About 5 years ago we did a tour of Windsor, home of the Queen, to look at the restoration of a chapel which had burned. After wandering around I discovered a branch of TJMaxx on the main street near Eton College and decided to shop where the royals and the grands find bargains. The British store was called TKMaxx but it was otherwise similar to the one near where we live in New York. But they did not let me use my US credit card.

So imagine my horror when I received a bill Monday for a purchase of gold plated sneakers that had been bought by the pickpocket who nabbed by wallet last month—used at footlocker, the same Times Square shop as had turned down all the other credit cards he had collected from my wallet, billed to my TJMaxx account. Since I am an elderly woman and he is an under-30's man, and despite the fact that this was NOT a TJMaxx store, it is clear that their protection is inadequate within the US. I attempted to close my account but the Southern-accented woman I reached said this would entail their continuing to hold me responsible for his purchase. In fact, I never reported the loss of that card because I thought it could only be used at a TJMaxx branded store, after my Windsor experience.

Meanwhile, I am still having problems re-gaining access to my personal check account with HSBC, the worst of the lot among those who got the police report. It is also bleeding staff because of cutbacks.

That's the bad news. It also turns out that my medical appointment yesterday was canceled except they forgot to tell me, but at least I was able to collect the paperwork for a new social security card, still missing from my stuff.

image source: unsplash

Non-US Energy Stocks

*Now for some good news. I loaded up on Cosan, the Brazilian sugar, fuel, and logistics company being restructured, while I was trying to get my medical records yesterday and not at my desk. I paid $18.74/sh for CZZ. Today it is lower but not by much, at $18.47 bid, $18.51 ask.

*Canadian Solar rose 10.8% today to a new 52-wk high after it completed the sale of the rest of a 290 megaWatt solar portfolio in Italy, in Sicily, Italy. It had been created by CSIQ with Falck Renewables, an Italian mid-cap firm, last year. Falck owned 70% of what was called Big Fish and Iron, both special purpose vehicles. Sicily is not only associated with the Mafia and Godfather. It is where solar energy at wholesale is already at par with the cheapest conventional energy. CSIQ will book the gain in Q4. It also sold a Japanese plant's output to Tokyo Electric Power Co. earlier this month over 20 years. It is the Gunma Aramaki 19 megaWatt plant for Yen 6.8 bn, about $64 mn, CSIQ was tipped by Max Deml.

*Energy Fuels, UUUU, hit a new 52-wk high up 6%+. The US stimulus bill funds a uranium reserve.

*Earthstone Energy, ESTE, rose after buying Independence Resources Mgm, a Midlands Basin oil co.

*Royal Dutch Shell B (RDS-B) shares crashed yesterday after the Anglo-Dutch oil company wrote down more of its holdings, by $3.5 to 4.5 bn, over the new variant corona-virus taking oil prices down again. BP plc (BP) fell in sympathy. Despite a deal to offer Clean Fuels Corp carbon-negative natural gas fuel from dairies to farmers. It is already used on NYC buses. Both are taking the lead in converting to low carbon energy investment. Schlumberger Ltd (SLB) fell 1.2%. They had risen on vaccine hopes.

*Mauritanian Azure Power Global gained 17.3% on China blocking Australian coal it needs. AZN does solar panels which could help China cut its coal imports causing power outages. It fell a bit later.

*Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure, AY, recommended for yields by Harry Geisel, today gained 3.42% after its capital increase was priced at $33/sh. The UK stock is now $38.41, in part because sterling has crashed over the new covid-19 mutation.

*Algonquin Energy, AQN, part-owner of AY, is up 0.56%.

*Cameco, a mere 6 days after being rated as low as it can go by Zacks and ripe for “disowning”, fell nearly 1% today. On Dec. 11, CCJ was rated buy by the Chicago-based equity research firm. Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

*Nio which plans to hold an investor day on Jan. 9, fell in the wake of lower prices for Tesla after it joined the S&P 500 just when Amazon announced it would move from vans for its own deliveries into competitive electric vehicles. I think Amazon will have to work harder in China to nab market share than in the USA. NIO is off 2.6%.

*Ormat (ORA). Israeli owned but a US firm in geothermal energy, gained 3.2% today after it sold 4,772,500 shares Dec. 1 at $74. It is now trading at $85+/.

Drug and biotech

*Martin Ferera pick Zymeworks, ZYME, up over 2% today, nearly matched its year's high.

*His pick AbCellera, ABCL, rose because its neutralizing antibody for Covid-19, bamlanivimab developed with Eli Lilly, will be evaluated in high-risk patients in New Mexico hospitals. It targets the spike protein and therefore may also work against new virus variants. It is also being tested in long term care facilities and in phase II in walk-in COVID-19 patients. It is up 4.34%.

*Israeli Compugen CGEN is on track to getting back to its upward moves over something relating to the new Corona-virus strain which has turned up in Britain. It gained over 8% today but fell from there.

*However fellow Israeli, Teva fell sharply. It is being hurt because Walmart has been added to the list of companies that fostered the opioid epidemic, which also led to charges against TEVA.

*Khen Elazar tipped Roche as a growth stock. RHHBY is Swiss. He says it is overlooked but we cover it. He calls it a dividend aristocrat but that only works in Swiss francs. He also fails to note that it is not traded on a major market in the USA.

*Dr. Reddy's, RDY, picked by Abhimanyu, is up 1.7% today.

Tech & Tel

*NTT Docomo, to be bought by parent NTT rose 1.06% because NTT was accused of overpaying.

*Mercado Libre (the Amazon of the Amazon) was raised two levels from hold to buy by Santander with a TP of $1980 today. MELI, now at $1733, up 2%, is HQ'd in Uruguay by Argentine owners.

*BCE of Canada lost points. Also down were Vodafone VOD, Ericsson ERIC, and Nokia NOK. People will stay put.

*CAE, the flight training firm, gained after Boeing funded new pilots needed because of retirement if people fly again. Now its purchase of Merlot Aero which trains flight crews for $25 mn plus up to $10 mn in earnouts has further boosted CAE, as did a buy rating by BofA. Canadian analysts missed its rise.