Unlike Britain, the US rolled out its COVID-19 vaccine without naming the early recipients, maybe because there was no nurse or nursing home resident named William Shakespeare in Queens, a borough with a high immigrant population.

Value Line, which usually says to buy recommended stocks for growth and income, caused a shock wave today. It reported a surprise finding: that the median 18-month appreciation potential to the midpoint of the target price range for the stocks it writes about is just 4%. That is the lowest reading since it introduced this measure. The level at the start of 2020 was as high as 72%. 

Today hackers took down Google and were revealed to have also hit the US Treasury. There is no security on the web, no security in cellphones, no security in handbags, no security in stocks.

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More for subscribers follows from our companies. It is a big news day without reporting companies.

Drug stocks

*CureVac of Germany was today's corona-virus newsmaker. CVAC started phase 3 trials of its cvncov vaccine in Europe and Latin America. CVAC gained 8% in pre-markets but its US share only rose4.6% to $123.5. We had too many Monday vaccine announcements lately. And how do you say cvncov?

*The other German vaccine hope stock, BioNTech, BNTX, fell on the news by 6.5%.

*After being misled by our Canada reporter regarding when Abcellera Biologics (ABCL) had come to market, last Thursday and not Friday, I have to inform you that the stock opened down nearly 9% from its Friday close to $53.99 on a very heavy volume. We paid $56.7261, not the most pricey trade Friday, but still one that never should have been touted by our Vancouver-based drug specialist. I reprinted his rocket which did not mention that it was a day late. He is unrepentant and insists it is a good buy, despite the drop, now to $51.2. His future articles will be vetted closely by your editor.

*Happily another recent biotech with antibody hopes, Aurinia Pharma of Israel, AUPH, gained 6.27% for a real reason. Read on.

*Over the weekend, AstraZeneca, in the past often a rumored takeover candidate, switched to being a buyer of a US drug small cap instead. It will pay $39 bn to buy Alexion (ALXN) at $175/sh. Today AZN fell 6.7% at the open. No less than 3 analysts hastily corrected their target price for ALXN, a bit late. Moreover, SVB analyst Andrew Berens warned that ALXN faced an expiring patent on its bestseller drug Oiliris but thought AZN will be able to deal with it by shifting them to an AZN antibody-drug Ultomiris. AZN now is down 6%.

*BioLine RX (BLRX, of Israel) rose 18%, a Jewish lucky number, to $3.15 at the opening. Contrary to reports this was not a year's high. But later it rose to $3.4318, really a high.

*Fellow Israeli small cap Compugen (CGEN) gained 8.8 % in sympathy. Even Teva gained 1%.

*Beigene rose because of the latest Beijing crackdown on alleged Chinese credit rating fraud. BGNE is audited in the West and is up 1.8%.

*Dr. Reddy's RDY Aurigene sub will collect $12 mn for a cancer drug bought by US Exelixis.

*Zymeworks is up again over the hopes for Zandatamab against intestinal cancers. ZYME's lead conjugate from Ionic is now beging developed by EXEL, a US share I own.

*Grifols of Spain, GRFS, gained 1.44% on renewed interest in antigens.

*Japanese Eisai is up again on Alzheimer's drug hopes. ESALY will be running Biogen trials of Aducanimab in Japan for its US partner.

Banksters

*State Street Bank of Boston is in play because it is in talks with Union Bank of Switzerland over its asset management business for funds. It is a back office for many funds.

*CBOE Global Markets Inc, which runs options trading, gained 2.34% because CBOE is expected to gain from new SEC rules on requiring public data feeds for retail investors on supply and demand for stocks. It pays out $1.68 in annual divvie tomorrow.

*Hopes for an orderly Brexit and Britain allowing banks to pay dividends boosted Spanish Santander. SAN.

*Sumitomi Mitsui SMFG rose 1.26% while Mitsubishi MSBHF gained 0.5%.

*AAIGF, AIA Asia Insurance Hong Kong, rose 5.4% because it is not audited by China.

Tech

*Mercado Libre hit a new 51-wk high of $1640 today, up 2%. MELI is the Latin American Amazon.

*Morgan Stanley again rated Qualcomm QCOM as overweight and the stock bounced up.

*Multichoice (MCHOY) gained 2.27%. Africa hand reporter Harry Geisel says they are good guys.

*Abhimanyu won. Nintendo (NTDOY) is a likely winner of the Xmas present race. It rose 3.8% today.

*Reverse vending machine stock Tomra Systems, TMRAY, gained 4.83%. It can sort plastic packaging, a menace to world oceans and fish.

Energy

*Both Algonquin Power & Utes and its part-owned high divvy low tax sub Atlantica Yield, rose smartly today after AQN announced it had bought 51% of a Texas coast windfarm for $600 mn. The seller was RWE of Germany. The duo will jointly buy 20 megaWatts of solar energy in Colombia which AQN's Romania-based international jv AA-GES is building for about $20 mn. AQN also made its 2020-21 Capital plan public, which will spend $9.4 bn to boost EPS bt 8-10% via new investments up 8-10% next year. EPS will rise to 71-76 cents next year. AY rose 1.44% but AQN only gained half that.

*Nio lost 2.4% on its secondary stock offering at $39/share but its price is well over that level at $40.97. It signed a coop accord with a sub of State Grid, the Chinese govt's electricity producer, to build 100 battery charging and swapping units next year. This is NIO's special sauce which I think will make its leased batteries a smart alternative to hanging around and charging owned batteries. They will be recharged during hours when electricity is in low demand. However other Chinese news then took NIO down. If this keeps up I may buy NIO back.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU, gained 7% on news that it will enter the rare earth materials business based on its find in Utah and a new 3-yr supply accord. This is with Chemours for Georgia monazite sands, from which it will extract the rare earth starting next quarter. Chemours will get back the uranium. Among other uses, rare earths are needed for electric vehicles and wind turbine alternative energy. It is our top winner today, now only up 5.3%.

*Fellow Canadian Cameco suspended uranium mining at Cigar Lake because of an outbreak of corona-virus there. CCJ stock gained 3.23% on the news.

*Canada Solar, which is really Chinese, CSIQ, rose 1.7% because its settled a class-action lawsuit.

*Exxon XOM is joining the run to low carbon fuel which pushed down our 3 early good guys, BP plc, Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B, and Schlumberger Ltd SLB.

Funds

*SPDR Gold Fund is down 0.5% along with gold. Indians are not buying gold these days but are investing in the misnamed local Burger King which doubled on its Mumbai IPO. Despite its name, Indian Burger King doesn't sell hamburgers because Hindus don't eat beef (except for some military castes.)

*Aberdeen Asia Pacific Income Fund, FAX, will pay a 3¢ divvy, yielding 7.6%. It fell 0.13%.

*Its sister firm Aberdeen Global Income Fund, FCO, will pay 7¢, yielding 11.1%.

*New Ireland Fund will pay out 23.77¢ Dec. 30 to shareholders of record Dec. 18. IRL rose 2.15%.

*Japan Small Cap fund will pay 12.81¢ in ordinary income and 21.6¢ in long-term capital gains Dec. 28 to shareholders of record Dec. 17. The share is up from harvesting to a new full-year high.

*Taiwan Fund, which I bought last week to bug Beijing, is up 0.4%. The share is closed but you can still buy it and trade it, and collect divvies. Insiders have been does so.

*KF, Korea Fund, half sold, which will bid for up to 25% of the shares out by the end of Sept. 2024, if the fund's NAV doesn't match or exceed the index level from last June 30, is up some more. It is managed by Allianz of Germany which is exiting the fund business, our main reason for cutting our exposure. South Korea is a hard market to buy into because it limits ADRs and foreign direct purchase in Seoul.

*Alliance Bernstein Global High Income Fund is up 1¢ despite its ex-div of Dec. 3, payable Friday. Its yield is 6.78%. AWF.

*Westen Asset Emerging Markets Debt Fund, EMD, now part of Templeton, is running a managed distribution policy that boosts its share price.

Why so much fund news? There is almost no fund pricing in Barron's this week because there is so much fund news.