Author: Carolann

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Looking for some great wines with great flavor for under $20.00?  Start the new year with these fresh sips!

Cline Zinfandel 2010, California – Price $15 | Score 85/100

Peppery, tobacco leaf, licorice root, cedar, resin, plum and herbal aromas. Round, fresh, warm and slightly sweet palate with light tannins. Black plum, chocolate, peppery, tobacco leaf, leather, meaty, resin flavors with a pruny finish.

Monte Nobile Nero d’Avola 2010, Sicily, Italy – Price $15 | Score 86/100

This simple Italian red is both dry and fresh with meaty, cherry, licorice and dried floral aromas. The palate is similar if slightly astringent with cherry, prune, coffee and tobacco flavors with a bit of chocolate in the finish. There is good fruit and concentration. Good value in a spaghetti red.

The Show Malbec 2011, Mendoza, Argentina – Price $19 | Score 87/100

Charles Bieler, Roger Scommegna and Joel Gott are the 3 Thieves Wine Company and The Show Malbec is a blend of high-altitude fruit from Luan de Cuyo and the Uco Valley. The ’09 is a touch better than last year with ripe sweet fruit, all aged in soft sweet American oak. There is a bit of a savory element that saves it from being too sweet. Serve this with grilled ribs or steaks to best effect.

Las Perdices Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, Mendoza, Argentina – Price $17 | Score 87/100

Peppery, cassis, rooty, licorice, compost, vanilla, coffee, black olive aromas. Fresh, juicy, round, supple palate with savory, peppery, black olive, cassis, blackberry, tobacco leaf and leather flavors with a coffee, warm prune finish. A bit hot and ripe but with fine overall balance. Try this with grilled meats, meat pasta dishes and soft cheeses. Good value

My personal favorite under $20.00, would have to be Apothic Red.  This wine is priced at $15.95 and has a Ruby color. The aromas include plum, blackberry, spice notes, raspberry and vanilla.  It’s a medium body wine with layers of ripe fruit and vanilla flavors with a long finish.

Looking for something a little more pricy?? Try out Châteauneuf du Pape, another one of my personal favorites. This wine is thick, harsh, powerful and richly colored. It’s a red wine only and is elaborated with 13 authorized and controlled grape-varieties among which Syrah, Grenache and Clairette.

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” – Mother Teresa

On this day in…

1838 – Alfred Vail demonstrated a telegraph code he had devised using dots and dashes as letters. The code was the predecessor to Samuel Morse’s code.

1853 – A bronze statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse was unveiled in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC. The statue was the work of Clark Mills.

1856 – Borax (hydrated sodium borate) was discovered by Dr. John Veatch.

1886 – The Severn Railway Tunnel, Britain’s longest, was opened.

1889 – The tabulating machine was patented by Dr. Herman Hollerith. His firm, Tabulating Machine Company, later became International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

1901 – The first tournament sanctioned by the American Bowling Congress was held in Chicago, IL.

1916 – During World War I, the final withdrawal of Allied troops from Gallipoli took place.

1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points as the basis for peace upon the end of World War I.

1921 – David Lloyd George became the first prime minister tenant at Chequers Court, Buckinghamshire.

1929 – William S. Paley appeared on CBS Radio for the first time to announce that CBS had become the largest regular chain of broadcasting chains in radio history.

1955 – After 130 home basketball wins, Georgia Tech defeated Kentucky 59-58. It was the first Kentucky loss at home since January 2, 1943. 

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Photos of the day January 8^th, 2013

An Oman fan is seen before their match against Qatar during the Gulf Cup Tournament soccer match at Isa Sports City in Isa Town, Bahrain. Photo: Mohammed Dabbous/Reuters

The San Francisco Bay Bridge is pictured in San Francisco, California on January 7, 2013, with the Golden Gate Bridge at bottom right. Photo: Noah Berger/Reuters

A snowboarder glides down a ski path at Sno Mountain on Monday, Jan. 7, 2013 in Scranton, Pa.Photo: Butch Comegys/The Scranton Times-Tribune/AP

“Give light and people will find the way.” – Ella Baker

Market Closes for January 8^th, 2013:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13328.85	-55.44    -0.41%
S&P 500	1457.15	-4.74    -0.32%
NASDAQ	3091.809	-7.005    -0.23%
TSX	12504.81	+5.26
		+0.04%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10508.06	-90.95
		-0.86%
HANG  SENG	23111.19	-218.56
		-0.94%
SENSEX	19742.52	+51.10
		+0.26%
FTSE 100	6053.63	-10.95
		-0.18%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.908	1.941
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.475	2.501
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8683	1.8974
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0679	3.1006

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.98666	0.98592
US   $	1.01352	1.01428
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29095	0.77463
US  $	1.30840	0.76429

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1659.20	1647.15
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.15	93.19
BRENT	113.26	113.04

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks erased losses in the last half hour of trading as financial shares reversed earlier declines and gold gained the most in a week.

Manulife Financial Corp. added 2.6 percent and Bank of Nova Scotia rose 0.2 percent. Goldcorp Inc. jumped 3.2 percent, while Barrick Gold Corp. retreated 1.3 percent after it said it has ended talks with China National Gold Group Corp. to sell its African unit. Sears Canada Inc. lost 3.5 percent after same- store sales fell for the nine-week period ended Dec. 29.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 5.26 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,504.81 in Toronto, reversing earlier losses of as much as 0.4 percent. The benchmark gauge has risen 0.6 percent this year, trailing every developed market in the world.

“We’re in a holding pattern: Everybody was waiting for the fiscal cliff, and we had a rally after that, but now there seem to be other mini-cliffs that the market is waiting for,” said Anish Chopra, managing director and fund manager with TD Asset Management Inc. in Toronto. The firm manages about C$204 billion ($206.5 billion).

The S&P/TSX rose 1.8 percent last week as a budget compromise was reached in Washington that averted most of the so-called fiscal cliff of spending cuts and tax increases.

Goldcorp added 3.2 percent to C$35.81. Futures for February delivery of the metal rose 1 percent to settle at $1,662.20 an ounce on the Comex in New York amid increasing demand from China, the world’s second-biggest buyer. That was the biggest gain for a most-active contract since Dec. 31.

Materials producers and financial companies contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX as six of 10 industries rose.

Manulife added 2.6 percent to C$14.39. Bank of Nova Scotia rose 0.2 percent to C$57.77.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. declined 1.5 percent to C$29.34 after an executive said the company needs to see higher returns and lower costs before developing its gas projects.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil producer, slipped 0.3 percent to C$33.14 and Encana Corp. declined 1.9 percent to C$19.55.

Barrick decreased 1.3 percent to C$33.14 after cutting off sale talks with China National for its African unit, African Barrick Gold Plc. African Barrick was spun off by Barrick in March 2010 and has since struggled to meet production targets amid operational setbacks.

Sears Canada dropped 3.5 percent to C$9.70 after its parent, Sears Holdings Corp., said the Canadian unit’s same- store sales during the nine-week holiday shopping period slid 5.8 percent.

Fourth-quarter earnings before certain items including taxes and interest is expected to be about half of the year-ago result for the Canadian unit, Sears said in a statement. It cited a decline in electronics sales as well as unseasonably warm temperatures in most parts of Canada.

US

By Rich Miller and William Selway

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — State and local governments are in their best financial shape since the recession, giving them leeway to cushion the U.S. economy from federal budget cuts with spending and hiring of their own.

After slashing their workforces by about half a million in the past five years, state and local authorities will add employees in 2013, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Their payrolls in the fourth quarter will be 220,000 larger than in the same period for 2012, he projects.

Their expenditures and investment also will be higher, rising by 1.8 percent, triple the increase last year, according to projections by St. Louis-based Macroeconomic Advisers.

“The bloodletting on the state- and local-government level has finally passed through,” said Jim Diffley, chief U.S. regional economist for IHS Global Insight in Philadelphia.

“They’re no longer subtracting from growth.” The shift will help the U.S. weather the blow from federal tax increases and spending cuts, keeping the expansion on course, Zandi said. He forecasts that gross domestic product will climb 2.1 percent this year after rising 2.3 percent in 2012, with the expansion getting stronger as the year progresses.

States and municipalities, which accounted for 12 percent of GDP in 2011, won’t be a drag on growth this year for the first time since 2009, said Ben Herzon, a senior economist at Macroeconomic Advisers. The economic rebound means they’re collecting more taxes, reducing the need for more spending cuts.

State revenue will increase 3.9 percent during the 2012-2013 budget year to surpass the peak reached before the full effect of the 18-month recession took hold, according to a Dec. 14 report by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

Fifty-seven percent of cities said they were “better able to meet financial needs” in 2012 than in 2011, the first time a majority reported an improvement since the economic contraction that began in December 2007, a separate National League of Cities survey released Sept. 13 found.

The improvement in finances has helped allay concerns among investors about defaults in the tax-exempt municipal-bond market, where the securities have rallied in anticipation of higher taxes on the wealthy. The $3.7 trillion muni market returned 7.3 percent in 2012, compared with 2.2 percent for U.S. Treasury debt, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.

Last year was the fourth in a row for gains in total municipal- bond returns, the longest such stretch since 2007.

Last week’s federal budget deal, which included a rise in the top income-tax rate to 39.6 percent from 35 percent, was “positive for municipals,” said Alan Schankel, head of fixed- income research at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.

Bill Gross, manager of the world’s largest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, has directed 5 percent of the fund’s $285 billion to munis for three straight months — the longest since at least 2006 that local borrowings have represented that large a share of holdings.

Gross said he’s taking a “cautious” approach to state and local debt because Congress may change the tax-exempt status of the securities.

“We’re holding on to our positions, but muni rates are in this cloud of ‘will they or won’t they’ be taxed in terms of withholdings,” he told Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers” on Jan. 4.

Faced with the need to balance their budgets, state and local governments were forced into austerity mode after the recession hit, Diffley said. That continued into last year.

Payrolls in December alone fell 10,000 on a seasonally-adjusted basis, as reductions by counties and cities overwhelmed an increase by the states, according to data from the Labor Department in Washington.

Now they may be poised to expand, said Donald Boyd, a senior fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York. “We’re likely to see some growth in payrolls” this year, he said.

California, the most-populous U.S. state, will end unpaid furlough days for its workers in June, a policy it first put in place in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis.

Building also is picking up. After falling in March to its lowest level in more than five years, construction by state and local governments rose 2.3 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of $252 billion in November, figures from the Commerce Department in Washington show.

The country’s third most-populous state, New York, may break ground this year on a $3.14 billion new bridge to replace the 57-year-old Tappan Zee crossing over the Hudson River. The city government in Oxford, Mississippi, is building a new firehouse, expanding tennis courts and giving its employees a 3 percent raise, Mayor George Patterson said.

“We kept our heads down for a few years, but this year we feel like we’re turning the corner,” he said.

That’s not to say states and municipalities are trouble- free. While they’ve come through the worst of the crisis, they still face longer-term financial challenges, including rising costs for the Medicaid health-care program and underfunded pension plans, Boyd said.

He cited another big danger: the likelihood that the federal government will reduce its aid to the states as it seeks to rein in a budget deficit that has topped $1 trillion in each of the past four years. States get about one-third of their revenues from Washington.

The agreement Congress hammered out to avoid more than $600 billion in automatic spending reductions and tax increases –the so-called fiscal cliff — spared states from cutbacks, at least for now. Under the pact, the decrease in expenditures was put off until March.

The reductions would have cost states $7.5 billion for education, health-care and community-development programs, according to Federal Funds Information for States, a budget- tracking service created by the National Conference of State Legislatures, based in Denver, and the National Governors Association in Washington.

While that’s a small share of the approximately $519 billion that states received in aid last year, Boyd said further cuts are likely.

That means local governments may get less help from the states, Diffley said.

Cities and counties also are lagging behind because they depend on property taxes for much of their revenue, and home prices are just now starting to recover, he added. Prices rose 4.3 percent in October from a year earlier, the biggest 12-month advance since May 2010, according to the most recent data from the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 20-City Home Price Index.

Columbus, Ohio, fired more than 100 workers when the worst of the recession hit the city and successfully sought approval for higher income taxes from voters, said Dan Williamson, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Coleman. Now it is holding employment steady, he said.

It has been working on a $342 million sewer project and is planning another program to create more parkland along its riverfront.

“We faced our own fiscal cliff in 2009,” Williamson said. “Now, we’re in very good shape. There’s always stresses, there’s always worries, but we feel whatever comes our way in the near term, we can handle it.”

 

Have a great evening everyone!!!

 

Be Magnificent!

 

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Tel: 778-430-5808

Fax: 778-430-5838

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Are you planning on taking a trip sometime in the upcoming year? If so, here are the top 10 travel destinations according to the Globe and Mail:

1)The View from The Shard, London: The city’s highest and most vertiginous views become accessible to the public on Feb. 1. The View from the Shard is an observation area that spans levels 68 to 72 of the Shard, the pointy 310-metre high Renzo Piano-designed skyscraper, the tallest building in Western Europe.

2)Fogo Island, Nfld: The community’s cultural heritage is drawing interest from travellers who never would have considered the tiny floating speck in northeast Newfoundland. Established in 2006, her Shorefast Foundation has been hard at work supporting local entrepreneurs through micro-loans, funding artists and developing an inn that is set to open this year.

3)Amsterdam: It’s the year of milestones in Amsterdam and the city plans to whoop it up. This month, join in the fun by skating along the postcard perfect, UNESCO-listed canal ring that was constructed 400 years ago.

4)Colombia: Is evolving into a safer, more refined tourist destination. It offers everything from beach getaways to colonial city stays. Bogota couple Santiago and Camilla traded in city life to open up Hacienda Bambusa (haciendabambusa.com) near Armenia, a peaceful hideaway surrounded by coffee plantations, sleepy villages and lush rain forests.

5)Hobart, Tasmania: Australia’s rugged island outpost has a new sophisticated side. The year-old Museum of Old and New Art (MONA for short) is the unlikely epicentre; a vast subterranean space carved out of an ancient sandstone cliff to display multimillionaire David Walsh’s private art collection. This month’s main event is MONA FOMA, a seven-day festival that showcases international musicians (David Byrne and St. Vincent, Bickram Ghosh, Elvis Costello, and more).

6)Pienza, Italy: The Tuscan hills are awash with upmarket holiday villas, but there are few modern boutique hotels that put you in the thick of village life. Pienza itself is a charming Renaissance village, within an hour’s drive to Siena and Cortona, and only a half hour to southern Tuscany’s famed wine capitals, Montalcino and Montepulciano.

7)Bahia, Brazil: Brazil is priming for an epic close-up. Bahia, in northern Brazil, is the place to find barefoot eco-friendly beach luxury at its best. The seaside village of Trancoso is home to Uxua Casa Hotel (uxua.com), a stylish nine-villa bolthole that was built mostly by hand from recycled wood and designed by the creative director of Italian fashion brand Diesel.

8)Stockholm, Sweden: On May 7, after a four-year delay, the new ABBA museum opens on the leafy Stockholm island Djurgarden. It will be a permanent exhibition within the new Swedish Music Hall of Fame, and perhaps the ultimate homage to the seventies-era band whose tunes can still be heard blasting in the bars and clubs of Sweden’s capital.

9)East Africa: Hoteliers in East Africa are unveiling new accommodations for the well-heeled traveller. Opening in March, Hemingways Nairobi (hemingways-nairobi.com) is the first five-star hotel in the Kenyan capital and delivers such luxe amenities as personal butlers and running coaches who have trained with Olympian sprinters.

10)Quito, Ecuador: Much needed infrastructure improvements will make it a lot more pleasant to travel to (and through) Quito. If you have the time, spend at least two nights in Quito’s cobblestone colonial quarter which has a few notable boutique hotels (La Casona de la Ronda Hotel, Casa Gangotena) and an emerging arts scene.

“ There is only one happiness in life — to love and to be loved” – George Sand

On this day in…

1904 – The distress signal “CQD” was established. Two years later “SOS” became the radio distress signal because it was quicker to send by wireless radio.

1927 – Transatlantic telephone service Service began between New York and London. 31 calls were made on this first day.

1927 – In Hinckley IL, the Harlem Globetrotters played their first game.

1929 – The debut of “Buck Rogers 2429 A.D.” occurred in newspapers around the U.S. The title of the comic strip was later changed to “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.”

1935 – French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed the Italo-French agreements.

1942 – The World War II siege of Bataan began.

1949 – The announcement of the first photograph of genes was shown at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

1953 – U.S. President Harry Truman announced the development of the hydrogen bomb.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” – Confucius

Photos of the day January 7th, 2013

A boy in traditional attire plays his drum during an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Record at a field in Titabar town in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Sunday. A total of 14,833 Assamese people attempted to enter the Guinness Book of World Record by playing the drums for 15 minutes non stop.

Photo: Utpal Baruah/Reuters

An actor portraying the Holly Man arrives by rowboat at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames River, during Twelfth Night celebrations in London, Sunday.

Photo: Chris Helgren/Reuters

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall” – Confucius

Market Closes for January 7th, 2013:

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13384.29	-50.92    -0.38%
S&P 500	1461.89	-4.58    -0.31%
NASDAQ	3098.814	-2.843    -0.09%
TSX	12499.55	-41.26
		-0.33%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10599.01	-89.10
		-0.83%
HANG  SENG	23329.75	-1.34
		-0.01%
SENSEX	19691.42	-92.66
		-0.47%
FTSE 100	6064.58	-25.26
		-0.41%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.941	1.937
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.501	2.485
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8974	1.9008
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1006	3.0964

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.98592	0.98723
US   $	1.01428	1.01293
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29366	0.77300
US  $	1.31213	0.76212

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1647.15	1658.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.19	93.09
BRENT	113.04	112.78

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Ari Altstedter

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — The Canadian Dollar rose for a second day against its U.S. counterpart after a measure of business activity expanded more than forecast in December, adding to signals of faster economic growth.

The currency strengthened after Canada’s Ivey purchasing managers’ index was 52.8 in December, following a November reading of 47.5, according to a statement on the website of Western University’s business school. Canada’s dollar posted its biggest gain versus the greenback in almost five months last week as employers in December added almost twice the number of jobs forecast.

“It’s a sign that the recovery that’s burgeoning in the U.S. is starting to spill over the border, or at least optimism over the U.S. recovery is encouraging factories to ramp up production or hiring,” Adam Button, a currency analyst at Forexlive.com, said by phone from Montreal. “Everywhere you look, it seems you find good news in terms of the U.S. and Canadian economy.”

The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, rose 0.1 percent against its U.S. counterpart to 98.59 cents per U.S. dollar at 5:03 p.m. in Toronto. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0143.

Crude oil, Canada’s largest export, rose 0.2 percent to $93.30 per barrel. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.3 percent.

A gauge of volatility hovered at almost the lowest in two weeks. Implied volatility for three-month options on the U.S. dollar versus the loonie touched 5.46 percent, the lowest since Dec. 21.

The country’s 10-year bond yield was little changed at 1.94 percent. The 2.75 percent security due in June 2022 traded at C$106.94.

The Bank of Canada said it will sell C$3.4 billion ($3.5 billion) of five-year notes on Jan. 9. The 1.25 percent securities will mature in March 2018. It will announce further details of a two-year note sale on Jan. 10.

Canada’s Ivey index rose for the first time in five months Economists had forecast a reading of 49.8. Readings of more than 50 indicate purchasing by governments and companies advanced.

“It was a pleasant surprise, it did put Canada back into expansionary territory,” said Camilla Sutton head of currency strategy at Bank of Nova Scotia by phone from Toronto. “What we’ve seen out of PMIs this round has been most of North America, Asia and Latin America have been expansionary, with Europe and Japan still contracting, and much of it contracting at faster rates. Today’s Ivey sort of falls in line with that.”

Employers added 39,800 workers to payrolls in December, lowering the unemployment rate to 7.1 percent from 7.2 percent the previous month, Statistics Canada said Jan. 4 in Ottawa.

The loonie traded close to a level reached Jan. 2, when it gained the most in more than three months, after lawmakers in the U.S. avoided automatic austerity measures by agreeing to raise taxes on the wealthy and putting off decisions on spending cuts.

“You’re waiting for the next shoe to fall,” David Tulk, chief macro strategist at Toronto-Dominion Bank’s TD Securities unit, said by phone from Toronto. “A lot of the fiscal-cliff information has already been absorbed into the market and we’re not quite out of the woods yet there either — negotiations on the spending side are ongoing.”

Canada’s currency has gained 0.9 percent during the past 12 months versus nine developed-nation peers tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The greenback has dropped 3.7 percent.

US

By Stephen Kirkland and Rita Nazareth

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — Stocks slipped before the start of earnings season, pulling the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down from a five-year high, and the Dollar Index fell for the first time in four days. European banks rose as regulators eased liquidity rules while Italian bonds slid.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.3 percent to 1,461.78 at 3:24 p.m. in New York and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, which last week reached its highest level since February 2011, closed 0.4 percent lower.

BNP Paribas SA and Barclays Plc paced bank gains in Europe. The yen advanced against 14 of 16 major peers, adding 0.5 percent versus the U.S. currency, while the Dollar Index retreated 0.3 percent from the highest level since November. Treasuries were little changed while commodities rose.

Alcoa Inc. will unofficially start the U.S. earnings reporting season after the market closes tomorrow, with analysts predicting 2.9 percent growth in quarterly profit for S&P 500 companies. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s Governing Council will meet Jan. 10 to focus on nursing the euro region back to economic health.

“We’ve come a long way in a very short time,” said Tom Wirth, who helps manage $1.6 billion as senior investment officer for Chemung Canal Trust Co., in Elmira, New York, in a phone interview. “I’m expecting better-than-anticipated earnings. Yet we need to see some consolidation first.”

Utilities, energy and consumer-staples companies led losses in eight of the 10 main industry groups in the S&P 500 today.

Illumina Inc. tumbled 6.9 percent after Roche Holding AG Chairman Franz Humer told a Swiss newspaper that a deal to buy the U.S. genetics company is off the table. Applied Materials Inc., the world’s largest producer of chipmaking equipment, lost 2.4 percent after being downgraded at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Boeing Co. tumbled 2.1 percent after a 787 Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines Co. caught fire on the ground this morning at Boston’s Logan International Airport.

Bank of America Corp., the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, was little changed after agreeing to pay Fannie Mae $3.6 billion to resolve home-loan repurchase claims. The lender will also pay $6.75 billion to repurchase residential mortgages sold to Fannie Mae. The deal will “substantially resolve outstanding claims for compensatory fees” between the two companies, according to the statement.

The KBW Bank Index slipped 0.4 percent. Ten of the largest U.S. mortgage servicers will pay a combined $8.5 billion under an agreement that will end case-by-case reviews of foreclosure- abuse claims stemming from a 2011 deal with regulators.

Companies including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America and Citigroup Inc. must provide $5.2 billion in mortgage assistance and $3.3 billion in direct payments to wronged borrowers, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve said in a statement today.

Earnings at banks and diversified financial companies are forecast by analysts to have grown 28 percent and 71 percent, respectively. Earnings at insurance companies fared the worst among 24 groups, decreasing 48 percent amid claims from Superstorm Sandy, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Stocks surged last week, sending the S&P 500 up 4.6 percent for its biggest gain in 13 months, after U.S. President Barack Obama and lawmakers reached a compromise that averted the package of spending cuts and tax increases known as the fiscal cliff.

 

Have a great evening everyone!!!

 

Be Magnificent!

 

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” – Mahatma Gandhi

 

Karen Parnham

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Tel: 778-430-5808

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

It is the start of a new year! Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to stay healthy and get active?  Now is a good opportunity to make a fresh start; to get our healthy eating and positive life changes into gear!  Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Get good rest: Poor sleep patterns not only leave us feeling sluggish during the day, but also increase our vulnerability to getting sick. Sleep heals our body, so not getting enough can impair our ability to fight infection and stay well.

2. Get moving: In the middle of winter, the last thing on our mind can be to get out and be active – but it’s key to keeping your immune system strong. When we exercise, our immune function is strengthened with the production of fighter cells that ward off germs. As a bonus, exercise also stimulates the release of endorphins, which make us happy, help us deal with stress and promote a feeling of well being.

3. De-stress: Easier said than done, but chronic stress depresses our natural immune response and blunts our ability to fight off colds and flus. Some good stress reducers to build into your day include exercise, meditation and spending time with friends and loved ones.

5. Get your vitamin D: This essential vitamin is crucial in helping our immune cells efficiently fight off viruses and bacteria. In Canada, with our limited exposure to sunlight, the only way to get vitamin D is in certain foods (fatty fish and fortified milk or cereals) or through a supplement.

6. Eat right: Choose foods that are rich in antioxidants that help boost your body’s ability to heal and resist infection. Choosing whole grains, dark leafy greens and berries are good options. They not only help satisfy your appetite, but they also help your immune system.

7. Wash your hands: This is a simple habit that can have a big impact. Viruses and bacteria are everywhere, so any time you use public transit, bathrooms or are traveling in crowded areas, make sure you wash your hands or use hand sanitizer afterward to prevent picking up germs.

Remember to set concrete, realistic goals that fit your lifestyle! 🙂

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world” ― Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

On this day in…

1885 – Dr. William Grant performed the first successful appendectomy. The patient was Mary Gartside.

1896 – Utah became the 45th U.S. state.

1928 – NBC Radio debuted “The Dodge Victory Hour” which starred Will Rogers, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra and singer Al Jolson.

1935 – Bob Hope was heard for the first time on network radio as part of “The Intimate Revue.”

1936 – The first pop music chart based on national sales was published by “Billboard” magazine.

1944 – The attack on Monte Cassino was launched by the British Fifth Army in Italy.

1948 – Britain granted independence to Burma.

“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

Photos of the day January 4th, 2013

A solar eruption rises up from the sun in this NASA image from Dec. 31 and released today. The length of the eruption extends about 160,000 miles out from the Sun. With Earth about 7,900 miles in diameter, this relatively minor eruption is about 20 times the diameter of planet earth.

NASA/SDO/Reuters

Anori, a one-year-old polar bear, plays in her enclosure at the zoo in Wuppertal, Germany.

Ina Fassbender/Reuters

Indian children fly kites on a rooftop ahead of a kite festival in Ahmadabad, India. Kites are flown in many parts of India during Makar Sakranti, a festival that marks the transition of winter to spring.

Ajit Solanki/AP

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions” ― Dalai Lama XIV

Market Closes for January 4th, 2013:

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13435.21	+43.85    +0.33%
S&P 500	1466.47	+7.10    +0.49%
NASDAQ	3101.657	+1.091    +0.04%
TSX	12540.81	+70.37
		+0.56%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10688.11	+292.93
		+2.82%
HANG  SENG	23331.09	-67.51
		-0.29%
SENSEX	19784.08	+19.30
		+0.10%
FTSE 100	6089.84	+42.50
		+0.70%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.937	1.926
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.485	2.481
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9008	1.9095
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0964	3.1242

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.98723	0.98783
US   $	1.01293	1.01232
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29079	0.77472
US  $	1.30749	0.76483

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1658.00	1663.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.09	92.92
BRENT	112.78	113.01

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, led by energy and financial companies, as better-than-forecast jobs data in the U.S. and Canada offset a decline in gold producers.

Suncor Energy Inc. rose 0.5 percent after announcing it will co-develop the Hebron oil field off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia advanced more than 0.4 percent. Kinross Gold Corp. and Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. slipped at least 0.6 percent as gold capped the longest run of weekly losses since 2004. Lululemon Athletica Inc., the yoga apparel retailer, dropped 4.6 percent after Credit Suisse Group AG cut the stock’s rating.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 70.37 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,540.81 in Toronto. The benchmark gauge gained 1.8 percent this week.

“We’re seeing improved macroeconomic data that should lead to more optimism,” said Philip Petursson, managing director of the portfolio advisory group with Manulife Asset Management Ltd. in Toronto. His firm manages about C$235 billion ($238.2 billion). “The market is digesting the news, trying to gain a sense of direction after a few strong days.”

U.S. payrolls rose by 155,000 workers last month, ahead of economists’ expectations, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The unemployment rate held at 7.8 percent after the November figure was revised up from a previously reported 7.7 percent.

Federal Reserve minutes released yesterday showed a divide among Fed members on how long the monthly bond purchases should last, sending the U.S. dollar higher. Gold futures dropped 0.4 percent for the week, its sixth straight weekly loss.

Kinross lost 0.6 percent to C$9.26 and Agnico-Eagle dropped 1.1 percent to C$50.39.

Canada’s unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.1 percent in December and employment rose by 39,800, according to data released by Statistics Canada today.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. gained 2.1 percent to C$30.15 and Encana Corp. increased 2.8 percent to C$20.16 as energy and financial stocks contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX. All 10 industries in the index advanced, with trading volume 18 percent lower than the 30-day average.

TD Bank rose 0.5 percent to C$82.80 and Scotiabank increased 0.4 percent to C$57.59.

Suncor advanced 0.5 percent to C$33.58. The company will work with Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Statoil ASA and Nalcor Energy Corp. to develop the Hebron oil field, 350 kilometers (218 miles) southeast of St. John’s.

The project is estimated to cost $14 billion. Suncor said it holds a 23 percent stake in the project, which is expected to produce more than 700 million barrels of crude through its lifespan.

Lululemon sank 4.6 percent to C$70.88. Christian Buss, an analyst based in New York with Credit Suisse, cut his rating for the company to neutral from outperform and trimmed the share- price target to $80 from $86. The retailer will struggle to increase sales at existing stores and discounts are higher than historically seen, he said.

US

By Stephen Kirkland and Inyoung Hwang

Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a five-year high, as government data showed employers added more workers while the jobless rate held at a level that’s unlikely to hasten the end of Federal Reserve stimulus. Treasuries erased early losses.

The S&P 500 added 0.5 percent to 1,466.47 at 4 p.m. in New York to extend a weekly gain to 4.6 percent and send it to its best closing level since December 2007. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.4 percent, closing at the highest since February 2011. The Dollar Index increased 0.1 percent after earlier jumping as much as 0.6 percent. Treasury 10-year yields fell one basis point to 1.90 percent after rising for three days and touching the highest since April earlier. Silver and gold slid.

U.S. employers added workers in December at about the same pace as in the prior month even as lawmakers struggled to reach a budget deal, according to the Labor Department’s monthly payrolls report. Fed policy makers said yesterday they will probably end their $85 billion monthly bond purchases, known as quantitative easing, in 2013, according to minutes of their Dec. 11-12 meeting released yesterday.

The jobs report “reinforces the view that the labor market is healing but at a very slow pace,” Joseph Tanious, a New York-based global market strategist for JPMorgan Funds, which oversees $400 billion, said by telephone. “It’s a good report that suggests the economy is healing but it’s not so good that the Fed might pull out of QE. It’s been a shortened week but jam packed and everybody’s still digesting everything.”

The S&P 500 retreated 0.2 percent yesterday after the release of the Fed minutes. The gauge soared 2.5 percent on Jan. 2 after Republicans and Democrats agreed on a compromise budget that avoided the so-called fiscal cliff of sweeping tax increases and spending cuts.

The VIX, as the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index is known, slid 5 percent today to a four-month low of 13.83. The benchmark gauge of U.S. equity options tumbled 39 percent since Dec. 28, its biggest weekly loss on record.

Commodity, industrial and financial companies helped lead the market’s gain today, with Walt Disney Co., Johnson & Johnson and JPMorgan Chase & Co. climbing at least 1.8 percent for the biggest gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Eli Lilly & Co. jumped 3.7 percent as the drugmaker forecast 2013 earnings above analyst expectations. Citigroup Inc. advanced 2.5 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. added the bank to its conviction buy list. Avon Products Inc. gained 3.2 percent after Bank of America Corp. raised its rating on the stock.

Apple Inc. slumped 2.8 percent, the most since Dec. 14. Deutsche Bank AG said supply-chain movements suggest iPhone and iPad production may be declining. Technology shares had the only decline among the 10 main S&P 500 groups.

S&P 500 futures extended gains before the open of exchanges in New York after the jobs data were released. Payrolls rose by 155,000 workers last month following a revised 161,000 advance in November that was more than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today. The median estimate of 82 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an increase of 152,000. The unemployment rate held at 7.8 percent, matching the lowest since December 2008.

“At 7.8, that tells us we still have an unemployment problem and the Fed will still be engaged,” Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said on Bloomberg Television.

 

Have a great evening everyone!!!

 

Be Magnificent!

 

“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
Love like you’ll never be hurt,
Sing like there’s nobody listening,
And live like it’s heaven on earth.”

― William W. Purkey

 

Karen Parnham

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Tel: 778-430-5808

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Scared to fly? Does your heart race when there is turbulence? Maybe this recent study will help put your mind at ease.  The International Transportation Association (IATA) has released a global study stating that this has been the safest year (as well as the previous two years) to board a plane since records have been kept.  As of the end of November, the IATA calculated that for every million flights in 2012, there were 2.14 “hull losses” (what you and I would call crashes).  What this means is flying is 44 times safer than driving in Canada. This number is for all planes (jet and propeller) around the globe, whether the aircraft was built by Boeing or by some guy in his garage. Even when you take into account recent accidents in Nunavut, Kazakhstan and Moscow, the more relevant statistic for average North Americans flying on planes with Western-built jet engines is much lower – 11 times lower, in fact, clocking in at 0.19 crashes per million flights. So, if you were to take a flight every day from now on, odds are it would take you about 14,419 years for there to be an accident.  From reading this article, I would say flying beats the odds! Happy Travelling!

 

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein

 

On this day in…

1859 – Erastus Beadle published “The Dime Book of Practical Etiquette.”

1879 – Thomas Edison began construction on his first generator.

1893 – The first commemorative postage stamps were issued.

1910 – The first junior high school in the United States opened. McKinley School in Berkeley, CA, housed seventh and eighth grade students. In a separate building students were housed who attended grades 9-12.

1917 – Royal Bank of Canada took over the Quebec Bank.

1929 – The United States and Canada reached an agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.

1957 – The San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merged. .

1968 – Fidel Castro announced petroleum and sugar rationing in Cuba.

1971 – In the U.S., a federally imposed ban on television cigarette advertisements went into effect.

1983 – The musical “Annie” closed on Broadway at the Uris Theatre after 2,377 performances.

 

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi

 

Photos of the day January 2^nd, 2013

A Florida State Seminoles baton team member holds a flaming baton in her mouth as she twirls two others before her team plays against the Northern Illinois Huskies in the 2013 Discover Orange Bowl NCAA football game in Miami Tuesday. Photo: Andrew Innerarity/Reuters

A Bedouin girl swings from a tree as she plays with other children in the Jordan Valley, near West Bank city of Jenin.Photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters

A woman and her child walk on the banks of the Yenisey River in minus-22-degree-Fahrenheit weather outside the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Photo: Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

 

“No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.” – Barbara de Angelis

 

Market Closes for January 2nd, 2013:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13412.55	+308.41    +2.35%
S&P 500	1462.42	+36.23    +2.54%
NASDAQ	3112.263	+92.750    +3.07%
TSX	12534.68	+101.15
		+0.81%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10395.18	+72.20
		+0.70%
HANG  SENG	23311.98	+655.06
		+2.89%
SENSEX	19714.24	+133.43
		+0.68%
FTSE 100	6027.37	+129.56
		+2.20%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.871	1.769
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.425	2.338
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8371	1.6939
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0411	2.8633

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.98564	0.99671
US   $	1.01457	1.00330
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29922	0.76969
US  $	1.31815	0.75864

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1686.00	1655.95
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.12	90.80
BRENT	112.83	112.11

 

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, sending the benchmark index to the highest level in nine months, as commodities surged after U.S. lawmakers passed a bill averting spending cuts and tax increases.

Iron-ore producers, such as Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Ltd., jumped after China Steel Corp. and South Korea’s Posco agreed to buy a 15 percent stake in ArcelorMittal Mines Canada Inc. Teck Resources Ltd., which produces steelmaking coal, rose 3.2 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Suncor Energy Inc. added at least 1.5 percent as crude climbed to its highest in three months. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, gained 1 percent as gold rallied to a two-week high.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 96.44 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,529.97 at 11:45 a.m. in Toronto. A close at that level would be the highest since March 26.

“Even though the markets were concerned, I don’t think anyone was seriously considering they would go over the fiscal cliff without doing something,” said Jamie Robertson, chief investment officer with McLean & Partners Wealth Management Ltd. in Calgary. The firm manages about C$1 billion ($1.02 billion).

“Now it’s another formality we’ve dealt with and the markets can focus on economic growth, earnings growth and valuations for a change. It’s very constructive.”

The U.S. House passed a bill undoing income tax increases for more than 99 percent of households. The 257-167 bipartisan vote breaks a yearlong impasse over how to head off $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts that would have started taking effect yesterday.

Raw-materials and energy stocks contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX as all 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was 2 percent higher than the 30-day average at this time of day.

Canadian Natural Resources increased 1.8 percent to C$29.15 and Suncor added 1.5 percent to C$33.21. Crude for February delivery climbed as much as 2.3 percent to $94.04 a barrel in New York, the highest since Sept. 19.

Barrick rose 1 percent to C$35.18 and Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest producer of the metal, advanced 1.4 percent as gold for February delivery rose 0.7 percent to $1,688.10 an ounce in New York.

Iron-ore producers jumped as a group led by China Steel and Posco agreed to pay $1.1 billion for access to two of ArcelorMittal’s Canadian iron mines. The mines produce about 40 percent of Canada’s iron ore, which is a key raw material in steelmaking.

Labrador Iron Mines, an iron ore producer with operations in the Labrador trough, soared 13 percent to C$1.24. Teck, Canada’s largest diversified miner including six metallurgical coal mines in British Columbia and Alberta, gained 3.2 percent to C$37.31. Metallurgical coal is also required to make steel.

Agrium Inc. rose 2 percent to C$101.09 and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. gained 1.1 percent to C$40.91. The two fertilizer producers, along with Mosaic Co., agreed on Dec. 31 to sell 1 million metric tons of potash to China’s Sinofert Holdings Ltd. at $400 a ton, $70 lower than a March agreement.

“The shipments under the contract are higher than expected,” P.J. Juvekar, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., said in a note to clients. The deal provides some “clarity” for the market in early 2013, he said.

US

By Michael Shanahan and Inyoung Hwang

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks surged, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its biggest rally in a year, and commodities jumped after Congress passed a bill averting most of the tax increases and spending cuts threatening the recovery in the world’s biggest economy. Treasury yields gained.

The S&P 500 rose 2.5 percent to 1,462.42 at 4 p.m. in New York and has increased 4.3 percent in the past two sessions. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 2 percent to the highest since February 2011 as equities added to last year’s 13 percent global rally. Industrial metals led commodities up and oil advanced to a three-month high. The Dollar Index reversed an early slide, while Treasury 10-year yields climbed eight basis points.

President Barack Obama said he will sign into law the bill undoing tax increases for more than 99 percent of households as Republicans vowed to fight him for spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. An industry report today showed American manufacturing expanded in December at a pace that shows the industry is stabilizing after reaching a three-year low a month earlier.

“Short-term, a deal is good for the market,” Thomas Garcia, head of equity trading at Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management Inc., said by telephone. His firm oversees about $80 billion. “Long-term, more has to be done in the way of spending cuts before we can declare victory.”

Gauges of telephone, technology and financial companies climbed at least 2.9 percent to lead gains as all 10 of the S&P 500’s main industry groups jumped, sending the gauge to its highest level since Sept. 14. Hewlett-Packard Co., Caterpillar Inc. and AT&T Inc. advanced more than 3.8 percent to lead the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 308.57 points to 13,412.71 for its biggest gain since June.

The S&P 500 rose 1.7 percent on Dec. 31, the biggest end- of-year increase since 1974, in anticipation of a budget deal. The benchmark index rallied 13 percent in 2012, its best year since 2009 when markets began recovering from the bear market that followed the U.S. financial crisis.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index climbed to 50.7 last month from November’s 49.5, which was the weakest since July 2009. Fifty is the dividing line between expansion and contraction. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a rise to 50.5.

“We’re catching up to where we would’ve been had we not had the fiscal cliff drama,” James Paulsen, the chief investment strategist at Minneapolis-based Wells Capital Management, which oversees about $325 billion, said in a telephone interview. “We’re revaluing the market based on what’s closer to the underlying economy and most of the economic reports have been pretty good.”

The House’s 257-167 bipartisan vote breaks a yearlong impasse over how to head off $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts that would have started taking effect yesterday.

While avoiding most of the immediate pain, the measure is only one step toward curbing the federal deficit. The issue will return with a February fight over raising the $16.4 trillion debt limit.

Under the plan, households making less than $450,000 per year would be spared an income tax-rate increase. The wealthy would see a rise in their top rate, to 39.6 percent, from 35 percent. The top tax rates on capital gains and dividends would go up to 23.8 percent, from 15 percent last year.

For an individual with $10,000 invested in the S&P 500, dividends after taxes would fall to $167.64 a year from $187 at today’s payout rate. An investor who sells shares at a $5,000 profit would face capital gains obligations of about $1,190 compared with $750 in 2012.

All 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600 advanced during the year’s first trading session. The European benchmark jumped 14 percent last year, the biggest increase since 2009. Rio Tinto Group led a rally in mining companies today, rising 5.1 percent.

Porsche SE and Volkswagen AG climbed more than 3 percent to pace gains in automakers.

Euro-area manufacturing output contracted more than initially estimated in December, adding to signs a recession in the currency bloc may extend as leaders struggle to tackle the sovereign-debt crisis. A gauge of manufacturing in the 17-nation euro area fell to 46.1 from 46.2 in November, London-based Markit Economics said. That’s below an initial estimate of 46.3 on Dec. 14. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.

The cost of insuring against default on European bank debt dropped, with the Markit iTraxx Financial index of credit- default swaps linked to 25 banks and insurers falling 15 basis points to 127.

The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index gained 2.1 percent,  the highest since August 2011. Equity markets in Japan and mainland China were closed today and tomorrow for public holidays.

Developing-nation stocks rose the most since September, with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index adding 2.1 percent and the MSCI BRIC Index of the largest emerging markets surging 2.6 percent and extending its gain from a low in June to 22 percent.

Eighteen of 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index advanced, sending the measure up 0.8 percent. Lead, aluminum, nickel and copper jumped at least 3.5 percent. Oil futures in New York climbed 1.4 percent to $93.12 a barrel.

A Chinese manufacturing gauge showed a third month of expansion yesterday. The Purchasing Managers’ Index was 50.6 in December, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said. That compares with the 51.0 median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of analysts and 50.6 in November. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

China will “step up efforts to promote strong, sustainable and balanced growth in the world economy,” President Hu Jintao said in a New Year’s Eve address broadcast on state media. China achieved stable economic development in 2012 and will seek to do the same this year while making restructuring of its growth model a focus, he said.

The Dollar Index, a gauge of the currency against six major peers, increased 0.1 percent after losing as much as 0.6 percent. The currency strengthened 0.1 percent to $1.3185.

The dollar weakened against 12 of its 16 major peers. The yen also slid as investors sought higher-yielding assets and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated his intention to weaken the nation’s currency. Japan’s currency fell against 15 of 16 major peers, trading near a two-and-a-half-year low versus the dollar.

Treasury 10-year note yields climbed eight basis points to 1.84 percent, the highest since September on a closing basis.

The yield on similar-maturity German debt jumped 13 basis points to 1.44 percent while Britain’s 10-year rate climbed 16 basis points to 1.99 percent, the largest gains since September for both.

The world’s leading economies will have $220 billion less sovereign debt to refinance in 2013, cutting supply after every major government bond market rallied for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.

The amount of bills, notes and bonds coming due for the Group of Seven nations plus Brazil, Russia, India and China will drop to $7.38 trillion from $7.60 trillion in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Japan, the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Brazil will see a decline, while the U.S., Canada, Russia, India and China will face an increase.

 

Have a great evening everyone!!!!!

 

Be Magnificent!

 

“Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You’ll find what you need to furnish it – memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.” – Tad Williams

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Tel: 778-430-5808

Fax: 778-430-5838

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As a new year approaches, it is time to reflect on the year we just had, as well as the new year coming. This reflection can be answered with 12 questions, noting the highlights and lessons learned; how one has evolved; the memorable moments and the various goals you’ve advanced toward – and more. Often, one will be surprised by how much they have achieved. As we trudge through our busy lives we are often thinking about all we have not done or achieved. Read the questions below and think about your intentions and aspirations for 2013!

1. What went well?

2. In what ways did I grow and evolve?

3. What were my favorite moments of 2012?

4. What do I need to clean out or let go of now to be ready to start fresh in 2013?

5. What and who am I most grateful for right now?

6. If there were a theme for me in 2012, what was it?

7. What are my goals for 2013?

8. Which of my strengths and assets will I tap into to realize my goals?

9. How will I foster my personal well-being to maintain or boost my mojo?

10. How will I foster my professional well-being to boost or maintain my career aspirations?

11. How can I contribute to the ‘greater good’?

12. What will be my theme for the coming year?

Happy New Year Everyone and we will speak with you in the New Year 🙂

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

 

On this day in…

1836 – Mexico’s independence was recognized by Spain.

1846 – Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

1869 – William E. Semple, of Mt. Vernon, OH, patented an acceptable chewing gum.

1902 – The first professional indoor football game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Syracuse defeated the Philadelphia Nationals 6-0.

1912 – The first municipally-owned street cars were used on the streets of San Francisco, CA.

1942 – R.O. Sullivan crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the 100th time.

1945 – The U.S. Congress officially recognized the “Pledge of Allegiance.”

1950 – The Peak District became Britain’s first designated National Park.

1973 – Alexander Solzhenitsyn published “Gulag Archipelago,” an expose of the Soviet prison system.

1981 – Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, VA.

 

“Try to be like the turtle – at ease in your own shell.” – Bill Copeland

 

Photos of the day December 28^th, 2012

Max the dog, who belongs to farm manager Cass Gilmore, splashes through floating cranberries during the fall harvest at Gilmore Cranberry Co. in South Carver, Mass.Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Chris Rabin waded along a walkway by Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans on Aug. 28 as waves grew higher from the wind and storm surge in what was the first big test of New Orleans’s improved flood defenses.- Photo: Ann Hermes/Staff

 

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

– Winston Churchill

 

Market Closes for December 28th, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12938.11	-158.20    -1.21%
S&P 500	1403.54	-14.56    -1.03%
NASDAQ	2960.313	-25.594    -0.86%
TSX	12311.69	-62.08
		-0.50%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10395.18	+72.20
		+0.70%
HANG  SENG	22666.59	+46.81
		+0.21%
SENSEX	19444.84	+121.04
		+0.63%
FTSE 100	5925.37	-28.93
		-0.49%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.769	1.792
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.338	2.352
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6939	1.7285
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8633	2.8983

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99671	0.99512
US   $	1.00330	1.00490
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.31745	0.75904
US  $	1.32180	0.75655

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1655.95	1664.15
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	90.80	90.87
BRENT	112.11	113.31

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell as U.S. President Barack Obama met congressional leaders at the White House three days before a deadline to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

Bank of Nova Scotia fell 0.9 percent and Manulife Financial Corp., the nation’s largest insurer, slipped 0.4 percent.

Silvercorp Metals Inc. and Pan American Silver Corp. lost at least 2 percent as the price of the metal declined for the fifth straight week. MEG Energy Corp. dropped 1.7 percent after selling shares to raise C$800 million to fund its 2013 capital budget.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index dropped 57.65 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,316.12 in Toronto. The equity gauge has gained 3 percent this year, trailing markets in every developed nation in the world except Portugal and Spain.

“This is the way the market is going to be for the next few weeks, at least into mid-January as it looks like they won’t be having a deal in place for Dec. 31,” Bruce Campbell, president of Campbell & Lee Investment Management Inc., said from Oakville, Ontario. “The consensus now is we’re going over, but that’s OK because you can solve it in January and make it retroactive. It’s more of a hill than a complete cliff.”

Obama, who had been negotiating one-on-one with U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, met today with Republicans Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats. The president is asking leaders to extend tax cuts for annual income up to $250,000, reiterating his Dec. 21 proposal for an interim plan, said an official familiar with the meeting.

Lawmakers are working to avoid more than $600 billion in tax-and-spending changes, known as the fiscal cliff. Failure to avert the fiscal cliff will probably send the U.S. into a recession in the first half of the year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Scotiabank slipped 0.9 percent to C$57.43 and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lost 0.5 percent to C$80.55. Manulife fell 0.4 percent to C$13.39 as financial stocks declined. Nine out of 10 industries in the index retreated, with trading volume 57 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Silvercorp declined 2 percent to C$5 and Pan American Silver retreated 2.1 percent to C$18.08. Silver for March delivery slipped 0.9 percent to $29.975 an ounce in New York.

MEG Energy fell 1.7 percent to C$30.91. The company announced it has raised about C$800 million by issuing more than 24 million common shares at C$33 a share.

MEG plans to use the proceeds to help fund its 2013 capital budget, which will be primarily focused on increasing production and capacity at the company’s existing facilities, the company said Dec. 10.

Poseidon Concepts Corp., a Calgary-based company that sells fluid storage tanks for the oil and gas industry, plunged 13 percent to C$1.29 after having its price target cut by analysts at FirstEnergy Capital Corp. and Haywood Securities Inc.

The stock has lost 61 percent in the past two days after yesterday announcing the suspension of future dividends and the formation of a special committee to investigate account writedowns. Poseidon also shuffled its management and board, including the appointment of A. Scott Dawson as interim president and chief executive officer.

US

By Andrew Rummer and Inyoung Hwang

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks slid for a fifth day and Treasuries rose amid concern lawmakers won’t reach a budget deal to avoid the fiscal cliff of spending cuts and tax increases looming in January. Commodities slipped as the dollar gained.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 1.1 percent to close at 1,402.43, its biggest drop since Nov. 14, and S&P 500 futures extended their decline to as much as 2 percent after the close of trading. The benchmark gauge erased its gain for December and pared its 2012 advance to less than 12 percent. Ten-year Treasury yields fell four basis points to 1.7 percent while Italian 10-year rallied as demand increased at a debt auction.

The dollar strengthened against most major peers.

U.S. equities sank to their lows of the session as an official familiar with today’s budget talks said President Barack Obama is seeking an up-or-down vote on his proposal to extend tax cuts for annual income up to $250,000, absent a counteroffer from congressional leaders. The report fueled concern lawmakers have moved no closer to a compromise to avert more than $600 billion in tax and spending changes in 2013.

“What the markets fear most is that we’re in this paralysis where the government is unable to govern, communicate and compromise,” Greg Peterson, director of investment research at Ballentine Partners LLC in Waltham, Massachusetts, which manages about $4.2 billion in assets, said by telephone.

“There’s still hope in our minds that they can get something done but if they go off the cliff, it’s going to be serious.”

The five-day retreat in U.S. stocks was the longest for the S&P 500 since September and the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s longest since July. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 option prices, jumped 17 percent to 22.72 today, the highest level since June 13. The index has surged 43 percent this month, poised for its biggest increase since July 2011.

Obama met for just over an hour today with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, both Republicans, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats. The Republican-led House called an unusual Sunday session for the evening of Dec. 30, though the leaders didn’t say what action they planned to take.

Trading volume for S&P 500 was 30 percent below the 30-day average. Stock-index futures erased early gains before the open of exchanges in New York. The index capped a 1.9 percent weekly decline and today’s drop left it down 1 percent for December.

Energy and raw-material companies led losses among all 10 of the main industry groups in the S&P 500, with Valero Energy Corp. and Peabody Energy Corp. dropping more than 2 percent to pace declines. Hewlett-Packard Co. tumbled 2.6 percent after the computer maker said the U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation relating to Autonomy Corp., the software company it bought last year.

An S&P gauge of homebuilders retreated 0.7 percent even after better-than-forecast growth in home sales. The index of pending home sales climbed 1.7 percent to 106.4, the highest reading since April 2010, after a revised 5 percent gain in October, the National Association of Realtors reported. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 1 percent advance.

Another report showed the MNI Chicago Report’s business barometer rose to 51.6 in December from 50.4 the prior month, above the reading of 50 that is the dividing line between expansion and contraction and higher than the median estimate of economists for 51.

Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasuries capped the first weekly gain in a month. The securities lagged behind stocks this year by the most since 2009, with equities returning eight times more than bonds.

The dollar was stronger against 10 of 16 major peers, rising the most against the Mexican peso, Norwegian krone and Brazilian real. The U.S. currency strengthened to 0.1 percent to $1.3221 per euro.

The S&P GSCI Index of commodities lost 0.2 percent as zinc, cotton, aluminum and coffee led declines. Oil slipped 7 cents to $90.80 a barrel in New York.

Gold futures fell, completing the longest run of weekly declines in almost three years, as a stronger dollar curbed demand for the metal as an alternative investment. Gold for February delivery slipped 0.5 percent to $1,655.90 an ounce and capped a fifth straight weekly decline.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.7 percent today, trimming its 2012 advance to 14 percent, the largest annual increase since 2009. The number of shares changing hands today was 36 percent less than the 30-day average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bankia SA plunged 27 percent to the lowest price since its initial share sale in July 2011 as the bank was temporarily excluded from Spain’s benchmark IBEX 35. Porsche SE surged 6.3 percent to the highest in almost two years after an appeals court ruling dismissed a lawsuit by hedge funds that accused the German carmaker of concealing a plan to corner the market in Volkswagen AG shares.

The yield on Italian 10-year bonds fell three basis points to 4.50 percent, erasing an earlier five-point gain, as the country sold 5.9 billion euros ($7.8 billion) of five- and 10- year government securities. Investors bid for 1.47 times the amount of the 10-year debt offered, up from 1.18 times on Nov. 29. The yield had earlier increased as much as 4 basis points.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.6 percent.

Government reports today showed Japan’s industrial output slid 1.7 percent last month from October, worse than all 27 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey that had a median forecast of a 0.5 percent decline. The data bolstered the case for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to push for further monetary easing. Consumer prices excluding fresh food fell 0.1 percent in November from a year earlier.

Abe’s cabinet is working on a plan to fight against a strong yen, the Nikkei newspaper said. Proposals include the use of currency intervention when needed, the paper said.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index advanced 0.6 percent to extend this year’s increase to 15 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rallied 1.2 percent to the highest since June 21. The BSE India Sensitive Index added 0.6 percent, heading for its best year since 2009. Vietnam’s VN Index jumped 0.9 percent to the highest since August, capping its largest weekly gain since February. Russia’s Micex Index fell 0.2 percent.

 

Have a great weekend and a Happy Happy New Year to everyone!!!!!

 

Be Magnificent!

 

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

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Tel: 778-430-5808

Fax: 778-430-5838

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

A little poem for you:

Tis the Season

To have a Reason

For sending Blessings

And eating Dressings

Comfort and Joys

in every snowflake

and giving Toys

and baking cupcakes

Pursuing the Stars

Wishing for Good Tidings

while Thanking Above

for All that one Loves

Gathering together

In Wintery Weather

Family, Friends, Pets

Food, Fun, Games, Gifts.

 

Have a wonder holiday season everyone!!!

 

On this day in…

1849 – The first ice-skating club in America was formed in Philadelphia, PA.

1879 – Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” was first performed in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a revised happy ending.

1898 – Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

1913 – The “New York World” Sunday edition included a crossword puzzle as an added feature of the “Fun” supplement. It was the first crossword puzzle to be published.

1925 – Eisenstein’s film “Battleship Potemkin” was first shown in Moscow.

1937 – Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Disney movies, music and books

1944 – Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II.

1948 – The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.

1958 – Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.

1968 – Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.

 

“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”

– M. Scott Peck

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

 

Market Closes for December 21^st, 2012:

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13190.84	-120.88    -0.91%
S&P 500	1430.15	-13.54    -0.94%
NASDAQ	3021.006	-29.382    -0.96%
TSX	12385.70	-3.01
		-0.02%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9940.06	-99.27
		-0.99%
HANG  SENG	22506.29	-153.49
		-0.68%
SENSEX	19242.00	-211.92
		-1.09%
FTSE 100	5939.99	-18.35
		-0.31%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.805	1.839
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.371	2.409
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.7623	1.7962
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.9312	2.9807

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99340	0.98765
US   $	1.00664	1.01251
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.31021	0.76324
US  $	1.31891	0.75820

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1657.25	1647.85
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	88.31	89.68
BRENT	111.53	113.16

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for a second day as Research In Motion Ltd. plunged after the company decided to scrap service fees for some users, offsetting gains in gold producers.

RIM, which is set to release its BlackBerry 10 line of smartphones early next year, tumbled 27 percent for the biggest drop since 2008. Yamana Gold Inc. and Iamgold Corp. rose at least 2 percent as the price of the metal snapped three days of losses. Stantec Inc., an engineering and architectural services firm, declined 2.9 percent after Raymond James Financial Inc.,downgraded the stock.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 3.01 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,385.70 in Toronto. The equity gauge is up 3.6 percent this year, underperforming every developed market in the world except for Spain. Trading volume was 74 percent higher than the 30-day average.

“Gold had been weak because fiscal cliff discussions were progressing,” said Patrick Blais, a fund manager with Manulife Asset Management Ltd. in Toronto. His firm manages about $218 billion. “Now with talks breaking down, it’s not surprising to see gold rebound, given the flight to safety.”

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner yesterday scrapped a vote on his tax plan, which would have allowed higher rates on annual income above $1 million. He said last night that President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should come up with legislation to avoid more than $600 billion in tax-and- spending changes.

Now that Boehner has pulled his plan, House members and senators won’t vote on the end-of-year budget issues until after Christmas, giving them less than a week to reach an agreement.

Yamana added 3.1 percent to C$16.89 and Iamgold rose 2 percent to C$11.10. Gold for February delivery advanced 0.9 percent to settle at $1,660.10 an ounce in New York.

The S&P/TSX Gold subindex rallied 0.8 percent as 18 of 32 members advanced.

RIM slumped 27 percent to C$10.86, its biggest decline since September 2008. Users who do not want enhanced services, including advanced security, are expected to generate “less or no service revenue,” Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins said on a conference call yesterday. Service fees accounted for about $982 million in sales last quarter, out of a total of $2.73 billion.

The company posted earnings excluding some items of 22 cents a share, beating the 35-cent loss predicted by analysts.

Stantec dropped 2.9 percent to C$39.79. Ben Cherniavsky, an analyst with Raymond James, lowered his rating for the company to market perform from outperform after the stock rose to its highest level since 1994 yesterday. The shares have risen 44 percent this year.

“We remain big believers in Stantec’s long-term prospects but see a less attractive near-term risk/return profile on the stock,” he said in a note to clients today.

Cogeco Cable Inc., a Montreal-based cable television operator, dropped 5.4 percent to C$38.78. The company said it will acquire Peer 1 Network Enterprises Inc. for C$3.85 a share, a 31 percent premium to yesterday’s close. Standard & Poor’s has put Cogeco Cable’s rating on creditwatch with negative implications due to the level of debt in the deal. Peer 1 jumped 30 percent to $3.83.

US

By Will Hadfield and Nikolaj Gammeltoft

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Stocks sank around the world, Treasuries gained and the yen strengthened after House Republican leaders scrapped a plan to allow higher taxes on top earners as budget talks stalled. Commodities declined.

The MSCI All-Country World Index dropped 0.8 percent at 4 p.m. in New York and the Standard Poor’s 500 Index slumped 0.9 percent to 1,430.15, with volume 45 percent higher than the 30- day average at this time of day. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.3 percent, falling from a 19-month high. The yield on 10-year Treasuries decreased four basis points to 1.76 percent.

The dollar strengthened against 14 of 16 major peers, while the yen gained against all 16. Oil and nickel fell at least 1.3 percent to lead commodities lower.

The S&P 500’s loss was its worst since Nov. 14 and came after House Speaker John Boehner yielded to anti-tax resistance within his party, fueling concern Republicans and Democrats will fail to agree on a budget. Lawmakers won’t vote on budget issues until after Christmas, giving them less than a week to prevent tax increases and spending cuts from taking effect in January.

The standoff overshadowed data showing bigger-than-estimated growth in personal income and durable goods orders.

“With such a staunch group in the House, it looks as if the odds of going into 2013 without a deal have increased,” Kevin Caron, a Florham Park, New Jersey-based market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which oversees about $130 billion in assets, said by telephone. “I don’t know whether we’re going to reach a deal, when we’re going to reach a deal, if there’s going to be a deal. It’s just a complete wild card at this point.”

Boehner called on President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to come up with legislation to stop more than $600 billion of additional taxes and spending cuts from coming into force. The Congressional Budget Office has said that failing to avoid the fiscal cliff would probably lead to a recession in the first half of 2013.

“The president’s main priority is to ensure that taxes don’t go up on 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses in just a few short days,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. “We are hopeful that we will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly.”

Gauges of energy, financial, telephone and consumer companies lost at least 1 percent to lead declines in all 10 of the main industries in the S&P 500. The index pared its weekly gain to about 1 percent.

Bank of America Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Walt Disney Co. lost at least 1.9 percent for the biggest declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slumped 120.88 points to 13,190.84. Micron Technology Inc. slid 6.9 percent after posting a wider first-quarter loss.

Research In Motion Ltd. tumbled 23 percent, the most in four years, after the BlackBerry maker said it will overhaul the service fees it charges subscribers. Nike Inc. advanced 6.2 percent after the world’s largest sporting-goods company reported profit that exceeded analysts’ projections.

Risk perceptions for U.S. equities have risen to the highest level in four years compared with European stocks as the American economy faces a potential recession should lawmakers fail to reach a budget agreement.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 option prices, rose to 17.67 yesterday. That’s the highest level since December 2008 versus Europe’s VStoxx Index, which closed at 15.76 yesterday. U.S. equities are lagging behind Europe, with the S&P 500 up 13 percent from its June 1 low through yesterday, while the Stoxx Europe 600 Index has gained 20 percent since then.

U.S. consumer confidence fell in December to a five-month low as Americans grew more concerned about the possibility of higher taxes next year. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index decreased to 72.9, the weakest since July, from 82.7 in November.

Another report showed spending by U.S. consumers climbed in November as Americans bought gifts for the holidays and made up for shopping lost to superstorm Sandy. Purchases increased 0.4 percent last month after a 0.1 percent drop in October that was smaller than previously estimated, Commerce Department figures showed. Incomes rebounded, increasing 0.6 percent, after being depressed in October by lost wages due to Sandy.

The S&P GSCI gauge of commodities has slipped 1 percent this year, heading for its first annual decline since 2008.

West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery fell 1.6 percent to $88.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. commodity analysts yesterday stepped away from a previous forecast that the spread between the two grades would narrow to $4 a barrel within three months.

They now predict $14. The gap today is more than $20 currently.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid from its highest level since May 2011. ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, dropped 2.5 percent after saying it will write down the goodwill for its European businesses by about $4.3 billion.

The equity benchmark has still soared 15 percent this year, its biggest annual rally since 2009. European stock trading may be more volatile than usual as futures and options contracts expire in a process known as quadruple witching.

Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against those of six major U.S. trading partners, snapped a five-day decline to rise 0.4 percent to 79.59. It reached 79.01 on Dec. 19, the lowest level since Oct. 18.

The yen has tumbled 12 percent this year, the worst performer among the 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The dollar has weakened 2.9 percent and the euro has dropped 1.1 percent.

Emerging-market stocks fell for a second day as the deteriorating U.S. budget talks threatened the outlook for exporters’ earnings. The MSCI Emerging Market Index slid 1 percent, its biggest drop in six weeks. China’s stocks retreated from a four-month high on concern that the rally from the beginning of this month was excessive. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.7 percent and India’s Sensex slid 1.1 percent.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!!!

 

Be Magnificent!

 

“As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit.” – Emmanuel Teney

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Tel: 778-430-5808

Fax: 778-430-5838

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

This is my last newsletter to you for 2012.  I shall be here tomorrow during market hours and then I’ll be back after the first week in January, 2013!  In my absence, my team will keep you updated on news etc.  I wish you and your families a very happy holiday season and may 2013 bring peace, prosperity and love.

On this day in…

1790 – The first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, R.I.

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase was completed as the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States during ceremonies in New Orleans.

1879 – Thomas Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, N.J.

1963 – The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners, who were allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays.

1989 – The United States sent troops into Panama to topple the government of Manuel Noriega.

1999 – The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples.

 
Man loves company – even if it is only that of a small, burning candle.  –Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Photos of the day

12.20.12 »

Photos of the day 12/20

 

Market Closes for December 20th, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13311.72	+59.75    +0.45%
S&P 500	1443.69	+7.88    +0.55%
NASDAQ	3050.389	+6.024    +0.20%
TSX	12388.71	-14.92
		-0.12%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10039.33	-121.07
		-1.19%
HANG  SENG	22659.78	+36.41
		+0.16%
SENSEX	19453.92	-22.08
		-0.11%
FTSE 100	5958.34	-3.25
		-0.05%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.839	1.844
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.409	2.415
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.7962	1.8031
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.9807	2.9881

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.98765	0.98908
US   $	1.01251	1.01104
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.30719	0.76500
US  $	1.32354	0.7555

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1647.85	1669.40
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	89.68	89.51
BRENT	113.16	113.42

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, led by gold producers as the metal dropped to its lowest level since August after U.S. economic growth beat forecasts.

Yamana Gold Inc. and Goldcorp Inc. dropped at least 2.1 percent. Silver Wheaton Corp. of Vancouver declined 1.4 percent as the price of the metal retreated the most in almost six months. Bombardier Inc. rose 3.1 percent, the most in almost three weeks, after the aircraft maker announced its second sale agreement for the CSeries jet in two days.

The S&P/TSX fell 14.92 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,388.71 in Toronto. The equity gauge has gained 3.6 percent this year.

“Gold the commodity has been very weak and it’s broken down here,” said John Kinsey, a fund manager with Caldwell Securities Ltd. in Toronto. His firm manages about C$1 billion ($1.01 billion). “That’s put the kibosh on gold stocks.”

The U.S. economy grew at a 3.1 percent annual rate in the third quarter, more than previously reported, and exceeding the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg Survey, which called for a 2.8 percent advance.

Basic-materials companies contributed most to losses in the S&P/TSX as four of 10 industry groups retreated. Trading volume was 4.4 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Gold for February delivery dropped 1.3 percent to settle at $1,645.90 an ounce in New York, the lowest since August. The S&P/TSX Gold subindex dropped 1.5 percent as 28 of 32 members declined. Gold mining companies account for 8.8 percent of the S&P/TSX weighting, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Yamana, based in Toronto, fell 2.4 percent to C$16.39 and Vancouver-based Goldcorp declined 2.1 percent to C$35.17.

Barrick Gold Corp. lost 0.7 percent to C$33.22. Toronto-based Barrick and Goldcorp are the world’s largest producers of the metal. Yamana is Canada’s fourth-biggest.

Silver Wheaton slipped to C$34.39 and Silvercorp Metals Inc. of Vancouver declined 2.5 percent to C$5.02. Silver for March delivery slumped 4.6 percent to $29.678 an ounce in New York, the biggest loss since June.

Capstone Mining Corp. sank 7.3 percent to C$2.30 after the Vancouver-based copper miner issued 2013 production guidance yesterday of 85 million pounds of copper, plus or minus 5 percent, less than the forecast by PI Financial Corp.

“The contracted output is due to much lower-than-expected output at the Minto mine,” due to lower copper grades, said Aleem Ladak, mining analyst in Vancouver at PI Financial, in a note to clients today.

Bombardier gained to C$3.68 after saying that AirBaltic agreed to buy 10 CS300 airliners in a deal with a value of $764 million that may rise to $1.57 billion if purchase rights are exercised. The Montreal-based company said yesterday an unnamed carrier signed a letter of intent to buy 12 of the smaller CS100 models, which have a list value of about $870 million, with options to buy 18 more jets.

US

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rebounding from its biggest drop in five weeks, as House Speaker John Boehner said he expects to keep working on a budget plan with President Barack Obama.

NYSE Euronext rose a record 34 percent as IntercontinentalExchange Inc. agreed to buy the company for $8.2 billion. Accenture Plc slid 2 percent after revenue from technology consulting fell 3.6 percent from a year earlier.

Merck & Co. slipped 3.4 percent after saying it won’t seek U.S. marketing approval for a cholesterol drug. Financial stocks rose the most in the S&P 500, leading gains in all 10 groups.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent to close at 1,443.69 today.

The equity benchmark yesterday slipped from its highest level since Oct. 18 as a White House spokesman said Obama would veto a proposal presented by Boehner. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 59.75 points, or 0.5 percent, to 13,311.72.

“The market continues to be driven by the state of the fiscal-cliff negotiations,” said Peter Jankovskis, who helps oversee $3 billion of assets as co-chief investment officer at Lisle, Illinois-based Oakbrook Investments LLC. He spoke in a telephone interview.  “That’s what people are keeping an eye on and that’s what is causing the swings in the market.”

Stocks also advanced after third-quarter economic growth was revised higher. The 3.1 percent growth in gross domestic product exceeded the highest projection in a Bloomberg survey and compared with a previously estimated 2.7 percent gain, according to Commerce Department figures. The median estimate of economists called for a 2.8 percent advance.

Republicans in Congress will vote today on Boehner’s plan to raise taxes on incomes over $1 million. The proposal is aimed at preventing more than $600 billion of automatic tax increases and spending cuts from coming into effect next year.

Boehner accused Obama of being unwilling to stand up to fellow Democrats in the fight over how to avert spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to begin in January.

“I did my part; they’ve done nothing,” Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters in Washington. “I’m convinced that the president is unwilling to stand up to his own party.” Still, the speaker said “I remain hopeful” a deal can be reached.

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments rose for the first time in five weeks, a sign further improvement in the labor market depends on faster economic growth, Labor Department figures showed today.

The S&P 500 has gained 15 percent this year, its largest annual rally since 2009. The benchmark measure has risen 1.9 percent this month.

Other reports today signaled expansion in the world’s largest economy. Sales of previously owned homes rose more than forecast in November to reach a three-year high as lower borrowing costs sustained the U.S. housing rebound, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index increased to 8.1 in December from minus 10.7 a month earlier. A reading of zero is the dividing line between expansion and contraction in the area covering eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

NYSE Euronext surged 34 percent to $32.25 after IntercontinentalExchange, the 12-year-old energy and commodity futures exchange, agreed to acquire the company for cash and stock worth $8.2 billion, moving to take control of the world’s biggest equities market. ICE added 1.4 percent to $130.10, while an S&P index of financial stocks gained 1.4 percent.

ICE, based in Atlanta, will pay $33.12 a share for the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, 38 percent above yesterday’s closing price, according to a statement today. Last year, the U.S. Justice Department blocked a joint hostile bid by ICE and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. for the New York-based company on concern the combination would dominate U.S. stock listings.

Accenture, the world’s second-largest technology consultancy, slid 2 percent to $69.02. Sales from advising clients, its biggest source of revenue, declined to $3.96 billion, the company said late yesterday. Customers have opted for contracts over longer periods that don’t generate revenue as quickly, a trend that will continue into the second quarter, Chief Financial Officer Pamela Craig said.

Merck lost 3.4 percent to $42.16 for the biggest retreat in the Dow. The company won’t seek U.S. marketing approval for its good cholesterol drug Tredaptive after a key study showed it ineffective and potentially harmful.

Video-game makers and retailers fell amid growing pressure from Washington and advocacy groups concerned about possible links between violent games and tragedies like the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. A bill introduced yesterday by U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller directs the National Academy of Sciences to examine whether violent games and programs lead children to act aggressively, the West Virginia Democrat said in a statement.

Electronic Arts Inc., publisher of “Medal of Honor,” fell 3.2 percent to $13.94. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the maker of “Grand Theft Auto,” fell 2.4 percent to $11.69.

GameStop Corp., the video-game chain, slid 5.2 percent to $26.13.

Carnival Corp. slumped 5.3 percent to $36.99. The world’s biggest cruise-line operator provided a full-year earnings forecast that fell short of analysts’ forecasts. The company said earnings will rise to as much as $2.40 a share next year, excluding some items. Analysts predicted $2.46 a share, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Illumina Inc. jumped 7.8 percent to $56.22 after Swiss newspaper L’Agefi said Roche Holding AG may buy the U.S. genetic-sequencing company for $66 a share, a higher price than its first bid in April. The newspaper said it failed to verify the source of the information.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. lost 6.5 percent to $56.36. The operator of more than 1,400 home-furnishing stores projected full-year profit that trailed analysts’ estimates. Profit will be $4.48 to $4.54 a share this year, the retailer said yesterday. Analysts projected $4.62 a share, the average of 25 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Rite Aid Corp. soared 16 percent to $1.21. The third- largest U.S. drugstore chain gained the most in more than three years after forecasting better full-year results and returning to a profit in the third quarter.

Amicus Therapeutics Inc. slumped 47 percent to $3.06 after saying a drug it was developing with GlaxoSmithKline Plc failed to perform better than a placebo.

CarMax Inc. jumped 9 percent to $37.97. The largest U.S. seller of used cars rose to a record as increased vehicle sales drove quarterly profit that beat analysts’ estimates.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be Magnificent!

 

The sum-total of the experience of the sages of the world is available to us

and would be for all time to come.

Moreover, there are not many fundamental truths,

but there is only one fundamental truth which is Truth itself,

otherwise known as nonviolence.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Take what you can use

and let the rest go by.

-Ken Kesey, 1935-2001

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:

Today, Obama is named Time’s Person of the Year for 20012.

The Poem:

Winter Travels

–by Bei Dao (translated by David Hinton with Yanbing Chen)

who’s typing on the void

too many stories

they’re twelve stones

hitting the clockface

twelve swans

flying out of winter

 

tongues in the night

describe gleams of light

blind bells

cry out for someone absent

 

entering the room

you see that jester’s

entered winter

leaving behind flame.

From the new edition of Poems on the Underground

On this day in 1776, Thomas Paine published his American Crisis essay that began “these are the times that try men’s souls.” The essay was read to Washington’s troops camped on the west side of the Delaware River, and would inspire them to the famous Christmas crossing and attack. –Paul Vigna, WSJ, 12/19/12.

And also on this day in…

1790 – William Parry, explorer, was born.

1915 – Edith Piaf was born.

1941 – Adolf Hitler assumes the position of commander in chief of the German army.

1959 – Reputed to be the last civil war veteran, Walter Williams, dies at 117 in Houston.

1974 – Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president of the United states after a House of Representatives vote.

1984 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang sign an agreement that committed Britain to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 in return for terms guaranteeing a 50-year extension of its capitalist system. Hong Kong was leased by China to Great Britain in 1898 for 99 years.

1998 – President Bill Clinton is impeached. The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton was the second president in American history to be impeached.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.- Albert Einstein.

Photos of the day

12.19.12 »

 

Market Closes for December 19th, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13251.97	-98.99    -0.74%
S&P 500	1436.65	-10.14    -0.70%
NASDAQ	3044.365	-10.166    -0.33%
TSX	12399.95	+65.61
		+0.53%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10160.40	+237.39
		+2.39%
HANG  SENG	22623.37	+128.64
		+0.57%
SENSEX	19476.00	+111.25
		+0.57%
FTSE 100	5961.59	+25.69
		+0.43%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.844	1.840
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.415	2.416
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8031	1.8170
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.9881	2.9979

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.98908	0.98605
US   $	1.01104	1.01415
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.30656	0.76537
US  $	1.32098	0.75702

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1669.40	1670.95
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	89.51	87.93
BRENT	113.42	112.43

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a second day, led by bank and energy stocks, after the International Monetary Fund said the nation’s central bank should avoid raising interest rates until the end of 2013 to help fuel growth.

Uranium One Inc. added 7.1 percent for a fourth day of gains after the pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide election victory in Japan on Dec. 16. Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank rose at least 1.1 percent as financial stocks contributed most to gains in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index. Taseko Mines Ltd. gained 6 percent after reaching a tentative labor deal with workers at its mine in British Columbia.

The S&P/TSX rose 69.29 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,403.63 in Toronto. The equity gauge has gained 3.8 percent this year.

“Today is a day of risk-off with financials leading the way,” said John Goldsmith, deputy head of equities with Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. in Toronto. His firm manages about C$5.2 billion ($5.27 billion).

The IMF said the Canadian central bank has room for further monetary easing if growth fades. The federal government is on track to balance its budget by 2015 and has room for new temporary fiscal stimulus if needed, the IMF said in a report.

The Bank of Canada has kept its key lending rate at 1 percent for more than two years, the longest pause since the 1950s. The country’s expansion is estimated to be “just below 2 percent” in 2013, the IMF said.

Canadian wholesale sales rebounded in October from the biggest drop in almost two years, led by higher food and motor vehicle receipts. Other reports published this month have shown greater-than-forecast increases in employment and building permits.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender, advanced 1.1 percent to C$60.53 and Toronto-Dominion added 1.2 percent to C$83.10. Bank and energy stocks contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX as nine of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was 17 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Cenovus Energy Inc. increased 1.3 percent to C$33.35 and Husky Energy Inc. rose 1.2 percent to C$29.13 as oil rallied for a fourth day. Crude for January delivery climbed 1.8 percent to settle at $89.51 a barrel in New York.

Uranium One soared 7.1 percent to C$2.26. The LDP, led by Shinzo Abe, captured a two-thirds majority in Japan’s lower house of parliament in an election on Dec. 16. The country shut down its atomic reactors after last year’s tsunami and earthquake triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. The LDP campaigned on Japan’s need to restart the reactors.

Taseko, a copper and molybdenum mining company working in British Columbia, rallied 6 percent to C$3. The company said it has reached a tentative labor agreement at its Gibraltar copper mine in southern British Columbia. The deal is subject to ratification by the union.

US

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, pulling the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down from a two-month high, as deteriorating federal budget negotiations fueled concern that automatic tax increases and spending cuts will be triggered.

Alcoa Inc. fell 3 percent as Moody’s Investors Service placed the aluminum producer’s credit rating under review for a downgrade. Consumer-staples, health-care and phone stocks lost more than 1 percent for the worst performance among 10 S&P 500 groups. General Motors Co. jumped 6.6 percent on plans to purchase 200 million shares from the government. Knight Capital Group Inc. rose 5.4 percent on plans to be bought by Getco LLC.

The S&P 500 lost 0.8 percent to 1,435.81 today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 98.99 points, or 0.7 percent, to 13,251.97. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, known as the VIX, jumped 12 percent to 17.36 for the biggest gain since Oct. 23.

“The underlying situation for U.S. equities isn’t bad, but a lot hinges on the fiscal cliff negotiations,” George Feiger, chief executive officer of Contango Capital Advisors Inc., the San Francisco-based wealth management arm of Zions Bancorporation, said in a phone interview. He manages about $3.6 billion at Contango and Western National Trust Co. “If we get through the fiscal cliff with a reasonable result, then the odds are quite substantial that things are going to be better than many people expect by the middle of 2013,” he said. “All of this can be postponed for a year if they screw up on the negotiations and we slide into a recession.”

The S&P 500 has rallied 14 percent this year and is up 1.4 percent in December after the Federal Reserve extended its unprecedented monetary-stimulus efforts. Stocks retreated today as White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said President Barack Obama would veto a tax and spending proposal presented by House Speaker John Boehner because it would put “too big a burden on the middle class.”

The House may vote tomorrow on Boehner’s “Plan B,” which would raise tax rates on income over $1 million, rather than the $400,000 threshold the president proposed in his latest offer.

Boehner said Obama will be responsible for “the largest tax increase in American history” if Democrats don’t accept a measure the House plans to pass tomorrow.

General Electric Co. slipped 3.1 percent, the most in the Dow, to $21.01. AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. telephone company, decreased 1.3 percent to $33.91. Phone stocks lost 1.2 percent as all of the 10 main industry groups in the benchmark gauge for U.S. equities fell. Consumer staples stocks slumped 1 percent, while health-care companies retreated 1.1 percent.

Housing starts in the U.S. fell 3 percent to a 861,000 annual rate from a revised 888,000 annual pace in October, the Commerce Department reported today in Washington. The median estimate of 85 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a drop to 872,000.

Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, fell 3 percent to $8.64 for the second-biggest retreat in the Dow. Moody’s placed Alcoa’s Baa3 senior unsecured rating, the lowest investment-grade level, under review for downgrade, the ratings company said in a statement. The review applies to all of Alcoa’s $8.3 billion of debt.

American Express Co., the biggest U.S. credit-card issuer by purchases, fell 1.8 percent to $56.79. White House officials have approached Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Chenault about joining President Obama’s second-term administration, possibly as Treasury secretary, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The S&P reached its highest level in two months yesterday amid signs of progress in efforts by Obama and Republicans to reach agreement on a new budget in Washington.

“The stock market has rallied in anticipation that a deal on the fiscal cliff will be reached soon,” Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida, wrote in an e-mail today. His firm oversees $350 billion. “In theory, an agreement could be reached and signed into law after Christmas, but that’s unlikely. There’s simply not enough time to iron out the details.”

GM surged 6.6 percent to $27.18. The automaker will purchase 200 million shares of its stock from the U.S. Treasury as part of the department’s plan to sell its entire holding of GM stock within 15 months. At $27.50 a share, the transaction, which is expected to close by the end of the year, provides a 7.9 percent premium over yesterday’s closing price. The Treasury plans to begin selling its remaining shares as soon as January, the company said.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. and Sturm Ruger & Co. rebounded after sliding for three days following a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six adults. Smith & Wesson rose 7.2 percent today after plunging 18 percent in the previous three sessions, its biggest drop in three years. The stock had more than doubled this year before the shooting.

Obama said his administration will come up with “concrete proposals” by next month to help stem gun violence in the U.S. and endorsed restrictions on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. Obama said there is a growing consensus in the country for restricting high-powered weapons and urged Congress to hold votes on such measures early next year.

Oracle Corp. gained 3.7 percent to $34.09. The largest database-software supplier reported fiscal second-quarter sales and profit that topped analysts’ estimates on growing demand for Internet-based software.

Profit excluding some items was 64 cents a share on adjusted revenue of $9.11 billion, the Redwood City, California- based company said yesterday. That compares with analysts’ average projection for profit of 61 cents on sales of $9.02 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Knight Capital added 5.4 percent to $3.51. The company, pushed to the brink of bankruptcy in August by a trading error, chose Getco’s proposal yesterday over a competing offer from Virtu Financial LLC, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The high-frequency trader offered $3.75 a share for Knight, one-third of it in stock, for a total price of $1.4 billion, according to a statement from Knight today.

Markel Corp. fell 10 percent to $436.24. The seller of property-casualty coverage agreed to buy Alterra Capital Holdings Ltd. for about $3.13 billion in cash and stock to expand in reinsurance. Alterra surged 22 percent to $28.18.

First Solar Inc., the world’s biggest thin-film solar manufacturer, added 3.2 percent to $33.03. Bank of America Corp. analysts raised their share-price target for the company to $35 from $30, saying that rapid declines in crystalline solar module prices are over for the medium term and the company will remain competitive with Chinese rivals.

Herbalife Ltd., the maker of namesake nutritional supplements, tumbled 12 percent to $37.34. Activist investor William Ackman’s hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management LP is betting against the stock, CNBC reported.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

For me, nonviolence is not a mere philosophical principle.

It rules my life.  It is the rule and breath of my life.

It is a matter not of the intellect but of the heart.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

People as you for criticism but they

only want praise.

-Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965

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:

Got a new brain?

“Technology has changed the way people think, creating a ‘new brain,’ two Italian psychology experts say,” reports United Press International.  “Psychologist Maria Beatrice Togo, who collaborated with psychotherapist Tonino Cantelmi on a new book…Technoliquidity, postulates entertainment technology such as video games ‘has triggered an evolutionary leap, just like the written word 3,000 years ago.  It has changed our memory; our brain has lost certain connections… Some circuits have been lost and others have developed, circuits that are more closely linked to perception.  The human brain has not changed on an anatomical level but it now works differently.  It is a new brain…[T]he ones with a ‘new brain’ are the children and adolescents of today.’”  -from The Globe & Mail, 12/18/12

On this day in 1912, the skeletal remains of the Piltdown Man, a purported missing link between man and ape, were “discovered” in a gravel pit in Sussex, England. It would take 41 years, but eventually the find was exposed as a hoax.  –Paul Vigna, WSJ, 12/18/12

And also on this day in…

1737 – Antonio Stradivari, violin maker, was born.

1787 – New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1892 – Peter Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite” premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1947 – Steven Spielberg, filmmaker was born.

1957 – The first nuclear facility in the United States to generate electricity, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, went online.

1958 – The world’s first communications satellite was launched by the United States aboard an Atlas rocket.

1987 – Ivan F. Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street’s biggest insider-trading scandal.

2003 – A jury in Chesapeake, Va., convicted teenager Lee Boyd Malvo of two counts of murder in the Washington-area sniper shootings. (He was later sentenced to life in prison without parole.)

What is life?  It is a flash of a firefly in the night.  It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. –Crowfoot (last words).

photos of the day

December 18, 2012

A girl looks out of the door of a temple as her mother offers daily prayers inside in Lalitpur, Nepal.

Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

Qatari Heritage policemen ride camels during National Day celebrations in Doha, Qatar.

Fadi Al-Assaad/Reuters

A pine grosbeak chews on a berry in a tree in Montpelier, Vt.

Toby Talbot/AP

 

Market Closes for December 18th, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13350.96	+115.57    +0.87%
S&P 500	1446.79	+16.43    +1.15%
NASDAQ	3054.530	+43.926    +1.46%
TSX	12334.34	+52.99
		+0.43%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9923.01	+94.13
		+0.96%
HANG  SENG	22494.73	-18.88
		-0.08%
SENSEX	19364.75	+120.33
		+0.63%
FTSE 100	5935.90	+23.75
		+0.40%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.840	1.827
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.416	2.405
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8170	1.7682
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.9979	2.9417

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.98605	0.98395
US   $	1.01415	1.01631
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.30414	0.76679
US  $	1.32259	0.75609

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1670.95	1697.90
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	87.93	87.20
BRENT	112.43	111.50

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose as energy and financial shares advanced on optimism U.S. policymakers are moving closer to a budget compromise.

Athabasca Oil Corp. added 4.8 percent after it outlined its 2013 budget and analysts with UBS Securities raised the stock’s rating. Rubicon Minerals Corp. dropped 6.5 percent after saying the Wabauskang First Nation filed a lawsuit related to its gold project in Ontario, citing media reports. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Encana Corp. increased at least 1.2 percent as crude oil gained for a third day.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 52.99 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,334.34 in Toronto. The equity gauge has gained 3.2 percent this year.

“What’s driving the Canadian market is what’s driving the U.S. and global markets at this point, and that is the fiscal cliff,” said Anish Chopra, managing director and fund manager with TD Asset Management Inc. in Toronto. The firm manages about C$204 billion ($207 billion). “As negotiations appear more favorable for a resolution, we’ll see a risk-on trade.”

U.S. President Barack Obama lowered his tax revenue demand by $200 billion and offered to start tax rate increases at $400,000 in income instead of $250,000. House Speaker John Boehner said he will push a budget “plan B” measure that will include tax increases on income of more than $1 million, while he continues to negotiate with Obama.

Government leaders are negotiating to avoid more than $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to begin in the new year.

Manulife Financial Corp. advanced 3.3 percent to C$13.43 and Bank of Nova Scotia rose 1.1 percent to C$57.28 as bank and energy stocks contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX. Eight of 10 industries advanced, with trading volume 39 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Canadian Natural Resources gained 2.2 percent to C$28.25 and Encana increased 1.2 percent to C$19.99. Crude for January delivery advanced 0.8 percent to settle at $87.93 a barrel in New York.

Athabasca climbed 4.8 percent to C$10.80. Chad Friess, analyst with UBS, raised his rating to buy from neutral while cutting his price target to C$13 from C$14 on higher oil sands spending after the company outlined a “fairly conservative” 2013 capital budget of $236 million for its light oil business.

This was offset by a surprisingly large $502 million budget on the thermal side of its business, Friess said in a note to clients.

“The 2013 budget is well funded and we see upside to production guidance,” he said.

Rubicon Minerals slumped 6.5 percent to C$2.45. The company said it has not yet received notice of the lawsuit from the Wabauskang First Nation relating to its Phoenix Gold project in Red Lake, Ontario.

Daniel Earle, an analyst with TD Securities, said the group is objecting to the ability of the province to approve the mine over the group’s concerns, citing a media report.

“We would stress that the Phoenix Gold project is fully permitted and the objections of the Wabauskang First Nation appear to be as much with the province and the mine review process as it is with the company,” he said in a note to clients.

AuRico Gold Inc. dropped 4.2 percent to C$7.92 after David Haughton, co-head of metals and mining research with BMO Capital Markets, downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform.

“The company now trades at a premium to BMO Research mid-tier gold stocks,” he said in a note today.

US

By Lu Wang and Rita Nazareth

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the highest level in two months, amid signs of progress in efforts by President Barack Obama and Republicans to reach agreement on a new budget in Washington.

An index of homebuilders gained 2.3 percent as confidence among U.S. homebuilders climbed in December to the highest in more than six years. Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley rose more than 3.1 percent to pace gains in financial shares.

Apple Inc., the most valuable company, added 2.9 percent.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent to 1,446.79 at 4 p.m. in New York. It has gained 15 percent so far in 2012. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 115.57 points, or 0.9 percent, to 13,350.96 today. About 7.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 20 percent above the three-month average.

“There is certain optimism that it could potentially be done before the end of the year and that would be a very positive sign to the market,” Philip Tasho, chief investment officer at Alexandria, Virginia-based Tamro Capital Partners LLC, which manages about $1.8 billion, said in a phone interview. “Once the solutions are in the rear view mirror in terms of fiscal policy, we will simply look forward. It’s a blip in the long-term trend.”

The S&P 500 sank as much as 7.7 percent from its 2012 high in September as Obama’s re-election set up a budget showdown with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The benchmark gauge has climbed 6.9 percent since its November low amid optimism a compromise will be reached to avoid more than $600 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts.

Obama lowered his tax revenue demand by $200 billion and offered to start tax rate increases at $400,000 in income instead of $250,000, moving closer to a budget deal with House Speaker John Boehner.

The president’s revised plan would raise $1.2 trillion in taxes in the next decade and cut $1.22 trillion in spending, said a person familiar with the talks. Obama wants a large enough debt ceiling increase for the next two years and would accept a new inflation yardstick that would reduce Social Security cost-of-living increases, said the person, who sought anonymity.

Boehner said he will push a budget “plan B” measure that will include tax increases on income of more than $1 million a year, while he continues to negotiate with the president.

Obama’s administration and other Democrats immediately rejected the proposal as inadequate.

“People have been very fearful to move into stocks and this might be one of the things to get them go back to stocks,” Brian Gendreau, a market strategist at El Segundo, California- based Cetera Financial Group Inc., said in a telephone interview. The firm has about $20 billion in assets under management. “We see a pickup in housing. The consumer continues to spend. The recovery is there, it’s real.”

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 advanced today as energy, technology and financial companies gained at least 1.4 percent.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index rose 1.8 percent to the highest level since July 2011. The Dow Jones Transportation Average jumped 1.6 percent to the highest level since May.

An S&P index of homebuilders rallied 2.3 percent to the highest level since Oct. 19. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence increased to 47, the highest since April 2006, from a revised 45, the Washington-based group reported today.

Lennar Corp. climbed 2.4 percent to $39.71. D.R. Horton Inc. added 2 percent to $20.08 and PulteGroup Inc. gained 3.2 percent to $18.61.

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. lender by assets, advanced 3.3 percent to $11.36. Morgan Stanley rose 3.2 percent to $19.12.

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, gained 2.9 percent to $533.90. Bank of America said the selloff of the stock could be overdone. Shares fell 4.4 percent last week as UBS AG cut its price estimate to $700 from $780, citing concern that growth may slow for the iPhone and iPad.

At least five analysts have cut their price targets for Apple since Dec. 16, with some saying Apple’s purchases from suppliers indicate sales of iPhones and iPads, the company’s largest sources of revenue and profit, may not meet projections.

The reports from Citigroup Inc., Pacific Crest Securities, Mizuho Securities USA, BMO Capital Markets and Canaccord Genuity mark a reversal from earlier this year, when analysts were racing to issue upbeat predictions, with at least two saying Apple would top $1,000. Instead, the shares have dropped more than 25 percent from a September record amid speculation the iPhone is saturating the market, ratcheting up pressure on Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to introduce a new hit product.

Separately, Samsung Electronics Co. said today that it will withdraw patent lawsuits targeting Apple’s use of its technology in European countries.

Arbitron Inc. rallied 24 percent to $47.03. Nielsen Holdings NV agreed to buy Arbitron for about $1.26 billion, adding U.S. radio audience ratings to its television data as more users listen to and watch programs on the Internet and mobile devices.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. rallied 4.1 percent to $32.47, the highest since 2006. The hospital chain was rated overweight, an equivalent of buy, in new coverage at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. led a decline in stocks of firearms makers as Cerberus Capital Management LP, the New York- based investment firm that owns the largest U.S. gunmaker, said it will put the company up for sale, acting four days after one of its rifles was used in the Connecticut school shootings that left 26 people dead.

Cerberus said it will seek to sell Freedom Group Inc. just hours after California Treasurer Bill Lockyer said he’ll propose that the state’s public pension funds, the two largest in the U.S., divest investments in firearm manufacturers that make guns prohibited under state law.

Smith & Wesson slid 10 percent to $7.79, plunging 18 percent over three days. Sturm Ruger & Co. declined 7.7 percent to $40.60.

General Electric Co. slipped 1.1 percent, the most in the Dow, to $21.69. The world’s largest jet-engine maker may reach an agreement to buy Avio SpA, an Italian supplier of aerospace components, from Cinven Ltd. this week, according to two people familiar with matter. A deal may be valued at about 3 billion euros ($4 billion), said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because talks are private.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

To make a decision is an illusion.

Behind the decision

is the hidden belief

that everyone is the same.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Knowledge of what is possible is the

beginning of happiness.

-George Santayana, 1863-1952

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