The hot news at the opening was a much weaker Chinese growth level this year, of 4.9% because of supply chain issues. The consensus forecast had been for a 5.2% rise. The Evergrande real estate crash remains unresolved. ING analysts predicted that the next quarter will see PRC growth at only 4.3%. Shanghai shares fell hard. The result was heavy selling in Europe and the USA, helped along by Britain talking about raising interest rates. But the S&P did not join the bears, with a bullish head and shoulders pattern and by lunchtime, other parts of the US also went higher.

Image Source: Unsplash

Energy and autos

As is often the case, UUUU, Energy Fuels, was a standout, up 8.5% along with Cameco, CCJ, up 7.6%. Both are nuclear suppliers and CCJ was tipped by both Nomura and Natixis to rise. Higher oil and gas prices make it easier to boost the price of alternatives. Moreover, Kazakhstan plans to create a new fund to invest in uranium to be offered to investors.

Lithium vendor Albermarle (ALB) rose as much as 3.39% before giving some of this back after it was tipped for 3% growth in Q4 by both Nomura and Natixis. Plug Power rose 3.6%, PLUG.

Still, in the energy sector, recent merger company CTRA was rated buy by both Mizuho and Truist today, which helped its stock  Schlumberger (SLB) gained more than 1.5% as did Canadian Solar, CSIQ. Mexichem which reports next Weds. was up 3.03% on no news here.

Electric vehicle maker NIO initially fell as it revealed that its gas station recharging systems are proving insufficient for the demand. Then Mr. Market decided that this is a harbinger of growth for Nio which reports On Dec. 18 and the rose gained 4.4%.

UK stocks BP plc and Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B both fell in low single digits.

*ESTE, Earthstone Energy, gained 7.12% at the opening but lost most of this by lunchtime.

*Coterra which was formed by merger earlier this month was tipped by Truist with a $32 target price and by Nomura without a TP. CTRA.

Finance

Financials were mixed after Motley Fool again warned about Robinhood brokerage. State Street Bank STT which is gaining more ADR business with a new partner, rose 3.9%. Lazard (LAZ)  rose 0.8% on its moving more into US funds business. Bladex of Panama, CBOE, and Canadian Scotiabank all gained fractionally: BLX and BNS are foreign and all 3 work on cross-border finance.

*Robinhood fell on another negative column by Motley Fool today citing its dependence on order flow. There are new clouds over crypto lending from Albany, NY.

Drug-makers

*Glaxo-Smith-Kline GSK inched up after it revealed that it will deliver 7 papers on kidney disease drugs coming from its labs during the Nov. 4-7 kidney disease virtual forum. Fellow Brit Astra Zeneca (AZN) fell.

*Zymeworks lost a whopping 9.35% but I know not why. Our reporter in British Columbia may know but he has not filed today. ZYME.

*Japanese Eisai gained after upgrades by Mizuho and Truist. upped ESALY to buy. However fellow Japanese drugmaker Takeda TAK dropped 1.27%.

*Israeli TEVA rose to $9.81 on optimism over its legal mess on opioids. Teva.

*Exelixis dropped on insiders selling $1.3 mn of its shares. This is more likely to be over risk reduction that insider knowledge of trouble. EXEL.

*Compugen of Israel (CGEN) fell again.

*Novo Nordisk, NVO, the insulin, and weight-loss firm from Denmark, rose 1.25% on good news from a sub.

*By Swiss standards, Roche was considered to be on a roll after rising 0.35% despite currency strength. RHHBY.

Tech

*Multichoice of Jo'burg, a backdoor to Hong Kong, rose 1.5% presumably on its own business, media. MCHOY.

*Zacks upped Microsoft to buy with a rise of 8.4% expected in its earnings. MSFT.

*Israeli Tower Semiconductor gained 0.83%. TSEM.

*Thermo Electron, TMO, gained 1%.