Another snow day and lots of breaking news, mostly in the drug sector which I overweight. Moreover, it is Groundhog Day and the bad weather is likely to continue. I decided that I am more concerned about Alexei Navalny than Aung Sun Suu Kyi, despite her being of my sex and age, while he is a brave younger man. I will not discuss the collapse of the silver long moves and the future of GameStop, both chopped today. I am going to focus on stock news. I have access to my brokerage account again but there are still internet gaps.

image source

Drug-makers

*Ikahest, Inc., a US sub of Grifols of Barcelona, published a peer-reviewed article in Alzheimer's and Dementia about the safety and tolerability of GRF6019 in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's after phase 2 trial yesterday. The 100 and 250-milliliter doses delivered by intervenous injection both worked.

Treated patients shows lower cognitive and functional decline during the 24-week study period. The trial is being run by the Barcelona parent along with Ikahest, a specialist in treatments for aging diseases, whose Chairman-CEO Karoly Nikolich explained what the learned journal had published. Patients got 5 doses in week 1; another 5 doses in week 13; and were followed up for 11 more weeks.

However, yesterday also saw not quoted on Q, my source because my brokerage account could not be accessed. Grifols A shares are listed in Spain and are included in the Mercado Continuo with ADRs on Q. GRFS is sometimes blocked because it has 2 stock classes in Spain, voting and non-voting, not new. It was founded in 1909. Yes, where it is legal it pays for plasma donations. Its main business is plasma for transfusion, but it researches benefits from plasma world-wide. Its B shares trade as GIFLY.

Thanks to the Wall Street drop of GRFS yesterday, which may be reversed, the share fell 74 cents to $17.37 while the market was focusing on short squeezes. Today it fell another 0.9% to $17.34. The Spanish firm operates in 100 countries and has several US arms. Its Alzheimer's research is being done by Ikahest, HQ'd near Los Angeles, which Grifols acquired from its owners, including Mr. Nikolich who founded it 40 years ago after leaving Genentech. The drug is a plasma fraction that cut neuroinflammation and learning and memory lapses in animal models and is now being tested in humans. I just bought some more GRFS at the market.

*Another drug stock with action yesterday was Dr. Reddy's, the Indian company run by an Israeli discovered by Abhimanyu Sisodia months ago. Because of internet issues, I wrote up the results myself from Reuters rather than waiting for him to report on the 3rd FY quarter yesterday. Now our intrepid Indian writes:

RDY is the designated Indian maker of Russia's Sputnik VE COVID vaccine. Phase III trials for that vaccine just came out revealing that it has a 91.6% efficacy ratio, much higher than expected. This should boost Dr. Reddy's in the 2021-22 FY starting April 1.

Vivian adds: the stock is up in local markets where it is Rs4381 bid, 4528 ask. Its year high is Rs5512.65. It is up 3.75% today at the US opening because it also launched a generic for vigabatrin in the USA, a treatment for epilepsy.

*TEVA rose 2.7% in premarket trading today.

*Fellow Israeli Compugen gained 4.75%. CGEN.

*Novacure is up another 7.5% today. NVCR is the Israeli developer of electric attacks on cancer.

*Enlivex is up 1.2%. ENLV.

*Glaxo is up 0.9% on no news except a Dow-Jones forecast that its Q4 results will be lower. GSK reports tomorrow at noon Greenwich time. Of course, its profits are down because of the virus, at 2.22 pence vs last year's 24.8 p. GSK earns more in foreign currency than in sterling.

*Zymeworks recovered by 5.75% today. It was retained as a strong buy by brokers Raymond James. ZYME.

*Thanks to higher target price estimates, my largest holding, Thermo Fisher Scientific, TMO, gained $4.71 or 0.9% to $520.20 today after it was tipped by Decatur Capital Mgm.'s Degas Wright. When I bought it it was tipped by Dean Witter. Same initials.

*Takeda lost 1.6% today. TAK sold its fibrin sealant pouch business to Corza Health for euros 350 mn. In Jan. it sold assets to Hypera Pharma for Mobocertinib non-small cell lung cancer drug.

Finance

*Banco Santander is up even more than Grifols, by 4.9% at the open. SAN is now up 3.25%.

*The Financial Times today wrote up Virgin Money, the share we were denied rights to after it cut its ADR off. It said the challenger bank had too many issues to be bought. You write off the stock price you paid in your US taxes.

*Mitsubishi, MSBHF, is up 1% today. Sumitomo Mitsui, SMFG, is up 0.08%.

*Investor A/B in Sweden gained 1% because Nasdaq, which it owns a chunk of, survived the nonsense here. It is out proxy for a Nordic fund as there is none.

*Franklin Resources, the Templeton fund owner, beat EPS by 3¢ and also beat on sales, thanks to its takeover of Legg-Mason, which boosted assets under management despite excessive negativism on economies last year. BEN.

*Bank of Nova Scotia BNS rose 1.5%+ because it avoided all the complexities of short squeezing in the USA. I expected the nonsense to move north to Canada rather than northeast to Finland.

Industrials

*Johnson Matthey, refiner and sell of platinum group metals, is back in the plus column today, at $82.64, but still fractionally down from our buy price. It also refines silver which is in the dumps. JMPLY.

*Nokia continues to be subject to a 5 share purchase limitation imposed by clearing brokers, according to Square. However other brokerages are accepting buys of as much as 2000 shares. Square it the new boy hitting RobinHood. Shop around. NOK dropped 8.41% after the short squeeze gang pulled back. I found the seekingalpha article by Individual Trader on NOK to be a reason to avoid options. After he retired my father took stock market courses at the New School. After his options class he made me swear to never trade options.

*Cemex CX sold off its cement factories in south-eastern France. It is cutting the aggregates in its mix in America but not in Europe where it is a small player.

*Veolia, a ute with electric and water interests, is up 1.25% today. VEOEY operates in France but is a major there aiming to get control of the south-eastern part of La Patrie.

*Eon SE, EONGY of Germany, is lower by ~1% because it is exiting its Belgian sub, Essent, which is on the bloc. This is supposed to be neutral for the German ute's credit.

Energy

*The results of BP and Exxon today both focused on low carbon investments. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude has topped $55 for the first time in 12 months. BP fell 5% after it missed in earnings by 4¢ and declared a 3.15¢ dividend. The drop pushed fellow Brit Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B) down 1.23%. However, Schlumberger gained.

*Tesla recalled 135,000 vehicles because of defects on the touchscreen.

*Despite good Q4 results and a buoyant outlook, Ferrari (RACE, sold) dropped.