Category: Newsletters

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Poet Walt Whitman’s birthday, born May 31^st, 1819,

…Passing the visions, passing the night,

Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades’ hands,

Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of my soul,

Victorious cong, death’s outlet song, yet varying ever-altering song,

As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding the night,

Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy,

Covering the earth and filling the spread of the heaven,

As the at powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses,

Passing, I leave thee lilac with heart-shaped leaves,

I leave thee there in the dooryard, blooming, returning with spring…

-Walt Whitman, from When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d

And on this day in…

1859 – Big Ben goes into operation in London

1819 – Walt Whitman, American poet, is born
1988 – Ronald Reagan in Moscow, the first American president to do so in 14 years
1962 – Adolf Eichmann, former SS commander, is hanged near Tel Aviv, Israel
1578 – Martin Frobisher c1539-1594 sails with fleet of 15 ships to build a settlement at Frobisher Bay and mine the ‘gold’ ore found a year earlier; will discover Hudson Strait; the 2,000 tons of ‘gold’ ore he mines will prove to be worthless pyrites, and used to pave the streets of London.

photos of the day May 31, 2012

Lightning strikes behind the campanile on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kan.

Orlin Wagner/AP

Children stand in a multimedia installation about global warming’s effect on glaciers at the Green Nation Fest environmental show in Rio de Janeiro. In June, Rio will host the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

Victor R. Caivano/AP

Market Closes for May 31, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12393.45	-26.41
		-0.21%
S&P 500	1310.33	-2.99
		-0.23%
NASDAQ	2827.34	-10.02
		-0.35%
TSX	11513.21	+79.99
		+0.70%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8542.73	-90.46
		-1.05%
HANG  SENG	18629.52	-60.70
		-0.32%
SENSEX	16218.53	-93.62
		-0.57%
FTSE 100	5320.86	+23.58
		+0.45%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.737	1.795
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.288	2.334
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.5612	1.6220
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.7137	2.7137

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.03294	1.02973
US   $	0.96811	0.97113
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.27677	0.96811
US  $	1.23606	0.80902

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1562.60	1562.45
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	86.53	87.82
BRENT	103.24	104.17

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 31 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, trimming losses from the biggest monthly decline since September, as banks beating profit estimates and optimism Greece will stay in the euro offset disappointment with U.S. economic reports.

Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank increased more than 1.4 percent. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and National Bank of Canada rose at least 0.7 percent after beating analyst earnings estimates. CGI Group Inc. surged 14 percent after agreeing to buy Logica Plc, doubling sales and expanding in Europe. Copper producers Teck Resources Ltd. and Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. declined at least 1.1 percent.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index increased 79.99 points, or 0.7 percent, to 11,513.21 after falling as much as 0.6 percent earlier. The measure slumped 6.3 percent in May, posting a third straight monthly loss as investors grew increasingly concerned that Greece will leave the euro and the debt crisis will overwhelm Spain.

“We had some strength today amongst the Canadian banks, mainly because of earnings out of CIBC and National,” Gareth Watson, vice president of investment management and research at Richardson GMP Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview.

The firm oversees about C$16 billion ($15.5 billion). “They were respectable and showed some stability.”

Banks in the S&P/TSX rose today as a Greek opinion poll before June 17 elections showed New Democracy, the largest pro- bailout party, leading Syriza, which calls for the cancellation of the country’s bailout terms.

The Wall Street Journal reported on its website that the European department of the International Monetary Fund has started discussing contingency plans for a rescue loan to Spain in the event that the country can’t find enough money to bail out the Bankia group. The IMF is not preparing financial aid for Spain, nor has the country asked for a loan, a spokesman for the fund said.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, gained 1.8 percent to C$51.55. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second- largest lender, climbed 1.4 percent to C$79.07.

CIBC, Canada’s fifth-biggest bank, gained 2.5 percent to C$72.07 after saying second-quarter profit rose 5.7 percent on consumer lending gains, topping analysts’ estimates.

National Bank of Canada, the country’s sixth-biggest bank, increased 0.7 percent to C$73.66 after boosting profit for a seventh straight period because of an increase in consumer banking and a gain from a sale.

CGI Group surged 14 percent, the most since July 2002, to C$23.95 after saying it will buy Logica for 1.7 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) in cash. The deal will double “significantly strengthen its presence in Europe,” said Paul Treiber, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Materials stocks in the S&P/TSX decreased as copper futures fell to a five-month low as signs of slowing in the U.S. economy added to concerns that Europe’s debt crisis will damp raw- material demand. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to a one-month high and companies hired fewer workers than forecast, according to a Labor Department report today.

Teck Resources, Canada’s biggest base metals producer, declined 1.1 percent to C$30.94. Ivanhoe Mines, Rio Tinto Group’s partner in the Oyu Tolgoi Mongolian gold and copper mine, sank 3.1 percent to C$9.75.

US

By Rita Nazareth

May 31 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, capping the biggest monthly decline for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since September, as disappointment with American economic reports overshadowed optimism that Greece will stay in the euro.

Energy shares dropped the most among 10 groups in the S&P 500, while the Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index jumped 3.1 percent as oil had the biggest monthly decline in more than three years.

Joy Global Inc. sank 5.4 percent as the maker of mining equipment cut forecasts. Bank of America Corp. rallied 2.1 percent to pace gains in financial shares. Facebook Inc. climbed 5 percent, rebounding from an earlier slump of 4.8 percent.

The S&P 500 decreased 0.2 percent to 1,310.33 at 4 p.m. New York time, after falling below 1,300 earlier today. The benchmark gauge has dropped 6.3 percent in May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 26.41 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,393.45. About 8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 21 percent above the three-month average.

“There’s less of a growth backstop to the global economy,” said Alan Gayle, a senior strategist at RidgeWorth Capital Management in Richmond, Virginia, which oversees about $47 billion. “The U.S. has held the position of stabilizing factor amid all the concern about Europe’s crisis. To the extent that the latest numbers suggest that momentum in the U.S. is slowing, that will make investors more nervous.”

Equities fell as data showed the U.S. economy grew more slowly in the first quarter than previously estimated and business activity expanded in May at the slowest pace in more than two years. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose. A Labor Department report due tomorrow is projected to show unemployment held at 8.1 percent.

Benchmark gauges briefly rose today as two polls showed that the anti-austerity Greek Syriza party is likely to win second place. An inconclusive election on May 6 has stoked concern that Greece will be unable to form a government willing to implement austerity measures reached with the European Union as part of an international bailout. MSCI Inc. and Standard & Poor’s announced contingency plans for calculating their equity indexes should Greece leave the euro currency union.

“This is a chokepoint for Greece,” said Peter Sorrentino, who helps oversee $14.7 billion at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati. “The question gets pushed to a resolution. It would be expensive for the rest of Europe to have Greece exit.”

Stocks also rebounded after the Wall Street Journal reported that the International Monetary Fund’s European department started contingency plans for a rescue loan to Spain should the country fail to find funds to bail out Bankia group.

The IMF said it is not preparing financial aid for Spain and the country denied any talks about a bailout.

Concern about Europe’s debt crisis sent the S&P 500 lower for a second month, following the best first-quarter gain since 1998. Commodity, financial and technology companies fell at least 7.8 percent in May.

Energy shares in the S&P 500 dropped 0.9 percent today, the most among 10 groups, as oil sank after the U.S. Energy Department said stockpiles increased to a 22-year high.

Options traders are paying the most ever to protect against losses in Exxon Mobil Corp., spurred by concern expanding U.S.

stockpiles and slowing economic growth will drive down the largest energy producer by market value. Exxon retreated 1.5 percent to $78.63, the lowest level since November.

Joy Global tumbled 5.4 percent to $55.86, driving industrial shares lower. The maker of P&H and Joy mining equipment cut forecasts for full-year earnings and revenue as mining companies ease capital expenditure amid concern over the slowdown in China. Caterpillar Inc., the largest maker of construction and mining equipment, slid 2.8 percent to $87.62.

TiVo Inc. retreated 4.7 percent to $8.54. The company reported a first-quarter loss, citing hardware costs, and said legal expenses in the current period would lead to a wider loss than analysts expected.

Kohl’s Corp. dropped 6.2 percent to $45.82 after the retailer said May same-store sales decreased 4.2 percent. That compares with the average estimate for a 1.1 percent decline.

Banks had the biggest gain in the S&P 500 among 24 groups, adding 1 percent. The KBW Bank Index added 1.1 percent, reversing a loss of 1 percent. Bank of America gained 2.1 percent, the most in the Dow, to $7.35.

Facebook, which this week fell below $30 for the first time, rallied 5 percent to $29.60. The shares dropped earlier today amid concern that the world’s largest social-networking service will struggle to wring profit from its 901 million users.

Ciena Corp. climbed 14 percent, the most since September, to $13.55. The maker of networking equipment rose after second- quarter sales and earnings topped analysts’ estimates. Ciena is capitalizing on demand for speedy fiber-optic networks, which transmit data in the form of light over fiber strands.

Talbots Inc. soared 89 percent, the most ever, to $2.44.

The women’s clothing retailer trying to reverse falling sales agreed to be bought by private-equity firm Sycamore Partners for a reduced price of $369 million, including debt.

TJX Cos. rose 2.7 percent to $42.46. The owner of the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls retail chains posted an 8 percent increase in May same-store sales, topping analysts’ estimates of 5.1 percent as warm weather and lower gasoline prices boosted consumer spending. Target Corp., which also beat estimates, added 0.2 percent to $57.91.

“Traffic trends have picked up as hot summer weather spread over the majority of the nation,” Adrienne Tennant, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Washington, wrote.

The S&P 500 may rebound almost 3 percent in June based on the average size of moves following past May declines of 4 percent or more, Bespoke Investment Group said.

The benchmark gauge has fallen 4 percent or more in May on 15 occasions since 1928, followed by an average June increase of 2.8 percent, according to data compiled by Bespoke. The index rose in June 60 percent of the time following such moves.

The last time the S&P 500 slid more than 4 percent during May of a U.S. presidential election year was in 1984, when it tumbled 5.9 percent before rebounding 1.8 percent in June. This year’s slide may also mark a bottom for the market followed by a June rally, Justin Walters, Bespoke’s co-founder, said in a phone interview yesterday.

“The data certainly leans positive,” Walters said.

“Along with the election analysis and the big down Mays, the risk-reward favors the market going positive here.”

The S&P 500 has averaged a gain of 0.51 percent in June following an increase in May, the Bespoke report showed, and the index has risen 0.96 percent in June after May declines. Its performance next month ultimately will be determined by Europe’s handling of the government-debt crisis, according to Walters.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

 

Never under any circumstances ask ‘how.”

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

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

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

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

 

You cannot be mad at somebody
who makes you laugh – it’s as

simple as that.

-Jay Leno, 1950-

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

The execution of Joan of Arc, from the official contemporary account, May 30^th, 1431:

After the sentence was read, the bishop, the Inquisitor, and many of the judges went away, leaving Jeanne upon the scaffold.

Then the Bailli of Rouen, an Englishman, who was there, without any legal formality and without reading any sentence against her, ordered that she should be taken to the place where she was to be burned.

When Jeanne heard this order given, she began to weep and lament in such a way that all the people present were themselves moved to tears.

The said Bailli immediately ordered that the fire should be lighted, which was done.

And she was there burned and martyred tragically, an act of unparalleled cruelty.

And many, both noble and peasant, murmured greatly against the English.

And on this day in…

1672 – Peter the Great, Russian tsar, was born

1783 – The first US newspaper was published

1806 – General (and future U.S. President) Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in (gun) duel
1942 – The RAF launches the first 1,000 plane raid over Germany
1971- NASA launches Mariner 1, the first satellite to orbit Mars

1994 – Pope forbids the ordination of women

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. – Anne Frank

photos of the day May 30, 2012

Queen Elizabeth II attends a dinner with The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, at the Caledonian Club in London. The Queen is marking her Diamond Jubilee. Celebrations reach a peak with a four-day weekend of events, June 2-5.

Lewis Whyld/Pool/AP

Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi receives flowers from migrant workers from Myanmar as she visits them in Samut Sakhon province, Thailand. Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi ventured outside Myanmar for the first time in 24 years in an unmistakable display of confidence in the liberalization taking shape in her country after five decades of military rule.

Sukree Sukplang/Reuters

Market Closes for May 30, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12419.86	-160.83
		-1.28%
S&P 500	1313.32	-19.10
		-1.43%
NASDAQ	2837.36	-33.63
		-1.17%
TSX	11433.22	-176.08
		-1.52%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8633.19	-23.89
		-0.28%
HANG  SENG	18690.22	-365.24
		-1.92%
SENSEX	16312.15	-126.34
		-0.77%
FTSE 100	5297.28	-93.86
		-1.74%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.795	1.872
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.334	2.389
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6220	1.7483
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.7137	2.8534

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02973	1.02282
US   $	0.97113	0.97769
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.27372	0.78510
US  $	1.23692	0.80846

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1562.45	1556.82
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	87.82	90.76
BRENT	104.17	107.98

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 30 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks declined, giving the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index its biggest decline in more than two weeks, as Research In Motion Ltd. forecast a surprise loss and concern grew that Greece will leave the euro.

RIM fell 7.1 percent after the BlackBerry maker said it will post its first quarterly operating loss since 2004 and that it hired banks to advise on strategic options. Suncor Energy Inc., Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Cenovus Energy Inc. slipped more than 3.1 percent as crude oil tumbled to a seven- month low. Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank fell at least 0.6 percent.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 176.08 points, or 1.5 percent, to 11,433.22 in Toronto. The gauge is on pace for a 7 percent decline in May, the biggest drop since September and its third straight monthly loss.

“Nobody really knows how the game is going to play out, how ugly it’s going to get and how long it’s going to take,”

Jennifer Radman, a money manager at Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$1 billion ($1 billion). “All that uncertainty compresses valuations in equities.”

The index completed its first weekly gain since the end of April on May 25 as materials and bank shares rallied after U.S. home sales rose and investors speculated China and Europe will stimulate economic growth.

RIM fell 7.1 percent to C$10.66 after saying it will post an operating loss. The average analyst estimate for operating profit was $261 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. and RBC Capital Markets to help evaluate options, including forging partnerships, licensing its software and looking at “strategic business model alternatives.”

Energy companies snapped a seven-day streak of increases as crude futures declined 3.2 percent to $87.82 a barrel on speculation that U.S. crude stockpiles climbed to the highest level since 1990 and as the euro weakened on concern that the debt crisis will overwhelm Spain.

Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, declined 3.6 percent to C$28.15. Canadian Natural Resources, the country’s third-biggest energy company, sank 6.8 percent to C$29.85. Oil-sands producer Cenovus Energy decreased 3.1 percent to C$32.10.

Banks in the S&P/TSX fell after a gauge of pending U.S. home sales dropped by the most in a year and an opinion poll showed most Greeks want to see the terms of an international financial rescue revised.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, slipped 0.7 percent to C$50.64. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second- largest lender, declined 1.2 percent to C$77.99.

US

By Rita Nazareth

May 30 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, putting the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index on pace for its worst month since September, as housing data disappointed and concern grew about Greece’s future in the euro and the health of Spanish banks.

A measure of homebuilders in S&P indexes sank 4.9 percent.

Sears Holdings Corp. slumped 9 percent, pacing declines in retail stocks, ahead of tomorrow’s industrywide monthly sales report. Research In Motion Ltd. dropped 7.8 percent after forecasting a surprise operating loss and hiring banks to advise on strategic options. Facebook Inc. retreated 2.3 percent, extending its decline since it went public to 26 percent.

The S&P 500 slid 1.4 percent to 1,313.32 at 4 p.m. New York time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 160.83 points, or 1.3 percent, to 12,419.86. The Russell 2000 Index dropped 2 percent to 762. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index soared 15 percent to 24.14 for the biggest rally since March 6. About 6.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, or 5.5 percent below the three-month average.

“It’s a high-anxiety market,” said Hayes Miller, who helps oversee about $48 billion as the Boston-based head of asset allocation in North America at Baring Asset Management Inc. “We’re not anywhere near the end of Europe’s debt crisis.

In the U.S., economists are making the point that if housing were to stabilize, consumption could grow. The question is: “What’s going to allow the housing market to stabilize?”

Global equities tumbled, U.S. Treasury 10-year yields slid to a record and the euro weakened to a two-year low. The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes fell in April by the most in a year. An opinion poll showed most Greeks want to see the terms of a financial rescue revised.

Costs to protect Spanish government debt with default swaps climbed to a record. The European Central Bank denied it has rejected a plan floated by the Spanish government to recapitalize Bankia group, saying it hasn’t been approached. The Spanish government itself has backtracked on an idea to recapitalize Bankia by injecting sovereign debt into its parent company that, according to the Financial Times, could then be used as collateral to borrow from the ECB.

Concern about Europe’s debt crisis drove the S&P 500 down 6.1 percent so far in May. Financial, commodity and technology companies have fallen at least 7.2 percent in the period. The gauge is on pace for a second straight monthly decline, following the best first-quarter gain since 1998.

“What you’re seeing is worry about how this really plays out and whether Europe has the ability to even solve the problem at this point,” said Madelynn Matlock, who helps oversee about $14.7 billion at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati.

Commodity, financial and industrial shares fell the most among 10 groups in the S&P 500 today. Bank of America Corp. slid

3.2 percent to $7.20. Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, dropped 3.5 percent to $8.58. Caterpillar Inc., the biggest maker of construction equipment, decreased 2.5 percent to $90.18. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most- tied to the economy lost 2.5 percent. Homebuilder Lennar Corp. fell 6.7 percent to $26.82.

Thirty of 32 companies in the S&P 500 Retailing Index retreated, sending the gauge down 1.6 percent. The International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade group that tracks retailers, today cut its monthly U.S. same-store sales forecast to 2 percent from 3 percent, citing weakened consumer confidence leading to a slowdown in discretionary spending.

Sears lost 9 percent to $52.34 for the biggest drop in the S&P 500. Kohl’s Corp. slumped 3.6 percent to $48.82. Macy’s Inc. fell 1.8 percent to $38.30.

RIM sank 7.8 percent to $10.35, the lowest level since 2003. An exodus of customers to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android devices has taken a toll on sales and profit, putting pressure on management to make changes. An operating loss would be the company’s first since 2004.

Facebook lost 2.3 percent to $28.19, after yesterday slipping below $30 for the first time. The recent slide in the stock that has cost investors $25 billion may not end until the shares drop another 20 percent, leaving the company’s valuation on par with competitors that also do business over the Internet.

The company is trading at 29.5 times its projected 2014 profit of $2.69 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The stock would have to dive to $23.07 to match the average price- to-earnings ratio for the Nasdaq Internet Index based on estimated earnings in the next 12 months, according to the data.

Investors have pummeled the shares, citing concern over growth prospects for the largest social-networking service.

Shareholders filed lawsuits that said the company and its underwriters overpriced Facebook at $38 a share. The IPO gave Facebook a higher multiple than 99 percent of the S&P 500.

“It could fall quite significantly because it was priced at a significant premium,” Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Co., said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Such stocks, when they go out of favor, tend to fall before stabilizing.”

EBay Inc. sank 4.6 percent, the most since November, to $39.59. The largest online marketplace dropped after an analyst said second-quarter sales may miss estimates due to a slowdown in U.S. e-commerce spending growth. Sales for the quarter ending in June will be $3.33 billion, according to a projection today by Investment Technology Group Inc. That’s less than the average $3.37 billion analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg.

Pep Boys — Manny, Moe & Jack plunged 20 percent to $8.89, the lowest level since August. The auto-parts chain slumped after ending its proposed $1 billion sale to Gores Group LLC, which questioned the deal earlier this month following lower- than-expected earnings.

Whirlpool Corp. gained 0.5 percent to $63.13. The shares surged as much as 4.2 percent earlier today as the U.S. Commerce Department proposed duties of as much as 71 percent on large, residential washing machines made in South Korea, concluding that government subsidies for the goods undercut U.S. producers.

Monsanto Co. rallied 2.2 percent to $76.41. The world’s largest seed company said third-quarter profit will exceed analysts’ estimates on rising sales in the U.S., Brazil and Eastern Europe. The company also boosted its full-year forecast.

Apple Inc., the world’s most valuable company, gained 1.2 percent to $579.17. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said that television is an area of “intense focus” for the company as it seeks to add products that can build on the success of Macs, iPhones and iPads.

“This is an area of intense focus for us,” Cook said of TV in an on-stage interview yesterday at the D10 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. “We’re going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

 

To grow is to go beyond what you are today.

Stand up as yourself.  Do not imitate.

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

Just try to grow.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

Carolann

 

The beginning of knowledge is the discovery

of something we do not understand.

-Frank Herbert, 1920-1986

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:

Déjà vu

There are many theories as to what causes déjà vu.  One holds that our ‘spirit’ can actually travel faster in time than our earthbound bodies so it charges off into the future from time to time for reasons we can’t explain.  Another claims that it’s because we are reincarnated and old memories from past lives are seeping through into our current consciousness.  And then there’s the parallel universe theory that suggests our lives are always splitting off into different directions whenever we make big decisions and that at the point of experiencing déjà vu we are connecting with these parallel worlds.

All of which rather ignores the actual sensation of déjà vu that is simply joyous and mesmerizing regardless of what it actually is.  Déjà vu experiences stay with us too, logging themselves into our memory banks where they can be withdrawn whenever those ‘déjà vu’ conversations occur, usually over a few glasses of wine late at night.  As it happens I have  a déjà vu theory of my own,  I think it’s our brains re-booting – a neurological safety mechanism designed to clear the decks of our consciousness and leave us fresh and awake.

from The Book of Idle Pleasures, Dan Kieran.

And on this day in…

1953 – Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first men to reach the top of Mount Everest

1974 – President Nixon agrees to turn over 1200 pages of edited Watergate transcripts
1917 – John F. Kennedy is born
1990 – Boris Yeltsin in elected President of Russia.

We need men who can dream of things that never were. –John f. Kennedy

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ -Abraham Lincoln
photos of the day May 29, 2012

A lantern draped with a flower lei floats on the water during the Na Lei Aloha Lantern Floating event held by the Shinnyo-en Buddhist organization at Ala Moana beach park on Memorial Day in Honolulu, Hawaii, Monday night. The event is held in honor of those who’ve died due to war, natural disasters and health reasons.

Hugh Gentry/Reuters

Octopus Paulus, born in Germany, swims over boxes with the flags of Germany and Portugal in Sea Life Aquarium in Porto, Portugal, to predict the winner between the two teams’ Euro 2012 soccer match.

Luis Efigenio/Reuters

Market Closes for May 29, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12580.69	Markets Closed
		Monday
S&P 500	1332.42	Closed
NASDAQ	2870.99	Closed
TSX	11609.30	+43.15
		+0.37%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8657.08	+63.93
		+0.74%
HANG  SENG	19055.46	+254.47
		+1.35%
SENSEX	16438.58	+21.74
		+0.13%
FTSE 100	5391.14	+34.80
		+0.65%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.872	1.839
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.389	2.372
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.7483	Closed
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8534	Closed

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02282	1.02376
US   $	0.97769	0.97679
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.27704	0.78306
US  $	1.24854	0.80093

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1556.82	1579.75
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	90.76	Closed
BRENT	107.98	108.87

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 29 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for the fifth time in six days as metals and oil climbed and Bank of Nova Scotia became the nation’s third lender to beat second-quarter earnings estimates.

Suncor Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. added more than 1.6 percent on increasing oil futures. Bank of Nova Scotia gained 2.2 percent after joining Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal in topping projections. Royal Bank of Canada increased 1.1 percent. Base metal producers Teck Resources Ltd. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. rallied as much as 4.4 percent as copper futures rose.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 84.98 points, or 0.7 percent, to 11,651.13 at 11:28 a.m. Toronto time. It added 2.6 percent last week and posted the biggest four-day rally since Feb. 22.

“This is an encouraging sign we’ve seen the last five or six days,” Barry Schwartz, a money manager at Baskin Financial Services Inc. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$400 million ($391 million). “People are still spending money and companies are still doing fine.”

The index completed its first weekly gain since the end of April on May 25 as materials and bank shares rallied after U.S. home sales rose and investors speculated China and Europe will stimulate economic growth.

Energy companies rose as oil climbed to a one-week high on speculation that economic growth will boost fuel demand in the U.S. as the peak consumption period for gasoline begins.

Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, gained 2.3 percent to C$29.56. Canadian Natural Resources, the country’s third-biggest energy company, increased 1.6 percent to C$32.29.

Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third-largest lender, gained 2.2 percent to C$51.90 after reporting a 23 percent surge in domestic banking profit in the second quarter.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, rose 1.1 percent to C$50.97.

Materials stocks in the benchmark gauge advanced as copper increased for the third straight session on speculation that China may take more steps to boost economic growth, increasing demand for the metal.

Teck Resources, the country’s biggest base-metals producer, advanced 4.4 percent to C$32.71. First Quantum Minerals, Canada’s second-largest publicly traded copper producer, gained 1.1 percent to C$18.67.

US

By Rita Nazareth

May 29 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, after the first weekly gain since April in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as Greek opinion polls eased concern the country will leave the euro and data signaled the American housing market stabilized.

All 10 industries in the S&P 500 advanced as commodity and technology companies had the biggest gains. Builders D.R. Horton Inc. and PulteGroup Inc. increased at least 2 percent as data showed that home values in 20 U.S. cities declined at a slower pace. Caterpillar Inc., Bank of America Corp., Alcoa Inc. climbed more than 2.8 percent. Facebook Inc. tumbled 9.6 percent, extending losses from the worst-performing large initial public offering during the past decade to 24 percent.

The S&P 500 advanced 1.1 percent to 1,332.42 at 4 p.m. New York time. The gauge added 1.7 percent last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 125.86 points, or 1 percent, to 12,580.69 today. About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, or 8.6 percent below the three-month average.

“We’re definitely seeing signs of stabilization on the housing front,” said Brad Sorensen, director of market and sector analysis at San Francisco-based Charles Schwab Corp. His firm has $1.83 trillion in client assets. “The economy is looking decent. There’s also a bit of relief that we won’t have any imminent kicking out or defaulting of Greece.”

American equities joined a global rally. Greece’s New Democracy, which supports the austerity plan negotiated with international lenders, placed first in all six polls published on May 26 as campaigning continued for June’s election. The U.S. market was closed yesterday for a holiday. Home values in 20 U.S. cities fell in the 12 months ended March at the slowest pace in more than a year.

Benchmark gauges briefly pared gains as the euro weakened to the lowest level versus the dollar in almost two years on concern that Spain’s financial crisis is worsening. Egan-Jones Ratings Co. reduced its credit rating for Spain to B from Bb-.

The 17-nation currency fell against most of its major counterparts as Spanish officials debated how to fund a recapitalization of the Bankia group.

Today’s rally trimmed this month’s slump in the S&P 500 to 4.7 percent. The benchmark gauge is heading for its biggest monthly retreat since September, amid concern global economic growth is slowing and Greece may leave the euro area.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy increased 2 percent. A gauge of homebuilders in S&P indexes added 1.9 percent. D.R. Horton gained 2.5 percent to $17.43. PulteGroup advanced 2 percent to $9.52. Caterpillar, the biggest maker of construction equipment, added 2.9 percent to $92.52. Bank of America added 4.1 percent to $7.44. Alcoa increased 3 percent to $8.89.

Coal producers gained after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its recommendation for the industry to attractive from neutral.

Peabody Energy Corp., the largest U.S. coal producer, jumped 5.6 percent to $25.22 as Goldman recommended buying the shares.

Consol Energy Inc. added 1.8 percent to $30.13.

Facebook lost 9.6 percent to $28.84. The company’s options trading began today. Facebook debuted on May 18 after underwriters sold shares at $38.

“People are disillusioned,” said Matt McCormick, who helps oversee $6.2 billion at Bahl & Gaynor Inc. in Cincinnati.

He doesn’t own shares of Facebook. “A lot of investors believed the hype,” he said. “In this type of volatile market environment, people are not going to take chances.”

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. tumbled 11 percent, the most since 2008, to $57.80. The company revised results reported three weeks ago from a study of two cystic fibrosis drugs, saying the combination showed less of a benefit.

Western Digital Corp. slumped 3 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $33.17. The maker of disk drives was downgraded at Barclays Plc. The share price estimate is $37. Seagate Technology Plc, also cut at Barclays, dropped 4.4 percent to $25.03.

Stock buybacks are falling to a three-year low just as U.S. chief executive officers boost spending on plants and equipment to a record.

Companies announced $1.1 billion of repurchases a day on average during the earnings season in April and May, the lowest level since mid-2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and TrimTabs Investment Research Inc. Capital spending in the U.S. has risen since 2010 and reached $63.6 billion in March.

Devon Energy Corp. eliminated buybacks and boosted exploration and production spending 18 percent. United Parcel Service Inc. cut repurchases in order to buy TNT Express NV.

After the biggest first-quarter gain for the S&P 500 since 1998, bears say the 58 percent decline in buybacks removes key support for equities amid Europe’s debt crisis and a weakening U.S. recovery.

While orders for capital equipment fell last month, bulls say the two-year gain in business investment shows CEOs are growing more optimistic, spending to raise profits instead of reducing stock to boost per-share earnings.

“Investors and corporations themselves are best served when the cash is applied to improving capital investment, as opposed to buying stock back,” Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co., which oversees $85 billion, said in a May 22 phone interview. “That would be much more bullish.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Every day a man must solve the problem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

in the heterogeneous complex of exterior material.

-Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

Carolann

 

The habit of giving only enhances

the desire to give.

-Walt Whitman, 1819-1892

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: Memorial Day today in the US, so quiet in the markets; US markets were closed.

We just had a fabulous weekend at the celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the David Foster Foundation.  The concerts on both nights, Friday and Saturday, were fantastic with the Canadian tenors, Josh Groban, Sinbad, Kenny G, Sarah McLachlan, Ruben Studdard, among many others.  Muhammed Ali was there on Saturday night as was Wayne Gretzky. An impressive amount of money was raised  for children of families awaiting organ donors.

Earlier in the day on Friday, Michael Buble cut the ribbon for the walkway around Victoria’s inner harbor which will now be known as the David Foster Way.  A fitting tribute to this amazing man.

Nita Whitaker sang Donna Summer’s Last Dance in tribute to the artist who died last week of cancer.  We sat next to Donna Summer and her husband at dinner last year when the David Foster event was held in the Napa Valley.   She looked so beautiful then, but seemed subdued.  The event took place last July and we learned on the weekend that she had been diagnosed with cancer in April.

And on this day in…

1934 – Dionne quintuplets born in Quebec

1961 – Amnesty International, a human rights organization, is founded
1940 – Belgium surrenders to Germany
1805 – Napoleon is crowned in Milan, Italy
1830 – Congress authorizes Indian removal from all states to the western Prairie.

What comes from the heart, goes to the heart. –Samuel Taylor Coleridge

photos of the day May 27, 2012

Members of Boy Scout Troop 450 and 278 lead the parade carrying a large American flag during the Memorial Day observance ceremony at the Memphis National Cemetery in Memphis, Tenn. Saturday.

Chris Desmond/The Commercial Appeal/AP

Actors jump on a trampoline during celebrations marking the 309th anniversary of the city, on Nevsky Avenue in St.Petersburg, Russia, Saturday.

Dmitry Lovetsky/AP

Market Closes for May 28, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	Markets closed
S&P 500	Closed
NASDAQ	Closed
TSX	11566.15	-10.32
		-0.09%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8593.15	+12.76
		+0.15%
HANG  SENG	18800.99	+87.58
		+0.47%
SENSEX	16416.84	+199.02
		+1.23%
FTSE 100	5356.34	+4.81
		+0.09%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.839	1.814
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.372	2.358
U.S.   10 Year Bond	Closed	1.7380
U.S.   30 Year Bond	Closed	2.8412

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02376	1.02940
US   $	0.97679	0.97144
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.28386	0.77896
US  $	1.25408	0.79740

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1579.75	1573.03
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	Closed	90.66
BRENT	108.87	108.75

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks declined as concern about Spain’s finances overshadowed rallies in gold and oil, preventing the fifth straight advance in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. dropped 2.1 percent after talks to end a six-day strike ended. Canadian National Railway Co. dropped 1.3 percent as the work stoppage snarled traffic.

Goldcorp Inc. and Kinross Gold Corp. fell at least 1.2 percent.

Suncor Energy Inc. gained 0.1 percent as oil futures rose for a third consecutive session.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 10.32 points, or 0.1 percent, to 11,566.15. The benchmark gauge rose as much as 0.5 percent earlier. It added 2.6 percent last week and posted the biggest four-day rally since Feb. 22. Trading volume for S&P/TSX companies was 63 percent less than the 10-day average today as U.S. stock exchanges were shut for Memorial Day.

“The lack of liquidity is probably the key thing in Canada today,” Brian Huen, a managing partner at Red Sky Capital Management Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$55 million ($54 million). “You could see some swings. I don’t expect people to give much legitimacy to big moves in stocks.”

The index completed its first weekly gain since the end of April on May 25 as materials and bank shares rallied after U.S.

home sales rose and investors speculated China and Europe will stimulate economic growth.

Industrial companies in the benchmark gauge decreased as railroads slumped. The strike is having a “grave and significant” impact on the world’s 10th-biggest economy, Labor Minister Lisa Raitt told reporters in Ottawa after introducing legislation to end the six-day dispute.

Canadian Pacific fell 2.1 percent to C$75.52. Canadian National Railway slipped 1.3 percent to C$82.51.

Goldcorp, the second-largest producer of the metal, fell 1.9 percent to C$38.11. Kinross Gold lost 1.2 percent to C$8.42.

Bank were little changed as Spanish debt fell amid concern the nation’s lenders will need more financial support to weather Europe’s debt crisis. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the euro region’s rescue fund should be able to bypass national governments and recapitalize distressed lenders directly.

Energy companies in the S&P/TSX rose as oil advanced for a third day on the growing signs that Greek voters may back austerity measures, boosting confidence that the bloc’s debt crisis can be contained.

Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, rose 0.1 percent to C$28.90.

US

Markets Closed

Futures Comment:

By Tom Stoukas

May 28 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stock-index futures advanced as Greece’s pro-bailout New Democracy party came top in opinion polls before next month’s election, boosting speculation the nation can implement austerity measures and keep the euro.

Alcoa Inc. and Newmont Mining Corp. each rose 1 percent in German trading as copper climbed amid dwindling Chinese stockpiles. Apple Inc. gained while Facebook Inc. declined.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in June increased 0.5 percent to 1,321.1 at 10:16 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased 41 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,470. The U.S. equity market is closed today for the Memorial Day holiday.

“The polls suggest that the New Democracy and Socialist parties would have enough votes to form a coalition and hence stem the tide of negativity surrounding an immediate Greek default,” Gerard Lane, an equity strategist at Shore Capital Group Ltd. in Liverpool, England, wrote in a note to clients.

New Democracy, which supports the austerity measures imposed by the European Union, came first in all six opinion polls published on May 26 as campaigning continued for the general election on June 17.

Party leader Antonis Samaras sought to sketch out the consequences of a euro exit, saying Greek incomes, bank deposits and property values would lose at least half their value within days, while food prices would rise by a quarter.

In Ireland, supporters of the EU’s fiscal pact lead before a May 31 referendum, according to a poll for the Sunday Independent. Excluding undecided voters, the yes camp leads by 60 percent to 40 percent, the Dublin-based newspaper said.

The S&P 500 gained 1.7 percent last week, its first weekly rally since April, as investors were lured by the cheapest valuations since November.

Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, rose 0.9 percent to $8.71 and Newmont Mining added 0.4 percent to $49.

Copper climbed for a third day in London as inventories monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange slumped for a seventh week, the longest losing streak in a year.

Heath Jansen, Citigroup Inc.’s head of research for European metals and mining, wrote in a report today that in the “short term,” his view on the industry changed to “neutral” from “bearish” because of higher-than-average dividend yields offered by the companies.

Apple, the maker of the iPhone and iPad, added 0.7 percent to $566.17 in Germany.

Bank of America Corp, the second-largest U.S. lender by assets, advanced 0.8 percent to $7.21.

Facebook, the world’s biggest social-network website, fell 1.1percent to $31.55 in Germany.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

 

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

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

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

Friendship renders prosperity more brilliant, while it

lightens adversity by sharing it and making its

burden common.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 -43 B.C.

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:

Today is African Freedom Day.

Also on this day in…

1935 – Jesse Owens sets six world records in less than an hour in Ann Arbor, Michigan
1953 – The first atomic cannon is fired in Nevada
1946 – Jordan gains independence from Britain
1961 – JFK Asks Congress to support the space program
1977 – Star Wars Opens
1926 – Miles Davis born

photos of the day May 25, 2012

Members of the Landilani Amanyawa Nyau dance group perform during Africa Day commemorations held in Harare.

-Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP

A couple of monkeys quench their thirst as another takes a dip on a hot summer afternoon on the outskirts of Jammu, India.

-Channi Anand/AP

Market Closes for May 25, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12454.83	-74.92
		-0.60%
S&P 500	1317.82	-2.86
		-0.22%
NASDAQ	2837.53	-1.85
		-0.07%
TSX	11576.47	+10.40
		+0.09%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8580.39	+17.01
		+0.10%
HANG  SENG	18713.41	-119.79
		-0.64%
SENSEX	16222.30	+47.01
		+0.25%
FTSE 100	5351.53	+1.48
		+0.03%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.814	1.863
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.358	2.395
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.7380	1.7723
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8412	2.8627

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02940	1.02684
US   $	0.97144	0.97387
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.28844	0.77613
US  $	1.25164	0.79895

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1573.03	1560.07
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	90.66	90.41
BRENT	108.75	108.86

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 25 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a fourth straight day as commodity shares gained amid rising metal prices, reversing losses driven by banks amid concern about Spain’s finances.

Barrick Gold Corp., Goldcorp Inc. and Yamana Gold Inc. gained more than 1.2 percent as the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Gold Index completed the longest winning streak in a year. Suncor Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose as much as 1.3 percent as oil futures increased. Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia dropped at least 0.9 percent.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index increased 10.40 points, or 0.1 percent, to 11,576.47. The benchmark gauge ranged between a loss of 0.4 percent and a gain of 0.2 percent today. It added 2.6 percent this week and posted the biggest four-day rally since Feb. 22. Trading volume for S&P/TSX companies was about 24 percent less than the 10-day average, before U.S. stock exchanges are shut for a holiday on May 28.

“The teeter totter has been playing out all week,” Danielle Park, a money manager at Venable Park Investment Counsel Inc. in Barrie, Ontario, said in a telephone interview. The firm manages at least C$1 million ($1 million) each for more than 200 clients. “The wild card will be what fantastical idea will be announced next in terms of monetary policy.”

The index completed its first weekly gain since the end of April as materials companies and banks increased after U.S. home sales rose and investors speculated China and Europe will stimulate economic growth. The 8.5 percent decline in the index since May 1 drove its price-earnings ratio to 13.2 on May 18, the cheapest valuation since June 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Materials companies in the S&P/TSX rebounded after falling as much as 0.3 percent early in the day after gold and copper increased as improving U.S. consumer confidence revived demand prospects.

The S&P/TSX Gold Index has increased seven straight days, its longest winning streak since May 2011. As of last week, Canada’s commodity shares had fallen to their cheapest valuations since the recession, wiping out the stock market’s best start to the year since 2004 as global economic concerns overshadowed the best two-month job growth in more than 30 years.

Barrick Gold, the world’s largest producer of the metal, climbed 1.8 percent to C$41.24. Goldcorp, the second-largest producer of the metal, rose 1.2 percent to C$38.84. Yamana Gold, Canada’s third-largest company in the industry by market value, gained 3.2 percent to C$15.30.

Teck Resources Ltd., the country’s biggest base-metals producer, increased 0.2 percent to C$31.22. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Canada’s second-largest publicly traded copper producer, climbed 0.3 percent to C$18.66.

Energy stocks rose with oil futures as U.S. consumer confidence gained and the United Nations’ atomic agency found evidence Iran boosted its output of enriched uranium that could be used for a nuclear weapon. Iran is the second-biggest crude producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia.

Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, gained 1.3 percent to C$28.87. Canadian Natural Resources, the country’s third-biggest energy company, increased 0.6 percent to C$31.70.

Banks in the S&P/TSX fell 1.2 percent amid concern about Spain. The Bankia group, the Valencia-based lender nationalized earlier this month, will seek 19 billion euros ($23.8 billion) in government money to restructure its business following loan losses.

Spain is analyzing requests from regional governments to help them regain access to capital markets, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said today. Catalonia’s government said it is complying “strictly” with its budget program and will honor its commitments.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, dropped 2 percent to C$50.35. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second- largest lender, decreased 1 percent to C$78.22. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third-largest lender, fell 0.9 percent to C$50.95.

US

By Allison Bennett and Rita Nazareth

May 25 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks retreated, trimming a weekly rally, while Treasuries rose and the euro traded at a 22- month low amid growing concern about Spain’s finances and plans to force some investors to take losses on debt holdings at failing European banks. Spanish and Italian bond yields rose.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.2 percent to 1,317.82 at 4 p.m. in New York, while emerging market equities capped a 10th weekly slide in their longest slump since 1994. Ten-year U.S. note yields lost four basis points to 1.74 percent. The euro slipped 0.1 percent to $1.2515 and dipped below $1.25 for the first time since July 2010. Spain’s 10-year yields added 15 basis points and Italy’s rose 10.

The Bankia group, the Spanish lender nationalized earlier this month, will seek 19 billion euros ($23.8 billion) in government money to restructure its business following loan losses. Spain is analyzing requests from regional governments to help them regain access to capital markets, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said today. Catalonia’s government said it is complying “strictly” with its budget program and will honor its commitments.

“People are wondering if there are other skeletons in Spain’s regional government closets,” said Russ Koesterich, the San Francisco-based global chief investment strategist for the IShares unit of BlackRock Inc. His firm oversees $3.68 trillion as the world’s largest asset manager. “Greece is critical, but still relatively small in the euro zone. The same cannot be said of Spain.”

Fewer than 5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, the slowest trading day of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. U.S. markets are closed May 28 for the Memorial Day holiday.

The S&P 500 retreated after gaining for four straight days, leaving it up 1.7 percent in the week. This week’s rebound followed an 8.7 percent slump from a four-year high in April through May 18 that dragged the index’s price-to-earnings ratio to as low as 13.1, the cheapest valuation using reported earnings since November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Gauges of industrial, commodity and financial shares fell at least 0.4 percent to lead losses among eight of the 10 main industry groups in the S&P 500. Boeing Co., Caterpillar Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Chevron Corp. slid at least 1.2 percent for the worst losses in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Facebook Inc. sank 3.4 percent, following a two-day gain.

U.S. stocks reversed losses late yesterday after Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said most of the region’s leaders support sales of joint euro-area bonds to fight the debt crisis.

The majority of EU leaders at a Brussels meeting this week backed joint euro-area government bonds, Monti told Italy’s La7 television station yesterday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel left the door open to a compromise on debt sharing in the region.

“There’s an air of inevitability that we’ll get euro bonds,” Donald Williams, chief investment officer at Platypus Asset Management Ltd. in Sydney, which manages about $1 billion, said in an interview with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television’s “First Up.” “Germany is going to have to compromise more than it was willing to a few months ago. Ultimately there will be some resolution there and the markets will start to head higher again.”

The MSCI All-Country World Index fell 0.2 percent today, trimming this week’s gain to 0.7 percent. The index snapped a string of three weekly losses that drove it to 12.9 times reported earnings, the cheapest valuation this year. More than $4 trillion was erased from the value of global equities in the first three weeks of the month as concern deepened Greece will abandon the euro. European leaders failed to come up with a plan to resolve the debt crisis at a summit this week.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.2 percent and increased 1.5 percent in the week, snapping a three-week drop.

Trading in Bankia SA, the publicly traded banking business of the nationalized Spanish lender, was suspended. The unraveling of Bankia has deepened concern about the health of Spain’s banks and increased the government’s financing costs as it struggles with the debt crisis.

Bankia, Banco Popular Espanol SA and Bankinter SA had their credit ratings cut to junk by S&P, which cited Spain’s weakening economy. S&P cut Bankia to BB+ from BBB- and its parent BFA, which was nationalized this month, was cut to B+ from BB-, the company said in statement today. Popular and Bankinter were reduced to BB+, and Banca Civica SA, set to merge with CaixaBank SA, was cut to BB.

Draft plans obtained by Bloomberg News showed the European Union will seek to give regulators the power to impose writedowns on senior unsecured creditors at failing banks as part of measures to get taxpayers off the hook for saving crisis-hit lenders.

The writedown powers would apply to senior unsecured debt and derivatives, while some other claims, including secured debt and deposits that are protected by government guarantee programs, will be protected from losses, according to the guidelines.

The euro weakened against 11 of 16 major peers, while the dollar strengthened against 13.

“I would be very wary of calling the bottom for the euro at this point,” said Samarjit Shankar, a managing director for the foreign-exchange group in Boston at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. “Going into the long weekend there has been an acceleration in U.S. Treasury inflows in a reaffirmation of the resolutely negative sentiment that is in place for all European assets.”

Brazil’s real rose against all of its most-traded counterparts, surging 2.1 percent to 50 U.S. cents, as the central bank said it will offer currency-swap contracts at auction.

The Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against six major peers, increased 0.1 percent to the highest level since September 2010.

The S&P GSCI Index of commodities increased 0.3 percent, rising for a second day as wheat, zinc and silver climbed more than 1 percent to lead gains in 17 of 24 materials.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index was little changed and poised for a 10th weekly decline, the longest string of losses since 1994. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.7 percent today. China’s largest banks may fall short of loan targets for the first time in at least seven years as an economic slowdown crimps demand for credit, three bank officials with knowledge of the matter said. Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index sank 2.1 percent, the biggest loss since Nov. 1 and the most in Asia.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

 

In the song of the rushing torrent,

hold onto the joyful assurance:

I will become the sea.

And this is not a vain supposition;

it is absolute humility, because it is the truth.

-Rabindrantath Tagore, 1861-1901

As ever,

Carolann

I urge you to please notice when you are happy,

and exclaim or murmur or think at some point,

“If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”

-Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007

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:

May 24^th,1941 – Bob Dylan was born.

When you feel in your gut what you are and then dynamically pursue it – don’t back down and don’t give up – then you’re going to mystify a lot of folks. –Bob Dylan.

And also on this day in…

1918 – Robert Laird Borden 1854-1937 passes Canada Elections Act;
gives all Canadian women over 21, the right to vote in federal elections only.
1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus publishes proof of a sun-centered solar system. He dies just after publication.
1844 – Samuel Morse taps out the first telegraph message
1883 – Brooklyn Bridge opens

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words. – Rachel Naomi Remen

How many roads must a man walk down

Before you can call him a man?

…The answer, my friend is blowin’ in the wind,

The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

-Bob Dylan, 1962

photos of the day May 24, 2012

Buildings are lit up in pink as part of the Vivid Festival in Sydney, Australia. The festival of light, music and ideas will run until June 11.

Daniel Munoz/Reuters

Nicole Kidman with other cast members arrive on the red carpet for the screening of the film ‘The Paperboy’ in competition at the 65th Cannes Film Festival in France.

Eric Gaillard/Reuters

Market Closes for May 24, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12529.75	+33.60
		+0.27%
S&P 500	1320.68	+1.82
		+0.14%
NASDAQ	2839.38	-10.74
		-0.38%
TSX	11566.07	+1.27
		+0.01%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8563.38	+6.78
		+0.08%
HANG  SENG	18666.40	-119.79
		-0.64%
SENSEX	16222.30	+274.20
		+1.72%
FTSE 100	5350.05	+83.64
		+1.59%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.863	1.886
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.395	2.408
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.7723	1.7397
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8627	2.8238

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02684	1.02486
US   $	0.97387	0.97594
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.28722	0.77687
US  $	1.25358	0.79771

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1560.07	1560.35
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	90.41	89.55
BRENT	108.86	108.20

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 24 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were little changed as commodity companies rallied and banks pared losses in the final 40 minutes of trading, erasing a 0.6 percent decline in the S&P/TSX Composite Index.

Equities rebounded after Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said Greece is likely to stay in the euro and that a majority of the region’s leaders support issuing a joint bond to fight the debt crisis. Gold producers posted their longest winning streak since July. Research In Motion Ltd. slumped 3.4 percent to the lowest level since December 2003 after Patrick Spence resigned as head of global sales. Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal fell at least 1.8 percent.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index increased 1.27 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 11,566.07. It ranged between a loss of 0.8 percent and a gain of 0.5 percent.

“The market is taking a little bit of a breather,” Sadiq Adatia, chief investment officer at Sun Life Global Investments in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The unit of Sun Life Financial Inc. oversees about C$4.7 billion ($4.6 billion) for clients. “The market isn’t way ahead of itself because people still aren’t very confident, but there are some cheap valuations out there.”

The market had declined earlier after three bank officials with knowledge of the matter said China’s biggest banks may fall short of loan targets for the first time in at least seven years as an economic slowdown reduces demand for credit.

China is the world’s biggest consumer of metals and energy.

According to data provided by Statistics Canada, it received 4.2 percent of Canada’s total exports in March. Canada recorded C$16.8 billion of exports to China in 2011. Commodities companies make up 43 percent of the S&P/TSX’s value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

China’s economy may grow in 2012 at its slowest pace in 13 years, a Bloomberg News survey showed last week, as Europe’s debt crisis curbs exports, manufacturing shrinks and demand for new homes wanes.

Materials shares in the benchmark gauge rose a third consecutive day. Gold rose the most in a week as central banks increased their holdings. Central banks, the world’s biggest holders of gold, continued to buy bullion in April as Turkey raised its reserves by 29.7 metric tons and Ukraine, Mexico and Kazakhstan boosted their holdings, International Monetary Fund data show.

Eldorado Gold Corp., a Vancouver-based mining company, climbed 2.4 percent to C$11.96. Kinross Gold Corp., Canada’s fourth-largest producer of the precious metal, gained 2 percent to C$8.65. Agnico-Eagle Mines, a gold producer that operates in Canada, Mexico and Finland, increased 1.2 percent to C$40.67.

Banks in the S&P/TSX fell for the first time in three days amid the news of a potential Chinese economic slowdown. Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, slipped 2.9 percent to C$51.38. Bank of Montreal, Canada’s fourth-biggest lender by assets, declined 1.8 percent to C$55.08.

RIM slumped 3.4 percent to C$10.98, its lowest closing price since December 2003, after Spence resigned as head of global sales to take a job in a different industry following 14 years at the company. The company, which three years ago made up 3.8 percent of the S&P/TSX’s value, now represents 0.4 percent.

“RIM is becoming a forgotten story now,” Adatia said.

“When news comes out it doesn’t really impact the market because nobody’s following it much anymore. Unless it starts to have some exceptional results or you see some takeover talk, you’re not going to see it affect the market.”

US

By Rita Nazareth

May 24 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks erased losses as Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said Greece is likely to stay in the euro and a majority of the region’s leaders support issuing a joint bond, offsetting earlier concern about a Chinese slowdown.

A measure of financial shares in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained, while technology and industrial companies retreated. Hewlett-Packard Co. rose 3.3 percent after the largest personal-computer maker announced plans to slice its workforce by 27,000 and reported quarterly sales and earnings that topped estimates. Tiffany & Co. tumbled 6.8 percent as the luxury jewelry retailer cut its profit and sales forecasts.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 1,320.68 at 4 p.m. New York time, reversing a loss of 0.6 percent. The index gained for a fourth day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 33.60 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,529.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.4 percent to 2,839.38. About 6.9 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, almost in line with the three-month average.

“The market has come down not necessarily because growth has slowed so significantly, but because of a potential disorderly unwind of the euro,” said Dan Veru, who oversees $3.7 billion as chief investment officer of Palisade Capital Management LLC in Fort Lee, New Jersey. “Greece won’t come out of the euro. There’s no mechanism in place to do that.”

Equities reversed losses as Monti said in an interview on Italian television station La7 today that “Europe can have euro bonds soon.” Italy can help push Germany to support the idea of collective debt and to embrace the “common good” of Europe, he said. Stocks dropped earlier as three officials said China’s biggest banks may fall short of loan targets for the first time in at least seven years amid an economic slowdown.

In the U.S., data showed companies placed fewer orders for computers, machinery and other capital equipment in April for a second month. Manufacturing in the U.S. expanded in May at the slowest pace in three months, indicating the industry that’s spurred the expansion is cooling.

Concern about a slowdown in global growth and a worsening of Europe’s debt crisis drove the S&P 500 down 5.5 percent so far this month. Financial, energy and technology shares have tumbled at least 7.7 percent in May.

Hewlett-Packard rose 3.3 percent to $21.77. The 8 percent workforce reduction, taking place through firings and early retirement offers, will generate annual savings of as much as $3.5 billion starting in 2014.

Facebook Inc. added 3.2 percent to $33.03, gaining for a second day. The social networking company is still trading below its initial public offering price of $38.

The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index climbed 4.9 percent after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised industry estimates, citing lower jet-fuel prices. Southwest Airlines Co. jumped 4.6 percent, the biggest gain in the S&P 500, to $8.74. US Airways Group Inc. surged 11 percent to $12.16.

Dow Chemical Co. rallied 3.4 percent to $31.55. The chemical maker said an arbitration panel ruled that Kuwait must pay $2.16 billion in damages after it canceled a 2008 agreement to buy a stake in the company’s plastics business.

Pandora Media Inc. surged 12 percent to $11.60. The Internet radio pioneer rose the most since its first day of trading in June 2011 after first-quarter results exceeded analysts’ estimates on higher mobile advertising sales.

Technology had the biggest decline among 10 groups in the S&P 500, dropping 0.9 percent. Apple Inc., the most valuable company, lost 0.9 percent to $565.32.

NetApp Inc. plunged 12 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $28.82. The seller of hardware and software for storing data forecast first-quarter earnings trailing analysts’ estimates amid a weak economic outlook.

Tiffany tumbled 6.8 percent to $57.59. Chief Executive Officer Michael Kowalski said sales in the Americas region “underperformed, continuing a soft trend that began in the last quarter of 2011.” Sales in the first quarter rose 3 percent to $386 million in the Americas and declined 4 percent in the New York flagship store.

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. lost 6 percent to $1.58. The second-largest U.S. maker of polysilicon dropped after S&P cut its corporate credit rating two levels to B+ from BB.

The slump in the S&P 500 may be nearing an end after the measure dropped below its 150-day average, which may lure buyers into the market, said Oppenheimer & Co. The gauge slipped 8.7 percent between April 2 and May 18, falling below its average price from the prior 150 days on May 17 for the first time since Dec. 19, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Oppenheimer’s Carter Worth wrote in a May 21 report that declines to the 150-day average may prompt pessimists to stop selling and persuade investors who missed out on the market’s rally through April to buy.

The S&P 500 is “down to a level where rebound potential is high and that the right thing to do now is to put some money to work on the long side,” Worth, the New York-based chief market technician at Oppenheimer, wrote in the May 21 report. The stock index rose 1.8 percent this week through yesterday.

Worth highlighted 90 stocks to buy that are down to levels where “selling pressure is judged likely to abate.” The list included Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Starbucks Corp.

“If and as these names stop going down (read: stabilize) and actually start to rebound, one can make inferences about the current market correction being at an end,” Worth wrote in the report.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

This glorious soul we must believe in.  Out of that will come power.

Whatever you think, that you will be.  If you think yourselves, weak, weak you will be;

if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be; if you think yourselves impure, impure you will be;

if you think yourselves pure, pure you will be.  This teaches us not to think ourselves as weak, but as strong,

omnipotent, omniscient.  No matter that I have not expressed it yet, it is in me.

All knowledge is in me, all power, all purity, and all freedom.  Why cannot I express this knowledge?

Because I do not believe in it.  Let me believe in it, and it must and will come out.

This is what the idea of the Impersonal teaches.

-Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

Carolann

I not only use all the brains that I have,

but all that I can borrow.

-Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924

Ah, but I was so much older then,

I’m younger than that now.

-Bob Dylan, 1964

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I learned something interesting this morning.  One of my clients dropped by the office on his way to work and we chatted for awhile.  I asked him how he passed this past long weekend.  He took his family to Tofino and they went to find the World War II plane wreckage, which I never knew existed.

The eldest of his three children, his teenage son, had researched it on the internet.  He showed me the photos on his smart phone.  It is amazing.  Turns out there was a plane carrying four anti-submarine bombs that crashed in the rainforest in Tofino shortly after take-off during World War II.  What is surprising is how intact the wreckage still is – I would have thought it would be rusted away by now.  Also, the bombs were removed afterward from the plane and detonated, creating a large crater, which is now filled with water – a pond.

I saw lots of these craters in Vietnam when we visited in December, only they were covered with grass, not water.

And also on this day in…

1430 – Burgundians capture Joan of Arc and sell her to the English
1533 – Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void; relations with the Catholic Church come to blows
1949 – The Federal Republic of West Germany is proclaimed
1934 – Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed by Texas Rangers

Most of the things worth doing in the world have been declared impossible before they were done. –Louis D. Brandeis

photos of the day

May 23, 2012

Clara Lahti runs to catch up with her family during a walk along a pond in the warm spring weather in Clarence, N.Y.

David Duprey/AP

Sailors line the mast of the tall ship ARC Gloria, training ship and official flagship of the Colombian Navy, as it passes the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor while arriving for the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration.

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Market Closes for May 23, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12496.15	-6.66
		-0.05%
S&P 500	1318.85	+2.22
		+0.17%
NASDAQ	2850.12	+11.04
		+0.39%
TSX	11563.39	+111.61
		+0.97%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8556.60	-172.69
		-1.98%
HANG  SENG	18786.19	-252.96
		-1.33%
SENSEX	15948.10	-78.31
		-0.49%
FTSE 100	5266.41	-136.87
		-2.53%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.886	1.911
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.408	2.446
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.7397	1.7688
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8238	2.8665

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02486	1.02158
US   $	0.97594	0.97887
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29001	0.77519
US  $	1.25871	0.79446

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1560.53	1568.40
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	89.55	91.66
BRENT	108.20	110.13

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 23 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose a second straight day, wiping out a 1.7 percent retreat in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index, as raw-material companies and banks reversed losses amid optimism about the Europe crisis.

Barrick Gold Corp., Goldcorp Inc. and Yamana Gold Inc. increased at least 4.8 percent as the S&P/TSX Gold Index rallied 4.9 percent to the highest level since May 2. Premier Gold Mines Ltd. surged 20 percent after finding “gold-bearing structures” at a site. Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank gained at least 1.2 percent. Romarco Minerals Inc. lost 25 percent after saying a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers environmental assessment for a gold project will take longer than expected.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 113.02 points, or 1 percent, to 11,564.80. Its 2.5 percent increase this week is the biggest jump over two days since Jan. 3. The benchmark gauge surged 1.5 percent yesterday, the most in more than a month, and hadn’t posted back-to-back gains since the beginning of May.

“You have people thinking the Greek story is overplayed going into the weekend,” Andrew Pyle, an associate money manager on a Bank of Nova Scotia team that oversees about C$200 million ($200 million), said in a phone interview. “A lot of people are taking a step back and saying that the probability of an exit by Greece from the euro over the weekend is still pretty low. You’re also seeing some late-day cherry picking in terms of value players coming back into the market.”

The benchmark gauge on May 18 completed a third straight weekly decline as concerns mounted that the Greek debt crisis, European elections and a slowing Chinese economy may curb demand for commodities.

Materials companies in the S&P/TSX recovered from a 2.2 percent decline earlier in the day, posting a second straight rally, as gold and copper producers rose.

Barrick Gold, the world’s largest producer of the metal, climbed 6.7 percent to C$40.55. Goldcorp, the second-largest producer of the metal, rose 7 percent to C$38.40. Yamana Gold, Canada’s third-largest company in the industry by market value, gained 4.8 percent to C$14.85.

Teck Resources Ltd., the country’s biggest base-metals producer, rose 4.9 percent to C$31.46. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Canada’s second-largest publicly traded copper producer, gained 5.8 percent to C$18.82.

Premier Gold Mines surged 20 percent to C$4.35 after finding “gold-bearing structures” during a construction project linking the Red Lake Gold Mines and Cochenour sites.

Romarco Minerals, which is developing a gold project in South Carolina, plunged 25 percent to 61 Canadian cents after saying it will not receive a decision on a Federal 404 Wetlands permit for its Haile gold project until August 2013. The timetable is “longer than we have been targeting,” President and Chief Executive Officer Diane Garrett said in a statement.

Financial stocks in the S&P/TSX rose for a second consecutive session after decreasing as much as 1.4 percent earlier in the day. The group fell for five straight sessions last week.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, rose 1.4 percent to C$52.90. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second- largest lender, increased 1.2 percent to C$78.73.

US

By Rita Nazareth

May 23 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks erased early losses amid optimism that European leaders will do more to halt contagion from the region’s debt crisis, helping the market reverse a plunge triggered by growing concern Greece will leave the euro.

Bank of America Corp., Alcoa Inc. and FedEx Corp. advanced at least 1.4 percent to pace gains among the biggest companies.

Facebook Inc. increased 3.2 percent after losing 19 percent in the previous two days. Dell Inc. tumbled 17 percent, the most since 2000, amid a disappointing revenue forecast. Hewlett- Packard Co. rallied 10 percent at 5:02 p.m. New York time after reporting quarterly results and saying it will cut 27,000 jobs.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 1,318.86 at 4 p.m. New York time, reversing a decline of as much as 1.5 percent. Earlier today, it approached the average price from the last 200 days of about 1,280. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 6.66 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,496.15, trimming this year’s gain to 2.3 percent. About 7.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 12 percent above the three-month average.

“Huge turnaround,” said Tim Ghriskey, who oversees about $2 billion as chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York. “There’s speculation that European leaders will take action to stabilize the situation with Greece.

In addition, there’s a lot of cash on the sidelines looking to get into the equity market. Certainly, the decline we’ve had recently might provide an opportunity.”

Equities fell earlier, joining a global slump, as European leaders meet to discuss the region’s crisis. The prospect of Greece leaving the shared currency weighed on the market as parties opposed to bailout terms won most of the votes in May 6 elections.

Concern about Europe’s crisis erased about $4 trillion from global equity values this month as Brazil and Russia entered into bear markets. The S&P 500 has fallen 5.7 percent in May as financial and commodity shares tumbled at least 7.8 percent.

“European concerns are fueling global deleveraging that is particularly severe for sectors vulnerable to economic slowdowns and financial dislocations,” said Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., the largest manager of bond funds. “To contain the likely economic and financial disruptions, a ‘Grexit’ would need to be part of a broader effort to strengthen the euro zone’s underpinnings.”

Companies that are most-tied to economic growth rallied after posting the biggest losses in the S&P 500 earlier today.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average, a proxy for the economy, gained 1.2 percent. Bank of America added 2.7 percent, the most in the Dow, to $7.17. Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, advanced 1.4 percent to $8.61. FedEx, the operator of the world’s biggest cargo airline, climbed 2.2 percent to $88.74.

Facebook added 3.2 percent to $32. It fell below its $38 IPO price on May 21 on concern its initial public offering was priced too high. The offering valued Facebook at 107 times trailing 12-month earnings, more than every S&P 500 member except Amazon.com Inc. and Equity Residential.

The cost to short sell Facebook is at the most-expensive level in a 10-point scale developed by Data Explorers Ltd., which said bets against the social-media company amount to 4.3 percent of shares sold in the company’s initial public offering.

A measure of homebuilders in S&P indexes gained 2.2 percent. Demand for new U.S. homes rose more than forecast in April, indicating residential real estate may contribute to economic growth for the first time in seven years.

Expedia Inc. advanced 6.8 percent to $45.61, a record.

Piper Jaffray Cos. said ComScore Inc. data suggest a “strong acceleration” in Europe for online-travel companies and raised its share-price estimate by 20 percent.

Car companies had the biggest gain in the S&P 500 among 24 industries, adding 1.4 percent. Ford Motor Co. jumped 2.2 percent to $10.41. The automaker was raised to investment grade by Moody’s Investors Service yesterday, enabling Executive Chairman Bill Ford, great-grandson of the founder, to reclaim the blue oval logo he put up as collateral for a loan.

Dell tumbled 17 percent, the biggest decline in the S&P 500, to $12.49. The forecast, paired with a first-quarter sales and earnings miss, pointed to problems endemic to Dell, Steve Felice, Dell’s president, said in a conference call. The sales team focused on individual products instead of packages of hardware and software, he said.

Rival Hewlett-Packard rallied 10 percent to $23.27 after the close of regular trading. The world’s largest PC maker will eliminate the jobs by October 2014 through firings and early retirement offers, for an annual savings of as much as $3.5 billion. The company also forecast fiscal third-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates on slumping demand for printers, data-center equipment and services.

Earlier losses drove the S&P 500 near its 200-day moving average. A drop below that level is seen by some technical analysts as a harbinger of further losses and could take the S&P 500 to 1,205, according to Ryan Detrick at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.

“If we continue to get negative news out of Europe, there would be a decent probability of that happening,” said Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s in Cincinnati. “We need some type of major positive catalysts to get us moving higher. Right now, we just don’t have one.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

The universal power that manifests itself in the universal law

is at one with our true power.

-Rabindranath Tagore,1861-1901

As ever,

Carolann

Fate chooses your relations,

you choose your friends.

-Jacques Delille, 1738-1813

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:

There were several pieces on gardening and gardens in The Financial Times in the most recent  weekend edition, this being the occasion of the Chelsea Garden show, that show of shows.

I found the following bit on horticultural history amusing, especially the spelling in old English:

Horticultural history How some ‘heritage’ fruits and vegetables were fist described in literature

Asparagus

The first shootes or heads of Asparagus are a Sallet of as much esteeme with all sorts of persons, as any other whatsoever, being boyled tender, and eaten with butter, vinegar, and pepper, or oyle and vinegar, or as every ones manner doth please. –John Parkinson, Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris, 1629.

Mulberry

In the flesh of the mulberry there is a juice of a vinous flavor, and the fruit assumes three different colours, being at first white, then red, and ripe when black…. It is in this tree that human ingenuity has effected the least improvement of all; there are no varieties here, no modifications effected by grafting, nor, in fact, any other improvement except that the size of the fruit, by careful management, has been increased.  –Pliny, Natural History, 1^st century AD.

Carrot

The roote is round and long, thicke above and small below, eyther red or yellow, eyther shorter or longer. –John Parkinson, Paradis in Sole Paradisi Terrestris, 1629.

Pea

Pease are of divers kinds…the meaner sort of them have been long acquainted with our English Air and Soil; but the sweet and delicate sorts of them have been introduced into our Gardens only in this latter age. –John Worlidge, Systema Horiculturae, 1683, (2^nd ed).

Radish

I do remember him at Clement’s Inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring; when he was naked, he was for all the world, like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife. –William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, Act 3, Scene 2. -from Heritage Fruits and Vegetables by Toby Musgrave, published by Thames & Hudson.

And on this day in…

1867 – Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act – Decrees that the Dominion of Canada should come into being on July 1
1908 – The Wright Brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent
1987 – An Iraqi missile hits the American frigate USS Stark in the Persian Gulf
1843 – 1000 Pioneers head west on the Oregon Trail
1972 – President Nixon visits Moscow
1992 – Johnny Carson’s last episode of The Tonight Show

photos of the day

May 22, 2012

Members of the English National Ballet pose outside The Orangery restaurant at Kensington Palace in London as part of a publicity event for a summer charity fundraiser with Swan Lake as the theme.

Toby Melville/Reuters

Trumpeters from different military units in their ceremonial uniform simultaneously play a fanfare at the Wellington Barracks in London in a Guinness World Record attempt for the longest line of fanfare trumpeters and to mark the run-up to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The 91 trumpeters set the first world record of its kind.

Sang Tan/AP

Mishaps are like knives that either serve us or cut us as we grasp them by the blade or the handle. – James Russell Lowell

Market Closes for May 22, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12502.81	-1.67
		-0.01%
S&P 500	1316.63	+0.64
		+0.05%
NASDAQ	2839.08	-8.13
		-0.29%
TSX	11451.78	+171.14
		+1.52%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8729.29	+95.40
		+1.10%
HANG  SENG	19039.15	+166.83
		+0.62%
SENSEX	16026.41	-156.85
		-0.97%
FTSE 100	5403.28	+98.80
		+1.86%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.911	1.886
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.446	2.429
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.7688	1.7209
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8665	2.8004

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02158	1.02231
US   $	0.97887	0.98445
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29510	0.77214
US  $	1.26774	0.78881

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1568.40	1592.20
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	91.66	91.48
BRENT	110.13	108.24

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 22 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rallied the most since the first trading day of the year, rebounding from last week’s slide, as U.S. home sales increased and investors speculated China and Europe will stimulate economic growth.

Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia increased more than 1.1 percent. Oil and gas producers Suncor Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. climbed at least 3.1 percent as natural gas futures rose.

Westport Innovations Inc. surged 14 percent. Niko Resources Ltd. sank 8.5 percent after saying it will relinquish its interest in an Indian gas production block.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 239.1 points, or 2.1 percent, to 11,519.74 at 11:42 a.m. in Toronto, its biggest intraday increase since Jan. 3. The Canadian market was closed yesterday for the Victoria Day holiday.

“We’re seeing a snapback from oversold conditions,” Irwin Michael, a portfolio manager at ABC Funds in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. Michael’s firm oversees C$1 billion ($1 billion). “Things may not be as bad as what the market once thought. Any bit of good news can get a rally going.”

The benchmark gauge on May 18 completed a third straight weekly decline as concerns mounted that the Greek debt crisis, European elections and a slowing Chinese economy may curb demand for commodities. Energy and raw-materials companies account for 43 percent of Canadian stocks by market value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Energy companies advanced as natural gas rose for the second time in three days on speculation that warmer-than-normal weather heading into June will help drive demand from power plants and trim a supply surplus.

Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, climbed 4.3 percent to C$28.58. Canadian Natural Resources, the country’s third-biggest energy company, increased 3.1 percent to C$30.89. Encana Corp., Canada’s largest natural gas producer by volume, rose 3.9 percent to C$20.79.

Westport Innovations, a Vancouver-based maker of cryogenic fuel tanks, surged 14 percent, the biggest increase in the S&P/TSX, to C$27.92. The company makes the only available 15- liter gas-powered engine suitable for heavy-duty trucks running on liquid natural gas.

Niko Resources Ltd., which produces oil and gas in South Asia, sank 8.5 percent, the third-biggest drop in the index, to C$31.15 after giving up its portion of the D4 production block located in India’s Mahanadi basin. The company cited the size and risk associated with the project, as well as the current commercial environment in India.

Banks in the S&P/TSX snapped a five-day skid as U.S. equities extended gains after the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes increased in April for the first time in three months, adding to signs the housing market is recovering. Global equities also rallied as the China Securities Journal reported that the nation plans to speed up approval of infrastructure projects and allocate construction funding faster to improve growth.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, gained 1.1 percent to C$52.28. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second- largest lender, rose 1.7 percent to C$78.23. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third-largest lender, climbed 1.2 percent to C$51.73.

US

By Rita Nazareth and Michael P. Regan

May 22 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks erased gains and the euro extended losses versus the dollar, while Treasuries trimmed earlier declines, on concern that Greece was making preparations to exit the euro. Facebook Inc. tumbled 8.9 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closed up less than 0.1 percent at 1,316.63 at 4 p.m. in New York after rallying as much as 1 percent. The euro slid 1 percent to $1.2689 and 10-year Treasury yields increased three basis points to 1.77 percent after surging as much as six points earlier. Crops led commodities lower while oil retreated as Iran agreed to let Western nuclear inspectors into the country.

U.S. equities reversed gains in the final hour of trading and the euro sank to its low of the day after Dow Jones reported that former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said the nation is considering preparations to leave the shared currency. The comments wiped out an earlier rally in stocks triggered by an increase in U.S. home sales and speculation leaders in Europe and China will step up efforts to bolster economic growth.

“We went from risk-on to risk-off pretty quickly,” Richard Sichel, who oversees $1.6 billion as chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co., said in a telephone interview. “Greece is not a major economy, but there’s obviously fear of contagion in case it exits the euro. These outside factors will weigh on the market even as economic numbers are good.”

U.S. shares rallied earlier after the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes increased in April for the first time in three months, adding to signs the housing market is recovering. China plans to speed up approval of infrastructure projects and allocate construction funding faster to improve growth, the China Securities Journal reported.

The S&P 500 surged 1.6 percent yesterday, the biggest gain since March 13, after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said yesterday that European leaders will do “everything necessary” to keep Greece in the 17-nation euro and focus on steps to aid economic expansion.

Commodity producers and technology companies fell the most among 10 industries in the S&P 500, while financials, utilities and consumer companies had the biggest gains. Alcoa Inc., Pfizer Inc. and DuPont Co. lost at least 0.6 percent for the biggest declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. rose the most. The 30- stock Dow ended down 1.67 points at 12,502.81 after earlier climbing as much as 71 points.

JPMorgan jumped 4.6 percent, rebounding from a 20 percent plunge following its May 10 disclosure of at least $2 billion in trading losses from credit derivatives. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts reiterated their buy rating on the stock today, saying the company’s plan to halt share buybacks reflects a “prudent decision” to preserve capital given the volatility and uncertainty around its chief investment office’s holdings.

Facebook Inc. lost 8.9 percent to $31, extending yesterday’s 11 percent plunge, in the social network’s third day of trading after selling shares at $38 in the biggest initial public offering for an Internet company. After one of the most anticipated IPOs ever, Facebook’s two-day plunge prompted investors to fault everything from Morgan Stanley’s role as lead underwriter, to the company’s greed and the Nasdaq Stock Market for mishandling the first day of trading.

An S&P index of 12 homebuilders rallied 1.9 percent and is up 5 percent in two days. PulteGroup Inc. and Lennar Corp. rallied more than 2 percent to pace gains today. Purchases of previously owned homes increased 3.4 percent to a 4.62 million annual rate, according to figures from the Realtors association, adding to signs the industry is stabilizing.

Treasuries remained lower after the U.S. sold $35 billion in two-year notes. The securities drew a yield of 0.30 percent, matching the average forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of nine of the Federal Reserve’s 21 primary dealers. The 30-year yield jumped added six basis points to 2.87 percent after surging as much as nine basis points earlier.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 1.9 percent, with European markets closed before the report that Papademos said Greece was considering preparations to leave the euro.

Rio Tinto Group and Renault SA led gains in mining companies and automakers, rising at least 4 percent. Homeserve Plc, the U.K. provider of emergency-repair services that suspended telephone sales and marketing in October after a review showed they didn’t meet its standards, plunged 29 percent after saying the Financial Services Authority will investigate “certain historic issues.”

European stocks held gains after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Europe’s debt crisis risks spiraling and seriously damaging the world economy.

European leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels tomorrow. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she won’t shy away from disagreeing with French President Francois Hollande, saying good cooperation “doesn’t exclude differing positions.”

France isn’t out to create conflict and will welcome “all the tools, all the proposals” at the meeting, Hollande said.

The German 10-year bund yield added four basis points to 1.47 percent, while similar-maturity Spanish bond yields slid 20 basis points after the government beat its maximum target at an auction today.

Spain’s two-year note yield slid 17 basis points, and the cost of insuring the country’s debt against default dropped 28 basis points to 527. Spain sold 2.53 billion euros ($3.2

billion) of bills, more than its maximum target of 2.5 billion euros. The Italian two-year note yield tumbled 20 basis points.

The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of credit- default swaps on 15 governments declined 5.4 basis points to 310.5. In addition to Spain, the Netherlands sold 3 billion euros of 2015 notes today, and the European Financial Stability Facility sold 1.478 billion euros of 182-day bills as borrowing costs fell.

The euro weakened against all but four of its 16 major counterparts. The Dollar Index rose for the first time in three days, adding 0.7 percent. The measure of the currency against six major peers last week capped a record string of 14 straight gains. The pound fell 0.5 percent versus the dollar as U.K.

inflation slowed and the International Monetary Fund said more stimulus such as quantitative easing is needed to boost the economy.

The yen weakened after Fitch cut Japan’s rating by one step because of the nation’s “leisurely” efforts to tackle the world’s biggest public debt burden.

The Bank of Japan started a two-day meeting, with seven out of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News saying they expect the central bank to bolster monetary stimulus by July and none predicting action at the end of the meeting tomorrow. The Bank of Japan increased planned bond purchases a month ago.

The S&P GSCI Index of 24 commodities retreated 0.9 percent as corn, cotton, sugar and cocoa fell more than 2.6 percent to lead declines. Oil slipped 1 percent to $91.66 a barrel as Iran agreed to let Western nuclear inspectors into the country, easing concern that the conflict over its atomic energy program will disrupt supplies.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index added 0.2 percent, trimming a gain of as much as 1.1 percent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong advanced 1.2 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index increased 1.1 percent. Industrial stocks led the advance with Anhui Conch Cement Co., the biggest Chinese cement producer, jumping 3.5 percent. Benchmark gauges in South Korea, Taiwan and Hungary climbed at least 0.9 percent while India’s Sensex lost 1 percent.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

 

Even at the gate of death, in the greatest danger,

in the thick of the battlefield,

at the bottom of the ocean, on the tops of the highest mountains,

in the thickest of the forest, tell yourself,

“I am He, I am He.”

-Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

Carolann

A finished person is a boring person.

-Anna Quindlen, 1952-

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:

PROVIDENCE

By Reza Mahammadi

translated by Nick Laird and Hamid Kabir

 

I am a rain that nobody wants.

Even the streets don’t understand me.

I am the past perfect tense

and deep down inside me are buried

the ghosts of anonymous travelers,

of infamous seadogs and all of the dead.

I am a certain word small children fear

and which the poets have forgotten.

I’m Buddha’s face in Bamiyan,

stolen, sold on from my homeland,

and I am a corpse, knocked down

in Stockwell, ignored by the binmen.

And on this day in…

1980 – Mount St. Helens Erupts 3 times in 24 hours
1974 – India becomes the sixth nation to detonate an atomic bomb
1951 – The UN moves its headquarters to New York City
1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte becomes Emperor of France

You were born an original … Don’t die a copy. – John Mason

photos of the day

May 18, 2012

In this image made available by LOCOG Britain’s David Beckham smiles during a visit to The Experimental University School of Athens a day after the ceremonial handover of the Olympic flame to the organizers of the 2012 London Olympics.

Chris Radburn//AP

Two Yorkshire Terriers pose for photographers prior to world dog show in Salzburg, Austria. More than 30,000 dogs are expected to take part at the exhibition in Salzburg.

Kerstin Joensson/AP

Market Closes for May 18, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12369.38	-73.11
		-0.59%
S&P 500	1295.22	-9.64
		-0.74%
NASDAQ	2778.79	-34.90
		-1.24%
TSX	11280.64	-50.04
		-0.44%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8611.31	-265.28
		-2.99%
HANG  SENG	18951.85	-249.08
		-1.30%
SENSEX	16152.75	+82.27
		+0.51%
FTSE 100	5267.62	-70.76
		-1.33%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.886	1.879
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.429	2.422
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.7209	1.6971
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.8004	2.7982

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.02231	1.01927
US   $	0.98445	0.98109
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.30649	0.76541
US  $	1.27791	0.78253

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1592.20	1573.60
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	91.48	92.54
BRENT	108.24	108.78

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 18 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for the fifth time in six days, erasing an earlier gain driven by rising commodity prices, as financial shares tumbled amid increasing concerns about Europe’s debt crisis.

Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia decreased more than 0.5 percent. Industrial companies Bombardier Inc. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. dropped at least 1.3 percent. Golden Star Resources Ltd., which mines for gold in Ghana, plunged 17 percent after a debenture swap raised dilution concerns.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 50.04 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,280.64 in Toronto, reaching its lowest level since Oct. 4. The benchmark gauge rose as much as 0.9 percent earlier in the day.

“It was holding up quite nicely until some sellers came in and flattened it out right before the market closed,” David Cockfield, a managing director at Northland Wealth Management in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$200 million ($200 million). “They mainly hit the banks. There’s real concern relating to any interconnections the financials may have with European problems.”

The S&P/TSX fell 3.5 percent this week for its third straight weekly decline as concerns mounted that the Greek debt crisis, European elections and a slowing Chinese economy may curb demand for commodities. Energy and raw-materials companies account for 43 percent of Canadian stocks by market value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Financial companies decreased for a fifth straight day after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said turmoil in the financial markets caused by Europe’s debt crisis may last another two years, as Group of Eight leaders met to discuss Greece and its impact on the global economy.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, slipped 0.5 percent to C$51.70. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second- largest lender, decreased 0.9 percent to C$76.94. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third-largest lender, sank 1.2 percent to C$51.11.

Industrial stocks in the S&P/TSX fell for a second session as Chinese home prices fell in a record number of cities last month and car dealers posted inventory levels that foreshadowed deeper price cuts, adding to signs of slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

Bombardier, a maker of trains and airplanes, fell 1.3 percent to C$3.71. Canadian Pacific Railway, the country’s second-largest railroad, slipped 3.1 percent to C$74.11.

Golden Star Resources plummeted 17 percent, the biggest decline in the S&P/TSX, to C$1.16, its lowest point since December 2008. The company said today it would complete a debenture swap, which raised dilution concerns and focused attention on its debt levels.

US

By Lu Wang

May 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks tumbled for a third week, pushing the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its longest losing streak since August, amid concern global economic growth is slowing and Greece may leave the euro area.

All 10 industries in the S&P 500 fell. Financial and raw- material companies dropped at least 6.5 percent as shareholders sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. over the company’s $2 billion trading loss and the Dollar Index’s longest rally ever reduced the prices of commodities. J.C. Penney Co. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. each plunged 23 percent after reporting sales that missed analysts’ estimates. Facebook Inc. climbed 0.6 percent in its trading debut, erasing most of an 18 percent rally.

The S&P 500 tumbled 4.3 percent to 1,295.22, the biggest retreat since November. The index sank 7.7 percent over three weeks, trimming its 2012 gain to 3 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 451.22 points, or 3.5 percent, to 12,369.38, the lowest level since Jan. 6. The Nasdaq Composite Index plunged 5.3 percent, the most since September, to 2,778.79, extending its loss from a March high to 11 percent.

“We sort of hit an air pocket in terms of positive catalysts and meanwhile Europe keeps weighing on the market,”

John Kattar, chief investment officer at Eastern Investment Advisors in Boston, which manages $1.7 billion, said in a phone interview. “It was a very good earnings season, but that catalyst is behind us.”

Global equities slumped, with the MSCI BRIC Index that tracks stocks in Brazil, Russia, India and China entering a bear market, with a drop of more than 20 percent from this year’s peak. Fitch Ratings cut Greece’s credit rating on concern the country won’t be able to stay in the euro area after inconclusive elections left the country without a stable government. U.S. reports sent mixed signals, with housing starts and industrial production topping estimates while manufacturing in the Philadelphia region unexpectedly shrank.

The S&P 500’s retreat in May is almost four times worse than 2011. More than $1.14 trillion has been erased from American equity values this month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with about $299 billion in the 14 days after April 29, 2011, when the index reached its highest level in three years.

Faltering stocks, reports showing weaker economic growth and concern about the health of countries from Spain to Italy is reminding investors of 2011, one of the most volatile years on record as the S&P 500 dropped as much as 19 percent. Investors bracing for a retreat pulled $18 billion from U.S. equity mutual funds last month, the most since at least 1984, according to the Investment Company Institute.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, known as the VIX, jumped 26 percent for the week, the most since September, to 25.10. The index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, has risen for six straight trading days.

“The market is struggling,” John Praveen, chief investment strategist at Prudential International Investments Advisers, a unit of Prudential Financial Inc., which manages $943 billion in assets, said in a phone interview. “Investors are extremely nervous about what’s going on in Europe.”

JPMorgan tumbled 9.4 percent, the most in the Dow, to $33.49. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon agreed to testify before a Senate committee on the bank’s loss as lawmakers debate whether to tighten rules on trading by U.S. lenders. Dimon announced the loss May 10, assailing his firm’s handling of trading in synthetic credit positions as “flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored.”

Bank of America Corp. slid 7 percent to $7.02 for an eighth consecutive weekly decline, the longest run since at least 1980.

The S&P 500 Materials Index fell for nine consecutive days, the longest losing streak since September 2000, as the Dollar Index rose for a record 14 straight sessions through May 17.

U.S. Steel Corp. plunged 17 percent to $21.56 as hedge-fund manager David Einhorn said at the Ira Sohn conference that he’s not in favor of the steelmaker. Steel prices will continue to fall because of a glut of supply, Anthony Rizzuto, an analyst with Dahlman Rose & Co., wrote in a note on May 15.

Allegheny Technologies Inc., a specialty-metals producer, declined 16 percent to $33.18.

J.C. Penney slumped 23 percent, the most since October 2008 and the biggest decline in the S&P 500, to $26.29. The department-store chain led by Apple Inc.’s former retailing chief reported a first-quarter loss and sales that fell more than analysts projected.

Abercrombie & Fitch sank 23 percent to $35.89, the lowest level since September 2010. The operator of its namesake and Hollister stores reported first-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates and said same-store sales will decline this fiscal year amid weakness in Europe.

Facebook rose 0.6 percent to $38.23 in its debut on the last day of the week. That compares with Carlyle Group LP’s 0.2 percent day-one increase on May 3, and pales in contrast with Google Inc.’s 18 percent jump in its 2004 initial public offering. Underwriters bought Facebook’s stock to keep it from falling below the IPO price, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Facebook raised $16 billion in the largest IPO on record for a technology company. The offering valued the company at 107 times trailing 12-month earnings, more than every S&P 500 member except Amazon.com Inc. and Equity Residential.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. advanced 5.1 percent, the most in the Dow, to $62.43. The world’s largest retailer reported first- quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates as its low prices increased customer traffic and boosted sales.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

Where does the soul go after death?  Where could the earth fall to/

Where can the soul go?  Where is it not already?

The great cornerstone of Vedantism is the recognition of Self.

Man, have faith in yourself.  The soul is the same in every one.

It is all purity and perfection and the more pure and perfect we [you] are

the more purity and perfection you will see.

Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902

As ever,

Carolann

Life is full of obstacle illusions.

-Grant Frazier

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:

My newsletter was sent to you last night not quite finished (sorry about that, so I included an extra picture today), but I had to leave here quickly to meet a friend for a date.  We went to see  Jamie Lee Curtis and listen to her wonderful talk for a couple of hours.  I knew her father was Tony Curtis, but I only learned last night that her mother was the actress Janet Leigh.  Anyway she was quite amazing.

I was reading recently about the life of another remarkable woman who passed away at the end of March – Jay Macpherson, a poet and professor at Victoria College.  Her obituary quoted the American literary critic Harold Bloom, who recognized her rarity from the moment the title poem of The Boatman caught his ear.   “She was a woman of the deepest literary sensibility and really very close to a kind of genius in poetry and in deep meditative thought upon the meaning and nature of poetry,” he said in an interview in which he redited several of her poems by heart.  When she told her friend George Johnston about a class trip (from McGill University) to visit the Toronto Public Library System, he insisted on writing a letter of introduction to his friend Northrop Frye at Victoria College.  After a brief encounter with Frye, Macpherson wrote that they parted “ with the offer ringing in my head that if I could get myself to Toronto he would ‘teach me Blake’ – by myself, as he wasn’t otherwise giving the course.”  She did get   herself to Toronto and Frye did teach her Blake.  He also supervised both he Masters (1955) and PhD (1964) degrees in Victorian literature.  The Boatman was dedicated to Frye and his wife, Helen, and contains a cycle about Noah and the ark.  The sequence ends with The Anagogic Man, a poem her muse was said to have given her as she watched Frye approach the entrance to Victoria College one day.  Knowingness and the affection are all there in its first two stanzas:

THE ANAGOGIC MAN

Noah walks with head bent down;

For between his nape and crown

He carries, balancing with care,

A golden bubble round and rare.

 

Its gently shimmering sides surround

All us and our worlds, and bound

Innocence and experience.

-Jay Macpherson, from The Boatman

And on this day in…

1792 – Merchants form the New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street
1940 – Germany occupies Brussels and Belgium and begins the invasion of France
1954 – The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules for school integration in Brown v. Board of Education.
1939 – King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive in Québec City, to begin a month-long visit to Canada, the first by a reigning monarch.

photos of the day May 17, 2012

A man dressed as Charlie Chaplin walks on the beach in Cannes, France during the 65th Cannes Film Festival.

Eric Gaillard/Reuters

Three people walk along an avenue of trees at Lac Leman near Lausanne, Switzerland.

Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone/AP

A H-2A rocket carrying four satellites including one from South Korea blasts off from the launching pad at Tanegashima Space Center on the Japanese southwestern island of Tanegashima, about 621 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Kyodo/Reuters

Market Closes for May 17, 2012:

North American Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
Dow  Jones	12442.49	-156.06
		-1.24%
S&P 500	1307.00	-17.80
		-1.34%
NASDAQ	2813.69	-60.35
		-2.10%
TSX	11328.20	+2.12
		+0.02%

International Markets

Market  Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	8876.59	+75.42
		+0.86%
HANG  SENG	19200.93	-58.90
		-0.31%
SENSEX	16070.48	+40.39
		+0.25%
FTSE 100	5338.38	-66.87
		-1.24%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND.  10 Year Bond	1.879	1.923
CND.   30 Year Bond	2.422	2.454
U.S.   10 Year Bond	1.6971	1.7603
U.S.   30 Year Bond	2.7982	2.8989

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.01927	1.01240
US   $	0.98109	0.98775
Euro Rate  1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian   $	1.29360	0.77303
US  $	1.26915	0.78793

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold   Fix	1573.60	1538.80
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.54	92.81
BRENT	108.78	110.91

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 17 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, breaking a four-day losing streak, as a rally in gold helped equities avoid declines seen in the U.S. and Europe.

Barrick Gold Corp., Goldcorp Inc. and Yamana Gold Inc. increased more than 4.5 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. climbed 1.5 percent. China Gold International Resources Corp. gained 7.1 percent after a Bloomberg News survey showed that China’s economic growth is likely to accelerate in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank fell at least 1.6 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index advanced 4.60 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 11,330.68 Toronto time, trimming an earlier gain of as much as 0.9 percent. The index slumped 3.5 percent during the previous four days, and had declined in 10 out of the past 11 sessions.

“This is a weak bounce-back day,” Todd Johnson, a money manager at BCV Asset Management in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$340 million ($335 million). “Markets don’t do straight down forever. Maybe investors are getting a little exhausted from all the negative Spanish and European news.”

Equities fell in the U.S. and Europe as Spain’s borrowing costs rose at an auction, stoking concern that the region’s financial contagion is spreading from Greece. After the close of regular trading, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the credit ratings of Spanish banks.

The S&P/TSX is heading for its third straight weekly decline as concerns mount that the Greek debt crisis, European elections and a slowing Chinese economy may curb demand for commodities. Energy and raw-material companies account for 44 percent of Canadian stocks by market value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Materials stocks in the S&P/TSX rose for a second straight day as gold rallied for the first time in five sessions. The metal jumped the most since October as speculation that the Federal Reserve will announce more stimulus for the U.S. economy boosted demand for the precious metal.

Barrick Gold, the world’s largest producer of the metal, rose 6.9 percent to C$38.16. Goldcorp, the second-largest producer of the metal, gained 6.9 percent to C$35.48. Yamana Gold Inc., Canada’s third-largest company in the industry by market value, increased 4.6 percent to C$13.79.

China Gold, which explores and develops projects throughout Asia, gained 7.1 percent to C$3.30. China’s third-quarter economic growth will rebound to 8.3 percent from 7.9 percent this quarter, the first increase in seven periods, according to the median estimate of 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Financial companies in the benchmark index tumbled after the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index decreased to minus 5.8 in May, indicating an unexpected contraction in manufacturing. Economists forecast the gauge would rise to 10.

Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, slipped 2 percent to C$51.96. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second- largest lender, decreased 1.6 percent to C$77.65.

US

By Rita Nazareth

May 17 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index tumbled to a four-month low on disappointing economic data and concern that credit ratings for Spanish banks would be cut.

Nine out of 10 S&P 500 groups fell amid weaker-than- forecast data on manufacturing in the Philadelphia region and U.S. leading indicators. Caterpillar Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. slid at least 4.3 percent to pace losses in the largest companies. Apple Inc. sank 2.9 percent, sending its market value below $500 billion. Facebook Inc. raised $16 billion in the biggest initial public offering by a technology company in history, pricing shares at the top end of an increased range.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5 percent to 1,304.86 at 4 p.m. New York time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 156.06 points, or 1.2 percent, to 12,442.49. The Nasdaq-100 Index sank 2.1 percent to 2,509.05, falling for an eighth day in the longest slump since 2010. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies slipped 2.3 percent to 754.33. About 8.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, or 24 percent above the three-month average.

“Investors are de-risking,” said Tim Hoyle, the director of research at Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Haverford Trust Co., which manages about $6.5 billion. “They look at a global situation that appears to be degrading, not improving.”

Concern about a world economic slowdown drove the S&P 500 down 3.9 percent in five days. Banco Santander SA was among 16 Spanish banks whose credit ratings were cut by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited economic weakness and the government’s mounting budget strain. The announcement came after the market close, confirming investor speculation.

Both Russia’s Micex Index and Brazil’s Bovespa index fell more than 20 percent from their previous peaks, entering a bear market. The S&P 500 has fallen 8.1 percent from an almost four- year high on April 2. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against S&P 500 losses, soared 10 percent to 24.49, the highest since Dec. 19.

Consumer discretionary, financial and raw material shares had the biggest losses in the S&P 500 among 10 groups. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy slumped 2.3 percent. The Dow Jones Transportation Average sank 3.2 percent. The KBW Bank Index fell 1.7 percent. A measure of homebuilders in S&P indexes tumbled 6 percent. The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index slipped 5.6 percent.

Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of construction equipment, sank 4.4 percent to $87.80. JPMorgan retreated 4.3 percent to $33.93.

Apple lost 2.9 percent to $530.12, sending its market value to $495.7 billion. The company’s market capitalization had topped $500 billion for the first time in February, cementing its lead as the world’s most valuable business and reaching heights not seen by any company since the last recession.

SAC Capital Advisors LP and Viking Global Investors LP were among hedge funds that sold a net 6.1 million shares of Apple last quarter, taking advantage of the 48 percent jump in the iPhone maker’s stock. The stock has fallen 17 percent from its peak in April.

Hedge funds accounted for more than a third of the 15.2 million net Apple shares that were sold by endowments, banks, insurance companies and other investors during the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, which was aggregated from regulatory filings. Even so, Apple remains hedge funds’ most valuable holding. As a group they controlled 37.8 million shares as of March 31.

“Apple has always been a hedge-fund favorite,” said Michael Binger, a senior portfolio manager at Gradient Investments LLC in Shoreview, Minnesota, which oversees about $225 million. “You’re seeing some locking in of profits.”

Facebook sold 421.2 million shares at $38 each, a statement today shows. That values the social network at $104.2 billion, making it the largest company to go public in the U.S. by market capitalization, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Dealogic. Facebook, led by 28-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, this week expanded the IPO to meet demand, allowing investors Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Accel Partners to reap more gains.

“My feeling is they could have gone higher, but they wanted to leave some room for upside tomorrow,” said Arvind Bhatia, an analyst with Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. in Dallas.

“The demand was obviously quite strong so I think it’s the right move.”

American International Group Inc. retreated 6.5 percent, the biggest decline since Oct. 3, to $28.47. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York postponed the sale of assets acquired in the company’s rescue.

Limited Brands Inc. lost 4.4 percent to $45.86. The owner of the Victoria’s Secret lingerie chain forecast earnings for the second quarter and full year that trailed estimates.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rallied 4.2 percent, the most since 2009, to $61.68. The world’s largest retailer reported first- quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates as its low prices increased customer traffic and boosted sales.

Sears Holdings Corp. gained 3.1 percent to $52.42. The retailer controlled by Edward Lampert reported first-quarter net income of $189 million after selling stores and said it would partially spin off its Canadian operations.

Gold producers rallied after the precious metal jumped the most since October as speculation that the Federal Reserve will announce more stimulus boosted demand. Newmont Mining Corp., the largest U.S. gold producer, added 4 percent to $45.26.

Hewlett-Packard Co. advanced 0.1 percent to $22.06, after falling as much as 1 percent. The company is considering cutting as many as 25,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its work force, to reduce costs and help the company contend with ebbing demand for computers and services, people briefed on the plans said.

A long-term peak in the S&P 500 is developing as the gauge diverges from other equity measures, meaning stocks are likely to decline next year, according to RBC Capital Markets.

While the S&P 500 surpassed its 2011 peak last month, other stock measures including the Russell 2000 Index of small U.S. companies and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index failed to reach last year’s levels, sending a warning sign, according to a May 15 report from RBC’s Robert Sluymer.

“The MSCI and Russell didn’t confirm the S&P’s new cycle highs,” Sluymer, a technical analyst at RBC in New York, said during a phone interview yesterday. “These are the types of divergences you start to get as market tops develop.”

At the same time, the index may rebound in the next few weeks after reaching its “support band” of 1,300 to 1,330, Sluymer said in the May 15 report.

Cyclical companies are showing no signs of a reversal even though they appear “oversold,” Sluymer said. Caterpillar and Joy Global Inc. are two examples of economic-sensitive companies that have shown no evidence of bottoming, he said.

“We’re working through a much bigger top here,” he said in the interview. “We’re already seeing the market rotating away from cyclical leadership towards defensive themes.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

As long as there is division in any form

there must be conflict.

You are responsible, not only to your children,

but to the rest of humanity.

Unless you deeply understand this, not through words or ideas or the intellect,

but feel this in your blood, in your way of looking at life, in your actions,

you are supporting organized murder which is called war.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

 

Many live in the ivory tower called reality; they never

venture on the open sea of thought.

-Francois Gautier, 1959-

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