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Well, Apple stock regained some of its losses today after the announcement of that 90-day pause on some new tariffs, while the tariff on imports from China to the U.S. has been jacked up to 125 percent. Joining us now is Bob O'Donnell, Technalysis Research President and Chief Analyst. Bob, it is great to see you. So when we say, when we say, Bob, you know, Apple regained some ground, let's put a number on that, Bob, because this stock roared today. Apple, Apple, Tim Cook's company, tacked on more than 15% in today's trade, Bob. Try to unpack that to the extent we can ever unpack one day's move. Is that because, Bob, is that your guess that okay, investors think in the pressure on China, that is still on. Trump made it clear. He's not happy with Beijing in the least. But the pressure in other parts of the world, the pressure on other parts of Tim Cook's supply chain, like India, like Vietnam, some of that's coming off, is that what you think investors were reacting to?

Look, honestly, Josh, I feel like it was more just a release. And we saw the whole market obviously grow, and Apple did a little bit better than the whole market, but I think the vast majority of that positive reaction for Apple was just related to the overall market movements. You know, and here's the problem we still have, right? To your point, yes, Apple, Tim Cook has been building out the Apple supply chain, but we still know that India and Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia are a tiny fraction of Apple's overall supply. Most of it still comes from China, and that of course is now getting even higher tariffs. And of course, we've seen stories about how Apple airlifted, you know, all their expensive devices, they paid extra to get it here to avoid the tariffs. Uh, you know, and there were stories that uh Apple stores over the weekend were crazy. It was like holiday time because people were buying ahead of the tariffs. But that that's not going to last, right? That's unfortunately not going to last. And the situation that we've got now is yes, there's a 90-day pause, but clearly we've entered an era of complete unpredictability. No one really knows what's going to happen. And you've got this overhang. And oh, by the way, even without the overhang, you still have 125% tariffs on China where most of Apple's goods are coming from.

So if that's true, Bob, and it is, the pressure on China is still on. I mean, Trump made that very clear, not happy at all since they're not being respectful, I think is how he put it. If that's true, and as you point out, China, key link in Apple's supply chain, what, Bob, for the investors who are listening right now, how is that going to ripple through Apple? What are going to be the potential financial impacts? How does Tim Cook actually navigate that?

Well, look, a couple things, Josh. Let's not forget that hardware is still not all of Apple's business, right? The services business has been the most profitable and the fastest growing part of the Apple business for several years now. And honestly, even if for some god unknown reason, you know, sales of Apple devices stopped tomorrow, you still have over a billion installed base devices and they're buying more and more and more of these services. Now, that's not going to happen, but my point is there's still opportunity for Apple. It's just that, you know, the hardware piece of this story is going to be much more difficult. And you know, it's the whole notion of how they could uproot their supply chain. I mean, this stuff, you know, for people who know about this kind of stuff and I've been looking at this a long time, this takes years and years, and if not decades, not weeks, not months, nothing like that. So there is no short-term fix for some of these hardware issues. You know, and the crazy thing is, you know, if Trump is really focused on China, then he should really ease up on Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia, where not only Apple, but a lot of other tech companies and apparel companies and a lot of companies move their production to avoid being so focused on China. So if some of those things aren't released even more, I would argue, you're actually kind of helping China in a weird way.

What would be the odds, Bob, you would place on Tim Cook being able to secure some type of exemption, some type of tariff carve out? Because it was interesting, Bob, just today, I don't know if you saw Trump talking to reporters, and some reporter asked him directly, hey, Mr. President, would you consider exemptions for American companies? He didn't say no, Bob. He didn't. He said, hey, that's going to be something we might take a look at. And as you know, Cook did secure those exemptions during Trump 1.0.

You're right. Sorry, Josh. You're absolutely right. And that's yet another wild card in this whole equation, right? Because Apple has, I mean, they're a poster child for American innovation, you know, and one of the biggest companies in the world. And clearly, Cook has worked to try and engender a good relationship with the Trump administration. And so, I think there's going to be a lot of work to be done there. But you know, unfortunately, right now, again, that's just so unpredictable. And how long does that last? And how does that play out? And what other kind of cards get played to try and use that as a way to try and leverage moving supply chains without really accepting the fact that it's going to take a long time. All those are big questions. But bottom line is, I would not at all be surprised to see a carve out just for Apple, or maybe for Apple and Dell and a couple of other, you know, kind of key name, uh, American brands, but it's just really hard to tell.

Bob, for investors who are listening right now, let's say you're an Apple bull, you're an investor, let's put traders to the side, you're an investor. You stay focused on what, Bob? Aside from the kind of near-term changes and headlines and drama, you stay focused on that massive installed base, Bob. You stay focused on that Apple intelligence upgrade cycle.

For sure, you stay, I mean, the installed base is what gives Apple this enormous advantage over everybody. And so that continues to be a big issue. And they're continuing to build new services, and Apple intelligence down the road is going to be one of those services from which they're going to generate more revenues. Now, obviously, they took a couple of stumbles, it's hard to do for a lot of reasons, and a lot of companies are facing these issues. But look, down the road, there will be yet a large installed base of AI capable devices, and you're going to be able to run more things on the device. Apple will eventually figure out ways to monetize some of those capabilities. So there's plenty of positive roadmap for Apple. It's just, you know, right now, everybody's getting caught up with the tariffs and the manufacturing and the hardware piece of it. But if you're thinking longer term, there's still, you know, plenty of opportunities for Apple. It's not going to be easy to be clear, but it's not like it's doomsday, right? And again, as I said, even if somehow they stop selling devices, that services opportunity is going to give them some growth opportunities for a long time.

Bob, always great to see you, my friend. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks, Josh.