It Will All End In Tears
Both Trump and Biden have relatives under investigation for accepting what looks like bribes from outfits trying to influence the big man in the White House or the Veep house. The Trump intermediary was first son-in-law Kushner, husband of Ivanka, who got UAE funding for a bankrupt family NY office tower. The Biden intermediary was his son Hunter who got Ukrainian, Chinese, and Romanian money laundering loot he did not declare for taxes, and the president elect's brother James who got money for bailing out a bankrupt hospital group, Americore where James may have been a principal. What this country needs is an orphan childless president without any relatives.
Airbnb ABNB went ballistic today, its stock price more than doubling from the jacked-up price set last night. It will all end in tears.
Tonight is the start of Chanukah because tomorrow is the 25th of Kislev, a Hebrew month. (Jewish days begin the eve before.) If that number sounds familiar there is a reason for it. Chanukah runs for 8 days and ends on the 18th of December, a week before Christmas, not for 12. It is a moveable feast.
As hopes for a Brexit deal sink, the pound sterling is down, giving a boost to UK stocks earning foreign currency while Wall Street is again downing the Dow. The European Union published plans for a failure of the negotiations which end Sunday. The unemployment figures are distressing. More news:
Funds
*Korea Fund is switching from Allianz management to JP Morgan because (according to the proxy to approve the switch) Allianz is halting fund management operations. As shareholders we were never told this, but only noted that the AZSEY ADR was delisted and harder to track here. It also canceled its share buyback which ADR owners were eligible for. JP Morgan is building its asset management prowess. Korea has banned short stocks sales which will hurt KF returns. KR rose to nearly $38.97.
*The news also boosted Standard Life Aberdeen, which manages closed-end funds here, by 2.65%. Scottish SLFPY earns dollars.
*Japan Small Cap Fund, JOF, chopped its dividend payable Dec. 17 to 34¢, down 0.13%.
*Harry Geisel's recommendation, Atlantica Yield, was echoed by envionmental analysts at CDP. The UK fund distributes return of capital from green energy, is up 0.85%, but still below our basis, thanks to being British. It is a part-owner of AQN, Algonquin Power & Utilities of Canada, down 0.25% to $15.98. AQN was rated outperform by Royal Bank of Canada today. More green stocks below.
*Yield fund Aberdeen Asia Pacific, FAX, will pay an annual dividend of 0.275/share. It fell 0.9%.
*Mexican shopping mall REIT Fibra Uno, FBASF, is up 1.5%.
*Sampo Oij SAXPY is up 3%. Investor is flat.
Drugs
*The ones we missed. Australian MW Immuntep, PRRUF-Q, soared 344.44% on positive results from a phase II trial of its eftilagimod-alpha plus chemo in breast cancer in younger women. Greenwich Life Sciences, GLSI, gained 2000% yesterday on promising breast cancer treatment news plus 20% today.
*A new Japanese application for trials of its Alzheimer's drug aducanumab planned by Biogen boosted the share price of its local partner Eisai. ESALY rose 2%. It was viewed as ineffective by the US advisors to the FDA but the earlier trials showed some benefit from the drug. There may be renewed US FDA trials in Q1 2021. ESALY jumped 3.08% here. Takeda (TAK) is up 0.53% in sympathy.
*Novo Nordisk bought US Emisphere Technologies for $1.35 bn. ET's Procyon systems encapsulates insulin for treating diabetes orally with GLP-1 pills, not jabs. NVO has gained about 20% this year but fell on the news that it had bought its long-time licencee. I assume the Danes know what they are up to.
*Our newest drug pick, Canadian Aurinia Pharma, AUPH, from Martin Ferera, gained 3% today.
*Israeli drug firm BiolineRX gained 2.75%, hitting $2.43, a Chanukah gift. BLRX. However, Compugen, CGEN, lost 1.2% to $12.42 here. TEVA lost another 0.89% to $10.55.
*Being British and earning dollars, GSK, Glaxo rose 2.5% in UK trading but lost some of that here.
*Spanish Grifols which works on cell surface markers, gained 1.5%+ here today because trials of COVID-19 drugs are using these to check on immunity. GRFS was rated hold by a robo-analyst today while 4 human analysts say it will gain 83.7% from today (at some unspecified date.) I'll take humans.
*Zymeworks CEO Ali Tehrani sold 48,000 shares for $56.16 per. ZYME is another Martin pick.
*Dr. Reddy's is up 0.72%. RDY listed its ADRs in Gujarat's National Stock Exchange in India.
Dirty Stocks
*Oil prices rose because two Iraq wells were attacked. An anonymous writer warns Schlumberger Ltd, maker of oil and gas drilling systems, will again cut its dividend. Raymond James rates it buy with a target price of $98, raised from $60. SLB is up 1.5%.
*Royal Dutch Shell B, RDS-B, gained 2.05% here despite the walkout by green zealots who want to cut its oil and refining businesses faster.
*BP plc, a British dollar earner, rose 2.7% here.
*Bonus stock Cabot Oil & Gas was upped to buy from hold by Siebert Williams with a $21.3 target price. It is $17.41 now. Siebert is no longer a woman-headed brokerage. COG extracts shale in Eagle Ford (TX) and Marcellus (PA).
*Bonus stock Earthstone Energy, ESTE, is recuperating from a rotten Q3 and gained 5.12% today.
Green Stocks
*Orbia Advance Corp is up nearly $2 to $5, up 49.25%. Orbia, trading as MXCHY is crafting a global position in agricultural water-saving drip feeds.
*Cemex invested in US unlisted SoilConnect to cut carbon emissions from sales and transport of construction materials. Mexican CX is rose nearly 4% on its increasing green credentials.
*Energy Fuels rose 9.58% today after crashing Weds. The uranium mining company discovered rare earths in its Utah mine. UUUU, very volatile, is, back near its high. The US has a fund for buying uranium and rare earths from friendly countries like Canada.
*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, gained 1.7% today. It makes solar panels in China.
*China's NIO rose 2.3% because it is not Tesla TSLA which also gained.
*Platinum prices are up 20% since the end of Oct. The metal is used to clean exhaust pipes. Johnson Matthey is up a tiny bit more today. JMPLY processes and sells platinum group metals.
Tech & Tel
*Mercado Libre is on a roll. Every time a US internet giant is hit with rules MELI of Argentina gains. Today it is up 2.25%.
*Trip.com Group TCOM regained part of its loss yesterday, up 0.9%, because it is not a US travel booker banned by China, but a rival.
*Qualcomm QCOM is up another 0.65%.
*As I reported already, Ericsson and Nokia tested a system using mobile network to map corridors for drone flights. Tipped today by a bigger website than mine, both shares are down. Marketwatch tips Amazon to buy the Application Programming Interface from Swede ERIC and Finn NOK.
*Reverse vending machine and sorting firm Tomra TMRAY of Norway is up 0.6%.
Banksters
*Mitsubishi gained 1% but Sumitomo lost 0.68%. MSBHF and SMFG alternate.
*Bank of Nova Scotia BNS is up 0.5% today.
*Banco Santander SAN is down 3.33%.
Good article, thanks Vivian.
What the USA needs now is a candidate with both brains and integrity. My suggestion is to have another ballot choice declaring "No Confidence, NONE of the above!" That is because those who are both really smart and very honest are seldom found in politics. And even those who would be OK would probably not pass the media microscope test. So the stock market is still looking sort of good, but the emotional drivers are still unstable and what happens next is not obvious.
My prediction is that all of the stimulus money will ultimately lead to inflation that benefits only a few.
Some of the "stimulus" money will lead to people eating and keeping a roof over their heads a little longer during the greatest, most desperate humanitarian crisis in American history. Some small businesses may also escape bankruptcy.
Now, you were saying something about inflation? Got any travel plans for Christmas?
Certainly a fair portion of that stimulus money will do a lot of good. No argument about that. But also, iit is going to bid up prices, which is the same as inflation. If there existed a scheme to only send the money to those in need then that would be the very best way to go.
AND, the fact that the intended and actual effect does provide a lot of good does not remove some of the (not so good) side effects.
I suspect there will be a lot of fraud. But there are always people who will take advantage as there is no way to differentiate between who really needs the help and who doesn't. But without this aid, many will end up homeless and going hungry.