August 18, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday!
August 18, 1948 – Manufacturing – Studebaker assembly line rolls off its first vehicle, a blue Champion four-door sedan; the plant, a former anti-aircraft gun factory purchased from the Canadian government, has 400 employees; produces cars until March 16, 1966. Hamilton, Ontario

On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified by Tennessee, meaning enough states approved of it to make it the law of the land. The amendment guarantees women the right to vote.

Check this out from National Geographic: http://bit.ly/featherstar.

Fans of Mozart can add a visual component to their enjoyment with a video by filmmaker Matthew Rycroft titled Siege of Salzburg.  The composer’s “Lacrimosa,” from his Requiem mass in D Minor, accompanies shots of Salzburg, Austria, Mozart’s birthday, so that beautiful footage complements the legendary music.  See Rycroft’s work at http://bit.ly/siegesalzburg.

Points of Progress:
INDIA: Once-illiterate grandmothers are going to school.  In a town outside Mumbai, a one-year program is teaching women who never received adequate schooling because of lack of access or because it was once culturally unacceptable for them to read and write.  These women cook and clean before heading to school between 2 and 4 pm.  Some have grandchildren that help them with their homework..  “When a girl is educated, we all benefit,” said participant Sunanda Datari. GREAT BIG STORY

BRITAIN: London is expanding its use of coffee grounds to power homes and buses.  Clean-technology company Bio-bean has partnered with multiple coffee companies to turn coffee waste into biofuel, which has heated 15,000 London homes.  It recently expanded its collection route to the University of Birmingham, which produces 24 tons of coffee grounds each year.  Bio-bean will unveil a bus that runs on coffee in the coming weeks. EDIE.NET, BBC.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The Red Arrows take to the skies and perform a magnificent display over Weymouth, Dorset. CREDIT: JASON BRYANT/APEX

A boy runs past a dinosaur shaped structure made with old tires at Nishi Rokugo Park, also known as the Tire Park, at Ota-Ku, in Tokyo, Japan. CREDIT: KIM KYUNG-HOON/REUTERS

Participants seen climbing greased poles to collect prizes during a ‘Panjat Pinang’ event organized to mark the celebration of Indonesia’s 72nd Independence day in Jakarta, Indonesia. Dating back to the Dutch colonial days, Panjat Pinang is one of the oldest, most popular traditions in Indonesia. Every year, in towns and villages around the country, tall nut-trees are chopped down and their trunks placed vertically, in the center of each settlement. A wheel full of prizes is placed on top, before the trunk is covered with oil or other lubricants, and young men are invited to try and reach the prizes. CREDIT: SOLO IMAJI/BARCROFT IMAGES
Market Closes for August 18th, 2017 

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Natalie Wong
(Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks closed at a year-low price, taking a hit from this week’s political turmoil down south, terrorist attacks in Europe and contentious Nafta renegotiation talks.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 0.5 percent to 14,952.33. Materials led the decline with a 1.1 percent drop as Endeavour Mining Corp. lost 4.2 percent and Centerra Gold Inc. slipped 3.7 percent. Kinross Gold Corp. decreased 3.6 percent after being cut to hold at Accountability Research Corp.
Industrials fell 1 percent, the most in three weeks, as Transcontinental Inc. dropped 2.3 percent and Cae Inc. lost 2.1 percent.
In other moves:
* Prometic Life Sciences Inc. rose 7.7 percent, snapping a two- day slump where it dropped more than 15 percent
* Cineplex Inc. dropped 4 percent as movie theater stocks declined amid news that could threaten ticket sales, including reported developments in talks of a rental plan with studios and distributors. A movie subscription service also cut its membership price.
US
By Eric J. Weiner
(Bloomberg) — Stocks rallied from early session lows after the White House announced that Steve Bannon would be leaving his job as chief strategist on Friday. Oil surged, while havens such as gold and the yen gave back some gains.
U.S. equity gauges briefly bounced into positive territory on the news, but ended down for the day. In Europe, stocks extended their declines after a terrorist attack in Barcelona added to unease about U.S. policy paralysis and lingering tensions over North Korea. Treasuries fell and the dollar weakened.
The removal of Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News and a controversial key adviser to President Donald Trump, may quell some of the fallout from Trump’s remarks on violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, which continue to raise questions about his ability to retain his team and focus on his economic plans.
Earlier Friday, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called on Trump to “acknowledge he was wrong” and apologize to the American people. Speculation that former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. President Gary Cohn, was poised to resign as head of the National Economic Council roiled markets on Thursday, until the White House issued a statement that he was staying.
“Picking fights and getting criticized by members of one’s own party don’t help in pursuing one’s agenda,” Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, wrote in a note to clients Friday.
Investors pulled $1.3 billion from equity funds in the week ending Aug. 16 as tensions over the Korean peninsula escalated, according to EPFR Global data. Outflows from U.S. stock funds were triple that, suggesting doubts about Trump’s stimulus plans are an additional worry. Heightened terror fears added to the malaise after at least 13 people died when a van plowed into pedestrians in Barcelona Thursday.
“The terror attacks in the U.S. and Spain just add to all the other geopolitical mess,” Simon Quijano-Evans, a strategist at London-based Legal & General Investment Management Ltd., said in a note to clients. “At some stage that is likely to culminate into a more extreme market reaction.”
Still, Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager of Shinkin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, cautioned investors against drawing any long-term conclusions because the terrorist attack in Spain and political turmoil in the U.S. don’t amount a trend.
“Both the U.S. and Japanese economies are doing well, and what’s most important is the direction of U.S. monetary policy,”
Fujiwara said. “As long as the fundamentals are steady, the market will recover.”
Here are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index ended down 0.2 percent at 2,425.55.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 76 points to 21,674.51, while the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.1 percent.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index sank 0.7 percent.
* The MSCI All-Country World Index slid 0.3 percent.
* Germany’s DAX Index decreased 0.3 percent.
* The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index tumbled 0.9 percent.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index dipped 0.2 percent.
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index decreased 0.3 percent.
* The euro advanced 0.4 percent to $1.1764.
* The British pound climbed less than 0.1 percent to $1.2876.
* The Japanese yen increased 0.4 percent to 109.17 per dollar.
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries gained less than one basis point to 2.191 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield decreased one basis point to 0.41 percent.
* Britain’s 10-year yield rose less than a basis point to 1.089 percent.
Commodities
* Gold fell 0.1 percent to 1286.49.
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.3 percent to $48.62 a barrel.
Asia
* Japan’s Topix index fell 1.1 percent at the close, down 1.2 percent lower. The Kospi index ended 0.1 percent lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.6 percent.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.4 percent.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

Variety is the first principle of life.
What makes us formed beings?
Differentiation.
Perfect balance will be destruction.
Swami Vivekananda

As ever,

Carolann

If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world
would be a little better place in which to live.
                                                                       -John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963

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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com