>> ♪ >> this fantastic limited edition of maserati. i'm putting my seat belt on because we're out of here. i'm with tom! ooh! have a great show, everybody, have a happy easter! . stuart: that's good. the timing was well done, maria. drive carefully. how quickly things change. the president makes a big shift overseas and at home. a big shift. good morning, everyone. first off, putin will not condemn syria's poison gas attack. he stands behind the assad regime and president trump says relations with russia are at an all-time low. that's a big change. but we are on better terms with china. they are helping with north korea and the president now says beijing is not a currency manipulator. that's another reversal. before the election, the president said nato was

oble. at a white house press conference, he said it's no long obsolete. janet yellen supposed to be on the way out. well, the president tells the wall street journal she could be appointed to another term. president trump says he's a low interest rate kind of guy and the dollar, well, he now says it's too strong. a lot of change is happening very quickly. in a moment, we'll tell you how it's affecting your money and the economy. wait until you hear the latest on those tax cuts. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ . >> we don't have a policy yet. we don't expect a policy yet for the next couple of weeks in terms of specifics we can trot out and show people. we're taking a deep dive under the theory go big or go home. we're not looking to play around on edges in tax reform in this country and we want to

do the same thing in restructuring the government. we want it take it from a blank sheet of paper and rebuild it, in order to help people get back to work. stuart: i'm sure you heard that, mick mulvaney, start from scratch, build it from the groundup. maybe that's got something to do with this. the dow industrials will open lower again on the market this morning. personally, i think that starting from scratch going to take a lot of time. >> yeah. stuart: anthony scaramucci is here, former advisor to president trump. i think that's bad for the market and bad for growing the economy. >> i think it's bad because there's a huge gating issue, what we're learning is that the congress is still in bed with the lobbyists and all of those special interest groups that we're starting from ground up is going to block that. charitable deductions, mortgage deductions, name the different things that people are fighting over. stuart: the man is saying it's a blank sheet of paper. a powerful g on the inside of the administration.

>> he's a good guy and i admire that he wants to go super bold, stuart, but we need a couple of wins on the board here and hopefully they'll come up-- >> anthony, you're not going to get a win on the board anytime soon if you're starting with a tax code and building from scratch. >> that's my point. my point is hopefully we'll move it to a position where we can get something done. i'm still very confident that the president is going to get something done on the health care side. he's working super hard on that, vice-president pence, chief of staff priebus up on the hill countless number of hours to get it done. stuart: i've got to tell you, anthony, we're tired of working on this, hope to get it done soon. >> shall i call white house personnel to see if i can get you down there. leave the show and come down with a tomahawk and start cracking sol skulls. you're a americn american citiz,

and the fbi, the whole thing, come down there with us. stuart: you invite me, i'll be there. you tell me, who is running economic policy out of the white house, who is it? >> i think that gary cohn is the national economic counsel head so he's the guy, i think, is the principal responsible, but-- >> at the a small government low tax kinded guy? >> gary is a practical guy, organized and extremely efficient. don't discount mnuchin or someone i worked with at goldman sachs 20 years ago. they're wicked smart and come up with a tax proposal i think will get passed. i think the big issue is that the republican party is a fractious party. the democrats, whether you like the democrats or not, they're in lockstep together and the same talking points and-- >> i want to be clear, i don't blame president trump for this, i blame the republican party

not acting as a party of government. >> i think the president said, please, let's get together and harmonize together to get some big things passed to help the american people. to the president's credit. he has through executive order, moral and geopolitical strategy, his views are resolving, you pointed out. six months ago, he said no janet yellen, and i know i said it here, i believe that she is very good at what she does and i think he's starting to look at the landscape differently. stuart: okay. no, no. >> i'm telling you that she --. stuart: i just want something done. >> yeah. stuart: you know what i mean? >> i've got your resume' at home and i'll be reporting to the white house personnel monday morning. happy easter, stuart, but monday morning you'll have a job in the government.

$1 a year for you because you're so rich. stuart: you're done! you're out of here and done. >> fired from the show after five minutes into the block. stuart: you're a good man and appreciate it. >> great to see you. [laughter] >> wait a minute, wait a minute, we're doing something for the viewers, some of whom might not appreciate. later this morning, the dragging incident returns. one of dragged passenger's lawyer is expected to address the media. we're waiting for that. and as we wait for it, there are other developments, ashley. ashley: yeah, two more police officers involved in this case have been put on leave, three now from the airport police department. we should point out that no lawsuit has officially been filed, however, they've filed papers to preserve all evidence involved in this case, but from the airline, the airport, and so on and of course, that will be a part of the proceedings going forward, of course. united states is no longer going to use police officers, and people are overbooked and

don't want to leave, the chicago city council says they want 0 get involved in this and get testimony and also the u.s. senate commerce committee is looking at this, so, this is continuing to grow whether you're sick of the story or not. it's continuing to be a big story. stuart: thanks, ashley. i'm going to repeat myself. my, how things have changed. first off, on russia. roll tape. >> governor romney, i'm glad that you recognize that al qaeda is a threat and because when you were asked you said russia, and not al qaeda, it's russia. and 1980's is calling for that back because the cold war has been over for years. >> right now we're not getting along with russia at all. we may be at an all-time low in terms of relationship with russia. stuart: there you have it. let's bring in lisa booth, fox news contributor and washington examiner columnist. >> hi, stuart.

stuart: that's a switch and there's been a switch on janet yellen, on the dollar, on nato. why all of a sudden all of these switching around of policies and personnel? >> well, you know, i think, stuart, president trump has already-- has always kind of positioned himself as being flexible as someone who wants to extract something from someone for the art of the deal. i don't think it's necessarily surprising that he would have some changes as president of the united states and in regards to russia, i think that president trump always desired to work with russia and i think what he's realizing, it might not be the smartest approach and i think it's probably a good thing he's realizing this in short order versus president obama who, you know, for eight years basically let russia do whatever they wanted. and i think what president trump is realizing is that russia is a bully and he responds to force. stuart: would you say that president trump is becoming more pragmatic and less ideologically driven? >> i think he's always been pragmatic.

i think it's the media-- i think that president trump left it-- look what's going on with china, for instance. i think that president trump realizes that he needs china in regards to dealing witnorth korea, who is allegedly set to, you know, test a nuclear weapon. so, and you look at north korea's becoming increasingly unhinged, so i think he realizes it's more important to have china helping us in regards to north korea. stuart: they are. >> exactly. stuart: they are helping us and maybe chalk that up for a win for president trump as we oppose russia, or we oppose russia more forcefully, they're moving towards china and they're moving towards us. it's nixonion, russia china and the united states. >> this is a guy who has been dealing with sort of international business world. so i think he's always had a lot for discernment than given credit for and i think what president trump is saying right now is, you know, basically

someone who has inherited an incredibly dangerous world because he needs to figure out how he can leverage certain countries to try to essentially protect americans and deal with some of the hostile situations that he's looking at around the world because he's not only looking at an increasingly hostile situation in syria, north korea as well, you know, russia who has really gained, you know, a stronger position in the middle east and syria because of president obama and not dealing with the syrian conflict, as well as iran. he needs to pick and choose his battles. stuart: he's cleaning up the mess for sure and also running head-long into reality. lisa, i'm sorry, i'm out of time and i've got to get everybody's money for a second. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: now, this is a time when top corporations tell us how much or little money they made and the big banks are going first. city's profit, got a nice boost from their trading desk. higher profit at j.p. morgan, they were helped by more lending and higher interest rates.

wells fargo's profit came in flat and you can see the stocks premarket right there. not that much movement, except for wells fargo down 2%. we're going to return to that retail ice age story, it's still with us. a weak forecast on sales growth in the future from pier one and that stock is down 5% at opening bell. now this, the top republicans on the house ways and means committee asking attorney general jeff sessions, please reopen the investigation into lois lerner and the irs tea party targeting scandal. and president trump breaking tradition, he will not be meeting with the pope. the pope says the president's plan to build a wall is quote, not christian. more fallout from the palm sunday church bombings in egypt. christian churches there now canceling their easter sunday celebrations. i'm going to chalk that one up as win for terror, let's be

clear, islamic terror. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise

>> stocks down yesterday, we're going to open a bit lower this morning. down 20-odd points in 15 minutes. now, president trump has reportedly not asked to meet pope francis. he's going to be in italy next month for the g7 meeting. he has not asked the pope for a meeting. tony perkins is here, what do you make of this? it's tradition when our president goes to g7 meeting and goes to italy he meets the pope, this time no. >> there's nothing traditional about this president and he didn't ask me about it, but if he asked me i would encourage him to meet with the pope. i would understand his reluctance given the policy differences and the history of the press office putting their spin on stories and i can understand his reluctance, but

i would encourage him. stuart: i don't think that the pope approves of donald trump, not spiritually, but policy-wise. >> i'm more in line, but i understand his reluctance, but i think we accomplish things when we sit down and talk with people we have differences with, i think it's healthy. stuart: i want to get to this. to me, i'm flat-out outraged about this. i know you know about this, egyptian christians reportedly have canceled easter celebration following two bombings of coptic churches two days ago with 44 people killed. i say the terrorists have won and i think that's appalling, tony. >> well, stuart, i don't think they've won yet. this targeting christians in egypt, in the middle east more broadly is not new. in fact, while it's troubling, it is-- it was the standard for the first thousand years of christianity and guess what? 2000 years later christianity is still moving forward. and the reason is, while it's

unfortunate that here in-- or in egypt, they will not be publicly celebrating easter or the resurrection sunday, that, in fact, is what gives us the confidence to go on in the face of great opposition, the confidence of the resurrection of jesus christ and the fact that we, too, can have life after death if we simply place our trust in jesus christ. that's why the church goes on in spite of the persecution. and the church there began by one of the disciples of jesus christ, john mark who started in 55 ad. what is significant about it, too, he, too, was a martyr in alexandria on easter so this is a special holiday. we here in the united states should be praying for our christian brothers and sisters, not only in the middle east, but all over the world. stuart: what can we do politically about this? granted woo-- we pray, got it. can we do anything politically?

>> great question, stuart. i think that the president, i haven't met with him, i look forward to meeting with him. i think he's doing certainly more than his predecessor who was aligned with the muslim brotherhood. we can't act like pontius pilate and walk away in the middle east. it was the policy of the united states under barack obama in large part that led to the bloody march of isis across that region. when we are persecuting or i should say prosecuting christians at home it's hard to say that we stand for religious freedom abroad. we have to redouble our efforts to root up the hostility planted during the last eight years and send a message because when we are indifferent toward or hostile toward christianity here at home, it sends a message to the tyrants and terrorists abroad that it's open season on christians. stuart: okay, a blessed easter to you, tony perkens, come again soon. >> thank you, stuart.

stuart: here is a message from liz peek, gary cohn and his fellow democrats, fellow dakts democrats, fellow democrats, trying to squash the trump agenda. she's going to make her case and she's with us next, here we go. yes? please repeat the objective. ♪ thrivent mutual funds. managed by humans, not robots. before investing, carefully read and consider fund objectives, risks, charges and expenses in the prospectus at thriventfunds.com.

>> well, look at this.

gold up again $11 higher. gold has gone up seven of the past nine trading sessions and getting pretty close to $1300 an ounce and that's what overseas and conflicts and rising tensions will do for you. varney regular and fiscal time columnist liz peek says gary cohn and fellow democrats threaten to squash the trump agenda and liz peek is here. that made a splash, that column did, you got a lot of response. first question, now running economic policy out of the white house? >> well, for example, he certainly is a lead voice on tax reform, i think is sort of surprising to everyone. when he came out in favor of a carbon tax, they're looking for a way to balance taxes. and we're getting rid of obama's plan and what are woo he talking about a carbon tax

for? >> we have dina powell, gary cohn, andrew quinn, all the people in the white house impacting policies in a way that trump supporters didn't vote for. stuart: a long list here tend to be on the list. >> democrats or democrat supporters. absolutely. they've been-- >> how did economic policy get hijacked like this, 85 days into the presidency? >> that's what we're all wondering. by the way, when you say there was some response to this column, i think it's because a lot of trump supporters are verynxious about this. for example, one of the big campaign promises we were going to reset our trade negotiations and redo our trade agreements around the country, nafta, et cetera, around the world. andrew quinn was an architect of the tpp, the asian trade pac

that trump campaigned against and subsequently has junked and here is andrew quinn, domestic advisor for trade policy. some of the hires have been great in this administration. i think that wilbur ross is going to be an offsetting influence on trade, but these things are worrisome because we know that donald trump came into office with a lot of policy unsettled. he didn't really have firm views on a lot of things. i'm told the last guy in the room often sways the president, a lot of those guys are democrats. stuart: and now we have the president of the united states issuing for the on monetary policy. the dollar is too strong, maybe appoint janet yellen for another term. we're not used to this. >> no, and by the way, the strong dollar case which trump is sort of backing away from, larry kudlow advising him early on, big strong dollar guy. those guys are sort of gone and now we have a very different crew advising the president, well, he has to be careful. stuart: would you please stay with us to open the markets? because we'd like that.

>> i'd like to open the markets. stuart: liz, you can. [laughter] >> when we open the market we'll be down. closed at 20,591. we've dropped below 20,600 and we'll be down a bit this morning. we'll be back with the opening bell for you. are allergies holding you back? break through your allergies. try new flonase sensimist instead of allergy pills. it's more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. using unique mistpro technology, new flonase sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. most allergy pills only block one. and six is greater than one. break through your allergies. new flonase sensimist

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>> it is thursday morning. we open this market in precisely 10 seconds. we're expecting a drop of maybe 25 points right from the opening bell. let's see because we're down to three, two, one, bang! we're up and running on thursday morning. all right, what have we got? we've got a minus 30 readings, minus 38 reading. a lot of red on the left-hand side of the screen there. it's filling up. down 51 points. okay, we're going to get into the reasons for this shortly, but we're down 50 across the board, we're down on the dow 30. how about this? the 10-year treasury yield is all the way down to 2.24%. now, you can say that that is essentially a safe haven investment. that's why the yield is down. you could also say that president trump is out there calling for low interest rates and he doesn't like the strong dollar. that pushes the yield on the 10-year treasury down and look

what we've got. 224. the big banks are reporting profit higher, jp morgan and citi. at wells fargo, the profit was flat. little movement except for wells fargo down nearly 3%. who is with me on a thursday morning when we're trying to deal with the stock market. ashley webster, shah gilani and liz peek. i think we've got to get a double-digit increase in profits across the board or this market is in real trouble. shah gilani, what do you say? >> i agree with you, stuart based on last year numbers are horrible. and everybody expects that to be gang busters, the market would have profit taking. stuart: in the absence of tax reform and health care reform, the market is propped up by

good profits. >> and the expectation is that we're going to see double digit earnings growth in this quarter, but the reason that the treasury rates are coming down partly. i think that growth expectations are being rolled back. we don't have the big bump from tax reform and other things that come afford. i'm not surprised. stuart: profitability is a big deal. ashley: the markets need something, treading water so long, eventually it will go under because you need something to get you to the next step, level. stuart: another switch and change from president trump. janet yellen, we thought her days were numbered at federal reserve. now, the president has had a change of heart. he says he's a low interest rate kind of guy and says that the dollar is too strong, and he may be up for reappointing janet yellen to another term. this is another reversal, shah, what do you make of it? >> it's a reversal indeed. any president who is not dovish in terms of interest rate is off the marks. almost every president wants a

low interest rate and spurs the economy. this president is no different. what's different, he's wanted higher interest rates because he wanted that during the election, and procurement for the future was to fix the federal reserve, make it more accountable and reversed himself because i think it's in the best interest in terms of the fact he's not getting some of his policies put through to keep interest rates low. otherwise if he sees interest rates rise without any stimul stimulus, tax stimulus or anything else, the market will be in trouble and he'll not want to see that. liz: it's unusual for any president to weigh in on the dollar and strengths of the dollar. the theory has been, you have a stronger dollar it attracts business into the u.s. we are going to hit you, importers with the border tax, if we have a stronger dollar, it will make it cheaper to sell to the americans who can buy with a stronger dollar. it's confusing stuff out of the

white house on that. stuart: ry confusing. >> the question is is he trying to influence janet yellen to what he wants, by the way here, here is what we want and i may reappoint you. stuart: we don't negotiate the dollar. >> the art of the deal. stuart: not the with an i we're supposed to do that. and president trump wants desperately a win on health care. he's saying he'll withhold payments to health insurance, that he believes-- i don't get this, liz, explain it me -- that he believes who force the democrats to the table. you withhold payments to the insurance companies and get them to reform obamacare. >> to keep them in the marketplace and participating, without them they're out, and they'll lose large amounts of money. if they begin to fail and walk away, democrats are going to have to renegotiate the terms of obamacare and perhaps a

bigger case, all of health care, in order to get them back. >>. stuart: good luck. >> the democrat are not going to be on board. we don't want to redo obamacare, we want to get rid of. i think this is nonworkable. stuart: there's a lot of confusion around this table and the marketplace, a lot of contradictions. and we're down 38 points-- now down 44, 46 points. okay. we're down at the opening bell. how about this? theme of the program is frequently the retail ice age. there's a weak forecast for pier one, down 8%, all you've got to do and looking to the future, they don't look good and down goes your stock. how about this one from apple? they're reportedly, they've got a secret team and working on sen sensors to treat diabetes

better. liz: tens of millions of people could look at their watch and see their glucose level. right now it's invasive to stick yourself. and others are working on contacts that pick up your tears and the levels that's wearable. ashley: how terrific. stuart: exactly, all of this money that the fab five have got, look at them, they've got, must have a trillion dollars in cash on them they're putting some of that money into medical research. ashley: help humanity. stuart: other industries, who could not approve. >> it's about time that we brought technology to health care. we've spent time talking about insurance prices and policies and don't talk at all about health care costs. stuart: all right, shah gilani, we have not heard from you in about three minutes.

we want to. the fabulous five, which one, if any, are you buying? >> i hate to admit i missed amazon got out too soon and gone a lot higher. i hope we'll have a pullback, i'd love to do that. we love apple. this year i think is great. ten years anniversary of the phone and i think the watch, as we're just talking about in terms of health care, there will be break throughs there, i think that product will come around. amazon is the go-to stock. advanced intelligence, artificial intelligence, it's in the cloud and it is on-line retailing, so, it's the go-to one for me. stuart: on thursday, april 13th, shah gilani informed us all that the apple watch will make a turn around. on videotape. now, we've got a couple of stories for you on tesla. number one, there's a new study says that used tesla model s sells faster and for more money than its peers.

item two, they want two new independent board members. a lot of criticism of the board and tesla in general from shareholders. they want to add two independents on the board. shah gilani, your chance again. would you buy tesla just shy of $300 a share? >> no, i don't understand it. it's a lot of financial engineering going on there. as far as the resale of the cars, it makes sense, there are not a lot of them, they're beautiful cars, extraordinary, i've ridden in a couple of them, they're amazing automobiles, and that's why there's a lot of great resale value and not a lot of them on the secondary value. as far as the company and in terms of the stock, it's very overpriced. it's done so well because the cars, it's headline makers. at some point, competition is going to raise its head and there's a lot of it. tesla is enjoying the placement now and that's not going to last forever e i want to see what kind of battery they make. it's worth every penny, other than that, not so keen. how about this one?

oh, yes, the amazon story of the day. we should have trumpets for this. jeff bezos is all about embracing artificial intelligence. that's him. he's always a futuristic, looks down the road and he sees artificial intelligence and that's where he's going. what do you make of that. i know what you're going to say. >> he is a visionary and look, everything he has talked about that's futuristic has come true. remember about the drone, and artificial intelligence is the wave of the future and what you're laughing about, steven hawkins, the preeminent physici physicist, a from our time-- >> artificial intelligence.

>> this is the technology advances that goes on. it's a growth stock. they're applying artificial intelligence and eventually into health. this is another reason that amazon is at the forefront of all things. and they're applying technology to all they do. stuart: i'm old enough to remember when televisions were in place. we were warned this is bad for your eyes, it's bad for your eyes. we've had similar stories about every new wave of technology that comes along and you can enhance that, oh, it's the end of the world. [laughter] >> i'm know the quoting me, i'm quoting steven hawkins, the most brilliant man alive. stuart: i'm interested in this one, pc shipments down again and look at microsoft. they depend on pc shipments and they're up and others are down.

ashley: that's the cloud. liz: tv's are bad for your eyes. depends on the tv show. ashley: that was my grandmother, you're too close to the television screen. stuart: exactly right. i think i hit a nerve about tv's. do you remember the first tv show you ever saw? no, you don't. i remember mine. rin tin tin. in black and white, we had the first tv on the street and we had the tv to get the coronation, 1953. ashley: yeah. stuart: we got the tv and rin tin tin was the first thing i ever saw. that ends my history lesson for the day. shah gilani, liz peek, you're r everyone. good start to the day. the dow industrials are coming back a little bit now, we're only down 17 points, 20,573. wait for it. burger king, they've got a new ad. it was supposed to trigle

google home virtual assistance. that's google's version of an alexa from amazon. supposed to read the ingredients of a whopper. boy, did it backfire. we'll tell you all about it. we will explain. lois lerner, who can forget, some want an investigation into her and the scandal. who is going to talk about that? napolitano. we'll be back.