Happy Monday. Today the stock market woke up to the risks both political and economic facing the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave after reflecting over the weekend. That's the bad news.

The good news is that alerted by my daughter-in-law's Boston doctor mom we started the day on the telephone to our healthcare provider to get a covid-19 jab appointment. It only took an hour and 20 minutes and we succeeded in getting a vaccination date for Wednesday (when there will be no blog.) The wait began at 8 am when the healthcare provider opens but we were not the only ones. We kept each other going with coffee and newspapers reporting on the death of our friend Ved Mehta who wrote for the New Yorker. In case you don't know it, I am well over 70 and my spouse is in his 80s so we were not jumping the queue. Our motivation is to get to the bar-mitzvah of our youngest grandchild and to visit our new London grandniece.

Image Source: Pexels

Now for the news:

Drug dealers

Sunday is not only a day when Israeli drug firms trade and report. The same thing is happening to US firms aiming to get far from the madding cloud as the conference seasons begins.

*TEVA gained1.9% today hitting $10.99 so $11 is coming soon.

*Israeli Enlivex Therapeutics, ENLV, opened up 6.33% today to $10.24 and so far is ahead.

*Novocare, NVCR, the Israeli developer of electrical systems to fight cancer, gained 0.67%.

*Compatriot BiolineRX, BLRX, opened up 9.71% to $2.87. Its high was $3.72.

*Compugen, CGEN, fell 7.4% to $12.34 reflecting the weekend in Tel Aviv. Now it is down 5.5%.

*Chinese Beigene BGNE fell 1.7% over a mRNA imuno-oncology deal with Strand Therapeutics announced Sunday for which it is paying $5 mn upfront and milestones of up to $28 mn.

*Zymeworks ZYME gained 0.7% on no news. It was picked by Martin Ferera.

*Japanese Takeda, TAK, rose 1.7%. It and many of the above firms will present at today's JP Morgan Healthcare conference today and tomorrow. Eisai, ESALY, gained 0.24%.

*Swiss Roche gained 2.84% after its Xofluza classic flu jab was approved by the European Commission. RHHBY. Novartis, NVS, also Swiss, rose 0.2% in snympathy.

*Danish Novo Nordisk gained 0.11%. NVO specializes in diabetes and weight control.

*Dr. Reddy's, RDY, of India, rose 1.8% to $73 and change. It was tipped by Abhimanyu Sisodia.

*Spanish Grifols, GRFS, which does enzymes, fell 2.35%. UK Glaxo GSK lost 0.9%.

*Abcelera fell 4.5%. ABCL is still looking for a bottom.

*Exelixis, a US healthcare firm, opened up 5.39% after forecasting that 2021 revenues will be $950-1.050 mn. It produced its outlook on Sunday along with its plans to get cabozantinib ok'd for 3 further specific difficult cancers, of the thyroid, liver, and prostate. EXEL also revealed $200 mn of sales in Q4 2020 and $741 mn for the full year.

*Bristol-Myers BMY, another US outfit, gained nearly 4% after it announced yesterday a $2 bn share buyback. It will work with Amgen and Astra-Zeneca AZN on early detection of minimal residual cancers.

AZN gained 0.33% on the news. Merck, MRK, rose 2.12% on news that the breast cancer market will hit $55.27 bn in 2027 after annual rises of 13.1% until then. UK Glaxo GSK however lost 0.9%

Energy

*NIO of China was rated overweight today by JPMorgan-Chase with a target price of $75, up from $50. It was also upgraded to buy by BofA-Merrill with a TP of $70, up from $59. NIO gained 8.63% and is our top non-drug performer.

*Earthstone Energy, ESTE, rose 0.17% to $5.8.

*Cross border ute Algonquin (AQN) fell 2.3%.

*UUUU, Energy Fuels, fell 0.24%.

*China sold 6.8% fewer cars in 2020 than in 2019, but that was still better than the rest of the world.

*Schlumberger Ltd (SLB) lost 1.07%; Royal Dutch Shell B (RDS-B) lost 0.78%; BP lost 0.47%.

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, fell 0.35% on China blockage. But then it recouped and is up a fraction.

Tech

*Mercado Libre, MELI, is up 2.7%

Finance

*Both gold and Dr copper are down as the dollar gained from higher interest rates.

*A tide of red ink worldwide hit the financials of this world because bond yields rose. Also, threatening banks is the new vogue for ending interest charges on credit cards. Here are some exceptions

*State Street STT was among the few gainers in banking because it is paying 2.7% in divies. It is not a classic bank.

*Another winner is Banco Santander which was upgraded by Swiss UBS to buy from neutral because it will be able to slash costs in Europe. The TP for SAN now is euros 3.3 up from euros 2.8.

*Bank of Nova Scotia BNS was chopped to underperform by Credit Suisse and is down 0.26%.

*Hang Seng Bank of Hong Kong, HSNGF, did not trade today.

*However both Japanese finance groups traded. Sumitomo gained 0.45%, SMFG, and Mitsubishi lost 0.43%, MSBHF.