There is a trade war coming between Germany and the USA because of rivalry on stimulus for the COVID epidemic. Germany, using European Union cover, hastened to clinch deals with Russia and China in the waning Trump days to overcome the risks of the new Administration continuing the boycott of the two countries. The Nord Stream 2 (Gazprom) pipeline across the Baltic to Germany was prioritized, although it is really a part of the Russian suppression of Ukraine, site of the former pipeline which is no longer safe from the natives. Germany paid no attention to the impact of its own treatment of Alexei Navalny who was treated there for a Putin plot to poison him with a military-grade nerve agent poured onto his underwear, Novichok.
Germany also conveniently forgot its special obligation to protect religious minorities in the post-Hitler era, in the case of Muslims in western China, the Uighurs. So Germany took the lead in “rapprochement” by the EU with China, helped by fellow-German EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Both of these moves were ultimately made to get more export business for Germany.
The rest of the EU was more or less ignored but now Poland, which has memories of the Russian dictatorship, is questioning the way that Germany forced the rest of the EU to accept its aims.
In a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black, Asia Times today ran an article by Daniel Williams about how Merkel deliberately ignored requests by the Biden team to work together to handle China. Instead, it rushed to close on the long-negotiated China deal at the bidding of Xi Jinping.
The argument was that Trump was playing an “America first” card but the real trick was to ignore EU advocates of sanctions. Now China is not only continuing to harass Uighurs, but it has twice sent military planes to fly over Taiwan and is brutally suppressing pro-democracy moves and jailing dissidents in Hong Kong despite the terms of the transfer from Britain to China in 1997.
Ditto for Putin and his pipeline and the latest news about his ownership of a ginormous $1 bn villa by the Black Sea in Russian occupied Ukraine built with funds stolen from the Russian state, as charged by Navalny. While gambling was banned in Russia just 2 years ago, Crimea was designated as a Russian Las Vegas. The revelation by the brave dissident led to demonstrations all over Russia on his return and many people being jailed, which proves that there is something going on for Putin.
Again Chancellor Merkel backed the dictator with scant support from the rest of the EU. In both cases what we are seeing is a “Kaufe Deutschland” policy justified on paper by charges that the US is in a “Buy American” mode in violation of globalism. So is Germany.
Drug Dealers
Recently I was seriously misled by Globes Israel, a daily blog, about Novacure, an Israeli company fighting cancer with a new old product, electricity, because it appears to work on eye cancers like glioblastoma. It is furthest in trials against brain cancers using electricity but is also setting up trials for non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, liver cancer, and my cousin's problem, pancreatic cancer. It is run from the Saint Helier, Jersey in the Channel Islands and she is in Britain so I had hopes she could get into the trial. In the end she didn't want to but I was hooked on NVCR, which trades on Q. I liked the fact that the electric device is delivered to patients for trials, who remain ias long as they want—but have to pay rent for the machine. How to do trials in COVID-19.
Today in Globes I spotted a story about a company studying electricity as a cancer cure called Expro Ther Medical, of Israel. But it showed the same founder, Yoram Palti, from Haifa's Technion who experimented with electricity and p53 against cancers that grow by mutation. From which the cornea escapted. It shows the same CEO, Asaf Danziger, and the same backer, Dr. Alex Tendler. It just did a capital raising on Q but was not NVCR but the secondary offering pushed down the NVCR price. It fell by 2.44% today to $161.19 from the $175.41 I bought at. But is this the same company? I suspect there is a kosher version traded in Israel and a Channel Islands outfit to avoid taxes. I will know more when the company holds its 2020 earnings call on Feb. 25 at 8 am (yech) using 855-442-6895, with conference IS 3965899 and it will be posted on the site. Apologies to anyone who thought this was a legit existing ADR or who believed the preliminary results for Q4 and 2020 which were posted. I dislike the fact that Globes boosts the shares of Israeli doing secondaries with insider articles.
*Canadian Aurinia Pharma opened up 23.89% after its lupkinis against lupus nephritis won FDA approval when administered along with immuno-supressive therapy. AUPH now is up 30.2%.
*Esperion gained 10% despite being downgraded to neutral by BofA last week. ESPR.
*Beigene BGNE won Chinese regulatory backing for its US Sylavant genericx monotherapy to treart Castleman's disease. The patent is with JNJ.
*Swiss Roche RHHBY extended its partnership with Sysmex hematology as good results were found in phase II trials against wet macular degeneration, an eye disease of the elderly. It is up 0.6%.
*Fellow Swiss Novartis NVS is up 1.35%
*Merck MRK dropped its attempts to find a COVID-19 jab using V590 and V591. BofA says it's no surprise.
*Its near-namesake Merck KgA of Germany with Glaxo is working on immuno-oncology drug bintarusp to rival US Merck's Keytruda among its 10 planned blockbusters. SVB analyst Geoffrey Porza says there won't be ten and that GSK will lose traction. Meanwhile, a writer on seekingalpha.com calls GSK a bargain, with a 30% up move coming. It is definitely raising money by selling its over-the-counter drug arm and its biopharma arm, which is old news, but may not spend the proceeds as well as the writer expects. GSK rose 1.5% all the same.
*AstraZeneca AZN had success in trials for lymphocytic leukemia with its Calquence in late trials.
*Teva lost 2.25% after falling in the premarket and Sunday.
*Moderna MRNA is working on a booster jab to cover COVID-19 mutations. It's my jab but I suspect the booster won't be available.
*Zymeworks ZYME of Vancouver fell nearly 8% after a downgrade by Citi to neutral.
*Even Enlivex is only down 2.6% today. ENLV.
*Takeda is up 1.2% while Eisai is up 2.67%. TAK; ESALY.
Tech & Tel
*Finnish Nokia rose a whopping 11% today in European trading and topped 14.14% here on bullish year-long options trades. NOK
*Sweden's Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson gained 2.9% in sympathy, ERIC.
*Canadian Bell, BCE, rose 2.5%.
*Mercado Libre MELI dropped 4.2%.
*Naspers NPSNY of Jo'burg gained 2.65%.
Americans
*Cosan CZZ lost another 4.4% today but is higher than it opened at.
*Fibra Uno FBASF of Mexico rose 2.9% in Mexican trading, perhaps because Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been hit with COVID-19. He was a fellow mask foe to Bolsonaro and Trump,
*Bakery giant Grupo Bimbo rose 2.32%. GRBMF.
Green & Ungreen Power
*Azure Power AZRE of Mauritius fell 8.38% today. It sells solar power to India.
*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, lost 1.7%.
*Algonquin AQN of Canada rose 1.12%.
*Cameco CCJ of Canada rose 2.9%. Neighbor energy firms may be gaining because Biden chopped the Keystone project but there will be other Canadian deals.
*NIO of China is down 3.5%. It fluctuates with politics and China is being evil right now to test the new Administration. And Tesla rose.
*Geothermal energy firm Ormat ORA, of Nevada, sold down, gained 1.6% today. It fills a niche.
*Dutch Antillean Schlumberger Ltd fell 3.8% on the Biden 60-day hold on new oil and gas drilling but BofA says there will be plenty of oil searches elsewhere, as SLB itself said.
*BP plc lost 3.5%. Royal Dutch Shell RDS-B lost 2.7%. They also drill worldwide and there is still plenty of demand for dirty fuel for the cars already on the road.
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