The presidential vote is now down to the wire and it looks like Trump has lost the White House as mail-in ballots came in for Biden from cities in Pennsylvania and Georgia. I have two Israeli-born cousins in Atlanta, now US citizens, who are doing their share.

The Senate is unlikely to become dominated by either party without two bi-elections early next year in GA. The House is still in play with 32 seats undecided. Once again God has blessed America despite our sins. A split or a low majority in Congress will stop any lefty excesses from the Biden presidency.

The stock market is showing heavy volumes and no clear direction, so far Friday with 1% lower jobless claims than forecast but 3.6 mn jobless for over 6 months. Recounts are coming.

Emerging Markets for yield

*We have a new UK-listed share reporting today, Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc, AY-Q, a yield stock tipped by Harry Geisel currently paying out 5.25% Its earnings were up 100% from prior Q3, at 86¢, 20¢ over the consensus forecast. Its revenues beat too, at $302.99 mn, up 3.28% from last year and also beating consensus which was $288.39 mn. They came out today.

AY buys or manages renewable and other energy producers, transmission lines, and water assets mostly in Latin and African emerging markets. It also produces power in Spain, the US, and Canada. The stock has gained 4.9% thanks to the good results but is still barely over its high before the COVID-19 outbreak. Buy now to benefit despite its hitting a new high for the year.

AY is related to Algonquin Power which gained 0.91% today back to over $16. AY has the right to buy all non-US and non-Canadian AQN assets under a 2018 deal. Meanwhile, AQN owns 25% of AY. AY funds its investments with non-current access to debt, project finance, grants, derivatives, and differed tax liabilities. This means it has a ridiculous p/e ratio of 181x earnings which has led all analysts to rate it neutral or lower, so far. Its operating profit has been hit by COVID-19 but its financing is very much on track and cheap for now.

*Mexican REIT Fibra Uno (FBASF) declared a 0.26 peso dividend, making its yield 8.8%+ with the stock at MPN 16.2. It trades at a p/e of under 11x, and like AY is funded nearly 90% by cheap debt.

Drugs

*Columbia U's COVID-19 nasal-throat spray stops coronavirus in ferrets. Maybe it will work for us.

*Chinese drug firm Beigene 3.21% fell after it reported yesterday after hours, and was downgraded to underweight from neutral by Piper Sandler. It reported a loss of $4.81 per share in this year's Q3 versus a loss of $5.11 a year ago. While this is obviously an improvement, the Benzinga site reported the loss as being up 5.87%. These instant analysis systems are run in emerging markets countries like the Philippines, India, and the Dominican Republic where untrained writers churn out results. In this case, the writer correctly reported that BGNE sales up 81.65% to $91.08 mn were an improvement. BGNE fell 6.7% which reflects the eps “drop” but not the sales gain. It is rated outperform by SVB-Leerink.

*Another loser, this being Friday, was BiolineRx, an Israeli firm, off ~7% after BLRX rose by about 50% so far in Nov. to a new 12-mo high.

*Lagging also is falling angel Compugen despite an okay report Thursday. CGEN is down 5.38%.

*Astra-Zeneca (AZN) gained nearly 1% after its stroke drug Brilinta won US FDA approval. It reported a 10% rise in revenues YTD boosted by new medicines gaining 36% in market share and boosting revenues by 2.6% from prior Q3. This excluded China where its respiratory and immunology drug Pulmicort was lower as there were now fewer patients needing it. Core operating profit was up 13% despite a 15% lower operating income, which helped bg lower tax rate at 21%. Its big winner is cancer meds, where revenues YTD rose 24% to $8.2 bn.

*Teva CEO Kåre Schultz, now my“Great Dane”, again showed his worth today in the TEVA conference call, just as he had done in Congressional testimony. The Israeli group's eps fell, but by only 1¢ to 58¢ from consensus 59¢. It continues to get approvals for generic treatments of HIV (Truvada and Atripla) which should boost Q4 and full-year sales and earnings now estimated at 63¢. (I already corrected misinformation on Austedo which treats Huntington's disease, not Parkinson's, as misreported by a stock reporting service yesterday. It also treats tardive dyskinesia. He also predicted much bigger sales of its Ajovy auto-injector against migraine. Its first major biosimilar drug Truxima (for rituximab) is now on the market.

Moreover, Mr. Schultz claims that in his 3 years as CEO he has chopped the TEVA debt level to $23.8 bn (latest) from $34 bn. He also expressed frustration over litigation risk in the US which was not in focus when he joined TEVA, over opioid misselling and price-fixing to keep Copaxone earnings up.

Schultz left it to the CFO to lay out the details of the goodwill impairment and non-GAAP adjustments which led to a loss of $4.35 bn or minus $3.95 per share. These will take longer to resolve than expected earlier. Teva lost only 0.5% more today to $8.57. Then it rose to 6% in the afternoon.

*Thanks to USA medical testing share Thermo Electron my portfolio in healthcare is up today.

*Japanese Eisai fell again on fears the Alzheimer's drug (from partner Biogen) won't get an FDA license. The SEC halted BIIB trading. ESALY set up a digital education arm, EASiit, for AD patients.

*Swiss Novartis's (NVS) hope for COVID-19 hospital drugs were dashed. Its canakinumab combo of existing pneumonia and cytokine release drugs failed to meet endpoints, avoiding ventilators and deaths.

Tech & Tel

*Today Tesla's Elon Musk has registered its Model Y SUV in China but also hit Nio (NIO), already selling cars there. Musk argues that the gain in his company to $400 is more than ten times better than NIO's rise to $42. Musk is wrong. The dollar gain is not how Wall Street determines who won; the percentage gain is what counts. Given Mr. Musk's confusion, today Nio fell 4.5% to $40.45 while TSLA lost 2.66% to $26.44 (both at the opening). It quickly recovered from the Musk mistake and on mid-day was up 1.15%. Later NIO reported that it is now leasing a 100 kW/hour battery with a higher density than earlier models and the share rose back over $41. You can drive 615 kilometers without a recharge or trade-in, about 400 miles. A 150 kW battery is coming early next year. Buyers in China only lease the batteries so they can upgrade as batteries improve.

*Eduardo Garcia reported that Argentina's Mercado Libre is investing in infrastructure for its operations south of the border, airplanes, and trucks to deliver its merchandise to buyers without depending on local operators and the post office. Since Mexico accounts for only about 1/8 of the total sales of MELI, this is probably a test for doing the same thing in its major markets like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. he edits www.sentidocomun.co.mx with which we exchange news.

*Canadian BCE dropped 0.37% today after reporting Q3 EPS down from last year at 77 loony cents from 91, and revenues at $5.79 bn, vs $5.94 bn. Adjusted net earnings were $712 mn or 79 loony cents/sh. Moreover, the results were better than the prior quarters this year. It also boosted its financial position with $5.2 bn of liquidity by Q3's end. Cash flow from operations hit $1.034 bn, up 13.7% YTD. Internet revenues, not surprisingly, gained 10% over the prior year thanks to COVID-19 and 5G coming soon. It is also aiming to hire more minority Canadians to improve diversity and bring on more isolated communities in Atlantic Canada. It is boosting its francophone media arm Noovo in Quebec.