Author: Carolann

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

December, Latin 10^th month: December was the tenth month in the Roman calendar when the year began in March with the vernal equinox.  The Old English name was aerra gëola, meaning earlier Yule.  In the French revolutionary calendar, it was Frimaire, meaning hoarfrost month, from November 22^nd to December 21^st.

“Silence slips peacefully over the black-and-white world.  The wind moans.  The Earth is hard as iron.  Mist and cold penetrate to the bone.  The days grow shorter, the snowfalls heavier.  Bare trees and hunched figures in overcoats and heavy jackets dot the streets.  But inside it is warm, and the kitchen windows are steamed up.  People gather in expectation of the rebirth of light.  There is almost the sense that the Sun will break forth again from the interior of the Earth – or from within our own souls.  Christmas and Hanukkah, among other celebrations, hold forth the promise that, by our dedication and self-sacrifice a new green world of meaning, love, and compassion can be born.  As the solstice, the heavens show us the rebirth of the light, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun.  May the power of the world’s being grow strong!  May life’s power to act blossom forth!  May the past bear what is to come!” -fromCosmos Doogood’s Urban Almanac.

Birthstone: Lapis Lazulli

Flower: Narcissi

On this day in 1965, the Beatles released Rubber Soul, their sixth studio album. –Steven Russolillo, WSJ, 12/03/2012.

And also on this day in…

1857 – Joseph Conrad, author, was born.

1923 – Maria Callas was born.

1950 – The Chinese close in on Pyongyang, Korea, and UN forces withdraw southward.

1977 – The State Department proposes the admission of 10,000 more Vietnamese refugees to the United States.

1979 – Eleven are dead and eight injured in a mad rush to see a rock band (The Who) at a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1984 – Toxic gas leaks from a Union Carbide plant and results in the deaths of thousands in Bhopal, India.

1989 – Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev announce the official end to the Cold War at a meeting in Malta.

 

The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity. – Zig Ziglar

photos of the day

December 3, 2012

A workman walks on the the roof of the Le Louvre Lens Museum, by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, on the eve of the inauguration of the museum in Lens, northern France, December 3, 2012.

Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

A silhouetted man is reflected in the glass of ‘L’Ete,’ a painting by Arcimboldo Giuseppe in the Louvre Museum in Lens, northern France. The museum in Lens, to open the 12 Dec, is part of a strategy to spread art beyond the traditional bastions of culture in Paris.

Michel Spingler/AP

A boy somersaults at Marina beach in Chennai, India.

Babu/Reuters

 

Market Closes for December 3rd, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12974.98	-50.60    -0.39%
S&P 500	1413.89	-2.29    -0.16%
NASDAQ	3005.311	-4.930    -0.16%
TSX	12188.55	-50.81
		-0.42%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9458.18	+12.17
		+0.13%
HANG  SENG	21767.85	-262.54
		-1.19%
SENSEX	19305.32	-34.58
		-0.18%
FTSE 100	5871.24	+4.42
		+0.08%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.711	1.700
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.306	2.294
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6241	1.6156
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8065	2.8089

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99457	0.99382
US   $	1.00546	1.00622
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29815	0.77033
US  $	1.30524	0.76614

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1718.95	1714.80
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	89.27	88.91
BRENT	111.85	113.09

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, snapping a three-day advance, as banks and gold miners slid after manufacturing in the U.S. unexpectedly contracted in November on weaker business demand and disruptions from superstorm Sandy.

Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest gold producer, slipped 3.7 percent after Mexico announced it will create a new mining law and review royalties. Bank of Nova Scotia fell 0.7 percent as the lender prepares to report fourth-quarter earnings this week. Saputo Inc., Canada’s largest dairy processor, advanced 3 percent after it agreed to buy Dean Foods Co.’s Morningstar Foods unit for $1.45 billion.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 69.62 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,169.74 in Toronto. The equity gauge has gained 1.8 percent this year.

“All the economic data this week will have a bit of an asterisk due to Hurricane Sandy,” said Greg Taylor, fund manager with Aurion Capital Management in Toronto. The firm manages about C$8 billion ($8 billion). “Unfortunately the biggest theme of the month is going to be the fiscal cliff. It’s going to cause a lot of people to stay on the sidelines and look again in January. The economy is setting up for a Santa Claus bounce, but we might run out of time.”

The Santa Claus rally is a traditional upswing in stocks in the last five days of the year and the first two in January, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

Government leaders in Washington are negotiating a budget compromise to avoid automatic spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to activate in the new year. House Republicans submitted a new proposal to President Barack Obama today that includes $1.4 trillion in spending cuts and $800 billion in new revenue by limiting tax breaks and capping deductions for top earners.

The Institute for Supply Management’s U.S. factory index decreased to 49.5, the lowest since July 2009, from 51.7 a month earlier, the Tempe, Arizona-based group said today. Economists projected the index would ease to 51.4, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. A reading of 50 marks the dividing line between expansion and contraction.

Raw-materials stocks contributed most to losses in the S&P/TSX as seven of 10 industries declined. Trading volume was 4.6 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Scotiabank, which will report its fourth-quarter earnings on Dec. 7, slipped 0.7 percent to C$55.62.

Goldcorp dropped 3.7 percent to C$37.29 after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and leaders of the nation’s three largest parties agreed to revise mining royalties. Operations in Mexico accounted for 34 percent of Goldcorp’s revenue in 2011.

Barrick Gold Corp., the largest producer of the metal, slipped 2.7 percent to C$33.55 and Yamana Gold Inc. fell 2.5 percent to C$18.26.

Saputo, which manufactures as well as owns the trademark and brand rights to Hostess Twinkies in Canada, added 3 percent to C$47.41 after agreeing to buy Morningstar Foods, a maker of creams, ice-cream mixes and cheese. The deal is the largest takeover of a dairy company globally this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp. rose 2.8 percent to C$30.50 after Robin Kozar, analyst with RBC Capital Markets, raised the stock rating to outperform from sector perform while lifting the price target to C$35 from C$33. Higher production volumes and lower unit costs will drive free cash flow growth, the analyst said.

US

By Lu Wang and Michael P. Regan

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, halting a three-day gain, and commodities trimmed an early advance as a contraction in American manufacturing and concern about the budget debate overshadowed optimism on China’s economy. Treasuries and the dollar fell.

The S&P 500 fell 0.5 percent to close at 1,409.46 at 4 p.m. in New York after climbing as much as 0.5 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index pared gains after rising above its highest closing level in 18 months. The S&P GSCI Index of raw materials was up 0.1 percent after rallying 1.1 percent. The Dollar Index slid to a one-month low while 10-year Treasury yields added one basis point to 1.62 percent.

Equities extended losses as House Republicans, rejecting President Barack Obama’s demand for tax rate increases, proposed $1.4 trillion in spending cuts and $800 billion in new revenue by limiting tax breaks and capping deductions for top earners.

Benchmark indexes opened higher before erasing gains as the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index unexpectedly fell below 50, the threshold signaling growth.

Today’s manufacturing data “is just a confirmation that the fiscal-cliff concerns are actually affecting decision making at the business level,” Andres Garcia-Amaya, New York-based global market strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s mutual funds unit, which oversees $400 billion in assets, said in a phone interview. “For that reason, the market obviously doesn’t like it, considering that we probably won’t get an answer either at the last minute prior to the holidays or right before” New Year’s, he said.

The S&P 500 also erased early gains after briefly climbing above 1,421, its average over the past 50 days, a level watched by traders to gauge the market’s trend. The index has closed below its 50-day average since Oct. 19, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

DuPont Co., General Electric Co. and Coca-Cola Co. lost at least 1.4 percent for the biggest declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Newmont Mining Corp. declined 3 percent after the largest U.S. gold producer appointed Gary Goldberg to replace Richard O’Brien as chief executive officer.

An index of airlines fell 1.9 percent as Delta Air Lines Inc. slipped 3.8 percent. The company is mulling a bid for Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., according to people familiar with the plans who declined to be identified because the matter is private.

Dell Inc. added 4.4 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended buying the shares.

December has been the best month for the S&P 500 since 1950 with an average gain of 1.7 percent, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac. The stock market may also get a year-end boost from a so-called Santa Claus rally — an upswing in the last five days of the year and the first two in January, the almanac said.

While JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief U.S. equity strategist Thomas Lee told Bloomberg Television today that American equities are in a secular bull market, his counterpart at Wells Fargo & Co. predicted a drop next year. The S&P 500 will fall 1.8 percent to 1,390 by the end of 2013 as global growth slows and policymakers struggle to reach a budget agreement, according to Wells Fargo’s Gina Martin Adams.

Adams, who has the lowest projection for the U.S. equity benchmark next year among Wall Street strategists surveyed by Bloomberg, says investors should buy companies that are least- tied to economic growth. The average estimate from eight other forecasters implies a 9.2 percent rally to 1,546 from Nov. 30.

“The U.S. economy is likely to flirt with recession in the near term, as slowing exports and falling investment likely lead to a weaker consumer at the start of 2013,” Adams wrote in a report today. “The market will suffer downward pressure until policymakers act decisively to convince investors that the U.S. debt house is ‘in order’.”

Stocks, bonds, commodities and the dollar all posted monthly gains in November for the second time this year amid optimism central bank stimulus programs are bolstering growth in the world’s biggest economies.

Today’s report showing manufacturing unexpectedly contracted in November for the fourth month signaled factory managers grew more concerned about the potential economic toll stemming from the so-called fiscal cliff. Data may show on Dec. 7 that U.S. payrolls rose by 90,000 last month, the smallest gain since June, as superstorm Sandy forced businesses to close.

Republicans are renewing attempts to use a debt-limit increase to force deeper spending cuts, replicating the 2011 showdown that led to a credit-rating downgrade. Many congressional Republicans see the need to raise the $16.4 trillion limit on public debt in early 2013 as leverage to force President Barack Obama to cut spending. House Republicans view the U.S. budget deficit, which topped $1 trillion in each of the past four years, as a crisis requiring immediate action.

There’s “clearly a chance” that there won’t be an agreement in time to avert the fiscal cliff, House Speaker John Boehner told “Fox News Sunday.” “I would say we’re nowhere, period,” he said.

American companies are supplanting China from the world’s 500 biggest stocks faster than at any time in the past decade, as an improving U.S. economy and investor confidence in free markets overcomes the lure of equities offering twice the profit growth.

U.S. corporations led by Apple Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. make up 171 of the top 500 with a market capitalization of $10.6 trillion, or 40.3 percent of the total, compared with 159 valued at $8.24 trillion in 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

PetroChina Co. and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. lead the 24 Chinese firms worth $1.74 trillion qualifying today, down from 34 with a capitalization of $2.19 trillion.

Among European stocks, Cable & Wireless Communications Plc rose 1.2 percent after agreeing to sell its Monaco and Islands unit to Bahrain Telecommunications Co. for $680 million. Colruyt SA slid 1.9 percent after first-half earnings before interest and taxes missed analysts’ estimates.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.1 percent at the close in London as three stocks rose for every two that fell.

The equity benchmark has rallied 18 percent from this year’s low on June 4 as the European Central Bank announced an unlimited bond-buying plan and the Federal Reserve started a third round of asset purchases.

Ten-year Greek bond yields fell below 15 percent for the first time since July 2011 as the nation offered to buy back bonds.

The euro strengthened 0.5 percent to $1.3054 and climbed as high as $1.3076, the strongest level since October. The dollar weakened against 11 of 16 major peers, dropping 0.3 percent to 82.27 yen. The Dollar Index declined to as low as 79.799, the weakest since Oct. 31.

The Australian dollar dropped versus 15 of 16 major counterparts, sliding 0.6 percent to 0.7982 euro. The Reserve Bank of Australia will return interest rates to a half-century low of 3 percent tomorrow, economists predict, as data today showed manufacturing contracted and retail sales stagnated. New Zealand’s dollar weakened versus most peers after data showed the nation’s terms of trade worsened.

China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index was 50.6 in November, while a private gauge of manufacturing climbed to 50.5, separate reports showed. Nine of 16 analysts surveyed over the past two weeks by Bloomberg forecast China will set an economic growth goal of 7.5 percent, unchanged from 2012, in a sign that new leadership headed by Xi Jinping won’t tolerate a bigger slowdown from the lowest target since 2004.

The S&P GSCI Index of commodities trimmed gains after reaching 657.11, the strongest level since Oct. 22. Sugar, natural gas, aluminum and silver rose at least 0.9 percent to lead gains in 15 of 24 commodities tracked by the index, while hogs, nickel and Kansas wheat fell the most.

Gold futures rose 0.5 percent to $1,721.10 an ounce, rebounding from the biggest weekly drop in five months, as the dollar weakened and investors boosted holdings of exchange- traded products backed by bullion to a record 2,621.73 metric tons Nov. 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Silver increased 1.4 percent to $33.759 an ounce.

The MSCI Emerging Market index was little changed following a two-day gain. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slumped 1.5 percent, the steepest drop since Nov. 15. The BSE India Sensex 30 Index slipped 0.2 percent, retreating from the highest level since April 2011.

Turkey’s ISE National 100 Index rose 1.7 percent to the highest close in records dating to January 1988 as the nation’s inflation rate fell to the lowest in 14 months, giving the central bank more room to reduce borrowing costs.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

As long as individuality survives, that is,

as long as you continue to see others as separate from you,

a feeling of hostility towards them cannot fail to prevail.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

I believe it is harder to be fair to oneself

than to others.

-Andre Gide, 1869-1951

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:

On this day in 1900, Oscar Wilde dies in a Paris hotel room after saying of the room’s wallpaper: “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.”

And also on this day in…

1667 – Jonathan Swift was born.

1835 – Mark Twain was born.

1874 – Winston Churchill was born.

1936 – Abbie Hoffman was born.

1948 – The Soviet Union complete the division of Berlin, installing the government in the Soviet sector.

1950 – President Truman declares that the United States will use the A-bomb to get peace in Korea.

1961 – The Soviet Union vetoes a UN seat for Kuwait, pleasing Iraq.

1974 – India and Pakistan decide to end a 10-year trade ban.

1974 – Pioneer II sends photos back to NASA as it nears Jupiter.

1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope in 1,000 years to attend an Orthodox mass.

1979 – Pink Floyd released the album “The Wall.”

 
Always do right.  This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.  –Mark Twain.

photos of the day

November 30, 2012

A block of encrusted silver coins from the shipwreck of a 1804 galleon, on its first display to the media at a ministry building, in Madrid. Spanish cultural officials have allowed the first peep at 16 tons (14.5 metric tons) of the shipwreck, ‘Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes’ a treasure worth an estimated $500 million that a US salvage company gave up after a five-year international ownership dispute.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP

A Sotheby’s employee carefully handles one volume of a medieval manuscript , Philip The Good’s copy of ‘Mystere de la Vengeance’ unseen on the market for 200 years, during a press viewing in London. The manuscript which comprises of two volumes estimated at 4-6 million pounds (6.5-9.6 million US Dollars) will go on sale in the evening sale of Old Master Paintings and Drawings on Dec. 5 in London.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

 

Market Closes for November 30th, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13025.58	+3.76    +0.03%
S&P 500	1416.18	+0.23    +0.02%
NASDAQ	3010.241	-1.786    -0.06%
TSX	12239.36	+36.51
		+0.30%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9446.01	+45.13
		+0.48%
HANG  SENG	22030.39	+107.50
		+0.49%
SENSEX	19339.90	+168.99
		+0.88%
FTSE 100	5866.82	-3.48
		-0.06%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.700	1.709
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.294	2.297
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6156	1.6182
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8089	2.7956

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99382	0.99283
US   $	1.00622	1.00722
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29033	0.77500
US  $	1.29385	0.77021

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1714.80	1725.75
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	88.91	88.07
BRENT	113.09	112.16

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks erased losses in the final minutes of trading, paring the first monthly drop for the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index since May, before MSCI Inc. rebalanced its global indexes after a semi-annual review.

Dollarama Inc., the only Canadian stock added to the MSCI Canada Index, rallied 1.5 percent. Nexen Inc., which is awaiting approval of its sale to China’s Cnooc Ltd., rallied 4.9 percent to snap nine days of losses after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the government will soon make decisions on foreign-investment guidelines.

The S&P/TSX rose 0.3 percent to 12,239.36 in Toronto, erasing an earlier decline of as much as 0.3 percent. The benchmark Canadian equity gauge retreated 1.5 percent for the month. Trading volume was 20 percent higher than the 30-day average.

“The activity both on the volume and movement side of the market today was as a result of the MSCI rebalance,” said Brian Huen, managing partner with Red Sky Capital Management Ltd. in Toronto. His firm manages about C$220 million. “The reason these stocks go up is because there are so many funds that track it.”

Amendments to indexes can alter share prices as passively managed funds buy and sell stocks to mirror the benchmark indexes. Some $321.9 billion was invested in exchange-traded funds linked to MSCI indexes at the end of October, according to MSCI. About $3 trillion of funds are benchmarked against its indexes globally.

Dollarama, which added 1.5 percent to C$63.45, was added to the MSCI Canada Index, according to a statement from the index company. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. lost 2.8 percent to C$343.94 and Precision Drilling Corp. added 2.2 percent to C$7.44 as the two stocks were removed.

Canada’s economic growth slowed to a 0.6 percent annualized pace in the third quarter as consumer spending gains were blunted by the fastest export decline since the end of the last recession and falling business investment. The gain in gross domestic product for July to September was the slowest in more than a year and short of analysts’ estimates, according to a survey by Bloomberg.

Financial stocks contributed the most to gains in the S&P/TSX as nine of 10 industries advanced. Talisman Energy dropped 3.2 percent to C$11.18 after Randy Ollenberger, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, cut his rating on the oil and natural gas producer to market perform from outperform.

Richmont Mines Inc. slumped 26 percent to C$2.82. The gold producer said it closed a mine and suspended exploration at another near Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. The company cut its output forecast for next year.

Nexen added 4.9 percent to C$24.39. Canadian regulators are reviewing the sale of Calgary-based Nexen and an appeal of Petroliam Nasional Bhd.’s rejected C$5.2 billion ($5.24 billion) bid for Progress Energy Resources Corp.

Trilogy Energy Corp. rose 3.2 percent to C$28.64 and Bonterra Energy Corp. added 2.5 percent to C$44.02. Crude for January delivery rose 1 percent to settle at $88.91 for its first monthly gain since August.

US

By Inyoung Hwang

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks erased losses in the final 15 minutes, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a second weekly gain, as investors bought shares before changes to MSCI Inc. indexes amid federal budget talks.

MetroPCS Communications Inc. rallied 5 percent as Guggenheim Securities LLC said the wireless carrier could get a bid from Sprint Nextel Corp. VeriSign Inc. plunged 13 percent, the most in the S&P 500, after a new contract letting the company manage Web sites ending in .com limited price increases.

Yum! Brands Inc. lost 9.9 percent after saying same-store sales in China will decline. Zynga Inc. dropped 6.1 percent after loosening terms of its longstanding alliance with Facebook Inc.

The S&P 500 rose less than 0.1 percent to 1,416.18 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 3.76 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 13,025.58. More than 7.1 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 15 percent above the three-month average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“A lot of the volatility near today’s close is due to the MSCI rebalance,” Ryan Larson, the Chicago-based head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., said by e-mail. His firm oversees $250 billion. “Outside of that, we’ve been trading solely on political rhetoric in Washington.”

Changes to MSCI’s global indexes were implemented at the close of trading today, causing the S&P 500 to jump as much as 0.2 percent to its highest intraday level of 1,418.86 within the final two minutes of trading before paring most of its gain by the close. The eight U.S. companies that were added included homebuilder Lennar Corp. and Under Armour Inc., a sportswear maker. For-profit educator Apollo Group Inc. and coal miner Walter Energy Inc. were among the seven stocks removed.

MSCI, the developer of gauges such as the MSCI World Index of 24 developed countries, made the changes after a semi-annual review. Amendments to indexes can alter share prices as passively managed funds buy and sell stocks to mirror the benchmark indexes. About $3 trillion of funds are benchmarked against its indexes globally, according to MSCI. Some $321.9 billion was invested in exchange-traded funds linked to MSCI indexes at the end of October.

“Rebalances can sometimes create price dislocation,” Mike Shea, a managing partner at New York-based brokerage firm Direct Access Partners LLC, wrote in an e-mail. “Let’s also not forget the competitive nature of Wall Street. Not every investor simply places their order into the end of day closing match. Some try and outperform that closing price. So it is not uncommon to see more aggressive trading around the close.”

President Barack Obama earlier today warned of “prolonged negotiations” ahead as congressional Republicans dug in on their opposition to his plan to avert the fiscal cliff. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters in Washington “right now we’re almost nowhere” on talks.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.5 percent this week and rose 0.3 percent for the month. U.S. stocks have swung between gains and losses amid lawmakers’ comments on whether an agreement can be reached to avert more than $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to begin on Jan. 1. The benchmark gauge of U.S. stocks has lost 0.9 percent since the president won re- election on Nov. 6.

Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity strategy at Bank of America Corp. wrote in a note that she expects the market to be in a “better place” by mid-2013, as the equity risk premium gradually declines. She cited a bottoming in China growth, reduced tail risk from Europe and a multi-stage solution to the fiscal cliff. New York-based Subramanian forecasts the S&P 500 will reach 1,600 at the end of next year on earnings of $110 a share.

U.S. equity funds tracked by EPFR Global attracted more than $10 billion in net inflows during the fourth week of November, their best showing in more than a year, according to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research firm.

Spending by U.S. consumers unexpectedly declined and incomes stagnated in October as superstorm Sandy kept those in the Northeast from getting to work or from shopping at malls and car dealerships.

Purchases decreased 0.2 percent, the weakest reading since May, after a 0.8 percent gain in the prior month, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for no change in so-called nominal sales. Incomes were unchanged, held down by a drop in wages caused by Sandy.

“I’m concerned that the fundamentals are starting to roll over,” Douglas Cote, chief market strategist at New York-based ING U.S. Investment Management, said in a telephone interview.

His firm oversees about $165 billion. “I did not like the consumer numbers out today. Personal income and personal spending were below consensus. People say it’s because of Sandy but the consensus knew about Sandy and it’s below the Sandy- factored-in consensus. That’s a concern.”

Utility companies advanced 1 percent for the biggest gain among 10 industries in the S&P 500. The sector has increased for five straight days, the longest winning streak since July 2. It is still the only S&P 500 group to be down this year, having fallen 2.7 percent.

MetroPCS rallied 5 percent to $10.65. Guggenheim analyst Shing Yin said the pay-as-you-go wireless carrier could get a bid in the next one to four weeks from Sprint for as much as $13 a share. MetroPCS agreed last month to merge with Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA division. Under the deal, the German parent company will hold 74 percent of the combined entity and pay MetroPCS shareholders $1.5 billion in cash.

St. Jude Medical Inc. added 1.8 percent to $34.28. The second-largest manufacturer of heart rhythm devices authorized a share buyback program for as much as $1 billion amid a U.S. regulatory review for the manufacturing of one of its key products. The St. Paul, Minnesota-based company was raised to buy from neutral at Mizuho Securities USA.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. rallied for a fourth straight day, rising 7.8 percent to $2.20. The second-largest maker of personal-computer processors has surged 18 percent since Nov. 27 amid a report it will sell its Austin, Texas campus to raise cash. Shares of the Sunnyvale, California-based company are still down 59 percent this year.

VeriSign tumbled 13 percent to $34.15. The U.S. Department of Commerce approved a contract extension through Nov. 30, 2018, that lets the main manager of the Internet-address database continue current pricing of $7.85 per domain name registration.

VeriSign no longer has the right to four price increases of as much as 7 percent over the term of the contract, an option that was included in the previous accord.

Yum fell 9.9 percent to $67.08. The company, owner of the Taco Bell and KFC dining chains, said fourth-quarter same-store sales in China will decline 4 percent from a year earlier.

Other consumer-discretionary shares slumped. Coach Inc., the largest U.S. luxury handbag maker, dropped 2.6 percent to $57.84. Tiffany & Co. slumped 1.4 percent to $58.98, while homebuilder PulteGroup Inc. sank 1.9 percent to $16.81.

Zynga Inc. erased 6.1 percent to $2.46, while Facebook rose 2.5 percent to $28 after earlier falling as much as 2.1 percent.

The companies loosened terms of their longstanding alliance, making it easier for competing game developers to vie for users on the world’s largest social-networking service. The new terms eased log-in, payment and advertising requirements for Zynga, which makes most of its money by selling virtual goods in games played on Facebook.

Groupon Inc. lost 8.7 percent to $4.15. The largest provider of online coupon has no immediate plans to replace Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mason after its board met to deliberate whether to make changes to senior management.

Directors of the Chicago-based company met yesterday and some members were planning to voice frustration with Mason’s leadership, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

It is not others who must change, but you.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

I am not an adventurer by choice

but by fate.

-Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890

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:

A lovely thought to share:

A friend of mine, Nelson, who lives up in North Carolina, told me a story about something that happened to him some time ago. Nelson is loved by everyone who knows him. He lives next door to a seasoned gardener.  One day she asked him to watch over her flowers while she was on vacation, in particular, her geraniums. She stressed the importance of deadheading – pinching off the flowers that have died to make room for more blossoms and growth of new flowers.  Nelson took this assignment seriously. For the first few days, he scanned the flowers for dead blossoms, dutifully pinching them off and throwing them away.  He told me that then, four days after he had begun deadheading, as he gazed at the pots he noticed how brilliant the geraniums were. He suddenly realized that he’d spent the first part of the week focusing on the dead flowers and had overlooked the beauty of the garden and each individual plant by looking for death instead of life. He became incredibly grateful for life and being.

Thinking about our conversation, I realized how often I have concentrated on the “dead flowers” in my experience and missed some of the beauty of the good that is going on. How often discouragement, failure, missed opportunities, and fear have kept me from being grateful for life, from seeing the beautiful, the good, and the true picture. At times I had overlooked life’s most wonderful treasures, failing to be truly grateful for all the good in my life.  I can now see the power in being grateful for the good that surrounds us, for every loving and joyful thought, for family, for friendship, for being alive and able to share God’s love – grateful for seeing life instead of death and its faded blooms. – Pat Collins, adapted from the author’s blog

 

On this date in 2001, George Harrison, lead guitarist of the Beatles, passed away. He died at 58 years old after suffering from lung cancer. –Steven Russolillo, WSJ, 11/29/12

And also on this date in…

1832 – Louisa May Alcott was born.

1878 – C.S. Lewis was born.

1949 – The United States announces it will conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.

1961 – NASA launches a chimpanzee named Enos into Earth orbit.

1962 – Algeria bans the Communist Party.

1963 – President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints Chief Justice Earl Warren head of a commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

1989 – Czechoslovakia ends communist rule.

 

Be content to act, and leave the talking to others. –Baltasa

photos of the day

November 28, 2012

Two elephants reach out to each other at the Sonepur cattle fair in Saran district in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. The fair, which is held annually, was originally a cattle and animal market where traders bought and sold livestock on the holy river Ganges.

Aftab Alam Siddiqui/AP

Joggers run past trees on a foggy morning in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, western Germany.

Sascha Schuermann/dapd/AP

 

Market Closes for November 29th, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13021.82	+36.71    +0.28%
S&P 500	1415.97	+6.04    +0.43%
NASDAQ	3012.027	+20.249    +0.68%
TSX	12205.36	+65.03
		+0.54%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9400.88	+92.53
		+0.99%
HANG  SENG	21922.89	+213.91
		+0.99%
SENSEX	19170.91	+328.83
		+1.75%
FTSE 100	5870.30	+67.02
		+1.15%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.709	1.718
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.297	2.302
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6182	1.6284
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.7956	2.7979

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99283	0.99204
US   $	1.00722	1.00803
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.28831	0.77621
US  $	1.29762	0.77064

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1725.75	1719.70
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	88.07	86.49
BRENT	112.16	111.18

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Lu Wang and Eric Lam

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks gained for a second day amid optimism that a U.S. budget agreement will be reached and as Research In Motion Ltd. and Inmet Mining Corp. rallied.

RIM jumped 4.4 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. upgraded the stock to buy. Inmet, a Canadian copper and zinc producer, added 5.7 percent after announcing yesterday that it rejected a takeover offer from First Quantum Minerals Ltd. Royal Bank of Canada, the first Canadian lender to report fourth- quarter results, climbed 0.5 percent as profit rose 22 percent on higher trading and investment-banking fees.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 62.52 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,202.85 in Toronto. The equity gauge is up 2.1 percent this year.

“There will be some headline risk the next month or so, but the general consensus is everyone wants to work toward a deal and the market is reflecting that,” said Youssef Zohny, portfolio manager with Stenner Investment Partners of Richardson GMP, on the phone from Vancouver. Richardson GMP manages about C$14.5 billion ($14.6 billion). “We can also point to some decent U.S. economic data today.”

U.S. congressional leaders are working toward an agreement to avert more than $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to begin next year. Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner told reporters “no substantive progress” has been made in budget talks. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Democrats were all on the same page and Senator Chuck Schumer said there has been progress.

U.S. data showed today that Americans signed more contracts in October to purchase previously owned homes and the economy grew at a faster pace than earlier estimated during the third quarter.

Energy companies and banks contributed the most to gains on the S&P/TSX as all 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was 4.6 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. added 1.1 percent to C$28.54 as oil rose for the first time in four days. Crude for January delivery climbed 1.8 percent to settle at $88.07 a barrel in New York.

RIM advanced 4.4 percent to $11.48. Goldman’s upgrade is the latest in a wave of higher analyst ratings amid fresh optimism for the new BlackBerry 10 phones, which are set to go on sale in February. While RIM’s current BlackBerry lineup continues to lose market share to Apple Inc.’s iOS and devices that run Google Inc.’s Android software, the new phones may change that, said Simona Jankowski, a Goldman analyst.

Inmet, which is developing the $6.2 billion Cobre Panama copper mine, gained 5.7 percent to C$65.50. It rallied 17 percent yesterday after saying it declined the C$4.86 billion unsolicited offer from First Quantum. Shares of First Quantum slipped 2.1 percent to C$20.37 today, bringing its weekly decline to 6.7 percent.

Royal Bank added 0.5 percent to C$58.61. Canada’s largest lender by assets benefited in the quarter from a surge in fixed- income trading and gains in its RBC Capital Markets investment bank. Analysts and investors expect Canadian banks to offset slower growth in consumer lending and mortgages with fees for arranging stock sales, trading and advising on takeovers.

Gildan Activewear Inc. rose 2.7 percent to C$33.98. The underwear maker estimated adjusted earnings of $2.60 to $2.70 a share for fiscal 2013, ahead of analysts’ estimates of $2.49.

Gildan also raised its dividend to 9 cents a share from 7.5 cents a share.

US

By Inyoung Hwang

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for a second day, amid investor optimism that lawmakers will reach a resolution in federal budget negotiations.

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 rose as commodity producers rallied. Apple Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. led an advance in technology stocks. Kroger Co. jumped 4.8 percent after boosting its profit projection for the year. Walt Disney Co., the world’s largest entertainment company, added 1.1 percent after raising its dividend. Tiffany & Co. tumbled 6.2 percent after cutting its profit forecast. Kohl’s Corp. plunged 12 percent after reporting disappointing sales for November.

The S&P 500 increased 0.4 percent to 1,415.95, the highest level since Nov. 6, at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 36.71 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,021.82. About 6.2 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, in line with the three-month average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“There’s going to be increasingly divisive negotiations that might shake the market’s confidence a bit,” Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial Corp. in Boston, which oversees $350 billion, said in a telephone interview. “We might see a lot of volatility.”

Equities briefly erased gains after Speaker of the House John Boehner said to reporters in Washington today that “no substantive progress” has been made in budget talks. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Democrats were all on the same page on budget talks and Senator Chuck Schumer said there has been progress, helping the market recover after Boehner’s comments.

U.S. stocks have been whipsawed amid lawmakers’ comments on whether an agreement can be reached to avert more than $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to begin on Jan. 1. The S&P 500 rose yesterday after comments by Boehner and President Barack Obama fueled optimism a deal would be made before the end of the year. The benchmark gauge of U.S. stocks has declined 0.9 percent since the president won re-election on Nov. 6.

Obama reached out to chief executives and middle-income taxpayers yesterday, imploring them to press Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff as he said he wants to get a deal “done before Christmas.” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner arrived at the Capitol today to face demands from Republican leaders to spell out spending cuts. He began his round of meetings with each of the top four leaders in Congress in Reid’s office.

“Equity markets will be very beholden to the incremental statements regarding the fiscal cliff, either progress or lack of progress,” Jim Russell, the Cincinnati-based chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, which oversees about $113 billion, said in a telephone interview.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Kostin wrote in a report that stocks will outperform Treasuries next year as S&P 500 sales and profit growth boost the price-earnings multiple. “The turbulent political environment that curtailed corporate risk- taking in 2012 will end,” Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at the New York-based firm, said.

Stocks gained earlier as a report showed Americans signed more contracts in October to purchase previously owned homes, another sign the recovery in the housing market is being sustained. The index of pending home resales climbed 5.2 percent, exceeding the highest estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists, to 104.8, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median forecast in the Bloomberg survey called for a 1 percent gain.

Gross domestic product grew at a 2.7 percent annual rate, up from a 2 percent prior estimate, revised figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 82 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 2.8 percent gain. Fewer Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments last week as the labor market disruptions wrought by superstorm Sandy ebbed.

Raw-material producers rose 0.6 percent as a group today.

The S&P GSCI Index, which tracks 24 commodities, halted three straight days of losses, climbing 1.1 percent.

Technology companies also advanced, increasing 0.4 percent.

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, rallied 1.1 percent to $589.36. AMD added 4.1 percent to $2.04. The second-largest maker of personal-computer processors has jumped 8.5 percent in two days amid optimism that the sale of its campus in Austin, Texas, may help shore up cash reserves.

Kroger rose 4.8 percent to $26.25. The supermarket operator boosted its profit projection for the fiscal year to at least $2.44 a share. That’s up from the previous guidance of no more than $2.42 and higher than the average analyst estimate.

Walt Disney gained 1.1 percent to $49.72 after raising its annual dividend by 25 percent, joining other companies boosting their payouts ahead of an expected tax-rate increase next year.

The payment of 75 cents per share will be made on Dec. 28 to shareholders as of Dec. 10. The previous 60-cent annual dividend was paid to investors in January.

Research In Motion Ltd. added 4 percent to $11.54 as Goldman Sachs upgraded the BlackBerry maker to buy from neutral, saying the new BlackBerry 10 phones could help it return to profitability in fiscal 2014.

Pandora Media Inc. increased 7.5 percent to $8.79.

Cannacord Genuity Ltd.’s Michael Graham, who rates the biggest online radio service with a buy, said Apple’s recent management changes may slow the development of the iPhone maker’s competing Internet radio.

Tiffany tumbled 6.2 percent to $59.80. The world’s second- largest jewelry retailer cut its annual profit forecast for the third time this year after higher diamond costs ate into margins and customers curbed spending in weak economies. The New York- based company’s gross margin, a key measure of profitability, shrank more than analysts anticipated last quarter as precious- metals costs also increased.

Kohl’s plunged 12 percent to $45.02. The department-store chain operator said same-store sales in November will be down 5.6 percent, missing the average analyst estimate, which called for an increase of 2.1 percent.

Supervalu Inc. sank 19 percent, the most since July, to $2.28. Cerberus Capital Management LP’s pursuit of the grocery- chain operator has stalled because the private-equity firm has had trouble obtaining the funds for a leveraged buyout, said people familiar with the matter. Potential lenders are balking because they’re concerned over how the Eden Prairie, Minnesota- based chain will manage the increased debt load as revenue shrinks, said the people.

Aeropostale Inc. dropped 5 percent to $13.42 after the teen-apparel retailer projected fourth-quarter earnings per share of 36 cents to 41 cents, compared with the average analyst estimate that called for 55 cents. Chief Executive Officer Thomas Johnson said Black Friday weekend sales were “encouraging,” while he remains “cautious” for the rest of the quarter.

A Bloomberg Global Poll published today showed that three out of four global investors expect Obama and congressional leaders to reach a short-term agreement. Only 6 percent of investors anticipate a political impasse that would send the U.S. economy over the fiscal cliff and into a recession, according to the poll conducted on Nov. 27.

The world economy is in its best shape in 18 months as China’s prospects improve and the U.S. looks likely to avoid the fiscal cliff, according to the poll. Two-thirds of the 862 surveyed described the global economy either as stable or as improving. That’s up from just over half who said that in September and is the most since May 2011.

The U.S. came out on top for the eighth straight quarter when investors were asked which markets will offer the best opportunities over the next year.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

“If I change, will the world have any value?”

That is a wrong question, if one may point out.  It is wrong because you are the rest of humanity.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.

-Juan Ramon Jimenez,  1881-1958

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:

“In a new study, researchers found that when people wrote down their unwanted negative thoughts on a piece of paper and then threw the paper away, they mentally discarded the thoughts as well,” reports Psych Central.  “The new study also found that people were more likely to use their thoughts when making judgments if they first wrote them down on a piece of paper and put the paper in a pocket to protect it.  ‘However you tag your thoughts – as trash or as worthy of protection – seems to make a difference in how you use those thoughts,’ said Richard Petty, PhD, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.  ‘At some level, it can sound silly.  But we found that it really works:  By physically throwing away or protecting your thoughts, you influence how you end up using those thoughts.  Merely imagining engaging in those actions has no effect.’ “  -Michael Kesterton, Globe & mail, 11/28/12.

I just finished reading a book last night  by Gretchen Rubin entitled The Happiness Project – Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun (Harper Colllins, 2011 ed.). It’s worth the read. You can also visit her popular daily blog at www.happiness-project.com.

 

On this day in…

1757 – the poet, William  Blake was born.

1941 – The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise departs from Pearl Harbor to deliver F4F Wildcat fighters to Wake Island. This mission saves the carrier from destruction when the Japanese attack.

1943 – Sir Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet at Tehran, Iran, to hammer out war aims.

1948 – Dr. Edwin Land’s first Polaroid cameras go on sale in Boston.

1950 – In Korea, 200,000 Communist troops launch attack on UN forces.

1962 – Comedian Jon Stewart was born.

 

photos of the day

November 28, 2012

Trees decorated with Christmas lights are reflected in a puddle as people walk along the Unter den Linden promenade in Berlin.

Thomas Peter/Reuters

Waves crash over lava as it flows into the ocean near Volcanoes National Park in Kalapana, Hawaii, Tuesday. The volcano is creating a rare and spectacular fusion of steam and waves.

Hugh Gentry/Reuters

 

Market Closes for November 28th, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12985.11	+106.98    +0.83%
S&P 500	1409.93	+10.99    +0.79%
NASDAQ	2991.779	+23.987    +0.81%
TSX	12140.33	+28.70
		+0.24%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9308.35	-114.95
		-1.22%
HANG  SENG	21708.98	-135.05
		-0.62%
SENSEX	18842.08	+305.07
		+1.65%
FTSE 100	5803.28	+3.57
		+0.06%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.718	1.733
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.302	2.314
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6284	1.6625
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.7979	2.8011

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99204	0.99414
US   $	1.00803	1.00589
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.28443	0.77856
US  $	1.29474	0.77236

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1719.70	1742.15
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	86.49	87.18
BRENT	111.18	111.80

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks gained, erasing earlier losses in the final hour of trading, as base metals producers rallied after Inmet Mining Corp. rejected a takeover offer from First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

Inmet, a Canadian copper and zinc producer, soared 18 percent as it declined the C$4.86 billion ($4.9 billion) unsolicited offer from First Quantum. Poseidon Concepts Corp. sank 22 percent after a proposed class action was filed alleging officers and directors made false statements about the company’s financial position. SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. dropped 2.3 percent after former Chief Executive Officer Pierre Duhaime was arrested today by Quebec investigators.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 28.70 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,140.33 in Toronto, erasing an earlier loss of as much as 0.9 percent. The equity gauge has declined 0.6 percent this week amid concern over progress in U.S. budget talks to avert the so-called fiscal cliff.

“Investors have fiscal cliff on the brain, and it’s overhanging the marketplace,” said Irwin Michael, fund manager with ABC Funds in Toronto. His firm manages about C$1 billion.

Raw materials and energy companies contributed most to gains on the S&P/TSX as five of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was 2.9 percent higher than the 30-day average.

The U.S. Congress is seeking a budget deal to prevent $607 billion of automatic tax increases and spending cuts from kicking in next year. If a compromise is not reached, the country is expected to fall into recession in the first half of the year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

President Barack Obama reached out to chief executives and middle-income taxpayers today, imploring them to press Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff as he said he wants to get a deal “done before Christmas.” U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner said he is optimistic lawmakers can “avert this crisis sooner rather than later.”

Inmet jumped 18 percent to C$62. The company said it turned down a C$70-a-share offer in cash and stock from First Quantum made Nov. 25. First Quantum had first offered $62.50 a share on Oct. 28, an offer Inmet also rejected, the company said. Inmet is developing the $6.2 billion Cobre Panama copper-mining project in the Latin American nation.

First Quantum dropped 1.6 percent to C$20.80.

Silver Standard Resources Inc. decreased 4.3 percent to C$13.06 as silver futures for March delivery slumped 0.9 percent to $33.77 an ounce in New York, the biggest decline since Nov. 16.

Poseidon, which sells containment tanks for waste fluids produced from the oil and gas industry, tumbled 22 percent to C$4.06. Siskinds LLP said in a statement it has filed a proposed class action in Ontario Superior Court seeking C$200 million in damages. The proposed class includes anyone who bought securities in the company on or before Nov. 14.

On Nov. 15, Poseidon plunged 62 percent, the most in its history, after reporting results that fell short of analysts’ estimates. Analysts at at least six firms lowered their recommendations on the stock as a result.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest energy producer, sank 0.5 percent to C$32.73. Crude for January delivery retreated 0.8 percent to $86.49 a barrel in New York, paring earlier losses of as much as 2.1 percent after the U.S. Energy Department said supplies unexpectedly decreased last week.

SNC, Canada’s largest construction and engineering company, fell 2.3 percent to $39.99 after Duhaime, who retired earlier this year amid a corruption scandal at the company, was arrested by Quebec’s anti-corruption unit. Charges include fraud, fraud conspiracy and forgery, Anne-Frederick Laurence, a spokeswoman for the police unit, said in a phone interview.

CGI Group Inc., which provides information technology services, lost 3.9 percent to C$23.12 after reporting fourth- quarter adjusted earnings of 37 Canadian cents a share, short of analysts’ estimates of 42 cents.

US

By Inyoung Hwang

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, erasing an earlier loss for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, after comments by Speaker of the House John Boehner and President Barack Obama fueled optimism an agreement can be reached in budget talks.

Costco Wholesale Corp. advanced 6.3 percent after saying it plans to pay a special dividend. J.C. Penney Co. rallied 4.6 percent as consumer staples and discretionary stocks posted gains among 10 groups in the S&P 500. Knight Capital Group Inc. jumped 15 percent after receiving takeover offers from Getco LLC and Virtu Financial LLC. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. dropped 1.3 percent as commodities declined.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8 percent to 1,409.93 in New York, after erasing a decline of as much as 1 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 106.98 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,985.11 today. About 6.1 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, in line with the three-month average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Obama “was confident of something being done by the end of the year,” Thomas Garcia, head of equity trading at Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management Inc., said in an e-mail. His firm oversees about $80 billion. “This is something that the market is worried about not getting done by year-end, so if they can get it done, it would provide some relief. The market doesn’t like uncertainty.”

Equities reversed declines as Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he is optimistic lawmakers engaged in budget talks can “avert this crisis sooner rather than later.” He made his remarks to reporters, while saying he continues to oppose the expiration of tax cuts for top earners and Democrats need to get “serious” on budget cuts. Obama said separately at the White House, “My hope is to get this done before Christmas.”

Stocks fell earlier after Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of Obama’s 2010 fiscal commission, said it’s unlikely the president and Congress will reach a deal by the end of this year. The president met with business leaders today, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein.

The S&P 500 has declined 1.3 percent since Obama was re- elected on Nov. 6 as he seeks a budget agreement with the Republican-controlled House. The deal is aimed at avoiding $607 billion of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that come into effect next year.

Sales of new U.S. homes dropped 0.3 percent to a 368,000 annual pace following a revised 369,000 rate in September that was weaker than initially reported, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median estimate of 74 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 390,000 sales pace.

The U.S. economy expanded at a “measured pace” in recent weeks as gains in consumer demand and housing were tempered by a slowdown in manufacturing and the impact of superstorm Sandy, the Federal Reserve said today in its Beige Book business survey, which is based on reports from the Fed’s 12 district banks.

The report indicates that Fed policy makers are unlikely to curtail monthly purchases of $40 billion in housing debt to boost the three-year economic expansion. It also bolsters Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s view that an agreement on reducing long-term federal budget deficits without abrupt tax increases and spending cuts would remove a barrier to growth.

“The market is at the mercy of the fiscal cliff until we get some sort of resolution,” Liz Ann Sonders, the New York- based chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab Corp., which has $1.9 trillion in client assets, said by phone. “The worst scenario in general, particularly for psychology, would be just a total can kick — something like, ‘We can’t come up with a solution. We’re just going to kick this thing six months down the road, without giving the market a path between now and then.’”

Costco advanced 6.3 percent for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 to $102.58. The largest U.S. warehouse-club chain said it plans to pay shareholders a special dividend totaling about $3 billion. Costco is among more than 16 companies in the Russell 1000 Index that have set a special dividend this quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Dillard’s Inc., Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Carnival Corp. are among the others.

“We would expect this trend to continue through year- end,” Dane Mott, a San Francisco-based accounting analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., wrote yesterday in a report. Mott, based in San Francisco, wrote that companies are seeking to “take advantage of the favorable tax treatment for dividends in 2012 relative to the potential environment in 2013.”

Payouts made this year are subject to a 15 percent federal tax. Next year’s rate may rise to as high as 43.4 percent as part of the fiscal cliff.

J.C. Penney rallied 4.6 percent to $18.32 as consumer stocks rallied. Coach Inc. also gained, rising 4.4 percent to $60.15, as discretionary companies jumped 1.3 percent. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. added 1.5 percent to $70.56, as staples companies rose 0.9 percent.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. rose 4.3 percent to $1.96.

Reuters reported that the second-largest maker of personal- computer processors is selling its Austin, Texas, campus to raise cash. The Sunnyvale, California-based company expects to raise as much as $200 million in the sale, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed spokesman.

Knight Capital climbed 15 percent to $3.42. Getco, the Chicago-based high-frequency trader, offered cash and stock that values Knight at $3.50 a share, an 18 percent premium from yesterday’s close, according to a filing today.

Virtu submitted a bid to buy Knight for about $3 a share, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. Knight was bailed out by six financial companies in August after losing more than $450 million in a trading malfunction.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. surged 27 percent to $36.86 after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that beat projections. Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Blanford has sought to boost sales with a new Keurig machine that makes milk- based drinks. Blanford also developed an espresso maker with Luigi Lavazza SpA that went on sale in time for the holidays.

Cliffs dropped 1.3 percent to $29.61. The S&P GSCI Index that tracks 24 commodities slid 0.5 percent, falling for the third straight day.

Principal Financial Group Inc. declined 1.9 percent to $26.80. The U.S. insurer that agreed to buy a Chilean pension provider for $1.5 billion last month gave a 2013 outlook that fell short of some estimates.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Society cannot be changed unless man changes.

Man, you and others, have created these societies

for generations upon generations.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

A short saying oft contains much wisdom.

-Sophocles, 496-406 BC

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:

 

Attended the Bruce Springsteen concert last night – he and the E Street Band put on an amazing concert…

Remember these great lyrics

 

Now everyone dreams of a love lasting and true
But you and I know what this world can do
So lets make our steps clear that the other may see
And I’ll wait for you
If I should fall behind
Wait for me

-from If I should Fall Behind

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love

-from Into the Fire

On this day in…

1910 – New York’s Pennsylvania Station opened.

1940 – Bruce Lee was born.

1942 – Jimi Hendrix was born.

1942 – The French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis.

1953 – Playwright Eugene O’Neill died at age 65.

1973 – The Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who had resigned.

1985 – The British House of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord, giving Dublin a consultative role in the governing of British-ruled Northern Ireland.

2002 – U.N. specialists began a new round of weapons inspections in Iraq.

2008 – Iraq’s parliament approved a pact requiring all U.S. troops to be out of the country by Jan. 1, 2012.

2009 – Golfer Tiger Woods crashed his SUV outside his Florida mansion, sparking widespread attention to reports of marital infidelity.

 

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. – Ralph Nader.

photos of the day

November 27, 2012

Snow accumulates on cattails in a pond at the Twin Stacks Center in Dallas, Pa.

Mark Moran/The Citizens’ Voice/AP

Commuters cross the Millenium Bridge during a rainy morning, towards the financial district the City of London. In background is St Paul’s Cathedral.

Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

 

Market Closes for November 27th, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12878.13	-89.24    -0.69%
S&P 500	1398.94	-7.35    -0.52%
NASDAQ	2967.792	-8.991    -0.30%
TSX	12111.63	-73.42
		-0.60%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9423.30	+34.36
		+0.37%
HANG  SENG	21844.03	-17.78
		-0.08%
SENSEX	18842.08	+305.07
		+1.65%
FTSE 100	5799.71	+12.99
		+0.22%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.733	1.761
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.314	2.343
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6369	1.6625
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.7863	2.8011

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99414	0.99299
US   $	1.00589	1.00706
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.28682	0.77711
US  $	1.29440	0.77256

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1742.15	1748.70
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	87.18	87.74
BRENT	111.80	112.71

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for a second day after declines in gold dragged down metal producers and a report showed Research In Motion Ltd.’s market share is shrinking.

RIM slumped 10 percent, the most in five months, after a report said the BlackBerry’s U.S. market share has dropped to 1.6 percent. Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. and Goldcorp Inc. lost at least 3.3 percent as gold fell for a second day. Bombardier Inc. rallied 8 percent as the Montreal-based aerospace company won the biggest business-jet deal in its history.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index lost 73.42 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,111.63 in Toronto. The benchmark Canadian equity gauge is up 1.3 percent this year.

“There’s a great deal of skepticism about what’s going on in terms of the fiscal cliff, Europe, and the global economy in the background,” said Ian Nakamoto, director of research with MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Inc. in Toronto. His firm manages about $4 billion. “There’s still a large risk-averse mentality out there.”

Raw materials and energy stocks contributed most to declines in the S&P/TSX as eight of 10 industries retreated.

Trading volume was in line with the 30-day average. The S&P/TSX rose 2.8 percent last week, the largest weekly gain since December 2011.

After a 13-hour meeting in Brussels, European finance ministers came to an agreement early today on new emergency aid terms for debt-stricken Greece. The ministers cut the rates on bailout loans, suspended interest payments for a decade, gave Greece more time to repay and engineered a Greek bond buyback.

The country was also cleared to receive a 34.4 billion-euro ($44.7 billion) loan installment in December.

Canadian corporate profits rebounded in the third quarter, led by manufacturing companies and banks, government figures showed. Operating profits rose 3.7 percent to C$72.2 billion ($72.8 billion) in the July-September period following a 7 percent drop in the previous quarter, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. From the year-earlier period, profits gained 3.1 percent.

Agnico-Eagle fell 3.3 percent to C$55.02 and Goldcorp, the world’s second-largest producer of the metal, slipped 4.5 percent to C$38.95. Gold for December delivery dropped 0.4 percent to settle at $1,742.30 an ounce in New York, the biggest decline since Nov. 20. Physical demand for gold in India, last year’s biggest buyer, has retreated, according to a report from UBS AG today.

RIM, set to release its BlackBerry 10 line of smartphones in February, sank 10 percent to C$10.70 for the biggest loss since June 29. BlackBerry’s market share in the U.S. fell to 1.6 percent from 8.5 percent over a 12-week period ended Oct. 28, hurt by sales of Apple Inc.’s iPhone, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said today in a report.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., the largest independently owned operator of convenience stores in North America, fell 1.5 percent to C$46.54 after the company reported second-quarter earnings of 90 cents a share, missing the average analyst estimate of 94 cents from a Bloomberg survey.

Bombardier soared 8 percent to C$3.37 after luxury air charter company VistaJet Holding SA ordered 56 Global-series aircraft and took options for 86 more. The deal has a value of $3.1 billion, which would rise to $7.8 billion if all the planes are taken.

US

By Inyoung Hwang

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell for a second day as concern about progress in Washington budget negotiations overshadowed a European agreement on Greece aid and a better- than-forecast report on durable goods.

Nine of 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell.

Hewlett-Packard Co. lost 3 percent after Autonomy Corp.’s former chief executive officer challenged the computer maker’s board to explain allegations that the software company falsified financial statements. Seagate Technology Plc slid 5.1 percent as CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets said the magnitude of the personal- computer slowdown in emerging markets was worse than thought.

The S&P 500 fell 0.5 percent to 1,398.94 in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 89.24 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,878.13. More than 5.9 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, or 2.6 percent below the three-month average at this time of day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The market remains fixated on what’s going on in Washington,” Frederic Dickson, who helps oversee about $32 billion as chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon, said in a telephone interview. “The lack of progress in resolving major fiscal cliff issues is topic A and trumping any kind of positive news whether it’s coming out of Europe or positive economic reports.”

U.S. equities extended declines after Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid said “little progress” has been made in talks to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. “We only have a couple weeks to get something done so we have to get away from the happy talk” and do “specific things,” he told reporters.

The S&P 500 has slipped 2.1 percent since Nov. 6 as President Barack Obama’s re-election set up a showdown with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives over the budget.

Congress returned from the Thanksgiving recess this week, seeking a budget deal to avoid $607 billion of automatic tax increases and spending cuts from kicking in next year.

While Republicans favor raising federal tax revenue by limiting deductions, Democrats have pushed for higher rates on upper-income earners. The Congressional Budget Office has said a failure to avoid the fiscal cliff could lead to a recession and a jobless rate of about 9 percent, compared with the October rate of 7.9 percent.

“It had looked like Washington lawmakers had kissed and made up after the presidential election and while that might still be so, some are reading Mr. Reid’s comments as more work needing to be done,” Larry Peruzzi, senior equity trader at Cabrera Capital Markets LLC in Boston, wrote in an e-mail.

“It’s getting close to the witching hour now so not the best thing to hear.”

In Europe, finance ministers cut the rates on loans made under the first bailout of Greece in May 2010. They also suspended interest payments for a decade on lending agreed under the country’s second bailout. The ministers outlined a plan for the Mediterranean nation to buy back its debt at distressed rates. They authorized Greece to receive a 34.4 billion-euro($44.6 billion) loan installment in December.

“All initiatives decided upon today will bring Greece’s public debt clearly back on a sustainable path,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters in Brussels after chairing a 13-hour meeting that ended early today.

Demand for U.S. goods such as machinery and electronics climbed in October by the most in five months. Bookings for non- defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for future business investment, rose 1.7 percent last month, the Commerce Department reported in Washington. Orders for all durable goods were little changed, beating the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg that projected a 0.7 percent drop.

Another report showed consumer confidence rose in November to the highest level in more than four years. Home prices climbed in the year ended in September by the most since July 2010.

“With the fiscal cliff, there’s going to be good news, bad news, good news, bad news before it’s all settled,” Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Milwaukee-based RW Baird & Co., which oversees $85 billion, said in a telephone interview. “You had some favorable news on the European situation with Greece, durable goods orders were a little better-than-expected, and the market didn’t respond to any of that.”

Hewlett-Packard lost 3 percent, the most in the Dow, to $12.36. Mike Lynch, the former CEO of Autonomy, challenged Hewlett-Packard’s board to explain allegations that Autonomy falsified financial statements, leading to an $8.8 billion writedown. Hewlett-Packard rejected the request, saying it has uncovered evidence of improper accounting at Autonomy as part of an “intense” internal investigation.

Seagate slumped 5.1 percent for the biggest decline in the S&P 500 to $25.95. A team led by CLSA’s Nicolas Baratte wrote that the personal-computer market was facing a “perfect storm” of slow economic growth and developed market consumers deferring purchases for Windows 8 and switching to tablets.

Western Digital Corp., which makes disk drives and network products, also fell, losing 3.1 percent to $34.69.

Zions Bancorporation slid 3.6 percent to $19.96 after the Treasury Department announced yesterday it intends to conduct auctions over the next several weeks to unload warrant positions in Salt Lake City-based Zions and M&T Bank Corp, two of the largest banks in which it still has equity. The assets were acquired in exchange for bailout funding under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

McMoRan Exploration Co. fell 15 percent to $8.18. The oil and gas explorer was cut to sector perform from outperform at the Royal Bank of Canada, meaning that investors should not add to their holdings of the company. McMoRan tumbled 22 percent yesterday after the New Orleans-based company said it hasn’t completed a measurable flow test for its Davy Jones No. 1 well in the Gulf of Mexico, where results were expected this month.

Energy, financial and telephone companies posted the biggest losses out of 10 groups in the S&P 500, falling at least 0.7 percent each. Utility stocks were the only sector to gain, extending their two-day advance to 1.5 percent, the most in more than a month. Utility companies are the only group to have declined this year, losing 4.5 percent.

Corning Inc. jumped 6.9 percent, the most since April, to $12.13. The company, which makes the glass used in Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. devices, cited stronger TV sales in North America and higher demand from the Chinese market ahead of that nation’s New Year holiday. Corning said it now expects its Gorilla Glass product line to generate about $1 billion this year.

Ralcorp Holdings Inc. surged 26 percent to $88.80 after ConAgra Foods Inc. agreed to acquire the company for about $5 billion, creating one of the largest packaged food businesses in North America and concluding a pursuit that began in March of last year. ConAgra jumped 4.7 percent to $29.63.

Monster Beverage Corp. rallied 13 percent to $51.97. The largest U.S. energy drink maker by sales volume rose after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said a Food and Drug Administration response to questions over the safety of energy drinks was “encouraging.” The FDA is employing the help of outside advisers to determine whether the beverages may cause harm when consumed in excess or by those with pre-existing cardiac conditions, it wrote in a letter released today.

Any regulatory outcome is likely to be “benign,” Judy Hong, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, said in a note.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. added 5.3 percent to $46.36. The casino company led by billionaire Sheldon Adelson voted to pay a $2.75-a-share special dividend, its first such distribution, on Dec. 18 to investors of record on Dec. 10, according to a statement yesterday. This month, the company also increased its regular annual dividend by 40 percent to $1.40 a share.

S&P 500 futures pared earlier gains today after Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said he advocates limits on quantitative easing. Fisher said in a speech today in Berlin that the U.S. central bank could “pursue a different course” and announce “a limit as to how much we are going to acquire of treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, say up to a limit of X, up to a point where our balance sheet reaches that.”

He said that could be done “at this next meeting, which would be my preference.” Officials meet Dec. 11-12 to assess whether record accommodation is fueling economic growth and reducing the rate of unemployment. Fisher, who doesn’t vote on policy this year, has been among the most vocal Fed officials against more easing.

 

Have  a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

The connection of love is total.

In love, difference disappears

and the human soul accomplishes

its object in perfection,

exceeding its own boundaries

and traversing the threshold of infinity.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

What we play is life.

-Louis Armstrong, 1901-1971

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,

This past weekend marked another successful year for retailers in America.  Millions of shoppers lined up to take part in the sales offered on Black Friday, which always falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving. But why is it called Black Friday?  The name was given by the Philadelphia Police Department in 1966 because there were many traffic accidents caused from the number of shoppers that came out to get the best store deals. Reports claim that over 307 million people shopped on Black Friday this year and for the first time in history, online retail spending topped 1 billion, according to market research firm comScore. The company says online retail purchases totaled $13.7 billion in the United States during the first 23 days of the holiday shopping season, capped off by a $1.042 billion on the Black Friday binge. That figure is up 26% from the $816 million spent online on Black Friday last year, and Thanksgiving Day spending jumped 32% to $633 million from $479 million in 2011. ComScore also said that it estimates Cyber Monday online spending to top $1.5 billion, up 20% from 2011. Were you brave enough to battle the stores this past weekend?

And on this day in…

1867 – J.B. Sutherland patented the refrigerated railroad car.
1917 – The National Hockey League (NHL) was officially formed in Montreal, Canada.
1922 – In Egypt, Howard Carter peered into the tomb of King Tutankhamen.
1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. In 1939 Roosevelt had signed a bill that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November.
1942 – The motion picture “Casablanca” had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.
1958 – Maurice Richard (Montreal Canadians) scored his 600th NHL career goal.
1965 – France became the third country to enter space when it launched its first satellite theDiamant-A.
1979 – The International Olympic Committee voted to re-admit China after a 21-year absence.
1985 – The rights to Richard Nixon‘s autobiography were acquired by Random House for $3,000,000. 

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” – Barack Obama

photos of the day November 26^th, 2012

A vendor sells Christmas stars on the first day of the Christmas Market near the city hall in Berlin.

A man paddles his kayak by the fountain that looks like a geyser during sunset at the Ada Ciganlija Lake in Belgrade, Serbia. Weather forecast predicts good autumnal weather conditions in Serbia for the upcoming days.

Market Closes for November 26^th, 2012:

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12967.37	-42.31    -0.33%
S&P 500	1406.29	-2.86    -0.20%
NASDAQ	2976.783	+9.929    +0.33%
TSX	12185.05	-28.19
		-0.23%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9388.94	+22.14
		+0.24%
HANG  SENG	21861.81	-52.17
		-0.24%
SENSEX	18537.01	+30.44
		+0.16%
FTSE 100	5786.72	-32.42
		-0.56%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.761	1.787
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.343	2.361
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6625	1.6899
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8011	2.8284

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99299	0.99275
US   $	1.00706	1.00730
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29014	0.77511
US  $	1.29924	0.76968

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1748.70	1753.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	87.74	88.28
BRENT	112.71	113.35

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for the first time in seven days as U.S. budget talks resumed and European finance chiefs discussed Greek aid, while Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney was named to head the Bank of England.

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., Canada’s largest engineering and construction company, fell 2.2 percent after Swiss authorities said a former company vice president was still in custody related to a corruption investigation. TransGlobe Energy Corp. and Paramount Resources Ltd. lost at least 2.6 percent as crude oil fell in New York.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 28.19 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,185.05 in Toronto. The benchmark Canadian equity gauge is up 1.9 percent this year.

“We’re back in uncertainty mode,” said Laura Wallace, a money manager in the private client division at the Bank of Nova Scotia who helps manage about C$12 billion ($12.07 billion).

“People are paying attention to Europe, but there isn’t an imminent event. In the U.S., there is a time pressure that is not as present in the Greek situation.”

Carney’s appointment as the next governor of the Bank of England is not expected to impact markets substantially in the short term, but the longer term outlook will depend greatly on his successor, Wallace said.

Carney, 47, took over as chief of Canada’s central bank in 2008. He replaces Mervyn King, who has served as the Bank of England’s governor since 2003.

The U.S. Congress returns from the Thanksgiving recess this week, seeking a budget deal to prevent $607 billion of automatic tax increases and spending cuts from kicking in next year. If a compromise is not reached on the so-called fiscal cliff, the country is expected to fall into recession in the first half of the year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Euro-area finance ministers will push the International Monetary Fund and central bankers to endorse new plans to save Greece from the fiscal abyss, seeking to overcome the latest impasse in the  debt crisis and restart aid payments to Athens.

Raw materials and energy stocks contributed the most to declines in the S&P/TSX as eight of 10 industries retreated.

Trading volume was 11 percent higher than the 30-day average.

TransGlobe Energy dropped 5.3 percent to C$10.45 and Paramount Resources lost 2.6 percent to C$34.33. Crude for January delivery declined 0.6 percent to settle at $87.74 a barrel in New York. Prices are down 11 percent this year.

Semafo Inc. fell 2.6 percent to C$3.37 and Denison Mines Corp. retreated 1.7 percent to C$1.14. Gold for December delivery slid 0.1 percent to settle at $1,749.60 an ounce in New York. Taseko Mines Ltd., which mines for copper and molybdenum, slipped 2.7 percent to C$2.84.

SNC-Lavalin fell 2.2 percent to C$40.63 after the Swiss Attorney General’s office said a Tunisian-Canadian citizen and former vice president of the company was being held under investigation of alleged acts of corruption, fraud and money laundering related to business in North Africa.

The stock has slumped 20 percent this year after the company got embroiled in a corruption scandal.

Hudson’s Bay Co., Canada’s oldest company, rose 0.2 percent to C$16.89 in the first day of official trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The retailer, which was founded in 1670 as a fur-trading venture, raised C$365 million in an initial public offering last week.

Hudson’s Bay was publicly traded in Canada until U.S. investor Jerry Zucker took the chain private in 2006 for C$860 million after fighting for control for more than a year.

US

By Stephen Kirkland and Inyoung Hwang

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — Stocks fell, following the best weekly rally of 2012 for global equities, as U.S. leaders prepared to negotiate a budget deal and European finance chiefs meet on Greek aid. Treasuries rose for the first time in a week.

The MSCI All-Country World Index slipped 0.1 percent as of 4 p.m. in New York after surging 3.9 percent last week. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.2 percent to 1,406.29, paring an earlier drop of as much as 0.8 percent. The euro weakened against most of its major peers. Treasury 10-year yields lost three basis points to 1.66 percent. Gold snapped a three-day advance in London and New York-traded oil fell as 15 of 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index dropped.

While U.S. Republican lawmakers favor raising tax revenue by limiting deductions rather than by increasing rates, Democrats are pushing for higher rates on upper-income earners. Leaders need to find a compromise to avoid triggering a so- called fiscal cliff of $607 billion in tax increases and spending cuts in January that the Congressional Budget Office said may lead to a recession. Euro-area finance ministers meet today in Brussels to negotiate a bailout payment for Greece.

“People are returning to work and with eyes wide open, they see news that’s less good than when they left,” Lawrence Creatura, who helps oversee $370 billion as a Rochester, New York-based fund manager at Federated Investors Inc., said in a telephone interview. “The probability of a smooth resolution to the fiscal seems to have declined,” he said. “Everyone is sorting through the retail data and it looks like results were mixed. Rather than an outright robust season, it’s one where there’ll be winners and losers.”

Macy’s Inc., Big Lots Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. helped lead the S&P 500 Retailing Index lower following a 5.6 percent rally in the previous five sessions. Stores are extending deals into Cyber Monday and beyond to try to sustain a 13 percent gain in Thanksgiving weekend sales. Spending in stores and online rose to $59.1 billion in the four days starting Nov. 22, the National Retail Federation said. A year ago, sales grew 16 percent over the holiday weekend.

Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the chamber, said yesterday on ABC’s “This Week” that any deal to reduce the budget deficit should allow the top tax rate to rise. Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said on “Fox News Sunday” that he would be “very much opposed” to raising taxes and advocated closing “loopholes,” including limits on deductions for charitable giving and home mortgage interest payments.

“Fiscal cliff negotiations are likely to be the immediate focus this week,” Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank AG in London, wrote in a report. “As a reminder of the gathering urgency there are only 36 days left until the fiscal cliff is due to kick-in, and from a practical stand point, exactly four weeks until the Christmas break to bridge the outstanding gap between the Democrats and Republicans.”

The S&P 500 retreated after last week’s 3.6 percent advance, the most since June. Telephone, energy and financial shares helped lead losses among the 10 main industry groups, with Exxon Mobil Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and AT&T Inc. pacing declines. Exelon Corp. led a rally in utilities after Deutsche Bank advised buying the shares, saying its 34 percent drop this year may provide an opportunity for value investors.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. slumped after providing a profit forecast below analysts’ estimates. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. dropped as “Rise of the Guardians” opened in fourth place in cinemas over the Thanksgiving weekend. Knight Capital Group Inc. surged after a person with direct knowledge of the matter said the trading firm expects to receive acquisition proposals as early as this week.

The Stoxx 600 fell for the first time in six days as 17 of 19 industry groups retreated. Barclays Plc sank 5.4 percent as Qatar Holding LLC sold the last of the warrants it acquired during the financial crisis, triggering a 771 million-pound ($1.24 billion) stock offering by the banks that arranged the transaction. Straumann Holding AG advanced 2.3 percent as Vice Chairman Thomas Straumann sold a 10 percent stake in the dental- implant manufacturer to Government of Singapore Investment Corp.

The euro weakened against 13 of 16 major peers, slipping 0.5 percent against the yen and less than 0.1 percent versus dollar. The yen advanced against all 16 of its major counterparts.

The European Central Bank is considering new ways to reduce Greece’s funding gap by using the Greek debt in its investment portfolios, three euro-area officials said. National central banks of the euro area hold Greek bonds in their investment portfolios and agreed in February to give any profits back to Greece. The issue has been reopened and the ECB is now looking at options including rolling over the holdings or allowing the Greek government to buy them back, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

German 10-year bunds rose, pushing the yield down two basis points to 1.41 percent. Italian 10-year bond yields were little changed at 4.75 percent and rates on similar-maturity Spanish yields debt were little changed at 5.62 percent. Hungary’s five- year note yield rose three basis points after S&P downgraded the country’s debt late on Nov. 23.

The cost of insuring against default on corporate date rose, snapping five days of declines, with the Markit iTraxx Europe index of credit-default swaps linked to 125 investment grade companies climbing four basis points to 125.

Oil declined 0.6 percent to $87.74 a barrel today. Natural gas, cocoa and coffee lost at least 1.3 percent for the biggest declines in S&P GSCI Index, while cotton, zinc, aluminum and Kansas wheat rose the most.

Gold for immediate delivery fell 0.2 percent to $1,749.05 an ounce. Soybeans advanced 0.4 percent on concern dryness in Brazil and rain in Argentina may threaten supply as demand increases in China, the world’s biggest buyer. Prices climbed 2.6 percent last week, the most since the five days ended Aug.24.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slipped 0.1 percent. Taiwan’s Taiex index climbed 1.1 percent after Premier Sean Chen asked the government to prepare a proposal to boost stocks. The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.5 percent while Russia’s Micex Index lost 0.7 percent and India’s Sensex added 0.2 percent. Brazil’s Bovespa slipped 1.5 percent, retreating for the first time in three sessions as a drop in commodities weighed on producers.

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
Carl Sandburg

Happy Monday Everyone!!!!

Be magnificent!

 

“Peace is its own reward” – Mahatma Gandhi

 

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

Read about an interesting trend in the foodie world in this week’s Maclean’s.   It claims that “there’s a revolution simmering in the kitchens of the nation’s restaurants…Electric stoves, gas ranges and convection ovens are being ripped out to make way for the Rational, a German-made beast that can bake, roast, broil, steam, grill, fry, dehydrate, poach and perfectly reheat food.  It’s called a combi oven, and it uses both dry heat and moist heat to cook large quantities of food in precisely the same way.  It can also bake a pizza, ear salmon and grill a steak at the same time.  The programmable Ratioanal is popular in Europe, where more than 85 per cent of commercial kitchens use combi ovens, but the company is just beginning to make inroads in Canada.  Most of the units which cost from $15,000 to $55,000, are sold to high-volume kitchens, although they do have a few well-heeled clients who have a smaller version at home (the most famous is the White House)…”

Off to the first holiday concert of the season tonight, aptly named Joy to The World at the Victoria Conservatory of Music.

And on this day in…

1623 – Benedict de Spinoza, was born.

1864 – Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was born.

1909 – The Wright brothers form a million-dollar corporation for the commercial manufacture of their airplanes.

1936 – The United States abandons the American embassy in Madrid, Spain, which is engulfed by civil war.

1942 – The film Casablanca premieres in New York City.

1945 – Wartime meat and butter rationing ends in the United States.

1968 – Four men hijack an American plane, with 87 passengers, from Miami to Cuba.

1980 – In Europe’s biggest earthquake since 1915, 3,000 people are killed in Italy.

 

Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out. –John Wooden

photos of the day

November 24th, 2012

The Mars rover Curiosity drove 83 feet eastward during the 102nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission on November 18, 2012 in this handout image courtesy of NASA.

JPL-Caltech/NASA/AP

The sun rises over South Westnedge Avenue after a heavy fog settled over Kalamazoo, Mich.

Mark Bugnaski/The Kalamazoo Gazette/AP

 

Market Closes for November 23rd, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13009.68	+172.79    +1.35%
S&P 500	1409.15	+18.12    +1.30%
NASDAQ	2966.854	+40.300    +1.38
TSX	12213.24	+60.14
		+0.49%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9366.80	+144.28
		+1.56%
HANG  SENG	21913.98	+170.78
		+0.79%
SENSEX	18506.57	-10.77
		-0.06%
FTSE 100	5819.14	+28.11
		+0.49%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.787	1.774
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.361	2.357
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6899	1.6796
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8284	2.8198

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99275	0.99735
US   $	1.00730	1.00266
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.28811	0.77633
US  $	1.29752	0.77070

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1753.00	1729.55
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	88.28	86.93
BRENT	113.35	112.31

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, capping the biggest weekly gain in 11 months, as gold and oil advanced while the nation’s inflation rate remained near the bottom of the central bank’s target band for a third month in October.

Pretium Resources Inc. added 8.9 percent after an analyst with CIBC World Markets Inc. raised his rating on the stock.

Colossus Minerals Inc. and Centerra Gold Inc. rose at least 2.1 percent as the price of the metal rallied the most since Nov. 6.

Research In Motion Ltd. fell 3.5 percent a day after posting its biggest increase in more than three years. Gildan Activewear Inc. dropped 3 percent after an analyst with BofA/Merrill Lynch lowered the stock’s rating.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 60.14 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,213.24 in Toronto. The benchmark Canadian equity gauge advanced 2.8 percent for the week, the biggest weekly gain since December 2011.

The Bank of Canada continuing to hold the benchmark interest rate at 1 percent “remains a positive for the equity market,” said John O’Connell, chief executive officer at Davis- Rea Ltd., from Toronto. His firm manages about C$575 million ($578.8 million). “The BoC keeps talking a courageous story about raising rates, but we continue to see modest economic growth.”

The Canada consumer price index rose 1.2 percent in October from a year ago, the same as the prior two months, as slower gains in energy prices blunted increases in property taxes and restaurant meals, Statistics Canada said today.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of Canada, has held lending rates at 1 percent since September 2010. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate the key interest rate will rise to 1.25 percent in the third quarter next year.

Gold mining companies, energy and financial stocks contributed most to gains on the S&P/TSX as nine of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was 18 percent lower than the 30-day average at this time of the day.

Pretium Resources jumped 8.9 percent to C$14.15. Jeff Killeen, analyst with CIBC World Markets, raised the stock to sector perform from sector underperform after the company released an updated resource estimate for its Brucejack project showing a 66 percent increase to 8.5 million indicated ounces of gold.

Colossus Minerals added 4.4 percent to C$4.55 and Centerra gained 2.1 percent to C$9.90 as gold futures for December delivery added 1.3 percent to settle at $1,751.40 an ounce in New York. Gold rose 2.1 percent this week as the U.S. dollar fell to a three-week low.

Talisman Energy Inc. advanced 3.8 percent to C$11.68 and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. added 1.1 percent to C$27.94 as crude capped the biggest weekly gain in more than a month. Oil for January delivery rose 1 percent to settle at $88.28 a barrel in New York. Futures climbed 1.9 percent this week, the most since Oct. 12.

RIM, whose BlackBerry 10 smartphones are set to go on sale in February, fell 3.5 percent to C$11.61 a day after the stock rallied the most in more than three years. An analyst with National Bank Financial lifted his price target for U.S. shares to $15 from $12, saying sales of the new phones will be better than estimated.

Gildan, the best performing North American underwear stock this year, fell 3 percent to C$33.17. Chris Li, an analyst with BofA/Merrill Lynch, lowered the stock’s rating to neutral from buy.

US

By Lu Wang

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks had their biggest weekly rally since June after President Barack Obama expressed confidence on a budget agreement with Congress and data from China to Germany bolstered optimism about global growth.

All 10 groups except for utilities in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose during the Thanksgiving-shortened week. An index of homebuilders climbed 5.4 percent amid better-than-estimated housing data. Bank of America Corp. jumped 8.6 percent after an analyst said the lender may commit as much as $10 billion to dividends and share repurchases in 2013. Salesforce.com Inc. surged 11 percent after revenue beat estimates. Apple Inc. gained 8.3 percent, ending a streak of eight weekly losses.

The S&P 500 advanced 3.6 percent to 1,409.15 for the week, extending its 2012 gain to 12 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 421.37 points, or 3.4 percent, to 13,009.68.

Both gauges had the best week since June 8.

“What you’re seeing out of Washington before the break is a very cooperative tone,” Bill Greiner, who oversees $14 billion as chief investment officer at Mariner Wealth Advisors in Kansas City, Missouri, said in a phone interview. “There is a gathering sense that the deceleration in economic growth in China seems to be bottoming right now. Both of those areas are adding to a little bit strength in the market.”

The S&P 500 began the week with the biggest advance in two months after Obama met with senior Democrats and Republicans on Nov. 16 for talks to avoid a so-called fiscal cliff of $607 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts next year.

The index continued to climb after Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed to call a halt to more than a week of air strikes and missile attacks. Data showed the first expansion in China’s manufacturing industry in 13 months and an unexpected gain in German business confidence.

The S&P 500 rallied 1.3 percent on the last day of the week, posting the best post-Thanksgiving performance since 2007, as the American holiday shopping season began. The index has gained an average 0.6 percent during the week of Thanksgiving, according to data since World War II compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 0.15 percent in all calendar weeks in the same time frame.

Concern that Obama’s re-election set up a budget showdown with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives sent the S&P 500 down 7.7 percent from its 2012 high in September through Nov. 15. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said on Nov. 20 that the central bank doesn’t have the tools to offset the potential harm to the economy from the fiscal cliff.

“I don’t see a lot more downside to the markets even if we go off the fiscal cliff,” Brian Jacobsen, who helps oversee $208 billion as chief strategist at Wells Fargo Advantage Funds in San Francisco, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Nov. 20. “The fiscal cliff would be somewhat of a speed bump if you look at the long trajectory of history.”

Companies whose growth is most tied to economic swings led the rally over the week. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index rose 4.7 percent, the most since December 2011. Raw-materials producers, consumer-discretionary and technology companies gained the most among 10 S&P 500 groups, jumping at least 4.3 percent.

An S&P index of homebuilders climbed 5.4 percent, with all its 11 members rising, as sales of previously owned U.S. homes gained and confidence among U.S. homebuilders unexpectedly increased to a six-year high. PulteGroup Inc. surged 8.6 percent to $17.03 while Lennar Corp. added 7.1 percent to $38.68.

Lowe’s Cos., jumped 9.9 percent to $35.15 after the home- improvement retailer said fiscal third-quarter profit topped analysts’ estimates, helped by better merchandising decisions and the recovering U.S. housing market.

A measure of retailers in the S&P 500 rose 4.7 percent for the week. Black Friday marked the traditional beginning of the holiday shopping season in the U.S., when retailers lure customers with deep discounts.

Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. rallied 8.6 percent to $44.40. Dollar Tree Inc., which sells everything from toys to pet food and cleaning supplies for $1 or less, jumped 8.3 percent to $42.03. Macy’s Inc., the second-largest U.S. department-store chain, added 3.9 percent to $41.73.

Bank of America rallied 8.6 percent, the most in the Dow, to $9.90. The lender has improved capital by the most among the biggest U.S. banks and could fare comparatively well after Federal Reserve stress tests, Ed Najarian, an analyst with International Strategy & Investment Group Inc., wrote in a note.

The bank, which may have the equivalent of about $30 billion in capital beyond the minimum required by regulators, may dole out $5 billion to $10 billion for dividends and stock buybacks next year, he wrote.

Salesforce.com rose 11 percent to $159.45. The software maker reported fiscal third-quarter sales that beat analysts’ estimates, benefiting from contracts with large corporate customers.

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, gained 4.5 percent to $27.70.

Apple advanced 8.3 percent to $571.50, after slumping as much as 25 percent from a record on Sept. 19. Even amid investor concerns about product shortages, stiffening smartphone and tablet competition and management changes, demand for Apple’s products remains strong and the stock slide is unfounded, Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets, wrote in a report on Nov. 19.

Tyson Foods Inc. surged 14 percent to $19.25 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. The largest U.S. meat processor said profit will increase about 10 percent in fiscal 2014 and 2015 after remaining unchanged in the year ahead as the company adds more prepared foods and international sales.

Hewlett-Packard Co. slumped 3.2 percent, the most in the Dow, to $12.44. The company accused Autonomy Corp., the software maker it bought last year, of a broad range of financial falsehoods that contributed to a $8.8 billion writedown, adding to challenges facing Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman in the midst of a multiyear turnaround. Autonomy managers denied the allegations. Hewlett-Packard also forecast fiscal first-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates.

HP shares plunged 12 percent on Nov. 20 to the lowest level in 10 years. It rebounded 6.2 percent during the following two sessions.

Best Buy Co. tumbled 15 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $11.70. The consumer-electronics retailer posted a $10 million third-quarter net loss as sales at established stores fell more than expected. S&P and Fitch Ratings cut the retailer’s credit ratings.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. declined 12 percent to $31.23. The largest U.S. iron-ore producer will delay parts of an expansion at an iron-ore project in Quebec and idle some production at two U.S. operations because of weaker demand for the steelmaking raw material.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

In the physical world there is an indestructible continuity of relations

between hot and cold, light and darkness, movement and repose,

as well as between the bass and treble notes of a piano.

This is because opposites do not bring confusion to the world; they bring harmony.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Experience teaches only the teachable.

–Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963

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:

 

Short letter today – US Thanksgiving: markets closed, no US media in my world.

 

On this day in…

1819 – George Eliot was born.

1935 – Pan Am inaugurates the first transpacific airmail service from San Francisco to Manila.

1963 – JFK is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1973 – Great Britain announces a plan for moderate Protestants and Catholics to share power in Northern Ireland.

1982 – President Ronald Reagan calls for defense-pact deployment of the MX missile.

1986 – Justice Department finds memo in Lt. Col. Oliver North’s office on the transfer of $12 million to Contras of Nicaragua from Iranian arms sale.

 
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving. – Georg Eliot.

Market Closes for November 22nd, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12836.89	Closed
S&P 500	1391.03	Closed
NASDAQ	2926.554	Closed
TSX	12153.10	+53.04
		+0.44%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9366.80	+144.28
		+1.56%
HANG  SENG	21743.20	+218.84
		+1.02%
SENSEX	18517.34	+56.96
		+0.31%
FTSE 100	5791.03	+39.00
		+0.68%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.774	1.762
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.357	2.350
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6796	1.6676
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8198	2.8206

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99735	0.99640
US   $	1.00266	1.00361
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.28448	0.77852
US  $	1.28796	0.77642

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1729.55	1729.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	86.93	86.93
BRENT	112.31	112.97

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Katia Dmitrieva and Eric Lam

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a fifth day as Research In Motion Ltd. gained the most in more than three years and better-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data indicated the world’s second-largest economy is rebounding.

RIM surged 18 percent, the biggest gain since April 2009, after an analyst with National Bank Financial raised his estimates for BlackBerry 10 sales next year. Colossus Minerals Inc. climbed 3.8 percent as gold rose. Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank advanced. U.S. markets were closed today for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 53.04 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,153.10 in Toronto. The streak of gains is the longest in three weeks. The benchmark Canadian equity gage is up 1.7 percent this year.

“The Chinese manufacturing data came in better than expected,” David Baskin, president of Toronto-based Baskin Financial Services Inc., said in a phone interview. His firm manages C$440 million in assets. “So much of the world natural resource trade goes to support Chinese growth so that’s the data people are looking for.”

Technology stocks paced gains on the benchmark, rising 3.8 percent. Trading volume was 58 percent lower than the 30-day average. The Canadian market sees little trading when U.S. markets are closed, Baskin said.

RIM soared 18 percent to C$12.03 after Kris Thompson, analyst with National Bank Financial, said the BlackBerry 10 line of smartphones will sell better than expected. The new phones, scheduled to go on sale in February, should post shipments of about 35.5 million units next fiscal year, up from a previous estimate of 31.6 million.

China’s purchasing managers’ index signaled the first expansion in the country in 13 months with a preliminary reading of 50.4, compared with a final level of 49.5 in October, according to HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics. A reading above 50 indicates growth. Manufacturing gains bolster prospects for a sustained pickup in economic growth that slowed last quarter to the weakest pace in more than three years.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest diversified mining company, increased 2.6 percent to C$32.59.

Colossus Minerals advanced 3.8 percent to C$4.36 as gold gained for a second day. Barrick Gold Corp. rose 0.4 percent to C$34.75. Gold for December delivery rose 0.1 percent to $1,729.50 in electronic trading in New York.

Royal Bank, the nation’s largest lender, rose 0.4 percent to C$57.81 and TD Bank gained 0.4 percent to C$80.99. Canada’s major banks begin reporting fourth-quarter earnings next week, with Royal first in line on Nov. 29.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

We are fragmented.  We are one person at the office and another at home,

we speak of democracy and are autocrats in our hearts;

we speak of love for our neighbors even as we kill that love with our competitive spirit;

one part of us works, watches, and acts independently of the other.

Are you conscious of the fragmentation of your existence?  Is it possible for a mind t

hat has splintered the structure of its thoughts to perceive the broad field of consciousness?

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

I want freedom for the full expression

of my personality.

-Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

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:

 

Top of Form

November, by Robert Frost

November
We saw leaves go to glory, Then almost migratory
Go part way down the lane,
And then to end the story
Get beaten down and pasted
In one wild day of rain.

We heard ” ‘Tis Over” roaring.
A year of leaves was wasted.
Oh, we made a boast of storing,
Of saving and keeping,
But only by ignoring
The waste of moments sleeping,
The waste of pleasure weeping,
By denying and ignoring
The waste of nations warring.

Bottom of Form

 

On this day in 1995, the Dow finished above 5000 for the first time ever.  –Steven Russolillo, WSJ, 11/21/2012

And also on this day in…

1620 – Leaders of the Mayflower expedition frame the “Mayflower Compact,” designed to bolster unity among the settlers.

1694 – Voltaire was born.

1783 – Man’s first flight in a balloon.

1934 – A New York court rules Gloria Vanderbilt unfit for custody of her daughter.

1934 – Cole Porter’s musical Anything Goes premieres at New York’s Alvin Theatre.

1937 – Marlo Thomas was born.

1945 – Goldie Hawn was born.

1970 – U.S. planes conduct widespread bombing raids in North Vietnam.

1986 – The Justice Department begins an inquiry into the National Security Council into what will become known as the Iran-Contra scandal.

 
People do not change when you tell them they should: they change when they tell themselves they must. –Michael Mandelbaum, John Hopkins foreign policy specialist, NY Times, 6/24/09.

photos of the day

November 21, 2012

Martial arts group TAL performs a non-verbal martial arts demonstration in the Korean traditional art of Taekwondo during the opening ceremony of the K-art hall Taekwondo Theatre in Seoul, South Korea.

Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

A child looks at a dinosaur sculpture designed by Chinese artist Sui Jianguo at the 798 Art District in Beijing. The 798 Art District, often compared to New York City’s Greenwich Village, is a thriving community of about 400 galleries, shops and restaurants on the eastern edge of Beijing housed in a complex of former electronics factories built with the help of East Germany in the 1950s.

Lee Jin-man/AP

 

Market Closes for November 21st, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12836.89	+48.38    +0.38%
S&P 500	1391.03	+3.22    +0.23%
NASDAQ	2926.554	+9.870    +0.34%
TSX	12100.06	+53.78
		+0.45%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9222.52	+79.88
		+0.87%
HANG  SENG	21524.36	+296.08
		+1.39%
SENSEX	18460.38	+131.06
		+0.72%
FTSE 100	5752.03	+3.93
		+0.07%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.762	1.757
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.350	2.343
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6796	1.6676
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8198	2.8206

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99640	0.99688
US   $	1.00361	1.00313
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.27960	0.78150
US  $	1.28422	0.77868

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1729.25	1728.35
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	86.93	86.36
BRENT	112.97	111.79

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a fourth day after gold miners and financial stocks climbed as a cease- fire between Israel and Hamas was announced, offsetting a failure by Europe policymakers to reach a deal on Greek debt.

Centerra Gold Inc. and Osisko Mining Corp. rose at least 3.9 percent as the price of the metal gained for the second time in three days. Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal added at least 0.6 percent. Tahoe Resources Inc. slipped 1.7 percent after silver trading on the largest spot market in China plunged 30 percent this year.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 53.78 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,100.06 in Toronto, erasing earlier losses of as much as 0.2 percent. The benchmark Canadian equity gauge is up 1.2 percent this year.

Gold mining companies and banks contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX as nine of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was down 11 percent compared with the 30-day average.

“We’re waiting for the next major set of data points,” said Jennifer Radman, a fund manager with Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. in Toronto. The firm manages just under C$1 billion ($1 billion). “With Europe, it’s been such a long process to get to where it’s at, and it will take a long time to get through. The market does get bored with specific news at times.”

The Canadian market also typically slows down ahead of America’s Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, when U.S. equity markets close for the day, Radman said.

Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed to call a halt to more than a week of air strikes and missile attacks, after talks brokered by Egypt’s Islamist government and the U.S. European leaders head into their second confrontation this week conceding they’re likely to fail to agree on a seven-year budget plan just as they failed to strike a deal on Greek debt.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers in the national parliament today that budget negotiations slated for a summit meeting tomorrow may slide into next year as France rejected cuts to farm subsidies and the U.K. insisted spending must be reduced.

Centerra Gold gained 5.8 percent to C$9.70 and Osisko climbed 3.9 percent to C$8.48. Gold for December delivery rose 0.3 percent to settle at $1,728.20 in New York, erasing earlier losses of as much as 0.3 percent.

Detour Gold Corp., which is developing a project in northeastern Ontario, fell 3.7 percent to C$26.50 after announcing it will sell C$106 million in stock to raise capital.

The company will sell 4 million shares at C$26.50, with the proceeds to be used for working capital at its Detour Lake mine.

Tahoe Resources dropped 1.7 percent to C$17.42. Trading volume on the Shanghai White Platinum & Silver Exchange slid 30 percent from a year earlier to 1,000 metric tons, said Gao Huijie, chief executive officer. The slowdown in trading is primarily due to less industrial use as China, the world’s second-largest economy, has seen growth slow for seven straight quarters through the end of September to 7.4 percent.

Banro Corp., which operates the Twangiza gold mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, fell 5.9 percent to C$2.89.

Yesterday, Congolese rebels took the city of Goma in the eastern part of the country. Banro said in a statement today its operations have not been affected by the fighting.

TD Bank rose 0.6 percent to C$80.66 and BMO gained 0.7 percent to C$58.92. Canada’s major banks are set to report their fourth-quarter earnings next week, beginning with Royal Bank of Canada on Nov. 29.

US

By Rita Nazareth and Tom Stoukas

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher a fourth day, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr announced a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

Hewlett-Packard Co. rallied 2 percent after tumbling 12 percent yesterday. Salesforce.com Inc., the largest maker of online customer-management software, rose 8.8 percent after forecasting sales and profit that were in line with analysts’ projections. Deere & Co., the largest agricultural equipment maker, fell 3.7 percent as earnings missed analysts’ estimates.

The S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 1,391.03 at 4 p.m. New York time. It rose 2.8 percent in four days for the longest winning streak since Oct. 4. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 48.38 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,836.89 today. Volume for exchange-listed stocks in the U.S. was 4.8 billion shares, or 22 percent below the three-month daily average. The U.S. market will close for the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow.

“The announcement of the cease-fire is by no means a fix to the issue, but it does suggest that the negotiations are going on,” said Alan Gayle, senior strategist at RidgeWorth Capital Management in Richmond, Virginia, which oversees about $47 billion. He spoke in a phone interview. “In the U.S., the economic releases were mixed, but generally positive.”

Equities rose as Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed to call a halt to more than a week of air strikes and missile attacks, after talks brokered by Egypt’s Islamist government and the U.S.

Fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits last week as damage to the labor market caused by superstorm Sandy began to subside. The index of U.S. leading economic indicators rose at a slower pace in October. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of U.S. consumer sentiment for November rose to 82.7 from 82.6 at the end of last month. Economists projected 84.5 for the gauge.

Europe’s finance ministers will regroup on Nov. 26 after talks broke up without an agreement on a debt-reduction package for Greece, with creditors led by Germany refusing to put up fresh money.

“We’ve got some interesting pockets of strength in the economy that could prove to be brighter spots next year than a lot of people think, notwithstanding the fiscal cliff, which is the elephant in the room,” said Liz Ann Sonders, the New York- based chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab Corp., which has $1.9 trillion in client assets. “There’s a lot of choppiness. Europe is back in the crosshairs.”

Stocks advanced over the previous three days amid better- than-forecast housing data and as President Barack Obama expressed confidence on a budget agreement with Congress. Obama met with senior Democrats and Republicans on Nov. 16 for talks to avoid $607 billion of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that, if allowed to come into force, might push the country into a recession next year.

Salesforce rose 8.8 percent to $158.78. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff is signing bigger enterprise agreements that give customers broad access to Salesforce’s software, following the company’s Dreamforce conference in September.

That’s helping to stave off competition from Oracle Corp., SAP AG and Microsoft Corp., which are buying companies that offer business-management tools over the Internet and gaining traction in an area Salesforce pioneered.

Vivus Inc. climbed 13 percent to $11.73. The maker of the Qsymia weight-loss medicine that won U.S. approval in July jumped after insurer Aetna Inc. cleared the way for coverage of the obesity treatment.

HP rallied 2 percent to $11.94. The stock plunged yesterday as the company’s $8.8 billion writedown tied to the purchase of software maker Autonomy Corp. fueled concern that Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman and her board aren’t up to the task of engineering a turnaround.

Deere fell 3.7 percent to $82.83. The company said farm- equipment sales in Europe will be unchanged or 5 percent lower in fiscal 2013 and Asia will be little changed due to “softer” economic conditions in India and China. That may undermine the company’s effort to expand the share of sales made outside the U.S. and Canada to 50 percent by 2018.

Zale Corp. tumbled 30 percent to $5.21. The operator of the Zales and Piercing Pagoda jewelry chains reported a loss that was wider than analysts estimated.

St. Jude Medical Inc. slid 12 percent to $31.37. The maker of heart rhythm devices sank after U.S. government inspectors criticized the company’s methods for testing its Durata cables used for defibrillators. Lawrence Biegelsen, an analyst at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York, downgraded St. Jude to market perform from outperform.

The S&P 500 will climb back to the level it was trading at before the Nov. 6 U.S. presidential election if it crosses a key resistance, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.

The U.S. equity benchmark on Nov. 16 rebounded from 1,346, a two-thirds Fibonacci retracement level of the rally from June to September, said Dmytro Bondar, a technical markets strategist at RBS in London. While this signals a bullish reversal, the gauge must also breach the one-third retracement, or 1,395, for further gains, he said.

“A new trend was set after a major reversal,” Bondar said. “It clearly indicates that the index is set for recovery, confirmed by candlestick patterns. In the short term, it’s bullish.”

The S&P 500 may rise to as high as 1,427 in the next two weeks, he said. The measure last closed above that level on Nov. 6. The index gained less than 0.1 percent to 1,387.81 yesterday.

The S&P 500 may trade in a range or fall after reaching 1,427, Bondar said. If it clears that level, however, it may advance to its September high of 1,474.

In technical analysis, investors and analysts study charts of trading patterns and prices to predict changes in a security, commodity, currency or index.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Why is there this division between man and man, between race and race, culture against culture,

one series of ideologies set one against another?  Why?

Why is there this separation?

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The highest result of education is tolerance.

-Helen Keller, 1880-1968

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:

On this day in 1985, Microsoft debuted its first installment of the Windows operating system, Windows 1.0.

This year, Microsoft released Windows 8. –Steven Russolillo, WSJ, 11/20/2012.

And also on this day in…

1889 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer, was born.

1910 – Mexico Revolution Day.

1925 – Robert F. Kennedy, senator, was born.

1945 – The Nazi war crime trials begin at Nuremberg.

1947 – Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth II) marries Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in Westminster Abbey.

1974 – The United States files an antitrust suit to break up ATT.

1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana, American Rev. Jim Jones leads his followers in a mass suicide.

 

There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on.  –William Blake, 1757-1827.

photos of the day

November 20, 2012

A leaf falls from a tree on an autumnal day in central London.

Andrew Winning/Reuters

Ice, a 5-month-old North American Puma female cub, plays in the snow at the Royev Ruchey zoo in a surburb of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

 

Market Closes for November 20th, 2012:

 

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12788.51	-7.45    -0.06%
S&P 500	1386.83	-0.06    —
NASDAQ	2916.684	+0.614    +0.02%
TSX	12033.41	-6.99
		-0.06%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9142.64	-10.56
		-0.12%
HANG  SENG	21228.28	-33.78
		-0.16%
SENSEX	18329.32	-9.68
		-0.05%
FTSE 100	5748.10	+10.44
		+0.18%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.757	1.735
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.343	2.328
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6676	1.6131
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8206	2.7631

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99688	0.99673
US   $	1.00313	1.00328
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.27767	0.78267
US  $	1.28167	0.78023

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1728.35	1731.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	86.36	88.98
BRENT	111.79	113.07

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, as a rally in financial shares pulled the market higher after an earlier decline amid a drop in wholesale sales.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender, rose 1.5 percent. Banro Corp., which operates and develops mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, plunged 13 percent after rebels in the country seized control of an eastern city. Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. lost 1.1 percent as crude fell from the highest level in a month as Israel and Hamas negotiated a cease-fire, easing concern that Middle East unrest will disrupt supply.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 5.88 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,046.28 in Toronto, erasing earlier losses of as much as 0.5 percent. The gauge jumped 1.4 percent yesterday, and is up 0.8 percent this year.

“This is following from the big run of yesterday, digesting that and finding new levels,” said Robert “Hap” Sneddon, president of Castlemoore Inc. in Oakville, Ontario.

“We had come off a little bit, but I still think we’re in a short-term run here. How long it lasts, that’s dependent on what happens with the fiscal cliff.”

The U.S. fiscal cliff refers to more than $600 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for the beginning of 2013 that would likely plunge the world’s largest economy into recession.

Canadian wholesale sales fell 1.4 percent in September to C$48.8 billion ($49 billion), with automobiles and personal goods leading declines across every major category. Statistics Canada pared its estimates for the prior two months. The September drop exceeded all 13 forecasts in a Bloomberg economist survey, with a median estimate for a 0.5 percent increase.

Royal Bank added 1.5 percent to C$57.40 and Toronto- Dominion Bank gained 0.7 percent to C$80.16 as financials paced gains on the benchmark Canadian equity gauge, rising 0.7 percent.

Banro, which operates the Twangiza gold mine and is developing three other projects in the DRC, fell 13 percent to C$3.07 after rebel forces took Goma, a city about 260 kilometers (162 miles) north of the mine.

Alacer Gold Corp. lost 4.4 percent to C$4.74 and Lake Shore Gold Corp. dropped 4.9 percent to 78 Canadian cents. Gold for December delivery fell 0.6 percent to settle at $1,723.60 an ounce in New York, snapping a two-day gain.

Canadian Oil Sands retreated 1.1 percent to C$20.76 and Cenovus Energy Inc. slid 1.1 percent to C$32.62.

Oil for January delivery fell 2.8 percent to settle at $86.75 a barrel in New York.

Talks to end fighting between Israel and Palestinian groups extended today as the army renewed its bombardment of Gaza and militants fired more rockets at the Jewish state. The latest clashes came amid peace talks in which leaders including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived in Israel today, and Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi are involved.

Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., which provides the Sirius XM satellite radio service in Canada, soared 18 percent to C$5.80 after declaring a special dividend and initiating quarterly dividend payments yesterday after the market close.

The company will pay 8.25 Canadian cents per Class A share and 2.75 cents per Class B share. Both the special and regular dividend will be payable Jan. 2.

Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry line of smartphones, rose 1.6 percent to C$9.70. Peter Misek, an equity analyst with Jefferies & Co., raised his rating on the stock to hold from underperform. He also doubled his price target to $10 from $5, citing better-than-expected interest from mobile handset carriers for the company’s upcoming BB10 series of smartphones, which will be released in January.

“We have been surprised by the strongly positive initial feedback on BB10 from carriers,” he said in a note to clients.

US

By Rita Nazareth and Adria Cimino

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced, erasing earlier losses, as an increase in housing starts tempered a tumble in Hewlett-Packard Co. shares.

Bank of America Corp. and American Express Co. added at least 1.1 percent to pace gains in the biggest companies. HP fell 12 percent as it announced a charge of $8.8 billion linked to its Autonomy Corp. business, saying there were “accounting improprieties” before its takeover of the company. Best Buy Co. sank 13 percent as the largest consumer-electronics retailer reported a $10 million loss on weaker-than-expected sales.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 1,387.82 at 4 p.m. New York time, after falling 0.7 percent earlier. It had rallied 2.5 percent over the previous two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 7.45 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,788.51. Volume for exchange-listed stocks in the U.S. was 5.6 billion shares, or 7.8 percent below the three-month daily average.

“There will be this back and forth,” Wayne Lin, a money manager at Baltimore-based Legg Mason Inc., said in a phone interview. His firm oversees $646 billion. “People are coming to the realization that earnings growth is not going to be as robust as analysts had expected. That’s starting to creep in. On the other hand, housing is strengthening. As for Europe, ultimately, they will do what it takes to support Greece.”

New-home construction unexpectedly climbed to a four-year high in October, more evidence of a revival in the industry that’s helping propel the U.S. economy. The euro traded at almost a two-week high against its U.S. counterpart as the region’s finance ministers met in Brussels to discuss ways to plug a 15-billion euro ($19 billion) hole in Greece’s finances.

Stocks briefly extended losses as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank doesn’t have the tools to offset the potential harm to the economy from the so-called fiscal cliff. The S&P 500 jumped 2 percent yesterday amid better-than-forecast housing data and as President Barack Obama expressed confidence on a budget agreement with Congress.

“Bernanke’s comment was a polite way of telling Congress that they should not kick the can down the road,” said John Manley, who helps oversee about $207.5 billion as chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds in New York. He spoke in a telephone interview.

HP tumbled 12 percent to $11.71. The company accused Autonomy, the software maker it bought last year, of a broad range of financial falsehoods resulting in an $8.8 billion writedown, adding to the challenges facing Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman in the midst of a multiyear turnaround.

Hewlett-Packard began investigating Autonomy’s finances after a senior executive at Autonomy came forward after founder Mike Lynch, 47, departed in May, Hewlett-Packard said. Lynch, in an interview  with the Wall Street Journal, said Hewlett-Packard has mismanaged the Autonomy deal and that the company is “trying to cover it up with this big writeoff.”

Best Buy sank 13 percent to $11.96. Chief Executive Officer Hubert Joly, who took over in September, is increasing employee training to improve customer service and plans to work with vendors on exclusive products as Best Buy customers defect to Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Same-store sales fell 4.3 percent in the third quarter, more than the 3.3 percent drop estimated by analysts in a Retail Metrics survey. Sales by that measure have slid in nine of the past 10 quarters.

Intel Corp. dropped 3.6 percent to $19.51 after UBS AG cut its rating for the largest chipmaker. The shares were downgraded to neutral from buy at the firm, which cited uncertainty around CEO transitions. Paul Otellini will retire in May, in a surprise move three years before mandatory retirement, after failing to equip the company for a shift toward mobile devices and away from the personal computers it long dominated.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. retreated 12 percent to $30.48. The largest U.S. iron-ore producer was downgraded to sell at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which cited the company’s high production costs in weak iron ore markets.

Campbell Soup Co. slid 2 percent to $36.21. The world’s largest soup maker said earnings this quarter could be “negatively impacted” amid high soup inventories and an increase in marketing spending.

Research In Motion Ltd. climbed 1.2 percent to $9.71 after Jefferies & Co. raised the stock’s rating to hold, saying the struggling maker of the BlackBerry may avoid a “worst-case scenario.” The shares pared gains after news that the BlackBerry is being dropped by the U.S. government agency that investigates plane accidents because of the device’s reliability issues.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. added 3.1 percent to $26.34. The world’s biggest corn processor was raised to outperform from market perform at BMO Capital Markets by equity analyst Kenneth Zaslow. The 12-month share-price estimate is $32.

Groupon Inc. jumped 8.5 percent to $3.37 after Tiger Global Management LLC, the $8 billion hedge fund run by Chase Coleman and Feroz Dewan, said it acquired a 9.9 percent stake in the daily deal site.

Lower earnings estimates are dragging down stocks from this year’s highs and their full effect has yet to be felt, according to Hasan S. Tevfik, a global equity strategist at Citigroup Inc.

He compares the performance of an earnings-revision index, or ERI, compiled weekly by Citigroup with MSCI Inc.’s All-Country World Index since the beginning of last year.

Since the first week of May, the revision index has been less than zero, which means there were more estimate cuts than increases among analysts. The MSCI gauge of stocks in developed and emerging markets rose to its peak for the year in September and then lost as much as 6.7 percent.

“ERI remains an anchor for global equity markets,” Tevfik wrote. A similar disparity between estimate changes and share prices in 2011 was resolved when stocks declined in July and August of that year, the London-based strategist added.

Earnings projections for next year are poised to decline further, he wrote, citing the gap between analysts’ estimates for companies and strategists’ projections for stock indexes.

Citigroup strategists are collectively calling for profit growth of 7 percent, trailing a 12 percent increase implied by company- specific estimates, Tevfik wrote. The lower figure may be too high, he added, as economic growth slows worldwide.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Why is the lamp extinguished?

I surrounded it with my robe to shelter it from the wind; this is why the lamp is extinguished.

Why has the flower wilted?

I pressed it to my heart with anxiety and love; this is why the flower has wilted.

Why is the river dry?

I built a dike across it so that it would serve me and me alone; this is why the river is dry.

Why is the harp string broken?

I tried to play a note too high for it; this is why the harp string is broken.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Act as if it were impossible to fail.

-Dorothea Brande, 1893-1948

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