Today the speeded-up news cycle settled down to normal slowness and we have 2 corporate results. Several shares have been shoved down by the first moves by the Biden Administration, which mostly were greeted positively, with a couple of exceptions. First is the ban on the Keystone pipeline delivering oil from Canada to the US. While the cancelation is a proof of green credentials it is also scary. Canada doesn't like the move and other pipelines—including Aramco's in Saudi Arabia—are now under a cloud. Any oil or gas stock is under pressure.

The other trick issue is how much stimulus is going to be spread and paid for. Janet Yellin in her testimony yesterday suggested “curtailing” crypto-currencies like bitcoin to fund “going big” with payouts. Bitcoin dropped to new lows for the quarter in Britain as a result. This came just as Blackrock began offering bitcoin futures, a less risky way to own crypto money, without passwords.

But gold, the other haven, after falling yesterday, fell a bit today. The stock market which hit a new high yesterday is flat today. This reflects the risk from Biden's plan to double the minimum wage, and extract more in taxes on the wealthy to fund more help to the 50% of the US population left behind. While not many of us are in the top bracket which gained the most—Thomas Piketty would say because top brass rock star executives can demand excessive salaries and perquisites while those lower down in the company get flat or lower wages—most stock investors are among the rich, despite the alleged new poorer players using Robinhood.

Financials that reported good earnings over the past 2 days are now under a cloud, almost all down.

Latin American Mercado Libre MELI, -2.5%; BP plc -3.6%: Royal Dutch Shell RDS-B -3.34%; Schlumberger SLB reporting tomorrow-5%. Algonquin AQN which offers green power, is up 0.73%.

Brazil's Cosan CZZ fell -4.17% on heavy volume because of the way its proxy was handled, as I wrote earlier this week, and worries about how the ADR exchange will work but US uncertainty didn't help.

*The bright spots are few but Antofagasta (ANFGF) which rose 5.51% in UK trading is one.

As China asks the NYSE to reconsider the ban on 3 telcos, 5G firms Vodafone VOD and Nokia NOK are up. BCE fell 0.3%. Sweden's China-neutral Ericsson fell 1.11%. Read on:

*The 1st reporting company is Investor A/B, a different kind of Swede although it owns ERIC shares. The holding co. reported on Q4 and the full years of 2020 in Swedish krona. Each krona is worth exactly 12 cents. The stock has not traded much today because people are still sharpening their pencils. It reported revenue up 12.2% in Q4 vs prior year, and asset value at SEK 546,385 or SEK 713/sh, up 9.053% from Q4 2019, and 2% with the divvy added back.

Full-year NAV rose 14% so the gains were all at year-end. But its listed companies collectively lost 2% in 2020 and organic sales of its major subs were meh. There were bright spots, as always. Patricia Industries, the global investing arm, gained 5% mostly because of a 16% rise in Advantage Instruments, the acquired US mobility outfit. Mölnycke, maker of personal protective gear, rose 41%, a covid winner. 3Scandinavia divested its passive network infrastructure. EQT, which saw some board shuffles, divested stuff. These are all one-offs.

IVSBF ended the year with leverage at 4.1% vs 2.8% at the end of 2018. The maturity stretches out 10.8 years. It declared a dividend of SEK 14/sh, up from 9 the last time, but this is payable in 2 tranches, in May and Nov. of this year. The stock last traded at SEK599.2, up from 587 at the end of Sept (boosted by last year's delayed divvie.) It was at SEK 511.2 at the end of 2019.

EQT sold Suse (IT workshops); its personal care business Schülke; and a Paris office building, Trideca in the 13^th. It merged FocusVision with Confirmit along with its partner. That's just since the year-end. The way to own IVSBF is to trust management as it has been around for a very long time on behalf of the Clan Wallenberg and hangers-on. ABB now is +9%.

Energy

*Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI) did less well as its Q4 income fell fractionally to $607 mn from $610 in the price Q4. Distributable free cash flow at $1.25 bn was down 8% from prior year. Having cash on hand, it will payout $1.08/sh, up 3% while also funding buybacks. It is a US firm.

*Azure Power of Mauritius is up another 2.5% today. AZRE.

*Geothermal energy firm Ormat is up 1.5% perhaps because a box is being ticked. ORA is US-Israeli. The UAE Masdav fund is investing $100 mn in Israeli clean energy.

*Best sector performer in Energy is Canadian Solar, CSIQ, up 9%.

*The stock losers included Chinese electric carmaker NIO, off.5% at the open despite offering no down payment car purchases. NIO fell with Tesla which has Chinese safety issues. Buffett-backed BYD did a $3.9 bn secondary in Hong Kong. Later in US trading NIO rose 0.9%.

Drug shares

*TEVA fell 2.5%

*Aurinia Pharma AUPH is up 2.12%. as wins follow wins. It is now $14.9.

*ABCL Abcellera rose 3%+,

*Astra-Zeneca AZN gained 0.25%. Its rheumatoid arthritis drug got UK approval. It said the fire at the Indian Serum Institute plant making its COVID jab will not hurt output.

*Beigene lost 2.7% as China's negativism hit BGNE despite health care conferences.

*Bioline RX rose another 2.25%. BLRX.

*Enlivex is near to topping its close yesterday. ENLV.

*Compugen fell another $2.95%. CGEN is getting cheap.

*Danish Novo Nordisk NVO is up 0.55%but off its high after being tipped by Citi.

*Takeda is doing dosage trials for the Moderna vaccine in Japan. Eisai (ESALY) moved with TAK.

*Roche got US approval for Esbriet against interstital lung disease. RHHBY.

*NantQuest, linked to our Zymeworks, is testing a South African covid-19 jab. ZYME is up. It is a long shot but there are no other places in Africa where such a trial can be held.

*Spanish Grifols is up 0.4%. GRFS has produced hyperimmune globulin cell markers which may help coronavirus patients. Spain now has many of them along with Portugal.

Finance

*Banco Santander SAN crashed 1.5% on no news except it's being rated a buy by HSBC today.

*Canadian Scotiabank BNS lost 0.77%. It yields 10.86%. 

*Japan Zaibatsu  Sumitomo Mitsui Finance SMFG yields 4.5%. Mitsubishi Finance signed a supply deal with Aquestive Therapeutics of NJ for ALS treatment.

*Finnish Sampo Oyj SAXPY is up a couple of cents as an alternative to Investor A/B.

*Hong Kong's AIA Group, AAIGF, an insurance firm, lost 5.5%.

*SLFPY, Scotland's Standard Life Aberdeen, a fund manager, and insurer, is ahead 1.62% to $17.2.

Food

*Alimentation Couche-Tard fell 8% on fear of an ANCUF deal with Carrefour after all.

*Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo, GRBMF, rose 13.65%, I have no idea why.

*MXCHF, Orbia Advance Corp., which makes drip feed systems, gained in the US where its old ADR ticker symbol still is used (when it was Mexichem)

*Canada's Nutrien, NTR, is up 0.7%. It sells seeds and plant products alongside fertilizer.