March 2, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Birthday: Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel, March 2, 1904

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not. –Dr. Seuss.

During Theodor (“Ted”) Seuss Geisel’s career as an illustrator and writer of children’s books, he filled the hearts and minds of generations of readers with joy, solace, and pure pleasure.  His characters like Horton and Nerkle and Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer stick around in our heads forever; the memory of their stories read to us by parents or grandparents, or enjoyed in wonderful solitude, mark our childhood innocence and delight.  In 1937, Dr. Seuss’ first attempt at a child’s book – And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street – met rejection after rejection.  Finally, it was published and critics began to take notice..  but it was when Houghton Mifflin and Random House challenged Geisel to write a reading primer that wasn’t the usual boring, “See Dick run” kind of book, that he moved into our collective consciousness.   His answer to that challenge was the Cat in the Hat.

  Handsome, kind, and mischievous, Ted Geisel died on September 24, 1991, and left us an entire universe of whimsical creatures dedicated to our happiness.  See www.seussville.com.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A young girl pushes her scooter past the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with a Snap Inc. logo hung on the front of it shortly before the company’s IPO in New York on Thursday. Lucas Jackson/Reuters

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer escorts a group that claimed to be from Syria after they crossed the US-Canada border into Hemmingford, Quebec, Canada on Thursday. Dario Ayala/Reuters
Market Closes for March 2^nd, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Daily Factoid
On this day in 1844, the New York Stock Exchange raises the initiation fee for new members to $400 (or more than $9,400 in modern money).
Number of the Day
$24 billion
The market value of Snap Inc., based on its $17 a share price for its initial public offering. That makes it the biggest technology IPO in the U.S. since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. made its debut in 2014.
Canada
     (Canadian Press) — Some of the most active companies traded Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:
     ^Toronto Stock Exchange (15,536.65 down 63.03 points):@
     Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX:MFC). Financial Services.
Down 11 cents, or 0.45 per cent, to $24.23 on 8.6 million shares.
     B2Gold Corp. (TSX:BTO). Miner. Down 33 cents, or 7.76 per cent, to $3.92 on 8.2 million shares.
     Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX:K). Miner. Down 20 cents, or 4.31 per cent, to $4.44 on 8.03 million shares.
     Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSX:IVN). Miner. Down 35 cents, or 7.92 per cent, to $4.07 on 6.7 million shares.
     Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX:TD). Bank. Down 52 cents, or 0.75 per cent, to $68.98 on 5.6 million shares. The bank reported $2.53 billion of net income during its first quarter ended Jan. 31, up 13.9 per cent from a year ago. The earnings amounted to $1.32 per diluted share, up from $1.17 during the same quarter last year. Revenue was $9.12 billion, up from $8.61 billion a year ago.
     Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB). Oil and gas. Down four cents, or 0.07 per cent, to $55.23 on 5.5 million shares.
     ^Companies reporting major news@:
     BlackBerry Ltd. (TSX:BB). Wireless communications. Up five cents, or 0.54 per cent, to $9.23 on 829,514 shares. The Waterloo, Ont.-based firm’s chief operating officer, Marty Beard, says the former smartphone leader’s shift to being a software company is complete, but branding itself as a software player remains challenging.
     Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ). Oil and gas. Up $2.04, or 5.30 per cent, to $40.50 on 4.9 million shares. The Calgary-based oil and gas company says its net income in last year’s fourth quarter rose to $566 million, up from $131 million a year earlier. Revenue was $3.67 billion, up from $2.96 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015.  
US
By Oliver Renick
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks declined as raw-material shares slid with commodity prices and investors assessed the rally that has pushed equities to new highs.
     The S&P 500 Index dropped 0.6 percent to 2,381.91 at 4 p.m. in New York as the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 43 points, about 0.5 percent, to 21,002. The gauge passed 21,000 for the first time Wednesday.
* Financial shares down 1.5% for biggest loss since Jan. 17
* Industrial companies lose 1%
* Raw-material stocks down 1.1%; Bloomberg Commodity Index falls 1.5%
* VIX down 6% for a second day of declines, back below 12
* Traders are betting on an 88% chance the Federal Reserve will raise rates this month, versus 40 percent at the end of last week, after several central-bank officials signaled their willingness to increase borrowing costs
* “If the Fed had wanted to keep its options open, a move back to around 60 percent would have been sufficient,” Michael Hewson, a market analyst at CMC Markets in London, wrote in a note. “In raising expectations to such an extent in such a short space of time, to not act now would deal a serious blow to their credibility, and also prompt quite a sharp market reaction”
* The earnings season is drawing to a close, with about 73% of S&P 500 members that have already reported beating profit estimates and a little over half exceeding sales forecasts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg
* Monster Beverages Corp. jumped 16% after posting better-than- forecast quarterly sales, while Broadcom Ltd. climbed 2.9% after the chipmaker predicted revenue that beat analysts’ estimates
* ECONOMY:
** Initial jobless claims drop to lowest in almost 44 years
* EARNINGS:
** After-market Thursday: Autodesk (ADSK), American Outdoor Brands (AOBC),       Varex Imaging (VREX), Costco Wholesale (COST)
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell less than 0.1%

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

As ever,

Carolann

Humility is attentive patience.
       -Simone Weil, 1909-1943

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