December 28, 2012 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

As a new year approaches, it is time to reflect on the year we just had, as well as the new year coming. This reflection can be answered with 12 questions, noting the highlights and lessons learned; how one has evolved; the memorable moments and the various goals you’ve advanced toward – and more. Often, one will be surprised by how much they have achieved. As we trudge through our busy lives we are often thinking about all we have not done or achieved. Read the questions below and think about your intentions and aspirations for 2013!

1. What went well?

2. In what ways did I grow and evolve?

3. What were my favorite moments of 2012?

4. What do I need to clean out or let go of now to be ready to start fresh in 2013?

5. What and who am I most grateful for right now?

6. If there were a theme for me in 2012, what was it?

7. What are my goals for 2013?

8. Which of my strengths and assets will I tap into to realize my goals?

9. How will I foster my personal well-being to maintain or boost my mojo?

10. How will I foster my professional well-being to boost or maintain my career aspirations?

11. How can I contribute to the ‘greater good’?

12. What will be my theme for the coming year?

Happy New Year Everyone and we will speak with you in the New Year 🙂

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

On this day in…

1836 – Mexico’s independence was recognized by Spain.

1846 – Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

1869 – William E. Semple, of Mt. Vernon, OH, patented an acceptable chewing gum.

1902 – The first professional indoor football game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Syracuse defeated the Philadelphia Nationals 6-0.

1912 – The first municipally-owned street cars were used on the streets of San Francisco, CA.

1942 – R.O. Sullivan crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the 100th time.

1945 – The U.S. Congress officially recognized the “Pledge of Allegiance.”

1950 – The Peak District became Britain’s first designated National Park.

1973 – Alexander Solzhenitsyn published “Gulag Archipelago,” an expose of the Soviet prison system.

1981 – Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, VA.

“Try to be like the turtle – at ease in your own shell.” – Bill Copeland

Photos of the day December 28^th, 2012

Max the dog, who belongs to farm manager Cass Gilmore, splashes through floating cranberries during the fall harvest at Gilmore Cranberry Co. in South Carver, Mass.Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

Chris Rabin waded along a walkway by Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans on Aug. 28 as waves grew higher from the wind and storm surge in what was the first big test of New Orleans’s improved flood defenses.- Photo: Ann Hermes/Staff

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

– Winston Churchill

Market Closes for December 28th, 2012:

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell as U.S. President Barack Obama met congressional leaders at the White House three days before a deadline to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

Bank of Nova Scotia fell 0.9 percent and Manulife Financial Corp., the nation’s largest insurer, slipped 0.4 percent.

Silvercorp Metals Inc. and Pan American Silver Corp. lost at least 2 percent as the price of the metal declined for the fifth straight week. MEG Energy Corp. dropped 1.7 percent after selling shares to raise C$800 million to fund its 2013 capital budget.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index dropped 57.65 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,316.12 in Toronto. The equity gauge has gained 3 percent this year, trailing markets in every developed nation in the world except Portugal and Spain.

“This is the way the market is going to be for the next few weeks, at least into mid-January as it looks like they won’t be having a deal in place for Dec. 31,” Bruce Campbell, president of Campbell & Lee Investment Management Inc., said from Oakville, Ontario. “The consensus now is we’re going over, but that’s OK because you can solve it in January and make it retroactive. It’s more of a hill than a complete cliff.”

Obama, who had been negotiating one-on-one with U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, met today with Republicans Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats. The president is asking leaders to extend tax cuts for annual income up to $250,000, reiterating his Dec. 21 proposal for an interim plan, said an official familiar with the meeting.

Lawmakers are working to avoid more than $600 billion in tax-and-spending changes, known as the fiscal cliff. Failure to avert the fiscal cliff will probably send the U.S. into a recession in the first half of the year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Scotiabank slipped 0.9 percent to C$57.43 and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lost 0.5 percent to C$80.55. Manulife fell 0.4 percent to C$13.39 as financial stocks declined. Nine out of 10 industries in the index retreated, with trading volume 57 percent lower than the 30-day average.

Silvercorp declined 2 percent to C$5 and Pan American Silver retreated 2.1 percent to C$18.08. Silver for March delivery slipped 0.9 percent to $29.975 an ounce in New York.

MEG Energy fell 1.7 percent to C$30.91. The company announced it has raised about C$800 million by issuing more than 24 million common shares at C$33 a share.

MEG plans to use the proceeds to help fund its 2013 capital budget, which will be primarily focused on increasing production and capacity at the company’s existing facilities, the company said Dec. 10.

Poseidon Concepts Corp., a Calgary-based company that sells fluid storage tanks for the oil and gas industry, plunged 13 percent to C$1.29 after having its price target cut by analysts at FirstEnergy Capital Corp. and Haywood Securities Inc.

The stock has lost 61 percent in the past two days after yesterday announcing the suspension of future dividends and the formation of a special committee to investigate account writedowns. Poseidon also shuffled its management and board, including the appointment of A. Scott Dawson as interim president and chief executive officer.

US

By Andrew Rummer and Inyoung Hwang

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks slid for a fifth day and Treasuries rose amid concern lawmakers won’t reach a budget deal to avoid the fiscal cliff of spending cuts and tax increases looming in January. Commodities slipped as the dollar gained.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 1.1 percent to close at 1,402.43, its biggest drop since Nov. 14, and S&P 500 futures extended their decline to as much as 2 percent after the close of trading. The benchmark gauge erased its gain for December and pared its 2012 advance to less than 12 percent. Ten-year Treasury yields fell four basis points to 1.7 percent while Italian 10-year rallied as demand increased at a debt auction.

The dollar strengthened against most major peers.

U.S. equities sank to their lows of the session as an official familiar with today’s budget talks said President Barack Obama is seeking an up-or-down vote on his proposal to extend tax cuts for annual income up to $250,000, absent a counteroffer from congressional leaders. The report fueled concern lawmakers have moved no closer to a compromise to avert more than $600 billion in tax and spending changes in 2013.

“What the markets fear most is that we’re in this paralysis where the government is unable to govern, communicate and compromise,” Greg Peterson, director of investment research at Ballentine Partners LLC in Waltham, Massachusetts, which manages about $4.2 billion in assets, said by telephone.

“There’s still hope in our minds that they can get something done but if they go off the cliff, it’s going to be serious.”

The five-day retreat in U.S. stocks was the longest for the S&P 500 since September and the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s longest since July. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 option prices, jumped 17 percent to 22.72 today, the highest level since June 13. The index has surged 43 percent this month, poised for its biggest increase since July 2011.

Obama met for just over an hour today with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, both Republicans, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats. The Republican-led House called an unusual Sunday session for the evening of Dec. 30, though the leaders didn’t say what action they planned to take.

Trading volume for S&P 500 was 30 percent below the 30-day average. Stock-index futures erased early gains before the open of exchanges in New York. The index capped a 1.9 percent weekly decline and today’s drop left it down 1 percent for December.

Energy and raw-material companies led losses among all 10 of the main industry groups in the S&P 500, with Valero Energy Corp. and Peabody Energy Corp. dropping more than 2 percent to pace declines. Hewlett-Packard Co. tumbled 2.6 percent after the computer maker said the U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation relating to Autonomy Corp., the software company it bought last year.

An S&P gauge of homebuilders retreated 0.7 percent even after better-than-forecast growth in home sales. The index of pending home sales climbed 1.7 percent to 106.4, the highest reading since April 2010, after a revised 5 percent gain in October, the National Association of Realtors reported. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 1 percent advance.

Another report showed the MNI Chicago Report’s business barometer rose to 51.6 in December from 50.4 the prior month, above the reading of 50 that is the dividing line between expansion and contraction and higher than the median estimate of economists for 51.

Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasuries capped the first weekly gain in a month. The securities lagged behind stocks this year by the most since 2009, with equities returning eight times more than bonds.

The dollar was stronger against 10 of 16 major peers, rising the most against the Mexican peso, Norwegian krone and Brazilian real. The U.S. currency strengthened to 0.1 percent to $1.3221 per euro.

The S&P GSCI Index of commodities lost 0.2 percent as zinc, cotton, aluminum and coffee led declines. Oil slipped 7 cents to $90.80 a barrel in New York.

Gold futures fell, completing the longest run of weekly declines in almost three years, as a stronger dollar curbed demand for the metal as an alternative investment. Gold for February delivery slipped 0.5 percent to $1,655.90 an ounce and capped a fifth straight weekly decline.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.7 percent today, trimming its 2012 advance to 14 percent, the largest annual increase since 2009. The number of shares changing hands today was 36 percent less than the 30-day average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bankia SA plunged 27 percent to the lowest price since its initial share sale in July 2011 as the bank was temporarily excluded from Spain’s benchmark IBEX 35. Porsche SE surged 6.3 percent to the highest in almost two years after an appeals court ruling dismissed a lawsuit by hedge funds that accused the German carmaker of concealing a plan to corner the market in Volkswagen AG shares.

The yield on Italian 10-year bonds fell three basis points to 4.50 percent, erasing an earlier five-point gain, as the country sold 5.9 billion euros ($7.8 billion) of five- and 10- year government securities. Investors bid for 1.47 times the amount of the 10-year debt offered, up from 1.18 times on Nov. 29. The yield had earlier increased as much as 4 basis points.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.6 percent.

Government reports today showed Japan’s industrial output slid 1.7 percent last month from October, worse than all 27 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey that had a median forecast of a 0.5 percent decline. The data bolstered the case for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to push for further monetary easing. Consumer prices excluding fresh food fell 0.1 percent in November from a year earlier.

Abe’s cabinet is working on a plan to fight against a strong yen, the Nikkei newspaper said. Proposals include the use of currency intervention when needed, the paper said.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index advanced 0.6 percent to extend this year’s increase to 15 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rallied 1.2 percent to the highest since June 21. The BSE India Sensitive Index added 0.6 percent, heading for its best year since 2009. Vietnam’s VN Index jumped 0.9 percent to the highest since August, capping its largest weekly gain since February. Russia’s Micex Index fell 0.2 percent.

Have a great weekend and a Happy Happy New Year to everyone!!!!!

Be Magnificent!

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller

Amanda Bourke

Assistant to Carolann Steinhoff

Queensbury Securities Inc.

St. Andrew’s Square

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8X 3Y7

Tel: 778-430-5808

Fax: 778-430-5838