blizzard. g20, also jerome powell speaking today. i'm watching fed and the run-up to g20. maria: these are all important things that will move markets for sure. great show today, guys. >> thanks for having us. maria: have a great day. seize the day. "varney & company" begins now. stuart, take it away. stuart: i'll do that. good morning to you. good morning, everyone. iran lashes out. after president trump imposed new sanctions that go right at the supreme leader, iran's foreign ministry says it's the end of diplomacy. then president rouhani said the white house is quote, afflicted with mental retardation. well, that is the current state of the standoff in the gulf. no response yet from president trump. then there's cuba and putin. a russian warship has sailed into port in havana. what's it doing there? president trump meets vladimir putin at the g20. this is a full-scale standoff.

how about china trade? that's a standoff. lighthizer and mnuchin have been on the phone to their chinese counterparts. the chinese say we called them. president xi and president trump will meet just within days. back home, a standoff on money for the border crisis. the democrats cannot agree among themselves on new cash for detention facilities. children are suffering. a vote on emergency aid which was supposed to take place today might not even make it to the floor of the house. just wait until you see how gold and bitcoin are reacting to all of this. and wait until you hear about a massive $60 billion buyout in the pharma business. let's get on with it. "varney & company" is about to begin. stuart: right. this is a whopping great big merger. got to tell you about it.

abbvie says it will acquire allergan in a deal valued at $63 billion. ash, what does allergan have that makes it worth this huge premium offer? ashley: nearly $16 billion a year in revenue from a lot of beauty products. $16 billion, nearly. okay. most roizabecognizable, botox. product called juvederm, an injectable gel. restasis, these are some of the names put out there. look, abbvie has been struggling to grow. their blockbuster drug is humera for arthritis, which brought in nearly $19 billion last year but the patent is soon to expire. that means a whole bunch of generics will be coming in, diluting that revenue. they are always looking for growth. allergan has been on the block before. pfizer looked to buy it a few years ago.

this is a huge, huge deal. stuart: allergan is up 30%. $40 a share. big deal. got it. thank you. president trump tweeting about the market first thing this morning. here is that tweet. stock market is heading for one of the best months, june, in the history of our country. thank you, mr. president. very trumpian tweet right there. look at futures following that tweet. we are going up just a tiny little bit at the opening bell. 16 points up for the dow, maybe, and the nasdaq down about six. this of course is in advance of the trump/xi jinping meeting at the end of the week. look at gold. that's a market that's moving. up another ten bucks this morning. it's reached $1,428 an ounce and bitcoin well above $11,000 a coin. $11,200 as we speak, up again. i want to bring in economist peter morici. tell me about gold and bitcoin. lot of people say look, this is a flight to safety. is it?

>> well, yes. one of them is wise and the other is foolish. gold is the ultimate fear asset. gold will always be gold and will always have value. not just as a store of wealth but also because it has industrial uses and becomes increasingly scarce over time. bitcoin is something else. bitcoin can be replicated. there's a whole list of crypto currencies out there. something better is on the horizon. libra could really -- the facebook currency could really be the asset that bitcoin promised to be. it could be a fundamental means of exchange and store of wealth. it's going to be backed by a reserve. it's a brilliant idea, i have to say so, and my feeling is that if zuckerberg doesn't get to do it because regulators just simply don't like him, someone else is going to do it. private money is legal. stuart: before we close this out, i have to tell you there seems to be a flight to the safety of treasury securities. we are right at 2% at the

ten-year yield right now. so there is something of a flight to safety going on there. on the screen now, exactly 2%. peter, we will get back to you in just one moment. i want to deal first of all with president trump and the xi jinping meeting at the end of this week. u.s. officials today playing down a little, playing down expectations. i want to bring in gordon chang, who helped us all the way through these china trade talks. what's your prediction, when they meet and after the meeting, what's going to happen? >> i think they will agree to continue discussions. this will take months and months and months. i don't think, you know, there's this "time" magazine article that came out yesterday that said the trump administration is basically going to give in to chinese demands. i don't think that's going to happen. we have seen a lot of analysts and certainly market participants saying there's going to be a trade deal and we have heard this for months and months and months and months. and for months and months and months and months we haven't had one. as a matter of fact, you see the chinese start to publicize their

demands which are clearly unacceptable to the united states and the international community, so i don't think there's going to be a deal for quite a long time, if ever. stuart: but there will be a handshake and a smile. >> there will be lots of hand shakes, lots of smiles, and they will try to move the market upwards. stuart: you might see president trump say okay, we won't impose a fresh round of tariffs and china may say well, we will take a couple hundred billion dollars worth of soybeans. >> that's quite possible. stuart: that would move the market up. >> that certainly is going to move the market up. but you know, even that might not happen. so you know, anything could happen when you have two willful leaders sit in the same room at the same time. you can't say anything is off the table but it's really unlikely, because just what china has been doing recently. stuart: we've got reports, throw this into the mix, we've got reports that chinese hackers, presumed chinese hackers, are going after global

telecommunications, phone companies, american companies included. is that part of the deal? is that part of the china trade discussion? >> i don't think they will actually talk about it but you know, this is something that is actually driving the united states right now. we are seeing this administration move against china across the board. this is a really good thing, stuart, because we needed to do this on a number of different fronts, so clearly, this hacking is going to sort of aggravate people in washington, as it should, because what the chinese did with these ten or more cellular phone companies is take unprecedented amounts of data. now, we have capabilities to do what china did but we don't do it. what the chinese did, they just hoovered up everything. so really, this is putting a lot of telecom companies on notice and this is huawei, stuart. we have this campaign against huawei. we've got a lot of u.s. companies that are upset, including fed ex which just sued the federal government. but you know, we can't let up on huawei, because they are the tip of china's spear to take all

this information, and by the way, when huawei says oh, we won't spy, chinese law, 2017 national intelligence law, requires huawei to spy if demanded. huawei is trying to deceive the world by saying no, it's not going to spy. it has to. stuart: hard line gordon chang. all right. good stuff. thank you very much. we appreciate you, as always. i've got to talk taxes for a moment. first off, joe biden wants to repeal the trump tax cuts but there is a new study from congress, of all places, and it finds if you do that, it will be a windfall for the rich. that's the first tax story. second one, 19 billionaires including abigail disney, george soros, have written a letter to the president and 2020 democrat candidates encouraging them to tax the billionaire class some more. come back in, peter morici. do you think, this is all about income inequality, do you think that income inequality is a real big problem for our economy right now? >> i do think that income

inequality is a problem but it can't be solved by taxing and spending. it mefemerges from changes in technology and the fact we have been sending the wrong message to children in, say, middle school and high school. when i was in middle school, we talked about what we wanted to do for careers and we were all encouraged to pick out something that was practical that would earn us a living. instead, democrats go to high school and tell kids to become community activists. so then they come to the university of maryland and some woman in feminist studies convinces a young girl if she studies angry at men that there will be a vast open horizon for her, unless she gets a job as an intern underpaid and underappreciated at the metoo movement she won't get anything other than selling cell phones at verizon. stuart: that's an interesting speculative -- >> that's exactly what is going on. what's more, 40% of college graduates can't pass a test in critical reasoning, which is the

most basic, telling rock from non-rock, remember that at oxford, fellow? that's what we're supposed to teach at college. unfortunately, we don't teach it. stuart: we like to get plenty of hardcore opinion into the top of the show on tuesday morning and you did it for us. thank you very much. >> i don't want to get fired so i held back. stuart: we appreciate that. i'm sure you will be on again soon. thank you very much, sir. how about this one. the date has been set. amazon prime day. this is a very big deal. july 15th, july 16th, i believe there's a million deals going to be out there on those two days. okay. stock's actually down -- no, it just turned around, up eight cents. look at the home builders. we just received the latest read on home prices. give me the number, please. susan: home prices are still up 3.5% annual gain in the month of april but down from the month of march so sequentially lower, and the biggest gains, las vegas, phoenix, tampa bay, still the largest and best markets out

there if you are a homeowner and want to sell. this goes on top of the existing home sales where we saw upward trends in may. it actually gained 2.5%, up against springtime is a very crucial time to sell your home, accounting for 40% of the sales of the year. stuart: new sales numbers at 10:00 this morning. okay. home builders are up this morning in advance of that. oh, fed ex caught up in the dispute between the feds and huawei. why the company is now suing the commerce department over the issue. because they are. we've got the story. the chicago police department released a new video from the jussie smollett case. it shows the actor wearing a rope that he claims his attackers put round his neck. we will tackle that story for you in the 10:00 hour. congress trying to put a stop to those robocalls that we all get. how annoying. now they are trying to get the cell phone companies to step up and help out. "varney & company" rolling on after this.

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stuart: fed ex, suing the trump administration. it says shipping regulations create quote, an impossible burden. this is all about huawei. susan: so basically the lawsuit filed in federal court in washington, d.c. claims that the u.s. commerce department puts these onerous conditions on fed ex which now has to police millions of packages. don't forget, a few stories that came out, huawei publicly basically complained about this, a few packages that were meant to go to huawei in china rerouted to tennessee, back to the u.s. for inspection. also a huawei phone that was trying to be sent from one customer in the uk to the u.s. blocked, sent back to the user. this is because huawei is put on the blacklist, trade blacklist. fed ex says this is onerous. you can't expect us to inspect each and every one of these millions of packages that we deliver each and every day. stuart: that's a fair point,

isn't it. how are they supposed to know what's inside all of these packages. how can they be held responsible for that? ashley: you can't. susan: it hurts their earnings and margins as well. they are reporting after the bell today. stuart: more on that later in the show. what does that mean if fed ex wins. now something everybody can relate to. congressman greg walden co-sponsoring the stopping bad robocalls act. i'm all for it. joining us now, the congressman himself. sir, as i understand it, welcome to the show, by the way. this is a wonderful subject and we're glad you're on it. as i understand it, your bill would put the onus on the phone companies. they are the ones hwho have got to stop it. is that right? >> it gives them authority to use authentication equipment to shut it down. i met with the ceo of at & t. he's ready to go. we gave the fcc authority last year to start this process. we are doubling down now. look, remember one number, stuart. 47.8 billion. that's the number of robocalls nationwide last year.

we got to put an end to this. it's fraud, it disrupts our communication systems, threatens your personal privacy and really messes up your day. stuart: it's a first class pain in the neck. that is the truth. that's being polite. >> we are going after it. 2:00 today we are marking up the bill in the energy and commerce committee, it's bipartisan. we will get this into law. stuart: if it does get into law, do you think that six months from now the number of robocalls will be cut to virtually zero? can do you that? >> it will be pretty close. they can do it. the carriers have told me they have the ability to do it because they can authenticate the real number and block them. they will give consumers, we are giving them the authority to give consumers this call blocking authority and then you would opt out if you didn't want it. so it's your choice. it will be on there at the beginning as opposed to adding on later on. then they will report back to congress to tell us how they're doing. i think it's really important. they are keyed into this. they know they've got to fix this. they have the technology. we are giving them the authority. we are going to get this done. stuart: i would like to know the

name of the person who runs the robocall company. our control room, congressman, here, we get robocalls all the time and because we have sequential numbers in the control room, the calls go from one to another to another. you can see them go all the way around the room. it really interrupts things. >> it does. stuart: congressman greg walden, you are our hero. >> i tell you what, while it disrupts your newsroom, we had testimony from a cancer center, same thing happens there. can you imagine you get the call that shows the cancer center you have been going to, turns out it's a fraud? and it disrupts the doctors. this is a menace all the way around. we are going after it and with the partnership with the phone providers, they've got the technology, we are giving them the authority to shut this down. stuart: you are going to get the varney medal of freedom if you're not careful. thank you very much. we really appreciate it. >> good to be with you. stuart: let's get back to your money. it's not exactly a turn-around for futures but we will be up

maybe 10, 12 points for the dow. down about four on the nasdaq. now this. economist stephen moore did not land a spot on the federal reserve but he's already got his next job lined up. he wants to start a central bank for crypto currencies. how about that. more "varney" after this. my insurance rates are probably gonna double.

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stuart: i think we've got a pretty strong economy, you know? low unemployment, no inflation. i think it's pretty good. however, there's a new survey of chief financial officers, hotshots, they're worried about the global economy, ours included. deloitte conducted this study and sandy cochrell joins us now. what's this? you are worried about the european economy, the american economy, the japanese economy. what's wrong? >> it's interesting, stuart. in terms of the three economies when you look at the north american economy, europe and china, basically four out of five cfos still feel the u.s. economy is very strong. so 79%. but when they look at europe, only 10% of the cfos basically stated that the european economy was strong today. only 4% expect it to be better

in a year. stuart: that, i can get along with. the american economy is not the problem. i can see that europe is the problem. >> yeah. when we move to china, 26% said it was good today but only 10% will say it will be better in a year. stuart: really. what that means, we, america, are to a large degree the standout economy round the world. >> yes, we are. that's the way it's been in our survey for the last number of years. the north american economy is really a gold standard. when we ask cfos where they want to invest, overwhelmingly, almost 70% said they want to invest in their home markets here in north america. 99% of the 139 u.s.-based cfos said their investments will be here in the united states. stuart: you can see that, can't you. the market's doing very well. treasury securities are doing well. virtual ly all asset classes in the united states are doing well. these cfos are doing what they said they would. >> yes, they are. you look at concerns, external concerns, trade and tariff.

it's something they are very concerned about. they want to see some clarity around what will happen with that. the internal concern is talent. talent is the big concern. acquisition, development, retention of talent is the number one concern of cfos. not just in financial organizations but across the entire enterprise. stuart: fascinating. when we have more time, you come back and tell me about the lack of talent. >> i will be happy to do that. stuart: thank you very much, sir. appreciate it. futures show a modest gain for the dow. fractional loss for the nasdaq. we will take you to wall street after this. see that's funny, i thought you traded options. i'm not really a wall street guy. what's the hesitation? eh, it just feels too complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman? hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you

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stuart: fox business has learned that economist stephen moore is looking to start a central bank for crypto currencies. now, he recently lost his bid to join the federal reserve. ash, give me 30 seconds to tell me what this story is all about. ashley: it's called decentral and essentially what it is, they believe they can stabilize crypto currencies like bitcoin and all the other imitators by creating a central bank. it will perform duties like the fed, regulating the supply, also they say they can exchange its own new token for other crypto currencies. the supply will be tied to the

value of the dollar or some other stable currency. assist stuart: tied to the stable value of the dollar. that's what he wants to do. ashley: right. it's interesting. stuart: in three seconds, the market opens this tuesday morning. fine explanation, ash. i don't know how you did that. here we go. we are dead flat. i would call it sideways movement. why not. it's up three, up two, down one, up six. there you go. if that's not flat to slightly lower to slightly higher to sideways, i don't know what is. same with the s&p. dead flat. ever so slightly higher. oh, show me the nasdaq. this is technology. 8,005. that's where we are. that's where we still are. down .07. that's dead flat across the board. that's interesting. the yield on the ten-year treasury is exactly 2% even. what does that tell you? don't know. check the price of gold. i will tell you this is a flight to safety. you are up another 14 bucks, 1%.

$1,432 per ounce. there's no inflation. bitcoin, up $194. $11,200. the price of oil this morning, did we reach $58 a barrel? show me, please. $58 a barrel it is. just reached it. joining us, d.r. barton, john lonski, susan li, ashley webster, all together now. the big drug merger, let's talk about that, abbvie will acquire allergan, a cash and stock deal for about $63 billion. d.r., why did abbvie pay such a big premium to get the botox maker? >> the simple answer is diversifying their portfolio away from their blockbuster humera, the biggest drug in the planet by 2x. also, they are getting allergan at a big discount. you may remember a couple years ago, several years ago, pfizer was going to buy them for $160

billion. they are only worth $63 billion, really $83 billion when you take into account debt. they are getting a pretty good deal and to be able to branch out into especially cosmetic drugs which are one of the big growth areas for the next four to five years. ashley: and the humera patent is running out. susan: going generic 2023. this is a 45% premium given a few years ago. looks like abbvie is looking for something else. stuart: run down the list of stuff. ashley: they have a slew of things but botox is the biggy. they have juvederm, restasis. cool sculpting. any of these ringing a bell? stuart: the stuff that makes your eyelashes grow. susan: you knew that already. stuart: i think we made the point. abbvie down, allergan up. got it. amazon prime day set for

july 15th and 16th. two-day event. lots of people will be doing their shopping. quick question, d.r. does the two-day special here, not quite like the kmart spec l special, does it take them to $2,000 a share? >> it does and i would be remiss if they didn't move it to 7-17 which is a prime number. then we could really have a prime day. what they are going to do, by doing two days, they are going to get the big revenue numbers that will push the stock higher. stuart: i want to get john lonski into this. >> are you talking about prime numbers? you want stuart to cut you off? my goodness. this is not a show for nerds. this prime thing they have, these deals, tell us the importance of low prices to consumers. nice boost to real consumer spending for the third quarter but again, the underlying theme is if companies get carried away with their pricing power, they

are going to pay for it. stuart: i'm going to go shopping on amazon. i will have somebody do it for me. i will go shopping on amazon on prime days. susan: the big test for amazon would be the next day shipping that they promise. right now, they have ten million products for next-day shipping. let's test it out when you have a ton of orders to fill. stuart: susan bringing it down to us. very good. let's not get the hilarity too far. to fed ex, suing the trump administration, says its shipping regulations create an impossible burden for the company. of course, they are also facing heavy competition from amazon and ups. fed ex this morning is down $1.50, $159 is the price there. let me move on here. what have we got here? we have got a 19 point gain for the dow industrials, 26,747. tesla in the news. the commerce department has agreed to waive tariffs on japanese aluminum for tesla battery cells. not much change for the stock,

but that's what's happening. microsoft shares. constant new highs for some time now but down this morning, off a buck at $136. beyond meat. how could you possibly have a show without beyond meat? five days down. today, up four bucks, almost, at $144. mcdonald's says since they started using fresh beef for their quarter pounder burgers, sales went up an average of 30%. what does that tell you? >> that consumers want quality food, not just fast food. i think we are going to be seeing this carry out through all of the big, big chains, they are going to be going to more and more quality, in addition to the low price stuff. ashley: it's the first time they actually gained market share in five years once they brought in actual fresh beef as opposed to frozen. stuart: that stock has been on a tear, well over $200 a share. i think it would do well in this economy with consumers having some money to spend.

>> that's right. people have all this money to spend on these various cosmetic procedures that aren't cheap. consumers are flush with cash. i think mcdonald's is touching on a very important thing for any company and that is to strive to provide a higher quality product at lower cost. if you can do that, you are going to do well. susan: 40 million quarter pounders were sold in the first quarter of 2019. that's a bump up of 30% because of fresh beef. but this is the shift towards healthier items. so farm-fresh eggs as well, fresh beef and they are not yet on board, though, with meatless products. stuart: 40 million quarter pounders in 13 weeks. susan: that's right. >> if we can afford it, so much for spam. stuart: i was born and raised on spam. so were you, right? back in the day? ashley: i was. >> easterbrook has done an amazing job at mcdonald's. stuart: spam didn't hurt me. look at me. >> exactly.

stuart: next case. walmart, they've got sam's club, launching alcohol delivery through instacart. i guess that would come in handy if you were having a party. it seemed to me like a good idea. what's the problem there? >> there are going to be some issues in some places, especially more conservative places, about making sure that we're not getting this into the hands of minors. so if they take care of that problem, it looks like they have a way to do that properly to let the authorities know we are only going to deliver to adults, then this is going to be huge. stuart: walmart is another company that benefits from a strong economy with lots of consumer money to be spent. >> i think appeathat's also a cy that benefits if the economy slows down because they get customers from people that would have bought elsewhere, more higher prices department stores and the like. it's been a solid play for a long period of time. stuart: let's concentrate on two other markets now. first, the price of gold well

above $1400 an ounce and actually up 15 bucks as of right now. bitcoin, still at around $11,300 per coin. had a wonderful run, up i think -- let me see, i have the notes here -- bitcoin is up -- susan: 200% for the year. but for the month it's close to 50% up already. stuart: give me an explanation as to why. hold on a second. yesterday, susan pointed out that next year or the year after, the supply is going to be cut. susan: so there's only 21 million bitcoin in the entire world right now. every time there's a 210,000 blockchain mined, that means half the supply on offer. i think it's 12 million right now. bitcoin is trading each and every day. that goes to six million. that brings up the price. stuart: so that's the explanation for that. >> part of this might be that there's been downwardly revised expectations for profits. people are worried about what happened to the equity market over the next 12 to 18 months.

some are viewing this as a simple flight to safety. it's sort of like an insurance policy. i don't know if it's going to work out for bitcoin. i would be more inclined to purchase gold as opposed to bitcoin. susan: i hate using that word safety when talking about bitcoin, because it crashes. >> that's the whole point. yes. >> flight to diversity. flight to diversify out of stocks. bitcoin is a single word answer for why it's gone up in the past week and a half. facebook. that's it. stuart: president trump, big meeting obviously end of the week with president xi jinping of china. look, i don't know where this is going but it seems like the market is hanging on every single word about china trade. everybody is saying -- not everybody, but people are speculating that at the end of the meeting there will be a smile, a handshake, a tiny little partial deal and we will all be happy. think that's going to happen? >> yes.

i think the market is going to be more stable. it's maybe not going to be overly enthusiastic about the outcome but i think it's basically not going to be a negative. they are going to do what they can to avoid that. ashley: think it's baked in that ultimately the markets believe this will get done or not? >> that's the question. >> i think last night, president trump had a statement about he doesn't care whether the deal gets done, which gives people some ideas that he's willing to play a longer game. yet we opened with the markets flat. that's a big deal. i think there is going to be some glad-handing, saying we are working towards this but there's not going to be any deal. stuart: i will say one thing. if there's no smile, no handshake, that market goes down big-time come monday morning. >> agreed. stuart: that's where we'll leave it. it's 9:40 eastern time. you're done. thank you very much. great stuff indeed. check that market. we have shifted to the downside. now we are down 62 points. that's roughly one quarter of 1%.

miami, trying to take advantage of those high taxes in illinois. launching a new initiative to get businesses to leave chicago and head to south florida instead. we have the person on the show who is running that program. may get harder to find cbd products in new york. why the city is banning the sale of cbd snacks and drinks starting next month. didn't know that. it's happening. president trump signing that executive order on health care. he says this is a game of change-up for consumers. will i be told what i am paying before i undergo a medical procedure? because that's what i want. will they tell me in advance? that's what the executive order is planning for. hope it works. we'll be back. ♪ the mercedes-benz of tomorrow will transform not just the automobile, but mobility itself.

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stuart: down 60 points on the dow industrials, one quarter of 1%. president trump did sign that executive order to make health care pricing more transparent. we've got tape. roll it. >> for too long, it's been virtually impossible for americans to know the real price and quality of health care services and the services they receive. as a result, patients face significant obstacles shopping for the best care at the best price, driving up health care costs for everyone. with today's historic action, we are fundamentally changing the nature of the health care marketplace. stuart: joining us now, senator mike braun, republican from indiana, who was at the signing yesterday. mr. senator, will i know the cost of a treatment before i get that treatment? that's the intention here, isn't it? >> it's sad that you even have to ask that question.

there is no other sector of our economy that can get by with selling a product or service when you don't know how much it costs. thank goodness the administration has been bold and is going to kind of force this through the industry. i get the question all the time, well, that doesn't sound like free enterprise, government getting involved. the health care sector has not been playing like all other components of the economy. they have hidden behind these arcane rules, you know, it's been opaque. guys like me that have taken them on in my own business have made progress, but my goodness, if you are out there competing, you should believe in transparency, competition. we shouldn't have to be legislating it or doing a rule to get it done. stuart: well, i mean, it introduces price competition, doesn't it? if i know the price of a treatment, supposing i need an mri, for example, i could go to a different place and say how much do you charge for this. that would be price competition.

surely that could bring the price down in some cases, couldn't it? >> i think it will in all cases. when i did it in my own company 10, 11 years ago, when the tools were meager to do it, and when you encourage your own employees that are patients in the health care system to have some skin in the game to use that transparency, it will really work. you need to start with the ceos and these huge health care corporations to do what every other company does, competing in other markets. publish your prices, compete, be transparent, quit hiding behind what the insurance companies have created over the years. that has not worked. stuart: can you give us a real fast example of how you use this price competition when you were in business? because we always say this, you were in business before you got into politics and you are still a business kind of guy. give me an example. >> exactly. about ten years or so ago, you

raised your deductibles, changed underwriters, as the only way an employer could moderate premium increases. i was tired of that. i had a heart-to-heart meeting with the underwriters and the agents and said we've got to do better. we were large enough to self-insure then, so i simply created the atmosphere to have your employees engage in their own wellbeing and on everything they do, they either get on the web or pick up the phone to say how much does it cost. believe it or not, when you do that on mris, cat scans, almost any procedure, you are saving between 30% and 70%. a real quick story. when an employee that didn't really like that idea had to do it the day we went live, he found over a 50% discount on a prescription he had been doing for years but never had the

incentive or pursued the transparency to shop around. 50%. stuart: great stuff. senator braun, you always bring the good stuff. we appreciate it. thank you, senator. see you again soon. >> you're welcome. stuart: got it. all right. we are still down about 60 points on the dow, roughly speaking, quarter of 1%. we've got toys "r" us headline, making a comeback. half a dozen new stores will open in time for christmas. is there room for a specialty toy store in the era of amazon and/or walmart? we will ask former toys "r" us chief. he's on the show next. pay for what i need. oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no... only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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stuart: this is strange. new york city says no to cbd-infused snacks and drinks. look, cbd is the chemical in marijuana, doesn't get you high. that's the thc side of business. but tell me what's going on here. it was legal -- ashley: i know. the fda actually banned using cbd, the ingredient in marijuana that doesn't get you high, in food and drink. they put that edict out in december. there have been raids going on from california to new york of them seizing cbd-ingestible products. not many people know about this. from july 1st, the department of health in new york city, the ban, can't sell it anymore.

there's a lot of stores that thought that because of demand, consumer demand, that they would eventually kind of relax on that. they have gone ahead and done it. but no. so starting in october, if you continue to sell brownies or whatever you want to do, cbd-infused tea, which apparently is served in some mainstream coffee shops here in new york, you will be fined $650. there you go. stuart: i thought it was legal, fine. ashley: does allow topical creams. can't ingest it. stuart: okay. leave it at that. thank you, ash. talk about a comeback from the retail ice age. toys "r" us planning to open a half dozen stores this year, just in time for the holidays. jerry storch is with us, former chairman and chief executive officer. i take it you think there is room in america today for a standalone large toy store, yes? >> absolutely. it's a $22 billion market.

consumers want it. it's a great place to take your kids. toy manufacturers want it. it's a great place to showcase your toys. the issue is just how large could it become. it used to be, right, in the u.s. alone, $7 billion, $8 billion in sales, 850 stores. they started talking about starting with maybe six stores at 10,000 square feet each. if they did well, that might be something south of $100 million. it's not what it used to be. but there is growth potential. it probably will never be as large as it used to be. stuart: you've got to change the kind of store. i used to go in toys "r" us stores all the time. i've got a large family. it would be discounted stuff stacked up on the roof, all that kind of thing. you can't do that anymore. how are they going -- >> it's always been an experience. they are talking about making it even more so, some place you can take your kids and spend some time in there. certainly that's what it's all about at the end of the day. but nevertheless, you know, the most important thing is having the products that parents and children want, particularly in the holidays, and having them

stocked when they're not available everywhere else. that's the number one thing. stuart: inventory is everything. >> inventory is everything. again, understanding the consumer preference. being the expert in the field and really having what the customer wants. it's that basic. stuart: are they going to have toy demonstrations? >> of course. stuart: is there going to be -- >> i'm sure they will. toy stores always did. if you didn't -- look, it was a pasttime, a place to take your kids on a saturday afternoon when all else fails and that's what it can be. stuart: okay. where is the money coming from for this rejuvenation, these six stores? >> well -- stuart: have you got money in the new one? >> it's not that much money to open a few stores. the manufacturers provide a lot of the financing both by providing inventory in various forms, consignment, you can also factor the inventory in various ways through asset-backed lending, et cetera. it doesn't cost that much to open stores. cost a lot to run them but then you have cash flow coming in. retail is one of the positive cash flow businesses on the planet. that's why it was so attractive for the private equity guys to

start buying up retailers. then what happened? toys "r" us was a victim of this. as amazon came in, as walmart grew stronger, then you had a compression in the operating margins and the cash flow wasn't quite so high and you had to put new cash flow into making the stores more gorgeous than ever, into building up the internet operation and it wasn't quite the cash flow machine they thought they were buying. the debt crushed toys "r" us like many other retailers across the board. if you see a retailer going out of business, take a look at the balance sheet. you will find out they are highly leveraged. otherwise they do fine. they will generate cash like crazy. stuart: jerry storch thinks the new toys "r" us will be a success. can we leave it at that? >> absolutely. stuart: you going back? >> no. always move forward in life. stuart: thank you very much indeed, sir. >> my pleasure. stuart: team usa will play france in the quarter finals of the world cup. ticket prices for that game are going straight up. wait until you hear how much money people are willing to pay to see that game live right there.

the border crisis. oh, truly dividing democrats. they can't agree on a $4.5 billion aid package for children detained at the border. i say their contempt for the president hurts those young children. that's a disgrace. my take, next. . .

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stuart: 10:00 here in new york city. we're getting breaking news on economy. there is embargo until right past 10:00. we went past 10:00. first number on consumer confidence for june. have we got the number yet, ash. ashley: i'm thinking. we're waiting. i'm seeing 121.5, is that what we're seeing justin? stuart: is that the reading? what we're looking for -- ashley: 121.5 is under what we were expecting. that is a drop-off. stuart: that is not quite as strong looking out to the future. consumer confidence night quite as strong as we were expecting. ashley: correct. stuart: or some of us were

hoping for. there is another breaking news item. i wonder if we got the number yet, on new home sales. do we have it? susan: 326,000 annualized rate. year on year. looking for a percentage gain. looks like month to month we're down 7.8%. that is not good for new home sales. don't forpet, this only represent 10% of the market. existing home sales are really strong in the month of may. in fact reflationary. recovering into the positive, after being in the doldrums for about 15 months, falling, really. ashley: prices are falling. median sales price 308,000, down 3% from may. stuart: really, down? ashley: yeah. stuart: median new home sales prices. coming down. ashley: really slowing down. stuart: we need more analysis of this. let's bring in scott shellady, you heard both of those numbers. disappointment on consumer confidence and new home sales

not robust by any means. what does that tell but the economy? >> you know, isn't it funny, stuart, on one hand we talk about financing economy, sit around the table, it is faltering here we don't like it, but when we talk about the election it has never been better. equity market telling us it has never been better, but hard numbers reading every day things are not going really well. we have a big dichotomy. something has to give. ultimately if we don't get rate hikes or rate hikes, get rate cuts that will have a lot to do with it. funny one thing the equity market trading the election almost or politics, the others are all numbers you just said telling us boy, things are not as good as we think we are, we better take heed. stuart: what intrigues me, picking through the numbers, median home price, median selling price for a brand new home, came down. i wonder if that has got something to do with salt?

high-taxed states, people want to move from new york, california, new jersey, et cetera, et cetera? that has something to do with salt? >> that has to do with it, absolutely. i spoke to you about this, new paradigm, millenials up to age 35, don't care about owning a first house. getting my driver license on my 16th birthday was big deal and getting my own place not to pay the man anymore, was big things. they don't get driver's license until 28 years old. they don't buy a house until they're 40. we're in different environment. they're not propping up the end of the market. the house prices going down at the same time you got the millenials still struggling to even get on their feet. i don't think there is anything wrong with wages going down with more people employed, right? a lot of houses being sold with prices going down. they both go the same with me. stuart: we're both getting old.

that is also true. really doesn't. on the young, that is way it is. any impact from these two numbers? no, we're still down about 60 points, the dow right now, 26,669. now this. first, the left invites the migrant in, they cross the border in record numbers. then they complain, loudly, about the detention centers. call them cops operation camps. well now, progressive object to emergency aid to take care of the migrants that they invited in. they don't want to give president trump any kind of win. oh, please, come on. their contempt for the president is hurting young children. the democrats are engaged in political posturing. they pose as the great

humanitarians using children nor what they think is their political advantage. at issue is a 4 1/2 billion dollar aid package designed for improving conditions for children at the border. i don't know if it will pass but the far left just hates it. alexandria ocasio-cortez says, quote, we need to stop funding the detention of children under any and all circumstances. that's a classic open border policy, let them all in. and then, blame america, blame president trump for the chaos that results. fact, 50,000 mine norse have crossed the border since november last year. 28% of them had no dna connection to the adults they traveled with. they were rent a kids, used to get into the country and the left blames trump. i will make a prediction, at the democrat debate this week the candidates will make a lot of noise about the children. if they really wanted to help they would stop encouraging the flood. they do something about the

asylum laws which are clearly being gamed. they should provide money to take care of the children they are using in their vindictive hate trump campaign. there is no excuse for that. let's get straight at it. joining us now, jack kingston, former trump campaign senior advisor. jack, the democrat are divided. i think nancy pelosi has lost control of her caucus, what say you? >> i think she is very, very close to it, stuart, and i think you're right. if you could sum up the aid package it would be humanitarian assistance aimed at children and children, what do they need? they need soap. they need toothbrushes. they need diapers and wet wipes and dry towels and the democrats are saying no, we hate trump so much we'll let these children continue to be in deplorable conditions. but other thing is, they're also exploiting the kids for political advantage the same way the coyotes do. 28% of the kids do not have a dna connection to the adults

they come over here with them. they are allowing children to be exploited. they should be leading the way on this thing. stuart: we have an obligation as the authority in charge here, to separate those children from the adults that accompany them, especially when they're not connected, relationshipwise. what are we supposed to do? let them all in together? stay together like that? talk about exploitation? >> absolutely. it is exploitation for political purposes over here, for monetary purposes south of the border. the thing is, that the democrats continue to ignore the crisis. there is 4,000 detention beds but 19,000 people are being held. democrats should be saying look, we have got to do something about this. they're putting in all kinds of poison pills to the bill to kill it. the other part i served in the minority, i served in the majority. you have to govern, when you're in legislative body you're not the president, not the governor, not the mayor. you're in the legislative branch you have to compromise.

john kennedy their compromise, compromise is the concrete of democracy. you have to understand you don't get everything you want. if they learned their legislative lesson, there are other appropriation bills coming up just around the corner they can grind their axe with border patrol and i.c.e. on. they're doing it right now at the expense of these children. stuart: if the media follows that line of argument and accepts the leftist position, then the left is on to a political winner. i think there should be, should be flat-out losing issue, but with the support of the media it could be a winner, wouldn't it? >> absolutely. we see the over and over again the media big darlings like alexandria ocasio-cortez and prop her up, cover up her mistakes give her a pass they would never dream of giving a conservative or donald trump. they are abusing kids. they need the assistance now and need a long term fix. the democrats need to sit down

with the president, let's sort this out, let's have enforcement. let's have humanitarian assistance. let's have amnesty. let's have daca. the president said i will compromise with you, he has given nancy pelosi another two weeks, not that i think it will be a big game-changer. he is showing them he is willing to sit down, just as he did two years ago when chuck schumer shut down the government over daca. stuart: got it. jack kingston, thank you very much for being with us today. very important subject. we appreciate your coverage. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: yes, sir. stay on the border. mexico sending troops to the u.s. border, the u.s. border to stop the flow of migrants. how many? ashley: 15,000. we understand a combination of national guardsmen and army units. don't forget earlier in the month mexico city would have some 6,000 national guardsmen on the southern border of mexico. we've got guatemala. now we understand that those troops, 15,000 strong, are patrolling on the northern

border with the united states, stopping the flow of migrants, not arresting them. they say it is not a crime. it is administrative violation according to mexico. they're being turned over to administrative officials. but it's a definite sign in response to president trump's plea to try to stop the flow. stuart: i believe the president tweeted, mexico keeping its promise. i think he just said that. ashley: correct. stuart: got it. let's get back to money. two markets in particular intrigue me, gold up again, right now, $20 higher. $1438 per ounce. also we have bitcoin, not exactly on a tear this morning but up a couple hundred bucks, 260, approaching again 11,300. i want to bring back scott shellady for commentary. i see them moving up in parallel, they're both moving up. what is the explanation for this? >> it is speculative, number one. number two, peter morici on

earlier today. i totally wholeheartedly agree with him, i can see a base point for gold. we haven't had a lot of news last five or six years to get long gold. slowly but surely things are more upset around the world. only want to buy gold if you have signs of inflation, we definitely don't have inflation. or in times of armageddon. even though trump is president i wouldn't say we're in armageddon situation. they have people flooding to gold here in the states. technically speaking you could make a base case for 1600. goldman sachs said that, they have guys that read charts. that is what the folks are looking at. i get worried getting too over your skis, too early on that one. bitcoin, it is too speculative. everybody at home is harder thing to understand. it is hard for us to get our heads around it. number two, this thing is rife for money laundering. the government will want to know what is happening. the idea you can transfer money

without being involved, i just don't see how that will be something that will be long-lasting. i deal a lot of times with anti-money laundering issues especially in this industry. thinking about bitcoin not a part of it. that is very, very dangerous. i think that will retard its growth going forward. stuart: scott shellady, thanks for being with us. >> all righty. stuart: 19 billionaires written president trump to be taxed more. tax me. that kind of thing. why don't they write a check to the treasury? they will take your money. grover norquist covers that story. the jussie smollett scandal far from over. police releasing new bodycam video from after the alleged attack. we'll show it to you. stuart: russia warship is in havana harbor. what it is doing there, we'll tell you.

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stuart: now we're down by 100 points. there you have it, 99 to be precise. 1/3 of 1%. more importantly, look at right-hand side of your screen. the yield on the 10-year treasury is down to 1.99%. let's be clear here. we had a disappointing number on consumer confidence. turned to the lowest level since september 2017. and we have actually downside move in the selling prize of new homes. not great for the economy. certainly not great for the market. taking it on the chin. russia has docked a warship, warning america they will send

more troops to the border in the baltics. cato institute senior fellow is here. what is going on here? coincidence there is a warship in havana and troops on border? >> this is playacting. russians are trying to get our attention, waving around a big stick. on the other hand hand their navy is not good. the least -- stuart: this is posturing? no threat to us? >> no, it's a dramatic step to put the ship in, frankly we could retort to them, how many ships do they have can get across the atlantic? stuart: is the russian navy such bad shape, really? >> well their navy has deteriorate ad lot. they have one carrier that has ships go along with it in case it breaks down. they have been trying to repair their navy but they're far behind the united states. stuart: are they sending a message on venezuela, which they are propping up along with cuba? >> well the irony here, frankly

the military is not what either venezuela or cuba needs. they need money. sending a warship to cuba will not help either. this goes much more to nato. this goes back to europe. they're worried about u.s. and european steps to try to bolster nato. that is what they're talking about missiles and such. this has very little to do with venezuela. stuart: talk about iran. they said fresh sanctions levied on the supreme leader, khamenei, have closed the door on diplomacy. where do we go from here? are we containing them, isolating them, that's it? >> publicly that is what it is, but privately we should be pushing forward on the idea of negotiations. these sanctions frankly are symbolic. nobody expected the ayatollah to rip off his robe to go partying in france. they have no practical impact. this is symbolic step, but what we have to clarify is what we're after. the president talked differently than secretary pompeo. so the iranians need to know

what we want. i don't think they know that now. stuart: you seem to be lowering the temperature all around the globe. the russians are not a threat, don't worry about the baltics, don't worry about the warship, their navy is useless, iranians, you're lowering the temperature everywhere, aren't you? >> my view, take on very real threats, there are reasons to worry about the iranians but nobody wants a war there, you want to deal tough with russia, deal with them in europe, warship in cuba, let's not get distracted by things that are not the core issues. stuart: well-said, doug band do you, cato guy. >> happy to be on. stuart: good stuff. fedex is suing the commerce department over restrictions on huawei deliveries. we'll see if they have a case a legal case, with the judge. what is the white house doing about it? we'll ask hogan gridly, deputy press secretary. he is coming up in the 11:00 hour but the judge is

next. ♪

stuart: pretty close to the low of the day, down 109 points as we speak. back to 26,000, 600. mcdonald's, look at that, $205 a share. they say since they started using fresh beef for the quarter-pounder burgers sales have gone up by average 30% of those burgers. ain't that something. that is why the stock is at 205. have a look at beyond meat. way down for the last few sessions, strug struggling above

144, it is ipo price. fedex suing commerce department over huawei restrictions. here is fred smith, ceo of fedex, roll tape. >> so we're required under the regulations of the department to certify that the shipper who may or may not be telling the truth is in compliance with those export regulations. despite the fact that we handle 15 million shipments a day, if we make an error on any one of them, without a trial, without any due process, we can be fined $250,000 per piece. stuart: let's see in judge napolitano thinks that fedex has a case. do they have a case? >> short answer, yes. everything that fred smith just said is true. what is he supposed to do? open up each package and open up each computer and certify where the computer chips were manufactured inside of the computer? that would basically be the

federal government conscripting fedex and ups and whoever else, although as susan points out, only fedex filed the lawsuit, to become the government's policeman. they absolutely can't do that under the rules as they now exist, common carrier is exempt from knowing what's inside of the package and he accepts the rep sendtation who gives the package to him. this would require a common carrier, fedex, ups, to open up the package, open up contents of what is in the package that is absurd. stuart: if fedex wins, they got a good case, they win, what does that do for the our government's restrictions on huawei? >> that enjoins the government from imposing the obligation on the common carrier opening up package. you can imagine the delay and cost. it puts the burden on the government to enforce its own rules on the goods as they enter the united states. stuart: you see this from fedex's point of view?

>> absolutely. i just read the complaint for you. it is well-crafted. when fred smith was saying this last night to our colleague bret baier, i understand that wilbur ross called up and said it is not as bad as you think. guess what? some judge is going to interpret the regulation as they're written, not as the secretary of commerce says they should be interpreted. as they're written, they put that burden on fedex. stuart: fantastic. fascinating. >> it is. great case. stuart: very interesting. new numbers show repealing the 10,000-dollar cap on state and local tax deductions, it is called salt, would be a windfall for the 1%. repeal the taxes -- >> please repeal that salt deduction. stuart: grover norquist coming up. ♪

can't see what it is yet.re? what is that? that's a blazer? that's a chevy blazer? aww, this is dope. this thing is beautiful. i love the lights. oh man, it's got a mean face on it. it looks like a piece of candy. look at the interior. this is nice. this is my sexy mom car. i would feel like a cool dad. it's just really chic. i love this thing. it's gorgeous. i would pull up in this in a heartbeat. i want one of these. that is sharp. the all-new chevy blazer. speaks for itself. i don't know who they got to design this but give them a cookie and a star.

♪ stuart: okay. on my way back home. ashley: on my way back home. that is what it is. stuart: a little downbeat. not one of my favorites. and susan can't stand it. susan: i don't know it. stuart: more on the beatles, why not? a new movie, comes out tomorrow, it is called "yesterday." it is about alternate reality where beatles never existed. tell me more? ashley: struggling musician recovers from a traffic accident, finds out he is only

one that remembers beatles songs. he starts to play them. everyone says oh, my god you're brilliant. the director of the movie is danny boyle. "slumdog millionaire." the band gave him permission to do it. appeals to the sense of humor. ringo and george harrison's widow seen it, loved it. paul mccartney has not seen it. he thinks it is a great idea. rolls out in movie theaters. stuart: i want to know how it ends. susan: i like diversity in the cast. ed shearin makes appearance. ashley: plays himself. he says in the movie, not hay jude, it is hey dude. stuart: that is a change. facebook agrees to give french court data from users publishing hate speech. tell me more. susan: first of its kind, according to french authorities.

facebook will give data, other identifying info in order to fight hate speech. they will give it to the french courts. they have done this before, cooperation from facebook, in relation to say terrorist event. they have been transferring information. anything that the courts need obviously to identify the perpetrators. given facebook of course has been in the news for data breaches and giving out information and privacy, this is another factor for them. stuart: look, the bottom line is, how do you define hate speech? ashley: right. stuart: tell me what am i allowed to say. susan: he has been having a lot of meetings with emmanuel macron he said this should be on the government. we can't define it. you tell us what hate speech is. stuart: somebody will define it. somebody will say you can't say that. ashley: right. stuart: you can't mention -- ashley: who is the gait keeper? what is that standard, is the

question. susan: again, there should be regulation, the first amendment should be defined by the government, not facebook. stuart: with you on that one. i want to see the definition. ashley: do the french have the first amendment? stuart: who will tell me what i'm allowed to say? ashley: right. stuart: i would like to know that. new report from the congressional joint committee on taxation, they say, salt, the state and local tax deduction cap, repeal salt completely, guess what, wealthy people would reap the biggest benefits. grover norquist joins us right now. ironing, if you repealed it, repeal that particular aspect of the tax cut, wealthy people win. i guess democrats want to repeal salt even though wealthy people would win. ironic, isn't it? >> this is the dog that caught the bus. they kept saying the whole tax reform is only for rich people and on and on. then the one objection that they have raised to the tax bill,

because it cuts taxes for middle income people and helps people save, small businesses and creates jobs. they say, hey, if you have an incompetent mayor and a corrupt governor and they can't govern without high income taxes and high property taxes the rest of the country will not subsidize you anymore. we stopped the tax subsidy for incompetent, corrupt mayors and governors. people should be very mad at left-wing governors an mayors, with such shy high spending and -- it is not tax deductible. it is not iowa's job to subsidize bad government in connecticut. stuart: i don't care what you say, grover, i want salt repealed. just everybody i know who lives in new jersey, new york, connecticut, illinois, california, the list is long, they would all love salt repealed because it is costing, people who make decent money, costing them a fortune, where is the tax cut?

>> costing them money are high taxes in new jersey and connecticut. stuart: that's true. >> by local politicians. throw them out. stuart: yes. but how do you throw democrats out of new york state? how do you throw democrats out of new jersey? that is a life-long process. i will be dead before you elect anybody from the republican party on a statewide basis in california. i better move on before i get myself in serious trouble here about my life expectancy. we have 16 billionaire, i think it is 16, sorry, 19 billionaires, george soros, abigail disney, chris hughes, sean eldridge, molly monger, sent a letter to the president saying tax me more, tax me more. this income inequality thing is just terrible. tax me more. why don't they just send a check to the treasury, grover? >> they certainly could, i hope the president writes a letter back pointing out where on the irs website where you can make a contribution to the federal

government. soros said he would put all his money into a trust, a foundation. if he simply paid the death tax when he passes away the federal government would get billions and billions of dollars. he organized his own finances so that it goes into a foundation, continues to be spent way he wants it too, not the way the government would spend it. stuart: right. >> i must say, he is being disingenuous, he is organizing his estate to minimize his taxes. he doesn't have to do that. stuart: right. they all do that. show me a wealthy person who pays the estate tax. they don't pay the estate tax. you go to a sharp lawyer get you into trust funds that get you off the hook. that is true universally. gross hypocrisy. >> very inexpensive virtue signaling. less than going to church. stuart: that is very good. do you think income inequality is a real problem for our economy?

>> what's a problem we don't have enough growth and we need to get more economic growth. the reason the left wants to talk about income inequality, it has been 50 years and $14 trillion proving that they couldn't cure poverty. so they stopped saying they will help poor people. now they just want to take down higher income people because it is easier to end income inequality. you chop heads of french nobility you get there. have recession, you get less inequality. but the goal is, to have everybody do better. that is growth. the reason they would like inequality is because they have given up on being able to help poor people with welfare. it hasn't worked. stuart: grover norquist, thanks for joining us. we will see you again, promise. >> taxman, george harrison. stuart: we do play that occasionally, let me tell you. i like tom petty's cover of taxman. but that is another story entirely. all right, grover. let's get to sports.

the nba will stop using the term owner for person as controlling interest in a team. why are they dropping owner? susan: the title insensitive in a league where majority of players are african-americans. it harkens back to slavery. the adam silver says the league commissioner will call providers owners, not owners but governors of the team. draymond green complained recently in lebron james hbo show the shop. the lebron is vocal about not having propriority tore of teams are owners. players own their own destiny. they are powerful in this league, especially generating billions and billions of dollars. stuart: proprietor is new word rather than owner? >> governor. igudala of golden state warriors says proprietor would work. stuart: governor is political position. as opposed to owner or

proprietor which is capital position. you own the company. susan: there are tensions between players and governors now for multiple, multiple years. let's appease them. stuart: okay, governor. i hear you. susan: there you go. stuart: women's world cup, team usa beat spain 2-1. they will face france friday in the quarterfinals. ticket prices for that match absolutely skyrocketing. how much? ashley: $11,000 for a pair of tickets to the game sold out. why is so much in demand. all the planets aligned, stu. we knew this was possibility. you have to host french national team playing in paris against the pretournament favors the u.s. it has a great matchup. a lot of interest. as i say the game is sold out. average ticket prices 2 to $3,000 on stubhub, the secondary market. nothing has been seen like this before. these kind of prices.

want to see england and norway on thursday, 33 bucks will get you in. stuart: point taken. ashley: yes. stuart: mayor pete, confronted by south bend resident sunday over his handling of a fatal police shooting of a black man. he left the presidential campaign trail for several days to deal with it all. is ready to return to the presidential race before the debate later this week? how will he handle the issue in that debate? we'll tell you. president trump signing an executive order on health care prices, forcing hospitals to disclose the cost of services in advance. we're going to tell you exactly how this thing works, because we really welcome it. we'll be back. ♪ -driverless cars... -all ground personnel... ...or trips to mars. $4.95.

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stuart: breakings news. what a surprise. u house democratic chair, hakeem jeffries, that the house will pass aid to address the crisis on border. we don't know wording of particular bill, what was taken in, what was taken out, he says it will pass today. check the big board, down 80 points now. we were down 112. come back a little bit. nokia is in discussions for a dozen u.s. telecom carriers all of them looking to replace china's huawei. no impact on nokia whatsoever. it was down one cent. mayor pete, he is the mayor of south bend, indiana, 2020 democrat candidate, confronted by a crowd at a town hall over his handling of a fatal police shooting of a black man. watch this. >> sure. [inaudible]. >> sure.

[shouting] >> do you understand? get the people that are racist offer the streets. >> do your job so you can have a moral compass so you can leave this place. stuart: mayor pete responded, why, all police work and all of american life takes place in the shadow of racism, which hurts everyone and everything it touches. come on in, lawrence jones, fox news contributor. lawrence, what do you make of mayor pete's handling of the situation? >> well, i'm not sure he handled anything considering he has been on the campaign for a national political race. he actually has a job to do as executive, the mayor of south bend. and he hasn't been there. so i think the people are right to be upset with him, that he is not there. he should have some type of communication. as it relates to the police shooting, i think the investigation has to take place. i need all the facts before i'm able, sometimes the cops get it right, sometimes they get it wrong, i don't know.

i haven't seen all the evidence but as for him being there, i think citizens are right to be upset with him. stuart: but how did -- he will be questioned on this in the debate and it brings up the whole idea of being questioned by people who are really intense, they're incensed about what's happened, how do you handle that racial standoff? how does he do it? he stayed behind his desk. >> you don't get to put gasoline on racial tension then be upset when it turns on you. so there is a element of the democratic party has been driving the racial division that is already there. we have progressed in society, there are some people that still feel disenfranchised and so, instead of finding actual solutions to make us move forward and unify, the democratic party has put gasoline on it. when the mob turns on you after you put gas on the mob, can't be surprised. i don't have a ounce of sympathy

for mayor pete, or the rest of the democrats that are experiencing this. stuart: nicely put, young man. nicely put. another one for you. >> sure. stuart: chicago police releasing the video from the investigation into jussie smollett. look at the video. here it is. roll it. >> you want to take it off or anything? >> yeah i do i want you to -- [inaudible]. stuart: okay. now that was very short clip but you got the message. there he is, on the video. he has this noose around his neck. he is talking about the bleach and all rest of it. what is your reaction to that? >> well, here's smollett's problem. he tried to make this a movie. the element that he was providing for this was very theatrical but they didn't make sense. there is reason why we watch movies, because they aren't real. in an investigation you have to search for evidence and try to get things to add up. in a movie, things don't have to add up. many of us knew this was fraudulent from the moment -- i

looked at my girlfriend, when it broke, this did not happen. i never heard people say maga country. the fact he was walking around, it was cold that night, freezing temperatures, people are not just walking around with maga hats. the noose around his neck, that was theatrical. i don't like my clothes. first time i get home, get my clothes off to relax. none of this makes sense at all. this was a movie. this goes back to chicago being a corrupt place, okay? the businesses, the departments there, the you know the mayor offices, police departments there, that entire city is corrupt. there has been no oversight as far as accountability. there is going to come to a point where people will get so frustrated there will be complete anarchy there. i'm sad for that. but when the president says he is contemplating sending the national guard in, this is why. stuart: my, what a story. lawrence, thank you very much for your contribution. we appreciate it.

i'm breaking in, president trump just tweeted this about iran, here it is. iran leadership doesn't understand the words nice or compassion. they never have. sadly the thing they do understand is strength and power. the usa is by far the most powerful military force in the world with 1 1/2 trillion dollars invested over the last two years alone. the wonderful iranian people are suffering, and for no reason at all. their leadership spends all of its money on terror and little on anything else. the u.s. has not forgotten the iran's use of ieeds and efp's, bombs, which killed 2000 americans and wound 9 many more. any attack by iran on anything american will be met with overwhelming force. in some areas overwhelming which will be obliteration. no more john kerry or obama.

okay. that is response to the mullahs who said he is insane, mentally deficient. mental retardation was their expression. that is president trump's response. okay, next case, some universities saying you won't need the s.a.t.s to get in. they call themselves test optional, because they believe those tests give wealthy people an unfair advantage. we'll get into that. we'll discuss it after this. ♪ at comcast, we didn't build the nation's largest gig-speed network just to make businesses run faster. we built it to help them go beyond. because beyond risk... welcome to the neighborhood, guys. there is reward. ♪ ♪ beyond work and life... who else could he be? there is the moment. beyond technology... there is human ingenuity. ♪ ♪ every day, comcast business is helping businesses

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stuart: marquette university has become the latest school to nix the s.a.t. or a.c.t. tests for applicants. they say it gives unfair advantage to wealthier families that can afford test prep. allie stuckey is reliable host. relatable, sorry. slip of tongue. >> reliable too. stuart: why shouldn't people with money be allowed to help their kids with prep tests? what is wrong with that? >> i don't think this is prohibiting parent from helping their kids, paying for tutoring,

something like that but i think it is within the prerogative for colleges saying okay, this will be optional. this will not be the standard-bearer, standard by which we admit people. that is totally fine. i do think it causes complications, when you agree with it. when there is no objective standard whatsoever, it is really difficult to figure out who will actually be able to perform well at your college because someone who has a 4.0 at particular high school may not be smarter than someone who is 3.0 at another high school, you don't know how difficult their classes are. so i'm not sure how they're going to navigate these waters. stuart: right. >> i don't have that much of a hard time with them saying, this is optional. stuart: i want to know, what are you going to do? you have to have some kind of application entry process and surely it is based on intellectual ability. >> right. stuart: how do you measure it objectively? how do you do that? >> we saw with the college board

this is really probably more about diversity and, really force diversity, taking away any objective standards so they make sure the school isn't all white as they would say or all elitist as they would say. we saw them try to maybe introduce some kind of oppression or adversity standard by which they would allocate points based on if you have a single parent household, all that, that is a complete mess. i would rather have this, if you're going to have some kind of an option for that, i would rather than say, we'll not have standardized tests at all. this is a little difficult. i kind of understand. they're saying okay, we just don't want people who can afford thousands of dollars of tutoring to come to our schools. but i just don't know the solution. you have to have some kind of objective standard. stuart: i just don't, there is no solution out there at this moment. allie stuckey, thanks for

joining the debate. it will go on forever i'm sure. up next. will the real joe biden stand up, please? his campaign is a work in progress. can he get it together for the thursday presidential debates? my take on that next.

stuart: let's just say joe biden's presidential campaign is a work in progress. of course it is very early, and you can't expect any candidate to have a plan for absolutely everything. well, senator warren is the exception. she does have a plan for everything. but joe is keeping us guessing. it's hard to tell where exactly he's driving this train. not sure he knows. he tried to take a shot at other candidates who want to give free stuff. watch this. >> look, we can do this. i'm not making these numbers up. mine or not, let's make everything free for everybody all the time. we can send everybody to community college for free, cut

half the cost of college, by just adding $6 billion to the budget. stuart: i'm not sure. how many get free college with joe biden? how many get free health care with joe biden? nobody knows yet. joe is keeping us guessing. but he has been clear about taxes. he would reverse all the trump tax cuts. but that catches him with an unintended consequence. according to one study, a tax cut rollback would give the rich a $40 billion windfall. oh, joe, it's a mine field. now right before the first debate, there are questions about his campaigning style. michelle goldberg writing in the "new york times" says quote, he's like an actor who can't remember his lines. his performance was unnerving, she says. coming from a democrat, that must worry the biden camp. she's saying he's just not sharp enough. make no mistake, mr. biden has

his work cut out for him. he's supposed to be the moderate that saves the party from the unelectable socialists but the party is moving away from him and he's left trying to find his place in a rapidly shifting political landscape. so will the real joe biden stand up? there's a limit to how long he can dodge and weave. he's on the debate set thursday night. that will be a very big test. come friday morning, biden's campaign may be doing some damage control. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ stuart: real slim shady where he says please stand up. okay. that's what i was saying. will the real joe biden please stand up. nathan, you caught a glimpse of him a moment ago, author of "how

to be a capitalist." he's with us. you think joe biden is a capitalist? >> well, definitely not. you look at him, i like a rich president. joe biden is pretty poor. he hasn't had a lot of success. when he talks about expenses and revenues related to tax cuts, i go this guy has no idea what he's talking about. stuart: you think he's a moderate? >> i don't know. i have a lot of democratic friends. stuart: you have democratic friends? >> you have to listen, you have to listen. here's what they tell me. they go nathan, we are stuck between a socialist rock and a joe hard place. the problem with the democratic party is if joe loses and gets his butt kicked, they are essentially a socialist party. cnn is joe's candidate and vice versa. i don't know what's going to happen but i mean, definitely not a moderate. stuart: would you call yourself a trump guy? >> i like a president that understands how to win. biden has been trying to run for president since before i was born, 1988. i like a winner. if you can't win the presidential election you certainly can't keep china in line, you certainly can't keep all these other players in line,

iran, north korea. i like a winner. joe can't win. stuart: yeah, but surely you like trump's economic growth plan. you must like him. >> i think i may be more wealthy than joe biden. joe brags he doesn't have any stocks or anything but the market is up, we will talk about this in a bit, the market is up at incredible levels, record highs. everyone has gotten wealthy and i just don't think you can vote against a guy that's made the average american more money. stuart: okay. give me a sense of the way america thinks at the moment. young people like yourself, for example. how do you feel about being showered with all these promises of free stuff, free education, whatever. >> tell you what annoys me. look at how bern you talie talk millenials, it's almost like you guys need so much help, you are so dumb and stupid. bernie, we have it together. stuart: hey -- >> what you need to do is understand and keep colleges in check, keep the prices from rising and make colleges get in the equity game, not the debt

game. stuart: but that's the way that party is going. it's not just bernie, not just elizabeth warren. that party is going far left. i can't believe millenials will buy it. >> they don't. listen, i think what's happening is a lot of millenials are in debt. i quickly read a college degree would not be worth it and dropped out and launched a company and did very well. a lot of millenials understand there's a path to do that. i don't think millenials want free handouts. the thing with this college debt thing, my mom worked for seven years the pay off her college debt. a lot of people paid off college debt. do you go back and reward these people that do that took a loan, they had to pay it back. stuart: fair point. nathan, thanks for being on the show. we will see you again soon, promise. check that market. we have come back a bit. stocks took a leg down, down over 100 points. when we got a weak read on consumer confidence and a slowdown in new home sales. that came out at the top of the 10:00 hour. the market went down. we have come back a bit but look at that.

whoa. the yield on the ten-year treasury is down to 1.98%. that is a big deal. ashley: lot of money going into treasuries. stuart: money flowing in or worries about a slowing economy. this man is ryan payne, payne capital management president thereof. what do you think? 2% or lower is now the new normal for interest rates? >> i wrote this week interest rates are getting crazy. proper english. stuart: they are. >> they are getting crazy. i think you have to start looking at this as almost irrational exuberance. stuart: you mean of money moving into the treasury, which puts prices up and yields down? >> bingo. exactly. yeah. think about this, right. you get the market up 25% since the end of the year, when we had that big plummet on christmas eve. half the money is going into equities that's going into bond funds this year with yields now at under 2% on the treasury which is insane.

stuart: insane? >> insane. stuart: why? why is it insane? if it's just a reflection of the way the world feels about america and the security of america, and the yield, because you get a yield in america. you put your money into europe, you don't get a yield. they take your money off you. >> yeah, $13 trillion of negative yield across the world which is crazy. but i'm thinking along the lines of what if rates start to rise a little. just say global economic -- we get a deal with china, for instance, if that happens that means the ten-year has to go up as well. that happens, bond prices go down. last time we saw a big move up in treasury bonds was about five years ago. when that happened, you saw those treasury bond funds go down by like 20%. that's like equity like risk. stuart: that worries you. don't get in a bond fund. >> i'm saying bond funds are bad for your financial health. stuart: okay. tell me about bitcoin and gold. gold's up again today, up about 20 bucks an ounce. look at that, up $1434.

bitcoin is about $11,200, $11,300. what's going on? is this a flight to safety like the money that's flowing into treasuries? >> i think the gold play is on the dollar. when the dollar goes down, which it has in the last couple days which has been a long time, we have seen a strong dollar for a very long time, that's usually good for gold. i think you are seeing a flight for safety when it comes to gold. in fact, you saw central banks last year buy the most gold they have since literally 50 years before. you are seeing a lot of demand for gold. i think that has to do with hey, the dollar has been strong for a long time, we got a trillion dollar plus deficit right now so the u.s. is not in great shape, long term. you got to start to hedge your bets. stuart: you wouldn't touch gold? >> i would buy gold, yeah, as a hedge. absolutely. i don't think the dollar will be strong forever. stuart: would you buy the gold coins? lot of us grandparents give gold coins to our grandkids. would you do that? >> i don't love those. stuart: just remember, you can

bury a gold coin. so your estate doesn't pay taxes on it. understand that? >> very, very good estate planning tool. i will take that back. ashley: is there a treasure map that goes with it? stuart: don't forget where you buried it. stuart: we are down. thank you very much indeed. you are an honest man. check some of the recent big ipos. i will start with slack. it opened at $38.50, five days ago. today, it's $35.50. okay. how about uber. that opened at $45 a share about a month ago. today, it's at $43. how about lyft? that debuted at $87 a share. that was a couple of -- six weeks ago. now it's at $63. coming up, big-time investor andrew left is on the program. he has a recent ipo that he likes that nobody is talking about. he's on the show later. president trump signing that executive order on health care.

it's all about knowing the price before you are treated. this hour, we have the lady who pitched this idea to the president and got it done. she is on the show. and cuba and putin. a russian warship docks in havana. what's it doing there? by the way, president trump meets vladimir putin this week at the g20. iran lashes out after president trump imposed new sanctions that go right at the supreme leader. iran's foreign minister says it's the end of diplomacy. so what happens next? by the way, mr. trump has responded. we'll talk about that in a moment. is where people first gathered to form the stock exchangeee, which brought people together to invest in all the things that move us forward. every day, invesco combines ideas with technology,

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stuart: we hit the lows of the day on the dow after some weak economic numbers were released. we have come back. we were down 110, now we're down exactly 50 points on the dow.

i want to talk about iran, because the iranians overnight responded to president trump's latest sanctions and said there was mental retardation in the white house. mental retardation. that was the expression they used. about a half hour ago, president trump responded. here's the tweet. iran's very ignorant and insulting statement put out today only shows that they do not understand reality. any attack by iran on anything american will be met with great and overwhelming force, in some areas overwhelming will mean obliteration. no more john kerry and obama. hogan gidley is with us, white house deputy press secretary. that was a pretty strong statement from the president. he doesn't like being told that he's mentally retarded, does he? >> absolutely not. i don't think anyone would. but he's absolutely right. we are going to meet iran with force should they continue their behavior. quite frankly, compare and

contrast this administration with the previous one. barack obama gave more than $1 billion in cash to iran on pallets, there are famous pictures of it all over the world and this president came in and said no more, we are getting out of a deal that was basically met and signed under lies and falsehoods by the iranian regime. we now know that to be the case. stuart: he doesn't want to go to war, does he? >> no. stuart: he doesn't want to start shooting. >> no, he doesn't want to go to war but the president will defend the united states, will defend our citizens and will defend our partners and allies across the globe. let's be clear. no one's been tougher on iran than donald trump. he not only sanctioned their oil, people who deal with the iranian regime, he also sanctioned their second most precious entity, which are its metals. now he also went even a step further and put sanctions on the premier, the supreme leader, actually, of iran. that's important because so oftentimes what the iranian leadership does is set up companies to try and go around

those sanctions by setting up these corporations in dummy holdings so no one sees what they're doing. we said no more. you deal with iran, you are going to feel the economic impact and the brunt of it. their economy is in free-fall. it is teetering and so the ones who don't understand reality are clearly the leadership in iran. we stand with the iranian people. he's said many times, the president of the united states, that he wants to protect those people and also give them an opportunity. they could be a great nation. right now they are not and it's because their leadership is short-sighted and they continue to be the world's largest state sponsor of terror and that behavior has to change and this president is going to try to make it happen. stuart: got to talk to you about fed ex. as you know, they are suing the commerce department over this ban on shipping huawei products. fed ex says look, we can't inspect every package, we can't take that responsibility. lot of people say yeah, they've got a strong case. if they win, that really upsets the whole ball of wax by which you are going after huawei. you've got a problem here.

>> well, look, huawei obviously is a different subject matter but that has national security implications. i don't want to get ahead of what the president will or won't do as it relates to that but look, we are monitoring that situation. but look, all of these entities that relates to some of the trade we have whether it's the forced transfer of technology, whether it's i.p. theft, whatever we deal with with china, we know what's going on there. quite frankly, the world has known for a long time and this president has said look, everyone knows what china's doing but no one's doing anything to stop the behavior. we are trying to come to the table and say listen, we want free, fair, reciprocal trade with you guys but it's got to be that. it's got to be a good deal for the american worker, for american industries, american businesses, american farmers. that's what he's set up to do here. hopefully as we move into the g20, those are the types of conversations we can have to get a pathway forward. stuart: okay. hogan, you know this question is coming. i'm sure you have prepared a diplomatic answer so i'm going to ask it right up front. you know it. will you take over as acting

press secretary when sarah sanders leaves? >> look, i serve at the pleasure of the president of the united states. i'm blessed to be here every day. i love sarah sanders. i'm going to miss her. i have known her since she was 19 years old. actually worked for her dad when he was governor. we have an amazing relationship and thankfully, i'm going to be friends with her long after this stint at the white house is over. but look, i work for the president of the united states. i love it. i'm here every day fighting for him. i'm happy to do it in whatever capacity he sees fit. stuart: can i just put my two cents' worth in? i have the great honor and pleasure of sitting next to sarah at a dinner the white house, the president sitting right close to us. i have never sat next to someone who's such a class act as sarah. i just want you and everyone to know that. that's my two cents' worth. >> that's more than two cents' worth. that's millions of dollars worth of praise for her and she deserves every bit of it. she came in, 93% negative coverage against this president and stood up for him and the american people and she served well. stuart: hogan, best of luck to you. thanks for being on the show.

see you again soon. >> thanks so much. stuart: sure thing. quick take on individual stock. tesla, big win there. exempted from tariffs on aluminum from japan for one year. there's a catch. they can only import 10,000 tons of the stuff before the tariffs kick back in. tesla's stock in a down market, down a couple bucks. $220. how about microsoft. it's had a wonderful run, a series of all-time highs, pullback today, down a couple bucks back to $135. beyond meat. i think it's up today. breaking what is a five-day losing streak. it's up three bucks at $144. way above the offering price just a couple weeks ago. spacex launched its latest rocket from kennedy space center in houston this morning. the falcon heavy rocket carrying 24 satellites for customers including the department of defense. something very special was inside one of those satellites. we will tell you what it is, after this. ♪

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stuart: while you were sleeping, very early this morning, spacex

launched its falcon heavy rocket for the third time. this time it was ordered by the military. okay, deirdre, tell me what was on board. deirdre: okay. well, on board, you had 152 cannisters that were remains of humans who wished to be buried if you like in space. in the past you have had the gentleman who played scottie on the 1960s tv series "star trek." he's one example. his remains, in a previous launch. engineers, authors, along with 24 other -- stuart: space burial. deirdre: there's a company that charges $5,000 per gram of remains should you like to be buried at space. stuart: nasa is going to send humans to mars, 2033. they will get there by 2033. why prepare for that in the utah desert? deirdre: turns out some of the conditions are the same so they are sort of practicing, if you

like. there's a repair shop, a greenhouse and they are trying to grow different plants, see what will survive. stuart: they might build something like that on mars? deirdre: that's the end goal. there is in fact a mars desert research station. there's a society of people who are trying to get there, trying to rebuild this on mars. stuart: i love it. come on, that's interesting to me. i got you. better than space burial. miami is trying to take advantage of those awfully high taxes and rising in illinois. they are launching a new campaign to get businesses to leave chicago, come to south florida, why don't you. we are talking to the people leading that charge. check that market. came all the way back, was down 112. now it's down a mere 30. as for bitcoin, now it's at $11,300 per coin. what does andrew left think about bitcoin as a flight to safety? we will ask him because he's on the show next. ♪

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stuart: not much movement for the dow at this point.

we are down 40 at 26,685. attention, amazon shoppers. prime day, actually prime days, plural, officially confirmed july 15 and 16. are they going to have a million deals? deirdre: one million deals. they will have celebrity endorsements. they are going to have -- i don't know if you remember last year, ariana grande performed livestreaming. there's entertainment, prizes, games, all sorts of good deals. this is the fifth annual prime day, 48 hours. the first time they are doing two full days. the idea here is to remind prime customers why they are so lucky to be prime customers, then to entice others who are not. this is a pretty big part of their blaafter black friday. stuart: normally it's one day, isn't it? now it's two days. and the stock is down 20 bucks. i don't get that. deirdre: 52 weeks, though, amazon is really the only one that's outperforming the s&p 500. if you look at it compared to say facebook or twitter or

google. stuart: i still think we should get something out of two prime days. deirdre: i think you wait to see how the sales do, then get the bump. stuart: you are never supposed to say this in tv news. only time will tell. okay. i won't say it. but i say it almost every day. i want to update slack. look at the price right now. i don't know why that's on the screen. there you go, slack. i misread it. they went out at $38.50 a couple weeks ago. now they are at $35.80. i want to bring in andrew left, founder of citron research. what's wrong with slack? i thought it was an interesting company. what's wrong with it? >> nothing's wrong with slack at all. good morning to you. it's one day of trading. right now, all these ipos have been trading together. you know, it could have been priced appropriately, just like amazon, not every good stock goes up every day. not every bad stock goes down every day. that's what makes it a market. stuart: are you buying slack? >> i'm not buying slack right now.

no. that's not one that i am buying. stuart: okay. let me update uber and lyft. both of them i believe are still trading below their offering price, their initial price. do you like either of them? i seem to remember you saying no, can't stand either of them. >> no, no, come on. how could you say that? i actually own both of them. i was on your show the day uber came public and the stock was trading $39, $40. i said just relax. these are big companies on megatrends. ride sharing has just started to penetrate in the united states and worldwide. it has a long way to go. this is not a week-to-week. this is amazon 20 years ago. this has just started. i don't think this trend, regardless of what happens to the economy, is going to change and uber and lyft are right there. stuart: i'm sorry, i mistook your position there. i 100% agree with you. this is a brand new technology or new way of using technology. i think it's a winner for the

very very long term. i should have bought uber when it was down at $38, $39 a share but i didn't. i'm sorry -- >> you might be -- uber might go to $70, $80 and you will say i should have bought it at $43 a share. stuart: yes, exactly. i should buy the thing. all right. now, you're hot on a company called revolve, an online high end fashion retailer. did they recently come to market with an ipo? i don't know. did they? >> they are an ipo and what i like is with this type of company, it's an ipo that e-commerce that does not compete against amazon. what's interesting is when you have a company that i believe is still small, it's only a $2.5 billion company, no one has really caught on, i believe it will be a compounder. it's growing internationally. i'm calling it a fash-tech company, merging fashion with technology. i think this will just be a grower and grower. i think we will see the stock

double in the next year to two years. i love companies that don't really have competition and fit within their own categories. stuart: how come it does not compete with amazon? >> because what they do is they actually design clothes, they look what people are purchasing, they make clothes, it's branded product that you can't buy on amazon. you can't go hey, look what you're buying at revolve and say can i buy the same thing on amazon cheaper. no. this is more fashion. you would say compete more with department stores, nordstrom's or macy's but it really doesn't because it's that much of a better product. people who know it, i think the street will catch on to it. when everyone is talking about slack, uber and lyft and those companies that are being overanalyzed, i like looking at companies that are being underanalyzed because that's where the opportunity will be. stuart: got it. last one, bitcoin, way above $11,300 as we speak.

do you think -- this is having a real good run recently. you think it's a flight to safety? >> this is very important for your viewers to know. the difficulty in buying bitcoin. forget about the price of bitcoin. you cannot just go out and buy bitcoin. you have to know what you're doing. you have to go ahead, set up a digital wallet, have it cold storage so it doesn't get hacked. if you are going to buy the public instrument of bitcoin, the stock like in gbtc, that trades at a 50% to net asset value of actual bitcoin and there's no etf for bitcoin. so forget about what the price of bitcoin is. it's as an investor, your viewers, can they buy bitcoin, no. it's very difficult unless you know what you're doing. you lose all your money, have it all hacked. is the price going higher or lower, no one can analyze bitcoin. it's a world of its own. what i actually bought some when it was lower, i got lucky, i sold it, i sold around $9,000. now it's $11,000, wonderful. but it's important for your viewers to know you can't just

go out there, it's not a physical coin. it's very difficult to hold. it's an extremely technology-savvy instruments. stuart: got it. andrew left, thanks for joining us as always. good stuff. thank you very much indeed. we have another great tax exodus story for you. our next guest is trying to get financial firms in chicago to ditch the windy city and down south. south florida. miami. christina crespi is with us, deputy director for miami's downtown development authority. i don't think you've got a very difficult job on your hands here. you got low taxes, no estate tax and it's the exact opposite up north in chicago. how's it going? you get a lot of people? >> it's going great. thank you for having us. we have great weather. what's not to love about that? stuart: forgot that. what's the level of success so far? can you tell me that yes, you've got chicago companies moving south, how many?

>> we have talked to several different firms in chicago that are interested in moving over. we are going to continue our efforts. we are creating the wall street of the south in florida. we have been doing this for over seven years. we have been working new york really well. we have been able to recruit several different hedge funds to come down that have raised their assets under management by billions of dollars because now we have become the connector to latin america. we are really excited about the opportunity that chicago brings to that. stuart: you have already got low taxes, no estate tax, and good weather. do you offer other financial incentives like special tax breaks? do you? >> yes. so we work very closely with enterprise florida and the beacon council. they have the bigger dollars to give the tax breaks to these companies. my agency actually does have min million dollars to do that as well. we partner together to bring down as many firms as we can. stuart: what's this wall street of the south? >> so we are the largest

financial district in the southeast after new york. we create $38 billion in economic output for florida. we are the economic driver and economic agency for florida. stuart: is miami still the link between north and latin america, north america, latin america? >> absolutely. we are the connector to latin america. we are connected by the internet, so we are able to do business from anywhere very easily. we have wonderful infrastructure that's being built in downtown miami. we have grown our tax base by double. so we have the infrastructure's there. yes. stuart: do you actually go yourself or your people to chicago? i'm wondering what kind of reception you get when you get there. >> yeah. no, i was there myself. i actually sponsored a hedge fund conference that was there. so i was there, met a lot of great contacts and we met with several banks and it was a great trip. stuart: any hostility? >> there was a little bit of, you know, they were a little nervous for miami, i think. i think they see us coming and

there's a great opportunity with the tax law changes and people are coming naturally so chicago's just a natural fit for us. we are very proud of that. i'm definitely going to be back. i love the city. it was an inspiring city. i'm learning from that as well. we are ready for chicago. stuart: okay. we hear you. kristchris christina, thanks for joining us. see you later. top stocks. have a look at this. i didn't know this, but new york city is instituting a ban on cbd in snacks and drinks. it's the stuff in marijuana, doesn't get you high. this ban will take effect july 1st. businesses will have until october to kick the products off the shelves or they face a big fine. the fda has not sanctioned cbd for consumption, right? ashley: that's right. stuart: can't eat it or drink it. yet it's on sale everywhere. ashley: they just have to get rid of it. stuart: interesting. big job to get rid of something that's everywhere already.

then we have president trump, he's been criticized for the administration's response to the hurricane in puerto rico. just ahead, someone from the island's power authority. he just met with fema. he's got an update for us. the president signing an executive order on health care. it's about pricing transparency. this hour, we have the woman who pitched the whole idea to the president and got it done. ♪ hey, who are you? oh, hey jeff, i'm a car thief... what?! i'm here to steal your car because, well, that's my job. what? what?? what?! (laughing) what?? what?! what?! [crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem...

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song to hit one billion streams on spotify. only 30 other songs have done that. to the white house. yesterday, president trump signed an executive order. it requires hospitals to show you the price of their procedures before you get treated. cynthia fisher is with us, patient rights advocate and she was at the signing. in fact, i think it was your idea, if i'm not mistaken. congratulations. >> thank you. stuart: is this -- the way i see it is i'm in need of some kind of medical treatment, i go to the doctor, the hospital, wherever, and they tell me how much this is going to cost before i get the treatment. is that what's going to happen? >> yes. absolutely. it's an exciting time where the administration, the president and the administration launched the american revolution in health care. game changing is now, we are going to be able to see prices before we get care and have it

be readily and easily searchable so that both patients and employers alike will be able to know the price and see quality and outcomes, and then choose and shop for their care to help drive down the cost of care and be in control of their decision. stuart: i would have to believe if you now know the prices, you are in a position to get lower prices because you would have price competition. that's the intent, isn't it? >> yes. competition in the marketplace allows for a trusted marketplace much like we have in grocery and retail and travel and the rest of our lives. we will be able to see the consumer, the patient consumer, in control of making their own health and wealth decisions, driving down the cost of care, getting the best quality of care at the lowest possible price. stuart: i'm not trying to pick holes in the argument here, but what happens if heaven forbid,

you are in an accident, you are rushed to the emergency room, you are not conscious. they're not going to wake you up and say by the way, this is the bill in advance. i know i'm being kind of silly here, but you see the point. this is not going to work in all circumstances, is it? >> well, stuart, 89% of our care is primarily done selectively so when you have most of your care non-emergent, those cost reductions can be realized by consumers up front. in emergent care and the negotiated rates, which is what the trump administration is looking to do, is to have those contract negotiated rates all posted up front so that we can drive down the cost of those mris, of all those tests we do get in the emergency environment to allow for a competitive marketplace to reveal those prices. stuart: this was the only way you could get it done, an executive order? you couldn't get it through congress. i don't know whether it was suitable to go through congress

but you got it done simply by using an executive order. that was your idea? >> well, actually, the administration through many existing laws like hipaa and erisa laws that all exist, if they are enforced, and secretary azar has broad powers as secretary of health and human services, by the administration deploying their guidance and rule making, they can make this happen. they can deliver real price transparency and require it system-wide. so the president's executive order is empowering his administration through his strong leadership to say let's get it done in a timely fashion. stuart: last one. when does this take effect? >> well, these different rules will roll out momentarily and we will see as employers the ability to see prices and patients. for instance, in boston, stuart, normal healthy birth at one

hospital across the street from another is $7,000 versus $42,000. if we as both patients and employers can see these prices, we can choose down our health care costs as well as our coverage over time. greatly reducing -- stuart: what is your best estimate of when this will be in effect? when? >> i know from the administration, their ruling of price transparency is coming out soon. there are several which will roll out in this year and next. god willing, we will see a more competitive marketplace and consumers will be able to start to see this within the coming year or two. stuart: cynthia fisher, good stuff. great idea. thanks for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. stuart: speaking of health care, drug maker, big one in the news, abbvie, they make the arthritis treatment humera, they are set

to buy botox maker allergan. this is a $63 billion deal. abbvie down, allergan up, as you might expect. home builders. home prices grew at the slowest annual pace since 2012. home builders down on that news significant losses there for the home builders. hurricane season, it's approaching. could be a bad one. is puerto rico ready? we will find out next. ♪

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stuart: we are either about to -- i think we are about to start the atlantic hurricane season. puerto rico, though, still dealing with the aftermath of hurricane maria. that was two years ago. jose ortiz is with us, the ceo of the puerto rico electric power authority. jose, welcome to the program. great to have you on the show. the island is still hurting two years on from hurricane maria? what's the problem? >> well, right now, we have 100% of the people with power. right now the high voltage is up and running in a stronger way.

we are working right now with the inventory, that was a big problem, we didn't have material when the hurricane struck us. we have $141 million in cables, poles, transformers and all that was needed. we also have an agreement with 33 utilities in the u.s. who come over and help, it was another problem back in 2017. so we learned from the experience and i can tell you, we are ready. our system is not yet up to where we want. we had a meeting with fema today, it was very productive, so we are moving forward to have a very modernized system, much stronger and automatic in some ways. stuart: have you got a working, solid working relationship with your colleagues in the united states on the mainland, because there was a lot of grief about the handling of the relief money. have you got a good working relationship now? you sorted it all out? >> absolutely.

not only the mainland but also inland. when i joined right after the hurricane, no one was paid, basically. right now everyone is accepting their payments local and in the mainland. certainly last week we had a very good conversation and everybody engaged in participati participating. stuart: a lot of people left the island right after the hurricane. are some of them at least coming back? >> many people are coming back for the restoration of the services and all that. actually, we have 2% higher demand on the electrical side due to the more consumption, more business. actually, millenials are taking over. many people love their jobs. many people are opening new workplaces. so it's been creative in puerto rico. you are welcome to come. stuart: i understand that. thank you very much. jose, thanks very much for joining us this morning. we wanted an update on the situation. we are glad to hear that things are getting a little better.

good stuff. >> thank you for the opportunity. stuart: yes, sir. thanks for being here. of course, say it every day. more "varney" after this. ♪ . .

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stuart: the earlier today, the iranian authorities said that the white house had a case of mental retardation. president trump did not like that and tweeted this in response. iran leadership doesn't understand the words nice or compassion. they never have. sadly the thing they do understand is strength ant power. the usa is by far the most powerful military force in the world, 1 1/2 trillion dollars invested last two years alone. wonderful iranian people are suffering for no reason at all. their leadership spend auld of its money on terror and little on anything else. u.s. has not forgotten iran's

use of ieds, epbs comes which killed 2,000 americans and wondered many more. iran's statement only shows they do not understand reality. any attack by iran on anything american will be met with ol' well ming force in some areas. overwhelming. in some areas overwhelming will mean obliteration. no more john kerry and obama. gold is up 14 bucks an ounce. i want to promo this. new movie coming out. there is the market. new movie -- stuart: danny boyle directed call, "yesterday." stuart: that's it. >> struggling musician wakes up after traffic accident finds out nobody heard of the beatles. he starts playing beatles songs, they think he is genius. beatles have already seen it and they love the idea. >> should have been in there production credit or something.

stuart: i wanted to be a deejay on beatles channel on xm satellite radio. would i like to do that at some point. >> we'll put it out there. stuart: denied to me so far. great show today. we thank you all for being with us. all good stuff. neil, it's yours. neil: stuart, thank you very, very much. the dow is down 48 points. the big catalyst for the the sell-off consumer confidence report. people are surprised by that they're saying the backdrop for this is unheard of. low interest rates. we dipped briefly under 2% for ten year note. we're waiting for jerome powell, federal reserve head speaking in new york. we might get reaction on the president saying i can still fire or demote the guy. jerome powell feels otherwise. on top of