From London I note that my local larcenous New York supermart, Whole Foods Market, which short-weighted pre-packaged goods, was fined all of $500,000, a piffling sum for systematic fraud against the consumer. With such a low fine compared to how much they shoplifted from consumers I expect what many call the “Whole Paycheck Market” will cheat their customers again.

Behind the News: Argentina, Israel, Pakistan

*With most mining and commodity shares crashing further, the exception is Australian Orocobre (OROCF), which operates the Salar de Olaroz lithium mine in Argentina. It trades as ORE in Oz and Canada, and as OROCF on the US pink sheets. Toyota owns a minority slice of Orocobre which is incorporated in Brisbane. It was picked by our Latina reporter, Frida Ghitis.

After it rose 8.29% in trading Down Under, the ASX regulator asked for an explanation. ORE-ASE replied:

“(a) At the recently concluded 2015 United Nations Climate Conference,195 countries entered into 'The Paris Agreement' pursuant to which a target of limiting future global warming increases to less than 2 degrees was set. To achieve this goal greenhouse gas emissions will need to be substantially reduced and the use of renewable energy resources substantially increased. The use of rechargeable batteries in both transport and energy storage, where lithium ion batteries are the predominant technology, can be expected to increase significantly to meet this demand; and

“(b) In contrast with the majority of commodities, the price for Lithium Carbonate has continued to increase with recent market prices in excess of US$10,000 per [metric] tonne being reported in China. The current limited opportunities for new and existing producers to increase supply to the market in the near term has also led to concerns of supply shortages.”

*In the latest Investors Chronicle writer Mark Robinson ponders whether the Shell-BG merger will proceed under current terms given the oil price rout. This helps explain why Yitzhak Tshuva of Delek Group (DGRLY) is telling Tel Aviv DGRLY is negotiating over the $30 bn sale of Israeli gas to BG in Egypt.

Meanwhile more help from Jerusalem for Delek and other gas companies: Israel's Antitrust Authority Monday approved 9 sales of natural gas from Tamar field to industry and private electricity producers. Each is for 15 years. The Antitrust Authority added conditions on future contracts over Leviathan gas and new contracts over Tamar. These attempt to address concerns first raised just a year ago when the now removed anti-trust chief worried that a long-term Delek agreement could completely fill natural gas demand keeping other potential gas suppliers from investing in Israeli offshore because they could never compete with it.

*On Chrismas Day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Lahore on way back to India from Afghanistan to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, who received the Indian leader warmly at the airport. They talked for 2 hours during the unscheduled visit, the first by an Indian PM in 11 years. It was also PM Sharif's birthday and his granddaughter's wedding day, as recounted on his Twitter account by Modi.

Modi and Sharif “expressed their desire to carry forward the dialogue process for larger good of peoples of the two countries” and also agreed to “continue and enhance contacts and work together to establish good neighborly relations”, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson tweeted after the visit that lasted nearly two hours.

This was Modi’s first visit to Pakistan although he had met Sharif earlier at his own swearing in in New Delhi. How serious a move is this between the two neighboring countries of the Indian subcontinent?Your editor was initially enthusiastic, recalling how Nixon, despite his anti-Communist credentials, was able to make peace with Red China, and how the hard-liner Menachem Begin made peace with Egypt.

Afghanistan and Pakistan also agreed to hold talks with US and Chinese officials next month aimed at restarting the stalled peace talks with the Taliban. An earlier round of talks in July collapsed amid Taliban infighting.

So why isn't our Global X MSCI Pakistan ETF, (PAK), reacting? First of all its announced cash dividend goes ex dividend today and will be paid on Jan. 8. But how much the final rate of this cash dividend will amount to has not yet been set by the issuer and is subject to change based on a final determination of the issuer. (It would be called Indian giving except the payer is Pakistan!)

Moreover PM Modi's reputation as a substance-less master of PR is hurting Pakistan this time. Pankash Mizra, writing in Bloomberg, states bluntly: “believing that Modi’s Christmas mission will produce a great and enduring bonanza, including his own change of heart, may be a bit like believing in Santa Claus.” Mizra then goes on to quote horrendous blood-thirsty remarks about Pakistan by Modi and recall how his goodwill mission to Nepal (a Hindu country!) wound up not with neighborliness but an Indian trade embargo.

Drug Dealers

*Michael Pearson, the CEO of Valeant (VRX), has severe pneumonia and has been hospitalized leaving Canada's VRX with a committee trying to replace him during the firm's continuing crisis. This is of course hurting a famous long on Pearson and VRX, Bill Ackman of our UK-listed Pershing Square closed-end fund which I admit to having bought in order to learn more about how activists operate. Getting ill is just bad luck and doesn't really teach me anything. Not all risks in stock markets are predictable.

*Novartis's (NVS) Cosentyx (secukinumab) aced two phase III trials against ankylosing pondylitis in patients who had never received tumor necrosis factor, or whom it had not helped according to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The NVS drug is already marketed for plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, so its Swiss maker now has a new market.

*Alkermes (ALKS) hit a 52-week high at $80.69 yesterday so naturally insiders who have been selling for 6 months sold some more, this time led by chief commercial officer Stejbach who raised $98,000 to pay for his Christmas gifts. The Irish pharma firm, which exited the US for tax reasons, has to report these stock sales to the local exchange and the SEC. I may be over-reacting to executive suite stock sales that also occur at other firms.

*Our beleaguered Australian DNA repairing drug firm, Benitec Biotech (BNTC), has seen heavy selling. The reason seems to be that its fired CEO Dr Peter French has been exercising his options and selling the resulting stock.