I am back posting after a 2-day break for the Jewish New Year. I am a rather heretical Jew. So I was pleased when Central Synagogue's Rabbi Emeritus, Peter Rubinstein, preached a sermon yesterday which included some language over how murderous religious fanaticism can be—and cited Abraham's willingness to sacrifice the life of his beloved late-born son Isaac as an example.

I was also struck during the services by the Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father, Our King)liturgy calling upon God to grant us penitents life, because He is the Lord of Life (Elohim Chayim.) He is not going to grant us life because we deserve it (because “we are of little merit”) but to live up to His image and reputation.

This reminds me of Moses saving the Hebrew Children at Sinai from God's wrath over the Golden Calf episode, by warning God of the bad PR impact of destroying these miscreants, given that He had chosen to redeem them from Egyptian slavery. “What would the Nations think?” Moses asks. God spares them.

I was also reminded of the classic schnorrer (beggar) who tells those passing by that he is giving them a chance to gain merit by giving, a reversal of the usual pitch about how he needs the money. The nice thing about Judaism is that it incorporates its own heresies within its traditions.

As a shareholder in GE I am delighted that it is moving jobs to France in order to benefit from Coface export subsidies. As an American concerned about our country I am not so happy. US Congressional Republicans allowed the charter of our Ex-Im Bank to to lapse in July on the argument that export subsidies amount to wasteful corporate welfare. Some 500 US GE jobs making turbines will move to France. The US invented Export-Import banks under the New Deal in 1934 and the French copied us.

More from Israel, Ireland, Britain, Denmark, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and Colombia, and starting with China.

*After falling during the Jewish New Year, Shanghai was shanghai'd again in the last hour of trading today this time upward thanks to what now is clearly government intervention. It rose nearly 5 % after two days of fall. However, the state role in market support and investigation of Citic (the largest and oldest stock trading firm in China) has discouraged other players. Volumes on Shanghai's bourse have fallen nearly 30% in Sept. from earlier norms.

Drugs

*Compugen presented a new drug target at a the NYC inaugural conference on cancer immunotherapy, CGEN-15052. It is an immune checkpoint which inhibits the anti-tumor response of T-cells, which helps cancer cells escape them and grow. It has been tested in theory and in mice. Moreover CGEN-15052 was earlier shown to bind to activated T cells and inhibit human and mouse T cell activation. In addition, the high expression of CGEN-15052 found in multiple tumor types, such as lung and breast cancers, suggests that this Israeli-discovered protein can serve as a promising immunotherapeutic target for multiple cancers. While immune checkpoints protect tissues from self-destruction when the body is responding to infection or injuries. But if tumors can “hijack” T-cells for their own safety, this is a tack worth pursuing to stop cancers growing. This stock is set to soar.

*Teva continued to rise in US trading during the Jewish New Year period, when Tel Aviv was closed and arbitration could not take place. It hit $65 and change.

*Benitec Biopharma has signed up a 4^th site for its US phase 1 trials of DNA-directed RNA interference drug TT-034 against hepatitis C, the Methodist Health System Clinical Research Institute in Dallas. It joins Duke U, the U C San Diego, and the Texas Liver Institute in enrolling for the first-in-man trials. TT-034 attacks hep C at 3 parts of the virus which is supposed to eradicate the virus, and not just treat the existing hep C infection. BNTC recently did a poorly-timed US ipo. I tried without success to buy its associated warrants which were priced at $1 by the underwriter. It also has drugs for non-small cell lung cancer and other scourges including Hep B. Hep C is the most overpriced drug target in today's market. BNTC has stopped falling.

*Novo Nordisk won Canada approval for its obesity drug Saxenda thanks to the fact that our neighbor to the north already approved liraglutide (Victoza) to treat diabetes, with weight loss as a side-effect. So the drug is already being prescribed also in the US without FDA approval, thanks to the side-effect. It is the first obesity drug approved in North America all the same.

NVO also is telling the world that its next-gen long-lasting insulin Tresiba also in combo with Xultophy, which was sent back for more study by our FDA because of concerns about the impact on heart disease, is doing better than Sanofi's variants, long-life Toujeo and combo LixiLan. NVO is also working over the next 3 to 6 years with MIT's Langer lab to try to find a non-injectable way to deliver peptides (like insulin). SNY and NVO are compeing hard on diabetes therapies.

*BNP-Paribas upgraded GlaxoSmithKline to neutral from sell. It yields 6%+. It was also tipped as “undervalued” by Benjamin Shepherd of Global Income Edge according to Dick Davis Dividend Digest (DDDD).

*CEO James Frates sold over $1.4 mn of shares of Irish Alkermes, ALKS. This counts as mixed news. Because of the inversion by which it was created, its brass has to report stock sales to our SEC.

*Reckitt Benckiser was upgraded to outperform with a target price of GBX 6600 ($102) by BNP analysts.

Telcos and Tech

*Tencent is investing in “the cloud” including a North American data center, to the tune of RMB 10 bn.

TCTZF also signed up to become the exclusive online distributor via video on demand of the six Disney-21st Century Fox Star Wars series. It is up over 3.2% in Hong Kong. To watch, Chinese movie fans have to pay RMB 20/mo plus another 15 for every download. This is about $5 but there are a lot of Chinese. The terms of the Star Wars deal were not disclosed and initially, Tencent fell in Hong Kong. But then it jumped 5% over 2 days. The HK shares of 700 are up, but those of Naspers in S. Africa are up even more, 4.5%.

*DDDD also quoted The MoneyLetter supporting BCE because it expects earnings to rise 1 to 3% this year, alas in loonies not greenbacks. IT is investing heavily in next-gen broadband and wireless 5G, starting in Toronto, which will be more wire-up than NYC. The stock is up 1.5% in US$ trading.

Materials

*Vale has risen 2.7% today after CEO Murilo Fereira ruled out a capital increase àla Glencore. This may not include keeping the dividend at its present levels, however. VALE suffers from hefty dollar debt. But the Brazilian iron miner below $5 price is too tempting. It will decide next month on whether it will pay a second $1 bn in dividends to common shareholders, and also how to finance its Moatize coal project in Mozambique.

*Fellow Brasileira stock Cosan is up 4.65% today in London and over 2% here. Unlike Vale where the state pension plan is a major player, CZZ has no link to the govt.

*Also up is Ecopetrol, EC, of Colombia, which hit $9.49 in London today, still a long way from Tipperary, its $34.36 52-wk high.

*BP plc was raised by Liberum to a buy (from hold) with no target price. This despite a Moody's estimate that the Big Oil firm and its rivals face 20% drops in cash flow under current and projected oil prices.

*A related rise is that of Schlumberger Ltd, which rose over 3.5%. SLB sells technology to find and extract oil and gas to oil companies.

*Vedanta Resources, parent of Vedanta Ltd., VEDL, was named a bull by British chartists at Investor Intelligence, who cited its “unwinds into price and relative possible base formulation.” VEDL is up over 4% but it is still below half what we paid for it.

*Knock on wood, our repurchased Posco is up 3.93%. The order went through Monday.

Neiges d'antan

*Our sale of Tata Motors was echoed by Deutsche Bank which downrated the Indian maker of Jaguars and Landrovers (and cheap mini-cars as well) to hold from buy.

*I did not get executed Monday on my exit from China Chaintek on the LSE as trading has been suspended. I kept my CTEK but pitied my readers and told them to get out. I was right on you and wrong on me. I will lose about $550 which I can afford