maria: his detractors are growing worse with trump derangement syndrome. if you want to be angry, be angry about the loss of human life, for example. maria: that will do it for us. have a freight day. great weekend. see you on sunday. charles payne in for stuart. >> i'm charles payne. stuart will be back on monday. it's a big day in fact. president trump was up and at-em early on the economy. he says consumer is back, things will get better. maybe he is trying to change the narrative from the scandals. obamacare according to some polls more popular than the tax law. treasuries are forcing cap on state and local tax deductions. no more writing off property taxes as charitable deductions if you live in the high-taxed blue states. there is this we're following in situation in ha as the tropical storm lane slams

in. it has a ton of rain it is a huge day. "varney & company" starts right now. charles: ash, president trump tweeting about the economy. ash, what did he have to say? ashley: what didn't he say. we should have a full-time job reading the tweets. of. target ceo's raves about the economy, president says. this is the best consumer environment i've seen in my career. big statement from a top executive. virtually everybody is saying this. when our trade deals are made, cost cutting is done, you haven't seen anything yet.

that is one. he is on of course a economy role. our economy setting record virtually on every front. probably best our country ever done. tremendous value created since the election. ed world is respects us again. companies are moving back to the usa the president is touting once again. he is right. the economy is humming along and these ceos are reflecting that. you heard from target, walmart, tj maxx, consumer confidence. people going into brick-and-mortar stars. the president is absolutely right. charles: read the reports. listen to the conference calls. it is optimistic. bring in market watcher john layfield. the economy is strong. we have this morning positive views on durable goods. the parts that matter on business investments. 1.4%, a, absolutely phenomenal. businesses are back, consumers are back, what are your thoughts? >> we waited for some time to pick up.

consumer as you know is 70% of gdp. we waited for tax cuts to kick in, more money to spend. you starting to see wage pressure. charles: isn't there an element, john, than having a bigger paycheck? you still have the confidence to spend it. we've seen in the past when consumers thought it would be temporary when they haven't gone out to spend the money. >> you don't want president tweeting about lebron james but the good news of economy. the market was flat from november 2014 to november 2016. it was uppers in a month. only difference was president trump was elected. people feel confident about the economy right now. charles: what i like about this, ashley touched on it, to me the keys have been traffic. absolutely remarkable. then another narrative here, pricing power. so walmart, for instance, had traffic up through the roof.

but they also had significant pricing power. target, they didn't really raise prices but a year ago they had to lower them. there is another dynamic to this in my mind. when we say the economy is on the move it feels like it is on the move. feels like physically we're on the move as a nation. >> it is. kimberly clark i own. the companies are pricing in increases without having to eat them. the consumer feels like going out to spend. americans spend a lot of money. charles: we're known for that. >> we're finally starting to see that again. charles: what some people will say, you know what? we were pretty excited at peak on the eve of the great recession. we were spending a lot of money, credit card debt was through the roof. where do we start to be concerned we're too optimistic, we're getting in over our skis? >> i think the difference is, look at crash or recession 2000, 1% gdp. no comparison of the nasdaq, 71 times valuation in the nasdaq

now at 23 times valuations. the valuations are much more realistic. also the difference is, the bush tax cuts came in 2002. last time we had 3% gdp growth for full year, 2004, 2005. we had the tax cuts before the bull market ended. that is why i think you're seeing the extension. charles: we know success begets success. durable goods report came in. forget the head lines. i think the part about business is the untold story right now. the story gets mundane, a little wonky, a little wall streetish, is that the difference maker? businesses spending that money so wages go up and real long-term growth maybe we get some big projection under way? >> absolutely. all the money coming back into the market is huge for the market. look at retail what is going on right now but i still have to pick and choose.

sears is the dinosaur going to the tar pit. it is not coming back. gap had earnings that weren't so good but macy's, target, kohl's absolutely blew it away. walmart is blowing it away. you have to pick and choose but business investment is huge. charles: survivors, children's place for instance, they had their best comp store in history, in history. got an upgrade this morning. of course some of their competitors went out of business. we're seeing survivors, retailers survive this thing do pretty well. >> funny when you give consumers what they want they buy it. if you don't -- even in recessions good pair of sneakers from michael jordan kids go out and buy this thing. charles: retailers are reporting this morning, of course you mentioned gap. stores sales down at their flagship store. they're still having trouble with gap. they say inventory issues. lower margins at ross stores. the guidance was just so so. these are interesting to watch.

i saw lowe's open down three points only to go up 10 points. i saw a few other names like that. we'll watch them throughout the day. food locker, a lot of people thought they could have a huge number. profits were absolutely higher. so far the stock is slightly lower. go back to you, john, because you brought up the non-economic trends, a lot of turmoil right now about politics and relationship to the markets. so far, if we open where the indicate, where we're indicating this mornings, we could have the dow up six out of seven weeks or seven out of eight week, some crazy streak like that. how come politics have an impact to this? >> they haven't historically. two presidential impeachments, andrew johnson, president clinton, didn't affect the market long term. resignation of the president, the market continued to go down in the 70s, under president nixon and later under gerald ford. the market didn't.

even if he did, all of trump's pro-growth policies have been enacted. those are enacted long term. you have the tax cuts, you have the cut of regulation, that is baked into the market. that is the good part of what president trump has done, that will stay with us. charles: stay right there. bring in on the topic of political turmoil, lawrence jones. lawrence, the president is definitely trying say the subject. the question, are voters listening? how much will scandals impact the republican party come the midterms? >> it didn't affect them before he got elected, charles. so i don't see that it will affect him now. look this was already baked into the cake when people elected donald trump. when it comes to the paying off woman, this is pretty much what he did in his private life as well. we were fully aware of that as voters going into the election. i think people are more concerned about their pocketbook than the -- failures of president he uses private money to pay. i think they are more concerned

about members of congress had a slush fund, taxpayer-funded that paid off a lot of their allegedly sexual affairs. charles: were those campaign contributions? i don't want to go down this road. >> right. charles: to your point right, there is a lot of hypocrisy i out there. voters see right through that. so has the stock market. over the last 24 hours we've seen president trump again express his disappointment, for instance, with jeff sessions, the attorney general. and now we see other members in congress, down in washington, d.c., on both sides, the house and senate echoing those things. he hasn't had a lot of turnover in his administration more recently and i think that's been a good thing. where do you see, again if he starts to get rid of jeff sessions before the mueller investigation is over, could that have an impact? >> yes. that is why he is not doing it right now. even republicans that support the president says that the president should not get rid of

jeff sessions, even though he should have told the president that he was going to recuse himself from the investigation but the political ramifications would be severe. and so the president is stuck in hard place because you know, if he were to get rid of him it would be crazy for him. the democrats would rally against him. the republicans would rally against him. that is just something he is not willing to risk right now. charles: lawrence jones, thank you very much. really appreciate it. of course we're following these developments out of hawaii very closely. still ahead a live report on the ground as tropical storm lane hits the big island. plus president trump heads to ohio today where he is going to help yes, i am renacci in his run for the u.s. senate. the question, are voters getting this, understanding the question on the economy. mr. renacci is next. the new york city coffee shop where alexandria ocasio-cortez is closing down because of higher minimum wages,

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charles: well a couple of big tech names for you. microsoft has been hit with a u.s. bribery probe over software sales in hungary. the stock, you can see slightly higher this morning. google deletes accounts with ties to iran on youtube and other sites. that stock looking like it will open up big-time this morning as well. now to tesla because it keeps getting crazier. strong words about elon musk from employees. susan li, the "new york post" spoke with them. what did they have to say? >> a lot. morale is low inside the company. they can't understand, the erratic, not understandable behavior of elon musk. 14 people resigned, top executives, chief engineer, chief salesperson. they say it is a personality cult inside of tesla. a lot of these staff meetings they claim are similar to

cabinet meetings raising elon musk when shows up for them. we talked about the model 3 and lack of quality. yes they have 5000 model 3s per week. 4300 of those vehicles require substantial, substantial fixes. that's 14% of what they call first pass yield. compare that to the industry average, 80% passes for the first pass yield. charles: remember couple years ago this car got the best rating ever from "consumer reports." ashley: how times change. susan: "consumer reports" says the braking system has been repaired which they repaired. charles: thank you, susan. china stocks with constellation research. he has bullish call on alibaba and baidu and tencent. we'll did them about that because those stocks have been hit very hard recently. president trump heading to ohio with a lot of political headwinds. look at fox poll, gop tax lawless popular than obamacare?

joining us congressman jim renacci, republican from ohio. you helped write the law. listen we put it right to you, the tax message, it doesn't seem to be resonating. all of this great news reflected in the economy. how come we don't see it in polls? >> good morning, charles, polls don't say everything. i've been traveling the state for the last couple weeks. i'm going to county fairs. i'm talking to people, they're happy, they're energized. they see more money their pocket. they're thanking me for having the additional money. those are the crumbs nancy pelosi talked about. those are the extra dollars they now have to fix the refrigerator or repair their car. they're happy about that. they're seeing that in their paycheck. so what we're seeing in polls is not, again, not reflective what i'm seeing on the ground. people in ohio are very, very positive. charles: well, the obamacare though, i mean it is, it is, i one of these things, of course any government program feels like once it has been there for a while people are loathe to get rid of it, even when they

complain about it all the time. does it make it harder if you retain the house and senate to continue efforts to repeal and replace? >> i will tell you this as i travel the state, the other thing people are complaining about, the high cost of health care. the high deductibles. they're not happy with the affordable care act. they want that fixed as well. what i see on the ground, you see in polls seems to be two different things. in the end they want to see a health care program that works, that is affordable, that is reasonable. they're not seeing that. they don't want to go back to the old days. they want the opportunity to change this. they wan lower costs. this is what i see. i'm on the ground every day in the county fairs, seeing people, talking to people, not just republicans, independents, democrats, they're happy with the economy. they feel good about things. they're at the fairs. they're crowded, they're buying. charles: so then let me ask you, what are you complaining on? when you're on the ground, you have a minute of someone's time what do you focus in like, like a laser on?

>> well always tell them if you want to go back to the old days of obama economy only going 1.8%, sherrod browns of 25 years, sherrod brown loves ohio, loves washington more than he loves ohio. if you want to go back to the old days that is the problem. continue current program, current growth, 4.1 is% growth. come look at my program, a business guy, who understands to sign front of the paycheck. two different people. that is my message. we can go back to the obama days or keep going the future where we have with this president. charles: i new treasury rule won't allow tax deduction for state and federal deduction a lot of people in the states, so-called blue states, a lot of americans are saying my taxes are going up and my economic circumstances are getting worse. what do you say to them? >> i am a cpa, i understand. those deductions, almost 70% of

the people did not really use those deductions because the standard deduction took up all of that expense. we doubled the standard deduction. almost 94% of the people will not be able to use those deductions. that doesn't affect all states. nothing is perfect. you will never have the perfect tax law that makes winners for everybody but in this case we simplified it. now we have 90 plus percent of the people who will not have to keep all those documents, all those state taxes because they will be able to use much higher standard deduction. charles: congressman renacci, good to see you. thank you very much. >> you as well. charles: i alert the audience. we reached out to renacci's opponent sherrod brown. we have yet to hear from him. we have a republican candidate trying to flip a blue state red. robert huggins, going against bob menendez in new jersey. he is closing on him quickly. we could have history.

>> >> lane bears down on hawaii. we have a live report from maui right after this. let's take a look at some numbers:

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charles: are we on? susan: yes. ashley: looking good, charles.

charles: all the tax breaks with the city of anaheim where disney has a whole lot of land, put it that way. disney stock up 10 cents. we'll speak later on with the mayor of anaheim what the heck is going on there. that is 11:30 eastern. hurricane lane heading towards hawaii it could become the first major hurricane to make landfall in decades. adam housley is there with the latest. adam, what are the conditions like right now? reporter: charles, significantly different from the ocean 24 hours ago t was much more serene yesterday. we've been waiting for the hurricane to come ashore. hawaiians prepared what they can. they had the warning. some stores were empty. and some cases parksly refilled. people seem to be prepared. we're waiting for the storm to come to the shore, at least on other islands in the claim not named hawaii. hawaii, the first island, got pummeled on the east side where the city of hilo.

20 inches of rain were coming. more is expected. we are expecting 12, to 14, to 16 inches on maui. this is worry about water. this has become a water event. they dent expect hurricane to make landfall on any of the islands, bands on the right side of the hurricane to look on the screen, come through the island, to bring tons of rains. mudslides and flooding, charles, right now really all about watching and waiting. the rain hasn't fallen much in the last few hours. it is coming, just a matter how much. charles? charles: adam, thank you very much. stay safe my friend. markets are ready to open. we can see the dow and s&p are up, believe it or not seven of the last eight weeks. all the turmoil, all the headlines. you are still making money. "varney & company" is right back

♪ charles: all right, folks we're just 30 seconds away from the opening bell and there is a lot of drama brewing. we could get a dole with mexico, at least a handshake deal. the markets would loaf that. jerome powell, chairman of federal reserve is in jackson hole. president trump is pushing

against the fed and excessive rate hikes. he doesn't want to see the economic renaissance derailed. will powell speak to that. [he opening bell rings] internally fed has issues. many are criticizing their actions. it's a huge day. we'll have a huge opening and could have up week for the dow and nasdaq. we start the day in the green. we populate the dow 30, majority of the stocks up. nike something of a drag there. it has had been incredible move down in sympathy with foot locker. caterpillar sure is pridingly the number one stock considering that china's trade minister left america empty-handed, although i thought he was conciliatory. don't read the headlines. when you get a chance, if you are interested in the story, read exactly what he said. i thought he was contrite, made me feel better. we're off to the races, pretty solid start wiping out yesterday's losses. look at the s&p 500, the broader index again great. we had intraday record earlier

in the week with this index. it is 500 stocks. it is the ultimate cross-section of the economy. looking pretty good. there is nasdaq which has come on like gangbusters this week. driven by some of the big tech names that were crushed. nvidia has come back strong. netflix has come back strong. i even think there are some tire kickers over at facebook. let's talk with the pros about this. joining us jeff sica, david dietze, susan li, ashley webster. let's talk about the economy, president trump certainly is, tweeting about it early this morning. david, talking about the economic revival, led by the consumer. we see it in the retail numbers. you think it is sustainable? >> absolutely. a lot of this come is from the tax cuts. a lot of naysayers only helped corporations. wrong. look at consumer spending. gives tailwind by consumers. confidence is up, joblessness stays below 4%, what is not to like. charles: jeff, you're recent dent canary in the coal mine.

do you see what president trump is tweeting about, david talked about? >> i don't know if i like being the canary in the coal mine but i'll take it. finally the consumer has some discretionary income to spend money. my concern, and here comes the cold water, my concern is that yes, this is the tax cuts, have given the consumer discretionary income but if the trade war escalates, will the effects of the trade war take away those -- [laughter] charles: before we get to the trade war situation though, what i love about this, i have been looking at this, listened to a few conference calls, read through two dozen of these reports, traffic has been remarkable. foot traffic has been absolutely remarkable. as a result you see a blend. williams sonoma stock had amazing quarter, 52-week high. dollar general all-time high. costco, tj maxx, my mom loved tj maxx.

she turned me on to that stock and burlington. it is hard to deny that is going to change -- i don't think that will change because of a trade situation? >> not only do i love tj maxx, i'm building a tj maxx in south jersey, that is how much i love them. ashley: buy yourself? >> with my bare hands. the problem you have the haves and have notes in retail. you have the home depots, walmarts, and tj maxx, but you still have a lot of retailers that will have problems but you're absolutely right, the consumer is back in full force and -- charles: you say the consumer will stop spending because of the trade war? >> you start to see an escalation in prices the consumer will back off. the consumer has been out of this economy for years and years and is finally back. we should protect them by not putting them into rising prices. charles: i think most amazing aspect of walmart's report, besides the foot traffic is

pricing power. susan: consumer dine something up at the most since 1992. everyone is eating out. charles: retail sales reports have been remarkable. you've seen restaurants, department stores, some months even outgaining internet. talk more about the trade deal because we could get something today with mexico. the president is confident about these deals, getting done ultimately. hire's my, what i want to say to the audience. just so the audience understands, if you take the top five worst sessions this year, three had zero to do with the trade war. zero. the number one was february 5th, 1100 dow points down. february 2, down over 1000 dow points. february second, the jobs report came out, median income was too high. 3,000 dow points down because of the fed. zero to do with the trade war. add 3,000 to where which are.

obviously wall street is concerned about there. they're always concerned about margins which is a legitimate concern but how come, the peak, the peak down day was march 22nd. and that is when those 60 billion in tariffs went into effect. the dow was off 733 points. since then the dow is up 2300 points. no one explains that. no one can explain that, why has the dow gone up 2,000 points since the trade war went into effect? >> here is the trump card, the trump card we're basically a domestic economy. most of our business is done internally here. look at performance of stock markets outside of the united states they are hurting because they depend so much on the united states. we're kind of insulated. that's why at the end of the day people care more about interest rates, inflation, not so much the tariffs because affects a small amount of goods. that is what wall street missed initially and now -- charles: investors, companies can't pass this on will hurt their stocks? >> no question about it. that will be a problem. i think you have a to take a

longer term view, is this a permanent tariff or done short-term to gain a longer-term advantage? if you take that view you see opportunity. charles: you don't see it derailing entire stock market and entire economic revival? >> i don't think it will affect small percentage of goods. how it is affecting steel, up 20, 30% in anticipation. aluminum, so no, i think it will affect a lot more than that. charles: so are 20 trillion-dollar economy will be derailed ultimately if you crunch the numbers by maybe $30 billion in additional taxes? that will derail the entire economy? >> no. i think, what it comes down to, is that it's not going to be the tariffs that derail them. it is the sentiment, it is psychology. it is what has been driving the market. charles: on the business side? >> on the business side. and capital spending is crucial now. i'm talking to companies every day that are saying that they are concerned about the tariffs because unfortunately we are

growing very dependent on china and mexico. >> are we late in the cycles, we feel resistance breaking new records for the s&p? we haven't seen one in seven months. longest in two years. just closing records and people are thinking, maybe this recovery and this expansion has gotten a little long in the toot? >> i think what is happening the market is priced to perfection and the smallest divergence from perfection could send the market declining. just because everybody is holding big gains in those five big stocks, and every day i'm talking to people that are saying, what are we going to do with our major positions? is it time to sell? >> let me be a little more positive. basically the s&p is where it was in january, but these earnings are 25% year-over-year in q2. valuations are improving. we have to watch for the interest rates because fed keeps raising short-term interest rates and longer ones are

tethered. inversion is something people watch carefully. we'll hear more-- ashley: pullback in the big tech stocks and other areas are picking up. transports hit all-time high. charles: transports hit all-time high. three weeks ago, saw airlines come, big, big way. obviously the retail stocks have done extraordinarily well. i will say, i have been worried, not worried but frustrated with some materials, some industrials, real value there. there is no doubt there is some value. i think what we've seen, jeff, when these names are in trouble, the money didn't go to the sidelines t. rowe stated elsewhere. i thought that was a positive sign for the market. >> going back to your point on interest rates, it is not staying on the sidelines because there is, these investors are starved out of bond market. they're putting it into play but are they momentum investors at this point? are they nearing the top as some valuations in the bigger stocks. i agree if we get a broader base appreciation it is better.

charles: when i evaluate a stock, price has nothing to do with it with respect whether it is topping out, right? you have to go to the fundamentals. i'm arguing right now, i tell people all the time, don't be concerned about chasing performance, chase fundamentals. you can argue that apple, the first trillion dollar stock in the world, in america, is the most undervalued stock in the country right now. it is trading less than 16 times pe. you could argue amazon's fundamentals are running even faster than the stock itself. so when people just look at the share price, well, i missed it, isn't that a big investing mistake? >> here is what i look at though, there is a big difference in my mind between apple and amazon. i'm not a fan of apple in the future. obviously it is great they reached a trillion dollar valuation. it is innovation. i agree if a company like amazon who has innovation, who has the ability to monetize that innovation, i would bet on an amazon. would not so much bet on an apple that has a trillion dollar product in the iphone but

there has not been able to innovate to the point to get to the next trillion dollars. amazon is different. susan: one top-ranked analysts could get to two trillion dollars valuation if they get the i-car or titan self-driving car up and running. charles: how do you evaluate these stocks? again i think it's a huge investing mistake see stock goes 20 to 30 i missed the move without looking at underlying fundamentals because sometimes the fundamentals say it went from 20 to 30 but it will go to 40 next? >> you have to look under the hood. that is giving so much confidence to me these earnings are up double digits. the forecast partly because of the tax cuts. partly because of great confidence. partly because of interest rates are low. look at financials. they still haven't gone up in terms of valuations where they were precrisis. charles: guys, leave it there. jeff, david, always a blast. if you have a beer, make sure he pays. >> the canary. charles: building a tj maxx.

he has some money. susan: next time bring that. charles: you're the biggest canary i have ever seen. that was a great conversation. thanks a lot. take a look at the big board. we're off and running. dow up 78 points if we close here. up seven out of the last eight weeks on the dow and the s&p. there is this. a popular new york city coffee shop is closing after 28 years in business. and a real big reason, minimum wage or i should say higher minimum wage. alexandria ocasio-cortez actually used to work there. the owner is here. he's next. trump's space force, we have the congressman in charge of getting it passed. how hard could that be in space force! susan: you've been rehearsing. charles: i have.

charles: check on that big board. we're still holding gains near the highs of the day. 78 points to the upside on the dow jones industrial average. mcdonald's breakfast sandwiches in new york linked to an illness. let's go to the floor, nicole petallides. nicole. what's going on? >> in upstate new york people are eating breakfast sandwiches at mcdonald's in area called jamestown. breck fast is supposed to be the best meal, right? turns out 22 people were sick. they had to close the mcdonald's there. they're reviewing and cleaning, going over food preparation. meantime the people fell ill with nausea and vomiting. this sawing 4th, to august 21. we finished talking about on the show, about the salads.

remember over 15 states, 3,000 mcdonald's pulled salads. they got a new salad supplier. that is the deal. watch out getting the breakfast sandwiches. one store. they did clean it up now. back to you. charles: nicole, thank you very much. shift back to politics. democratic socialist alexandria ocasio-cortez lamenting on closing of an iconic new york city coffee shop she actually used to work at. the problem though is the shop closed in part to policies she is campaigning on, including 15-dollar an hour minimum wage. joining us is charles militi owner of coffee shop. this is new york institution. there is not one new yorker i know did not love your coffee shop. congratulations there. >> thank you very much. charles: it is a sad day for many people, not just you and your workers. it is an iconic location. what happened? >> it is an institution, it really is. we had a great run, 28 years. honestly it was combination of

factors that all together caused us to just not be able to continue the operation. our rent at $2 million a year is pretty staggering. and, although our revenues are, well, if you were to walk by the restaurant, go into the restaurant, you would think it's a busy, hustling, bustling place. for 20 years we were ranked in the top 100 grossing restaurants is this the united states. so the real problem i think if a restaurant so busy and so vibrant can not afford to stay in business anymore, we have to look the a all the factors causing closures. charles: sure. listen, rents have been a major issue, particularly in large metropolitan areas, particularly new york city. and we've seendown faull of a lot of great businesses. restaurant, only so much you can make at a certain point. >> right. charles: but there is also labor, right? i would imagine labor would be your most expensive cost on income statement. this 15-dollar minimum wage, these efforts to force businesses to adopt higher minimum wages, i have always

said i think it backfires. because i know a lot of households where there is more than one person working on minimum wage. if you force businesses to artificially hike them, then you have only one person with a job, instead of two, income goes down. if something like that happen to you? >> that is really true. it's a tough one for us, we understand that our employees have to live in the most expensive city in the country, 15, 13, $18 an hour is really difficult and, but we have a business to run and unfortunately the economies of a restaurant are such that your payroll is your largest expense. if you can't control it, you have problems with the bottom line. charles: i'm, have you spoken to any politicians about this, local councilmen, the mayor, about hey, maybe your intentions are right and coming from the right place but the outcomes are actually the antithesis what you say you want to achieve? >> that is business 101 is really and in our case if you

have rising labor costs you have to find additional revenue, your rent is a fixed cost, you can't play with that it becomes difficult. going to $15 an hour in january, that is entry level wage for us. when someone comes off the street with no experience, they start at 15. but the fact of the matter is a lot of our employees, majority of our kitchen staff, are making 18, 19, $20 an hour. what will happen in the future? technology is going to have to come in and help replace some of these. charles: you will get some robots to maybe flip burgers or get the coffee? >> there is all kinds of technology. charles: we're seeing that already in a lot of places. the rollouts have been pretty impressive. so, it is just, you know, do you have a new location picked out yet? >> we have a new concept called flat fixed. my partners, we have this and we're going to roll this out.

again this concept is based on what we're seeing in the industry. the new restaurants opening up are smaller staff, grab and go type operations where people can just go and grab their meal and leave. charles: greater volume. >> yes, charles. charles: thank you. susan: my favorite memory of your cafe, "sex & the city." charles: we have to leave it there. real quick check on the dow. dow is up about 60 points right now. big important day and we got it all covered for you on "varney & company". up next the ceo of century aluminum firing up a new plant adding hundreds of jobs. the commerce secretary was there to celebrate that occasion. we'll speak with that ceo next. handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today.

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charles: we got a great success for you. kentucky aluminum plant is increasing production. creating nearly 300 new american jobs by early next year. joining us the ceo of century aluminum. mike, are these tariffs helping your business, reviving your industry? >> charles, thanks, without these tariffs this industry was on the verge of extinction, truly. i hope folks realize exactly

what happened here. we finally got somebody in the white house willing to stand up to these other countries for decade, charles, have been illegally subsidizing and cheating, illegally subsidizing their aluminum industries that basically come to the brink of driving this industry in the u.s. out of business. without president trump's leadership and that of secretary ross we would have lost the ability, charles, in this country to make building blocks for products like fighter jet, troop carriers, wire rod for the electrical grid. to make products we have to go to places like china, russia, persian gulf countries. you get the story. charles: mike, with all due respect, hey, go to allies, no big deal we could always get it to canada. can you imagine we go to war against china? they spent 190 billion on defense. changing up whole strategy ability to attack america. mike, is aluminum at levels not

seen since post-world war two. we never hear any sympathetic stories about the industry. always caution nair re tale, how trump started a trade war around how he is killing the average american. >> charles, this country is only produces now about 10% of the aluminum it needs every year. to your point, in times of even, good times, but god forbid in times of stress in the world, you don't want to be looking for places at the ends of earth to make these critical materials. it is that simple. we were that close to it. and what president has done, and what secretary ross has fostered here, is, has provided the ability for this industry to reinvest in itself. charles, just as important, i wish you could have been there, on wednesday, we were honored to have secretary ross and governor bevin of kentucky join us. we're adding 300 jobs. these are in communities, in western kentucky where these jobs are really needed. they come with average wage and benefit $90,000 a year. there multiples and multiples on

that in support and service jobs. charles: these are great jobs. >> absolutely. charles: mike, only 20 seconds left. i got to ask you, critics say your stock is at 12 bucks, down from $24 in the last -- maybe this isn't helping your industry. what would you say to them? you have only 20 second. >> a lot going out in our industry. raw material costs are going up. we're putting $150 million of funds back into this about, into this plant specifically to bring back the production and invest in new technology. we have the confidence that all will come. we have to stick to it. charles: mike, congratulations with you 100%. >> appreciate it. charles: we need to control our own destiny. appreciate you coming on the show this morning. >> thank you very much. charles: fed chair jay powell, who is up next in jackson, wyoming, everyone is watching, because it will determine what this market does. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour. a hotel can make or break a trip.

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charles: breaking news fed chair jarome powell about to peak in summit if jackson hall. edward lawrence with the latest, edward. >> expected to start momentarily and going to talk about the economy, he lays out historical perspectnif the economy to -- perspective in the economy and shows inflation and see the current path of raising rates tbrajly is the way to go and keep going. there's no elevated risk of over 2%. in the speech, quote, we have seen no clear sign of acceleration of 2% and there does not seem to be elevated risk of overheating. that's good news and results in part with the normalization process. powell believes that the economy

is good and moving forward and that the fed monetary policy is working as we go forward. in the speech fed chairman jarome powell says there's nonmonetary things we need to fix in the economy, like real wages have not grown for middle-income or low-income individuals, mobility of workers have declined and that speaks to higher job vacancies going forward and decline far more than any other advanced economy. he also said that we have to address the federal deficit and believe those factors are beyond monetary policy but something that he has to talk about. what's not directly in the speech is talking about the trade issues, dispute, he alludes to them, but, again, a number of the fed presidents that are here today told me face

to face there could be pullbacks of capital expenditures but something they are looking at. charles: thank you very much. so your response here? chairman powell, what he did was take a victory lap. federal reserve believes that it's really them beginning with president obama, coming in swooping in and printing 3 and a half trillion dollars, bailout schemes that they had to save the bank which they believe save economy and taking victory economy saying good times keep rolling on. >> he doesn't see inflation growing. charles: that's the caution that wall street wants to hear. remember the february 2nd the market was down 666 jobs and wall street went crazy. isn't that music to wall

street's ears, maybe not music to main street ears. >> maybe to your ears because you are bullish. with interest rates so low, not just short-term but 10 and 30, why haven't we seen the growth that we have been expecting since 2009 and 10 when they did all the programs with flooding the market with money? >> charles: if you recall janet yellen, she said the reason to answer your question was that fiscal policy wasn't cooperating with monetary policy. you have more regulations, higher taxes and those kinds of things put efforts on the things that they try achieve. but the strain is $22 trillion of debt that the united states created plus the record consumer debt that's been created plus the high corporate debt that's been created, so this whole bubble that we are seeing is all based on debt.

we didn't have the kind of debt today that we had in 2007-08. the debt today is what's sustaining. corporations are buying back stock to make earnings look bad, it's sustaining, that's what is holding this thing. hold on. trump is cutting taxes which is great, where is the money coming from and it's not just domestically from the united states, the world is broke and all the central banks are nervous and currencies are nervous and gold is nervous. look at the spread between 10 year -- hold on. they can raise the short end as much as they want to and think they are doing the right job. 20 basis points, 2007 levels and heading to zero. what are they going to say when rates are the same, you get 30

year. charles: what do you think, what essentially does it mean, i'm looking at the market tick higher since jarome powell comments were released? we are looking as far as household debt, the ability to pay disposable income of household debt is higher now. we are not at those peak levels, there's room to grow for households and participation -- corporations that are buying -- >> if what you're saying is correct, why are the commercials and hedgers, the highest in history on 10-year treasury -- charles: i can't speak -- >> there's a lot of positions. >> there's a lot of positions in the book. s&p hitting all-time high this year. >> charles. charles: including the russell 2000 hitting all-time high, that's on the books. >> why aren't interest rates at 4 to 5%?

chals -- charles: i don't know. do you want to see interest rates hike today that degree? >> he's going to do it. they have never gotten it right. charles: i don't disagree with you there. perhaps a it's not academic, right, someone who has been in the real world, someone understands markets, could it be different this time, could he in fact, take the right steps not to derail the economy, you have lost faith in the fed? >> i think the fed should be abolished. charles: i'm with you, by the way. >> they are not owned by the u.s. government controlling interest rate. charles: we have to leave it there. i also believe with you on the debt. >> that's a problem. charles: eventually it will implode, i don't know when, we don't know when. >> exactly. charles: thank you.

caterpillar happens to be one to have biggest gainers to have dow, this is a rally here, listen, the china trade minister left without any deal but some of these china-related stocks holding up okay so far today. meanwhile gas stores, they posted numbers, inventory issues at the main flag ship store, higher. oil caught a bit earlier in the week, starting to come off pretty weak. big news for the oil companies. well, the midterms are coming rapidly and hillary clinton believe it or not could be fundraising. you said many times she should go away. by the way, clinton voters are

more enthusiastic. is it about hillary herself or typical enthusiasm that comes from the party that just lost presidential race? >> enthusiasm for the party that lost that sees the multiple investigations of the trump administration and is looking for some political revenge. charles: hillary clinton headlining these events, does it -- is this a good or does it matter where she does because i'm seeing in the party itself, the younger folks, they don't want hillary, they don't want nancy pelosi, i thought that joe crowely lost would have been signal to these folks but then again they wouldn't be in this position if they paid attention to those tea leaves? >> charles, we are in a program about money. charles: she wasn't running that

much. >> she will be outracing money in the party's calculation and it's an intelligent one. if she can bring in multimillions of dollars they will take the political hit to get the cash. charles: all right, but one thing we are learning and i don't know if it's the admin of social media, videos, whatever it is, having the deepest pockets aren't always the answer otherwise we would be talking about president clinton instead of president trump. >> i think that's true, there's energy and enthusiasm now both in, you know, the mainstream media and in social media for the democrats so i think you're seeing a party that is revitalized but devehicle coded between the socialist of ocasio-cortez, mainstream fascism of nancy pelosi and more moderates like myself. charles: let's take a look at statement of nancy pelosi, i can take the heat and that's why i stay in the kitchen.

i have a following in the country that's unsurpassed by anybody unless they are running for president. those are fighting words? >> that's right. a lot of opposition, you will not beat somebody which is what she's saying she is with nobody. she's also a great fundraiser. charles: is she putting herself above the party, is she putting herself above young voters that the democratic party is banking onto secure them to victory? >> in a record yes, i have seen polling that shows almost as unpopular nationally as the president is nationally as well. so nancy pelosi has x on her fore head and you can be sure the republicans will run against her as democrats run against donald trump. charles: more and more democrats who are running against her in primaries too. i think that's interesting and i did see one poll where recently where she had a 9% approval rating far less than president

trump's. >> among democratic activist she has support but among millennials, you're right, not much, among moderates like me -- charles: millennials are going to carry democratic party to victory, millennials, black voters, hispanic voters, women. >> some faction of the party is saying that. i think some trump voters will come back, some voters who sat out because of hillary will come back and i think the democrats take the house probably not the senate. charles: thank you. we have a big hour for you, new jersey senate bob menendez facing competitor of republican challenger and starting to close the gap and we actually have him coming up with us next. also space force, vice president pushing the idea again yesterday but congress really has no approve this thing. it's going to be new branch of the military. congressman mike rogers is leading the charge on that front, we will ask him, is this really possible by 2020? and should google or apple buy

tesla, that's one of our guest says, he's make his case later this hour. wisconsin, where ice dams could cause water damage. but no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local allstate agents knows yours. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands?

charles: checking the big board, dow at 68 points, hanging in there. we have seen what the fed chair is going say and the market likes it. we are waiting for news on méxico. meanwhile lower margins at ross stores derailing the stock although it's not a lot more, huge run, giving up all-time high. nike's earnings and that's what happens when you miss. new poll shows next guest

slightly behind senator bob menendez, take a look at this because it is a lot closer than the experts said, republican candidate bob hugan trials menendez only 6 points. joining us bob hugan, new jersey senate candidate. i was so shocked when i saw the poll earlier this week. >> well, charles, really a third poll, the gra vis had 2 points. this is 6. this poll is slammed toward registered voters, when you think likely voters it's a dead heat and we are making the case. new jersey can you do better. charles: how can you explain the reason which is happening in charles: we know bob menendez has a lot of baggage, feel like more to it than that. >> there's multiple factors. new jersey is a proud state. i was born there and raised there. kathy and i raised family there, it's a great place, we love it

but new jersey takes a lot of junk if before new jersey, we take a lot, 35 years involved in corruption, 25 years in washington, 16 years with democratic president and new jersey is dead last, we get the least back from any state in the country, dead last, corrupt and in effective, it's time to change and the people of new jersey had that. charles: i'm a new jersey resident. a million people fled the state. if you're able to work, you have job skills, it doesn't make sense to even live in the state anymore, honestly, why not go to charlotte, why not two to georgia or somewhere? >> even pennsylvania. charles: we have a new governor that will make it difficult for businesses and why have we elected these people so far and what's the epiphany that they will say let's give bob a shot? >> i grew up in new jersey and

said all the kind of stuff and my values are aligned and sometimes republicans have not been aligned with some of the views in the state and so the time is right now. charles: more social issues? it's not economic thing? >> if you look at new jersey, new jersey hasn't reelected a democratic governor since the 80's. charles, you point out affordability is the number one issue in new jersey. it's so expensive and last tax bill as you point out and the reasonable regulation this administration is doing is we are seeing great economic growth but the 10,000-dollar cap on state and local taxes has put a damper on new jersey and you talk about people leaving, that is combined with the fact that our largest, fastest migration of new jersey 18 to 34-year-old and that bodes badly for future job creation. that's what we are talking about, affordability, the economy. it's resinating.

charles: we have new proposed treasury roll aim today block high states like new jersey from dodging salt deduction caps, what do you say to that? >> those dodges were disingenuous, attempt to move people's focus away from the fact that we are taxing too much and spending too much, we need a government that's going to run more efficiently. you can't get a tax to get in return. makes no sense. charles: how much time do you articulate to new jersey voter, we sort of got a raw deal from the federal government but it's the fault of the local federal government because taxes here are high and we are paying for so many things, essentially in many ways new jersey is a welfare state and now become sanctuary state, those are expensive to run? >> i have to tell you, it goes

ways, trenton is responsible for a lot of the reason but washington and senator menendez have failed the state of new jersey. fiftieth, it deserves more back from washington. there's more to that story and washington has failed new jersey and i'm committed to make sure we will put new jersey up first again. charles: great, great, by the way, love your commercials and love the momentum and love your message. we appreciate you coming in. >> great to be with you. charles: by the way, we did reach out to incumbent bob menendez and yet to hear back from him. finding the next permian basin, went middle east, south america and canada and found it here in america, later this hour xfinity mobile is a new wireless network

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charles: all right, check poppa johnson because the company now mandating diversity training for its staff. we know the founder john scna, hit us with that number. >> all right, so finally premiums crossing a billion dollars, you know two out of three households in the u.s. own a pet, that's 85 million pets and they spend a lot to take care of them because they are just so cute, aren't they? comes to $257 per dog, just for veterinary care alone, right. for cats -- charles: i knew it.

>> 1% of pets are insured so there's a lot of room for growth because they are saying in u, can you have 25% of pets are insured, the runway that you have. charles: why so different, ashley? [laughter] ashley: listen, people love their pets, i have two dogs, love them, i have pet insurance, it's great, you need it, those vet bills can get -- charles: tell me about it. we had a dog that had diabetes and we had to get insulin shots twice a day. >> up with of the producers had to unfortunately take pet to surgery, 5,000-dollar bill. [laughter] charles: i want to switch gears, new report says no amount of alcohol that's good for you, none? >> none. charles: ashley, none? you have to be kidding me in i heard that a shot here and there does the trick. >> i completely disagree with

the report. 1990 to 2016 involving 195 countries and they tracked people who had one drink a day, two drinks a way, five drinks a day or zero and they charted and followed their health because there's been a feeling out there, if you have a red glass to your heart, it's good for you, cancer, liver problems, bottom line, safest thing to have is to have zero. charles: all right. ashley: we will see. charles: president trump going after attorney general jeff sessions, republican senators though warning that if he does fire sessions it would be nearly impossible to confirm a new attorney general. we are all over that. solution to end all of elon musk's problems, sell the company to apple or google.

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joining us harvard law school fellow. all right, make your case, i'm sure elon musk is listening. [laughter] ashley: well, if you think about it, steve jobs dreamed of having icar, later they don't have nothing to show for it. they have been trying to build it. predictions 2025 before they have anything. by 2025 we will have, you know, self-driving cars in all of our roads and electric cars would cost half as much as they do today and we will all be upgrade to go them. apple will miss the boat and google has beautiful self-driving in waymo, it doesn't have a car, a few little cars in mountain view california, they're not going to produce them. so all they are doing is marketing software, imagine now if they would have merged with tesla, elon musk would be free to do what he's good at innovate and think and come up with great

inventions and change the world and you have have tim cook take over manufacturing of the tesla, apple is really good at manufacturing. they can manufacture better than almost any company in the world, what if they took over manufacturing, what if now with all future cars when they drive themselves we have complete entertainment units in the car because we will want to do something. we have apple tv's in there, we have devices, consumer gadgets and apple could be developing a whole new range of products that go in the cars. charles: sounds great and i don't disagree with you from apple's perspective. there's a lot of criticism behind the curve on personal digital assistance, they are playing catch-up in a rapidly expanding market and you would think because, you know, they haven't had the next new thing, next big thing, seems like they feel pretty comfortable spending most of their money on buying

back their own stock and upgrading iphones but the google idea maybe, maybe little different because do they want to be you mentioned, okay, they have the software, maybe they like being in the software business. not everybody wants to have the gillette model, in the case gillette model works. that might be a tougher sale. >> google is building drones, marketing chrome books, google does want to be in hardware but hasn't been good at it. they figured out how to produce cars, google could provide system for self-driving cars as well as the cars themselves. it would make a lot of sense and they've got the money. charles: let's talk about the price tag, does anybody want to

pay $220 for a share? >> morgan stanley priced $175 million, merge waymo and tesla together and the value would double or triple overnight. $70 billion for a company is nothing. charles: where does elon musk play in all of this because if you do spend $70 billion, maybe you want his expertise but a lot of baggage that comes with it? >> elon is brilliant. i know him personally. i tell you he's been cracking up because of all the pressure and trying to prove himself and so on, but elon is a brilliant human being, he has a vision, his dream is to retire on mars and believe it or not he may actually get there. charles: let me jump in there, we don't have a lot of time. since you know him so well, what do you think he's going to do besides these hypothetical

situations, what do you think he will ultimately do, press really strongly to go private because he hates the strain that comes with being publicly-traded company. what do you think his next move is? >> i've exchanged emails recently, he's been going through hell. right now he's trying to take a break trying to get life back and hired investment bankers to look into it. if apple or google made him good offer and give -- charles: i agree with you. we wish him well, thank you very much, great stuff. really thank you, we will hopefully have you next time real soon when you write the next piece that gets our minds turning. thanks a lot. >> thank you. charles: president trump has strong words for attorney general jeff sessions on twitter, the president said in part, department of justice will

not be influenced by political considerations, jeff, this is great, what everyone wants, look into the corruption on the other side the president goes on, the clinton foundation, illegal surveillance of the trump campaign, russian collusion by dems an so much more, open up the papers and documents without redactions, come on, jeff, you do it. the country is waiting. let's bring in fox news analyst. bob, you want to talk about drama, feels like it's inevitable that president trump would like to fire jeff sessions, i guess the question now is should it happen before midterms or after? >> i mean, i'm opposed to it because i think the fallout is too much and gives liberal side too much ammunition and i really think just leave him alone. the guy is an ethical guy, great lawyer and chose him, and understand he's upset about the fact that he allegedly didn't close to the president that he was going to recuse himself, that would be upsetting to me,

be the lawyer of the country but, charles, leave it alone and let everything continue on. charles: one issue that has senators out there n this environment they couldn't confirm attorney general is that right? >> right. i think so. something that you would be faced with and in the midterm elections coming up, there's so much toxicidity going on and it's really ridiculous but at the same time i'm going to tell you this, if somebody was investigating me, the last thing i would be out there pushing against it. i would let it alone, run the country which the president has done a wonderful job doing, i am concerned about this constant battle and i don't think disparaging the attorney general is necessarily the pest interest of the country either. charles: it really is tough because to your point maybe there were some things sessions could have done early on and

maybe wouldn't have had the job if he was candid with the president during hiring process. having said that and having come this far, do you think the mueller investigation will ultimately be wrapped up, that president trump won't pull the plug as much as he has disdain for it that he won't pull the plug on it? >> well, i live in a town where everybody bets so when is it finally going to end, i don't know. let's assume, charles, that the president would appoint a new attorney general and let's say that attorney general would bring a new special prosecutor in, it's sort of like when a lawyer steps into a case that's been around for a couple of years and then we have to start all over, that's what you end up doing is starting all over. i don't think it's not wise because it will prolong in election and the last thing we want is somebody stepping in new and starting over.

personally i would have loved to have seen chris christie be attorney general. i will tell you this, what is going on would not been going on if chris christie was attorney general. charles: bob, you're the best. great seeing you, thanks a lot. >> charles, thank you, sir. charles: hey, now there's this, disney asking anaheim california to tax incentive for disneyland that would allow the company to avoid 18-dollar minimum wage. the mayor of anaheim will respond and we have that for you next. vice president pence pushing for space force opening up in 2020. we will speak with lawmaker who has to get donning approve it. i know, i know, people asking is it even realistic, we will be right back.

ashley: congressman jim joined us last hour and told us the inability to deduct state and local taxes can be upset elsewhere, take a listen. >> i'm a cpa so i understand, though deductions, what people don't understand people did not use deductions because the standard deduction took all of that expense, we doubled standard deduction to 94% to

have people will not be able to use those deductions, now, that doesn't affect all states and nothing is perfect and you're never going to have the perfect tax law that makes winners for everybody, but in this case, we simplified it, now we have 90 plus percent of the people that will not have to keep all those documents, all those state taxes because they'll be able to use much higher standard deduction.2. i don't know why i didn't get screened a long time ago. i kept putting it off... what was i thinking? ok, mr. jones... we're all done. i told you it was easy. with life line screening, getting screened for unknown health conditions is so quick, painless and affordable, you'll wonder why you hadn't done it before. so if you're over age 50, call now and schedule an appointment near you. for just $149- a savings of over 50%- you'll receive a package of five screenings

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charles: quick check at the big board, i will takes 33 at this stage of the session. now this, vice president mike pence pushing pushing the administration's plan for space force, listen to this. >> as we speak, the department of defense is moving forward with initial steps to strengthen american security in space and we will continue to work with both parties in congress to provide the necessary authorities and funding to stand up a new branch of our armed forces in the united states department of space force would be a reality by the year 2020. charles: let's bring in congressman mike rogers, republican from alabama, you're on the armed forces committee and president trump, well, can he actually make a new branch of the military without congressional approval and if that's the case, how are you guys going to get it through? >> yeah, he can start it, that's what the defense department is

doing. in fact, the initiative started by the defense department began by congress requiring last year, we we wanted to see a separate space service established starting about a year and a half ago and we put it in last year's ndaa to require the defense department to go and study themselves and come back by august 1st with a report and that was what vice president was announcing, was the study that we had required. folks have to understand, we are not talking about star trek here, we are talking about national security satellites and this is essential that we get after this problem because we have serious threats from the chinese and the russians when it comes to our national security satellites and those are getting worse every day. charles: i'm glad you say that people have to understand that this is -- because knee-jerk reaction is ridiculed, but that's always the knee-jerk reaction, i didn't understand that we had a space treaty,

covered nuclear weapons but not the kinds of things that the chinese are working on and how much our economy and security is tie today -- tied to outer space. >> here domestically, if you use that smartphone in your hand, you're using satellite. if you put debit card in gas pump, you're using satellite. we are heavily depending on satellites and our economy. same thing happened in the military, over 10 to 12 years we have become dependent on satellites for not only commanding control, communications, navigating, the cruise missiles that the president sent over to hit syria with, those are guided with satellites, when we watch korea to make sure they are not launching, it's with satellites, when we are listening to them, it's satellites, we have dependent on satellites to fight

and win wars. china and russia have become aggressive not only with satellite capabilities but offensive capabilities in space. we have to respond that china has established a separate space service, we have to do the same thing. charles: some are saying why don't we make it a part of the air force. >> well, that's what it is now. that's what got us into the problem. it's the air force, it's the greatest air force the world has ever seen but air dominance has been their mission, culturally built around that, space is one of under missions and never meet the challenges that we have unless it's separated. that's the other thing i want people to realize, when the president talks about standing up a separate space service, we are taking existing space personnel in the air force, army and navy and separating them. we are not getting new people, we are just separating them. we will separate budget, organize them and let them build a culture around space dominance, an educational system

within current infrastructure, no new academies but we have to have a group of people who come to work every day knowing space dominance is number one mission. charles: the timeline, it's a very aggressive timeline, how do we reach this timeline because to your point, china and russia have been extremely aggressive with their military budgets focused on this and it would take just any kind of advance laser technology to wipe us out, i don't think we understand risk, is that going to be the sort of thing that you have to sell to expedite this? >> well, the fortunate thing is we really don't have to worry about the senate. this passed out of the house last year with overwhelming vote. it came out of the armed services committee with a near unanimous vote completely bipartisan. if the senate had gone there and poison the well, they didn't want to see the money pot leave

jurisdiction, that's the way unfortunately i think the space mission has been viewed by the air force, a more of a money pot for dominance missions. so now i think with the pentagon on board, secretary mattis on board, that you're going to see the senate become more comfortable with us going forward and the timetable -- again, we are taking existing personnel and existing infrastructure and just separating them. charles: thank you very much. >> thank you. charles: finding next permian basin and our next guest went to find and guess what it's here in america, we are all over that. don't forget about the price of gold, more on that next. ♪

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charles: there it is, s&p 500 at all-time high. switching gears now, the underdeveloped oil sands in the part of utah desert can now become the next hot spot for oil exploration. here to explain it gerri bailey, petro tech president. all right, this is potentially

the next permian basin, is there that much potential, gary? >> there's billions of oil in utah sand, it's going to be a big effect. charles: we are hearing all kinds of amazing data and numbers of potential and seems like it got bogged down. i know it's more expensive to refine it, is there -- what level does crude oil have to be at for this to be a viable area for -- to spend the money, the infrastructure, to not only drill or process the oil sands but to get it to market? >> well, the process that we are using in utah with petro tech energy is totally different than canada. canada is water-wet sands, causes all kinds of problems, environmental. we are talking about oil wet sands in utah and question do that for $30 a barrel and under.

so when utah is able to make oil canada is in real problems in the 50 or 55-dollar range, so this is the totally unique and different opportunity, so we are -- we are unlocking that and you know my background being a former exxon executive, i ran the middle east arabian for many years, hello to susan, my good friend. they heard me talk about this before. it's in a range that we can do something. we are not a start-up. petro tech, we found the opportunity and started in 2014. now we have expanded and we are really getting traction. it's a new technology that here no one had unlocked the secret and when the founders asked me to come on board as oil man, i'm a texas oil man as you know, i said, i think we can do

something, hey, it's just another way to give us energy and america and the world needs energy and oil is still a very and most cost effective way to do it. that's where we fit in. charles: real quick because we don't have that much time -- >> sure. charles: we have seen issues with the permian basin and maybe victim of its own success, we have some questions whether or not, you know, some franks -- fracking in north dakota, are they starting to fade here. the utah oil sands, is it the perfect time for it? >> it is a perfect time for it and it's additive situation, we are just small part of the picture. the permian is still huge and will continue. i'm old enough. i've been through a number of the cycles and the permian is coming along fine. a lot of oil being produced there, we can do for what it cost for a well or two, we can build a whole process so it's

good. charles: gary, congratulations, we will be following this one closely. >> thank you very much. charles: a dozen tech companies meeting today all about the midterms, more varney next. . .

charles: good morn i'm charles payne in for stuart varney. 11:00 a.m. on the east coast. 8:00 p.m. on the west. we have a friday rally. we have strong, optimistic comments from the fed chair in the last hour, giving this extra boost to this market. look at this, nasdaq, s&p 500 and russell 2000, all hitting all-time highs. the economy is humming, the market is humming but our next guest says it's time to be cautious. capitalist pig hedge fund manager jonathan hoenig joins us now. jonathan, you usually go with the flow.

>> there is cause for caution, charles, exactly what you said, because the data is so good. look this is nine years into a bull market and let's not forget at the beginning of the bull market the data was terrible, the consumer confidence was in the toilet. the fact all these indicators, joblessness at historic lows or consumer confidence at historic highs, only been higher since before the 2008 recession and back in the '99 tech bubble, there is a lot of reasons to be cautious primarily because so many people are so optimistic right now. charles: although, when i look at things like the american association for individual investors, the neutral reading is what bothers me. i don't think the individual investor is optimistic as you would think. i think e-trade, one of them, they're not doing that well. you do wonder, because the average investor out there, or would be investor, jonathan missed a lot of this. do they have time to get in? >> well, yeah, for nine years,

charles, a lot of people sat on the sidelines because they blamed the obama economy, the obama stimulus programs. they sat out. now the fact that the data is good, that the fundamentals are good, ironically, that using that as reason to get into the market. to me that is actually at the wrong time. we talk about the fundamentals tend to lag the market. the market itself is the leading indicator. you're right, a lot of folks have not participated. what they have done, charles, is taken on debt. we've seen a total transformation last nine years for people reluctant to very in debt, using their homes as credit card, taking on record consumer credit card debt. i'm not saying dump all the stocks. at minimum, pay down the credit card debt, month, two months living expense sass, cash in the bank, that will help you sleep at night regardless of the market dynamic is, number one is student loans, number two is

auto loans, then credit cards. it was exact opposite before. we're back to all-time high. i do want to ask you about this, jonathan. president trump, he says that the markets will crash if he gets impeached. what he is saying if he were boot the out of office for any reason this whole thing would fall apart. what are your thoughts? >> to me sounds like somewhat of an implicit threat, i don't know. it certainly isn't historically accurate. i believe the president was a democrat during the bill clinton era, not exactly sure, that president got impeached, that is one of the greatest bull markets in u.s. history. what is the market? the market is voluntary transactions between hundreds of million of people. it's a lot bigger than one single man, even if the man is the president. charles: there is something to be said about the headlines, we had headlines in the last year, that derailed the market for a day or two. in other words, you know, they don't stop the economy, they haven't stopped the economy but

we have something that they keep using the term constitutional crisis is. we never had a president booted out of office, believe me i don't think we're anywhere near that right now from the news we've seen this week but hypothetically that would do something negative to the market for at least a short period of time. >> it would cause some uncertainty but at this point, charles, i'm much more worried about the breakdown in those technology stocks. the president can take credit for the economy and the market. it has been names like facebook, netflix, tesla, that is the economy. the economy isn't who is in washington, d.c. the economy saul us, brilliant minds innovators keeping companies function. i'm keeping my eye on the innovators, less what is happening in d.c. i don't think impeachment will happen, even if it does i don't think the market crashes as a result. charles: one thing we can agree on though, policies, consumer confidence, whatever it is, because it's a lot of things

unleashed the american consumer. 2/3 of the retail economy, retail names, retail stocks, i'm told you have a retail pick that you like? >> why you need to focus on price not so much the story because most people would say i don't know about retail. why? because of the amazon effect that was really last year or two years ago news. a lot of retail stocks we talk about on fox business quite a bit, been in. taubman real estate reit owns malls as part of a diversified portfolio. i think it is worth a look. charles: do they have a dividend. >> as investor, price is primary. look for strong assets doing well, most importantly doing well where not everyone is talking about it. even if you don't jump to the sidelines with stocks with my

money look at alternative assets not necessarily on front page, facebooks, apples, teslas, that is yesterday news. charles: those are certainly crowded trades. i was telling people, pounding the table on these retailers on this network for the last five or six months. so i'm thrilled. we're doing really well right now. i do want you to stay right there. we have news breaking on microsoft. the feds are investigating them on bribery and corruption allegations. what is that? ashley: not the first time this comes up this involves particularly hungary, justice department and sec. this is how it works. microsoft sold products like word and excel to middle people, okay, in hungary. who sold them, sold at middle people to a steep discount and sold to the hungarian government at basically full price. the question what happened to all the profits? the allegation, or at least the investigation focuses whether those profits were used as bribes and kickbacks to the government officials in order to purchase the microsoft product.

this has come up before in other countries. microsoft already looked into it, they fired four people but u.s. authorities are still taking a look for themselves. charles: jonathan, this kind of a story, does it make you concerned for microsoft? >> look, i'm concerned for the citizens of hungary. this is the a story about corruption in hungary endemic in some parts of europe. recent, charles, hungary is more corrupt than montenegro. this is company where economics politics are fully meshed. that is when you get cronyism. when government is involved in business, when corruption, crone iism, bribery occurs. you need separation of the economy and government. that isn't what occurs in hungary. that is why you see corruption like this all the time. charles: jonathan hoenig, have a great weekend. talk to you soon. now there is this, up to a dozen tech companies, facebook, snapchat, google, they're having a meeting at twitter headquarters in san francisco today. the topic? midterm elections. coming up former wife house

chief of information officer, theresa peyton, how they prevent misinformation being spread on their respective websites. disney asking anaheim, california to end all tax incentives. but there is a catch to the disney offer. the mayor of anaheim joins us later in the hour to discuss that. a battle is now brewing between the treasury department and those high-taxed blue states and it is all about the state and local tax deductions. we're on top of that. it is the third hour of "varney & company." ♪

charles: we've got quick breaking news items for you. first the chief financial officer of the trump

organization, alan weiss el berg has been granted immunity by prosecutors in the michael cohen case. no reaction in the market. we got this as well, senator john mccain chosen to discontinue medical treatment. a statement released, according to a statement released by the mccain family. get on latest with the hurricane, hurricane lane. now, considered a category three, but is expected to dump a ton of rain on hawaii. adam housley is in now way. adam, what are the conditions looking like right now? reporter: charles in fact it has just come to us it is now a category two. they just downgraded it again. doesn't mean we'll not get pounded by rain. it is dry. we've waiting for rain 24 hours on maui. most of the islands are waiting for rain. little bands come through. that is about it. many times you cover a hurricane you can tell what is coming the way the ocean reacts, the last

hour 1/2 we're been out here it is an angry ocean. how much stuff we have coming our way we just don't know. 35 miles to the east over on the big island they are the ones getting rain in the last 24 hours. they have been getting pounded. in some cases 22 inches of rainfallen on the east side of the big island. normally the west side of the island anyway, mountains and two big volcanoes and sucks moisture out of the atmosphere so to speak. those band of rains came north, pounded hilo and the east side of the island. west side remains pretty dry and other islands in the chain, where we are in maui, oahu, la how much we get is the question. this is much different storm. there is worries about wind, whether or not or a cat-5 or cat-4 would make landfall in hawaii, first time that happened since 1992.

that will not happen by forecast. we will get rain and mudslides and possibly flooding. the forcast we're standing possibly as much as 12 inches. charles? charles: adam housley thank you very much. now there is this, the feds implementing new rules to block ohio-tacks blue states to block limits on local and state tax deductions. fred barnes, editor "the weekly standard." are these states, california, new york, knew injuries, lowering their taxes or keep trying to get around these loopholes? >> no. absolutely not, charles. what they're trying to do is it protect their taxes, not let the federal government get money. claiming that it is their sovereign right in states to set their tax rates and not let the federal government interfere. it is a ridiculous argument.

though will lose. another thing they want to do, make these taxes in states tax deductible in the states. in other words, use the money for the to support municipalities, the money they're now paying to the federal government. this argument has gone on. it went on during, during the reagan administration and again here in the trump administration and we're probably be hearing about it when you and i are long gone. charles: yeah. you know, in the meantime, do you think there will be pressure on local politicians and governors, state senators of these states that created such an environment where, you know, you have got two classes of people, you have the super wealthy or the super poor, who just keep getting crushed. there is no mobility unless you're leaving the state? >> i think you described it accurately. in these very high-taxed states,

high-spending states, new york, new jersey, connecticut, california, and several others, but they want to tax their people and spend that money and they don't want the federal government to, and then they want to deduct it from their federal taxes. they were lucky to come off with a cap of only $10,000. it could have been higher. certainly the effort by the trump administration and paul ryan and others was to eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes entirely. but ceiling of 10,000 was the best they could get. charles: got another one for you, fred. >> okay. charles: president trump heading to ohio today. he will tout of course the economy which is on fire but it doesn't seem like the gop is really doing an effective job getting this message across. what do you make of that? there is a "gallup poll," fred, says americans keep growing

optimistic about the job market. that is 67%. a couple years ago it was 43%. why can't they articulate this kind of stuff? >> trump is great on one thing, he is great on articulating what he personally does, and particularly who his enemies are. you know tweets, he doesn't tweet much about taxes or, or the economy. i mean he, he does some but not the amount that is really needed. and if he doesn't do that, republicans are going to still get less out of this really remarkably robust economy than they are now politically. charles: i would like to see president trump do more tweeting with respect to the economy and things like that. i write every single day about this economy and there are certain things like 52,000 big-rigs were ordered last month, by far an all-time record. people don't understand the implications of that. that means there is going to be 52,000 jobs, it will be a lot of blacks and hispanics and women

and other people who are going to get those jobs, but he does talk about it a lot at his rallies. i'm worried about the rest of the party who i never hear articulate this stuff. >> they are not doing a very good job either. i wouldn't let trump off the hook but i wouldn't let the entire republican party off the hook. you can't take it for granted that this robust economy and how it got to be so strong got there. you have to tell them. you can't be yakking about omarosa and attacking jeff sessions and so on. you really have to spell it out. trump can do that. he is not inclined to and republicans don't seem to be inclined either at the moment. charles: fred barnes, thank you very much. really appreciate it. >> you're welcome. charles: price of gold here, folks. gold, that is really like your barometer. back above 1200. it is a tough, tough road for gold which in some ways is good news. means no one is panicking. bitcoin, tooth and nail fight

for relevance, trying to get, trying to get etfs out there. if they can do that, get that blessing, i think you will see it take off. right now it has been sideways for a while. there is oil range-bound but up significantly today. earlier in the week we had a massive drawdown. that has sparked more buying in crude which may have hit a near-term bottom. consequently the gas prices, nationally, average is $2.83 a gallon, up a penny from yesterday. check this out, a secret drug tunnel has been found underneath a former kfc in arizona. the passage started in the basement of kfc. it led to a trap door under a bed in a home in mexico. that is a well-built tunnel. you have the munchies right, you could go straight to kfc. ashley: a lot of endeavor into that. charles: yeah. to chicago where they have major pension deficit. their solution is? rob peter to pay paul. they want to take out even more

debt. you just can not make this stuff up. but we do have the details for you, next. ♪

charles: we have more breaking news for you. robin leach, the long-time host of the show, life-styles of the rich and famous has died. that is according to a report in a las vegas review journal. he had been in the hospital since suffering a stroke back in november. robin leach was 76 years old. now there is this. chicago has a major pension deficit. it is now considering an unusual tactic to fix it, take on more debt. jeff flock in chicago to explain how that will work, jeff? reporter: in fairness, we need fair and balanced coverage here, chicago doesn't look at it that way. no one is questioning about the debt. look at the number, charles, $28 billion short in the pension fund. this is the pension fund that pays police, firefighters, other municipal workers. what the city wants to do do take out a 10 billion-dollar pension obligation bond. that is to say, borrow that money, put that into the pension

fund and essentially refinance the debt in there now. they owe $28 billion no matter how you cut it. if you get bondholders to pay, take that on, they bet they can do better in their investments going forward. we got rising interest rates, you lock in a bond at lower rate. going forward maybe you do better in the invests, you make some money. this has been tried by other municipalities. actually they found it did pretty well. here is the problem in chicago. when the state of illinois did this, they actually didn't put the money into the pensions. not all of it. so consequently you have to keep an eye on these guys. mayor emanuel has a pretty good reputation for handling pensions so far. some people think this will be a good thing. remains to be seen. charles: remains to be seen. thank you for being fair and balanced. see you again soon. reporter: see you, charles. charles: want to get back to disney asking the city of anaheim, california, to end all

tax incentives. up next i want to ask why disney needed tax incentives to begin with. market here the highs of the session. records for the s&p, nasdaq and russell. we have the man who says alibaba, baidu, tencent could rise 20%. i believe him. next. ♪

charles: check the big board. looking at dow 30, majority of higher. nike loser perhaps a negative reaction to foot locker's earnings results. big high, big news coming out of jackson hole. federal reserve chairman jay powell seems extraordinarily confident and the market picked up on that. >> into now disney, disney is asking the city of anaheim, california, to end all tax incentive deals. the company says it wants to improve the company's relationship with the city. joining us tom tait, the mayor of anaheim. i guess the first question, mayor is, why would disney, one of the largest corporations in the world, even need all the tax

incentives in the first place? >> well, that is a very good question. and the answer is, they don't. the city needs to keep all of our tax revenue. so i really applaud disney for coming to the city and saying, you know what? basically, that we, recognition that the city needs money more than they do, they canceled all that stuff. a few years ago, the council over my objection agreed -- they're not tax incentives, they're economic assistance agreements to the tune, one was $267 million, that the city of anaheim, a city needs every penny we can for public services things like that, was to give that to disney over the 20 years, and disney, to their credit said you know what? this is, these are toxic relationships, toxic deals, and it caused a real serious strain on the relationship between the city and disney. charles: right.

>> i really applaud them for canceling those. charles: why would there be a strain on someone saying hey, don't give me $260 million? is this a sense not all true is i can, maybe the real deal here, disney can opt out of paying $18 minimum wage? >> i probably misspoke. the strain was when they had these deals. charles: okay, i got you. >> by them releasing it, removed that strain, we're all back on the same page. charles: but disney though, the ability, if they don't take these advantage of these, you want to call them benefits -- >> economic assistance. charles: economic assistance. >> giveaways. charles: giveaways, also not having to adhere to 18-dollars minimum wage, are you concerned about that? >> there is also, there is an initiative qualified for the ballot in anaheim that says, if you're getting economic assistance, a subsidy from the city of anaheim, you have to pay a living wage to your workers.

it's reasonable. it is reasonable for the workers to say, hey, if you're getting a big subsidy, what about us? that might not apply. that is not exactly clear but, i think disney is really turned the page in its relationship. they came to the city, said you know what? we don't want these subsidies. they have actually negotiated with a good number of their unions. i think it is, disney saying hey, we want to treat the city, our host city better. we want to be part of the community. i think they're also saying we want to treat our workers and pay them a fair wage and i've seen great movement towards that. charles: mayor, thank you very much. really appreciate it. >> thank you. charles: now there is this. president trump says the economy is probably the best its ever has beens and drama washington, d.c. overshadow i had in the news department. joining me go pac chairman,

david avella. will republicans get the message out, people are living, times what to talk about what they care about they're not expressing something optimistic about. >> yes, every time someone opens their paycheck, see more money in the paycheck, every time they open the investment account, see investments up, every time they get additional benefits from the employer, they connect that with a economy put in place by republican congress and president trump and here's roof, charles. rick scott is winning the florida senate race right now. josh hawley is up in missouri. kevin cramer is up in his race in north dakota. and the big news -- charles: david, you're cherry-picking. you got polls out there saying that the republicans are going to get slaughtered in the house and are in jeopardy in the senate. >> the average of poles has rick scott, josh hawley and kevin

cramer up. this week, big news, in wisconsin, leah vukmir is in statissal tie with tammy baldwin. this would not happen if people listening with the nonstop drumbeat they hear out of the media, somehow republicans will get destroyed. look, here is the reality. if some in the media and dems weren't doing wall-to-wall coverage on investigations an calling for impeachment, the democrats would have no chance. let me give you just an example. the comments that elizabeth warren made about mollie tibbetts death are outrageous. it shows how outside the mainstream progressives like elizabeth warren are. charles: david, before i let you go, i don't disagree with that we have to wrap it up. do you see ream for improvement in getting this message out, rather than assuming people will connect these dots? some people think this is the obama economy. >> there is always room for improvement and fortunately small dollar investors are

putting money into the republican national committee. and into other republican entities like go pac, gopac.org, if some one wants to invest in go pac, giving us resources to make sure we get the message out. charles: we'll wrap it up on the commercial. great as usual, david. talk to you real soon. >> thanks. charles: our next guest is a real big fan of tech, specifically chinese tech, alibaba, baidu, tencent. principal analyst at big silicon valley firm. joining us ray wong of constellation research. ray, these stocks have been decimated, on earnings by the way, earnings short falls. you got to wonder, particularly with the big trade fight and battle over made in china 2025 being the central issue, what's going on here? >> you know there is a huge opportunity to come in and buy. they're investing for the long haul, the same way amazon was 10 years ago. they're putting in the infrastructure. they have got the numbers, and in that protectionist

environment that they're in, they pretty much have the market to themselves. baidu, alibaba and tencent which you're talking about. charles: by the same token the chinese government cracking down a lot on social media sites, cracking down on media sites. there is double of had edged sword when it comes to controlled protectionism economy like that. >> i agree. i'm a free market capitalist n that market they're pretty much controlled. at whims what might happen, might be gaming one day, might be too much screen time are the other could be infected. they're all building exits out of china, india, the rest of southeast asia. some cases getting to middle east around america. that is some areas we see their growth. charles: ray, one is a huge red flag, maybe you can help me with, the shenzhen stock exchange, home to upcoming technology companies, off 50% from the fifth fifth high. this suggests something is really wrong. this is long before the trade tariffs stuff. this is something that really, i

mean what is it, with is going on these tech names are getting hammered like this? >> well in that exchange i think what you're seeing there is a lot of speculation, frothy kind of like the nasdaq was in the '90s but what we're seeing a few winners emerged. if you look at big three, they're basically digital portfolios. the way we looked at ge in the '90s, portfolio of industrials stocks, trying to be number one, number two in their categories. that is basically what baidu, alibaba and tencent are doing, commerce, social media, payments, to banking, to delivery services, they're building that out and the retail expansion as you can see. charles: i happen to think you're right. they may be volatile near term. i think the stocks are way oversold. i'm on same page. thanks a lot. we appreciate having you on. you're looking now at jackson hole, wyoming. they're taking a break. chair jerome powell is going for a walk. there he is now. you remember the old greenspan

thing, you look how he walked if he had a briefcase, that kind of stuff, i don't know. we're watching market at session highs as powell emerges. he gave the speech on the economy. he was extraordinarily bullish. reaffirmed the fact there will be gradual rate hikes as the economy continues to improve. but there is no inflation scare out there. i think this is what the market wants. they want someone out there not necessarily classically-trained economist but someone who understands what is really going on in the heartland. ashley: there is pretty dovish statement come out of him, which hit the dollar, down against all the out currencies. not a rush to raise rates. laid-back, we'll do them incrementally. even though the economy is strong, not overheating. that hit the dollar today. charles: let me ask you real quick, i'm getting a tease. do you think trump's recent pressure had anything to do with this? ashley: maybe. susan: strong economy as he pointed out. talking about gradual rate increases what they have been doing.

charles: of course we've been hearing that retail is making a comeback. we've seen it first-hand. the target ceo himself probably had the most bullish statement you've heard from a retail executive in a while. we've got the man who says amazon can't compete with the treasure hunt experience of going to stores and finding those bargains for yourself. up to two dozen tech companies including facebook, snapchat and google all going there to meet with twitter. that is their headquarters in san francisco. of course they're talking about the midterm elections and the question is how can these companies prevent misinformation being spread on their website? up next, former white house chief information officer theresa peyton on that. ♪ ♪ as moms, we send our kids out into the world, full of hope. and we don't want something like meningitis b

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♪ >> i'm nicole petallides with your fox business brief. take a look, the markets are hitting highs. let's show you what's happening here. in fact the s&p 500 is up half a percent at an all-time high and its very first record since january 26th. when we look at nasdaq, tech-heavy nasdaq, we see plenty of tech winners, that is all-time high. in fact 106th record close since the election day. there is the russell, small caps which have been a little less exposed to trade worries and

tariffs. you can see that too at a record high as well. look at some of the winners on the dow jones industrial average right now. which also includes some highs. dupont, unitedhealth, caterpillar, are all in fact to the upside and visa and united health are hitting highs as well. keep it right here. "varney & company" continues. ♪

charles: president trump continues to spar with attorney general jeff sessions but the ag isn't backing down. hillary vaughn is at the white house with the latest. hillary. reporter: charles, this is day two of the latest sessions squabble here at the white house. now the president is using sessions' own words against him. when sessions yesterday publicly told the president his doj would not be quote, improperly influenced by political considerations trump tweeting back this morning, jeff, this is great. what everyone wants. look into all the corruption at other side. the president rolling out a laundry list of things he would like sessions to investigate, including clinton's deletes emails, fired fbi director james comey's lies and fbi texting lovers peter strzok and lease a page. cheering on the attorney general, come on jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting. the president who has been annoyed at sessions ever since

one of first acts as attorney general was stepping down from the russia investigation, and handing the reins over to mueller, the president questioning the justice chief's judgement in another tweet saying, ex-nsa contractor spent 63 months in jail over classified information. gee, this is small potatoes compared to what hillary clinton did. so unfair, jeff. double standard. but, charles, some republicans in the senate say hold on to the ag that you have, they don't think they have the votes to confirm another one. charles? charles: hillary, thank you very much. meanwhile a dozen tech companies, including facebook, snapchat, google are reportedly meeting at twitter's headquarters today. they will talk about the midterm elections. joining us theresa peyton, former white house chief information officer and ceo of fort solutions. theresa, these companies are under the microscope and the big question is, how can they actually prevent this

misinformation from being spread? >> this is a tough one. obviously we can not do it all through technology using artificial intelligence and automation. they're hiring as fast as they can people to look at this. they have also to walk the fine line worrying about how do you cut down the fake personas, misinformation campaigns while not accidentally censoring actual american citizens trying to exercise their right for freedom of speech. they're in a precarious spot but the fact they're meeting so soon after meeting in may to have these discussions is definitely a step in the right direction. charles: we heard reports that jack dorsey will testify on capitol hill. they see the pressure. they understand the microscope they're under but don't they have to be concerned about avoiding government oversight if they blow this? >> no, you're right about that and i think some of the best ideas come out of the private

sector and so the public/private sector partnership now where law enforcement, the intelligence agencies are spending time meeting with silicon valley companies is so helpful. they need to have an open dialogue. they need not to see competitors. i harken it back to my days in the financial services industry where the banks all came together, as it relates to fraudsters and money laundering and terrorism financing, there is no competition here. we all have to work together to share intelligence. that is what has to happen here. charles: thank you very much, theresa. really appreciate it. this is a big deal. feels like they're at least trying to address it. meanwhile on the market a lot of green on the screen but not to the locker. the company blew it, getting hammered with same-store sales falling short of street's expectations. retailer hibberts sports down after posted a surprise lost and went further and cut

the forecast. that is a double no-no. charles: we've been talking about it, retail making a huge comeback, the target ceo saying that himself. we have the man that says amazon really can't compete with the treasure hunt experience of going to those stores and finding a bargain next. ♪ ♪ you shouldn't be rushed into booking a hotel. with expedia's add-on advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. add-on advantage. only when you book with expedia. add-on advantage. with tough food, your dentures may slip and fall. new fixodent ultra-max hold gives you the strongest hold ever to lock your dentures. so now you can eat tough food without worry. fixodent and forget it.

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charles: target's ceo saying this is the best consumer environment he has ever seen. that company's sales up huge. just part of the overall retail revival. our next guest says, here is the thing, amazon, they can't compete with the treasure hunt experience that some brick-and-mortar retailers provide. joining us who is with united national consumer suppliers. bret, it is so interesting because the narrative for the last 10 years has recently been, no way brick-and-mortar can compete with the convenience, the ease and great execution by amazon? >> there is no argument there is major convenience by i can considering a button to have the product that you need but there is also certain experience one gets when they walk into a store. like the target ceo said earlier

today, it is amazing time to be a consumer. you walk into certain stores, you see it, feel it, touch it, find something you needed versus something you wanted online, when you walk into a store, you find something you wanted versus something you needed. charles: it is interesting you say that, because, you see it right? certain stores figured this out. i don't know what it is. my mom turned me on to burlington coat factory 10 years ago. i made a lot of money with the stock. she is kind of consumer, not much to look at however they set this store up, they go in the store to do the treasure hunt. she will go item after item but when she found a gem she was thrilled. >> mom is a smart woman. i found this jacket at burlington coat factory. they're a client of ours. i thank your mother. my mom is 15 minutes up the road from me near a home goods. when she visits me she feels the

need to walk into home goods. she feels the need to walk in the stores. why the street has the retail traffic. tj maxx 15th straight quarter for more people through the door than before. that is amazing. they're targeting people like your mom or millenials. i joke it is chic to be cheap. millenials say there is nothing attractive spending a ton of money. there is something attractive looking good and can do it paying money for the item. charles: tj maxx is up 150%. they're both at all-time highs. i want to get back to the millenial aspect of this because we heard a long time, right, that they live in the moment, right? it is all about the experience of fear of missing out, you only live once, yolo, that kind of stuff, can retailers apply that besides the frugalness of being little men ya'll, can they make it exciting for them?

>> not having them walk through the door with fireworks going off or. our parents age group or millenials or ion ourselves getting them in finding the bargain. it is how they're merchandising it. gone are the long, long rose of product. even when you walk into target now, which really isn't treasure hunt, it is set up as much they are stores within stores. you have to walk around, see it, feel it, touch it. amazon will get to the point where they have same day delivery in most markets, it is not running out buying the shirt you need, backpack you need, getting instant gratification. that is where millenials have it. charles: the demise of the death of brick-and-mortar retail was a little premature. bret, thank you. nice jacket, by the way. >> thank you very much. say hello to your mom for me. charles: more "varney" after this. ♪

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charles: look at that board, folks, all-time highs, the s&p, the nasdaq, the russell. people have to live within there, know what's going on within your own self and can't be dissuaded with headlines, particularly the vitriolic nature and the mainstream media. and same thing happened when obama, the market was oversold when president obama came. i used to tell people all the time, buy the oversold great american companies. they didn't do it. >> it's a shame. is today's rally helped by the fed? charles: absolutely, great point. >> i bet it is. charles: we're up 100 points since the fed statement came out. that was a big, big deal. jerome powell is a big friend to the market. >> he doesn't see it going

above 2%, the pressure is much higher interest rates. charles: there is a debate within the fed, treat it like you throw a football, treat it to where it might be, that's where he has to push back. have a great weekend. >> have a great weekend. charles: neil cavuto, it's yours. neil: i see where you went with the football analogy. okay. thank you very much, my friend. all right, i don't know where the football will be on this one but it's a remarkable way to look at political headlines that cross the wires, and then disorderly way people who bet money on the stuff are thinking. i'm talking about the trump organization ceo who was granted immunity in the michael cohen probe. normally you hear news like that and what it could mean for the president. remember wall street is uncertainty and the uncertainty of the investigation is going, yada, yada, but what's remarkable here, wherever you stand on this, the folks who bet money