Today the stock market fell back for several reasons, notably the ruling that his tax records will have to be shown to the NY Attorney-General and Steve Bannon was indicted for fraud over the fund-raiser he ran for building el muro along the Rio Grande. El Presidente is looking like a loser, and unlike his pal Vladimir Putin, Trump is not able to poison his opponent. He also has come out with remarks backing the QAnon conspiracy theory which claims that Democrats are offering sex with children to gain votes, completely without any evidence.

But the real boom killer is a higher number of unemployment applications last week at 1,106,000 when the forecast was for only 923,000.

There is good news and bad and I'll start with the latter.

Banksters

*Our Bank of Nova Scotia is facing fines from both the US Dept of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for manipulation of precious metal futures prices. The total bite will be as much as US$ 127 mn. The banks' desk engaged in spoofing to push prices up or down to make more money from orders. BNS was part of the London gold pool and being from the extreme east of Canada it was able to act while US markets were shut.

So much for Canadian nice. There is no point in selling now, and the bank will survive. Scotiabank was downgraded to hold by Canaccord brokers.

*The news also took down Banco Santander (SAN) but to the best of my knowledge it has not done similar tricks. It lost 2%+ starting in Europe. I think SAN is much more careful of its reputation given that it is a family-managed bank. Paulo Santo who does sign his name said coverage of high-flying Apple is biased because its China problems are not discussed. Apple has gained 100% YTD and is a fad share. Its B shares are up.

*Hang Seng Bank, which runs the Hong Kong Stock Index, gained 7.2% and yields 5.54%. HSNGF.

*JP Morgan Chase is planning to offer banking services at US Post Offices which will help cut the deficit run by the service.

Gold, Gas, and Electricity

*An anonymous writer on Seeking Alpha called Kirkland Lake Gold “a cash-flow machine”. He may be right but I want to know who he is. We bought into KL after it was strongly tipped by a Canada-based analyst BofA-Merrill, where my account is now closed. It is among the few risers today along with SPDR Gold Fund, GLD.

*Hoëgh LNG (HOLHF) of Norway managed to put out a quarterly and half-year results file without including the numbers The floating storage and regasification carriers firm is run from Bermuda for tax reasons and naturally the stock plummeted. We own its preferreds which didn't fall much. Now the correction is out, and we know it is not facing disaster. The LNG shipping firm had cash flow of $57.7 mn in Q2 and net of $2.9 mn despite the impact of the coronavirus. It completed its up-sizing of its $45 mn debt facility and also paid back its bond issued in 2002 and also cut its cash posted for hedging instruments during the prior quarter. Despite these long-term moves, HLNG improved its liquidity by $151.9 mn.

CEO Sveinung Stóhle said it achieved “stable performance and improved results” despite the pandemic” and its “LNG carriers are fully operational and on charter”. Moreover, liquified natural gas is in demand (because of shut-in US shale drilling) and replacing coal for electricity generation. It is cheaper than coal and demand is up 6.5% in H1, according to his remarks. The cumulative preferreds, HMLP.prA, recommended by Gen. Joe Shaffer, are down 4.2% boosting the yield for now.

Green Stocks

*Tomra Systems (TMRAY), Norway/s recycling and softing machine firm, gained .07% from switches into a firm which knows how to report to the market.

*NIO, the China electric vehicle maker, is cutting the prices of its low-priced ES6 SUV by offering to lease the batteries rather than selling them outright. This cut the price from RMB 343,600 to 273,600. The stock lost2%+ all the same.

*Mexico's Orbia Advance Corp (MXCHF) which makes drip feed systems for farmers, gained 11% today. It signed a big contract for India.

*Irish Greencore (GNCGY) despite having had a coronavirus outbreak in England, gained 7.15% because it was not covered by Merrill. Ready meals are in during quarantine.

Un-Green Stocks

*CAE (CAE) which trains pilots gained 0.33%,

*Cameco Corp (CCJ), which plots oil reservoirs for drillers, is up 2.5%.

*Cemex (CX) of Mexico is up 3.25% also because of non-coverage of CX by Merrill.

*CRH plc (CRH) of Ireland is down however, another cement firm.

Pharma

*Teva (TEVA) is down another 2.3% today. I am ashamed to see the Israeli drug firm behaving like Novartis used to.

*Roche (RHHBY) is up 1.64%. It is the other Swiss, with a better rep.