The stock market is reacting with lots of selling to the weekend's news: the Oh My Gosh rise of Omicron infections; West Virginian Joe Manchin's nay vote on the Biden infrastructure bill which means it will not get done; and Gabriel Boric, a young leftist, winning the Chilean election. In our shortened trading week this means Christmas will be in the red for stocks, unless Santa Claus creates a new SPAC to boost share prices.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Drug dealers

*New Zealand medicos linked the heart failure death of a 26-year-old man to his receiving the covid-19 jab.

*Glaxo rose in British trading because the future chairman of its new consumer healthcare arm will be Sir Dave Lewis (no relation) who is experienced and popular. GSK.

*Bristol-Myers rose because Dow Jones published a correction to its note last week that the US FDA has banned its drug for graft versus host disease. In fact the FDA approved the drug. BMY.

*French Genfit was upgraded to buy from hold by HC Wainwright brokers. GNFT.

*Novo Nordisk of Denmark was given a neutral rating by JP Morgan, down from overweight. NVO is mainly an insulin producer. It fell 4.41% over the weekend. Its problems include China cutting its insulin prices, and supply chain issues with its US supplies for weight loss therapies.

*Swiss Roche signed a license deal with Lineage Cell Therapeutics for an age-related macular degeneration treatment. RHHBY also will see its SentiBio part-owned eye meds firm become the target of a SPAC by Cathy Woods. I will stick with Roche.

*Naspers fell 5.3% in London today, and is below $30. It is a South African media firm getting into finance. NPSNY.

*TEVA of Israel plunged 3.5%. 

*BiolineRX was a rare winner among smaller pharma stocks. It is considered to have cheated on its Alzheimer's drug results but may not have. It has now halved the price of this drug in the USA. BLRX.

*Compugen fell a bit more in Israeli trading over the weekend. It is down 0.221%. CGEN.

West Virginia Rules

*Green energy stocks crashed on the impact of Manchin the Manchurian. Plug Power lost 6.79%.  PLUG.

*VALE lost 2.5%.

*SoQuiMich wound up as a clear sell, what with Boric and Manchin both likely to halt copper production.

*Antofogasta dropped 7.25%. ANFGF.

*Albemarle ALB fell 5.51%. It was heavily plugged last week on hopes for a green energy bill. This may not come this year but it will happen eventually.

Canada

*Another reason for selling Alimentation Couche-Tard ANCTF is that it pays very low dividends, yielding less than 1%, although it is officially a dividend aristocrat because it has not stopped paying, according to Canada's Investment Reporter. 

*Note that Scotia Bank BNS pays 4.7%; BCE 5.3%; and Manulife MFC 4.9%, making them real aristocrats, meaning they pay off to counter inflation. BNS raised its divvie by 11.1% this year. 

Oilpatch

*European energy prices are soaring today on fear of falling short. However, the prices of oil companies are down. Remember that global firms like Shell RDS-B, BP, and Schlumberger Ltd SLB are already committed to cutting carbon whatever happens in the halls of Washington, D.C. 

Finance

*Good Old AT&T is a winner today. T.

*So is gold, and in its wake, gold miner Kirkland Lake. KL.

*Chinese real estate bankruptcies today include KAISA. Beijing is not bailing them out.

*Banco Santander raised its yield by 3.5% and its cash buyback. SAN.