Unheeding Markets
The next Mexican finance minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O is a Cambridge-trained economist whom I know personally. He will replace the incumbent who will run the Central Bank starting next month. I think de la O is sound but he was opposed to the previous Mexico rulers from concern about the overall citizenry, not just oligarchs, no more leftist than Biden and less so than AMLO.
Our SEC under Gary Gensler will examine stock markets for abuses, looking into payment for order flow; best execution claims; and national bid and offer pricing. I have some grievances myself over the lack of normal prices for pink sheet traded Mexican stock Orbia Advance Corp SAB de CV, using the ticker of its former name, MXCHF. The current quote is $3.50 bid, $22.45 ask which TD Ameritrade-Schwab says is set by a robot.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Renishaw plc, a UK-listed metrology firm we own thanks to Martin Ferera, trades on the pink sheets at $71.78 bid, $80.39 ask. RNSHF is not even Latina. It rose 19.08% in London to the equivalent of $91.51 according to my broker. Metrology is used to get exact fit on airplane and precision equipment.
The People's Republic of China has arrested 1100 people suspected of using cryptocurrency for money laundering
Markets today are excessively unheeding of new inflation data, hitting records despite US inflation levels not seen since 2008. Pink sheet Mexican stocks are not in demand with the rest.
Today oil prices against rose over $70. Trefis forecast that flat-rolled US steel prices will jump from $812 (now) to over $1080 by the end of this year. Corn futures are settling at the highest level in nearly a month as the Agriculture Dept says stockpiles are falling. US meat prices will have to rise to cover the Brazilian ransom payment. Crypto-currencies are not immune to investigation in countries like the US or China, to protect against money laundering, terrorism financing, and for consumer protection. But in Brazil, where even the heads of state collect illicit money, crypto is secure.
Drug Dealers
Today's portfolio gains were in my favorite sector despite the bad news about 16 to 30-year-olds after a 2nd jab with Pfizer or Moderna vaccines suffering from myocarditis and pericarditis (heart disease).
*Exelixis and Ipsen reported thyroid cancer success with cabozantinib in phase III trials to ASCO. EXEL gained 1.55%. Esperion Therapeutics rose 5.2% after ESPR's new management settled a class action suit. Our market is happier about a settlement than a cancer success.
*Bristol Myers BMY shares (inherited from my late mother) rose 3.3% after its Breyamzi drug for repeat or refractory B-cell lymphoma beat results with chemotherapy and stem-cell transplants, a high barrier.
*Novartis NVS rose 1.5%., NVS. Roche, RHHBY, gained 0.51%.
* Organon & Co OGN, the Merck spinoff, gained 7.712%. MRK, downed to hold from buy, gained 3.2%.
*Israelies Compugen rose 5.3%. CGEN; TEVA 6.89% to $11.47; NVCR Novacure up 2.6% to $217.38. Tel Aviv is shut Friday but open Sunday. .
*Eisai dropped 11.25% after Japan caught up with the rest of the world over Aduhelm. ESALY was tipped by Jefferies according to Dow Jones as likely to make money with the Alzheimer's drug in Europe and Japan later this year with total sales of $10 bn in the long run. ESALY is now at $95.98. They are 45% over my basis and of those who followed me. However, TAK, Takeda, is up 2%.
*Spanish Grifols is up 0.8% over its hepatitis B immuno-globulin. GRFS.
Oilpatch
*Plug Power, PLUG, bought Mon. is down another 10%. It will build a hydrogen plant in Georgia. It fell because of problems with its reporting cycle and because another hydrogen fuel firm FuelCell Energy, FCEL reported lower sales (it doesn't yet have positive earnings.)
*Canadian Algonquin, AQN, is up 0.92% while it's AY holding,
Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure is up 1.75%. Thanks to Harry Geisel we now own both. AY.
*Schlumberger fell another 1.7%. SLB which produces oil and gas drilling data is Dutch Antillean. SLB is joining with Panasonic to make novel lithium batteries.
*BP plc and Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B are both up today. Both are investing in greener energy.
*Cosan my Brazil stock of the year, rose 1.6%. Its service stations run with Shell are being divested. CSAN.
*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, Chinese, rose 4.3% today. It was kept at buy by CFRA this week.
*Azure Power of Mauritius gained 6.9% today on no news. AZRE sells solar panels to India.
*Energy Fuels, UUUU, is up 2.65% today. It is doing a capital increase.
Food
*Grupo Bimbo, the Mexican bakery multinational, regained 1.89% today. GRBMF.
*Caandian NTR, Nutrien, fell 0.57%..
*Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard (ANCUF) rose 0.58% to $37.21. It reports on 2021 6/29.
Technology
*Nokia Airscale (radio) joined with AT&T 's C-band spectrum to hit a milestone earlier than expected using a 5G Qualcomm, a snapdragon X55 5G. Verizon Business meanwhile launched a private 5G network from Sweden. I own all 4 stocks but have no idea what this means. NOK fell 0.82%.
*Mercado Libre is up 4.7% on renewed MELI share buybacks.
*Ericsson is up nearly 1%. ERIC.
*Coupang, its South Korean counterpart, is fractionally up, but we are still down over 8% from our CPNG basis.
*Cameco hit $21.69, up 1/6%. CCJ.
*Multichoice is down 1%. MCHOY sells ads and cellphones in Africa. Its former parent Naspers gained over 1%. NPSNY is a South African media collosus. NPSNY's Dutch clone, Prosus, is up 0.6%. PROSY was spun off for technical reasons to do with the Jo'burg market. They should move together but don't.
Planes
*Canadian CAE Inc which does pilot training rose 0.75%after its Australian defense contract incorporating Seeing Machines Ltd won a million Oz $ contract, the first they have done together.
*BAE Systems of Britain however lost 0.32%. Sterling is very high now, hurting BAESY here.
Mining
*Kirkland Lake Gold, KL of Canada, is up 1.95% whereas the price of the yellow metal is up only 0.29% (for SPDR Gold, GLD).
*Miners fell yesterday across European bourses fearing China inflation rises but reversed today.
*Antofagasta of Chile with a prime listing in London crashed again today, however, off 2.25% on the week. ANFGF mines copper and gold in the Atacama desert. It is controlled by the oligarchic Luksic Group. Chile is on full quarantine this weekend because its hospitals are full with covid-19 cases. Its politics are less scary than Peru's, but only just.