This will be a busy week but it opened with the usual new week optimism, coupled with a joyous new month. There may be no article tomorrow. I will go to the polling place early because of fear of huge lines, although the local school is not very crowded most election days. As readers may recall, the worst time to vote was in lunch hour 4 years ago, when Candidate Trump arrived on the scene with cops, secret service, TV cameras, and lots of press, along with Melania.

Today, Mr. Trump, who faces a loss said he “will be going in with lawyers” after polls close tomorrow. That means the risk of another hanging chad round is high unless the latest polls with a 10% edge for Biden prove true nationwide. How the Supremes handle an impasse is too close to call.

My brokerage account is nearly inaccessible after TD Ameritrade forecasts a “head-snapping week".

Despite risks, Wall Street is bullish, with the Dow-Jones up ~500 points. The Index of Supply Managers hit a 13 month high at 53.4 in Oct. Over 50 means more manufacturing.

Utes

*Doubts about Canadian Solar, CSIQ come because Viennese green stock-picker Max Deml worries about how filthy the air and water are in China.. I left it out of my performance table yesterday reflecting Max's view, and because it has dropped sharply since we bought, by mistake. Harry Geisel and I both own it still and await its earnings Nov. 19, but it is highly volatile, having twice today jumped 3% before falling a faction at lunchtime. CSIQ has just launched a new high power, high-efficiency solar voltaic module producing up to 665 watts at what CSIQ says is one of the cheapest solar power generators out there. It comes with one or two lenses depending on the type of installation the module goes to, with an efficiency ratio of up to 21.4%. The module delays degradation from heat and light than earlier models and will have lower running costs than existing systems by 5.7% to 8.9%. The new module comes out only 4 months after CSIQ launched its 500-watt modules. The modules are sold in 150 countries. For now, I am listening to Harry and not to Max. For whatever it is worth, China is a very important market for solar modules and storage being heavily dependent on carbon fuels. CSIQ was founded in 2001 and listed on Nasdaq since 2006. Its CEO is Shawn Qu.

*French Veolia, VEOEY, gained 3.33% today. It aims to acquire arch-rival Suez.

*Canadian Algonquin Power rose 1.8%. after it got a strong buy rating from Raymond James brokers.

*Azure Power of Mauritius, supplier of solar power to India, is down

Drugs:

*Liberum Capital upped Glaxo to buy and it rose to $34.25 before falling back to $34.2. It beat consensus earnings figures last week. While it is not a maker of coronavirus products its adjuvant is part of the Sanofi and Oxford U jab plans. The advantage for GSK is that if one trial goes wrong its product for stretching vaccines can be used for a different one. GSK also will be in the WHO virus program whichever jab wins.

*Israeli Compugen got a Chinese patent for its Tigit targeting cancer anti-body composition of matter and use which runs until 2037. Despite nailing down protection of its PVRIG drugs, the share fell 3.33% on Wall Street today.

*Another Israeli startup, BiolineRX, rose 18.5%. It jumped as much as 11.6% in the premarket. Last week BLRX reported positive results from an interim analysis of its Genesis phase 3 motivafortide trials to mobilize stem cells against cancer. It reports on Q3 Nov. 16.

*Israel's big Kahuna, Teva, is up .28% now but earlier today was up 10%. It is being sued by US legal eagles for making illegal payments to charities to cover Medicare price hikes for Copaxone, its multiple sclerosis drug, in 2015-17. TEVA has a new brass and the charity law is ambiguous. Very Volatile.

Mines:

*SPDR Gold, GLD, is rising on fear of US election ructions, and because it was written up anonymously on SeekingAlpha as a safe way to buy the yellow metal because it owns physical gold rather than fluctuating options. It was also called expensive because its costs are 0.4% whereas options trading gold holders have lower costs.

*Canadian Kirkland Lake, KL, gained too, up 0.76%. It was also written up anonymously on SeekingAlpha today, dissed because its huge gold-rich Fosterville mine in Australia will run out of the precious stuff unless it has another big find by 2024. The Soma Bull (his by-line) forgets that KL also operates in its Canadian homeland.

*Johnson Matthey of Britain, JMPLY, refiner, and seller of precious metals, is up 0.7%.

Energy

*An oil expert whom I first got to know as a critic of the 7 sisters, Daniel Yergin, in his new book came out with a report crediting US oil firms for adjusting to lower demand. I prefer firms like BP plc (BP) (up 3.8% here but up 8.6% in London) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B), up 4.1% after a divvie hike) investing in alternative fuels to XON.

*Schlumberger Ltd gained 3.7%. It sold its rod lift and pumping businesses to Lufkin Industries for an undisclosed amount. It is a French majority-owned with a Dutch Antillean homeland.

*High-flyer Nio started the day up 10.6% in London but it now is only up ~7 %. Electric vehicles are in vogue. It delivered 5055 vehicles in Oct., double the level a year before.

*Computer Modelling of Canada gained 1.68%, CMDXF.

Finance

*CBOE Global Markets, home of options trading, was rated neutral by UBS analysts today. Boutique Rosenblatt rated it buy. Think of CBOE as a safe way to gain from options trading. It's up 2.5%.

*HSBC rose 2.5% in London today. British it operates mostly in Asia. I could not get stock prices from my personal account with the bank yesterday as I could not generate a password for internet access on a bank electronic device. When I called to complain a Philippina asked me what my cellphone number is, and I told her I had never registered it with HSBC. But she sent me a code that way all the same. In search of security, the bank is reducing it. My former brokerage staffers left. The Hong Kong Hang Seng index producer, HSNGF, a sub of HSBC, is down today.

*Panamanian Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterieur rose 4,.2% to $13.33.

*AIA Group Asia,  AAIGF, jumped 3.15%. It sells insurance.

*Banco Santander is up 2.73% and now firmly over $2/06/sh.

*Finnish Sampo Oij gained 0.95%. SAXPY.

Tech & Tel

*My company's WebHost Endurance International (EIGI) is being acquired by Clearlake Capital for $9.5/sh. My website has been out of order since late June. I am going to let EIGI set it up after I discovered that the Newark web design firm I was using was bankrupt and not answering the phone, but took $1500 from my company all the same. I failed to check the Better Business Bureau before they got my credit card data. Now I have to get a new card lest they tap it again.

*Prosus and Naspers continue to rise in anticipation of a stock buy-back to cut the discount.