Welcome to 2021. US stock markets tried and failed to start the year with a new high as it managed to close 2020 with the main reason fear of Covid-19. The everything rally has been canceled. Another reason: Trump's attempt to fiddle with Georgia's Presidential poll results may defeat Trump Republican candidates in tomorrow's by-election, giving Democrats control of both houses of Congress—and adding to the risks of inflation. Our dollar lost 6.7% in 2020. Today gold is at a quarterly new high up over 2%. Julian Assange will not be delivered to US Justice over his WikiLeaks.

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Drugs

*This morning at the opening as per my note yesterday, I bought NovaCare, NVCR, at $170.54. Unfortunately, my cousin will not seek to use its electronic system to overcome her pancreatic cancer despite my urgings and since she is grown-up and older than me there I nothing I can do. The stock is down 6.5% from my price paid and well off from its 2020 high.

*The healthcare joint venture of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan called Haven is shutting down after 3 years and the staff will be placed at different parent companies. They never worked well together in Boston as they were supposed to. Its CEO left in May and no replacement was named. This led to a selloff today in drug stocks.

*Abcellera Biologics fell another 2.99% to a new low of $38.9 (US). ABCL is Canadian and its IPO was boosted by Barron's because Peter Thiel is on its board.

*With the new variant covid-19 at epidemic proportions, Wall Street and foreign markets could not sustain the upward momentum from last year, but some pharma shares were in demand. Canadian Zymeworks rose 5% at the opening to $50.6 (US) and while ZYME fell back to $49.53 it is still a harbinger of growth.

*Israeli Teva (the old TEVA) gained too, briefly back over $10, and now is at $9.95. Teva means health in Hebrew.

*Glaxo won a $162 mn contract US CDC for 2 years' pediatric flu vaccine. UK GSK gained 2.1%.

*Fellow Brit Astra-Zeneca rose 1.1% at the opening but then was chopped back ot a gain of 0.62%. The AZN-Oxford vaccine inoculated a dialysis patient at high risk, a first use, in Oxford today.

*Danish NovoNordisk NVO gained 2.2% on hopes for its diabetes drug in treating obesity and over its patient assistance program for diabetics.

*Japanese Takeda was tipped by Cehban Woodun of seekingalpha. TAK stock fell 1.25% from its opening high of $36.94.

*Dr. Reddy's of India, RDY, gained 3% today. It will make its own vaccines against covid-19.

Tech

*Mercado Libre did a debt deal for guaranteed senior notes today but the details are scant. MELI is covering its hefty costs for adding logistics and marketing to its Amazon clone in Latin America. The market is positive despite the mystery although MELI initially fell at the opening here. While formally Argentinian, MELI is in fact run in US dollars from Uruguay. MELI gained 0.25% today after it predicted Q4 revenue growth will be “in-line” with earlier 2020 sales.

*NIO, the Chinese electric vehicle maker, a high-flyer last year, delivered 43,728 vehicles in 2020, double the level in 2019. It hit a new high of $54.45 before falling back about a dollar less but it still is our 3rd best share in 2021, up 7.48% today. Its Dec. sales were up 121% from last yearNio's new autonomous driving sedan goes on sale on Jan. 9. Tesla delivered 180,570 vehicles last quarter, missing its 2020 target. TSLA rose only 4.11% but hit a new high.

*Vodafone signed a content contract with Discovery+ to provide Europeans with British goodies despite Brexit. Its share rose 4.67% on the deal while DISCA fell. The agreement covers sports, some BBC non-news sites for natural history, and other favorites. The deal covers the UK, Ireland, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Romania, Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Iceland. Oh, and the USA.

*Nokia NOK of Finland lost 1% today on fear of VOD.

*Tencent TCEHY rose 3.7% in Hong Kong on hopes that Xi Jinping will spare it some of the bullying of Chinese tech stocks, and that it will not be considered part of the Chinese military like telcos.

*Qualcomm is down as Taiwan Semiconductor may reveal good Q4 results and more plans to build out its chip business without Red China inputs. QCOM and TSEM are not as visible. More Taiwan below.

*Nintendo got mixed reviews on Seekingalpha.com over the weekend, sell and buy. Today the sellers are winners as NTDOY lost 2%. We sold half last Nov. but it is up about 12% of our sale. The seller was 'Karreta Advisors', a pseudonym. Beware anonymous bears. Game and console sales over Xmas are not yet out.

*Banco Santander Chair Ana Botin gave an interview to the Financial Times (not published in the US edition) in which she called for a “banking reset” to cut the advantage of Big Tech in financial services. SAN gained 1.1475 here on the news.

Energy and Mining

*Azure Power of Mauritius which supplies India with solar energy systems is our top winner today, up 8.5%. AZRE is an institutional favorite, controlled by the Quebec Retirement Fund and the World Bank's private enterprise arm.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU, fell 8.92% today, after announcing an at the money registration with the SEC to issue up to $35 mn in new wahres at the Amex exchange price last Thurs. The Canadian firm mines uranium and is adding rare earths to its products.

*Dutch Antillean Schlumberger Ltd SLB is wavering up and down today between $22.38 and $21.59 as the outlook for oil and airplane travel is hit by the new more contagious Covid -19 variation gaining in may countries.

*Royal Dutch Shell B RDS-B gained 1.16%. BP plc BP is up 1.13%.

*Ormat which does geothermal production and storage, is winning today. ORA is Israeli owned but the US incorporated.

*Kirkland Lake Gold is up 6.6%, our 3^rd best performer. The Canadian miner gains from dollar weakness. KL was my top stock for 2021 because I fear inflation if the Democrats control the House of Representatives, now likelier after another impeachable phone call from Trump. I like the fact that KL is a way to own gold with a yield, as it pays 18.75 US cents per quarter. I also am not an inflationary hawk as I think the US tax system is over-compensating management and stock owners.

*Algonquin Energy fell 1.9% on greenback weakness as AQN shareholders are mostly Canadians.

*Cameco which is expected to hit C$ 18.50/sh by Bank of Montreal analysts, dropped1.01% today. An institutional favorite, its trading was mostly in round lots today, a mark of small buyers. CCJ.

*Brazilian Cosan which is integrating its offshore non-Brazilian subsidiaries was my other pick for 2021. CZZ is now up 2.55% in European trading at $18.9 today

*Antofogasta gained 5.33% in UK trading today and 4.87% here. ANFGF is a big UK dividend payer.

*Earthstone Energy Inc, ESTE, is up 5.07% today after rising 9% last week. It opened up 5.85%. I have it in my IRA. It is expected to achieve nearly a 1/3 rise in revneues this year and earning a profit.

*German Eon SE is a winner because Elon Musk screwed up his plan to create a non-gasoline car plant in Berlin. As a result, the entire German ute sector is up today, with a touch of Schadenfreude. EONGY is up just under 1% heute at $11.17 It was tipped to gain 5% by Alexander Schiller on seekingalpha.

Funds

*Apart from gold mines and funds today saw a leap in the price of Taiwan Fund TWN to $26.42, but then it fell back after Asian markets closed.

*Templeton Emerging Markets Income Fund declared a monthly dividend for Jan. 29 today for shareholders of record Jan 15, at .0466/share. TEI is a holding of Franklin Resources whose stock I own directly.

*Templeton Emerging Markets Fund (EMF) rose 0.91% on dollar weakness which helps emerging marts. It is also part of BEN.

*Beware Canadian REIT stocks wildly popular in the US. The scandal over one called Realty Income Corp, (O) down 2.9% today had hurt our Mexican REIT, Fibra Uno, FBASF, which recovered 0.92% in US trading today, at $1.10. It rose 1.29% in Mexico City where it trades as FUNO11.MX Fibra is Spanish for REIT. Do not buy Brookfield Property REIT, BPYU, despite the exchange and privatization offer as it is too low despite being up 14% from the last trade in 2020.