April 30, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Tonight is known as Beltane , Wicca or Witch’s Night in Europe:  It began as an ancient Celtic (Scottish Gaelic bealtainn) festival whereupon fires were lit on hill tops, and cattle were driven between the flames.  A person born “between the Beltanes”, i.e., in the week beginning on May Day, is said to have power and influence over all living things.  At the height of spring Beltane begins, celebrating all that is powerful and sensual in nature.  Herbs make potent curs; hawthorn flowers are everywhere.  It is the midpoint between the  spring equinox and the summer solstice; lovers adorn each other with ribbons hanging from the Maypole.

We were there last night when the dark drew down:
We set the bonfires leaping.
Then we vanished in the heather
and we couldn’t be found until
the dawn came creeping.

 -Celtic rock group Annwn

Easter celebrations borrow from the pre-Christian, pagan Beltane festival.  The ancient Celts saw joy and life as one with suffering, death and rebirth.  So it is in  the Easter tradition that Mary, the mother, watches her son suffer and die.  Then he is sealed in a cave, for the way of resurrection lies in deepest earth.  Mary Magdalene is the first to find him risen, for Christ is also the lover, and only with the beloved can new life be sown.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Horses from a circus cavort on a meadow covered with dandelions in Aukrug, northern Germany, Thursday. Carsten Rehder/dpa/AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel feeds a lemur during her visit to the bird park in Marlow, northeastern Germany, Thursday. Merkel is scheduled to open the enclosure for penguins in the bird park. Stefan Sauer/dpa/AP

Market Closes for April 30^th, 2015

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

In most admired companies key priorities are teamwork, customer focus, fair treatment of employees, initiative, and innovation.  In average companies the top priorities are minimizing risk, respecting the chain of command, supporting the boss, and making budget.  –Bruce Pfau, Fortune.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Oliver Renick

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in more than a month, paring its April gain, as data showed the economy stalled in February and falling gold prices overshadowed a rally in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.

     Raw-materials companies lost 1.4 percent. Pretium Resources Inc. and Goldcorp Inc. slid more than 5.1 percent as gold prices tumbled. Valeant jumped 2.1 percent, extending a rally to 7 percent over three days.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 122.82 points, or 0.8 percent, to 15,224.52 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, ending the month with an advance of 2.2 percent. The benchmark Canadian gauge added 1.9 percent in the first quarter despite a decline of 2.2 percent in March.

     Canada’s gross domestic product was unchanged in February, compared with economists’ forecast for a contraction, as a plunge in oil rigging and drilling was offset by gains in consumer spending.

     Output remained at an annualized C$1.65 trillion ($1.37 trillion), Statistics Canada said Thursday in Ottawa, while the median forecast in a Bloomberg economist survey was for a 0.1 percent contraction.

     Pretium lost 5.1 percent as gold erased its gains for the year. Goldcorp lost 6.2 percent after reporting first-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates.

     ARC Resources Ltd. declined 2.3 percent, pacing a fourth loss in five days for energy shares. The group gained 7 percent in April,its biggest advance since 2011, as oil rallied 25 percent.

     Nine of 10 industries in the benchmark gauge retreated today, led by consumer-staples companies. Volume was 24 percent above the 30-day average for this time of day.

     Maple Leaf Foods Inc. added 2.3 percent as the food manufacturer reported first-quarter revenue that topped estimates.

US

By Jennifer Kaplan and Joseph Ciolli

     (Bloomberg) — A selloff in technology and small-cap shares sent the Russell 2000 Index toward its worst week since October and pared a monthly gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

     Apple Inc. lost 2.7 percent after reports it found a defect in its new watch. Yelp Inc. plunged 23 percent as its earnings and outlook disappointed investors, and Google Inc. fell 2.3 percent. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index dropped 3.1 percent. Energy companies pared their biggest monthly gain in more than a year. LinkedIn Corp. dropped 23 percent in late trading as its second-quarter forecast missed estimates.

     The S&P 500 declined 1 percent to 2,085.51 at 4 p.m. in New York, below the index’s average price for the past 50 days. The Russell 2000 Index slumped 2.2 percent, its biggest drop in more than a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 195.01 points, or 1.1 percent, to 17,840.52, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.6 percent. About 8.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 28 percent above the three-month average.

     “The weakness is building on itself, and it’s being led by sectors like biotech, which are bleeding over into the broader market,” said Robert Pavlik, who helps oversee $9 billion as chief investment strategist at Boston Private Wealth. “There’s pressure on Apple. After the big run we’ve been having in the overall market, we’re getting a setback here. A pullback in a market seeing a lot of volatility is going to happen from time to time.”

     Data today showed that consumer spending in March posted the the biggest increase since November, while February’s gain was larger than previously estimated. Incomes were little changed reflecting a drop in dividend payments. A separate report showed applications for U.S. jobless benefits declined last week to the lowest level in 15 years.

     The S&P 500 has gained 0.9 percent in April after a 1.7 percent decline in March. The advance has been driven by a 6.6 percent rally among energy companies as oil prices had their best monthly increase since May 2009. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.8 percent this month, and briefly erased its dot-com- era decline after 15 years.

     Small-cap stocks, meanwhile, have underperformed with the Russell 2000 Index down 2.6 percent in April. The gauge has declined in four of the last five days, dropping 4 percent over the stretch. Energy companies are the only one of the Russell’s nine main groups with a monthly gain, up almost 12 percent. Consumer staples lagged the most, down 5.9 percent.

     Gradually, investors are unwinding bets on smaller companies that they had favored on grounds that their domestic focus would insulate them from the effects of a rallying dollar. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index saw its biggest monthly retreat since 2011.

     Of the S&P 500 members that have already released earnings results this season, 74 percent beat profit projections and 47 percent topped sales estimates.

     Analysts have tempered their predictions for an earnings slump, now projecting a first-quarter drop of 2.9 percent, compared with April 10 calls for a 5.6 percent decline.

     All of the S&P 500’s 10 main groups fell Thursday, led by technology and health-care companies. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index climbed 8.7 percent to 14.55. The gauge, known as the VIX, is on track for its biggest weekly gain since January.

     Apple slid 2.7 percent, down for a third consecutive day, after the company was said to have found a defect in a key component of its watch during production, forcing it to limit supply of the new device, the Wall Street Journal reported.

     LinkedIn plunged 23 percent at 4:55 p.m. After the market closed, the company forecast revenue that missed analysts’ estimates, citing the strong dollar and slower-than-expected growth.

     Salesforce.com Inc. lost 2.5 percent, following a nearly 12 percent jump on Wednesday to an all-time high after a report that the company is working with financial advisers to help field takeover offers. Autodesk Inc. declined 4.6 percent after an analyst downgrade.

     Yelp slumped 23 percent, its biggest drop since going public three years ago, after reporting first-quarter sales and profit that missed analysts’ estimates. Its second-quarter sales outlook was also below estimates.

     Health-care companies in the benchmark index retreated for the fourth time in five days. Varian Medical Systems Inc. and orthopedic device maker Zimmer Holdings Inc. lost at least 4.8 percent after lowering their profit outlooks.

     Biogen Inc. and Celgene Corp. slipped more than 2.6 percent as the Nasdaq Biotech index dropped 3.3 percent amid a five-day losing streak, its longest in more than two years. Biogen is also the worst-performing stock in April among the S&P 500’s health-care group, losing 11 percent.                     

     Harman International Industries Inc. fell 7 percent, its biggest slide in more than two years, after the maker of Harman Kardon and JBL audio equipment posted quarterly profit and sales that trailed analysts’ estimates and cut its full-year earnings forecast.

     Rockwell Automation Inc. advanced 5.6 percent, its biggest gain since 2012, after earnings were better than analysts’ predictions.

     Equinix Inc. rose 4.5 percent to a record after reporting earnings yesterday that beat analysts estimates. The information technology company also raised its 2015 revenue forecast.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

We are trying to understand violence as a fact, not as an idea,

as a fact which exists in the human being, and the human being is myself.

I must be in a state of mind that demands to see this thing right to the end

and at no point stops and says I will go no further.

Now it must be obvious to me that I am a violent human being…

Krishnamurti

As ever,

Carolann

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads

armed with nothing but their own vision.

                                          -Ayn Rand, 1905-1982, The Fountainhead, 1957.

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7