we appreciate it. all right, folks. the dow is up 28 points. we have waffled really for awhile. this news coming out of the strait of hormuz that's not helpful. i want to hand it over to liz claman. i got to congratulate you. fantastic interview yesterday, you moved the market and you made news. liz: yeah. and so much so that the president who, as we know, likes when he has some spare time, started tweeting about that. you saw that, right? charles: i did. i did. liz: breaking news, the president is about to have some time on marine one. at any moment, the president is expected to hop aboard that helicopter to begin his trip to bedminster, new jersey for the weekend. he may make some comments to the press who have gathered there. we've got our cameras and will bring you comments when and if they come. boy, was he fired up about the federal reserve this morning. he ripped off blistering sets of tweets on the market-moving comments made by two fed heads yesterday. one of them, fed vice chairman richard clarida, right here on

"the claman countdown." clarida confessing to me in washington, d.c. that uncertainties about the u.s. economic outlook have increased, further enforcing the idea that a rate cut could be coming in less than two weeks. yesterday, the fed-led rally disappearing at the moment as tensions in the persian gulf put pressure on today's early gains. we do have the dow still higher by 19 and oil is moving higher, but you can see the nasdaq is down 27, the s&p lower by seven. a thiel fellow, a hand-picked peter thiel person who gave up college in order to learn at the knee of this venture capitalist, he is here to tell us whether he agrees with the billionaire peter thiel that google is committing treason for working with the chinese. tech wunderkind john meyer is here and will speak out. amc keeping their portfolio cool during a market heat wave

and so-called wall street vampires react to elizabeth warren's accusations. charlie breaks it on that next. less than an hour to the closing bell, let's start the "countdown." liz: you just heard charles payne mention that developments in the strait of hormuz are moving the markets. oil, you see it spiking at the moment on reports, breaking news, of iranian forces seizing a british oil tanker. that has suddenly spiked crude prices which are up about 53 cents. we're still below $55 a barrel in the after-market session. that's for west texas intermediate which trades here. but let's flip it to brent which trades in london, and as you see, this had been around $70 just a couple of weeks ago. we're still lower than that at $62.92, but we are jumping a full one buck at the moment on this news and here's what we know. iranian state media claiming that the british-flagged oil

tanker was seized in the strait of hormuz for violating international relations. that move definitely racheting up tensions in the region which were already pretty high. we have the national security council releasing this statement just a few minutes ago. quote, this is the second time in just over a week that the uk has been the target of escalating violence by the iranian regime. the u.s. will continue to work with our allies and partners to defend our security and interests against iran's malign behavior. you remember exactly at this hour yesterday, there was word the president had said that the u.s. had brought down an iranian drone that got too close to a u.s. ship in the area, but you can see the same reaction today. we had been higher for the dow jones industrials by 119 points. you see us now, we have pulled markedly back. we are now up 14. dow has briefly dipped into the red but at the moment, we are still holding on to gains and now you see the s&p has just

reversed. we are down seven points. the nasdaq is on track for weekly losses as well. and you know what? we started the week with bank earnings and we look at the end of this week on bank earnings. today, we got rounded out by american express, it's a financial. the stock is down even though it reported higher than expted profits. a gain in u.s. card holder spending, that's good news, right, but it was dragged down by concerns over increased expenses, as amex paid out higher rewards. sort of like the auto industry, when you give too many incentives you don't make that much in margins. elsewhere in the sector, we've got a motley crew leading the s&p 500 at this hour. citizens financial group reaffirming its 2019 profit guidance. that company up 5.75% at the moment. state street hiking its targets for job cuts and that one is moving up 6%. these are all good pieces of news for these stocks at the moment. look at e-trade, up by 2.5% after the online brokerage

repositioned its balance sheet in the second quarter by selling $4.5 billion worth of low yielding securities to free up capital for share repurchases. nice two-day picture there for those of you who own e-trade. let's get back to what at least earlier, before the strait of hormuz news, was a fed-driven rally. the federal reserve, a major topic at the white house this morning, along with the brewing debt ceiling debate. we have a new labor secretary nomination. then of course, a u.s. navy vessel that brought down an iranian drone, and the 50th anniversary of the apollo moon landing. all those issues should be stacked up on the screen. it was the fed that prompted the president, though, to fire off this flurry of tweets this morning. the comments on the federal reserve coming just one day after "the claman countdown" sat down exclusively in his final interview before the july 30-31st meeting. he's the number two guy at the federal reserve. his name is richard clarida,

vice-chair. he is saying that there are concerns specifically about what the president talked about this morning and that's inflation. >> you know, inflation is stable but uncertainties about that outlook have increased. disinflationary pressures if anything i think are more intense than i thought six weeks ago. liz: do you see a deflationary spiral at all? >> no, no, not at all. no, no. i think the fact is that under fed leadership really going back a decade, the u.s. was able to avoid that risk. liz: okay. so for those who don't know, inflation pricing power or higher prices, deflation, falling prices, disinflationary is when you see a slowdown in inflation and you know, the president came blasting out today and talking specifically about inflation, which is what we heard from richard clarida. he's got to be thinking about that. reporter: yeah. and it was that interview with richard clarida yesterday that certainly gave the market the impression yet again that a rate cut is around the corner at the

end of the month. you compare that as well with the comments made yesterday by john williams and all of a sudden you have this added sense of confidence that a rate cut is indeed coming. it is something as you know that the president has been calling for and today, he took aim at the federal reserve yet again. there were a couple different tweets from the president, really a series of them, four in total, and one at one point, he said the fed is engaged in a quote, faulty thought process and another, he praised williams' comments that the fed shouldn't have raised rates at the end of last year. he also continued his criticisms of quantitative tightening. so we got much of that from the president earlier today, as it relates to the fed. we also heard from him about the debt ceiling, because that is a key issue that is ongoing right now in washington, when you talk about the treasury secretary, steve mnuchin, the house speaker nancy pelosi, others high, high-ranking officials all across washington, those negotiations continue to play out as they are trying to strike a deal over the budget and debt

ceiling. the president saying today that the debt ceiling is simply just too important to mess around with. watch. >> when they start talking about using the debt ceiling as a wedge to negotiate or things that they want, they have told me very strongly they would never use that. that's a very very sacred thing in our country. debt ceiling. we can never play with it. so i would have to assume we're in great shape. reporter: earlier this week, the house speaker said she hoped there would be a deal reached by today so it could be brought up to the floor regarding the debt ceiling next week and dealt with before congress bolts for the august recess. however, i can tell you in speaking to people across washington today, that 3:05 as we stand here, does not appear as if any sort of public deal is going to be announced on this by the end of the day. by the way, the president right now about to leave the white house. we'll see what comments he makes regarding the debt ceiling, potentially the fed or anything

else, iran even maybe, whenever he feels like talking. liz: in the next 52 minutes before this closing bell rings, i really need viewers to stay with "the claman countdown" because we do have a lot of headlines here, and so many of them are related to the fed. when richard clarida speaks, the fed funds futures traders listen. boy, did we see a massive move in the odds of a bigger than anticipated interest rate cut coming in less than two weeks right after the interview. let's show you where we stand. now, there are the chances of a quarter point rate cut and a chance of a 50 basis point rate cut. right now on your screen, there was for july a 75% quarter point chance so now everybody thinks that's going to happen for july. everybody. 75%. well, 25% no. guess what, that's where people think for a 50 or half point rate cut. so at the moment, that stands at 25%. so all of the moves and the

belief here are the fed is going to cut. with at least a quarter point fed rate cut pretty much priced in for this month, i asked richard clarida if a rate cut is really a smart move at this time. there are nine quarter point rate cuts left before we hit zero rates. >> yeah. liz: is it really smart to use those arrows up when we only have nine of them in our quiver at the moment? one, two or three for the rest of 2019, as the fed has indicated it will? >> well, again, i think that those are very important issues. it's a good question to raise. it's certainly things that we'll consider. i think it's also important to note that research has indicated that when you're close to zero, it's also relevant to think about acting preemptively when you can, if you can avoid a more significant downturn. liz: let's bring in our traders. you guys, what confused me in that comment was that richard clarida said if you want to

avoid going down to zero, cut rates and get us close to zero. john, give me a sense how you interpreted that, knowing that the stock market would love a rate cut. i get that. >> well, there are two sayings down here on the floor of the new york stock exchange that are just as old as the exchange. don't fight the tape and don't fight the fed. if we don't want to fight the tape, we want to own stocks because we're flirting in all-time high territory. stocks are pro inflation. if inflation goes up, the things you want to own would be stocks. then things that hurt your foot if you drop something on them, reits, real estate investment trust, gold, these are all classic hedges if you are truly concerned about inflation as a small investor. it gives you a great opportunity to hedge. liz: phil, what about what richard clarida said jumped out at you and made you think it's better to be in stocks? >> well, i think basically, what he told you which was kind of a

new policy, i guess you could call it, the clarida doctrine, preemptive strikes. if you're starting to worry about the economy slowing down, don't wait until it's too late to start using your bullets. start shooting before, as soon as you see the sign of weakness. and i think that president trump would have liked that answer as well. he would want him to be, he would be obviously more aggressive. but i think when it comes to that, i think that's what he's saying. but i think he's right, you know, when you've got the fed cutting rates, you know, why tfihem right now? i mean, we have seen since jerome powell basically came out and you know, told everybody hey, we're on a path on cutting interest rates, the stock market has gone straight up. we have had a few corrections but generally speaking, so absolutely right. in your interview, it was fantastic, market-moving. just call me next time he's going to do that. liz: listen, we promoted it. but i will say this. you just said something that struck me and i want to ask

chris about it. phil said, you know, just start shooting before it all gets too close to you. the sons of liberty, little history lesson, remember the old don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes? part of that, most of that was because they didn't have any ammunition to waste. should we be waiting a little bit longer, because we've got a great philly fed index number which is indication of manufacturing health at the general sort of midatlantic area. we have a very strong june jobs number. and while inflation isn't at 2%, it's not that bad, 1.6%. >> yeah. we've got record low unemployment, unemployment at 50% lows. you have the economy growing at 3%. so that's going to be a year from now when this is done, the market's telling you they are going to do a quarter point if not a half point. that seems to be a done deal. so we'll be looking a year later and say did they go too early. it's above my pay grade. let's just hope that it's not a case of ready, shoot, aim,

right? if they're going to be preemptive, let's hope they're right. liz: good to see you. i guess we have come full circle to what john said which is don't fight the fed, they're going to do what they're going to do for whatever reason. we know if they cut, president trump will be happy about that. thanks, guys. have a good weekend. we can't look at the whole market without looking at boeing. look at boeing shares. they are flying high right now. with the closing bell ringing in 45 minutes, we do have it at the very top of the dow 30, the aerospace giant carrying the dow 30 on its wings, but what makes this gain so interesting is that comes despite boeing's announcement late yesterday that the cost of compensating airline cancellations in the wake of its dual 737 max jet crashes will hit $5.6 billion. relief that the number wasn't higher than $5.6 billion, relief the s&p says it will not change the rating based on that

high number. and relief that boeing says it will keep to its decision to produce 42 737 max jets per month starting in 2020. up next, senate democrats making a blood-sucking accusation. senators elizabeth warren and tammy baldwin co-sponsoring the new stop wall street looting act yesterday which demands loopholes close on firms that buy distressed companies, fire the workers, close shop and then take the money and run. charlie gasparino running to our studio with reaction from the so-called vampire private equity guys. charlie breaks it next when "the claman countdown" returns.

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this is tailored as best we can to go after those predatory, abusive private equity firms that really are there to do things like this sale to lease-back proposition that strips a very decades-old company of its biggest asset. liz: while unveiling her new bill, stop wall street looting act right here on "the claman countdown" yesterday, which she's co-sponsoring with elizabeth warren of massachusetts, she told us she's aiming, what she says, at what

are vampiric practices. it was liz warren that used the vampire term. she says private equity will go in at the expense of everyday americans working at socme of these companies, sell the real estate out from under them, fire everybody. liz warren going as far as, like we said, calling the biggest players vampires. charlie went and talked to some of these alleged vampires and got reaction. >> when they pulled themselves off the floor from laughing so hard. listen, let's be real clear what private equity does. it goes in and buys companies that are often failing, puts them in private companies, they become private, these are firms like blackstone and kkr, carlyle group. these are companies -- liz: bane. >> they are public companies. they bring them private. why? they are not under pressure every quarter to return results. they fix them up. part of the fixing up of capitalism is called creative destruction. people do lose their jobs. it's just a matter of fact. they get other jobs, and jobs are saved through this process.

liz: sometimes. >> no, most of the time. liz: charlie. >> give me the stats that they're not saved most of the time. liz: so she used the example of shopco. we have had toys "r" us that wasn't saved. there are some big names out there. i'm not saying they're not. you are laying it out as fact, charlie. >> not every company will make it. that's called capitalism. liz: agreed. they are taking on the risk. >> they want to change capitalism. they're not going to do that. the bottom line is this. you get the government involved in this, guess what's going to happen? people will not commit capital to saving companies that could be saved. they will stop saving companies that need to be saved and it will be even worse than what you have now. by the way, it's kind of an odd sort of little thing they're doing here, talking about private equity. for all the stuff we have to worry about, private equity's not what we have to worry about right now. we have a trade war which could hurt economic growth. we have 3% growth for the first time in a long time.

you know, their economic message and you know, i follow the confluence of economics and politics all the time, is kind of dumb and it's bad timing. so now on that note, i was just told i have to switch gears a little bit and talk about fannie and freddie because we do have some breaking news. sources close to mark calabria, the new housing chief, about what he plans to do with fannie and freddie. we reported earlier in the week the treasury department will come out with its plan. it's been delayed. they don't have the manpower to do this right now. they have ruled out, we do know that, a full privatization but here's what calabria wants to do. what's interesting about this, he's still committed to a possible massive public offering of stock to recapitalize fannie and freddie that will probably, that could come next year. here's what he wants to do right now. he wants to make some sort of change the sort of sort of framework of fannie and freddie so they can actually issue stock. the first thing he's going to do, he wants to end what's known

as the net worth sweep. all the profits still go to the government, he wants to change that. wasn't he wants those profits going to the government to stop. he wants to recapitalize fannie and freddie. i hear still on the timetable, by the end of the year. it could bleed into next year. he still wants to do this by the end of the year. it is a prelude, from what i understand, this is calabria's plan, for a massive public offering of fannie and freddie. he's still talking about that. we put calls in to fha, they had no comment. they did not deny -- liz: show the stocks again one more time. >> we should show fannie and freddie. they're down today. they are a little off their lows. they are coming off their lows a little bit. these are penny stocks. the bet is if you recapitalize them, maybe they would be $5 stocks. who knows. liz: they're spiking. >> they're spiking on our reports. on our report of this. we should also point out, this is interesting, what i'm hearing

from sources, calabria believes fannie and freddie could still be part of the government and issue this stock. it's not like binary. either they're out or in. this is what i'm telling you. this is breaking news. it's moving the stock. it's interesting. it's going to play out over the next year. liz: dow jones industrials down four -- >> good report on that private equity. liz: very much so. yes. absolutely. we have been up more than 100 points. we are watching the market very closely here. lot of news. 36 minutes left before the closing bell rings. anything could happen. stay tuned. my experience with usaa has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪

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chinese on moving toward face-to-face meetings with china, moving on toward at least maybe getting some type of solution for the trade deal, but what you saw immediately when the president mentioned that was that we came off the session lows. we are still down about five points at the moment and not much else. we're waiting on the tape. it's got to be turned around because those are not live cameras when he's getting on marine one. as soon as we get it, we will start rolling it. trump also saying he told republican senator rand paul that he might get involved in iran talks. what do we know about iran? well, in the last hour, we did hear that a united kingdom ship had taken hold of an iranian ship and we do know that yesterday, a drone that supposedly was owned by iran was brought down. so there is major tension there. we're watching the markets very closely. nasdaq now down 39, s&p lower by 11. credit suisse says let's go to the movies.

amc entertainment stock is trading right now higher after the brokerage initiated shares at an outperform had a price target of $18 a share. right now we're at $10.55. we've got a long way to go but the stock is up about 10% at the moment. this is great news for embattled shareholders who have held on even as the world's largest theater operator has lost 41% year over year. amc did get a boost earlier this year from "the avengers end game" which has now racked up more than $2.7 billion worldwide. but now credit suisse says there's a longer tale. they have price increases and an expected strong slate of films still to come this year. those are reasons to cheer. so tonight, amc enters the jungle. disney's live action "lion king" we make pouncing globally, surpassing the $100 million mark worldwide already, set to claw in between $140 million and $180

million. that would mark the second biggest box office opening haul of the year behind marvel's super hero pic "end game." look at this. it is so realistic. i got to attend an imax sort of prescreening of it on wednesday. i need to tell you, the effects and visuals are majestic and positively astounding. we should look at disney shares, because right now they are slightly lower but imax is up about 2.5% because people are expected to go see it on those screens. no doubt because it is such a majestic picture. walt disney looking very good year to date but at the moment, down about 1%. "the lion king" stampeding at the box office but shares of your one stop shop for all your pet spoiling needs, that would be chewy, is getting clawed at this hour. gerri willis tracking the action on the floor of the new york stock exchange. gerri: that's right, liz. chewy having some trouble as dog day afternoon, can't help myself there, up in the premarket but sliding intraday after the

online pet shop's first earnings came in below expectations, losing on the top and bottom lines. still optimistic on the future with sales guidance for its second quarter coming in above street estimates. chewy shares down 5% right now. jp penney also feeling the heat, shares plunging below $1 intraday on a report the department store chain has hired advisers to help restructure its debt. thus allowing more time for a turn-around. jpp falling 65% over the last 12 months. right now down 14%. ouch. 93 cents a share. it's not all red arrows for retailers this hour. [ inaudible ] after speeding past expectations for revenue in the second quarter, guiding higher than analyst estimates on its outlook for the third quarter up, wow, 12%. up next, the fight for the oval office taking shape. new numbers president trump could be facing off with come

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we're the hottest economy now definitely actually for the last quite a bit period of time, and i think we have tremendous potential for a lot of growth. europe is not doing well. i just want to let you know. reporter: [ inaudible ] what is your reaction? >> well, we have an alliance with the uk and we always have. we heard that, the united states has very few tankers going in because we're wrousing our own energy now. we've made a lot of progress over the last two and a half years. we'll talk to the uk and we have no written agreement but we have an agreement. they've been a very great ally

of ours. so we heard about it, we heard it was one, we heard it was two, and we will be working, which is a good thing, we'll be working with the uk but we have no written agreement but i think we have an agreement which is long-standing. reporter: [ inaudible ] how would you feel if somebody asked her to go back to her country and what has she said to you about the chants, about this entire episode? >> if you go back into the four congresswomen, the things they've said about our country are terrible, what they've said about israel are just terrible. i don't know, i can't say for sure, but certainly a lot of people say they hate our country, and i think it's a disgrace what they've said. i think you can't talk that way about the united states and i think frankly, to say that about

israel, you know, we just gave the embassy in jerusalem making jerusalem the capital of israel, i just gave golan heights, recognized golan heights for israel. i've done all of this for israel. then you have these people, i think that omar, i find it hard to believe, but i hear omar today put in or yesterday put in a sanctions bill against israel, and other things beyond sanctions, so when i hear that, you just can't talk about our country that way, and when people are angry at them, i fully understand them. reporter: -- this political feud you're having with congresswoman omar and the rest of the democrats, is a good thing politically for you or do you think it hurts you at all? >> i don't know if it's doing bad politically. i don't care. but when people are speaking so badly, when they call our

country gaage, think of that, that's worse than deplorable. when they call our country garbage, i don't care about politics, i don't care if it's good or bad about politics. many people say it's good. i don't know if it's good or bad. i can tell you this. you can't talk twhat way about our country. not when i'm the president. so i think they've said horrible things. they're anti-semitic and you look at the kind of statement they made about israel, it's a disgrace. reporter: they have first amendment rights to say what they want about our country. that's what the constitution guarantees. do you see not agreeing with you as the same thing as hating the country, sir? >> they have first amendment rights but that doesn't mean i'm happy about them saying -- when they say bad things about us, we can certainly feel and again, we have first amendment rights also, we can certainly feel and say what we want. reporter: [ inaudible ].

>> say it? reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> so we're going to be speaking with the uk and this only goes to show what i'm saying about ir iran. trouble, nothing but trouble. and remember this, the agreement, the ridiculous agreement made by president obama expires in a very short period of time. it was a short-term agreement. when you're dealing in countries, you have to deal in 50 years and 100 years. you don't deal in the short term. that was a ridiculous agreement. and it goes to show you, i was right about iran and let's see what happens, but i know that it's not an american ship, it's uk, i guess it could be one, could be two. we'll be speaking to them. they have a new prime minister coming soon. that's a good thing for the uk. go ahead. reporter: in the past, you've

said that america's the laughingstock of the world, that you don't believe in american exceptionalism. why is it okay for you to criticize america but not democratic congressmen? >> i believe all people are great people. i believe everyone is great. but i love our country and i'm representing our country. and people can't go around speaking about our country and saying garbage. this is the greatest country in the world. we now have the strongest military by far. we had a depleted military when i took over. we spent $716 billion last year, $700 billion the year before. we have a great powerful military, more powerful than we've ever had before. we have the greatest economy on earth, not even close. you can't speak about our country the way those four congressmen, they said garbage. they say things about israel that's so bad, i'm not even going to repeat them right now. they can't get away with that act.

reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> these women have said horrible things about our country and the people of our country. nobody should be able to do that and if they want to do that, that's up to them, but i can't imagine they're going to do very well at the polls and i say this. if the democrats want to embrace people that hate our country, people that are so far left that nobody's ever seen anything like it, if they want to embrace people that are so anti-semitic and anti-israel, they want to do that, that's up to them, but i don't have to do that. i think what they say and what they've said is a disgrace to them, to the democrats and frankly, to our country. reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> long time ago, yeah. 15 years ago. i had a falling out. i didn't get along with him.

david? wait. wait. reporter: [ inaudible ] why were you on the phone call? what was that about? >> i don't really know. i'd have to look into it. that's a long time ago. i do think we have bigger problems than plastic straws. it's interesting about plastic straws. so we have a little straw but what about the plates, the wrappers and everything else that are much bigger and they're made of the same material? so the straws are interesting. everybody focuses on the straws. there's a lot of other things to focus. but it's an interesting question. go ahead, talk up. reporter: mnuchin said there was a phone call with his chinese counterpart. how was the phone call? >> so secretary mnuchin did have

a call with the chinese counterpart. they had a very good talk. we'll see what happens. we're dealing with china, we're doing very well. they are not doing very well. they have the worst year they've had in 27 years and we're having the best year we've ever had so we're doing well but let's see what happens. our farmers are doing very well because i have taken some of the billions of dollars of tariffs that we collect from china, we collect billions and billions of dollars of fees in tariffs and i gave them to our farmers. reporter: [ inaudible ] advise you about the chants? >> false information. it was fake news. reporter: you never talked about it? >> i talk about it but they didn't advise me. they told me but i didn't -- by the way, what you're saying, fake news. reporter: what does rand paul want to do? >> rand is a friend of mine but

i have 53 really very good friends and they're in the senate. i also have a lot of friends, you saw that the other day when they brought a ridiculous vote up and only four republicans out of hundreds voted against. i have a lot of great friends. i'm 94% in the republican party approval rating. rand is a friend of mine. rand asked me if he could get involved. the answer is yes. and if other senators asked me to get involved, i would probably say yes depending on who they were. we'll see what happens. but i have many people involved but iran is going to work out very nicely. iran is showing their colors. going to work out very nicely. iran is in big trouble right now. their economy is crashing. it's coming the a crash. they're trying to bring soldiers back home because they can't pay them. lot of bad things are happening to them and it's very easy to straighten out or it's very easy for us to make it a lot worse.

reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> say it? you know what's racist to me? when somebody goes out and says the horrible things about our country, the people of our country, that are anti-semitic, that hate everybody, that speak with scorn and hate, that to me is really a very dangerous thing. i think these four congressmen, and i could say some worse than others, but if you look at the statements they've made where they call the people of our country and our country garbage, when they hit israel the way they've hit israel so hard, so horrible, i think to me that's a disgrace and we should never forget it. we're dealing with people that hate our country. reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> no, let me tell you, they had

an impeachment vote the other day, just a big waste of time. it's a disgrace. no other president should ever have to go through it. and the vote was a totally lopsided vote with many democrats voting in favor. as far as i'm concerned, they already took their impeachment vote and the impeachment vote was so lopsided, it was a massive victory and you know what? at some point, they have to stop playing games because they're just playing games. i won't be watching mueller. reporter: [ inaudible ] he says because of the sanctions the u.s. imposed on zimbabwe, it would be hard for them to --

>> we're looking at zimbabwe right now. reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> we're looking very strongly. the first lady says it's horrible what they've said about israel and horrible what they've said about our country, these congresswomen. they can't call our country and our people garbage. they can't be antisemetic. they can't talk about evil jews which what is they say, evil jews. that's what the first lady says. liz: president trump finishing up commenting about the squad and tensions there, but he began this impromptu q & a by marine one by saying the u.s. economy is quote, the greatest on earth. he did tackle the situation that has just developed in the strait of hormuz and said that regarding the seizure of a british-flagged tanker by iran, the u.s. will quote, be speaking to the uk about the situation. i do want to let you know fox news has learned a second tanker has been seized as well.

it was seen on maritime tracking services making a turn heading toward iran. he also said we are dealing with china, we are enjoying a strong economy while china has just reported the weakest gdp growth since 1992. he said our farmers are doing very well. that's a quote. and he said that there's some other issues that look pretty good for the economy, but we want to tell you we did see that the chinese last week started buying u.s.-grown sorghum, a gluten free grain again, but farmers told us here at fox business that the chinese are nowhere near purchasing what they had been before the trade war. you can see some of the commodities like grain, soybeans, corn, oat, wheats, are on the move at the moment. let's bring in two strategists. brad blakeman, former senior staffer to president george w. bush and chris hahn, former aide to new york senator chuck schumer. to the point he specifically said the farmers are doing well,

are you sure about that? because we have been speaking to farmers who are now a hundred, 200 grand in the hole at the moment. they are still supporting him but wouldn't exactly characterize that they are doing well at the moment. >> they are doing as well as they can be. when we are standing up to an adversary, could be an enemy at some point to us, both militarily and politically as well as economically for sure now, and you know, there's a cause and effect to policy. they are nowhere where they should be, that's for sure. but they're doing as well as they could be. in america through donald trump's administration, has come to their aid. we are trying to make them as whole as possible until we can get this ironed out. but if donald trump didn't take the actions he took and is taking against china, they would be far worse off. china thinks 100 years. we can't even think beyond a news cycle. liz: isn't that the truth. chris, also, we look at the economy, it is true that we are doing well. the president is pushing for a fed rate cut.

at a time where he just said quote, the u.s. economy is doing the best that it has ever done in hry. >> yeah. it's kind of confusing to me. in fact, i would say it's asinine, we will incur more debt, we will raise the price of stocks only for a fall in the future and then not have an arrow in our quiver to shoot at a bad economy. this president only cares about the next news cycle. brad's right about that. he wants to do that -- >> i never said that. liz: he didn't say that. >> i didn't say that about the president. >> oh, okay, i don't want to get you in trouble with the president. i'm sorry. >> facts are facts. >> yeah, you're right. but he only cares about, i'll say it, he only cares about the next news cycle. he only sees the economy through the eyes of the stock market. he doesn't look into the future. he's not looking even a year down the road. he's looking to the end of the week to make sure stocks keep rising. that's why he wants to cut rates. i can't believe the members of the federal reserve board are going to put up with that bullying and cut rates for this

man. that is ridiculous. they should be ashamed of themselves. liz: quickly, i really need to know your thought on the economy. it does look good. that is definitely the truth. but the trade situation becoming protracted, you worry about the china trade deal taking too long to come about? >> well, again, china thinks long-term. our politicians tend to put their finger to the wind. donald trump is not thinking in the moment. he's thinking about providing for the present but also thinking about our future. that's why he's taking on these crises that democrats so far have not kwaadequately addresse when they were in control. by the way, chris, you know this better than anyone, president obama said we would never reach 3%. he said we would always have at least 5% unemployment. we are far below that. so donald trump has blown through the status quo that your party -- >> that's two quarters. let's see where we are at the end of the year. see where we are at the end of the year. i will give him credit, the economy is doing well. i'm happy about that. you know, i'm not happy about some of the things he says and

some of the things he does and the fact he has no grace as a leader and he can't rise above the fray of anything. that, i'm not happy about. liz: brad, chris, thank you very much. chris, stay over through the break. chris and i have a big announcement to make about the new york city triathlon and raising money for building homes for heroes. do not go away. you need to hear it.

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liz: with the closing bell ringing in five minutes, we're just barely off session lows. we saw the markets go down, take a bit more of a leg to the lower side. when president trump was speaking he talked about so many subjects, we'll not venture to guess what made market go down. we have them lower on the week for the dow, s&p and nasdaq. the dow down 29. our high of the session was up 119. we're looking at 130 point swing through the session. we have breaking news as well. we just found out that the new york city triathlon has been

canceled. all right, so it has been canceled because of the heat index that is going to be this weekend. chris and i are not quitting in any way, shape or form. chris, we're still going to be raising this money, guess what we just found out, chris. advanced auto parts notified us in the last hour if we reach 100,000 in donations they will match it. they are going to match it. so we thank them so much. do the honors, where do we stand for raising money for "building homes for heroes." put it on the screen, guy. >> we're just under $75,000, or just over 74,000. [applause] got to get us to $200,000 for advanced auto part. liz, doing a great job. i'm so proud of. thank you for your generosity. america, these people are heroes. they need your help. liz: amen. go to

buildinghomesforheroes.org. we are not giving up. every penny already donated going to build a mortgage free custom home for our worst wounded veterans. thank you, chris. we'll do it next year. >> thank you, liz. liz: it is canceled due to the heat. advanced auto parts, tom greco, thank you very much. they hire some veterans. strengthening the position even more as the world's most valuable company. the tech giant has a market cap of $.05 trillion. not bad at all. yesterday's close, we're up a quarter of a percent. starship managing capital partner john meyer here with his take on that and google. we have elias cohen, he manages two billion at neuberger berman. maybe it was trade, we're still not there yet with the the chinese. >> liz, it is hard to know what

the market moves so quickly with all the news. brexit, trade, geopolitical risk. we're quite constructive on the market. our style invest in high quality businesses for the long term. this volatility we get as active managers of neuberger berman international fund allows us to take advantage volatility. buy when prices get hit. liz: you good example, elias, sap got a short-term smackdown a little bit. you say buy it on that? >> absolutely. they cited the trade war as part of weakness in asia. liz: let me get to john. john, microsoft and google endured bunch of heroes from peter thiel. you have been a peter fellow. can google withstand being called treasonous? >> first off peter thiel i think is right with google seriously needing to figure out a new strategy on their approach to

china. there is no reason for google to build an a.i. lab in china when they can do that here, bring in chinese local engineers if that is the desire. the problem is, our private tech companies at this point, they need to realize that we are in a a.i. cold war. anything we can do to protect our democratic values is extremely important. if we're building a.i. labs in china, we know what china's antics are as it relates to copying our ip, we know anything built there will be stolen quite quickly and easily. liz: as we finish out, we're looking at session lows. not worst thing in a world. a week ago we were hitting all-time records. friday, a week ago, not a bad move. elias, you say stay the course? >> stay the course. fully vested. liz: thank you guys, on a very busy friday. the markets end the day, yes, at the bottom of the movement throughout the session but the

three major averages closing lower for the week. not a bad picture overall when you stretch it out. [closing bell rings] the question next week, is a rate cut imminent, by how much? that will do it for "the claman countdown." thanks for all of you who have donated and will donate for "building homes for heroes." connell: provocations from iran hitting the market. the revolutionary guard announced it seized a british oil tanker in the straight straf hormuz. reports are a second tanker followed. the dow closes negative 65 points, turned negative in the final hour. things were stronger earlier. we had pretty good earnings. we had optimism over rate cuts and the rest. we were in the green for most of the session. not at the end of the session. we'll cover it all. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell." the s&p 500 and nasdaq both closing in negative territory as you can see as well.