Okay, welcome back to episode 77 of the market maker podcast and a welcome back to Piers Curran. How's it going? It's going well. Yeah, I've missed I've missed this Well, yeah for me I had to go solo literally solo last week desperate Probably the best ratings of Of all our episodes Do you know our best rating actually was Milan who joined me? We had a chat two episodes ago and Yeah, had some great feedback and actually was out of 77 episodes our fourth most popular and it's only been out for two weeks It's not right.  What what more evidence do I need all right, so Yeah, I'll see you then I'm not needed right Quick question then when you're away given Your career trading and obviously now being a business owner when you are away Do you actually switch off or Is that hard? The answer is really no and like especially at this time of year I would say Well, I like from our well as you know from my kind of business point of view It's the busiest time year summer I guess I mean that situation where I've got kids in our school holidays. So there's any set Periods of the year where you can kind of do a family break. So yeah The summer just falls the school summer holiday kind of falls right on our most busiest time of the year from a kind of business point of view Obviously markets wise things are pretty spicy They're trying to keep an eye, but yeah, normally and end of the year sort of Christmas new year is the kind of best time for me to just Switch it off Yeah, okay. Well, look, I hope you're feeling I hope you're feeling fresh because there's plenty for us to get our teeth into today Starting off with what I'll do is I'll go through a series of the major news from this week and we'll have a little discussion on each point and then something which Kind of goaded me into is a little bit of you just come back and you're like, look, let's just have it out Let's have a fist fight which way stocks going up or down you and me And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what happened on your holiday? Well, we were talking the other day and you yeah, I was trying to think we have now opposite opinions on The direction of the stock market. Let's just say I don't think that happens very often. So alright, let's have it out Okay What we'll do then is we'll We'll spar over the direction of us equities. I'm not sparring Look, you're an old man is better we spar So we'll get to that we'll put forward a bit of a pitch as to Stocks up or down from here on out for you for the US but before that let's talk over some of the week's major headlines starting with the headline US CPI print And the reaction in markets and it was pretty much the opposite of where we finished the prior week where non-farm payrolls came out And it was a super strong report hawkish report. Everyone Got really spooked again by the fact that we're gonna have to go for the third Time 75 basis points and everything sold off stock sold off The yields obviously saw dollars sold some major FX pairs Everything got hit CPI comes out It's all okay again. The world's a great place Yes inflation is still on a year-and-year basis at eight and a half percent So we're still talking about multi-decade high inflation But the fact is is it decelerated from 9.1 percent and it was a lower figure than people expected now Part of that was not unexpected of course because gasoline prices have been dropping quite dramatically So the core figure so this is the one you'll hear quite a lot It kind of extrapolates out then more volatile components like food and energy specifically as the one a lot of people are focused on and the key thing there was that that was expected to tick up to 6.1 percent, but instead it remained constant at 5.9 percent and She would imagine the markets flipped Immediately stocks rallied led by none other than the Nasdaq and tech think we finished up maybe three percent almost on that day Followed up by the producer price index the day after Unexpectedly fell in July for the first time in more than two years as well Thoughts pierced and lost a seesaw price action big shifts over at the moment We we're going 75 50 in the the short end of the rates market. What's your view? Well, yeah, firstly the reaction Let's say the positive stock reaction to the CPI data that was a larger reaction and the negative reaction the week before to the jobs market data and that's Correct inflations the big ticket in time right in terms of the influencing forces So it's the inflation data is more important even though obviously they're all kind of linked, but um, yeah, I mean It's a relief In many ways, I think what we're seeing is a short term relief Continuation of what's been a really strong rally in stocks over the last few weeks So we've just gone again another step higher and it's and it's and it's relief I think that When it comes to inflation so you mentioned core inflation, but also It's important to understand that inflation is it's kind of measured on an annualized basis So those figures you were throwing out there. That's on an annualized basis. So for example the core Inflation reading for July was 5.9 percent. So that means that in July 2022 Core prices were 5.9 percent higher than in July 2021 Okay, and that was a positive because as you said we're expecting it to go up But it's in line with June right so it's not like inflation is going down on a core level on an annualized basis However, inflation is also measured on a shorter term And this is important. So a month-on-month reading This is comparing prices in July to prices in June. So one of the figures out of that Wednesday inflation report was that the CPI month-on-month reading was zero So it didn't go up and that's the first zero print On a month-on-month basis that we've had since COVID since the COVID outbreak back in spring 2020 So you could say that's a more of a shorter term look at inflation, which maybe gives you a better signal as to Where the trend might go, you know in the months to come. So look people We're so used to getting higher than expected inflation and it feeds into this narrative of more rapid rate hikes and it's all negative and this is just a short term I think short term Kind of relief. It's not worse and expected for once great You know, maybe the Fed aren't gonna have to hike XYZ and so the markets pop to the upside And we're gonna round back the week, you know the highest levels We've seen on on US stocks for like you've actually got to go back now. Let me just get this right You got to go back to May the 4th Star Wars day. Yeah, what's the last time US stocks were higher on the S&P 500 that is were higher than where they are now And technically I heard you talking about a key levels were out at the moment in terms of where we close around these points for bullish bearish signals with technical perspective. Is that right? Yeah, so looking at the S&P 500 that obviously the markets been Trending lower all year if you're looking at the longer term but you zoom in to the last six weeks and it's been going up, right, but Where we've reached now is the kind of end of May highs So around 4200 on the S&P 500 Was kind of a quite a key level at the end of May we're just up above that now I'm quite interested to see where the market closes today Because it's the end of the week, right? So if you're looking at charts on a weekly timeframe, you get your weekly candlesticks and if If it looks like at the moment we're trading 4,220, right? So it looks like we'll close above 4,200 and that would be significant from a kind of technical point of view If by the end of today's session Things drift lower and we close below 4,200. I think that's actually a really negative reversal technical signal So yeah, it'd be quite interesting to see where we close today But for now that inflation figure Popped us up through that 4,200 resistance and we're kind of just sat on top of that for a moment And then part of what we were discussing there was it was the energy and US gas prices this week Fell back below very key psychological marker of four bucks A gallon that is down more than 20% from the record high So substantial But I did read the goldman's came out and they were saying that they don't think that's going to last I Below four is going to go back up above that in the kind of near medium term Rationale global suppliers of oil are still running relatively low And argue that demand from US drivers is likely to rise after showing signs of weakening Yeah feelings on that So you're talking about gasoline here, right? So gasoline. Yeah Yeah, I mean oils The reason why it's below four dollars a gallon at the petrol pump Is because what the price of oil has been going down for the last couple of months So there's very much a function of oil prices So I guess you're just saying what you've got a basic to to to make the judgment of where Petrol pump prices are going to be in a month from two months and three months Really, you're asking for your opinion on the direction of the price of crude oil and Yeah, I'd say for me again I think that the reason it's come off in the last couple of months is because of us kind of switching attention to The the negative economic impact that high commodity prices is going to have and we're going to slide into recession And therefore demand is going to weaken And it's that weakening demand back look that's led to oil prices coming back down But I think that's probably run its course now Um, and I personally again in my personal opinion and I might be wrong I think two months of downside on oil now has put us at a price level but Looks pretty cheap My personal opinion is oil probably rise again in the months to come which means then petrol prices go back up Do you think do you think psychologically for a us consumer when we talk about say your routine food shop And there are very large increases in certain items There could be like butter or cheese and things like that Which could be in excess of 15 20 percent But because it's like a small item and it's bunched in with a basket of goods literally when you're shopping Do you think at the pump? It's a lot more easier for the consumer to judge inflation Because it's just literally you're looking at numbers on a screen. Yeah when you're doing it Definitely and like every time you drive past the petrol station and the numbers are there right and you're seeing That high Yeah, for sure. I think inflation is hard, isn't it with inflation as you're saying How much has it entered the psyche of the consumer because ultimately that's what's the most important as to how How much of a negative impact inflation has on demand I mean, I would say it's been above four and now it's below four Then it depends, right? I think consumers are quite short term in their thinking and they're probably thinking right it's below four Right. Thank god. I mean Right, let's go and go on that driving holiday that we'd cancelled and so maybe we're going to go and you know Now spend more money on fuel but below four is still double the price Of where it was pre covid double. It didn't used to really ever get above two dollars So I think there is this danger in the short term There's relief. It's below four. Let's go and fill up the car. But in the end They'll come through in their finances that actually yeah, we are spending way more On this than we were a couple of years ago and inevitably that will feed through to negatively impacting disposable income And there's only so much you can put on your credit card right And when we hit that kind of credit card limit wall Well, then yeah, there's nowhere to go from there other than Stop spending as much and that's when it starts to bite So someone who is obviously talking about us a lot was our dear friend joe And uh, mr. Biden was quite vocal letting everyone know about the decline of uh, of gasoline But the other thing of course that kind of the main thing that you would have heard this week was the senate pass something called the inflation reduction act The ira Is what I'm not sure about the shorthand that they're referring by that but The inflation reduction act as we'll call it And basically Just wanted to have a quick chat about this first off it's been kind of showcased if you like by biden as He's got this through it's another big package Hit a massive roadblock several months ago Trying to push through his legislative agenda And now he's got this done. It's labeled literally The inflation reduction act. We're in a cost of living crisis. The midterms are just months away now What did you think when you saw that? After I'd finished kind of hysterically laughing at what a ridiculous title Um I think it's it's a classic classic I'm going to be very cynical here. I think it's a class everything I hate about politicians. It's like self-interested um, it's a policy To win votes and I know you might say well actually isn't that right then if it's a policy that wins votes Then isn't it a policy that the public want? um And maybe there's an argument there, but I just think that The problem is And I was going to talk about this in our boxing match bull versus bear in a minute But I'm going to bring it up. I'll touch on it now from the fiscal side of things We're about to hit fiscal headwinds, okay The governments have been stimulating and pumping up these economies since covid here and now the reverse is going to happen with this bind and thing two things number one um The fact it's inflation reducing the whole part there is he's going to tax people To raise this money to then spend, okay um, but he's taxing corporations So just as corporations are seeing earnings growth decline Just as corporations are seeing their costs massively increased because of commodity price inflation and all the rest of it Now their taxes are going up as well. It's like a triple whammy, right? And so companies are going to have to lay people even more people off So you'll get more unemployment as a result of this in the medium to long term. I'm talking about let's say the next 12 months and Yeah, I think it will ultimately come down come back to kind of hurt the economy rather than Boost it. No, I'm all for the green energy side for sure. So I think that's important. I think that is a good thing But it's like penalizing all of society Just at the time where they're most vulnerable When and that's not direct, right? It's not penalizing society as right. I'm going to raise income tax I'm going to raise sales tax. It's it's a second, you know raising corporate taxes It's the primary focus, but that leads to the secondary impact Of then more redundancies, which then impacts the consumer, right? So That's my opinion. The other thing to say is that This isn't going to have a positive even if you put all that to one side and you say look, this is a big spending bill You know great more more consumption drives growth. It's not going to happen anytime soon It's not like immediately this money is going to get spent Yeah, so I think that's where the The real detail is is that obviously the optics as you said and what you think about politicians is that This is all aimed regardless of this is a long-term plan to address the short-term optics of Navigating the political storm that's going to happen in about two three months time One interesting comment I saw out of out of the Morgan Stanley chief u.s. Economist She said that basically the common thinking is that by reducing deficits it calms inflation And so you can spin this narrative of the title of this package But when you look at the numbers 300 billion dollar deficit reduction is spread over 10 years Yeah, so it's 30 billion In a year in an economy that's greater than 20 trillion so From a short-term impact It has zero difference. So is it going to influence what the Fed are going to do in september? Absolutely. No But is it going to perhaps influence the long-term Impacts in the economy then yes, so I think there's there's important to Understand how this has been engineered by the administration And what actually the implor the economic implications are From a time perspective Because the two are disconnected, but the first one is done very purposefully. I guess it's the point. Yeah But look enough about sleepy joe. Let's move on and let's talk Let's talk a little bit about the uk briefly. We just had some data out this morning uk economy is contracted by 0.1 percent in q2 of this year households coming back on spending but on a Sectoral basis if you're looking at the office of national statistics, which is when you get a bit more detail Under the bonnet of where the weakness was and a lot of it was in services, particularly the healthcare sector Um, as you all know, if you live in the uk test and trace Vaccine programs were were all wound down and that's had a subsequent impact as to of course Great time while it was happening a few extra days off work, but the queen's jubilee Did happen and that meant some extra bank holidays But actually the impact was not as bad as feared For that month alone the economy contracted 0.6 percent. I think economists were actually thinking it was going to be double that in terms of the impact but The same point remains right inflation is nowhere near where it's going ahead Which is substantially higher than its current level So certainly breaching double digits and beyond in terms of getting up to 13.3 percent As far as the boe thing in october this year rates have raised or risen already multiple times the key benchmark rates currently one and three quarter one percent and When we're looking at about what markets are pricing the market currently is looking for a further 150 basis points of hikes by may of 2023 Not only this the uk could face managed electricity blackouts We heard this week under a worst-case energy crisis scenario this winter We've obviously heard and seen similar things happening in mainland europe i.e. germany For example credit suisse came out. They've lowered their growth forecast unsurprisingly But from a timeline they expect the uk economy to enter a session from q4 and that will last through to q3 Of 2023 but that's pretty much what the bank of england. We're kind of insinuating so Any new information here or is this just Playing into the same view essentially that the worst is yet to come winter is coming That's all i'm going to say i mean i guess That gdp data announced this morning. So minus 0.1 percent for quarter two. Okay, so contraction Was actually a smaller contraction than what was forecasted as you would kind of imply and so the forecast was for minus 0.2 But it's minus 0.1. All right slightly better than expected, but look still negative But this data is really old You know We're mid august here. We're halfway through quarter three And this data is for quarter two and we know full well that really in july and then in august and the latter part of this year is where All of these kind of factors are really going to come home to roost and so Yeah, it's kind of not particularly It's not going to influence anybody's outlook change anybody's outlook for the second half of this year in particularly the quarter four and then quarter one 2023 this is where we're really going to find out How bad all this kind of doom and gloom kind of Predictions are going to be because I was reading this morning like uk energy bills are going to Get above five thousand pounds Per year right that's compared to less than two thousand pounds last year so I don't know who I don't know how your kind of Energy bills looking like but that's an extra three thousand pounds Who can there's not not many people that can afford? Oh an extra three grand That's fine. Yeah got some spare change down the back of the sofa Three thousand pounds that is a huge sum of money for and obviously especially for the lower income and the mid-income and every the engine room of the economy in terms of consumption right and so Yeah, this is going to really hurt and Just not quite sure how much yet and just at that moment. We're going to have inflation forecasted Yeah, 13 14 percent more rate hikes I mean for the uk especially The outlook going into this winter is I mean I well, I've never known a worse outlook In my life Well, I mean something to to alleviate some of that fear Boris Johnson Double down on his insistence that it's not his job. It's for his successor to deal with this So it's nice to you know, the prime minister sat there while As you said conditions are worse ending by the day and well, it's obviously not his job You know what I would say about Boris to be fair if he did start wading in going right I'm going to implement new policy to fix this There would be a massive uproar From the left going what look you're not in charge anymore get you know get into the background where you belong So it's kind of a loose lose there in that specific point. I would say for Boris I don't know. I think if I was a spin doctor, I could make him look More favorable by not tabling, but just the language he's using. I think that's what I'm saying He could he could manage that better If I was part of his team From the communication point of view But yeah, I mean look we won't go into Sunak and this try But that is that is another final point like in terms of the negative the roster of negatives from the UK. The other one is of course Yep, no functioning government That little old thing Yeah, so As if we needed that on top of everything else Okay, well look we'll move on work We've got one final piece on the kind of broader macro front and then we'll go into some single stock stuff It's a little bit about tesla Of course need on mask but before that oil prices have been a little bit jumpy but Far smaller than what we've seen on prior occasions But we did see earlier in the week a bit of nervousness because of Russian crude flows from Ukraine to Hungary, Slovakia And the Czech Republic were halted Apparently last week after sanctions prevented payment of the transit fee essentially now Something which a lot of people i'm assuming haven't heard of before is the drusba pipeline and essentially You want me to say again, don't you? The drusba pipeline If there's any Russian speakers out there, it's fine.  It's okay and essentially this is The world's longest oil pipeline and one of the biggest oil pipeline networks in the world Comes from the eastern some russia and splits off into kind of northern southern channels So it's super key And something that you definitely should be aware of if you're you know, if you're operating or interested in markets But we heard something similar because we were talking about it ourselves about Some soft commodities grains moving out of Ukraine for the first time and we know that things like wheat prices were highly Kind of volatile over that period of initial invasion given that's where predominant amount of global supply comes from But they were making one of their first shipments and then it was actually we don't want to accept it And there's a lot of grain commodities sat there in cargo On the sea at the moment. So I guess the point here is what the russian situation is not concluded far from it Actually on this point, I think it's amazing how um the fighting in ukraine is no Better of a state than what it was several months ago And also for accelerate that to last week Now no one's talking about china now in taiwan five days later After everyone was screaming blue murder and we're going to have a world war All people pumping that narrative online nothing now. I mean the drill things are still happening But what i'm talking about is the media response to these things Because now it's back to cost of living and inflation And these narratives are very compelling obviously When it comes to the individual attention spans Are basically reducing as time goes on right the tiktok generation You know The story lasts for more than what 15 seconds and it's like dull move on But I think from a from a understanding markets and how they function. I think it is an important thing though because um What i'm saying is that as as bad as the situation From a humanitarian point of view is in ukraine Yeah, the focus has shifted Irrespective of what's happening on the ground So from an investment point of view The risk factor has shifted Um because the influencing factors have kind of the blocks have shifted if you like in terms of what is and isn't As the biggest risk right now. Yeah, even though that actually these the I mean the The individual components are all still there. Yeah But it's something that you should definitely be mindful of and and now this was something I was trying to stress on last week's episode about I really disagreed with how some people were reporting the chinese situation just very sensationalized Over every ship crossing the median line every missile overland And it was like this is the biggest thing that's happened and yeah It is an escalation, but I guess the end game is where does it go? and then What's the next step and what's on the near-term horizon that could then shift the focus And yeah, it's just amazing how quickly it shifted again It's just that this is the function of the the state of the media, isn't it in this day and age it's sensationalizing everything and You know clickbait That's what it's all about, but obviously it influences the global narrative Which then influences behavior around everything including markets So right and then public policy and Yeah But look, let's let's jump into some stocks news And let's talk tesla And although tesla signed contracts worth About five billion dollars to buy materials for their batteries from nickel processing companies in indonesia Which was an interesting story in itself It's been superseded and the reason why is because it's come to light that elon musk has off loaded Just another six point nine billion of stock in tesla and in fact that's his biggest sale on record the rationale Of course, he tweeted in response to a question from Just some bloke on twitter Was to avert a fire sale of stock if he is compelled to complete the 44 billion dollar takeover of twitter effectively The agency planning if private investors don't come through. This is what he was saying Cast your mind back to just may musk at the time said there'd be no more share sales And here we are this week tesla stock is up was up As much as 50 percent and when he said that in may so obviously time to offload another seven bill At this point in time. So he has now sold around 32 billion worth of stock in 10 months And in terms of his actual holding in tesla now it's down to 14.84 percent So hang on. Okay. So what was so what in percentage terms? Where was he? Of course started selling in april. I'm not sure what the starting percent was But he's still got 15 odd percent left Right Yeah, I just thought this was uh, just just classic elon basically Well, it's it's just good trading Basically Is we're here for the 50 bounce and then right let's let's get rid of a whole not a bunch Yeah, well, you know, we've been talking about this all year that this is Arguably it's going to turn out to be one of the best exit strategies in the history of mankind No, I think with twitter, right and he's using that as the Obviously the rationale For selling but yeah, the fact he said I'm not gonna sell anymore in may and here he is selling more But I you know, I think ultimately he's saying that no if I have to buy twitter Then I'm going to need financing I had financing in place But that financing and those promises of loans from the big banks have kind of just been shelved Because the banks were worried that the tesla share price Was too volatile and it had moved way too low for it to be Kind of a safe enough sort of collateral For that bank loan And so musk is saying wow. Yeah, I need to sell more twitter I'm sorry tesla shares to raise the financing to fill that gap because the banks won't be interested anymore but You know, what's going to happen with twitter and I'll go through the legal case, which I think in october, I believe Um And then look the court will decide or whether it gets to court. I don't know. I mean ultimately I think Worst-case scenario for musk. He engineers a cheaper price to buy twitter Best-case scenario for musky doesn't have to buy it Um, I think in the first example where he ends up buying it for cheaper Well, great. It's cheaper, right? So he doesn't need as much financing as he had in place earlier in the year Secondly by then once the price is fixed and it's going ahead. Well, then I'm sure he'll be able to find banks that will back in so Yeah, I definitely think this is still A genius exit strategy from his massive tesla holding settlement Could shave off a couple bill just hand it over What you mean twitter from his 32 billion that he's managed to exit Right, right. I see so 32 bill becomes the just say right.  So that's just the cost of transaction. Yeah I think why not? I love that guy All right, so fies fies Um, well actually before fies I want to talk disney plus actually I had them on my hit list and the reason why is because they've edged past netflix In the streaming wars with 221.1 million subscribers they added 14.4 million disney plus subscribers the street was looking for 10 million That is a ginormous beat on expectations Um, there were some big hits the star wars series obi-wan kanobi marvels miss marvel Were the kind of headlines in comparison just to refresh your memory because we talked about netflix at the time I think they lost another 1 million subscribers So just to repeat disney added over 14 million And netflix have lost a million and that was their first ever back-to-back quarterly loss of customers and everyone was kind of I guess positioning themselves for Cost of living crisis people are tightening their belts cutting back on streaming services because they're unnecessary Not the case for disney at this point. I must add that disney had particularly good performance on their theme parks as well though It's not just a streaming Organization and a lot of that was they were talking about pent-up demand And so forth because of the covid situation, but they did have a very good performance there As well. So yeah, what do you think about that disney now top of the pile? Yeah, amazing. I mean well done them. I think they've had an impressive strategy to Well, hang on. It's not as good as it sounds though they've had an aggressive strategy to basically convert netflix Subscribers into disney subscribers at the expense of netflix. So they're kind of going in opposite directions at the moment disney's offering is half the price There's a price point thing also you get like I mean I I've got disney plus Do you want to know why? Because I was sorting out a new mobile phone And with o2 and I don't know if they're doing it with other providers But with o2 you get a part of part of the deal You just sign up for another 24 month contract or whatever you get three months free disney plus Right, I mean, obviously you get it and then you forget about it and fine You end up being a subscriber but um Yeah, the fact you gain these on ramps that are you know hugely good deals Means that it's it's costly for disney plus. So they're losing about About a billion dollars Yeah, so they're Streaming effort lost or reported 1.1 billion in the quarter I'm in the quarter sorry right in a quarter and they've also lost The rights for the cricket in india right Yeah, it's going to impact their guidance is a really important point because whilst those numbers look amazing more than Netflix, you know 14 million subscriber growth blah blah blah They're losing over a billion a quarter Secondly, they're losing the contract on the ipl the indian premier league which is that massive cricket Kind of franchise and tournament that happens annually in india and it is massive this tournament and they've lost the rights for next year So they're a huge portion of the 220 plus whatever Million subscribers a portion of those are indian subscribers who are subscribing to the cricket And when that drops off, yeah, I'm sure that's going to hurt their numbers when you come through to 2023 Yeah, no, it's um I kind of concluded a piece I wrote about disney saying the bottom line is that you know during the pandemic The streaming services went kind of gangbusters, but in the post covet world Cost of living crisis. I think a lot of attention is switching for investors to profit As we go through this period away from growth so much metrics And although they buck the trend the competition in the streaming world is fierce And the pent up demand on the park side, that's not going to last in my humble opinion It just won't that's the nature of it being pent up. It alleviates over time Yeah, at least there's diversity in their revenue streams that you can't say for netflix, right One thing is that's interesting is that from a consumer point of view Is that say like my daughter's watching? disney Like she can watch frozen Like literally to my dismay 50 times and never be bored Whereas on netflix. I watch one netflix original series. I will never watch it ever again Yeah, and so the pressure is on one thing I quite like about disney's model is the their content library where they have Like a hundred years worth of content that is picked up and recycled Again and again and again, whereas with netflix. There's a lot of emphasis on generation of original new content Which is a challenge obviously Yeah, for sure. We've talked about this in the past about How you know owning a big franchise It's key and so you know disney with The marvel franchise And obviously the star wars franchise They've got two of the biggest out there and yeah, so puts them in a You know really good position netflix are really struggling without that monster franchise Okay final one fizer I mentioned and just briefly on this one because I wanted to mention An m&a deal update and that's because they're to buy global blood Therapeutics and a five point four billion dollar deal The rationale that really underpins that deal is You're gonna have another drive at me now Fizer will gain ox breeder Ox breeder Okay global bloods therapy for sickle cell disease That's sold about just shy of 200 million u.s. Dollars last year And fizer sees it as do global blood therapeutics as a blockbuster in the making Quick tip when I used to do my old job and this could be for any m&a analysts in the future Like if there's a drug name Obviously you try to find Uh youtube videos or someone's saying the drug name so you can Understand how to say it If in doubt You just need to own the word and say it like you think it said the right way because other people don't know how to say it either And so if you just can Pretend that you're saying it correctly people actually believe you Yeah, yeah It's like I used to one of my favorite foods back in the day was um quinoa Okay Otherwise pronounced as quinoa I was calling it. I was calling it quinoa for at least five months or foe vietnamese foe. Oh, yeah, which is far I get Yes Okay So the list goes on anyway enough enough of uh food education Fizer in their press release said the proposed acquisition drives growth by basically bridging their own with this other companies disease expertise their portfolio and pipeline importantly and they're looking at combined I didn't They didn't obviously put forward the exact timetable But what they're looking at with the blockbuster type sales figure is more than three billion dollars on a worldwide basis Which is quite incredible considering and they're talking about 200 million starting point at the moment so Yeah, m&a activity still I've seen quite a few actually deals at the moment irrespective of current predicament aside of economically where we're at at the moment. There still seems to be plenty of um appetite for certain deals I think on the m&a side it's a bit different to let's say raising capital like ipo or You know follow on offerings or You know corporate bond issuance and that kind of stuff that that stuff's collapsed but m&a Often you'll see at the bottom of a cycle a lot of consolidation and Industries and sectors consolidating where you're getting some of the big and the strong You're picking up some of the little guys and some of the weaker guys Low valuations at the bottom of the cycle and so it makes sense, you know that you get this kind of consolidation at this point Yeah, we just had a great guest speaker on with our our interns who was a Very senior pe guy and he was talking about I think it was blackstone Have basically got accumulated like a 50 billion dollar war chest for buying up distressed assets In real estate for this specific situation that we're in essentially so yeah, there's always Well, I was going to call the vultures, but I'm just mindful of any uh Opportunists opportunists, um, I should say on that front, but anyway, look let's let's conclude and let's let's try and keep this as Uh to the point as possible. Otherwise, I feel like we've got it. We're going to go the full 12 championship rounds and So I'll let you I'll let you shoot first Let's have your your kind of highlight reel behind Why your bearish on stocks right now? Okay, and let's define this because you put a poll out on LinkedIn. Yeah under the amplify me LinkedIn handle if you haven't voted yet Please go to the answer by me linked in and vote and though and the poll is asking What level do you think will be hit first in the s&p 500? Will it be? 4600 so we rally from where we are. Let's just say we're at 4200 at the moment So do you expect the s&p tip 4600 first or Sell off back to 3700 first. Which one of those is going to happen first? That's the poll Right now I mean, I don't I need to say anything other than look the people have spoken And right now the poll is showing that 60 percent of people have voted for 3700 So we've got a bearish Community and I mean not sure I need to really go any further, but I will So here's I'm the 3700 count and Here's why Sure inflation the data on wednesday was lower than expected Great. Happy days hunky dory. Look, it's one month's data. Okay, and look gasoline prices came down whatever look the core reading Although lower than expected. It was still a 5.9. Okay. Here's my main theme on inflation It went up rapidly okay 2021 and first up of 2022 Don't think it's going to come down rapidly At the core level. I think sure inflation might have peaked And sure it might be coming down But I don't think it's going to come down anywhere near as quickly as it went up And that's because look inflation's sticky Right, and I think you're getting to the point now where inflation is fed through To being kind of self-hostaining at least for the medium term and that's because people are now companies are just putting up prices Not because they specifically have seen input costs go up necessarily They might have gone up a little bit But they're putting up prices because they're saying to their customers. Ah, have you seen inflation? No, sorry. We're having to raise prices by 15% like inflation soft Basically, they're increasing profit margins because they've got the chance to do so right so prices are rising okay more medium to long term and this is Perhaps not a great argument for this short-term question on 4600 or 3700 It could be that we've really reached the end of what's been a two decade anomaly Of really really low inflation Maybe the last two decades is the Abnormal and we're new moving back now into more normal higher inflation levels The last two decades have been really low inflation because We've had very unusually Low and stable energy prices and commodity prices We've also had China And globalization so china demographics has meant that the cost of production dropped sharply Which fed into them the prices of goods dropping sharply, but now The chinese demographic situations turned and it's now marching back the other way So I I actually think we're Going to see a more prolonged period of higher inflation So if we turn to monetary policy now People are thinking if you think we're going to hit 4600 first basically What needs to be priced in is the fed will stop hiking at the end of this year and they'll start cutting in 2023 Personally, I don't think that's going to happen. I think if the fed Start cutting next year Inflation is going to still be too high And what you're going to end up with is stagflation of recession With inflation staying high And ultimately that's a bigger problem And the fed I think are going to they won't be able to cut next year. They might even have to continue to hike Okay Adding the fiscal headwinds like all the fiscal stimulus has gone and we're now going to get tax rises and that's going to be a drag add in the labor force situation where Fine, it all looks great non farm payrolls 500 and whatever thousands. Yeah, well done, but The quit rate is dropping sharply The job open rate is dropping sharply and now I think better kind of lead indicators So I think this labor market is going to turn over and two more points us yield curve Is that it's most inverted point For decades and this is the key indicator for recession, right? So this is where the two-year yield is higher than the 10-year yield That's kind of that alarm bell has been sending all year and is continuing to sound and then finally you got emerging market risk I'm not even bothering to mention Geo politics here, by the way, but emerging market risk. I think it's massively on the up We've seen what's happened in Sri Lanka. We've seen Pakistani bomb yields spiking This week and last week. Did you know like through the pandemic? You've already had the likes of Argentina, Belize, Ecuador, Lebanon, Srinam, Zambia. They've all defaulted already Did you see what Argentina did this morning? Yeah, they raised interest rates by nine and a half percent They raised interest rates by eight percent two weeks ago Eight percent two weeks ago nine and a half percent again today interest rates in Argentina 69.5 percent to try and tackle inflation that's clocking at 17 So look, you've got big risk in the emerging market space because and the more hawkish the fed are The stronger the dollar gets the worse it gets for that emerging market space So I think there's a bit of a domino effect risk As these emerging markets start to hit the wall So wrap it all up Recession is coming Winter is coming Short-term relief because there's one inflation prince trapped but the worst is yet to come Okay nine points That would say a couple of things to think about nine points first one is a behavioral one Hearing you and everyone else sound like you're sounding just makes me want to buy stuff as in like When everyone says we're getting like and there's been some significant shifts I feel recently where because of the nature of the rally that we've seen over recent weeks Everyone's been trying to call like dead cap bounce is selling off And if you were a short-term trader Already, you've got some severe egg on your face because every week it's punched higher and you've lost a lot of money at the moment So We do keep punching higher. So one of the main things here is a behavioral thing. I never feel comfortable when there's too much Consensus around a singular view bullish or bearish and in this case it's a bearish one and I love the fact that Michael Burry always he's got a hotline that guy To the wall street journal and he literally every time the s&p goes up like another 10 points He's like right we need to run another Michael Burry splash Here's why I think the world's ending and they print it for him Like what he he's just as predictable. I think as Elon Musk By the way, he uses the media but that aside the other things are a couple things one the Fed the Fed have continued to talk about this idea of like We've got flexibility. We'll act accordingly data dependent. I think you're right one piece of data is one piece of data I don't think we can call September at all as where we stand at the moment But the one thing I think that the Fed are very keen to keep up is to keep their ammunition box available By keeping the dream alive that we can go 75 or we can go harder if we want dependent on the situation But the more that they can spin that narrative the more flexibility there is to Not have to dramatically start slowing but insinuate and go through the kind of incremental communication approach of utilizing the buffer of going from 75 to maybe 75 to now with props of possibly reconsidering Okay, now we're at 50 and then and once you go through all of that it kind of acts as a Safeguard mechanism to offset and when I'm talking about obviously we're training 4200 so going back to 37 100 is a serious Downward correction in market will bearish We'd be going like 20 odd percent. So we're talking about big moves if that was happening I think the Fed would already kick into full gear At that point the other things are I think a lot of people were massively hyped about how bad earning season was going to be And that might yet come to fruition, but they got it wrong This time it might well get it wrong next time as well. And I think that was I think people are just so keen to see a bearish outcome in Wall Street to match Main Street That it's almost becoming somewhat a bias That's happening to a certain extent and that's been inflated by The fact that everyone's talking the same view and so it's like what do you think and it just reaffirms my thinking And I go, yeah, that's what I thought. Let's get some more in the bear camp. Let's have a big party like So then the other things are energy prices energy prices, I don't think are likely to move substantially back higher There's obviously there exists as we've just talked about supply disruption risk. They're still there as a present danger But I think now I don't think we're going to get a dramatic collapse in oil I think we already kind of really had that a little bit with pricing in the recession move that we've seen So that's kind of factored in so let's say we kind of stick about where we are There's some other things that came out of the inflation report Shelter prices was one It's been a big contributing factor to the stickiness Because of the fact that those prices aren't subject to such rapid Types of change over a short period of time and that's starting to roll over and come back down Which is I think a positive signal the ppi unexpectedly fell as we said earlier for the first time in In more than two years. So some of that pipeline inflationary pressure beginning to ease Could well then filter through into the consumer price side So that's enough on inflation in the Fed flip it over to cove in china Now I just read some headlines this morning. They're still doing mass testing It doesn't look good when you start looking at some of the headlines. They're still having quite onerous response to these outbreaks and they seemingly are still happening at this point my point on that The chinese communist party national congress is happening later this year And I think you will get lock and key. They won't let out what the real situation is about covid And in fact, there will be a tactical approach from beijing To try and mask that as best as possible to the broader global community To paint as best picture as possible So it's our lack of on-ground intel means with no visibility I think that discounts a large portion of that that risk on the china covid side Then I was looking at some s and p historical data On the s and p's historically underperformed in the year leading into the midterms So the average annual return of the s and p 500 in the 12 months before a midterm election Is 0.3 percent And that's significantly lower than the historical average of 8.1 percent So what i'm saying here with this is that This is always the case a change in leadership Regardless of country, but america let's take it you come in at the top because it's like that's cultivated to change And basically your popularity just degrades over time and it's not that's not unusual then to Give up some power when it comes to midterms. It's quite a typical pattern the post midterm election period Is a very different story the s and p 500 historically Outperformed the market in a 12 month period after the midterm election with an average return of 16.3 percent This is especially true And most poignant in the one to three month window of the post midterm period um Which historically significantly outperforms when there's no other midterm election year now I guess the way to summarize that is the idea that biden's taken a battering and like inflation reaction Billicide and gas prices coming down whatever is happening. I don't not looking at that to really influence too much the short term Narrative the point is have we had forget peak inflation? Have we had peak biden peak biden negativity? And it's like it's already like Okay, he's going to lose the senate or you know, perhaps congress and you do have these significant headwinds, but We know that right? We've known that already and things haven't yet shifted and although policy then comes to reality of when it cannot Cannot be inactioned. He does have um Superceding powers as president to do push through certain agendas even with a locked congress But I don't think that that's not even worth talking about. I don't think that would even come to that point. The point is I think I don't look at history as a definitive guide to pin my mask to but It you know history. What's the saying it? doesn't repeat but it often rhymes and the statistics are quite compelling then Don't forget santa claus Santa claus always comes to town And he'll bump things up Good old cent nick will come And you know week of the 20th whatever the run-in is to the the christmas period. He'll give a little bump And the other thing was final point since world war two i'll start for you Every time the smp 500 recovered a 50 percent of a bear market price decline While the 500 may have retested the prior low It's never then set a new low So for the conversation of us saying could it go 3700 This stat would say it can but it can't it won't go below Because it never has done if you went back for every recovery of a 50 percent move in the last 75 80 years is that right So when the markets hit bear market territory So it's dropped 20 percent or more from its high if it's then recovered 50 percent of that It's never gone on to break that low On the yeah the interesting So yeah, there's a couple of things to think about but for me actually resides all the other specifics I just don't like the feeling of everyone being bearish. It doesn't make me comfortable. That's the main thing and that is really A gray answer, but yeah, there you have a couple of points as well to throw into boot. So yeah still bearish All right, well, look, let's let's wrap it up Feel free to check out the show notes for access to attend one of our finance accelerators We've had some really awesome turnouts So much so we've had to put a cap On each week's Session now because we want everyone to get the maximum Kind of experience out of it. So do book yourself in basically this is a fully Experiential practical session Where you get to take the seat of a sales trader market maker or an asset manager And essentially it's about as close as you're going to get to the legit training We provide at all the big financial institutions we work with aimed at giving you Yep, an application of theoretical knowledge you might have Some some quality info for your CV, but Understanding what you're good at and what you're bad at and actually being able to apply to Rolls more specifically. So yeah, it's a free simulation Absolutely nothing to lose and the kicker is is sponsored by Morgan Stanley And we have the ability to fast track good individuals To that partner. So yeah, check that out And then we've got the newsletter link as well But otherwise peers, I wish you a great weekend and yeah, I'll I'll see you same time next week Yeah, cheers. See you guys. Bye


The Mecca let them reach the south, just before the air struck them, and the whole 17 were killed. They were in pieces, they were collected, flesh by flesh, and them by them. Rubah lost her entire family. Last my brother, who has loved husband and her family, she has been displaced since then seven times. From house to house, displaced seven times from house to house, from attend to attend, all this alone with three children pregnant in her six months of pregnancy in need of an emergency C-section at birth and no hospitals there, no anesthesia. She will face the death at the time of labor this winter with my family to see my brother Muhammad. I haven't seen him for 20 years.  This call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.  And we call on all of you to stand with us and hold our government accountable so our children can grow up and our families can live. Thank you. This is beautiful.  My name is Abid Hashami, a Gaza Palestinian-American residing in Texas with a wonderful family, wife and three children. I also have a large family in Gaza that has shrunk in size in the last three months. One of my wonderful family members in Gaza is my nephew Ahmad. Ahmad is six-foot-tall. He's an athlete who excels in sand, volleyball, and soccer. Ahmad has a special relationship with Gaza Beach. He's in love with the sand, with the waves, and with the sea breeze. He often took his wife Fida, his three kids, and his 70-years-old mother Halima, my sister, to the beach where he would teach his children how to play soccer, how to swim. Mom, his wife Fida, and his mother Halima sipped freshly made mint tea. Ahmad is now playing in a hospital bed paralyzed. He's paralyzed from the waist down to the Israeli indiscriminate bombing. The same bombing took Halima, his mother, his wife Fida, and his three children. Five-years-old and 11-months-old. You heard that right, 11-months-old. Insulted in injury, Ahmad couldn't get the necessary medical care for the wound of his abdomen, or for the emotional trauma of paralysis in the loss of his family. The chief of hospital, where he was awaiting surgery, was attacked and invaded by the Israeli troops, forcing him to his to be transported to a hospital in Rybnavach, where he remains now. That off a hospital lacks medications and supplies, and listen to this, the screams of pain were heard throughout the hospital corridors when the surgeon cleaned his wounds and stitched those abdomen wounds without anesthesia. Because he can never walk again. He knows he will never feel the softness of each hand under his feet again. Nor the warm hugs of his mother and wife. Nor hear the giggles of his three children. All of them were buried without saying a good final goodbye. He told me on the phone he is dying to be carried or wheeled to his favorite spot on Gaza Beach. What he wanted is to be left all there, that he would close his eyes and just imagine. Imagine his kids running around. Imagine his wife and mom sipping freshly minted tea while chatting. Feel the sea breeze and hear the sound of waves. Mr. Ahmad, I will be his voice. And I will share his story with you all. This is Ahmad.  I will send it to his hospital bed. And as I promised, I am sharing his story with everybody here. That someday I will take him to his favorite spot on Gaza Beach. Both of us would close our eyes. Feel the sea breeze. Listen to the waves. And imagine that the dead are alive. And peace has prevailed. And Palestine is free. I ask you all in the name and the names of the 60,000 Ahmads that were injured in Gaza. I ask the world in the names of the 30,000 Salimahs and Wafas that were killed in Gaza. To please stop this madness, stop this genocide. The time to call for a ceasefire is yesterday. And we are here today. And we demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Seize fire! Within a month, a communication with, as much as we can, not appoint a president in his family, I've got a point. Strip them down naked. And it brutally tortured them. And it humiliated them. As they fled south to seek refuge from the violence in the north while they were walking down the humanitarian passages. He had to walk with his mother as a threat of intentional starvation on the grounds of Hezbollah and of their bodies being ripped apart to pieces on their last day on Earth. May peace be upon you. May peace be with Palestine and the people of Hezbollah. Long live Palestine. See your life symptoms, confusions. Be ready for him. He was shot at by his streets. Be this hit on them. He will be starting our program and then getting ready for ours. Start making your way now. In addition to that, there is a child, Amina Hassan, 12 years old. He is waiting in the John Wilson building near the street. The John Wilson building near the street. Amina Hassan, please make your way towards the street, towards the John Wilson building. Thank you. We will be getting shortly. Everyone asking for the program, we will be getting at 130. 130. So please make your way to stage left, to pray, and we will be getting after. Peace be upon you. May God be with you. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. He is the Messenger of Allah. Two rak'as and two rak'as. All of you who are local, continue after the Dhuhr prayer, prayer four. All of you who are traveling, will be praying two and two. God is the Greatest. May God listen to those who are in praise. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. May God listen to those who are in praise. God is the Greatest. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. And the mercy of Allah. God is the Greatest. going to be praying the asr prayer now for those that are traveling will be praying the asr we need this front area is reserved for the people who are looking at the jumbo trunks and for the media if you guys put up your signs people who need asl services people who are trying to get a clear view down the block are not going to be able to see so we request please please don't put up any signs in the vicinity of of the press please and same goes for any flags if you want to hold your flag please move to the side streets you'll be able to do it there are heavy with the weight of a grim reality that has persisted for what now marks 100 days of a brutal genocide in reza at the hands of israel by tax dollars the world find itself at a crucial juncture shocked and horrified by a path chosen by some such as our own government it's a path paved with silence and neglect as over 23 000 palestinians have been murdered and over 50 000 injured the apartheid state has made 90 percent of reza unlivable displacing 1.8 million palestinians and creating a humanitarian crisis a hundred days in and genocide joe and most of our government are refusing to call for a ceasefire and instead they're acting as accomplices but we stand here in our thousands as americans to send a resounding message to the biden administration that we will not back down until justice is served until a ceasefire is established until reza is rebuilt and the siege is lifted and until palestine is free from its nearly 75 76 year long occupation so as we stand states where much of the fate of palestinians is dictated in the halls of congress and in the rooms of the white house we are here to reiterate three demands and we will not back down until they are acted upon throughout our hopelessness and despair there is a glimmer of hope and the tide is truly shifting over the last hundred days you everybody in the crowd and across america have taken to the streets all across the us you've been sending tens of thousands of emails to congress and you've made hundreds of thousands of calls to your elected officials and for the first time ever we are hearing a shift in the narrative in the halls of congress for the first time we're hearing more elected officials discuss conditioning us funding to the apartheid state and more and more are beginning to realize that they can no longer ignore us they can no longer ignore the people we call on president biden his administration and congress to number one demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire to uncondition and conditional us funding to israel and hold israel accountable for their war crimes the urgency of now cannot be overstated the future is being shaped by our actions or lack thereof history teaches us that delay can and will be our greatest downfall the sands of time will wait for nobody so join me in continuing to make this call today and every day until gaza and all of palestine is liberated i will be your emcee for today's program alongside my colleague and mohammed habba without further ado i'd like to introduce imam samy zahirana who is the imam of the imam of mfc mariland and he's from gaza to recite some quran for us i'm in ash-shaytan ir-rajim believers uphold justice and bear witness to god even if it is against yourselves your parents or your close relatives whether the person is rich or poor god can best take care of both refrain from following your own desire so that you can act justly and if you distort or neglect justice god is fully aware of what you do to close how beautiful would it be for those that can recite the quran to collectively together recite surat al-fatiha upon our beloved martyrs our shohadah and all those who were killed or died in the struggle for our brothers and sisters in palestine and gaza if you know surat al-fatiha recite along with me with the intention that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala got almighty as mercy upon them we come here on this holiday weekend in celebration of the great martin luther king jr we stand here in freedom plaza that was named after the great dr king after he wrote his i have a dream speech here in this plaza through his teachings and in that vein where he says that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere that we are here today when we as americans stand against the crimes of our government these are the streets we protest on when we stood against the vietnam war they protested in these streets when americans stood against the alock war they protested in these streets and when we as americans stand against this american funded biden funded genocide we are going to protest in these streets in october they said that we would forget in november they said that we would forget in december they said that we would forget now it's january but did we forget after a hundred days we are still in these streets and we will not stop we will not stop until we achieve justice for all those in gaza until we end all u.s funding for this genocide free free palestine our first speaker is layla al haddad a palestinian journalist and someone who is famously known for showing anthony bordain around the beautiful streets of gaza without further ado as a writer and speaker words are my currency and yet lately i've been finding myself struggling to find those words to meaningfully encompass the depth of my sorrow and my horror and my disbelief in witnessing my homeland's destruction and the murder of over 100 of my family members i struggle to find the words to convey the everyday realities my family and my people are enduring recently i came across a post by a friend of mine and a fellow writer in reza called iman basher who said i was deceived by how powerful words can be but what i know for sure is that i stopped saying good night to my children and instead i say to them stay alive iman is a gaza mother just like i am and her words capture the crushing intimate daily conversation going through the minds of our families right now her words posed a challenge to us all will we sit idly by as this mother bids farewell to her children every night as though it was their last we must continue to demonstrate to all the people of gaza that as we mourn the horrific intimate details and decisions that they are forced to grapple with every day we refuse to accept the premise and the normalization of that reality and we are forcing a change we must keep fighting until we see a ceasefire we must keep fighting until we see a free palace tide and we must keep fighting until iman's stay alive turned back into good nights once again we must pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living i want to hand it over now to a young person as you know young people have been disproportionately affected in this genocide on gaza she happens to be my daughter and she is going to read a piece of spoken word that she wrote called breaking news thank you very much free free palestine breaking news five israelis killed but of course it's us they accuse like over the years we haven't been abused in our land jews you announce gaza terrorist attack but when it comes to the murder of palestinians your facts are all whack and excuse me sir biden may i just say palestinians are owed their land and are there to say unlike you who the israeli army finds easy to persuade so don't go sending aid to an army that loves to invade blockade and then persuade the media that they are right and dear america how can you just sit and watch this terrible site that has families saying up the night or is it because these pharaohs of today have you full of fright even though inside you you know what's right dear media why must we show you the kids who die acting all sly you cover up with your lies and constantly deny the amount of us killed and yes i said it killed bombed burned not dead or passed away or caught in a crossfire or is it that you enjoy portraying us as numbers but i noticed every time we are killed you use this conflict like lumber to fuel your stories and then forget us like we're storage in your inventories for every family we lose you get a chance to write a one-sided statement for your average american to be amused dear humanity wake up this might be the last cause i can give to you only believe what is true and demand to stop the genocide and propaganda before it's too late and people believe israel and the u.s. got a clean slate beautiful next up we have my colleague thought her is a law he's the director of community outreach and organizing for american muslims for palestine and also is from gaza gaza we show gaza gaza full of this small strip of land we call gaza would break the shackles of occupation would become known to the world as the places were designed as settler colonial project would unravel who would have known who would have known that the people of gaza would inspire a global uprising and an entire generation now more committed than ever to ending the hegemony that the global north enjoys who would have known that in the midst of a genocide that in america and around the world our jewish sisters and brothers would march with us hand in hand against the genocide committed in their name gaza gives us clarity unlike any we've ever felt before a clarity of vision that we no longer feel the reflexive need to appeal to the west and its racist institutions to provide us justice and restitution gaza has given us the clarity that allows us to finally see that only and only when the people of the global south rise together in unison would strengthen resilience that not a single force in the world can do anything to stop us who would have known that the mighty people of yemen would challenge the empires of the world to this genocide in gaza from people of conscience around the world has forced us to reckon with what dr marie luther king jr called the three evils of society poverty which is due to excessive materialism and capitalism evil of racism and the evil of militarism when you're himself said that america is the largest purveyor of violence in the world i stand before you today as a proud son of gaza a proud son of a shujia the graveyard of the occupiers my family in gaza has been killed has been wounded has been taken captive by occupying israeli forces from their own homes and has been displaced but i'm standing here before you today to tell you and everyone in gaza that we will never ever give up on you every resource at our disposal with every ounce of energy we have with every breath we take and waking moment we will fight is who our beloved people of gaza that have shown us and people around the world what it means to stand like an iron wall in the face of an unrelenting violent occupier we get our strength from you to my friend ahmed oota in northern gaza serving as a medical professional saving lives i tell you now that we will never give up on you we will work day and night rain or shine to end this suffering permanently in administration just know genocide joe whether you stay in office or not i want to make one thing very clear we will forgive you will haunt you for the rest of your wretched lives you genocide joe you blinkin the butcher and your secretary of defense loy dosten you will be haunted by the screams of the children of gaza you will be haunted by the prayers the agonizing prayers of the elderly and the women of gaza and we this new generation will be the answer to their prayers our next speaker comes to us from the great state of colorado where he serves in the state out of house of representatives as the first elected muslim first elected palestinian woman in state history without further ado iman juda we are just a drop in the bucket billions around the world are standing with us and that is the message we need to take to the halls of power of people we are the voices of the dead the cries from under the rubble and the hopes of those fighting for their lives ironically and perhaps serendipitously we are steps our mlk proclaimed that he had a dream that he had seen the mountain tops he said he proclaimed that he also had seen the hollow stop sorry that he that his hurry that's how big a deal this is we're here because we have also proclaimed that we understand the hollow spot where we remind america of the fierce urgency now and it would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of this moment while we must keep talking about gaza let's not forget about the rest of palestine 2 000 years ago born in palestine in our backyard jesus was sent to reconfirm the message of love and peace but down the road from his birthplace stands an actual barrier to that peace out from our brothers and sisters in south africa who have come to our defense all is a constant reminder that has become a canvas pleading for the world to open their eyes to the harsh realities faced by all palestinians and the genocides in sudan the Uyghurs and in the Congo a sad kinship we all share Malcolm X reminded us that just as civil rights the civil rights movement in the united states fought against the chains of radical discrimination so too did the palestinian people the murders of george floyd black lives matter are on the apartheid wall and that did not go unnoticed by the children of gaza they wore shirts bearing the cries from gaza to Ferguson telling our black brothers and sisters how to survive boots on necks and tear gas as americans we cannot pick and choose the social justice and human rights we defend let's carry this movement beyond today and hold our elected officials accountable by our votes we must remind our elected officials at the ballot box the sentiments of MLK we want america to commit to what is said on paper that all people are created equal and as one of those elected as a palestinian american legislator from the great state of Colorado those are the same values on that paper that i took an oath to defend it should not be controversial to demand what is said on that paper and it should not be controversial to extend those rights to the palestinian people as human beings and as voters we throw down the shackles of an unjust past and present throw down the shackles and show up vote and support the policies for peace and justice let us march today with purpose and passion for gaza for Palestine but the globe once free palestine give it up for Colorado that's my home state we have brother Haroun Rashid who's the president of the muslim umma of north america in the name of god most merciful most beneficent peace be upon you we are standing in this historical march during ongoing genocide against our brothers and sisters in gaza israel government has been and is bombing hospitals schools shelters charges masks residential buildings all warm up infrastructure including un facilities more than 100 un facilities have been destroyed 137 un aid worker has been killed by israeli army they are killing doctors nurses journalists everyone anyone including un officials this indiscriminate bombardment killing innocent civilians children and women it is collective punishment hence it is work time brothers and sisters as we standing here today 23703 people has been killed some 7000 human being missing probably they are under the rubble israeli government is using the massive explosive audience unguided bomb the most sophisticated nuclear weapon such as white phosphorus gaza is occupied territory by israel since 1967 israel blocked food water electricity fuel medical supplies and communications there are animal that are treated better than pharistinians nearly two billion people 75 person population displaced from their home home situation is horrific there are humanitarian disaster in the gaza at this destruction human catastrophe and genocide done by us us supplied bombs and weapons in this campaign violate international laws un conventions it is violation us laws and us policies as well brothers and sisters helping israel in this war destroyed us image over the world in this horrific situation in this catastrophe i called upon us government today you must address the atrocities of the israeli government you must address the humanitarian crisis of the pharistinians you must address the violation of international laws and war crimes by israel i call upon us government today you must stop funding this campaign of the genocide you must put an end to the genocide i call upon us government today it is time it is time that you influence the ceasefire ceasefire right now stop the killing of civilian you must restore basic human dignity of the lives of the pharistinian i call upon united states government today do not have your name written the book of history as the oppressor as the killers of innocents people whole world is watching mr biden whole world is watching you will be held accountable for this killing we ask almighty Allah to save oppressed human being save mankind held accountable the oppressors thank you for listening god bless you the whole world is watching the whole world is watching the whole world is watching are any of you cold i'm not cold i'm not cold but for those who are our next speaker is fiery enough and she's going to warm you up our next speaker an activist a physician and a long time ally of the palestinian movement dr jill stop Muhammad i wish you could see what i see i see power i see justice i see democracy as far as the i can see thank you it is such an honor to be able to be here with you to say to the world and to say to our criminal misleaders we say ceasefire now we say end genocide now patients now are not alone probable force for peace for justice for an end to genocide now as Frederick Douglass concedes nothing without a demand we are this walker the poet and novelist said the biggest way people give up power percent in the poll to the apac white house and to the accountable to us to we the people don't let them intimidate you or to be a force in the streets we have a power to be instructing our elected officials what they need to do that they need to stop the flow of weapons and money to apartheid israel need to withdraw our advisors our troops our warships our ammunition and our weapons from the scene of the crime on to remind you we all have a choice as voters so i can't say it's beyond words i had already decided to run as the green party candidate for president i began but once it began i was so phone that we call elections to actually you cannot do this and we the people are changing course here and now you to believe that you have no choice but you actually have many choices and there will be other speakers here today who are also a principled inspired and moral choice you have that choice and we need to assert our power right now don't wait i urge you to sign this pledge to stop side through our votes you can find us on the web we'll be handing out the cards this is a pledge to say we will not give our votes to any candidate who supports genocide but we won't stop there because they would love for us to be silent and just disappear we are also saying we will support we pledge to support candidates who are fighting to stop genocide for a ceasefire now and for an end to occupation and apartheid so with that i just want to remind you that we have the power to change history the arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice we will be the benders that moves history towards justice and as gaza goes we all go gaza is where we assert that international law and human rights are the law of the land and the law of the future let's make it happen together we are unstoppable thank you so much next we have a short message from our friends at the nitori karta who cannot be here with us today due to the sabbath with the help of the omaii i pray to the omaii to the soul palm means truth and wisdom that i may be worthy of conveying his message and so sanctify his name and bring peace to the world assalamu alaikum this message is being pre-recorded because as jews we are forbidden to speak in a microphone on the sabbath's codish on the saturday on the sabbath we want the world to know that because we are jews we are crying and hurting with the people of gaza it is beyond words they're suffering we are beyond words our frustration our hurt that this crime of mass murder is being perpetrated in our name it is anti-semitic what designed the state of israel is committing their crime their occupation and the slaughter is is a please listen to this voice and free the people of gaza free the people of palestine soon in our days assalamu alaikum who's a physician and the president of the islamic circle of north america there is a little boy by the name of jacob puffer coat he is a years old light skin brown hair is jack if you hear this can you please go to the horse statue the man on the horse he has a blue agita sweatshirt and black gloves jack if you hear this please go to the statue of the black horse of the horse in the back it is uh it is in the back of or this stage if that's what's closer uh please please make your way your family is very worried we need you as soon as possible a white coat today and this white coat is a symbol of something which has never happened on the face of the earth i'm a baby doctor those doctors which take care of babies in incubators in baby creves and whenever a baby has a low oxygen all the doctors all the medical staff all the nurses they get worried they spend their nights and days to save one baby in the crib to save one baby without oxygen mr president and fellow americans what will you say to those who cut off the oxygen for 500 babies and mr and they bombarded al shifa hospital and they killed 1000 patients we stand here to tell mr blinken mr blinken listen and of americans a loser 150 nations were against you in you and all position of leadership away from us so so before i leave things first what 65 percent of americans and all of us think here immediate ceasefire ceasefire ceasefire ceasefire morality and justice is different for ukraine and different for gaza this hypocrisy the last thing and the last is stop funding apartheid killers is stop funding them stop arming them is stop the genocide and mr biden mr blinker if you don't listen if you don't listen get ready to pack your bag and leave the white house bloody blinken genocide joe who have moral courage when their bosses do not at a time where the political establishment has shown no morality their staff has brings me great pleasure to introduce our congressional staff for ceasefire and and biden administration staff who will be who will have their statement read by a man who has shown more moral courage than everyone in the white house and everyone in congress combined josh poll the former state department rep who resigned over their stance on reza without further ado i'll invite congressional staff up first is ishmael and i'm a palestinian american congressional staffer i speak for staffers across capitol hill democrats republicans and independents many of us have dissented and protested since october 7 trust me y'all are not alone we're the ones who answer decisions we do this because we believe in a simple fact we need everyone to make this government work we know that change needs to happen on the inside and outside these past days shown that your protests your marches and your voices our efforts can change this government we join the majority of americans who are demanding a ceasefire and god and release of all october 7 attack was disgusting and the israeli's government's blatant disregard for innocent palestinians is just what's that groups twitter and instagram calls have poured in across the country by the hundreds of thousands calls from all of you we know this is wrong one second medic team medic team we need a medic over here to stage right we need a medic over here to stage right if the people around could could move to this they're waving the right oh a white rad for a white bag i'm sorry um the medic team if you guys could make your way over please oh like hundreds of thousands of calls from all of y'all who know that this is wrong but the majority of our elected officials have remained silent as palestinians died even many democrats who care about fighting gun violence at home stay silent while palestinians are killed by american made and supplied weapons at the end of the day it's the members of congress's name on the door our decision to dissent was not made lightly we are here because you all have inspired us to speak up to show solidarity and to express our humanity the long road to peace starts with the united states supporting an immediate ceasefire and facilitating the return of israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained palestinians we know that our allies in the biden administration know that you all know that many of our bosses privately express this same sentiment yet will not say the same publicly that is starting to change we are your allies on the other side of that phone we are working hard we are organizing and we are we are democrats republicans and independents all across the government who refuse to let go of our humanity keep protesting keep marching and keep calling the pressure is working the established narrative won't change overnight but together we are turning the tide thank you thank you know that the real heroes are in kaza and in the west bank um i've been asked to read a statement from u.s government employees uh but before i do so i just wanted to speak uh specifically to the arab americans to the muslim americans and to the palestinian americans among you today uh to tell you from the bottom of my heart how important your voices are you are gathered here today to demand a ceasefire an end to war and an end to occupation but more than demanding a change in policy your presence here today and every day across america is a reminder of the values this country seems to have forgotten a belief written into our founding documents that every human being on this earth is endowed with certain unalienable rights including life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for over 20 years many in your community have been vilified threatened and silenced you have been told that you do not belong here that you are not welcome here that you do not fit in here today as we see that could not be further from the truth in an era of social atomization you demonstrate the strength of community in an era of politics divorced from accountability you demonstrate the power of advocacy in an era of censorship you demonstrate courage in an era of political enmity you model human empathy in an era of unfairness you demand justice and in an era where the world believes america has lost its credibility and its integrity you embody our greatest values you are the best of america and i am humbled to be standing with you today as you raise your voices for the lives of palestinians and for the soul of america our nation knows you far more than you will ever understand on behalf of my former colleagues in government who share my concerns about the administration's approach to this conflict and the broader regional policy i will now read the following statement on their behalf we are the staffers of the biden harris administration we come from all walks of life serving in the most diverse administration in us history an administration that in president biden's own words looks like america as public servants we believe we have a responsibility to serve the american people and challenge our nation to live up to our highest ideals that is why we march today to make clear that we will not stay silent about the atrocities that are continuing in garza over 800 of us have signed a letter to the president vice president and cabinet members demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire and de-escalation we were horrified by the brutal october 7th attacks on israeli civilians and have been horrified by the disproportionate response by the israeli government which has indiscriminately killed thousands of innocent palestinian civilians in garza and displaced over a million more we have also seen an escalation of violence in the west bank in the last three months israeli forces have killed over 23 350 palestinians including more than 9600 children they have injured more than 59 400 palestinians more than 8 000 palestinians are still missing under the rubble we have seen refugee camps hospital schools and entire neighborhoods bombed we have seen men and boys pulling dead men women and children from the rubble in sandals with their bare hands guided only by the light from their cell phones we have seen cruelty harassment humiliation and degradation of many kinds this is unacceptable we join respected institutions like the united nations and international human rights organizations in calling for an end to this mass human suffering and we join them in support of south africa's case before the international court of justice alleging israel violated the genocide convention there must be an immediate end to this violence and there must be accountability to the blatant human rights abuses and mass atrocities occurring in this region we refuse to be silent as the majority of americans and majority of the world are calling for a ceasefire president biden committed to bringing humanity to our foreign policy and we remind him that all human lives matter equally and the protection of all human rights is unconditional our voices and the voices of the american public that we serve demand that this violence must stop and for this reason we demand president biden and members of the cabinet to speak up call for a permanent ceasefire a release of all hostages including the thousands of palestinians arbitrarily detained by israel and an immediate and an immediate de-escalation now both israelis and palestinians have the right to live with equal rights safety peace and human dignity the peace and safety for all across the middle east is essential the lives of millions of people hang in the balance in gaza in israel in the west bank and across the region thank you ceasefire now ceasefire now ceasefire now this is exactly why it's important for us to have representation in our government we cannot lift our hands the government is supposed to represent the people next up one of my favorite members of congress anybody on the satellite truck you need to get off get off the satellite truck please off the satellite truck please off the satellite truck please okay somebody will handle it next up next up i'd like to introduce one of my favorite members of congress congressman andre carcen who is one out of three muslims serving in congress and represents the seventh district of indiana that's my sister right there she's a general she's a warrior she's a leader look at this crowd this is what i'm talking about when i see this crowd i think about an election year when i see this crowd i think about what it means to leverage our voting block when i see this crowd i see a movement that says we will no longer allow you to come to our masjids to come to our iftars to make empty promises and when we vote you in office you vote against our interests enough is enough what's happening in gaza is wrong it can be frustrating when some of our friends seem to be going on usual and as though the atrocities in gaza aren't even happening they're going on with their lives but for those of us who love palestine we see the faces of distraught mothers in our dreams we see the ashes of palestinian children on social media and on tv we see the carnage and death in a place that was once where family built their lives 23 000 souls have lost their lives so far and i'm afraid that that number will only grow now it's human to feel anger and grief and even hopelessness but today we should be hopeful because i see power for you you are the movement that helped to achieve a temporary ceasefire it was you you are the voices that are pushing back on right-wing extremism and apac funding you you are posting on social media and fighting the narrative that says palestinian lives just don't matter now let me assure you alohu akbar let me assure you as a black man who comes out of the black american indigenous muslim experience that we know what it means to fight against injustice it can be lonely at times it can be discouraging but we haven't given up today i see our community working together with us and it's important to have allies we couldn't get this done without allies the civil rights movement wouldn't have happened without allies the desegregation of the military wouldn't have happened without allies but we have to stay firm and not let anyone hijack our movement for their own personal gain we have to move forward we know that military aggression is not the answer we know that we'll stay strong but the world is eating out of the palm of our hands and i don't want us to squander this moment being misled or doing silly stuff there have been mass sheds who have organized all across this country in a way we've never seen let us use that same force to leverage our voting bloc


Let's go to Morehead with Midgy Boys paying them a visit and Matt fits Gerald with Busy Early. Carter-Ranclev tests the glove here, fits Gerald there for the save then later. Lumberjacks on the rush, Hunter Olsen is at justice, tries to sneak it in, but Lance Leonard at the stop, the Spuds then just took off. Ranclev to Jack Stez, he goes top shelf, knocks the water bottle out, all Morehead in this one, final score at 9-0. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.