How good it is that the “Dreamers” who came to the USA illegally but have lived here all their lives are being given citizenship. The House of Representatives voted for this yesterday and there may be difficulties with the slim majority the Democrats have in the Senate. But given that these people often have family members who already vote, I think the Senate will back the measures.

I am still locked out of my laptop and composing on “the clunker”, my venerable desktop computer.

While foreign markets are up, US markets again are mostly down because the Federal Reserve is not extending its decision last year to lower capitalization ratio permission. This allowed banks to count Treasury bills as a way to meet reserve requirements. The ECR measure was passed to calm markets a year ago in the height of the panic and now are felt to be unneeded. Anything on T-bills scares Wall St.

Our markets are also upset at the insults passed between Pres. Biden and Vladimir Putin, whom he called a murderer, not without reason. Separately, Russia increased its interest rates for the first time in nearly three years. Meanwhile, the summit with China in icy Alaska was icy too. China decided to retaliate against US sanctions on its state-sector telephone equipment companies by starting its trial of two Canadians charged with spying. It also will restrict use of Tesla vehicles by its military and police.

Another attack on Saudi Arabian oil sites, on the refinery in Riyadh, was claimed by Yemen's Houthis, potentially boosting oil prices which have dropped precipitously this week.

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Carbon Capture

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, thoroughly beat in its Q4, earning 11¢/sh whereas the consensus forecast was for a loss of 55¢, up 13% sequentially, boosting its share price today by 6.7% to $45.73. Q4 revenues also beat even its own high estimate at $1.04 bn. Full-year eps came to $2.38 and sales revenues also beat at $1.04 bn for the year. So did gross margins, at 13.6% for Q4 and 19.8% for the year. The conference call after the market closed yesterday revealed one reason for the big win: that the structure of the Chinese energy business was changed to include the former Modules and Systems Solutions, and its China Energy business now includes solar projects and asset management. It has revised its earlier reports for FY20-21 to reflect the changes. Its main business is solar energy and storage and the latter is now growing like topsy as CSI's proprietary solar batteries win sales. It now has 6 gigawatts of pipeline in storage system integrator business, an expected future big money earner, helped by green activism and its ability to retrofit storage on existing solar energy systems. It closed the FY with $1.6 bn in cash and cut its debt to $2.2 bn. Its share rose 8% at the open and was upgraded to buy from hold by CFRA.

CSIQ plans to list its shares in China this year. Most of its production is there and its executives are mostly Chinese. It also counts on cheap RMB for production for Canada and other rich markets and uses currency hedges. Another issue is the rising price of polysilicon, up 33% last year. However solar glass prices have fallen and its is upgrading its logistics with partners to cut shipping costs. CFO Yen Zhuang stressed that the bottom of the solar cost curve is imminent. He said: “the cost of solar has declined by more than 95% in the past 2 decades, and we have moved from a subsidy [driven] to a market-driven industry. PV is actually the cheapest way to produce electricity in most markets” now.

As we noted at the time, a new venture in Japan, Japan Green Infrastructure Fund, which owns works in progress and not just assets is adding financial help for sales and not just assets like its Canada fund.

*NIO is up 3.64% over the problems of Tesla in China. I don't know the Chinese for Schadenfreude.

*British Johnson-Matthey, JMPLY, is down 3.3% on news that the miner and refiner of precious metals has signed a strategic partnership with South Africa's gold and platinum miner Sibanye-Stillwater (NYSE-SBSW) to jointly produce hydrogen and fuel cells. Financial terms are unknown.

*Norwegian Tomra Systems, TMRAF, gained 1.7%. The ADR of recycling machines firm didn't trade.

*Ormat Tech, an NV co-owned by an Israel fund, recouped 0.3% after revelation yesterday of fraud by its chief compliance officer and a board member. ORA does geothermal energy production and storage.

*Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure, AY, a UK fund tipped by Harry Geisel, gained 1.16% today. *Mauritius' Azure Power AZRE which supplies solar to India gained 4.63%.

Drugs

*Teva gained 1.75% today as it's Friday when Tel Aviv is shut for the Muslim Sabbath. TEVA is at $11.58. On weekdays market makers can get new stock supplies from Israel when there is too much demand here, but it doesn't work when Israel is shut. Next Friday will be even more volatile because Israel will close Sunday for Passover-Palm Sunday. It lost part of that gain later in the morning.

*Compugen, CGEN, added 3.12% today. It is now up 2.54%.

*BiolineRX, BLRX, gained 3.7%.

*Novocure, NVCR, officially from Jersey, a Channel Island, but also Israeli, gained 2.71% today.

*Muslim-headed Zymeworks gained 9.8% today. ZYME is Canadian and there is no news.

*Woman-headed Glaxo plans to present on its drugs for ovarian and endometrial cancers at a woman's cancer meeting starting today, presenting on Zejula and Dostarlimab. The most widespread cancer affecting women in cervical cancer which is well managed in rich countries with swabs, but widespread in poor countries. GSK.

*Astra-Zeneca, whose covid-19 jab is no longer barred in the EU, fell a fraction today. AZN's jab is now blamed for blood clots in the brain arising from an autoimmune disorder triggered by the inoculation, which researchers in Germany and Norway say they can stop, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. It affects pre-menopausal women.

Newbies

*Swiss ABB Ltd is up 1.55% today on hopes for demand from the vehicle electric charger market. Both Gen Joe Shaefer and I opted to buy it last month viewing it as oversold. It is now up 10% from there at $31.34.

*Coupang, CPMG, the South Korean internet vendor and financier which did a US IPO, which I bought only after the stock price fell, gained another 2.55% today. Wary of hype, I waited to buy a rare Korean ADR.

*Cosan, now CSAN, is holding an auction in Brazil to sell 27,449 shares of its logistics arm surplus to its control needs for reais 87.55 per. The auction to be run by Crédit Suisse bars US bids.

Industrials and oil

*Royal Dutch Shell B (RDS-B) rose 0.9% today. BP and Schlumberger (SLB) rose 1.19%. A trifecta.

*Cemex which will make cleaner cement with less carbon fell 1% after a new huge oilfield was discovered in Tabasco, Mexico. President AMLO is a fan of oil wells. CX.

*Nokia which lost 5.7% yesterday today is up 3.27%. The Finnish telco was the only ADR in the GameStop stock buying frenzy last month. NOK is partnering with AT&T in 5G. *South African *Naspers, NPSNY, which invests in media worldwide, rose 3.9%.