A Proxy For Something? -- August 12, 2020

I mentioned the OXY warrants earlier. 

From August 10, 2020:

ICYMI: OXY warrants.

Issued August 3, 2020, or thereabouts, to those with OXY, record date, July 6, 2020. Distribution announcement here.

Holders of Occidental common stock will receive 1/8th of a warrant for each share of common stock held as of the record date, and each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one share of Occidental common stock for a purchase price of $22 per share. The distribution of the warrants will be made on August 3, 2020 to stockholders of record as of July 6, 2020. The warrants will have a term of seven years and Occidental expects to list the warrants on The New York Stock Exchange.

Come due in seven years for $22. Can exercise them any time between day of issue and 2027. By exercising your warrant, you can buy a common share of OXY for $22.

Currently trading under ticker symbol "OXY-WT" on NYSE for under $5.00.

SeekingAlpha articles frequently disappear behind a paywall, but as of tonight, this piece on OXY is still accessible. 

Today's graphic, link here (this site is also linked at the sidebar at the right):

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CalPERS

CalPERS has been much in the news lately with the sudden exit of its director, a Chinese sympathizer, from August 10, 2020: Meng's mysterious exit. 

Now this:

California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) disclosed Wednesday that it more than doubled its shares stakes in Gilead Sciences Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc., both of which have been beneficiaries of the COVID-19 pandemic, while it rebalanced its holdings of technology-behemoths Apple Inc. AAPL, and Microsoft Corp. by trimming its stakes during the second quarter. 

As of June 30, the pension fund owned 10,528,157 million shares of Gilead, which makes COVID-19 vaccine candidate remdesivir, up from 4,353,093 shares as of March 31, while its Zoom Video stake increased to 341,358 shares from 61,070 shares. 

Among other companies with COVID-19 vaccine candidates, the stake in Moderna Inc. increased to 599,997 shares from 449,100 shares and the Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. holding nearly doubled to 322,441 shares from 176,365 shares. 

CalPERS trimmed its stakes in Apple to 9,171,757 shares from 10,190,498 shares and in Microsoft to 16,850,303 shares from 17,404,566 shares. Meanwhile, given the rallies in the stocks, the market value of CalPERS holding in Apple increased to $3.35 billion as of June 30 from $2.59 billion as of March 31, while the value of the Microsoft shares it held rose to $3.43 billion from $2.74 billion. 

The overall market value of CalPERS's equity holdings increased 22.7% to $101.41 billion, while the S&P 500 SPX, +1.40% gained 20.0% in the second quarter.