After showing off his ability to screw things up, Trump ended up signing the $900 bn COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress last week after saying the direct payments were insufficient. Stock markets reacted with relief, the Dow Jones gained 240 points on a Monday without a new coronavirus jab. But Novavax NVAX is enrolling 50,000 US and Mexican volunteers for its phase III warp speed-funded trial.

There will be no blog Tuesday. I'm again seeing my ob-gyn without waiting in a crowded room risking infection, why you got or will get a Sunday blog, depending on if you are my subscriber or not.

At the year's end, people tend to stick with established trends.

image source

Banksters

*Banco Santander fell 1.25% in Spain today after rising Xmas eve because Brexit may not be pain and trouble-free. SAN is the main EU bank in Britain and a key London trade but today is boxing day. l

*However Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterieur BLX of Panama rose 2.02% later halved.

*Bank of Nova Scotia, which is active in Latin America, BNS. gained 1%.

*Sampo Oij SAXPY reported to the SEC that BlackRock, a US institutional investor, now owns less than 5% of its shares and voting rights, at 4.99%, thereby avoiding Finnish taxes on holdings in the fund manager. It lent out 2% of the shares it held before to cut its stake, but not the ADRs. Rival Investor A/B of Sweden was flat.

*No, Virginia, the focus of Xi Zinping on the dangers of Alibaba to the Chinese banking system is not wrongly hurting other Chinese tech stocks listed in Hong Kong. China has made it quite clear that it will block critics from the ex-British colony despite having signed a deal to do so 27 years ago. Moreover, despite its good results to date, China faces a new outbreak of COVID-19 in Beijing. Xi is perfectly capable of cutting off his nose to spite his face, as it comes with being a Chinese communist. Recall the horrors perpetrated by Mao. More on China plays below.

*Japanese Sumitomo (SMFG) gained 1.9% while Mitsubishi (MSBHF) only gained 0.3%.

Pharmaceuticals

*British Astra-Zeneca said its COVID-19 vaccine “is believed to be effective against the new variant” which is responsible for new cases in the UK. It is expected to be given approval for use before 2021. AZN and its partner Merck got Japanese approvals for their Lympara cancer drug against gene-mutated ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancers after chemotherapy. AZN is up 2.62% so far today.

*While I think Beigene is structured to avoid the Xi Jinping crackdown on Chinese corporate independence, the market still cut BGNE's stock 3.6%. It just got China's approval for reimbursement for 3 oncology drugs, two developed in house and one with Amgen. China is cracking down on independent thought has to give its population cancer treatments for Hodgkins and other lymphomas, giant bone tumors, and lung cancer, all from BGNE.

*Israeli Compugen CGEN rose 5% today to $13.78.

*Eisai ESALY of Japan gained 1.1% and is back over $70 today.

*Canada's Aurinia Pharma AUPH fell over its vaclosporin (lupus) deal with Otsuka Pharma of Japan

*Zymeworks ZYME lost 0.85% today

Tech and Tel

*Thailand's baht fell with rice exports down this year. Its mobile phone business, dtac, a sub of Norwegian Telenor signed up Finnish Nokia to provide low-band 26gigaHertz and other networks for 4G and 5Gby 2022. The NOK Thai tie builds on its patented radio-band and management systems. *Over the weekend seeinglapha.com published two stories on Tomra Systems, the Norwegian maker of reverse vending machines and sorting systems for food, trash, and metals calling for a sell or buy. We've owned TMRAY for 5 years and while its restaurant business, where sorting food orders often dysty is in the dumps now, its other lines should gain. The negative write-up notes that CEO Stefan Randstrand is retiring and CFO Espen Gunderson sold 40% of his shares. Neither of those is surprising as the CEO had served 11 years and the CFO sold shares worth under $25,000. The anonymous writer, who claims he is long-only, failed to stop TMRAY, the ADR gaining 9.78% today, back near its year's high of $49.60. He or she also claimed that the Japanese bring their garbage to a public sorting center to recycle what is of use, which will hurt Tomra. I cannot imagine anyone in NYC schlepping their trash to a smelly center but we do separate out plastics, metal, and paper already.

*Mercado Libre fell back 2.6% today after opening at $1700, which was probably a target for sellers, a year's high, and a round number. MELI is the top interent and funding site in Latin America.

*Mizuho brokererage rated Qualcomm QCOM a buy with a target price os $163, up $9.

*Naspers NPSNY of Japan fell 2.4% today after a warning about its ability to sell consoles and games after the COVID-19 crisis ends, to $39.08. We sold half last month fearing Xmas toy rivals.

*Vodafone is in the black by 0.6% today, VOD as the quickest way out of Britain (and into Europe.)

Energy

*Israeli-US geothermal energy generator and storage firm Ormat Tech ORA of Reno, NV, acquired another energy storage firm in Upton County Texas, which probably doesn't use waterfalls to store energy, given that Texas doesn't have much-falling water. The buy is of the solar power system Luninant, a sub of Vistra Energy (NYSE-VST) which gained 75¢ over the last two trading days. ORA stock rose 3.3% on the news (posted Friday after the close) to $87.7. No details on what ORA paid. It already produces thermal power in Hawaii, Latin America and the Caribbean, Indonesia, and Kenya.

*BP plc which recuperated at the opening later lost 0.03¢ while Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B) was flat and Schlumberger Ltd (SLB) gained 0.02¢. The oil outlook is not clear. Oil prices fell a bit.

*After soaring last week, Atlantica Sustainable Infrstructure PLC (AY) crashed 9.2% today. As Harry pointed out you can collect the dividend tax-free as return on capital but when and if you sell AY you will be taxed for the different from your purchase price. That is a reason to continue to tap into AY via is part parent Algonquin Power, AQN, up 0.46% today.

*Azure Power AZRE of Mauritius is up 9.86% in part because while it sells solar power systems to India almost exclusively, it is not part of the increasingly troubled Narendra Modi millionaire buddy list. It is effectively controlled by the Quebec Caisse de dépôts and the private sector investing arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corp. It is our best performer today.

*Alimentation Couche Tard, ANCUF, was tipped over the weekend but fell all the same.

Miners and Funds

*In an exciting weekend Kirkland Lake Gold won 2 seekingalpha, a positive and a negative over the outlook for its Detour Lake. KL fell 0.7%. SPDR Gold, GLD, fell 0.14%.

*Taiwan Fund will pay out $3.3122/sh in dividends Jan 8, of which $2.9365 is capital gains, to shareholders as of Dec. 28. Because it has tax consequences, TWN fell 8.63%.

*Templeton Emerging Income Fund, paying out 4.12¢ Thurs. will use currency options to hedge forex changes in emerging markets currencies and warns that this may lead to losses. TEI.