Today I managed to lock myself out of my laptop which is why this blog is very late. Talk about stupid. I am still being barraged by documentation from the NY State Dept of Labor about a claim I never filed for unemployment insurance. I think the crook who stole my wallet in late Nov. is trying to get something from the government with social security card without a number (the current model) but the thing only works for me. So I am being asked to declare that I lost my job during 2020 which never happened. It was not a profitable year for my company, of course, what with the lockdown and the idiotic destruction of all my data by the Bluehost web hosting site. But I worked even if I did not have the means to pay myself, as I own the company.

Today is the 100^th anniversary of the first Bat-Mitzvah celebration, by Judith Kaplan, daughter of Reconstructionist Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan. My daughter-in-law's grandmother Gertude was one of the attendees, she told me years later when they both attended a service before the marriage of our son and her granddaughter. Reconstructionists are the smallest group of Jewish congregations in America.

Today markets are spooked by the rising 10-year treasury interest rate by 11 basis points to 1.75%, its highest level since pre-covid-19 Jan. 2020. The 30-year note now pays out over 2.5%. Higher yields mean bonds are cheaper and crowd out stock purchases. The Fed also lowered its forecast for unemployment this year to 4.5%, vs 6.2% in Feb. Yet the number of new filed jobless claims last week was 770,000, 10% over the forecast. The threat is stagflation, the worst of all possible outcomes. This is a problem not for foreign bourses but for ours.

image source

Much news today because I am so late with my blog starting only in the afternoon.

*Nokia forecast that it would have net sales of euros 20.6-21.8 bn in the full year '21 and grow faster than the market overall in 2023. Its operating margins this year will be 7-10% and in 2 years 10-13%. Return on invested capital will be 10-15% this year and 15-20% in 2023. It also may resume its dividend this year depending on results, said CEO Pekka Lundmark. NOK fell 5.5% on this forecast which of course is unenforceable. Its share is one of the rare foreign ones in the on further unwinding of the silly stocks. It is the only ADR that was affected by on-line crowd followers.

*Azure Power Global of Mauritius, which sells to India, produced a slide show for investors on Mar. 1 posted on Seekingalpha.com today but not accessible without a subscription. India's renewable energy is growing like a topsy along with power demand. It is the 2^nd largest solar energy supplier in India and its compound annual growth rate is phenomenal. But the promo did no good as the stock only briefly hit yesterday's high of $30.34 and fell to $29.11 at 2 pm. AZRE.

*Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure, AY, a UK share, lost 4.32% today. It is a holding of our Canada ute Algonquin and recommended for tax-free yields by Harry Geisel. AQN lost 3.34%.

*Ormat Tech, the Israeli-owned Nevada geothermal energy producer, crashed today because of Israeli investigations of board member Ms. Ravit Barnix and its counsel and compliance officer Hezi Kattan, both over their actions at another company where they worked earlier, Shikun & Binui, listed only in Israel. Counsel Kattan, who in Hebrew would be called a gonif, continues to be paid by ORA although they have resigned. A short seller, Hindenburg Research, revealed that the US DoJ required a settlement from ORA over bribery, fraud, and drug money laundering by the duo at their former employer in countries where ORA also operates: Kenya, Honduras, and Guatemala. ORA is listed in Tel Aviv and on the NYSE and has a market cap of $5 bn.

Druggies

*Dr. Reddy's lost another 2.6% today in the premarket after losing 3.1% yesterday. Abhimanyu Sisodia writes: “RDY lost about $125 bn in market cap because India faces a 2^nd covid-19 round. In the US it recalled 234,710 500 tablet and 10,044 90-tablet bottles of Alovastin calcium to prevent heart disease; and 16,449 bottles of progesterone (hormone) capsules under an FDA enforcement.” The reason for the recalls was not given by our India reporter but it probably was contamination.

The good news is that “RDY is partnering with Russia to produce Sputnik V covid-19 vaccines which passed phase III trials to cut pandemic growth from 20,000 new cases/day.”

*The EU finally stopped its vendetta against Astra-Zeneca's covid-19 jab with an official ruling that it doesn't create bloodclot risks. However, the EU chief wants to stop exports of virus inoculations. AZN fell 1.04%.

*South Korea's SK Biosciences did an IPO raising $1.3 bn and more than doubled on day one. It is using the AZN jab.

*Glaxo has dosed its first patient in the phase III trial for its twice-annual injection against severe eosinophilic asthma.

*Novo Nordisk will test semaglutide for non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis with Gilead Sciences of the US in phase 2b trials. This boosted French Genfit SA, GNFT which is also working on NASH by 0.21%, to my surprise. It also led to a surprising 1% drop in NVO of Denmark.

*Japanese Takeda, TAK, was among drug firms to lose value today. Another was Novocure, NVCR, which late my cousin did not sign up for when urged to. Novartis, NVS, lost 0.28%; Roche, RHHBY lost3.23%m.

*However led by Teva up 0.7% other drug-makers gained at the opening: Enlivex, ENLV by 0.3%; Zymeworks, ZYME, up 0.25; Compugen, CGEN, up 2.38%; BiolineRX, BLRX up 1%; Bristol-Myers up 1.25%; Eisai, ESALY, up 0.13%; Grifols, GRFS, up .36%; GSK, up 0.81%; Merck up 0.85%. The logic seems to be that when yields go up, this hurts tech companies but not drug firms. La Later in the day TEVA fell alongside because of high levels of insider sales, however.

Finance

*Cosan, CSAN, rose 1.12% today to $17.23 and we have been given new shares to cover the offshore and logistics arm now integrated into the parent. I will need an accountant to work out the gain.

*Lazard, LAZ, is up over 0.8% to $45 and a financials performer. That is another sector that wins when interest rates go up.

*Scotiabank gained 0.14% today. BNS.

*Standard Life Aberdeen allegedly gained 9.14% today. It didn't. It is just that SLFPY data is not being updated by TD Ameritrade. I am reluctant to put in a sell order without a price to guide me. I put in a partial order and found that the share gained 2.5% to $15.76. This is not the way to my heart.

*Swedish Investor A/B, IVSBF, gained 1.21% today. Sampo Oyj of Finland, SAXPY, fell 0.86%. The latter uses the euro whereas Sweden does not.

*Kirkland Lake Gold's low valuation was called insane by a seekingalpha.com writer named Gold Mining Bull. I do not cover any investment advisor who is anonymous. But I own KL. Another gold tip came from Steve Calhoun who manages Fidelity's Select Gold Portfolio, not too surprising as it goes with the job. He says that a deliberate rise in interest rates by the fed or favoring austerity by pols would be needed for him to go bearish on gold. The barbarous relic rose 0.35% today.

*Japanese Mitsubishi Finance, MSBHF, gained 1.1%. Sumitomo Mitsui, SMFG, gained 4.47%.

Tech

*Cemex is developing carbon-neutral in a plant in Germany backed by EU and German funding, with the aim of cutting carbon emissions by 55% by 2030 from levels of 1990, and to zero from concret by 2050, writes Eduardo Garcia in sentidocomun.co.mex. This is not as ambitious as it should be. CX.

*Naspers lost 0.45% today. Prosus, its spinoff, lost only 0.17%.

*Mercado Libre lost 4.2% after opening down 2.97%. MELI needs low interest rates to make money with Latin internet shoppers.

*Coupang, CPNG of Korea, gained 2.66%. It also needs low interest rates but Korea is setting them for Koreans now.

*Chinese NIO, the maker of electric vehicles, fell because electric cars are not likely to dominate markets in the current decade.

Energy

*The IEA in Paris said that 8 mn bbls/day of refining capacity has to be shut in to reach the target of utilization to over 80%, but so far only 3.8 mn bbls/d has been taken down, less than harlf the target. It says that demand is sinking with the energy transition to renewables for vehicles and recycling for petrochemicals which means more cuts are needed.

Crude oil prices are back below $60 (just) in the US.

*Schlumberger Ltd will build a lithium extraction plant in Nevada as part of its new energy initiative, which will double its spending on li to $30 mn. It will go live this year. SLB is Dutch Antillean.

*Energy Fuels rose at the opening after it launched an audio press release about its rare earth production plans but later UUUU lost 5.5% because there was nothing new in the release except that you didn't need to know how to read to get the message. The prices of rare earths are up hugely as they now come from filthy Chinese factories.

*PPL, a US ute I own, is selling its UK power stations to the National Grid there. It will use part of the payout of £7.88 bn (about $11 bn) which includes assuming £6.6 bn of debt to buy Naragansett Electric Co for $3.88 bn.

*Ecopetrol of Colombia lost 2.52% today. We sold EC over its ambitions to bail out the government's pipeline empire.