We are still extricating ourselves from a Google app which was added unnecessarily to our account, which has blocked my receipt of emails. So this is a rather meager blog. But before the weekend I think it important to keep up with things.

More from the USA, Switzerland, South Africa, Netherlands Antilles, Mexico, India, Hong Kong, Germany, Canada, Britain, Australia. We have two company reports.

Results

*Schlumberger Ltd beat in its Q3 and rose 1.3% today. The oilfield services firm incorporated in the Netherlands Antilles had lower revenues at $8.5 bn, off about 8% from the prior Q3 ) but its profits rolled in up 18% at $644 mn, 46 ¢/sh, a penny higher than the analyst forecast average. Its business in North America was up 23% reflecting shale and offshore exploration rises, but its international business rose only 1% on average.

*British Renishaw, RNSHF, a quirky metronics firm recommended by Martin Ferera, saw its Q1 profits fall modestly in sterling, to £33.5 mn, off about 10% from prior year Q1 levels of £36.9 mn, and initially, the stock price fell by even more before correcting to only be down 6.7%. Revenues were up 8% to £154 mn. The reaction was from fear of Brexit for this firm which makes systems for precise measurement, expected to lose international sales. However, in the conference call, the new CEO stressed that it is “confident of its prospects despite” different outcomes over British membership of the European Union. More tech news below.

*I am not writing up Earthstone Energy (ESTE) results as this is a bonus share. 

Pharma

*BiolineRX (BLRX) disappointed bulls by its report on its trials for metastatic pancreatic cancers, a major unmet need. Its BL8046 proved to be safe and well-tolerated in trials over the first 6 months Moreover one of the patients saw a regression of his cancer, while another 10 saw their cancer stabilized. This is positive news. More importantly, still, the level of stable or improved results in this period was 51.5% in the total treating population for which BL8046 was used as a second line treatment. These are significant results; yet it is off 22%.

Novartis reported 72% and 39.1% response rates in treatment-naive and new patients in its trial for patients with advanced MET exon14 skipping non-small cell lung cancer treated with Cabozantinib. It also reported at the European Oncology gathering on liver cancer treatment with Netter-1 lutathera which also showed significant improvement in progression-free survival – but with no numbers.

*Roche sub Genentech got US FDA okay to add two new label uses for its Rituxin, against rare vasculitis variations. Its stock rose 2.7%.

Energy

*German utility E.On SE, EONGY, set up a jv to charge electric vehicles with Seas-NVE. It rose 2.53%.

*Indian solar and renewable energy firm Azure Power rose 0.5% after the market adjusted the outlook over its capital increase, made in a hurry because of local factors. We think that the new shareholders being the same as the old is a mark of confidence in AZRE management and its decision to diversify into other renewables from solar energy.

Tech

*Vodafone has been rising nicely despite a sell call by Raymond James brokerage. VOD is a cellphone operator in Britain, Europe, and India.

*Naspers of South Africa first fall here today before recovering as its 31% owned Tencent of Hong Kong rose fractionally. NPSNY is so much bigger than its mere stake in TCEHY , but the market doesn't understand this.

Industrials

*Orocobre of Australia rose 1.8% in Canada trading. It mines lithium in Argentina and its homeland and also controls a startup Canadian miner in Argentina which reported on its drill tests yesterday. Presumably, the information was good.

*Swedish Autoliv is close to a 12-mo low after a down rating to neutral by Citigroup.

Funds

*Mexican Reit Fibra Uno (FBASF) created a jv with WeWork, operator of offices for free-lancers, for Mexico. It will initially offer the service 50,000 square meters of workspace which will double to 100,000 by the year 2021.