E The Rainbow Sign

Yesterday the stock market gave a rainbow sign, which either means we are coming into land, or that it will rain on our stocks for another 40 days. It either means that our towering stock prices will hold together or that the tower will crash.

My biblical references reflect the Torah (Jewish Bible) reading last Saturday, Noah, telling of the Great Flood and the Tower of Babel. Today’s blog tells about animals that are on the ship, like bulls and bears, but despite news from Australia, not kangaroos. Elephants, yes; kangaroos, no. Marsupials were not present in the region where the Bible was dictated or written.

*Macro-economy expert John Llewellyn whom I reunioned with last week here, yesterday issued a commentary on his week-long visit which is not flattering.

“New York is exhibiting all-too-familiar signs of irrational exuberance, while also offering hints of deeper maladies in the US economy.” He cites “hubris” and calls my hometown in 2018 “redolent of the swaggering myopic New York of 1986, 1999, and 2006.” He also called the infrastructure here (notably the airports) like the“third world”. He warns of “trouble ahead.” We published a more detailed commentary on our website which barely got to readers because the tech sector low-level employees don’t have a clue about how to get my blog back into your mailboxes. You can read the back numbers online at www.global-investing.com or at the free moneyshow.com digest under the title “John Lllewellyn: Macroeconomic Conditions are Dangerous.” (Top Pros Top Picks has my photo on the article rather than John’s.)

Pharmaceuticals

*Novartis (Swiss NVS) will present a 5-yr “post hoc” phase III followup on its Cosentyx for treating psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis at a Chicago Medical conference. PSA patients showed reduced signs and symptoms in 83% to 94% of PSA. Patients were highly compliant and there were no new safety issues. Cosentyx Q2 sales were $701 mn, vs 490 mn in Q2 2017. NVS gained 2.1%.