April 10, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Passover begins at sundown today – commemorating the deliverance of the Israelites – their escape from slavery and exodus from Egypt –  when the angel of death, which slew the first born of the Egyptians, passed over their houses and spared all who did as Moses commanded them.  It begins with the meal of the Paschal lamb, but  refraining  from eating leavened foodstuffs lasts for seven days.
1849: safety pin patented.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY:

Nazi concentration camp survivors Petro Fedorowitsch Mischuk of Ukraine (l.) and Pierre Berg of France chat during the commemoration ceremonies for the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of Mittelbau-Dora camp near Nordhausen, central Germany, on Monday. Jens Meyer/AP

Cherry trees are in full bloom on a sunny morning in Frankfurt, Germany, early Monday. Michael Probst/AP

A man fishes off rocks at dusk as the moon rises in Koh Samui, Thailand, on Monday. Toby Melville/Reuters
Market Closes for April 10^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks continued their upwards march on the back of strong crude prices as oil futures rose for a fifth consecutive day.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 64 points or 0.4 percent to close at 15,730.79. The benchmark only needs to rise another 1.2 percent from its current level to reach the all-time high it hit on Feb. 21.
     The energy index rose 1.1 percent as West Texas Intermediate futures gained 1.6 percent to $53.08, their highest level since March 7. The upcoming summer driving season is expected to help ease the U.S. supply glut, and prices got another boost Monday from reports that Libya’s biggest oil field is suffering another outage.
     In other moves:
* Canopy Growth Corp. jumped 6.6 percent on news that Canada is set to detail its plans for legalized recreational marijuana as early as this week
* Barrick Gold Corp. rose 1.4 percent. Argentinian authorities threatened to rescind the license for the Veladero mine on the same day the company agreed to sell half the asset to a Chinese company
* Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc. fell 5.4 percent after Keybanc downgraded the stock to sector weight from overweight
* Fiera Capital Corp. added 4.8 percent following an announcement that its infrastructure division will buy a stake in a portfolio of eight U.S. solar- and wind-power projects.
US
By Oliver Renick
     (Bloomberg) — Treasuries rose and stocks were little changed with investors erring on the side of caution as geopolitical concerns build in Asia and the Middle East. Oil posted its longest run of gains this year and the dollar weakened for the first time in three trading sessions.
     For the sixth time in seven days, the S&P 500 ran into trouble after crossing above its 21-day moving average. The chart level, roughly the index’s mean altitude over the last month, current sits at 2,360.7. The S&P 500 went as high as 2,366.37 before dropping back to finish little changed. The price swings sent the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX — the market’s standard fear gauge — to the highest level this year.
     Energy shares were one of the few bright spots in the S&P 500 as Libya’s biggest oil field suffered another outage while Russia signaled it’s weighing an extension of OPEC-led production cuts. French bonds fell, widening the yield spread over Germany to the highest since February after polls showed the country’s presidential election is becoming a four-way contest. European stocks traded mostly sideways as equities in France gave up ground.
     Oil rose for a fifth day after advancing 3.2 percent last week following a U.S. military strike on Syria. In Russia, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday his ministry had been in talks with oil companies regarding the need to prolong the six-month deal with OPEC. The U.S.’s decision to divert an aircraft carrier to North Asia sparked a selloff in South Korea assets and renewed concern of Chinese involvement in any regional conflict.
     While demand for haven assets has eased as financial markets attempt to shrug off Friday’s disappointing U.S. employment figures, a ratcheting up of geopolitical tensions and Europe’s looming test of populism curtailed optimism. Corporate results may provide the next fresh catalyst — they’ll accelerate this week with earnings due from the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Tesco Plc and Prada SpA.
     “Geopolitics trumps economics as the main market driver, with strained U.S.-Russian relations and the dispatch of a U.S. aircraft carrier towards the Korean peninsula making the headlines,” Kit Juckes, a global strategist at Societe Generale, wrote in a note. “This week, it will be geopolitics and events outside the U.S. which drive markets.”
     What investors will be watching this week:
* Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile and South Korea are among countries setting interest rates.
* U.S. bank earnings also begin with Citigroup, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo early Thursday.
* U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, and is expected to press the Kremlin about chemical weapons in Syria.
* Fed Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari will participate in a Q&A at a meeting of the Minnesota Business Partnership on Tuesday.
* The U.K. economy is in focus. Inflation probably slowed in March, tomorrow’s report may show, though the headline rate should pick up in coming months. Employment figures are likely to have remained steady on Wednesday, while wage growth slowed.

     Here are the main moves in markets:
     Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1 percent at 1,229.06 as of 4:09 p.m. in New York, after advancing 0.3 percent on Friday. The pound gained 0.4 percent versus the greenback.

     Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.07 percent to 2,357.16. The underlying gauge lost 0.3 percent last week.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index finished little changed. France’s CAC 40 Index dropped 0.5 percent

     Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell 2 basis points to 2.36 percent, after climbing four basis points on Friday.
* France’s 10-year yield rose four basis points to 0.93 percent.
That compared to the bund benchmark yield at 0.21 percent, little changed from the previous session.

     Commodities
* Gold was little changed at $1,254.18 per ounce.
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.6 percent to $53.08 a barrel, after climbing more than 1 percent in each of the previous two sessions.

     Asia
* Equities in Tokyo and Sydney climbed with traders in the Asia Pacific region taking their first chance to react to worse-than- forecast U.S. hiring data.
* The Kospi slipped the most in more than five weeks and the won was one of the biggest losers among major currencies as geopolitical concerns lingered in South Korea.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Man lives in confusion and fear until he discovers the uniformity of the law in nature;
until then the world is a stranger to him.
And yet, the law discovered is only the perception of the harmony between reason,
which is the soul of man, and the play of nature.
It is the bond that unites man to the world he lives in.
When he discovers it, man feels an intense joy, because he realizes himself in his environment.
To understand this is to find something to which we belong,
and it is the discovery of ourselves that gives us joy.
Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,
 

Carolann

Character is power.
-Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915

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