Another Monday, another COVID-19 vaccine coming. This is now a tradition. Today's vaccine is the 3^rd in a row and the first in which we have stockholding. Moreover, another share I own is in a deal to boost its own capacity in dealing with the virus.

Meanwhile despite lame-duck maneuvers by the Trump gang over certifying Michigan, president-elect Joe Biden has started naming his cabinet and advisers, starting with the key to the kingdom, foreign policy. Antony Blinken is reportedly the new secretary of state and Conde Thomas Greenfield the new UN Ambassador. Janet Yellen will be Treasury Secy. Jake Sullivan will head the National Security Council. My eldest grandchild, who is en route home for a 3-month break in classes, changed his voting site to Atlanta where he is studying from Ohio where he voted earlier. We need every democrat we can get in GA where two of my dual national Israeli cousins once removed also vote. Hanging out with Trump and cashing in on non-public stock information is not going to help Georgia Republicans win the 2 seats in play and control of the whole US Senate.

China is enforcing new discipline not only on the private sector giants but also on its state-owned companies. It is not guaranteeing to pay a steel company which cannot service its bonds and is in default. Alibaba's new CEO Daniel Zhang today came out in favor of Beijing using “timely and necessary anti-trust rules” now that its ANT sub-IPO has crashed out and its former CEO got ousted.

Never assume that recommendations in Barron's boost your shares as I did yesterday. It was wrong.

Drugs

*Israeli BiolineRX reported on its Q3 and fell sharply because its acute myeloid leukemia drug failed trials which were discontinued. The share crashed nearly 15% at the US opening. Investors focused on the flop rather than other BLRX cancer news. This included positive stem cell mobilization in multiple myeloma with its Motikafortide phase II trial at Columbia U here which requires fewer patients for phase III than expected and the likely full results from the Combat trial of the drug with Keytruda due before the year-end. Its accounts as with any drug startup are loss-making, at minus $4.6 mn this Q3 vs minus $3.9 mn last year. It has $20.8 mn in cash and equivalents so it still has funding to go.

Its expenses were cut with salary cuts from the executive suite down, much lower R&D spending, and cost-cutting. High flyers crash hard. It is still working on stem cell mobilization which is a unique way to fight tumors.

*Our ship has not exactly come in with the Oxford COVID-19 drug, being developed with UK drug-maker Astra-Zeneca, today's COVID-19 hope which we own. The University, which my husband attended, rolled out the announcement overnight, but it is ambiguous. The effectiveness of the jab is at 62 to 90%, and the data sound wrong. The higher efficacy occurs when the first inoculation is of a half dose, followed a month later by a full one. This sounds wrong because in theory the larger your injection the greater the protection, rather than the reverse. The good news is that the vaccine is kept at refrigerator temperature, not colder. AZN shares were down over 2% on Wall Street because of this factor. They opened down 3.31%. AZN brings out the creativity of analysts, as it is rated sell by Goldman Sachs and UBS, neutral by Jefferies, and buy by JPMorgan-Chase.

*Glaxo is down 1.1% on no news I can find. GSK is British and maybe moving with AZN. It did not help that there are now as many as 12 mn cases of COVID-19 in the USA—before Thanksgiving dinners.

*Merck, a US drug share I own, is buying a private company with a pandemic drug for hospitalized patients, Oncolmmune. which MRK says cuts deaths by half. MRK is up nearly 2% on the news.

*Regeneron's REGN treatment which was used on Pres. Trump was approved by the FDA after a similar antibody jab from Eli Lilly was approved on Nov. 9. Yet the WHO says the Regeneron drug is useless.

*Dr. Reddy's RDY, licensee of the Pfizer jab for India, is up 2.92%. PFE will file for FDA OK this week.

*Swiss Roche's Genentech a new jv with OneOncology for oral cancer tests using a genome profile.

*Teva is up, by 1.4%. Compugen, CGEN, gained 1%. The money from BLRX is staying in Israel.

Energy

*Chinese electric vehicle-maker NIO is up another 11.2% today. Sell half of the half remaining.

*Schlumberger Ltd rises further, up 6.25% today. SLB.

*BP Plc is up 3.54% and Royal Dutch Shell B (RDS-B) is up 4.4%

*Earthstone Energy, ESTE, gained 4.4%+.

*Azure Power of Mauritius maker of solar panels for India is up 2.1% despite negative articles. Solar makes sense for India. AZRE is up 150% YTD. It is majority-owned by the Quebec retirement fund.

Finance

*Sampo Oij is tendering in advance for its notes in dollars, Swedish crowns, and euros which bear interest at 1.5% to 0.875% which come due between next Sept and May 2025. SAXPY is down.

*Bank of Nova Scotia bns is expected to earn C$57 in the next FY and the stock is up nearly 1% in anticipation.

*Hang Seng Bank of Hong Kong fell 10.25% today the worst performer. HSNGF is owned by HSBC Bank of Britain and we own it because it produces the Hong Kong stock index.

*Gold is down and gold miner Kirkland Lake KL is down more, off 4%+.

*Mitsubishi is up 0.75% and Sumitomo 0.5%. The yen is up. MSBHF, SMFG.

*Banco Santander SAN is up 1,1% hoje.

Nutritious

*Nutrien NTR, the Canada fertilizer, and gardening supply firm, is up 3.44% in loonies, at C$61.37. It's up 2.95% in US$s.

*However Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo GRBMF is down 7.8% today. It reports in pesos and the peso is very strong now against the greenback, probably because of shenanigans by the Trump gang.

Tech

*The Financial Times today published a long article about Mercado Libre, mainly arguing that it should be treated as a monopoly by Latin American countries like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile because it both sells goods and processes payments. MELI is up nearly 3% as investors contemplate it buying up a Brazil government postal payment arm.

*Japanese robotics firm Fanuc, FANUY, is up 1.1%.

*Israeli chip maker TSEM, Tower Semiconductor, is up again. It had good results last week.

*Canadian Telus is using Nokia for its 5G network infrastructure. Finnish NOK is up 0.5% on the news that it will provide subscriber data management, network management, LTE picocells, and internet protocol edge routers.