Thanks to Fed Chairman Powell, markets brushed off worrying about inflation today. Value Line pundit Harvey Katz confirms that we should “dial up weightings” in common stock. The Dow Jones Industrials Average duly rose to a new record. OPEC will give more money to the Emirates.

But not all investors are dialing for stocks. Despite better than expected Q2 earnings BlackRock BLK shares lost 3.44%, about 4.7% under their year's high. More on finance below.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The spot price of gold is up 0.81% to $1820.68 along with that of SPDR Gold (GLD) which tracks the yellow metal by up 0.81% (10% of the gold price). The high for the past 12 months was $194.45 and the low $157.23 so the market is moderately bullish on gold. The market for mining shares is far more so. GoldFields—in part because of looting in its homeland—is up 4.57% today on heavy volume. My own favorite miner, a Canadian firm, is up 2.2%. The ETF SPDR FTSE International Govt Inflation-Protected Bond Fund WIP rose 0.8% today. The SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-10 Year TIPS ETF TIPX rose 0.18%. These are protective moves for people who fear inflation. Canada cut back its bond-buying stimulus but the UK suffered from renew inflation fear.

*Cosan, my stock of the year for 2021, rose another 2.5% pre-market today hitting $21.05. CSAN is a Brazilian energy firm using sugar-cane waste (bagasse) ethanol in its gas stations under the Mobil label. It just sold its stake in a gas station JV with Royal Dutch Shell RDS-B in Latin America.

*The Canadian gold miner stock which rose 2.2% premarket today is Kirkland Lake Gold, KL It traded at $42. Both stocks fell later. Premarket investors are in Europe where inflation is scarier.

Pharma

*Roche (RHHBY) rose after a Jefferies analyst raised it to buy from hold and told Barron's that the Swiss firm's Alzheimer's drug, gantanerumab, in 2 phase III trials, may win FDA approval as a remover of junk protein like Aduhelm from Biogen and. As is its habit, Barron's did not give the US ticker symbol for Roche and told up\s that its target price had been raised by Peter Welford to SwFr400 from 330. Its US stock failed to match the Swissie but now is up 0.42% at $48.48 having opened at $44.50.

*Consensus EPS for Novartis was upped by 1¢ to $1.53. NVS is also Swiss. NVS.

*Japanese Eisai, Biogen's partner, fell 0.08% to $97 and change. We should have sold ESALY at $120.

*A Globes Newswire report today on diabetes and obesity drugs boosted our Danish Novo Nordisk. NVO rose to $86.84 but now is up only 0.16% at $86.815. It is supplying Walmart with generic insulin. Its eps is now expected to be DKK2.08 vs 2.04.

*Glaxo rose fractionally today, to $40.55. GSK.

*Israeli Bioline RX, BLRX, gained 5.46% to hit $3.09 on no news not in Hebrew. However, Cerus, Compugen, Enlivex, and Teva all fell today.

*Other drug losers were Zymeworks ZYME and Alkermes ALK and most of what is in between, because of fear of Biden Administration controls on drug pricing.

*Merck's target price was cut to $75 from $80 by Royal Bank of Canada. MRK fell 0.26% to $77.4.

*Bristol-Myers stock rose 0.425%. BMY.

Finance

*Sumitomo Mitsui fell 1.25% at the opening and is now down 0.75% today after it signed a deal to buy 4.9% of US brokerage Jefferies Financial to boost its US investment banking position for $380 mn. It also is providing $1.9 bn of financing. The strategic alliance follows an earlier SMFG buy of Fullerton India Credit earlier this month and Filipino Rizal Commercial in June. It is down 5% from before the deal-making because of Japanese nationalism or fear it is overpaying. JEF rose 7%.

*Korean Coupang rose 0.3% today, CPNG. But Mercado Libre fell 1.17%. Cathie Wood bought MELI yesterday for one of her ARK funds so it started trading up..

*Lazard, LAZ, the fund manager, dropped 0.8% today. Its yield fund, LGI, rose 0.17%.

*CBOE Global which runs trading sites gained fractionally.

Utes

*My new holding, Algonquin Power 6.2% preferred rose 0.72% to $28.05. AQN common yields 4.33%. AQN's buy of NY's American Water Works is delayed till 2022. Utes are good in inflation. There is also an AQNA pref which has a higher yield but is cheaper because it is nearer conversion.

*Azure Power, AZRE, crashed 11.33%. Estimates for Q2 sales and eps were cut over Indian covid.

*French Veolia Environnement is up 0.25% today. VEOEY not only has gobbled up Suez. It also will join Total, a French oil company, in production of biofuel from micro-algae in sewage.

*Another loser today was Canadian Solar despite a deal between the EU and China to cut emissions and depsite its storage deal with Colombia. CSIQ fell 5.2% to $39.8.

*Canadian BCE gained 0.08%.

Tech & Tel

*Nokia is up near a 6-mo high. After it said it would raise its forecasts it was tipped by JP Morgan as a buy. The Finn hit $6 briefly but now is $5.91 on heavy volume. Swedish rival Ericsson fell 0.25%. NOK, ERIC.

*Vodafone was recommended by Tarek El Sherbini on seekingalpha.com. I told you first. VOD.

*Qualcomm QCOM will pay a dividend of 68¢, flat, but the stock rose 1.53% on the news all the same because it is expected to increase sales over the new 3 years by 10.2 according to Dow-Jones.

*Taiwan Semiconductor rose 1.5% at the opening today but then lost all but a half percent. It and another local firm arranged to break the PRC blockage of covid-19 jabs being sold to Taiwan by buying through Hong Kong. TSM will report tomorrow on its Q2 earnings. The consensus estimate for revenue is $13.17 bn vs the prior-year level of $10.38 bn, according to Benzinga. The EPS estimate is 93¢ vs 78¢. The stock is up 0.44% in anticipation.

*Chinese automaker NIO fell 4.4% despite bullish calls (at a higher price than its stock commanded) and therefore bullish. However, the gap fell to 2.2% in the afternoon.

*Microsoft is up over 2% after it put windows on the cloud with the 365 launch. MSFT.

Materials

*Antofagasto rose further in UK trading on hopes of a cut in planned taxes on mined copper but then fell on US refusal to believe Chilean lawmakers will remove penalty charges. ANFGF.

*BAE Systems of Britain sold another $62 mn of missile warning material to the US Army, for 2-color advance notice of enemy threats. BAESY.

*Swiss ABB consensus epos was raised to 35¢ from 32.74¢ but ABB fell all the same. We own it directly and through our Investor fund of Sweden, which rose 0.9%. IVSBF.

*Schlumberger Ltd of Curacao opened up 2.52% after OPEC agreed to boost output levels for the Emirates. Later SLB fell 2.5% below yesterday's close on unusual options activity. Because of a holiday in France today, celebrating the storming of the Bastille, the usual suspects are not trading.

*Ormat today completed its acquisition of TG Geothermal Portfolio boosting its geothermal operations in Nevada by 67.5 MegaWatts and also gaining rights to Coyote Canyon which has a transmission line to California. It paid $171 mn for the TG equity and assumed debt and lease obligations worth $206 mn as of the end of June. ORA is a US company with Israeli ownership which produces geothermal energy and stores it. It operates in Kenya, Guatemala, Indonesia, Guadaloupe, and Honduras as well as in Hawaii. It next reports on its Q2 on Aug. 4. It is a high-risk holding. Its share gained 1.06% on the completion of the TG deal and is now well over $70.5.