August 31, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Today I read with great sadness that Sir David Tang has died at the age of 63.  One of the great pleasures for me from weekends past was reading his FT House & Home column wherein he offered erudite musings on all aspects of life and art and witty answers to his followers’ questions.  Indeed, I have a file folder stuffed with past columns that I cut out and I re-read from time to time.  He hailed from Hong Kong, but was sent to school in Britain at thirteen years of age.  Knighted by the Queen for his far-reaching accomplishments, he was  a huge anglophile, joking that he was like a banana: “yellow on the outside but white underneath”.

I found this rather prescient column in that file today.  It appeared in the Financial Times on  February 11^th of this year:

Letter writer: You well describe a feeling that I have sometimes experienced, and I hope someone at my funeral will see to it the Adagio from Weber’s Clarinet Quintet is played or, if the organist is up to it,  Reger’s Benedictus.

Sir David Tang replies:  Then make sure you book Cameron Carpenter whose dexterity on the organ is second to none.  His performances on the organ, which travels with him, and the extraordinary arrangements he makes could almost resurrect your cadaver and leave your hairs standing on their ends.  But why not ask for a couple of organ pieces that are played with a full orchestra?  This combination is seldom seen outside concert halls or churches which have perfectly wonderful organs.  At my wedding, held in a beautiful church, I arranged for the English Chamber Orchestra to play the slow movement from Saint-Saëns’ organ symphony No 3.  I also arranged for the allegro part of Poulenc’s organ concerto to play as my new wife and I sauntered down the aisle.  It is marvelous when there is a full orchestra accompanying a blasting organ in a church.  I have always wondered why, even at the grandest funerals or memorials for heroes and heroines, this regal combination of orchestra and organ is seldom found.
   If my executors can afford Cameron Carpenter, I would definitely engage him to play his version of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at my funeral.  Wagner’s triumphant masterpiece strikes just the right chords with which to enter the kingdom of heaven.

On Aug. 31, 1997, Britain’s Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris at age 36.
Go to article »

Also on this day, in 1896, gold was discovered in the Klondike
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The pair of kingfishers perched on a ‘Private fishing’ sign. – This pair of cheeky kingfishers flouted the rules as they showed off their freshly-caught dinner on top of a ‘Private fishing’ sign.  The brightly-coloured birds passed a tiny fish between their beaks in photographs taken by Alit Abdulraheem. The 20-year-old photographer from Kuwait captured the amusing shots in the River Dee in Kirkcudbright, Scotland. Ali, a civil engineering student at the University of Salford, says: Patience and quietness was the key to capturing these pictures.
CREDIT: ALI ABDULRAHEEM/HOTSPOT MEDIA

Eerie ghost children float out of sewers to haunt thousands on morning commute for upcoming theatrical release of “IT” in Toronto, Canada.
CREDIT: GP IMAGES/WIREIMAGE

Izabel Goulart is seen during the 74^th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy.
CREDIT: MARK MILAN/GC IMAGES
Market Closes for August 31^st, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day on 2009, Walt Disney announced it was acquiring comic book giant Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.

Number of the Day
69%
Cadillac through July sold 69% more vehicles in China than a year earlier, a sales surge that has meant the car company is now selling more vehicles abroad than in the U.S.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, posting their first monthly gain since April, as the economy unexpectedly accelerated in the second quarter and energy prices rallied.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 79 points or 0.5 percent to 15,211.87, its highest close in three weeks. The benchmark gained 0.6 percent for the month.
     Energy stocks rose 0.8 percent as the price of West Texas Intermediate crude gained 2.8 percent, rebounding from three days of Harvey-related losses. Bonavista Energy Corp., Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. and Birchcliff Energy Ltd. all added more than 5 percent.
     Financials gained 0.5 percent as Toronto-Dominion Bank rose 3.3 percent, the most in 18 months. The bank reported its best profit growth in domestic banking since the second quarter of 2015.
     In other moves:
* Canadian Western Bank rose 1.1 percent after reporting third- quarter profit that beat the highest analyst estimate
* AGF Management Ltd. fell 4.3 percent. Smith & Williamson, which it owns 32 percent of, said it ended merger talks with Rathbone Brothers
* Painted Pony Energy Ltd. lost 7.2 percent after it cut its 2017 capital budget and was downgraded to market perform at Raymond James.
US
By Robert Brand and Jeremy Herron
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose after data underscored the resilience of the American and Chinese economies and concern over North Korea shifted to the background. The dollar slumped after Steven Mnuchin said a weaker currency is “somewhat better” for trade.
     The S&P 500 Index erased a monthly loss with its fifth straight advance. Miners led gains in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index after a rise in Chinese manufacturing buoyed industrial metals. Emerging-market stocks a eighth monthly gain to end at the highest since 2014. The dollar also turned lower on weak inflation data, while 10-year Treasury yields slipped to 2.12 percent. Oil rose and gasoline climbed for an eighth day amid the impact of Harvey.
     Data Thursday showed China’s official factory gauge strengthened further in August, defying economists’ expectations, after reports Wednesday revealed U.S. second- quarter growth reached the fastest pace in two years and hiring was robust in August. Consumer spending increased by less than estimated in July, though rising incomes and an upward revision to June purchases put the economy on a stable footing for the second half. The focus now moves to jobs data tomorrow as diplomatic efforts to contain North Korea’s nuclear program continue.
     “Even though the North Korean tensions are still bubbling away in the background, traders are keen to move back into equities while the sense of panic has evaporated,” said David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
     President Donald Trump signaled he’s running out of patience with Kim Jong Un’s regime after the latest provocation in which Pyongyang sent a missile over Japan earlier this week. Trump dismissed the idea of negotiating, while his defense chief said the U.S. hasn’t given up on diplomatic options. Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kano and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agreed in a phone call to send a clear message to prevent North Korea from taking further actions and to prepare additional sanctions.
     Among other key events this week:
* U.S. non-farm payrolls data for August will be scrutinized for clues on the Fed’s policy-tightening path. The data is due Friday, along with unemployment and earnings numbers and the Markit U.S. PMI
* The eurozone PMI is due Friday, ahead of next week’s ECB rates decision.

      And here are the main moves in markets:

                               Stocks
* The S&P 500 added 0.6 percent to 2,471.41 at 4 p.m. in New York. The index edged higher by 1.17 points in August. Its five- day winning streak is the longest since May.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 percent to cap a fifth straight monthly advance. The Nasdaq 100 Index ended the month at an all-time high.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.8 percent, the biggest gain in a week. It fell 1.1 percent in the month.
                           Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2 percent.
* The euro added 0.2 percent to $1.1903, near the strongest since 2015.
* The British pound added 0.1 percent to $1.2931.
* The Japanese yen rose 0.1 percent to 110.09 per dollar.
                           Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries slipped to 2.12 percent. It fell 17 basis points in the month.
* Germany’s 10-year yield also was essentially flat at 0.36 percent.
                           Commodities 
* Gold rose 0.7 percent to $1,317.85 an ounce to cap its best month since January.
* West Texas Intermediate crude gained 2.8 percent to $47.25 a barrel.
* Copper advanced 0.4 percent to $3.08 a pound.
* Gasoline for September advanced for an eighth day, up 14 percent to $2.1476 a gallon. Earlier the front-month contract touched the highest since July 2015.
                           Asia
* The Topix index rose 0.6 percent at the close in Tokyo, paring its first monthly drop since March. Australia’s S&P/ASX 500 Index added 0.8 percent. The Kospi retreated 0.4 percent.
* Benchmark indexes dropped 0.6 percent in Hong Kong and fell in Shanghai, led by declines in banking stocks that had recently been surging.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The infinite oneness of the Soul is the eternal sanction of all morality.
You and I are not only brothers – every literature voicing man’s struggle towards freedom
has preached that – but you and I are really one.
This is the dictate of Indian philosophy.
The ones is the rationale of all ethics and all spirituality.
Swami Vivekananda

As ever,

Carolann

It may be those who do most, dream most.
                -Stephen Leacock, 1869-1944

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