Yesterday afternoon, Pres. Trump, back in the White House but with many of his aides out sick, took down Wall Street by saying that the Mushkin-Pelosi negotiations would be halted, but that after he is re-elected he will push through a stimulus plan. That was October surprise number 2, after his becoming infected with COVID-19 in the first place. Given that Fed chief Powell earlier yesterday warned of the importance of more stimulus, this was a shock to markets here.

Then at 9:54 pm, Trump tweeted that airlines would be getting stimulus funds they desperately need before the election. At 10:15 the president tweeted that leftover “CARES” funds from the earlier small business paycheck protection, $13.5 bn, would be used for another small business paycheck protection plan, but said he would not allow bailout aid to blue states (run by Democrats.) He'll have to.

That amounts to October surprises 3 and 4. Given how late the walk-back was, most foreign markets today were not aware of it and fell in tandem with Wall Street's closing prices. But our Dow Jones opened up 450 points. While US newspapers reported on the Trump switch, it did not make wire services or the London Financial Times today.

He also fulminated against what he called the Russia “hoax”, “the single greatest crime in American history” and against Hillary Clinton's emails. This came after revelations that the President appears to have double-billed the tax authorities and The Apprentice for massive hair-styling expense. A federal appeals court rejected the Trump argument that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance jr's subpoena was “too broad” and issued in bad faith. So he is again going to the “US Supreme Court to appeal.”

The court is short one judge after the death of Ruth Ginsburg who I imagine arrived in heaven and asked God to do something to stop the Republicans from replacing her with an anti-abortion Handmaiden Catholic. He agreed and that is why so many of the attendees got COVID-19 from their gathering, including three senators whose votes will be needed, a dozen White House staffers, the President of Notre Dame University, and their boss and his lady.

Thank you God for food and drink; thank you God for everything. More for paid subscribers follows.

*Pimco, owned by Allianz SE, which rose .33% today under its new ALIZY rating, predicted that all asset classes will have low returns in the next 3 to 5 years. German bourses will be reformed and broadened. Allianz also has insurance products. It fell today in Munich over fear of Trump.

Industrials & Utilities

*French ute Veolia managed to buy a large stake in Suez from Engie before the deadline. Both own major water and sewage assets. VEOEY is up 0.6% because of fear of French anti-monopoly rules.

*Algonquin AQN rose in sympathy by 0.62%.

*Mitsubishi rose 0.4% and Sumitomo Mitsui 0.8%. Both SMFG and MSBHF traded lower in Tokyo. Both own raw materials companies with nickel mines but I don't have the breakdown.

*Cemex CX here did not lose from the 5-day railway strike in Mihoacán reported by Eduardo Garcia in Sentidocoun.co.mx today but it will hurt cement production. Cancun was hit by hurricane Delta.

*Kirkland Lake Gold jumped 1.3% on the pileup of KL recommendations in Seekingalpha Tues.

*Tesla indirectly upped the price Chilean Antofagasta by 5.06%, ANFGF mines nickel which TSLA needs. More on this below.

*Nevada's Ormat, ORA, Israeli-owned, rose 6.7%. Its geothermal systems back up solar and wind with storage from waterfalls it is peddling to California. It is a bonus stock.

Tech

*TSLA rose 1.55% today while Chinese electric car-maker NIO gained 4%+.

*Canada Solar CSIQ is up 9.2 to $42.53 today. It is a green share recommended by Max Deml.

*With Congress concluding its tech firm investigation by calling for a crackdown on abuse of their monopoly positions by Amazon AMZN, Apple AAPL, Facebook FB, and Google GOOGL, other tech stocks gained. Microsoft MSFT which no longer abuses its power is up1.1%. Bonus picks Qualcomm, QCOM, rose 2.8%, IBM 1.4%.

*With Tencent TCEHY up 1.2% in US trading, South African Naspers is up 1%; but Dutch Prosus PROSY is down because of the Gardners (Motley Fool) down-rated it. NPSNY was boosted by a deal on ads in Europe.

*Mercado Libre, MELI, the Amazon rival in Latin America, gained 3.72%.

*Japanese factory robot maker Fanuc (FANUY) is up 1.05%.

*Nintendo NTDOY, Japanese game-maker, is up 1%. It was tipped by Abhimanyu Sisodia.

*Norway's Tomra Systems is down 0.72% despite TMRAY recycling and metal-sorting strength.

*Israeli-American Tower Semiconductors rose 2.03% to $18.9. TSEM.

Pharmaceuticals

*Bristol-Myers BMY, a US drug firm, beat the rest with a 4% rise thanks to meeting the endpoint of pathological complete response with its CheckMate-816 trial for Opdivo against non-small-cell lung cancer, which killed two of my friends last year.

*Israeli Teva led the foreign pack, up 2.44% after it reported on follow-up with its migraine drug Ajovy show benefit consistent with dose levels after the trial period. This is hugely important to migraine sufferers who want to avoid having to boost their dosage.

*Canadian Zymeworks ZYME rose 2.75% on no news. It was recommended by Martin Ferera.

*Swiss Roche lost a half percent after it reported supply issues after a warehouse change will delay its antibody tests for the UK National Health Service. In London, it fell 2.55%. RHHBY.

*A bearish report on Glaxo from investors intelligence chartists took down GSK by 0.7%.

*I got a notice that I am a member of NJ class action suit against Danish Novo Nordisk for misleading US investors (in a union pension plan) because it boosted its list price on basic insulin so Tresiba would command a premium did not prevail. To join or exit the class it contact your broker. NVO fell 0.7%.

Funds

*Aberdeen Asia Pacific Fund, FAX, was written up by someone on SeekingAlpha claiming to be a “CEF trader”. The writer said he would not buy the shares because there is no plan to buy shares back despite their trading at a 14% discount from new asset value. But that discount is why you buy FAX shares because you get 14% more return that you are paying. Where do they get these self-proclaimed experts? It yields 8.3% on $1.2 bn of assets, paid out monthly.