December 11, 2014 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

December 11, 1936: Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Simpson.

I read an email from Saks today that advised its readers that this holiday season sequins are what’s in.    So sparkle away!

SEQUINS (from the Encyclopedia of the Exquisite)

The word “sequin” is a Frenchified version of the Venetian zecchino, a pure god coin the republic first issued in 1284.  Some say that when the currency became obsolete, enterprising  Venetian ladies pierced the oldzecchino coins and embroidered their clothes with them, igniting the bedazzling fashion.  How easily, then as now, a simple row of sequins turns the ordinary snazzy.

  Though ancient Roman women didn’t wear sequins stitched to their clothes, they did wear coin jewelry as early as the third century AD.  The jingling tradition was carried on in the folk costumes of Turkey, Romania, Greece, and Syria, where glittering head scarves and bridal costumes flickered with coinlike discs.  No mere display of wealth, the scintillation offered magical protection, confusing the evil eye.  In the old days, the coins were thought even more potent when stamped with the image of a mighty ruler.  Fake coins printed with images of ancient emperors, like Constantine or Alexander the Great, were made into amulets throughout Byzantium.

  Later, sparkling sequins punched from fine sheets of brass, gold, or silver glimmered from the costumes of Henry VIII, Edward IV, and Queen Elizabeth I.  They brightened the French court during the eighteenth century, and Parisian fashion in the next, when dressing up with spangles was expected of stage performers.  “Sequins create a charming effect.  They catch the light in sudden and unexpected flashes that shimmer brilliantly before the eyes,”  French critic Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) wrote in 1837, bored with the virginal white worn by the local ballerinas.  “What a dancer really needs are feathers, tinsel, silver tassels, gilded bells, all the crazy, fantastic dress of the wandering player.”

  While the Gilded Age saw its share of sequins, as did the 1920s when the flappers shone in dresses glazed with celluloid sequins, in the 1930s sequins went Hollywood.  Gautier would have loved the brilliantly shimmering costumes created by the era’s most powerful costume designer.  Gilbert Adrian (1903-1959) – known simply as Adrian.

  Adrian defined mid-twentieth century American glamour, dressing stars such as Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Jean Harlow, and Greta Garbo over the course of 233 films during his long career.  His MGM workshop swarmed with as many as 250 seamstresses, tailors, pattern makers, and embroiderers, making slinky gowns slathered with sequins,  His dresses caught the light, livening up the on-screen black-and-white palette, but when movies went Technicolor, Adrian brought sequins into the future.  He secured his legendary status in 1939 by creating Judy Garland’s famous ruby-red sequined slippers for The Wizard of Oz.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A jay bounces in the snow in Kielder Forest, northeastern England, as snow sweeps across the area. Thousands of homes are still without power after gales and lightning strikes caused by a so-called ‘weather bomb’ swept the north of the country. Owen Humphreys/PA/AP

Two cyclists are reflected in a puddle shortly after a storm on the banks of the river Rhine in Duesseldorf, Germany. Marius Becker/dpa/AP

Market Closes for December 11^th, 2014     

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, after plunging the most in 17 months yesterday, as banks advanced after the U.S. reported better-than-forecast retail sales and unemployment data.

     Painted Pony Petroleum Ltd. rose 4.7 percent to pace an advance among energy stocks after yesterday’s selloff. Gildan Activewear Inc., the clothing exporter, added 2.6 percent. National Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal advanced at least 0.7 percent as financial shares climbed for the first time in six days.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 52.17 points, or 0.4 percent, to 13,905.12 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, paring an earlier gain of as much as 1.7 percent. The equity gauge has dropped 3.9 percent this week, narrowing its advance this year to 2.1 percent.

     Oil, bank and raw-materials are the biggest laggards in Canada for the first time since at least 1988, fueling concern the nation’s economy is fading just as the U.S. is taking off. The three industries, which collectively account for two-thirds of the S&P/TSX, are the worst performers among 10 groups this year, led by a 18 percent slump in energy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     Stocks rallied early today as data showed retail sales in the U.S. jumped 0.7 percent in November, the biggest gain in eight months, as higher wages and cheaper fuel fueled shopping sprees for American consumers. Another report showed fewer Americans filed claims for jobless benefits last week.

     Telus Corp. jumped 3.9 percent to C$41.64 and Rogers Communications Inc. advanced 2.4 percent to C$45.06 as telephone stocks rallied 2.3 percent as a group, the most in the S&P/TSX. Nine of 10 industries advanced in the benchmark Canadian equity gauge on trading volume 23 percent higher than the 30-day average today.

     Painted Pony jumped 4.7 percent to C$9.55 and Calfrac Well Services Ltd. climbed 3.7 percent to C$9.05.

     The S&P/TSX Energy Index rose 0.1 percent, trading near a two-year low. The industry group has slumped 11 percent in December, on pace for a fourth month of declines, the longest stretch since 2011.

US

By Oliver Renick

     Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rebounded from the worst day in seven weeks, as better-than-forecast data on retail sales and unemployment boosted confidence in the economy to overshadow a renewed selloff in oil.

     Benchmark indexes retreated from their highs of the day as oil dropped below $60 a barrel for the first time since 2009, erasing a rally in energy shares. Staples Inc. gained the most in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index as consumer discretionary stocks rallied 0.7 percent as a group. Urban Outfitters Inc. jumped 7.6 percent, pacing gains among retail shares, which climbed 1 percent.

     The S&P 500 added 0.5 percent to 2,035.33 at 4 p.m. in New York after climbing 1.5 percent earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 63.19 points, or 0.4 percent, to 17,596.34, trimming a prior gain of 1.3 percent. About 7.2 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 4.9 percent above the three-month average.

     “When you see a big decline like we did yesterday we’re poised for a little bit of a bounce back and retail sales are helping,” Larry Peruzzi, the Boston-based director of international trading at Cabrera Capital Markets LLC, said by phone. “Globally, we’re still one of the bright spots. Retail sales are always an indication that consumers are feeling good.”

     The S&P 500 slid 1.6 percent yesterday as a collapse in oil prices rippled through the financial markets, sending all 10 industry groups in the benchmark equity gauge down at least 1 percent. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the measure of options prices known as the VIX, climbed 8.4 percent today after spiking 24 percent yesterday. The gauge has surged 70 percent in the past four days, the most since August 2011.                           

     West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.6 percent to settle at $59.95 a barrel, after yesterday plunging 4.5 percent. The rout caused concern over the strength of the global economy. Oil’s collapse into a bear market has been exacerbated as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, OPEC’s three largest members, offered the deepest discounts on exports to Asia in at least six years. The market will correct itself, according to Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi.

     Investors are gauging economic data before the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week.

     Retail sales in the U.S. rose the most in eight months as shoppers benefited from an improving job market and cheaper fuel. The 0.7 percent gain in purchases matched the highest estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and followed a 0.5 percent advance in October that was larger than previously reported, Commerce Department figures showed.

     Jobless claims decreased by 3,000 to 294,000 in the week ended Dec. 6, a Labor Department report showed. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for first- time applications to hold at the prior week’s 297,000. Claims have been below 300,000 for 12 of the past 13 weeks.

     The S&P 500 will continue to climb on the back of a solid U.S. economy paired with low inflation and a boost to consumers from lower oil prices, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The benchmark index will rise to 2,250 in 2015, head strategist Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote in a note today. That implies an 11 percent advance from yesterday’s close.

     The strategist’s forecast amounts to a prediction that the U.S. market will keep having days like today, in which the S&P 500 is advancing even as concern grows about a default in Venezuela, Russia’s fifth interest-rate increase fails to stem the ruble’s worst rout since 1998 and Greek stocks cap a three- day retreat in which they lost 20 percent.

     All of the 10 main groups in the S&P 500 advanced, with utility and consumer shares rising more than 0.7 percent to lead the advance.

     Urban Outfitters surged 8.2 percent to $32.48, leading the surge among retailer stocks.

     Staples advanced 8.7 percent to $16.10, the highest in a year. Starboard Value LP, the activist investor that successfully pushed for the merger of Office Depot Inc. and OfficeMax Inc. last year, disclosed a 5.1 percent stake in the company.

     Keurig Green Mountain Inc. added 1.1 percent to $139.69 after renewing a partnership with Caribou Coffee Co. with a 10- year agreement for manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sale of Caribou in Keurig’s hot brewing system.

     Energy stocks in the S&P 500 were little changed as a group, paring an earlier advance of as much as 2.5 percent. The group lost 3.1 percent yesterday as oil fell to a five-year low and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said global demand for crude will drop next year by about 300,000 barrels a day to 28.9 million, the least since 2003.

     Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. climbed 3.4 percent to $33.93, while Oneok Inc. jumped 2.3 percent to $45.67. Nabors Industries Ltd. dropped 3.1 percent.
 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

One drop of the sea cannot claim to come from one river, and another drop of the sea from another river,

the sea is a single consistent whole.  In the same way all beings are one; there is no being

that does not come from the soul, and is not part of the soul.

Chandogya Upanishad

As ever,

Carolann

Respect for the truth is an acquired taste.

                  -Mark Van Doren, 1894-1972

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7