Happy Cana(bis)da Day.

I was quoted on a US stock today in Wallstreetsbestinvestments’ monthly issue. My special expertise is global but we are currently in the dog house because of the strong dollar. It is about to reverse.

Today we have two results reported for Q3 and so I am not going to hold forth except to note that pot is now legal in Canada (cf the headline). Wall Street opened down and Pres. Trump stated that he would not take the blame if Republicans lost the midterm House elections. I am not sure if they are related.

We have results from Sweden and Switzerland plus news from Israel,

Note that not publishing interim profits, which is supported by Pres. Trump for US companies, already applies in Switzerland and our reporting company merely said it expects earnings to move in line with sales (while also promising a higher payout in Swiss francs, which gives you a hint on where profits are going.) I am not sure whether this kind of information manipulation is what our leading information manipulator intended. The quarterly release was 56 pages long, and Kein Wort appeared about earnings.

Reader Moon KW yesterday stressed the importance of quarterly reporting news on the TalkMarkets site and I agree. The Swiss firm posted year to date (9-mo) numbers rather than quarterly ones.

*Swedish fund Investor A/B saw its Q3 profits boosted 5-fold to SEK 25.6 bn krona from prior Q3, mostly from one minor specialist funds plus the main fund. Net asset value rose 7% sequentially in the quarter to SEK 372.37 mn, boosted by listed core assets up 12% (13% counting dividends paid.) Major subs of the fund gained 14% partly from exchange rate factors. The fund invests on behalf of the Wallenberg family of Skandinavska Enskilda Banken and other firms the clan controls, including their pension funds. We own it in the absence of a Scandinavia Fund. IVSBF for US holders and INVE-A.SK for others. More fund news below.

Drugs

*Swiss Roche, RHHBY, produced 56 pages without a word about profits but a few hints. Its sales rose to Swiss francs 42.1 bn 7% in the year to date in both SwFr and constant currencies, mainly from pharma with lots of new drug approval, while diagnostics sales rose 6%. The recent approvals include: Hemlibra for hemophilia A without factor VIII inhibitors for all ages in the US; Actemra for juvenile idiopathic arthritis; Alecensa for lung cancer in China; and ocrevus for multiple sclerosis. RHHBY also got US breakthrough therapy okay for Xolair to treat severe allergy after accidental exposure, using prefilled syringes. It got EU okay for its treatment for Huntington’s disease.

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