June 6th, 2011 Newsletter
Dear Friends,
Today is the anniversary of the D-Day Invasion.
The D-Day operation of June 6, 1944 brought together the land, air and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest invasion force in human history. The operation, given the codename OVERLORD, delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. The beaches were given the codenames UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO and SWORD. A great invasion force stood off the Normandy coast of France as dawn broke on 6 June 1944: 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, and 71 large landing craft of various descriptions as well as troop transports, and mine sweepers, the largest armada ever assembled. The naval bombardment that began at 0550 that morning detonated large minefields along the shoreline.
The invasion force included 7,000 ships and landing craft manned by over 195,000 naval personnel from eight allied countries. Almost 133,000 troops from England, Canada and the United States landed on D-Day. Casualties from the three countries during the landing numbered 10,300. By June 30th, over 850,000 men, 148,000 vehicles, and 570,000 tons of supplies had landed on the Normandy shores. On May 7, 1945, German General Alfred Jodl signed an unconditional surrender at Reims, France.
Army troops on board a LCT, ready to ride across the English Channel to France. Some of these
We visited the beaches of Normandy a couple of years ago and the spiritual energy of those who gave their lives is still palpable
photos of the day
June 6, 2011
WWII veteran Arnold Whittaker of the 3rd Army, 5th Infantry Division, 10 Infantry Regiment company K, of Atlanta, Georgia, visits the US military cemetery in Colleville sur Mer, western France, on the 67th Anniversary of D Day, marking 67 years since Allied forces landed on a swath of beaches in Nazi-occupied France. The June, 6, 1944, invasion and ensuing battle for Normandy helped change the course of the war.
Vincent Michel/AP
Three-month-old female cheetah cubs live at the Nairobi Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. The two cubs were abandoned by their mother and were brought to the orphanage when they were one-month old.
Sayyid Azim/AP
Canada
By Matt Walcoff
June 6 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks declined for a fifth day, erasing their 2011 gain, as energy stocks fell on lower crude-oil prices and financial companies dropped after the country reported a 21 percent plunge in building permits.
Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, lost 2.2 percent as crude dropped. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third-biggest lender by assets, slipped 1.2 percent after Statistics Canada said building permits sank the most in five years in April. Sino-Forest Corp., the forestry company accused of manipulating financial data by a short seller, gained 16 percent after tumbling 71 percent in the previous two sessions.
The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index decreased 199.25 points, or 1.5 percent, to 13,318.66. Twenty-four of 248 stocks advanced, the fewest since March 10.
“There’s no doubt the economic news lately not only in the U.S. but in many other parts of the world has not been so good,” said Stephen Gauthier, a money manager at Fin-XO Securities in Montreal, which oversees about C$600 million ($613 million). “Everybody’s a little bit nervous about what we’ll see in the next six months.”
The S&P/TSX fell 2 percent last week, trimming its 2011 gain to 0.6 percent, as the U.S. unemployment rate climbed to the highest since December. The U.S. accounted for 75 percent of Canadian exports last year, according to Statistics Canada. The index’s five-day slide is the longest since Jan. 10.
Trading of put options to sell the iShares MSCI Canada Index Fund climbed to a four-month high of 1,550 contracts today, 14 times the four-week average.
Crude futures declined 1.2 percent to a two-week low in New York as traders speculated slower economic growth will limit demand.
Suncor dropped 2.2 percent to C$38.75. Penn West Petroleum Ltd., a western Canadian oil and gas producer, lost 3.8 percent to C$23.87. Enbridge Inc., Canada’s largest pipeline company, slipped 2.1 percent to C$30.98.
Oilfield-services company Trinidad Drilling Ltd. decreased 8.5 percent to C$8.74. Shares of the Calgary-based company have sunk 20 percent since May 31, when it reported first-quarter earnings that missed the average analyst estimate.
The S&P/TSX Financials Index slumped to a four-month low after building permits fell more than all 13 economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast. Scotiabank dropped 1.2 percent to C$57.77. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender by assets, lost 1.8 percent to C$80.21. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth-largest insurer, declined 1.7 percent to C$16.16.
Sino-Forest, which operates in China, rose 16 percent, the most since 2008, to C$6.10 in Toronto Stock Exchange trading after publishing documents on its website that it says support its reported land ownership. On June 5, Carson Block, the founder of Hong Kong-based Muddy Waters Research, said the company’s disclosures of timber holdings do not match city records.
Sino-Forest shares remain down 66 percent since June 1.
Companies with operations in Peru retreated after Ollanta Humala claimed victory in the country’s presidential election.
Humala has called for greater state control over natural resources.
Pan American Silver Corp. tumbled 4.9 percent to C$30.22.
Rio Alto Mining Ltd. slumped 14 percent, the most since January 2010, to C$2.05.
Teck Resources Ltd., which owns an interest in a copper and zinc mine in Peru, fell 3.6 percent to C$47.71. Teck, Canada’s largest base-metals and coal producer, extended its losses after Claudia Onetto, a company spokeswoman, said heavy rains have forced the closure of a copper mine in Chile.
The S&P/TSX Consumer Discretionary Index retreated to an eight-month low. Tim Hortons Inc., Canada’s largest fast-food chain, fell for a fifth day, the longest streak since October, dropping 2.6 percent to C$43.31.
Directory publisher Yellow Media Inc. decreased 6 percent to a record-low C$3.59 after Aravinda Galappatthige, an analyst at Canaccord Financial Inc., said shares may fall further as revenue from print products slides.
US
By Rita Nazareth
June 6 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index trading around the lowest valuation level this year, as a decline in financial stocks overshadowed gains in technology companies.
Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. home lender, slumped 2.1 percent after Rochdale Securities LLC’s Richard Bove cut his recommendation for the stock. Apple Inc. rose 0.7 percent as Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs may announce in an annual developers conference today a new way to access digital songs and information on smartphones and computers. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. added 0.7 percent as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reiterated its “buy” recommendation for the largest publicly traded copper producer.
The S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent to 1,298.48 at 9:33 a.m. today. The benchmark gauge for American equities is trading at about 12.4 times its companies’ estimated operating earnings, the cheapest valuation since September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 6.81 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,144.45 today.
U.S. stocks fell for five straight weeks, the longest slump for the Dow since 2004, as slower-than-estimated growth in jobs fueled concern that earnings forecasts are too optimistic. Labor Department figures last week showed that payrolls grew at the slowest pace in eight months and the U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly climbed to 9.1 percent in May. A separate report showed that manufacturing expanded at the slowest pace in more than a year.
Wells Fargo slumped 2.1 percent to $26.31. Rochdale’s Bove cut his recommendation to “sell” from “neutral,” citing poor economic environment, weak housing prices, slowing manufacturing indicators and negative regulatory environment.
Apple added 0.7 percent to $345.74. CEO Jobs, on medical leave since Jan. 17, will make his second public appearance of 2011 at Apple’s conference in San Francisco. He will preview software updates for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and Mac, as well the new iCloud online storage service, which may help those devices wirelessly share the same materials.
The five-week drop in U.S. stocks has driven technology company valuations to the lowest level in more than a decade, making them too cheap to pass up for some of the nation’s biggest money managers.
The largest group in the benchmark gauge for American equities lost 7 percent, or about $190 billion in value, since the market peaked on Feb. 18, falling more than any industry outside financials. Computer stocks trade for 9.3 times reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, 1.3 times the index’s multiple, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The ratio is the smallest since at least 1998.
While signs of a slowing recovery and the initial public offering of LinkedIn Corp. have spurred concern the industry has entered a speculative bubble, the numbers show something different. Profits will rise 35 percent faster than the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in 2011, and executives are boosting computer and software spending, data from Bank of America Corp. and Bloomberg show.
“We see the best supply-demand trend in technology,” said Michael Sansoterra, a money manager at RidgeWorth Capital Management in Atlanta, which oversees $48.5 billion including Broadcom Corp. and Google Inc. shares. “You can measure it pretty much every way you want and it looks attractive.”
Freeport-McMoRan gained 0.7 percent to $50.30. Goldman Sachs reiterated its “buy” recommendation for the largest publicly traded copper producer, saying that the company should benefit from higher copper prices amid strong demand.
Have a wonderful day everyone.
Be magnificent!
Most parents unfortunately think they are responsible for their children and their sense of responsibility takes the form of telling them what they should do, what they should not do, what they should become and what they should not become.
The parents want their children to have a secure position in society. What they call responsibility is part of that respectability they worship; and it seems to me that where there is respectability there is no order.
Do you call that care and love?
-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986
As ever,
Carolann
The truth does not change according
to our ability to stomach it.
-Flannery O’Connor, 1925-1964
Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP, CIM, FCSI
Senior Vice-President &
Senior Investment Advisor