Spain failed to pass a no-confidence vote against the government, which will soldier on. Biden said he would create a commission to study US court systems which may be backpacking the Supreme Court.

Another day, another consensus stimulus plan may be in the works—or not. We will probably know more by the second presidential debate tonight. At this stage, it looks like Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell is blocking the deal made by Treasury Secy Steve Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. However jobless numbers came in better than expected.

I got an incomprehensible notification from NY State about our 2019 taxes, the 5th. It is costing us money to pay the accountant for follow up. I have to remember not to blame Democrats who control New York for the lack of funding by the Administration headed by my former zip-code neighbor Trump.

I am shocked that a local supermarket magnate, John Castimatidis, born in Greece, is a key funder of Donald Trump, although I am not boycotting Gristedes. Also funding the re-election campaign are two Bronx Science graduates, neither from my year, the brothers Lauder, whose parents emigrated to the US to escape Hitler, and then created Estee Lauder cosmetics. Their motivation for backing Trump is simple: they fear higher taxes from Democrats. Estee Lauder shares hit a year's high at $234.54 today.

I already hauled the Lauders over the coals for racism by not allowing actor John Boyega to present his London to Chinese viewers. For 1st generation Americans here because of racism against Jews or Greeks, a focus on taxes is shameful, as is racism against blacks, speaking as a 1st-gen myself.

Drugs

*Dr. Reddy's is taking preventive measures against hacking attacks like it suffered last month, writes Abhimanyu Sisodia from India. It shut down facilities only for 24 hours before it was safe enough to resume producing its drugs RDY hackers were probably not Russians because it is the designated producer of the Russian Sputnik vaccine in India. Some Indians think the culprit was China which is sometimes blamed for having developed COVID-19 as a biological weapon. If that is the case they would want to disrupt makers of cures with whom they have a Himalaya border dispute.

*Glaxo announced that it is working on another bug besides COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus which causes infant hospitalization and death, also a problem for the aged. About 14,000 older Americans die of SRV each year. There is no vaccine. In phase I GSK's 2 RSV vaccines produced antibodies and appeared safe. Phase 3 comes next spring. TheRSV jab will be going to old folks and pregnant women. GSK will reiterate its marginally negative forecasts for Q3 later this month.

*Teva canceled sale of its former tablets factory in Jerusalem which had been on the going to a property group for NIS171 mn. TEVA stock fell 0.33% on the news which had been expected in Israel.

*Bonus stock Thermo Fisher Scientific hit a new high of $482.54 at the opening. US TMO is my largest holding. It is still up 2.46% at $480+. It sells test systems for healthcare screening.

Tech & Tel

*AT&T T beat in sales and new signups and its share rose 6%. After the poor Verizon VZ show, I worried.

*After going stratospheric yesterday, ERIC (Telefonakiebolaget LM Ericsson) lost traction today. It was tipped as a buy, up from hold by Danske Bank this morning.

*Chinese electric car maker Nio is reportedly creating self-driving cars for autonomous driving. You get to be a passenger. NIO is seeking specialist staff for the new venture, called Smart HW, and will be funded with up to $1 bn. JP Morgan says NIO is “long-term attractive”. 

*Tesla TSLA rose despite RBC calling it a sell. Jim Cramer rates it a buy if Biden wins.

*Canada looks good because it is not close to a nail-biter vote. Telco BCE gained 1.67%.

*British BAE Systems will design a digital unmanned autonomous USAF drone called the Skyborg for up to $400 mn. BAESY dominates the automaton defense market.

Money

*Hang Seng Bank which produces the Hong Kong Stock Index, rose 2% today. HSNGF belongs to beleaguered HSBC.

*Options platform CBOE gains from volatility. I fear puts and calls but they are a growth sector.

*Goldman Sachs GS will claw back bonuses to pay the fines of $2.9 bn for its Malaysian 1MBD scandal. This will hit current and retired banksters who may not have know what was going on but should have.

*Gold fell and Kirkland Lake Gold KL of Canada got a lower target price today from National Bank of Canada, C$76, vs 79. The loonie is gaining against the greenback over US election confusion. It also lost a large neighboring site near the lake to a rival gold firm, Fosterville.

*Earthstone Energy, oil producer, is up 3.5% today but still well down over the year. It trades at under 8x earnings making ESTE a value play but pays no dividend. It had lousy sales and earnings in Q2.

*GE continues to thrive, up 4.5% today, stimulus or no. CAE of Canada, another aviation play, is up 2.1%, among the top performers. Thank you to Patti the Biotech Maven for this one.

Oil

*Schlumberger Ltd gained another 1.8% today on big volume. SLB, run out of Paris and Houston, is Dutch Antillean and a lot of stock belongs to the founding French family.

*UBS upped its TP on Cabot Oil & Gas COG to $23 from $18. I own it.

*Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B) rose 1.2% today. BP gained 0.9%, both on heavy volume.