My favorite headline of this week: “Just Eat gains overweight rating.” Just Eat is a website for ordering carryout food recently listed in London as JE. Paul Singer of Elliott Fund, who reportedly made 369% with his decade-long hold-out on Argentine sovereign bonds is a donor to Republican candidate Marco Rubio. Global investing has impact on the US presidential race. 

The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) reports that the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, cut the daily reference rate for the yuan by 105 basis points to 6.549 to the US dollar, the lowest level since early Feb. Hong Kong's dollar is fixed to the key currency, the US$. 

China has to cut its exchange rate to preserve its export markets and discourage imports. But if it moves too publicly it will trigger renewed outflows, most in violation of exchange controls, as Chinese people struggle to more assets outside the country.

To avoid the impact on their wealth of a declining renminbi, the people's currency, the people are also back on the market for real estate, gold, and even bricks of high-value tea.

Speaking of tea, the pound sterling and UK stocks continue to sink over fear of Brexit. Until the June vote is tallied, the fall will probably not be retraced. This is in contrast to what has happened in other currencies and equity markets since late February as stocks regained losses.

Note that our website order-taking facility is now functional for renewals and subs and remember there will be no blog tomorrow and no table update Sunday because I am spending time at a family festivity.

Heavy Industry

*Orocobre (OROCF) which mines lithium and potash at the Salar de Olaroz in Argentina, but is listed in Australia and Canada, reported an A$ loss of 28.275 mn for H1 of the 2015-6 FY, more than 14x the H1 loss in the prior year, mainly because of exchange-rate factors as the Argentine peso was overvalued. This resulted in large one-time non-cash charges to its net assets by over A$28 mn, as well as charges to income. Its loan facility with Mizuho Bank from is denominated in US$s as is its jv with Toyota Tsusha, a sub of the Japanese car-maker.

Next month ORL-Toronto (how we track it now that its US market-maker has dropped the ADR) will switch its accounting to US$s.

The initial impact of the Macri election was more negative as the Argentine peso lost another 35% year-to-date after the exchange rate was liberalized.

However, the new Buenos Aires government's reforms should soon pay off for ORL as it can import equipment for its mines duty-free now. It now can export lithium and boron free of the Cristina Fernandez 5% export penalty and export minerals without the 10% export bite. ORL calls these policy changs material and generally positive and ending “the regulatory roadblocks which delayed commissioning of the production plant”. It has a concession to produce 17,5000 tonnes of low cost battery grade lithium carbonate with low cut-off grades.

It is a green firm as all waste will be stored in the solar brine ponds after the Li is recovered and they will be capped. So there will be no liquid discharge. There will be no impact on local water supplies. The process is much cleaner than what is being done by SQM in the Atacame desert of Chile, where halite deposits have very high surface permeability and can affect local water resources. The only energy used in Olaroz is solar energy, which also meets environmental goals.

Despite the awful impact of the peso on its accounts ORL has achieved operating break-even and last month began its exports of lithium to electric battery making companies in the automotive and moped businesses. Rumors Down Under say one of the buyers is a supplier to Audi.

HI lithium ouput hit 1600 tonnes and with markets tight, the Li price is moving upward. However, business is less bouncy in its other line of producing borax

The Frida Ghitis find is barely traded retail despite the Toronto listing as 55.5% of the stock outstanding is in institutional hands. This is a high-risk play on Argentina and electric vehicles. I think this is less risky than Tesla.

*Posco of Korea is up 25% year to date according to Bank of NY-Mellon ADR trackers.

Abhimanyu Sisodia writes from India:

*Tata Motors (TTM) rallied 6% on Feb. sales figures showing a 5% gain to 46,647 units with the best gains for SUVand export vehicles, but form a modest base. TTM also joined a world ecological initiative, RE100, pledging to source all its manufacturing energy from renewables. Currently it only gets 8% of factory energy from renewables. TTM has solar energy installed at 3 of its factories and a project to bring on wind-power.

TTM is up even more on the NYSE, gaining 7.5%.

More Latins

*Vale (VALE) rose another 2.6% on Thursday in London trading. On Wednesday it gained 13.44% and turned in a 10.33% rise year to date. On the Big Board it is up over another 12% yesterday. The terms of the Samarco settlement with the Brazilian attorney-general are the main reason. It will pay half of a total of reais 4.4 bn through to 2018 after which it will have to pay a further Rs800-1600 mn in the following 3 years depending on claims. Whole villages were destroyed and 19 people killed or missing when the dam burst. Other civil suits may yet be filed. But it is a sweetheart deal for VALE and BHP-Billiton, the other owner of Samarco.

*Ecopetrol (EC) rose 5.6% yesterday on the NYSE. It too rose smartly on Wednesday, by 7.89%, bringing its YTD rise to 11.84%.

*Bank of Nova Scotia's (BNS) its new quarterly dividend announced on Wednesday, works out to US$ 0.5254/sh payable April 27 to shareholder's of record April Fool's Day. This is $2.10/yr, a yield of 4.88%. BNS runs Scotiabank throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

*Teva (TEVA) of Israel yesterday completed its acquisition of Mexico's Representaciones y Investigaciones, RIMSA, along with its pipeline and intellectual property, for $2.3 bn. Mexico is the No 2 Latin American drug market after Brazil, and will now gain access to TEVA's generics.

Other Health Stocks

*Novo Nordisk (NVO) is having problems getting Express Scripts, the US benefits management company, to accept its Tresiba basal insulin as superior to Sanofi's Lantus in cutting the risk of hypoglycemia. This was reported yesterday by FiercePharma, a specialized newsletter. Other plans like CVS Health and Humana do accept the benefit of Tresiba and also get $15 monthly copays for us to two years for switching insulins.

Apparently Express Scripts favors use of wi-fi blood sugar monitors it operates itself. This helps explain why the Danish firm cut its forecast sales level for 2016 and why its stock is losing altitude. The coming of two more biosimilars to Lantus from Eli Lilly and Boeringer Ingolheim will further threaten both current products. However I have hope for NVO gaining from its weight-loss line

*GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) yesterday published results of a 5-yr analysis of patients with moderate to severe lupus who had been treated with Benlysta (belimumbab), GSK's treatment, and given standard care. They suffered low rates of organ damage progression regardless of the baseline level when they began treatment. Irreversible organ damage is what causes death to lupus sufferers.

*Nomura raised its rating for Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc (LON:RB, RBGLY) to buy and its target prices from the equivalent of $90.55 to $101.87. The 5:1 ADR is at $18.40.

*Indivior (INVVY) was downrated by Investors Intelligence on Thursday. II chartists in Britain are reacting to the anniversary of the INVVY spinoff from RB which led US shareholders to sell to take a capital gain long-term rather than short-. It makes delivery systems for opioid addicts.

*A reader in MA asked how to buy Benitec Biopharma (BNTC) warrants. They trade on Nasdaq from time to time since the common shares were issued last Aug. However at the stage the spread is huge, $2.49 ask, 31 cents bid. The main trading site is in Australia which is sleeping when Q is open and visa versa. The BNTC common stock is way more liquid and inching up but still a disaster for long-term holders like me.

*Learning the Johnson & Johnson was responsible for selling its stake in Galapagos (GLPG) has lead Zacks to raise GLPG to buy. The share fell as two JHJ subs exited after its US listing which produced a “death cross” for chartists looking at the entrails. The analyst community is split between up- and down-grades of the Belgian drug discovery firm.

*Infosys (INFY) and Microsoft will work on a comprehensive healthcare informatics predictive system together using MSFT's Cortana analysis suite to help operational efficiency and cut administrative costs in hospitals and other healthcare institutions. INFY thinks they will be better able to track population health trends while improving clinical support and patient satisfaction. INFY is aiming at the global healthcare market which is growing by over 26% per year, but which is fragmented and challenging. Other entrants include IBM and Oracle, according to a report by Zacks which rates INFY neutral.

Sold too Soon

*Imperial Tobacco (ITYBY) was downrated by Goldman Sachs to neutral with a a GBX3910 target price and $101.1 for the ADR. We sold earlier at $99.27 mainly because ITYBY was downplaying its vape arm and I felt guilty owning a stock selling coffin nails.

*We also sold Paddy Power plc (PDYPF) too soon at $78 as it has now been added to the FTSE despite being Irish. That means it will be traded more widely by indexes and become more liquid. PDYPF is another play on human weakness.

Comeback Kid

*CRH plc (CRH), an Irish cement maker, is winning although it has been part of the FTSE a long time, because the falling pound boosts its business in Britain serviced from euroland. It has booked a golden cross through its 15-day moving average which signals a bullish trend to Investors Intelligence, the chartists mentioned above.

Fund Fun

*Pimco Total Return Fund is back on the down side with $600 mn of further withdrawals in Feb. It is owned mostly by Allianz (AZSEY), AZSEY, of Germany. Assets under management fell to $88 bn. At the peak of the Bill Gross era, AUM topped $293 bn.

This time the reason was poor performance, down 0.66% vs a 0.71% rise in its benchmark. The Feb. underperformance was probably shared by other large funds, which were slow to realize that the downtrend in stock markets was reversing. This too will change.'

*There may be some hope for Pershing Square Holdings after all. With a key player at Valeant Pharma having resigned there are rumors that Bill Ackman's favorite long is in trouble. Happily his favorite short also is in trouble after Herbalife said it overstated its growth in new members for 2015 (according to Reuters.) If the numbers were fiddled to cover up what Ackman insists is a Ponzi scheme, he may win with his short after all. He also hit “a home run” with his Canadian Pacific long.

An Ackman watcher among the readership writes that if he exits VRX, then he is no master of the universe but just a bigmouth. “But if he sticks with it and it recovers it shows guts and better analysis than the sellers exercise.” PSH is trading at $15.28 in London.

*Gold is hitting its highest level in the past year, which is good for SPDR Gold ETF, GLD at $120+. Gold accounts for a quarter of the current account deficit in India, about which I have written much yesterday and one of the new regs proposed by FM Jaitley Monday will add 1% to the sales tax on gold jewelry.

*Canadian General Investments (CGRIF), CGI-Toront, NAV at end-Feb. Hit C$22.29, a return of minus 7.9% YTD missing its benchmark. The price it traded at however made it a bargain, C$16.40. One reason for the lag is that CGRIF was over 10% in cash., its largest holding.