There is nothing like a pending weekend to push Wall Street into recuperation and this worked today, in particular for my largest and highest risk sectors, drug companies, one of which reported after hours yesterday. Today the Dow Jones gained 400 points.So without further ado, here we go into the drug dealer's world.

Note that foreign stock news and results are being delayed by brokerages which are leaving it to paid sites to collect money for result news. This is not fair to those who expect the data from our brokers. The problem is particularly acute with India shares reporting Fridays when the country is in lock-down already and there is a weekend to come. I have been asked why I have subscribers who are either zionists or Muslims. The reason is that they want to own stocks from their homeland but not to be pulled around by their countrymen. The largest group of exotics in my subscriber base, as well as two reporters, in India and South Africa, are of probable Hindu heritage, why our 2nd result today was so important and hard to get.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

*The1st reporting company was AbCellera which reported on its Q1. Revenues hit $203 mn this Q1, up from a mere $4.7 mn a year ago. Basic eps was 43¢ and diluted 37¢, missing the forecast by 1c. Net profits hit $117 mn, compared to a $2 mn loss a year ago. New programs under contract rose 63% to 119 contracts with 29 different partners.

ABCL's bamlanivimat covid-19 drug developed with Eli Lilly has been licensed to 15 countries for emergency treatment of the virus. However it is no longer licenses for solo use, but only together with LLY's etiscovimat, in the US. There is more bad news. ABCL missed its estimates which were even higher than the smashing results and the stock opened down 6.7% to $31.75. Crédit Suisse set a target price for the stock at $51. It is still down 4.86% at $32.05.

Last month ABCL used its options to take over a new channel transfer drug LY-Cov1404, for the same virus. This has been among the worst performing shares we hold, down 30% YTD.

*India's Dr. Reddy's Labs also worked with LLY on covid-19 medicines for its country, India. The high-flyer share today reported on its Q4 in rupees Rs47.28 bn vs prior year's 44.32 bn. Because of the weekend our local reporter there is not covering it. Q4 dollar earnings were $646 mn and gross profits $347 mn or crore 25.375. Net profit was $76 mn and eps 0.464 cents/ Indian share, not per ADR. Prior Q4 revenues were 63 mn and gross profits $312 mn. Last year's eps was 63¢ so business was hurt by the pandemic. Full FY after tax profits hit 1915 crore, down 2% from last year. Revenue in Q4 was below the $740 mn consensus forecast. I was ready to sign up for the San Antonio Express which published more data but it didn't like my email address. I do not have data for the earlier FY quarters.

Other news is that RDY yesterday was licensed to produce 36 mn doses the Russian covid-19 jab Sputnik V in beleagured India by the drug controller after RDY did phase II-III trials which showed an efficacy rate of 91.6%, higher than expected. It also revealed today that it got a US FDA license to produce a generic Invance intervenous antibiotic used for severe infections affecting skin, lung, stomach, pelvis, and the urinary tract, and pneumonia, and as an infection prevention in colorectal surgery.

RDY shares opened down 1.63% here but are now down only 0.67% to $71.98 after CEO Erez Israeli opened a transcript which however also is not public.

*Biogen BIIB, announced that it has exercised its option with private biotech, TMS Co., Ltd. to acquire the latter’s phase II acute ischemic stroke candidate TMS-007. We remind investors that Biogen had signed the option deal with TMS in June last year. BIIB will pay $18 mn up front to TMS and up to $335 mn in milestones. Biogen will pay for development and commercialization of TMS-007 also.

The decision to acquire TMS-007 was based on positive data from a phase IIa study which met its primary endpoint and demonstrated TMS-007’s positive impacts on blood vessel reopening and patient functional recovery with no incidence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH). sICH is a major complication of thrombolytic agent, which is presently approved for treating acute ischemic stroke caused by a blockage of blood supply to the brain. The use of thrombolytics for treating acute ischemic stroke is limited because of bleeding risks. There is significant unmet medical need for new therapies that can both improve stroke severity and extending the time after it which thrombolytic treament can be safely given. TMS-007 is designed to restore blood flow following acute stroke and potentially may extend the treatment window for thrombolytic agents.

Biogen has been focusing on the yet-to-be approved Alzheimer's therapy, aducanumab, a potential blockbuster on which the FDA may decided June 7. Biogen also revealed that its experimental gene therapy for a genetic retinal disease which destroys vision failed its phase II-III trial. BIIB112 didn't show significant improvement in retinal sensitivity in patients with X-linked retinitis pigmentosa. This is a rare condition which has no approved treatments. It did however improve vision under low light conditions and BIIB is analyzing the data further. It is down 0.81%.

*Gene therapy is not simple. Even Swiss Roche, RHHBY, failed with a gene to stop Huntington's disease which killed Woody Guthrie. It rose 0.72% today because it is not alone in have gene problems.

*TEVA has a non-genetic drug to treat Huntington's and related diseases and rose 1.87% today after it got the US FDA okay for a generic of thiola from Travere Therapeutics. It is not as deep into gene therapy or orphan drugs.

*Glaxo rose 1% to $39.05 and Astra Zeneca 0.38%; GSK, AZN are British.

*Ex-Israeli NovoCure, now from Jersey in the Channel Islands (where the assaults are by fishing boats and electricity cut offs), sent me an annual report for 2020 and a proxy to vote June 9. It has exited Israel because of heavy taxation but still goes in for huge stock awards in Shekels for its brass. Its electricity cancer treatment Optune or Optune Lua is delivered by a field generator, a totally new concept. It appears to improve cancer survival for as much as 5 years in certain tumors. It has been licensed to Zai Lab for China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan but it holds the rights itself in the US, Japan, the EU, Sweden, Switzerland and of course Britain. I noted that there is no data on pancreatic cancer, the drug for which I hoped to get my cousin enrolled with NVCR, because it is still ongoing until 2023. The data will be coming this year for liver cancer and next year for glioblastoma, brain metastases, and gastric cancers. The company had sales of $494.4 mn last year and net income of $19.81 mn or 19¢/sh, the 1^st year of any profit.

*Novo Nordisk was tipped by a writer on a stock site which nonetheless issued lots of warnings about the risk from the Danish drug-maker because of its new line of anti-flab medicines which work even if you don't have diabetes. I have been saying that NVO obesity nostrums work for over a year and I see no reason to warn that being overweight and taking a drug to suppress appetite is dangerous..

*Canadian Zymeworks is up 6.61% but is another depressed share despite or because of the strong loony. ZYME.

*Compugen, CGEN, rose 8% on no news.

Energy & Users

*NIO rose 6.44% despite Tesla gaining 1.8% today. NIO was never paid in bitcoins. It had the largest sales of all electric sports utility vehicles in China last month. It also opened a virtual webmail store with Alibaba today to peddle lifestye merchandise under the Life label, copying TSLA which did so last month. Chinese regulators are now looking in price gauging by ride hailing companies like Didi Chuxing. Nio is helped by being backed by a provincial city and because of its green battery system.

*Orbia (MXCHF), almost untrackable from the US, will but the majority of shares in Shakun Polymers PCL, a private company, which makes halogen-free flame-retarding and polyvinyl chloride compounds for data and power cables. Orbia is the former Mexichem which now focuses on drip feed systems for growing food. The price was not given but it will become a sub of MXCHF's Alphagary which makes polymers.

*Cemex is up because its US construction sales are up by 1/3 in the current quarter. CX.

*Fibra Uno gained 2.53% in Mexico, hitting MXN 23.9. FBASF. Beware. Mexican debt has been sold by foreign investors for the past 5 months according to Eduardo Garcia in senticocomun.co.mex.

*Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B is up 3.4% and BP Plc by2.67% (at the opening). My robot stock picker for Britain has gone seriously bearish today, with only a couple of buys. Oil is expected to be in demand as more people go back to work and spend money on goods.

*Dutch Antillean Schlumberger Ltd rose 3.35% on oil worries at a new 52 week high of $32.88. SLB.

*US-Israeli geothermal energy firm Ormat, ORA, gained 1.9% on no news except it is far from Gaza. And estimates of its earnings dropped 0.005, which is inconsequential.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU, rose 6% today. It is the volitility king between uranium and rare earths.

*British Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Fund, AY, gained 2.54% today. It is owned in part by our Algonquin ute operating worldwide, AQN.

*Alimentation Couche-Tard, operator of mini store and gas stations around the globe, got a marginally higher forecast for Q1 earnings today, up 0.011 to $34.82 so the Quebec stock rose.

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, recouped 4.4% from earlier drops this week. It makes solar panels in China sold widely, now to Japan and the US as well as Canada.

Tech & Tel

*Finnish Nokia NOK rose another 2.4% on the patent fine deal with Swedish Ericsson, ERIC, this week.

*ABB which we own directly as well as via ERIC rose 1.9%. It is planning to save New Orleans from flooding like the US Army Corps of Engineers used to do (badly)

*Facebook failed to stop a ruling against sharing European user data with US clients. FB.

Finance

*Banco Santander today hit another 52-wk high in Madrid. SAN.

*Coupang of South Korea crashed another1.5% today. CPNG which did its first report after the ipo shocked by its bad profits which it should have warned about—the sellers were too greedy. Sales rose but they did not pay.

*However Mercado Libre, MELI, the Latin challenger to Amazon, gained 2.27% today.

*Both variants of Lazard, the fund manager LAZ, and the managed closed-end fund LGI are up, 1.54% and 2.11% respectively.

*With cryptocurrency under fire because it uses too much coal to cover its tracks, gold is back up.

*Hong Kong insurer AAIGF, AIG Asia, gained 7.13% today on no news, to $13.53.

*Investor A/B rose 4.34% in Swedish trading and now is at $88.08. It owns a nice chunk of Nasdaq which is up 2% today and a lump of Swiss ABB which we also own directly.

Two closed end funds, CEE (Central and Eastern Europe); GF (New Germany) will restrict information of their holdings if the SEC allows this to enable buybacks.

*CBOE Global yesterday declared a dividend of 42¢/sh for Q2 2021 payable June 15. It offers trading and clearing platforms for products like derivatives, stocksm and currencies, ETFs, and trends in many markets but was born in Chicago. Its VIX numbers let traders know if markets are bullish or bearish.

*ESG funds had their 51^st consecutive weekly inflow over the past year according to EFPR Global Navigator, of over $1.3 bn. The outfit in Cambridge Mass looks at fund flows. The biggest US equity funds collected $25.7 bn in the same week. Convertible, and Poland, and Colombian country funds had outflows while Czech and Korean ones had inflows. We sold our Korea Fund too soon.