Image Source: Pixabay

Russian barbaric attacks on civilians continue despite or because of its removal from the UN Human Rights Council. 

Pharma

*Happily today our drug stock heavy holdings were boosted by news that schizophrenia is a genetic disease characterized by variant genes that cause the mental illness. This means that the drug-makers have something they can focus on in the future.

So the shares of Eisai (ESALY), Biogen (BIIB), Lilly (LLY), Novartis (NVS), Sanofi (SNY), AstraZeneca (AZN), Roche (RHHBY), Merck (MRK), and Dr. Reddy's (RDY) are all up. Biogen even managed to rise despite the fact that its Alzheimer's drug was cut from reimbursement except for people in a trial, in part as it may have dangerous side effects. Schizophrenia is a bigger market than Alzheimer's.

*BioNtech (BNTX) won a German contract for preparative drugs for future pandemics and also for booster jabs. It rose 2%. Its partner Pfizer (PFE) rose as well as Moderna (MRNA).  An anonymous writer predicted that it will hit $265/sh up from the current $171.

*Bausch Health Cos of Canada (BHC) may be worth a nibble. It is not among the winners here.

Energy

*Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B) rose again on its earnings but is still at a p/e ratio of under 11x earnings.

*Schlumberger Ltd (SLB) jumped another 2.5% in European trading to $42. 

*Canada ute (BCE) yields over 5% and ups its divvie every year. 

Supermarkets

*Tesco (TSCDY) the UK supermarket chain divides seeking alpha writers with Valkyrie negative and Beulah positive. As I will be into groceries when we hit London (because we will be there for Passover) I will carefully examine the local shopping scene.

Tech & Tel

*The latest guess is that Vodafone (VOD) may buy Talktalk, for about GBX 3 bn. I will look into that also when in the UK.

*Qualcomm (QCOM), which plans to split its pricey shares, is my most volatile stock.

*Nuclear needs to boost the price of Cameco (CCJ), miner of uranium and rare earth.

Finance

*India will see HDFC Bank and HDFC Ltd back together again this summer.

*Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) pays a divvie of 4.3% and earns it several times over.

*Insurer Manulife is the top Canada payer at 5.1% in loonies. It has a very low p/e ratio of 7.3%.