Category: Newsletters

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

-by Gerard Baker, Editor in Chief of The Wall Street Journal:

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”

The tragic central reality of so much human conflict through history is its self-sustaining nature. Injustice breeds resentment. Resentment generates rage. Rage curdles into a lust for revenge. It takes uncommon courage to break this vicious cycle. The genius of Nelson Mandela was his immediate understanding that genuine freedom required not just the removal of the shackles that constrained him and his fellow blacks under apartheid. True liberation meant discarding the mental chains that tied them—and the rest of us—to the instantly gratifying but ultimately destructive pursuit of vengeance. But reason does not always bend to the will. The greatness of Mr. Mandela resided in his character: the extraordinary moral strength to subordinate the natural urge for revenge to the greater good of reconciliation. South Africa is a better nation because of this remarkable man’s leadership. The world is a better place because of his example.

We remember his life and legacy, reflect on his own his words, share the tributes of leaders around the globe and, finally, take a look at a South Africa that must go on without him.

Photos of the day

A well-wisher holds his child up for a photograph in front of a poster of Nelson Mandela on which others have written their messages of condolence and support, in the street outside his old house in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. Flags were lowered to half-staff and people in black townships, in upscale mostly white suburbs and in South Africa’s vast rural grasslands commemorated Nelson Mandela with song, tears, and prayers. Ben Curtis/AP

People watch as a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, carrying a classified payload from the U.S. government’s National Reconnaissance Office, lifts-off on Thursday night at the Vandenberg AFB, California. Gene Blevins/Reuters

Market Closes for December 6^th,  2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16020.20	+198.69    +1.26%
S&P 500	1803.87	+18.84    +1.06%
NASDAQ	4062.521	+29.356    +0.73%
TSX	13279.64	+79.24
		+0.60%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15299.86	+122.37
		+0.81%
HANG  SENG	23743.10	+30.53
		+0.13%
SENSEX	20996.53	+38.72
		+0.18%
FTSE 100	6551.99	+53.66
		+0.83%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.689	2.673
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.278	3.279
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.8535	2.8680
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8884	3.9138

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94007	0.93894
US   $	1.06375	1.06504
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.45794	0.68590
US  $	1.37056	0.72963

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1228.47	1225.44
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.65	97.38
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, for the biggest gain in a month, on signs economic growth is strengthening after employers added more workers than forecast and the U.S. jobless rate reached a five-year low.

Royal Bank of Canada climbed 1.3 percent after analysts at TD Securities recommended buying the shares. Bombardier Inc. climbed 2 percent after reporting a deal to sell 30 aircraft to a China-based company. Precision Drilling Corp. added 4.5 percent after tumbling the most in two years yesterday after its biggest shareholder sold its stake in the oilfield services company.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 80.32 points, or 0.6 percent, to 13,280.72 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest gain since Nov. 8. The benchmark equity gauge fell 0.9 percent in the past five days, its third straight weekly drop and the biggest since June.

“The numbers out of the States were pretty impressive, and maybe now good news is actually good news,” said David Cockfield, a fund manager with Northland Wealth Management in Toronto. His firm manages about C$225 million ($212 million).

“There’s been reports suggesting the U.S. is running out of steam, well this is a strong vote in the other direction.”

Investors have been scrutinizing economic data to anticipate when the Federal Reserve will begin to taper its $85 billion monthly bond-purchasing program.

Canada’s jobless rate held at 6.9 percent, the lowest since 2008 for a third month in November, and employment rose by 21,600 as companies added part-time workers. American payrolls rose by 203,000, ahead of the median economist projection for 185,000 additions. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7 percent.

Bombardier climbed 2 percent to C$4.69, the biggest increase in three weeks, as industrial stocks advanced 1.3 percent. Six of 10 industries rose in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge on trading volume that was 16 percent lower compared with the 30-day average.

Bombardier reported late yesterday Nantong Tongzhou Bay Aviation Industry had signed a letter of intent to acquire 30 of its Q400 NextGen series aircraft. Based on the list price for the Q400, a firm order would be valued at about $995 million, the company said in a press release.

Bank of Nova Scotia added 1 percent to C$63.98. Canada’s third-largest lender posted a 12 percent increase in quarterly profit as contributions from its takeover of ING Groep NV’s Canadian business led to record earnings in domestic consumer lending.

Royal Bank, the nation’s largest lender, rallied 1.3 percent to C$69.05 after Mario Mendonca, an analyst at TD Securities, raised his rating for the stock to buy from hold.

The stock has eight buys and nine holds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Canadian Western Bank increased 3.2 percent to C$37.77 for a third day of gains. On Dec. 4, the lender reported quarterly earnings of 65 Canadian cents, exceeding the average estimate of 62 cents from a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The stock has gained about 9.2 percent since then, reaching a record.

Precision Drilling advanced 4.5 percent to C$9.75. The stock tumbled 9.1 percent yesterday, the most since August 2011.

Alberta Investment Management Corp. sold its entire stake in the company, Chief Executive Officer Leo De Bever said in a phone interview with Bloomberg News.

MEG Energy Corp. rose 3.1 percent to C$30.58 and Crew Energy Inc. jumped 2.6 percent to C$6.21. The price of crude rose 0.3 percent to $97.65 a barrel in New York for a sixth day of gains.

Thompson Creek Metals Co. increased 4.4 percent to C$2.40 to snap five days of losses. Fraser Phillips, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a research report that he met with CEO Jacques Perron yesterday and was told the company has enough cash in its balance sheet.

“Our analysis clearly suggests that recent concerns about the balance sheet are overblown and the shares should recover some of the ground they have lost over the past two trading sessions,” Phillips said in a report to clients yesterday.

USA

By Nick Taborek and Callie Bost

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, halting a five-day slide for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as investors weighed better-than-forecast jobs growth to gauge the strength of the economy and timing of Federal Reserve stimulus cuts.

Intel Corp. gained 2.3 percent after Citigroup Inc. advised investors to buy the stock. Rite Aid Corp. added 2.3 percent after November sales at stores open more than a year rose more than analysts’ estimated. J.C. Penney Co. dropped 8.7 percent after disclosing that regulators asked for information about its finances.

The S&P 500 gained 1.1 percent to 1,805.09 at 4 p.m. in New York. The advance trimmed the index’s drop this week to less than 0.1 percent, the first weekly slide in two months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 198.69 points, or 1.3 percent, to 16,020.20. About 5.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 5 percent below the three-month average.

“It appears that the market is getting increasingly comfortable with a taper scenario that parallels an incrementally stronger economy,” Jim Russell, who helps oversee $112 billion as a senior equity strategist for U.S. Bank Wealth Management, said by phone. “The higher number could more easily be accepted because the market had traded down, anticipating what was likely to be a stronger number today, and of course we got that.”

The 203,000 increase in payrolls followed a revised 200,000 advance in October, Labor Department figures showed today. The median forecast of 89 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 185,000 advance. A report Dec. 4 from the ADP Research Institute indicated companies boosted payrolls in November by the most in a year.

The pickup in employment, combined with faster wage gains and more hours, provides American workers with the means to spend and signals companies are confident that demand will improve. The jobless rate fell to a five-year low of 7 percent.

A separate report today showed consumer spending rose more than forecast in October, a sign the biggest part of the economy is gaining momentum from a firming employment.

Household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, climbed 0.3 percent after a 0.2 percent increase the prior month, the Commerce Department reported today.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary December consumer sentiment index rose to 82.5 from 75.1 in November, a report showed today. Economists forecast an increase to 76, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

“This morning’s data on jobs doesn’t change the overall picture on the job market,” John Canally, economic strategist at LPL Financial Corp., said in a phone interview from Boston.

His firm oversees about $414.7 billion. “This wasn’t a slam dunk report saying the Fed will taper in December. It’s the taper-no taper game, and this was the no-taper reaction.”

The S&P 500 had fallen five straight sessions after closing at a record Nov. 27, its longest slump since September, as improving economic data fueled speculation the Fed will start paring its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases sooner than projected. The index has still surged 27 percent this year, challenging 2003 for the biggest annual gain in 15 years.

The Fed says it will consider slowing the pace of stimulus if the economy improves in line with its forecasts. In a Nov. 19 Bloomberg Global Poll, 80 percent of investors said they expected the central bank to delay a decision until at least March 2014. Policy makers next meet Dec. 17-18.

Data yesterday showed the economy expanded in the third quarter at a faster pace than initially reported, led by the biggest increase in inventories since early 1998. A separate report showed applications for U.S. employment benefits unexpectedly decreased last week.

Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, said the pace of jobs growth last month signals there is a 50 percent chance the Fed will taper this month.

“It’s at least 50-50 now,” Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Gross said in a radio interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Mike McKee. “There was some logic for a January starting point, but it’s clear the Fed wants out.”

The monetary stimulus has helped propel the S&P 500 higher by as much as 167 percent since a bear-market low in March 2009.

The rally has pushed valuations higher, with the gauge trading for about 16.8 times its companies’ reported earnings, up 18 percent from the beginning of the year when it traded at 14.2 times profit.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, plunged 8.6 percent, the most since Oct. 16, to halt a record-tying eight-day rally that added 23 percent to the measure.

All 10 main S&P 500 groups advanced at least 0.5 percent.

Industrial and consumer-staples shares paced gains, rallying more than 1.4 percent. Procter & Gamble Co. added 2.2 percent to $84.52 and Boeing Co. advanced 1.9 percent to $135.18.

Intel jumped 2.3 percent to $24.82 for the biggest gain in the Dow. Citigroup raised its recommendation on the shares to buy from neutral, saying stability in corporate demand for personal computers will benefit the world’s biggest chipmaker.

Boston Scientific Corp. advanced 4.5 percent to $11.85.

Cowen Group Inc. analyst Joshua Jennings upgraded the medical- device manufacturer to the equivalent of buy from hold, with a target price of $14 per share.

General Motors Co. rose 2.8 percent to $40.17, the highest level since it began trading in 2010 after a 2009 bankruptcy.

Hayman Capital Management LP disclosed yesterday it has taken a stake in the largest U.S. automaker.

Rite Aid gained 2.3 percent to $5.75. The drug-store chain operator reported November same-store sales advanced 2.8 percent, surpassing the 2.1 percent median forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

J.C. Penney plunged 8.7 percent to $8.08, extending a three-day slide to 20 percent. A letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 7 requested “information regarding the company’s liquidity, cash position, and debt and equity financing, as well as the company’s underwritten public offering of common stock,” the struggling retailer said in a quarterly filing.

Sears Holdings Corp. fell 3.8 percent to $48.09, capping a 24 percent decline for the week after Edward Lampert, the hedge- fund manager who for the past eight years tried to turn around the retailer, cut his stake to below 50 percent.

Today’s retreat came after Sears said it plans to spin off its Lands’ End Inc. unit to shareholders. The stock has fallen eight straight sess.ions and trades at a three-month low.

Gap Inc. slid 1.9 percent to $39.46, a fourth-straight drop, even as sales at stores open at least a year increased 2 percent from last year. The biggest U.S. specialty-apparel retailer offered discounts of as much as 50 percent at its three brands during Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Family Dollar Stores Inc. dropped 2.4 percent to $65.98, the lowest since July. Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. equity analyst Charles Grom downgraded the discount retailer to underperform from neutral, with a 12-month target price of $56 per share. The stock has not advanced for eight straight sessions.

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. plunged 21 percent, the biggest drop in almost five years, to $93.76. The cosmetics and hair-care products retailer reported fourth-quarter profit and revenue forecasts that missed analysts’ estimates.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

A diamond is lost in the mud;

all are seeking it.

Some go to the East – or to the West,

Wishing to find it.

Is it lost in the river?

Or in the rocks?

Kabir, your servant, appreciates it

for its just value.

He will take it away,

warmly sheltered

in a corner of his heart.

Kabir, 1440-1518

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling,

But in rising every time we fall.

-Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013.

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

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, December 4^th, 1862, Thomas Carlyle wrote to his brother Dr. John Carlyle:

This day is my sixty-seventh birthday.  Time, Death, Eternity:  what an element this is that all of us have!  We are such stuff as dreams are made of; and our little life is rounded with a sleep! –In my utter solitude I live much in these contemplations; which are not joyous, but perhaps better, and have a grandly quieting character, and lift one above the world and its beggarhoods.  If I were only done with my Book!  But really now it is getting to be high time.  My weariness of it, occasionally, no tongue can tell; at other times I am rather pleased to feel myself shaping, according to ability, so long as I live, something cosmic and true out of the  chaotic mendacious and unknown.  O that I had done with it, done!

This Book was Frederick the Great, on which he worked for fourteen years; the last volume was published in 1865.

Photos of the day

A man walks his dogs as joggers make their way through a tree-lined Johannesburg suburban street in thick early morning mist in Johannesburg, South Africa. Most parts of South Africa are experiencing heavy rains as the southern hemisphere heads towards mid summer with soaring temperatures. Denis Farrell/AP

The US Capitol Christmas tree is lit against the early morning sky in Washington. The tree was officially lit Tuesday night to kick off the holiday season in the Nation’s Capital. J. David Ake/AP

Market Closes for December 4^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	15889.77	-24.85    -0.16%
S&P 500	1792.81	-2.34    -0.13%
NASDAQ	4038.001	+0.803    +0.02%
TSX	13304.92	-14.95
		-0.11%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15407.94	-341.72
		-2.17%
HANG  SENG	23728.70	-181.77
		-0.76%
SENSEX	20708.71	-146.21
		-0.70%
FTSE 100	6509.97	-22.46
		-0.34%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.652	2.588
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.262	3.179
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.8333	2.7825
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8974	3.8444

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93667	0.93929
US   $	1.06761	1.06464
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.45039	0.68947
US  $	1.35854	0.73609

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1243.88	1223.39
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.20	96.04
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to a one-month low after a report showed U.S. employers hired more workers than forecast, spurring concern the Federal Reserve will begin tapering stimulus.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender, lost 0.8 percent to pace declines among financial stocks. CGI Group Inc. dropped 3.9 percent after Newsweek reported that James Chanos has taken a short position on the company, citing people familiar with the matter. Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline, rose 3.5 percent after Bank of Montreal analysts raised their price estimate for the stock.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 14.95 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,304.92 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the lowest since Nov. 7. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 7 percent this year, the fourth-worst performer among developed markets ahead of Austria, Hong Kong and Singapore.

“This is a case where good news is perceived as bad news,” said Bob Decker, fund manager with Aurion Capital Management in Toronto. He helps manage about C$6 billion ($5.62 billion) with the firm. “We’re in a transition zone between when QE was driving the market and when earnings growth and economic activity will drive the market, so it’s created a choppy environment.”

U.S. companies boosted payrolls by 215,000 in November, a report from the ADP Research Institute said, ahead of the 170,000 median projection from a Bloomberg survey of economists.

November non-farm payrolls and unemployment rate data are scheduled to be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Dec. 6.

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz kept his main interest rate unchanged at 1 percent, where it’s been for more than three years, as expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The risks of inflation staying below target “appear to be greater” in an economy that’s two years away from reaching full output, the central bank said.

Financial stocks lost 0.6 percent as a group as nine of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX declined.

AGF Management Ltd. slumped 9.3 percent, the most since 2009, to C$13. The company reported assets under management of C$34.4 billion as of the end of November, a 12 percent decline compared with a year ago.

Royal Bank slipped 0.8 percent to C$69 and Bank of Nova Scotia lost 0.8 percent to C$63.68. The two banks are scheduled to report earnings in the next two days, along with Toronto- Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Thompson Creek Metals Co. slumped 9.2 percent to C$2.48, the biggest decline since May 2012. Daniel Earle, an analyst with TD Securities, said the mining company will not be able to generate enough cash to repay $1 billion in debt maturities in 2017 and 2019 assuming the price of gold is $1,300 an ounce and $3 a pound for copper.

CGI Group, the developer behind the U.S. government’s medical-insurance exchange website, lost 3.9 percent to C$37.03, for the largest retreat since September. The Newsweek report said Chanos, who predicted the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001, includes CGI Group among his largest short positions. The stock has rallied 62 percent this year.

Air Canada, the best-performing stock in the S&P/TSX this year, gained 3.5 percent to C$8. Fadi Chamoun, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, raised his share-price target for Air Canada to C$10 while maintaining an outperform rating, the equivalent of a buy. Air Canada has soared 357 percent this year.

“The combination of lower costs and growing revenues should enable strong improvement in margins and return on invested capital,” Chamoun said in a report.

USA

By Nick Taborek and Nikolaj Gammeltoft

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell a fourth day, the longest slump in 10 weeks for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as investors weighed economic data for clues on the timing of Federal Reserve stimulus cuts amid optimism over a budget deal.

Sears Holdings Corp. plunged 8.3 percent after Edward Lampert, the hedge-fund manager who for the past eight years tried to turn around the company, cut his stake to below 50 percent. Teradata Corp. lost 6.2 percent after Morgan Stanley reduced its rating on the stock. CF Industries Holdings Inc. jumped 11 percent after the fertilizer producer said its considering partnership structures.

The S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent to 1,792.81 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge fluctuated during the session, rising as much as 0.3 percent and declining 0.9 percent at its lowest. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 24.85 points, or 0.2 percent, to 15,889.77. About 6.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 7.6 percent above the three-month average.

“The market just seems real jittery,” Walter Todd, who oversees about $950 million as chief investment officer of Greenwood Capital Associates LLC in Greenwood, South Carolina, said by phone. “We’ve got maybe 20 trading days left in the year, and it’s been a really good year. Investors are a little bit on edge. They’d like to close the books out today if they could.”

The S&P 500 has surged 26 percent this year, poised for the best annual gain since 2003, as the Fed has refrained from reducing its monthly bond purchases. Central-bank policy makers have been scrutinizing data to determine whether the economy is robust enough to withstand a reduction in their support. They specifically cited during their last meeting fiscal drag and budget standoffs as being among “several significant risks” that remained.

Data today showed companies boosted payrolls in November by the most in a year. Labor Department data on Friday may show the unemployment rate fell to 7.2 percent, matching the lowest level since 2008.

A separate report indicated service industries in the U.S. expanded at a slower pace than forecast in November, showing uneven progress in the biggest part of the economy. Purchases of new U.S. homes surged in October by the most in three decades, signaling buyers are starting to take higher mortgage rates in stride.

Gains in manufacturing, technology and housing kept the economy expanding at a “modest to moderate” pace from early October through mid-November, the Fed said today in its Beige Book business survey, which contains anecdotal reports from the 12 Fed district banks.

The Fed has said it will start paring stimulus if the economy improves in line with its forecasts. Policy makers, who next meet Dec. 17-18, will probably wait until their March 18-19 session before reducing monthly bond purchases to $70 billion from $85 billion, according to the median estimate in Bloomberg’s latest survey of economists conducted on Nov. 8.

“Everyone’s worried about the taper,” Ben Schwartz, the Chicago-based chief market strategist at broker Lightspeed Financial Inc., said in a phone interview. “It’s a really delicate situation with the amount the market has run up this year. People are kind of questioning their positions and there’s still a lot of uncertainty with the economy.”

The S&P 500 has retreated 0.8 percent in the past four sessions after closing at a record on Nov. 27. The gauge reversed an early decline today as optimism grew that U.S. budget negotiators are near a deal that could avoid another government shutdown next year.

The two leaders of the bipartisan panel aiming to reach an agreement on savings to replace some automatic spending cuts set to start in January are hatching a narrow deal in which both parties would have to compromise.

Negotiations are continuing and “there are still issues to be resolved,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, said today.

Congress on Oct. 16 passed legislation funding the government through Jan. 15 as part of the agreement to end a partial shutdown, the first in 17 years.

“It seems like an olive branch is being extended from both parties right now on the budget,” Michael Mullaney, who oversees more than $10 billion as Boston-based chief investment officer for Fiduciary Trust Co., said in a telephone interview.  “That’s positive.”

The S&P 500’s rally this year has pushed valuations higher, with the gauge trading for about 16.8 times its companies’ reported earnings, up 18 percent from the beginning of 2013 when it traded at 14.2 times profit.

Investment newsletter writers are the most bullish on the U.S. stock market in more than two and a half years, with 57.1 percent predicting further gains, according to a survey by research provider Investors Intelligence. The last time the reading exceeded this level was in April 2011, when 57.3 of advisers were bullish and the S&P 500 fell 11 percent in the next four months. The bullishness measure last rose above 60 percent in October 2007, the start of a bear market.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, rose 1 percent to 14.70, the highest level in six weeks. The measure has rallied seven straight sessions, its longest advance since April 2012.

Six of 10 main S&P 500 industries retreated today, with energy and consumer-staples stocks dropping 0.4 percent to pace declines.

An S&P gauge of homebuilders retreated 0.6 percent for a fifth day of losses, even as new-home sales surged. Lennar Corp. dropped 2.2 percent to $34.52 and PulteGroup Inc. slid 0.4 percent to $18.35.

The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index fell 1.2 percent for a fourth day of losses, as the price of crude futures touched the highest level since October. JetBlue Airways Corp. declined 1.8 percent to $8.41 and Spirit Airlines Inc. dropped 1.5 percent to $43.90.

Teradata slid 6.2 percent to $42.53 for the biggest drop in the S&P 500. The data storage provider was cut to underweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley, which said it is cautious on information-technology hardware companies because cloud- computing adoption is moving faster than previously estimated.

Sears slid 8.3 percent to $50.92, the lowest in almost three months. Lampert’s ESL Investments Inc. owns 48 percent of the Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based department store chain, down from 55 percent reported as recently as October, according to a filing yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Express Inc. sank 23 percent to $19, the lowest in 18 months. The retailer reduced its earnings forecast for its financial year ending on Feb. 1 to no more than $1.51 a share.

It had predicted as much as $1.60. Analysts on average had estimated profit of $1.61.

CF Industries soared 11 percent to a record $237.07 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. The largest U.S. nitrogen- fertilizer maker is in talks with financial advisers to evaluate a master-limited partnership and “MLP-like structures along with other financial options,” the company said today in a filing containing presentation slides.

Deere & Co. added 3.2 percent to $85.38. The world’s largest maker of agricultural equipment said it will repurchase as much as $8 billion in stock.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Your way is very good for you, but not for me.

My way is good for me, but not for you.

Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Only those who dare to fail greatly

can ever achieve greatly.

-Robert Kennedy, 1925-1968.

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

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:

LOLA’S SECRET POTION

She crosses lint

with the common alpine bog moss.

Mum’s the word, so liquidate it.

I’m sorry.  I cannot tell you

what brand of dish soap I use.

That’s privileged information, Owen.

 

She crosses arabesques

with the Canary Islands yellow pages.

Have  a nice day, so liquidate it.

I’m sorry. I cannot tell you

how soft-shell crabs reinvent.

That’s privileged information, Erin.

 

She crosses box turtles

with a zero-coupon-bond aqueduct.

X marks the spot, so liquidate it.

I’m sorry, Lola. I cannot tell you

when alpha and beta switch.

That’s privileged information.

-Linda Kunhardt.

Photos of the day

Christmas decorations light up Paris’s Champs-Élysées down to the Arc de Triomphe, visible in the background. Christophe Ena/AP

Fresh snow surrounds the McPolin barn on the outskirts of Park City, Utah. The National Weather Service said up to 16 inches of snow could fall in Utah’s higher elevations. Tom Smart/The Deseret News/AP

Market Closes for December 3^rd,2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	15914.62	-94.15    -0.59%
S&P 500	1795.15	-5.75    -0.32%
NASDAQ	4037.198	-8.063    -0.20%
TSX	13319.87	-99.70
		-0.74%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15749.66	+94.59
		+0.60%
HANG  SENG	23910.47	-128.08
		-0.53%
SENSEX	20854.92	-43.09
		-0.21%
FTSE 100	6532.43	-62.90
		-0.95%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.588	2.607
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.179	3.186
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7825	2.7951
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8444	3.8560

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93929	0.93967
US   $	1.06464	1.06421
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.44639	0.69138
US  $	1.35857	0.73607

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1223.39	1219.99
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	96.04	93.82
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, snapping four days of gains, as industrial companies declined and Bank of Montreal reported lower-than-estimated profit.

Bank of Montreal sank 4.5 percent, the most since 2010, to pace declines among financial stocks. First Quantum Minerals Ltd. dropped 1.5 percent as copper fell to the lowest in more than a week. Maxim Power Corp. plunged 15 percent after saying Rockland Capital has terminated an agreement to buy Maxim Power (USA) Inc. Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline, lost 1.8 percent for the first decline in five days. Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. soared 52 percent, the most in four years, after finding diamonds in bulk sample testing.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 99.70 points, or 0.7 percent, to 13,319.87 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 7.1 percent this year, the third-worst performer among developed markets ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore.

“The banks are down, that’s leading the market down,”  said Irwin Michael, fund manager with ABC Funds in Toronto. The firm manages about C$850 million ($796.7 million). “Bank of Montreal, the fact is it’s had a good run.”

Gauges of financial and industrial stocks tumbled 1.5 percent each, the most in the S&P/TSX. Seven of 10 industries declined on trading volume 7.7 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Bank of Montreal, Canada’s fourth largest lender, sank 4.5 percent to C$70.25, the most in almost three years. The stock had rallied 22 percent from a low on June 24 through yesterday.  The company said net income for the period ended Oct. 31 was C$1.09 billion, or C$1.62 a share, little changed from C$1.08 billion, or C$1.59, a year earlier.

“While the headline looks strong, BMO reported a C$121 million gain in wealth management that is not recurring and will not likely be treated as core in the market,” John Aiken, an analyst with Barclays Capital Inc., said in a note to clients.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender, dropped 1.3 percent to C$69.56. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the second- largest, lost 0.8 percent to C$96.13.

Royal Bank, Toronto-Dominion and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce are scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on Dec. 5.

First Quantum Minerals lost 1.5 percent to C$17 and Copper Mountain Mining Corp. declined 1.3 percent to C$1.47 as copper for March delivery fell 0.5 percent in New York. Copper prices have retreated 13 percent this year, set for a second annual drop in three years.

Air Canada, the best-performing stock in the S&P/TSX this year with a 342 percent gain, dropped 1.8 percent to C$7.73 to pace losses in industrial shares. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. retreated 2 percent to C$163.17 and Canadian National Railway Co. slipped 1.8 percent to C$60.36.

Bombardier Inc. tumbled 2.9 percent to C$4.65. Continued delays with the jet manufacturer’s CSeries planes may steer orders towards competitors, said George Ferguson, analyst with Bloomberg Industries, in a report.

“A filing with Canadian authorities to extend flight testing to May 2015 suggests service entry may not occur in 2014 as previously scheduled,” Ferguson said.

Maxim Power plunged 15 percent to C$2.87, the most since 2008, following the termination of the sale of Maxim Power (USA), Inc.

The Calgary-based thermal and electric energy developer had agreed to sell its U.S. unit to Patriot Power Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Rockland Capital in August. Rockland terminated the agreement due to an outstanding regulatory proceeding with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Maxim said in a release.

Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. advanced 2.5 percent to C$6.25 after Chief Executive Officer Trent Yanko said his company was a “very attractive acquisition target” in an interview with Bloomberg.

Suncor Energy Inc. rose 1.8 percent to C$37.58 and Crew Energy Inc. added 5.1 percent to C$5.94 as crude for January delivery surged the most since September after TransCanada Corp. said it will begin operating the southern leg of its Keystone XL pipeline to the Gulf Coast in January.

Peregrine Diamonds soared 52 percent to 64 Canadian cents, the biggest gain since September 2009, after reporting a diamond grade of 2.7 carats a tonne from testing at its Chidliak project in Nunavut. The testing recovered about 600 carats of commercial-size diamonds, including a “significant portion” of gem diamonds, the company said in a statement.

USA

By Nick Taborek and Callie Bost

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined for a third day, as investors assessed reports on car and retail sales before economic data this week that may offer clues on when the Federal Reserve will reduce stimulus.

Ford Motor Co. lost 2.9 percent, as carmaker stocks slipped amid November sales reports. Amazon.com Inc. slid 2 percent to pace declines among retailers even as online Cyber Monday sales surged to a record. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. plunged 20 percent after quarterly revenue missed analysts’ estimates.

Apple Inc. rose 2.7 percent to the highest in a year after buying data-analytics firm Topsy Labs Inc.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.3 percent to 1,795.15 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 94.15 points, or 0.6 percent, to 15,914.62, its first close below 16,000 since Nov. 20. About 6.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 3.8 percent above the three- month average.

“It’s really a mixed picture right now,” Dan Veru, the chief investment officer who helps oversee $4.5 billion at Palisade Capital Management LLC, said in a phone interview from Fort Lee, New Jersey. “In the absence of any bigger data, investors are grasping for these little bits of micro data in trying to develop a conclusion. Any market that’s appreciated as much as the stock market has this year is going to be vulnerable to sell-offs.”

U.S. stocks fell yesterday as data showing manufacturing unexpectedly rose last month bolstered the case for the Fed to start curbing stimulus. Central-bank policy makers meet Dec. 17-18 after minutes of their last meeting in October showed officials may reduce the $85 billion in monthly bond buys should the economy improve as anticipated.

The Commerce Department will release data tomorrow on new home sales and the central bank will publish its Beige Book, which provides policy makers anecdotal accounts of business activity from the Fed districts. Reports on third-quarter gross domestic product and November non-farm payrolls are also due this week.

“There’s trepidation building with the employment numbers coming on Friday,” Quincy Krosby, a market strategist for Newark, New Jersey-based Prudential Financial Inc., which oversees more than $1 trillion, said by phone. “There’s nervousness that maybe the Fed takes a more hawkish tone at its December meeting if the jobs numbers are stronger than consensus estimates.”

The S&P 500 has added 26 percent this year, challenging 2003 for the best annual gain in 15 years, after the Fed refrained from trimming its monthly bond purchases and corporate earnings have surpassed estimates.

The rally has pushed valuations higher, with the gauge trading for about 16.9 times its companies’ reported earnings, up 19 percent from the beginning of the year when it traded at 14.2 times profit.

“For the coming months, markets will be hesitating, and we expect volatility amid expectations of Fed tapering,” Guillaume Duchesne, an equity strategist at BGL BNP Paribas SA in Luxembourg, said by telephone. “The rebound in equity markets has been quite impressive, particularly in the U.S., so we expect some pause.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, rose 2.3 percent to 14.55, the highest level in six weeks. The measure has gained for six straight sessions, its longest rally since May 2012.

Five of 10 main S&P 500 industries retreated today, with financial stocks and producers of raw materials falling at least 0.9 percent to pace losses.

Carmakers and parts suppliers fell the most among 24 S&P 500 industries as Ford forecast today that its North American production will slip 1.8 percent in next year’s first quarter amid rising inventories.

Automakers entered their year-end sales push last month with their biggest supply of cars and trucks in eight years. If buyers don’t absorb enough supply, more automakers, including General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, may need to follow Ford in trimming output to avoid margin-slicing discounts.

Sales at Ford and GM exceeded or met analysts’ estimates for November. Ford fell 2.9 percent to $16.56 and GM dropped 2.5 percent to $38.14.

An S&P index of retailers lost 0.8 percent, extending yesterday’s 0.7 percent drop, even as online sales on Cyber Monday rose 21 percent from a year ago for a single-day record.

The gain comes after online spending increased 15 percent to a record $1.2 billion on Black Friday, according to research by ComScore Inc. Still, because of an in-store slump, total purchases during the four days beginning with the Nov. 28 Thanksgiving holiday fell for the first time since 2009, according to a survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation.

Amazon slid 2 percent to $384.66 and Ross Stores Inc. lost 1.9 percent to $73.25 for a fourth day of declines.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. rallied 5.8 percent to $35.99 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Engaged Capital LLC, which owned 400,000 shares as of Aug. 30, recommended the clothing retailer consider selling itself or begin searching for a new chief executive officer to replace CEO Michael Jeffries, whose contract expires Feb. 1.

Krispy Kreme plunged 20 percent, the most since April 2011, to $19.59. The company reported third-quarter revenue of $114.2 million after yesterday’s market close, missing the average analyst estimate of $115 million.

Yum! Brands Inc., the owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, fell 2.7 percent to $75.61. The company posted a surprise gain in same- store sales in China last month as promotions lured diners to its fried-chicken chain. KFC same-store sales in China rose 16 percent in the first 10 days of the month, driven by a “Half Priced” bucket promotion, while they were down 8 percent in the last 20 days of November as the offer ended.

Apple rose 2.7 percent to $566.32, the highest since Dec. .04, 2012. The iPhone maker paid more than $200 million for Topsy, people with knowledge of the deal said, giving the world’s most valuable company new tools to spot trends as they emerge on Twitter Inc.’s social network.

Separately, UBS AG raised its recommendation on the stock to buy from neutral, or hold, and increased its price estimate for the shares to $650 from $540.

Tesla Motors Inc. jumped 17 percent, the most since May, to $144.70. The carmaker’s Model S, the electric car being investigated for a possible U.S. recall, was cleared of any safety defect in a review by Germany’s transportation regulator.

OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. surged 98 percent to a record $27.70. The drug developer that first sold shares to the public in July signed a $177.25 million agreement with Celgene Corp. on as many as six potential cancer medicines. The shares of the Redwood City, California-based company had declined 18 percent from the initial public offering through yesterday.

Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, said the unprecedented cash added to the financial system by central banks is raising the risk of a slide in global asset prices.

“Investors are all playing the same dangerous game that depends on a near perpetual policy of cheap financing and artificially low interest rates in a desperate gamble to promote growth,” Pimco’s Gross wrote in his monthly investment outlook posted on Newport Beach, California-based Pimco’s website today.

The Fed, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank and Bank of England “are setting the example for global markets, basically telling investors that they have no alternative than to invest in riskier assets or to lever high-quality assets,” he said.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Truth resides in the heart of every man.

And it is there that he must seek it, in order to be guided by it so that,

at the least, it will appear to him.

But we do not have the right to force others to see the Truth in our way.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The key is to keep company only with people

who uplift you, whose presence calls forth

your best.

-Epictetus, AD 55-13.

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

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:

ATMOSPHERE

Learning to

draw tenderness, the

sky is full of

snow for her,

and she knows the

road curves around

her and the chill

of the air has no

fear, and she

sees her sorrow

gleaming in the

hardening river, she is

learning to take

tenderness from the

atmosphere.

-Susan Griffin

Photos of the day

People walk near a Christmas tree in front of the Vendome Column as part of Christmas holiday season illuminations at Place Vendome in Paris. Charles Platiau/Reuters

A swimmer passes as surfers paddle on boards in the Mediterranean sea off the shore of Tel Aviv, Israel. Temperatures rise up to 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) in Israel. Ariel Schalit/AP

Market Closes for December 2^nd, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16008.77	-77.64    -0.48%
S&P 500	1800.90	-4.91    -0.27%
NASDAQ	4045.260	-14.626    -0.36%
TSX	13419.57	+24.17
		+0.18%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15655.07	-6.80
		-0.04%
HANG  SENG	24038.55	+157.26
		+0.66%
SENSEX	20898.01	+106.08
		+0.51%
FTSE 100	6595.33	-55.24
		-0.83%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.607	2.554
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.186	3.149
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7951	2.7445
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8560	3.8106

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.93967	0.94187
US   $	1.06421	1.06172
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.44087	0.69403
US  $	1.35394	0.73859

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1219.99	1253.35
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.82	92.72
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam and Lu Wang

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a fourth day, the longest streak in almost six weeks, as industrial companies and energy producers gained after manufacturing from the U.S. to Europe and China expanded more than forecast.

Air Canada, the best-performing stock in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index this year, increased 4.1 percent.

Talisman Energy Inc. rallied 4.5 percent after agreeing to appoint two board members backed by billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn to avoid a proxy fight. B2Gold Corp. and Semafo Inc. sank at least 11 percent as gold declined, extending the worst monthly performance since June.

The S&P/TSX rose 24.17 points, or 0.2 percent, to 13,419.57 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the longest winning streak since October.

Trading in the index’s stocks was in line with the 30-day average.

The economic data “is pointing to the right direction,” Pierre Bouchard, a portfolio manager at Toronto-based Toron AMI, said in a phone interview. His firm oversees C$3.8 billion ($3.6 billion). “As long as we don’t have a big issue from the economic point of view, markets should keep going up. But I don’t see them up a lot necessarily because we’ve had a lot of good performance already.”

The S&P/TSX finished November up 0.3 percent as data showed growth in Canada accelerated in the third quarter at the fastest pace in two years and the global economy improved. That’s the index’s fifth consecutive monthly advance, the longest rally since October 2012.

The Institute for Supply Management’s U.S. factory index rose to 57.3 in November from 56.4 a month earlier, the Tempe, Arizona-based group’s report showed today. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of 77 economists called for a drop to 55.1. Manufacturing in the euro-area expanded, with Markit Economics’s factory index rising to 51.6 in November, while factory growth in China also beat estimates.

The S&P/TSX has risen 7.9 percent this year, the third- worst performer among developed markets ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore, as commodities are headed for their first annual loss since 2008. Energy and raw-materials producers accounted for more than a third of the index.

Raw-materials companies sank 2.8 percent today for the only loss among 10 S&P/TSX groups, as gold stocks slid. The price of the precious metal is set for the first annual drop in 13 years as some investors lost faith in the metal as a store of value.

Gold prices today fell to the lowest level since July after signs of a strengthening U.S. economy fueled speculation that the Federal Reserve is ready to slow the pace of its monetary stimulus. Silver tumbled.

B2Gold plunged 12 percent to C$1.96 and Semafo tumbled 11 percent to C$2.47.

Nine of the 10 main industries in the gauge advanced as health-care, consumer-staples and industrial companies climbed more than 1.2 percent for the best performance.

Air Canada, the nation’s largest carrier, rallied 4.1 percent to C$7.87, the highest level since June 2008. The stock has jumped 350 percent this year as profit beat analysts’ estimates amid progress in the company’s cost-cutting plan.

Talisman Energy climbed 4.5 percent to C$12.99. Samuel Merksamer and Jonathan Christodoro will join the board this month and will be on the company’s slate of board nominees for re-election next year, according to a filing from the oil and natural gas producer. In exchange, Icahn agreed not to conduct a proxy contest at the next Talisman annual meeting.

Activist shareholders from Icahn to Barry Rosenstein have pushed for changes at energy companies they believe have failed to realize the value of reserves. Icahn, who has amassed a 7.4 percent stake in Talisman, said in October he may seek talks with management on “strategic alternatives” and board seats.

Canacol Energy Ltd. jumped 9.9 percent to C$5.35. The company, which explores oil in South America, announced results from a well located in the Llanos Basin of Colombia.

USA

By Nick Taborek

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index extending declines in the final hour of trading, amid data showed manufacturing unexpectedly climbed last month and reports on holiday retail sales.

Urban Outfitters Inc. lost 3.5 percent as retail spending fell on the weekend after Thanksgiving for the first time since 2009. EBay Inc. climbed 1.6 percent as a report showed online spending on Black Friday rose to a record. Newmont Mining Corp., the world’s second-largest gold producer, slipped 4 percent as the precious metal’s price declined. 3M Co. lost 4.4 percent after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.3 percent to 1,800.90 at 4 p.m. in New York, after earlier rising as much as 0.2 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 77.64 points, or 0.5 percent, to 16,008.77. About 5.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 4.8 percent below the three-month average.

“It seems like a sleepy day after Thanksgiving, nothing exciting going on,” Frank Ingarra, head trader at Greenwich, Connecticut-based NorthCoast Asset Management LLC, said by phone. His firm oversees about $1.8 billion. “Investors are probably waiting to see if there’s any news from the Fed later in the month and trying to get a read on retail sales.”

It was the second time in two days that U.S. equities tumbled in the final hour. The benchmark index lost 0.5 percent to 1,803.98 over 20 minutes just before the close on Nov. 29, when stocks traded in an abbreviated session. Today’s drop took it down 0.4 percent to 1,798.73 between 3:24 p.m. and 3:53 p.m.

“We have seen some end-of-day weakness in recent trading sessions,” Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist and director of asset allocation at RidgeWorth Capital Management, said by phone from Atlanta. His firm oversees about $49 million. “It may be turning out to be a pattern.”

The S&P 500 climbed 2.8 percent last month and has gained 26 percent this year, challenging 2003 for the best annual performance since 1998, after the Federal Reserve refrained from tapering its third round of economic stimulus. The central bank next meets Dec. 17-18. The index ended November with its eighth straight weekly advance, the longest rally in almost a decade, as data on employment and consumer sentiment boosted confidence in economic growth.

The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index rose to 57.3 in November from 56.4 a month earlier, the Tempe, Arizona- based group’s report showed today. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of 77 economists called for a drop to 55.1.

Estimates ranged from 53.5 to 57.5. Manufacturing accounts for about 12 percent of the economy.

A separate report from Markit Economics showed the final November index of U.S. manufacturing increased to 54.7 from 51.8 the previous month. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for no change from the preliminary November reading of 54.3. Other reports showed manufacturing in the euro area, U.K. and China expanded faster than estimated.

The Labor Department’s jobs report on Dec. 6 is forecast to show the U.S. added 180,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate slipped to 7.2 percent, matching the lowest level in five years. The weakest employment recovery in seven decades is proving a boon to equity markets.

Five years into a rally that has restored $14 trillion to share prices, U.S. payrolls remain 1.5 million below the level in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Resistance to hiring from ConocoPhillips to Walt Disney Co. will help push S&P 500 profit margins above 10 percent next year, the highest ever, data show. Below-average employment was cited last month by Fed chairman nominee Janet Yellen as the biggest obstacle to raising interest rates.

December has been the second-best month for U.S. equity returns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that starts in 1928. The average return for the month is 1.5 percent, more than twice the overall monthly mean of 0.6 percent. Should stocks match their historic gains this month, it would put the index at 1,832.90 by the end of the year.

U.S. retailers are coming off the first spending decline on a Black Friday weekend since 2009. Purchases at stores and websites fell 2.9 percent to $57.4 billion during the four days beginning with the Nov. 28 Thanksgiving holiday, according to a survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation.

“I would have expected Thanksgiving weekend sales to be stronger, given how well financial markets have done,” Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman Wealth Management, which oversees $22 billion, said by phone.

“We’re skeptical that the price movement in stocks this year has been supported by fundamentals, so we’re lightening up.”

An S&P index of retailers fell 0.7 percent for the fifth- worst performance among 24 industries. Urban Outfitters paced declines, losing 3.5 percent to $37.66 after being downgraded to neutral from buy at Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc.

Online spending rose 15 percent to a record $1.2 billion, according to ComScore Inc., as more customers opted to shop from their couches rather than battling long lines at stores. Online retailers can expect 131 million shoppers for today’s Cyber Monday promotions, up from 129 million last year, the National Retail Federation said.

EBay climbed 1.6 percent to $51.35. The company was the second-most visited online retailer on Black Friday, behind Amazon.com Inc., ComScore said.

Eight out of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 fell. Phone companies lost 0.9 percent for the steepest decline, as a jump in Treasury yields reduced the appeal of companies paying higher dividends. Ten-year Treasury note yields increased five basis points to 2.80 percent.

Graham Holdings Co., which is changing its name from Washington Post Co., lost 3.6 percent to $649.62. The education and media company agreed to sell its headquarters building in downtown Washington to Carr Properties for about $159 million.

3M dropped 4.4 percent to $127.68 for the biggest loss in the Dow. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to the equivalent of sell and Oppenheimer & Co. chief market technician Carter Worth said the stock is overpriced.

Travelers Cos. slid 1.9 percent to $89. The second-largest U.S. commercial insurer was cut to neutral from buy at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Groupon Inc., the online discount-coupon company, slid 3.3 percent to $8.75. Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the stock to neutral from buy.

Newmont lost 4 percent to $23.83. Gold touched to the lowest level since July, as signs of the strengthening U.S. economy fueled speculation the Fed will curb its monetary stimulus.

Dow Chemical Co. added 2.4 to $39.98. The largest U.S. chemical maker by sales plans to separate chlorine-related assets including its epoxy business as the company focuses on higher-margin activities.

Freddie Mac rose 7.5 percent to $2.59. Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay the government-sponsored mortgage insurer $404 million to resolve mortgage-repurchase claims.

The deal covers about 716,000 loans created by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America from Jan. 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2009, and sold to Freddie Mac, the firms said today in separate statements.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, rose 3.9 percent to 14.23 today. The measure has gained five straight sessions, rallying 16 percent, for the longest winning streak this year.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

To go from opinion to perception,

from imagination to fact,

from illusion to reality,

from something that is not there,

to something that is;

that is the way forward.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people

who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do

anything about it.

-Albert Einstein, 1879-1955.

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

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  Sky Watch:  Venus continues to climb higher in the west after sunset as it brightens magnitude – 4.9, its most dazzling display to the year.  An easy 25 degrees high, it dangles beneath the crescent Moon on the 5^th.  The Moon floats above green Uranus on the 10^th and is to the left of Taurus’s orange star Aldebaran on the 15^th.   In its fat gibbous phase, the Moon diminishes the normally reliable Geminid meteors on the 13^th and stands to the right of Jupiter on the 18^th.  Jupiter, in Gemini, conveniently rises by 6:00 PM and shines at a brilliant magnitude – 2.7.  The Giant Planet is now a telescopic showpiece in advance of its imminent opposition on January 5.  Winter begins with the solstice at 12:11 PM on the 21^st.

New Moon: December 2^nd.

First Quarter: December 9^th.

Full Moon: December 17^th.

Last Quarter: December 25^th.

Photos of the day

Visitors enjoy the Christmas market in front of the Cologne Cathedral, in Cologne, Germany. Oliver Berg/dpa/AP

Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal (r.) and Rabbi Shmuel Segal stand in front of the Brandburg Gate in Berlin where a giant Hanukkah Menorah was installed at the launch of the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, named Hanukkah. Ole Spata/dpa/AP

Market Closes for November 29^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16086.41	-10.92    -0.07%
S&P 500	1805.81	-1.42    -0.08%
NASDAQ	4059.886	+15.136    +0.37%
TSX	13395.40	+24.57
		+0.18%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15661.87	-65.25
		-0.41%
HANG  SENG	23881.29	+92.20
		+0.39%
SENSEX	20791.93	+257.02
		+1.25%
FTSE 100	6650.57	-3.90
		-0.06%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.554	2.537
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.149	3.140
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7445	2.7373
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8106	3.8150

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94187	0.94447
US   $	1.06172	1.05880
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.44215	0.69341
US  $	1.35832	0.73621

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1253.35	1242.48
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.72	92.30
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a third day, capping a fifth straight monthly advance, as data showed growth in Canada accelerated in the third quarter at the fastest pace in two years amid a gain in consumer spending.

Atrium Innovations Inc., a cosmetics and pharmaceutical products maker, soared 23 percent after agreeing to sell itself to a group led by Permira funds. Argonaut Gold Inc. increased 4.5 percent as the metal climbed the most in two weeks. Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline, jumped 5.7 percent for a third day of gains.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 24.57 points, or 0.2 percent, to 13,395.40 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, trimming an earlier gain of as much as 0.9 percent. The benchmark equity gauge added 0.3 percent in November for a fifth month of increases, the longest streak in more than a year.

“We are seeing the Canadian stock market reacting quite favorably to the GDP figures,” said John Tsagarelis, a fund manager at Manulife Asset Management Ltd. in Toronto. He helps manage C$252 billion ($238 billion) with the firm. “It’s a broad-based increase including metals and energy, which have lagged somewhat in the past couple of weeks. It will be difficult for people to take risk off the table now.”

Canada’s economy grew at an annualized pace of 2.7 percent in the third quarter, its fastest rate in two years and ahead of the median economists’ forecast of 2.5 percent growth.

“A strengthening U.S. economy and highly stimulative Bank of Canada monetary policy will sustain above-potential growth through the end of next year,” said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at RBC Capital Markets, in a note to clients.

Raw-materials and energy stocks each rallied 0.4 percent as a group as seven of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX advanced.

Trading volume was 38 percent lower compared with the 30-day average at this time of the day.

BlackPearl Resources Inc. jumped 4.8 percent to C$2.41 and Cenovus Energy Inc. increased 1.7 percent to C$30.93 as crude for January delivery rose for the first time in five days, up 0.5 percent to $92.72 a barrel in New York.

Argonaut Gold added 4.5 percent to C$5.61 and B2Gold Corp. increased 3.3 percent to C$2.22 as the S&P/TSX Gold Index rallied 1 percent. Barrick Gold Corp., the largest gold producer by market value, advanced 1 percent to C$17.61.

Pan American Silver Corp. rose 5.1 percent to C$11.34. The company will buy back up to 5 percent of its stock, or about 7.57 million shares, it said in a statement.

Air Canada, the best-performing stock in the S&P/TSX this year, surged 5.7 percent to C$7.56, highest since June 2008, as industrial stocks jumped 0.6 percent for the biggest gain in the benchmark equity gauge. Air Canada has soared 332 percent this year.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. increased 0.7 percent to C$161.89, a record high, after hiring Bart Demosky as the company’s chief financial officer. Demosky served as CFO at Suncor Energy Inc. Suncor, Canada’s largest oil producer, rose 0.3 percent to C$36.42.

Atrium Innovations soared 23 percent to C$24.25, a record gain. Permira will own 75 percent of Atrium, paying C$24 a share, valuing the company at about C$751 million.

USA

By Aubrey Pringle

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell as investors sold shares in the final half hour of a shortened trading session, erasing earlier gains fueled by a rally in online retailers amid Black Friday sales.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. fell 3 percent after Australia blocked a A$2.2 billion ($2 billion) takeover of GrainCorp Ltd.

EBay Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. gained at least 1.8 percent. Best Buy Co. and Coach Inc. advanced more than 1.4 percent as retailers opened their doors to holiday shoppers. Apple Inc. rose 1.9 percent after a report showed the company sold three of every four smartphones in Japan last month.

The S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent to 1,805.81, reversing an earlier gain of as much as 0.4 percent. The gauge advanced 0.1 percent for the week, extending its winning streak to eight weeks, the longest since 2004. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 10.92 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,086.41 today. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 8.9 percent below the 30-day average. U.S. markets were closed yesterday for the Thanksgiving holiday and trading ended at 1 p.m. today.

“It’s very light trading,” John Manley, who helps oversee $233.6 billion as chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Funds Management in New York, said in a phone interview. The Friday after Thanksgiving is “going to be subject to light volume.”

The S&P 500 rose 2.8 percent for the month. The benchmark gauge has climbed 27 percent in 2013, poised for its best year since 1998, and the Dow has gained 23 percent after the Federal Reserve refrained from tapering its third round of economic stimulus.

Minutes of the last Fed meeting released on Nov. 20 showed that officials are considering scaling back their $85 billion in monthly bond purchases “in coming months” if the economy improves as anticipated. Four out of five investors expect the Fed to delay a decision to begin reducing the stimulus until March 2014 or later, according to a Bloomberg Global Poll on Nov. 19.

Central bank bond purchases have helped push the S&P 500 up 167 percent from a bear-market low in 2009. Fed policy makers have been scrutinizing data to determine whether the economy is strong enough to withstand a reduction in stimulus.

Investors are awaiting reports on manufacturing and home sales next week, and the November release of non-farm payrolls on Dec. 6. Janet Yellen, who will replace Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Fed, has said she will ensure monetary stimulus isn’t removed too soon to support economic recovery in the U.S.

“There’s going to be a very sharp eye on the incoming economic data, with the economy really being important to the next steps for the Fed and the markets,” Gary Flam, managing director and portfolio manager at Los Angeles-based Bel Air Investment Advisors LLC, said by phone. Bel Air manages $7 billion in assets.

A report today showed euro-area unemployment unexpectedly declined in October, the latest indication that the bloc’s recovery is gaining traction. Separate data yesterday showed economic confidence in the euro region improved more than economists forecast to a 27-month high in November.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 5.5 percent today to 13.7. The gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX declined 0.4 percent for November.

Eight of 10 main industry groups in the S&P 500 slid today, with telephone stocks falling the most. Airlines lost 1.2 percent as a group. Southwest Airlines Co. fell 1.9 percent to $18.59 and US Airways Group Inc. sunk 2.1 percent to $23.48.

ADM dropped 3 percent to $40.25. Australia’s rejection of the agricultural commodities producer’s takeover prompted a record 22 percent drop in GrainCorp, the biggest crop handler on Australia’s east coast, and a slide in the local currency.

“This proposal has attracted a high level of concern from stakeholders and the broader community,” Treasurer Joe Hockey said today, ruling U.S.-based ADM’s bid of A$12.20 a share isn’t in the national interest. “Now is not the right time for a 100 percent foreign acquisition of this key Australian business.”

Technology companies gained 0.5 percent, the most among S&P 500 groups. EBay rose 2.5 percent to $50.52 and Amazon.com jumped 1.8 percent to $393.62. Online sales are projected to climb as much as 15 percent to $82 billion during the holidays, more than three times faster than the total gain of 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.

Apple rose 1.9 percent to $556.07. The company accounted for 76 percent of smartphone sales in Japan last month after the country’s largest carrier, NTT Docomo Inc., began offering the iPhone, market researcher Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said yesterday.

Retailers climbed 0.3 percent, the second-biggest gain among 24 groups in the S&P 500. Best Buy rose 2.4 percent to $40.55 and Coach jumped 1.4 percent to $57.90. Gap Inc. and Tiffany & Co. advanced, while Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. fell after erasing earlier gains.

Millions of Americans will hit the malls today for Black Friday. The cost of hedging against losses in U.S. retailers has slipped to the lowest level in more than three years as investors speculate that an improving labor market and falling gas prices will stimulate holiday sales.

U.S. retail sales climbed at a faster-than-expected pace in October, a measure of consumer sentiment beat estimates this month and jobless claims fell to their lowest since September last week, signaling a strengthening U.S. economy. Gasoline prices are near their lowest since February 2011, while house prices are climbing at the fastest rate since 2006.

Sales are projected to advance 2.4 percent this holiday, the smallest increase since 2009, the year the recession ended, according to researcher ShopperTrak. Faced with six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than last year, retailers are pouring on the discounts to lure customers. Many chains opened earlier than ever this year to win market share.

“The general mood is that we’re going to have growth this year in terms of holiday season shopping, though probably less than before the crisis,” Aaron Izenstark, co-founder and chief investment officer of Iron Financial LLC’s Iron Strategic Income Fund in Northbrook, Illinois, said by phone. “There is an expectation in the market that it has started out on a positive note, so I do think that is definitely driving thoughts today in the marketplace.”

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Find the Unique and possess the Whole.

This truly is our highest, most sublime privilege.

It is in the law of this unity that is, as long as we understand it,

our immutable force.  Its living principle is the force that resides in truth –

Truth is one.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Once the game is over, the king and pawn go back into the same box.

-Italian Saying.

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

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:

I love this – especially  “make each day your masterpiece”.

John Wooden’s Seven Point Creed, given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammar school:

• Be true to yourself.
• Make each day your masterpiece.
• Help others.
• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
• Make friendship a fine art.
• Build a shelter against a rainy day.
• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Photos of the day

Burial Hill in Plymouth is one of the oldest cemeteries in the US. English settlers, the Pilgrims, built their first fort and meeting house on this hill. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

School groups walk through the English Village at Plimoth Plantation. The ‘First Thanksgiving’ was celebrated by the Pilgrims in Plimoth after their first harvest in the New World in 1621. This feast lasted three days, and was attended by about 53 Pilgrims and 90 American Indians. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

A statue of Massasoit, Sachem, or leader, of the Wampanoags, stands on a hill overlooking Plymouth Harbor. Massasoit was known as ‘Protector and Preserver of the Pilgrims.’ According to English sources, Massasoit prevented the failure of the Plymouth Colony and the almost certain starvation that the Pilgrims faced during the earliest years of the colony’s establishment. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Market Closes for November 28^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16097.33	Closed
S&P 500	1807.23	Closed
NASDAQ	4044.750	Closed
TSX	13370.83	+8.77
		+0.07%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15727.12	+277.49
		+1.80%
HANG  SENG	23789.09	-17.26
		-0.07%
SENSEX	20534.91	+114.65
		+0.56%
FTSE 100	6654.47	+5.00
		+0.08%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.537	2.549
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.140	3.145
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7373	2.7373
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8150	3.8150

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94447	0.94384
US   $	1.05880	1.05951
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.44028	0.69431
US  $	1.36030	0.73513

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1242.48	1237.73
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.30	92.30
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a second day as gold producers advanced after the metal snapped two days of losses. DHX Media Ltd. surged after agreeing to buy several television channels from BCE Inc.

DHX Media jumped 24 percent after buying Family Channel, Disney XD and other channels from Bell Media, a unit of BCE, for about C$170 million ($161 million) in cash. Detour Gold Corp. climbed 14 percent and Iamgold Corp. rose 2.7 percent. Air Canada, the best-performing stock in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index this year, added 2.1 percent for a second day of gains.

The S&P/TSX rose 8.77 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 13,370.83 at 4:33 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 7.5 percent this year. U.S. markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Gold’s been down the past few days so it’s rebounded a bit today, as the U.S. dollar is down,” said Anish Chopra, a fund manager with TD Asset Management Inc. in Toronto. He helps manage C$216 billion at the firm. “U.S. markets are a real driver of market activity and when they’re closed it’s usually a very quiet day.”

Raw-materials stocks added 0.9 percent as a group as six of 10 industries advanced in the S&P/TSX. Trading volume was 73 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Detour Gold, the worst-performing stock in the S&P/TSX this year, jumped 14 percent to C$4.13, the most since July. Detour has slumped 83 percent this year.

Iamgold advanced 2.7 percent to C$4.53 as gold for immediate delivery increased 0.5 percent at 4:55 p.m. in London.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest diversified miner by market value, gained 2.8 percent to C$25.95 and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. rallied 3.8 percent to C$17.93 to break four days of losses as global copper inventories declined for a 19th session to 429,200 tons.

DHX Media, the Halifax-based TV and movie programming producer, surged 24 percent to a record high of C$5.19 after agreeing to buy channels from BCE.

The company plans to pay using a combination of debt and cash on hand, and projects the deal to close in 2014 pending regulatory approval.

The channels will “greatly expand the scale of our business,” Dana Landry, chief financial officer at DHX, said in a statement. The channels would have increased DHX’s revenue by more than 70 percent in the past 12 months, Landry said.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., the convenience store and gas bar operator, rose 1.5 percent to C$77.96 to extend a record high and pace gains among consumer staples stocks.

Couche-Tard has jumped 6 percent in the past five days. The Laval, Quebec-based company reported better-than-forecast second-quarter adjusted earnings and raised its quarterly dividend on Nov. 26.

Output in Canada probably grew at an annualized pace of 2.4 percent in the third quarter, its fastest pace in two years, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Statistics Canada will release quarterly and monthly GDP figures tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. in Ottawa.

Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline, increased 2.1 percent to C$7.15 to extend a five-year high. The stock has soared 309 percent this year.

USA

Markets closed for Thanksgiving.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed.

I want the cultures of all the lands to blow about my house as freely as possible.

But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

A moment’s insight is worth a lifetime

of experience.

-Justice Holmes, 1841-1935.

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

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:

American Thanksgiving tomorrow and the financial world stands still.

Kitchen Chemistry: For the chemistry involved in creating holiday food, the American Chemical Society’s web site offers a collection of articles and videos discussing everything from why it’s safe to cook turkey for less time to the science behind thickening gravy.  Check it out at http://bit.ly/thanksscience.

Photos of the day

A male cardinal feeds on sunflower seeds at Frances Slocum State Park in Wyoming, Pa. Mark Moran/The Citizens’ Voice/AP

Colorful holiday lights glow from under the glass domes of the US Botanic Garden, with orange streaks from a passing city bus, on Capitol Hill in Washington. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Market Closes for November 27^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16097.33	+24.53    +0.15%
S&P 500	1807.23	+4.48    +0.25%
NASDAQ	4044.750	+27.001    +0.67%
TSX	13362.06	+12.29
		+0.09%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15449.63	-65.61
		-0.42%
HANG  SENG	23806.35	+125.07
		+0.53%
SENSEX	20420.26	-4.76
		-0.02%
FTSE 100	6649.47	+13.25
		+0.20%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.549	2.522
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.145	3.111
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7373	2.7077
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8150	3.7982

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94384	0.94855
US   $	1.05951	1.05424
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.43844	0.69520
US  $	1.35765	0.73649

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1237.73	1242.81
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.30	93.68
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Aubrey Pringle

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, after falling the most in two months yesterday, amid an unexpected increase in U.S. consumer confidence and a decline in U.S. jobless claims.

Novagold Resources Inc. jumped 7.9 percent, pacing gains among raw-materials producers. Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. and Lightstream Resources Ltd., both oil exploration companies, dropped at least 1.4 percent amid a report showing U.S. crude stockpiles continued to increase. Trinidad Drilling Ltd. fell 5.3 percent after reporting its plan to raise C$150 million ($142 million) through a stock sale.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 12.29 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,362.06 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge is little changed for the month, and up 7.5 percent so far in 2013. Trading volume today was 21 percent below the 30-day average.

“Any sort of data that points to consumers being more willing to spend is a positive for the markets,” Jeff Young, chief investment officer at NexGen Financial Corp., said in a phone interview. The Toronto-based firm manages about C$950 million. “If the consumer is more confident and starts to spend more, that translates into higher revenues for companies.”

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of U.S. consumer sentiment in November unexpectedly rose to 75.1 from 73.2 a month earlier. Fewer Americans than projected filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the labor market is showing resilience.

Seven of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX advanced, led higher by raw-materials producers. The group added 0.8 percent, halting a five-day losing streak. Novagold Resources surged 7.9 percent to C$2.45, it’s biggest increase since Oct. 17, and Detour Gold Corp. rose 4 percent to C$3.63.

Iamgold Corp. added 2.1 percent to C$4.41, rebounding from a 4.2 percent slide yesterday. The company said it will build a 5-megawatt solar farm in Suriname to minimize energy costs. The project will cost as much $14 million and start producing energy in the third quarter of next year, Toronto-based Iamgold said.

Industrial stocks added 0.6 percent, as Air Canada rose 1.9 percent to C$7, its highest since June 2008. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. added 1 percent to C$161.18 and Canadian National Railway Co. climbed 1 percent to C$118.61.

Energy companies retreated for a third day, as the price of oil fell to the lowest level in almost six months after government data showed U.S. crude stockpiles climbed for a 10th week. Oil is Canada’s biggest export, while the U.S. is its largest trading partner.

Canadian Oil Sands fell 1.6 percent to C$19.81, while Lightstream Resources dropped 1.4 percent to C$5.41.

Trinidad Drilling fell 5.3 percent to C$9.92. The company plans to sell 15 million shares at C$10 each and use the proceeds to finance capital expenses and for general corporate purposes.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. lost 3.4 percent to C$17.28 for its eighth retreat in nine sessions. The company said today it “strongly disputed” a claim by noteholders that a default has occurred on bonds issued by Inmet Mining Corp., a company it bought this year.

Slower growth in consumer debt and a cooler housing market will allow the Bank of Canada to wait until early 2015 to raise interest rates as it waits for a pick-up in exports, the International Monetary Fund said.

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz last month abandoned his bias to raise interest rates and issued a monetary policy report that said a forecast increase in exports and business investment had been delayed. Canada’s inflation was an annual 0.7 percent in October, Statistics Canada said Nov. 22, below the bottom of the central bank’s target band.

Policy makers “should remain focused on sustaining growth until the rotation to exports and business investment gains firmer momentum, while assuring that the gradual unwinding of domestic imbalances continues and that the fiscal position is maintained on a sustainable trajectory,” the IMF said today.

USA

By Lu Wang and Aubrey Pringle

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) —  U.S. stocks rose, extending a third monthly gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as Hewlett- Packard Co. led a technology rally while data on employment and consumer confidence boosted optimism in the economy.

Hewlett-Packard jumped 9.1 percent after the maker of personal computers posted revenue and profit that topped analysts’ estimates. Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. rose at least 3.4 percent, leading a rally among refiners.

Schlumberger Ltd. and Noble Energy Inc. fell at least 1.7 percent as crude slid to the lowest level in almost six months.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to a record 1,807.23 at 4 p.m.

in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 24.53 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,097.33, an all-time high. About 4.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the slowest trading since Aug. 26. U.S. equity markets will be closed tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Today’s data “is in some sense a re-affirmation that things are going along pretty decently,” Bill Schultz, chief investment officer who oversees about $1.1 billion at McQueen Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said by phone.

“Are we going to get higher rates again? Is tapering still out there? The market is playing with what’s going to come next and how we position going forward given a number of uncertainty still sitting out there.”

The S&P 500 has climbed 2.9 percent in November as data on housing and retail sales exceeded economists’ forecasts, stoking optimism that the world’s largest economy will sustain growth when the Federal Reserve starts reducing its monetary stimulus.

Data today showed fewer Americans than projected filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the labor market is showing resilience. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment in November unexpectedly rose to 75.1 from 73.2 a month earlier.

The median forecast of 65 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 73.1 after a preliminary reading of 72.

The Conference Board’s index of U.S. leading indicators, a gauge of the economic outlook for the next three to six months, rose for a fourth straight month in October, reflecting gains in factory orders and applications to begin new-home construction.

A separate report showed government shutdown hurt business confidence, with orders for U.S. durable goods dropping 2 percent in October, as projected by economists. The MNI Chicago Report business barometer fell less than expected in November.

“Things are slowly improving, confidence is coming back,” Eric Marshall, who oversees $1.5 billion as president and portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas, said in a phone interview. “Stocks may still be attractive relative to where the interest rate environment is now. Going forward, we can still get a little more multiple expansion, but not much. The real driver for stocks will be earnings.”

The S&P 500 has rallied 27 percent this year, heading for the biggest annual gain since 1998, as the Fed continued the pace of monetary stimulus. The rally pushed equity valuations near their highest level since the end of 2009, with the benchmark gauge trading for about 16.3 times its companies’ projected earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three rounds of Fed bond purchases have helped push the S&P 500 up 167 percent from a bear-market low in 2009. Fed policy makers have been scrutinizing data to determine whether the economy is strong enough to withstand a reduction in their $85 billion a month in bond purchases.

Four out of five investors expect the Fed to delay a decision to begin reducing the stimulus until March 2014 or later, according to a Bloomberg Global Poll on Nov. 19.

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economy probably will grow more slowly next year than some forecasters predict and indicated that a near-record U.S. stock market isn’t in a bubble.

“This does not have the characteristics, as far as I’m concerned, of a stock market bubble,” Greenspan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “It could come out that way but I don’t see it at this stage.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, rose 1.1 percent today to 12.95. The gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX is down 28 percent this year.

Eight of 10 S&P 500 industry groups gained as technology companies rose the most, climbing 1 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.7 percent for a fifth straight gain, after yesterday closing above 4,000 for the first time in 13 years.

Hewlett-Packard surged 9.1 percent to $27.36, the highest since February 2012. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman got a boost in her turnaround efforts last quarter as businesses snapped up technology products. Results were buoyed by corporate demand for servers, personal computers and networking equipment.

Apple Inc. advanced 2.4 percent to $545.96, the highest level since January. The waiting time for the company’s iPhone 5S smartphones has shortened as Foxconn Technology Co. boosted production, the Wall Street Journal reported. Apple is shipping iPhone 5S within three to five business days, down from a two- to-three week wait last month, the report said, citing the company’s online stores in China and U.S.

Marathon Petroleum advanced 3.4 percent to $84.34 and Valero increased 3.7 percent to $45.97, as refiners rallied. The contract for West Texas Intermediate traded at the widest discount since March to Brent oil in London, indicating U.S. companies may be able to maintain favorable prices for crude.

Falling crude prices weighed on other energy companies, dragging the group down 0.7 percent for the worst performance among 10 S&P 500 industries. Oil slumped as much as 2 percent in New York to the lowest level since June 3 after government data showed U.S. crude stockpiles climbed for a 10th week.

Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services provider, declined 1.7 percent to $87.95. Noble Energy sank 4.5 percent to $69.87.

Analog Devices slipped 2.8 percent to $48.54. Adjusted earnings will be between 44 cents and 52 cents a share in the first quarter, the company said in a statement. That compares with the average analyst projection of 56 cents.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Never under any circumstances ask “how.”

When you use the word “how” you really want someone to tell you what to do,

some guide, some system, someone to lead you by the hand so that you lose your freedom,

your capacity to observe, your own activities, your own thoughts, your own way of life.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Here’s a new day.  O pendulum

move slowly.

-Harold Monro, 1879-1932.

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

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:

An inspiring story for you from today’s Wall Street Journal:

A Pianist Who Survived Hitler Plays Today at 110

The world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor still plays Bach and Schubert.

By Caroline Stoessinger

That music can bring happiness is obvious. But is it also the key to a long life?

Pianist Artur Rubinstein retired from the concert stage after his 89th birthday. Mieczyslaw Horsowski played his final concert at age 99 and taught a lesson the week before he died in 2003, just one month before his 101st birthday. But the world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor, Alice Herz-Sommer, trumps both of these legendary artists.

On Tuesday, she turns 110. Ms. Herz-Sommer no longer plays Bach and Schubert at concert level. Some days, her arthritic fingers fail to cooperate. And she must rely on her prodigious musical memory, as she can no longer see to read a score. But the woman who made her debut as a soloist with the Czech Philharmonic before her 21st birthday in 1924 still plays.

Ms. Herz-Sommer was well on her way to an international career when the Nazis invaded Prague, the city of her birth, on March 15, 1939. Forbidden as a Jew from playing public concerts, she continued to practice long hours in her apartment until the day in July 1943 when she, her husband, Leopold Sommer, and Rafi, their 6-year-old son, were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Having heard rumors of concerts in the camp from Leopold, who worked for the Prague Jewish Community Organization, she faced the imprisonment with cautious optimism. “How bad can it be if we can make music?” she remembers thinking.

But from the moment she was herded inside the camp’s gates at age 40, Ms. Herz-Sommer confronted the horrific reality of life in Hitler’s waiting room for Auschwitz. Thousands disappeared, only to be replaced with new shipments of human cargo. In September 1944, Leopold was shipped to Auschwitz. She would never see her husband again.

Before Hitler came to power, it had been a common practice in Germany to hold concerts in factories. Many of the managers in the factories were elevated to positions of authority in the Nazi regime, and so encouraging music in the concentration camps must have seemed a logical step—even if it meant being entertained by musicians slated to be murdered.

“Once one commandant had a prisoner orchestra and concerts, others proudly followed suit,” Anita Lasker Wallfisch, the only cellist in the Girls’ Auschwitz Orchestra, once told me. The Nazis exploited the concerts for publicity, most prominently in a 1944 propaganda film, “Hitler Gives the Jews a City.”

Yet Jewish prisoners were forbidden to bring sheet music or instruments into Theresienstadt. The one piano used for concerts was in extremely poor condition, the buildings were unheated, and the Nazis rarely permitted rehearsals. But as best they could, the performers shared the eternal sounds of Mozart, Bach and Dvorak with those trapped in Hitler’s “model” camp. Ms. Herz-Sommer played more than 100 concerts during her 21 months in Theresienstadt for an audience of fellow prisoners.

“Music was our food,” Ms. Herz-Sommer has said often since those days. “Through music we were kept alive.” She greets visitors today in her tiny London flat with the same radiant smile that must have given much comfort to her fellow inmates as she performed.

After the war, Ms. Herz-Sommer fled the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia to raise Rafi, who had also survived the camp, in the new state of Israel. She eked out a living teaching there at the Music Academy of Jerusalem, before settling in England in 1986. Despite all she has endured, Ms. Herz-Sommer seems joyful when practicing piano or listening to classical music programs on the radio. “I think, no I am sure,” she says, “I am one of the happiest people in the world.”

Ms. Stoessinger, a pianist, is the author of “A Century of Wisdom: Lessons From the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer” (Spiegel & Grau, 2012).

Photos of the day

A murmuration of starlings flies over the town of Gretna, Scotland. The starlings visit the area twice a year in the months of November and February. Owen Humphreys/PA/AP

Salam, 5, an African lion, stands on the branches of a tree at the Ramt Gan safari near Tel Aviv, Israel. Tree-climbing lions are relatively uncommon and are best known for their populations in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park and Tanzania’s Lake Manyara national Park. Ariel Schalit/AP

Market Closes for November 26^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16072.80	+0.26    —
S&P 500	1802.75	+0.27    +0.01%
NASDAQ	4017.749	+23.176    +0.58%
TSX	13349.77	-122.45
		-0.91%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15515.24	-103.89
		-0.67%
HANG  SENG	23681.28	-3.17
		-0.01%
SENSEX	20425.02	-180.06
		-0.87%
FTSE 100	6636.22	-58.40
		-0.87%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.522	2.557
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.111	3.126
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7077	2.7328
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.7982	3.8239

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94855	0.94988
US   $	1.05424	1.05277
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.43038	0.69912
US  $	1.35678	0.73704

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1242.81	1249.12
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.68	93.92
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in two months, as gold producers dropped after Morgan Stanley cut its rating on Iamgold Corp. and Eldorado Gold Corp. and an investor sold shares of technology stock CGI Group Inc.

Iamgold and Eldorado Gold fell at least 4.2 percent. CGI Group declined 2.5 percent after investor Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec sold some of its shares. Detour Gold Corp. sank 7.4 percent for a seventh day of losses.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. rose 3 percent after reporting higher-than- estimated earnings and boosting its dividend.

Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia lost more than 1.4 percent to pace declines among lenders.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index retreated 122.45 points, or 0.9 percent, to 13,349.77 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, for its steepest slide since September. The benchmark equity gauge has dropped 0.9 percent this month to trim its 2013 advance to 7.4 percent.

“It’s the commodities sector that’s hurt the most today, and it’s a continuing trend that Canada has been out of favor,” said Ian Nakamoto, director of research with MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Inc. in Toronto. The firm manages about C$4.7 billion ($4.5 billion). “There’s uncertainty over energy in terms of Iran, and the potential for more supply is never good for a commodity. The mood and luster for gold just isn’t there.”

Raw-materials stocks slumped 1.4 percent as a group, the biggest decline in the S&P/TSX as nine of 10 industries retreated. Trading volume was 18 percent higher compared with the 30-day average at this time of the day.

Detour Gold sank 7.4 percent to C$3.49, the lowest close since December 2008. The stock has slumped 37 percent in the past seven days.

Chief Executive Officer Gerald Panneton resigned yesterday without providing a reason. He will be replaced by Paul Martin, the chief financial officer, on an interim basis. Detour Gold has plunged 86 percent this year.

Eldorado Gold fell 4.5 percent to C$6.11 and Iamgold lost 4.2 percent to C$4.32. The S&P/TSX Gold Index declined 2.3 percent, a four-month low.

Morgan Stanley reduced its ratings for Eldorado Gold to equal-weight, the equivalent of a hold, from overweight, and dropped Iamgold to underweight, the equivalent of a sell.

Gold for December delivery was little changed in New York.  The metal pared an earlier gain of as much as 1.3 percent after improving data on U.S. building permits and home prices.

Suncor Energy Inc. declined 1.8 percent to C$36.59 and Husky Energy Inc. lost 1.3 percent to C$29.89. Crude slipped 0.4 percent ahead of a report from the Energy Information Administration tomorrow that will probably say inventories rose 750,000 barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Iran on Nov. 24 agreed to curtail its nuclear activities in return for easing some sanctions on oil, auto parts, gold and precious metals.

CGI Group, the information-technology company that worked on the Obamacare health exchange software, fell 2.5 percent to C$39.70. Caisse de Depot, the Quebec pension fund, will sell 9.96 million shares of CGI Group to rebalance its investment portfolio.

As part of the transaction, CGI Group will buy back C$100 million worth of the shares, or about 25 percent of those sold by the pension fund.

Royal Bank, the nation’s largest lender, decreased 1.4 percent to C$70.51 and Bank of Nova Scotia tumbled 1.6 percent to C$65.42. The S&P/TSX Banks Index slumped 1.1 percent, the most since June.

Alimentation Couche-Tard, the convenience store operator, climbed 3 percent to a record C$76.17 after reporting second- quarter adjusted earnings of $1.32 a share compared with analysts’ estimates of $1.23. The company also raised its quarterly dividend to 10 Canadian cents a share from 8.75 cents.

Chorus Aviation Inc. surged 29 percent to C$3.52, a record gain, after an arbitration panel ruled in favor of the company’s Jazz Aviation unit in a dispute with Air Canada, the nation’s largest airline.  Air Canada, the top-performing stock in the S&P/TSX this year with a 293 percent advance, slipped 0.3 percent to C$6.87.

USA

By Lu Wang and Aubrey Pringle

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks pared gains in the final minutes of trading as investors rebalanced portfolios, offsetting a rally among homebuilders and technology shares. The Nasdaq Composite Index topped 4,000 for first time in 13 years.

Lennar Corp. and PulteGroup Inc. climbed at least 4.4 percent amid better-than-expected industry data. Apple rose 1.8 percent, pacing gains among technology companies. Tiffany & Co. jumped 8.7 percent after profit topped analysts’ estimates and the jeweler boosted its forecast. Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. rose 11 percent after Men’s Wearhouse Inc. offered to buy the apparel company for about $1.54 billion. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. fell 5.4 percent as the gaming company said it bought back all 12 million shares held by Icahn Group.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained less than 1 point to 1,802.75 after earlier rising as much as 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed at 16,072.80. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.6 percent to 4,017.75, the highest close since September 2000. About 6.1 billion shares changed hands, in line with the three-month average.

“We’ve been riding a pretty good wave of momentum that’s taken the market higher than most people had expected at the beginning of the year,” Jeff Layman, chief investment officer of BKD Wealth Advisors in Springfield, Missouri, said by phone.

His firm has $2.4 billion under management. “Much of that has been driven by multiple expansion, not underlying earnings growth. As we close out this year and get into 2014, that dynamic will probably change. We think it’ll be a return to focus on earnings growth.”

Stocks trimmed gains in the final 30 minutes of trading as investors sold U.S. equities to mimic changes in MSCI indexes that took effect at the close.

Apple, Oracle Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. are among companies that face the biggest decrease in weighting in the MSCI review, according to Societe Generale SA.

The S&P 500 traded higher for most of today’s session, touching an intraday record of 1,808.42, as data showed the housing market sustained progress even as borrowing costs climbed.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values indicated home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose by the most since February 2006 in the 12 months through September. A Commerce Department report counted more applications for home construction issued in October than at any time in the past five years.

In a separate report, confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly declined in November to a seven-month low as Americans grew more pessimistic about the labor-market outlook.

“We’re tending to move in a positive direction,” Kate Warne, a St. Louis-based investment strategist at Edward Jones & Co., said by phone. Her firm oversees $746 billion. “We’re getting data in a sweet spot. It’s positive but not so positive as to raise worries about the Fed moving sooner and yet it continues to show that the economy is gaining some traction.”

Policy makers have been scrutinizing data to determine whether the economy is strong enough to withstand a reduction in their $85 billion a month in bond purchases.

Three rounds of Federal Reserve bond purchases have helped push the S&P 500 up more than 166 percent from a bear-market low in 2009. Four out of five investors expect the Fed to delay a decision to begin reducing the stimulus until March 2014 or later, according to a Bloomberg Global Poll on Nov. 19.

The S&P 500 has rallied 26.4 percent this year, challenging 2003 for the biggest annual gain since 1998, as economic data and corporate earnings have surpassed estimates. Companies in the gauge will report a 5.6 percent increase in profits for the current quarter and earnings will grow 9.9 percent next year, according to forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.

The index is trading for about 17 times its companies’ reported earnings. While the valuation is at the highest level since May 2010, it’s still below the multiples at the market’s two previous peaks, when the ratio reached 17.5 in October 2007 and 31 in March 2000, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index added 0.2 percent today to 12.81. The gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX is down 29 percent this year.

Three of 10 S&P 500 industries gained, with technology and consumer-discretionary companies climbing at least 0.4 percent.

Apple jumped 1.8 percent to $533.40, the highest since January. China Mobile Ltd.’s selling of iPhone will provide a tailwind to Apple’s 2014 earnings estimates, according to Peter Misek, an analyst with Jefferies LLC.

Shares of Apple trimmed an earlier gain of as much as 2.4 percent as investors anticipated MSCI changes. Exxon Mobil slipped 0.9 percent to $94.27 while Oracle added 0.4 percent to $34.93 after rising as much as 1.1 percent.

An S&P index of homebuilders surged 4.1 percent as all its 11 members gained. Lennar climbed 5.1 percent to $36.05.

PulteGroup advanced 4.4 percent to $18.95, the highest since July.

Tiffany rallied 8.7 percent to a record $88.02 for the biggest advance in the S&P 500. The world’s second-largest largest luxury jewelry retailer’s profit climbed and it boosted its annual earnings forecast as the rising U.S. stock market gave wealthy consumers the confidence to snap up higher-priced merchandise.

Jos. A. Bank jumped 11 percent to $56.29 and Men’s Warehouse added 7.5 percent to $50.60. Men’s Wearhouse is turning the tables on Jos. A. Bank, which last month made an unsolicited $2.3 billion offer for its larger rival. Men’s Wearhouse rejected that bid, saying it undervalued the company, and the offer expired after a Nov. 14 deadline.

Hormel Foods Corp., the maker of Spam and Jennie-O turkeys, advanced 5.9 percent to a record $44.95 after the company reported quarterly earnings that beat analysts’ estimates and boosted its dividend to 20 cents a share, up from 17 cents.

Workday Inc. surged 13 percent to $82.60 after the maker of online human-resources software said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of as much as $138 million, exceeding the average analyst projection for $129 million.

Take-Two Interactive dropped 5.4 percent to $16.01. The maker of the “Grand Theft Auto” games bought the shares at yesterday’s closing price of $16.93. The New York-based company also said Icahn representatives Brett Icahn and Nelson Cho have resigned from its board. Icahn Group was Take Two’s largest shareholder.

Hewlett-Packard Co. slipped 0.9 percent to $25.09. After the market’s close, the company reported quarterly revenue and profit that topped analysts’ estimates, boosted by corporate demand for servers, computers and networking equipment. The stock jumped 6.6 percent to $26.75 in extended trading.

Utilities dropped 1 percent for the worst performance among 10 S&P 500 industries. CenterPoint Energy Inc. slumped 5.2 percent to $23.58 and OGE Energy Corp. fell 6.9 percent to $35.32. The utility owners and partner ArcLight Capital Partners LLC said they plan to raise about $500 million next year in an initial public offering of Enable Midstream Partners LP.

Nuance Communications Inc. tumbled 18 percent to $13.10, the lowest in more than four years, after projecting full-year sales that missed analysts’ forecasts. The maker of speech- recognition software said it expects full-year 2014 adjusted revenue of $2.03 billion to $2.09 billion. Analysts on average had estimated $2.1 billion.

The S&P 500 will probably fall 10 percent in the next 12 months before rebounding to end 2014 at 1,900, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The 1,900 forecast implies about a 5 percent advance from today’s level. The 25 months since the index’s last 10 percent drop is the longest stretch without such a decline since 2007, according to S&P.

“It will be less smooth sailing,” David Kostin, the bank’s chief U.S. equity strategist, said on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers” program. “The likelihood is we will have something that will prompt a reduction — a retreat in the market. But overall the market should be rising, and that’s because the U.S. economy will be getting better.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

To grow is to go beyond what you are today.

Stand up as yourself.  Do not imitate.

Do not pretend to have achieved your goal, and do not try to cut corners.

Just try to grow.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul

on fire.

-Ferdinand Foch, 1851-1929.

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

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:

A Navajo Song, expressing the harmony of nature:

In beauty may I walk

From the Navajo

translated by Jerome K. Rothenberg

In beauty                                               may I walk

All day long                                            may I walk

Through the  returning seasons                may I walk

Beautifully will I possess again

Beautifully birds

Beautifully joyful birds

On the trail marked with pollen                may I walk

With grasshoppers about my feet             may I walk

With dew about my feet                          may I walk

With beauty                                           may I walk

With beauty before me                            may I walk

With beauty behind me                           may I walk

With beauty above me                            may I walk

With beauty all around me                      may I walk

In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty,

lively, may I walk

In old age, wandering

It is finished in beauty

It is finished in beauty

**********************************************

On this day in 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter opened and entered King Tut’s tomb for the first time in more than 3000 years.

Also on this day in 1952, Agatha Christie’s, The Mousetrap, the longest continuously running play in history, opened in London.

Photos of the day

A visitor looks at the art work titled ‘Dinosaur Skeleton,’ which is constructed out of 80,020 Lego bricks, during the ‘The Art of the Brick’ exhibition at the Brussels Stock Exchange. The exhibition features large Lego art works by US Lego artist Nathan Sawaya. Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Munich’s town hall is illuminated during the Christmas market at dusk before the official lighting of the Christmas tree. The first official record of this pre-Christmas market dates back to 1628. Michael Dalder/Reuters

Market Closes for November 25^th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16072.54	+7.77    +0.05%
S&P 500	1802.48	-2.28    -0.13%
NASDAQ	3994.574	+2.924    +0.07%
TSX	13478.66	+0.32
		—

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15619.13	+237.41
		+1.54%
HANG  SENG	23684.45	-11.83
		-0.05%
SENSEX	20605.08	+387.69
		+1.92%
FTSE 100	6694.62	+20.32
		+0.30%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.557	2.574
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.126	3.147
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7328	2.7427
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8239	3.8292

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.94988	0.95103
US   $	1.05277	1.05149
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.42451	0.70199
US  $	1.35328	0.73894

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1249.12	1243.63
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.92	94.49
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for the first time in three sessions as oil slid after Iran and world powers reached an interim accord on the country’s nuclear program.

Detour Gold Corp., the worst-performing stock in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index this year, plunged 12 percent after its chief executive officer resigned. Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. sank 17 percent to a 10-year low after saying second-quarter gold production was lower than previously reported. BlackBerry Ltd. gained 1.4 percent after the smartphone maker announced the departures of three top executives.

The S&P/TSX fell 6.12 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,472.22 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge has risen 8.4 percent this year, the third-worst performer among developed markets, ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore.

“People are sitting on the fence, waiting to see whether some of the economic indicators turn more positive,” said David Cockfield, fund manager with Toronto-based Northland Wealth Management. The firm manages about C$225 million ($213.2 million). “There’s not enough enthusiasm on the other side of the market to drive things higher.”

Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear activities and in return won an easing of “certain sanctions” on oil, auto parts, gold and precious metals. The deal was announced yesterday after five days of talks in Geneva.

Energy stocks sank 0.4 percent as a group, one of five industries to decline among 10 in the S&P/TSX. Trading volume was 15 percent above the the 30-day average at this time of the day.

Suncor Energy Inc. decreased 1.9 percent to C$37.24 and Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. slipped 1.1 percent to C$20.15. Crude for January delivery retreated 0.8 percent to settle at $94.09 a barrel in New York for a second day of declines.

Detour Gold plunged 12 percent to C$3.77, the lowest since December 2008. Gerald Panneton, who had served as CEO since 2006, resigned and will be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Paul Martin on an interim basis while the board looks for a replacement.

Detour Gold faces “near-term challenges,” Michael Kenyon, the executive chairman, said in a statement. The stock has slumped 85 percent this year, the worst performer in the benchmark equity gauge.

Kirkland Lake Gold sank 17 percent to C$2.54, the lowest close since April 2003. The gold mining company, which is developing a project at Kirkland Lake, Ontario, said it produced 31,387 ounces of gold at the site in the second quarter, short of a Nov. 13 report of 34,935 ounces.

The correction came after a review of inventory procedures and mill protocols, the company said in a statement.

BlackBerry, the Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker, added 1.4 percent to C$6.60. The company said Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka has been replaced by James Yersh, while Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear and Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben are leaving the company.

Bidulka will stay on as a special adviser to Chief Executive Officer John Chen for the rest of the fiscal year, BlackBerry said in a statement. Chen took over BlackBerry on Nov. 4 after previous CEO Thorsten Heins stepped down following a failed attempt by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. to acquire the company.

Sears Canada Inc. added 1.9 percent to C$18.25, the highest close since June 2011. A Sears spokesman said a New York Post report yesterday that Eddie Lampert, CEO of Sears Holdings Corp., was looking to sell Sears Canada was false.

Martinrea International Inc., a metal parts maker based in Vaughan, Ontario, slid 8.8 percent to C$8.39 for a fourth day of losses. The company on Nov. 22 said it had received a reply and statement of defense from Nat Rea, former vice chairman of Martinrea, and plans to respond in a filing this week.

The company has filed a counterclaim against an earlier lawsuit from Rea in September alleging breach of fiduciary duties by some directors and officers of the company related to transactions involving certain suppliers. The claims have not been proven in court.

USA

By Lu Wang

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell, after seven consecutive weekly gains that lifted the gauge to a record, as energy shares retreated following Iran’s agreement to limit its nuclear program.

Schlumberger Ltd. and Noble Corp. declined more than 3.2 percent as crude oil slipped. An index of airlines reached an almost seven-year high amid optimism fuel costs may drop. Alcoa Inc. climbed 3.8 percent and Caterpillar Inc. rose 1.8 percent after analysts recommended buying the shares.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.1 percent to 1,802.48 at 4 p.m. in New York, erasing earlier gains of as much as 0.2 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 7.77 points, or 0.1 percent, to an all-time high of 16,072.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.1 percent to 3,994.57, after briefly surpassing 4,000 for the first time since September 2000. About 5.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, about 7.8 percent below the three-month average.

“The market is not necessarily over-extended, but probably moderately rich,” Cam Albright, director of asset allocation at the investment advisory unit of Wilmington Trust, said by phone from Wilmington. The firm oversees about $79 billion. “It’s probably difficult to envision this market getting a lot more upside unless it has this continued success on earnings and economic growth. The deal with Iran takes some of the risk premium out of the marketplace for the moment at least.”

Iran agreed yesterday to curtail nuclear activities in return for easing of some sanctions on oil, auto parts, gold and precious metals, an accord that broke a decade-long deadlock.

The S&P 500 has rallied 26 percent this year, closing for the first time above 1,800 on Nov. 22, as the Federal Reserve continued to buy $85 billion of bonds a month to stimulate economic growth. The gauge is challenging 2003 for the best annual gain since 1998.

The index is trading for about 17 times its companies’ reported earnings. While the valuation reached the highest level since May 2010, it’s still below the multiples at the market’s two previous peaks, when the ratio reached 17.5 in October 2007 and 31 in March 2000, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Minutes from the latest Fed meeting indicated the central bank may reduce monetary stimulus in coming months. Four out of five investors expect the Fed to delay a decision to begin reducing the stimulus until March 2014 or later, according to the Bloomberg Global Poll of investors, traders and analysts who are subscribers. Just 5 percent are looking for a move at its Dec. 17-18 meeting, the Nov. 19 poll showed.

“The most bullish thing you could have is the Fed says, ‘Hey, we feel comfortable enough to step away,’” Warren Koontz, the co-manager of the Loomis Sayles Value Fund in Boston, said in a phone interview. Loomis Sayles & Co. manages about $191 billion. “The underpinning of the stock market is probably pretty good.”

The S&P 500 last week capped its longest winning streak since February as reports showed retail sales beat estimates and fewer Americans than expected filed for jobless benefits.

Data today from the National Association of Realtors showed pending home sales fell 0.6 percent in October, a fifth month of declines, amid higher borrowing costs. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 1 percent gain from the month before.

“The real strong rebound in housing that we saw between 2011 and the first quarter of this year has tapered off now,” Charlie Smith, chief investment officer of Pittsburgh-based Fort Pitt Capital Group Inc., said in a phone interview. His firm oversees $1.5 billion. “The question people have is, ‘Can the uptrend in housing be sustained by what classically has been growth in income and therefore the ability to get loans?’”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 4.3 percent today to 12.79. The gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX trimmed its 2013 decline to 29 percent.

Seven of the 10 main S&P 500 groups fell. Energy shares slumped 0.8 percent for the worst performance, as prices for crude, gasoline and heating oil fell following the interim deal with Iran.

Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services provider, dropped 3.2 percent to $89.81. Noble, an offshore rig contractor, slipped 4.1 percent to $37.94.

ADT Corp. slumped 5.8 percent to $41.46. The largest provider of home security agreed to buy back 10.2 million shares from Corvex Management LP for $44.01 each. Keith Meister, founder of Corvex, will resign from ADT’s board of directors.

The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index added 1.6 percent to the highest level since February 2007, on optimism a decline in fuel costs will help profit. Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 2 percent to a record $29.17 and United Continental Holdings Inc. gained 3.4 percent to $39.83.

Alcoa gained 3.8 percent to $9.59. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. upgraded the shares of the largest U.S. aluminum maker to buy from neutral. The brokerage said the stock may climb to $11.

“We believe that the market is not fully appreciating Alcoa’s solid position in growing value-added and high-margin aluminum products for the aerospace and automotive industries,” analysts Sal Tharani and Chelsea Bolton wrote.

Caterpillar added 1.8 percent to $84.40. Bank of America Corp. raised the world’s largest maker of mining equipment to buy from neutral, saying the power-systems business will help earnings next year.

Health-care companies rose the most among 10 S&P 500 industries, climbing 0.4 percent. Mylan Inc., a generic drugmaker, advanced 3.6 percent to $44.22. The stock has gained 11 of the past 12 sessions to close at a record. Biogen Idec Inc. increased 3.6 percent to $295.88.

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc., a provider of kidney care services, jumped 8.9 percent to $61.55 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. U.S. regulators scrapped a proposed 9.4 percent reduction in Medicare payments to dialysis providers.

Laszlo Birinyi, president of Birinyi Associates Inc., said the four-year bull market will keep going because optimism about the rally hasn’t overtaken concern about company earnings and valuations.

The lack of exuberance shows people aren’t fully invested and have money left to buy shares, according to Birinyi, one of the first money managers to advise clients to buy in 2009.

“We still haven’t heard the story about the barista in Starbucks who’s made a lot of money in the market,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart” with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson on Nov. 22. “We’re not there yet.”

Investors have added to options that provide protection in the event of a market plunge, based on the CBOE SKEW Index. The gauge uses the prices of short-term, out-of-the-money S&P 500 options to calculate the market’s perception of the probability for a tail-risk event.

The SKEW index rose to 137 on Nov. 18 as the Fed considered scaling back its bond-purchasing program and American lawmakers prepared for another round of budget talks.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Every day a man must solve the problem

of widening the field of his life and adjusting his burdens.

These are too complex and numerous for him to carry himself,

but he knows that by being methodical he can lighten the load.

When the burdens are too complicated and difficult to manage, he must understand the reason:

he has not found a system that will put everything in place and distribute the weight he carries more evenly.

The search for this system is actually the search for the whole, for synthesis;

it is our effort to create harmony, thanks to an interior adaptation,

in the heterogeneous complex of exterior material.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Willfully anticipating, in ignorance and in hope – this was how

most people lived.

-Jhumpa Lahiri, 1967-

The Lowland, 2013

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

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 poet, Robert Frost, recited his poem, The Gift Outright,  at John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s inauguration.  Caroline Kennedy wrote of that day , “By asking Frost to read that day, my father expressed his belief in the power of language and connected the inaugural ceremony to an enduring tradition of using poetry, in a sense, to sanctify an occasion.

A snowstorm had blanketed the Capitol the night before, but the morning was glistening bright.  When Frost stood to read the poem he had written for the occasion, the glare was so strong he couldn’t see the words on the page.  He recited ‘The Gift Outright’ from memory.  The contrast between his age and my father’s youth, the poet’s frailty and the power of his words gave the moment a special significance.

Three years later, at the dedication of a library named for Robert Frost, President Kennedy said, ‘The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power, or power uses us ….

When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.  When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence.  When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.  For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.’ ”

THE GIFT OUTRIGHT

–Robert Frost

The land was ours before we were the land’s.

She was our land more than a hundred years

Before we were her people.  She was ours

In Massachusetts, in Virginia,

But we were England’s, still colonials,

Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,

Possessed by what we now no more possessed.

Something we were withholding made us weak

Until we found out that it was ourselves

We were withholding from our land of living,

And forthwith found salvation in surrender.

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright

(the deed of gift was many deeds of war)

To the land vaguely realizing westward,

But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,

Such as she was, such as she would* become.

*At my father’s request, Robert Frost substituted “would” to “will”  when he spoke at the inauguration.  Frost did not recite his poetry.   Believing that poetry should capture the speech of the common man, he told people that he “said” his poems.  –Caroline Kennedy.

Photos of the day

Tourists are reflected in the ceiling of Anish Kapoor’s stainless steel Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Women made up as La Catrina, a popular figure in Mexico known as ‘The Elegant Skull,’ stand together while participating in the Catrina Festival in Saltillo. Daniel Becerril/Reuters

Market Closes for November 22^nd, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	16064.77	+54.78    +0.34%
S&P 500	1804.76	+8.91    +0.50%
NASDAQ	3991.649	+22.495    +0.57%
TSX	13478.34	+3.01
		+0.02

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15381.72	+16.12
		+0.10%
HANG  SENG	23696.28	+115.99
		+0.49%
SENSEX	20217.39	-11.66
		-0.06%
FTSE 100	6674.30	-7.03
		-0.11%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.574	2.623
CND.   30 Year Bond	3.147	3.196
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.7427	2.7842
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.8292	3.8875

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.95103	0.95059
US   $	1.05149	1.05198
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.42557	0.70148
US  $	1.35576	0.73760

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1243.63	1242.35
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	94.49	95.09
BRENT	109.360	109.360

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, paring earlier gains in the final minutes of trading that erased a weekly gain, as financial shares climbed amid higher-than-estimated consumer spending to offset declines among commodities producers.

Manulife Financial Corp. and Sun Life Financial Inc. each added 1.3 percent to lead insurers and banks higher. Bank of Montreal added 0.5 percent to a record. Pretium Resources Inc. surged 80 percent after saying gold recovered from an ore sample at its British Columbia project surpassed targets. Bombardier Inc. advanced 0.9 percent after reporting orders and commitments for as many as 38 aircraft from the Dubai Airshow.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 3.01 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 13,478.34 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, paring an earlier gain of as much as 0.3 percent. The benchmark equity gauge fell 4.23 points in the past five days and is up 8.4 percent this year.

“There’s nothing negative in the market so this is a slow plodding upward,” said Kevin Headland, a fund manager with Manulife Asset Management Ltd. in Toronto. The firm manages about C$248 billion ($235 billion). “There’s still room to buy, especially those that have missed the run-up, so there’s some end-of-year buying.”

Canadian retail sales rose more than three times faster than economists forecast in September on the biggest gain at new car dealerships in more than four years. Sales rose 1 percent to a record C$40.7 billion, according to a Statistics Canada report.

Gildan Activewear Inc. increased 2.7 percent to C$50.94, the most since Aug. 1. Tim Hortons Inc. gained 1.1 percent to C$62.82 as consumer discretionary stocks were little changed, paring an earlier advance.

Manulife, the nation’s largest insurer, gained 1.3 percent to C$20.37, the highest since April 2010. Sun Life Financial rose 1.3 percent to C$38.04 as financial stocks climbed 0.2 percent as a group. Five of 10 industries advanced in the S&P/TSX on trading volume 16 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Bank of Montreal, the nation’s fourth-largest bank, added 0.5 percent to C$74.01, a record high.

Pretium soared 80 percent to C$5.53, its biggest gain on record. The Vancouver-based company said it produced 4,215 ounces of gold from 8,090 metric tons of rock, ahead of a target of 4,000 ounces from its Valley of the Kings project in British Columbia.

Bombardier advanced 0.9 percent to C$4.72 to pace gains among industrial stocks. The plane and train maker’s shares have risen five of the past six sessions and are up 26 percent this year.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, lost 3.3 percent to C$17.21 and Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. retreated 4.3 percent to C$4.47 as gold for December delivery was little changed in New York. Prices yesterday tumbled to $1,235.80, the lowest since July 9.

Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. fell 1.4 percent to C$6.34 and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. dropped 1.3 percent to C$34.82 as crude for January delivery slid 0.6 percent in New York on rising inventories in the U.S.

“The softness in commodity prices were weighing on the TSX today,” said Youssef Zohny, portfolio manager with Stenner Investment Partners of Richardson GMP Ltd. in Vancouver. The firm manages about C$16 billion. “Investors are on hold until they see next month’s economic data.”

Martinrea International Inc., a maker of metal parts and assemblies in the automotive industry, slumped 13 percent, the most in four years, to C$9.20. The stock has plunged 18 percent in the past three days.

USA

By Nick Taborek

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, capping a seventh week of gains for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, after the pace of hiring increased and drugmakers rallied on favorable decisions by European regulators.

Health-care stocks in the S&P 500 jumped 1.2 percent as a group, led by Biogen Idec Inc. and Gilead Sciences Inc. Time Warner Cable Inc. surged 10 percent on renewed takeover speculation. United Continental Holdings Inc. climbed 3.9 percent after billionaire David Tepper said his “big play in the market” is airlines. International Business Machines Corp. slid 1.5 percent after billionaire Stan Druckenmiller said he’s shorting the shares.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.5 percent to a record 1,804.76 at 4 p.m. in New York. The advance pushed the U.S. equity benchmark to a 27 percent gain for the year, poised to be the biggest annual increase since 1998. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 54.78 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,064.77. About 5.6 billion shares changed hands in the U.S., 8 percent below the three-month average.

“I don’t see any reason why the market shouldn’t go up,”  Karyn Cavanaugh, a vice president and market strategist at ING U.S. Investment Management in New York, said in a phone interview. Her firm oversees $196 billion. “There’s not really any bad news. We have a little bit of a pullback and then people jump in and say, ’Hey, I want a piece of this.’”

The Dow advanced 0.6 percent this week, finishing its seventh straight weekly gain, the longest streak since January 2011. The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent during the past five days.

David Tepper, the hedge-fund manager who runs Appaloosa Management LP, said stock markets are not inflated as economies in the U.S., Europe and China are on “firm ground.” He said that while he remains bullish on U.S. stocks, markets may fall 5 percent to 10 percent when the Fed curbs its stimulus program.

“I know there’s talk about bubbles, this is not one,” Tepper said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Stephanie Ruhle at the Robin Hood Investors Conference in New York yesterday.

Job openings in the U.S. climbed to a five-year high in September, indicating employers were confident about demand before the federal government shutdown. The Labor Department report showed the number of people hired increased to 4.59 million in September, the most since August 2008, from 4.56 million. The hiring rate rose to 3.4 percent from 3.3 percent in August.

The S&P 500 rallied yesterday after three days of losses as data showed weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest level since September and a confidence survey indicated American consumers became less pessimistic this month.

“It’s hard to ignore all the tailwinds to this market,” Chris Bouffard, chief investment officer of the Mutual Fund Store in Overland Park, Kansas, which oversees $8.5 billion, said in a phone interview. “We’ve got low oil, that’s definitely helping consumers, especially going into the key holiday spending period. Buybacks and dividends are doing very well.”

Economic stimulus from the Fed has helped the S&P 500 soar 167 percent since its March 2009 low. The gauge traded for about 17 times its companies’ reported earnings at its last record on Nov. 15, the highest valuation since May 2010.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, slid 3.2 percent today to 12.26. The measure is down 32 percent this year.

Biogen Idec surged 13 percent to $285.62, the biggest gain in more than two years. The company’s multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera won designation as a “new active substance” in Europe, giving it added protection against generic copies and paving the way for approval there. The pill is projected to be the company’s top-seller by 2015.

Gilead rallied 3.7 percent to a record $74.27. The drug company received a positive recommendation for its hepatitis C treatment from the European Medicines Agency.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. climbed 6.3 percent to $293.68. An experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug the company is developing with Sanofi eased symptoms and damage caused by the disease in a clinical trial, advancing its prospects to compete in the market.

United Continental rose 3.9 percent to $38.54. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. also lifted its rating on the world’s biggest airline to buy from neutral.

Time Warner Cable jumped 10 percent to $132.92. Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. have discussed a joint bid for the company to divide its assets between them, people with knowledge of the matter said. The talks between Comcast and Charter were preliminary, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

Foot Locker Inc. rallied 4.1 percent to $38.27. The largest U.S. athletic shoe retailer posted third-quarter earnings of 68 cents a share, exceeding the average analyst estimate by 2 cents.

Ross Stores Inc. tumbled 5.7 percent to $75.67 for the biggest decline in the S&P 500. The retailer of discount designer wear lowered its forecast for fourth-quarter earnings to no more than $1.01 a share, after previously predicting as much as $1.03. That fell short of the average analyst estimate of $1.08.

Gap Inc. fell 1.3 percent to $41.31. The biggest U.S. specialty-apparel retailer maintained its annual profit forecast range, signaling that the holiday-shopping quarter may fall short of analysts’ estimates.

Intel Corp. lost 5.4 percent to $23.87. The world’s largest maker of semiconductors said revenue will be approximately unchanged in 2014. The company predicts the personal-computer market, measured by units, to be down in the “low single- digit” percent, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith said.

IBM fell 1.5 percent to $181.30. Stan Druckenmiller, who boasts one of the hedge-fund industry’s best long-term track records of the past three decades, said he’s betting against the shares because the company’s business will be replaced by technology such as cloud computing.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. slid 2.3 percent to $34.15. The retailer was cut to market perform from outperform at Wells Fargo Securities.

 

Have  a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

The phrase ‘to meditate’ does not only mean to examine, observe, reflect, question, weigh;

it also has, in the Sanskrit, a more profound meaning, which is ‘to become.’

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy

of growth.

-John f. Kennedy, 1917-1963

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7