Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani may no longer practice law in my state because of his support for Trump's claims that the election was rigged.

Today the US stock market went ballistic probably because of a higher joblessness level than expected, 411,000 new applicants while the forecast was for only 300,000. More unemployed people means more stimulus for longer, despite the risks of inflation. It also liked the Biden compromise.

Mexico's central bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points today to 4.25% in an effort to block inflationary pressures which amounted to 6.02% annualized in early June. 

This is the first rise since the start of the covid crisis and the peso's current exchange rate rose 2.4%. The rate for the 2-year peso gained 0.50% to 6.19%, Mexico has suffered worse falls in its economy than the other parts of North America, of 8.2% drops, and has addressed them with stimulus measures. I think this is a precautionary move by the Bank of Mexico and that it will be the only one unless there is more inflation ahead. 

Drug news was good. The FDA approved another Alzheimer's disease drug with a breakthrough designation for domanemab, from Eli Lilly, LLY, which also attacks beta-amyloid in the brains of older folks. LLY shares rose 8%. BIIB lost 8%. Later Bristol-Myers announced it will exercise its option to buy Prothena's Alzheimer's drug. I own BMY which is a US share, not covered by Global-investing.com. Merck tossed 1.3%.

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The other drug news was that Britain's Oxford University covid-19 investigators determined the antibody levels need to prevent symptomatic covid-19. Knowing this will boost use of antibodies to stop the virus from spreading, alongside or in place of vaccines.

The inflation risk growth led to a boost in the price of gold, up 1.5% at the start of trading. The news about rivals chopped the stock price of Biogen Inc, BIIB, but is good for Medicare which risked being bankrupted by BIIB pricing.

More drug news from our own portfolio follows for paid subscribers:

*Israeli small-cap Compugen, CGEN, opened up 12.9% today and is still up 11.57% at $8.68. I began the day by taking profits on 1/3 my stake in Compugen at the opening price. This is a company that doesn't yet make profits. The rise may be because of a takeover offer, rumored for some time. If it comes it will hit Friday when Tel Aviv is closed. It is our top performer today.

*Astra-Zeneca was up nearly 2% at the opening but now is only up 0.75% at $58.41 after its drug Lynparza was approved by China for BRCA-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. In China, prostate cancer is the 6^th biggest male cancer with 115,000 new diagnoses/year. The outcomes are much better with the drug while other men die within 2 years. AZN.

*NovaCure, NVCR, of Israel and the Channel Islands, rose 0.9% to $227.65, a new 52-wk high.

*Swiss Roche ended its license agreement with 4D Molecular for choroideremia. RHHBY is up 1.24% on the news. Fellow Swiss Novartis is up 0.2% to $92.56; NVS.

*Canadian Aurinia Pharma rose 4.6% on no news. AUPH is still up over 3%.

*Bioline, BLRX, gained 0.37% to $2.71 on no news.

*AbCellera, ABCL, hit a new low. I culled my holdings early this year and only own 100.

*Ireland's Alkermes gained 0.7%. ALKS is trying to get Irish or American drinkers to cut back via a campaign headed by baseball player CC Sabathia, who now is on the wagon.

*Cerus, CERS, rose 1.92% to $5.81. It competes in plasma from which antibodies are harvested with our Spanish or Catalan Grifols. GRFS is up 0.43% to $52.

*Takeda, TAK, rose 1.4%. Cathie Woods sold it last week.

*Eisai is down 2.53% in the wake of BIIB competition. ESALY.

*Dr. Reddy's fell 0.83% on more worry about Indian and its delta+ virus. RDY.

Oil and Users

*BP plc was downgraded to hold from buy by HSBC analysts on the argument that its investors are not supporting its green initiatives. This was such an unsound reason that in US trading today BP stock rose to $27.26. HSBC is moving its banking and brokerage businesses to focus on China and selling out branches like the one near me where I have my personal account. BP in fact signed a deal with Cemex of Mexico so they can jointly move to net-zero emissions. CX rose 9% on the news because Mexico is less green than Britain. 

*NIO, the Chinese car-maker, rose 1.94% to $45.91 in the wake of a 5.56% rise in Tesla but later lost half that gain.

*PLUG, PlugPower, fell 1.6% to $33.32.

*Canadian Solar, which was dumped yesterday today recouped 1.05% to $39.13. CSIQ makes solar panels in China.

*Very volatile Energy Fuels, UUUU, today opened at $6.58 (US) but now is up only 4.12% to $6.51. The Canadian firm produces uranium and rare earths mostly in Utah, USA.

*Stock of the year Cosan, CSAN, is up 2.6% to $20.23 on no news except that it sold its gas stations.

*Dutch Antillean Schlumberger Ltd gained 0.97% to $33.91. SLB.

*Johnson Matthey plc fell 1.3% more because catalytic converters will not be needed in future autos. JMPLY. It is still only 9% under its high.

*Ormat, ORA, an Israeli-American geothermal energy and storage firm, rose 1.42% to $96.

*Cabot Oil & Gas COG which is merging with Cimarex, rose 1.5% today to $16.64. It will be the minority shareholder in the combo but barely after distributing 400 mn of its shares to Cimarex owners. Class actions are pending but I don't think they have a case.

Funds

*Investor A/B fell 0.85% to $23.25. It is our proxy for a Swedish fund. IVSBF.

*Finnish fund proxy Sampo Oyj gained 1.32% hitting $23.38. SAXPY.

*SPDR Gold, GLD, gained 0.43% on inflation fears.

*Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure, AY, a UK fund in US$s, fell 1.5% to $36.71.

*Fund manager Lazard rose 1%; LAZ. Lazard Global Total Return & Income Fund did too; LGI.

*Taiwan Fund, TWN, opened up 0.4% but now is only up 0.15%. It is no longer listed as a fund. *Global fund manager CBOE Global Markets Inc gained 2.65%.

*Both our emerging markets debt funds, Western Assets, EMD, and Templeton EMF, are up today, at 0.64% and 0.82% resp. Inflation boosts yields.

Tech & Telefonaktiebolaget

*Telefonaktiebolaget Ericsson, ERIC, gained 1.3% today to $31. It is Swedish.

*Finnish Nokia meanwhile gained 1.9% to $285/sh. NOK.

*BCE, Bell Canada, is down 0.25%.

*Coupang of Korea lost 2.45% today. CPNG is back in the red.

*Mercado Libre of Argentina rose 1.27% to $1552.27 today. MELI is the Amazon of the Amazon. MELI.

*Naspers, now designated as a tech stock, gained 0.24% to hit $41. NPSNY.

*Vodafone of Britain fell 4.35% to $17.75 for no reason according to Benzinga. VOD.

*Qualcomm is up 1.85% to $138.5, near the QCOM high.

Finance

*Banco Santander rose 2.04% to $4.03 at the opening. It is now up 2.02% at $4.03. Inflation boosts yields. SAN.

*Sumitomo Mitsui shares are up 1.6% to $6.99. SMFG.

*Mitsubishi, MSBHF, however, is up 2.97% to $28.07.

*Scotiabank fell a fraction today. It is now below our acquisition price. BNS.

*Banco Latino-Americano de Comercio Exterieur, a Panama-based multilateral trade finance body, is not only buying back its shares. It also has translated its name into English as Foreign Trade Bank of Latin America Inc to try to garner more investors. I learned about this because one of our contributors opted to buy BLX. We bought it ages ago copying a San Diego hedge fund because we look for exotica. The currency of Panama is the US dollar but the risks are definitely different from that of other US banks. The stock rose 2.5% on this fiddle which briefly took it to $16.11. It is owned by our Ex-Im bank and similar banks from other countries, plus private banks, and had a poor Q1 which led it to a $60 mn buyback of its common shares. It is still mainly owned by institutional investors.