Category: Events

Dear Friends,

Tangents: ALL SOULS’ DAY
               DAY OF THE DEAD (MEXICO)

The day devoted to prayer and almsgiving on behalf of the departed.  According to tradition, a certain pilgrim returning from the Holy Land took refuge on a rocky island during a storm.  There he met a hermit, who told him that among the cliffs was an opening to the infernal regions, through which flames ascended, and where the groans of the tormented were distinctly audible.  The pilgrim told Odilo, abbot of Cluny, who appointed the day following – November 2, 998 – to be set apart for the benefit of those souls in Purgatory.  In England, it was formerly observed by ringing the “soul bell” or “passing bell”, by making and distributing soul cakes or by blessing beans and so on.
 A passing bell used to be rung when a person was on the point of death, to scare away any evil spirits that might be lurking ready to snatch the soul while passing from the body.  A secondary objective was to announce to the neighborhood so that all might pray for the safe passage of the soul into Paradise.      Athenians used to beat on brazen kettles at the moment of death to scare away the Furies.

On this day in 1947, Howard Hughes pilots the Spruce Goose on its only flight.
On Nov. 2, 1976, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter defeated Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford, becoming the first U.S. president from the Deep South since the Civil War.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

University of Edinburgh students wear outfits adorned with lights, mirrors, and bells to mark the Indian Festival of Diwali in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Wednesday. The five-day festival of lights is celebrated worldwide by Hindus. David Cheskin/PA/AP

People pray beside the graves of their relatives at a cemetery during the observance of All Souls Day in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday.Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

The sun rises behind the Manhattan skyline on Wednesday. Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Market Closes for November 2^nd, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17959.64	-77.46   -0.43%
S&P 500	2097.94	-13.78   -0.65%
NASDAQ	5105.566	-48.011   -0.93%
TSX	14595.11	-183.21
		-1.24%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17134.68	-307.72
		-1.76%
HANG SENG	22810.50	-336.57
		-1.45%
SENSEX	27527.22	-349.39
		-1.25%
FTSE 100	6845.42	-71.72
		-1.04%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		1.185		1.208
CND. 30 Year Bond		1.828		1.851
U.S.    10 Year Bond		1.7990		1.8274
U.S. 30 Year Bond		2.5641		2.5806

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.74670	0.74664
US $	1.33923	1.33933
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.48609	0.67291
US $	1.10966	0.90118

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1303.75	1288.45
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	45.34	46.67

Market Commentary:
NUMBERS OF THE DAY
$10 billion 

The amount for which Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is in advanced talks to sell Salix Pharmaceuticals, a big stomach-drug business, to Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical, a move seen easing pressure on Valeant caused by its hefty debt load

51.4%
The percentage of all mortgage loan dollars in the third quarter extended by nonbank financial firms, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. It marks the first quarter that banks, credit unions and other depository institutions have fallen below the 50% threshold in more than 30 years.

Interesting – I attended an all day conference in NYC on the topic of  FinTech put on by Buttonwood (The Economist) a couple of weeks ago and one of the astonishing revelations is that fintech now commands 30% of what used to be conventional banking.
Canada
By John Hyland
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks tumbled for a second day as investors retreated from equities amid concerns about the upcoming U.S. presidential election and the increased probability of an interest rate hike before the end of the year.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 1.2 percent to 14,594.72 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. All 11 industry groups in the index retreated. Health care shares lost 6.2 percent as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. was sued over its failed marketing of a female libido pill. Energy stocks also weighed down the gauge as oil dropped to a one-month low after data showed U.S. stockpiles grew. And raw-materials producers snapped a four-day rally as miners dropped 2.3 percent
     Oil fell to the lowest level in more than a month after industry data showed U.S. crude stockpiles grew and supplies from OPEC members increased. Among energy shares, TransCanada Corp. tumbled nearly 5 percent to the lowest level since June 2016, after the company announced it’s raising about $6.1 billion to help fund its acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group Inc.
     Gold prices advanced for a fifth day on increased concern over the outcome of the election. Miners ended a four-day rally, falling after the Federal Reserve meetings ended and the probability of a December interest rate hike increased. Barrick Gold Corp. snapped its longest winning streak since July 2016, falling 1.7 percent. Detour Gold Corp. fell 18.8 percent to its lowest level since April 2016 after missing production and revenue estimates.
     Lenders slipped as investors crowded into haven assets after a poll on Nov. 1 showed Donald Trump gaining ground against Hillary Clinton. Royal Bank of Canada fell 0.8 percent, sending the country’s largest bank to its lowest level in more than two weeks. Toronto-Dominion Bank fell 0.6 percent.
     Valeant led the health care sector lower, falling 9.1 percent on the marketing lawsuit and reports that its exploring a sale of some eye-surgery assets worth $2.5 billion. Yesterday, the shares surged 30 percent after a report said it’s looking to sell the Salix gastrointestinal drug business it acquired last year for $11.1 billion.
     Canadian stocks are now 15 percent more expensive than their peers in the S&P 500 Index. The S&P/TSX trades at 22.6 times earnings, compared with 19.7 for the S&P 500 Index. The S&P/TSX is the top performer among developed equity markets tracked by Bloomberg in 2016.
US
By Rebecca Spalding, Joseph Ciolli and Anna-Louise Jackson
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with the S&P 500 Index mired in its longest slump in five years, after investors shrugged at the Federal Reserve’s decision to stand pat on interest rates and remained on edge before the U.S. presidential election.
     The Fed’s as-expected message did little to temper increasing anxiety over the implications from the Nov. 8 vote, which has begun to dominate market sentiment. Equities are also grappling with mixed earnings reports and a plunge in crude prices that sent oil to a one-month low. Facebook Inc. edged higher in after-hours trading following the social network’s quarterly results.
     The S&P 500 Index dropped 0.7 percent to 2,097.94 at 4 p.m. in New York, capping a seventh straight loss to remain near a four-month low. The benchmark closed below 2,100, after briefly dipping beneath the technically sensitive level Tuesday for the first time since July 7. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 77.46 points, or 0.4 percent, to 17,959.64, and the Nasdaq Composite Index slid 0.9 percent.
     “The FOMC minutes were benign and came in as expected, with the only real change coming as we went from three dissenters to two,” Yousef Abbasi, a global market strategist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC, said by phone. “More than anything right now we’re seeing a combination of uncertainty and a lack of motivation to do anything before the election. People are de- risking their books, and in some cases opting to sit on the sideline.”
     Wednesday’s retreat came after the S&P 500 fell yesterday by the most in three weeks, amid polls showing Hillary Clinton’s once formidable lead over Donald Trump in the presidential race has withered. That jolted stocks from the tightest trading range since 2006 as investors brace for market turmoil. Just four months removed from the U.K.’s shock decision to leave the European Union in an outcome not predicted by betting markets, anxiety levels have spiked as the election polls have narrowed.
     The CBOE Volatility Index remained at its highest since June after spiking more than 48 percent in seven days. The measure of market turbulence known as the VIX extended its streak of gains to the longest since 2013. About 8.1 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 25 percent more than the three-month average.
     Banks and energy producers were among the biggest drags today as bond yields retreated amid demand for havens, and crude prices sank to the lowest in more than a month. Gilead Sciences Inc. and Allergan Plc fell more than 2.1 percent after both drugmakers’ profits missed estimates. Technology shares were weighed by Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s slide to a three-month low, and as Facebook sank 1.8 percent before its earnings report.
     After markets closed, Facebook was little changed as of 4:35 p.m. The company said revenue jumped to a record, boosted by video advertising and sales from Instagram. The results exceeded analysts’ estimates.
     Meanwhile, policy makers said today the case to boost borrowing costs has continued to strengthen, but decided, “for the time being,” to wait for more evidence of progress toward their employment and inflation objectives. The decision to forgo a rate increase had been widely expected owing to the proximity of next week’s election.
     The central bank has held the target range for the benchmark fed funds rate at 0.25 to 0.5 percent all year after raising it in December for the first time in nearly a decade. Concerns over slowing global growth and a slide in U.S. inflation expectations have kept them sidelined. Officials last December forecast it would be appropriate to raise rates four times in 2016, their median estimate showed. That projection was cut in March to two moves this year and lowered again in September to just one.
     Data today showed companies added fewer workers than forecast in October, signaling slower progress than estimated in the labor market. The government’s monthly payrolls report is due Friday. Following the FOMC decision, traders now price in 80 percent odds on a December increase, compared to 67 percent before the statement was released.
     “They’ve done everything they need to do to tee December up,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer of Cornerstone Financial Partners, which oversees more than $1 billion in assets in Huntersville, North Carolina. “They’ve all but indicated they’re going to raise rates in December, but they’re leaving a little room in case something unexpected happens with the election or something that sends the market into a tailspin.”
     The S&P 500 has advanced the five days before a presidential election in 20 of the past 22 votes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gauge has climbed an average 1.9 percent in the run-up to all elections going back to 1928. It’s down 1.3 percent since Monday, with three trading days left until polls open Nov. 8.
     Canaccord Genuity Inc.’s Tony Dwyer upgraded his view of equities to positive from neutral Wednesday. In a note, the co- head of U.S. equity research said the selloff provided a window for active investors to become more aggressive. “While the markets hate uncertainty, in a positive fundamental backdrop, investors should love it because it creates opportunity,” Dwyer said by telephone, highlighting health-care, financials, industrials and technology as groups to consider. “The seasonal history suggests you want to buy any weakness.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Such awareness is like living with a snake in the room;
you watch its every movement, you are very, very sensitive to the slightest sound it makes.
Such a  state of attention is total energy;
in such awareness the totality of yourself is revealed in an instant.
Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done.  One is called yesterday
and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe , do
and mostly live.
                                                                                             -The Dalai Lama

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 
Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents: ALL SAINTS’ DAY
Pope Boniface  IV converted the Pantheon at Rome into  a Christian church, dedicated to all the martyrs, in 610. The original Pantheon built by Agrippa in 27 BC was dedicated to all gods.  This was largely destroyed by fire and its successor, built by Hadrian  c. 120 AD, was also dedicated to all the gods.  It is circular and over 140 ft in diameter (42.6 m) and of similar height.  Since the early 7^th century it has been called Santa Maria Rotunda.  Among the national heroes buried there are the painter Raphael (1483-1520), the first king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II (1820-78), and Umberto I (1844-1900). The festival of All Saints, originally held on May 1^st was changed to November 1^st in 834.
Hadrian also built a Pantheon at Athens.  The Panthéon at Paris was originally the church of St. Genevieve started by Louis XV in 1764 and completed in 1812.  Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), Voltaire (1694-1778) and Victor Hugo (1802-85)  are buried there. 
Westminster Abbey has been called the British Pantheon.

You can’t look at the competition and say you’re going to do it better.  You have to look at the completion and say you’re going to do it differently. –Steve Jobs.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Two dogs enjoy a park in Frankfurt, Germany, on a foggy Tuesday morning. Michael Probst/AP

A man walks past graves at Powazki cemetery in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday. Candles illuminated tombstones in graveyards across Poland on All Saints’ Day, observing one of the most sacred days in the calendar for this deeply Catholic nation. Alik Keplicz/AP
Market Closes for November 1^st, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18037.10	-105.32   -0.58%
S&P 500	2111.72	-14.43   -0.68%
NASDAQ	5153.578	-35.557   -0.69%
TSX	14778.32	-8.95
		-0.06%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17442.40	+17.38
		+0.10%
HANG SENG	23147.07	+212.53
		+0.93%
SENSEX	27876.61	-53.60
		-0.19%
FTSE 100	6917.14	-37.08
		-0.53%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		1.208		1.196
CND. 30 Year Bond		1.851		1.849
U.S.    10 Year Bond		1.8274		1.8255
U.S. 30 Year Bond		2.5806		2.5798

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.74664	0.74535
US $	1.33933	1.34165
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.48076	0.67533
US $	1.10560	0.90448

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1288.45	1272.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	46.67	46.86

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
40%
The increase in the price of the pipe-making material PVC on the Dalian Commodity Exchange so far this year, one of a number of apparent asset bubbles that have formed in China as speculative money sloshes from stocks to bonds to commodities.
Canada
By John Hyland
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks staged an afternoon comeback to almost erase losses before closing at a two-week low, as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. surged the most in 23 years to offset declines in industrial and bank shares.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell less than 0.1 percent to 14,778.32 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the lowest since Oct. 18. The gauge fell as much as 0.5 percent before the Wall Street Journal’s report on Valeant sent the stock surging 30 percent. The S&P/TSX rose 0.4 percent in October for a fourth monthly gain and is up 14 percent in 2016.
     Financial shares slipped as Royal Bank of Canada fell 0.7 percent, sending the largest lender to its lowest level in more than two weeks. Thomson Reuters Corp. jumped 4 percent after it posted third-quarter profit that beat estimates. The company will cut 2,000 jobs worldwide and take a fourth-quarter charge of $200 million to $250 million to reduce expenses.
     Valeant rallied after a report said the company is in talks to sell its Salix gastrointestinal drugs business for as much as $10 billion to Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. The stock rebounded after falling on Monday to the lowest since 2010, when people familiar with the matter said its former CEO and CFO are the focus of U.S. prosecutors as the as they build a fraud case against the company.
     Among energy shares, Enbridge Inc. sank 0.8 percent, and Cameco Corp. fell 3.7 percent to weigh on the group. Crude in New York declined to a one-month low. Prices earlier swung between gains and losses as a projected U.S. stockpile gain added to supply concerns, while gasoline jumped after an explosion and fire in Alabama shut the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S.
     Gold prices advanced before as the Federal Reserve began a two-day meeting and as investors grew more anxious ahead of a tight U.S. presidential race. Gold miners in the S&P/TSX rallied 2.9 percent, as Barrick Gold Corp. gained 4.5 percent and Goldcorp Inc. increased 2.1 percent to a one-week high.
     WestJet Airlines Ltd. jumped the most since July after Canada’s second-largest airline reported third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates and said capacity growth next year would slow.
     Canadian stocks are now 17 percent more expensive than their peers in the S&P 500 Index. The S&P/TSX trades at 22.9 times earnings, compared with 19.9 for the S&P 500 Index. The S&P/TSX is the top performer among developed equity markets tracked by Bloomberg in 2016.

US
By Joseph Ciolli and Anna-Louise Jackson
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell to the lowest since July, breaking below chart levels that have held for four months, as concern over everything from presidential politics to Federal Reserve rate hikes and coming data on the labor market sent gauges of anxiety surging.
     The S&P 500 Index declined 0.7 percent to 2,111.72 at 4 p.m. in New York, the most since Oct. 11. The index has tumbled 1.8 percent during a six-day losing streak that’s its longest since August 2015. It sank as low as 2,097.85 before a bounce, dipping below 2,100 for the first time since July 7. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 105.32 points, or 0.6 percent, to 18,037.10. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.7 percent, and the CBOE Volatility Index surged 8.8 percent to the highest since June 28.
     “This unbelievable election season we’re going through isn’t exactly engendering confidence,” Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co., which oversees $2 billion, said by phone. “There’s more uncertainty as nervousness reaches a crescendo in the final days. Earnings season is basically over, and while it was a pretty good one, there’s nothing out there to trigger an up-move.”
     U.S. equities joined a selloff in riskier assets following an ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll that showed Republican Donald Trump with 46 percent support to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 45 percent. Gold surged more than 1 percent, the dollar weakened versus the Swiss franc, and Mexico’s peso, considered an inverse proxy for Trump’s election fortunes, tumbled.
     Pacing the equity declines, Pfizer Inc. sank the most in three months as its quarterly profit fell short of estimates, while Apple Inc. slipped to a seven-week low to weigh on technology shares, amid signs of softness in demand in China for the iPhone 7. Occidental Petroleum Corp. dropped the most since March following its results. About 8.1 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 25 percent more than the three-month average.
     Tuesday’s equity rout jolted stocks from the tightest trading range since 2006 as investors brace for market turmoil a week from one of the most contentious presidential elections in memory. Just four months removed from the U.K.’s shock decision to leave the European Union in an outcome not predicted by betting markets, anxiety levels have spiked as Clinton’s once dominant lead over Trump withers in the latest polls.
     “So many people have said that if Trump wins there’s going to be some big downside event and with the polls tightening and revelations around Clinton, it just has traders looking to trade on the basis of that,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management. “Then it caught some momentum, because we took out some of the lows technically where we’ve been at since it rallied to new highs.”
     Hedges against a market decline surged in recent days. The CBOE Volatility Index yesterday capped its biggest monthly jump since August 2015, with the measure of market turbulence known as the VIX rising 28 percent during the period. The S&P 500 fell 1.9 percent in October, the most since a selloff at the start of the year, trimming its annual advance to 4 percent. The last time it fell below 2,100, it started a five-week rally of 4.4 percent that took it to its most recent all-time high.
     Ten of 11 main industries in the S&P 500 fell Tuesday, with real estate and utility stocks leading losses with declines of at least 1.7 percent. Technology shares, the biggest group by weighting, slid 0.8 percent as Apple and Facebook Inc. dropped more than 1.1 percent.
     The Fed’s next monetary policy decision is due Wednesday afternoon. Traders are pricing in a 16 percent chance the central bank will raise rates tomorrow, less than a week before the Nov. 8 election, while the odds on a December move are about 70 percent.
     A report Tuesday showed America’s factories barely expanded last month as faster production cushioned a slowdown in orders that signals a plodding manufacturing sector. Earnings are also in focus, with 40 members of the S&P 500 reporting Tuesday. Two- thirds of the way through the season, analysts now expect third- quarter profit growth of 1.6 percent for the benchmark’s constituents, after calling for declines as recently as Oct. 21. 
     If the forecast holds, it would bring an end to the longest earnings recession since the financial crisis.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

If you wish to free yourself from suffering, you must free yourself from pleasure,
and not free yourself from suffering.  Suffering is a reaction.
If you wish to release yourself from suffering,
you must first of all release yourself from pleasure.
Then the suffering will disappear.
Swami Prajnanpad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Land of Heart’s Desire, Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,
But joy is wisdom, time an endless song.
                                                           -W.B Yeats, 1865-1939
                                                           The Land of Heart’s Desire

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 
Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Wiccan New Year
Halloween
Which in the old Celtic calendar was the last day of the year, its night being the time when all the witches and warlocks were abroad,  On the introduction of Christianity it was taken over as the eve (even or e’en) of “all hallows” or “All Saint’s”, and in the late 20^th century it was still a popular “party” occasion.  Adults don ghoulish garb and light candles in hollowed-out-pumpkins to look like eerie grinning heads, and children, similarly attired, go round the houses to play “trick or treat”.  –from Brewster’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable.

We went to the opera in Seattle on Saturday night and fittingly, it was a performance of Hansel and Gretel.  The witch in the Grimm’s brother’s fairy tale was one of the best ever.  Interestingly, the opera was choreographed with a modern twist – the witch’s house in the forest was intricately made of modern day candy, there were no leaves on the trees;  Hansel and Gretel’s house was made of cardboard.  So many people  in the audience  sported fantastic costumes; it sure was a fun intermission taking them all in – so many creative spirits.

On Oct. 31, 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated near her residence by two Sikh security guards.

Also on this day, in 1517, Martin Luther nails his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, beginning the Protestant Reformation.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Migrating cranes fly during sunset near Straussfurt, central Germany, on Monday. The cranes rest in central Germany on their way from breeding places in the north to their wintering grounds in the south. Jens Meyer/AP

People paddle a small boat as they enjoy a mild autumn day on Daumesnil Lake at the Bois de Vincennes east of Paris on Monday. Christian Hartmann/Reuters
Market Closes for October 31^st, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18142.42	-18.77   -0.10%
S&P 500	2126.15	-0.26   -0.01%
NASDAQ	5189.135	-0.969   -0.02%
TSX	14787.27	+1.98
		+0.01%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17425.02	-21.39
		-0.12%
HANG SENG	22934.54	-20.27
		-0.09%
SENSEX	27930.21	-11.30
		-0.04%
FTSE 100	6954.22	-42.04
		-0.60%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		1.196		1.229
CND. 30 Year Bond		1.849		1.891
U.S.    10 Year Bond		1.8255		1.8468
U.S. 30 Year Bond		2.5798		2.6154

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.74535	0.74646
US $	1.34165	1.33966
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.47259	0.67908
US $	1.09759	0.91108

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1272.00	1273.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	46.86	48.70

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
$3 billion
Amount raised by companies going public on U.S. exchanges last week, the best stretch for the U.S. IPO market in more than a year.
Canada
By John Hyland
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks all but erased gains to finish little changed as a selloff in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. offset gains in banks and raw-materials.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose less than 0.1 percent to 14,787.40 at 4 p.m. in Toronto as eight of the 11 sectors in the benchmark edged higher. The gauge capped a fourth straight monthly advance, rising 0.4 percent.
     Valeant dropped to the lowest level since 2010 after people familiar with the matter said its former CEO and CFO are the focus of U.S. prosecutors as the as they build a fraud case against the company that could yield charges within weeks. Valeant fell 12 percent, bringing the health care group down 7.9 percent.
     Raw-materials gained 1.7 percent as gold miners advanced, even as the precious metal fell for the first time in three sessions. Investors weighed the possibility of an impending Federal Reserve interest-rate increase and new uncertainties related to the U.S. presidential campaign. U.S. polls showed that Hillary Clinton lost some ground to Donald Trump after the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it’s reviewing newly discovered e-mails that may be pertinent to its inquiry of her use of a private server.
     Financial stocks climbed as the nation’s largest lenders rebounded from broad declines. The group gained 0.2 percent, led by a 0.6 percent advance in Toronto-Dominion Bank, after a report the bank is well-positioned to win an auction for Richardson GMP, a Canadian wealth management firm. The lender reached a record high.
     Energy shares declined as crude in New York fell to a one- month low after weekend talks between OPEC producers failed to produce tangible details on a deal to curb production. Encana Corp. lost 4.6 percent and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. dropped 1.8 percent.
     Suncor Energy Inc. slipped 1.4 percent, after surging to a two-year high on Thursday as it swung to a third-quarter profit. The company agreed to sell its Canadian lubricants business to HollyFrontier Corp. for C$1.125 billion ($840 million), as Canada’s largest energy producer focuses on core operations in a period of rising oil prices.
     Industrial stocks retreated. Bombardier Inc. fell 4.3 percent. The company announced a jet sale valued at $129.4 million after signing a purchase pact with China’s Minsheng Financial Leasing, which will lease the four Challenger 650 business jets to Singapore based Zetta Jet. Competitor Embraer SA said it won’t use discounts to gain share in the private-jet market as the Brazilian company seeks to reposition itself as a premium-priced planemaker.
     Canadian stocks are now 17 percent more expensive than their peers in the S&P 500 Index. The S&P/TSX trades at 22.9 times earnings, compared with 19.9 for the S&P 500 Index. The S&P/TSX is up almost 14 percent in 2016, the top performance among developed equity markets tracked by Bloomberg.

US
By Joseph Ciolli
     (Bloomberg) — As the presidential election race narrows after Friday’s surprise FBI announcement, stock investors are finally showing some jitters.
     Hedges against a market decline surged immediately following reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reviewing files that may be related to an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail practices when she was secretary of state. The ratio of bearish versus bullish options changing hands on the Chicago Board Options Exchange jumped the most since June to match a four-month high.
     After falling 20 points in 40 minutes following the news on Friday, the S&P 500 Index slipped less than a point to 2,126.15 at 4 p.m. in New York. It wandered today in its narrowest range in seven weeks while capping a third straight monthly decline, its biggest since a plunge in January.
     While the benchmark for American equity remains mired in its tightest range since 2006, investors are bracing for an end to malaise that sent a cross-asset gauge of price swings to the lowest since 2014. Just four months removed from the U.K.’s shock decision to leave the European Union in an outcome not predicted by betting markets, anxiety levels have spiked in the final week of an election season marked by twists that have seen Clinton’s once dominant lead over Republican Donald Trump wither in the latest polls.
     “It’s natural for an institution to want to put some hedges on, given how close the election is and how much uncertainty has arisen recently,” John Fox, director of research at Fenimore Asset Management Inc. in Cobleskill, New York, who helps oversee more than $2 billion, said by phone. “We’ve also heard plenty of talk from individual retail investors that they want to be protected heading into next Tuesday. We got a great lesson from the U.K. that polls can be wrong.”
     The CBOE Equity Put/Call Ratio climbed to 0.78 on Friday, the highest since June and also matching a level reached in September. The measure has seen an average of 0.63 since July 8, a period over which the S&P 500 has been locked in a 64-point range.
     Open interest on put contracts for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF has swelled to about double the same measure for calls, close to the most since April, according data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s high relative to the the average ratio of 1.75 for the past six months.
     Beyond politics, investors weighed data on consumer spending, which did little to alter interest-rate bets as the Federal Reserve prepares to meet, while fresh deal-making boosted industrial shares. Despite the session’s muted moves, the CBOE Volatility Index rose 5.4 percent, bringing its October climb to 28 percent, the most since August 2015.
     “Investors will try to digest the implications of the latest twist in the U.S. election theater and will focus on Wednesday’s Fed meeting,” said Ralf Zimmerman, an equity strategist at Bankhaus Lampe KG based in Dusseldorf, Germany. “Earnings are stabilizing and picking up a bit but valuations are stretched.”
     The S&P 500 has been stuck in a trading range after reaching a record in August, as investors assess the political landscape, the likely trajectory of interest rates, corporate profits and economic data. It hasn’t climbed for three consecutive sessions in more than a month, oscillating between daily gains and losses, while trading at close to 18 times forecast earnings, the highest since 2009.
     In Monday’s trading, Baker Hughes Inc. fell as crude oil dropped to a one-month low, erasing an early gain after General Electric Co. agreed to combine their oil and gas businesses, the latest in a series of deals that has October on pace for the busiest month for mergers and acquisitions in at least 12 years. Level 3 Communications Inc. climbed to a three-month high after agreeing to a $34 billion cash-and-stock takeover offer from CenturyLink Inc., which dropped the most since 2013.
     Among companies moving on earnings news, Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. tumbled the most since 2007 after trimming its outlook, dragging health-care shares lower. Loews Corp. saw its biggest jump in five years as its profit surged on improved results at insurance unit CNA Financial Corp. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18.77 points to 18,142.42. About 6.8 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 4 percent above the three-month average.
     Data today showed consumer purchases climbed in September by the most in three months as incomes grew, signaling momentum in the biggest part of the U.S. economy. Investors will also look for signs of stronger growth this week in gauges on manufacturing and monthly payrolls. The odds on a December rate increase are 71 percent. Traders are pricing in a 16 percent chance the central bank will act this week before the Nov. 8 presidential election.
     “I think that the market is focusing on fundamentals and the fundamentals are relatively good,” said Kevin Caron, a Florham Park, New Jersey-based market strategist and portfolio manager who helps oversee $180 billion at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
     “We’re going to get employment data at the end of the week which will probably tell us that the economy is in growth mode. It’s been positive, it’s been steady and this morning’s numbers contribute more to that picture.”
     With more than half of S&P 500 members having reported quarterly results, analysts now expect earnings growth of 1.6 percent for the benchmark, reversing forecasts for a 1.6 percent decline at the start of the month. If the prediction holds, it will end the longest earnings recession since the financial crisis. Companies releasing results this week include Pfizer Inc., Gilead Sciences Inc., Facebook Inc., Kraft Heinz Co. and Starbucks Corp.

 

Have  a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plain living and high thinking
the moment he  wants to multiply his daily 3wants.  Man’s happiness really lies in contentment.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome,
to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.
                                                                            -Ben Okri. B. 1959

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

We have a Japanese maple tree which is planted near the entrance to our house – it is a dazzling thing to see at this time of year as the leaves have turned iridescent scarlet.  I always look forward to autumn – because I know the beauty the season brings as it transforms nature.  I love this poem that Jackie Kennedy wrote (she was still Jacqueline Bouvier at the time she wrote it in 1943):

THOUGHTS
  –by Jacqueline Bouvier

I love the Autumn.
And yet I cannot say
All the thoughts and things
That make one feel this way.

I love walking on the angry shore;
To watch the angry sea;
Where summer people were before
But now there’s only me.

I love wood fires at night
That have a ruddy glow.
I stare at the flames
And think of long ago.

I love the feeling down inside me
That says to run away
To come and be a gypsy
And laugh the gypsy way.

The tangy taste of apples,
The snowy mist at morn,
The wanderlust inside you
When you hear the huntsman’s horn.

Nostalgia – that’s Autumn,
Dreaming through September
Just a million lovely things
I always will remember.
                             -1943

On Oct. 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.
Also on this day in 1962, Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev agrees to remove Russian missiles from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile crisis.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A cyclist rides through an autumn colored landscape near Dormagen, western Germany, on Friday. Federico Gambarini/dpa/AP
A man walks on Thufa hill in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Friday. Parliamentary elections will be held in Iceland on Saturday. More than 250,000 voters will elect the new 63-member Parliament. Frank Augstein/AP

A rainbow appears shortly after dawn in Santa Monica as one of a series of storms sweeps through California on Friday. Reed Saxon/AP
Market Closes for October 28^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18161.19	-8.49   -0.05%
S&P 500	2126.41	-6.63   -0.31%
NASDAQ	5190.105	-25.869   -0.50%
TSX	14785.29	-48.47
		-0.33%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17446.41	+109.99
		+0.63%
HANG SENG	22954.81	-177.54
		-0.77%
SENSEX	27941.51	+25.61
		+0.09%
FTSE 100	6996.26	+9.69
		+0.14%

Bonds

Bonds		% Yield		Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond		1.229		1.238
CND. 30 Year Bond		1.891		1.893
U.S.    10 Year Bond		1.8468		1.8536
U.S. 30 Year Bond		2.6154		2.6138

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.74646	0.74649
US $	1.33966	1.33961
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.47180	0.67944
US $	1.09863	0.91022

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1273.00	1266.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	48.70	49.72

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
$248.9 billion
The value merger agreements struck this month for U.S. companies, according to Dealogic, surpassing the previous record of $240 billion in July 2015.
Canada
By John Hyland
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks declined after the nation’s largest industries slumped amid global concerns, ranging from OPEC production cuts to the U.S. presidential election.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.3 percent to 14,785.29 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, erasing an advance in afternoon trading after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said it’s reopening an inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of private e- mail. The gauge lost 1 percent for the week, with health-care and real estate shares taking the biggest hits. The S&P/TSX is up almost 14 percent in 2016, the top performance among developed equity markets tracked by Bloomberg.
     Financial stocks fell 0.4 percent as four of the largest banks declined, while Manulife Financial Corp. slumped 1.3 percent, the most in a month. Energy producers lost 1.2 percent as crude tumbled in New York to the lowest in almost four weeks. The losses came as an OPEC committee discussed production targets and as U.S. equities dropped after the FBI disclosed the renewed probe into the Clinton e-mails.
     Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s biggest energy producer, slumped 0.8 percent, falling from a one-year high. The oil-sands giant swung to a profit in the third quarter after restoring operations that were shut during the Alberta wildfires in May.
     Health-care companies fell 4.6 percent to a four-month low. The sector was dragged down by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., after the company fell 8 percent to its lowest level since July amid a selloff in U.S. drugmakers. Health-care was the worst-performing sector this week, and is down 73 percent this year, the most ever.
     Raw-materials producers rallied after as a weaker dollar boosted demand for metals as a haven. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s biggest bullion miner, added 1.5 percent after beating earnings expectations. Goldcorp Inc. gained 0.7 percent.
     Six of the 11 sectors in the benchmark rose today, led by 0.5 percent gains in utilities and raw materials. Utilities reached a five-week high, with Fortis Inc. and Brookfield Renewable Partners LP gaining at least 1 percent.
     Canadian stocks are now 17 percent more expensive than their peers in the S&P 500 Index. The S&P/TSX trades at 23 times earnings, compared with 20 for the S&P 500 Index.
US
By Joseph Ciolli and Anna-Louise Jackson
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined, with the S&P 500 Index falling to a six-week low, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation reopened a probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized e-mail server.
     Word of the FBI’s renewed investigation rattled investors, wiping out gains as equities careened down from the day’s highs. An earlier advance came as data bolstered speculation a stronger economy may lift corporate earnings, while rallies in Alphabet Inc. and Chevron Corp. overshadowed a selloff among drugmakers.
     The S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent to 2,126.41 at 4 p.m. in New York, erasing a 0.4 percent advance. The gauge fell as much as 0.6 percent and extended the longest losing streak since June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 8.49 points to 18,161.19, after reversing a 0.5 percent climb. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.5 percent, joining the S&P 500 at a six-week low. About 7.4 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 14 percent above the three-month average.
     “Clinton is clearly priced to win, and anything that disrupts the market’s predictions will have an adverse reaction,” said Michael Antonelli, an institutional equity sales trader and managing director at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee. “The market has to re-price for a new level of uncertainty, and we’re now dealing with a big heaping teaspoon of it. It has to change its probabilities and change how it’s thinking.”
     It’s not the first time U.S. stocks have been sensitive to perceptions about Clinton’s political prospects. Futures on the S&P 500 rallied three-quarters of a percent during the first presidential debate, when her odds of winning shot up on online prediction markets. A win by Donald Trump “would reduce the value of the S&P 500, the U.K., and Asian stock markets by 10-15%,” economics professors Justin Wolfers and Eric Zitzewitz say in paper released by Brookings Institute.
     “The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” FBI Director James Comey said in a letter to eight committee chairmen in Congress. “I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information.”
     Equity markets have been wagering on a Clinton victory, with the latest RealClear Politics poll average showing her with an advantage of about 5 points. Stocks have been stuck in a range of about 65 points since August as the looming presidential election and expectations for higher interest rates upstage a recovery in corporate profits. The S&P 500 capped a third weekly decline in four, losing 0.7 percent.
     “What it says to me is that the market is pretty fragile here and that any bit of small news can tip this thing,” Peter Cecchini, co-head of equities and chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “A Trump victory would be quite disruptive to the market because of the uncertainty.”
     Following the Clinton news, traders pared bets on a December interest-rate increase by the Federal Reserve, with odds slipping to 70 percent from 74 percent earlier. They’re pricing in a less than 20 percent chance the central bank will act at next week’s meeting, just days before the U.S. vote.
     A report today showed gross domestic product increased the most in two years last quarter as a build in inventories and a soybean-related jump in exports helped cushion softer household spending. Separately, consumer confidence dropped more than previously reported to match the lowest level since 2014.
     “This confirms further the acceleration in the economy that will give the Fed further confidence to raise rates in December,” said Michael Arone, the Boston-based chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors’ U.S. intermediary business. “It was good to see some additional contributions to GDP from something other than the consumer — we’ve been looking for that to broaden the growth and it looks like we got some signs of that here in the third quarter.”
     As one of the busiest weeks of the earnings season draws to a close, 78 percent of S&P 500 firms that reported this season beat profit projections and 58 percent topped sales estimates. Analysts now expect quarterly earnings growth of 1.6 percent for benchmark members, reversing forecasts for a 1.6 percent decline at the start of the month. If the prediction holds, it will end the longest earnings recession since the financial crisis.
     Prior to the afternoon swoon, equities were cruising higher on gains from Google parent Alphabet and Chevron’s strongest rally since March, as investors cheered their quarterly results. Those moves had been enough to overcome Amazon.com Inc.’s steepest drop in eight months on a disappointing outlook, and as drug distributor McKesson Corp. plunged the most since 1999 to lead health-care lower.
     Among other shares moving on earnings news:
     * Hershey Co. rose the most since June after boosting its full- year earnings forecast.
     * AbbVie Inc. sank 6.3 percent after its profit narrowly beat analysts’ estimates, while its top-selling arthritis injection, Humira, fell short of predictions.
     * Amgen Inc. suffered its steepest drop in 15 years after sales of the company’s biggest product fell amid increasing price pressure.
     * Mastercard Inc. gained 3.2 percent to a record as profit and revenue beat predictions at the second-largest U.S. payments network.
     Bucking a historical trend that has seen October post the biggest gains on average of any month over the past 25 years, the S&P 500 is on its way to a decline. It’s down 1.9 percent for the period, the worst since a plunge at the start of the year.
     In Friday’s trading, five of the S&P 500’s 11 main industries rose, led by a 0.7 percent gain in industrials. Health-care fell 2.2 percent to a seven-month low. The CBOE Volatility Index increased 5.4 percent, stretching gains to a fourth day, the most since August. The measure of market turbulence known as the VIX climbed 21 percent for the week.
     Honeywell International Inc. and United Technologies Corp. added more than 0.9 percent to join General Electric Co. in powering the industrials. GE rose 2.1 percent after saying it’s in discussions with Baker Hughes Inc. to form unspecified partnerships. Fortive Corp. and Stericycle Inc. jumped more than 5.7 percent after their profits topped forecasts.
     McKesson’s 23 percent tumble led health-care lower, after cutting its annual forecast in response to aggressive price competition. That dragged down competitors, with AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc. slumping more than 9.7 percent, the biggest declines for each in at least seven years. Merck & Co. slid 4 percent, the most in 14 months.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

To understand pleasure is not to deny it.
We are not condemning it or saying it is right or wrong but if we pursue it,
let us do so with our eyes open, knowing that a mind that is all the time seeking pleasure
must inevitably find its shadow in pain.
They cannot be separated, although we run after pleasure and try to avoid pain.
Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The immortal gods alone have neither age nor death.
All other things almighty Time disturbs.
                         -Sophocles, 498 BC-406 BC

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On this day in 1904, the first subway line opens in New York City.

Don’t talk,
Just act.
Don’t say,
Just show.
Don’t promise,
Just prove.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Workers pick squash on a snowy autumn morning in Kinderhook, N.Y., on Thursday. Mike Groll/AP

Women take photos in front of a large photo of a MacBook computer in a demo room following the announcement of new products at Apple headquarters on Thursday in Cupertino, Calif. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

A cameraman looks at the sculpture ‘Large Head’ during a media preview of the exhibition ‘Alberto Giacometti – Material and Vision,’ by the late Swiss artist, at the Kunsthaus Zürich art museum in Switzerland on Thursday. Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Market Closes for October 27^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18169.68	-29.65     -0.16%
		S&P 500	2133.04	-6.39   -0.30%
NASDAQ	5215.975			-34.293   -0.65%
		TSX	14833.75	+26.19
+0.18%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17336.42	-55.42
		-0.32%
HANG SENG	23132.35	-193.08
		-0.83%
SENSEX	27915.90	+79.39
		+0.29%
FTSE 100	6986.57	+28.48
		+0.41%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
10 Year Bond	1.238	1.157
30 Year  Bond	1.893	1.826
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.8536	1.7896
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.6138	2.5389

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.74649	0.74756
US $	1.33961	1.33768
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45936	0.68523
US $	1.08939	0.91794

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1266.25	1270.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	49.72	49.18

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
$100 billion
The amount that Carlyle said it expects to raise for its funds in the next several years.
Canada
By Eric Lam
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose Thursday, snapping a three-day slide as some key companies posted healthy earnings and crude bounced back from the lowest levels in three weeks.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.2 percent to 14,833.75 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The index had fallen 0.9 percent in the three sessions since closing at a 15-month high on Friday. The equity benchmark is up 14 percent in 2016, the top performance among developed equity markets tracked by Bloomberg.
     Energy producers rallied 1.3 percent to lead gains among five of 11 industries in the S&P/TSX. Crude added 0.9 percent in New York, settling just below $50 a barrel. Reuters reported Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies are willing to cut 4 percent from their peak oil output. OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo urged members to show “maximum flexibility” to agree on output cuts as the group meets later this month.
     Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s biggest energy producer, climbed 5.7 percent to the highest in two years as the oil-sands giant swung to a profit in the third quarter after restoring operations that were shut during the Alberta wildfires in May. Suncor’s results herald possible improvements in earnings among Canadian energy producers amid the resurgence in petroleum prices this year. Crude has rebounded about 90 percent since February when it fell to its lowest level since 2003.
     Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s biggest bullion miner, added 1.2 percent after beating earnings expectations. Barrick has cut its debt load by $1.4 billion this year and is on track to reach its reduction targets. It also raised its full-year production guidance. Rival Goldcorp Inc. slipped 3.7 percent for its worst slide in three weeks as production fell due to a lengthy work stoppage at one of its mines in Argentina.
     Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest diversified miner, ended the day down 0.6 percent after swinging between gains and losses. The company reported adjusted earnings of 26 cents a share that fell just short of the 28 cents analysts had anticipated as coal production rose less than expected and copper output declined. Teck posted third-quarter net profits of C$234 million ($174.8 million) compared with a loss of C$2.15 billion a year earlier. Teck is the best-performing stock in Canada year-to-date since 2009, with a five-fold increase fueled by rallying metallurgical coal and zinc prices.
     Canadian stocks are now 17 percent more expensive than their peers in the S&P 500 Index. The S&P/TSX trades at 23.4 times earnings, compared with compared with 20 for the S&P 500.

US
By John Hyland and Anna-Louise Jackson
     (Bloomberg) — The looming presidential election and expectations for higher borrowing costs by year end are taking all the joy out of a recovery in corporate profits.
     The best earnings season in six quarters hasn’t been able to shake stocks from a three-month stupor. While companies beat analyst estimates by an average of almost 6 percent in the 15 days since Alcoa Inc. kicked off reporting, the S&P 500 Index has barely budged, notching its smallest move over the comparable period since the first quarter 2015.
     The main benchmark for U.S. equity fell 0.3 percent to 2,133.04 as of 4 p.m. in New York. Losses steepened in afternoon trading, paced by declines in retailers and media companies. The index is down 0.2 percent during the earnings season with less than two weeks until the Federal Reserve’s next meeting and the Nov. 8 presidential election.
     Uncertainty surrounding the political outcome has companies and investors sitting on their hands, said Michael Cuggino, president and portfolio manager of Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC, with $3 billion in assets. “There is this general sense of, ‘Let’s wait until some of those questions are answered a little bit to take on that incremental business project or that business development activity,’ so I think you have that weighing on people, as well. The Fed, again is a wild card.”
     Earnings reports torpedoed small-cap stocks on Thursday, sending the Russell 2000 Index to a more than three-month low. Community Health Systems Inc. plummeted to an all-time low, losing half its value after the struggling hospital chain’s preliminary results missed estimates. GNC Holdings Inc. and Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. slumped more than 18 percent after their results disappointed.
     While the majority of profit reports have been better than expected, investors’ wariness before the election, coupled with lackluster outlooks from companies including Intel Corp., Apple Inc. and 3M Co., have kept equity gains in check this season. The S&P 500 hasn’t climbed for more than two straight days in five weeks, on its way to a third monthly decline and the worst since January. The benchmark trades at 18 times forecast earnings, the highest since 2009.
     The air of caution approaching the November vote isn’t unwarranted. Should Democrats gain control of Congress in a wave election, the results would lower the S&P 500 two percent in the first month, and four percent over three months, according to a report by Goldman Sachs Group. In a non-wave election, the index is poised to gain six percent in the first three months.
     Meanwhile, traders are pricing in less than one-in-five odds of an increase at next week’s meeting, which takes place days before voters decide between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. The probability for a December move is seen at 74 percent.
     “As we approach the election, the apprehension gets even greater and I think that can be alleviated by the polls — the more the polls start to show Hillary’s lead expanding or being more solidified, the more likely the market might be to creep higher,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab Corp. “As the polls show her lead widening, if that happens, then the market could very well ease into and sort of front-run the election and move higher ahead of it.”
     The 261 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported third- quarter results grew profits by an average 2.7 percent over the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Analysts now expect year-over-year profit will be flat once the June- September reporting is finished, likely bringing an end to the longest earnings recession since the financial crisis.
     In Thursday’s trading, optimism on better-than-forecast profits from companies including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Dow Chemical Co. was tempered by declines in United Parcel Service Inc. and Simon Property Group Inc. after their reports. Utilities and consumer staples slipped as a rout in bonds damped demand for equities with high dividend payouts. About 7.2 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 11 percent above the three-month average.
     The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 29.65 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,169.68, after wavering between gains and losses as the dollar strengthened while the yield on the 10-year Treasury note jumped on speculation monetary policy will tighten this year. The Nasdaq 100 Index retreated 0.5 percent, weighed by a second day of post-earnings declines in Apple Inc. and Comcast Corp.
     After markets closed, Amazon.com Inc. projected fourth- quarter sales that may miss estimates, sending its shares down 4.4 percent as of 4:34 p.m. in after-hours trading. Google parent Alphabet Inc. edged up 0.5 percent in the late session after its results topped analysts’ forecasts, bolstered by a steady internet ad business.
     “It seems to me that we’re probably in a holding pattern in equities,” said Mark Heppenstall, the Horsham, Pennsylvania- based chief investment officer of Penn Mutual Asset Management, which oversees about $20 billion. “Earnings — some disappointments, some beating expectations, but nothing to get positive momentum.”
     Among shares moving on corporate news today, Qualcomm Inc. rose 2.8 percent to a five-month high after the largest maker of mobile-phone chips agreed to acquire NXP Semiconductors NV in a transaction valued at $47 billion, aiming to speed an expansion into new industries and reduce its dependence on the smartphone market.
     CenturyLink Inc. surged as much as 18 percent, before closing with a 9.7 percent gain as people familiar with the matter said the company is in talks to acquire Level 3 Communications Inc., a deal that would create a more formidable competitor in the market for business telecommunications services.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

We would be happy to do the millions of things that we are not able to do.
The will is there, but we are not able to fulfill our desire.  Thus when we feel a desire, but we are unable to realize that desire, we undergo a reaction we call suffering.
What is the cause of desire?  I am, only me.
As a result, I myself am the cause of all of the suffering that I have known.
Swami Vivekananda

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

Is man by nature morally good or evil?  Neither, for he is by nature not a moral being;
he only becomes such when his reason is raised to the concepts of duty and law   
                                                                         -Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On October 26^th, 1819, Lord Byron wrote to Douglas Kinnaird about his poem Don Juan:

As to Don Juan – confess – confess – you dog – and be candid – that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing – it may be bawdy – but is it not good English? – it may be profligate – but is it not life, is it not thething? – Could any man have written it – who has not lived in the world? – and tooled in a post-chaise? in a hackney coach? in a gondola? against a wall? in a court carriage? in a vis á vis? – on a table? – and under it?

 –from Don Juan
…Your bays may hide the baldness of your brows— 
       Perhaps some virtuous blushes—let them go— 
To you I envy neither fruit nor boughs— 
       And for the fame you would engross below, 
The field is universal, and allows 
       Scope to all such as feel the inherent glow: 
Scott, Rogers, Campbell, Moore and Crabbe, will try 
‘Gainst you the question with posterity. 

For me, who, wandering with pedestrian Muses, 
       Contend not with you on the winged steed, 
I wish your fate may yield ye, when she chooses, 
       The fame you envy, and the skill you need; 
And, recollect, a poet nothing loses 
       In giving to his brethren their full meed 
Of merit, and complaint of present days 
Is not the certain path to future praise. 

He that reserves his laurels for posterity 
       (Who does not often claim the bright reversion) 
Has generally no great crop to spare it, he 
       Being only injur’d by his own assertion; 
And although here and there some glorious rarity 
       Arise like Titan from the sea’s immersion, 
The major part of such appellants go 
To—God knows where—for no one else can know…
                                               By Lord Byron

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Wafts of mist move over the landscape near Tolzin, northeastern Germany, on Wednesday morning. Bernd Wuestneck/dpa/AP

A street vendor looks at garlands on sale for the Tihar festival, also called Diwali, along the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Wednesday.Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
Market Closes for October 26^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18199.33	+30.06   +0.17%
S&P 500	2139.43	-3.73   -0.17%
NASDAQ	5250.270	-33.129   -0.63%
TSX	14807.56	-63.07
		-0.42%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17391.84	+26.59
		+0.15%
HANG SENG	23325.43	-239.68
		-1.02%
SENSEX	27836.51	-254.91
		-0.91%
FTSE 100	6958.09	-59.55
		-0.85%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.157	1.141
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.826	1.812
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.7896	1.7560
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5389	2.4985

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.74756	0.74878
US $	1.33768	1.33551
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45901	0.68540
US $	1.09070	0.91684

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1270.50	1269.40
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	49.18	49.51

Market Commentary:
NUMBER OF THE DAY
70 years

The term of Austria’s newest bond, issued Tuesday—the longest-dated publicly issued government bond in the eurozone and the latest example of how central banks’ easy-money policies are prompting issuers to secure cheap borrowing for many decades ahead.
Canada
By John Hyland
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks declined for a third day as disappointing corporate earnings raised concerns about the strength of the nation’s economy.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.4 percent to 14,807.56 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The index has fallen 0.9 percent since closing at a 15-month high on Friday. It’s still up 14 percent in 2016, the top performance among developed equity markets tracked by Bloomberg.
     Seven of 11 sectors in the index fell Wednesday, led by drops of more than 1.5 percent by information technology companies, industrials and materials producers. DH Corp. plunged 43 percent to the lowest level in almost five years after it reported that a decline in its legacy check-making business was speeding up and large banks were delaying purchases of new software. Its third quarter earnings missed analysts estimates and the company provided a cautious outlook for 2017.
     Canadian National Railway Co. fell 3.8 percent, the most since April, amid concern its margins may contract and next year’s earnings expectations may be too optimistic. Energy producers also slipped as crude remained below $50 a barrel on renewed concerns over a supply glut. Financials gained 0.4 percent, paced by Toronto-Dominion Bank, which rose for a 10th consecutive day and reached a record high of $60.84.
     Raw materials producers took a hit as metals retreated after Tuesday’s rally. In corporate news, Premier Gold Mines Ltd. fell 7.7 percent after saying it will buy exploration projects in Nevada and Mexico from Goldcorp Inc. and Kinross Gold Corp. The materials industry remains the best performing sector in the index, having gained 45 percent this year.
     Energy producers, Canada’s second-largest sector, retreated as oil fell to a three-week low after a government report showed an unexpected decline in U.S. petroleum supply was centered on the West Coast. Crude has fluctuated as concerns grow over Russia and Iraq’s willingness to cooperate with OPEC on output cuts. Encana Corp. fell 0.8 percent to the lowest level this month and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. slid from the high it hit on Monday.
     Medical marijuana producer Canopy Growth Corp. gained 6.1 percent after Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada’s largest drug store chain, applied for a medical marijuana retail license. Loblaw Companies Ltd., the owner of Shoppers, jumped more than 1 percent on the news, which is the company’s biggest intraday gain since August. Tal Woolley, an analyst at Dundee Securities in Toronto, wrote that other companies will follow Loblaw’s lead and medical marijuana will be one of the largest retail categories to emerge in Canada over the next five to 10 years.

US
By Anna-Louise Jackson and Rebecca Spalding
     (Bloomberg) — The S&P 500 Index edged lower, after lurching between gains and losses, with corporate reports spurring a tug of war as financial and industrial companies advanced to counter losses among health-care and technology shares.
     A disappointing forecast from Apple Inc. weighed on tech, and Edwards Lifesciences Corp. plunged the most in three years to drag health-care lower after the company’s sales missed estimates. Countering declines, Boeing Co. jumped the most in 21 months following its quarterly report. Mondelez International Inc. rallied after boosting its profit forecast, and the KBW Bank Index rose to its best level this year as Treasury yields approached June highs.
     The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 2,139.43 at 4 p.m. in New York, after briefly erasing a 0.5 percent slide when crude oil wiped out losses on signs of lower supplies. The benchmark renewed declines as oil again lost momentum in the afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 30.06 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,199.33, bolstered by Boeing. The Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 0.6 percent, the most in two weeks. About 6.7 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 3 percent above the three-month average.
     “It’s not common to see the Dow, the S&P and the Nasdaq performing in such disparate ways,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist with Wells Fargo Funds Management LLC, which oversees $242 billion. “Only 4 percent of the time have we seen the Dow outperform the S&P and the S&P outperform the Nasdaq by these margins. It’s typically driven by just a handful of names or sectors sticking out like sore thumbs, so it’s important to not assume the Nasdaq is telling us something the Dow or the S&P are missing. Still, it’s rare and rare events tend to grab our attention.”
     The S&P 500 hasn’t climbed for more than two consecutive days for almost five weeks, unable to gain traction during an earnings season dappled with disappointing forecasts from Intel Corp. to 3M Co. and Apple. While 78 percent of companies that have reported so far beat profit forecasts and 62 percent exceeded revenue estimates, analysts still predict third-quarter income will be flat compared to a year ago. Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are among those releasing results tomorrow.
     Shares moving on earnings news included:
     * Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. sank to a three-year low, with quarterly results missing estimates as the company struggles to come back from an outbreak of foodborne illnesses last year.
     * Southwest Airlines Co. dropped 8.5 percent after predicting a revenue measure may worsen this quarter, a sign of diminished power to raise airfares.
     * Biogen Inc. rallied 3.7 percent after its quarterly profit topped estimates, with sales from a top-selling multiple- sclerosis drug jumping 10 percent.
     * Northrop Grumman Corp. climbed to a record, after raising its full-year earnings forecast as third-quarter results topped estimates.
     * Akamai Technologies Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc. surged more than 10 percent after their profits beat estimates, offsetting some of Apple’s drag on the technology group.
     * Huntington Bancshares Inc. advanced 5 percent to a nine-month high after its quarterly results topped predictions. That helped sending lenders in the S&P 500 toward a ten-month high.
     Meanwhile, investors are assessing the likely trajectory of interest rates and the outcome of the the U.S. presidential elections, with the next Federal Reserve meeting and the vote both due in the next two weeks. Traders see a less than one-in- five chance the Fed will raise rates at its next meeting before the election. They are pricing in nearly 73 percent odds of a December move.
     A report today showed purchases of new-homes in September stayed close to an almost nine-year high, showing residential real estate was maintaining momentum heading into the quieter selling season.
     “The market is pretty directionless at the moment, chopping around in a range,” said Michael Hewson, a market analyst at CMC Markets in London. “Some investors are trimming down their portfolios ahead of next week’s Fed announcement.”
     The S&P 500 is on track for a third monthly decline and its worst since January. That goes against its historical trend — the benchmark has climbed 1.9 percent on average in the past 25 Octobers, the biggest gain of any month. It’s trading at 18 times forecast earnings, the highest since 2009.
     In Wednesday’s trading, seven of the S&P 500’s 11 main industries retreated, with real estate sinking 1.3 percent while technology and health-care shares lost at least 0.5 percent. Financials and industrials increased more than 0.4 percent. The CBOE Volatility Index rose 5.8 percent to a one-week high.
     “The markets typically trade defensively in October before an election anyway, I expect more of the same,” said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird. “The market is going to go lower before it goes higher. It’s going to require a springboard and that springboard requires slightly lower prices.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

We must always bear in mind
that we rarer not going t be free,
but are free already.
Every idea that we are bound is a delusion.
Every idea that we are happy or unhappy
is a tremendous delusion.
Swami Vivekananda

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

Never attribute to malice what can adequately
be explained by stupidity.
                                          -Hanlon’s Razor

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 1854, the British suffered heavy losses against Russia in the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. The battle inspired Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “Charge of the Light Brigade.”

The Charge of the Light Brigade
  By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1.
Half a league, half a league,
  Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
“Charge for the guns!” he said:
Into the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.
2.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
  Someone had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.
3.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
  Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
  Rode the six hundred.
4.
Flash’d all their sabres bare,
Flash’d as they turn’d in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
  All the world wonder’d:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro’ the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel’d from the sabre stroke
  Shatter’d and sunder’d.
Then they rode back, but not
  Not the six hundred.
5.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
  Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
  Left of six hundred.
6.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
  All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
  Noble six hundred. 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A man makes his way under fall foliage in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on Tuesday. Matthias Schrader/AP

A man stands on the shore of the Baltic Sea in Timmendorfer Strand, northern Germany, on Tuesday. Michael Probst/AP
Market Closes for October 25^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18169.27	-53.76   -0.30%
S&P 500	2143.16	-8.17   -0.38%
NASDAQ	5283.398	-26.428   -0.50%
TSX	14870.63	-52.38
		-0.35%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17365.25	+130.83
		+0.76%
HANG SENG	23565.11	-38.97
		-0.17%
SENSEX	28091.42	-87.66
		-0.31%
FTSE 100	7017.64	+31.24
		+0.45%

Bonds

 

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.141	1.151
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.812	1.814
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.7560	1.7629
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.4985	2.5155

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.74878	0.75259
US $	1.33551	1.32875
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45409	0.68771
US $	1.08879	0.91845

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1269.40	1265.55
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	49.51	50.12

Market Commentary:

NUMBER OF THE DAY
$199 billion
The record-breaking value of Chinese overseas acquisitions so far this year, reflecting an aggressive new generation of Chinese deal makers. On Monday, HNA Group announced the purchase of a 25% stake in Hilton Worldwide from Blackstone Group for $6.5 billion.
Canada
     By John Hyland
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for a second day as a selloff in crude dragged energy producers lower, overshadowing a rally in raw materials paced by West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. and gold miners.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.4 percent to 14,870.63 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. Raw materials rebounded after snapping their longest winning streak in three months. Miners and energy producers have propelled the index to a 14 percent increase this year, making it the top performing developed equity market in the world, ahead of the U.K. and New Zealand.
     Nine of the 11 sectors in the index fell, paced by a 1.3 percent decline in energy shares, while raw-materials producers rose to a one-week high as gold climbed and West Fraser Timber Co Ltd. topped earnings and revenue estimates. The lumber company capped its largest gain in 16 years, rising 12 percent.
     Gold investors assessed demand from India before its Diwali festival that can lead to increased buying, with miners rebounding from yesterday’s decline. B2Gold Corp. added 8 percent and Barrick Gold Corp. increased 2.2 percent.
     Demand for gold has slipped recently, with the price falling more than $100 from its high this year, as traders price in increasing odds that interest rates will rise. Expectations for higher borrowing costs have strengthened the dollar, sending a gauge on the currency to its highest since March before easing back today. Rising rates dull the precious metal’s appeal when compared to higher yielding assets.
     Health-care shares advanced 0.8 percent, led by a 1.8 percent climb in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. Renowned fund manager Bill Miller said he purchased shares of the drug maker, predicting the stock will double in three years.
     Energy producers, Canada’s second largest sector, retreated as crude in New York dropped 1.1 percent to a one-week low. Oil slipped below $50 a barrel on speculation Russia won’t curb output, just after Iraq said it should be exempt from OPEC’s planned cuts. TransCanada Corp. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. fell at least 1.3 percent.
     Financials, which account for about a third of the index, declined 0.3 percent. Royal Bank of Canada slipped 0.4 percent to a one-week low, while Thomson Reuters Corp. declined 0.9 percent.
     Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said Monday Canada’s two-track economy complicates the decision to cut interest rates. Poloz reiterated the central bank considered cutting rates ahead of last week’s decision to stand pat, but held off because of uncertainties around the nation’s growth outlook. Yesterday, the central bank renewed a two percent inflation targeting agreement, as price increases quickened in September for the first time in five months.
     Canadian stock valuations remain 17 percent higher than their U.S. peers, with the S&P/TSX carrying a price-earnings ratio of 23.6 compared with 20.1 for the the S&P 500 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

US
By Rita Nazareth, Anna-Louise Jackson and Rebecca Spalding
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined from a two-week high as mixed forecasts from industry giants and a slump in consumer confidence spurred concern over the outlook for the world’s largest economy. Oil retreated.
     Blue chips Caterpillar Inc. and 3M Co. dropped after cutting their estimates, outweighing optimism with United Technologies Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co.’s earnings. Apple Inc. fell in after-hours trading as it reported sliding prices for its smartphones and forecast lower-than-expected profitability over the holiday period. The pound pared losses as Bank of England Governor Mark Carney signaled that the chances of another interest-rate cut this year are diminishing. Oil sank on bets Russia won’t join OPEC to curb supply.
     Traders have been assessing the strength of corporate profits and the economy amid bets on a Federal Reserve hike by December. U.S. consumer confidence fell more than forecast in October as households became less upbeat about the labor market, the Conference Board said Tuesday. More than a third of S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report earnings this week, including Alphabet Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Amazon.com Inc. and Boeing Co. 
     “Given that we’re now in the thick of earnings season, there are going to be acute reactions nearly every day,” said Frank Cappelleri, executive director at Instinet LLC in New York. “Other than that, the price action is not materially different than what we’ve seen over the last two months. There have been multiple false starts where budding momentum has gotten cut short.”
     Global markets have actually seen declines in volatility — with a cross-asset gauge of price swings in equities, rates, currency and commodities down to the lowest since 2014.
     While risks exist, the drop in anxiety has coincided with a reduction in uncertainty when it comes to U.S. politics and policy. Hillary Clinton’s odds of victory are close to the highest on record at 86.5 percent, according to forecaster FiveThirtyEight. Likewise, investors appear to be coming to terms with the inevitability of a Federal Reserve hike in December.
     “Until we get something that really surprises the market, we’re going to continue in this low volatility,” said Hank Smith, who helps manage more than $6 billion as chief investment officer at Haverford Trust Co. in Radnor, Pennsylvania “Neither the election nor the Fed’s rate decision have people particularly worried right now.”
     The S&P 500 dropped 0.4 percent to 2,143.16 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge has been stuck in a 64-point trading range after reaching a record in August and hasn’t climbed for three consecutive sessions in more than a month.
     Apple shares fell 2.3 percent to $115.55 in extended hours on Tuesday. The stock closed at $118.25 in New York regular trading. It had rallied 22 percent in the last three months. The company, which gets two thirds of revenue from the iPhone, experienced its first annual sales decline since 2001, amid waning smartphone demand.
     Among stocks moving on corporate news:
     * 3M slumped after cutting the top end of its 2016 profit forecast.
     * Caterpillar slipped after reducing its sales estimate for this year.
     * Sherwin-Williams Co.’s disappointing results weighed on shares of Home Depot Inc. and Lowe’s Cos.
     * Whirlpool Corp. tumbled after lowering its profit outlook.
     * Under Armour Inc. sank as its forecast renewed slowdown concern.
    * JetBlue Airways Corp. fell after reporting profit that missed estimates.
     * Procter & Gamble and United Technologies climbed after their results beat forecasts.A two-day lull for European equities ended as                Novartis AG led drugmakers down after saying its profit fell for a seventh straight quarter while Italian lenders slumped. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.4 percent, erasing an earlier advance. Miners jumped to their highest level since August 2015, tracking a rally in metal prices.
     Most emerging-market stocks retreated as Brazilian consumer companies fell on prospects for a slower-than-expected reduction in borrowing costs, outweighing gains in commodity producers from South Africa to China.
     Oil fell 1.1 percent in New York. Output cuts aren’t “an option for us,” said Russia’s envoy at OPEC, Vladimir Voronkov, according to Interfax. U.S. crude supplies probably rose 2 million barrels last week, a Bloomberg survey showed before Energy Information Administration data Wednesday.
      “The nonsense around the production agreement comes in and out of the market,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund that focuses on energy. “It’s coming out of oil today because of the Russian statements, which come after Iraq made it clear that they weren’t going to make a cut.”
     West Texas Intermediate for December delivery slipped 56 cents to $49.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent for December settlement dropped 67 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $50.79 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
     Arabica coffee, the mild-tasting bean type favored by Starbucks Corp., surged to the highest since February 2015 after Brazil’s largest producer cut its export estimate for 2016 amid rising domestic consumption and the effects of drought.
     Gold rallied on speculation that demand will accelerate before the Diwali religious festival in India, the world’s second-biggest buyer of the metal.
     Industrial metals surged as increasing profits at Chinese steelmakers and gains in global manufacturing boosted speculation that demand will improve.
     The pound rebounded from its lowest level since the flash crash earlier this month after Carney said there were limits to officials’ willingness to look beyond an overshoot of their inflation target. Sterling fell 0.4 percent at $1.2186, after earlier slumping 1.3 percent.
     “The comments by Carney do highlight that the latest sterling selloff is starting to worry policy makers as it brings closer the risk of stagflation,” said Valentin Marinov, head of Group-of-10 currency strategy at Credit Agricole SA’s corporate- and investment-banking unit in London.
     Bloomberg’s Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the currency against 10 major peers, fell 0.1 percent after rising to the highest in seven months.
     South Africa’s rand led gains in emerging markets amid a rally in metals. Russia’s ruble rose as companies lined up to make payments before a tax deadline. Chile’s peso rallied amid speculation of a change of government next year and as copper prices surged.
     A gauge of expected price swings in Treasuries fell to the lowest since December 2014 before the Fed meets next week as traders see a clearer outlook for monetary policy in the U.S. and abroad.
     “No one’s expecting anything from the Fed’s meeting next week,” said Justin Lederer, an interest-rate strategist in New York at Cantor Fitzgerald LP, one of 23 primary dealers that trade with the Fed. “People are looking for a December rate hike. Even with the presidential election, people are comfortable with rates.”
     The benchmark U.S. 10-year note yield was little changed at 1.76 percent, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader data. A $26 billion two-year Treasury auction drew the weakest demand since July.
     Austria sold 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) of bonds due in November 2086 via banks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The sale follows this year’s century bond offerings from Belgium and Ireland, as well as 50-year deals from France, Italy and Spain, as countries take advantage of historically low interest rates to issue ultra-long debt.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Like the silkworm you have built a cocoon around yourself.  Who will save you?
Burst your own cocoon and come out as the beautiful butterfly, as the free soul.
Swami Vivekananda

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of
your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather.
                                                                          -Michael Pritchard, b. 1949

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 2005, civil rights activist Rosa Parks dies at age 92.
On Oct. 24, 1945, the United Nations charter took effect.
Go to article »

Confidence is silent.
Insecurities are loud.

Try to Praise the Mutilated World
by Adam Zagajewski

Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June’s long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
One of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaved eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY:

Jury members stand behind a show piece by the Canadian national team during the International Exhibition of Culinary Art (IKA), also known as the Culinary Olympics, in Erfurt, Germany, on Monday. The ‘Olympics of Chefs’ has more than 2,000 participants and is the most important event for chefs and cooks worldwide. Jens Meyer/AP
Goshi, a black jaguar, stands on top of a carved Halloween pumpkin in its enclosure as part of the Enchantment event at Chester Zoo in Chester, England, on Monday. Phil Noble/Reuters
Some of the 8,000 participants in the Zombie Bike Ride pedal down South Roosevelt Boulevard during the annual Fantasy Fest costume and mask festival in Key West, Fla., on Sunday. Rob O’Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau/Reuters
Market Closes for October 24^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18223.03	+77.32   +0.43%
S&P 500	2151.33	+10.17   +0.47%
NASDAQ	5309.828	+52.426   +1.00%
TSX	14923.01	-16.03
		-0.11%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17234.42	+49.83
		+0.29%
HANG SENG	23604.08	+229.68
		+0.98%
SENSEX	28179.08	+101.90
		+0.36%
FTSE 100	6986.40	-34.07
		-0.49%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.151	1.129
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.814	1.794
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.7629	1.7347
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5155	2.4839

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.75259	0.74971
US $	1.32875	1.33384
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.44549	0.69181
US $	1.08786	0.91924

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1265.55	1266.05
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	50.12	50.55

Market Commentary:
Canada
By John Hyland
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks slid back from a five-day rally on Monday as a drop in commodities prices pressured oil and gold companies.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 0.1 percent to 14,923.01 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge rose 2.4 percent last week to its highest level since June 2015. Gains among miners and energy producers have propelled the index to a 15 percent increase this year, making it the top performing developed equity market in the world, ahead of the U.K. and New Zealand.
     Seven of the 11 sectors in the index edged higher, led by information technology, which picked up 0.9 percent, paced by a 2 percent increase in Montreal-based CGI Group Inc. Financials, which account for about a third of the index, rose 0.2 percent after Toronto-Dominion Bank and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. agreed to buy St. Louis-based brokerage Scottrade Financial Services Inc. for $4 billion. Toronto-Dominion, the largest stakeholder in TD Ameritrade, expects the deal to bolster its U.S. expansion. The lender’s stock rose 0.2 percent to a record high.
     Energy producers, Canada’s second largest sector, fell 0.7 percent as crude dropped 0.4 percent at 4 p.m. in New York, hovering just above $50 a barrel. Oil slumped after Iraq, OPEC’s second-biggest producer, said it should be exempt from planned output cuts. Enbridge Inc. fell 0.9 percent and TransCanada Corp. was down 1.4 percent.
     Raw-materials producers fell 0.9 percent from a monthly high. Gold fell 0.2 percent as the dollar slipped from its highest level in seven months, supporting demand for the metal that has sunk more than $100 from its high this year. That rally, which took gold prices to the best first half in almost four decades, is fading as traders price-in increasing odds that interest rates will rise. Rising rates dull the precious metal’s appeal because it doesn’t pay interest. Barrick Gold Corp. fell 1.9 percent.
     The Bank of Canada renewed a two percent inflation targeting agreement, as Canada’s inflation rate quickened in September for the first time in five months. The consumer price index rose 1.3 percent in September from a year ago, led by higher gasoline prices.
     Canadian stock valuations remain 17 percent higher than their U.S. peers, with the S&P/TSX carrying a price-earnings ratio of 23.7 compared with 20.2 for the the S&P 500 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
     Restaurant Brands International Inc., which owns Burger King and Tim Hortons, fell 4.5 percent despite posting third- quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates. The Oakville, Ontario-based company has gained 16 percent this year.

US
By Anna-Louise Jackson
     (Bloomberg) — Acquirers may be paying less in acquisitions, but that isn’t keeping equity bulls from celebrating another round of merger mania.
     AT&T Inc.’s planned takeover of Time Warner Inc., at $108.7 billion the largest of the year, led a spate of announcements since Friday totaling nearly $124 billion. B/E Aerospace Inc. jumped 16 percent after Rockwell Collins Inc. said it would purchase the aircraft-parts supplier for $6.4 billion. Financial companies reached a six-week high as TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and its largest stakeholder agreed to buy Scottrade Financial Services Inc.
     The S&P 500 Index rose 0.5 percent to 2,151.33 at 4 p.m. in New York, closing at a two-week high as one of the earnings reporting season’s busiest weeks began. The Nasdaq 100 Index added 1.2 percent to a record as Microsoft Corp. led a rally in technology shares.
     While dealmaking is picking up, the average premium has shrunk to a two-year low of 28 percent in the fourth quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Cash-and-stock transactions, which represent about 37 percent of total volume when proposed deals are excluded, also are being proffered at lower premiums. The measure has ticked up from a one-year low in the second quarter, but at 26 percent in the current period it’s below a longer-term average of nearly 32 percent.
     Even if animal spirits are a little more muted, the flurry is good for sentiment, said Michael Antonelli, an institutional equity sales trader and managing director at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee. “Clients like to see that M&A because it just means companies are still optimistic about the future. There’s an optimism that encircles this many deals in one day.”
     Amid a backdrop of lackluster growth, many companies still have cash on hand, and buying other companies has become a more compelling way to appease investors rather than increasing dividends or making infrastructure investments, said Steve Chiavarone, a portfolio manager with Federated Investors in New York. With the S&P 500 trading about 19 percent above its five- year average price-earnings ratio, that’s made share repurchases less attractive.
     “When you’re trading near all-time highs, you have to ask what’s the incremental value of that share repurchase,” Chiavarone said. “To see companies engaging in M&A, as long as it’s intelligent and thoughtful M&A, that’s a better use of cash than buying more shares.”
     After surging as much as 7.2 percent this year to a record in August, the S&P 500 has been stuck in a 64-point trading range as investors weigh Federal Reserve policy, the strength of corporate profits and economic reports. The main benchmark for U.S. equity crept up 0.4 percent last week as S&P 500 companies looked poised to report profit growth for the first time in six quarters. The gauge trades at 18.2 times forecast earnings, the highest since at least 2009.
     The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 77.32 points on Monday, or 0.4 percent, to 18,223.03. About 5.8 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 10 percent below the three-month average.
     While dealmaking helped send stocks higher Monday, some of the companies involved in the latest wave held back stronger gains in the S&P 500. AT&T lingered at an eight-month low, losing 1.7 percent, while Time Warner retraced part of a two- day, 13 percent jump that came on speculation their merger was imminent. Rockwell Collins marked its biggest drop in five years, and TD Ameritrade sank the most since June.
     “You would think there’d be a bigger pop on all these deals,” Antonelli said. “Today’s price action, where the market jumps significantly overnight and then opens and goes sideways, doesn’t give you a warm and fuzzy feeling because it leads you to believe that a lot of people are just watching and waiting.”
     More than a third of S&P 500 members are scheduled to post earnings this week, including Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Boeing Co. Analysts now predict year-on-year profit will be flat once the third-quarter reporting is finished, better than projections for a 1.5 percent contraction a month ago.
     Among other shares moving on corporate news, T-Mobile US Inc. gained 9.5 percent to a nine-year high after posting profit that exceeded estimates. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. added as much as 3.7 percent before paring gains as China’s HNA Group is acquiring about 25 percent of the hotel company from from Blackstone Group LP in a deal valued at about $6.5 billion.
     Kimberly-Clark Corp. lost 4.7 percent to a one-year low after cutting estimates for annual sales growth. Genworth Financial Inc. dropped 8.1 percent after China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co. agreed to purchase the financial-services firm in a $2.7 billion cash deal.
     Microsoft Corp. extended Friday’s post-earnings rally, stretching to a fresh all-time high to bolster gains among technology companies as the group closed at the loftiest level in more than 16 years.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

The freedom of the seed resides in its fulfillment of its dharma, of its nature and its destiny,
which is to become a tree; the failure to achieve this
becomes for the seed a prison.
The sacrifice through which one thing reaches its fulfillment is not a sacrifice that leads to death,
it is the casting off of chains and the attainment of freedom.
Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings;
the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
                                                         -Winston Churchill, 1874-1965

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

The Colder the Air

We must admire her perfect aim,
this huntress of the winter air
whose level weapon needs no sight,
if it were not that everywhere
her game is sure, her shot is right.
The least of us could do the same.

The chalky birds or boats stand still,
reducing her conditions of chance;
air’s gallery marks identically
the narrow gallery of her glance.
The target-center in her eye
is equally her aim and will.

Time’s in her pocket, ticking loud
on one stalled second.  She’ll consult
not time nor circumstance.  She calls
on atmosphere for her result.
(It is this clock that later falls
in wheels and chimes of leaf and cloud.)
                         -Elizabeth Bishop
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Fog blankets the south tower of Golden Gate Bridge on Friday in San Francisco. Eric Risberg/AP

 

People brave the wind on the waterfront of Victoria Harbor as Typhoon Haima approaches Hong Kong on Friday. Typhoon Haima churned toward southern China after smashing into the northern Philippines with ferocious wind and rain, triggering flooding, landslides and power outages. Vincent Yu/AP
Market Closes for October 21st, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18145.71	-16.64   -0.09%
S&P 500	2141.16	-0.18   -0.01%
NASDAQ	5257.402	+15.569   +0.30%
TSX	14939.04	+91.12
		+0.61%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17184.59	-50.91
		-0.30%
HANG SENG	23374.40	+69.43
		+0.30%
SENSEX	28077.18	-52.66
		-0.19%
FTSE 100	7020.47	-6.43
		-0.09%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.129	1.171
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.794	1.828
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.7347	1.7556
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.4839	2.5062

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.74971	0.75580
US $	1.33384	1.32310
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45168	0.68886
US $	1.08853	0.91867

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1266.05	1271.65
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	50.55	50.43

Market Commentary:
Canada
By John Hyland
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks extended a rally to a fifth day and headed for the best week since March as Tourmaline Oil Corp. paced gains among energy shares and banks advanced on signs inflation is picking up.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 0.3 percent to 14,893.63 at 10:36 a.m. in Toronto. The gauge has rallied 2.1 percent in the week to the highest level since June 2015. Rallies among energy producers and miners have propelled the gauge to a 14 percent increase this year, making it the top performing developed equity market in the world, ahead of the U.K. and New Zealand.
     Energy producers, Canada’s second largest sector, rose the most as eight of the 11 industries in the broader index. Tourmaline Oil gained 7.4 percent to the highest in 18 months after purchasing $1 billion in Western Canadian energy assets from Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Suncor Energy Inc. gained more than 1 percent.
     Raw-materials rose 0.3 percent, led by Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. The company said it expects to meet the “higher end” of its full-year target.
     Industrial stocks declined 0.1 percent to the lowest level in more than two weeks, led down by Bombardier Inc. after it announced plans to cut 7,500 jobs, more than 10 percent of its workforce, in the next two years. The airplane manufacturer is initiating a restructuring plan after taking on billions of dollars of debt to develop its marquee C Series jetliner. Bombardier Inc. shares declined 1.1 percent, and have plunged 55 percent since 2011.
     Canada’s inflation rate quickened in September for the first time in five months. The consumer price index rose 1.3 percent in September from a year ago, led by higher gasoline prices. The Bank of Canada maintained the benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent this week and reduced Canada’s growth profile in large part because of slower housing markets and a lower trajectory for exports.
     Canadian stock valuations remain 17 percent higher than their U.S. peers, with the S&P/TSX carrying a price-earnings ratio of 23.6 compared with 20.1 for the the S&P 500 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

US
By Anna-Louise Jackson
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks closed little changed after erasing an early selloff, as deal activity boosted consumer stocks and Microsoft Corp. rallied to a record, offsetting losses spurred by concerns a stronger dollar will damp corporate earnings.
     Equities rebounded as Reynolds American Inc. soared the most ever after British American Tobacco Plc offered to pay $47 billion for full control of the cigarette maker. Time Warner Inc. jumped to a 15-month high on speculation it may agree to a takeover by AT&T Inc. That blunted declines spurred by the surging dollar and disappointing outlooks from General Electric Co. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AT&T sank 3 percent to a seven-month low.
     The S&P 500 Index fell less than a point to 2,141.16 at 4 p.m. in New York, all but wiping out an early 0.5 percent drop. The benchmark capped its first weekly advance in three, increasing 0.4 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 16.64 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,145.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3 percent, buoyed by Microsoft and PayPal Holdings Inc., which jumped 10 percent. About 6 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 8 percent below three-month average.
     “This is going to be an earnings reporting season that is going to be moving us back toward positive earnings growth,” Bill Northey, chief investment officer at US Bank’s Private Client Reserve in Helena, Montana, said by phone. “But against that backdrop, we’ve seen a pretty strong jump in the dollar. We’ll have to keep an eye on how strong the U.S. dollar becomes and how U.S. equity markets perform.”
     After surging as much as 7.2 percent this year through a record in August, the S&P 500 has failed to push higher as investors assess central-bank policy, the strength of corporate America and economic reports. The index hasn’t climbed for three consecutive sessions in a month, vacillating between daily gains and losses while trading at 18 times forecast earnings, the highest since 2009. The CBOE Volatility Index fell for a fourth session, the longest streak in three months.
     Earnings remained in focus today, as nine S&P 500 firms reported. More than a fifth of the gauge’s companies have released results so far, and while 81 percent have beaten earnings expectations, analysts still forecast a 0.4 percent contraction in overall third-quarter profits. That compares to a 1.6 percent decline predicted just before the reporting period began two weeks ago.
     “Earnings this season have been all over the place, a mixed-to-OK season,” said Otto Waser, chief investment officer of R&A Group Research & Asset Management in Zurich. “People are generally more cautious when rates rise. Underlying earnings growth is close to zero, so why should the market move higher with interest rates going higher?”
     Among shares moving on earnings news: GE slipped 0.3 percent, after falling as much as 2.6 percent. The company cut its 2016 forecast for organic sales growth, projecting the figure would be flat to up 2 percent this year, after previously forecasting an increase of as much as 4 percent. Advanced Micro Devices fell 6.3 percent after predicting fourth-quarter revenue that will miss analysts’ estimates, hurt by dwindling orders for game console processors.
     Microsoft reached a record, rising 4.2 percent as its results were bolstered by growing demand for cloud-based software and services. 
     PayPal climbed to an all-time high after saying it will make more money in coming years than previously expected, easing concern that recent deals with credit card companies would suppress earnings.
     McDonald’s Corp. marked its strongest gain in a year as quarterly revenue topped estimates, helped by international markets including the U.K. and Canada.
     The dollar is also in the spotlight. The greenback gained versus most peers and for a fourth consecutive day against the euro. It is the strongest since March relative to the single currency after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi signaled that quantitative easing won’t come to an “abrupt” end, leaving traders waiting until at least December for news about policy changes. GE said foreign exchange effects will hurt earnings by as much as 6 cents a share this year.
     “If you have to translate foreign earnings into stronger currency your earnings expectations are going lower,” said Waser. “This caps earnings upside quite a bit.”
     Investors are also parsing economic data and comments by policy makers for hints on the timing of the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate increase. Reports on manufacturing, consumer confidence, durable goods orders and gross domestic product will be in focus next week.
     Traders are pricing in less than one-in-five odds of a hike at the Fed’s next meeting, which takes place days before the presidential election, and a 69 percent chance of action in December. San Francisco Fed President John Williams said in a speech today that slow growth is likely “here to stay,” and he repeated his support for a gradual increase in rates “sooner rather that later.”
     In Friday’s trading, seven of the S&P 500’s 11 main industries fell. Phone companies led losses for a second day, their worst back-to-back performance in two months. Energy and health-care companies sank more than 0.6 percent. Time Warner helped drive the consumer-discretionary group higher, while Reynolds American and rival cigarette makers Altria Group Inc. and Philip Morris International Inc. lifted consumer staples.
     Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. and Discovery Communications Inc. rallied more than 3.6 percent as cable networks rose on the Time Warner deal speculation. Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. added at least 2 percent, while Netflix Inc. advanced 3.4 percent to a 10-month high.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Do we still not know that the appearance of a seed is in direct contradiction to its true nature?
If you submit the seed to a  chemical analysis, you would find in it perhaps some carbon, proteins,
and many other things, but never the hint of the leaf of a tree.
Rabindranath Tagore

 

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

You’ve got to do your own growing,
no matter how tall your grandfather was..
                                  -Irish Proverb

 

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Things you can control:

1. Your belief
2. Your attitude
3. Your thoughts
4. Your perspective
5. How honest you are
6. Who your friends are
7. What books you read
8. How often you exercise
9. The type of food you eat
10. How many risks you take
11. How you interpret situations
12. How kind you are to others
13. How kind you are to yourself
14. How often you say “I love you”
15. How often you say “thank you”
16. How you express your feelings
17. Whether or not you ask for help
18. How often you practice gratitude
19. How many times you smile today
20. The amount of effort you put forth
21. How you spend/invest your money
22. How much time you spend worrying
23. How often you think about your past
24. Whether or not you judge other people
25. Whether or not you try again after a setback
26. How much you appreciate the things you have

BY RUBEN CHABVES//THINKGROWPROSPER

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

On Thursday, Israelis and foreign nationals participate in the Jerusalem March, an annual pro-Israel procession that takes place in the city during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Ammar Awad/Reuters

Bird watchers view huge flocks of wading and sea birds flying over the coastline as seasonal high tides force them off their feeding grounds and closer to shore near Snettisham in Norfolk, England, on Thursday. Toby Melville/Reuters
Market Closes for October 20^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18162.35	-40.27   -0.22%
S&P 500	2141.34	-2.95   -0.14%
NASDAQ	5241.832	-4.580   -0.09%
TSX	14848.27	+7.78
		+0.05%

International Markets 

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17235.50	+236.59
		+1.39%
HANG SENG	23374.40	+69.43
		+0.30%
SENSEX	28129.84	+145.47
		+0.52%
FTSE 100	7026.90	+4.98
		+0.07%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.171	1.194
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.828	1.845
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.7556	1.7450
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.5062	2.5077

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.75580	0.76246
US $	1.32310	1.31154
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.44593	0.69160
US $	1.09283	0.91505

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1271.65	1269.05
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	50.43	51.60

Market Commentary:
Canada
By John Hyland
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks ended mixed as the nation’s biggest lenders — Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank — the nation’s largest lenders, extended highs to offset a slump in railroads.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index was up slightly at 14,848.24 at 4:000 p.m. in Toronto, after a three-day advance that took the Canadian equity benchmark to its highest since June 2015.
     Rallies among energy producers and miners have propelled the gauge to a 14 percent increase this year, making it the top performing developed equity market in the world, ahead of the U.K. and New Zealand.
     Financial services, which account for a third of the S&P/TSX Composite Index, gained 0.2 percent to lead an advance in five of the 11 industries in the broader index. Royal Bank added 0.5 percent for a fourth day of gains, while Toronto-Dominion is on a six-day winning streak, extending records for both stocks. Toronto-Dominion reportedly teamed with TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and made a joint, non-binding offer for St. Louis brokerage firm Scottrade earlier this month, according to people familiar with the situation.
     The Bank of Canada maintained the benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent yesterday and reduced Canada’s growth profile in large part because of slower housing markets and a lower trajectory for exports. The European Central Bank Thursday kept its rates unchanged and signaled that it may extend its stimulus program beyond the planned March end.
     Canadian stock valuations remain 17 percent higher than their U.S. peers, with the S&P/TSX carrying a price-earnings ratio of 23.6 compared with 20.1 for the the S&P 500 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
     Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. lost 2 percent to lead a 0.7 percent drop in industrial stocks, the biggest laggards in the S&P/TSX. The railway operator retreated a second day after cutting its profit target for the year Wednesday due to falling revenue from commodities.
     Raw-materials producers gained 0.5 percent and energy companies added 0.2 percent Thursday even as prices for gold, copper and crude retreated. Barrick Gold Corp. slipped 0.8 percent while Goldcorp Inc. added 1.2 percent. Oil declined from a 15-month high as investors weighed conflicting signals from OPEC members on their readiness to reduce production, ahead of a key November meeting. The group’s October rise is now at 3.8 percent.

US
By John Hyland and Rebecca Spalding
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks edged lower as disappointing results from Verizon Communications Inc. to EBay Inc. overshadowed gains in health-care and American Express Co.’s best rally in seven years.
     Equities wavered on a variety of influences, including corporate reports, stimulus measures from the European Central Bank, a final presidential debate before the Nov. 8 election and signs the housing market continues to bolster growth, adding to the case for higher borrowing costs. Crude fell from a 15-month high, though energy producers were little change after a stronger outlook for oil prices from the World Bank. Microsoft Corp. rallied in after-hours trading as its results beat estimates.
     The S&P 500 Index fell 0.1 percent to 2,141.34 at 4 p.m. in New York, trimming a morning drop that reached 0.5 percent. The benchmark closed near its average price during the past 100 days after falling below the closely watched level. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 40.27 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,162.35. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.1 percent. About 6.2 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 5 percent below the three-month average.
     “There have been a handful of news items for traders to key off of today, including Draghi’s comments, earnings and the last night’s debate,” said Frank Cappelleri, executive director at Instinet LLC in New York. “With the market so close to an important support level, traders have been looking for reasons to either buy before the potential bounce or sell in front of a larger decline. The erratic movement so far suggests that both of these have been happening today.”
     The ECB today kept its quantitative-easing program and interest rates unchanged. U.S. equity futures earlier followed European shares lower after the central bank’s President Mario Draghi said during a press conference that the euro region’s economic outlook remains subject to downside risks. He also reiterated that officials will extend stimulus if needed.
     Thursday’s declines halted the S&P 500’s two-day winning streak, which had been spurred by a spate of results showing signs that companies may break a five-quarter streak of falling profits. The index hasn’t climbed for three consecutive sessions in a month, wobbling indecisively between daily gains and losses.
     Following the close of regular trading, Microsoft jumped 5.3 percent as of 4:36 p.m., after its quarterly sales and profit topped predictions, buoyed by growing demand for cloud- based software and services.
     Among shares moving on earnings news:
     * American Express Co. rallied the most in seven years after boosting its projection for annual profitability.
     * Mattel Inc. had its best one-day gain in eight months after its quarterly sales topped estimates, boosted by Barbie and American Girl doll sales.
     * Travelers Cos. lost 5.8 percent, the steepest slide in the Dow, after posting its fourth-straight profit decline as weather-related costs climbed and investment income slipped.
     * EBay Inc. suffered its worst drop since January after forecasting fourth-quarter revenue and profit that may miss projections.
     * Verizon Communications Inc. sank 2.5 percent after adding fewer monthly mobile subscribers than analysts had predicted.
     * Union Pacific Corp. slumped 6.7 percent, the most since 2009, as its profit missed predictions, with freight demand continuing to decline and the railroad struggling to boost prices.
      “Last week and earlier this week we had some bank earnings that were pretty good,” said Timothy Ghriskey, who helps manage $1.5 billion as chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management LLC in New York. “We’ve seen a number of industrial companies, however, either pre-announce or report some weak earnings and that’s certainly been negative.”
     Meanwhile, central banks have held sway over equity markets this year, with investors parsing economic data and comments by officials for hints on the timing of the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate increase. Traders are pricing in less than one-in- five odds of a hike at the next meeting that takes place days before the presidential election, and a nearly 68 percent probability of a move in December.
     As investors scour data for hints on the path for rates, a report today showed sales of previously owned homes increased more than projected in September. Filings for unemployment benefits rose by the most since July, after spending several weeks at or near a four-decade low, according to another gauge. A separate measure indicated expansion in Philadelphia-area manufacturing slowed this month.
     The earnings season’s impact on equities is also becoming more visible as the reporting pace picks up. A fifth of S&P 500 companies have released results so far, and while nearly 83 percent have beat earnings expectations, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, companies such as EBay that don’t follow better-than-predicted profits with a satisfying outlook are susceptible to punishment from investors. Analysts forecast profits in the benchmark will fall 1.4 percent.
     In Thursday’s trading, 10 of the S&P 500’s 11 main industries declined, with Verizon leading phone companies to a five-month low. Union Pacific was the biggest drag on industrials, with railroads in the benchmark marking their steepest drop in almost two years. Health-care companies were the strongest group, led by Danaher Corp. as the medical- equipment maker rose the most since last October after boosting its full-year profit forecast.
     Despite the pullback in stocks, the CBOE Volatility Index fell for a third day, the longest stretch in two months. The measure of market turbulence sank 4.6 percent to 13.75, the lowest since October 10.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Man must understand that when he cuts himself off from all stimulating and purifying contact with infinity,
and no longer relies on it for his subsistence and his health, he risks madness;
he tears himself asunder, and divorces himself from his very substance.
Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters,
compared to what lies within us.
                                 -Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
(C): 250.881.0801
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com