The stock market suddenly noticed that new variants of COVID-19 might delay the reopening of economies and after falling 150 points at the end of Tuesday's session, the Dow Jones opened down another 3 figure level Wednesday. This despite Jan. retail sales rising 5.3%.

*Israeli-American Tower Semiconductor Wednesday reported Q4 sales of $345mn, up 11% sequentially and 13% over prior Q4. It forecast that it will have the same level of sales in the current quarter plus or minus 5%. Full year 2020 revenues were up 3% to $1.266 bn. Q4 gross profits hit $70 mn, up 30% sequentially and 27% from the prior year. Operating profit jumped to 33 mn from $19 mn in the prior quarter and year. Net profit in the quarter hit $31 mn or 29¢/sh basic or 28¢ diluted, more than double the prior quarter level of $15 mn, and up by $10 mn from $21 mn level of Q4 2019. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization (cash flow) came in at $96 mn vs $79 mn in Q3 and $75 mn in Q4 '19. It also invested in fixed assets of $64 mn to fund its capacity expansion, and repaid $8 mn of debt. It is adding to capacity for 200 and 300 millimeter chips to meet higher demand spending a further $150 mn in the current year for fabs in Israel, Texas, and 2 sites in Japan which will boost H2 revenues in 2021 and have full impact in Q1 2022. CEO Russell Ellwanger cheered on the year-end growth despite the pandemic and added: “Our $345 mn guidance [is] the highest first quarter revenue guidance in [our] history” and predicted that 2021 will “be a record revenue year.” It reports in US GAAP. Despite the good news, (TSEM) stock fell 1.23% to $32.79, in part because Israel was closed when it reported although it opened here at a 52-wk high of $34.45 before the conference call ended.

*Canadian Solar, (CSIQ), fell 4.46% to $55.17 as chip users were hit. Qualcomm (QCOM)fell 1.9% to $144.38.

Mining and Fuel

*Incentivized by the Kelvin the computer repairman Tuesday to load up on rare earths, which he said are essential for cellphones and laptops I bought more shares of (UUUU), Energy Fuels, which fell 5.4% Wednesday, to $6 (US). It was the target of a short sale squeeze earlier this month which boosted the share price, writes ycharts, a new site for me which offers a way to embed charts easily into articles. I may adopt it if it works, but I haven't tested it yet. I like nuclear power which I think is safer and cleaner than the public believes. And because UUUU now processes uranium it and other companies have mined in order to extract the rare earths often associated with uranium, I consider it a rare earths play and suggested it to Kelvin, who mainly laments that he failed to buy bitcoin when he had the chance. Apart from China, now running low on rare earths, another site for the stuff in Myanmar. Both produce rare earths with dangerous dirty systems. It opened up 15¢ but now has crashed back to $5.81.

*Gold continues to falter, with SPDR Gold, (GLD), down 1.11% more Wednesday to $166.37 (the equivalent of 10% of the price of bullion.) It is down with the barbarous relic by 5.35% in the last 6 months. Unlike other gold plays, GLD is backed by a trust of major gold mining companies so it only goes long. While I am a classic worrier about inflation, the main reason for buying the yellow metal is that the timing and the outcome of the end of COVID-19 contagion is uncertain. Gold peaked in mid-July of last year when the world was more optimistic about the virus. It later rose to $166.8 Wednesday.

*Kirkland Lake Gold, (KL), fell 3.6% Wednesday. It mines in Canada and suffers when the loony weakens.

*Ormat, which produces and stores geothermal energy, should do well because of the Texas mess, result of a peculiar system where sellers of electricity use the government owned grid to transmit their juice—and get payment not for the actual electricity but for services and fees, like reading meters. This normally keeps power cheap in a state which has lots of oil wells, at an average of 12¢/kilowatt compared to the 18c/kW I pay in New York State which also has greener sources, although in fact solar and above all wind energy supplies suffered in the unusual Texan ice-spell. The sun doesn't shine when it snows and wind turbines freeze up. For whatever it is worth, geothermal, despite the thermal meaning heat, is in fact less dependent on the weather than other fuels. (ORA) fell 2.6% Wednesday in Israel.

*Antofagasta, a Chilean mining company which for historic reasons has its primary listing in London, Wednesday rose 4.8% in US trading, hitting $24.3, a new year's high. (ANFGF) is rarely traded in the USA.

*The Texas travails and awful weather boosted oil shares forn now. Saudi Arabia boosted production which will probably result in lower future prices, however.

Tech & Tel

*Naspers of South Africa hit a new high Wednesday at $52 before falling back to $51.79. (NPSNY), the media and advertising firm, operating in many developing countries, spun off African media MultiChoice, MCHOY, and with its euro-land co-listed partner Prosus did a big share buyback last autumn. It was picked by Harry Geisel who knows South Africa well. PROSYgained 2.58% to $26.21, a 12 mo. High. Both gained from the buoyant stock of Tencent, the Chinese internet firm (sold) and from talk of a new buyback or asset sales this year. Prosus is trading at a 37% discount to its net asset value (based on its holdings), wrote BankofAmerica Wednesday. What they mean is sales of (TCEHY) for which a lock-up period ends March 22. Having sold $10 bn or so 3 years ago, NPSNY and PROSY still own $290 bn worth of Tencent. BofA also upped its target price for Prosus to euros 160 from 138. (from $166. I have no idea what the euro will be worth in March.)

*Nokia is partnering with fellow-Finn Elisa to provide Finnish industry with high grade private mobile radio networks for internet of things, machine learning. They will advertise together. (NOK) fell 1.2%.

*Britain blocked on competition grounds a $9.2 bn purchase by E-bay of Adevento, a classified ads site.

*Ericsson fell 2.43% to $13.04.

*Argentine Mercado Libre fell to $1868.54 but MELI now is $1877.62 with more growth potential than Amazon.

*Tuesday CBOE rose 6.89% in US trading, to $97.2 but fell back Wednesday to $95.93. It will offer new electronic auctions data on S&P index options and weekly options at the close starting next Monday.

*Cosan fell 2.16% Tuesday to $20.39. I dissed the useless CZZ presentation of last week.

*Cameco hit a new year's high of $17.18 before CCJ fell 1.01% later.

*Tomra Systems, the recycling and sorting group, fell 6.3% Wednesday over the Norwegian currency rising.

*Nio fell 3.9% to $57.9. You can't buy a Chinese auto with bitcoin.

*Chinese tourism site Trip.com Group lost 0.7% Wednesday on fear Chines will stay home because of risks in foreign lands, and the reverse, fewer foreign tourists in China as well, because of COVID-19.

*Nintendo fell 0.58% Wednesday, a relatively good showing because its stock was bought by Ark Invests.

Drug dealers

*Novartis and Roche were both bought by Ark Invests. It is headed by Cathie Woods and is into disruptive Innovation stocks which it buys and then promotes.Roche was cut to equal weight Wednesday by UBS but it made no difference to Ark. (NVS; RHHBY).

*Thermo Fisher Scientific, my largest holding in the sector, is buying Bigfoot cell sorter from Propel Labs, a sub of unlisted Sidis Corp. for an undisclosed amount. This will help do cytometry analysis.

(TMO) shares fell 2.72% to under $500, currently ~$497.25.

*COVID mutations have to be fought with antibodies not spikes. Spanish Grifols, GRFS, rose 0.11%.

*Glaxo is up 0.66% on its expanding deal on viruses, after it boosted its equity in Vir Biotech by $120 mn and made an up-front payment of $225 mn in equity. GSK reacted to criticism of big pharma for missing in action over COVID-19. Vir says they will add new flu and virus cooperation. The original deal with the US-listed Q quoted company was last April. The new deal covers Vir-7831 and 7832.

*India's Dr Reddy's launched a generic of capecitabine tablets in the US, the equivalent of Xeloda, a treatment for breast, stomach, and colon cancer. There are other generics out before RDY.

*BiolineRX of Israel gained 5.12% Wednesday hitting $3.49. It will report on 2020 next Tuesday. It did a bought deal last month raising $30 mn, initially set at $10 mn.

*Bausch Health Cos of Canada hit a new high of $32.4. But Zymeworks fell 1.56% to $41.14 US.

*Compugen is up 0.8% Wednesday to $13.39.

*Teva fell 0.8% to $11.28 whereas the Israeli closing price was $11.5.

Finance

*Closed-end funds Templeton Dragon; New Germany; Japan Small Cap all rose Wednesday, some to year's highs. But they are still at discounts to NAV. They are being bought by Lazard Global
Total Return fund, as I wrote Tuesday, a cheap way to create a global fund. LGI did not trade Wednesday.

*Taiwan Fund, TWN, lost 1.2% Wednesday.

*Canadian General Fund, CGRIF, with the highest discount from NAV, fell 1.7% to $30.06 US.

*Aberdeen Global Income Fund, already ahead of its net asset value, rose 2.4%.

*Banco Santander fell 1.7% despite US yields rising because Dow Jones ran an article about the worsening asset quality of Spanish banks. (SAN) is the largest of them and the most global.

*Mitsubishi (MSBHF) rose 0.52% to $28.899 equivalent in Japan. Sumitomi (SMFG) did not trade.

*Sampo Oij of Finland fell 1.44% to $22.18. Investor a/b of Sweden fell 1.44% to $76.04. Copycats.