Category: Uncategorized

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

And on this day in,

1919 – Liberace, pianist, was born

1929 – The first Academy Awards are held in Hollywood

1920 – Joan of Arc is canonized in Rome
1868 – President Andrew Johnson is acquitted of high crimes and misdemeanors impeachment, by one vote
1770 – King Louis XVI marries Marie Antoinette

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, & the world around us. -Socrates

Market Closes for May 16, 2012:

North American Markets

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 16 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell a fourth straight day as concern the Greek financial crisis is intensifying drove energy and financial shares lower, overshadowing optimism the U.S. Federal Reserve may be more inclined to boost stimulus measures.

Manulife Financial Corp. and Crescent Point Energy Corp. slumped more than 2.4 percent, helping lead declines in the S&P/TSX. Alacer Gold Corp. retreated 11 percent after sinking 9.1 percent in Australia. Oil-sands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. fell 1 percent. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. advanced at least 3.2 percent.

The S&P/TSX Composite fell 34.35 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,308.70 at 2:19 p.m. Toronto time. The index had risen as much as 1.2 percent earlier. It briefly erased losses after minutes from their last meeting showed several Fed policy makers said a loss of momentum in growth or increased risks to their economic outlook could warrant additional action.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi acknowledged that Greece could leave the euro area and signaled policy makers won’t compromise on their key principles to prevent an exit. Greeks will vote again on June 17 after talks on forming a government failed, Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis said.

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

US

By Rita Nazareth

May 16 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped a fourth day, the longest decline in a month, as concern Greece’s debt crisis is worsening offset better-than-estimated reports on U.S. housing starts and industrial production.

Financial stocks fell the most in the S&P 500 among 10 groups as Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. sank at least 2.1 percent. Alcoa Inc. slid 2.5 percent as commodities retreated after the Dollar Index rose for a record 13th straight day. J.C. Penney Co. tumbled 20 percent, the biggest drop ever, on disappointing results. General Motors Co. rose 2.3 percent as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed a stake in the automaker.

The S&P 500 retreated 0.4 percent to 1,324.80 at 4 p.m. New York time, reversing an earlier advance of as much as 0.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 33.45 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,598.55, the lowest level since Jan. 18. About 7.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 15 percent above the three-month average.

“The situation in Europe is extremely precarious,” said Barry Knapp, the New York-based head of U.S. equity strategy at Barclays Plc. “More needs to be done. You can’t have a lot of confidence that assets will stabilize.”

Concern about Europe’s crisis drove the S&P 500 down 2.4 percent in four days and trimmed this year’s gain in the gauge to 5.3 percent. The European Central Bank said it will temporarily stop lending to some Greek banks to limit its risk as President Mario Draghi signaled the ECB won’t compromise on key principles to keep Greece in the euro area.

Equities rose earlier today as economic data bolstered optimism the U.S. could withstand fallout from Europe. Several Federal Reserve policy makers said a loss of momentum in growth or increased risks to their economic outlook could warrant additional action to keep the recovery going, minutes of their last meeting showed.

“Several Fed members are now saying more action may be needed, but they are not taking action,” said Peter Jankovskis, who helps manage about $2.9 billion at Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois. “Certainly the situation in Greece is troublesome. It’s getting to a point where it gets harder and harder to envision Greece staying within the euro.”

Eight out of 10 groups in the S&P 500 retreated today as financial and raw material indexes lost at least 1.1 percent. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy fell 1 percent. Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, sank 2.5 percent to $8.49. Bank of America decreased 2.6 percent to $7.11. JPMorgan slid 2.2 percent to $35.46.

JPMorgan’s shareholders sued the bank and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon in two separate cases over the company’s $2 billion trading loss. The bank continues to employ Bruno Iksil, the trader known as the London Whale whose positions may have distorted prices in some derivatives markets. Brian Marchiony, a spokesman for the New York-based firm, confirmed Iksil’s status. The New York Times reported earlier that Iksil is leaving JPMorgan by the end of this year.

J.C. Penney slumped 20 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $26.75. The department-store chain led by Apple Inc.’s former retailing chief reported a first-quarter loss and sales that fell more than analysts projected.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. dropped 13 percent to $39.50, the lowest level since October 2010. The operator of namesake and Hollister stores reported first-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates and said same-store sales will decline this fiscal year amid weakness in Europe.

Staples Inc. decreased 5.7 percent to $13.91. The largest office-supply retailer reported first-quarter sales of $6.1 billion, missing the average analyst estimate of $6.19 billion.

Some car companies and auto-parts suppliers gained as Warren Buffett’s firm said it had 10 million shares of GM on March 31 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the industry has “significant” potential to gain from volume and margin growth. GM rose 2.3 percent to $21.91. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the biggest U.S. tiremaker, added 4.9 percent to $10.69.

General Electric Co. climbed 3.3 percent to $19. Its finance unit will resume payouts to the parent company that were suspended in 2009 during a freeze in credit markets. Restarting the dividend is a milestone in GE Capital’s recovery from the financial crisis, when the unit suffered $32 billion of credit losses and received capital infusions from the parent.

Legg Mason Inc. jumped 7.5 percent, the biggest gain in the S&P 500, to $24.05. The money manager with 18 straight quarters of net redemptions plans to issue debt to help repurchase $1.25 billion of bonds from private-equity firm KKR & Co.

Facebook Inc. investors such as Accel Partners and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased the number of shares they’re selling in the social network’s initial public offering, boosting the sale to as much as $16 billion.

Existing holders will offer 241.2 million shares, bringing the total on offer to 421.2 million, a regulatory filing today shows. Accel, the biggest seller in the IPO, raised the amount it’s selling by 28 percent, while Goldman Sachs more than doubled its shares on offer.

Facebook, girding for the largest-ever IPO of a technology company, yesterday boosted the offering’s price range to as much as $38 a share, indicating a market value as high as $104 billion. While the expanded IPO may mean the appetite for shares is strong, insiders’ decision to pare holdings further may heighten some investors’ concern over Facebook’s earnings growth, said Greenwood Capital’s Walter Todd.

“If the demand wasn’t there, they wouldn’t have upsized the deal,” said Todd, who oversees about $940 million as chief investment officer at the Greenwood, South Carolina-based firm. “On the other hand, when you see insiders unloading their stakes, you start to wonder why. I could see it turning some institutional investors off.”

Investors will be able to avoid losses in the broader equity market this year by buying stocks with larger-than- average dividends, said David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

“The scarcest commodity in the world is yield,” the New York-based strategist said in a radio interview today on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt. “You have negligible returns” in most asset classes. “Where are you getting any income? You are going to get it in the form of dividends.”

Kostin has a year-end projection for the equities gauge of 1,250, according to a weekly survey by Bloomberg News. The S&P 500 has a dividend yield of 2.13 percent, according to Bloomberg data. Ten-year Treasuries yield 1.76 percent.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

When you believe that the truth is living, moving, that it does not have one home or rest in any temple,

mosque, or church, in any religion, master or philosopher – in short, that nothing can lead you to it-

you will see also that you are this living thing in every respect;

it is your anger, your brutality, your violence, your despair,

It is the agony and the pain that you live through.  The truth is in the comprehension of all of this;

you cannot comprehend it unless you are determined to see it in your life.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

Acquire inner peace and a multitude will find

their salvation near you.

-Catherine de Hueck Doherty, 1896-1985

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I went to the Canada Economic Summit in Toronto last week, which featured a full marathon of interesting leaders from business and government.  One of the business leaders who spoke was William A. Ackman, who has been in the media a lot lately as he gears up for a showdown with the board and management of Canadian Pacific Railway.  The vote is set for May 17^th, so it will be interesting to see if his persistence wins over shareholders.  He said there still exists a clubbiness  on Bay Street that is long since passé on Wall Street – enhancing shareholder value is the name of the game south of the boarder.  One of the most impressive speakers, who gave a cogent view of the current geopolitical situation and opined intelligently on the future was former Prime Minister Paul Martin.  Melanie L. Aitkin, Commissioner of Competition, Competition Bureau of Canada, gave a  presentation that was also very interesting.

I made it to New York for the weekend – it’s only an hour away and one of my friends who lives in Toronto accompanied me.  We got our quota of art and theater for awhile, During the day, we went to the High Line, the Frick and the Met.  There is a fantastic exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Steins Collect.   It is on until June 30^th, so if you are going there, it is really worthwhile to visit.

About the exhibition, from the Met website:

“Gertrude Stein, her brothers Leo and Michael, and Michael’s wife Sarah were important patrons of modern art in Paris during the first decades of the twentieth century. This exhibition unites some two hundred works of art to demonstrate the significant impact the Steins’ patronage had on the artists of their day and the way in which the family disseminated a new standard of taste for modern art. The Steins’ Saturday evening salons introduced a generation of visitors to recent developments in art, particularly the work of their close friends Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, long before it was on view in museums.

Beginning with the art that Leo Stein collected when he arrived in Paris in 1903—including paintings and prints by Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Manet, and Auguste Renoir—the exhibition traces the evolution of the Steins’ taste and examines the close relationships formed between individual members of the family and their artist friends. While focusing on works by Matisse and Picasso, the exhibition also includes paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Juan Gris, Marie Laurencin, Jacques Lipchitz, Henri Manguin, André Masson, Elie Nadelman, Francis Picabia, and others.”

At night, we were able to take in a couple of shows.  One was the new musical, Once, which is probably the best I’ve ever seen.  It is worth the trip just to see it.  On our last night, we saw Death of a Salesman, and it is something I don’t think anyone in the audience will ever forget.  Philip Seymour Hoffman is the best Willy Loman ever and Andrew Garfield plays Biff Loman’s character so convincingly, you are transported to the reality Arthur Miller envisioned.

And on this day in,

1897 – Guglielmo Marconi sends first communication by wireless telegraph.
1973 – The U.S. Space Station Skylab is launched
1940 – Holland Surrenders to Germany
1948 – Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion establishes the State of Israel
1961 – A bus carrying black and white civil rights activists is bombed and burned in Alabama

photos of the day

May 14, 2012

A worker sets up a giant 65th Cannes Film Festival official poster showing Marilyn Monroe on the Cannes Festival Palace in France. The Festival will start on Wednesday.

Lionel Cironneau/AP

Madame Tussauds employee Lisa Burton poses with a paintbrush on a new figure of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, produced in honor of her Diamond Jubilee in London.

Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

Market Closes for May 14, 2012:

North American Markets

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market  Commentary:

Canada

By Joseph Ciolli

May 14 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for the eighth time in nine days after oil producers and banks declined as Greece struggled to form a government amid growing speculation the nation may leave the euro region.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, decreased 2.6 percent. Bankers Petroleum Ltd. plunged 34 percent after earnings missed analysts’ projections. Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s biggest lender, slipped 1.4 percent.

Goldcorp Inc., the second-largest producer of the metal, slipped 3.7 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 206.14 points, or 1.8 percent, to 11,488.53, extending its retreat since May 1 to 6.9 percent.

“The Canadian market is so resource-driven that any time you have global growth uncertainty it seems to knock down commodity prices,” Jennifer Radman, a money manager at Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$1 billion ($1 billion).

“Any news that shakes up peoples’ beliefs at the current moment can have a pretty big impact on our market.”

The benchmark gauge on May 11 completed a second straight weekly decline as concerns mounted that the Greek debt crisis and a weakening Chinese economy may curb demand for commodities.

Energy and mining shares account for 43 percent of Canadian stocks by market value.

Energy companies declined as oil fell to its lowest price in almost five months after Greece failed to agree on a unity government and European officials considered its possible exit from the euro. Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said that crude prices should decline further.

Suncor Energy decreased 2.6 percent to C$27.99. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. dropped 2.4 percent to C$30.25. Oil-sands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. sank 2.6 percent to C$32.10.

Bankers Petroleum slumped 34 percent to C$2.29.

Banks in the S&P/TSX fell to the lowest on a closing basis since January on concern over Greece.

Sumit Malhotra, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., cut his 2012 and 2013 earnings per share estimates for Canadian banks by 1 percent today before second-quarter earnings reports are scheduled to start on May 23. He cited “macro headwinds” and slowing consumer loan growth.

Royal Bank of Canada slipped 1.4 percent to C$53.22.

Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender, decreased 0.7 percent to C$79.93. Bank of Nova Scotia, the country’s third-largest lender, fell 1 percent to C$52.50.

Materials shares dropped as gold erased its gains for the year as concern that Europe’s debt crisis is deepening strengthened the dollar and cut the metal’s appeal as an alternative asset.

Goldcorp slipped 3.7 percent to C$33.62. Eldorado Gold Corp., a Vancouver-based mining company, sank 4.9 percent to C$10.93.

Potash producers declined as soybeans fell to the lowest in more than six weeks on speculation that Europe’s worsening debt crisis and slowing Chinese economy will curb demand for food, feed and fuel made from the oilseed.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the biggest fertilizer company, dropped 1.8 percent to C$40.28. Agrium Inc., a fertilizer producer and farm retailer, decreased 3 percent to C$81.05.

US

By Rita Nazareth

May 14 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the lowest level since January, as Greece struggled to form a new government amid growing speculation the nation may leave the European currency.

Financial and energy shares fell the most among 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. sank at least 2.6 percent as European lenders slumped. Alcoa Inc. and Schlumberger Ltd. slid more than

1.5 percent to pace declines in commodity producers. Symantec Corp., the biggest seller of security software, retreated 1.4 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its recommendation.

The S&P 500 slid 1.1 percent to 1,338.35 at 4 p.m. New York time, the lowest since Feb. 2. The Dow fell 125.25 points, or 1 percent, to 12,695.35. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against S&P 500 losses, rose 10 percent to an almost four-month high of 21.87. About 6.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, in line with the three-month average.

“The fear factor is definitely higher,” said Madelynn Matlock, who helps oversee about $14.7 billion at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati. “The whole European political situation is really the focus at this point. Nobody really knows what’s going to happen next and the market hates uncertainty.”

Global stocks fell as Greece’s political deadlock went into a second week after President Karolos Papoulias failed to secure agreement on a unity government. Alexis Tsipras, leader of Greece’s Syriza party, said Europe must reexamine its policy of austerity and that his party wants Greece to stay in the euro.

Concern about Europe’s crisis grew as the cost of insuring against a Spanish default jumped to an all-time high. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party was defeated in Germany’s most populous state in an election that helped the Social Democrats tighten their grip on the country’s regional governments. The result may embolden the Social Democrats as they align with French President-elect Francois Hollande in an anti-austerity front.

“We certainly have a lot to worry about,” said John Manley, chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds in New York. His firm oversees $207 billion. “The odds of Greece leaving the euro are higher. It’s an enormous game of chicken that they are playing with each other. To the degree it does represent the democratic process in Greece, it makes it more likely they default and the Europeans have to do something.”

American banks slumped as a measure of European lenders tumbled 2.8 percent. JPMorgan, which plunged 9.3 percent on May 11, lost 3.2 percent to $35.79. Bank of America fell 2.7 percent to $7.35. Citigroup Inc. retreated 4.1 percent to $28.14.

Fitch Ratings lowered JPMorgan’s credit grade by one level to A+ from AA- on May 11, saying the $2 billion loss “raises questions regarding JPM’s risk appetite, risk management framework, practices and oversight.”

Residential Capital LLC, the unprofitable mortgage company whose parent Ally Financial Inc. is trying to repay a U.S.

government bailout, filed for bankruptcy.     Energy and raw material producers sank as the S&P GSCI gauge of 24 commodities dropped 1.1 percent. Schlumberger lost 2.3 percent. Alcoa fell 1.6 percent to $8.92.

Symantec slid 1.4 percent to $15.24. Goldman Sachs cut its rating to sell from neutral, citing worsening margins and cash flows. The share-price estimate was lowered to $14 from $16.

Best Buy Co. rose 1.5 percent to $19.56. Founder Richard Schulze will step down as chairman after a probe found he failed to tell the board about allegations that then-Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn was having an inappropriate relationship with a female employee.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. surged 4.8 percent to $15.52. The company reached a $3 billion loan agreement with a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and affiliates of Jefferies Group Inc.

to help ease a cash shortfall that threatens to curtail its development of oil and natural-gas wells.

Avon Products Inc. rallied 3.8 percent to $20.96 as the company said it will respond within a week to Coty Inc., the perfume-maker that last week boosted its takeover offer for Avon to $10.7 billion.

Yahoo! Inc. rose 2 percent to $15.50. Chief Executive Officer Scott Thompson is stepping down after failing to correct errors in his credentials and the company is revamping its board, handing a victory to activist investor Daniel Loeb, who had pushed for the overhaul.

Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo’s head of global media, was named interim CEO, and director Fred Amoroso will become chairman.

Facebook Inc. plans to stop taking orders for its initial public offering tomorrow, two days ahead of schedule, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.

Facebook will likely finish taking orders for the IPO after U.S. markets close May 15, said the person, who declined to be identified as the plans are private. The offer of 337.4 million shares at $28 to $35 each has been oversubscribed, people with knowledge of the matter said. Jonathan Thaw, a spokesman for Facebook, declined to comment.

“They’re swamped with the orders that are in,” said Jon Merriman, chief executive officer at investment firm Merriman Holdings Inc. in San Francisco. “They just need time to determine the price. They can send the message — the books are closing, send in your orders now.”

As individuals bail out of U.S. stocks at the fastest rate in three decades, professional speculators have cut bearish bets by the most since 2008.

Money managers are net short 19,375 contracts on the S&P 500, down 82 percent from a four-year high in September even after the figure jumped from 3,584 last week, data compiled by Bloomberg and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show.

U.S. equity mutual funds recorded $18 billion of outflows in April, the most since at least 1984, according to preliminary data from the Investment Company Institute.

Hedge funds and other institutions are speculating the index will extend its 23 percent rally since October after 69 percent of S&P 500 companies beat first-quarter earnings estimates and economists projected accelerating U.S. growth this year. Bears say last week’s addition to bets on declines show short sellers have completed almost all of the buying they are likely to do, depleting demand for equities.

“For the professional side, stocks look pretty compelling,” David Goerz, chief investment officer at Highmark Capital Management Inc., said in a telephone interview from San Francisco on May 9. His firm oversees about $17 billion.

“Underlying economic strength is much more resilient than anybody expected it to be this year.”

Have  a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living.

-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.

-Thomas Jones, 1892-1969

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Hello All,

Tangents:

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you are all enjoying some good weather like we are here in Victoria. And what better way to enjoy the sun then with a good book. If you find yourself in Victoria this weekend and in need of said good book, look no further then the Times Colonist Book Sale. Located in the Victoria Curling Club, hundreds of thousands of books will be on sale this weekend.

The Book Sale is also a big draw for collectors, with some dealers lining up at 3:30 am to get to the rare books first. This year one of the big ticket items that many collectors are sure to be after is William Henry Bartlett’s Canadian Scenery, which dates back to 1842. The two-volume tome is selling for $200. Last year a 200-year-old Bible was donated and went for almost $800.

You can read more here: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Head+cage+turn+page+history+treasured+tomes/6605093/story.html

To all those not in Victoria, here’s hoping you get some nice weather too! Have a great weekend and a happy Mother’s Day!

photos of the day May 11, 2012

Traditional straw shoes, or jipsin, hang from the bags of students in traditional scholars’ costume outside a lecture hall at a Confucian shrine at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea. The high school students are taking part in a re-enactment of the traditional state examinations, Gwageo.- Lee Jae-Won/Reuters

Baboons climb on a Hyundai i30 hatchback at Knowsley Safari Park during a promotional event by the manufacturer to test the car’s durability, in Preston, Merseyside, England, on May 1, 2012.- M&C Saatchi/handout/Reuters

Market Closes for May 11, 2012:

North American Markets

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Whitney Kisling

May 11 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, completing a second straight weekly decline, as energy and materials producers slipped on concern that a weakening Chinese economy may curb demand for commodities.

Barrick Gold Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. declined 1.9 percent each as oil and gold futures slumped. Osisko Mining Corp. sank 13 percent after RBC Capital Markets cut its rating. Sun Life Financial Inc., the country’s third-largest insurer, rose 3.3 percent, as financial shares rose on stronger-than- forecast employment figures. Savanna Energy Services Corp. gained 4.1 percent after RBC recommended the shares.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 41.50 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,694.67 today for a 1.5 percent weekly decline. The index has retreated 8.2 percent since the 2012 high in February.

“It’s a bit of a mixed day, with Chinese industrial production a little lower than last month, showing signs of slowing,” Todd Johnson, a money manager at BCV Asset Management in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$349 million ($350 million). The Canadian jobs number “was very good and helps propel the market higher, given domestic jobs here are pretty robust.”

The benchmark gauge fell 3 percent last week as a U.S. industry report showed employers added fewer jobs than forecast in April and commodity prices dropped. Energy and mining shares account for 43 percent of Canadian stocks by market value.

Chinese industrial production rose the least since 2009 in April, while retail sales and new lending gained less than estimated and inflation was below target, figures showed today.

The value of Chinese house sales slumped, adding to signs the world’s second-largest economy is weakening. Oil fell 1 percent, to $96.13 a barrel, the lowest settlement since Dec. 19.

Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, lost 1.9 percent to C$28.75.

Materials shares had the biggest decline in the S&P/TSX today, falling 1.5 percent as a group as gold futures plunged to a four-month low, capping the biggest weekly drop since March.

Copper also declined. The group had the worst performance of the week, down 5 percent.

Osisko Mining Corp. fell 13 percent to C$7.40, the company’s biggest retreat since February 2009, after RBC lowered the stock to sector perform from outperform. The rating means the stock is expected to trade in line with the sector average over 12 months. The company said yesterday it would shut its ore-processing mill at the Canadian Malartic mine for as long as three weeks after a fire.

Barrick Gold slipped 1.9 percent to C$37.09, while Eldorado Gold Corp. fell 2.9 percent to C$11.49.

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. dropped 5.1 percent to C$9.48. The Vancouver-based miner appointed David Klingner as chairman and said construction of phase one at its Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper project in Mongolia was 82 percent complete at the end of April.

A report today showed Canadian employment rose almost six times faster than economists forecast in April, led by private- sector and full-time positions. Employment rose by 58,200 following a March jump of 82,300, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa, for the largest two-month increase in more than 30 years.

An index of banks in the S&P/TSX rose 0.2 percent, after falling as much as 0.7 percent earlier today following JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s disclosure of a $2 billion trading loss. Toronto- Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-biggest lender, rose 0.4 percent to C$80.51.

A gauge of insurers added 1.2 percent. Sun Life climbed 3.3 percent to C$23.30, while Manulife Financial Corp., Canada’s largest insurer, added 2.4 percent to C$12.36.

Savanna Energy Services gained 4.1 percent to C$7.70 after RBC raised the stock to outperform from sector perform.

US

By Rita Nazareth and Elizabeth Campbell

May 11 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, extending a weekly decline, as banks tumbled after JPMorgan Chase & Co. disclosed a $2 billion trading loss. Treasuries capped the longest run of weekly gains since 1998, while commodities fell for an eighth day to extend the longest slump in more than three years.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.3 percent to close at 1,353.39 at 4 p.m. in New York, sending it down 1.2 percent in the week. The S&P GSCI Index of 24 commodities lost 0.8 percent to extend this week’s slump to 1.7 percent and erase its gain for the year. The advance in 10-year Treasuries sent yields down two basis points to 1.84 percent as the benchmark note completed an eighth weekly increase.

Financial shares led losses as JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon blamed an “egregious” failure in trading of synthetic credit securities for the trading loss, distracting investors’ attention from an unexpected increase in the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment to a four-year high. Commodities fell as China’s industrial production grew the least since 2009 in April, spurring concern demand for raw materials may wane.

“The U.S. economy is doing OK, corporate earnings continue to impress, but there’s a lot of headline risk in financials,” Stephen Wood, the New York-based chief market strategist for Russell Investments, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $140.8 billion. “There will be volatility.”

The S&P 500 fell for a second straight week and extended its drop from a four-year high last month to 4.6 percent.

JPMorgan plunged 9.3 percent, the most since August. The bank’s chief investment office, run by Ina Drew, took flawed positions on synthetic credit securities that remain volatile and may cost the lender an additional $1 billion this quarter or next, Dimon said yesterday in a conference call with analysts. Fitch Ratings cut the company’s long-term debt rating one level to A+ after markets closed in New York Federal Reserve officials are gathering more information about the trading position at the bank, according to a person familiar with the matter. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Shapiro said the agency is monitoring the bank.U.S. Senator Bob Corker, a senior Republican on the Banking Committee, asked the panel’s chairman today to hold a hearing on the trades. JPMorgan led losses in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slipped 34.44 points to 12,820.60, with Bank of America Corp. losing 2 percent for the second-biggest drop. Financial shares in the S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent as a group.

Nvidia Corp. jumped 6.4 percent, the most since October, as its sales forecast topped estimates amid demand for graphics and cell-phone chips. S&P 500 technology companies slipped 0.1 percent after leading the market higher earlier.

Derivatives traders seeking to profit on speculation JPMorgan is unwinding positions tied to its trading loss are driving up a vintage credit-default swaps index to the highest in more than three months.

The 10-year Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index Series 9, created in 2007, reached as high as 139.4 basis points today before easing to 134.1 as of 12:41 p.m. in New York, according to data provider CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market. The index ended yesterday at 126.7.

Ten-year Treasury yields approached three-month low after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble suggested the euro area could handle Greece dropping out. Thirty-year bonds gained as wholesale inflation declined last month before the Federal Reserve buys as much as $2 billion of longer-term securities.

Average estimates for 10-year Treasury yields three months from now are at 1.99 percent, 24 basis points lower than expectations in April, according to a survey from Citigroup Inc, published yesterday.

All but three of 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI retreated. Cotton tumbled as much as 5.7 percent to an almost two-year low to lead losses following a U.S. forecast for rising inventories. Gold declined to a four-month low, losing 0.7 percent to $1,584 an ounce. Copper fell 1.2 percent to $3.648 a pound, capping a second weekly drop, following slower-than- forecast growth in industrial production in China, the biggest consumer of the metal. Oil fell 1 percent to $96.13 a barrel.

“The optimism we had at the end of 2011 that created a firm footing for a lot of commodities has slowly eroded,” said Jonathan Barratt, chief executive of Barratt’s Bulletin, a commodity-markets newsletter in Sydney. “The outlook remains mixed to negative.”

The Dollar Index, a gauge of the currency against six major peers, rose 0.2 percent to 80.282 as it climbed for a 10th straight day in the longest rally since August 2008. The dollar strengthened against 14 of 16 major peers. The euro slipped 0.1 percent to $1.2919, the lowest level since January.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.4 percent, erasing a loss of as much as 1.2 percent. The regional benchmark fell 0.4 percent this week as Greece’s struggles to form a government revived concern about the nation’s debt crisis. The euro was little changed at $1.2931 after earlier touching the weakest level since January.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index lost 1.2 percent, extending declines from this year’s March 2 high to 10 percent, the level that some investors consider to signal a correction. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slumped 1.4 percent. India’s Sensex Index slipped 0.8 percent as production at factories, utilities and mines declined in March.

Germany’s 10-year bund yield fell two basis points to a record low of 1.52 percent, while the yield on Greece’s 10-year note advanced 57 basis points, climbing for the ninth straight day. Greek political leaders go into a fifth day of talks today with Evangelos Venizelos, the socialist Pasok leader, set to press for a unity government that would avert a new election. Antonis Samaras, head of the New Democracy party, said today his sole condition for supporting a coalition government is that it guarantees Greece’s membership of the euro area.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Kindest Regards,

Ellora Howie

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Mardi Gras today!  Carnivals will end in many places around the world. Also known as Shrove Tuesday and Pancake Day.  In Paris, a fat ox, crowned with a fillet, used to be paraded through the streets.  It was accompanied by mock priests and a band of tin instruments in imitation of a Roman sacrificial procession.  Tomorrow, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday with a fast for many observant Christians, which  lasts until Easter.  The Saxons called March lenctenmonath, literally lengthening, because the days noticeably lengthen.  Since the longest part of the fast occurs in March, it received the name Lent.  A fast of 36 days was introduced in the 4^th century, but it did not become fixed at 40 days until the early 7^th century, thus corresponding with Christ’s fast in the wilderness.

Lest we forget…on this day in 1916, the  Battle of Verdun was fought in France; over one million men were killed.

One of my favorite magazines, The New Yorker, made its debut on this day in 1925.

W.H. Auden was born on  this day in 1907; one of his poems:

If I could tell you

Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know.

-W. H. Auden (1907 – 73)

Beautiful new moon tonight – don’t forget to look!

photos of the day

February 21, 2012

Dancers of Grande Rio samba school parade during carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nearly 100,000 paying spectators turn out for the all-night spectacle at the Sambadrome.

Victor R. Caivano/AP

A masked reveller poses in Saint Mark’s Square during the Venetian Carnival in Venice.

Manuel Silvestri/Reuters

Market Closes for February 21, 2012:

North American Markets

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Katia Porzecanski and Andrew Theen

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose to a five-month high as metals and oil advanced after Greece won a second bailout, easing concern the European debt crisis will crimp growth and demand for commodities.

Suncor Energy Inc., the country’s largest oil and gas producer, increased 1.7 percent as oil traded at its highest price in nine months. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, rose 2.9 percent, while Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest base-metals and coal producer, jumped 3.3 percent. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. rallied 2.2 percent after it was rated buy in new coverage at Bank of America Corp.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 167.95 points, or 1.4 percent, to 12,626.25 at 2:00 p.m. Toronto time. The index touched 12,656.31 earlier, the highest intraday price since Sept. 9.

“It’s more confirmation that things are getting better,” Anil Tahiliani, a money manager at McLean & Partners in Calgary, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about C$1 billion ($1 billion). “Oil has rallied, so we see gold and other commodities that are related to oil rally off of that.”

The index advanced eight of the past nine weeks as improving U.S. employment, manufacturing and housing data overshadowed the European debt crisis. Seventy-four percent of Canadian exports went to the U.S. last year, according to Statistics Canada.

European finance ministers approved 130 billion euros ($172 billion) in aid for Greece by tapping into European Central Bank profits and coaxing investors into providing more debt relief to shield the region from a default. Greece’s debt may still balloon to 160 percent of gross domestic product in a worst-case scenario, analysis by the International Monetary Fund and European officials indicated.

Materials companies led gains in Canada as metals rose on improved prospects for commodity use. Gold had the biggest advance in four weeks as Iran pledged to press on with its efforts to develop nuclear energy, increasing political tension and demand for a haven. Copper rose the most since Nov. 30 as China eased bank-reserve requirements for a second time in three months.

Barrick rose 2.9 percent to C$48.19. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., the country’s second-biggest publicly traded copper producer, gained 4.5 percent to C$23.23. Teck Resources jumped 3.3 percent to C$39.57.

NovaGold Resources Inc., which is developing projects in Alaska and British Columbia, rose 3.6 percent to C$8.71. The company said its shareholders will get one share of NovaCopper Inc., a unit it plans to spin off, for every six NovaGold shares they hold. The spinoff will be voted on at a shareholder meeting in Vancouver on March 28, NovaGold said.

Ivanhoe Mines, Rio Tinto Group’s majority-owned partner in Mongolia’s Oyu Tolgoi copper project, rallied 2.2 percent to C$16.81 after it was rated buy at Bank of America, with a price estimate of C$22.

The S&P/TSX Energy Index rose 1.4 percent. Suncor increased

1.7 percent to C$34.73. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Canada’s second-largest energy company by market value, rallied

0.8 percent to C$37.69. PetroBakken Energy Ltd., a western Canadian oil and gas producer, rose 4.2 percent to C$16.06. Flint Energy Services Ltd. surged 66 percent to C$24.80 after URS Corp., a San Francisco-based construction company, agreed to buy the oilfield-services company for C$1.25 billion in cash to add projects servicing oil and natural gas producers in Western Canada. Flint shareholders will get C$25 per share.

S&P/TSX Financials Index rose 1 percent. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest lender by assets, gained 0.9 percent to C$53.60. Toronto-Dominion Bank, its largest domestic rival, advanced 1.5 percent to C$79.72. Sun Life Financial Inc., Canada’s third-largest insurer, jumped 3.6 percent to C$21.50.

US

By Stephen Kirkland and Rita Nazareth

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — U.S. equities pared early gains as a surge in oil weighed on transportation and consumer shares while Greece’s approval for a second bailout failed to spur enough confidence to keep the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index at an almost four-year high. Treasuries declined.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 1,362.28 at 4 p.m. in New York after earlier rising as much as 0.5 percent to top its highest closing level since June 2008. The Dow Jones Industrial Average trimmed its advance after climbing above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.5 percent. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield jumped five basis points to 2.06 percent. Oil reached a nine-month high near $106 a barrel as Iran said it stopped selling to France and Britain.

European finance ministers approved 130 billion euros ($173 billion) in aid for Greece by tapping into European Central Bank profits and coaxing investors into providing more debt relief to shield the region from a default. U.S. equities also rose earlier as earnings at companies from Home Depot Inc. to Macy’s Inc. topped analyst estimates.

“When you reach a headline level, there’s always some fallback in the short-term,” Madelynn Matlock, who helps oversee about $14.5 billion at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, said in a telephone interview. “Having a deal in Greece means that at least in March we don’t have the prospect of a disorderly default facing us. Obviously, this doesn’t solve any long-term problems. On top of that, in a climate where nobody in the developed world has wonderful growth, the last thing you need is higher oil prices.”

The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index slumped as much as 8.3 percent amid concern about higher fuel costs. US Airways Group Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc. sank more than 10 percent each during the day.

Gauges of clothing makers and food and consumer-staples retailers helped lead losses among 24 industries in the S&P 500.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. slid after the biggest retailer’s quarterly earnings trailed analysts’ estimates as an emphasis on low prices hurt margins.

The S&P 500 earlier rose as much as 0.5 percent to 1,367.76, above its highest close since June 2008. Alcoa Inc. led the Dow higher earlier today as aluminum prices rallied in London.

About three shares fell for each that advanced in the Stoxx 600. Segro Plc, the U.K.’s largest publicly traded owner of industrial properties, sank 2.1 percent after saying net asset value declined 9.8 percent. Real-estate companies fell 1.5 percent as a group for the biggest drop among 19 industries.

Europe is still struggling to avoid the threat of default as investors warned Greece will soon risk violating the terms of its second bailout in three years. The nation signed up to a program of austerity and economic reform aimed at slashing debt to 120.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 from about 160 percent last year.

Economists from Citigroup Inc. to Commerzbank AG concluded Greece may again fail to deliver on austerity goals amid a fifth year of recession, looming elections and social unrest.

“The Greek bailout keeps the wheels on the bus,” James Dunigan, who helps oversee $107 billion as chief investment officer in Philadelphia for PNC Wealth Management, said in a phone interview. “The ride is a little smoother, but it doesn’t solve the longer-term issues.”

The two-year Treasury yield increased less than one basis point to 0.303 percent following an auction of $35 billion of the notes. The notes yielded 0.310 percent, matching 0.310 percent in pre-auction treading and compared with 0.25 percent at the previous sale on Jan. 24. The Treasury auction drew a bid-to-cover ratio, which gauges demand by comparing total bids with the amount of securities offered, of 3.54 compared with an average of the past 10 auctions of 3.49 percent.

The Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against those of six trading partners, fell 0.3 percent. The Australian dollar weakened against its 16 major counterparts, losing 0.9 percent versus the U.S. currency, after minutes of the nation’s most-recent central bank policy meeting showed there is scope for monetary easing.

Brent oil for April settlement increased $1.63, or 1.4 percent, to $121.68 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Iran stopped selling oil to France and Britain yesterday, preempting a European Union ban, an official news website said.

EU nations bought a combined 18 percent of Iran’s exports of crude and condensates, or 452,000 barrels a day, in the first half of 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Department. France purchased 49,000 barrels a day and the U.K. 11,000 barrels.

Nineteen of the 24 commodities tracked by the S&P GSCI Index advanced, sending the gauge up 1.7 percent. Copper advanced the most in 11 weeks, climbing 3.5 percent to $3.8445 a pound in New York. Spot gold climbed 1.2 percent to $1,755.60 an ounce and silver advanced 3.7 percent.

Commodities also rallied in the first U.S. trading session since China’s central bank cut reserve requirements for banks to boost lending and support economic growth. U.S. markets were closed yesterday for the Presidents’ Day holiday.

The yield on the Spanish two-year note declined seven basis points to 2.76 percent as the government sold 2.5 billion euros of three- and six-month bills. The yield on the 10-year Italian bond dropped four basis points to 5.44 percent, driving the extra yield investors demand to hold the securities instead of bunds six basis points lower.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index lost 0.4 percent. Russia’s Micex Index slid 1.3 percent. The Turkish lira slipped 0.5 percent after the central bank cut its highest lending rates.

India’s Sensex rose 0.8 percent after trading resumed following yesterday’s holiday.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

As an individual, a specific entity, you have physical, mental, and nervous limits, among others.

If you know your own limits and try to stay within these limits,

you are free.

Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

Carolann

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be silent if

no birds sang there except those that sang best.

-Henry Van Dyke, 1852-1933

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tangents:  Tomorrow is Beethoven’s birthday (born 1770) and all week long, the Seattle radio station, Classical King FM, has been playing his music.  Tomorrow will be no exception, they will be playing his music in his honor all day.  It has been wonderful to listen to in the mornings getting ready for the day ahead.

The Globe & Mail reminds us that on this day, December 15^th, 1979, Chris Haney and Scott Abbott conceived of Trivial Pursuit.  John Allemang writes that “these two  beer-loving Montreal newspapermen….[whose Scrabble pieces kept disappearing] so, instead of buying another Scrabble set, they combined their journalistic love of random facts and pub-based argumentation to create Trivial Pursuit – a game that became an eighties social phenomenon as party-going was transformed into trivia one-upmanship.  It took them 45 minutes to craft the basic concept, but three hard years to break into the ruthless board-game market.   How many copies did they sell in 1984 alone?  Twenty million.  And what effect did that have on the ex-journalists’ golf game?  They built their own 36-hole course, and never had to stand in line again.”

Photos of the day 

December 15, 2011

Large waves break on the shore of Quiberon during a winter storm in Brittany, western France. Stephane Mahe/Reuters.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Lu Wang and Matt Walcoff

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell for a fourth day as mining and industrial stocks dropped amid concern slowing growth in China and a prolonged European debt crisis will hinder a global economic recovery.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, dropped 1.5 percent as the metal declined after settling at the lowest price since July yesterday. Canadian National Railway Co. decreased 1.6 percent as a report showed manufacturing in China may contract for a second month and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Europe’s debt crisis is escalating.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index retreated 38.63 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,504.42. The benchmark gauge has dropped 4.4 percent since Dec. 9, poised for its worst week since September.

“Clearly what’s happening is you’ve got this macro problem,” Irwin Michael, a money manager at ABC Funds in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees C$1 billion ($967 million). “It appears like the sky is falling. It’s scaring off a lot of investors — why do anything just before you take your Christmas holiday?”

The S&P/TSX fell this week after Moody’s Investors Service said it will review European Union countries’ ratings and the U.S. Federal Reserve declined to begin a third round of asset purchases to spur economic growth. The index has plunged 14 percent this year, which would be its second-biggest annual retreat in the last 20 years behind that of 2008.                    

Manufacturing in China probably contracted this month, according to a survey by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics. The country’s foreign direct investment fell last month for the first time since 2009, the Ministry of Commerce said.

U.S. industrial production slipped 0.2 percent last month, the Federal Reserve said today in Washington. Most economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast an increase.

Lagarde, speaking at the State Department in Washington, said the European debt crisis is growing to the point that it won’t be solved by one group of countries. If countries don’t work together, the world will face a situation similar to the 1930s, before the world slid into World War II, she said.

The S&P/TSX Materials Index dropped, led by gold producers, after closing at the lowest since August 2010 yesterday. Barrick slipped 1.5 percent to C$45.79, a sixth-straight retreat.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., Canada’s sixth-biggest gold producer by market value, declined 5.6 percent to C$37.92, the lowest since December 2008. Nevsun Resources Ltd., which mines precious and base metals in Eritrea, sank 13 percent to C$5.10.                       

First Majestic Silver Corp., which operates in Mexico, jumped 9.3 percent to C$16.60. The company will be added to the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index on Dec. 19, Todd Anthony, investor- relations manager for First Majestic, said in a telephone interview. The index is used for the $8.56 billion Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF.

Base-metals producers retreated as copper slumped to a seven-week low. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s biggest industrial-metals and coal producer, lost 1.9 percent to C$34.43. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., the country’s second- largest publicly traded copper producer, decreased 2 percent to C$18.18.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, fell 1.9 percent to C$27.59 as crude oil dropped to the lowest in six weeks.                     

“The one thing that tends to move the Canadian market more is the price of commodities,” Timothy Lazaris, chief executive officer of Red Sky Capital Management Ltd. in Toronto, which oversees C$54 million, said in a telephone interview. “There’s been some weak data in China” where demand is especially important to Canada because “we sell a lot of base metals and a lot of material into the global commodity cycle.”

Industrial companies in the S&P/TSX retreated, led by railroads. CN, Canada’s biggest railroad, fell 1.6 percent to C$75 to extend its four-day drop to 5 percent. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. declined 2.5 percent to C$63.86, ending a six-day streak of gains.

Finning International Inc., the world’s largest Caterpillar dealer, tumbled 5.5 percent to C$22.05 after forecasting a 5 percent increase in sales next year. Analysts, on average, estimated C$6.11 billion, a 10 percent gain from C$5.55 billion this year, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Canaccord Financial Inc., Canada’s largest non-bank brokerage, fell 8.2 percent to C$7.80 after agreeing to buy London-based Collins Stewart Hawkpoint Plc for 253.3 million pounds ($393 million). Canaccord’s closing price was the lowest since July 2009.

US

By Inyoung Hwang

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, snapping a three- day decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as data on jobless claims and manufacturing signaling a strengthening economy overshadowed concern over Europe’s debt crisis.

Utilities, health-care and consumer staples had the biggest gains out of 10 S&P 500 groups, advancing at least 0.9 percent.

FedEx Corp., the operator of the world’s biggest cargo airline, jumped 8 percent after earnings beat analysts’ estimates on increased holiday orders. Novellus Systems Inc. surged 16 percent as Lam Research Corp. agreed to acquire the company.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 1,215.75 at 4 p.m. New York time, paring an earlier rally of 1.1 percent as oil declined and financial companies erased gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 45.33 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,868.81.

“The news on the U.S. front is surprisingly positive and provides some counterbalance to the uncertainty in Europe,” Eric Teal, chief investment officer at First Citizens Bancshares Inc., which manages $4 billion in Raleigh, North Carolina, said in a telephone interview. “We’re focusing increasingly on the domestic economy which looks to be on the recovery track.”

The S&P 500 lost 3.5 percent during the first three days of this week after posted its first back-to-back weekly gain since October. The benchmark stock measure slumped on Dec. 13 after the Federal Reserve refrained from taking new actions to bolster growth at the world’s largest economy. The central bank said the U.S. economy is maintaining its expansion even as the global economy slows.

Global stocks extended gains this morning after Labor Department figures showed initial jobless claims fell by 19,000 to 366,000 last week, the fewest since May 2008. The median of 47 economists had projected 390,000, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Two reports showed manufacturing in the New York and Philadelphia regions expanded more than forecast in December.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index accelerated to the highest level in seven months, to 9.5 from 0.6 in November. Readings higher than zero signal expansion among companies in the region, which covers New York, northern New Jersey and southern Connecticut. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s index, covering eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, increased to 10.3 from 3.6.

Equities pared early gains after International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said at an event in Washington that Europe’s “crisis is not only unfolding, but escalating” and cannot be resolved by one group of countries.

“Investors are trying to get a sense of not only how the economy is performing but also looking at what happens with policy, what happens in Europe,” Kevin Caron, a market strategist in Florham Park, New Jersey, at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., said in a telephone interview. His firm has about $108 billion in client assets.

FedEx jumped 8 percent, the biggest rally since April 2009, to $83.47. The company, considered an economic barometer because it delivers goods ranging from pharmaceuticals to financial documents, posted a quarterly profit that beat analysts’ estimates as U.S. consumers increased holiday orders from online retailers. FedEx also ordered 27 Boeing Co. 767 jet freighters to retire some of its older planes. Boeing increased 1 percent to $70.61.

Novellus Systems surged 16 percent to $40.37 for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Lam Research agreed to buy the maker of machinery used in semiconductor production for about $3.3 billion in stock, valuing it at $44.42 a share. Lam Research fell 8.4 percent to $36.17.

Financial companies were unchanged as a group after rallying as much as 1.6 percent after Spain sold more debt than it had planned. Shares in the group erased their gains as the Securities and Exchange Commission appealed a District Court judge’s decision to reject its proposed $285 million settlement with Citigroup Inc. The New York-based bank slumped 0.5 percent to $25.92, after earlier rising as much as 3.3 percent.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd., the clothing company founded by the designer of that name, rose 21 percent to $24.20 in its trading debut. The company sold 47.2 million shares yesterday for $20 apiece to raise $944 million, 19 percent more than planned.

Technology and energy companies in the S&P 500 posted the only declines among 10 groups, falling at least 0.2 percent.

First Solar Inc., the world’s largest maker of thin-film solar panels, slumped 6 percent, the biggest drop in the S&P 500, to $31.45. The company was downgraded to “neutral” from “outperform” by Robert W. Baird & Co. Chevron Corp. slid 0.9 percent to $99.67, as the price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level in six weeks.

Tomorrow is the expiration of futures and options contracts on indexes and individual stocks, an event known as quadruple witching, which occurs once every three months. The S&P 500 has slumped 3.3 percent in 2011 and 11 percent from its high on April 29. The index posted losses in six of the past seven months through November. The gauge’s decline this year may mean there are lower odds the measure will rally during the last two weeks of 2011, if history is any guide, according to Nautilus Capital LLC.

Since 1928, the benchmark index has rallied at year-end 60 percent of the time when it had fallen year to date, compared with 80 percent when it was up for the year, data from Nautilus show. The S&P 500 produced an average gain of 1.3 percent during the last two weeks of the year. Stocks favored by hedge funds fell more than the S&P 500 during the first three days of the week. A Goldman Sachs index of companies that appear most often in funds’ top 10 holdings lost 4.5 percent in the first three days of the week, a period in which the S&P 500 fell 3.5 percent. The index rose 0.4 percent today.

Hedge funds selling assets because of client redemptions may have exacerbated declines for equities and reinforced market volatility, according to Eric Green, a Philadelphia-based fund manager at Penn Capital Management. His firm oversees about $6 billion.

“The hedge fund exposure continues to go down — it’s year end, they’re squaring positions off, they’re preparing for redemptions,” Green said in a telephone interview. “The volatility is pretty extreme, the market is getting whipped around on nothing and most of them want to shut things down. They probably have to sell more things than buy because they have net redemptions.”

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

In his essence, man is not a slave to himself, nor to the world; he is a lover.

His freedom and accomplishments are in love,

which is another name for perfect understanding.

In this ability to understand, in this impregnation of everything that is,

he is one with the Spirit that penetrates everything,

and that is also the breath of the soul.

-Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1974

As ever,

Carolann

With courage you will dare to take risks, have the

strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to

be humble.  Courage is the foundation

of integrity.

         -Keshavan Nair, 1940-

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

A national debt, if it is not excessive , will be to us a national blessing. –American proverb; often attributed to the American politician Alexander Hamilton (c.1755-1804).

We went to see the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love on the weekend and thought it was fun; I’d recommend it for some light humor.

Summer thoughts….from The Book of Idle Pleasures, Ed. Dan Kieran and Tom Hodgkinson

The Beach

Choose a beach with no shops or ice cream vendors of cafés or car parks, and you’ll find that everyone is happy.  Parents can read or paddle, kids can discover their own creativity through that fantastic modelling material, wet sand.  There will be no arguments over pebbles because there are always enough pebbles to go round.  Unlike the world of consumer products, nature is bountiful and provides plenty for everyone, meaning there is no room for fighting.  You can choose to swim or to stare at the sea or to play in the rock-pools and catch shrimps.  You can eat your sandwiches or grill some fish on a make-shift barbecue: a world of ease is there for the taking.  TH

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER: JULY 3 – AUGUST 11^TH : The hottest days of the year are almost over. Popularly believed to be an evil time “when the sea boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics and phrensies” (from Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813).  Originally the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose just before or at about the same time as sunrise (no longer true owing to the precession of the equinoxes).  Ancients sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that star was the cause of hot sultry weather.

Photos of the day 

August 8, 2011

A trader stands outside the New York Stock Exchange. The first downgrade of the US government’s credit rating on Aug. 5 has encouraged worries about the state of the world economy and made markets unpredictable. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters.

Davis Hardgrove examines a gold chain as his seller groups silver coins. Due to frantic investors seeking safety in the metal, the price of gold surpassed $1,700 an ounce for the first time today. Elaine Thompson/STF/AP.

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Victoria Taylor

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most in 25 months as energy and financial shares slid after Standard & Poor’s cut the U.S. credit rating, fueling concern that the global economy is slowing.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, decreased 6.9 percent as crude futures dropped below to $80.60 a barrel from $86.88 on Aug. 5. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender by assets, slipped 3 percent. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, increased 2.3 percent as the metal jumped to a record.  The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index decreased 491.21 points, or 4 percent, to 11,670.96, the biggest decline since June 2009, as of 4:56 p.m. in Toronto.

“We have to carry on with this present state of worry for the time being,” and hope politicians will come to some agreements, Michael Smedley, who heads a group that manages about C$1 billion in assets Morgan Meighen & Associates Ltd., said in a telephone interview. “I don’t have concern for the longer term. On the very short term basis it is very tempting to sell everything, but that usually proves to be wrong.”

 The S&P/TSX plunged 6.1 percent last week as the U.S. reported a decrease in consumer spending and said the jobless rate slipped to 9.1 percent as workers left the labor force. S&P cut the U.S. credit rating to AA+ from AAA on Aug. 5, saying a deal between President Barack Obama and lawmakers to raise the government’s debt ceiling was inadequate. U.S. stocks fell, stoking concern an economic slowdown will worsen.

The S&P/TSX financial stock index fell 3.8 percent, the most in two years. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, fell 3.1 percent to C$48.51. Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-biggest lender by asset, declined 3.4 percent to C$49.93. Toronto-Dominion lost 3 percent to C$71.67.

Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth-largest insurer, retreated 8.3 percent, the most in more than a year, to C$12.53. “The events of the past month have impacted Manulife more than any other large-cap Canadian financial institution,” Peter Routledge, an analyst at National Bank of Canada, wrote in a report today. The insurer reports second-quarter results Aug. 11.

The S&P/TSX energy stock index declined for the ninth day, the longest streak of declines since 2000, as all 67 stocks in the index fell. Crude oil futures plunged 6.4 percent to $81.31 a barrel, the lowest settlement in New York since Nov. 23.                         

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. the country’s second- largest energy company by market value, dropped 6.2 percent to C$33.05 in Toronto Stock Exchange trading, the most since June 2009.

Cenovus Energy Inc., the country’s fifth-biggest energy company, lost 6 percent to C$31.90, the most since at least November 2009. BlackPearl Resources Inc. tumbled 21 percent, the most since October 2008, to C$4. Suncor Energy slumped 6.9 percent to C$30.10 in Toronto exchange trading, its lowest price since April 2009.

Emera Inc. retreated 6 percent to C$28.14. The owner of Nova Scotia Power said second-quarter earnings minus some items were 24 Canadian cents, missing the average estimate of 30 Canadian cents of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

 Gold topped $1,700 an ounce for the first time, reaching as high as $1,713.20 an ounce. Goldcorp Inc., world’s second largest producer of the metal by market value, increased 2.4 percent to C$46.31. Barrick Gold Corp. rose 2.3 percent to C$45.92. Alamos Gold Inc., which mines in Mexico, jumped 8 percent to C$18.16.

Wi-LAN Inc. plunged 19 percent to C$5.66, the most since December 2005. The technology-patent owner said General Counsel Bill Middleton has resigned and that it will search for a new chief intellectual-property attorney.

US

By Rita Nazareth

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks tumbled, dragging benchmark indexes to their biggest slump since December 2008, amid concern that a downgrade of the nation’s credit rating by Standard & Poor’s may worsen an economic slowdown.

All stocks in the S&P 500 Index retreated for the first time since at least 1996 as the index’s 10 main groups fell more than 5.3 percent. Bank of America Corp. tumbled 20 percent to lead financial shares in the S&P 500 down 10 percent, the most since April 2009. Ford Motor Co. and Caterpillar Inc. slumped at least 8.3 percent, pacing losses in stocks most-tied to the economy. Chevron Corp. dropped 7.5 percent as oil slid.

The S&P 500 retreated 6.7 percent to 1,119.46 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge slumped 11 percent in three days, the most since November 2008, and fell to the lowest since September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 634.76 points, or 5.6 percent, to 10,809.85 today. About 18 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges at 4:52 p.m., the fifth-highest volume since mid-2008, Bloomberg data show. Treasuries rose.

“There’s no reason to get in front of this train,” Keith Wirtz, Cincinnati-based chief investment officer at Fifth Third Asset Management, which oversees $16.7 billion, said in a telephone interview. “Yes, there’s cheapness in the stock market, but right now emotions are high. There’s enough uncertainty out there. People are moving towards no risk. That includes Treasuries, which is ironic.”

Global equities tumbled and European shares entered a bear market. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index has now fallen 21 percent from this year’s high on Feb. 17. The S&P 500 has dropped 18 percent since April 29. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies slumped 8.9 percent, entering a so-called bear market, down 25 percent from its April 29 high.

S&P lowered the U.S. long-term rating one level to AA+ after markets closed on Aug. 5, while keeping the outlook at “negative” as the company becomes less confident that Congress will end Bush-era tax cuts or tackle entitlements. S&P also said the U.S. rating may be reduced to AA within two years if spending reductions are lower than agreed to, interest rates rise or “new fiscal pressures” result in higher general government debt.

Equities extended losses today as S&P also lowered credit ratings on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other lenders with a “direct reliance on the U.S. government,” spurring concern over the ripple effects of the loss of America’s AAA rating. Stocks tumbled further after S&P changed the outlook for Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to “negative” from “stable.”

The S&P 500 erased half its rally since the 2010 low of 1,022.58 in the first minutes of trading today then went on to wipe out 72 percent of the gain by the close, data compiled by Bloomberg show. More than 30 stocks fell for each that rose on U.S. exchanges, the broadest selloff since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 2004.

The worst stock decline since December 2008 is being absorbed by the market and while some investors panicked, there are no signs liquidity is being withdrawn as it was in the selloff of May 2010, traders said.

More than $860 billion of equity value was wiped out in 20 minutes on May 6, 2010, as market makers and other liquidity providers withdrew bids to purchase stocks, according to a report by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Sept. 30. The Dow fell almost 1,000 points before paring the decline.

“You can’t compare this to a flash crash,” Michael Shaoul, chairman of Marketfield Asset Management in New York, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $1 billion. “You’ve got an amazingly well-behaving system. It’s absorbing this pressure.”

Treasuries, benchmarks of the nation’s $34 trillion debt market that is more than twice the value of American equities, sent the 10-year note yield down 24 basis points to 2.32 percent, the lowest since January 2009, and the two-year rate reached a record low of 2.31 percent.

Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., increased holdings of Treasuries to 10 percent from 8 percent and cut cash holdings to 15 percent from 29 percent.

 “If you’re an investor and you say, ‘I’m worried about what’s going on in the world, I’m worried about liquidity and safety,’ you basically have no place to go other than the Treasury market,” Nick Sargen, chief investment officer at Fort Washington Investment Advisors in Cincinnati, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees more than $38 billion.

     Barton Biggs, who last week called U.S. equities a “strong buy,” said he cut risk in his Traxis Partners LP hedge fund. “I’ve taken some risk off, and I hate to do it, I think it’s probably the wrong thing to be doing,” Biggs, who helps manage $1.4 billion as managing partner and co-founder of Traxis, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “But I’m a fiduciary to a certain extent, and I’ve got to protect my capital.” The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, soared 50 percent, the most since February 2007, to 48. It was the highest level since March 2009.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of 30 stocks tumbled 9 percent. The Dow Jones Transportation Average, which is also a proxy for the economy, retreated 7 percent. Ford sank 8.4 percent to $9.93. Caterpillar decreased 9.2 percent to $82.60.

The KBW Bank Index of 24 stocks slumped 11 percent. Bank of America dropped 20 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $6.51. American International Group Inc., the bailed-out insurer, sued the largest U.S. lender by assets over $10 billion in losses on mortgage-bond investments.

“The bias that exists, and that is gaining credibility, is that a double dip is ahead of us,” said Charles Peabody, an analyst at Portales Partners LLC in New York. “If that’s the case, then something like Bank of America is going to have to raise substantial equity externally.”

Energy shares in the S&P 500 had the second-biggest decline within 10 groups, falling 8.3 percent. Chevron retreated 7.5 percent to $90.25. Exxon Mobil Corp. sank 6.2 percent to $70.19.

Newmont Mining Corp., which rallied as much as 5.4 percent as gold rose to a record, slipped 0.5 percent to $54.13.

Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares slumped 6.5 percent to $66.65. Buffett lost his AAA rating from S&P last year after agreeing to buy railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe. He said Aug. 6 that the ratings firm erred in cutting the U.S. grade and that the country should have a “quadruple A” rating. Buffett didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.        

The U.S. credit downgrade may spook investors, causing sentiment to grow bearish in the short term, before corporate fundamentals, including balance sheets with more cash than debt and earnings growth, will continue to push the S&P 500 higher by the end of the year, strategists at Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. said. While Goldman Sachs Group Inc.  cut its year-end target for the S&P 500 to 1,400, Barclays held its 1,450 estimate.

“The medium to long-term effects of the U.S. sovereign downgrade are minimal, even as the short impact could be turbulent,” Thomas Lee, JPMorgan’s equity strategist in New York, wrote in an e-mailed note.      The benchmark gauge for American equities was still up 65 percent from a 12-year low on March 2009 following government stimulus measures and higher-than-estimated corporate earnings.

Per-share earnings increased 18 percent among the S&P 500 companies that have released quarterly results since July 11, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. About three-quarters of the companies have topped the average analyst profit forecast, the data show. Sales rose 13 percent during that period.

 “We had a terrific earnings season,” Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida, said in a telephone interview. His firm manages $275 billion. “We’re not going into a recession. Now is not the time to panic. This is where you start to put cash back to work.”

 Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Ahimsa means infinite love, which again means infinite capacity for suffering.

Who but woman, the mother of man, shows this capacity in the largest measure?

-Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

As ever,

Carolann

Real riches are the riches

possessed inside.

  -B.C. Forbes, 1880-1954

Dear Friends,

 HAPPY DAYS 

I had been lucky enough in my 20s to stumble into the life I might have dreamed of as a boy:  a great job writing on world affairs for Time magazine, an apartment on Park Avenue, enough time and money to take vacations in Burma, Morocco, El Salvador.  But every time I went to one of those places, I noticed that the people I met there, mired in difficulty and often warfare, seemed to have more energy and even optimism than the friends I’d grown up with in privileged, peaceful Santa Barbara, Calif., many of whom were on their fourth marriages and seeing a therapist every day.  Though I knew that poverty certainly didn’t buy happiness, I wasn’t convinced that money did either.

 So, as post-1960s cliché decreed, I left my comfortable job and life to live for a year in a temple on the back streets of Kyoto.  My high-minded year lasted all of a week, by which time I’d noticed that the depthless contemplation of the moon and composition of haiku I’d imagined from afar was really  more a matter of cleaning, sweeping and then cleaning some more.  But today, more than 21 years later, I still live in the vicinity of Kyoto, in a two-room apartment that makes my old monastic cell look almost luxurious.  I have no bicycle, no car, no television I  can understand, no media – and the days seem to stretch into eternities, and I can’t think of a single thing I lack.

                                            -PICO IYER, from “The Joy of Less”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton watches a cultural dance as she is welcomed at Lusaka International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia.

Susan Walsh/AP

A seven-month-old yellow baboon drinks milk as it plays with a Galagos, also known as a bushbaby, at the Animal Orphanage in the Kenya Wildlife Service headquarters in Nairobi. Yellow baboons inhabit savannas and light forests in the eastern Africa, while Galagos are small, nocturnal primates native to continental Africa.

Thomas Mukoya/Reuters

Market Commentary:

 Canada

By Inyoung Hwang

     June 10 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell, headed for a second straight week of losses, as energy and metals producers led declines amid concern the global recovery is slowing and after a report said Saudi Arabia will raise oil production.

     Suncor Energy Inc. dropped 2.2 percent as the price of crude tumbled the most in four weeks. Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc., the two biggest producers of the metal by market value, dropped at least 1.3 percent as the price of gold fell on a stronger U.S. dollar. Research In Motion Ltd. lost 1.8 percent as Morgan Stanley said the company may cut forecasts and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended investors sell the shares.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index retreated 200.47 points, or 1.5 percent, to 13,055.27 at 1:42 p.m. in Toronto, below its 200-day moving average. The S&P/TSX rose yesterday after declining seven straight days, the longest streak of losses since June 2006.

     “Investors are getting nervous that what’s driven the markets for the last nine months — easy monetary policy and the expectation that the economy is healing itself — has waned,”

said Todd Johnson, who helps oversee C$230 million ($228 million) as a money manager at BCV Asset Management in Winnipeg, Manitoba. “You throw in commodity inflation and the potential for a Chinese slowdown, and it’s a summer of discontent perhaps.”

     Commodity prices and global stocks fell today after China reported a less-than-estimated trade surplus in May. Stocks also fell after the Bank of Korea raised interest rates for a third time this year to rein in inflation.

     Canadian stocks fell even after a Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa the country’s jobless rate unexpectedly declined in May to the lowest since January 2009 as the economy added workers for the seventh time in eight months.

     The S&P/TSX fell 4.2 percent from May 30 through yesterday as U.S. statistics on employment and manufacturing trailed economists’ forecasts and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke called his country’s economic recovery “frustratingly slow.”

     Suncor fell 2.2 percent to C$37.96. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. declined 2 percent to C$39.64. Crude oil tumbled to $99.20 a barrel, the most since May 11 after al-Hayat newspaper reported Saudi Arabia will raise oil production to 10 million barrels a day next month. London-based al-Hayat cited unidentified senior OPEC and industry officials as the sources of the Saudi output plan.

     Barrick Gold declined 1.7 percent to C$44.52, while Goldcorp slid 1.3 percent to C$45.81. Gold futures fell the most in a week as lower energy costs eroded the appeal of the precious metal as a hedge against inflation.

     Base-metals and coal producer, including Teck Resources Ltd. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd, also fell. Teck, the country’s largest company in the industry lost 3.8 percent to C$45.69. Vancouver-based First Quantum slid 1.7 percent to C$120.30.

     “There’s a lot of fast money in commodities,” Johnson said. “The trade where the U.S. dollar falls and you put your money in commodities is a popular investment. Perhaps there’s just too much money in that area and when the trade turns out, there’s a lot of people wanting to get out quickly.”

     Research In Motion erased 1.8 percent to C$35.96. The Blackberry smartphone maker has slumped 38 percent this year after missing profit estimates and cutting forecasts. Morgan Stanley said the company may reduce its forecast for 2012 and that estimates for the second quarter will be disappointing.

     Separately, Goldman Sachs recommended selling shares ahead of the first quarter earnings report on June 16.

     Financial stocks also declined as the S&P/TSX Financials Index slumped 1.2 percent to 1,693.15. Toronto-Dominion Bank fell 1.5 percent to C$78.61, while Bank of Nova Scotia erased 1.5 percent to C$57.36.

     The biggest Canadian athletic-wear retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. rallied 5 percent to C$88.12 after the company forecast profit in 2010 to be at least $2.10 a share, up from an earlier guidance of no more than $2 and exceeding the average analyst estimate of $2.05.

US

By Rita Nazareth

     June 10 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, extending the longest weekly Dow Jones Industrial Average slump in more than eight years, amid concern the global economy is slowing.

     Caterpillar Inc. and Boeing Co. dropped at least 2 percent, pacing losses among companies most-tied to economic growth.

     Exxon Mobil Corp. fell 1.7 percent as crude oil tumbled the most in four weeks. A gauge of banks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.3 percent, paring a 2.2 percent slump, after CNBC reported that international regulators are considering toning down proposed capital rules for large banks.

     The S&P 500 fell 1.4 percent to 1,270.98 at 4 p.m. in New York. It has retreated six straight weeks, the longest slump since 2008. The Dow dropped 172.45 points, or 1.4 percent, to 11,951.91. Its last six-week slump ended in October 2002, the start of a five-year bull market. The Russell 2000 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index erased their 2011 gains today.

     “It’s a shortage of buyers,” said Michael Shaoul, chairman of Marketfield Asset Management, which oversees $1 billion in New York. “The economically sensitive stuff is going to be weak while the data is weak. In addition, we’re going to go through a period of over-regulation of the large banks. It’s going to lead to significantly less profitability.”

     About $1 trillion was erased from American equity markets between the S&P 500’s peak on April 29 and yesterday amid weaker-than-expected economic reports. The index has retreated 6.8 percent since the end of April as sales of existing homes unexpectedly declined, growth in industrial production stopped and the unemployment rate rose.

     Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said this week that the U.S. recovery was “frustratingly slow.” He also said the central bank should maintain record monetary stimulus, while giving no indication he was planning a third round of asset purchases known as quantitative easing, or QE3.

     Global stocks fell today after China reported a lower-than- estimated $13.1 billion trade surplus in May, as surging imports signaled the nation’s demand may support global growth while adding pressure for higher interest rates. Stocks also fell after U.K. manufacturing dropped more than economists forecast as an extra public holiday for the royal wedding hurt orders and the impact of the Japanese earthquake hit supplies.

 Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

 What is the world?  It is the earth below and the sky above and the air in space that connects them.What is light?  It is fire below and the sun above – and the lightning that connects them.What is education?  It is the teacher above and the disciple below – and the wisdom that connects them.

 Taittiriya Upanishad

As ever, 

Carolann 

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

  -Vince Lombardi, 1913-1970 

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

Senior Vice-President & Senior Investment Advisor