There is nothing that beats a jump in oil prices for taking markets higher. China imposed curbs on its power companies not only to go green, but because its economic growth is slackening, so western energy companies got a boost.

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The political scene is confused with Germany's polling too close to call and US Democrats squabbling over infrastructure and economic boosters. The Germans who mourn their loss of Mutti Merkel forget that this trained physicist shut in the country's nuclear power plants after Fukushima, hugely adding to global warming which flooded western towns early this year. Biden's administration aims to craft a 2nd New Deal but not make anyone actually pay for it.

There was a negative in financials, also caused by the PRC, which is dealing with the crash of Evergreen, a large bankrupt real estate construction firm.

Meanwhile as noted over the hefty drug data in Barron's this week, there was also an upward move in some but not all pharmaceutical firms. Teva, our largest ADR holding gained 2.6% and is back over $9 again. Canadian Zymeworks rose 4% to $29.66. The toughest to figure was Novavax which last week presented data on its nanoflu vaccine trial to the WHO and booked a sale to Japan. But over the weekend a director sold a lot of his shares which led to a 7% drop in NVAX stock today.

All these trends are amplified because we are coming to the end of the month. People like to examine their portfolios after months which moved a lot.

While it is notable that gold has gone up a bit too, the bigger news is that Kirkland Lake Gold, KL, gained 5.42% on rumors that it is being bid for.

Earthstone Energy topped the charts, up 9.3%, ESTE.Another winner because of takeover hopes in Energy Fuels, UUUU, the rare earths and uranium miner, up 6.65%, also on bid talk. Canadian Solar, CSIQ, which sells Chinese-made solar panels, gained 3.23%. However Goldman Sachs cut auto stock forecasts across the board, While it is nice to see work on alternatives to gas guzzler cars, the rest of the energy market is vulnerable to higher prices for energy and offshoots like fertilizer especially in Europe where Angela Markel's departure will put pressure on Russian pricing,

The Algonquin complex is mixed with AQN and AY up but AQNA down. Also mixed is internet hosting with the Latin player Mercado Libre lower but South Korean Coupang up 1.27%. This led brokerage Stifel to put a buy on MELI at 1800/sh with a target price of $2200, but it still fell some more, possibly over the fear of Latin America's ability to continue to sell in the PRC.

Qualcomm, which is said to be buying Veoneer to get into auto chips, fell modestly today. Mexican Orbia which now is listed only as MXCHY, and is a maker of drip feed systems, rose hugely after a brokerage said its yield is 1.76% and it is p/e 13.75.

Closed-end funds like Canadian General, CGRIF, Mexican Equity & Income, MXE, New Ireland, IRL, New Germany, GF,  and Lazard (LGI) gained because people are uncomfortable picking stock themselves, Global equity funds have done very well YTD but most still trade at wide discounts from net asset value. Newby continuously offered funds are not cutting demand for traditional CEFs.