Stock Market Risks
Mexico
*Orbia Advance Corp (formerly Mexichem, traded on the OTC Market here as MXCHY), has ceased showing on my brokerage statements since Nov. The bid is $3.35 and the ask $824.58. Orbia bought drip-feed companies in Israel (Netafim) and in Europe. It is HQ'd in Mexico City on the Paseo de la Reforma 483 and its phone no. is 555 366 664000. Since I don't speak Spanish I wonder if Eduardo would be good enough to call them up to find out what is happening to our shares and dividends.
Apart from pardoning at last count 15 of his henchmen, El Presidente is also undercutting his own party by criticizing the stimulus package as too meager and calling for a payment of $2000 to every unemployed person, rather than $600. This is pure demagogy.
Perhaps worried about the reaction to its bearish remarks last week about stock market risks, today Value Line's Harvey Katz again suggested that “investors retain a decent weighting in equities.”
Other news is that jobless totals were lower than expected, at 803,000 last week. The forecasts ranged from 875,000 to 888,000. This is still pretty grim and Nov. saw an 8% jobless rate, up from Oct.'s 7%. The good news is that two vaccine companies are saying that their existing vaccines will work against the new mutation. The companies are Roche, BioNTech, Pfizer, AstraZeneca-Oxford University, and Merck. I suspect they know how their vaccines work.
Tomorrow the stock market here will close early for Xmas Eve. News follows from our companies.
Drugs
*Compugen CGEN, the Israeli startup specializing in computer-generated reactive drugs, will collect $2 mn from Astra-Zeneca to cover the first milestone from a bispecific antibody licenses to AZN back in early 2018. CGEN is up 4% on the news and AZN is up 1%.
*Astra-Zeneca also gained because it sold more doses of its vaccine to the US. So did Pfizer, for the same reason.
*Roche RHHBY rose because its Her-2 breast cancer drug, Phesgo, with Halozy, which can be infused in half the time of its earlier version of Phesgo.
*Pfizer PFE is supplying another 100 mn doses to the US and will deliver vaccines to Mexico by Dec. 23.
*Bristol Myers' BMY Opdivo did not boost survival in brain cancers in trials.
*After rising yesterday, AbCellera Biologics, ABCL of Canada, lost 7.7%. It is working on a neutralizing antibody for Covid-19 which is in phase 2-3 US trials. It is our worst recent bio share.
*Zymeworks ZYME, also of Canada, is down 3.7%. Vancouver is a new drug center but is high risk.
*TEVA is back in the black up 1.23%. It is an Israeli haven for the 4th election there.
*Glaxo GSK also is up as Britain goes to the rope over Brexit.
*Aurinia rose 1.5% today. A week ago, AUPH crashed because it will create a Vaclosporin plant with Japanese Lonza to go live in 2023. It was selected by our Canada reporter after it had a lousy quarter.
Banksters
*Banco Santander's US consumer lending arm was fined $4.75 mn by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for misleading borrowers on their options. SAN shares rose 4.12% on the news. It also gained because US Treasury yields rose. And because banks can pay dividends or do buybacks in 2021.
*Sampo Oij of Finland reported to the SEC that Blackrock's special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) cut its stake in SAXPY to under 3% from higher this week and it rose 2% on the news.
*Gold is upwardly mobile again after 3 down days in a row. Kirkland Lakes (KL), my recommendation for 2021 rose 1.33%. It reported wide high grade gold intersection the saddle zone of Detour Lake Mine today, indicating that there probably is a large high great deposit there. It will produce 1.35-1.40 mn ounces of gold this year and has solid financials and gold expert execs.
*HangSengBank HSNGY in Hong Kong rose nearly 2% today. It is the keeper of the local index.
Sumitomo is back up and so is Mitsubishi.
*Ant Group, part of Alibaba, whose IPO was blocked by Chinese regulators last month, has lowered the credit it will provide to younger borrowers in China. The service, for now, is called Huabei, which the Wall St. Journal says means “just spend”.
*Mark Chandler, the currency specialist formerly at Brown Brothers Harriman, is creating a new currencies ETF with Bloomberg which will use US and foreign currencies to safely invest in emerging markets. He expects that the current dollar rally will run out of steam by the middle of next year which will make emerging markets' money more solvent.
Oil and Electricity
*Nio is down today by 1.2% today after Republic Services dropped its deal to use Nicola electric garbage trucks. Tesla fell 8.5% so far this week but are up today. NIO may be well placed to do a deal with a foreign auto company so I am thinking of buying some back.
*Energy Fuels, UUUU, is up another 20% today on funding for a US uranium stockpile in the
*Schlumberger ltd SLB is up 2.62% on options expiry.
*Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure, tipped by Harry Geisel, gained another 5.34% today, or best performer. AY is at a new high over Brexit and covid-19 fears. Its part parent Canadian Algonquin AQN, rose 1.31%.
*Cameco, CCJ, which shut in a mine cutting its surplus, gained 5%+ on options expiry and a buy rating from Bank of Montreal with a TP of $18.5. Uranium now a hot number thanks to the US stockpile fund.
Tech & Tel
*Qualcomm QCOM, which I bought to access unlisted Israeli distance healthcare shares, rose 1.5% to $148.57 on its making 5G components for smartphones in China. A target price of $200 was set by Tristan Gerra of Baird.
*Mercado Libre MELI fell 2.7%. It is the Latin American version of Amazon.
*Finnish Nokia is up but Swedish Ericsson is flat today. ERIC is suing Samsung for patent violations. NOK is not. And they are in different currencies.
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