The bull is back in business today. Unfortunately, I cannot spend much time cheering the market on as my husband suffered a fall and I have to keep up with his needs. Today is not only the first day of summer but also Prime Day, so there is more to do online. There will also be a short blog tomorrow because it is primary day in New York City, the first-ever with complex multi-choice strategies to input.

For now, the DJIA is up 550 points. Happily, my stock of the year was one of the top performers so far today. Another beaten-down favorite, however, lot traction despite a presentation over the weekend on one of its products.

You can't win them all.

image source

Energy

*My stock of the year Cosan, CSAN, gained 5.22% at the open today and is still up 3.2%. Earlier this month the gas station sub-CSAN ran with Royal Dutch Shell in Brazil and Argentina was spun off. The now-independent firm still mostly owned by CSANm signed a deal with Lisarb Energy, a UK company developing solar plants. It will build 4 solar “parks” in Brazil, two in Rio, one in Goiás, and one near Brasilia. They will go live in 10 months. The Raizen lease contract is worth ~$20 mn. The 4 plants will produce 38,700 mW hours of solar electricity each year during the 15-yr contract period.

*Dutch Antillean Schlumberger Ltd, SLB, rose 4.7% along with a new boost in the oil price and its role in hydrogen production.

*BP plc rose 1.5% in part because of its new green solar platform in Spain.

*Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B was boosted by its green deal with Australian GasLog Partners GLOP last week.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU, briefly dropped below $6 today but recovered to $6.19/sh. It raised capital for its future rare earths refining plans.

*Atlantica Sustainable, AY, rose 1.2% while its 20% owner Algonquin Power, AQN, lost 11.6% after opening up 1.36% because it is being compared to a new meme play called Torchlight Energy Resources, which is up 50%. 

*Canadian Solar, the maker of solar panels in China, crashed 2.1% on Beijing's tech crackdown. It is pioneering solar recycling and recurrent markets. Volatile CSIQ is helping China win green credentials.

*Earthstone Energy, ESTE, rose 4.9%.

*PLUG Power rose 2%+. It is expected to report tomorrow a loss of 8¢/sh vs one of 12¢ a year ago. PLUG sales are expected to have nearly doubled to $76.87 mn from $40.81 mn, according to Benzinga.

Drugs

*News that Germany is investigating insider selling at CureVac and Bayer over the failure of their covid-19 jab cast a shadow over drugmakers. The pain went to dealers suspected of misdeeds.

*One loser was TEVA which presented data to the European Academy of Neurology gathering showing that its Ajovy drug against migraine had no negative impact on heart health or blood pressure. It also presented Israeli data showing that migraine is under-diagnosed and -treated in poorer people. The stock lost 0.7% more today because its brass are heavy traders and pulled down a smaller Israeli drug firm in its wake BiolineRX BLRX. But Compugen, CGEN, gained 0.63% and NovaCure, NVCR, over 2.1%.

*That Glaxo's CEO has problems over her leadership was the subject of a blog today. GSK rose a fraction because that is stale news. Fellow Brit Aztra-Zeneca fell some more. AZN.

*Grifols of Spain, GRFS, rose, on the need for more plasma research, its specialty.

*Swiss Novartis NVS rose 1%. Fellow Swiss Roche, RHHBY, gained 0.9%.

*Danish Novo Nordisk jumped 0.6%. NVS.

*Takeda of Japan rose 0.4%. Eisai, whose CEO made a pitch for official funding of its Alzheimer's drug, gained 2.9%. TAK. ESALY.

*Zymeworks ZYME of British Columbia popped up 1.2%. ZYME boosted Aurinia Pharma, AUPH, 2.23%.

Finance.

*Scotiabank, BNS, gained 1.4% on its safe and high yield and its relatively lower exposure to the USA than that of rival Canada banks.

*The Financial Times today revealed that Banco Santander, SAN, has ambitions to become a major European investing bank by challenging the dominant US firms. Retail banking, the current main business of SAN, is losing profitabiity in a period of low interest rates. SAN has a vast European network, running from the UK to Poland, which it wants to turn to new business in mergers and acquisitions and corporate advisory, because of mistrust it suspects European business harbor against the Goldman Saches of this world. But Deutsche Bank has just cut back on its investment banking, as has Credit Suisse. And there are rivals in place like Paribas, the FT warns. Chair Ana Botin has just lured a JP Morgan investment banker to boost its corporate business, José-Maria Linares, a fellow Spaniard. The stock has risen all of 1% after opening up .4% showing that the market is skeptical. SAN investment banking in Q1 accounted for 15% of sales and 28% of pre-tax profit in Q1, the FT writes.

*CBOE Global Markets, which runs worldwide trading platforms, was not penalized for the Chinese move against cyber-currencies. Its VIX volatility index fell 11% today meaning risk is believed low. It is up 4.45%.

*Lazard, the fund manager, gained 2.2% today. Lazard Global Total Return & Income fund, LGI, gained 1.5%+.

*Kirkland Lake Gold, KL, which rose 3.75% because a seekingalpha.com writer Taylor Dart tipped the Canada miner which has low overheads Gold is an alternative to bitcoin.

*SPDR Gold (GLD) gained too.

*As did Sampo Oyj and Investor, SAXPY, and IVSBF, by factions.

*Sumitomo Mitsui Finance (SMFG) popped up 2% to $7.02 while Mitsubishi (MSBHF) rose 0.5%.

*US State Street jumped on news it will create a digital finance entity, whatever that may be. STT.

Technology & Telephony

*The Economist this week ran an expose on Korean-Japanese magnate Son Masayoshi of Softbank. It included information on the risky sale of Coupang which was IPO'd at a too high price and CPNG lost another 0.53%. The article also hurt Japan Small Cap Fund, JOF, but boosted Korea Fund KF by nearly 1% because Mr. Son is operating in Tokyo, not Seoul. I am not reproducing any of the weekly findings because US libel laws are strict.

*Nokia was boosted by an order from Lufthansa for its 5G private network linking to Hamburg which allows airlines to get their engine parts inspection done virtually, which they are on the tarmac. NOK also announced a new liquid cooling base using artificial intelligence for its KDD 5G phones, supporting carbon-cutting. The news boost NOK stock only 0.15% today

*Tower Semiconductor, TSEM, a US-Israeli firm operating worldwide, gained 1.62% today on news that Taiwan and Japan will be working together to supply alternative chips to Chinese ones.

However, Taiwan Semi, TSM, which is building a chip plant in Arizona, was penalized and lost 1.54%.

*Vodafone, VOD, gave 5G contracts for Britain and Germany to Ericsson, ERIC. VOD rose 2.15% and ERIC by 1.11% over European solidarity.

*Naspers fell but Prosus gained 1.1%. They are essentially clones but NPSNY is South African and PROSY is Dutch.