A Batch Of News

We have finally worked out a way for my web designer to access my site which was made impossible by GoDaddy, my registrar, despite promises to set it up for the Mexican who is also paying GoDaddy. This is mostly just bigotry but the registrars also want to drive business to their own techies. After my awful experiences with Endurance International over their destruction of my inputs and refusal to take any responsibility despite higher fees that GoDaddy asks for, I am sticking with GoDaddy. But I let myself be advised on how wonderful it is by a nephew of a British journalist of my acquaintance, although in fact, he proved to be as careless as other salesmen, who are paid a commission for selling internet services to small businesses. This is a real racket and my company has spent thousands of dollars for nothing but trouble. Getting reimbursed requires suing which costs more than I can bring myself to spend now, so they are getting away with it.

Janet Yellen boosted the outlook for stocks again today and most of the generalized losses of Thursday were reversed and more at the open, raising hopes among market watchers for another plus week. But I think that markets swooned yesterday means that the days of easy rising are now over. I admit I have been calling the top for a while.

We have a batch of news again, because of the shortened week. The main reason for the rise in our ADR-rich portfolio of foreign shares is the dollar falling. Our other family currency (my husband being British) has risen to a new high of $1.4006 per pound sterling, a level not seen since the Brexit referendum. This reflects the UK doing better getting drugs to fight COVID-19 than EU bureaucrats and stimulus plans.

Person Holding World Globe Facing Mountain

Drugs

*Illumina will offer whole genome sequencing for research into genetic diseases and family cancer syndromes under a deal with the University of Tuebingen in Germany, where my grandmother's brother Isidor Gunzenhaeuser studied medicine before becoming a refugee doctor in NYC. Tuebingen previously for 2 years did whole gene sequencing only for rare diseases looking for the instructions for making proteins. ILMN will back the investigational study, called Ge-Med Project, with sequencing, analysis, and health economic expertise. The latter term in the English press release refers to polygenic risk scores where a clear diagnosis will help patients cope and improve their outlook. ILMN was barred from a takeover bid by regulators earlier this year and gained 0.19% on the news. It is considered to be overpriced but is below its level of last Friday of ~$550 at $487.8 and falling.

*Japanese Chugal licensed Roche's COVID-19 rights but RHHBY like many drug majors is down today.

*Enlivex, ENLV, fell 6.8% to $17.7 today after a runup for 2 weeks after opening at $20. It is Israeli and Tel Avis is closed Fridays. Read on.

*The only share price fall today which I think unjustified is that of NovoNordisk of Denmark, the diabetes specialist which is developing weight-loss drugs. It was down 1.1% to $74.27 after jumping all week but now recuperated to be off 0.77% at $74.51. I have so many friends and relatives who are overweight that I think need NVO that I am looking to buy more.

*Recuperating drug firms include Compugen of Israel, CGEN up 3.18% to $121.74; Teva, up 1.57% to $11.11; Israeli-Channel Islands Novocure, NVCR, up 6.08% to $186.4; Indian Dr. Reddy's, RDY up 1.34% to $63.57; Spanish Grifols up 1.55% to $16.41; and Canadian Zymeworks, ZYME up 2.04% ro $41.91 (US). Few majors are up, however.

Industrials and Energy

*Swiss ABB gained 1.74% today and this means Gen Joe Shaefer, USAF-Ret, and I who both saw the share as a bargain earlier this month now can crow again. It is a key holding of Swedish Investor A/B which gained 2.29% today hitting $76.81. There is no Sweden fund, why we own IVSBF. More on finance below.

*Tomra Systems of Norway gained 1.28% in its homeland, to the equivalent of $44.84 today while the ADR fell 1.44% here to $45.27. The ticker symbols TMRAF and TMRAY normally move together.

*Brazilian Cosan was supposed to report on its 2020 and Q4 today but because of its restructuring we will not get more numbers over what was published a week ago, a hodge-podge of bits of data most not comparable to anything from before the changes in its holdings. Today the market realized they were not going to get the full Monty, so CZZ wound up rising 1.1% to a $21.19-$20.24 bid-ask level, on low volumes. I think Cosan, despite its investor relations mishaps (including a notice earlier this week in bad English which I chose not to report, also with no updates) is going to be a winner in 2021 thanks to its fuel and ethylene arms, and because the virus is not going to kill demand for sugar. I think the combo of its Bermuda offshore arm with its homeland parent in reporting will prove positive for CZZ, to change its ticker symbol post-consolidation. The consensus forecast based on the company's own predictions is that it will earn 24¢ per quarter this year vs a highly variable level last, with Q1 profit of 67¢ and Q2 profit of 9¢, followed by a Q3 big loss of 19¢ and a profit of 25¢ in the final quarter. Of course, with such a mixed performance last year, anything can happen in 2021. It will have a new ticker.

*Gen. Joe Shaefer, USAF-ret., a money manager, and I are both chuffed today as our joint bargain buy earlier this month (reached independently) is finally in the black. ABB Ltd, a Swiss listed electric equipment firm we already both owned via Investor A/B, a fake Sweden fund (as there is no Sweden fund) which also rose today. IVSBF is up 1.27% to $76 and change. ABB Ltd, the ADR, is up 1.63% and over our basis, having opened up 1.27%. It is a maker of articulated robots and smart cities sustainable infrastructure markets, according to 2 reports published today by ResearchandMarkets and FNF Research respectively.

*The latter report included covered Fanuc (FANUY of Japan) which fell 2.57% on Yen strength.

*Vodafone is up 0.76% today after a lot of selling. At $18.55 it is at about 18x earnings and its divvie is$1.08, near 6%. It was recommended by an Italian analyst on Benzinga Italia as a yield play. Other tel stocks are down.

*Chilean Antofagasta rose 6.28% in UK trading today. ANFGF mines copper which is in short supply if there is a recovery to come. It listed in London early in the last century and they like traditions there.

*Azure Power, AZRE, which supplies solar panels to India, rose 2.47% today to $32.8.

*Carmaker NIO of China rose 2.55% to $55.82.

*Geothermal power firm Ormat, ORA, rose 1.52% to $89.02. The NV firm is Israeli-owned.

*Canada Solar, CSIQ, gained 2.56% to $53.88 today

*Schlumberger Ltd of Curacao gained 2.4% to $26.2/sh and kept 90% of that jump today

*Top performer was UUUUEnergy Fuels, up 11.32% to $5.76. It mines uranium and extracts associated rare earths from its own and other miners' uranium, as rival rare earth site China aims to halt exports and Myanmar has a rebellion.

*BP plc is up 1.21% at $22.73 while Royal Dutch Shell B is up 0.58% at $37.47. That is because Texas is not drilling and producing now.

*Irish cement maker CRH plc is up 1.3% to $43.99 on infrastructure spending plans in the US and EU.

*Mexican cement maker Cemex is up 4.2% at $6.38. It reported nice profits last week. CX.

Technology

*Nintendo, the Japanese Switch console and games maker's stock price wobbled up and down. It opened up 0.5% in the US. Seekingalpha today ran 2 reports on Nintendo. One report, by anonymous “Value Pendulum” forecast earnings will rise 63% in 2021 but then fall 6% in 2022, excessively detailed. The other by Stephen Simpson, says “Switch momentum and revenues are falling” because of competiton from Microsoft and SONY but still thinks Fanuc is under-valued now. Yesterday here NTDOY announced the Direct sale of a new game call Splatoon3 which may work with a single player rather than teams featuring the squid-kid Inklings set in Splatsville, a city of chaos in the Splatlands wasteland. It doesn't sound like fun to me. Our expert on this arcane subject is Abhimanyu Sisodia in India and I have asked him comment.

*South African media and internet group Naspers was up at $51.83 at the open but now is $51.75, up 0.65. Its counterpart in Europe, Prosus, is down 1.12%. Both are ceasing to be proxies for Tencent, TCEHY, but this still hurts PROSY vs NPSNY.

*Trip Advisors crashed 2.6% after losing 41¢/sh when the forecast was only a 26¢ loss. This boosted the stock of Trip.com Group Ltd, TCOM, which is for Chinese travelers by 5.63% to $40.13, but it opened at over $41.

*Argentine Mercado Libre rose 2.43% at the open today to $1937 and later was up 2.92% at $1946.29. Motley Fool loves this share but it faces anti-trust action here and analysts are mixed. But it is close to its all-time high and was tipped by Cathie Wood of ARK, an investment advisor who is sharing her top ideas as part of a marketing campaign. MELI is a great pick for her because it is a very expensive buy but it is cheaper now at $1911.46. The Amazon of Latin America is very volatile.

Finance

*We will end coverage of Allianz of Munich, German because it no longer has an affordable ADR, but only lets you buy the very heavy German stock, ALIZY. It is reacting to class action lawsuits here over the marketing of its funds for all seasons, which flopped during the short squeeze in part because Germany has more active support systems for its listed companies, even if they commit fraud. Allianz is still a big player in US funds but you have to buy in Frankfurt with mega-euros. It did not do fraud.

*AIA Asia Group of Hong Kong rose 2% to $13.30 on light volume today

*Mitsubishi rose 0.5% to $28.15, MSBHFSumitomo rose 1.57% to $7.12, SMFG.

*Banco Santander hit $3.57 at the open. SAN now is at $3.63, up 3.42%.

*Bank of Nova Scotia is up 1.25% to $56.74 (US). BNS.

*Multilateral trade finance BLX Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterieur rose 1.72% to $15.97. It is Panama incorporated.

*CBOE fell back to $98.59 after opening up over $100 (by 12¢) near its high of $100.71. It is down 1%.

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Comments

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William K. 3 years ago Member's comment

Well written and informative, as I have come to expect. Thanks for the post, always interesting. Unfortunately our organizations experiences with GoDaddy, as we are a registered non-profit, seem similar. Not sure why.

Vivian Lewis 3 years ago Contributor's comment

I thought it was because I am using a Mexican firm recommended highly by a newsletter editor friend and blamed it on racism. but I think it is really that go daddy oversells its services when you sign up for webhosting because the salesmen get a commission and have no interest in warning you of the blockages. I am particularly annoyed because the godaddy rep was the nephew of an Irish journalist I knew, Malcolm Muggeridge, but he still didn't treat me fairly.