maria: welcome back. 30 minutes before the opening bell for a wednesday, final thought, adam johnson j. lowest cpi inflation report many three and a half years, fed's cutting rates. maria: michael. >> -- as well as in the harris platform. maria: wow. todd piro. >> exactly what those two gentlemen said. [laughter] maria: we so appreciate you being here, see you again tomorrow. "varney & company" picks it up right now with a market that is up after that cpi. ashley webster in for stu. take the it away.

ashley: good morning, everyone. indeed, i'm in for stu today. the big muse of the morning -- news of the morning, here are the numbers. july cpi inflation rate falling to 2.9%, below expectations of 3%. the core cpi inflation fell to 3.2. that was in line with expectations, but western point out this marks the first month with cpi inflation overall below 3% since march of 20211. more than three years ago. markets taking, well, at first a slight dip on the news although we've now turned modestly higher. the dow up 27 point, the s&p up a tenth, the nasdaq also a up about two-tenths of a percent. interest rates, meanwhile, on the 10-year yield just slightly hire, up by 1.4 basis points at 3.85%. let's take a look at the 2-year, also higher by nearly 5 basis points at 3.97%, and let's take

a look at bitcoin. we always like to keep track of that, of course, up $575 at $61 is,1544. what about the price of oil with everything that's going on, especially in the middle east? slightly higher, $78.65 per barrel of crude. if as for gold, essentially flat, down a dollar at $250 to6. 25250 to6. -- 2506. a warning from nikki haley to her fellow republicans. she says the gop needs a strategy shift to win in november. her message? stop whining about a harris and talk to the american people. we've also got new numbers on how much the migrant crisis has cost new york city. so far, are you ready for it? $5 billion. even worse, that number could double by next year. if on the show today, we also have a business owner who was forced to shut his coors in minneapolis -- his doors in minneapolis thanks to high taxes

and crime. he also said tim walz was a total and complete failure. lots to to talk about. it is wednesday, august the 14th. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world ♪ ashley: cat stevens, it's a wild world, that's for sure, an understatement. good morning, everybody. as you look down sixth avenue in midtown manhattan, let's begin with the latest on inflation at the consumer levels. as we said, prices up 2 2.9% over last year. under 3%, that hasn't happened for a while. good morning, lauren. lauren: hey, ash a, good morning being. there is progress. in fact, 90% of the monthly

increase was because of shelter. so let's also take out food and energy and pull up screen. you can see that prices rose .2% in july from june and 3.2% from last july at the core level, and that level is the lowest in more than three years. here's where the inflation is on an annual basis: transportation, ouch how, up 8.8%. shelter, as we noted, food up 2.the 2%. used cars down almost 11% in the past year. translation on wall street, it is more likely that the fed cuts by 25 the basis points as opposed to 50wren they -- when they do meet in 35 days. ashley: okay. lauren, thank you very much. and as we mentioned before, the

market's not really moving on this. ever so slightly higher. you can be darn sure that if those numbers came in hotter, i think we'd see a leg down. kyle wall joins me now. we heard what lauren just said, more of a chance of a quarter percent cut, but there are those who say the fed should consistent by 50 basis points. what say you? >> i think a lot of people are talking about what interest rate cuts mean for the market. covid crisis of 2020, this is different. this reminds me much more of 1980 when they raised rates to break inflation. they did it intellectually, and now they're actually able to cut rates because they've broken inflation at least where it's not out of control where it was a year ago, and i think if you look at the performance of the stock market from 1980-1987 in a a very similar environment, you're going to see a very strong stock market. i would be buying big tech right

here. and if we get a republican president and a republican senate, you could see this market really take off. so i'm bullish and optimistic right now, ashley. ashley: yeah, i can tell. about big tech, you like nvidia as a so many people do, also super micro computer. why those two? >> i like those companies. i think they've add -- had a little bit of a pullback, obviously, both up more than 100% year to date. nvidia's gone from 100 toto 1200 over the last 18 month, but i don't see many cutbacks. you've got people like elon musk raising billions of dollarsing into xai, and they're going to buy more chips from nvidia and super micro. so i think that a bull market's still hot and will be going into the end of the year. ashley: very good. kyle, we'll have to leave it there there. lots to talk about today, but thank you so much for your input this morning. by the way, we just got fox news power rankingsing, new ones,

this time for gubernatorial races. lauren, come back in and take us through them. lauren: yeah. we forget that in november 11 states will vote on their next governor. most of them are solid red. you can look when we pull up the screen, if you look at the right side, seven states in the solid red column, there you go. three are competitive. let's start with new hampshire, fox is calling it a toss-up. the egg-liked republican governor -- well-liked republic governor, chris sununu, not running for a fifth term. he endorsed former senator kelly ayotte. the two democrats both running center-left campaigns. then you have north carolina, fox ranks this lean democrat. who is going to replace the democrat golf, roy cooper, now i? democrats are fielding josh stein, that's the state attorney general, pro-business, pro-police as a democrat. and republicans are running lieutenant governor mark

robinson. he is trump-endorsed. and finally, washington state, look, democrats have the advantage here. washington has not chosen a republican for governor since 198ing 5. ashley: yeah, a long time. all right, lauren, thank you very much. [laughter] if nikki haley, by the way, has a warning for republicans. she says if they want to win in november, they're going to have to do this, take a look. >> the republican party needs to make a serious shift here. and the first thing is the republican party, donald trump, people here at fox, quit complaining that she's not giving an interview. you don't need an interview from kamala harris. i take her at her word. what donald trump needs to do is go out there and campaign, what donald trump needs to do out there -- exactly what kamala harris has said. we are 800 plus days out. we need him to win, but you've got to go out and do the work. and the one thing republicans have to stop -- quit whining

about her. ashley: just quit the whining. interesting. byron york joins me now. [laughter] good morning to you, byron. >> good morning. aaron ash what do you think? is nikki haley right? >> it's pretty good advice. one thing she says that is actually quite interesting, we know that kamala harris seems to be flip-flopping on positions she has held in the not too distant past, positions on energy, on health care and on the border. really i think the only thing she's been super kin on has been abortion -- consistent on has been abortion. so now we're hearing that she's changed her positions on many things, but we hear them from anonymous aides. maybe hay send out an e-mail, they make a statement, say her position is difference now. what nikki haley is saying is, look, we have all this video of kamala harris -- ashley: yeah. >> -- raising her hand, stating her positions. attack that. that is what she is until she,

kamala harris, comes out and says i've changed my mind, this is my new position. million she does that the -- ashley: right. >> -- just go after what you have her on the record saying. ashley: let's get to this next one, byron. listen to to what susan rice said about kamala harris' role in joe biden's policies. take a listen. >> kamala harris has been an integral architect and executer of the policies of the biden-harris administration. this notion that she somehow if doesn't deserve credit for and isn't part of and wasn't an integral architect of the biden-harris administration agenda is not only false, it's, frankly, somewhat bizarre and offensive. ashley: well, you know, byron, it's interesting, i mean, does kamala harris want to be so closely associated with the biden administration? [laughter] what do you make of that? >> this was a very clever way to

tie kamala harris to joe biden, and the fact is the biden record is the harris record. that's what republicans want to argue. and we are seeing more and more news reports saying that harris wants to define herself, redefine herself, move away from biden, and indeed, it appears that democrats are going to give president biden a tribute on monday night at the convention, and then they're going to shuffle him off the stage, and that's it for him. no more joe biden. and i think what republicans are going to do is point out all these things you have not like about the last three and a half years, inflation, the economy, border, crime, international crises, that's joe biden and kamala harris. ashley: right. >> one and the same. ashley: one and the same, indeed. byron, thank you so much. appreciate your comments -- >> thank you, ashley. ashley: -- with us this morning. as always, thank you. come back in here, lauren. what's this about the harris campaign putting out fake headlines on google? lauren: you know, i scratch my

head on this one. and it's the totally legal based on google's own policies. i mean, what could go wrong about a fake headline? so comes from axios. they're reporting with examples that the harris campaign is editing the news headlines from publications like the one you're looking at. this is from reuters. on the left is the original headline that the real reporters wrote at reuters. impact of biden's economic agenda may be felt long after his presidency. but the harris' campaign team, they rewrote that to be inflation is down. that's very different. google says this is fine because there is a tab in yellow that says it's sponsored and paid for by her campaign. ashley, it's extremely misleading. let's show you another one. the original a headline, this is from a north dakota radio station. walz selected as kamala harris' vp pick. and the rewrite, harris picks tim walz, 215,000 minnesota families win. and one more for you, but there's m the ap, harris will

carry biden's economic record into election switched to harris' economic vision, lower costs and higher wages. and the news outlets told axios they didn't even know this was happen. but adding insult to injury, ashley, she's doing this as a she refuse if to -- refuses to sit down with any of these news organizations. ashley: yeah. hey, when you can buy a headline, that's what happens. all right, lauren, thank you very much. coming up, is kamala harris simply too business city to talk to the press, to lauren's point? some in the media think that's a pretty lame excuse. >> i don't think she's got any campaign events on the schedule today, does she? >> well, she and governor walz have been traveling across the country -- >> there does appear to be that time if she wanted. ashley: if she wanted. her campaign is under scrutiny over her lack of interviews, and former arkansas governor mike huckabee is here to react. new reports also revealing iran is planning to send hundreds of ballistic missiles

to moscow. how will the u.s. respond to russia's relationship with iran growing ever closer? florida congressman michael waltz will take that on next. ♪ ♪ (husband) we just want to have enough money for retirement. (wife) and travel to visit our grandchildren. (fisher investments) i understand. that's why at fisher investments we start by getting to know each other. so i can learn about your family, lifestyle, goals and needs, allowing us to tailor your portfolio. (wife) what about commission-based products? (fisher investments) we don't sell those. we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in your best interest. (husband) so how do your management fees work? (fisher investments) we have a transparent fee, structured so we do better when you do better. at fisher investments, we're clearly different.

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ashley: welcome back, everyone. futures, well, essentially flat for the dow, s&p and nasdaq after cpi inflation came in pretty much as expected. no surprises to the upside which is probably better for the markets. now this, reuters is reporting only a ceasefire deal in gaza will prevent iran from carrying out a direct attack on israel. trey yingst is in haifa, israel, this morning with the very

latest developments. trey. >> reporter: ashley, good morning. ceasefire talks are set to resume tomorrow amid hopes of averting a larger war. those conversations will be led by the qataris, egyptians and the americans. it's unclear at this point if hamas will participate in the talks. the aim is finding an end to the war in gaza, and this would include the release of israeli hostages exchanged for palestinian prisoners. observers hope it will prevent iran from launching a larger attack and allow for an agreement with hezbollah in lebanon. >> we continue to believe that a diplomatic resolution is achievable. we continue to believe that no one truly wants a full scale war between lebanon and israel. especially not the lebanese people and the israeli people. >> reporter: an end to the broader conflict would help to stabilize a rapidly

deteriorating security situation across the middle east. suffering in gaza continues with the civilian death toll rising, horrible stories of death and destruction plague the strip each day. this week one story pierced international headlines and the hearts of viewers, that of a young father whose twin babies were just days old, they along with his wife killed in a shelling. just yesterday the united states approved an additional $20 billion in military the aid for israel as the country prepares for the possibility of a broader regional war. ashley? ashley: trey yingst in haifa this morning, trey, thank you very much. the state department has warned of a swift and severe response if iran follows through on plans to the send police aric missiles to russia. florida congressman mike waltz is a member of both the house intelligence and foreign affairs committee, and he joins us this morning. congressman, what kind of a response should we expect if, indeed, these missiles are sent?

>> well, ashley are, unfortunately i don't think anybody in the region takes this white house or state department kind of or else type of threats seriously at this point because we've had four years of appeasement after appeasement. case in point, iran has been providing russia thousands and thousands of drones that they then have used on ukraine now for years. and this white house has done literally nothing about it except to give multimillion dollar patriot missiles to ukraine to defend themselves which is completely unsustainable, to be shooting down $50,000 iranian-made drones with multimillion dollar missiles. what we should be doing is cracking down on iranian oil sales, going back to maximum, pressure which was working under the trump the administering, and doing -- and passing what house

republicans have already passed which are sanctions on chinese buyers of iranian oil. when you hear president trump say i looked at chai and -- china and say you better knock if it off of or you won't do business with us, it worked back then. we pass sanctions now on chinese buyers, and it's been sitting on schumer's desk now for months. there has been no consequences to iran whether it's doing these missiles, the drones, attacking soldiers or attacking israel. zero consequences from this white house. ashley: i want to get to this issue. you mentioned ukraine, congressman, russia was forced to withdraw troops from ukraine and send them to defend the kersk region from a ukrainian incursion. what do you make of all of this? is it a sign that ukraine is actually making progress against russia? >> well, it's a risky strategy, but it's a clever one. the ukrainians have actually taken a portion of russia.

number one, it's the portion of russia hat russians were using to fire missiles and artillery into ukraine, so they wanted to back those artillery pieces up and out of range. but the bigger strategic piece is the ukrainians are saying we took this portion of russia, we'll trade you, russia, putin, for the portion of ukraine you've taken since 2024 -- 2014. and it looks like it's a very clever way to set up some type of negotiation and peace deal. ashley: right. >> but it also has exposed how weak the russian army is and how they have all their chips in eastern ukraine and can't even defend other portions of their territory. ashley: yes. certainly a bold move, that's for sure. congressman mike waltz, who happens to be my congressman, great to talk to you this morning. thank you so much. >> i'll take your vote -- ashley: i will, don't worry. let's take a look at the futures. essentially flat with the latest inflation numbers.

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ashley: all right, as we say, the marks essentially flat, just down a little bit on the dow. but let's see what happens when the bell rings in less than three minuteses. bring in eddie ghabour. good morning, eddie. we got the inflation report this morning, 2.9% over the last 12 months. no big surprises. so what does this mane for rate cuts, in your -- mean for rate cuts, in your opinion? >> so i think right now the market has priced in too aggressive of rate cuts at 50basis points. i think we're up a little bit right now in the bond market because the the dilemma that the fed has right now, the labor market is weakening which is supporting rate cuts, but inflation is still sticky high. when you look at this number, we're basically at 3%, and the fed wants us at 2. that's still a third away from being at 2, and you look at shelter, that's up, food is up, car insurance is up. so they're in a real pickle

right now because the things that consumers need to buy are not coming down from an inflationary standpoint. and if they get too aggressive with rate cuts, the problem they'll have is you'll see a reacceleration of inflation, and that's the last thing that we want. so jackson hole will be very important, i believe, next friday chairman powell will be speaking, and we'll get the see whether or not they're at the 25 or 50, but right now my money's on 25 basis points for september. ashley: very good. you brought some picks with you. let's begin with one that a lot of people talk about pretty much every taker nvidia. tell me about that. >> yeah. so we ennvidia. we nibbled during the dip that we had over the last few weeks. now yesterday we did take advantage of the rip as we shared with your viewers last week, if we got what we expected, and we trimmed a little bit from some of our other holdings because we think we're going to be in this range-bound market. i think right now it's not prudent to be fully invested

unless -- if you have the ability to do that. we want dry powder because we think we're going to be able to buy things we still own at lower prices. we like these names today, in our opinion, would not be a day to be a buyer after the rip that we've had. so 2012 actually -- we've actually taken advantage of that to raise cash to be able to buy more in the coming weeks. ashley: i've got 20 the seconds, invesco qqq trust. why do you like that? >> so, look, if this market's going to go back to highs or near highs, the leaders that led us are going to continue to be leaders, and that's a way to diversify and get mega-cap tech for many investors that can't buy individual names. ashley: very good. eddie, thank you, as always, for joining us on what propses to br busy day. here we go, we get underway on this wednesday, and let's see where we begin. futures have suggested a pretty muted opening, so let's take a

look. right out of the back there you have it, the dow essentially -- it's been right on the flatline there. taking a look at the big board, some of the dow 30 stocks. amazon.com, am-ex, american express, at the top. amgen and merck at the bottom, but it's the all very, very softly, softly the dow up 12 points. let's take a look at the s&p as well. see what we can see there. it's up a whole whopping 10 points, about two-tenths of a percent. and let's take a look at the big tech index, the nasdaq, that's doing a little better, up 533 points at 17,24is 1 -- 53 points. big tech, a mixed ball. amazon, microsoft, metaall moving modestly higher although amazon up nearly 10111% -- 1%. alphabet down three-quarters of a percent. talking about alphabet, let's take a look at google if we can. the justice department

apparently considering breaking the company up. hmm. how does that happen, or lauren? lauren: yeah. and that's the question. how does that happen and what happens, is the problem. stock down a little bit. bloomberg is reporting that the most extreme remedy -- and this is the one that's being most discussed among the doj attorneys -- is forcing google to divest android. that's huge. it's on 2.5 billion devices. it could also force them to divest chrome, force google to share more of their data with competitors like bing, or they could force google to not allow them to pay billions and billions of dollars to be the default setting on other people's devices. google will apole. this will be -- appeal. this will be tied up in the courts possibly for years but, ashley, this is the first doj attempt to dismantle an american tech giant since microsoft back in the year 2000. ashley: wow. lauren: yeah, it's huge -- aaron a ash that's going to be a

complicated one. also, lauren, more trouble at intel. lauren: intel is selling their stake in arm holdings, a chip design company. that sale is expected to have raised about $145 million for intel. their stock is down some 60% this year, and their ceo is trying desperately to right the ship and gain market share in their foundry business. but it's been a rough ride for intel. shareholders praying that this turn around will one day happen. ashley: well, we'll see. another huge name, of course, apple. some good news, right, from their supplier, foxconn. lauren: forget the fact that foxconn basically makes the iphone for apple. foxconn's profits rose for the fourth straight quarter and revenue jumped almost 20% to a record on strong demand for a.i. servers. so they're making the iphone and also all of these servers for artificial intelligence. in october they expanded their deal with nvidia to build a new class of data centers.

but despite this news, apple stock down a little bit. foxconn was up overseas. ashley: all right. let's move on to the owner of op pop tarts and pringles, two of the major food groups. up today on a possible sale. who wants to buy 'em? lauren: mars. mars is buying them for $36 billion cash. this is the biggest deal in packaged food. i i am afraid if to go to the grocery store because mars will own the candy aisle, the cookie aisle, the snack aisle. you're putting m&ms, snickers, skittles, let's see, pringles all under one roof here. they're doubling up. consumers are trading down, right, to private labels, and they're also buying less because many of us are on weight loss drugs, right? if so those are some of, some of the environment that the snack companies are playing in. so, obviously, this is good news.

the deal values kehlanova at $83 a share. ashley: suddenly, i'm hungry. [laughter] flutter is up, wow, more than 11. good report, i assume. lauren: yeah. they're the parent of fan duel. they beat earnings expectations in the past quarter and they're raising for the year. their average monthly players rose by 27%. we're talking about 3.5 million people on a monthly basis, and they're confirming that they are in talks to buy another company, several brokerages increasing their price targets on flutter today. 12% gain. if. ashley: all right. have a flutter, as they used to say in the betting game. chili's parent, let's take a look at that. i believe they're down pretty big. yep, 14 plus percent. what happened? lauren: you get a beat and raise and a miss and cut. so their profits missed the expectations, and they're cutting their profit outlook for

the year. that is overshadowing honestly, ashley, what was pretty good news. they own chili's, but they also own magiano's italian restaurant. chili's introduced a smash hit, customers are paying more, but their parent company, brinker international, did miss profit expectations and, like i said, they cut for the year. ashley: that's enough food stories for now. pharmaceutical distributer cardinal if health apparently just announced a big increase to their share buyback program. how much? lauren: a $250 million increase to $750 tomillion. this is a huge company. this is a drug distributer, a device maker. they serve9 0 90% of hospitals and 600,000 -- 60,000 pharmacies. really strong demand for some of their drugs like cancer drugs and drugs for diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, so the stock is up3.5%.

lauren: very good. great run-through, lauren -- lauren: and now we're hungry. [laughter] stuart: ashley: yes. the dow up 20 points, a whopping not even one-tenths of a percent. some of the dow winners, of which there are some, of course. home depot, some familiar if names up there, walt disney, american express, caterpillar. some big names all moving higher, or anywhere from a half to 1%. take a look at the s&p 500, kellanova, we just talked about them, pop tarts and pringles, i'm going to to remember that. they're up 7 plus percent, cardinal health, we talked about a them. allstate the also up 3 plus percent. and, yes, take a look at the nasdaq. illumina up 3.5%. micron up 3.2%. so these are the movers. netflix also up 1.33%, airbnb up 11.25. those -- 1.25. those are some of the winners on

the nasdaq. let's take a look at the 10-year treasury yield, not doing a whole bunch. 3.84%. the price of gold, let's take a look, down now more than $16, $15, thereabouts, $249 3 per troy ounce for gold. let's take a look at bitcoin. u.s. dollars, right at $60,587, essentially flat, just up $8. the price of oil, again, flat at a $78.38 for a barrel of crude. natural gas, let's take a look at that. up 4 or 9 cents at $2.24. and the average price for a gallon of regular gas, not bad, $3.44. across the country but with, oh, wait until you go to california. taxes, regulations, it's $4.60 per gallon in the golden state. all right, coming up, new york city mayor adams blaming sanctuary city laws for keeping

hardened criminal migrants on the streets. >> as you know, laws do not allow us to coordinate with i.c.e. those small number of migrants that are in our city, they should be held accountable when they break the law. ashley: held accountable. new york city council minority leader joe borelli will be here to react to that. an upcoming evangelical for hearst event will be hosted -- for harris will be hosted by an about a vis with a pretty long history of, bashing whiteness. watch. >> is wicked, it is wicked. it always mean it's rooted in violence, it's rooted in theft, it's rooted in plunder, it's rooted in power. ashley: well, what kind of message does that send to voters? brian brenberg will be here to take that on. and one philadelphia woman fought back tears when

describing how inflation has affected her family. >> imagine a mother who's making minimum wage trying to feed children. they're killing us without killing us. ashley: so the question is, powerful stuff, of course, will kamala harris embrace bidenomics? hmm. john lonski is next. ♪ ♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings.

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call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. ashley: back to the cpi inflation report which shows that prices rose 2.9% in the last 12 months. edward lawrence is at the white house this morning and, edward, have we had any response from the administration? >> reporter: we have, ashley.

in a statement the president saying that this shows progress to inflation while acknowledging that prices remain too high as they blame corporate greed for inflation. now, for years under the biden-harris administration people have seen the prices rise faster than the money that they're making. in fact, this overall cpi inflation report still unacceptable to the federal reserve. overall, cpi inflation below 3% for the first time since march of 2021 when this white house was well into changing policies. >> in terms of the level of prices, people are still somethinged by how thigh that is. in terms of the change in prices, inflation rate, that will continue to come down, but it will not come down to 2 unless the fed is willing to risk a recession. it's more likely to to stick around 2.55% or closer to 3. >> reporter: still, price pressures on families is shown in credit card data. total credit card debt hovering around a or record $1.4

trillion, up 48% from the month president biden and vice president harris got into office. the amount of people delinquent on that debt, 9.1%, the highest rate since the beginning of 2021. this shows the stress this administration would like you to ignore. >> we believe in a future that keeps america's economy the strong in the world. a future that promotes both economic growth and economic fairness. where every person has the opportunity to compete, thrive and prosper. >> reporter: we would love to the the ask the vice president about her economic vision. is she's not doing interviews as of right now. this report though for the federal reserve will likely keep them on pace to make that first rate cut in september. ashley? ashley: question is, by how much? edward, thank you very much. let's bring in john lonski now, our economist now. john, inflation, as we've seen,

appears to be cooling. if the fed does given lowering rates, which they are expected to do next month, what does that mean for the economy? >> not much at all, ashley. [laughter] i mean, my goodness, they'll probably cut rates by only one-quarter of a percentage point. that would leave fed funds at a, what is it, 5.13% which is way above the 2.75 i think it was, that fed funds peaked at when trump was president. interest rates are still going to be quite a burden for american consumers as well as for american businesses. and the fact that the fed keeps interest rates so high tells me that the fed is less than convinced that inflation will continue to ease. and, of course, this warns consumers that they're still going to face hardship from prices that are very much on the high side historically. ashley: and with that in mind,

listen to how a woman in philadelphia explained the effect of inflation on her family. >> how hard has inflation hit you? >> it hit me hard, it's hitting me hard. >> who do you blame for it? >> i blame the federal government at this point. if a working class mom who works as a pair la a legal cannot buy a $2 bell pepper because it's not $5 a, imagine the mother living on food stamps. imagine the mother who's making minimum wage trying to the feed children. they're killing us without killing us. it's either feed my child or how about feed my children and i don't but i have to go work. ashley: yeah. people making some desperate decisions, john. i mean, that really brings it home. is this the key issue, do you think, come november? >> yes, it is. it's going to be one of the most important issues, and let's not

forget the other time inflation was a major issue was in the 1980 presidential election, and that's when ronald reagan defeated jimmy carter. you may see once again that the incumbent party is thrown out of office because consumers are fed up with sky-high prices that eat up whatever they get in terms of wage gains. ashley: they are absolutely fed up. i hear about it every day. john lonski, thank you so much for joining us. really appreciate it as always. >> my pleasure. ashley: all right. oh, thank you. coming up, under governor tim walz minnesota businesses have been suffering from soaring crime and high taxes. he actually forced one businessman, greg urban, to close up shop. greg will give us his story in the11:00 hour. more americans, meantime, believe corporations should cool it when it comes to weighing in on politics. they're even less likely to buy

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ashley: more americans say they do not want corporations to take sides politically. madison alwohs us this morning. madison, does this also mean that people are less likely to buy products from companies that get political? >> reporter: yes, ashley, it does. if the customer doesn't agree with the political endorsement. more than 6 in 10 democrats and republicans say they would be less likely to purchase. from a company that endorsed the candidate from the to opposing party. but in general, people are souring on businesses getting into politics. newly-released data from gallup and bentley university finds just 38% of folks think businesses in general should take a stance the on current events like politics, down 10% from the same time in 20322. we spoke to the one of the researchers involved in this project, and she shared why it's important information for businesses to have going into with november. >> on the one hand, consumers want to make decisions themselves about what kinds of

companies they purchase from, but i don't think they want businesses telling them how to think, how to vote, how to weigh many on an issue. >> reporter: -- backlash against brands when they take on certain social issues. but here at fox business, of course, we wanted to take the question to the streets and see what the consumers, aka the voters, had to say about businesses talking -- and taking political stances. take a look. >> i don't think they really should because they all have, like, a role to play. and mostly they're money-hungry. >> should be financing limits as far as how much money they can funnel in, but i don't have a problem if with ceos endorsing candidates. >> i don't think it's necessary i to be honest, because at the end of the day we know what's going -- they're going to do what's in the best corporate interests. >> reporter: ashley, the two issues that people leasts want to hear companies provide their views on are political

candidates and religion which is also a good rule of thumb when it comes to a dinner party ashley? [laughter] ashley: amen to that, mad southbound. great -- madison. great stuff, thank you so much. quick look at the markets before we head to the break. it's all very muted as was the inflation report, so no big reaction. the s&p and dow essentially flat, the nasdaq down now the close to half a percent. all right, still ahead, nikki haley has an urgent plea for donald trump and republicans, focus on target issues to win the election. mike huckabee will be here to discuss. russia pulling some troops out of ukraine in response to the kersk invasion. general jack keane will be here with the latest. the justice department is pushing for an historic breakup of google. we'll have reaction. and texas congressman chip roy is demanding answers on migrant shelter crime data after a deadly police shootout involving

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