December 5, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
1901– b. Walt Disney
1837 – Upper Canada Rebellion Breaks Out as Mackenzie leads 800 rebels to Toronto.

Terrance Hayes is the award winning author of five collections of poetry; Stephanie Burt is a professor of English at Harvard University.  Her most recent collection of poems is Advice From the Lights, published under the name Stephen Burt in October by Graywolf Press.

Last week,  in the NY Times, Hayes featured one of Burt’s poems, Roly-Poly Bug, with this introduction:  This poem displays a clever folding and unfolding.  Alliterative “ll” sounds braid each stanza with a mix of lull and lullaby.  “I could always make something else of myself,” it declares, bouncing between introversion and confession.  Sly engineering makes the poem something more than a child’s riddle.  Even the  almost overlooked epigraph – non serviam, Latin for “I will not serve” – makes it something more than playful.

Roly-Poly Bug
By Stephanie Burt
                                                             Non serviam

Because I can’t ever appear
as I would like to appear,
I once tried to make it so you couldn’t see me at all.

I named myself after a pill
but it didn’t help. I liked
the feeling of feeling small,

as long as it let me feel mobile; I wanted to roll
up and down and around the tiny hall

of a groove in discarded cardboard. I used to appall
my peers with risky behavior. I might fall

to my death in a half-inch ditch
full of oil or lawnmower grease. I stall

at the brush of a fingertip. I’m so afraid
of a grand faux pas that I answer the most banal

questions by quoting the questioner, so as to let
his words shield mine. I cover my anger
imperfectly, so I can breathe

with my head between my ten legs; I am my own
backyard slat fence, my own slate garden wall.

I am chitin and ichor inside, but I’ll never let on
how I look underneath. I could always make something
else of myself. I could be having a ball.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A majestic owl swopping on its next meal was caught flying straight towards the photographer in this stunning snap. The Great Grey owl stared straight down the lens as he winged his way towards snapper Rick Dobson, who saw his own reflection in the owl’s pupils. The retired civil servant stood completely still so not to spook the enormous owl, which flew past him at the last minute.

The supermoon is seen shining brightly behind the Shard building in London.

The leaders of the Orthodox Churches and archpriests of the Russian Orthodox Church attend a liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on the feast-day of the Presentation of Virgin Mary in the Temple; the liturgy celebrates the 100^th anniversary of the enthronement of Saint Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow.
Market Closes for December 5^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1996, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan gives his “irrational exuberance” speech,  in which he obliquely warns about the inflated stock market. Stocks fall the following day but double over the next three years before the tech bubble bursts.
Number of the Day
19%
The earnings-per-share of a FactSet index of over 20,000 listed companies from around the world  increased nearly 19%  in the last year, the fastest year-over-year rise since 2011.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to the lowest in three weeks as a disclosure of flawed mortgage data at Laurentian Bank of Canada weighed on financials.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 50 points or 0.3 percent to 15,919.43. Financial stocks fell 0.5 percent as Laurentian tumbled 7.9 percent, the most since 2009. Laurentian had earlier gained as much as 3.5 percent after fourth-quarter results beat estimates.
     The materials index fell 1.3 percent as copper tumbled 4.7 percent, its worst day in more than two years. An uptick in stockpiles and the prospect of weaker Chinese demand pressured the metal.
     In other moves:
                         Stocks
* Aphria Inc. jumped 14 percent to a record after striking a deal to supply pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart with its cannabis
* Bank of Montreal fell 0.5 percent. Fourth-quarter results missed estimates but the bank said it expects to boost productivity into 2018 and beyond
* Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. fell 2.6 percent. The pipeline company said the “scope and pace” of permits and approvals is delaying its planned expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline
                         Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $17.35 discount to WTI
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.23 discount to Henry Hub, the narrowest gap in a week
* Gold fell 1 percent to $1,261.60 an ounce, the lowest in four months
                          FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 0.2 percent to C$1.2697 per U.S. dollar
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield fell three basis points to 1.90 percent
US
By Brendan Walsh and Julie Verhage
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with an afternoon swoon wiping out early gains for a second straight day, as investors assessed the impact of proposed tax cuts. The dollar rose and industrial metals dropped.
     Industrial shares dragged the S&P 500 Index lower, giving it the first three-day slide since August. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index erased almost all of a rally that had sent it up as much as 1.2 percent as traders weighed the latest developments in efforts to overhaul taxes in the world’s largest economy, including the surprise inclusion of the alternative minimum rate for businesses in the Senate measure. Ten-year Treasury yields slid to 2.35 percent.
     Copper’s biggest plunge in almost three years hit mining shares and made Chile’s peso among the worst performing currencies in emerging markets. The euro fell even as indicators showed economic momentum accelerated.
     In the U.S., House and Senate lawmakers are poised to begin working on compromise tax-overhaul legislation — a key step in their drive to send a bill with tax cuts for corporations and individuals to President Donald Trump by the end of the year. A global stock rally that has led indexes to record highs had stalled this month as investors locked in profits in tech stocks, the year’s best performers, and switched to firms seen benefiting most from a potential reduction in the corporate tax rate such as banks.
     Elsewhere, oil climbed back toward $58 a barrel before U.S. government data forecast to show crude stockpiles decreased for a third week. The U.S. trade deficit widened in October to a nine-month high on record imports that reflect steady domestic demand. Earlier, indexes fluctuated in Tokyo, while shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai fell even as a report showed China’s service sector expanded more firmly last month than in October.    
     Here are some of the key events facing markets in the coming days:* The European Commission College of Commissioners discusses Brexit on Wednesday and will likely make its recommendation on whether sufficient progress has been made to move negotiations onto the future relationship.
* The U.S. faces a partial government shutdown after money runs out on Dec. 8 if Congress can’t agree on a spending bill by then.
* U.S. employers probably hired at a robust pace in November as the unemployment rate held at an almost 17-year low. The Labor Department’s jobs report Friday may also show a bump up in average hourly earnings.
* Other countries setting monetary policy this week include Brazil, Canada, and Poland.

     These are the main moves in markets:
                          Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index slipped 0.4 percent at the close of trading in New York.
* The Nasdaq 100 Index was little changed.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index closed down 0.2 percent.
* Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average decreased 0.4 percent.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index sank 0.5 percent.
                         Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.2 percent.
* The euro declined 0.3 percent to $1.1826.
* The British pound decreased 0.3 percent to $1.3446.
* The Japanese yen fell 0.1 percent to 112.57 per dollar.                            
                          Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell two basis points to 2.35 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 0.32 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield fell three basis points to 1.26 percent.
                          Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate rose 0.3 percent to $57.63 a barrel.
* Gold dipped 0.6 percent to $1,269.50 an ounce, the lowest since Oct. 26.
* The Bloomberg Base Metals 3-Month Price Commodity Index dropped 2.7 percent to the lowest since mid-September.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

If all were of the same religious opinion, there would be no religion.
No sooner does a religion start than it breaks into pieces.
The process is for the religion to go on dividing until each man has his own religion,
until each man has thought out his own thoughts
and carved out for himself his own religion.
Swami Vivekananda

As ever,

Carolann

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
                                   -Edgar Allan Poe, 1908-1849

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