April 26, 2017 Newlsetter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On April 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere; at least 31 Soviets died immediately.
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1607 – An expedition of English colonists went ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. (They later settled at Jamestown.)
1865 – John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded and killed by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va.
1937 – Planes from Nazi Germany raided the Basque town of Guernica, Spain during the Spanish Civil War, causing the massacre that inspired what is perhaps Picasso’s most famous painting.
1945 – Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France’s Vichy government during World War II, was arrested.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A bolt of lightning strikes over harbor cranes in Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday. Mike Hutchings/Reuters

Bats are seen in the Old City in Caesarea, Israel, on Wednesday. Amir Cohen/Reuters

Seiichiro Nishimoto, CEO of Shelter Co., poses wearing a gas mask at a model room for the company’s nuclear shelters in the basement of his house in Osaka, Japan, on Wednesday. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
Birthday: Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher, b. 1889
I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves. –Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Market Closes for April 26^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1973, the Chicago Board Options Exchange opens for trading, with call options available on 16 U.S. common stocks.
Number of the Day
328 million
Twitter’s average monthly active users for the first quarter, a 6% increase on a year-over-year basis and up from 319 million in the previous quarter.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks accelerated losses in the last hour of trading, propelling the benchmark index to its biggest decline in nearly two weeks as financials and energy lost ground.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 96 points or 0.6 percent to close at 15,649.54. Financial stocks were the biggest drag, dropping 1.3 percent as bond yields fell following the unveiling of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax plan. Home Capital Group Inc. plunged 65 percent after securing a costly new loan.
     The energy index fell 1.1 percent as West Texas Intermediate crude prices dropped 0.6 percent to $49.28 a barrel.
     In other moves:
* Westshore Terminals Investment Corp. plunged 12 percent after British Columbia said it will seek to ban shipments of thermal coal through its ports in retaliation for the Trump administration’s softwood lumber tariffs
* Equitable Group Inc. lost 32 percent, Street Capital Group Inc. fell 9.8 percent and Genworth MI Canada fell 8.2 percent as home lender and insurer stocks fell in reaction to the Home Capital deal
* Restaurant Brands International Inc. fell 2.9 percent after Burger King’s same-store sales fell in the first quarter
* Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. gained 8.9 percent. The financial services firm expects earnings for the quarter ended March 31 to be significantly higher than previous quarters.
US
By Oliver Renick
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks ended a volatile day little changed, with equity benchmarks near record levels, as investors sifted through details on President Donald Trump’s tax plan, as well as corporate earnings.
* S&P 500 down less than 0.1% to 2,387 at 4 p.m.
* Dow Industrials down 0.1% to 20,975.09
* Telecom (+1%), health care (+0.5%), consumer discretionary (+0.5%) biggest gainers
* Real estate (-0.9%), consumer staples (-0.8%) biggest laggards as 10-year yield drops 3 basis points
* Financial and industrial shares little changed
* Volume in S&P 500 16% above 30-day average at this time
* Volume movers: Seagate (STX), CR Bard (BCR) and Juniper Networks (JNPR) all traded with volume at least 3x 30- day average
* VIX up to 10.9
* Volatility movers: Global Payments (GPN), Advanced Auto Parts (AAP), Ameriprise Financial (AMP) and Snap-On Inc. (SNA) have highest put/call volume ratio in the S&P 500
* Stock market valuations have become divorced from reality, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital wrote to clients on Tuesday, warning of a bubble
* S&P 500 trades near highest valuation since 2002, based on a forward P/E basis
* POLITICS:
* The White House made its opening bid for what officials called the “biggest tax cut” in U.S. history — with cuts that would benefit businesses, the middle class and certain high-earning individuals — but left unanswered questions about whether the plan would be paid for, or how
* Plan calls for slashing federal income-tax rate to 15% for corporations; imposes one-time tax on $2.6 trillion in overseas earnings
* Individual plan proposes condensing seven-tier income-tax structure into just three
* ECONOMY:
* MBA mortgage applications index rose 2.7% in week ended April 21 after falling 1.8% in prior week
* EARNINGS (S&P 500):
* After-market Wednesday: Varian Medical Systems Inc (VAR), Extra Space Storage Inc (EXR), AvalonBay Communities Inc (AVB), Fortune Brands Home & Security Inc (FBHS), Amgen Inc (AMGN), F5 Networks Inc (FFIV), XL Group Ltd (XL), Tractor Supply Co (TSCO), Cincinnati Financial Corp (CINF), Fiserv Inc (FISV), Equifax Inc (EFX), Equinix Inc (EQIX), Public Storage (PSA), Kimco Realty Corp (KIM), TechnipFMC PLC (FTI), Xilinx Inc (XLNX), Raymond James Financial Inc (RJF) ,Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc (MAA), PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL), Citrix Systems Inc (CTXS), Unum Group (UNM), O’Reilly Automotive Inc (ORLY)
* Pre-market Thursday: Simon Property Group Inc (SPG), Allegion PLC (ALLE), Air Products & Chemicals Inc (APD), L3 Technologies Inc (LLL), Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc (MMC), Iron Mountain Inc (IRM), Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC), National Oilwell Varco Inc (NOV), EQT Corp (EQT), LKQ Corp (LKQ), International Paper Co (IP), CME Group Inc (CME), Helmerich & Payne Inc (HP), Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (ALXN), Praxair Inc (PX), American Airlines Group Inc (AAL), BorgWarner Inc (BWA), Xcel Energy Inc (XEL), Teradata Corp (TDC), AbbVie Inc (ABBV), American Electric Power Co Inc (AEP), Boston Scientific Corp (BSX), Southwest Airlines Co (LUV), Dow Chemical Co/The (DOW), Johnson Controls International plc (JCI), Invesco Ltd (IVZ), Under Armour Inc (UAA), CBRE Group Inc (CBG), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY), Comcast Corp (CMCSA), American Tower Corp (AMT), Ford Motor Co (F), Union Pacific Corp (UNP), Raytheon Co (RTN), Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc (ZBH), Parker-Hannifin Corp (PH), Celgene Corp (CELG), SCANA Corp (SCG), United Parcel Service Inc (UPS)
* Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.5% by close
* Index is poised for its best weekly gain of the year.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Hold the reins of your mind, as you would hold the reins of a restive horse.
Svetasvatara Upanishad

As ever,

Carolann

Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.
                                                                     –Franz Liszt, 1811-1886

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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com