This being the last day in January has led to huge manipulation of stock prices upwards by market-making brokerages. The idea is to start the year off right with moves at the month-end. 

The S&P fell as much as 7% today and Nasdaq futures fell in double digits. The market is suspicious of the moves up to right matters.

Despite Boris Johnson having been severely criticized by the police investigation of his parties in violation of covid-19 regulations, London stocks rose by 0.11% today. Earlier they were down about 0.12%. He is taking the lead in calling for sanctions against Russia to protect Ukrainian independence.

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Energy

*The oil price rose. LNG however lost a bit in European trading. 

*Plug Power, which has fallen a lot lately, gained a remarkable 12.63% in UK trading today. It then fell back. PLUG.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU, rose 3.44%. 

*Azure Power rose 3.85% today. AZRE.

*Chilean Soquimich rose 4.06% in Europe but is now only up $3.5% here.

*Warnings that fertilizers will become pricier still if Russia will be sanctioned for Ukrainian incursions also boosted plant food, often a by-product of oil drilling.

*GE rose 1.3% to $93.28 after a beat.

*Schlumberger Ltd however fell 2.52% to $38.68. SLB.

Pharma

*Israeli trials of a 4th dose to protect people from Omicron are inconclusive so far. 

*Novavax is now jabbing people with a 6-month booster with two doses for the World Health Organisation trials. NVAX.

*Thermo Fisher Scientific, my largest US holding even though I did manage to transfer half my shares to Harvard, is now being tipped as an earnings surprise candidate by Zacks. For some reason now that I have logged in they are sending me sheets to use to order chemicals. TMO.

*Theravance gained 2.4%; TBPH.

*It is drug reporting week with Novartis, and ABB reporting Weds., Roche, Biogen, Lilly, and Merck reporting Thurs., and Sanofi and Bristol Myers Fri. Rida Morwa on Seeking Alpha rated ABB a buy. Merck was up 8.8% briefly but now is back to normal, up 0.51%.

*Dr. Reddy's of India is up 2.75% today. RDY.

*Compugen gained nearly 3% in European trading today. I averaged down at $4.355. CGEN

*Genfit, which is French, gained 2.73%. GNFT.

*Canadian Zymeworks rose 2.255. ZYME.

*Merck in European trading rose 8.8% but is still 11.44% below its 12 mo high. It gained a more reasonable 0.51% on the open here. MRK.

*Novartis has bought from the royals of Dubai ocular genetic technology stock Gyrosckpe for $1.5 Bn. NVS.

Transport

*Shell RDS-B has changed its name, you cannot now get its price from TD Ameritrade or Schwab.

*Ormat was up 2.75%. ORA.

*Chilean SoQuiMich in the pre-market was briefly up over 4% but now is only up 3.65%. It sells copper to the world.

Ding dong

*Commerzbank sold AT&T and Visa and bought Apple and Comcast Friday. We own T and Comcast CMCSA.

*Vodafone which is doing deals fell 1% to $17.6 today. VOD.

*Mr. Price rose 2.8% today. I did not buy it despite Harry Geisel ranking it high. He can gloat today.

*Taiwan Semi was briefly up 7.2% plus but now is back to normal, up 2.9%. Its Israeli clone TSEM rose in sympathy. 

Wood

*Weyerhaeuser was given a new target price of $42 by Scotiabank and gained $1.5 on the news. WY.

*Fibra Uno jumped 2.6% to $21.12 but there is no way to figure out why. FBASF.

Fund fun

*Finnish Sampo Oyj gained 1.84% in European trading. SAXPY.

*Aberdeen sold 4% of a pharma fund for GBX 264 mn.

*Gold is up 0.14%. GLD.