>> it's a good day. it has been a great earnings day all across the board. stuart: no comments. i leave you with this, the dow is up 344. neil, it is yours. neil: stuart, thank you very, very much. there is a big reason for that rally, boeing and apple. they are getting lion's share of that runup. boeing was one of the first to say, caterpillar might have problems in china. we do not. in other words, their asian exposure is not such it would be worrisome. what exposure it is ample has not been hurt here. that sort of consistent theme you're getting from a lot of multat this channels go, china goes, fortunes reversed today. china trade talks formally kicking off a two-day affair. anything could happen. at issue what will happen to the tariffs kicking in upwards of $200 million worth of chinese goods. our plan to hike them 25%.

that would take effect on march 1. there is a growing call to delay that while the talks are going on. any guess what will ferret out of the white house as the two sides go back and forth past couple days. let's get the read from "dow jones newswire" glen hall and max funds founder, jonas max ferris. welcome to both of you. jonas, this expectation game we may sometimes unravels before our eyes. the fear as china goes, so goes rest of the dow 30. just the opposite today. what is the real story? >> boeing is a very important stock right now. y these earnings were so good and driving market higher. it is really a measure of the global economy some ways. neil: huge. $100 billion. >> everything was so great, you can be picky about the cash flow. it's a great number, no question about it. we need earnings to drive markets to high. there is underlying fear there's a global slow down.

from a trade war point of view this is important company. they have a important competitor not in a trade war with china. it is important for this company to do well. it shows the wheels will not come off the train if we don't solve all our trade problems in a few days. neil: what do you think, glen? >> i think what is fascinate about this earnings season we're seeing a much more forgiving market, right? we've seen them, really erring on the side of rising. even if companies missed a little on the numbers. which we haven't seen in many, many years. there is a current bias, maybe because things were so oversold at the end of the last quarter that the market needs to right itself a little bit. but there is definitely -- neil: what do you think of apple? if you scrutinize apple it wasn't a great report. >> no. neil: one analyst said all the bad news is out, sort of a washing effect. do you buy that? >> we're hearing it wasn't as bad as it was feared. neil: right, right. >> maybe some investors are buying into the theory that apple is putting forward the services growth is where the

future is more than the product growth. neil: there was little evidence of that in the latest quarter. >> just a little more growth in services. they made a point putting out profit margin in services, 60% they're trying to have the narrative. neil: maybe on hardware items that is what they're preparing for too. both are indicating they see good times or better times ahead. we'll see when other numbers come out, like microsofts, all of that. how is this earnings season is shaping up? because i think that is what is saving the day here. >> that is better than reduced expectations. if apple didn't prepare us six months for essentially bad numbers and whole 1000-dollar phone system business being acceptable this would be a huge crash for them. this was expected. the stock was down already a lot last year. we'll not tell you phone sales. neil: somebody who follows apple very, very closely, i wonder in

the aggregate the earnings we have we're a little more than a third of way through i guess, seven out of 10 companies are reporting better than expected numbers. albeit they ratcheted down the numbers. glenn, that is the stunt i pulled with my parents. i didn't want to fail everything. if they saw ds and cs they thought i was genius. >> the cavuto effect. neil: what do you think of that, that this is being strategized here? >> i think there is more of a market sentiment at the moment as i mentioned before. there was too much selling before. they had to get into some of these positions. there is consistent upturn and market is biased towards the upside. people were afraid of missing some of that. as we talked about, earnings have been good. the only thing we're watch something outlook still. >> rates are lower. they're still lower, adjusting how low rates are, good enough the earnings. neil: by the way, we don't expect the rates to change,

either? it wraps up meeting couple hours we know where they stand. not expecting any rate move but telegraphing plans for the year? >> they are off the rate raising train a while they were probably riding too long and the market doesn't want to see them back on it. this could derail all the excitement. >> we'll watch for more dovish talk. neil: it has to be dovish, might change our mind doesn't cut it. >> talk about watching the data. that is what everyone wants to hear them say. neil: i want to bring in a tech analyst who follows apple and that whole side of the industry. you know, we were talking, eric, about the importance of apple, not only because it is sort of like a proxy to technology, whether that's a fair role to play for not but it's a mutual fund as well for a lot of people who like technology, like the idea of gadgets, wrap it up into all service, one purpose fund. the fact it is up today, bouncing well off the lows, a long, long way from its highs,

what is today telling you? >> i think it is telling as you couple things. i think it is saying the sentiment, neil, was pretty negative and things were not as bad certainly in the report. i think it is also saying that there are a lot of other engines that apple can look to. certainly services, there are other things potentially on the horizon and the other, i think factor is, i think the market is beginning to adjust to the fact that apple will not be the same grower but it can still be a consistent earnings stream that has a tremendous loyalty factor to it with majority of it users perhaps not as much in china we've seen, pricing at least from my sources have affected sales there, but overall, there is a strong brand loyalty. when you have that, you have the ability to incrementally raise prices. so i think you're going to see this continue to be a strong

company. it may not have the rocket growth that it used to but they have a lot of cash to be able to buy innovation. maybe not always create it but certainly purchase it and stack it on such that people will want to continue to maintain their emotional connection and relationship with the company. >> you mentioned china, eric, and the fact of the matter is that business has been badly depleted and badly wound down and there is nothing to indicate it will reverse itself yet even with that the stock is being rewarded today. this could be one of those rare cases where a company is freely admitting its exposure to china is worsening and its business from china is deteriorating yet it is doing just fine. >> yeah. it is interesting, because, i think that the market is betting on the fact they will figure and get china right and i think they were a little bit high on the pricing, at least the evidence that i have certainly in china and the people that i have

spoken to suggest that they were high relative to what the value is against some other competitive products, largely the chinese competitive products but, again, you know, i think the trade war ultimately will get resolved at some point. the sentiment on, with apple because of that i think will change. i think you're also going to see ultimately a continued innovation from apple. and therefore, i don't think china is a lot of cause. i think they will get it back. but overall the market, again, had worse expectations for what this report was. i think that is really what you're seeing. neil: no, i definitely think you're right. built with all miserable forecasts having said that going along i wonder where we show apple got from the highs even with the gains today, still off and well into bear market territory. other big tech stocks are out of

the bear market territory, still down from their highs. apple has been a laggard. if apple can get out of the bear market territory would that be a significant development? >> you see what it is doing to the dow today. it is a significant component of the dow. it is harbinger of sentiment broadly speaking for the tech sector. yeah, apple is a big influence on the market. our perceptions where the market is going. neil: a lot of people own apple devices, jonas, think about it. this is akin to the early days of desktop computer where you have a 386 machine and 486 machine. they switched to pentium, right? this murphy's law, constantly graduating to the latest thing in 18 months, people stopped doing that with that? are they stopping that with gadgets? if that is the case, we might be partying a little prematurely here, right? >> microsoft example, facebook, google transitioned from the growth period to kind of monopoly period.

they built out their user base. it is protectable. there is no one who will steal, with its advertising, social media or handsets, they have existing install handset base. those people will not leave. now they can squeeze them with services. it is limitless in some ways anymore than office upgrade. keep paying for prescription fee. drives microsoft stock with higher prices. transitioning to that. it is different business model. not as top-line growth but not as exciting a cash cow, like cigarettes without the regulations. so far. neil: eric, one thing i notice, you're talking about this, all people devoted to apple, i would probably be in that camp. i have an apple iphone. i have a samsung galaxy phone. i got to tell you, as much as i like apple, i like my goll -- galaxy phone. i think it takes better pictures. it has things superior to apple. they're both great.

the chasm lead apple had over rivals it is gone. they're looking to businesses and other services because there is limit to how much they can imitate and revolutionize technology? maybe they recognize that. >> at least at this juncture in time, okay? we don't know what is on the horizon in terms of innovation. for instance, imagine if they got the camera, quantumly better, we were able to better focus at a distance or being able to have far better imagery at night. it was a quantum difference. neil: i would, i got to tell you. we'll see. but you're looking forward to that, those things? >> yeah. i think that, you know, if those kinds of events occur and certainly they have the cash and the ability to innovate with respect to that cash, then i think you could have additional rocket sales on the iphone because people that are, that in

that installed base will be motivated. it has to be fundamentally different enough to motivate you because it will have that much better of an experience but it is possible. in the interim, you will have services, you're going to have the ability to raise prices on those services. i mean if they wanted to tax, for instance, even the app stuck struck, all the people selling apps on that platform, charge them a higher fee you have the ability to really increase revenue in many different ways. so from an investor standpoint, it remain as very solid stock. neil: understood. eric, thank you very, very much. as we're speaking we want to bring up to date on latest news out of venezuela. as you know, nicolas maduro, the ruling president even though we don't recognize him, says his opponent cannot leave the country. he sent out orders that he cannot leave the country. we're separately getting reports

from the national security advisor john bolton, warning bankers, brokers not to treed in venezuela gold, oil, other commodities. he sent the direct order out in a tweet. we'll have more after this. ♪

>> translator: democracy for the region is crucial. this is very clear to president trump. this is the last chapter of change, last chapter after nightmare for many citizens that were forced to migrate, that were forced to leave their country. they will lose their lives, waking up from that nightmare and we're waking up to a dream, dream and prosperous venezuela. neil: all right. what an amazing exchange that was. trish regan coming up in the next hour to talk about that back and forth she had with juan guaido. he is the opposition leader who nicolas maduro said you can't leave the country. he seized his financial assets. he makes it very tough. doing things not in the country's interest. you know how that goes. there are a lot of worries. we know mr. guaido spoken to donald trump earlier today on the phone.

a representative from his camp will go to the white house to speak directly to the president. this situation is getting dicey by the minute. heritage foundation senior fellow mike gonzalez. mike, good to have you. what do you make of maduro obviously upping upping the ant? that he is open to talks from the other side but reminding that leader that movement should not be leaving the country, that his financial assets have been seized? >> thank you, neil. thanks for having me on. i've been always been a big fan of yours. i don't think juan guaido, considered by this country, leader of venezuela had any plans to go anywhere. neil: probably right about that. >> he wants to be in caracas, be part of a peaceful transition according to what he says. i think maduro, and what maduro is going to do with the gold reserves leave aside what juan

guaido's bank account might be, you saw the "bloomberg news" report yesterday, a russian 777 landed at simon bolivar airport. according to the report, it was there to take away 20 tons of gold, 10% of venezuela's gold reserves. maduro is running out of options. the bank of england last week did not let him repatriate $1.2 billion of gold reserves, stuart in london. i think the focus should be more on things are encircling around maduro. whether he will go seek exile somewhere else. i don't think juan guaido wanted to go anywhere. one last thing national security advisor john bolton, even socialist government of spain warned maduro not to harm juan guaido. neil: john bolton suggested that any american broker, trader, thinking of investing or trading

gold, oil, or other commodities from venezuela that they shouldn't. i don't know if he can enforce that but what did you think of that? >> well he had an impact obviously on the bank of england. i think a lot of entities around the world want to deal with the united states, want to hedge their bets on maduro to say the least at this point. as i said venezuela has estimated 200 tons of gold. it doesn't -- maduro pillaged his oil industry, an oil industry accounts 95%, 98% of export revenues for venezuela. venezuela is practically producing two things right now, oil and refugees. a once wealthy country, by the way, ruined by socialism. neil: it is very sad, mike gonzalez thank you very much. of the heritage foundation in washington, d.c. back to the cold weather gripping much of the country. >> thank you very much.

neil: -- on mars, believe it or not. go to the weather company meteorologist, dan leonard. dan, how bad does it get? >> neil, this is peaking right now. this is about the worst we'll see. minus 50 on windchill in chicago right now as i speak. this is about as cold we've seen ever in parts of the midwest. remember in 2014 we had the polar vortex hype. we're doing it all over again here. this is really the most intense cold we're going to see. it is peak today in the midwest, then tomorrow on the east coast. so the good news here is that we're only talking about a one to two-day event. in 2014 we had several days, successive days where it was extremely cold and that is not the case this time around. it is a quick hitting polar vortex shot. then we warm up quickly. neil: these vortexes i'm hearing a lot more about them. will we hear a lot more of them? >> it is possible going forward. one of the things that is interesting about climate change

and whether, whatever you subscribe going forward, when you have warmer globe, you have a stronger jet stream. that influences a lot stronger pattern around drive stronger cold fronts into the lower 48. yes, there is some theory, if you have a warmer globe, you have a higher probability of deeper cold shots, deeper arctic air masses into the lower 48. that is one of the interesting facets about climate change. as an example over past 20 years or so, we've seen a lot of arctic, impressive cold shots. i think we have more of the same. neil: you had to add that, didn't you, dan? thank you very, very much. to dan's point by the way, upside down looking at australia, we were hosting some australian exchange students at our home. they were telling me back home in sydney in australia, dealing with record high temperatures,

115, 122 degrees. while we are freezing, they are stewing. more on that in a bit. the effect of the cold spell into the united states led to number of airlines canceling curbside check-in, canceling flights, even offering hot chocolate and space heaters to workers assigned outside for limited moments. go to scott martin gauging that economic reaction, what do you think, scott? >> it is interesting, neil i will be honest with you. i'm happy to be here in chicago risking near death to be with you. tell you, man. look at me, i'm almost frozen. here is the thing. a lot of things are shut down. walking around downtown, there is not a lot of people are out. businesses are chosed. you mentioned problems at the airport. as you talked about with dan previously. this is a quick hitter. it will occur couple days. kids are out of the school through the end of the week. they're definitely celebrating. things are put off, neil.

when you look at chicago on global scales, we're talking about a top 10 or so city gdpwise, with respect to other world cities. putting the city on hold a few days, does have impact economically. neil: with weather-related events, scott, you remind me over the years, make up for normal, not all the time, does extended freeze lining this get the same treatment? >> look likes it does. talking to some business partners, folks i know around town here, anything that was planned for today, tomorrow, friday, is getting postponed to the following week. something like this, airlines waving change fees and postponing things to next week, it is supposed to be a balmy 15 or 20 degrees next week, sounds like a heat wave, likes like those things will be postponed.

gdp lost in the next 48, 72 hours will be regained over the weekend and in days to come. neil: scott thank you for trooping through all of this to get to us. a nation is grateful. >> always. neil: that is the way you roll. i appreciate it. to put chicago's weather it is colder there than antarctica, alaska, the north pole and parts of mars. we'll have more after this. you'll get clear, actionable alerts about potential investment opportunities in real time. fidelity. open an account today.

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before you even make one. was all this, really necessary? what do you think? ♪ >> almost like they're trying to snuff out the spark of your campaign before it could even get started. are the democrats overwrought? like they have like a triple machiado on empty stomach. >> i think democrats need a little bit less caffeine right now. they have overrotated completely. it is very possible if i run for president as a centrist independent, that more lifelong republicans will come my way. neil: that is going to be

interesting. dana perino sitting down with howard schultz. see full interview 2:00 p.m. on fox news. the influence and the positioning of a third party candidate generally gets dismissed because not a one of them has won. they influence elections. there is always the possibility as has happened, third or outside party candidates emerge as major parties. root of republican party was that with abraham lincoln. former ross perot campaign manager russell verny. good to have you. >> neil, always honor to be on with you, especially pleased to visit with your viewers today. neil: the honor is ours, russell. i think ross perot campaign thaw oversaw was a testament to something we rarely give credence to, that is the power and influence of a third party candidate. ross perot garnered 19% of the vote in that election. many who lament george bush,

sr.'s defeat will blame ross perot. the fact of the matter he got a lot of votes. he didn't get any electoral votes hence the argument hard for a third party candidate to do that but it is possible, right. >> it is possible. in 1992, george h.w. bush incumbent president, wanted ross perot in the race would split anti-incumbent vote. democrats are saying we don't want an independent because it will split the anti-incumbent vote won't be able to win. george bush lost in 92. whether or not it has any impact on democrats this time around yet to be seen but it is called competition. competition is the mainstay of american politics. we shouldn't have just two political parties. we should have many choices so that someone like me, who is raging moderate can have his voice heard within the political process. it is not just republicans and democrats who are entitled to a

voice in politics. we all are, we should have more candidates so we can each express our vote and our goals and aspirations for country. neil: russell, i'm not blowing you smoke, but i will be ever grateful to you and ross perot for alerting the nation to urgency of our building debt. you did so years ahead. what was not a very fashionable cool thing to campaign on. and you guys would very prescient about that with charts and graphs, a lot of people said would fall on deaf ears in america. he got one out of five voters with attention to that. touche to both of you. tradition remains, that the third party candidate is spoiler, i go back to 1968, hubert humphrey, democrats blaming george wallace, siphoning votes from him to hand the election at the time to richard nixon. what do you think of that? >> george wallace became a regional candidate, dominated

the southern region which did impact democrats ability to get votes. it is competition. neil: set the stage for what would be a republican south after that, but go ahead, i'm sorry. >> that was all about competition. if hubert humphrey couldn't win the votes he didn't deserve them. he had every opportunity to appeal for them, he wasn't able to win the votes over -- there is so many instances where ralph mader is blamed for the bush-gore election when, it is not true. it was faulty design of the ballot in that delivered some 10,000 votes to pat buchanan that caused upset in that election. neil: i glad you mention the example. it was hardly a factor nationally in florida, in a very close race many argue he proved the difference and made it impossible for al gore to make it to the white house. there are a lot of these kind of examples. you say, the chips fall where they may, often do, it is up to

major candidates to sell their campaigns, right? >> absolutely. and again, competition from ralph nader wasn't the cause of the problem for al gore. it was the ballot design in one county that cost him 10,000 possible votes down there, that upset the florida election. so, i'm all for competition. i think we should have more candidates. if people don't like more candidates they should look at ranked choice voting which allows you to rank choice of your top three candidates and, you get to redistribute votes if your candidate loses but nobody got a majority. there is ways around the impediments that people claim exist to independent candidates but a competition of ideas is healthy for america. neil: you know, if you look at all parliamentary systems across the country, i'm not saying we go to the parcel men temporary route, countries have a mall gam like parcel men and our

republic, italy, one of my favorite countries, will have half a dozen candidates at one time competing for voters attention. they get out all their ideas. some are deemed cockamamie and some legitimate. let voters sort it out. it doesn't have to be vanilla, chocolate. you can throw a mac dime yaw nut in there, right? >> one of the benefits of independent candidate get elected and republicans doesn't need them to fail and democrats don't need them to fail. there is republican president, democrats need him to fail to get back into power f there is democrat president, republicans need him to fail so they get back into power w independent, they build coalition or each issue, debt, trade, immigration, whatever the issue is, people from both sides agree with the vision and policy of the president and start moving america forward instead of keeping it at a stalemate. neil: yeah. one good thing about an

independent, he or she would not be captive to one party's ideology or another. they would be pragmatic enough to consider all. most in this country are fair pragmatic comes to their own views, can't be typecast one party or another. >> i agree with you. america right now likes having a divided government between the administration, the legislature because they're just afraid of what one party will do. let's get cooperation among both parties to move the country forward. neil: russell, i know, my producer will kill my, i would be curious settle old private score with me, concerning ross perot's reentry in the '92 race. do you think he had not had brief period where he jumped out of the race, back in, in other words if he stayed in the race where he was polling ahead of bill clinton and george bush, sr., he would have won the whole thing? >> it is possible. also neil, exit polling

conducted by news media, one question was asked of bush and clinton voters, if you thought perot could win, would you have voted for him. the analysis of that question was never reported. the analysis is, if people thought ross could win, even after getting out and back in, he would have actually won the election in '92. neil: yeah. people don't like to be seen wasting their vote. that is the typical media play. i think that media play is wrong. russell, i really wasn't pretending, you are an historic figure in politics and what you and ross perot offered in 1992. you were way ahead of the game. way ahead of deficit issues. you weren't afraid to tell the american people about it. we need a lot more of that today, but we're not getting. russell, thank you very much. >> thank you, neil. neil: all right. housing sales are always a big issue for us on this show. i think they are sort of the bedrock of our economy. the latest sign of pending home sales is worrying folks.

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neil: you know, a lot of tech names are reporting but tesla is giving a lot of attention after the bell when it reports. charlie gasparino has been all over the story and the story it is generating. charlie, what do you have? >> tesla, facebook as well, tesla will be bigger story unless facebook comes out with surprise of major announcement about regulations or something tesla will be big story. neil: microsoft. >> microsoft. these two are controversial. some of my reporting on tesla is interesting because we've been reporting last couple days how musk knows he has to respond to certain things. one thing in particular is, will he have a profit? people will wonder about that. does he need capital going forward? a lot of people think based on their cash flow situation into the first quarter, this is the fourth quarter results they will

need capital. there is 920 million-dollar bond payment he has to pay in cash if he doesn't get the stock. neil: when is that? >> due in march, if he does not get the stock above 360. a convertible bond maturing. neil: no delay in that? >> like march. tough go for it. does he have the money? -- neil: 320 is the kick-in for that? >> 360. does he have money? does he have existing funds or raise capital? this will have impact on the stock. if he to raise capital, shares go down. remember they had a profit in the third quarter. if they do sequential profits, even if they have do have a raise capital, that might be a good thing, if you see two sequential quarters of profits. everybody will look at revenue and cash flow. the profits are not as big of a thing because a lot of people believe, i tell you, listen, i call this, tesla is very heavily debated stock. has very vicious people both

positive and negative on twitter. neil: i get annoyed when you said it is a battery company. >> i saw that. neil: they -- >> okay. take it from me, i see it. when i say something bad about the stock, or positive about the stock, i get the tesla loony tune shorts. good source of mine i know for year james chanos. he is short the stock famously. everybody knows that he is a smart guy. i will say he doesn't believe the numbers will add up. he believes going into the first quarter, not the fourth quarter, the first quarter, is really when the rubber meets the road. this is going to be it, will be interesting how this plays out. could be something anti-climatic. neil: don't the tax credits phase out? >> they are. he saying look forward, not backwards. first quarter, a lot of stuff will start kicking in -- neil: hasn't that been factored already? >> not totally. that is where we are with that.

will be interesting to see what musk says during the call. always fascinating to listen to elon musk. neil: he rips analyst. >> reporters he hates. he smoked pot on a pod case. hopefully refrain from that before the analyst call. neil: sure. >> so it will be interesting how he, how he explains the bond payment, cash flow situation and do they need capital. i can tell you a lot of wall street firms think they need capital and they were pitching ideas to them. neil: in the media world, major league baseball. >> this is fascinating story. we just broke it. major league baseball will bid, i hear from sources bid is due tomorrow -- neil: bid on what? >> on the 21 fox regional sports networks. disney buys fox entertainment networks. included is 22 regional sports networks, including yankees entertainment system. they have sports all around the country and focus on regions, right? disney has to sell it now.

why do they own it? espn. regulatory concern. there is auction going on. neil: we didn't want to buy it back? >> we said no. there was some talk we might. neil: we being fox. >> the problem is, there is not a lot of bidders. so major league baseball is really concerned if there is not a lot of bidders, if a highly leveraged private equity firm gets in there, some regional teams will not get support, promotion, marketing they would get. owner has to pinch pennies. why they are making a bid. sports teams own, there is the nfl network, right? neil: right. >> there is the mlb network. they don't own cable stations, you know. they don't own regional cable. this is a pretty big, substantial change in the business model of the mlb. and i think, after -- neil: do we have any comparable arrangements in basketball or football? >> no. i don't think so. if there is, please tell me.

i have looked and looked and looked. i think the process will be heated up after this. the big question mark, does amazon ever get in? there was false report on cnbc they put a first round bid in. apparently they did not. they're working just with the yankees so far. that is to basically buy, partner, owning yankees entertainment network which was 80% owned by fox, because of the deal, yankees can buy it back. does amazon at some point put a bid in? they were kicking the tires on the other 21 but i heard, i heard it is doubtful at this point. that is one question that needs to be answered. i hear they're still just working with the yankees. so it is interesting. it will be, and i think it will heat up now. we'll figure out where this is going within the next couple weeks. neil: charlie, thank you. a lot on the plate there. meantime, 16 days from another government shutdown. don't dismiss it. why a lot of folks are worried about it, after this.

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be looking at that. to former ohio secretary of state, trump transition team member ken blackwell. good to have you. >> good to be with you. neil: the talk is here that the president doesn't want to budge on the $5.7 billion wall figure but he is more flexible he lets on. do you have any idea how low he would go on a wall? >> let me say, trying to predict donald trump is a very dangerous job. i would say that my recommendation to the president is that he play small ball here. by that i mean, he needs to keep this defined as a matter of border security. if he does that, and he talks about 230 miles of wall, at a cost of $5.7 billion, he can pull the trigger on the national emergency and i would, i would

hope that the governor of texas would in fact actually proceeded him, by saying, texas has to, a problem on the border. he can manage all of that. the core of army engineers, the money already has been appropriated to the defense department. he moves it. he builds -- neil: but he can't do that. he can't do that. >> yes he can. neil: he can't do it to infiniti. he can't shuffle around funds, unless he declares a national emergency. >> on a national emergency he can do that. neil: so you think he has to declare a national emergency. >> that is what i'm saying. he declares a national emergency. neil: if he does that, a court would shoot it down along the way, right? >> the court will not shoot it down, neil. the money has been appropriated. fail sufficient of governor of texas basically says he has an

emergency on the texas border, all of this is, within the lines and there is no radical departure, no making up something out of whole cloth. he controls the situation. neil: do you think he should devote the entire state of the union address to this issue? >> i think he in fact should give a good part of his national security, i mean his state of the union address to national and border security. no, i think -- neil: a lot of republicans are very nervous that he will. that he will overstep this, keep revisiting an issue for some reason not been polling well. that would be a mistake? >> no, it's a mistake if in fact he broadens it and he makes it an issue of immigration and amnesty and what have you. neil: right. >> if he keeps it narrowly defined as a matter of border security, i dare you to show me where he loses on that issue in any polling?

he doesn't. neil: i don't know. if it attaches keeping government open or closed because of it, he does lose on it. >> i agree, we agree on that. don't close, don't threaten to close the government. basically exercise your presidential prerogatives. neil: only way to your point then is to declare an emergency? >> declare an emergency, keep it small ball. keep it to 230 miles of border. keep it to an area where the governor has basically concurred that there is an emergency. and this can be done. leave it to congress or go to the bigger picture, and deal with, over the longer term immigration, immigration reform. neil: all right. we'll see what happens. ken blackwell, always good catching up with you. >> all right, neil, god bless. neil: stay warm, my friend. ken blackwell, former trump transition team member. let's look at the dow before we take a quick break. up 320 points. boeing and apple are driving the

dow a lot higher. boeing accounting for half of today's gains. after the bell we get microsoft, tesla earnings. the 24 hours are perhaps the most important of this young month after this. opportunities in real time. fidelity. open an account today. fidelity. what would it look like [if we listened more?] could the right voice - the right set of words - bring us all just a little closer, get us to open up, even push us further? it could, if we took the time to listen. the most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories. download audible and listen for a change.

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neil: albright, the white house right now, chinese officials there, top american officials they are resuming tomorrow to

wrap up with their promising they could go on a little bit longer. we've seen a march deadline by which 25% hike in terrorist on $200 billion worth of chinese goods could hit the fan. then what? what are meant at the white house with how things are thus far appeared reporter: a lot of anticipation about what's been going on for four hours now at the executive office building on the white house campus adjacent appeared very little today in terms of information as both sides have been locked in their trying to potentially hammer out a deal worth nothing else discussing what a framework of a deal could look like. key players on both sides here in washington u.s. side, steve mnuchin, wilbur ross, commerce secretary larry kudlow, peter navarro. the larger staff sitting around the table there in their counterparts from china as well. the u.s. still pushing for not only structural reform within

china's market and access, but also the ability to enforce those reform should they be able to come to an agreement. as mnuchin reminded yesterday the clock is ticking here. 30 days ever take until an agreement needs to be hammered out or tariffs could be raised on china. by the way, expected to go on tomorrow and at that point it's also expect to president trump will meet with the top vice premier who was of course a part of these discussions. >> thank you my friend. like her run at the white house. back and forth as to a trade deal, but china must not be able to deliver on a promise to buy more american goods. things are slipping in that region, but outcomes go in today to indicate not a knot region and not in china. is china and its economic albums are released building economic problems such a factor here?

united capital joe durand. what do you think? >> which are seen everywhere was we were all very concerned that big companies would use the trade war and the china slowdown as an excuse. that's not coming through. several companies at the end of last year give warnings, but apple came through, boeing came through. they are saying things a little slower, but not as we were concerned about. what you are seeing i think most easily by the small caps is the underlying u.s. economy is still in great shape in the 20% correction we have at the end of last year might've been a little too much and that there was some adjustment required but probably not that extreme. we see so far this year is picking on some of the pessimism and reflect in a very nice market performance also across the board. neil: is today more reflection of reality or yesterday when it

seemed like everything was the opposite. >> even yesterday if you look at the small caps, they did quite well. everyone is being -- she'll be expecting by the way this trade discussion will not be resolved until the very last minute and there might be another extension. i think it's highly unlikely we will see the 25% tariff come in. if that does happen, you'll see a completely different market reaction. that's why small caps have been a pretty good safe haven so far. the second thing is the whole russia thing. at the end of last year with the head of defense leaving, the president was on shaky legs. that appears to be disappearing and it looks like again the wild-card we don't know about. i think what you'll see is some volatility, but the 8% to 12% market by year-end party has a lot of that done this year.

that's how goes the year. even though we had a good rally it ended up being a tough year. i think you're going to see a generally construct of market with a little more volatility than wasting the last two years. neil: the federal reserve an hour and away from announcing something on interest rate. jerome powell is expected to get some guidance today. would you expect? >> i think it's going to talk about the e-zine and whether he's going to continue doing it systematically. if we see any hands and we've seen some flexibility in the rates and quantitative evening as well. one of the biggest concerns for future volatility is the liquidity they are taken out of the system. that is put on pods because of the global slowdown and there's no question the rest of the world has slowed significantly in germany and china and the emerging markets.

what you might see his continued flexibility and begin the fed will stop being in the front line of the story and we'll go back to talking about earnings growth in the strength of the dollar, which has been quite impactful. >> i want to bring susan lien to their earnings story. we've been talking about how through this earnings process seven not 10 companies have handily beaten albeit a ratcheted down estimate, but they eaten them. that is a pretty bullish sign. neil: a very bullish sign. we have a bit of a gap when a gap when we saw the polling numbers this morning. this is what you call crushing that when you beat earnings estimates on profit by 1 dollar, a billion dollars of revenue and new guide for a dollar or more into their earnings for 2019 it was really very positive and they're going to actually -- they had a record 2018. it's only going to get better

from here and that's despite the trouble we keep talking about in terms of the u.s.-china trade talks in china slowing down. that was very positive and a sentiment of its own for today. >> apple was the latest of the tech giant to indicate the worst is over for at least a superb session because while still in bear market territory, all the others that were like amazon and google recovered. now back to the old highs by any means. >> doing a lot of research for the apple earnings yesterday and most of them with a report card to the worst may be behind us when it comes to apple. was it good enough? yes. take a look at the revenue on lowered expectation. also earnings into the prophet as well. that is how basically apple wants to transition itself in the future. they're all about services when

it comes to revenue over the next five years and they're pretty much on track to do that. we may not get unit sales, but the most important element here was the fact that we finally got for the first time in apple's history gross margins on services and making over 60% on itunes and the like, you name it. neil: i was startled by that. joe durand continues the technology even in the ibm case where the cloud business was a big reason for the street to say we must not and the importance of god. in the case of microsoft will give more details after the closing bell when it reports on line business is moving. similarly, we've seen the same improvement and a host of others to the triumphant performance go a lot of investor dollars.

>> well, you've taken the words right out of my mouth. the example i wanted to give when you remember when microsoft was shifting to the cloud side, same thing with amazon. when launching a new business and yet it wasn't impactful enough yet. the stock went down a lot. everyone is skeptical and when microsoft is today is a fundamentally different company. what amazon did a couple quarters ago when they said were not going to report unit sales of march, we are going to focus on the entire business, it is still only about 16%, 18% of the revenue stream but it's growing a lot, has massive margins. much margins. what you'll see a the conversation will be completely different. still a hard way sales company, but it's also going to be a services company. the business going at the rate it is in another year or two would be a 20%, 25% growing to 30% to 40% and we won't care as much about the lack of sales

because everyone's going to have a different product of apple were to use other services. it is still not there, but that is where apple is looking to head. tim cook said we've got to do what microsoft did. in go to the different service model. >> we will see i'm not. i don't know if it's too early to say rush back to the docs, but they're doing okay lately. >> that is the new term as well. apparently out of vogue, alphabetic, amazon, apple and alibaba reported today and off to the race as well. neil: not facebook. similarly to apple, they have their worst holiday quarter in many years. still, a lot of guidance going forward that the business could grow so much more because it's not in online sales for alibaba and the like. they also do ally pay as well.

there's just a lot more to grow and it should trump the stocks now. neil: final word. joe durand, thank you very much. we did mention in susan mentioned facebook was not included in now for a discussion. there are reasons for that having very little to do with what is going on with the stock itself and everything to do with privacy.

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neil: this is one of the rare times where facebook does come out with numbers "after the bell" that they might be scrutinizing more the plans that it has too not really go after users data and pay users to get the data. was good to read from hillary with the latest. >> users that installed the basic researcher. various instant messaging on

spirit they would stash away for cash. teens with their parents consent were getting paid monthly. facebook said in a statement that less than 5% of the people participating in the program are teenagers saying there was nothing the facebook research out and went through a clear on boarding process asking for their mission and were paid to participate. apple has taken me out saying facebook has been using their membership to distribute data collecting out to consumers. which is a clear breach of this agreement.

neil: all this has not impacted the stock in a big way of late. it is maybe the markets compartmentalize. what do you make of the reaction the stock is getting. >> well, it is a sign privacy concerns are taken very seriously by users and by the marketplace. companies can risk fines, civil penalties if they don't live up to their privacy assurances. as the space-time bug that allowed folks to listen in on other members called defense tried to fix that, but the fact of the matter is what happens to the best of them come even though tim cook was preaching about these abuses and other companies. it is a very big issue.

>> even huge teams of privacy experts like apple can and will make occasional mistakes. tim cook has long been preaching that they care about privacy and to his credit, apple has a good privacy track record even companies or their google come at&t are about issues of privacy. the way to prevent these issues is supposed these issues i suppose is for companies to stop innovating, to start changing their product coming to spend years developing code and leave it unchanged. consumers prefer innovation, even if it means occasional small risk. turning to what you're saying to carefully weigh the convenience and even how much they liked a certain social media site was a big 02 after that.

hopefully these are limited and exceptions because i'm staying with facebook. the numbers so far seem to bear the company. >> that's right. you can imagine a world where just like people dead netflix delivery month, nuclear facebook killer google bill to get the same services in a way that doesn't involve individualized advertising. in a sense we are paying with your information. you don't do something that's rivalrous. if you pay with money, that is money you don't have. users are willing to make that in exchange for getting something valuable to them that they do not have to pay for. neil: would they pay for? >> i think they would if that were the alternatives. if you couldn't get these platforms for free. we could see people paying a few dollars a month, perhaps more for social media platforms. but the downside is with reduced

use of advertising in people paying more coming you see fewer users, especially in the developing world where facebook and google and other platforms are allowing to get access to products that they probably couldn't afford otherwise. neil: thank you very much. by the way, they are doing just fine today to ryan's point. we look at the numbers out of facebook after the closing bell. there are some big ones including tesla. microsoft, visa, a whole swath of them. in fact, better than 100 of the s&p 500 in the biggest screen of earnings we had today. we will get a better pulse on those earnings and what's happening. after this. 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere.

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saying we don't want an independent because it will split the anti-incumbent boat and we won't be able to win. george mitchell of 92 and whether or not it has any impact in democrats this time around is yet to be seen. it's called competition. competition is the mainstay of american politics. neil: there's nothing wrong with third party candidates. they generate good ideas as they jeopardize the vote that none of the third-party candidate which could explain howard schultz since he announced he is running are likely running as an independent candidate. democrats are tearing them apart. you'll hear more on dana perino show but he had commented on this very issue. take a look. >> i find that so offensive. i also think it's ludicrous. elizabeth warren a number of years ago knocked on my door and asked me for money. it is somewhat duplicitous.

>> and i did not. neil: caitlyn islands. rest does raise a good point. it is anyone's guess to take those away to the schultz candidacy. the fact of the matter is they're all in a debate in the debate is on into the best man or woman does the prize. what do you think? >> i think that as you just said, howard schultz is potentially running as an independent in the making democrats livid. again, the working assumption people have is that he ran as an independent that would take votes away from the democratic nominee. he would be another option for the anti-charms though. why would you do that and why wouldn't you just run as a democrat to see how well you do against the other candidates. neil: michael bloomberg was extensively going to run as a

democrat if were to believe the latest press and they don't like him because he has kind of a conservative fiscal policy even though more socially liberal another issues. but that isn't cutting it with democrats these days. >> part of the bloomberg problem is he's a billionaire. democrats right now are going after the populist message of the wealthy need to be paying their fair share. let's raise taxes on them. let's get rid of their influence on politics. they're not accepting these corporate donations. as part of bloomberg's problem. the parties are being left for sure what the democratic party. at least for now, and that is not where the excitement is. >> they are not generating the passion, but they generally do generate the votes of the democrats that came in over at the house. the vast majority come in dirty too, were moderates.

we hear more about the liberals who took over, but the party has not aired in pushing a moderate message, but i wonder whatever bill clinton for example these days could get nominated by this. or even john kennedy. >> well, not a problem with primaries. the base turns out the matter what party it is. that's what happened with president trump. the rest of the party had to decide to reluctantly get on board. a lot of those people of reluctant. they are more moderate. they are more likely to select someone further left. and the fact that he says a source of a lot of problems in the white house starting in with jared kushner.

and he mentions time and again incidents an occasion which jared kushner botched it and he's very complimentary. but what do you make of it all? >> i think that chris christie and jared kushner have some long-standing beef. there's just a lot of history there. that's the thing with the trump circle the trump circle. the trump circle. they're all out to bash one another. he likes his subordinates competing with one another. >> minutes after they leave. >> no. that seems to make him angry. that's the idea is to function at the white house the president has been -- he likes to push back on not one. although this dysfunction and chaos is a pretty consistent theme of the folks we see. neil: but he survives. thank you very much, kate lang.

>> thank you. neil: a riveting exchange. chris regan, an opposition leader and things have ratcheted up, just dramatically in that country. for one thing, nicholas maduro says the guy can't leave and he's rated as financial asset and his chief spokesman is coming to the white house to talk to president trump and for yet another, president trump authority talk to the opposition leader. the woman who interviewed him and got unremarkable while mentions out of him. what he does next after this. woman: my reputation was trashed online,

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>> this is very clear to president trump and the last chapter for many citizens forced to migrate and labor country. they are waking up from that nightmare. we are waking up to dream of a

prosperous -- [inaudible] neil: here is how powerful trish regan is. she got the top refer the president of the united states apparently, picking up the phone and talking to the opposition leader briefly today. he hopes to meet with a key representative. primetime homes taking a look at a guy who is now the epicenter of attention in the world. pretty brave guy. >> all of these freedom fighters. i have tremendous admiration for anybody who is willing to risk their lives as they have. neil: it is clear the government is cracking down. >> a series of things saying you can't leave the country. i don't think he's interested in leaving the country now having soared himself in as president is not about to take a hike.

they are after him. john bolton has come out and said, don't mess with him. if you do you're going to be messing with us. neil: any brokers, bankers, traders and i think venezuela. >> yes, sanctions. that is what's going on right now. actually, that's another one. the state-run oil company. [inaudible] i got to use it a lot last night . technically it saved us time. that saved us a couple minutes on the translation. it takes a long enough time internationally. the other thing is i've been talking to him in spanish and communicating with him and so

that is how they knew me. they have another language -- [laughter] neil: which are troubled. neil: maduro script which is to go after the opposition in the opposition disappears. he's a pretty brave guy in the face of that. he's called for nationwide demonstrations. >> book, he's trying to win over the military because in any country like this, that's what it's really coming down to. >> there's a break in the military between the generals -- >> and the rank-and-file. they know how hard it is in there talking about 90% of the population. talking about kids not having enough to eat. he said as young as 12 years old being arrested in the street and thrown in jail. this is not the kind of life any parent wants for their child.

there's no opportunity, no chance at prosperity. he said to me as a father i want to change this. you've got to be fearful for your life. your wife, how does she feel about this? look, this is what we need to do because we care so much about our country and we care about freedom. so a lot of people feel that way right now. but you also have people in maduro's back pocket to let the system the way it is because they're making money off of it. neil: did you have any chance to get into the scribbled note that john bolton had come a 5000 troops to colombia, which is just next door. >> all options are on the table. i had a conversation yesterday with president trump. we were talking about venezuela and he insisted that all options are on the table.

[inaudible] >> well, we don't want to be there directly. trained to do than cause a deliberate scruple? i thought to myself that is actually scarier than in coming out and saying that sent a message and today we are getting reports that maduro may be interested in negotiation. neil: in other word like an exit plan. why everyone was happy with that. >> and john bolton told me on the show the other night. hey, this doesn't have to end badly. he could walk away with a lot of money. true to what country? >> cuba, iran. >> i think there is a way for him to exit peacefully to have amnesty. neil: but a limited time to do so.

>> the more you test us, the angrier the u.s. is going to get here the more russia gets entrenched. let's not forget this is a country less than three hours from miami. do you really want that amir putin have a base from which to launch? we haven't seen that kind of thing since 1962. i think there's a lot at play here strategically. it is valuable so it has strategic value is in terms of its economy. we don't like to see people suffer like that. there's the outside to the equation. and then there is do you want the russians, chinese, iranians. the cubans all they are. we could have the relationship. you want to surrender sought in the western hemisphere. you don't allow the russians to be playing down there. neil: all right, look forward to more of this today.

did you ever confused the language when speaking -- president trump speaking spanish to him in english. [speaking in spanish] >> i actually had to switch my cell phone into spanish and a because in other words when i'm communicating, you know, the spell check thing changes it into some bizarre english word. anyways i had to change it. i'll be doing on until the situation is over. by the way, tonight we have a very important guest. we have two daughters of one of the american hostages that is being held in prison, has been there for over year and a half and i've been talking to family members or neighbors the scared and reluctant to come out, but now they feel it is the right time. an american from louisiana. neil: look forward to it. primetime 8:00 p.m. on the site network. by then it should be much, much colder and wide swaths of the

country as if it isn't cold enough now. fox news correspondent mike tobin with the latest. >> neil, look around here. beautiful blue skies you don't often get in the midwest in january. the meteorological effect of that is moisture doubled in any heat that the sun would be reflect impaired on to show you the chicago river because of so rare. earlier this is a sheet of i.c.e. from bank to bank. it looks to me like an icebreaker came up the middle and you can see the warm water so it is a little bit you get the steam coming off the river which is a remarkable thing to see. often times and really severe cold like this we end up doing with house fires because people use cheap eaters. they use them poorly. there was a fire in the southside of chicago today. we can't pinpoint exactly what caused it yet, but they had to have more show up on the scene. and they wrote david cruz and then out.

for people escape where there were no smoke yours. here's the battalion chief. >> they did the best they could. the weather conditions -- [inaudible] >> dozens of commuter rail lines were shut down. amtrak shut down service in and out of chicago. real operators went the extra mile to set fire to the rails themselves. that is because in the extreme cold this deal will contract critic and crack the rails, sheriff bowles. the rails crack in minneapolis, st. paul on the blue line there, resulting in delays. thankfully it would result in a big disaster. also in minnesota, the department of transportation went the extra mile to pull all of the snow plow service because it was too cold. the snowplows are having all sorts of mechanical problems due

to the severe cold and they didn't want to leave their drivers stuck out in what our treacherous elements. so many closures right now between schools, public offices, courthouses and i can't list them all, that the mail has topped in a state now. when the mill shuts down you can pretty much assume just about anything else that is optional is going to be shut down today. neil: thank you very much. mike tobin in chicago. the conference committee consisting of republicans and democrats gather at the eisenhower executive office opening next door to the white house here. they are trying to get a deal going in the next 16 days that could avoid another government shutdown. the attention is to the border but they are hoping to score a deal that would be borderline comprehensive on addressing a lot of immigration issues including daca, including how much money for a while or border security or what they will ultimately call it. no one knows for sure, but the folks who said on a conference

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neil: all right, all right, nfl commissioner addressing the controversial things rams place in the is looking at changes to review plays like that. in fact, a lot of fans signed up

with a lawyer to sue the nfl for blowing a call in saying that cost their team insuperable visit. the read from transfer is nothing's going to change. it not as if the saints will come into play the game and the rams are not. really nothing to report outside the fact. meanwhile republicans with another shutdown or national emergency. which is a pure republican congressman patrick mchenry joins us right now. the influential republican has weighed in on this issue in the past. i have to ask you, if you could advise the president looking close to the deadline that democrats aren't going to budge on funding for a while, would you declare a national emergency? >> i don't think it is the best option. unfortunately, speaker pelosi we don't have a goodwill especially this early on where she so

fearful of her hard left wing that she's unwilling to negotiate on anything. deeper into this here we have a better opportunity for a larger deal and will force the democrats along the lines we should to fund our border security needs and measures. neil: you'll have another shot at this. maybe not this go around or to avoid something around february february 15th. >> lindsey graham mentioned this the other day, which as you include the debt ceiling. the debt ceiling increase expires march 1st. it's a very important measure. i don't think we should withhold the raising of the debt ceiling. however, all of debt ceiling increases have been a part of a larger deal. >> so even if you don't get funding for a wall right now, this isn't the time to do it. maybe close to the debt dealing?

>> exactly. also caps agreement that has to happen before the end of the fiscal year. we have other measures that are very important. they need to be dealt with. we can have a wide agreement on border security and immigration more broadly. over the last two years as republicans in the house we lead the effort to fund the president border wall. at the end of the day what we got into law was the full amount they could then on an annual cycle last year in the year before that. when i have a continuing resolution to keep the government open, and there is money being spent to repair existing pieces of the wall. when they simply keep the government open, they are funding part of the wall. now this fiscal year were able to spend between $5,000,000,000.6 billion to buy the stuff of a physical barrier under southern border.

we should insist upon not in the president is right to insist on national security and border security. neil: congressman patrick mchenry, thank you very much. the conference committee has its own consisting of republicans and democrats gathering to next-door at the executive office building. and they have something within the next 16 days or so by which time they have a deal or potentially we have another shot down. a little more after this.

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neil: all right. the federal reserve decision is due in moments. we'll go to charles payne a little later for that. dan shaffer is following all of this. dan, we're not expecting a rate hike per se, we're expecting guidance from jerome powell fed chairman when it might come, right? >> i think they're going to be dovish. i think they're getting the latest data from around the world, not just the united states, neil, and i think they will come out and say there are some soft spots and they're trying to backpeddle to get the stock market up. it may happen in the short run. i think they have had it wrong all along. wouldn't it be great if they came out and said they would abolish the federal reserve? neil: i don't think they will do that people not flipping over what the president said about the federal reserve, he might be proven right, that the fed overplayed their hand, did more

harm than good, the president avoided like i told you so, but it is like and i told you so, isn't it? >> absolutely. the fed miscalculated tariffs president trump put on. i think they also miscalculated the housing market would continue to slip and they were trying to get ahead of the curve. our rates are higher than most of the world has on 10-year treasurys. i think they will be hesitant and market, data dependent of course but i just can't see them raising rates. my prediction, neil, i think the 10-year in the united states will eventually go below 2%. neil: wow. >> he will not be able to stop it. raw material commodity prices for food, they're not rallying at all. what do you have rallying? speculation in crude oil. you have speculation in gold. you can't really use those. neil: you are right dan, 10-year is down 2%, already going to be

below, for example, overnight fed fund are turning 2 1/2%. normally that presages recession. do you worry about it? >> not worried about it. i think it is coming. neil: when is it coming? , when? >> i think in the process of evolving now. as he keeps rates up on the short end recession probably gets higher and higher. i think it's a deep recession. i don't want to use any other words. the fed has been around since 1913. their goal is to keep everything steady. they're not doing their jobs. they're involved in the politics more than we know. they're way out of that their b. the market senses that. this will be dangerous. if they can't get gdp up like trump trying to do with interest rates being so low for a long time. there is major underlying theme for the economy, that is global debt. we talk about that a long time. neil: performance when you have 0% interest rates and 2 1/2%.

having said that, dan, i'm more interested. i don't know your thoughts, this balance sheet that the federal reserve carries. $4 trillion came out of nowhere. obviously they will keep it around a while. i know that gets a little arcane and gobble did i gobbing for some folks. that is a lot of money to sit in fed covers waiting for god knows what? what do you make of that? >> that is all printed money. neil: it is all printed money. >> they could let the debt expire. there is no reason for them -- neil: no reason to put it out on the open market. >> absolutely. neil: what if you determined that there were no buyers for that? >> i don't know the answer but that is a good question. i determined the market didn't like it. they're siphoning the money out of the economy putting debt back in the market to take dollars out of economy. i think that is a bad play. hold it, let it mature. that was the original plan in 2009, 10, they borrowed all the

debt. why throw it back? a lot of it is non-performing. why would people want that? they don't have a grasp going on, people in the federal reserve are from connections i don't like, but it is all political. it is not the federal reserve we didn't used to know. as far as powell is concerned he made a major mistake. the whole committee made a major mistake. neil: you're invite to the christmas party is off. dan shaffer, thank you very much. what the federal reserve decides to do about interest rates. that seems to be a given, nothing. what jerome powell is signaling for future moves. for that we go to charles payne to take you through it. charles: hey, neil. we were up 400 points. you could feel anxiety going into the federal reserve decision imminent at any moment. here is the thing, folks couple meetings the federal reserve felt it was appropriate for

couple rate hikes. they moderated a little bit. maybe some rate hikes. people are wondering maybe they will say no rate hikes. the key is if they do that, what will happen? let's go right to edward lawrence at the federal reserve. edward. >> at this point, charles, there is no rate hike scheduled for the federal reserve. benchmark remains 2.25, to 2.50%. federal reserve says they will institute patience. the statement stresses that word, patience of the fed took out significant language in the statement. the language they took out said further gradual rate hikes as appropriate. the fed also removed language that risks to the economy remain balance. instead adding in there, saying the fed language, adding the fed will say, they will remain patient determining future rate hikes due to muted inflation and global economic development. the fed characterizes economy