Author: Carolann

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Birthday: Paul Simon, born October 13, 1941.

October
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
To-morrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know;
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost–
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.

                        -Robert Frost, 1915

Photos of the day 

October 13, 2011

Queen Jetsun Pema and King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck pose after they were married at the Punakha Dzong in Punakha, Bhutan. The 31-year-old reformist monarch of the small Himalayan Kingdom wed his commoner bride in a series of ceremonies. Kevin Frayer/AP.

Nona Moumani fixes globes in a display at a booth at the Book Fair in Frankfurt. The world’s largest book fair runs until Sunday. Michael Probst/AP.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, breaking a two-day winning streak, as oil and metals prices dropped after lower-than-estimated Chinese exports spurred concern about the global economy.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, fell 2 percent as the metal slipped. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, lost 1.6 percent as crude declined for a second day. Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, lost 2.1 percent after JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported a slump in investment banking and trading.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index dropped 118.07 points, or 1 percent, to 11,911.89. It’s gained or lost at least 100 points on six straight days, the longest streak since October 2009.

“You had some key import/export data out of China that were somewhat discouraging,” Brian Huen, a money manager at Red Sky Capital Management Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$54 million ($53 million). “If the Chinese economy slows down, demand for commodities like copper, oil, zinc and nickel and all the other stuff we export will be impacted.”

The index gained 7.6 percent in the previous five days after closing at a 14-month low on Oct. 4. During the same period, copper advanced 9.3 percent and crude rallied 13 percent as the U.S. dollar declined. Energy and raw-materials companies make up 47 percent of Canadian stocks by market value, according to Bloomberg data.                       

Chinese exports increased 17 percent in September from last year, and imports climbed 21 percent. Both figures trailed the median estimates of economists in Bloomberg surveys. The U.S.

Dollar Index rebounded from a three-week low. Gold producers in the S&P/TSX dropped for a second day. Barrick declined 2 percent to C$48. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest producer of the metal by market value, lost 1.5 percent to C$47.90. Silver Wheaton Corp., Canada’s fourth- biggest precious-metals company by market value, decreased 4.4 percent to C$31.89 as silver retreated 3.4 percent.

Premier Gold Mines Ltd., which explores in Ontario and Nevada, plunged 7.2 percent to C$5.30 after saying it will raise C$30.5 million in an equity offering. Volta Resources Inc., which explores for gold in Africa, surged 15 percent, the most since June 2010, to C$1.32 after reporting drilling results.

Copper fell 2.5 percent after rallying 3.1 percent yesterday. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., the country’s second- largest publicly traded copper producer, declined 4.2 percent to C$16.48 after a 31 percent surge in the previous six days. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest base-metals and coal producer, dropped 1.6 percent to C$35.44. Quadra FNX Mining Ltd., which operates in the U.S., Canada and Chile, slumped 7.2 percent to C$10.22.

West Fraser Timber Co., Canada’s largest forestry company, rallied 6.2 percent to C$39.28 after Paul Quinn, an analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, raised his rating on the shares to “outperform” from “sector perform.”

Crude futures lost 1.6 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Suncor decreased 1.6 percent to C$29.14. Cenovus Energy Inc., the country’s fifth-largest energy company, retreated 1.6 percent to C$34.26. Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., PetroChina Co.’s partner in oil-sands development, fell 3.8 percent to C$12.12 after jumping 17 percent Oct. 11 and yesterday.                        

 Oil-sands developer Ivanhoe Energy Ltd. soared 24 percent, the most since December 2008, to C$1.45. Hilary McMeekin, a company spokeswoman, said she was unaware of the reason for the jump in a telephone interview.

 All S&P/TSX banks and all S&P/TSX insurance stocks retreated. Royal Bank of Canada lost 2.1 percent to C$47.82. Bank of Nova Scotia decreased 1.9 percent to C$52.18. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth-largest insurer, fell 3 percent to C$12.46.

Magna International Inc., Canada’s biggest auto-parts maker, dropped 4.6 percent to C$37.18 after saying the U.S.

Justice Department has requested documents from Magna’s Cosma International unit as part of an antitrust investigation of the industry. The company is cooperating with the government, Magna said in a statement.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, paring gains from the best Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rally over seven days since 2009, amid lower earnings from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and concern equities rose too much on optimism about Europe’s debt crisis.

Stocks trimmed losses as chipmakers in the S&P 500 added 1.9 percent and Yahoo! Inc. rose as much as 3.8 percent after people with knowledge of the matter said KKR & Co. and Blackstone Group LP are among firms considering bids for the company. JPMorgan dropped 4.8 percent after reporting a 33 percent profit decline, excluding a $1.9 billion accounting benefit, as investment banking and trading income slumped.

The S&P 500 retreated 0.3 percent to 1,203.66 at 4 p.m. New York time, paring its loss from 1.4 percent. It had rebounded 9.8 percent from a 13-month low on Oct. 3 through yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 40.72 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,478.13 today. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.6 percent, rallying a fourth straight day.

“It’s hard to find a port in the storm,” Barry James, who helps oversee $2.5 billion as president of James Investment Research in Xenia, Ohio, said in a telephone interview. “The announcement today doesn’t make it any better for the banks. We keep getting this back-and-forth in Europe. We’ve had a nice run in stocks and people are taking a bit off the table.”

The S&P 500 rose 4.5 percent over the previous three days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders would do “everything necessary” to ensure banks have adequate capital. The rebound had yet to bring the gauge out of a price range where it’s traded for more than two months. The index has fluctuated between 1,074.77 and 1,230.71 since Aug. 5.                       

Technology shares in the S&P 500 rose 1 percent. At 4:29 p.m., following the close of exchanges, Google Inc. added 5.4 percent and Nasdaq-100 Index futures climbed 1.3 percent after the world’s most-popular search engine beat profit estimates.

Yahoo added 1 percent to $15.93 during the regular trading session. KKR and Blackstone may become part of a consortium that would pool the financing needed for a bid, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the review is preliminary and the firms may decide not to make an offer.

“We’re in a bottoming process,” Bruce McCain, who helps oversee $22 billion as chief investment strategist at the private-banking unit of KeyCorp in Cleveland, said in a phone interview. “The question becomes: Do I risk sitting on the sidelines as this thing begins to take off on me?”

U.S. equities followed European stocks lower as the European Central Bank said the involvement of the private sector in euro-area bailouts through enforced investor losses is a risk to financial stability and would have “direct negative effects” on the banking sector. Pacific Investment Management Co. Chief Executive Officer Mohamed A. El-Erian said European leaders are beginning to recognize the need for Greek bondholders to take bigger losses than previously agreed.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat this,” Daniel Genter, who oversees about $3.7 billion as president of RNC Genter Capital Management in Los Angeles. “It’s going to take some pretty severe medicine to solve Europe’s debt crisis.”

The KBW Bank Index slumped 2.9 percent. JPMorgan fell 4.8 percent to $31.60 after revenue at its investment-banking unit fell 13 percent from the second quarter as concern that Greece would default and U.S. lawmakers would fail to raise the debt ceiling roiled markets during the third quarter. The firm said the division will face similar market conditions for the rest of the year.                       

Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. lender by assets, dropped 5.5 percent to $6.22. Citigroup Inc. declined 5.3 percent to $27.64.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy declined 0.9 percent. The Dow Jones Transportation Average retreated 0.6 percent. FedEx Corp. lost 1.7 percent to $73.87. General Electric Co. decreased 1.1 percent to $16.22.

The threat of a bear market is receding after the S&P 500 rallied the most in 31 months, leaving the gauge about 1 percent away from a level where two advances have stopped since August.

The measure climbed 1 percent yesterday. Gains were reduced in the last hour of trading yesterday after the S&P 500 climbed past 1,220, just above levels reached on Sept. 16 and Aug. 31 when declines began.

The lowest prices relative to earnings since 2009 and a shortage of better investment options have boosted equities, according to David Spika, who helps oversee $14 billion as an investment strategist at Westwood Holdings Group Inc. in Dallas.

“It wasn’t going to take much good news to drive the market higher,” Spika said yesterday in a telephone interview.

“You had 30-year Treasuries yielding less than 3 percent, 10- year Treasuries yielding less than 2 percent, and stocks trading at 11 times earnings. You have to believe that at some point it’s not going to take much for investors to get back.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

 

Nations cohere because there is mutual regard among

individuals composing them.

Some day we must extend the national law

to the universe,

even as we have extended the family law

to form nations – a larger family.

 

-Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

Carolann

Exaggeration is a department of lying.

        -Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658 

 

 

Tangents:

 

Birthday: Luciano Pavarotti, born October 12^th, 1935.

Milestone: October 12^th, 1999 ~ world population reaches 6 billion.  We’ve now surpassed 7 billion!

 

I want to share with you a wonderful read which I recently came across and thoroughly enjoyed. It is entitled La Seduction (Times Books, Henry Holt & Co. New York, 2011) and it is written by Elaine Sciolino who is a Paris correspondent and former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times. She previously served as the newspaper’s chief diplomatic correspondent and UN bureau chief.  Impressively, in 2010, she was decorated a chevalier of the Legion of Honor.  She still lives in Paris with her husband.  Being an unabashed Francophile, I found her book to be an insightful consideration on the allure of the French way of life. The first chapter opens with a quote by Edith Wharton from French Ways and Their Meaning, “Le plaisir…is something so much more definite and more evocative than what we mean when we speak of pleasure….To the French it is part of the general fearless and joyful contact with life.”

 

She writes in the first chapter about the ritual of the baisemain, a kiss of the hand: 

 

“The first time my hand was kissed à la française was in the Napoléon III salon of the Élysée Palace.  The one doing the kissing was the president of France. 

  In the fall of 2002, Jacques Chirac was seven years into his twelve-year presidency.  The Bush administration was moving toward war with Iraq, and the relationship between France and the United States was worse than it had been in decades…” 

 

The epilogue is the unfolding of a wonderful dinner party and the perceptions of the French guests assembled on La Seduction. 

 

Photos of the day

October 12, 2011

 

Novice monks at the Dechen Phrodrang Buddhist monastery look down from a hilltop in Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu. Adrees Latif/Reuters.

A full moon shines at dusk above the Swayambhu Nath stupa, a world heritage site in Katmandu, Nepal. Laxmi Prasad Ngakhusi/AP.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a second day, led by energy and financial shares, after European Commission President Jose Barroso’s call for a coordinated response to the continent’s debt crisis spurred optimism about the global economy.

Suncor Energy Inc., the nation’s largest oil and gas producer, gained 2.6 percent after the commission released a so- called road map to address Greek debt, European lenders and the economy. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth- largest insurer, increased 4 percent. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Canada’s second-largest publicly traded copper producer, jumped 6.2 percent as the U.S. dollar dropped against six major counterparts.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 154.41 points, or 1.3 percent, to a three-week high of 12,029.96. The S&P/TSX rebounded 7.6 percent in five days after closing at a 14-month low on Oct. 4 as optimism European officials will aid the continent’s banks led to gains in the euro and a weaker U.S. dollar.

“The global mindset had been very negative, very focused on worst-case scenarios,” David Baskin, president of Baskin Financial Services Inc., said in a telephone interview from Toronto. The firm oversees C$400 million ($393 million). “That doesn’t seem to be happening, so there’s a sigh of relief.”

Crude oil futures surged 13 percent and copper rallied 6 percent from Oct. 4 to yesterday, boosting energy and raw- materials stocks. Companies in those industries make up 47 percent of Canadian stocks by market value, according to Bloomberg data.                        

The euro advanced 1.1 percent against the U.S. dollar today, extending its climb since Oct. 3 to 4.7 percent.

Fifty-nine of 66 S&P/TSX energy companies rose. Suncor increased 2.6 percent to C$29.61. Crescent Point Energy Corp. rallied 4.9 percent to C$41.91 as oil and gas producers with operations in western Canada climbed a day after China Petrochemical Corp. agreed to buy Daylight Energy Ltd. for C$2.2 billion. Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., an oil-sands developer that began trading in April 2010, soared 8.15 percent to C$12.60 after advancing a record 8.17 percent yesterday.

Trican Well Service Ltd., the country’s biggest oilfield- services company, gained 8.8 percent, the most since September 2009, to C$18.56. The shares rallied for a second day after New Orleans-based Superior Energy Services Inc. agreed to buy Houston-based Complete Production Services Inc. for about $2.6 billion in cash and stock.

All S&P/TSX banks and insurers advanced. Manulife climbed 4 percent to C$12.85. Sun Life Financial Inc., Canada’s third- biggest insurance company, climbed 3.7 percent to C$26.45. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, gained 1.8 percent to C$48.83.                     

Copper futures increased 3.1 percent on the Comex in New York as Asian inventories shrank. First Quantum Minerals surged 6.2 percent to C$17.21. Teck Resources Ltd., the country’s biggest base-metals and coal producer, rose 2.1 percent to C$36.03. Quadra FNX Mining Ltd., which operates in the U.S., Canada and Chile, climbed 5 percent to C$11.01.

Extorre Gold Mines Ltd., which explores in Argentina, gained for a second day after reporting high-grade drilling results, advancing 13 percent to C$8.89. The shares jumped 9 percent yesterday.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. retreated 3.5 percent to C$24.27 after service outages spread to North America and South America. Disruptions continued in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for a third day.

The S&P/TSX has increased at least 150 points four of the past five days. That has happened only once before, when the index climbed at least 150 points five times in a six-day period in December 2008 and January 2009.

US

By Rita Nazareth

 Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, briefly erasing the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 2011 loss, as European leaders provided a road map to tame the debt crisis and the Federal Reserve said it discussed further asset purchases.

Financial and industrial shares rose the most among 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. jumped at least 2.7 percent, following a rally in European lenders. General Electric Co. and 3M Co. added more than 1.6 percent to pace gains among companies most- reliant on economic growth. PepsiCo Inc., the largest snack-food maker, increased 2.9 percent as profit beat analysts’ estimates.

The S&P 500 advanced 1 percent to 1,207.25 at 4 p.m. New York time, rallying 4.5 percent in three days. The index rose as much as 2.1 percent earlier before paring gains in the final hour of trading. The Dow climbed 102.55 points, or 0.9 percent, to 11,518.85. The 30-stock gauge is down 0.5 percent for 2011.

“The market doesn’t want to turn back lower,” Liam Dalton, chief executive officer of Axiom Capital Management Inc., in New York, which oversees $1.8 billion, said in a telephone interview. “The process in Europe is likely to be resolved. There are a lot of things that can go right or wrong. Still, we’re building off of what looks like an oversold low.”

The Dow has gained 8.1 percent since reaching this year’s closing low on Oct. 3 amid optimism European leaders will tame the region’s debt crisis and after American economic data improved. Before that, the gauge had slumped as much as 17 percent from this year’s high on April 29 amid concern that Europe’s crisis would slow down the economic recovery.                      

The S&P 500 had the biggest rally over seven days since March 2009, climbing 9.8 percent. The rebound has yet to bring the S&P 500 out of a trading range it’s been stuck in for more than two months. The benchmark index for U.S. stocks has fluctuated between 1,074.77 and 1,230.71 since Aug. 5 as investors remained cautious toward riskier assets amid speculation Greece will default on its debt.

“It feels like Charlie Brown and Lucy every time she put a football in front of him,” James Dunigan, who helps oversee $109 billion as chief investment officer in Philadelphia for PNC Wealth Management, said in a telephone interview. Cartoon character Charlie Brown is a perpetual loser in football and other pursuits. “Maybe the worst case scenario is off the table in Europe. Still, the question is — whatever they do, will it be enough? I’m not sure I’m ready to declare victory yet.”               

Global stocks rose today as European Commission President Jose Barroso called for a reinforcement of crisis-hit banks, the payout of a sixth loan to Greece and a faster start for a permanent rescue fund to master Europe’s debt woes. Barroso urged a “coordinated approach” to deliver a “significantly higher capital ratio of highest quality capital” for banks, while offering government funds only as a last resort.

Some Federal Reserve officials last month wanted to keep further asset purchases as an option to boost the economy as policy makers saw “considerable uncertainty” that U.S. growth will pick up, the Fed said today in minutes of the Sept. 20-21 session. The debate culminated in the Federal Open Market Committee’s decision to replace $400 billion of Treasuries in the central bank’s portfolio with longer-term debt to reduce borrowing costs.

“We’re believers that we’re probably going to avoid a recession,” Warren Koontz, head of U.S. large-cap value stocks at Loomis Sayles & Co. in Boston, which manages $150 billion, said in a telephone interview. “If people come to realize that economic growth isn’t as poor as sentiment or as stock prices have indicated, we probably could create some type of bottom.”

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to economic growth added 2 percent. The Dow Jones Transportation Average rose 1.3 percent. The KBW Bank Index gained 3.3 percent.

Bank of America added 3.3 percent to $6.58. JPMorgan gained 2.8 percent to $33.20. GE increased 1.6 percent to $16.40. 3M rallied 2.5 percent to $78.36.

PepsiCo jumped 2.9 percent to $62.70 after saying third- quarter profit rose 4.1 percent as sales of Frito-Lay products increased. Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi created a council in September to better coordinate sales of snacks and beverages after the company reduced its full-year profit forecast.

“The reason we’re bullish and why we’re having a different view of the market is because we’ve had a lot more faith in the ability of U.S. corporations and the U.S. economy to still navigate through a U.S. expansion, despite what looks like very, very scary headlines,” Thomas Lee, the chief U.S. equity strategist at JPMorgan, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television “In the Loop” with Betty Liu.                    

Liz Claiborne Inc. surged 34 percent, the most since 1987, to $6.84 after agreeing to sell its namesake and Monet brands to J.C. Penney Co. and its Kensie line to Bluestar Alliance as the company works to reduce debt. The transactions and the completion of the sale of Dana Buchman brand to Kohl’s Corp. are worth a total of $328 million in cash.

Alcoa Inc. fell 2.4 percent to $10.05. The first company in the Dow to report earnings this quarter posted profit that trailed estimates, saying European customers “dramatically” cut orders on economic uncertainty. Alcoa is grappling with rising production costs while the price of aluminum on the London Metal Exchange has fallen in the past two months.

Earnings per share for the S&P 500, excluding financial companies, rose 14 percent in the third quarter, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Still, it’s the smallest gain since the end of 2009, the data showed.

UBS AG raised its 2011 earnings forecast for companies in the S&P 500, citing stronger-than-forecast U.S. economic data.

Thomas Doerflinger, a New York-based strategist, raised his profit estimate for the benchmark index to $96.64 a share from $95, saying earnings in the second half of the year will reflect higher economic growth expectations after U.S. manufacturing, auto sales, construction and payrolls data beat forecasts.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Give with faith, and never without faith.

Give with dignity.  Give with humility.  Give with joy.

And give with the understanding of the effects of your gift.

 

Taittiriya Upanishad

 

As ever,

Carolann

Few things are harder to put up with than

the annoyance of a good example.

         -Mark Twain, 1835-1910 

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

 

Full moon tonight =). 

Just returned from my annual trek to the World Business Forum….more to share with you on that later.

Birthday: Eleanor Roosevelt, writer and first Lady, born October 11^th, 1884.  Among her many words of wisdom, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.  You’ll  be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”

I was pleased to learn that Swedish poet, Tomas Transtromer won this year’s Nobel prize in literature. 

From “The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems,” translated by Robin Fulton, New Directions Publishing, 2006:

 

National Insecurity

The Under Secretary leans forward

  and draws an X

and her ear-drops dangle

  like swords of Damocles.

As a mottled butterfly is invisible

  against the ground

so the demon merges

  with the opened newspaper.

A helmet worn by no one

  has taken power.

The mother-turtle

  flees flying under the water.

             -Tomas Transtromer

 

Photos of the day

October 11, 2011

A marigold flower is reflected on a dew drop on the leaf of a paddy in Lalitpur, Nepal. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters.

 Visitors pass huge screens which are part of an exhibition booth of Iceland, the guest of honor at this years’ book fair in Frankfurt. The book fair will be opened later today and runs until Sunday with its focal theme on the literature of Iceland. Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, led by energy companies and banks, in the first day of trading since the leaders of France and Germany said they will have a response to Europe’s bank crisis by the end of the month.

Oil and gas producer Daylight Energy Ltd. soared 110 percent after agreeing to be bought by China Petrochemical Corp.

Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, gained 1.4 percent after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders will do “everything necessary” to ensure banks have adequate capital. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. advanced 6.6 percent after Barron’s said agriculture companies may benefit from rising food demand.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index increased 287.19 points, or 2.5 percent, to 11,875.55. Ninety-one percent of S&P/TSX stocks climbed. Canadian markets were closed yesterday for the country’s Thanksgiving holiday.

“The hope is the Europeans are going to get their act together,” David Cockfield, a money manager at Northland Wealth Management in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$225 million ($219 million). “They seem to be moving toward some kind of accommodation of the Greek problem. That’s encouraged everybody.”

The S&P/TSX dropped 18 percent in the six months ending Oct. 7 as world equities declined on concern the European sovereign debt crisis may threaten banks and the global economy may enter a recession. The MSCI World Index climbed 2.7 percent yesterday, a day after the pledge from Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Energy stocks in the S&P/TSX climbed 3.1 percent as crude oil rose for a fifth day on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Daylight Energy surged 110 percent to C$9.64 after agreeing to a C$10.08-a-share takeover offer from the Chinese state-owned company known as Sinopec Group.

NAL Energy Corp., which, like Daylight Energy, produces natural gas in western Canada, soared 15 percent, the most since October 2008, to C$7.61. Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd., which is developing a natural gas project in Alberta, rallied 8.5 percent, the most since July 2009, to C$4.49. Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., PetroChina Co.’s parter in oil-sands development, advanced 8.2 percent, the most since its April 2010 initial public offering, to C$11.65.

Trican Well Service Ltd., the country’s biggest oilfield- services company, increased 7.1 percent to C$17.06 after New Orleans-based Superior Energy Services Inc. agreed to buy Houston-based Complete Production Services Inc. for about $2.6 billion in cash and stock.                         

Among other energy companies, Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, gained 2.8 percent to C$28.85. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-biggest energy company by market value, advanced 3.3 percent to C$31.21.

PetroFrontier Corp., which explores for oil in Australia, plunged 25 percent to C$1.68 after reporting drilling delays due to an “unexpected fault.” The shares tumbled the most since they began trading in July 2010.

All S&P/TSX banks and seven of eight insurance stocks rose. Royal Bank gained 1.4 percent to C$47.95. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest lender by assets, advanced 1.8 percent to C$52.72. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth- biggest insurer, increased 4 percent to C$12.36.

 Potash Corp. and Agrium Inc. advanced after Barron’s said they may be undervalued. Lars Kjellberg, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, told clients in a note that shares of industry companies “look highly compelling.”                      

Potash Corp., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, increased 6.6 percent to C$49.44. Agrium Inc., a fertilizer producer and farm retailer, climbed 5.7 percent, the most in a year, to C$75.19.

Other raw-materials producers rose a day after the U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the currency against six major peers, lost 1.6 percent, the most since May 2009. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s biggest base-metals and coal producer, gained 4.9 percent to C$35.29. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, advanced 1.8 percent to C$49.32 as the metal touched a two-week high.

Gold company Banro Corp. surged 9.4 percent to C$4.54 after saying production has begun at its Twangiza mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

B2Gold Corp., which explores in Latin America, decreased 5.2 percent to C$3.30 after saying it will buy Auryx Gold Corp., the operator of a mine in Namibia. The companies valued the cash-and-stock offer at about C$160 million.

Exploration Orbite VSPA Inc., which is developing an alumina project in Quebec and extraction technology, climbed 21 percent to C$2.43 after saying it has increased production.

Power producer Western Wind Energy Corp. jumped 58 percent, the most in 10 years, to C$2.10 after saying it received an unsolicited takeover offer of C$2.50 a share from Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. Western Wind called the bid “extremely low-ball” in a statement.

US

By Rita Nazareth

     Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) — Most U.S. stocks advanced, following the biggest rally since August for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as optimism about third-quarter corporate earnings overshadowed concern about Europe’s debt crisis.

Alcoa Inc., the biggest U.S. aluminum producer, gained 2.6 percent ahead of its results. Apple Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Caterpillar Inc. added at least 2 percent to pace gains among companies most-tied to the economy. Mosaic Co. jumped 4.4 percent as Credit Suisse Group AG said valuations for fertilizer shares are attractive. AMR Corp. rose 6.7 percent as American Airlines joined its bigger U.S. peers with deeper seating cuts.

About seven stocks rose for every five that fell on U.S. exchanges at 3:46 p.m. New York time. The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 1,196.40. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 17.41 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,415.77.

“The markets have shrugged off some of the pessimism,” Peter Tuz, who helps manage about $800 million as president of Chase Investment Counsel Corp. in Charlottesville, Virginia, said in a telephone interview. “There’s a bit of catch-up going on. We’re seeing a recovery in groups that have really taken it on the chin. Beginning with Alcoa today, only time will tell if earnings won’t be quite as bad as we all feared.”

The S&P 500 last week rose from the threshold of a bear market on optimism Europe will tame its debt crisis. The measure was up 5.6 percent this month through yesterday as gains were led by commodity, consumer discretionary, industrial and technology companies. Before October, the index had fallen for five straight months.                       

Earnings per share for the S&P 500, excluding financial companies, rose 14 percent in the third quarter, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Still, it’s the smallest gain since the end of 2009, the data showed.

Alcoa is the first company of the Dow to report results for the third quarter. The largest U.S. aluminum producer may report a slowdown in its earnings recovery after the lightweight metal used in beverage cans and aircraft erased all this year’s price gains. The European debt crisis and doubts about global economic growth have reduced aluminum demand growth and suppressed prices, Lloyd O’Carroll, an analyst at Davenport & Co. in Richmond, Virginia, said in a Sept. 21 note.

Alcoa climbed 2.6 percent to $10.35 today. The shares lost 34 percent in 2011 through yesterday, the worst performer in the Dow after Bank of America Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

Stocks fell earlier after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the debt crisis threatens the financial system. “Sovereign stress has moved from smaller economies to some of the larger countries,” Trichet told European lawmakers in Brussels today. “The crisis is systemic and must be tackled decisively.”                         

The message comes as Slovakian lawmakers were preparing to vote on the euro region’s retooled bailout fund. Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos said lawmakers should back the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro region’s enhanced bailout fund, this week. Slovakia is the only country in the euro area that hasn’t ratified the measure.

European Union and International Monetary Fund officials indicated Greece will get an 8 billion-euro ($11 billion) loan next month under a 110 billion-euro bailout. The team of officials from the EU, IMF and ECB said Greece has made “important progress” in fiscal consolidation, according to an e-mailed statement today upon completion of a review in Athens.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

 

Whenever I see an erring man, I say to myself, I have also erred;

when I see a lustful man I say to myself, so was I once;

and in this way I feel kinship with everyone in the world

and feel that I cannot be happy without the humblest of us being happy.

 -Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

 

As ever,

Carolann

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind

and won’t change the subject.

          -Winston Churchill, 1874-1965

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

 

“…Thanksgiving like contentment is a learned attribute. The person who hasn’t learned to be content will not be thankful, for he lives with the delusion he deserves more or something better…” – Robert Flatt

 

 Photo of the Weekend:

President Obama, center, with daughters Malia, far right, Sasha, second from the right, pardoning the National Thanksgiving Turkey, Courage, in a ceremony at the White House with the chairman of the National Turkey Federation, in 2009. (AP Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais)  October 7^th, 2011

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, wiping out the week’s gain, as raw-materials and energy shares dropped after Fitch Ratings downgraded the government debt of Spain and Italy.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Canada’s second-largest energy company by market value, declined 4 percent as natural gas futures retreated. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-biggest gold producer by market value, lost 2.3 percent as precious metals slipped. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, decreased 4.1 percent after a Citigroup Inc. analyst said U.S. ethanol legislation may weaken grain prices.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 191.71 points, or 1.6 percent, to 11,588.36 at the close in Toronto for a weekly retreat of 0.3 percent. “In the last few days, the markets had a bit of an upside, but the cloud on Europe continues to be there,” Sadiq S. Adatia, chief investment officer at Sun Life Financial Inc.’s Sun Life Global Investments unit, said in a telephone interview. The unit oversees C$3.2 billion ($3.1 billion) for clients. “I don’t think anyone is holding stocks for the long term. They’re all worried about what’s going on in the economy.”

The index jumped 5.4 percent during the previous two days, the most in a similar period since May 2009. Stocks rose from a 14-month low after the Institute for Supply Management’s monthly index of the U.S. service industry fell less than most economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast and investors speculated European officials will reach an agreement to aid the continent’s banks.

Debt Downgrades

Fitch reduced its ratings on Spain to AA- from AA+ and cut Italy to A+ from AA-. The agency cited the vulnerability of the countries to the European debt crisis. The S&P/TSX Energy Index retreated for the first time in four days as natural gas dropped to an 11-month low on speculation U.S. inventories will approach a record.

Canadian Natural declined 4 percent to C$30.20. Encana Corp., the country’s largest natural gas producer, lost 4.6 percent to C$19.71. Oil-sands developer MEG Energy Corp. decreased 6.6 percent to C$37.74 after jumping 16 percent in the previous two days.

Gold and silver retreated as investors sold precious metals to cover losses in other assets, Adatia said. Goldcorp dropped 2.3 percent to C$48.12. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, lost 2.1 percent to C$48.44. San Gold Corp., which mines in Manitoba, slumped 8.6 percent to C$2.12 after reporting third-quarter production that trailed the estimate of Andrew Kaip, an analyst at Bank of Montreal.

‘Clear Negative’

Fertilizer producers fell after David Driscoll, an analyst at Citigroup, said bills in Congress to reduce ethanol requirements for gasoline represent “a continued assault on the ethanol industry and a clear negative.” Corn futures also fell on forecasts for warm, dry weather in the U.S. Midwest.

Potash Corp. declined 4.1 percent to C$46.40 after surging 11 percent in the previous two days. Agrium Inc., a fertilizer producer and farm retailer, lost 3.5 percent to C$71.16. A gauge of base-metals and coal producers in the S&P/TSX retreated 4.6 percent after soaring 24 percent, the most since January 2009, in the previous three days. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest company in the industry, decreased 4.7 percent to C$33.65. Inmet Mining Corp., a copper and zinc producer, dropped 6.5 percent to C$49.21. Uranium One Inc., a mining company controlled by Moscow-based ARMZ Uranium Holding, lost 6.6 percent to C$2.11.

Financials Retreat

The S&P/TSX Financials Index declined. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, slipped 1.4 percent to C$47.30. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third- biggest bank, fell 1.4 percent to C$51.78. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth-biggest insurer, retreated 2.9 percent to C$11.88.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. dropped 4.3 percent to C$24.30 after soaring 19 percent from a seven-year low in the previous four days. Microsoft Corp. is unlikely to buy RIM, as Microsoft is reluctant to acquire a hardware business and RIM’s chiefs would oppose a deal, Pierre Ferragu, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said in a note to clients.

US

By Rita Nazareth and Cordell Eddings

Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, halting a three-day rally, and the euro reversed earlier gains versus the dollar after Fitch Ratings cut debt ratings on Spain and Italy. Treasuries slid, sending the 30-year yield above 3 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.8 percent to close at 1,155.46 after rebounding more than 8 percent from a one-year intraday low on Oct. 4. The euro lost 0.4 percent to $1.3388, erasing a gain of as much as 0.7 percent. Ten-year Treasury note yields rose nine basis points to 2.08 percent and climbed 16 points in five days, its biggest weekly increase since July. Oil capped its largest weekly gain in seven months.

Early gains in U.S. equities faded today as faster- than- forecast growth in jobs was overshadowed by concern Europe’s debt crisis will worsen. Italy had its foreign and local currency long-term issuer default ratings cut to ‘A+’ from ’AA- ,’ while Spain had the same set of ratings cut to ‘AA-’ from ‘AA+.’ The outlook for both is negative.

“We’re still going to get a bad event in Europe,” Michael Strauss, who helps oversee about $27 billion as chief investment strategist at Commonfund in Wilton, Connecticut, said in a telephone interview. “What took the wind out of the stock market was the variety of downgrades.” The jobs data showed “it’s not an economic recession, but it’s slow growth.”

Stocks started the session higher after government data showed payrolls climbed by 103,000 workers, topping the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists for a rise of 60,000. The data followed reports earlier this week showing faster-than-estimated growth in manufacturing, construction and service industries and improving retail sales.

Swinging Between Gains, Losses

The S&P 500 then turned lower before staging a rally late in the day, reversing its loss and climbing as much as 0.4 percent, before finally giving up gains and closing lower.

Losses were led by smaller U.S. companies and banks, with the Russell 2000 Index slumping 2.6 percent today after surging 11 percent in the previous three sessions for the its strongest rally in more than two years.

The S&P 500 Financials Index lost 3.7 percent after climbing 8.8 percent over the previous three days. The group of banks, insurers and investment firms is up 4.8 percent after sinking to a two-year low on Oct. 3.

Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Travelers Cos. and American Express Co. lost more than 2.2 percent for the biggest declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slipped 0.2 percent to 11,103.12. Sprint Nextel Corp. tumbled 20 percent, the biggest loss in the S&P 500, after saying it needs to raise additional capital as it spends on a network upgrade and new handsets.

Rebound

The S&P 500 ended the session up about 7.5 percent from a one-year intraday low on Oct. 4 and capped a 2 percent weekly gain. The benchmark index sank 14 percent in the third quarter and this week came within 1 percent of extending its decline from its April peak to 20 percent on a closing basis, the common definition of a bear market. The slump pushed the index to 12 times reported earnings, the cheapest valuation level since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, will mark the unofficial start of the earnings-reporting season when it reports results on Oct. 11. Third-quarter profits for S&P 500 companies are projected to have grown 12 percent, according to analyst forecast compiled by Bloomberg, down from an estimate of

17 percent when the index traded at a three-year high at the end of April.

Jobs Revision

The government jobs data also showed hours and earnings both increased and revisions to previous reports added a total of 99,000 jobs to payrolls in July and August after last month’s jobs report showed no gain in non-farm payrolls for August. “This is yet another data point suggesting that the U.S. is not moving toward recession any time soon,” Richard Skaggs, senior equity strategist at Loomis Sayles & Co. in Boston, which manages more than $150 billion, said in a telephone interview. The revisions to prior months “were significant,” he said. “Last month, the unchanged number really sent stocks for a loop.”

The rate by which data on the economy has been trailing forecasts has been decreasing since June, according to the Citigroup Economic Surprise Index. The U.S. gauge, which fell below zero on April 29 as the S&P 500 was peaking, has climbed from a low of minus-117.2 on June 3 to minus-7.5.

The 30-year Treasury bond’s yield climbed six basis points to 3.01 percent increased 10 points this week, the biggest increase since August. Two-year yields climbed three basis points to 0.29 percent, up five points on the week.

‘Positive Surprise’

“We saw a positive surprise in payrolls and the market has to respect that and push yields higher on the optimism, but no one is too excited about the data given the uncertainty in Europe,” said Suvrat Prakash, an interest-rate strategist in New York at BNP Paribas SA, one of the 20 primary dealers obliged to participate in U.S. debt offerings. “The uncertainty isn’t going away anytime soon.”

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.8 percent to extend its weekly gain to 2.6 percent. Gauges of energy producers and auto companies climbed more than 1.7 percent to lead gains among 19 industries.

European markets closed before Fitch downgraded Italy and Spain.

The yield on 10-year Italian bonds rose seven basis points to 5.49 percent. The nation said it plans to sell securities maturing between 2016 and 2025 on Oct. 13. Spanish yields fell two points to 4.95 percent.

Greece Talks

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet in Berlin on Oct. 9 to discuss Greece’s debt problems as the nation edges closer to default. It will be their eighth one-on-one summit in 20 months.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index climbed 2.1 percent, extending its rebound from a two-year low on Oct. 4 to 6.1 percent. The BSE India Sensitive Index, or Sensex, added 2.8 percent after Citigroup raised its rating on the nation to “neutral.” The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong advanced 3.7 percent. Benchmark indexes gained more than 2.5 percent in Russia and South Korea.

Crude oil for November delivery rose 39 cents to settle at $82.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and rallied 4.8 percent this week, the most since March.

Among commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index, zinc and sugar rose more than 2 percent to lead gains and coffee and natural gas dropped more than 3 percent for the biggest losses.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving long weekend everyone!

 

As Always,

 

Kyle,

 

For Carolann.

 

Dear Friends,

 

 

 

Tangents:

 

 

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

 

     1955-2011

 

 

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who changed the daily habits of millions by reinventing computing, music and mobile phones, died on Wednesday at the age of 56.

Apple loses a visionary leader who inspired personal computing and iconic products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, which made Jobs one of the most significant industry leaders of his generation.

His death after a long battle with pancreatic cancer sparked an outpouring of tributes as world leaders, business rivals and fans alike lamented his premature passing and celebrated his monumental achievements. (Reuters)

 

 

 

Photo of the Day:

 

October 6^th, 2011

Nineteen-year-old Jonathan Mak, a student at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University School of Design, came up with the idea of incorporating Steve Jobs’ silhouette into the bite of the Apple logo, symbolizing both Jobs’ departure and lingering presence at the core of the company.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Chris Fournier

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — Canada’s dollar fell versus a majority of its major peers before domestic and U.S. jobs data that may show the North American economy is faltering.

The loonie, as the Canadian currency it’s nicknamed, touched the lowest level in more than a year against its U.S.

counterpart this week on concern a slowing American economy will crimp the nation’s exports of raw materials. The currency underperformed its commodity-linked peers of Australia and New Zealand, which rallied along with stocks.

“Investors are very cautious ahead of dual payroll numbers and expectations are sliding lower for both reports,” said Blake Jespersen, director of foreign exchange in Toronto at Bank of Montreal, by e-mail. “I don’t think the Canadian dollar selling is overdone. I think it will slide lower.”

The Canadian currency was little changed at $1.0391 per U.S. dollar at 3:09 p.m. in Toronto, compared with C$1.0402 yesterday. It touched C$1.0658 on Oct. 4, the weakest level since August 2010. One Canadian dollar buys 96.25 U.S. cents.

BMO’s Jespersen predicted the currency would hit a floor at around C$1.12. Canadian employers added 15,000 jobs in September after cutting 5,500 positions in August, according to the median of 25 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That would mean employers added 16,500 jobs in the third quarter, compared with 109,000 in the second quarter and 82,800 in the first three months of the year. Statistics Canada is due to report the employment data tomorrow at 7 a.m. in Ottawa.

Jobs

U.S. businesses added 90,000 workers to payrolls in September, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The unemployment rate was 9.1 percent for a third consecutive month, the survey showed.

The loonie fell today against its commodity-linked peers as investors sold the loonie to buy the dollars of Australia and New Zealand amid gains in stocks and oil.

“Canada is the low-beta currency within the commodity block so as risk appetite emerges, investors tend to go long the higher-beta currencies and sometimes fund it out of the lower- beta currencies,” said Paresh Upadhyaya, head of Americas G-10 currency strategy at Bank of America Corp. in New York, in a telephone interview today. Beta refers to a currency’s sensitivity to changes in another variable. The currency extended losses after the European Central Bank failed to cut borrowing costs and domestic building permits unexpectedly fell.

‘Massive Threat’

“The underlying sentiment is: global economy slowing, central banks struggling to find further measures to ease and the global financial system is a massive threat to the global economy and nobody has done anything to stabilize it,” said Kit Juckes, head of foreign-exchange research in London at Societe Generale SA, by phone from London.

European Central Bank officials left their benchmark rate at 1.5 percent, as predicted by 41 of 52 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said the region’s economy is facing “intensified downside risks,” and said the central bank will resume covered-bond purchases and reintroduce year-long loans for banks as the sovereign debt crisis threatens to freeze money markets.

Government bonds fell, pushing the 10-year yield seven basis points higher to 2.21 percent. The yield touched a record low 1.994 percent on Oct. 4.

‘Wouldn’t Buy

Canadian building permits fell for a second consecutive month in August. The value of municipal permits fell 10.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted C$5.9 billion ($5.7 billion), following a revised 0.4 percent decline in July, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The drop was larger than any of the

12 responses to a Bloomberg survey of economists, which had a median forecast for a 0.3 percent advance.

“I wouldn’t buy the Canadian dollar” at these levels, Societe Generale’s Juckes said. “You wouldn’t want to own the Canadian dollar until you had some comfort that the global risk environment was improving or the global economy wasn’t getting worse.”

US

By Michael P. Regan and Rita Nazareth

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rallied for a third day, commodities gained and Treasuries slid as European officials detailed plans to tame the sovereign debt crisis and reports on retail sales and jobless claims bolstered optimism in the economy. The euro erased an earlier drop versus the dollar.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 1.8 percent to 1,164.94 according to preliminary closing figures at 4 p.m. New York. The Russell 2000 Index extended its three-day advance to 11 percent, its biggest since March 2009. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index surged 2.7 percent. Ten-year Treasury yields increased 10 basis points to 1.99 percent. The euro strengthened 0.7 percent to $1.3442 after losing as much as 0.8 percent. The S&P GSCI Index of commodities jumped 2.5 percent as oil increased 3.7 percent to $82.59 a barrel.

American equities extended a global rally after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the ECB will resume covered-bond purchases and reintroduce yearlong loans for banks, while defying calls for an interest-rate cut and acknowledging “downside risks” to the economy have intensified. The European Commission is pushing for a coordinated capital injection for banks to shield them from the fallout of a potential Greek default.

“People have priced in a Lehman II type of situation,” Brian Barish, Denver-based president of Cambiar Investors LLC, which oversees about $8 billion, said in a telephone interview. “You start to hear some credible stuff on European bank recapitalization. They will do what they’ve got to do to prevent a Lehman from happening. There’s a good chance we might had a bottom in stocks.”

Covered Bonds

The 2.5 trillion-euro market for covered bonds — assets backed by mortgages or public-sector loans — underpins much of Europe’s real estate lending, which almost ground to a halt in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse in September 2008.

U.S. stocks also climbed after claims for unemployment benefits rose less than forecast last week to a level that shows the pace of dismissals may be slowing. Applications for jobless benefits rose by 6,000 to 401,000, Labor Department figures showed. Economists projected 410,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The monthly average dropped to the lowest level since the end of August. Government data tomorrow is forecast to show employers added 55,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent, according to the median estimates of economists.

Bear Market Averted

The S&P 500 has rebounded 6 percent since Oct. 3, when it closed within 1 percent of a level that would have marked a bear-market plunge of 20 percent from its April peak. The S&P GSCI Index of commodities is up more than 5 percent in two days, trimming its drop from this year’s high to 20 percent. Treasury yields have increased after demand for safer assets dragged the 10-year note’s rate to a record low of 1.67 percent on Sept. 23.

The Dollar Index has slipped about 1.3 percent since Oct. 4, when it reached the highest level since January.

Financial, commodity and consumer companies helped lead gains in the S&P 500 today. Bank of America Corp. and Alcoa Inc. were among the top gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Target Corp., Limited Brands Inc. and Saks Inc. climbed after reporting September sales that surpassed analysts’

projections. Apple Inc. shares swung between gains and losses during the day after co-founder Steve Jobs died.

The cost to protect the debt of Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. declined amid growing speculation Europe’s leaders will be able to prevent the debt crisis from infecting bank balance sheets.

Bank CDS Tightens

Credit-default swaps on Morgan Stanley, the owner of the world’s biggest retail brokerage, fell 40 basis points to 490 and those on Citigroup slid by 34 basis points to 311, the biggest one-day decline since May 2009, according to data provider CMA. Swaps on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. eased 16 basis points to 380, the data show.

Wall Street strategists say the S&P 500 will post the biggest fourth-quarter rally in 13 years even after they cut forecasts at a rate exceeded only during the credit crisis.

The benchmark index for U.S. stocks will climb 14 percent from yesterday to end 2011 at 1,300, according to the average estimate of 12 strategists surveyed by Bloomberg. The last time they were this bullish in October was 2008, when the group predicted a 27 percent gain and the index lost 18 percent.

Trading Range

Excluding its dip to a 13-month closing low of 1,099.23 on Oct. 3, the S&P 500 has mostly traded between about 1,120 and 1,220 for the past two months. Following 14 periods since 1990 when the index was stuck in a range, more than 75 percent resulted in gains in the next one, three and six months, according to Birinyi Associates Inc., the Westport, Connecticut- based money management and research firm. The average trading range studied lasted about seven months, with the shortest beginning in March 1998 and lasting three months, Birinyi data show.

“We’ll need clear economic data or policy movements out of Europe to break out of that range,” Wasif Latif, vice president of equity investments at USAA Investment Management Co. in San Antonio, which oversees about $50 billion, said in a telephone interview.

Earnings Season

Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, will mark the unofficial start of the earnings-reporting season when it reports results on Oct. 11. Third-quarter profits for S&P 500 companies are projected to have grown 13 percent, according to analyst forecast compiled by Bloomberg, down from an estimate of 17 percent when the index traded at a three-year high at the end of April.

Among European stocks, BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole SA and Natixis surged at least 5.3 percent after Le Figaro said the French government is working on a contingency plan to take stakes in the country’s lenders. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, rallied 5.9 percent as metal prices increased. SABMiller Plc surged 7 percent after a report by Brazilian news website IG said the brewer is in talks to be bought by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV. Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment.

Ten-year Spanish and Italian bond yields decreased seven basis points each, while rates on U.K., French and German debt rose at least four points. The dollar weakened against 14 of 16 major peers today, with the Brazilian real surging 2.7 percent to lead gains after higher-than-forecast inflation spurred bets the central bank may slow the pace of interest-rate cuts.

Copper futures climbed 4.5 percent to $3.2465 a pound in New York and rallied 5.9 percent in London to lead gains in 19 of 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index of stocks surged 3.8 percent, extending its rebound from a two-year low on Oct. 4. Benchmark indexes in South Korea, Brazil and Chile climbed at least 2.6 percent.

Be Magnificent!

 

 

Have a Wonderful Evening Everyone!

As Always,

 

Kyle,

 

For Carolann.

 

Dear Friends,

 

 

 

Tangents

 

 

 

October 5^th in History:

 

  

 

• Ø 1789 – French Revolution: Women of Paris march to Versailles to confront Louis XVI about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, and have the King and his court moved to Paris.

 

• Ø 1947 – The first televised White House address is given by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.

 

• Ø 2004 – Death of Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian (b. 1921).

 

 

Photo of the Day:

 

Men play Polo on the beach in Karachi, Pakistan October 5, 2011. AP.

 

Market Commentary:

 

 

Canada

 

By Matt Walcoff

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for the first time in four days as financial and energy shares advanced on better-than-forecast economic reports from the U.S. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest lender by assets, advanced 2 percent. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, gained 8.4 percent as crude oil rebounded from a one-year low after U.S. supplies fell. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. increased 11 percent on speculation the company may explore strategic options.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 261.24 points, or 2.3 percent, to 11,439.15 at 2:23 p.m. Toronto time. “That’s really the economic data,” Jeff Bradacs, a money manager at Manulife Financial Corp. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. Bradacs’s team oversees C$1.7 billion ($1.6 billion). “A lot of people are expecting a significant slowdown. We’re not really seeing that in the U.S.”

The S&P/TSX dropped 4.4 percent in the previous three days to the lowest since July 2010 as banks and energy companies declined on concern Greece may default and the European Union may require bondholders to face bigger losses on Greek debt.

Canada’s stock benchmark lost 17 percent this year through yesterday, which would be the second-biggest annual retreat in the past 20 years behind 2008’s 35 percent plunge.

The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index slipped to 53 from 53.3 last month. Economists had forecast the index would fall to 52.8, the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Readings above 50 indicate expansion. U.S. companies added 91,000 jobs last month, ADP Employer Services said, exceeding the median economist forecast of 75,000.

Financials Rally

The eight S&P/TSX banks and the three largest insurers all rose. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest lender by assets, gained 2.5 percent to C$51.45. Royal Bank advanced 2 percent to C$46.86. Manulife, North America’s fourth-biggest insurer, increased 4.9 percent to C$11.95. Crude oil climbed as much as 5 percent in New York after the U.S. Energy Department said inventories declined 4.68 million barrels last week. All 15 analysts in a Bloomberg survey had forecast a gain.

Suncor advanced 8.4 percent, the most intraday in 11 months, to C$27.56. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-largest energy company by market value, rose 9.4 percent, the most intraday since March 2009, to C$30.58. Oil-sands developer Ivanhoe Energy Ltd. gained 16 percent to C$1.13 after earlier rallying as much as 23 percent, the most intraday since September 2009.

Merger Rumors

RIM jumped 11 percent to C$24.64 after soaring as much as

15 percent, the most intraday since April 2009. Vodafone Group Plc may seek to buy Canada’s largest technology company, the Independent said, citing “vague rumors.”

Simon Gordon, a Vodafone spokesman, declined to comment. Marisa Conway, a spokeswoman for Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. Base-metals and coal producers in the S&P/TSX gained 4.7 percent after rallying 8.1 percent, the most since May 2009, yesterday. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest company in the industry, advanced 8.3 percent to C$33.55. Quadra FNX Mining Ltd., which operates in the U.S., Canada and Chile, increased 11 percent to C$9.26 after soaring as much as 15 percent, the most intraday since May 2010. Exploration Orbite VSPA Inc., which is developing an alumina project in Quebec and extraction technology, surged 22 percent to C$1.80.

Takeover Speculation

Capstone Mining Corp. climbed 14 percent to C$2.65 on speculation the Vancouver-based copper producer may be a takeover target, George Topping, a Toronto-based analyst at Stifel Financial Corp., said today in a telephone interview. The shares surged as much as 18 percent, the most intraday in 11 months.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, climbed 6.5 percent, the most since August 2010, to C$46.25 as corn and wheat futures rose. World agriculture stocks gained after Monsanto Co.forecast a bigger profit than analysts had estimated.

Gold stocks climbed as the U.S. Dollar Index fell from the highest level since January.

Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest gold producer by market value, rose 2.9 percent to C$47.25. Yamana Gold Inc., Canada’s fourth-biggest company in the industry by market value, advanced 5.1 percent to C$14.25. Kirkland Lake Gold Inc., which operates in Ontario, surged 10 percent to C$16.95 after reporting a profit increase.

Industrial Companies

Sixteen of 19 S&P/TSX industrial companies gained. SNC- Lavalin Group Inc., Canada’s largest engineering and construction company, advanced 7.7 percent to C$43.07 after closing at the lowest since July 2009 yesterday. Bombardier Inc., the maker of trains and airplanes, increased 5.5 percent from a 26-month low to C$3.82.

MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd., an aerospace and defense contractor, plunged 9.9 percent to C$44.14 after sinking as much as 11 percent, the most intraday since February 2009.

The drop reflects the completion of a Dutch auction share buyback and wasn’t unexpected, Thanos Moschopoulos, an analyst at Bank of Montreal, said in an e-mail message. Neo Material Technologies Inc., which makes rare-earths and zirconium products, climbed 12 percent to C$6.61 after gaining as much as 15 percent, the most intraday since July 2009. The shares’ recent decline was an “overreaction,” Steve Arthur, an analyst at Royal Bank, said in a note to clients. The shares tumbled 38 percent from Aug. 17 to yesterday.

 

 

US

By Rita Nazareth

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rallied, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its biggest two-day gain in more than a month, as economic data topped estimates and investors speculated Europe will act to contain the region’s debt crisis.

The S&P 500 advanced 1.8 percent to 1,143.87 at 4 p.m. New York time, according to preliminary closing data. The index has climbed 4.1 percent in two days, the most since Aug. 29.

“Ring-fence, contain, firewall,” Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co., wrote in a note today.

“Three of the words that European authorities are finally understanding right now to prevent the debt crisis spreading to Italy and Spain as they prepare to ask private sector bondholders of Greek debt to price their bonds to market.”

Stocks reversed losses yesterday amid speculation European Union officials are examining how to recapitalize the region’s banks. The S&P 500 jumped 2.3 percent yesterday, rebounding in the final hour after extending its plunge from an April peak to more than 20 percent, the threshold for a bear market. The index has fallen 16 percent since April 29 on concern about Europe’s debt crisis.

The International Monetary Fund said EU officials are working on plans to boost bank capital. France and Belgium said a “bad bank” will be set up to hold Dexia SA’s troubled assets. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe’s rescue fund will only be used as a last resort to save banks and that investors may have to take deeper losses as part of a Greek rescue.

Economic Reports

Investors also weighed economic reports that topped forecasts. Private employment expanded last month, while the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index fell to 53. The median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a drop to 52.8. Orders picked up.

“The jury is still out,” Bruce Bittles, who helps oversee $85 billion as chief investment strategist at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co., said in a telephone interview. “There’s no easy, painless solution out of the European situation. The market’s ability to continue to rally will depend on whether the economy will slip into recession or continue in slow growth.”

The U.S. stock market probably hit bottom yesterday and will rebound as investors refocus on fundamentals and earnings after weeks of distraction from the European debt crisis, Oppenheimer & Co.’s Brian Belski said.

Defensive Positioning

The U.S. stock market is positioned for a rally after weeks of defensive positioning and indiscriminate selling that has led to record declines, Belski, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer in New York, said on Bloomberg Television’s “Inside Track With Deirdre Bolton and Erik Schatzker.” Investors have become overly focused on the daily news on the the Greek sovereign debt crisis and have forgotten that earnings drive stock prices, not macroeconomic news, he said.

“Earnings will surprise to the upside — earnings estimates have been slashed too much,” Belski said.  “The market’s going to get squeezed and we’re going to have a nice year-end rally.”

Be Magnificent!

 

 

Have a Wonderful Evening Everyone!

As Always,

 

Kyle,

 

For Carolann.

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I was with my inter-disciplinary professional  group for awhile yesterday working on a family business case we’re involve with and one of the persons in this group is  a lawyer who practices in Vancouver, and  who happens to be Jewish.  He brought cookies to the meeting and said we needed to wind up just after 4 PM because he had to be with family for Rosh Hashana.  We talked briefly about the night of festivities and  lots of food he would be enjoying with his family. 

I forgot to say last night Happy New Year to all my Jewish clients and friends.  May it be a wonderful year.  Reflection begins today followed by the day of atonement next week, Yom Kippur.

Curt Wahlberg wrote today a piece on hope for  a kinder world, something for us to reflect upon: 

Have you ever felt pushed around?  Or criticized?  Or maybe you’ve been on the other side of things and have been too pushy or critical.

My experience suggests that criticism and unkindness are a kind of contagion that affects people in different ways at different times.  Whether you’re the giver or the receiver, criticism, at the least, deprives you of your peace…..We can’t climb higher because of another’s fall.  Nor can we fall lower because of another’s climb.  So there’s no true basis for subjugating another or for feeling imposed upon…

Photos of the day 

September 29, 2011

A Jewish man blows a shofar, Ram’s horn, while others pray as they perform Tasklikh, a Rosh Hashanah ritual for casting sins upon the waters, in front of the Mediterranean sea in Ashdod, Israel. Ariel Schalit/AP.

The Long March II-F rocket, loaded with China’s unmanned space module Tiangong-1, lifts off from the launch pad in the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province, China. Petar Kujundzic/Reuters.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Kaitlyn Kiernan

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks advanced, rebounding from yesterday’s 2 percent drop, as financial companies and energy producers climbed after U.S. economic data eased concern that global growth will slow.

Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s No. 3 lender, rose 2.4 percent. Cenovus Energy Inc., the country’s fifth-biggest energy company, increased 3.4 percent as crude oil surged after the U.S. said the economy grew faster than previously estimated in the second quarter and jobless claims fell last week. Research In Motion Ltd. lost 3.2 percent, falling for a second day after Amazon.com Inc. announced a competing tablet computer.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 100.45 points, or 0.9 percent, to 11,686.32, widening its advance this week to 1.9 percent.

In the U.S., “the underlying economic numbers were much better than expected, and the general mood is so pessimistic it’s not going to take much for there to be a rally in this market,” Terry Shaunessy, president of Shaunessy Investment Counsel in Calgary, said in a telephone interview. The firm manages about C$150 million ($146 million).

The S&P/TSX has fallen 7.5 percent in September, poised for a seven-month losing streak that’s the longest since 1984.

Energy and raw-materials companies, which make up 46 percent of Canadian stocks by market value, have declined on concern over demand as Europe struggled to contain its debt crisis. This month’s slump is also the biggest since October 2008.

The U.S. economy expanded at a 1.3 percent pace in the second quarter, Commerce Department figures showed, higher than 1 percent in the previous estimate. Jobless claims fell 37,000 last week to 391,000, the fewest since April, according to Labor Department data.

The S&P/TSX Financials Index advanced 1.8 percent, the most among 10 industries, as European lenders soared. Bank of Nova Scotia gained 2.4 percent to C$53.70. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth-biggest insurer, surged 5 percent to C$12.30. The company named Jacqui Allard president of Manulife Asset Management Canada. The Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-largest lender by assets, increased 2 percent to C$75.

Canadian energy companies advanced as crude oil gained 1.1 percent after the U.S. GDP report beat economists’ expectations.

New York futures are down 7.5 percent this month and have dropped 14 percent since the end of June, heading for the biggest quarterly loss since the last three months of 2008.

Cenovus Energy advanced 3.4 percent to C$33.22. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s biggest oil and gas producer, jumped 2.4 percent to C$27.71. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-biggest energy company by market value, rose 2.4 percent to C$31.52.

Natural gas pipeline operators pared the advance in energy group after the U.S. Energy Department said reported the biggest inventory gain in the heating fuel in more than two years. U.S. inventories rose 111 billion cubic feet, or 3.5 percent, to 3.312 trillion in the week ended Sept. 23, the department said. Stockpiles had been expected to rise 103 billion, the average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

 TransCanada Corp., the owner of the country’s largest pipeline system, erased 0.7 percent to C$42.42. Penn West Petroleum Ltd., a western Canadian energy producer, declined 1.8 percent to $15.72.

Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd., a western Canadian oil and gas producer, lost 20 percent to C$6.59 after saying it suspended operations of is Conklin demonstration project after finding evidence of combustion gas migration.

Research In Motion fell 3.2 percent to C$21.94 after Collins Stewart said the BlackBerry maker might halt production of its PlayBook tablet. The company called the rumor “pure fiction” in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg.

US

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, rebounding from a 1 percent decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as lower- than-estimated claims for unemployment benefits and helped offset losses by consumer and technology shares.

Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. climbed at least 3 percent as European lenders soared after German lawmakers backed an enhanced euro-region rescue fund. General Electric Co. gained 2.7 percent, while Hewlett-Packard Co. added 2.5 percent as jobless claims fell more than forecast and the U.S. economy’s second-quarter expansion topped projections. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. slid 14 percent after the chipmaker cut its forecast.

The S&P 500 added 0.8 percent to 1,160.40 at 4 p.m. New York time after rallying as much as 2.2 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 143.08 points, or 1.3 percent, to 11,153.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.4 percent as Apple Inc. declined 1.6 percent, dropping for a fourth straight day.

“We got two excellent numbers,” Philip Orlando, the New York-based chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors Inc., said about the economic reports in a phone interview. His firm oversees about $350 billion. “It suggests that we are coming out of the soft patch and not spiraling into a double-dip recession.”

Two industries that have beaten the S&P 500 in the third quarter, computer and software makers as well as companies reliant on discretionary consumer spending, fell the most today.

The S&P 500 Information Technology Index lost 0.4 percent, bringing its two-day drop to 1.8 percent. Among its constituents, Apple, which rose 16 percent in the quarter, has dropped 5.5 percent since Sept. 20, while Google Inc., up 4.2 percent for the quarter, slid 2.2 percent in the last two days.

Among consumer stocks, Tiffany & Co. declined 6.9 percent today. Wynn Resorts Ltd. fell 7.3 percent, and Netflix Inc. tumbled 11 percent. Netflix, the movie rental service that has rallied 194 percent since March 9, 2009, plunged 57 percent in the third quarter, the second-biggest retreat in the S&P 500 behind Alpha Natural Resources Inc., which decreased 59 percent.

“They’re shooting the last bastions of outperformance, because consumer stocks have actually done really well,” said Dan Veru, who oversees $3.3 billion as chief investment officer at Fort Lee, New Jersey-based Palisade Capital Management LLC.

“They’re selling the winners that have exposure outside of the U.S.”

Stocks worldwide are headed for their worst quarterly performance since the end of 2008 on concern Europe’s debt crisis will trigger a global recession. The MSCI All-Country World Index has lost 16 percent this quarter and trades at 11.9 times reported earnings, near the lowest level since March 2009. The S&P 500 has lost 12 percent since the end of June.                       

Stock futures extended gains today as applications for jobless benefits dropped by 37,000 in the week ended Sept. 24 to 391,000, the fewest since April, Labor Department figures showed. Economists forecast 420,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. An agency official said the data probably reflected a “slight mistiming” in the seasonal factors used to modify the figures.

A separate report showed the U.S. economy grew at a 1.3 percent pace in the second quarter, faster than estimated last month and helped by exports and spending on services.

“The U.S. economic data was better than expected,” Michael Gibbs, Memphis, Tennessee-based chief equity strategist at Morgan Keegan Inc., said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees about $70 billion in client assets. “The market wants Europe to show us, not tell us, what’s going to happen.”

Global equities climbed earlier as Germany’s lower house of parliament approved the expansion of the European bailout fund.

The bill’s passage by Europe’s biggest economy allows euro-area officials to weigh further measures to bolster Greece and stem investor concern that helped end the biggest three-day rally in 16 months for European stocks.

“Our markets have fairly well priced in all but the most draconian of scenarios,” Wilbur Ross, the billionaire chairman of private-equity firm WL Ross & Co., said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” with Betty Liu.

“Unless something really calamitous happens” such as a default of a larger European country like Spain or Italy, “short of that, I think we’ve pretty well priced things in.”

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy climbed 1.5 percent. The Dow Jones Transportation Average, also a proxy for the economy, added 2.1 percent. General Electric gained 2.7 percent to $15.86, and Hewlett- Packard advanced 2.5 percent to $23.78.                    

Financial stocks in the S&P 500 rallied 2.8 percent, the most among 10 industries. Bank of America climbed 3.1 percent to $6.35, while JPMorgan added 3 percent to $31.39.

Harleysville Group Inc. surged 87 percent to $58.96. The insurer agreed to be acquired by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., the eighth-largest U.S. personal auto insurer, for $60 a share in cash.

Advanced Micro Devices sank 14 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $5.31. The second-largest maker of processors for personal computers reduced its forecasts for third-quarter sales and profitability, citing manufacturing glitches.

Netflix dropped 11 percent to $113.19 for the second- biggest loss in the S&P 500. The online and mail-order video service fell on concern about competition with Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The streaming business faces competition from Amazon, which unveiled a tablet computer yesterday that’s designed to work with its own video service. Microsoft plans to offer online pay television service from Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. through its Xbox Live service, people with knowledge of the situation said.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

For me, nonviolence is not a mere philosophical principle.

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

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

 

-Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

Carolann

I shut my eyes in order to see.

       -Paul Gauguin, 1848-1903

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Still Life with Basket of Apples, Paul Cézanne, 1890-94  

I read a wonderful article today on Apple entitled The Apple Effect, The Genius Behind The Company’s Success – And What That Could Teach Corporate America And Perhaps The Nation by Alan M. Webber.  Webber first met Steve Jobs back in 1991 when he was a managing editor of the Harvard Business Review.  When he met him, Jobs said to him “That was a great article….One of the best things I’ve ever read.  It’s absolutely right.  It’s not computers.  It’s computing.”  He was talking about an article that appeared in a 1991 issue of HBR, a provocative piece that came at a time when the United States was nervously watching Japanese companies win more than 40% of the American market for laptops, assert leadership in the production of memory chips, and rival US companies in the production of supercomputers.  Don’t worry, the piece argued.  The future isn’t in computers.  It’s in computing.  “Defining how computers are used, not how they are manufactured, will create real value – and thus market power, employment, and wealth – in the decades ahead.  A computer company is the primary source of computing for its customers.”  The future, in other words, is a verb, not a noun.

The article went on to praise the iconoclastic, rebellious culture that Jobs nurtured at Apple.

What I wanted to share with you tonight is the poignant ending of the article which resonates so well in these times:

“Change is in the air – challenges from companies and countries around the globe, in a world where business, politics, society all seem to be changing rapidly, unpredictably, simultaneously.  It is a global strategic inflection point we’re all struggling to adapt to.

Can Apple offer some useful ways of thinking and working differently?  Ways that apply to these challenging times?

There’s no formula, but there are Apple lessons:

Keep innovating and evolving.  Keep raising the bar on yourself and your own possibilities.  Keep learning and seeking.  Keep obsessing about how to be your own best self.   And most important, always remember that it’s better to be a verb than a noun.”

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Kaitlyn Kiernan

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for the first time in three days as copper and energy companies slipped on a decline in U.S. durable goods orders and concern that Europe’s debt crisis will linger.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s biggest oil and gas producer, slipped 4.7 percent as crude headed for its biggest quarterly drop since 2008. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s biggest base- metals and coal producer, sank 5.3 percent as copper lost 2.3 percent. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer, slid 4.9 percent as corn and wheat slumped.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index lost 235.22 points, or 2 percent, to 11,585.87.

“There is a wait-and-see mentality,” said Bob Decker, a money manager at Aurion Capital Management in Toronto who oversees about C$5.5 billion ($5.4 billion). “There is still concern about deceleration in the economy and that the commodity shake-ups have not run their course.”

The S&P/TSX had advanced 3.1 percent the past two days as mining and energy companies gained on signs that European policy makers were intensifying efforts to contain the region’s debt crisis.

The European Commission is resisting a push by as many as seven euro-area countries to impose bigger writedowns on banks’ holdings of Greek government debt than those agreed at a July 21 summit, a European official said today.

Canadian energy companies dropped after crude oil fell 3.8 percent on the discord among European leaders and a report that U.S. stockpiles increased last week to an eight-week high.

Natural gas sank 1.8 percent as drilling in the U.S., the biggest consumer of the nation’s gas output, increased supplies of the fuel and forecasts of moderating weather that may reduce demand.

Suncor Energy erased 4.7 percent to C$27.05. Penn West Petroleum Ltd., a western Canadian energy producer, decreased 3.3 percent to C$16. Encana Corp., the country’s largest natural gas producer, slid 4 percent to C$20.21, its lowest value since February 2005. Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd., a western Canadian oil and gas producer, lost 12 percent to C$8.25, its lowest price since October 2006.

All 10 of the industry groups in the S&P/TSX fell, led by the S&P/TSX Materials Index, which lost 3.9 percent to erase this week’s gains. Base metal producers sank as copper declined more than 5 percent amid concern that a slowing global economy will reduce demand for the metal. A report showed orders for U.S. durable goods fell 0.1 percent in August after rising 4.1 percent in July.

Teck Resources Ltd. slipped 5.3 percent to C$30.40. Mercator Minerals Ltd., which mines copper and molybdenum, dropped 11 percent to C$1.51. Taseko Mines Ltd., which produces copper in British Columbia, declined 6.4 percent to C$2.76, its lowest value since October 2009.

Fertilizer producers sank as corn and wheat futures fell on speculation demand for food and animal feed will drop as the U.S. economy slows and Europe’s debt crisis reduces consumer confidence. Corn fell 1.5 percent after rising 2.2 percent the prior two sessions. Wheat fell 3 percent on signs that slowing economies and ample global supplies are eroding demand.

Potash Corp. dropped 4.9 percent to C$47.05, the lowest since December 2010. Agrium Inc., a fertilizer producer and farm retailer, declined 3.8 percent to C$73.25, its lowest price in more than a year.

US

By Whitney Kisling and Inyoung Hwang

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined, halting a three-day rally for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, amid growing concern that European leaders are divided over how to handle Greece’s debt crisis.

All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 fell at least 0.6 percent, with companies most-tied to economic growth dropping the most. Dow Chemical Co. and Alcoa Inc. slid at least 4.9 percent as commodities tumbled. Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. lost more than 4.9 percent, pacing declines among financial shares. Amazon.com Inc. rose 2.5 percent after the company launched its Kindle Fire tablet computer, taking aim at Apple Inc.’s bestselling iPad.

The S&P 500 lost 2.1 percent to 1,151.06 at 4 p.m. New York time, after rising as much as 0.8 percent earlier and rallying 4.1 over the previous three days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 179.79 points, or 1.6 percent, to 11,010.90 today, with all 30 stocks retreating.

“Europe is the issue that is first and foremost in everyone’s mind, so any news that comes out on that does have a strong impact on the market,” Peter Jankovskis, who helps manage about $2.6 billion at Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois, said in a telephone interview. “Any weakness there is going to be a drag worldwide.”

A four-day rout last week erased $1 trillion from U.S. equities amid concern Greek insolvency is inevitable and Europe can’t contain the damage. The decline left the S&P 500 trading at 12.4 times earnings in the past 12 months, 4.4 percent below its average valuation at the lowest point during the last nine bear markets, Bloomberg data shows.

Stocks fell today as an official said the European Commission is resisting a push to impose bigger writedowns on banks’ holdings of Greek government debt than those agreed at a July 21 summit. The commission opposes ideas that are being floated by some government officials to get banks to accept bigger so-called haircuts and doesn’t want to have talks about any such attempt, the official said on condition of anonymity because the deliberations are private.

Italian and Spanish financial market regulators extended temporary bans on short selling of financial shares that were introduced last month in a bid to stem market volatility, the European Securities and Markets Authority said.

 The S&P 500 had climbed over the past three days amid optimism that euro-area nations were making progress on plans to tame the region’s government debt crisis.                      

“The market is on pins and needles over the whole European debt problem,” Thomas Garcia, head of equity trading at Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management Inc., which oversees about $75 billion, said in an e-mail. “Every new rumor or little piece of news moves the market in one direction or the other a percent or two. It’s frustrating!”

Stocks rose earlier today as a Commerce Department report showed orders for U.S. capital goods climbed in August by the most in three months, a sign business investment continues to support the recovery. Bookings for goods like computers and communications gear, excluding military hardware and aircraft, climbed 1.1 percent, the most since May. Demand for total durable goods dropped 0.1 percent, less than forecast.

The S&P 500 has been trading between about 1,100 and 1,300 since the beginning of August. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities climbed as high as 1,363.61 on April 29, before starting a decline of as much as 18 percent through August. The index is down 8.5 percent for the year. Strategists estimate it will climb to 1,305 by year-end, representing a 13 percent advance, according to the average in a Bloomberg survey.                    

Raw-material companies fell the most among 10 groups in the S&P 500 today, tumbling 4.5 percent. Energy shares lost 3 percent as a group, as the Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities fell 2.5 percent. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy lost 3.3 percent.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average, a proxy for the economy, lost 2.9 percent. Alcoa fell 4.9 percent to $9.97. Dow Chemical, the largest U.S. chemical maker, slid 6.2 percent to $23.76.

The KBW Bank Index lost 3.5 percent, with Morgan Stanley falling 5.4 percent to $14.16. Bank of America slid 4.9 percent to $6.16, for the largest decline today for the Dow. A group of S&P 500 financial shares have plunged 27 percent since the April high, the biggest drop among the 10 industry groups. Utilities companies have been the only group to gain, adding 1.2 percent in the same period.

Amazon.com shares rose 2.5 percent, the second-most in the S&P 500, to $229.71. The world’s largest online retailer introduced its Kindle Fire, a device that’s smaller and less than half the price of Apple’s iPad. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is betting he can leverage Amazon’s dominance in e- commerce to pose a challenge to the iPad, after tablets from rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Research In Motion Ltd. have fallen short.

Jabil Circuit Inc., gained the most in the benchmark index, adding 8.4 percent to $18.84. The U.S. contract electronics manufacturer forecast first-quarter earnings will be at least 62 cents a share, exceeding the average analyst projection, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

We do not progress from error to truth, but from truth to truth.

Thus we must see that none can be blamed for what they are doing, because they are,

at this time, doing the best they can.  We learn only from experience.

 

-Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

Carolann

In reality, humility means nothing other than

complete honesty about yourself.

        – Emma Thompson, 1959-

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

 

September 26^th: Birthday, T.S. Eliot, b. 1888.

We shall not cease from our exploration, and at the end of all our exploring,

we shall arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. –T.S. Eliot, 1888-1965

 

Autumn officially arrived on Friday….in the northern hemisphere, the autumn equinox signals the gathering of the harvest; we can enjoy Earth’s bounty together.  We must accustom ourselves to the days growing shorter, prepare for winter.

Photos of the day

September 26, 2011

Wales supporters pose for a photo before their Rugby World Cup Pool D match against Namibia at Stadium Taranaki in New Plymouth, New Zealand.Nigel Marple/Reuters.

Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, voice actors for the animated movie Puss In Boots, gesture to a cat during a photocall to promote their film in Moscow. Ivan Burnyashev/Reuters.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Kaitlyn Kiernan

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks advanced the most in more than a month as banks and commodity futures gained on speculation Europe will act to stem its debt crisis.

Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, advanced 4.1 percent amid rumors that the European Central Bank would create a European version of the U.S.’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, cut interest rates and restart covered-bond purchases. Ivanhoe Mines, which is building a copper and gold mine in Mongolia with Rio Tinto Group, plunged 9.2 percent after the government of Mongolia sought to increase its stake in the project. Suncor Energy Inc. rose 4.5 percent after natural gas futures advanced as warmer-than-normal weather increased demand for the power-plant fuel.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 244.32 points, or 2.1 percent, to 11,707.19, the most since Aug. 23.

The index swung between gains and losses before rallying after 2:30 p.m.     “The market didn’t really digest that rumor until this afternoon when it finally tuned into the sense of urgency in Europe,” Barry Schwartz, a money manager at Baskin Financial Services Inc., said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$420 million ($410 million).

Canada’s stock benchmark slumped 6.5 percent last week, the most since March 2009, as economic data from Europe, North America and China were more indicative of a slowdown than most economists had forecast in Bloomberg surveys. Crude oil declined 9.2 percent while gold sank 9.6 percent and silver plunged 26 percent as investors sold commodities to cover losses in other assets. Energy and raw-materials companies make up 47 percent of Canadian stocks by market value, according to Bloomberg data.

Canadian banks advanced amid speculation that the European Central Bank may restart covered-bond purchases next week and cut interest rates next month. The reintroduction of 12-month loans to banks will also be discussed at the ECB’s Oct. 6 policy meeting, a euro-region central bank official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is confidential.

Royal Bank of Canada climbed 4.1 percent to C$47.98. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-largest lender by assets, advanced 4.1 percent to C$73.85. Bank of Montreal, Canada’s fourth-largest lender by assets, rose 4.2 percent to C$58.29. The S&P/TSX Energy Index rose 2.7 percent to end a six-day drop as crude futures advanced.

Suncor Energy, the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, climbed 4.5 percent to C$27.66. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-biggest energy company by market value, jumped 1.7 percent to C$31.55. Talisman Energy Inc., an oil and gas producer with operations in North America, gained 2.5 percent to C$13.69.

Gold fell, capping the biggest three-session slump since 1983, and silver closed below $30 an ounce on investor sales to cover losses in other assets.  Extorre Gold, which explores in Argentina, lost 6.1 percent to C$7.30. Detour Gold Corp., the company exploring for gold in northern Ontario, decreased 2.7 percent to C$31.17.

Tahoe Resources slid for a third day, falling 8 percent to C$15.57. Michael Gray, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., lowered his 12 month price estimate on the shares to C$23 from C$27.

Ivanhoe Mines erased 9.2 percent to C$15. The company is half-way through completion on a project in Mongolia that will be one of the world’s five-biggest copper mines, according to Rio Tinto Group.

The government of the Asian country is seeking to boost its stake in the mine to 50 percent from 34 percent, Dashdorj Zorigt, Mongolia’s minerals minister, told reporters at Oyu Tolgoi yesterday. Such an increase is permitted only after 30 years, according to a summary of the $10 billion project agreement from London-based Rio, which said the new proposal may alarm foreign investors.

US

By Stephen Kirkland and Rita Nazareth

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) — Stocks rallied, rebounding from last week’s decline, and Treasuries retreated as European officials discussed plans to tame the region’s debt crisis.

Commodities reversed losses and the Dollar Index retreated.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 2.3 percent to 1,162.93 according to preliminary closing figures at 4 p.m. in New York. Ten-year U.S. Treasury note yields increased six basis points to 1.90 percent, rising from near a record low. The S&P GSCI Index of commodities gained 0.2 percent, erasing an earlier drop of as much as 2.6 percent, as oil snapped a three-day slump. The Dollar Index slipped 0.4 percent, while the euro weakened against 13 of 16 major peers.

The European Central Bank is likely to debate restarting covered-bond purchases and may discuss interest-rate cuts to ease funding strains, a euro-region central bank official said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s comments that leaders must erect a firewall around Greece prompted speculation about a European version of the U.S.’s Troubled Asset Relief Program after finance chiefs including U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner urged more efforts to prevent contagion.

“Europe will come up with something,” Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida, said in a telephone interview. His firm manages $278 billion. “I don’t think we’re going into a recession. Now is the time to be bullish, not the time to panic. The lows for the year are in.”

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose for a second day. The Dow rebounded following last week’s 6.4 percent drop, its biggest since October 2008. Financial and energy shares helped lead gain, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp. pacing the advance. Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s company, climbed on plans to buy back stock.

Boeing Co. rose as a delivery of the 787 Dreamliner ended more than three years of delays on the world’s first jetliner with a fuselage made of carbon-fiber composites.

Last week’s rout erased $1 trillion from U.S. equities, and wiped out about $3.6 trillion globally, amid concern Europe can’t contain the damage from its government-debt crisis. The S&P 500 slumped 17 percent between April 29 and Sept. 23, leaving it trading at 12.4 times earnings in the past 12 months, 4.4 percent below its average valuation at the lowest point during the last nine bear markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.                       

The S&P 500 is down more than 12 percent since the end of June, poised for its worst quarterly performance since 2008.

Stocks are having the worst quarter on record relative to U.S. Treasuries and gold, which may force investors to buy equities to rebalance their allocations, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Marko Kolanovic said. U.S. and emerging-market equities have returned 43 percentage points less, the most during a quarter since at least 2002, according to data compiled by Kolanovic, whose analysis is based on a model portfolio composed of stocks, bonds and gold

A gauge of U.S. homebuilder stocks rose 1.4 percent even after new-home purchases in the U.S. slid in August to a six- month low as the biggest drop in prices in two years failed to lure buyers away from even less expensive distressed properties, a Commerce Department report showed. Another report showed U.S. economic activity fell in August. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s national index, which draws on 85 economic indicators, was minus 0.43 in August versus 0.02 in July. A reading below zero indicates below-trend-growth in the national economy.

Equity-options show traders expect Europe’s debt crisis to engulf the U.S. as contracts to protect against losses in the S&P 500 erase the gap with the euro region’s benchmark gauge.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 33 percent last week to 41.25, bringing it within seven points of the 29-month high reached Aug. 8. The VIX, as the gauge is known, eliminated more than half the discount to Europe’s VStoxx Index in the past week, cutting it to 7.3 points from 15 on Sept. 12, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

About five stocks gained for every two that fell in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, which rebounded 1.9 percent after dropping 6.1 percent last week. BNP Paribas SA, UniCredit SpA and Deutsche Bank AG, the biggest lenders in France, Italy and Germany respectively, rose at least 4 percent.

ECB Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said the ECB will do whatever is necessary to supply sufficient funds to European banks.

“For liquidity, we are there” and “we are ready to do what is needed,” Bini Smaghi said in New York today. “‘‘We need to reassure the markets.’’ He also said the central bank doesn’t expect a default by Greece.

The ECB is likely to debate restarting covered-bond purchases and more measures to ease monetary conditions next week, a euro-region central bank official said. Reintroduction of 12-month loans to banks will also be discussed at the ECB’s Oct. 6 policy meeting, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is confidential. Interest- rate cuts are likely to be discussed, though they are not on the current agenda, the official said.

The yield on the Greek 10-year bond rose 43 basis points, driving the difference in yield with benchmark German bunds 35 basis points higher to 22.23 percentage points. Spanish 10-year yields slipped five basis points to 5.16 percent, while Italy’s were little changed and rates on similar-maturity U.K., French and German debt increased.                        

A benchmark gauge of U.S. corporate credit risk fell for a second day. The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, which typically falls as investor confidence improves and rises as it deteriorates, declined 2.7 basis point to a mid-price of138 basis points, according to index administrator Markit Group Ltd.

The cost of insuring against default on European sovereign debt also retreated. The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of swaps on 15 governments fell 1.7 basis points to 363.7, after earlier rising to a record.

Crude oil for November delivery gained 0.5 percent to $80.24 a barrel. Cattle and natural gas rallied more than 2.2 percent to lead gains among the 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index.

Gold for December delivery slid 2.1 percent to $1,605.70 an ounce to extend a day-day drop to 7.8 percent, as some investors sold the metal to cover losses in other assets. Silver was little changed after plunging 26 percent over the previous two sessions.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index declined 0.8 percent as benchmark indexes in Colombia, China and South Korea slumped at least 1.1 percent. Thailand’s SET Index tumbled 5.7 percent after the central bank said it may cut its economic growth forecasts.

Russia’s Micex Index rose 1.5 percent after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he would run again for president next year.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Selfishness in man is a beginning.

 

            -Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

Carolann

Ultimately, the only power to which man

should aspire is that which he exercises

over himself.

                 -Elie Wiesel, 1928-

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

This is pretty amazing:

Scientists at the world’s largest physics lab, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, said Thursday they have clocked neutrinos traveling faster than light.  That’s something that according to Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity just doesn’t happen.  On Thursday night Antonio Ereditato, leader of the Opera experiment at the Cern Laboratory in Switzerland, said beams of neutrinos, or subatomic particles, consistently arrived about 60 nanoseconds sooner on a 730km journey from Cern outside Geneva to the Gran Sasso underground lab in central Italy than if they would have been travelling at the speed of light – about 300,000km per second. Although the neutrinos are only travelling 0.01 per cent faster than light, the result would shake the theoretical foundations of physics that have been built up since Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity. The speed of light is regarded as an absolute limit for fast travel, unless you invoke unproven factors such as extra dimensions, or “wormholes”, in space.

Another fundamental tenet of science is that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, so no one is going to accept the Opera results until they have been verified independently by another experiment.

Something to think about:

Scared and sacred are spelled with the same letters. Awful proceeds from the same root word as awesome. Terrify and terrific. Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation. – Alan Cohen  

Photos of the day: 

September 23, 2011

A farmer puts name tags of the cheesemakers on the loaves of cheese made during the summer in the mountain pastures in the Justistal above the lake of Thun, Switzerland. The cheese, about 30 tons, will be shared among the farmers’ families according to the number of cows owned. The event represents a traditional process called ‘chaesteilet,’ distribution of cheese. Peter Klaunzer/Keystone/AP.

Dancers in traditional attire take a break during rehearsals for the garba dance ahead of the Navratri festival in Ahmedabad, India. Navratri, held in honour of Hindu Goddess Durga, is celebrated over a period of nine days where thousands of youths dance the night away in traditional costumes. Navratri starts on Sept. 28. Amit Dave/Reuters.

 

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, drawing closer to a bear market at any time since rebounding from a five-year low in March 2009, as investors were forced to sell precious metals to cover losses in other assets.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, declined 4.5 percent as the metal completed its biggest two-day retreat since 1983. Silver Wheaton Corp., Canada’s fourth- largest precious-metals company by market value, lost 8.9 percent as silver futures plunged the most in a day since at least 1979. Canadian Oil Sands Ltd., the biggest owner of the Syncrude project, decreased 2.9 percent as crude oil settled below $80 a barrel for the first time since Aug. 9.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 99.64 points, or 0.9 percent, to 11,462.87, extending its weekly decline to 6.5 percent, the most since March 2009. The index has decreased 19.7 percent since closing at a post-2008 high on April 5. A decline of 20 percent is a common definition of a bear market.

“Gold is not a safe haven,” Robert “Hap” Sneddon, the president of Oakville, Ontario, money manager CastleMoore Inc. and the Canadian Society of Technical Analysts, said in a telephone interview. “When margin clerks call, people go to any position that’s been strong to get that liquidity, and that’s what’s happened with gold.”

The S&P/TSX sank 5.3 percent in the previous two sessions as the U.S. Federal Reserve said the economic recovery is at risk and economic data from Europe, North America and China were more indicative of a slowdown than most economists had forecast in Bloomberg surveys. The Canadian stock measure is set to drop for a seventh straight month, the longest streak since 1984.                       

Gold futures dropped 5.9 percent in New York today. Silver sank 18 percent after tumbling 9.6 percent yesterday. The S&P/TSX Gold Index, which according to Bloomberg data includes 48 percent of the world’s publicly traded gold companies by market value, completed its biggest two-day decline since April 2009.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, decreased 4.5 percent to C$47.90. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-biggest company in the industry by market value, slipped 4.24 percent to C$46.95. Centerra Gold Inc., which mines in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia, tumbled 9.8 percent to C$20.64. Silver Wheaton lost 8.9 percent to C$33.24 for its biggest two-day plunge since October 2008.

The S&P/TSX Energy Index fell to a two-year low as crude futures completed a weekly drop.                         

Canadian Oil Sands lost 2.9 percent to C$19.95, the lowest close since March 2009. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-biggest energy company by market value, slipped 2.2 percent to C$30.23 for a sixth-straight drop.

Petrominerales Ltd., which produces oil and gas in Colombia, declined 8.9 percent to an 11-month low of C$23.66 after Jamie Somerville, an analyst at Toronto-Dominion Bank, cut his rating on the shares to “buy” from “action list buy.” The company said yesterday it had failed to find oil in three exploration wells. Base-metal and coal producers in the S&P/TSX retreated for a sixth day as copper completed its biggest two-day plunge since October 2008. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest company in the industry, decreased 3.2 percent to C$30.73.                      

Copper producer First Quantum Minerals Ltd. fell 7.3 percent to C$13.71 after Michael Sata, who has called for higher mining taxes, won Zambia’s presidential election. Shares of the Vancouver-based company plunged 35 this week, the most since October 2008.

SouthGobi Resources Ltd., which mines coal in Mongolia, dropped 11 percent to C$6.65, the lowest since January 2009. Shares of companies with operations in Mongolia have plunged this week on concern the Asian country will seek to revise ownership accords.

Financial and industrial companies rose after an internal working paper showed European governments are exploring speeding up the setup of a permanent rescue fund.

Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, gained 1.6 percent to C$46.09 after closing at the lowest since July 2009 yesterday. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s No. 3 lender, increased 1.5 percent to C$50.73. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., the country’s second-biggest railroad, advanced 5.1 percent from a 22-month low to C$48.59.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Canada’s largest drugmaker, climbed 5.2 percent to C$39.36 after Annabel Samimy, an analyst at Stifel Financial Corp., said in a note to clients that the shares “have been unduly punished.” Valeant had declined 9.1 percent in the previous four days.

Westport Innovations Inc., which develops natural-gas engine technology, rallied 6.4 percent to C$31.15 after saying it replaced C$36 million ($35 million) in matured debt with lower-cost debt.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, trimming the biggest weekly decline since October 2008 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, amid speculation that policy makers will act to prevent a global financial crisis from getting worse.

Home Depot Inc. and Intel Corp. added at least 2 percent, pacing gains in companies most-tied to economic growth. Bank of America Corp. rallied 4.1 percent, the most in the Dow, as the lender prepared more asset sales to bolster capital. Nike Inc., the world’s largest sporting-goods maker, jumped 5.3 percent after profit topped analysts’ estimates and it raised a sales forecast. Newmont Mining Corp. and Halliburton Co. retreated more than 3.2 percent as gold and oil prices slumped.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.6 percent to 1,136.43 at 4 p.m. New York time, trimming its weekly drop to 6.5 percent. The Dow added 37.65 points, or 0.4 percent, to 10,771.48. The gauge lost 6.4 percent since Sept. 16.

“Policy is viewed as inept, inert and basically out of bullets,” Paul Zemsky, the New York-based head of asset allocation for ING Investment Management, wrote in an e-mail. His firm oversees $550 billion. “If there was a good policy response, we could see the stock market rally 10 percent very quickly.”

A four-day rout this week erased $1.1 trillion in U.S. market value on speculation that central bankers would fail to prevent a financial crisis. The S&P 500 has slumped 17 percent since April 29 on concern that Europe’s debt crisis could derail the global economic recovery.                       

The European Central Bank may step up efforts to boost growth and ease financial-market tensions as early as next month, Governing Council members said. European governments are exploring speeding the setup of a permanent rescue fund, an internal working paper shows.

“There was a mention that if things continue to deteriorate in Europe that there would be a policy announcement, a pro-active response,” said Peter Kenny, a managing director in institutional sales at Knight Capital Group Inc. in Jersey City, New Jersey. “That could give the market some lift, but that doesn’t resolve the underlying problem.”

The S&P 500 started the session trading for 12.4 times earnings in the last 12 months, within 2 percent of a low of 12.2 reached Aug. 8, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The ratio would have to narrow another 18 percent to match its level on March 9, 2009, the start of the bull market in which the gauge rose as much as 102 percent, the data show.

The price-earnings ratio as of yesterday was 5.1 percent below the S&P 500’s average valuation of 13 at its lowest point in the last nine bear markets, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

To reach the lowest of those, 7 on June 21, 1982, the index would have to fall 43 percent to about 640, based on profit in the last 12 months of $91.41 a share.

“Stocks are starting to get pretty cheap,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer for Chicago-based Harris Private Bank, which oversees $55 billion, said in a telephone interview.

“It’s reality versus expectations. I don’t know where reality is going to be, but if their expectations are pretty low, that’s a good sign for me.”

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy rallied 1.1 percent. Home Depot, the largest U.S. home improvement retailer, gained 2 percent to $33.72. Intel rose 2.5 percent to $22.16.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average advanced for the first time in a week, stopping the worst five-day decline since Aug. 8, as airline shares rallied and traders were lured by the lowest valuations in about two years.

Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc. surged at least 6.3 percent to lead gains as the average rallied 1.7 percent. Con-way Inc., a freight hauler, advanced 3.5 percent while railroad operator CSX Corp. climbed 3.4 percent.

The benchmark gauge for transportation companies had slipped 11 percent in five days through yesterday, driving its price-earnings ratio down to a 26-month low of 18.7. The period marked the worst slump since early August when S&P stripped the U.S. of its AAA rating and policy makers struggled to reach a compromise on raising the nation’s debt ceiling, sending the S&P 500 to its 2011 low.

Bank of America rose 4.1 percent to $6.31. The lender is in exclusive talks to sell its stake in NPC International Inc., the biggest U.S. Pizza Hut franchisee, for more than $800 million, said two people with knowledge of discussions. The lender also agreed to sell about $880 million in commercial mortgages at a discount of as much as 25 percent, said another person.                        

Nike rallied 5.3 percent to $88.64. Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker has been trying to overcome rising costs for raw materials and transporting goods by cutting operating expenses.

Nike’s gross margin, the percentage of sales left after the cost of goods sold, narrowed by 2.7 percentage points, less than the company’s projection for a 3 percentage point decline.

Gauges of energy and raw material producers had the two biggest declines in the S&P 500 within 10 industries, falling at least 0.3 percent. Newmont Mining, the largest U.S. gold producer, slumped 3.7 percent to $62.86. Halliburton decreased 3.2 percent to $31.67.

Stocks are having the worst quarter on record relative to U.S. Treasuries and gold, which may force investors to buy equities to rebalance their allocations, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Marko Kolanovic said.

U.S. and emerging-market equities have returned 43 percentage points less, the most during a quarter since at least 2002, according to data compiled by Kolanovic, whose analysis is based on a model portfolio composed of stocks, bonds and gold.

“This underperformance may trigger significant quarterly rebalance flows into equities and out of Treasuries at the end of next week,” Kolanovic, the New York-based global head of equity derivatives strategy at JPMorgan, wrote in a note to clients yesterday.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Variety is the mother of enjoyment.

       –Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881