Category: Uncategorized

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this date in 1846, it is believed that German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune.

Neptune is the Roman god of the sea corresponding to the Geek Poseidon, hence, allusively, the sea itself.  Neptune is represented as an elderly mand of stately mien, bearded, carrying a trident and sometimes astride a dolphin or horse.

Today Bruce Springsteen turns 65 years old.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Fifty-year-old ginsengs are on sale at a market in Baishan, Jilin province, China. Each is worth approximately 150,000 yuan ($24,430), according to the seller. Reuters

A zookeeper holds an owl while attending a funeral service for zoo animals at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. The zoo holds an annual service in remembrance of zoo animals that have passed away over the last year. Toru Hanai/Reuters

Market Closes for September 23^rd, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17055.87	-116.81
		-0.68%
S&P 500	1982.77	-11.52   -0.58%
NASDAQ	4508.688	-19.001   -0.42%
TSX	15125.67	-3.33
		-0.02%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16205.90	-115.27
		-0.71%
HANG SENG	23837.07	-118.42
		-0.49%
SENSEX	26775.69	-431.05
		-1.58%
FTSE 100	6676.08	-97.55
		-1.44%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.172	2.228
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.718	2.755
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.5256	2.5636
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.2430	3.2891

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.90271	0.90566
US $	1.10777	1.10416
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.42320	0.70264
US $	1.28474	0.77837

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1224.05	1214.89
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.56	91.52

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were little changed at a six-week low after an advance in metal producers offset data showing retail sales unexpectedly fell for the first time in seven months.

     OceanaGold Corp. and Eldorado Gold Corp. increased at least 4.3 percent as gold stocks snapped a four-day loss. Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. gained 2.9 percent as the drugmaker joined a consortium conducting Ebola treatment trials.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell less than 0.1 percent to 15,125.67 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. Canadian equities have advanced 11 percent this year, the second-best performer among the world’s developed countries behind Denmark. The index touched a record Sept. 3.

     Canadian retail sales fell 0.1 percent to C$42.5 billion ($38.7 billion) in July amid lower receipts at general- merchandise stores. Retail spending remains near last month’s record high after rising from a low of C$33.3 billion in December 2008. Future consumption may be crimped by near-record debt loads and sluggish job growth over the last year.

     OceanaGold climbed 4.3 percent to C$2.41 and Eldorado Gold increased 4.8 percent to C$7.84 as raw-materials stocks rallied 1.3 percent as a group, the most in the S&P/TSX. Four of the 10 main industries in the S&P/TSX advanced on trading volume 8.3 percent higher than the 30-day average.

     Gold prices added 0.3 percent to settle at $1,222 an ounce in New York. The U.S. and its Arab allies launched a barrage of airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Syria, while Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet.

     Tekmira Pharmaceuticals rose 2.9 percent to C$26.77 for a six-month high. A U.S. doctor who contracted Ebola in Western Africa was treated with the company’s experimental therapy for a week while hospitalized in Nebraska, his doctors said. The stock has rallied 18 percent in the past two days.

     BlackBerry Ltd. fell 2.9 percent to C$11.70, snapping a two-day advance, after Cormark Securities Inc. analyst Richard Tse lowered his rating for the stock to market perform, the equivalent of a hold, after the stock advanced 53 percent this year through yesterday.

     BlackBerry has four buys, 24 holds and 10 sells, with an average 12-month price target of C$9.68, implying a 17 percent decline from current levels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     Merus Labs International Inc. plunged 20 percent to C$1.60, the biggest drop since January 2009, after Chief Executive Officer Elie Farah resigned to pursue other opportunities.

US

By Joseph Ciolli

     Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s Index sinking a third day, as health-care shares slid amid a government crackdown on tax-saving mergers and as the Middle East conflict escalated.

     Medtronic Inc. slid 2.9 percent after the Treasury Department disclosed plans to limit inversion deals. CarMax Inc. sank 9.5 percent after earnings missed estimates. Alibaba Group Holding Inc. fell 3 percent for a second day of losses. Nabors Industries Ltd. led energy shares higher, as crude oil prices advanced after the U.S. launched a series of airstrikes against the Islamic State.

     The S&P 500 lost 0.6 percent to 1,982.77 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 116.81 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,055.87. The Russell 2000 Index dropped 0.9 percent for a third straight decline. About 6.1 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 8.4 percent above the three-month average.

     “We’re going to continue to consolidate until we get better visibility as to whether the slowdown this month is for real,” Sam Turner, a fund manager with Richmond, Virginia-based Riverfront Investment Group LLC, said in a phone interview. His firm oversees $4.6 billion. “The tax inversion issue is also hanging over the market in the short-term.”

     The S&P 500 lost 0.8 percent yesterday and has now declined 1.4 percent since closing at a record on Sept. 18. The Russell 2000 has lost 3.5 percent during its three-day slide, the most since April. The small-cap gauge has fallen 5.2 percent from a high on Sept. 2.

     The equity benchmark rallied last week as the Federal Reserve maintained a commitment to keep interest rates near zero for a considerable time after completing asset purchases in October. The gauge has not had a four-day losing streak this year and has not fallen more than 10 percent in three years.

     Data today showed the Markit Economics preliminary index of U.S. manufacturing held at a more than four-year high of 57.9 in September. A reading above 50 for the purchasing managers’ measure indicates expansion.

     “We’re really at a crossroads in terms of what direction we’ll take,” Bill Schultz, who oversees $1.2 billion as chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said in a phone interview. “What’s going to be the impetus to get us going higher, or to see a correction? The market has gotten a little bit soft here and it needs to get something going. Right now it just doesn’t have that.”                        

     The Treasury’s new rules on inversions apply to deals that close starting yesterday. The changes will have the biggest effect on the eight U.S. companies with pending inversions, including Medtronic and AbbVie, which plan the two largest such deals in U.S. history.

     The rules include a prohibition on “hopscotch” loans that let companies access foreign cash without paying U.S. taxes.  They also curb actions that companies can use to make such transactions qualify for favorable tax treatment.

     “People are concerned that some of the froth in the market will decrease with lower prospect for larger deals,” John Carey, a Boston-based fund manager at Pioneer Investment Management Inc., which oversees about $230 billion, said in a phone interview. “That’s affecting some specific stocks, particularly health care. And the geopolitical situation is very uncertain and fraught with risk. A major event could have serious effects on the economy.”

     In the Middle East, The U.S. and Arab allies Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain launched a series of airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Syria along the Iraqi border.

     The airstrikes against the militant Khorasan Group in Syria were prompted by plans for an “imminent” terror attack on U.S. soil, the Pentagon said. Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it shot down a Syrian fighter jet after it penetrated Israeli air space over the Golan Heights.

     “There are a lot of geopolitical worries going around,” said William Hobbs, head of equity strategy at Barclays Plc’s wealth-management unit in London. “The Middle Eastern situation feels like it’s not going to go away very quickly. The Islamic State is a significant and very organized military threat.”

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge known as the VIX, increased 8.8 percent to 14.90, the highest since Aug. 8. The index has surged 24 percent in the past three days.

     All of the 10 main S&P 500 groups retreated, with producers of consumer staples sliding 0.9 percent for the biggest decline.

     CarMax Inc. sank 9.5 percent to $47.80 for the biggest drop in the S&P 500. The company reported second-quarter adjusted earnings that missed analysts’ estimates.

     UnitedHealth Group Inc. slid 1.3 percent to lead losses in 29 of the 30 components in the Dow.

     AbbVie fell 2 percent to $57.56. The company agreed in July to buy Dublin-based Shire Plc in a 32 billion pound ($52.4 billion) deal where it planned to move its legal address abroad to lower its taxes.

     Medtronic declined 2.9 percent to $64.08. Covidien Plc, the Irish medical supplies company that the U.S. company is trying to buy, lost 2.5 percent to $88.11.

     Abbott Laboratories declined 2.1 percent to $42.50. Mylan Inc. said in July it agreed to buy Abbott’s generic drug business in developed markets and would form a new company incorporated in the Netherlands to cut taxes. Mylan added 0.2 percent to $46.61.

     Burger King Worldwide Inc. slid 2.7 percent to $30.23. The company, which agreed at the end of August to buy Canada-based Tim Hortons Inc., will proceed with the deal even amid the crackdown on inversions. The deal is driven by long-term growth and not tax benefits, according to Tim Hortons spokesman Scott Bonikowsky.

     Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. jumped 5.8 percent to $169.17. Allergan Inc. is in talks to acquire the company to help it fend off a hostile takeover offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., people with knowledge of the matter said.

     Alibaba fell 3 percent to $87.17. The company soared 38 percent on its trading debut on Sept. 19 and fell 4.3 percent yesterday.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

The spirit of democracy

is not a mechanical thing

to be adjusted by abolition of forms.

It requires change of heart.

 

Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Our greatest foes and whom we must chiefly combat, are within.

                                       -Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM, 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 date in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. He called for the freedom of more than 3 million slaves in the U.S. by the new year, recasting the Civil War as a fight against slavery.

The third season of the year begins today in the northern hemisphere.  It is figuratively a season of maturity or decay as in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Alastor (1816):

And now his limbs were lean; his scattered hair,
Sered by the autumn of strange suffering,
Sung dirges in the wind.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is welcomed to the stage by her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. The session is called ‘Reimagining Impact.’ Mark Lennihan/AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (r.) leads Prime Minister of France Manuel Valls to the podium during a welcoming ceremony with military honors at the chancellery in Berlin. Axel Schmidt/AP

Market Closes for September 22^nd, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17172.68	-107.06
		-0.62%
S&P 500	1994.29	-16.11   -0.80%
NASDAQ	4527.688	-52.101   -1.14%
TSX	15129.00	-136.35
		-0.89%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16205.90	-115.27
		-0.71%
HANG SENG	23955.49	-350.67
		-1.44%
SENSEX	27206.74	+116.32
		+0.43%
FTSE 100	6773.63	-64.29
		-0.94%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.228	2.248
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.755	2.754
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.5636	2.5763
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.2891	3.2849

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.90566	0.91229
US $	1.10416	1.09615
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41843	0.70500
US $	1.28463	0.77844

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1214.89	1216.15
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	91.52	92.41

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to a six-week low as commodities tumbled to a five-year low amid speculation China will accept slowing growth.

     First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Teck Resources Ltd. retreated at least 1.1 percent as nickel led declines in industrial metals in London. Lightstream Resources Ltd. and Painted Pony Petroleum Ltd. declined more than 7.1 percent as oil stocks retreated to a four-month low. Toronto-Dominion Bank, the nation’s largest lender by assets, rose 0.4 percent.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 0.9 percent to 15,129 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the lowest since Aug. 7. The gauge sank 1.7 percent last week, the most in 15 months.

     Eight of the 10 main industries in the S&P/TSX retreated on trading volume 54 percent higher than the 30-day average.

     China’s Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said growth in Asia’s largest economy faces downward pressure and reiterated that there won’t be major changes in policy in response to individual economic indicators. China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the U.S.

     First Quantum Minerals tumbled 1.7 percent to C$21.25 for a sixth straight loss, the longest losing streak in two years.  Teck Resources, Canada’s largest diversified miner, dropped 1.1 percent to C$21.71, for a 14-month low.

     Copper tumbled 1.7 percent to $3.0385 a pound in New York. Raw-materials stocks slumped 1.6 percent as a group for a fourth day of losses, the worst streak since May. The Bloomberg Commodity Index dropped 0.7 percent to the lowest level since July 2009.

     Semafo Inc. fell 4.7 percent to C$3.88 and B2Gold Corp. sank 5.5 percent to C$2.25 as the S&P/TSX Gold Index dropped 1.7 percent for a fourth day of declines. Gold was little-changed in New York after earlier touching the lowest level since Jan. 2.

     BlackBerry Ltd. rose 1.3 percent to C$12.05. The company said its Passport smartphone will be sold in the U.S. for $599 without a mobile phone plan, $50 cheaper than the base iPhone 6 model from Apple Inc.

US

By Joseph Ciolli and Callie Bost

     Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — The biggest tumble for smaller companies in seven weeks underscored weakening breadth in the American bull market two weeks after its 5 1/2-year birthday.

     Shares tracked by the Russell 2000 Index slid 1.5 percent, the largest retreat since July 31. While the Russell 3000 Index touched an intraday record at the end of last week, fewer than 55 percent of its components traded above their 200-day moving average, a combination that hasn’t happened since the peak of the dot-com bubble, according to MKM Partners LLC. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index jumped 13 percent for its biggest rally in seven weeks.

     “Small caps are really under-performing again and I think that’s the main issue here,” JC O’Hara, the New York-based chief market technician at FBN Securities Inc, said by phone. “We’re seeing the spread between the Russell and the S&P 500 widening out again and that is worrying some people. Traders want to see small caps participate and every time they don’t they think, ‘it’s still not working.’”

     While losses today were biggest in speculative shares, equities declined throughout the U.S. market and around the world after sales of existing homes unexpectedly dropped and China’s finance minister damped stimulus hopes.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.8 percent, the most since Aug. 5, to 1,994.29 at 4 p.m. in New York, after closing at a record Sept. 18. The benchmark gauge hasn’t had a four-day slide this year and hasn’t fallen 10 percent in three years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 107.06 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,172.68, after ending last week at an all-time high. About 6.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, 11 percent above the three-month average.                        

     Among other stocks moving, Yahoo! Inc. dropped 5.6 percent to lead the Dow Jones Internet Composite Index to a one-month low. Homebuilders in the S&P 500 plunged. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. lost 4.3 percent after surging in its trading debut Sept. 19. Sigma-Aldrich Corp. rallied 33 percent after Merck KGaA said it will acquire the company.

     There’s a good chance U.S. equities will decline over the next few weeks, based on the market’s deteriorating breadth, according to a research report from Jonathan Krinsky, a technical strategist at MKM Partners.

     The last time so few companies in the Russell 3000 helped push the gauge to an intraday high was March 24, 2000, his report said. The index dropped 1 percent today.

     “There are enough warning signs to suggest at least a modest pullback,” Krinsky said in the note. “We think some seasonal weakness into early October makes sense.”

     The VIX surged 13 percent to 13.69 today, a one-week high.  The gauge lost 29 percent last month, the biggest drop in almost three years.

     “The market is weaker because of small caps,” Matt Maley, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co LLC in Newton, Massachusetts, said in a phone interview. “When you combine this move in the Russell 2000 with the pickup in volatility in other markets, that’s a big concern.”

     The S&P 500 rose 1.3 percent last week, reaching a record on Sept. 18, as economic data improved and the Federal Reserve maintained a commitment to keep interest rates near zero for a “considerable time” after asset purchases are completed in October. Central bank officials raised their median estimate for the federal funds rate at the end of 2015 to 1.375 percent, compared with 1.125 percent in June.

     Fed Bank of New York President William Dudley said today the central bank’s rate guidance is not an iron-clad commitment and that it will be driven by economic data. Dudley spoke to Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, at Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit in New York.                          

     A report today showed purchases of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in August for the first time in five months as investors retreated from the market. Separate data showed U.S. economic activity fell in August, according to the Fed Bank of Chicago.

     “People are looking for an excuse to knock the market back down a little bit,” Donald Selkin, chief market strategist for New York-based National Securities Corp., which oversees about $3 billion, said in a phone interview. “The internals for the market are horrible today. Maybe the feeling is that we might finally be ready for a more serious down move.”

     The Fed is on the lookout for signs of asset-price bubbles, and financial stability is a necessary condition for effective monetary policy, Dudley said.

     “I think we do need to try to identify asset bubbles in real time,” Dudley said. “You can’t have an effective monetary policy if you have financial instability.”

     In addition, Group of 20 officials said low interest rates could lead to a potential increase in financial-market risk, as major economies rely on monetary stimulus to bolster uneven growth.

     Julian Robertson, the billionaire founder of Tiger Management LLC, said there’s a bubble in bonds that will end “in a very bad way.”

     “Bonds are at ridiculous levels,” Robertson said today at the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit. “It’s a worldwide phenomenon that governments are buying bonds to keep their countries moving along economically.”

     China’s Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said his government won’t make any major policy adjustments in response to changes in individual economic indicators, even as he said growth faces downward pressure. His comments quelled speculation that weaker economic data will spur further stimulus in the world’s second- biggest economy.

     All of the 10 groups in the S&P 500 dropped today, with energy companies and consumer-discretionary shares losing at least 1.4 percent.

     An S&P index of homebuilders slid 2.6 percent, as all 11 members retreated on the sales data. Lennar Corp. slid 2.8 percent and D.R. Horton Inc. dropped 2.6 percent.

     Alibaba fell 4.3 percent to $89.89. The Chinese e-commerce company surged 38 percent on Sept. 19 after raising a record- breaking $21.8 billion in an initial public offering.

     “With Alibaba, people are looking at that as a top in the market,” Patrick Spencer, head of U.S. equity sales at Robert W. Baird & Co. in London, said. “I still feel we are in a ‘Goldilocks’ environment with an accommodative Fed, huge buybacks, and another strong earnings-announcement season shortly.”

     Yahoo declined 5.6 percent to $38.65. Sanford Bernstein lowered its rating on the Sunnyvale, California-based company to market perform from outperform.

     Sigma-Aldrich surged 33 percent to $136.40. Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck said it will acquire the company for $140 a share in cash, 37 percent more than Sigma-Aldrich’s closing price on Sept. 19.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!
 

The spirit of democracy

is not a mechanical thing

to be adjusted by abolition of forms.

It requires change of heart.

 

Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

No particular race is the enemy.  Ignorance is

the enemy.

              -George Lopez, 1961-

 

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Ali Baba was a poor woodcutter who is the hero of a story in the Arabian Nights Entertainments.  He sees a band of robbers enter a cave  by means of the magic password OPENSESAME!  When they have gone away he enters the cave, load hi donkey with treasure and returns home.  The 40 thieves discover that Ali Baba has learned their secret and resolve to kill him, but they are finally outwitted by the slave-girl Morgiana. Ali Baba gives his son to her in marriage and keeps the secret of the treasure.  –from Brewer’s The Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, 16^th ed.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A lone ‘Yes’ campaign supporter walks through Edinburgh after the Scottish independence referendum was voted down. Scottish voters have decided that Scotland will remain part of the United Kingdom. Stefan Rousseau/PA/AP

A man wearing a mask depicting Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs holds up a cardboard cut-out of Apple’s new iPhone 6 as he walks into the Apple Store at Tokyo’s Omotesando shopping district. Yuya Shino/Reuters

Market Closes for September 19^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17279.74	+13.75
		+0.08%
S&P 500	2010.40	-0.96   -0.05%
NASDAQ	4579.789	-13.636   -0.30%
TSX	15265.35	-200.19
		-1.29%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16321.17	+253.60
		+1.58%
HANG SENG	24306.16	+137.44
		+0.57%
SENSEX	27090.42	-21.79
		-0.08%
FTSE 100	6837.92	+18.63
		+0.27%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.248	2.287
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.754	2.795
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.5763	2.6235
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.2849	3.3561

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.91229	0.91422
US $	1.09615	1.09383
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.40625	0.71111
US $	1.28290	0.77949

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1216.15	1225.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.41	93.07

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Callie Bost

     Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most since February, sending the benchmark gauge to a third weekly decline, after metals miners sank as gold dropped to an eight-month low.

     Primero Mining Corp. slid 10 percent as an index of gold producers sank 2.9 percent. Magna International Inc. slipped 4.8 percent on reports a Brazilian antitrust watchdog visited one of its subsidiary offices. TransCanada Corp. climbed 0.9 percent to extend a weekly gain.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index tumbled 200.19 points, or 1.3 percent, to 15,265.35 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest decrease since Feb. 3. The gauge sank 1.7 percent this week, the most in 15 months.

     Canada’s 12-month core inflation rate, excluding eight volatile items, accelerated to 2.1 percent in August from July’s 1.7 percent, faster than all 21 economist estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The total consumer price index rose at a 2.1 percent rate for a second month, matching economist forecasts.

     All but one of the 10 main industries in the S&P/TSX retreated. Raw-material producers plunged 2.4 percent, capping a 4.9 percent loss this week, the worst since November. Trading in S&P/TSX stocks was 114 percent above the 30-day average.

     Gold for December delivery fell to the lowest since January, extending a weekly slide after the Federal Reserve raised its estimate for interest rates at the end of 2015.

     The S&P/TSX Gold Index slipped 2.9 percent, bringing total declines for the group to 7.1 percent this week. Primero Mining tumbled 10 percent to C$5.90, while OceanaGold Corp. dropped 16 percent to C$2.13, its biggest loss since April 2013.

     Magna International slipped 4.8 percent, the most since June 2012, to C$113.33. The automotive supplier said it intends to cooperate with a continuing antitrust investigation after the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica, Brazil’s competition authority, visited subsidiary offices in the country.

     TransCanada climbed 0.9 percent to C$61.38. The second- largest Canadian pipeline operator said its current corporate structure will generate “significant, sustainable growth” amid reports that an activist shareholder has taken a stake in the pipeline company

US

By Lu Wang and Callie Bost

     Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks were little changed after a three-day rally as shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. began trading and corporate takeovers boosted investor optimism.

     Alibaba climbed 38 percent in its U.S. trading debut, after the company raised a record-breaking $21.8 billion. Dresser-Rand Group Inc. rallied 9.4 percent as Siemens AG prepared to offer more than $6.5 billion for the company, according to people familiar with the plan. Oracle Corp. slid 4.2 percent after Larry Ellison stepped down as chief executive officer.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.96 point to 2,010.40 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge is up 1.3 percent this week, the biggest advance in a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 13.75 points to 17,279.74 today. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies sank 1.1 percent.

     “It’s quadruple witching hour,” Joe “JJ” Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., said in a phone interview. “Although the headlines are all about BABA, the below-the-surface trading will be centered around expiration for on a lot of products. You may see some added volatility.”

     Trading volume jumped today because of quarterly event known as quadruple witching, when futures and options contracts on indexes and individual stocks expire. About 9.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the most since March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     Alibaba rose 38 percent to $93.89. The e-commerce company, which started in 1999 with $60,000 cobbled together by founder Jack Ma, is now valued at $231 billion. That makes it larger than Amazon.com Inc. and EBay Inc. combined, and more valuable than all but 9 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

     Yahoo! Inc., which owns a stake in Alibaba, slipped 2.7 percent to $40.93, a third day of losses.

     Oracle slid 4.2 percent to $39.80. Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, currently co-presidents of Oracle, were both named CEO to succeed him, the company said yesterday.

     Technology stocks had the biggest losses today, with the industry falling 0.4 percent in the S&P 500, led by losses in Red Hat Inc., Oracle, and Akamai Technologies Inc. Small-cap shares fared worse as a measure of computer stocks in the Russell 2000 Index slid 1.5 percent.

     European shares rose, sending the Stoxx Europe 600 Index up 0.2 percent. Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond resigned after the anti-independence “No” camp garnered 55 percent of the votes.

     Dresser-Rand advanced 9.4 percent to $79.91. Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering company, is looking to buy Dresser- Rand in a deal that would scupper a competing plan by Sulzer AG, according to people familiar with the plan.

     Concur Technologies Inc. jumped 18 percent to $126.82 as SAP SE agreed to buy the company for $7.4 billion to boost its cloud-computing business.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

The end to be sought is human happiness combined with full mental and moral growth .

This end can be achieved under decentralization.

Centralization as a system is inconsistent with a non-violent structure of society.

Mahatama Gandhi

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

                                             -Golda Meir, 1898-1978

 

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this day in 1970, Jimi Hendrix passed away from a drug overdose. The rock musician was 27 years old at the time of this death.

1851- New York Times first published.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A man looks at a Twizy, the Renault electric city car, during a presentation of the Wattmobile, a new self-drive Autolib-style electric car service at Gare de l’Est train station in Paris. Charles Platiau/Reuters

Piper Anton Doherty plays to passers-by in front of the Houses of Parliament on Westminster Bridge in London as Scotland votes on independence. Luke MacGregor/Reuters

Market Closes for September 18^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17264.47	+107.62
		+0.63%
S&P 500	2011.09	+9.52   +0.48%
NASDAQ	4593.426	+31.237   +0.68%
TSX	15472.58	+13.70
		+0.09%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	16067.57	+178.90
		+1.13%
HANG SENG	24168.72	-207.69
		-0.85%
SENSEX	27112.21	+480.92
		+1.81%
FTSE 100	6819.29	+38.39
		+0.57%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.287	2.264
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.795	2.784
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.6235	2.6107
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.3561	3.3664

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.91422	0.90942
US $	1.09383	1.09960
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41371	0.70736
US $	1.29243	0.77373

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1225.00	1223.05
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	93.07	94.42

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were little changed after erasing declines in the final hour of trading, as banks rallied to offset a slump in gold producers.

     Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal each advanced 0.7 percent to all-time highs, as financial shares rose the most in the benchmark index. TransCanada Corp. jumped 3.3 percent after Reuters reported U.S. hedge funds are reviewing the company for a possible breakup. Penn West Petroleum Ltd. jumped 7.6 percent after completing an internal review of its accounting practices. Detour Gold Corp. retreated 6.5 percent as the metal sank to an eight-month low.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 6.66 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 15,465.54 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge fell as much as 0.2 percent earlier in the day, touching a one-month low. It has advanced 14 percent this year, the second- best performer among the world’s developed markets behind Denmark.

     Six of 10 industries in the benchmark Canadian equity index advanced on trading volume 17 percent higher than the 30-day average at this time of day.

     An index of financial stocks rose 0.5 percent for a third day of gains and record close.

     Penn West jumped 7.6 percent to C$8.32. The company restated its annual financial statements as a result of the internal review while maintaining its output goals and dividend.

     Air Canada climbed 4.5 percent to C$9.01. The company added baggage fees and said it may consider a share buyback or increased dividend.

     Detour Gold retreated 6.5 percent to C$9.26 as raw- materials stocks dropped 1.5 percent as a group to the lowest since June. Gold declined 0.7 percent to $1,226.90 an ounce in New York.

USA

By Oliver Renick

     Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose for a third day, sending benchmark indexes to records, as data showed fewer Americans filed for jobless claims and investors speculated interest rates will remain low.

     ConAgra Foods Inc., owner of the Chef Boyardee and Healthy Choice food brands, gained 4.6 percent after reporting earnings that topped estimates. Kohl’s Corp. added 1.6 percent after analysts at Citigroup Inc. told clients to buy the shares. Rite Aid Corp. tumbled 19 percent after saying lower reimbursement rates and higher costs for drugs hurt profit. AOL Inc. rallied on takeover speculation.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 0.5 percent to 2,011.36 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 109.14 points, or 0.6 percent, to an all-time high of 17,265.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index and Russell 2000 Index gained at least 0.5 percent.

     “The market’s still in Fed mode,” Joe Bell, a senior equity analyst at Cincinnati-based Schaeffer’s Investment Research Inc., said in a phone interview. “A majority of people are thinking July 2015 may be the rate increase and the market’s responding positively to the idea that rates aren’t coming any sooner.”

     Stocks advanced yesterday, sending the S&P 500 up as much as 0.6 percent, after the Fed renewed its pledge to keep interest rates near zero for a “considerable time” after its bond-buying program ends, probably next month. Policy makers also projected a steeper increase in borrowing costs next year, raising the median forecast for the benchmark rate at the end of 2015 to 1.375 percent from June’s estimate of 1.125 percent.

     “Anytime the Fed speaks it can move markets and it’s more true today than ever because we’re at an inflection point where non-traditional monetary policy that’s almost been on auto pilot is coming to a close and we’re shifting our focus to traditional policy,” Ron Sanchez, executive vice president and chief investment officer at New York-based Fiduciary Trust Co. International, said by phone.

     Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese e-commerce giant, intends to pick a price for its nearly $22 billion initial public offering tonight. The company is asking investors to value it as high as $167.6 billion, or 29 times estimated earnings in the year through March. That’s still below Tencent, Baidu Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

     Jobless claims decreased by 36,000 to 280,000 in the period ended Sept. 13, the Labor Department said today. The median forecast of 52 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a decline to 305,000. Those already collecting unemployment benefits fell to a more than seven-year low.

     Financial shares led gains among the 10 primary industries in the S&P 500, as bank stocks climbed 1.5 percent as a group and insurers advanced 1.1 percent.

     CME Group Inc. gained 2.8 percent to $82.96, extending gains to a seventh session. Citigroup Inc. and Prudential Financial inc. jumped at least 2.4 percent.

     ConAgra increased 4.6 percent to $33.48. The maker of packaged meals and condiments reported earnings of 39 cents a share, excluding some items, exceeding the average 35-cent estimate from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

     AOL Inc. jumped 3.3 percent after a strategist at BGC Financial LP said investors should position themselves for gains in the stock. AOL may have a “seasonally stronger” December quarter and could be target of a takeover by Yahoo Inc! after that company’s windfall of cash following the Alibaba IPO, according to derivatives strategist Richard Anthony.

     Kohl’s added 1.6 percent to $62.50. The stock was raised to buy from neutral at Citigroup.

     MSCI Inc. climbed 5.8 percent to $48.98, the biggest advance in the Russell 1000 Index, after increasing its share buyback plans.

     Rite Aid dropped 19 percent to $5.41. The company said net income for 2015 is expected to be 22 cents to 33 cents a share. The drugstore company previously forecast 30 cents to 40 cents.

     Pier 1 Imports Inc. slumped 19 percent to $12.66. Analysts from Barclays Plc to Wells Fargo & Co. cut their rating on the stock after the company reduced its annual-profit forecast, citing weak customer traffic and slimmer margins.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

It is quite proper to resist and attack a system but,

to resist and attack its author is tantamount to resisting and attacking oneself.

For we are all tarred with the same brush.

 

Mahatma Gandhi

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

            Winston Churchill, 1874-1965

 

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

Carolann is out of the office this afternoon, I will be writing the newsletter on her behalf.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

In preparation for the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Materhorn, Swiss mountain sports specialist Mammut and mountain guides from the village of Zermatt transformed the spectacular summit into a shining stone icon as an anniversary gift to Zermatt. The prominent mountain is regarded as the emblem of the Swiss Alps and enjoys international popularity. Robert Boesch/Mammut/AP

Students explore the inside of a hot air balloon at the Tanglewood Elementary School in South Glens Falls, N.Y. Steve Jacobs/The Post Star/AP

Market Closes for September 17^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17156.85	+24.88
		+0.15%
S&P 500	2001.57	+2.59   +0.13%
NASDAQ	4562.188	+9.429   +0.21%
TSX	15467.88	-42.66
		-0.28%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15888.67	-22.86
		-0.14%
HANG SENG	24376.41	+240.40
		+1.00%
SENSEX	26631.29	+138.78
		+0.52%
FTSE 100	6780.90	-11.34
		-0.17%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.264	2.244
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.784	2.767
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.6107	2.5888
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.3664	3.3561

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.90942	0.91139
US $	1.09960	1.09722
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41499	0.70672
US $	1.28682	0.77711

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1223.05	1235.69
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	94.42	94.88

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, sending the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index to a one-month low, as energy and commodity shares slumped and the Federal Reserve maintained a commitment to keep interest rates near zero for a “considerable time.”

     Raging River Exploration Inc. lost 3.7 percent as West Texas Intermediate crude dropped from a two-week high. Torex Gold Resources Inc. and Semafo Inc. tumbled at least 5.5 percent as gold declined. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co. climbed more than 0.7 percent to pace gains among industrial stocks.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 51.66 points, or 0.3 percent, to 15,458.88 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge has fallen 1.3 percent since closing at a record on Sept. 3. It has advanced 13 percent this year, the second-best performer among the world’s developed markets behind Denmark.

     The Fed tapered monthly bond buying to $15 billion in their seventh consecutive $10 billion cut, staying on course to end the program in October. Officials also raised their median estimate for the federal funds rate at the end of 2015 to 1.375 percent, from 1.125 percent in June.

     Seven of the 10 main industries in the S&P/TSX retreated.

     Raging River declined 3.7 percent to C$10.30 as energy stocks dropped 0.9 percent as a group. West Texas Intermediate crude slid for the first time in three days, down 46 cents to close at $94.42 a barrel in New York. U.S. supplies increased by 3.67 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 12, the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical arm, said. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a drop of 1.5 million.

     Canadian Pacific Railway increased 1.7 percent to C$229.81. Canadian National Railway added 0.8 percent. CN Rail executives, speaking at a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce conference, said the company sees at least five to seven years of growth in crude shipments.

US

By Oliver Renick

     Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) — After all the attention paid to the Federal Reserve today, benchmark U.S. stocks indexes ended the session at almost the exact place they were before the central bank pledged to keep interest rates low for a “considerable time.”

     Commodity, financial and telephone shares led gains in seven of the 10 main industry groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. FedEx Corp. and Lennar Corp. rallied more than 3 percent after posting earnings that topped analysts’ estimates. Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped 45 percent, the most ever, after getting a takeover bid.

     The S&P 500 increased 0.1 percent 2,001.57 at 4 p.m. in New York after rising as much as 0.6 percent following the release of the Fed’s statement at 2 p.m. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 24.88 points to a record 17,156.85 after jumping as much as 89 points. Both finished within a point of their levels at 2 p.m., when the Fed released its statement. Fed Chair Janet Yellen later told a press conference that the pledge for low rates is conditional on the economy.

     “Yellen may be a hawk in dove’s clothing because she keeps reiterating that economic data can change the pace of rate hikes and the path to normalization,” Karyn Cavanaugh, the New York- based senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management LLC, said by phone. “The economy is gaining steam. I think we could see some increase in rates by March or sooner.”

     Stocks briefly extended gains as the Fed’s statement said the economy is expanding at a moderate pace and inflation is below its goal. It maintained a commitment to keep interest rates near zero for a “considerable time” after asset purchases are completed in October. Fed officials raised their median estimate for the federal funds rate at the end of 2015 to 1.375 percent, compared with 1.125 percent in June. The rate will be 3.75 percent at the end of 2017, the Fed said in its Summary of Economic Projections.

     “The labor market has yet to fully recover,” Yellen said at a press conference after a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee today in Washington. “There are still too many people who want jobs but can’t find them.” She added that “inflation has been running below the committee’s 2 percent objective.” In July, the Fed said inflation was “somewhat closer” to its goal.

     Policy makers tapered monthly bond buying to $15 billion in their seventh consecutive $10 billion cut, staying on course to end the program in October. Bond purchases intended to hold down long-term interest rates have swelled the Fed’s balance sheet to $4.42 trillion.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the benchmark gauge of options prices known as the VIX, lost 0.6 percent to 12.65 after earlier gaining as much as 14 percent. More than 6.1 billion U.S. shares traded hands, 8.8 percent above the three-month daily average.

      The S&P 500 rallied 0.8 percent yesterday, led by energy stocks, after China’s central bank reportedly started providing about $81 billion in loans to its biggest banks.

     Data today showed the cost of living in the U.S. unexpectedly dropped in August for the first time in more than a year, showing inflation still is falling short of the Fed’s goal. The central bank is scrutinizing data on labor and prices to gauge whether the economic recovery is strong enough to withstand higher borrowing rates.

     The S&P 500 will advance to 2,050 by the end of the year, according to Credit Suisse Group AG equity research analysts who raised their estimate from an earlier projection of 2,020. Equities are “abnormally cheap” compared with other asset classes, the Credit Suisse team said. Stocks will continue to climb through mid-2015, according to the report, before a second-half correction in 2015 as the Fed raises interest rates.

     FedEx added 3.3 percent to $159.71. The company’s first- quarter earnings increased 24 percent, helped by the completion of a record buyback program, growth in domestic air shipments and lower pension expense.

     Lennar Corp. climbed 5.8 percent to $41.40. The second- biggest U.S. homebuilder by market value reported fiscal third- quarter net income of 78 cents a share, exceeding the 67-cent average of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

     U.S. Steel Corp. rose 10 percent to a three-year high of $45.61. The steelmaker that has reported five years of losses said the Ontario Superior Court granted protection for its Canada unit. The company also said it canceled $800 million of capital investments in projects in Minnesota and Indiana.

     Auxilium Pharmaceuticals jumped 45 percent to $31.18. Endo International Plc, a maker of pain drugs, said it bid $28.10 a share in cash and stock, a 31 percent premium to yesterday’s closing price, for the maker of men’s health medicines. Endo said its offer didn’t include a deal for QLT Inc., which Auxilium agreed to take control of in June. That purchase hasn’t yet closed. Auxilium today said it has adopted a one-year holder rights plan and confirmed its QLT offer.

     Adobe Systems Inc. lost 4.9 percent to $67.30 after reporting third-quarter sales of $1.01 billion. Analysts on average estimated revenue of $1.02 billion. The software maker posted profit before some items of 28 cents a share, exceeding analysts’ projections for 26 cents.

     Rackspace Hosting Inc. tumbled 18 percent to $32.39 after saying it rejected bid offers. The cloud-computing company decided to remain independent after ending a review on strategic options, and rebuffed investor calls to buy back shares, saying it will preserve cash for future acquisitions.

     Gogo Inc. advanced 2.9 percent to $18.47 after announcing a partnership with Virgin Atlantic to offer in-flight connectivity services on Virgin’s aircraft.

     General Mills Inc. lost 4.4 percent to $50.83 after reporting earnings and sales that missed analysts’ estimates. Revenue at the cereal maker was $4.27 billion, compared with the average analyst estimate of $4.38 billion.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone. 

 

Be magnificent!

 

 

“Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.”

Lao Tzu

As ever,

 

Karen

 

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” Leo Buscaglia

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On this date in 2008, the federal government provided an $85 billion emergency loan to AIG to rescue the world’s largest insurance company. The loan came one day after Lehman filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America.

September 16, 1805,  Meriwether Lewis’s and William Clark’s  journals of their expedition from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean – William Clark writes:

A thickly timbered country of eight different kinds of pine, which are so covered with snow, that in passing through them we are continually covered with snow.  I have been wet and as cold in every part as I ever was in my life, indeed I was at one time fearful my feet would freeze in the thin moccasins which I wore,  After a short delay in the middle of the day, I took one man and proceeded on as fast as I could about six miles to a small branch passing to the right, halted and built fires for the party against their arrival which was at dusk, very cold and much fatigued.  We encamped at this branch in  a thickly timbered bottom which was scarcely large enough for us to lie level, men all wet, cold and hungry.  Killed a second colt which we all supped heartily on and thought it fine meat.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A thoroughbred is washed as the sun rises after an early morning workout at Woodbine racetrack in Toronto. Michael Burns Jr./The Canadian Press/AP

A cat is silhouetted as it walks over a fence in Sehnde near Hannover, northern Germany. Julian Stratenschulte/AP

Market Closes for September 16^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17131.97	+100.83
		+0.59%
S&P 500	1999.66	+15.53   +0.78%
NASDAQ	4552.758	+33.855   +0.75%
TSX	15515.54	+32.98
		+0.21%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15911.53	-36.76
		-0.23%
HANG SENG	24136.01	-220.98
		-0.91%
SENSEX	26492.51	-324.05
		-1.21%
FTSE 100	6792.24	-11.97
		-0.18%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.244	2.235
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.767	2.758
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.5888	2.5869
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.3561	3.3382

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.91139	0.90517
US $	1.09722	1.10476
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.42213	0.70317
US $	1.29611	0.77154

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1235.69	1234.00
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	94.88	92.92

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose from a one- month low, erasing an earlier loss, as commodity producers advanced after China’s central bank increased economic stimulus.

     Bankers Petroleum Ltd. and Raging River Exploration Inc. gained at least 2.4 percent to pace gains among oil producers. Cameco Corp. climbed 1.9 percent as uranium entered a bull market amid new sanctions against Russia. Atlantic Power Corp. plunged 33 percent after the company cut its dividend and said it will no longer seek to sell itself.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 27.98 points, or 0.2 percent, to 15,510.54 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge has fallen 0.9 percent since closing Sept. 3 at a record. It has advanced 14 percent this year, the second-best performer among the world’s developed markets behind Denmark.

     The Canadian stock index reversed losses after a report from Sina.com said China’s central bank has started a 500 billion ($81 billion) yuan standing lending-facility to the nation’s five biggest banks. The move comes amid signs that growth is slowing in the world’s second-biggest economy. China is also the biggest commodity consumer.

     West Texas Intermediate climbed to a two-week high after OPEC’s Secretary General said the group may cut output targets next year. The S&P/TSX Energy Index added 0.4 percent.

     U.S. Federal Reserve officials meet today and tomorrow to review policy amid speculation that the timeline for interest- rate increases may be brought forward.

     Seven of the 10 main industries in the S&P/TSX advanced on trading volume 26 percent higher than the 30-day average.

     Canadian factory sales rose to a record in July, surpassing the previous peak set in July 2008 before the last recession. The sales were led by a jump in auto shipments.

     Bombardier Inc. declined 0.4 percent to C$3.68 for a second day of losses. Analysts are concerned the company’s proposed CSeries jet, already two years late, will miss its target to be in service by the second half of 2015.

     Bombardier resumed flight trials earlier this month for the first time since an engine fire in May.

US

By Oliver Renick

     Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, erasing early losses, as rising oil prices spurred a rally in energy shares and China’s central bank reportedly started providing about $81 billion in loans to its biggest banks.

     Health-care stocks added 1.3 percent to lead gains among all 10 of the main industries in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Humana Inc. climbed 3.7 percent after announcing a $2 billion plan to repurchase shares. Zillow Inc. jumped 6.1 percent after Stephens Inc. recommended buying the shares. Wynn Resorts Ltd. slumped amid concern labor protests in Macau will hurt casino earnings.

     The S&P 500 added 0.8 percent to 1,998.98 at 4 p.m. in New York, recovering from a morning loss of 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 100.83 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,131.97, seven points below an all-time high. Trading of S&P 500 companies was the highest since Aug. 7 as investors awaited a Federal Reserve policy statement and press conference tomorrow.

     “The market sees the letters ’Q’ and ’E’ combined with China and it’s Happy New Year to the money printers and that’s what the jump is, they want that game to continue,” Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Chatham, New Jersey-based Themis Trading LLC, said via phone. “They may not know how or why it’s happening. But get some new QE money in there and that’s how the market reacts.”

     Stocks extended gains as Sina.com reported that China’s central bank is starting a 500 billion yuan ($81.4 billion) standing lending-facility to the nation’s five biggest banks. The report cited Guotai Junan banking analyst Qiu Guanhua at Guotai Junan Securities Co.

     Fed officials, who start a two-day meeting today, are considering how much progress toward their goals of full employment and stable inflation would be needed to prompt the first rate increase since 2006. They will outline their outlook for the economy in quarterly projections for growth, unemployment, inflation and the benchmark federal funds rate.

     Chair Janet Yellen will hold a press conference after the policy announcement on Sept. 17. The S&P 500 had dropped 1.2 percent from its record earlier this month through yesterday.

     “At this point I think anything that comes out of the FOMC meeting can’t be negative, the market’s already expecting some sort of rate change on behalf of the committee certainly by the end of spring and if that’s the case, then economic conditions are supportive and that’s good for the market,” Ron Anari, the Jersey City-based senior vice president of trading at ICAP Plc, said via phone.

     Health-care, utilities and energy companies rose more than 1.1 percent to lead gains in all 10 of the main industry groups in the S&P 500. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Schlumberger Ltd. paced an advance in energy companies in the S&P 500. Oil climbed 2.1 percent to $94.86 a barrel as the report on stimulus in China extended an earlier rally triggered after OPEC’s secretary general said the group may cut output targets next year.

     Humana jumped 3.7 percent to $132.37 after announcing plans for the $2 billion share buyback expiring at the end of 2016. The new buyback replaces a prior $1 billion plan, which had about $782 million remaining.

     Zillow jumped 6.1 percent to $133.36 for its biggest gain since July. Stephens analyst John Campbell initiated the shares with an “overweight” rating and a $170 price estimate, saying the real-estate Web site still leads the category and is in the “early innings” of revenue growth and profitability.

     Wynn Resorts declined 0.5 percent to $179.87 as workers in Macau held protests that threaten to undermine the earnings of casinos there.

     Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. fell 3.4 percent to $12.06. The stock soared 85 percent yesterday after saying its experimental Alzheimer’s treatment AVP-923 significantly improved agitation in 220 patients.

     SodaStream International Ltd. added 1 percent to $31.79. The company is in talks to sell itself for $840 million to an unidentified British fund, TheMarker reported, citing people it didn’t name. The talks reflect a value of $40 a share, it said.

     Micron Technology Inc. added 4.8 percent to $31.45, almost erasing yesterday’s loss. The chipmaker may see significant upside from Japanese yen depreciation, according to Stern Agee analyst Vijay Rakesh.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers

and thus harm not only that being but with him the whole world.

Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

All the arts we practice are apprenticeship.  The big art is our life.

                                                  -M.C. Richards, 1916-1999

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM, 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 date in 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America and AIG was on the verge of collapse before being rescued by the U.S. government.-Steven Russolillo, WSJ.  And so began the great global financial crises of 2008-2009.

1971- Greenpeace founded.

1940 – Battle of Britain.

We had a nice stroll through VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver yesterday.  It doesn’t matter how many times I go, I still come away having seen something new and feeling awed by the beauty of nature.   With all the beautiful weather we’ve been having, the rose garden is just as beautiful as ever.  There is a sculpture exhibit on until September 30^th, entitled Touch Wood.  Two dozen wood sculptures by B.C. artist such as Brent Comber, Michael Dennis and Martha Varcoe Sturdy are featured,  offering another reason to visit this great outdoor space.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

The Marseille’s Major cathedral is seen through the sculpture ‘Poseidon’ by French visual artist Sacha Sosno installed in front of the ‘Regards de Provence’ museum in Marseille. Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters

A fishing boat sails along the shore on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The referendum on Scottish independence will take place on September 18, when Scotland will vote whether or not to end the 307-year-old union with the rest of the United Kingdom. Cathal McNaughton/Reuters

Market Closes for September 15^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17031.14	+43.63
		+0.26%
S&P 500	1984.13	-1.41   -0.07%
NASDAQ	4518.902	-48.696   -1.07%
TSX	15482.56	-49.02
		-0.32%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15948.29	+39.09
		+0.25%
HANG SENG	24356.99	-238.33
		-0.97%
SENSEX	26816.56	-244.48
		-0.90%
FTSE 100	6804.21	-2.75
		-0.04%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.235	2.240
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.758	2.759
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.5869	2.6087
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.3382	3.3416

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.90517	0.90156
US $	1.10476	1.10918
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.42952	0.69954
US $	1.29396	0.77282

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1234.00	1229.94
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.92	92.27

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell a second day as commodity producers dropped on signs demand growth is weakening in China, the biggest consumer of energy and metals.

     Magna International Inc. and Linamar Corp., auto parts manufacturers, slumped more than 1.7 percent. TransCanada Corp. declined 1 percent after analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lowered their rating for the stock to a sell. Raging River Exploration Inc. and Shawcor Ltd. dropped more than 3.3 percent as oil producers retreated. Semafo Inc. slumped 5.4 percent to pace declines among materials producers.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 49.02 points, or 0.3 percent, to 15,482.56 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge has fallen 1.1 percent since closing Sept. 3 at a record. It has advanced 14 percent this year, the second-best performer among the world’s developed markets behind Denmark.

     Data last weekend showed China’s industrial output rose at the slowest pace outside the Lunar New Year holiday period of January and February since the 2008 global financial crisis.

     First Quantum Minerals Ltd. retreated 4 percent to C$23.16 and Teck Resources Ltd. lost 1.5 percent to C$23.34 as copper for December delivery retreated in New York.

     Raw-materials stocks slumped 0.5 percent as a group, third- most in the S&P/TSX. Nine of 10 industries declined on trading volume in line with the 30-day average today.

US

By Lu Wang and Joseph Ciolli

     Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) — Beneath the U.S. stock market’s record-setting gains, trouble is stirring.

     About 47 percent of stocks in the Nasdaq Composite Index are down at least 20 percent from their peak in the last 12 months while more than 40 percent have fallen that much in the Russell 2000 Index and the Bloomberg IPO Index. That contrasts with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which has closed at new highs 33 times in 2014 and where less than 6 percent of companies are in bear markets, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

     The divergence shows the appetite for risk is narrowing as the Federal Reserve reins in economic stimulus after a five-year rally that added almost $16 trillion to equity values. It’s been three years since investors saw a 10 percent decline in the S&P 500 and they’re starting to avoid companies that will suffer the most when the market stumbles, said Skip Aylesworth, a portfolio manager for Hennessy Funds in Boston.

     “The small caps have had big runs and tend to get ahead of themselves,” Aylesworth said in a Sept. 10 phone interview. Hennessy Funds oversees about $5 billion. “It’s kind of like the tortoise and the hare, and they’re the hare. But then they get expensive, and when the market corrects, they get whacked.”

     The proportion of technology companies, small-caps and newly listed stocks stuck in their own personal bear markets has risen from 30 percent in March 2013, when the overall equity market surpassed its 2007 record. S&P 500 stocks with at least 20 percent losses have fallen since then, the data show.

     Risk tolerance is declining just before Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its shareholders plan to sell as much as $21.1 billion of shares in what will be the biggest ever U.S. initial public offering. The price implies a $163 billion valuation, making it the third-most valuable Internet company traded in the U.S., after Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.

     “How Alibaba performs will really give us an indication to the health of the market,” Malcolm Polley, who oversees $1.2 billion as president and chief investment officer at Stewart Capital Advisors LLC in Indiana, Pennsylvania, said by phone on Sept. 9. “Right now, bigger companies seem to do better. Large tech names tend to perform very well,” he said. “The bull market itself is getting rather long in the tooth. It needs to rest.”                       

     The S&P 500 ended a five-week winning streak on Sept. 12, capping a five-day decline of 1.1 percent on concern the Fed may raise interest rates sooner than anticipated. The index slipped 0.1 percent at 4 p.m. today, while the Russell 2000 lost 1.2 percent and the IPO index dropped 1.5 percent.

     While rallies in Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have lifted the Nasdaq Composite up about 8 percent this year, 47 percent of the measure’s stocks are in bear markets, data compiled by Bloomberg show. FireEye Inc., an online security company, sandwich seller Potbelly Corp. and World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. have tumbled more than 50 percent from their 52-week highs.

     “A lot of stocks have actually made significant declines,” David James, director of research at Alpha, Ohio- based James Investment Research Inc., which oversees more than $5 billion, said by phone on Sept. 9. “Most people see the record highs on the S&P 500 and that makes them feel like, ‘Oh, the market is doing just fine,’’ without recognizing that most stocks really are not participating to that degree.”                           

     Stocks with weak or no earnings and fewer shares to trade fare worse during market turmoil, said Brad Thompson, director of research at Frost Investment Advisors LLC in San Antonio, Texas. More than 20 percent of companies in the Nasdaq Composite and Russell 2000 will be unprofitable this quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg of companies with analysts’ forecasts. Only 15 companies in the S&P 500 reported a loss for the past year.

     “There is a sense of ‘Well, we’ve had a lot of liquidity, we’ve had low rates,” and “once the punch bowl is taken away, the market is going to fall,’” Thompson, who helps oversee $10 billion at Frost Investment, said in a phone interview on Sept.10. “I’m not in that camp, but that’s one narrative that’s been played out.”

     Low volatility across financial markets may signal investors are underestimating how quickly the central bank will raise interest rates, researchers at the San Francisco Fed said in a report last week. Bond-market indicators for long-term inflation, growth and funding costs are all lower now than they were at the end of the central bank’s first two rounds of quantitative easing.

     Fed officials in their June economic forecasts predicted their target interest rate will be 1.13 percent at the end of 2015 and 2.5 percent a year later. They are set to release updated projections Sept. 17.

     Dan Miller, director of equities at GW&K Investment Management in Boston, said he’s not worried about losses in some parts of the market because overall U.S. stocks are still one of the best investments. The weak performance in small caps in 2014 isn’t that bad after they surged almost 60 percent over the previous two years, he said.

     “With interest rates so low and our economy in good shape, that should continue to push the stock market higher,” Miller, who helps oversee more than $20 billion, said in a phone interview on Sept. 11.                       

     At the last market peak, losses across small-cap stocks, IPOs and technology companies were as widespread as they are today. About 45 percent of the shares were down at least 20 percent from a 52-week high in October 2007, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That compares with 18 percent for the S&P 500.

     In the current bull market, speculative stocks have still delivered better returns to investors. The Russell 2000 and Nasdaq Composite are up 250 percent on average since March 2009, compared with 193 percent for the S&P 500. The IPO index has posted a smaller gain at 157 percent.

     The stronger performance has led to higher valuations.  Excluding unprofitable companies, the small-cap gauge trades at 20.5 times earnings. That compared with a multiple of 17.9 for the S&P 500, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

     “The performance divergence is a valuation story,” Oliver Pursche, the Suffern, New York-based president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services, said by phone on Sept. 10. “As investors continue to be nervous about a correction, they’ll be more likely to sell off what they perceive to be riskier asset classes.”
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Propaganda can never tell the truth; truth can never be propagated.

 

Krishnamurti

 

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

To be prepared is half the victory.

        -Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616

 

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

All this discussion on Scotland, independence, makes me reminisce ….about high school English class:

Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal
Destroying them for wealth.

MACDUFF                             This avarice
Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root
Than summer-seeming lust; and it hath been
The sword of our slain kings; yet do not fear,
Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will
Of your mere own.  All these are portable,
With other graces weighed.

MALCOLM
But I have none.  The king-becoming graces,
As justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness,
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
I have no relish of them, but abound
In the division of each several crime,
Acting it many ways.  Nay, had I power, I should
Pour the sweet milk of concord into Hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.

MACDUFF             O Scotland, Scotland.

MALCOLM
If such a one be fit to govern, speak:
I am as I have spoken.

MACDUFF               Fit to govern?
No, not to live.   O nation miserable!
With an untitled tyrant, bloody-sceptered,
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again?
Since that the truest issue of thy throne
By his own interdiction stands accused,
And does blaspheme his breed?  Thy royal father
Was a most sainted king;  the queen that bore thee,
Oft’ner upon her knees than on her feet,
Died every day she lived.  Fare thee well,
These evils thou repeat’st upon thyself
Hath banished me from Scotland.  O my breast,
Thy hope ends here.

                              -Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

An employee at Harris Tweed Hebrides works in the factory on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The referendum on Scottish independence will take place on September 18, when Scotland will vote whether or not to end the 307-year-old union with the rest of the United Kingdom. Cathal McNaughton/Reuters

 

People wave ‘estelada’ flags, that symbolize Catalonia’s independence, during a demonstration calling for the independence of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. A week before Scotland votes on whether to break away from the United Kingdom, separatists in northeastern Spain were trying to convince hundreds of thousands to protest across Catalonia to demand a secession sentiment vote that the central government in Madrid insists would be illegal. Manu Fernandez/AP

Market Closes for September 12^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	16987.51	-61.49
		-0.36%
S&P 500	1985.47	-11.98   -0.60%
NASDAQ	4567.598	-24.208   -0.53%
TSX	15528.04	-6.28
		-0.04%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15948.29	+39.09
		+0.25%
HANG SENG	24595.32	-67.32
		-0.27%
SENSEX	27061.04	+65.17
		+0.24%
FTSE 100	6806.96	+7.34
		+0.11%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.240	2.196
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.759	2.717
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.6087	2.5487
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.3416	3.2756

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.90156	0.90607
US $	1.10918	1.10367
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.43787	0.69547
US $	1.29633	0.77141

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1229.94	1241.58
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.27	92.83

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks closed little changed, capping a second straight weekly loss, as gains in consumer and financial shares offset a drop in gold and oil producers.

     Maple Leaf Foods Inc. and Metro Inc. paced an advance in consumer-staples companies. Talisman Energy Inc. and Gibson Energy Inc. sank at least 1.8 percent as crude tumbled to the lowest in more than two years. Alamos Gold Inc. and Alacer Gold Corp. dropped more than 2.5 percent as the metal’s price slid to an eight-month low.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 2.74 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 15,531.58 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The benchmark equity gauge slipped 0.3 percent this week. It closed Sept. 3 at a record 15,657.63.

     The S&P/TSX has advanced 14 percent this year, the second- best performer among the world’s developed markets behind Denmark.

     Financial shares added 0.3 percent as a group. Home prices in Canada rose 5 percent in August from year-ago figures, according to the Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index.

     The nation’s ratio of household debt to disposable income rose to 163.6 percent of disposable income in the second quarter, approaching a record high from a revised 163.1 percent in the previous period. The measure reached a record 164.1 percent in the third quarter last year as mortgages have grown.

     OceanaGold Corp. jumped 3.1 percent to C$2.70. The company yesterday brought forward the start date for underground development of its Didipio gold and copper mine by one year to the first quarter of 2015 after an optimization study. The mine is located in the Philippines.

US

By Callie Bost and Namitha Jagadeesh

     Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its first weekly drop in more than a month, as investors speculated the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates sooner than estimated after retail sales climbed at the fastest pace in four months.

     Energy shares in the S&P 500 fell 1.5 percent, extending losses for the week to 3.7 percent. Caterpillar Inc. lost 0.5 percent for its sixth straight decline. Yahoo! Inc. rose 3.9 percent to an eight-year high as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. prepared for an initial public offering. Conversant Inc. surged 30 percent after Alliance Data Systems Corp. agreed to buy it.

     The S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent to 1,985.54 at 4 p.m. in New York, capping a 1.1 percent slide this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 61.49 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,987.51. The Russell 2000 Index dropped 1 percent. About 6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 7.7 percent above the three-month average.

     “Today’s retail sales and consumer confidence data fall into the argument of those who believe the Fed lift-off date may come sooner,” Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, which oversees $67 billion in assets, said by phone. “The worry is if the Fed has to lift rates sooner rather than later, there’s the question of when, but also what the trajectory of interest-rate increases will be and if it will undermine this sanguine picture of equities as the only game in town.”

     The 0.6 percent gain in retail sales matched the median forecast of 82 economists surveyed by Bloomberg and followed a 0.3 percent increase the prior month that was stronger than previously reported, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Eleven of 13 major categories showed advances, led by auto dealers and building material stores.

     The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment index rose to 84.6 in September from 82.5 the month before. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists projected an increase to 83.3.

     The Fed is assessing the strength of the economy as it winds down a bond-buying program and considers raising rates. The central bank, which meets Sept. 16-17, has said that its benchmark rate will stay low for a “considerable time” after it completes the monthly bond purchases.

     The S&P 500 decline this week on concern the Fed may raise interest rates sooner than forecast. The index closed at a record on Sept. 5, after rallying for five straight weeks, the longest winning streak this year. The gauge hasn’t posted a four-day string of losses in all of 2014, and the last time it fell more than 10 percent was three years ago.

     The benchmark gauge is trading at 16.6 times the projected earnings of its members, near the 16.8 multiple reached on Sept. 5 that was the highest valuation since the end of 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 options known as the VIX, increased 3.9 percent to 13.31. The volatility measure jumped 10 percent this week, its biggest gain since Aug. 1.

     All of the 10 main industries in the S&P 500 declined today. Energy shares tumbled 1.5 percent, extending a decline this week to 3.7 percent as crude prices have fallen on concern that global oil demand is slowing. Utility shares slid 1.8 percent as a group.

     Caterpillar slumped 0.5 percent to $105.02. Bank of America earlier this week lowered its rating on the shares to neutral from buy. The shares have lost 3.5 percent since Sept. 4.

     Yahoo rose 3.9 percent to $42.88, the highest level since January 2006. Alibaba received enough demand for its IPO that it plans to stop taking orders, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Yahoo is set to get an $8 billion windfall from the IPO. Alibaba plans to set a final price for the shares on Sept. 18, with trading to begin the next day.

     Conversant, which helps companies target users with Internet advertisements based on their previous online searches, soared 30 percent to $34.80, the highest since 2007. Alliance Data agreed to buy the company for $2.3 billion, or $35 a share, according to a statement.

     Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. jumped 18 percent to $114.89 after forecasting third-quarter revenue of as much as $736 million, exceeding the $718 million average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
 

 

Be magnificent!

The supreme consideration if man.

Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

The truth is always the strongest argument.

                   -Sophocles, 496-405(6?) BC

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM, 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 the 13-year anniversary of 9/11, here’s a look at WSJ’s front page the day after the terrorist attacks. The Journal’s offices were across from the towers at the time, and this paper and subsequent ones were produced at backup facilities in New Jersey.

Sukhdev Sandhu writes about the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001:

At first I’m sure it’s going to be a great day.  Sun out.  Bright blue skies.  The end of summer.  Even the sirens and engines that have been wailing outside my apartment window for the last hour don’t seem that unusual.  Just, I assume, part of the hysteric clangour taken for granted by those who live in Manhattan.  Only when I step out onto First Avenue to head downtown do things begin to seem strange.  Hundreds of people are heading in my direction.  Some are running.  Mums are clutching young kids and looking over their shoulders fearfully.  No cars or cabs, but police are everywhere.  In the distance I see a huge black blob disfiguring the sky.  Maybe a thunderstorm’s brewing?  I step in front of a fleeing office worker:  “Excuse me, but has something happened?”  His answer comes out barely comprehensible comic-book babble:  “The World Trade Center has been hit – it was a plane – enemies – terrorists – hijacker – the Pentagon too – the White House – Pittsburgh.”

By the time I reached my department at NYU everyone is ripped with panic…We yell out the names of people we knew who work at the Twin Towers and rummage around in drawers and diaries looking for their cellphone numbers, which we dial frantically, and often in vain.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A woman grieves at her husband’s memorial at South Tower Memorial Pool during memorial observances on the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Family and friends of those who died read the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in New York, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times/AP

An artwork titled ‘Scattered Light,’ created by American artist Jim Campbell, is lit at an exhibition in Hong Kong’s Central district. The installation that has a structure with 2,000 light bulbs was presented by Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Vincent Yu/AP

Market Closes for September 11^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17049.00	-19.71
		-0.12%
S&P 500	1997.45	+1.76   +0.09%
NASDAQ	4591.805	+5.282   +0.12%
TSX	15534.32	+62.43
		+0.40%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15909.20	+120.42
		+0.76%
HANG SENG	24662.64	-42.72
		-0.17%
SENSEX	26995.87	-61.54
		-0.23%
FTSE 100	6799.62	-30.49
		-0.45%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.196	2.201
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.717	2.726
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.5487	2.5378
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.2756	3.2663

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.90607	0.91347
US $	1.10367	1.09473
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.42630	0.70111
US $	1.29233	0.77380

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1241.58	1249.99
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	92.83	91.67

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, with the benchmark index climbing from a three-week low, as bank shares gained and BlackBerry Ltd. rallied.

     BlackBerry jumped 6.1 percent after acquiring a mobile technology company to shore up its smartphone management features as it targets business users. Royal Bank of Canada climbed 0.8 percent. Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. lost 1.7 percent as two gas plants will go offline, affecting production for September. Athabasca Oil Corp. and Kelt Exploration Ltd. dropped at least 2 percent.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 62.43 points, or 0.4 percent, to 15,534.32 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. It closed Sept. 3 at a record 15,657.63. The S&P/TSX has advanced 14 percent this year, the second-best performer among the world’s developed markets behind Denmark.

     Royal Bank, the nation’s second-largest lender, rose 0.8 percent to C$81.86 and Bank of Nova Scotia increased 0.6 percent to C$72.76.

     BlackBerry advanced 6.1 percent to C$11.91, the most since June, after acquiring London-based Movirtu Ltd., which has developed a technology that allows users to connect more than one phone number to a single device.

     Athabasca Oil declined 2 percent to C$6.71 and  Kelt Exploration lost 2.9 percent to C$12.75. Brent for October settlement rose 4 cents to $98.08 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange after earlier sliding as far as $96.72, the lowest since July 2, 2012.

US

By Callie Bost and Lu Wang

     Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index erased losses, sending the gauge higher for a second day, as a rebound in oil offset concerns over escalating geopolitical tension and the timing of possible interest-rate increases.

     Energy shares in the S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent, erasing an earlier loss of 1.2 percent as crude prices recovered from an eight-month low. Celgene Corp. slipped 2.3 percent to pace declines in health-care stocks. MasterCard Inc. dropped 1.3 percent after losing a court challenge to a European Union antitrust curb on card-payment fees. Lululemon Athletica Inc. soared 14 percent after raising its full-year forecast as quarterly profit exceeded estimates.

     The S&P 500 added 0.1 percent to 1,997.45 at 4 p.m. in New York, after an earlier decline of as much as 0.5 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 19.71 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,049. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.1 percent. About 5.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 1.8 percent below the three-month average.

     “We’re just stuck in a tight range because the market has been so strong this year and every now and then the market needs a little time to cool off,” Dan Miller, director of equities at GW&K Investment Management in Boston, said by phone. The firm oversees more than $20 billion. “Geopolitical events of course always make the market nervous.”

     The S&P 500 halted a two-day slide yesterday as a rally in Apple Inc. boosted technology shares. The gauge fell 0.7 percent on Sept. 9, its first move in either direction of more than 0.5 percent in 15 days, the longest streak since 1995. It closed at a record on Sept. 5.

     The S&P 500 is down 0.5 percent this week as investors focus on the timing of an interest-rate increase from the Federal Reserve. The Fed is gauging the strength of the economy as it winds down a bond-buying program and considers raising rates. Policy officials next meet Sept. 16-17.

     A report today showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to a two-month high, interrupting a steady decrease to the lowest level since before the last recession. The week included the Labor Day holiday, and the data are difficult to adjust during such periods, a Labor Department spokesman said.

     Equities slid earlier as European Union officials said new sanctions against Russia will come into force tomorrow because of the country’s continued support of separatists in Ukraine. Ending days of wrangling, EU countries agreed to implement plans to bar some Russian state-owned defense and energy companies from raising capital in the bloc. President Barack Obama said the U.S. is joining the EU in slapping more sanctions on Russia.

     Obama yesterday pledged a “relentless” campaign to destroy Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria, with Middle Eastern allies such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan playing crucial supporting roles.                          

     Data overseas showed China’s consumer inflation eased to a four-month low in August while factory-gate prices extended their decline to 30 months, adding to signs of weakness in domestic demand.

     “It’s between earnings seasons so the focus is on macro events and geopolitical risks because that’s all people have to talk about,” John Carey, a Boston-based fund manager at Pioneer Investment Management Inc., which oversees about $230 billion, said in a phone interview. “People continue to look ahead to possibility of higher interest rates next year and next year is getting closer.”

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, a gauge of S&P 500 derivatives prices, fell 0.6 percent to 12.8 for a second day of losses.

     Seven of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 advanced. Energy companies rose 0.1 percent, wiping out declines as West Texas Intermediate crude rebounded from an eight-month low and Brent oil erased losses.

     Brent crude tumbled to its lowest intraday level in more than two years earlier in the day as the International Energy Agency cut global oil demand forecasts for this year and next. Oil markets in the U.S. and Europe face a glut amid constrained consumption and the recovery of supplies from Libya.

     Energy shares have dropped 3.8 percent in September, poised for the worst monthly loss since January.

     Health-care stocks slipped 0.3 percent for the biggest decline in the S&P 500 today. Celgene slid 2.3 percent to $91.96 and Gilead Sciences Inc. decreased 1.7 percent to $106.39. Biogen Idec Inc. decreased 1.5 percent to $327.11.

     MasterCard lost 1.3 percent to $75.62. The EU’s Court of Justice ruled that the fees set by MasterCard had unfairly restricted competition and that it failed to show benefits to justify its system. Visa Inc. dropped 0.9 percent to $214.95.

     Financial shares gained 0.3 percent as Bank of America Corp. jumped 1.3 percent to $16.57.

     Lululemon soared 14 percent to $43.73. The yogawear maker that ended a dispute with its founder last month reported second-quarter profit that exceeded analyst estimates and increased its earnings forecast for the year by a penny to $1.72 to $1.77 a share. Revenue rose 13 percent to $390.7 million in the second quarter from a year earlier.

     JDS Uniphase Corp. jumped 10 percent to $13.36 on plans to split into two separate publicly traded entities. One company will focus on optical components and commercial lasers, while the other will sell networking equipment, JDS Uniphase disclosed in a filing yesterday.

     International Paper Co. rose 4.2 percent to $50.36 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. The packaging company said at a conference today that it is working with advisers and has progressed to a more “serious valuation” phase on a master limited partnership structure.

     RadioShack Corp. rallied 9.6 percent to $1.02. The struggling electronics retailer said it’s working with creditors and other parties to get more capital and avoid bankruptcy after posting another quarter of mounting losses and plunging sales.

     RadioShack shares tumbled 42 percent from Aug. 29 through yesterday.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

Every man has an equal right

to the necessities of life,

even as birds and beasts have.

 

Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,
 

Carolann

 

If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.

                                                  -Pearl S. Buck, 1892-1973

 

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM, 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 date in 2000, the Broadway musical “Cats” closed after 7,485 performances. The show, which ran for almost 18 years, ranks as the second longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Web Excursions:

Chowhound.com is  a community discussion sit.  Post a question and get immediate advice and insider tips on places to eat from local foodies – great if you’re planning a trip.

Movie-locations.com features a world map of movie set locations.  Navigate the site using movie titles or a favorite actor or director.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Horse whisperer Martin Tata lies with his five-year-old horse ‘Primavera’ as he performs a demonstration of ‘Indian taming’ at the Polo Club Puesto Viejo ranch in Canuelas, northeast of Buenos Aires. Tata says the techniques that he uses to tame unbroken horses avoids unnecessary violence and helps build a more harmonious relationship between humans and the horses. Enrique Marcarian/Reuters

British history enthusiasts portraying ‘Feldwebelleutnant’ officer Fritz Brandt (front) of the Sturmabteilungbrandt group, holding a dog in his arms, and German Gefreiter Gunter Meyer (back) attend the re-enactment of the First Battle of the Marne, which took place a century ago, at Chauconin-Neufmontiers, Eastern Paris. Dozens of volunteers dressed in French and German military uniforms recreated the battle from two trenches dug out by local residents to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War (WWI). Charles Platiau/Reuters

Market Closes for September 10^th, 2014    

Market Index	Close	Change
Dow Jones	17068.71	+54.84
		+0.32%
S&P 500	1995.79	+7.35   +0.37%
NASDAQ	4586.523	+34.238   +0.75%
TSX	15471.67	-65.14
		-0.42%

International Markets

Market Index	Close	Change
NIKKEI	15788.78	+39.63
		+0.25%
HANG SENG	24705.36	-485.09
		-1.93%
SENSEX	27057.41	-207.91
		-0.76%
FTSE 100	6830.11	+1.11
		+0.02%

Bonds

Bonds	% Yield	Previous % Yield
CND. 10 Year Bond	2.201	2.172
CND. 30 Year Bond	2.726	2.702
U.S.    10 Year Bond	2.5378	2.4964
U.S. 30 Year Bond	3.2663	3.2288

Currencies

BOC Close	Today	Previous
Canadian $	0.91347	0.91078
US $	1.09473	1.09796
Euro Rate 1 Euro=		Inverse
Canadian $	1.41461	0.70691
US $	1.29220	0.77387

Commodities

Gold	Close	Previous
London Gold Fix	1249.99	1256.21
Oil	Close	Previous
WTI Crude Future	91.67	92.75

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell to the lowest level in three weeks as energy shares followed losses in oil.

     Bankers Petroleum Ltd. and Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. declined more than 2.2 percent as crude in New York dropped to the lowest in eight months. AuRico Gold Inc dropped 5.6 percent for the biggest loss in the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index.

     The S&P/TSX fell 64.92 points, or 0.4 percent, to 15,471.89 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge has dropped in four of the past five days and fallen 1.2 percent since a record on Sept. 3. Trading volume was 5.7 percent below the 30-day average at this time of day.

     Bankers Petroleum sank 2.2 percent to C$5.69 and Legacy Oil & Gas slumped 3.2 percent to C$6.92 to pace declines among energy producers. Brent traded below $100 a barrel for a third day and West Texas Intermediate fell 1.2 percent in New York to settle at $91.67 a barrel.

     OPEC cut forecasts for the amount of crude it will need to pump by the most in three years as surging U.S. output reduces reliance on the group’s barrels. Crude prices are poised to drop next year as American production climbs to a 45-year high, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday.

     AuRico Gold declined 5.6 percent to C$4.20 and Torex Gold Resources Inc. tumbled 4.8 percent to C$1.58 as gold futures for December delivery fell to a three-month low.

USA

By Callie Bost and Jeremy Herron

     Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, following a two- day slide, as Apple Inc. rallied to boost technology shares. Treasuries declined with emerging-market equities, while the dollar gained on speculation interest rates may rise sooner than anticipated.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 0.4 percent at 4 p.m. in New York. Apple jumped 3.1 percent, the most since April, to lead the Nasdaq 100 Index higher. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index sank the most since March. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose three basis points to 2.53 percent, the highest since July. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2 percent and commodities retreated as Brent crude slid to a 17- month low.

     Apple rallied a day after introducing new products including a smartphone, watch and online payments processor. BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest money manager, is among investors speculating that an improving labor market and signs of inflation may justify sooner-than-forecast rate increases by the Federal Reserve. Data this week may show that claims for unemployment benefits fell, retail sales improved, and consumer confidence rose, strengthening the case for higher rates next year.

     “Everybody has been watching Apple,” Matt Maley, the Newton, Massachusetts-based equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. LLC, said via phone. “It’s an Apple-dominated market, especially in a week where we don’t have a lot of macro data coming out.”

     The S&P 500 advanced after closing yesterday at its lowest level since Aug. 22 following a two-day decline of 1 percent. The gauge has rallied 8 percent this year.                       

     The Nasdaq 100 Index jumped 0.8 percent, bolstered by Apple and Garmin Ltd., which rallied 4 percent to rebound from a selloff yesterday. Health-care stocks gained 0.7 percent as a group.

     EBay Inc. sank 3.1 percent after Apple introduced a mobile- payment service that may hurt EBay’s PayPal business.

     Energy producers lost 0.3 percent for the second-biggest slide of the 10 main S&P 500 groups, as Brent traded below $100 a barrel for a third day. West Texas Intermediate crude fell to a 16-month low.

     OPEC reduced forecasts for the amount of crude it will need to supply by the most in at least three years as surging North American shale output reduces reliance on the group’s supplies. Crude prices are poised to drop next year as American production climbs to a 45-year high, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday.

     Ten-year Treasuries declined for a fifth-straight day, the longest streak since June, as yields climbed to a one-month high. Spain’s 10-year yield increased seven basis points to 2.27 percent, while Italy’s increased four basis points to 2.40 percent.

     Traders are bringing forward bets for when the Fed will begin raising interest rates. They see a 79 percent chance of an increase to at least 0.5 percent by September 2015, federal fund futures data showed yesterday. That compares with a 73 percent probability seen on Aug. 29. Policy makers have kept their target for overnight lending between banks in a range of zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008.

     BlackRock’s Chief Investment Officer Rick Rieder said interest rates are likely to drift higher as research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Sept. 8 indicated investors may be underestimating how quickly U.S. policy makers may tighten policy. Rieder said last month in a Twitter post that the Fed may increase rates early in 2015. Fed officials next meet Sept. 16-17.

     “The bond market had a strong rally in August and it seems to be catching up with reality a bit,” said Luca Jellinek, head of European rates strategy at Credit Agricole SA’s investment banking unit in London.

     The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of 10 leading currencies, rose to its strongest level since July 2013. The greenback gained 0.6 percent to 106.79 yen, the highest since September 2008. It was little changed at $1.2912 per euro after reaching $1.2860 yesterday, the strongest since July 2013.

     “The U.S. dollar has had a really nice rally against everything else,” said Chris Weston, chief market strategist in Melbourne at IG Australia, a unit of IG Group. “The euro and the pound are so oversold that now people are looking to a positive U.S. dollar bias against the Aussie.”                       

     The MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell for a fifth day, capping its longest slide since June, as China’s money supply growth unexpectedly eased and economic gains in Turkey missed estimates.

     The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.4 percent and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong sank 2.6 percent, the most in seven months. The city’s markets were shut yesterday for a holiday.

     Apple’s Asian suppliers retreated after the company introduced new products yesterday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. slid 1.6 percent, Taipei-based Foxconn Technology Co. fell 1.2 percent and China’s AAC Technologies Holdings Inc. dropped 2.3 percent in Hong Kong.

     The Borsa Istanbul National Index dropped 0.7 percent and the lira fell for a third day. Russia’s ruble declined 0.5 percent, weakening for a third day, while the Micex equity index was little changed.

     Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Russia has withdrawn more than two-thirds of its troops from his country as European Union governments met to consider imposing tougher sanctions on Moscow.

     The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.1 percent, paring an earlier drop of 0.6 percent. The gauge has lost 1.2 percent since reaching a two-month high on Sept. 4, when the region’s central bank unexpectedly cut interest rates and announced a plan to buy securitized debt.

     Banco Santander SA slid 0.7 percent after Spain’s biggest bank said Chairman Emilio Botin died of a heart attack at the age of 79. The board will meet today to name a successor.

     Kingfisher Plc rose 4.3 percent after Europe’s largest home-improvement retailer said Ian Cheshire will step down as chief executive officer and hand leadership of the company to the head of the French Castorama unit, Veronique Laury.

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

 

Be magnificent!

I must confess that I do not draw a sharp line

or any distinction between economics and ethics.

 

Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

 

Carolann

 

Imagination is a poor substitute for experience.

                           -Havelock Ellis, 1859-1939

 

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

 

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7