead” over long distances, with analysts estimating it could reach U.S. military forces on the island of Guam
** Attorneys from the Justice Department will again come before a federal appeals court to try to salvage President Donald Trump’s order banning travel from six mostly Muslim nations, after a judge said it appeared to be discriminatory
** France: Edouard Philippe, the center-right mayor of the port city of Le Havre, was named France’s new prime minister
* ECONOMY:
** U.S.: May New York Fed Empire Index at -1.0, est. 7.5; prices paid and new orders both fell
** China: The world’s second-largest economy slowed in April as authorities crack down on the nation’s swelling financial leverage; industrial output rose 6.5% last month from a year earlier, compared to 7% seen by economists and 7.6% in March
* EARNINGS:
** Earnings season coming to close: more than 90% of the S&P 500 firms have reported
*** Of those, 78% beat profit projections and 64% topped sales estimates, data compiled by Bloomberg show
** After-market Monday: none
** Pre-market Tuesday: Staples (SPLS), Home Depot (HD), TJX Cos (TJX)

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

To conquer the subtle passions
seems to me to be far harder than the
physical conquest of the world by the force of arms.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.
                       -Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959

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