Wednesday Market Coverage
Today gold rose again to hit $1782.75 per ounce despite the active market for bitcoin and the lower Chinese demand for mine products like iron and coal. One reason may be that Canada expects its inflation to be 4% or more for the rest of 2021. Paypal is seeking to buy Pinterest according to Bloomberg.
Image Source: Unsplash
Pharma
*Today Swiss Roche reported on its Q3. I own it in my TD Ameritrade account but I was blocked from reading the news at seekingalpha which the brokerage site pulled up because I have apparently used the search engine too often. I have no idea why this is being used to stop me reading the Dow-Jones article about the company's result. Having called my brokerage to find out more I was told that TD only gives out the annual results of RHHBY, which I was never told until now. They also informed me that ins SwFr sales hit 15.97 bn, up 5% or $17.31 bn, up 5%. I am pretty sure the numbers are wrong. I tried to play the Schwab card as my brokerage account is now owned by Charles Schwab but it is not yet portable. Of course, it is all my fault for owning a Swiss firm, however big, via its American Depositary Receipts.
*Its neighbor Novartis, NVS, gained 1.77% today after Quebec decided to cover its zolgensma drug for treating children with spinal muscular atrophy.
*Zymeworks, which has been dropping in value for a week finally gained at the opening today. ZYME is Canadian and normally covered by Martin Ferrera for us. It is now up 1.38%.
*My top US holding, Thermo Fisher Scientific raised 5.83 bn with a debt offering, and the stock rose 1.64%. TMO.
*Merck got $129 mn from the Gates foundation for having developed a covid-19 pill which works. However, its cubicin molmirpir was recalled
*Astra Zeneca put its myeloid leukemia drug given along with one from Roche or AbbVie on hold because of possible toxicity as it causes cell death. AZN stock rose 0.73 on the news.
*Israeli TEVA rose briefly to $10.21 but now is at 10.14.
*Johnson & Johnson is using a sneaky trick to avoid paying out to women who used its talcum powder on their private parts who got cancer as a possible result. Meanwhile JNJ sub Jansen Biotech did a deal with Fstar therapeutics. The JNJ share rose 0.48% on higher sales which nonetheless were below consensus forecasts.
*Indian Dr. Reddy's got an abbreviated FDA approval for a generic of Revlimid from Bristol Myers good for 6 months only. BMY may get EU OK for an ulcerative colitis drug Zeposia so both stocks rose.
*Beigene landed a Russian license for its lymphoma drug bruksina andalso upped its guidance.
*Biogen Idec guided to strong sales of its controversial Alzheimer drug which also boosted the price of Takeda of Japan, TAK, its partner, by 0.52%.
*Alkermes rose on news that its Lybalvi drug against schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is now on the market. ALKS is Irish.
*Novavax fell a whopping 22% on trouble over its manufacturing messes revealed by Politico today.
*Israeli Compugen fell another 5.05% today after New Constructs (an analyst or a robot) reported that its accounting was too upbeat to be true. As I do not get the reports I have no way to judge if they are correct.
*Spanish Grifols, plasma specialist, is up 1.61%
Fundos
*Fibra Uno is up 13.28% today. It will pay off its debt not due until late next year with the proceeds of an 8.1 bn peso senior unsecured note which it just sold. It owns Mexican properties.
*Nasdaq, which we own via Investor of Sweden, did well in Q3 and will distribute a 4 cent divvie.
*SPDR GLD, our gold fund, is up $1.41 on heavy volume. This despite the rise in bitcoin vehicles, or because of them.
*Lazard the fund manager is now shown as being Bermudan and the stock rose 1.05% in recognition. Lazard Global Total Return & Income fund, LGI gained0.33%
*Finance firm Sumitomo gained 0.6%. Mitsubishi, the other one from Japan did not trade here.
*CBOE the options exchange is buying ErisX for undisclosed amounts and the stock fell because of this or because other volatility funds are in the pipeline.
Materials and Energy
*Antofagasta dropped 14C in British trading but ANFGF has not traded here according to TD Ameritrade.
*VALE of Brazil lost 2.53% in UK trading after it announced it would cut lower margin ore extraction to focus on more lucrative lines.
*Energy Fuels, UUUU, gained over 5% today, but now is down 1.64%. No idea why.
*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, fell hard today, off .51% on fear of lower sales in the last quarter but the estimates are all over the map, between minus 16 cents and plus 34 cents. We find out who is right on November 17.
*Earthstone Energy, ESTE. gained 1%, on hopes of higher oil prices.
*Weyerhaueser is up 1.5% today. WY produces timber and a recovery was predicted for Q3 and 2021 by Citicorp.
*Royal Dutch Shell is developing a natural gas find off shore Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. It seem to be gas alone. RDS-B is up 0.27%. RDS-B.
*At last both Algonquin utility stocks and Atlantica Yield are all up today. AQN.
*British SSEZY, a Ute, gained 1.93% today
*Kirkland Lake, a gold miner from Canada, lost 0.06% today. KL.
*Computer Modelling of Canada is back in the plus column, up 1.3% but still well below our basis with CMDXF.
*Johnson Matthey is up 0.54%. JMPLY.
Tech & Tel.
*Vodafone gained 2.22% today in UK trading and here, but there is no VOD news showing. Read on.
*Baillie Gifford, the UK brokerage, says to invest in South Korea's Coupang, CPNG. This may be because Verizon VZ beat on earnings today but missed on sales. Or it may be that Mercado Libre, MELI its high-priced Latin American counterpart, gained $12.75 or 0.8%
*Israeli Tower Semiconductor gained .9% today on shortfalls. TSEM.
*Tomra Systems which makes sorting and recycling systems is up 2.4%. It is a real green alternative to oil-producer Norway. TMRAY.
*CBOE the options exchange is buying ErisX for undisclosed amounts and the stock fell because of this or because other volatility funds are in the pipeline.
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