Category: Events

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

To Aphrodite of the Flowers, at Knossos
                                         – SAPPHO

Leave Crete and come to this holy temple
where the pleasant grove of apple trees
circles an altar smoking with frank-
      incense.

Here roses leave shadow on the ground
and cold springs babble through apple branches
where shuddering leaves pour down pro-
     found sleep.

In our meadow where horses graze
and wild flowers of spring blossom,
anise shoots fill the air with a-
     roma.

And here, Queen Aphrodite, pour
heavenly nectar into gold cups
and fill them gracefully with sud-
    den joy.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Germany’s Daniel Deusser, riding First Class, competes during the equestrian individual jumping competition on Friday. John Locher/AP

Team Ukraine competes in the synchronized swimming free routine final on Friday. Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
Market Closes for August 19^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18552.57	-45.13   -0.24%
S&P 500	2183.60	-3.42   -0.16%
NASDAQ	5238.379	-1.767   -0.03%
TSX	14685.13	-10.55
		-0.07%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16545.82	+59.81
		+0.36%
HANG SENG	22937.22	-85.94
		-0.37%
SENSEX	28077.00	-46.44
		-0.17%
FTSE 100	6858.95	-10.01
		-0.15%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.078	1.041
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.687	1.661
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.5781	1.5322
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.2847	2.2572

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.77783	0.78253
US $	1.28562	1.27791
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45604	0.68679
US $	1.13256	0.88295

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1346.40	1350.05
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	48.52	48.22

Market Commentary:
Nearly 500 million people are living in countries with negative interest rates, according to S&P Global — a factor that could fuel a return to a “cash-only” society, and people putting savings in personal safes rather than banks. CNBC
Canada
By Eric Lam
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks ended Friday’s session little changed, with banks climbing to offset declines in raw- materials producers as gold prices fell amid a rallying dollar.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index slipped 0.1 percent to 14,687.46 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, as the benchmark lost 0.4 percent this week. Trading volume was 22 percent lower than the 30-day average.
     Barrick Gold Corp. and Yamana Gold Inc. retreated at least 1.4 percent as raw-materials producers dropped 1.5 percent. Five of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX fell today. Gold futures lost 0.8 percent in New York, paring this week’s gain. Silver Wheaton Corp. sank 3.7 percent.
     Banks climbed amid speculation that interest rates are going higher, with Royal Bank of Canada rising 1 percent to the highest close in in 16 months. Insurer Manulife Financial Corp. added 2.1 percent for its best gain in five weeks.
     U.S. equities slipped in the week’s final session, as the dollar rallied the most in a month against major peers. Fed Bank of San Francisco President John Williams said Thursday it made sense to get back to a pace of gradual rate increases, preferably sooner rather than later. Williams is the latest Fed official this week to suggest rates could rise sooner, while July minutes released Wednesday showed policy makers remain split on the prospect. Traders have priced in a 51 percent chance of a rate hike in December.
     Health-care stocks fell 0.6 percent, paring a weekly gain to 9.1 percent. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. ended the day down 0.6 percent, to finish with a 15 percent weekly gain after a tumultuous five days. T. Rowe Price Group Inc. yesterday filed a lawsuit against the drugmaker, accusing its executives of using deceptive practices to artificially inflate its revenue and profit.
     A Valeant spokeswoman said the complaint repeats allegations and claims made in a suit filed last October that seeks class-action status, and the company “intends to defend itself.” Valeant also secured looser debt requirements, while two analysts upgraded their ratings for the stock this week.
     Raw-materials producers have led the rally in Canadian equities in 2016, surging 58 percent as the top gainers among 10 industries in the S&P/TSX. It’s the best year-to-date performance for the category in at least 30 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Energy producers have gained 22 percent in the same period.
     That’s boosted the Canadian equity benchmark to a 13 percent jump in 2016, rebounding from a slump last year that was the worst for the S&P/TSX since the 2008 financial crisis. The rally has made Canadian stocks more expensive than their U.S. peers, with a price-earnings ratio of 23.4 for the S&P/TSX, about 14 percent higher than the S&P 500 Index.

US
By Dani Burger
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks slipped for the first time in three days, with a recent rally showing signs of tiring amid elevated valuations and rising speculation that borrowing costs will increase before year-end.
     Investors sold this year’s winners, with phone companies capping their worst week since 2014, while utilities and energy producers also led the retreat. Better-than-estimated earnings from Deere & Co., Applied Materials Inc. and Foot Locker Inc. helped keep a lid on declines, with shares of the three surging more than 7 percent. Nike Inc. gained 3 percent, boosted by Foot Locker’s results.
     The S&P 500 Index fell 0.1 percent to 2,183.87 at 4 p.m. in New York, barely erasing an advance for the week. The benchmark has gone 30 days without a 1 percent move in either direction, the longest since 2014. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 45.13 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,552.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped less than 0.1 percent. About 5.7 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 17 percent below the three-month average.
     “The daily movements are really a function of a fully valued market that’s trading at its highs in a narrow range,” said Ernie Cecilia, chief investment officer at Bryn Mawr Trust Co., which oversees $9.6 billion in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. “One of the more major announcements this week was the Fed FOMC minutes which indicated if nothing else a lack of unanimity in the FOMC. The markets interpreted that as uncertainty which therefore means no action from the Fed. The markets are just hanging in there.”
     A dovish tone in minutes released Wednesday from the last Federal Reserve meeting contrasted with hawkish remarks this week from New York Fed President William Dudley and San Francisco’s John Williams. The two sought to remind investors that a rate increase could come at any meeting, particularly if jobs data continued to improve. Fed Chair Janet Yellen will speak Aug. 26 at a meeting of global policy makers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
     Traders’ bets on higher rates have been pushed forward with December now the first month showing at least even odds of an increase, a 51 percent probability versus 42 percent a week ago. That helped put a gauge of the dollar on track for its best gain in a month. 
     The recent advance in U.S. equities has lost some steam amid shifting speculation over the Fed’s timing. The S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1 percent for the week after a 9.2 percent rebound that netted 10 fresh records since the shock of the U.K. secession vote in late June. Optimism that central banks will maintain their efforts to bolster growth, better-than-forecast earnings and continued signs of a strengthening labor market have helped boost stock valuations to the highest of the seven- year bull market.
     As the earnings season winds down, results have proved generally better than expected with nearly 80 percent of S&P 500 members beating profit projections, while more than half topped sales estimates. Analysts curbed their estimates for a contraction in net income to down 2.3 percent, from a 5.7 percent drop just before the reporting period began. Predictions show a 0.9 percent decline in profits for the quarter ending in September, which would be a sixth consecutive drop, the longest since the financial crisis.
     “We’ve had a big rally, and there’s this correlation with oil and that’s what spooks the market,” said Patrick Spencer, London-based vice chairman of equities at Robert W. Baird, which manages $151 billion. “Earnings are key and we’ve got to watch the dollar closely. If that was to strengthen meaningfully one would need to get concerned about the U.S. market.”
     In Friday’s trading, seven of the S&P 500’s 10 main industries retreated, with utilities losing 1.2 percent while phone and energy companies slid more than 0.8 percent. The three groups are the benchmark’s best performers year to date, with gains of at least 15 percent. The CBOE Volatility Index fell 0.8 percent to 11.34, wiping out a gain of more than 7 percent. The measure of market turbulence known as the VIX marked its seventh weekly decline in the last eight.
    Oil and gas companies fell from a nine-month high, even as crude rose again after entering a bull market yesterday. The commodity capped its strongest weekly increase in five months. 
    Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. sank at least 1.1 percent, while Kinder Morgan Inc. declined 1.9 percent. Southwestern Energy Co. slid the most, losing 4.6 percent.
     Wal-Mart Stores Inc. weighed on consumer staples, dropping 2 percent to erase a rally yesterday sparked by a stronger profit forecast. Estee Lauder Cos. decreased 3.5 percent as its earnings outlook was short of estimates. 
     Technology shares edged higher as Applied Materials’ results and its best gain in three months lifted other semiconductor stocks. Micron Technology Inc. added 3 percent, while Lam Research Corp. gained 2.5 percent. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index rose to the highest since October 2000.
     Deere surged more than 13 percent, the best since 2008, after raising its full-year profit outlook amid cost cuts. Industrials were mixed, however, with airlines slipping and Emerson Electric Co. falling 3.1 percent after agreeing to buy Pentair Plc’s valves and controls business for $3.15 billion in cash.
     Ross Stores Inc. rallied 3.5 percent to a record after its results beat estimates, joining Foot Locker to buoy consumer- discretionary shares. Nike hit a three-month high, while Gap Inc. added 3.9 percent to its highest since April 7 after earnings that narrowly topped analysts’ estimates gave hope to the retailer’s comeback.
     –With assistance from Roxana Zega.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Within, everything is connected.
This is because an action in one part produces a similar reaction elsewhere
and thus a response.
Swami Prajnanpad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Just as at the Olympic games it is not the handsomest or strongest men
who are crowned with victory but the successful competitors, so in life
it is those who act rightly who carry off all the prizes and rewards.
                                                -Aristotle, 384-322 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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

FULL MOON TONIGHT!

We’ve been enjoying watching the Olympics in the evening and I hope you have too.  Last night featured the most amazing basketball game I have ever watched – it was Serbia vs Croatia.   Croatia got an early lead only to Serbia eventually  take it from them with a 13 point lead and finally, Croatia catching up again.  The Serbs however, won by one point.  It was truly an exciting game.  Looking forward to tonight.

On Aug. 18, 1963, James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

-from Advisor.Analyst today:
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile. A kind word,
a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all
of which have the potential to turn a life around.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Americans Stuart McNay and Dave Hughes compete in the men’s two person dingy sailing final on Thursday. Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Laura Ludwig of Germany competes in the women’s beach volleyball gold medal match against Brazil on Thursday. The Germans took the gold. Tony Gentile/Reuters

Market Closes for August 18^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18597.70	+23.76   +0.13%
S&P 500	2185.31	+3.09   +0.14%
NASDAQ	5240.145	+11.487   +0.22%
TSX	14691.15	-6.45
		-0.04%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16486.01	-259.63
		-1.55%
HANG SENG	23023.16	+223.38
		+0.98%
SENSEX	28123.44	+118.07
		+0.42%
FTSE 100	6868.96	+9.81
		+0.14%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.041	1.058
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.661	1.667
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.5322	1.5508
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.2572	2.2637

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.78253	0.77817
US $	1.27791	1.28506
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45063	0.68936
US $	1.13519	0.88091

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1350.05	1343.35
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	48.22	46.58

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Eric Lam
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks closed little changed as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. retreated, combining with a drop in lenders to offset gains among energy producers as crude entered a bull market.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell less than 0.1 percent to 14,695.68 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, extending losses to a third day, the longest in two months. Trading volume was 13 percent lower than the 30-day average.
     Valeant lost 3.4 percent, after a 13 percent rally on Wednesday. T. Rowe Price Group Inc. filed a lawsuit against the drugmaker, accusing its executives of using a secret network of pharmacies, deceptive pricing, reimbursement practices and accounting tricks to artificially inflate its revenue and profit. A Valeant spokeswoman said the complaint repeats allegations and claims made in a suit filed last October that seeks class-action status, and the company “intends to defend itself.”
     The latest news highlights a roller coaster of events for the struggling drugmaker in recent weeks. The stock jumped the most in more than two decades Aug. 9 after Chief Executive Joseph Papa allayed investor concerns by affirming guidance in its 2016 results and embarking on a plan to sell assets and reduce debt, only to fall the most in a month the same week on a report it was the target of a criminal probe by U.S. prosecutors. Two analysts upgraded their ratings for the stock this week.
     Elsewhere, financial services stocks lost 0.4 percent for the biggest contribution to losses in the S&P/TSX as six of 10 industries retreated. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. fell 1.4 percent, stretching its losing streak to a seventh day, the longest in a year. Raw-materials stocks ended a mixed day of trading higher, halting a five-day slide that was the longest since October.
     Encana Corp. and Crescent Point Energy Corp. increased at least 1.8 percent as energy producers gained 1 percent as a group. Oil advanced 3.1 percent in New York, extending the longest winning streak in more than a year after gaining 12 percent over the prior five sessions. Brent crude topped $50 a barrel in London for the first time since July 5. WTI oil has risen 22 percent from its early-August low, meeting the common definition of a bull market.
     Raw-materials producers have led the rally in Canadian equities in 2016, surging 60 percent as the top gainers among 10 industries in the S&P/TSX. It’s the best year-to-date performance for the category in at least 30 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Energy producers have gained 23 percent in the same period.
     That’s boosted the Canadian equity benchmark to a 13 percent jump in 2016, rebounding from a slump last year that was the worst for the S&P/TSX since the 2008 financial crisis. The rally has made Canadian stocks more expensive than their U.S. peers, with a price-earnings ratio of 23.4 for the S&P/TSX, about 14 percent higher than the S&P 500 Index.

US
By Joseph Ciolli
     (Bloomberg) — Add companies with shoddier finances to the list of U.S. stocks that have led the advance since February — a potentially bullish sign for investors waiting for the S&P 500 Index to snap out of its paralysis.
     Shares of firms with weaker balance sheets are up 24 percent since markets bottomed in Feb. 11, outpacing their sturdier brethren by 7 percentage points, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bloomberg. That’s the widest spread in two years for a period of that length. The S&P 500, which rallied 19 percent over the stretch, increased 0.2 percent to 2,187.02 as of 4 p.m. in New York on Thursday, closing at a session high.
     While it sounds like bad news, gains in leveraged companies has generally been a sign of economic confidence. The weak balance sheet group rallied 50 percent in 2013, beating the 30 percent advance in the S&P 500 that was itself the best return since 1997. Value stocks are also outperforming growth shares over the last six months.
     “You’ve seen a much more risk-on appetite since oil bottomed in February, which, to investors, has made it more OK for companies to be leveraged,” said Randy Warren, who manages more than $100 million at Exton, Pennsylvania-based Warren Financial Service & Associates Inc. “It indicates people are feeling comfortable with the pace of economic growth.”
     The rebound in crude oil that helped catalyze the S&P 500’s recovery from a two-year low continued on Thursday, with the resource entering a bull market after a July swoon. Energy shares surged 1.8 percent to a nine-month high, leading gains in the equity benchmark. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1 percent to 18,597.70, while Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.2 percent. The CBOE Volatility Index fell 6.2 percent to 11.43, as the measure of market turbulence held near a two-year low.
      “We’re just melting up right now,” said Warren. “There’s no reason to go down, so we’re hanging in there, moving slowly higher.”
     The U.S. stock market’s climb has also been aided by data showing steady improvement in the world’s largest economy. Citigroup Inc.’s U.S. Economic Surprise Index last month hit its highest level since September 2014. The gauge, which measures the strength of data relative to analysts’ forecasts, has been above zero since early July, a feat it hadn’t managed since November.
     The signs of improvement, most notably in labor-market data, have emboldened investors to favor industries with higher levels of leverage. Technology shares, which had the highest weighting in the Goldman basket of weak balance sheet companies as of June, have surged 15 percent since June 27, outpacing the S&P 500’s 9 percent advance. Among the leaders, NetApp Inc. jumped the most in six years Thursday after better-than- estimated quarterly results, pushing its gain since February past 50 percent.
     The broader index’s seven-week advance since a two-day rout following the U.K. secession vote has delivered 10 fresh records after more than a year without one, though the rally has slowed in the last three weeks. Valuations remain at the highest levels of the seven-year bull market and recent data have painted a mixed picture on the economy’s strength.
     At the same time, chances that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year have fallen below 50 percent. March is now the first month with at least even odds of such a move.
     Among shares moving Thursday, commodity producers rose with crude oil. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. advanced 1.9 percent after boosting its earnings forecast, and NetApp soared 17 percent on its results. 
     Caterpillar Inc. fell 1.2 percent after disappointing July sales data, and Cisco Systems Inc. slipped amid plans to cut about 7 percent of its workforce as the networking-equipment maker tries to recast itself as a provider of software-based systems and services.
     Corrections Corp. of America and GEO Group Inc., two real estate investment trusts that operate prisons for the federal government and other clients, plunged more than 35 percent after the U.S. Justice Department announced plans to stop using private correctional facilities. About 5.9 billion shares traded hands today on U.S. exchanges, 14 percent below the three-month average.
     Earnings season is winding down with fewer than 30 of the S&P 500’s companies yet to post results. Of those that have, 78 percent beat profit projections and 56 percent topped sales predictions. Results have mostly exceeded estimates, though analysts forecast index members will still report a 2.5 percent drop in net income, and see a 0.8 percent decline for the quarter ending in September.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

 

Be magnificent!

The saffron of virtue and contentment

Is dissolved in the water gun of love and affection

Pink and red clouds of emotion are flying about,

Limitless colors raining down.

All the covers of the earthen vessel of my body are wide open;

I have thrown away all shame before the world.

Mira’s Lord is the Mountain Holder, the suave lover.

I sacrifice myself in devotion to His lotus feet.

Mira Bai

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

If you want to be happy, be.

    -Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
Someone gave me a book of poetry last Sunday  which I have been enjoying every night since.  It is compiled by Caroline Kennedy and is entitled  She Walks In Beauty – A Woman’s Journey Through Poems.

In her introduction to the last chapter, How To Live, she writes, “…Fundamentally, poetry celebrates our individuality and the creative effort of living.  The next to last poem in this book was one of my mother’s favorites.  She loved the ancient Greek attitude toward life – the closeness to nature, the relationship of men and gods, and the reverence for the heroic.  Constantine Cavafy, a modern Greek poet who lived a short and tragic life in Alexandria, drew heavily on the ancient myths and history in his work.  “Ithaka” is his masterpiece, and it is one of those poems that I carry with me always in my mind.”

Ithaka
Constantine P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
 
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
 
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
 
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean. 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The Italian team celebrates its victory over Russia in the women’s water polo semifinal at the Olympic Aquatic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday. Laszlo Balogh/Reuters

Yoshitaku Nagasako of Japan competes in the men’s BMX preliminary round at the Olympic BMX course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday.Eric Gaillard/Reuters
Market Closes for August 17^th, 2016

MarketIndex	Close	Change
DowJones	18573.94	+21.92  +0.12%
S&P 500	2187.27	+3.12  +0.14%
NASDAQ	5228.656	+1.545  +0.03%
TSX	14696.97	-6.47
		-0.04%

International Markets

MarketIndex	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16745.64	+149.13
		+0.90%
HANGSENG	22799.78	-111.06
		-0.48%
SENSEX	28005.37	-59.24
		-0.21%
FTSE 100	6859.15	-34.77
		-0.50%

Bonds

 

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND.10 Year Bond	1.058	1.064
CND.30 Year Bond	1.667	1.662
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.5508	1.5746
U.S.30 Year Bond	2.2637	2.2949

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.77817	0.77778
US$	1.28506	1.28570
Euro Rate1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45056	0.68939
US$	1.12879	0.88591

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London GoldFix	1343.35	1344.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	46.79	46.58

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Eric Lam
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks ended little changed after all but erasing earlier losses following Federal Reserve meeting minutes that signaled the U.S. central bank won’t rush to raise interest rates amid uneven economic growth. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. surged.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost less than 0.1 percent to 14,697.60 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, rebounding from an earlier decline of as much as 0.6 percent. Commodities producers led declines as the dollar’s advance weighed on prices for natural resources. Trading volume was 3.6 percent lower than the 30-day average.
     U.S. equities ended higher while the dollar rebounded from a more than three-month low against major peers. Traders priced in a less than 50 percent chance of a rate move this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, down from earlier in the week after Fed officials from New York and Atlanta surprised markets with comments suggesting the central bank may raise borrowing costs as soon as next month.
     Minutes of the central bank’s July meeting issued Wednesday showed some officials preferred to wait on a rate hike because inflation remained benign, while others wanted to raise soon as the labor market nears full employment. The Canadian dollar recovered losses against the greenback after the release, extending an eight-day rally that’s now the longest in five years.
     In Canada, commodities producers led declines as four of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX retreated. Raw-materials producers slumped 1.2 percent for a fifth day of losses, the longest losing streak since October, as gold and copper fell in tandem.
     Yamana Gold Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. retreated at least 2.2 percent. Energy stocks dropped 0.5 percent.
     The declines have pared gains for raw-materials producers to 60 percent, still the top gainers this year among 10 industries in the S&P/TSX, the best year-to-date performance for the category in at least 30 years according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
     That’s boosted the Canadian equity benchmark to a 13 percent jump in 2016, rebounding from a slump last year that was the worst for the S&P/TSX since the 2008 financial crisis. The rally has made Canadian stocks more expensive than their U.S. peers, with a price-earnings ratio of 23.4 for the S&P/TSX, about 14 percent higher than the S&P 500 Index.    
     Valeant Pharmaceuticals jumped 13 percent, to the highest in two months, after Morgan Stanley analyst David Risinger raised his rating for the drugmaker to overweight from equal weight and boosted his price target on a “clearer vision” for the company under new CEO Joe Papa. It’s the second analyst rating increase this week for Valeant, which now has seven buys, 11 holds and four sells according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

US
By Oliver Renick and Joseph Ciolli
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks edged higher as Federal Reserve meeting minutes quelled speculation that borrowing costs could rise as soon as next month.
     The minutes showed officials were divided in July over the urgency to raise interest rates again, but they generally agreed to wait for more data before another move. Equities rebounded in afternoon trading, as utilities’ strongest rally in seven weeks helped overcome disappointing results from Target Corp. and Lowe’s Cos. that threatened to send stocks to their first back- to-back drop in two weeks.
     The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2 percent to 2,182.22 at 4 p.m. in New York, after the gauge wiped out a 0.4 percent slide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21.92 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,573.94, erasing an early 83-point drop. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased less than 0.1 percent. About 6.4 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 7 percent below the three-month average.
      “The knee-jerk reaction is still lower-for-longer,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, which manages $54 billion. “There were a couple innuendos that a few members thought we should be acting. But other language offered enough excuses for things taking place both domestically and globally to justify doing nothing for the time being. It seems like the Fed is finding reasons not to hike interest rates, and therefore it was a market-friendly release.”
     Officials said they needed more data “in order to gauge the underlying momentum in the labor market and economic activity,” the minutes released in Washington said. Since the meeting, data has been mixed with hiring showing a sharp increase while retail sales stagnated in July. Producer prices contracted last month and consumer prices were flat, bolstering the argument that inflation remains subdued.
     Equities rebounded as utilities, financial and consumer- staples stocks shook off earlier declines. Power company Dominion Resources Inc. gained 2.6 percent, the most in five months. Target and Lowe’s each lost more than 5.6 percent, while Staples Inc. dropped 7.1 percent after its profit outlook was short of estimates. Cisco Systems Inc. sank 1.3 percent before its earnings release, after a report said it will cut as many as 14,000 jobs. Urban Outfitters Inc. soared 16 percent after its results exceeded analysts’ forecasts.
     Shares fell from all-time highs Tuesday after New York Fed President William Dudley said the central bank could potentially raise interest rates as soon as next month. His warning that investors are underestimating the likelihood of higher borrowing costs took some momentum out of a six-week rally for stocks.
     Traders’ bets for a rate increase were pushed back today, with February 2017 now the first month with at least even odds of such a move, versus December before the meeting minutes were released.
     Equities climbed to fresh peaks in the month through Monday, boosted by better-than-estimated corporate results, an improving labor market and optimism central banks will stay supportive of growth. The gains have pushed the S&P 500’s valuation relative to future earnings to the highest in more than a decade. The benchmark closed Wednesday up 6.8 percent in 2016, after rallying more than 19 percent from a 22-month low in February.
     The earnings season is drawing to a close, with fewer than 40 of the S&P 500’s companies yet to report. So far, 78 percent of the firms have beaten profit projections and 56 percent topped on sales. While results have exceeded predictions, analysts forecast index members will still post a 2.5 percent drop in net income, and estimate a 0.8 percent decline for the quarter ending in September. That would extend the slide in earnings to a sixth period, the longest since the financial crisis. In Wednesday’s trading, seven of the S&P 500’s 10 main industries rose, with utilities surging 1.5 percent, the most since June 30, after erasing a 0.9 percent selloff. Financials, consumer staples and industrial stocks added at least 0.3 percent. Phone companies rose 0.2 percent after wiping out a 1 percent drop. Raw-materials, consumer discretionary and technology shares slipped. The CBOE Volatility Index fell 3.6 percent to 12.19, after reversing an 8.5 percent jump at midday.
     Retailers fell for a third day, their longest losing streak in two months. Stronger-than-forecast earnings last week from Macy’s Inc., Kohl’s Corp. and Nordstrom Inc. had helped send the group to a record on Friday, before being dragged lower today as Target and Lowe’s suffered their worst declines since at least May.
     Target said sales of Apple Inc.’s iPods, iPhones and other devices fell 20 percent at its stores during the second quarter. Apple slipped as much as 1 percent before closing down 0.2 percent. Best Buy Co. dropped 2.9 percent, the most in six weeks. Joining Apple and Cisco Systems to weigh on technology shares, Nvidia Corp. fell 2.3 percent to stretch declines to a third session, the longest in five months.

 

Have  a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Truth is that which one wishes in its totality.  Have you reached it?

Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my axe.

                                                              -Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On Aug. 16, 1977, singer Elvis Presley died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42.

I found an old Newsletter from Friday, August 16^th, 2002, and many of you reading this tonight would have read it back then –though like me, never remembering having done so.  It’s hard to grasp that the little children and teenagers of many of you are all grown up now, and are adult clients of mine.  Time passes much too quickly.
Here is what I wrote all those years ago:

Today is the silver anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley.  “The appeal of Elvis Presley is universal, or at least solar systemic.  We know this because of a headline that once appeared on the front page of The Weekly World News:   Statue of Elvis Found on Mars – Beaming Back Don’t Be Cruel,”  so writes Franz Lidz in The New York Times.  This morning on CNN, a tape kept running of people’s recollection of where they were when they first heard that Elvis had passed away.  Remarkably, most people who were alive at the time can remember exactly what they were doing when they heard the news (similarly with the assassination of President Kennedy).  It brought back some fond memories for me.  I was back-packing around Europe (as a lot of my generation were doing at the time) in the summer of 1977.
I was travelling by myself and decided to go to Crete to see where Zeus was born.  I went to Brindisi, Italy, to catch a ferry whereupon I started chatting with a British woman who persuaded me to travel to the Greek Island, Ios, with her where she was meeting some friends from London who had a place there.  After spending a few weeks on Ios, I headed back to Athens to catch the train back to Paris, and head home to get sorted out for my final undergraduate year at university.  I remember hanging around the train station in Athens waiting for my train, when this young American came up to me with a grave look on her face, thinking I was American and asking “Is it true?  Is Elvis dead?”  It’s really hard to believe that was 25 years ago…it’s a blink, this ol’ life isn’t it?
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Marit Bouwmeester of The Netherlands is congratulated by Anne-Marie Rindom of Denmark following the women’s one person dinghy race at Marina de Gloria in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday. Benoit Tessier/Reuters

 

Samuel Mikulak of the United States competes in the final event for the men’s horizontal bars at the Olympic Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday. Ruben Sprich/Reuters

Jarrod Poort of Australia competes during the first leg of the men’s 10km marathon swimming event at Fort Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday. Carlos Barria/Reuters
Market Closes for August 16^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18552.02	-84.03   -0.45%
S&P 500	2178.15	-12.00   -0.55%
NASDAQ	5227.113	-34.902   -0.66%
TSX	14703.44	-73.58
		-0.50%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16596.51	-273.05
		-1.62%
HANG SENG	22910.84	-21.67
		-0.09%
SENSEX	28064.61	-87.79
		-0.31%
FTSE 100	6893.92	-47.27
		-0.68%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.064	1.046
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.662	1.644
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.5746	1.5559
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.2949	2.2810

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.77778	0.77379
US $	1.28570	1.29234
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.44979	0.68976
US $	1.12762	0.88682

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1344.00	1339.40
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	46.58	45.74

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Eric Lam
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, joining losses in the U.S. after comments from a Federal Reserve official increased speculation the central bank will raise interest rates by the end of the year, overshadowing a rally in commodities prices.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 0.5 percent to 14,703.44 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The index has swung between gains and losses for the past five days after closing at the highest level since July 2015. Trading volume was 19 percent lower than the 30-day average. The Canadian benchmark is the second-best performing developed market in the world this year, just behind New Zealand.
     Canadian equities joined a retreat in global markets Tuesday as U.S. stocks pulled back from records. The U.S. dollar trimmed a drop of as much as 1.2 percent after New York Fed President William Dudley said policy makers could potentially raise interest rates as soon as next month. Traders have priced in a 24 percent chance of a rate move at the next meeting in September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Canadian dollar has strengthened against the greenback for seven sessions, the longest winning streak since 2012.
     Crude rallied to the highest in five weeks while gold posted its biggest gain in two weeks amid the dollar’s weakness, though it wasn’t enough to drive commodities producers higher.
     Financial shares contributed the most to declines on Tuesday, as nine of benchmark’s 10 main groups retreated. Sun Life Financial Inc. lost 1.4 percent. Raw-materials producers fell 0.8 percent, while technology shares lost 0.7 percent.
     Video-surveillance company Avigilon Corp. sank a record 25 percent after posting second-quarter earnings well short of expectations.
     Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Birchcliff Energy Ltd. retreated at least 1 percent as energy producers fell 0.4 percent as a group. Barrick Gold Corp. fell 1.5 percent after billionaire investor George Soros’ Soros Fund Management LLC cut its holdings in the world’s largest producer of the metal by 94 percent after only taking a stake in the first quarter.
     Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. added 3.1 percent to lead consumer staples stocks higher, the only group in the S&P/TSX to advance. The gas station and convenience store chain operator is said to be near a deal to buy CST Brands Inc. as the likely winner of an auction for the company, according to the Wall Street Journal.
     In Canada, the rebound this year continues to be led by mining and materials companies, the top gainers this year among 10 industries in the S&P/TSX with a 62 percent advance, the best year-to-date performance for the category in at least 30 years according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
     That’s boosted the Canadian equity benchmark to a 13 percent jump in 2016, rebounding from a slump last year that was the worst for the S&P/TSX since the 2008 financial crisis. The rally has made Canadian stocks more expensive than their U.S. peers, with a price-earnings ratio of 23.5 for the S&P/TSX, about 15 percent higher than the S&P 500 Index.

US
By Rita Nazareth, Oliver Renick and Eliza Ronalds-Hannon
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell with Treasuries, while the dollar pared its decline, after Federal Reserve officials stoked speculation over interest-rate increases despite evidence of uneven growth in the world’s largest economy.
     The S&P 500 Index retreated from a record high after New York Fed President William Dudley said borrowing costs could be boosted as soon as next month, while Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart said he’s confident growth is accelerating, setting the stage for at least one hike this year. Yields on two-year Treasury notes, the coupon maturity most sensitive to policy expectations, climbed as the greenback trimmed a drop of more than 1 percent versus major peers. Oil rose above $46 a barrel on optimism over a potential output freeze.
     Equities have found favor over the past month, while the dollar has lost ground, as conflicting signals over the U.S. labor market and growth cast doubt over the Fed’s plans to tighten monetary policy. Odds on the next U.S. rate rise have been pushed out as central banks elsewhere inject unprecedented stimulus, with investors pricing in about one hike between now and the end of next year – estimates Dudley says are “too low.” The policy maker said in an interview Tuesday that markets are “too complacent” about the need for a gradual increase in short- term interest rates over the next year or so.
     “Dudley wants to keep expectations grounded,” said Yousef Abbasi, a global market strategist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC. in New York. “You have seen some stronger employment data, but other pieces of data are showing a struggle still – retail sales, inflation reads have been among recent disappointments. It’s just reality – rates might move higher by December if jobs data continue to come in better.”
     With traders sifting through U.S. economic reports to gauge prospects for growth, figures Tuesday showed home construction unexpectedly accelerated in July to the fastest pace in five months as factory production increased more than forecast. The cost of living in the U.S. was little changed, however, a sign subdued inflationary pressures would still give policy makers reason to keep interest rates low.
     The probability of a rate increase by the end of 2016 edged up to 52 percent on the Fed officials’ comments, from 45 percent a week ago, according to Fed funds futures tracked by Bloomberg.
     The S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent to 2,178.15 as of 4 p.m. in New York, after recent gains pushed its valuation the highest level since 2002.
     Phone and utilities shares led declines Tuesday, falling at least 1.2 percent. Praxair Inc. surged on merger talks with Germany’s Linde AG, and Morgan Stanley climbed to a seven-month high after activist Jeff Ubben’s ValueAct Capital Management disclosed a 2 percent stake. Cintas Corp. jumped to a record after agreeing to buy G&K Services Inc. in a $2.2 billion tie-up of providers of workplace uniforms and corporate apparel.
     The MSCI Emerging Markets Index halted an eight-day rally, dropping less than 0.1 percent. Stocks in Qatar climbed after FTSE Russell said it would relax the criteria to decide which of the nation’s shares will join its developing-nations index next month.
     The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.8 percent as gains in the euro weighed on exporters. Volkswagen AG slipped after a report that the U.S. Department of Justice was said to find evidence of criminal acts in a diesel-emissions cheating probe.
     Futures on Asian equities were mixed following a Japan-led drop on Tuesday. Contracts on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped at 1.8 percent in Chicago, while those on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 0.1 percent. FTSE China A50 Index futures gained 0.3 percent in most recent trade.
     Yields on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 1.57 percent, after climbing four basis points last session. Rates on two-year notes increased two basis points to 0.75 percent, the highest closing yield this month.
     After liftoff from near zero in December, The Fed has twice cut its projections for the number of rate hikes this year, from four to two and then one. Investors will be scouring minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s July meeting out Wednesday for further insight into officials’ latest thinking.
     “Dudley definitely had an impact on the market,” said Justin Lederer, an interest-rate strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald LP, one of the 23 primary dealers that trade with the Fed.  “The market’s still not pricing it in,” Lederer said of a 2016 Fed hike, “but the truth is a lot of people are expecting it,” he said.
     The odds of a rate increase at the Sept. 20-21 meeting of the FOMC are about 22 percent, according to pricing in federal funds futures, compared with 24 percent a week ago.
     Long-dated U.K. government bonds fell after investors lined up to sell them to the Bank of England in the first successful purchase operation of that debt segment since the bank expanded its quantitative-easing program this month.
     The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the currency against 10 major counterparts, fell 0.7 percent, declining for a third straight session.
     The yen briefly strengthened past 100 per dollar for the first time since the aftermath of the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union, before ending Tuesday up 0.9 percent to 100.31.
     The pound rose 1.3 percent to $1.3046, after dropping to its weakest closing level since June 1985 on Monday. The Canadian dollar climbed for a seventh day, the currency’s longest winning streak since December 2012.
     The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency Index rose to its highest point since June 2015. South Korea’s won led gains among 24 developing-nation currencies, while Mongolia’s tugrik, the world’s worst-performing currency in August, weakened for a 22nd day to the lowest level in data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 1993.
     Oil closed at its highest price in five weeks, bolstered by the weakening dollar and speculation that OPEC talks next month could result in a deal to stabilize prices via a freeze on output. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.8 percent to $46.58 a barrel, rising for a fourth straight day.
     Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told Arabic- language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that the nation was open to cooperating to stabilize markets after Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said talks in Algiers may result in action.
     “The longer they can put that story out there that there’s going to be a potential production cap, the better they’ll be able to support prices,” said Bob Yawger, director of the futures division of Mizuho Securities USA Inc. in New York. “There is no coincidence that this is happening.”
     Nickel dropped after posting the biggest advance in more than two weeks on Monday, while gold and copper advanced. Oil’s bounce helped drive the Bloomberg Commodity Index up 0.6 percent to its highest level in almost a month.
     –With assistance from Ramsey Al-Rikabi, Narayanan Somasundaram, Emma O’Brien, Jonathan Burgos, Marianna Aragao, Stephen Kirkland, Alan Soughley, James Herron, Jeff Sutherland, Sarah McDonald, James Regan, Lukanyo Mnyanda, Grant Smith, Rachel Adams-Heard, Matthew Boesler, Scott Lanman and Steve Matthews.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

This is a good point to understand that the sum and substance of this lecture

is that there is but One Existence, and that One Existence seen through different constitutions

appears either as the earth, or heaven, or hell or gods, or ghosts, or men, or  demons, or world,

or all these things.

Swami Vivekananda

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

                                 -Babe Ruth, 1895-1948

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On August 15^th, 1057, Macbeth was killed at the Battle of Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire by Malcolm lll’s men as he tried to return to Moray.   Macbeth was  born in 1005 and was king of Scotland, Mormaer of Moray from 1040-1057.   He was also a grandson of Malcolm ll.  He married Gruoch, granddaughter of Kenneth ll.  In 1040, he defeated and killed King Duncan and drove Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donald Ban  into exile.  He seems to have represented a Celtic reaction against English influence.  Malcolm ll was Duncan’s son (it gets confusing). Macbeth’s body was buried in the holy isle of Iona, where many other Scottish kings were buried.  A few days after his death, his stepson, Lulach, was elected high king.

Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”(Act V, Scene V)

On Aug. 15, 1947, India and Pakistan became independent after some 200 years of British rule.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A triple jumper competes in the men’s qualifying round on Monday. The picture was taken with fisheye lens. Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Swimmers compete during the women’s marathon swimming competition on Monday. Gregory Bull/AP

Cyclists Anna Knauer of Germany and Allison Beveridge of Canada crash during the women’s omnium 10k scratch race on Monday. Paul Hanna/Reuters
Market Closes for August 15^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18636.05	+59.58   +0.32%
S&P 500	2190.84	+6.79   +0.31%
NASDAQ	5262.016	+29.121   +0.56%
TSX	14776.35	+28.90
		+0.20%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16869.56	-50.36
		-0.30%
HANG SENG	22932.51	+165.60
		+0.73%
SENSEX	28152.40	+292.80
		+1.05%
FTSE 100	6941.19	+25.17
		+0.36%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.046	1.005
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.644	1.617
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.5559	1.5101
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.2810	2.2292

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.77379	0.77224
US $	1.29234	1.29493
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.44538	0.69186
US $	1.11843	0.89411

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1339.40	1352.20
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	45.74	44.49

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Eric Lam
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, closing near the highest level in a year, as energy producers advanced for a third session amid speculation crude prices will continue to rebound and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. jumped after an analyst upgrade.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 0.2 percent to 14,777.02 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, after earlier gaining as much as 0.4 percent to touch the highest level on a closing basis since June 2015. Trading volume was 20 percent lower than the 30-day average. The S&P/TSX is the second-best performing developed market in the world this year, just behind New Zealand.
     Cenovus Energy Inc. and Crescent Point Energy Corp. added at least 2 percent as oil and gas producers increased 0.8 percent as a group, pacing gains in the S&P/TSX. Six of 10 industries in the Canadian equity benchmark advanced. The S&P/TSX Energy Index has rallied 2 percent in three sessions, to the highest in more than a year.
     Crude futures climbed 2.8 percent to the highest in four weeks, topping $45 a barrel in New York, amid speculation producers will revive talks to stabilize prices. Crude climbed 6.4 percent last week as Saudi Arabia signaled it’s prepared to discuss stabilizing markets at informal OPEC discussions next month. Russia is also reportedly open to talks for a joint output freeze.
     In Canada, the rebound this year continues to be led by mining and materials companies, the top gainers this year among 10 industries in the S&P/TSX with a 63 percent advance, the best year-to-date performance for the category in at least 30 years according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
     That’s boosted the Canadian equity benchmark to a 14 percent jump in 2016, rebounding from a slump last year that was the worst for the S&P/TSX since the 2008 financial crisis. The rally has made Canadian stocks more expensive than their U.S. peers, with a price-earnings ratio of 23.6 for the S&P/TSX, about 15 percent higher than the S&P 500 Index.
     Canadian equities are joining a global rally, with a gauge of world developed and developing markets trading at the highest in a year on speculation uneven economic growth will mean more monetary stimulus from the world’s central banks, extending gains after a brief dip following the surprise U.K. Brexit vote in June. The S&P 500 rose in New York, posting a fresh record after capping on Friday a sixth weekly advance in seven.
     Valeant buoyed health-care shares after analysts at Mizuho Securities raised their rating on the stock to neutral from sell. The shares jumped 6.6 percent.
     Struggling drugmaker Concordia International Corp. fell 6 percent, extending losses to a third day after plummeting the most in more than three years on Aug. 12. A smaller peer of Valeant, Concordia slashed its 2016 forecast, suspended its dividend and announced the departure of a key executive amid disappointing second-quarter results.

US
By Oliver Renick
     (Bloomberg) — The U.S. stock market, extending its sixth weekly advance in two months on Monday, is winning converts, slowly but surely.
     With low-volatility stocks falling to the back of the pack as technology, banks and commodity firms lead the S&P 500 Index to all-time highs, U.S. equities are seeing a resurgence in popularity among a few notable constituencies. Asset managers are favoring stocks over U.S. Treasuries, while active equity funds are the most bullish since 2008, according to Bank of America Corp.
     That marks a shift in tone from the start of the year when investors were yanking money from stocks and beefing up their cash piles. The benchmark index claimed another record Monday — along with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite Index — for its 10th all-time high in a little more than a month. The S&P 500 climbed 0.3 percent to 2,190.15 at 4 p.m. in New York, while the Dow increased 59.58 points, or 0.3 percent, to 18,636.05. The Nasdaq added 0.6 percent.
      “Today equities do not look bad on a valuation basis relative to fixed income and that’s what keeps pushing it,” Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock Inc., said in an interview Monday on Bloomberg Television. “The technicals in the equity market have been pretty good and the flows have all been into fixed income — you could see even a small part of that reverse which presses equities a bit higher.”
     Asset managers bought $6.7 billion of S&P 500 futures and sold $8.6 billion of Treasuries in the week ending August 9, according to a report by Bank of America analysts led by Jue Xiong. Those investors have been rotating from U.S. bonds and into stocks since the start of the third quarter, Xiong said by phone.
     At the same time, large-cap U.S. money managers are more leveraged to the performance of the S&P 500 than at any time since 2008, a separate analysis by the bank showed. Active investors that follow a long-short strategy are about 56 percent long, the most since July 2015, according to that report.
     U.S. stocks advanced Monday amid deal activity and as crude oil extended gains to lift commodity producers. Optimism that central banks will continue efforts to boost growth coupled with better-than-estimated corporate earnings have helped lift equities in the past month, raising valuations. The S&P 500’s price relative to future earnings has climbed to 18.6, the highest since 2002.
     Post Properties Inc. jumped 9.4 percent to a record after Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. agreed to buy the company for about $3.9 billion. Xylem Inc., a maker of wastewater and water treatment systems, climbed 3.9 percent after agreeing to acquire Sensus for about $1.7 billion. Raw-materials companies gained 1 percent for the strongest increase in a month. Copper miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc. rose 3 percent. About 5.5 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 20 percent below the three-month average.
     “Stocks have retained a hot pitch and there’s a lot of demand for equities,” Andrew Brenner, the head of international fixed income for National Alliance Capital Markets, said by phone. “We’ve been in a monetary easing mode for the ECB, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and that’s kind of been driving things. The question is how you make money in a low interest rate environment, and equities might be expensive, but they’re the least dirty shirt.”
     While readings on the labor market have continued to indicate a steady improvement, bolstering confidence in the economy, occasional disappointments such as Friday’s retail report and worse-than-forecast second-quarter growth have stoked speculation the Federal Reserve won’t raise interest rates too quickly.
     Reports today showed manufacturing activity in the New York region unexpectedly contracted this month, while confidence among homebuilders climbed in August as steady job growth and low interest rates boosted prospects for the residential real estate. Builder Toll Brothers Inc. advanced 3.2 percent, the best gain in five weeks.
     More cues are due this week, including data on housing starts and industrial production, while the Fed releases minutes from its July meeting on Wednesday. Traders aren’t convinced the economy will strengthen enough this year to spur a rate increase, with bets on higher borrowing costs not showing at least even odds of a move until March 2017.
     Most S&P 500 companies have released results this reporting season, with 78 percent exceeding profit forecasts and 56 percent beating sales projections. Analysts have tempered their bearishness for second-quarter net income at the gauge’s members, estimating a drop of 2.5 percent, from a slide of 5.8 percent just a month ago. Firms reporting results this week include Home Depot Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Target Corp.
     Among shares moving on corporate news, Chesapeake Energy Corp. rose 9.6 percent to a three-month high, as crude rallied and the company said it’s seeking a $1 billion loan in a step to refinance its $9 billion debt load.
–With assistance from Aleksandra Gjorgievska.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

It is only a mind that looks at a tree or the stars or the sparkling waters of a river

with complete abandonment that knows what beauty is,

and when we are actually seeing we are in a state of love.

Krishnamurti

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

And alien tears will fill for him

Pity’s long-broken urn,

For his mourners will be outcast men,

And outcasts always mourn.

       –Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900

 From The Ballad of Reading Gaol, inscribed on Wilde’s tomb in Pere Lachaise cemetery, Paris.

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day,
in 1898, Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States.
in 1981, IBM introduces the model 5150, its first PC.

Hallelujah, there’s a new Leonard Cohen album on the way.
The songwriter today announced his 14th studio album, “You Want It Darker,” will arrive this fall. The nine-song set was produced by his son Adam Cohen and features original songs with titles such as “Traveling Light,” “Treaty” and “Leaving the Table.”
Cohen, 82, has continued to be a productive force in his later years; “You Want It Darker” his third album in the last six years.

The World’s Most Magical Places:  a short video by National Geographic introduces four natural wonders in different locations on Earth.  It gives a glimpse into their history, explains the science behind their beauty, and features some awe-inspiring pictures.  Whether you are looking for an exciting travel destination or just want to see something extraordinary from where you are right now, this video will fascinate.  Find it athttp://bit.ly/natgeoplaces.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Sailors compete under the Christ the Redeemer statue in the men’s two-person dinghy preliminary event on Thursday. Brian Snyder/Reuters

Anna Kasprzak of Denmark hugs her horse, Donnperignon, after their ride in the dressage team grand prix event on Friday. Tony Gentile/Reuters

Heather Miller-Koch of the US competes in the women’s heptathlon high jump on Friday. Phil Noble/Reuters

Market Closes for August 12^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18576.47	-37.05   -0.20%
S&P 500	2184.05	-1.74   -0.08%
NASDAQ	5232.895	+4.496   +0.09%
TSX	14747.45	-48.61
		-0.33%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16919.92	+184.80
		+1.10%
HANG SENG	22766.91	+186.36
		+0.83%
SENSEX	28152.40	+292.80
		+1.05%
FTSE 100	6916.02	+1.31
		+0.02%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.005	1.034
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.617	1.643
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.5101	1.5610
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.2292	2.2715

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.77224	0.76995
US $	1.29493	1.29879
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.44582	0.69165
US $	1.11652	0.89564

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1352.20	1355.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	44.49	43.49

Market Commentary:

Number of the Day
6,069
The number of days since all three major U.S. indexes closed at record highs on the same day.

Canada

By Bailey Lipschultz
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks pared a weekly gain as Concordia International Corp. tumbled to the lowest in more than two years on disappointing results and miners led a gauge of resource producers lower.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 0.3 percent to 14,747.45 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, with nine of 10 main industries falling. Trading volume was in line with the 30-day average. The benchmark gauge advanced 0.7 percent in the past five days and remains the second-best performing developed market in the world, behind New Zealand.
     Concordia International plummeted 39 percent for its biggest slide since July 2013. The drugmaker unexpectedly cut its 2016 forecast, suspended its dividend, and announced that Chief Financial Officer Adrian de Saldanha was leaving. The sector has provided the biggest drag on the index, dropping 70 percent so far in 2016.
     Financial services companies dropped for a third session, led by losses in Brookfield Asset Management Inc. after its net income fell 51 percent in the second quarter. Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank fell at least 0.2 percent.
     Raw-materials producers drifted to a loss as nickel suffered its worst two-day slump since May to lead industrial metals lower. Diversified mining company Teck Resources Ltd. lost 4 percent. Gold futures posted the first back-to-back weekly losses in more than two months.
     Energy producers were the lone industry to advance, up 0.3 percent as crude posted its biggest weekly advance since April. 
     The raw-material sector remains the biggest gainer in the benchmark for Canadian equities in 2016, up 63 percent, while energy stocks are second, up 22 percent.

US

By Oliver Renick
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks edged lower as lackluster data offered little incentive for investors to push equities higher after the three main benchmarks reached records on Thursday.
     Banks were among the bigger drags Friday as Treasury yields fell, damping optimism for better earnings on speculation the Federal Reserve will be in no rush to raise interest rates.
     Drugmakers weighed on the health-care group, while raw-materials fell the most in five weeks. Energy producers rose with crude oil for a second day, and Nordstrom Inc. jumped 8 percent to buoy retailers after its quarterly profit beat projections.
     The S&P 500 Index fell 0.1 percent to 2,184.05 at 4 p.m. in New York, after yesterday closing at an all-time high for the ninth time in a month. The Nasdaq Composite Index eked out a 0.1 percent climb to its fourth record in six days, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 37.05 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,576.47. About 5.5 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges Friday, the lowest in four months and 21 percent below the three-month average. 
     “The market has really been complacent all summer,”said Tom Siomades, head of Hartford Funds Investment Consulting Group in Radnor, Pennsylvania, whose firm oversees $76 billion. “What we’ve seen is not a preponderance of good news, it’s just been a lack of any real bad news. Today’s numbers missed across the board but where’s the reaction? People have been lulled to sleep here.”
     A report today showed sales at U.S. retailers were little changed in July as Americans flocked to auto dealers at the expense of other merchants. The stalling of purchases followed a gain in June that was stronger than initially estimated.
     Excluding cars, sales retreated the most since the start of the year. Separate data showed wholesale prices unexpectedly fell in July by the most in almost a year, a sign inflation is likely to stay muted.
     Better-than-projected corporate results, improving economic data and optimism central banks will stay supportive of growth have sent equities to a succession of fresh peaks in the past month while also extending valuations. The S&P 500’s price relative to future earnings has climbed to 18.6, the highest since 2002.
     The gains are also getting harder for strategists to ignore. Wells Fargo & Co. became the second of 21 firms tracked by Bloomberg to raise its target for the S&P 500 since the measure surged past the group’s average year-end prediction a month ago. The benchmark rose less than 0.1 percent for the week.
     The advance to records has ushered in a deepening level of calm. The CBOE Volatility Index slipped 1.1 percent Friday to 11.55, after briefly touching a two-year low. The measure of market turbulence known as the VIX snapped the longest stretch of weekly declines in eight years. Meanwhile, bets against the rally have been punished as a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. basket of most-shorted shares capped a seventh consecutive weekly climb, its longest since 2009.                     
     With the earnings season approaching its end, investors are turning their focus to economic data to gauge the vitality of U.S. growth and the Federal Reserve’s next policy steps. In addition to July retail sales and producer prices, a report showed consumer confidence rose less than forecast in August, reflecting a pullback in views on personal finances among younger Americans.
     After Friday’s data, traders’ bets on the timing of an interest-rate increase have fluctuated, with the first month showing at least even odds of higher borrowing costs volleying between March and May 2017.
     With most S&P 500 members through with reporting quarterly results, 78 percent exceeded profit forecasts while 56 percent beat on sales. Analysts predict earnings for the group fell 2.5 percent, and estimates for the current quarter recently went negative, expected to now fall 0.8 percent in the period ending in September, compared with a 1.8 percent gain forecast before the earnings season began four weeks ago, according data compiled by Bloomberg.
      “We have reasonably good news from the earnings season and the economy recently,” said Otto Waser, head of investment research at R&A Group Research and Asset Management AG in Zurich. “There are no large investor worries, and this has kept markets relatively stable. When the S&P managed to reach a fresh all-time high in July, we thought that was important, and now we’re getting some confirmation.”                      Among the S&P 500’s main industries today, energy producers climbed 0.7 percent as crude rallied to its best week since April on optimism OPEC members will act to stabilize the oil market. Consumer staples added 0.3 percent. Raw-materials dropped 1.2 percent while industrial and financial stocks lost at least 0.2 percent.
     Dow Chemical Inc. fell 2.4 percent merger partner DuPont Co. lost 1.9 percent to lead raw-materials lower, as their deal comes under greater scrutiny, facing months of haggling with European Union antitrust regulators. Steelmaker Nucor Corp. and Alcoa Inc. sank more than 2.4 percent.
     Banks weighed most on the financial group, with regional lenders the weakest performers. Huntington Bancshares Inc. and KeyCorp losing more than 0.9 percent, trimming declines in the final hour of trading. Weyerhaeuser Co. fell 1.9 percent to the lowest in a month after Dundee Securities Corp. downgraded the shares to sell from neutral.
     Exxon Mobil Corp. rose 1.3 percent, climbing for the fifth time in six days as West Texas Intermediate crude futures rallied more than 2 percent. Marathon Oil Corp. and Southwestern Energy Co. added more than 1.8 percent.
     Yahoo! Inc. helped lift the Nasdaq Composite, climbing 4.1 percent to a 14-month high. The shares posted their best back- to-back increase in almost six months, following Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. higher for a second day as China’s biggest e- commerce company gained 7.1 percent.
     Among shares moving on corporate news, Nvidia Corp. rose 5.6 percent to a record after the biggest maker of graphics chips forecast sales that topped analyst estimates. Cigna Corp. surged 5.3 percent and Anthem Inc. advanced 1.6 percent after the U.S. government said it’s open to settlement offers in its antitrust case against the companies’ merger. J.C. Penney Co. gained 6.1 percent after posting a smaller quarterly loss as it shows progress in efforts to rebuild its business.
 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

To reach cosmic understanding,

it is necessary to unite our feeling with that infinite felling that penetrates everything.

In fact, for man, true progress coincides with the breadth of the base of our feelings.

All our poetry, philosophy, science, art, and religion

serve to embrace with our understanding

the spheres too vast and high.

Rabindranath Tagore

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Do the one thing you think you cannot do.  Fail at it.  Try again.

Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those

who never mount the high wire.  This is your moment. Own it.

                                                   -Oprah Winfrey,  b. 1954

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

August 11, 1965:  Watts riots, Los Angeles.

Tonight begins the annual Perseid meteor shower!

How to best enjoy this year’s Perseid meteor shower, which could see as many 200 shooting stars an hour
                                                                                            -by Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The heavens will be bursting with shooting stars this week.
Thursday night into early Friday, the annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak with double the normal number of meteors. Scientists call this an outburst, and they say it could reach up to 200 meteors per hour.
Prime viewing should be in the pre-dawn hours of Friday, after the moon sets.
 \
Blaine McCartney / The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via Associated PressA meteor streaks past the faint band of the Milky Way galaxy

The last Perseids outburst was in 2009. Thanks to a gravity nudge from Jupiter, debris from comet Swift-Tuttle could stray closer to Earth again. These scattered specks of dust — a trail in the comet’s wake — are what flash as they enter the atmosphere at a mind-blowing 132,000 mph and burn up.
“Here’s something to think about. The meteors you’ll see this year are from comet flybys that occurred hundreds if not thousands of years ago,” NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke said in a statement. “And they’ve travelled billions of miles before their kamikaze run into Earth’s atmosphere.”
Scientists hope to capture the action with a new instrument at the International Space Station. The U.S.-Japanese experiment’s name is appropriately named Meteor.
An August tradition, the Perseids are so named because the meteors appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus, the Medusa-killing hero of Greek mythology.

 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Luuka Jones of New Zealand competes in the semifinal of women’s kayak canoe slalom on Thursday. Ivan Alvarado/Reuters

Brazil’s Joao Victor Marcari Oliva, riding Xama Dos Pinhais, competes in the equestrian dressage competition on Thursday. John Locher/AP

Market Closes for August 11^th, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18613.52	+117.86   +0.64%
S&P 500	2186.47	+10.98   +0.50%
NASDAQ	5228.398	+23.814   +0.46%
TSX	14801.37	+26.33
		+0.18%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16735.12	-29.85
		-0.18%
HANG SENG	22580.55	+88.12
		+0.39%
SENSEX	27859.60	+84.72
		+0.31%
FTSE 100	6914.71	+48.29
		+0.70%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.034	0.989
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.643	1.608
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.5610	1.5057
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.2715	2.2253

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.76995	0.76629
US $	1.29879	1.30499
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.44698	0.69109
US $	1.11410	0.89758

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1355.00	1347.70
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	43.49	41.71

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks resumed their climb after snapping a five-day rally, as energy producers rose with crude oil to overshadow a selloff in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. sparked by reports it is facing a criminal probe from U.S. prosecutors.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 0.1 percent to 14,796.06 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, paring a gain of as much as 0.6 percent. Trading volume was 8.1 percent higher than the 30-day average. The S&P/TSX is the second-best performing developed market in the world this year, just behind New Zealand.
     Energy producers added 0.9 percent for the highest close in a year, the biggest contributor to gains as six of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX advanced. Crude futures rose 4.3 percent in New York to reach the highest level in three weeks.
     Gibson Energy Inc. surged 6.8 percent, the most since January, after the midstream energy facilities and infrastructure company reportedly rejected a C$2.8 billion offer from Asia Pacific Private Equity, according to the Financial Post. The takeout talk is seen as positive for the shares, according to RBC Dominion Securities analyst Robert Kwan. 
     Health-care stocks slumped to the biggest drop in the S&P/TSX. Valeant Pharmaceuticals lost 11 percent, the most in two months. U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating whether the drugmaker defrauded insurers by hiding its ties to mail-order pharmacy Philidor Rx Services LLC, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Valeant is cooperating with the probe, according to a statement.
     Raw-materials producers ended the day down as well, retreating 0.5 percent as gold prices drifted negative. Kinross Gold Corp. and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. lost as much as 1.5 percent to pace declines in the group.
     There were some pockets of gains in the group, as metals companies reported earnings. Silver Standard Resources Inc. soared 11 percent to the highest close in almost five years on second-quarter earnings triple that of analysts’ estimates. Torex Gold Resources Inc. jumped 8.7 percent to a record following its quarterly results, which showed production more than doubled from the previous quarter.
     Mining and materials companies remain the top gainers this year among 10 industries in the S&P/TSX with a 64 percent advance, the best year-to-date performance for the category in at least 30 years according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
     That’s boosted the Canadian equity benchmark to a 14 percent jump in 2016, rebounding from a slump last year that was the worst for the S&P/TSX since the 2008 financial crisis. The rally has made Canadian stocks more expensive than their U.S. peers, with a price-earnings ratio of 24 for the S&P/TSX, about 17 percent higher than the S&P 500 Index.

US

By Lu Wang

     (Bloomberg) —  The benchmark measure did it again Thursday, rising 0.5 percent to 2,185.79 at 4 p.m. in New York, its ninth closing record in the past month.    
     Thursday’s gain pushed the S&P 500’s price relative to future earnings to 18.6, the highest since 2002. Retailers paced stock advances, with Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. climbing at least 16 percent after reporting quarterly earnings. Energy producers rebounded as crude rallied amid forecasts for growing demand from refiners.
     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 117.86 points, or 0.6 percent, to 18,613.52, joining the S&P 500 at an all-time high, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.5 percent for a third record in five days. It was the first time since 1999 the three major indexes simultaneously closed at records. About 6 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 14 percent below the three-month average.
     Stocks have surged to highs in recent sessions, boosted by better-than-estimated earnings, improving economic data and optimism central banks will stay supportive of growth. After topping its previous record in mid-July, the S&P 500 has inched higher in a range, not moving more than 1 percent in either direction for 24 straight days, the longest streak since 2014. That has the CBOE Volatility Index holding near a two-year low, with the measure of market turbulence down 3.1 percent today to 11.68.
     With equities setting records, insider purchases are dwindling, with two buying for every nine that sold. At 0.23, the buy/sell ratio is about one-third of what it was in February and last August, and compares with an average of 0.69 over almost three decades.
     Echoing rising equity pessimism among executives, earnings sentiment is souring. After predicting at the end of June that profit would expand 2.3 percent in the current quarter, analysts now see S&P 500 income contracting 0.6 percent. That would put U.S. companies on track for a sixth consecutive period of falling profits, the longest since the financial crisis.
     As earnings fail to rebound, companies looking to charge up their stock returns with repurchases are turning to debt markets like no time since the Internet bubble. The proportion of buybacks funded by debt rose above 30 percent in June for the first time since 2001, data compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bloomberg show.
     Among other shares moving Thursday on corporate news, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. rose to a two-month high after its earnings surpassed projections. Yahoo! Inc., an Alibaba stakeholder, added 3.4 percent. The reports from Macy’s and Kohl’s sparked their strongest one-day gains in at least seven years. Apparel companies in the S&P 500 rose to the highest since March, while retailers reached a record. Nordstrom Inc. marked the steepest climb in two years before its quarterly report.
     Mall owners sank as Macy’s plans to close 14 percent of its stores, with General Growth Properties Inc. and Simon Property Group Inc. losing more than 2 percent. Shake Shack Inc. tumbled 6.2 percent after quarterly same-store sales at the fast-food chain missed analyst projections.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

In his essence, man is not a slave to himself, nor to the world; he is a lover.

His freedom and accomplishments are in love,

which is another name for perfect understanding.

In this ability to understand, in this impregnation of everything that is,

he is one with the Spirit that penetrates everything,

and that is also the breath of the soul.

Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Ah, but I was so much older then,

I’m younger than that now.

                 -Bob Dylan, 1941-

 

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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 1846, the Smithsonian is created.

I’ve been a subscriber to the Smithsonian magazine for several years now.  It still arrives by print in the mail box and now, also online.  Always interesting articles on every subject imaginable.  They also orchestrate/organize interesting journeys.  A few years ago, Gary and I went travelling through Chile on a food and wine themed journey organized by the Smithsonian.   Even though there were only seven of us who signed up, we had two food and wine experts accompany us for the entire  week as we visited wine chateaux and fabulous eateries.  In addition, at several points along the way, various history and culture aficionados joined the group for  a time to impart their expertise.  One of the accompanying experts also happens to be a professor of gastronomy in Buenos Aires.  After Chile, we had planned to visit Argentina, so our guide invited us to his home and brought us to a local restaurant owned by some of his former students, and we were treated to an Argentinian feast.   They seem to get the right mixture of education and fun. 

Following is an article from the most recent Smithsonian magazine.  Fascinating stuff:

Scientists Uncover a “Hidden” Portrait by Edgar Degas

Read More ››

August 10, 1945: Japan surrenders.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Canadians Jacob Saunders and Graeme Saunders compete in the sailing preliminaries in the men’s two-person dinghy on Wednesday. Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Russia’s Nikolay Kovalev looks through his fencing mask as he competes against South Korea’s Kim Junghwan in the men’s individual sabre event on Wednesday. Charlie Riedel/AP

Market Closes for August 10, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18495.66	-37.39  – 0.2%
S&P 500	2175.51	-6.23  -0.29%
NASDAQ	5204.586	-20.894  -0.40%
TSX	14769.22	– 32.01
		-0.22%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16735.12	-29.85
		-0.18
HANG SENG	22492.43	+26.82
		+0.12%
SENSEX	27774.88	-310.28
		-1.10%
FTSE 100	6866.42	+15.12
		+0.22%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	0.989	1.012
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.608	1.630
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.5057	1.5453
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.2253	2.2589

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.76629	0.76229
US $	1.30499	1.30325
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45955	0.68514
US $	1.11840	0.89413

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1347.70	1341.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	41.71	42.77

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, snapping a five-day advance as energy producers tumbled with crude and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. slid, offsetting gains in raw-materials producers spurred by rising gold prices.

     The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 0.2 percent to 14,775.04 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, halting a five-day 2.2 percent rally. Trading volume was 7 percent higher than the 30-day average. The S&P/TSX is the second-best performing developed market in the world, just behind New Zealand.

     Energy producers lost 0.6 percent. New York crude fell 2.5 percent to $41.71 a barrel, after U.S. government data today showed stockpiles unexpectedly rose, while gasoline and distillate inventories fell more than estimated.

     Meanwhile the health-care group posted the biggest drop on the S&P/TSX, with Valeant falling 3.1 percent a day after rallying the most in two decades. The drugmaker surprised investors yesterday by maintaining its full-year outlook even after posting disappointing revenue and earnings figures. Valeant is also seeking to loosen restrictions on its debt load.

     Investors also weighed earnings from Canadian companies. Precious metals producer Tahoe Resources Inc. climbed 5.9 percent, for the biggest increase in six weeks, after posting adjusted earnings ahead of estimates while predicting it will achieve the top end of its 2016 forecast for silver production. Meanwhile, Alamos Gold Inc. slipped 4.7 percent after reporting a loss as second-quarter gold production slipped from year-ago levels.

     Gold producers paced a broader gain among raw-materials stocks on the day. Goldcorp Inc. and Detour Gold Corp. rose more than 3.4 percent to pace a 0.8 percent increase in raw-materials as gold and copper prices rose. Mining and materials companies are the top gainers this year among 10 industries in the S&P/TSX with a 65 percent advance, the best year-to-date performance for the category in at least 30 years according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     That’s boosted the Canadian equity benchmark to a 14 percent jump in 2016, rebounding from a slump last year that was the worst for the S&P/TSX since the 2008 financial crisis. The rally has made Canadian stocks more expensive than their U.S. peers, with a price-earnings ratio of 23.5 for the S&P/TSX, about 15 percent higher than the S&P 500 Index.

US

By Joseph Ciolli and Lu Wang

     (Bloomberg) — A year that’s brought little but pain for bearish traders is getting worse.

     Not only is the rising market punishing shorts, it’s lifting their favorite targets at a rate that is by some measures three times as great as everything else. As a result, the 50 most-shorted stocks — that is, the ones bears had bet would fall — have instead rallied as much as 16 percent since the end of June, on track for the biggest quarterly gain in more than five years, data compiled by Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. show.

     Unlucky stock selection is making a tough year worse for the group, who’ve watched the value of U.S. stocks swell by more than $2 trillion since late June. The S&P 500 Index pushed its gains to nearly 7 percent this year before the measure slipped 0.3 percent Wednesday to 2,175.49 at 4 p.m. in New York, about 0.3 percent from an all-time high.

     From concerns Brexit would derail the global economy to a fifth straight quarter of earnings contraction and stretched equity valuations, investors had more than enough reasons to bet against U.S. stocks this summer. Those wagers have gone south as traders snapped up companies whose prospects are tied to an expanding economy, signaling expectations for continued central- bank support amid steady growth.

     “This environment of low interest rates and excess capital availability provides significant danger to shorts in this market,” said Walter Todd, who oversees about $1.1 billion as chief investment officer for Greenwood Capital Associates LLC in South Carolina. “This particular market has continued to grind higher, and it’s never a good idea to short when things are relatively dull.”

     Investors have already started scaling back short positions as their effectiveness comes into question amid a market that’s notched eight closing highs in the past month. Short interest on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, which tracks the benchmark index, fell to an almost 20-month low last week. The measure now sits at 3.8 percent of shares outstanding, more than two percentage points below its two-year average.

     Bears have pointed to equity valuations that sit at the highest in more than a decade on an estimated earnings basis, yet the S&P 500 Index pushed its advance since the post-Brexit selloff to nearly 9 percent. The index has recently received a boost from signs of economic expansion, highlighted by July payrolls data that beat estimates on Friday, bolstering confidence in the U.S. economy.

     The pain subsided somewhat on Wednesday, as the Goldman index slipped 1.6 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 37.39 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,495.66, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.4 percent after closing yesterday at a record for the second time in three sessions. About 5.9 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges, 16 percent below the three- month average.

     Among shares moving, Exxon Mobil Corp. fell 1.8 percent to lead energy companies lower after crude tumbled on data showing an increase in stockpiles. Banks retreated as yields on the 10- year Treasury note slid on speculation the Federal Reserve won’t rush to raise interest rates. Perrigo Co. plunged 9.6 percent to a five-year low after cutting its annual earnings forecast.

     Ralph Lauren Corp. surged 8.5 percent, the most in nine months, after reporting a quarterly profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates. Walt Disney Co. rose 1.3 percent, as Macquarie Capital upgraded the shares amid big steps the media giant is taking in online video to adapt to changing consumer viewing habits.

     The rally that’s propelled stocks higher since the days following the U.K.’s vote to secede from the European Union has recently lacked conviction, based on trading volume, with the number of shares changing hands on days the S&P 500 closed at a record 15 percent lower than the average up day. The index has been stuck in a range of about 40 points since July 8, going 23 days without a move of more than 1 percent in either direction, the longest such streak since 2014.

     “There’s a little bit too much complacency at this time,” Dubravko Lakos-Bujas, head of equity strategy and global quant research at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “There’s a lot of expectation that’s already priced into the market.”

     More than 90 percent of S&P 500 members have posted quarterly results this season, of which 78 percent beat profit predictions and 56 percent topped sales projections. Michael Kors Holdings Ltd., among four companies on the index reporting today, fell 2.8 percent after its quarterly comparable sales fell more than expected.

     Analysts have tempered their estimates for a decline in second-quarter net income to 2.7 percent, from a 5.8 percent drop less than a month ago. Forecasts for the current quarter ending in September have turned negative, indicating a sixth consecutive period of falling profits, the longest since the financial crisis.

 –With assistance from Roxana Zega.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

When water joins with water, it is not a meeting but a unification.

Swami Prajnanpad

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

                                                        -William James, 1841-1910

 

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

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

August 9, 1815, Charles Lamb wrote to Robert Southey:

I am going to stand godfather; I don’t like the business; I cannot muster up decorum for these occasions; I shall certainly disgrace the font.  I was at Hazlitt’s marriage, and had like to have been turned out several times during the ceremony.  Anything awful makes me laugh.  I misbehaved once at a funeral.  Yet I can read about these ceremonies with pious and proper feelings.  The realities of life only seem the mockeries. 

TODAY IN HISTORY

August 9, 1945: The United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, Japan, instantly killing an estimated 39,000 people.  The explosion came three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

We have guided missiles and misguided men. –Martin Luther King, Jr.

August 10, 1945, James Lees-Milne, Diary:

My delight in Churchill’s defeat, disapproval of the Socialists’ victory, detestation of the atom bomb and disgust with the Allies’ treatment of Germany are about equal.  Muddle. 

Remember that no one loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses.

                                                                                                        -Marcus Aurelius,121-180, Meditations, ll, 14.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

William Fox-Pitt of the United Kingdom rides Chilli Morning in the individual equestrian jumping final at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday. Tony Gentile/Reuters

Marco Fichera (l.) of Italy competes against Japan’s Kazuyasu Minobe during a men’s preliminary fencing match at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday. Issei Kato/Reuters

Market Closes for August 9, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18533.05	+3.76  +0.02%
S&P 500	2181.74	+0.85  +0.04%
NASDAQ	5225.480	+12.339  +0.24%
TSX	14801.23	+45.61
		+0.31%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16764.97	+114.40
		+0.69
HANG SENG	22465.61	-29.15
		-0.13%
SENSEX	28085.16	-97.41
		-0.35%
FTSE 100	6851.30	+42.17
		+0.62%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.012	1.064
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.630	1.677
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.5453	1.5920
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.2589	2.3090

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.76229	0.75974
US $	1.30325	1.31624
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45832	0.68572
US $	1.11160	0.89961

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1341.00	1336.80
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	42.77	43.02

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose to the highest level in 13 months as Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. surged the most in two decades on its forecast and commodities producers advanced.

     The S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed 0.3 percent to 14,801.23 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, extending a five-day rally to 2.3 percent. Trading volume was 9.4 percent lower than the 30- day average.

     The Canadian equity benchmark is up 14 percent in 2016, rebounding from a slump last year that was the worst for the S&P/TSX since the 2008 financial crisis. The rally has made Canadian stocks more expensive than their U.S. peers, with a price- earnings ratio of 23.5 for the S&P/TSX, about 15 percent higher than the S&P 500 Index.

     While mining and energy stocks have propelled Canada to the second-best performance among developed markets this year, it was health-care companies and banks that drove gains Tuesday. Valeant soared 25 percent for the biggest gain since September 1995, contributing almost one-third to the broader index’s advance. Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank rose at least 0.3 percent to lead banks higher.

     Valeant maintained its full-year targets given in June, including adjusted Ebitda or earnings before interest, taxes and other items of $4.8 billion to $4.95 billion. To do so Valeant will need to significantly improve its results, after posting second-quarter adjusted profit of $1.40 a share, well short of the $1.47 average estimate. Sales plunged 11 percent.

     Elsewhere in corporate earnings, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc. tumbled 11 percent for its worst loss in seven years after second-quarter earnings and sales missed estimates, blamed on a sudden decline in global equipment pricing in June. Ritchie Bros. also boosted its dividend. Premium Brands Holdings Corp. added 5.5 percent, closing at the highest in three months.

     Raw-materials producers added 0.3 percent as a group as gold advanced in New York to halt a brief two-day slide. Iamgold Corp. slumped 11 percent after selling shares in a bought deal to raise $200 million. The gold mining company plans to use the cash to reduce debt and fund internal growth projects. While second-quarter revenue missed estimates, the company said it expects to complete several acquisitions this year.

     Energy producers slipped 0.1 percent as crude prices ended the day lower in New York, falling from the highest close in two weeks. Oil advanced yesterday after OPEC said it will hold informal talks next month in Algiers.

     Inter Pipeline Ltd. lost 2.2 percent after agreeing yesterday to buy the Canadian assets of Williams Cos. for C$1.35 billion ($1 billion) including extraction and processing facilities in the Alberta oil sands, as well as about 260 miles of pipelines.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     (Bloomberg) — Professional speculators are making record bets in volatility markets that U.S. stocks will keep rallying.

     Hedge funds and other big traders tracked by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have pushed net short positions on CBOE Volatility Index futures to 115,000 contracts, the most since 2013, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Shorting volatility is effectively a bet equity prices will rise since the VIX and stocks move in opposite directions 80 percent of the time.

     The wagers were mixed Tuesday as the VIX climbed 1.4 percent to 11.66 after wiping out a 4.2 percent drop. The S&P 500 rose less than 0.1 percent to 2,181.74 at 4 p.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge for American equity climbed in four of the last five days to push its 2016 increase to 6.7 percent and its gain from February’s low to 19 percent.

     The index was little changed near an all-time high as declines in commodity shares and retailers offset gains in health-care and technology stocks spurred by corporate earnings. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.2 percent to a record for the second time in three sessions, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 3.76 points to 18,533.05. About 6 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 14 percent below the three-month average.

     Even with the advance, moves in stocks over the last month have been muted. The S&P 500 has failed to rise or fall more than 1 percent in either direction for 22 straight days, the longest such streak since 2014. The lack of price swings had sent the CBOE Volatility Index to a more than two-year low amid a better-than-expected corporate earnings season and economic data that showed signs of improvement.

     “Each time volatility starts coming out, you have policy makers coming and crushing it back down,” Michael Kelly, New York-based global head of multi-asset strategy at PineBridge Investments, which oversees over $80 billion, said in an interview. “People are learning, you have protection underneath you.”

     The drop in volatility has created such a downdraft in the prices of VIX-linked exchange-traded products that two securities carried out a reverse split Tuesday to increase their per-share value. The iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures ETN both enacted 1- for-4 splits after shares tumbled 54 percent and 14 percent this year, respectively.

     In the past 30 days, four VIX-related ETPs have declared reverse splits, the most in history, according to data compiled by Sundial Capital Research Inc.

     “VIX positioning went from incredibly bullish back in February, when the world was coming to an end, to shorts at all time lows,” Michael Purves, chief global strategist at Weeden & Co LP in Greenwich, Connecticut, said by phone. “It’s crazy.”

     While Purves largely attributes the VIX’s current suppressed level to the Federal Reserve’s willingness to reassure the market in times of turbulence, he also cites improving economic data. Citigroup Inc.’s U.S. Economic Surprise Index late last month hit its highest level since September 2014.

     A report today showed productivity of American workers unexpectedly declined for a third quarter, consistent with lackluster efficiency that’s characterized the economic expansion. July payrolls data that beat estimates on Friday bolstered confidence in the U.S. economy, calming concerns following recent disappointing readings on growth in the first half of this year.

     Stocks have also benefited from better-than-forecast earnings this season, particularly among technology companies. With about 90 percent of S&P 500 members having posted results, 77 percent have beaten profit predictions and 56 percent have topped sales projections.

     Analysts have tempered their estimates for a decline in second-quarter net income to 2.7 percent, from a 5.8 percent drop less than a month ago. Forecasts for the current quarter ending in September have turned negative, indicating a sixth straight period of falling profits, the longest since the financial crisis. Sliding earnings are causing valuations to jump, with the benchmark’s price-earnings ratio last month climbing above 20 for the first time since 2009.

     Among shares moving on corporate news, Endo International Plc soared 22 percent, the steepest climb since November 2013, after the drugmaker’s results beat analysts’ estimates. Microchip Technology Inc. added 7.1 percent to a record as its sales and profit outlook exceeded predictions.

     Gap Inc. lost 6.3 percent, the most in three months, after comparable sales last month missed analysts’ estimates and the company provided some cautious commentary on the second half of the year. Target Corp. fell 3.2 percent after Cleveland Research lowered its estimates for the retailer’s same-store sales and earnings, saying customer traffic softened in July.

 –With assistance from Camila Russo, Oliver Renick and Lu Wang.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

The characteristic of my nation is this transcendentalism,

this struggle to go beyond, this daring to tear the veil off the face of nature

and have at any risk, at any price,

a glimpse of the beyond.

Swami Vivekananda

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do

is make the rubble bounce.

                                        -Sir 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

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Carolann is away today and I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

PHOTOS OF THE DAYPerformers take part in the Rio Olympics opening ceremony in a scene illustrating the Brazilian rainforest on Friday night. Andrew Boyers/Reuters

Canada’s Shallon Olsen competes on the vault during the women’s qualification round at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Monday. Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Market Closes for August 8, 2016

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	18529.29	-14.24  -0.8%
S&P 500	2180.89	-1.98  -0.09%
NASDAQ	5213.141	-7.980  -0.15%
TSX	14755.62	+106.85
		+0.73%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16650.57	+396.12
		+2.44
HANG SENG	22494.76	+348.67
		+1.57%
SENSEX	28182.57	+104.22
		+0.37%
FTSE 100	6809.13	+15.66
		+0.23%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous  % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.064	1.069
CND. 30 Year Bond	1.677	1.681
U.S.    10 Year Bond	1.5920	1.5833
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.3090	2.3104

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.75974	0.75900
US $	1.31624	1.31753
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45898	0.68541
US $	1.10843	0.90218

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1336.80	1340.40
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	43.02	41.80

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.

George Orwell

 

As ever,

 

Leyla