>> that was given to me by the producer. they like them because they don't talk a lot. that is the royalty reality show. stuart: i best you got for standing up for america. that's all you got? enough. neil it is yours. neil: a quick peek at the corner of wall and broad. the dow is, couple fundamental developments including dow ever so briefly piercing below a 50 day moving average. a lot of technicians, chicken entrails and tea leaves to me focus on these type of developments. we bounced off of that a little bit. we've been since over that. chinese delegation still intends to come to the united states to watch them, more to the point. only thing apparently that the vice premier, does he join them. liu he. if he does not, it might lose some of the initial positive impact. we've also got some averages and some stocks more to the point

off their lows the 11 s&p 500 sectors closely scrutinized by investors they're still off for the day. they're just not off as much. the dow 30 right now, six of them are up, 24 are down. for much of the early morning all 30 were down. we should also point out as well that there is agreeing belief that cooler heads will prevail. when we got agitated before, we learned from history that we calm down and some constructive developments continue. way too early to talk about that. but again, early in the trading day, we're down about 229 points. had been down close to 500 points but, reading the tea leaves where the trade talks go from here, whether delegation from china does make its way to the united states. if that is still the intention, they have yet to leave. edward lawrence in washington with the latest. hey, edward. reporter: it's a long flight

here. they would need at least a day to get over here. trade sources are telling me the chinese pulled back some of the concessions during the talks in beijing. that prompted president donald trump in a meeting over the weekend with his u.s. trade delegation to decide that they will add or up to the tariffs on $200 billion of chinese goods from 10% to 25% starting on friday n response chinese lead negotiator liu he, was supposed to get on the plane yesterday. he did not get on the trade. the rest of the trade delegation did not make the trip so far to the united states. the chinese trying to figure out right now what their next step is. >> translator: we're getting more information about the situation. i can tell you the chinese working team is preparing to travel to the u.s. for the talks. reporter: the president in a tweet saying that the talks are moving too slowly and the chinese were trying to renegotiate. my trade sources say that

renegotiation is the pullback of the concession ises that the chinese had made last week. talks were supposed to begin on wednesday. so far we have not heard back from the u.s. trade representative's office asking if those talks are still scheduled to be on. there is time if a trade team gets on a plane in beijing right now to make it. at the moment nobody is making that trip just yet. neil. neil: edward, thank you very, very much. to give you the backdrop as edward pointed out, there was in place a 10% tariff on $200 billion of chinese goods. from nowhere the president broadened that to 25% and broadened out the number of goods to $325 billion. would affect prices from washing machines to solar panels. just the breadth of them would have been shocking to put it mildly. keep in mind the president talking about making the chinese pay for this. the truth of the matter government do not pay tariffs.

you and i do. chinese customers do. governments don't bear the costs. u.s. entities are getting hit like caterpillar or deere for example. they pay for that. the question, can they pass along the increases to you? generally certainly not at a 35% clip but they can absorb that entirely which is why a lot of u.s. companies are taking the pinch. that affected everyone from apple and caterpillar. don't get me started on boeing with its own host of the problems. all the major chip-makers. for a lot more detail on this we'll go to kristina partsinevelos who is the at new york stock exchange weighing and watching all of this closely. reporter: in the past trump said being unpredictable is an asset. two tweets rocked the market calm. technology is the second thing being hit given exposure to china. apple down. netflix down. almost 1.5%. same thing with microsoft. apple revenue 20% comes from

china, but all of that is in the red. if you look at it over a longer period of time of just year-to-date, you can see the stocks are all up. very similar situation if you're switching sectors now, looking at industrials. you mentioned caterpillar always being hit given exposure to china. caterpillar down about 2%. same thing with united technologies, a little bit under 2%, ge almost down 1%, but we take a larger macro perspective at these stocks. they're climbing higher for the year thus far, all in the green. last but not least, look at another sector often hit, financials, jpmorgan, gold -- goldman sachs, three big sectors taking a hit between this trade tussle between the united states and china. overall based in the green. some are happy with the volatility because it has been a while since we have seen the vix

climb higher. the vix year-to-date, it is biggest jump since 2019. up 29%. earlier this morning it was up 35%. many are saying is this an opportunity to jump in and buy the dips. neil: kristina, thank you very much. a lot of people watch the volatility index, the vix, it is called a fear gauge. you can invest in fear. wall street finds that in rapid supply today. that is well off the levels earlier in the day when we were approaching 35% runup in the closely monitored index of fear as it is known. i should tell you kind of adding some fire to this selling activity early on, talk out of philadelphia fed president patrick harker who still see as possibility of one more rate hike in 2019. hasn't ruled it out. now the consensus been building on the street is that we're not going to see any rate hikes this year, which is a little presumptuous considering that we still have about seven months to go before the end of this year.

that was baked into the cash cake if you will. now that might not be such a given. but i want to also stress early in the day, we've been hoodwinked and fooled on movements both up and down on prospects of trade. another reminder, really we need one, these chinese american trade talks are dictating the mood of the street. better they look, better things look for the corner of wall and broad. if the worse it looks, looks like we still have more friction between ourselves and second largest economy in the world, china, the worse things look like now. we should let you know very early on, that this has affected all s&p 500 sectors that cover everything from financials to basic manufacturing, to retailers, to financial issues apart from just the pure financial plays. so everyone has a stake in this. but more directly those who do business abroad. like caterpillar, the costs of

these tariffs have already cost caterpillar about $100 million. higher steel, aluminum related costs. deere has had similar impact though not in the same dollar terms here. those fierce continue to persist, this will have an effect but i cannot stress enough you will hear a lot back and forth with the president claiming he is proud to be a tariff man. that this country has gotten a lot of revenues off of this. that is good for us. it might very well be. it is more money to uncle sam but it is on you, you are paying the cost of that and buyers in china are paying the costs of effected tariffs as they go back and forth. let's get a read with some experts who can con chronicle where we're going. mark luschini, ted oakley. we had scares before, looked like a deal was close.

last friday they were intimating as much, all of sudden this. what do you see? >> i think trump and his administration have to be eyeing 2020. you really don't want to hurt the american economy or have the stock market looking terrible as you're heading into a new election cycle. i'm hoping cooler heads are going to prevail. like you said this really is harmful for the american people. when you're talking about tariffs, kind of like negotiating who will get pieces of a pie. you threaten to throw half of it in the trash at the end of the day everybody gets less pie. neil: i would take the entire pie myself. but that is another issue for another day. you know what i'm looking at some of the particulars on this, mark, some dow issues that were down, precip precipitously so at the open are back. dow, walt disney, unitedhealth group, pfizer among those, some issues beaten down

have come off the worst levels. it is still early. 250 points in a slide is nothing to sneeze at but what do you see going on? >> neil, it is function of investors selling first asking questions later. reaction overnight by way of pressure that was put on premarket activity down over500 is being relieved somewhat. we know some of the market's activity here so far this year has been sort of baking in the expectation that we're going to have some conclusion to the negotiation process. it was speculated it could be as soon as this friday. that puts a little more uncertainty whether it occurs at all, let alone this friday and consequence of this action was to expect the worst and hope for the best. now perhaps i think investors are seeing cooler heads prevailing with regard to likelihood something ultimately is getting done. maybe this is just posturing on the part of president trump saying he can demonstrate he put his hand heavily into the deal to make sure we got the very best out of it we possibly

could. neil: ted, it was clearly that as the president was getting clearly impatient about the pace of this and wondering if the chinese were deliberately dragging their feet. we'll see if they respond to this, or it looks bad on the global stage if they cave to this or frantically try to cobble together something that they have their pride and all that, so i get that how do you see this sorting out, or do you? >> well i see it sorting out, neil, in that he normally goes to an extreme on anything. then he, then when you come back to the center they think they got an okay deal. my guess is that is is what's happening here in this whole situation before it is all over with. neil: you know, lenore, i was looking at some of the particulars in all of this and in the middle of this interest rates are sliding. obviously safe haven as a place to go, under 2 1/2%. what i took from that you are getting less yield on 10-year

note than you are money borrowed overnight on a federal funds level. i don't know if that means anything but it is just weird. >> when you look at the bond market the bond market is not telling you the same story as the bonn market. the stork market says it is great. the bond market is saying i have some concerns. but what you're seeing in the stock market a handful of guys are doing really well pushing the indexes up when the s&p last week made all new highs, only 9% of the stocks in the s&p were making those highs. that is typically a fairly narrow group. when you see a narrow grouping like that it is, that is not a strong market to be looking at. neil: you know, mark, too, i noticed what is lost in the sauce, is the fact that we have different vibes from the white house. obviously the president, buck stops with him, his sentiment is is the final sentiment where these talks go. literally hours earlier,

treasury secretary mnuchin, mick mulvaney, his chief of staff, larry kudlow all saying that positive developments on the talks, how they're progressing. u.s. trade representative robert lighthizer just saying it is opposite. clear to me from that, that the president is taking his cues from the tough stance that lighthizer is issuing. what do you make of that? >> i would agree with you wholeheartedly. i believe he believes, robert lighthizer is his relationship of not only choice but as well the lead negotiator in this process. he is taking the cue from what light highser is reporting on with regard to how the process is developing. so as a consequence, i think his tweets are merely a reflection of the fact that highsers that is, has not seen kind of progress being made or it is too slow in fact we've seen walking back some concessions already made that is unnerving to the president which like the other guests had mentioned is highly cognizant of the fact this was a

campaign promise. as we're heating up in the political season towards the 2020 election, want this to be a victory lap for him, not something that stays open-ended. neil: guys, we're waiting to mare from the president. technically his chance to give the commander-in-chief's trophy to the u.s. military academy football team. invariably he might refer to developments what is happening on the trade front. ted, do you expect him to, or you think he will let the comments and tweets lie and see what happens? >> well i think he probably will more than likely. i think the biggest thing, neil, if i understand it correctly, that the chinese were going to have to change a couple laws and i think that was embarrassing to them probably and they have to find a way to work around that. that sounded to me like what happened. so i don't think he will get a lot more aggressive than he was in the tweet. neil: all right. we'll watch it closely. guys, thank you very much. we'll go to the white house as soon as the president starts

speaking here. per our charlie brady, our brilliant stocks editor at fox business, right now looking at losses in the dow he is crunched some numbers. says boeing, apple, 3m, goldman sachs and caterpillar are accounting for half the loss we're looking at right now as we speak. stay with fox business.

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at comcast, we didn't build the nation's largest gig-speed network just to make businesses run faster. we built it to help them go beyond. because beyond risk... welcome to the neighborhood, guys. there is reward. ♪ ♪ beyond work and life... who else could he be? there is the moment. beyond technology... there is human ingenuity. ♪ ♪ every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond.

neil: all right. we are waiting to hear from the commander-in-chief. in fact he will be giving the commander-in-chief trophy today to army. it was a battle between army and navy and air force. army ended up doing the better job with 11-2 record. the president will recent that. but no doubt use it as a opportunity, possibly, i say possibly to talk about the ongoing trade back and forth with the chinese. he sort of upped the ante late last week you might recall with the tweet he was imposing stiffer tariffs, up to 25% on well north of $300 billion worth of chinese goods. those goods have not been outlined by the white house. we suspect they will expand on steel and aluminum. they will affect everything from washing machines and dishwashers and you name it. it will all be brought up. someone told me as well,

blenders and food processers will get caught up in this. you and i pay the costs of those tear rivers. companies who have to absorb it typically will pass that along. the hope is not at the full 35% level. if it came to that. but, they will be in a very tough position passing that along, at least some of it to folks like you and me. again governments don't pay the tariffs, you and i do, i cannot stress that enough. haley barbour joins us, mississippi governor, former republican national committee chair. always good to have you, governor. trade wars, when they get dicey they get heated and this is heated and dicey at the same time. what do you think of the approach the president is taking? >> well first of all i think we have to recognize that the chinese have been in the world trade organization since 2001. they have cheated the whole time. they have never abided by the rules. the bush administration, obama

administration, chose not to try to do anything about it. president trump has said we're going to do something about it. we're not going to let them do this anymore. frankly he makes the point correctly, pretty soon we won't be able to do something about it when our economy is as big as ours. it is a whole lot harder to influence this. so i look at this and say, although i'm a free trader, reaganite, i see why he is doing this with china and if the reason for his saying what he said the last day is because he is positioning, i'm not sure that's smart but if the reason is because the chinese are backing out of some of the agreements they made, walking things back as your guests were saying, if that's the case then i think trump understands if you let them start doing that again right now you're never going to put an end to it. neil: it is interesting, governor, when you think about it, you mentioned presidents bush and obama, trying to extract concessions from the

chinese in the past. they got their word and assurances. some cases we would take our battles to, the world trade organization. we might technically win there but the chinese would still not follow up, apparently to your point, the sticking point here is, holding the chinese accountable. and that they have hoodwinked many a president in the past. that could be what the president is trying to nail down now. but how do we know whatever agreement we come to the chinese will honor? >> well you have to have ways of enforcement. you have to be prepared to use those. i think president trump is proving over and over and i think the chinese recognize it, if they agree to something, he will do everything he possibly can to hold them to it. that is very critical for our economy. the chinese have the second biggest economy in the world. but, invariably they have cheated and if we're going to not let them have the biggest

economy in the world in a much sooner time than they would otherwise, we have to put a stop to that. our trading partners, our allies, i think look to us because we're the only country in the world who has got enough big enough, strong enough, and the political will to do this. neil: do americans have the economic will to absorb this? you know we, we point out you're quite right, they have been using tariffs, that is the chinese willy-nilly, gotten away with it for decades. that is just a fact and the fear was if the president responded in kind, our president, it would only be doubling down on a negative approach. i get that. i understand that but one of the things that's come up here is that the american consumer is caught in the middle, paying higher prices for goods at a time we're better able to absorb it we have in the past given our strong economy but not for very long. how does the president make that

pitch if he has to tell them look, this is for your good longer term. this is for our country's economic security, longer term, and win that argument? >> well i remember, of course i worked for ronald reagan. i remember president saying and his allies saying, stay the course. when the recession, we were almost in constant recessions under jimmy carter. when the recession got worse in 81 and 82, he stayed the course and did what was good policy that good policy ended up generating about 25 years of economic growth in the u.s. economy, from late 1982 until 2007 and 8. he has to be strong and it is not just tariffs and that sort of stuff. the theft of intellectual property is an important part of this. the chinese have cheated in, many ways.

much of their military buildup which is enormous is stuff stolen through technology from us and other countries. so trump has got to, if he believes in this like i think he does, if he recognizes as i think this is the time,. neil: looking at the outside of the oval office. this is chance to award the commander-in-chief's trophy from the president. it is going to recognize army. army apparently defeated both schools right now. navy and who else, tom? navy and air force. and combined 11-2 record. everyone from the team, including all the coaches are there. this is one of the opportunities transcends politics.

they're proud to be there. and should be. president of the united states coming up shortly. i'm working to make each day a little sweeter. ♪ to give every idea the perfect soundtrack. ♪ to make each journey more elegant. at adp we're designing a better way to work, so you can achieve what you're working for. ♪ ♪ at comcast, we didn't build the nation's largest gig-speed network just to make businesses run faster. we built it to help them go beyond.

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neil: all right. real quickly, i do want to take to you the white house now. very shortly we should hearing from the president. he will give the commander-in-chief's trophy to army. it was contested between navy and air force. it is his opportunity to say to army, way to go. everyone from the army team, all coaches, staff members, are there. let's listen in. ♪ [applause] >> at ease. this is a beautiful day. what a great group of people. star athletes and stars in every way. it is an honor to have him at the white house. today my honor to present the commander-in-chief's trophy for the second year in a row to the army black knights. [cheering]

[applause] we're pleased to be joined by vice president mike pence. thank you, mike. alongwith west point graduate and army secretary, very good, mark esper. mark, thank you. thank you. [applause] also a man who has done unbelievably well for a long period of time, army chief of staff mark milley. where is mark? hi, mark. [applause] sergeant major of the army, daniel daily. thanks also. thank you, daniel. [applause] we are -- neil:well monitor the president, that he might comment on the heap more and higher tariffs on more chinese goods. more than $325 billion worth. corporate america taking it on the chin right now. we told but the dow jones

industrials, well off the worst levels of the day. 11 sectors that dominate the s&p 500 are down including technology. the former microsoft vice president and coo joins us. his reaction to all of this. bob, it is interesting, always good to have you, thank you for coming. >> sure thing. neil: the exposure u.s. companies have these days to china is like nothing which can remember a deck aide ago. i was going through some of the numbers. intel 24% of the revenue from china. mike con 51%. apple more than 20%. they have a lot riding on this, don't they? >> they certainly do. make no mistake, these are global companies in every sense of the world, from the standpoint of the core technologies that you see inside of them. they're made all over the world. china is a principle provider of many of the components. they're also a principle

consumer of a lot of these products. neil: so, let's say the chinese delegation which is expected to come to the united states may be with or without the vice premier, we don't know at this point, bob. is it your sense, if they don't, that they're licking their wounds, pride has been hurt, you know the drill, this could delay any deal if we get a deal for quite some time? >> no doubt. this is is an arm wrestling much which just continues to go on and on. both sides don't want to lose face, and consequently, you're seeing the classic behavior of, two major players here who won't give in. what is a shame, is that they can't get together privately and work this thing out. you know, from somebody who has spent their entire career in industry, you try to work these

things out quickly before they fester. and what's happening in the u.s. is this is really festering. it is hurting consumers. it's hurts many aspects of our economy. and it is a shame. neil: our economy has a funny way of showing it, right? the numbers that the president likes to talk about including record low unemployment rate that goes back to 1969. every key demographic is seeing record low unemployment levels. first quarter gdp at better than 3.2% clip a surprise many. if the time is now to take on the chinese, put a rest to this, now is the time. what do you say? >> that is true. he is certainly applying the pressure. you will see what china does in response. but while the economy is good, there is a lot of basic fragileness there, people are very worried about what is going on in the world, in many dimensions. so, you have a couple of guests

earlier that were talking about the bond market, what it is trying to tell us. neil: right. >> i think there is fragileness there, no doubt, major indices look really strong in the u.s. trump has that working for him. so, we will see what happens. but, boy, this thing is a long, drawn out deal. i just wish it would not have to be that way. neil: bob, this is the first president for good or ill who is taking on the chinese on this issue, not letting go. other presidents have tried, gotten promises and assurances from the chinese in the past, they lied or didn't stick to the agreement or didn't stick to wto orders they didn't stick to the agreement. this is the moment to take them on. i have no doubt that sometime soon we'll have a deal. i could be very, very wrong. will the same thing apply? in other words will the chinese fine a way around this and we're right back to square one and whatever they do, to prop up their industries at the expense of foreign competitors, they

will resume doing? >> i think that is true. it would be hard to change their dna. a lot of it is built right into that dna. on other hand, china, let's give them credit, they are doing some things very well. they're building up their r&d and technology strength, especially in the science and technology areas, very robustly so, they are a major threat to us right now. and in terms of these areas. neil: real quickly while i still have you, everyone is fixated among the technology giants being trillion dollar market company. apple and amazon and microsoft and alphabet and google name have been trading places back and forth close to that. as you know, former microsoft honcho, how closely do you pay attention to that? >> tell you the truth not that closely. i think microsoft is doing very well. it is strong in several is

areas. apple is at a very interesting juncture. it is now softening significantly. their revenue is down 5%. profit off 16%. the most worrying part about apple, they recently announced so-called long term direction. they focus on services. neil: right. >> they focused on a new credit card. they focused on a streaming service. now, they are now going into areas that basically are tough. you have got entrenched competitors with deep pockets this is very much different than the old steve jobs dream of doing a few things, but doing them very excellently. and, jumping into credit cards and streaming with all the competition you see today, wow, it has got to have a different feel for the apple loyalists at this point in time. so, it is rather unnerving for them. amazon is a tower of strength.

google an alphabet have their problems. the latest being antitrust issue with spotify. so it is an interesting world. neil: to put it mildly, bob, great seeing you again. >> nice to see you, neil. neil: boeing is among the dow stocks feeling the pinch today. in fact with the drop-off accounting for little more than 40 points in the dow hit but it has a lot more to do than just the china downdraft and growing revelations it might have been aware of problems with the 737 max more than a year ago. more on that after this. she can stay with you to finish her senior year. things will be tight but, we can make this work. ♪ now... grandpa, what about your dream car? this is my dream now.

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neil: all right. this making it an even 200. new york mayor bill de blasio, apparently seriously considering a presidential run. not really 200. as you know it is 188. anyway, we have charlie gasparino here. is he serious? >> 199 people who can't beat trump. neil: looking that way the way this economy. >> he is very serious.

i've been talking to new york dems all day. the way they're explaining it is this. he is term-limited. neil: right. >> he doesn't really have great job prospects coming out of this. was is he running for governor? i don't think he can do that? probably can't win. neil: new york governor isn't term-limited? >> you can run as many times as you want. >> his father ran three terms lost in the fourth term. george at pataki had three term. neil: what is to stop him from running? >> if you're rational about that, why would you do it. so many people like him in the race. bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, go down the list they're all carbon companies. neil: but you could say i'm chief executive of biggest city. >> he is not going to win. this is pretty much of a cynical ploy on his part. number one he will not raise the money.

the others will suck all the oxygen. neil: he alienated financial players. >> they hate him. they think he is absolutely jerk. neil: tough road to balance. >> if you piss off both you have no money. you have to get to the debates. you have to get a certain level. neil: one or 2%. >> he might not even make the debates. so then again, why is he doing it? again he needs a job in three or two years when he is term-limited out. this is good sounding board. think about it this way, you can keep your job as big time anchor and float around iowa and run for -- neil: it does economically, we were doing this the other day, that you know, you get bigger speech income. >> right. neil: book deals and the like. you might get a cabinet position if your party -- >> bernie sanders wins. they have a lot in common. they both honeymooned in communist countries. bernie sanders, i'm pretty sure bernie sanders honeymooned in -- neil: moscow. >> moscow. neil: that's right.

>> comrade bill de blasio it was cuba. isn't that great? think of all they could talk about. neil: what people are saying about the crowded field, you were talking at beginning about the latest economic number, report low unemployment? >> right. neil: you can go back and forth the president should be running away but he is not. it is clear the economy is gaining traction. >> if you look at his polls on handling on the economy, he does a lot better than the overall polls. there is noxiousness around donald trump that you know, aside from what i know about the guy, which i like the guy a lot, his twitter personality and his personality turns off a lot of people. the real question will you throw it all away for 180 on bernie sanders, elizabeth warren or some of these people you got running? that is the real question. neil: unless it is joe biden. somewhat of a more moderate bent. >> someone that doesn't kowtow to the left. it will be hard to get through the primary without kowtowing to

the left by the way on economic issues. that is what we're kind of talking about here. what is interesting about donald trump. aside from the trade stuff, i mean, if he doesn't do crazy trade stuff and by the way this might be a pure negotiating stance, you saw market tradeoff, why do you think he did this? >> i think it is negotiating stance. he is getting i am -- i amimpatient. i herd about reports that the chinese is more scared of him because mueller is not wrong. they have economic issues. we have economic issues. they're a huge trading partner. we need them to sell certain things. we like access to the market. neil: tariffs are something you and i pay, not the government. >> that is the problem. when you go tit-for-tat on this stuff. one thing to go crack down on intellectual property rights stealing. another thing to hurt our farmers. i think markets are reflecting that.

markets are not off that much. neil: no, they're not. >> they think he is all bluster. markets think he will get a trade deal. just so you know. neil: i think you're right about that. >> kudlow telling people he is getting a trade deal, we have dow 28,000. neil: to your argument. robert lighthizer is calling the tray shots is proven true. >> yeah. neil: he is went against treasury secretary steve mnuchin, mulvaney, larry kudlow, all whom saying this is coming together fast. lighthizer is saying no, no. obviously his tough stance has the president's ear. >> there is a reason why light highser is still in there, even more than that, it's a tell. peter navarro. peter navarro so isolated from mnuchin and larry kudlow and the economic brain trust of the administration still in there. because trump likes him, his stance on china, his bell

belligerent. is there something that comes out of kudlow and navarro that is positive? that could be true. neil: they will say there was compromise. >> maybe the markets will like it. anything but total trade war the markets might like that. neil: excellent column over the weekend. you are fair and balanced. those who say he is never-trumper, he is a fair and balanced trump per. >> i'm a sometimes trump per. neil: there are a lot of adjectives i can throw your way. the fact that it was balanced conference. >> i was at milken. manny the security barred said hello. neil: how is manny? >> he is a great guy. he loves cavuto. neil: ralph is shouting in my ear. >> so many people talking you up. neil: i paid them. we'll take a quick break, urge you if you can, to online read a very fair and balanced portrayal of this president from a guy that doesn't have any agenda on the right or the left. we have a lot more after this.

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neil: this is bun those news days, any other day this would be a lead global item that the united states is deploying carrier group and bombers to the middle east. it is opening salvo to the

iranians we say are playing fast and loose in the region. so far not much follow through from our allies or those in the region. hudson institute senior fellow rebecca heinrichs is is listening closely to the response. so far not coming up with much. what do you think? >> i'm hearing that particular strike group was going to centcom, that area of responsibility in the middle east. what is interesting about this particular deployment that it came from remarks from ambassador bolton off the record from senior administration official, to go there deteriorate potentially aggression from the iran iranian government against u.s. interests. we don't know if it is against u.s. forces or an ally. hamas is using, attacking israeli civilians or trying to. they're a proxy of the iranians. there is a lot going on.

at this point the united states is trying to regain control and deter what they perceived as potential act of aggression by the iranians. neil: rebecca, i try to look where i would see the fear of this. i know the fear built into the markets on the china trade deal that might fall through but, if we were worried about some complication in the middle east oil prices would be rocketing. they're not. we're already having a flight to quality to bonds. that i get when stocks are taking it on the chin but not to the degree you would think. so are the markets just whistling past this issue to their own detriment? what do you think of that? >> we don't have a whole lot of information so it is hard to know because the administration has been pretty quiet what it is they're trying to deter. and we did have these dod officials who quieted things down a little bit saying well, we don't have to be too concerned. the carrier strike group was scheduled to go. this was a routine mission, tied

to more concerning signaling from u.s. officials. some people don't know what point to make of it. the global energy market is affecterred by all of these different things and we have a lot of potential areas of concern. making sense of what particular issue over another is a little bit challenging. neil: you're absolutely right about that. rebecca one other thing i want to get your thoughts on, maybe not a lot of allies running up to say go usa, go usa, because they're not signing up for this idea of further sanctions on iran and even getting their oil off the market and not allowing other players to get the oil even on the black market and they're just saying we can't do that and i'm wondering if this has to do more of their own self is ish financial interests? >> well it is and it is important to remember that everybody's motivated by their own national interests. neil: you're right. you're right. >> one of the things i've been trying to encourage people to talk about, the trump administration talked about how

we moved into this era of great power competition. so we're competing with these foes with china and with russia. no now no longer being threatened as international liberal world order. i've tried to encourage people stop saying those weird vague terms. we need to be clear about what we mean. if the united states is not going to be the most influential power then it going to be russia, it is going to be russia or going to be the china or the iranians. i understand the united states with tough love when they need to pony up for their own security. we need partners to partner with the united states to push back on these maligned forces. neil: rebecca. thank you very much. we'll have more after this. brighthouse smartcare℠ is a hybrid life insurance and long-term care product. it protects your family while providing long-term care coverage,

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♪ i'm working for all the adventure two wheels can bring. ♪ at adp we're designing a better way to work, so you can achieve what you're working for. neil: all right. a little shaken but not overly stirred. welcome back, everybody. at the corner of wall and broad, we had started off down close to 5 500 pots,ints, a lot of thieshs were upping the ante with china, like 3m and caterpillar, still dragging on the dow but other issues have come back. alphabet, the parent of google, was down about 2%, now up nominally. these are not just dow issues i'm referring to. disney had been down 1.5%, now up about half a percent. mcdonald's and chevron which were also down earlier on, now nominally positive. it is a reminder a lot of these issues have come back. whether they are overreacting on

the upside from being severely on the downside, we'll know for sure three hours from now. that would be just one day's trading, even with the hit the dow was absorbing earlier on as well as the s&p 500, the fact of the matter is we are still up in excess of 15% from the december lows, depending on the average you're looking at, really 20%. even accounting for this. blake burman with the latest at the white house. blake, i'm curious, it looks like that china delegation will still likely come. we just don't know when, and we don't know exactly who, right? reporter: yeah, the chinese are saying they are preparing to come. that is a key word. because the meetings are supposed to take place on wednesday, as you know, or at least start on wednesday. a spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs in china saying today the preparations are as such. i can tell you over here at the white house as well, one white house official telling me earlier this morning that it is their intention, the white house's intention, that the meetings will be taking place on

wednesday. it appears to be somewhat of a tbd if nothing else, maybe free-flowing at the moment. certainly not as rock-solid as it was before the president sent out the tweet earlier from over the weekend, rather. we are getting a better idea of how the timing in all of this played out. sources tell fox that the president, that there was a meeting with the president over the weekend in which he was informed by members of his team that the chinese had been making some -- that some of the concessions, rather, that the chinese had made, that they were pulling back on m some of those concessions and that's what led to the president's tweet over the weekend. one source telling me that one of the big barometers going forward here, neil, is whether or not liu he, who of course is the vice premier, chinese vice premier, you see him there right side of the screen talking to robert lighthizer last week in beijing, whether or not liu he ends up coming to washington for the talks this week, will be a big barometer on whether or not the folks inside the building behind me believe the chinese

are sincere or not about getting a deal done. i mentioned the spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs. this was their statement earlier today reacting to the president's tweet saying quote, as a matter of urgency we hope that the u.s. side will make joint efforts with china to achieve a mutually beneficial and win/win agreement on the basis of mutual respect. this is not only in the interest of china, but also in the interest of the u.s. side and it is the general expectation of the international community. a source also telling me earlier today do not downplay the threat from president trump as it relates to possibly hiking up tariffs on friday. as you know, the president has followed through on those threats. it was pointed out to me before. neil: do you think the catalyst for him doing so was the strong employment report, that he felt that he would be coming from a position of strength even if the tariffs would be deemed deleterious to american consumers, we are in a better

position to absorb it? reporter: could be. could be one reason. from the reporting of my colleague edward lawrence, you know, edward's reporting is that there was also this meeting over here over the weekend in which the president was sort of told that they might be walking some things back. the president alluded to that in his tweet so maybe it's what edward put out, you know, that chain of events, maybe it's what you just floated, maybe a combination of things. you never know. neil: one other question. dumb one on my part, but we do know just hours earlier, treasury secretary mnuchin, mick mulvaney, larry kudlow, the word was ample progress, then no progress, now this. obviously something was miscommunicated do we know? reporter: i don't know if it was miscommunicated, per se. i will tell you this much. when i was speaking with one source over here earlier today, this person said to me look, we tell you guys all the time that

the negotiations are continuing and it might seem a bit like, you know, just a default line from the folks in the building behind me and maybe it is, but it was also stressed to me the negotiations are continuing and when you're talking about something this large and this important, with all the little details there, you know, buried underneath it, the negotiations are still very much continuing. neil, the reason why i bring that up is there's all these ebbs and flows we have been following over the last weeks and into months. the question is right now, is there something that can kind of sidetrack it or are we just in one of those ebbs and flows because the negotiations are continuing. neil: because they weren't going along this route when he threw that grenade in. maybe for very good reason but it did change the landscape. we will watch it closely. thank you very much. blake burman. we have fox news contributor liz peek here, john busby and dan geltrip. liz, i'm amazed that the markets

have held to the degree they have, maybe they used to this up and down nature of stuff, but they are amply exposed here, bottom line, and are taking it relatively okay. >> yes. we have had several new highs in the s&p and nasdaq, so -- and as you were saying earlier, big gains since the december lows. i think -- neil: since the tariffs were first introduced a little over a year ago. >> this is a head fake or headache. we're not really sure how seriously to take this. i would say this. beginning about a week ago, you began to get reports out of china, unauthorized sources, also dmoefk souromestic sourcesa was backing away from giving up subsidies for industries, backing away from intellectual property theft, protections, et cetera. it did seem like a steady drumbeat of we have run into a brick wall here. i'm not totally surprised that something like this happened.

but i think the question is as you all have been talking about, is this just president trump trying to push the advantage, push the fact that our economy really is in pretty good shape and we are seeing in the market right now that is really the overarching theme. neil: one of the things that came up is we threw a couple of things at china they weren't expecting before the preside president -- one of them is nothing until it is clear you are honoring your agreement. i don't know how true that is or whether it was a lighthizer demand. it wouldn't shock me that it's an obvious step to make. what do you make of that? >> not so late, it's been on the table for some time. the chinese never said we agree with it because why give up tariffs but you guys don't have to. there's a face-saving issue here. you asked earlier about was there miscommunication in the message coming out of the white house. we have to remember that the

chinese bureaucracy is a big bureaucracy and there's a lot of power centers within it. so you may be seeing one or two of those flexing their muscles now and trying to do what china's really good at doing and has done for decades which is agree to something, then kind of step it back, agree to something, then step it back and step it back hoping you are going to just relent out of exhaustion. kind of a rope-a-dope play. my suspicion is the president didn't do this without lots of consultation with lighthizer. lighthizer felt it was necessary. big things on the table, access for pharmaceutical, protection of their i.p., access for companies that do cloud computing and the chinese have been resisting, china keeps throwing up all sorts of safety concerns about our agricultural goods, keeping them out. the u.s. wants that resolved and china has been kind of, again, delaying. there are some big issues in play here. my suspicion is the president felt that they needed to apply additional pressure. neil: this is my opinion but i do think the trade -- sorry, friction we have now got a new

lease on life with the employment report, with some of the stronger than expected economic news, even going into the first quarter gdp report. that's the wind at his back and he can afford some headwinds post-this. what do you think? >> i think that's exactly the case. i think that the president who i believe is a pretty good negotiator saw that he really has some strength here and he was going to exercise it. i don't know if the president was consulting with anybody else before he dropped that bomb of a tweet. neil: i don't think he was consulting with his top economic team. he and lighthizer might have been on the same page but it did seem like an alert to these others. >> i do think the president is very serious about that tweet and i do think -- [ speaking simultaneously ] >> i think if the chinese are going to play rope-a-dope and head fake and whatever they are trying to do to the president, i don't think he's going to tolerate. i think he is going to play hardball and i think they will

wake up pretty quickly to find out he's not going to back off. he's going to put the new tariffs in place and the chinese will have to deal with it and they will have to figure out how they are going to save face, because the president doesn't always build a bridge for his partners to retreat over. neil: is he ready for the fallout for us? government doesn't pay these tariffs, we do. some of the companies that are dealing with this can absorb a good chunk of that, but not all of that. >> look, going into the 2020 election, it's the economy. it's all about the economy. president trump can go to the country and say you are better off than you were before. look, if the economy, if we lose a little confidence and people begin to retrench, all the economic data is not 100% right now. there are some weak points in the economy so he definitely is going to take a risk with that. on the other hand, i think nothing could be more powerful for his winning back the blue collar voters who voted for him in 2015 than going to them in

2020 and saying look, i did this, i got a hard deal with china. i think that is enormous. it's really powerful. >> liz is right on that. look, we are going into the 2020 election but we are still 18 months out. he's got a little time. china's economy -- neil: we have enough graphics and music to carry us. >> we have a very slow recovery in china, it's pretty vulnerable right now. maybe now is the time to push the issue. the president's going to mislead on this issue of who's paying for the tariffs, that it's china paying the u.s. economy which it's not. it's the consumer in the u.s. having to pay higher prices. neil: i don't know where that billions of dollars has gone. i know our deficits are getting worse. >> the consumer is paying higher prices because the tariffs put a higher price on china's goods coming in. the pressure on china is the consumer doesn't want to buy as many of those goods. our reporter in beijing has a good piece on this right now, about the chinese economy. xi jinping has got to be thinking about his own staying power. he doesn't have an election that

he's facing, but he's got the eternal politics within the politburo and has to keep that economy moving. if this really stymies economic growth, because the consumer here pulls back from more expensive chinese products, that's a big problem for him. neil: but not a worry for you, right? >> no, it's not. neil: from a people's investment perspective based on the down again, up down nature. >> look how the market reacted. first there was the shock of the president sending that tweet, then cooler heads started to prevail and said hey, listen, this is what president trump does. he's going to jump in, he's going to be extremely aggressive, he's going to push back on the chinese, he's not going to show any weakness at all. as that pertains to 2020, when trump is appealing to his base, he's appealing to strength. he wants to show that he's a strong international leader and he won't be intimidated by the chinese. neil: you can say that until you're blue in the face but if you are feeling the economic hit, right? >> but we're not. i think the president has a lot

of -- neil: you think this is settled relatively soon? >> i do. >> i think if the chinese don't show this week or you know, this is one of those really chinese situations, if they only come with 20 people instead of the 100 people that were expected, the market sells off again. i think people will be very anxious that this is not a serious, not just speed bump but again, brick wall. i think that would be worrisome. neil: guys, thank you very much. boeing is among the issues getting hit on this but not exclusively this. now reports that it knew a lot of these 737 max issues upwards of a year or more ago. the fallout from that, after this. okay, i picked out my dream car.

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neil: all right. when it comes to boeing it's not just china. now growing allegations it was well aware of problems with the 737 max long before it was talking about it. fox business's jackie deangelis with more on that. reporter: boeing stock is recouping some earlier losses but it's down a little more than a percent and a half, saying yesterday that it knew there was an alert that was disabled on the 737 due to a software glitch, but that it wasn't necessarily needed to safely operate the plane. it also said in 2017 when the issue was discovered, the

company included that existing functionality and they concluded it was accessible, in fact. southwest which operates the 737 planes, it says it wasn't informed of the issue until after the lion air crash that happened in late 2018. so the question today, of course, is why. boeing is saying engineers knew about the problem but upper management didn't, and that can certainly be an important factor when it comes to determining liability here in the criminal investigation. now, the safety indicator issue is so crucial in this investigation, because it was designed to alert pilots when there was a problem with the pitch of the plane's nose and that of course was an issue in both the lion air and ethiopian airlines crashes. boeing has said that it can't reasonably estimate the range of losses coming from lawsuits investigations and other inquiries surrounding the 737, but remember, this line of aircraft represents a third of its revenue projected over the next five years so it's really massive for this company. neil: to put it mildly. thank you very, very much. great report. well, the faa's

[ inaudible ] anthony roman on this. what do you think if there's a trail or line that can lead to the company of where this maybe didn't appreciate the magnitude of this, then did, what do you make of that? >> it's another major failure in boeing's quality control program and breach of trust with its customers. this creates a huge liability problem for boeing. i don't think it's a recoverable issue for them. i think it will be awhile before passengers begin to trust them and pilots begin to trust them along with their customers. what's happened here. fundamentally, boeing is saying that it wasn't important that this alert system was working but the glitch in the boeing software, if one of the indicators malfunctioned and disagreed with the working indicator, the mcas system would

engage when it wasn't necessary and dip the nose down. that's what likely has occurred in both accidents. if that system had been working and if the code was properly done, then the system would not have engaged, the nose would have not been pushed down, and it would have been up to the pilots to resolve the discrepancy. i believe it would have avoided those accidents. neil: you mentioned at the outset, you wonder if it's recoverable, that is boeing, from this. it's kind of like the only game in town for a lot of u.s. airlines, right? boeing planes, airbus, of course, but how would passengers then who are leery, who are concerned about something like this, even be able to distinguish? i only want to go on an airbus now? or are we taking too many leaps there? what do you think? >> i think, you know, americans in general by history, by example, generally if the aircraft flies safely from three to six months, i think americans

will start to forget about those problems and begin to ride the max again. but i think the airlines and particularly the pilots will be leery of this aircraft because they simply don't know what they don't know. what else is in the code that may be glitchy and what else isn't boeing telling them. neil: interesting. we will watch closely. thank you, anthony. warren buffett had some interesting things to say about this u.s./china rift and was telling liz claman just that, after this. i'm working to make each day a little sweeter.

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-- generally and it hurts people specifically. that is something i think the president as an educator in chief, any president, has an obligation to explain and that i think congress has an obligation to take care of the people that

are road kill, investors who get killed by it but they can diversify. but a worker in a textile mill can't diversify. and you know, they are, if you are 50 years old and all you have done is make shoes, you become road kill. neil: responding to liz claman, the most successful investor in human history, warren buffett, the closing bell host, liz claman now back here, through no sleep. he's looking at that saying you got to be careful what you wish for, right? wars can accelerate. liz: if you notice, he's okay with tariffs. he says we've lived with those through many presidents, and he said that's always going to be in play at certain points. he's not entirely against it. but he said the onus is on congress and the trump administration, or any administration, to make sure that u.s. workers who have exposure don't become, in his

words, road kill. when he said that to me, whoa, that's -- neil: there are a lot of companies that do have exposure, right? it's more significant than ever. liz: for him, i asked him do you have exposure to sanctions and tariffs. all of them, he said all our companies, the number is at around 90, 70 outright, then some of the bigger ones, but he said that they all have exposure. he's got the nebraska furniture mart, a lot of chinese imported furniture. he has this company called precision steel warehouse. they do sheet steel. they do flat wire steel, hot tipped galvanized. neil: very vulnerable to what's going on. liz: very vulnerable. he said that's not really the issue. he fully expects they will always be hit with something, some outside weird thing. it was fascinating to see how many people wanted to know about the trade issue and that was before president trump tweeted on sunday. neil: that's right. what is his view of the markets

these days, this long bull market and how he plays it? liz: he never plays the market. he only plays that disciplined buffett world view of i'm going to wait until something's cheap. i would bet that early this morning, when the futures were down, he had his people buying stock, because it looked like it was on discount. if you look at the futures right now, you look at the market right now, we are way off the lows. so did you miss your big window to buy something that was less expensive this morning than it is right now. neil: when we find out what he's been buying, whether it's amazon or apple, through his people or directly through him, how late is that word coming through? in other words, what's the delay we find out about it? liz: he has special dispensation from the securities and exchange commission, kind of like you and me. oh, wait a minute, we don't. neil: not like you and me. liz: he doesn't have to tell the world because when buffett purchases something, it will start to spike if the world knows because people tend to pile in. but with amazon, i asked him twice over the weekend, we had this funny moment on friday where we walked in to the arena

and he normally isn't out there talking, but he was sitting there in a golf cart drinking a coke with charlie munger and they were just quiet. this was saturday. but in the golf cart, i asked him, you know, what about amazon. there they are. i'm telling you, they were sitting there and they weren't talking and fans were around them and i said you guys must feel like zoo animals. neil: you and i get that everywhere we go. liz: everywhere. yeah. we're just mobbed. neil: munger is amazing. what is he? liz: 95. he's hilarious. when i said look at you, you're 95, you're running around here, he said i'm slowing down. neil: let me get a sense. the crowds that come out for these things obviously want pearls of wisdom. what did they leave with? liz: they left with something extraordinarily important. buffett basically in a way for his buffett-ology gave the biggest signal ever he knows who is going to be taking over this

company and he hinted who it is. fox business has always been saying it would be greg abel of berkshire hathaway energy. greg is a canadian originally from alberta. very low key, very buffetty in that way. doesn't need the spotlight. there he is. we caught up with him. he does not do interviews. he doesn't. we caught up with him. we also caught up with him last year, the only network to do so. i can tell you he just wants warren buffett in the spotlight but he's brilliant and he's very involved in deal making. interestingly, warren told me he was not involved in the occidental $10 billion offer that broke last friday to buy anadarko. he said i didn't call anybody, not greg, not charlie. he moved $10 billion in the span of several hours. but greg can do that, too, he said. i believe that that is the man. it's funny, jane and abel. neil: i see what you did.

you talked to the three kids. they are all very wealthy but he puts sort of a price tag on that, right? liz: he gave several years ago each one of them, howard, susie and peter, $1 billion each with the caveat that you have to start a foundation. doesn't matter what it is. peter started one for women's rights, howard does, you know, food insecurity around the world, susie of course is big on the sherwood foundation for young girls and women. maybe they got to skim some off the top for some cool nikes or something. neil: do they mean it? in other words, when they say sure, pop, i got this charitable endeavor going? liz: i would be like yeah, the liz claman shoe foundation. neil: look forward to the full rundown on "countdown." you can catch her at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. get behind all those throngs. you have sharp elbows.

liz: you should see the other guy. or gal, should i say. neil: very funny to watch. all right. we talk about china, we talk about how it's playing out certainly in the markets, a lot better than it had been earlier on, but what's very interesting here is how it's playing out in the political arena. more after this. morning. what are you doing? isn't it obvious? nah. we're delivering live market coverage and offering expert analysis completely free. we're helping you make sense of the markets without cable or a subscription from anywhere you are. i get that. but what are you doing here? nice pajamas. really? i say pajamas. pajamas, pajamas, whichever. good. yahoo finance live. stream free anywhere.

welcome to the show. let's make finance make sense.

neil: all right. keep in mind the attorney general did testify in the senate. it's the house judiciary committee now that is in a ruckus here, might hold him in contempt, maybe worse, because he refused to testify to them. the fox nation liberty file host, andrew napolitano, on what he makes of this. they're arguing that he should have and what are they going to do? >> they are probably going to subpoena bob mueller and then he would be under the burden either to comply or to go to a federal judge and have the subpoena quashed. he is an employee of the justice

department so his boss, bill barr, could already say you could go, could change his mind because his boss, the president, has changed his mind. neil: but they're mad at everybody, barr, mueller if he doesn't, right? >> bob mueller can negate all of this by resigning from the doj saying my job is over. then he's a private citizen and nobody can stop him. neil: does the president have the power to say you shall not testify? >> to a government employee? neil: bob mueller? >> yes. he does not have that power to a private person. there is no privilege. the report is 99% public. the author of the report has helped make it public. he certainly lawfully can testify about it. neil: all right. i thought the president was o n open, had nothing to hide, everyone wants to talk, let's do this. >> that was the attitude of the president when he first learned of the four-page summary of conclusions attorney general barr released. that was the attitude of the president when the report first came out, when the president's

people like the rest of us examined the rest of the report, he flipped 180 degrees and was back to being critical of mueller and the investigation and the people that participated in it. then he said i have nothing to hide, then he said as recently as just last night, i don't want him to go. so i don't know how that plays out. i don't know if i don't want him to go is because to be translated in i order him not to go or if it's just the president's opinion at the moment. neil: all right. if mueller were to testify and there is a difference of opinion as you have enlightened me between bill barr and mueller's people, you know, what constitutes a pass on obstruction of justice, i get the sense from mueller's people it's not a total exoneration, maybe the president doesn't want that brought up or the back-and-forth on this, and give it more shelf life. >> i would think if mueller testifies, you know, it will be the biggest audience since the final of "dallas" and who shot j.r. and -- neil: you and i are the only -- >> right.

there will be a lot of back-and-forth. republicans basically saying why didn't you investigate how this whole thing started, legitimate question, and democrats saying isn't this obstruction of justice, isn't this obstruction of justice, isn't this obstruction of justice, and that latter q & a is probably what the president doesn't want. neil: what if the president was assured we'll talk to mueller but we'll talk to him behind closed doors? >> i doubt that congressman nadler, the chair of the house judiciary committee, would go along with that. if he did, that would not serve the democrats' stated purpose of transparency. then you would have a republican version of what went on behind closed doors and the democratic version of what went on behind closed doors and we would all wait for the transcript to come out and might never see it. neil: impeachable offenses, every democrat you talk to says there are clear impeachable offenses. when i try to corner them on exactly what are they, they go back to obstruction, having tried to thwart justice from being served. could i get an update on your

thoughts on that? >> asking people who work for you to lie to federal investigators, which is what richard nixon was accused of doing and bill clinton was accused of doing, has traditionally been characterized as a specie of other high crime and misdemeanors. neil: the president says that didn't happen. >> bob mueller says it did. it would be he said/he said. but it would be a basis for the house judiciary committee to begin investigations if they want. stated differently, obstruction of justice has been found by either the congress or the house judiciary committee consistently to be a lawful constitutional basis for impeachment. but impeachment is a political question, not a legal one. neil: that's my next question. i just don't see the appetite for that. >> i could not agree with you more. you know who agrees with us, of all people? nancy pelosi. without a broad bipartisan

national consensus behind impeachment, as there was for nixon, i don't think there was for clinton, it just doesn't succeed and it explodes on the people who instigate and foment it. neil: judge, thank you very much. good seeing you again. meantime, we are following the markets, much more interested in the on again, off again trade talks with china. we have seen interest rates come down. we have seen oil come down. so the kind of knee-jerk kind of anxiety you would see materialize in the market certainly hasn't happened on the oil front. let's go to jeff flock and phil flynn in chicago. jeff, what's happening? >> it's a little bit of a taylor swift comeback for oil and other commodities as well. we are in the ags right now. there's one actually that hasn't come back. i will show you real quick. that's the hog pit. it is now limit down, limit down on lean hogs. that's why the guys are standing around. they're not trading because we have already gone down as far as we can go. other commodities, agriculture has come back and so has oil,

right? >> it really has. >> shake it off. that's my taylor swift reference. they shook off the news. why? >> i think because you're looking at the big picture, they realize this is donald trump being donald trump. he's probably negotiating with china. we heard reports that china was backing off some of the things he agreed to so it's a short-term move. they are looking at the big picture. >> in addition to donald trump you have an aircraft carrier going to the middle east, and iran. you have hamas and israel. i mean, that should blow oil sky-high. >> it really could at some point if the market actually believed that iran was stupid enough to try to shut down the strait of hormuz. if they do, i'll tell you, that would be one of the biggest events in oil in 30 years. it would turn this into an international incident and potentially a war. >> even the threat of that has boosted oil and it didn't today. >> it is, because you can only cry wolf so many times. but i think most people realize

that iran wouldn't do that because any friend they have in the world would turn against them. >> real quick, i want to show before we get away, soybeans. as i said, this is the ag area. we don't usually focus on this. come with me, if you would. we don't usually focus on this because people don't care about agriculture. well, these are the guys most hurt by the tariffs. already you're talking about more tariffs. this is the soybean pit. all this flatakes place on the screen but they have already been hit with a 25% retaliatory tariff we are already having to pay. >> they already have. this is a big thing. at the end of the day, tariffs or no, the chinese people still have to eat. that's what we're seeing in this market today. people realize even if they have more tariffs, the chinese or at least somebody on the globe will mea need these beans. >> they have to eat but they don't have to re-elect their president. he will be president forever. our guy has to stand for election in two years. >> he does. farmers are unhappy. >> we will see who toughs it

out. neil? neil: real quick, jeff, do you get a sense that everyone says there's a message to the president's perceived madness, a strategy. what if it's just impulsive and madness? >> well, here in chicago, you really have both sides of that, don't you? >> you really do. >> you have people that are supportive of the president. i could turn the camera around and show you a guy who is a big fox business fan and big trump fan and he's surrounded by people that wouldn't like -- would like trump to jump off a cliff. >> some of his biggest supporters who were 100% behind him, the oil guys and farmers, are scratching their heads, saying we voted for you, why are you doing this to us, you are costing us a lot of money. lifting of the iran sanction waivers, that cost the oil guys. >> the farmer guys, soybean guys, pork farmers, are getting slaughtered. almost literally. >> yeah. neil: you got a deal, all bets are off. gentlemen, thank you very much. meantime, the economy,

that's the wind at the president's back and has him willing to take on these headwinds of maybe a delayed deal. economically that could pay off for him. what about politically? after this. heading into retirement you want to follow your passions rather than worry about how to pay for long-term care. brighthouse smartcare℠ is a hybrid life insurance and long-term care product. it protects your family while providing long-term care coverage, should you need it. so you can explore all the amazing things ahead. talk to your advisor about brighthouse smartcare. brighthouse financial. build for what's ahead℠

neil: are you concerned the direction your party seems to be going?

social security trustees have three members of the trump administration and they reported social security will be paying 75% of benefits in 15 years. medicare is going to run out -- neil: i believe -- >> i'm just saying -- neil: is it so unpleasant, let's not talk about that? >> even the president doesn't take it on. even the president is saying -- neil: you're right. >> well, you know, i don't know if you know this or not but we show up and vote. neil: your social security is taken care of, though, right? >> not really. look, my own concern right now, biggest concern right now, is the younger generation. i do think you've got to make certain you have generational equity. for anybody under the age of 50, right now they've got a problem. we have promises on the table we can't keep today. i'm just saying i do think that facts are going to matter an awful lot more in a general election than they do in a primary election. in addition to sustaining the growth in the economy, i do

think addressing some of the inequities, you heard warren buffett talk about it eloquently, basically saying you can't love jobs and hate the people that create them. but there are people that are going to be ending up getting hurt and the question is how do you adjust, what do you do with their health care and retirement when these things happen. neil: so we talk about the mood of the electorate right now. you could make an argument this president, given the economy of the markets, whether it's short-lived or not, whether you want to give him credit or barack obama credit. i give both credit for the last ten plus years. we could parse that out another time. but i wonder how we ever get anything done on other matters like infrastructure, if the two parties can work together. it always seems like, you know, a lot of talking and it doesn't happen. >> like i said, i do think that joe biden has been saying that. he's saying i can work with republicans and we are going to need republican support if we are going to get immigration

done. it can't be hard left and it can't be hard right. neil: do you ever remember a time where both parties have been so hard and fast in their respective corners, where never the two shall meet? >> i think it's been worse. i think it's been worse. we had 2000 bombings in 1970 with people killed. yeah, has it been worse, it absolutely has been worse. it seems like it's worse because we watch every darned thing on our telephone. neil: you think they can bridge some of these gaps? >> i do, but it can't be hard left. it can't be hard right. that's why the president is having difficulty on immigration. that's why he's having difficulty even on the budget. the debate over the border i think is a solution. i do think you got an odd situation right now where most democrats are looking at the border saying we've got to give the president more money to deal with the humanitarian crisis there. his message is not hard right when he's asking for that kind of assistance. neil: who do you think the nominee will be? >> i don't know. i don't know.

if i was going to bet, i'm betting biden. neil: does it need to be more a moderate person? >> i like to make the case for somebody maybe 25, 30 years younger. at some point, the actuaries say don't count on getting eight more years. i think it's going to take somebody more moderate to win a general election. it always has. the country's not sitting there saying oh, gee, what i really would like to have is a candidate that promises to raise my taxes and increase regulation, increase the role of government in my life. i don't think there's a big clamoring for that beyond 35% or 40% of the electorate. neil: senator, thank you for your service to this country, for trying to deal with both sides, to be a little rational. >> just a little rational. neil: just a little. let's not go crazy. >> i don't want to go crazy. neil: that is america, after all. senator, thank you very, very much. meantime, the china delegation is still in china. in other words, not leaving yet. they were already supposed to be

en route for continued trade talks. what does that mean? if wall street is worried about it, it's not showing it. the dow over 197 points. we had started out the day down almost 500. more after this. don't tell your mother. dad, it's fine. we have allstate. and with claimrateguard they won't raise your rates just because of a claim. that's why you're my favorite... i know. are you in good hands?

ifor another 150 years. the fire going

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things are programmatic. ample exposure to china. intel does 24% of its revenues there. qualcomm 65%. wynn resorts 73%. western digital 22%. this is why it matters to the corner of wall and broad. they have a lot of on the line. to you, charles. charles: i'm charles payne this is "making money." stocks tumbling on u.s.-china trade tensions. they're leading selloff as president trump threatens to ramp up tariffs. after a new report says that boeing knew about the safety alert issue for a year before the lion air crash last october. 2020 presidential hopeful bernie sanders has a new economic plan to combat what he calls a major crisis is. we'll break down how he wants to break up the monopolies. all that and more on