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ViiV Healthcare, the specialist HIV company majority owned by GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK), presented on Saturday some positive long-term data from its global phase IIIb ATLAS-2M study of the first complete, long-acting regimen of cabotegravir and rilpivirine for treating HIV.

Week 96 findings reinforce the primary and secondary endpoints: that a majority of the participants have anti-HIV plasma at weeks 48 and 96 when given a monthly dose or one every two months. These data were presented at the virtual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. The two-month dosing regimen of cabotegravir and rilpivirine is under investigation and has not yet been approved by any country.

Morgan Stanley (MS) recommended BCE, the Canada telco which we recently bought more of, as a yield play. It is listed on the Big Board and pays its 6.1% dividend to US shareholders in our dollars. It is one of my picks for 2021. Its Canadian shareholders get a tax reduction not offered here. BCE is rated neutral by analysts.

CBOE Global Markets (CBOE), the Chicago Board Options Exchange, is becoming an exchange for institutional and retail investors who aim to go international with options and futures. This coming week it will launch an exchange traded fund for bitcoin (BITCOMP), a first. The result was that this company's stock rose 6.54% Friday. I don't trade options myself as they don't pay off for my investing style.

The exchange reported mixed results for February 2021, with options boosting daily contract volumes from February 2020. However, future contract levels and Global Forex fell from the prior year. Overall, total contracts were up 17.4% year-over-year last month at 254.4 million, and up 19% to 249.3 million in options (which accounted for almost all of the growth). 

Zacks, the Chicago analysis shop, rates CBOE as a hold, but hinted that the stock may become a takeover target as it trades at the lowest p/e ratio for any exchange covering the US. CBOE stock gained 6.54% to $106.04 on Friday on BATS Global Markets, which it owns. It was the second best performer in the US Friday according to the Saturday edition of the Financial Times. 

BATS is US-incorporated and operates in London, NY, Chicago, and Singapore, where heavy fees on institutions buying its shares do not apply. It is the third largest US equity market which nobody ever heard of, right after the NYSE and the Nasdaq. This week, we will see results from another exchange we own shares in, the Nasdaq, but not directly. We own it through a fund run by a Swedish bank which owns the shares listed in Europe.

My other 2021 pick is Cosan (CZZ), which is consolidating its far-flung empire to become a single company and tax-payer. The information coming from the company is incomplete and scattershot, but the wise markets have boosted its share price on Friday by 2.01% to $20.29. It is now a few pennies below its 12-month high of $20.43, which was reached July 30, 2020.

It issued $113 million in new shares for its restructuring mainly because the offers to owners of its Cosan Logistica and Bermuda subs did not result in selling their stakes to the parent. The owners are mostly insiders from Cosan who want to stick with it. The company will have a new ticker symbol, CSN.

CZZ has been volatile, but it is up over 28% YTD. The company produces sugar and makes ethanol from cane waste, a clean form of energy. It also operates gas stations in Brazil and Argentina where the ethanol is sold via a partner of Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-A). Its logistics business uses the Amazon River and Brazilian ports for shipping whatever is in demand. The more visible US listing will probably lead to fundraising for expansion and takeovers.

Energy Fuels (UUUU) is a miner of uranium which I bought because nuclear energy is the key to carbon cuts. But it is now in another business that is even more appealing: rare earths, a commodity which China currently controls and threatens to stop exporting to the US if Beijing is criticized over Uighurs or Hong Kong.

UUUU first created a system to remove rare earths from the uranium it mines to stop the potential of Chinese blackmail. Last week it performed a deal for removing rare earths from the sands of Europe with fellow Canadian Neo Performance Materials, which did a secondary offering last month via a bought deal for C$81.5 million, which US-based retail investors could not buy into (including the over allotment to the underwriting brokers, one of which is Scotiabank -- whose shares we own and which also hit a new high last week).

Canada institutions are in a 120 lock-up period so they cannot buy more NEO. They bought UUUU instead, but the stock fell 2.4% on Friday along with other uranium positions. The reason was that another uranium stock from up north (which we own), Cameco (CCJ), hit a new high at $17.99 (near its target price of $18), and then fell back with other uranium shares to $15.8.

A Chinese tourism share listed on the Nasdaq hit a new high last week (when much of the Nasdaq was underwater). It is Make My Trip (MMYT). China is ahead of the world in recuperation from COVID-19 and economic stimulus, if not in freedom. We switched to it from TripAdvisor (TRIP) last year when the pandemic hit the US.

The Templeton Emerging Income fund (GIM) hit a new yield low of 1.1% at the end of February after its hot-shot managers over-bought Argentina bonds. The same problem hit other Templeton yield closed end funds. Now it has set up a facility for a return of capital to comfort its shareholders, but they are not happy because this was supposed to a safe yield play from Franklin Templeton, a renowned fund manager.

The share fell 0.66% Friday when the second tax-free return of capital payment was made. Its price crossed below the moving average last week, which is a bearish signal, and it trades at a discount from Net Asset Value of 10.5%. I think we need to vote against the current board, but I am not selling my shares at a huge loss and moving to Pimco or Aberdeen yield funds. To err is to be human.

However, I did add to my stake in Aberdeen funds, a rival closed-end fund manager. I am now considering buying into another closed-end fund manager with a unique, low-cost way of buying into stocks, Lazard.

Bausch Health Co (BHC) rose 3.35% in a week when most small-cap drug firms lost value, hitting a new high. I knew a top exec of the company under its old name of Valeant. He was replaced by Joseph Papa, now on the board of Schlumberger Ltd.