Today the stock market is very buoyant because while lame-duck president Trump is still declaring that he won the Nov. 3 election, his team are finally working correctly on the transition to Joe Biden's presidency. So we have something to give thanks for 2 days from now. Vaccines are another.

The latest story is still a bit ambiguous but it now looks like the Oxford vaccine will also be 90% effective as well as cheaper (it is being sold at cost, without a profit add) and easier to handle as it needs only to be stored at normal refrigerator temperature. As noted yesterday it is the only vaccine ever that works better if the first jab is a half dose, and the second a full dose, because the protection is at 90% that way. This means more people can get their shots because the amount of vaccine needed is 75% of what was thought necessary before the trials.

The bad news is that daily US COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days hit a new record. GE is up again on news that its aviation division will further cut manning levels even when airplane orders rise. It was raised to outperform by Oppenheimer analysts. Oil prices are up again on hopes that travel and airplanes will do better next year and economies will grow.

We sold two shares from our portfolio yesterday, half of Chinese NIO (at $54.995/sh), and all of Irish Greencore (GNCGY at $6.37, a loss). The money is going into the college funds of my pre-college grandchildren. The sell was because the Irish fast-food company did a secondary issue and would not show the information to US journalists and shareholders. I was both. They were sent copies of this blog.

Today the market is up some more but I think we are coming to a reversal. The Dow-Jones hit a new all-time high at 30,013.93 but I expect it to fall, mainly because there are still plenty of negatives.

*Copper miner Antofagasta is the top performer today, up 9.11% to $16.64. Its main listing is in London but the ANFGF share is Chilean. A Jefferies broker put a buy the stock because there is a copper shortage and Barron's daily wrote this up.

*No 2 is BP plc, up 7.6% because it will gain from resumed economic growth as well as from alternative energy investments. (Royal Dutch Shell, RDS-B is only up 5.5%. Schlumberger Ltd, SLB, hélas is only up under 2%.)

*Our 3^rd top performer today is geothermal energy production and storage firm Ormat Tech ORA, an Israeli controlled US company, which is doing a secondary offering today at $74/sh. Our shares opened up 6.4% to $75.51, on the hope the new shares will jump back to levels from before the offering.

Banks and finance

*Fourth is Banco Santander SAN which gained 6%.

*Finnish Sampo Oij was upgraded to a buy from hold by Berenberg Bank at $20.91. SAXPY sold 162 mn shares of Nordea, a bank.

*Höegh LNG HMLP used prospectuses for earlier bonds in crowns, euros, and dollars to secure additional funding today. I assume the yields were lower but am not sure.

*REIT Global Self Storage major insider shareholder Mark Winmill bought a substantial number of shares of SELF, which trades on Q.

Tech stocks

*Reporting company South African Naspers and its Dutch spinoff Prosus PROSY reported good results on H1 of their 2021 fiscal year today with both revenues and profits up, plus a $5 bn share buyback plan for next month. H1 revenues were up 32% to $12.7 bn, and headline profits up 29% to $3.2 bn. However, the makeup of these profits were complex, with problems in India over food delivery (perhaps because India already has an informal network for this) and targeted Latin America center Brazil, where NPSNY will be taking on Mercado Libre MELI. Classified ads and e-tailing revenues were lower and its car business, buying cars from consumers and selling them to dealers also, lost traction. Transaction centers were shut down completely by the virus in Q1 and while still low in Q2 but earned 29% more.

Its free cash flow topped $370 mn. It closed the half with gross available cash of $10 bn and net cash of $4.5 bn, explaining the buyback. Part of the loot comes from the $370 mn in dividends the duo received from Tencent, TCEHY of China, compared to prior year $14 mn. It rose 4.6% today.

Delivery hero was a big winner outside India. This very mixed result helps explain the businesses.

*Japanese factory robotics share Fanuc hit a new 52 week high in Tokyo at ¥25,100.

*Russian telco VimpelCom will use neither Nokia NOK nor Huawei in its wireless networks replacing them with its own communications software and hardware. This despite Finland being rigorousely neutral. VEON shares are down over 40% YTD. Nokia is up 2.6% on the news.

*India has banned 43 further Chinese applications. Its blacklist now includes Alibaba Express, the shopping app. The Electronics and Information Technology minster has classified 200 apps at prejudicial to the sovereignity and integrity of India.

Drugs

*China decided to remove commentary by Ms. Li Ling of Chinese Health Development Research stating that the pandemic accounted for about 2/3 of the GNP growth in China this year. It wants to not appear to be profiting from the virus.

*Martin Ferera from Vancouver Canada tips not one but two local shares from British Columbia where he hangs out:

*Aurinia (AUPH) a year ago completed its phase III trials for voclosporin, to treat lupus nephritis which mostly affects women. My college classmate Ann Barry died of this disease for which there is no treatment yet. It now has received US FDA fast-track designation and priority review as of Jan. 22, 2021. On the initial approval the share tripled from $7 to $21 but now is down to $14. Lupus patients until now have had to rely on dialysis to survive. The complete response level with AUPH's drug is 41% at 52 weeks and the partial response is 69.8% at the same endpoint. The drug also cuts diabetes risk compared to other therapies. It also has serious adverse effects, over 10% leading to infection and 11.2% leading to discontinuation. However, it doesn't lead to deaths in the patient cohort. Renal response was 1.65x ahead of control. A second 2 year blinded study is continuing. Aurinia has patents protecting its drug running to the end of 2037.

The drug also works for dry eye disease which has been tested so far in animals and in phase II for humans. Martin says the company has $400 mn in cash to build out its production of the drug.

*Martin's second drug firm has just filed for an SEC registration to raise $200 mn with an IPO. Because this is not happening yet, we will hold off on the news until the share comes to market and share it with paid subscribers when our site is up again. It develops antibodies to fight infections, a major need, by examining the blood of people who have developed immunity by figuring out how they did so.

*Dr. Reddy's RDY rose 2.5% in India where it is running phase II trials for a COVID-19 vaccine.

*TEVA gained another 1.04% today and is trading at $9.71