A part of global investing history ended yesterday in London. Debenham's, formerly Debenham's & Freebody, an Oxford Street department store, filed for liquidation after the COVID-19 virus stopped shoppers from hitting its HQ which already was out of fashion earlier. It had gone into administration back in August.

It was also by certain reckonings the first department store, founded in 1778 by William Clark who sold expensive clothing and fabrics aimed at women, from Wigmore Street. In 1813, William Debenham invested in Clark's store. Renamed Clark & Debenham, it offered not just women's goods, but also clothing and products for the rest of the family.

In the 1920s, J.P. Morgan, an American banker, watched US tourists head for their favorite emporium when they arrived in Britain on cruises. So Morgan's Bank (as it then was, now part of Chase) created a way for American investors to gain from Debenham's popularity. He created a way to buy its stock on Wall Street using an American Depositary Receipt. Debenham's was the first ADR.

It was considered the best place for Victorian-era mourners to buy black garments. The owners who liquidated the store were a group of banks that had lent to the failing store, under the name Celine Jersey Topco. We don't own any of the banks and funds which owned Debenham's, luckily.

More for paid subscribers follows on another short day. Wall Street is wobbly.

Finance

*Our bank shares were spared the Debenham's collapse and also the failure of Beijing to back a state sector company unable to pay its bond interest.

*Banco Santander, SAN, is up 4.5% to $3.19. It is not a lender to Debenham's or SOES from China.

*Bank of Nova Scotia BNS opened up 1.17% to $50.84 (US).

*Mitsubishi Finance is up 1.71% and Sumitomo Mitsui up 2.22%, SMFG and MSBHF.

*SPDR Gold, GLD, is up 0.7% after rising yesterday as well. Gold gained $14.80/oz today.

*Hang Seng Bank, whose Hong Kong Stock Index is likely to survive whatever happens there, was tipped as a “catch” in Feedspots (Quartz) today by Mary Hui. I like the company. Despite Ms. Hui, HSNGF did not trade here today.

*Fellow Hong Kong financial company AIA Group Asia gained 4.51%. It is less China-bound than other Hong Kong-listed firms because it sells insurance policies all over Asia. At $11.37 AAIGF is near its year's high.

*Standard Life Aberdeen is up 0.4%. SLFPY sells insurance and funds.

Tech & Tel

*Trip.com lost 4.2% here today on worries about Chinese defaults. Its TP was upped to $38 from $33 by Mizuho brokerage of Japan and by Jacky Wong at the Wall Street Journal today. I bought more at $32.9699/sh. 

*A Chinese state-owned smartphone group, rival to Huawei, called Xiaomi, XIACY, raised $4bn with a capital increase here yesterday and then collapsed over fears of State-owned Enterprise defaults.

*Nokia says its 5G systems are 90% more efficient than 4G ones, and that further progress can be made in cutting energy use. The stock of the Finnish company fell at the opening by 0.5% but then recovered and is now rising. NOK sub HMD Global will offer through Strax Nokia branded accessories for its mobile phones around the world. Strax founded 25 years ago in Miami and Hong Kong, now has its logistics center in Germany where it is adding pandemic testing and protection products.

*NIO sold electric vehicles to Israeli taxi firm Mobileye which had problems getting Volkswagen electric cars because of the corona-virus. So NIO taxis will speed around Tel Aviv. Given its history VW should not be taxiing Israelis anyway. Today at the opening, NIO was down 11% to $40.37 on profit-taking, but later recuperated to $46.6. Some 20 EV makers plan doing ipos.

*Vodafone is up but Swedish Ericsson fell; VOD. ERIC.

*A Chinese rival, Li Auto Inc, LI, did an IPO here yesterday of 47 mn shares which zapped NIO despite its good delivery data for Nov. We lightened up on NIO because it was way too heavy in our portfolio.

*Apologies to Toronto analysts. I wrote that they all backed CAE yesterday after the capital increase by the Canadian flight simulator pilot training firm. But CIBC, Toronto Dominion, and Royal Bank of Canada dropped CAE to neutral.

*Tencent is up 6.57% in Hong Kong, hitting HK$600. It fell in US trading, however. So Prosus (PROSY) lost 0.5% and Naspers (NPSNY) 0.25%.

*Mercado Libre fell fractionally yesterday and today after MELI hit a 52-wk high at $1575.44. Profits are taken.

*BAE Systems is up another 0.72%. There is no problem BAESY selling British war tech.

*Israeli-American Tower Semiconductor lost 4.25% today on no news.

Materials

*In addition to copper the recovery will also need iron ore which reached a 7 year high also today.

*BP plc gained 5.5% despite high inventories of black gold. Royal Dutch Shell B stock gained 3.75%. Schlumberger Ltd rose 4.5%.

Pharmaceuticals

*Beigene crashed 7% today after it said it will sell another 1,511,546 ADRs underwritten by Baker Bros (which will get a 15% greenshoe option) at $225/ADR. The sellers are not BGNE but key shareholders. The offering will close Friday.

*Teva fell 4.2% yesterday and recovered 2.02% today after it lost a patent case by Tris Pharma over an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder generic. Six years ago TEVA opted to list on the NYSE rather than Nasdaq. It is now suffering from the ease of trading and volatility on the Big Board.

*Martin Ferera pick Zymeworks was rerated strong buy today by Raymond James brokerage. ZYME.

*Astra-Zeneca, despite issues with its corona-virus trials, is in the plus column, up 1% today. AZN.

*Indian Dr. Reddy's fell 0.5%. RDY is in the COVID-19 race.

*High-flyer Israeli Compugen was hit by selling, down 2.8%. Bioline RX (BLRX) rose 0.9% (2¢).

*Novo Nordisk NVO, Danish diabetes, and diet drug maker, rose 1.32%

*Bonus stock Thermo Fisher Scientific TMO, US maker of medical tests, was again rated strong buy by CFRA and rose 1.75% to $479+.

*Merck, a US stock I own, sold its Moderna stake for a 600% gain from its costs, bearish for MRNA.