July 6, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
On this day in 1933, Major League Baseball holds its first All-Star Game. The American League defeats the National League 4-2.

July 6, 1819, John Keats wrote to Fanny  Keats, from Shanklin on the Isle of Wight:

Our window looks over house tops and cliffs onto the sea, so that when the ships sail past the cottage chimneys you may take them for weather-cocks.  We have hill and dale, forest and mead, and plenty of lobsters.  I was on the Portsmouth coach the Sunday before last in that heavy shower – and I may say I went to Portsmouth by water.  I got a little cold and as it always flies to my throat I am a little out of sorts that way.  There were on the coach with me some common French people, but very well-behaved.  There was a woman amongst them to whom the poor men in ragged coats were more gallant than ever I saw gentleman to lady at a ball.  When we got down to walk uphill, one of them picked a rose, and on remounting gave it to the woman with, “Ma’mselle – voilá une belle rose!” –from The Book of Days.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY
Sailboats race on Lake Balaton in Hungary as part of a Grand Prix around the lake. ARON SZANTO/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

Clad in the ‘maillot jaune,’ the yellow jersey signifying the overall leader of the Tour de France cycling race, Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas, second from front right, rode in a pack along a lake between Vittel and La Planche des Belles Filles in France during the race’s fifth stage Wednesday. Mr. Thomas’s teammate, Christopher Froome, is in the top position after Thursday’s sixth stage. PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

A reveler leaps from a fountain in Pamplona, Spain, during the opening of the annual San Fermin Running of the Bulls festival. PABLO BLAZQUEZ DOMINGUEZ/GETTY IMAGES
Market Closes for July 6^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
160
More than 160 private companies are valued at $1 billion or more, including ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. and Airbnb Inc.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks closed at their lowest since December amid a global selloff prompted by increasing hawkishness from central banks and weaker-than-expected U.S. employment data.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index lost 75 points or 0.5 percent to 15,077.88 as every sector fell. Consumer staples stocks tumbled 1.6 percent, led by a 3.6 percent decline in Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., while materials shares lost 1.4 percent. Tahoe Resources Inc. plunged 33 percent after Guatemala suspended the operating license for its Escobal mine.
     Industrial stocks fell 0.3 percent despite an 11 percent jump in shares of Air Canada to their highest in a decade. The airline said second-quarter earnings will “significantly exceed” the consensus analyst estimate.
     In other moves:
* CCL Industries Inc. fell 6.3 percent after Keybanc downgraded it to sector weight from overweight
* Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. jumped 13 percent after receiving an arbitration ruling in a dispute with its co- founders
* WestJet Airlines Ltd. rose 3.1 percent to the highest in 10 months, buoyed by Air Canada’s improved forecast.
US
By Jeremy Herron
     (Bloomberg) — The hawkish tone from developed-nation central banks continued to roil financial markets, with U.S. stocks falling the most in seven weeks, Treasury yields rising to levels last seen in May and crude settling below $46 a barrel.
     The 10-year yield climbed to 2.37 percent, with DoubleLine Capital’s Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Gundlach saying the selling has only just begun. The S&P 500 Index closed below its 50-day moving average for the first time in seven weeks, with yield-sensitive shares leading losses. The dollar weakened following a private report that showed the pace of U.S. hiring moderated before Friday’s government payrolls data. The yield on benchmark German bunds hit the highest since January 2016.
     Central banks from Asia to Europe and the U.S. have struck a more hawkish tone in the past few weeks as they seek to remove nearly a decade of accommodation. The rise in yields has started to weigh on equity markets just as data show growth in the American economy may be moderating. European Central Bank officials considered when they met last month removing a pledge to increase bond-buying, while ADP Research Institute data showed companies adding fewer workers to U.S. payrolls in June than the prior month.    
     Here’s what’s coming up:
* The G-20 summit in Hamburg starts Friday. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to hold his first meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin as well as meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
* And Friday will also see the U.S. Labor Department report official jobs figures. American employers probably added around 175,000 workers in June and wage growth probably strengthened, consistent with a solid labor market, economists project.
     These are the main moves in markets:
     Stocks
* The S&P 500 declined 0. percent to 2,409.75 as of 4 p.m. in New York, slumping below the average price for the past 50 days of 2,413.54.
* Phone stocks sank 2.3 percent in the steepest drop since January, while real estate shares lost 1.9 percent. Both have high dividend yields and lose favor when Treasury rates rise.
* The Nasdaq 100 Index lost 0.9 percent, pushing its loss since June 8 to 4.9 percent.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.7 percent.
* Emerging-market shares slipped 0.4 percent. 
     Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index weakened 0.3 percent.
* The euro advanced 0.6 percent to $1.1424 and the British pound strengthened 0.3 percent to $1.2967.
     Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose four basis points to 2.37 percent, after falling three basis points Wednesday. The rate is higher by 23 basis points since June 26.
* Thirty-year yields surged as much as seven basis points Thursday to 2.92 percent, breaching both 50- and 200-day moving averages.
* German 10-year yields climbed to their highest level in 18 months in a sign that a hawkish shift by central bankers is penetrating the market
* The bund rate gained nine basis point to 0.56 percent. French 10-year yields climbed 10 basis points and those on gilts added six.
     Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude futures added 39 cents to settle at $45.52 a barrel. Rising U.S. production dampened the enthusiasm over declining crude and gasoline stockpiles.
* Crude has held below $50 a barrel for six weeks.
* Gold lost 0.2 percent to $1,224.99 an ounce, snapping two days of gains.
* Spring-wheat prices plunged the most in six years and winter grades fell in active trading as investors weighed ample U.S. inventories against declining crop conditions.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

No matter how insignificant the thing you have to do,
do it as well as you can,
give it as much  of your care and attention as you would give to the thing
you regard as most important.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.
                               -Corrie Ten Boome, 1892-1983

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
(C): 250.881.0801
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com