Donald Trump Scores Own Goal And Destroy Worldwide Stock Markets- The King of Mayhem.

Wow Bian, I woke up this morning to the astounding news that President Trump has decided to do a U-turn to “exempt” smart phones, chips, computers from the China tariff of 145%. Then why impose the 145% China import tariff in the first place which ends up with China retaliatory tariffs against US exports that hurts its own people? Not sure what Donald Trump gains from his “negotiation strategy” which is nothing short of an own goal. No wonder Elon Musk asserts that Donald’s top trade advisor is “dumber than a sack of bricks” and a moron.

What to do during this stock market crash?

1. I have been reserving some of my limited cash in event that the stock markets tank further. There maybe a few dead cat bounce given that business sentiment across the world have been really bad and bruised from the US tariff that is causing disruption and chaos everywhere. We maybe already in a recessionary environment. So be wary not to enter fully into the equity markets but to spread the entry over a few tranches.

2. At the same time, it seems a too good opportunity to be missed after the recent crash. There are a lot of companies out there now trading at a further discount of over 10%. I have added the following over the last week:

(i）Alibaba (9988) at HKD99-cash 

I nibbled away at a tiny 100 shares since Alibaba already got so much cash on its balance sheet and also a big discount off its past few months of rallied price. I like its e-commerce and AI investment.

(ii) Nikko AM REIT index (“CFA”)

CPF OA. REITs are at a 52 week if not 5 years low. I am seriously wondering how low can REITs go at this juncture and willing to take some risk with my CPF OA. Added a further 28,000 units over the week. Please also see my post in March 2025 on this CFA index fund- basically, it enables one to use 100% of CPF OA without the usual 35% restriction on investable amount above S$20K.  

(iii) rights issue for Frasers Centrepoint Trust (Cash + Margin).

Now, this one is a tough one for me. I was initially thinking of utilizing the cash for buying into 1 of the 3 Mapletree REITs as the distribution yield for these have been over 7% with the recent crash whereas FCT has a so much lower distribution yield of around 5.8%. But decided to invest into something that is fully vested in Singapore neighborhood shopping malls that has more predictable rental income streams. Took up my allotted rights of around 1,000 units and subscribed for excess of another 1,000 units.  

Parting Thoughts

Nothing much to say…..I am speechless over the antics of the King of Mayhem that single-handedly erased around US$10 trillion dollars from global stock markets in a few days. So much wealth vaporized overnight is simply shocking.