A panic attack yesterday after I ate a fortune cookie that didn't have a fortune paper inside it led me to continue to worry about lower stock prices. And today the DJIA opened up 200 points so I figured maybe it was because of my local Chinese carryout is not getting enough business in the lockdown, so they were using unstuffed cookies.

While we have some lovely gains, there is still risk out there. Harvey Katz, the macro pundit at ValueLine, today wrote that “the path of least resistance is likely higher” for H2, so maybe he expects a real rebound. I am not sure. ValueLine continues to plug two of my big US holdings, CBOE Global Markets and Thermo Electron (TMO) neither of which I bought because of ValueLine but of course that puts me into the top ten at the weekly.

The H1 rise in US markets was based on hope for an end to lockdowns. But now in addition to new variants of the virus, we are seeing really serious global warming flood and fire disasters: on the US West Coast, in Germany, Belgium, and Holland; in Zhengzhou on the Yellow River in China; on the New York Subway system. Underground pipelines, rivers, dams, reservoirs, are leaking all over the world.

Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash

So I remain pessimistic. The next time I get carry-out I will ask them to only give me stuffed fortune cookies and if they have none left, to just skip the cookies.

We have a lot of corporate news. Verizon VZ, which I own along with everyone else, gained 1.5% today after its sales and profits beat forecasts.

Miners

*Chilean mining company Antofagasta is one of our exotic plays, tipped by Frida Ghitis who visited the company. Today it gained 5.15% after reporting on its Q2. Its copper production fell 8% in the quarter because of lower recovery and grades at two mines. Copper sales fell more sharply, down 11%. However gold output rose 4% in Q2 compared to prior year. The Chilean election has been won by a socialist who defeated the daughter of a prior right-wing president but some of the extreme positions espoused by his followers have already been watered down according to UK brokerage Peel Hunt. It told the WSJ that the Chilean senate's discussions over resetting mining royalty rates were much wider-ranging than the bill presented to the senate by the lower house, so the final bill will have lower royalties than what had been feared. The stock, whose primary listing is in London for historic reasons, rose 3.4% there but is much higher in the USA. Peel Hunt said both copper and gold prodction in the quarter were below its forecasts at 178,000 metric tonnes and 61,000 oz because of maintenance operations. It rates ANFGF a hold but the consensus is a buy/hold.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU of Canada, finally reacted to its deal with unlisted International Consolidated Uranium reported during the pessimistic Monday market. Our stock is up about 10%. It also will be refining rare earths found with uranium in Europe, helping break China's dominance of the

Energy

*Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc, AY, a fund we own two ways, directly and via our Canadian ute Algonquin AQN got an updated forecast for the current quarter. It is expected to earn 40.3 cents now, up sharply from a prior estimate of 27¢, according to the latest consensus. It is now a buy/hold rather than a mere hold as well. Algonquin B preferreds, AQN-B, our most recent buy, is up again. 

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, rose 4.5% to $39.9. It produces solar panels in China but not in Uighur areas.

*Schlumberger Ltd, SLB, of Curaçao, rose 4.73% on expected higher oil prices despite higher output from Abu Dhabi.

*Royal Dutch Shell B and BP plc, RDS-B, and BP, rose 3.5% for the same reason and because Shell is appealing against the carbon target imposed by the Netherlands..

*Plug Power (PLUG) gained 2.53%. Cameco (CCJ) rose 4%. Uranium stocks are up because a new Canadian Sprott Uranium Exchange Fund is planned along with a new Canadian exchange.

*Mexican Cemex, CX, a major vendor of lower carbon cement gained 3.5% today.

*Ecopetrol of Colombia, sold, is up 2.52% to $13.03. We sold because the govt took it over. EC.

Pharma

*Swiss Novartis beat consensus handily today with revenue up 14% to $12.96 bn, and net income up 55% to $2.9 bn, both compared to Q2 2020, the summer of the covid crackdown. CEO Vas Narasimhan told the gathered analysts that radioligand cancer therapy is the next big thing at NVS. A radioligand is a radioactive biochemical substance or radio-labeled ligand used for diagnosis or for the research-oriented study of the receptor systems of the body. In a neuroimaging application, the radioligand is injected into the pertinent tissue, or infused into the bloodstream. This so confused the analysts that Novartis stock remained flat despite the EPS beating by 17¢/sh at $1.66 and sales beating bt $550 mn, the stock of NVS remained flat after opening down 0.18%. Its radioligand is Lu-PSMA 67.

*Fellow Swiss Roche which is one of the drug firms working on drug venclexta for myelodysplastic syndrome the FDA approved today gained 0.44%. MPS is a bone marrow abnormality in forming blood cells, a kind of cancer that is rare and variable. Another drugmaker in the pool is Abb Vie. RHHBY.

*Novo Nordisk of Denmark gained 1.5% to $88.78. NVO makes meds for diabetes and weight loss.

*TEVA announced some changes among its top brass because of exits. The result was a jump in its shares to $9, although this was lower later. Teva is not in the first opioid misselling lawsuits but it is under the gun in California and New York both of which have many victims.

*Merck, a US drug firm, fell today, I know not why. MRK.

Tech & Tel

*Mercado Libre gained 4.11% a day after it announced a cross-border deal with BigCommerce of Texas for E-commerce. GIGC offers an open Software as a Service (SaaS) platform covering the US as well as Latin America. We may bet to buy on MELI as well as owning its stock.

*Coupang of South Korea rose 2.81% today en route to the black. It was grossly overpriced at its ipo and, although we waited to buy, it was still overpriced later. CPNG is an Amazon rival in Asia.

*A day after revelations that its India JV with IDEC is losing money, Vodafone rose 2.17%. VOD.

*Two days after it nabbed a China Mobile order for 5G radio, Nokia fell back. It won at the expense of the Swedish Ericsson ERIC which China sought to punish for banning imports using risky chips. NOK is Finnish. Finland also has a reputation as a neutral country but neither can afford to use unsafe hackable chips. NOK also raised its guidance for radio 5G but now the market is dubious.

*Investor a/b IVSBF, the Swedish financial group we own shares in, appears to have ended its retail ADR which is what we own because so much of its foreign ownership is institutional. I will try to get help from my brokerage but they tend to fade away and let the market-makers cause big differences between buy and sell orders. Investor is a big shareholder in Nasdaq which is a real market in the US. It should back its stock by keeping its own listing on Q.