Our last week’s pick, Express Inc. (NYSE: EXPR) went up from $4.03 on last Monday’s closing, to $5.44 within two days (up 35%).
In the past few days, several countries in Europe (Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, etc.) temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s (LSE: AZN) vaccinations over blood clot concerns. The U.S. has yet to approve AZN. Mr. Trudeau stated today that Canada considers AZN’s vaccine to be safe. We are concerned that this development might delay the rollout of vaccines in Europe. We believe that such a scenario will strengthen the US$, and negatively impact metal prices.
Inventory levels of base metals increased two weeks in a row on both the LME, and the SHFE (Shanghai), indicating potential for near-term weakness in prices. We are maintaining our forecasts, but expect prices to remain volatile in the coming months.
We reported last week that U.S. based cannabis companies are trading at a discount to large Canadian LPs. A deeper analysis this week indicated that the largest four Canadian cannabis companies are trading at an 88% premium to its U.S. based peer group. We expect this imbalance to be corrected as the U.S. cannabis industry moves closer to federal legalization.
