The Internet Tuesday suffered its own Pearl Harbor attack as sites fell down, among them my personal brokerage account access which I use to write my blogs. Amazon Cloud, which to my knowledge is not something I use, has crashed. So this is a truncated report, again. Tech is obviously not able to handle the current demand. 

The crisis over Ukraine independence and/or desire to join NATO remains. An Asia Times writer seems to have boosted the Putin side of the argument by hinting that the former colony had agreed to allow pro-Russian separatists to run part of the country and to not join NATO. 

•The price of natural gas in Europe is up 6% over fears over Putin. The US has called for Germany to halt natural gas from the Russian pipeline to defend Ukraine. US natural gas prices are also up by 4%+ this morning. 

•Harvey Katz CFA today published a less bullish forecast in Value Line, calling for "watchful waiting" rather than coming out as pure bullish. Economists now are more likely to predict interest rate rises than cuts in 2022. 

I am publishing with only messages sent directly to my email account by companies I own stock in.

•Cenovus, which lost about 1% in today's trading, gave its guidance for 2022 and the next 5 years. It expects to generate free cash-flow of $5.5  bn next year half of which it will pay out to shareholders. Over the next 5 years it expects to get $33 bn in new orders.  It also will use more discipline to cut its capital expenditure, whose profligacy cause its stock to crash. It is incorporated in a Caribbean haven, the Cayman Islands.

•The merger of Veolia and Suez, both active in water and sewage, was approved by the European Union today. Britain may launch a separate inquiry.

•Tomra Systems now has a new consensus earnings forecast, NOK 2.19 down from 2.38. 

•Kirkland Lake Gold has a new higher consensus EPS forecast, $.897 rather than .893. I am not sure if the dollars are Canadian or US but suspect it is US.

Gold is up fractionally here today.

•Mercado Libre of Latin America is buying Niosat Investing, whatever that may be. It is aiming to add to its offerings.

•Samsung is consolidating two of its businesses, consumer electronics and smartphones. 

•Tower Semiconductor is up 1.3% today after a bullish article by Market Gyrations in Israel. Normally I would not post news from an anonymous writer on an unknown foreign site in English.

Pharma

•Roche of Switzerland has begun signing up patients for its AFN24 plus atezolizimab trials against solid tumors.

•Pfizer and BioNtech of Germany are making a booster jab for Omicron. It is not clear if the Moderna jab needs a booster also. There are now 57 countries where there are Omicron infections.

•In the lab the GSK-Vir antibodies work against Omicron. But so far there is no evidence from those who catch the disease.

•Moderna, whose jab we were given, is examining vaccine candidates for booster jabs in its labs.

•Novo Nordisk will refile for US antitrust permission to buy Discerna Pharma for  $

•Theravance is up 11% today.

•There is heavy bearish trading against Merck, according to options specialists.