Today is the last day in the Jewish year, as the New Year 5781 begins at sundown tonight. Today is the 18th of Sept., a Jewish lucky number (because the letters used to write numbers in Biblical Hebrew spell 18 as Chai, or life.) Fortunately, 5781 is a prime number which can be divided by 3 and probably a few other numbers, the omens are not bad for the coming Jewish year.

Today is also a quadruple witching hour in US markets with stock and stock index options to end for the month, and index and stock futures also ending for the quarter. This brings volatility. The Dow Jones swings up and down and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are in the red. There will be no Sunday tables.

There are heavy flows into and out of markets not just in the USA, but also in foreign places. The only exception is Japan where they are celebrating a new prime minister, and Thailand, where they are practicing lèse majesté against the unpopular absentee big-spending monarch.

Our own monarch, Pres. Trump, will ban both Tiktok and WeChat app downloads starting Sunday night, after the Jewish holiday ends, going much further than he warned of earlier. This has hurt the market especially tech and tel, back in the doghouse. Even Microsoft MSFT.

Complexity

*Kirkland Lake Gold, recommended by BofA Merrill, today declared a US$0.125 dividend, disappointing the market, payable Oct. 14. KL will convert to C$s for Canadians the day before.

KL fell hard at the opening but now is down only 14 US cents 0.25%) as analysts sharpened their pencils. It won a non-brokered subscription refinancing of C$1.3 mn and a two further subscriptions of $2,532,631 at 12 loony cents and C582,000 at 15 loony cents raising C$3.11 mn. Each receipt in loony cents gives the holder the right to buy a quarter share of Canadian Continental Exploration Corp for 18 loony cents over the next two years plus further flow-through units without further charge. The funds are being held in escrow pending KL buying CCEC by Nov. 30 and after that will convert into KL units. This incredibly complex deal is a sign of good outlook for KL. CCEC owns 10,000 hectares of unexplored potential mines in northern Ontario. Institutions own 63% of KL. SPDR Gold (GLD) fell 0.06% to $183.087 but then rose to $183.5+. Multiply by 10 for the price of the metal.

Drug stocks

*A class action lawsuit against Danish Novo Nordisk NVO is being brought by various US pension funds because the company allegedly misstated and omitted data to inflate its earnings and revenues for older insulin sales, which boosted the drug company price. The period covered is Feb. 3, 2015, to Feb. 2, 2017, and covers our purchase. We recommend the stock Sept. 17 2017 and therefore are not in the class action to be heard in New Jersey. More lawsuits below under tech. 

*Dr. Reddy's is up about 9% today in US trading but earlier stood much higher, up 20%, in Indian which reacted to the news about its Sputnik V deal to offer Indians coronavirus jabs from Russia and the deal I reported yesterday with a sub of Bristol-Myers Squibb sub-Celgene to delay its generic version of a BMY patented cancer drug Revelimid. Our reporter Abhimanyu Sisodia, says RDY is now the top-ranked Indian pharmaceuticals firm. He found the share which has done well for us but even better for Indians. Investec analysts raised RDY to hold from sell. BofA-Merrill raised it to buy from hold.

*Today the European Union CHMP indicators of possible future drug approvals were published. The decision typically takes a further 60 days for a full okay, but it can be extended. Among the potential winners are British Astra-Zeneca (AZN) and Swiss Roche (RHHBY) for their combo of Lynparza and Avastin for post-chemo-therapy treatment of ovarian, fallopian tube, and other peritoneal cancers with the BRC1/v2 mutation. 

*Roche also has a liver cancer drug pending approvals.

*AZN has a further potential approval with Merck for Lynparza in newly diagnosed Ovarian cancer and another solo potential approval for non-small cell lung cancer after chemo-radiation which apparently tripled the survival time in patients.

*CHMP also gave Japanese Eisai (ESALY) a potential permit to sell ins epileptic seizure medication Fycompy for children over 7 and in some cases even younger. The earlier permit was for children over 12.

*UK drug major Glaxo GSK got potential approvals for Zejula polymerase inhibitor for treating advanced ovarian cancer more widely. The present rule only allows it for abut 20% of women afflicted. It is the first monotherapy PARP on the scene, a ply ADF ribaose polymerase inhibitor. It is take orally and already has expanded use allowed in the USA. 

*Chinese Beigene BGNE is up 1.9% because China buyers need a stock to buy to replace TikTok and WeChat. Fractional gains were also reported for ESALY and AZN. ( Zymeworks, where there was no CHMP news, rose 2.1%.) 

*The best show was by Roche which is OTC so you have to look for it. People did.

*Even Teva TEVA is up again today. 

*Compugen CGEN initially fell 0.18% today after hitting lofty levels. Israeli trading will only resume Monday because the Jewish New Year is feted for 2 days in Israel to keep the Orthodox happy. (The second day was added by diaspora rabbis uncertain of the timing of the New Moon in Israel which marks the new month and year. They never dared double the fast day of Yom Kippur, however, which falls on Sept 29 this year.) The bulls then took over and it rose over 2%.

Tech & Tel

*Vodafone VOD gained 1.2% in a down market thanks to its pending Saudi deal, selling its Egyptian telco.

*Mercado Libre MELI rose 1.7% after a rotten week because it is not in the same category as US tech high flyers. 

*Multichoice (MCHOY) of Africa is up another 0.2% today. It was spun off by Naspers of South Africa. NPSNY is up 1.2% in sympathy.

*Also up like Beigene is Nio NIO, the Chinese electric car maker, which has real cars and real sales. 

*Israeli Tower Semiconductors, TSEM, rose as its chips using US forms are legal for export.

*Canadian Solar (CSIQ) is up because one of our reporters is buying its high yielding green closed-end fund in Japan using a Fidelity account. I can't buy with TD Ameritrade. My rep at HSBC has left. CSIQ is being sued by unlisted Solaria for patent violations at the International Trade Commission. CSIQ owns a chunk of Tokyo:9284, a fund, which bought some of its Japanese solar plants. 

*Japanese NTT Docomo DCMYY is down 2.9%.

*Canada's BCE lost 1%.

*Finnish Nokia NOK is off 1.32%. 

Finance

*Dollar earner Standard Life Aberdeen, SLFPY, which manages lots of US closed-end funds, is up 2.5% today because it is a quicker way out of Scotland than even whisky. Scotland may wind up remaining in the EU while England leaves. I intend to persist in Scottish jokes despite the editors at TalkMarkets. This one quotes the song about Glasgow, Nancy Whisky.

*Swedish fund Investor a/b gained 2%. It is the quickest way out of the EU and the USA.

*AIA Group (AAIGF of Hong Kong) rose 1.2%, another quick escape. Hong Kong trading has now detached from that going on in Shanghai or Shenzhen. 

*Hang Seng Bank, HSNGF, is up 0.0131 cents. 

*Banco Santander SAN lost 3.33% today.

*Japan funds and banks are up to applaud the new government. It may not last. Mitshubishi (MSBHF) gained 0.06%.