There were 22 pages showing new highs sent by a tracker about Friday's stock market session. I list about the ones we owned and may have sold. The stock markets were in what I can only call a “meltup”. Note how different variants of the same stock performed differently, another sign of irrational markets. I removed any stock which rose because of results which came out. These are pure irrational exuberance rises.

• Veolia Environnement (VEOEY) on Friday broke to a yearly high of $28.36. Shares rose 0.46%.
• Roche Holding (RHHBY) shares were up 0.63% for the day, having made a 52-week high of $42.31.
• Roche Holding(OTC: RHHBF) shares hit a yearly high of $330.90. The stock traded up 3.26% on the session. This is to show you that higher-priced stocks rose more than cheaper ones.
• Novartis (OTC: NVSEF) shares broke to a new 52-week high of $95.20 on Friday. Shares of the company traded up 0.25%. However Novartis (NVS) stock on Friday broke to a yearly high of $95.75. Shares traded up 0.71%. Same stock, different venue.
• AstraZeneca (AZN) stock set a new 52-week high of $51.45 Friday morning. Over the session, the stock traded up 1.45%. We own AZN in our Investor A/B fund in Sweden. Cf below.
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) shares achieved a new 52-week high on Friday morning, hitting $48.15 with a daily change of up 1.54%.
• Zurich Insurance Group (OTC: ZURVY) shares hit $41.54 on Friday morning, setting a new 52-week high for a change of up 0.82%. Sold.
• Canadian Brookfield Asset Mgmt (BAM) shares were up 1.39% on Friday morning to hit a new 52-week high of $61.95. Sold.
• Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) stock set a new 52-week high of $67.09 Friday morning. Over the session, the stock traded up 0.25%. A US fave.
• Swiss Helvetia Fund (NYSE: SWZ) shares were up 0.93% on Friday to hit a new 52-week high of $8.62 for a change of up 0.93%. Sold 2 decades ago when its brilliant manager died.
• State Street (NYSE: STT) shares set a new yearly high of $83.81 this morning. The stock was up 3.33% on the session. It is a play on global shares as a custody bank.
• BAE Systems (OTC: BAESY) shares hit $32.61 on Friday morning, setting a new 52-week high for a change of up 1.07%. We sold on ethical grounds over the Yemen bombings. More below.
• Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares hit a yearly high of $167.40. The stock traded down 0.03% on the session. One of my golden oldies.
• Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) shares broke to $31.41 on Friday, setting a new 52-week high with a change of flat %. Forests for housing when housing recuperates
• Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX) shares reached a new 52-week high of $44.84 on Friday morning, moving up 2.58%. Russian internet part-owned by
• Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) shares broke to $108.68 on Friday, setting a new 52-week high with a change of up 0.51%. Another Investor A/B holding.
• Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) shares achieved a new 52-week high on Friday morning, hitting $345,702.40 with a daily change of up 0.76%. Just to show you that this was a big bang.
• LVMH (OTC: LVMHF) stock set a new 52-week high of $484.46 Friday morning. Over the session, the stock traded up 0.58%.
• Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) shares were up 0.37% on Friday to hit a new 52-week high of $338.47 for a change of up 0.37%. This is my largest US shareholding.
• Galapagos (NASDAQ: GLPG) shares reached a new 52-week high of $228.14 on Friday morning, moving up 1.31%. We sold too soon.
• Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ: BLDP) shares hit a new 52-week high of $11.33. The stock traded up 4.88% on the session. Sold ages ago in Canada.
• Atlantica Yield (NASDAQ: AY) shares achieved a new 52-week high on Friday morning, hitting $27.92 with a daily change of up 0.71%. We own this one indirectly.
• Alimentation Couche-Tard (OTC: ANCUF) stock Friday broke to a yearly high of $34. Shares traded up 0.38%. Canada gas stations retailer was sold.
• Mexico Fund (NYSE: MXF) shares set a new 52-week high of $14.99 on Friday, moving up 0.94%. The rival to our Mexican Equity & Income Fund which didn't pop.
• Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE: RCL) shares were up 0.31% on Friday morning to hit a new 52-week high of $135.06. A key holding of Herzfeld Caribbean Fund, CUBA, sold.
• NEW GERMANY FUND (NYSE: GF) stock hit a yearly high price of $15.90. The stock was down 0.25% for the day. We sold 3 years ago on the poor German economy.
• Fibra Uno Administracion (OTC: FBASF) shares hit a new 52-week high of $1.70. The stock traded up 4.85% on the session. We own this Mexican REIT.
• Tencent Holdings (OTC: TCTZF) shares were down 0.48% for the day, having made a 52-week high of $53.31. We exited last year.
• Ping An Insurance (Group) (OTC: PNGAY) shares set a new yearly high of $25.44 this morning. The stock was up 3.62% on the session. We switched to AAIGF to be less in China.
• ABERDEEN EMERGING MARKETS (AMEX: AEF) shares broke to $7.99 on Friday, setting a new 52-week high with a change of up 0.88%. A recent remake of our Chile fund.
• Eaton Vance Tax-Mgd Glbl (NYSE: EXG) shares were up 0.17% on Friday morning to hit a new 52-week high of $9.13. We own this fund.
• Burberry Group (OTC: BURBY) shares broke to a new 52-week high of $30.82 on Friday. Shares of the company traded flat. I pondered this stock a year ago in my blog voting nay.
• NICE (NASDAQ: NICE) shares hit a yearly high of $180.91. The stock traded down 1.06% on the session.
• Ferrari (NYSE: RACE) shares broke to a new 52-week high of $174.99 on Friday. Shares of the company traded up 0.09%. I sold RACE along with Fiat Chrysler after the spinoff by FCAU.
• STMicroelectronics (OTC: STMEF) shares were up 1.73% for the day, having made a 52-week high of $27.87. A Franco-Italian golden oldie we used to own.

The reporting stock which fell was Dutch Antillean Schlumberger Ltd although to be fair SLB crept up earlier before it reported. Brent crude oil is up again today at $65.59/barrel, up 1.15%. Gold fell 0.05%.

Friday saw bitcoin gain 2.62% but today it fell 3.11%.

Friday also saw new highs for stock indexes from France, Switzerland, Euro countries. I published this list to show that there is a heap of irrationality in booming stock markets, and also to show that there is a lot of buying of global stocks whose names are well known or tipped by brokers. Not ones that people have never heard of. My own theory is that the oddball F shares whose US prices cannot often be found are gaining more than the easier ADRs, perhaps because they are more accessible to institutional investors.

Today most Asian markets were playing catch-up—except for Hong Kong but not China. China Mobile, a stock we found wanting last year after everyone and his sibling recommended it, is back in clover, up 3.2% after Barron's tipped it again. Toshiba fell 4.2% in Tokyo after it revised its financial statements because of accounting irregularities as a sub in H1 2019.

A very strong currency today was the Japanese yen, a reaction to the slow-down in China's growth to barely over 6% and the mounting worries about the latest coronavirus from Wuhan. However European markets fell back from the boom boom of Friday. The International Monetary Fund published growth forecasts revised downward for the current year from earlier prognostications. The IMF still expects 3.3% worldwide growth this year and 3.4% next year but not in Germany or Spain.

The most important news is that the US and France have ended their feud over digital taxes which led the Administration to call for high duty on French wine, champers, cheese, and foie gras. Trump and Macron met in Davos to look after US foodies.

Emerging Markets

*Eduardo Garcia from Mexico City notes that Friday the Mexican peso hit a 16-month high against the US$, up 0.5% so only MPN 18.7 was needed to buy a buck. Lots of Mexican analysts started upping their forecasts but Eduardo thinks the key triggers were news that the US Treasury will again be issuing 20-yr bonds on international markets and good numbers for US housing starts, up 16.9% in Dec., the first rise since before Trump won the Presidency.

In my view the T-MEC US trade deal with Mexico and Canada to replace NAFTA was not the trigger—that's old news. Eduardo edits sentidocomun.com.mx with which trade ideas. He also noted that the AMLO government may make the Boeing787 presidential airplane the prize for a national lottery open to all citizens rather than trying to sell the plane.

*India reporter Abhimanyu Sisodia is to be congratulated because his most recent stock pick, Indian drugmaker Dr. Reddy's, hit a new 52-week high on the Indian National Stock Exchange (in New Delhi while the real biggie is in Bombay, still called that for the stock market.) He also noted that 66 other Indian shares hit a new high although he had not recommended our buying them. They are tracking Friday's boom on Wall Street.

I think it may be more important that PM Narendra Modi refused to let any of his staffers talk to Jeff Bezos at the capitalist conclave in Davos because the founder and head of Amazon owns the Washington Post where articles condemned discrimination against Muslims seeking citizenship rights. At the last Modi show at the World Economic Forum Bezos was got Indian red carpet treatment.

The Wall Street Journal writes that India and the US are working on a minimal bilateral trade agreement which may be part of Trump's baggage when he makes a state visit to India, restoring preferential tariff treatment for some exports to the US.

Abhimanyu notes “there are Muslims and Muslims”. “The BJP does its bit for Muslims as it was the first to vote against Israel at the UN. The Arabs investing in India can just command their people to shut up. The Americans cannot do this. Getting after Bezos is probably because Indian investors here told the government to do this. The retail game in India is downright dangerous. Modi was happy enough placing Indian security services at the command of the Emirates to nab an asylum-seeking princess.”

NY private equity giant KKR did not list India as a target economy to invest in, surprising the Financial Times Markets Insight today.

The worst bit of Indian news is the decision last week by its Supreme Court to force Vodafone Idea to pay tax and spectrum bills totaling $7 bn which not only is unfair but which shows favoritism to rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. The VOD India share fell 39% Friday. It is 45% owned by UK VOD which did not create provisions for the fines and late charges.

*Hang Seng Bank went up 1.8% in Hong Kong. It is owned by HSBC which is considered to have ceded to the Chinese over the accounts of Hong Kong dissidents, but it has the advantage of running the Hong Kong index, called the Hang Seng.

Developed Markets

*Britain will continue to ban US chlorine-treated chicken imports, despite the bromance between the two guys with funny blond hair, PM Boris Johnson and Pres. Trump. However, the UK cabinet is split over defense policy between the PM and Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid.

*BP plc plans to take a lead in green investments according to its new environmental boss Stephen Cook. “We will be a factory for guilding new businesses” to deal with climate change, he told the Daily Telegraph today.

*GKN, UK maker of driveline systems for cars will partner with Delta Electronics of Taiwan to create them for electric battery vehicles.

*Sly German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not do anything about risks from Chinese Huawei 5G systems despite push from Pres. Trump. First she wants the German coalition government to agree to call for a common EU policy at the next Brussels summit in March. So fare there is disarray within the Berlin government on what to do. She says a ban would be “isolationist” rather than a matter of security.

*Greencore may not sell to Americans but GNCGY rose all the same after the Trump-Macron deal on French gastronomical products. However British seltzer firm Fevertree fell 27% today.

Aviation

*BAE Systems, which we sold, is buying $2.2 bn in US military electronic systems, $1.925 bn from the Collins arm of United Technologies for a military GPS system, and airborne tactical radar from Raytheon for $275 mn. Both are for sale because of their planned merger. BAE rose in London.

*Bombardier was given a negative rating by S&P because it is unlikely to have any free cash flow at all this year.

*Embraer of Brazil is studying a single-aisle turboprop which it can make with Boeing. Frida has to sign on. The last time I tried switching from Bombardier to Embraer she vetoed it.

*Airlease, a Boeing customer, says it should drop the MAX line of planes altogether. Meanwhile, Airbus will create a platform airlines can use to protect price cuts in tickets from affecting their profits.

Drugmakers

*AstraZeneca filed a supplemental New Drug Application with the US FDA over Lymparza to cover metastatic prostate cancer with deleterious gemline or somatic homologous recombination repair mutations which progressed after treatment. Priority review means it will come out next quarter of this year. This is in addition to the new orphan drug designations for liver cancer treatments infinzi and tremenzubab.

*GlaxoSmithKline under its new $300 mn partnership with 23andMe, the gene profiling firm, will soon pick a drug target based on genetic information 23 gets by gene tests for about 10 million paid and a much smaller number of unpaid volunteer customers. Their data may lead to their becoming part of a trial of a new drug by the end of this year. The duo just licensed Spanish dermatology drug firm Almirall last week at the JPMorgan health care conference in San Francisco and CEO Emma Walmsley told the Financial Times that her goal is to speed up drug finds. Other deals were signed with two UofCal developers of the CRISPR gene slicing technology to create a laboratory for genomics research and a partnership with Verily, the life science arm of Alphabet (Google) aiming at bio-electronics, mini implantable devices to treat asthma or arthritis. GSK also opened an artificial intelligence operation in California. Jefferies rates GSK a buy and it yields 4% according to Value Line.

*NMC Health plc, the target of Muddy Waters (Carson Black) short selling in the Middle East medical facilities market, has hired Louis Freeh, former US FBI director to do a report on what he found. After the report came out several local fatcats bailed out too. NMC is listed in London but run from the Emirates. Despite Mr. Freeh, the share lost 3.69% in London today.

*The US Center for Disease Control has removed its warnings against vaping in general but now warns against vaping THC, the cannabis psychoactive thickened with vitamin E acetate, sometimes fatal.

Banksters

*VMUK fell another 1.4% today to GBX171.7. It cut off US trading and is suffering for it and for paying its CEO an extraordinary £5 mn salary.