Today's file is later and longer than usual Friday coverage because Monday is a holiday, Columbus Day, still celebrated in the USA despite recent attempts to remove it from our calendar because old Chris failed to allow the natives he interacted with to continue their culture and religion. Things were rather incorrect politically in 1492.

The great news for my neighborhood is that we are finally getting a tenant for the supermarket site under the Queensboro Bridge, which has the city as its landlord. The new chain is Trader Joe's which means I can afford a bit more food when I shop which I need because Wall Street has lost its gains from earlier this week. New hiring again failed to rise in Sept., the 2nd month in a row which may be good news because it could delay the Fed tapering. Only 194,000 new jobs were filled when estimates were as high as 500,000.

Image Source: Unsplash

Here is the news:

The Guardian, a London newspaper, leads with the revelation that during his term in the White House, despite lobbyists, his leased hotel at the former Old Post Office lost $74 mn which Trump tried to hide by claiming he had earned $150 mn from the hotel which led to charges of conflict of interest. He was bailed out by Deutsche Bank. While he is still liable for violating the US constitution's emoluments clause it is no longer because he made money, but because of how he covered his losses. Trump also was dropped from the Forbes list of the richest Americans this week.

Bausch Health Companies (BHC) reported that is Luxsmart hydrophobic interocular lens in European trials in 18 countries allowed bipolar cataract patients to see to distant and intermediate distances and in some cases even nearer, without interference from halos and glares. It is preloaded and ready to be installed during eye surgery. There were not many cases of dysphotopsia. This breakthrough will change the lives of many seniors.

Our FDA gave a breakthrough therapy rating to Genentech's Alzheimer treatment gantenerumab.

Merck & Co got upgrades and higher target prices from Barclays and Berenberg, both of which expect it to hit $92. MRK.

Pfizer applied for FDA ok for its covid-19 jab for kids aged 5 to 11. Note that the number of new US cases is dropping as colder months come (below 100,000 daily cases). For whatever it is worth there is not much cold in New York City yet. PFE.

My biggest US shareholding, Thermo Fisher Scientific, was the one picked for a lawsuit by the family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black cervical cancer patient at Johns Hopkins whose cells were taken for research without her consent in 1951. They claim the money gained from use of her cell-line amounts to unjust enrichment. TMO shares fell .36% to $581.52 as a result.

Bristol Myers Squibb added a new neurodegenerative disease to its research platform with Evotec panomics. EVTCY rose and BMY fell 1.75% today as a result.

It looks like Astra Zeneca will succeed in getting its covid jab to be used for UK booster shots, which took the share to a new high for the year in UK trading. AZN also got orphan drug designation for tepezelumab, vs eosinophilic esophagitis, a rare form of asthma.

TEVA rose 1% today despite or because Israeli stock markets are closed Friday.

Food

UK bakery chain Greggs rose again. I am using its rise to justify my ownership of Mexican Grupo Bimbo, another bakery chain. GRBMF.

Energy

However, Cemex, the Mexican MNC, warned that inflationary pressures in fuels could hurt its plan to get back on track after the slowdown of 2020. CX.

Hyundai's North American sub is joining the Shell hydrogen fuel station buildout in California which is helping fund the service stations. UK oil companies are actively developing alternatives to gasoline.

Plug Power was upgraded to equal weight from underweight by Barclays analyst Moses Sutton today because he expects momentum to be ignited at PLUG's investor day next Thursday.

UK listed Antofagasta rose smartly yesterday and gained another 1.26% today. The Chile group pays its divvie in dollars because gold is priced in bucks. ANFGF has only one US analyst tracking it, Chris La Femina of Jefferies.

Another obscure UK listed stock is Johnson Matthey, JMPLY, may divest its healthcare business line. It also is in precious metals but mainly in membrane electrical fuel cells (hydrogen) and it recently bought assets of Oxis Energy to boost its output in the UK starting next year with catalyst coated membranes for trucks and commercial vehicles.

Gold prices fell again today. But cheap producer Kirkland Lake (KL) rose again but fell from its opening price of $44.4.