It looks like whatever caused Tuesday's internet crash has been resolved and I have piles of mail from yesterday. I have piles of news to report.

Today the benchmark US oil price, WTI, hit over $72/bbl. Among the reasons was a huge increase in US oil exports in May, up 24% sequentially from April levels at 3.24 mn bbls/day. Last year the level was 3.08 mn bbls/d. Also boosting the oil price was a 2.1 mn drop last week in the stockpile.

Furthermore, the delayed Job Openings data for April showed 9.2 million job openings. During the last recovery of 2001-7, the number of job openings never rose over 5 mn. By 2010 they fell to 3 mn and remained there for 5 years!

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Between higher hire offers, oil price rises, and upwardly mobile meat prices, there is plenty of evidence that inflation is the next scourge that will hit us. However today copper prices did fall back0.58% to $2.65/lb.

The Biden Administration, making nice to China, lifted the Trump bans on TikTok and WeChat (part of Tencent) but will supervise any abuse. TCEHY fell 0.34% today to $77.36 on the news. The next Chinese-Cayman Islands IPO coming is Ding Dong Maicai, a grocery chain, which aims to raise $5.1 bn. The name is easy for non-Chinese as is the ticker symbol, DDL.

Today the US market resumed its attempt to hit a new record for the S&P 500 and Q, but not the DJIA.

Drug dealers

*The level of new covid-19 infections and deaths started rising again thanks to the “delta” variant, formally the Indian one, has broken out in the USA. It is more transmissible than earlier variants, but it is not certain that it is more deadly. The death toll hit 373 yesterday and 253 Monday, both up from prior weeks. The wire services now warn that the Biden Administration July 4^th target of 70% inoculation is becoming unlikely following comments by Dr. Anthony Fauci admitting that the target will probably be missed. Our hope to hop the pond to Britain has again been delayed because of new UK quarantine rules.

*Glaxo today reported on the 2020 immunizations against Covid-19 and other diseases including flu, meningitis, human papillomavirus, pneumonia, DPT (diftheria, tetanus, whooping cough), and hepatitis A based on a claims analysis by Avatere Health. It showed that adults failed to get 17.2 mn doses of jabs prescribed for them, while teens missed 8.8 mn. The levels were significantly higher than those for 2019. The failure to get inoculated took off starting in lat October from earlier highs last year. These vaccines can be given alongside Covid-19 jabs, so the boycott of the latter caused the drop in others. The other diseases also flourish if there is no crowd immunity. GSK is preaching from its own hymnal as its Covid-19 drug has not won market share. It has an antibody treatment for the coronavirus developed with Vir Biotech. GSK stock gained 1.7% today.

*Grifols of Spain gained 1.1% over hopes for its hepatitis B immunoglobulin treatments. GRFS.

*Astra-Zeneca. AZN, reported in Nature Medicine journal on bleeding disorders associated with its covid-19 jab recipients in Scotland, which are not the severe blood clots with low platelets discovered in other countries, however.AZN rose 2.1% here on the news because most of the disorders were trivial among the 1.7 million Scots who got vaccinated in the trial.

*This UK news boosted other vaccine makers like Bristol-Myers which gained 2.77%. It doesn't have a covid-19 jab. It is now up 2.83%. BMY.

*Irish Alkermes rose 6% in US trading from something I guess it links ALKS to the ASCO meeting.

*Another possible winner is TEVA which rose 2.51% today in London and 1.71% here.

*Merck got a US govt procurement order for its molnupiravir covid-19 jab still facing the phase III MOVe-OUT trial and MRK also plans to apply for emergency use abroad. MRK was up 9.11% but now is only up 2.25% at $74.62. It fell because Pfizer, PFE, got a govt contract for a new pneumonia vaccine, Prevnar 20, replacing one from MRK jabs. ORA Organon, its spinoff fell another 1.19%. OGN.

*Roche rose 3.3% $47.44 to after the Swiss drug firm was named a likely success for its Alzheimer's drug gantenerumab, another antibody treatment, and given a target price of CHF 370 (from CHF 345) by Morgan Stanley. RHHBY hit CHF 377.89, up from CHF 361.2 today in Swiss trading.

*Its fellow Swiss rival Novartis, NVS, rose 2.6%.

*Compugen of Israel gained 4.05% today at the open on its tumor antibody PVRIG blocker COM701 presented at ASCO over the weekend. It is now at $7.77/sh, up only 1.6%. CGEN.

*Eisai, the Japanese partner of with Biogen in what is now called Aduhelm rose 2.5% today. ESALY, unlike its US partner, will not set the price for the Alzheimer drug treatment at stratospheric levels because Japanese insurance systems don't cover this for seniors. It is now up 2.7% at $107.15.

*Takeda, another Japanese major, gained 1.8%. TAK.

*Aurinia Pharma of Canada published data on the lupus drug Aurora phase IIII trial at the European Renal Association Congress and the stock gained 3.5%. AUPH.

*Israeli-Channel Island share Novacure, NVCR, gained another 0.9%.

*French liver disease firm Genfit is up ~0.75% today on something French. GNFT.

*Esperion Therapeutics gained 7.2% when ESPR was tipped by options advisory InvestorsObserver.

*Thermo Fisher Scientific gained 1.8% today at $11,655/sh. TMO, a US firm, is my largest holding.

Tech & Tel

*IBM rose on hopes for a digital passport showing inoculation not just against Covid-19 but also against other diseases. The problem is that cellphones holding this data often do not work in foreign countries. I think we need to go back to paper, or pages in a passport.

*The end of a US ban on TCEHY led to a selloff for Naspers NPSNY of South Africa, which lost 2.1% in US trading this morning. Dutch Prosus PROSY, the other Tencent proxy stock, only lost 0.82%. They really are no longer proxies for the Hong Kong share.

*Nokia lost 0.8% while Vodafone lost 0.33%. Ericsson lost 0.53: NOK, VOD, ERIC.

*Mercado Libre of Argentina opened up 1.62% to $1332.8 but MELI fell back later to $1329.63.

*Coupang of South Korea lost another 0.5% on no news. CPNG.

*Beat-up AT&T finally showed some spirit after T won a US veteran's affairs 12 yr contract for network modernization worth $725 mn. T.

*Taiwan Semi rose 1.1% because Taiwan will get vaccine jabs from the US, enabling it to make chips.TSM rose but Taiwan Fund, TWN, fell.

*Tower Semi, US-Israel, fell a fraction on the above news. TSEM.

*Nintendo, the gaming firm, lost 1.2% today. NTDOY was picked by our young reporter Abhimanyu. I have no idea what moves it.

*Multichoice of Africa gained 0.5% today. MCHOY.

Oil

*BP of Britain gained some more, hitting $27.75.

*But Royal Dutch Shell B (RDS-B) rose more, up 0.71% to $37.75.

*Despite US confirmations that we need non-Chinese sources of rare earths, our Energy Fuels, UUUU, fell as its $50 mn fundraising may be dwarfed by rivals. It is down ~5% this week at $6.94. I may have bought more.

*Canadian Solar, CSIQ, fell 1.43% today on China facing rivals from the US in solar as obstacles are removed.

*Plug Power added last week gained 3% at the opening yesterday but later was hit with a delinquency notice for missing a filing deadline for its results. It makes hydrogen fuel cells. PLUG.

*NIO lost 1.8% on worries about the Chinese market for electric vehicles.

Food

*Grupo Bimbo of Mexico fell 9% today after the US Vice President met with AMLO. It is a globl bakery giant. GRBMF.

*My stock for the year, Cosan, CSAN, gained because of its spinoff of its gas stations in Brazil and Argentina operated with Shell. The fuel they sell is beefed up with bagasse, sugar cane waste. It opened up 1.8% but then fell back.

*MXCHF, Orbia Advance Corp. which makes plant drip feed systems, is quoted at $3.6 bid $22.39 ask. My broker says the price is set by robots as it doesn't trade, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

*Canadian Nutrien, the maker of fertilizer and operator of garden and food seed stores, rose 1.2% today after it announced a program for carbon capture for farmers. They will boost nitrogen additives and improve soil health while helping cut food and beverage makers' carbon waste. NTR.

Finance

*Nomura is exiting prime brokerage in the US and Europe following the Archegos scam. Crédit Suisse did this too. Prime brokers offer to create instant liquidity for hedge funds with swaps, leverage, loans, and other financing tools to enable the funds to boost absolute returns. The big players are outfits like UBS, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley which invented the process about 40 years ago. With a huge number of new hedge funds lots of others have begun offering to be prime brokers, and also offering stock research and introductions to potential investors. The exits will impact the performance of hedge funds going forward, particularly ones with less than $50 mn under management. 

*CBOE Global rose 1.3%.

*Scotiabank fell 0.2%. The Bank of Canada (BoC) kept the policy rate on hold at 0.25% and maintained bond purchases at least C$3bn per week today. BNS.

*Mitsubishi, MSBHF, gained 0.11% while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, SMFG, lost 1.64% after hiking its dividend today. SMFG was cited by Nomura for efficiency and rated top buy holding in fianace on a day when Nomura looks bad.

*Banco Santander rose 1% in US trading hitting a new high. That led SAN to drop 1%. Its Chilean sub (BSAC) successfully hit global markets for CHF 150 mn in senior notes 6-year notes with a spread of 62 basis points above the mid-swap, currently a coupon of 0.33%.

*Sampo Oyj fell 0.13% while Investor A/B gained 1.3%. IVSBF owns shares in Q which are rising while SAXPY does not.

*Lazard the fund manager, LAZ, lost 0.5% while its US fund of funds, LGI, Lazard Global Total Return & Income Fund added 0.4%. Both are very volatile.

*Kirkland Lake Gold is up 0.5% despite its normal course issuer bid because inflation fears are rising in the US. Gold is also looking better than cryptocurrencies for now. KL.

*SPDR Gold, GLD, is down 0.17%, however because the metal lost traction.