As-salamu alaykum everyone, I hope you are doing well. Today is Thursday, April, and it appears that the final matchup between the United States and China is taking shape. And the markets are kind of nervous about this, understandably so. China and the US are number two and number one in terms of size of economies globally. And so it makes sense for the market to be very concerned about the trade war that is going on between these two countries. This was a trade war that was completely unnecessary. It was completely unforced error by the Trump administration. And yet here we are. It's something that the administration is going to have to deal with. The world is going to have to deal with. And we are really in very, very historic times. I mean, look at some of the charts that I'm going to show you. Unprecedented, really, in history. in terms of what we're seeing and it's creating a lot of opportunities to be honest in the market there's a lot of names out there that are really cheap I mean I to be honest yesterday when we got the rally I didn't really think that I I I had a hunch that we'd pull back today but I didn't think we would pull back this much Now, in hindsight, you know, perhaps things were a lot more predictable because if you think about it, yesterday morning when markets opened, pessimism was at its peak. And then the tweet from the administration about the ninety day pause on tariffs is what changed everything. You can imagine there were a lot of short sellers, a lot of leverage traders betting on the market going down who were caught off sides after that tweet was was tweeted out. And it really amplified the move upwards to a very big degree. And so perhaps even more than what the actual optimism in the market suggested. the rebound should have been for and therefore today was just repricing back down nevertheless we don't really worry about that we nibble we continue to nibble on the names that we think are undervalued and continuing our strategy being cautious not necessarily backing up the truck because we know that we're in very volatile times and things are liable to change in a tweet. And therefore we have to make sure that we're being cautious, but at the same time, taking advantage of what the market is putting in front of us. So I did mention yesterday I was asked about the CPI. I thought it was going to be cooler and a good number. And in fact, we got that. In fact, we got a number that we haven't seen since twenty twenty one, which is fantastic. It really sort of completes the narrative needed for the Fed to actually get started cutting interest rates. and that should be good for risk assets and we actually saw that the probability for an interstate cut increase from twenty percent to close to twenty five percent between yesterday and today this is with regards to the May meeting so that's all good for risk assets and yet risk assets didn't really care today because of what's going on between China and the United States. The Dow tumbled a thousand points, which if you asked me six months ago, that's terrible. But considering what we've been through in the last week, that's not too bad. I mean, we gave back half of the gains that we got yesterday. But under Trump's administration, that's just par for the course. And we got a pretty red day in the market overall regardless of sector with exception to consumer defensive which was a bit greener but you know tesla was up twenty percent yesterday it's down seven percent today apple was up eighteen percent yesterday down four percent today yeah so uh definitely you know substantially down But again, considering where we were or the course that we've been on in the last week since Liberation Day, which should probably be named something else, maybe Ruination Day or Catastrophe Day or something like that. Since Liberation Day, this is just another day in the market. VIX is up to forty, which is not its peak in the last week. And we've been higher. But if you look at the chart here in terms of the fear index or the VIX, hasn't really been at these elevated levels above forty, except when we had the coronavirus in twenty twenty and the great financial crisis, two thousand eight, two thousand nine. So we are, as I mentioned at the outset, we are in very historic times right now. will be remembered for many years to come. And during these historic times, it's really when best opportunities present themselves. Gold printed another, I thought this was going to be the chart for Bitcoin, ends up being the chart for gold. So my apologies to everyone who I called a boomer, who was talking about gold. And singing its praises. Gold has printed another all-time high. It's now at thirty one sixty. And this corresponds with what we know about the relationship between the fear index and gold. When fear index rises, so does gold. It is a safe haven asset, risk off asset. And there's a lot of uncertainty in the market. Investors don't really know what's going to happen between China and the United States. So it makes sense for gold to go up. The US dollar index has just fallen off a cliff. This is actually good for risk assets for a number of reasons. Obviously for American assets makes it cheaper to buy. However, it also It's also good for other economies because it allows them to print more money because they, you know, if the dollar is strengthening, they don't want to devalue their currency by a lot. But if they're the dollar is weakening, then they have some leeway in order to print more and introduce more liquidity into their economies. And so this kind of tells me that general direction of liquidity globally is going to be upwards for uh the next few months and that's good for risk assets generally it's good for something like bitcoin for sure yeah even though bitcoin has uh not really you know had the type of run that gold has had it has displayed some remarkable resilience now when you're comparing it to you know some of the major tech stocks that have been uh staples in their respective indices U.S. Treasury, and this is really what caused Trump to fold yesterday as the interest rates, the yields on the ten-year, on the thirty-year, they were rising, probably because China was dumping U.S. debt And probably additionally because of, you know, leverage traders being caught offside. But the U.S. Treasury yields have not fallen. This is something that is of concern for the U.S. administration. They kind of revealed their hand yesterday in terms of, you know, what they can't have happen. And what is unacceptable, it did sort of appear that, you know, markets going down, that was something that they were willing to have patience on. But treasury yields rising is where they kind of drew the line and decided to change course. So perhaps continued pressure from treasury yields now will cause the U.S. administration to soften its stance on China and China. and start being a bit more reasonable I mean right now tariffs on chinese goods are a hundred and forty five percent that's just going to end trade in you know for most products uh between china and united states so that needs to be resolved and perhaps this uh treasury yield rises a blessing in disguise will cause the u.s administration to kind of prioritize making a deal because I know the chinese want it they they really needed to happen. Their economy was not as healthy as the U.S. economy before this happened. And perhaps because the U.S. administration revealed their hand yesterday with regards to the importance of treasury yields to them, perhaps this will cause China to ratchet up the pressure on treasury yields by selling more and more of its U.S. debt, which it has, I think, close to close to almost a trillion dollars in U.S. debt. So it can really raise yields here in a big way if it chooses to do so. And it's reaching out to other countries to try and see if it can strike deals with them and try and see if it can wane its dependence on the United States. But I think that both the U.S. and China are going to discover that They really can't do without one another. I think they're going to discover that both have a lot of pretty strong cards to play, and they need one another. I'm hoping this is the conclusion that they arrive at. As I said yesterday, I do think that a complete severing of trade ties between the United States and China will increase the probability of an armed conflict between these two countries. And I don't think anyone wants that. I mean, it risks the future of humanity itself. So I think, you know... both countries coming to the realization that they need to work together as in humanity's best interests. And that's kind of what I'm hoping for. That being said, our strategy as PIF is the same. We're dollar cost averaging into our favorite names. You saw me I do that yesterday and today. I think, for example, Bitdeer, I have a full position now in Bitdeer for our PIF portfolios, and I'm going to start moving down our watch list and making sure that I have full positions in each of the top names that we have there. And, you know, maybe even establish some positions in some of those new names that we've added because they're looking, you know, ripe for the picking at this point. And we'll continue to do that. And to be honest, if this goes on for, you know, a few more weeks and we're able to, sort of get to the positions that we want to get to for each of our favorite names. I wouldn't mind that that much because we're halal conscious investors. We're not dealing with leverage. We're not dealing with derivatives. No one forces us to sell if we don't want to sell. And so we are in charge of our own destiny here, inshallah. And that puts us in a privileged position to do very well in the future, inshallah. With that being said, let's go to questions very quickly. Salam, Usama. It's nice to see you. Salam, Rashad. Nice to see you. Lol, we only use Heinz, American product. It's funny. Malik says, Salam, Rakan. Do you still see Tesla hitting the seven hundred mark end of year? You'll be surprised, but I actually do think it'll end the year with a seven handle. But we'll see. What do you make of EU-China negotiating to abolish tariffs? I mean, that should kind of, I mean, it's kind of like, you know, America had this good friend in the EU and it was treating it badly. It treated the EU badly for no good reason. I mean, they keep complaining about the VAT tax that the EU has, but the VAT tax is on all products. It's not just on American products. So it wasn't unfairly, you know, this adventaging, is that a word? Disadvantaging the American products. It was on all products. So, I mean, it was a level playing field. And the EU was, you know, really considered the United States to be a close ally to it. And this administration doesn't see it that way. And it kind of... didn't put much importance on the alliance that it had with the EU and its members. And so, you know, maybe you and China talking will get the United States to rethink the importance of its relationship with the EU and, you know, start treating them better because I felt that the way the U S administration treated Europeans was, was insulting and, and to Europeans and, uh, and just unfair. And so I think that maybe this EU-China negotiation will cause the US administration to rethink. It should have a zero for zero, I think, trade relationship with the EU. There's no reason not to. The fact of the matter is trade is enriching for both sides. If I have something that you want, you have something that I want and we trade, then we're both better off after the trade. No one took advantage of the other. Assuming, you know, things were... uh traded with you know proper disclosure of what actually is being traded and you know just common sense in terms of you know uh fairness there but if you know nothing was hidden and people knew what they were getting into and they traded two products then each side is now better off and so this entire notion that the deficits that we had with different countries were were evidence that these countries were treating us badly is just asinine and moronic. What do you make of EU-China negotiating to abolish tariffs on Chinese cars and impact on Tesla? I know Tesla is not cars only, but surely it'll dent its car business. Well, keep in mind, Tesla does have a factory in Germany and probably have additional factories in Europe. And the same with China, it does have factories in China. So there is a way for Tesla to... Tesla is a lot closer than any other car company in the United States to avoiding tariffs, both that China might impose and also that the EU might impose by manufacturing in those respective places. Hey, Salaam, Suhail. Nice to see you. Salaam, Haroon. It is a bloodbath today, yes, but as I mentioned, I mean, compared to what we've experienced in the last week, just another Thursday, I guess. What do you think of Rivian? It's not the top of breed for me. Although it's a good company, but car business, very, very tough business. It's one of those hard ways to make money. I always say there are easy ways to make money. There are hard ways to make money. manufacturing cars is a very hard way to make money. If Tesla was only in the business of manufacturing cars, I would not own a single share of Tesla. Why own Tesla includes, you know, full self driving, which is basically a software business. And then, you know, the robo taxi business that can be attached to that, obviously energy, uh, very good margins there. And then you have, um, robots and, uh, the multi-trillion dollar industry that that presents. And so that's really why I'm in Tesla, not for the manufacturing of cars itself having really poor margins compared to other businesses. And Rivian is basically a company that just manufactures cars. Salamat, is that AI or Al? Anyway, Salamat, brother, given the recent market shifts, are there any new stocks that have become particularly attractive? Tempest AI was one that we had on our watch list. It's on our short list, so maybe we'll add it soon. Salamat, Dr. Khaled. Nice to see you. Salam, Dr. Midas. Do you think China's selling U.S. debt to drive bond yields, reducing U.S. government fiscal firepower? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think China may have been doing that. And I mean, if you start a trade war with someone, I mean, what do you expect? They're not going to do things, I mean, charging them a hundred and forty five percent tariff. They're not going to necessarily think about, you know, what's in your best interest. They're going to try and punish you. That's what the Chinese did and it worked. How do you see this resolving itself? I think hopefully they'll sit down, they'll get a deal done. Like I said, both countries need one another. I think eventually they should sit down and figure something out. How long do you think before Trump makes the art of the deal with China? I don't know how long it's going to take, but I think both sides have ways to pressure the other. When do you plan to start pivoting away from US stocks? I think major pivots away from US stocks will probably be in the next maybe two or three years. But I do see myself more focused on US stocks in the next twelve to twenty four months at least. I mean, the United States still has the best companies in the world. That's just a fact. And the best companies in the world do trade on U.S. stock exchanges. That's just a fact. So our focus will be on companies that trade on U.S. stock exchanges for the most part, which includes U.S. companies. It also includes other companies as well, like non-U.S. companies. So that will remain our focus until that changes, until the best companies in the world are no longer traded on U.S. exchanges. then our approach will change. With that being said, leave a like, guys. Love you all. Hope you're enjoying this show, the greatest show on earth, which is financial markets. Until next time, make sure to take care of yourself. Assalamualaikum and peace be upon you all.