August 12, 2014 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight.

Do you think God gets stoned? I think so….look at the platypus. –Robin Williams.

Photos of the DayFlowers decorate the late Robin Williams’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, Calif. Comedians, politicians, and several generations of fans collectively mourned the death of Robin Williams, the actor famous for his fast-paced and freewheeling comedy, whose apparent suicide at age 63 prompted an outpouring of tributes. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Fireworks explode over the Grand Palace to mark the birthday of Thailand’s Queen Sirikit in Bangkok. Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

Market Closes for August 12^th, 2014    

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

By Eric Lam

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a third day as gold miners advanced to pace gains among raw-materials stocks while crude slipped to send energy producers lower.

Pretium Resources Inc. and Torex Gold Resources Inc. rallied at least 4.2 percent. Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. retreated 3.4 percent as Brent crude fell to a 13-month low. Teck Resources Ltd. dropped 2.5 percent after analysts at Goldman Sachs & Co. cut their rating for the stock.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 12.59 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,274.23 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has climbed 12 percent this year, the second-best performer among the world’s developed markets behind Denmark.

Six of the 10 main industries in the S&P/TSX advanced on trading volume 5.8 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Raw-materials producers jumped 0.9 percent for the biggest advance, as gold fluctuated around $1,310 an ounce in New York. Gold has rallied 9 percent this year amid concern crises in Ukraine and Iraq could disrupt global growth.

Pretium advanced 4.2 percent to C$7.89, the highest in three weeks, and Torex increased 6.6 percent to C$1.62.

A Russian humanitarian mission was headed toward eastern Ukraine after the U.S. warned President Vladimir Putin not to use aid as a cover to send in troops.

Iraq’s political crisis deepened as embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki refused to hand power to designated successor Haidar al-Abadi, and soldiers and militiamen fanned out across the capital, Baghdad.

Energy shares slipped 0.3 percent, as Brent oil slumped after the International Energy Agency said a supply glut was shielding the market against threats in the Middle East.

Legacy Oil dropped 3.4 percent to C$7.87, and Painted Pony Petroleum Ltd. retreated 5.6 percent to C$11.63.

US

By Elena Popina and Callie Bost

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index produced its biggest two-day gain since April, as investors watched geopolitical developments and energy shares sank after Brent crude fell to a 13-month low.

Nuance Communications Inc. tumbled 9 percent after posting third-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates. Consol Energy Inc. slipped 2.4 percent to pace losses among energy shares. Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. soared 17 percent after a clinical trial met its primary goal. Newmont Mining Corp. jumped 2 percent to the highest since November after an eighth day of gains.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 1,933.75 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 9.44 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,560.54. The Russell 2000 Index of small stocks retreated 0.8 percent. About 4.9 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the slowest day in a month.

“We’re in a zone of ambivalence with investors maintaining a cautious bias,” Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank Wealth Management, which oversees $124 billion, said by phone. “Equities appear to be navigating the dog days of summer with markets being driven more by geopolitical events than economic and company fundamentals.”

The S&P 500 climbed 1.4 percent in the previous two trading days amid speculation that tension in Ukraine would lessen. The S&P 500 had fallen as much as 3.9 percent from its record of 1,987.98 on July 24 on concern that conflicts from Iraq to Israel and Ukraine could slow global economic growth.

Data today from Germany reignited those concerns, after investor confidence reported by the ZEW Center dropped for an eighth month as the crisis in Ukraine and a sluggish euro-area recovery damped the outlook for Europe’s largest economy.

A Russian humanitarian mission was headed toward eastern Ukraine after the U.S. warned President Vladimir Putin not to use aid as a cover to send in troops. Ukraine said it won’t let the convoy enter in its current form because it argues the mission doesn’t adhere to international rules.

Equities pared declines after Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Germany to assist with the aid mission. Lavrov spoke by phone with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier today, the Russian Foreign Ministry website said.

In the Middle East, wide gaps remain between Israel and the Palestinians in reaching a long-term deal on the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said, as Hamas warned there would be no more truces beyond the one due to end at midnight tomorrow.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki chaired a meeting of military officers in the latest sign that he won’t hand power to designated successor Haidar al-Abadi.

“We have some bad news on German investor confidence, and bad news from the euro zone in the long term impact the U.S.,” Walter Todd, who oversees more than $1 billion as chief investment officer for Greenwood, South Carolina-based Greenwood Capital Associates LLC, said in a phone interview. “The economic data from the U.S. is very good, but if the economic situation in Europe continues to deteriorate, we’re not going be immune from that forever.”

Recent reports have shown U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 4 percent annual pace in the second quarter, confirming the Fed’s view that a first-quarter contraction was transitory. Employers in the U.S. added more than 200,000 jobs for a sixth straight month in July, the longest such period since 1997.

A government report today showed job openings rose in June to the highest level in more than 13 years, firming up the U.S. labor market picture for the second half of the year. The figures are among those on Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s labor-market “dashboard,” which she uses to help guide monetary policy.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which usually moves in the opposite direction to the S&P 500, slid 0.7 percent to 14.13 today.

Seven of the 10 main groups in the S&P 500 declined, with energy companies dropping 0.7 percent to lead the slide as Brent crude settled at the lowest level since July 2013. The International Energy Agency said a supply glut was shielding the market against threats in the Middle East.

Consol Energy lost 2.4 percent, while Kinder Morgan Inc. fell 1.6 percent after yesterday rallying 9 percent. Pioneer Natural Resources Co. slid 2 percent.

Nuance Communications dropped 9 percent to $16.47 after the maker of speech-recognition software reported adjusted third- quarter revenue of $486.8 million, missing the average analyst projection of $498.5 million.

Intercept Pharmaceuticals surged 17 percent to $276.52. The company said a treatment based on bile acid met the primary goal in a test of 219 patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Newmont Mining rose 2 percent to $27.06 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 and its highest level since November 2013. The gold miner’s eight-day rally is its longest in three years.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Facts are not frightening.

But if you try to avoid them, turn your back and run, then that is frightening.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.

-Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889-1951

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7