We could have done much better when the great unknown won the White House! Examining how deftly Emmanuel Macron has handled his becoming president of France without having any previous electoral experience shows the error of Trump's handling a similar opportunity. Macron went broad, inviting pols from across the spectrum to form his team. Trump did the opposite, picking a relatively uninspired team of classic Republicans without any taste for risk or innovation.

Ultimately that strategic mistake will destroy his Administration even without proof of illicit collaboration with Putin's Russia. But, alas, proof is also coming. If one is to believe Reuters, Michael Flynn and other Trump advisers during the last 7 months of the 2016 election campaign had at least 18 unreported telephone and email contacts with the Kremlin.

A blot on the right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio talking head Alex Jones came with its withdrawal of charges that Chobani yogurt had hired for its Idaho plant a child rapist and allegations that its products were infected with TB. Jones has withdrawn these charges on the air. He was also the source of claims that the Obama Administration had staged the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton CT and the charge that the Comet Ping-Pong pizza restaurant in Washington, DC, was the center of a child abuse ring.

When markets react to bad news that has been building up in the margins, they over-react. We are moving into buy-time big-time. Today sterling broke through the key $1.30 level and has higher to go.

More news from Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Israel, Britain, Denmark, Colombia, India, Hong Kong, Ireland, Switzerland, Lithuania, Italy, and Japan.

Americanas

*Our newest Canada stock, Input Capital, reported 0 earnings in Q2 2017 but sales hit C$8.967 mn vs C$2.633 mn last year. The US INPCF stock fell to $1.4447 this morning. Its statement said it “recorded record gross deployment of C$20.53 mn and a record number of new clients,” which CEO Doug Emsley attributed to “marketing streams, a new variation that targets farmers looking to get better pricing for their canola” which it launched in Jan. It won 60 new farmer clients despite a low-impact publicity campaign to date. It also sold 18,992 mn metric tonnes of canola bringing its total for the FY to 43,950 mn tonnes, despite weather delays to harvests in Oct.

It racked up cash operating margins from streaming contracts of C$8.107 mn or $427 per tonne, a 90.4% operating margin. Adjusted operating cashflow hit C$2.916 mn, or 4 loony cents/sh. These non-IFRS data plus the company's insiders buying 4.25 mn more shares confirm our upbeat view of INPCF. Martin Ferera ​will report on the conference call tomorrow.

*Brazil is the latest impeachment candidate after it was revealed via a secret recording that Pres. Temer had authorized a payment to silence Eduardo Cunha, who masterminded his replacing impeached former Pres. Dilma Rousseff. The recording was provided to the Brasilia Supreme Court under a plea bargain by meat-packer JBS SA, according to O Globo, a respected daily newspaper. The impact on local stocks was devastating.

While Vale ultimately lost only 5.6% today, Cosan, hitherto considered a clean private-sector player, lost 12.75%. GOL, the local airline lost 27.3% in part because it reported poor April traffic numbers. I bought more CZZ at $6.855 today .

*The rot spread to Colombia where Ecopetrol lost 5%.

*Your editor bought more Veresen, FCGYF, at $13.42 yesterday after the local referendum in OR favored the Jordan Cove pipeline and gas liquefaction plant plans. It rose today to $13.4555.

*Mexico's Cemex is building a wall—in Riga, Lithuania. Eduardo Garcia writes that the new cargo port on the Baltic Sea is being guild using a special system which covers 10 cubic meters/hour which speeds up the process of laying down 3,200 meters of concrete. Eduardo edits www.sentidocomun.com.mx with which we exchange news.

Asia

From India, Abhimanyu Sisodia writes about Tata Motors and Vodafone:

*TTM fell over 2.5% today as institutional investors Rakesh Jhunjhunwala sold ~5 mn shares of about $21 mn to an undisclosed buyer who may be part of the Tata Family or not. More auto news below.

*VOD may soon gain relief as Reliance Jio has been charging for services since April 1. Its free data and calling system launched last Sept eroded the profitability of rival telcos.

*India's stock market just moved up to the 9^th rank globally, after crossing $2 trillion in capitalization.

*Today FT online reports that WeChat users have just been sent a notice by Tencent that it will provide two new content services only to its members, a newsfeed and a search system, under a “walled garden”. That means neither will be available for sharing or indexing on Baidu, a rival site, but only to users of the TCTZF app which provides search via its Sougou partnership. TCTZF rose 2.54% in Asia trading.

Drugs

*Israeli Teva took a trumping and fell to $29.52 today, a 52-wk low. It is reportedly closing its Hungary injectables plant after manufacturing lapses found by the US FDA. It will lay off the workers and sell or close the plant this year. TEVA reportedly is close to naming a non-Israeli as CEO but this means it will have to name an Israeli as CFO, FiercePharma blog writes. Although Dr Jeremy Levin was not Israeli he agreed to move to Jerusalem and take Israeli nationality to become head of Teva.

*In contrast, Mazor gained 4.4% today. MZOR.

*GlaxoSmithKline is up fractionally after the New England Journal of Medicine published results of a gold standard trial of mepolizumab, an IL-5 antagonist, in relapsing or refractory eosinophilic granulomatois is with polyangiitis. GSK.

*Shire Plc of Ireland gained 3.5%. SHPG is about to file for its lanadelumab in a rare genetic disease called hereditary angioedema. It blocks the kallikrein antibody and thereby cut the rate of attacks (swelling of extremities, gastro-intestinal tract, and upper airways) by 87% in phase III trials. SHPG bought the drug with others from Dyax for $5.9 bn two years ago. Unlike existing drugs which must be given more frequently, it can be administered every two weeks by injection.

*Early clinical data from Roche shows that a T-cell activation antibody may improve outcomes in metastatic colo-rectal cancer, also in combo with its Tecentriq drug. RHHBY presented the data at the ASCO Annual Meeting today, as reported by FierceBiotech blog. Its share fell 0.63%.

*Best biotech recovery was Bavarian Nordic which rose 2.3%, to $17.75. It was penalized yesterday for its hefty DARPA (DoD) contracts and today the Danes figured they were based on something other than Trumpism. It is in the process of buying up about 10% of its market cap for incentivizing its board and executives for up to DKK 5.5 mn. This is not fair to other shareholders if the stock price falls after the program ends.

Dieselgate

*Volkswagen parent Porsche SE is under investigation for share price manipulation after its new management replaced CEO Winterkorn in 2015.

*Fiat Chrysler and Italy are under European Union investigation for hiding nitrous oxide contamination by its Italian line of buses and trucks. FCAU was sold in time.

Funds

*Mexico is brushing off hints of new scandals and Fibra Uno, a REIT, gained 4.44% today.

*A report from Goldman Sachs Active Beta Japan Equity ETF, shows that it is the smallest of the series launched by the manage​r​. It gained more than the index thanks to value plays but lost because it un​der​ played momentum, quality, and low volatility. By sector it gained from consumer discretionary and industrial holdings and lost because it was underweight financials (it takes one to know one) and overweight Yamazaki Baking. It did best with holdings in Idemitsu Kosan (oil); Mitsui OSK Lines; and Toyota Tsusho which we used to own directly.

*Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Diversified Equity Income Fund, EXG, paid our 0.076 last month in distributions, of which 91.3% came from return of capital and 8.7% from investment income. The level of RoC is lower than for the YTD, when it was 93.9%.

*Gold prices fell back after yesterday's panic boosted them.