June 5, 2012 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Learning to look

“Today’s signature move is the head swivel,” writes Holly Finn in The Wall Street Journal.  “It is the age of look-then-look-away.  Our average attention span halved in a decade, from 12 to five minutes, according to a study commissioned by Lloyd’s TSB Insurance.  (And that was in 2008).  We miss almost everything: we text while we walk.  What makes a person stand out now is the ability to look and keep looking.  But as global completion makes us manic about technology…we rush past the humanities, the very fields that teach us how and what to notice… We need an intervention – and not the psychotherapeutic kind.  A ‘museum intervention’ is now mandatory at Yale’s School of Medicine for all first-year medical students.  Called Enhancing Observational Skills, the program asks students to look at and then describe paintings – not Pollocks and Picassos but Victorian pieces, with whole people in them.  The aim?  To improve diagnostic knack.”  -from The Globe & Mail, June 5^th, 2012.

And on this day in…

1968 – Sirhan Sirhan shoots democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy after his pivotal victory in the California Primary
1967  – The Six Day War between Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan begins
2004 – Ronald Reagan dies at age 93. Reagan was the 40th U.S. President
1933 – FDR Takes the United States off the Gold Standard

photos of the day June 5, 2012

Revelers on the Mall in London watch Queen Elizabeth II appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony as part of the four-day Diamond Jubilee celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

Sang Tan/AP

Children use cardboard eclipse glasses as they prepare to watch the transit of Venus in Allahabad, India. Stargazers around the world are setting up special telescopes and passing out eclipse glasses to view the once-in-a-lifetime celestial cameo of Venus passing in front of the sun.

Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

Market Closes for June 5, 2012:

North American Markets

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Steve Chambers

June 5 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks posted their biggest advance in two weeks as rising natural gas futures spurred a rally among energy companies.

Natural gas producers Crew Energy Inc. and Encana Corp. rallied more than 5.5 percent, pushing the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Energy Index up 1.7 percent. Westport Innovations Inc. surged 19 percent after announcing an agreement with Caterpillar Inc. to develop fuel systems for off-road vehicles.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 155.57 points, or 1.4 percent, to 11,491.34 at 2:02 p.m. Toronto time. The benchmark index was headed for its fourth-best day of the year.

“May was an absolute disaster, and we needed to stabilize that,” Greg Taylor, a portfolio manager at Aurion Capital in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm manages C$5 billion. “It feels like we’re getting closer. There is the potential for more people to come off the sidelines.”

The Bank of Canada kept its main interest rate unchanged for a 14th time. Canada’s growth prospects remain “largely consistent with expectations” while the global outlook “has weakened in recent weeks,” the Ottawa-based central bank said today. The unchanged rate of 1 percent was forecast by all 27 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Stocks also rose as a U.S. government report showed better- than-expected growth for the service industry. Finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s leading economies agreed to coordinate their response to Europe’s fiscal crisis on a conference call that dealt with Spain and Greece.

Natural gas futures rose for a second day as hotter-than- normal weather forecasts raised expectations of greater demand for the fuel at power plants. Encana, the natural-gas producer, jumped 5.5 percent to C$20.76. Crew Energy rallied 13 percent to C$6.15. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest energy provider, added 1.4 percent to C$28.10.

Westport Innovations, a developer of natural-gas engines, jumped 19 percent to C$27.60. Cooperation with Peoria, Illinois- based Caterpillar will initially focus on development of natural-gas engines used in mining trucks and locomotives and the possible use of Westport’s High Pressure Direct Injection technology, Westport said today in a statement.

Financial stocks rose for the first time in three days.

Royal Bank of Canada advanced 1.4 percent to C$50.25. Toronto- Dominion climbed 1.8 percent to C$77.85.

Goldcorp Inc., the second-largest producer of the metal, gained 1.2 percent to C$41.66, as gold futures advanced for the second time in three sessions. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, slipped 0.3 percent to C$43.64.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the biggest fertilizer company, rose 1.9 percent to C$39.62.

US

By Rita Nazareth

June 5 (Bloomberg) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose, amid the cheapest valuation in six months, after an unexpected increase in a measure of service industries and as a report said Europe’s bailout fund was preparing a credit line for Spain.

Financial, commodity and technology shares had the biggest gains in the S&P 500 among 10 groups. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Hewlett-Packard Co. climbed at least 2.9 percent. A gauge of homebuilders in S&P indexes rallied 4 percent as Lennar Corp. and PulteGroup Inc. surged more than 5.9 percent. Facebook Inc. retreated 3.8 percent, extending its decline since the company’s initial public offering last month to 32 percent.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent to 1,285.50 at 4 p.m. New York time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 26.49 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,127.95. It snapped a four-day drop. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies gained 1.2 percent to 746.09. About 6.1 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges today, or 9.3 percent below the three-month average.

“I’d be a buyer of stocks,” John Manley, chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds in New York, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $205 billion. “The U.S. economy is doing OK. Obviously, there are lots of things that could go wrong. We’re going to have to see more agreements in Europe. Yet valuation is attractive, the market is cheap.”

The S&P 500 started the day trading at 12.9 times its companies’ reported earnings, the lowest valuation since November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Yesterday, the index briefly extended a drop from its April peak to more than 10 percent amid disappointing economic data.

Equities reversed early losses today as the Institute for Supply Management’s index of non-manufacturing businesses, which covers about 90 percent of the economy, unexpectedly rose to 53.7 last month from April’s 53.5. The median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected 53.4. Finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s leading economies agreed to coordinate their response to Europe’s crisis on a conference call that dealt with Spain and Greece.

Spain called for outside support for the first time to battle the financial crisis as Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said European institutions should help shore up the nation’s lenders. The country may receive a precautionary credit line from the European Financial Stability Facility, Germany’s Die Welt newspaper reported in a preview of a story that will run tomorrow, citing unidentified people familiar with talks about the possible option.

“We’re going to continue to see a bipolar financial market until the European situation gets sorted out,” said Chad Morganlander, a Florham Park, New Jersey-based money manager at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which oversees $127 billion of assets.

“The U.S. economy is growing at a glacial pace. This growth rate could sustain market valuations.”

Eight out of 10 groups in the S&P 500 gained. The KBW Bank Index added 1.5 percent. JPMorgan climbed 3.2 percent to $31.99.

Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest personal-computer maker, rose 2.9 percent to $21.68. Homebuilder Lennar jumped 6.7 percent to $25.27, after slumping 13 percent in two days.

PulteGroup increased 6 percent to $8.16.

Prudential Financial Inc. led a rally of life insurers as investors bet the company’s agreement to handle pension obligations for General Motors Co. may signal more opportunities for the industry. Prudential, the second-largest U.S. life insurer, advanced 2.8 percent to $45.99. No. 1 MetLife Inc. climbed 2.1 percent to $28.39.

SanDisk Corp. surged 5.5 percent to $33.41. The company, which makes memory chips used in mobile devices, was rated outperform in new coverage at Pacific Crest Securities.

Facebook slid 3.8 percent to $25.87, the lowest since it went public last month at $38. A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed sagging interest in the site and a minority of users being influenced by ads and comments when making purchasing decisions.

Starbucks Corp. dropped 2.8 percent to $52.41. The world’s largest coffee-shop operator agreed to buy Bay Bread LLC for $100 million in cash, making its largest acquisition to further expand its offering of food with pastries and sandwiches.

Dollar General Corp. declined 3.6 percent to $46.76. The discount-retail chain said Buck Holdings LP, along with Chief Executive Officer Richard Dreiling and other executives, plans to sell a total of 25 million shares.

W.W. Grainger Inc. dropped 5.1 percent to $177.95. The supplier of industrial goods from tools to paper fell after an MKM Partners analyst said the growth phase of the manufacturing cycle is over.

The S&P 500 may extend its decline from its April peak to 15 percent in a “selling climax” that would deplete bears, according to StockCharts.com Inc. The index dropped 9.9 percent to 1,278.18 through yesterday from its 2012 high on April 2 as concern grew that global economic growth is slowing and Europe’s debt crisis is worsening.

While the gauge will likely be supported at 1,250, further selling may push it as low as 1,200, a level where the S&P 500 would retrace 61.8 percent its advance since October, said Arthur Hill, a technical analyst at Redmond, Washington-based StockCharts.com.

“Economic reports have been largely below expectations the last two months and the stock market is pricing in this information,” Hill wrote in a note yesterday. While the S&P 500 will probably find support at 1,250, “we could even see an overshoot because some sort of selling climax is possible before all selling is exhausted,” he said.

The S&P 500 slumped 6.3 percent in May, the most since September, amid concern Greece would exit the euro area and as data on U.S. jobs and manufacturing missed forecasts. The index on June 1 dropped below its 200-day average for the first time since December after a Labor Department report showed the economy added the fewest jobs in a year.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

To go from opinion to perception,

from imagination to fact, from illusion to reality,

from something that is not there,

to something that is;

that is the way forward.

-Swami Prajnanpad, 1891-1974

As ever,

Carolann

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

-Ralph Hodgson, 1871-1962

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