Author: Carolann

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Fashionistas, take note:

The experts at Pantone have named an earthy reddish-brown hue called Marsala the “it” color of 2015. We look at the impact of the announcement on design circles, noting that the shade will likely appear throughout fashion and décor. But how does one even arrive at a color of the year? Pantone polls designers and creative types about what shades are on their minds and then tips off some marketing partners. That way, they can manufacture products in the shade ahead of time. Some brands have already been using the color. Marsala pants, coats and dresses appeared in the spring 2015 men’s and women’s collections of some designers. One style director met with her team before Thanksgiving to discuss holding space on the website in January to spotlight the color—whatever it was. “Having the color of the year has become a way of displaying authority,” she says.

Birthday: James Thurber, December 8^th, 1894.  It is better to know some of the questions  than all of the answers.

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. –Mark Twain

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

UFO Sighting in Seattle

Visitors look at the headless, reclining sculpture of the river god Ilissos at the State Hermitage Museum as part of its 250th anniversary celebration in St Petersburg, Russia, Saturday. The British Museum loaned one of the Elgin Marbles to Russia, the first time any of the ancient sculptures have left Britain since they were taken from the Parthenon in Athens 200 years ago. Grigory Dukor/Reuters

Market Closes for December 8^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17852.48	-106.31
		-0.59%
S&P 500	2060.31	-15.06   -0.73%
NASDAQ	4740.691	-40.064   -0.84%
TSX	14144.17	-329.53
		-2.28%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17935.64	+15.19
		+0.08%
HANG SENG	24047.67	+45.03
		+0.19%
SENSEX	28119.40	-338.70
		-1.19%
FTSE 100	6672.15	-70.69
		-1.05%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.896	1.912
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.427	2.459
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2587	2.2394
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.9081	2.9385

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87096	0.87816
US $	1.14815	1.13874
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41312	0.70766
US $	1.23077	0.81250

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1203.11	1205.83
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	63.05	66.81

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in 18 months, reaching a seven-week low, as crude tumbled with copper on an unexpected drop in Chinese imports and banks extended their rout.

     Lightstream Resources Ltd. and MEG Energy Corp. sank at least 15 percent as energy stocks tumbled to a more than two- year low. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co., which ship crude by rail, slumped more than 1.4 percent. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the nation’s largest lender by assets, declined 2.8 percent to pace a retreat among financial stocks.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index sank 329.53 points, or 2.3 percent, to 14,144.17 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest drop since June 2013. The equity gauge slumped 1.8 percent last week for a second week of losses and is down 9.7 percent from an all-time high on Sept. 3.

     The benchmark for Canadian equities has pared its advance to 3.8 percent this year. Trading volume was 38 percent higher than the 30-day average today, as all 10 main groups in the gauge retreated.

     Financials, raw-materials and energy stocks, which make up about two-thirds of the S&P/TSX, are the three worst-performers year-to-date among 10 industries in the benchmark equity gauge for the first time since at least 1988, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     Lightstream Resources slumped 16 percent to C$1.62, extending an all-time low as it has fallen 82 percent from a June high. MEG Energy fell 15 percent to C$14.90, also a low. The S&P/TSX Energy Index sank 5.7 percent, the biggest drop since August 2011, as 68 of 69 members in the gauge declined. The group has retreated 14 percent this year, the worst performer among 10 industries in the S&P/TSX.                          

     Crude futures dropped 4.2 percent in both London and New York amid concern hedge funds and other money managers bet too much on rising prices.

     Net-long positions on Brent rose to the highest in four months in the week to Dec. 2, according to data from the ICE Futures Europe Exchange, while bullish bets on West Texas Intermediate climbed the most in 20 months.

     First Quantum Minerals Ltd. sank 5.5 percent to C$16.95, and Teck Resources Ltd. slipped 4.3 percent to C$15.93 as copper fell the most in more than a week.

     Inbound shipments to China, the world’s biggest metals consumer, fell 6.7 percent in November, compared with a 3.8 percent projected increase from a Bloomberg News survey. Exports rose 4.7 percent, missing the 8 percent median estimate.

     Toronto-Dominion Bank lost 2.8 percent to C$52.72, the lowest since Oct. 16, and Bank of Nova Scotia dropped 1.8 percent to C$65.07, the lowest since April. The S&P/TSX Banks Index declined 1.5 percent after losing 4.8 percent last week, the biggest loss since August 2011, as earnings from the nation’s largest lenders disappointed investors.

US

By Oliver Renick

     Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks slid, pulling benchmark indexes down from records, with energy producers leading declines as oil dropped to the lowest level since 2009.

     Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. declined more than 2.2 percent to pace losses in 42 of 43 energy companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. McDonald’s Corp. lost 3.8 percent, the most in two years, after same-store sales trailed analysts’ estimates. Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped 35 percent as Merck & Co. agreed to acquire the maker of antibiotics.

     The S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent to 2,060.31 at 4 p.m. in New York, its worst loss in almost two months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 106.31 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,852.48. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies dropped 1.3 percent.

     “The market has got to take a break, there isn’t a lot of investing cash in the market today and there’s not any one thing in particular that’s forcing it,” Ron Anari, the Jersey City, New Jersey-based senior vice president of trading at ICAP Plc, said via phone. “Lower oil may be better for U.S. consumers but it could be giving us an indication of a slowing global economy, and no matter how good we do here we won’t be fully robust unless the world economy shows some activity.”

     U.S. stocks began their biggest retreat of the day, a 0.4 percent tumble that began at 12:09 p.m. in New York and lasted 10 minutes, as a handful of large trades in the S&P 500 e-mini contract hit the market. Four transactions in sizes ranging from 300 to 470 contracts occurred between 12:10:41 and 12:13:28 p.m., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of options prices known as the VIX, climbed 20 percent to 14.21, the most since October.

     The S&P 500 retreated today after capping a seventh straight weekly gain, the longest streak in a year, and closing at a record as better-than-estimated payrolls data increased optimism in the economy. The gauge ended the week trading at 18.4 times reported earnings, its highest valuation since 2009. The Dow also reached an all-time high last week, climbing within 10 points of 18,000.

     The S&P 500 has rebounded 11 percent from a low in October amid speculation the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand a slowdown overseas and tighter monetary policy after the Federal Reserve wound up its asset-purchase program.

     Chinese overseas shipments rose 4.7 percent from a year earlier in November, the customs administration said today. That missed the 8 percent estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Imports fell 6.7 percent, compared with projections of a 3.8 percent increase.

     U.S. data last week showed employers added 321,000 jobs in November, the most since January 2012, while the unemployment rate held at a six-year low of 5.8 percent. Reports later this week will show U.S. consumer confidence and retail sales improved, according to economists’ estimates.                         

     Exxon Mobil retreated 2.3 percent while Chevron lost 3.7 percent to help lead the Dow lower. Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s biggest provider of oilfield services, slid 3.4 percent to $84.21. Denbury Resources Inc., Ensco Plc and Williams Cos. lost at least 6.7 percent.

     Energy shares tumbled 3.9 percent as a group to the lowest closing level since April 2013. Laszlo Birinyi, president and founder of money-management and research firm Birinyi Associates Inc., told CNBC “I don’t want to touch the oil stocks.”

     Crude slumped 4.2 percent to $63.05 a barrel as OPEC’s refusal to cut output targets amid an oversupply prompted some banks to cut price estimates.                    

     Six of the 10 main groups in the S&P 500 retreated, while utilities, health-care and financial shares had the largest gains.

     McDonald’s declined 3.8 percent after the world’s largest restaurant chain posted November same-store sales that trailed analysts’ estimates after efforts to revive growth in the U.S. failed to gain traction. Global sales at stores open at least 13 months fell 2.2 percent.

     Wynn Resorts Ltd. slipped 3.9 percent. The government of Macau, where Wynn generates more than two-thirds of its sales, forecast lower gaming revenue in 2015.

     Cubist Pharmaceuticals rallied 35 percent, the most in 14 years. Merck agreed to acquire the company for $8.4 billion in cash. Merck will begin a $102-a-share tender offer for Cubist, the companies said in a statement today. Merck added 0.6 percent to $61.88.

     Celgene Corp. jumped 3.6 percent to $118.19, the most in the S&P 500, and Gilead Sciences Inc. added 0.9 percent to $105.56.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

The soul is the home of all living beings;

and from the soul all loving beings derive their strength.

There is nothing in the universe that does not come from the soul.

The soul dwells within all that exists;

it is the truth of all that exists.

You, my son, are the soul.

 

Chandogya Upanishad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.

                                             -Orisen Swett Marden, 1850-1924

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 1956, rockabilly singer Carl Perkins was in the Sun Records studio in Memphis, recording a follow-up to his big hit “Blue Suede Shoes.” Among the session players was Jerry Lee Lewis, not yet a household name. Another artist hanging around the studio joined in as well. But even Johnny Cash was overshadowed by the next Sun artist to walk through the door: Elvis Presley. The four men sat down – the one and only time – for an impromptu jam session. The gathering came to be called the “Million Dollar Quartet.” –Wall Street Journal.

Joe Kernen enlightened us with this fact on CNBC’s Squawk Box  this morning:
The world’s best whisky, if you’re to believe the Jim Murray Whisky Bible 2015, is now the Japanese Yamazaki single malt sherry cask.
Also, countries without an “e” in their spelling, spell whisky without an “e” such as Japan and Canada and Scotland.  Countries with an “e” in their spelling, spell whiskey with an “e” such as Ireland and the USA.

From CNNMONEY:
Watch out, Scotland! Japanese whisky is no longer an insider secret — it’s grown into a $6 billion industry, competing with scotch for the spotlight.
Whiskies from Japan have been winning accolades at the Whisky Magazine Awards for years, including world’s best single malt. This year, a Japanese distiller took home the prize for best blended malt whisky.
Some Japanese whiskies are so coveted that buyers have pushed prices at auction up to tens of thousands of dollars a bottle. A Yamazaki single malt aged 50 years went for $33,169 earlier this year at auction in Hong Kong — only 150 bottles were ever produced.
There’s no doubt about it: International demand for Japanese whisky is growing — exports have increased by 86% since 2008. Taiwan, France, Russia and China are bringing in the most Japanese whisky by volume, according to Euromonitor.
“Japanese whisky as a whole is absolutely fantastic,” said Nicholas Pollacchi of Whisky Dog. “The quality that’s coming out of Japan is exceptional, and that’s been happening there for almost 100 years.”
Commercial production started in Japan in 1924 when liquor entrepreneur Shinjiro Torii opened a distillery in Yamazaki and hired Masataka Taketsuru to run the distillery. Taketsuru learned his craft at distilleries in Scotland, and brought the techniques back to Japan.
Early manufacturers tweaked Scottish methods to make original whiskies that catered to Japanese tastes, said Euromonitor analyst Mariko Takemura.
“It was hard for Scotch whiskies to be accepted by Japanese consumers, because they were considered too smoky, so manufacturers tried to find tastes that could be accepted,” said Takemura.
Taketsuru later started his own company, Nikka, which is now one of Japan’s most famous whisky producers. Nikka’s Yoichi single malt, aged 20 years, was named by Whisky Magazine as the world’s best in 2008.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Whiskey On The Rocks

Their First Flight

Market Closes for December 4^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17900.10	-12.52
		-0.07%
S&P 500	2070.41	-3.92   -0.19%
NASDAQ	4769.438	-5.034   -0.11%
TSX	14455.67	-298.39
		-2.02%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17887.21	+166.78
		+0.94%
HANG SENG	23832.56	+403.94
		+1.72%
SENSEX	28562.82	+120.11
		+0.42%
FTSE 100	6679.37	-37.26
		-0.55%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.912	1.940
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.459	2.487
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2394	2.2799
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.9385	2.9849

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87816	0.87675
US $	1.13874	1.14058
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.40960	0.70942
US $	1.23786	0.80785

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1205.83	1208.32
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	66.81	67.38

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in more than a year as the nation’s biggest banks posted results that missed estimates and energy shares resumed a selloff with the price of crude.

     Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s largest lender by assets, tumbled the most in more than five years after posting fourth-quarter profit short of estimates. Energy stocks tumbled 2.1 percent as a group as oil fell. Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. Sank 16 percent to a decade low after slashing its dividend. Enbridge Inc. jumped 10 percent to a record on plans to transfer C$17 billion ($14.9 billion) in assets to a fund.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slumped 284.11 points, or 1.9 percent, to 14,469.95 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest drop since June 2013. The equities benchmark pared its gain to 6.2 percent this year.

     “We had crabby investors who woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and were in a fighting mood and wanted to sell,” said Barry Schwartz, fund manager at Baskin Wealth Management in Toronto. He helps manage C$740 million with the firm. “The Canadian banks had a great year but the people wanted more. There’s a lot of people out there who saw how poorly their energy stocks have done and want to rip off Us stoous the heads of their advisers.”

     All of the 10 industries in the S&P/TSX dropped at least 0.6 percent on trading volume 45 percent higher than the 30-day average today. Global equities slumped after the European Central Bank said policy makers will reassess stimulus next quarter, damping hopes for additional bond purchases this year.                         

     Financial stocks, the largest group by weighting, sank 2.2 percent, the most in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge. Toronto-Dominion fell 5.1 percent to C$54.03, the biggest decline since April 2009.

     Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lost 3.4 percent to C$103.52, the worst drop since September 2011, as fourth-quarter profit declined 1.7 percent amid weakness in its wholesale banking and Canadian lending businesses.

     “Bank earnings came in with a disappointment, and it’s putting pressure on the index,” said Youssef Zohny, portfolio manager at StennerZohny Investment Partners of Richardson GMP Ltd. in Vancouver. Richardson GMP manages about C$29.3 billion. “The thing that’s moving markets today from a macro perspective is the ECB meeting. Bottom line, the markets were expecting more.”                         

     Mario Draghi, president of the ECB, left interest rates unchanged, unveiled “substantially” lower forecasts for inflation and growth in the euro area and said the central bank will reassess the effects of existing monetary stimulus in early 2015.

     Raw-materials and energy shares, which together make up about a third of the broader index, each slumped 2.1 percent as gold and crude prices slipped.

     Canadian Oil Sands retreated 16 percent to C$10.97, the lowest since September 2004, after cutting its quarterly dividend 42 percent to 20 Canadian cents a share.

     Gildan Activewear Inc., the wholesale apparel manufacturer, slumped 9.2 percent to C$60.22, the biggest retreat since December 2011. Revenue of $666 million fell short of the company’s most recent projection of $700 million due to issues including weak market demand and inventory destocking, the company said.

     Enbridge surged 10 percent to C$60.04, a record, as the pipeline operator unveiled a plan to transfer its Canadian liquids pipelines to the Enbridge Income Fund. The company is also considering a similar move for its U.S. liquids pipelines assets and boosted its dividend.

US

By Callie Bost

     Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell from record levels, led by energy shares, as Mario Draghi’s remarks on European Central Bank stimulus disappointed investors before a report on the American labor market.

     Chevron Corp. slid 1.3 percent as energy shares tumbled the most among groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Microsoft Corp. rose 1.6 percent as Barnes & Noble Inc. said it will buy back the company’s stake in its Nook business.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.1 percent to 2,071.92 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 12.52 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 17,900.1. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies dropped 0.5 percent, after a two-day rally. About 6.1 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 9.6 percent below the three-month average.

     “Draghi’s going to have to start doing some bond-buying if they want to get out of the malaise they’re in,” Karyn Cavanaugh, the New York-based senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management LLC, said by phone. Voya oversees $215 billion. “The writing is on the wall. I think it’ll eventually be good news and QE will have to happen.”

     ECB President Mario Draghi said policy makers will wait until next quarter before assessing if additional stimulus measures are needed. His comments damped speculation the central bank was poised to start a program of sovereign-debt purchases known as quantitative easing, or QE.                        

     Draghi also unveiled “substantially” lower forecasts for inflation and growth. With euro-area inflation well below the ECB’s target, Draghi has warned of a deflationary spiral of falling prices and households postponing spending.

     Stocks briefly erased losses after two euro-area central- bank officials familiar with deliberations said the ECB’s Governing Council expects to consider a proposal for broad-based asset purchases including sovereign debt next month. While the proposal is envisaged to include various types of bonds, it won’t encompass equities, said the officials, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

     “Nothing Draghi has said surprised me,” Michael James, a Los Angeles-based managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities Inc., said by phone. “Until you see some kind of QE stimulus from Europe, whatever he says about it isn’t going to matter too much. Everyone will be focused on the strength of the jobs number.”

     Bill Gross said the creation of more debt by policy makers worldwide to solve the credit crisis will be judged by future generations much like smoking in public or discrimination against gays is viewed by people today.

     Gross, who left Pacific Investment Management Co. in September to join Janus Capital Group Inc., recommended in an investment outlook that investors put money into higher-quality assets and reduce the duration of their holdings. He also said they should prepare for asset prices to stop increasing.

     The S&P 500 has rebounded as much as 11 percent from a low in October on speculation that the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand a slowdown overseas and tighter monetary policy after the Federal Reserve wound up its asset-purchase program.

     Investors are watching economic reports to help gauge the pace of the recovery. Fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits last week as employers retained staff to meet domestic demand for goods and services ahead of the holiday season, data showed today.

     A release tomorrow may show employers added more than 200,000 jobs in November for the 10th straight month, while the unemployment rate held at the lowest level since July 2008.                       

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index declined 0.7 percent to 12.38, its third day of losses.

     Seven of the 10 main industries in the S&P 500 declined. Industrials shares dropped 0.5 percent. Raw-material producers added 0.3 percent for the biggest gains.

     Energy companies slumped 0.8 percent, following three days of gains as oil slipped as much as 1.9 percent. Transocean Ltd. dropped 4.6 percent. Newfield Exploration Co. and Ensco Plc lost more than 3.5 percent. Chevron slid 1.3 percent, the most in the Dow, and Exxon Mobil Corp. declined 0.6 percent.

     Crude fell 18 percent last month as OPEC maintained its output target, letting prices fall to a level that may slow U.S. production growth.

     Sears Holdings Corp. decreased 4.4 percent. The department- store chain controlled by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert posted its 10th straight quarterly loss as sales continued to decline.

     Microsoft gained 1.6 percent. Barnes & Noble said today it will buy back Microsoft’s stake in its struggling Nook business, which posted a loss that pulled down the U.S. bookstore chain’s second-quarter results. The bookstore operator lost 5.4 percent.

     Avago Technologies Ltd. rose 8.4 percent, the most in the S&P 500, after reporting better-than-estimated fourth-quarter profit and sales, and increasing its forecast for the first quarter.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Silence is a great benediction, it cleanses the brain, gives vitality to it,

and this silence builds up great energy, not the energy of thought or the energy of machines,

but unpolluted energy, untouched by thought.

It is the energy that has incalculable capacity, skills.

And this is a place where the brain, being very active, can be silent.

That very intense activity of the brain has the quality and the depth

and the beauty of silence.

 

Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.

                                                           –Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784                 

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

THE COUNTRY OF THE TREES

There is no king in their country
and there is no queen
and there are no princes vying for power,
    inventing corruption.
Just as with us many children are born
and some will live and some will die and the country
will continue.

The weather will always be important.

And there will always be room for the weak, the violets
     and the bloodroot.
When it is cold they will be given blankets of leaves.
When it is hot they will be given shade.
And not out of guilt, neither for a year-end deduction
     but maybe for the cheer of their colors, their
     small flower faces.

They are not like us.

Some will perish to become houses or barns,
     fences and bridges.

Others will endure past the counting of years.
And none will ever speak a single word of complaint,
     as though language, after all,
     did not work well enough, was only an early stage.
Neither do they ever have any questions to the gods-
     which one is the real one, and what is the plan.
As though they have been told everything already,
     and are content.
                                 -Mary Oliver

Writer Joseph Conrad’s birthday today, b. December 3^rd, 1857.

All a man can betray is his conscience.  –Joseph Conrad.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A woman walks a dog through the ice and snow-covered landscape near Winterberg, western Germany. Joerg Taron/dpa/AP

More than 200 booths offer traditional Thuringian handicrafts and sweets and a Ferris wheel at the Christmas Market in front of the Mariendom (Cathedral of Mary) and St. Severi’s Church in Erfurt, central Germany. Jens Meyer/AP

Market Closes for December 3^rd, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17912.62	+33.07
		+0.18%
S&P 500	2074.33	+7.78   +0.38%
NASDAQ	4774.473	+18.662   +0.39%
TSX	14754.06	+133.99
		+0.92%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17720.43	+57.21
		+0.32%
HANG SENG	23428.62	-225.68
		-0.95%
SENSEX	28442.71	-1.30
		—
FTSE 100	6716.63	-25.47
		-0.38%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.940	1.955
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.487	2.510
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2799	2.2923
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.9849	3.0095

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87976	0.87675
US $	1.13668	1.14058
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.39953	0.71453
US $	1.23125	0.81218

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1208.32	1198.89
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	67.38	66.88

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose the most in a month, ending a five-day loss, as commodities producers jumped with gold and crude prices while the nation’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged.

     Iamgold Corp. and Semafo Inc. increased at least 4.2 percent as gold prices climbed. Surge Energy Inc. and Meg Energy Corp. rallied more than 5.7 percent as crude climbed. Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s second-largest lender by assets, added 0.2 percent after profit rose.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 133.99 points, or 0.9 percent, to 14,754.06 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest increase since Nov. 5. The equities benchmark had fallen 3 percent over five straight days previously.

     Surge Energy increased 6.8 percent to C$4.55 and MEG Energy rallied 5.8 percent to C$18.59 as energy stocks jumped 1.9 percent as a group. The industry has rebounded 2.7 percent in the past two days after a six-day slide.

     West Texas Intermediate added 0.8 percent to settle at $67.38 a barrel in New York. A U.S. government report said the country’s crude inventories dropped last week.

     The recent plunge in oil prices poses an important risk to the outlook for Canadian inflation, the Bank of Canada said today. Oil prices have fallen due to both supply and demand factors, the central bank said as it kept its policy interest rate unchanged at 1 percent, an outcome anticipated by all 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

     Seven of 10 industries in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge advanced on trading volume 19 percent higher than the 30- day average today, led by gains among energy and raw-materials producers.

     Iamgold soared 8.3 percent to C$2.73 and Semafo increased 4.2 percent to C$3.49 as gold for February delivery advanced 0.8 percent to $1,208.70 an ounce in New York. 

US

By Callie Bost

     Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to an all-time high, as industrial and commodity shares rallied while data boosted confidence in the economy before Friday’s jobs report.

     Energy companies in the S&P 500 climbed 1.2 percent for a third straight advance as Cimarex Energy Co. and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. surged more than 3.5 percent. Consumer- staples stocks slipped the most in the U.S. benchmark gauge as Brown-Forman Corp. and Molson Coors Brewing Co. slumped at least 3.7 percent.

     The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 2,074.33 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average extended a record, climbing 33.07 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,912.62. The Russell 2000 Index jumped 0.9 percent. About 6.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 6.3 percent below the three-month average.

     “I think a lot of people are waiting for Friday and the payrolls number,” Jim Paulsen, who helps oversee $345 billion as chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, said by phone from San Francisco. “We’re going to have another 200,000-plus payroll number if ADP is any indication, and unit labor costs should stay low. Put those two together and you have real growth without inflation. That’s a recipe for a melt-up in the stock market.”

     The S&P 500 topped its record of 2,072.83 reached on Nov. 26. The gauge has rebounded 11 percent from a low in October amid optimism the economy is strong enough to withstand a slowdown overseas and tighter monetary policy after the Federal Reserve wound up its asset-purchase program.                         

     Companies in the U.S. added 208,000 workers in November, indicating steady progress in the labor market, a private payrolls report showed. The increase in employment followed a revised 233,000 gain the prior month, figures from the Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Research Institute showed today. Payrolls have climbed by at least 200,000 in seven of the last eight months.

     The Labor Department releases its jobs data on Friday. The government’s report may show companies added 230,000 nonfarm payrolls in November while the unemployment rate held at 5.8 percent, according to the consensus forecast by economists.

     The Fed said “employment gains were widespread across districts” as the economy continued to expand amid advances in consumer spending and lower gasoline prices. Some districts noted that “contacts remained optimistic” about the economic outlook, the Fed said in its Beige Book business survey based on reports gathered on or before Nov. 24.                          

     Fed Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said a drop in the U.S. unemployment rate and moderate growth call for returning monetary policy to normal from an emergency stance with near-zero interest rates.

     “Labor markets continue to heal, and their stronger-than- expected recovery should serve to underpin continued economic expansion,” Plosser said in a speech in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Individuals have regained significant fractions of the wealth they lost during the crisis. That gives me additional confidence that the economy is now operating fairly normally and that policy should reflect that normalization.”

     A separate report today showed service industries in the U.S. expanded in November at the second-fastest pace in more than nine years, a sign the world’s largest economy is powering past a global slowdown.

     Investors are also awaiting signals from the European Central Bank. Mario Draghi and his central bank colleagues may move a step closer to full-scale quantitative easing when they meet tomorrow in Frankfurt. The majority of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predict the ECB will eventually buy government bonds to help spur growth in the region.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index slid 3 percent to 12.47. The gauge of S&P 500 options prices plunged 13 percent in a two-day slide, the most since October.

     Seven of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 gained. Raw- materials and industrials shares advanced more than 1.2 percent.

     Energy companies climbed 1.2 percent, extending the group’s gains this week to 3.2 percent. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.8 percent today, resuming a rebound from a five-year low last week.

     Prices climbed after a government report showed that U.S. crude inventories dropped as refineries bolstered operating rates. Crude has collapsed into a bear market amid the highest U.S. output in more than three decades and signs of slowing global demand growth.

     Cimarex surged 5.1 percent, while Diamond Offshore increased 3.6 percent. Exxon Mobil Corp. rose 0.8 percent, while Chevron Corp. dropped 0.3 percent. Both energy producers climbed at least 1.9 percent yesterday.

     Consumer-staples shares slipped 0.8 percent. Brown-Forman dropped 3.9 percent, while Molson Coors slumped 3.7 percent. Monster Beverage Corp. slid 2.4 percent.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling,

never to say it is right or wrong, but just to watch it and move with it.

In that watching you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling.

And out of this awareness comes silence.

 

Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.

 

                    -Nolan Bushnell, 1943-

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

THE Man of December:  Napoleon III (1808-1873).  He was elected president of the Second French Republic on December 10, 1848;  made his coup d’état on December 2^nd, 1851, and became emperor on December 2^nd, 1852.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind.  Thou art not so unkind.  As man’s ingratitude.  –William Shakespeare.

OWL POEM

One has to say this for the rounds of life
     that keep coming and going; it has worked so far.
The rabbit, after all, has never asked if the grass
     wanted to live.
Any more than the owl consults with the rabbit.

Acceptance of the world requires
     that I bow even to you,
Master of the night.

                         -Mary Oliver

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Free range Christmas geese run to their free-stall barn on a farm in Pfarrkirchen, southern Germany. Roasted goose is one of the traditional German Christmas feasts. Matthias Schrader/AP

A Macy’s Santa Claus visits with 8-month-old Brystal Logsdon at Hoops Family Children’s Hospital in Huntington, W.Va. Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch/AP

Market Closes for December 2^nd, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17879.55	+102.75
		+0.58%
S&P 500	2066.53	+13.09   +0.64%
NASDAQ	4755.813	+28.466   +0.60%
TSX	14626.30	+0.98
		+0.01%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17663.22	+73.12
		+0.42%
HANG SENG	23654.30	+286.85
		+1.23%
SENSEX	28444.01	-115.61
		-0.40%
FTSE 100	6742.10	+85.73
		+1.29%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.955	1.896
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.510	2.450
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2923	2.2323
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.0095	2.9620

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87675	0.88272
US $	1.14058	1.13286
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41201	0.70821
US $	1.23798	0.80776

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1198.89	1211.46
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	66.88	69.00

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were little changed, at a three-week low, as losses among gold producers and banks offset a rebound in energy and industrials shares.

     Semafo Inc. and Iamgold Corp. retreated with the price of bullion. Bank of Montreal dropped 2.3 percent, the most since October, as profit missed estimates. Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline, advanced a fourth day to extend a six-year high. Keyera Corp. and Trilogy Energy Corp. climbed at least 3.6 percent as crude pared an earlier loss.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 5.25 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 14,620.07 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, erasing earlier gains of as much as 0.6 percent. The equities benchmark has fallen five straight days to pare its gain this year to 7.3 percent.

     Telus Corp. tumbled 3.3 percent to C$41.83, the most since June 2013, as telephone stocks lost 1.6 percent as a group. Telus has reportedly struck a deal to share its network with Wind Mobile customers to hep the wireless carrier expand its service across Canada.

     Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. rallied 3.7 percent to C$220.51 and Canadian National Railway Co. gained 1.5 percent to C$78.23 as industrial companies rebounded 1.4 percent, the most in the S&P/TSX. The group had slumped 7 percent in the previous two days.

     Air Canada added 0.8 percent to C$11.51, the highest close since January 2008. WestJet Airlines Ltd. jumped 1.9 percent to C$34.19, an all-time high. Shares of the Calgary-based carrier have soared 14 percent in five days.

     Keyera jumped 5 percent to C$82.18 and Trilogy Energy rallied 3.6 percent to C$10 as the S&P/TSX Energy Index rebounded 0.8 percent to snap a six-day losing streak. Seven of 10 industries rose on trading volume 34 percent higher than the 30-day average today.

     West Texas Intermediate fell 3.1 percent to $66.88 a barrel in New York. Brent dropped in London. Crude had the biggest monthly loss in November in almost six years after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries signaled it will leave it to the market to curb a glut.

US

By Callie Bost

     Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record, as biotechnology and energy companies rallied and data on construction spending boosted confidence in the economy.

     Biogen Idec Inc. led gains in health-care shares after its Alzheimer’s drug showed promising early results. Energy shares climbed 1.3 percent even as oil resumed a selloff, while railroads surged the most in a month. Genworth Financial Inc. slid 5.9 percent as JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its price target on the shares.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.6 percent to 2,066.55 at 4 p.m. in New York, for the largest gain since Oct. 31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 102.75 points, or 0.6 percent, to an all-time high of 17,879.55. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies jumped 1.3 percent after dropping 1.6 percent yesterday. About 6.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, in line with the three-month average.

     “The economy seems to be fine and nothing is changing that narrative,” James W. Gaul, a portfolio manager at Boston Advisors LLC, which oversees about $2.8 billion, said by phone. “The energy sector is up while oil is down. Maybe the thought is the sector fell too far, too fast. Health-care is being led by biotechnology stocks, mainly Biogen Idec.”

     The S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent yesterday, the most since Oct. 22, as weaker data on Black Friday sales and China manufacturing overshadowed a rebound in oil prices and expansion in American factories.

     Data today showed construction spending grew more than estimated in October. The government’s labor report later this week may show companies added 230,000 payrolls in November while the unemployment rate held at 5.8 percent, according to the consensus forecast by economists.

     Two of the Federal Reserve’s most influential policy makers said sharply lower crude prices will boost spending and aid U.S. growth. Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and New York Fed President William C. Dudley, speaking at separate events yesterday in New York, both stressed the positive economic impact from the steepest decline in oil prices for five years.

     “I’m not very worried,” Fischer told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The lower inflation that we’ll get from the lower price of oil is going to be temporary.”

     Oil resumed its declines today, as West Texas Intermediate fell 3.1 percent. Crude has collapsed into a bear market amid the highest U.S. output in more than three decades and signs of slowing global demand growth. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may hold an emergency meeting in the first quarter, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez said in an interview with Panorama newspaper.                         

     The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Nov. 26. The gauge has climbed for six Decembers in a row, posting an average return of 2.2 percent.

     “Yesterday’s action shows we might see near-term weakness, but that’s healthy,” Matt Maley, equity strategist for Miller Tabak & Co. in Newton, Massachusetts. “With what seems to be dovishness from central banks globally and chatter about China getting more dovish, unless a central bank really changes its stance, it would seem that the month of December should continue on its historic stance as a positive month.”

     Global equities rose earlier today as the People’s Bank of China, which reduced interest rates on Nov. 21, refrained from draining funds from the financial system, fueling speculation it may be preparing stimulus measures after data yesterday showed manufacturing slowed.

     The European Central Bank is set to review monetary policy later this week. ECB council member Jens Weidmann said last week that the drop in energy costs is like a mini stimulus package, suggesting no need for the ECB to expand its current measures. The opposing view, previously argued by President Mario Draghi and ECB Chief Economist Peter Praet, is that temporary price shocks can deliver lasting harm to an economy as feeble as the euro area’s.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index slid 10 percent to 12.85 for its biggest drop since Oct. 28. The S&P 500 options gauge rose 7.2 percent yesterday and 10 percent on Nov. 28.

     Nine of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 advanced. Health- care companies increased 1.1 percent as the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index surged 2.1 percent to a record. Financial-services companies rose 1 percent, with JPMorgan Chase climbing 1.8 percent.

     Energy shares rallied 1.3 percent for the largest gains. The group has surged 2.1 percent in the past two days after closing at a 15-month low last week. Marathon Petroleum Corp. surged 3.7 percent and Valero Energy Corp. climbed 4.1 percent.

     Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. increased more than 1.9 percent, pacing gains in the Dow for a second straight day.

     Railroad companies in the S&P 500 surged 3.6 percent, advancing the most since Oct. 23 to rebound from a 7.6 slide over the previous two trading sessions. CSX Corp. rallied 4 percent, while Union Pacific Corp. increased 3.8 percent. Norfolk Southern Corp. rose 2.8 percent.

     Biogen Idec soared 6.4 percent. In a small, early stage trial, Biogen’s drug BIIB037 reduced beta amyloid in the brain, said Doug Williams, executive vice president of research and development, at a Deutsche Bank conference in Boston today.

     Beta amyloid, a protein fragment that creates plaque tangles in the brain, is thought to be a key component in Alzheimer’s disease.

     Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped 13 percent. Japan’s Otsuka Holdings Co. agreed to buy the Aliso Viejo, California- based drugmaker for about $3.54 billion to gain treatments for neurological conditions.                    

     Spansion Inc. increased 22 percent. Cypress Semiconductor Corp. is acquiring it for about $1.6 billion in stock, creating a company that will supply chips for products including cars and consumer electronics.

     Apple slid 0.4 percent after losing 3.3 percent yesterday. The stock dropped almost 6.4 percent during a 60-second swoon that started 20 minutes after trading yesterday, before paring the decline. Apple’s retreat was mirrored in technology stocks from Tesla Motors Inc. to TripAdvisor Inc. and Facebook Inc.

     TripAdvisor rebounded 7.9 percent today for the largest advance in the S&P 500, while Facebook added 0.5 percent. Tesla slipped less than 0.1 percent.

     Genworth slumped 5.9 percent for the worst performance in the S&P 500. Jimmy Bhullar, an analyst at JPMorgan, lowered his price target for Genworth shares to $11 from $18 today, citing a “cautious” outlook for the insurer’s main businesses such as mortgage guaranties and life coverage. Genworth has plunged 39 percent since Nov. 5.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

When the life of a man, freed from all distractions, finds its unity in the spirit,

the knowledge of the infinite comes to him immediately and naturally,

like light from a flame.

 

Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

Both following and leading are skills to be learned.

                     -David Zane Fleisher, 1894-1979 

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

December (Latin= 10^th month) was the tenth month in the Roman calendar when the year began in March with the vernal equinox.  The old English name was derra geola, “earlier Yule”.  In the French Revolutionary calendar it was Frimaire, hoarfrost month, from November 22^nd– December 21^st.

Went to Vancouver for my Mother’s birthday over the weekend and had the added bonus witnessing all the excitement and energy  in the city created by the  Grey Cup fans.  There were a lot of visitors from Calgary and some pretty wild costumes on fans headed to the game.  We had a wonderful birthday dinner at Oru, the restaurant in the Fairmont Pacific Rim.  There were twenty of us and everything was perfect – I cannot recommend it highly enough.  We had artichoke soup and ceviche  amon for a couple of the courses and they were amazing.  The service is first rate also.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Shepherdess Narcisa Cornelio (r.) and her daughter Nancy Condor rest in front of Hualcan glacier in Huascaran natural reserve in Ancash, Peru. Peru is home to 71% of the world’s tropical glaciers, which are a source of fresh water for millions, but 22% of the surface area of Peruvian glaciers has disappeared in the past 30 years. Mariana Bazo/Reuters

A long-tailed macaque naps on a religious statue after eating during the annual Monkey Buffet Festival at the Pra Prang Sam Yot temple in Lopburi, north of Bangkok, Thailand. The festival provides food and drinks to the local monkey population, which numbers more than 2,000, to thank them for drawing tourists to the town. Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Market Closes for December 1^st, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17776.80	-51.44
		-0.29%
S&P 500	2053.44	-14.12   -0.68%
NASDAQ	4727.348	-64.282   -1.34%
TSX	14625.32	-119.38
		-0.81%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17590.10	+130.25
		+0.75%
HANG SENG	23367.45	-620.00
		-2.58%
SENSEX	28559.62	-134.37
		-0.47%
FTSE 100	6656.37	-66.25
		-0.99%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.896	1.858
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.450	2.424
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2323	2.1640
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.9620	2.8888

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.88272	0.87509
US $	1.13286	1.14274
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41260	0.70791
US $	1.24694	0.80196

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1211.46	1167.35
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	69.00	66.15

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell a fourth day, sending the benchmark gauge to a three-week low, as railway shares tumbled and a gauge of Chinese manufacturing dropped more than economists forecast.

     Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co., which ship crude by rail, sank at least 3.6 percent after oil touched a five-year low before recovering. Penn West Petroleum Ltd. tumbled 6.6 percent after analysts at Bank of Montreal cut their rating for the stock. Surge Energy Inc. lost 9.4 percent to pace declines among energy producers. Iamgold Corp. and Argonaut Gold Inc. each jumped as gold and silver prices rebounded.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 119.38 points, or 0.8 percent, to 14,625.32 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the lowest level since Nov. 6. The index has lost 3 percent in four days. The S&P/TSX is up 7.4 percent this year, the 12th-best performer among developed markets in the world.

     West Texas Intermediate rebounded after touching the lowest level in more than five years as the market selloff prompted by OPEC’s failure last week to curb production took a pause. Crude had the biggest monthly loss in November in almost six years after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries signaled it will leave it to the market to curb a glut.

     Canadian Pacific declined 3.6 percent to C$212.68 and Canadian National tumbled 5.1 percent to C$77.09, the most in five years, as industrial stocks retreated 3.5 percent as a group. The industry has slumped 7 percent in the past two sessions.

      Westport Innovations Inc., which makes natural gas engines and components, sank 12 percent to C$4.62 after Jefferies LLC analyst Laurence Alexander lowered the stock’s rating to hold from buy. The stock has plunged 29 percent during an eight-day losing streak.

     Surge Energy lost 9.4 percent to C$4.54, the lowest since May 2013. The S&P/TSX Energy Index fell 1.8 percent. The gauge has retreated 12 percent in six days.

     Eight of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX fell on trading volume 51 percent higher than the 30-day average today.

     The Chinese government’s Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to an eight-month low of 50.3 in November, compared with the 50.5 median estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey and October’s 50.8. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.

     The government ordered factories in Beijing and surrounding regions to shut down during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to curb pollution.

     Iamgold jumped 18 percent to C$2.64, and Argonaut Gold surged 9.3 percent to C$2 after gold for February delivery rallied 3.6 percent in New York for the biggest gain in 14 months.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell for a second day as weaker data on Black Friday sales and China manufacturing overshadowed a rebound in oil and expansion in American factories.

     Retailers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell the most in a month as post-Thanksgiving holiday sales came in below forecasts. Apple Inc. fell as much as 6.4 percent in early trading  before paring the loss in half. Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. gained at least 2 percent as crude oil ended a four- day skid.

     The S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent to 2,053.44 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 51.44 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,776.8. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index lost 1.2 percent. About 7.6 billion listed shares changed hands in the U.S., 13 percent higher than the three-month daily average.

     “There’s a lot of rotation here in the market right now,” Gene Peroni, a fund manager at Advisors Asset Management Inc. in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview. His firm oversees $14.7 billion. “The market is holding up pretty well.  We’re just going through an intermediate consolidation.”

     The S&P 500 dropped as much as 0.8 percent in the first half hour of trading as Apple, the world’s largest company, posted its biggest intraday plunge since January. Equities briefly pared losses as Apple trimmed its declines and data from the Institute for Supply Management showed manufacturing in the U.S. grew in November at a faster pace than projected.                         

     The ISM’s factory index in the U.S. was little changed at 58.7 last month, the second-strongest level since April 2011, compared with 59 in October. It exceeded the median forecast of 80 economists surveyed by Bloomberg and readings greater than 50 indicate growth.

     China’s official factory index fell to 50.3 for November, below the 50.5 reading projected by economists, while a private gauge from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics came in at 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction.

     “Chinese data is starting to give investors pause about global growth,” Bill Schultz, who oversees $1.2 billion as chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview. “If we can stabilize oil here, that would be a positive for the market.”

     Oil prices reversed earlier declines today, with West Texas Intermediate rebounding 4.3 percent after plunging 3.7 percent to $63.72 a barrel, the least since July 2009.

     That benefited Exxon Mobil and Chevron, which had the largest gains in the Dow. Occidental Petroleum Corp. increased 3.8 percent, while ConocoPhillips climbed 2.6 percent.

     A measure of energy-related stocks in the S&P 500 slid 9.5 percent last week, the most since September 2011, as oil slumped after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to keep its output limit unchanged. Oil has collapsed into a bear market as the U.S. pumps crude at the fastest rate in three decades while global demand growth slows.

     The Dow Jones Transportation Average slid 2.7 percent, the most since Feb. 3, with all 20 of its companies declining on the day. Southwest Airlines Co. and Delta Air Lines Inc. fell more than 2.2 percent as the Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index retreated for the first time in five days. The group rallied 10 percent last week amid prospects for lower fuel costs.

     The S&P 500 climbed 2.5 percent in November, rising for a second month, as global central banks added stimulus, and data showed the U.S. economic recovery remained intact. The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Nov. 26.                         

     Investors will be watching other data this week for clues to the economy’s strength, with the focus on Friday’s labor statistics. Companies added 228,000 payrolls in November while the unemployment rate held at 5.8 percent, according to the consensus forecast by economists.

     A report from the National Retail Federation showed U.S. consumers spent an estimated 11 percent less than last year over the four days through November 30. It’s the second year in a row that Thanksgiving sales fell during a period famous for long lines and frenzied crowds.

     The slower foot traffic means retailers will have to wring more money from consumers in December, including during today’s Cyber Monday e-commerce blitz.

     “There were disappointing holiday sales over the weekend and now basically retail, online, anything Internet is really getting hit today,” Rick Fier, director of equity trading at Conifer Securities LLC in New York, said via phone.                       

     A group of retailers in the S&P 500 fell 1.5 percent. Best Buy Co. and GameStop Corp. were hit the hardest, falling more than 5.2 percent. Amazon.com Inc. and Macy’s Inc. also declined more than 2.6 percent.

     Apple shares plunged almost 5 percent during a 60-second swoon that started 20 minutes after trading began today, falling the most since January before paring half the loss almost as quickly. About $40 billion of market value was erased and then mostly restored as shares of the iPhone maker slumped along with other technology stocks.

     “Being as big and visible as it is, some people use Apple as a proxy for worldwide consumer technology,” John Manley, who helps oversee about $233 billion as chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Funds Management in New York, said in a phone interview. “Little hiccups can be translated into rather large spasms from time to time.”

     Apple’s retreat was mirrored in technology stocks from Tesla Motors Inc. to TripAdvisor Inc. and Facebook Inc., which fell more than 3.3 percent.

     Industrial and technology shares had the biggest losses among 10 groups in the S&P 500, dropping more than 1.1 percent.  Energy stocks had the largest gain, rising 0.7 percent.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of options prices known as the VIX, jumped 7.2 percent to 14.29. The benchmark gauge of price swings climbed 3.3 percent last week.

 

Have  a wonderful evening.

 

Be magnificent!

But if you are not connected with all living beings on earth,

you risk losing your relationship with humanity, with human beings.

We never truly look at a tree’s qualities; we never touch it to feel how solid it is, how rough its bark is,

to listen to the sound it makes.  Not the sound of the wind in the leaves,

nor the morning breeze that makes them rustle, but its own sound, the sound of the trunk,

the silent sound of the roots.  You have to be extremely sensitive to hear this sound.

It is not the noise people make, the chattering of thoughts, nor that of human quarrels and wars,

but the very sound of the universe.

 

Krishnamurti

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

You always pass failure on the way to success.

                        -Mickey Rooney, 1920-2014

 

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

William Blake’s birthday today.

One of his gifts to us:

TO SONGS OF INNOCENCE

Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:

“Pipe a song about a Lamb!”
So I piped with merry cheer.
“Piper, pipe that song again”;
So I piped: he wept to hear.

“Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy cheer”;
So I sang the same again,
While he wept with hoy to hear.

“Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read.”
So he vanished from my sight,
And I plucked a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.

 -William Blake, b. November 28^th, 1757

Photos of the Day

Easter Island sunrise.

Santorini sunset.

Market Closes for November 28^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17828.24	+0.49
		—
S&P 500	2067.56	-5.27   -0.25%
NASDAQ	4791.629	+4.312   +0.09
TSX	14744.70	-177.74
		-1.19%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17459.85	+211.35
		+1.23%
HANG SENG	23987.45	-16.83
		-0.07%
SENSEX	28693.99	+255.08
		+0.90%
FTSE 100	6722.62	-0.80
		-0.01%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.858	1.897
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.424	2.457
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.1640	2.2447
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.8888	2.9542

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87509	0.88198
US $	1.14274	1.13381
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.42215	0.70316
US $	1.24450	0.80353

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1167.35	1190.67
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	66.15	73.69

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks slumped a third day, posting the biggest drop in more than a month, as commodities retreated to a five-year low after OPEC chose not to cut production.

     Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. and MEG Energy Corp. sank more than 10 percent as energy shares extended a one-year low. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co., which transport crude by rail, tumbled at least 4.4 percent. Glentel Inc., the mobile phone retailer, surged 103 percent after agreeing to sell itself to BCE Inc. in a deal valued at about C$670 million ($586 million).

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 177.74 points, or 1.2 percent, to 14,744.70 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the steepest decline since Oct. 22. The index has tumbled 2.4 percent for the week, the most in seven weeks.

     The S&P/TSX is up 8.3 percent this year, the 10th-best performer among developed markets in the world.

     The Bloomberg Commodity Index of 22 raw materials dropped as much as 3.9 percent to the lowest level since May 2009. Commodities are poised for a fourth straight year of losses as West Texas Intermediate oil is set for the biggest slump since the 2008 financial crisis.                          
     Capstone Mining Corp. slumped 8.2 percent to C$1.91 and Lundin Mining Corp. lost 5.7 percent to C$5.45 as raw-material and energy producers declined 3.7 percent and 2.4 respectively. Five of 10 industries in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge retreated on trading volume 3.8 percent higher than the 30-day average today.

     Copper for March delivery plunged 3.7 percent in New York to a four-year low amid speculation the slump in oil prices will reduce industrial-metals production costs.

     Athabasca Oil Corp. dropped 1.9 percent to C$2.54 for a fifth day of losses, extending an all-time low. The stock has retreated 21 percent in the past five days. Pacific Rubiales tumbled 12 percent to C$11.05. The S&P/TSX Energy Index lost 2.4 percent as the group fell to a July 2013 low and posted a 11 percent weekly drop, its worst in six years.

     WTI crude plunged 10 percent to $66.15, the lowest settlement since September 2009 and capped its biggest weekly decline since 2011. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries yesterday kept its production ceiling unchanged at 30 million barrels a day, triggering the worst rout in Canadian energy shares in three years.

     Canada’s economy grew an annualized 2.8 percent in the third quarter, faster than economists forecast, as exports of crude oil grew and consumers shelled out for cars and big-ticket items. Economists had forecast a median increase of 2.1 percent, slower than the second quarter’s 3.6 percent expansion.

US

By Callie Bost and Jonathan Morgan

     Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell as small-cap companies and energy producers slumped on OPEC’s decision to keep its output target unchanged, offsetting a rally in retailers.

     Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., the oil and gas stocks with the biggest weighting on the benchmark S&P 500, lost more than 4.2 percent. American Airlines Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. rose at least 5.5 percent amid optimism that they will benefit from lower fuel costs. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. jumped more than 2.8 percent as shoppers go to stores and online for the Black Friday weekend.

     The S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent to 2,067.56 at 1 p.m. in New York, as exchanges closed early after the Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 1 point to 17,828.24. The Nasdaq 100 Index jumped 0.5 percent while the Russell 2000 Index lost 1.5 percent, the most since Oct. 9.

     The S&P 500 closed at a record on Nov. 26 and completed its second monthly gain today, with an increase of 2.5 percent. It has rallied 11 percent from its low last month as data signaled the U.S. economy is improving, and central banks around the world boosted stimulus measures.

     “The larger story is the sharp oil-price dip overnight,” Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Plc in London, wrote in an e-mail. “That’s expected to continue the pressure on the oil majors, while at the same time giving a fillip both to the consumer — an effective tax cut — and indeed the airlines.”                         

     West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped 8.7 percent from its Nov. 26 close, the biggest loss in more than three years, as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries yesterday agreed not to reduce its production ceiling even after oil collapsed into a bear market this year.

     Exxon Mobil declined 4.2 percent, the most since July, and Chevron lost 5.4 percent, its biggest drop since 2011. Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s biggest provider of oilfield services, slipped 7.4 percent. Halliburton Co., the second- largest, tumbled 11 percent. Baker Hughes Inc., which Halliburton has agreed to buy, dropped 8.9 percent.

     American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, climbed 7.9 percent. Delta Air Lines added 5.5 percent. Southwest Airlines Co. rallied 6.5 percent.

     Wal-Mart surged 3 percent, the most in the Dow, and J.C. Penney Co. climbed 3.4 percent. UPS gained 2.8 percent, Best Buy Co. advanced 1.7 percent and Amazon.com Inc. added 1.5 percent. The National Retail Federation projected a 4.1 percent gain in retail sales in November and December, the biggest increase since 2011.

     “Retail sales and Internet retail sales show yesterday was a good day,” Dan Heckman, Kansas City, Missouri-based national investment consultant at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, said by phone. His firm oversees about $120 billion. “With the drop in oil we think this will be a tremendous holiday season. Investors are going to watch which sectors will be impacted by the decline in oil.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

We encounter this, surprising paradox between us:

the Whole appears as a multitude,

the appearance is opposite to the truth,

and yet it is inseparably linked.

 

Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

                                                                             -Eric Hoffer, 1902-1983

 

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

Queensbury Securities Inc Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Yesterday, a friend brought me a book of poems by Mary Oliver.  This is from the book, Blue Horses:

TO BE HUMAN IS TO SING YOUR OWN SONG

Everything that I can think of  that my parents
thought or did I don’t think and I don’t do.
I opened windows, they shut them.  I pulled
open the curtains, they shut them.  If you
get my drift.  Of course there were some
similarities – they wanted to be happy and
they weren’t.  I wanted to be Shelley and I
wasn’t.  I don’t mean I didn’t have to avoid
imitation, the gloom was pretty heavy.  But
then, for me, there was the forest, where
they didn’t exist.  And the fields.  Where I
learned about birds and other sweet tidbits
of existence.  The song sparrow, for example.

In the song sparrow’s nest the nestlings,
those who would sing eventually, must listen
carefully to the father bird as he sings
and make their own song in imitation of his.
I don’t know if any other bird does this (in
nature’s way has to do this).  But I know a
child doesn’t have to.  Doesn’t have to.
Doesn’t have to.  And I didn’t.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

103-year-old Robert Marchand (front left) cycles in the rain with a small group of riders to celebrate his birthday as he makes his way along the Robert Marchand Pass, a 10-kilometer ride in the Ardeche mountains, near Saint-Felicien, France. Robert Pratta/Reuters

US President Barack Obama and his daughters, Sasha (c.), and Malia (r.), participate in the annual turkey pardoning ceremony marking the 67th presentation of the National Thanksgiving Turkey while in the White House in Washington. Larry Downing/Reuters

Market Closes for November 26^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17827.75	+12.81
		+0.07%
S&P 500	2072.83	+5.80   +0.28%
NASDAQ	4787.316	+29.065   +0.61%
TSX	15038.41	-35.24
		-0.23%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17383.58	-24.04
		-0.14%
HANG SENG	24111.98	+268.07
		+1.12%
SENSEX	28386.19	+48.14
		+0.17%
FTSE 100	6729.17	-1.97
		-0.03%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.935	1.945
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.484	2.490
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2447	2.2570
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.9542	2.9628

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.88879	0.88828
US $	1.12513	1.12577
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.40722	0.71062
US $	1.25072	0.79954

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1197.50	1201.23
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	73.69	74.14

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for the second time in three days, as raw-materials and energy producers slumped with crude closing at a four-year low amid conflicting signals from OPEC nations on output reductions.

     Bankers Petroleum Ltd. and Trilogy Energy Corp. lost at least 5.5 percent to pace declines among oil stocks. New Gold Inc. and Argonaut Gold Inc. dropped more than 4.2 percent as raw-materials producers retreated from a seven-week high.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 35.24 points, or 0.2 percent, to 15,038.41 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The index is up 10 percent this year, the seventh-best performer among developed markets in the world.

     Raw-materials and energy producers, which account for about a third of the benchmark Canadian equity gauge, were the only two groups among 10 main industries in the index that fell today, on trading 26 percent below the 30-day average.

     Bankers Petroleum sank 5.5 percent to C$4.09 and Trilogy Energy fell 7.4 percent to C$12.67 as 59 of 69 members of the S&P/TSX Energy Index declined. Energy shares have slumped 2 percent in November, headed for a third straight month of declines, the longest losing streak since September 2011.

     West Texas Intermediate and Brent crudes declined, tumbling to four-year lows, as OPEC meets tomorrow to determine output levels. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, didn’t agree with Russia, Venezuela and Mexico to curb output at a meeting yesterday in Vienna.

     New Gold lost 4.2 percent to C$5.03 and Argonaut Gold slumped 8.2 percent to C$2.13. The S&P/TSX Materials Index sank 1.6 percent. Gold was little changed at $1,197.50 an ounce in New York.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, with benchmark indexes closing at all-time highs, amid optimism the economy is showing sufficient strength to weather a slowdown overseas.

     Phone companies led gains, while technology stocks rose as Hewlett-Packard Co. advanced to the highest level since May 2011 even after missing analyst earnings estimates. Energy producers decreased as Seadrill Ltd. suspended dividends amid the lowest oil prices in more than four years.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3 percent to 2,072.83 at 4 p.m. in New York, extending gains in the final 15 minutes of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 12.81 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,827.75. Both gauges ended at records. The Nasdaq 100 Index climbed 0.7 percent to extend a more than 14-year high. About 4.9 billion listed shares changed hands in the U.S., 26 percent lower than the three-month daily average. U.S. markets will be closed tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday.

     “Economic numbers in general have been good, and that optimism is following through,” Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co., which oversees $2 billion, said in a phone interview. “It could be a good retail season, and low gas prices are making a difference.”

     Consumer confidence climbed to a more than seven-year high in November as Americans’ views of their financial well-being improved heading into the holiday shopping season. A separate report showed consumer spending climbed in October at the same pace as incomes, showing households are staying within their means as the holiday-shopping season begins.                          

     Orders for U.S. business equipment such as machinery and electrical gear unexpectedly declined in October. Other data showed jobless claims increased by 21,000 to 313,000 in the week ended Nov. 22, the highest since early September, from 292,000 in the prior period. New homes in the U.S. sold at a slower pace than forecast last month.

     A report yesterday showed U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 3.9 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, more than initially estimated.

     The S&P 500 has advanced each December for the past six years. It is up 11 percent from its six-month low in October, as data signaled the U.S. economy is improving and central banks in Europe, Japan and China added more stimulus measures.                          

     The rally in American equities has pushed stock valuations to near the highest levels since 2009. The S&P 500 trades at 17.3 times the projected earnings of its members, up from a multiple as low as 15.5 last month. Profit for S&P 500 companies may rise 7.6 percent this year, estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

     Calm has returned to equity markets. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of options prices known as the VIX, has dropped 14 percent in the past five days to a two-month low. The benchmark gauge of price swings surged to a more than two-year high on Oct. 15.

     Eight out of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 increased today, with phone and technology companies posting the largest gains. Energy shares slumped the most, dropping 1.1 percent ahead of tomorrow’s OPEC meeting.

     Chipmakers surged, with Analog Devices Inc. climbing 5.5 percent after profit and sales for the fourth quarter exceeded projections. The company’s adjusted gross margin, a measure of profitability, was also wider than analysts had predicted.                       

     Phone companies in the benchmark gauge gained the most since July as CenturyLink Inc. rose 2.2 percent to lead gains.  AT&T Inc. rose for a second straight day after falling 3.3 percent since Nov. 14.

     Technology companies in the S&P 500 climbed 0.9 percent.  Hewlett-Packard Co. added 4.1 percent even after the computer maker reported fourth-quarter sales that missed estimates. The company’s margins may benefit from a restructuring plan that would spin off its personal-computer and printer operations into a stand-alone entity, Brian Alexander, an analyst for Raymond James, wrote in a client note today.

     Mylan Inc. surged more than 4 percent. A Jefferies Group LLC analyst said the company is viewed as the most likely takeover target for Pfizer Inc.

     Deere & Co. pared its drop to 0.9 percent after losing as much as 3.9 percent. The world’s largest maker of farm equipment forecast 2015 profit that trailed estimates as farmers buy fewer high-horsepower tractors and combines after crop prices fell. Caterpillar Inc. slumped 0.4 percent.

     Seadrill Ltd. fell 23 percent, the most in six years, after the offshore driller controlled by billionaire John Fredriksen suspended dividends as the slump in oil prices weakens demand for rigs.

     Energy companies declined the most out of the 10 main S&P 500 industries as Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., Transocean Ltd. and Noble Corp. declined more than 5 percent. Crude oil dropped 0.5 percent to $73.69 a barrel in New York, the lowest since September 2010.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Amidst this chaos there is harmony, throughout these discordant sounds there is a note of concord;

and he who is prepared to listen to it will catch the tone.

 

Swami Vivekananda

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The pen is the tongue of the mind.

 -Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Noteworthy:

Break Bread With Strangers:  For world travelers yearning for an authentic meal with a local host, check out MealSharing.com to see if there’s a spot at a nearby table for you.  Much like other sharing economy services, the site connects users and hosts so they can break bread together.  For the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday in the US, the site is promoting ThanksSharing Day meals for those still looking for an invitation to dinner or wanting to expand their guest list.

A Hungry World:  Every meal on your plate has likely navigated a host of unseen issues.  National Geographic has curated its recent magazine series exploring the challenges and progress associated with feeding a growing population on its new site, NatGeoFood.com.  the site features videos, photography, and interactive maps and graphics to help raise awareness of the stories behind the food we eat.  A related free app, The Future of Food, is available through iTunes.

Saving The Planet:  Earth has faced mass extinctions five times in its past; evidence of the destruction is recorded in its surface.  Today’s rapid climate change is so extreme scientists say it rivals the chain of events that threatened past habitats.  Smithsonian Channel explores the possible perils and solutions in Mass Extinction: Life at the Brink.  It premieres November 30^th at 8 p.m.

      -from CSM, November 24^th, 2014.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

People cross a street in a business district on a rainy day in downtown Tokyo. Thomas Peter/Reuters

A turkey looks around its enclosure at Seven Acres Farm in North Reading, Mass., two days before the Thanksgiving holiday. Paul Pagliozzi is the second generation owner of the farm his father started in 1938. Brian Snyder/Reuters

Market Closes for November 25^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17814.94	-2.96
		-0.02%
S&P 500	2067.03	-2.38   -0.12%
NASDAQ	4758.250	+3.358   +0.07%
TSX	15073.65	+58.24
		+0.39%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17407.62	+50.11
		+0.29%
HANG SENG	23843.91	-49.23
		-0.21%
SENSEX	28338.05	-161.49
		-0.57%
FTSE 100	6731.14	+1.35
		+0.02%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.945	1.979
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.490	2.524
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2570	2.3011
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.9628	3.0159

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.88828	0.88605
US $	1.12577	1.12860
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.40419	0.71216
US $	1.24732	0.80172

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1201.23	1197.12
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	74.14	75.78

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, rebounding from the biggest drop in three weeks, as materials producers rallied after gold and silver miners surged.

     Kinross Gold Corp. and Iamgold Corp. jumped at least 5.8 percent as the price of the metal advanced for the second time in three sessions. Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. added 4 percent after posting earnings. Hudson’s Bay Co. rallied 8.4 percent to extend an all-time high. Energy shares slumped as U.S. crude fell to a four-year low.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 58.24 points, or 0.4 percent, to 15,073.65 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The index is up 11 percent this year after advancing in seven of the past eight sessions.

     Eight of the 10 industries in the index rose today on trading 20 percent above the 30-day average. Materials producers advance 2.5 percent to the most since Oct. 8

     Eldorado Gold Corp. soared 9.4 percent to C$7.90 and Kinross Gold Corp. jumped 11 percent to C$3.50, as all but two of the 24 members of the S&P/TSX Gold Index advanced.

     The gauge added 4.9 percent, snapping a two-day decline as gold for February delivery climbed.

     Couche-Tard, operator of convenience stores in North America and Europe, rose 4 percent to C$39.70 as consumer- staples shares increased 0.6 percent as a group. The company’s same-store merchandise sales increased 3 percent in Canada and 2.8 percent in the U.S.

     Canadian retail sales rose 0.8 percent to C$42.8 billion ($38 billion) in September, faster than a 0.5 percent increase projected by economists, led by big-ticket purchases including cars, furniture and appliances.

     U.S. gross domestic product rose at a 3.9 percent annualized rate, up from an initial estimate of 3.5 percent, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 3.3 percent gain.

     Energy shares in the S&P/TSX dropped 0.5 percent. Lightstream Resources Ltd. lost 5.9 percent to C$3.52 and Raging River Exploration Inc. sank 5.2 percent to C$6.99.

     West Texas Intermediate crude fell to a four-year low after nations supplying a third of the world’s oil failed to pledge output cuts before this week’s OPEC meeting.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was little changed after closing yesterday at a record, as data showing the economy expanded more than previously forecast in the third quarter was offset by a drop in consumer confidence.

     Tiffany & Co. rose 2.5 percent as consumer-discretionary companies in the S&P 500 advanced for a sixth day to extend an all-time high. Energy shares fell the most among 10 groups in the index as crude prices dropped to the lowest since September 2010 ahead of an OPEC meeting.

     The S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent to 2,067.03 at 4 p.m. in New York, following three days of gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.96 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 17,814.94. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies dropped 0.1 percent, while the Nasdaq 100 Index extended a 14- year high. About 6.1 billion listed shares changed hands in the U.S., 8.3 percent lower than the three-month daily average.

     “Some of the economic numbers like GDP looked good, but I don’t know how sustainable they are,” Stephen Carl, principal and head equity trader at New York-based Williams Capital Group LP, said in a phone interview. “We need more gains and more activity to sustain that. Consumer confidence was off modestly, and that may be a bit of a catalyst to the downside.”

     Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose at a 3.9 percent annualized rate, up from an initial estimate of 3.5 percent, Commerce Department figures showed. The median forecast of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 3.3 percent gain. After the 4.6 percent increase in the second quarter, it marked the biggest back-to- back advance since late 2003.

     The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell to 88.7 in November from 94.1 a month earlier. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a gain to 96.                    

     “Sentiment is probably optimistic, but cautious,” Erik Wytenus, a Palm Beach, Florida-based global investment specialist at JPMorgan Private Bank, said by phone. The division oversees $1.052 trillion in client assets. “Part of the reason for that is that stocks have had a powerful run. The thing I’m encouraged about is the strength in the consumer sector.”

     The S&P 500 has rallied 11 percent from its low last month as data signaled the U.S. economy is improving, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged to raise inflation as fast as possible, and China unexpectedly cut interest rates.

     The Russell 2000 climbed 2.5 percent over the previous three sessions, recovering its losses for this month. It has now surged 13 percent from a one-year low reached in October.

     The rally in American equities has pushed stock valuations to the highest since the end of 2009. The S&P 500 trades at 17.2 times the projected earnings of its members, up from a multiple as low as 15.5 last month. Profit for S&P 500 companies may rise 7.6 percent this year, estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

     Hewlett-Packard Co. and Tiffany & Co. were among S&P 500 companies reporting earnings today. Of those members that have already reported, 79 percent have beaten earnings projections while 60 percent have beaten sales estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of options prices known as the VIX, fell 2.9 percent to 12.25. The benchmark gauge of price swings climbed to a more than two-year high on Oct. 15.                        

     Five of the 10 of the major groups in the S&P 500 increased today. Consumer discretionary companies had the biggest gains, rising 0.2 percent. Energy producers led declines with a 1.6 percent slide as oil prices tumbled.

     Tiffany, the world’s second-largest luxury jewelry retailer, rose 2.5 percent after higher-than-projected sales in the Americas helped make up for a slowdown in Asia last quarter.

     Cable providers also added to gains among consumer discretionary stocks as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. increased more than 2.2percent.

     Apple, already the world’s largest company by market capitalization, hit a record value. Shares of the iPhone maker rose as much as 1 percent to $119.75, giving it a valuation of more than $700 billion, a milestone that no other U.S. company has reached. The shares erased gains in afternoon trading, slipping 0.9 percent.

     Energy companies 1.6 percent as crude oil slipped 2.2 percent to settle at $74.09 a barrel. Nabors Industries Ltd.fell the most with a 4.9 percent drop, while Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger Ltd. decreased more than 3.2 percent.

     Crude futures slid after a meeting between nations supplying a third of the world’s oil failed to result in a pledge to curb output in the run-up to this week’s OPEC meeting.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Within, everything is connected.

This is because an action in one part produces a similar reaction elsewhere

and thus a response.

 

Swami Prajnanpad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Intense love does not measure, it just gives.

                    -Mother Teresa, 1910-1997

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Tracking down the origin of the phrase “Black Friday” uncovers any number of explanations, but one likely source that seems to have emerged, a good run-down of which can be found here, is that the term originated in the Philadelphia police department. The day after Thanksgiving saw a lot of holiday revelers — and a crippling amount of traffic, which gave the cops a tough time. So the term, at least in this telling, was originally one of derision. –Paul Vigna, WSJ.

On the weekend, I read the obituary of Fred Branfman in a recent edition of The Economist and found it inspirational.  Fred Branfman was the exposer of America’s secret war in Laos.  He died on September 24^th this year, aged 72.  The following was taken from that obituary in The Economist:

 

“The peasant refugees, camped outside Vientiane in Laos, did not want to speak to him when he first approached them, in 1969,  they were wary of the big, earnest, bespectacled young American.  And they were wretched.  They had left behind their paddy fields, pigs and buffalo, their fresh air and forests, and pined for them.  Many were injured, too: blinded, or missing limbs, or riddled with metal pellets that showed through their skin.

  Over the months, as Fred Branfman gently urged them, they began to talk of war planes over their home region, the Plain of Jars.  At first, in 1964, they had watched them with interest, much as they watched the rockets at the spring festival of boun bang fai.  Then the planes dived close and aimed at them directly.  They went on doing so, flying up  to 200 sorties a day, for five years.  When Mr. Branfman visited the plain at last in 1993 (pictured), droplets from cluster bombs were still exploding….He had gone to Laos to teach in his 20s, mostly to avoid the draft for Vietnam.  In that war Laos was officially neutral, though it was fought over by right- and left- wing groups and supply routes to the Vietcong ran through it.  The American government denied it was conducting a war there, for conventional warfare was outlawed.  Congress and the public were in the dark.  It seemed that only Mr. Branfman knew.

  As a Jew he was inevitably reminded of the Holocaust, another concealed atrocity.  It was ‘as if I had discovered Auschwitz when it was still going on.’  His fury was never hard to ignite; like many of his contemporaries, he had burned to changer the word since high school.  He had been brought up to believe America was good, and triumphed in just wars.  Now everything was upended.  America had betrayed him: it was not merely socially unjust, especially towards blacks, but also brutal and criminal abroad.

  He had to get the story out.  It was easier than he thought, for the villagers could read and write as well as draw, with chilling accuracy, T-28s and F-105s strafing their hills.  Their anonymous memories and sketches became  ‘Voices from the Plain of Jars’ published in 1972. By then, President Nixon had admitted that America was at war in Laos; but not that it was targeting civilians.  That was still denied outright by America’s former ambassador to Laos, in front of a Senate committee to which Mr. Branfman, too, gave evidence….In the 21^st century his list of executive outrages grew long again, this time provoked by the war on terror: surveillance of Americans by government agencies, the growth of biometric databases, expanded powers of detention, pervasive secrecy.  In newspaper columns he appealed to Americans to resist the growth of a police state.

  He warned them, too, that the world was changing for the worse.  In Laos he had heard repeatedly how huge machines had dealt out death from afar.  The use of drones in Iraq and Afghanistan was merely a refinement of this remote, arrogant way of killing.  In Laos he had heard of peaceful, ancient ways of life, in tune with nature, obliterated by human greed and barbarity; now global warming, again spurred by greed, was threatening mankind as a whole.  As before, he hoped that if he shouted loudly enough, people would hear.  Some did, but once again America’s leaders proved stone deaf.

The problem with the human race, he concluded, was that it blocked out pain.  Uncomfortable facts, inconvenient truths, other people’s suffering, were all denied as long as possible.  And nothing was denied as vigorously as death, though he knew from a brush with it when he was 48 – that to face it squarely was also to draw from it life-affirming strength.  This was the blo9wn-open secret of his last years, spent in Budapest beside the Danube.  But he had heard it first, like so much else, in Laos.  A 14year-old boy told him how he had sung in the rice fields, even as the planes passed over.  ‘I felt that although I might have to die, it did not matter; that I just had to be happy in the midst of all the sadness of war, of the airplanes dropping bombs.’”

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to actress Meryl Streep during a White House ceremony in Washington. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

A woman playing the role of Bridget Fuller makes pancakes in a home at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Mass. Plimouth Plantation is a living museum portraying the life of the Native Americans and the English colonists in 1627, seven years after the colonists’ arrival. Brian Snyder/Reuters

Market Closes for November 24^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17817.90	+7.84
		+0.04%
S&P 500	2069.41	+5.91   +0.29%
NASDAQ	4754.891	+41.921   +0.89%
TSX	15015.41	-95.72
		-0.63%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17357.51	+56.65
		+0.33%
HANG SENG	23893.14	+456.02
		+1.95%
SENSEX	28499.54	+164.91
		+0.58%
FTSE 100	6729.79	-20.97
		-0.31%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.979	2.006
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.524	2.553
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.3011	2.3099
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.0159	3.0151

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.88605	0.89004
US $	1.12860	1.12355
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.40397	0.71226
US $	1.24399	0.80386

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1197.12	1201.52
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	75.78	75.91

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in three weeks, halting a six-day rally, as commodities producers retreated amid investors speculation on whether OPEC will slash production at a Nov. 27 meeting.

     Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. sank 5.6 percent, the most in more than a year, as OAO Uralkali negotiates with Russian regulators to resume work in a portion of a flooded mine. Alacer Gold Corp. and Detour Gold Corp. retreated at least 3.9 percent as gold futures fell. Hudson’s Bay Co. jumped 8 percent to an all-time high as the retailer plans to take out a $1.25 billion mortgage on the ground portion of its Saks Fifth Avenue property in New York.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index lost 95.72 points, or 0.6 percent, to 15,015.41 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark Canadian equity gauge had rallied 2.3 percent in the previous six days to a September high. The index is up 10 percent this year, seventh among the world’s developed markets.

     Six of the 10 industries in the index fell on trading 4.7 percent below the 30-day average. Energy and materials producers dropped at least 1.8 percent to pace declines.

     Alacer Gold fell 4.3 percent to C$2.21 to and Detour Gold retreated 3.9 percent to C$9.47 as raw-materials companies fell 1.9 percent as a group. Gold slipped 0.2 percent in New York.

     Lightstream Resources Ltd. declined 4.1 percent to C$3.74 and Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. fell 3.1 percent to C$5.61. Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude retreated for the first time in three days.

     Iran may propose that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its output target by as much as 1 million barrels a day when the country’s oil minister consults with his Saudi counterpart, Iran’s state-run Mehr News reported. Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said today it’s not the first time the oil market has been over-supplied.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, extending all-time highs for benchmark indexes, as small-cap shares rallied amid growing confidence in the global economy.

     Best Buy Co. jumped 2.3 percent before the start of the holiday shopping season. Urban Outfitters Inc. advanced 5.4 percent, the most in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Verizon Communications Inc. tumbled 1.4 percent after Citigroup Inc. lowered its rating on the stock. AT&T Inc. slid 1.6 percent.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3 percent to a record 2,069.41 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies surged 1.2 percent to the highest level since July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 7.84 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 17,817.9, weighed down by Verizon and AT&T. About 5.6 billion listed shares changed hands in the U.S., about 15 percent lower than the three-month daily average.

     “We’re seeing a carryover from last week’s comments made by Draghi trying to address the inflation in Europe, and the actions from the Chinese central bank to lower lending rates,” Robert Pavlik, who helps oversee $4.5 billion as chief market strategist at Banyan Partners LLC in New York, said in a phone interview. “You’ve gotten some good economic news and earnings reports. The market has more upside potential.”

     The S&P 500 advanced 1.2 percent last week as data signaled the U.S. economy is improving, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged to raise inflation as fast as possible and China unexpectedly cut interest rates.

     The benchmark gauge has rebounded 11 percent from a six- month low last month. The S&P 500 had plunged as much as 7.4 percent as concern grew Europe was leading a global growth slowdown. Stocks gained today after a report showed German business confidence unexpectedly advanced this month.

     In Germany, the Ifo institute’s business climate index rose to 104.7 in November from 103.2 in October. Economists had predicted a decline in the gauge that is based on a survey of 7,000 executives.

     Preliminary data from Markit Economics showed the U.S. services industries expanded at a slower pace this month. Reports tomorrow may show the world’s largest economy grew at a slower rate in the third quarter than first estimated, while consumer confidence probably climbed in November to a seven-year high.

     “The U.S. economy is very solid, and we’re also starting to see signs that the worst is behind us for Europe,” said Allan von Mehren, chief analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Investors are starting to position for a global recovery in the first half of next year.”

     The rally in American equities has pushed stock valuations to the highest since the end of 2009. The S&P 500 trades at 17.2 times the projected earnings of its members, up from a multiple of 15.5 last month. Profit for S&P 500 companies may rise 7.6 percent this year, estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

     The S&P 500 closed above its five-day moving average for 27 consecutive trading sessions. That’s the longest such streak in history, according to Jonathan Krinsky, chief market technician at MKM Holdings LLC.

     The index closed 4.2 percent above its 50-day moving average last week, the widest spread in a year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     The Russell 2000 Index has recovered all of its losses this month. The index dropped as much as 2.4 percent through Nov. 19. It has now climbed 13 percent from a one-year low reached in October.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of options prices known as the VIX, fell 2.2 percent to 12.62. The gauge climbed to a more than two-year high on Oct. 15.                       

     Best Buy, the world’s biggest electronics chain, jumped 2.3 percent before Black Friday on Nov. 28 kicks off the year’s busiest shopping season. Gap Inc. rallied 4.6 percent.

     Consumer discretionary companies rose the most out of any group in the S&P 500, led by Urban Outfitters, which increased 5.4 percent. Coach Inc. climbed 2.6 percent. The National Retail Federation predicts retail sales will rise 4.1 percent this holiday season, more than the 2.9 percent average of the past 10 years.

     Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc. rallied 11 percent as people familiar with the matter said the biotechnology company is exploring a sale.

     Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd. climbed 21 percent after the reinsurer said RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will buy it for about $76 per share.

     Phone companies dropped 1.4 percent, the most among the 10 S&P 500 groups.

     Verizon slid 1.4 percent as Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins cut his rating on the company to neutral from buy. He cited expectations of below-consensus earnings per share in 2015 stemming from higher costs of capacity, as well as slower revenue growth due to increased rate-plan competition.

     AT&T and Frontier Communications Corp. also fell at least 1.6 percent.

     Potash shares declined as Russian company Uralkali, the world’s biggest producer of the resource, said it’s preparing to restart operations at half of a mine that was recently closed after an accident. Mosaic Co. slid 3.7 percent, while Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. declined 6.1 percent in U.S. trading.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

The saffron of virtue and contentment

Is dissolved in the water gun of love and affection.

Pink and red clouds of emotion are flying about,

Limitless colors raining down.

All the covers of the earthen vessel of my body are wide open;

I have thrown away all shame before the world.

Mira’s Lord is the Mountain Holder, the suave lover.

I sacrifice myself in devotion to His lotus feet.

 

Mira Bai

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.

                                -Jane Austen, 1775-1817

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 1877, a man in New Jersey sang the children’s song Mary Had a Little Lamb. What made this version different was that the man, Thomas Edison, sang the familiar words into a machine he had just built, part of his effort to perfect the telephone. Edison was completely surprised a moment later when the device played back the words he had just sang. He patented the machine – which he called the phonograph – the next year. It was his first great invention.

PHOTOS FROM AROUND THE WORLD TODAY

A Hindu priest rotates a traditional oil lamp as he performs morning prayers on the banks of the River Ganges in Allahabad, India. Allahabad, on the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, is one of Hinduism’s important centers. Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

Farmer Paul McAvoy moves his flock of Kelly Bronze turkeys into their enclosure on his farm near Lymm, northern England. Phil Noble/Reuters

A woman strolls through a park during dense fog in Hamburg, northern Germany. Daniel Bockwoldt/dap/AP

Market Closes for November 21^st, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17810.06	+91.06
		+0.51%
S&P 500	2061.58	+8.83   +0.43%
NASDAQ	4712.969	+11.101   +0.24%
TSX	15106.39	+31.21
		+0.21%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17357.51	+56.65
		+0.33%
HANG SENG	23437.12	+87.48
		+0.37%
SENSEX	28334.63	+267.07
		+0.95%
FTSE 100	6750.76	+71.86
		+1.08%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.006	2.018
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.553	2.574
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.3099	2.3337
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.0151	3.0527

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.89004	0.88479
US $	1.12355	1.13021
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.39183	0.71848
US $	1.23878	0.80724

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1201.52	1194.17
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	75.91	75.58

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Callie Bost

     Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, with the benchmark index capping a sixth weekly gain, after central banks in China and Europe signaled additional stimulus measures, boosting investors’ confidence in the global economy.

     Raw-material and energy producers paced gains as Lightstream Resources Ltd. and Teck Resources Ltd. soared more than 9 percent. Gold miners dropped as the price of the precious metal pared gains. Metro Inc. slid for a second day after Credit Suisse cut its rating on the shares.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 36.28 points, or 0.2 percent, to 15,111.46 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the highest level since Sept. 24. The Canadian benchmark has advanced in 12 of the last 13 trading sessions, for a 5 percent gain since Nov. 4. The gauge rallied 1.8 percent in the week.

     Global equities gained to the highest in two months after China cut its benchmark interest rates for the first time since July 2012. The People’s Bank of China lowered its one-year deposit rate and the one-year lending rate, with changes effective tomorrow, according to its website.

     European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said he will do what is necessary to raise inflation in the euro region as fast as possible. Should the current policy not be effective, the ECB will “broaden even more the channels” through which it intervenes, by adjusting the size, pace and composition of asset purchases, he said in Frankfurt.

     Canada’s inflation rate was faster than all economist forecasts in October, Statistics Canada said today. The consumer price index rose 2.4 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, following the September pace of 2.0 percent. The core rate that excludes eight volatile products accelerated to 2.3 percent, the fastest since February 2012.                      

     Four of 10 main industries in the S&P/TSX advanced. Trading in the gauge’s companies was in line with the 30-day average.

     Materials producers jumped 0.8 percent. Teck Resources gained 9.4 percent to C$19.94 and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. jumped 7.2 percent to C$19.12.

     Energy shares surged 1 percent as oil and gas explorers and producers soared 1.8 percent. Lightstream Resources rallied 15 percent to C$3.90, while Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. increased 7 percent to C$5.79.

     The S&P/TSX Gold Index sank 0.7 percent as gold pared a 1.4 percent advance. Torex Gold Resources Inc. dropped 2 percent to C$1.48 and Eldorado Gold Corp. slipped 1.8 percent to C$7.11.

     Metro slid 0.4 percent to C$87.85. Credit Suisse analyst David Hartley downgraded the food-and-drug store operator’s stock yesterday to underperform from neutral, with a target price of C$75 a share.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stock benchmarks climbed to records, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index a fifth weekly gain, as optimism in the global economy grew after central banks in China and Europe signaled additional stimulus measures.

     Materials companies in the S&P 500 rose the most this month to a two-month high, and industrial shares increased to a record amid speculation the increased accommodation will spur global economic growth. Caterpillar Inc. jumped 4.3 percent. The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index dropped for a third day.

     The S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent to 2,063.50 at 4 p.m. in New York, paring an earlier rally of 0.9 percent. The index advanced 1.2 percent this week, pushing its gains in 2014 to 12 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 91.06 points, or 0.5 percent, to 17,810.06, also an all-time high. About 7.1 billion listed shares changed hands in the U.S., 7.7 percent higher than the three-month daily average.

     “Asia is strong on the interest rates, and Europe is strong on the Draghi comments,” Michael James, a Los Angeles- based managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities Inc., said in a phone interview. “There’s a positive flow coming through to U.S. businesses. A rising tide lifts all boats.”

     European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said he will do what is necessary to raise inflation in the region as fast as possible. Should the current policy not be effective, the ECB will “broaden even more the channels” through which it intervenes, by adjusting the size, pace and composition of asset purchases, he said in Frankfurt.

     Global equities extended gains after China cut its benchmark interest rates for the first time since July 2012. The People’s Bank of China lowered its one-year deposit rate and the one-year lending rate, with changes effective tomorrow, according to its website.

     Concern that economic recoveries from the U.S. to Europe and Japan are failing to spur inflation has been cited by central bankers worldwide as justification for prolonged stimulus efforts.

     The S&P 500 has rebounded 11 percent since falling to a more than six-month low in October as better-than-estimated earnings and economic data have shored up confidence that the U.S. economy is able to weather a global slowdown even as the Federal Reserve winds down its bond-buying program.

     Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported this earnings season, 79 percent beat profit estimates and 60 percent surpassed revenue projections, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of options prices known as the VIX, fell 5 percent to 12.9. The benchmark gauge of price swings climbed to a more than two-year high on Oct. 15.

     All 10 of the major groups in the S&P 500 increased today. Raw-material, energy and industrial stocks rallied more than 0.9 percent.

     The S&P 500 Industrials Index climbed to a record, rising 1 percent as Caterpillar jumped 4.3 percent and Joy Global Inc. added 2.5 percent. The gauge of companies has increased 15 percent since falling to an eight-month low on Oct. 13.

     Industrial companies exposed to North America, which accounts for one-third of machinery industry sales, may fare better than peers in 2015 as economic growth accelerates and construction markets recover, according to Bloomberg Industry analyst Karen Ubelhart.

     The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index declined for a third day, losing 1.7 percent, after reaching a more than 13-year high on Nov. 18. Southwest Airlines Co. slid 2.2 percent.

     Materials companies in the S&P 500 gained 1.3 percent as gold, copper and zinc prices rose. Allegheny Technologies Inc. surged 5.8 percent, while Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the largest publicly traded copper producer, increased 3.6 percent.

     Hess Corp. and Nabors Industries Ltd. paced gains in S&P 500 energy shares, increasing more than 1.9 percent.

     Ross Stores advanced 7.3 percent after the retail chain forecast full-year earnings of as much as $4.32 a share, up from a maximum of $4.26 a share earlier. That topped the average analyst projection of $4.25.

     GameStop lost 13 percent. The largest video-game specialty retailer lowered its forecast for earnings in 2015 to no more than $3.55 a share, after previously estimating as much as $3.70. That compares with analyst projections of $3.69.

     Gap Inc. retreated 4.2 percent as the biggest U.S. apparel- focused retailer cut its annual profit forecast.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Truth is that which one wishes in its totality.  Have you reached it?

 

Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

                              -Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827

 

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