March 19, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

New Mark Knopfler CD now available: Tracker.  A true master songwriter.  See his web site for upcoming tour dates….Europe this spring and summer and North America starting in  September.  His first North American tour date is Vancouver on September 10^th and tickets on sale now.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Sheep graze in the meadow in front of the Mont Saint-Michel off France’s Normandy coast on Thursday. The Mont Saint-Michel 11th century abbey is expected to be entirely surrounded by the English Channel following exceptionally high spring tides. Parts of the French coast will be on alert for the so-called ‘tide of the century,’ with tidal coefficients of 118 and 119 respectively on March 20 and 21. Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

A Kashmiri fisherman cleans his Shikara, or traditional boat, as he prepares to head home after a days work on the Dal Lake in the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday. The Srinagar-Jammu highway, connecting the Kashmir valley to the rest of the country, on Thursday re-opened for one-way traffic after remaining closed for four consecutive day following heavy rain and snowfall at some places. Dar Yasin/AP

Market Closes for March 19^th, 2015     

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Michelle F. Davis

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks dropped, halting a three-day advance, as energy and raw-materials shares fell with oil prices.

     RMP Energy Inc. tumbled 25 percent as fourth-quarter earnings missed analyst estimates and the company cut its capital expenditures budget for 2015. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. retreated 2.6 percent as the fertilizer producer said tax-rule changes will cut 2015 profit.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index slid 88.31 points, or 0.6 percent, to 14,873.93 at the close in Toronto. The gauge yesterday gained 0.4 percent after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its estimate for where the benchmark interest rate will be by the end of 2015. The S&P/TSX has advanced 1.7 percent in 2015.

     Seven of 10 industries in the benchmark equity gauge dropped, led by a 2.2 percent retreat in energy shares. Raw- materials companies lost 1.2 percent. Trading volume was 12 percent below the 30-day average.

     Stocks dropped today after oil resumed its slump as attention returned to an unprecedented glut in U.S. crude inventories. Canadian equities rallied yesterday after Fed officials said the central bank won’t raise borrowing costs until the labor market improves further and it is “reasonably confident” inflation will return to its target.

US

By Callie Bost

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, after a rally Wednesday on the Federal Reserve’s policy statement, as banks retreated and energy companies slumped with the price of oil.

     Transocean Ltd. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. dropped more than 4.4 percent to pace declines in energy stocks after the group posted their best gain in a month yesterday. Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley fell more than 1.7 percent. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index rose 1.9 percent to a record. Apple Inc. slid in its first day in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.5 percent to 2,089.27 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow declined 117.16 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,959.03 after rising 1.3 percent Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.2 percent after briefly climbing above the 5,000 level for the second straight day. About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 7.5 percent below the three-month average.

     “It would appear from the reaction yesterday, investors would rather have interest rates stay lower for longer than see the economy improve,” Bruce McCain, who helps oversee more than

$25 billion as chief investment strategist at the private- banking unit of KeyCorp in Cleveland, said by phone. “We’re stepping back a little from what occurred yesterday and we might be in for a period of consolidation.”

     The S&P 500 has gone 22 consecutive sessions without back- to-back gains, the longest since a 23-day stretch in June 2010. It never fell four days in a row in 2014.

     The dollar rebounded from its biggest drop versus the euro in six years. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the currency’s performance against 10 major peers, gained 1.3 percent, halting a three-day drop.                          

     The S&P 500 climbed 1.2 percent yesterday after the Fed said data suggest economic growth has moderated. The central bank said higher interest rates in April are unlikely and it won’t tighten until it is “reasonably confident” inflation will return to its target and the labor market improves further.

     While the Fed dropped an assurance it will be “patient” in raising rates, the word’s removal doesn’t mean it will be impatient, Chair Janet Yellen said in a press conference.

     The U.S. benchmark gauge had rebounded 2.9 percent through Wednesday from a low on March 11. It fell 3.6 percent in the seven sessions following a record on March 2 amid concern a surging U.S. dollar will hurt corporate earnings and as oil slid more than 12 percent.

     “We had a big rally yesterday and there’s a tiny bit of profit-taking here,” Andrew Wilkinson, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut, said by phone.                      

     The S&P 500 is 1.3 percent from its all-time high, while the Dow is about 1.8 percent below its record set March 2. The Russell 2000 Index is at a record, and the Nasdaq Composite Index sits 1.1 percent below its highest-ever level in March 2000.

     Apple joined the Dow today with the fifth highest weighting in the index at 4.7 percent. The company accounts for 15 percent of the Nasdaq 100 Index and 4 percent of the S&P 500.

     While Apple enters the average, it’s Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that will see its influence on the 118-year-old gauge solidified, garnering the biggest weighting after a stock split this week by Visa Inc.

     With Goldman Sachs primed to become the biggest piece of the Dow, earnings for banks in the S&P 500 are forecast to decline in each of the next two quarters. They will see profit contract 0.7 percent in the first quarter, followed by a 2.9 percent decrease in the second quarter, strategist data compiled by Bloomberg show.

      Jobless claims rose by 1,000 to 291,000 in the seven days ended March 14, from a revised 290,000 in the prior period, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of 51 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 293,000.

     Philadelphia Fed’s factory index for March declined more than economists forecast. A Conference Board index of leading indicators, a measure of the outlook for the next three to six months, climbed 0.2 percent in February, following a similar rise in January.

     The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index rose 0.7 percent to 14.07. The gauge, know as the VIX, is down 12 percent this week, on track for its biggest weekly decline in a month.

     Nine of 10 main industries in the S&P 500 declined Thursday. Energy shares dropped 1.7 percent as oil futures slid as much as 4.3 percent. Caterpillar Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. fell at least 1.5 percent, leading the Dow lower.

     Raw-material and financials shares sank more than 0.9 percent. Steelmaker Nucor Corp. tumbled 6.4 percent after it cut its first-quarter earnings forecast, and blamed a surge in foreign imports for a drop in prices. Allegheny Technologies Inc. and miner Freeport-McMoran Inc. slid more than 3.2 percent.

     Regions Financial Corp., Prudential Financial Inc. and Citigroup fell at least 1.9 percent to pace a drop in S&P 500 financial companies.

     Health-care stocks advanced 0.5 percent to a record as Cerner Corp. climbed 3 percent. Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst Matthew Gillmor upgraded the shares to outperform, the equivalent of buy, and raised his price target to $77. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index surged 1.9 percent, also reaching an all-time high.

     Williams-Sonoma Inc. dropped 1.9 percent. The San Francisco-based seller of cookware and home furnishings reported fourth-quarter sales that fell short of analysts’ estimates and forecast lower-than-expected earnings per share for its upcoming fiscal year.

     Facebook added 2.3 percent to a record after the social- networking company will give users the ability to send money to friends through its Messenger application. The feature will help Facebook keep up with the many other social apps that let friends exchange funds, including Venmo, Snapchat and EBay Inc.’s PayPal.

     Wynn Resorts Ltd. jumped 5.9 percent. Brean Capital LLC analyst Bryan Maher assigned a buy rating to the casino operator with a target price of $174, 42 percent above Wynn’s closing price yesterday. Shares have plunged 15 percent this year.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Those who are focused on the objects of the senses, become attached to those objects.

From attachment comes desire; and from desire comes anger; from anger comes confusion of mind;

from confusion of mind comes loss of memory; from loss of memory comes loss of intelligence;

and from loss of intelligence comes destruction.

The Bhagavad Gita

As ever,

Carolann

Work is not always required.  There is such a thing as sacred idleness.

                                                     -George MacDonald, 1824-1905

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7