Forty years ago, when we lived in the 16^th arrondissement of Paris and I was working for 60 Minutes, our son was preparing for his Bar Mitzvah with private lessons from a Yeshiva student at the reform Jewish synagogue near us on the Rue Copernic. One Friday night, a bomb was placed at the door of the synagogue as services neared their end. The bomber failed in his aim to kill Jews because there were too many Bar Mitzvah attendees hanging around chatting and eating at the Kiddush. They exited later without having to use the bombed out door. However four passersby, two on bicycles, were killed, and over 40 people wounded. Because my parents would have panicked when they learned about the bombing so near us, I called Mike Wallace to tell him we were safe and he called my parents, a great thrill for them.

The police failed to collect cigarette butts around the bomb site, which could have identified the bomber from his DNA. (Back then smoking was de rigueur.) But eventually, the likely bomber was identified, a Lebanese-born sociologist, who later a Canadian university professor, for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. His aim: to kill random Jews. Later tried by a French court years ago, the charges did not stick, despite his passport showing he was in Paris at the time of the bombing. He probably did not act alone. Right next to the synagogue was the Lebanese embassy officially uninvolved. Yesterday, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, a higher French court indicted the Canadian professor. In France, there is always another court that can overrule a mistrial. It is uncertain if Prof. Hassan D. will be extradited by Canada, but this is still a partial closure.

image source

Today we have good and bad news from the USA. The growth in Q4 was below the forecast for an annualized 4.3% rise, at only 4%. The number of new unemployment insurance applicants came in at 847,000, below the consensus forecast of 875,000.

My blog yesterday counts as a scoop because apart from Joe Shaefer, few other sources of stock information noticed the woods rather than the trees. Reporters are trained to look at the stocks gaining or losing without noticing the extraordinary size of movement. I might not have cottoned on to the pile-up of newbie stock buyers led on by social media had it not been for Nokia jumping up as if it was a US vendor of mechanical video games, rising 40% for no good reason. I think this was the first time a Finnish share was manipulated by the Reddit “Wall Street Beats” website stock pickers. 

I also got lucky because my brokerage account is with TD Ameritrade, which took the lead in barring trades for Game-Stop and other positions backed by the Reddit site, even before its parent Charles Schwab followed suit. Today a further ban was set by RobinHood, the newbie fave, specifically barring NOK put purchases.  GameStop lost half its value. The short squeeze on NOK did not survive the Finnish opening today when its share fell 9%. Many brokerage sites, including that of TD Ameritrade, are out of order.

So naturally, I want to get another scoop today. Here goes.

ADR shareholders like me and many of you are being asked to provide proxies for “migrating” CRH PLC shares away from Britain over to Euroclear Bank's central securities depositary. We also get to vote on canceling Income shares of the Irish cement and aggregates firm, thereby cutting the authorized CRH share capital by about 25 mn Euros which may be backing the old UK listed shares. But the vote is mainly to exit the London Stock Exchange for a European Union market arm.

Euroclear operates in London for EU companies. I suspect CRH is more interested in its presence in the USA. It also has centers in Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo, and within Europe in Ireland (of course), Belgium, France, Finland, The Netherlands, and Sweden. Apart from retail investors, Euroclear also supplies funds and ETFs with management and finance for of local and international markets and aims to halt the fees it pays for this. Euroclear enforces settlement and taxes, manages collateral, handles banking and corporate actions. Until now a medium-large Irish firm have worked in London. New Ireland Fund (IRL) gained 2% today on the news. Mexican Cemex, CX, rose 2.4%.

Unlike the mess by Cosan CZZ of Brazil, the Irish mailed the proxies in good time, particularly if you are in New York, where they are tabulated. I mailed mine off last night. If there are issues I can still vote on the day of the meeting, Feb. 9. They have to be received by Feb. 1 to be shipped off to Ireland for the vote on Feb. 8. This is not beyond the capacity of even the US Post Office. As the wife of a Briton who voted to remain in the EU, I am reluctantly voting my proxy for Euroclear.

*Play extreme volatility is with CBOE Global Markets, up 1.75% today to $93+. It runs the casino used for trading options. It will also gain from movements out of London like that of CRH.

Large caps in Europe

*ZIM, a shipping and tourism company did its IPO here at $15, well below the targeted $16-19 of its prospectus, It will raise about $50 mn less than expected. This hurt Tel Aviv overall.

*Yesterday aftermarket the Tesla TSLA results came in less than perfect. Earnings were 80¢, well below the estimate of $1.03, but adjusted sales did beat if barely. The stock recoiled by 5.2% in the premarket.

*Nokia lost 21.3% at the US opening, offsetting more than half the weird 40% jump Weds.

*NIO fell 5.24% to $57.15 in the premarket today. It opened here at $56.5 and fell further. But now it is up 2.5% at $58.5+.

*Mercado Libre (MELI) fell 4.9% to $1718.7 but then reversed to gain 4.85%. It is back over $1800.

*Vodafone dropped to $17.05 but in US trading opened at $17.17 before recovering more. VOD.

*New pick ABB of Sweden rose another 1.2% today.

*Ericsson fell 9.33% because the Financial Times explained that is it too dependent on China sales to join the telco boycott. I had assumed it was Sweden being neutral but it turns out to have been ERIC.

*Veolia is up 3.8%. VEOEY.

*Schlumberger Ltd is up but the majors are lower. SLB.

Small caps

*Energy Fuels (UUUU) fell sharply, 9%+, I know not why.

*Ormat, ORA, gained 2.76%. I sold the bulk of our holding too soon.

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, fell 5% on renewed focus on abuse of Uighurs, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

*Cameco fell because another uranium miner, Purepoint, is drilling in Hook Lake. CCJ owns 39.5% of the Saskatchewan site. There is no glut of uranium. It then reversed gaining 1.2%.

Drug dealers

*Zymeworks cratered 23% after it issued an update on its early trial of ZW49 against HER2 targeting antibody conjugate, which had an anti-tumor impact against various cancers: breast, gastro-esophageal, gynecological, non-small cell lung, anal, and colorectal. The problem was adverse events, 90% of which ZYME said were mild or moderate, and had not led any patients to abandon the trial. However JP Morgan lowered its TP to $36 from 49 on concern about the missing 10% adverse events and fear that it will not beat other cancer remedies. Raymond James wrote that the selloff wrongly assumes “that ZW49 is dead.” It says the data are too preliminary to be judged. At $33.37/sh I bought more. This too shall pass.

*TEVA rose 0.57% as it sailed away from Zim, back over $12. Then it fell at lunchtime. Bioline RX BLRX gained 1.8%.

*Japanese Takeda rose 1.11%. TAK. Eisai, ESALY, fell 1.1%. There is switching.

*Glaxo is up .39% as in “39 Steps”. GSK.

*Enlivex gained over 1.8% today. ENLV.

*Grifols GRFS of Spain is down 0.3%.

*NovoCure (user of electricity to block cancer growth) gained 2.5% today. Its p/e ratio allegedly is 2222x. Six % of its shares are shorted. It reports Feb. 25 and is expected to show gains. NVCR.

*Danish Novo Nordisk rose 1.6%. NVO makes insulin and weight loss drugs.

*Roche rose 0.55%. Novartis rose 0.94%. RHHBY and NVS are Swiss majors.

*Dr. Reddy's jumped 0.9%. RDY is Indian and licensed to produce COVID-vaccines.

*Astra-Zeneca gained 1.1% on continued British support for its delaying vaccine deliveries to the EU. It will be given only to people under 65 there because it has not met EU requirements for oldies.

*Merck MRK is up 1.3%. Bristol-Myers BMY is up 1.4%.

*Abcellera rose another 4.9% today at the opening, hitting $49.2. ABCL.

Financials

*SPDR Gold (GLD) gained 0.9%. Miner Kirkland Lake Gold KL rose 1.05%.

*Investor AB is up 0.6% after falling Weds. over Nasdaq fines. Finnish Sampo Oij is up 1%. SAXPY.

*Sumitomo SMFG is up 2.41%. Mitsubishi MSBHF fell 1.6%.

*Naspers rose 17.74% in London today. It owns chunks of Tencent and lots of other media. NPSNY is South African.

*Banco Santander SAN rose 2.51% in Madrid.