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Today the stock market was supposed to recuperate after falling yesterday. But only the DJIA, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, South Korea, and Taiwan were really buoyant. We are present in all but Korea which we exited recently. The focus was on smaller cap companies.

The big news is that the Astra-Zeneca-Oxford COVID-19 jab was approved by Britain, and there AZN gained 2%, but the US is more bearish and here it's up only 1.5%. Glaxo GSK supplies the booster. Pfizer and BioNtech got a big order from the EU. China Sinopharm claims its vaccine is 79% effective.
Today's top performers at opening were pharma firms: Israeli Compugen, CGEN, up 5.4%, BiolineRX, BLRX up 1.9%, Enlivex, ENLV, and Teva, up 1.4% to $7.69 but ENLV later fell 0.54%. China's Beigene, BGNE, is up 2.7%; Canadian Zymeworks, ZYME, 2%; Swiss Novartis, NVS, and Roche, RHHBY, both up 1.25%. Danish diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk NVO is down 0.75% but hanging in over $70. Abcellera, ABCL, our worst recent pick fell ~30% to a new 2020 low. Our other dud, Aurinia, AUPH, recuperated after investors reconsidered its deal with Japanese Otsuka.

Also looking good are alternative energy and users stocks: Canadian Solar, CSIQ, up 5%; Azure Power of Mauritius which operates in India, AZRE, up 4%; Chinese electric car firm Nio up 2.8%, copying Tesla. Top stock today was Canadian Earthstone Energy, ESTE, up 10.5% to $5.58 (US) while compatriot Energy Fuels, UUUU, hit a new high for the year at $4.45 (US), up 7.2%. However Canadian Algonquin (AQN), Alimentation Couche Tarde, ANCUF; and Britons BP and Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B are down despite the oil price rise. Dutch Antillean Schlumberger, SLB, gained 2.5%.

A top tech winner today is Tower Semiconductor TSEM, Israeli-American, catching up with Tel Aviv, up 2.7%. Naspers NPSNY gained 3.21% following Tencent. Another is Ormat Tech, a US-Israeli thermal energy firm tipped by BofA-Merrill. ORA hit a new $91.99 high before falling back.

Latins

*Mercado Libre MELI rose 2.33% to $1710+.

*Grupo Bimbo GRBMF, bakery multinational, gained 3.6% mainly because the peso was weaker.

*Cemex CX which is investing to cut greenhouse gases globally is up 1.4%,.

*Orbia Advance Corp, MXCHY, now is properly priced on my brokerage account at $2.29, MPN 47.1, +1.09% in the last 5 days. This gringa had to tell Orbia IR that it was not showing up on my account. They have offices in Boston and Washington DC which don't communicate with IR.

Financials

Blackrock bought back 0.02% shares Sampo Oij, so again owns over 5% of SAXPY. It is a top pick by Value Line but I suspect this on-off business is for tax purposes. The service is very US-oriented with only 2 foreign shares in the top 20: Rogers Communication of Canada and Infosys of India. It requires companies to be capitalized at $5 bn+.

*Insider Richard Tyrrell sold ~20% of his Bermuda shares of its Höegh LNG Partners LP HMLP at $14.03 yesterday. Its Oslo parent owns under half of the partnership shares we also own, thanks to Norway expert Gen. Joe Shaefer of Stanford Wealth.com.

*Taiwan Fund TWN is heading back toward $30 again. We bought put of a defiance to Xi JinPing.

*Our Japanese stocks are in clover: two keiretsu outfits, Mitsubishi MUFG and Sumitomo SMFG plus Takeda TAK, a drug firm and game maker Nintendo, NTDOY. All are up with the Yen rising.

Miners

*SPDR Gold, GLD, gained from bitcoin fraud worries.

*While VALE and its partner BHP are back in business after the tailings deaths 5 years ago in Brazil, iron ore prices collapsed after China announced much lower steel production next year. This will hurt Vale which also faces charges from a later 2^nd tailings dam burst.