March 10, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:
I was given a book over the holidays entitled The Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Recently the person who gave it to me was visiting my office and asked if I had a chance to read it yet.  I told him I had not, and he told me that he loved the book and that he even reads one of the chapters, The Road Trip, to some of his patients (he’s a counselor/metal health therapist).   That impressed me so I thought I must go home and read it that night, which I did.  Here is the chapter, The Road Trip.

                                                            The Road Trip
Here’s how I’ve learned to deal with my fear: I made a decision a long time ago that if I want creativity in my life – and I do – then I will have to make space for fear, too.
  Plenty of space.
  I decided that I would need to build an expansive enough interior life that my fear and my creativity could peacefully coexist, since it appeared that they would always be together.  In fact, it seems to me that my fear and my creativity are basically conjoined twins – as evidenced by the fact that creativity cannot take a single step forward without fear marching right alongside it.  Fear and creativity shared a womb, they were born at the same time, and they still share some vital organs.  This is why we have to be careful of how we handle our fear – because I’ve noticed that when people try to kill off their fear, they often end up inadvertently murdering their creativity in the process.
  So I don’t try to kill off my fear.  I don’t go to war against it.  Instead, I make all that space for it.  Heaps of space.  Every single day.  I’m making space for fear right this moment.  I allow my fear to live and breathe and stretch out its legs comfortably.  It seems to me that the less I fight my fear, the less it fights back.  If I can relax, fear relaxes, too.  In fact, I cordially invite fear to come along with me everywhere I go.  I even have a welcoming speech prepared for fear, which I deliver right before embarking upon any new project or big adventure.
  It goes something like this:
  “Dearest Fear:  Creativity and I are about to go on a road trip together.  I understand you’ll be joining us, because you always do.  I acknowledge that you believe you have an important job to do in my life, and that you take your job seriously.  Apparently your job is to induce complete panic whenever I’m about to do anything interesting – and, my I say, you are superb at your job.  So by all means, keep doing your job, if you feel you must.  But I will also be doing my job on this road trip, which is to work hard and stay focused.  And Creativity will be doing its job, which is to remain stimulating and inspiring.  There’s plenty of room in this vehicle for all of us, so make yourself at home, but understand this: Creativity and I are the only ones who will be making any decision s along the way.  I recognize and respect that you are part of this family, and so I will never exclude you from our activities, but still – your suggestion will never be followed.  You’re allowed to have a seat, and you’re allowed to have a voice, but you are not allowed to have a vote.  You’re not allowed to touch the road maps; you’re not allowed to suggest detours; you’re not allowed to fiddle with  the temperature.  Dude, you’re not even allowed to touch the radio.  But above all else, my dear old familiar friend, you are absolutely forbidden to drive.”
  Then we head off together – me and creativity and fear – side by side by side forever, advancing once more into the terrifying but marvelous terrain of unknown outcome.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A lotus flower grows in a dry cracked earth of an empty pond during the dry season outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Friday. Heng Sinith/AP

A yellow barn is surrounded by snow covered trees after an overnight snowstorm on Friday, in Zelienople, Pa. Keith Srakocic/AP

A FedEx cargo airplane flies as the moon is seen from Whittier, Calif., on Thursday. Nick Ut/AP

A Pug arrives for the second day of the Crufts Dog Show in Birmingham, England, on Friday. Darren Staples/Reuters
Market Closes for March 10^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
March 10, 1862: Paper money issued in the US.
On this day in 2000, NASDAQ closes at a record 5048.62, up 24.1% for the year to date — after gaining 86.5% in 1999. It would take NASDAQ 15 years to surpass that level.

Happy birthday, bull market. Eight years ago, the S&P 500 hit its crisis-era low. It was hard to imagine at the time that one of the longest bull markets in history would start the next day. Since then, it has risen by almost 250%. 
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks nudged higher as gains in health-care and materials stocks were offset by a big drop in shares of one of the country’s biggest banks.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose less than 0.1 percent to 15,506.68 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The gauge slipped 0.7 percent for the week. The materials index was among the biggest gainers today, led by an 11 percent increase in copper miner Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. as the price of the resource climbed 0.8 percent.
     All sectors gained except financials, which fell 1.1 percent as shares of Toronto-Dominion Bank declined 5.6 percent, the most since 2009. The stock fell on reports from Canada’s state broadcaster that some workers broke the law to meet sales targets.
     In other moves:
* Element Fleet Management Corp. plunged as much as 12 percent, its biggest intraday drop since August 2015, after management cut its 2017 guidance
* Gold producers rose, snapping an eight-day streak of declines, with New Gold Inc. and Semafo Inc. each gaining more than 7.7 percent
US
By Jeremy Herron
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose after jobs data cleared the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates without forcing it to accelerate the pace for future tightening. The dollar fell versus the euro after European Central Bank policy makers were said to have considered their ability to tighten before a bond-buying program comes to an end.
     The S&P 500 Index pared its first weekly loss in seven after U.S. employers added jobs at an above-average pace for a second month, bolstering confidence in the economy. The yield on 10-year Treasuries headed lower for the first time in 10 days, while the dollar retreated versus its major peers. The euro strengthened past $1.06 as a person familiar with the ECB meeting Thursday said officials discussed if it is possible to raise rates before stopping quantitative easing. Gold was little changed near $1,200 per ounce after four days of declines. Crude fell below $49 a barrel to cap its worst week since November.
     Friday’s American jobs report is the last major piece of economic data before the Federal Reserve meets next week, with markets pricing a rate increase as a near certainty. While hiring was robust and wage gains strong, the pace might not be fast enough to force the central bank to accelerate its timeline for future rate hikes from the current forecast of three. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi signaled Thursday its accommodative bias may have reached an end as global growth picks up.
     Read our Markets Live blog here.
     Here are the main market moves:
     Stocks
* The S&P 500 climbed 0.3 percent to 2,372.90 at 4 p.m. in New York, paring a weekly slide to 0.4 percent.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.1 percent to pare its loss in the five days to 0.5 percent. The FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent Friday.
* The MSCI Emerging Markets Index advanced 0.6 percent to pare its weekly drop.

     Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dropped 0.6 percent, trimming a gain in the week.
* The euro gained 1.2 percent to $1.0699, rising a second day while the British pound was little changed at $1.2185.
* The yen strengthened 0.2 percent to 114.692 per dollar to halt a fourth day of declines..

     Bonds
* The yield on the U.S. Treasury note due in a decade slipped three basis points to 2.58 percent.
* It climbed five basis points Thursday to exceed the 2.6 percent mark that Bill Gross, the bond-market veteran at Janus Capital Management, said will signal the start of a bear market, should it hold on a weekly basis.
* European bonds tumbled after the ECB meeting discussion was reported. German 10-year bund yields rose six basis points to 0.49 percent. Similar-maturity Italian bond yields added five basis points to 2.36 percent.
* Governing Council members meeting on March 9 exchanged views on ways of communicating and sequencing an exit from unconventional stimulus, euro-area central-bank officials said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations were private.

      Commodities
* Oil fell below $49 a barrel in New York after surging U.S. supplies erased three months of gains that followed OPEC’s deal to cut output.
* WTI crude sank 1.6 percent at $48.49 per barrel. It fell 2 percent on Thursday to the lowest close since Nov. 29.
* Gold advanced 0.1 percent to $1,204 per ounce.
* Copper rebounded from 2-month low as London Metal Exchange stockpiles ended the biggest surge in decades and workers at one of the world’s biggest mines in Peru voted to strike.
 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

The supreme being impregnates all, and, by consequence, is the goodness innate in every thing.
To be truly united with all in knowledge, love, and service, and thus to realize the Self in the omnipresent God,
is the essence of good.  This is the keystone of the Upanishad teaching: Life is immense.
Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,

Carolann

The work of today is the history of tomorrow and we are its makers.
                                      -Juliette Gordon Low, 1860-1927

Even if just a passenger, I’m not leaving the ship during the storm.
                                                -Alain Juppe, b. 1945
                                                 March 10, 2017

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
Toll Free: 1.877.430.5895
Fax: 778.430.5828
www.carolannsteinhoff.com