October 9, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

John Lennon was born on October 9^th, 1940.

Also on this day in 1967, Che Guevara, an Argentine socialist revolutionary and guerilla leader, was killed by the Bolivian army at the age of 39.

James Lees-Milne, Diary, Ancestral voices, October  9, 1942:

I attended a meeting of Mrs Ronnie Greville’s executors….[Her will was] a most interesting and complex subject, involving an estate of some 2 million [pounds].  Mrs Greville has left Marie Antoinette’s necklace to the Queen, 20,000 [pounds] to Princess Margaret Rose, and 25,000 [pounds] to the Queen of Spain.  Everyone in London is agog to learn the terms of Mrs G.’s will.  She was a lady who loved the great because they were great, and apparently had a tongue dipped in gall.  I remember old Lady Leslie once exclaiming, when her name was mentioned, “Maggie Greville!  I would sooner have an open sewer in my drawing-room.”

 Mrs Greville had left her house, Polesden Lacey in Surrey, to the National Trust.  She was the illegitimate child of the wealthy brewer William McEwan and the wife of a  watchman at the brewery, put for convenience on the nightshift. –from The Book of Days.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

                                                         -John Lennon, 1940-1980

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

People walk under umbrellas during a snowfall in Red Square, with St. Basil’s Cathedral seen in the background, in central Moscow Friday.Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters

Younus Bouaoun, one of the few watchmaker apprentices in Frankfurt, carries a large wall clock across a street in central Germany Friday.Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa/AP

Market Closes for October 9^th, 2015

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Eric Lam

     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks were little changed, as equities capped the best weekly performance this year, after the economy added jobs for a third straight month in September and more people entered the labor force looking for work.

     Equities ended the day down 0.1 percent after swinging between gains and losses, as increases among raw-materials producers offset a drop in energy stocks after a five-day rally. Gold advanced to a six-week high as minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting increased speculation the central bank will hold off raising interest rates until next year.

     Canadian stocks have rallied this week, joining markets around the world in a rebound from the worst quarter since 2011, led by gains in oil and mining companies. The MSCI All Country World Index climbed an eighth straight day, the longest streak of gains since February. Canadian markets will be closed on Monday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 14.30 points to 13,964.36 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, trading near the highest level since August. The benchmark Canadian equity gauge has climbed 4.7 percent this week, the best weekly advance since December. The index has lagged global peers among developed markets this year with a 4.6 percent decline.

     The Canadian economy added 12,100 jobs in September, ahead of economists’ median projections for a 10,000 increase. The unemployment rate rose to 7.1 percent from 7 percent as more people returned to the workforce, according to the report from Statistics Canada in Ottawa. September’s gains were led by a 74,000 gain in part-time jobs. Full-time positions dropped 61,900, the largest decline since October 2011.

     The jobs report is the last before an Oct. 19 federal election, followed by the next Bank of Canada rate decision Oct. 21.

     “The headline numbers are OK, not disastrous,” said Geoffrey Pazzanese, a global equity fund manager at Federated Investors Inc., on the phone from New York. His firm manages about $360 billion. “There’s not much the Bank of Canada can do about commodity prices, but keeping rates low can help the other parts of the economy.”

     First Quantum Minerals Ltd. rose 0.8 percent, capping a 65 percent rally this week. The copper mining company said Oct. 5 it will use proceeds from asset sales and other initiatives to reduce debt. Goldcorp Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. increased at least 5.5 percent as gold jumped.

     Commodities producers have rebounded as the U.S. dollar has weakened on bets the Federal Reserve will delay raising interest rates. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell for the sixth time in seven days.

     Clearwater Seafoods Inc. climbed 7.8 percent, the most in two months, after agreeing to buy Macduff Shellfish for GBP94.4 million, plus GBP4 million in debt.

US

By Anna-Louise Jackson

     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rose, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index posting its strongest weekly gain this year, as equities continued to rebound from their worst quarter since 2011.

     Shares advanced Friday without the help of energy and raw- material companies, the two best-performing groups so far this month, as energy snapped its longest winning streak in six years. Apple Inc. added 2.4 percent to boost technology shares. Alcoa slumped 6.8 percent to weigh on commodity related companies.

     The S&P 500 added 0.1 percent to 2,014.97 at 4 p.m. in New York, up 3.3 percent for the week, the most since December. A measure of volatility extended a streak of declines to the longest in four years.

     “Policy makers are trying to be prudent with policy, but not panicking over the global outlook,” said Brian Jacobsen, who helps oversee $250 billion as chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Advantage Funds in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. “We’ll see whether or not we can hold above 2,000 in the S&P 500 and build from here ahead of earnings.”

     Federal Reserve minutes Thursday showed caution over raising interest rates, even as the U.S. economy improves, amid the threat that China’s slowing growth could spill over to other emerging market economies. That pushed expectations for an increase further into next year, touching off a rally boosted by energy, raw-material and industrial companies amid a slumping dollar. Traders now price in about a 41 percent chance of a rate liftoff in December, with a 62 percent probability of a March increase.

     Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said in prepared remarks Friday in New York that the first interest rate increase since 2006 will likely be warranted later this month or in December, as the economy “remains on a satisfactory track.”

     Energy companies in the benchmark index fell after yesterday stretching an advance to an eighth day, the longest in six years. The group is poised for the best weekly climb in 2015, up more than 7.5 percent. Materials and industrials marked their strongest week since December 2011.

     Those three industries have bolstered a rebound from a 6.9 percent slide in the third quarter, turning the tables on their role among the worst performers during the three-month period ending in September. The S&P 500 is up about 5 percent since the quarter ended, and has recovered 7.9 percent from the bottom of an August selloff that pushed the index into its first correction since 2011.

     While the Fed’s policy intentions and China’s slowdown remain heavy influences on sentiment, attention is also shifting toward third-quarter results, with earnings at S&P 500 members projected to fall 7.2 percent. Energy and materials companies will see the steepest drop, according to analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.

     Some 35 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report results next week, including Johnson & Johnson, Intel Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Have a terrific weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

Man lives in confusion and fear until he discovers the uniformity of the law in nature;

until then the world is a stranger to him.

And yet, the law discovered is only the perception of the harmony between reason,

which is the soul of man, and the play of nature.

It is the bond that unites man to the world he lives in.

When he discovers it, man feels an intense joy, because he realizes himself in his environment.

To understand this is to find something to which we belong,

and it is the discovery of ourselves outside ourselves that  gives us joy.

Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,

Carolann

Writing a book is an adventure.  To begin with it is a toy, an amusement;

then it is a mistress, and then a master, and then a tyrant.

                                                      -Winston Churchill, 1874-1965

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