Today the blizzard is coming so my blog is going out late as I did all my errands before starting to write. Two major issues are perhaps about to be resolved, a deal over Britain's exit from the European Union according to EU head Ursula Van der Leyen. And both the Fed and Mitch McConnell, finally agreeing that Trumperoo lost the election, are working on a stimulus package rumored to be around $900 bn.

image source

If you are optimistic, and I am not, this is hopeful, but the stock market is contradicting that and money is moving away from stocks and into alternatives like Bitcoin (at a new high), cannabis plays, and gold. The reason is very high COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. US retail sales in Nov. fell sharply, not helping the mood. Amazon is suing to get the Pentagon to end its contract with Microsoft. Details:

Drugs

*BiolineRX of Israeli is down an agonizing 28.7% opening at $2.58. The plunge came after BLRX announced good results from a phase II trial of its metixafortide immune checkpoint inhibitor to treat pancreatic cancer. It was used with chemo and Merck's Keytruda and increased survival by a matter of weeks. The patients were all in stage IV, meaning doomed to die. In the pre-market, probably meaning Israel, it rose 22% on the same results. There is no current cure for pancreatic cancer. There is no way to judge whether results would improve if treatment began earlier, but it is likely. The stock did get ahead of itself in recent weeks, the triumph of hope over experience and we are still well in the black. BLRX hit a new 52-wk high just yesterday morning at $3.72.

*My other horror stock, Canadian Abcellera Biologics, ABCL, is still down 20% from its day one price last Friday, but it has recovered from its post-ipo low of minus 25%. I bought more on Tuesday but did not catch the low. It was the largest firm by market capitalization to hit a new 52 weeks low although it only has been trading since Friday, not Thursday as I wrongfully wrote.

*One we got out of in good time is Galapagos, GLPG, which fell 19% today after its filgotinib arthritis drug was abandoned by Gilead when it did not get US FDA approval. It also will take back in house another drug pitched to GILD, for ulcerative colitis. It did a capital increase on Dec. 4 marking touble.

*Israeli Enlivex, ENLV, developing cytokine surge treatment, rose 0.5%.

*Having noted the new tone at Value Line yesterday, I am reassured that it again tells readers today to own US stock Thermo Fisher Scientific, TMO, a medical testing firm, my largest holding, despite a challenging p/e ratio of 32+. It is down 1.8%, after a cut to neutral from buy by Citigroup.

*Other drug sector stocks are mostly negative, Zymeworks (ZYME) down 0.66%; Teva down 0.25%' Takeda (TAK) down 1.23%; Indian Dr. Reddy's (RDY) down 0.72%; Compugen (CGEN) down 4.6%

*Roche, RHHBY gained 1.15% and Novartis (NVS) 0.9%. Non-Swiss Danish Novo Nordisk rose 3.65% because its use of semaglutidte (a GLP-1 drug against diabetes) is being tested in phase III trials against Alzheimer's disease with results expected in the first half of 2021. Now we know why it bought US Emisphere (which developed the oral formulation of semaglutide) and its backer MHR Fund Mgm earlier this month after a long regulatory process. UK stock Glaxo (GSK) is up on both the hope for a Brexit deal and its ovarian cancer drug and Astra-Zeneca is up 1% on Brexit.

*Spanish Grifols is up because antigens matter. GRFS. Chinese Beigene is up 4.5% on no news.

Tech & Tel

*UK Vodafone is up despite going ex-div tomorrow on a 4.52¢ VOD payout Feb. 5, 2021.

*Finnish Nokia rose on news it won a contract to digitize the Luxembourg state telco for 5G. NOK. *Swedish ERIC, Ericsson fell. Qualcomm will contimue to sell i-phone modems to Apple and rose.

*Africa Multichoice gained 0.9% because MCHOY is a growth play.

*Canada's BCE is down as it is not a growth play.

*Trip.com Group (TCOM) rose 2.3%. China will resume tourism despite running out of coal.

*Mercado Libre (MELI) Argentine incorporated in Uruguay, fell a bit today, to hit $1664.4.

*Israeli Tower Semiconductor TSEM fell because Israel is having yet another election.

*Japan's NTT Docomo fell as DCMYY's its parent, NTT, hits the bond market for ¥500 bn.

Oilpatch and alternatives

Oil is up 1.28% overnight.

*Schlumberger dropped 0.32%. SLB. Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B gained 1.21 after it was tipped by ABN-Amro analysts. BP plc fell fractionally.

*Nio, China's electric carmaker, is up 2.1% on a pair trade, buying NIO and selling higher risk Xpeng suggested by Daiwa's Kelvin Lau who put a $59 TP on NIO at $44.5. It opened up 6.2% when Japanese were buying.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU, fell to $3.14 on heavy trading over worries about its to rare earths.

*US co Ormat is down 0.25% because it is an Israeli-owned.geothermal and storage play.

*LNG carrier Hoegh Pref-A shares are up 1.13$. It is the Bermuda fund arm for the Norway shipping firm which Joe Shaefer told us about and yields 9.8%. The shares were mostly issued to the Norwegian exec suite but they have been bought out, but the public can hang on. Apart from Joe, a retired USAF general who lived in Norway for a long time, there is no-one covering HMLP-A. Rida Morwa's Global Ship Lease only yields 9%.

*Earthstone Energy is up 2.75% on Wells Fargo overweighting it with a $6 TP. ESTE is $3.135.

*Recycling specialist Tomra Systems TMRAY of Norway gained 0.44% to $44.76. I picked that one.

*French Veolia, VEOEY, gained 1.65%> it is creating a mess outside my windows in the East River.

*Cameco was chopped to neutral from buy, down 2 notches, by TD Securities in Canada when at $13.4 (US). CCJ rose yesterday because its is closing a mine suffering COVID-19 outbreaks which incidentally also helps cut the uranium glut.

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, gained 8.3% yesterday so natch it fell today by 1.7%. This is an antsy market.

*A horrible fire at its Oxnard warehouse pushed down Nutrien of Canada, maker of fertilizer. NTR.

Diversification

*Templeton Emerging Markets Income Fund will pay 4.12¢/sh as a monthly dividend on Dec. 31 to shareholders of record yesterday. EMF.

*New holding Taiwan Fund fell 0.75% today to $28. TWN hit a yearly high at $28.47 on my tip.

*Korea Fund KF, half sold, fell 1.34%. It hit a year's high on Dec. 7.

*Swiss Helvetia Fund is up 0.7% despite SWZ cutting its payout earlier this month.

*Sampo Oij of Finland gained 0.75%. SAXPY.

*Investor of Sweden, IVSBF, gained 0.07%.

*Japan Small Cap, JOF, gained 0.7%.

*New Ireland Fund IRL fell 0.3% on fear that Ireland will not gain from renewed talks between the UK and the EU. Even the luck of the Irish won't help.

*Aberdeen Asia Pacific Income and Aberdeen Global Income funds gained today, FCO by 0.51% and FAX by1.36%.

Finance

*Banco Santander, SAN, is up again but still cheap, at $3.21. European banks will be allowed to pay dividends next year.

*Japanese Mitsubishi (MSHBF) is up 0.41% and Sumitomo (SMFG) is down 0.49%.

*With gold up, miner Kirkland Lake KL of Canada rose 2.15%.

*CBOE, which I wrote up yesterday, fell 0.3% today. It will list AirBnB options.

*AIG Asia Hong Kong gained 1.6%. AAIGF is a pan-Asia insurance firm. However, Hang Seng Bank fell 1.14%. Its parent HSBC, is hopelessly incompetent, to judge from its handling of my lost wallet. It owns the HK stock index but that may not be enough to save HSNGF.