No, I will not comment on Prince Charles's comparing Putin to Hitler. There are arguments pro and con but since I am not a subject of the Royal Family, I don't have to pick a side. A US shares I owned was subjected to Chinese internet espionage, Alcoa.

Gazprom got lucky. First the EU wrote a letter to Putin asking him not to cut gas supplies running through Ukraine after Kiev turned down OGZPY demand to be paid $3.5 bn for gas in advance. That was good for Russian morale.

Then Beijing and Moscow—by leaving out the key matter of price per cu m, which CEO Alexei Miller called “a commercial secret”—finally managed to hammer out a 30-yr $400 bn supply contract over new Siberian gas for China. Experts think Russia is settling for a lower price than it charges western Europe and moreover, to get the deal, it agreed to let China National Petroleum Corp join Gazprom in developing fields nearer to China than the ones supplying Europe.

The new accord almost certainly does not link the gas price charged China to the price of oil. That link which hits European importers of Siberian gas, is subject of a potential European anti-trust case against Gazprom, which predates the Ukraine events.

Today I gloat that yesterday's note about how to play India (for paid subscribers) forecast that Narendra Modi might pull a Nixon-in-China or an Ariel Sharon on the PLO. Today Indian invited Pakistan's leader Nawaz Sharif to Modi'sMay 26 inauguration, a first such invitation since Partition. It is easier for those known to be firmly against another country to make peaceful gestures.

I wrote, for paid subscribers only: 

"A quirky alternative is to buy Pakistan. As the leader of the Hindu sectarian BJP party, Modi could pull a Nixon in China or an Airel Sharon out of his sola topee... There is no longer a Pakistan Fund which I used to own in honor of my fellow Radcliffe graduate, the late Benazir (Pinky) Bhutto. Pakistan has been boosted because of its good performance to 8.9% of the MSCI Frontier index, double where it was a year ago. We own this through an open-end fund (converted from closed and therefore dropped from the model portfolio), Morgan Stanley Institutional Frontier Markets Fund, MPMIX, which weights Pakistan at 9.3% (no. 4 after 3 Gulf countries.) Whose who didn't buy it with me now have to put up $5 mn to buy in."

Investing in stocks for the long-term is the best tactic for boosting your wealth, according to academic studies. The 2^nd best investment turns out to be—not bonds, not stamps, not paintings, not antiques, not real estate, not gold—but “Premier Cru” Bordeaux red wines. A team of researches from Britain's Cambridge, France's HEC, and Vanderbilt U of Nashville found that fine wine appreciated 4.1% in the period 1900 to 2012, beaten only by UK equities. They studied data about over 36,000 sales transactions for 5 wines: Haut-Brion, Lafite-Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, and Mouton-Rothschild. The transactions were sales by London wine-merchants Berry Bros & Rudd and auction prices at Christie's.

I could not invest this way: if I get a great bottle of wine I am tempted to taste and drink it. So I will not be able to sell it at auction.

More for paid subscribers from Israel, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Finland, Chile, Ireland, Colombia, Canada, Myanmar, and Ireland. And Cuba. 

*Because I overslept, I will not cover Pakistani stock ideas today. The country has 8 GDRs all of which are seasoned and can be bought by retail investors: two banks, United and UCB; two cement works, a Lafarge sub and Lucky; two oil and gas firms, one called Pakistan Pete and the other helpfully called Oil & Gas Development; a power company, Hub, and the telco, Pakistan Telecom. I am trying to get help from Thalassa Ali, a Radcliffe friend, a novelist and stockbroker, who lived in Pakistan for ages before her husband died.

As for India, AZ reader SF thinks I should hold off. “Buy on rumor”, sell on news, he writes. He warns about continued govt corruption and remarks that Matthews India Fund (which we don't cover) rose 11% in the last 20 days. He then ends, cryptically, “Never assume the song is gone because it has found its source in silence.” Huh?

*Australia's Woodside Petroleum abandoned its plan to buy 25% of the huge Israeli offshore Leviathan field for $2.7 bn because of a tax dispute with Jerusalem which exceeded the term of the original memorandum of understanding with the consortium. Instead, the existing owners will seek a financial partner and retain their current stakes. They are Delek Group (DGRLY via 2 subs, 45.34%); Noble Energy (of Texas, 39.66%); and Ratio Oil (also of Israel, 15%).

While Ratio will need to raise money, and its stock fell 3.7%, Israeli analysts were upbeat on the impact on Delek (which fell 0.9% in Israel but is off 3.2% here.)

DGRLY will be able to fund using the proceeds from its sales of overseas assets (mostly in the US) to develop regional deals in Egypt and Jordan. These could achieve higher prices that Woodside offered for an LNG link to Oz, Israeli brokers write. I also like the local deals for their political impact.

*Eduardo Garcia writes in www.seekingalpha.co.mx (whose internet address I screwed up on Monday; desculpe) that Mexico's No. 2 industrial group, Alfa, is paying $2 mn to actuiere more interests in Canada's Pacific Rubiales Energy, a major indie producing oil in Colombia. The place where the new 10% partner in Rubiales will drill is Mexico where reforms ending the Pemex monopoly are being passed into law.

Another likely beneficiary, already drilling offshore in US Gulf of Mexico waters, is the state-controlled Colombian oil company, Ecopetrol, EC, which we own, which may also do deals.

*Covidien won FDA agreement to lower the risk-level on its recently-acquired Given Imaging endoscopic camera which you swallow. Given is Israeli and COV is Irish, and the new device is less intrusive than colonoscopy, so there was no way the FDA could resist the risk downgrade pressure. The news should help our shares.

*British Columbia companies in drilling or liquefied natural gas projects opposed by greens and “first nations” (Indians) and backed by unions will work together to speak with one voice in a new alliance. What really has them upset is that LNG exports from the US have already been approved, notably that for Jordan Cove in Oregon which will let our Veresen (FCGYF) of Canada beat the herd. Martin Ferera, our reporter in Vancouver, also beat the herd by picking FCGYF.

*The impact of the Ukraine crisis will impact those commodities which the country produces significant quantities of: wheat (7% of world exports) and corn (17%). While Russia is not interfering with exports, Ukrainian farmers, who are having difficulty getting finance, are hoarding grain. Shipping via the main Ukrainian port, Odessa, has been disrupted by the uprising.

US prices have risen already, wheat by 21% and corn by 10% since Feb. It didn't help that awful US weather followed by a rapid hot, dry spell hurt Great Plains crops. The prredicted El Niño colder wetter summer can also hurt yields from US fields. So far, Australia is an alternative cheaper source for wheat but it is a half-year behind in its harvest.

We don't play commodities, but we do buy stocks. Higher prices will boost demand for fertilizer and add to political turmoil in importer countries like Egypt. Our play is Agrium which sells nutrients in the US, Canada, and Australia. AGU

*Allana Potash is also up, mainly on the Israel Chemical news I think as it is a long way from production. ALLRF.

*Nokia is up 4.4% after Jefferies upgraded the Finnish firm to buy with a target price of euros 7.41 ($10.11). NOK will use the proceeds from its Microsoft sale to cut debt by euros 2 bn, the brokerage writes. I hope our Yankee bonds 654902AB1 are not a target. It may also be up because Microsoft is enhancing the Surface Pro with a bigger screen.

*Brazil's VALE is recovering thanks to Chinese iron ore prices rising over 1%.Vale.

*Our Bombardier is off 3% because its trains for the SNCF turn out to be too wide for the platforms. This is the result of rotten specs not an error by the Canadian company. The misfit was revealed today by Le Canard Enchainé and has become a cause celèbre in the France. BDRAF is francophone

*Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile, SQM, missed with EPS of 31 cents vs forecasts of 36. We sold SQM over governance issues.

Fund news:

*Motley Fool Singapore issued an adverse report on Yoma Strategic Holdings based on its “treacherous” “exuberant” p/e ratio. Commented Harry Geisel: “We bought Yoma as a Myanmar pure play, not because it was 'cheap.'” Even serious investors need to release their 'animal spirits' in small amounts every now and then.” YMAIF

*Fibra Uno, the Mexican REIT, is acquiring a 6500 sq m office property in Polanco, a neighborhood in Mexico City which will be extended to nearly triple the site. The existing building is 100% occupied. The total cost, including the new construction which is 100% pre-leased, is NMP 750 mn.

*Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund is planning a non-transferable rights offering to owners of CUBA to subscribe new shares under terms and timing still not revealed. This is a less dilutive procedure than issuing transferable rights in closed-end funds.