We are still extricating ourselves from a Google app which was added unnecessarily to our account, which has blocked my receipt of emails. So this is a rather meager blog. But before the weekend I think it important to keep up with things.
More from the USA, Switzerland, South Africa, Netherlands Antilles, Mexico, India, Hong Kong, Germany, Canada, Britain, Australia. We have two company reports.
Results
*Schlumberger Ltd beat in its Q3 and rose 1.3% today. The oilfield services firm incorporated in the Netherlands Antilles had lower revenues at $8.5 bn, off about 8% from the prior Q3 ) but its profits rolled in up 18% at $644 mn, 46 ¢/sh, a penny higher than the analyst forecast average. Its business in North America was up 23% reflecting shale and offshore exploration rises, but its international business rose only 1% on average.
*British Renishaw, RNSHF, a quirky metronics firm recommended by Martin Ferera, saw its Q1 profits fall modestly in sterling, to £33.5 mn, off about 10% from prior year Q1 levels of £36.9 mn, and initially, the stock price fell by even more before correcting to only be down 6.7%. Revenues were up 8% to £154 mn. The reaction was from fear of Brexit for this firm which makes systems for precise measurement, expected to lose international sales. However, in the conference call, the new CEO stressed that it is “confident of its prospects despite” different outcomes over British membership of the European Union. More tech news below.
*I am not writing up Earthstone Energy (ESTE) results as this is a bonus share.
Pharma
*BiolineRX (BLRX) disappointed bulls by its report on its trials for metastatic pancreatic cancers, a major unmet need. Its BL8046 proved to be safe and well-tolerated in trials over the first 6 months Moreover one of the patients saw a regression of his cancer, while another 10 saw their cancer stabilized. This is positive news. More importantly, still, the level of stable or improved results in this period was 51.5% in the total treating population for which BL8046 was used as a second line treatment. These are significant results; yet it is off 22%.
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