Category: Events

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As the year winds down, highlights of 2014 are being cited.  Following is one such list that was published today on Bloomberg:

The Top Ten Wines of the Year, as Tasted by Critic Elin McCoy

2014-12-16 14:30:00.0 GMT

By Elin McCoy

     (Bloomberg) — In my quest for the world’s most recommendable wines, I sampled more than 4,000 this year. My top ten most memorable bottles range from a great vintage of a Napa cult classic to a bargain from France’s snowy alps to a new, rare Italian collectible.  All say something about what’s hot in the wine world, and what’s in store for 2015. 

     2012 Antica Terra Angelicall rosé ($75)

     Made from pinot noir vines planted on a rocky pre-historic seabed in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, this unusual rosé — named for alchemy’s invisible Angelicall stone — is one of the most intriguing pink wines I’ve ever tasted. Over dinner in the Dundee Hills with talented winemaker Maggie Harrison, I savored its exotic mineral and spice character and perfumed aromas, the result of macerating the juice longer on the skins. The rosé craze is still with us, so expect more expensive experiments.

      2001 Harlan Estate ($900 to $1,300)

      When you’re invited to the first-ever tasting of 26 vintages of Napa’s Harlan Estate at the winery, you don’t say no. Founder Bill Harlan’s ambition has always been to create an American cabernet-based red that’s the equivalent of Bordeaux’s famous first growths. This dark, powerful stunner, my top wine of the tasting, comes pretty close. Its lush, sensual texture is a Harlan trademark.

      2000 Littorai  B. A. Thieriot Vineyard Pinot Noir (Auction)

      Ted Lemon, owner/winemaker at Sonoma’s Littorai winery is one of the leaders in California’s quest for pinot perfection.

      This 14-year-old red, from a single vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, has a wonderfully expansive bouquet and tastes of cherries and bright red fruit. The 2000 was my favorite at a retrospective of his wines performed at Manhattan’s Per Se restaurant; it shows how well Littorai’s pinots age. While this vintage is impossible to find, the superb 2011 and 2012 can be had for $75 to $150. 

      2007 Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair La Romanee ($1,800 to $2,800)

      One of Burgundy’s new stars, Vicomte Louis-Michel Liger- Belair started reviving his family’s domaine in 2000. La Romanee, his great grand cru vineyard, is just uphill from Romanee-Conti and the wine is already attracting attention at auction. I sampled the sumptuous, seductively spicy, ready to drink 2007 with him at his home in Vosne-Romanee, under the eyes of mounted antelope heads and ancestor portraits. 

      2010 Chateau La Fleur-Petrus ($275)

      I’ve always been a huge fan of this wine from Bordeaux’s tiny appellation of Pomerol, whose vineyards border the much more famous and expensive Petrus. So I grabbed the chance to compare six recent top vintages with Edouard Moueix, whose family owns the estate. The 2010 was the standout for me. Sophisticated, elegant and filled with voluptuous spicy fruit, it’s one more reason to rediscover Bordeaux.  

      1999 Avignonesi Vin Santo di Montepulciano ($200, ½ bottle)

      Thick yet silky, this neglected traditional Italian sweet wine is a complex mélange of flavors: candied orange peel, figs, dark chocolate, dried plums and nuts. I found it on a fall visit to Montepulciano, in Tuscany. This 1999 was perfect with salted caramels at the end of a long lunch at the winery’s restaurant with Avignonesi owner Virginie Saverys. Made from white trebbiano and malvasia grapes that are dried on straw mats for months, it’s fermented and aged in very small barrels for a decade before bottling.  

      2009 Matarocchio Tenuta Guado al Tasso Antinori  ($275 – $350)

      This 100 percent cabernet franc from Piero Antinori’s Guido al Tasso estate in Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast delivered major taste thrills as well as the excitement of discovery. Its rarity

      — only 250 to 500 cases in top vintages — and recent interest in “the other cabernet” guarantee Matarocchio will become a sought-after Italian collectible. So far there are just three vintages — 2007, 2009, and 2011. The 2009, which I sipped at a Zachys pre-auction tasting, is graceful, silky and sleekly elegant.

      1981 CVNE Vina Real Gran Reserva  ($275 – $400)

      Historic Rioja bodega CVNE has been releasing older vintages of its gran reservas, stored in the winery’s “cemetery,” since 2010. The concentrated, savory 1981 Vina Real is one of nine old vintages I tasted with fifth generation owner and winemaker Victor Urrutia at New York’s Alto restaurant. Its wonderfully soft texture and leathery, spicy aromas underscored how undervalued old Spanish wines are.

      2012 Domaine Belluard  Les Alpes  ($25)

      My hands-down bargain of the year is this white from an alpine vineyard near Chamonix, in the Haute-Savoie region of France, which a collector brought to a BYOB dinner during Oregon’s International Pinot Noir Celebration. I’d never heard of the rare gringet grape from which it’s made — and was immediately smitten with its lively, pure, fresh taste. It made me think of melting snow on rocks, a kind of alpine version of flinty Chablis – and served as a reminder that unfamiliar regions and grapes are the best source of top values. 

     1863 Taylor Single Harvest Very Old Tawny  ($3,700)

     Spice cake, ginger, vanilla and butterscotch – the heady, dense flavors of this time-defying 151-year rare tawny port from one of the Douro Valley’s great vintages unrolled on my tongue like some luxurious elixir. Tawnies, unlike vintage port, spend decades mellowing in wooden casks before bottling and Taylor, one of the best port houses, started the fashion for very old ones. No wonder demand for less expensive examples is growing by double digits. 

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Sienna Thompson-O’Toole, 4, looks at a holographic video of Father Christmas in the window of a house in Derby, central England.Darren Staples/Reuters

Members of Hungary’s Jewish community gather to celebrate Hanukkah and to light the first candle on the menorah in downtown Budapest. Laszlo Balogh/Reuters

Market Closes for December 16^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17068.87	-111.97
		-0.65%
S&P 500	1972.74	-16.89   -0.85%
NASDAQ	4547.836	-57.320   -1.24%
TSX	13861.52	+156.38
		+1.14%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16755.32	-344.08
		-2.01%
HANG SENG	22670.50	-357.35
		-1.55%
SENSEX	26781.44	-538.12
		-1.97%
FTSE 100	6331.83	+149.11
		+2.41%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.749	1.784
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.293	2.320
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.0591	2.1182
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.6906	2.7476

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.85949	0.85768
US $	1.16347	1.16594
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45492	0.68732
US $	1.25050	0.79968

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1202.50	1209.25
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	55.93	55.91

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Oliver Renick

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks advanced as energy shares rallied the most in three years after Talisman Energy Inc. surged on deal news to offset further losses in crude oil prices.

     Talisman rallied 48 percent as Repsol SA agreed to buy the oil-and-gas explorer for $8.3 billion. Surge Energy Inc. and Crew Energy Inc. added at least 10 percent. Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. jumped more than 2.4 percent to pace gains among industrial shares.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index added 156.38 points, or 1.1 percent, to 13,861.52 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, for the biggest gain since Oct. 23. The equity gauge dropped 5.1 percent last week, its worst decline since September 2011. Trading in S&P/TSX stocks was double the 30-day average.

     Six of the 10 main groups in the S&P/TSX rose today. Energy shares surged 4 percent, the most since November 2011.

     Crude oil resumed losses, with Brent plunging through $60 a barrel for the first time in five years amid few signs that producers are ready to tackle a glut.

     Talisman soared 48 percent to C$8.84. Repsol SA, Spain’s largest energy company, agreed to buy the company for $8.3 billion, ending a months-long search for acquisitions to help boost crude reserves and production.

     Industrial shares advanced 1.9 percent, while materials producers reversed early gains to decline 1.2 percent to the lowest since Nov. 5. Argonaut Gold Inc. and Alacer Gold Corp. sank more than 7.5 percent as the metal slid.

     Non-resident investment in Canadian equities was $4.2 billion in October, marking a 14th straight month of investment. Since the beginning of the year, acquisitions of Canadian equities have totaled $32.8 billion, three times the amount recorded for the same period in 2013. Canadian stock prices were down 2.3% in October, but up 7.3% compared with December 2013.

US

By Callie Bost and Lu Wang

     (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index tumbled, lashing investors with the biggest stock swings in two months, as companies from Microsoft Corp. to Google Inc. led a selloff in technology shares that overshadowed gains in oil producers.

     The S&P 500 fell 0.9 percent to 1,972.74 at 4 p.m. in New York, dropping below its average price for the past 100 days. The Nasdaq 100 Index tumbled 1.6 percent, the most in two months, and S&P 500 technology shares slumped to the lowest since Oct. 30. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 111.97 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,068.87. More than $9.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the most since Oct. 16.

     “The whole global growth story is being called into question by this drop in oil, and the tech companies are most vulnerable as that’s one of the biggest sectors in terms of getting revenue from overseas,” Karyn Cavanaugh, the New York-based senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management LLC, said by phone. Voya oversees $215 billion. “Tech companies will be affected by that as they’re focused on growth.”

     For a second day, investors were whipsawed by stock swings. The S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent in the first 10 minutes of trading, then rebounded, surging as much as 1.4 percent as crude prices erased losses and energy shares rallied. The index reversed gains in the early afternoon, climbed again, only to sink in the final hour. The 44-point move from top to bottom is the biggest for any day since mid-October, when the index was ending its worst retreat in 2014.                       

     Global stocks fell earlier today, with emerging-market equities retreating as much as 1.8 percent, as the benchmark for U.S. oil slid below $54 a barrel. The ruble plunged past 70 to the dollar for the first time as investors shrugged off a surprise Bank of Russia decision to take its key interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond exchange-traded fund fell for a ninth day, to the lowest in more than two years. Treasuries and the yen rose.

     Equities also fell after a Chinese factory gauge declined to a seven-month low in December and an index of French manufacturing shrank more this month than estimated.

     “All the markets are incredibly volatile today from gold to Treasuries to junk bond spreads, stocks and currencies,” Jim Paulsen, who helps oversee $345 billion as chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, said by phone from San Francisco. “If oil shows some signs of support, which we did today, you have a lot of people coming in behind it. If it breaks down, you have people getting out not wanting to catch a falling knife.”                       

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, also known as the VIX, added 15 percent to 23.57. The gauge jumped the most in four years last week. The VIX was at a three-month low on Dec. 5.

     The S&P 500 is down 4.6 percent for the month, heading for its first December loss since 2007, after reaching an all-time high on Dec. 5. The gauge is still up 6.7 percent for the year amid better-than-forecast earnings and economic data.

     While concern is growing about the strength of the global economy as tumbling oil prices hold down inflation, U.S. central bankers have reason to be upbeat about 2015 as they gather for a policy meeting today and tomorrow.

     The U.S. economy is forecast to expand at a 2.9 percent pace, the fastest in a decade, according to a survey by Bloomberg, while falling gasoline prices leave consumers more money to spend on other goods, boosting confidence and retail sales.

     Data in the U.S. today showed new-home construction exceeded a 1 million annualized pace in November for a third consecutive month, continuing a slow recovery in the housing market.

     The Fed will look past low inflation and drop a pledge to keep interest rates near zero for a “considerable time” as it seeks an exit from the loosest monetary policy in its 100-year history, economists said before the central bank’s policy decision tomorrow.

     “There continues to be a backdrop of the U.S. economy improving and we’ll probably see some confirmation from the Fed on that,” Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer at PNC Bank NA, which oversees $130 billion, said by phone from Philadelphia. “We’re trading a lot on headlines and much of that has been dominated by crude, credit and currencies, so not exactly the fundamentals to make good equity decisions.”

     Seven of 10 major groups in the S&P 500 declined today, with technology and consumer-discretionary shares slumping at least 1.5 percent.        
     Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. each declined 3.6 percent to lead losses in the Nasdaq 100. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Douglas Anmuth cut his 12-month price-target on Google today to $600 from $670, while maintaining an overweight rating, the equivalent of buy.

     Netflix Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. slumped at least 2 percent. Apple Inc. lost 1.4 percent.

     Whirlpool declined 4.9 percent as the company revised its 2014 earnings projection to between $10.90 and $11.10, compared with an earlier estimate of between $11.50 and $12. The maker of home appliances cited “unfavorable” currencies and expenses related to two acquisitions.

     Energy shares in the S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent today. The group has lost 16 percent over the past month, and has plunged 26 percent from a June high. Crude fell about 45 percent this year as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries sought to defend market share amid a U.S. shale boom that’s exacerbating a global glut.                         

     Range Resources Corp., Transocean Ltd. and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. advanced more than 3.2 percent. Chevron Corp. added 0.8 percent.

     “The energy sector’s been hit so hard that it’s not going to take much for those stocks to turn around,” Ben Wallace, a portfolio manager at Westborough, Massachusetts-based Grimes & Co Inc., said by phone.

     Boeing Co. added 1.8 percent after boosting a stock buyback plan to $12 billion and raising its quarterly dividend by 25 percent. CVS Health Corp. jumped 2.7 percent to $92.31, the highest ever, after announcing a buyback plan of as much as $10 billion and increasing its dividend by 27 percent. 3M advanced 1.4 percent. The maker of Post-it notes and Scotch tape also boosted its dividend as it projected a gain in 2015 profit.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

In nature, action and reaction are continuous.  Everything is connected to everything else.

No one part, nothing, is isolated.  Everything is linked, and interdependent.

Everywhere everything is connected to everything else.  Each question receives the correct answer.

Swami Prajnanpad

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

The greatest mystery of existence is existence itself.

                                     -Deepak Chopra, 1947-

 

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

NO MATTER WHAT

No matter what the world claims,
its wisdom always growing, so it’s said,
some things don’t alter with time:
the first  kiss is a good example,
and the flighty sweetness of rhyme.

No matter what the world preaches
spring unfolds in its appointed time,
the violets open and the roses,
snow in its hour builds its shining curves,
there’s the laughter of children at play ,
and the wholesome sweetness of rhyme.

No matter what the world does,
some things don’t alter with time.
The first kiss, the first death.
The sorrowful sweetness of rhyme.

                         -Mary Oliver

Defenders of the Galaxy just arrived on Shaw on Demand, and if you didn’t get a chance to see it when it was recently playing in movie theatres – as I didn’t – here’s your chance.  We think it is a terrific movie.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A man stands by tombstones in Bucharest, Romania, carrying names of Romanian military personnel killed in fighting around the Otopeni airport during the anticommunist uprising 25 years ago. The uprising left thousands dead and ended the rule of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was executed. Vadim Ghirda/AP

A girl touches an art installation depicting a gorilla entitled ‘Silver Back,’ by artist David Mach, as she poses for photographers during a press preview in London of a themed auction entitled ‘Creatures Great and Small’ that features the animal as artistic inspiration. Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Market Closes for December 15^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17180.84	-99.99
		-0.58%
S&P 500	1989.63	-12.70   -0.63%
NASDAQ	4605.156	-48.439   -1.04%
TSX	13705.14	-25.91
		-0.19%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17099.40	-272.18
		-1.57%
HANG SENG	23027.85	-221.35
		-0.95%
SENSEX	27319.56	-31.12
		-0.11%
FTSE 100	6182.72	-117.91
		-1.87%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.784	1.757
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.320	2.303
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.1182	2.0817
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7476	2.7372

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.85768	0.86348
US $	1.16594	1.15810
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.45101	0.68918
US $	1.24450	0.80354

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1209.25	1217.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	55.91	57.81

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Oliver Renick

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, extending losses after the worst week in three years, as declines among materials and energy shares offset gains in consumer stocks.

     Materials companies lost 3.3 percent as gold and silver fell on speculation the Federal Reserve is moving closer to raising U.S. interest rates amid an improving economy. Energy shares lost 0.9 percent as oil fell to the lowest level in more than five years. Talisman Energy Inc. rallied 18 percent as people familiar with the matter said Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is weighing a bid for the oil-and-gas explorer.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index lost 25.91 points, or 0.2 percent, to 13,705.14 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, after rising as much as 0.9 percent and then falling 0.7 percent. The equity gauge dropped 5.1 percent last week, its worst weekly decline since September 2011. Trading in S&P/TSX stocks was 31 percent below the 30-day average at closing time.

     Canadian equities have pared their gain for the year to 0.6 percent, after rallying as much as 15 percent to a record in September. Oil, bank and raw-material shares, which collectively account for two-thirds of the S&P/TSX, are the worst performers among 10 groups this year, led by a 20 percent slump in energy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     The rout in oil prices helped send Canadian consumer sentiment to the lowest in 10 months, according to the Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index. Separate data indicated Canada’s housing market stalled in November as demand waned amid over-valuation worries and the slump in oil prices.

     Six of the 10 main groups in the S&P/TSX rose today.                       

     Crude oil resumed losses, with West Texas Intermediate plunging 3.3 percent, after the United Arab Emirates said OPEC won’t rein in production in response to prices that are the lowest in five years.

     Talisman soared 18 percent to C$5.97. Canada Pension initially considered buying parts of Talisman and is now looking at a bid for the whole company after a drop in its share price, one of the people said.

     Repsol SA, which revived acquisition talks with Talisman this month, is discussing a bid for at between C$6 and C$8 a share, two people with knowledge of the matter said. A deal could be reached as soon as this week, the people said.

US

By Callie Bost

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks retreated, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its fifth drop in six sessions, as the continuing selloff in oil overshadowed a surge in industrial production and corporate deals.

     The S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent to 1,989.63 at 4 p.m. in New York, falling below its average price for the past 50 days. The gauge lost as much as 1 percent today, slipping below its 100- day moving average before paring the decline. It has lost 4.1 percent since closing at a record on Dec. 5.

     The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 100 points today, or 0.6 percent, to 17,180.84. The measure plunged 3.8 percent last week, the biggest drop since November 2011. About 8.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the highest volume since Oct. 17.

     “People are going to come into these markets looking at the same things they did last week, oil and secondary interest rates,” Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab Corp., said by phone from Austin, Texas. “To me, the oil selloff is a bit overdone and people’s reactions are a bit negative to it. We need to see stability in oil that lasts a couple of days. If we get that, people will stop being concerned.”

     The S&P 500 erased an early advance of 0.8 percent today as crude reversed gains. The benchmark stocks index then fell as much as 1 percent by midday before paring losses. The gauge lost 3.5 percent last week as crude plunged to a five-year low.

     West Texas Intermediate lost 4.3 percent to $55.30 a barrel today. Oil has tumbled 16 percent this month after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its forecast for how much crude it will need to provide in 2015 and the International Energy Agency forecast weaker consumption and increased supply from countries outside of OPEC.

     “This is a continuation of the past three or four trading days,” Joe Bell, a Cincinnati-based senior equity analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research Inc., said by phone. “Every time we’ve had a rally, we’ve finished near the low of the day.”

     The S&P 500 pared gains of 1.45 percent Dec. 11 to close the day up 0.5 percent. The next day, U.S. equity losses picked up speed in the final hour as the Dow average plunged more than 100 points and the S&P 500 ended down 1.6 percent, about 2 points above its average price for the last 50 days, a level monitored by technical analysts.                           

     Equities opened higher today as a report showed industrial production surged in November by the most since May 2010 as U.S. assembly lines churned out more consumer goods and business equipment, signaling manufacturing is bolstering economic growth.

     The 1.3 percent gain in output at factories, mines and utilities followed a 0.1 percent increase the prior month that was previously reported as a decline, figures from the Federal Reserve showed. Manufacturing rose 1.1 percent, the most in nine months, and output at utilities was the strongest in almost eight years.

     Investors are also waiting for the Fed’s update on the timing and pace of interest-rate increases. Policy makers may decide on Dec. 17 whether to keep their pledge to hold interest rates low for a considerable time.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, also known as the VIX, jumped 78 percent in the past five days, its biggest advance in more than four years. The gauge jumped as much as 18 percent and lost as much as 16 percent today.

     All 10 main industries in the S&P 500 declined. Financials and utilities shares dropped more than 0.8 percent to lead losses, while telephone and industrial stocks performed the best.

     Among U.S. stocks moving today, PetSmart Inc. rose 4.3 percent after a group led by BC Partners agreed to buy it for $8.3 billion. Emerson Electric Co. gained as much as 1.9 percent after selling a power-transmissions business to Regal-Beloit Corp. for $1.4 billion. The stock later pared gains to close down 0.5 percent.

     McDonald’s Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and Chevron Corp. lost more than 1.4 percent for the biggest declines in the Dow.

     Boeing Corp. rose the most in the 30-stock gauge, adding 1.1 percent. It extended gains in late trading after saying it would boost its share buyback program and increase its dividend.                      

     Energy shares in the S&P 500 slid 0.7 percent after gaining in early trading, with 34 members declining while nine rose. Chevron dropped 1.5 percent, while QEP Resources Inc. slipped 3.8 percent and Marathon Oil Corp. retreated 2.6 percent.

     Some of last week’s worst performers gained the most today. Nabors Industries Ltd. rose 2.8 percent today after declining 18 percent last week. Exxon Mobil Corp. rose 0.6 percent, following a 7.7 percent plunge last week that was its worst since 2008.

     Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. climbed 5.6 percent, extending last week’s rally of 12 percent.

     Newmont Mining Corp. lost 5.9 percent for the biggest decline in the S&P 500 as gold for February delivery sank 2.1 percent to $1,196.70 an ounce.

     Ford Motor Co., which is starting to ship its new, fuel- efficient aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup truck, fell 4.7 percent after Deutsche Bank AG downgraded the automaker on concern that the truck won’t command premium prices amid low fuel costs.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

He is fire and the sun; he is the moon and the stars, he is the air and the sea.

He is this boy, and that girl.  He appears in countless different forms.

He has no beginning, and no end.  He is the source of all things.

Each type of living being is distinct and different.  But when we pierce the veil of difference,

we see the unity of all beings.

 

Svetasvatara Upanishad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

              -Claude Monet, 1840-1926

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 1901, the Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi sent a radio transmission. That wasn’t too unusual. Marconi had been experimenting with radio waves for about seven years, winning him some acclaim. What made this transmission different is from where it came and where it went: from England to St. John’s, Newfoundland, clear across the Atlantic Ocean. Marconi’s detractors said the signal would never reach North America, that the earth’s curved surface would sent the signal off into space. They were, in fact, right, but the signal bounced off the ionosphere and bounced back down to Canada.

On Dec. 12, 1963, Kenya gained its independence from Britain.

Decembrists:  Conspirators in the Russian army who made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Tsar Nicholas I in an uprising in Senate Square, St. Petersburg on December 14^th, 1825.The martyrdom of the revolutionaries was a source of inspiration to later generations of Russian dissidents.

Gustave Flaubert’s birthday: December 12^th,1821.

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.  ― Gustave Flaubert.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Britain’s Prince William poses for a picture with servicemen after attending the ceremony for the Football Remembers memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, central England, to commemorate the 1914 Christmas Truce. Andrew Yates/Reuters

Horse riders exercise their mounts though overnight snow near Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales, northern England. Snowfall has hits parts of northern Britain in the last few days. John Giles/PA/AP

Market Closes for December 12^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17820.83	-315.51
		-1.79%
S&P 500	2002.33	-33.00   -1.62%
NASDAQ	4653.598	-54.563   -1.16%
TSX	13731.90	-173.22
		-1.25%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17371.58	+114.18
		+0.66%
HANG SENG	23249.20	-63.34
		-0.27%
SENSEX	27350.68	-251.33
		-0.91%
FTSE 100	6300.63	-161.07
		-2.49%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.757	1.825
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.303	2.364
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.0817	2.1620
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.7372	2.8069

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.86348	0.86782
US $	1.15810	1.15231
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.44279	0.69310
US $	1.24583	0.80268

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1217.00	1227.45
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	57.81	59.95

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Callie Bost

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks tumbled with equities around the world, capping the worst week in three years, as the continuing selloff in oil fueled concerns over a global economic slowdown.

     Energy stocks dropped with oil prices as RMP Energy Inc. and Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. slid at least 7.9 percent. Consumer-discretionary stocks sank as Amaya Inc. plunged 18 percent. Talisman Energy Inc. soared 17 percent on speculation of a deal with Repsol SA.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 173.22 points, or 1.3 percent, to 13,731.9 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The equity gauge dropped 5.1 percent over five days, its worst weekly decline since September 2011. Trading in S&P/TSX stocks was 12 percent above the 30-day average at this time of day.

     Canadian equities have pared their gain for the year to 0.8 percent, after rallying as much as 15 percent to a record in September. Oil, bank and raw-material shares are the biggest laggards in Canada for the first time since at least 1988, fueling concern the nation’s economy is fading just as the U.S. is taking off.

     The three industries, which collectively account for two- thirds of the S&P/TSX, are the worst performers among 10 groups this year, led by a 19 percent slump in energy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     All 10 groups in the S&P/TSX declined on Dec. 12, with materials and consumer-discretionary shares dropping 1.9 percent.                         

     Energy shares dropped 1.2 percent, posting an 11 percent decline this week. Benchmark U.S. oil prices extended losses below $58 a barrel as the International Energy Agency cut its global demand forecast for the fourth time in five months.

     RMP plunged 20 percent to C$3.60, while Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. sank 7.9 percent to C$5.91.

     Amaya plunged 18 percent to C$28.64. The casino operator said today it’s cooperating with Quebec authorities in a probe into trading activities in Amaya securities surrounding its acquisition of Oldford Group Ltd. in 2014.

     Talisman soared 17 percent, the most in six years, to C$5.04. Senior Repsol executives are in Calgary and hope to have a deal before Christmas, the Financial Times reported, citing an unidentified person involved in the negotiations. The price being negotiated is around C$6 to C$8 a share, according to the report.

US

By Jeremy Herron and Joseph Ciolli

     (Bloomberg) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average capped the worst week since 2011, finishing with a 100-point lurch in the final half-hour of trading, as equities tumbled around the world after crude extended declines below $58 a barrel. Treasuries rose and the dollar fell on concern inflation is slipping.

     The Dow fell 1.8 percent at 4 p.m. in New York and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 1.6 percent. The 30-stock gauge lost 3.8 percent for the week while the S&P 500 tumbled 3.5 percent, its worst performance in more than two years. West Texas Intermediate crude lost 3.6 percent to $57.81 a barrel. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index capped a 5.8 percent slide for its worst week in three years. Brazil’s Ibovespa equity benchmark entered a bear market. Ten-year Treasury note yields dropped to an eight-week low.

     “Clearly the oil situation is driving things,” Randy Warren, who manages more than $100 million at Exton, Pennsylvania-based Warren Financial Service and Associates Inc., said in a phone interview. “At first it was just oversupply of oil. But now it’s that, plus fear of a world economy that’s growing too slow. Those fears are definitely outweighing the positive signs we’re seeing domestically.”

     The selloff picked up speed in the final hour as the Dow plunged 100 points and the S&P 500 slid to 2,002.42 from 2,016.14, ending about 2 points above its average price for the last 50 days, a level monitored by technical analysts. At about 2:50 p.m., March futures on the benchmark gauge for U.S. equities slipped below 2,000 for the first time since Nov. 4.                        

     Oil dropped 12 percent for the week, the 10th weekly slide since the start of October. The International Energy Agency cut its forecast for global demand in 2015. While the lower fuel prices hurts producers, that’s boosting demand for bonds as central banks in Europe and Asia maintain stimulus to fight deflation.

     More than $1 trillion was erased from the value of global equities this week. Stocks around the world fell today, with after November Chinese factory production slowed more than estimated. The MSCI All-Country World Index lost 1.4 percent, extending a weekly rout to 3.8 percent, its worst since May 2012.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, a measure of the cost of options on the S&P 500 known as the VIX, has jumped 78 percent this week, its biggest weekly rally in more than four years.                         

     This week’s retreat in stocks mirrored a tumble in speculative grade credit. The iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond exchange-traded fund plunged 3.4 percent over the five sessions, the biggest decrease since 2012. The security lost 1.4 percent on Dec. 12, falling to the lowest level since June 2012.

     Treasuries rallied, with benchmark 10-year yields sinking to the lowest since mid-October. The spread between Treasury 30- year bonds and five-year notes narrowed to as little as 120 basis points, its lowest level in almost six years as oil declines fueled demand for the longest maturities on bets inflation will slow.

     U.S. equities briefly pared losses today as data showed Americans’ confidence rose in December to an almost eight-year high, pointing to a pickup in holiday-related purchases.

     Data yesterday showed that retail sales rose 0.7 percent in November as consumers used some of the money saved at the gas pump to purchase electronics, clothing and furniture.                           

     Declining energy costs led to a faster-than-forecast drop in wholesale prices in the U.S., signaling inflation pressures remain weak even as the world’s largest economy is expanding.

     Persistently weak inflation has allowed Federal Reserve policy makers, who are scheduled to meet next week, room to keep interest rates near zero after ending monthly asset purchases in October as the economy strengthens.

     “With falling oil prices and the stronger dollar, pipeline pressures are minimal,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, said before the report. “There’s no real threat of higher inflation. The Fed has a lot more leeway.”

     Bill Gross, who joined Janus Capital Group Inc. in September, said there is “very little liquidity” in the corporate bond markets, especially in high-yield debt. “Everyone is trying to squeeze through a very small door,” Gross said today in a Bloomberg Surveillance interview with Tom Keene.                      

     A sharp decline in the price of oil has disoriented markets including changing the perception of the creditworthiness of corporates and countries, said Gross, who left Pacific Investment Management Co. after more than four decades to run an unconstrained fund at Janus.

     In Venezuela, the government and state-run oil company owe $21 billion on overseas bonds by the end of 2016, an amount equal to about 100 percent of reserves. Those figures explain why derivatives traders aren’t only betting that a default is almost certain but that it will most likely happen within a year.

     The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2 percent to extend a weekly decline to 0.6 percent. The gauge, which measures the greenback against a basket of major peers, had rallied for seven straight weeks amid signs of a strengthening U.S. economy.

     The MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 0.8 percent, extending the slide in the past week to 4.8 percent, the worst week since June 2013.

     Brazil’s Ibovespa was down 7.7 percent in the past five days for the worst week since 2012 and entered a bear market, losing more than 20 percent from its September peak.                      

     West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery dropped below $58 a barrel after closing yesterday at the lowest level since 2009. Brent crude slid 2.9 percent to $61.85 today.

     Gold fell 0.3 percent to $1,222.50 an ounce, trimming a second weekly advance amid declining oil prices and prospects for higher U.S. interest rates.

     The Stoxx 600 plunged 2.6 percent today, pushing its weekly slide to 5.8 percent, the most since September 2011. All 19 of the main groups in the index retreated in the past five days, with energy and resources producers leading the declines with losses of at least 8.5 percent.

     Royal Dutch Shell Plc slid 3.2 percent today and BP Plc fell 3.3 percent. Rio Tinto Group dropped 2.4 percent.

     “With oil furthering its decline, all commodities are under pressure, especially miners,” Claudia Panseri, a global equity strategist at SG Private Banking in Paris, said by phone. “The recent data is pointing to a slowdown in China. For people expecting a turnaround in world GDP growth this is clearly a disappointment.”

     All of the 18 western-European markets declined. Greece’s ASE Index extended a drop this week to 20 percent, the most since 1987, amid concern a potential snap parliamentary election will open the door to anti-austerity leadership.

     Japan’s Topix index gained 0.2 percent, paring this week’s decline to 3.2 percent. Japan heads for a parliamentary election on Dec. 14 after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month called for a referendum on his economic policies.
 

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.

 

Be Magnificent!

From Him woman was born; and from Her man was born.

From His mind the moon was born; from His eye the sun was born; from His breath the wind was born.

From His navel the atmosphere was born; from His head the sky was born;

and from His ear the four quarters of the sky were born

Thus the universe was in order.

 

Rig Veda

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Love is a chain of love as nature is a chain of life.

                         -Truman Capote, 1924-1984

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

December 11, 1936: Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Simpson.

I read an email from Saks today that advised its readers that this holiday season sequins are what’s in.    So sparkle away!

SEQUINS (from the Encyclopedia of the Exquisite)

The word “sequin” is a Frenchified version of the Venetian zecchino, a pure god coin the republic first issued in 1284.  Some say that when the currency became obsolete, enterprising  Venetian ladies pierced the oldzecchino coins and embroidered their clothes with them, igniting the bedazzling fashion.  How easily, then as now, a simple row of sequins turns the ordinary snazzy.

  Though ancient Roman women didn’t wear sequins stitched to their clothes, they did wear coin jewelry as early as the third century AD.  The jingling tradition was carried on in the folk costumes of Turkey, Romania, Greece, and Syria, where glittering head scarves and bridal costumes flickered with coinlike discs.  No mere display of wealth, the scintillation offered magical protection, confusing the evil eye.  In the old days, the coins were thought even more potent when stamped with the image of a mighty ruler.  Fake coins printed with images of ancient emperors, like Constantine or Alexander the Great, were made into amulets throughout Byzantium.

  Later, sparkling sequins punched from fine sheets of brass, gold, or silver glimmered from the costumes of Henry VIII, Edward IV, and Queen Elizabeth I.  They brightened the French court during the eighteenth century, and Parisian fashion in the next, when dressing up with spangles was expected of stage performers.  “Sequins create a charming effect.  They catch the light in sudden and unexpected flashes that shimmer brilliantly before the eyes,”  French critic Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) wrote in 1837, bored with the virginal white worn by the local ballerinas.  “What a dancer really needs are feathers, tinsel, silver tassels, gilded bells, all the crazy, fantastic dress of the wandering player.”

  While the Gilded Age saw its share of sequins, as did the 1920s when the flappers shone in dresses glazed with celluloid sequins, in the 1930s sequins went Hollywood.  Gautier would have loved the brilliantly shimmering costumes created by the era’s most powerful costume designer.  Gilbert Adrian (1903-1959) – known simply as Adrian.

  Adrian defined mid-twentieth century American glamour, dressing stars such as Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Jean Harlow, and Greta Garbo over the course of 233 films during his long career.  His MGM workshop swarmed with as many as 250 seamstresses, tailors, pattern makers, and embroiderers, making slinky gowns slathered with sequins,  His dresses caught the light, livening up the on-screen black-and-white palette, but when movies went Technicolor, Adrian brought sequins into the future.  He secured his legendary status in 1939 by creating Judy Garland’s famous ruby-red sequined slippers for The Wizard of Oz.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A jay bounces in the snow in Kielder Forest, northeastern England, as snow sweeps across the area. Thousands of homes are still without power after gales and lightning strikes caused by a so-called ‘weather bomb’ swept the north of the country. Owen Humphreys/PA/AP

Two cyclists are reflected in a puddle shortly after a storm on the banks of the river Rhine in Duesseldorf, Germany. Marius Becker/dpa/AP

Market Closes for December 11^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17596.34	+63.19
		+0.36%
S&P 500	2035.33	+9.19   +0.45%
NASDAQ	4708.160	+24.135   +0.52%
TSX	13905.12	+52.17
		+0.38%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17257.40	-155.18
		-0.89%
HANG SENG	23312.54	-211.98
		-0.90%
SENSEX	27602.01	-229.09
		-0.82%
FTSE 100	6461.70	-38.34
		-0.59%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.825	1.832
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.364	2.38
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.1620	2.16
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.8069	2.83

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.86782	0.87110
US $	1.15231	1.14797
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.42933	0.69963
US $	1.24041	0.80619

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1227.45	1225.15
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	59.95	60.94

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, after plunging the most in 17 months yesterday, as banks advanced after the U.S. reported better-than-forecast retail sales and unemployment data.

     Painted Pony Petroleum Ltd. rose 4.7 percent to pace an advance among energy stocks after yesterday’s selloff. Gildan Activewear Inc., the clothing exporter, added 2.6 percent. National Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal advanced at least 0.7 percent as financial shares climbed for the first time in six days.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 52.17 points, or 0.4 percent, to 13,905.12 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, paring an earlier gain of as much as 1.7 percent. The equity gauge has dropped 3.9 percent this week, narrowing its advance this year to 2.1 percent.

     Oil, bank and raw-materials are the biggest laggards in Canada for the first time since at least 1988, fueling concern the nation’s economy is fading just as the U.S. is taking off. The three industries, which collectively account for two-thirds of the S&P/TSX, are the worst performers among 10 groups this year, led by a 18 percent slump in energy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     Stocks rallied early today as data showed retail sales in the U.S. jumped 0.7 percent in November, the biggest gain in eight months, as higher wages and cheaper fuel fueled shopping sprees for American consumers. Another report showed fewer Americans filed claims for jobless benefits last week.

     Telus Corp. jumped 3.9 percent to C$41.64 and Rogers Communications Inc. advanced 2.4 percent to C$45.06 as telephone stocks rallied 2.3 percent as a group, the most in the S&P/TSX. Nine of 10 industries advanced in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge on trading volume 23 percent higher than the 30-day average today.

     Painted Pony jumped 4.7 percent to C$9.55 and Calfrac Well Services Ltd. climbed 3.7 percent to C$9.05.

     The S&P/TSX Energy Index rose 0.1 percent, trading near a two-year low. The industry group has slumped 11 percent in December, on pace for a fourth month of declines, the longest stretch since 2011.

US

By Oliver Renick

     Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rebounded from the worst day in seven weeks, as better-than-forecast data on retail sales and unemployment boosted confidence in the economy to overshadow a renewed selloff in oil.

     Benchmark indexes retreated from their highs of the day as oil dropped below $60 a barrel for the first time since 2009, erasing a rally in energy shares. Staples Inc. gained the most in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index as consumer discretionary stocks rallied 0.7 percent as a group. Urban Outfitters Inc. jumped 7.6 percent, pacing gains among retail shares, which climbed 1 percent.

     The S&P 500 added 0.5 percent to 2,035.33 at 4 p.m. in New York after climbing 1.5 percent earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 63.19 points, or 0.4 percent, to 17,596.34, trimming a prior gain of 1.3 percent. About 7.2 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 4.9 percent above the three-month average.

     “When you see a big decline like we did yesterday we’re poised for a little bit of a bounce back and retail sales are helping,” Larry Peruzzi, the Boston-based director of international trading at Cabrera Capital Markets LLC, said by phone. “Globally, we’re still one of the bright spots. Retail sales are always an indication that consumers are feeling good.”

     The S&P 500 slid 1.6 percent yesterday as a collapse in oil prices rippled through the financial markets, sending all 10 industry groups in the benchmark equity gauge down at least 1 percent. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the measure of options prices known as the VIX, climbed 8.4 percent today after spiking 24 percent yesterday. The gauge has surged 70 percent in the past four days, the most since August 2011.                           

     West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.6 percent to settle at $59.95 a barrel, after yesterday plunging 4.5 percent. The rout caused concern over the strength of the global economy. Oil’s collapse into a bear market has been exacerbated as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, OPEC’s three largest members, offered the deepest discounts on exports to Asia in at least six years. The market will correct itself, according to Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi.

     Investors are gauging economic data before the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week.

     Retail sales in the U.S. rose the most in eight months as shoppers benefited from an improving job market and cheaper fuel. The 0.7 percent gain in purchases matched the highest estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and followed a 0.5 percent advance in October that was larger than previously reported, Commerce Department figures showed.

     Jobless claims decreased by 3,000 to 294,000 in the week ended Dec. 6, a Labor Department report showed. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for first- time applications to hold at the prior week’s 297,000. Claims have been below 300,000 for 12 of the past 13 weeks.

     The S&P 500 will continue to climb on the back of a solid U.S. economy paired with low inflation and a boost to consumers from lower oil prices, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The benchmark index will rise to 2,250 in 2015, head strategist Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote in a note today. That implies an 11 percent advance from yesterday’s close.

     The strategist’s forecast amounts to a prediction that the U.S. market will keep having days like today, in which the S&P 500 is advancing even as concern grows about a default in Venezuela, Russia’s fifth interest-rate increase fails to stem the ruble’s worst rout since 1998 and Greek stocks cap a three- day retreat in which they lost 20 percent.

     All of the 10 main groups in the S&P 500 advanced, with utility and consumer shares rising more than 0.7 percent to lead the advance.

     Urban Outfitters surged 8.2 percent to $32.48, leading the surge among retailer stocks.

     Staples advanced 8.7 percent to $16.10, the highest in a year. Starboard Value LP, the activist investor that successfully pushed for the merger of Office Depot Inc. and OfficeMax Inc. last year, disclosed a 5.1 percent stake in the company.

     Keurig Green Mountain Inc. added 1.1 percent to $139.69 after renewing a partnership with Caribou Coffee Co. with a 10- year agreement for manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sale of Caribou in Keurig’s hot brewing system.

     Energy stocks in the S&P 500 were little changed as a group, paring an earlier advance of as much as 2.5 percent. The group lost 3.1 percent yesterday as oil fell to a five-year low and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said global demand for crude will drop next year by about 300,000 barrels a day to 28.9 million, the least since 2003.

     Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. climbed 3.4 percent to $33.93, while Oneok Inc. jumped 2.3 percent to $45.67. Nabors Industries Ltd. dropped 3.1 percent.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

One drop of the sea cannot claim to come from one river, and another drop of the sea from another river,

the sea is a single consistent whole.  In the same way all beings are one; there is no being

that does not come from the soul, and is not part of the soul.

 

Chandogya Upanishad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Respect for the truth is an acquired taste.

                  -Mark Van Doren, 1894-1972

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

from The Netherlands:

The world’s first solar bike path was unveiled in this bicycle-loving nation.  It’s a 100-meter test bed of concrete modules with photovoltaic cells under a centimeter of tempered glass.  The power it generates will run street lighting, traffic systems – and eventually vehicles and homes, say its private-sector developers, who call it a big step toward “an energy-neutral mobility system.”

Birthday: Emily Dickenson, poet, born December 10^th, 1830.

There’s a certain
Slant of light.
Winter Afternoon
-that oppresses, like the
Heft Of Cathedral Tunes.

          –Emily Dickenson.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Giant waves hit the lighthouse wall in Whitehaven, England, as stormy weather causes disruptions across parts of the UK, with power cuts, ferry and train cancellations, and difficult driving conditions. Owen Humphreys/PA/AP

A woman walks through the snow in Washington Park in Albany, N.Y. A slow-moving coastal storm has dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of upstate New York, knocking out power to more than 10,000 utility customers, closing or causing delayed starts for scores of schools and shutting down a Syracuse-area highway. Mike Groll/AP

A woman pushes a pram through heavy fog in the small town of Zaslavl, Belarus. Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters

Market Closes for December 10^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17533.15	-268.05
		-1.51%
S&P 500	2026.14	-33.68   -1.64%
NASDAQ	4684.03	-82.438   -1.73%
TSX	13852.95	-342.78
		-2.41%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17412.58	-400.80
		-2.25%
HANG SENG	23524.52	+38.69
		+0.16%
SENSEX	27831.10	+34.09
		+0.12%
FTSE 100	6500.04	-29.43
		0.45%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.832	1.884
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.38	2.411
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.16	2.2085
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.83	2.8656

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87110	0.87355
US $	1.14797	1.14475
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.42872	0.69993
US $	1.24456	0.80350

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1225.15	1203.06
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	60.94	63.82

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks sank the most in 17 months, sending the benchmark gauge to the lowest level since February, as crude resumed a selloff after OPEC said demand will drop next year.

     Penn West Petroleum Ltd. and Crescent Point Energy Corp. plunged at least 9.8 percent as energy producers sank to a 2012 low. Laurentian Bank of Canada dropped 5.3 percent to pace declines among financial services stocks. All 10 main groups in the benchmark index lost at least 0.4 percent.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 342.78 points, or 2.4 percent, to 13,852.95 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The equity gauge has dropped 4.3 percent this week, paring its advance this year to 1.7 percent. Trading volume was 38 percent above the 30-day average.

     Oil, bank and raw-materials are the biggest laggards in Canada for the first time since at least 1988, fueling concern the nation’s economy is fading just as the U.S. is taking off. The three industries, which collectively account for two-thirds of the S&P/TSX, are the worst performers among 10 groups this year, led by a 18 percent slump in energy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     Penn West tumbled 13 percent to C$2.67, a 1996 low, and Crescent Point plunged 9.8 percent to C$22.50 as energy stocks sank 5.2 percent as a group. The energy index has fallen 32 percent from a high in June.

     West Texas Intermediate crude fell 4.5 percent to settle at $60.94 in New York and Brent dropped 3.9 percent to a five-year low as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries lowered its estimate for 2015 demand for its oil by about 300,000 barrels a day to 28.9 million.

     Oil has collapsed into a bear market amid the highest U.S. output in more than three decades and signs of slowing global demand growth. Prices now are below what 10 out of OPEC’s 12 members need for their annual budgets to break even, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Kuwait and Qatar are the exceptions.

     Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. slipped 4.4 percent to C$201.88 and Canadian National Railway Co. retreated 4.1 percent to C$73.62 as industrial stocks lost 3.1 percent.

     Laurentian Bank of Canada declined 5.3 percent to C$47.60, the biggest drop since June 2011. The bank reported fourth- quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates on charges from cutting jobs and reorganizing businesses.

     The nation’s largest lenders plunged the most in three years last week after posting disappointing earnings.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sinking the most in seven weeks, as energy shares renewed a selloff after OPEC cut its forecast on 2015 demand for crude.

     ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. lost more than 2 percent as energy producers in the S&P 500 tumbled to the lowest since April. Yum! Brands Inc. sank 6.2 percent after cutting its 2014 profit forecast amid a health scare in China. United Continental Holdings Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. rose at least 1.8 percent after an industry group said global airlines will make record profit next year.

     The S&P 500 lost 1.6 percent to 2,026.14 at 4 p.m. in New York, the most since Oct. 13. The benchmark gauge has slumped 2.4 percent over the past three days, after reaching a record on Dec. 5. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 268.05 points, or 1.5 percent, to 17,533.15. The Dow’s retreat was its biggest since Oct. 9.

     “Oil is lower on the reduced demand outlook and it’s not a surprise to see the rest of the market, at least in sympathy, going down on that,” Michael James, a Los Angeles-based managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities Inc., said in a phone interview. “Without any news to prompt the market to move higher today, it puts the onus back on the bulls to see how much conviction they have in buying stocks.”

     The S&P 500 closed little changed yesterday after reversing a loss of as much as 1.3 percent. The gauge has jumped 9.6 percent in 2014, heading for a third year of gains, fueled by better-than-forecast economic data and corporate earnings.

     Data later this week may show U.S. retail sales increased in November, initial jobless claims last week stayed unchanged from a week earlier, and consumer confidence improved this month, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

     Oil tumbled to a five-year low. OPEC cut its forecast for how much crude it will need to provide in 2015 to the lowest in 12 years amid surging U.S. shale supplies and reduced estimates for global consumption.

     The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries lowered its projection for 2015 by about 300,000 barrels a day, to 28.9 million a day. That’s about 1.15 million a day less than the group’s 12 members pumped last month, and the 30-million barrel target they reaffirmed at a meeting in Vienna on Nov. 27. The impact of this year’s 40 percent price collapse on supply and demand remains unclear, OPEC said.

     Energy companies in the S&P 500 dropped 3.1 percent. Denbury Resources Inc. plunged 6.4 percent and Oneok Inc. retreated 7.8 percent. The group is down 13 percent since the beginning of November, and has plummeted 25 percent from a high in June.                         

     All 10 groups in the S&P 500 declined as materials, industrial and technology shares each lost more than 1.6 percent.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of options prices known as the VIX, climbed 24 percent to 18.53. The gauge has soared 57 percent in three days, the most since October.

     Banks in the S&P 500 fell as JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it will probably report a “high teens” percentage drop in fourth- quarter trading revenue from a year earlier. JPMorgan dropped 2.8 percent, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. each lost 2.5 percent.

     Yum declined 6.2 percent. The owner of the KFC and Taco Bell fast-food chains said earnings per share will rise by a mid-single-digit percentage, excluding some items. That is down from a 20 percent growth forecast that was issued in July.

     A Bloomberg index of U.S. airlines gained 0.8 percent. The industry may generate a record $25 billion in net income next year, the International Air Transport Association said today. United Continental gained 1.9 percent, while Southwest jumped 1.8 percent. American Airlines Group Inc. advanced 1.3 percent.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

To find God, you must welcome everything.

 

Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,
 

Carolann

Everything you can imagine is real.

        -Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

David Brooks wrote this article in The New York Times last Sunday:

Why Elders Smile

A few months ago, Ezekiel Emanuel had an essay in The Atlantic saying that, all things considered, he’d prefer to die around age 75. He argued that he’s rather clock out with all his powers intact than endure a sad, feeble decline.

  The problem is that if Zeke dies at 75, he’ll likely be missing his happiest years.  When researchers ask people to assess their own well-being, people in their 20s rate themselves highly.  Then there’s a decline as people get sadder in middle age, bottoming out around age 50.  But then happiness levels shoot up, so that old people are happier than young people.  The people who rate themselves most highly are those ages 82 to 85.

  Psychologists who study this now famous U-curve tend to point out that old people are happier because of changes in the brain.  For example, when you show people a crowd of faces, young people unconsciously tend to look at the threatening faces but older people’s attention gravitates toward the happy ones.

  Older people are more relaxed, on average.  They are spared some of the burden of thinking about the future.  As a result, they get more pleasure out of present, ordinary activities.

  My problem with a lot of the research on happiness in old age is that it is so deterministic.  It treats the aging of the emotional life the way  you might treat the ageing of the body: as  this biological, chemical and evolutionary process that happens to people.

  I’d rather think that elder happiness is an accomplishment, not a condition, that people get better at living through effort, by mastering specific skills.  I’d like to think that people get steadily better at handling life’s challenges.  In middle age, they are confronted by stressful challenges they can’t control, like having teenage children.  But in old age, they have more control over the challenges they will tackle and they get even better at addressing them.

  Aristotle teaches us that being a good person is not mainly about learning moral rules and following them.  It is about performing social roles well – being a good parent or teacher or lawyer or friend.

  It’s easy to think of some of the skills that some people get better at over time.

  First, there’s bifocalism, the ability to see the same situation from multiple perspectives.  Anthony Kronman of Yale Law School once wrote, “Anyone who has worn bifocal lenses knows that it takes time to learn to shift smoothly between perspectives and to combine them in a single field of vision.  The same is true of deliberation.  It is difficult to be compassionate, and often just as difficult to be detached, but what is most difficult of all is to be both at once.”  Only with experience can a person learn to see a fraught situation both close up, with emotional intensity, and far away, with detached perspective.

  Then there’s lightness, the ability to be at ease with the downsides of life.  In their book, “Lighter as We Go,” Jimmie Holland and Mindy Greenstein (who is a friend from college) argue that while older people lose memory they also learn that most setbacks are not be end of the world.  Anxiety is the biggest waste in life.  If you know that you’ll recover, you can save time and get on with it sooner.

  “The ability to grow lighter as we go is a form of wisdom that entails learning how not to sweat the small stuff,”  Holland and Greenstein write, “learning how not to be too invested in particular outcomes.”

  Then there is the ability to balance tensions.  In “Practical Wisdom,” Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe argue that performing many social roles means balancing competing demands.  A doctor has to be honest but also kind.  A teacher has to instruct but also inspire.  You can’t find the right balance in each context by memorizing a rule book.  This form of wisdom can only be earned by acquiring a repertoire of similar experiences.

  Finally, experienced heads have intuitive awareness of the landscape of reality, a feel for what other people are thinking and feeling, an instinct for how events will flow.  In “The Wisdom Paradox,” Elkhonon Golberg details the many ways the brain deteriorates with age:  brain cells die, mental operations slow.  But a lifetime of intellectual effort can lead to empathy and pattern awareness.  “What I have lost with age in my capacity for hard mental work,” Goldberg writes, “I seem to have gained in my capacity for instantaneous, almost unfairly easy insight.”

  It’s comforting to know that, for many, life gets happier with age.  But it’s more useful to know how individuals get better at doing the things they do.  The point of culture is to spread that wisdom from old to young; to put that thousand-year-heart in a still young body.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Holiday lights illuminate the small harbor of Neuharlingersiel, Germany, by the North Sea. Ingo Wagner/dpa/AP

 

Municipal workers walk along a fence surrounding a Christmas market in Red Square, with St. Basil’s Cathedral in the background, in Moscow. Pavel Golovkin/AP

Market Closes for December 9^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17801.20	-51.28
		-0.29%
S&P 500	2059.82	-0.49   -0.02%
NASDAQ	4766.465	+25.773   +0.54%
TSX	14195.73	+51.56
		+0.36%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17813.38	-122.26
		-0.68%
HANG SENG	23485.83	-561.84
		-2.34%
SENSEX	27797.01	-322.39
		-1.15%
FTSE 100	6529.47	-142.68
		-2.14%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.884	1.896
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.411	2.427
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2085	2.2587
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.8656	2.9081

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87355	0.87096
US $	1.14475	1.14815
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41653	0.70595
US $	1.23741	0.80814

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1203.06	1203.11
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	63.82	63.05

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, after plunging the most in 18 months yesterday, as a rebound in commodities producers with gold and crude prices offset a fourth day of declines for banks.

     Iamgold Corp. and Detour Gold Corp. surged at least 7.2 percent as gold jumped to a six-week high. Crew Energy Inc. and Surge Energy Inc. increased more than 9.9 percent as oil climbed from a five-year low. National Bank of Canada lost 2.5 percent, the most since May 2012, to pace declines among the nation’s largest lenders. AGF Management Ltd. plunged 15 percent after saying it will cut its dividend in the first quarter next year.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 51.56 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,195.73 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The equity gauge sank 2.3 percent yesterday, the most since June 2013, after dropping 1.8 percent last week. The benchmark for Canadian equities has pared its advance to 4.2 percent this year.

     Iamgold soared 9.9 percent to C$3.01 and Detour Gold surged 7.2 percent to C$10 as raw-materials stocks jumped 2.3 percent to snap a three-day decline. Gold futures for February delivery climbed 3.1 percent to $1,232 an ounce in New York, the highest since Oct. 23.

     Crew Energy added 13 percent to C$6.26 and Surge Energy increased 9.9 percent to C$4.10 as West Texas Intermediate jumped 1.2 percent to $63.82 a barrel.

     The 14-day relative strength index for WTI stood at 26.1178, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Investors typically start buying contracts when the reading is below 30.                        

     Talisman Energy Inc. jumped 12 percent to C$4.81 after people with knowledge of the matter said Spain’s Repsol SA has revived acquisition talks with the company.

     Seven of 10 industries in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge gained on trading volume 39 percent higher than the 30-day average.

     Oil, bank and raw-materials are the biggest laggards in Canada for the first time since at least 1988, fueling concern the nation’s economy is fading just as the U.S. is taking off. The three industries, which collectively account for two-thirds of the S&P/TSX, are the worst performers among 10 groups this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     While commodities shares gained today, financial companies continued to slump.

     National Bank, Canada’s sixth-largest lender, dropped 2.5 percent to C$47.93 for an eighth straight day of declines, the longest streak since 2010. Financial stocks in the S&P/TSX retreated 0.2 percent. The group has tumbled 3.9 percent over four days.

     AGF Management plunged 15 percent to C$8.28, the biggest drop ever, after the investment management company said it will slash its quarterly dividend 70 percent to 8 Canadian cents a share from 27 cents in the first quarter of 2015. The asset manager said it will also renew its share buyback program when the current one expires in February.

US

By Oliver Renick and Callie Bost

     Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was little changed after erasing a drop of 1.3 percent, as a rally among energy and technology shares offset concern over China and Greece that sparked a global equities selloff.

     Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. dropped at least 0.6 percent as financial shares declined, while Verizon Communications Inc., Merck & Co. and AT&T Inc. led the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower. Newmont Mining Corp. jumped almost 5 percent as gold futures rallied.

     The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent to 2,059.82 at 4 p.m. in New York after yesterday sliding the most in seven weeks. The Dow average dropped 51.28 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,801.20. The Nasdaq 100 Index added 0.4 percent and the Russell 2000 Index of small companies rallied 1.8 percent, as energy companies in the index rallied the most in three years.

     “You had some real change in the situation in both China and Greece and yet that wasn’t enough to keep the market down, that’s very bullish,” Matt Maley, equity strategist for Miller Tabak & Co. in Newton, Massachusetts, said via phone. “With the Russell and Nasdaq up on the day, this is the type of thing that hopefully will get us to break out of the tight range we’ve been in the last week or so.”

     Global equities fell after China said certain lower-rated bonds can no longer be used as collateral for some short-term loans, sparking a selloff in riskier debt that spread to government notes and stocks. Stocks in China tumbled the most since 2009 and the MSCI All-Country World Index dropped 0.5 percent. About 7.3 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 7.3 percent above the three-month average.

     The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 2.3 percent as Tesco Plc slumped, energy companies extended losses and U.K. manufacturing output unexpectedly fell for the first time in five months. Meanwhile, Greece’s move to bring forward the process for choosing a new head of state risks triggering parliamentary elections that could put in power a party that opposes the terms of the nation’s bailout by the European Union.

     Oil touched a five-year low yesterday, stoking concern that lower demand points to a slowing global economy.

     “There was a bit of baby with the bathwater this morning so you’re seeing some quality rally with other stuff staying down,” Benjamin Dunn, president of Alpha Theory Advisors, which advises hedge funds with about $6 billion in assets, said in an e-mail from Crested Butte, Colorado. “If you think the secular tailwinds and positive growth in the U.S. is for real then you shrug off China.”

     The S&P 500 has rebounded 11 percent from a low in October amid speculation the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand a slowdown overseas and tighter monetary policy after the Fed wound up its asset-purchase program.

     The index dropped 0.7 percent yesterday, following a seventh straight weekly gain that pushed the gauge to a record as better-than-estimated payrolls data increased optimism in the economy. The gauge ended the week trading at 17.3 times its members’ projected earnings, the highest valuation since 2009. The Dow also reached a record last week, climbing within 10 points of 18,000 before retreating.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of options prices known as the VIX, climbed 4.8 percent to 14.89, after jumping 20 percent yesterday, the most since October.

     Five of 10 major industries in the S&P 500 fell, with telephone companies dropping 3.2 percent as a group and health- care shares losing 0.4 percent. Energy shares added 0.9 percent, after retreating 5.8 percent over the previous three days.

     The Russell 2000 Energy Index surged 6.1 percent, the most since November 2011, rebounding from a 7.3 percent selloff yesterday.

     Citigroup Inc. fell 0.9 percent to $55.85 after Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat said the company will report $2.7 billion of legal costs in the fourth quarter and $800 million in expenses tied to headcount and real estate.

     Bank of America declined 0.6 percent to $17.56 after the second-biggest U.S. bank said it expects trading revenue to decline this quarter from the previous three months and a year earlier.

     Verizon Communications Inc. slipped 4.1 percent, the most since August 2011, after saying phone discounts and promotions will hurt profitability at its wireless business.                         

     Merck & Co Inc. lost 3 percent to $60.01, ending three days of advances. Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., the drugmaker being bought by Merck for $8.4 billion, lost a bid to block Hospira Inc. from offering a generic version of its top-selling Cubicin treatment for flesh-eating infections beyond 2016.

     Lululemon Athletica Inc. advanced 6.2 percent to $47.73 after Wells Fargo Securities analyst Paul Lejuez raised his rating on the clothing company to “outperform” from “market perform.”

     Newmont Mining Corp. jumped 4.9 percent to $20.01 as gold futures rose to the highest in six weeks. The global selloff in equities revived demand for the metal as a haven.

     T-Mobile US Inc. dropped 8.3 percent to $25.85 after offering to sell as many as 17.4 million new convertible shares.

     H&R Block Inc. fell 5 percent to $32.34 after the provider of tax services posted a larger-than-estimated loss for the second quarter, while sales for the period also disappointed analysts.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

In music, I am the melody.

The Bhagavad Gita

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

                                          -George Santayana, 1863-1952

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,                                                                                                             

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Fashionistas, take note:

The experts at Pantone have named an earthy reddish-brown hue called Marsala the “it” color of 2015. We look at the impact of the announcement on design circles, noting that the shade will likely appear throughout fashion and décor. But how does one even arrive at a color of the year? Pantone polls designers and creative types about what shades are on their minds and then tips off some marketing partners. That way, they can manufacture products in the shade ahead of time. Some brands have already been using the color. Marsala pants, coats and dresses appeared in the spring 2015 men’s and women’s collections of some designers. One style director met with her team before Thanksgiving to discuss holding space on the website in January to spotlight the color—whatever it was. “Having the color of the year has become a way of displaying authority,” she says.

Birthday: James Thurber, December 8^th, 1894.  It is better to know some of the questions  than all of the answers.

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. –Mark Twain

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

UFO Sighting in Seattle

Visitors look at the headless, reclining sculpture of the river god Ilissos at the State Hermitage Museum as part of its 250th anniversary celebration in St Petersburg, Russia, Saturday. The British Museum loaned one of the Elgin Marbles to Russia, the first time any of the ancient sculptures have left Britain since they were taken from the Parthenon in Athens 200 years ago. Grigory Dukor/Reuters

Market Closes for December 8^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17852.48	-106.31
		-0.59%
S&P 500	2060.31	-15.06   -0.73%
NASDAQ	4740.691	-40.064   -0.84%
TSX	14144.17	-329.53
		-2.28%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17935.64	+15.19
		+0.08%
HANG SENG	24047.67	+45.03
		+0.19%
SENSEX	28119.40	-338.70
		-1.19%
FTSE 100	6672.15	-70.69
		-1.05%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.896	1.912
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.427	2.459
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2587	2.2394
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.9081	2.9385

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87096	0.87816
US $	1.14815	1.13874
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41312	0.70766
US $	1.23077	0.81250

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1203.11	1205.83
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	63.05	66.81

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in 18 months, reaching a seven-week low, as crude tumbled with copper on an unexpected drop in Chinese imports and banks extended their rout.

     Lightstream Resources Ltd. and MEG Energy Corp. sank at least 15 percent as energy stocks tumbled to a more than two- year low. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co., which ship crude by rail, slumped more than 1.4 percent. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the nation’s largest lender by assets, declined 2.8 percent to pace a retreat among financial stocks.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index sank 329.53 points, or 2.3 percent, to 14,144.17 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest drop since June 2013. The equity gauge slumped 1.8 percent last week for a second week of losses and is down 9.7 percent from an all-time high on Sept. 3.

     The benchmark for Canadian equities has pared its advance to 3.8 percent this year. Trading volume was 38 percent higher than the 30-day average today, as all 10 main groups in the gauge retreated.

     Financials, raw-materials and energy stocks, which make up about two-thirds of the S&P/TSX, are the three worst-performers year-to-date among 10 industries in the benchmark equity gauge for the first time since at least 1988, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     Lightstream Resources slumped 16 percent to C$1.62, extending an all-time low as it has fallen 82 percent from a June high. MEG Energy fell 15 percent to C$14.90, also a low. The S&P/TSX Energy Index sank 5.7 percent, the biggest drop since August 2011, as 68 of 69 members in the gauge declined. The group has retreated 14 percent this year, the worst performer among 10 industries in the S&P/TSX.                          

     Crude futures dropped 4.2 percent in both London and New York amid concern hedge funds and other money managers bet too much on rising prices.

     Net-long positions on Brent rose to the highest in four months in the week to Dec. 2, according to data from the ICE Futures Europe Exchange, while bullish bets on West Texas Intermediate climbed the most in 20 months.

     First Quantum Minerals Ltd. sank 5.5 percent to C$16.95, and Teck Resources Ltd. slipped 4.3 percent to C$15.93 as copper fell the most in more than a week.

     Inbound shipments to China, the world’s biggest metals consumer, fell 6.7 percent in November, compared with a 3.8 percent projected increase from a Bloomberg News survey. Exports rose 4.7 percent, missing the 8 percent median estimate.

     Toronto-Dominion Bank lost 2.8 percent to C$52.72, the lowest since Oct. 16, and Bank of Nova Scotia dropped 1.8 percent to C$65.07, the lowest since April. The S&P/TSX Banks Index declined 1.5 percent after losing 4.8 percent last week, the biggest loss since August 2011, as earnings from the nation’s largest lenders disappointed investors.

US

By Oliver Renick

     Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks slid, pulling benchmark indexes down from records, with energy producers leading declines as oil dropped to the lowest level since 2009.

     Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. declined more than 2.2 percent to pace losses in 42 of 43 energy companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. McDonald’s Corp. lost 3.8 percent, the most in two years, after same-store sales trailed analysts’ estimates. Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped 35 percent as Merck & Co. agreed to acquire the maker of antibiotics.

     The S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent to 2,060.31 at 4 p.m. in New York, its worst loss in almost two months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 106.31 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,852.48. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies dropped 1.3 percent.

     “The market has got to take a break, there isn’t a lot of investing cash in the market today and there’s not any one thing in particular that’s forcing it,” Ron Anari, the Jersey City, New Jersey-based senior vice president of trading at ICAP Plc, said via phone. “Lower oil may be better for U.S. consumers but it could be giving us an indication of a slowing global economy, and no matter how good we do here we won’t be fully robust unless the world economy shows some activity.”

     U.S. stocks began their biggest retreat of the day, a 0.4 percent tumble that began at 12:09 p.m. in New York and lasted 10 minutes, as a handful of large trades in the S&P 500 e-mini contract hit the market. Four transactions in sizes ranging from 300 to 470 contracts occurred between 12:10:41 and 12:13:28 p.m., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of options prices known as the VIX, climbed 20 percent to 14.21, the most since October.

     The S&P 500 retreated today after capping a seventh straight weekly gain, the longest streak in a year, and closing at a record as better-than-estimated payrolls data increased optimism in the economy. The gauge ended the week trading at 18.4 times reported earnings, its highest valuation since 2009. The Dow also reached an all-time high last week, climbing within 10 points of 18,000.

     The S&P 500 has rebounded 11 percent from a low in October amid speculation the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand a slowdown overseas and tighter monetary policy after the Federal Reserve wound up its asset-purchase program.

     Chinese overseas shipments rose 4.7 percent from a year earlier in November, the customs administration said today. That missed the 8 percent estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Imports fell 6.7 percent, compared with projections of a 3.8 percent increase.

     U.S. data last week showed employers added 321,000 jobs in November, the most since January 2012, while the unemployment rate held at a six-year low of 5.8 percent. Reports later this week will show U.S. consumer confidence and retail sales improved, according to economists’ estimates.                         

     Exxon Mobil retreated 2.3 percent while Chevron lost 3.7 percent to help lead the Dow lower. Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s biggest provider of oilfield services, slid 3.4 percent to $84.21. Denbury Resources Inc., Ensco Plc and Williams Cos. lost at least 6.7 percent.

     Energy shares tumbled 3.9 percent as a group to the lowest closing level since April 2013. Laszlo Birinyi, president and founder of money-management and research firm Birinyi Associates Inc., told CNBC “I don’t want to touch the oil stocks.”

     Crude slumped 4.2 percent to $63.05 a barrel as OPEC’s refusal to cut output targets amid an oversupply prompted some banks to cut price estimates.                    

     Six of the 10 main groups in the S&P 500 retreated, while utilities, health-care and financial shares had the largest gains.

     McDonald’s declined 3.8 percent after the world’s largest restaurant chain posted November same-store sales that trailed analysts’ estimates after efforts to revive growth in the U.S. failed to gain traction. Global sales at stores open at least 13 months fell 2.2 percent.

     Wynn Resorts Ltd. slipped 3.9 percent. The government of Macau, where Wynn generates more than two-thirds of its sales, forecast lower gaming revenue in 2015.

     Cubist Pharmaceuticals rallied 35 percent, the most in 14 years. Merck agreed to acquire the company for $8.4 billion in cash. Merck will begin a $102-a-share tender offer for Cubist, the companies said in a statement today. Merck added 0.6 percent to $61.88.

     Celgene Corp. jumped 3.6 percent to $118.19, the most in the S&P 500, and Gilead Sciences Inc. added 0.9 percent to $105.56.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

The soul is the home of all living beings;

and from the soul all loving beings derive their strength.

There is nothing in the universe that does not come from the soul.

The soul dwells within all that exists;

it is the truth of all that exists.

You, my son, are the soul.

 

Chandogya Upanishad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

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

                                             -Orisen Swett Marden, 1850-1924

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 1956, rockabilly singer Carl Perkins was in the Sun Records studio in Memphis, recording a follow-up to his big hit “Blue Suede Shoes.” Among the session players was Jerry Lee Lewis, not yet a household name. Another artist hanging around the studio joined in as well. But even Johnny Cash was overshadowed by the next Sun artist to walk through the door: Elvis Presley. The four men sat down – the one and only time – for an impromptu jam session. The gathering came to be called the “Million Dollar Quartet.” –Wall Street Journal.

Joe Kernen enlightened us with this fact on CNBC’s Squawk Box  this morning:
The world’s best whisky, if you’re to believe the Jim Murray Whisky Bible 2015, is now the Japanese Yamazaki single malt sherry cask.
Also, countries without an “e” in their spelling, spell whisky without an “e” such as Japan and Canada and Scotland.  Countries with an “e” in their spelling, spell whiskey with an “e” such as Ireland and the USA.

From CNNMONEY:
Watch out, Scotland! Japanese whisky is no longer an insider secret — it’s grown into a $6 billion industry, competing with scotch for the spotlight.
Whiskies from Japan have been winning accolades at the Whisky Magazine Awards for years, including world’s best single malt. This year, a Japanese distiller took home the prize for best blended malt whisky.
Some Japanese whiskies are so coveted that buyers have pushed prices at auction up to tens of thousands of dollars a bottle. A Yamazaki single malt aged 50 years went for $33,169 earlier this year at auction in Hong Kong — only 150 bottles were ever produced.
There’s no doubt about it: International demand for Japanese whisky is growing — exports have increased by 86% since 2008. Taiwan, France, Russia and China are bringing in the most Japanese whisky by volume, according to Euromonitor.
“Japanese whisky as a whole is absolutely fantastic,” said Nicholas Pollacchi of Whisky Dog. “The quality that’s coming out of Japan is exceptional, and that’s been happening there for almost 100 years.”
Commercial production started in Japan in 1924 when liquor entrepreneur Shinjiro Torii opened a distillery in Yamazaki and hired Masataka Taketsuru to run the distillery. Taketsuru learned his craft at distilleries in Scotland, and brought the techniques back to Japan.
Early manufacturers tweaked Scottish methods to make original whiskies that catered to Japanese tastes, said Euromonitor analyst Mariko Takemura.
“It was hard for Scotch whiskies to be accepted by Japanese consumers, because they were considered too smoky, so manufacturers tried to find tastes that could be accepted,” said Takemura.
Taketsuru later started his own company, Nikka, which is now one of Japan’s most famous whisky producers. Nikka’s Yoichi single malt, aged 20 years, was named by Whisky Magazine as the world’s best in 2008.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Whiskey On The Rocks

Their First Flight

Market Closes for December 4^th, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17900.10	-12.52
		-0.07%
S&P 500	2070.41	-3.92   -0.19%
NASDAQ	4769.438	-5.034   -0.11%
TSX	14455.67	-298.39
		-2.02%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17887.21	+166.78
		+0.94%
HANG SENG	23832.56	+403.94
		+1.72%
SENSEX	28562.82	+120.11
		+0.42%
FTSE 100	6679.37	-37.26
		-0.55%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.912	1.940
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.459	2.487
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2394	2.2799
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.9385	2.9849

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87816	0.87675
US $	1.13874	1.14058
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.40960	0.70942
US $	1.23786	0.80785

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1205.83	1208.32
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	66.81	67.38

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in more than a year as the nation’s biggest banks posted results that missed estimates and energy shares resumed a selloff with the price of crude.

     Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s largest lender by assets, tumbled the most in more than five years after posting fourth-quarter profit short of estimates. Energy stocks tumbled 2.1 percent as a group as oil fell. Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. Sank 16 percent to a decade low after slashing its dividend. Enbridge Inc. jumped 10 percent to a record on plans to transfer C$17 billion ($14.9 billion) in assets to a fund.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slumped 284.11 points, or 1.9 percent, to 14,469.95 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest drop since June 2013. The equities benchmark pared its gain to 6.2 percent this year.

     “We had crabby investors who woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and were in a fighting mood and wanted to sell,” said Barry Schwartz, fund manager at Baskin Wealth Management in Toronto. He helps manage C$740 million with the firm. “The Canadian banks had a great year but the people wanted more. There’s a lot of people out there who saw how poorly their energy stocks have done and want to rip off Us stoous the heads of their advisers.”

     All of the 10 industries in the S&P/TSX dropped at least 0.6 percent on trading volume 45 percent higher than the 30-day average today. Global equities slumped after the European Central Bank said policy makers will reassess stimulus next quarter, damping hopes for additional bond purchases this year.                         

     Financial stocks, the largest group by weighting, sank 2.2 percent, the most in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge. Toronto-Dominion fell 5.1 percent to C$54.03, the biggest decline since April 2009.

     Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lost 3.4 percent to C$103.52, the worst drop since September 2011, as fourth-quarter profit declined 1.7 percent amid weakness in its wholesale banking and Canadian lending businesses.

     “Bank earnings came in with a disappointment, and it’s putting pressure on the index,” said Youssef Zohny, portfolio manager at StennerZohny Investment Partners of Richardson GMP Ltd. in Vancouver. Richardson GMP manages about C$29.3 billion. “The thing that’s moving markets today from a macro perspective is the ECB meeting. Bottom line, the markets were expecting more.”                         

     Mario Draghi, president of the ECB, left interest rates unchanged, unveiled “substantially” lower forecasts for inflation and growth in the euro area and said the central bank will reassess the effects of existing monetary stimulus in early 2015.

     Raw-materials and energy shares, which together make up about a third of the broader index, each slumped 2.1 percent as gold and crude prices slipped.

     Canadian Oil Sands retreated 16 percent to C$10.97, the lowest since September 2004, after cutting its quarterly dividend 42 percent to 20 Canadian cents a share.

     Gildan Activewear Inc., the wholesale apparel manufacturer, slumped 9.2 percent to C$60.22, the biggest retreat since December 2011. Revenue of $666 million fell short of the company’s most recent projection of $700 million due to issues including weak market demand and inventory destocking, the company said.

     Enbridge surged 10 percent to C$60.04, a record, as the pipeline operator unveiled a plan to transfer its Canadian liquids pipelines to the Enbridge Income Fund. The company is also considering a similar move for its U.S. liquids pipelines assets and boosted its dividend.

US

By Callie Bost

     Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell from record levels, led by energy shares, as Mario Draghi’s remarks on European Central Bank stimulus disappointed investors before a report on the American labor market.

     Chevron Corp. slid 1.3 percent as energy shares tumbled the most among groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Microsoft Corp. rose 1.6 percent as Barnes & Noble Inc. said it will buy back the company’s stake in its Nook business.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.1 percent to 2,071.92 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 12.52 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 17,900.1. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies dropped 0.5 percent, after a two-day rally. About 6.1 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 9.6 percent below the three-month average.

     “Draghi’s going to have to start doing some bond-buying if they want to get out of the malaise they’re in,” Karyn Cavanaugh, the New York-based senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management LLC, said by phone. Voya oversees $215 billion. “The writing is on the wall. I think it’ll eventually be good news and QE will have to happen.”

     ECB President Mario Draghi said policy makers will wait until next quarter before assessing if additional stimulus measures are needed. His comments damped speculation the central bank was poised to start a program of sovereign-debt purchases known as quantitative easing, or QE.                        

     Draghi also unveiled “substantially” lower forecasts for inflation and growth. With euro-area inflation well below the ECB’s target, Draghi has warned of a deflationary spiral of falling prices and households postponing spending.

     Stocks briefly erased losses after two euro-area central- bank officials familiar with deliberations said the ECB’s Governing Council expects to consider a proposal for broad-based asset purchases including sovereign debt next month. While the proposal is envisaged to include various types of bonds, it won’t encompass equities, said the officials, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

     “Nothing Draghi has said surprised me,” Michael James, a Los Angeles-based managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities Inc., said by phone. “Until you see some kind of QE stimulus from Europe, whatever he says about it isn’t going to matter too much. Everyone will be focused on the strength of the jobs number.”

     Bill Gross said the creation of more debt by policy makers worldwide to solve the credit crisis will be judged by future generations much like smoking in public or discrimination against gays is viewed by people today.

     Gross, who left Pacific Investment Management Co. in September to join Janus Capital Group Inc., recommended in an investment outlook that investors put money into higher-quality assets and reduce the duration of their holdings. He also said they should prepare for asset prices to stop increasing.

     The S&P 500 has rebounded as much as 11 percent from a low in October on speculation that the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand a slowdown overseas and tighter monetary policy after the Federal Reserve wound up its asset-purchase program.

     Investors are watching economic reports to help gauge the pace of the recovery. Fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits last week as employers retained staff to meet domestic demand for goods and services ahead of the holiday season, data showed today.

     A release tomorrow may show employers added more than 200,000 jobs in November for the 10th straight month, while the unemployment rate held at the lowest level since July 2008.                       

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index declined 0.7 percent to 12.38, its third day of losses.

     Seven of the 10 main industries in the S&P 500 declined. Industrials shares dropped 0.5 percent. Raw-material producers added 0.3 percent for the biggest gains.

     Energy companies slumped 0.8 percent, following three days of gains as oil slipped as much as 1.9 percent. Transocean Ltd. dropped 4.6 percent. Newfield Exploration Co. and Ensco Plc lost more than 3.5 percent. Chevron slid 1.3 percent, the most in the Dow, and Exxon Mobil Corp. declined 0.6 percent.

     Crude fell 18 percent last month as OPEC maintained its output target, letting prices fall to a level that may slow U.S. production growth.

     Sears Holdings Corp. decreased 4.4 percent. The department- store chain controlled by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert posted its 10th straight quarterly loss as sales continued to decline.

     Microsoft gained 1.6 percent. Barnes & Noble said today it will buy back Microsoft’s stake in its struggling Nook business, which posted a loss that pulled down the U.S. bookstore chain’s second-quarter results. The bookstore operator lost 5.4 percent.

     Avago Technologies Ltd. rose 8.4 percent, the most in the S&P 500, after reporting better-than-estimated fourth-quarter profit and sales, and increasing its forecast for the first quarter.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Silence is a great benediction, it cleanses the brain, gives vitality to it,

and this silence builds up great energy, not the energy of thought or the energy of machines,

but unpolluted energy, untouched by thought.

It is the energy that has incalculable capacity, skills.

And this is a place where the brain, being very active, can be silent.

That very intense activity of the brain has the quality and the depth

and the beauty of silence.

 

Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.

                                                           –Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784                 

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

THE COUNTRY OF THE TREES

There is no king in their country
and there is no queen
and there are no princes vying for power,
    inventing corruption.
Just as with us many children are born
and some will live and some will die and the country
will continue.

The weather will always be important.

And there will always be room for the weak, the violets
     and the bloodroot.
When it is cold they will be given blankets of leaves.
When it is hot they will be given shade.
And not out of guilt, neither for a year-end deduction
     but maybe for the cheer of their colors, their
     small flower faces.

They are not like us.

Some will perish to become houses or barns,
     fences and bridges.

Others will endure past the counting of years.
And none will ever speak a single word of complaint,
     as though language, after all,
     did not work well enough, was only an early stage.
Neither do they ever have any questions to the gods-
     which one is the real one, and what is the plan.
As though they have been told everything already,
     and are content.
                                 -Mary Oliver

Writer Joseph Conrad’s birthday today, b. December 3^rd, 1857.

All a man can betray is his conscience.  –Joseph Conrad.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A woman walks a dog through the ice and snow-covered landscape near Winterberg, western Germany. Joerg Taron/dpa/AP

More than 200 booths offer traditional Thuringian handicrafts and sweets and a Ferris wheel at the Christmas Market in front of the Mariendom (Cathedral of Mary) and St. Severi’s Church in Erfurt, central Germany. Jens Meyer/AP

Market Closes for December 3^rd, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17912.62	+33.07
		+0.18%
S&P 500	2074.33	+7.78   +0.38%
NASDAQ	4774.473	+18.662   +0.39%
TSX	14754.06	+133.99
		+0.92%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17720.43	+57.21
		+0.32%
HANG SENG	23428.62	-225.68
		-0.95%
SENSEX	28442.71	-1.30
		—
FTSE 100	6716.63	-25.47
		-0.38%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.940	1.955
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.487	2.510
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2799	2.2923
U.S. 30 Year Bond	2.9849	3.0095

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87976	0.87675
US $	1.13668	1.14058
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.39953	0.71453
US $	1.23125	0.81218

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1208.32	1198.89
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	67.38	66.88

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose the most in a month, ending a five-day loss, as commodities producers jumped with gold and crude prices while the nation’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged.

     Iamgold Corp. and Semafo Inc. increased at least 4.2 percent as gold prices climbed. Surge Energy Inc. and Meg Energy Corp. rallied more than 5.7 percent as crude climbed. Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s second-largest lender by assets, added 0.2 percent after profit rose.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 133.99 points, or 0.9 percent, to 14,754.06 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest increase since Nov. 5. The equities benchmark had fallen 3 percent over five straight days previously.

     Surge Energy increased 6.8 percent to C$4.55 and MEG Energy rallied 5.8 percent to C$18.59 as energy stocks jumped 1.9 percent as a group. The industry has rebounded 2.7 percent in the past two days after a six-day slide.

     West Texas Intermediate added 0.8 percent to settle at $67.38 a barrel in New York. A U.S. government report said the country’s crude inventories dropped last week.

     The recent plunge in oil prices poses an important risk to the outlook for Canadian inflation, the Bank of Canada said today. Oil prices have fallen due to both supply and demand factors, the central bank said as it kept its policy interest rate unchanged at 1 percent, an outcome anticipated by all 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

     Seven of 10 industries in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge advanced on trading volume 19 percent higher than the 30- day average today, led by gains among energy and raw-materials producers.

     Iamgold soared 8.3 percent to C$2.73 and Semafo increased 4.2 percent to C$3.49 as gold for February delivery advanced 0.8 percent to $1,208.70 an ounce in New York. 

US

By Callie Bost

     Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to an all-time high, as industrial and commodity shares rallied while data boosted confidence in the economy before Friday’s jobs report.

     Energy companies in the S&P 500 climbed 1.2 percent for a third straight advance as Cimarex Energy Co. and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. surged more than 3.5 percent. Consumer- staples stocks slipped the most in the U.S. benchmark gauge as Brown-Forman Corp. and Molson Coors Brewing Co. slumped at least 3.7 percent.

     The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 2,074.33 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average extended a record, climbing 33.07 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,912.62. The Russell 2000 Index jumped 0.9 percent. About 6.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 6.3 percent below the three-month average.

     “I think a lot of people are waiting for Friday and the payrolls number,” Jim Paulsen, who helps oversee $345 billion as chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, said by phone from San Francisco. “We’re going to have another 200,000-plus payroll number if ADP is any indication, and unit labor costs should stay low. Put those two together and you have real growth without inflation. That’s a recipe for a melt-up in the stock market.”

     The S&P 500 topped its record of 2,072.83 reached on Nov. 26. The gauge has rebounded 11 percent from a low in October amid optimism the economy is strong enough to withstand a slowdown overseas and tighter monetary policy after the Federal Reserve wound up its asset-purchase program.                         

     Companies in the U.S. added 208,000 workers in November, indicating steady progress in the labor market, a private payrolls report showed. The increase in employment followed a revised 233,000 gain the prior month, figures from the Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Research Institute showed today. Payrolls have climbed by at least 200,000 in seven of the last eight months.

     The Labor Department releases its jobs data on Friday. The government’s report may show companies added 230,000 nonfarm payrolls in November while the unemployment rate held at 5.8 percent, according to the consensus forecast by economists.

     The Fed said “employment gains were widespread across districts” as the economy continued to expand amid advances in consumer spending and lower gasoline prices. Some districts noted that “contacts remained optimistic” about the economic outlook, the Fed said in its Beige Book business survey based on reports gathered on or before Nov. 24.                          

     Fed Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said a drop in the U.S. unemployment rate and moderate growth call for returning monetary policy to normal from an emergency stance with near-zero interest rates.

     “Labor markets continue to heal, and their stronger-than- expected recovery should serve to underpin continued economic expansion,” Plosser said in a speech in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Individuals have regained significant fractions of the wealth they lost during the crisis. That gives me additional confidence that the economy is now operating fairly normally and that policy should reflect that normalization.”

     A separate report today showed service industries in the U.S. expanded in November at the second-fastest pace in more than nine years, a sign the world’s largest economy is powering past a global slowdown.

     Investors are also awaiting signals from the European Central Bank. Mario Draghi and his central bank colleagues may move a step closer to full-scale quantitative easing when they meet tomorrow in Frankfurt. The majority of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predict the ECB will eventually buy government bonds to help spur growth in the region.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index slid 3 percent to 12.47. The gauge of S&P 500 options prices plunged 13 percent in a two-day slide, the most since October.

     Seven of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 gained. Raw- materials and industrials shares advanced more than 1.2 percent.

     Energy companies climbed 1.2 percent, extending the group’s gains this week to 3.2 percent. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.8 percent today, resuming a rebound from a five-year low last week.

     Prices climbed after a government report showed that U.S. crude inventories dropped as refineries bolstered operating rates. Crude has collapsed into a bear market amid the highest U.S. output in more than three decades and signs of slowing global demand growth.

     Cimarex surged 5.1 percent, while Diamond Offshore increased 3.6 percent. Exxon Mobil Corp. rose 0.8 percent, while Chevron Corp. dropped 0.3 percent. Both energy producers climbed at least 1.9 percent yesterday.

     Consumer-staples shares slipped 0.8 percent. Brown-Forman dropped 3.9 percent, while Molson Coors slumped 3.7 percent. Monster Beverage Corp. slid 2.4 percent.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling,

never to say it is right or wrong, but just to watch it and move with it.

In that watching you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling.

And out of this awareness comes silence.

 

Krishnamurti

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.

 

                    -Nolan Bushnell, 1943-

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

THE Man of December:  Napoleon III (1808-1873).  He was elected president of the Second French Republic on December 10, 1848;  made his coup d’état on December 2^nd, 1851, and became emperor on December 2^nd, 1852.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind.  Thou art not so unkind.  As man’s ingratitude.  –William Shakespeare.

OWL POEM

One has to say this for the rounds of life
     that keep coming and going; it has worked so far.
The rabbit, after all, has never asked if the grass
     wanted to live.
Any more than the owl consults with the rabbit.

Acceptance of the world requires
     that I bow even to you,
Master of the night.

                         -Mary Oliver

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Free range Christmas geese run to their free-stall barn on a farm in Pfarrkirchen, southern Germany. Roasted goose is one of the traditional German Christmas feasts. Matthias Schrader/AP

A Macy’s Santa Claus visits with 8-month-old Brystal Logsdon at Hoops Family Children’s Hospital in Huntington, W.Va. Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch/AP

Market Closes for December 2^nd, 2014     

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17879.55	+102.75
		+0.58%
S&P 500	2066.53	+13.09   +0.64%
NASDAQ	4755.813	+28.466   +0.60%
TSX	14626.30	+0.98
		+0.01%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	17663.22	+73.12
		+0.42%
HANG SENG	23654.30	+286.85
		+1.23%
SENSEX	28444.01	-115.61
		-0.40%
FTSE 100	6742.10	+85.73
		+1.29%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.955	1.896
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.510	2.450
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.2923	2.2323
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.0095	2.9620

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.87675	0.88272
US $	1.14058	1.13286
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41201	0.70821
US $	1.23798	0.80776

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1198.89	1211.46
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	66.88	69.00

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were little changed, at a three-week low, as losses among gold producers and banks offset a rebound in energy and industrials shares.

     Semafo Inc. and Iamgold Corp. retreated with the price of bullion. Bank of Montreal dropped 2.3 percent, the most since October, as profit missed estimates. Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline, advanced a fourth day to extend a six-year high. Keyera Corp. and Trilogy Energy Corp. climbed at least 3.6 percent as crude pared an earlier loss.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 5.25 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 14,620.07 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, erasing earlier gains of as much as 0.6 percent. The equities benchmark has fallen five straight days to pare its gain this year to 7.3 percent.

     Telus Corp. tumbled 3.3 percent to C$41.83, the most since June 2013, as telephone stocks lost 1.6 percent as a group. Telus has reportedly struck a deal to share its network with Wind Mobile customers to hep the wireless carrier expand its service across Canada.

     Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. rallied 3.7 percent to C$220.51 and Canadian National Railway Co. gained 1.5 percent to C$78.23 as industrial companies rebounded 1.4 percent, the most in the S&P/TSX. The group had slumped 7 percent in the previous two days.

     Air Canada added 0.8 percent to C$11.51, the highest close since January 2008. WestJet Airlines Ltd. jumped 1.9 percent to C$34.19, an all-time high. Shares of the Calgary-based carrier have soared 14 percent in five days.

     Keyera jumped 5 percent to C$82.18 and Trilogy Energy rallied 3.6 percent to C$10 as the S&P/TSX Energy Index rebounded 0.8 percent to snap a six-day losing streak. Seven of 10 industries rose on trading volume 34 percent higher than the 30-day average today.

     West Texas Intermediate fell 3.1 percent to $66.88 a barrel in New York. Brent dropped in London. Crude had the biggest monthly loss in November in almost six years after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries signaled it will leave it to the market to curb a glut.

US

By Callie Bost

     Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record, as biotechnology and energy companies rallied and data on construction spending boosted confidence in the economy.

     Biogen Idec Inc. led gains in health-care shares after its Alzheimer’s drug showed promising early results. Energy shares climbed 1.3 percent even as oil resumed a selloff, while railroads surged the most in a month. Genworth Financial Inc. slid 5.9 percent as JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its price target on the shares.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.6 percent to 2,066.55 at 4 p.m. in New York, for the largest gain since Oct. 31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 102.75 points, or 0.6 percent, to an all-time high of 17,879.55. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies jumped 1.3 percent after dropping 1.6 percent yesterday. About 6.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, in line with the three-month average.

     “The economy seems to be fine and nothing is changing that narrative,” James W. Gaul, a portfolio manager at Boston Advisors LLC, which oversees about $2.8 billion, said by phone. “The energy sector is up while oil is down. Maybe the thought is the sector fell too far, too fast. Health-care is being led by biotechnology stocks, mainly Biogen Idec.”

     The S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent yesterday, the most since Oct. 22, as weaker data on Black Friday sales and China manufacturing overshadowed a rebound in oil prices and expansion in American factories.

     Data today showed construction spending grew more than estimated in October. The government’s labor report later this week may show companies added 230,000 payrolls in November while the unemployment rate held at 5.8 percent, according to the consensus forecast by economists.

     Two of the Federal Reserve’s most influential policy makers said sharply lower crude prices will boost spending and aid U.S. growth. Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and New York Fed President William C. Dudley, speaking at separate events yesterday in New York, both stressed the positive economic impact from the steepest decline in oil prices for five years.

     “I’m not very worried,” Fischer told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The lower inflation that we’ll get from the lower price of oil is going to be temporary.”

     Oil resumed its declines today, as West Texas Intermediate fell 3.1 percent. Crude has collapsed into a bear market amid the highest U.S. output in more than three decades and signs of slowing global demand growth. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may hold an emergency meeting in the first quarter, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez said in an interview with Panorama newspaper.                         

     The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Nov. 26. The gauge has climbed for six Decembers in a row, posting an average return of 2.2 percent.

     “Yesterday’s action shows we might see near-term weakness, but that’s healthy,” Matt Maley, equity strategist for Miller Tabak & Co. in Newton, Massachusetts. “With what seems to be dovishness from central banks globally and chatter about China getting more dovish, unless a central bank really changes its stance, it would seem that the month of December should continue on its historic stance as a positive month.”

     Global equities rose earlier today as the People’s Bank of China, which reduced interest rates on Nov. 21, refrained from draining funds from the financial system, fueling speculation it may be preparing stimulus measures after data yesterday showed manufacturing slowed.

     The European Central Bank is set to review monetary policy later this week. ECB council member Jens Weidmann said last week that the drop in energy costs is like a mini stimulus package, suggesting no need for the ECB to expand its current measures. The opposing view, previously argued by President Mario Draghi and ECB Chief Economist Peter Praet, is that temporary price shocks can deliver lasting harm to an economy as feeble as the euro area’s.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index slid 10 percent to 12.85 for its biggest drop since Oct. 28. The S&P 500 options gauge rose 7.2 percent yesterday and 10 percent on Nov. 28.

     Nine of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 advanced. Health- care companies increased 1.1 percent as the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index surged 2.1 percent to a record. Financial-services companies rose 1 percent, with JPMorgan Chase climbing 1.8 percent.

     Energy shares rallied 1.3 percent for the largest gains. The group has surged 2.1 percent in the past two days after closing at a 15-month low last week. Marathon Petroleum Corp. surged 3.7 percent and Valero Energy Corp. climbed 4.1 percent.

     Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. increased more than 1.9 percent, pacing gains in the Dow for a second straight day.

     Railroad companies in the S&P 500 surged 3.6 percent, advancing the most since Oct. 23 to rebound from a 7.6 slide over the previous two trading sessions. CSX Corp. rallied 4 percent, while Union Pacific Corp. increased 3.8 percent. Norfolk Southern Corp. rose 2.8 percent.

     Biogen Idec soared 6.4 percent. In a small, early stage trial, Biogen’s drug BIIB037 reduced beta amyloid in the brain, said Doug Williams, executive vice president of research and development, at a Deutsche Bank conference in Boston today.

     Beta amyloid, a protein fragment that creates plaque tangles in the brain, is thought to be a key component in Alzheimer’s disease.

     Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped 13 percent. Japan’s Otsuka Holdings Co. agreed to buy the Aliso Viejo, California- based drugmaker for about $3.54 billion to gain treatments for neurological conditions.                    

     Spansion Inc. increased 22 percent. Cypress Semiconductor Corp. is acquiring it for about $1.6 billion in stock, creating a company that will supply chips for products including cars and consumer electronics.

     Apple slid 0.4 percent after losing 3.3 percent yesterday. The stock dropped almost 6.4 percent during a 60-second swoon that started 20 minutes after trading yesterday, before paring the decline. Apple’s retreat was mirrored in technology stocks from Tesla Motors Inc. to TripAdvisor Inc. and Facebook Inc.

     TripAdvisor rebounded 7.9 percent today for the largest advance in the S&P 500, while Facebook added 0.5 percent. Tesla slipped less than 0.1 percent.

     Genworth slumped 5.9 percent for the worst performance in the S&P 500. Jimmy Bhullar, an analyst at JPMorgan, lowered his price target for Genworth shares to $11 from $18 today, citing a “cautious” outlook for the insurer’s main businesses such as mortgage guaranties and life coverage. Genworth has plunged 39 percent since Nov. 5.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

When the life of a man, freed from all distractions, finds its unity in the spirit,

the knowledge of the infinite comes to him immediately and naturally,

like light from a flame.

 

Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

Both following and leading are skills to be learned.

                     -David Zane Fleisher, 1894-1979 

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7