Another dreary day and a renewed boost for cryptocurrency - and away from the classic inflation hedge, gold. Another 2 FDA officials resigned over the Biogen aducanumab Alzheimer's drug, bringing the total of those stepping down to 5. This affects one of our shares.

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Pharmaceuticals

*Our stock in this area is Eisai, the Japanese partner, which soared a week ago on the BIIB approval. ESALY managed a 1.3% rise today after opening up 1.04% as it is no one-trick pony but is still below $100, at $97.42, roughly in the middle of its 52-wk US$ range.

*Takeda (NYSE-TAK), another Japanese drug major, may gain or lose tomorrow when our FDA decides on the new drug application for TAK-721 to treat eosinophilic esophagitis. TAK also boosted its license deal with Codexis, a US enzyme engineering firm in synthetic biology for a gene therapy for lysosomal storage disorder, a rare genetic disease, and three others. It is also developing a vaccine against dengue which works best when the patient has a severe case leading to hospitalization. TAK fell today on heavy volume.

*Newbie Organon spun out by Merck gained 2.63% today. OGN.

*After last week's boost to pharma small caps, today most are down. The big exception is Compugen of Israel which was boosted 10.5% because another developer of PIRI anti-cancer treatment, US Iteos, won a deal from Glaxo for its product, for $625 mn up front and up to $1.4 bn in milestones. GSK rose 0.42%. CGEN now is up only 7.82%.

*Astra-Zeneca, also British, lost 0.5% today. AZN.

*Danish Novo-Nordisk fell 0.3% despite a report that the diabetes market will grow by $30 bn from now to 2025. It specializes in insulin and weight loss. NVO.

*Swiss Novartis gained 0.54%. NVS.

*Roche, RHHBY, fell 0.3% but is now up 0.4% after a JNJ drug in combo with its Venclexta beat its earlier combo of Gazyva and chemotherapy according to reports from the European Hematology gathering. The drugs treat leukemia and the new variant left zero bone marrow cancer at all, vs 17.1% for the control group.

*Abcellera dropped the most, I think. Down 6.2% so far today nearing its year's low. ABCL.

*Teva fell 1%. After the write-up yesterday, Novacure, which we tipped last winter, gained 2.31%. It opened at $221.75, a new high but now is only $219 and change. When other Israelis rise (and NVCR is Israeli) TEVA tents to fall.

*Genfit rose 8% at the opening and kept most of this after a rival drug against non-alcoholic steatohepatitis failed in trials. I picked it because French people always talk about foie problems. GNFT.

Tech & Tel

*British Vodafone is working with Dell, South Korean Samsung, US Wind River Systems and Keysight Tech, and French Capgemini to build the first radio access network in Europe, a challenge to Huawei of China, Swedish Ericsson (ERIC), and Finnish Nokia Oyj. The first RAN will be in Newbury, England, and the next in Malaga, Spain, and Dresden, Germany. VOD gained 0.18%. ERIC lost 0.83%. NOK, which has been helped by meme trades, gained 0.09%.

*Nintendo is down 3.57% today on news from the Virtual E3 Gaming showcase which opened Sat. It runs till Weds. NTDOY is presenting games played on its Switch which will see an upgrade around Labor Day and Bloomberg says fans are awaiting new Metroid and Legend of Zelda games. Not to worry. Among the new gaming firms is Verizon VZ, which today announced a $1 mn scholarship for students at historic Black female colleges like Morehouse who want to write games.

*Fanuc, FANUY, maker of factory robots, gained 2.62% although most analysts hate it. No idea why.

*BCE of Canada fell 1.5% today because it went ex-div. It yields 5.9%, which makes if very vulnerable.

*Korean Coupang, CPNG, is back in the plus column by 0.13% today. It may be tracking Mercado Libre, MELI, which opened up 0.82%.

*Taiwan Semiconductor and US-Israeli Tower Semi are up, by 1.72% and 1.85% resp. TSM, TSEM.

Oil and Power

*Algonquin Power's price target was cut to C$20 from 21 by JP Morgan and the share gained 1.3% at the opening. It is now up 1.22%. Its holding in green fund Atlantica Yield of Britain gained 0.21%. We own it outright also. More on funds below. AQN. AY.

*Cosan, which is selling its gas stations in Argentina and Brazil co-owned with Shell, fell 0.9% today. CSAN is my stock of the year and we are ~34% up.

*Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B gained 3.6% at the open on news that it is selling its Permian Basin (TX) shale operation for as much as $10 bn. It is cutting back on oil and gas under orders from a Dutch court. Its fellow British oil stock rival, BP plc, gained 1.8%. BP may sell its Rumailia field in Iraq to partner CNPC of China or another.

*Earthstone Energy soared 11.77% at the opening but now halved that gain after it bought into Texas shale for $48 mn. The site in Gonzales County is adjacent to an existing ESTE site. I cut my holdings but remain a shareholder. The sites are low-cost but have declining upstream production. They also are high priced because they are pipeline-linked. It operates in Texas but not in the Permian, and in North Dakota. It is a hold for most analysts.

*High-flyer Cameco lost 9%. CCJ is mainly owned by institutions.

*India serving Azure Power of Mauritius rose 5.34% today despite an earnings miss for its last result for Q3 20-21. It is expected to report on the full year by August but there appear to be leaks. It's rating mostly is sell but it has fans reported in Barron's and is being boosted by hopes for a speedy covid-19 round 2 recovery. AZRE.

*Hydrogen fuel cell systems maker Plug Power, purchased last week, fell by 3.3% because of a downgrade of FuelCell Energy by Canaccord which cut FCEL-Q's TP to C$9 from $13.5. PLUG.

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, is up 0.8%.

*EON SE, EONGY gained 0.85%. It may be dollar weakness.

*Ferrari, sold, was chopped 2 notches to sell by Goldman Sachs. We got out in time. RACE.

*NIO of China rose 3.2% today along with Tesla although it is not accepting bitcoins for car purchases. It sold 6,711 electric vehicles in China last month, close to double last year's level. But it is still a midget even compared to BYD to say nothing of TSLA.

*Volatility champ Energy Fuels, UUUU, selling $50 mn of its shares, lost 9.1% today. It is raising cash to invest in rare earths refining in Utah.

Cement and chemicals

*JPMorgan downgraded Irish CRH plc which is delisting to move to London. It lost 2.13% here.

*Johnson Matthey fell 1.4% on news that US hedge fund Citadel has been shorting JMPLY stock. The export firms are a target for sterling bears.

Mexico

*Bakery multinational Grupo Bimbo rose over 6% today near its year's high. GRBMY.

*Mexican Cemex fell even more than CRH on fear of global slowdown. CX is rated moderate-buy but fell 2.41% today to $8.11.

*Fibra Uno, which buys cement, was flat. FBASF.

Funds and Finance

*Banco Santander of Spain rose at the opening to $4.24 but later lost 0.6%. SAN is a Spanish bellwether. It is being penalized for buying up a Boston bank here in the USA as the dollar drops.

*Investor A/B of Sweden rose 1.34%/ perhaps because it is a big owner of Nasdaq, the US market which is doing well today. IVSBF.

*Finnish Sampo Oyj gained 1.03%. SAXPY.

*Lazard the fund manager lost 1.5% today but Lazard Globa. LGI, the fund of funds, gained 0.18%.

*CBOE is up 0.32%.

*Korea Fund rose 0.37%. We sold too soon to buy Taiwan Fund up 0.5%. KF. TWN.

*Mitsubishi Finance, MSBHF, lost 3.60% here. Sumitomo Mitsui Finance, SMFG, lost 1.82%. Both are reacting to shareholder rebellions in Japan.

*Scotiabank is recommended as very conservative in Canada's Investment Reporter. It yields a nifty 4.5% (in loonies). BNS.