Today's blog is late because I didn't get my Financial Times emails and spent hours on the web to get access. I gave up. This is a fraud since I pay for my daily which is supposed to be accessible on-line if I don't get my daily pink paper, at least under US or UK law. I have no idea if it is fraud under Japanese law. She was in the USA.

The nearly grown-up behavior of the two vice-presidential candidates last night was something of a relief after the Trump performance last week. But I noted that Michael Pence often held forth about something else rather than answering the question, mostly about allegations of left-wing tax hikes on ordinary Americans coming under Biden. It didn't matter that Harris said nobody earning under $400,000 would be hit. He also said there will be negative impact from carbon-cutting on business and employment and pooh-poohed reports on racism by his boss, by saying Trump has Jewish grandchildren. They are not Black.

Harris also evaded one question: whether the Biden Administration would try “packing the court” if the right-wing anti-abortion Notre-Dame professor gets to replace Justice Ruth Ginsburg. At one point Harris insisted on completing a response when the moderator tried to cut her off which the male watching the debate with me, my husband, said might hurt her.

With Pres. Trump refusing to debate next week virtually, last night may have been the last. He told Maria Bartilmeo that an on-line But of course he does change his mind often, which may be a result of having taken steroids to block his COVID-19 infection, known to induce mental side-effects.

Today Nancy Pelosi said there will be no stimulus money for airlines unless there is a general stimulus bill rather than a piece-meal one. Markets here fell. Another uppity lady. After the rush to grant Nobel Prizes to women, mostly scientists, over the past few days I think my husband has to give in.

More for paid subscribers follows:

Tech & Tel

*IBM, a golden oldie which is spinning off its managed infrastructure service business, rose 7.3% today taking other tech higher. It may consider selling the business outright.

*Chip foundry Tower Semiconductor, TSEM, gained 3.1%. It is Israeli-American.

*Nokia transferred more than 436,000 of its shares to its “equity incentive plan” without charge. It didn't report which employees were granted the stock and what their rights to sell it might be. The distribution was promised in Feb. but held up by COVID-19. In the US such plans are for executives but I have no idea what the Finnish variant may mean. More on finance in Europe below.

NOK rose 0.75%. JP Morgan tipped telecoms in Europe today. Swedish Ericsson is up 0.61%; ERIC.

*Vodafone rose 1.68% to $14.46 after jumping even more at the opening. VOD.

*Orbia Advance Corp (MXCHF) hit $4.63/sh after a Mexico water firm was boosted, a gain of $1.37.

Finance

*CBOE Global CBOE which offers puts and calls has become a favorite with hedge funds according Insider Monkey writer Dabasis Suha. I wrote it up and await a reprint from Talk Markets before I buy more. The share is up 1.27% today for obvious reasons but is still down from the start of the week.

*BLX, Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio of Panama is up 3.03% to $13.57 on hopes for Biden.

*Finnish Sampy oij is up nearly 1%. SAXPY.

*Banco Santander is rising in Spain, up 1.75% and over $2 at last. Its prefs SAN are at $223.8.

*Hong Kong's AIA Group, AAIGF is the lider in this sector, up 4.8%. near $11 (US) its high YTD..

Utes

*Veolia Environnement VEOEY of France is up 1.31% as it moves to take over Suez, a rival ute powerhouse.

*German EON.SE, EONGY, rose 1.3% to $11.6 and Canadian Algonquin, AQN 0.7% to US$15.53

Drugs

*Teva TEVA is rose to $9.9 at the opening and is still up over 4% now. The curse may be being lifted as other drug companies are facing US price controls. Israeli Compugen CGEN gained 2.4% to $17.8.

*Danish Novo Nordisk NVO gained 4% after it boosted its guidance for this year.

*Dr. Reddy's RDY jumped 3% in the UK to $70.52 and it is at $70.25 now here. Namaste Abhimanyu.

*Moderna MRNA will not enforce mRNA patents for vaccine makers during the pandemic, hurting its share price despite the Trump treatment. This boosted Astra Zeneca AZN by 1.2% and Grifols GRFS of Spain by 0.5%.

*Glaxo sub ViiV presented new data backing its Dovato for treating adults with HIV, using fewer drugs with zero viral failure. GSK will report on Q3 Oct. 28 at 8 am my time. GSK gained 1.33%.

*Japan's Eisai, ESALY, is up 1.6% to $90.46. More Japan below.

*Beigene BGNE is back over $300 despite heavy insider selling so far in Oct. It will work with BioAtla on conditionally active bioactive proteins to reduce toxicity in checkpoint inhibitors against cancer. The usual up front and milestones were not released as BioAtla is not a public company. The San Diego-Beijing firm after a July $72.5 mn capital increase, is owned by funds and a sub of Pfizer, PFE.

Materials and Energy

*BofA (Merrill) cut its Kirkland Lake Gold target price to C$85 from $88. KL nonetheless rose 1.5% to US$$ 48.4 on the NYSE today. The chop is because of the lower gold price.

*Schlumberger (SLB) is up 1.7% on news that OPEC thinks peak oil demand will not hit until 2040 and new refining capacity in developing countries of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East will grow until 2045. It also didn't hurt that hopes for a stimulus payment. Hurricane Delta led benchmark US oil prices up 3% to $42.57/bbl (Brent) and $40.45 (WTI). Both drillships and refineries are closed.

*Precious metals refiner Johnson-Matthey of Britain, JMPLY, is up 0.8% on the US or UK risk.

*Berenberg Brokerage was skeptical about whether BP plc can gain from its plans to transition away from oil and gas stations a decade after it first began is Beyond Petroleum moves. The issue is not whether BP will move into new sectors; it is whether it will make money from them. The brokerage cut its TP by over 5% on worries about debt and buybacks it may not be able to afford. BP is up 1.9%.

*Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B is up 2.1% to nearly $25, beating BP.

*Norwegian Tomra Systems, maker of recycling and sorting machines, is up 1.7% at $43.4. TMRAY.

*GE, another golden oldie is up over 4.45% topping my list to $6,6 and change.

*NIO of China was up .6% to $22.4 but fell because of China risk and is now down a bit from Weds.

Funds

*Standard Life Aberdeen, SLFPY, extended its buyback helping boost the insurer- fund manager.

*My note yesterday about Aberdeen Asia Pacific Fund FAX misspelled net asset value. Sorry.

*New Ireland Fund is up 2.3%. IRL is either reacting to hopes from talks over British exit or hopes from a Biden presidency.

*Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Japan hit $33.25 despite Japanese stocks falling. Japan Small Cap Fund, JOF, fell 1.16%. They are in different parts of the Tokyo market