Asset manager Guy Spier, now based in Switzerland, wrote about why he won't buy cryptocurrencies, a matter about which I agree with him. Like many classic investors, he says he doesn't understand crypto, but of course, he really does.

“The key point about crypto is that, unlike a farm or a building or some other tangible asset that can generate cash flows, Bitcoin does not and cannot generate cash flows. As such, it is not an asset that I can analyze, the reason I have not even considered an investment. I am less confident that its end price will be zero, although it might well be. Bitcoin stands at the center of the crypto-currency universe and there is an enormous amount of physical, computing infrastructure invested in it. So it might well succeed. But I still can not value it, so it is not an investable asset for me.

(In investing) “There is always one group or another getting rich at a faster rate than you. And that group tends to speak loudly and proudly about its superior insight and success. My approach is to simply be okay with that. I am delighted to have more people joining the ranks of the rich. What's important is that we can't allow envy or fear of missing out to knock us off our chosen path (which) may seem slower in the short term, but likely to be more resilient and profitable in the long term. Patience is likely to deliver much richer rewards.”

Guy runs Aquamarine Capital Management LLC which operates from Cambridge Mass for US investors and from Zurich for the rest of the world. My husband is one of the investors in the US version. Today is a heavy news day so enough about crypto.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

*Banco Santander is up 3.14% after its Q1 results beat with net profit at euros 1.61 bn ($1.95 bn) up from euros 331 mn a year earlier when the first impact of the coronavirus hit. This handily beat the consensus forecast of euros 1.17 bn. Revenues dropped to euros 11.39 bn from prior year's euros 11.81 bn, but also beat the consensus, which was for euros 11.04 bn. The main reason profits rose was lower loan loss provisions, nearly halved to euros 1.99 bn. Europe and North America were up more than expected, “a positive surprise” according to UBS. Europe gains came from Britain and Portugal. Latin America overall did less well but Brazil also was up. Chair Ana Botin told the conference call that she is confident SAN will achieve its goal for the rest of this year of increasing profits, by cutting the cost of credit and improving its efficiency ratio. Q1 net interest income of €7.96B fell 0.8% Q/Q and 6.3% Y/Y.  Q1 underlying net operating profit of €6.27B increased 12% Q/Q and 0.8% Y/Y. Q1 efficiency ratio improved to 44.9% vs. 47.7% in Q4 2020 and 47.2% in Q1 2020. Group net fee income of€2.55B fell from €2.46B in Q4 and €2.85B a year ago; excluding the exchange rate impact, there was no material change from a year ago.

Pharmaceuticals

*Grifols dropped 0.65% after announcing that it will create a world-class immunology research hub in Andorra, a tiny independent state between France and its home country, Spain famous for its tax evasion. GRFS specializes in blood plasma-based health products. Presumable GRFS will get incentives from Andorra, which like Barcelona (the company's HQ) speaks Catalan. It opened up 0.5%.

*Israeli TEVA reported Q1 sales which missed forecasts at $4 bn, leading to a 2.6% drop in its price earlier today. However, its profits beat and it cut its debt to $23.2 bn. After the conference call, when Kare Schultz gave details on its earnings, the stock recovered and is now only down 1.48%. It won't make covid-19 inoculations after all. Its biosimilar Truxima (generic rituxin for arthritis) now has a 26% market share; Austedo (for tardive dyskinesia and Huntington's disease) and Ajovy (against migraine) are gaining market share. The drop in generics was linked to its Dec. exit from Japan.

*UK firm Glaxo reported today and surprised on the upside. Its non-GAAP eps at 23 British pence beat by a penny, and its GAAP eps at 22.9 pence beat the forecast of 21.9. GSK sales were £7.42 bn, about $10.3 bn down 15% from Q4 and £460 mn under the consensus forecast. It expects this to reverse thanks to easing of virus restrictions to come in its major markets. CEO Emma Walmsley said she is focusing on its spinoff of its over-the-counter business and focus on prescription drugs and vaccines (more June 23). Flu and cough medicines sales fell because of distancing and stockpiling last year.

Because US activists from Elliott Mgm have taken a big a stake in GSK, she is under pressure to show good numbers.

*Swiss Roche (RHHBY) beat in sales (by a fraction) at CHF 14.93 bn vs the call of 14.85 bn. It reaffirmed its outlook for 2021 and claimed that its drug sales drop was offset by a 50% rise in diagnostics to SWF4.33 bn. It generics arm, Sandoz saw a 9% sales drop to $2.31bn The stock rose 2.12% on the news but now is down 1.4%. Analysts now expect adjusted fully year profits of $6.35/sh on sales of $52.1 bn Gene therapy is its most hopeful business now.

*BeiGene BGNE opened up 8% on news that its Brukinsa drug beat Ibrutinib in treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia in phase III trials and it's now holding fast at 7.2% up. It also reported that its not small cell lung cancer drug tislelizumab, which it is developing with Novartis, the other Swiss, is beating back non-small cell lung cancers. The Chinese-American drug maker is up and so is NVS which also gained because it is doing a new study of Zolgensma gene therapy based on the weight of the patient with spinal muscular atrophy. NVS has failed to meet Q1 estimates also.

*Zymeworks is up nicely at $30.61 but still at half the level at which it opened in 2021. ZYME is British Columbian (Canadian).

*Novacure fell 0.16% today but we are still ahead 76%. NVCR has a unique alternating electric current system for zapping cancer cells which may work, developed by a retired Technion scientist. It is now formally listed in the Channel Islands and not Tel Aviv. The phase III trial in lung cancer has produced hopeful results.

*The Toronto Globe & Mail reported that a Canadian woman aged 54 died of a brain embolism after being injected with the Astra-Zeneca Covid-19 jab. Most of the women who suffered this were pre-menopausal so this is troubling. AZN stock fell 0.65% on the news, to $52.02 after opening up 1.43%.

Energy and its users

*NIO plans a Hong Kong secondary issue according to Mentor Finance and has launched a new “lifestyle” app for Chinese electric vehicle buyers. This has boosted its share price.

*Schlumberger Ltd is up 4.16% after a smaller than expected rise in crude oil production last week. SLB reported global revenue of $5.2 bn of which international was $4.2 bn and North America $972 mn. EPS came in at 21 cents/sh. Cash flow from operations was $429 mn and free cash flow $159 mn. It declared a quarterly dividend of$0.125 per share.

*Cosan CSAN of Brazil, which is divesting a gas station chain run with Royal Dutch Shell RDS-B, gained 2.8%.

*Earthstone Energy is up near 7% despite analysts expecting ESTE to report lower earnings in Q1. There may be an earnings surprise coming.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU, is up another 3.8% today at $5.62 after it hired experts Carester SAS to process monazite feeds for rare earth production in Utah and got US govt financing for this venture.

Technology

*Coupang stock fell 3.36% today to $44. The recently listed south Korean Amazon clone is very volatile. CGEN.

*Mercado Libre, the Latin American Amazon clone fell 0.01%. MELI.

*BAE Systems recouped its drop as weapons are needed. BAESY is British.

*Tomra Systems of Norway, TMRAF, is up 3.98% at $50.94.