November 17, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents: Happy Friday!

On this day in 1970, Stanford Research Institute scientist Douglas Engelbart obtains a patent for his X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System. Today, we know it as the computer mouse.

Also on this day in 1816, Lord Byron wrote to Thomas Moore:
My gondola is, at this present , waiting for me on the canal; but I prefer writing to you in the house, it being autumn – and rather an English autumn than otherwise.   It is my intention to remain at Venice during the winter, probably, as it has always been (next to the East) the greenest island of my imagination.  It has not disappointed me; though its evident decay would, perhaps, have that effect upon others.  But I have been familiar with ruins too long to dislike desolation.  Besides, I have fallen in love, which, next to falling into the canal (which would be of no use, as I can swim) is the best or the worst thing I could do.  I have got some extremely good apartments in the house of a “Merchant of Venice”, who, is a good deal occupied with business, and has a wife in her twenty-second year.  Marianna (that is her name) is in her appearance altogether like an antelope. –from The Book of Days.

Art News:
A painting by Leonardo da Vinci that preserves the artist’s own handprints sold for more than $450 million at auction November 15th, “obliterating the previous world record for the most expensive work of art at auction,” according to Christie’s Auction House.
At one time, though, the very same painting went for a song — in 1958, it sold for a mere 45 British pounds, which is the equivalent of 990.50 pounds ($1,304) today. That’s because it wasn’t until the late 2000s that anyone realized the painting was a da Vinci. [Leonardo Da Vinci’s 10 Best Ideas]
Art experts now estimate that the painting — titled “Salvator Mundi,” or “Savior of the World” — was made around 1500. But between the mid-1600s and 2005, this piece of da Vinci’s work was lost. The painting now known to be his was thought to be a copy by one of his students, and it was heavily damaged by crude attempts at conservation.
According to Christie’s, the reconstructed history of the painting goes something like this: da Vinci painted it around 1500, leaving behind a few sketches by his hand that tie him to the imagery. At some point, Charles I of England, a great art collector, acquired the piece. It probably hung in his wife’s chambers. Charles I was executed in 1649 after a civil war between the Royalists and the English and Scottish parliaments, which were seeking to curb the monarchy’s power. The artwork was sold in October 1951 to a mason named John Stone. [11 Hidden Secrets in Famous Works of Art]
Stone kept the painting until 1660, when Charles I’s son Charles II returned from exile to retake the English throne. (The intervening years had been a short-lived experiment in republican government run by Oliver Cromwell.) Stone then returned the da Vinci to the new king. Its path then becomes murky. It probably stayed at the Palace of Whitehall in London until the late 1700s, passing from Charles II’s possession to his brother James II, when that monarch took the throne, according to Christie’s. No one knows what happened next. The painting disappears from the historical record until 1900, when it was sold not as a da Vinci but as a work of Bernardino Luini, one of the great master’s students.
The painting bounced from hand to hand, including in the 1958 auction, when it sold for not much more than what people pay for an iPhone X today. It wasn’t until after 2005, when the painting appeared in an auction of a U.S. estate, that anyone realized what it really was.
In 2011, the painting was unveiled as a real da Vinci at an exhibit at The National Gallery in London.
Christ’s skin tone is blended with a technique called sfumato, in which the artist presses the heel of his hand into the paint to blur it. Infrared imaging of the painting revealed that these handprints are still pressed into the paint, particularly on the left side of the forehead.
The painting was sold for $80 million in 2013 to Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, who then sold it for $127.5 million the following year to Russian investor Dmitry Rybolovlev. The markup led to a viscious legal battle between Rybolovlev and Bouvier. Rybolovlev is now being investigated in Monaco over whether he improperly used his political clout against Bouvier in that dispute, The Guardian recently reported. Rybolovlev’s name has also surfaced in the ongoing investigation about potential links between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, according to The Guardian, as Rybolovlev once bought a Florida property from Trump for $95 million.
The previous record-holder for the priciest “old master” painting was “Massacre of the Innocents” by Peter Paul Rubens, which sold for $76.7 million in 2002, according to Christie’s. The previous record-holder for the most expensive da Vinci was his “Horse and Rider,” which sold for $11,481,865 at Christie’s in 2001.
Original article on Live Science.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

An aerial view of the Ephesus is seen in Selcuk district of Izmir, Turkey. With recent findings, establishment dating back to 6,000 B.C., (Neolithic age) Ephesus antique city, which is in the UNESCO’s World Heritage List, attracts millions of foreign and domestic tourists from all over the world annually starting by 1920.

A minibus loaded with balloons drives along the coastal road by the beach in Gaza City.

A dog stands in the middle of an interactive light display during the opening evening of the Durham Lumiere event. The Lumiere festival is the UK’s largest light festival and comes to the City of Durham for the fifth time bringing large scale projections and light installations across the city to landmark locations.
Market Closes for November 17^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
Number of the Day
$7,998
The fresh record hit by bitcoin Friday morning in Asia, after the digital currency recovered from a slump of more than 25% over four days. Bitcoin has risen more than 700% this year.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose for a second day but not enough to prevent a weekly decline, the first since early September.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 63 points or 0.4 percent to 15,998.57, but fell 0.3 percent on the week. 
     On Friday, the materials sector gained 1.1 percent as both base and precious metals prices rose. Eldorado Gold Corp. added 6.6 percent and Semafo Inc. gained 4.7 percent.
     The energy index added 0.6 percent, failing to keep up with the 2.6 percent jump in the price of crude. NexGen Energy Ltd. rose 8.7 percent and Baytex Energy Corp. gained 6.3 percent.
     In other moves:
                         Stocks
* Teck Resources Ltd. rose 3.4 percent. The miner is paying a supplemental dividend of 40 cents per share and buying back stock equivalent to another 40 cents a share
* TransCanada Corp. fell 0.9 percent. The company had to shut its Keystone oil pipeline after a spill in South Dakota, days before a Nebraska regulator will decide whether an extension to the pipeline can proceed
* Mainstreet Health Investments Inc. jumped 13 percent. The company is buying Care Investment Trust for $425 million
                         Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at a $15.65 discount to WTI, the widest gap since January, following the Keystone spill
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $1.38 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold rose 1.4 percent to $1,296.50 an ounce, the biggest gain since May
                          FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar was little changed at C$1.2761 per U.S. dollar
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield fell four basis points to 1.94 percent after inflation eased for the first time in four months
US
By Randall Jensen
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks failed to add to the best rally in two months as the Treasury yield curve flattened further, raising concern about economic growth. The dollar dropped as the yen and gold gained.
     The S&P 500 Index slipped Friday to cap a second week of losses. The spread between two- and 10-year Treasury yields hit the tightest level in a decade. The greenback remained linked to political developments in Washington, where the Senate girded for negotiations on its version of tax reform. The risk-off tone comes before a week shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.
     It’s been tumultuous week in the U.S. as shares saw the biggest gain and the largest drop in two months after touching records a week earlier. Investors are trying to gauge whether benchmarks will continue a march to all-time highs on strong earnings and faster growth spurred by corporate tax cuts or if they will be pulled down amid lofty valuations, the flattest yield curve in a decade and a selloff in junk bonds.
     The odds American firms will get a tax break improved Thursday after the House approved its version of the legislation. The Senate is still debating its own plan, trying to reduce the 10-year debt impact below $1.5 trillion. Adding to the discussion, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said Friday the government’s debt-to-GDP is possibly at unsustainable levels.
     Elsewhere, bitcoin hovered under $8000. Commodities rebounded from the recent selloff. West Texas crude jumped to around $56 a barrel as Saudi Arabia moved to dispel doubts over Russia’s readiness to extend output curbs. The Japanese yen gained the most in more than two months against the dollar.
     Emerging market shares headed for the highest close in six years.

      These are the main moves in markets:
                            Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index fell 0.3 percent to 2,578.80 as 4 p.m. New York time.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.3 percent., falling for the eighth time in nine days.
* Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 0.2 percent to the highest in a week.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index increased 1.2 percent, set to close at the highest level since August 2011.                  
                           Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4 percent, touching the lowest in more than three weeks.
* The euro gained 0.2 percent to $1.1791.
* The British pound rose 0.1 percent to $1.3210.
* The Japanese yen climbed 0.9 percent to 112.09 per dollar, the biggest gain since Sept. 8.                            
                            Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell three basis points to 2.345 percent, falling for the third day this week.
* Germany’s 10-year yield dipped two basis points to 0.36 percent, the lowest in more than a week.
* Britain’s 10-year yield gained one basis point to 1.294 percent.                         
                            Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude advanced 2.6 percent to $56.59 a barrel.
* Gold gained 1.2 percent to $1,293.99 an ounce, the biggest gain in more than two months.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann

Every exit is an entry to somewhere else.
                       -Tom Stoppard, b. 1937

Carolann Steinhoff, B.Sc., CFP®, CIM, CIWM
Portfolio Manager &
Senior Vice-President

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