January 6, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I was saddened to read in last weekend’s Financial Times that Susie Boyt’s column was appearing for the last time.  She has decided to take some time off  “for good behavior, possible for bad.” 

I have been enjoying her column every week for the past 13 years that she’s been writing them.   From her final column, “So Long, Farewell,”  I thought the following part was  worthwhile sharing with you in case you don’t read the FT or perhaps missed last weekend’s:

“A while ago I was asked to put some of my ideas for living into a little treatise and I will leave you with that now. These are the thoughts I entertain when I feel most myself and most alive. They don’t necessarily agree with me, but all any of us can do is live our lives in our own character. A small part of me still believes that to be the person in the room with the most feelings is to be the best person. I know it’s not wise or fashionable to say so, but it is one way of having maximum life.

Things that are hard have more of life at their heart than things that are easy.The future must prove better and happier than the past.

All feelings however painful are to be prized.

Glamour is a moral stance.

Loss, its memory and its anticipation, lies at the heart of the human experience.

If you have a thin skin all aspects of life cost more and have more value.

The world is crueller and more wonderful than anyone ever says.

You must try to prepare and be ready for the moment that you’re needed, for the call could come at any time.

There are worse things in life than being taken for a ride.

Grief is no real match for the human heart, which is an infinitely resourceful organ (I really hope that one is true).

I don’t want to sound like a blushing Oscar winner or a disgraced politician found akimbo in a Pimlico mansion block but . . . it has been wonderful writing these columns every week. Thank you for reading me. I send every best possible wish.”

susie.boyt@ft.com; @susieboyt

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A bird eats an ashberry on a cold winter day in central Lviv, Ukraine, on Friday. Gleb Garanich/Reuters

A swimmer holds up a cross after it was thrown into the water by an Orthodox priest during an Epiphany ceremony to bless the sea at Famagousta, Cyprus, on Friday. This is the second time the ceremony has taken place here since 1974, when the small island nation was cleaved along ethnic lines. Petros Karadjias/AP

Mongolian-born grand sumo champion Yokozuna Hakuho performs the New Year’s ring-entering rite during the annual celebration at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on Friday. Issei Kato/Reuters
Market Closes for January 6^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Canada
By Joseph Ciolli
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks declined as an index of commodities fell and drugmakers retreated, offsetting a report showing a trade surplus and surge in full-time jobs. U.S. data showing wages in December increased the most since 2009 spurred speculation the Federal Reserve will raise rates at a faster pace.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index snapped a three-day streak of gains, slipping 0.5 percent to 15,504.37 at 12:37 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge had flirted with an all-time high in the prior two sessions, closing Thursday 71 points away from its September 2014 peak. The index finished 2016 as the best- performing developed stock market and has risen in each of the last six months. Raw-material stocks pace the loss on Friday, declining 3 percent, while health-care and consumer staple shares lost more than 0.9 percent.
     The U.S. jobs data increased expectations that the Fed will raise its benchmark lending rate. Economists now see a 35 percent chance of a hike at the March meeting, up from 31 percent on Thursday. The probability also increased for subsequent Fed meetings.
     The Canadian economic report saw the first trade surplus in more than two years, while full-time positions rose 81,300 in December from the previous month, the biggest gain since March 2012.
     In other moves:
* Tahoe Resources lost 11%, the biggest decline out of all raw- material producers, after forecasting 2017 gold production that missed estimates
* MAG Silver Corp., Pretium Resources Inc. and Alamos Gold Inc. also fell more than 7.4% as the Bloomberg Commodity Index decreased 0.2%
* Crew Energy Inc., Bonterra Energy Corp. and Enerplus Corp. lost at least 1.5% even as the price of crude oil rose for a third straight day
US
By Oliver Renick
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks advanced, reversing an earlier decline as the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirted with 20,000 for nearly four hours. Equities also got a boost from government data showing that wages in December increased the most since 2009.
     The S&P 500 Index added 0.4 percent to 2,276.98 as of 4 p.m. in New York, extending its weekly gain to 1.7 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 0.3 percent to 19,963.80 as Nike Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. both added at least 1.5 percent.
* Nasdaq Composite and Nasdaq 100 indexes advanced at least 0.6%, with both closing at all-time highs
* Tech shares led S&P gains, up 1%, with the FANG block extending weekly gains
* Phone stocks down 2.7% for the third straight loss
* Labor data showed a solid year in 2016
** 156,000 increase in December payrolls followed a 204,000 rise in November that was bigger than previously estimated; median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 175,000 advance
** Jobless rate ticked up to 4.7% as the labor force grew; wages rose 2.9% from December 2015
* The S&P 500 closed little changed on Thursday, outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which fell 0.2% to move further away from the elusive 20,000 level
* All industry groups of the S&P 500 have advanced in 2017, with health-care and real estate firms outperforming energy producers and utilities
* EARNINGS:
** None after market
** Pre-market Monday: Commerical Metals (CMC), Global Payments (GPN), Acuity Brands (AYI)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

To live completely, fully, in the moment is to live with what is, the actual, without any sense of condemnation
or justification – then you understand it so totally that you are finished with it.
When you see clearly the problem is solved.
Krishnamurti

As ever,

Carolann

Success is a consequence and must not be an end.
                        -Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1880

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

Queensbury Securities Inc.,
St. Andrew’s Square,
Suite 340A, 730 View St.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7

Tel: 778.430.5808
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com

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