Category: Newsletters

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Today when I found the first picture below, I smiled because we saw the first spring blossoms of the year just last Sunday!  Gary and I were walking downtown and I looked over to The Empress and a few of the trees were already in blossom; the rest are just about to blossom.

I finished reading a wonderful book last weekend that I want to share with you.  It is entitled The Secret Scripture; it is written by Sebastian Barry.  I agree with Thomas Cahill who writes that [this book contains] “some of the most beautifully formed prose passages I have ever read.”

Here is a sample, one of the passages I marked in the book:

“The room had a little bit of sideways spring sunlight, that seemed to have crept in through the window-glass with an almost apologetic delicacy.  A little square beam of it sat across Roseanne’s face.  Yes, she is very old.  Sunlight as always the most brutal measurer of age, but also, the most faithful painter.  I thought of the line from T.S. Eliot that we learned at school in England,

My life is like a feather on the back of my hand,

Waiting for the death wind.

It is spoken by Simeon, the man who wished to live long enough to see the newborn Messiah.  I do not think Roseanne is waiting for that.  I thought also of those self-portraits of Rembrandt van Rijn, so faithfully faithless to the idea of our own looks that we carry as an antidote against remorse….today was the day I opted myself for her silence, her privacy.  Because it strikes me there is something greater than judgement.  I think it is called mercy.”

Photos of the day February 5th, 2013

A cat sits on top of a tree in Kathmandu, Nepal. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

Workers check on electricity pylon situated amid farmlands in Chuzhou, Anhui province, China. A leading think tank of China predicted that China’s GDP will grow in 2013 at a rate of 8.4 percent, up by 0.6 percentage points from that of 2012, China Daily/Reuters

I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down. ― Abraham Lincoln.

Market Closes for February 5th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13979.30	+99.22    +0.71%
S&P 500	1511.29	+15.58    +1.04%
NASDAQ	3171.581	+40.415  +1.29%
TSX	12745.65	+28.03
		+0.22%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11046.92	-213.43
		-1.90%
HANG  SENG	23148.53	-536.48
		-2.27%
SENSEX	19659.82	-91.37
		-0.46%
FTSE 100	6282.76	+35.92
		+0.58%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.017	1.988
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.620	2.597
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9980	1.9548
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.2083	3.1599

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99558	0.99784
US   $	1.00444	1.00216
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.35229	0.73948
US  $	1.35830	0.73622

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1674.45	1674.45
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	96.64	96.17
BRENT	117.21	116.26

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Sarah Pringle

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, rebounding from yesterday’s retreat, as BlackBerry surged on signs of strong demand for its new phone and energy shares rallied amid a recovery in oil prices.

BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion, jumped 6.3 percent after wireless carrier BCE Inc. said the Z10 smartphone has attracted record orders. Energy producers rallied as oil rebounded 0.5 percent. Condor Petroleum Inc. surged 55 percent after announcing an oil discovery in Kazakhstan. WestJet Airlines Ltd. rose 3 percent as traffic and capacity levels increased in January.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 28.03 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,745.65 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark gouge dropped 0.4 percent yesterday and has gained 2.5 percent this year. Nine of 10 industries advanced today. About 791 million shares traded hands on Canadian exchanges today, or 4.2 percent above the three-month average.

“Canada is really trading on news that’s happening globally,” Anish Chopra, managing director and portfolio manager at TD Asset Management Inc., said in a phone interview.

The Toronto-based firm manages about C$204 billion ($205 billion). “There’s sort of a risk-on tone in Europe that has translated into a risk-on tone here in North America as well. People are just more optimistic.”

Global equities rebounded today after a slump yesterday sparked by renewed concern that Europe’s debt crisis will intensify. Italian, Spanish and Portuguese bonds recovered following losses yesterday. Data today showed service industries shrank less than initially estimated in Europe while growing more than economists forecast in the U.S. Energy producers contributed the most to gains in the S&P/TSX. Encana Corp., Canada’s largest natural gas producer, climbed 1.7 percent to C$19.37, and Suncor Energy Inc., the Calgary-based oil-sands producer, rose 0.6 percent to C$34.38.

Condor Petroleum surged 23 Canadian cents, the biggest gain since the company went public in April 2011, to 65 Canadian cents. Don Streu, Condor’s chief executive officer, said the company has about three weeks of drilling to go before it can evaluate the size of the discovery at the Kiyaktysai well in the Zharkamys West 1 territory in Kazakhstan.

Tethys Petroleum Ltd., which also has assets in Kazakhstan, jumped 20 percent to 73 Canadian cents, its highest level since September.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for March delivery rose 47 cents to settle at $96.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

BlackBerry jumped 95 Canadian cents to C$15.94, extending a two-day rally to 23 percent. BCE, Canada’s No. 2 carrier, said early orders for the Z10 have topped any previous BlackBerry model, while one Carphone Warehouse Group Plc outlet in the U.K., where the phone has been on sale since Jan. 31, sold out of the model in under half an hour, local staff said.

WestJet Airlines rose 66 Canadian cents to C$22.55. The low-fare airline reported a 6.4 percent increase in capacity for January. Its load factor, or percentage of seats filled with paying passengers, climbed to 80.9 percent for a seventh straight monthly record.

Raw material producers had the only decline among 10 S&P/TSX groups. Torex Gold Resources Inc. dropped 3.6 percent to C$1.90, and Silver Standard Resources Inc. slipped 1.7 percent to C$11.79. Gold futures for April delivery fell 0.2 percent to $1,673.50 an ounce on the Comex in New York.

CGX Energy Inc. tumbled 13 percent to 14 Canadian cents.

Repsol SA, Spain’s largest oil producer, and Toronto-based CGX plan to re-drill the Jaguar-1 well prospect off the coast of Guyana after abandoning the initial probe in July because of excessive well pressure.

US

By Inyoung Hwang and Leslie Picker

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, rebounding from the biggest loss of the year for benchmark indexes, as earnings topped forecasts and Dell Inc. agreed to be taken private in the largest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis.

All 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed at least 0.1 percent. Dell added 1.1 percent after Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management LLC agreed to buy the personal-computer maker. Computer Sciences Corp. jumped 9.2 percent after raising its earnings forecast for 2013.

McGraw-Hill Cos. plunged the most in the benchmark index after the company and its S&P unit were sued by the U.S. over mortgage-bond ratings.

The S&P 500 rose 1 percent to 1,511.29 at 4 p.m. in New York. The index sank 1.2 percent yesterday amid concern that the European debt crisis may intensify. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 99.22 points, or 0.7 percent, to 13,979.30 today.

More than 6.7 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 8.3 percent above the three-month average.

“There’s an underlying tidal wave,” Rob Morgan, who oversees $1 billion as chief investment strategist at McLean, Virginia-based Fulcrum Securities LLC, said by telephone. “When you do get a pullback, that’s an excellent time to put some money to work in the stock market,” he said. “If insiders are buying their stock, that’s a positive sign. Here’s the ultimate insider of Dell, basically buying a controlling stake.”

The S&P 500 has rallied 6 percent in 2013 as U.S. lawmakers reached a budget compromise and companies reported better-than- estimated earnings. The gauge is 3.4 percent below the record 1,565.15 it reached in October 2007. The Dow is 1.3 percent from its all-time high.

The benchmark gauge tumbled the most since Nov. 14 yesterday as Spanish Premier Mariano Rajoy faced opposition calls to resign and Deutsche Bank AG said this year’s rally in Italian and Spanish bonds may falter.

About 74 percent of the 291 companies from the gauge that have released results so far in the reporting season have exceeded profit projections, and 66 percent have beaten sales estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Walt Disney Co. and Expedia Inc. are among 27 companies in the S&P 500 that reported today.

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of U.S. non- manufacturing businesses, which covers about 90 percent of the economy, fell to 55.2 in January from the prior month’s 55.7, the Tempe, Arizona-based group said today. The median forecast of 76 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected 55. Readings above 50 signal expansion.

“It’s as if the water’s fine, so come on in,” Rex Macey, who oversees $20 billion as chief investment officer at Wilmington Trust Advisors in Atlanta, said by telephone. “We’re getting into a ‘buy on dips’ mentality as people try to increase their positioning.” He said on Dell, “These are indications that there’s long-term confidence in the economy and the markets.”

Consumer, financial, health-care and technology companies rose the most out of 10 S&P 500 groups, rallying at least 1 percent. Twenty-eight out of 30 stocks in the Dow increased. The KBW Bank Index of 24 U.S.-listed lenders added 1.6 percent to 54.90, a two-year high. Bank of America Corp. jumped 3.5 percent to $11.88. JPMorgan Chase & Co. gained 2.3 percent to $48.79.

Apple Inc. rallied 3.5 percent to $457.84 and Hewlett-Packard Co. surged 2.7 percent to $16.61.

Dell added 15 cents to $13.42. The world’s third-biggest maker of personal computers agreed to be purchased for $13.65 a share in a deal valued at $24.4 billion. That’s 25 percent more than the closing price of $10.88 on Jan. 11, the last trading day before Bloomberg News reported the discussions. Michael Dell is taking back majority control of the company he started almost three decades ago.

Computer Sciences gained the most in the S&P 500, adding $3.84 to $45.75. The technology contractor for governments and companies forecast earnings from continuing operations this year will be as much as $2.70 a share after previously projecting no more than $2.50.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. advanced 3.3 percent to $29.38.

The world’s largest corn processor reported earnings excluding inventory gains and other items exceeded analysts’ estimates by 2 cents a share, as its U.S. soybean-crushing operations ran at record capacity. Sales were $24.9 billion, exceeding the $22.7 billion average projection.

Estee Lauder Cos. jumped 6 percent to $64.71. The maker of Mac cosmetics and Clinique skin care lifted its profit forecast for the year to as much as $2.59 a share. The New York-based company previously estimated earnings would be no more than $2.56.

Zynga Inc. jumped 7 percent to $2.74. Bank of America raised its rating on the biggest maker of social games to buy from underperform.

BlackBerry surged 6.9 percent to $16.02. Thorsten Heins, chief executive officer of the company formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., said early sales of the Z10 smartphone are “encouraging” and that users are switching from other platforms. The Z10 smartphone has attracted record orders at Canadian wireless carrier BCE Inc. and analysts say sales are off to a strong start in the U.K.

McGraw-Hill plunged 11 percent to $44.92, adding to a 14 percent drop yesterday when the company said it expected the lawsuit. The U.S. is seeking as much as $5 billion in penalties from McGraw-Hill and S&P as punishment for inflated credit ratings that Attorney General Eric Holder said were central to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“Claims that we deliberately kept ratings high when we knew they should be lower are simply not true,” said Catherine Mathis, a company spokeswoman, in an e-mailed statement.

Moody’s Corp., owner of the second-largest ratings provider, dropped 8.8 percent for the second-biggest decline in the S&P 500 to $45.09. The shares lost 11 percent yesterday.

Yum! Brands Inc. slid 2.9 percent to $62.08. The owner of the KFC and Pizza Hut dining chains said profit will be less than it previously expected as a probe into its chicken suppliers hurt sales in China. Earnings excluding certain items will drop this year, compared with a previous estimate for growth of 10 percent, the company said late yesterday in a statement.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., the largest offshore rig contractor in the U.S., fell 3.8 percent to $73.58, after forecasting more downtime for its vessels in 2013 than analysts expected.

U.S. stocks will extend gains from a five-year high as corporate earnings increase and central banks maintain policies to stimulate economic growth, said Robert Doll, Nuveen Asset Management LLC’s chief equity strategist.

Interest rates near zero will lead investors to keep adding to equity funds, said Doll, who works at the Chicago-based firm that oversees $117 billion. He said he’s bullish on shares from the U.S. and emerging markets and concerned about European and Japanese equities.

“The fundamentals, meaning corporate earnings, macroeconomics, delay of problems in Washington, zero-percent return on cash, and monetary accommodation virtually everywhere in the world,” Doll said in a television interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene. “They’re the ingredients to me for stocks to go higher.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Do you live and work in the world?

Always act according to the highest moral standards, both in private and in public.

Always be honest in word and deed, both in private and in public.

Master your emotions and control your senses, both in private and in public.

Be calm and patient, both in private and in public.

Take every opportunity to serve others, both in private and in public.

Be kind and gentle to your children, both in private and in public.

Taittiriya Upanishad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Failure is success if we learn from it.

-Malcolm Forbes, 1919-1990

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:

February: the month of purification among the ancient Romans – Latin februum, meaning purgation.  The 2^nd of February is Candlemas Day, the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The Dutch used to call the month Spokkelmaand, meaning vegetation month.  The Anglo-Saxons knew it as solmonath, mud month.  In the French Revolutionary Calendar its equivalent from 21^st January to 19^th February was Pluviôse, meaning rain month.

Happy February everyone!

On this day in 1982, David Letterman’s late-night show premiered on NBC. –Steven Russolillo, WSJ, 02/01/13.

And also on this day in…

1920 – Canada’s Royal North West Mounted Police changed their name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The organization was commissioned in 1873.

1930 – The Times published its first crossword puzzle.

1951 – The first X-ray moving picture process was demonstrated.

1957 – P.H. Young became the first black pilot on a scheduled passenger airline.

1976 – “Sonny and Cher” resumed on TV despite a real life divorce.

1987 – Terry Williams won the largest slot machine payoff, at the time, when won $4.9 million after getting four lucky 7s on a machine in Reno, NV.

1996 – Visa and Mastercard announced security measures that would make it safe to shop on the Internet. 

Photos of the day February 1^st, 2013

A man holds an umbrella on a jetty at Lake Starnberg in Niederpoecking near Munich, southern Germany. Victoria Bonn-Meuser/AP

People photograph the Roman numerals for NFL Super Bowl XLVII as they are silhouetted against the morning sky Feb. 1, 2013, in New Orleans.Charlie Riedel/AP

Market Closes for February 1^st, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	14009.79	+149.21    +1.08%
S&P 500	1513.17	+15.06    +1.01%
NASDAQ	3179.098	+36.966    +1.18%
TSX	12768.83	+83.63
		+0.66%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11191.34	+52.68
		+0.47%
HANG  SENG	23721.84	-7.69
		-0.03%
SENSEX	19781.19	-113.79
		-0.57
FTSE 100	6347.24	+70.36
		+1.12

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	2.039	1.990
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.631	2.570
U.S.   10 Year Bond	2.0149	1.9849
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.2178	3.1719

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99642	0.99734
US   $	1.00359	1.00266
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.35994	0.73533
US  $	1.36482	0.73270

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1667.45	1663.60
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.77	97.49
BRENT	117.48	117.58

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, paring a weekly decline, after hiring in the U.S. increased in January and jumped more than previously estimated at the end of 2012.

BlackBerry, the company formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., added 0.7 percent for the first gain in six days amid its introduction of a new line of smartphones. Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc. each increased 1.1 percent as gold prices rose. Domtar Corp., a maker of paper and pulp products, slumped 6 percent after earnings missed estimates.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 83.59 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,768.83 in Toronto. The benchmark gauge trimmed its decline for the week to 0.4 percent. The S&P/TSX has underperformed every developed market in the world except Spain over the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Looks like a good start to the month, the U.S. payroll numbers were encouraging,” Michael O’Brien, fund manager with TD Asset Management, said on the phone from Toronto. He oversees about $3 billion.

U.S. payrolls rose 157,000 following a revised 196,000 advance in the prior month and a 247,000 surge in November, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The revisions added a total of 127,000 jobs to the employment count in November and December. The jobless rate increased to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent.

Energy and raw-materials producers contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX as nine of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was 5.4 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Imperial Oil Ltd., the second-largest Canadian oil producer, added 0.3 percent to C$43.91 after reporting fourth- quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates. Record refining earnings of C$549 million, boosted by the difference between low-cost Western Canadian crude and the price of gasoline, offset lower gross oil output. Imperial is the largest refiner in Canada.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil producer, climbed 1.5 percent to C$34.42.

Barrick, the world’s largest gold producer, added 1.1 percent to C$32.10 and Goldcorp rose 1.1 percent to C$35.52.

Gold futures for April delivery climbed 0.5 percent to settle at $1,670.60 an ounce in New York, the third gain in four days.

BlackBerry, based in Waterloo, Ontario, rose 0.7 percent to C$13.01. The stock fell 26 percent this week, for the biggest weekly loss since 2008. The company’s new BlackBerry 10 line of smartphones, unveiled in New York on Jan. 30, does not go on sale in the U.S. until March, raising concern that the company will fall even further behind Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android in its biggest market.

BlackBerry will begin trading under the ticker symbol BB in Toronto and BBRY in New York on Feb. 4.

Norbord Inc., a maker of wood-based panels used in home construction, jumped 5.3 percent to C$30.79, its biggest gain since Nov. 1. Stephen Atkinson, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, raised his rating for the stock to outperform, or the equivalent of a buy, from market perform.

The company reported adjusted earnings for the fourth quarter yesterday of 76 cents a share, compared with a consensus estimate of 73 cents, Bloomberg data show.

Domtar dropped 6 percent to C$78.04, its biggest loss since April 26, after reporting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.31 a share, compared with estimates of $1.36 a share. Revenue of $1.33 billion fell short of forecasts of $1.35 billion.

US

By Rita Nazareth and Michael P. Regan

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks surged as growth in American payrolls was enough to ease concern about the economy without stoking speculation the Federal Reserve will hasten the end of stimulus. Industrial metals led gains in commodities and the yen weakened, while Treasuries reversed early gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 149.21 points to 14,009.79, climbing above 14,000 for the first time since 2007, while the S&P 500 Index jumped 1 percent to return to a five- year high following a two-day retreat. The 10-year Treasury yield rose four basis points to 2.02 percent. Spain’s IBEX 35 Index slid to a one-month low as regulators lifted a ban on short selling, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index capped the best week since October 2011 as manufacturing expanded. The yen sank against all 16 major peers.

U.S. employers added 157,000 jobs in January and employment growth accelerated more than previously estimated at the end 2012, Labor Department figures showed, while other reports on consumer confidence, manufacturing and construction spending topped forecasts. The data eased concern about the world’s largest economy following a report earlier this week that showed gross domestic product shrank last quarter for the first time since the recession.

“The most positive part of the headline was the revisions,” said Liz Ann Sonders, the New York-based chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab Corp., which has $1.95 trillion in client assets. “That’s particularly good because of the negative 0.1 percent GDP report. The market is telling you that the economy is not as bad as many people believe. The fact the January was up very nicely typically bodes well for the rest of the year.”

The Labor Department revised earlier data to show a 196,000 increase in employment for December and a 247,000 surge in November, adding a total of 127,000 to the count for those two months. Labor also issued its annual benchmark update, which aligns data spanning from April 2011 to March 2012 with corporate tax records. The revision showed payrolls grew by an additional 424,000 workers, on an unadjusted basis, in that period. The jobless rate increased to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent.

“The unemployment rate has increased primarily due to individuals streaming back into the workforce, which is a sign of growth in confidence in the economic expansion, and perhaps the exhaustion of savings and employment benefits,” said Joseph Brusuelas, senior economist at Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News. “While there are encouraging signs, caution is the proper way for investors to proceed.”

Bank of America Corp., United Technologies Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. jumped more than 2 percent to lead the Dow’s gain today.

All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 advanced, with financial, telephone and commodity companies climbing at least 1.2 percent to lead the rally. Tyson Foods Inc. gained 3.1 percent after profits topped forecasts. Zoetis Inc., the animal- health company owned by Pfizer Inc., surged 19 percent in its trading debut following an initial public offering. Merck & Co. slipped 3.3 percent after forecasting a drop in profit this year.

Exxon Mobil Corp. closed little changed after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that topped estimates. Earnings per share beat the average analyst estimate at some 73 percent of 254 companies in the index that have released results so far in the reporting season, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of U.S. consumer sentiment for January rose to 73.8 from 72.9 at the end of the previous month. Economists projected 71.5 for the gauge after a preliminary January reading of 71.3, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The index averaged 64.2 during the last recession and 89 in the five years before the 18-month economic slump that ended in June 2009.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index climbed to 53.1 last month from December’s 50.2, exceeding the highest estimate in a survey of 86 economists with a median forecast of  50.7.

About $2.6 trillion was added to the value of equities worldwide last month as earnings from companies including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. beat estimates and U.S. lawmakers forged a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts and tax increases. Including dividends, the S&P 500 rallied 5.2 percent last month for its best January return since 1997.

Two-year Treasury yields erased an earlier drop to end little changed at 0.26 percent, while 30-year rates rose six basis points to 3.23 percent.

Bonds reversed gains after Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, an advocate for slowing stimulus, said U.S. job growth in the past three months has been “an encouraging sign.” Bullard said he may urge cutting the pace of central bank asset purchases by the middle of the year if growth picks up as he expects.

“We should think about tapering or adjusting the program,” Bullard said today in an interview in Washington.

“If you get some good data for a couple of months,” then policy makers might say, “OK, we go to $75 billion or something like that,” he said, referring to monthly asset purchases that currently run at $85 billion a month.

Seventeen of the 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index increased, sending the gauge up 0.5 percent to the highest level since September. Nickel, aluminum, copper and zinc added more than 1.4 percent each. Oil rose 28 cents to settle at $97.77 a barrel in New York to cap an eighth straight weekly gain, the longest streak since 2004.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.3 percent, trimming this week’s drop to 0.5 percent. The gauge climbed in January, capping an eighth month of gains and the longest winning streak since 1997. BT Group Plc rallied 6.5 percent as the U.K’s largest Internet service provider reported profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates. The regional benchmark pared gains earlier while German two-year notes rose after the European Central Bank said banks will repay 3.5 billion euros ($4.8 billion) of its emergency loans next week.

Spain’s IBEX 35 slipped 1.6 percent as the market regulator, known as CNMV, allowed a ban on short-selling stocks to expire yesterday. Banco Santander SA, Spain’s largest bank, fell 2.3 percent and Fomento de Construcciones & Contratas SA slid 9.1 percent.

The yen weakened for a third straight day against the dollar, headed for a 12th consecutive weekly decline. It depreciated as much as 1.2 percent to 92.80 per dollar, the lowest level since June 2010. Japan’s jobless rate rose and household spending declined, data showed today, underscoring the case for further easing.

The euro strengthened against 12 of its 16 major peers, climbing 0.6 percent to $1.3666. In addition to a report showing manufacturing shrank less than forecast in the currency region, other data showed the unemployment rate was 11.7 percent in December, less than forecast.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index gained 0.4 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index added 1.4 percent, climbing 5.6 percent in the week, and Brazil’s Bovespa increased 1 percent to pare a second straight weekly loss.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

 

Be magnificent!

 

It is man’s social nature which distinguishes him from the brute creation.

If it is his privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter-dependent.

Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent of everybody else and be self-contained.

-Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Action is the foundational key to all success.

-Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973

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:

Seems Super Bowl weekend coming up is a really big deal this year.  Even all the financial news that streams across my screens features stories intermittently on it  throughout the day.

Here’s an article that might interest you by Ross Atkin:

Super Bowl XLVII: 15 pregame facts

San Francisco 49ers (13-4-1 ) versus Baltimore Ravens (13-6 ).

By ROSS ATKIN

Anybody worth their Super Bowl guacamole

dip already knows the megawatt story line of

this Sunday’s game: the coaching civil war

between Jim Harbaugh of the San Francisco

49ers and older brother John, who patrols

the Baltimore Ravens’ sideline. There’s much

more to know beyond this, however. Here’s a

Super Bowl snack-fact sampler:

1 – Kickoff on CBS is at 6:30 p.m., ET.

2 – San Francisco is 5-0 in previous Super Bowl

appearances. If the 49ers’ Quest for Six succeeds,

they will tie the Pittsburgh Steelers for

the most SB wins. Baltimore won in its only

previous trip to the Super Bowl in 2001.

3 – In some way, both teams pay tribute to

American culture, the 49ers to the California

Gold Rush of 1849, the Ravens to

the famous poem, “The Raven,”

penned by Baltimore resident

Edgar Allan Poe.

4 – The 49ers began their existence

in 1946 in the old All America

Football Conference. The Ravens

were relocated from Cleveland in

1996, a move that placated fans

after their beloved Colts bolted to

Indianapolis in 1984.

5 – The average margin of victory

in the last nine Super Bowls is 6.6

points.

6 – Sunday’s game will be played

in the Superdome in New Orleans.

That ties the Big Easy with Miami

for hosting of the most Super

Bowls: 10. Greater Los Angeles is

next with seven.

7 – The headliner for the 30-minute halftime

show will be pop diva Beyoncé.

8 – The only other time the Harbaugh brothers

matched coaching wits was last season, when

the Ravens beat the 49ers, 16-6.

9 – San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s

skills as both a passer and runner, plus his

uncommon coolness under pressure, have

taken the league by storm as he prepares to

start only his 10th National Football League

game. As a virtually unknown rookie out of

the University of Nevada, he threw only three

passes, but was pressed into service this season

after starter Alex Smith was injured.

10 – “Kaepernicking,” a new football buzz word,

has become so popular that the 49ers’ signal

caller has filed for a trademark on the word,

which was coined to describe his habit of kissing

a bicep after he scores a touchdown.

11 – Ray Lewis, the Ravens’ surefire Hall of Fame

middle linebacker and the only holdover from

Baltimore’s 2000 season championship team,

will retire after the Super Bowl.

12 – The Ravens lost four of their last five regular-

season games, but turned things around

when several injured players returned and the

team replaced its offensive coordinator.

13 – Baltimore’s rookie placekicker Justin

Tucker has been sensational, making 30 of 33

field goal attempts, including four of 50 yards

or more. His San Francisco counterpart, veteran

David Akers, has gone from being one of

the league’s best to one of its shakiest kickers,

making only 30 of 44 tries.

14 – The 49ers haven’t won more than two

games in a row this season. They did enjoy a

run of five nonlosing games in midseason, but

a 24-24 tie with the St. Louis Rams in Week 10

kept them from a five-game winning streak.

15 – Baltimore QB Joe Flacco has thrown eight

touchdown passes without an interception during

three playoff games. That places him on the

postseason gold standard of Joe Montana, who

threw 11 touchdown passes without a “pick” in

the 1989 postseason in leading the 49ers to an

NFL title.

face-off: Coaching brothers Jim Harbaugh (l.) of the San Francisco 49ers

and John of the Baltimore Ravens will match wits Sunday in New Orleans

Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. -John Wayne

Market Closes for January 31st, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13860.58	-49.84    -0.36%
S&P 500	1498.11	-3.85    -0.26%
NASDAQ	3142.132	-0.176    -0.01%
TSX	12685.24	-109.20
		-0.85%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11138.66	+24.71
		+0.22%
HANG  SENG	23729.53	-92.53
		-0.39%
SENSEX	19894.98	-110.02
		-0.55
FTSE 100	6276.88	-46.23
		-0.73

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.990	1.995
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.570	2.572
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9849	1.9920
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1719	3.1822

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99734	1.00228
US   $	1.00266	0.99773
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.35532	0.73783
US  $	1.35878	0.73595

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1663.60	1677.15
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.49	97.94
BRENT	117.58	117.05

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Leslie Picker

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks slumped the most in three months as raw-material producers fell amid disappointing earnings and a drop in commodity prices, overshadowing faster- than-estimated expansion in the nation’s economy.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer, fell 1.9 percent after forecasting first- quarter profit that trailed analysts’ estimates. BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion Ltd., dropped 6.8 percent after Credit Suisse downgraded it to underperform. Goldcorp Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. fell at least 2.2 percent after the metal slid the most in almost four weeks.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index retreated 109.20 points, or 0.9 percent, to 12,685.24 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The S&P/TSX has risen 2 percent this year, the fourth-worst performance among the world’s 24 developed markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The main equity benchmark for stocks in Israel has fallen 0.7 percent, Belgium’s equities rose 1.8 percent and Austrian shares added 1.9 percent.

“Everyone’s focused on earnings,” Anil Tahiliani, fund manager at Calgary-based McLean & Partners Wealth Management Ltd., which has C$900 million in assets, said in a phone interview. “We’re getting mixed signals from companies regarding forward guidance. Having a pullback is not surprising.”

About 81 percent of the 16 companies in the S&P/TSX that have released results so far in this reporting season have exceeded profit projections. Forty percent have surpassed sales estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Canada’s gross domestic product grew at the fastest pace in seven months in November on gains in manufacturing, mining and energy. Output grew 0.3 percent to an annualized C$1.56 trillion ($1.56 trillion), following a prior gain of 0.1 percent, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The median forecast in a Bloomberg economist survey was for a 0.2 percent expansion in the month.

Potash fell 1.9 percent to C$42.37. First-quarter earnings will be 50 cents to 65 cents a share, the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based company said today in a statement. The average of 17 estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for 69 cents.

The company said taxes will be higher in 2013 because of reduced capital spending. Fourth-quarter earnings and revenue also trailed analyst projections.

Gildan Activewear Inc., the top-performing company in the S&P/TSX last year, fell 3.1 percent to C$36.71. Tal Woolley, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, lowered his recommendation for the clothing supplier to sector perform, or hold, from outperform.

“Strong price appreciation is the primary reason for our downgrade,” Woolley said in a note to clients today. Gildan now trades more expensively than its peers based on his 2014 earnings forecast of $3 a share, he said.

Barrick Gold fell 2.2 percent to C$31.76 and Goldcorp dropped 2.5 percent to C$35.13. After the close of trading, Barrick Gold confirmed in an e-mail that it was considering the sale of its Barrick Energy unit and other non-core assets.

Gold futures for April delivery dropped 1.2 percent to settle at $1,662 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Raw- materials producers in the S&P/TSX slipped 1.5 percent to the lowest closing level in five months.

BlackBerry lost 6.8 percent to C$12.92, extending its decline for the week to 27 percent. BlackBerry stumbled in its introduction of the BlackBerry 10 lineup yesterday, disappointing shareholders with the lack of a firm U.S. release date and setting a price that may be too high to lure away customers from Apple Inc. and Google Inc.’s Android.

Kulbinder Garcha, of Credit Suisse, is the latest analyst to downgrade the smartphone maker. In all, five analysts recommend buying the stock, 20 have a hold rating, and 20 advise selling, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

US

By Lu Wang and Sarah Pringle

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, trimming the best January rally for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1994, on disappointing earnings as investors weighed economic data ahead of tomorrow’s jobs report.

United Parcel Service Inc. fell 2.4 percent after it forecast profit that trailed estimates as a weak global economy weighs on demand for package shipments. Dow Chemical Co. slid 7 percent after earnings missed forecasts as sales fell in Europe.

ConocoPhillips slipped 5.1 percent after saying oil and natural gas production will hit a low point this year. Qualcomm Inc. and JDS Uniphase Corp. rallied 3.9 percent and 17 percent, respectively, amid better-than-anticipated earnings.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.3 percent to 1,498.11 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow lost 49.84 points, or 0.4 percent, to 13,860.58. About 7.1 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 16 percent above the three-month average.

“The market’s due for a breather, so unless the economic news was significantly above expectations or significantly below, you’re probably going to get a trading down market,” Eric Green, director of research at Penn Capital, which oversees about $7 billion in Philadelphia, said in a phone interview.

“The mixed data give some reason to take some profits potentially.”

The S&P 500 rose 5 percent this month, its best January performance since 1997, as lawmakers agreed on a budget compromise and companies reported better-than-estimated earnings. The Dow rallied 5.8 percent, the biggest January gain since 1994.

The benchmark index is about 4.3 percent below its record of 1,565.15 set in October 2007, while the Dow is about 2.2 percent from its all-time high. The S&P 500 has more than doubled from a 12-year low in 2009 as the Federal Reserve increased its bond purchases to keep interest rates low and spur growth.

U.S. benchmark indexes fell from five-year highs yesterday as the economy unexpectedly shrank in the fourth quarter.

Economic reports today showed that consumer spending in the U.S. climbed in December as incomes grew by the most in eight years, while claims for unemployment benefits increased more than forecast last week.

Data tomorrow may show employers added 165,000 workers this month, according to economists’ projections in a Bloomberg survey. The unemployment rate probably held at 7.8 percent.

“The outlook is fairly benign right now,” Brian Gendreau, a market strategist at Los Angeles-based Cetera Financial Group Inc., said by phone. The firm has about $20 billion in assets under management. “We are looking at moderate growth. Earnings picture is good. No one is talking about double-dip recession.”

Dow Chemical and UPS are among 37 companies in the S&P 500 scheduled to report earnings today. About 74 percent of the 237 companies that have released results so far exceeded profit projections, and 66 percent have surpassed sales estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Seven out of the 10 groups in the S&P 500 fell as consumer- discretionary, energy and raw-material shares declined the most, sinking at least 0.5 percent. Utilities, technology and phone companies rose the most.

UPS slid 2.4 percent to $79.29. Earnings per share for this year will be $4.80 to $5.06, the Atlanta-based company said.

Analysts projected $5.13, the average of estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

The company’s growth is constrained by a sluggish worldwide economy and disputes over the U.S. debt ceiling that erode shipping demand and confidence, Chief Executive Officer Scott Davis said. Investors and analysts use the company as an economic gauge because it handles goods as varied as auto parts and pharmaceuticals.

Dow Chemical tumbled 7 percent, the most since September 2011, to $32.20. The largest U.S. chemical maker by sales reported a net loss of 61 cents a share. Profit excluding one- time items was 33 cents a share, trailing the 34-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

ConocoPhillips slipped 5.1 percent, the biggest drop since August 2011, to $58. Daily output from continuing operations may decline to as little as 1.475 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2013 because of asset sales that are part of its restructuring, the company said.

Time Warner Cable Inc. tumbled 11 percent to $89.34. The second-largest U.S. cable-television operator forecast full-year profits short of analyst estimates.

Harman International Industries Inc. slumped 9.1 percent to $44.78. The maker of audio equipment for cars and homes forecast 2013 operating profit of $2.90 a share at most. That missed the average analyst estimate of $3.36.

Constellation Brands Inc., which has agreed to buy out partner Grupo Modelo SAB from its U.S. beer importing business, sank 17 percent to $32.36. The U.S. sued to block Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s proposed $20.1 billion purchase of the half of Grupo Modelo it doesn’t already own, saying the deal would hurt competition and raise prices. Constellation’s agreement was struck in part to help make InBev’s acquisition more palatable to U.S. regulators, people familiar with the discussions said in June.

Qualcomm rose 3.9 percent to $66.02. The largest seller of semiconductors for mobile phones gave a second-quarter sales and profit forecast that exceeded analysts’ estimates, helped by strong sales of smartphones that run on its technology.

JDS Uniphase rallied 17 percent to $14.51. The maker of fiber-optic testing equipment reported second-quarter profit excluding some items of 18 cents a share, beating the average analyst estimate of 14 cents. Needham & Co. raised the stock’s rating to buy from hold.

Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. climbed 12 percent to $76. The world’s largest baby formula maker reported fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Citrix Systems Inc. rallied 9.2 percent to $73.16. The software maker projected first-quarter revenue in the range of $670 million to $680 million. The average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey called for $669.2 million.

WMS Industries Inc. surged 51 percent to $24.75. Scientific Games Corp. agreed to buy WMS for $1.5 billion, the biggest deal in the leisure and recreational-products industry in almost two years, to create a global supplier of lottery equipment and slot machines.

Whirlpool Corp. added 6.1 percent to $115.38. The world’s largest appliance maker reported better-than-estimated profits for the fourth quarter and forecast full-year earnings of $9.25 to $9.75 a share, exceeding the average analyst estimate of $9.09.

Investors should consider buying stocks related to homebuilding, including Whirlpool, according to Laszlo Birinyi, president of Birinyi Associates Inc. The company’s shares will rally this year, even after they more than doubled in 2012, he said during a Bloomberg Television interview today.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Until a radical change takes place and we wipe out all nationalities,

all ideologies, all religious division, and establish a global relationship – psychologically and

inwardly first, then organized in the outside world – we shall go on with war.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try

to become a man of value.

-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:

Graduates driving cabs: A new U.S. study finds that about half of all workers with a college degree are overqualified for their current jobs, reports The Christian Science Monitor.  “Today, 15 per cent of U.S. taxi drivers have a college degree, up from fewer than 1 per cent in 1970.”  –from The Globe & Mail, January 30^th, 2013.

I know this to be true.  I took a cab to see the 9/11 Memorial last time I was in New York and I had the most amazing conversation with the driver.  He was a college grad and was so well informed on world events, with such an interesting perspective – I hated when the ride ended. It seems Canada has similar issues.  The cover of Maclean’s this week has the blaring headline “THE NEW UNDERCLASS: Why so many smart, educated, ambitious young people have no future.”  I’ll read it tonight.

January 30^th,1969 – The Beatles performed in public for the last time in a 45-minute gig on the roof of their Apple Records headquarters in London.

And also on this day in…

1649 – England’s King Charles I was beheaded.

1847 – The town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco.

1882 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32^nd US President was born.

1889 – Rudolph, crown prince of Austria, and his 17-year-old mistress, Baroness Marie Vetsera, were found shot in his hunting lodge at Mayerling, near Vienna.

1948 – Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated.

1958 – Yves Saint Laurent, at age 22, held his first major fashion show in Paris.

1968 – The Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

1972 – In Northern Ireland, British soldiers shot and killed thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers. The day is known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ― Winston Churchill

photos of the day

01/30th/2013

Flowers decorate the footprints that mark the last steps of Mahatma Gandhi, on his death anniversary in New Delhi, India. Gandhi, known as the father of the nation, was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist on Jan. 30, 1948. Manish Swarup/AP

Thibaut Ruggeri of France celebrates after winning the Bocuse d’Or trophy, at the 14th World Cuisine contest, in Lyon, central France. The contest, a sort of world cup of cuisine, was started in 1987 by Lyon chef Paul Bocuse to reward young international culinary talents. Laurent Cipriani/AP

Market Closes for January 30th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13910.42	-44.00    -0.32%
S&P 500	1501.96	-5.88    -0.39%
NASDAQ	3142.308	-11.351    -0.36%
TSX	12794.44	-36.12
		-0.28%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	11113.95	+247.23
		+2.28%
HANG  SENG	23822.06	+166.89
		+0.71%
SENSEX	20005.00	+14.10
		+0.07
FTSE 100	6323.11	-16.08
		-0.25

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.995	1.996
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.572	2.569
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9920	1.9991
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1822	3.1839

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00228	1.00184
US   $	0.99773	0.99816
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.36016	0.73521
US  $	1.35707	0.73688

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1677.15	1663.60
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.94	97.57
BRENT	117.05	116.34

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, erasing earlier gains, as Research In Motion Ltd. slumped after unveiling its new line of smartphones and a report showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly shrank in the fourth quarter.

RIM tumbled 12 percent, suggesting investors are skeptical the new models can win back customers from Apple Inc. and Google Inc.’s Android. Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. lost 3.4 percent after Rio Tinto Group said it is considering a temporary halt to construction work at the $6.2 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project in Mongolia. CCL Industries Inc., a maker of specialty packaging, surged 16 percent after agreeing to buy two businesses from Avery Dennison Corp.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 36.12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,794.44 in Toronto, reversing earlier gains of as much as 0.5 percent. The benchmark gauge has advanced 2.9 percent this year.

“I’m surprised with the miss as significant as it is, the markets should be down more than they are,” Gareth Watson, vice president of investment management and research with Richardson GMP Ltd., said from Toronto. His firm manages C$16 billion. “The market is still focusing on individual company earnings.”

The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.1 percent annual rate, the worst performance since 2009, according to a government report today. A decline in government outlays and smaller gain in stockpiles subtracted a combined 2.6 percentage points from growth.

TransCanada Corp. dropped 1.2 percent to C$48.17 and Suncor Energy Inc. slipped 0.4 percent to C$34.38 as energy companies and banks contributed most to declines in the S&P/TSX. Trading volume was 6.6 percent higher than the 30-day average.

The Bank of Montreal slipped 0.5 percent to C$63.40, its biggest loss since Dec. 27, after the lender said it will repurchase as much as 15 million of its common shares over the next year.

RIM, which changed its name to BlackBerry today, plunged 12 percent to C$13.86. The stock has more than doubled since late September, reflecting optimism that BlackBerry 10 phones can catch on with consumers.

Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins introduced two new phones — the touch-screen Z10 and a model named the Q10 with a physical keyboard. The Z10, which starts at $199 with a wireless contract, will be available on Jan. 31 in the U.K., on Feb. 5 in Canada, and in March in the U.S. The Q10 will follow in the coming weeks, the company said.

Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., said BlackBerry’s price points for the new phones are not competitive with Android smartphones available at $99, $49 or free. U.S. availability may also be “disappointing to some,” Wu said.

BlackBerry “had a really nice run, now it seems like people are selling on news,” said Bruce Campbell, president of Campbell & Lee Investment Management in Oakville, Ontario.

“They got everyone excited and then you can’t buy it for five weeks? That doesn’t make sense.”

Turquoise Hill fell 3.4 percent to C$7.87. Rio Tinto, which owns a majority stake in Turquoise Hill and is co-developing the Oyu Tolgoi project, is considering a halt to construction at the Mongolian site as a protest against demands from the government for a greater share of profit from the mine, according to two people familiar with the matter.

CCL Industries, based in Willowdale, Ontario, soared 16 percent to a record C$53.25. The company agreed to buy Avery Dennison’s office-products business and label-converting unit for $500 million in cash.

Geoffrey Martin, CCL’s chief executive officer, said the acquisition is the largest in the company’s history and bolsters its label offerings. The two units had a combined revenue of $910 million last year, the statement said.

US

By Lu Wang and Sarah Pringle

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, dragging benchmark indexes from five-year highs, as the Federal Reserve said it will maintain its program to buy securities after the economy unexpectedly shrank in the fourth quarter.

Nine out of the 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated as energy and industrial companies fell the most, dropping at least 0.6 percent. An index of homebuilders slipped 1.3 percent as Lennar Corp. declined 2.4 percent.

Amazon.com Inc. jumped 4.8 percent after reporting gains in sales and North American operating margin. Facebook Inc. fell 1.4 percent in late trading after posting a drop in profit.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent to 1,501.96 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 44 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,910.42. Both measures yesterday reached their highest levels since 2007. The Russell 2000 Index slid 1.2 percent, falling from yesterday’s record high. About 6.8 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 9.5 percent above the three-month average.

“The underlying trend for the market is upward, but the problem is there is some weakness in the economic numbers that I don’t think investors have fully factored in,” David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds in New York, said by phone. His firm oversees about $400 billion. “It’s transitory as the Fed said. But when you put in a negative number on GDP for the fourth quarter, it’s hard for the market to rally.”

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has unleashed the power of the central bank to buy unlimited amounts of Treasury and mortgage- backed securities in a bid to end a four-year long period of unemployment above 7.5 percent and bolster the economy. The central bank said today it will keep purchasing securities at the rate of $85 billion a month as the economy paused because of temporary forces including bad weather.

“I do not think this is a surprise to anyone,” Randy Bateman, chief investment officer of Huntington Asset Advisors in Columbus, Ohio, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $15 billion. “There have been speculations that the Fed will openly come to the end of this liquidity cycle. I don’t see that changing. It’s still more of status quo.”

Gross domestic product, the volume of all goods and services produced, dropped at a 0.1 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, weaker than any economist forecast in a Bloomberg survey and the worst performance since the second quarter of 2009, when the world’s largest economy was still in the recession.

Companies in the U.S. added 192,000 workers in January, data from the Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Research Institute showed today. The median forecast of 38 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an advance of 165,000.

The data came two days before a Labor Department report may show employers added 165,000 workers to payrolls this month while the unemployment rate was probably 7.8 percent, matching December and November as the lowest since the beginning of 2009, according to economists’ projections in a Bloomberg survey.

Economic reports are producing enough disappointing data to drag down U.S. stocks, according to Gina Martin Adams, a Wells Fargo & Co. strategist. The Citigroup U.S. Economic Surprise Index, which reflects the gap between economic figures for the previous three months and economists’ average estimates in Bloomberg surveys, last week dropped below zero for the first time since September.

“While stocks have started out the year on a strong note, economic indicators have not,” Martin Adams wrote in a report.

“This does not bode well for the future direction of stock prices.”

The S&P 500 has risen 5.3 percent this month, the best start of a year since 1989, as lawmakers agreed on a budget compromise and companies reported better-than-estimated earnings. The index has more than doubled from a 12-year low in 2009 as the Fed increased its bond purchases to keep interest rates low and spur growth. The S&P 500 is about 4 percent below its record of 1,565.15 set in October 2007, while the Dow is less than 2 percent from its all-time high.

About 75 percent of the 195 companies in the S&P 500 that have released results so far in the quarter exceeded profit projections. Sixty-six percent have surpassed sales estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, climbed 7.6 percent today to 14.32.

General Electric Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp. had the biggest declines in the Dow, each falling 1.2 percent. The Dow Jones Transportation Average dropped 1.5 percent after reaching an all-time high Jan. 28.

Union Pacific Corp. retreated 2.7 percent to $131.17.

JetBlue Airways Corp. slid 4.4 percent to $5.80 after the airline was downgraded to underperform from market perform by Savanthi Syth, a Raymond James Financial Inc. analyst who cited the carrier’s “relatively high costs.”

An S&P index of homebuilders slipped from its highest level since July 2007. Lennar fell 2.4 percent to $41.60 and D.R. Horton Inc. retreated 3.2 percent to $23.06.

Facebook dropped 1.4 percent to $30.81 as of 4:52 p.m. in New York. The world’s largest social network said net income declined during the fourth quarter as the company ramped up investments in new mobile and ad services that boosted costs.

MeadWestvaco Corp. slipped 4 percent to $31.63. The packaging company reported adjusted earnings that trailed the average analyst estimate. Profit in the first quarter will be “modestly lower” from a year ago because of rising costs related to a Brazilian expansion and lower earnings from land sales, the company said.

Peabody Energy Corp. dropped 6.4 percent to $24.87. The coal producer was cut to sell from underperform by David Lipschitz, an analyst with Credit Agricole Securities (USA).

Fossil Inc. fell 2.4 percent to $104.11. The maker of the namesake watch brand was downgraded to sell from hold at Brean Capital LLC. The stock’s recent gain is “unwarranted” as demand is weakening from China to Europe, analyst Eric Beder said in a note.

Research In Motion Ltd. slumped 12 percent, the most since Dec. 21, to $13.78. The company renamed itself BlackBerry and unveiled the new BlackBerry 10 lineup, aiming to lure back customers who have defected to Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. The touch-screen phone called the Z10 starts at $199 with a wireless contract and will be available in March in the U.S.

Amazon surged 4.8 percent to $272.76. The world’s largest Internet retailer said fourth-quarter sales climbed 22 percent to $21.3 billion and its operating margin in North America widened to 5 percent from 2.9 percent a year earlier as it benefited from investments in warehouses and a jump in holiday shopping.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. rallied 6 percent to $20.11 after saying Chief Executive Officer Aubrey McClendon will retire on April 1 from the company he co-founded. McClendon was forced to leave the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer under pressure from his two biggest shareholders, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

Avery Dennison Corp. gained 6.4 percent, the second-most in the S&P 500, to $38.44. CCL Industries Inc., a maker of specialty packaging, agreed to acquire two businesses from Avery Dennison for $500 million in cash. Avery Dennison also posted fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates.

Boeing Co. rose 1.3 percent to $74.59. The company predicted earnings that met analysts’ estimates this year, assuming no drag from the grounding of its marquee 787 Dreamliner jet that’s stretching into a third week while investigators examine battery faults.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Better never love,

if that love makes us hate others.

Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Formula for success: rise early,

work hard, strike oil.

-J. Paul Getty, 1892-1976

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 Jan. 29, 1963, poet Robert Frost died in Boston.  One of my favorites:

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

-by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black,

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

And also on this day in…

1820 – Britain’s King George III died insane at Windsor Castle.

1845 – Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” was published for the first time in the “New York Evening Mirror.”

1856 – Britain’s highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, was founded by Queen Victoria.

1886 – The first successful petrol-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented.

1958 – Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.

The worst part of success is trying to find someone who is happy for you. ― Bette Midler

photos of the day

01/29th/2013

Visitors wear protective coverings on their shoes as they walk through a light installation called ‘Chromosaturation’ from 1965-2012 by Carlos Cruz-Diez at an exhibition entitled ‘Light Show’ at the Hayward Gallery in London. Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

A man rides a bicycle near the beach at sunset in Andernos, Southwestern France. Regis Duvignau/Reuters

Market Closes for January 29th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13954.42	+72.49    +0.52%
S&P 500	1507.84	+7.66    +0.51
NASDAQ	3153.659	-0.638    -0.02%
TSX	12830.56	+14.65
		+0.11%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10866.72	+42.41
		+0.39%
HANG  SENG	23655.17	-16.71
		-0.07%
SENSEX	19990.90	-112.45
		-0.56
FTSE 100	6339.19	+44.78
		+0.71

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.996	1.961
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.569	2.539
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9991	1.9613
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1839	3.1410

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00184	1.00593
US   $	0.99816	0.99411
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.35117	0.74010
US  $	1.34869	0.74146

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1663.60	1655.20
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	97.57	96.44
BRENT	116.34	115.61

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for the first time in three days as industrial and raw-material shares advanced amid a rally in commodities while Research In Motion Ltd. sank after UBS AG said its new smartphone is too expensive.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. increased 3.1 percent after reporting fourth-quarter earnings in line with analysts’ estimates. Goldcorp Inc. and Kinross Gold Corp. advanced at least 1.3 percent as the price of the metal rallied the most in two weeks. Premier Gold Mines Ltd. added 1.7 percent after agreeing to sell one of its assets. RIM sank 3.4 percent a day before it unveils its BlackBerry 10 line of smartphones in a bid to recapture market share.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 14.65 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,830.56 in Toronto. The benchmark gauge has gained 3.2 percent this year.

“We might be taking a bit of a pause here, we’ve been up a lot,” Ian Nakamoto, director of research with MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier Inc., said from Toronto. His firm manages about $4 billion. “We’re a very narrow market in Canada, very commodities-focused. If people get very hot on the outlook for the global economy, the Canadian market will do well.”

Canada’s MLI Leading Economic Indicator rose 0.2 percent in December for a fifth straight gain, as Canadians benefited from rising stock prices and a U.S. rebound. The index is published by the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Industrials and raw-material producers contributed most to gains in the S&P/TSX as six of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was 3.6 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Canadian Pacific climbed 3.1 percent to a record C$116.22 after posting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of C$1.28 a share that were in line with analysts’ estimates. Chief Executive Officer Hunter Harrison, installed by investor William Ackman last June after winning a proxy battle, is targeting inefficiencies at the railroad.

Goldcorp gained 1.7 percent to C$36.11 and Kinross advanced 1.3 percent to C$8.47. Gold for April delivery climbed 0.5 percent to settle at $1,662.70 an ounce in New York.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and the Federal Open Market Committee began two days of meetings today, with the central bank expected to continue its commitment to asset buying until the first quarter of 2014.

Silvercorp Metals Inc. gained 3.5 percent to C$4.45 and Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. added 5.8 percent to C$4.21 as silver for March delivery rose 1.3 percent to $31.184 an ounce in New York.

The U.S. Mint resumed sales of American Eagle silver coins yesterday for the first time in more than a week after selling out of the collectibles earlier.

Premier Gold increased 1.7 percent to C$3.58 after agreeing to sell its position in Premier Royalty Inc., a subsidiary with royalties from gold mines in Canada, the U.S., South Africa and Argentina, to Sandstorm Gold Ltd. for C$70.7 million. Sandstorm rose 2.1 percent to C$11.81.

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, slumped 3.4 percent to C$15.71, paring earlier losses of as much as 9.3 percent.

Phillip Huang, an analyst with UBS Securities, said pricing for the new mobile phones will be too high for emerging markets, and RIM will have difficulty drawing customers away from Google Inc.’s Android and Apple Inc.’s iPhone platforms.

“RIM is attempting a comeback, but it appears late, at least in its current form,” he said in a note to clients today. “We remain skeptical of a dramatic turnaround.”

US

By Lu Wang and Sarah Pringle

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a five-year high, as companies including Pfizer Inc. and Valero Energy Corp. reported earnings that beat estimates.

Pfizer rose 3.2 as the drugmaker also forecast higher-than- expected full-year profit. J.C. Penney Co. jumped 9.3 percent amid new store promotions. Energy shares climbed as Valero reported a 20-fold gain in profit and Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. urged Hess Corp. to consider a spinoff of its U.S. shale assets. EMC Corp. and Seagate Technology Plc led technology shares lower amid disappointing outlooks. Amazon.com Inc. rose 9.4 percent in late trading after posting its results.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.5 percent to 1,507.84 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow added 72.49 points, or 0.5 percent, to 13,954.42, the highest level since October 2007.

About 6.9 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 12 percent above the three-month average.

“Continued earnings beats that we’ve seen so far this quarter is helping drive the market,” Jay Wong, a Los Angeles- based fund manager with Payden & Rygel, which oversees $80 billion, said in a phone interview. “There is a lot of momentum in the market right now.”

Equities rose even as the Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence decreased to 58.6, the weakest since November 2011. The January reading was lower than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey, which had a median estimate of 64.

The S&P 500 has risen 5.7 percent this month, off to the best start of a year since 1989, as lawmakers agreed on a budget compromise and companies reported better-than-estimated earnings. The index has more than doubled from a 12-year low in 2009 as the Federal Reserve has increased its bond purchases to keep interest rates low to spur growth. The S&P 500 is less than 4 percent below its record of 1,565.15 set in October 2007, while the Dow is less than 2 percent from its all-time high.

Twenty-five companies in the S&P 500 were scheduled to report quarterly earnings today. About 75 percent of the 179 companies in the S&P 500 that have released results so far in the quarter exceeded profit projections.

About 67 percent have surpassed sales estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the highest percentage since the second quarter of 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fewer than half the companies had surprise sales gains in the second and third quarters.

Investors will watch an announcement from the Fed tomorrow to gauge the central bank’s future policy. Chairman Ben S.

Bernanke’s latest round of bond buying will reach $1.14 trillion before he ends the program in the first quarter of 2014, according to median estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

The Federal Open Market Committee will renew its commitment to asset buying during a two-day meeting starting today after determining the benefits from the program exceed any risk of inflation or financial instability, according to economists surveyed Jan. 24-25.

“Economic growth is so modest at the moment that it’s still highly unlikely they’ll consider tightening,” Michelle Clayman, chief investment officer at New Amsterdam Partners in New York, which manages $2.5 billion, said in a phone interview. “It’d be pretty surprising to see any changes there.”

Eight out of the 10 industry groups advanced today as phone, energy and health-care companies rose the most, gaining at least 1.1 percent. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, declined 1.9 percent to 13.31.

J.C. Penney soared 9.3 percent to $21.01, the most in a year. The department-store company said it will resume holiday- related promotions in another adjustment to Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson’s pricing strategy. The stock lost 2.5 percent this month through yesterday and slid 44 percent last year.

Amazon rallied 9.4 percent to $284.92 as of 4:54 p.m. in New York. The world’s largest Internet retailer reported fourth- quarter sales that rose 22 percent as more shoppers turned to its broad product selection and speedy shipping for holiday gifts.

Pfizer climbed 3.2 percent to $27.70. The world’s biggest drugmaker forecast 2013 profit of as much as $2.30 a share, higher than analyst estimates, after introducing two products with the potential to each generate more than $1 billion a year.

Eli Lilly & Co. gained 3.2 percent to $54.32. Fourth- quarter earnings beat analyst estimates as sales of its top- selling drug, the Cymbalta depression treatment, increased 20 percent, helped by higher prices in the U.S.

Boston Scientific Corp. added 3.5 percent to $7.10. The second-biggest maker of heart devices said it plans to cut as many as 1,000 jobs in an expansion of its restructuring program that will save an additional $100 million to $115 million annually. The company issued a sales forecast of $7.05 billion to $7.35 billion for 2013, compared with the $7.25 billion generated last year.

Valero Energy gained 13 percent to $43.77. The world’s largest independent refiner by processing capacity said fourth- quarter profit rose 20-fold as the company boosted its use of discounted U.S. crude.

Hess jumped 9 percent to $68.11. The energy company should conduct a full strategic review, Elliott Management said. The activist investor urged shareholders of the energy company to vote for five new board members it’s proposing in a letter.

Elliott Management owns 4 percent of Hess’s common stock, the largest initial investment in its 35-year history.

An S&P index of homebuilders climbed 3 percent to the highest level since July 2007 as the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values increased 5.5 percent in November, the biggest year-over-year gain since August 2006.

D.R. Horton Inc. surged 12 percent to $23.82. The largest U.S. homebuilder by volume said fiscal first-quarter profit more than doubled as demand for new houses climbed in a recovering real estate market.

EMC lost 4.1 percent to $24.18. The provider of enterprise- storage systems and software forecast annual adjusted earnings per share of $1.85, lower than the estimate of $1.90.

VMware Inc., the software maker mostly owned by EMC, tumbled 22 percent to $77.14 after saying first-quarter revenue will be $1.19 billion at most. Analysts on average had projected $1.25 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Seagate slid 9.4 percent to $33.91. The maker of hard drives said third-quarter revenue will be between $3.25 billion and $3.45 billion, missing the average projection of $3.47 billion in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. Rival Western Digital Corp. dropped 5.2 percent to $46.11.

Yahoo! Inc. fell 3 percent to $19.70. The largest U.S. Web portal gave first-quarter and full-year sales forecasts that fell short of some analysts’ projections, underscoring the challenge Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer faces in display advertising, an area where Yahoo lags behind Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. Facebook, the operator of the world’s most-popular social network that’s scheduled to report results tomorrow, fell 5.2 percent to $30.79.

BMC Software Inc. slumped 6.2 percent to $41.71. The maker of programs that help companies update servers and personal computers forecast fiscal 2013 profit that missed analysts’ estimates, a sign it’s struggling to clinch big contracts.

JetBlue Airways Corp. fell 2.7 percent to $6.07. The carrier’s fourth-quarter profit tumbled 96 percent, more than analysts projected, after superstorm Sandy forced flight cancellations and reduced travel demand. More than half of the airline’s departures are from New York’s John F. Kennedy International and the carrier was forced to cancel 1,700 flights there and at other airports over five days in October when Sandy hit the northeastern U.S.

Ford Motor Co. slid 4.6 percent to $13.14 as the second- largest U.S. automaker said it expects to lose about $2 billion in Europe this year as a likely recession in the region continues to sap demand for cars.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

I am asking whether it is possible for a human being living psychologically in any society

to clear violence from himself inwardly.

If it is, the very process will produce a different way of living in this world.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Defeat is not the worst of failures.  Not to have tried

is the true failure.

-George Edward Woodberry, 1855-1930

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:

Birthday: January 28^th: Today Alan Alda, who played Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H turns 77.

And also on this day in…

1521 – The Diet of Worms began, at which Protestant reformer Luther was declared an outlaw by the Roman Catholic church.

1547 – England’s King Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by his 9 year-old son, Edward VI.

1807 – London’s Pall Mall became the first street lit by gaslight.

1965 – General Motors reported the biggest profit of any U.S. company in history.

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end. -Ursula K. Le Guin

photo of the day

01/28th/2013

Birds fly across a field on the planned location of new HS2 high speed rail link as it passes Polesworth, central England. Darren Staples/Reuters

‘Joaldunak’ carnival revelers wearing big copper bells on their backs and carrying horse tails cross a bridge on their way to Ituren during a traditional carnival celebration in the northern Spanish region of Navarra. Every year, men from Zubieta parade to the neighboring town of Ituren to join the traditional carnival, which is considered a festival to welcome the spring after a tough winter in the deep valleys of the northern Navarra region. Susana Vera/Reuters

Market Closes for January 28th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13881.93	-14.05      -0.10%
S&P 500	1500.18	-2.78      -0.18
NASDAQ	3154.297	+4.585      +0.15%
TSX	12815.91	-0.72      -0.01%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10824.31	-102.34
		-0.94%
HANG  SENG	23671.88	+91.45
		+0.39%
SENSEX	20103.35	-0.18
		—
FTSE 100	6294.41	+9.96
		+0.16

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.961	1.942
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.539	2.531
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9613	1.9451
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1410	3.1273

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00593	1.00643
US   $	0.99411	0.99361
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.35300	0.73910
US  $	1.34503	0.74348

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1655.20	1659.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	96.44	95.38
BRENT	115.61	115.77

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Leslie Picker

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, erasing an earlier gain and sending the benchmark index lower for a second day, as a slump in technology companies and raw-materials producers overshadowed a rise in financial shares.

Agrium dropped 1.1 percent after its chief executive officer said there is no reason to compromise with an activist shareholder’s demands for change. Research in Motion Ltd. fell 7.6 percent on concern its new BlackBerry 10 phones won’t reverse the company’s decline in smartphone sales. Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia each rose 0.8 percent. Arc Resources Ltd. and TransCanada Corp. added at least 1.1 to lead an advance among energy producers.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index decreased 0.72 point, or less than 0.1 percent, to 12,815.91 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark gauge erased an earlier gain of as much as 0.3 percent. The S&P/TSX has climbed 3.1 percent this year.

“Canadian banks offer a very compelling value proposition,” said David Baskin, president of Toronto-based Baskin Financial Services Inc., overseeing C$480 million. “That’s a trend we expect to continue. It’s a good place to be.”

Oil advanced to a four-month high as orders for durable goods in the U.S. jumped, adding to economic optimism. Crude prices rose as much as 1 percent, reversing an earlier drop of as much as 0.4 percent, after the U.S. Commerce Department said orders increased 4.6 percent in December.

“People are certainly buying the oil stocks,” said Brian Huen, managing partner at Toronto-based Red Sky Capital Management Ltd., which oversees C$225 million in assets . “Oil, given that it’s a late-cycle commodity, will benefit from people being more confident with the macro-economic environment.”

Arc Resources increased 1.7 percent to C$24.24 and TransCanada advanced 1.1 percent to C$49.32.

Materials producers declined for the fourth-straight day, the longest losing streak for the group since November.

Agrium lost 1.1 percent to C$114.15 after Chief Executive Officer Mike Wilson said there is no reason for his company to compromise with activist shareholder Jana Partners LLC’s demands for change at the largest retailer of fertilizer and seeds to U.S. farmers. Jana is seeking to replace five of Agrium’s directors with its own board nominees and has proposed that the Calgary-based company spin off its retail business to boost profitability.

Financial shares rose 0.4 percent after Fitch affirmed the ratings of six Canadian banks and said their outlooks were stable. The group pared gains after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the long-term ratings on the six banks because of high consumer debt and elevated home prices. Canada’s banks are “sound and well regulated,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in an emailed statement from Ottawa after the downgrade.

Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender, increased 0.8 percent to a record C$62.61. Bank of Nova Scotia added 0.8 percent to C$58.95.

Nordion added 7.3 percent, the most since January 2011, to C$6.90 after saying it is reviewing alternatives to boost shareholder value. The Ottawa-based company, whose isotopes help treat diseases such as cancer, also reported adjusted earnings of 34 cents a share for the quarter ended Oct. 31. That beat estimates of 26 cents a share, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Rogers Communications Inc. jumped 1.6 percent to C$47.02, the highest level since November 2007, after BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Casey raised Canada’s largest wireless carrier to outperform from market perform.

RIM slumped 7.6 percent to C$16.27. CEO Thorsten Heins is set to take the stage in New York on Jan. 30 to unveil the new phones. The new product line is RIM’s attempt to keep its current customers and win back people who have switched to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy, which runs on Google Inc.’s popular Android platform.

“Everything we’ve seen suggests they are catching up to the competition, but there’s nothing here that says this is why you need this device more than anything else,” said Jan Dawson, chief telecommunications analyst with the New York office of London-based Ovum Ltd.

US

By Lu Wang and Sarah Pringle

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, following the longest rally for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since 2004, as a drop in pending home sales overshadowed a rise in durable- goods orders while investors watched earnings.

AK Steel Holding Corp. lost 7.4 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. downgraded the shares. Caterpillar Inc. added 2 percent as it forecast faster growth in the year’s second half.

Facebook Inc. rose 3 percent as options traders were the most bullish on the shares on record. Apple Inc. climbed 2.3 percent, after its worst weekly slump since 2008. Yahoo! Inc. jumped 4.7 percent in late trading after posting its results.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 1,500.18 at 4 p.m. in New York. The equity benchmark closed above 1,500 last week for the first time since December 2007 after an eight-day rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 14.05 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,881.93 today. The Nasdaq 100 Index added 0.2 percent to 2,742.43. About 6.1 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 1.1 percent below the three-month average.

“The sentiment is really, really bullish,” Barry James, who helps oversee $3.5 billion as president of James Investment Research in Xenia, Ohio, said in a phone interview. “That is a little bit of a warning sign to us that we could be more in a topping phase than actually a new bull phase. It would take a lot to really convince everyone that happy days are here, and we can just ride this off into the sunset.”

The index of contracts for the purchase of previously owned homes fell 4.3 percent to 101.7 in December after a revised 1.6 percent increase in November, the National Association of Realtors reported today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey projected no change in the gauge.

A separate report showed orders for durable goods in the U.S. rose 4.6 percent in December after a 0.7 percent gain the prior month. The median forecast of 76 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 2 percent gain.

Eight companies on the S&P 500 were scheduled to report earnings today. Of the 152 companies that have released results so far this quarter, 75 percent have exceeded profit projections, while 66 percent have beaten sales estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The S&P 500 has more than doubled from a 12-year low in 2009 as corporate earnings have climbed for three years and the Federal Reserve has increased its bond purchases to keep interest rates low to spur growth. The S&P 500 is about 4.2 percent below its all-time high of 1,565.15 set in October 2007.

“The earnings numbers at this point really have to come through and validate where the market is,” Mark Freeman, who oversees about $14 billion as chief investment officer at Westwood Holdings Group Inc. in Dallas, said in a phone interview. “The market wants to see the numbers, if you will.”

The S&P 500 has rallied 5.2 percent this month for the best start of a year since 1987. Pension funds may need to sell stocks and buy fixed income to rebalance their asset allocations by the end of the month, according to Societe Generale SA. U.S. pensions may pull $22 billion from equities, strategist Ramon Verastegui wrote in a note.

The equity rally prompted options traders to step up protection against stock losses. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, jumped 5.3 percent, the most in a month, to 13.57 today. The gauge has climbed 9.2 percent after sliding to the lowest level since 2007 on Jan. 22.

Six out of 10 S&P 500 groups fell today as raw-material shares dropped the most, sinking 1 percent. An S&P index of homebuilders snapped a six-day rally, losing 2 percent, as PulteGroup Inc. slid 3.3 percent to $20.96.

AK Steel tumbled 7.4 percent to $4.11 and Century Aluminum Co. lost 4.1 percent to $8.50 as Goldman Sachs downgraded the companies to sell from neutral. The brokerage also lowered its recommendation for the U.S. steel industry to cautious, saying the sector is “poised for a correction.”

U.S. Steel Corp. slipped 3.3 percent to $23.72.

PetSmart Inc. dropped 9.1 percent to $63.64 for the biggest retreat in the S&P 500. The pet-store chain was cut to reduce from neutral by Nomura Holdings Inc. The company faces increased competition from Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc., analyst Aram Rubinson wrote in a note.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. plunged 15 percent, the most in more than four years, to $39.28. The century-old maker of men’s apparel said annual profit will fall 20 percent amid lost sales from unseasonably warm weather and U.S. political uncertainty as lawmakers wrangled over tax increases and budget cuts.

Caterpillar increased 2 percent to $97.45 after predicting “better growth” in the second half. The company also said that production will decline this quarter until inventories more closely match demand from customers.

Facebook rose 3 percent to $32.47. The ratio of outstanding calls to buy the stock versus puts to sell reached 1.51-to-1 last week, the highest level since the options began trading after the company’s initial public offering in May, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The shares have surged 83 percent from their record low in September.

Raymond James also upgraded the operator of the world’s most-popular social network to outperform from market perform, meaning that the firm recommends investors buy the shares.

Apple gained 2.3 percent to $449.83. The maker of iPad and iPhone makers on Jan. 23 reported the slowest quarterly profit growth since 2003, sending the stock down 12 percent over the week.

Yahoo, the biggest U.S. Web portal, rallied 4.7 percent to $21.26 as of 4:46 p.m. in New York. The company’s profit and sales, posted after the close of regular trading, topped analysts’ estimates as Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer benefited from an increase in the prices charged for advertisements.

Hess Corp. climbed 6.1 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $62.48. The energy producer will sell its terminal network and exit the refining business as activist shareholder Elliott Associates LP announced plans to buy a more-than $800 million stake and seek board seats.

Biogen Idec Inc. rose 2.6 percent to $149.99. The company reported fourth-quarter profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates after adjusting for a correction in tax accounting related to a Denmark facility, as sales of its multiple sclerosis drugs rose.

Furiex Pharmaceuticals Inc. soared 66 percent to $35.34 after the company and its partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for their Nesina product to treat Type 2 diabetes. Takeda climbed to a four-year high in Tokyo trading today.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

We do not really ‘come into’ the world;

we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.

As the ocean ‘waves,’

and the universe ‘peoples.’

-Alan Watts, 1915-1973

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 interesting fact in history today!  On this day, January 25^th, 1905 the largest diamond ever was found! The diamond was discovered in the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, during a routine inspection by the mine’s supervisor. It was a 3,106 – carat diamond weighing in at a whopping 1.33 pounds! It was given the name, the “Cullinan”. The Cullinan was later cut into nine large stones and about 100 smaller ones, valued at millions of dollars!

Also on this day:

1881 – Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and others signed an agreement to organize the Oriental Telephone Company.

1915 – In New York, Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his assistant in San Francisco, inaugurating the first transcontinental telephone service.

1924 – The 1st Winter Olympic Games were inaugurated in Chamonix in the French Alps.

1937 – NBC radio presented the first broadcast of “The Guiding Light.” The show remained on radio until 1956 and began on CBS-TV in 1952.

1945 – Richard Tucker debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in the production of “La Gioconda”.

1946 – The United Mine Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor.

1949 – The first Emmys were presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

1959 – In the U.S., American Airlines had the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.

1961 – John F. Kennedy presented the first live presidential news conference from Washington, DC. The event was carried on radio and television.

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it” – Unknown

photos of the day 01/25/2013

Satoria Ginn, left, throws snow at Desiree Lyons during a snow battle along Laurel Street in Pocomoke City, Md. The snow was very dry making snowballs hard to make, so they settled for throwing snow at each other. Grant L. Gursky/Salisbury Daily Times/AP

Ghana fans cheer their team during their African Nations Cup Group B soccer match against Mali at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

“Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try” – Ernest Hemingway

Market Closes for January 25th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13895.98	+70.65    +0.51%
S&P 500	1502.96	+8.14    +0.54
NASDAQ	3149.712	+19.329    +0.62%
TSX	12816.03	-7.59    -0.06%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10926.65	+305.78
		+2.88%
HANG    SENG	23580.43	-18.47
		-0.08%
SENSEX	20103.53	+179.75
		+0.90
FTSE 100	6284.45	+19.54
		+0.31

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.942	1.892
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.531	2.488
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.9451	1.8507
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.1273	3.0448

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00643	1.00232
US   $	0.99361	0.99769
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.35474	0.73815
US  $	1.34608	0.74290

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1659.00	1684.47
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	95.38	94.58
BRENT	115.77	115.08

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam and Sarah Pringle

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell as metals producers slumped, offsetting economic optimism after the European Central Bank said banks will repay more of their loans than forecast and U.S. corporate earnings topped forecasts.

Kinross Gold Corp. and Eldorado Gold Corp. slumped more than 5.1 percent as the gold price fell to a two-week low.

Silver Wheaton Corp. and Silver Standard Resources Inc. lost at least 1.8 percent as the price of the metal declined. Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. climbed 3.6 percent after one of its development partners discovered oil off the coast of Brazil.

Agrium Inc. gained 1.3 percent after an analyst with Desjardins Securities Inc. raised his rating for the stock to a buy.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 7.59 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,816.03 in Toronto. The benchmark gauge increased 0.7 percent this week for a fourth week of gains, the longest stretch in almost a year.

“The whole world has had a nice recovery,” Barry Schwartz, who helps manage C$480 million ($476 million) as a fund manager at Toronto-based Baskin Financial Services, said in a phone interview. “So far the U.S. profits have been very strong. I would suspect we’re going to see that go across the border. That will lead us to continue to rally as we are.”

Some 278 European financial institutions will return 137.2 billion euros ($184.4 billion) on Jan. 30, the first opportunity for early repayment of the initial three-year loan, the Frankfurt-based ECB said in a statement today. That compares with the median forecast of 84 billion euros in a Bloomberg News survey of economists.

About 76 percent of the 147 companies in the S&P 500 that have released results so far this quarter exceeded profit projections. Analysts are turning more optimistic about U.S. earnings, boosting their projections for fourth-quarter profit growth to 4 percent from 2.9 percent at the beginning of the month, the data show.

Gold producers contributed most to declines in the S&P/TSX.

Trading volume was 7.1 percent lower than the 30-day average.

The S&P/TSX Gold subindex fell 2.5 percent to its lowest level since August as 30 of 31 members declined.

Kinross sank 5.1 percent to C$8.58 and Eldorado Gold tumbled 5.3 percent to C$11.55. Gold for February delivery lost 0.8 percent to settle at $1,656.60 an ounce in New York, for a third straight day of declines.

Silver Wheaton lost 2.1 percent to C$34.55 and Silver Standard Resources slipped 1.8 percent to C$12.40. Silver for March delivery fell 1.6 percent to $31.206 an ounce.

Pacific Rubiales rose 3.6 percent to C$23.26 after Karoon Gas Australia Ltd. said it has found oil at the Kangaroo-1 exploration well in Brazil’s Santos Basin. Pacific Rubiales in September agreed to purchase a 35 percent stake in Karoon’s exploration blocks off Brazil.

Agrium, operator of the largest U.S. network of agricultural retail outlets, added 1.3 percent to a record C$115.36.

John Hughes, an analyst with Desjardins, raised his rating for the stock to buy from hold while increasing his price target to C$125 from C$106.30 after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded analysts’ estimates. Profit excluding one-time items will be “slightly above” $2 a share, buoyed by demand for crop nutrients, Calgary-based Agrium said in a statement yesterday. In November, the company forecast $1.50 to $1.90 a share.

Research in Motion Ltd. fell 1.1 percent to C$17.61. Canada would closely examine any proposal for a tie-up between Chinese computer-maker Lenovo Group Ltd. and RIM, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in an interview at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland yesterday.

The BlackBerry maker jumped 2.9 percent yesterday to the highest level in more than a year after Lenovo said it was considering a bid among other options for expanding its mobile- devices business. RIM, Canada’s largest-listed technology company, has said it’s assessing strategic options after losing market share to Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

US

By Stephen Kirkland, Inyoung Hwang and Sarah Pringle

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its first eight-day rally since 2004, as companies from Microsoft Corp. to Procter & Gamble Co. posted better-than-estimated earnings. The euro strengthened to an 11-month high while the yen traded at the lowest since 2010.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.5 percent to 1,502.96 at 4 p.m. in New York, its first close above 1,500 since 2007, even as Apple Inc. slid 2.4 percent and relinquished its position as the world’s biggest company by market value. The euro climbed 0.6 percent to $1.3456 as the European Central Bank said banks will repay more of its loans than economists forecast. The yen slid 0.7 percent versus the dollar. Oil capped a seventh weekly gain, the longest rally in almost four years.

Stocks extended their 2013 advance as earnings beat estimates at 10 of 13 companies in the S&P 500 that reported results since the close of markets yesterday. Per-share profit has exceeded the average analyst estimate at about 76 percent of the 147 companies in the index that released results so far in the reporting season, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“With earnings surprisingly good, the trends are also more importantly favorable for the outlook for 2013, coupled with an economic recovery,” Christopher McHugh, who helps manage $3.5 billion at Turner Investment Partners in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, said in a telephone interview. “All that is fueling the continuation of a rally, but particularly the strong earnings growth that’s coming.”

Earnings have grown 12 percent for the S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far amid a 4.9 percent increase in sales. Profits for the entire index are forecast to have increased 4 percent in the period, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Consumer and energy shares led gains among the 10 main industry groups in the S&P 500 today. The benchmark gauge of U.S. equities extended a fourth straight weekly gain. It needs to rise about 4.1 percent to reclaim its 2007 record of 1,565.15, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average must advance less than 2 percent to surpass its peak.

Microsoft Corp. climbed 0.9 percent to the highest since November after the world’s largest software maker said revenue rose while profit declined as the company spent more money to market its Windows operating system and lure consumers flocking to tablets and smartphones. P&G jumped 4 percent after also raising its 2013 forecast amid growth in market share in key categories.

Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop operator, advanced 4.1 percent as profit rose 13 percent in the fiscal first quarter, meeting analysts’ estimates.

Apple’s 12-month reign as the No. 1 stock ended after the shares slumped 17 percent this year, worse than any other companies in the S&P 500. The decline reduced its market capitalization to $413 billion, below Exxon Mobil Corp.’s $418 billion. Apple extended yesterday’s 12 percent tumble, triggered after the company reported the slowest profit growth since 2003.

Exxon Mobil added 0.4 percent to $91.73 today, its highest price since October.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.3 percent and has increased 0.9 percent this week, halting two weeks of losses.

SolarWorld AG, Germany’s biggest solar-panel maker, slid 30 percent today after saying it needs to make “serious adjustments” to its debt structure.

The euro rose against 15 of its 16 major peers, trading for more than 85 British pence for the first time since Feb. 29. It strengthened 1.3 percent to 122.37 yen, and reached 122.77 yen, the highest since April 2011.

Banks will hand back 137.2 billion euros ($184 billion) of loans in their first early repayment of the ECB’s so-called Longer-Term Refinancing Operations, the central bank said today.

That’s more than 84 billion euros economists predicted in a Bloomberg survey.

“It shows that banks are quite comfortable in terms of off-loading excess liquidity,” said Padhraic Garvey, head of developed-market debt strategy at ING Bank NV in Amsterdam.

“This goes along with the theme of a reduction in the flight to safety.”

Italy’s 10-year bond yield fell three basis points to 4.13 percent, the lowest since 2010. German two-year notes dropped, pushing the yield eight basis points higher to 0.26 percent.

German business confidence rose for a third month in January, according to the Ifo institute’s business climate index.

The Japanese currency declined as much as 1 percent to 91.19 per dollar, the weakest level since June 2010 and capping an 11th weekly loss, the longest losing streak in data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 1971. Consumer prices fell for the seventh time in eight months in December, backing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s case for aggressive monetary easing to defeat deflation.

Cotton, lead and silver lost more than 1.6 percent to lead declines in 15 of 24 commodities in the S&P GSCI Index, sending the gauge down 0.2 percent. Gold futures dropped to a two-week low, falling 0.8 percent to $1,656.60 an ounce, amid reduced demand for the precious metal as a haven investment.

Copper slumped the most in a week, dropping 0.7 percent to $3.652 a pound, as an unexpected decrease in new-home sales tempered the demand outlook for the metal. Home sales fell 7.3 percent to a 369,000 annual pace, below the 385,000 median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists and the 398,000 rate in November that was the highest in more than two years, government figures showed today. Copper also fell after Anglo American Plc said it produced more of the metal last quarter.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index lost 0.4 percent after Samsung Electronics Co. said the won’s strength is hurting profits and Kia Motors Corp.’s profit missed estimates. South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.9 percent, the most in more than a week.

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.5 percent. Russia’s Micex added 0.7 percent to the highest level since April while India’s Sensex and Brazil’s Bovespa gained 0.9 percent.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Be magnificent!

 

“If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it” -John Irving

 

Karen Parnham

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

 

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Tel: 778-430-5808

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I turn the radio on to King FM every morning when I awaken.  It is a Seattle station (95.5 on our radio at home) that is devoted to classical music.  This month, the entire month is dedicated to the music of Mozart, since January is his birthday month.   He was born on January 27^th, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria.  You can visit his childhood home if you go there; it is open to the public.  His baptismal name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart.  Anyhow, just thought I’d mention it in case you are a Mozart fan like me.

We are off to see Oprah tonight!  Should be fun;  I’ll let you know tomorrow.

photo of the day

01/24th/2013

A double rainbow appears after a heavy summer rain storm in the Andean Argentine province of Mendoza January 22, 2013. Enrique Marcarian/Reuters

Market Closes for January 24th, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13825.33	+46.00    +0.33%
S&P 500	1494.82	+0.01    —
NASDAQ	3130.383	-23.287    -0.74%
TSX	12823.62	+29.57
		+0.23%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10620.87	+133.88
		+1.28%
HANG  SENG	23598.90	-36.20
		-0.15%
SENSEX	19923.78	-102.83
		-0.51
FTSE 100	6264.91	+67.27
		+1.09

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.892	1.877
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.488	2.474
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8507	1.8241
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0448	3.0182

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00232	0.99557
US   $	0.99769	1.00043
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.34040	0.74605
US  $	1.33730	0.74777

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1668.15	1684.47
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	95.15	94.58
BRENT	115.72	115.08

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Leslie Picker

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, briefly rising to the highest level since 2011, as Research In Motion Ltd. drove a rally in technology shares after Lenovo Group Ltd. said it’s considering a deal with the BlackBerry maker.

RIM jumped 2.9 percent as Lenovo assessed potential acquisition targets and strategic alliances. Encana Corp. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose at least 1.5 percent, pacing gains in energy shares, as oil rallied from a one-week low. Agrium Inc., operator of the largest U.S. network of agricultural retail outlets, added 2.8 percent after reporting fourth-quarter profit that exceeded estimates.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index added 29.57 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,823.62 at 4 p.m. in Toronto.

Trading volume was 7.6 percent above the 30-day average. The S&P 500 briefly topped 1,500 for the first time since 2007. The Canadian dollar declined to an almost 10-week low.

“There’s a lot of green so far,” said John Kinsey, who helps manage about C$1 billion of assets at Caldwell Securities Ltd. in Toronto. “People are feeling that 2013 might be a little better year than 2012, and the markets are creeping up a little bit every day.”

The S&P/TSX has risen 3.1 percent so far this year amid optimism the global economy is recovering. Technology and health-care companies have led the rally, increasing more than 10 percent. Raw-material stocks have fallen 0.7 percent for the biggest decline among 10 groups in the measure.

American economic data also helped lift the market today.

Claims for jobless benefits in the world’s largest economy unexpectedly dropped to a five-year low. The index of American leading indicators rose in December by the most in three months.

“The U.S. coughs, we get pneumonia,” said Chyanne Fickes, a fund manager at Toronto-based Stone Asset Management Ltd., which manages C$700 million. “Given the jobless claims being better, that backs up better growth down the road for the United States, which bodes well for Canada.”

Technology and health-care shares had the biggest gains in the S&P/TSX today among 10 groups, advancing at least 1.7 percent. Raw-material and utility companies fell.

RIM rallied 2.9 percent to C$17.80, the highest since December 2011. The shares have risen 51 percent so far this year. RIM began a review of its strategic options last year after losing market share to smartphones such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy, raising speculation that it could be a takeover target.

Earlier today, RIM dropped as much as 5.4 percent after Apple posted its slowest profit growth in a decade.

Energy shares rose as oil climbed amid a narrowing spread between West Texas Intermediate crude in the U.S. and London’s Brent. Encana added 1.5 percent to C$19.63. Canadian Natural Resources rose 1.6 percent to C$30.67.

Methanex Corp. rallied 8.2 percent to C$34.88. The company announced a 10-year natural gas supply agreement with Chesapeake Energy Corp. Separately, the shares were raised to outperform from market perform at Raymond James Financial Inc. by equity analyst Steven Hansen.

Agrium advanced 2.8 percent to C$113.90. Fourth-quarter profit excluding one-time items was “slightly above” $2 a share, buoyed by demand for crop nutrients, Calgary-based Agrium said today in a statement. Agrium was expected to earn $1.71 a share, the average of 22 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. In November the company, which also produces potash and nitrogen-based fertilizer, forecast $1.50 to $1.90 a share.

The company plans to release its full fourth-quarter results on Feb. 22, according to the statement.

Major Drilling Group International Inc. tumbled 15 percent, the most since December 2008, to C$10.17. The provider of mineral-drilling services said fiscal fourth-quarter revenue will be lower than previously expected.

US

By Inyoung Hwang and Sarah Pringle

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) — Most U.S. stocks rose, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index briefly topping 1,500, as an unexpected drop in jobless claims and better-than-forecast earnings offset the worst slump for Apple Inc. in four years.

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, slid 12 percent after reporting the slowest profit growth since 2003 and weakest sales increase in 14 quarters. Microsoft Corp. dropped 1.8 percent after the close of regular trading as it posted results.

Netflix Inc. surged 42 percent as the largest online-video service beat its forecast for fourth-quarter subscriber growth and posted an unexpected profit.

More than four stocks rose for every three that fell on U.S. exchanges as of 4 p.m. in New York. The S&P 500 was unchanged at 1,494.82, after rallying as much as 0.5 percent earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 46 points, or 0.3 percent, to 13,825.33. The Nasdaq 100 Index slid 1.4 percent to 2,723.53. More than 6.8 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 10 percent above the three-month average.

“We’ve been talking for a while that the market was going to get to 1,500,” Michael Vogelzang, chief investment officer at Boston Advisors LLC, which manages $2.4 billion, said by telephone. “The question now is, ‘To where from here?’” He said Apple’s drop is “a very interesting case in terms of understanding where the price should be and clearly the market doesn’t quite know.”

U.S. stocks rose yesterday as lawmakers voted to temporarily suspend the federal debt limit and Google Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. reported better-than- forecast earnings. The S&P 500 has rallied 4.8 percent this year and is 4.5 percent below its all-time high of 1,565.15. The Dow is 2.5 percent from its record of 14,164.53 reached in October 2007.

Some 75 percent of the 134 companies in the S&P 500 that have released results so far exceeded profit projections, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Analysts on average forecast growth of 3.8 percent in fourth-quarter profit, the data show.

Equities rose earlier today as a report showed claims for jobless benefits in the U.S. unexpectedly dropped last week.

Applications for unemployment payments decreased to 330,000 in the week ended Jan. 19, compared with the median forecast of 355,000 claims. A separate release showed the index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of the outlook for the next three to six months, climbed 0.5 percent last month.

In China, manufacturing expanded at the fastest rate in two years, according to a survey of companies.

“People are just trying to digest all the earnings reports from all the various companies,” Giri Cherukuri, portfolio manager who helps manage $3 billion at Oakbrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois, said in a telephone interview. “As long as the economy seems to get better, the stock market will do well.”

Apple fell 12 percent to $450.50. The results reinforce concern that the company’s growth is being hurt by higher production costs and step up pressure on Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to demonstrate that Apple has more blockbuster products in the pipeline to reignite sales. The shares have fallen 36 percent since they set a record in September, and have lost 15 percent this year for the worst performance in the S&P 500.

For the fiscal second quarter, which is now under way, Apple forecast sales of $41 billion to $43 billion, compared with predictions by analysts for revenue of $45.5 billion.

The company’s share price decline means the company may lose its status as the world’s most valuable company to Exxon Mobil Corp. Apple’s market value was $423 billion as of today’s close, compared with Exxon’s $416.5 billion.

Microsoft slumped 1.8 percent to $27.13 at 5:08 p.m. in New York as the world’s biggest software maker posted a decline in net income for the fiscal second quarter.

Technology stocks lost 2 percent as a group during regular trading, for the biggest decline among 10 industries in the S&P 500.

Altera Corp. erased 4.6 percent to $33.56. Fourth-quarter earnings at the maker of programmable chips used in phone systems were 37 cents a share, missing the average analyst estimate by 2 cents.

Netflix soared 42 percent, its biggest gain ever, to $146.86. The company signed 2.05 million new U.S. Internet subscribers in the fourth quarter, bringing total domestic online customers to 27.2 million, it said yesterday on its website. The gain led to a quarterly profit of 13 cents a share, compared with analysts’ predictions of a loss.

Amazon.com Inc., the Seattle, Washington-based online retailer, jumped 2.1 percent to $273.62. The company announced today that it was acquiring IVONA Software, a text-to-speech technology company. EBay Inc., operator of the world’s largest online marketplace, advanced 3.4 percent to $55.19, its highest level since 2005.

Consumer discretionary stocks rose 0.7 percent as Netflix led gains. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. increased 4.4 percent to $58.99. The operator of more than 1,400 home-furnishing stores was raised to outperform from market perform by Oppenheimer & Co.’s Brian Nagel, who said shares have likely reached a bottom and that the stock will rebound significantly in the next few quarters.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average extended gains into an eighth day, advancing 1.7 percent to a record. United Continental Holdings Inc. rose 2.2 percent to $25.54, while Southwest Airlines Co. added 0.8 percent to $11.45, as the airlines beat analysts’ estimates for fourth-quarter results amid steadying costs for fuel, their biggest expense.

F5 Networks Inc. rallied 4.5 percent to $103.22. The provider of Internet traffic management solutions forecast second-quarter adjusted earnings of at least $1.21 a share, exceeding the average analyst projection of $1.20.

Xerox Corp. jumped 2.2 percent to $7.75. The provider of document and business services reported earnings that beat analyst expectations as the company shifts away from its traditional printing business. Earnings excluding some items were 30 cents a share, above the average analyst estimate of 29 cents.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Facts are not frightening.

But if you try to avoid them, turn your back and run, then that is frightening.

Krishnamurti,1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The question isn’t who is going to let me;

it’s who is going to stop me.

-Ayn Rand, 1905-1982

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:

We went to the service of one of our most treasured clients who passed away last week.  He was 102 years old and probably died more from a broken heart than anything else.  His wife of 70 years passed away  just over a year ago.  His son stated in the eulogy he gave today at the service that only a week ago his father had inquired about the exchange rate of the pound to the Canadian dollar, and when told, did the mental calculation of what his UK pension was going to be in January.   We smiled because we knew it was true.

Bonnie and I  have known him as our client and friend for almost 25 years.  He emanated the best qualities a human being could possibly hope to possess in their lifetime – honesty, integrity  and loyalty.   When he stopped driving many years ago, he would take the bus from his home in Oak Bay and come to our office and sit in the waiting room where we would serve him tea and he would read the papers – in between interesting conversation.  He gave everyone who knew him hope and inspiration  just through being – the fact that people like him actually do exist!

Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. -Abraham Lincoln

photo of the day

01/23rd/2013

One of the ‘Clavie Crew’ puts wood on the burning Clavie during the Burning Of The Clavie event in Burghead, Scotland January 11, 2013. The Burning Of The Clavie is an ancient Scottish custom, dating roughly from the 1700’s, still observed in Burghead near the Moray Firth. The Clavie, which is a half-cask filled with wood shavings and tar, is set alight and paraded before it becomes a fire beacon on nearby Doorie Hill. Receiving a piece of the burning Clavie is said to bring good luck for the coming year.

Photo: David Moir/Reuters

Market Closes for January 23rd, 2013

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13779.33	+67.12    +0.49%
S&P 500	1494.81	+2.25    +0.15%
NASDAQ	3153.670	+10.494    +0.33%
TSX	12794.05	-30.58   -0.24%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10486.99	-222.94
		-2.08%
HANG  SENG	23635.10	-23.89
		-0.10%
SENSEX	20026.61	+45.04
		+0.23
FTSE 100	6179.64	+18.47
		+0.30

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.877	1.912
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.474	2.499
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8241	1.8417
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0182	3.0281

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99557	0.99219
US   $	1.00043	1.00787
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.33076	0.75145
US  $	1.33133	0.75113

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1684.47	1692.53
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	94.58	96.24
BRENT	115.08	114.64

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Leslie Picker

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, following a four-day rally, as commodity shares retreated amid a vote by U.S. lawmakers to temporarily suspend the debt limit.

Iamgold Corp., a producer of gold in Suriname and Burkina Faso, slumped 15 percent after forecasting higher operating costs for 2013 as it mines lower-grade ore and starts up its Westwood project. Research In Motion Ltd. dropped 2.6 percent after surging 25 percent over the previous five days.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 30.58 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,794.05 at 4 p.m. in Toronto.

Trading volume was 7.5 percent above the 30-day average.

“Markets are meandering after a fairly strong run-up at the beginning of the year,” said Bob Decker, a money manager at Toronto-based Aurion Capital, overseeing C$6 billion ($6 billion). “There’s a small positive influence from pushing out the debt ceiling debate to the May time frame, causing people to unwind some of their protective strategies.”

The U.S. House voted to temporarily suspend the nation’s borrowing limit, removing the debt ceiling for now as a tool for seeking deeper spending cuts. The measure, passed 285-144, lifts the government’s $16.4 trillion borrowing limit until May 19. It goes to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid said lawmakers will pass the measure unchanged and send it to President Barack Obama.

The Canadian dollar fell to parity against its U.S. counterpart after the Bank of Canada said the need to raise interest rates is less urgent as the economy will take longer to reach full output. The International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecasts and now projects a second year of contraction in the euro region as progress in battling Europe’s debt crisis fails to produce an economic recovery.

Canadian stocks yesterday rose to the highest level in more than 17 months as producers of raw materials gained after the Bank of Japan said it will introduce open-ended asset purchases.

The benchmark gauge has risen 2.9 percent this year as technology and health-care shares surged at least 8.4 percent.

Commodity producers, which comprise 18 percent of the S&P/TSX, had the biggest decline among 10 industries today. The group dropped 1.2 percent. Measures of telephone and health-care shares in the benchmark gauge rose.

Iamgold slumped 15 percent to C$9.22, the lowest since April 2009. The company’s estimated net present value was cut by about 10 percent because of higher costs, David Haughton, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, said in a note yesterday. Haughton lowered his target price to $14 from $16 and cut his recommendation to hold from buy. Steven Butler, an analyst at Canaccord Financial Inc. in Toronto, reduced his target to $12.75 from $15.25 and cut his rating to hold from buy.

Centerra Gold Inc. dropped 8.2 percent, the most since Dec. 13, to C$8.60. The shares were rated sector perform in new coverage at RBC Capital Markets by equity analyst Jonathan Guy.

The 12-month share-price estimate is C$11.00 per share.

RIM fell 2.6 percent to C$17.30. The shares yesterday jumped to a one-year high as Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins reiterated the BlackBerry maker is considering strategic options, including selling its hardware unit.

Metro Inc. rallied 3.3 percent to C$64.79. Canada’s third- largest supermarket chain sold almost half of its stake in Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. for C$479 million. Metro may seek grocery and pharmacy acquisitions after selling the stake, Keith Howlett, an analyst at Desjardins Securities in Montreal, said in a note today. Marie-Claude Bacon, a spokeswoman for Metro, declined to comment.

US

By Nikolaj Gammeltoft and Sarah Pringle

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, after benchmark indexes reached five-year highs, as lawmakers voted to temporarily suspend the federal debt limit and technology stocks rallied amid better-than-forecast earnings.

Futures on the Nasdaq 100 Index slid 1.8 percent following the close of U.S. markets as Apple Inc. tumbled 11 percent after reporting first-quarter sales below forecasts. Google Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. jumped more than 4.4 percent in regular trading after earnings topped estimates.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. surged 11 percent after revenue beat forecasts, helped by sales of chips that run servers.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.2 percent to 1,494.81 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 67.12 points, or 0.5 percent, to 13,779.33. About 6.1 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, in line with the three-month average. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.7 percent to 2,712 as of 6:18 p.m. on Apple’s earnings report.

“Right now it’s all earnings related and the fact that maybe we can put the debt ceiling to rest for maybe a couple more months,” Frank Ingarra, who helps manage $1.4 billion at Greenwich, Connecticut-based NorthCoast Asset Management LLC, said in a phone interview.

The U.S. House voted to temporarily suspend the nation’s borrowing limit, removing the debt ceiling for now as a tool for seeking deeper spending cuts. The measure, passed 285-144, lifts the government’s $16.4 trillion borrowing limit until May 19. It goes to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid said lawmakers will pass the measure unchanged and send it to President Barack Obama.

Global investors say the state of U.S. finances is the greatest risk to the world economy and almost half are curbing their investments in response to budget battles, a Bloomberg poll showed. Thirty-six percent of respondents cited the nation’s fiscal woes as the biggest threat, compared with 29 percent who chose Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and 15 percent who named a slowing Chinese economy, according to the Jan. 17 survey of Bloomberg subscribers.

The International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecasts and now projects a second year of contraction in the euro region as progress in battling Europe’s debt crisis fails to produce an economic recovery. The world economy will expand 3.5 percent this year, less than the 3.6 percent forecast in October, the Washington-based IMF said today in an update of its World Economic Outlook report.

Improving corporate earnings and political steps to resolve fiscal issues in the U.S. have pushed the Dow within 2.8 percent of its October 2007 record of 14,164.53. The S&P 500 is 4.5 percent below its record of 1,565.15. The index rose 4.8 percent in January through yesterday for the best start to a year since 1997, and has rallied six straight days for the longest streak in a month.

Some 75 percent of the 106 companies in the S&P 500 that have released results so far exceeded profit projections, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Analysts on average forecast growth of 3.8 percent in fourth-quarter profit, the data show.

“Earnings expectations were optimistic and it’s very possible that they will be right,” Bernard Delattre, president of Altimeo Asset Management in Paris, said in a phone interview today. “The situation is improving in the U.S. Growth is sustained and companies will benefit.”

Apple lost 11 percent to $458.94 as of 6:18 p.m. New York time. The world’s most valuable company reported first-quarter sales below analysts’ predictions, adding fuel to investor pessimism that has sent shares down 27 percent since September.

Profit was little changed at $13.1 billion, or $13.81 a share, in the period that ended Dec. 29, Cupertino, California- based Apple said today in a statement. Sales rose 18 percent to $54.5 billion. Analysts had predicted profit of $13.53 a share on revenue of $54.9 billion, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Technology shares had the largest gain among 10 groups in the S&P 500, advancing 1.2 percent. Google, owner of the biggest Internet search engine, jumped 5.5 percent to $741.50 as fourth- quarter profit, excluding certain items, rose to $10.65 a share.

Analysts had projected earnings of $10.50, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

IBM rallied 4.4 percent to $204.72 as per-share earnings exceeded projections. The largest computer-services provider’s profit forecast also topped analyst estimates as the company shifts to data analysis and cloud computing.

AMD rose 11 percent to $2.73. The second-biggest maker of processors for personal computers reported fourth-quarter revenue that topped analysts’ estimates, helped by sales of chips that run servers. AMD is firing workers and selling assets to free up cash for new products, aiming to mitigate its dependence on the PC market.

Symantec Corp. advanced 2.9 percent to $21.46. The biggest maker of antivirus software company reported fiscal third- quarter sales and profit that beat estimates, aided by strong demand for data-management tools.

US Airways Group Inc. rallied 1.5 percent to $15.07. The Tempe, Arizona-based carrier, which is pushing for a merger with bankrupt American Airlines, reported fourth-quarter profits that topped forecasts on strong travel demand and record revenue.

An S&P index of homebuilders climbed 1.8 percent to the highest level since July 2007 as all 11 members advanced. U.S. home prices rose 5.6 percent in the 12 months through November as buyers competed for a dwindling inventory of properties, according to a report by the Federal Housing Finance Agency today.

KB Home surged 8.9 percent to $18.63. The Los Angeles-based homebuilder reported a 54 percent increase in orders for the first seven weeks of its fiscal first quarter. Trulia Inc., the operator of a residential-property listings website, rallied 4.7 percent to $24.50, while its larger rival Zillow Inc. added 3.3 percent to $34.69 on optimism that gains in home prices would help boost advertising revenue.

Cree Inc., a maker of energy-efficient lighting products, gained 22 percent to $40.85 after quarterly profit jumped 69 percent amid surging demand for its light-emitting diodes.

Map Pharmaceuticals Inc. rallied 59 percent to $24.71.

Allergan Inc., the maker of the wrinkle filler Botox, agreed to buy Map in a deal valued at $958 million to gain an experimental inhalable migraine treatment.

Coach Inc., the largest U.S. luxury handbag maker, tumbled 16 percent to $50.75. Sales at stores open at least a year in North America fell 2 percent in the quarter. Chief Executive Officer Lew Frankfort said the company had a “challenging” holiday season amid increased competition for women’s handbags and economic pressure on consumers.

Texas Instruments Inc. lost 1.1 percent to $33.08. The largest maker of analog chips predicted first-quarter sales that fell short of some analysts’ estimates as electronic-device makers postpone orders to keep inventory low amid lackluster demand.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Nations cohere because there is a mutual regard among

individuals composing them.

Some day we must extend the national law

to the universe,

even as we have extended the family law

to from nations – a larger family.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Everything you can imagine is real.

-Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973

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 in 1970, the Boeing 747 embarked on its first regularly scheduled commercial flight. The debut voyage went from New York to London. More than 40 years later, international investigations into the battery malfunctions that grounded Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jets in recent weeks are accelerating. -Steven Russolillo, WSJ, 01/22/13.

Birthday:  January 22^nd, 1788, Lord Byron, poet.

Thou glorious mirror, where the Almightys’s form

Glasses itself  in tempests: in all time,

Calm or convulsed – in breeze, or gale, or storm,

Icing the pole, or in torrid clime

Dark-heaving; boundless, endless and sublime-

The image of Eternity – the throne

Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime

The monsters of the deep are made; each-zone

Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone.

-by George Gordon, Lord Byron,

from Ocean (Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage)

I’ve failed over and over and over agin in my life and that is why I  succeed.  –Michael Jordan.

photos of the day

01/22nd/2013

A man carries a crown of Peter II Karadjordjevic during a solemn ceremony after the remains of Yugoslavia’s last king were flown back to Serbia in Belgrade, Serbia. The former king fled the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia at the start of World War II and never returned, as Communists took over at the end of the war. He died in exile and was buried at a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Libertyville, Illinois — the only European monarch buried on US soil.  Photo: Darko Vojinovic/AP

A performer dressed as a devil holds a stick spewing fireworks, during the traditional “Correfoc” (fire run) to mark the end of local festivities in Palma de Mallorca on the island of Mallorca January 21, 2013. Correfoc takes place during traditional fiestas in eastern Spain with people dancing in devil costumes lighting fireworks among crowds of spectators. Photo: Enrique Calvo/Reuters

Market Closes, January 22^nd, 2013:

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	13712.21	+62.51    +0.46%
S&P 500	1492.56	+6.58      +0.44%
NASDAQ	3143.177	+8.471      +0.27%
TSX	12824.63	+30.38
		+0.24%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10709.93	-37.81
		-0.35%
HANG  SENG	23658.99	+68.08
		+0.29%
SENSEX	19981.57	-120.25
		-0.60
FTSE 100	6179.17	-1.81
		-0.03

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.912	1.935
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.499	2.508
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.8417	1.8416
U.S.   30 Year Bond	3.0281	3.0289

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99219	0.99287
US   $	1.00787	1.00718
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.32164	0.75664
US  $	1.33204	0.75073

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1692.53	1690.05
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	96.24	95.56
BRENT	114.64	114.20

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose to the highest level in more than 17 months, reversing earlier losses, as producers of raw materials advanced after the Bank of Japan said it will introduce open-ended asset purchases.

Yamana Gold Inc. and Eldorado Gold Corp. rose at least 1.5 percent as the metal advanced. Nevsun Resources Ltd., which operates a mine in Eritrea, gained 4 percent after the nation’s ambassador dismissed reports of a coup. First Quantum Minerals Ltd. declined 1.9 percent as Inmet Mining Corp. rejected its hostile takeover bid and said it is in talks with third parties for another potential deal. Inmet rose 0.5 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 30.38 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,824.63 in Toronto, climbing to its highest level since July 2011. The benchmark gauge has gained 3.2 percent this year.

“It’s a very quiet market and we’re still waiting for macro events over the next few months,” said Anish Chopra, managing director and fund manager with TD Asset Management Inc. in Toronto. The firm manages about C$204 billion ($205.2 billion). “Retail data is very modestly ahead of expectations.”

Canadian retail sales rose 0.2 percent to C$39.4 billion ($39.7 billion) in November, Statistics Canada said today, led by record car purchases. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast unchanged sales.

Raw-materials producers contributed the most to gains in the S&P/TSX as six of 10 industries advanced. Trading volume was  22 percent higher than the 30-day average.

Yamana Gold climbed 2.5 percent to C$17.96 and Eldorado Gold rose 1.5 percent to C$13.01. Gold for February delivery increased 0.4 percent to settle at $1,693.20 an ounce in New York after the Bank of Japan pledged to buy about 13 trillion yen ($145 billion) in assets a month from January 2014 and doubled its inflation target without setting a deadline.

Nevsun, which operates the Bisha gold mine in Eritrea, rallied 4 percent to C$4.39 after Araya Desta, the nation’s ambassador to the United Nations, said reports of an attempted coup of President Isaias Afwerki’s government were “nonsensical.” Agence France-Presse and other news agencies reported government forces have withdrawn from the capital.

The shares slumped the most in six months yesterday after reports of the possible coup first surfaced.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. declined 0.8 percent to C$30.19. Philip Skolnick, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, lowered his rating to hold from buy as the company is exposed to risk from the wide differential between the Canadian oil price and benchmark West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude prices.

“This is the most exposed name in the group,” he said in a note to clients today.

First Quantum, which took its cash and stock bid directly to Inmet investors on Jan. 9 after two earlier offers were rebuffed by the board, slipped 1.9 percent to C$20.92. Inmet today recommended investors reject First Quantum’s C$5.1 billion bid as it undervalues the company, the company said in a statement. Inmet has also approached third parties interested in “considering alternative transactions” for the company and its assets.

First Quantum also lacks the experience developing a mine the size of Inmet’s Cobre Panama copper project in Panama, the company said. Inmet climbed 0.5 percent to C$71.29.

US

By Sarah Pringle

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, following five- year highs for the benchmark indexes last week, after better- than-forecast earnings from companies including Travelers Cos. and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

Travelers rose 2.2 percent after fourth-quarter profit beat estimates. Freeport-McMoRan rallied 4.6 percent as copper sales rose more than anticipated and costs fell. DuPont Co. advanced 1.8 percent after fourth-quarter profit beat estimates as demand climbed for plastics used in autos. Google Inc. jumped 4.8 percent after the close of regular trading as it posted higher fourth-quarter earnings.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.4 percent to 1,492.51 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 62.51 points, or 0.5 percent, to 13,712.21. About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, or about in line with the three-month average.

“This country is on the verge of an explosion of greatness,” David Tepper, the hedge-fund manager who runs the $15 billion Appaloosa Management LP, said today in an interview with Stephanie Ruhle on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers.” “The key is to be long equities this year.”

The S&P 500 has risen 4.7 percent in January for the best start to a year since 1997. The benchmark gauge surged to the highest level since December 2007 last week as companies including General Electric Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reported better-than-estimated earnings. Some 72 percent of the 76 companies in the benchmark index that have released results so far exceeded projections, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Analysts on average forecast growth of 3.8 percent in fourth-quarter profit, the data show.

Sales of U.S. existing homes unexpectedly fell 1 percent to a 4.94 million annual rate last month, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for sales to increase to a 5.1 million rate. The reading was still the second-highest since November 2009.

In Asia, the Bank of Japan made its strongest commitment yet to end two decades of stagnation, shifting to Federal Reserve-style open-ended asset purchases. The BOJ pledged to buy about 13 trillion yen ($145 billion) in assets a month from January 2014 and doubled its inflation target without setting a deadline.

Tepper said he’s bullish on U.S. stocks as the economy is set to grow by as much as 3 percent this year. He said investors should own stocks because they’re historically inexpensive, U.S. companies have little debt, interest rates are low, credit is fully valued and the major risks to the global economy, such as a debt crisis in Europe, have diminished.

“Whatever happens in the near-term, there is nothing to suggest the path of least resistance is not higher over the intermediate and longer-term,” Jeffrey Saut, who helps oversee about $350 billion as chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida, wrote in a note to clients today. “Therefore, I would accumulate favored stocks, as well as the indices, on any ensuing pullbacks.”

Google rose 4.8 percent to $736.75 as of 4:58 p.m. in New York. The owner of the world’s largest search engine reported higher profit as advertisers boosted spending to reach consumers during the holiday shopping season.

International Business Machines Corp. added 4 percent to $203.97 after the close of regular trading. The world’s biggest computer-services provider forecast profit that exceeded analyst estimates as the company shifts to data analysis and cloud computing.

Materials producers in the S&P 500 rose 0.9 percent, the most among 10 industries in the benchmark equity gauge. All groups advanced except for consumer-staples shares.

Freeport-McMoRan added 4.6 percent to $35.19 as fourth- quarter earnings topped analysts’ estimates. Metal volumes were better than expected because of higher production in North and South America, Freeport said. Copper and gold sales increased from a year earlier when the company’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia, its biggest operation, was affected by a strike. The Phoenix-based mining company agreed last month to buy two energy companies for $9 billion.

DuPont gained 1.8 percent to $47.82. The biggest U.S. chemical company by market value said profit excluding one-time items was 11 cents a share, beating the 7-cent average of 10 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales in 2013 will climb to $36 billion from $34.8 billion, DuPont said, topping the $35.9 billion average of 17 analysts’ estimates.

Travelers, the only insurer in the Dow, rallied 2.2 percent to $77.95 after profit beat estimates on higher income from its investment portfolio, increased sales and a benefit from reserves. Travelers’ fourth-quarter profit fell 51 percent as superstorm Sandy boosted claims costs.

Insurance stocks rallied 1.6 percent as group, the most among 24 industries in the S&P 500, to the highest level since September 2008.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average, which includes 20 members, rallied 1.1 percent to 5,757.44, a record high. Delta Air Lines Inc. jumped 2.9 percent to $14.01. The Atlanta-based carrier plans to cut seating capacity as much as 4 percent while working to curb labor and fuel costs that crimped fourth-quarter earnings.

Johnson & Johnson slumped 0.7 percent to $72.69. Profit for 2013 will be $5.35 to $5.45 a share, the company said in a statement. The guidance missed the $5.49 average of 23 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Worldwide consumer sales declined in 2012 to $14.4 billion, a 2.9 percent decrease caused by a negative currency impact.

Boeing Co. fell 1.2 percent to $74.16 after saying it will suspend deliveries of 787 Dreamliners while working to meet a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration directive to ensure the plane’s lithium-ion batteries are safe.

Dell Inc. climbed 2.2 percent to $13.12. The company is getting closer to clinching a leveraged buyout with Silver Lake Management LLC, and Microsoft Corp. is planning to provide part of the funding, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Silver Lake and Dell are negotiating a price in the range of $13.50 to $14.25 a share, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Microsoft is discussing contributing about $2 billion for the deal, which could be announced this week, the person said. Microsoft retreated 0.4 percent to $27.15, erasing earlier gains.

International investors are the most bullish on stocks in at least 3 1/2 years, with close to two-thirds planning to raise their holdings of equities during the next six months, according to a Bloomberg survey.

As the global financial and business elite gather in Davos, Switzerland, for their annual forum, 53 percent of respondents to the Bloomberg Global Poll also say equities will offer the highest return in the next year. That’s a 17 percentage point jump from the last poll in November and the most since the quarterly survey of investors, analysts and traders who subscribe to Bloomberg began in July 2009.

With 72 percent of corporate earnings exceeding analysts’ estimates, it may be difficult for U.S. stocks not to reach a record in 2013.

The S&P 500 is less than 5 percent below the all-time high in October 2007. Profits in the benchmark gauge are forecast to exceed $1 trillion this year, or 31 percent more than when the gauge peaked, according to more than 11,000 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Even if the price-earnings ratio, now 9.8 percent below the six-decade mean, doesn’t expand, the S&P 500 is poised to recover fully from the financial crisis that began almost six years ago.

“Corporate America has done an incredible job post- recession,” Leo Grohowski, BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s New York-based chief investment officer said in a Jan. 16 phone interview. His firm oversees $179 billion. “It’s not going to be a return to the ’80s and ’90s where we had people retiring from their day jobs to become day traders. I wouldn’t revert to the historic P/E ratio kind of environment. But the good news is I don’t think we need that to reach a record.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

 

Give with faith, and never without faith.

Give with dignity.  Give with humility.  Give with joy.

And give with understanding of the effects of your gift.

Taittiriya Upanishad

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

If you have made mistakes, even serious

ones, there is always another chance for you.

What we call failure is not the falling down,

but the staying down.

-Mary Pickford, 1892-1979

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