Category: Newsletters

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

Friday the 13^th: Thirteen was regarded as an unlucky number even among the Romans, who held it as a sign of death and destruction.  The origin of the idea that sitting down 13 at a table is unlucky is said to be that, at a banquet at Valhalla, Loki once intruded, making 13 guests and Balder was slain.  The superstition was confirmed in Christian countries by the Last Supper of Christ and the 12 apostles.  In the Middle Ages witch covens were believed always to have 13 members.

Addison writes:

I remember I was once in a mixed assembly that was full of noise and mirth, when on a sudden an old woman unluckily observed there were thirteen of us in company.  This remark struck a panic terror into several who were present, insomuch that one or two of the Ladies were going to leave  the room: but a friend of mine, taking notice that one of our female companions was big with child, affirmed there were fourteen in the room, and that, instead of portending one of the company should die, it plainly foretold one of them should be born.  Had not my friend found this expedient to break the omen, I question not but half the women in the company would have fallen sick that night. – On popular superstitions, Spectator, March 8, 1711.

The thirteenth of any month is widely regarded as an inauspicious day on which to undertake any new enterprise, and it is traditionally thought to be unlucky for a ship to begin a voyage on the 13^th, especially if it happens to be Friday the thirteenth.  –from Brewar’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

Speaking of ships, expect to see lots of stuff on the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic this weekend.  Haven’t spoken with anyone yet who has seen James Cameron’s re-release of the movie in 3d….should be good.

April 14^th, 1912 – The passenger liner Titanic – deemed unsinkable – strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and begins to sink.  The ship will go under the next day with a loss of 1,500 lives.

Birthday: April 13^th, 1743, Thomas Jefferson, 3^rd President of the USA. He wrote his own epitaph and insisted that only his words and none other be inscribed:

 

Here was buried

Thomas Jefferson

Author of the Declaration of Independence

Of the State of Virginia for Religious Freedom

& Father of the University of Virginia

photos of the day

April 13, 2012

A giant US flag is stretched across the outfield as players line the first and third base lines during a pre-game ceremony prior to the New York Yankees season home opening MLB American League baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium in New York.

Mike Segar/Reuters

A visitor looks at a work by South Korean artist Kang Hyung-Koo at China International Gallery Exposition 2012 in Beijing.

Jason Lee/Reuters

Market Closes for April 13, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12849.59	-136.99
		-1.05%
S&P 500	1370.26	-17.31
		-1.25%
NASDAQ	3011.33	-44.22
		-1.45%
TSX	12040.39	-174.26
		-1.43%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9637.99	+113.20
		+1.19%
HANG SENG	20701.04	+373.72
		+1.84%
SENSEX	17094.51	-238.11
		-1.37%
FTSE 100	5651.79	-58.67
		-1.03%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.988	2.045
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.552	2.598
U.S. 10 Year Bond	1.9823	2.0510
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1273	3.2116

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99975	0.99455
US $	1.00025	1.00548
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.30746	0.76484
US $	1.30779	0.76465

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1659.10	1679.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.83	103.69

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 13 (Bloomberg) —  Canadian stocks fell, sending the main equity index to the longest weekly losing streak since 2008, as financial companies and commodity producers retreated after China reported the slowest growth in almost three years.

Toronto-Dominion Bank, the country’s second-largest lender, dropped 1.9 percent. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-biggest lender by assets, declined 2.2 percent. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, fell 1.2 percent. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., a copper producer that has surged for two weeks on takeover speculation, dropped 3.6 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 174.26 points, or 1.4 percent, to 12,040.39 in Toronto. It slipped 0.5 percent since April 6, falling for the seventh straight week.

“There are worries about a soft landing for the Chinese economy,” Sebastian van Berkom, a money manager at Van Berkom & Associates in Montreal, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$1.8 billion ($1.8 billion). “Our market is very much influenced by commodities, whose performance is primarily determined by the outlook for Asia.”

The benchmark gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The measure started this week with two days of declines following a weaker-than-forecast U.S. jobs report.

Financial shares retreated as American consumer confidence dropped and the cost of insuring against a Spanish default reached a record high. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is struggling to prevent the nation from becoming the fourth euro- region member to need a bailout after prices for the country’s credit-default swaps rose to a record high rose 17 basis points to 498.

Toronto-Dominion Bank dropped 1.9 percent to C$81.95. Bank of Nova Scotia declined 2.2 percent to C$54.10. TD and Bank of Nova Scotia get 27 percent and 15 percent of their revenues from U.S. operations, according to Bloomberg data.

Materials companies in the S&P/TSX declined, driven by metals shares, as China said its gross domestic product in the first quarter expanded 8.1 percent from a year earlier, the slowest in almost three years. Before today, gold rose 3.1 percent this week on expectations that central banks may take more steps to boost their economies and concern that Europe’s debt crisis may worsen.

Barrick fell 1.2 percent to C$41.49. First Quantum Minerals dropped 3.6 percent to C$21.61. Silver Wheaton Corp., the country’s third-biggest precious-metals company by market value, decreased 2.4 percent to C$31.13.

Energy companies in the S&P/TSX fell on concern over China and Saudi Arabia’s oil minister’s comment that the kingdom is determined to see lower prices. There’s no shortage of oil supply, and Saudi Arabia is working toward damping prices, Ali al-Naimi said today.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, slipped 1.6 percent to C$30.45. Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp., which explores for oil in Colombia, declined 1.6 percent to C$28.49. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s third- largest energy company, fell 3.3 percent to C$31.91.

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., Canada’s biggest construction and engineering company, dropped 4.2 percent to C$38.40. The company’s Montreal headquarters were searched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The investigation is related to “certain individuals who are not or are no longer employed by the company,” SNC-Lavalin said.

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 13 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest weekly decline in 2012, as consumer confidence dropped, China’s growth slowed and the cost of insuring against a Spanish default rose to a record.

Financial shares dropped the most among 10 industries in the S&P 500, following a plunge in European lenders. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. retreated at least 3.6 percent. Technology shares, which account for 21 percent of the S&P 500, fell 1.6 percent as a group today and had the first weekly slump this year. Google Inc. tumbled 4.1 percent as the world’s largest Internet-search company plans a new stock structure that gives management more leeway in issuing shares.

The S&P 500 slid 1.3 percent to 1,370.26 at 4 p.m. New York time, extending its weekly decline to 2 percent. It fell a second week for the longest losing streak since November. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 136.99 points, or 1.1 percent, to 12,849.59. About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S.

exchanges today, or 9 percent below the three-month average.

“Let’s not get overly concerned, but yes, there are concerns out there that we need to look at,” Brad Sorensen, director of market and sector analysis at San Francisco-based Charles Schwab Corp., which has $1.81 trillion in client assets, said in a telephone interview. “China has been disappointing, U.S. consumer confidence adds to the pressure and Europe is not out of the woods yet.”

Stocks fell as confidence among U.S. consumers cooled in April from a one-year high. China’s growth slowed to the least in almost three years. Credit-default swaps on Spain surged as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy struggles to prevent the nation from becoming the fourth euro-region member to need a bailout.

Today’s decline in stocks follows the biggest two-day rally in 2012. The S&P 500, which had the best first-quarter since 1998, was still up 9 percent this year as investors bought stocks amid better-than-estimated economic data and expectations that Europe would tame its debt crisis.

“The first quarter was a relief that things were not going to be as bad,” said Virginie Maisonneuve, head of global equities at Schroder Investment Management Ltd., which oversees

$291 billion, said in a phone interview from London. “Since then, there are question marks of liquidity. We have a lot of liquidity in the world, but what next?”

Concern about the global financial system drove banks lower even after JPMorgan and Wells Fargo & Co. reported earnings that beat estimates. The KBW Bank Index slumped 3.1 percent as all of its 24 stocks retreated. Bank of America sank 5.3 percent, the most in the Dow, to $8.68. JPMorgan lost 3.6 percent to $43.21.

Wells Fargo dropped 3.5 percent to $32.84.

Quarterly reports scheduled for next week include Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America and some of the largest technology companies. International Business Machines Corp., which comprises 12 percent of the Dow; Intel Corp., the world’s biggest chipmaker; and Microsoft Corp., the largest software maker, are due to announce their results. Yum! Brands Inc., which surged 2.8 percent to $72.86 today for the biggest gain in the S&P 500, is also scheduled to report.

While S&P 500 per-share profit growth slowed to 1.7 percent during the first three months of the year from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter, it will accelerate to 8.6 percent during all of 2012, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Google tumbled 4.1 percent to $624.60 even as earnings beat estimates. The bid to preserve control for founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin raised concern among corporate-governance watchdogs. Google unveiled a plan that lets the company issue new shares without diluting the founders’ voting power.

The stock change would create a new class of nonvoting shares that will be distributed to existing shareholders in what is effectively a 2-for-1 stock split. For investors, the result is a lack of input on decision making, said Charles Elson, director of the University of Delaware’s John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.

“Shareholder voting rights are pretty limited in Google,”

he said. “And this basically perpetuates that reality.”

Apple Inc. sank 2.8 percent, the most since October, to $605.23. After rising to a record on April 9, the most valuable technology company fell for a fourth day in the longest losing streak since December.

Coinstar Inc. surged 7.3 percent to $65.78. The owner of the Redbox movie-rental kiosks said first-quarter sales and profit exceeded its previous projection and lifted its earnings forecast for 2012 to at least $4.40 a share.

Dow Chemical Co. advanced 1.6 percent to $33.20. The largest U.S. chemicals producer increased its quarterly dividend to 32 cents a share from 25 cents.

Safeway Inc. rose 2.5 percent to $21.19. The grocer may be considering options such as a leveraged buyout or Reverse Morris Trust, according to JPMorgan.

Johnson Controls Inc. added 2.3 percent to $32.57. The largest U.S. auto supplier was boosted to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank AG.

Concern about the global financial system’s stability has grown so much during the past two weeks that investors ought to take less risk, according to Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit.

Forty market-related gauges go into the Bank of America indicator, and 10 of them surged far enough to send a so-called critical stress signal three days ago. The “risk-off” warning was the first since July 12, just before a second-half retreat in stocks got under way.

“We recommend caution,” Benjamin Bowler, head of global derivatives research, and two colleagues wrote in a report two days ago. The MSCI All-Country World Index declined by an average of 3.8 percent in periods when the signal was in place since 2000, the report said.

The stress index’s components reflects the potential worsening of a euro-region debt crisis, according to Bowler, based in San Francisco, and Anders Armelius and Abhinandan Deb, his London-based colleagues.

Credit-default swap rates for government borrowers are showing the most stress, according to their data. A CDS-based based indicator was at 4.1 three days ago. Readings above zero show stress is higher than normal.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Life is like a garden.  Quite naturally, leaves wither and flowers fade.

Only if we clear the decay of the past

then and there can we really enjoy the beauty of the new leaves and flowers.

Likewise, we must clear the murkiness of past bad experiences from our minds.

Life is remembrance in forgetfulness.

Forgive what ought to be forgiven; forget what ought to be forgotten.

Let us embrace life with renewed vigor..

We should be able to face every moment of life with renewed expectation, like a freshly blossomed flower.

Mata Amritanandamayi, 1953-

As ever,

 

Carolann

You can tell the character of every man when

you see how he receives praise.

-Seneca, circa 3 BC -65 AD

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

On this day,

In 1917, Canadians take Vimy Ridge, 3,600 Canadians died.

In 1927, the British Cabinet comes out in favour of voting rights for women.

In 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died; Harry Truman became President of the USA.

In 1954, Bill Haley records Rock Around the Clock.

In 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk’s discovery of a Polio vaccine is announced.

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin of the USSR became the first man in space, orbits the earth.

 

photos of the day

April 12, 2012

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wears 3D glasses as he visits Moscow’s Planetarium in Moscow. Putin chaired a meeting with officials on building a new space launchpad in Russia’s far east that should become operational by 2018.

Alexei Druzhinin/Government Press Service/AP

Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ is seen as it is hung for display at Sotheby’s Auction Rooms in London. The picture made with pastels is one of four versions of the composition, and dates from 1895, it will be auctioned in the Impressionist and Modern Art Sale in New York on May 2, with an estimated price of 80 million dollars.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Market Closes for April 12, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12986.58	+181.19
		+1.41%
S&P 500	1387.57	+18.86
		+1.38%
NASDAQ	3055.55	+39.09
		+1.3%
TSX	12214.65	+187.89
		+1.56%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9524.79	+66.05
		+0.70%
HANG SENG	20327.32	+186.65
		+0.93%
SENSEX	17332.62	+133.22
		+0.77%
FTSE 100	5710.46	+75.72
		+1.34%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.045	2.012
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.598	2.584
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.0510	2.0351
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.2116	3.1959

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.99455	1.00386
US $	1.00548	0.99615
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31142	0.76253
US $	1.31862	0.75837

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1679.50	1659.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	103.69	102.55

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 12 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose the most since the first trading day of the year as metal producers gained on speculation a slowing economy will prompt easing of monetary policy by China.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s biggest base-metal producer, rose 4.4 percent. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-biggest bullion miner, gained 2.5 percent. Eldorado Gold Corp. surged 11 percent after saying its costs will be lower than some analysts anticipated. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s third-largest energy company, rose 4.2 percent on higher oil, as signals that U.S. interest rates will stay low offset higher- than-forecast American jobless claims.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 187.89 points, or 1.6 percent, to 12,214.65 in Toronto, its biggest gain since Jan. 3. The benchmark measure of Canadian stocks lost 4.6 percent from April 2 through April 10 before rebounding yesterday.

“People shouldn’t put too much stock into one jobless claim data point,” Barry Schwartz, a money manager at Baskin Financial Services Inc. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$400 million ($400 million).

“The Fed said that the economy is picking up steam, which is what matters. Earnings are growing, the market is reasonably priced and commodity stocks are still at buoyant levels.”

The benchmark gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index had its biggest weekly drop of the year last week on renewed concern over Europe as French borrowing costs rose and Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the nation faces “extreme difficulty.”

U.S. Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen and Fed Bank of New York President William C. Dudley endorsed the central bank’s view that borrowing costs are likely to stay low through 2014.

U.S. central bankers next meet on April 24-25 to debate policy.

Materials companies in the Canadian index increased, driven by gold and copper shares, on speculation that slower economic growth will prompt policy makers to add more stimulus measures in China. A government report tomorrow may show that China’s economy expanded at the slowest pace in almost three years in the first quarter, according to the median estimate of 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, rose 1.8 percent to C$41.98. Goldcorp gained 2.5 percent to C$41.79. Eldorado increased 11 percent to C$14.37. The Vancouver-based mining company expects average cash costs of $350 per ounce of gold produced as it boosts annual output to 1.7 million ounces in 2016.

Teck Resources improved 4.4 percent to C$36.93 as copper rose the most in more than a week. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., a copper producer that surged last week on takeover speculation, rose 4.8 percent to C$22.54 after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the company is a “compelling M&A case.”

Energy stocks in the S&P/TSX gained for a second day following five days of declines. Canadian Natural Resources rose 4.2 percent to C$33.01. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, increased 2.8 percent to C$30.95.

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 12 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest two-day rally in 2012, on policymakers’ signals that interest rates will remain low.

Commodity shares gained the most among 10 S&P 500 groups.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average, a proxy for the economy, added 2.2 percent. Hewlett-Packard Co. surged 7.2 percent, the biggest advance since 2009, after Gartner Inc. said the global personal-computer industry grew in the first quarter as the company remained a market leader. Google Inc. added 1.8 percent at 4:54 p.m. New York time as profit beat estimates.

The S&P 500 advanced 1.4 percent to 1,387.57 at 4 p.m. New York time, rising 2.1 percent in two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 181.19 points, or 1.4 percent, to 12,986.58. About 6.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 8 percent below the three-month average.

“We have the ingredients for a better tone to the market,” said Keith Wirtz, who oversees $15 billion as chief investment officer for Fifth Third Asset Management in Cincinnati. “The bar was set low, we might have a good earnings season and a couple of Fed officials are providing some rhetoric. If there’s an erosion of economic conditions, it’s likely that we’re going to see action by the Fed.”

Equities rose today as Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen and New York Fed President William C. Dudley endorsed the central bank’s view that borrowing costs are likely to stay low through 2014. Those comments overshadowed investors’

disappointment after a report showed that more Americans than forecast filed claims for jobless benefits last week.

American stocks also joined a global rally as investors awaited a report at 10 p.m. New York time that’s forecast to show China’s economy expanded 8.4 percent last quarter. The Bloomberg China-U.S. Equity Index of the most-traded Chinese stocks in the U.S. added 2.5 percent.

Today’s gain extended this year’s advance in the S&P 500 to 10 percent as investors piled into stocks amid better-than- estimated economic and corporate data. While S&P 500 per-share profit growth slowed to 0.8 percent during the first three months of the year from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter, it will accelerate to 8.3 percent during all of 2012, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

“It’s very difficult to kill a rally that we’ve seen over the last few months in one shot,” said Michael Shaoul, chairman of Marketfield Asset Management in New York, which oversees more than $1.6 billion. “Without ‘new’ news it will be very difficult to send this market lower. Ultimately, earnings are going to be important. I would expect good domestic earnings.”

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 rose today as companies most- dependent on economic growth had the biggest gains. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index added 2.6 percent. Caterpillar Inc. advanced 4.6 percent to $106.44. Alcoa Inc., which this week reported an unexpected profit, rallied 2.7 percent to $10.17.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. climbed 1.9 percent to $44.84.

Hewlett-Packard jumped 7.2 percent, the most in the Dow, to $25.10. The company accounted for 17.2 percent of worldwide PC shipments, Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner said yesterday.

Total global PC shipments climbed 1.9 percent to 89 million units, after predictions of a 1.2 percent drop, according to Gartner. Another research firm, IDC, also reported a surprise increase for the quarter.

Google rallied 2.4 percent to $651.01. After the close of regular trading, the shares rose 1.8 percent to $662.60. First- quarter profit before certain costs was $10.08 a share. Analysts had projected $9.64 on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The company announced plans for what it calls an effective stock split, introducing a new class of nonvoting capital stock.

The shares will be distributed through a stock dividend to existing shareholders.

“The viability of Google is still very, very strong,” said Ron Josey, an analyst at ThinkEquity LLC in New York. He recommends buying the stock, which he doesn’t own himself.

“There’s still a lot of room for growth across its multiple businesses.”

Tomorrow, investors will get a first look at bank results when JPMorgan and Wells Fargo & Co. kick off earnings, about an hour apart. Citigroup Inc. is set to announce results April 16, followed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

AT&T Inc. gained 1.3 percent to $30.84 after the company’s shares were raised to the equivalent of buy at JPMorgan. The 9- month share-price estimate is $33.

McKesson Corp. jumped 3.9 percent to $91.34. The largest U.S. drug distributor based on revenue rose to its highest level since 1998 after the company won a $31.6 billion contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Illumina Inc. slipped 5.8 percent to $49.51. Roche Holding AG, which bid $51 a share to buy the maker of DNA analysis equipment, said publicly available information doesn’t justify a higher price.

Before capping a two-day rally, the S&P 500 had tumbled 4.3 percent from an almost four-year high on April 2. The retreat in the index may not be over, as a gauge of bullishness reached levels that coincided with the market’s peak in 2007 and preceded the biggest pullback in both of the last two years.

The Consensus Bullish Sentiment index on stocks, based on a weekly survey of brokerage strategists and newsletter writers, exceeded 75 percent for seven weeks through April 3, the longest streak since Kansas City, Missouri-based Consensus Inc. began compiling the data in 1983.

The index fell to 69 percent this week as the S&P 500 had the worst five-day drop since November amid concern the recovery in the American labor market is slowing and Europe’s debt crisis is worsening.

Increasing bullishness is considered a contrarian indicator by some analysts who follow price charts to make market predictions, because investors who have bought shares now have less money to purchase stocks.

“We’re concerned at what we view as very complacent bullish sentiment, almost frothy, and it needs to be unwound,” John Kattar, chief investment officer at Eastern Investment Advisors in Boston, which manages $1.7 billion, said in a telephone interview. “We should see some fear creeping back into the market, but we’re a long way from that happening yet.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

You are never alone because you are full of all the memories, all the conditioning,

all the mutterings of yesterday; your mind is never clear of all the rubbish it has accumulated.

To be alone, you must die to the past.

When you are alone, totally alone, not belonging to any family, and nation, any culture,

any particular continent, there is that sense of being an outsider.

The man who is completely alone in this way is innocent and it is this innocence that frees the mind from sorrow.

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are

so confident while the intelligent are full of doubt.

-Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

 

On this day:

In 1814, Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.

In 1945, US troops liberated Buchenwald.

In 1961, Bob Dylan performs for the first time in Greenwich Village, NYC, singing Blowin in the Wind.

 

Question of the day: What do you wish you spent more time doing five years ago?

 

TITANIC 1912-2012

A notice in today’s Globe & Mail invites everyone to “explore all new Titanic Records free until May 31^st” at ancestry.ca/globe or by calling 1-800-442-9153 for details.  The site has passenger lists, crew records, Halifax gravesites, fatality reports…”To mark the 100^th anniversary of history’s most famous maritime disaster – the sinking of RMS Titanic – Ancestry .ca is offering FREE ACCESS to our complete Titanic records now until May 31^st, 2012.”

photos of the day

April 11, 2012

Emirates Team New Zealand compete with their multihulls during the America’s Cup World Series regatta in Naples, Italy.

Alessandro Bianchi/Reut

Employees of the Friends of the Earth environmental campaign group dressed up as bees Charlotte Chan, (l.), and Debbie O’Dowd pose for photographs in a temporary wildflower meadow on the south bank of the River Thames London. The publicity event was held to help raise awareness of the claims that Britain has lost over half the honey bees kept in managed hives and wild honey bees are nearly extinct as a result of the loss of their natural habitat and intensive farming.

Matt Dunham/AP

Market Closes for April 11, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12805.39	+89.46
		0.70%
S&P 500	1368.71	+10.12
		+0.74%
NASDAQ	3016.46	+25.24
		+0.84%
TSX	12026.76	+91.47
		+0.77%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9458.74	-79.28
		-0.83%
HANG SENG	20140.67	-215.57
		-1.06%
SENSEX	17199.40	-44.44
		-0.26%
FTSE 100	5634.74	+39.19
		+0.70%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.012	1.987
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.584	2.556
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.0351	1.9823
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1959	3.1281

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00386	1.00489
US $	0.99615	0.99513
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31614	0.75980
US $	1.31107	0.76274

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1659.00	1659.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.55	101.03

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 11 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for the first time in six days as energy companies gained with oil prices on signs that Europe will act to slow the region’s debt crisis.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, gained 1.8 percent as crude climbed from its lowest close in almost two months. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s third-largest energy company by market value, rose 1.7 percent. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest lender, increased 0.9 percent as financial shares rebounded from a five- day skid.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 97.83 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,033.12 at 2:40 p.m. in Toronto.

“It’s a technical bounce off a pretty oversold market in the last few days,” 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. “It’s exactly what we’ve seen the last two years. A crescendo into April in terms of risk rally for a few months, and then economic data starts a sell-off the other way.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index had its biggest weekly drop of the year last week on renewed concern over Europe as French borrowing costs rose and Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the nation faces “extreme difficulty.”

Canadian energy shares increased as oil rose after the U.S.

Energy Department said fuel stockpiles declined and a European Central Bank official signaled that the lender may restart bond purchases for Spain.

Suncor Energy Inc. gained 1.8 percent to C$30.17. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose 1.7 percent to C$31.81. Niko Resources Ltd., which produces oil and gas in South Asia, rose

7.1 percent to C$35.24.

Financial companies in the S&P/TSX rose for the first time since April 2. Banks and insurance companies had declined on economic concerns as U.S. reports on factory orders and job growth missed forecasts.

Royal Bank of Canada increased 0.9 percent to C$56.47. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-biggest lender by assets, rose 1 percent to C$54.91. Mutual-fund company IGM Financial Inc.

gained 1.2 percent to C$46.26.

Dollarama Inc. surged 7.1 percent to C$51.80 and rose 9.2 percent earlier, the most intraday since the stock went public in October 2009. The Canadian discount retailer posted fourth- quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates and raised its dividend.

Wi-Lan Inc. rose 7.6 percent to C$5.80 after climbing 9.7 percent, the most intraday since March 7. The U.S. validated the technology-licensing company’s V-Chip patent after a re- examination.

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 11 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, halting a five-day decline for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, after Alcoa Inc. reported an unexpected first-quarter profit.

Alcoa, the first company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to announce quarterly results, climbed 6.2 percent. Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. added at least 2.4 percent to pace gains in financial shares. A measure of 11 homebuilders in S&P indexes jumped 4.8 percent as Wells Fargo & Co. said a survey of sales managers showed 63 percent of the respondents reported better-than-expected orders.

The S&P 500 increased 0.7 percent to 1,368.71 at 4 p.m. New York time, after dropping 4.3 percent over the past five days.

The Dow advanced 89.46 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,805.39 today. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies climbed 1.6 percent to 796.59. About 6.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 6.5 percent less than the three-month average and 23 percent below yesterday’s volume.

“Alcoa helped dampen the dark mood in the market,” said Frederic Dickson, who helps oversee $28 billion as chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon. “It’s always nice to see the first company out of the box with an earnings surprise. It’s time to see how this progresses and reassess when to put some money back in.”

Almost $800 billion was erased from U.S. equity values in the five days leading up to the first-quarter earnings season.

The S&P 500 yesterday capped the longest drop since November on concern about Europe’s debt crisis and the U.S. jobs market. The decline drove the gauge to about 14 times reported earnings yesterday, below the average since 1954 of 16.4.

Today’s gain extended this year’s rally in the S&P 500 to 8.8 percent as investors bought stocks amid better-than- estimated economic and corporate data. While S&P 500 per-share profit growth slowed to 0.8 percent during the first three months of the year from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter, it will accelerate to 8.3 percent during all of 2012, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Analysts’ estimates for S&P 500 earnings growth in the first quarter have declined from 4.1 percent in January, Bloomberg data showed. For Lawrence Creatura at Federated Investors Inc., earnings expectations are still low and profit surprises may drive the market higher.

“This isn’t a phantom bounce,” Creatura, who helps oversee $369.7 billion as a Rochester, New York-based fund manager at Federated, said in a telephone interview. “It seems reasonable to expect positive surprises as we move through the earnings season. Management teams have done a good job of keeping expectations contained.”

Alcoa climbed 6.2 percent to $9.90. The earnings were “driven by higher-than-expected profitability from every operating segment,” Brian Yu, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in San Francisco, said in a note. “Good cost control likely played a major role.” The stock dropped 48 percent in the 12 months through yesterday, the biggest decline in the Dow.

A rally in Alcoa shares following its earnings reports has been an indicator of gains for the S&P 500, according to Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research in Cincinnati. Since 2005, the gauge has risen an average 4 percent in the three-month period that followed a positive reaction to Alcoa’s earnings, he said.

Financial shares had the biggest gain in the S&P 500 among 10 industries today, rallying 1.6 percent. Bank of America rose

3.8 percent to $8.86. JPMorgan jumped 2.4 percent to $44.01.

Investors will get a first look at banks results when JPMorgan and Wells Fargo kick off earnings, about an hour apart, on April 13. Citigroup Inc. is set to announce results April 16, followed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

The results may disappoint investors who piled into banking stocks on a bet the industry was inexpensive and set to benefit from a strengthening economy. The six largest U.S. lenders may post an 11 percent drop in first-quarter profit, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The KBW Bank Index of 24 companies climbed 26 percent in the first three months of the year, led by Bank of America’s 72 percent gain.

“You can’t expect bank stocks to go straight to the moon,” said Peter Kovalski, a money manager at Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC in Purchase, New York, which manages about

$5 billion. “You have to expect fundamentals to catch up, and there are some headwinds facing the industry.”

On top of earnings data, investors also watched the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book business survey today, published two weeks before the Federal Open Market Committee meets to set monetary policy. The Fed said the economy maintained its expansion in all

12 of its regions as manufacturing, hiring and retail sales showed signs of strength in the face of higher fuel prices.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy added 1.2 percent. FedEx Corp., an economic bellwether as it carries everything from mobile devices to pharmaceuticals, rose 1.5 percent to $87.91. Homebuilder PulteGroup Inc. advanced 9.1 percent to $8.39.

Apple Inc. reversed a gain of as much as 1.3 percent, falling 0.4 percent to $626.20. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Apple, Macmillan and Pearson Plc’s Penguin in New York today, claiming the publishers colluded to fix e-Book prices.

Three other publishers, CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster, Lagardère SCA’s Hachette Book Group and News Corp.’s HarperCollins, also named in the government’s antitrust lawsuit, settled their cases, according to court filings.

Owens-Illinois Inc. rose 6.9 percent to $23.52. The glass- bottle maker said first-quarter earnings will rise more than 35 percent from a year earlier on higher prices and lower costs.

Genworth Financial Inc. gained 3.2 percent to $7.54. The life insurer and mortgage guarantor was rated buy in new coverage by BTIG LLC, which said the stock is trading at “too steep a discount” to the company’s inherent value.

Titan Machinery Inc. surged 17 percent to $32.05, the highest since June 2008. The owner of full-service agricultural and equipment stores forecast annual earnings of at least $2.55 a share, beating the average analyst estimate of $2.06.

U.S. shares of Nokia Oyj tumbled 16 percent to $4.24. The Espoo, Finland-based mobile phone maker reported an operating loss for its mobile-phone division and forecast earnings won’t recover this quarter as emerging market handsets sales slumped and margins on smartphones shrank.

VMWare Inc. slumped 2.5 percent to $107.61. The software maker announced a management shuffle including the departure of Chief Financial Officer Mark Peek. Earnings have more than doubled to $723.94 million since 2008, the first full year after Peek joined. The company is initiating a search to replace him.

Computer Sciences Corp. fell 2.8 percent to $27.39. The technology contractor for governments and companies said earnings excluding certain costs in the quarter ended March 30 were 19 cents to 21 cents a share. Analysts predicted 97 cents, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

U.S. stocks will probably see a short-term relief rally before extending their retreat next week, according to the head of technical analysis at Credit Suisse Group AG. The S&P 500 may climb to as much as 1,382, London-based David Sneddon wrote today. The measure will then be poised to drop more than 3 percent next week to the 1,339 low from March 6, he said.

“With a classic bearish momentum and on-balance volume divergence reinforcing the more bearish scenario, we expect further weakness to extend,” Sneddon wrote in a note dated yesterday. So-called on-balance volume shows a security’s momentum by looking at the relationship between price and the number of transactions taking place.

 

Have  a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

What is change?

One form appears, and another disappears.

Can we say that the butterfly used to be a caterpillar?

A substance in the caterpillar takes on the form of the butterfly.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

 

Carolann

All money is a matter of belief.

-Adam Smith, 1723-1790

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Dear Friends,

 

Tangents:

April 10, 1912: The Titanic sets sail on her maiden voyage.

 

-from Susan Sontag -excerpted from the forthcoming book “As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh:  Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980,” by Susan Sontag, edited by David Rieff.

Things I like: fires, Venice, tequila, sunsets, babies, silent films, heights, coarse salt, top hats, large long-haired dogs, ship models, cinnamon, goose down quilts, pocket watches, the smell of newly mown grass, linen, Bach, Louis XIII furniture, sushi, microscopes, large rooms, boots, drinking water, maple sugar candy.

Things I dislike: sleeping in an apartment alone, cold weather, couples, football games, swimming, anchovies, mustaches, cats, umbrellas, being photographed, the taste of licorice, washing my hair (or having it washed), wearing a wristwatch, giving a lecture, cigars, writing letters, taking showers, Robert Frost, German food.

Things I like: ivory, sweaters, architectural drawings, urinating, pizza (the Roman bread), staying in hotels, paper clips, the color blue, leather belts, making lists, wagon-lits, paying bills, caves, watching ice-skating, asking questions, taking taxis, Benin art, green apples, office furniture, Jews, eucalyptus trees, penknives, aphorisms, hands.

Things I dislike: television, baked beans, hirsute men, paperback books, standing, card games, dirty or disorderly apartments, flat pillows, being in the sun, Ezra Pound, freckles, violence in movies, having drops put in my eyes, meatloaf, painted nails, suicide, licking envelopes, ketchup, traversins [“bolsters”], nose drops, Coca-Cola, alcoholics, taking photographs.’

 

On Intelligence

I don’t care about someone being intelligent; any situation between people, when they are really human with each other, produces “intelligence.”

 

Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.

-Robert Fulghum

photos of the day

April 10, 2012

Chinese sky lanterns decorate the area around the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Some 2,228 lanterns are hung around the museum to commemorate the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic 100 years ago on April 10, 1912, signifying the numbers of passengers onboard.

Tim Chong/Reuters

Jellyfish glide slowly in an aquarium wall of a hotel at Manila Ocean Park, the largest oceanarium in the country, as the media was given a tour during its 2nd anniversary celebration in Manila, Philippines.

Bullit Marquez/AP

 

Market Closes for April 10, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12715.93	-213.66
		-1.65%
S&P 500	1358.59	-23.61
		-1.71%
NASDAQ	2991.22	-55.86
		-1.83%
TSX	11935.29	-83.21
		-0.69%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9538.02	-8.24
		-0.09%
HANG SENG	20356.24	-236.76
		-1.15%
SENSEX	17243.84	+21.70
		+0.13%
FTSE 100	5595.55	-128.12
		-2.24%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	1.987	2.070
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.556	2.630
U.S. 10 Year Bond	1.9823	2.0474
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1281	3.1959

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00489	1.00282
US $	0.99513	0.99718
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31368	0.76122
US $	1.30729	0.76494

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1659.50	1642.50
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	101.03	102.28

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 10 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks declined for a fifth straight day as energy shares slipped before a report tomorrow that may show an increase in U.S. oil stockpiles.

Enbridge Inc., the country’s largest pipeline company, fell 2.5 percent after saying it plans to sell $200 million of preferred shares. Lumber producer Canfor Corp. dropped 5.4 percent after the stock’s rating was cut at BMO Capital Markets.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd., a copper producer that surged last week on takeover speculation, gained 8.8 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 83.21 points, or 0.7 percent, to 11,935.29 in Toronto, its lowest level of the year. The index’s five-day skid is its longest since June.

“It’s no surprise investors are selling off risk assets,” Tony Demarin, chief investment officer at BCV Asset Management in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$335 million ($334 million). “The market in general is due for a pause. We’ve had six months of pretty good financial return in the stock markets around the world, and we’ve hit a little bit of a wall here.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index had its biggest weekly drop of the year last week on renewed concern over Europe as French borrowing costs rose and Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the nation faces “extreme difficulty.”

Energy stocks in the S&P/TSX declined for a fifth straight day as oil dropped after Chinese crude imports declined and analysts estimated that a report tomorrow will show U.S. stockpiles rose to the highest level for this time of the year since 1990.

Enbridge Inc. fell 2.5 percent to C$38.45 after saying it plans to sell $200 million of preferred shares in a transaction expected to close April 18. Suncor Energy Inc., the country’s largest oil and gas producer, dropped 2.2 percent to C$29.64.

Gold producers increased as the metal rose to a one-week high in New York after European debt concerns spurred demand for a haven investment. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, gained 2.2 percent to C$41.71. Goldcorp Inc., the second-biggest bullion miner, rose 1.8 percent to C$41.65.

Jaguar Mining Inc., the target of a proposed takeover by China’s Shandong Gold Group Co. in November, surged 15 percent to C$4.65 after Shandong’s shares were suspended from trading pending news. The increase was Jaguar’s biggest since Nov. 16.

First Quantum gained 8.8 percent to C$21.11. Canada’s second-largest copper producer, which jumped the most in four months last week on takeover speculation, is projected to boost earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by 84 percent over the next three years, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Canfor Corp. dropped 5.4 percent to C$10.71 after the stock’s rating was cut to market perform from outperform at BMO Capital Markets. The rating means BMO forecasts that Canfor will perform roughly in line with the market.

US

By Rita Nazareth

April 10 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined for a fifth straight day, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its longest losing streak since November, as a surge in Spanish and Italian bond yields fueled concern Europe’s debt crisis is worsening.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most- dependent on the economy lost 2.7 percent. Bank of America Corp.

and Caterpillar Inc. dropped at least 3 percent. Alcoa Inc., which declined 2.9 percent in regular trading, jumped 5 percent at 4:25 p.m. New York time after reporting an unexpected profit.

Best Buy Co., the world’s largest electronics retailer, slumped 5.9 percent as Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn resigned.

The S&P 500 declined 1.7 percent to 1,358.59, its biggest loss in 2012, at 4 p.m. New York time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 213.66 points, or 1.7 percent, to 12,715.93.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index surged 8.4 percent to 20.39, rallying for a record eighth day. More than 8.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the most since March 16 and 21 percent above the three-month average.

“I don’t think there’s any rush to be involved in the stock market,” James Swanson, who oversees about $250 billion as chief investment strategist at Boston-based MFS Investment Management, said in a telephone interview. “Europe is a temporary concern. The market is signaling they haven’t fixed the whole problem. Investors will need more reassurance.”

Stocks fell as Spanish bonds slumped after Economy Minister Luis de Guindos declined to rule out a rescue and Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said the nation’s lenders may need more capital if the economy weakens more than expected. The Italian 10-year yield rose 23 basis points to 5.69 percent, sending the spread over bunds to 4.04 percentage points, the most since Jan. 31 on a closing basis.

Today’s decline sent the S&P 500 below its average price in the past 50 days of about 1,372. The index, which has dropped 4.3 percent in five days, retreated 1.1 percent yesterday after an April 6 report showed employers added fewer jobs than forecast in March. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday said the U.S. economy hasn’t fully recovered.

“Friday’s disappointing report has eroded investor confidence about America’s self-sustaining ability to overcome headwinds from Europe,” Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an e-mail.

Investors also awaited the start of the first-quarter earnings season. While per-share profit growth slowed to 0.8 percent from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter, it will accelerate to 8.3 percent during all of 2012, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 declined today as consumer discretionary, financial and industrial shares had the biggest losses. The Dow Jones Transportation Average retreated 2.1 percent. A measure of 11 homebuilders in S&P indexes slumped 4.8 percent. The KBW Bank Index dropped 2.3 percent as all of its 24 stocks declined. Bank of America slipped 4.4 percent, the most in the Dow, to $8.54. Caterpillar fell 3 percent to $100.43.

Alcoa, the first company in the Dow to report quarterly results, lost 2.9 percent to $9.32. The shares rose 5 percent to $9.79 after the close of regular trading. The largest U.S.

aluminum producer reported an unexpected first-quarter profit as customers from automakers to beverage-can manufacturers ordered more of the metal.

Net income fell to $94 million, or 9 cents a share, from $308 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier, the company said today in a statement. Earnings excluding restructuring costs and other items were 10 cents a share, compared with the 4-cent loss that was the average of 19 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales increased to $6.01 billion from $5.96 billion.

The average of 12 estimates was for $5.77 billion.

Best Buy slumped 5.9 percent to $21.32 after saying board member G. Mike Mikan is taking the CEO position on an interim basis as the company focuses on smaller stores and Internet sales. The change was a “mutual agreement” that new leadership was needed, the company said. A committee of directors has been created to search for a new CEO, the company said.

PPL Corp. declined 2.2 percent to $27.06. The energy and utility holding company will sell 9.9 million shares in a public offering.

Supervalu Inc. surged 15 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $6.13. The supermarket and pharmacy chain forecast 2013 earnings excluding some items of at least $1.27 a share, beating the average analyst forecast of $1.19.

“A significant disconnect” between stock valuations and bond yields in the U.S. has made equities relatively cheap, according to Binky Chadha, Deutsche Bank AG’s chief global strategist.

Ten-year Treasury yields would have to rise about 120 basis points to track the estimated price-earnings ratio for the S&P 500 as they did during the first three quarters of 2011, Chadha wrote in an April 5 report. Each basis point amounts to 0.01 percentage point. The government security yielded 2.04 percent as of yesterday.

The differential primarily reflects the Federal Reserve’s plan to keep its benchmark interest rate close to zero at least through late 2014, in his view.

“The Fed’s outlook for unemployment and inflation is therefore key” in determining when the gap might close, Chadha wrote. Policy makers for the central bank are scheduled to meet on April 24-25.

Stocks are a bargain with the S&P 500 at about 13 times analysts’ projected earnings for this year, the New York-based strategist wrote. He cited a December report in which he called the index fairly valued at 15.4 times future profit.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Life is an aspiration.  Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-fulfilment.

The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Once the game is over, the king and the pawn

go back in the same box.

-Italian proverb

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:

Returned from Japan last night, after a wonderful journey.  The cherry blossoms are in bloom….visited many Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples and encountered fabulous food –  Tokyo now has more 3 Michelin starred restaurants than Paris!  We attended a formal Japanese tea ceremony in Kyoto – very beautiful,  spent some time with a Zen master who emphasized to us the importance of meditation for at least 30 minutes every day (begin by focusing on your posture, close your eyes, pay attention to your breathing, begin counting…).

But the unexpected highlight was a visit to the  I.M. Pei  designed Miho Museum southeast of Kyoto, near the town of Shigaraki.  The feeling as you walk across the bridge (part of the design of the museum) to the museum is that you may have discovered Shangri-La.   It is perched high on a mountain amidst trees with a bell tower in the distance in Misono (also designed by Pei) and a Shumei temple close by.  These are the only two visual interruptions in the forested landscape.  It truly is an aesthetic and architectural marvel, housing some of the most beautiful art from antiquity.

 

photos of the day

April 9, 2012

A woman takes a photograph of illuminated cherry blossoms in full bloom along the Chidorigafuchi moats in Tokyo.

Yuriko Nakao/Reuters

A woman picks tea leaves at a tea plantation in Moganshan, Zhejiang province. China is the world’s largest tea producing country with an output of 1.4 million tonnes and a 33 percent share of the world’s total.

Carlos Barria/Reuters

Market Closes for April 9, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	12929.59	-130.55
		-1.00%
S&P 500	1382.20	-15.88
		-1.14%
NASDAQ	3047.08	-33.42
		-1.08%
TSX	12018.50	-84.61
		-0.70%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9546.26	-142.19
		-1.47%
HANG SENG	20593.00	-197.98
		-0.95%
SENSEX	17222.14	-263.88
		-1.51%
FTSE 100	5723.67	+19.90
		+0.35%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.070	2.124
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.630	2.679
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.0474	2.1805
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.1959	3.3265

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00282	1.00670
US $	0.99718	0.99334
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.30698	0.76512
US $	1.31067	0.76297

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1642.50	1630.80
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.28	103.06

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 9 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to their lowest level of the year, led by energy and financial companies, after U.S. employers added fewer jobs than forecast in March.

Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s third-largest insurer, retreated 3.1 percent. Encana Corp., the country’s largest natural gas producer, lost 1.3 percent. Avion Gold Corp., which explores for the metal in Mali, surged 9.3 percent after the military junta that seized power in the West African country last month agreed to step down.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 84.61 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,018.50 in Toronto.

“It’s a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to the Friday news in the face of very thin markets,” Irwin Michael, a money manager at ABC Funds in Toronto, said in a telephone interview.

Michael’s firm oversees C$1 billion ($1 billion). “A good deal of the negativity in the market is a function of the fact that U.S. employment numbers disappointed people.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index had its biggest weekly drop of the year last week. The market was closed on April 6 for the Good Friday holiday. The index fell 2 percent in March, after two straight months of increases.

Financial stocks in the S&P/TSX fell for a fourth straight day after U.S. employers added 85,000 fewer jobs in March than economists projected, the biggest shortfall since the report released on July 8, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Labor Department’s April 6 statement spurred concern about the pace of American growth.

Royal Bank of Canada dropped 0.7 percent to C$56.55.

Manulife Financial decreased 3.1 percent to C$12.73. Sun Life Financial Inc., Canada’s third-biggest insurance company, fell

3.3 percent to C$22.77. Sun Life got 45 percent of its revenue from the U.S. in 2011, according to Bloomberg data.

Canadian energy companies decreased as oil fell for the third time in four days after Iran agreed to resume talks on its nuclear program and economic reports from the U.S. and China raised concern about fuel demand.

Cenovus Energy Inc., Canada’s fifth-largest energy company, declined 1.2 percent to C$33.92. Penn West Petroleum Ltd., a western Canadian oil and gas producer, dropped 2.1 percent to C$17.62. Encana Corp. lost 1.3 percent to C$18.47.

Avion Gold surged 9.3 percent to 94 Canadian cents. The company produced 26,256 ounces of gold from its Tabakoto/Segala operations in Mali in the first three months of 2012, a quarterly record, according to a statement today.

The Economic Community of West African States lifted sanctions against Mali yesterday after the military junta that seized power in the country last month agreed to hand over power to a civilian government that will hold elections.

Harry Winston Diamond Corp., a diamond-mining company and jewelry retailer, increased 1.4 percent to C$13.93 after being raised to hold from sell at Desjardins Securities.

US

By Whitney Kisling and Inyoung Hwang

April 9 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, dragging the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lower following its worst week of 2012, after employers added fewer jobs than forecast in March.

Caterpillar Inc. and General Electric Co. sank more than

1.5 percent, pacing declines among industrial shares. Financial shares lost 1.6 percent among 10 groups in the S&P 500. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. erased at least 2.4 percent.

Alcoa Inc., scheduled to report earnings tomorrow, slipped 0.3 percent. AOL Inc. soared 43 percent after agreeing to sell and license patents to Microsoft Corp.

The S&P 500 slumped 1.1 percent to 1,382.20 at 4 p.m. New York time, after losing 0.7 percent last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 130.55 points, or 1 percent, to 12,929.59. About 5.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S.

exchanges today, 19 percent below the three-month average.

Equity markets were shut for Good Friday on April 6, when the employment report was released.

“At the moment, the one big news story that people have to focus on is the jobs number so there’s a focus on the disappointment there,” John Carey, who helps oversee about $220 billion at Pioneer Investments in Boston, said in a telephone interview. “The economy does continue to grow, but slowly, and I think that’s been the source of frustration for a lot of investors, that we haven’t had the big forward movement in the economy like we have in the past.”

Equities slumped last week after the Federal Reserve signaled it will refrain from further monetary stimulus and concern about Europe intensified. The U.S. Labor Department said April 6 that employers added 120,000 jobs, the fewest in five months and less than the median economist forecast of 205,000 in a Bloomberg survey. The amount had exceeded 200,000 for three straight months.

“This is a real shock,” Donald Selkin, the New York-based chief market strategist at National Securities Corp., which manages about $3 billion, said last week after the jobs report.

“Everybody is so hung up on the 200,000 increase.”     The U.S. jobs report presents a challenge that stocks have overcome nine times during the bull market that’s driven the S&P

500 up 107 percent in three years. The government’s monthly tally of U.S. hiring missed the median projection by 85,000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the S&P 500 averaged losses of 0.8 percent in the day after shortfalls of this magnitude since March 2009, the benchmark gauge cut its decline in half a week later and was up 0.9 percent after two weeks, the data show.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of stocks most tied to the economy slipped 1.9 percent for a fourth straight day of losses, the longest streak since Nov. 25, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The Dow Jones Transportation Average of airlines, trucking companies and shipping stocks lost 1.7 percent.

Economists forecast the U.S. economy expanded 2 percent in the first quarter, after growing 3 percent in the last three months of 2011, according to the average compiled by Bloomberg.

Industrial stocks fell 1.6 percent for the biggest drop as a group in the S&P 500. Caterpillar, the world’s largest construction and mining-equipment manufacturer, retreated 2.2 percent to $103.57, while General Electric, the maker of jet engines and power generation equipment, declined 1.5 percent to $19.20.

The KBW Bank Index dropped 1.9 percent, with all 24 of its components falling at least 0.9 percent. Bank of America lost

3.3 percent to $8.93, the biggest retreat in the Dow. Citigroup erased 2.4 percent to $33.97.

Raw-material stocks had the third-biggest retreat in the S&P 500, falling 1.5 percent. DuPont Co., the most valuable U.S.

chemical maker, slumped 1.4 percent to $51.95. Alcoa slipped 0.3 percent to $9.60. The largest U.S. aluminum producer is scheduled to disclose first-quarter results after the close of trading tomorrow, the first company in the Dow average to report. The average estimate of 19 analysts in a Bloomberg survey is for an adjusted loss of 4 cents a share.

Earnings for companies in the S&P 500 increased 0.8 percent last quarter, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. They exceeded forecasts by 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 for the 12th straight period of better-than-estimated results, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Shutterfly Inc. sank 4.3 percent to $28.21. The operator of a website that offers photo-related products dropped after Facebook Inc. agreed to buy the Instagram photo-sharing application for about $1 billion.

AOL soared the most since at least November 2009, adding 43 percent to $26.40. The Internet company, under shareholder pressure to make strategic changes as revenue declines, agreed to sell and license more than 800 patents to Microsoft in a deal worth $1.06 billion. Microsoft fell 1.3 percent to $31.10.

Apple Inc. advanced 0.4 percent to $636.23. The world’s most valuable company erased an earlier decline of as much as

1.3 percent. The Cupertino, California-based company was cut to neutral from buy by BTIG LLC, which said investors should “take a breather” on expected strength this quarter.

Equities are failing to build on the S&P 500’s best first- quarter rally since 1998. The U.S. jobless rate fell to 8.2 percent, the lowest since January 2009, from 8.3 percent, the Labor Department said. Faster employment growth that leads to bigger wage gains is needed to propel consumer spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Americans worked fewer hours and earned less on average, helping explain why the Fed says interest rates may need to stay low at least through late 2014.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has kept rates near zero since

2008 and expanded the central bank’s balance sheet with two rounds of asset purchases totaling $2.3 trillion. S&P 500 rallies during the first quarter of 2010 and 2011 stalled in April both years, with the index sinking as much as 16 percent and 19 percent, respectively, amid concern the Fed would stop stimulating the economy.

The S&P 500 surged 12 percent from January through March of this year as data on manufacturing, real estate and the labor market boosted optimism about the world’s largest economy.

Reports last week showed manufacturing in the U.S. expanded at a faster pace than forecast while jobless claims dropped to the lowest level in four years.

Dennis Gartman, an economist and newsletter editor, said he abandoned his bullish view of stocks in March because of the possibility the market will retreat.

“The only things that I own at this point are a few shipping companies and a little natural gas, and I have those completely hedged with S&P futures,” Gartman, the editor of the Suffolk, Virginia-based Gartman Letter, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Radio’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

To live completely, fully, in the moment is to live with what is, the actual, without any sense of condemnation

or justification – then you understand it so totally that you are finished with it.

When you see clearly the problem is solved.

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

 

Carolann

It’s ok to make mistakes – in fact, it’s expected.  That is the way

we live and learn.

-Hughie J. Kline, 1915-2012

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Hello All,

 

Tangents:

 

Happy Easter!

Why not celebrate by spending the night in a chocolate factory? The Little Chocolate Shop, a chocolate factory in the UK, is offering travelers the opportunity to spend a night among “edible furnishings, a chocolate fountain, and a fancy dress box filled with Wonka-esque accessories”. One night in the four-person suite costs about $150 and all proceeds go to Breast Cancer UK. You can read more here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/04/chocolate-factory-invites-guests-to-spend-the-night.html

 

photos of the day

April 5, 2012

Cats rest on a branch of a cherry tree under cherry blossoms in Tokyo.
Shizuo Kambayashi/AP

Pakistani men take a shelter from the sun under a tree, on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.
Muhammed Muheisen/AP

Market Closes for April 5, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	13060.14	-14.61
		-0.11%
S&P 500	1398.08	-0.88
		-0.06%
NASDAQ	3080.5	+12.41
		+0.4%
TSX	12103.11	-75.55
		-0.62%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9767.61	-52.38
		-0.53%
HANG SENG	20593.00	-197.98
		-0.95%
SENSEX	17486.02	-111.40
		-0.63%
FTSE 100	5723.67	+19.90
		+0.35%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.124	2.125
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.679	2.683
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.1805	2.2233
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.3265	3.3572

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00670	1.00349
US $	0.99334	0.99653
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.29752	0.77070
US $	1.30622	0.76557

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1630.80	1612.30
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	103.06	102.02

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 5 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, completing their biggest weekly drop this year, as financial, energy and material shares declined on renewed concern over Europe’s debt crisis, even as commodity prices rallied on U.S. jobs data.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the country’s fifth- biggest lender, dropped 1.4 percent. Suncor Energy Inc., the country’s largest oil and gas producer, lost 2.6 percent. First Quantum Minerals Ltd. Canada’s second-largest copper producer, rose 7.1 percent on takeover speculation.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 75.55 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,103.11 in Toronto. The index fell 2.3 percent this week, the worst slide since Dec. 16. The Canadian market is closed tomorrow for the Good Friday holiday.

“People are probably thinking that the strong job numbers are more of an anomaly than a true fact that will carry on for the next few quarters,” 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$4.4 billion ($4.4 billion) for clients. “If there are issues in Europe, the risk appetite is off and you’ll likely see pressure on the Canadian dollar.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. Concerns over Europe were revived this week as French borrowing costs rose at an 8.44 billion euro ($11 billion) auction of debt today, and Spanish bonds fell for a third day after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said yesterday the nation faces “extreme difficulty.”

CIBC fell 1.4 percent to C$75.37, leading a third-straight day of declines for financial shares in the S&P/TSX. Toronto- Dominion Bank, the country’s second largest lender, decreased 0.4 percent to C$83.34. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest lender, dropped 0.4 percent to C$56.96.

National Bank of Canada, the country’s sixth-biggest bank by assets, fell 1 percent to C$78.67 after being sued by current and former employees of its Natcan asset management unit, who argue that the bank unfairly bought them out at a discount before selling the business to Fiera Sceptre Inc. Claude Breton, a National Bank spokesman, declined to comment.

Canadian energy shares fell, even as oil futures rose for the first time in three days. Suncor Energy lost 2.6 percent to C$30.45. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. slipped 2.9 percent to $31.77.

Claims for U.S. unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in four years, the Labor Department reported today. Canada added the most jobs since 2008 last month.

Employment rose by 82,300 following a decline of 2,800 in February, Statistics Canada said in Ottawa, lowering the jobless rate to 7.2 percent from 7.4 percent.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., the nation’s No. 2 rail carrier declined 0.5 percent to C$75 as Pershing Square Capital Management’s Chief Executive Officer William Ackman pushed the company for a leadership change.

Ackman said CP Rail is losing market share to rivals under Chief Executive Officer Fred Green. The shares have rallied 25 percent since Oct. 27, the day before Pershing Square disclosed its stake.

Materials companies in the benchmark index fell, led by gold shares. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, declined 2 percent to C$40.36. Goldcorp Inc., the second-biggest bullion miner, dropped 1 percent to C$40.60.

“Investors probably came to the realization that the markets got a little bit ahead of themselves in the first quarter,” Adatia said. “People focused a little too much on the short-term. Now you’ll hopefully start to see people focusing back on the longer-term issues.”

First Quantum gained 7.1 percent to C$19.69 after U.K. newspapers speculated that the company may be a takeover target.

It was the company’s biggest increase in more than four months.

 

US

By Michael P. Regan and Lu Wang

April 5 (Bloomberg) — Most U.S. stocks fell for a third day while commodities halted a two-day slump as investors weighed optimism about the American job market with renewed concern over Europe’s debt crisis. Treasuries gained while the euro weakened for a fourth day against the dollar.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.1 percent to close at 1,398.08 at 4 p.m. in New York after dropping as much as 0.4 percent, while about four U.S. companies fell for every three that rose on U.S. exchanges. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.1 percent, reversing a 0.9 percent tumble. Ten-year Treasury note yields slipped five basis points to 2.18 percent after declining as much as nine points earlier. Silver, lead and nickel led commodities higher. Canada’s dollar rallied after a report showed employers added the most jobs since 2008.

U.S. jobless claims dropped to the lowest level in four years, a day before a Labor Department report that is projected by economists to show the nation added more than 200,000 jobs for a fourth straight month. Concern about Europe’s debt crisis deepened as French borrowing costs increased at an 8.44 billion euro ($11 billion) auction, while Spanish bonds fell for a third day amid growing concern the nation will follow Greece, Portugal and Ireland in requiring an international bailout.

“You have, certainly, improvement in the labor market in the U.S. but every once in a while we got reminded there still remain problems in Europe,” Greg Woodard, a portfolio strategist at Manning & Napier in Fairport, New York, which manages about $40 billion, said in a telephone interview. “The volatility is going to continue. It’s going to be choppy.”

Alcoa Inc. and General Electric Co. lost at least 1.3 percent to help lead losses in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slipped 14.61 points to 13,060.14. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.

rose as the retail-chain operator’s fourth-quarter profit beat estimates.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.7 percent this week, the biggest of only three weekly losses this year, after the Federal Reserve signaled reluctance to embark on another round of asset purchases unless the economic recovery falters or inflation is less than its 2 percent target.

The index may fall as much as 5 percent to 7 percent before rebounding, according to hedge fund manager Barton Biggs.

“I may want to take a little risk off,” Biggs, founder of Traxis Partners LP, said on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” with Betty Liu. “I am cutting back a little, and I’m tempted to cut back some more,” he said. Equities are “going higher over the course of the next few months, but in the short run here we’ll have a little pause.

Canada’s dollar climbed against all 16 major peers.

Employment rose by 82,300 following a decline of 2,800 in February, Statistics Canada said, lowering the jobless rate to 7.2 percent from 7.4 percent. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a 10,500 gain in jobs and 7.4 percent unemployment, according to the median forecasts.

Oil rose for the first time in three days, gaining 1.6 percent to $103.07 a barrel. Nickel rallied 3.1 percent and lead and silver rose more than 2 percent as 18 of 24 commodities tracked by S&P GSCI Index advanced, sending the gauge up 0.8 percent.

Gains in mining companies and energy producers led the European benchmark index higher, overshadowing a drop in banks and automobile companies. Xstrata Plc and Rio Tinto PLC rose more than 1.5 percent, while UniCredit SpA, Italy’s biggest bank, fell 3.1 percent. The Stoxx 600 had tumbled 3.1 percent in the previous two sessions.

The extra yield investors demand to hold 10-year French bonds instead of benchmark German bunds reached 125 basis points, or 1.25 percentage point, the most since Feb. 1. The yield spread between Spanish and German 10-year bonds exceeded 4 percentage points for the first time since Dec. 12, and German five-year note yields reached a record low of 0.71 as investors sought the safest bonds.

The euro weakened against 12 of its 16 major peers, driving the currency through the Swiss National Bank’s cap for the first time since it imposed the limit on Sept. 6. The SNB won’t allow the franc to go below 1.20 versus the euro and is ready to buy foreign currencies in unlimited quantities, spokesman Walter Meier said by telephone today.

German industrial output fell 1.3 percent in February from the previous month, dropping more than the 0.5 percent median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg survey.

The cost of insuring against default on European corporate debt rose, with the Markit iTraxx Europe Index of 125 companies with investment-grade ratings climbing 2.5 basis points to 132.2.

Trading in credit-default swaps is dropping as investors reaping the biggest corporate-bond market gains since 2010 reduce bearish bets. Banks, hedge funds and other money managers traded credit swaps tied to a weekly average of $137.2 billion of corporate and sovereign debt in the four weeks ended March 30, according to data from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.

That’s down 3.6 percent from $142.3 billion in the same period a year earlier and a 24.5 percent drop from August, when an average $181.7 billion was traded, DTCC data show.

Investors scaled back hedges as corporate bonds globally returned 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012, the biggest gains since the period ended September 2010.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slipped 0.1 percent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong retreated 1.4 percent, after returning from yesterday’s public holiday.

Most markets will be closed tomorrow for the Good Friday holiday and U.S. equity index futures will trade until 9:15 a.m.

New York time on CME Group Inc.’s Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Treasuries will trade for part of the day to allow investors to react to the nonfarm payrolls report. There will be spot trading in precious metals.

 

Have a great Easter Weekend!

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Nadia Aziz

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Hello All,

 

Tangents:

I think I will have to chalk this little bit of news up as one of the strangest things I have heard all month. Doubtless to say, most people have heard of Napoleon Bonaparte, famous French emperor, general, and reformer, but have you heard of France’s latest plans to immortalize him?  If not, I only have two words for you: Theme Park. Yes, you read that right. So far the project has been getting some serious support from the French government, tourism officials, and the Bonaparte family. Napoleon’s descendent, Charles Bonaparte, has even gone on to say “We have to build this park. Because if we don’t do it soon, you can be absolutely sure the Chinese will get there first.”  It’s even possible that construction will  start in 2014.

My friends and I found this to be pretty hilarious and had fun thinking up some potential rides like “Escape from Elba Island!” or “Waterloo: The Experience,” a ride that ends with you being thrown out of the park and being told not to come back!

 

You can read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17397172

 

photos of the day

April 4, 2012

 

Yang Guang, a male giant panda, chews on bamboo inside his enclosure at Edinburgh zoo in Scotland.- David Moir/Reuters

 

Pakistani Abdul basheer Khan, who sells camel milk on a roadside feeds the camels with his son Raha, on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.- Muhammed Muheisen/AP

 

Market Closes for April 4, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	13074.75	-124.80
		-0.95%
S&P 500	1398.96	-14.42
		-1.02%
NASDAQ	3068.09	-45.48
		-1.46%
TSX	12178.66	-144.95
		-1.18%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	9819.99	-230.40
		-2.29%
HANG SENG	20790.98	+268.72
		+1.31%
SENSEX	17486.02	-111.40
		+0.63%
FTSE 100	5703.77	-134.57
		-2.30%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.125	2.196
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.683	2.736
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.2233	2.2988
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.3572	3.4404

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00349	1.00905
US $	0.99653	0.99103
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.30941	0.76370
US $	1.31397	0.76105

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1612.30	1670.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	102.02	104.04

 

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 4 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to their lowest point of the year, led by metal and oil producers, after Spain missed its maximum goal in a debt sale and U.S. oil stockpiles surged.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold-mining company, declined 3.2 percent. Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-biggest producer of the metal, decreased 4.9 percent.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, lost 4.5 percent. Oil-sands developer BlackPearl Resources Inc. fell 5.5 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 144.95 points, or 1.2 percent, to 12,178.66 in Toronto, its lowest point since Dec. 30.

“The overnight bond auction from Spain didn’t do that well,” Marcus Xu, director of equity investments at Genus Capital Management in Vancouver, said in a telephone interview.

The firm oversees about C$1.7 billion ($1.7 billion). “The yield was really backing up there and less demand than anticipated. The lingering effect from the European debt crisis is going to come back and hound the market from time to time.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index fell 2 percent in March, after two straight months of increases.

A measure of materials companies in the S&P/TSX fell today as gold slid to a 12-week low in New York on a stronger dollar after the Federal Reserve signaled yesterday it may refrain from providing more stimulus measures. Copper headed for its biggest drop in almost a month.

Barrick Gold Corp. declined 3.2 percent to C$41.16. Goldcorp Inc. decreased 4.9 percent to C$41.01. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Canada’s second-largest publicly traded copper producer, fell 3.8 percent to C$18.38.

Energy stocks in the S&P/TSX declined as oil tumbled after the Energy Department said U.S. stockpiles surged the most since 2008 as U.S. crude output climbed to the highest level in 12 years.

Futures fell as inventories rose 9.01 million barrels to 362.4 million in the seven days to March 30, the most since June. U.S. output rose 2.9 percent to 6.05 million barrels a day, the most since 1999.

BlackPearl Resources fell 5.5 percent to C$3.92. Suncor Energy lost 4.5 percent to C$31.26. MEG Energy Corp., a Calgary- based oil-sands developer, dropped 6.1 percent to C$36.70.

“In general, investor sentiment had become pretty positive,” Bruce McCain, who helps oversee more than $20 billion as chief investment strategist at the private-banking unit of KeyCorp in Cleveland, said in a telephone interview.

“When that happens, there’s a tendency for the market to sober up a bit and take a second look at problems they had ignored up to that point. I think we’re in the early stage of that process.”

 

US

By Michael Shanahan and Lu Wang

April 4 (Bloomberg) — Stocks and commodities slid for a second day as weaker demand at a Spanish debt auction and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s reluctance to add more monetary stimulus fueled concern the global economic recovery will slow. The euro fell and Spanish, Italian and Portuguese bond yields surged.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 1 percent as of 4 p.m. in New York, its second-worst drop of the year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 124.8 points to 13,074.75. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index tumbled 2.1 percent. The euro depreciated against 12 of 16 major peers, while 10-year Treasury yields fell seven basis points to 2.23 percent. Spanish 10-year yields surged 24 basis points to 5.69 percent. Silver and gold plunged more than 3 percent and oil extended losses after U.S. supplies grew by the most since 2008.

The S&P 500 has tumbled 1.4 percent from an almost four- year high of 1,419.04 on April 2 following a 12 percent rally in the first three months of the year, the best first-quarter gain in 14 years. The Fed will refrain from increasing monetary accommodation unless the economic expansion falters or prices rise at a rate slower than its 2 percent target, minutes of a March 13 policy meeting released yesterday showed.

“I can’t remember a time where knowing where you are in the trading cycle is as almost important as the news that’s coming,” Wayne Wilbanks, chief investment officer at Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC in Norfolk, Virginia, which oversees about $2 billion, said in a telephone interview. “When you are at the top of a trading range between 1,100 and 1,400, it will take very little bad news — and maybe some news about quantitative easing, which is not bad news — for the market to go down.”

U.S. stocks retreated even after an ADP Employer Services report showed companies expanded payrolls by 209,000 following a revised 230,000 gain in February. The median estimate in the Bloomberg News survey called for a 206,000 increase. Economists project a government report in two days will show private employers added 215,000 jobs and total payrolls, including government positions, increased by 205,000.

Service industries in the U.S. expanded less than forecast in March as orders grew at the slowest pace in three months. The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index dropped to 56 from a one-year high of 57.3 in February. Readings above 50 signal expansion, and economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected 56.8 for the gauge, according to the median estimate.

Losses in U.S. stocks today were led by financial, technology and commodity companies, with gauges of each group dropping at least 1.2 percent as nine of the 10 main industry groups in the S&P 500 retreated. Bank of America Corp., Alcoa Inc. and Microsoft Corp. lost more than 2 percent for the biggest declines in the Dow.

SanDisk Corp. slid 11 percent, the most since January, after the biggest maker of flash-memory cards cut its forecast for first-quarter sales and profitability, citing weaker-than- expected pricing and demand for components that store data in mobile phones.

General Electric Co. fell 1.1 percent after its debt rating was cut by Moody’s Investors Service because of “heightened risk” from its finance unit, whose own grade was cut below the parent company’s for the first time in two decades.

U.S. equities retreated yesterday as the Fed minutes showed less urgency to add stimulus. Policy makers last month affirmed the plan, first announced in January, to hold interest rates near zero through late 2014 on concern the economy may fail to grow fast enough to continue bringing down unemployment.

“There’s no justification for the Fed to ease monetary policy further,” Vasu Menon, vice president for wealth management at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Singapore. “The market has run up at a very heavy pace, so I think a breather or a correction would be a welcome change for now.”

Almost 50 shares fell for each that advanced in the Stoxx 600. Automakers slumped after U.S. sales of cars and light trucks in March missed the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. PSA Peugeot Citroen slid 5.8 percent and Volkswagen AG fell 2.7 percent. Petropavlovsk Plc, a producer of gold in Russia, sank 6.5 percent as the precious metal retreated for a second day.

Germany’s DAX Index slumped 2.8 percent and Sweden’s OMX Stockholm 30 Index tumbled 3.6 percent to lead losses among major European national indexes. German factory orders increased in February less than economists had forecast. Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, increased 0.3 percent from January, the Economy Ministry in Berlin said. Economists had predicted a gain of 1.5 percent, according to the median of 35 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.

The euro weakened 0.7 percent to $1.3142, falling for a third straight day and reaching the weakest level since March 16. Yields on Italian and Portuguese 10-year bonds surged 21 basis points each.

The cost of insuring sovereign debt rose, with the Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of credit-default swaps linked to 15 governments climbing 6.1 basis points to 271. Swaps on Spain jumped 22 basis points to 461, the highest since November, according to CMA.

Spain sold 2.59 billion euros ($3.41 billion) of bonds due between January 2015 and October 2020, compared with a planned maximum of 3.5 billion euros.

European Central Bank officials meeting in Frankfurt today kept the benchmark interest rate at a record low of 1 percent, as predicted by all 57 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.

ECB President Mario Draghi said while a moderate economic recovery is expected this year, the outlook is subject to “downside risks” as the debt crisis damps momentum. Draghi also said any talk of an exit strategy from stimulus measures is premature for now.

Oil tumbled 2.4 percent to $101.47 a barrel, extending losses after the U.S. Energy Department said stockpiles rose

9.01 barrels to 362.4 million. Gold plunged 3.5 percent to

$1,614.10 an ounce, the lowest since January, silver sank 6.7 percent and copper dropped 3.3 percent to $3.7905 a pound as 21 of 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index retreated, sending the gauge down 2 percent for its biggest drop of the year.

Markets in China and Taiwan were shut for holidays. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 1.7 percent, halting a three- day, 2.2 percent climb. The Micex Index fell 2.4 percent in Moscow and the FTSE/JSE Africa All Shares Index slid 2.3 percent in Johannesburg as oil and metals fell. Turkey’s ISE National

100 Index retreated 1.3 percent. South Korea’s Kospi Index slid 1.5 percent, the biggest loss since Dec. 19.

China accelerated the opening of its capital markets by more than doubling the amount foreigners can invest in stocks, bonds and bank deposits. The China Securities Regulatory Commission increased quotas for qualified investors to $80 billion from $30 billion, according to a statement yesterday.

Offshore investors will also be allowed to pump an extra 50 billion yuan ($7.95 billion) of local currency into the country, up from 20 billion yuan.

Australia’s dollar sank to an 11-week low as data showed the nation had an unexpected trade deficit. The Aussie slid 0.7 percent to $1.0257 after Australia posted a trade deficit for a second month in February, completing the first consecutive shortfalls in two years.

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

 

Kind regards,

 

Ellora Howie

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Tel: 778-430-5808

Fax: 778-430-5838

 

Hello All,

 

Tangents:

 

Canada has now been ranked one of the happiest countries in the world – giving us something else to smile about! According to a United Nations survey, Canada placed fifth in the World Happiness Report, after Denmark, Norway, Finland, and the Netherlands. You can read more here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/04/03/canada-happy-survey-says.html

 

photos of the day

April 3, 2012

A Buddhist monk looks through the binoculars at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar.
Damir Sagoli/Reuters

An Indochinese tiger drinks water at a new enclosure at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin.
Marcus Schreiber/AP

Market Closes for April 3, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	13199.55	-64.94
		-0.49%
S&P 500	1413.38	-5.66
		-0.40%
NASDAQ	3119.57	-6.13
		-0.20%
TSX	12323.61	-183.45
		-1.47%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10050.39	-59.48
		-0.59%
HANG SENG	20790.98	+268.72
		+1.31%
SENSEX	17597.42	+119.27
		+0.68%
FTSE 100	5838.34	-36.55
		-0.62%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.196	2.124
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.736	2.665
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.2988	2.1785
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.4404	3.3204

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00905	1.00959
US $	0.99103	0.99050
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31188	0.76226
US $	1.32376	0.75542

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1670.00	1676.70
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	104.04	105.03

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

April 3 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in four weeks, led by lenders, after Royal Bank of Canada was sued by U.S. regulators over futures trades and lower-than-forecast U.S. factory orders fanned concern over economic growth.

Canada’s largest lender dropped 2.8 percent in Toronto Stock Exchange trading after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission claimed it engaged in trades worth hundreds of millions of dollars to garner tax benefits, and the bank said separately it would pay $1.1 billion for the 50 percent of RBC Dexia Investor Services Ltd. it doesn’t already own. Bank of Nova Scotia fell 1.3 percent. Research in Motion Ltd. plunged

9.5 percent as investors speculated that the BlackBerry maker’s possible acquirers are dropping off.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index declined 183.45 points, or 1.5 percent, to 12,323.61 in Toronto, the biggest decrease since March 6.

“It’s never great to attract the attention of the CFTC,” Todd Johnson, a money manager at BCV Asset Management in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$340 million ($342 million). “It might detract some people that sell on macro news and headlines, but I don’t think it reflects longer-term loss of profitability.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter this year as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The Canadian index fell 2 percent in March, after two straight months of increases.

Canadian financial companies fell for the fifth time in six days after Royal Bank was sued by the CFTC, which claimed in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court that the lender made false and misleading statements about the trades from 2007 to 2010. Chief Executive Officer Gordon Nixon rejected the allegations and said that the financial impact of the lawsuit won’t be “material.”

The U.S. Commerce Department reported factory orders rose 1.3 percent in February, less than the 1.5 percent median of economist projections in a Bloomberg survey.

Royal Bank dropped 2.8 percent to C$57.10 on the Toronto exchange. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender, declined 0.9 percent to C$83.79. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third-biggest lender, fell 1.3 percent to C$55.45. The banks are the three most heavily-weighted stocks in the S&P/TSX, making up almost 15 percent of the index.

Energy stocks in the S&P/TSX decreased after oil fell, as supplies in the U.S. were forecast to climb to a seven-month high. Futures slid 1.2 percent as a Bloomberg News survey of analysts showed stockpiles probably increased 0.7 percent last week to 355.9 million barrels.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, lost 1.4 percent to C$32.74. Imperial Oil Ltd., Canada’s second- largest energy company, fell 1.9 percent to C$45.28. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s third-largest energy company by market value, decreased 1.8 percent to C$33.13.

Materials companies in the benchmark index dropped as gold stocks extended losses on a strengthening U.S. dollar after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting showed policy makers saw no need for more monetary stimulus unless economic growth slows.

Goldcorp. Inc., the world’s second-biggest producer of the metal, decreased 5.8 percent to C$43.10. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., Rio Tinto Group’s partner in the Oyu Tolgoi Mongolian gold and copper mine, fell 7.9 percent to C$14.37 after being downgraded by both Toronto-Dominion and Bank of Montreal.

Research in Motion Ltd. decreased 9.5 percent to C$12.91.

The technology company has dropped 13 percent this year.

 

US

By Lu Wang and Inyoung Hwang

April 3 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks slid, while Treasuries and gold tumbled and the dollar rallied, as Federal Reserve minutes showed central bankers saw no need for more monetary stimulus unless economic growth slows.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.4 percent to close at 1,413.38 at 4 p.m. in New York, retreating from an almost four-year high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 64.94 points to 13,199.55. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes surged 11 basis points to 2.30 percent after falling as much as three basis points. The Dollar Index, a gauge of the currency against six major peers, climbed 0.7 percent. Gold, silver and oil lost more than 1 percent to lead the S&P GSCI Index of commodities down 0.3 percent.

Minutes from the March 13 Fed policy meeting showed the Fed is holding off on increasing monetary accommodation unless the U.S. economic expansion falters or prices rise at a rate slower than its 2 percent target. The S&P 500 surged 1.4 percent on March 26, its second-biggest gain of the year, after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said that stimulative monetary policy is still need to spur job growth.

“Bernanke’s been clear that he stands ready to support the economy if needed and he’s certainly not in favor of removing the stimulus that we have, but there hasn’t been any indication from him that he’s planning to go another round,” Peter Jankovskis, who helps manage about $3 billion at Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois, said in a telephone interview.

The S&P 500 yesterday closed at the strongest level since May 2008 and the Dow reached the highest since December 2007. Gauges of commodity producers and financial companies led declines in nine of the 10 main industry groups in the S&P 500 today. Bank of America Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp. fell at least 1.4 percent to pace losses in the Dow.

General Motors Co. sank 4.6 percent after posting vehicle sales that trailed estimates. Apple Inc. advanced 1.7 percent to a record $629.32 after two analysts said the stock could surge to $1,000.

Wall Street strategists cut their recommended holdings in U.S. equities to almost the lowest level since 1998, a sign that the six-month stock rally may have more room to go, according to Bank of America Corp.

Strategists advised investors to reduce equity allocations in six out of the past eight months, with money earmarked to stocks falling to 55.8 percent in March. The level was the lowest since January 1998, except for the seven months ended July 2009, and compared with a 15-year average of 60.7 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Bank of America.

Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy at Bank of America, said the decline in recommended stock holdings signaled rising pessimism that she considers as a contrarian indicator because investors who have sold shares now have more money to purchase stocks.

Stocks extended losses today as the Fed minutes showed decreased urgency to add more monetary stimulus, with  no sentiment expressed for additional easing without a deterioration in conditions.

The Fed last month affirmed its plan, first announced in January, to hold interest rates near zero through late 2014 as the economy may fail to grow fast enough to continue bringing down the unemployment rate. Bernanke has defended the pledge as appropriate since the meeting, saying that despite some improvement in the economy it’s “far too early to declare victory.”

Among the 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI index, 15 retreated. Gold futures tumbled 1.9 percent to $1,647.60 an ounce, silver sank 1.4 percent and oil slid 1.2 percent to $104.01 a barrel.

The dollar strengthened against 13 of 16 major peers, rallying 0.9 percent against the yen and 0.6 percent to $1.3236 versus the euro. Two-year Treasury yields increased four basis point to 0.37 percent and 30-year rates added nine points to 3.43 percent.

The Fed minutes will cause even more scrutiny of the government’s monthly jobs report on April 6, according to Alan Ruskin, New York-based global head of Group-of-10 currency strategy at Deutsche Bank AG. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey projects growth of 201,000 jobs in March. Ruskin said a gain of less than 150,000 jobs would “quickly reawaken QE expectations.”

“Ironically, the more bonds sell-off now, the more they will be forced to contemplate such actions,” Ruskin wrote in a note to clients.  “It seems clear that bonds in particular are vulnerable and need serious support from weak employment data. Equities generally are likely to be more resilient,” he said, since better-than-expected jobs data may overshadow reduced odds the Fed will buy more bonds to suppress interest rates.

Earlier losses in U.S. stocks came amid concern the rally that sent the S&P 500 to an almost four-year high has outpaced prospects for economic growth. Commerce Department data showed orders to U.S. factories climbed 1.3 percent in February, trailing the median economist forecast for an increase of 1.5 percent.

European markets closed before the release of the Fed minutes, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipping 1.1 percent.

Banca Popolare di Milano Scarl led a gauge of banking shares lower, sliding 6.6 percent. Cairn Energy Plc advanced 4 percent as the U.K. oil company exploring in Greenland agreed to buy Agora Oil & Gas AS to expand in the North Sea.

Germany’s DAX Index slipped 1.1 percent today, while benchmark gauges in Italy and Spain slid more than 2 percent.

German stocks are posting their best start to a year relative to the U.S. since 2006 as investors bet companies in Europe’s biggest economy will benefit most from improving global growth. The DAXK Index, a German equities gauge that strips out gains from dividends, surged 19 percent in 2012 through yesterday after sinking to the cheapest valuation in at least six years in 2011. That’s the largest advance since 1998 and 6.3 percentage points more than the S&P 500’s increase, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Germany’s benchmark DAX Index topped every developed market tracked by Bloomberg this year through yesterday as Citigroup Inc. and BNP Paribas SA raised forecasts for economic expansion after efforts to tackle Europe’s debt crisis succeeded in bringing down borrowing costs from record highs.

The ECB will keep its benchmark rate unchanged at a record low 1 percent tomorrow, according to the median of 57 economist forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.

Bonds in Portugal, Spain and Italy extended losses after Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund, said Portugal was headed for a debt “haircut” — a restructuring that imposes losses for investors — after yields on the nation’s 10-year note today touched the highest level in a week.

Spanish 10-year bonds fell for the first time in three days after a report showed registered unemployment rose for an eighth month. Spain’s public debt will rise to a record this year as it sells almost 37 billion euros ($49 billion) of bonds to finance a budget deficit that was nearly three times the euro-area limit last year.

Total borrowing will reach 79.8 percent of gross domestic product as the country breaches the European Union’s deficit rules for a fifth year. That’s the highest since before the country’s return to democracy in 1978 and up from 68.5 percent last year, according to the 2012 budget that the government presented to Parliament today in Madrid.

The yield on Spain’s 10-year securities climbed 10 basis points to 5.45 percent. Italy’s 10-year bond yield rose five basis points to 5.16 percent and Portugal’s yield increased 17 basis points to 11.84 percent.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index gained 0.6 percent, taking its three-day increase to 2 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index jumped 1.2 percent as PT Bank Danamon Indonesia surged 39 percent after DBS Group Holdings Ltd. offered to buy the lender for about $7.2 billion. Taiwan’s Taiex index sank 1.3 percent on concern the government may impose capital-gains tax on stock trades. The Micex Index advanced 1.5 percent in Moscow and the ISE National 100 Index climbed 0.5 percent in Turkey.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Nadia Aziz

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Hello All,

 

Tangents:

Canadian politics can get pretty heated but never before have our representatives come to blows! Last Saturday Liberal MP Justin Trudeau and Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau duked it out to see which politician would reign supreme. Well sort of…. Trudeau and Brazeu actually entered into fisticuffs as part of a charity boxing event. The match aimed to raise awareness and funds for cancer research, a disease that has affected the lives and families of both men deeply (Trudeau lost his father, the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, to prostate cancer and Brazeau lost his mother to lung cancer).

While some commentators have branded the event as sophomoric or plain silly, I found it to be pretty fun and for an excellent cause. Both fighters had fun with the event and handled their respective victories and defeats gracefully. Speaking of victories, was anyone else surprised that Trudeau pulled off the win? What a twist!

If you want to read more, I would recommend this excellent article from The Ottawa Citizen: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Truly+honourable+members/6394435/story.html#ixzz1qqMyNIph

You can also watch the match yourself and catch all the glory and upset here (the commentary is pretty hilarious!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XuSpZ3_5pTc#!

 

photos of the day

April 2, 2012

A woman walks past an Orthodox church during heavy snowfall in central Minsk, Belarus.

Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters

Judges from Senegal’s top court arrive at the inauguration of newly-elected Senegalese President Macky Sall in the capital Dakar. Sall took his oath as president of the West African country under the gaze of regional leaders due to hold emergency talks later on the crisis in neighbouring Mali.

Joe Penney/Reuters

 

Market Closes for April 2, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	13264.49	+52.45
		+0.40%
S&P 500	1419.04	+10.57
		+0.75%
NASDAQ	3119.7	+28.13
		+0.91%
TSX	12507.06	+114.88
		+0.93%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10109.87	+26.31
		+0.26%
HANG SENG	20522.26	-33.32
		-0.16%
SENSEX	17478.15	+73.95
		+0.42%
FTSE 100	5874.89	+106.44
		+1.85%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.124	2.111
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.665	2.656
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.1785	2.2106
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.3204	3.3375

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00959	1.00113
US $	0.99050	0.99887
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.31972	0.75774
US $	1.33238	0.75054

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1676.70	1667.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	105.03	103.04

 

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli  April 2 (Bloomberg)

Canadian stocks rose the most in more than five weeks, led by materials and energy shares, after oil and copper advanced on an improving economic and manufacturing outlook in China.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Canada’s second-largest publicly traded copper producer, gained 1.6 percent. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s biggest base-metal producer, gained 3 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second- largest energy company by market value, increased 2.1 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index gained 114.88 points, or 0.9 percent, to 12,507.06 in Toronto, the biggest increase since Feb. 21.

“The numbers that came out today are surprisingly better than most people were thinking,” Gerry Brockelsby, a money manager at Marquest Asset Management Inc. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$250 million ($252 million). “This is just confirmation that China is OK, and if concerns fade, people will get more and more positive about the global economy, which we think is in great shape and improving.”

The benchmark equity gauge rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter as economic data surpassed estimates and investors speculated that the euro area would contain its sovereign-debt crisis. The index fell 2 percent in March, after two straight months of increases.

Canadian materials companies increased for the second straight day, driven by gold and copper, after a measure of manufacturing in China signaled stronger demand. A Purchasing Managers’ Index touched a one-year high of 53.1 last month, China’s logistics federation and the National Bureau of Statistics said. Readings above 50 signal growth.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold-mining company, gained 1.2 percent to C$43.86. First Quantum Minerals Ltd. increased 1.6 percent to C$19.32. Teck Resources Ltd. climbed 3 percent to C$36.67.

Energy stocks in the S&P/TSX gained as oil rose the most in six weeks. A report showed that manufacturing in the U.S.

expanded at a faster pace than forecast, signaling economic growth in the world’s biggest crude-consuming country.

Canadian Natural Resources increased 2.1 percent to C$33.75. TransCanada Corp., the developer of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, gained 1.1 percent to C$43.29.

Progress Energy Resources Corp., a western Canadian natural gas producer, surged 7.9 percent to C$10.79 after Petroliam Nasional Bhd. said it will make a Canadian acquisition exceeding $5 billion. Petronas agreed in June to pay Progress Energy C$1.07 billion for a 50 percent stake in three Canadian natural gas fields.

“People have made the connection that if Petronas is looking to buy Canadian gas assets, Progress would be where they would look,” Roger Serin, an analyst at TD Newcrest Inc., said in a telephone interview. “They’re likely considering a number of companies, but will look more closely at one they already have a working relationship with.”

Progress isn’t currently in discussions with Petronas regarding any business transactions outside of its joint venture relations, the Calgary-based company said in a statement today.

US

By Michael P. Regan and Lu Wang – Apr 2, 2012

U.S. stocks gained, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index returning to an almost four-year high, and commodities reversed early losses following a report showing stronger-than-forecast growth in American manufacturing. Oil rallied the most in six weeks.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.8 percent to close at 1,419.04 at 4 p.m. in New York, adding to its 12 percent first-quarter rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 52.45 points to 13,264.49, the highest since December 2007. The S&P GSCI (SPGSCI) Index rose 1.7 percent as heating oil, gasoline and copper led gains in 19 of 24 commodities. Ten-year Treasury yields lost two basis points to 2.19 percent after decreasing as much as five points.

Stocks and commodities recovered from earlier losses after the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index increased to 53.4 last month and a gauge of factory employment climbed to the highest level since June. The data helped assuage concern about the global economy after earlier reports showed European unemployment rose to a 14-year high in February and manufacturing contracted for an eighth month in March.

“Here in the United States, things have stabilized,” Barry James, who helps oversee $3.3 billion as president of James Investment Research in Xenia, Ohio, said in a telephone interview. “The manufacturing side has been the strength of our economy and the exporting has been huge — that’s what has sustained us the past several years.”

The S&P 500 needs to rise only about 10 percent to reach its previous record high of 1,565.15 set in October 2007. Gains in U.S. stocks todaywere led by producers of raw materials and energy, with Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. rallying 2.8 percent and Chevron Corp. rising 1 percent to pace the advance. Avon Products Inc. surged 17 percent after Coty Inc. offered to buy the cosmetics company for $10 billion.

Apple Inc. advanced 3.2 percent after Consumer Reports said on its website that the new iPad’s high-resolution screen provides the best detail and color accuracy of all tablets it has seen.

Groupon Inc. slid 17 percent after the largest provider of daily online deals reported a “material weakness” in its financial controls and said fourth-quarter results were worse than previously stated because of higher refunds to merchants.

The S&P 500 reversed a drop of 0.3 percent in the first hour of trading after the ISM’s factory index topped the median economist forecast of 53. The group’s production gauge climbed to a three-month high and its measure of employment reached the highest level since June.

The best first-quarter gain for the S&P 500 since 1998 sent U.S. stocks above gold by the most in more than a decade, a sign of growing investor confidence in corporate profits as analysts raise earnings estimates for the first time this year.

The S&P 500 climbed 12 percent, 5.3 percentage points more than gold for the widest gap to start a year since 1999, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The S&P GSCI Total Return Index of 24 commodities gained 5.9 percent over the three months, while Treasuries slipped 1.3 percent, trailing equities by the most since 2009. Corporate bonds increased 2.4 percent and the dollar fell 1.6 percent.

Thirty-year Treasury bonds fell today, erasing earlier gains and sending their yield one basis point higher to 3.35 percent. Two-year yields were little changed at 0.33 percent.

The worst is over for the $10 trillion U.S. Treasury market following the biggest quarterly rout since 2010, say Wall Street’s largest bond trading firms.

After rising to as high as 2.4 percent last month from 1.88 percent at the end of 2011, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note will finish 2012 at 2.49 percent, according to the average estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of the 21 primary dealers that trade with the Federal Reserve. That’s the same as a January poll, suggesting the market isn’t ready to declare a bear market in bonds after a 30-year bull run.

Signs of strength in the economy, which caused a 5.56 percent loss in bonds maturing in 10 years or more last quarter, may fade in the second half of 2012, the dealers say. Tax cuts are expiring, $1 trillion of mandatory federal budget cuts are due to kick in and $100-a-barrel oil is eating into consumer spending. With inflation in check, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last week that the central bank will consider further stimulus, even after upgrading its economic outlook March 13.

Among commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI index, heating oil, gasoline and nickel surged more than 2.2 percent. Oil for May delivery rose $2.21, or 2.1 percent, to settle at $105.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the biggest gain since Feb. 21.

Commodities also advanced after data showed manufacturing growth in China. A Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to a one-year high of 53.1 in March, China’s logistics federation and the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. The gauge has a pattern of rising each March. The data failed to end predictions for policy loosening as analysts described the gain as seasonal and a separate survey showed exporters struggling.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) increased 1.5 percent as national benchmark gauges in the U.K. and Germany led gains in the region. Among European stocks, Oriflame Cosmetics SA jumped 2.6 percent after Coty’s offer for Avon. Cookson Group Plc jumped 6 percent after the Sunday Times said the company may spin off a unit.

The yield on Italian 10-year bonds dropped one basis point to 5.11 percent, leaving the difference in yield with bunds two basis points lower. The Spanish 10-year yield was little changed at 5.35 percent.

The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of credit- default swaps tied to the debt of 15 governments dropped 3.2 basis points to 266.75.

The yen appreciated 1 percent versus the euro, while the Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against those of six trading partners, lost 0.2 percent.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index added 0.7 percent. In South Korea, the Kospi Index advanced 0.8 percent after the country’s credit rating outlook was raised by Moody’s Investors Service to positive from stable, boosting demand for the nation’s assets.

The FTSE/JSE Africa All Shares Index advanced 1.3 percent in Johannesburg. The ISE National 100 Index added 0.9 percent in Istanbul after Turkish economic growth in the fourth quarter was 5.2 percent, exceeding economists’ estimates.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Ellora Howie

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

 

Hello All,

 

Tangents:

 

Two Cambridge graduates, Ed Moyse and Ross Harper, have come up with a unique way to pay off their student debt: selling their faces. Through their website, www.buymyface.co.uk, the former students sell advertising space on their faces. Companies can “buy” a day, and the two will then paint the company logo on their faces and go about their daily lives. Daily fees originally started at £1, but businesses are now paying up to £400 (approximately $630) due to an increase in popularity and demand. The two have been running this business for 182 days out of a total planned 366 — and they have already raised just over £33,000 (approximately $52,246). What a great example of viral marketing!

 

photos of the day

March 30, 2012

Children from the area of Japan’s Fukushima prefecture perform a Soma region traditional dance during a visit to the Belem presidential palace in Lisbon, Portugal.
Armando Franca/AP

Sculptures entitled Blue Men, by Ofra Zimbalista, are seen on the wall of a building on Borough High Street in south London.
Toby Melville/Reuters

Market Closes for March 30, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	13212.04	+66.22
		+0.50%
S&P 500	1408.47	+5.19
		+0.37%
NASDAQ	3091.57	-3.79
		-0.12%
TSX	12392.18	+52.82
		+0.43%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	10083.56	-31.23
		-0.31%
HANG SENG	20555.58	-53.81
		-0.26%
SENSEX	17404.20	+345.59
		+2.03%
FTSE 100	5768.45	+26.42
		+0.46%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.111	2.082
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.656	2.637
U.S. 10 Year Bond	2.2106	2.1587
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.3375	3.2731

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	1.00113	1.00341
US $	0.99887	0.99660
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.33237	0.75054
US $	1.33386	0.74970

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1667.00	1660.10
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	103.04	103.33

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

March 30 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, paring a monthly decline, as commodity producers gained after gold advanced on a weaker dollar and oil rebounded from the year’s biggest drop.

Goldcorp, the world’s second-biggest producer of the metal by market value, increased 1.5 percent. China Gold International Resources Corp. jumped 3.4 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., the country’s second-largest energy company by market value, rose 1.9 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rebounded 52.82 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,392.18 in Toronto. It fell 2 percent this month after gains of 4.2 percent in January and 1.5 percent in February.

“Everybody’s hoping for a correction, so if there’s a dip, people are buying,” Sebastian van Berkom, a money manager at Van Berkom & Associates in Montreal, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$1.7 billion ($1.7 billion).

“A lot of investors missed the train when it was leaving the station. Every time there’s a check back in the market, they get back in because they have too much cash.  We’re climbing a wall of worry.”

The benchmark equity gauge fell this month as materials and energy shares slipped on signs of slower growth in China and rising crude stockpiles. The index rose 3.7 percent in the first quarter.

Materials companies increased today, driven by metals stocks. Gold completed a quarterly advance, climbing as the U.S. dollar dropped after European finance ministers agreed to increase rescue funds for indebted nations.

Goldcorp gained 1.5 percent to C$44.96. China Gold International Resources increased 3.4 percent to C$4.92.

Copper shares increased on signs of economic expansion in the U.S. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said today its business barometer was at 62.2 in March. Readings greater than 50 signal growth. The metal is set for its biggest quarterly gain since 2010.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s biggest base-metals producer, gained 2.6 percent to C$35.61. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., Rio Tinto Group’s majority-owned partner in the Oyu Tolgoi copper project in Mongolia, increased 0.8 percent to C$15.69.

Energy stocks in the S&P/TSX increased as oil rose after reports showed that U.S. consumer sentiment and spending gained and euro-area finance ministers agreed to boost rescue funds.

Crude oil for May delivery advanced 0.2 percent, for a 4.2 percent gain in the quarter.

Canadian Natural Resources rose 1.9 percent to C$33.06.

Bankers Petroleum Ltd., which operates in Albania, increased 3.5 percent to C$4.12.

 

US

By Rita Nazareth

March 30 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, extending the biggest first-quarter advance since 1998 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as stronger-than-forecast growth in consumer sentiment and spending bolstered optimism in the economy.

Halliburton Co. (HAL) and Dow Chemical Co. advanced more than 1.2 percent to pace gains in commodity producers. Walt Disney Co. (DIS), the largest U.S. entertainment company by market value, climbed 1.8 percent after Lazard Ltd. raised its recommendation for the shares. Apple Inc. (AAPL), which has surged 48 percent in the first three months of 2012, retreated 1.7 percent today.

The S&P 500 rose 3.1 percent in March (SPX), rallying for a fourth straight month. The Dow added 2 percent since the end of February, posting a sixth month of gains. Both capped the longest stretches of monthly rallies since 2009.

Over the last 100 years, the Dow advanced 1.3 percent on average in April (INDU) and gained 57 percent of the time, according to data compiled by Bespoke Investment Group. The index rose an average 2.1 percent in April over the last 50 years and 2.9 percent in the past 20 years, the data showed, marking the best month for the Dow in both time frames.

Stocks rose today as Americans increased their spending by the most in seven months, Commerce Department data showed. Another report showed that the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s final index of consumer sentiment climbed to 76.2, the highest since February 2011, from 75.3 last month. European (SXXP) governments capped fresh rescue lending at 500 billion euros ($666 billion), after a Germany-led coalition opposed a further expansion of the firewall.

Nine out of 10 groups in the S&P 500 rose today as energy, health-care and consumer-staple companies had the biggest gains. Twenty-seven out of 30 companies in the Dow advanced. Commodity shares gained as the S&P GSCI index of raw materials added 0.7 percent. Halliburton, the world’s largest provider of hydraulic-fracturing services, rose 1.3 percent to $33.19. Dow Chemical, the biggest U.S. chemical maker, increased 1.4 percent to $34.64.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (COG) climbed 3 percent to $31.17. The 4.8 percent drop in the oil and gas company’s shares yesterday after the occurrence of a flash fire at the Williams Partners LP- operated Lathrop compressor station in Pennsylvania was “overblown,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a note. Disney added 1.8 percent, the biggest advance in the Dow, to $43.78 after Lazard raised its recommendation for the shares to buy from neutral. Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) jumped 7.1 percent to $14.70. The maker of BlackBerry smartphones said it plans to refocus on the business market and review strategic options after struggling to compete against Android devices and Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Vivus Inc. (VVUS) gained 5.1 percent to $22.36 and Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARNA) rose 1.2 percent to $3.08. The biopharmaceutical companies, which are competing to win U.S. regulatory approval for weight-loss treatments, probably won’t be affected by an advisory panel’s recommendation for heart-risk studies, a Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said.

Financial shares, which had the biggest gain in the S&P 500 among 10 groups this quarter, swung between gains and losses today before closing 0.5 percent high. The KBW Bank Index rose 0.3 percent today, after falling as much as 0.8 percent earlier.

Technology shares, which comprise 21 percent of the S&P 500, had the only decline among 10 industries today. The group had the second-biggest advance in the S&P 500 this quarter, surging 21 percent.

Apple, the most valuable technology (S5INFT) company, lost 1.7 percent to $599.55. An audit of Foxconn Technology Group, the biggest maker of Apple devices, found “serious and pressing” violations of Chinese labor laws, prompting the company to pledge to cut working hours and give employees more oversight.

The S&P 500 ended the first quarter 3.4 percent above the 1,362 mean year-end projection of strategists surveyed by Bloomberg. The index slumped 0.9 percent over the previous three days on concern this year’s rally has outpaced prospects for economic growth.

“The best of 2012 is probably behind us,” Alan Brown, chief investment officer at Schroders Plc, said in a telephone interview from London. His firm oversees $291 billion. “We’ve had a very substantial rally. I’m not sure where the fresh round of good news comes from that we haven’t already discounted in today’s prices. I’m rather more cautious at the present time.”

Profit margins are poised to start falling in the U.S. as they have worldwide, according to Pierre Lapointe, Brockhouse & Cooper Inc.’s global macro strategist. Shrinking margins may weigh on earnings in the next few quarters and hurt stocks, the report said.

S&P 500 margins have narrowed by 0.2 percentage point this year, to 13.8 percent. The comparable declines for companies in the European (SXXP) and Japanese benchmarks are 2 points and 0.9 point, respectively.“Corporate America can no longer rely on cost-cutting,” Lapointe wrote in a report with colleagues Alex Bellefleur and Frances Donald. “The only way to grow the bottom line will be to grow the top line” by increasing sales, the Montreal-based strategist wrote.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Nadia Aziz

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

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