Halal Stocks
Here is Goldman Sachs on Gold:
“Gold's recent underperformance versus real rates and the dollar has left some investors concerned that Bitcoin is replacing gold as the inflation hedge of choice, We do not see Bitcoin’s rising popularity as an existential threat to gold's status as the currency of last resort."
While bitcoin is the trendy inflation hedge du jour, I don't think it will be safe enough to replace the yellow metal. Gold is up today because of tensions with China after the US opted to boycott more Mainland firms listed in Hong Kong. And the great deal for Congress to deliver fiscal support for the economy will run into the weekend because of Republican Senate opposition.
Tech & Tel
*Victims of what probably is a Russian hack attack, apart from US govt bodies, include 18,000 US corporations, among them Microsoft. MSFT fell 0.6% on news it is vulnerable.
*Tech wrecks include SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International), China's leading computer chip maker, ro be denied access to US software and circuits. The market reacted by chopping all chipmakers, including Israeli-American Tower Semiconductor, TSEM, now a buy. It is being sold off because it is near its high and is flat today because Tel Aviv is closed Fridays. TSEM is not just a replacement of SMIC, but also the developer with US Opix in Japan of a platform for 3D imaging and facial recognition software in a sensor in a 3-dimensional camera. While Israel is not an angel in privacy protection, it is more acceptable as a partner of Gulf or US investors than Beijing which is aggressive to its Muslim Uighar population. BUY TSEM at $25.15. Year high was $27.68.
*Both Nokia and Ericsson are down today. NOK and ERIC buy chips. So is Vodafone, VOD.
*Tomra Systems, the Norwegian maker of sorting and reverse vending machines, gained 2.5%. TMRAY.
*Trip.com ADRs, TCOM fell 2% over new obstacles to China stocks, even apolitical ones.
*Israeli owned US geothermal energy and storage specialist Ormat, ORA, is up 4.7% at $86.14.
*Nio is up 2.95% because unlike rival Chinese electric vehicle contenders, it has unique attractions. It is also up nearly 1.5% x as much YTD as Tesla, which is joining the S&P 500 today. We hold 1/3 of what we started out with. In today's marketwatch, Jeff Reeves says to buy NIO, not Tesla.
*MultiChoice, MCHOY, seller of cellphone and logon news and ads in Africa, is up 3.4%.
*Mercado Libre gained a half percent hitting $1688. MELI.
Oilpatch
*After acquiring Independence Resources Management, a Midland Basin oil producer, for $186 mn, Earthstone Energy, ESTE, gained 25%. I sold my IRA shares near the high but kept the rest. It is rated for sale by The Street and Ford but not by brokerage analysts.
*Schlumberger fell 1.5%. Royal Dutch Shell B fell 1.25%. BP plc is up 0.1%. The European oil link between SLB, RDS-B, and BP broke at last. Crude is up 1.5%.
*Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure PLC, AY is up nearly 3% while its part-owner Algonquin Power, AQN, is down 1.23%.
*Perhaps the Emperor Modi lost some of his mojo after Abhimanyu's India note yesterday. Azure Power which supplies solar roof electricity generators to India is down 2.25%. AZRE is Mauritian.
*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, rose 12.13%. Energy Fuels, UUUU, fell 3.45% on profit-taking. Cameco rose over 3%. CCJ cut uranium production because of virus risk boosting the price.
Pharmaceuticals
*Glaxo GSK is investing in Adrestia Therapeutics, a 2-yr old Cambridge (UK) firm developing synthetic viability genes to restore diseased cells. It also began phase III trials of Vir Biotech monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19 backed by the US NIH.
*TEVA fell 2.23 % to $10.07 while Tel Aviv and Muslim country marekts are closed today.
*My Israeli pick Enlivex ENLV, against cytokine storms opened at $11.08, up 0.6%.
*AbCellera Biologics rose 0.3% today at the open, $49.2, and maintained its gains. ABCL.
*BiolineRX ADRs fell another 5.12% today. BLRX is Israeli and the market makers are on their own.
*Compugen, CGEN, also Israeli, however, gained 5.4% today but is still down about 18% from its high. As with TSEM, there will be some Persian Gulf deals for these stocks now that they are halal.
*Aurinia Pharma popped 9% at the opening and retained a 0.7% gain at $13.02. AUPH fell after it did a deal with Otsuka Pharma of Japan which seemed to be selling its edge too cheaply. But it has had a tough year. We bought the Canadian after it crashed in Nov. Zymeworks, a Martin pick from Canada, gained 0.75% today and later fell back 0.61%. ZYME.
*Spain's Grifols, GRFS, slid 1.17% hoje.
*Dr Reddy's, RDY, is up today, a pick by Abhimanyu. Beigene, BGNE, is up 3.4%, a pick by me.
*Novo Nordisk NVO is among the rare drug major winners today, up 2.36% in the wake of its push to use two of its oral diabetes drugs to deal with obesity. It applied for EU CHMP approval and after it started phase III trials of Semaglutide for treating Alzheimer's disease. It also applied to use Rybelsus (Saxenda) for weight control in adolescents. It also is working on a cold-chain system for vaccines shipping company AP Moeller Maersk, also Danish.
*Japanese Takeda TAK and Swiss Roche RHHBY are also up a fraction, the latter for a lymphoma drug, but Swiss Novartis NVS fell1.4%. Its COVID-19 respiratory distress drug from Mesoblast failed to work in trials.
*Thermo-Fisher Scientific was downgraded to neutral by Citi analysts and fell today. TMO is my largest holding, a US drug testing firm.
*Dutch Philips is paying $72/sh to buy BioTelemetry, a distance diagnosis firm, for a total of $2.5 bn. We own a different one.
Funds
*Gold is up over $7900/oz and but SPDR GLD is down. KL, Kirkland Lake, a Canadian gold miner, is up 1%.
*Fibra Uno, the Mexican REIT, fell 2.54%. FBASF is suffering because it borrows and earns in dollars and the peso is very strong now.
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