we will look forward for that interview. thank you. congratulations. great interview with bob iger coming up. that will do it for us. dagen, jackie, thank you, ladies. great to see you both. have a great day, everybody. that does it for us right here. thank you to our hosts in ottawa. "varney & company" begins right now. stuart, take it away. stuart: good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. this is one of those days when we have news on everything that's important in money and politics. we have had a few days like this since mr. trump became president. here we go. let's get started. this morning, the president repeated forcefully, no obstruction. the mueller probe was nothing but a witch hunt, he says. and he and mueller had a business dispute that mueller was not happy about. more about that in just a moment. the president also teased a big announcement about the border for later today or maybe tomorrow. now, mueller's parting shot yesterday dumped the impeachment

question right on congress. we don't know if speaker pelosi will go the impeachment route but it's clearly going to be a disruption of government business as the political in-fighting rolls on and investors didn't like it. to the economy. in the first three months of the year, it expanded at an annual rate of 3.1%. now, that's slightly lower than the original estimate but it's still a strong performance. second, the market. we have seen a nasty downturn this month. china trade is the big concern, especially after china suggested it might restrict the export of so-called rare earth metals which america needs for tech production. after a series of losses, the dow is poised to open higher, perhaps helped by the strong gdp number. and the nasdaq which is down 7.5% since may 3rd when it hit a high, that will also open higher. the news coming right at us, thick and fast. "varney & company" is about to begin.

well, i think it was the same as the report. it wasn't much change. it was to me the same as the report and there's no obstruction, you see what we're saying, there's no obstruction, there's no collusion, there's no nothing. there's nothing but a witch hunt. a witch hunt by the media and the democrats. they're partners. i think he's totally conflicted because as you know, he wanted to be the fbi director and i said no. as you know, i had a business dispute with him after he left the fbi. we had a business dispute. not a nice one. he wasn't happy with what i did. and i don't blame him but i had to do it because that was the right thing to do. stuart: all right. that was just moments ago, the president commenting on the mueller press conference of yesterday. i want to bring in rnc chair

ronna romney mcdaniel. welcome back to the program. very important that you appear with us today, because as you know, mr. mueller did not entirely clear the president. isn't that a political problem for you? >> well, i think that mueller did clear the president. he was the special prosecutor, he had the ability to say we should indict, he's guilty, he didn't say those things. i think it's bizarre he said i couldn't prove his innocence. that's not the standard in the united states of america. you are innocent until proven guilty. so by saying i couldn't prove his innocence he was saying he's not guilty. we need to move on and i think the facts speak for themselves. the president allowed his general counsel to have full access to or mueller have full access to his general counsel to his chief of staff, he never exerted executive privilege, he was totally transparent and they have nothing. there is nothing because there was no crime, there was no obstruction. it's time to move on and get the business of the american people done. stuart: i'm sure you would like to move on, but look, the very

first person in congress to comment on the mueller press conference was a republican, justin amash. he tweeted the ball is in our court, congress. he was clearly hinting at impeachment. that doesn't look good when you've got a republican doing that to you. >> i don't know if i call justin a republican. i know him pretty well. this is somebody i'm familiar with. when i was michigan chair and we were heading to the convention in cleveland to nominate president trump, he was one of those delegates who said i'm not going because i don't like this guy. he's been a never trumper. he's been given an outsized megaphone because the media loves never trumpers and they give them a lot of attention. he's an outlier. i think he's trying to get attention but republicans have said, even many republicans in the senate have said there's no collusion, there's no obstruction of justice, there's nothing that's impeachable but we do have serious issues in this country like immigration, like infrastructure. let's get to those issues. stuart: i don't think anything about happen. nothing's going to get done on

those very important issues because congress is going to be consumed with the impeachment question, isn't it? >> well, the democrats will be. the democrats are consumed with impeachment, obstruction, resistance, how do we stop president trump. so they are going to go into the midterms with nothing to show for their time in office. they are going to have a giant goose egg. they will say yep, this is all we have accomplished and the president can say wages are up, jobs are coming back, our military's stronger, we put good judges on the bench. he has a whole litany of things he can take to the american people as deliverables and the democrats have nothing. i think that's going to be good for us in 2020. stuart: thank you very much for being with us on a very important day. we appreciate it, as always. >> thanks for having me. stuart: sure thing. look at futures thursday morning, where do we open? the answer is we open higher. dow is up maybe 40 points. not a huge comeback from yesterday and the recent declines. the nasdaq will be up one-third of 1%. come in, market watcher gary kaltbaum. last week you said we were going

lower and we have gone lower. is this the start of a really big pullback? >> i don't know about real big but i think there is probably more to go. the amazing part of what i'm seeing is i think the major indices, down maybe 5% from the highs but retail stocks have literally crashed. when i saw abercrombie & fitch and others in the last couple of weeks, just some other areas give me a lot of pause. i think there's more to go. i'm not sure how much. i do believe what we're seeing in the interest rate market is telling us we have a slowdown in economic growth going on the second quarter. i think we are probably going to be below 2%. i think the market's flushing it out right now. stuart: i want to talk about china trade. you know the billionaire hedge fund manager ray dallio says look, if china restricts these rare earth metal exports, that would be quote, a major escalation of the trade war. am i to conclude that everything in the world of money, whether

it's stocks, bonds, interest rates, the global economy, the u.s. economy, everything is about the china trade situation? is that true? >> i think a lot of it is right now. i never thought i would have to mention the word uropium on a tv show but that's what's going on. keep in mind, we get 80% of our imports, rare metal imports from china and it's very tough to fill that gap from other places. so yeah, it's a worry because you're talking about defense, electronics, autos, so many products that are involved with this so this will matter and i do believe that china will play this card, because their rhetoric has been pretty heated over the last week or so. i think it's going to matter as we move forward. stuart: could you just hold on a second? i want to play a sound bite from the president from literally moments ago about this issue. roll tape, please. >> the tariffs are having a devastating effect on china.

people are fleeing the country with their companies. these companies are leaving for vietnam, other parts of asia, and they are even coming to the united states, because then there's no tariff. i think we're doing very well with china. we'll see what happens. but i can tell you, china very much wants to make a deal. stuart: as you heard there, gary, tariffs are really hurting china. by the way, tonight, we get china's pmi number. without getting technical, that's a way of showing how much china's economy is hurting because of this trade dispute. what do you say? >> look, they are hurting because of it. i do believe a lot of companies will go elsewhere. but i have to tell you, there are no winners in this, only losers. it is going to affect us also, especially if we put on more of these tariffs as we move forward, and i have said it a thousand times. i will say it again. it is a tax on our businesses and our consumers and that will hurt the economy as we move forward. i think it's a huge, huge

mistake. we were told that this was a tactic on the part of the president. well, it's been like 12 to 15 months now. i don't know if the tactic's working. i will keep my fingers crossed we have better days ahead but it seems like worse days ahead right now. stuart: gary kaltbaum, thanks for joining us. see you soon. look at fed ex, okay? delivery guy. just announced they will be delivering packages seven days a week all year long. ashley: beginning in january. january 2020. stuart: that's when it starts. ashley: yep. stuart: all day every day. ashley: they normally only do that over the holiday period. that shows you how competitive. stuart: delivery, delivery, delivery. what else you got. remember burlington, they used to be called burlington coat factory. now they are burlington stores. sales fell short, but i have to look into this, the stock is up 10%. there's a retailer going straight up. ashley: outlook, maybe? stuart: has to be. we will delve into that.

how about dollar general? where is that stock this morning? they are up nearly, what, 4.7%. we've got a couple retailers going straight up this morning. dollar tree cut their profit forecast. despite that, they also say they are going to feel the pinch from tariffs. despite that, it's another retailer on the upside this morning. go figure. by the way, the ceo of dollar tree stores will be on our show a little later. i will ask him about what's the impact of tariffs on your business. let's see what happens. check futures, please. we are going to be up and not that much. big downturn recently. a tiny comeback this morning. uber, their ratings not just for drivers, you know that? users could be banned if their rating falls below a certain level. i didn't know passengers were rated. susan: it is new. stuart: they could kick you right off if they don't like you. big investor meeting today for

facebook. growing number of shareholders reportedly trying to put limits on zuckerberg's power. we will give you the story. some democrats calling for impeachment after mueller's news conference. will speaker pelosi pull the trigger and start proceedings? next we talk to former congressman bob barr. he helped lead the impeachment drive against bill clinton. "varney & company" just getting started. yeah, that too. i don't want any trade minimums. yeah, i totally agree, they don't have any of those. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely. do you just say yes to everything? hm. well i say no to kale. mm. yeah, they say if you blanch it it's better, but that seems like a lot of work. no hidden fees. no platform fees. no trade minimums. and yes, it's all at one low price. td ameritrade. ♪

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time seems to be not an objective jury, will be convinced of the path we have to take as a country. stuart: that's interesting. seems like she won't go forward with impeachment unless she's got a solid majority, bunch of republicans behind her. okay. joining us is bob barr, former republican congressman from georgia, and he was one of the leaders of the impeachment of president clinton. bob, welcome back to the program. it's good to see you again. my question to you is will speaker pelosi pull the trigger and start impeachment proceedings? i'm not asking whether she should or should not. i'm asking you, a man with experience, will she? >> i think that there's really very little doubt that eventually, the democrats and speaker pelosi will move forward. the fact of the matter is, with the split in the democratic party, particularly in the house where you have this huge gulf between the establishment represented by speaker pelosi and majority leader hoyer and

the left wing whackos on the other end, there's this huge gulf with nothing to fill it other than their joint hatred for trump. so pelosi is playing the long game, so to speak. she will string this out as long as she can to appear to be a leader and to give credibility to her position that well, we need to make sure everything's in order, but eventually they will move forward with it. it's the only thing the democrats in the house can agree on, stuart. stuart: isn't that a big political risk that she is taking, and the democrats are taking? >> i think it's already very clearly a risk. the american people by and large, and i talk with them the same as you do and your colleagues do, they are very concerned by and large that nothing is happening in the congress other than this drive to go after trump. there's nothing happening at the border, there's nothing

happening in our cities, some of which are becoming overwhelmed with illegal aliens. there's nothing happening on transportation and i think that this dissatisfaction will only grow over the months, but for some strange reason, in the bizarro world in which the democrats are operating in washington, they seem to be blind to that. stuart: is that accurate? i have said sometimes on this program that for the next, what, 18 months, if we go forward with impeachment, all these endless investigations, then nothing gets done in washington. now, is that really accurate? >> it certainly appears to be. the fact of the matter is that the problems are also on the republican side, as we have seen with the emergency relief bill, that's now being held up in two instances by republicans. so this inability to move forward on anything of substance

seems to be the case. right now, i don't see it changing at all between now and the election next year. stuart: bob barr, we really value your experience on this and we appreciate you being with us this morning. thank you, bob barr. >> my pleasure. stuart: look at futures, please. a small gain for the dow at the opening bell. small gain for the nasdaq at the opening bell. nowhere near retracing all of our recent losses. how about this. i'm sure you remember this. the video of a robot getting out of a self-driving car and delivering packages to your front door. ford helped design it. you can see it right there. ford helped design that. we have the company's top tech guy joining us in our next hour. he will say that robot is a big part of ford's future. everyone's got to listen to mom.

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is that right? >> yeah, there certainly will be an impact at the cash register, but it may vary. some retailers such as walmart have come out and said that they will pass the increase in cost from the tariffs on to consumers, but retailers like kohl's have said they will absorb the cost because their customers are price-sensitive. it could go either way depending on how strong the retailer thinks they can, you know, pass on those price increases. stuart: if the tariffs stay on for a long period of time, i take it that they would all be passed on at some point, right? >> yeah, definitely. but there are ways to find other efficiencies in the retail business, so it may be that with a long enough time frame, you can reorganize your supply chain and move to other countries, or you cut costs in other areas of the business in order to keep the margins at the level that you want them. stuart: now, the beauty company sephora are going to close all

their stores for one day. this is sensitivity training. this is not the retail ice age. but in general, i know that you like this kind of company, a beauty company, or ulta beauty, for example. i know you like them. i know you like the stock. tell us why. >> well, first, there's a huge tailwind because consumers and the millenial gen-z generations spend more on beauty products than other generations in the past. the categories themselves are growing rapidly. these two retailers invented a new way of shopping in the stores for beauty which is that the consumers can try and sample lots of different brands without going to a beauty counter like at a department store or just picking a box up at the drugstore. millenials and gen z really resonate and traffic to those stores. they have a great in-store experience. it's not only about buying

products but there's services, you can get a makeover, you can get your hair done. but what also is special about these retailers is they saw the rise of the internet so they have great digital properties both for transactions but also for building communities. people who spend a lot on makeup like to be educated so they do a lot of research online first. stuart: i spend a fortune on makeup but somebody else pays for it. michelle, thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate it. sephora and ulta beauty. thanks. see you soon. >> you're welcome. thank you, stuart. stuart: check the market again. we are going to open higher but not that much. 30 points up for the nasdaq, 56 for the dow. back with the opening bell in a moment. my digestive system used to make me feel sluggish

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...or trips to mars. $4.95. delivery drones or the latest phones. $4.95. no matter what you trade, at fidelity it's just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. stuart: uber is going to release its first earnings report as a public company. that comes up later on today. earlier this week, they said that riders with low ratings could soon be banned from uber. susan: as they should. respect is a two-way street, you know? now they're going to ban and kick off bad riders, those with bad ratings on the app. you better be careful because before, they didn't used to do that no matter what the threshold was, whether it's below four stars. now they are going to start

that, depending on which city you live in. stuart: the market's nearly open. before it opens, tell me what's the big deal to look for in the earnings report? susan: they are going to lose about $1.1 billion in the first quarter of the year. they released that in their we know that. also revenue is slowing as well, 20%. also, negative profit margins, something to watch for. stuart: negative profit margins. that's a lot. okay. we will look for that. we have opened. it's thursday morning. not much of a gain after the recent losses. 14 points up for the dow as we speak. how about the s&p? what have we got there? we've got something similar? yes, we do. a fractional gain, .18%. the nasdaq which has taken a real tumble this month, it is up. i call that a rebound, one quarter of one percent on the upside. there you have it. i was looking for something good. the yield on the ten-year treasury is 2.26%. ashley: on fire. stuart: let's not celebrate particularly because that is

still a rather low level. i believe the yield on the three-month treasury is still above the yield on the ten-year treasury. ashley: inversion. stuart: who is with me? i need help. michelle mckinnon, donald shulman, susan li, ashley webster. what happens to the market if there is no improvement in the china trade situation? >> flat or down. we are in a hold pattern right now. this year, of course, the big news is going to be the china trade deal. stuart: that's everything. >> we have been talking about this for a long time. it's not changing any time soon. stuart: what happens if there is any kind of deal? any kind of deal? >> huge increase. we could drop another 5% plus if we stay at the same level. stuart: if there's no china deal we could drop another 5%? >> we could bounce around for a little bit. there's no other news that's going to move this market. stuart: if there is a deal we go

up? >> 5%, 10% the next week or so. stuart: glad we got you on the show this morning. susan: for now, though. i think it's a head line for now. >> i think markets always go up over time, last time i checked. i think at the end of the day, if we don't get a trade deal in june, markets will go down short-term. however i think it's important. yes, trade wars are not pleasant but this economy can absolutely withstand one. i think a pullback is a buying opportunity. stuart: a buying opportunity. >> yes. stuart: now. >> yes. stuart: this is a pullback. ashley: where? where? what's good? >> u.s. markets, actually surprisingly even yesterday -- okay, i will give you a better one. i like pipelines, energy pipelines are up 20% year to date. i love mlps, foreign markets, they have been up the past month while u.s. markets have been down. lot of opportunities out there. stuart: okay. okay. okay. all right, all right. let's talk disney. i have two stories on disney. number one, i think this is the

most important part, they are opening their new "star wars" theme park in california. yes, it's called galaxy's edge. let's deal with that. that's going to be a big money maker. >> well, within disney, about $60 billion in revenues, $16 billion is from theme parks in the u.s. most of the profits, about a third of the profits are coming from theme parks. the biggest growth in their profits in the last year have been from theme parks. this is a big deal. they increased their profits last year by a billion dollars from theme parks so this is a big deal for them. stuart: second story, disney taking its cue from netflix and saying they may pull out of georgia because of georgia's new abortion law. michelle, deal with the politics there. they are getting involved in politics. good idea? >> at the end of the day, disney has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. if employees are not going to work for them, that's important. disney is up 20% year to date, double what the dow is. clearly disney is doing

something right. stuart: politics is not a problem for disney at this point? >> i think they just have to feel if their employees are not going to work for them, they have to make a judgment call. stuart: got it. by the way, 11:30 eastern this morning on this program, deirdre bolton will be live with the new "star wars" park in disneyland. she will interview disney's chief bob iger. that's this morning, this program, 11:30. now, we are four minutes into the session and we are up 50 points for the dow industrials. let me go through some retail earnings. we will tell you about them. first, the discounter burlington, that stock is now up 8%. it raised its sales forecast. you raise your forecast, the stock generally goes up. how about dollar general? there is some confusion about that earlier. i think it raised its forecast as well. dollar general is up 4%. then you have dollar tree. they cut their profit forecast. costs are on the rise, they say. they also say they are going to

be closing 150 stores by the end of july. i'm talking to their ceo a little later on in the show. the stock right now is up 3%. you've got to take a look at beyond meat. don't have to taste it. take a look at the stock. $103 a share. it's up six bucks as we speak. susan: 200% plus since its ipo. ashley: just a couple weeks ago. stuart: where is the price of oil this morning, he asks? the answer is, $58 a barrel. where is the price of gold this morning? that is at $1285. not much movement. you've got to check bitcoin. where is it? $8,700 per coin. why did you raise your hand -- susan: the best price increase in like the past five years. bitcoin is on the move. stuart: wait, wait, wait. it was at $20,000 a coin 18 months ago. >> who knows. maybe it will get back up there. stuart: are you suggesting -- >> i'm not suggesting. i have no idea but it's been fun

to watch. stuart: want to comment? >> i'm not buying bitcoin. stuart: thank you. tesla. barclays cut its price target on the stock and elon musk made another plea for vehicle deliveries to catch up. that's according to elite employee e-mail. the stock this morning is up a little bit but joel, the stock is down 40% this calendar year. >> we have been talking a lot about tesla throughout the year. this is a company that's cut its cash by $2 billion in the last quarter. they have stretched their payables by 2.5 billion. they have two billion coming due in debt. this is a company that i don't think is going to go bankrupt any time soon but are at risk for refinancing. if they don't get the refinancing they will be in trouble. the fact that barclays is dropping their price point from 190 to 150 and the fact they are currently down 50% from their highs is a big deal. this is a company that is catching up, you know, the hype is kind of disappearing.

i'm a true believer in elon musk, who is one of the great active minds of our century, brilliant individual. he's a little quirky but a brilliant person, but this stock is in trouble. susan: they don't always make good ceos. >> when you think about active minds of great entrepreneurs, his mind is always thinking, he's always doing something. stuart: remarkable man. i would never detract from his brilliance. susan: he also has a loss of credibility coming up with these delivery numbers that he never matches. 500,000? he's not going to get near that. >> the stock's in trouble. the company's in trouble. it's really a shame. ashley: yeah. stuart: 192 on tesla as of now. barclays said it's heading for 150. google, banning apps that sell marijuana from its play store. that's the official app store for the android operating system. got any more on this? ashley: from the app store?

i don't. susan: they are banning the popular apps like delivery apps, and they have a million five hundred thousand downloads each. this is the way the younger generation are getting their cannabis, getting it delivered to them. google just trying to be careful. ashley: is that only in certain states? >> i would presume so, yes. ashley: california, yes, but elsewhere. susan: exactly. it's legal -- illegal. stuart: go to an app in a state which has not made it legal and say deliver it to me. susan: you cannot. you can't cross border lines. stuart: that's what i thought. just in case any of our viewers. facebook shareholders vote today on putting more checks on mark zuckerberg's power. what do you make of this? susan: the stock is up almost 40% year to date. maybe it's a good idea. it's teflon. there are ten proposals on deck

at this facebook shareholders meeting. that includes eliminating the super class shares that essentially give mark zuckerberg 60% control of the company. stuart: not going to happen. wait a second. joel always does his homework. he does it on facebook, too. >> my company believes in backing entrepreneurs. we love backing entrepreneurs globally. we think there's nothing better than having a good entrepreneur and allowing that person to have power along with their team. this is a case where i would recommend not putting more constraints on the individual. this is an individual who is a visionary, who has created a great company. we don't like to see constraints on these type of people. stuart: you own it? >> sure, we have owned it since after the first year. stuart: you're not getting out? >> not any time soon. it's a long growth company. they do acquisitions, they increase benefits to shareholders, they reduce costs, expand margins. great company. >> two billion users. come on. susan: 2.3, actually. it's massive. stuart: i can't wrap my arms around a market of 2.3 billion. ashley: neither can they.

that's why our data is always being stolen. they can't get their arms around it. that's the problem. stuart: guess not, but it doesn't hurt the stock. >> we are still below the revenue before cambridge analytica, hiring people to police their site. stuart: fair point. 9:40 eastern time. you know what that means. thank you very much. you did your homework. thank you. check the big board. not quite the high of the morning but close. we are up 68 points, back to 25,100. president trump says he will make a major announcement about the border later today or maybe tomorrow. in our next hour, we talk to texas attorney general ken paxton. his state's got a huge problem with migrants. i want to know what he wants to hear from the president. and vice president pence is on his way to canada, where he and justin trudeau will make the case for the usmca.

but with democrats talking about impeachment, will congress actually get on with it and pass it? good story. we're on it. one of the top high school basketball players in the entire country says he's going to skip college and play pro ball in new zealand instead. r.j. hampton will be here in the studio. i want to know why he chose new zealand of all places.

stuart: this is the high of the morning. an 80-point gain which puts the dow back to 25,200. cbs reportedly preparing talks with viacom in mid-june. both stocks are up. not sure what they're talking about, but both stocks are up.

there's a new push in corporate america to hire ex-convicts. one of those companies involved is koch industries, a real giant. joining us is the vice president with koch industries. right from the get-go, let me ask you this. are there any ex-convicts who are off-limits? i'm thinking of violent criminals or sexual criminals. are they off-limits? >> well, thanks for having me, stuart. to answer your question, you need to be very careful who you hire. someone who has a serious offense, absolutely you need to do your homework, look at it and make sure you're not making a mistake which would put your work force in jeopardy in any way, shape or form. we are really focused on helping people who are coming out of prison, given the fact we've got 7.1 million jobs in this country that go wanting every year because there's a lack of skilled labor.

we've got 700,000 people or so coming out of prison every year. that's about 10,000 a week. you've got now with some of the changes in federal laws like what president trump signed into law in the first step act, people are being trained and educated. what we have learned is when people get educated and trained in prison, they are about 50% less likely to commit another crime. for every dollar spent on that, you defray up to $6 of future incarceration costs. stuart: how many people, how many ex-cons has koch industries hired? >> we call them formerly incarcerated. that's the kind of jargon now. it's hard to know. i have been with the company 24 years. we haven't tracked it, necessarily, because we have been hiring people with criminal records since i have been with the company. something charles koch believes in deeply that giving people a second chance, of course again, you have to do your homework on it and make sure the person has learned their lesson and wants a second chance. what we have seen is over the years, we have made thousands of offers to people who have had

criminal records and we have found that many of them can be among your best employees. that's what generally the data shows, that people who really want a second chance and get a second chance are very loyal and productive employees. whoever you hire, you need to do your homework and be very careful about it. stuart: as of today, ships unloading at a port in southern california impose a 25% tariff on chinese goods that are coming into america. that's happening as of today. does koch industries oppose any and all tariffs? >> that's not necessarily my expertise, but we are not in favor of tariffs. we think they just end up being taxes on american consumers, and we've got such a great economy going right now, thanks to what the administration has done with the deregulation issues and things like the first step act, we would like to see that get more and more jobs created. right now, we've got like i

said, one in three people in this country have a criminal record and what we are trying to do is make sure that those people can get a job, because the reality is if they can't get a job, 95% are coming out, they can't get a job, they can't get housing, they are likely to go back to what they did before and that's not good for nif any of . that's what we're really focused on. stuart: it's a fine effort. we appreciate it. thanks very much for coming on and telling us about it. thank you, sir. appreciate it. now, how about this one. the central bank of venezuela giving a rare glimpse into the country's economy. how bad are the numbers? ashley: not great at all, as you can imagine. downright ugly. haven't done this for three years but they put out some numbers. they claim price inflation last year was 130,000% which is way under what the imf estimates at close to a million percent of price inflation. basically the currency is worthless. from a gdp point of view, the third quarter of 2018, venezuela's gdp contracted 22.5%

from the year before. in fact, overall, venezuela's economy has been cut in half in a five-year span from 2013 to 2018. 50% contraction. stuart: wow. desperate times. i can't imagine living in a society like that. susan: over ten million inflation. that's ridiculous. stuart: crazy stuff. check the dow 30, please. the dow overall, up 70 odd points and the vast majority, let's see, we have 24 of the dow 30 on the upside. they're in the green. how about this one, too. r.j. hampton, one of the top basketball recruits, he's skipping college to play pro ball in new steelezealand. i want to know why he doesn't want to go to college and why he chose new zealand, of all places. he's on the show shortly.

stuart: special guest, he's one of the top high school basketball recruits in the entire country. he had offers from duke, kentucky, kansas, but earlier this week, he said oh, no, he's going to skip college, he's going to play professional basketball in new zealand. the man is r.j. hampton and he's with us right now. why on earth, first of all, why

skip college? >> i thought it was the best decision to go ahead and skip college and start my pro career early. i just think there's a lot of business avenues that i can take out of high school -- stuart: wait a minute. wait a minute. you cannot go direct from high school to the nba. >> you cannot. stuart: so you've got to go somewhere in between. >> for one year, yes. stuart: you didn't want to go to college. >> no. stuart: you wanted to make some money. >> yes, sir. stuart: why on earth did you go to new zealand? >> my agents thought that was the best fit. new zealand and the breakers and the whole australian basketball league, they have a really nice program where i guess elite high school players can go make some money, then hopefully go to the draft the next year. stuart: it's like a training ground. >> basically. stuart: for the nba. >> for the nba. stuart: you can make some money, they farm you out down there. how do you feel about living in new zealand? you realize you won't be able to understand a word they're saying. >> i mean, they speak english. stuart: barely. barely.

>> i'm looking forward to it. i'm looking forward to going down there. stuart: okay. when you're done, and you come back, you come back to the nba, i take it? >> yes. yes, sir. stuart: you are an elite high school player. >> yes, sir. stuart: you are looking at millions and millions of dollars about one year from now. >> yes. i will be the first american player to get a shoe contract so i can start that process. stuart: how do you know that? >> because college players aren't allowed to get a shoe contract. stuart: you will get a shoe contract? >> yes. they will work on it. stuart: what are you going to do with the money? >> be smart with it, for sure. stuart: you going to spend it? >> lots of it. stuart: what kind of car will you drive on the moment you get the big check? >> i will probably get a truck or something. stuart: a truck or something. >> yeah. stuart: i've got to ask, why not college? i mean, you know, it is an education, after all. why not? >> i just think that colleges don't really take care of the athletes like they should and i

don't think they give athletes enough credit for what they do, and i mean, these athletes are one of the main resources the colleges get their money from like the revenue they put in, so i mean, i thought that was the best decision for me to just start my own brand and my business career early. stuart: that's a very good point. what you're really saying is that young basketball players in college should be paid. >> for sure. stuart: because they are generating a ton of money for the college. >> for sure. if they get hurt, for a lot of players there's really no insurance. stuart: okay. of course, you could get hurt in new zealand. >> for sure. stuart: they are a rough, tough bunch. they play rugby, for heaven's sake. >> for sure. stuart: you are only going to be playing five and a half months? >> yeah, five and a half, six months at the most. stuart: it's a vacation. that's what you're doing here. a totally different accent. what's the capital of new zealand? >> it starts with m.

i know that. stuart: when do you leave? >> i leave probably late august. stuart: looking forward to it? >> i am. stuart: what are you going to do this summer? >> just train, spend as much time at home and back in texas before i go. stuart: look, i think you're doing exactly the right thing. >> thank you. stuart: i really, i think you're just doing the right thing at the right time, and i wish you the very, very best of luck. i think the rest of america does as well. >> thank you. thank you. i appreciate that. stuart: r.j. the r is for what? >> roger. stuart: j? >> junior. stuart: got it. r.j. hampton, best of luck to you. when you come back, i want to hear that new zealand accent. they don't open their mouth. not at all. incredible. r.j., thanks for being with us. >> thank you. appreciate it. stuart: check that big board. we are a financial program. ashley: yes, we are. stuart: we are up 80 points on the dow industrials. we reached 25,200. then there's this. robert mueller dumping the

impeachment ball right into speaker pelosi's court. that might actually be a plus for president trump. that's my opinion. i will show it to you, coming up next. by the way, we will also have senator rand paul here on the set with us today. 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?

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stuart: oh, it's a mess. instead of ending the two year fiasco robert mueller kept it going. his partings shot dumped the impeachment ball right into speaker pelosi's court, to impeach or not. that is now her decision. mueller has pushed the speaker into a very difficult position. many house democrats are all in for impeachment and so are several presidential candidates. the left hates our president and wants him out but do the voters? how will they react if impeachment consumes congress. will middle america help a.

this is pure politics, a political calculation. speaker pelosi will have to decide one, if she has the votes to impeach, and two, if she does not, what are the political consequences of tearing the country further apart? i don't think the speaker wants this. she is an experienced politician who can count votes as well as anybody. as of now it is very doubtful. the house would vote to impeach. the senate certainly would not. so the votes aren't there. the trump haters will not let it go. the vexes, subpoenas, hearing, court fights will go on regardless. the speaker and the democrats cannot escape this electoral mess. in short, mueller's parting shot may actually be a plus for president trump. he chucked impeachment into speaker pelosi's lap, and walked away. all we'll get for months to come, to the contemptuous treatment of a president who delivered prosperity.

more on that at the top of our next hour. but i will end with this, trump wins. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: back to my editorial in a moment but first we've got, well, it is thursday morning, 10:00 eastern time. mortgage rates. ashley: the moment i live for. coming in at 3.99% for 30-year fixed, dropping delow 4%, first time they have done that since january of last year, a 17-month low. the theory should give the housing market a boost but the housing market has been stubbornly slow to get going. stuart: we will not repeat that i had a 12 1/2% mortgage rate in the '70s. you had a 16%. ashley: 1982. stuart: we won't repeat that. ashley, no we won't. stuart: pending home sales.

susan: we dropped 1 1/2% but this is important because these are contracts to buy previously-owned homes, forward indicator as to the health of the housing market. they close in one to two months. looks like we're down a little bit, coming off the eight-month high in march. stuart: got it. thank you, susan. i want to bringing in jason rotman. he is our market watcher. i have a question about mortgage rates. we are below 4%. i would have thought that would stimulate some home buying. what do you say? >> there are a couple reasons why i think that these low rates have not initially stimulated home buying, and company, "varney & company," is, number one, listen the financial markets, whether it's the stock market, the bond market or by extension in the housing market are drift ben by confidence and when you see stock market coming off all-time highs, getting much

more volatile the past six to 12 months, number two, which is obviously related, the whole world knows our country is engaged with china this deepening tech war. you see people a little more tentative to make big purchases even though rates are the lowest they have been since 2018. temporary conditions, yes. but still nevertheless conditions. stuart: jason, i will get back to you in a moment to talk more about the stock market. back to you in a moment. i want to return to my editorial there. special counsel mueller put the impeachment ball in nancy pelosi's court, saying it is up to congress to decide. now we got that. listen how president trump responded when he was asked about impeachment this morning. roll tape. >> i cannot imagine the courts would allow it. i have never gone it into. i would never thought that was impossible, that word impeach, it is a dirty, filthy,

disgusting word and had nothing to do with me so i don't think so because there was no crime. high crimes and, not with or, high crimes and misdemeanors. there was no high crime and there was no misdemeanor. stuart: tell us how you really feel, mr. president. who is with me, senator rand paul, kentucky republican. mr. senator, welcome to the program. >> good morning. thanks for having me. stuart: what do you make of all the impeachment talk? >> the thing that shocks me someone like mueller, supposed to be esteemed been around decades completely fundamentally misunderstands our justice system. the burden on the government is prove your guilty. no one is proved to be innocent. you're presumed to be innocent. he is on television, we never concluded the president was innocent. completely misunderstands our judicial system. you're presumed to be innocent, have to prove you're guilty. he was not charged. he was not indicted so he is innocent of the so it is really

wrong-headed but misunderstands our system for him to go around if he was innocent we would have said he was innocent. that never happens in our country. grand juries never issue a i will about innocence. they only indict you or try to prove you're guilty. you're presumed to be innocent in our country and mueller completely misunderstands that. stuart: if we go with all the impeachment talk and investigations, am i right in saying the government is essentially stalled, nothing gets done? >> yes. i think people are sick and tired to this. people in my hometown watching overwrought from some of the networks, it has become partisan, malevolent, hateful to the president. people are sick of watching it. imagine how sick they will get if we get year or two of partisan impeachment process. it will be terrible for the country. stuart: i think as you as a libertarian. just an amash, is a libertarian, he is saying, yeah, it is in congress's court, go forward

with impeachment, what do you make of that? >> libertarians like myself for long says the intelligence community has too much power. we're very concerned that cia or fbi could be investigating americans for political purposes. that is long been our complaint. i don't understand who would take the investigation say we should pursue it and impeach the president. it is against everything libertarians are for. we don't like too much power. we don't like the secret fisa court going after americans. foreigners are one thing but we've been very concerned about the fisa court being used against americans. i've been talking with the president. i spoke with him last night how do we try to prevent this from happening to the next president or to the americans at large? i think the president is open to trying to figure out a way, either legislatively or through executive order, we can try to prevent this abuse of power from happening again. stuart: so you're really involved in taking steps to make sure this does not get repeated? >> absolutely. i'm a supporter of the president, i'm a supporter of every american whether you're a republican donor, democrat

donor, activist politically you should not be targeted by your government. if this happens, from now on the new normal will be, that administrations will go after their enemies. we've had a problem with that in our country before. that is why we had reforms. right now this shows me, the whole trump investigation shows me we need more reforms. it is about trying to control government. government, they say power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. we need to eliminate the power of the government to spy on americans. the president may do some of this. i'm working with him on ideas, if they want to look at foreign intelligence, look at an american, have to go to public court, district court here in new york, in public, say we have probable cause we want to investigate an american. otherwise it shouldn't happen. they abused the fisa system which is supposed to be about going after foreign spies to go after an american campaign. this is a terrible abuse of power and i want to be part of making sure it never happens to anybody again. stuart: we were talking moments ago about nothing getting done

in congress but you have got a proposal for the budget. can you simplify exactly what your proposal is and whether or not we're getting anything done on it? >> it is called the penny plan. cut 1% of spending. interestingly, only cutting 1% would balance the budget in five years, or a little bit more than 1%. we used to call it the penny plan. this year we have to call it the two penny plan, we didn't enact the penny plan for five years. one or 2%, it is not that much. you hold the line. after five years, government begins to grow a little bit again. you hold the line for five years. the budget balances. can you imagine signal that sends to the marketplace if we showed fiscal responsibility? stuart: do you think, what chance of success really? >> less than 1%. stuart: you're an honest man, senator. >> thing is, we have 15 to 20 republicans will vote for it, no democrats. don't democrats don't feign to be concerned about the deficit. republicans pretend to be concerned about the deficit, but

less than half the republicans in senate will vote for this. the problem is bipartisan one. we have big government republicans and we have big government democrats. democrats want welfare. republicans want excessive, extraordinary military spending. they get together and we have enormous deficits. stuart: i ended my editorial trump wins, 10 seconds to agree with me or three me out? >> absolutely agree. he is on the rise, when american auto workers see they got raises, more new jobs, bowling green 400 new jobs because of tax cut. no democrat voted for tax cut. it was republican plan, a republican plan, tax plan, and created jobs across the america. stuart: republican senator rand paul, thanks for joining us. it was a pleasure. let's get to the market. we're up 50 odd points for the dow industrials. not much of a comeback after the recent losses. come back in jason rotman. seems to me the market, whether everything, interest rates,

economy, market, heaven knows what, everything depends on hangs on china trade, am i right? >> yes, you are at this point, that is the only game in town from a fundamental perspective. everything else has either already happened. trump tax cuts, gdp revisions, et cetera. i don't see anything that too shocking or that out of the blue coming down the pipe. the whole world is focused on when will china and the u.s. resolve this trade war which is now really being expanded to be a technology war. obviously related but a little bit different way of talking about it. stuart: there is agreement amongst people who are appearing on this program if there is absolutely no progress for a long time to come with china trade the market goes down at least another 5%, however, if there is any sign of any kind of deal, no matter what the deal is, any deal, the market goes up 10%, what do you say to that? >> well, we would rather be again till or if it is honest i

don't think we have a 10% upside. i mean that is almost 300 s&p 500 points. i mean, listen i love to see the market to up 10%. frankly from traders, investors, even chart perspective, i think that is a little bit overdone. i think five to 10% by december down is frankly reasonable if we're, if we're stuck in the mud, four, five, six month from now. do we preach all-time highs if the tariffs on both sides get reduce and both presidents shake hands, yes, we do. 10% to the upside, that is a little stretched but we go higher. stuart: understood, it's a headline-driven market and the headlines will drive us up or down on china trade. >> true. stuart: jason rotman, thank you very much, sir. here what we have still to come for you. disney's new star wars land opens to the public tomorrow. deirdre bolton, our own deirdre bolton got a sneak-peek.

she spoke to bob iger, disney's chief. we'll bring you that in our next hour. our next guest is michael buffer. i can't believe, wait for it, listen to this, he made $400 million from a very well-known phrase. the catch is, that phrase is trademarked. so we can't say it but he made $400 million by trademarking that phrase. that man did that. ashley: incredible. stuart: he is a guest on the show. coming up. wait for it. ♪ welcome to seattle. where people are into coffee, tech, and retirement planning. the perfect retirement for me is doing the things that i want to do, not the things i have to do. unlike seattle, less than half of americans participate in their employer retirement plans. so what keeps people more engaged in their retirement? i want to have the ability to easily transact online,

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stuart: we're up 57 points for the dow industrials. that is quarter of 1%. we're back almost up to 25,200. now this, michael buffer is

legendary announcer, you know his phrase. he says it at the start of every match. we can't say it, because buffer trademarked that phrase. we're told he made $400 million, from that trademark or at least many millions of dollars. here he is, michael buffer. legendary ring announcer. >> thank you. stuart: i will shake your hand. >> you know as well as i do, you can't believe everything you hear on the internet. stuart: 400 million is not the number. >> 400 million is not the number. stuart: what is the number? >> a lot less. stuart: 200 million? >> less. stuart: 50 million? >> we don't even have to talk about that. stuart: yes we do. >> probably best thing i ever did was trademark that phrase. and i started it because there was this thing where ring announcers were introducing all

their buddies on the commission when i first started 37 years ago. and after the fighters for the main event would come to the ring, it is exciting, it's electric, and you kill the crowd by introducing commissioners and doctors and judges and referees. stuart: yeah. >> so i wanted that gentleman start your engines moment where they go crazy, the race is going to be begin and i wanted to bring it back to the fighters. they are the stars of the show. i wanted to let the fans know you're meeting the stars of the show. we to the the idiots out of the way. stuart: you're announcing this weekend at madison square garden. >> the mecca of sports entertainment, madison square garden. every fighter dreams of fighting at the garden some day. it is anthony joshua, from the uk. olympic gold medal champion. undefeated. has most of the heavyweight title belts. he is coming here to fight in madison square garden. stuart: you will use the famous

catchphrase to start things off. >> of course. stuart: you can't do it now. >> i can do it unless you promise to not to play it for a promotion. stuart: give me something else. your voice is fantastic. >> i am my own worst critic though. i hear my voice, i cringe, i kind of hear philadelphia in there, my hometown. stuart: can we compromise. can we do, let's get ready to varney. can you do it. >> let's get ready to varney! stuart: not bad. >> i will work on it. stuart: 400 million? >> i wish. stuart: what is the greatest boxing match you ever announced in 37 years. >> there are, i have to sit down with a computer just start to pick out the list but there's been some great moments that stand out and i think everybody over 40 can relate to this, when george forman captured the

heavyweight championship against michael moore, losing every round and then he goes into the 10th round and pearlman's eyes are all puffed up, he lands a one two, one two, he knocks moore out cold. the crowd instead of that type of moment it, was like oh. the roar of the crowd. that was sensational. stuart: you have a terrific voice. >> thank you. stuart: if you want to take my job you probably could. >> you've got a pretty darn good voice yourself. stuart: thing a sent is my advantage. >> americans love a british accent. stuart: so i'm told, michael buffer, a real pleasure having you on the show. >> i'm a watcher. stuart: you are? >> yes i am. stuart: i don't believe it. i don't believe it. >> i channel surf, i catch you. stuart: i would have given you extra five minutes. i would have given you the show. >> i live in l.a. i have to watch it three hours earlier than people do here. stuart: hope you come back. >> thank you. stuart: good luck on saturday. appreciate it. president trump says he will

make a quote, a major announcement about the border later today or tomorrow. just ahead we have the attorney general of the great state of texas, ken paxton. i will ask him what he thinks this could all be about. next alex trebek's amazing prognosis after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. dock siegel is here to tell us more about this. ♪ the latest innovation from xfinity

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just shy of 25,200. now this, "jeopardy" host alex trebek says his pancreatic cancer is quote, near remission. dr. marc siegel is with us, i have an important question about this, what exactly does near remission mean? >> in his case it means several of the tumors, this is widespread pancreatic cancer, gives you a 5% or less, five-year survival which is atrocious, he says many of his tumors shrunk to less than 50% of the size. that would make him what we call a super responder, stuart. there is a word for it, a super responder. he is probably getting chemotherapy what we're understanding. stuart: you think that is his therapy, chemotherapy is the treatment? >> right, pancreatic cancer not immunoresponse i've. we're still working out genetics. standard treatment is chemotherapy. what they have done is give several chemos as once. he is having side-effects.

he has depression an abdominal symptoms. the media has a microscope. we don't have the doctor's microscope. i don't know what the pathology slides look like. it sounds from the description, that he has the worst kind that spread, he is a super responder. it does not mean he will be kurd, by the way. it does not mean that. stuart: he is very wealthy man, has his wealth got anything to do with the quality of treatment he receives? >> i don't believe so. if it was different kind of cancer yes. we have cancers which we talked about here on the air where you get something like where there is one treatment, millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars. this kind of cancer hasn't reached that yet. he is probably getting standard treatment. i think his positive attitude helped with depression and helped him not get into the category where the side-effects overcome him. he is role model for fighting cancer. stuart: yes he is. >> he has a long road to go. stuart: got it. thank you, doctor. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: now this, national

security advisor john bolton says those attacks on oil tankers in the gulf, were almost certainly carried out by iran. we'll see what general jack keane has to say about that. jack keane is next. the doctor's office might mejust for a shot.o but why go back there when you can stay home with neulasta® onpro? strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. in a key study

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♪ stuart: i always liked this. it is an early beatles. great harmony, very upbeat, lively. in a major key. ashley: it is very good. susan: i'll take it. stuart: i asked you this before, do you like it? susan: i tyke the tune. it is very medical lotic but i like it. stuart: 75 points higher for the

dow industrials. 1/3 of 1%. 25,200 is where we are. national security advisor john bolton is in the middle east. he says the sabotage attacks basically on those saudi ships were almost certainly carried out by iran general jack keane is with us now. john bolton wants regime change in iran but president trump does not. is this administration split on how to deal with iran? >> no, not at all. john bolton wanted regime change is policy i advocated advocatede was a private citizen. he is clearly operating within the strategic framework of president trump's policies. that is what he is executing n all administrations, stuart, there has always been disagreement. secretary powell and secretary rumsfeld in the bush administration. clinton administration had disagreements as well. secretary clinton was probably the most hawkish person in the cabinet. and there is disagreement within

the trump administration. i think it is healthy. i think people make far too much of it, there is only one decisionmaker and that is president trump. stuart: would you say our policy from all sides of our government is to contain iran and stop them damaging the rest of the middle east? containment is the policy, is it? >> yeah, that's pretty close to it. there is a maximum pressure campaign. sanctions is the vehicle to do a couple things. one is to stop their maligned behavior in the region and they have taken control of lebanon. they're running the civil war in syria with their generals and hezbollah. they are have significant political influence in iraq. they dropped some rockets near the u.s. embassy just a week or so ago plus. their proxies, houthises topple the government in yemen which was friendly to the united states. they're increasingly encroaching on israel. we saw that couple weeks ago

with 400 rockets fired into israel. those are all rockets that came from iran. as you said in the introduction, they sabotaged two tankers in the guff of oman, and attacked a saudi pipeline station. this is the iran's malign behavior we want to stop. that is what the maximum pressure cam inies about. we don't want them to acquire nuclear weapons. that is the policy of the united states and i think it makes some sense. stuart: president trump said on monday he was not bothered by north korea's short-range missile tests that seemed to be at odds with secretary of defense patrick shanihan. is this another example after split or good cop trump, bad cop shanihan? good cop trump, bad cop bolton s that is the way it is working? >> i don't know if that is the way they look at it but yes, they both expressed different

viewpoints. clearly ambassador bolton, secretary shanihan are talking about, as well as secretary pompeo, those missile tests, ballistic missile tests, short-range though they were, are in violation of u.n. resolutions. there is much of a concern from prime minister abe of japan. they're within range of japan. the president said he is not bothered by them. i think that is an honest statement, even though they are violations of u.n. resolutions. i think because he looks at it, as a negotiating ploy on the part of kim jong-un to return to a summit with president trump. and escalation from that first anti-tank missile that was fired weeks ago, to short-range rockets, longer range rockets, then missiles, now to ballistic missile is all about, i believe, trying to get president trump back to a summit. he doesn't want, the north koreans i understand, are not wanting to talk to our negotiators at lower levels.

they want a summit. so i think that is where the president is coming from. he is entitled to his opinion obviously. that is a negotiating ploy. that's the prism he looks at it but it is clearly a violation of u.n. resolutions. stuart: got it. general jack keane, thanks for bringing us up to speed on two very important areas there. we appreciate it. >> good to talk to you, stuart. stuart: back to the political story of the week i think robert mueller passing the impeachment ball to speaker nancy pelosi and congress. i want to bring in marc lotter, trump 2020 advisory board member. marc, i want to carry this forward here, as opposed to discussing mueller yesterday, carry this forward, it seems like impeachment is taking root in congress, if it does and i don't think anything gets done in congress at all. how does that play out politically? >> i think you're right, stuart. in fact, nancy pelosi, jerry nadler, both said impeachment

wasn't off the table. there is nothing on the table. the president is talking about fighting the crisis at the border. he is encouraging the congress to act on the usmca which would create 176,000 jobs in our country. congress has shown no interest in doing anything but investigate when their job is to legislate. i'll tell you, you know, a lot of people think that donald trump had a bad day yesterday with the bob mueller thing. they got it entirely wrong. it was nancy pelosi who had the worst day in washington. stuart: how do you work that out? why is it so bad for nancy pelosi? >> she is fighting a radical base in her party demanding impeachment, demanding nothing get done working with this president. she is beholden to them, and barely hanging on by a string. as those calls continue to mount, she will face more and more pressure, nothing for the american people is getting done. stuart: what is your attack line as we approach 2020 and the

election? >> i think it is what it has been from the beginning, promises made, promises kept. this president who ran on an agenda to create jobs, deal with unfair trade practices like nafta, dealing with china, the horrible iran deal. the president is taking action on that. we've seen the economic growth. every day there is a new report about how strong our economy is, the american people are benefiting. he is doing it largely by himself right now. imagine what we could get done if we could get congress to actually do something in washington, d.c., like actually passing the usmca. stuart: the president is under great pressure to do some kind of a deal with china, if this drags on forever, it is not good for the american economy. it really could create a downturn right before the next election. i'm sure the president's aware of this, but there is pressure on him to do something with the china deal? >> well the president doesn't respond to pressure like that. he knows we have had a bad deal

for decades with china. it put american manufacturers and american jobs at risk. doing nothing is not an option and making a bad deal is not an option. if the president has to play hard ball and continue to work with china, to try to get a good deal, he'll do it, he will not take a bad deal just for politics. that is not how the man works. stuart: that's for sure, hard-line trump stance. marc lotter, thanks for being with us on a busy day. always appreciate it. thank you. >> good to see you. stuart: now this, uber reports their earnings, how much money they bring in and how much profit they did make or otherwise, that's after the bell today so what can we expect? susan: or otherwise what you're saying. stuart: what should we look for? susan: we're pricing in a loss, they indicated in the ipo filing. will lose one to 1.3 billion in first three months of the year. revenues pretty strong, $3 billion in the first three

months of this year. guidance is important. lyft said in the earnings report is peak losses in 2019. is uber going to do the same? we have the ipo. went out at $45. the stock is trading five bucks, 10% below that. the markets want to know at what point do you start making money. at what point do you start subsidizing each and every ride? they have a bigger footprint. not only do ride-hailing but freight, uber eats, 20 billion-dollar company and do bikes as well. there is a lot to look at. stuart: uber eats -- susan: a 20 billion-dollar company on its own. largest food delivery company in the world outside of china. stuart: i find that hard to believe. susan: they will do $10 billion in delivery this is year, 2019. that is how it is factored in. stuart: okay. i'm just -- ashley: mind blowing. susan: negative margins. losing four to seven 7% if you count for direct expenses.

at what point do investors stomach that. at what point do they turn around, start making money. stuart: okay. tune into "after the bell" on the fox business network today, 4:00 eastern time. full coverage of uber's first earnings report as a public company. vice president pence on route to canada where he will meet with prime minister justin trudeau. they're talking about the usmca. that is the new nafta. can anything get done in congress with democrats talking about impeachment? can he get usmca done? good question. coming up, our own deirdre bolton is at disney's new attraction, "star wars" land. a close up interview with bob iger, still to come on "varney." ♪ hi i'm joan lunden.

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stuart: checking the big board. steady as she goes. we have been up 60 points steady for the last hour. how about beyond meat? when we went, when the market opened at 9:30, we were about $103 a share. that has completely turned around. i don't know what happened to beyond meat. it is at $94 a share, way down on this day at this point. got it. pvh corporation, they own some big retail brands, tommy hilfiger, calvin klein, amongst some others, they are getting hurt by the trade war and the tariffs. that stock, look at it go down. 13% down just like that. that is $13 lower, 86 bucks a share. vice president pence is

enroute to canada. he will arrive in ottawa next hour. he will meet with canada's prime minister, justin trudeau. kristina partsinevelos, joins us right now. this meeting is all about the usmc a, the new nafta. how can that possibly get through congress with all the impeachment talk? reporter: exactly. that is the largest hurdle. why? canada and mexico they're going through with ratify in their own respective countries. canada has parliament away for a few weeks, and they have elections. they want to get this done soon. mexico is moving forward to ratify it. those two countries are willing to work on it. the big question in the nights, would the democrats give a green light on this? they have 60 days to vote in congress. that's the problem. you had yesterday, nancy pelosi, put out a statement, she didn't mention anything about impeachment which could be seen as positive after mueller spoke but we're talking about this trade deal. you have canada and mexico, that

are happy with the details thus far. it is the concern coming from the democrats where they feel like maybe should be enforcement or words about labor enforcement in the nafta deal or usmca. stuart: that's an excuse. nancy pelosi says, she can get to yes on the trade deal but not anytime soon. reporter: she is using it as a ball in her court. if it doesn't go through, it is not considered a win. canada doesn't care. mexico doesn't care. nafta is still in force. stuart: democrats in the house are using impeachment to block president trump any success on the usmca. reporter: this is politics that is a ball they're keeping in their court. this would not be a win for the president. on the canadian front, interesting how the media covers it, they call it nafta, or nafta 2.0. i said that increditly infront of wilbur ross, he corrected me, that it is usmca.

canadian perspective don't think there are many changes aside from the dairy. to your point this could be stone walled here in the united states. vp pence is speaking. could we expect anything? will prime minister trudeau, make a jab at him or say anything? no. or will it be a signing off, shaking hands at 11:55. a press conference at 1:45 p.m. eastern time. maria bartiromo will interview mike pence as well. stuart: i don't think america should suffer because nancy pelosi might want to go forward with impeachment of the president. >> bipartisanship. we need to get things done in congress. stuart: it is not going to happen. reporter: let's hope. stuart: bipartisanship will not happen. reporter: there are rumors and sources saying they may give the green light. according to one outheat let we'll see if f that happens. stuart: next case, president trump kind of teased a major announcement on the border. watch this. >> an i'm also going to have,

probably today, a major statement on the border. this is a big league statement but we are going to do something very dramatic on the border. stuart: big league statement. something very dramatic on the border. coming today, maybe tomorrow. come on in ken paxton who is with us in new york city today. i don't know what on earth he is doing in the big apple but welcome, sir. >> thank you. stuart: this gentleman is the attorney of the great state of texas. so we got that straight. what do you want to see in the president's announcement? >> maybe he has a solution to place these people. i hope there is some way to deal with the asylum process. right now that is just a green light to our country, know that you can get in. stuart: that is another area where the country could suffer because of impeachment talk. changing asylum laws, has to be done by congress. >> this was suggested earlier. congress is the solution ultimately to solving this

problem. without their help, it is hard to fix this problem. it is huge. stuart: as i understand it, on memorial day, monday, 2000 migrants crossed the border in el paso, in one day, 2000 in one day. >> it is a remarkable number and if you extrapolate across the border, we're talking massive numbers that continue to increase almost daily. stuart: you can't do anything about it? >> state can't. we're not permitted to do. we are limited in our role. we spend hundreds of millions. we do it at state level. we can't stop it. stuart: i don't get that. you are not allowed, you are the attorney general of texas. you are not allowed to stop those migrants coming in? you can't do that, even though you, the texans, you have got to pay for them? >> that's correct. the u.s. supreme court ruled on a case us v. arizona. this is federal area of regulation. it is up to the federal government to do it. we're limited in our role. we do what we can. if they violate a state law we can arrest them. if they're not violating a a state law we don't have any

authority over them. stuart: you must be mad as hell, excuse my language. >> it is extremely frustrating also the cost and human toll. we have lots of crime. we have people killed. we have drug trafficking. we have human trafficking. it's a really bad situation. stuart: and there is nothing you can do? nothing you can do? >> very little. stuart: i'm sorry to end the interview on that basis, i find that shocking. you will pay for it, and -- >> think what is does to our budget. we're not like the federal government. we don't print money. we never know what the cost is, education cost, health care costs, law enforcement costs. we can't account for it because we don't know how many people come into the state. stuart: last time you were on the show, it was costing you texas, 600 million a year? 800 million? >> our budget, they have thrown 600 million, 800 million for over a decade. stuart: unbelievable. >> it is not enough. stuart: thank you very much for coming on the show in new york today. we appreciate it. we real did i do have great sympathy for the situation. >> it's a huge problem that

congress needs to start addressing. stuart: ken paxton. appreciate it very much. i have gee whiz stuff for you from ford. you're watching it now. it's a new driverless delivery van paired with a robot. the van drives up, the robot gets out and brings package to your doorstep. the man responsible for that on the show. he is there very, very shortly. how about that? susan: how about that? ♪

stuart: ford has developed a new delivery robot. they actually called it digit. two legs, walks like a human, capable of lifting packages that weigh up to 40 pounds. come on in, ken washington, ford's chief technology officer. all right, ken. we've got some excellent video of this thing. when are we going to see it in reality, in realtime, in america? >> well, it's too early to say when it will actually show up at your doorstep but one thing's for certain, is that we're working on solving the challenges that need to be addressed in order for this to

become a reality. we are super-excited about this research project that with our partner agility robotics who designed digit. we are working with them to explore how we might pair it with our autonomous vehicle so it can finish the task in the last 50 to 100 feet to deliver that package to your door. stuart: it looks absolutely fascinating, it really does. can you give me a rough idea of when we might see it in commercial use? just a rough idea? >> it's super hard to predict. one thing that we are hoping for, the reason we are starting this research now, is that it gives us the option if everything goes well to have this ready to pair with our autonomous vehicle that's going into production in 2021. we're not ready to commit to that yet but we have a shot at it. we are starting working on the challenges, starting with how do you pair the robot with the vehicle. how do you fold it into the vehicle, how does it get out, how does it share the information that needs in order to finish the task, like having

a map of the area, knowing what path to walk on. these are all the challenges we are solving today in our pilot project with our partner. stuart: i think it's fascinating. i want you to come back as fast as you can. tell me more about it. that's really remarkable stuff. ken washington, everybody. more "varney" after this. ke my . liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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stuart: the polls show voters give the president the credit for the economy. the numbers show the economy doing very well. therefore, i would expect to see the president do very well in the 2020 election. he's made it very clear he is running on prosperity. that's what he promised and that's what he's delivered. it's very difficult for the democrats to run against a booming economy, with historically low unemployment, but that is the situation the left faces. what are they going to do? medicare for all? wildly expensive. free college? wildly expensive. the green new deal? economic fantasy land.

this really is extraordinary. they will run against prosperity with a message of economic ruin. let's not forget the impeachment mess. the left is going to paralyze government, just as the border crisis explodes and valuable trade deals are stalled. imagine this. the president goes to the country with the economy as his primary asset. the democrats go to the country with socialism and impeachment. it sure looks like the way it's going to be to me at least, and therefore, it sure looks like trump wins. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. stuart: all right, everyone. you heard what i've got to say. the 2020 battleground election will come down to impeachment versus the economy. that is my point of view. that's my opinion. chad pergram, the man on the right-hand side of the screen, fox news senior capitol hill

producer, a man who knows congress inside and out. here's my question. if they go forward with impeachment or endless investigations, nothing but nothing gets done in congress. is that accurate? reporter: you are absolutely right, because impeachment will paralyze the democrats and keep them from talking about anything else. we saw that in 1998, when republicans moved to impeach bill clinton. whatever their issue is, whether it be health care or even just trying to have what some might term as reasonable investigations, going for that "i" word is a problem. that's probably why it's a good thing right now that congress is out of session, because had mueller spoken yesterday and nancy pelosi would have been very busy trying to tamp down that impeachment talk. she says they're not quite there yet. stuart: however, the pressure is enormous. there are several presidential candidates who want impeachment. there's the hard left that wants impeachment. there's a republican who appears to be moving towards impeachment. it's going to be very hard for speaker pelosi to resist all of

this pressure and just revert to business as usual. it's not going to happen, is it? reporter: it's central when you talk about presidential candidates on the democratic side talking about this because they have a bigger megaphone compared to other rank and file members. as i say, it's about the math, it's about the math, it's about the math. there are 44 members of congress right now, 44, about a tenth of the 432 current members of the house, who are for impeachment. that's 10%. that's not very many. you know what, in 1974, when the full house voted to authorize the house judiciary committee to open an inquiry of impeachment against richard nixon, you know what the vote was? 410-4. 410-4. we are nowhere in that environment as we are now but again, the key here is not what they actually do, it's the perception. if voters perceive them as pushing back too far, that could step on the democrats' message. stuart: is that your opinion, chad, that if they go forward with impeachment proceedings or

endless investigations, it hurts the democrats? is that your opinion? reporter: it's not my opinion. that's what if you talk to folks who do the polling at the democratic congressional campaign committee, the dccc, they will tell you privately the polling looks that way. again, let history be our guide. look at what happened to the republicans in 1998. they nearly lost the house in an election they should have won and it paralyzed congress. they didn't get anything done. consider what they have to address this summer. you talked about the trade deal. that's something that absolutely doesn't have to get done. infrastructure, that doesn't absolutely have to get done. what they do have to do is somehow figure out a way to raise the debt ceiling and they also have to stave off another government shutdown in september. if they don't do those things, that probably injures both parties and if we get into a debt ceiling crisis like we did in the summer of 2011, that could cause a market shock considering some of the things we have seen just the past couple weeks on wall street. stuart: you have got a tough year ahead of you. reporter: it's always tough up

here. stuart: i know you're up for it. reporter: that's why i go running every morning. i try to stay in shape. stuart: you love it. admit it, you love it, don't you? reporter: it can be fun. but there are times, i always say this place ib s like the hol california. you can check out any time you like but you can never leave and there are some days that are kind of like that. i just want to go home and have a drink. stuart: don't let me stop you. thanks very much, chad. see you again real soon. let's turn to the economy for this. you have to bring in charles payne, the host of "making money" on this network. charles, i say prosperity, trump's prosperity easily beats socialism and impeachment. are you with me? charles: i'm with you 1,000%. i think nancy pelosi is with you 1,000%. stuart: really. charles: she put out a statement right after mueller yesterday that did not mention impeachment at all. the "i" word was nowhere in there. ironically, nancy pelosi saved the market twice yesterday.

two times yesterday. the first time when she put out that statement, we were off more than 400 points, looked like we were going to go down as far as we could into the closing bell. she didn't mention impeachment, the market rallied. then we started to drift again. then she comes out and starts talking about doing infrastructure with president trump. guess what? of all 11 sectors in the s&p yesterday, only one was up, materials, infrastructure stocks. she saved the market twice in one day. i never thought i would say that. but nancy pelosi knows and she agrees with you. stuart: could absolute gridlock in congress and all this toxic politics we keep talking about, that could affect the economy. that could push us to some kind of downturn before the next election, right? charles: you know, listen, we have had an extraordinary run. it's been a remarkable run. a lot of people are saying we just simply do. we know the economy ebbs and flows. the question is can we go into recession before the next election. stuart: what's your answer? charles: i don't think so right now. i know this year i don't see any

signs at all that we are going to go into recession. next year, you know, things can change but right now, i feel very strong. listen, just this week, we came into this week with three separate folks talking about economic models. mark zandi, he looked at 12 models, every one said trump wins next year because of the economy. a yale professor well known for predicting these things says the same thing. don luskin, his work, also by studying the electoral college and the economy, all came to the same conclusion. right now, the economy lifts president trump back into the oval office with ease. stuart: talk about the market. can the market rally from here without a china trade deal? charles: it can rally but it won't go back to the highs. in other words, we will go down, we will find terra firma, wherever that might be, and trade in the range. we will go up, down, individual stocks will stand out, but i think it won't go to a high near

term without longer term, we will make adjustments. just in the last week or so, logitech said they are moving out of china. here's china's problem, in addition to their economy getting crushed for several reasons, including this trade war -- stuart: crushed is a strong word. charles: i think their economy is getting crushed. look at their debt levels. they are holding it together by printing money. you know, i mean, there is some, you know, some smoke and mirror stuff going on there. be that as it may, the longer they wait and the more supply chains leave that country, they're not going to come back. it will be a moot point. you want to stop rare earth materials? we have just as much as they do. we just stopped mining it. we stopped sending people into mines with equipment. we can mine our own rare earth if we have to. the longer they hold out, the more independent we become and the more businesses, big businesses, make adjustments. the clock is ticking for them as well. stuart: i really should watch your show. charles: you should.

we are going to talk about the trade war morphing into a real war. stuart: i'll watch. "making money." charles: why did chad pergram have to wait to go home to drink? ashley: careful, charles. careful. stuart: thank you, charles. we have got the numbers on oil inventories. we drew down, we took out of storage 282,000 barrels. that's not a great deal, not much change in the price of oil. it's actually down 1%. $58 a barrel. that's the price of oil. bitcoin, $8,735 per coin. later this hour, i'm going to talk to an analyst who says bitcoin is ready to blast way past $10,000 per coin. we will let him make his case. we like that. disneyland unveiling its new attraction, "star wars galaxy's

edge." we will get a close look and talk to disney's chief, robert iger. the dollar tree company cut its profit forecast. costs are rising and they will feel the hit from import tariffs. we have the ceo of dollar tree on the show a few minutes from now. of course, we are watching your money. we turned this market around. we were up, now we are up just five points. that's it. third hour of "varney" just getting started.

stuart: sad news came to us moments ago. thad cochran, long-time gop senator from mississippi, has died. he served 45 years in congress.

he resigned last year due to health concerns. he died this morning. he was 81. get to your money. check facebook. shareholders vote today on whether to put more checks on mark zuckerberg's power. probably won't happen. no more checks on his power. the stock's at $182. look at dollar tree. discount store guys released their earnings report this morning. income up from last year, but their forecast is looking a little gray. gary philbin is dollar tree's ceo and joins us now. i want to talk china tariffs because according to credit suisse, 40% to 42% of your merchandise comes from china. with these tariffs being imposed, you've got to be worried, right? >> thank you, stuart. thank you for having me on today. it's a great day at dollar tree and our family dollar banners. we did announce top line revenue beat, same store sales beat, and

eps is at the high end but the tariff piece obviously has our focus. we import about 40% at dollar tree. about half of that at family dollar. let me give a little credit to our merchants through our first lists of one, two and three. we have overcome the tariff impact so far. i think as we talk about tariffs, the question is does list four come into play or not. stuart: going forward, we have the possibility of 25% tariffs being added on to another, what, $350 billion worth of chinese goods coming in here. that's in the future. already today, at the port of long beach, california, they are imposing those 25% tariffs on stuff coming in from china. are you going to eat all of that increase or are you going to pass it along to consumers? >> keep in mind, for dollar tree, everything's $1. it's never about raising our retail. it's about changing product if

we have to. over the years, we have a heritage of doing that. at family dollar we obviously have multi price points. stuart: if everything is $1, and the price to you goes up, you just not sell it if you can't sell it for $1? >> that's a little bit of our history. we have always changed items. but with our current tariffs, we have moved some product out of china. you can't move supply chains easily. we re-inspect the product so we can land it more cheaply into containers so it's an impact on us but it's something our merchants are well-equipped to take a look and say how do we find items of great value and continue to bring it into the u.s. stuart: i believe you have already closed 140 stores, and another 150 may close by the end of july. why are you doing that?

>> let me put it into context. what we are closing are those stores, our family dollar banners. when we bought the chain in 2015, we really haven't closed any stores except in normal course. we are going to open up 500 stores this year between family dollar and dollar tree. that's a small chain for anyone else. the stores we are closing are usually too old or the town they are in has changed and retail's on the other side. we are a growth company but this does harvest some of our lower performing stores. stuart: i always think of you as a bricks and mortar operation. i don't go to dollar tree or family dollar, i don't go online to get something from your stores. i go to the store. so you're not part of the retail shrinkage, are you? >> i think you are exactly right. people come to our store because they want to see what's new. family dollar, oftentimes we serve a customer that may not know she has $10 until the end of the week.

so our stores are about come in, see the wow factor at both dollar tree and family dollar, and we deliver on the basics. we are brick and mortar. disruption in retail tends to help us. stuart: gary, look, we really want to thank you for coming on the show today. great report. your stock's doing really, really well, gary. we are glad to have you on the show. thank you, sir. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: sure thing. we have a star-studded show for you coming up. daytona 500 winner kurt busch is on the show. he will try and convince me to watch soccer. no. to watch nascar instead of soccer. i just say good luck to him. check this out, too. ferrari's hybrid supercar, that is the sf90 straddle, fastest ferrari ever, 0 to 62 in just 2.5 seconds. i don't know what it costs but it's fast. uber, listen up, you have a low rating, the company might delete your account. you are out of here.

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stuart: the united auto workers union tried to organize a plant in tennessee. my question is which plant and by who? ashley: volkswagen. the chattanooga plant. they tried this before back in 2014 and were narrowly defeated, so beginning june 12th, about 1700 trade and production workers at the chattanooga plant of vw will again vote on whether to join the uaw. stuart: they would love to crack that. ashley: yes, they would. stuart: better take a look at tesla. got a lot of bad news coming their way. barclays says they are stalling as a niche automaker. demand for their model 3 slowing and they are showing no signs of getting a profit any time soon. elon musk wrote an e-mail to all employees yesterday. he wants them to drop everything and focus on exceeding delivery goals while trying to cut costs.

the stock down a bit this morning, $187 is the price on tesla. how about those ride sharers, uber and lyft. uber reports its first earnings since going public. that comes out after the bell today. and listen to this, they are going to start deleting accounts with low ratings. wait a minute. what do i have to do as a passenger to get a low rating? liz: leave trash in the back of an uber car. you could be a messy eater. tell the driver hey, i want you to speed up or you know, they found that people are having sex in the back of these uber vehicles. the horror stories from these uber and lyft drivers are just astonishing. door slammers and you know, basically the company's saying if you have a low star rating, it's on a five-star system, we won't let you use uber eats and won't let you rent a scooter or anything else from jump. that's another unit at uber. stuart: i didn't know passengers were rated. i know you rate the driver.

but i didn't know about the passengers. is this new? liz: well, you are rated. you get a five-star rating system. but now uber's saying driver, you can kick that passenger to the curb. i'm thinking, you know, if they are really bad, just put them on a jump scooter which is another unit of uber. ashley: what about the driver who is half liberal leaning find out you're conservative, will you get a one-star rating? you know? liz: people having sex in the back of uber cars, astonishing. stuart: change the subject. watch fox business, for heaven's sake, at 4:00 eastern this afternoon. we have you covered on uber, back seat passengers included. "star wars" creator george lucas along with billy dee williams, harrison ford, mark hamill and bob iger cut the ribbon for the "star wars galaxy's edge" park.

deirdre bolton went inside the park, went on the millenium falcon ride. next we bring you the interview with bob iger. that, after this. ♪

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call the number on your screen call this number now. stuart: we are two hours in and thus far, it's pretty much a go nowhere day, flat to ever so slightly higher, with a majority of the dow 30 on the upside. let's get straight to disney. their new "star wars" theme park, galaxy's edge, set to open to the public tomorrow. this is at the disneyland parks in southern california. they had their opening ceremony last night. harrison ford, billy dee williams, mark hamill, george lucas were all there. deirdre bolton is with us. she's live in anaheim now. i think she's in front of the millenium falcon ride. did you ride it? what was it like? reporter: i certainly am. not only did i ride it, i was one of the pilots. it is the fastest ship in the universe, if you are a "star

wars" fan you know exactly. it is the millenium falcon so i did get to have a special ride yesterday which was fantastic. talking about some of the brass tacks for disney, the company has invested $1 billion in this part of the park and so when i met with the ceo, bob iger, yesterday i spoke with him as far as exactly what he expected as for the return but before that, i also asked him how many times he had been on this very ride. here's part of the conversation. this is very cool. i need to know first and foremost how many times you have been on the millenium falcon ride and what positions you were in. >> well, i have probably been in the millenium falcon maybe a dozen times. i have done everything. you can be a pilot, a gunner or an engineer. i will say i'm probably one of the more experienced pilots, i'm not bad. finally figured it out. reporter: well, i saw your twitter post with the photo taken by none other than j.j. abrams. you said well, if you have to

impress your friends, you may as well give them a private tour of galaxy's edge. what about all these details, though? because "star wars" fans are so intense, so dedicated. did you have to put more focus on the detail for this part of the park than others? >> well, our imagineers care about details in anything they do. it was part of the legacy, walt disney loved details, too. he really did believe in sweating the small stuff. our imagineers do that. in this particular case, you cited the incredible passion "star wars" fans have for even the smallest detail. i think the imagineers had to up their game but they loved that challenge. i think of all the "star wars" fans, when they get a chance to see this even they will be impressed. reporter: i can see in this day and age of social media, a light saber's handle has six lines, not five. >> you can build a light saber

here. i think there are about 120,000 different variations. couple of new kinds. reporter: as far as the detail goes, you feel like you have that down. what about the fact this is on 14 acres, you spent $1 billion developing this property. clearly, disney is all in on this. what kind of return do you need to see? what's a win for you? >> well, i'm a big believer in being bold and being big. i actually think in today's world, where so many are competing for people's time and attention and their money, that being big is important and creates value. you also have to be good. i'm convinced that the combination of "star wars" which has its own fan base -- reporter: rabid, i think we can say. >> and being bold, being big and being really good is going to deliver ample returns. we don't get specific about what kind of returns we get but i can

tell you that over the last, you know, 13, 14 years, actually since i have been ceo, we have been investing a lot in our parks with pandora and building shanghai disneyland and returns on invested capital in that business for us have grown tremendously over that period of time. part of that is the popularity of our product and the fact that a lot of the stories we are telli telling, from familiar properties, familiar places. reporter: you mentioned shanghai disneyland. are you concerned, i know you said you have very ambitious projects in mind for a marvel entertainment park, i'm assuming, at some level. i know there's tons of fans of captain america and iron man in china, "end game" is the number one grossing film ever in china. are you worried at all about the trade tensions between the u.s. and china, because as we all know, china has so much control, they can limit the number of american films that are shown. does that make you put on the brakes a little with some of the

shanghai plans? >> i think there's still a lot we don't know. obviously we don't know where it's all going to end up. where it stands now doesn't feel good in the sense that it's not resolved. i was in shanghai last week, i actually spent a day at the park, and an evening. not a bad way to spend a day. with the team in shanghai as well. so far, we have not detected any issues either from a regulatory or government perspective or from a consumer perspective there. that said, i think if things get more acrimonious, it's possible we will pay a price, so to speak. but right now -- reporter: meaning change the timetable a little bit? >> it could be they dial back on the number of films that are let in or whatever. doesn't mean we are going to make fewer films. in terms of the plans we have for shanghai disneyland, we are expanding right now, we are building zootopia land. we are not going to slow down at all. we are in it for the long run. if something happens and there's some tension that creates some

business issues, my guess is they will be more short lived than long lived. reporter: seems as if the deal you just signed with net ease which is a beijing-based media concern, you are going to build games, tv shows, it seems very ambitious, so is that a referendum it feels like on the longer term vision of u.s. and china eventually sorting this out? >> disney and china. we are very popular in china. because of the nature of our stories, family brand but even marvel and some of our other properties are popular. we are beloved there. they love what we built in shanghai. shanghai disneyland is tremendous. i think long term for us, we are fine. reporter: but does that work against you in the sense there's nothing more american than mickey mouse so if the chinese do want to retaliate, disney could be caught in the crosshairs. >> we could, but we entered china in a careful way, with respect. if you look at shanghai disneyland we built something we

call authentically disney but distinctly chinese. if you are from china, i think you immediately respect what is there because it doesn't feel like just disneyland from here, from california. it feels like their disneyland. that goes a long way with them. that said, we know we are an american based company and while our stories travel the word, it could be that tensions growing could have a negative impact. so far we haven't seen it. reporter: but so far, you have heard no grumblings or anything that would cause you as ceo concern about your businesses in china? >> so far, we have seen nothing. if you are asking me whether long term, i have some concerns about what might happen with trade, sure. i'm not losing sleep over it but sure, it's something as i look ahead and think about the things that i should be worried about or at least focused on, that would be one of them. reporter: so that was my conversation of course on the parks business. i would be remiss if i didn't remind everybody that by revenue, this is the biggest business for disney, if you just measure by that one metric.

also, cars land, i don't know if you remember when that opened, the year that opened, parks attendance went up 23%. normally these investments in amusement parks literally do pay for disney. of course, we also spoke and i will be bringing excerpts from the rest of the conversation later about the future of the media business, how that is going to affect the launch of disney plus streaming and of course, the frenemies and enemies of apple, netflix and amazon. stuart: tell you one thing. robert iger takes a question head-on, unlike so many ceos. reporter: he sure does. stuart: he answers the question. reporter: he never blinks. stuart: great stuff. thank you very much indeed. we are going to check various markets for you, starting with bitcoin. $8,700 per coin. it's up 50 bucks as we speak. by the way, we are about to talk to an analyst who says bitcoin is ready to blast past $10,000 a coin. he will make his case. big hearing on the hill

tomorrow. it's all about cbd regulation. coming up, we are joined by a man who is testifying in that hearing. i want to know, is cbd a back door to full legalization of marijuana? and does it work? does it work? i want to know. ashley: de-stressor. stuart: 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? back then, we checked our zero times a day. times change. eyes haven't.

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stuart: let's get to bitcoin. the price is $8,787 per coin. it's up about 90 bucks. it's had a nice run this month. our next guest says you ain't seen nothing yet.

bitcoin's going to hit $10,000 per coin within the next two weeks. naime aslam joins us on the phone. you have one minute to make your case. tell us why it's $10,000 within two weeks. >> the momentum has been to the upside. if you look at the fundamentals, large corporations started to use blockchain technology to an extent where they basically have their own digital coin coming up, i'm giving an example of facebook. y [ inaudible ] countries like over in europe and over in asia want to have

the currency. stuart: so essentially it is a momentum play, the momentum is going towards buying bitcoin and it's increasingly used and respected, bitcoin technology, in the corporate world. that's your argument, right? within two weeks, $10,000, right? >> yes. that is correct. on top of that, if you look at institutional trade and the regulated futures, you will see if you are running a market mutual strategy, the only way for you to make money is introduce a future which has a high volatility [ inaudible ]. stuart: look, you made your argument, you made your case. come back and see us within two weeks. we will see how your prediction worked out. thank you very much, sir. appreciate it. good stuff. take a look at google. this is a related story, actually. the company's banning apps that

sell marijuana from its play store. that's the official app store for the android operating system. no impact, of course, on the stock. we thought you ought to know. here's the related story. bitcoin's got nothing to do with marijuana. tomorrow, the fda holds a hearing on cbd regulation. cbd is the part of cannabis that doesn't get you high. stuart titus is with us, medical marijuana incorporated ceo. he will be testifying tomorrow at that hearing. stuart, show me proof that this works as an anti-inflammatory or as a de-stresser. have you got the medical proof? >> we are working towards the medical proof of this. certainly we are quite excited about the movement in the industry, really since we started the industry in 2011-2012, has seen increasing popularity among the american population. certainly it does seem to make sense. if you look at the science

behind it, we all have this amazing internal cannabinoid system, largely self-regulatory system and we need this system because they are quickly degraded by enzymes. stuart: at the moment, the fda demands proof that it works before they make it legitimate, i think. is that correct? they are demanding proof that it works. is that right? >> well, yes. the fda has actually approved cbd medicine in june 2018. this is for children who have advanced forms of epilepsy and are resistant to normal pharmaceutical intervention. though we agree with the pharmaceutical version, we also think cbd can be used as a nutritional or dietary supplement. stuart: hold on a second. a nutritional or dietary supplement? what does that mean? >> yes. certainly when you are sick, you have very large and concentrated amount of cbd that these young

children are taking. young children between 4 and 700 milligrams of cbd on a daily basis but for normal health and wellness application, we think 50 milligrams for an adult will help support this very large self-regulatory system and move people to a much higher level of overall health and wellness. stuart: is there any evidence of side effects? >> there really are not. cbd particularly in its natural botanical form really is very safe. there aren't really any side effects. of course, the purified form, there can be some potential liver enzyme toxicity but again, that's a pharmaceutically developed version versus cbd in its natural botanical state which is more of a natural food supplement. stuart: we wish you luck with your testimony tomorrow. we will be following it very closely. we thank you very much for being on the show today about cbd. thank you, stuart. >> thank you very much, sir. stuart: sure thing. tomorrow, 11:00, eastern time, i'm going to be joined by

another marijuana guy. bruce linton. c canopy ceo. i want to know how long he thinks it will get pot legal nationwide. he's on the show tomorrow. look at fed ex. they just announced they will be starting year-round seven-day delivery. that starts in january of is it next year? yes. january of next year. a service that was only reserved for peak holiday times. they are extending it year round. every day of the week, seven days a week. fed ex will deliver. the stock, down $1.60. $157 is the price. look at this one. beyond meat, down 2% earlier this morning, now down just a fraction. they have been all over the place today. they just got a boost from jpmorgan's analyst who says the fake meat industry will be worth $100 billion 15 years from now. with beyond meat taking a sizeable chunk of that. that's why it's turned around from a couple points loss to

virtually break even. all right. next, wait for it, nascar champ kurt busch. he's walking -- is he -- he's walking down the hallway. yes. he's going to sit next to me. can he convince me to watch cars racing round a circle? can he do that? it's an uphill struggle, kurt.

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stuart: happening right now, vice president pence meets with canada's prime minister justin trudeau. they are talking trade, specifically the usmca. that's the new nafta. will it get through congress? good question, but they are certainly talking about it and it's happening as of right now. next case. oh, have we got a treat for nascar fans. we are going to put him on the screen. his name is kurt busch. i think -- there he is. he's the 2004 cup champ. he's a daytona 500 winner and he's going to be a commentator this saturday at the pocono 250 race which is on fox. sir, welcome to the program. >> thank you. appreciate you having me on. stuart: you ever been a

commentator before? >> just dabbled with it. i'm going to work my way up towards your direction. stuart: flattery works. what are you going to say to the audience? all you've got is a bunch of cars going round and round. >> oh, come on, that's rubbish. that's rubbish. at pocono raceway, it's a unique track. it's actually shaped like a triangle. the fun side of commentary is to give the fans an insight from a current driver. so i will be still racing on sunday, but for our xfinity series, talking about the young kids up and coming, it's a challenge for me because i grew up watching it on tv and wanted to give back to the fans now. stuart: there's all strategy. it's not just driving fast. >> there's strategy, yes. there's the mental side, the physical side. stuart: you have people who shield you so that you can make your run at the last minute, right? >> not quite. there's more of the pit crew that changes the tires fast, the race strategist who will call the race on when to pit, and

yes, there is the team aspect out on track of another guy possibly blocking for you. but at the end, it's every man for himself. everybody's racing for their car number to win. stuart: you ever watched soccer? english premier league? >> is this your cup of tea, soccer? stuart: it's just a superior sport. >> oh, really? stuart: it's a fantastic sport. it's fascinating -- >> it's growing here in the states. stuart: it's growing here fast. >> i love the -- stuart: let's get back to racing. >> i haven't played much soccer but the sport in general, with the way that all athletics and all business side of sponsorship and the way that our tv is produced, it's a big part of the success value. i'm happy that our sport, half of our races are covered by fox. stuart: sure. now, look, as i understand it, you're a good man. don't you buy 100 tickets for every race and you give the 100 tickets away to military people? that's accurate? >> i do. stuart: 100 tickets. >> i have been inspired by them from the many trips i have made

to walter reed medical, the different hospitals around our country, seeing our men and women in that rehab room. i want to go in and i want to make sure that they find something afterwards. when they get reintegrated back into regular life, that they can go to a sporting event with their family. so 100 tickets to every nascar race, i personally bought. some of the tracks have actually ante'ed up to give more tickets as well. it's really neat. that's what i'm promoting as well. anybody that's watching can go to vettix.org, donate money and the tickets will be available to our veterans. stuart: i don't care what they say, i think you're a good man. i really do. >> i don't know how i would kick a soccer ball. stuart: kurt busch will be the commentator, in the booth, i should say, this saturday for the pocono 250 race. you can watch it on fox sports 1. kurt, thank you very much indeed for being with us today. we appreciate it. >> appreciate you having me on. stuart: i know you don't like soccer but i don't hold it against you. >> you are going to be fine.

you are going to be fine. stuart: thank you, kurt. more "varney" after this. that is a promise. . .

stuart: look, i spot to say, we've been on the air for three hours and the most intriguing story the fact that uber will chuck you out, cancel your account, if you get a reputation as a bad passenger. liz: yeah, horror stories, people eating in the back of uber cars. i'm flummoxed with people having sex in back of uber cars. stuart: took a while to get to it. liz: forgive me. stuart: if you have a sexual encounter in back of an uber car, the driver notices -- liz: how could he not? ashley: how could he not? stuart: i would thought reason for throwing people off, uber

picks up a lot of drunks. liz: they're getting sick in the back of cars. stuart: that would be a big deal liz: never get in the car again. stuart: uber earnings report, 4:00 this afternoon. watch fox business. neil it is yours. sorry,. connell: i was half paying attention. ii caught the end of that conversation. i was very curious about your uber riding habits. stuart: not mine. the general public. connell: good to see you, stuart. welcome everybody. what a circus. welcome to cavuto coast to coast. i'm connell mcsane -- mcshane in for neil today and tomorrow. there was a all the talk about the selloff, pulling back five 1/2, 6% from the highs. president trump speaking today for