transporting it. we need more pipeline construction. maybe we will see that as the trump administration rolls on. maria: he was wanting to tap into the energy space that was one of his campaign promises. great to see, everybody, gary b. smith, robert wolf. varney & company begins right now. charles. charles: i'm charles payne for stuart varney. big stories friday morning starting with your money, all good earnings, 78% of s&p 500 companies that have reported have reported profits better than expected. the dow up 6 days in a row, it's now positive for the year. looking at its longest winning streak in 6 months. the other big money story, of course, is oil, still above the 71-dollar mark, the question is how much higher can it go, that's the question that we are asking today. politics, president trump holding campaign-style rally in indiana talking up big summit with kim jong un, he says america is being respected

again, you are going to hear it. president trump makes long-awaited pitch to lower prescription drug prices, alex azar joins us to talk about it. varney & company, the big friday edition starts now. ♪ ♪ >> all of these changes are happening because america is being respected again. [cheers and applause] >> on june 12th in singapore, i will be meeting with kim jong un to pursue a future of peace and security for the world, for the whole world. [cheers and applause] charles: that was president trump last night playing up historic meeting scheduled with kim jong un in singapore a month away. we will, of course, have that in a moment with special guest

general jack keane. take a look at futures, we could see seventh straight day of gain for the dow. joining us david deets, david, the market and the economy really firing on all cylinders right now? >> absolutely. a mating dance, certainly a more quieter consumer price index this week took some of the pressure off rates. of course, supporting role by energy, where is that going, less geopolitical concerns which we just saw is helping the situation. charles: there's no doubt that the market has been clouded by nonfinancial stories, so as those begin to fade a little bit and then the irony, of course, the nafta, the chinas and north korea could be catalyst in the future. >> certainly, a few months ago when everyone was on the verge of potential nuclear attack from north korea, that's obviously

off the table near term. in terms of the trade wars, there's been a lot of concern but so many exceptions to the rules, some of the extensions, little less focused on that. charles: you know what i love about the rally, david, everyone, it began a week ago with the market climbing off the bottom several sessions in a row including friday when it broke, typically to kiss of death that was supposed to be a trapped door, 500-point reversal to the upside. we have kept going ever since. can we look back and say, that last week might have been inflection point? >> it could have been. i'm not a big techniccall -- technical chartist guy, that's often for me a good reason to get back into the market and buy everyone else's negativity. liz: usually in tight in year and corporate earnings growth, that's the story.

about oil, you will talk about it in a second, bank of america said about oil said in report that -- excuse me iran oil will stay online, they are not going to remove supply out of there. the break point for oil if it goes to 85, if it doubles in a year. we are not seeing that just yet as a dollar is strengthening and supply is out there. ashley: it's a story of consumer prices, not as hard as they were, we had a weak dollar and the fear gauges, lowest levels since january. charles: that happened pretty quickly. ashley: it did. charles: getting sort of maybe complaisant early on but what about this oil story, the idea that maybe it can go to 100, that would be bret, 95 for west texas intermediate? >> they are notoriously difficult to predict. prestigious banks talked about oil coming down to 15 or 25 and

now we are sitting down around 70 and they are telling us it'll go to 100. we produce a lot here, we may be the biggest producer to date in the whole world so high energy prices isn't bad for everyone. charles: job creator in america? >> good news there. liz: look at the russell 2000. charles: we could hit all-time high today. ashley: i want to talk very quickly on oil to give you a number, 10.7 million-barrels per day that's what the u.s. kicks out. russia has $11 million of barrel, russia is top producer. number one to becoming the oil producer of the world. charles: way to get it out, little higher prices understanding that it means a lot more americans have a job. thank you all very much, take a quick look at equity futures. it's been up all morning long, remember, the dow jones industrial average up six

sessions straight. we see it up now. nasdaq stocks are down. let's take a look at envidia, that's one of them, too many crypto clouding and fewer clouding orders, right now the street doesn't like it, extraordinary volatile stock. another stock under pressure syimantic, the company warned that it may amend financial results and guidance as a result. those are the kinds of things investors don't want to hear. now back to north korea, the historic meeting between president trump and kimjun-un a month from now. all right, general keane, is it possible in your mind that kim jong un and north korea would give up nukes? >> well, it definitely is possible, i just got back from the far east talking to japanese government officials and they actually see it -- they are closer to it than we are and

they see it as a possibility of a breakthrough here. look, kim jong un has been playing everything close to his chest even though he's been making major concessions. if he's serious, where we are right now is in the free space, no nuclear testing and no ballistic testing, we would move from that to a disarm and then a dismantle phase, kim jong un would likely try to drag that out for several years, we have two and a half years left in trump presidency first term, he would probably to go way past that as possible, we are not going to want to do that, we will wrap this up and denuclearize somewhere around 2020 at the latest and do it as quickly as possible. the other thing is kim jong un, even if he is serious about denuclearizing would likely try to hold onto some of his nuclear capability and conceal that from us. that's why verification and inspections are going to be absolutely crucial here to

ensure that if he is denuclearizing, that we really do get all of it. charles: that was, of course, the heel of the iranian deal that lacked concrete verified inspections among other things. general keane, in return for -- for north korea going to denuclearization, what else would kim want? obviously he wants to make sure that there's security, america would make sure that no one, you know, takes him out but economically because his father, grandfather, they were able to shake the west down for a lot of money for deals like this that they didn't keep their promise? >> he certainly would want sanctions remove which had have taken a toll on him and secondly, some assistance economically. he would likely get that more from south korea than he would from the united states. we certain with a catalyst to get un resolutions on the

sanctions and advocate to security council to remove them. they would want sanctions removed as early as possible, we are not going to want to do that until we truly understand that denuclearization is going on. they always in the past have used negotiations to manipulate us to get relief quickly and then they never follow through on -- on executing what they promised to do. this administration knows that, president trump knows that, they're not going to be fooled by any of that. they will have to see a program that's real here, they will have to touch it themselves physically to ensure it's happening. charles: next one for you, general, i have to ask you about israel striking iranian targets in syria, now whispers perhaps of a ground war brewing, your thoughts? >> this is something different for two reasons, one, understand that there's a major military build-up in southern syria by the iranians so they can encroach on israel.

what they did the other night was a first, they used iranian capability to fire rockets right into israel. that is totally different. it wasn't a massive attacks. the israelis were prepped for this, they came back with the largest air strike they have ever conducted since 1973 and they just pounded every military site that they had intelligence on in syria. some of them right around demascus, far as aleppo, pounding the place with massive strike and done some real damage to the iranians. we are creeping towards a war with israel at a minimum the hezbollah and lebanon and the possibility of iran. iran usually much smaller strategic thinker than this. they don't want direct conflict themselves with the israelis for sure. they don't mind a conflict with the hezbollah.

they will have to be careful here because netanyahu is absolutely telling the iranians, look, i have a red line here, i am not going to let you conduct a military build-up in southern syria. i'm going to stop that from happening, and he's drawn that line and he intends to enforce it. charles: i think they probably should take him seriously because he's never been -- he has never made idle threats. general keane, appreciate it. >> good talking to you, charles. charles: you too. president trump on lowering prescription drug prices. remember when he called out drug companies for, quote, getting away with murder, health and human service secretary alex azar coming up next. check this out, boston dynamics atlas, robot taking a jog in the park, first time that this thing is out of the lab. in honor of mother's day sunday, we will be showing pictures of varney team's moms all morning.

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my secret visitors.

hallucinations and delusions. the unknown parts of living with parkinson's. what plots they unfold, but only in my mind. over 50% of people with parkinson's will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. if your loved one is experiencing these symptoms, talk to your parkinson's specialist. there are treatment options that can help. my visitors should be the ones i want to see. >> the drug industry has been disastrous, they are leaving left and right, they supply our drugs but they don't make them here to a large extent and the other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry because

they are getting away with murder. charles: well, that was president trump blasting drug companies over high prices and today the president has said to address lowering the cost of prescription drugs, joining us now health and human services secretary alex azar. secretary azar. the drug companies, of course, always say, listen, it cost a lot of money 1 to $3 billion, one to a decade to approve in different phases, once they have gone through all of that they expire the ability to hold onto them, short-lived experience. what do you say to that? >> charles, first, great to see you again and, you know, this is the president's agenda to put american patients first but it's doing so with the balance. he's going bring affordable prescription medicines to people, but still using private sector, competitive vehicles that respect the need for innovation and america will remain the innovative

pharmaceutical center of the world but our patients will get more affordable drugs and our taxpayers will get better deal on the president's initiatives. charles: can you give us some glimpse into steps that will be taken to accomplish this and to your point keep the private sector drug companies competitive enough that they're still delivering life-saving cures and medicines? >> you bet, the plan that the president will be rolling out this afternoon will be the most comprehensive plan for prescription drug affordability by any president in america history. increasing competition, more branded, generic bio similar to get competitive drugs for people, second, improving the negotiations in our government program, so unleashing those who negotiate for us with the greater powers of the private sector to negotiate good deals for us and also in parts of our program where there's no

negotiation, right now we just write a check instead harnessing the private sector to do better negotiations for us. third u -- creating incentives for companies to stop jacking up the prices, make the math work so there's financial disincentives that hurt patients so much and, fourth, get at the out of pocket cost of people, when they walk into the pharmaceutical cri or -- pharmacy or reducing out of pocket costs. over 50 different initiatives, very sophisticated, the kind of thing you'd expect from a ceo like donald trump getting at the real hard of the business problem here. charles: americans know all the horror stories of a lot of times orphan drugs taken and prices jacked up to the moon. meyer labs got heat.

if you got something laying around for a while after they go in there and established company with a poor pipeline like mylan to abuse the system. >> that gets to the second element of the president's plan, we will make sure that -- that those who negotiate on our behalf have the power to deal with those kinds of situations where you have a soul-source generic and we will give the plans to negotiate for us greater powers to deal with those kinds of situations. charles: two more things i would like to get from you, the role of pharmacy benefit managers and scuttlebutt out there of making people outside of america pay more for the drugs because obviously we know a lot of people ordering them online and it's really curious to americans why these life-saving drugs will be so much cheaper outside of this country in the first place. >> so first on your question

about pharmacy benefit managers, we do think that this is a worthy topic of discussion, this question of how we use rebates on the system, the drug companies have high list prices and then negotiate rebaits to get them down lower but all that does is have the huge incentives to list prices there. that'll be part of what we discuss today is these weird incentive that is we have in our system to high list prices. on the issue of foreign-free riding on innovation, the president has a two-part plan, the first is we need to pay less, we are paying too much for our drugs, that's where so many initiative it is president is rolling out go at that, but then in trade agreements we need to negotiate with our partners, they need to pay more because they are using socialist price controls, market access controls to get unfair pricing in their systems and they are doing it on the backs of patients, god help you if you get cancer in countries, you don't have access to therapies, you know what you do, fly to america to get cancer

treatment. charles: if you can. always appreciate it. >> thank you, charles. charles: more varney right after this

charles: take a look at this, a soldier has ear regrown.

joining us now dr. mark siegel, what are your thoughts on this? >> i think this is incredible but not unbelievable as you think. this was patented by john hopkins which does a lot of this kind of thing and they take cartilage and take vessels from elsewhere, the reason they grow it in the arm, charles, is because there's ample blood supply and nerve supply so you get the ear where it needs to be and you put it back over here where it doesn't get as much blood, by then it's ready to take. charles: absolutely amazing. ear maybe simple, how much advancement to do other body parts? >> they have been doing a lot of other parts, john hopkins is leading the way also walter reed, ears to hands to penis transplants for people in combat, incredible. charles: thank you very much, dr. siegel.

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charles: it's a very dramatic setting here because the dow is up 6 days in a row. in fact, one of the longest streaks in months but the great thing it's been backed by amazing news on the economy, whether you're talking job openings, profits of small businesses and then a notion

that perhaps inflation not the threat everyone was told it was, remember the 10-year yield being at 3% was a big deal. later on today at 10:00 o'clock, we will get consumer confidence numbers and that might determine if we can make it 7 days in a row. all right, polling -- folks, there it goes. these mornings sort of like round of boxing match, sort of feeling everything out, big winners on upside, verizon, chevron, oil continues to go higher, project -- proctor&gamble. s&p 500 as well, fractionally lower. and then there's nasdaq, one of the new nasdaq envidia getting hit pretty hard, maybe taking the entire index just slightly lower. the big story this week has been oil piercing through 70 and 71 now maybe consolidating and report out there that it goes to

100. also amazon very close to all-time high, just chugging along, at this rate they may buy the post office, they could anyway. if any stock is really responsible for the last two weeks, apple has to step up front and center nearly a trillion dollar valuation. joining liz mcdonald, ashley webster, david deets and brian belsky. we are up 6 or 7 days in a row. i'm saying last tuesday was inflection point, brian, i don't know if you agree or not, but what i loved about last week every single day the market was huge pressure and found a way to close higher and all began in tuesday session? >> first of all, thanks for having us, you have been mentioned the inflation story, people got it completely wrong. what we are starting to see the last week or so fundamental investing, so from a long-term basis we think that's exceeding

positive, remember, the calendar turned into may, how much rhetoric did you hear go away, how is that going out, not very well. people are beginning to transition and look at fundamentals and actually really believe them and that's key. charles: we talked about that earlier, david, headlines, things like trump lawyer leaves team and the market loses a rally, they were starting to chip away at the market rally -- the market rallying itself and i guess to a degree investor confidence. >> i think that's right but what i like people shifted and went back to looking at earnings which were stelar, more than 20% year over year, that returned their focus to that, that was good, of course, as brian has talked about, less pressure on interest rates and less pressure on inflation story and the market took right off. ashley: also, charles, consumer sentiment. we will get to that number at 10:00 o'clock. if you look at the last numbers for march, well below expectations and i think that

all goes back to what you said, the great recession. i think consumers while they are feeling more confident are less likely to go out and splash, i wonder how long-term repercussions will play out. the sentiment is there. charles: i want to ask you about what david brought up. earnings were great but ironically it was a bitter-sweet story, caterpillar ceo said, high watermark, it doesn't get any better than this, time to sell. >> well, you know, first off caterpillar is historically for not giving good guidance and communication to the street and we focus, we want to be negative, focus on positive data from release. this is yet again another sign that we can't wait to call the end of the bull market, we are

enfactuated with calling bull markets. so we just can't -- we are so holding to be negative, charles, that that's why fundamentals will rein supreme, industrials in particular are going to be a great place to be as soon as we get the infrastructure bill and cap x and people, my clients on the institutional side are massively underweight financials,. liz: caterpillar historic make it is high water comment every year for the last 20 years. charles: what the street we wanted to hear to justify bearishness. >> they came back and everyone is focused on privacy concerns, monopoly concerns, they are going to tear them apart. facebook's business seem strong, amazon -- charles: an example of

fundamentals emerging after the -- liz: now more than the quarter of a nasdaq right now. charles: a lot of people say one of the big things helping the market is buybacks, right now we are on record pace and they are boosting the stocks we know there's no doubt about that, but, you know, the left also slams it because they are saying, tax cuts, this is what it's all about, look at apple, they will buy a hundred billion dollars worth of stock, david, what do you say when people push back on the idea that corporations are using their profits the way they want to use them? >> you know, apple is a great example. i would say that just about anyone who has exposure in the stock market, through pension, 401(k) is benefiting by apple stock buyback, it has the most influence. that's a good thing for the retirement. liz: also those who criticize this, the conclusion is where the mind comes to rest, when you sell stocks is you expand

company, if you sold too much stock it's too much for the investors and the market to buy it back, it's a natural flow that happens in the market. charles: technically two ways you buy back stock or issue dividend. brian, some those who talk about fundamentals do seem to be on the fence when it comes to bottom line and some consider financial engineering. >> you have to remember that buybacks are prevalent when interest rates are low. from a historical perspective interest rates are still low, with respect to dividends and apple is one of the greatest and strongest dividend growth stock in the country n the s&p. if you take a look at pay-out ratios, we are still historically very low. we think a trend for the next 10 years so buy income growth and equities and apple, industrials health care are leading that way. liz: when you buy back stock you

are using money for people to use elsewhere. ashley: that's the theory. charles: when is this going to become a problem in the economy and market? >> if you look at fundamental it's supply and demand and look at where things are in terms of earnings, they are not there yet. we actually put out a note last night say if you're a short-term trader, you should be taking profits because you're starting to see the momentum people come in now. the strong companies with cash flow are going to be great, charles, from wti, we think we are going to see a bit of a rl recover. charles: let's take a quick check on the big board. we are opened 7 minutes now and the dow is starting to get a little bit of traction. we saw the movie yesterday, starts to ramp up, flat line for a moment, bang, strong into the close. that would be amazing if it happens today on a friday. hey, let's look at individual names here, there's yelp, even though they had smaller loss,

potential for a long time. revenues fell, company still reviewing strategic alternatives and envidia is the big name of the morning. certainly the initial response to the numbers wall street selling off the stock. biggest loser symantic, take a look at this, unspecified financial issues, that's a big ouch, the stock is down 10 bucks, that's a red, red flag. the ultimate red flag. meanwhile cisco pulls all online ads on youtube, all right, guys, this is about optics and power of social media. liz: we had heard after theresa may said of the uk said, hey, stop it, you are seeing big brands like unilever, verizon, pulling from social media because it was running on channels that sponsor terrorism, white nationalism, naziism,

pedophilia, all of the conspiracy theories, the companies are saying knock it off, youtube fix it. cisco is pulling ads from youtube. charles: they can't have it both ways. that's the problem that they are going to face if they don't accept a greater role and greater responsibility. hey, folks, new poll suggest that is amazon prime could lose members as it becomes more expensive. david, listen, that 19% price rise sounds like a lot but 119 bucks, i don't know that that's going to be a game-changer. vor the key thing for amazon is to show that prime membership is not just for shipping to show all of the other perks, fire sticks, alexa. if they're seeing pushback, they have a lot of leverage to pull. charles: i happen to like pricing power, one of the things i look at when assessing the

stock? >> i would caution people because the new consumer staples, charles, amazon, apple, google. in terms of pricing power, is there's too much capacity and we are seeing commodity prices head higher so they can't pass those along that's a real problem. charles: thank you both very much, appreciate it, guys. one more quick check of the big board, dow up 61 points, nice steady gain out of the gate. remember, this is a pretty good remarkable rally and it's been stealthy and president trump blasting indiana democratic senator joe donnelly calling him a swamp person, donly faces a tough midterm battle against republican mike braun. you will hear it next. casino mogul says he's ready to spend big to fend off a blue wave, $30 million to keep the house republican u more on that

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charles: all right, folks, we are edging. facebook has recovered from the cambridge scandal, what's going on, nicole? nicole: user data that was obtained and the stock tanked, you remember that in march, end of march, it went from 185 to about 150 and change, look at it again, back up to around 185 and you know what the analysts are all positive, best idea and 202-dollar target on it. just for this quarter it's up 16, 17%. charles: wow. i thought zuckerberg did okay

job but apparently wall street looks like he hit it out of the park. nicole, thank you very much. nicole: thank you. charles: group of gop lawmakers want to vote on daca, listen to what one of them told us yesterday. >> everyone in the house, those whose top priority is border security, those top priority is enforcement and those of us whose top priority is finding a way forward for the young immigrants, we all deserve to be heard, to put forward our ideas and to try to convince our colleagues that ours is the best way forward. charles: former senator joins us, do you agree or disagree with cabello's statement there? >> sounds like he's trying to lose the republican majority, fox news just came out with a poll, charles, that said 84% of americans believe politicians in washington are out of touch, there's no better example than this.

the president has offered congress the opportunity to solve problem with children being brought by parents, combined with border security which moderates on the republican side have not been willing to support. so this is certainly not a good strategy for republicans to be doing something that's clearly opposed to what a very popular president on the republican side has been trying to get done. charles: what do you think would motivate a republican to -- to go down this path as it just sort of the notion that this is a long-term investment and to different demographic potential vote down the line, sort of, you know, listen, if we want more hispanic vote or young vote perhaps this is a way to get it. >> we see this with moderates a lot who don't have a clear ideology and in election time they begin to pander to different groups but it rarely works. what americans want out of congress is demonstration that

they're willing to fight for something. republicans have an opportunity if they get their funding bill done, if the senate does the nomination process, if they -- if they actually work which is something we have been promoting this week in congress, i think americans will see that republicans have a pulse and they are getting behind the president, that's the best thing they can do now for the mid-term elections. charles: next one for you, senator, billionaire cutting a 30 million-dollar check to stop democrats from taking over the house, so handy cap the midterms for us, what are the chances at this moment that republicans, indeed, keep the house? >> the democrats have big funders on the left, it's good to see folks coming in with big checks on the republican side. republicans need more than money right now. they need to demonstrate that they actually are willing to fight for the things they say they care about and, charles, the worst thing that can happen to republicans right now if they go home with august break witht passing funding bills,

they give the president another shutdown drama on september 30th and the president either has to sign a bad bill or close the government down. that's how republicans are going lose the midterms. i think republicans could easily keep the majority in the house if they do their work, if they demonstrate they're willing to work with the president and get some things done. charles: well, that's so far to be quite frank somewhat ify, if you will, i agree, i think the omnibus bill really chatters a lot of people's faith that any politician on either side of the aisle has the strength that's needed in the country. after the primaries, though, are you happy with the candidates that were selected, does it tell you about the mind set of voters on the local level because we've always heard about the interesting, you know, the toughness about the primary vote versus the general election vote? >> well, i think we saw a good balance this year. i mean, on sometimes you see

republicanses are so frustrated with the status quo, thiel nominate anyone who is different than the establishment u this year i think we saw a good balance, the establishment wasn't out there trying to snuff out the conservatives, so we've got a good slate of republicans, a lot of good conservatives, but again, they need to come together with a message that shows that they're looking at the big picture, they're actually trying to work with the president to solve border security, to deal with health care and their primary function is just to fund the government, if they keep doing these drama-queen shutdowns in september, it's going to look real bad for the party going into the election. charles: it certainly will, another one of those things that the media will leap all over. senator, thank you very much, appreciate it. >> thank you, charles. charles: quick check on the market, dow 30 stocks, the majority of them are higher, verizon leading the way, home depot bouncing after yesterday. pretty good across the board there. cisco under a little bit of pressure. the release of three americans

from north korea, well, it was a moment of triumph but one nbc reporter called it staged, an event meant for tv. you will hear that next.

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at&t, top executive now. ly liz ceo said hiring michael cohen, big mistake. at&t has forced out that executive who arranged the work with michael cohen he's robert quinn, official and now pushed out, he arranged reportedly for the 600,000 payment from at&t to michael cohen reportedly to help out with things like the time warner merger, pay to play access story involving michael cohen's company that got nearly 3 million, nevortis another company using him as consultant. ashley: they met him for the first time and paid him any way. liz: he's a real estate

attorney. how does he know about telecom issues, he's a real estate attorney? charles: leave it there. listen another reporter bash the president after three american prisoners were released from north korea, roll tape. >> it was a moment of intense anticipation, it also very carefully choreographed, the vice president, secretary of state mike pompeo and the plane carrying the three american citizens. donald trump is a former reality show producer, this was a staged production meant for television, meant for the cameras, meant to be shown and seen here in the country and around the world. charles: seems the president really can't do anything right in the eyes of the mainstream media. joining us radio host larry o'connor. i always wonder when i see good news whether it's jobs or this kind of thing how anyone could find anything wrong with it but they always do? >> yeah, you're right, charles, what's really wrong with

interpretation here is it's just so stupid. i mean, think about it. if you're going to stage an event pr event made for television, you don't do it at 2:00 in the morning on the tarmac at andrew's air force base, you do it beautiful day in garden. like president obama did. i don't remember reporters from nbc calling it that. this is the double standard. constant look at whatever negative on a positive story like this. it doesn't play well with most american viewers, they can see through it and frankly make it is president look better. i know they are trying to make him look bad but helps him out. charles: i think you're 100% right on that. now they are swinging desperately and numbers are rising, they are going up and a lot of people who are apolitical, they are not deeply into the weeds either way, they want something to cling onto and

that's the part that bothers me a lot. you know, americans are generally hopeful bunch of people and if the media bashes everything, every glimmer of hope they are doing the country a disservice. >> they do, this is why people are seeking out alternative forms of media and give the american people, give their viewers, give consumers the level of respect and integrity and allow them to make up their own minds. most americans are pretty smart. most americans know what's going on. they don't need to be told what they think about the news, they want to hear the news so they can come up with their own opinions, charles. charles: get ready for price increase, amazon members, 119 bucks a month but we are betting most of you are probably going to pay up. second hour of varney & company next.

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charlie: today, 7:00 a.m. out west happy friday, everyone i'm

charles payne in for stuart varney this is the second hour of varney & company and here is what we've got for you. president trump's pick to lead the cia facing a tough confirmation process and the terrorist behind 9/11 says he has information that he wants to share with lawmakers, james mitchell the person who interrogated mohammed will give us his take on that later this hour. and iran strongly condemning israel's attacks in syria. israel claims of course that it had nearly all of its iranian military infrastructure targets in syria the question though is war being waged in the middle east, and president trump reportedly so frustrated with the progress at the border that he unleashed a tirade at his dhs secretary during a cabinet meeting, brandon judd will tell us what's really happening on our border and ford while shutting down production of ford f150 the best selling vehicle in america we'll talk to a ford dealer for the real impact and

amazon prime price hike kicks in today for new members you're watching the second hour of varney & company. charlie: we begin with breaking news on the economy university of michigan consumer sentiment ashley? >> for the month of may first reading charles coming in at 98.8 just a hair better-than-expected and this is exactly what we recorded for the entire month of april. so you could say that it's a rapid consumer sentiment remains bullish maybe not at the levels we saw in march where it hit an 18-year high but nevertheless still pretty good. charlie: the dow up to 110 on that news certainly it likes this number the initial reaction sent the market higher. big tech names we check every day amazon, very close to its all-time high, facebook, well the stock has fully recovered from that cambridge analytica scandal take a look at nvidia,

they warn crypto sales will be much smaller in the future investors not really happy with that this morning. chevron one of the biggest winners in the dow oil stocks have done very well this week and of course that brings us to oil because oils been a major story it's now above $71, 71.15 right now. back to the news we broke last hour, top executive at at&t out, e-mac now this of course relates to payment to michael cohen. liz: fox news has access to the letter that randall stevenson at at&t sent to his workers saying not only a big mistake serious miss judgment on the part of at&t to hire michael cohen as a consultant, $600,000 deal there. they've gotten, they've pushed out robert quinn who ran the d.c. policy arm for at&t. again, michael cohen had that shell company that was also paying stormy daniels that 130,000, so novartis has already apologized as well saying it was

a big mistake to hire michael cohen. reportedly he was hired by at&t, this official in at&t's d.c. office to advise on the:warner merger that $83 billion merger with at&t. charlie: they want by the way he was thinking at the very least? liz: right. charlie: thank you very much liz now the historic meeting between president trump and kim jong-un is now set for june 12. president trump spoke about it at a rally last night in indiana roll tape. president trump: the relationship is good but you remember everybody in the fake news where they were saying, he's going to get us into a nuclear war. >> boo. president trump: he's going to get us into a nuclear car. >> booo. president trump: and do you know what gets you into nuclear wars and do you know what gets you into other wars? weakness. weakness. >> [applause] charlie: joining us now is steve

hilton host of the next revolution and former strategic director, strategy director for david cameron steve thanks for joining the show. >> good to be with you charles. charlie: certainly we all know president trump different from the statesmanship that we've seen over the last several years that to be frank with it seems that dictators never really were intimidated by any of that nice talk if you will and that may be indeed the old question is it better to be loved than feared maybe it's feared when it comes to foreign policy. >> exactly right. there's two important points here, first of all, the point you just made, which is that the old saying, peace through strength, seems to be the right way to go, ronald regan showed. you can't appease dictators you have to stand up to them and that's the only way you get results but the other point is that actually, not just on north korea but on so many other areas what president trump is doing is basically the opposite of what will be exports and foreign policy establishment and all the

great geniuses who actually got us into these mess all over the world have recommended he's doing the opposite of that and again that seems to be delivering results and that's exactly what he promised to do not just in the specific issues like ripping up the iran deal but in general he came in saying look, the old ways of doing things have not worked i'm going to shake things up and do things differently and hi seems to be getting results. charles: and that's of course sort of a different take it's like walk loudly and carry a big stick but what happens when the president may have to use it? >> well, i think that that as you're seeing in the middle east right now, there are real tensions there. those tensions weren't created by president trump. they weren't created by any of the actions he took, just as the other hotspots around the world weren't of his making. these issues and tensions have been there for years sometimes decades and the question is how do you respond when they arise and i think that it is important that he follows through on tough

promises but as he showed in syria, both with those two missile attacks when chemical weapons were used that was a big change too. that was like okay we're going to tell you if you use these chemical weapons we're going to take action and he took action and that's part of the reason he's making progress because he's showing that he actually does take action and doesn't just threaten and back off like president obama did. charles: certainly not empty words and these rogue leaders around the world steve thank you very much appreciate it. >> great to be with you. charles: now this, starting today, the price for the new amazon prime membership goes to $119 a year. joining us now, strategic resource group managine director do you think this is going to turn people off? i mean it's not a big number per se but it's a huge percentage jump from where it was. >> the survey says yes, that business first and forbes publish but our research says no , charles that the amazon prime membership is still $1

less than a costco executive membership and people save a lot more. i polled the cornelle freshman and the business and marketing students are paying 60,000 a year to go there tremendous amount of debt and working one job during the school year, two jobs during the summer, and of the students, 18% of them are getting 100% of what they use during the year from amazon. their amazon prime members because they save so much more money the same way they save money by being either bj's wholesale club or costco members , it's the best way to save. charles: but there is the law of diminishing returns at some point it'll become too expensive to turn off a segment in the population but we're not there 119 is not that number. >> not 119 and probably not until we get to 149 because costco and disney as you've reported so well for so long can continue to raise their

membership fees and continue to attract new members, and amazon is doing the same while it's the julius caesar quit of the roman empire's expansion laying waste to the rest of retail but the more amazon dominates the more people respond, american retail is being hollowed out while the ftc is asleep but amazon is winning. charles: well you say that in a way that you don't like what's happening? >> i'm an amazon shareholder. charles: but do you think its become unfair to the rest of the retail community? >> unfair in terms of done a lot of federal trade commission and antitrust work as an expert over the last two decades and in my professional view, it seems like anti-competitive practices, predatory pricing, the ftc has been asleep since the 90s on the appointees by both the democrats as well as the republicans. department of justice and rather than the investigations they're

doing needs to save the tax base which is retail shopping centers , real estate, and have equal proportion -- charles: so a lot of jobs that can't be made up just with warehouse jobs. i can't to stay on amazon a little bit and ask you about this because they're teaming up with lennar, creating model homes that has built in alexa and they dim the lights and do more than turn off the tv, a series of speakers throughout the house. the home will be wired and we've been told that it was going to be wired as part of internet of things but this seems like a leap further than that. >> as you're referencing, charles, brilliance strategic business move for both amazon, s hs, amazon shopper home services, and lennar, and then best buy is doing something similar with best buy's iha, in home advisor, so for lennar,

you'd always do so well with your stock picks and recommendations, amazon is a buy , lennar is a buy and it helps best buy as well because it's over $107 billion market and that's bigger than either kroger, all their formats, albertson's safeway, or anybody else with the exception of wal-mart. charles: so amazon, they same, they saw and they conquered? >> brilliant. charles: all right folks we have a new nominee for the worst first pitch ever. one of the hosts of american ninja warrior trying to throw the first pitch at a phillies game. it's a fail miserably bouncing the ball to the third baseline. now there was no chance his catcher could get this. >> [laughter] charles: look at that. all right, now this, president trump going after indiana senator joe donnelly last night, in his home state, all part of a strategy to target red state

democrats, we're all over that and next, the head of the border control union on what's really happening at the border the president is not happy according to reports, is he justified? you're watching the second hour of varney & company. >> ♪ ♪ [ phone rings ] hi, tom. how's the college visit? does it make the short list? yeah, i'm afraid so. it's okay. this is what we've been planning for. knowing what's important to you is why 7 million investors work with edward jones. ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪

charles: let's check the big board it was up over 100, still trying to edge higher this is still the upside bias in a pretty good consumer confidence report; however on the individual side, cybersecurity firm symantec two year low now, the company looking to un specified financial issues, the company warned though that it may have to amend financial results and guidance. gamestop ceo resigned one of the company's co-founders will serve as the interim ceo there.

homeland security secretary nielsen reportedly drafted a resignation letter after president trump reportedly went after her for the slow progress on the border. she responded by saying, "the president is rightfully frustrated that existing loopholes in the lack of congressional action have prevented this administration from fully securing the border and protecting the american people i share his frustration." joining me now brandon jud border patrol union president. what's happening at the border that's got president trump so riled up? >> well, in 2017, he gave us a glimpse of what illegal immigration could be. he single hand edly with the help of nobody caused the drop to 45-year lows of illegal immigration. he expected that his surrogates would then follow-up his vision and implement the policies, the operations, and the plans, that would keep those levels down to

what we saw in 2017. they didn't. you know, when secretary nielsen says that she feels his frustration, she should feel his frustration. it's her job to implement the policies and plans that will then allow us to secure the border. as an agent that puts on a uniform and goes out and patrols the border on a daily basis i can tell you that we can secure the border if we have the proper policies and plans in place. charles: so are you saying then that these are, that they're out there, that they're not on the drawing table, this is not a congressional issue but an execution issue among in the trump adminitration? >> it's both. it's absolutely a congressional issue as well. i mean, we have to have congress get behind this president which we haven't seen, which is unfathomable you look at it, the republicans control the house and the senate. if they were behind this president, we would be able to implement everything that this president would want and we would be able to secure the border. border security was his number one domestic policy, but beyond

congress, yeah, i mean if you look back in 2017 in april of 2017, we arrested 11,000 illegal border crossers. now, in april of 2018, we arrested 38,000, so you can see that that number went way up. you know, now they're trying to implement the plans we're going to prosecute everybody. we don't have the resource to prosecute 38,000 illegal border crossers but we would have had the resources to prosecute 11,000 illegal border crossers back in 2017, but we didn't implement those policies. charles: brandon, the request for more national guard troop help when we saw a jump of 1,600 illegal immigrants turned away from this country obviously that manpower is helping. is there a chance if they continue to waffle, they continue to pushback on the border wall that this could be the solution would be additional manpower? i think it may be more expensive

ultimately but would that be a plausible solution for now? >> yeah, manpower is always what we're going to need. if you look at where our manpower is right now we're actually border patrol agents in the field, we're actually 2,000 agents down from what the congressional floor is, and so we've augmented that number with national guard and we've seen an immediate dividend paid because we've put the national guard on the border. the more agents that we have in the field the more effective we'll be but i will tell you if we were able to get walls in strategic locations where we would be able to dictate where the illegal border crossings took place, our effectiveness rate would go up exponentially we would secure the border. we just need to get behind this president. charles: brandon jud thank you very much appreciate it. now, there's this. >> thank you. charles: elon musk says the first is almost done, ashley? >> when we say borrowing that's not a statement of judging judgment, it's actually digging a tunnel under the ground in la.

he put out an instagram yesterday showing saying that we're making tremendous progress on this, ultimately elon musk sees these tunnels as a place where passengers can get into pu bs and we fired along to other locations and there would also be an ability for cars to literally be put on a platform, lowered down into this tunnel and then sent along on its way, thus relieving the traffic up above. the first section of this tunnel is going to be about 2.7 miles long and he says won't be that long before people can actually give it a try themselves so he's gotten all of the regulatory approval from la city council, and all of this began when he travels from his home in bell air all the way down to his office in hawthorn which is about 17 miles on the 405 south which any of you know out there is an absolute nightmare any time of the day or night, that's when he said i'm just going to dig underground and find a faster way to get there and being elon musk he did it.

charles: all right >> interesting. charles: either he's pt barnum or a genius. >> there's also earthquakes in southern california. charles: president trump says san diego has asked to go forward with the border wall but officials from the city say well that's not quite true. kristin gaspar's the chairwap of the san diego county board of supervisors and will come on the show and set the record straight in the next hour. >> ♪ ♪

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>> we want more branded drugs

in this country again more competition we're going to go after any type of gaming of our patent systems, any anti- competitive behavior, anything that keeps prices artificially up. charles: that was health and human services secretary earlier in the show president trump of course blasting these drug companies over high prices on the campaign trail and since he's been in office so now he's set to deliver a speech on cushing those prices e-mac? liz: yeah it's about getting more generics into the hands of consumers out there. so, here is the big fight. it's about those pharmacy benefit managers like express scripts. these are the middlemen guys who work on be half of companies in between the insurers, and the drug companies. they get money. they are accused of pocketing rebate that could go to consumer s when they buy drugs, and so that's where the name of the game is. you're going to see stock price action for these companies, the middlemen.

how is president trump going to go after them? secondly, the talk now is he will not let medicare negotiate drug prices lower, so that's going to be a big -- charles: he won't? liz: that's the word of the street right now a big controversial move democrats want medicare to do that and now we're hearing he may not allow that instead have private industry moves instead focused on the middlemen guys so will also move pricey drugs out of medicare part b, into medicare part d, where with more competition so it seems like he's taking a private sector approach instead of saying medicare you should be able to negotiate drug prices lower, so this is going to be a heck of a speech to watch. charles: well i know the secretary talked about several levels of this, so there's probably more than one approach and i'm also interested in the idea of making letting americans pay less and foreigners pay more it's crazy that -- >> i can tell you right now in

the uk my prescriptions were five pounds for a three-month supply for basic cholesterol drugs. liz: but were americans paying for that? that's it. charles: thank you both very much. coming up ford shutting down its production of its ford f150 the most beloved vehicle in the country ford says that it has enough supplies to satisfy its customers but we'll talk to a car dealer for the real impact and a big republican donor putting millions of dollars ahead of the mid-terms we're on that as well. >> ♪ ♪

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>> charles: let's get a check on the big board here, dow jones industrial average up 96 almost 100 points pretty good start to today of course we always check on these big tech names sort of a mixed bag there right now you've got facebook slightly higher, but again, a mixed bag. verizon shares well they're up after jpmorgan raised it their rating and the stock has in fact the top gainer in the dow jones industrial average, tivo revenues fell there, the company is reviewing strategic alternatives under a fair amount of pressure. now to the brewing tensions in the middle east. israel struck iranian targets in syria, some of the heaviest carried out i israel in fact in decades and iran strongly condemning these strikes joining us pastor michael youssef, also the hidden enemy author. pastor, this just conflict, this

never-ending conflict in the middle east, are we seeing a blowup once again into a full fledged war? >> it could be. it could be, but just put yourself in his shoes and he's like between a rock and a hard place. you've got hamas in the south, hezbollah in the north, and he's trying to weaken the line of supply that is coming from syria by the iranians to hezbollah because they are really a sitting target if these weapons come into hezbollah territory in south of lebanon and therefore this is a very precarious place for israel to be especiallily at this very moment when the tension is rising on both sides. charles: considering history of course i find that benjamin netanyahu has been somewhat restrained and you could certainly argue they've developed a defensive way of dealing with this issue but at some point they may also have to

go on the offensive if the threat starts to increase the way it is. >> exactly and that's what they were doing yesterday because i've been there i stood there and one of the first things they took doing the six-day war, because israel was sitting ducks , and so they took those, but at least to be in the good defensive posture by being on the offensive, and but actually, the danger that's brewing in the south through hamas is even equally, because iran is funding both of them. charles: sure. should we be hopeful though because it feels like new friendships are emerging between israel and sunni nations in a region. is that, these new developing friendships would that be enough to sort of fend off the schemes of iran? >> it will sort of keep them quiet a bit, but i had the joy of spending three hours with the

president back in november and to me he's one of the most courageous leaders in the whole region and believe it or not get along which is good, and then you've got the saudi. you have the crown prince of saudi arabia coming to the united states, spend three weeks traveling all over the u.s. and one of the things most startling statements he made, he said if europe is not careful in 20 years time we'll be controlled by the muslim brotherhood, i said goodness gracious if you told me that two years ago i wouldn't have believed it . the crown prince of saudi arabia is warning europe from the take over of islamists and this is a turn of events in saudi arabia for the good. they're building cinemas even now talking about building churches for the first time in the history, the vatican and the saudi government and negotiating building catholic churches. charles: in the meantime though they also have the issue of, you know, in yemen we'll see again

it's so bifurcated, it's just so many pockets, there's so many interesting things going on and we always watch this from afar, and the great question lingering for decades can there ever be peace in the middle east? >> i personally doubt it. you read the old testament and you realize that these things are not new, they've been as old as the bible, the rivalryies twin the line of israel and even the moving of the embassy which i think is a great courageous step on the part of president trump. 3,000 years ago, that was the capitol city of israel under king david, so this is history is repeating itself. charles: yes, sir. >> thank you. charles: appreciate it. now, to ford. the company announced that it will halt production of the f150 truck that's the nation's best selling vehicle. joining us now steve califer, he's car and truck country chairman.

steve, you're getting away from the dealership long enough to talk to us so what's the impact it's going to be? >> short term very little. charles: but if it lingers though? >> well if it lingers it's a big impact. ford has the most loyal customer s when it comes to trucks. it is the biggest selling truck. it is the biggest money maker for ford. it generates $40 billion in revenue so long term, it would be hurtful. charles: you know, i think i looked at the march auto sales numbers i think 82000 and the next number was the silverado in the low 50,000. that shows you the dominance. how could ford have a company with a product so integral to their prosperity have one supplier, have a fire, that threatens to shut the whole thing down? >> well it was a black swan event. first of all the parts were made out of magnesium. they're not very many producers of that. just in time production really works when it really works. it didn't work this time. charles: so would you as a dealer like to see safeguards

even if it meant maybe giving a little bit back on the margins so perhaps these potential hiccups never happen again because we know throughout history no matter how popular a product is when it's not available that's an opportunity for people to discover other products and we see often where these products never come back i'm thinking perier water for instance. >> it was a different circuit was contaminated. this is going to be a reasonably short term situation and again black swan. you can not prevent against everything. the redundancy that used to be in the systems of all the car manufactures was very expensive, led to really ultimately the bankruptcies of companies. this is a one off. there might be another one off not defending for it but you can't protect against everything every day. charles: but it does bring to mind too the issue of supply chain and the nafta negotiations are you concerned where they're going right now, because i think the most critical aspect of this will be how the new, how

president trump wants to handle the supply chain. >> i think president trump wants to bring everything closer i think he wants to bring everything as much as he can back to america, to create jobs for americans. supply chain management is an absolute science and it becomes an artfull dodger when it doesn't work. charles: steve great stuff thank you very much appreciate it. >> thank you. charles: now to tariffs. almond growers in california say both china and the u.s. are los ing under the not tariffs but australia wins big, our hillary vaughn is at an almond farm in bakersfield, california. hillary how exactly are these tariffs affecting those farmers? >> they're already seeing a big impact, charles. i talked to four different almond growers here in kern county and they say these tariffs are creating a big opportunity for the second largest exporter of almonds in the world, australia. >> the biggest impact to us under these tariffs is the lack of a marketplace.

we're going to have to develop new marketplaces to sell our crop. indonesia, south america, those are untapped markets that we can certainly tap into. places where australia currently sells that they might have to pull product away from. >> australia just worked out a 0% tariff agreement with china, giving them a huge advantage in price over growers here in california. mike young sends 195 million pounds of almonds to china a year. he says australia can't fill china's demand without pulling products from other markets. growers say they've already seen an impact of these tariffs hit them overseas. i talked with the chair of the almond board here in california and she tells me these tariffs are already disrupting trade and threatening the $21 billion industry here in california. now, everyone i talk to says this back and forth with china may lead to a better trade deal with the u.s. in the end, but they don't like being caught in the middle in the meantime.

charles? charles: hillary thank you very much and now there's this facebook has been hit with a lawsuit over the collection of call logs. liz: so yeah, i think that it's a bombshell lawsuit. its brought in the northern district california. when you have an android phone and you put the facebook app on your android phone, you tell facebook you say yes, you can have access to contacts. facebook then puts into its server who you're calling, the date of the phone call, the duration of the call, also your text logs as well. nobody knew this, that facebook was doing this and its been going on for years, so this is an invasion of privacy lawsuit. it's seeking 5 million in damages after class action suit and again, we see facebook basically it's a social media company but it's really data mining and market research company that's the allegation in this lawsuit in order to get more people's contacts to find out whose calling who so they could, you know, boost their

advertising revenue via facebook on the website. so we'll see. we'll be tracking this lawsuit as it develops. charles: thank you very much. coming up president trump's pick of gina hapsel facing really rough things and the terrorist behind the 9/11 attack says he has information he wants to share with lawmakers james mitchell is the person who interrogated mohammed will respond to that next and also a quick check of the markets we're looking pretty strong the highs of the session on this friday trading day and also a happy mother's day from all of us at varney & company here is some more of the varney staff with their moms. >> ♪ ♪ let's begin.

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house republicans for pushing a vote for daca which he says is dividing a party ahead of the mid-term election. take a listen. >> fox news just came out with a poll, charles, that said 84% of americans believe that the politicians in washington are out of touch. there's no better example than this. the president has offered congress the opportunity to solve the problem with the children who were brought here illegally by their parents, but it's combined with border security which these moderates on the republican side have not been willing to support, so this is certainly not a good strategy for republicans to be doing something that's clearly opposed to what a very popular president on the republican side has been trying to get done. think your large cap equity fund has exposure to energy infrastructure mlps? think again. it's time to shake up your lineup. the alerian mlp etf can

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charles: take a look at gold, relatively unchanged, its been sideways for quite a long time now. and now this, ksm also as he's known by the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks says he has information he wants to share with lawmakers about gina haspel , president trump's nominee for the cia director. joining us now james mitchell, enhanced interrogation author. james, you helped to get information from ksm. this is to me sounds like the ultimate publicity stunt but what are your thoughts on it?

>> well i can't think of a better recommendation for picking her to be honest with you. it seems bizarre to me that dianne feinstein and the other democrats and the senate who oppose her want to stand arm in arm with ksm, the mastermind of the worst terror attack on our country in opposition to having gina haspel as the director of the cia. she's the most qualified person to have ever rose up through the ranks to be nominated as the director of the cia. she spent seven overseas tours, operational tours mostly undercover, multiple, a handful of senior physicians, and more over, she wasn't, didn't run that program. she didn't run that program. she said that over and over. i was involved in that program from the time that it was thought until the time it was shutdown by barack obama. i know who my boss was. it wasn't her. she wasn't in charge of that program, and yet, that's the

fantasy that those people who oppose her would like to put out there. i'd like to see them defend the idea that they have the same objection to her that mohammed has. charles: well you know to me it's just the idea that he believes that that's his suggestion was something that would be palletable just shows how much opposition or resistance there is against president trump no matter in my mind who the nominee would be, but you mentioned who your boss was. we know there were people associated with this program, higher ranking at the time than gina haspel who have gone through the rigors of confirmation processes and gotten a nod from democrats in the past. >> that's john brennan. he was up to his eyeballs in that program, and he very easily , i can't recall but i think it was something like 80% of the senate voted for his confirmation. it's petty politics.

they oppose her, not so much because of her involvement in the program, because that was minimal. mostly because it's someone that trump nominated. america will be safer with her as the director of the cia. rather than some political hack or rather than somebody who doesn't have the background that she's had she will take the cia back to its core missions. she's already said she won't implement, reimplement the interrogation policies because those are against the law she's agreed to that what else do they expect? charles: and they're attempting judge her on how she feels about the program. and rather than the work, her 30 years of work thank you very much, appreciate it. >> glad to do it thank you. charles: now this president going after indiana senator joe donnelly last night in his home state, all part of a strategy to target red state democrats. we're all over that. >> ♪ ♪

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charles: now this president trump going after a red state democrats listen to what he had to say about indiana senator joe donnelly. roll tape. president trump: democrats like sleeping joe say one thing when they're in elkhart, and then they go to washington and vote for the radical liberal agenda. it never ever fails. charles: this comes as casino mogul pledging $30 million to house republican group, joining us now is fox news contributor also independent women's voice president. all right, let's start with sleeping joe. >> [laughter] charles: his nickname. >> love it. charles: he's one of these vulnerable democrats though no doubt about it. >> look you've got ohio, west virginia, indiana, states that the president won nicely, and yet, there's never really been a message a coordinated message from the gop about why

republicans should have the state. we've grown more used to the style but he clearly has grown into the job and people now trust him in his assessment. thank goodness the primaries went as they went, but all of this news, president trump understanding the politics of it , what needs to happen i think we're going to do very well in the mid-terms. charles: now you talk about president trump and how he's grown into it and how he articulates it and of course the crowds love it. can the party learn how to present this message in a similar fashion where they can, when they can grab people's attention and really put the emphasis on the economy, foreign policy and a certain feeling in this country that is hard to deny people are feeling better. >> yeah, they are and it's not just of course the economy that's the key is individuals realize it's one thing to talk about it as the president mentioned like democrats do but another thing to deliver. we always hear about them talking even obama talked about reagan when he was running. politicians in general tend to make things up in order to get

your vote we know that was obamacare and repeal and replace but there's a new tone now of this is a business. we must deliver. it can't just be talk. the mid-terms deliver for the president, a team that understands that but we're all learning about this rhetoric. we're learning about when you say something and you have the seeds of what's really going to be delivered and that it can be done, we now have that expectation of others. charles: right now, the 30 million that edelson is putting in on the house side, the blue wave talk is starting to fade just a little bit. i don't hear people saying blue wave as much and after tuesday, i haven't heard it at all. >> yeah, and i just tweeted looked like hillary was going to win 99% of the chance she was going to win. a lot of this is a battle for the mind of the voter. the fact is we voted in trump for a reason because we had enough of what the democrats are doing. we've now seen he not only promised things but that his style of a conservative ideal actually delivers on policy issues and americans saying wait

a minute this new normal obama was talking to us about really wasn't a new normal that was also a lie. we've got better jobs. these aren't pizza delivery jobs isis is crushed. we're going to see north korea. we've got hostages back without having to release terrorists. we can, america is blossoming, so we're seeing that this is not a fluke. it's about policy and about the delivery of policy, democrats understand that but they don't know how to do it and i think that this mid-term blue wave thing i don't think it was ever going to happen and now it's confirmed the numbers it likely will not. charles: i agree. >> people still have to go out and act on their policy. charles: although what's interesting i think it was ohio, where more republicans turn out for the primary -- >> yes exactly those numbers were important. charles: tammy thanks as usual. coming up president trump says san diego has asked to go forward with the border wall, but officials from the city says it's not quite true. kristin gaspar, san diego county board of supervisors will set

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here we go. it's 11:00 a.m. on the east coast, 8:00 a.m. on the west coast. i'm charles payne. here's what's new. happening soon at the white house, president trump will meet with ceos from automakers payable talking about fuel economy and other things to come up. we will be all over that story. resident trump is making a big beach talking about lowering prescription drug prices. when you call them out during a campaign for getting away with murder, you the company that developed the narcan nasal spray. president trump has asked to go forward in the border wall but some cities has said not so fast. we will set the record straight with the san diego board of supervisors. the dow is up right now.

it's positive for 2018. the market is rocking. get ready for the third hour of "varney and company". we start with your money. the index is up 113 points. we are near the highs of the morning. the dow is on pace for its seventh straight day of gains. joining us is jonathan. i know you love a trend. you say a trend is our friend. what you think about the market? >> it's a bull market. that's the famous line. i think it's holding true today. we saw 52 week highs and 52 week lows. apple for example is it at a new all-time high.

they're just positive for the year. now is a good time to hold some cash but you don't fight the tape. right now the tape is higher. >> it is higher and it seems like the train is leaving the station. that's the greatest fear, missing it. two weeks ago the greatest fear was at the bottom was going to fall out. things have changed quickly. >> that's why you always have to have a longer-term time horizon. i'm looking at a lot of facts that aren't exactly correlated with the major indices. if you're looking to put money to work in this market, maybe that's one opportunity. a lot of people say inflation might be back, it could be back, i think it's back in a big way. to be honest, unless you're seven years old, you've never invested during a period of high inflation. if i was putting money to work today, this is where i'd be focused. >> let's talk about some of those times and the investment prospect. first up, you like c-span, the

shipping stock. >> yes. remember when shipping stocks were popular, you have to go back more than a decade. these stocks have been completely thrown out and forgot about it in 2007, 2008 the industry was completely overbuilt. the shipping stocks are among those i'm looking at. again it's going to benefit a major trend toward higher commodity prices and higher inflation. >> jonathan, i'm with you, i remember all the money that was being made and how the index was the new go to index, but they did overbuilt anthology never came back. you concerned about trade issues that could slow down transportation. >> your right charles, they never came back. i think now might be that time. there's been people have completely forgot about it. unfortunately, the economy, a lot of those issues, i hear you alluding to basically trade disruptions.

they are inflationary. that ironically will probably benefit stocks like c-span and commodity brokers because as prices goes up, these are the names that will do well. >> you also own international sc stone. people are talking about the potential for continued strength in banks. i think as volatility continues to pick up, keep in mind the options exchange did very well as the vicks rose. as commodity prices rise i think you will see commodity brokers do well as well. to your point about the trend, the trend is higher, don't fight the tape. >> always put your money where your mouth is. thanks a lot. charles: checked the headline from the wall street journal. the economist inc. the next recession could begin in 2020. peter murray see, former

business professor, 2020, could it be a major inflation scare? >> no, i think this is an example of what tammy bruce was talking about. the economics profession represents those people who didn't think donald trump's prosperity as possible. they think it's a one-time juice from the tax cut. people spend a little bit more but they don't believe the analysis from way before he became chairman of the council that lowering tax rates actually encourages businesses to invest more. by the way, that's what they teach us in grade school for, spread if you lower the price of u-uppercase-letter go toward a more capital-intensive society. economists are having a lot of trouble believing their own textbooks because they don't like him ultram. i write some of this off to that. yesterday it was benign so to

your point, it's wall street that reacts preemptively on this stuff. i understand what you're saying and i don't disagree. >> let me give you a good example of that. as soon as those numbers came out, i got a letter from one of the big banks, i don't pick it out because the chief economist is a buddy and they say you know the core rate was down, but if you look at the trend of the last several months it still up. this was an abnormality. i went back and i computed the four digit rate of inflation going back to january. also to january and december and before. it peaked around january and

it's been sliding off. we get this. we have experiences with the antidotal data that shows businesses are trying to raise prices. levi wants more money for jeans but then you go to the gap because they can't get the higher prices. likewise with cars. i don't know the inflation is really there. >> let me switch to a topic that will make big news soon. congress is divided over this farm bill. republicans want to strengthen work requirements or food stamps. democrats are fighting against that. peter, the idea of work requirements, particularly for able-bodied adults and those without dependence is a no-brainer and we saw in maine it works tremendously. we sought under bill clinton work tremendously. >> that's the whole point. with aid to families with dependent children. once we instituted a worke work requirement we got a massive increase in workforce participation among that segment. people then go back to work. economic incentives, changing the cost of going to work or staying at home has an effect. however, this runs against the schumer, pelosi, clinton business model of the coin operated voter. free stuff. the next big thing there into is the guaranteed annual

income. money from heaven. this is really an anti-american thing. anti- free enterprise, anti- self-worth and destructive to the economy to be against a reasonable work requirement. >> i call it tough love. >> i think that's a good word for it. >> thank you very much. have a good weekend. >> let's check the price of oil. west texas $71, it's holding in there. the consolidated move could be preparing for an even higher move. let's take a look at gas, nationwide it's up a penny from yesterday. ten states in that three-dollar. gallon club. in fresno california, gas is topping four dollars. gallon at some stations. california has the highest gas prices in the nation in part because of high state taxes and regulations. prices are actually expected to go higher during the summer. president trump says san diego asked for the go forward with

the border wall but officials from the city are saying hold on, that's not true. up next come the chair of the san diego border of supervisors and she said she will set the record straight. very soon the president will meet with automakers. it's happening this hour. this is the third hour of "varney and company". ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

san diego wants the wall. but i said here's the bad news. if we give them while we don't have an advocate. if we don't give them while they will be putting a lot of pressure on governor moonbeam in california.

>> i was president trump at a rally in indiana last night. joining us now is kristen gaspar the chairwoman for the san diego county board of supervisors. kristen, did san diego asked for the wall? >> the interpretation of the president's comments are what's in question. he said san diego county wants the wall and immediately that turn the attention to san diego county officials but as you know we don't make the decision. san diego has had a border wall in place in congress, they approve funding in 2017, 2018 for 14 miles where we have temporary fencing to put in permanent structures. make no mistake, our border wall has protected our citizenry.

they continue to be stopped on public safety which is having an impact in san diego county. charles: i also read once the walls put in place the economies on both sides actually blossomed that it was beneficial to both sides. >> our relationship with mexico is really strong. we are a welcoming county. for people who want to respect our laws and follow the process. >> and got another one for you.

what to think about these numbers? >> i'm headed to see president trump next week. i'm meeting with the attorney general and homeland security. part of a team of 15 elected officials representing california as the largest county and we are providing a narrative of the impact of the sanctuary laws, the dangerous impact of these lots in san diego alone, the inability of our local law enforcement to communicate with immigration authorities has resulted since january in the release of 384 criminals out of our jails, back out into the community. governor brown doesn't want to talk about this and we start trying to address the issue he resorts to name-calling. it's time we talk to the president of the united states , provider narrative about the human trafficking, the drug trafficking, the weapons trafficking that is occurring in san diego without a strong border. >> last one for you kristen, san diego is one of the ten

cities that will now take part in a national drone program. you will be working with the feds on this and how excited are you about the possibilities for drones? >> the possibilities for drones are endless spread we don't even know what to expect yet. we are looking for an increase in employment, new technology sector coming to the san diego region, it's really an honor that we have the ability to launch this technology here in san diego. we've had success with firefighting and drones providing attention to fire situations rather county, the technology can pick up on hotspots, we've had all sorts of interest across sectors, this should be a great opportunity to grow jobs in san diego, a great pilot project and i look forward to seeing unfolding in my hometown. >> kristen, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> take a look at amazon.

the stock is sort of moving sideways here, but it's come back a lot since it was under pressure recently. also apple, if you want to talk rebound, apple is giving up some of those gains but it made a huge move since the earnings report that shocked wall street. it's still not that far off from the trillion dollar valuation. a check on gold prices, jewel gold is essentially unchanged. it's been a sideways market for a long time. of course there's also bit coin. the coin is over 9000 and it gave that up and it's under huge pressure. you have to wonder if it will pull back and test the) that's a danger. the fcc is finding a manafort a hundred million dollars for making nearly 100 million robo calls between 2015 and 2016, tricking them into buying vacation deals. they deny any fraudulent activities saying they were legitimate telemarketing practices. elon musk is planning to launch the debut of the latest

version of the falcon nine rocket. this comes after they delayed the launch from the kennedy space center. the rocket would put bangladesh in space with that country's first satellite. meanwhile the most boring company releasing a video of the completed tunnel making a transit network called blue under the city. they plan to offer free rides to the public in just a few months. more "varney and company" next. man: i got scar tissue there. same thing with any dent or dings on this truck. they all got a story about what happened to 'em. man 2: it was raining, there was only one way out.

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those were some of the moms of the members of the "varney" team in honor of mother's day. now the mother of all robots, take a look at this. they are showing off their atlas robot. it can run and jump over objects. this is a video of it taking a jog in a park. it's the first time the bot has been out to play. out of the lab. >> imagine an army of those print that scary. for the first time in history rolls-royce is releasing an suv. it's named after the largest diamond ever discovered. the suv has a twin turbocharged b12 engine that can power the car at top speed of 155 miles per hour. the starting price, not bad. $325,000.

a truck caring about 8 million dimes crashed into a guardrail near vegas billing thousands of coins all over the road. police had to close the interstate for hours so they could be collected. imagine collecting the dimes in the desert. then there's this. here's an update to a story we brought you last month. remember the burnt out house in san jose california, it was just sold. you're looking at $938,000 house. that was well above the listing which was 799,000. the home will be torn down but real estate experts say is still good deal for the house in that location. it's a ten minute drive from downtown san jose where google plans to build a new campus. also today president from making a big speech, he wants to lower the price of prescription drugs. remember when he called out

drug companies for getting away with murder, up next the company that developed in narcan nasal spray keeps alex from overdosing. we're still avoiding president trump's meeting with automakers. it will start really soon. the dow is up 70 points ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

charles: in about 15 minutes president trump will meet at the white house with ceos from major automakers. they will talk about felix economy standards. the nasa -- the nafta negotiation will also be mentioned as well. we are on pace for seven straight days of gains. joining us now is don shafer. you are known as the bigbear. you have a pretty good run from january until more recently. what's going on now advises market is starting to come back? my theory is that last tuesday was the near-term reflection.for the rally high?

higher where? >> i don't know where we'll go but i think it will continue to go higher. >> when i came on in january february said we have a downdraft and then i said we will recover and maybe possibly make a new high or a failed high attempt which is now the phase were in now. >> so we found something of a double top. we get there and that will fail and that would be the ultimate. >> after june, my analysis is telling me the out of stocks and bonds is the place to go. the treasury note, the commercials are at the highest net long position in history. what do they know that we don't know. by the way, the commercials or the smart money is also highly short the s&p mini contract highest in history. there is something wrong with that. >> where are the yields going to go dedicate so attractive that we dump stocks. >> i think right here. based on the cpi, based on inflation numbers for cost of goods coming in. >> c would rather take a less

than 3% yield. >> i would take 3% right now because in my opinion, the gdp is going to fail. it will go down. competition will make it happen. the taxes will make it happen. everything is lining up but it doesn't make sense because with unemployment rate at the levels now, the interest rates should be five or 6% and they're not. why isn't it getting there. i think the fed is going to have to reverse and stop tightening and go back to loosening. we will have a bond rally. >> why would they loosen? i don't understand. >> because they won't be able to control the precipitation of prices continuing to drop. the competition is out there. the wages that trump put into place is great but now look where oil prices are. they gobbled all that tax incentive backup. it's not going to -- the system that.

charles: so companies are saying working to build new factories and plants and branches, that kind of stuff happens because companies are competent to keep more gender money and you don't think that can stand. >> no. them into the wiper and the not to build factories like they build factories in the 70s. there's a lot of empty building so they don't have to really do that kind of infrastructure they did before. that's number one. number two, wage growth is not there. the companies are hoarding the cash. they're not really spending it. they're telling us they're going to, i haven't seen it. i look at some these manufacturing companies and i don't see the growth. the workers are making the money they should be making. >> with about 300 manufacturing jobs increase since president trump came into office. we were told there never be any manufacturing jobs created in this country but i'm

looking at the market and industrial names are looking great and material names, even things that outside of technology that suggest that the market believes were going to have some sort of serious great prosperity that 2018 will be an amazing year. >> it could be in the raw materials side of the business. not the manufacturing side of the business. not the technology area that you refer to. >> outside of bonds, what do you like. you like gold. >> no, i'm bearish on gold. >> it was a great move and you got out at the top. >> gold to me is going to be inflationary asset and what i'm really big on, i'm actually investing in the ten year treasury, but agriculture is going to be huge. corn, soybeans, wheat, sugar, coffee. there's less farmers. people are getting out of the farming industry. the families are not handing them down to the next generation. there's less land in the need for food will grow. >> you know millennial's are

going back to the form. >> we have other cycles. we have a 40 year drought cycle that's due about now. where's the demand going to come from. >> is not going to be the demand side. it's the fact that there's not enough food. after agricultural stocks. the fertilizer companies. you're talking about food, famine, i'm waiting for the locus next. >> the cycle is due for a drought. i live in connecticut. i'm not a drought restriction, i can only water my lawn twice a week for an hour. you've got california who has some issues, midwest is going to go, people don't remember when the dust came to new york city. this cycle is now due to weather pattern changes in the commodity. if you look at sugar and coffee and soybeans, they've all bottomed out. >> and we have all on tape. we will come back. thank you.

president trump will give a big speech this afternoon highlighting his plan for lowe lower -- lowering the cost of prescription drugs. he has had harsh words for them in the past. >> they are getting away with murder. charles: i talked to health and human services secretary alex a czar. listen to what he told me. >> we want more branded drugs, more competition. we will go after any type of gaming of the patent system, any anticompetitive behavior or anything that keeps prices artificially up. >> ceo of pharmaceuticals, that's the company that developed the narcan nasal spray. these high prices, everyone complains about the higher prices. this is the one thing that never goes down. can it go down? can it be turned lower?

>> within that category there are certain drugs which we've heard of in the past that have been artificially had inflated prices paid we need to balance that with our investment innovation. innovation in this country must continue to be rewarded. >> that's just that we have a profit motivated system. if the government pushes too hard and there's no way were going to get some of the amazing cures or discoveries because no profit motive for it. this is where becomes a delicate balancing act. >> absolutely. for a company like ourselves, we develop the narcan nasal spray and it's marketed by her partner. it saving thousands of lives here in this country. it's not yet available outside the united states. >> that's unusual. most drugs are usually approved outside america long before they're approved in our country probably feel like we have the most onerous fda drug

approval system. >> our expenses different. we had an excellent introduction to the fda and in fact with the most recent program, the nasal spray which we believe is in a very good position to deal with sentinel overdose which is a huge concern in this country. the fda has been very receptive and we believe this could be on the market soon. >> doctor crystal, thank you for the fda process is a multibillion-dollar process to get new drugs and approval, and then the clock ticks. at some point the drug that you worked all this time on will be open game for the generic makers. is there some way to fix that dynamic? maybe a longer exclusivity. in return for some sort of pledge or mechanism to keep prices lower? >> the way it works at the moment, i think the vast majority of drug manufacturers would argue it's actually acceptable.

patents are there and when the patent expires, that's when a generic and come onto the market. the onus is on the pharmaceutical. company for that time to charge a responsible price. coming from the uk where i work, in fact in the uk the pricing is something that's well-recognized there. in that situation you look at what's the economic value all of the product that's on the market. in this country they try to change molecules and things like that have more lawyers than doctors or scientists working for the drug companies. by the way, congratulations saving so many lives with your project. we appreciate it. >> foxbusiness, we will be covering president trump's speech at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. now this, billionaire casino mogul, they're going to try to defeated this november. he made a donation to the congressional leadership fund after meeting with paul ryan.

this is three times better than the one he made in 2016. we been following reports of a possible shooting at a high school in california. >> local media reports at a high school, highland high school in palmdale about an hour north of l.a. in the antelope valley in the high desert. reports of gunfire around 7:00 a.m. this morning. sheriff's deputies, swat, etf all on the scene. they have detained one person who is not armed at the time. we understand maybe one person drove themselves or were driven to the hospital. we have no extent of the injury but they're going methodically through the school bit by bit. there's also reports of gunfire being heard at an elementary school in the same city about 7 miles away. that's not being confirmed. that's what we know so far. >> cisco ads will appear on

sensitive content. mcdonald's coffee could be cutting into starbucks sales. they have been struggling to grow, particularly in the afternoon. a smaller loss at yelp but it's not getting hit. tivo revenues felt that company is still in the process of reviewing strategic alternatives. we are waiting president trump who is meeting with automakers. that should start shortly at two. they will be talking about fuel economy standards but you can bet nafta negotiations are going to come up and come up often. we have every angle of it covered for you. smart neighborhoods running on a microgrid. a stadium powered with solar. a hospital that doesn't lose power.

amazing. i like it. never gonna happen.

i'm nicole with your foxbusiness brief. a close look at equifax. we all remember the breach of your personal information where over 145 individuals have their personal information compromise compromised. now months later, it turns out more than what was originally thought has already leaked out. you can see over 145 million with your name, date of birth, security number driver's license and credit card numbers as well but passport information is the latest news

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happening right now at the white house, president trump is meeting with the ceos from major automakers.

they are talking about fuel economy standards, blake berman is at the white house, all the big names there. it's kind of like a who's who right now with the automakers and ceos here at the white house. just to give you a handful of executives here, mary is meeting with the president, sergio and you've got leaders from toyota, mercedes-benz, bmw, i could go on and on. you get the idea of who's speaking with the present but from the administration side, larry kudlow, scott pruitt, elaine chao and bob light heiser. the reason they are here is to discuss auto efficiency standards. the standards that were put in place in 2011 by the obama administration is the halfway point to which they review. the trump administration wants to dial some of these back. they are trying to find a sweet spot of what the trump administration wants to do and what these automakers are comfortable with. then there's the issue of california and the pending lawsuit potentially from the

state of california due to this rollback. the last thing they want is to play by one set of rules for the state of california and another set of rules as it relates to selling cars and efficiency standards for 49 states plus the district of columbia. that issue is on the table and as i noted, the trade representative is here and i have to imagine they will get into nafta discussion as well. charles: thanks a lot. let's go to fox news senior capitol hill producer. what are you expecting? >> there's a lot of members of congress from both parties were upset they're not part of this meeting. democrats represent the auto industry in michigan are concerned republicans will look at this as an anti- california bias in the come down hard on california. the auto industry doesn't want any disruption. at the end of the day this is about nafta and what is the percentage of an automobile that has to be built in the united states to comply with the no tearful under the nafta

zone. right now at 62.5%. the administration initially talks about 85% and they have doubt that back down to 75%. at the end of the day that on any disruption in their trying to find that sweet spot. house speaker paul ryan had indicated this week if the united states is formally going to get out of nafta some of the paperwork has to hit his desk by the end of next week. the trade representative office has not indicated that but it's eminent. there's nothing in stone that has to happen, congress doesn't have a lot on its plate to do for the rest of the year so it's not like there's a bandwidth issue on capitol hill but paul ryan is someone who knows something about trade and he would like that to be addressed. there would also be a question do enter into unilateral trade agreements with canada and mexico. the brexit issue may be also entering into a separate trade agreement. at the end of the day disruption. that's what the auto industry does not want. charles: has the auto industry

come to grips maybe they don't want disruption but there will be some changes? it feels inevitable despite the rhetoric of all companies involved in all the key players involved that there will be something changed about the supply chain and to your point how much of these automobiles are made in this country rather than the other countries. >> tom harper from delaware, a democrat he wrote to elaine chao and also wrote to light heiser and scott pruitt, epa administrator saying this will cause disruption because if you start to alter the equation as to what's acceptable under the standards of what you need for your entire fleet you might actually sell fewer cars in the united states because it makes them harder to produce and you might sell fewer cars abroad. there's big china question. general motors sold an awful lot of cars and if they

retaliate that hits the audio industry quite adversely. >> i thought the auto industry was universally complaining that the impositions by president obama's were too onerous. they will get there but not at this for space. >> that's why they were willing to go along with this through 2026. there was a slight stair stepping over the next several years that they were aiming for. again, if the administration comes in and pulled out of nafta there's a question of aluminum and steel, there were exemptions that were given to those industries with tariffs through june 1. what does the administration do after that will probably be a central part of the conversation. these automakers want to know where the administration stands. then you have the question on capitol hill, does congress respond in some form? >> is there any handicapping for any of this? i know there was pushback but looking at the representatives from both canada and mexico,

feels like everyone is seeking some sort of solution. >> they do want to know where people stand. there does have to be legislation in a formal piece of paper where congress votes to withdraw and trust me, at the end of the day, congress would much rather be involved because they are here to legislate. remember all the criticism against president obama imposing various executive orders. they didn't like that. republicans in congress and democrats say we are here to legislate. they would rather have control and have something, 1600 pennsylvania avenue. >> thank you. good stuff. of course, we are waiting for headlines from present drums meeting with automakers, reporters just went into the meeting pit we will get you there first as soon as we get them. your company is constantly evolving.

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let's get back to president trump meeting with big automakers. we bring in automotive editor

gary. what exactly are automakers looking for in this meeting. >> i think they're a little more concerned about the unification of the california and federal rules and they are any kind of rollback of the obama era rules. they are already planning to meet those predicted 60 years to develop a new car, 2025 is that far away right now when you talk about product cycles. they know they can get their or very close to it if, really what they would like to do is get california on board with the federal so you talk about california and 12 other states that follow those rules. >> california now would be the world's fifth largest economy so certainly a force to be reckoned with. how much different are the california rules versus the federal rule. >> it's not so much that they're different now but what could happen in the future but they're talking about banning combustion cars completely. that's not something that's on the table on the federal side of things. they are just focused on overall fuel economy. california has done these electric car mandates and that's really what the automakers are more concerned

about. charles: from a legal point of view of what you know and what you studied, can they do that? and they have such a completely different standard that bucks completely what's going on with the rest of the country. >> right now under the waivers, yes they can. the trump administration is talking about taking some legal pathways to eliminate that waiver, but as of now you've got two different systems and that's the way it's been for some time. >> this nafta negotiation covers a lot of things but essentially it's about the automotive supply chain because that's where the bulk of all this money going back and forth and are making the products. do you think america will get concessions, maybe not 85% but something over 70% of the car being made in the country. >> i think the automakers are more concerned about that as well because what, they move their assembly plants back to the united states. we are seeing more of that going on but about the supply

chain, you've got a whole industry that would need to relocate here. that could be, not necessarily here but you understand what i'm saying protect be more difficult than just the automakers thing were to build cars and trucks here in ohio but now we have to get all the suppliers on board as well. that can be a lot more difficult. >> gary, thank you very much. we are still waiting on headlines from this automaker meeting. more "varney" after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

charles: well, we've got one headline for you so far, president trump says he still has confidence in environmental protection agency head pruitt. all right, neil, it's yours. neil: all right. that's amazing, he's very much stood by him, charles, with all the, you know, allegations about living the high life and all that stuff. but he likes the job he's doing, so in the end, it's your boss,

right? if my boss is happy, then i'm happy. charles: yep. neil: i don't know where i'm going with that -- [laughter] a little bit of friday wisdom. thank you very much, my friend. let's take a look at what we've got going here. the president is having this powwow right now with automakers and, you know, this has gotten to be, actually, a tense relationship because he has gone e over backwards for them to ease cafe standards and the like, fuel requirements, ease regulations. and the word is from the white house, and it's been espoused in "the wall street journal," elsewhere, that they haven't shown a lot of gratitude. and right now they're juggling with the president how to handle the new standards which aren't going to be that really onerous for them with california that wants to keep them quite onerous, or at least in their eyes, to keep very stiff fuel requirements going even if it is at variance with the 49 other states in this country. they want a little bit of help from the administration, and it's gotten to be a bit of a