Of all things our landline telephones went down Sat. and there was no one doing repairs until today. But there seem to be so many other lines down that I cannot even find out when they will come to fix ours. We use a revendor called Spectrotel but I am probably going to switch to Verizon or ATT soon as I am a shareholder of both. Moreover, the pickpocket who nabbed my wallet last Nov. has now filed for unemployment using my ID with the State of New York. I remain fully employed with this blog. With all that going on I am late and incomplete, why I filed yesterday. I knew there would be telephone issues but I was not aware that the pickpocket is now claiming unemployment insurance in my name.

It never rains but it pours. Here is what matters the most Monday, March 15:

Drug-makers

*Takeda of Japan is up for multiple reasons today, first that it will manufacture the Johnson & Johnson single jab covid-19 drug in its German contractor IDT's Biologika GmbH factory, currently making dengue vaccine which it will switch back to after 3 months. TAK adds JnJ to the other virus jabs it already makes under license from Novovax and Moderna. The latter today filed for a covid-19 jab needing only normal refrigeration.

TAK also filed a new drug application in its homeland for Lanadelumab injections to prevent hereditary angioedema attacks in people over 12, a rare genetic disorder that results in swelling which can be fatal. And most importantly, phase III trials of TAK-620, maribavir to treat transplant recipients with cytomegalovirus infections (refactory, with and without resistance) is 3x more effective than conventional anti-virus treatments. The latter result was present today at the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. TAK gained 1.79% at the US open and now is up 2.25%.

*Astra-Zeneca's covid-19 inoculation is suspected of causing fatal blood clots and despite the company's denials, the jab has been banned in France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Thailand. The AZN drug was developed by Oxford University which sounds like a good omen but may not be. (Apart from my husband, Oxford's most prestigious college, Balliol, produced Dame Cressida Dick. She is the London police chief whose officers manhandled and handcuffed women protesting the murder of a London resident by a policeman, allegedly because they were violating covid quarantine. Both the Mayor and the home secretary have called for her resignation.) AZN rose 0.45% as it was supported in UK trading, will fall.

*Glaxo rejected an offer from ACDIMA for its Egyptian business as too low. GSK is British.

*Swiss Roche will buy GenMark, a US company making covid and other diagnostic tests for $1.8 bn. RHHBY gained 2.5% on the news. Your editor owns a different diagnosis firm, Thermo Electron, TMO, up 2.94% today in sympathy.

*Spanish Grifols is looking a bit healthier now that its board backed a buyback of up to 6.875 mn shares. It bought US GigaGen to boost its immunoglobulin offerings and was upped to buy by HSBC.

*Merck and Gilead will combine their drugs to cut HIV infections. MRK is up 2.25% on the news.

*Over the weekend Tel Aviv upped its prices for Israeli drug-makers boosting Compugen, CGEN, by 4.12%, BiolineRX, BLRX, by 5.9%, and Teva by 2.5%. This fed into the opening here, but not fully.

*Novocure of Israel and the Channel Islands rose 2.2% at the opening today to $142.49 but fell back. NVCR.

*Canadian Zymeworks fell 3%+ today. I know not why? ZYME is a pick and neighbor of Martin Ferrera's. ZYME.

Utes and Tel

*Azure Power Global Ltd, AZRE of Mauritius, rose 6%+ today on no news I can find.

*Telenet of Belgium will use Ericsson, Nokia, and Google as its 5G partners. ERIC is its existing mobile network, being extended to 5G radio from NOK and Google will provide the cloud technology. Work will proceed in phases as 5G becomes available. NOK is buoyant.

*Algonquin Power & Ute, AQN, was rated outperform today by Royal Bank of Canada.
*Qualcomm which will be making chips to help telcos is up 0.9%. QCOM.

*Tower Semiconductor, TSEM, is up 0.8%. It is Israeli-American.

Finance

*CBOE continues to rise on its planned ETF to offer a backdoor to cryptocurrencies like bitcoins, off 6.222% today because the rise in this quarter was mostly from retail investors not institutions

*Tencent pulled back 8.4% Friday and today after its fintech valuations were put at risk by new measures from Beijing and inevitably Naspers of South Africa and Prosus of Europe fell 0.85% and 1.2% respectively. NPSNY and PROSY are considered proxies for TCEHY but have other holdings that are far more important.

*Cosan tomorrow in English and Portuguese will present its forecasts starting at 9 am São Paulo time. CZZ.

*Allianz of Germany is one of the firms offering dental insurance there. It is also a major holder of Stripe's previously far unlisted shares now valued at $95 bn. However, its rating from Moody's of Aa3 reflects its worldwide diversification but also its sensitivity to low interest rates, a “headwind to profitability going forward”.

*Lazard, LAZ, gained 1.14% more today after briefly hitting $44.35. I bought it thanks to Barron's and historic sentiment.

*Standard Life Aberdeen stock gained 5.42% today as an unnamed investor now owns nearly 12% of its shares. SLFPY.

*Swedish Investor rose 1.2% today after the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose to 13,360. It has underperformed for a month. IVSBF owns the European Q platform.

*AAIGF, AIG Group Hong Kong rose 2.7% after Nomura said it would win from China's growth.

*Finnish Sampo Oyj reported that Blackrock now owns below 5% of its shares out, down from 5.19%. SAXPY.

Resources

*Canadian Energy Fuels rose 19.26% today because the Barron's article about Chinese prowess in rare earths failed to mention this North American challenger. UUUU hit a new high of $7.12 (US).

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, fell 2.02% on fear of Chinese risks.

*A settlement of the lawsuit against Earthstone Energy, ESTE, will pay us as authorized claimants and also boost the capital of the company. The board and other defendants were sued over the combo with Bold, controlled by EnCap in 2016 in a Delaware court. They settled to cut costs and the defendants will pay a total of $3.5 million to resolve the action 60 days after Mar. 31 for up to 4 years until the EnCap share is below 30% of ESTE, which I own in my IRA no less. It has taken 3 days to get the full story.

*ABB of Switzerland gained 0.18% to firmly over $30.5 boosting me and Joe Shaefer who both opted to buy it 2 weeks ago.

*GE gained 4.25% today after falling on its sale of its aircraft leasing sub to an Irish firm last week.

*Cameco, CCJ is up another 6.85% today at a new high after the uranium miner was required to sell down its 23%+ stake in UEX to meet Canadian competition rules.

*Antofagasta reports tomorrow on 2020. ANFGF gained 2.8% today on hopes.