Thursday's child has far to go, along with hopes for a COVID-19 cure, another round of stimulus, and lower jobless claims. US unemployment sign-ups hit 898,000 last week, well over the consensus estimate of 830,00. So today almost all stock markets on earth were in the red.

The US election campaign presentations tonight will require that people use two televisions because the networks are not offering split screens to cover both Biden and Trump. Some people will buy new equipment which will stimulate Zoom share prices if nothing else.

As always there is news despite the world's focus on the Supremes and the US candidates. It's nice that Biden is ahead on funding, and it is said that Kamala Harris is having to quarantine herself because of an aide and a pilot she was in contact with getting COVID-19. It is also notable that teenager Barron Trump caught it from his mother or father. Melania and Barron were not given the advanced treatments used for their much older head of household.

Our president today accused Facebook FB and Twitter TWTR of being "a third arm of the DNC" after they blocked an article accusing the VP Joe Biden of having been introduced to Burisma, the Ukrainian company Hunter Biden worked for—with no evidence, published by the Murdoch-owned. NY Post yesterday. The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to subpoena Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey.

Today's blog is late because there was a power outage in my office.

Drug dealers

*I was wrong about Walgreens Boots WBA which I wrote up negatively last Dec. It made lots of money by offering 'free' virus jabs at its drug stores and billing Medicare for triple-digit payments per vaccination.

*I was wrong to sell NantKwest NK which rose 11% today on news it is partnering with Immunitye Bio on an adenovirus to stop COVID-19. It is headed by the richest medico in the USA, Patrick SoongShiong of California.

*I was right about Spanish Grifois, GRFS, maker of blood plasma treatments for disease. GRFS soared 8.6% today after it began testing its plasma-derived hyper-immune globulin to stop COVID-19. The plasma comes from people who recovered from the virus. The trial is backed by the US Barda (part of our Defense Dept.), the FDA, and Britain's National Health Service. They will enroll patients in 58 hospitals in 18 countries. I learned today that Grifois is named after its founder, a Catalan medico in Barcelona. Citi analysts raised the share target by 83% to $33.2, boosting GRFS price to $19.94.

*Swiss Roche sold a fast antigens test for COVID-19 to Germany.

*It being Thursday, the eve of Friday when Israeli markets closed, both Compugen CGEN, off 6.8% and Teva TEVA, off 1.9% are preparing for a day without arbitrage from Tel Aviv.

*Eisai is down for a similar reason by 1.35% because Tokyo will trade before the market here reopens. The Yen is upwardly mobile to boot. ESALY.

*Glaxo fell 2.53% in UK trading today. GSK then fell 3.92% at the opening here. The reason seems to be because its partner Sanofi of France is backing a Translate Biotest for the virus being moved to humans from primates in Dec.

*Fellow-Brit Astra-Zeneca AZN was given a bearish rating by UK chartists investors intelligence.

*Dr. Reddy's fell 2.2% on no news. RDY is an Indian generics firm.

Materials and Energy

*Azure Power of Mauritius today issued a sustainability and governance report by its CEO Ranjit Gupta. AZRE is carbon-neutral and moving to make its suppliers carbon-neutral too by controlling their emissions. The group cut is water consumption by 40% this year and aims to have half its workforce female, including leaders. It also provides reports on its governance and worker health and safety. AZRE stock here fell 2.8% to $28.81 on the news.

*Antofagasta of Chile, whose ADR is based on its UK traded share, was added to its list by Goldman Sachs at $13.25 today.

*Australian Orocobre, after popping 12% yesterday, fell back 2.8% today. It holds its AGM virtually Nov. 13—a Friday. It is a likely beneficiary of electric vehicle growth and last week reported that it will make lithium-ion batteries for hybrid vehicles in Japan in a jv with Toyota and Panasonic. OROCF.

*Schlumberger Ltd SLB reports on its Q3 before the bell Friday. It is exhibiting bullish patterns in option trading according to an advisor. Zacks expects it to show a 70% lower earnings level this year than last, a slight improvement, and revenues of $5.4 bn, off 37% from last year.

*Tesla again cut its Model S electric car price, to $69,400. And once again our Chinese NIO rose, helped by Citigroup joining the bullish chorus with a note by Jeff Chung citing its order backlog, rising market share, lower battery costs, and push to exports. Chung raised NIO to buy from neutral with a target price up 82% to $33.2 from $18.1. Then JP Morgan joined the bullpen today. NIO stock is up 560% YTD and up 1.9% today. TSLA fell.

*Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B shares fell 2.6% today to $24.07 and BP plc fell 2.02%. BP yields 7.6% and RDS.B 10.5%. They are today's bond alternatives.

*Gold rose today, including SPDR Gold, GLD, as a haven.

Tech & Tel

*Ericsson won the Dutch KPG Telccom contract away from Huawei. ERIC was rated outperform by Morgan Stanley with a lower target price. It was rated buy by DNB Markets for its softwarization of telecoms but there is a risk from a rise in the Swedish krona, now very cheap. The TP is up 24%.

*Another winner from softwarization is its Finnish rival Nokia. DNB gives Finnish NOK a 34% higher TP of euros 6 because that is its currency. NOK last week created a next-gen chipset for fiberoptic access to telephone networks called Quillion which is optimized for low latency times.

*After I blamed myself for selling Infosys INFY too soon it fell 6.75% today.

*Mercado Libre fell all of 1% today, a bit of a standout in tech. MELI is incorporated in Uruguay in dollars but owned by Argentinians.

Finance

*US executives puzzled by macro trends will be helped by a new Capital Markets Strategy group being created by Mistubishi UFG, headed by a former Deutsche Banker Tom Joyce. MUFG hopes to build up its advisory role in US corporate moves.