March 28, 2014 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

On March 28^th, 1941, Virginia Woolf put on her overcoat, filled its pockets with stones, walked into the River Ouse near her home and drowned herself.

Her note to her husband Leonard Woolf:

Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier ’til this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that—everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.

Virginia Woolf, British novelist, essayist, critic, feminist, socialist, pacifist, and one of the leaders in the modernist movement, she was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals.  She is the author of Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1921), Orlando (1928) and A Room of One’s Own (1929).

She was an ardent admirer of Vita Sackville-West; the following letter was written to Vita in 1927.

Look Here Vita – throw over your man, and we’ll go to Hampton Court and dine on the river together and walk in the garden in the moonlight and come home late and have a bottle of wine and get tipsy, and I’ll tell you all the things I have in my head, millions, myriads –They won’t stir by day, only by dark on the river.  Think of that.  Throw over your man, I say, and come.  –from The 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time, edited by David H. Lowenherz, Random House, 2002.

Photos of the day

An Egyptian Goose shelters its young under its wings at Kew Gardens in London. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

People cross the Japanese bridge at the waterlily pond at the Claude Monet museum in Giverny, north west of Paris. A new exhibit at Normandy’s Impressionism Museum tells for the first time the little-known story of American Impressionism from where it all began – at the picturesque water lily-filled Giverny gardens of Claude Monet that Americans colonized for three decades. Michel Euler/AP

Market Closes for March 28^th, 2014

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

March 28 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for the first time in three days as raw-materials producers rallied after crude and copper prices advanced to weekly gains.

Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest diversified mining company, added 1.9 percent as copper posted the biggest weekly advance in six months. Kinross Gold Corp. jumped 4.7 percent after analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised their rating for the stock. BlackBerry Ltd. slumped 6.6 percent for a fourth day of losses after reporting weaker-than-forecast revenue.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index rose 81.88 points, or 0.6 percent, to 14,260.72 at 4 p.m. in Toronto. The equity benchmark fell 0.5 percent this week.

“It’s a pretty broad-based gain, oil and gas are rising and the materials are looking strong,” said Bruce Campbell, fund manager at StoneCastle Investment Management Inc. in Kelowna, British Columbia. The firm manages about C$100 million ($91 million). “Looking at the past week, the first four days have been risk-off and people were tentative. Now people are buying on the dips and jumping back in.”

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement the country has policies in reserve to deal with any economic volatility this year and can’t ignore “difficulties and risks” from a slowdown in the economy. Gross domestic product is forecast to increase 7.4 percent this year, the lowest since 1990, according to the median estimate of 56 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

American economic data is also improving, Campbell said.

Consumer spending in the U.S. rose 0.3 percent in February, the most in three months, as income increased.

Silvercorp Metals Inc. gained 2.8 percent to C$2.20 and Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. increased 2.5 percent to C$4.10 as raw-materials stocks rallied 1.3 percent as a group. Seven of 10 industries in the S&P/TSX advanced on trading volume 7.1 percent lower compared with the 30-day average.

Silver for May delivery rose 0.4 percent to $19.79 an ounce in New York, snapping a nine-day slump.

Kinross Gold jumped 4.7 percent to C$4.67, snapping five days of losses. Andrew Quail, analyst at Goldman Sachs, raised his rating for the stock to neutral, the equivalent of a hold, from sell due to the company’s recent share price decline. The stock has 12 buys, 14 holds and one sell, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“We see greater downside potential elsewhere,” Quail said in a note to clients. Kinross had slumped 17 percent in the past five days.

Crew Energy Inc. climbed 4.5 percent to C$8.90 and Bankers Petroleum Ltd. added 0.8 percent to C$5.28 as crude prices rose to a three-week high, increasing 2.2 percent this week, amid shrinking U.S. stockpiles. Suncor Energy Inc., the nation’s largest oil producer, rallied 2.6 percent to C$38.19, the highest in almost three years.

Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. increased 4.3 percent to C$5.36 after posting a 41 percent increase in funds from operations in the fourth quarter amid rising natural gas prices. The stock has risen for the past 11 days, a record streak.

Teck Resources gained 1.9 percent to C$23.85 and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. increased 2.3 percent to C$20.56 as copper rose 1.6 percent in New York. The price gained 3.1 percent this week, the most since September.

BlackBerry, the Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker, slumped 6.6 percent to C$9.31, the worst decline since November, erasing earlier gains of as much as 6.8 percent to extend a losing streak to four days. BlackBerry posted sales of $976 million in the quarter, a 64 percent slump compared with year- ago figures.

The company also reported an adjusted loss of 8 cents a share, ahead of the 57-cent loss forecast in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

John Chen, who took over as chief executive officer in November, is working to eliminate a third of the company’s workforce and signed a deal with Foxconn Technology Group to outsource some of its handset production, distribution and design. Last week, BlackBerry agreed to sell most of its real estate in Canada, which could fetch more than $500 million.

US

By Lu Wang and Callie Bost

March 28 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks climbed after a two-day slide, as consumer shares rebounded amid data showing household purchases rose the most in three months. Biotechnology shares extended losses, weighing on the Nasdaq Composite Index.

H&R Block Inc. and GameStop Corp. climbed at least 6.2 percent, leading gains among consumer shares. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. rallied 4.4 percent after Morgan Stanley raised its recommendation on the stock. The Nasdaq Composite almost erased a 1.3 percent rally as Gilead Sciences Inc. and Biogen Idec Inc. tumbled more than 4 percent, capping the week’s sell-off in riskier assets.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.5 percent to 1,857.62 at 4 p.m. in New York, trimming its loss for the week to 0.5 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 58.83 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,323.06 today. The Nasdaq Composite increased 0.1 percent to 4,155.759, completing the week with a 2.8 percent drop.

“It’s been a choppy market,” Mike McGarr, a portfolio manager at Becker Capital Management Inc. in Portland, Oregon, said by phone. The firm oversees $2.8 billion. “There has been a very noticeable change this month, away from those sorts of high flyers, and back toward value. It’s nice to see the market coming back to more fundamentally real stories.”

Investors have been selling the bull market’s biggest winners, locking in gains as they assess how much of the recent economic weakness is weather-related and if the situation in Ukraine will worsen.

The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index slumped 2.8 percent today, pushing its loss this week to 7 percent. The gauge rallied 79 percent in the 12 months through February. The Russell 2000 Index fell all but one day this week for a 3.5 percent decline.

The measure for smaller companies is down 1 percent this quarter, poised to snap a six-quarter streak of gains, the longest stretch since 1996.

Gilead, the world’s largest maker of HIV medicines, sank 4 percent today to $68.55. Biogen Idec Inc., maker of the multiple sclerosis drugs, tumbled 5.1 percent to $294.12.

Money is flowing to large companies with stable earnings.

Microsoft Corp. surged 2.4 percent today to $40.30 for the biggest gain in the Dow. Energy shares climbed 1.2 percent while Exxon Mobil Corp. added 1.5 percent to $97.70.

Consumer-discretionary shares rallied 0.8 today as data showed household spending in the U.S. rose in February by the most in three months as incomes increased.

Americans were shaking off the effects of the coldest winter in four years as they ventured out to shop, supported by a job market that’s also picking up speed.

Separate data indicated consumer confidence fell less than previously estimated in March.

“If consumers go back in and are confident enough to start spending again, that supports earnings and will certainly support the equity market,” Chris Gaffney, senior market strategist at EverBank Financial in St. Louis, said by phone.  “I feel like we’re forming a base that we can move high now.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, a gauge for U.S. stock volatility known as VIX, retreated 1.4 percent to 14.41. About 6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 12 percent below the three-month average.

Consumer stocks in the S&P 500 rebounded from a five-day slide. H&R Block, the biggest U.S. tax preparer, climbed 6.2 percent to $30.36 while GameStop, a video-game retailer, advanced 8.8 percent to $40.62.

Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. surged 13 percent to $71.93. The home-furnishings retailer forecast that adjusted profit will be between 9 cents a share and 11 cents in the first quarter, compared with analysts’ estimates for 6 cents. It said annual profit will be as much as $2.22 a share, beating the average projection for $2.18.

Cognizant gained 4.4 percent to $49.69. The provider of consulting and outsourcing services was boosted to overweight, an equivalent of buy, by Morgan Stanley. The company’s growth potential may have been under-estimated, analyst Katy Huberty wrote in a note.

PG&E Corp. fell 4 percent to $41.89. Charges to be filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office will accuse the company of violating the federal Pipeline Safety Act, leading to the explosion and deaths, according to a company statement. PG&E didn’t say when it expects the charges to be filed, and said it believes they aren’t merited.

Red Hat Inc. slipped 7 percent to $52.23. The largest seller of Linux operating-system software said it expects to earn $1.56 a share this year. That trailed the average analyst estimate of $1.62 in a Bloomberg survey.

BlackBerry Ltd. dropped 7.1 percent to $8.41. The smartphone maker said sales won’t grow until the fiscal year that begins next March, even after cost-cutting helped the company post a smaller quarterly loss than analysts estimated.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

I see these things with an intense joy,

and while I observe, there is no observer, only a beauty almost like love.

For an instant, I am absent, myself and my problems, my anxieties, my troubles: nothing but this wonder exists.

Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

As ever,

Carolann

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

-Ayn Rand, 1905-1982

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7