Author: Carolann

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

 

Just back from a two day wealth management conference in Calgary; excellent presentations on investing in the current challenging times.   Very reassuring.  More later….it was a busy catch-up day….not to mention emotional markets – crazy.  I never thought I’d live to see a 30-year-bond yield at 2.68%. 

Photos of the day 

September 22, 2011

A dew-laden spider web adorns a fence as a horse grazes in a pasture near Glencoe, Ky. Ed Reinke/AP

Fischer’s Lovebirds stand in a bird cage at Pairi Daiza, a zoo and botanical garden, in Brugelette Belgium.Yves Herman/Reuters

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff and Whitney Kisling

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to the lowest level in a year after economic data from Europe, North America and China indicated the global recovery may be slowing and fuel and metal prices dropped on a stronger U.S. dollar.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, declined 6.1 percent, sinking with precious metals as the U.S.

Dollar Index surged the most intraday since August 2010. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest lender by assets, lost 3.4 percent as financial shares slumped to a 12-month intraday low. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, dropped 6.8 percent as crude retreated as much as 7.1 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 483.10 points, or 4 percent, to 11,471.91 at 2:06 p.m. Toronto time, after sinking to 11,467.87, the lowest intraday level since July 2010. The index declined as much as 4.1 percent, the most in six weeks.

“Nothing has changed with respect to Europe and there’s still a response in the marketplace to the Federal Reserve,” which cited significant risks to growth yesterday, said Gareth Watson, at Richardson GMP Ltd. in Toronto. Watson is vice president of investment management at Richardson GMP, which oversees about C$16 billion ($15.5 billion). “In terms of the Canadian market, the Chinese PMI number this morning isn’t helping sentiment amongst resource names, so we’re being hit from all sides.”

Canada’s stock benchmark slumped 10 percent this quarter through yesterday as energy and financial stocks dropped on concern the world’s economy will grow at a slower pace than previously forecast.

The International Monetary Fund estimated on Sept. 20 that world gross domestic product will increase 4 percent this year and next, compared with June forecasts of 4.3 percent for 2011 and 4.5 percent for 2012. The S&P/TSX is set to decline for a seventh straight month, the longest streak since 1984.

Canadian retail sales fell twice as fast as economists forecast in July as demand for new automobiles and furniture dropped, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The U.S. Labor Department said 423,000 Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, more than the 420,000 median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey.

A report in Brussels showed that European services and manufacturing growth contracted for the first time in more than two years this month. China’s manufacturing may shrink for a third month in September, the longest contraction since 2009.

The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities fell as much as 4.5 percent, its biggest intraday slide since May 5. Gains in the dollar cut demand for gold as an alternative asset, sending the metal to a four-week low. Silver was set to retreat the most in a day since October 2008.

Barrick dropped 6.1 percent to C$50.34. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest gold producer by market value, declined 4.5 percent to C$49.20. Silver Wheaton Corp., Canada’s fourth- biggest precious-metals company by market value, lost 9 percent to C$37.19.

Keegan Resources Inc., which is developing a gold mine in Africa, plunged 27 percent to C$6.30 after issuing a resource estimate. The stock tumbled as much as 29 percent, the most intraday since 2004,

Forty of 43 S&P/TSX financial companies retreated. Royal Bank decreased 3.4 percent to C$44.97 after earlier touching C$44.38, the lowest intraday since June 2009. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the country’s fifth-largest lender by assets, slumped 4.9 percent to C$70.18 and earlier sank as much as 5.1 percent, the most intraday since May 2010. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth-biggest insurer, plunged 5.6 percent to C$11.24, the lowest since March 2009.                       

Insurance holding company Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. rallied 5.6 percent to C$402.01 after saying it may buy back shares.

The S&P/TSX Energy Index fell for a fifth day, touching the lowest intraday level since September 2009. Suncor dropped 6.8 percent to C$26.22, the lowest since March 2009. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-largest energy company by market value, declined 3.8 percent to C$30.76. Trican Well Service Ltd., Canada’s biggest oilfield-services company, slid 9.4 percent to C$16.67 after plunging as much as 18 percent, the most intraday since December 2008.

Petrominerales Ltd., which produces oil in Colombia, tumbled 10 percent to C$26.10 after saying it failed to find oil in at least three exploration wells. The shares sank as much as 14 percent, the most intraday since December 2008. Base-metals and coal producers in the S&P/TSX retreated to the lowest since August 2010 as copper decreased the most since October 2008.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest company in the industry, fell 6.3 percent to C$31.90, the lowest since July 2010. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., the country’s second-biggest publicly traded copper producer, slumped 8.7 percent to C$15.33 to extend its four-day plunge to 28 percent, the most since November 2008. Grande Cache Coal Corp., which mines in Alberta, tumbled 14 percent to C$5.27.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, dropped for a sixth day, declining 3.5 percent to C$48.63. The shares touched a 2011 intraday low of C$47.98. Corn futures decreased as much as 5.1 percent.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks slumped, giving the Dow Jones Industrial Average its biggest two-day decline since December 2008, amid investors’ concern that policy makers are running out of tools to avoid another global economic recession.

All 10 industries in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated at least 1.8 percent as losses were led by commodity and industrial shares. Alcoa Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Bank of America Corp. dropped more than 5 percent, pacing declines in companies most-tied to economic growth. FedEx Corp., operator of the biggest cargo airline and a proxy for the economy, tumbled 8.2 percent after cutting its profit forecast.

The S&P 500 fell 3.2 percent to 1,129.56 at 4 p.m. New York time, dropping 7.1 percent in four days. The Dow lost 391.01 points, or 3.5 percent, to 10,733.83, bringing its two-day retreat to 5.9 percent. About 13.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges at 4:47 p.m., 54 percent more than the three-month average, according to Bloomberg data.

“People are selling first and asking questions later,”

David Kelly, chief market strategist for JPMorgan Funds in New York, said in a telephone interview. “The problem is that policy makers seem to have no clue what the solutions are. The Fed needs to express confidence on the economy itself. I don’t know how much further the market can go down.”

The MSCI All-Country World Index slid 4.5 percent, extending a drop from its May 2 high to more than 20 percent, entering a bear market. The S&P 500 has fallen 17 percent since April 29 amid concern about a global economic slowdown.

Benchmark indexes for the U.S., U.K., Canada, Singapore and New Zealand are the only ones among 24 developed countries that haven’t fallen at least 20 percent from their highs.                         

Stocks fell yesterday on the Federal Reserve’s assessment that the turmoil caused by Europe’s crisis is taking a toll on the economy. The Fed said it will replace $400 billion of short- term debt with longer-term Treasuries to spur growth. Stocks also fell as Moody’s Investors Service cut three U.S. banks.

The world is on the eve of the next financial crisis, with sovereign debt its epicenter, said Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., which runs the biggest bond fund. The European Central Bank hasn’t put in place a “circuit breaker” to contain the region’s debt crisis, El-Erian, who is also Pimco’s co-chief investment officer, said at an event in Washington today. “There has been a significant increase in the financial requirements of international intervention,” El-Erian said.

“You need a lot more firepower in order to be a circuit breaker. Look at how much the ECB has put in and ask yourself the question: has it created a circuit breaker? The answer is no, even though the amounts involved have been massive.”

Bets that stocks will gain make up 20 percent of Traxis Partners LLC’s holdings, down from as much as 85 percent six months ago, as the threat of a recession makes equities too risky, according to co-founder Barton Biggs.

 “I wish I was minus 20,” Biggs said during an interview today on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart” with Matt Miller and Carol Massar. “I wish I was zero. I don’t think any place is a place to invest.”

Global stocks fell amid the Fed’s economic outlook and data indicating China’s manufacturing may shrink for a third month in September, the longest contraction since 2009, after a preliminary index of purchasing managers showed measures of export orders and output declined.

Stock futures extended losses after a Labor Department report showed that more Americans than forecast filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments last week.

Separately, U.S. consumer confidence dropped last week to the weakest point since the recession ended in June 2009, according to the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index.                      

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index lost 5.2 percent. The Dow Jones Transportation Average decreased 3.1 percent. The KBW Bank Index slumped 2.7 percent. Gauges of raw material and energy producers had the biggest declines in the S&P 500, slumping at least 5.3 percent, as commodities erased this year’s gain.

Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, dropped 6.7 percent to $10.11. Caterpillar fell 6.9 percent to $73.90. Bank of America slid 5 percent to $6.06.

FedEx tumbled 8.2 percent to $66.58. The company, which ships more packages by air than rival United Parcel Service Inc., has seen volume growth slow as demand for express shipments stagnates amid a weakening economic recovery. FedEx also has been spending more on jet fuel, whose average cost jumped about 48 percent in the period.

 The S&P 500 may drop as low as 1,076 before investor panic abates and stocks rally, according to Tom DeMark, the creator of indicators for identifying turning points in securities.

The benchmark index for U.S. equities may fall that far intraday as early as next week and then gain as much as 20 percent, DeMark said in a telephone interview from Phoenix today. The swings will push the VIX, as the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index is known, above the high of 48 it reached on Aug. 8, he said.

“We’re trying to identify when selling capitulation is about to be completed,” said DeMark, the founder of Market Studies LLC. “We’re trying to identify the inflection point on the downside when the last seller sold. It could come as early as next Thursday.”

U.S. equities briefly trimmed losses as the Financial Times reported that the European Union is looking to speed up a recapitalization of 16 banks. The move would affect mostly “mid-tier” banks, the FT reported, citing a senior French official.

Companies that are least-tied to economic growth, known as “defensive,” outperformed the S&P 500. Gauges of utility and telephone companies fell less than the benchmark index. Only 27 stocks in the S&P 500 rose.

“The market is pricing in a recession,” Peter Sorrentino, a senior money manager at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees $14.8 billion. “We don’t see a repeat of 2009. “We’re into a crisis of confidence.”

Goodrich Corp. surged 10 percent to $120.60 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. United Technologies Corp. agreed to buy Goodrich for $16.5 billion, adding the maker of aircraft landing gear and jet-turbine casings to take advantage of a record surge in commercial plane orders. Goodrich stockholders will get $127.50 a share. United Technologies dropped the most in the Dow, erasing 8.8 percent to $68.31.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Every day we see or read of appalling things happening in the world as the result of violence in man.

You may say, “I can’t do anything about it,” or “How can I influence the world?”

I think you can tremendously influence the world if you yourself are not violent,

if you lead actually every day a peaceful life – a life which is not competitive, ambitious, envious –

a life which does not create enmity.

Small fires can become ablaze.

 

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

Diligence is the mother

of good fortune.

          -Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

September 16^th, 1620, Mayflower Day: Pilgrims deported from England.

September 18, 1851, New York Times first published.

I attended the Sauder School of Business Family Legacy Series dinner last night where the McLean family was celebrated.   A very entrepreneurial family, their family business, The McLean Group, established in 1972, has grown from a successful real estate investment and development firm into a second-generation family business active in film and television production (Vancouver Film studios), communications (Signal Systems), construction (Harbour Landing Construction), real estate (Blanca Realty), aviation (Blackcomb Aviation), and philanthropy (the McLean McCuaig Foundation).  The patriarch, David, was entertaining with some of his one liners (which he admitted he was famous for).  In the 1980s when interest rates soared to 20%,  almost devastating their business but they persevered.  Dealing with banks, David’s advice was to never go to the bank with a problem (you’ll get nowhere), always go with a solution.  With respect to building a business, entrepreneurship, he said,  “Show me a man who has never lost money, and I’ll show you one who is about to.”

One of the characteristics of successful people, is determination.  When you are tested, struck down, under attack, you find out what you are made of, and to be successful, you must have the resolve to soldier on…

Photos of the day 

September 16, 2011

A rainbow appears over Citizens Bank Park between baseball games in a doubleheader between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Florida Marlins in Philadelphia. Matt Slocum/AP

A visitor touches a 220 kg (485 lbs.) gold bar, worth around $12.8 million at today’s price, on display at the Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park in Xinbei City, Taiwan. The Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park said the gold bar is Taiwan’s largest. Pichi Chuang/Reuters

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, erasing a weekly gain, as Research In Motion Ltd. plunged after reporting earnings that missed the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

RIM, the BlackBerry maker, tumbled 20 percent in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. Cenovus Energy Inc., Canada’s fifth- largest energy company, fell 4.4 percent as crude oil declined. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest gold producer by market value, climbed 0.9 percent as the metal rebounded from a September low.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slipped 161.13 points, or 1.3 percent, to 12,263.71, ending the week down 1 percent.

RIM’s “net income was down over 50 percent from last year,” Jennifer Radman, a money manager at Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$1 billion ($1 billion). “That’s pretty scary to people.”

The S&P/TSX gained earlier this week as France and Germany expressed support for Greece’s place in the euro region and the European Central Bank coordinated with international policy makers to lend dollars to banks. Canada’s stock benchmark is set to decline for a seventh straight month, the longest streak since 1984, as energy and financial stocks have retreated on concern the global economic recovery is in jeopardy.

RIM reported second-quarter earnings of 80 cents a share, trailing the average analyst estimate by 9.4 percent, excluding certain items. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company sold fewer than half as many PlayBook tablets as analysts had forecast on average.

The company’s shares tumbled 20 percent to C$23.50 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In composite trading, RIM fell 2.1 percent to C$23.50 after sinking 19 percent when the company disclosed its results yesterday. The shares have plunged 60 percent this year.

Crude futures dropped 1.6 percent in New York while European finance ministers met in Wroclaw, Poland, to address the continent’s debt crisis.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second- largest energy company by market value, declined 2.9 percent to C$34.20. Cenovus lost 4.4 percent to C$32.61. Talisman Energy Inc., an oil and gas producer with operations in North America, the North Sea and Indonesia, decreased 5 percent to C$14.30.                        

Canada’s six largest banks and all eight S&P/TSX insurance stocks fell. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-largest lender by assets, dropped 2.1 percent to C$73.60. Royal Bank of Canada, its bigger domestic rival, declined 2.5 percent to C$46.30. Manulife Financial Corp., Canada’s largest insurer, lost 3.6 percent to C$12.45 after surging 6.3 percent yesterday.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index climbed for the first time in six days as the metal rose 1.9 percent. Goldcorp increased 0.9 percent to C$50.29. Barrick Gold Corp., its larger peer, gained 0.9 percent to C$52.52. OceanaGold Corp, which mines in New Zealand, soared 11 percent, the most since May 2010, to C$2.88.

Iamgold Corp. advanced 2.8 percent to C$21.59 after Sabrina Grandchamps, an analyst at HSBC Holdings Plc, raised her ratings on the shares to “overweight” from “neutral.” Higher gold prices will boost mining companies’ cash flow, HSBC said in a note to clients.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, slipped 3.2 percent to C$54.50. Investors should sell some of their shares of fertilizer producers now that farmers have bought most of what they need for the Northern Hemisphere autumn, Charles Neivert, an analyst at Dahlman Rose & Co., said in a note to clients.

Propane distributor Superior Plus Corp. climbed 5.9 percent from a record-low close to C$8.79. The shares had tumbled 12 percent since DBRS Ltd. cut its credit ratings on the company Sept. 12.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced for a fifth straight day, the longest rally since July for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, amid optimism that European leaders will make further progress on controlling the region’s debt crisis.

Amazon.com Inc. jumped 5.5 percent to a record, while Procter & Gamble Co. gained 2.5 percent as a report showed that confidence among U.S. consumers rose. Textron Inc., Tyco International Ltd. and Rockwell Collins Inc. added more than 3.1 percent after a report that United Technologies Corp. is lining up financing for an acquisition. Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. slumped at least 1.1 percent.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent to 1,216.01 at 4 p.m. New York time. The index gained 5.4 percent since Sept. 9, its third- biggest weekly rally since 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 75.91 points, or 0.7 percent, to 11,509.09. The rally trimmed the gauge’s drop this year to 0.6 percent.

“The stock market is extremely undervalued,” David Goerz, the San Francisco-based chief investment officer at Highmark Capital Management Inc., which oversees $17.2 billion, said in a telephone interview. “As things begin to improve, the market can rise back to a more normal valuation. The fact that we got some moderation in terms of thinking about the ECB and how it’s going to address the crisis helped reduce some of the risk. In addition, the most recent data points suggest that this pause in economic activity is in fact transitory.”

The S&P 500 lost 18 percent between April 29 and Aug. 8 amid concern that Europe’s crisis threatened the global economy. The decline left the index trading at 12.2 times earnings last month, the cheapest since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Since then, the index rose 8.6 percent.

Equities rose yesterday as the European Central Bank and international policy makers coordinated to lend dollars to banks to tame the credit crisis. Earlier this week, French and German leaders confirmed they will support Greece’s continued participation in the shared euro currency. Ministers began meeting today in Wroclaw, Poland, to discuss ways of shoring up Europe’s most-indebted nations, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also in attendance.

European finance ministers ruled out efforts to prop up the faltering economy and gave no indication of providing aid for lenders to go along with yesterday’s liquidity lifeline from the ECB. Clashing with Geithner, finance chiefs from the euro region said the 18-month debt crisis leaves no room for tax cuts or extra spending to spur an economy on the brink of stagnation.                         

“We’re hostage to the European crisis,” Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Fort Lee, New Jersey-based Palisade Capital Management LLC, said in a telephone interview. The firm manages $3.4 billion. “The fear is that there will be another systemic move that will put us into a recession. Sentiment has gotten too negative. There’s a case to be made that any pullback is going to be a buying opportunity.”

Household product and retail companies had the two biggest gains in the S&P 500 within 24 industries, rallying at least 1.7 percent. Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, jumped 5.5 percent to $239.30, the highest level since it went public in 1997. Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest consumer-products company, climbed 2.5 percent, the most in the Dow, to $64.33.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment climbed to 57.8 this month from 55.7 in August. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a reading of 57. The group’s measure of consumer expectations six months from now dropped to the lowest level since May 1980.                      

 United Technologies, the maker of Sikorsky helicopters and Carrier air conditioners, is seeking financing that may exceed $20 billion for a major U.S. acquisition, a person familiar with the matter said. The person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly because the details are confidential. John Moran, a spokesman for United Technologies, declined to comment.

Reuters reported the financing search earlier today, citing people it didn’t identify. The story said Goodrich Corp. and Rockwell Collins were attractive targets, according to people not directly involved in the matter, and said Textron and Tyco International were among companies mentioned in the past. Rockwell climbed 7.8 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $56.21. Textron increased 6.8 percent to $18.63, while Tyco rose 3.1 percent to $43.70.

Banks had the biggest decline in the S&P 500 within 24 industries, falling 0.4 percent as a group. Bank of America, the biggest U.S. lender by assets, retreated 1.4 percent to $7.23. JPMorgan retreated 1.1 percent to $33.43.

 Research In Motion Ltd. tumbled 19 percent to $23.93 after missing analyst estimates as sales of BlackBerry smartphone models slowed and the company shipped fewer PlayBook tablet computers than projected. The company is losing ground in that market to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices that use Google Inc.’s Android software. It has made little progress with its PlayBook in the tablet computer market, shipping just one device for every 46 iPads that Apple sold in the latest quarter.

 “RIM is on a path to becoming a niche player,” said Ted Schadler, an analyst for Forrester Research Inc. “RIM has to essentially retrench its strategy. It has to focus on what about its products make them different or better than Apple or Google products.”

A gauge of energy shares in the S&P 500 dropped 0.1 percent, the only decline among 10 industries, as crude oil slumped the most in a week. Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oilfield-services provider, fell 1.9 percent to $72.84.

Today was the expiration for U.S. futures and options contracts on indexes and individual stocks. So-called quadruple witching occurs once every three months.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

It is not others who must change, but you.

 

-Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

Carolann

Friendships, like marriage, depend on

avoiding the unforgiveable.

     -John D. MacDonald, 1916-1986 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

HELLO

A word used in greeting, especially over the telephone

 

In one guise or another, “hallo,” “halloo,” and “hullo” have been used to solicit attention and signal surprise since the Middle Ages.  Hunters urged on their dogs with “halloo,” and the word was also used to signal a ferryboat captain from across the water.  (Some etymologists say it originated with the Old French Ho lá!, meaning “stop” or “pay attention.”)  As a greeting, “hello” had a gutsy, modern air in the late nineteenth century.  It was sleeker than “Do I get you?,” another early option for those greeting each other over the telephone, and it was more suave than England’s awkward choice, “Are you there?”  “Hello” was “a thorough-bred bulldog, ugly enough to be attractive,” one journalist wrote in 1899.  “It makes courtesy wait upon dispatch, and reminds us that we live in an age when it is necessary to be wide awake.”

  For those who normally spoke only with people to whom they’d been introduced, striking a balance between politesse and wasting time was tricky when greeting faceless strangers over the primitive, buzzing phone lines.  Delays and disconnections exasperated early subscribers.  In the beginning, tough young men working the switchboards in the din and clamor of the lawless central offices, like the Chicago exchange, known as “a howling madhouse,” happily battled complainers.  They were soon replaced by the less abrasive “Hello Girl,” whom we now know as the operator.  She flirted instead of fighting and quickly became a national archetype, known for her honeyed voice and her love of gossip.  In a small town, she’d even tell you the train schedule.

  In the name of efficiency, Hello Girls received elocution lessons after the turn of the century.  Then, in a further attempt to improve service, they were instructed to answer all calls with a curt “Number?”  Callers bristled and the Girls went back to “Hello.”  By the late 1920s, however, some company executives across the country banned the word again, with operators restricted to phrases “Number, please?” and “Thank you.”  “Synthetic courtesy is not soft and sentimental,” opined the New York Times.  “It is hard and virile.”

 Something about “hello” just felt right.  Nevertheless, as late as 1937 the New York telephone company tried to kill it once more, advising subscribers to answer their own phones with only their name, or company name, and recommending above all that callers “avoid such old-fashioned, indefinite and time-wasting words as ‘hello’.”  –from encyclopedia of the Exquisite, Jessica K. Jenkins.

 

…and I suppose someday, someone will be describing how “Hey” replaced “Hello” sometime around 2010…

 

Photos of the day 

September 13, 2011

Tuvan shamans participate in a ritual called “Kamlanie” outside the Kyzyl town, the administrative centre of Russia’s Tuva region, south of Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Eight shamans, members of “The Spirit of Bear” society took part in the traditional ritual. Ilya Naymushin/Reuters.

A sheep painted with the emblem of England’s rugby team looks on at a farm on the outskirts of Dunedin. England will play against Georgia in their Rugby World Cup Pool B match in Dunedin on Sunday. Marcos Brindicci/Reuters.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, breaking a three-day losing streak for the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index, as oil gained and financial companies rallied amid easing concern about French banks.

Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender by assets, increased 1.7 percent. Bank of Nova Scotia, the third- largest lender, added 1.3 percent. Cenovus Energy Inc. rose 1.9 percent as crude climbed for a second day. Silvercorp Metals Inc., the Chinese silver miner accused of accounting fraud in an anonymous letter last month, fell 20 percent after Carson Block’s Muddy Waters LLC said it was shorting the stock.

The S&P/TSX rose 56.65 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,205.48 at 4 p.m. Toronto time. The gauge lost 4.5 percent during the previous three days.

“We have a daily risk-on, risk-off trade as the market responds to global news,” Mathieu Roy, a money manager at Louisbourg Investments Inc. in Moncton, New Brunswick, said in a telephone interview. Louisbourg manages about C$1.5 billion ($1.5 billion). “We’re in a nervous trading range driven by macro events happening mostly in Europe.”

The index has slumped 14 percent since April 5 as the European debt crisis worsened. On Sept. 9, three officials with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition said the government is preparing plans to shore up banks in the event that Greece defaults. The officials declined to be named because the deliberations are private.                          

Toronto-Dominion Bank jumped 1.7 percent to C$73.85, while Bank of Nova Scotia surged 1.3 percent to C$51.45. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, rose 0.1 percent to C$46.25. The S&P/TSX Financials Index advanced 0.8 percent while industrial stocks added the most among 10 industries, gaining 1.6 percent.

BNP Paribas SA, France’s biggest bank, and Societe Generale SA rebounded in Paris trading after easing concerns over their access to funding. Societe Generale jumped after Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York that the bank’s exposure to European sovereign debt was “manageable” and that it could do without access to U.S. money-market funds.

Cenovus, the country’s fifth-biggest energy company, rallied 1.9 percent to C$31.90. Encana Corp., Canada’s biggest natural gas producer, advanced 1.5 percent to C$22.68.

Crude climbed for a second day in New York on speculation a report tomorrow will show stockpiles dropped in the U.S., the biggest oil consuming country. Natural gas futures gained for the first time in three days as forecasts showed hotter-than- normal weather in the U.S. Midwest and West, boosting demand for the power-plant fuel.                     

Guyana Goldfields Inc. rallied 1.3 percent to C$9.30. The gold explorer with operations in South America was rated “outperform” in new coverage at Credit Suisse Group AG with a price estimate of C$13 a share.

Silvercorp fell 20 percent, the most in seven years, to C$6.20. Lorne Waldman, a spokesman for Vancouver-based Silvercorp, didn’t respond to e-mail and telephone requests for comment. Block of Muddy Waters announced his bearish Silvercorp bet on Twitter today.

Toronto-Dominion Bank reduced its forecast for the Canada’s economic growth this year and next to reflect a U.S. economy that had a deeper recession than previously reported, according to Craig Alexander, the bank’s chief economist.

TD cut its growth forecast for Canada to 2.2 percent this year, from 2.8 percent. It reduced the forecast for next year to 1.9 percent, from 2.5 percent, and raised the 2013 outlook to 2.6 percent, from 2.1 percent.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for a second day, as French banks eased concerns over their access to funding and investors watched for signs of progress in taming Europe’s debt crisis.

All 10 main industries in the S&P 500 advanced as gains were led by industrial, raw material and technology companies.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average, a proxy for the U.S. economy, jumped 3.4 percent as airlines rose. Wells Fargo & Co. and Fifth Third Bancorp added more than 1 percent, following a rally in European lenders. Aetna Inc. jumped 5.4 percent as the health insurer said profit will probably beat its forecast.

The S&P 500 increased 0.9 percent to 1,172.87 at 4 p.m. in New York, after falling as much as 0.4 percent. The gauge has risen 1.6 percent in two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 44.73 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,105.85 today.

“Stocks are trading on the news of the day and the news was moderately favorable,” Michael Cuggino, who oversees $15 billion at Permanent Portfolio Funds in San Francisco, said in a telephone interview. “While the issues of liquidity and health of the European banking system and the long-term viability of the euro are still out there, today is a day where people are looking beyond that. We’ve had a big correction. Levels really haven’t gotten back to where they were.”

The S&P 500 fell as much as 18 percent from a three-year high on April 29 through Aug. 8 on growing concern over Europe’s debt crisis and an economic slowdown. Since then, the index has risen 4.8 percent.

Global stocks rose as BNP Paribas SA, France’s biggest bank, and Societe Generale SA surged after easing concerns over their access to funding. Societe Generale jumped after Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York that the bank’s potential losses from European sovereign debt were “manageable” and that it could do without access to U.S. money-market funds.

“For our bank, the exposure to sovereign debt is low, absolutely manageable,” Oudea said. “We have plenty of buffers of liquidity and we are adjusting to the reduction in the money- market fund exposure.”

Stocks briefly trimmed gains after a report that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Greece should not get any additional aid beyond what has already been agreed upon.

Greece should default on its bonds to stop a deterioration of the economy, said Mario Blejer, a former Bank of England adviser who took the reins of Argentina’s central bank after its 2001 default on $95 billion.                         

“Greece should default, and default big,” Blejer, who was an adviser to Bank of England Governor Mervyn King from 2003 to 2008, said in an interview in Buenos Aires. “You can’t jump over a chasm in two steps.”

The KBW Bank Index added 1.2 percent. Wells Fargo gained 1.1 percent to $24.36. Fifth Third Bancorp rallied 4.2 percent to $10.35.

All 20 stocks in the Dow Jones Transportation Average rose. Delta Air Lines Inc. climbed 8.3 percent to $7.99. United Continental Holdings Inc. advanced 7.4 percent to $19.28.

Aetna rose 5.4 percent to $40.53. Earnings excluding some items this year are now expected to be more than $4.60 to $4.70 a share, the Hartford, Connecticut-based insurer said in a corporate filing today. Demand for medical care continues to be lower than previous expectations, helping to contain costs, Aetna said.

Best Buy Co. sank 6.5 percent to $23.35. The largest consumer electronics retailer reported second-quarter profit that trailed analysts’ estimates and cut its full-year earnings forecast as sales of televisions and mobile phones declined.                        

The S&P 500 may drop below a one-year low reached last month because too few stocks have declined rapidly enough, according to MF Global Inc.

Using an indicator known as the 10-day stochastic, only 3.2 percent of S&P 500 stocks were “oversold” as of Sept. 9, Craig Peskin and John Kolovos, co-heads of technical analysis research at MF Global, wrote in a note yesterday. While the benchmark gauge for U.S. equities slid 15 percent from a three-year high on April 29 through last week, not enough individual stocks fell quickly and far enough to signal the overall market reached a low point.

“Indicators that measure the degree that equities are oversold are not signaling such a condition has been met,” New York-based Peskin and Kolovos wrote. “One aspect of this market is clear: there is a lot of overhead resistance for equities to get through. However, we do not see evidence that it can be overcome in the near future.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The connection of love is total.

In love, difference disappears

and the human soul accomplishes

its object in perfection,

exceeding its own boundaries

and traversing the threshold of infinity.

 

-Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

Carolann

The mind in itself can make a heaven

of Hell and a hell of Heaven.

             -John Milton, 1608-1674

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

 

Battle of Marathon, September 9, 490 BC

Leo Tolstoy’s Birthday, September 9, 1828

Photos of the day

September 9, 2011

A heavily armed Port Authority police officer stand guard next to the North Pool at the World Trade Center memorial site in New York. Just days before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, US counter-terrorism officials are chasing a credible but unconfirmed al-Qaida threat to use a car bomb on bridges or tunnels in New York City or Washington. Mary Altaffer/AP

 

Bavarian farmers, followed by their cows, walk along a road in Oberstaufen, south of Munich. At the end of the summer season, farmers move their herds down from the Alps to the valley into winter pastures. Michaela Rehle/Reuters

Market Commentary:

 

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, erasing a weekly gain, as mounting concern over the possibility of a Greek default boosted the U.S. dollar and weakened fuels, metals and shares of financial companies.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, dropped 3.2 percent as crude oil declined. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, decreased 3 percent.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. lost 4.7 percent after an analyst at Jefferies Group Inc. cut his rating on the company. The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 296.42 points, or 2.3 percent, to 12,387.54. The index dropped 1.7 percent for the week.

 “The situation in Europe is not getting better,” Stephen Gauthier, a money manager at Fin-XO Securities in Montreal, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$600 million ($602 million). “Oil and gas is quite a big sector, so if you continue to see oil being affected by what’s happening around the world, it’s not great news for the Canadian market.”

The S&P/TSX has retreated 6.9 percent this quarter, second- least among developed countries’ stock benchmarks behind New Zealand’s. Energy stocks in the Canadian index have sunk 13 percent and gold companies have surged 23 percent on concern over sovereign debt in Europe and the U.S. and a slowing global recovery.                      

Canadian employment declined by 5,500 positions in August, Statistics Canada said today. Twenty of 22 economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast a gain in jobs. The unemployment rate climbed to 7.3 percent from 7.2 percent, the first increase since January.

Fuels and metals fell as the U.S. dollar gained against 15 of 16 other major currencies. The euro dropped as much as 1.8 percent, a day after the European Central Bank cut its 2011 and 2012 growth forecasts.

The ECB said today that Juergen Stark resigned from its executive board, suggesting policy makers are divided over how to fight the debt crisis. Stocks extended their declines after three German officials said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is preparing plans to shore up banks in the event that Greece defaults.

The S&P/TSX Energy Index completed its biggest loss in three weeks.

Suncor declined 3.2 percent to C$29.45. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-largest energy company by market value, decreased 4.4 percent to C$34.15. Cenovus Energy Inc., the country’s fifth-biggest company in the industry, slid 6.4 percent to C$31.78, the lowest close since January.Precision Drilling Corp., Canada’s largest drilling company, sank 7.3 percent to C$11.85.                       

Forty-one of 43 S&P/TSX financial companies retreated. Royal Bank of lost 3 percent to C$47.47. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth-largest insurer, lost 4.2 percent to a one-year low of C$12.32. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-biggest lender by assets, fell 2.7 percent to C$74.22.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index dropped for the first time in six days after closing at a record yesterday. Yamana Gold Inc., Canada’s fourth-largest producer of the metal by market value, declined 1.7 percent to C$16.90. Northgate Minerals Corp., the mining company that has agreed to be bought by AuRico Gold Inc., slumped 7.7 percent from a four-year high to C$3.98.

Harry Winston Diamond Corp., the co-owner of the Diavik mine featured on the TV show “Ice Road Truckers,” sank 6 percent to C$13.52 in the second trading day after reporting earnings that trailed the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey, excluding certain items.

Copper futures retreated the most in a month in New York.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest base-metals and coal producer, slipped 4.6 percent to C$40.58. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., the country’s second-biggest publicly traded copper producer, fell 6.4 percent to C$20.81.

RIM lost 4.7 percent to C$29.52 after Peter Misek, a Jefferies analyst, reduced his rating on the shares to “underperform” from “hold.” A Jefferies survey found “lackluster” retail sales of new BlackBerry phones, Misek wrote in a note to clients.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, erasing a weekly gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, on speculation Greece could default on its debt and deepen an economic slowdown.

Financial stocks tumbled as Germany set plans to shore up the nation’s banks in the event Greece defaults, according to three coalition officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. slumped at least 4.2 percent. Chevron Corp. and Alcoa Inc. lost more than 3.2 percent as a rising dollar undermined the appeal of commodities.

McDonald’s Corp. fell 4 percent as sales trailed estimates. The S&P 500 retreated 2.7 percent to 1,154.23 at 4 p.m. in New York, the lowest since Aug. 22. The benchmark measure fell for a second straight week, sinking 1.7 percent since Sept. 2.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 303.68 points, or 2.7 percent, to 10,992.13 today. The 30-stock gauge has posted triple-digit moves in 19 of the past 24 trading days.

“We’re dealing with a confidence crisis,” Matt McCormick, a money manager at Cincinnati-based Bahl & Gaynor Inc., which oversees $4 billion, said in a telephone interview. “You look at the possibility of a Greek default. Investors are making a decision now that they don’t want to be long over the weekend. A lot of people think that Germany will pull out a rabbit from the hat and fix Greece. Germany is fighting its own issues. It cannot be the sugar daddy for all of Europe.”

The S&P 500 has fallen as much as 18 percent from a three- year high on April 29 on concern about Europe’s debt crisis and an economic slowdown. It closed as low as 1,119.46 on Aug. 8, within 29 points of a bear market, or a 20 percent drop.

Questions over Greece’s ability to meet the terms of its rescue package are dogging the nation as bondholders weigh whether to participate in a debt exchange that’s crucial to a second bailout. The nation is seeking preliminary responses from bond investors to the proposed swap. Greece has no plans to publish details of anticipated participation in its debt-swap program this week or next, said Petros Christodoulou, head of the country’s debt management office.

Greece is committed to “full implementation” of its bailout agreement, the country’s finance ministry said in a statement. The country rejected default talk as “organized speculation,” according to the statement.

 In a sign officials are increasingly split over the best way to fight Europe’s debt crisis, Juergen Stark resigned from the European Central Bank’s Executive Board. Stark stepped down after protesting the bank’s bond purchases on a conference call earlier this week, said a euro-area central bank official familiar with the meeting.

Stocks also fell on speculation Congress won’t pass President Barack Obama’s $447 billion plan to boost the economy.

The president, speaking before a joint session of Congress yesterday, demanded six times that lawmakers act “right away” on a plan that would boost spending on infrastructure, stem teacher layoffs and cut in half the payroll taxes paid by workers and small business owners.

“For people hoping for a quick injection of economic activity, that’s not what Obama’s plan portends,” Peter Sorrentino, a senior money manager at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees $14.8 billion. “There’s a perception that it’s going to be difficult to pass it. Some people are concerned that it might not have worked last time. So, why would this be any better?”

 Benchmark gauges fell yesterday as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke disappointed investors by not detailing new plans to boost growth in a speech to economists in Minneapolis. Bernanke repeated points from his speech on Aug. 26 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.                           

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 declined today. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to economic growth dropped 2.9 percent. The KBW Bank Index of 24 stocks slid 3.4 percent.

JPMorgan declined 4.3 percent to $32.08. Citigroup fell 4.4 percent to $26.74. Chevron lost 3.3 percent to $95.19. Alcoa retreated 3.7 percent to $11.58.

McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain, slumped 4 percent to $85.03. Sales at stores open at least 13 months rose 3.5 percent in August, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today in a statement. Analysts projected a gain of 5 percent, the average of seven estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

U.S. sales advanced 3.9 percent, missing analysts’ estimates for a 4.5 percent gain. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, soared 12 percent, the most since Aug. 18, to 38.52.                       

The S&P 500 may sink to as low as 970 because Wall Street analysts’ earnings estimates are too optimistic, according to MKM Partners LLC’s Michael Darda.

The 2012 forecast for S&P 500 company profits of about $108 a share may have to come down by as much as 30 percent, said Darda, chief market strategist at the Stamford, Connecticut- based research and trading firm. He cited the history of U.S. business cycles and the relationship between bond yields and earnings in making the prediction.

“We believe the S&P 500 will fall to 970-1,030 before bottoming,” Darda wrote in today’s report titled “Profit Squeeze Coming.” He added, “If conditions are less favorable than average, the S&P 500 could surely fall more.”

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

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

we speak of democracy and are autocrats in our hearts;

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

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

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

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

 

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

Never look down on anybody unless

you are helping him up.

                    -Jesse Jackson, 1941

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

 

It’s that time of year….this appeared in the Globe & Mail on Monday:

Morals back in class

 

“He who steals an egg, steals an ox – as all French children knew until 1969, when teachers were told to remove lessons on proverbs from the  national curriculum,” says The Times of London.  “Now primary schools are being told to bring them back as part of a drive to teach moral values to a generation often depicted as lost.  When France’s 6.6 million primary-school children return [this] week after the holidays, they will be invited to learn and discuss a proverb or saying written on the whiteboard in the class.  ‘I’m bringing morals back to school,’ said Luc Chatel, the education minister who [on Aug. 31] instructed primary schools to organize lessons on ‘the precepts of the honest man’ as often as possible; preferably every morning.  ‘I want children to learn about good and evil, truth and falsehood, dignity, courage and honesty.’ ’’

Manners maketh man.

     -motto of William of Wykeham (1324-1404), bishop of Winchester and founder of Winchester College; English proverb, mid 14^th century.

Photos of the day 

September 7, 2011

A test of the Tribute in Light rises above lower Manhattan in New York. Four World Trade Center (2nd l.) is under construction. The memorial, sponsored by the Municipal Art Society, will light the sky on the evening of Sept. 11, 2011, in honor of those who died ten years ago in the terror attacks on the United States. Mark Lennihan/AP

Fans of the Lokomotiv ice hockey team lay flowers and light candles at the Lokomotiv Arena to pay tribute to the players killed in a plane crash, in the city of Yaroslavl, on the Volga River northeast of Moscow, Russia. The Yak-42 jet carrying the Lokomotiv ice hockey team crashed while taking off near Yaroslavl. Misha Japaridze/AP

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for the first time in four days, led by energy and financial companies, as a German court rejected challenges to Europe’s debt bailout and investors speculated a new stimulus plan will spur U.S. growth.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, gained 3.7 percent as crude futures advanced the most in four weeks. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-biggest lender by assets, increased 1.4 percent after the Bank of Canada said there is less need to withdraw stimulus. Westport Innovations Inc., which develops natural-gas engine technology, soared 18 percent after reaching a marketing agreement with Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 202.02 points, or 1.6 percent, to 12,720.56.

“When there’s a bit of better-than-expected news, there’s a bit of a knee-jerk reaction,” Ian Nakamoto, director of research at money manager MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Inc. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees $4 billion.

The S&P/TSX dropped 2 percent in the previous three days, including a 0.8 percent drop Sept. 2 after the U.S. said employment didn’t increase in August. Concern over the European debt crisis intensified after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party lost a state election. Canada’s stock benchmark has declined 5.4 percent this year.

Germany’s top court today rejected challenges to the country’s participation in bailouts for indebted euro-region governments. Industrial production in the country increased eight times more last month than the median economist forecast in a Bloomberg survey, the Bundesbank said today.                     

U.S. President Barack Obama is set to lay out plans to Congress tomorrow to inject more than $300 billion into the economy next year, mostly through tax cuts, infrastructure spending and aid to state and local governments.

Oil futures rebounded from a one-week low in New York. Suncor rose 3.7 percent to C$30.36. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-largest energy company by market value, gained 3.2 percent to C$35.66. Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., PetroChina Co.’s partner in Canadian oil-sands development, advanced 5.8 percent to C$13.65. TransGlobe Energy Corp., which operates in Egypt and Yemen, jumped 9.8 percent to C$9.91.

Every S&P/TSX bank and the three biggest insurers in the index climbed after the Bank of Canada kept its benchmark interest rate at 1 percent.

“In light of slowing global economic momentum and heightened financial uncertainty, the need to withdraw monetary policy stimulus has diminished,” the bank said in a statement.                      

 TD increased 1.4 percent to C$77.65. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, rose 1.4 percent to C$48.90. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth- biggest insurer, gained 2.9 percent to C$13.

All 15 companies in an index of S&P/TSX base-metals and coal producer advanced as copper rallied. The metal climbed as Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. faced labor disputes in Peru and Indonesia.

 First Quantum Minerals Ltd., the country’s second-biggest publicly traded copper producer, rose 5.5 percent to C$23.25. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., which is building a copper and gold mine in Mongolia with Rio Tinto Group, gained 8.5 percent to C$21.77.

Major Drilling Group International Inc., a contract driller, surged 9.6 percent to C$12.65 after reporting first- quarter earnings that beat the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey by 12 percent, excluding certain items. The jump was the biggest since October 2009.                       

Westport rose 18 percent to a nine-year high of C$26.85. Shell and Westport will jointly offer fuel supply, customer support and maintenance to owners of North American natural-gas vehicles, Shell said in a statement.

Magna International Inc., Canada’s largest auto-parts maker, rallied 5.2 percent to C$36.98 after Ravi Shanker, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, raised his rating on the shares to “overweight” from “underweight.” Shanker cited share-price declines since Aug. 4 and the company’s “best-in-class” balance sheet. Magna had $1.74 billion of cash and equivalents as of June 30.

Bombardier Inc., the maker of trains and airplanes, rebounded 5.5 percent to C$4.70 after closing at a one-year low yesterday. Boeing Co. raised its 20-year commercial-aircraft- demand forecast for China by 15 percent.

Transcontinental Inc., Canada’s largest printer, plunged 9.4 percent, the most since March 2009, to C$11.86. The company reported third-quarter earnings that trailed the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey by 9.9 percent, excluding certain items.

Evertz Technologies Ltd., which makes electronics for broadcasters, soared 12 percent, the most since February 2009, to C$13 after its first-quarter profit surpassed the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey by 19 percent, excluding certain items.

Imax Corp., the maker of giant-screen movie projection systems, surged 9.5 percent to C$18.07. The shares have rallied 30 percent since closing at the lowest relative to earnings since 2000 on Aug. 22.

US

By Stephen Kirkland and Rita Nazareth

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — Stocks rose, rebounding from a four- day global slump that drove valuations to the lowest level since 2009, amid speculation President Barack Obama’s plan for more than $300 billion in economic stimulus will boost growth.

Treasuries, German bunds and gold fell as the dollar snapped a six-day rally.

The MSCI All-Country World Index surged 2.8 percent and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 2.9 percent at 4 p.m. in New York. The 10-year Treasury yield added six basis points to 2.04 percent after reaching a record low yesterday, and Germany’s yield climbed six basis points to 1.91 percent. The dollar weakened against the euro after legal challenges to Germany’s role in the region’s rescue funds were rejected by the nation’s top court. Gold dropped the most in two weeks and copper advanced above $9,000 a metric ton in London.

Equities rallied after a selloff erased $2.5 trillion from global markets this month and left the MSCI World trading at 12 times reported earnings. Obama plans to propose tax cuts, infrastructure spending and direct aid to state and local governments. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans called for more stimulus to reduce a 9.1 percent jobless rate, including a commitment to keep interest rates low until unemployment falls to around 7.5 percent.

“The stock market likely marked its bottom,” David Sowerby, a Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based portfolio manager at Loomis Sayles & Co., which oversees $150 billion, said in a telephone interview. “To the extent that President Obama’s message is permanent versus temporary, the market and the economy will respond more favorably.”                      

The S&P 500 rallied the most in two weeks, rebounding from a three-day, 4.4 percent slump. Yahoo! Inc. surged 5.4 percent after ousting Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz and announcing a strategic review of its business. Bank of America Corp. climbed 7 percent after naming Tom Montag and David Darnell as co-chief operating officers and ousting wealth-management head Sallie Krawcheck and consumer-banking leader Joseph Price from its management ranks.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., American Express Co. and Alcoa Inc. also rallied at least 4 percent to help lead gains in all 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. All 10 of the main industries in the S&P 500 advanced, led by financial and energy companies.

Obama will address Congress tomorrow amid unemployment that remains at 9.1 percent more than two years after the recession’s official end. Evans’s speech places the Chicago Fed president among the “few” members of the Federal Open Market Committee who, according to minutes of the group’s gathering in August, favor a “more substantial move” beyond the central bank’s pledge to hold rates at record lows for about two years.

 “Given how truly badly we are doing in meeting our employment mandate, I argue that the Fed should seriously consider actions that would add very significant amounts of policy accommodation,” Evans, 53, said in the text of a speech today in London. “Such further policy accommodation does increase the risk that inflation could rise temporarily above our long-term goal of 2 percent.”

The Fed said the economy grew at a slower pace in some regions of the country as shoppers limited their spending and factories curbed production. The economy continued to expand at a “modest pace,” though some districts noted “mixed or weakening activity,” the Fed said in its Beige Book survey released today. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will talk about the U.S. economic outlook tomorrow in Minneapolis.

Treasury 10-year notes fell for the first time in a week. Thirty-year bonds also retreated, sending their yields up nine basis points to 3.36 percent.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 3.1 percent, rebounding from the lowest level in more than two years. The gauge’s valuation had dropped to about 10.4 times reported earnings, near the cheapest level since December 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Cie. Financiere Richemont SA jumped 7.3 percent as the second-biggest luxury-goods company reported sales that beat estimates. Germany’s DAX Index jumped 4.1 percent, the most since May 10.

The Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against those of six trading partners, fell 0.7 percent, dropping for the first time in seven days. The Swedish krona strengthened 0.8 percent against the euro after the central bank signaled it may raise interest rates one more time this year.

The Australian dollar appreciated against 15 of 16 major peers monitored by Bloomberg, climbing 1.6 percent versus the U.S. dollar, after a report showed the economy grew last quarter at the fastest pace in four years. The Swiss franc weakened to 1.21015 per euro, a day after the central bank set a ceiling of 1.20 versus the 17-nation currency and said it was prepared to use “unlimited” quantities of cash to defend it. The franc declined 8.1 percent versus the euro yesterday, the biggest drop since the shared currency’s introduction.

The yield on the 10-year Spanish bond fell 19 basis points to 4.98 percent, declining for the second straight day, with the similar-maturity Italian security’s yield sliding 24 basis points. Greek bonds fell, sending 10-year yields up 27 basis points to 20.08 percent.

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe threw out suits targeting the country’s share of the 110 billion euros ($154 billion) in loans for Greece from euro-region governments and the International Monetary Fund as well as a separate 750 billion-euro rescue fund approved last year to halt the spread of the Greek debt crisis. The ruling clears the way for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition to participate in the European rescue plans.                      

The Italian Senate approved Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s revised austerity plan, setting up a final vote in the Chamber of Deputies as Italy seeks to stem surging bond yields. The austerity package, the second in a month, was announced on Aug. 5 to convince the European Central Bank to buy Italian bonds after the 10-year  yield surged to a euro-era record of 6.4 percent.

The cost of insuring European government bonds fell from records. The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of credit- default swaps linked to 15 nations sank 10 basis points to a mid-price of 317.

The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, fell 5.2 basis points to a mid- price of 121 basis points, according to index administrator Markit Group Ltd.                      

Copper jumped 1.9 percent, the most in a week, to close at $4.132 a pound on the Comex in New York, and climbed to $9,092 a ton on the London Metal Exchange as threats of mine strikes heightened concern that a global shortfall of the metal will worsen. Nickel surged 5.3 percent, the most since May 2010.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.’s Peruvian workers will begin a two-day stoppage today over pay increases, a union official said. Another strike may start at the company’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia next week, unless workers are offered higher wages.

Gold futures dropped for a second day, falling 3 percent to $1,817.60 an ounce. Oil rallied the most in four weeks, surging 3.9 percent to $89.34 a barrel in New York as storms threatened to reduce production from the Gulf of Mexico, where shut-ins from last week’s hurricane probably curbed stockpiles.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 2.3 percent, rebounding from a three-day slide. Benchmark gauges in South Africa, Russia and Poland jumped more than 3 percent as prices for oil and industrial metals increased.

The Shanghai Composite Index added 1.8 percent, the most in two weeks, after the China Securities Journal said the central bank may ease monetary policy. China’s central bank may add cash to the market by buying bills from banks in open market operations or cutting the required reserve ratio for banks, the China Securities Journal, which is operated by the official Xinhua News Agency, said in a commentary. Korea’s Kospi Index rallied 3.8 percent.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

An individual is a separate entity without connection.

A person is an individual connected.

 

-Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

Carolann

Sooner or later, those who win are those

who think they can.

                      -Richard Bach, 1936- 

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

 

VAN GOGH BLOOMS

With the help of 8,000 potted plants, Van Gogh’s A Wheatfield with Cypresses has been re-created on the western side of London’s National Gallery as part of its carbon-reduction plan.  The living painting is part of a General Electric/National Gallery collaboration and will keep growing until October – there’s still time to see it.  for a view of the “living wall” go to www.gereports.com/van-gogh-ecomagination-style/.

The idea of living walls has really been catching on in lots of cities (including Vancouver)– amazing to see, just a spectacular concept I think.

…and as for back to school, the sentiments expressed in this poem stir nostalgia,

ATLANTIC FAREWELL

All summer she saved us

from the heat’s languor

with shuddering cold mirth,

then sent us squealing

with delight to snuggle

warm sand valleys until

we called for mercy again.

We leave reluctantly

as gulls wipe our salty

tears from the rocks.

                          -Elizabeth Mata

Photos of the day 

September 6, 2011

People painted with black grease celebrate during the traditional festivities of the Cascamorras festival, in the streets of Baza, Granada, Spain. According to an ancient tradition, the people from Baza try to stain with grease the Cascamorras, a man coming from the nearby village of Guadix to steal the statue of the Virgin of Mercy. He can only recover the statue if he gets there clean, something that has never happened in the five centuries of the ritual. Daniel Tejedor/AP

Labrador ‘Mara’ is shampooed as she sits in Germany’s first dog wash station in the dog Boutique ‘Dog an der Koe’ in Leipzig, central Germany. Jens Meyer/AP

Market Commentary: 

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for a third day, led by financial and energy companies, after a state election setback for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party fueled concern that the European debt crisis will worsen.

Royal Bank of Canada, Canada’s largest lender by assets, dropped 1.5 percent as Greek bond yields climbed to a euro-era record. Suncor Energy Inc., the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, slid 2.4 percent as crude futures slipped 0.5 percent in New York. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, advanced 2.3 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index decreased 83.87 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,518.54.

“It’s how long do the Germans want to continue bailing out the Greeks or the Portuguese?” Philip Petursson, managing director of the Portfolio Advisory Group at Manulife Financial Corp.’s asset-management unit in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The unit oversees $217 billion. “The markets just want to know someone is in control of the situation, and apparently, now no one is in control, whether it’s the U.S. economic situation, the U.S. debt situation, European debt, the global economy.”

The index slipped 1.3 percent during the previous two days, including a 0.7 percent drop on Sept. 2 after a U.S. government report showed employers added no jobs in August. The Canadian stock benchmark has fallen 6.9 percent this year as energy, base-metals and insurance stocks have dropped on concern over the European debt crisis and signs of a slowing global recovery.                      

Bond yields in the most-heavily indebted European Union countries surged after Merkel’s party suffered its fifth election loss this year on Sept. 4 as she failed to sway voters in her home state with a campaign based on her handling of the euro-area debt crisis. Canadian markets were closed yesterday for the Labor Day holiday.

S&P/TSX financial companies declined after rallying 2.2 percent last week. Royal Bank lost 1.5 percent to C$48.22.

Toronto-Dominion Bank, its biggest domestic rival, slipped 0.8 percent to C$76.56. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest lender by assets, decreased 1.4 percent to C$52.30.

Crude oil retreated after sliding 2.8 percent Sept. 2. Suncor fell 2.4 percent to C$29.28. Bankers Petroleum Ltd., which operates in Albania, slumped 5.5 percent to C$4.64.

Encana Corp., the country’s largest natural gas producer, tumbled 4.7 percent to C$23.37 after Andrew Potter, an analyst at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, cut his price estimate on its U.S.-traded shares to $32 from $38.

Oil and gas explorer Open Range Energy Corp. soared 40 percent to a record C$8.95 after saying it will spin off its services and supply business into a new company.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index closed at a record high as the metal rallied as much as 2.5 percent before erasing its gains.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, gained 2.3 percent to C$53.15 after Peter Ward, an analyst at Jefferies Group Inc., began coverage of the company with a “buy” rating. In a note to clients, Ward cited the company’s July purchase of Equinox Minerals Ltd.

European Goldfields Ltd., which operates in southern Europe, advanced 5.1 percent to C$12.66. Centerra Gold Inc., which mines in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia, jumped 10 percent to a record C$23.12 after being featured in a technical-analysis story in the Globe & Mail.

Harry Winston Diamond Corp., the co-owner of the Diavik mine featured in the TV series “Ice Road Truckers,” increased 6.4 percent to C$15.03. The company is scheduled to report second-quarter financial results tomorrow.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Canada’s second-largest publicly traded copper producer, retreated 3 percent to C$22.03 a day after Anindya Mohinta, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., cut his rating on the company to “hold” from “buy.”

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. slumped 4.5 percent to C$48.57. Police raided one of the construction company’s Canadian offices as part of probe related to Bangladeshi government contracts, according to the Canadian Press.

 BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. climbed 3.5 percent to C$30.63. Gus Papageorgiou, an analyst at Scotiabank, raised his rating on the shares to “sector outperform” from “sector perform” in a note dated yesterday.

Directory publisher Yellow Media Inc. plunged 12 percent to 79 Canadian cents after saying its chief financial officer, Christian M. Paupe, will leave the company. Shares of the Montreal-based company have sunk 87 percent this year.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its longest slump in almost a month, amid concern that Europe’s debt crisis is worsening. Equities pared losses in the final 30 minutes of trading.

The benchmark measure trimmed its drop from 2.9 percent as companies most-tied to economic growth rebounded, propelling the Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index to a 0.2 percent gain for the day.

Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased more than 3.4 percent on concern about a global financial crisis. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Alcoa Inc. lost at least 1.3 percent on speculation that demand for commodities will slow.

The S&P 500 lost 0.7 percent to 1,165.24 at 4 p.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge has fallen 4.4 percent in three days, the longest drop since Aug. 8. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 100.96 points, or 0.9 percent, to 11,139.30 today.

“The big worry is the situation in Europe,” John Carey, a Boston-based money manager at Pioneer Investments, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about $250 billion.

“Until we have some resolution of that crisis, we’re going to have continued turbulence in the market. I still think the chance of a recession is less than 50 percent. However, there’s the risk that sentiment just turns so negative that people crawl back into their holes and we do have another downturn.”

The U.S. stock market was closed yesterday for a holiday, as global equities fell, Italian bonds dropped for an 11th day and the cost of government and bank default insurance rose to records amid concern about Europe’s debt crisis.

Benchmark gauges trimmed losses in the final minutes of trading as investors, including Mark Bronzo, who helps manage $26 billion at Security Global Investors in Irvington, New York, cited “short covering” after the selloff. “The markets were hit hard and we will get some news from Europe and also hear from President Obama,” he wrote in an e-mail.

A stagnant labor market and bleaker business and consumer sentiment may require more effort from President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to spur growth.

Obama has requested a joint session of Congress on Sept. 8 for an address to unveil his proposals to promote job growth. In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, Obama said that the nation faces “unprecedented” economic challenges.

The MSCI All-Country World Index fell a fourth day. The franc weakened the most since the creation of the euro after the Swiss central bank imposed a ceiling on the franc for the first time in more than three decades and pledged to defend the target with the “utmost determination.”

HSBC Holdings Plc cut its forecast for global economic growth for the next two years and said the efficacy of any further stimulus measures will be limited. The world economy will grow 2.6 percent this year and 2.8 percent in 2012, compared with estimates published in June of 3 percent and 3.4 percent respectively, London-based HSBC economists including Stephen King and Madhur Jha said in a note to clients today.

“Healthy economic recovery is now but a distant dream,” they wrote. “For the developed world, the downgrades are particularly aggressive whereas, for the emerging world, the reductions are more modest, helped by the ongoing support offered by China and India.”

Stocks pared losses earlier today after the Institute for Supply Management’s index of non-manufacturing businesses increased to 53.3 in August from 52.7 a month earlier, beating the median 51 projection by economists in a Bloomberg News survey. A reading above 50 signals expansion. The Tempe, Arizona-based group’s index averaged 56.1 in the five years to December 2007, when the last recession began.

Companies most-tied to economic growth rebounded from the lows of the session. Hewlett-Packard Co. lost 2.9 percent to $23.63, after falling as much as 5.9 percent. General Electric Co. decreased 3.2 percent to $15.25, paring an earlier drop of 4.8 percent.

Bank of America declined 3.6 percent to $6.99, while JPMorgan lost 3.4 percent to $33.44. The two lenders were among 17 banks sued by the U.S. to recoup $196 billion spent on mortgage-backed securities bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, filed 17 lawsuits on Sept. 2 in New York state and federal courts and in federal court in Connecticut.

U.S. government-backed firms and agencies should “stop punishing banks” and suspend demands for mortgage repurchases because they are impeding an economic recovery, according to Paul Miller of FBR Capital Markets & Co. Repurchase losses may total $121 billion, wrote Miller, a former federal bank examiner, in a note to clients dated today. He previously said the tally might range from $54 billion to $106 billion.

Gauges of energy and raw-material producers in the S&P 500 fell at least 0.6 percent as the S&P GSCI index of 24 commodities lost 0.5 percent. Exxon slid 1.4 percent to $71.15. Alcoa decreased 2.2 percent to $11.77.

Temple-Inland Inc. rallied 25 percent to $30.85. International Paper Co., the world’s largest pulp and paper maker, said it agreed to acquire the Austin, Texas-based company for $3.7 billion, ending a three-month battle for control of the shipping-box manufacturer.

A measure of momentum for the S&P 500 is showing a similar pattern to one that preceded the previous two bear markets in U.S. stocks and could presage more losses, according to WJB Capital Group Inc.

For the first time since 2007, the benchmark’s Moving Average Convergence/Divergence line, calculated by subtracting the index’s average level during the past 26 months from the average over the past 12 months, crossed below the “signal line” that plots the 9-period average difference between the two, according to Bloomberg data. The 12-month moving average itself is still rising.

“The only thing that’s missing, to date, from the S&P repeating the 2000 and 2008 turndowns is a rolling over in its 12-month moving average,” John Roque, a senior technical analyst at WJB in New York, wrote in a note to clients today.

The last two times the cross below the signal line occurred December 2007 and April 2000 — the S&P 500 slumped 54 percent and 47 percent, respectively, before hitting its bottom, Bloomberg data show. Roque said the S&P 500 is at risk of extending losses should the benchmark’s average price during the past 12 months start falling.

UBS AG cut its year-end forecast for the S&P 500 and estimates for earnings in 2011 and 2012 on concern the global economy is weakening. The index will climb 15 percent from its closing level on Sept. 2 to 1,350 at the end of the year, down from an earlier prediction of 1,425, according to Chief U.S. Market Strategist Jonathan Golub.

Thomas Doerflinger, also a strategist at the firm, lowered his estimates for combined profit by companies in the benchmark equity index to $95 a share in 2011 from $99.35 and to $101 a share in 2012 from $108.

Bearish bets by investors using futures contracts on the S&P 500 Index increased to the highest level in almost four years in the week ended Aug. 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Short selling involves the sale of securities borrowed from the owner, and generates profit when the trader repurchases them at a lower price and returns them to the owner.

Hedge funds and other large speculators hold a net 107,913 futures contracts wagering that the S&P 500 will decrease in value. The short position is the highest since September 2007, when bearish bets reached a record of 127,474 contracts a month before the benchmark equity gauge reached an all-time high, according to Bloomberg data going back to 1997.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The infinite oneness of the Soul is the eternal sanction of all morality.

You and I are not only brothers – every literature voicing man’s struggle towards freedom

has preached that – but you and I  are really one.

This is the dictate of Indian philosophy.

This oneness is the rationale of all ethics and all spirituality.

 

-Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

Carolann

Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination

and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your

goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable

you to attain the success you seek.

                                -Mario Andretti, 1940- 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

DIRECTION

West is the river

flowing like stop-

light-less traffic

and it murmurs a gentle

riddle to you

standing alone on its profitless bank:

Tomorrow is a

slender boat

sailing beyond your

purposeless grasp.

Just then a casual breeze touches

your sunlit face

and all that you

want to believe in

holds sudden truth.

                                   -Susan Scutti

Photos of the day

September 2, 2011

Naval cadets watch a ceremony commemorating the 66th anniversary of the surrender of Japan during World War Two, in Russia’s far eastern port of Vladivostok. Japan officially surrendered on September 2, 1945 when a formal surrender ceremony was held in Japan’s Tokyo Bay aboard the battleship USS Missouri, marking the end of hostilities during the war. Yuri Maltsev/Reuters

Shadow of a person is seen on the sea at summer last dusk on Laredo beach, northern Spain, Thursday evening. Alvaro Barrientos/AP

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, paring a weekly gain for the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index, after the U.S. said employment was unchanged in August.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Canada’s second-largest energy company by market value, dropped 3.3 percent as crude oil plunged as much as 4 percent. Teck Resources Ltd., the country’s largest base-metals and coal producer, lost 3.5 percent as copper declined. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-biggest gold producer by market value, rose 2.8 percent as precious metals surged.

The S&P/TSX retreated 81.88 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,618.86 at 1:31 p.m. in Toronto, trimming its weekly advance to 2.4 percent.

“The payroll data clearly was below the consensus and even some of the whisper numbers that were coming out from some of the larger U.S. brokers,” Timothy Lazaris, chief executive officer of Red Sky Capital Management Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$54 million ($55 million). “It’s difficult to put risk on with declining U.S. data and with problems continuing to persist in Europe.”

The S&P/TSX has decreased as much as 18 percent from its 2011 high on April 5 amid concern the global economic recovery is faltering. The jobless rate in the U.S. was unchanged at 9.1 percent in August, up from 8.8 percent in March and as low as 4.4 percent in 2006-2007. Seventy-five percent of Canada’s exports went to the U.S. last year, according to Statistics Canada.                      

Nonfarm payrolls were unchanged last month, the U.S. Labor Department said today. Eighty-three of 86 economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast an increase. Payrolls had gained in each of the 10 previous months.

Crude futures fell the most in two weeks and natural gas the most in four weeks in New York. Canadian Natural dropped 3.3 percent to C$35.07. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, declined 2.7 percent to C$30.17. Precision Drilling Corp., the country’s biggest drilling company, tumbled 5.6 percent to C$12.91. Aluminum, copper, lead, nickel and zinc retreated on the London Metal Exchange.

Teck lost 3.5 percent to C$41.41. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Canada’s second-largest publicly traded copper producer, decreased 7.1 percent to C$22.49, ending a six-day streak of gains. Coal and base-metals producer Sherritt International Corp., slumped 6.2 percent to C$5.19. Uranium One Inc., a mining company owned by Moscow-based ARMZ Uranium Holding, sank 5.8 percent to C$2.45 after earlier today touching C$2.43, the lowest intraday since June 2010.

The country’s six largest banks and three biggest insurers each retreated. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender by assets, fell 1.3 percent to C$77.58. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third-biggest lender, dropped 1.4 percent to C$53.42. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth- largest insurer, declined 2.1 percent to C$12.87.

Gold futures surged as much as 3 percent in New York, boosting the S&P/TSX Gold Index to a 2011 high. Goldcorp rose 2.8 percent to C$53.60. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, gained 3.6 percent to C$52.25. Semafo Inc., which mines in West Africa, jumped 7.2 percent to C$8.66.

Silvercorp Metals Inc., which mines in China, plunged 14 percent to C$7.10 on record volume after saying an assertion of accounting fraud mailed anonymously to Canadian regulators is false.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks slumped, wiping out the weekly gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as a government report showing employment stagnated last month stoked concern the world’s largest economy may fall into a recession.

The S&P 500 declined 2.5 percent to 1,173.92 at 4 p.m. in New York, falling 0.2 percent this week. All 10 of its main groups slid, led by financial stocks.

“The jobs report was just ugly,” Michael Mullaney, who helps manage $9.5 billion at Fiduciary Trust in Boston, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve been watching deceleration of economic activity on a global basis. Does that increase the odds of a recession? It’s a coin toss at this point, 50-50. This will probably push the Federal Reserve over the edge.”

The S&P 500 slid as much as 18 percent from a three-year high on April 29 amid concern the economy was weakening. The index fell 5.7 percent in August, for the biggest monthly drop since May 2010. Stocks trimmed losses at the end of last month as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in an Aug. 26 speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that the central bank has tools to stimulate growth without signaling he will use them.

Employment in the U.S. stagnated in August and the jobless rate held at 9.1 percent as American employers became less confident in the strength of the recovery.

 Payrolls were unchanged last month, the weakest reading since September 2010, after an 85,000 gain in July that was less than initially estimated, Labor Department data showed. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for a rise of 65,000. Hourly earnings and hours worked both declined. The August data included a 48,000 drop in information industry jobs, mostly reflecting striking Verizon Communications Inc. workers.

“Another disappointing report that speaks to a severe unemployment crisis that, unfortunately, is becoming even more stubbornly embedded,” Mohamed A. El-Erian, the chief executive officer at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, wrote in an e-mail. Pimco is the world’s largest bond-fund manager. “Along with Europe’s dislocations, this fuels concerns about the global economic outlook and the growing risk of a recession.”

Bearish bets against the S&P 500 rose to a nine-month high as short sellers increased speculation stocks may decline amid concerns over the strength of global economic growth.                        

The proportion of S&P 500 shares outstanding sold short on Aug. 29 rose to 3.03 percent, the most since the end of November and up from 2.37 percent at the beginning of August, according to New York-based Data Explorers, which provides research on short sales and stock lending. Short selling of the gauge reached a three-year high of 5.52 percent in August 2008, before the worst financial crisis since the 1930s drove the stock index to a 12-year low in March 2009.

Short selling increased in August after S&P downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating and yields on Greek debt surged to record highs. Investors made bearish wagers on equities and shifted holdings to havens such as Treasuries, which posted the highest returns since December 2008.

“We’ve had inadequate policy responses to the problem of too much debt, and that makes people concerned,” Mark Travis, chief executive officer of Jacksonville Beach, Florida-based Intrepid Capital Management Inc., said in a telephone interview.

“Investors and advisers are doing more now on the short side to protect their capital and they’re trying to find alternatives to flat market returns,” said Travis, who manages $1.3 billion and uses short selling as an investment strategy.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

Love can come into being only when there is total self-abandonment.

 

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

The cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself;

it gives you the opportunity to look daily into your conduct,

to overcome the bad and develop what is good in you.

Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps

on trying.

            -Nelson Mandela, 1918-

from  a letter from Robben Island Prison

to his second wife, Winnie, in Kroonstad Prison, February 1, 1975.

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents: 

September 1, 1939, world War ll begins…

September….The seventh month from March, when the year formerly commenced.  The old Dutch name was Herstmaand, “autumn month”, and the Anglo-saxon  Hoerfesmonath, “harvest month”, or after the introduction of Christianity, Haligmonath, “holy month”, the nativity of the Virgin Mary being on the 8^th, the Exaltation of the Cross Day on the 14^th and St. Michael’s Day on the 29^th.  In the French Revolutionary Calendar, the equivalent month was Fructidor, “fruit month”, corresponding to the period from 19 August to 22^nd of September.  –from Brewster’s

 

Hurricane Irene wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was downgraded to a tropical storm. Even our hurricanes are

getting downgraded. Maybe Irene owed money to China, too?

                                                                                              – Jay Leno

Photos of the day

September 1, 2011

A rainbow rises over Peter and Pavel Fortress after a rainstorm in St. Petersburg, Russia. Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters

Polish veteran Josef Ladrowski, 90, reacts during a wreath laying ceremony at the Polish war monument, in Berlin to commemorate the German attack on Poland in 1939. The invasion of Poland by the German Wehrmacht on Sept. 1, 1939 marked the start of World War II. Markus Schreiber/AP

Market Commentary:

 

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for the first time in five days as consumer-discretionary and energy shares dropped on concern that the economic recovery is faltering.

Crescent Point Energy Corp., a western Canadian oil and gas producer, declined 2.1 percent after saying it will sell shares.

Shaw Communications Inc., Canada’s biggest cable and satellite television provider by subscribers, slumped 3.6 percent after saying it won’t build a traditional wireless telephone network.

Toronto-Dominion Bank gained 1.5 percent after reporting profit that beat the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slipped 67.96 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,700.74. The S&P/TSX advanced as much as 0.2 percent earlier after the Institute for Supply Management said U.S. manufacturing expanded in August.

“You can talk all you want about the ISM,” Gareth Watson, vice president of investment management and research at Richardson GMP Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview.

“But the credit picture has not changed. The monetary picture in the U.S. has not changed. So even if we get a couple of good data points, the market is not going to rally back to where we were before.”

The S&P/TSX lost 1.4 percent last month for its sixth- straight monthly retreat, the longest slump since the 2008-2009 bear market. The stock benchmark fell 9.7 percent from Feb. 28 to yesterday as energy companies tumbled on concern about a slowing global recovery and sovereign debt in Europe and the U.S.                      

The U.S. is scheduled to release monthly employment data tomorrow. The report will show the country added less than one- fourth as many jobs last month as it did in July, economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecast today.

Energy stocks retreated as natural gas futures decreased 0.4 percent after soaring 3.7 percent yesterday. Cooling demand in the U.S. may be 22 percent below normal from Sept. 7 through Sept. 11, said David Salmon, a meteorologist at Weather Derivatives in Belton, Missouri, in a note to clients today.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second- largest energy company by market value, lost 2 percent to C$36.26. Oil-sands developer MEG Energy Corp. slumped 2.8 percent to C$45.76. Crescent Point fell 2.1 percent to C$43.52. after saying it will sell 8.63 million shares at C$43.50 a share.

Shaw slid 3.6 percent to C$21.59 after scrapping plans to build a mobile-phone service. The company, based in Calgary, will instead offer a wireless Internet service using Wi-Fi technology. Peter MacDonald, an analyst at GMP Capital Inc., cut his rating on Shaw to “hold” from “buy.”                     

Magna International Inc., Canada’s largest auto-parts maker, slipped 3.1 percent to C$36.05 as its largest customer, General Motors Co., tumbled 4.2 percent. In a note to clients, Adam Jonas, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said GM’s inventory may be too high if U.S. auto sales don’t recover.

TD said third-quarter profit increased 23 percent from a year earlier and raised its quarterly dividend 3 percent to 68 Canadian cents a share. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia topped analysts’ estimates this quarter, while Royal Bank of Canada missed forecasts. TD gained 1.5 percent to C$78.60 today.

Other banks declined after the S&P/TSX Banks Index had surged 4.5 percent in the previous three days. Royal Bank, Canada’s largest lender by assets, fell 2 percent to C$49.10.

Bank of Montreal, the No. 4 bank, dropped 1.1 percent to C$60.71. Manulife Financial Corp., Canada’s largest insurer, slipped 1.8 percent to C$13.15.                        

Gold stocks advanced after Barclays Capital said the metal is unlikely to plunge like silver did in May when CME Group Inc. raised margin requirements. Margin requirements as a percentage of the contract value of gold are below that for commodities including silver and corn, and gold is less volatile than silver, Barclays said today in an e-mailed report.

Also today, David Wilson, a metals analyst at Societe Generale SA, said in a Bloomberg Television interview that the metal is poised to top $2,000 an ounce by year end.

Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest gold producer by market value, increased 2.2 percent to C$52.13. Eldorado Gold Corp., which mines in China and Turkey, climbed 2.1 percent to C$19.91. Osisko Mining Corp., which began commercial production at its Malartic mine in Quebec in June, rallied 3.1 percent to C$14.76 after Don MacLean, an analyst at Paradigm Capital Inc., boosted his rating on the shares to “buy” from “speculative buy.”

Lumber producer Canfor Corp. slumped 6.2 percent to C$10.13 after the U.S. said construction spending fell the most in six months in July.

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., which is building a copper and gold mine in Mongolia with Rio Tinto Group, dropped 4.5 percent to C$21.50 after surging 15 percent in the previous four days.

Copper futures declined the most in two weeks after a gauge of export orders in the Chinese Purchasing Managers’ Index decreased for the first time in two years.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks retreated, snapping a four-day advance for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as banks fell and investors speculated that tomorrow’s jobs report will show the world’s largest economy continues to struggle.

Financial stocks dropped the most within 10 groups in the S&P 500, sliding 2.4 percent. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. slumped 3.5 percent after agreeing to pay future Federal Reserve penalties and write down $53 million of mortgage loans in New York to gain approval for its sale of Litton Loan Servicing LP. Caterpillar Inc. and Alcoa Inc. fell at least 2.4 percent, pacing losses among companies most-tied to economic growth.

The S&P 500 declined 1.2 percent to 1,204.42 at 4 p.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge rallied 5.1 percent during a four- day streak through yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 119.96 points, or 1 percent, to 11,493.57.

“There is some reserve and perhaps some hesitance going into tomorrow’s jobs report,” Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners LLC in New York, said in a telephone interview. The firm manages over $1 billion. “The administration has a huge task in front of it. Business leaders are hesitant to hire and spend money. That’s why the stock market generally hasn’t done anything.”

Stocks fell before a Labor Department report tomorrow that may show non-farm payrolls climbed by 68,000 after a 117,000 increase in July, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jan Hatzius cut his forecast for the gain to 25,000 from 50,000.

Brian Jones, an economist at Societe Generale, lowered his prediction to an increase of 9,000 from 67,000. Shares rose earlier after the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 50.6, beating the median economist projection of 48.5. The data helped ease concern spurred by Federal Reserve data in August showing manufacturing slowed in the New York, Philadelphia and Richmond, Virginia, regions. The S&P 500 climbed yesterday, paring its August decline to 5.7 percent, the biggest monthly drop since May 2010.

Stocks trimmed losses at the end of last month after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said during an Aug. 26 speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that the central bank still has tools to stimulate the economy without signaling he will use them. Last year, he foreshadowed a $600 billion bond-purchase program at the same event, helping to stoke a 30 percent surge in the S&P 500 through April 29. Since then, the index has fallen as much as 18 percent amid economic concern.                      

“Every time you get some positive data for the economy, people think the Fed will take the possibility of a QE3 off of the table,” Thomas Nyheim, a Greenville, Delaware-based money manager for Christiana Trust, which oversees $7.5 billion, said in a telephone interview about a third round of so-called quantitative easing from the central bank. “We may not like it, but we’ll probably need to get used to slower growth.”

Stock futures swung between gains and losses before the open of regular trading as a report showed that applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week as the influence of the strike at Verizon Communications Inc. waned, showing the job market is making little headway more than two years after the recession ended.

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 fell today, with losses being led by financial, industrial and raw-material companies. The KBW Bank Index slid 3 percent as all of its 24 stocks retreated.

Goldman Sachs slumped 3.5 percent to $112.16. The Fed ordered Goldman Sachs to conduct an independent review of Litton’s foreclosures in 2009 and 2010 to address a “pattern of misconduct and negligence,” the regulator said today in a statement. Litton’s sale to Ocwen Financial Corp. was completed today after reaching accords with the Fed and New York state regulators, according to a Goldman Sachs statement.

The shares also fell after the bank was downgraded to “hold” from “buy” at ISI Group. The 12-month share-price estimate is $135.

Gap Inc. lost 3 percent to $16.03. The largest U.S. apparel chain reported sales at its stores open more than one year fell 6 percent, more than the 3.9 percent drop estimated by analysts.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most- sensitive to economic activity dropped 2 percent. Caterpillar decreased 2.7 percent to $88.55, while Alcoa slid 2.4 percent to $12.49.

Concerns that the S&P 500 will plunge amid slowing earnings growth are overblown, according to Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab Corp.

 The benchmark measure of U.S. equities surged as much as 102 percent from a 12-year low in March 2009 through the end of April this year as earnings beat analysts’ estimates. Profits at S&P 500 companies are forecast to grow to $124.11 a share in 2013, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

That’s more than double the annual increase during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

“There is this misperception that the minute the peak of earnings happens, the market is going to fall out of bed,” Sonders, New York-based chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, said in a radio interview today on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt. “The market tends to continue to fare pretty well unless you get some sort of massive collapse in earnings, which I don’t think is in the cards this time.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

How does seeing the difference permit unity?

Quite simply, because physically speaking there cannot be unity, since the physical plane consists of shapes,

and all shapes are different.

Unity only exists in the heart.  It is a feeling: love.

And in love the notion of self disappears; only the other remains.

 

-Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

Carolann

If you’re not failing every now and again,

it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very

innovative.

             -Woody Allen, 1935-

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I read this essay last night and I thought it was beautiful….hope you do too…

START THE DAY WITH A MASTERPIECE

 

I woke this morning to an empty and quiet house and happily so.  My husband, an otherwise sensible man, has the regrettable habit of turning on the television each and every morning, like a moth to the flame.  But this morning the moth has gone fishing and the flame is firmly extinguished.  The resulting quiet is happy and rare.

  I go to the back door, for the purpose of retrieving the newspaper from its delivery box out at the road, and am stopped in my slippered tracks.  Beads of water cling to its screen, necklaces unstrung, locked by the screen’s grid into something like a checkerboard, if checkerboards wore jewelry.  A spider was here, its web connecting the dots of the beads of water, web and water all catching the early morning light, all shimmering, all fragile, all splendidly so.  I did nothing, I know, to deserve this caught breath and am grateful again for spiders.  One must be always grateful for spiders.

  I step out into the untelevised world, easing the screen door closed behind me, careful curator of this masterpiece that has fallen in my lap. And walk the length of the driveway.  I am still in my pajamas.  One of the privileges of being of a certain age is the wearing of disreputable pajama, which these are.  I breathe in air that is so fresh it is almost wet, air that invites wringing out.  I could wash my face in it.

  The cornfield across the road does not seem nearly so tall or so green as it ought to be, given the time of year, but I am not discouraged.  I, for one, believe the corn can still do it.  I believe there is still time.  I so not give up on the corn just as, in different circumstances, I hope the corn will not give up on me.

  In the treetops at the far side of the cornfield there are crows screaming bloody crow murder at each other.  They lift up from one treetop to settle in another, lift up and settle, lift up and settle, all the while hurling crow epithets, taking names, threatening lawsuits, swearing revenge, demanding retribution.  If crows did not invent the art of having the last word, they are among its most ecstatic practitioners.

  Beyond the crows’ treetops are banks of clouds.  These are not the giddy and frivolous clouds of summer.  These are the serious and thoughtful clouds of fall, clouds that make lists, pay their bills on time, vote in every election.  These clouds know nothing of beaches but would work for world peace if given a chance.

  I collect my newspaper and turn for home.  Dawn is just past, but no trace of it remains in the eastern sky toward which I am now walking.  No ethereal pinks.  No heavenly golds.  Only blue and plenty of it. if this blue could be contained in a paint bucket, its name would be New Day Blue and it would fly off the shelves.  We would slather every wall and every ceiling with the stuff.  There would be no stopping us.

  There are some jobs that have been done so absolutely and so correctly by others that the rest of us, the lesser and undistinguished and indistinguishable rest of us, should make no attempt.  Oscar Hammerstein said it first.  Oscar Hammerstein said it best.

  Oh, what a beautiful mornin’.  Oh, what a beautiful day.  

                                                                                         -Mary Frances

Photos of the day 

August 31, 2011

Actor George Clooney arrives on the red carpet for the premiere of his movie ‘The Ides of March’, which opens the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. Jonathan Short/AP.

A reveller is covered with tomato pulp after the annual ‘Tomatina’ (tomato fight) in the Mediterranean village of Bunol, near Valencia. The origin of the tomato fight is disputed, but most agree it started around 1940, in the early years of General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. Heino Kalis/Reuters.

 

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a fourth day, paring a monthly decline, as financial companies rallied after Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reported earnings that beat the average analyst estimate.

CIBC, Canada’s fifth-largest lender by assets, gained 3.9 percent after raising its dividend. Enbridge Inc., the country’s biggest pipeline company, advanced 1.7 percent as natural gas jumped as much as 4.1 percent. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, fell 2.3 percent as corn and wheat dropped.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 71.52 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,706.23 at 2:32 p.m. in Toronto, reducing its monthly loss to 1.7 percent.

“Going into the quarter, most people were expecting the banks to disappoint,” Jeff Bradacs, a money manager at Manulife Financial Corp. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. Bradacs’s team oversees C$1.7 billion ($1.7 billion). “The results beat consensus, but the big thing was the dividend increase.”

The stock benchmark is heading for its sixth-straight monthly drop. Energy stocks have led the retreat, tumbling 7.7 percent through yesterday as crude oil slumped on concern the global economic recovery is slowing. Energy companies make up 26 percent of Canadian stocks by market value, according to Bloomberg data.

 CIBC gained 3.9 percent to C$75.89 after its third-quarter earnings beat the average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey by 5.9 percent, excluding certain items. The lender raised its quarterly dividend for the first time in four years, increasing it 3.4 percent to 90 Canadian cents a share.                    

 Toronto-Dominion Bank, which is scheduled to report quarterly financial results tomorrow, climbed 2.1 percent to C$77.02. Royal Bank of Canada, its larger domestic rival, advanced 2 percent to C$49.91.

Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest lender by assets, rose 1.9 percent to C$54.49 after Robert Sedran, an analyst at CIBC, boosted his rating on the shares to “sector outperformer” from “sector performer.” Scotiabank reported third-quarter earnings yesterday that beat its average analyst estimate by 2.2 percent, excluding certain items.

The S&P/TSX Energy Index reduced its largest monthly drop since December 2008 as natural gas futures gained on forecasts for above-normal temperatures in the U.S.

 Enbridge advanced 1.7 percent to C$32.34. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-largest energy company by market value, increased 1 percent to C$36.73. Encana Corp., Canada’s biggest natural gas producer, climbed 1.9 percent to C$24.79.                         

 Base-metals and coal producers rose as copper futures gained after closing at a three-week high yesterday.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest company in the industry, advanced 1 percent to C$43.59, extending its four-day surge to 11 percent. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., the country’s second-biggest publicly traded copper producer, increased 4.7 percent to C$23.65. Quadra FNX Mining Ltd., which operates in the U.S., Canada and Chile, climbed 4.6 percent to C$13.15.

Women’s clothing retailer Reitmans (Canada) Ltd. jumped 6.8 percent to C$14.93 after reporting second-quarter earnings of 48 Canadian cents a share, excluding certain items. Two analysts in a Bloomberg survey had estimated profit of 41 Canadian cents a share and 46 Canadian cents a share, respectively. Earlier today, the shares soared as much as 7.2 percent, the most intraday since May 2010.

Potash Corp. fell 2.3 percent to C$56.53 as corn futures dropped after settling at the highest since June 9 yesterday. Corn is heading for its biggest monthly surge since December 2010 on speculation hot weather will limit yields in the U.S.

Bombardier Inc., the maker of trains and airplanes, sank 6.3 percent to C$4.80 after reporting financial results for the second quarter. The company said it expects to use up all of its free cash flow this year. The stock plunged as much as 8 percent, the most intraday since November, earlier today.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, capping the best eight-day gain since 2009 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as speculation the economy will keep expanding overshadowed a tumble in AT&T Inc. following a government antitrust lawsuit.

Ford Motor Co. and Alcoa Inc. gained at least 2.3 percent as companies most-tied to economic growth rallied. Joy Global Inc. added 1.3 percent after the maker of mining equipment forecast earnings that beat analysts’ estimates. AT&T tumbled 3.9 percent, limiting the market’s gain, as the U.S. government sued to prevent its planned purchase of T-Mobile USA Inc., saying the deal would curb competition in the wireless market.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent to 1,218.89 at 4 p.m. in New York, after climbing 1.5 percent earlier. The benchmark gauge surged 8.5 percent since Aug. 19 while still completing a fourth straight monthly loss, the longest slump since March 2008. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 53.58 points, or 0.5 percent, to 11,613.53 today, erasing its year-to-date decline.

“People want to nibble because if we avert a recession stocks would appear to be cheap,” Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, which manages $54 billion, said in a telephone interview. “At the same time, given the overall levels of volatility, you know you can wake up and the market is easy up or down 300 points. Part of that uncertainty is that investors are dealing with the heavy hand of government intervention infusing itself in the capital markets.”                         

Stocks advanced after reports showed U.S. business activity and factory orders expanded at a faster pace than economists forecast. The S&P 500 pared its August decline to 5.7 percent, still the biggest monthly retreat since May 2010. U.S. equities rose yesterday after the Federal Reserve said some policy makers wanted to take more action to stimulate the economy during their meeting this month.

“The economy is not falling off a cliff, and at the same time, policy makers are aware that growth is slow and they are prepared to do something to accelerate it,” Peter Jankovskis, who helps manage about $2.6 billion at Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois, said in a telephone interview. “Much of the selling that we’ve experienced was overdone and left the market poised for a rally when sentiment began to change.”

The S&P 500 slid 16 percent between July 22 and Aug. 19 after the U.S. government lost its AAA rating at S&P and investors speculated the European debt crisis was intensifying.

The index has rallied 8.9 percent since Aug. 8 after the S&P 500 traded at 12.2 times earnings, the lowest level since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Earlier today, benchmark gauges pared gains after Nouriel Roubini, co-founder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics LLC, said “we’re going into a recession based on my numbers” while the Federal Reserve and other authorities no longer have the ability to provide emergency support.

“We have reached stall speed in the economy,” Roubini said in an interview today on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness with Margaret Brennan.” “Unfortunately we are running out of policy tools” in the U.S. and European governments no longer have the resources to bail out their troubled banks, said Roubini, also a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

This year, numbers on the economy will “come out worse and worse and worse” and the “markets are going to fizzle out,” Roubini said.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies whose earnings are most-dependent on economic growth rallied 0.7 percent. Ford gained 2.3 percent to $11.12. Alcoa rose the most in the Dow, gaining 3.6 percent to $12.80.

Joy Global advanced 1.3 percent to $83.45. The maker of P&H and Joy mining equipment lifted its earnings forecast in 2011 to as much as $6 a share, exceeding the average analyst estimate of $5.72, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

AT&T slumped 3.9 percent to $28.48. The U.S. government said its purchase of T-Mobile would “substantially lessen competition” in the wireless industry. The purchase would combine the second- and fourth-largest mobile-phone carriers in the country, surpassing No. 1 Verizon Wireless. Verizon Communications Inc., which co-owns the biggest operator with Vodafone Group Plc, fell 0.4 percent to $36.17. Sprint Nextel Corp. advanced 5.9 percent to $3.76.

AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson’s proposed purchase of Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile, announced in March, would combine the second- and fourth-largest carriers to create a new market leader ahead of No. 1 Verizon Wireless. The new company would dwarf current No. 3 carrier Sprint Nextel, which argued against the deal.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. sank 7.5 percent to $6.96.

Billionaire Carl Icahn agreed to sell his Lions Gate shares for $7 each, roughly his cost, to end a battle for control over the independent film and television studio. The parties also agreed to end all litigation, according to a statement issued yesterday by Icahn and Lions Gate, the studio behind the “Saw” movies and “Mad Men” TV show.

Pessimism about U.S. stocks among newsletter writers increased to a one-year high, a bullish signal to analysts who track investor sentiment as a contrarian indicator of equity performance. The share of bearish publications among those tracked by Investors Intelligence rose to 36.6 percent yesterday, the highest since August 2010, from 33.3 percent a week earlier.

“The stock market is poised for a rebound if data begins to be more encouraging,” Marshall Front, who helps oversee $600 million as chairman of Front Barnett Associates LLC in Chicago, said in an interview. “Stocks have gotten to a point where they are discounting a degree of slowness in the economy that is not likely to evolve.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The key to an easy relationship with other people is not to impose your ego,

nor to crush the ego of others.

 

-Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

Carolann

Turn your wounds into wisdom.

        -Oprah Winfrey, 1954- 

 

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Birthday: August 30, 1797, Mary Shelley, writer.  Shelley was the authoress of Frankenstein, which she wrote at the age of 18.  She wrote six more novels in her lifetime.  She led an audacious life.  Having met Percy Bysshe Shelley at 16, they declared their love and ran away to France.  When Percy drowned while sailing, she had his heart removed before his body was cremated on the shores of Italy and she kept it with her until her death on February 1, 1851, at the age of 54.

Introduction to Frankenstein, ed.3, 1831:

“We will each write a ghost story,” said Lord Byron; and his proposition was acceded to.  There were four of us…Have you thought of a story? I was asked each morning, and each morning I was forced to reply with a mortifying negative…On the morrow I announced that I had thought of a story…At first I thought but of a few pages – of a short tale; but [Percy Bysshe] Shelley urged me to develop the idea at greater length.

Search for the stars

Turn off the porch lights Canada! 

This weekend marks the start of the best stargazing time of the year.  It’s a new moon, the Milky Way is at its prime, and heighted solar activity is adding flare to the Northern Lights.

So advised the Globe & Mail last Saturday, August 27^th, 2011.  Canadian astronomy expert and editor of SkyNews magazine Terence Dickinson shared some of his stargazing secrets.  Among them:

What advice do you have for beginners?

Check your timing – you don’t want to go anywhere between the first quarter and last quarter moon.  That’s because the moon is nice to look at, but it blocks the light of the stars.  If you really want a stargazing experience, you want to go after the last quarter through new moon to a couple of days before first quarter.  Also, solar activity is starting to ramp up and the Northern Lights and the aurora is going to get better.  The odds are it’s going to get better through 2013.  And for that, your best way of seeing the Northern Lights is to get a dog and walk it religiously the last thing you do at night.  Even if you live in the city.

TOP SITES:

SKYNEWS.CA

For weekly updates on what’s going on in the night sky, articles for amateur astronomers and upcoming coverage on dark sky parks.  Check the extensive list of clubs across Canada (under Resources) to find a contact to inquire about guided tours in destinations you plan to visit.

HEAVENS-ABOVE.COM

For predictions on satellites and iridium flares.  (You know the experience of seeing a star appear out of nowhere, only to have it diappear a few seconds later?  Dickinson explains that’s an iridium flare – the reflection off panels on communications satellites).

APOD.NASA.GOV/APOD

For a picture of the day, on a site run by two U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronomers.

Photos of the day

August 30, 2011

 

A man wades into the waves of a storm surge created by the passing of Hurricane Irene at Lawrencetown beach, Nova Scotia, Canada. Paul Darrow /Reuters

Tibetan Buddhists and tourists view a giant thangka, a religious silk embroidery or painting unique to Tibet, during the Shoton Festival at Drepung Monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China.  Jacky Chen/Reuters

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Matt Walcoff

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a third day, led by precious-metals producers, as gold and silver gained after an index of U.S. consumer confidence dropped to its lowest level since April 2009.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, advanced 1.7 percent as the metal rallied as much as 2.5 percent. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-biggest lender by assets, climbed 2.1 percent after reporting earnings that beat the average analyst estimate. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. increased 6.6 percent, rallying for a second day after an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd. raised his price estimate on the shares.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 124.54 points, or 1 percent, to 12,629.39 at 2:27 p.m. in Toronto.

Precious metal prices rallied on investor demand for a haven after the Conference Board’s index had the biggest point drop since October 2008 as the Americans’ outlooks for employment and incomes soured.

“We will know over the next three or four weeks whether we are seeing end-of-cycle indicators or whether we are going to continue a rebound,” Keith McLean, a managing partner at GMP Investment Management in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. McLean oversees C$200 million ($204 million). “People that were projecting a mid-cycle slowdown are now questioning that.”

 The S&P/TSX lost 3.4 percent this month through yesterday and is heading for its sixth-straight monthly retreat. Energy stocks in the index sank 8.6 percent, which would be their biggest monthly plunge since 2008, as crude oil tumbled on concern the global economic recovery is slowing.

 Earlier today, the European Commission said its index of executive and consumer sentiment in the 17-country euro region dropped the most since December 2008.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index extended what would be its biggest monthly rally since August 2010. Barrick gained 1.7 percent to C$49.84. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest gold producer by market value, advanced 1.3 percent to C$50.94. Romarco Minerals Inc., which is developing a gold project in South Carolina, surged 9.7 percent to C$1.47.

Silver Wheaton Corp., Canada’s fourth-biggest precious- metals company by market value, increased 2.5 percent to C$38.84 as silver surged as much as 2.8 percent. Silvercorp Metals Inc., which operates in China, jumped 9 percent to C$8.60.

Scotiabank increased 2.1 percent to C$53.43 after its third-quarter profit surpassed the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey by 2.2 percent, excluding certain items. National Bank of Canada, the country’s sixth-biggest lender by assets, climbed 1.4 percent to C$71.59.

RIM gained 6.6 percent to C$31.96, extending its August surge to 33 percent. The company is heading for its biggest monthly advance since April 2009 as analysts including Kevin Smithen of Macquarie and Shaw Wu of Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. have said that its new smartphones may help stop the long-term decline in its share price. Shares of the Waterloo, Ontario- based company remain down 45 percent on the year.

Energy stocks advanced as crude oil futures increased as much as 2.2 percent. Cenovus Energy Inc., Canada’s fifth-largest energy company, climbed 2.3 percent to C$34.66. Suncor Energy Inc., the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, rose 1.1 percent to C$30.89.

 Americas Petrogas Inc., which explores for oil and gas in Argentina, soared 22 percent to C$2.08 after agreeing to form a joint venture with Exxon Mobil Corp. Exxon Mobil will help fund the Los Toldos shale-oil and gas project. Earlier today, shares of the Calgary-based company jumped as much as 39 percent, the most since December 2008.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest base-metals and coal producer, increased 3.1 percent to C$42.94 as copper advanced to a three-week high.

Bombardier Inc., the maker of trains and airplanes, rallied 5.7 percent to C$5.21. The company is scheduled to report second-quarter financial results before markets open tomorrow.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., the owner of Mac’s and Circle K convenience stores, sank 5.9 percent, the most intraday since March 2010, to C$27.97. The company’s first-quarter earnings trailed the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey by 4.8 percent, excluding certain items.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, rebounding from a 1.2 percent drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, after the Federal Reserve said some policy makers wanted to take more action to stimulate the economy during their meeting this month.

Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc. rose at least 1.9 percent, pacing gains among companies most-tied to the economy. Monster Worldwide Inc., the provider of help-wanted ads, advanced 21 percent, building on its 13 percent rally during the past two days. Bank of America Corp. fell 3.2 percent as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. objected to the lender’s proposed $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement with investors.

The S&P 500 added 0.2 percent to 1,212.92 at 4 p.m. in New York, recovering from earlier losses driven by consumer confidence sinking to a 28-month low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20.70 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,559.95.

“The Fed has definitely not raised the white flag,” Bruce McCain, who helps oversee $22 billion as chief investment strategist at the private-banking unit of KeyCorp in Cleveland, said in a telephone interview. “They have not accepted the idea that they ran out of tools. They recognize that the economy is far too weak and that they will do whatever is necessary to boost growth. It’s reassuring.”

The S&P 500 rose to the highest level since Aug. 3 yesterday after surging 7.7 percent in six days. Equities gained 8.1 percent between Aug. 8 and yesterday after the loss of the U.S. government’s AAA credit rating left the S&P 500 trading for 12.2 times earnings, the lowest level since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.                  

When Fed policy makers met on Aug. 9, the S&P 500 had plunged 17 percent since July 22, including a 6.7 percent drop the previous day that was the biggest slump since 2008. The Fed said those members, who weren’t identified, “felt that recent economic developments justified a more substantial move” beyond the pledge adopted at the Aug. 9 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee to hold its key interest rate at a record low until mid-2013.

The report indicates that Fed officials will more fully debate their options when they meet next month for a two-day meeting that was originally scheduled to last one day. Fed officials at the August meeting discussed a range of tools, including buying more government bonds, to bolster the economy.

They didn’t come to an agreement on what the Fed’s next step might be should the economy continue to weaken.

The S&P 500 slumped earlier today after the Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence fell to 44.5, the lowest level since April 2009, from a revised 59.2 reading in July, the research group said. It was the biggest point drop since October 2008. Economists predicted the gauge would fall to 52, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

 “The consumer sentiment number was so low that it could have marked a bottom,” Mark Bronzo, who helps manage $26 billion at Security Global Investors in Irvington, New York, said in a telephone interview. “The market has sold off so violently, and right now the selling pressure is drying up.”

The S&P 500 has fallen 6.1 percent since the end of July and was headed for its fourth straight monthly decline, the longest streak since March 2008. Financial, energy and industrial shares had the biggest losses during so far in August, slumping at least 7.4 percent.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to economic growth added 0.4 percent after sinking 1.4 percent. Boeing gained 2.2 percent to $66.03. Caterpillar rose 1.9 percent to $89.83.                    

Monster Worldwide surged 21 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $9.91. Three top executives led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Salvatore Iannuzzi bought 87,237 shares, regulatory filings showed today.

The shares were “overdue for a bounce” after other Internet companies including professional-networking firm LinkedIn Corp. have surged in recent weeks, said Douglas Arthur, an analyst at Evercore Partners Inc. in New York who rates the stock as “equalweight.”

Clorox Co. rallied 2.8 percent to $70.52. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said today he’d buy Clorox Co. for $10.3 billion if a companion proposal to elect his slate of directors and sell the company fails.

The KBW Bank Index of 24 stocks fell 1 percent, snapping a two-day rally. Bank of America slumped 3.2 percent to $8.12. The FDIC, the receiver for failed banks, owns securities covered by the settlement and said it doesn’t have enough information to evaluate the accord, according to a filing yesterday in federal court in Manhattan.                       

Bearish bets by hedge funds on S&P 500 futures increased to the highest level since before the financial crisis three years ago, Bank of America Corp.’s Mary Ann Bartels said.

“Readings are a ‘crowded short’ for the first time since June 2008,” Bartels, the New York-based head of technical and market analysis at Bank of America, wrote in a note yesterday.

Large speculators boosted net wagers that the benchmark index of U.S. equities will fall to $24.6 billion in the week ended Aug. 23 from $21.5 billion a week earlier, said Bartels, citing data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Bartels said she considers short positions to be “crowded” at about $25 billion. The last “crowded short zone” on S&P 500 futures came three months before Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse spurred a 46 percent plunge in equities.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

At one pole of my existence,

I am one with the stones and the tree branches.

Thus, I must submit to the yoke of universal law.

It is this, in the end, that is the very basis of my life.

And that force comes from that which is closely bound up in the unity of the world,

which is in full communication with all things.

But at the other pole, I am distinct from all of the rest.

Here, I have broken the barriers of equality

and I find myself alone, as an individual.

I am absolutely unique, I am me, I am incomparable.
the whole of the mass of the universe can not crush this individuality that is mine.

I maintain it, despite the formidable gravitation of all that exists.

It is small in appearance, but great in reality.

 

-Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

Carolann

Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith

in yourself.  That is why some people with mediocre talent,

but with great inner drive, go much further than people

with vastly superior talent.

              -Sophia Loren, 1934-