Today markets are suffering alongside Austria which locked down against Covid-19 again. This zapped the price of crude oil by nearly 3% because recovery is now delayed and West Texas Intermediate fell to a 6 week low. Still, WTI crude oil has gained 61.5% so far this year. Gold fell and the euro hit a 16 month low. 

Pres. Biden got his social safety net through the House today but the amount is unclear. The wire services disagree on the bite: which maybe $1.65 or $1.75 or $2--trillion. Senate passage is not assured. 

Narendra Modi meanwhile is having to eat crow, except that as a Hindu he is not allowed to. He had to reverse his attempt 15 months ago to get farmers to sell their produce to other intermediaries besides the government-regulated market, which led to a continuing strike of farmers in New Delhi. 

Crypto fell hard, off 18%. because of the uncertainty about recovery and the likely certainty of US and Chinese taxes on the cryptocurrencies.

Image Source: Unsplash

Oil patch

*Hoegh LNG Partners LP (NYSE: HMLP) reported total time charter revenue of $35.6 mn, a drop of 0.9% year-over-year, bur beating the consensus of $35.38 mn. EPS at 40 cents beat the 35 cent consensus. Operating income fell 3.3% to $27.14 mn and operating margins fell 190 basis points to 76%. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization fell $1.3 mn to $35.1 mn blamed on higher administrative expenses. The exec suite was hit with resignation of the CEO. I am selling. It dropped 1.45% today.

*Goehring & Rozencwajg analysts expect that by the end of next year oil demand will exceed supply without any easy way to boost supply for the first time in history. However, Permian rig count is up by another 7

*Shell RDS-B stock is down 3.47%. BP is off 3.7%. Schlumberger Ltd, SLB, fell 5.5% but recovered a bit.

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, had its target eps chopped to .455 from .722 but it was updated to buy. 

*Plug Power PLUG rose 5.97% after it was plugged by Morgan Stanley with a $65 target price. However Energy Fuels, UUUU fell 6.26% but then also recovered somewhat. ESTE, Earthstone Energy, fell 6%+.

*I bought more Cosan in Brazil at $15.26 yesterday and the share is up 0.93% today. It makes sugar cane waste oil substitutes. It is up 2% in Sao Paulo. CSAN.

*Ecopetrol of Colombia fell 2.51% to $13.58 today. I sold when Bogota took majority control of the company. EC.

*Cameco of Saskatchewan will present the case for uranium at the Bloor Street Capitol Conference on Nov. 23. CCJ.

Drugs

*Booster jabs do not have to be the same as the initial inoculation according to our FDA. We booked for the jab and can now be given Pfizer, BioNTech or Moderna boosters next month. We got Moderna back at the start of this year. France plans boosters for those aged over 40.

*Narendra Modi is eating more crow. He also is allowing the Serum Institute of India to sell covid-19 drugs from Astra Zeneca and Novavax to foreign countries rather than hoarding them in India. 

*Roche got EU approval for its Gavreto drug for non-small cell lung cancer, also called pralstinib, for adults. RHHBY is Swiss. The drug may also help fight thyroid cancer.

*European regulators recommend Merck's covid antiviral molnpiravir for those at risk of severe Covid-19. MRK.

*AbeCellera rose 1.76% but I did not buy more of that share. ABCL.

*Israeli Compugen fell another 2.25% having scared off investors by publishing negative phase I data on a drug trial, a nono. Its Q4 eps is now minus 1.35 cents down from 1.4. CGEN.

*Astra Zeneca was rated a bear by Investor's Intelligence in Britain for underperforming last week. and an artificial intelligence firm Tempas will work together on oncology drug discovery. AZN.

*Glaxo is up 0.51% on no news. GSK.

*Genfit of France rose 5.26% today on the NIH accepting its non-invasive liver disease for treating non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Only GNFT's drug NIS4 blood-based biomarker can identify patients most at risk for NASH.

*Zymeworks will present its Zanidatamab to treat late line HER-2 positive breast cancer at the San Antonio Cancer Symposium on Dec. 7. The ZYME share gained 2.6% on the news.

Funds

*Lazard Total Return & Income Fund will pay 11.51 cents per share in dividend Dec 22. It will present its results on Nov. 22. LGI.

*Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Dividend Equity Fund, EXG, goes ex-div Nov. 22. It is up a penny today.

*Atlantica Yield AY earnings estimate was cut to minus 008 cents/sh from plus 0.13 cents which sounds wrong. It was also rerated buy from hold. It is a UK fund investing in US shares in dollars so this may be about currencies.