October 11, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

October 11^th, 1975: Saturday Night Live premieres.

On Oct. 11, 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.
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POINTS OF PROGRESS:
JORDAN
The water poor nation has begun growing vegetables in its sand dunes. With backing from Norway and the European Union, the Middle Eastern kingdom will use sun and seawater to power and irrigate its Sahara Forest Project, which aims to produce 130 metric tons (143.3 tons) of organic vegetables in an area equivalent to the size of four soccer fields.  Solar panels will provide power to the project, which includes outdoor planting space, two saltwater-cooled greenhouses, a water desalination unit, and salt ponds for salt production. –Agence France-Presse

PERU
Construction on the South American nation’s biggest wind farm has begun.  The project, backed by multinational energy company Enel, is expected to be operational in the first half of 2018 and provide enough energy to power 480,00 homes and prevent around 288,000 metric tons (317,466 tons) of carbon emissions each year.  “Our aim in Peru is to become the leading player in renewable energy,” said Antonio Cammisecra, chief executive of Enel Green Power. CNBC

INDIA
An Indian company is working to revolutionize the disposable cutlery market.  Indian company Bakey’s is now the world’s first mass producer of edible spoons.  The company has come up with a way to replace plastic spoons with edible, biodegradable, nutritious ones.  The primary ingredient, millet, uses 1/60^th as much water as rice, so cofounder Narayana Peesapaty is encouraging farmers to switch from rice to millet.  Increased millet production could also bring down millet prices, helping to make the cost of millet-based spoons competitive with that of plastic spoons.  The new spoons come in sweet and savory flavors and don’t crack or dissolve in hot or cold liquids.  Indians discard 120 billion pieces of plastic cutlery every year. Forbes, Digital Trends.

KAZAKHSTAN
Wild tigers are set to soon roam free in the Central Asian country; they became extinct there 70 years ago.  The first tigers will be introduced to Kazakhstan’s lli-Balkhash region, their historical range, in 2025, following restoration of natural forests and the reintroduction of native wildlife on which the tigers feed.  The World Wildlife Fund-supported project, which will relocate tigers from elsewhere in Asia, would be a world first.  Since 1900, poaching and territory loss has robbed wild tigers of 90 % of their range.  About 3,900 wild tigers remain in the world. The Guardian, Dutch News.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work. –Thomas Edison.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY

This is nature under a completely different spotlight.  Taken in a pitch black studio with ultraviolet lights, the vivid images show beautiful flowers and pollen-covered insects in a strange fluorescent light.  The altered lighting shows up stunning patterns on a dragonflys wings and leaves insects and spiders eyes glowing bright blue. Plants also take on a more sinister shade, radiating a deep purple against the black background. Don Komarechka, from Barrie, Canada, took the photos in a specifically configured studio in his back garden.
CREDIT: DON KOMARECHKA/CATERS NEWS

SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37a.m. PDT Monday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network.  The Falcon 9’s first stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean in a few minutes after liftoff.
CREDIT: GENE BLEVINS VIA ZUMA WIRE

The window cleaner on the 124^th floor What a pane … A solo window cleaner wipes the windows of the world’s tallest building, wiping down the glass as he sits 435 metres from the ground.  The window cleaner, harnessed to heavy duty climbing cables, can be seen going it solo as he takes on the daunting task of cleaning the half a mile high building. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is currently the tallest building in the world, standing at 800 metres, almost twice the size as the Empire State Building. The building is so high that if the solo climber was to fall from this height it would take roughly 10 seconds before he reached the ground.  Amateur photographer Teovel Iradon, 29, a civil engineer from the Philippines, had been looking for a good vantage point to picture the fog blanketing the city.
CREDIT: TEOVEL IRADON/SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY
Market Closes for October 11^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1982, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1000 for the first time, rising above the peak it set in the bull market of the 1960s to close at 1012.79. The previous record high of 995.15 had been set in February 1966.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks narrowed in on an all-time high, adding to a rally that has seen the country’s benchmark gain more than 5 percent in a month.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 30 points or 0.2 percent to 15,800.40, its highest close since Feb. 22. That was one day after the TSX hit its all-time closing high of 15,922.37.
     All sectors gained except consumer discretionary, which slipped 0.2 percent as Magna International Inc. fell 1.2 percent. Materials stocks rose 0.3 percent as copper prices jumped 1.1 percent, while energy shares added 0.2 percent.
     In other moves:
                            Stocks
* Pretium Resources Inc. jumped 24 percent, the most since 2013. The company produced 82,203 ounces of gold at its new Brucejack mine in the third quarter
* ShawCor Ltd. gained 8.6 percent after it was upgraded to outperform at National Bank Financial
* Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc. tumbled 9.7 percent, the most since January 2016. Two analysts downgraded the stock following the departure of long-time portfolio manager Jeannine LiChong
                            Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at an $11.15 discount to WTI
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $2.59 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold fell 0.4 percent to $1,285.80 an ounce
                            FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.5 percent to C$1.2456 per U.S. dollar, the biggest gain in more than a month
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield fell two basis points to 2.10 percent
US
By Sarah Ponczek
     (Bloomberg) — The dollar weakened, longer-maturity U.S. debt gained and U.S. stocks hit record highs after traders interpreted the minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting as slightly dovish even though policy makers are expected to raise rates again this year.
     “What came out today has kind of been the narrative since Yellen — the narrative being that there’s going to be a rate hike in December — but at the same time there’s increasing concern about inflation,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group LLC. “Well Yellen sort of laid out both of those in her testimony.”
     The euro strengthened and Spanish assets rallied as the country’s government maintained a hard line on Catalonia’s independence bid. Spain’s benchmark IBEX 35 Index jumped to a week-high. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy stopped short of suspending Catalonia’s government Wednesday, though starting a process that could lead to that. The Spanish relief rally failed to lift equities elsewhere, however, with the Stoxx Europe 600 little changed.
     Rajoy said he would seek an explanation from Carles Puigdemont after the Catalan president’s announcement late Tuesday that he had a mandate for independence but would hold off and instead seek talks with the Spanish government. The formal demand for clarity may be a first step toward disbanding the regional government and moving control to Madrid. While it averted an immediate confrontation, it means the uncertainty lingers.
     Several Fed officials said their decision on whether to raise rates this year “would depend importantly on whether the economic data in coming months increased their confidence” on inflation rising toward their 2 percent target. Market-implied odds of a Fed rate hike by year-end were unchanged around 75%, based on January 2018 fed fund futures, after the release of the minutes from the Sept. 20 policy meeting.
     Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced to the highest in almost twenty-one years and the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a fresh record high. The MSCI Emerging Market Index climbed to a six-year high.
     What’s coming up this week:
* The ECB’s Peter Praet speaks on monetary policy under the heading of ‘European Exit Strategies’ on Wednesday afternoon in New York.
* Earnings season begins for major U.S. banks, led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co.
* The active Atlantic hurricane season will probably figure prominently in U.S. data on retail sales and consumer prices.

     Here are the main moves in markets:                           
                          Stocks
* The S&P 500 Index rose 0.1 percent to a record 2,555.24 at 4:16 p.m. in New York, the second consecutive all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached an all-time high of 22,872.89, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.3 percent.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was little changed.
* The MSCI All-Country World Index rose 0.1 percent.
* Spain’s IBEX Index rose 1.3 percent.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index rose 0.5 percent.
                          Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3 percent.
* The euro climbed 0.5 percent to $1.1867.
* The Turkish lira strengthened 1.6 percent.                            
                           Bonds
* Spain’s 10-year yield fell six basis points to 1.64 percent.
* Germany’s 10-year yield increased two basis points to 0.46 percent.
* U.S.’s 30-year yield fell two basis points to 2.88 percent.
                           Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 39 cents to $51.31 a barrel.
* Gold futures rose 0.4 percent to $1,293.07 an ounce.
* Copper climbed 1.2 percent to $3.10 a pound.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

Non-violence is the law of our species,
just as violence is the law of the beasts.
In the savage man, the spirit is not awake;
he does not know the other law as he knows that of physical force.
Human dignity demands that one refer to a superior law,
which implements the force of the spirit.
Mahatma Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

Have patience.  All things are difficult before they become easy.
                                                      -Saadi, c.1208-c.1291

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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com