thank you for john paul stevens, former supreme court justice for actually progressive to people who believe in the second amendment that the left does want to take it away. give me a pickup truck with a gun rack. >> wow. dagen mcdowell. great to see everybody. thank you so much. "varney & company" begins now. stuart, take it away. stuart: oh, i will. thank you, maria. crunch time for big tech. yeah, they led the market rally. now they're pulling the whole market down. good morning, everyone. they are the most powerful companies in the world. they sit on a mountain of cash. they affect so many aspects of our lives, and money has poured into their stock. well, nothing has changed, except the money pouring into their stock. it's now pouring out. we're going to go through them one at a time. i'm going to start with facebook. premarket, it's back to what? about $152 per share. 152 as of you have it right now. down just a fraction. but 152. it's facing fines and/or regulation at issue.

what personal information does it collect? how does it collect it? and what should it be allowed to do with it? this morning, facebook announced new, easier, privacy settings. no impact on the stock. tesla, the feds are investigating its autopilot self-driving technology following a fatal crash. there is a cash crunch to moodies, downgrades its debt premarket. it is way below 300 bucks a share. down 11 bucks at this point. nvidia, a leader in self-driving car technology suspends testing following that fatal accident in arizona. this had been a very high flying tech stock. down again this morning. amazon under attack for its sheer size and influence. tax it, fine it, break it up. that's the selling. it dropped below 1,500 yesterday. look at it now. 1461. twitter, that's a lot of selling. dropping 20% from its high, and it's still down again today.

back to $27 a share. there you have it. technology led the rally. all eyes on it this morning after its big stumble. now, overall, we're going to open this market higher this morning but not by much, maybe 10, 13 points, that's it, and the nasdaq is looking down 60. this follows, strangely, a strong reading on economic growth. we got it about a half hour ago. what a week, and it's only wednesday. follow it here. "varney & company's" about to begin. ♪ ♪ . stuart: is that surprise gdp number -- there's the futures market. but i tell you this: in the fourth quarter of last year, gdp, that's the economy, grew at an annual rate of 2.9%. now, that's a surprise. ashley: we are the than expected. stuart: much better than expected. economist john is with us.

2.9% fourth quarter of last year. come on. >> about 3% growth. you've got to like that. however, that's the -- stuart: wait, wait, wait. >> the first quarter's almost finished and the news on the first quarter is not going to be that good. stuart: can i return to the fourth quarter for a second here. 2.9% growth and revised it upward because of very strong household spending. and they had strong household spending before we got the tax cut. >> 4% growth, unfortunately, a lot of the estimates for consumer spending the first quarter are down to something under 2%. why were they under 2%? 4% growth was unsustainable. too many consumers had borrowed too much in the final months of 2017 to finance spending. another problem, consumers are not stupid. a lot of companies try to hike prices a little bit too aggressively in the first quarter. consumers pulled back, they have low inflation

expectations. they're waiting for price cuts, and they're going to get the price cuts in the second quarter. stuart: i tell you what. cold water. >> there's nothing good here. what i'm telling you is that i think that we should appreciate this pull back by growth in the first quarter. it's going to allow interest rates to subside, and that is going to improve the outlook for equities. stuart: okay. you kind of rescued yourself partially. john, hold on. i've got more for you in a second. i'm going to switch over to talk about facebook. earlier this morning, they announced changes to their privacy settings. hold on, ash. can you explain this in a way that i would understand. ashley: probably not but here we go. they are creating what they call a new central hub in the facebook app settings. so you go to the facebook app, stuart, and there's a thing for settings. it's going to give you a central area where you can delete certain parts of your data. for instance, they say traces of your data. what did you search and what did you post? if you want to delete all of that, you can, and it will be

wiped off their facebook server. gone. however, some data remains. and that kind of data would be what ads did you click on? that is not erasable. they're still keeping that. those will roll out in the next couple of weeks. only the first step towards very vamping the whole thing. stuart: it's on one page. ashley: right. stuart: on one screen. ashley: i actually tried to do it this weekend, and it was so hard to do to get into each individual app. and this is good news i think. stuart: which brings us to the subject of all the big name technology stocks, which were such a drag yesterday and recently, in fact, and look at them premarket. all of them are down. look at tesla down 12 bucks. all right. john, redeem yourself again. the good times are over for big tech, are they? >> they may be for certain high-tech companies that are encountering financial difficulty or may encounter difficulty such as tesla.

. stuart: i'm talking about apple, amazon, alphabet, facebook, microsoft. >> well, i think these issues surrounding regulation will be resolved. profits growth will resume. as long as they maintain their strong market positions, those share prices ultimately are headed higher. stuart: you know, there's one thing i missed out, goldman sachs has revised down. did i get this right, liz? has forecast down its apple iphone. liz: estimated, yeah,. stuart: and i think that's why apple is down 4 bucks. liz: that's what led apple into this downward spiral. stuart: yeah. let's look at the stocks. they're not going to bounce back to the old highs. would you say that. >> not any time soon. as far as the iphone sales are concerned, we've been reminded that perhaps we're reaching the saturation point for these products. ashley: amazon down 1400. at some point we had predictions of 1,500.

is this a buying opportunity? . stuart: down 50 bucks this morning, amazon. ashley: yeah. >> i think there's going to be distinguishing between these names. they've moved as a block. most of them were up 50% last year with alphabet being the exception up only 33% i think. but, look, they're different companies and some are going to do better than others. amazon president trump apparently wants to go after their tax situation but that is not going to impact amazon's growth. stuart: the stock's down 50 bucks on that news. >> but that would be one that i would look at and say that is a buying opportunity. stuart: question for you, liz. recent market action. a lot of volatility. a lot of selling. downside move here and there. is that bad news for the republicans come november's elections. >> i think it's too early to make that decision. yes, it's not going to be a good thing if going into let's say august, september, october, the markets and october often is a market downturn. but i think it's too early to make that assessment.

there's no question president trump looks at the market as a sort of definition signal of how we're doing in the economy. i don't think that's a very appropriate thing for him to be doing all the time. right now he's not, of course, but i think it's too early to make that judgment. stuart: he's actually been very quiet recently. >> yeah. i sure has been, which, by the way, his approval ratings goes up when that happens; right? stuart: learned that lesson. >> coincidence? >> yeah. i do think so. stuart: got to move on because china has confirmed that kim jong-un did meet with xi in beijing and, yes, kim jong-un, he was the guy on that mystery train. joining us now is charles, fox news contributor. washington times political columnist. charles, i kind of went out on a limb recently and said that president trump's hard line is progressive successful, especially on the korean peninsula. what do you say. >> i think that's exactly right, stuart, and it's not just a hard line with north korea. it's also a harder line with china. you know, the era of

this whatever it was strategic indifference or whatever it was that we had under president obama, we had seen what that has reeked. a very robust nuclear and ballistic program in north korea. and so, you know, obviously the end of that, this business of putting maximum pressure on north korea and on china and a willingness to sort of throw all of the sort of norms up in the air, the political norms up in the air to sort of renegotiate things are obviously paying off. just the fact that you would have kim jong-un going to beijing in his first foreign trip in order to mend ties with china means that trump has been chewing on china enough about the situation that they felt like they needed to have a little meeting. . stuart: i feel there's been a shift just in the last two or three weeks towards letting trump be trump. trump kind of unleashed with changes in his cabinet,

changes in the administration, and some of the statements that he's made. especially that one, like, i'll never sign a spending bill like this again. kind of unleashed and i don't know whether the country likes it or not. >> i think that it's probably -- i think that that's probably right. and in a situation like this, i think it's a very good thing, and i think, you know, you've heard president trump talk about tariffs. a lot of people don't like tariffs. he says he likes free trade. but he likes the idea of tariffs as a tool. and using it as a weapon. and i think that you cannot overstate how much the idea of tariffs and renegotiating these deals in places like china and north korea have had an impact on these negotiations, and it's a very good thing. and, you know, another thing about trump that is so different is -- and i think he's perceived so differently in those parts of the world. these people, they don't have respect for american politicians. they don't really have respect for politicians. but they have respect for businessmen, and i think it changes sort of the way they view the guy, and they're a

little afraid of him. and they think he might just be a little bit crazy, and it gets him paying attention a lot closer. stuart: they have in here seen anything like this before, that's a fact. charles, as always. >> thank you. you bet, sir,. stuart: it's wednesday morning, and i want to know where we're going to open this market after yesterday's big drop. i tell you now we're going to see more declines in technology stocks. look at that nasdaq. should be down about 50 points at the open. a very modest gain for the dow industrials. you could say this. the retail ice age has hit h&m. sales are down and wait for it. they are sitting on $4.3 billion worth of unsold clothing. 4.3billion. never heard of that before. ashley: sales. >> a lot of price discounting. stuart: as you said. the new boss of espn wants his anchors to focus on sports, not politics. he says espn is not a political organization. it's a sports media company.

what did he say, liz? >> the beginnings of wisdom. stuart: thank you. >> why lose half of your audience? hello. stuart: president trump privately pushing a new plan to cover the cost of the border wall. he wants to take it out of the military's budget. what do you think of that? well, we'll be back i'm very proud of the fact that i served. i was a c130 mechanic in the corps, so i'm not happy unless my hands are dirty. between running a business and four kids, we're busy. auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, life insurance policies. knowing that usaa will always have my back... that's just one less thing you have to worry about. i couldn't imagine going anywhere else. they're like a friend of the family. we are the cochran family, and we'll be usaa members for life. save by bundling usaa home and auto insurance. get a quote today.

. stuart: an executive shakeup at equifax, remember the huge breach that they went through. named mark as chief executive officer. he becomes a member of the board as well. the stock is down premarket just 40 cents. the military just received $700 billion in the spending bill. the president reportedly wants to take some of that money and use it to pay for the wall. grover norquist is with us, he's with us for america tax reform. a, do you approve of that idea? b, can the president do it? >> well, if the purpose of the wall is national defense, it seems to me it fits inside the

definition of what the pentagon's supposed to be doing. i was disappointed in this massive increase in pentagon spending that it wasn't meshed with spending reform. they didn't do a base closings commission, which we've done six or seven of now that have all saved money. no reform. just more money. time to do some reform. the wall, i suppose, is part of national defense. stuart: well, how about reforming the process in the senate? how about having majority leader mitch mcconnell just mandate a 51 vote majority for everything. he could do that, couldn't he? >> he can't do it himself. but 50 republicans plus the vice president could change the rule. the filibuster is a rule. it can be changed with 51 votes or 50 plus the vice president. mcconnell can't do it by himself. right now, they don't have the 51 votes, but i agree with you that they ought to.

what the democrats did to us in this last budget bill and all the spending they were able to push in because you need 60 votes, you need democrats. you end up paying for it through the nose. i really think we should get rid of the filibuster. if the ds ever take the senate, the filibuster is gone, so we're not protecting anything. stuart: yeah, and we're protecting heavy duty spending, which we've got to do something about. a 51 vote majority would settle that one. i want to ask you. you kept track of all the bonuses that are being paid. we just got news that mccormick, i think they're giving 1,000 bucks to their employees. what's your latest tally? how many people have gotten bonuses? >> well, over 467 companies that are -- our website atr.org. we have the entire list. we also have it by state if you want to look at your state. and if any of you listeners either run a business or works for your business that has given a tax reform-based bonus, e-mail it in, and we'll

include it and put it right in with all of the others. all we need is the statement -- we're not taking credit for any bonus of the world. but if it was because of tax reform, we're over at about 4.5 million now, and it continues to grow and move forward. but there's breaking news today. the edison electric announced 91 million americans already, and there will be more to come. 91million americans are seeing lower utility bills because the utilities are passing through the lower federal taxes that they pay because of tax reform. 91million americans. look at your water bill. look at your electric bill. look at your utility bills. they're by law required to pass through tax cuts, and that is what is happening. so it's an additional benefit to the stock market being up, the bonuses, and the more take-home pay. stuart: 91 million. we'll take that. grover, thanks for joining us. >> great to be with you. stuart: sure thing. we're not going to get much of

a bounce for the dow industrials when we open this market. we are going to get a significant loss for those tech stocks in the nasdaq. that's how things are shaping up. the list is growing. six countries now threatening to boycott the world cup in russia. but it is not what you think, and we will explain it all after this whoooo.

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>> i don't think this is over. i think the stock maybe goes down to 150. i'm going to look at it at 150. i think hopefully it will go there. i would like to buy it there. hopefully it will hold there. but i don't think we're nearly done here yet. stuart: well, well, well. he got it right. that was shaw way back when saying facebook would go to 150. and it did. ashley: look at that. stuart: and you see it now, of course, to take the victory lap. no, seriously you got it right. that was well done thicket has been. stuart: where is it going now. >> i think it's stuck right here between 150 and 160. it has to get out of 160 for me to be getting comfortable with it. there's not a reason to buy facebook right now. it's facing too many obstacles, including the market weighing on it. it's a speculative play to buy right now. market comes down, facebook comes down, i'm a buyer lower, and i'm going to accumulate it. but right here, i think it has

a ways to go lower. . stuart: and where would you buy it. >> 130, it could go to 120. i would load up on 120. the market would really have to bang down hard for it to get to 120. i think he's going to be called to task in europe. this is far from over. stuart: okay. will you please stay there. help us cover the market at 9:30. let me turn to this. six countries threaten to boycott the world cup. be careful of the use of boycott because it's not what you think. ashley: we're not talking about the teams, although, some people throwing that out maybe we should go to russia for the world company cup. but six countries saying we're not going to send our dignitaries. sweden, denmark, japan saying we're probably not going to go anyway. not necessarily going to hurt vladimir putin's feelings if they don't show up for the opening ceremonies and the games. at this point there's no boycott of a team playing at the world cup. stuart: that is the most minor league knuckles of that had vlad mere putin.

>> the hotels feel so bad about this and that's about it. . stuart: members of royal family were supposed to go. >> yes. stuart: was it harry. ashley: i think william because he's head of the association. stuart: yes, he is. ashley: he's not going. stuart: now, that's news. the future king of england will not go to russia. that's news. i'm going to look back at -- show me again whether the market's going to open. it will be up, but i'm going to concentrate on the nasdaq. it will be down. as you know, the nasdaq is home to all those technology companies. and technology has taken it on the chin recently. looks like it's going to take it again on the chin today. stay with us, please. the market opens in four and a half minutes, and we'll take you there

. .

stuart: the focus today on this stock market is clearly going to be the technology stocks, what we are showing on the left-hand side of the screen, this is for radio listeners, left-hand side, you will see dow, futures indicating a 50-point gain for the dow industrials, got it. they were down 300 yesterday. modest rebound this morning. look at the nasdaq, that shows a loss of about 45 points on the nasdaq composite. it was way down yesterday, that

tells me technology is under severe pressure. let's not forget it was technology that made the running for much of the trump rally following the election. it was go-go days for the big five tech stocks, not anymore, they are under pressure, as you will see right now, it's 9:30 eastern time wednesday morning, we are up and running and we have a lot of green amongst the dow stocks and the dow itself is up 40 points. that's it. okay. it has opened with a small gain, show me the s&p, please. i want to see where that's going, broader indicater and that is actually down just a fraction, okay, but it is down. now, here is what i want to see, the nasdaq composite, home of the technology stocks, where is it? down about a third of a point. not a huge loss by any means but below 7,000 for tinned exand it is down 27 points. that's a loss, that indicates technology not doing well. as we said, tech stocks led the

selling at after facebook chief mark zuckerberg agree today testify before congress, those are the tech stocks right now, amazon down, $57 on amazon, google is down 9 bucks, microsoft up 45 cents and twitter is down again. show me facebook, please. i want to see how that opened, virtually unchanged, actually down forty cents at 151 per share. now show me envidia, whole testing of driver res technology on public roads and we also have the feds looking at tesla, they are examining them after a fatal tesla crash, again, which used auto pilot technology, down a whopping $17, -- ashley: 300 a short time ago. stuart: few days ago well above 300. envidia, one of the highest

technology stocks, down again, down a buck 20 this morning. who is with me on day for tech, liz peek is here and the incredible shah. congratulations. [laughter] >> thank you, thank you. stuart: now what will you do for me now. show me all the tech stocks, please. wait a minute, the dow is up 112 points. >> you look away -- stuart: i look away briefly. up 118 points, up 120 points. i didn't see that but all of a sudden it happened, back to the big tech stocks, shah gelani. facebook is now up, are there other big tech names that you will buy right now? >> not right now, too much pressure on tech, don't forget there were leadership stocks an all the big tech stocks drove the market higher for several

years and especially since election last november. the problem that they are having is now they are huge components of major index ooses that -- indexes, they are causing etf's that hold stocks and -- stuart: you don't necessarily own directly shares of amazon, google, you own mutual fund, etf, you own it? >> money is coming out of tech, in the past it's rotated to something else, where is the money going? 10-year yield is 2.85. >> it's also going sideline. sideline cash -- ashley: there you go. >> all last year the thing to do was not get out of market, the thing to do was to invest in market, what people did was go into tech stocks, those are the

leading group and they went through etf, very easy unwind and on top of it, we now have a bunch of fundamental problems for a bunch of the companies, it's like, you know, a negative cycle. stuart: now there is news on facebook this morning, they've made changes to their privacy settings, brief explanation. ashley: very quickly, a central hub, one place you can go, one-stop shop to go delete information on your account, you will be able to delete searches, you'll be able to delete what you recently posted and whatever you posted and that would be wiped out the facebook server for good. however, this is first part of ongoing effort i think by facebook to be more transparent and to give you more power of your data. stuart: seems like a very small move, not made much difference to the stock overall, liz peek. >> i don't think that's the issue, the issue is whether mark zuckerberg can make a case before congress that they will clean up act and frankly i have argued in print it's just not

possible, they are generating so much data, nobody can control it at this point. stuart: okay, i want to talk about the self-driving car industry, if i can put it like that, two developments, we've got envidia, chips for self-driving cars, yesterday way down, they are suspending testing of the driverless technology and the feds are actually looking at a tesla crash, checking to see if it's auto pilot was engaged. liz, are these little headaches, little growing pains or is this a huge problem for self-driving in the industry? >> we had two self-driving crashes recently. not only with tesla but with uber. we talked about how surprisingly quickly the whole self-driving industry was evolving and the government seemed to be ignoring any possible safety issues, so, look, the lobby has been very strong pushing it forward but i think the issues that have now risen are serious.

uber has taken cars off the road and other companies, by the way, for tesla, the xrob is compounded, if there -- now thee are more people questioning -- ashley: didn't stop and killed the pedestrian, that's why they are halting temporarily in chips for artificial intelligence by war, that announcement yesterday was a big deal. stuart: i'm surprised how far they came on self-driving cars. i've never seen one. >> no matter how many accidents, we will get past it. it's coming and it's here, in the next ten years it'll be everywhere. >> speed bump, anyway. stuart: not bad, not bad. check the big board. we have come back, we were up 125 at one point, 127 maybe, now

we are up just 50 points. strong outlook from the yoga pants people that would be lulu lemon. ashley: the yoga pants' company. stuart: they are up 7%. the parent company, rh, look at that, 22%, straight up there. blackberry lost less money, wall street likes this company because they don't want the old blackberry. they are in self-driving cars. >> the only tech stock doing well. pretty terrific, right. stuart: up 3%. take that. a rosy forecast from walgreens, that usually works, it's 2% higher, however, a weak forecast, look into the future, sonic, hamburger joint, they don't like what they see that much and neither do investors, they are down nearly 3%. retail ice age, i find this one a fascinating story, i can't

believe this number, h&m is sitting on $4 billion worth of unsold clothing, actually it's $4.3 billion worth of unsold clothing. i can't believe that. that's an astronomical number. >> don't we all have an image in our head. [laughter] >> this is also part -- this is supposed to be a fashion company thatst that's changing the fashion. stuart: it took a nasty drop over the last few day days. [laughter] stuart: all right, ge, it was up yesterday, there were some speculation that warren buffet could buy a stake in it. shah gelani, would you buy it at

13? >> if i did buy it and i do not own it, it would be a speculative play for a few months just to see if there's a pop in it. this is old technology, commanders in the industry, not a lot of growth there. why would you go other than speculate a few months and get a pop. it's not going to double, so, no, i wouldn't really chase it and i certainly wouldn't run after it. if i owned it, i would be crying. stuart: tailored made for traitors. >> the problem with break-up value -- stuart: sorry, we have just gone down. in the first couple of minutes of business, up 125, now we are down 22. i think we are going to expect this. roller coaster activity. >> this was set in place for the first week of february, february 5th through the ninth, volatility was so tense that the

dow moved 22,000 points in that week up and down. stuart: whoa. >> that alert med that this kind of volatility is here to stay and not going any time. ashley: was that triggered by inflation worries? >> yes, wages went up 2.9% and monday we had the record selloff, that whole week was up and down, volatility is here to stay. stuart: i have to get liz peek's story in and here it is, espn's new boss talks about anchors taking political stances and he says, we are not a political organization. liz. [laughter] >> they are not a political organization, and when they -- their anchors go on air with political commentary on twitter and so forth, guess, what it hurts the network, just what espn is doing, turn employees, here are the guidelines for what you can do on social media and please otherwise do not comment because it's hurting their

business. stuart: now, we are -- i'm an opinion kind of guy. >> it's okay for us. stuart: i express opinion on politics because we cover politics and money and they are intertwine. >> that's true. stuart: i have an opinion on everything. ashley: yes, you do. [laughter] stuart: liz the time is up, sha gelani, master himself. ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining me. check the big board, please, what a turn around? you talk about volatility, 170 point swing in ten minutes, we are now down 26, new york city councilman pushing for new law that would make it illegal for your boss to require you to answer emails outside work hours. not sure that would fly in new york city, but councilman coming up in our next hour, he's on the show. north korea's leader meeting with china's president kim jong un first foreign trip since he

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stuart: well, certainly up and down day, the market as in the dow is now up, has been negative, has been up 100, now it's up 17, got it, listen to this, facebook reportedly delaying its home speaker, now that's a big development, nicole, tell me all about it. nicole: this is according to report, there was a focus group that looked at whether or not people felt comfortable with facebook putting in a speaker into your home, this is for all in-home products, it was suppose today compete against amazon's echo in home and smart speakers but looks like according to report that they are, in fact,

delaying unveiling of new home products which were due to be unveiled in developer conference in may and released in the fall, but there are reports that you still will get the products by the end of the year but now is not the time for facebook to say, hey, we want to gather more information and data from you, so the judgment call here that this article is basically saying, maybe you should wait to gather more data. one step at a time, all right. stuart: nicole, very much, indeed. amazon down $78. ashley: getting punished for sure. stuart: moving on. the president, well, he's talking about using pentagon money to build the wall. come on in congressman steve russell republican from oklahoma who is also on the arm services committee, congressman, is it okay constitutionally to take money from the pentagon's

budget? >> of course, it's okay to do that. if you go back to reagan era when i served, you had military asset that is were used in conjunction with our border protection service. we have the salute requirement to defend the republic and that means our borders as well. stuart: you're on the armed services committee, obviously we want to funnel as much as money as possible to the military to rebuild it, would you welcome money being taken out, 700 billion that they are going to get, would you welcome it, take money out and build the wall, do you think it's a good idea? >> i think it's been a good idea to secure the border for decades. you know, i think one of the things that we have to realize, stuart, is we have a responsibility to secure the border, the president has made that quite clear. militarily it makes good sense

to keep drugs and criminal out externally, that's not somebody ininternally but along that we have case al-qaeda and nefarious actors get across our porous border, we have a responsibility to do that. the greater message to congress is, when are we going to do something about it to secure the border, the majority of the american public believe that we should have a secure border and the president is finding every option to do that. stuart: we have news that kim jong un did, indeed, meet china's xi jinping, he was on that train and now we have a picture of the meeting, i don't think these two would have gotten together were it not for the hardline of president trump, what say you? >> well, we certainly see lipstick put on the pig, so to speak, with kim jong un's statements about how this shows strong alliance and

relationship, but the reality is i think what was discussed is that he is really one step closer -- closer to being not only isolated but ion -- but the fact that there will be dialogue between xi and apparently president trump in the coming spring, all of that bodes well, let's have the discussions, there's no military options, so, sure e with can play the word game, that's fine. >> congressman steve russell, republican of oklahoma, appreciate it. >> you bet. stuart: check that dow. at this moment it is up 37 points, we have been all over the place this morning. by the way, 12 states are planning to sue the trump administration for adding a citizenship question to the census, they say the change is unconstitutional, judge napolitano who will vent on that one again, he's next

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stuart: attention amazon stockholders, you're down today, $67 lower as we speak for amazon, it's back to 14.27, the old high was well above 16. ashley: at or below 1438 is in

correction territory. stuart: that's technical stuff. you're losing a lot of money. ashley: 10% from recent high. [laughter] stuart: we are not going to do that. 12 states, there they are, looking to sue the federal government over the census citizenship question. judge andrew napolitano is here. by the way, see that, the dow is now up 104. you see that jordanians what you did? >> i wish that i had that power. keyword in intro, looking to sue, this isn't law yet, this is a proposal by the department of commerce. stuart: shows you the level of organized revolt. >> yes. stuart: in favor of illegals. >> willingness to use taxpayer dollars to fund lawsuits. the state is not harmed, perhaps individuals in the state were forced to answer questions which

the federal government can force -- can't force you to answer but to repeat the law, the federal government can ask what it wants in order to gather information, but the only question you have to answer is how many human beings live, not age, not gender, not toilets, not education, not income, but how many people live here. stuart: i'm not interested inten the legal technicalities which questions you have to answer -- >> you're upset about this organized movement to protect the rights of illegals. stuart: what rights do they have? right to education, food and health, the right to my money? >> that is a problem and the case is called dover sus texas where the state of texas tried to cut out social safety net and the supreme court said you can't do it. that's the law. i don't know that the present

supreme court would look at it the way as doe -- excuse me, poe versus texas is about 25 year's old, i don't know that the supreme court would hear it the same way but what are they counting, they are counting that are lawfully here not just citizens but others who are here like you before you became a citizen, before you -- you have the law top counted in population base that generate it is member of congress. ashley: but you don't vote with a green card. >> they are not counting just voters, they are not counting just citizens, there are children, human beings that are here lawfully. what about human beings that are here unlawfully, can or should they be counted? the answer is emphatically no to both of the questions. stuart: no, they should be counted. >> no, they should -- stuart:

the government should know who is here. >> when i say -- stuart: where am i wrong? >> when you say counted, the government should know who is there. when i say counted, counted as part of the population to determine the number of representatives in congress. illegals cannot be in there, but if illegals are here the government has the right to use lawful means to find out who they are. stuart: any and every valid government anywhere in the world has the absolute right and responsibility to know exactly who the devil is in the country. >> exactly. stuart: and immigration status. >> except the constitution that you took that protects freedom of speech and also silence. >> you know how sometimes you say silence, i think of the first amendment. [laughter] stuart: we might see you in the 11:00. >> unless you order my silence. stuart: washington post owned by mega rich jeff bezos blasts the

rich for getting bonuses. ashley: oh, my god. stuart: can you spell hypocrisy. back at the top of the hour with that one for you. i think there are some ways to help keep you on track. and closer to home. i'm all ears. how did edward jones grow to a trillion dollars in assets under care? thanks. by thinking about your goals as much as you do. we're on the move. . . . at crowne plaza, we know business travel isn't just business. there's this. a bit of this. why not?

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stuart: i consider myself a refugee from your.socialism. i didn't like it. when i got to america i felt liberated. 40 years later i have a case of deja vu. i keep hearing echoes from across the atlantic. that socialist mind-set has established itself here. oh, dear. what caught my attention was a headline in the "washington post." wall street's average bonus in 2017? three times what most u.s. households made all year. the writer breathlessly tells us the bonus payout for the bankers and brokers reached 184,000 bucks last year, almost back to pre-crash levels. it is dangerous, says the post. incentive pay encourages risk-taking.

all that money makes income inequality worse. a couple of points. this article appeared in the trump-hating "washington post." to them income inequality is a big issue. they are with bernie sanders on this. and yes, they conveniently forpet the post owner is jeff bezos the amazon man, who happens to be the most income unequal guy. is the richest person in the world, worth a staggering 120 billion at least he was before today. you have to laugh, don't you? income inequality from the plutocrat post. but what really got to me was the jealously. the snide contempt for making money. the denigration for success. that is pure socialist europe and class warfare and it is here. what hypocrisy on. rich, supposedly angered by income inequality. you may be tempted to laugh. don't. socialism is pernicious.

it is, you have got it, i want it, give it to me now! for those of us who lived in socialist societies like that, it is not funny. it is absolutely awful. imagine my joy when i arrived here all those years ago in this huge, dynamic country. i have a scope, a chance to climb the income ladder, a chance to make something of myself. i was not held back by social class. nobody cared where i came from, or who my dad worked for. you have brains, talent, drive, ability, put it to work. it is a wonderful place. i loved it right from the get-go socialism be damned. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: up and down, all over the place. now we're up 117, 120 points.

23,975. amazon down sharply. $54 down on a report that president trump wants to go after them. apple one of the biggest losers in the dow. it is down a buck at 167. how about facebook? bouncing back a little after announcing new privacy settings. we'll have more on that in a moment. it is at 154, facebook. tesla, it hit a one-year low. the government examining another fatal crash checking to see if tesla's autopilot system is was engaged, down 12 bucks now. lululemon. yoga pants maker, it is up 10% at 86. more news on facebook. they took a first step to protecting your data changing your privacy settings so you can delete the search history among other things. there is another development.

there are reports that facebook may delay of the release after smart speaker. they were supposed to introduce it at a conference. they delayed that. jason rotman is with us, lido isle advisors. you have been always bullish on facebook. a lot of people, it is at 154, do you want to buy it now? >> frankly stuart, i have been bullish, from the 60s. whoever listened has done well. they almost tripled. i honestly believe we'll have a tough time having any sustained rallies. i think overall environment is neutral, slightly bearish to facebook. i still think people should buy on the dips. i'm not necessarily calling a low based off what is going on. it is fresh in people's minds. stuart: you're not jumping in there and buying it at 154, 155? you're not. >> that's correct. it could easily go down another 10 to 15%.

it's a volatile stock. if it gets below 130, 120, it's a screaming buy because facebook is not going away. stuart: i wonder if it will get that low. only time will tell asth say, jason. sit von research says twitter is vulnerable to privately regulations. the stock was taken to the cleaners yesterday. do you agree with that statement? >> i'm completely opposite that statement, twitter. i think twitter is phenomenal growth stock. two years ago i called facebook the ultimate growth stock. i don't think twitter is the ultimate growth stock but in the 20s, twitter has not begun to fully maximize their advertising capabilities. i think it is going higher. citron is wrong. stuart: using information it has would not be good for the stock, would it? >> it is almost a moot appointment, stuart, twitter

executives came out and said listen, we're not doing what facebook is doing. we're not harvesting data from direct messages. the beauty of twitter is out there. it is legal whatever data we're sharing, people are voluntarily disclosing on their tweets. so it's a completely different situation here. stuart: okay. interesting. i want to talk to you about microsoft. morgan stanley says it is going to hit $130 a share this year because they're big in the cloud business. $130 on microsoft. what say you? >> yeah that is the magic trillion dollar number, isn't it? i disagree with that analysis for one major reason. honestly, microsoft is a great company. i think their cloud business is crushing it. they're even approaching or outcompeting amazon what i want to say. the reason why it will not reach the trillion dollars the overall market fundamentals will not allow it. the market is afraid of higher rates. good news is bad news for the markets. gdp came out strong.

the market is not that strong today. the trillion dollar number could have in full-on bull market. the market is afraid of higher rates, better economy does, higher rates will go so trillion dollars no. stuart: jason rotman direct answers to direct questions we like it. thank you, jason, we'll see you very soon. >> thank you. stuart: i want to get to my rant, known as editorial at top of the hour. the left keep pushing income inequality to me all the time seems to ignore the goodies like economic growth. think i this he just ignore that the. remember that headline in the "washington post"? wall street's average bonus in 2017, three times what most u.s. households made all year. harlan hill, he is easy to fire up this, lad. trump for president advisory board member. harlan, i had a rant against the echoes of social i'm coming to america and i hate it. what say you? >> you touched on something really interesting. what has made america an exceptional place to come and do business, to come and thrive as

an individual, as an entrepreneur has been it does not matter who your father was. this hereditary society, there is no holdover from europe that it mattered. in the politics of the new democratic party that's all that matters. in the politics of victimhood, that is all that matters. you came from a family of slaves? you have been oppressed by white men. you are a recent immigrant to the united states. you have been oppressed by white men. you are female, you are oppressed by white men. that is the political message of the modern democratic party. so they're sending the message the only thing that matters is what your personal history is. and so you can not rise above it. you can not go out and stake out your own part of the world. stuart: that's right. that's right. look, i think this is a very ugly phase in our politics. it is destructive of what i think america is all about.

i love this place. it's a free market. ashley: yeah. stuart: get out there and compete. you have brains, talent, drivability. ashley: success is is not a dirty word but something to strive for. don't apologize for it. stuart: in america success is looked down upon, especially by people quite wealthy, quite successful. ashley: yes. stuart: they seem this hate themselves. >> there is a silver lining here. whenever governments across this country move to restrict new businesses, for instance, uber, if there is a move by a city government to restrict uber, millenials are up in arms. they're ready to march in the streets against that sort of government regulation. so i think if we better explained what socialism was, or is, and what big government regulation does, we put it in the context that millenials can understand they will reject it wholesale. there is a silver lining here. stuart: do you think we've reached a tipping point where i want it, you've got it, give it to me now?

there is almost a majority of people will be on the receiving end and very small minority of people would be having to cough up their goodies? have we reached the tipping point? >> only way we solve this is through economic growth. we're starting to see that with president trump's administration. i believe firmly if he had lost, i don't care how moderate people claim hillary clinton really was, we would be on a crash course, a collision course with socialism. he saved america as we knew it with his election in 2016. stuart: a fine sound bite that will live forever, young man. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. stuart: always good. ladies and gentlemen, i do want to brace you for the video we're about to show you. a high with patrolman in utah walking toward this is car, a car, i should say which was stuck on the side of the road, slammed by an out of control car sliding on the ice. a miracle but the man is okay. suffered broken ribs, broken shoulder played.

hopes the video will serve as reminder, slow down. the driver of the car did apologize to that officer. and he is going to be okay. >> oh, my ford. stuart: grim stuff to watch. with you we showed it. the leaders of china and north korea did meet. president trump says maximum pressure must be maintained on kim jong-un. martha maccallum on the president's hard-line. did it work. president trump's new plan to pay for the border wall. the military got $700 billion. he wants some of that to go to the wall. we're on the story. a new york city councilmember proposing the right to disconnect. he wants to ban your boss from emailing you after works house. we'll let him make his case. we're decent people here. you're watching the second hour of "varney & company." ♪

stuart: you really got to check that market all the time because it goes up, it goes down and it goes up again. we're actually up 19 points. where is the price of gold this morning? a bit of a flight to safety recently but not today. down 10 bucks at 1337. no financial news update could be complete without bitcoin. $8558 per coin as we speak. and now this, what you have all been waiting for, new york city councilmember proposing a bill that would give employees the right to disconnect from work-related email outside of work hours. sounds okay. that gentleman, member of the new york city council, rafael espinal. joins us now.

what are you doing here? >> just talking. stuart: i'm an employer and i employ somebody working 9:00 to 5:00. if i asking or demand they respond to email at 5:30, what happens to me? >> if you demand, you have a problem. you have the ability to reach out to the employee. they have the right to whether to respond or not. stuart: what do you think of an employee of mine that says, stu, we really can't respond to the email you sent us at 5:05 this afternoon? do you think i would look kindly at that employee? into if you have happy employees, most likely they will be respond. stuart: wait a minute, you can be very happy getting involved in your job, part of the team, shaping enterprise. that is happiness. >> that is happiness. employee decides whether or not at the moment they talk. i am not discouraging it. stuart: of course you are. >> we have employees go home, decompress, go work to next day,

perform at optimal level. studies show if a employee disconnects whether from the internet, leave the office, take time off, go back to work the next day, do a better job. this is great for business. this is great for the employers. stuart: if i made it a point, if i said to an, potential employee, lookings you got to respond to emails, you have to respond to texts, no matter what time of day it is. >> making it very clear to them. stuart: am i allowed to say that? >> if they're signing a contract with the notion they have to be available 24 hours. stuart: if the employee says sorry, i can't do that. can they see me? >> if you didn't hire them. this is not about suing. this is giving more -- stuart: yes it is. all regulations are about suing. >> i mean the city will have mechanisms in place to call the city. the city will go out and do an investigation, talk to the employer, employee figure out whether or not there was retaliation against the employee because of not responding to correspondence. >> lawsuits. are you lawyer?

>> i am not a lawyer. stuart: you're not a lawyer but you know a few? >> i know a few. i think this law will protect a lot of poo emat the time where work continues to encroach in our lives. wages are stagnant for very long time. we're expecting more of our employees they should have the right to decide whether they keep working or answer the email when they leave the house. stuart: you're an democrat, right. >> i'm a democrat. stuart: wages stagnated eight years of office. now they're going up with trump. >> i think obama had a lot to do what we're seeing over past year. stuart: very interesting. let me move on. what about an up-and-comer, wants to try hard, show the boss they're in this business, they like the job and they're gung-ho, they want to climb the ladder they will answer any damned email anytime of day. what about them? >> i applaud them. this is not taking right from responding. if you want to continue working, love the job, want to show you're the best employee in the

office. you can still do that i'm not taking that way. but at the moment you receive the text message from your boss, you don't feel it's a god moment to answer the call, you don't have to. stuart: nobody who feels like that will ever work for me or my organization, ever. >> well -- stuart: you're out of a job, son. rafael, look, we appreciate you coming on board. it's a good discussion. i think we'll have this discussion a lot in the future. >> technology has encroached into our business. there is no real clear regulation how that is working, how that is affecting people's lives. this is conversation worth having. stuart: you will be very popular on the left. all those anti-business people, will love you. >> all the people with families will love me. stuart: i don't think so, rafael, thank you very much. we appreciate it. thanks very much. now we have nvidia suspending the self-driving technology testing on public roads after uber's fatal crash but look, this is an industry that logged millions of miles in a very short time. it's come a long way.

ashley: sure has very quickly. stuart: we'll tell you how far it's come in just a moment. ♪ whoooo.

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stuart: general electric, a dow stock, one of the biggest losers of the dow 30. ge down 2 1/2%. back to $13.10 a share. nvidia has halted self-driving vehicle tests in the aftermath of that fatal uber crash. nvidia down sharply yesterday. down about a buck this morning. lauren simonetti is with us. i want to talk about this self-driving industry which i believe has logged millions of miles on public roads.

it has come a long way very quickly without me knowing about it actually. >> about a decade. google the leader here, with their waymo unit, they have logged five million miles on public roads. that is just the miles driven. when you talk about simulated miles, computer-driven miles, 2.7 billion last year alone. they're the biggest player. obviously apple is a player here. we don't know much about that. they're usually late to the game and do better if they come out with a self-driving car. so i would say apple is laggard here. uber has logged 3 million miles, nvidia, tesla, all working on this. stuart: there is a hiccup here, a fatal crash or two fatal crashes i believe. ending of some testing by nvidia, et cetera, et cetera. is this going to really hold up the self-driving industry? >> that is such a good question. nvidia made part of the technology used in the uber self-driving car. in act of solidarity, in

sympathy for what is going on, for the future of self-driving cars, nvidia said let's stop, let's wait to see what went wrong and we can resume later this is quote from the company. ultimately self-driving cars will be safer than human drivers. you have other companies like like aptiv out of israel, no, our technology would not be in the situation. this is an uber problem. they're trying to distance themselves because they believe the future of the way we drive is autonomous. ashley: what nvidia's software does, it takes all information from sensors and radars, crunches it in a split second to tell the car what to do based on all the information coming at it. the question about was it in the uber vehicle that killed pedestrian in arizona, very unclear. let's not forget that system was shut off anyway. the radar and sensors. so nvidia's software would not have been engaged at that point in that particular incident.

to lauren's point they will suspend everything, right? they are on a lot of vehicles. they're a leader in the software and chip-making for this technology. it's a big deal. that is why the stock took a big hit yesterday. stuart: have they fixed liability. >> there are few regulations right now. there is a research that says by 2030, 95% of the miles driven in the u.s., 95%, in 12 years are going to be self-driving, shared and electric cars. stuart: don't believe it. >> self-driving shared electric in 12 years. stuart: i don't believe it. i hear what you said. ashley: still don't believe it. stuart: still don't believe it. president trump suggesting a new plan to pay for the wall. the military gothundred -- 700 billion in the spending bill. the president wants to use some of that to chip in. we're on it. ♪

♪ stuart: ah. ashley: yes i'm going to be a star. stuart: that is before we had self-driving cars. very apropos that song. i do like it, by the way. check the big board. i'm not saying we have stability but we've been hanging around with a gain of 30, 40 points. ashley: we'll take it. stuart: we'll take it. up 34 as we speak. now 10:30 eastern, just received numbers how much oil we have in storage. ashley: we were expecting a little bit of a draw-down. we expected it, sure didn't get it. we're up 1.6 million barrels. so there is more in storage that would suggest perhaps prices would come down. there has been upward pressure on oil recently. got up to 66 bucks recently. moving slightly lower. this may help it move lower.

stuart: frackers are at it. ashley: frack away, baby. stuart: love it. big tech names. moving on. where are they today? technology is the story of the day. story of the week. technology stocks, a little bit of a bounce-back. facebook up a buck. microsoft up 50 cents. apple down, a buck 43. alphabet up seven bucks. will you look at amazon, bolt of the screen there, down $68. that is a selloff and 1/2. president trump might be going after them. that is the story. blackberry, they are now an autonomous car software company. that's what they do these days. nothing to do with the old "crackberrys." that stock is at 12:45 as we speak. had been higher than that. i want to bring in scott wren. he is the wells fargo senior global equity strategist. he is on the program because i read his stuff. this man thinks if you buy into bankers, brokers, financials on the dip you will make money.

did i read you correctly, scott wren? >> you did, stuart. if you're going to see a better economy if you're going to see better loan demand and a little bit higher interest rates, then financials look good to us along with consumer discretionary, industrials. we like also health care. we are believers that the tax code, probably the new tax code probably extended the recovery for a couple of years, year or two, something like that. this bull market is not over. you know, when you're down here at levels, if you look at the s&p right now, 2585 is the 200-day moving average. this is a great level to buy stocks if your outlook is good. we bounced off the level on february the 9th. we did it again last friday. if your outlook is good you need to be stepping in at these levels. stuart: wow, you're a man with a strong stomach. you're telling our viewers who have been whiplashed all over the place, ups and downs, volatility, have gone through the big selloff in technology,

you're saying hold on, get back in there, put your money to work, okay in the end? >> that is always easier said than done, stuart. we're dealing with retail clients here. and, you know, when you look back in history, the time to buy is when your stomach is churning and you're sweating overstepping into the market. those are usually the best times to actually step in. like i said it is easier said than done. that is what we're trying to, trying to talk to our clients about. many retail investors, not just our clients, but many retail investors have been really underinvested for a lot of this multiyear rally. so if there is more left, and i think probably our midpoint of our targets are 2850 this year. you throw in a percent 1/2 for dividends, talking 9% return, something like that. so i think that is a good year. it is not a great year. it is not 2017 but it is certainly worth being in the

market for. stuart: i'll bet you a lot of your retail clients, the little guy, you're dealing directly with them, i bet they're put off by volatility, sharp ups and downs and big buys, they must be put off by that? >> what happens every time, stuart, retail investors once they start to get a little more interested which i would argue in the second half of 2017 they did, they're waiting for the pullback. we encourage them to have a plan but when the pullback happens between february the 2nd and february the 9th, market drops 10%, they tend to back away, sit on their hands, you're right, if that happened over three-month period, if you're down 2% on friday, up 3% on monday and down 2% on tuesday, that is the kind of thing that makes people, professionals even, nervous. it makes them, when i see the stats what's happened in the last six or seven weeks my guess is that many of our clients, many retail clients have sat on

their hands. they have not stepped in. it is something i think they will regret a year from now. stuart: you're a brave man, scott wren. you are a very brave man because i know how nervous and anxious the retail investor, the little guy really is. >> they are. stuart: they are very, very nervous, very anxious about but you held their hands quite successfully this morning. >> that is part of my job, stuart. stuart: not part of my job but there you go. scott, thanks for joining us. >> have a great day. thank you. stuart: president trump reportedly wants to pay for the wall by using some of the military budget. by the way the military got $700 billion in the latest spending bill. come on in utah congressman chris stewart who joins us now. would that be legit? you're a military guy. would you think it would be okay to take some money away from the military and use that money to build a wall? >> no, not at all and for a number of reasons. i have to tell you i don't think

it was serious idea, i think as described the musings of the president. every president muses about different things, throws ideas out there, this president does more than most. stuart: true. >> as a member of could an guess and a appropriate tore as well. i would never support that, if president obama suggested this i would oppose him. if this president is serious, i don't think he is, but if he was i would oppose him. look, congress has constitutional authority to decide how this money is spent. whether you like it or not, by the way i didn't like it, i voted against the omnibus, whether you like it or not that's the law and that is how it is designed, that congress would make those decisions. stuart: this spending bill was wildly unpopular with many people who supported president trump and many republicans, really unpopular. going forward do you think we need to change the rules and make it, you pass the spending bill in the senate with 51 votes? that is radical change in the rules, do you think we should do

it? >> absolutely. thank you for giving me a chance to talk about that because absolutely i believe that i've been saying that for several years. i under stand the senate is institutionalist they want to protect the senate, but nuts to fund the government through continuing resolutions. we're almost through april and we barely passed a spending bill for this year. look if it's a law that is going to last forever in perpetuity, keep the filibuster, keep the 60-vote threshold, but an annual spending bill, an appropriations bill how we spend our money for this one year, just have 51-vote threshold. i think american people, if they understood, i think they would demand of their senators to change the rules, by the way the senate has the capability of changing rules. they could change that tomorrow if they wanted to. stuart: and let the voter pass judgement on what the senate and the house have just done. wake up and, that would make a big difference i would think.

>> i couldn't agree with you more. i make that argument almost word for word what you just said. if the senate or house and congress do something nuts, let the voters decide that. let them hold them accountable. i think many times the filibuster protects really great policy but protects the senate as well. i will give you an example. i don't think obamacare would have passed if they didn't have the filibuster and democrats didn't think, well the republicans will never be able to change it. they were protected from their own bad policy by the filibuster rule. stuart: that is fascinating. we may be on the edge of a very big change. maybe. congressman, thanks for being on the show and joining us. >> thank you,. stuart: many parents, i know this for a fact, many parents are still helping their adult children financially. ashley: yeah, me too. according to credit cards.com, which i guess would know such things, three of four parents with kids over the age of 18 are indeed helping their kid with

living expenses. that's a lot. where does that money go? 39% pay their cell phone bill which i find really interesting. 36 for transportation costs. 24% are paying for rent. 21% utilities. 21% student loans. the place where it is happening the most, no big surprise here in the northeast united states where it is crushingly expensive to live and very hard for the kids. there is a comment here from a guru, financial guru, if they're doing everything they can, gotten their degree, they're making an effort it's okay. but if they're spending dollars, hanging out on sofa, in the basement, relying on mom and dad, that is very bad. stuart: the difference between my generation, i'm an older guy, back in my day, parents were not so generous with their children. ashley: no. stuart: the difference between then and now, in my opinion largely student debt. ashley: it is. how can you know, set off in life with $200,000 in debt

hanging around your neck. it is really a bad situation. stuart: next case. ashley: yep. stuart: 37 state attorneys general wrote a letter to facebook demanding answers about how it handles users information. we'll have the attorney general from the state of pennsylvania in our next hour. he wrote part of the letter. first, president trump says he spoke with china's president xi after meeting with kim jong-un but he says until his own meeting with the north korean leader, maximum pressure must be maintained. fox news's martha maccallum next on that. ♪ how do you win at business? stay at laquinta. where we're changing with contemporary make-overs. then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today. book now at lq.com.

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ashley: within the last hour we asked grover norquist why senate majority leader mitch mcconnell doesn't just mandate a 51-vote majority in order to rein in spending? take a listen. >> he can't do it himself but 50 republicans plus the vice president could change the rule. the filibuster is a rule. it can be changed with 51 votes or 50 plus the vice president. mcconnell can't do it by himself. right now they don't have the 51 votes but i agree with you, that they ought to. what the democrats did to us in this last budget bill, all the

spending they were able to push in, because you need 60 votes, you need democrats, you end up paying for it through the nose. i think we should get it through the senate. if the ds take the senate the filibuster is gone so we're not protecting anything.

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and ceo. he will become a member of the board. the market likes it, up 2% for equifax. now this. china confirmed north korea's leader kim jong-un did meet with china's president xi. president trump tweeted this, received message last night from xi xinping with china his meeting with kim jong-un went very well and kim looks forward to his meeting with me. meantime, unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all costs. look who is here. martha maccallum host of "the story with martha maccallum on the fox news channel. >> good morning, stuart. stuart: if i said president trump's hard-line was having positive results would you agree with that? >> i think it would be impossible to disagree with that. when you take a trip around the world to some of our most contentious relationships, iran, china, russia, look at examples in each of those places you can see the hard-line of president

trump at work. it is having at least, safe to say preliminary results because the logjam is breaking. the tetonic plates i talked about last night are starting to shift in a way that is fascinating. you have this meeting completely unprecedented. it may indeed happen in may. stuart: that meeting could not have taken place with president obama or george bush or clinton. it would not have taken place. it took place because the pressure from president trump. >> yeah. stuart: is it going to yield serious results? >> we don't know that at this point. when you look back at even recent history, dick cheney warned about north korea. president obama on his way out the door to president trump said your biggest problem is north korea. now you have this movement in these relationships that is sort of trifled. you have the economic pattern -- pressure on china and north korea causing two of them to get together saying we have a situation going on here.

how exactly will we handle this? interestingly i thought the discussions that the president had with the leaders in france and in germany and in canada saying, let's get together. if we all pressure china on these trade issues, intellectual property theft we might get somewhere. it is just fascinating to watch this, stuart. stuart: so many aspects of foreign policy have changed so much in the 15 months this president has been in the oval office. i'm thinking the middle east as well. we refreshed a friendship with israel. there is amalgam of israel, saudi arabia, the united states, against iran. that's radically new. that is completely different. >> of course the iran deal is up for recertification shortly. the president is now signaling if you don't return people you're holding hostage, that deal is very much in jeopardy. everybody knew that the last time he recertified the president didn't have to.

the they see that in iran. they know their friend there is no longer there. that changed completely. look at the allies that come together to remove their, to remove russian diplomats in more than 20 countries offer the past few days. these countries are waking up. there is clearly a new sheriff who is very unpredictable in the united states. stuart: yes. >> and it is just prompting, you know, sort of a chessboard that is changing in a way that i think no matter what you think of president trump is just simply fascinating to watch. stuart: i have got a smile on my face, i'm just trying to imagine kim jong-un suddenly confronted with an american president who he hasn't got a clue what he is going to do. >> this american president. you know from watching president trump in action he will say, you know what? we found some common ground on some things. we like the same movies. whatever. stuart: who knew. >> we know kim jong-un likes american movies.

they will find some things to agree on. it will be fascinating this is the first time kim jong-un ever left north korea. because first time he left as a leader. where was he hanging around before he came leader? no one has seen him outside of the country. stuart: i think he went to school in switzerland. ashley: yeah. stuart: you didn't see much of him. he had a different name, incognito. >> looking at the man standing next to the wife, pretty dress. branching out, with him on china for the long train from north korea. it is really stunning to watch these developments. stuart: you know what? you're having fun covering it. >> i am. we are leading with the secret train. there is no better story. stuart: he was on it, too. >> yeah. stuart: martha, we'll be watching tonight. thank you very much as always. >> sure thing, stuart. stuart: coming up the city of atlanta hit by a major cyber the attack. city employees finally getting the okay to turn their computers back on.

the city was hit with ransomware. that is the nature of the attack. we're on it. look at the bottom corner of your screen. we're down 110. volatility is here. ♪ ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪

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stuart: hear about this? atlanta hit a ransomware attack which shut down much of the city's computer system. pat truck tucker with us, defense one technology editor. patrick, i would like to see you as a reporter. this story didn't get much coverage. i want you to tell our viewers what happened. >> in this particular instance a ransomware called sam-sam, been around since 2015, locked down computers across the atlanta government. so city government and what the result of that was, people couldn't pay parking tickets, people couldn't pay fines. government employees couldn't access systems they needed to do their work. as you heard today, employees with the city of atlanta have begun to be able to get back online to begin to do their work again. you still have problems across

the city. people can't use publicly facing websites to pay fines. in atlanta the planes are taking off of the airport but the wi-fi at the airport is down. you're still seeing ripple effect from the ransomware attack. the mayor calling it a hostage situation. reportedly this particularly ransomware, samsam run by a group gold golden lore, has been aren't since 2015 we seen them use these against hospitals, schools, a lot of installations across the country going back years. they actually hit the department of transportation in colorado earlier this month as well as a hospital in farmington. stuart: so the ransomware guys come in, hack into your system and they freeze it and they tell the authorities, we'll unfreeze it for a certain amount of money, or bitcoin i guess? maybe that is how it is paid. we don't know whether atlanta paid up or not but sure other

municipalities are, could be subject to precisely the same attack, right? >> absolutely. so the way it works is that somebody at one of these organizations, either through a phishing attack where they click on a little link part of an email or for this group they target a vulnerability in java program servers, the j boss, the vulnerability in the jboss programing language. the ransomware equips all the information on your computer. so it is encrypted locally. if you pay the ransom, right now they're saying about $50,000 to unlock the entire system across atlanta, there is no guarranty the hackers then don't come back, now we would like 80, now we would like 100. best these days you don't do that. stuart: i got to run. we have not heard last of this. patrick, thanks for joining us. the dow is down 30.

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tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. stuart: i'm going to call amazon the most powerful company in the world and that may be a problem. enormous power makes powerful enemies, namely president trump. axios is reporting that president trump is considering antitrust action against amazon or changes to their tax status. he thinks they are getting too big and he's reportedly obsessed with amazon. how do you think retailers feel about amazon in in -- many of them destroyed by online shopping and trump real estate guy wants to protect them. have you seen the ghost malls all over the country? malls are losing anchor stores, foot traffic is down and a lot of retail space boarded up and vacant. the amazon effect. how about grocery chains? you can see the amazon effect there too.

when he bought whole foods other grocery chains fell out of business. streaming, we are told it is the entertainment vehicle of the future, amazon has a very strong presence and getting stronger, i'm sure i've left something out because the amazon effect affects economy and amazon in my opinion is also the most exciting company in the world run by an outstanding entrepreneur, jeff bezos, brilliant company conquering everything versus powerful company. if you want an incaider of the state of play, check amazon's stock, it's on pace for its biggest point loss ever as of today down 83 bucks, the third hour of varney & company is about to begin. ♪

♪ stuart: i want more on amazon and who better to go to than steve forbes, editor in chief at forbes media. what do you say, steve, break then up or no? >> no. thisthis is the stage where as u point out when you get big in the country they come after you, they came after wal-mart, years ago ibm and gm, it's a sign of success. if you're in a free market, amazon will eventually come up in various areas. by the way you left out cloud computing, huge factor there among other things and but in terms of amazon, for example, sales taxes, they want to have these companies that collect sales taxes all around the country, they say it's not fair to brick and mortars, if you do that, that's going to make amazon bigger because small retailers online don't have the capacity to keep track with 12,000 jurisdictions in the country. be care behalf you do with

amazon. let many free market work. stuart: don't touch them? >> don't touch them. entrepreneurials can do better than government, government can muck things up, they stopped microsoft and it's a factor again, ibm nearly went broke after government threatened with it, just leave it alone. they are succeeding because they are providing us and making us happy. stuart: stock down 82 as we speak. >> but from $8 years ago. [laughter] stuart: hands off says steve forbes. we hear that. steve, stay there, please, a lot more for you. our next guest, this is interesting occupation here, the man buys ghost malls, they are abandoned, he converts them, this is unused retail space, reconverse into something else, that man on the screen, scott shield, the founder and president of commercial academy, have i got it right? >> you do.

stuart: you go after them -- you go for them and buy them, what do you convert them into because there's too much retail space around? >> you're spot on, there really is too much retail space and what you're seeing is, you know, we talk about amazon and impact on retail, amazon and online sales represent less than 15% of the overall marketplace, so there's a ton of solid activity going on in the retail space, that sector has largely been its own problem. what's killed them all is in most cases has been new malls and developer profits that come from, you know, building bigger and shinier facilities. stuart: you buy it, but what do you convert it into, gyms or churches, what do you do? >> what you're dealing with is category that has most location specific data and analytics of any category in commercial real estate. the most well-located real estate in the country, unfortunately because they

doubled down and when you build the new shopping center and you talk about the, you know, victoria secrets of the world, they have to locate in the new mall too, they divide customer by half, it's been that cycle that's causing, creating the problem. stuart: what do you do with them, what do you turn them into? >> we look at the value of the land itself, a lot of times it's it's adaptive reuse, because of tax cuts, the manufacturing, the distribution centers in the way that the marketplace has changed, our big boxes are being repurpose very well for distribution manufacturing, light industrial, types of things and doing incredibly well, when you talk about the most well-located bmc malls, you talk about what happened with general growth properties, the acquisition yesterday, that was preserve class a malls. stuart: i'm interested what in devil are you going to do with ghost malls?

>> one is adaptive reuse and turning it into distribution warehouse. stuart: you're taking t -- it down? >> bring in bulldozers and get rid of boxes. [laughter] >> jc pennies, they were the amazon of their day. stuart: i want to know what the tenants, new tenants do with repurpose land, i see some churches moving in? >> absolutely. you want to stay away from that, not that we are antichurch. stuart: what's wrong with this? >> you are vacant during the week. stuart: they can't afford a lot of rent. >> you want tenants feeding off of one another. stuart: okay, i've goit. you bulldoze, repurpose, redo the big box, distribution

centers. who else moves in? >> we are working with fitness facilities, service providers, restaurants, retail facilities that attract traffic but not necessarily relying so heavily on apparel, not wear and things of that nature. stuart: the new guys will not be paying near the rent the old guys. >> that's correct. the thing here -- stuart: you're buying pennies on the dollar. >> huge dispont. stuart: big smile. [laughter] ashley: good for you. stuart: very interesting job. >> about what health care, walk-in clinics and the like. >> great sector which you deal with there is the opportunity for, again, really well-located facilities an opportunity to deal with assisted care, where you've got amenities that are based really on property, it's a real opportunity. stuart: there you have it. scott shield buying per pennies on the dollar, turning it around and making a fortune out of all other people's misery, what a

guy. [laughter] stuart: good man, good business, we appreciate you being here. >> thank you so much. stuart: let's check the big board, we have to check it every minute to see what's going on. now it's up 37. we are in a volatile stage. i think we can safely say that. it's volatility and we are looking at it. all right, let's take a look at the big techs in particular amazon, that thing is down hugely. down $83 as we speak. now, axios, website, news website, it says that president trump wants to go after amazon, doesn't like them, apple is down as well, apple at the moment is down a buck 26, down to 1.67, more forecast about trouble for the iphone 10, not going to sell that many. so we have with us steve forbes and i'm going to ask you, which of those companies which were on the screen moments ago would you buy?

[laughter] stuart: what would you buy? >> yeah, i'd like at amazon because it's still got a great future. the only bust-up in amazon, he may have to dispose of the washington post which he thought was going to buy him political influence and instead has gotten him into trouble with the man of the white house. if the post had post saying it was the greatest administration since lincoln and washington -- [laughter] >> double-edged sword. and apple, even though the apple 10 iphone has been a bit of a disappointment in terms of sell, it's putting pressure on them, on 11 and 12 they have to make technological differences and jacking up the price, they have to get back to innovating instead of incremental improvements that aren't improving. >> that's been said on the

program many times, thank you, steve. look at bitcoin, hovering $8,000 per coin. that's where we are. the price of gold has start today come down a bit, had a nice run, where is it this morning, it is at 13.35, down $12. update to a story that we have been covering for you for some time orange county supervisors have now vote today join the trump administration and fight california's sanctuary laws, we will bring you the update and according to the wall street journal, one state rising in the nation, why is that and which state is it? it's idaho. we will tell you why. we will be joined by the attorney general of the great state of pennsylvania, josh shapiro, 37ag's who wrote letter to fas bike about how to handle information. he's with us. first, look at this, note the tv screen, top-left hand corner. ashley: big fan.

stuart: the dog's name is jesse, that's my account's dog keeping a close eye on the market and my performance. [laughter] stuart: the dog ate my return. that's so good. the third hour of varney & company. so, why don't traders have coaches? who says they don't? coach mcadoo! you know, at td ameritrade, we offer free access to coaches and a full education curriculum- just to help you improve your skills. boom! mad skills. education to take your trading to the next level. only with td ameritrade.

stuart: obamacare could become an issue in midterm elections, insurance premiums are going to rise significantly, experts say at least 10% up in places a lot more, this is because congress failed to include bailout for insurers in last week's big spending bill. many customers will get their notices right before the election, could be a factor. 37 state attorney general generals sent letter to how they handle information. our next guest signed letter.

pennsylvania john shapiro joins us now. what do you think the end game is here, is it a fine on facebook or is it regulation on facebook, where are you taking this? >> well, end game is getting answers to make sure that people understand how their data was used, whether or not it violated the terms of service agreement with facebook, whether or not facebook then in turn had some contractual obligation to third party that was violated as well, the bottom line is getting answers for the american people and ultimately i hope changing corporate behaviors so people's personal information is better guarded and better protected. i appreciate your question, stuart, i think it's a little too early to say what the specific end game will be because right now we are in a fact-gathering mode. stuart: but you do believe that facebook did something wrong with 50 million users' information? >> i do believe that there was a

breach of trust as mr. zuckerberg said, i do believe that 50 million people had their personal information shared. what i don't know is whether or not that violated the terms of service agreement that you and i with millions of people entered with facebook every day and probably don't read the specifics and i also want to know whether or not it's limited to just this particular third-party application or if other third-party apps were taking advantage of the american people and people really all across the globe by having personal information used for something that they hadn't authorized. stuart: mr. attorney general, i want to ask a generalize question and it's this, do you want to change, do you have any idea about changing the basic business model of the facebooks of this world, they offer free service in return they get your information and they sell that information, do you think a basic change is required? i think a basic understanding by the user that when they share that personal information with

facebook, really any other social media form, they know they are not working on some secure platform, but they also, i think, have a reasonable expectation to how that information is being used and we have to get to the bottom of what facebook actually did with it, look, imagine it this way, right, you've got this big warehouse full of information n a typical data breach case, the hackers come and they break the lock on the door and go to warehouse and take what they want and use it for some other purpose, here, facebook, quite literally gave keys to third party, the question is whether or not that violated understanding between the user and facebook. we want to get both bottom of that. we know this isn't a secure platform but there should be some reasonable expectation to how that information is used and for what purpose it's used for and we together, 38 attorneys general came together in a bipartisan manner to get answers

here. stuart: okay, mr. attorney general, please come back and see us because we would love to hear what you're hearing from facebook and i trust we will be. >> we will be happy, so far facebook has been working with us and cooperative, we will get answers and i will happy to come on and talk about it. stuart: deal, thank you very much. all right, how about this one, idaho leading the way in wage growth. 5% increase on average-year, that compares to 3.1% nationally. a shortage of available workers, is that causing wages there to rise more quickly than elsewhere? steve forbes is still with us. why idaho? >> neighboring states are doing well, like uth u.s. stock market futures, nevada and others because once above time you we wanted to move and go to california, california is being inhospitable so you're going to

neighboring states, the cost of living in the states are so low compared to the coast, you sell a house here, you can buy houses in idaho, nice lifestyle, why not? stuart: the weather. ashley: not that bad. >> with the three storms in march, supposedly spring -- [laughter] stuart: idaho is winning this one. all right, if you have ever watched the simpsons, you know homer loves a doughnut covered in sprinkles, krispy kreme is releasing live version of it it's called the simpson's doughnut, glazed, icing topped with rainbow sprinkles. i don't know why we do commercials. ashley: in hope that is they'll send is -- us some. stuart: there you go. [laughter] stuart: a robot, spider robot,

can turn into a wheel and chase you. you get everything, you get more on that in a minute. first, though, what would you do, the video, what would you do if a great white shark circled your boat. >> stay on the boat. [laughter] stuart: we will tell you all about it after this. >> how big a boat is it? stuart: yeah. [laughter] >> an ocean line

retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver.

stuart: these are the three most instagramed beaches in europe. researchers analyzed to see which beaches came out on top. number one mountain coast of italy. number two brightton beach. ashley: my hometown. i'm on that corusell right there. stuart: he was flying over canada when the green light began reflecting into his plane, swirled around the cockpit outside the window. northern lights are created when charged particles enter the

earth's atmosphere. spectacular. the biotic wheel bot can crawl around the ground. the company has not reveal what had the devil they will do with this thing. >> i don't know what it is. stuart: what? >> angry spouse getting after another spouse. stuart: two fishermen in florida got shocked by great white, 15-foot great white. there's no audio on this because the guys were cursing so much. [laughter] stuart: president trump reportedly wants the military to cover the cost of the border. 3% or near 3% growth in holiday quarter, is this economy ready to take off? we will ask the former economic adviser to president george w.

bush after this.

stuart: well, surprise, surprise, at this moment, don't like sideways, we are dead flat, 23,851. it has actually been a vor volatile day. individual stocks making news and moving. first off, walgreens came out with a fairly rosy forecast, they are only up 30 cents, that's it. half percentage point. a weak forecast from sonic, drive-through hamburger -- ashley: yeah, roller skates. stuart: $26 per share. now this one, president trump reportedly wants the military to cover the cost of border wall congressman andy biggs, republican of arizona joins us now, how do you feel about this, congressman, the wall will be right next door to you, do you think we should use military money to build it in. >> well, we finally are getting caught up from the obama administration and how deteriorated, i don't want to

divert military increases to build that wall when you have $650 billion left in the omnibus bill, we should make cuts from other places and put that money into build the wall. stuart: but could that be done? the president could walk in and say, hey, you military guys, put 20 billion over here to build the wall, he could do that, i'm not so sure he could walk into other spending programs and say, hey, take some of that and use it for the wall. so there's a difference in what the president can actually do, i think. >> you know, i agree with this. i think he could with the department of defense, you know, there's other ways to get the money as well, but we have to fund and start and complete the wall. we really have to. that's a national security issue as well. it could be justified but do i think that -- we are trying to catch up, we've got planes that don't fly, training that's not getting done, pilots who can't get the training they need to fly, and that's what we finally plussed up so, i don't want to divert too much from that.

stuart: how did this happen, $1.3 trillion but you only get 1.6 billion for the wall, that's not to build a new wall, that's to fix the old one, maybe put up fencing and you get no punishment whatsoever for sanctuary cities and sanctuary states, they get all the money they want? >> yeah, i'd love to pull my hair over that because, look, i tried to get an amendment onto defund sanctuary cities and i wasn't allow today put my amendment on. this is the problem, the process didn't really work well in my mind because we had priorities, one of which was funding the wall. and we didn't include that in there and another was to defund the sanctuary cities and we couldn't get that in there, and so -- stuart: can i jump in for a second? >> yeah. stuart: two congressmen on the show prior to this, both of them said, let's go with 51-vote rule in the senate to pass everything, are you in favor of that? >> absolutely. absolutely. that's part of the problem. but i just want to say, the house should use that as an

excuse, we should do the best bill we could possibly do and get it to the senate, i think the american people would see that this stuff is all being delayed in the senate and we could put pressure onto change the rules to go from 60 to 51, that 60-vote filibuster rule is really a huge problem, that's why you have hundreds of bills in the senate that are the conservative trump agenda that's -- that are not getting completed because of the 60-vote rule. stuart: well said, thank you very much for joining us this morning, sir. we do appreciate it. steve forbes still with me, i want to know, are you a build the wall kind of guy? >> only to knowsy neighbors, but in terms of national security, yeah, i wouldn't divert military funds right now, they do need it, ships are crashing, all that kind of thing, but the president should make it clear that any spending on the future must have that in there or he will veto it. i think he had made it clear and maybe more forthright and he didn't and didn't happen.

stuart: more for you in a second. we had pretty good news on the economy first thing this morning, in the first quarter last year, holiday quarter, it grew, the economy grew of 2.9%, that's pretty strong, ed laseer is with us, senior fellow at hoover, pretty strong performance, better than expected. would grow so far to say that we are on the cusp of a boom for the economy? >> well, i wish we were. i don't think you can say that using past gdp that. was a very good number. you look at the year as a whole, the year wasn't so great because we had a pretty bad first quarter, but if you look at the last three quarters and think of those as the trump quarters, we are above 3%. the problem is that unfortunately past gdp is not a good predictor of future gdp. the best predictor is actually the market. if you look at the change in the

s&p 500 either over the last three months or the last six months, that gives you an indicater of what people are actually thinking is going on in the economy and if you use those numbers, that's really forecasting only about 2 and a half to slightly greater than 2 and a half percent growth rate for the next four quarters, the reason obviously is we've had a weak market in the past few months and that's reflecting expectation. stuart: the other side of the coin, though, you're still getting the effects of the tax cut rolling through economy, that's putting money into the economy, you still have some of the bonuses coming along, we had mccormick, people joining in today, you have lots of government spending, i would have thought that really juiced the economy this calendar year but apparently not. >> well, i agree with the first two, i'm not so keen on the government spending, but i think the point that you made is right, look, the tax cuts were

important, that was a major first step to getting the economy going again, you know, they are not magic, they are not going to boost us to 5% growth but they certainly were a step in the right direction and i think they do increase growth, the other thing is that we've reduced the rate of increase in regulation and i think that's been a major spep forward that the trump administration has actually put into place. not so much deregulation, there's really constraint on growth regulation that's been important. the other thing i would say, though, again this gets the future you just mentioned it when you were talking to the last guest, we need to get spending under control n. the long run, the biggest threat to the economy in terms of its growth it's the fact that we are spending too much, we are growing spending at too rapid a rate and that always puts a drag on the economy, at least in the long run, so i think we need to get that back under control. stuart: yes, sir, thanks for joining us, always obliged,

thank you. >> thank you. stuart: general motors confirming its plan to launch autonomous bolt, their electric vehicle by next year. here it comes. made announcement in the new york auto show and that's where jeff flock is right now. jeff, you've got a driverless ford right there, i think, right? jeff: not only that, but this is a driverless ford you can get dominoes pizza out of, a test that ford did, a vehicle, ford fusion hybrid and, you know, what you would do is call up, you order pizza, when it gets there, when the vehicle drives up, you enter your information on this pad, i don't know if you can see it, pay for your pizza and out comes your pizza out of driverless car. stuart: whoa. is there nobody in the car? jeff: nobody in the car. the whole thing is driverless.

i would point out one thing because take a look at this, stuart, these are the cameras, front facing and side facing and rear-facing cameras and with the radar, on this ford, you note there are four light units, on the uber that crashed, the volvo, there was only one light r. unit and some people driving attention to that. i can tell you here on auto show people say driverless cars are coming, all ceo's say maybe we tapped the brakes a little but that's all it is, tap of the brakes. stuart: fascinating, so far, so fast. jeff: it is. stuart: jeff flock, good stuff, we will see you soon. a new poll by credit cards.com finds 3 in 4 parents with children over 18 still help them pay their debts and living expenses. steve forbes, are you surprised by that?

>> not really. that's why we need a booming economy so to the get kids out so you don't pay phone bills and the like till age 18. i would be interested till age 25, how many parents are paying the bills. stuart: i'm reading bheen -- between the lines. by 25, cut them off, are you saying that? >> cut them down. you will never cut the kids off you do your wife is going to slip money on the side. you know how things work? ashley: he's absolutely right. it never really ends. you're right about the wife too, come on. stuart: i'm the one with the six kids and nine grandchildren. in california financial issues plagued the state, gas taxes, the high-speed rail thing they are trying to build, next we will be joined by bill, he left his job as deputy district attorney to run against the

first-term democrat state legislature in california. the gop, he says not staying silent in the formerly gold enstate and first it was los alomitos now coirnl county supervisors, they voted to be with administration, is california making a comeback politically? say yes, please. historic change maybe and we are always covering in varney & company. ♪ ♪

but i'm not standing still... and with godaddy, i've made my ideas real. ♪ ♪ i made my own way,

now it's time to make yours. ♪ ♪ everything is working, working, just like it should ♪ nicole: i'm nicole petallides with your fox business brief, tesla under pressure, in fact, the stock to lowest level in over a year, you could see it's down 6 and a half percent, this as the u.s. agency is investigating a fatal crash of vehicle fire of a model x in mountain view, california, this investigation is following and moving now the stock to the downside on the heels what investors did and they actually cut, downgraded tesla credit rating, saying that the shortfall that they've seen and negative outlook actually is the likelihood of tesla to undertake large near-term capital in order to refund the maturing

obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall, stock down 6.7%, 260.23. ♪

at crowne plaza, we know business travel isn't just business. there's this. a bit of this. why not? your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. which is what we do. crowne plaza. we're all business, mostly. stuart: city leaders in miami have a plan to help teachers with a high-cost of living, they want to build affordable apartments on school property, the city plans to start with 300 apartment complex in elementary, by the way, miami has the fourth highest rental cost in the country, first-year teachers

make average of $42,000. now this, orange county supervisors voted to join the administration and fight california's sanctuary laws, all rise judge napolitano is here. looks to me -- when you combine it with, i think, several other towns and orange county, looks like there's a revolt growing here. >> i think there's a revolt brewing here but the state of california has extraordinary authority over orange county and over other towns, far more authority than the federal government does over california. a county and a town is a municipal corporation that exists be state, they can change their authority and tell them what to do. they can say to the orange county sheriff, you can be a conservative republican who believes that donald trump is doing the right thing, guess what, you are working on our dime, you enforce the law the way we tell you. there are moral questions with that in my view but no legal problem wit. stuart: didn't the orange county

sheriff get around that by saying, i'm going publish the dates and times when inmates are released, so if you feds, you want to talk to one of them, here is where they'll be? >> that publication is protected by first amendment, very move, why did he do that? the attorney general of california javier becerra threatened to arrest which says to law enforcement, that will shall not actively assist ice. stuart: then in my opinion -- >> you do have a revolt going on, you're right, i do believe the revolutionaries, i mean usually with the revolutionaries will lose because the state of california pulls all the strings and decides what powers the counties and the cities have. stuart: fair point, but you're talking legal stuff. >> political and moral is a

different story. a brush fire that just started. you and i have been kidding, the state of california may succeed from the union. stuart: i don't think they want to be part of trump country. >> it certainly seems that way now, probably require three thirds of the state, not going to happen, certainly seems to be an emotional impetus for it. stuart: you should see the emails, trump, california, we have large california audience especially in 11:00 o'clock hour. >> do they like what we say? stuart: yes. steve forbes, are you cheering on this revolution in california? >> yeah, i'm old enough to remember prop 13 in late 1970's when california was going bazork and it's amazing,

california is going along with one to have biggest races, john calhoun, federal government said, you can't do that, you can't go on your own way, but slave owner john calhoun lives in california. stuart: okay. >> steve is old enough to remember proposition 13, varney is old enough to remember the american revolution. ashley: tough room. [laughter] stuart: i have news on amazon, the white house respond today that axios report says there are no specific policy changes regarding amazon right now, but they are looking at different options, the stock is down $76. ashley: great denial. stuart: yoga people, lulu lemon, up 10%. like that. rh, they are up a whopping 22%,

how about that. next more on california, two big issues, the gas price and the expensive bullet train that just keeps getting put off and more expensive. - this is bad,

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stuart: let's talk california, looking at california gubernatorial candidate, gaining grounds in the polls, he's in second place now, could you say the gop is making a comeback in the formally golden state, i would like to say that. let's see if bill joins me in saying, republican candidate for california's 60th assembly district. now, sir, you are a republican so i know you're going to say, yes, the gop is resurging in california, can you say it with straight face? >> i absolutely i can. we may be living in golden state but we are living under dark times, highest taxes in the nation and sacramento and wisdom raised gas taxes. stuart: i want to pick on two

things here, i don't understand why california is not in revolt about this, you have a 52 billion-dollar gas tax hike and now you've got this bullet train where the bill is $77 billion and climbing. i mean, i can understand the revolt against that kind of thing? i take it that's what you're running on? >> absolutely. there's a revolt. i will tell you the people i talk to, the people in my district that have to commute to work every day, they are upset and revolting, i don't know if it's being covered in the media. let's talk about the train for a second, for example, because it's what sacramento does for us. when they sold us the bill of goods back in 2008, we would approve $9 billion for a train from los angeles to san francisco that will get us there in 2 hours and 40 minutes, that's not true, what they are telling house that it's not going to connect to los angeles and it's going to cost 77 billion, probably more to finish the project. now, i'm a former prosecutor and we had a term for that, it's called investment fraud and i think the project should be

stopped immediately and should be sent back to the voters to see if this is what they signed up for and this is what they really want. stuart: the gas price, i've been to california frequently recently and i think gas is already about a dollar a gallon more than almost any place else and it's going up somemore, isn't it? >> we are paying more than $4 a gallon in california, neighboring states in arizona, nevada are in 2-dollar range. it's worse than it sounds, what they did is index the gas tax, it's going to be going up every year to compensate for inflation without any votes being taken. it's going to get bad quickly. this is an important point as republican, often we get branded with not really caring about people or connecting with our voters, this is an important issue in which we are fighting for the voters in our district, the gas tax is a regressive tax, it affects the working class, low income the most, they can't afford teslas, they can't afford

electric cars, they are getting hit hard with gas tax. stuart: you are running in a district that's between la and san diego, correct, the sixth 0 -- 60th district? what are you going to do about traffic, it was just awful? >> we have to spend more money investing into infrastructure. by the way the gas tax bill is not going to do that, only less than 1% will go to increase capacity, most to rail systems, probably to pay for the train that nobody wants. there's a lack -- we need to allocate our money and prioritize to the things that effect us. stuart: bill, i don't think you are short on issues, you have to go out there and we are cheering you on. >> thank you. stuart: thanks for joining us, appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: a little time left and we will fill it with varney after this.

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stuart: take a look please at the amazon stock. it is at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. a little background here. axios a website, reported this morning president trump is really going after amazon. the white house then clarified that saying there is no specific policy changes in mind, but they got some options. so the stock is still down. steve for example, you wouldn't touch them or break them up. get on with it is. >> full disclosure i own a few shares. nothing to affect the stock price. leave it alone. let free markets work. it always brings companies too big for their britches down, microsoft, gm.

stuart: high for amazon was $1617. down to 1426. down about 200 bucks from the high in matter of weeks. that is a hit and a 1/2. steve forbes, much obliged. ashley too. neil, it is yours. neil: stuart, thank you very much. keeping amazon thing in perspective, if you were looking at stock a year ago, it was well off $1000. technology off the worst levels, i should say technology for the day. we'll explore whether the white house influence over wall and broad particularly at technology. market, had wind at their backs, nine straight quarters of advances. that might be in peril. we'll tick down the final days of this particular quarter. for a read on all this, "wall street journal" wealth reporter, you're wealthy for