Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

*Gold is up today on inflation fears here and so is our Kirkland Lake gold mine share, KL. And foreign currencies are mostly up by single-digit amounts except for Swiss francs which are up 1.6%. In its 2022 market outlook, Morgan Stanley warns against US share risks but also warns against owning gold. It expects US indexes to fall 5% next year.

KL was also boosted because a second institutional shareholder voted for its sale of some mines to its new partner Agnico-Eagle. It turns out the US retail investors do not have the right to vote their proxies for Canada shares. 

*Today Royal Dutch Shell RDS-B opted to end its 1890 receipt of the first two words of its name and become just plain Shell, and to move its main listing to London. We already own the UK variant because it avoids a tax on dividends you have to pay for royal shares. Ours are B, not A. Our shares gained 2.35 percent all the same. The Hague then offered to remove the tax if Shell remains a half-Dutch firm. BP which is already British only rose too. The US will bar drilling for oil in Indian territory under a ruling by Biden today.

*Singapore's Temasek fund will cut its stakes in Chinese firms because of the Beijing crackdown, which bodes well for South Korean Coupang, which rose 4.3% today. CPNG here. This in turn boosted Mercado Libre of Uruguay, MELI.

*AAI, insurer AAIGFof Hong Kong also rose on Singapore switching. 

*NIO shares fell along with Tesla although it was being bought by smart money and not sold. My state's pension plan for civil servants, the 3rd largest US pension plan, NY Common Retirement fund, doubled its stake in Nio. I bought more too. So did a large German bank.

Drugs

*The Dutch also suffered a new rise in hospitalization for covid-19 from the delta variant, despite good take up of vaccination. 

*TEVA rose over the weekend thanks to Israeli buying. Because it failed to keep quiet about its phase I trials, Compugen did not share in the rise. CGEN had good results and a 20% stake was purchased by Bristol Myers but its CEO reported unwisely about phase I trials of a new drug which was mixed.

*Galapagos won EU marketing rights for Jyseleca to treat ulcerative colitis. It is also called filgotinib here. GLPG.

*A Janssen Pharma sub of JNJ today said its Phase II trial of oral malvexian cut the risk of bleeding better than enoxaparin in a dose-dependent way in total knee replacement surgery. They also are partners with Bristol Myers, BMY, of which I own shares. 

*Japan's Takeda are up on its early dump of its otc drug business, sold to Blackstone and now looking smart as other pharma firms dump their consumer divisions too. TAK.

*Astra-Zeneca rose 1.85% here today after its bounce Friday in the UK over its mRNA injection for coronary bypass surgery. AZN.

Telcos and Utes

*BCE rallied despite it failing to stop Canada from considering the merger of Rogers and Shaw, both its competition.

*Algonquin Power was again rated outperform by RBC, Royal Bank of Canada. AQN.

*Vodafone is lobbying to be allowed to consolidate its portfolio of non-UK telcos. VOD.

TECH

*Chip-maker Qualcomm is up 2% after it was tipped by Jim Lebenthal with a $200 target price. QCOM.