Once again, because of access issues, I am not going to do another table update. While Barron's has added listed preferreds to its printed tables, the closed-end fund sector is basically unavailable week after week. I cannot imagine that this is in the interests of the Murdochs who own the magazine, but they have been in the news business for some 4 generations so they may know more than me.

With new corona-virus lockdowns, the price of oil has fallen. With a Brexit deal increasingly unlikely, the pound sterling has dropped which boosted UK large-cap shares that earn foreign currency.

Another 8 Hong Kong demonstrators have been arrested today and one who fled to Britain has seen his bank account sequestered. Meanwhile, the People's Republic has suffered a 2^nd disaster at Chongqing with at least 18 miners dead. Communism turns out to be great for the leaders but not for the people.

image source

Banksters

*Today we got called out on a high-yielding pref at par. Banco Santander SAN is redeeming its 05971K406 preferreds at $25 (par). Nobody warned me at my brokerage, TD Ameritrade-Schwab, nor at any publication, I pay to get. It rose 0.45% last week to hit the par level. Customers are not being served at discount brokerages.

*Today banks are out of favor, with both our Japanese outfits SMFG and MSBHF down, along with BNS, BLX, SAN common, et, etc. Scotiabank was tipped by Zacks but it did no good.

*However gold and TIPs are up, plus gold miners like Kirkland Lake, KL is up 4.7%.

Drugs

*Exelixis EXEL, a US share, gained 4.41% today after it applied to the FDA for the solid cancer drug CDk7 inhibitor bought last week from the Aurigene sub of Beigene, for upfront sums and royalties payable to Zymeworks. Canada's ZYME develops bispecific HER-2 antibodies, tipped by Martin Ferera. It is recovering from insider sales by a backer which is cashing out. ZYME is rated buy by Wainwright, Citigroup, Stifel Nicolaus, and Wells Fargo.

*China drug firm Beigene recuperated from the drop in its prices for a secondary offering thanks to data on Brukinsa (Zanubrutinib kinase inhibitor) against B-cell cancers, Waldenström's macroglutinemia, and other blood cancers. BGNE presented at the American Society for Hematology on phase 1-2 trials. BGNE rose 2%.

*I am still trying to buy Enlivex, ENLV of Israel, which is developing a drug treatment, Allocetra, for the cytokine surge in coronavirus and other severe infections. I probably should have bought first and written later. It has fallen 4.8% today.

*Compugen, CGEN, another Israeli small cap startup, today rose 3.94% to $13.19, still below its high.

*BiolineRX, another one, BLRX, us up 1.3%.

*However Israeli large-cap stock TEVA, despite being designated to deliver Israeli covid-19 jabs from Pfizer, lost traction.

*Also presenting at ASH was Roche sub AbbVie on Venclexta-Venclexto against chronic lymphocytic leukemia, where it achieved an impressive 82.1% survival level.

*Morgan Stanley raised Astra-Zeneca to overweight from equal weight today. AZN is the drug company offering the Oxford vaccine Britain is using.

*Glaxo GSK rose modestly today, thanks to the ambiguity of its downgrade by UBS, which called the UK drug firm “cheap but not a bargain.” GBX is an across the board drug maker with a full line of OTC drugs, patented ones, and oldies.

*Japanese Takeda TAK achieved cytomegalovirus clearance with TAK-620 (maribavir) in patients who had had cell or organ transplants, for whom it can be fatal.

*India's designated COVID vaccinator, Dr. Reddy's. RDY gained 2.7%.

*Danish Novo Nordisk, thanks to new moves on weight-loss drugs, gained 0.89%. NVO.

Energy

*Cameco is up 10%+ today. CCJ of Canada mines uranium and gained from a compromise between US House and Senate over the National Defense Authorization Act, despite it reporting 2 Covid-19 cases at its Cigar Lake mine in Saskatchewan.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU, gained 10.5% today, the top performer in my portfolio. UUUU rose 17% on Friday. This is another result of its finding in its US uranium mine accessible rare earths. It also trades in Canada as EFR, but the US share has a brokerage fee. At this level it is now irrelevant.

*Azure Power AZRE which makes solar roof panels for India, is up 4.61% today, at $35.62. It is largely owned by the International Finance Corp, the private arm of the World Bank, and the Quebec province pension plan.

*Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO rose another 5.63% today, to $45.45. We sold a third last month.

*European oil companies like BP, Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B, and even Schlumberger Ltd today followed the drop in US majors despite having more exposure to low-carbon fuel. SLB was recommended by Wells Fargo today but fell all the same.

*Targa Resources gained nearly 50% after its Q3 beat and today was recommended by Royal Bank of Canada with a target price of $34, up from $26 (both US$s). TRGP is a midstream oil pipeline operator.

Mexicans (aiaiai)

*Cemex will not have to pay $55 mn in taxes to Colombia's taxman after an accord, writes Eduardo Garcia in Sentidocomun.com.mx, with which we traded. CX will set up a west coast distribution center to reduce how far its cement trucks have to travel to cut Mexican carbon fuel emissions.

*Mexican REIT Fibra Uno (FBASF) rose 2.7% in local trading today. The peso is very strong in part because the government is not allowing Mexico to give out money to cover the debt, even to the state sector. This is how lefties react, and could be seen also in China where there is no backing for default by state-owned borrowers.

*Beware Lefty capitalism. Apart from all those generals allowed to get payoffs from the cartels, like Salvador Cienfuegos, who was supposed to be an anti-drug enforcer, we now learn that Felipa Guadalupe Obrador Olan, the First Sister of El Presidente Andres Manuel Lopes Obrador, got bribes from Pemex, the country's nationalized oil company.

Tech

*Finnish Nokia and Swedish Ericsson (NOK and ERIC) are developing wireless 6G systems for the European Union, called Hexa-X, and it is not alone. The Chinese have a plan called Next G and the US has one called O-RAN Alliance which NOK has also signed up for. The idea is to use super high-frequency terahertz airwaves which will connect not only to phones but to human bodies and brains. Count me out. I am not a robot.

*The news caused Redburn Partners to raise Vodafone VOD from underperform to buy, up 2 notches.