September 27, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Tangents:

I read this today and thought it is fascinating; hope you do as well:

Zealandia: Sunken 8th Continent Reveals Its Buried Secrets
By Tia Ghose, Senior Writer | September 27, 2017

A journey to plumb the remote ocean depths has revealed that Earth does indeed have an eighth continent.
A nine-week voyage took scientists from around the world to drill and explore the seafloor off New Zealand and Australia. They found evidence of land-based fossils, revealing that the ancient landmass wasn’t always buried beneath the waves.
“Zealandia, a sunken continent long lost beneath the oceans, is giving up its 60 million-year-old secrets through scientific ocean drilling,” Jamie Allan, program director in the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences, said in a statement. [Photos: The World’s Weirdest Geological Formations]
Lost 8th continent
Earlier this year, scientists argued that the known seven continents had a long-lost brother – Zealandia, a narrow strip of land that encompasses New Zealand and lies off the east coast of Australia, and whose landmass is mostly 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) below sea level beneath the ocean’s surface. Among the evidence for Zealandia: The crust that makes up Zealandia is much shallower than the surrounding oceanic crust, and its geologic makeup looks more like continental versus oceanic crust. What’s more, a narrow strip of oceanic crust separates Australia from Zealandia, which suggests the two landmasses were separate.
However, the area is so remote that few geologists had explored the region.
To answer questions about the mysterious continent, scientists aboard the JOIDES Resolution, a research drilling vessel, drilled sediment cores from six sites along the ocean seabed that makes up Zealandia.  The cores plumbed 8,202 feet (2,500 m) below the surface, revealing 70 million years of the ancient continent’s history.
The team found a treasure trove of fossils that reveal Zealandia wasn’t always under the ocean.
“More than 8,000 specimens were studied, and several hundred fossil species were identified,” expedition co-chief scientist Gerald Dickens of Rice University in Texas, said in statement. “The discovery of microscopic shells of organisms that lived in warm shallow seas, and of spores and pollen from land plants, reveal that the geography and climate of Zealandia were dramatically different in the past.”
About 100 million years ago, Australia, Antarctica and Zealandia were all part of a mega-continent. The new drilling revealed that although Zealandia split off from these regions and sank below water about 80 million years ago, the chain of volcanism that makes up the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire” may have caused Zealandia to buckle about 40 million to 50 million years ago, which also dramatically reshaped the landscape.
The findings could reveal how plants and animals dispersed across the South Pacific. In the past, this area provided some shallow seas and some strips of land to allow species to migrate and move between regions, the researchers said.
  Originally published on Live Science.

On Sept. 27, 1964, the Warren Commission issued a report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy.
Go to article »

Today is Ancestor Appreciation Day.

It is certainly desirable to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors. –Plutarch

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A swan at sunset over Poole Harbour, Dorset.
CREDIT: DONNA CHALLINOR/SWNS.COM

Ralf Hamilton, 3, and his sister Nora, 2 with the giant pumpkin. Twin brothers who spend hours each day tending to their pumpkins are about to ‘smash’ the record for the largest one in Britain,  Stuart and Ian Paton, 56, use 100 gallons of water daily to help their gigantic squashes grow – and they increase in weight by 60lbs a day at their peak.  The brothers are the current UK record holders, with a pumpkin they grew last year weighing in at the biggest ever – 161 stone (2254 lbs).
CREDIT: SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY

Katy Perry performs on stage at the Capital One Arena in Washington
CREDIT:  BRENT N CLARKE/INVISION/AP

A tourist stretches out a shawl as they stand at the gate of Penataran Agung Lempuyang temple with mount Agung seen in the background, enshrouded by clouds in Karangasem regency, Island of Bali, Indonesia. Indonesian authorities raised the alert level for the Mount Agung volcano to the highest level as nearly 50,000 villagers around the mountain evacuated their homes and travel warnings have issued for the popular tourist destination.  Indonesian authorities warned Mount Agung has the potential to erupt imminently although flights to Bali and its main tourist areas remain unaffected for now.
CREDIT: ULET IFANSASTI/GETTY IMAGES
Market Closes for September 27^th, 2017

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
On this day in 1985, Philip Morris agreed to buy General Foods for $5.75 billion in what was at the time one of the largest takeovers in history.

Number of the Day
64%
The volume of maturing yuan bonds issued by Chinese home builders will jump 64% in 2018 to at least 230 billion yuan ($35 billion), and rise another 87% the year after that, according to data provider Wind Information Co.
Canada
By Kristine Owram
     (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks gained the most since May in a broad-based rally that saw rate-sensitive groups jump as bond yields hit their highest in three years.
     The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 136 points or 0.9 percent to 15,609.66, the highest close in more than four months. 
     Financials rose 1.1 percent, helped by higher 10-year government bond yields that briefly rose as much as nine basis points. Canadian Western Bank jumped 4.9 percent to the highest since 2014 after Bank of Nova Scotia analysts lifted their price target to a street high. National Bank of Canada reached an all- time record.
     Consumer staples gained 0.8 percent as grocer Metro Inc. said it’s in advanced talks to buy pharmacy chain Jean Coutu Group Inc. for C$4.5 billion. Metro added 8.8 percent and Jean Coutu rose 6.3 percent, the biggest gains since 2014 for both.
     In other moves:

                              Stocks
* Bombardier Inc. fell 7.5 percent, the most since March 2016, after the U.S. levied import duties on its biggest jetliner and competitors Siemens AG and Alstom SA announced plans to merge their rail units
* Tahoe Resources Inc. tumbled 11 percent after Guatemala’s Supreme Court declined to order a renewal of its export credentials
* BRP Inc. lost 7.8 percent. The Ski-Doo maker filed a secondary for 10 million shares
                           Commodities
* Western Canada Select crude oil traded at an $11.30 discount to WTI, unchanged from Tuesday
* Aeco natural gas traded at a $2.04 discount to Henry Hub
* Gold fell 1.1 percent to $1,284.10 an ounce, the lowest since August, as investors piled into riskier assets
                            FX/Bonds
* The Canadian dollar weakened 1.1 percent to C$1.2480 per U.S. dollar, the biggest drop since January
* The Canada 10-year government bond yield rose one basis point to 2.13 percent
US
By Eric J. Weiner
     (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks rallied, the dollar extended gains and Treasuries slumped on speculation President Donald Trump’s tax-cut plan will become law this year. Gold sank.
     The S&P 500 Index inched close to a record high as banks and tech shares surged on the prospect lower taxes will fuel economic growth. Small caps, a group with among the highest tax rates, jumped the most since March. The Bloomberg dollar index hit a six-week peak, and 10-year note yields climbed to the highest in two months. Gold fell below its 50-day average for the first time since July.
     The urgent effort by Trump and Congressional Republicans to pass tax cuts they say will spur growth and investment drove investor demand for assets that will benefit from gains in the world’s largest economy. Coupled with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s hawkish tone in remarks on Tuesday that boosted the chances for a December interest-rate hike, rumblings over the tax plan revived trades that gained favor following Trump’s stunning win almost a year ago.
     “Tax reform will be crucial in both making America competitive again and possibly extending this aging economic recovery, but it won’t happen in a vacuum and interest rates are not going to sit idly by if growth and inflation truly respond to any fiscal boost,” Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, wrote in a note to clients Wednesday.
     The plan announcement is just the start of what’s expected to be a brutal fight in Congress, but equity investors were encouraged by several proposals, such as allowing companies to write off capital expenditures for five years. The dollar received a push from the prospect of capital inflows as companies take advantage of a proposed one-time repatriation tax. 
     “There’s the likelihood now that it may not be a tax reform, but we’ll likely get a tax cut, and the market likes a tax cut probably better than tax reform,” John Stoltzfus, chief market strategist at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, said by phone. “Everybody likes a quick fix, and the market has shown for years it accepts kicking the can down the road.”
     What to watch out for this week:
* U.S. data on GDP and personal spending Thursday will provide further clues as to the potential Fed policy path.
* The euro-area inflation rate may have accelerated a touch to 1.6 percent in September from 1.5 percent but the core will probably remain at 1.2 percent. The data is out on Friday.

      And here are the main moves in markets:

                                Stocks
* The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 2,507.04. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 56 points for a 0.3 percent increase.
* The Russell 2000 soared 1.9 percent, the most in six months, to reach another record, while the Nasdaq 100 Index gained 1 percent.
* The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.4 percent to the highest since July.
* The MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 0.3 percent, hitting the lowest in five weeks.
                              Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.6 percent to the highest since August.
* The euro dipped 0.4 percent to $1.1749, the lowest in six weeks.
* The British pound decreased 0.5 percent to $1.3393.
* The Swiss franc fell 0.4 percent to $0.9722, the weakest in six weeks.
                              Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries jumped seven basis points to 2.3032 percent, the highest in two months.
* Germany’s 10-year yield added six basis points to 0.468 percent, the highest in seven weeks.
* Britain’s 10-year yield climbed five basis points to 1.38 percent.
                              Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4 percent to $52.07, slipping after hitting a five-month high earlier in the session.
* Gold declined 0.8 percent to $1,283.59 an ounce, the weakest in five weeks.
                               Asia
* Japan’s Topix index slid 0.5 percent at the close in Tokyo.
* Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 0.1 percent and South Korea’s Kospi index ended less than 0.1 percent lower.
* Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 0.5 percent.
* The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.4 percent.
* The Japanese yen sank 0.7 percent to 113.06 per dollar, the weakest in almost 11 weeks.

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Be magnificent!

That which is immoral is imperfectly moral,
just as that which is false is true to an inadequate degree.
Rabindranath Tagore

As ever,

Carolann

Equilibrium is the profoundest tendency of all human activity.
                                             -Jean Piaget, 1896-1980

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
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www.carolannsteinhoff.com