Today we were winners thanks to several stock surprises, notably about a recent drug company small-cap purchase. Most US stocks were down on fear of inflation and financial risks but then rose after lunch. No idea why.

The market initially brushed off a Department of Labor report on the March consumer price index rising 0.6% vs forecasts of a rise of 0.5% because there was a single commodity cause: higher gasoline prices. This is a rise that hits almost the entire economy, but in theory, this was a one-off. I would love to start today's blog with developments in the oil patch, but the truly astonishing good news means a focus on pharma.

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Drug stocks

*Novacure, the Israeli developer of novel electricity field cancer treatments run from the UK Channel Islands, which I recommended after finding that it offered a possible cure for the pancreatic cancer which later killed my British book-dealer cousin Caryl, today soared 81% in the pre-market. It lost traction after we bought because it did a secondary debt offering in Tel Aviv. Late yesterday the independent Data Monitoring Committee recommended that the US FDA and NVCR shorten the time frame and the number of patients in its non-small-call lung cancer trial of people who did not respond to platinum treatment to 276 patients rather than 534, as the longer trial would be unfair to those not given the electric field treatment.

NVCR doesn't itself know which patients got which. But those given only docetaxel or checkpoint inhibitors had such worse outcomes in the “Lunar” trial that they should now be given the electricity option. The trial will now be completed over a year earlier. It looks like the system developed by retired Technion professor Yoram Palti, 82, has potential. Expecting a loss, I had a limit order to sell from my main account exercised today but the share remains in my IRA.

*Israeli Compugen rose 5.47% today on no news except the above. CGEN. BiolineRX fell 0.8%. TEVA fell 1.51%.

*Swiss Roche's Spark Therapeutics sub invested in Senti Biosciences, an unlisted start-up which was funded by US Bayer and raised $105 mn in Jan. It uses smart sensors to precisely find gene changes showing cancerous types or state of cells to destroy them. The process is called allogenic chimera antigen receptor natural killer cells. \It has had hopeful results with its Senti202 against relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia in trials now. It also has another trial, Senti301, planned for liver cancers. RHHBY stock rose and fell so far today from its price at Monday's close, $41.57.

The investors in Senti include Matrix Partners China, Mirae Assets, Ridgeback Capital, and Intel. The Chinese angle seems to be linked to 3 of its top execs being Chinese-Americans. It is based in South San Franciso.

*The world of covid-19 jabs was thrown into disarray after the Johnson & Johnson inoculation turns out to also lead to blood clots, like the Astra-Zeneca-Oxford one, in pre-menopausal women. Six recipients aged 18 to 48 developed clots after getting the JnJ jab. The decosopm by the US authorities will delay the whole process of creating immunity. JnJ itself halted the rollout of its jab in Europe.

*Dr. Reddy's of India fell 14% there and is down 4.7% here because of a journalist's error. It turns out that RDY did not just get Indian permission to produce the Sputnik V jab as reported yesterday (by me and after my blog went out by our local guy.) This was old news.

RDY is still worth owning even without the Russian jab. It will make generic Kuvan (sapropterin dihydrochloride to treat phenylketonuria, a rare inherited metabolic disorder caused by a deficiency of phenylalanine hydroxlylase which breaks down amino acids in protein foods. It causes brain damage and seizures.

*Japan's Eisai, ESALY, gained 0.17%. Takeda fell 1.08%. TAK.

*Danish Novo-Nordisk rose another 1.87%. NVO.

*US firm diagnosis Thermo Electron, TMO, my largest holding, gained 1.61% as we will need more for covid-19 which it makes.

*Bristol-Myers shares, which I inherited from my late mom, were upgraded to buy from hold by Truist formerly BBT, learned about from my late great-grandfather-in-law. BMY is up 1.5%.

*Grifols of Spain which does blood plasma extraction rose another 1.9%. GRFS invested heavily into US blood banks.

Oilpatch

*Royal Dutch Shell and Equinor (formerly Statoil) partnering with Exxon are hoping to persuade the Tanzania govt to speed up permits for its LNG plant to meet strong current demand comparable to the one recently signed with British Columbia, Canada. RDS-B has spent $4 bn on preliminary design after starting to search 8 years ago. However, the Dar Es Salaam government is hesitating.

*BP plc found oil in deep US Gulf of Mexico waters near its Mad Dog concession, which can boost its oil and gas output there by as much as 25%. It moved its monster Argus production platform nearby. BP.

*Cosan of Brazil, CSAN, gained 1.15% today. With RDS, it owns an integrated energy company in Brazil which is being spun out.

*Ormat is up 1.1% today on news that the US needs more energy storage. It uses waterfalls to store geothermal energy while its Viridity Energy Solutions arm uses batteries. Incorporated in Nevada, ORA is in fact Israel and operates worldwide in renewables, including in Tanzania.

*Schlumberger Ltd fell 2% today after dropping 0.82% yesterday. It has losses in the last 8 days. SLB.

*Algonquin Energy rose 1% today after falling yesterday. AQN is a cross-border ute. Its position in fund Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure PLC, AY, has been rising.

*Azure Power of Mauritius which sells solar panels to India fell 2.12% after AZRE rose Monday.

*Canadian Solar (CSIQ) fell 1.3%. It is a tacker of Chinese tech despite its bigger business supplying solar panels to the rest of the world, including Japan.

*NIO which makes electric vehicles in China rose 3.2%.

*Energy Fuel, which mines uranium and rare earths, is back under $6/sh at $5.8 after opening up today. Roth Capital's target price for UUUU is $6.50.

Miscellaneous

*AIAGroup Hong Kong (AAIGF) was called a recovery play by DowJones and rose 5.95% today.

*Kirkland Lake Gold rose 1.7% today on covid-19 and inflation worries and an upgrade by CFRA. KL.

*SPDR Gold, GLD, rose 0.73% to $163.47. Its price is set at a/10^th of an ounce of the metal.

*Norwegian Tomra Systems rose 1.24% to $47.43 (TMRAF) or 1.86% to $48.02 (TMRAY.) If its sorting machines are as inaccurate as its share prices we have a problem.

*Trip.com raised HK$ 8.5 bn (US$ 1.1 bn) with a global equity offering at HK$268/sh, a mere 2% discount. The shares will trade starting April 19. The US shares are up about 4% YTD. TCOM.

*South Korean Coupang rose 3.2% today and we are back in the black with CPNG.

*MultiChoice, MCHOY, spun off by Naspers, rose 0.83%. It sells cellphones and ads in Africa. NPSNY rose 3.12% and Prosus 2% after PROSYsold down its stake in Tencent by 2% Monday. Chinese internet stocks are under scrutiny by regulators in Beijing.

*Sweden's Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson rose to $14 and now is $13.98 on no news. ERIC.

*Finnish Nokia gained 1%.

*Israeli-US Tower Semi lost 1.85% on doubts about whether there is a real chip shortage. TSEM.

*Vodafone fell 0.25% today despite a new sale of TV distribution lines to Xperi in Spain because the price terms were not disclosed by VOD which has been buying back its debt.