Inflation Data, Crypto Legislation, EV Outlook

and Ira, what do you think here? I'm calling your Federal Reserve? Your Federal Reserve looks at the inflation data we got today? What do you think it took away from that data? A happy happy holidays guys. Um, last last hit of the year here. Um, you know, I think the Fed takes away that we're continue to be on trend for lower but still not low inflation growth.

And and when you look at a lot of the data today, like like I wanted to crunching some numbers, and when you look at the trends just from the last three months and things like personal income and then you use oaths, the core and the headline PC deflator, what you realize is actually real incomes at least at the aggregate level, are actually growing now, sow, and that the first month we've seen that, because I this morning,

it's the second month. Um. But yes, it's it's actually you know, and and that that might actually be a um that I actually might be a worry for the Federal Reserve because when you have personal incomes that are higher than than inflation than that means that basically your real disposable income is higher, and that means people actually have more money to spend, which going into the holiday season might have been a pretty good, uh, you know,

pretty good action potentially for for holiday shopping when you know, now all of a sudden, for the first time, you know, basically in a year and a half that we've seen but we've seen incomes higher than than inflation. Um. Now, by the way, personal income came in a growth of zero point four percent. The estimate was for zero point three percent, so take better. Per spending came in with the growth zero point one percent the estimates for zero point two percent, so a tick worse. If this happened

in my household, I think my wife would love me again. Yeah, and but keeping keep in mind that um, you know, it's hard to judge some of these things on a one month basis because you know they are seasonally adjusted. And when we look at things like spending, UM, you know, over the pandemic period, you actually had people, you know, buying more online and doing more of their holiday shopping

in November than you did in December. So so even though you know it was only up slightly UM, you know, compared to the last couple of years, it was still a pretty reasonably robust number UM on a nominal basis for for November spending UM. And keep in mind also October was revised up attempts, so when when you average

those out, it was basically as expected UM. And and you know importantly UM, you know, with spending UH, you know continuing to grow even a little bit UM, you know that will continue to booie prices in some sectors and in particular services. So so again digging deep into this data and looking at things like core services spending UH and core good spending, goods prices have just been plummeting and goods prices are not growing anywhere near where

they were earlier in the year. But services spending continue and services prices continue to be growing at a reasonably good clip. And because services spending and prices tend to be stickier. Um, that means that inflation might not come down as quickly as the FED would like. And again this is the reason why I think that the FED might be pretty reluctant to cut interest rates later in the year, even if we have a reasonably I gotta say, you're singing from the same hymnal as Barry Nap, with

whom I spoke earlier this morning. Do you know this guy? Do you know Berry from I know he's I know he's a soccer guy. I mean I talked to you know, I know Rick Reader and some other people at AH at Black Rock, but I don't know Berry. Yeah, um not not not in the I'll get you two guys together, you can talk so anymore. Hey, now he's out in Veil I know. And so all right, so he went to Veil the first drop of a pandemic and he's never ever coming back. So anyway, so you know, I

want to get him. I want to get his take if we could one where where does the market expect rates to go? Um? You know, we hit florin a quarter on the ten year what two months ago about and people are asking was that the peak? Was it? Not? What what's the consensus for the path of the ten year yield? In so so, actually there's there's kind of two camps. It's very it's a pretty bifurcated market. Very few people think that that the tenure yield are gonna

stay where they are right now. Um, So you have a camp that's led by like Goldman Sachs and and some of my my friends over there calling four yields upwards of four and a quarter to four and a half percent again and making new yield ties in the tenure um. I think that's predicated in part on the idea that the Fed is actually gonna be too easy and that the economy is going to hold up much better um than than others think. And and we're probably

in the other end of the spectrum. Actually we I actually think that we're going to see yields below three percent by the end of next year, in part because not because we're gonna be necessarily in a deep procession next year, but that the market is going to price for very deep interest rate cuts and and a slower

economy come five. So it's really a timing issue. And and because of that, long term interest rates can fall, whereas short term interest rates might um follo at a much slower pace just because um, the the the economy, the market is going to anticipate very slow growth and much lower inflation on a forward basis. Alright, World Cup is over? Now what do I do for my soccer fix? Well, obviously Wednesday night you missed the MLS Uh, the College

Super Draft. Um. You know, there were a lot of players and from us L League two who were taken by MLS teams and um. Unfortunately that the R two players that were draft eligible uh and we're on the draft list did not get drafted. Um. Although some big news about one of them. It will come out in the next week or two. Um. But importantly, I think you know, for soccer wise, Monday is a Boxing day, so there's always a full slate of games in England

on Boxing Day. So that will be the next the next round of fixtures for people to watch fixtures, that's games I think their schedule or something I don't know. Alright, Ira Jersey he does the interest rate stuff for Bloomberg Intelligence. He also is our residence soccer person tells us kind of where we need to focus our soccer interests around the world. Nathan Dean, senior US policy analyst of Bloomberg Intelligence UH, and Joe Matthew most of Bloomberg Sound on.

Joe's in the studio. As a matter of fact, All Star panel. I know, good stuff. I mean they have to deal with the sausage making that is Washington, d C. And they to let me start with you on on the policy side. Isn't there like a big bill winding us way through Congress, like about funding the government and stuff like that. Give us the latest. Yeah, so you know this is the government's spending bill, also known as the Omnibus. It's one point seven trillion and overall spending. Uh.

The Senate's already passed it. The House has to go through today and try and get it out. But if not that the Senate has given them until December thirty. In terms of a short term funding, what this bill really does go for markets is really two things. One there's the funding angle and then there's the policy writer angle. On the funding side, you know, this gives sixties or

seventy six billion dollars increase to the defense industry. The defense industry likes this obviously if they hadn't, uh Secretary of Defense that's said earlier this year or earlier this month that they were going to be problems other things in here, additional eighty billion dollars to speed up the Chips Act. So if you're in the semi conductor industry, uh, this is actually gonna speed up the fifty two billion

dollars that they approved earlier. And then on the policy writer's side, look, there's tons of policy writers, but the one thing that we're really focused on right now is it's mandating employers to auto enroll their employees in for one case, So if you're a for one key provider, there could be quite a bit of increase in assets under management because you're gonna be forced to contribute three in your first year, all the way up to temper cent.

So there's a lot of stuff in this bill, but we do think it's going to pass and we're not gonna have a government show and forced. Well, you mean it'll just be automatic unless you opt out. That's that's correct. Okay, Joe, how's this playing out politically? I mean, um, the Congress seemed to start splitting a little bit in terms of support for Ukraine. For example, there were a few Republicans who are vocally against at least continuing at these levels.

And it also strikes me that so much spending I think it's one point seven trillion dollars in total, could be inflationary. It could be inflationary or stimulative according to some, although we tend not to think of budgets that way, since you know it's not a stimulus bill. But either way, yes, there are a lot of Republicans who are really upset about the way this was done. It's not a continuing resolution, as as we were just discussing here, this is an omnibus,

which is which is a which is better um? And Republicans scored a couple of major wins here. Mitch McConnell, for instance, signed off on this early, having succeeded in getting a massive increase in defense spending, in fact, even more than was seen for domestic spending. And and he was whipping his members early and off and on this. You have to remember the period of time that we're in right now, is Republicans prepared to take the majority

in the House. There's a lot of bluster. Kevin McCarthy was supposedly whipping against this bill, but if this had not passed, that would have been a huge problem for him. He was saved by the bell. He doesn't have to worry about now crafting a budget in a divided Congress.

A couple of weeks from now, Hey, Joe asiphrom the policy issues when we get back, then, is there a postmortem here with a day or two in a rear view mirror about the January six committee and kind of just give us an update of where we are and what might be next steps. Well, they dropped the report last night, which is a pretty big deal. This is, by the way, that Omnibus four thousand, one fifty pages

before the amendments. This report is eight hundred and fourteen pages, So you guys have a lot of reading to do this weekend. Um. Look, it's uh, it's a deep dive with a lot of information you've already heard, but it also adds more and they're going to continue adding more to this report. In terms of the verbate from these actual witness interviews, the testimony that we haven't heard were

seen in their entirety. But there's a list of eleven recommendations, and I'll bring you back a couple of days because this has been a really busy week. Remember we had that final meeting just a few days back in which they voted to refer criminal charges against Donald Trump, John Eastman,

and some others. This is the follow on the final document here that they believe is for posterity, the historical document people can look back many many years now as opposed to the Department of Justice investigation that may well end in criminal charges. But the eleven recommendations include one. We already checked this box, and it brings us back to the Omnibus bill. That's the Electoral count Act that clarifies that a vice president does not have authority to

reject electoral slates. There'll never be another Mike Pence. There'll never be another January six, at least the way we saw it. Now that this is in there, all right, that's so, that's interesting. Eight hundred pages. I'll get to that as soon. How many did you say? We're in the omnibus four thousand, one hundred fifty five. And it's pretty sick that I know that four thousand, four thousand pages. Nathan's all over that well, Nathan, here's what last night.

If it goes, if they're passing around the Congress, does anybody can they slip in a few pages about the state and local tax deduction? You know, it's funny. They had about fifteen amendments in the Senate yesterday. A couple of them did pass, so there will be more pages than that. And you know, if if you like the back room sausage making here. The only reason why the House didn't get the vote on it overnight, which was

the original plan. Everyone was supposed to be gone by now, is because this thing is so big they have to actually have this transcribed on the parchment, and it takes all night to do that. So they didn't actually receive the bill until just about now, and then the House will do its work to pass this along. All right,

So Nathan, let's let's be honest here. Let's just, I don't know, assume this gets done because if for no other reason the House wants to get to the airport, and will there be any safe banking in this that no, there's not the safe banking and nothing didn't didn't make it into the bill. That's a big blow for the folks that are invested in m S O s E

t F and marijuana potstocks. There actually was a writer in this bill that prohibits states in the District of Columbia from using faralled dollars to actually implement legalization of marijuana state initiatives. So this this is gonna go to next year the fun police who you know, it was probably some Probably there was one person who really wanted

it in there, and they got it in there. But when it comes to safe banking, when it comes to pot marijuana and legalization and so forth, I think legislators are going to hit a great pause. I don't see much momentum going into next year because you know, the House, sorry Republican leadership uh showed that they didn't want to actually support this. Senator McConnell made a pretty stringent statement about that, and you know, I just don't see the

political capital being used to push this over the line. So, uh, it's certainly feasible, it's got to take time to cook. It may pass a year from now, but I just don't see anybody paying attention to it outside of April twenty when all these issues pop up. What's you're taking, Nathan, what's your take on salt. Is there any chance it's

ever coming back? Uh? You know it's And I'm saying I'm apologizing to the folks in New New York and New Jersey right now, but there are a lot of tax issues, and I will say so, really, I don't think it's gonna come back, but I will say that the Trump air at tax cuts for consumers are going to expire in and that means that people who have already started talking about what can we do to extend

those or make those permanent? And you know, I'm sure that the great you know, uh policymakers from New in New Jersey are going to be inserting a salt into those discussions. Hey, Joe, give us a sense of the next two years. Are Are we just in mode already in Washington? Oh? We are? I mean the idea. Of course, we know that Joe Biden's He's gonna be, I believe, somewhere very warm with the family, uh the next week, and they're gonna be talking about that, and it's expected

he will announce his candidacy shortly after the holiday. So it's on. I mean, Donald Trump's already running. You're gonna have Joe Biden out there and that's gonna that's gonna drive the conversation. And in this divided government, it's right. I mean, there's there's very little that we're going to be passing through here. And in terms of the Safe Banking Act, that thing passed the House fifteen times ed Pearl Mutter is now retiring without safe Banking, which became

his his career long cause up there. But to get that through Mitch McConnell's chamber, and in seeing Kevin McCarthy coming in the House, it's highly unlike Wait, Joe, has a sitting president ever been primaried? I mean, is is it possible that Biden says I'm gonna run and then the Democrats put someone else forth? That would be shocking. I can't imagine who it would be because you know, look, there's a lot of talk about the Democratic bench being

a little bit thin. Uh. When you start talking about the Gavin Newsom's and some of the other players in the Democratic Party who might actually be able to stage a challenge Pete Buddha Jedge for instance, they could use a couple of years to cook. You know that that's probably a story we're looking at great stuff. Joe Matthew, Washington correspondent and he's host of Sound On that's weekdays at five pm Wall Street Time. He's with Bloomberg News

down in our DC studio. Nathan Dean, he's our senior US policy There's a lot of Nathans, and we're going back to him. Nathan Dean, senior gust policy analyst who actually speaks with great enthusiasm about policy stuff. I don't know how he gets that enthusiast, but I'm so glad we have him. I'm so glad we have him because he's all over that stuff. He's with Bloomberg Intelligence based in Washington as well. Brutal, brutal ear for stocks when you look in the rear view, brutal year four bonds

as you look in your rear view. But what area that actually ranked in two was energy? I'm like, you know, you look at some of these names up fifty six. I want to get a sense of have I missed it? Did I missed that trade? Or is there still something left. We're gonna break it down with David d senior investment strategist at Pepack Private Wealth Management and Rob Thummel, portfolio manager toward us. Uh, they're joining us on the phone. Rob, let's start with you here. Okay, I'm a little late

to the party, I admit it. Have I missed the energy trade here? Not only so, Paul, I think you still have plenty of time if you just look at the energy stock, you know, and you look at what investors want. They want the dividend yields and high free cash flow, and the free cash flow yield. The energy sectors still probably doubled out of the so and the dividend yields probably double or or or maybe triple though to the and some in some stocks of the S

and P five hundreds. So there's still plenty of room to run. The sectors still trading a discount to historical norms, and and have you know, we'll have delivered some very solid earnings into next year. So I still think there's a lot of opportunity and energy interesting. So David, how what are you? What are your clients? When when I think about the energy space, you know, it's back in the day when I started, energy was a really really

big sector. Everybody wanted to talk about it, and then it really just shrink in size in terms of make up the SMP. How do you and your clients, you know, think about energy in the portfolio? Well, so, in the last few years, there's no question about it that because of the poor performance of energy stocks plus I think E s G concerns, energy was not considered to be a favorite area in people's portfolios. But quite frankly, we are, for the reasons that our other guests talked about, continued

to be optimistic on the area. I mean, you look at the backdrop. The backdrop is policy makers, activists and so forth are discouraging further production of of fossil fuels. But the fact of the matter is that the production decreases I think will be faster than consumers can wean themselves off of using fossil fuels for their cars to

heat their homes. So you're gonna have this mismatch, and that typically means prices have to rise higher to even out to reduce supply in consuming demand, Rob, what do you think about the demand? I mean, this is the first time in a long time I can remember that we actually have a debate about whether or not demand is going to rise or not. There's so many issues around energy, um but the main one I guess China. Is the reopening gonna boost demand or is everyone they're

gonna get COVID and they're all going to stay home. Yeah. Yeah, And well I think we've we've seen we've seen that playbook play out already here in the US a certain extent. So probably in the short term there's probably some challenges, clearly some challenges in China's as the economy, uh, and then people start to open back up. But longer term, what you do know is that China is a big driver of demand for for for all energy, in particular

oil and in natural gas to a large extent. So if you look into next year, at some point in time, you know, to Chinese demand for for oil was actually negative.

We haven't had negative oil growth UM out of China for for decades, and so uh likely see pretty strong demand growth at some point in or into four out of China, and and that will really be the driver of of likely higher oil prices um going forward in the next And hey, David, you know when we talk about energy and energy stocks, you know, the conversation over the last four or five years has had to include

discussions about e s G, environmental, social, and governance. How do your clients think about E s G is a front and center for them or is it just you know, invest wherever you wherever you get the best returns. Well, I think our typical client wants to do well with their portfolio if possible. And for many years, of course, you know, the tech stocks did so well which had higher E s G ratings, and so you could outperform

and score high on those E s G scores. But now what we've seen in the least eighteen on since the E s G portfolios are starting to fall short, and that's where people are getting a little bit nervous here and taking another look at it. I think the other thing is this key Russia Ukraine conflict, you know, the you know, the question is, of course, is do you want to you know, support commodities and so forth

through things that could in effect support Ukraine? Um and how's that going to conflict with your E s G concerns. So I think at this point people are getting a little bit more neutral on those E s G concerns. Are we looking at h are we looking at stock prices of the companies that pull this stuff out of the ground, refined it and ship it and sell it to us. Are they rising or have they risen commensurate with UM the underlying commodity rob well so, so that's

good questions. If you look at oil prices, they're actually lower than they were last year. But yet as you highlighted, all those stocks across all the energy sector are are much higher. UM. So I think we've always wanted as investors that there to be a disconnect between the price UM and and and the actual stock performance. And then what I mean by the commodity price and because you know the underlying energy sector is going to be ripped,

it's really essential. It's going to continue to increase as as demand for as really GDP and population grows. And these energy companies now that they have just over the last couple of years shifted their focus to capital discipline and focused on returning money to shareholders, UM, that will mean there's less of an emphasis on the commodity price itself, especially for stocks like pipeline stocks that that have that are less sensitive to commodity price fluctuations in terms of

their cash lows. Hey, David, as we think about three UM, what are you suggesting to your clients in terms of on the equity sector allocation. Is it more cyclical like maybe an energy investment, or more growthy whether it's technology or healthcare. How are you thinking about that at this stage. Yeah, that's a great question. You know, fundamentally we're kind of bullish actually coming into two thousand twenty three. It's very rare to have two negative years back to back. Let's

look at that, and we do. We do think that, you know, interest rations need to be coming down, inflation seems to be softening. The FED still probably ultimately they're going to be driven by the data and I don't think, um the FED is going to dictate the economy. And we are also a little bit more optimistic that we're not going to have a hard landing in recession. So we actually think the energy for all the reasons we've

talked about, looks good here. But certainly you've got some opportunities in some of the growth and text sectors where you know, some blue chip names are down. You've got

to take a look at that as well. Hey, Rob, you know, I don't, you know, focus that much on the energy space, but I guess what I do know is, Okay, the world's moving to e s g But what I think we've learned over the past year, maybe it's been exacerbated by Ukraine, is we still need the fossil fuels and we're probably gonna need them in size were decades, you know, plural and and gas is probably the cleanest. Yes, you were talking to Danny Rice, Yes um at Rice

acquisition Carpon. His brother Toby runs EQUT. It was a great conversation. So Robert, as an equity investor, how do you get conviction about owning energy when man, I'm just not sure how the world views this migration to you know, green energy. Yeah, well you're talking to the right guy in Toby Rice and and we had so so from a big picture perspective, you know, EQT is the largest producer of natural gas in the US, and we're big fans of natural gas in general, and the potential that

natural gas has, it's been proven to be decarbonizing. That's increased use of natural gas displacing coal is part of the reason why US carbon dioxide emissions of decline in

the last ten years. And you know, you can take the same playbook and apply it to to China and India and and similar things will happen the other The other factor in the energy sector is it's not an either or, it's a These energy companies that have actually stopped resisting, uh, trying to DECARBONI can actually embrace the carbonizing.

So there's a lot of other interesting things going on at the energy companies, in particular with regards to carbon capture and hydrogen development, uh, while while they continue to provide the essential products that are needed for us to continue to to live every day. Alright, So, David, as we think about three right here, right now, are your clients want you aggressive? Um? Well, they certainly, well, the sentiment is not good, but it's my job to lead

them in the right direction. And I want to be aggressive here because I think with the stocks market down about with interestry starting to stabilize, people are going to do well next year. The time to be a little bit more aggressive is when your clients are a little bit skittish and quite frankly vice versa. All right, David, great stuff, as always really appreciated. David Deet's pepack Private

Wealth Management A rob real quick. I gotta ask you, NBA from Kansas Undergrad and k State, what do you do when they play on the football field, who do you who do you root for? It's pretty simple, Paul. My wife went to the University of Kansas as well, so so my allegiance falls with them as a result of being married. So it's all good stuff. Smart man.

We we we understand that. Rob Thummel, Senior Portfolio Manager, Managing Director Towardis Capital, joining us with David Diets at Pepack Private just getting kind of a overview of the energy space point it's been one of those sectors that just really had a great year. And it's interesting, is Matt pointed out, you know, we've had gas flat, I mean oil prices flat year over year, but those stock prices are up fifty six, so kind of a decoupling there.

One of the things that keeps coming back to me is but we need like a lot of rare earth materials to kind of make the batteries and some of these components, and and a lot of folks are even telling me that's a risk because a lot of them come from Africa and other places that may or may not be accessible to us as we may think. Zane Kylin, he's a CEO and director of Infinity Stone Ventures. He joins us here, Zaying, thanks so much for joining us. Tell us what you guys are up to at Infinity Stone.

Where where do you fit into this equation? Well, no, thank you for having me and um Yeah, effectively, I think you hit the nail on the head that for all of these initiatives that are being funded by government incentives and private industry investment and just this whole EV pushed towards EV manufacturing and building supply chains in North America, there really does need to be a lot more supply on the critical mineral space, and that's what we're doing.

We're we're exploring for critical mineral deposits UM in North America, primarily in Quebec and Ontario, UM also in other parts of the US as well. But as you said, like China and Africa really are kind of the engine of growth in the critical mineral space, whether that be lithium or rare earth metals, etcetera. All of these medals come from primarily Africa China, and if they're not from Africa, not from Africa to being refined to China. So I think what is that, by the way, Zaying, is that

the issue so rare earths? I don't know what they are, like neodymium or whatever. And lithium and cobalt are more of the critical metals that you're talking about. These things are not just in abundance in China underground, right, we have them here underground. What I understand is that it's just that they have the refining capacity in China, and we as a country or as a continent, haven't haven't invested in that, correct, Yeah, And beyond that, we haven't

even invested in UM. A lot of the pieces that are necessary to even exploit these mineral deposits that we do have in North America. But I think every day you see this is changing. And with the i R A and UM numerous and UM initiatives in Canada as well,

there's considerable opportunity to invest in these spaces. And you hear people like Elon Musk talk about the the lithium refinery and Lithium developed a lithium project development or is to print money, I think is how you described it earlier this year, So explain explain the i RA for those listening, that's the Inflation Reduction Act UM, and I guess part of that bill allows for tax credit for certain electric vehicles, right, what what what are the criteria

that need to be met in order to get that tax credit. Well, so that's one big piece of it for sure, is that a lot of the I think it's the supermajority of the minerals going into the car UM critical minerals that includes lithium, um rarer, nickel, cobolt, et cetera, have to be manufactured in countries or have to come from countries that UM. The US has friendly tradulations with UM, so effectively that means the West and

really today that's pretty much impossible. There isn't really a car today on the road that would actually qualify for that in the US. UM. There there's some consideration for different vehicles and how they are manufacturing where they're manufactured that maybe eligible, but until there's a little bit of clarification around those where it's gonna be really tough UM

to be able to meet that criteria effectively. But kind of taking a step forward them that the IRA also has a lot of UM provisions and investment for grants and tax credits and just direct general investment in companies

that are developing critical mineral projects. And I think that's the big opportunity that we see is that you're not only do you need to have the end consumers going to see the best that this with tax credits, these companies are able to get considerable investment um from government, from government spending, and if you look at what's going on with rising industrates, etcetera, and kind of the macroeconomic climate, there really is no other sector that the government's pouring

money into like this, And I think if we were going into recession, I think it's relatively obvious at this point or there's a general consensus around it. I think in that environment, you're gonna need to find industries risk industries where there's potential for more direct investment, and that's where you're gonna be able to drive economic growth. And I think that's where also investors are gonna be able

to see potential outside. So saying at Infinity Stone Ventures, what type of investments are you guys making, where are you putting your capital? Yes, so we're very focused on a number of projects in Quebec and Ontario. Quebeca Ontario um are two of the best mining jurisdictions to work with working in the world. I think the Fraser Institute rates Quebec is number six, in Ontario is number eleven. UM just very good rule of law obviously being in Canada.

But then beyond that, there's really great investment opportunities. And then beyond that, we have great mineral deposits and great opportunity for exploration. So there's been a number of significant discoveries over the past call it two years, and in UM Quebec in Ontario, and we see a great opportunity to further develop those, invest in those UM, build out resources, and then eventually be in a position to build a really strong supply chain. You're already seeing UM lithium refineries

being built in Ontario. You're already seeing big CARBONI Fat Cheers, Mercedes and Volkswagon signing deals with Ontario mineral expiration companies for supply of lithium to their factor to their factories in Germany. And I think you're just going to continue to see a lot of these initiatives grow and it really is the best spot to be in. So where

does that UM put in? Finny and Infinity Stone Corp. Right now, Infinity UM as the company that you're running, and you've got I guess what venture capital rounds behind you and UM do you go for an I P O? Do you look to tie up with this back? How's that? How? What are your future plans like? Yes, so we we

actually are publicly traded on the Canadian Stock Exchange currently. UM. We have raised probably in excess of about six million over the past year and a half UM, so it's relatively small where we the company just kind of started, was formed in January, really kind of start really got going in January UM, and we put some money in the ground already. We we're after developing two or three

resources as we speak. UM. Our Rockstone graphite project is probably one of the more exciting projects really kind of further down the road and development and UM we're doing a lot of work to refine that graphic to battery grade, all the metal logic, coal work. We've done considerable drilling over the past six weeks. UM. And then we have another lithium project of Buddha Lithium project that we're also

actually developing. UM. So yeah, really we are kind of our process for the next year is we're gonna raise probably another round of capital UM in Q one and the next year, and then with that we will be uh kind of deploying it more actively. We're also looking at bringing in some other projects UM in our investing in some other projects in the US. So there's a lithium Brian project in Depth Valley that UM we're in the midst of negotiating, as well as some other projects

UM in the U S too. So I think, really when you look at kind of the company as a whole, we are an investor, we're project generator. We're putting money in the ground and all in all of these different initiatives across a different sector battery metals, not only lithium, but also looking at rare earth and UM and graphite, which is the graph it's a big I think, grab it's gonna be a big trend going into UM. So, yeah, that's stuff all right, Zane, great stuff. Appreciate you taking

the time here giving us the update. Zaying Kalin. He's the CEO and director Infinity Stone Corporation. Looking at the UH, you know, the processing of a lot of these rare metals that are need for that are needed in you know a lot of electric transformation electric vehicles. Think for example, some of those UH components are tough to come by, tough to process and you want to get a better sourcing. That's kind of what I've been hearing from most of the folks in that industry, so it's good to get

Zane's perspective. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe and listen to interviews with Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller three. Pet On Ball Sweeney, I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio.