Author: Carolann

Tangents:

 

Today in history:

1945- Soviet troops begin their attack on Berlin

1967- US bombers bomb Haiphong for the first time during the Vietnam war.

 

Birthdays:

121- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor

1808- Napoleon III, Emperor of France

1893-Joan Miró, Spanish painter

 

Question: What do you think stands between you and happiness?

Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need. ~ Marshall Rosenberg, 1934-

photos of the day

April 20, 2012

The Comedie Francaise theatre temporary hall and columns, by French sculptor Daniel Buren (the ‘Colonnes de Buren’), are seen in the Palais royal gardens in Paris.

Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Indian girls look at an installation titled ‘Line of Control’ by Indian artist Subodh Gupta in New Delhi, India. The installation made of steel utensils is in the shape of a giant mushroom cloud referring to the dust-cloud of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while also alluding to the contested India-Pakistan border, according to a press release.

Kevin Frayer/AP

Market Closes for April 20, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	13029.26	+65.16
		+0.50%
S&P 500	1378.53	+1.61
		+0.12%
NASDAQ	3000.45	-7.11
		-0.24%
TSX	12147.28	-6.41
		-0.05%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9561.36	-27.02
		-0.28%
HANG SENG	21010.64	+15.63 +0.07%
SENSEX	17373.84	-129.87
		-0.74%
FTSE 100	5772.15	+27.60
		+0.48%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.047	2.045
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.612	2.593
U.S. 10 Year Bond	1.9559	1.9665
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1168	3.1208

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00773	1.00454
US $	0.99232	0.99548
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31165	0.76240
US $	1.32179	0.75655

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1642.10	1640.60
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	103.05	102.62

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 20 (Bloomberg) — Most Canadian stocks rose as the main equity index completed its first weekly gain since February after energy shares advanced on improving in German business confidence and better-than-forecast U.S. earnings reports.

ARC Resources Ltd., a western Canadian oil and gas producer, climbed 3.8 percent. Enbridge Inc., Canada’s largest pipeline company, increased 0.9 percent. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third largest lender, declined 0.5 percent, as banks declined for the first time this week. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s biggest bullion producer, dropped 1.9 percent, dragging the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index lower, after Societe Generale SA put a sell rating on African Barrick Gold Plc.

The S&P/TSX decreased 6.41 points, or 0.1 percent, to

12,147.28 in Toronto, paring the five-day increase to 0.9 percent. Out of the 253 stocks in the benchmark gauge, 141 gained today.

“Earnings are trumping any fears that are coming out of Europe right now,” Barry Schwartz, a money manager at Baskin Financial Services Inc. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$400 million ($400 million).

“I don’t think we should be surprised because the economic data coming in over the first quarter was very strong.”

The S&P/TSX’s first increase in eight weeks snapped its longest losing streak since 2008. Canadian stocks rallied after the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of Canada said economic growth will be faster than previously forecast.

Energy companies rose as oil futures gained after the Munich-based Ifo institute said today its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, climbed for a sixth month in April. Profit reports from U.S. companies including Microsoft Corp. and General Electric Co. beat estimates.

ARC Resources rose 3.8 percent to C$19.21. Enbridge increased 0.9 percent to C$39.59. MEG Energy Corp., a Calgary- based oil-sands developer, climbed 1.6 percent to C$38.45.

Materials companies in the S&P/TSX were driven down by Barrick Gold, which dropped 1.9 percent to C$39.96.

African Barrick Gold, in which Barrick is the biggest shareholder, was rated new sell at Societe Generale after reporting results yesterday that missed analysts’ estimates.

Bank of Nova Scotia declined 0.5 percent to C$54.75 as an index of banks in the S&P/TSX fell 0.2 percent, reducing its weekly gain to 1.8 percent.

Molybdenum producer Thompson Creek Metals Co. retreated 4.2 percent to C$6.12 after reporting a preliminary first-quarter operating loss caused by its new Endako mill expansion.

US

By Whitney Kisling

April 20 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, snapping a two- day decline for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as profits from companies including Microsoft Corp. and General Electric Co.

beat estimates and German business confidence improved.

Equities pared gains as Apple Inc. slid 2.5 percent, extending its loss since April 9 to 9.9 percent. Microsoft, the largest software maker, rose 4.6 percent. GE jumped 1.2 percent as profit gains at the energy business outpaced finance for the first time in two years. McDonald’s Corp. added 0.7 percent amid higher-than-estimated earnings. Bank of America Corp. tumbled

4.7 percent, driving financial shares lower.

The S&P 500 gained 0.1 percent to 1,378.53 at 4 p.m. New York time, as the benchmark index for American equities completed a 0.6 percent weekly advance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 65.16 points, or 0.5 percent, to 13,029.26 today.

More than 6.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, or

1.1 percent below the three-month average.

“On the back of some weaker recent economic data, the earnings story continues to showcase that companies can wring out some profits here,” James Dunigan, who helps oversee $112 billion as chief investment officer in Philadelphia for PNC Wealth Management, said in a telephone interview. “With the constant noise in the background of Europe we seem to be focusing more on the domestic story, at least today. That just gives more credence to the fact that the recovery continues to be in place.”

Profits for the 94 companies in the S&P 500 that reported quarterly results since April 10 beat estimates by 8.5 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities has risen 9.6 percent in 2012, even after the index lost 0.6 percent yesterday as home sales fell and jobless claims were more than forecast.

A report today showed German business confidence unexpectedly increased for a sixth month in April, adding to evidence that Europe’s largest economy can weather the sovereign-debt crisis.

Seven out of 10 industries in the S&P 500 advanced today as utilities and consumer-staples companies gained the most.

Microsoft rose 4.6 percent, the most in three months, to $32.42. The software maker reported fiscal third-quarter profit that topped estimates on better-than-expected sales of Windows and Office software for businesses. Corporate demand for Windows computers made up for tepid interest from consumers opting for tablet machines.

GE rose 1.2 percent to $19.36. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt is increasing the focus on divisions that make gas turbines, jet engines and diesel locomotives while shrinking GE Capital’s balance sheet. He has pledged to boost industrial income this year by 5 percent to 10 percent, excluding the effect of acquisitions, while expanding margins.

Honeywell International Inc. rallied 2.4 percent to $59.39.

The maker of products from flight controls to work boots raised its 2012 forecast after posting quarterly profit that beat analysts’ estimates on demand for aircraft parts and energy technology.

Schlumberger Ltd. gained 2.7 percent to $71.70. The world’s largest oilfield-services provider reported first-quarter profit rose 38 percent as customers increased higher margin deep-water drilling around the globe in response to climbing crude prices.

E*Trade gained the most in the S&P 500, rising 6.1 percent to $10.48, as quarterly profit and revenue exceeded estimates.

The company said loan-loss provisions fell 41 percent to $72 million from the fourth quarter. The retail broker posted four years of losses through 2010, partly because of the subprime mortgage market collapse in 2007.

McDonald’s Corp. added 0.7 percent to $95.94. The world’s largest restaurant chain reported a 4.8 percent gain in first- quarter profit as new menu items such as Chicken McBites attracted U.S. consumers.

SanDisk, which makes memory chips used in mobile devices, declined 11 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $35.91 after giving a second-quarter sales forecast that fell short of some analysts’ estimates. Chip production at SanDisk and its rivals is outpacing demand, causing prices to fall, Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra said on a conference call with analysts yesterday. Some of the company’s customers also ordered fewer chips for mobile phones than SanDisk had predicted, he said.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

Death is extraordinarily like life,

when we know how to live.

You cannot live without dying.

You cannot live if you do not die

psychologically every minute.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

 

You can’t depend on your eyes when

your imagination is out of focus.

-Mark Twain, 1835-1910

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Hello All,

 

Carolann is still away on business, so it’s my turn to send the newsletter!

Tangents:

As you may have heard already, the iconic host of “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” Dick Clark, has passed away at age 82. His career spanned more than 60 years, and he will be greatly missed in the television community. New Years 2013 in Times Square won’t be the same without him!

 

Check out http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/04/19/dick-clark-a-career-in-milestones/ for a look at some of his career highlights.

 

photos of the day

April 19, 2012

A man stands inside the art work “Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture” by British artist Anthony MacCall at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum in Berlin.
Markus Schreiber/AP

A surfer holding his surfboard leaves the water at a beach in the Barranco district of Lima, Peru.
Mariana Bazo/Reuters

Market Closes for April 19, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12964.10	-68.65
		-0.53%
S&P 500	1376.92	-8.22
		-0.59%
NASDAQ	3007.56	-23.98
		-0.79%
TSX	12153.69	+24.80
		+0.20%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9588.38	-78.88
		-0.82%
HANG SENG	20995.01	+214.28
		+1.03%
SENSEX	17503.71	+111.32
		+0.64%
FTSE 100	5744.55	-0.74
		-0.01%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.045	2.044
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.593	2.588
U.S. 10 Year Bond	1.9665	1.9735
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1208	3.1232

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00454	1.00897
US $	0.99548	0.99111
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.30770	764700.
US $	1.31364	0.76125

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1640.60	1640.10
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.62	102.70

 

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Lu Wang and Joanna Ossinger

April 19 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks climbed for a second time in three days as mining companies advanced with gold prices and Research In Motion Ltd. rallied on speculation it will hire a financial adviser soon.

Lundin Mining Corp., which produces base metals in Europe, gained 5.8 percent. Novagold Resources Inc. climbed 2 percent, while First Quantum Minerals Ltd. jumped 3.1 percent. Research In Motion rallied 2.6 percent after two people with knowledge of the matter said JPMorgan Chase & Co. was the leading candidate to help the BlackBerry maker weigh strategic options. Manulife Financial Corp. gained 1.9 percent as Desjardins Securities Inc. said the stock has the best potential to rise among insurers.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index advanced 24.80 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,153.69 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge is heading for its first weekly gain since February after the Bank of Canada said economic growth will be faster than expected.

“We’re in a general uptrend economically and we do expect that to continue,” Tony Demarin, chief investment officer at BCV Asset Management in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$360 million ($363 million).

“Canada is a lot more on the resources side. When resources do well, that’s what drives the Canadian market.”

The S&P/TSX had its seventh straight weekly decline in the five days ending April 13, its longest losing streak since 2008, as weaker-than-forecast U.S. jobs numbers and reports of slowing growth in China raised concern that demand may slip for Canadian commodities. The U.S. is the world’s biggest consumer of oil, while China is the No. 1 user of copper.

Copper advanced as much as 0.6 percent, before erasing the gain, as the chief executive officer of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. said on a conference call that global inventories are relatively low and still facing supply constraints. Gold rose after Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said she expects the resources of the IMF to be “significantly increased” amid Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis.

Lundin jumped 5.8 percent to C$4.56, and Novagold rose 2 percent to C$6.58. First Quantum added 3.1 percent to C$21.52.

Goldcorp Inc. climbed 1.7 percent to C$41.18.

Research In Motion advanced 2.6 percent to C$13.42. The company’s final choice for a financial adviser hasn’t been made and could come within days, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

Manulife increased 1.9 percent to C$13.47. Shares of Canada’s largest insurer may rally 37 percent from current levels this year as higher bond yields and rising equity market bolster earnings, according to Desjardins.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. fell 2.2 percent to C$38.75.

The convenience store operator’s plan to finance its acquisition of Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA with floating rate debt is “not prudent” over the longer term, Peter Sklar, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, said in a note to clients. He cut his rating on Alimentation to market perform from outperform. The market perform rating means the stock is expected to perform roughly in line with the market.

SXC Health Solutions Corp. rose the most in the S&P/TSX, jumping 8.9 percent to C$96.49. The provider of pharmacy benefit management services and health-care information technology will stay listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange after agreeing to buy Catalyst Health Solutions Inc. to expand in the U.S., the Globe and Mail reported, citing an interview with Chief Financial Officer Jeff Park.

 

US

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft and Michael P. Regan

April 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell for a second day as data on manufacturing, home sales and jobless claims tempered optimism in the economy, overshadowing improving earnings.

Spanish and French bonds slid; Treasuries and commodities rose.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.3 percent to 1,381.72 at 12:22 p.m. in New York after rising as much as 0.4 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.5 percent, erasing an earlier 1 percent rally. The S&P GSCI gauge of commodities rose

0.3 percent as crops led gains. Ten-year Treasury yields lost two basis points to 1.96 percent as rates on French and Spanish 10-year bonds climbed at least eight basis points, reviving concern about Europe’s debt crisis.

U.S. reports today showed existing-home sales unexpectedly fell 2.6 percent, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s manufacturing index trailed estimates and jobless claims exceeded projections. Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp.

reported earnings were boosted by higher trading revenue, while Ebay surged as its PayPal payments service fueled profit growth.

“You’ve got a lot of counter-balancing points,” Philip Orlando, the New York-based chief equity strategist at Federated Investors Inc., which oversees about $370 billion, said in a phone interview. “The jobless claims number was disappointing, while corporate earnings have been coming in stronger than expected,” he said. “Investors are looking at each incremental data point trying to draw conclusions.”

Industrial and consumer-discretionary stocks led losses in the 10 main S&P 500 industry groups, while telephone and health- care companies rose the most. The Philadelphia Fed’s general economic index decreased to 8.5 in April, the lowest level since January and less than the median forecast of economists for a reading of 12. The Labor Department reported initial jobless claims of 386,000 last week, topping the median estimate of 370,000.

EBay rallied 15 percent after sales and profit at the world’s largest Internet marketplace topped analysts’ estimates, spurred by growth in its PayPal online-payments business.

Verizon climbed 2.3 percent as smartphone demand boosted subscriber count. Qualcomm Inc., the biggest maker of mobile- phone semiconductors, declined 5.2 percent as its third-quarter forecasts fell short of some projections on increased spending to bolster chip output.

Profits for S&P 500 companies are forecast to rise 1.7 percent in the first quarter and 2 percent in the following period, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Corn and wheat climbed more than 2 percent to lead gains in 18 of 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index, which climbed 0.3 percent. Oil swung between gains and losses near $102.67 a barrel.

Among European stocks, Publicis Groupe SA dropped as France’s largest advertising company said growth will slow this quarter. GlaxoSmithKline Plc advanced after Human Genome Sciences Inc. rejected an unsolicited offer from the U.K.’s largest drugmaker. SKF AB, the world’s biggest maker of ball bearings, rose 4.9 percent after forecasting higher sales in the U.S. and Asia.

Spain’s 10-year bond yield increased 10 basis points, or 0.10 percentage point, to 5.93 percent and France’s yield added eight basis points to 3.10 percent. The French rate increased to 140 basis points above yields on benchmark German bunds, the highest level since January.

Spain sold 2.54 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of two-year and 10-year debt today, compared with a maximum target of 2.5 billion euros, and France auctioned 8 billion euros.

Spain sold the 10-year benchmark bonds at an average yield of 5.743 percent, compared with 5.789 percent on the secondary market before the auction, and 5.403 percent when it last sold the debt in January. It auctioned two-year securities at 3.463 percent. France issued 2.7 billion euros of benchmark five-year securities at an average yield of 1.83 percent, up from 1.78 percent on March 15.

Credit-rating companies will probably downgrade France over the next two to three years regardless of whether President Nicolas Sarkozy or his Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, wins the election, Citigroup Inc. economist Michael Saunders wrote in a client note today. The nation may be cut one level by both S&P and Moody’s Investors Service, he wrote. Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal also face potential downgrades, he wrote.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, says she hopes to raise more than $320 billion in additional lending resources. That figure is not the “final ask,” she said in a Bloomberg Television interview today, adding that she expects countries to announce additional contributions.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 1 percent.

China will boost liquidity by cutting reserve requirement ratios if necessary, Xinhua News Agency said, citing an unidentified central bank official. The nation may also increase open market operations including reverse repurchase agreements and redemption of central bank bills, the report said.

The yen weakened against 14 of 16 major peers as Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa pledged to continue monetary easing. Growth in developed economies remains “anemic,” Shirakawa said yesterday in New York.

The MSCI Emerging Markets was little changed. Russia’s Micex Index gained 1.8 percent as steelmaker OAO Severstal jumped 5.7 percent after fourth-quarter profit beat estimates.

The benchmark index in South Africa rose 0.2 percent as retail sales exceeded forecasts and the inflation rate slipped.

 

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nadia Aziz

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

Went to hear Marlo Thomas last night speak about her life and experiences and thoughts…she is amazing.  Check out her website at marlothomas.com.  She is also starting a weekly blog for the Huffington Post –the first one is due before April 30^th, so look for it on her blog and the Huffington Post…

 

Today’s question:

Have you ever regretted something you did not say or do?

In history:

1942 – The Toronto Maple Leafs pull off the greatest comeback in NHL history with their fourth straight win to win the Stanley Cup series 4-3. ( I cringe thinking of the Canuck’s game tonight against LA).

 

1950- The first trans-Atlantic jet passenger trip is completed.

1906- A massive earthquake hits San Francisco, measuring 8.25 on the Richter Scale.

 

 

photos of the day

April 18, 2012

US Olympic gymnast Alaina Williams poses in mid-air during a trampoline demonstration in New York’s Times Square. The US Olympic team put on a demonstration to celebrate 100 days countdown to the London games.

Brendan McDermid/Reute

Giulia Lapi and Mariangela Perrupato of Italy perform in the Duets Technical Routine during a synchronized swimming qualification event at the Aquatic Center at Olympic Park in Stratford in east London.

Toby Melville/Reuters

Market Closes for April 18, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13032.75	-82.79
		-0.63%
S&P 500	1385.14	-5.64
		-0.41%
NASDAQ	3031.45	-11.37
		-0.37%
TSX	12128.89	-8.05
		-0.07%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9667.26	+202.55
		+2.14%
HANG  SENG	20780.73	+218.42
		+1.06%
SENSEX	17392.39	+34.45
		+0.20%
FTSE 100	5745.29	-21.66
		-0.38%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.044	2.070
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.588	2.612
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9735	1.9981
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1232	3.1411

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99111	0.99029
US   $	1.00897	1.00980
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.30027	0.76907
US  $	1.31193	0.76176

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1640.10	1650.20
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.70	104.26

Market Commentary:

Canada

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 18 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, after the biggest advance in more than a month for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as Intel Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. drove a slump in technology shares after reporting results.

Intel and IBM slumped at least 1.5 percent amid the slowest sales growth since 2009. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class A shares slid 1.3 percent as Warren Buffett was diagnosed with stage 1 prostate cancer. Genworth Financial Inc. tumbled 21 percent after delaying plans for a public offering of its Australian unit backing home loans after “elevated” losses in the nation.

Apple Inc. advanced 0.3 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its estimates for the most valuable technology company.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.2 percent to 1,387.75 at 3:24 p.m. New York time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 59.37 points, or 0.5 percent, to 13,056.17 today. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies lost 0.6 percent to 805.45. Trading in S&P 500 companies was 2 percent below the 30-day average.

“Profits are lukewarm,” said Nick Sargen, chief investment officer at Fort Washington Investment Advisors in Cincinnati, which oversees $40 billion. “You get disappointments from some bellwether technology companies at a time when the market has had such a good run. We’re not bearish, but if we’re going to add to positions, we need a pullback.”

Stocks fell as Intel forecast gross margin that was lower than some analysts predicted and IBM’s sales missed forecasts.

The S&P 500 had risen 11 percent in 2012 through yesterday on better-than-estimated economic and corporate data. Equities also dropped as Bank of England policy makers said inflation may be higher than forecast. Spain will auction 3.3 percent two-year notes and 5.85 percent 10-year debt tomorrow.

BlackRock Inc.’s Laurence D. Fink, who has been advising investors to put more money in stocks, said clients are still overwhelmed by fear as global markets remain “fragile” despite the first-quarter rally. Fink said investors remain pessimistic and customers removed money from active equity products while turning to passive investments such as exchange-traded funds.

The company’s share of fees from active stock funds, which last year were the biggest contributor to investment advisory revenue, fell below stock ETFs this year as investors migrated to passive products.

“The fears of the investor still are more overwhelming than the hope for a better future,” Fink, chairman and chief executive officer of New York-based BlackRock, said today during a conference call with investors and analysts. “Despite the rally in global equities from its lows, I would still qualify the market to be quite fragile.”

Intel slumped 1.5 percent to $28.05, while IBM retreated 3.5 percent to $200.29. IBM’s revenue climbed 0.3 percent to $24.7 billion in the period, while Intel sales rose 0.5 percent to $12.9 billion. That was the smallest increase for either company since the third quarter of 2009, when the U.S. economy was just emerging from recession. Even so, Intel predicted a pickup in sales for the current quarter.

The two technology giants are seeking growth in emerging markets while coping with a slowdown triggered by the European debt crisis. The personal-computer market, which contracted in the U.S. last year for the first time since 2001, also is hurting demand for Intel’s processors. IBM, meanwhile, is more focused on expanding earnings per share, rather than pursuing less-profitable orders.

“All else being equal, you’d rather see top-line growth,” said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. Still, he said, most investors are looking more closely at profit than sales. “IBM has conditioned investors to focus on EPS growth. That’s how it provides guidance.”

Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares lost 1.3 percent to $119,714 even after Buffett said his condition is “not remotely life threatening.” The 81-year-old billionaire will begin a two-month treatment of daily radiation in July, he said. The regimen will restrict his travel during the period and not otherwise change his daily routine, said Buffett, who is also chief executive officer of the Omaha, Nebraska-based company.

“I feel great — as if I were in my normal excellent health — and my energy level is 100 percent,” Buffett said in the letter yesterday. “I will let shareholders know immediately should my health situation change. Eventually, of course, it will; but I believe that day is a long way off.”

Genworth Financial Inc. tumbled 21 percent to $6.05. The IPO is now planned for early 2013, after the company previously targeted the offering for the second quarter of this year, the insurer said late yesterday in a statement. Genworth has said it plans to sell as much as 40 percent of the unit.

Apple rose 0.3 percent to $611.59, after swinging from gains to losses during the day. Goldman Sachs said investors should buy the shares amid what it describes as the beginning of a “very big year” as the company reports results next week.

Yahoo! Inc. advanced 3.5 percent to $15.54 after reporting first-quarter sales that topped estimates, fueling optimism that a turnaround effort by Chief Executive Officer Scott Thompson may take hold.

Halliburton Co. added 4.8 percent to $34.22. The world’s largest provider of hydraulic fracturing services said first- quarter profit increased as rising crude prices drove producers to expand drilling in North America.

Catalyst Health Solutions Inc. surged 32 percent to $84.06. SXC Health Solutions Corp. agreed to buy the company in a cash and stock transaction valued at $4.4 billion to stay competitive as larger pharmacy benefits managers join forces. SXC Health jumped 9.3 percent to $87.73.

Consumers may catch a break from higher food prices at U.S. supermarkets, said Charles Grom, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG.

Consumer prices for groceries and producer prices for processed foods are rising more slowly this year, according to data compiled by the Labor Department.

The pace of price increases slowed in March by the most since July 2009, according to both indicators. Food bought at stores cost 3.6 percent more than a year earlier. The rate was 0.9 percentage point lower than in February. Processed-food prices last month rose 4.3 percent, a decline of 1.6 point.

“Food inflation should continue to slow,” he wrote, because increases last year were unusually steep. Prices for food that’s eaten at home peaked at a 6.2 percent growth rate last September. The pace was the fastest since December 2008.

Sales growth may suffer at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, and the Safeway Inc. and Supervalu Inc. supermarket chains as they struggle to raise prices, Grom wrote. The New York-based analyst has sell ratings on Wal-Mart and Safeway and a hold rating on Supervalu.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

We would rather cling to the known than face the unknown-

the known being our house, our furniture, our family,

our character, our work, our knowledge, our fame, our loneliness, our gods –

that little thing that moves around incessantly within itself,

with its own limited embittered existence.

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

 

Over and over again mediocrity is promoted

because real worth isn’t to be found.

-Kathleen Norris, 1880-1966

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

 

Hello All,

 

Carolann is away on business in Vancouver today so I will be covering for the newsletter!

Tangents:

Here at the office, we often listen to Seattle’s National Public Radio station. One of the stories they covered yesterday was the announcements of this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners. You could tell there was additional excitement over this year’s winner for poetry. Tracy K. Smith, was the program All Things Considered’s first news poet. She spent a day with NPR in January and wrote a poem based on the news that day. I thought that the poem was really beautiful when they read it out loud on the radio. You can read it below.

 

“New Road Station”

History is in a hurry. It moves like a woman corralling her children onto a crowded bus. History spits, go, go, go, lurching at the horizon, hammering the driver’s headrest with her fist. Nothing else moves. The flies settle in place, watching with their million eyes, never bored. The crows strike their bargain with the breeze. They cluck and caw at the women in their frenzy, the ones who suck their teeth, whose skirts are bathed in mud.

But history is not a woman, and it is not the crowd forming in a square. It is not the bright swarm of voices chanting, no and now, or even the rapt silence of a room where a film of history is right now being screened. Perhaps history is the bus that will only wait so long before cranking its engine and barreling down the road.

Maybe it is the voice coming in through the radio, like a long distance call, or the child in the crook of his mother’s arm who believes history must sleep inside a tomb or the belly of a bomb.

 

photos of the day

April 17, 2012

A Kashmiri vegetable vendor holds a basket of bread at a floating market in the interiors of the Dal Lake in Srinagar.

Danish Ismail/Reuters

People visit the Shwedagon Pagoda during Myanmar’s New Year Day in Yangon.

Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

 

Market Closes for April 17, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	13115.54	+194.13
		+1.50%
S&P 500	1390.78	+21.21
		+1.55%
NASDAQ	3042.82	+54.42
		+1.82%
TSX	12136.94	+99.35
		+0.83%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9464.71	-5.93
		-0.06%
HANG SENG	20562.31	-48.33
		-0.23%
SENSEX	17357.94	+206.99
		+1.21%
FTSE 100	5766.95	+100.67
		+1.78%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.070	2.008
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.612	2.573
U.S. 10 Year Bond	1.9981	1.9858
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1411	3.1338

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99029	0.99989
US $	1.00980	1.00011
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.30001	0.76923
US $	1.31275	0.76176

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1650.20	1648.70
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	104.26	103.09

 

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 17 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rallied following a two-day drop as energy producers advanced after the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of Canada said economic growth will be faster than they had previously forecast.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, rose 2 percent. Uranium producer Denison Mines Corp. jumped 17 percent after agreeing to sell its U.S. mining assets. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s third-largest insurer, rose 2.6 percent. Planemaker Bombardier Inc. advanced 3.3 percent after saying its maintenance and spare-parts unit may double revenue in the next five to seven years.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index increased 99.35 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,136.94 in Toronto.

“The Canadian numbers came out from the Bank of Canada, and they indicate that we’ll see a little inflation, that the economy is a little stronger,” Irwin Michael, a portfolio manager at ABC Funds in Toronto, said in a telephone interview.

Michael’s firm oversees C$1 billion ($1 billion). “It picked up the Canadian dollar. People are maybe a tad too negative and it doesn’t take too much to move things along.”

The S&P/TSX had its seventh straight weekly decline in the five days ending April 13, its longest losing streak since 2008, as weaker-than-forecast U.S. jobs numbers and reports of slowing growth in China raised concern that demand may slip for Canadian commodities. The U.S. is the world’s biggest consumer of oil, while China is the number one user of copper.

The IMF raised its global growth forecast for the first time in a year, estimating a 3.5 percent expansion in 2012, compared with its January projection of 3.3 percent. It estimated the U.S. will grow 2.1 percent this year.

The Canadian central bank kept its main interest rate unchanged at 1 percent for a 13th time, while saying higher borrowing costs “may become appropriate” because economic growth and inflation will be faster than it forecast.

Energy companies rose after oil climbed in New York as Spain raised more than its maximum target at a debt auction, easing concern that Europe’s credit crisis will spread and slow economic growth. Spain sold 3.18 billion euros of bills.

Suncor Energy Inc. climbed 2 percent to C$31.43. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. increased 2.3 percent to C$32.65.

Imperial Oil Ltd., Canada’s second-largest energy company, gained 2 percent to C$45.11.

Financial stocks in the S&P/TSX increased for a second day on the IMF forecast. Manulife Financial Corp. gained 2.6 percent to C$13.28. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-largest lender, rose 1 percent to C$83.56.

Bombardier Inc. advanced 3.3 percent to C$4.12 after saying it plans to double revenue for its maintenance and spare-parts unit to $3 billion annually by expanding into emerging markets such as Russia and China.

Denison Mines, the operator of three U.S. uranium mines, surged 17 percent to C$1.65 after Energy Fuels Inc. agreed to acquire the assets for about C$111 million ($112 million) in stock.

Uranium One Inc., a mining company controlled by Moscow- based ARMZ Uranium Holding, climbed 13 percent to C$3 after being rated overweight in new coverage by JPMorgan. The rating means that the firm expects the stock to outperform the average total return of the stocks in the analyst’s coverage universe over the next six to 12 months.

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 17 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, giving benchmark indexes the biggest rallies in a month, as higher forecasts from the International Monetary Fund and gains in Spanish bonds overshadowed declines in housing starts and factory production.

Apple Inc., the most valuable technology company, surged 5.1 percent after yesterday capping its longest losing streak since October. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. added more than 1.4 percent as European lenders jumped after Spain sold more debt than targeted. Coca-Cola Co., rose 2.1 percent as earnings beat estimates. International Business Machines Corp. and Intel Corp., which gained in anticipation of their results, slumped at least 2.4 percent in extended trading.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 1.6 percent to 1,390.78 at 4 p.m. New York time, after falling 1.3 percent in two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 194.13 points, or 1.5 percent, to 13,115.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.8 percent to 3,042.82. About 6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, or 11 percent below the three-month average.

“The market was able to shrug off disappointing U.S. economic reports,” said Paul Zemsky, the New York-based head of asset allocation for ING Investment Management. His firm oversees $160 billion. “We’ve got data showing the German economy is growing strong, positive earnings surprises in the U.S. and some good news out of Spain. There’s a lot of room for positive surprises given how pessimistic things were.”

Stocks rallied as the IMF raised its 2012 global growth estimate to 3.5 percent, German investor confidence rose and Spanish bonds gained. Expectations that Europe’s crisis is stabilizing overshadowed data showing that production at U.S. factories dropped in March for the first time in four months and builders broke ground on fewer houses than forecast.

Today’s gain extended the 2012 rally for the S&P 500 to 11 percent as investors bought stocks amid better-than-estimated economic and corporate data. While S&P 500 per-share profit growth slowed to 1.7 percent during the first three months of the year, it will accelerate to 8.6 percent during all of 2012, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 advanced as technology, energy and industrial shares had the biggest gains. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to economic growth added 1.4 percent as 28 of its 30 stocks gained.

“It’s a broad-based rally,” Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist for Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, which manages about $54 billion, said in a telephone interview. “There’s maybe a bit of ‘risk-on’ trade. Nonetheless, it seems like a healthy advance. Maybe what we’ve seen is the end of the pullback in equities.”

Since reaching an almost four-year high on April 2, the S&P 500 slumped 3.5 percent through yesterday on concern about global economic growth. The index is still down 1.3 percent in April, after capping the best first-quarter rally since 1998.

Apple rose 5.1 percent to $609.70, wiping out yesterday’s drop, amid predictions that quarterly results due next week will underscore buoyant demand for iPhones and iPads, the company’s best-selling products.

The KBW Bank Index added 1.7 percent as all of its 24 stocks gained. Bank of America added 1.5 percent to $8.92. Citigroup increased 3.2 percent to $35.08.

Coca-Cola gained 2.1 percent to $73.95. Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent has introduced smaller package sizes to attract price-conscious consumers as part of an effort to spur sales in North America.

Stocks also rose in anticipation of earnings at some of the largest technology companies. IBM, which jumped 2.3 percent to $207.45 in regular trading, tumbled 2.4 percent to $202.50 at

4:55 p.m. New York time. The biggest computer-services provider reported revenue that missed projections.

Intel slumped 2.9 percent to $27.64 in extended trading, after gaining for a second day ahead of its results. The world’s largest semiconductor maker predicted higher second-quarter sales than some analysts had estimated as it ships new personal- computer and server chips and shortages of hard drives abate.

First Solar Inc. surged 10 percent to $22.96. The largest thin-film panel maker will cut 30 percent of its workforce, about 2,000 jobs, as demand in Europe slows faster than the company can expand in emerging markets in Asia.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fell 0.7 percent to $116.86. The fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets reported a 23 percent decline in first-quarter profit. Revenue from trading bonds, currencies and commodities lagged behind JPMorgan Chase & Co. The company also boosted its dividend 31 percent.

Whirlpool Corp. slumped 4.3 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $68. The U.S. International Trade Commission said pricing and subsidies for refrigerators made by LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. didn’t harm the U.S. industry.

Allocations in U.S. stocks almost doubled in April on renewed concern that the euro-area debt crisis will worsen, prompting investors to sell European equities and hoard cash, a Bank of America survey showed.

A net 27 percent of 191 respondents, who together manage $554 billion, said they were overweight U.S. stocks, meaning they hold more than is represented in benchmarks. That’s up from 14 percent last month. Expectations for an appreciation in the dollar hit the third-highest level in more than 10 years.

The U.S. “is a default for investors,” said Gary Baker, BofA’s head of European equity strategy, at a press briefing in London. “If you’re concerned about growth, and not sure how concerned you should be, ultimately the U.S. is still your safest haven.”

 

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

 

Kindest Regards,

 

Ellora Howie

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

 

The global    cul-de-sac?

 

“We are living in an isolation that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors, and yet we have never been more accessible,” writes Stephen Marche in The Atlantic.  “In a world consumed by ever more novel modes of socializing, we have less and less actual society.  We live in an accelerating contradiction: The more connected we become, the lonelier we are.  We were promised a global village; instead, we inhabit the drab cul-de-sacs and endless freeways of a vast suburb of information.” –The Globe & Mail, April 16^th, 2012.

 

There was an excellent article last month in The Financial Times by John McDermott, entitled How to have a conversation.  It’s a dying art, struck down by text, email and messaging, so can we be taught how to talk to each other?

He writes;  what makes a good conversationalist has changed little over the years.  The basics remain the same as when Cicero became the first scholar to  write down some rules, which were summarized in 2006 by The Economist:  “Speak clearly; speak easily but not too much, especially when others want their turn; do not interrupt; be courteous; deal seriously with serious matters and gracefully with lighter ones; never criticize people behind their backs; stick to subjects of general interest; do not talk about yourself; and above all, never lose your temper.”  But Cicero was lucky: he never went on a first date with someone more interested in their iPhone than his company.

And so the writer enrolled in The School of Life, an academy of “self-help” on Bloomsbury’s Marchmont Street, co-founded by philosopher Alain de Botton.  For about 30 pounds per session, students can  take classes with resident “fellow” of the school on a wide range of subjects, including “How to have a conversation.”

I kid you not.

photos of the day

April 16, 2012

Dancers participate in the Persian Day Parade in New York, Sunday. The parade is held in in commemoration of Newroz, the Persian New Year.

Keith Bedford/Reuters

The multi-hulls in competition are seen at the start area during during the America’s Cup World Series regatta in Naples, Italy, Sunday.

Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

Market Closes for April 16, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12921.41	+71.82
		+056%
S&P 500	1369.57	-0.69
		-0.05%
NASDAQ	2988.40	-22.93
		-0.76%
TSX	12037.59	-2.80
		-0.02%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9470.64	-167.35
		-1.74%
HANG SENG	20610.64	-90.40
		-0.44%
SENSEX	17150.95	+56.44
		+0.33%
FTSE 100	5666.28	+14.49
		+0.26%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.008	1.988
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.573	2.552
U.S. 10 Year Bond	1.9858	1.9823
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1338	3.1273

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99989	0.99975
US $	1.00011	1.00025
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31307	0.76158
US $	1.31322	0.76149

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1648.70	1659.10
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	103.09	102.83

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 16 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks swung between gains and losses as mining shares declined with metal prices while financial and energy shares advanced after a stronger-than- forecast increase in U.S. retail sales.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd., the country’s second-largest publicly traded copper producer, fell 3.5 percent as the metal slipped on concern over the European debt crisis. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, rose 1.3 percent.

Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-largest lender, climbed 0.8 percent. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. declined 0.6 percent as Apple Inc. fell in New York, dragging U.S. equities lower.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 7.23 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,049.62 at 2:48 p.m. in Toronto.

“The initial optimism around retail sales drove futures up,” Brian Huen, a managing partner at Red Sky Capital Management Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$55 million ($55 million). “Now you’re seeing a big sell-off in Apple, which is a major component of the U.S. market. There’s a bit of a drag on North American markets as  whole as a result of the weakness in the U.S. right now.”

The S&P/TSX had its seventh straight weekly decline for the five days ending April 13, its longest losing streak since 2008, as weaker-than-forecast U.S. jobs numbers and reports of slowing growth in China raised concern that demand may slip for Canadian commodities. The U.S. is the world’s biggest consumer of oil, while China is the number one user of copper.

Energy companies increased today as U.S. retail sales gained 0.8 percent in March, almost three times as much as projected, following a 1 percent advance in February, according to Commerce Department figures. The median forecast of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 0.3 percent rise. A separate report showed manufacturing in the New York region expanded in April at the slowest pace in five months.

Suncor Energy Inc. rose 1.3 percent to C$30.84. TransCanada Corp., the developer of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, gained 1.4 percent to C$43.09. Vermilion Energy Inc., which operates in France, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands, increased 0.6 percent to C$45.82.

Financial shares also advanced on the U.S. retail sales figures. Toronto-Dominion Bank climbed 0.8 percent to C$82.64.

Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest lender, increased 0.9 percent to C$56.36.

Materials stocks in the S&P/TSX fell, driven by metal producers, as gold and copper prices retreated. Gold futures declined for a second straight session in New York as a stronger dollar curbed demand for the precious metal as an alternative asset.

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., Rio Tinto Group’s partner in the Oyu Tolgoi Mongolian gold and copper mine, fell 4.6 percent to C$12.17. Detour Gold Corp., which is developing a mine in Ontario, declined 2.3 percent to C$24.21.

Copper fell to a three-month low in New York as rising yields on Spanish government bonds stoked concern that the sovereign-debt crisis in Europe may worsen, potentially curbing demand. First Quantum Minerals Ltd. slid 3.5 percent to C$20.85.

Apple dropped 2.7 percent to $588.92 after falling as much as 3.8 percent, the most intraday since Oct. 19. The world’s biggest technology company fell for a fifth day amid speculation that demand for the iPad may wane and that mobile-phone carriers will cut subsidies for the iPhone, eroding profitability of Apple’s best-selling products.

RIM, Canada’s biggest technology company, slipped 0.6 percent to C$12.78, extending its loss for the year to 14 percent.

US

By Rita Nazareth and Susanne Walker

April 16 (Bloomberg) — Most U.S. stocks rose, following the biggest weekly decline of the year, as Citigroup Inc. led banks higher and stronger-than-forecast growth in retail sales bolstered optimism in the economy. Treasuries trimmed earlier gains and the Dollar Index retreated.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,369.57 at 4 p.m. in New York while the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 71.82 points to 12,921.41. About six stocks rose for every five that fell on U.S. exchanges. Ten-year Treasury yields lost less than one basis point to 1.98 percent and the dollar weakened against 10 of 16 major peers as the euro rose 0.5 percent to $1.3142, reversing a 0.6 percent earlier loss. Spanish 10-year bond yields increased nine basis points to 6.07 percent and jumped as much as 18 basis points.

Citigroup led U.S. banks higher after reporting fixed- income trading revenue more than doubled from the fourth quarter. Commerce Department data showed retail sales increased 0.8 percent in March, almost triple the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. Equities recovered after most stocks fell earlier as gains in Spanish and Italian bond yields fueled concern Europe’s debt crisis was worsening.

“The U.S. is a better economic story,” said Madelynn Matlock, who helps oversee about $14.6 billion at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati. “Retail sales showed that consumers are not being overwhelmed by gas prices. On top of that, corporate earnings should be at least respectable.”

The S&P 500 rebounded after tumbling 2 percent last week, its biggest drop of the year. Travelers Cos., Procter & Gamble Co. and Home Depot Inc. rose more than 1.4 percent to lead gains in the Dow. Citigroup Inc. climbed 1.8 percent as 23 of 24 stocks in the KBW Bank Index advanced.

Apple Inc. tumbled 4.2 percent, the most since October, and Google Inc. fell 3 percent as technology shares had the biggest decline among the 10 main S&P 500 groups.

Apple slid for a fifth day, the longest losing streak in six months, amid speculation that demand for the iPad may wane and that mobile-phone carriers will cut subsidies for the iPhone. The stock has lost almost 9 percent since closing at a record high of $636.23 on April 9.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. said late on April 13 that Texas Instruments Inc. will replace First Solar Inc. in the Nasdaq-100 Index, the basis for this year’s fifth-most-traded U.S. exchange-traded fund. Because Texas Instruments has a larger market capitalization than First Solar, other stocks in the index are likely to see their proportion shrink, according to Dave Lutz, head of ETF trading and strategy at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.

Apple influences the price of the Nasdaq-100 more than any other stock, accounting for almost 19 percent of its value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s double Microsoft Corp.’s weighting. Lutz, based in Baltimore, said in an e-mail that Apple shares may be down in part because of Nasdaq OMX’s decision.

“Apple is ubiquitous, it’s well-owned, it’s had a huge run up and people are taking some profits,” Matt McCormick, who helps oversee $6.2 billion at Bahl & Gaynor Inc. in Cincinnati, said in a telephone interview. “If you’re concerned about the market being choppy, you look at positions that had the biggest gains and Apple would clearly be one of those candidates.”

U.S. stocks started the session higher, with the S&P 500 climbing as much as 0.7 percent, as Commerce Department data showed U.S. retail sales rose 0.8 percent in March, topping the median economist estimate for 0.3 percent growth.

Treasury yields below zero on an inflation-adjusted basis for only the second time since Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency have split Wall Street’s biggest firms, underscoring the relative-value dilemma equity investors face following the biggest first-quarter rally in 14 years.

For Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Peter Oppenheimer, U.S. stocks offer a once-in-a-generation buying opportunity after yields on 10-year Treasuries fell to about minus 0.3 percent when the rate of inflation is deducted. Morgan Stanley’s Adam Parker advises caution, saying Federal Reserve stimulus that has led the fixed-income rally can’t last forever.

U.S. 30-year bonds erased gains, with the yield little changed at 3.13 percent after falling as much as four basis points. Rates on two-year notes were little changed at 0.27 percent.

“At least one eye is back on Europe,” said Thomas Roth, senior Treasury trader in New York at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities USA Inc. “It’s hard to be short Treasuries. You have to be a bit cautious,” he said. “The question is what matters more, what happens here or what happens in Europe.”

The dollar weakened more than 0.6 percent versus the Japanese yen and Norwegian krone. The yuan slid after China doubled the currency’s trading band against the dollar for the first time since 2007.

Auto companies and chemical producers led gains in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, which climbed 0.3 percent. Vestas Wind Systems A/S rallied 13 percent in Copenhagen as Jyllands-Posten reported that Sinovel Wind Group Co. and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. are considering a bid for the wind- turbine maker.

Spain’s bonds declined as Jaime Garcia-Legaz, a deputy in the Economy Ministry, called on the European Central Bank to buy the nation’s debt to help stem financial-market turmoil. Spain is scheduled to sell bonds tomorrow and on April 19 as the cost of insuring its debt against default touched a record.

The yield on the German 10-year bund retreated two basis points to 1.72 percent. The difference in yield between Spanish 10-year bonds and German securities, Europe’s benchmark, was 11 basis points higher at 435 basis points, or 4.35 percentage points, after earlier widening by as much as 20 by points. The Italian-German yield gap widened by nine basis points to 3.88 percent. French 10-year bonds declined, with the yield advancing seven basis points to 3.02 percent.

Credit-default swaps on Spain jumped nine basis points to 511 after reaching 521 earlier, according to CMA. Contracts on Italy rose about seven basis points to 441, the highest level in almost three months.

Among commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index, nickel, gasoline and cotton fell at least 2.5 percent to lead declines among 16 of 24 materials.

Crude oil gained 10 cents to $102.93 a barrel in New York.

The reversal date of the Seaway crude pipeline was moved up, causing the spread between New York-traded futures and Brent in London to narrow to the least since February. Enbridge Inc. and Enterprise Products Partners LP said they would start moving oil from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the U.S. Gulf Coast via the pipeline in May.

Speculators cut bullish wagers on commodities by the most in 2012 on mounting concern that slowing growth in China will curb gains in demand. Money managers lowered net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 9.3 percent to 1.01 million contracts in the week ended April 10, the biggest reduction since Dec. 20, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. Copper holdings tumbled 84 percent, the most since November.

 

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

A mind that is burdened with the past is a sorrowful mind.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

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

-Orisen Swett Marden, 1850-1924

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

Friday the 13^th: Thirteen was regarded as an unlucky number even among the Romans, who held it as a sign of death and destruction.  The origin of the idea that sitting down 13 at a table is unlucky is said to be that, at a banquet at Valhalla, Loki once intruded, making 13 guests and Balder was slain.  The superstition was confirmed in Christian countries by the Last Supper of Christ and the 12 apostles.  In the Middle Ages witch covens were believed always to have 13 members.

Addison writes:

I remember I was once in a mixed assembly that was full of noise and mirth, when on a sudden an old woman unluckily observed there were thirteen of us in company.  This remark struck a panic terror into several who were present, insomuch that one or two of the Ladies were going to leave  the room: but a friend of mine, taking notice that one of our female companions was big with child, affirmed there were fourteen in the room, and that, instead of portending one of the company should die, it plainly foretold one of them should be born.  Had not my friend found this expedient to break the omen, I question not but half the women in the company would have fallen sick that night. – On popular superstitions, Spectator, March 8, 1711.

The thirteenth of any month is widely regarded as an inauspicious day on which to undertake any new enterprise, and it is traditionally thought to be unlucky for a ship to begin a voyage on the 13^th, especially if it happens to be Friday the thirteenth.  –from Brewar’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

Speaking of ships, expect to see lots of stuff on the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic this weekend.  Haven’t spoken with anyone yet who has seen James Cameron’s re-release of the movie in 3d….should be good.

April 14^th, 1912 – The passenger liner Titanic – deemed unsinkable – strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and begins to sink.  The ship will go under the next day with a loss of 1,500 lives.

Birthday: April 13^th, 1743, Thomas Jefferson, 3^rd President of the USA. He wrote his own epitaph and insisted that only his words and none other be inscribed:

 

Here was buried

Thomas Jefferson

Author of the Declaration of Independence

Of the State of Virginia for Religious Freedom

& Father of the University of Virginia

photos of the day

April 13, 2012

A giant US flag is stretched across the outfield as players line the first and third base lines during a pre-game ceremony prior to the New York Yankees season home opening MLB American League baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium in New York.

Mike Segar/Reuters

A visitor looks at a work by South Korean artist Kang Hyung-Koo at China International Gallery Exposition 2012 in Beijing.

Jason Lee/Reuters

Market Closes for April 13, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12849.59	-136.99
		-1.05%
S&P 500	1370.26	-17.31
		-1.25%
NASDAQ	3011.33	-44.22
		-1.45%
TSX	12040.39	-174.26
		-1.43%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9637.99	+113.20
		+1.19%
HANG SENG	20701.04	+373.72
		+1.84%
SENSEX	17094.51	-238.11
		-1.37%
FTSE 100	5651.79	-58.67
		-1.03%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.988	2.045
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.552	2.598
U.S. 10 Year Bond	1.9823	2.0510
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1273	3.2116

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99975	0.99455
US $	1.00025	1.00548
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.30746	0.76484
US $	1.30779	0.76465

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1659.10	1679.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.83	103.69

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 13 (Bloomberg) —  Canadian stocks fell, sending the main equity index to the longest weekly losing streak since 2008, as financial companies and commodity producers retreated after China reported the slowest growth in almost three years.

Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-largest lender, dropped 1.9 percent. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-biggest lender by assets, declined 2.2 percent. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, fell 1.2 percent. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., a copper producer that has surged for two weeks on takeover speculation, dropped 3.6 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 174.26 points, or 1.4 percent, to 12,040.39 in Toronto. It slipped 0.5 percent since April 6, falling for the seventh straight week.

“There are worries about a soft landing for the Chinese economy,” Sebastian van Berkom, a money manager at Van Berkom & Associates in Montreal, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$1.8 billion ($1.8 billion). “Our market is very much influenced by commodities, whose performance is primarily determined by the outlook for Asia.”

The benchmark gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The measure started this week with two days of declines following a weaker-than-forecast U.S. jobs report.

Financial shares retreated as American consumer confidence dropped and the cost of insuring against a Spanish default reached a record high. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is struggling to prevent the nation from becoming the fourth euro- region member to need a bailout after prices for the country’s credit-default swaps rose to a record high rose 17 basis points to 498.

Toronto-Dominion Bank dropped 1.9 percent to C$81.95. Bank of Nova Scotia declined 2.2 percent to C$54.10. TD and Bank of Nova Scotia get 27 percent and 15 percent of their revenues from U.S. operations, according to Bloomberg data.

Materials companies in the S&P/TSX declined, driven by metals shares, as China said its gross domestic product in the first quarter expanded 8.1 percent from a year earlier, the slowest in almost three years. Before today, gold rose 3.1 percent this week on expectations that central banks may take more steps to boost their economies and concern that Europe’s debt crisis may worsen.

Barrick fell 1.2 percent to C$41.49. First Quantum Minerals dropped 3.6 percent to C$21.61. Silver Wheaton Corp., the country’s third-biggest precious-metals company by market value, decreased 2.4 percent to C$31.13.

Energy companies in the S&P/TSX fell on concern over China and Saudi Arabia’s oil minister’s comment that the kingdom is determined to see lower prices. There’s no shortage of oil supply, and Saudi Arabia is working toward damping prices, Ali al-Naimi said today.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, slipped 1.6 percent to C$30.45. Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp., which explores for oil in Colombia, declined 1.6 percent to C$28.49. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s third- largest energy company, fell 3.3 percent to C$31.91.

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., Canada’s biggest construction and engineering company, dropped 4.2 percent to C$38.40. The company’s Montreal headquarters were searched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The investigation is related to “certain individuals who are not or are no longer employed by the company,” SNC-Lavalin said.

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 13 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest weekly decline in 2012, as consumer confidence dropped, China’s growth slowed and the cost of insuring against a Spanish default rose to a record.

Financial shares dropped the most among 10 industries in the S&P 500, following a plunge in European lenders. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. retreated at least 3.6 percent. Technology shares, which account for 21 percent of the S&P 500, fell 1.6 percent as a group today and had the first weekly slump this year. Google Inc. tumbled 4.1 percent as the world’s largest Internet-search company plans a new stock structure that gives management more leeway in issuing shares.

The S&P 500 slid 1.3 percent to 1,370.26 at 4 p.m. New York time, extending its weekly decline to 2 percent. It fell a second week for the longest losing streak since November. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 136.99 points, or 1.1 percent, to 12,849.59. About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S.

exchanges today, or 9 percent below the three-month average.

“Let’s not get overly concerned, but yes, there are concerns out there that we need to look at,” Brad Sorensen, director of market and sector analysis at San Francisco-based Charles Schwab Corp., which has $1.81 trillion in client assets, said in a telephone interview. “China has been disappointing, U.S. consumer confidence adds to the pressure and Europe is not out of the woods yet.”

Stocks fell as confidence among U.S. consumers cooled in April from a one-year high. China’s growth slowed to the least in almost three years. Credit-default swaps on Spain surged as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy struggles to prevent the nation from becoming the fourth euro-region member to need a bailout.

Today’s decline in stocks follows the biggest two-day rally in 2012. The S&P 500, which had the best first-quarter since 1998, was still up 9 percent this year as investors bought stocks amid better-than-estimated economic data and expectations that Europe would tame its debt crisis.

“The first quarter was a relief that things were not going to be as bad,” said Virginie Maisonneuve, head of global equities at Schroder Investment Management Ltd., which oversees

$291 billion, said in a phone interview from London. “Since then, there are question marks of liquidity. We have a lot of liquidity in the world, but what next?”

Concern about the global financial system drove banks lower even after JPMorgan and Wells Fargo & Co. reported earnings that beat estimates. The KBW Bank Index slumped 3.1 percent as all of its 24 stocks retreated. Bank of America sank 5.3 percent, the most in the Dow, to $8.68. JPMorgan lost 3.6 percent to $43.21.

Wells Fargo dropped 3.5 percent to $32.84.

Quarterly reports scheduled for next week include Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America and some of the largest technology companies. International Business Machines Corp., which comprises 12 percent of the Dow; Intel Corp., the world’s biggest chipmaker; and Microsoft Corp., the largest software maker, are due to announce their results. Yum! Brands Inc., which surged 2.8 percent to $72.86 today for the biggest gain in the S&P 500, is also scheduled to report.

While S&P 500 per-share profit growth slowed to 1.7 percent during the first three months of the year from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter, it will accelerate to 8.6 percent during all of 2012, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Google tumbled 4.1 percent to $624.60 even as earnings beat estimates. The bid to preserve control for founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin raised concern among corporate-governance watchdogs. Google unveiled a plan that lets the company issue new shares without diluting the founders’ voting power.

The stock change would create a new class of nonvoting shares that will be distributed to existing shareholders in what is effectively a 2-for-1 stock split. For investors, the result is a lack of input on decision making, said Charles Elson, director of the University of Delaware’s John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.

“Shareholder voting rights are pretty limited in Google,”

he said. “And this basically perpetuates that reality.”

Apple Inc. sank 2.8 percent, the most since October, to $605.23. After rising to a record on April 9, the most valuable technology company fell for a fourth day in the longest losing streak since December.

Coinstar Inc. surged 7.3 percent to $65.78. The owner of the Redbox movie-rental kiosks said first-quarter sales and profit exceeded its previous projection and lifted its earnings forecast for 2012 to at least $4.40 a share.

Dow Chemical Co. advanced 1.6 percent to $33.20. The largest U.S. chemicals producer increased its quarterly dividend to 32 cents a share from 25 cents.

Safeway Inc. rose 2.5 percent to $21.19. The grocer may be considering options such as a leveraged buyout or Reverse Morris Trust, according to JPMorgan.

Johnson Controls Inc. added 2.3 percent to $32.57. The largest U.S. auto supplier was boosted to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank AG.

Concern about the global financial system’s stability has grown so much during the past two weeks that investors ought to take less risk, according to Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit.

Forty market-related gauges go into the Bank of America indicator, and 10 of them surged far enough to send a so-called critical stress signal three days ago. The “risk-off” warning was the first since July 12, just before a second-half retreat in stocks got under way.

“We recommend caution,” Benjamin Bowler, head of global derivatives research, and two colleagues wrote in a report two days ago. The MSCI All-Country World Index declined by an average of 3.8 percent in periods when the signal was in place since 2000, the report said.

The stress index’s components reflects the potential worsening of a euro-region debt crisis, according to Bowler, based in San Francisco, and Anders Armelius and Abhinandan Deb, his London-based colleagues.

Credit-default swap rates for government borrowers are showing the most stress, according to their data. A CDS-based based indicator was at 4.1 three days ago. Readings above zero show stress is higher than normal.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Life is like a garden.  Quite naturally, leaves wither and flowers fade.

Only if we clear the decay of the past

then and there can we really enjoy the beauty of the new leaves and flowers.

Likewise, we must clear the murkiness of past bad experiences from our minds.

Life is remembrance in forgetfulness.

Forgive what ought to be forgiven; forget what ought to be forgotten.

Let us embrace life with renewed vigor..

We should be able to face every moment of life with renewed expectation, like a freshly blossomed flower.

Mata Amritanandamayi, 1953-

As ever,

 

Carolann

You can tell the character of every man when

you see how he receives praise.

-Seneca, circa 3 BC -65 AD

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

On this day,

In 1917, Canadians take Vimy Ridge, 3,600 Canadians died.

In 1927, the British Cabinet comes out in favour of voting rights for women.

In 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died; Harry Truman became President of the USA.

In 1954, Bill Haley records Rock Around the Clock.

In 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk’s discovery of a Polio vaccine is announced.

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin of the USSR became the first man in space, orbits the earth.

 

photos of the day

April 12, 2012

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wears 3D glasses as he visits Moscow’s Planetarium in Moscow. Putin chaired a meeting with officials on building a new space launchpad in Russia’s far east that should become operational by 2018.

Alexei Druzhinin/Government Press Service/AP

Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ is seen as it is hung for display at Sotheby’s Auction Rooms in London. The picture made with pastels is one of four versions of the composition, and dates from 1895, it will be auctioned in the Impressionist and Modern Art Sale in New York on May 2, with an estimated price of 80 million dollars.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Market Closes for April 12, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12986.58	+181.19
		+1.41%
S&P 500	1387.57	+18.86
		+1.38%
NASDAQ	3055.55	+39.09
		+1.3%
TSX	12214.65	+187.89
		+1.56%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9524.79	+66.05
		+0.70%
HANG SENG	20327.32	+186.65
		+0.93%
SENSEX	17332.62	+133.22
		+0.77%
FTSE 100	5710.46	+75.72
		+1.34%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.045	2.012
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.598	2.584
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.0510	2.0351
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.2116	3.1959

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99455	1.00386
US $	1.00548	0.99615
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31142	0.76253
US $	1.31862	0.75837

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1679.50	1659.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	103.69	102.55

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 12 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose the most since the first trading day of the year as metal producers gained on speculation a slowing economy will prompt easing of monetary policy by China.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s biggest base-metal producer, rose 4.4 percent. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-biggest bullion miner, gained 2.5 percent. Eldorado Gold Corp. surged 11 percent after saying its costs will be lower than some analysts anticipated. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s third-largest energy company, rose 4.2 percent on higher oil, as signals that U.S. interest rates will stay low offset higher- than-forecast American jobless claims.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 187.89 points, or 1.6 percent, to 12,214.65 in Toronto, its biggest gain since Jan. 3. The benchmark measure of Canadian stocks lost 4.6 percent from April 2 through April 10 before rebounding yesterday.

“People shouldn’t put too much stock into one jobless claim data point,” Barry Schwartz, a money manager at Baskin Financial Services Inc. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$400 million ($400 million).

“The Fed said that the economy is picking up steam, which is what matters. Earnings are growing, the market is reasonably priced and commodity stocks are still at buoyant levels.”

The benchmark gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index had its biggest weekly drop of the year last week on renewed concern over Europe as French borrowing costs rose and Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the nation faces “extreme difficulty.”

U.S. Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen and Fed Bank of New York President William C. Dudley endorsed the central bank’s view that borrowing costs are likely to stay low through 2014.

U.S. central bankers next meet on April 24-25 to debate policy.

Materials companies in the Canadian index increased, driven by gold and copper shares, on speculation that slower economic growth will prompt policy makers to add more stimulus measures in China. A government report tomorrow may show that China’s economy expanded at the slowest pace in almost three years in the first quarter, according to the median estimate of 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, rose 1.8 percent to C$41.98. Goldcorp gained 2.5 percent to C$41.79. Eldorado increased 11 percent to C$14.37. The Vancouver-based mining company expects average cash costs of $350 per ounce of gold produced as it boosts annual output to 1.7 million ounces in 2016.

Teck Resources improved 4.4 percent to C$36.93 as copper rose the most in more than a week. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., a copper producer that surged last week on takeover speculation, rose 4.8 percent to C$22.54 after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the company is a “compelling M&A case.”

Energy stocks in the S&P/TSX gained for a second day following five days of declines. Canadian Natural Resources rose 4.2 percent to C$33.01. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, increased 2.8 percent to C$30.95.

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 12 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest two-day rally in 2012, on policymakers’ signals that interest rates will remain low.

Commodity shares gained the most among 10 S&P 500 groups.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average, a proxy for the economy, added 2.2 percent. Hewlett-Packard Co. surged 7.2 percent, the biggest advance since 2009, after Gartner Inc. said the global personal-computer industry grew in the first quarter as the company remained a market leader. Google Inc. added 1.8 percent at 4:54 p.m. New York time as profit beat estimates.

The S&P 500 advanced 1.4 percent to 1,387.57 at 4 p.m. New York time, rising 2.1 percent in two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 181.19 points, or 1.4 percent, to 12,986.58. About 6.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 8 percent below the three-month average.

“We have the ingredients for a better tone to the market,” said Keith Wirtz, who oversees $15 billion as chief investment officer for Fifth Third Asset Management in Cincinnati. “The bar was set low, we might have a good earnings season and a couple of Fed officials are providing some rhetoric. If there’s an erosion of economic conditions, it’s likely that we’re going to see action by the Fed.”

Equities rose today as Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen and New York Fed President William C. Dudley endorsed the central bank’s view that borrowing costs are likely to stay low through 2014. Those comments overshadowed investors’

disappointment after a report showed that more Americans than forecast filed claims for jobless benefits last week.

American stocks also joined a global rally as investors awaited a report at 10 p.m. New York time that’s forecast to show China’s economy expanded 8.4 percent last quarter. The Bloomberg China-U.S. Equity Index of the most-traded Chinese stocks in the U.S. added 2.5 percent.

Today’s gain extended this year’s advance in the S&P 500 to 10 percent as investors piled into stocks amid better-than- estimated economic and corporate data. While S&P 500 per-share profit growth slowed to 0.8 percent during the first three months of the year from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter, it will accelerate to 8.3 percent during all of 2012, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

“It’s very difficult to kill a rally that we’ve seen over the last few months in one shot,” said Michael Shaoul, chairman of Marketfield Asset Management in New York, which oversees more than $1.6 billion. “Without ‘new’ news it will be very difficult to send this market lower. Ultimately, earnings are going to be important. I would expect good domestic earnings.”

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 rose today as companies most- dependent on economic growth had the biggest gains. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index added 2.6 percent. Caterpillar Inc. advanced 4.6 percent to $106.44. Alcoa Inc., which this week reported an unexpected profit, rallied 2.7 percent to $10.17.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. climbed 1.9 percent to $44.84.

Hewlett-Packard jumped 7.2 percent, the most in the Dow, to $25.10. The company accounted for 17.2 percent of worldwide PC shipments, Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner said yesterday.

Total global PC shipments climbed 1.9 percent to 89 million units, after predictions of a 1.2 percent drop, according to Gartner. Another research firm, IDC, also reported a surprise increase for the quarter.

Google rallied 2.4 percent to $651.01. After the close of regular trading, the shares rose 1.8 percent to $662.60. First- quarter profit before certain costs was $10.08 a share. Analysts had projected $9.64 on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The company announced plans for what it calls an effective stock split, introducing a new class of nonvoting capital stock.

The shares will be distributed through a stock dividend to existing shareholders.

“The viability of Google is still very, very strong,” said Ron Josey, an analyst at ThinkEquity LLC in New York. He recommends buying the stock, which he doesn’t own himself.

“There’s still a lot of room for growth across its multiple businesses.”

Tomorrow, investors will get a first look at bank results when JPMorgan and Wells Fargo & Co. kick off earnings, about an hour apart. Citigroup Inc. is set to announce results April 16, followed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

AT&T Inc. gained 1.3 percent to $30.84 after the company’s shares were raised to the equivalent of buy at JPMorgan. The 9- month share-price estimate is $33.

McKesson Corp. jumped 3.9 percent to $91.34. The largest U.S. drug distributor based on revenue rose to its highest level since 1998 after the company won a $31.6 billion contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Illumina Inc. slipped 5.8 percent to $49.51. Roche Holding AG, which bid $51 a share to buy the maker of DNA analysis equipment, said publicly available information doesn’t justify a higher price.

Before capping a two-day rally, the S&P 500 had tumbled 4.3 percent from an almost four-year high on April 2. The retreat in the index may not be over, as a gauge of bullishness reached levels that coincided with the market’s peak in 2007 and preceded the biggest pullback in both of the last two years.

The Consensus Bullish Sentiment index on stocks, based on a weekly survey of brokerage strategists and newsletter writers, exceeded 75 percent for seven weeks through April 3, the longest streak since Kansas City, Missouri-based Consensus Inc. began compiling the data in 1983.

The index fell to 69 percent this week as the S&P 500 had the worst five-day drop since November amid concern the recovery in the American labor market is slowing and Europe’s debt crisis is worsening.

Increasing bullishness is considered a contrarian indicator by some analysts who follow price charts to make market predictions, because investors who have bought shares now have less money to purchase stocks.

“We’re concerned at what we view as very complacent bullish sentiment, almost frothy, and it needs to be unwound,” John Kattar, chief investment officer at Eastern Investment Advisors in Boston, which manages $1.7 billion, said in a telephone interview. “We should see some fear creeping back into the market, but we’re a long way from that happening yet.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

You are never alone because you are full of all the memories, all the conditioning,

all the mutterings of yesterday; your mind is never clear of all the rubbish it has accumulated.

To be alone, you must die to the past.

When you are alone, totally alone, not belonging to any family, and nation, any culture,

any particular continent, there is that sense of being an outsider.

The man who is completely alone in this way is innocent and it is this innocence that frees the mind from sorrow.

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are

so confident while the intelligent are full of doubt.

-Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970

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 1814, Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.

In 1945, US troops liberated Buchenwald.

In 1961, Bob Dylan performs for the first time in Greenwich Village, NYC, singing Blowin in the Wind.

 

Question of the day: What do you wish you spent more time doing five years ago?

 

TITANIC 1912-2012

A notice in today’s Globe & Mail invites everyone to “explore all new Titanic Records free until May 31^st” at ancestry.ca/globe or by calling 1-800-442-9153 for details.  The site has passenger lists, crew records, Halifax gravesites, fatality reports…”To mark the 100^th anniversary of history’s most famous maritime disaster – the sinking of RMS Titanic – Ancestry .ca is offering FREE ACCESS to our complete Titanic records now until May 31^st, 2012.”

photos of the day

April 11, 2012

Emirates Team New Zealand compete with their multihulls during the America’s Cup World Series regatta in Naples, Italy.

Alessandro Bianchi/Reut

Employees of the Friends of the Earth environmental campaign group dressed up as bees Charlotte Chan, (l.), and Debbie O’Dowd pose for photographs in a temporary wildflower meadow on the south bank of the River Thames London. The publicity event was held to help raise awareness of the claims that Britain has lost over half the honey bees kept in managed hives and wild honey bees are nearly extinct as a result of the loss of their natural habitat and intensive farming.

Matt Dunham/AP

Market Closes for April 11, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12805.39	+89.46
		0.70%
S&P 500	1368.71	+10.12
		+0.74%
NASDAQ	3016.46	+25.24
		+0.84%
TSX	12026.76	+91.47
		+0.77%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9458.74	-79.28
		-0.83%
HANG SENG	20140.67	-215.57
		-1.06%
SENSEX	17199.40	-44.44
		-0.26%
FTSE 100	5634.74	+39.19
		+0.70%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.012	1.987
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.584	2.556
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.0351	1.9823
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1959	3.1281

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00386	1.00489
US $	0.99615	0.99513
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31614	0.75980
US $	1.31107	0.76274

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1659.00	1659.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.55	101.03

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 11 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for the first time in six days as energy companies gained with oil prices on signs that Europe will act to slow the region’s debt crisis.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, gained 1.8 percent as crude climbed from its lowest close in almost two months. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s third-largest energy company by market value, rose 1.7 percent. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest lender, increased 0.9 percent as financial shares rebounded from a five- day skid.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 97.83 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,033.12 at 2:40 p.m. in Toronto.

“It’s a technical bounce off a pretty oversold market in the last few days,” Danielle Park, a money manager at Venable Park Investment Counsel Inc. in Barrie, Ontario, said in a telephone interview. The firm manages at least C$1 million ($1

million) each for more than 200 clients. “It’s exactly what we’ve seen the last two years. A crescendo into April in terms of risk rally for a few months, and then economic data starts a sell-off the other way.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index had its biggest weekly drop of the year last week on renewed concern over Europe as French borrowing costs rose and Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the nation faces “extreme difficulty.”

Canadian energy shares increased as oil rose after the U.S.

Energy Department said fuel stockpiles declined and a European Central Bank official signaled that the lender may restart bond purchases for Spain.

Suncor Energy Inc. gained 1.8 percent to C$30.17. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose 1.7 percent to C$31.81. Niko Resources Ltd., which produces oil and gas in South Asia, rose

7.1 percent to C$35.24.

Financial companies in the S&P/TSX rose for the first time since April 2. Banks and insurance companies had declined on economic concerns as U.S. reports on factory orders and job growth missed forecasts.

Royal Bank of Canada increased 0.9 percent to C$56.47. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-biggest lender by assets, rose 1 percent to C$54.91. Mutual-fund company IGM Financial Inc.

gained 1.2 percent to C$46.26.

Dollarama Inc. surged 7.1 percent to C$51.80 and rose 9.2 percent earlier, the most intraday since the stock went public in October 2009. The Canadian discount retailer posted fourth- quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates and raised its dividend.

Wi-Lan Inc. rose 7.6 percent to C$5.80 after climbing 9.7 percent, the most intraday since March 7. The U.S. validated the technology-licensing company’s V-Chip patent after a re- examination.

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 11 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, halting a five-day decline for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, after Alcoa Inc. reported an unexpected first-quarter profit.

Alcoa, the first company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to announce quarterly results, climbed 6.2 percent. Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. added at least 2.4 percent to pace gains in financial shares. A measure of 11 homebuilders in S&P indexes jumped 4.8 percent as Wells Fargo & Co. said a survey of sales managers showed 63 percent of the respondents reported better-than-expected orders.

The S&P 500 increased 0.7 percent to 1,368.71 at 4 p.m. New York time, after dropping 4.3 percent over the past five days.

The Dow advanced 89.46 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,805.39 today. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies climbed 1.6 percent to 796.59. About 6.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 6.5 percent less than the three-month average and 23 percent below yesterday’s volume.

“Alcoa helped dampen the dark mood in the market,” said Frederic Dickson, who helps oversee $28 billion as chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon. “It’s always nice to see the first company out of the box with an earnings surprise. It’s time to see how this progresses and reassess when to put some money back in.”

Almost $800 billion was erased from U.S. equity values in the five days leading up to the first-quarter earnings season.

The S&P 500 yesterday capped the longest drop since November on concern about Europe’s debt crisis and the U.S. jobs market. The decline drove the gauge to about 14 times reported earnings yesterday, below the average since 1954 of 16.4.

Today’s gain extended this year’s rally in the S&P 500 to 8.8 percent as investors bought stocks amid better-than- estimated economic and corporate data. While S&P 500 per-share profit growth slowed to 0.8 percent during the first three months of the year from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter, it will accelerate to 8.3 percent during all of 2012, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Analysts’ estimates for S&P 500 earnings growth in the first quarter have declined from 4.1 percent in January, Bloomberg data showed. For Lawrence Creatura at Federated Investors Inc., earnings expectations are still low and profit surprises may drive the market higher.

“This isn’t a phantom bounce,” Creatura, who helps oversee $369.7 billion as a Rochester, New York-based fund manager at Federated, said in a telephone interview. “It seems reasonable to expect positive surprises as we move through the earnings season. Management teams have done a good job of keeping expectations contained.”

Alcoa climbed 6.2 percent to $9.90. The earnings were “driven by higher-than-expected profitability from every operating segment,” Brian Yu, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in San Francisco, said in a note. “Good cost control likely played a major role.” The stock dropped 48 percent in the 12 months through yesterday, the biggest decline in the Dow.

A rally in Alcoa shares following its earnings reports has been an indicator of gains for the S&P 500, according to Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research in Cincinnati. Since 2005, the gauge has risen an average 4 percent in the three-month period that followed a positive reaction to Alcoa’s earnings, he said.

Financial shares had the biggest gain in the S&P 500 among 10 industries today, rallying 1.6 percent. Bank of America rose

3.8 percent to $8.86. JPMorgan jumped 2.4 percent to $44.01.

Investors will get a first look at banks results when JPMorgan and Wells Fargo kick off earnings, about an hour apart, on April 13. Citigroup Inc. is set to announce results April 16, followed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

The results may disappoint investors who piled into banking stocks on a bet the industry was inexpensive and set to benefit from a strengthening economy. The six largest U.S. lenders may post an 11 percent drop in first-quarter profit, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The KBW Bank Index of 24 companies climbed 26 percent in the first three months of the year, led by Bank of America’s 72 percent gain.

“You can’t expect bank stocks to go straight to the moon,” said Peter Kovalski, a money manager at Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC in Purchase, New York, which manages about

$5 billion. “You have to expect fundamentals to catch up, and there are some headwinds facing the industry.”

On top of earnings data, investors also watched the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book business survey today, published two weeks before the Federal Open Market Committee meets to set monetary policy. The Fed said the economy maintained its expansion in all

12 of its regions as manufacturing, hiring and retail sales showed signs of strength in the face of higher fuel prices.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy added 1.2 percent. FedEx Corp., an economic bellwether as it carries everything from mobile devices to pharmaceuticals, rose 1.5 percent to $87.91. Homebuilder PulteGroup Inc. advanced 9.1 percent to $8.39.

Apple Inc. reversed a gain of as much as 1.3 percent, falling 0.4 percent to $626.20. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Apple, Macmillan and Pearson Plc’s Penguin in New York today, claiming the publishers colluded to fix e-Book prices.

Three other publishers, CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster, Lagardère SCA’s Hachette Book Group and News Corp.’s HarperCollins, also named in the government’s antitrust lawsuit, settled their cases, according to court filings.

Owens-Illinois Inc. rose 6.9 percent to $23.52. The glass- bottle maker said first-quarter earnings will rise more than 35 percent from a year earlier on higher prices and lower costs.

Genworth Financial Inc. gained 3.2 percent to $7.54. The life insurer and mortgage guarantor was rated buy in new coverage by BTIG LLC, which said the stock is trading at “too steep a discount” to the company’s inherent value.

Titan Machinery Inc. surged 17 percent to $32.05, the highest since June 2008. The owner of full-service agricultural and equipment stores forecast annual earnings of at least $2.55 a share, beating the average analyst estimate of $2.06.

U.S. shares of Nokia Oyj tumbled 16 percent to $4.24. The Espoo, Finland-based mobile phone maker reported an operating loss for its mobile-phone division and forecast earnings won’t recover this quarter as emerging market handsets sales slumped and margins on smartphones shrank.

VMWare Inc. slumped 2.5 percent to $107.61. The software maker announced a management shuffle including the departure of Chief Financial Officer Mark Peek. Earnings have more than doubled to $723.94 million since 2008, the first full year after Peek joined. The company is initiating a search to replace him.

Computer Sciences Corp. fell 2.8 percent to $27.39. The technology contractor for governments and companies said earnings excluding certain costs in the quarter ended March 30 were 19 cents to 21 cents a share. Analysts predicted 97 cents, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

U.S. stocks will probably see a short-term relief rally before extending their retreat next week, according to the head of technical analysis at Credit Suisse Group AG. The S&P 500 may climb to as much as 1,382, London-based David Sneddon wrote today. The measure will then be poised to drop more than 3 percent next week to the 1,339 low from March 6, he said.

“With a classic bearish momentum and on-balance volume divergence reinforcing the more bearish scenario, we expect further weakness to extend,” Sneddon wrote in a note dated yesterday. So-called on-balance volume shows a security’s momentum by looking at the relationship between price and the number of transactions taking place.

 

Have  a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

What is change?

One form appears, and another disappears.

Can we say that the butterfly used to be a caterpillar?

A substance in the caterpillar takes on the form of the butterfly.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

All money is a matter of belief.

-Adam Smith, 1723-1790

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

April 10, 1912: The Titanic sets sail on her maiden voyage.

 

-from Susan Sontag -excerpted from the forthcoming book “As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh:  Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980,” by Susan Sontag, edited by David Rieff.

Things I like: fires, Venice, tequila, sunsets, babies, silent films, heights, coarse salt, top hats, large long-haired dogs, ship models, cinnamon, goose down quilts, pocket watches, the smell of newly mown grass, linen, Bach, Louis XIII furniture, sushi, microscopes, large rooms, boots, drinking water, maple sugar candy.

Things I dislike: sleeping in an apartment alone, cold weather, couples, football games, swimming, anchovies, mustaches, cats, umbrellas, being photographed, the taste of licorice, washing my hair (or having it washed), wearing a wristwatch, giving a lecture, cigars, writing letters, taking showers, Robert Frost, German food.

Things I like: ivory, sweaters, architectural drawings, urinating, pizza (the Roman bread), staying in hotels, paper clips, the color blue, leather belts, making lists, wagon-lits, paying bills, caves, watching ice-skating, asking questions, taking taxis, Benin art, green apples, office furniture, Jews, eucalyptus trees, penknives, aphorisms, hands.

Things I dislike: television, baked beans, hirsute men, paperback books, standing, card games, dirty or disorderly apartments, flat pillows, being in the sun, Ezra Pound, freckles, violence in movies, having drops put in my eyes, meatloaf, painted nails, suicide, licking envelopes, ketchup, traversins [“bolsters”], nose drops, Coca-Cola, alcoholics, taking photographs.’

 

On Intelligence

I don’t care about someone being intelligent; any situation between people, when they are really human with each other, produces “intelligence.”

 

Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.

-Robert Fulghum

photos of the day

April 10, 2012

Chinese sky lanterns decorate the area around the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Some 2,228 lanterns are hung around the museum to commemorate the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic 100 years ago on April 10, 1912, signifying the numbers of passengers onboard.

Tim Chong/Reuters

Jellyfish glide slowly in an aquarium wall of a hotel at Manila Ocean Park, the largest oceanarium in the country, as the media was given a tour during its 2nd anniversary celebration in Manila, Philippines.

Bullit Marquez/AP

 

Market Closes for April 10, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12715.93	-213.66
		-1.65%
S&P 500	1358.59	-23.61
		-1.71%
NASDAQ	2991.22	-55.86
		-1.83%
TSX	11935.29	-83.21
		-0.69%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9538.02	-8.24
		-0.09%
HANG SENG	20356.24	-236.76
		-1.15%
SENSEX	17243.84	+21.70
		+0.13%
FTSE 100	5595.55	-128.12
		-2.24%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.987	2.070
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.556	2.630
U.S. 10 Year Bond	1.9823	2.0474
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1281	3.1959

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00489	1.00282
US $	0.99513	0.99718
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31368	0.76122
US $	1.30729	0.76494

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1659.50	1642.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	101.03	102.28

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 10 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks declined for a fifth straight day as energy shares slipped before a report tomorrow that may show an increase in U.S. oil stockpiles.

Enbridge Inc., the country’s largest pipeline company, fell 2.5 percent after saying it plans to sell $200 million of preferred shares. Lumber producer Canfor Corp. dropped 5.4 percent after the stock’s rating was cut at BMO Capital Markets.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd., a copper producer that surged last week on takeover speculation, gained 8.8 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 83.21 points, or 0.7 percent, to 11,935.29 in Toronto, its lowest level of the year. The index’s five-day skid is its longest since June.

“It’s no surprise investors are selling off risk assets,” Tony Demarin, chief investment officer at BCV Asset Management in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$335 million ($334 million). “The market in general is due for a pause. We’ve had six months of pretty good financial return in the stock markets around the world, and we’ve hit a little bit of a wall here.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index had its biggest weekly drop of the year last week on renewed concern over Europe as French borrowing costs rose and Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the nation faces “extreme difficulty.”

Energy stocks in the S&P/TSX declined for a fifth straight day as oil dropped after Chinese crude imports declined and analysts estimated that a report tomorrow will show U.S. stockpiles rose to the highest level for this time of the year since 1990.

Enbridge Inc. fell 2.5 percent to C$38.45 after saying it plans to sell $200 million of preferred shares in a transaction expected to close April 18. Suncor Energy Inc., the country’s largest oil and gas producer, dropped 2.2 percent to C$29.64.

Gold producers increased as the metal rose to a one-week high in New York after European debt concerns spurred demand for a haven investment. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, gained 2.2 percent to C$41.71. Goldcorp Inc., the second-biggest bullion miner, rose 1.8 percent to C$41.65.

Jaguar Mining Inc., the target of a proposed takeover by China’s Shandong Gold Group Co. in November, surged 15 percent to C$4.65 after Shandong’s shares were suspended from trading pending news. The increase was Jaguar’s biggest since Nov. 16.

First Quantum gained 8.8 percent to C$21.11. Canada’s second-largest copper producer, which jumped the most in four months last week on takeover speculation, is projected to boost earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by 84 percent over the next three years, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Canfor Corp. dropped 5.4 percent to C$10.71 after the stock’s rating was cut to market perform from outperform at BMO Capital Markets. The rating means BMO forecasts that Canfor will perform roughly in line with the market.

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 10 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined for a fifth straight day, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its longest losing streak since November, as a surge in Spanish and Italian bond yields fueled concern Europe’s debt crisis is worsening.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most- dependent on the economy lost 2.7 percent. Bank of America Corp.

and Caterpillar Inc. dropped at least 3 percent. Alcoa Inc., which declined 2.9 percent in regular trading, jumped 5 percent at 4:25 p.m. New York time after reporting an unexpected profit.

Best Buy Co., the world’s largest electronics retailer, slumped 5.9 percent as Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn resigned.

The S&P 500 declined 1.7 percent to 1,358.59, its biggest loss in 2012, at 4 p.m. New York time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 213.66 points, or 1.7 percent, to 12,715.93.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index surged 8.4 percent to 20.39, rallying for a record eighth day. More than 8.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the most since March 16 and 21 percent above the three-month average.

“I don’t think there’s any rush to be involved in the stock market,” James Swanson, who oversees about $250 billion as chief investment strategist at Boston-based MFS Investment Management, said in a telephone interview. “Europe is a temporary concern. The market is signaling they haven’t fixed the whole problem. Investors will need more reassurance.”

Stocks fell as Spanish bonds slumped after Economy Minister Luis de Guindos declined to rule out a rescue and Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said the nation’s lenders may need more capital if the economy weakens more than expected. The Italian 10-year yield rose 23 basis points to 5.69 percent, sending the spread over bunds to 4.04 percentage points, the most since Jan. 31 on a closing basis.

Today’s decline sent the S&P 500 below its average price in the past 50 days of about 1,372. The index, which has dropped 4.3 percent in five days, retreated 1.1 percent yesterday after an April 6 report showed employers added fewer jobs than forecast in March. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday said the U.S. economy hasn’t fully recovered.

“Friday’s disappointing report has eroded investor confidence about America’s self-sustaining ability to overcome headwinds from Europe,” Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an e-mail.

Investors also awaited the start of the first-quarter earnings season. While per-share profit growth slowed to 0.8 percent from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter, it will accelerate to 8.3 percent during all of 2012, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 declined today as consumer discretionary, financial and industrial shares had the biggest losses. The Dow Jones Transportation Average retreated 2.1 percent. A measure of 11 homebuilders in S&P indexes slumped 4.8 percent. The KBW Bank Index dropped 2.3 percent as all of its 24 stocks declined. Bank of America slipped 4.4 percent, the most in the Dow, to $8.54. Caterpillar fell 3 percent to $100.43.

Alcoa, the first company in the Dow to report quarterly results, lost 2.9 percent to $9.32. The shares rose 5 percent to $9.79 after the close of regular trading. The largest U.S.

aluminum producer reported an unexpected first-quarter profit as customers from automakers to beverage-can manufacturers ordered more of the metal.

Net income fell to $94 million, or 9 cents a share, from $308 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier, the company said today in a statement. Earnings excluding restructuring costs and other items were 10 cents a share, compared with the 4-cent loss that was the average of 19 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales increased to $6.01 billion from $5.96 billion.

The average of 12 estimates was for $5.77 billion.

Best Buy slumped 5.9 percent to $21.32 after saying board member G. Mike Mikan is taking the CEO position on an interim basis as the company focuses on smaller stores and Internet sales. The change was a “mutual agreement” that new leadership was needed, the company said. A committee of directors has been created to search for a new CEO, the company said.

PPL Corp. declined 2.2 percent to $27.06. The energy and utility holding company will sell 9.9 million shares in a public offering.

Supervalu Inc. surged 15 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $6.13. The supermarket and pharmacy chain forecast 2013 earnings excluding some items of at least $1.27 a share, beating the average analyst forecast of $1.19.

“A significant disconnect” between stock valuations and bond yields in the U.S. has made equities relatively cheap, according to Binky Chadha, Deutsche Bank AG’s chief global strategist.

Ten-year Treasury yields would have to rise about 120 basis points to track the estimated price-earnings ratio for the S&P 500 as they did during the first three quarters of 2011, Chadha wrote in an April 5 report. Each basis point amounts to 0.01 percentage point. The government security yielded 2.04 percent as of yesterday.

The differential primarily reflects the Federal Reserve’s plan to keep its benchmark interest rate close to zero at least through late 2014, in his view.

“The Fed’s outlook for unemployment and inflation is therefore key” in determining when the gap might close, Chadha wrote. Policy makers for the central bank are scheduled to meet on April 24-25.

Stocks are a bargain with the S&P 500 at about 13 times analysts’ projected earnings for this year, the New York-based strategist wrote. He cited a December report in which he called the index fairly valued at 15.4 times future profit.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Life is an aspiration.  Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-fulfilment.

The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Once the game is over, the king and the pawn

go back in the same box.

-Italian proverb

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:

Returned from Japan last night, after a wonderful journey.  The cherry blossoms are in bloom….visited many Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples and encountered fabulous food –  Tokyo now has more 3 Michelin starred restaurants than Paris!  We attended a formal Japanese tea ceremony in Kyoto – very beautiful,  spent some time with a Zen master who emphasized to us the importance of meditation for at least 30 minutes every day (begin by focusing on your posture, close your eyes, pay attention to your breathing, begin counting…).

But the unexpected highlight was a visit to the  I.M. Pei  designed Miho Museum southeast of Kyoto, near the town of Shigaraki.  The feeling as you walk across the bridge (part of the design of the museum) to the museum is that you may have discovered Shangri-La.   It is perched high on a mountain amidst trees with a bell tower in the distance in Misono (also designed by Pei) and a Shumei temple close by.  These are the only two visual interruptions in the forested landscape.  It truly is an aesthetic and architectural marvel, housing some of the most beautiful art from antiquity.

 

photos of the day

April 9, 2012

A woman takes a photograph of illuminated cherry blossoms in full bloom along the Chidorigafuchi moats in Tokyo.

Yuriko Nakao/Reuters

A woman picks tea leaves at a tea plantation in Moganshan, Zhejiang province. China is the world’s largest tea producing country with an output of 1.4 million tonnes and a 33 percent share of the world’s total.

Carlos Barria/Reuters

Market Closes for April 9, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12929.59	-130.55
		-1.00%
S&P 500	1382.20	-15.88
		-1.14%
NASDAQ	3047.08	-33.42
		-1.08%
TSX	12018.50	-84.61
		-0.70%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9546.26	-142.19
		-1.47%
HANG SENG	20593.00	-197.98
		-0.95%
SENSEX	17222.14	-263.88
		-1.51%
FTSE 100	5723.67	+19.90
		+0.35%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.070	2.124
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.630	2.679
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.0474	2.1805
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1959	3.3265

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00282	1.00670
US $	0.99718	0.99334
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.30698	0.76512
US $	1.31067	0.76297

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1642.50	1630.80
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.28	103.06

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 9 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to their lowest level of the year, led by energy and financial companies, after U.S. employers added fewer jobs than forecast in March.

Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s third-largest insurer, retreated 3.1 percent. Encana Corp., the country’s largest natural gas producer, lost 1.3 percent. Avion Gold Corp., which explores for the metal in Mali, surged 9.3 percent after the military junta that seized power in the West African country last month agreed to step down.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 84.61 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,018.50 in Toronto.

“It’s a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to the Friday news in the face of very thin markets,” Irwin Michael, a money manager at ABC Funds in Toronto, said in a telephone interview.

Michael’s firm oversees C$1 billion ($1 billion). “A good deal of the negativity in the market is a function of the fact that U.S. employment numbers disappointed people.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index had its biggest weekly drop of the year last week. The market was closed on April 6 for the Good Friday holiday. The index fell 2 percent in March, after two straight months of increases.

Financial stocks in the S&P/TSX fell for a fourth straight day after U.S. employers added 85,000 fewer jobs in March than economists projected, the biggest shortfall since the report released on July 8, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Labor Department’s April 6 statement spurred concern about the pace of American growth.

Royal Bank of Canada dropped 0.7 percent to C$56.55.

Manulife Financial decreased 3.1 percent to C$12.73. Sun Life Financial Inc., Canada’s third-biggest insurance company, fell

3.3 percent to C$22.77. Sun Life got 45 percent of its revenue from the U.S. in 2011, according to Bloomberg data.

Canadian energy companies decreased as oil fell for the third time in four days after Iran agreed to resume talks on its nuclear program and economic reports from the U.S. and China raised concern about fuel demand.

Cenovus Energy Inc., Canada’s fifth-largest energy company, declined 1.2 percent to C$33.92. Penn West Petroleum Ltd., a western Canadian oil and gas producer, dropped 2.1 percent to C$17.62. Encana Corp. lost 1.3 percent to C$18.47.

Avion Gold surged 9.3 percent to 94 Canadian cents. The company produced 26,256 ounces of gold from its Tabakoto/Segala operations in Mali in the first three months of 2012, a quarterly record, according to a statement today.

The Economic Community of West African States lifted sanctions against Mali yesterday after the military junta that seized power in the country last month agreed to hand over power to a civilian government that will hold elections.

Harry Winston Diamond Corp., a diamond-mining company and jewelry retailer, increased 1.4 percent to C$13.93 after being raised to hold from sell at Desjardins Securities.

US

By Whitney Kisling and Inyoung Hwang

April 9 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, dragging the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lower following its worst week of 2012, after employers added fewer jobs than forecast in March.

Caterpillar Inc. and General Electric Co. sank more than

1.5 percent, pacing declines among industrial shares. Financial shares lost 1.6 percent among 10 groups in the S&P 500. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. erased at least 2.4 percent.

Alcoa Inc., scheduled to report earnings tomorrow, slipped 0.3 percent. AOL Inc. soared 43 percent after agreeing to sell and license patents to Microsoft Corp.

The S&P 500 slumped 1.1 percent to 1,382.20 at 4 p.m. New York time, after losing 0.7 percent last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 130.55 points, or 1 percent, to 12,929.59. About 5.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S.

exchanges today, 19 percent below the three-month average.

Equity markets were shut for Good Friday on April 6, when the employment report was released.

“At the moment, the one big news story that people have to focus on is the jobs number so there’s a focus on the disappointment there,” John Carey, who helps oversee about $220 billion at Pioneer Investments in Boston, said in a telephone interview. “The economy does continue to grow, but slowly, and I think that’s been the source of frustration for a lot of investors, that we haven’t had the big forward movement in the economy like we have in the past.”

Equities slumped last week after the Federal Reserve signaled it will refrain from further monetary stimulus and concern about Europe intensified. The U.S. Labor Department said April 6 that employers added 120,000 jobs, the fewest in five months and less than the median economist forecast of 205,000 in a Bloomberg survey. The amount had exceeded 200,000 for three straight months.

“This is a real shock,” Donald Selkin, the New York-based chief market strategist at National Securities Corp., which manages about $3 billion, said last week after the jobs report.

“Everybody is so hung up on the 200,000 increase.”     The U.S. jobs report presents a challenge that stocks have overcome nine times during the bull market that’s driven the S&P

500 up 107 percent in three years. The government’s monthly tally of U.S. hiring missed the median projection by 85,000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the S&P 500 averaged losses of 0.8 percent in the day after shortfalls of this magnitude since March 2009, the benchmark gauge cut its decline in half a week later and was up 0.9 percent after two weeks, the data show.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of stocks most tied to the economy slipped 1.9 percent for a fourth straight day of losses, the longest streak since Nov. 25, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The Dow Jones Transportation Average of airlines, trucking companies and shipping stocks lost 1.7 percent.

Economists forecast the U.S. economy expanded 2 percent in the first quarter, after growing 3 percent in the last three months of 2011, according to the average compiled by Bloomberg.

Industrial stocks fell 1.6 percent for the biggest drop as a group in the S&P 500. Caterpillar, the world’s largest construction and mining-equipment manufacturer, retreated 2.2 percent to $103.57, while General Electric, the maker of jet engines and power generation equipment, declined 1.5 percent to $19.20.

The KBW Bank Index dropped 1.9 percent, with all 24 of its components falling at least 0.9 percent. Bank of America lost

3.3 percent to $8.93, the biggest retreat in the Dow. Citigroup erased 2.4 percent to $33.97.

Raw-material stocks had the third-biggest retreat in the S&P 500, falling 1.5 percent. DuPont Co., the most valuable U.S.

chemical maker, slumped 1.4 percent to $51.95. Alcoa slipped 0.3 percent to $9.60. The largest U.S. aluminum producer is scheduled to disclose first-quarter results after the close of trading tomorrow, the first company in the Dow average to report. The average estimate of 19 analysts in a Bloomberg survey is for an adjusted loss of 4 cents a share.

Earnings for companies in the S&P 500 increased 0.8 percent last quarter, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. They exceeded forecasts by 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 for the 12th straight period of better-than-estimated results, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Shutterfly Inc. sank 4.3 percent to $28.21. The operator of a website that offers photo-related products dropped after Facebook Inc. agreed to buy the Instagram photo-sharing application for about $1 billion.

AOL soared the most since at least November 2009, adding 43 percent to $26.40. The Internet company, under shareholder pressure to make strategic changes as revenue declines, agreed to sell and license more than 800 patents to Microsoft in a deal worth $1.06 billion. Microsoft fell 1.3 percent to $31.10.

Apple Inc. advanced 0.4 percent to $636.23. The world’s most valuable company erased an earlier decline of as much as

1.3 percent. The Cupertino, California-based company was cut to neutral from buy by BTIG LLC, which said investors should “take a breather” on expected strength this quarter.

Equities are failing to build on the S&P 500’s best first- quarter rally since 1998. The U.S. jobless rate fell to 8.2 percent, the lowest since January 2009, from 8.3 percent, the Labor Department said. Faster employment growth that leads to bigger wage gains is needed to propel consumer spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Americans worked fewer hours and earned less on average, helping explain why the Fed says interest rates may need to stay low at least through late 2014.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has kept rates near zero since

2008 and expanded the central bank’s balance sheet with two rounds of asset purchases totaling $2.3 trillion. S&P 500 rallies during the first quarter of 2010 and 2011 stalled in April both years, with the index sinking as much as 16 percent and 19 percent, respectively, amid concern the Fed would stop stimulating the economy.

The S&P 500 surged 12 percent from January through March of this year as data on manufacturing, real estate and the labor market boosted optimism about the world’s largest economy.

Reports last week showed manufacturing in the U.S. expanded at a faster pace than forecast while jobless claims dropped to the lowest level in four years.

Dennis Gartman, an economist and newsletter editor, said he abandoned his bullish view of stocks in March because of the possibility the market will retreat.

“The only things that I own at this point are a few shipping companies and a little natural gas, and I have those completely hedged with S&P futures,” Gartman, the editor of the Suffolk, Virginia-based Gartman Letter, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Radio’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

To live completely, fully, in the moment is to live with what is, the actual, without any sense of condemnation

or justification – then you understand it so totally that you are finished with it.

When you see clearly the problem is solved.

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

It’s ok to make mistakes – in fact, it’s expected.  That is the way

we live and learn.

-Hughie J. Kline, 1915-2012

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor