The big news today is that more than 100 charities have had their websites and lists hacked, because they used a consolidator called Blackbaud. Among others Planned Parenthood and the British National Trust, to both of which we contribute, were compromised. Blackbaud paid a ransom but it may not have ended the risks because the consolidator only recently informed the charities of what had happened back in May. The suspected evil-doers may have been anti-semitic Iranians as they collected lists from 44 British Jewish schools.

The other big news is that more and more on-line brokerages, not just Merrill Edge but also JP Morgan Chase are no longer offering trades outside the USA, even in Canada, to say nothing of faraway lands like Australia or Germany. This means you will have to change brokerages with great care and skepticism after being lured in by BofA  which won't trade on the pink sheets or outside the USA. Only listed ADRs are available for trading.

Apple is doing a 4:1 split which will have nil impact on its valuation, but hopes that Amazon and Google and perhaps Facebook will do the same their shares on Wall Street. The Dow is down but would be down more if not for hopes of the splits.

Our president by calling for delayed US elections allowed Hong Kong and Xinjiang Chinese masters to delay theirs in order to arrest dissenting leaders. The man has no idea what his tweets can do to harm the world and in fact he has no power to delay elections.

More for paid subscribers follows:

Pharmaceutical

Poor Harry. Yesterday we wrote how this contributor sold off his stake in GlaxoSmithKline because of worries about its future. Today GSK rose because it set a 4.9% payout ratio for its current quarter dividend, at 49 cents/share. It also got to share in $2.1 billion in future payments from  the US warpspeed coronavirus fund, alongside French Sanofi for 100 million doses.

It's  a part recipient of the largest vaccine prepayment of all, thanks to its dominance of adjuvant additives for vaccines which help lower the dose per jab. I don't require my writers to follow but feel bad when they don't. If they lose as a result they feel bad too. Their vaccine is abased on recombinant protein and Uncle Sam can order another 500 million doses if needed longer term.

The pile-up of results this year is appalling Today Israeli Compugen reported on its Q2 despite Tel Aviv (where it has its primary listing) being shut. CGEN is a startup cancer immunotherapy firm using predictive data to find drugs to develop. It now is focusing trials on PVRIG and TIGIT, two paths which block tumor development in addition to PD-1 which was clinically validated earlier. It is in clinical trials usually backed by drug majors which add its paths to see if they help block cancers.

I found CGEN years ago because they were taken on by Bristol-Myers Squibb, a firm whose shares I inherited from my late mother, who died at this time of year aged 89. She had researched drug firms decades earlier when her favorite sister (she had 4) got breast cancer and went for BMY. I kept the stock in honor of my mother and her sister Bella. BMY today is trialing COM701 for all 3 paths with its Opdivo in FDA phase I-II clinical trials. COM701 is also being trialed as a monotherapy where the disease control rates are 69-75%. CGEN also has a 2^nd immuno-therapy drug, COM902, which is targeting TIGIT in advanced malignancies, now entering trials.

Of course it is not earning money. It spent $4.447 million on R&D this year, down from $4.87 million because of coronavirus and cost cuts although SG &A actually rose by $234 million y/o/y. It lost $6.246 million in Q2 this year, or 8 cents/sh compared to a $6.699 million loss or 10 cents/sh a year earlier, both before taxes which were q this year. Thanks to capital raising it now has $136 million cash compared to $44 million at the start of the year and nearly 20 million more shares out. CGEN stock fell 7.2% because its principal trading site, Tel Aviv, was shut today.

Teva fell 2.5% in sympathy to $11.56.

My Jahrzeit is Shabbat Nachemu, which means “be comforted” in Hebrew. It is tomorrow. My synagogue is shut and I was informed (wrongly) that my Jahrzeit was last week. I have for years not bought a calendar showing the Hebrew Sabbaths but with services on line I need one. Tonight Central
Synagogue will have an on-line service from its gorgeous building rather than from peoples' homes.

Dr Reddy's of India hit another new high in London in dollars, $60.35. Our reporter, Abhimanyu Sisodia made a strong case for RDY yesterday.

Merck, a US stock I own, is also doing a “very large pivotal study” of a Covid-19 treatment in Sept. and lifted its fully year guidance as a result. It is working with Ridgeback Therapeutics.

Franch Genfit whose shares I favored when it created its ADRs before selling in distress has terminated its trials of non-alcoholic stearo-hepititis (NASH) drugs to focus on diagnosing NASH and primary biliary cirrhosis. GNFT stock rose 11% on the news.

Gold

Kirkland Lake Gold which reported yesterday was tipped by Peter Arendas in Seeking Alpha because it eliminated its debt and now has cash of $537.4 million.

Its main mine is Fosterville which he says  is not affected by coronavirus and he expects two other mines, Detour and Macassa, will again produce gold in H2. Detour, which KL acquired, has higher costs, but he thinks the combined cash costs will remain low. That is the key to the KL stock price. He doesn't take into consideration another factor, the drooping US dollar. KL incurs its costs in Canada.

Technology

Nokia of Finland reports sales of euros 5.1 billion ($6.03 billion) missed consensus forecasts by 64.7 million or 11% because of a virus and lower Chinese sales. However its profits were 22% ahead at euros 423 mn euros when the consensus was merely euros 290 million. Adjusted profits were euros 318 million ($376 mn) despite the sales drop.

EPS was 6 cents/sh vs consensus (S&P Capital IQ) of half as much. The reason is that NOK stopped chasing low grade business. It also forecast eps will be 25 euros cents in the fully year plus or minus 5 cents. The theory is that business lost in H1 will be made up for in H2. NOK stock gained a lovely 7%+. CEO Rajeev Suri will be replace by Pekka Lundmark Sat., although he was only supposed to take over Sept. I. I think Mr Suri wanted to go down in a moment of glory.

Vodafone, whose stock is down because of a secondary issue in progress, joined with Telefonica of Spain (TEF) to trial Dell sub VMWare for wireless cloud networks. I don't know why VMW is falling because it also was picked by DISH for 5G cloud-native open radio access (O-RAN). VOD is British.

Food for Thought

Among the shares I now learn I cannot trade with Merrill is Greencore, the Irish food chain. Ironically enough while not having an ADR it is heavily bought by US ADR operators like JP Morgan Asset Mgmt which owns 5.07% of the shares out. I called JPM today and was told that they would not allow a US account moved to them to buy Greencore stock. GNCGY rose because it sold off its Irish molasses trading business to Ireland.'s United Molasses.

Weyerhaeuser sales fell by $30 million but still beat at $1.63 billion vs consensus $1.44 billion. Its profits were lovely, 11 cents/sh, down 5 cents from last year but beating the consensus of a mere penny.