Author: Carolann

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

For the past few months, I have been experimenting with different recipes and last night I made an amazing salmon dish that was fabulous! Feel like trying out a new dish? I highly recommend the margarita-style barbecued salmon that took about 30 minutes to cook! It was delicious!

Ingredients

1 whole pink or other salmon

1/4 cup tequila

1 tsp finely grated lime zest

2 Tbsp lime juice

1 tsp finely grated orange zest

2 Tbsp orange juice

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp butter, melted

• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 large lime, sliced

1 large orange, sliced

Trim the tail and fins from the fish, and rinse it with cold water and pat dry.

With a sharp knife, make shallow, diagonal cuts into the skin at one-inch intervals on both sides of the fish.

Combine the tequila, citrus zest and juice, and sugar in a sided dish just large enough to hold the fish. Add the salmon and turn to coat. Brush some of the marinade into the cavity of the fish. Cover, marinate and refrigerate salmon for one hour, turning occasionally.

Preheat barbecue to medium-high (about 450 F in the chamber). Slightly overlap two, two-foot long sheets of aluminum foil. Set a third two-foot long sheet of foil on top and in the centre of the first two sheets.

Arrange the lime and orange slices in a row down the centre of the third sheet of foil. Set the fish on the lime and orange slices. Spoon the marinade in the dish over the fish. Drizzle fish with melted butter; season with salt and pepper.

Fold the foil over the fish and crimp at the top to seal. Place the foil package on one side of the barbecue. Turn the heat off directly underneath the fish; leave the other side set to medium-high. Close the lid and cook the fish 25 to 30 minutes, or until cooked through and the internal temperature of the fish at its thickest point reaches 145 F on an instant-read thermometer.

Serve the salmon from the foil, or, for a fancier presentation, carefully transfer the fish and its juices to a large platter and serve it from there.

“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”
Willie Nelson

Photos of the Day:

Men watch Mount Sinabung spewing volcanic materials during an eruption in Tiga Kicat, North Sumatra, Indonesia. The 8,530-foot-tall volcano has erupted sporadically since September. Binsar Bakkara/AP

People look at the Mediterranean sea from La Promenade des Anglais on a rainy day in Nice, France. Lionel Cironneau/AP

Market Closes for January 3^rd, 2014

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16469.99	+28.64    +0.17%
S&P 500	1831.35	-0.63    -0.03%
NASDAQ	4131.906	-11.163    -0.27%
TSX	13550.18	-44.01
		-0.32%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16291.31	+112.37
		+0.69%
HANG  SENG	22817.28	-522.77
		-2.24%
SENSEX	20851.33	-37.00
		-0.18%
FTSE 100	6730.67	+12.76
		+0.19%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.753	2.740
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.216	3.211
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.9911	2.9890
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.9212	3.9230

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93996	0.93731
US   $	1.06387	1.06688
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.44570	0.69171
US  $	1.35890	0.73589

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1237.02	1226.20
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.96	95.44
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell a second day, extending the biggest loss in three weeks, as energy and raw- materials producers declined.

Crew Energy Inc. lost 2.5 percent as crude slipped a fourth day. Teck Resources Ltd. slid 2.5 percent as the price of copper retreated the most in five weeks.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 45.34 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,548.85 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The index rose 9.6 percent for 2013, its largest annual gain since 2010.

“We haven’t really started the new year yet, people are waiting for earnings,” said John Kinsey, fund manager with Caldwell Securities Ltd. The firm manages about C$1 billion ($940.9 million). “The market’s had a good run, price earnings multiples have gone up, so now investors are a little cautious hoping things won’t disappoint.”

Crew Energy dropped 2.5 percent to C$6.36 as energy stocks declined 0.5 percent as a group. Eight of 10 industries in the benchmark index retreated. Trading volume was 32 percent lower compared with the 30-day average at this time of the day.

Penn West Petroleum Ltd. lost 1 percent to C$9.09 and Talisman Energy Inc. fell 0.6 percent to C$12.36 as crude for February delivery declined 1.6 percent to settle at $93.96 a barrel in New York. The price has slumped 6.3 percent in the past week, capping the biggest weekly decline in 19 months.

Teck Resources, Canada’s largest diversified miner, lost 2.5 percent to C$26.89 as the price of copper fell the most in five weeks. A gauge of Chinese services industries reached a four-month low, fanning concern about the demand outlook in the biggest global consumer of the metal.

Raw-materials shares slumped 1 percent, the most in the S&P/TSX. The group was the worst performer among 10 industries in the benchmark equity gauge last year, sliding 31 percent.

Detour Gold Corp., the worst-performing stock in the S&P/TSX in 2013, rallied 8.3 percent to C$4.94. The stock has jumped 23 percent in the past three days. The company re-opened a production mill facility at its Detour Lake gold mining project yesterday.

Alacer Gold Corp. increased 3.6 percent to C$2.32 and Semafo Inc. rose 4.2 percent to C$2.99 as gold for February delivery climbed 1.1 percent to $1,238.60 to extend its rally from the biggest annual loss in three decades.

BlackBerry Ltd., the struggling smartphone maker, declined 1.5 percent to C$8.09. The company yesterday said it was parting ways with R&B singer Alicia Keys, who was hired as global creative director in January 2013. The singer began her yearlong partnership with BlackBerry as the Waterloo, Ontario-based company began rolling out its BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

US

By Callie Bost

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell a second day, following the biggest annual rally for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in 16 years, as investors weighed comments from Federal Reserve officials on stimulus and the economy’s strength.

General Motors Co. fell 3.4 percent after December sales missed estimates. Sprint Corp. dropped 4.4 percent as Stifel Nicolaus & Co. downgraded the mobile-phone operator to sell from hold. FireEye Inc. soared 39 percent after acquiring Mandiant Corp. in a $1.05 billion deal that consolidates providers of services that protect computer networks against hackers and spies.

The S&P 500 dropped less than 1 point to 1,831.37 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 28.64 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,469.99. About 5.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 11 percent below the 30-day average.

“Today is portfolio balancing and a little bargain hunting after the selloff yesterday,” Donald Selkin, who helps manage about $4 billion as the New York-based chief market strategist at National Securities Corp, said in a telephone interview.

“There was no fundamental reason for the decline yesterday. Everyone was kind of stunned.”

The index’s drop on Jan. 2 snapped a streak of five straight gains on the first trading session of January, as investors sold shares following the best annual rally since 1998. The Dow average climbed 27 percent last year for its best performance since 1995.

The S&P 500 fluctuated today, erasing an earlier loss of as much as 0.2 percent after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the headwinds that have held back the U.S. economy may be abating, leaving the country poised for faster growth. The gauge erased that gain in the final half hour of trading.

“The combination of financial healing, greater balance in the housing market, less fiscal restraint, and, of course, continued monetary policy accommodation bodes well for U.S. economic growth in coming quarters,” Bernanke said today in remarks prepared for a speech in Philadelphia. The chairman, who has led the central bank during its record quantitative-easing program, ends his eight-year tenure on Jan. 31.

Central bank officials said last month they will reduce their monthly purchases of assets to $75 billion from $85 billion starting this month, citing faster-than-estimated economic growth.

Bernanke said the decision to taper bond purchases “did not indicate any diminution of its commitment to maintain a highly accommodative monetary policy for as long as needed.”

“What he was trying to do is rationalize the decision, saying we did the right thing with the headwinds disappearing,” Selkin said. “The key here is the continued monetary policy accommodation, he’ll keep the Fed funds low and that’s what the market wanted to hear.”

Fed policy makers will continue to weigh stimulus reductions because improvements in the job market are meeting the central bank’s objectives, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said today at a Maryland Bankers Association forum in Baltimore.

“It made sense to initiate the process of bringing the program to a close,” Lacker said. “I expect further reductions in the pace of purchases to be under consideration at upcoming meetings.”

The Federal Open Market Committee, scheduled to meet Jan. 28-29, will probably reduce its purchases in $10 billion increments over the next seven meetings before ending them in December, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists after the FOMC announced its tapering on Dec. 18. The Fed will release minutes from its last meeting on Jan. 8.

Fed Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser, an opponent of bond purchases by the Fed, said central bankers may be too optimistic they can smoothly pull back accommodation.

“We like to believe that everything is going to be gradual, everything is going to be smooth, and everything is going to be hunky-dory,” Plosser said during a discussion at the Philadelphia conference. “History does suggest that the Fed, as an institution, is oftentimes late when it comes to tightening.”

Three rounds of stimulus have helped propel the S&P 500 higher by as much as 173 percent from a 12-year low in 2009.

Equity returns will slow this year, Wall Street strategists forecast. The index will end 2014 at 1,950, according to the average of 20 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That represents a 5.5 percent gain from the end of 2013.

Analysts estimate earnings for S&P 500 companies in the fourth quarter grew by 5.2 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Alcoa Inc. will unofficially begin the reporting season when it discloses results after the markets close on Jan. 9.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, fell 3.3 percent to 13.76, halting a four-day rally. The gauge finished 2013 with a 24 percent drop, the largest decline since 2009.

Seven of 10 main S&P 500 groups retreated today. Phone companies dropped the most, losing 0.7 percent as a group.

Verizon Communications Inc. slid 1.2 percent to $48.42 for the biggest retreat in the Dow.

T-Mobile US Inc. lost 3.3 percent to $32.28. AT&T Inc. is targeting customers of smaller rival T-Mobile by offering customers of the fourth largest U.S. carrier as much as $450 in credits for devices and services for each line they switch. AT&T fell 0.4 percent to $34.80.

Sprint dropped 4.4 percent to $9.94 after Stifel downgraded the company. The brokerage said Sprint would struggle to obtain regulatory approval for a merger with T-Mobile US.

General Motors declined 3.4 percent to $39.57. The carmaker reported December sales plunged 6.3 percent while analysts estimated on average sales would rise.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Automobiles & Components Index fell 0.8 percent as the biggest automakers in the U.S. market reported December sales that fell short of analysts’ estimates.

Cold weather may have kept buyers from dealer lots at the end of the industry’s best year since 2007.

Micron Technology Inc. dropped 3.2 percent to $20.97 for a second day of losses. RBC Capital Markets LLC analyst Doug Freedman downgraded the chipmaker to sector perform from outperform, saying Micron’s valuation does not take risks enough into account. The stock rose 243 percent last year, the second- best performance in the S&P 500, and trades at 86 times reported earnings.

Exelon Corp. declined 2 percent to $26.62. Citigroup Inc. gave the shares a sell rating, while Bank of America Corp. downgraded them to underperform, which is similar to a sell rating, from neutral.

FireEye, which offers security for e-mail, files and websites, surged 39 percent to $57.02, the highest level since the shares began trading in September. A venture-capital firm set up by the Central Intelligence Agency invested in FireEye in 2009. Mandiant specializes in detecting malware and responding to incidents.

Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 5.5 percent to $29.23 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. The airline carrier reported that a key revenue metric rose 10 percent in December over the same month a year prior. The company also said it expects to report more than $1 billion in operating cash flow from last month.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. advanced 2 percent to $3.57 after Evercore Partners Inc. analyst Bryan Kraft raised the stock to overweight from equalweight.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.”
Elbert Hubbard

 

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season spent with friends and family.  How did everyone spend their New Years Day? Many Victorian’s headed down to Thetis Lake to take a plunge in the cold water for the 38^th annual Polar Bear Swim!  Every year there is always an array of costumes.  This year there were girls dressed up as Hawaiian hula dancers, people wearing masks and one man even dressed up as a lobster!  Were your brave enough to take the plunge this year?

Participants run into Lake Washington during the 12th annual Polar Bear Plunge in Seattle. Hundreds participated in the chilly New Year’s Day tradition organized by Seattle Parks and Recreation. David Ryder/Reuters

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
John C. Maxwell

Photos of the Day:

Visitors skate at the Tower of London ice rink in London. Based on the grounds of the famous castle that is over a thousand years old, the temporary rink will remain open until January 5. Toby Melville/Reuters

A giant panda rests in a tree at Hangzhou’s zoo, Zhejiang province, China. China Daily/Reuters

Market Closes for January 2^nd, 2014

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16441.35	-135.31    -0.82%
S&P 500	1831.98	-16.38    -0.89%
NASDAQ	4143.070	-33.520    -0.80%
TSX	13594.19	-27.36
		-0.20%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16291.31	+112.37
		+0.69%
HANG  SENG	23340.05	+33.66
		+0.14%
SENSEX	20888.33	-252.15
		-1.19%
FTSE 100	6717.91	-31.18
		-0.46%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.740	2.739
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.211	3.213
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.9890	2.9703
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.9230	3.9012

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93731	0.93905
US   $	1.06688	1.06490
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.45809	0.68583
US  $	1.36669	0.73170

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1226.20	1199.40
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	95.44	99.29
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in three weeks, after the benchmark index rose to its best annual performance in three years, as declines among energy companies and banks overshadowed a rally in gold and silver producers.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Suncor Energy Inc. retreated at least 1.2 percent as crude had the largest slump in more than a year. Detour Gold Corp. gained 11 percent after resuming milling operations at its mine. B2Gold Corp. and Silvercorp Metals Inc. rose more than 4.1 percent as precious metals prices surged.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 27.36 points, or 0.2 percent, to 13,594.19 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, for the biggest decline since Dec. 11. The index rose 9.6 percent for 2013, its largest annual gain since 2010.

“It’s a bit of market malaise following a strong 2013, people are reassessing their portfolios,” said Brian Huen, fund manager with Red Sky Capital Management Ltd. in Toronto. The firm manages C$225 million ($212.1 million). “In the gold sector, people have stopped selling. People are looking at underperforming sectors from last year and making bets they won’t underperform like last year.”

Bank of Nova Scotia dropped 0.6 percent to C$66.01 and Toronto-Dominion Bank slipped 0.4 percent to C$98.87 as financial services stocks retreated 0.5 percent as a group.

Eight of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX declined on trading volume 26 percent lower compared with the 30-day average.

Manulife Financial Corp. fell 1.1 percent to C$20.73 and Great-West Lifeco Inc. dropped 1.4 percent to C$32.28 as 35 of 46 stocks in the S&P/TSX Financials Index declined.

Canadian Natural Resources dropped 1.6 percent to C$35.35 and Suncor Energy lost 1.2 percent to C$36.79 as crude prices sank 3 percent in New York for the biggest decline in almost 14 months.

Prices fell as an improving U.S. economy added to speculation the Federal Reserve will further curb stimulus. Data today showed applications for U.S. unemployment benefits declined last week.

A government report tomorrow will probably show U.S. crude supplies fell a fifth week, a Bloomberg survey showed.

Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. lost 1.3 percent to C$6.05 and Surge Energy Inc. slumped 3.4 percent to C$6.52.

Air Canada, the best-performing stock in the S&P/TSX in 2013, retreated 2 percent to C$7.26 for a third day of losses.

The stock surged 323 percent in 2013.

Detour Gold, the worst-performing stock in the benchmark equity gauge last year, jumped 11 percent to C$4.56. The company said the processing plant at its Detour Lake open pit gold mine is targeted to resume operations at a rate of 50,000 metric tons a day within a week of restart. Detour Gold had shut down the plant on Dec. 17.

Detour Gold lost 84 percent in 2013. Eight of the 10 worst- performing stocks in the S&P/TSX were gold mining companies.

B2Gold gained 4.1 percent to C$2.27 and Yamana Gold Inc. climbed 4.6 percent to C$9.58 as the price of gold jumped the most in three weeks on speculation demand for bars and jewelry will increase in Asia. Gold for February delivery rose 1.9 percent to $1,225.20 an ounce in New York. Novagold Resources Inc. surged 10 percent to C$2.97.

Silvercorp Metals surged 5.7 percent to C$2.58 and Silver Wheaton Corp. gained 5.9 percent to C$22.71 as silver rallied 3.9 percent to $20.13 an ounce.

Gold and silver prices plunged the most in more than 30 years in 2013 as investors lost faith in the metals as an alternative investment amid a U.S. equity rally and muted inflation.

US

By Alexis Xydias and Callie Bost

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined, following the best year since 1997 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as technology shares retreated amid an analyst downgrade of Apple Inc.’s shares and investors weighed manufacturing data.

Apple fell 1.4 percent after Wells Fargo & Co. cut its rating on the stock, sending technology shares to the worst performance in the benchmark index. Analog Devices Inc. lost 3 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. advised investors to sell the shares. Newmont Mining Corp. added 4.5 percent as gold futures rose the most in three weeks in New York.

The S&P 500 slid 0.6 percent to 1,837.09 at 11:16 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 89.09 points, or 0.5 percent, to 16,487.57. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 9 percent above the 30-day average at this time of day. U.S. markets were closed yesterday for New Year’s Day.

“More people seem to be wary, as we are, of potential corrections as markets get overexcited,”  Oliver Wallin, who helps oversee $5.6 billion as investment director at Octopus Investments Ltd. in London, said by phone. “The question is just when to time it. A lot of people are willing to continue in this rally but are nervous at the same time. We’ve got one eye on the exit but we know there is money to be made in the short term.”

The S&P 500 surged 30 percent in 2013, finishing the year at an all-time high for the first time since 1999. The index gained 2.4 percent in December, its fourth straight monthly advance, as the Federal Reserve announced plans to reduce the pace of bond buying amid faster-than-estimated economic growth.

Three rounds of Fed stimulus sent the S&P 500 up as much as 173 percent from a 12-year low in 2009.

The Dow average climbed 27 percent in 2013 for its best performance since 1995, led by Boeing Co. and American Express Co. International Business Machines Corp. is the only member of the 30-stock gauge that declined last year.

The first trading session of January has proven profitable for investors over the previous five years, with the S&P 500 gaining an average of almost 2 percent that day since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Improving economic data that bolstered optimism about strength in the world’s largest economy also helped propel equities higher last year.

Data today indicated applications for U.S. unemployment benefits declined last week to the lowest level in a month.

Jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 339,000 in the period ended Dec.28, Labor Department data showed. The median forecast of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 344,000 claims.

A separate report showed the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 57 in December from the prior month’s 57.3, which was the highest since April 2011. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.

Reports from Europe today confirmed factory output in the euro area expanded last month at the fastest pace since May 2011 as Italy’s manufacturing beat estimates and Germany production grew for a sixth month. Data yesterday showed China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index slipped to a four-month low in December, while a private report today also signaled manufacturing grew at a slower pace.

American consumers in 2013 were more upbeat than at any time in the previous six years as views on the economy, finances and the buying climate improved. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index averaged minus 31.4 for 2013, the highest since 2007, when it was minus 10.5.

“I don’t think this sell-off will be a trend,” Walter Todd, who oversees about $950 million as chief investment officer of Greenwood Capital Associates LLC in Greenwood, South Carolina, said in a telephone interview. “In fact, I would expect the market to trade up into earnings season and January. Once people start getting a read on the fundamentals for companies and outlooks, that will dictate how the market goes from there.”

Analysts estimate earnings for S&P 500 companies in the fourth quarter grew by 5.2 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Alcoa Inc. will unofficially begin the reporting season when it discloses results after the markets close on Jan.9.

Analysts are predicting 116 stocks in the index will see price declines this year, according to average year-end targets compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the greatest number of bearish forecasts for the S&P 500 in nine years, the data show.

The average company in the index is estimated to rise 4.8 percent this year, according to the data. That’s the least optimistic forecast since Dec. 31, 2004, when the average was 4.7 percent. Alcoa Inc. and Harris Corp. are among the companies projected to fall the most this year.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, rose 2.5 percent to 14.06 today for a fourth straight day of increases. The gauge finished 2013 with a 24 percent drop, the largest decline since 2009.

All 10 main S&P 500 groups retreated today, with technology shares sliding 1 percent to pace losses. Intel Corp. dropped 1.6 percent to $25.54 for the biggest decline in the Dow.

Apple sank 1.4 percent to $553.32. Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um cut the rating on the stock to market perform from outperform, saying the iPhone maker’s gross margin could come under pressure later in the year.

Analog Devices fell 3 percent to $49.43. Goldman Sachs analyst James Covello cut the circuit maker from sell from neutral and lowered the stock’s price target to $41 a share.

Wells Fargo analyst David Wong also downgraded the stock, to market perform from outperform, citing lower semiconductor demand through the end of last year.

Newmont Mining increased 4.5 percent to $24.06. Gold for February delivery advanced 1.7 percent in New York after the metal posted its largest annual decline in three decades.

Newmont fell 50 percent last year for the biggest decline in the S&P 500.

Retailers fell 0.1 percent for the second-best performance among 24 S&P 500 groups.

Urban Outfitters Inc. jumped 3.9 percent to $38.55.

Jefferies Group LLC analyst Randal Konik upgraded the clothing retailer to buy from hold. Urban Outfitters dropped 5.7 percent last year, making it the only consumer discretionary stock in the S&P 500 to decline.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. rose 3.1 percent to $14.85 after Konik raise his rating to buy from hold.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

“Wherever I go meeting the public… spreading a message of human values, spreading a message of harmony, is the most important thing.”
Dalai Lama

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

Looking for something to do with the kids before the clock strikes midnight tomorrow?  Playzone in Langford BC will be hosting a New Year’s celebration for kids with a countdown at 10pm!  It’s a fun, festive way to kick off the New Year with your children.  There will be crafts, face painting, snacks, ice skating, fire pits, balladium and many many more fun activities.  The party will finish after the countdown, which will give parents enough time to make it to another New Years engagement!  Make sure to check out this fun family activity!

Happy New Year everyone!

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photos of the Day:

A bride poses for a photograph on Westminster Bridge as the fog clears in central London. Olivia Harris/Reuters

An aquarium staff member dressed in a Santa Claus costume embraces a Zebra shark as he swims with fish inside the Sunshine International Aquarium in Tokyo. Shizuo Kambayashi/AP

Market Closes for December 30^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16504.29	+25.88    +0.16%
S&P 500	1841.07	-0.33    -0.02%
NASDAQ	4154.199	-2.395    -0.06%
TSX	13581.39	-6.59
		-0.05%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16291.31	+112.37
		+0.69%
HANG  SENG	23244.87	+1.63
		+0.01%
SENSEX	21143.01	-50.57
		-0.24%
FTSE 100	6731.27	-19.60
		-0.29%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.739	2.784
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.213	3.257
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.9703	3.0037
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.9012	3.9403

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93905	0.93393
US   $	1.06490	1.07074
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.46911	0.68068
US  $	1.37957	0.72486

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1199.40	1214.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	99.29	100.32
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, after a six- day rally pushed the benchmark gauge to a two-year high, as lower prices for gold and oil dragged down commodity shares.

Iamgold Corp. slid 5.7 percent as the metal retreated for the first time in four sessions in New York. Silver Wheaton Corp. lost 3.2 percent after silver tumbled. Pengrowth Energy Corp. dropped 1.8 percent after crude dropped below $100 a barrel in New York. Loblaw Cos. advanced 1.3 percent to lead consumer-staples producers higher.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 6.59 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,581.39 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge had rallied 3.1 percent in the previous six sessions to the highest level since May 2011. Trading volume was 51 percent below the 30-day average.

“We’ve had a tremendous run, especially in the U.S.,” said Ian Nakamoto, director of research with MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Inc. in Toronto. His firm manages about C$4.7 billion ($4.4 billion). “People in the Canadian market have a dilemma on what to do with the materials sector. Most people are waiting to see what’s going to happen when it comes to economic performance. It’s a race between supply coming on stream and demand.”

The S&P/TSX has risen 9.2 percent this year, on pace for the best annual performance since 2010. The gauge has been the fourth-worst among developed markets this year ahead of Austria, Hong Kong and Singapore. The S&P 500, the U.S. equities benchmark, has rallied 29 percent. The index was little changed today.

Materials stocks have fallen 32 percent as a group in 2013, the most among 10 S&P/TSX industries. The gauge of miners dropped 1.6 percent today to pace declines.

Gold for February delivery fell 0.8 percent in New York today. The price has tumbled 28 percent in 2013, on track for the worst annual plunge since 1981 as some investors lost faith in the metal as a store of value amid a rally in equities and an improving economy.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index plunged 3.2 percent, extending its slide in 2013 to 46 percent. Iamgold retreated 5.7 percent to C$3.50 and Yamana Gold Inc. lost 3.3 percent to C$9.02.

Silver Wheaton fell 3.2 percent to C$21.24 and Silvercorp Metals Inc. sank 2.5 percent to C$2.37. Silver for March delivery dropped 2.2 percent in New York. Through Dec. 27, the metal has tumbled 34 percent this year, on course for the biggest annual slump since 1981.

Energy stocks dropped 0.2 percent as crude slipped below $100 a barrel in the biggest decline in two weeks. Pengrowth Energy lost 1.8 percent to C$6.55.

Producers of consumer staples increased 0.7 percent as a group for the second-biggest gain among 10 main index groups.

Canadian consumers are heading into 2014 with more confidence than a year ago, buoyed by optimism that jobs are more secure and real-estate prices will rise, according to the Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index, released today.

Loblaw advanced 1.3 percent to C$42.55 and Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. rose 0.8 percent to C$58.26.

Health-care stocks gained the most, adding 1.9 percent as a group to push the annual gain to 72 percent. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. jumped 2.8 percent to $124.94, a fourth-straight gain that extended an all-time high.

US

By Callie Bost

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fluctuated, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index reached an all-time high last week and headed toward its biggest annual gain since 1997.

Facebook Inc. declined 2.2 percent, retreating for the third straight trading session. Twitter Inc. fell 2 percent, extending losses after a 13 percent drop on Dec. 27. Walt Disney Co. jumped 2.2 percent after an analyst upgrade. Crocs Inc. rose 21 percent after saying its chief executive officer will retire and Blackstone Group LP will invest $200 million in convertible preferred stock in the maker of colorful plastic clogs.

The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,840.47 at 3:20 p.m. in New York. The benchmark index is poised for a 29 percent gain this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.65 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,490.06 today. Trading in S&P 500- listed stocks was 34 percent below the 30-day average at this time of day.

“It’s a slow market right now without any dramatic news and I don’t see much happening between now and trading through close tomorrow,” John Carey, a fund manager at Pioneer Investment Management, which oversees about $220 billion, said in a telephone interview. “Then we’re off to the races in the new year.”

The S&P 500 has gained 1.9 percent in December, heading for its fourth straight monthly advance. The gauge climbed 3.7 percent from Dec. 13 through Dec. 27, its biggest two-week rally since July, as the Federal Reserve announced plans to reduce the pace of bond buying amid faster-than-estimated economic growth.

Three rounds of stimulus, known as quantitative easing, have sent the S&P 500 up 172 percent from a 12-year low in 2009.

Pending home sales increased 0.2 percent, the first gain in six months, after a 1.2 percent drop in October that was larger than initially reported, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 1 percent advance.

Five years after the equity bull market started, U.S. investors returned to stocks in 2013, just in time for the best relative returns versus bonds on record.

Exchange-traded and mutual funds investing in shares took in about $162 billion, the most since 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Investment Company Institute. At the same time, the S&P 500’s 29 percent advance has beaten government debt by 32 percentage points, the widest spread since at least 1978, according to data compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Bloomberg.

“The equity culture is not dead,” Joseph Quinlan, the chief market strategist at Bank of America Corp.’s U.S. Trust, said in a Dec. 13 phone interview from New York. His firm oversees $333 billion in client assets. “We kind of lost sight of the fact that equities still provide long-term good returns.”

Equity returns will slow next year, Wall Street strategists forecast. The S&P 500 will end 2014 at 1,950, according to the average of 20 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That represents a 5.9 percent gain over the next 12 months.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, rose 8 percent to 13.46 today, poised for a second day of gains. The gauge has dropped 25 percent this year.

Energy producers dropped 0.6 percent for the biggest decline among main industries in the S&P 500. Pioneer Natural Resources Co. slid 2.9 percent to $182.09 while Tesoro Corp. decreased 1.2 percent to $56.71. Exxon Mobil Corp. lost 1 percent to $100.49 and Chevron Corp. slipped 0.6 percent to $124.44.

Facebook declined 2.2 percent to $54.20. Shares of the social-networking company have plunged 6.4 percent since reaching a record on Dec. 24. Facebook is poised for its biggest monthly gain since September, rallying 16 percent in December.

Twitter decreased 2 percent to $62.50. The social- networking company on Dec. 27 fell the most since it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange after Macquarie Capital downgraded the shares, saying they had risen “too far, too fast.”

Myriad Genetics Inc. fell 14 percent to $20.86. Piper Jaffray Cos. lowered its price estimate for the supplier of genetic tests to $29 from $36, citing a decision by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reduce the reimbursement rate by about 49 percent for screening devices to help predict breast cancer risk.

Crocs rose 21 percent, the biggest jump since August 2009, to $16.12. CEO John McCarvel will step down on April 30. The shoemaker will use the Blackstone funds to increase stock repurchases to $350 million, Niwot, Colorado-based Crocs said.

Walt Disney jumped 2.2 percent to a record $76.01. The world’s largest entertainment company was raised to buy from neutral by Guggenheim Securities LLC analyst Michael Morris.

Morris’ 12-month target price is $87.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. rose 4.5 percent to $23.99 after it dropped plans to be bought by India’s Apollo Tyres Ltd., citing a lack of financing for the transaction, and said it will seek damages. Cooper said on June 12 that Apollo planned to buy the U.S. tiremaker for $35 a share in a $2.5 billion deal.

All 10 main industries in the S&P 500 have advanced this year, led by a 40 percent gain in consumer-discretionary companies. Phone companies have the weakest performance, with a 6.6 percent increase.

Netflix Inc. has soared 298 percent, the biggest gain this year in the S&P 500, as the world’s largest video-subscription company reported earnings that surged more than analysts forecast. Micron Technology Inc. has rallied 237 percent as the chipmaker is projected to return to a profit in the fiscal year ending in August.

Best Buy Co. has climbed 237 percent this year, rebounding after a 49 percent drop in 2012. Urban Outfitters Inc. has the only loss among consumer-discretionary shares, dropping 5.2 percent.

Newmont Mining Corp., has plunged 50 percent this year, the biggest annual loss in the S&P 500. The price of gold has dropped 28 percent in 2013, heading for its first annual loss since 2000. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., the second-worst performer in the index, has lost 30 percent.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

“Success is dependent on effort.”
Sophocles

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

This Christmas season was my first year hosting dinner at our house.  Being the type of person who likes to keep everyone well fed, I made too much of everything, resulting in an abundance of leftovers.  I came across an article today in the Globe and Mail which shares different ideas for leftover turkey, which was a blessing for me.  Here are a few different ideas:

Turkey scotch broth Even if you don’t intend to make soup, make stock and freeze it

Turkey fritters No one will believe this treat was made with leftovers

Turkey cakes Serve these favourites, which are similar to crab cakes, with a southwestern-style mayonnaise

Turkey and artichoke pie A great alternative to the usual sandwiches

Turkey fried rice This quick and easy recipe really comes in handy

Turkey club The classic gets a seasonal twist with cranberry sauce

Turkey with rice noodles An Asian-inspired way with leftovers

Turkey casserole A classic, just like mom used to make

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
Marcel Proust

Photos of the Day:

People wait in a bus line to pay their respects to former South African President Nelson Mandela in Pretoria. Thousands of people lined up to say goodbye to Mandela, whose body lay in state in the building where the anti-apartheid hero was inaugurated in 1994 as South Africa’s first black president. Kevin Coombs/Reuters

Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, some of the holiest sites for for Jews and Muslims, are covered in snow in Jerusalem. Early snow has surprised many Israelis and Palestinians as a blustery storm, dubbed Alexa, brought gusty winds, torrential rains and heavy snowfall to parts of the Middle East. Dusan Vranic/AP

Market Closes for December 27^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16482.29	+2.41    +0.01%
S&P 500	1841.55	-0.47    -0.03%
NASDAQ	4154.395	-12.785    -0.31%
TSX	13596.08	+78.06
		+0.58%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16178.94	+4.50
		+0.03%
HANG  SENG	23243.24	+63.69
		+0.27%
SENSEX	21193.58	+118.99
		+0.56%
FTSE 100	6750.87	+56.70
		+0.85%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.784	2.679
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.257	3.174
U.S.   10 Year Bond	3.0037	2.9274
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.9403	3.8480

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93393	0.94188
US   $	1.07074	1.06171
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.47177	0.67946
US  $	1.37453	0.72752

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1214.25	1198.99
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	100.32	98.66
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a sixth day, extending a two-year high, as oil and gold producers advanced amid a rally in commodities prices.

Lightstream Resources Ltd. rallied 6.5 percent as West Texas Intermediate topped $100 a barrel for the first time in two months. Iamgold Corp. and Detour Gold Corp. jumped more than 5.8 percent as gold climbed a third day. BlackBerry Ltd. Slumped 4.7 percent after co-founder Mike Lazaridis reduced his stake in the company.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 69.96 points, or 0.5 percent, to 13,587.98 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the highest close since May 2011. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 9.3 percent this year, the fourth-worst performer among developed markets ahead of Austria, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Canadian markets were closed Dec. 25 and 26 for the Christmas holiday. Trading volume today was 49 percent below the 30-day average.

“It’s the Santa Claus rally, I’m a big believer in seasonals,” said Keith Richards, fund manager with ValueTrend Wealth Management in Barrie, Ontario. The firm manages C$108 million ($101 million). “I’ve been bearish on commodities, but gold and oil, which had been down, will probably be all right for the next few months.”

The S&P/TSX has added 1.4 percent in the three sessions this week, for a second weekly advance. The gauge has climbed 1.4 percent in December, on track for a sixth straight monthly increase.

Eight of 10 main industries in the equities benchmark climbed today. Raw-materials producers gained 1.3 percent to pace advances.

Iamgold increased 6.6 percent to C$3.71 and Detour Gold rose 5.8 percent to C$4.19. Gold futures for February delivery added 0.1 percent to settle at $1,214 an ounce as the price of the metal posted the longest rally since August. A weaker U.S. dollar increased demand for gold as a haven.

Detour Gold is the worst-performing stock in Canada this year, slumping 83 percent. Air Canada, the best-performing stock, rose 1.1 percent to C$7.49 today. The nation’s largest airliner has soared 328 percent in 2013.

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. climbed 6.7 percent to C$3.02 and First Majestic Silver Corp. increased 4.1 percent to C$10.32 as silver added 0.7 percent in New York.

Sherritt International Corp. dropped 3.5 percent to C$3.70 to snap four days of gains after agreeing to sell assets including its coal interests on Dec. 24.

Lightstream Resources rose 6.5 percent to C$5.84 and Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. gained 3.3 percent to C$7.88 as crude for February delivery advanced 0.8 percent to $100.32 a barrel in New York.

Oil futures extended gains after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said stockpiles decreased to the lowest level since September.

BlackBerry tumbled 4.7 percent to C$7.83 to snap four days of gains, after the company’s former Chief Executive Officer Lazaridis reduced his stake in BlackBerry to 4.99 percent of outstanding shares. The former BlackBerry executive earlier this year had considered making a bid for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company with Doug Fregin, another co-founder.

US

By Inyoung Hwang and Alexis Xydias

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index trimming a weekly gain, after benchmark indexes rallied to all-time highs yesterday amid optimism over the economic recovery.

Twitter Inc. slid 13 percent after Macquarie Group Ltd. downgraded the stock. Delta Air Lines Inc. retreated 3.1 percent after the airline said yesterday it will honor tickets sold at incorrect prices on its website. Textron Inc. rose 1.1 percent after the manufacturer of Cessna aircraft said it will buy Beechcraft Corp. for $1.4 billion. FirstEnergy Corp. added 2.3 percent after the utility company was upgraded at Wells Fargo & Co. to outperform from market perform.

The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,841.40 at the close in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1.47 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 16,478.41. Both measures posted their second weekly gain. Volume has been lower-than- average amid the Christmas holiday this week. About 4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 34 percent below the three-month average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“A year-end rally like this is not usual, but we have to keep in mind trading volumes are light and corporate news is certainly sparse this week,” Robert Landry, the San Antonio- based executive director and money manager at USAA Investments, said by telephone. His firm oversees about $59 billion. “You can’t read too much into the market’s move. It’s somewhat of a Santa Claus rally and perhaps that’s attributed to some portfolios managers in the office making some year-end moves.”

The S&P 500’s retreat today halted a four-day rally that was fueled by improving economic data. A Labor Department report yesterday showed that jobless claims declined by more than forecast, boosting optimism in the world’s largest economy.

There are no economic reports scheduled for today.

The benchmark equity index has advanced 29 percent in 2013, putting it on course for its biggest annual rally since 1997.

The S&P 500 has gained 2 percent so far this month. December has been the second-best month for U.S. equity returns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that starts in 1928. The average gain for the month is 1.5 percent, more than twice the overall monthly mean of 0.6 percent. The last December retreat for the S&P 500 was in 2007.

The Federal Reserve, which has made employment creation a determinant factor of its monetary stimulus, said on Dec. 18 that it will reduce the pace of bond buying amid faster-than- estimated economic growth. Three rounds of stimulus, known as quantitative easing, have sent the S&P 500 as much as up 172 percent from a 12-year low in 2009.

“I don’t see why stocks can’t have a reasonable year in 2014, given that the global economy does seem to very slowly improve and Fed has started a tapering program,” Landry said.

“There are some things in place to suggest it could be a decent year for stocks but not on the magnitude we’ve seen this year.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, rose 1.1 percent to 12.46, halting a four-day retreat. The gauge has dropped 31 percent this year, the largest annual decline since 2009.

Six of 10 main S&P 500 groups fell today, with producers of consumer discretionary products falling 0.4 percent to lead losses.

Twitter dropped 13 percent, the most since it began trading in November, to $63.75. The microblogging service was cut to underperform from neutral at Macquarie Group Ltd., which cited the stock’s 40 percent surge from Dec. 11 through yesterday.

Delta retreated 3.1 percent to $27.03. The airline said yesterday it will honor tickets sold at incorrect prices on its website and through other booking channels after customers snapped up bargains like a round trip to Hawaii for $6.90.

Energy producers added 0.5 percent for the biggest advance out of 10 groups in the S&P 500, as the price of crude topped $100. Nabors Industries Ltd. rallied 2.8 percent to $16.84 for the biggest gain since Nov. 8. Newfield Exploration Co. added 2 percent to $24.54, while Peabody Energy Corp. jumped 3.3 percent to $19.25.

Textron rose 1.1 percent to $36.61. The company, seeking to counter a slump in business-jet sales, agreed to buy Beechcraft to boost its lineup of propeller-driven aircraft.

Providence, Rhode Island-based Textron will purchase all outstanding equity interests in Beech Holdings LLC, the parent of Beechcraft, it said in a statement yesterday. The deal, which includes the repayment of Beechcraft’s working capital debt, will be financed by a combination of available cash and as much as $1.1 billion in new debt.

FirstEnergy added 2.3 percent to $32.79. The Akron, Ohio- based company was upgraded by Wells Fargo analyst Neil Kalton, who said a potential dividend cut of 40 percent is “integral” to a positive view on the shares.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Nelson Mandela

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

People looking for the spirit of Christmas past, need only take a self-guided tour of a fully decorated Craigdarroch Castle this holiday season. Visitors will find late-Victorian period decorations in every room of the historic house, which also contains furniture, paintings, glassware, dishes and other domestic material that dates to the time the Dunsmuir family lived in the castle, between 1890 and 1908. Over the Christmas holidays, items in the museum’s collection are augmented by loans of toys, decorations and silverware from private and institutional collections. Staff and volunteers begin to unpack decorations in the middle of October to get the museum ready for the Christmas season. The halls are indeed decked with boughs of holly. The intense colours of the berries and peacock feathers, which Victorians loved, glow even more during sunlit hours by the light filtering through the 33 original stained-glass windows. Depending on the time of day, visitors can take part in a puppet workshop or craft time for children in the morning, enjoy musical interludes by local musicians in the afternoon and take in a play in the evening.

The drawing room was used for formal occasions and is decorated for Christmas with toys and decorations dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s.

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”
Nelson Mandela

Photos of the Day:

Petal portrait: The phalaenopsis is one of the most popular types of orchid because it is so hardy. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Market Closes for December 23^rd, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16294.61	+73.47    +0.45%
S&P 500	1827.99	+9.67    +0.53%
NASDAQ	4148.902	+44.162    +1.08%
TSX	13447.70	+48.10
		+0.36%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15870.42	+11.20
		+0.07%
HANG  SENG	22921.56	+109.38
		+0.48%
SENSEX	21101.03	+21.31
		+0.10%
FTSE 100	6678.61	+72.03
		+1.09%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.679	2.675
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.174	3.182
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.9274	2.8923
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8480	3.8230

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94188	0.93989
US   $	1.06171	1.06395
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.45428	0.68763
US  $	1.36980	0.73003

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1198.99	1203.05
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	98.66	98.92
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose to the highest closing level in four weeks, as data showed the nation’s economy grew a fourth straight month, led by gains in manufacturing and wholesale trade.

Reitmans Canada Ltd. rallied 9 percent after Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired shares of the clothing retailer. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the nation’s largest lender, gained 0.8 percent. Niko Resources Ltd. surged 24 percent after raising cash through a private placement and receiving loans from some investors. Detour Gold Corp. fell 4.5 percent to pace losses among gold miners.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 48.10 points, or 0.4 percent, to 13,447.70 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, for the highest close since Nov. 25. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 8.2 percent this year.

“Seasonally, it’s pretty positive going into the end of the year,” said Bruce Campbell, fund manager at StoneCastle Investment Management Inc. from Kelowna, British Columbia. The firm manages about C$100 million ($94.5 million). “We continue to see things move in the right direction. Over the last three or four months, we’ve seen a bit of a synchronization across all the global economies, a little better numbers across the board. Canada bottomed out at the beginning of this year and now we’re inching toward economic growth.”

Canada’s gross domestic product rose 0.3 percent in October. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 0.2 percent expansion, based on the median of 15 estimates.

BlackBerry Ltd. advanced 3.1 percent to C$7.98 to pace gains among technology stocks. The group climbed 0.6 percent, as eight of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX rose. Trading volume was 34 percent lower compared with the 30-day average.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company has surged 23 percent in the past three days, the biggest gain for that time span since February, as the company announced a five-year plan on Dec. 20 to outsource smartphone production to Foxconn Group.

Reitmans Canada surged 9 percent to C$6.92, the biggest gain since 2009. Fairfax Financial acquired 2 million Reitmans Class A shares at C$6.35 a share for C$12.7 million total. The acquisition raises Fairfax’s holdings in the company to 13.8 percent of Class A shares outstanding, it said in a release.

Financial stocks added 0.4 percent as a group. TD Bank added 0.8 percent to C$98.93, a record close. The stock has rallied 4.3 percent in the past seven days, the longest winning streak since November. Royal Bank rose 0.8 percent to C$70.80.

Niko Resources jumped 24 percent to C$3.18. The company said it will receive $340 million in loans from some institutional investors and its fourth-quarter production will increase.

The oil and gas explorer said Dec. 19 it had raised about C$33 million through a private placement of subscription receipts. The company said it will use the cash to pay a portion of its debt. The stock has soared 64 percent in the past two days.

Kinross Gold slipped 2.8 percent to C$4.56 and Detour Gold dropped 4.5 percent to C$3.61. Gold futures fell in New York on speculation less stimulus from the Federal Reserve and an improving U.S. economy will cut demand for bullion as a protection of wealth.

US

By Nick Taborek and Lu Wang

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, with benchmark indexes extending all-time highs, as Apple Inc. rallied and the International Monetary Fund indicated it would raise its outlook for the economy.

Apple jumped 3.8 percent after the company struck a deal to sell its iPhones through China Mobile Ltd., the world’s largest phone company. T-Mobile US Inc. added 2.8 percent after people familiar with the situation said SoftBank Corp. Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son is exploring a deal for Sprint Corp. to buy the majority of the wireless-phone provider next year.

Micron Technology Inc. slid 3.1 percent after Bank of America Corp. downgraded its rating on the stock.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.5 percent to 1,827.99 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 73.47 points, or 0.5 percent, to 16,294.61. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.1 percent to 4,148.90. About 5.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 9.8 percent below the three-month average.

“It’s a cauldron of bullish factors,” Donald Selkin, who helps manage about $3 billion as the New York-based chief market strategist at National Securities Corp., said by phone.

“There’s the seasonal factor, the IMF raising its forecast and the Fed saying they’re going to keep the federal funds rate low.”

The Dow jumped 3 percent last week and the S&P 500 climbed 2.4 percent as the Federal Reserve said it will reduce the pace of bond buying amid faster-than-estimated economic growth. The S&P 500 has advanced 28 percent in 2013, putting it on course for its biggest annual rally since 1997. Three rounds of monetary stimulus have sent the equities benchmark up 170 percent from a 12-year low in 2009.

The IMF is raising its outlook for the U.S. economy, as a budget deal in Washington and the Fed’s plan to taper its bond buying ease doubts about the future, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said yesterday in an interview broadcast today on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The IMF predicted in October that the world’s largest economy would expand 2.6 percent next year.

Lagarde didn’t set out any new projections.

A report last week indicated the U.S. economy expanded at a 4.1 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, as consumers stepped up spending on services and companies invested more in software. The reading was the strongest since the final three months of 2011 and up from a previous estimate of 3.6 percent, according to the report.

Data today showed that consumer spending rose in November by the most in five months as Americans took advantage of store discounts during the year-end shopping season, giving the world’s largest economy a lift.

A separate report showed the the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment in December climbed to 82.5 from 75.1 a month earlier. The median forecast of 61 economists in a Bloomberg survey called for 83 after a preliminary reading of 82.5.

The S&P 500 has gained 1.2 percent so far this month.

December has been the second-best month for U.S. equity returns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that starts in 1928. The average gain for the month is 1.5 percent, more than twice the overall monthly mean of 0.6 percent. The last December retreat for the S&P 500 was in 2007.

“This is a very good seasonal period of time for the markets,” Eric Green, director of research and fund manager at Penn Capital Management, said by phone. The Philadelphia-based firm oversees about $7 billion. “Most of the economic data points suggest stronger growth going forward.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, fell 5.5 percent to 13.04.

Eight of 10 main S&P 500 groups advanced today, with technology stocks rallying 1.5 percent to pace the gains.

Facebook Inc. surged 4.8 percent to a record $57.77 as the company began trading as a member of the S&P 500 today.

Today’s surge in technology shares helped the Nasdaq surpass 4,120, a level that represents a recovery of 76.4 percent of the index’s decline during the bursting of the Internet bubble. The threshold is seen by Fibonacci analysts as the last obstacle for a full recovery. The benchmark gauge, which plunged 78 percent from its peak of 5,048.62, set on March 10, 2000, would need to climb about 22 percent to reclaim its record.

Apple rose 3.8 percent to $570.09, the highest close since Dec. 4, 2012. The company, ending six years of negotiations, struck a deal that will give both the U.S. phone maker and China Mobile a means to fight declining share in the market of 1.2 billion wireless subscribers.

China Mobile will sell the iPhone 5s and 5c models in its stores from Jan. 17, the companies said in a statement that provided no financial terms. Apple’s stores in the country will also offer the phones for China Mobile’s network.

T-Mobile advanced 2.8 percent to $31.86. SoftBank’s Son has discussed financing a bid with banks such as Credit Suisse Group AG, Mizuho Bank Ltd. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., people familiar with the matter said.

Son, who is looking for about $20 billion to finance a bid, has also met with Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co., while receiving advice from the Raine Group LLC, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Those six banks helped finance and advise on SoftBank’s purchase of Sprint.

An S&P index of homebuilders rallied 4 percent to the highest level in five months as all 11 members advanced. KB Home gained 7.6 percent to $18.19 after Citigroup Inc. upgraded the shares to neutral from sell, citing strengthening demand.

PulteGroup Inc. added 5.9 percent to $19.71.

Darden Restaurants Inc. rallied 6.4 percent to $54.35 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. The owner of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse slid 3.5 percent last week after announcing it will separate the Red Lobster seafood chain.

The plan falls short of activist investor Barington Capital Group LP’s proposals for a bigger shakeup, including ways to profit from its real estate. Starboard Value LP, which disclosed a stake in the company today, also said Darden’s proposal is inadequate.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. slid 1.3 percent to $56.29. The retailer rejected a $1.54 billion takeover offer from Men’s Wearhouse Inc. as too low and said it would continue to seek its own acquisitions. Men’s Wearhouse dropped 0.9 percent to $51.55.

Micron Technology slid 3.1 percent to $21.49. An analyst at Bank of America Corp. downgraded the memory chipmaker to underperform from neutral, citing increasing competition.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”
Jimi Hendrix

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

Are you needing to bring an appetizer to a Christmas party over the next few days? Looking for something quick and simple? Try this tasty recipe!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Ready time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

1/4 cup mango chutney

1/4 cup lime pickle

1 tsp Indian curry paste

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

2 tbsp chopped cilantro

Method

Combine all ingredients and serve with samosa crackers.

“Everything you are seeking is seeking you in return. Therefore, everything you want is already yours. It is simply a matter of becoming more aware of what you already possess.” – Bob Proctor

Photos of the Day:

Sculptor Juuso Partanen of Finland carves an ice sculpture of a tree at the Brussels Ice Magic Festival. Some 20 artists from all over the world made sculptures depicting characters from comic strips out of 420 tons of ice. Francois Lenoir/Reuters

A giant panda plays in the snow at a zoo in Kunming, Yunnan province, China. China Daily/Reuters

Market Closes for December 20^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16221.14	+42.06    +0.26%
S&P 500	1818.31	+8.71    +0.48%
NASDAQ	4104.742	+46.607    +1.15%
TSX	13399.60	+7.40
		+0.06%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15870.42	+11.20
		+0.07%
HANG  SENG	22812.18	-76.57
		-0.33%
SENSEX	21079.72	+370.10
		+1.79%
FTSE 100	6606.58	+21.88
		+0.33%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.675	2.704
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.182	3.215
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.8923	2.9309
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8230	3.9056

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93989	0.93780
US   $	1.06395	1.06633
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.45486	0.68735
US  $	1.36741	0.73131

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1203.05	1188.43
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	98.92	98.77
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Callie Bost

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose to the highest level in two weeks and extended their biggest weekly advance since July as data showed the U.S. economy expanded more than forecast last quarter.

OceanaGold Corp. and China Gold International Resources Corp. increased at least 1.5 percent as the metal’s price rebounded. BlackBerry Ltd. soared 16 percent after it struck a five-year deal with Foxconn Group to manufacture its devices.

Martinrea International Inc. fell 5.8 percent, extending its losses for the week to 19 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index increased 7.40 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 13,399.60 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. That’s the highest level for the benchmark since Dec. 2 as it capped a gain for the week of 2.1 percent. The index trimmed earlier gains of as much as 0.8 percent in the final half-hour. Trading of stocks in the index was 75 percent higher than the 30-day average.

“Stronger-than-expected U.S. GDP is a positive for Canada and more so a positive for cyclical stocks like energy, materials and financials,” Andrew Pyle, a fund manager at ScotiaMcLeod Inc. in Peterborough, Ontario, said in a phone interview. He manages C$220 million ($205.6 million). “Energy and materials are creeping up and they weigh heavily on the indexes.”

U.S. gross domestic product climbed at a 4.1 percent annualized rate, the strongest since the final three months of 2011 and up from a previous estimate of 3.6 percent, Commerce Department figures showed. The median forecast of 72 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected a 3.6 percent pace after 2.5 percent in the second quarter.

Canada’s consumer price index rose 0.9 percent in November from a year ago following a 0.7 percent rise the prior month, Statistics Canada said today. The result trailed the 1 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg survey in November. The core rate, which excludes eight volatile products, slowed to 1.1 percent from the 1.2 percent pace in October.

Gold prices gained 0.8 percent to $1,203.70 an ounce, after the precious metal tumbled 3.4 percent yesterday to the lowest settlement since August 2010. Gold, down 29 percent this year, is heading for its first annual decline since 2000.

Producers of raw materials in the S&P/TSX rose 0.5 percent.

OceanaGold jumped 4.8 percent to C$1.54 and China Gold increased 1.5 percent to C$2.74 Canadian cents. The S&P/TSX Gold Index rose 0.3 percent.

BlackBerry soared 16 percent, the biggest gain since November 2012, to C$7.74. Foxconn will make products for BlackBerry at plants in Indonesia and Mexico, according to a statement today. BlackBerry will own all of its intellectual property and handle quality assurance through Foxconn, an Apple Inc. supplier and the world’s largest manufacturer of electronic products.

The Canadian smartphone maker also reported a 56 percent drop in third-quarter sales to $1.19 billion, missing analysts’ estimates of $1.59 billion.

Methanex Corp. rose 2.8 percent to C$61.80. Raymond James Financial Inc. analyst Steven Hansen boosted the methanol producer’s rating to outperform from market perform.

Martinrea fell 5.8 percent to C$7.05, the lowest level since November 2012. Canada’s third-largest auto parts maker by market value slumped 21 percent yesterday after it warned one of its factories had misreported net income over eight years and said earnings would be lower than forecast.

US

By Lu Wang and Callie Bost

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index capping its biggest weekly gain since October, as data showing faster-than-estimated growth boosted confidence in the world’s largest economy.

Red Hat Inc. surged 14 percent as the software company raised its full-year profit and sales forecasts. Responsys Inc. jumped 40 percent as Oracle Corp. agreed to buy the marketing company for $1.5 billion in cash. CarMax Inc. declined 9.4 percent as the largest U.S. seller of used cars posted earnings that missed analysts’ estimates.

The S&P 500 added 0.5 percent to a record 1,818.32 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 42.06 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,221.14, also an all-time high.

About 9.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. changes in the busiest trading since June as futures and options contracts expired today in a process known as quadruple witching and the operator of the S&P 500 rebalanced the index in a quarterly move to adjust member weightings.

“The market is feeling somewhat confident,” said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist in New York at Banyan Partners LLC, which manages about $4.5 billion. “It’s encouraging as an investor and consumer to see GDP get up to these levels. GDP reaching 4 percent makes you feel good about the economy and where we’re headed.”

The S&P 500 rose 2.4 percent this week, halting a string of two weekly declines and erasing a loss for the month, after the Federal Reserve’s decision to slow the pace of its stimulus boosted investor confidence that the recovery in the world’s largest economy is on course. The Dow’s weekly advance of 3 percent was its biggest since September.

Data today showed the rate of expansion in the third quarter was faster than previously estimated as consumers stepped up spending on services such as health care and companies invested more in software. Gross domestic product climbed at a 4.1 percent annualized rate, the strongest since the final three months of 2011 and up from a previous estimate of 3.6 percent, Commerce Department figures showed.

“This revised GDP number was really positive,” Colleen Supran, a principal at San Francisco-based Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough, which manages about $3 billion, said in a phone interview. “It helps complete the story on what the Fed did this week and that is, the Fed has some belief that the economy is getting close to being able to stand on its own.”

The S&P 500 has rallied 27 percent so far in 2013, on course for its best performance since 1997. Three rounds of central-bank bond purchases have helped propel the equity benchmark 169 percent higher from a 12-year low in 2009.

The Fed will probably reduce its bond purchases by $10 billion in each of its next seven meetings before ending the program in December 2014, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 41 economists conducted on Dec. 19.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index dropped 2.5 percent today to 13.79. The gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX fell 13 percent this week.

Announced index changes, such as the addition of Facebook Inc.’s inclusion in the S&P 500, took effect after the markets’ closed.

Money managers needed to buy and sell about $13.8 billion of shares as they shuffled their funds to mimic changes in the S&P 500 quarterly rebalance, according to estimates from Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices in New York. He forecast utility companies will see the biggest increase in their representation while the weighting of consumer staples will drop the most.

Nine of the 10 S&P 500 main industries advanced. Utility and technology shares rose more than 0.8 percent to lead gains.

Phone stocks fell 0.6 percent for the only decline.

Red Hat surged 14 percent to $56.10. Adjusted earnings for its 2014 financial year will be $1.46 to $1.48 per share, the company predicted, up from its previous forecast of $1.36 to $1.38. Revenue may be about $1.53 billion, exceeding the average analyst estimate for $1.51 billion.

Responsys soared 40 percent to $27.40. Oracle, the world’s largest seller of database software, agreed to buy Responsys for $27 a share, gaining marketing software that helps businesses sell to consumers. Oracle lost 0.6 percent to $36.37 after a four-day rally.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc jumped 8 percent to $123.91. The maker of the narcolepsy treatment Xyrem said it will buy Gentium SpA, a rare-disease drug developer, in a deal valued at $1 billion. Gentium’s American depositary receipts added 2.8 percent to $57.22.

Textron Inc. rallied 14 percent to $37.29. The manufacturer of Cessna aircraft and Bell helicopters was near a $1.4 billion purchase of planemaker Beechcraft Corp. and an announcement could be made as soon as today, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Dave Sylvestre, a spokesman for Textron, said the company had no comment on the newspaper’s report.

Allergan Inc. advanced 3.8 percent to $107.73. The maker of the Botox wrinkle treatment may be issued a patent for its Restasis eye drops as soon as January, Ken Cacciatore, an analyst with Cowen & Co., said in a note, citing legal consultants.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. rallied 16 percent to $6.43. The cancer-drug maker will return its only product, Iclusig, to the U.S. market after regulators approved a new prescribing and risk management plan.

BlackBerry Ltd. surged 16 percent, the most since April 2009, to $7.22. The struggling smartphone maker struck a five- year deal with Foxconn Group to manufacture its devices, following another quarterly plunge in sales and mounting losses.

The deal lets BlackBerry offload more of the costs of its unprofitable manufacturing operations, helping it focus on corporate software and services.

CarMax declined 9.4 percent to $48.08 for the biggest drop in the S&P 500. Third-quarter profit was 47 cents a share, trailing the average analyst estimate by 1 cent.

Fastenal Co. slumped 5 percent to $45.62. The retailer of nuts, bolts and other fasteners said it expects to miss analysts’ estimates for four-quarter earnings because of slower- than-expected sales growth.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.”
Brian Tracy

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

Butchart Gardens is where thousands of lights twinkle and glow throughout the many gardens during the Christmas Season!  For a full two months, the crew at Butchart Gardens are installing all of the lights and many decorations around the property.  Everything from 9 ladies dancing to 6 geese-a-laying to 7 swans-a-swimming, Butchart has captured the 12 days of Christmas! Not only are these beautiful decorations’ all around the garden, they also have an ice skating ring and a carousel, which makes this the perfect family or date night.  My first Christmas visit to Butchart was yesterday and I must say it was  breathtaking.  The amount of work put into making the gardens magical is definitely worth going to see.  I wanted to share a couple pictures that my friend Joe took from our visit. Hope you enjoy them!

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”
Swami Vivekananda

Photos of the Day:

Villagers walk home carrying water collected from the Kuakhai River on a foggy morning in Bhubaneswar, India. Biswaranjan Rout/AP

The moon rises behind the skyline of New York and the Empire State Building, as seen from Jersey City, N.J. Gary Hershorn/Reuters

Market Closes for December 19^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16179.08	+11.11    +0.07%
S&P 500	1809.60	-1.05    -0.06%
NASDAQ	4058.135	-11.930    -0.29%
TSX	13392.20	+57.50
		+0.43%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15859.22	+271.42
		+1.74%
HANG  SENG	22888.75	-255.07
		-1.10%
SENSEX	20708.62	-151.24
		-0.73%
FTSE 100	6584.70	+92.62
		+1.43%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.704	2.682
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.215	3.218
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.9309	2.8931
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.9056	3.9065

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93780	0.93341
US   $	1.06633	1.07133
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.45676	0.68646
US  $	1.36614	0.73199

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1188.43	1218.76
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	98.77	97.80
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Callie Bost

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose as advances in energy and technology shares offset a plunge in gold prices following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to cut stimulus.

CGI Group Inc. jumped 2.5 percent after Desjardins Securities Inc. raised its rating on the information-technology company. Detour Gold Corp. and Torex Gold Resources Inc. fell more than 3.8 percent as gold dropped below $1,200 an ounce to a three-year low. Martinrea International Inc. plunged 21 percent after BMO Capital Markets downgraded the shares.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index increased 57.47 points, or 0.4 percent, to 13,392.20 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 2 percent this week, poised for its first week of gains since Nov. 15.

“There seems to be some euphoria from yesterday spilling over into Toronto, since it wasn’t up as much as the U.S.,” Barry Schwartz, a fund manager with Baskin Financial Services Inc., said in a phone interview from Toronto. His firm manages C$600 million ($560.1 million). “People seem to be rotating out of anything to do with precious metals.”

The S&P 500 rallied 1.7 percent yesterday after the U.S. central bank said it will cut its monthly bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion starting in January. The Fed is taking its first step toward unwinding the monetary stimulus that Chairman Ben S. Bernanke put in place to help the economy recover from one of its worst recessions.

Gold prices fell 3.4 percent to $1,193.60, the lowest settlement price since August 2010. The price of the precious metal is poised for the first annual drop in 13 years.

Producers of raw materials in the S&P/TSX fell 0.4 percent.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index dropped 1.8 percent for its third day of losses. Detour plunged 10 percent to C$4.03 and Torex decreased 3.8 percent to C$1.01. B2Gold Corp. declined 3.2 percent to C$2.12.

Sherritt International Corp. jumped 8.6 percent, the biggest gain since Oct. 2011, to C$3.28. Royal Bank of Canada analyst Patrick Morton said that Sherritt, an oil producer with a stake in the nickel metals business, may benefit from a rebound in nickel prices amid Indonesia’s planned ban on mineral-ore shipments.

HudBay Minerals Inc. climbed 4.8 percent to C$7.92 after Haywood Securities Inc. analysts put a buy rating on the stock, with a target price of C$9.50.

CGI rose 2.5 percent to C$37.99 after Desjardins analyst Maher Yaghi upgraded the shares to buy from hold and raised CGI’s target price to C$43 a share.

Martinrea plunged 21 percent, the biggest drop since 1998, to C$7.48 after BMO analyst Peter Sklar downgraded the metal manufacturer to underperform from market perform, citing litigation costs and expectations fourth-quarter earnings may fall short of previous forecasts.

US

By Lu Wang and Whitney Kisling

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fluctuated, after benchmark indexes rallied to records following the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut stimulus, as investors assessed data on jobless claims and home sales.

Rite Aid Corp. dropped 10 percent after cutting its earnings forecast. Facebook Inc. lost 1 percent after saying the company and some shareholders, including Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, will sell 70 million shares. Oracle Corp. rose 6.4 percent after forecasting third-quarter sales and profit in line with analysts’ estimates.

The S&P 500 lost 0.1 percent to 1,808.16 at 2:51 p.m. in New York, trimming an earlier drop of 0.5 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost less than 1 point to 16,167.97. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 5.4 percent above the 30-day average during this time of the day.

“You had such a sky-rocket yesterday in equities after the Fed announcement and really nothing has changed,” Timothy Ghriskey, who oversees $1.5 billion as the chief investment officer at Solaris Group LLC, said by phone from Bedford Hills, New York. “There’s a little bit of profit-taking off of that emotional spike.”

The S&P 500 rose to 1,810.65 yesterday and the Dow reached a record 16,167.97 after the Fed said it will cut its monthly bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion starting in January as the labor market improves. The central bank also said it will likely keep its benchmark interest rates low “well past the time” that the jobless rate falls below its target of 6.5 percent.

Three rounds of monetary stimulus have sent the S&P 500 up 167 percent from a 12-year low in 2009. The equities benchmark has surged 27 percent this year, on course for the biggest annual gain since 1997.

The S&P 500 has gained 0.2 percent this month, erasing an earlier decline of as much as 1.7 percent. December has been the second-best month for U.S. equity returns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that starts in 1928. The average gain for the month is 1.5 percent, more than twice the overall monthly mean of 0.6 percent. The last December retreat for the S&P 500 was in 2007.

“The market is going higher and everybody knows it’s going higher, so when you have any kind of selloff, you put any excess cash you have back to work,” Tom Wirth, a senior investment officer for Chemung Canal Trust Co., in Elmira, New York, said in a telephone interview. His firm manages $1.7 billion. “I don’t think that pattern is going to change any time in the near term.”

Data from the Labor Department today showed applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to an almost nine-month high of 379,000. The median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a drop to 336,000.

A separate report showed previously owned home sales declined for the third consecutive month in November to the lowest level of the year as rising mortgage rates and a limited supply of properties discouraged buyers.

The Conference Board’s index of U.S. leading economic indicators, a gauge of the outlook for the next three to six months, increased 0.8 percent in November, the New York-based group said. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an advance of 0.7 percent.

“It’s clear that the economy is doing a little bit better and at the same time inflation is still low,” Michael Strauss, chief investment strategist and chief economist at Commonfund Group in Wilton, Connecticut, said by phone. His firm oversees about $25 billion of assets. “That’s sort of like the best of the world to the Fed to begin the tapering process and they did.

The market is surprised and miffed by the initial claims data, but the reality is the data is probably not an accurate reflection” because of seasonal effects, he said.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index slid 0.3 percent today to 13.76, extending a 15 percent decline from yesterday. The gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX is down 24 percent this year.

Six of 10 main S&P 500 industries declined. Utility stocks, which offer the second-highest yield among the index’s groups, dropped 0.9 percent for the worst performance.

Real-estate stocks fell 1.2 percent as a group, the second most among 24 industries in the S&P 500. Health Care REIT Inc. declined 4 percent to $52.50. HCP Inc., also a real estate investment trust company, slipped 3.1 percent to $35.70. REITs pay out the majority of their income as dividends.

Yields on 10-year Treasury notes touched a three-month high today on bets the Fed will conclude its bond-buying program by end of next year.

“Dividend and income strategy has been decidedly out of favor and anything that’s been interest-rate sensitive has sold off,” Steven Bulko, the New York-based chief investment officer of Lombard Odier’s $1.3 billion long/short 1798 Fundamental Strategies Fund, said by telephone. “Clearly the market is telling you, from the equity perspective there are much more interesting and exciting things to be done in the stock space than the income yield replication trade.”

Rite Aid declined 10 percent to $5.20. The third-largest U.S. drugstore chain said it expects to earn 23 cents a share at most in fiscal 2014, down from an earlier projection of as much as 27 cents.

Facebook lost 1 percent to $55.02. The social-networking service said it will use the proceeds from the stock sale for working capital and other general corporate purposes, while Zuckerberg will use the majority of his proceeds to pay taxes he will incur in connection with his exercise of an option to purchase 60 million shares.

Darden Restaurants Inc. slid 5.1 percent to $50.21 for the biggest drop in the S&P 500. The operator of the Olive Garden restaurant chain said it will spin off its Red Lobster business as part of a plan that includes halting acquisitions and cutting costs.

Target Corp. dropped 2.2 percent to $62.17. The second- largest U.S. discount chain said data for about 40 million debit and credit cards may have been wrongfully accessed in recent weeks and that law enforcement is investigating the matter.

Technology companies and producers of raw materials and energy gained at least 0.1 percent, to pace gains among S&P 500 groups. Chevron Corp. jumped 1.4 percent to $123.28 for the biggest advance in the Dow. International Business Machines Corp. rose 1 percent to $180.45.

Oracle advanced 6.4 percent to $36.80. The largest maker of database software said revenue in the period that ends in February will climb as much as 6 percent, and profit excluding acquisition-related expenses, stock-based compensation and other items will be as much as 72 cents a share. Analysts had estimated sales growth of 4 percent and earnings of 70 cents.

ConAgra Foods Inc. rose 5.6 percent to $33.57. The maker of packed foods reported fiscal second-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings that surpassed analysts’ estimates. The company also reaffirmed its full-year profit target.

Accenture Plc gained 5.4 percent to $79.73. The second- largest technology-consulting company reported quarterly profit that topped estimates as demand for its expertise resurfaced in the U.S. and Europe.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. gained 2.3 percent to $53.79.

AstraZeneca Plc agreed to pay as much as $4.3 billion to buy the U.S. company’s stake of a joint venture that makes diabetes drugs. The purchase gives AstraZeneca sole control of treatments such as Onglyza and Forxiga. New York-based Bristol-Myers is getting out of diabetes research to focus more on cancer treatments.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.”
Carlos Santana

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Full moon to enjoy again tonight!

Recipe of The Month –from Maria Hines Restaurant Group, Seattle (sounds perfect for winter):

Smoked Heirloom Bean Cassoulet

1 cup cannellini beans,1 cup  cranberry beans,1 cup adzuki beans, 3 ea yellow onion peeled and halved, 3 ea carrots peeled, 6 ea celery stalks, leaves removed, 3 ea bouquet garni, 6 ea roma tomatoes,1 bu chives sliced thin,1 bu parsley chopped, 2 ea shallots, peeled and minced,4 ea garlic cloves, minced, salt and pepper to taste,1 lb butter, 2 oz black truffle carpaccio,4 oz truffle oil,1 lb wild mushrooms, cleaned and cut.

Soak the beans separately overnight. There should be three times the amount of water to beans. Drain the beans and place in hotel pans. Divide the onion, carrot, celery and bouquet garni between the three pans. Cover with cold water, enough to cover the beans by 3 inches. Bring to a simmer, cover with foil and cook in a 300 degree oven. Stir every 20 minutes. Cook until tender. When the beans are finished, season with salt and pepper. Let cool. Drain the liquid and smoke the beans using apple wood chips.

For the tomatoes: Core the tomatoes and cut an “x” in the bottom using a sharp knife. Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water and shock in an ice bath. Remove the skin and insides of the tomatoes. Mix the tomatoes with the herbs, shallot, garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper. Spread the tomatoes on a cooling rack and dry in the oven at 200 degrees until tomatoes are dry and the flavor is intensified, up to 4 hours. Julienne the tomatoes.

For the butter: In a food processor, combine the tempered butter, black truffle, and truffle oil, mix until well combined.

To assemble: Sauté the mushrooms in canola oil in a hot pan, season with salt and pepper. Cook until golden brown. Add the dried tomatoes and beans. Add enough water just to cover the bottom of the bean mixture and bring to a simmer, lower the heat and stir in the truffle butter, 2 tbs at a time, to taste. Adjust seasoning with fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. Garnish with bread crumbs.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. –Mark Twain.

Photos of the day

Horses walk in the snow at the base of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights near the Israel-Syria border December 17th. Nir Elias/Reuters

Bolivian squirrel monkeys gets a special treat from their keepers of sultanas and wax worms that were set out on a Christmas tree at London Zoo in London. London Zoo is the world’s oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828. Alastair Grant/AP

Market Closes for December 18^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16167.97	+292.71    +1.84%
S&P 500	1810.65	+29.65    +1.66%
NASDAQ	4070.064	+46.384    +1.15%
TSX	13334.73	+154.57
		+1.17%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15587.80	+309.17
		+2.02%
HANG  SENG	23143.82	+74.59
		+0.32%
SENSEX	20859.86	+247.72
		+1.20%
FTSE 100	6492.08	+5.89
		+0.09%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.682	2.642
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.218	3.190
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.8931	2.8372
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.9065	3.8713

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93341	0.94295
US   $	1.07133	1.06050
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.46612	0.68207
US  $	1.36850	0.73073

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1218.76	1230.88
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.80	97.22
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Callie Bost

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose the most in two months after the Federal Reserve said it would reduce its monthly asset purchases by $10 billion and raised its assessment of the job market.

Dundee Precious Metals Inc. rallied 4.9 percent after gold futures increased as much as 1.1 percent. Athabasca Oil Corp. fell 2.7 percent after Macquarie Group Ltd. reduced its rating to neutral from outperform.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index increased 154.57 points, or 1.2 percent, to 13,334.73 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest jump since Oct. 10. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 1.6 percent this week, poised for its first week of gains since November.

“The uncertainty over tapering was more damaging than the actual event,” Bob Decker, a fund manager with Aurion Capital Management Inc. in Toronto, who helps manage about C$6 billion ($5.7 billion), said in a phone interview. “The Fed validated the view of the economy that most people have and this gives some encouragement that the risks are diminishing.”

The Fed announced plans to cut its monthly bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion, taking its first step toward unwinding the unprecedented stimulus that Chairman Ben S.

Bernanke put in place to help the economy recover from the worst recession since the 1930s. Fed officials predicted the unemployment rate will fall as low as 6.3 percent by the end of next year, compared with a September projection of 6.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

Producers of raw materials in the S&P/TSX advanced 0.3 percent. Dundee Precious Metals Inc. jumped 4.9 percent to C$2.80. The S&P/TSX Gold Index slipped 0.5 percent. Gold futures for February delivery gained 0.4 percent to settle at $1,235 in New York.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. rose 3.5 percent to a record C$120.03. The drugmaker has advanced 6.2 percent since Dec. 13 after this week announcing it will buy Solta Medical Inc., a medical-device manufacturer, for about $250 million.

WestJet Airlines Ltd. slipped 1 percent to C$27.60. The company is “exploring” a possible bid, Chief Executive Officer Gregg Saretsky said in an interview. American Airlines Group Inc. was required to give up 104 takeoff and landing slots at Reagan to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. government and complete its merger with US Airways Group Inc.

USA

By Callie Bost and Whitney Kisling

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks surged, sending benchmark indexes to record highs, while Treasuries fell as the Federal Reserve expressed enough confidence in the labor market to taper asset purchases while still promising to hold interest rates close to zero. Commodities and the dollar advanced.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 1.7 percent to 1,810.65, its biggest gain in two months, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 292.71 points to 16,167.97 by 4:30 p.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge of U.S. equity volatility dropped the most since October. Ten-year Treasury yields added four basis points to 2.88 percent. The greenback jumped to a five-year high versus the yen and climbed versus most major peers. Gasoline and coffee drove gains in commodities.

The Fed announced plans to cut its monthly bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion, taking its first step toward unwinding the unprecedented stimulus put in place by outgoing Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to help the economy recover from the worst recession since the 1930s. Fed officials predicted the unemployment rate will fall to as low as 6.3 percent by the end of next year, compared with a September projection of 6.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

“The market likes the news,” Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL in Boston, which manages about $400 billion, said in a phone interview. “This was very small, more of a test than a taper at just $10 billion. This really suggests the Fed is going to be cautious moving forward. Going from $85 billion to $75 billion is not a big deal, so that’s encouraging.”

About 34 percent of economists surveyed by Bloomberg Dec. 6 had predicted that the Fed would start paring bond buying this month, up from 17 percent in a Nov. 8 poll.

The central bank today left unchanged its statement that it will probably hold its target interest rate near zero “at least as long as” unemployment exceeds 6.5 percent, so long as the outlook for inflation is no higher than 2.5 percent.

The panel added that it “likely will be appropriate to maintain the current target range for the federal funds rate well past the time that the unemployment rate declines below 6.5 percent, especially if projected inflation continues to run below” the Fed’s 2 percent goal.

Fed stimulus has helped propel gains of more than 165 percent in the S&P 500 from a 12-year low reached in March 2009 and put the gauge on track for its best annual performance since 1997.

Speculation over a reduction in bond buying has whipsawed equities since May, when Bernanke first indicated cuts to the program could start this year. The S&P 500 tumbled 5.8 percent from a record May 21 through June 24. After the Fed unexpectedly refrained from tapering following its Sept. 17-18 meeting, the gauge extended its rally to set record highs.

The index had retreated 1.5 percent through yesterday from its latest record reached Dec. 9, as improving economic data fueled speculation the Fed would deem growth sufficient enough to withdraw some support. The S&P 500 is up 27 percent this year, the most since surging 31 percent in 1997.

Health-care, financial, consumer staple and energy shares rose more than 1.6 percent for the biggest gains among the 10 main S&P 500 industry groups today. Exxon Mobil Corp., 3M Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. rallied at least 2.7 percent to lead the Dow’s advance.

Lennar Corp. climbed 6.3 percent after the homebuilder reported earnings that topped estimates. An S&P gauge of builders jumped 4.2 percent as all 11 companies in the index advanced.

A Commerce Department report today showed U.S. housing starts jumped 22.7 percent to a 1.09 million annualized rate, exceeding all forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and the most since February 2008. Permits for future projects held near a five-year high, indicating the pickup will be sustained into 2014.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the benchmark gauge of options prices know as the VIX, sank 15 percent to 13.80 for its biggest decline since Oct. 16. The VIX, which moves in opposite direction of the S&P 500 about 80 percent of the time, had risen for 14 of the past 16 trading days, the first time that has ever occurred.

Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 4.2 percent to 15,895 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, after closing at 15,590 yesterday in Japan. Contracts on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 1.1 percent, while futures on the Kospi Index in South Korea rose 0.9 percent in their most recent trading session. The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index of the most-traded Chinese stocks in New York jumped 1.7 percent.

Coffee, gasoline, heating oil and gas oil all rallied  more than 0.9 percent to lead gains in 10 of the 24 commodities in the S&P GSCI Index of raw materials prices, while soybeans, wheat and gold dropped at least 0.9 percent for the biggest declines.

West Texas Intermediate oil climbed 0.6 percent to $97.80 a barrel. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude stockpiles decreased 2.94 million barrels to 372.3 million last week. Inventories were forecast to slip 3.5 million barrels, according to the median of nine analyst estimates in a survey before the report.

Treasury yields increased earlier in the U.S. session as the government sold $35 billion in five-year notes at a yield of 1.6 percent, compared with a forecast of 1.57 percent in a poll of seven of the Fed’s 21 primary dealers. The bid-to-cover ratio, which gauges demand by comparing total bids with the amount offered, was 2.42, the least since August.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, which influences rates on everything from mortgages to corporate debt, has more than doubled since reaching a record-low 1.379 percent in July 2012. It’s still less than the average over the past decade of 3.50 percent.

Markets in Europe closed before the Fed’s announcement.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.9 percent, erasing yesterday’s drop and reaching a one-week high. Electrolux AB, a maker of ovens and dishwashers, jumped 3.5 percent after a report showed U.S. shipments of appliances surged last month.

Elektrobit Corp. advanced 6.7 percent after the Finnish maker of software products for cars increased its earnings forecast.

Technip SA lost 6.3 percent after the French oilfield- services company said it expects a weaker profit margin at its subsea division next year.

The pound climbed 0.8 percent to $1.6401, after declining 1.1 percent over the previous five days.

The U.K. jobless rate in the three months through October measured by International Labour Organization methods declined to 7.4 percent from 7.6 percent in the quarter through September, the Office for National Statistics said in London today. The median forecast of 32 economists was for the rate to stay unchanged at 7.6 percent.

Germany’s 10-year bund yield rose two basis points to 1.85 percent. The Ifo institute German business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, increased to 109.5 in December from 109.3 in November. That matched the median prediction of 39 estimates in a survey.

The Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the currency against 10 major peers, rallied 0.5 percent, the biggest one-day gain since Nov. 8.

The yen weakened as much as 1.5 percent to 104.21 per dollar, the lowest intraday level since October 2008. Japan’s currency, viewed as a haven by some investors, slid at least 0.3 percent against all 16 major counterparts. The Asian nation’s merchandise trade deficit for November was 1.35 trillion yen on a seasonally-adjusted basis, compared with the 1.2 trillion yen median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

The yen has tumbled 15 percent this year, the worst performer of 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation Weighted Indexes. The euro has risen 8.4 percent and the dollar advanced 4 percent.

The Bank of Japan, which starts a two-day meeting Dec. 19, sees significant scope to boost government bond purchases if needed to achieve its inflation target, according to people familiar with the discussions. The BOJ buys more than 7 trillion yen of the nation’s bonds every month to battle deflation.

Turkish stocks erased earlier losses, sending the benchmark up 0.7 percent after dropping as much as 3.9 percent today and closing 5.2 percent lower yesterday. The sons of two cabinet ministers and the chief executive officer of the country’s largest listed state-owned bank were arrested as part of a corruption probe.

India’s S&P BSE Sensex Index advanced 1.2 percent to a one- week high after the nation’s central bank unexpectedly left its policy interest rate unchanged.

The Indonesian rupiah depreciated 0.4 percent to its weakest level in five years on concern a planned ban on ore exports will worsen the country’s current-account deficit.

Thailand’s baht weakened as much as 0.7 percent against the dollar as investors weighed the outcome of the Fed’s monetary policy meeting.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Ever tell yourself, I am He.

These are words that will burn up the dross that is in the mind, words that will bring out the tremendous energy

which is within you already, the infinite power which is sleeping in your heart.

Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility

and occupation, that gives happiness.

-Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826.

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

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:

110 years ago: The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, succeeded in the first powered flight.  Orville pilots a plane for 12 seconds and 120 feet.

December 17^th, 1903, Orville Wright sent this telegram to his father from North Carolina:

SUCCESS FOUR FLIGHTS THURSDAY MORNING ALL AGAINST TWENTY-ONE MILE WIND STARTED FROM LEVEL WITH ENGINE POWER ALONE AVERAGE SPEED THROUGH AIR THIRTY-ONE MILES LONGEST 57 SECONDS INFORM PRESS HOME CHRISTMAS.

Photos of the day

Sculptor Juuso Partanen of Finland carves an ice sculpture of a tree at the Brussels Ice Magic Festival. Some 20 artists from all over the world made sculptures depicting characters from comic strips out of 420 tons of ice. Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Pedestrians cross a Manhattan street during a light snowfall in New York. The National Weather Service is predicting another 2 to 4 inches of snow for New York City. Mark Lennihan/AP

Market Closes for December 17^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	15875.26	-9.31    -0.06%
S&P 500	1781.06	-5.48    -0.31%
NASDAQ	4023.680	-5.837    -0.14%
TSX	13181.85	-2.56
		-0.02%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15278.63	+125.72
		+0.83%
HANG  SENG	23069.23	-45.43
		-0.20%
SENSEX	20612.14	-47.38
		-0.23%
FTSE 100	6486.19	-36.01
		-0.55%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.642	2.677
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.190	3.210
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.8372	2.8756
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8713	3.8938

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94295	0.94386
US   $	1.06050	1.05948
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.46029	0.68480
US  $	1.37698	0.72623

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1230.88	1241.60
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.22	97.48
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Callie Bost

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were little changed as manufacturing sales unexpectedly increased last month and Federal Reserve policy makers began a two-day meeting in which they may discuss a timeline for reducing monetary stimulus.

Asanko Gold Inc., an exploration company focused on West Africa, fell 2.9 percent after it agreed to purchase PMI Gold Corp. for about C$183 million ($173 million). PMI jumped 45 percent. Constellation Software Inc. jumped 5.3 percent for a second day of gains after the company agreed to buy software company Total Specific Solutions.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 4.25 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 13,180.16 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has slid 1.6 percent this month.

“Manufacturing sales are probably a good reason why banks are up,” Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier Inc., which manages about C$4.77 billion, said in a telephone interview from Toronto. “The banks’ performance is a good proxy for the economy and that seems to be the highlight today.”

Canadian manufacturing sales in October rose 1.0 percent to C$50.1 billion, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The result exceeded all 15 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists that had a 0.3 percent decline as the median estimate. The increase in sales was led by the largest gain by food manufacturers in two decades, as factories handled a record canola harvest.

Toronto-Dominion Bank added 0.2 percent to C$95.81. Onex Corp., a private-equity investment company, and Northern Property, a real-estate investment trust, led gains among financial companies with advances of at least 2.1 percent.

Six of the 10 main industries in the S&P/TSX gained on trading volume 5.8 percent higher than the 30-day average, led by a 1.9 percent advance in information technology companies.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index declined 0.1 percent as the metal fell for the first time in three days. Alacer Gold Corp. fell 7.1 percent to C$2.21, while OceanaGold Corp. decreased 4.3 percent to C$1.54 and Torex Gold Resources Inc. dropped 4.6 percent to C$1.05.

The Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, begins a two- day policy meeting today. About 34 percent of economists surveyed by Bloomberg on Dec. 6 predicted the U.S. central bank will start paring stimulus when it concludes tomorrow. Gains in manufacturing, technology and housing fueled “modest to moderate” economic growth from early October through mid- November, the central bank said in its Beige Book survey released Dec. 4.

Asanko plunged 2.9 percent to C$2.04. The company said the combination of its Esaase gold project and PMI’s neighboring Obotan projects in Ghana will have a combined 7.5 million ounces of measured and indicated gold resources. The offer is valued at C$0.44 per PMI share and is 58 percent more than Vancouver-based PMI’s closing price yesterday.

PMI rose 13 cents, its biggest gain since October 2011, to 41 Canadian cents.

Constellation increased 5.3 percent to C$217.73, the highest level since it began trading in 2006. Global Maxfin Capital Inc. analysts raised the stock to a strong buy rating from buy.

Canexus Corp., which runs oil storage facilities, rose 7.9 percent to C$6.86 after announcing progress in its rail transport operations.

USA

By Lu Wang and Whitney Kisling

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, following yesterday’s rally for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, before Federal Reserve policy makers announce plans for their monthly bond-buying program tomorrow.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. fell 1.9 percent to pace declines among hospital stocks as Citigroup Inc. said the industry’s November admissions were the “weakest” ever. 3M Co. advanced 2.9 percent after the company projected a 2014 profit in a range whose top end exceeded analysts’ estimates. Boeing Co. climbed 0.9 percent after authorizing the largest share buyback in its history and boosting its dividend.

The S&P 500 declined 0.3 percent to 1,781 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 9.31 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,875.26. About 6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 2.3 percent below the three-month average.

“There are so many people watching the Fed’s decision, so much money on the edge, that the market is sort of just jumpy right now,” Sam Wardwell, an investment strategist at Pioneer Investments in Boston, said in a phone interview. His firm manages about $225 billion. “Everybody knows the Fed is going to taper sooner or later. The question is, are people putting on too many short positions, or not enough short positions? This is everybody betting on the outcome so the market is going to be volatile.”

Traders have boosted hedging against stock losses, driving the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index up 33 percent since Nov. 22 to a two-month high. The S&P 500 has fallen 1.4 percent this month, leaving it on track for the first December decline since 2007.

The equities benchmark climbed 0.6 percent yesterday, halting a four-day decline, amid concern that improving economic data would prompt the Fed to slow its stimulus as soon as tomorrow.

About 34 percent of economists surveyed by Bloomberg on Dec. 6 predicted that the Fed will start to reduce its $85 billion of monthly bond purchases when it concludes the policy meeting. That compared with 17 percent in a survey from November.

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has quadrupled Fed assets since 2008 with three rounds of bond purchases intended to reduce unemployment by lowering long-term borrowing costs. Vice Chairman Janet Yellen, who may win Senate confirmation this week to replace Bernanke, has been a supporter of the policy.

The central bank has said it will hold its target interest interest rate near zero “at least as long as” unemployment exceeds 6.5 percent, so long as the outlook for inflation is no higher than 2.5 percent. Unemployment fell to a five-year low of 7 percent last month.

“The Fed meeting, everyone has an eye on that,” Bill Schultz, chief investment officer who oversees about $1.1 billion at McQueen Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said by phone. “While they don’t think the tapering talk is going to subside yet, there are still some apprehensions about what could come out of that.”

Data today showed the cost of living in the U.S. was unchanged in November from a month earlier, showing inflation is making scant progress toward the Federal Reserve’s goal.

In Washington, the U.S. Senate advanced the budget agreement to a final vote by tomorrow with Republicans divided on their support for the measure. The Senate voted 67-33 to end debate on the $1.01 trillion U.S. spending plan. The measure passed the House 332-94 on Dec. 12 with almost equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats in support.

The S&P 500 has surged 25 percent this year, on course for the biggest annual gain since 2003, as the Fed maintained its stimulus and economic data exceeded expectations. The gauge has rallied more than 160 percent from a 12-year low in 2009.

The CBOE Volatility Index, the gauge known as the VIX, climbed 1.1 percent today to 16.21, extending a five-day rally to 20 percent.

Telephone and energy stocks fell more than 0.6 percent to lead declines as eight of 10 S&P 500 groups retreated. Verizon Communications Inc. dropped 1.5 percent to a two-month low of $47.56 to lead losses in the Dow.

Tenet Healthcare slid 1.9 percent to $39.86. Inpatient admissions declined 4 percent to 5 percent in November from last year, according to Citigroup’s monthly survey of 98 hospitals. A new two-midnight rule has hurt admissions and revenue, Citigroup said in a note.

HCA Holdings Inc., the largest for-profit U.S. hospital chain, slipped 3.5 percent to $45.54.

Carefusion Corp., a medical technology company, lost 2.5 percent to $38.49. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut the stock’s rating to sell from neutral.

3M, the manufacturer with a product line spanning electronics to dental braces, climbed 2.9 percent to $131.39 for the biggest advance in the Dow. Earnings will be $7.30 to $7.55 a share next year, 3M said. That compared with the average estimate of $7.40 a share among 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The company increased its quarterly dividend by 35 percent to 85.5 cents a share.

Visa Inc. climbed 2.7 percent to $213.25, an all-time high.  Concern that the world’s biggest bank-card network is losing position to MasterCard Inc. was overdone, James Friedman, an analyst at Susquehanna International Group, wrote in a note.  MasterCard Inc. gained 0.2 percent to $797.95 to extend a record.

Boeing gained 0.9 percent to $135.88. The planemaker said it would buy back $10 billion. It also said the quarterly dividend would rise to 73 cents a share from 48.5 cents. Boeing has been reaping more cash as it accelerates production of some of its top-selling jetliners, including the single-aisle 737 and the wide-body 777 and 787 Dreamliner.

Facebook Inc. rose 2 percent to a record $54.86. The social-networking site is testing video advertisements that automatically play in users’ news feeds, seeking to catch up with other websites offering short commercials online. The first promotions are starting to run this week, the company said.

Hewlett-Packard Co. advanced 2 percent to $27.45. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its recommendation on the personal-computer maker to overweight from neutral. The PC market appears to be stabilizing and the decline in printing demand may be easing, analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote in a note.

Frontier Communications Corp. jumped 8.6 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $4.78. The phone company agreed to buy AT&T Inc.’s Connecticut landline business and statewide fiber-optic network for $2 billion in cash to focus on more lucrative wireless services.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

When the mind and intellect developed, man asked,

Who am I?  Who is it before me?

The search for reality began…

Moving one step towards finding the answer to the question,

Who am I, we brought consciousness from outside to inside.

Wisdom turned the direction of the consciousness within and

we perceived our soul.

The journey of the soul in the outer world was over and the journey within ad begun.

Acharya Mahaprajna, 1920-2010

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

I skate to where the puck is going to be

not where it has been.

-Wayne Gretzky, 1961-

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

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:

As Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

As Christmas season nears, a fun activity for the family is to take a drive and look at the Christmas lights around Victoria.  Many families spend hours, sometimes days, creating masterpieces of their homes.  Everything from Christmas lights, to inflatable Santa’s and Snowmen, these homes have it all.  The Times Colonist has compiled a list of homes around Victoria where you can go and look at the decorated homes.  Visit http://www.timescolonist.com/2.3412 for a complete Christmas Light Map!

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.”
Helen Keller

Photos of the Day:

Internally Displaced People (IDP’s) make their way back to the precarious safety of their camp at the airport in Bangui, Central African Republic. More than 40,000 IDP’s have found refuge at the airport. Some 1,600 French troops have been deployed to the country in an effort to put an end to sectarian violence. Jerome Delay/AP

A man takes a walk with his dog during a snowstorm in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Mathieu Belanger/Reuters

Market Closes for December 16^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	15884.57	+129.21    +0.82%
S&P 500	1786.54	+11.22    +0.63%
NASDAQ	4029.518	+28.543    +0.71%
TSX	13184.41	+58.71
		+0.45%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15152.91	-250.20
		-1.62%
HANG  SENG	23114.66	-131.30
		-0.56%
SENSEX	20659.52	-56.06
		-0.27%
FTSE 100	6522.20	+82.24
		+1.28%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.677	2.663
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.210	3.209
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.8756	2.8646
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8938	3.8722

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94386	0.94460
US   $	1.05948	1.05865
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.45800	0.68587
US  $	1.37615	0.72666

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1241.60	1237.77
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.48	96.60
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Callie Bost

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose the most in a week after economic data showed U.S. industrial production climbed by the most in a year, a sign manufacturing is bolstering the world’s biggest economy.

BlackBerry Ltd. climbed 2 percent after analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein raised their rating on the stock to market perform from underperform. Primero Mining Corp., the operator of the San Dimas gold mine in Mexico, fell 6.7 percent after agreeing to buy Brigus Gold Corp. Brigus soared 33 percent. Alaris Royalty Corp. slumped 8.6 percent after analysts at Raymond James Financial Inc. cut the stock’s recommendation to market perform from outperform.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index advanced 58.71 points, or 0.5 percent, to 13,184.41 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest advance since Dec. 6. The benchmark equity gauge slid 1.2 percent last week, the most since June.

“Euro-manufacturing data was strong out of Germany and the industrial production number was really good overall, sending positive signals to manufacturing and commodities and pushing Canadian stocks higher,” Gareth Watson, vice president of investment management and research at Richardson GMP Ltd., which oversees C$28 billion ($26.5 billion), said by phone from Toronto. “When the global economy does well, the Canadian economy follows suit.”

Output at U.S. factories, mines and utilities rose 1.1 percent after a revised 0.1 percent gain in October that was previously reported as a decline, a report from the Federal Reserve showed in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 0.6 percent increase. The index of industrial production rose to 101.3, exceeding for the first time its pre-recession peak in December 2007.

A Markit Economics report showed that euro-area manufacturing reached a 31-month high in December, led by Germany. Euro-area output rose to 52.7, from 51.6 in November, above the estimate of 51.9 in a Bloomberg News survey of 35 economists. The gauge has been higher than 50, indicating expansion, for six months.

The Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, begins a two- day meeting tomorrow. The number of economists who forecast policy markers may start curbing $85 billion of monthly bond purchases this month doubled from last month’s Bloomberg survey.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index rose 1.1 percent for a third day of gains. Torex Gold Resources Inc. rallied 6.8 percent to C$1.10 for the biggest advance in the gauge, while China Gold International Resources Corp. jumped 6.8 percent to C$2.84. Gold futures advanced 0.8 percent in New York.

BlackBerry climbed 2 percent to C$6.55 after Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu upgraded the stock, citing limited room for further declines because of the company’s valuation.

Primero declined 6.7 percent to C$4.87. Investors will get 0.175 of a Primero share for each Brigus share they hold, the company said. As part of the deal, Primero will spin out a company with Brigus’s interests in mining projects in Saskatchewan and Mexico. The new company will be 90 percent- owned by Brigus shareholders with Primero investors holding the rest. Brigus rose 33 percent to 84 Canadian cents.

Alaris dropped 8.6 percent to C$30.40, the lowest since June. Raymond James analyst Theoni Pilarinos downgraded the private-equity fund.

US

By Lu Wang and Whitney Kisling

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, after equities posted the biggest weekly drop since August, as investors watched data to gauge the outlook for stimulus before a two-day Federal Reserve meeting that starts tomorrow.

Exxon Mobil Corp. rallied 2.2 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised the stock’s rating. American International Group Inc. rose 1.2 percent after agreeing to sell its plane- leasing unit to AerCap Holdings NV for $5 billion. LSI Corp. jumped 39 percent after Avago Technologies Ltd. agreed to buy it in a deal valued at $6.6 billion. Twitter Inc. retreated 4.9 percent after Wells Fargo & Co. downgraded the stock.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 0.8 percent to 1,788.61 at 2:59 p.m. in New York, halting a four-day streak of declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 143.69 points, or 0.9 percent, to 15,899.05. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 8.1 percent above the 30-day average during this time of the day.

“The big issue this week is the Fed’s meeting and what, if anything, they’re set to do,” Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, which oversees $60 billion, said from Philadelphia.“The market seems to be increasingly prepared for the prospects of it, and yet at the same time, has not bought into the notion that it’s likely to occur this week.”

The S&P 500 last week retreated 1.7 percent, the biggest decline since Aug. 30, amid concern that improving economic data will prompt the Fed to cut stimulus. Policy makers will probably start reducing their $85 billion of monthly bond purchases at the meeting that starts tomorrow, according to 34 percent of economists surveyed Dec. 6 by Bloomberg, up from 17 percent in a Nov. 8 poll.

The benchmark gauge has surged 25 percent this year, on course for the biggest annual gain since 2003, as the Fed maintained its stimulus and economic data exceeded expectations.

With 10 trading days left in 2013, the stock market enters a period where equities tend to outperform the rest of the year.

The S&P 500 has gained 1.2 percent on average in the last 10 days of the calendar year, according to data since 1928 compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a 0.3 percent return over any 10-day period.

Fed policy makers have scrutinized data and watched Washington’s budget negotiations to determine whether economic growth is robust enough to withstand the withdrawal of some monetary support. The House of Representatives last week passed a budget that limits automatic spending cuts and avoids another government shutdown. The Senate is expected to vote this week.

Data today showed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index rose less than forecast in December. A separate report indicated industrial production climbed in November by the most in a year, a sign manufacturing is bolstering the world’s biggest economy.

In Europe, manufacturing in the euro area reached a 31- month high in December, led by Germany, a survey from London- based Markit Economics showed.

“We have some short-term issues to deal with on tapering, but long term we’re constructive because tapering will really come at the result of economic data being self-sustaining,” Dan Veru, the chief investment officer who helps oversee $4.5 billion at Palisade Capital Management LLC, said in a phone interview from Fort Lee, New Jersey.“My personal view is that they’re not going to taper yet. It’d be an odd time of the year to announce a significant reversal of policy like this because markets tend to be more vulnerable this time of the year, less liquidity, less trading volume.”

The central bank has said it will hold its target interest interest rate near zero “at least as long as” unemployment exceeds 6.5 percent, so long as the outlook for inflation is no higher than 2.5 percent. Unemployment fell to a five-year low of 7 percent last month, while inflation is running below the Fed’s target of 2 percent.

Three rounds of Fed bond buying, also known as quantitative easing, have helped propel the S&P 500 to a rally of more than 160 percent from a 12-year low in 2009.

U.S. stocks will rise as much as 5 percent while bonds decline in 2014 as the Fed reduces economic stimulus, Douglas Ramsey, chief investment officer at Leuthold Group LLC, said in a Bloomberg radio interview today. Ramsey said he’s bullish on large technology and health-care companies and predicted that shares of small companies will underperform next year.

Companies buying their own stock make up more of the U.S. equity market than ever before, underpinning share values even as the Fed prepares to reduce stimulus.

Stock acquired under company repurchase programs represented 6.4 percent of daily trading in the Russell 3000 Index by value through Sept. 30, exceeding 2007’s level of 4.1 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Birinyi Associates Inc. The proportion of trading is higher even as chief executive officers spend $343 billion less on buybacks so far this year, reflecting a seven-year decline in equity volume.

Apple Inc. to Walt Disney Co. and International Business Machines Corp. took advantage of record-low interest rates to raise an unprecedented amount of debt financing and repurchased stock, helping boost per-share U.S. earnings for four years.

With cash at a record, buying by companies is poised to continue in a bull market that is about to enter its sixth year.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 0.8 percent today to 15.88. The gauge of S&P 500 options prices known as the VIX jumped 14 percent last week. The index closed above its one- and two-month futures in two of the final three days of that period, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The VIX’s premium over its own futures signaled demand is increasing for protection against stock losses.

All 10 main S&P 500 industries advanced today. Industrial, energy and technology stocks led gains, rallying at least 1.1 percent. International Business Machines Corp. surged 3.2 percent to $178.25, halting five days off losses for the biggest increase in the Dow.

Exxon climbed 2.2 percent to $97.44. Goldman Sachs boosted its recommendation on the largest U.S. energy producer to buy from neutral, saying the stocks is “inexpensive” relative to its own history and the company may see organic volume growth next year for the first time since 2006.

AIG rose 1.2 percent to $50.34. The insurer will sell to AerCap all of International Lease Finance Corp. for $3 billion in cash and 97.6 million shares, the Dutch company said in a statement today. The deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter of next year, gives AerCap control of the second- largest aircraft lessor, with a portfolio of almost 1,000 planes.

LSI surged 39 percent $10.96. LSI’s stockholders will receive $11.15 a share in cash from Avago, a supplier of components for wireless communications. The acquisition, which creates a semiconductor company with about $5 billion in annual revenue, will boost Avago’s free cash flow and earnings per share immediately. Avago rose 9.2 percent to $49.86.

General Motors Co. climbed 3.2 percent to $41.33. The automaker, amid a push to refresh most of its U.S. lineup, said it plans to spend $1.3 billion to upgrade five U.S factories on top of the $1.5 billion already announced this year.

Expedia Inc. added 5 percent to $65.86. Eric Sheridan, an analyst with UBS AG, increased the share-price estimate for the online travel agency to $74 from $70, saying the company may boost shareholder returns in coming years and investors haven’t fully appreciated the value in its Trivago and eLong assets.

Twitter dropped 4.9 percent to $56.23, snapping a five-day, 31 percent rally. The microblogging service was cut to underperform from market perform by Peter Stabler, an analyst with Wells Fargo. Investors underestimated the company’s challenges, including varying degrees of user engagement to the service, Stabler wrote in a note.

Robert Peck, an analyst with Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Inc., reduced Twitter to neutral from buy, saying the stock’s valuation was “stretched.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

“Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.”
Theodore Isaac Rubin

As ever,

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

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