September 19, 2014 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

Ali Baba was a poor woodcutter who is the hero of a story in the Arabian Nights Entertainments.  He sees a band of robbers enter a cave  by means of the magic password OPENSESAME!  When they have gone away he enters the cave, load hi donkey with treasure and returns home.  The 40 thieves discover that Ali Baba has learned their secret and resolve to kill him, but they are finally outwitted by the slave-girl Morgiana. Ali Baba gives his son to her in marriage and keeps the secret of the treasure.  –from Brewer’s The Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, 16^th ed.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A lone ‘Yes’ campaign supporter walks through Edinburgh after the Scottish independence referendum was voted down. Scottish voters have decided that Scotland will remain part of the United Kingdom. Stefan Rousseau/PA/AP

A man wearing a mask depicting Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs holds up a cardboard cut-out of Apple’s new iPhone 6 as he walks into the Apple Store at Tokyo’s Omotesando shopping district. Yuya Shino/Reuters

Market Closes for September 19^th, 2014    

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:

Canada

By Callie Bost

     Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks fell the most since February, sending the benchmark gauge to a third weekly decline, after metals miners sank as gold dropped to an eight-month low.

     Primero Mining Corp. slid 10 percent as an index of gold producers sank 2.9 percent. Magna International Inc. slipped 4.8 percent on reports a Brazilian antitrust watchdog visited one of its subsidiary offices. TransCanada Corp. climbed 0.9 percent to extend a weekly gain.

     The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index tumbled 200.19 points, or 1.3 percent, to 15,265.35 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, the biggest decrease since Feb. 3. The gauge sank 1.7 percent this week, the most in 15 months.

     Canada’s 12-month core inflation rate, excluding eight volatile items, accelerated to 2.1 percent in August from July’s 1.7 percent, faster than all 21 economist estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The total consumer price index rose at a 2.1 percent rate for a second month, matching economist forecasts.

     All but one of the 10 main industries in the S&P/TSX retreated. Raw-material producers plunged 2.4 percent, capping a 4.9 percent loss this week, the worst since November. Trading in S&P/TSX stocks was 114 percent above the 30-day average.

     Gold for December delivery fell to the lowest since January, extending a weekly slide after the Federal Reserve raised its estimate for interest rates at the end of 2015.

     The S&P/TSX Gold Index slipped 2.9 percent, bringing total declines for the group to 7.1 percent this week. Primero Mining tumbled 10 percent to C$5.90, while OceanaGold Corp. dropped 16 percent to C$2.13, its biggest loss since April 2013.

     Magna International slipped 4.8 percent, the most since June 2012, to C$113.33. The automotive supplier said it intends to cooperate with a continuing antitrust investigation after the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica, Brazil’s competition authority, visited subsidiary offices in the country.

     TransCanada climbed 0.9 percent to C$61.38. The second- largest Canadian pipeline operator said its current corporate structure will generate “significant, sustainable growth” amid reports that an activist shareholder has taken a stake in the pipeline company

US

By Lu Wang and Callie Bost

     Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks were little changed after a three-day rally as shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. began trading and corporate takeovers boosted investor optimism.

     Alibaba climbed 38 percent in its U.S. trading debut, after the company raised a record-breaking $21.8 billion. Dresser-Rand Group Inc. rallied 9.4 percent as Siemens AG prepared to offer more than $6.5 billion for the company, according to people familiar with the plan. Oracle Corp. slid 4.2 percent after Larry Ellison stepped down as chief executive officer.

     The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.96 point to 2,010.40 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge is up 1.3 percent this week, the biggest advance in a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 13.75 points to 17,279.74 today. The Russell 2000 Index of small companies sank 1.1 percent.

     “It’s quadruple witching hour,” Joe “JJ” Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., said in a phone interview. “Although the headlines are all about BABA, the below-the-surface trading will be centered around expiration for on a lot of products. You may see some added volatility.”

     Trading volume jumped today because of quarterly event known as quadruple witching, when futures and options contracts on indexes and individual stocks expire. About 9.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, the most since March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

     Alibaba rose 38 percent to $93.89. The e-commerce company, which started in 1999 with $60,000 cobbled together by founder Jack Ma, is now valued at $231 billion. That makes it larger than Amazon.com Inc. and EBay Inc. combined, and more valuable than all but 9 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

     Yahoo! Inc., which owns a stake in Alibaba, slipped 2.7 percent to $40.93, a third day of losses.

     Oracle slid 4.2 percent to $39.80. Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, currently co-presidents of Oracle, were both named CEO to succeed him, the company said yesterday.

     Technology stocks had the biggest losses today, with the industry falling 0.4 percent in the S&P 500, led by losses in Red Hat Inc., Oracle, and Akamai Technologies Inc. Small-cap shares fared worse as a measure of computer stocks in the Russell 2000 Index slid 1.5 percent.

     European shares rose, sending the Stoxx Europe 600 Index up 0.2 percent. Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond resigned after the anti-independence “No” camp garnered 55 percent of the votes.

     Dresser-Rand advanced 9.4 percent to $79.91. Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering company, is looking to buy Dresser- Rand in a deal that would scupper a competing plan by Sulzer AG, according to people familiar with the plan.

     Concur Technologies Inc. jumped 18 percent to $126.82 as SAP SE agreed to buy the company for $7.4 billion to boost its cloud-computing business.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Be magnificent!

The end to be sought is human happiness combined with full mental and moral growth .

This end can be achieved under decentralization.

Centralization as a system is inconsistent with a non-violent structure of society.

Mahatama Gandhi

As ever,

Carolann

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

                                             -Golda Meir, 1898-1978

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

Senior Vice-President &

Senior Investment Advisor

Queensbury Securities Inc.,

St. Andrew’s Square,

Suite 340A, 730 View St.,

Victoria, B.C. V8W 3Y7