On a day when one-third of America's households (76 million of them) were revealed to have had their accounts hacked at JP Morgan Chase. Another 7 million businesses were hacked, among them possibly my own company, Global Investing, for which Chase maintains a business checking account and authorizes credit card payments from our customers.

But I faced a different kind of crisis with a different bank. I got an email from HSBC, where I have my personal account, telling me that there was a problem with my Premier World MasterCard Credit Card. I called the number to wind up speaking to an overseas customer service agent with extremely poor English, just the thing to reassure a panicked customer.

Targeted

It turns out that "my" card was used at a Target store in an outer borough to spend over $500. I have never shopped at Target in my life, but I did use that card at another business that has been hacked, Home Depot. He assured me he was “bonded” but I wonder why HSBC didn't hire someone who can speak English. I believe there are a bunch of supposedly vetted US Secret Service agents looking for a new job.

Anyway both my check account and my credit card have been compromised but, I have been told, my brokerage account at HSBC is "safe". I will watch it closely, but unfortunately I am far too ham-fisted to install the security system dingbat I was sent about a month ago supposed to protect my account. I am trying to get them to turn it off.

Maybe I can hire a bonded foreign techie of of my own to deal with the technology which requires that a code be generated and input in six seconds, way too fast for my fingers, eyes, and brain to note and input. I am not sure if it is me or the device.

What a great start to a day which will end with the powerful music and meaningless text of Kol Nidray and the fast of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement!

More follows but not much of it with news from Canada, Bermuda, China, Dubai, Switzerland, Jordan, Portugal, Britain, and Brazil, No new stock picks but paid subscribers to my site have a contest offering them a way to give a year's sub to someone they know or love by guessing our Irish Stock Pick, as reported yesterday. Only paid subscribers are eligible.

*Martin Ferera writes:

“While we wait for its Jordan Cove (LNG project) to complete the paperwork, Veresen's (FCGYF) other pipelines which were up for re-contracting, Alliance and Aux Sables seem to be going well. They transport natural gas and NG liquds from a sedimentary basin in Alberta and the Bakken in Saskatchewan and N.Dakota.”

*Oops. Martin adds: “Ottawa, not Toronto is the decision-maker for how much tax latecomer rival Petronas will have to pay. Veresen is building its new Jordan Cove terminal in Oregon, not Washington” state. I wrote that Toronto will set the tax for the Malaysian terminal in Canada.

Mayor Rob Ford, Forgive Me!

Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto will have to forgive me because I thought he was the Marion Barry of Canada, a drug-taking mayor f the Capital City. Of course I wish him a speedy recovery, from his other ills.

Scotiabank which is off restriction today because it advised on a deal did a report on Veresen pipelines where it is a 50% partner and particularly the new Ruby line which “while not full is now profitable” and which of course will get more throughput once Jordan is operational.

Meanwhile unregulated Aux Sable (so shippers and the pipeline negotiate directly), is already nearly fullup. This shifts demand to the Alliance pipeline which is being recontracted by FCGYF.

“With British Colombia liquefied natural gas not looking at all like a sure thing, BC production volumes will seek existing paths to market. These include both Alliance and GTN to [US] Pacific northwest markeets where demand could soon be boosted by Jordan Cove

*Also from Martin, the sell-off after Agrium cut its forecasts for H2 (leading to downgrades by Canaccord and Piper Jaffray) has spread to other fertilizer companies in Canada and Europe. But here is what CIBC analysts write on AGU. “Their forecasts are higher than BNS, but their target price is lower:

“We are lowering our Q3/2014 EPS estimate from C$0.66 to 0.48 and taking down our Q4 estimate from C$1 to 0.67. We are also taking down our 2015 EPS estimate from C$8.95 to 7.97. We expect the retail division to [hit a] more challenging environment next year as lower grain pries will impact demand for nutrients in the US.

“We lower our price target from C$108 top 104 [but] maintain our sector outperformer rating.”

*Hikma Pharmaceuticals is up 5.53% in London trading to $28 today, after finally unclicking from the troubles of bankruptcy in Dubai real estate. The primary listing of the Jordanian drug firm is on the Gulf country's exchange, closed today because it is Friday, and it has a GDR traded in London, on which the US 1:2 ADR, HKMPY, depends. That means our share should be $56 but the last US trade was Oct. 1 at $56.41. The US marketmaker has current bid at $56.53 and ask at $57.60. Trading this stock is like buying an oriental rug; the price depends on the face of the client.

The South American Country at the Atlantic

*Achilles Research (no idea who they are and if they have strong heels) wrote on Seeking Alpha that Vale at 7x earnings is likely to double in price over the next 5 years. If the elections prove troublesome for Dilma Rousseff the rise will start soon, as pointed out by Daniel Gilcher in the same issue of SA: at least he has a name. He expects a 30% VALE upside this year.

*Mr Gilcher, who is based in Germany and loves what he calls “the South American country at the Atlantic Ocean” also tips Oi in which we have a stake via Portugal Telecom (PT), which is also on the Atlantic, in Lisbon. He likes the no. 4 telco in Brazil. He predicts that Oi must nab a significant amount of spectrum to survive despite being too broke to take part in the recent auction thanks to the bankruptcy of PT's bankers. So he thinks Oi will put itself on the auction block. This would help PT. Both telcos trade at huge discounts from their asset value.

*The European Union approved the purchase by Eli Lilly of Novartis's animal health division. NVS.

No Knighthood for Helvetians

*GlaxoSmithKline named Credit Suisse chairman Urs Rohner as a new non-exec director and member of its remuneration committee next year after Sir Christopher Gent resignes as GSK chairman next year. Being from the Helvetian Republic, Herr Rohner is not a knight.

*Validus Holdings has completed its acquisition of Western World. VR is an insurance and reinsurance operation in Bermuda recommended by Harry Geisel. WW is a special lines insurer which pioneered in the binding authority business. I have no idea what that means and Harry is flying.

*For commercial reasons, Fitch has withdrawn all ratings of Zurich Finance, ZURVY for 30 days. No idea what this means either.

*Toronto Dominion (which owns US brokerage TD Ameritrade) cut Bank of Nova Scotia to hold from buy.

Les Neiges d'antan

*China Chaintek (CTEK:UK) one of the stocks no longer tradable in my E-trade account, reported that the Beijing govt set out guidelines and objectives for the logistics market late last month. China will use its powers to encourage development of one-stop services between e-commerce and logistics companies. Steps it can take will include land rebates, improved transportation, and better information all of which should help CTEK. Given the horrible surprise I got early this week from B-trade, note that my latest buy of CTEK was averaging down in late Aug., a trade nobody told me I couldn't do.

*Self Storage Group, the closed-end fund successor to Global Income Fund (GIFD), in the process of becoming a REIT, remains at attractive stock even if it is outside our remit. It closed Sept. with NAV of $4.86/sh, 80% now representing facilities around the USA. Your editor and many readers kept SELF but it is not in the global investing world any longer. The stock is at $3.73, a considerable discount from NAV in part because of concerns over delays in th e conversion and the Winmill family's control of the board.

*Nobody has yet tried to guess the Irish share I am considering adding to the portfolio. The contest prize is a year's subscription you can give a family member or friend if you get the name right. It is an Irish share held in New Ireland Fund, IRL, whose holdings I listed yesterday.