Today you can finally hold Bitcoins via an exchange-traded fund, but the price fell because of profit-taking by investors in the alternative currency. But it's early days.

Ex-Pres. Trump is trying to use executive privilege to stop investigation into his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. It may not work but it will delay the probe.

China is abandoning its plan to set up a property tax to reform how its citizens handle real estate investment. The country is Communist but people do want to have nice homes.

Spanish Iberdrola is investing in UK offshore wind farms while it battles against blockages in Spain.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

*Investment Reporter of Canada in a report on American Depositary Receipts stocks likes 12 ADRs including Sanofi, SNY; Sony; Taiwan Semiconductor, TSM; Tata Motors, TTM; Telefonica, TEF; Teva Pharma, TEVA; Toyota, TM; Unilever, UL, and Vodafone, VOD. We own the ones in bold print.

Drug dealers

*Johnson & Johnson beat the consensus earnings forecast by 20 cents and boosted its guidance. JNJ gained over 3%.

*Medtronic, a US share I own, rose after it said it will buy Israeli insulin pump maker Triple Jump for use with its artificial pancreas to treat diabetes. MDF was upgraded to strong buy from buy.

*ATEA and Roche's covid-19 treatment failed to chop the viral load and RHHBY fell 1.5%. Merck, whose drug failed trials, rose 2.25% in reaction. MRK.

*Pfizer gained after it was able to resume manufacturing ts naxalone to treat opioid overdoses again. PFE.

*Zymeworks of British Columbia, ZYME, fell another 2%. Where is Martin when we need him?

*India's Dr. Reddy's (RDY) launched a generic against blood diseases like multiple myeloma treated by Revlemid. This boosted Israeli TEVA, a rival generic firm.

*Israeli Compugen which fell this month today recuperated. CGEN.

*Japanese Takeda gained 0.4% on its being rated buy by Royal Bank of Canada no news I can read. TAK.

*Novocure gained nearly 3% in a recovery. NVCR.

*Biogen Idec was downgraded to neutral from outperform despite its hope to have a depression therapy drug approved by mid-2022.

*Esperion staff are being contacted by Chinese hackers trying to get their phone numbers. Your editor got a call allegedly from her bank over a supposed interest-free loan of $8000 I owe. It seems to have also been from Chinese hackers, who got my husband to give my unlisted direct phone number. ESPR was cut to equal-weight by Credit Suisse today.

Telcos

*Israeli Tower Semiconductor TSEM rose following the lead of Taiwan Semi TSM which rose Monday after it opted to build a plant in Japan. TSEM already operates also in Israeli.

*Ericsson fell 3.8% today after it reported a sales drop (but an EPS rise) and warned about supply chain issues. ERIC is the Swedish competitor to Finnish Nokia which fell 0.68%. NOK lined up a 5G win with Slovenia but it was not enough to overcome the supply chain fear.

Materials and energy

*Albemarle of Britain was tipped today by Barron's and plummeted. It mines gold, copper, and phosphates in Chile but historically is listed in London. ALB.

*CAE was down 1.33% over a lower target price for uranium.

*ESTE, Earthstone Energy, fell 1.4% after its earnings estimate rose to $2.16 from $2.12.

*Canada Solar, CSIQ, fell after its next earnings figure was cut to .182 cents (US) from .199.

*Weyerhaueser earnings from its forests up north were raised to $5.98/sh from $4.09, both US bucks. WY.

*Vale of Brazil, sold, fell 2.5% on loss of its license for hydropower dams. VALE.

*The Canadian blog also tips energy stocks in Canada: CES Energy Solutions trading at 11.6x earnings and paying a divvie of 3.08 C$s; Enerflex Ltd at 12.9x earnings with a mini divi of 8 loonie cents, well covered; Pason Systems at 19x earnings and 20 loony cents of dividend; and Shawcor Ltd which trades at a 36.1% discount from its book value per share and which is expected to lose 9 loony cents this year but earn 33 cents in 2022. It also likes Dorel Industries which is selling its bicycle business to repay debt and pay dividends. These are not my ideas but those of The Investment Reporter.

Financials

*Britain may block the merger of Veolia with Suez across the Channel to preserve competition. VEOEY has already raised the cash for the deal, and as a result rose 2.9% on the news.

*South African Naspers, a backdoor for Hong Kong's Tencent in which it has invested, gained 4.3% today. It is a media firm. NPSNY.

*Lazard is now expected to earn 0.952 in Q3 up from 0.94 forecast earlier. Lazard is moving into US fund management from its French base. LAZ.

*Synchrony's EPS rose to $2.12 and the stock gained. SYF.