Twas the night before Christmas and all through the House (of Representatives), not a creature was stirring after El Presidente undermined his own party over the size of the latest stimulus bill. Luckily across the pond, the British and the EU did manage to craft a Brexit deal and sterling rose a tad under 0.8% to $1.36, a 2020 high. UK stocks also went up. But Xmas Eve turned out to be a chance for many Samsons to pull themselves down to stop supposed opponents.

It appears that the prospect of a veto or a pocket veto (meaning just not signing) will improve the prospects for the Senate democrat candidates in Georgia. This increases the risk of inflation and the result favored one of my 2021 ideas, a gold mine discussed below. The other one is not looking good.

Other surprises hit several companies. The details follow. But first a word from our sponsor. My site is being hacked by individuals who are located in Lahore, Pakistan, according to google. Beware. I have no idea why. While I have family reported in India, I know no one in Pakistan at present. I had a college classmate who was a stockbroker in Lahore, but she moved to the US after her husband died. Now for the news.

image source

Oil and energy

*Royal Dutch Shell's oil site in River State, Nigeria, was seized over damages allegedly not paid by the Anglo-Dutch major over an oil spill that occurred in the late 1960s. The local government also objects to the terms under which RDS-B bought ODL 245, an offshore drilling site in 2011.

*German ute Eon.SE, EONGY, today took payment from the accounts of 1.5 million clients using credit cards to pay for amounts only due next month. This was an IT error, according to the company, but most Germans were unable to reach the company to complain or seek a delay. Many accounts are overdrawn leading to penalties from banks in Germany. EONGY stock rose 0.04% but it will reverse nächste Woche.

*Google GOOGL announced that it has sold a cloud system which may earn as much as $10 bn to Saudi Aramco, the now listed oil company.

*”Power Hedge” on Seeking alpha wrote favorable about Azure Power but thinks it is an Indian company (it is incorporated in Mauritius) and left out the fact that AZRE is majority-owned by the Quebec retirement fund and the equity arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corp. Both are credentials for the share. AZRE fell 4.57% presumably because of the mistakes.

*Also down was Earthstone Energy, ESTE, off 5.93%.

*The usual suspects fell, Schlumberger SLB by 1.4%; BP by 1.23%, and RDS-B by 1.01% (at the open.)

*Alas, Cosan, CZZ, one of my 2021 stock picks, fell 7% after dropping 2.7% in London. It is restructuring to bring on board its offshore businesses to Brazil but details are scant.

*UUUU, Energy Fuels, gained 2.6%.

*Canada Solar, CSIQ, Chinese despite its moniker, lost 1.6% on fear of Xi Jinping. Read on.

Tech

*Alibaba crashed 7% after China opened an antitrust case against the company, which incurred Beijing's wrath when its former CEO mocked Chinese lenders. Beijing says that by only allowing two choices on delivery, Jack Ma's firm harmed competition. BABA is totally under the gun in China but the impact is being felt among other companies there, both positive and negative.

*Nio was one of the China plays hurt by the latest Beijing move, down 3.1% here at mid-day.

*India brought a challenge against the Hague international arbitration court which favored Vodafone against the New Delhi taxman. The case is being brought in Singapore, according to Reuters. This led the editor of Seekingalpha.com, Ed Curran, to recommend VOD stock, a rare move by the site. VOD stock rose 0.12%.

*Other “5G” sector stocks also gained, Ericsson by 0.55%; Nokia by 0.5%; Mercado Libre by 1.36%; Microsoft by 1.7%; Qualcomm by 0.6%; BCE by 0.25%; Tower Semiconductor up 1.34%. ERIC is Swedish; NOK Finnish: MELI Latin American; MSFT and QCOM US; TSEM Israeli-American.

*Naspers fell 4.75% so our half sale of NPSNY may have been wise after all. It makes games and consoles and is Japanese. The stock needs to have good Xmas sales to stay up.

Pharmaceutical stocks

*News that a 3rd mutation of the covid-9 virus was found in Nigeria, after ones in Britain and South Africa, cause a reshuffle in the drug sector. Zymeworks (ZYME) rose 0.2%, helped by consolidation of its backers; Bristol-Myers (BMY) gained; Compugen (CGEN) rose over 4.8%. Enlivex gained .9% at the opening, ENLV: Aurinia Pharma (AUPH) jumped 5.65%.; Roche (RHHBY) up 0.21%; Novo Nordisk (NVO) up 0.1%; Merck (MRK) up 0.77%; Novartis up 0.26%. Again the moves were regardless of nationality.

*Beigene was up only 0.1% which may reflect fear of Beijing attacking BGNE.

*Other drug firms fell, AbCellera, ABCL by 1.25%; Astra-Zeneca, AZN, by 0.8%; BioLineRx BLRX by 1.52%; Grifols, GRFS by 0.37%; Glaxo, GSK, by 0.18%; Takeda, TAK, by 0.9%; TEVA by 0.05%.

Banksters

*Union Bank of Switzerland is closing its US private bank which boosted alternative global banks with US and Euroland subs: Santander, up 1.11%; Hang Seng, up 2.8%; Bank of Nova Scotia up 0.4%, Standard Life Aberdeen up 2.21%.

*Both our Japanese financial conglomerates were up, Sumitomo by 0.23% (SMFG) and Mitsubishi by 0.1% (MSBHF). They are also owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

Funds

*Taiwan Fund TWN, which your editor tipped as an alternative to China funds, rose briefly to over $30/sh but then fell back to $29.31. It was our best performer. It goes ex-div only a week from today. I picked it for political reasons.

*Europeans are exiting from S&P 500 tracking funds, according to the Financial Times.

*Five gold rings. SPDR Gold gained 0.53% today, GLD. Kirkland Lake, KL, a Canadian gold miner I picked for 2021, gained 0.5%.