>> exactly. maria: we'll see what impact that has. you don't think it will have much of an impact? >> not much of an impact. even if we have slow economic growth, it doesn't rule out further improvement on the labor front. europe's basically flat. maria: sure is. >> the unemployment rate is still falling. maria: great show. have a great weekend. "varney & company" begins right now. stuart: what a day. good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. let's get right at it. the jobs report. it's not a blockbuster by any means. 164,000 new jobs. pretty average. 3.7% unemployment rate, staying well down there. gains in manufacturing slowing, not good, but hourly earnings showed a solid gain. overall, let me call this solid but absolutely not spectacular. now, we have heard from china after the president threatened new tariffs. they are not happy. they are strongly dissatisfied with the new tariff threat, and they say they will take countermeasures, that is, retaliation. we don't yet know exactly what they will do.

the china trade fight is clearly escalated. the president's holding on to a very strong line. any resolution, it seems to me, pushed down the road. more on that coming up. if you combine the jobs report with the china story, here's how the market opens today. i thought we would be down about 100 points but we are coming back. we are down about 20 points for the dow. that will be 29 minutes from now. maybe the market's taken the financial news to mean that the fed can lower rates in the future. 600 points down the last two days, down about nine at the open this morning. the s&p down about four, nasdaq down about 44. tempering the losses. here's another really big financial story which i don't think gets the right exposure. interest rates. the ten-year treasury yield all the way down to 1.88%. money is pouring into america. why not? interest rates in germany today hit a record low.

you want interest on a bond, you got to come to america for that and that's exactly what's happening. what a day. "varney & company" is about to begin. for the last 20 years, china's taken hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars out of our country and now we're stopping the theft of american jobs. they want to wait until they get d oh, they're praying, they're praying. they would like to see a new president in a year and a half so they can continue to rip off the united states like they've been doing for the last 25 years. they would love to see a guy like sleepy joe biden, who has no clue what the hell he's doing. stuart: let me interrupt the political news for a moment. you show me the futures, for heaven's sake. when i went on the air at 9:00

this morning, we were going to be down 20 points. a few minutes later, literally two minutes later, futures have completely turned around and now we are going to be up about 100. we are searching desperately to find out what on earth has just happened. bring it to you as soon as we know. outrageous. >> that's the dow, not the nasdaq. stuart: okay. >> could be boeing-related news. stuart: could be. we will find out. let me get back to china. as you heard the president last night, that was the president really taking some shots at china at the cincinnati rally. now, overnight, we heard china's response to this threat of tariffs. ashley: it's a threat. it hasn't happened. it will begin september 1st, says the president. yeah, china, as you can imagine, not too thrilled with this. let's put up bullet points, if we can. basically they said we will not be blackmailed. you can imagine that was straight out of the blocks. they say they will take the necessary countermeasures,

tariffs, even perhaps ban on rare earth exports which is so vital to the making of products here in this country. also, they say penalties against u.s. companies in china, they say they're not going to give up an inch on major principles. they say the u.s. should give up its illusions. we must have mutual respect and equality. this is simply not constructive for talks. stuart: thank you, ashley. i do want to point out we are no longer going to be up 100, as we were a minute ago. now we are going to be up 37. look, we're scrambling. we want to know exactly why the futures market's all over the place. we don't yet know. we will tell you conclusively as soon as we know. promise. let's bring in curtis ellis, former trump campaign trade and jobs adviser. we've got to talk china trade. this latest threat of tariffs seems to me to mean you're not going to get an immediate deal in the immediate future. this is going to drag on for months. >> oh, it certainly will. china has made all the noises as ashley was saying, they are in

no rush to make a deal. they are waiting for 2020. they really do believe they can get a better deal from a democratic president and you look at the interesting that kamala harris signaled on more than one occasion that she would get rid of the tariffs. she talks about the trump trade tax, the trump trade tax on families. she put it in her closing statement. she is sending a clear signal to the u.s. chamber of commerce and perhaps to the chinese politburo that if i'm in charge, no tariffs. stuart: i have to raise this. i'm hearing speculation from various points that xi jinping, china's leader, will impose martial law on hong kong on sunday. it's speculation. you heard it, i'm sure. >> this is huge. we hear it from the same source that was telling us that china is doing everything it can to interfere in our elections for 2020, to get a democrat elected. if china were to do this, it would be devastating to these trade talks. you would see unanimous opinion

across the board in america that you cannot make a deal with the butchers of beijing. what's it going to do to the business people flying in and out of hong kong? stuart: absolutely killing. hong kong is the most important financial center in asia. i think it is, at least. it would not be, in the event of martial law, it would just disappear entirely. >> you wouldn't want to go there with a u.s. passport. stuart: we should say it is speculation. that's it. speculation. it would be a dramatic move if it happened. i don't think it's expected to happen. >> the chinese have proven to be very unpredictable. stuart: my goodness me. curtis, the news is flowing thick and fast. glad you're here to cover it. thank you very much. good stuff. the other truly big story this morning, the ten-year treasury yield, way below 2%. the europeans have lowered interest rates all over again. ashley: race to the bottom. stuart: a race to the bottom, in germany a new all-time historic low for the ten-year treasury yield -- sorry, in germany.

david dietze is with us. i have never seen anything like this before. it's not being reported properly. it's extraordinary. >> the tariffs shocked the markets but i think the bond market has taken it way beyond what is an appropriate response to the news on tariffs, and i think the only way i can understand it is things are getting so bad in europe and interest rates, for example, on the 30-year german sovereign for the first time ever is now below zero. it was on the ten-year. now the 30-year blelow zero. money is flowing in here looking for a safe harbor not because of tariff concerns but because everything is so bad in europe and elsewhere outside the united states. stuart: i did the calculation. again, i will repeat this because it's dramatic. if you are a money manager in berlin, you've got $1 billion, you put it into a german bond, after one year you don't get $1 billion back, you get $995 million back. they keep $4.8 million. if you put that billion dollars into an american ten-year treasury, you get $18.8 million

interest. >> that gives such a tail wind to this economy. people have to buy our currency, they will either buy our bonds and a lot will slip into the stock market. stuart: it means our interest rates will come down to match what they're doing over there. >> that's what it looks like. of course, i think they are anticipating more cuts from the federal reserve, believe it or not. stuart: tell me what you make of this morning's jobs report. >> i thought it was good. i mean, we really want good news here. it wasn't so good as to cause the fed to, you know, one and done, but the only weakness there, of course, wage growth is much slower than it's been in previous cycles with a low unemployment but i think that also reflects inflation. stuart: okay. so look at that. the futures have come back to unchanged. i got to find out, i don't know yet. david, thank you very much indeed. later this hour, got to tell you national economic council director larry kudlow joins us. he's going to talk jobs, china trade and a whole lot more. that will be around 9:30, 9:35 this morning. two dow components reported

profits earlier today. first off, chevron, profits up, revenue fell short. the stock dead flat. better profit at exxonmobil. that stock is up this morning, not much, but 64 cents higher, $73 a share. sprint, they lost 128,000 cell phone subscribers last quarter but because that is fewer than expected, it doesn't have a bad impact on the stock which is dead flat, unchanged. let me go back to futures for a second. here's how the market's likely to open this morning, down about ten points on the dow. whatever happened five minutes ago when suddenly we spiked to up 100, i simply do not know. ashley: it was in a matter of minutes. stuart: no idea what happened. just don't know. we are going to be down a fraction at the opening bell. new this morning, the u.s. formally withdrawing from a cold war era nuclear treaty with russia. the treaty limited the development of missiles, ground-based missiles.

secretary pompeo blamed russia, saying it failed to comply with the terms of the deal. here's some good news for drivers. gas prices have been heading down a little bit lately. we have an analyst who says they will drop 50 cents a gallon before the end of the year and possibly more. that's because of the trade war with china. the fbi busting a major theft ring involving millions of dollars worth of stolen goods and couple of amazon drivers. there's a story for you. we're on it. "varney & company" friday morning getting started. i don't know what's going on. i've done all sorts of research, read earnings reports, looked at chart patterns. i've even built my own historic trading model. and you're still not sure if you want to make the trade? exactly. sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. is there a cure? td ameritrade's trade desk. they can help gut check your strategies and answer all your toughest questions. sounds perfect. see, your stress level was here and i got you down to here, i've done my job. call for a strategy gut check with td ameritrade. ♪

a cockroach can survive heresubmerged ttle guy. underwater for 30 minutes. wow. yeah. not getting in today. terminix. defenders of home. stuart: we figured it out, literally 9:01, futures spiked, showing a gain of 100 points, then came all the way back down to where they were before. we are down 22 points at the open. why did they spike? well, there is an unconfirmed report from one other network which said president trump could delay or halt the tariffs if china takes positive action.

that has not been confirmed and futures dropped all the way back down again as soon as there was no confirmation. got that. sorted it out. look at pinterest, please. they came out with a rosy forecast for the future. up 14% there. how about u.s. steel? better profit, better sale, but the stock is down. maybe that's got something to do with the trade talks. the stock is down just 17 cents but it's at $14 a share. come in, kelly sadler, former special assistant to president trump. i've got to say that after that tariff tweet yesterday, stocks sold off. now, the president, he's been out there saying -- campaigning, essentially, on the strong economy. this china trade fight will hurt our economy in the second half of the year. how are you going to handle that? >> well, first off, let's look at the state of our economy. wages have increased 42% over the last two years president trump has been in control versus

the last two years president obama was in control. we have seen the effect of our tax cut plans. we had pfizer announce they were going to take their dutch company mylan and build their plant here in america which will create more jobs, more economic growth. stuart: i got it. i do understand the state of the economy. i know you've got to put that out there but look, you are facing a slowdown. we face a slowdown right now in job growth. that was evident in today's jobs report. if these china tariffs are imposed, it will hit consumers. it will hurt our economy. you have to tell me how you are going to address that. i know the economy is doing well. you've got to tell me what you're going to say about the second half. >> the point is that our economy is booming and china's is not. we are in a position of strength. china lost five million jobs, two million jobs, because of president trump's tariffs. they have the slowest economic growth since 1982. they are in a much worse position than we are. they are stealing our i.p., they

have trade theft, they are cheaters on the world stage violating every wto rule and agreement there is. if we don't take them on right now, when we are in a position of strength, then when will we take them on? stuart: okay, look, your position will be that the trump hard line and the effect on the economy is worth it, and it's the right thing to do? that will be your line? >> it is worth it in the long term. china is our biggest geopolitical threat and this administration is standing up to them. now, they promised, china promised to buy agricultural goods from us. the president has not seen that. we have not seen that come in. they need to take steps to address the problematic systems in the communist system and treat us fairly. trade should be fair and reciprocal and it is not. this president is the first president to actually take them on and he needs to stick with it and go through it and make good on his promise to the americans. stuart: here's something you'll like from the cleveland rally last night. the president pointing out that democrats are attacking president obama at the debate. roll that.

>> i was watching the so-called debate last night and i also watched the night before. that was long, long television. and the democrats spent more time attacking barack obama than they did attacking me practically. stuart: okay. 20 seconds to tell me that is indeed music to your ears. >> well, you know, i don't want to give help to the democrats right now but they are attacking a president who has a 90 plus popularity within their own party. now listen, a lot of republicans and a lot of independents thought that barack obama was too extreme, he strangled businesses, strangled the economy through his regulations and executive orders. now you have the new democrats saying he didn't go far enough, they want to get more extreme. i say to the democrats keep doing what you're doing. stuart: we hear you. kelly sadler. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: question. is the u.s. getting ready to pull out of afghanistan?

we are getting ready to pull thousands of troops out of there. is it over? ashley: it's about a deal with the taliban. they are going to do what they want to do is withdraw troops, not all of them, it's important we have about 14,000 troops in afghanistan. we could pull that down to about 8,000 or 9,000 troops if the taliban agrees to a cease-fire and renunciation of al qaeda. that's a big ask. this has been going on, troops in afghanistan now for nearly 18 years. the problem is, of course, they want the taliban to negotiate a larger peace treaty with the afghan government. you can't trust the taliban. it's well known. also, how do you verify they are going to do what they say they will do? we going to pull some of our troops back. stuart: that's the news. thank you, ashley. look at futures again, please. down just a little at the opening bell. that's in 11 minutes' time. now this. the pentagon delaying the award of a $10 billion cloud computing contract that was expected to go to either amazon or microsoft.

why amazon is facing accusations of unfairness. later this hour, larry kudlow joins us. we are talking jobs, interest rates, china trade and a whole lot more. very important. he could move the market this morning. don't miss it, please. [ dogs barking ] what about him? let's do it. [ sniffing ] come on. this summer, add a new member to the family. hurry into the mercedes-benz summer event today for exceptional offers. lease the glc 300 suv for just $419 a month at the mercedes-benz summer event. going on now.

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stuart: we're bringing you this,

because that is hong kong right now, 9:30 in the evening. protesters gathering again. this is serious business. as you may know, there is widespread speculation about what china will do this sunday, this weekend, if you get more of those demonstrations. the speculation runs all the way to a possible speculative, this is all it is, declaration of martial law. that would be a dramatic move if it were to happen. we will keep an eye on it for you. next one, the pentagon delaying a $10 billion cloud computing contract. what's the reason? ashley: they want the new defense secretary, mike esper, to review the whole matter. there have been accusations, basically this contract is down to amazon and microsoft, who gets this $10 billion contract. it's a biggy. let's not forget amazon already handles the cia's cloud computing program. they were seen as a shoe-in but there are accusations amazon has been conspiring in the background to try and win some sort of monopoly.

oracle and ibm were thrown out at the beginning of this process, they are not advanced as others in cloud computing. now do we go back to the beginning with a new defense secretary to find out who gets this contract. there have been accusations against amazon. stuart: i've got another amazon story. the fbi says two amazon drivers, delivery guys, were involved in a theft ring. ashley: huge theft ring. this is what happened. these two drivers would go to the seattle airport and pick up items that were being returned to the company. they were supposed to then take them to the warehouse as part of the process. instead, they took them to a business posing as a pawnshop. these things were then restiek wi -- recycled and resold on amazon. two storefront businesses were posing as pawnshops. these two drivers, one made like $100 worth of property in a three-month period -- stuart: a hundred? ashley: 100,000, forgive me if i didn't make that clear. they work for logistics company jw, a contractor for amazon.

quite an operation. stuart: i'll say. look at this. the market opens in 5:10. we will be down, not a lot. we were down 600 points on the dow in the last two trading sessions, down maybe 20 at the opening bell. we'll be right back.

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stuart: we started this block with the price of oil, we're at $55 a barrel. that's up actually nearly two bucks. took a huge hit yesterday. now, the price of gasoline nationwide, it averages $2.72 per gallon. i think it's about time we brought in our old friend patrick dehaan, the gas buddy guy. you've got an interesting forecast. you think, if i'm not mistaken, the price of gas will go down at least 50 cents a gallon by the end of the year. tell me more. >> yeah, we could probably plummet 50 cents a gallon by even thanksgiving as long as the u.s. is staying on this road with china. you talk about more and more tariffs, the possibility of this trade war continuing, they are going to undermine economic growth and certainly it's going to be -- consumers will have less money, more of that money going to tariffs, and hurt oil demand. that's where i think we're going. even if there is some sort of trade deal, i still think we

will be lower by later this year. of course, summer driving season is ramping up. we will be switching back to cheaper winter gasoline as well. stuart: we eagerly await a 50 cent per gallon reduction in the price of my gasoline. thanks for joining us. we will take note of your forecast. it's 9:30 eastern time. this is friday morning. we are off and we are running. off we go. we are going to open on the down side. not sure that's an accurate quote. yes, it is, down 60 points for the dow. 69 points. back to 26,500. couple of days ago we were above 27,000. ashley: yeah. stuart: okay. we are down a quarter percentage point. that's the level we're at now. how about the s&p 500? quickly, please. where are we? we are down 10 points, one-third of 1%. the nasdaq composite, where is that in the first few seconds? down two-thirds of 1%. we are down all across the board for a third day running. look at this, the yield on the ten-year treasury, 1.88%.

the reason there is money's just pouring into american treasury securities because that's where you get some yield. how about gold? i've got to believe it's on the upside. yes, it is. $1448 on gold, up $15 an ounce. that's over 1%. active markets this morning. david dietze and jonathan hoenig are with us. ashley is sitting right there. start with china trade. stocks sold off after the tariff threat. no quick resolution, david. that's bad for the market. what do you say? >> well, it is. it certainly hurts, it can ultimately raise consumer prices. i think the bullish case is ultimately we are doing this for a better trade policy going forward, and that's why you take advantage of these lower prices. >> stuart, you can say that, just look to history. i will just say that. the president talked about being tariff man. i believe it was on december 3rd of 2018, the markets sold off about 15% over the next three weeks.

so these are taxes on americans and historically, these types of tweets for the president, look, we just saw yesterday, in about five minutes, those series of tweets lopped 500 points off the dow. my fear is we are in the midst of the same type of scenario once again. stuart: china trade does it badly for us this morning. look at the ten-year treasury yield. we are still at 1.88% there. money is flowing into america all the time. now, it seems to me that the path is clear for a series of rate cuts from the federal reserve, jonathan, because you got weak data, jobs report wasn't exactly spectacular, overseas they've got super-low yields. you got to come here for a yield and that pushes rates down. what do you say? >> yeah, interest rates are falling, but i'm not sure that we should be celebrating. as you pointed out, historically, we have seen a lot of countries with ultra-low interest rates translated into very slow economies. japan is the best example. they have had essentially zero interest rates for 20 years, hasn't helped their economy. even more recently, as you

pointed out, all of europe has negative interest rates. germany now across their entire curve, the german 30-year bond is now negative. we have never seen this historically in finance and it's a pretty worrisome sign and a pretty worrisome harbinger. stuart: i think it's the most underreported major story of the year. what on earth is going on? ashley: we don't have a choice to drive interest rates lower. we are at a disadvantage. why does the dollar get stronger and stronger, it hurts our economy and although it defies logic it has to be done. stuart: let's get to the jobs report. 164,000 new jobs created last month. 3.7% unemployment rate. no surprises. >> no, i like this jobs report. it was basically what we were expecting. i think if you are the fed, you are just a little happier because there's a slight tick up in average hourly wage earnings. you want to get inflation up a little bit, that was positive news. stuart: we have the dow, we opened with a loss of 100 points, now we are down 54.

can you say volatility? i think you can. that's what you've got right now. couple of earnings reports came to us. let's look at chevron. profits up, revenue fell a little short. they have announced they bought back $1 billion worth of stock. that was in the last quarter. the stock this morning up $1.50, 1.24%. better profit at exxonmobil. i think that's a dow stock and i think it's up this morning, not much, 71 cents higher. $73 a share. go pro. they came out with a rosy forecast. the stock, though, is down 16 cents. normally you forecast good, the stock goes up. this time, go pro, other way round. western union lowered its profit guidance for the year. they got some restructuring charges. no real impact on the stock. a rosy forecast from pinterest, i'm sure it's up. yes, it is. 15% higher. how about honda? they are out with a plan to produce fewer sedans, focusing instead on suvs and trucks. we love their gas guzzlers.

have you looked at traffic on the road these days? you don't see many sedans. ashley: striking, yeah. stuart: my own purchases reflect that. been years since i bought a car. moving swiftly along. look at the big tech names. where are they this morning? all of them down. tell me, david, is there any relationship between big tech and the china trade possible tariffs? >> absolutely. apple does about 18% of their revenues over in china so what's going to happen to those sales over there? of course, they are going to have to increase prices of iphones here or absorb it but either way it's not positive for the business. stuart: we promised you larry kudlow at 9:35 eastern time. and we've got him. the man's on time. of course, he's used to the discipline of television. welcome to the show. very good to see you, sir. forgive me, i want to start with china. the president's tariff tweet rattled the market but earlier

this morning, futures jumped on this unconfirmed report from another network that the president could delay or halt those tariffs if china takes positive action. do you know anything about this at all? >> no, i'm not going to fiddle with that. what he put out yesterday is what he put out and the deadline is september 1st. by the way, the president's tweets, as i'm sure you read them, were very respectful and positive. we're looking forward to meeting with the chinese team in early september and continuing the negotiations. the issue here was when the team came back, ambassador lighthizer, secretary mnuchin, they reported to potus, we had a meeting on it and the president's not satisfied with the progress on the trade deal. he also was a little disappointed that he doesn't think the fentanyl issue has been resolved in china, and so he's put this 10% tariff on the

$300 billion. but no, i don't want to play any games with that. i have not heard anything definitive. stuart: i have to bring you into this one as well. there is speculation in various quarters that china could impose martial law on hong kong this weekend. we just had live pictures from hong kong showing the protesters are gathering all over again. do you put anything into this at all, martial law in hong kong sunday? >> well, look, stu, i'm not an expert on hong kong. i think that would be most regrettable if your report is correct. that's not part of our trade discussions and so forth. it's a separate item. stuart: it's part of xi jinping's worries. >> i reckon so. i'm a freedom person and we want to help freedom-loving people all around the world. so if those reports are true, it would be most regrettable. stuart: here's another one for you. interest rates. the negative yield of interest rates in europe.

german rates just hit an all-time low and the 30-year bond in japan also hit a negative yield. i think this is the most underreported but most important story of the day because we in america, this is my opinion, larry, don't we have to match those lower rates from over there, or at least reduce our rates so we fall in line with them? >> well, i know at some point, being the great reporter you are, we will get to the strong jobs report and wages but we will put that aside. stuart: this is more important, larry. the world has never seen this before, ever in human history and it's happening right now. >> well, you're the anchor and i got to go with you, buddy. i think rates in europe are low and negative, i think that is quite unusual. i think to a large extent, stu, it's a function of their terrible economy. nobody is growing in europe today and in fact, there's evidence of a spreading

recession. so that's point number one. real interest rates have collapsed. second point, european central bank keeps pouring money in, i guess more to come. i do not believe, this is just me talking, that more liquidity and more quantitative easing is going to do the job. they have been trying that for many years. it doesn't work. what europe has got to do, in my judgment and maybe we will have some of these discussions at the forthcoming g7 meeting in france, they need to make reforms, they need lower tax rates, they need lower regulation, they need to have more market oriented energy, they need to reduce trade barriers. that's very important. in other words, europe needs a pro-growth agenda if they expect to normalize their interest rates. just pouring more and more money in is not the issue, and i will add one additional point. you have heard president trump speak to this. he does not like the idea that europe either wittingly or

unwittingly is manipulating the currency downward. that sets up an unlevel playing field. nobody is real happy with that. so they need structural reforms in my view. let's get some pro growth supply side measures in europe. in fact, now that you remind me, i'm going to tell that to them at the g7 meeting. stuart: good luck with that, larry. good luck with that. now, the jobs report. >> thankfully. stuart: wait a second. it shows a clearly slowing growth in jobs. it's slowing down. the manufacturing growth rate has slowed down. that's not a great report. you described it as a great report. it's not, is it? >> i thought it was pretty solid, 164,000 jobs and so forth. manufacturing, by the way, has been ticking up in recent months. i acknowledge it was in a slump for five or six months. we are now seeing it pick up, both in manufacturing itself as well as manufacturing jobs. that's good. look, we faced severe monetary

tightening in 2017 and 2018. it's a wonder we're growing at all, although we're hovering still around the 3% mark. i think it's a very good report. one thing i really loved in this report, actually there's two things, but here's one. we're seeing the civilian labor force, people are coming out of the woodwork back to work, okay, if i have these numbers right, 370,000 this month, 335,000 last month. the household employment numbers which pick up small businesses were up 283,000. those are extremely positive signs. and one last point, if i may. the wage number today ticked up a little bit, i guess it was 3.2% year on year. but, but, but, but, if you look at salaries and wages, wages and salaries, they just went through upward revisions, we are looking at, what, a 5.5% year on year gain for all wages and

salaries -- hang on -- 4.1% after inflation so that's real income and the biggest beneficia beneficiary, the fastest growing group in the increase in labor compensation, is the bottom 10%. so this is, i think, an astonishingly positive, diversified, rebuilding growth prosperity cycle of this economy that is touching all americans. so yeah, i think there's a lot of great news out there. stuart: well, that revision in wages and incomes and basically spending power, that was buried in the media. i only saw it in the "wall street journal." i didn't see it anyplace else. yet it's a terrific report. >> by the way, by the way, of course i'm not shocked that you would cover it and the "journal" would cover it and maybe nobody else would cover it. it's my blessing to be able to remind you of these important numbers. you know i try to be as helpful as possible. but i want to raise one other point, stuart varney. the saving rate has jumped all

the way to above, slightly above 8%. now, the reason i raise that is people are spending, consumer spending is very strong. the wages are strong. the total salary and wages compensation is strong. but this is not a debt-driven expansion at all. when you have an 8.1% saving rate, that shows you the fundamental strength of more people working successfully and earning more, and of course, i hope the federal reserve is taking note because there is no inflation while this good news is happening. stuart: in the second quarter, growth annualized about 2%. i know you expected to pick up in the third and fourth quarters. tell me what makes it pick up? what's the factor that pushes us to a better growth rate? what is it? >> great question. so first of all, i'm looking -- i'm looking at the may and june numbers, particularly june, because you know, that steps you into q3 in july as the data is,

so retail sales and consumer spending, very very strong in june, continuing that pattern. what's really interesting is durable goods, particularly the so-called core capital spending durable goods, big increases in june, both orders and shipments, and we did see an increase in may as well. those have been faltering in the prior months. i would say the same about the manufacturing report. so it looks like we're coming off q2 in a very positive way and stepping into q3, and so i am really quite optimistic about the second half of the year. stuart: larry kudlow, always a pleasure. we thank you very much for being with us again today. good stuff. >> thank you, stu. stuart: get back to the markets, check that big board. now we're down 120 points. there you have it. 124 down. we are below 26,500. now, if you add up the loss of wednesday and thursday, that was over 600 points. another 120 odd down now, you

are looking at 750, 800 points down since the close of trading on tuesday afternoon. that's quite a drop. okay. we just heard from larry kudlow. david dietze, economist with me, your reaction, any? >> well, i think the take-away is that the u.s. consumer is strong, getting stronger and leading the world and hopefully allowing the rest of the world to recover. i'm going to take issue with what people are saying earlier that, you know, the flareup in trade is going to push the market way down. i think we are different now that we have a fed that's behind us. we have much lower interest rates and a fed that's ready to give us more rate cuts so i'm optimistic here. stuart: jonathan, your response to what larry kudlow had to say? >> larry kudlow was one of the few trump officials who just a few months ago essentially admitted that yes, in fact americans were the ones paying the tariffs. he didn't acknowledge that this morning but i think in my opinion, he almost dismissed the impact these tariffs are having. i wonder truly if the president wants a deal, stuart.

he's talked endlessly about how china is ripping us off, taking our jobs, we're losing on trade. so the president might need an enemy which is why all the expectation that a deal is imminent, more and more it looks like a deal is not imminent and i can just bring you back once again to december of 2018, when the president started shaking with new tariffs the market went down dramatically over the course of the next couple of weeks. stuart: it did indeed. ashley: one of the interesting things you mentioned, the story you believe that's being underreported are these historically low interest rates. he said to you, mr. trump does not like the idea of the europeans manipulating the euro. stuart: which is exactly what they're doing. in my reading, that is an attack on america. it's a currency attack, you know, get your currency down so low that you've got some kind of trading advantage. i think that's exactly what they're up to. i don't think mr. trump will stand for that. gentlemen, i'm going to ask jonathan and david, stay there. that's what the prompter says, anyway. more for you in a moment. check the big board again. holding to a minus 120 points.

okay. again, look at this picture from hong kong. they show massive protests forming. they are just getting under way right there, in the very center of hong kong. those pictures taken for us by christian whiton, frequent guest on the show. he's in hong kong right now. 's going to join us by phone later to tell us exactly what's happening on the ground right there. we'll be back. (groans) hmph... (food grunting menacingly) when the food you love doesn't love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. ♪ tum tum-tum tum tums

stuart: 20 minutes into the session this friday morning, there's the market for you. all three major indicators. the dow is down about a half percent. s&p down two-thirds of 1%. nasdaq close to 1% lower. here's my opinion. it's the china trade and the threat of tariffs come september 1st. that's what's pushed this market down. david dietze, what do you say? >> absolutely. because it's affected the tech stocks which are global, they do a lot of business with china and the tech stocks of course are a big component in these market averages, that's pushing it down. if you look at other sectors like health care, for example, utilities, they are actually coming up today, benefiting from these lower interest rates. >> retail, david, retail got annihilated. i haven't taken a look this morning but retail got annihilated. a lot of the big retailers

essentially asking president trump look, hold off here, these tariffs are on consumer goods, they are going to affect prices here at the homeland. i think what's most frustrating is whether you are pro or anti-tariff, we always talk about how the market hates uncertainty. what can be more uncertain than the president literally at any point deciding to tweet something out on trade that affects hundreds of millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars? this essentially is the same as obama's cash for clunkers or the stimulus program, anywhere where you can't make long-term plans, because it's the economy running by executive fiat. stuart: i wonder if this story is pure speculation about the imposition of martial law in hong kong, maybe this weekend. this is pure speculation. but i did ask larry kudlow about it and he said look, it would be horrible if it happens and this hong kong situation is not part of the trade deal. i would turn that around and say well, look, it's part of the pressure on xi jinping. he's got to do something about

hong kong before he can fix the trade deal with the united states. ashley: how could it not be a distraction? stuart: right. therefore, this speculative idea about martial law in hong kong is a factor in today's stock market and that's one of the reasons why it is down. am i out of bounds here? >> no, you are absolutely right. this could be a real humanitarian crisis. it's not the imposition of martial law but if on sunday we see blood at the hands of people coming down from the north it's going to sway public opinion against china and actually, i don't like to win that way but that will help the u.s. position. stuart: it would be a disaster for the trading system around the world and an utter disaster, jonathan, for hong kong. it has asia's premier financial center. >> yeah, and stuart, as you know, hong kong wasn't always -- hong kong was literally just a rock in the middle of the ocean up until the british came, they established the rule of law, they established capitalism and it has flourished. it's continued to flourish even under chinese rule because by and large, they have had hands

off. they had a laissez-faire attitude. that is changing, it's putting hong kong's democracy and civilization at risk. it's putting the market and the economy at risk. i will echo david's point. if we see another type of tiananmen square massacre, terrible, terrible blood, that will be on chinese hands. stuart: i don't want to run away with ourselves here. i must repeat that it is pure speculation about martial law in hong kong. it is pure speculation. can we just put up the big name tech stocks again, please? because they are all down and i think that is linked to china. i want david's explanation of this again. these stocks have taken a hit in the last few days and they are taking a big hit today. look at that. all of them on the downside. why china? why is china the result of this? >> all these tech stocks are multi-national and global entities. apple does nearly 20% of their business in china. so to the extent that we can't get along with china, they are going to take it out on the tech stocks and the tech stocks are such large components of the

indices it's dragging everything down. stuart: got it. i want to move away from the overall market. i've got a couple of news items on individual companies. first of all, facebook. the government's going to take a closer look at their acquisitions, so my obvious question, ashley, is this part of antitrust? ashley: it certainly is. the belief is they are snapping up potential tech startups that ultimately could threaten their empire. they bought about 90 companies over the last 15 years and the government wants to know is this a practice whereby no one can actually attack the facebook empire because they are being bought. stuart: jonathan, i know you don't like the government going after big tech. you don't like it at all, do you? >> no. this is a real negative on the industry, on facebook in particular, but on the industry, the big technology stocks have changed our lives, these companies have improved our lives for the better, and i said it before but just the equivalent of what nuclear was in the 1980s and look at what government regulation did to essentially shut down the process of building and

expanding nuclear as a viable energy source in this country. that's my fear. the biggest risk to big tech right now isn't consumers, it's government. we are seeing it in france and here at home as well. stuart: interesting. i have a story on home improvement store lowe's. they are laying off thousands of workers. okay. the stock is up a fraction. i want to know why they are laying off. ashley: because it's all about labor costs. they are outsourcing some of the jobs. people who work in stores and assemble barbecue grills, for example, janitorial services, all these are being outsourced. each story, there are 1800 of them, have two or three people that do this function. their jobs, they have been told, will be eliminated. it's all about cost saving. stuart: you have a point to make? >> absolutely. this is a win/win for the consumer. internet competition is pushing this pressure on all retailers. of course, lowes is in a dogfight with home depot. they have to get their costs down. consumers are big winners. stuart: thank you very much indeed. great show this morning. we appreciate your help. thanks very much.

again, pure speculation about china imposing martial law on hong kong this weekend. that may be part of the reason why the markets across the board are in sharp decline. stay there, please. what a day. back with more after this. uranci only pay for what i need. and this is me now! any physical changes to this man's appearance are purely coincidental. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ managingaudrey's on it.s? eating right? on it! staying active? on it. audrey thinks she's doing all she can to manage her type 2 diabetes and heart disease but is her treatment doing enough to lower her heart risk? [sfx: crash of football players colliding off-camera.] maybe not. jardiance is the number 1 prescribed pill in its class. jardiance can reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults who also have known heart disease. that means jardiance can help save your life . .

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stuart: exactly 10:00 here in new york city. we're down this morning. down 156 points as we speak. just coming into us about consumer confidence. this is the michigan consumer sentiment indicator, ash. ashley: final reading, 98.4, doesn't mean anything to anyone. stuart: right. ashley: but the estimate was for 98.5. pretty much in line. this number is strong last 30 months. pretty solid. stuart: no reaction on the market thus far. ashley: no. stuart: a read on factory orders. deirdre at the exchange, what have you got? reporter: slightly disappointing here. economists looked for a read at

.8%. it was .6%. i'm watching the dow in particular lose a few points. this is used at an economic indicator. are companies buying and ordering more goods? this is up less than expected. this follows the ism manufacturing number yesterday which was also in the same category. higher but not as high as people expected. it came in the lowest reading since august 2016. more or less some people i speak with here on the floor, saying sooner or later, these trade tensions, which have been ratcheted up in the past 24 hours between the u.s. and china are having effect on some parts of our economy. stuart: that weakness could be interpreted by the market, we're likely to get more rate cuts from the federal reserve. reporter: then we would be going up. stuart: but we have a downside move. the dow industrials down exactly

150 points. no reaction to the consumer numbers. ashley: like the jobs or the, okay. stuart: middle of the road, kind of average. and now this, are you a racist? if you criticize an african-american politician? the left says, oh, yes you are. the charge, trump is a racist is now an established theme in the democrats 2020 campaign. i object. just because you use harsh language doesn't mean your intent to denigrate another race. throwing that word around, racist, shuts down the debate. you can't solve problems if you can't speak freely. the word racist is applied to just about anybody. it no longer has bite. baltimore brought the racist charge to a boil. in a series of tweets the president criticized congressman elijah cummings. he is a democrat who represent ad major majority black district for over 20 years. the president described cummings district quote, a disgusting rat

and roadent infested mess where no human being would want to live. that caused outrage. the media jumped on it. from there on out branded the president a racist and a bigot. again i object. the president was describing reality. bernie sanders has said exactly the same thing, but he wasn't called a racist. oh, no. we find congressman cummings himself used similar language. he said baltimore was quote, drug infested and residents walked around like zombies. he was saying same thing as the president. that trump is a racist. this sneering, shame calling is a deliberate political tactic. the weak performance of democrats running big cities can no longer be covered up. the president is prepared to call it how he sees it, damn the consequences. the president wants the votes of

african-americans. he is courting them, instead of pandering with offers of money, he is asking what happened to the billions already spent? baltimore got 1.8 billion just from the stimulus package. what happened to it? where did the money go? the democrats opened pandora's box without realizing it. they thought that calling him a racist would silence him. wrong. they have given him a campaign theme. that theme is, the democrats failing their own supporters. >> no one has paid aa higher price for the far left's destructive agenda then our nation americans living in inner cities. we spent billions and billions and billions for years and years and years and it's stolen money and it is wasted money and it's a shame. stuart: there you heard it, that is the president last night in cincinnati, slamming democrat-run cities. tammy bruce, independent women's voice president and fox news contributor is with us now.

>> good morning. stuart: i'm saying racist is overused. used to shut down the debate. am i absolutely wrong? >> it is also meant to protect politicians. let's forget about the skin color for a moment of the establishment. there is one thing that brings them together, it is selfishness, look for power, prestige, 9 money comes with obviously these days public service, but left mind are the people in these cities, these great american cities are being destroyed by liberal policies. this argument that you can't critique them, protects the politicians, who are leading these cities into not just decline but into destruction. stuart: this is, sunlight as a disinfectant because you can actually say things. >> right. stuart: you break the mold, you can say things about the democrats who have run these cities. >> yes, and this argument, not just when it comes to race, remember we weren't supposed to

critique hillary clinton because this was misogynist. you are not critiquing liberal gay people because that is homophobic. this is bunk. who are they protecting? they're protecting their own? they're protecting their establishment at the cost of the people in chicago which is still a bloodbath. eight people murdered last weekend. 40 injured over gun violence. you don't hear about that either. people in los angeles suffering, in san francisco, new york, denver, certainly baltimore, detroit, flint, all of that we're not supposed to speak about because it is racist or misogynist but donald trump obviously didn't get the memo that you're not allowed to talk the truth, speak to the truth about these districts for the forgotten man and woman in those cities. stuart: he has broken through. >> yeah. stuart: tammy bruce, thank you very much indeed this friday morning. >> my pleasure. stuart: let's do the china trade story. that is what the markets are reacting to. president trump threatened more

tariffs come september the first. this morning we have protesters gathering in hong kong again, this is speculation, believe me this is pure speculation, about imposition of martial law in hong kong this weekend. larry kudlow was with me a few minutes ago, if he said that happened it would be horrible but it is not part of the trade deal. steven blitz is with us, lombard chief economist. okay, where is the endgame in this china trade story? it seems to be pushed down the road, doesn't it? >> it really does. i think the end game, trump wants some sort of a deal. and i think the problem is trying to get the great, big, all encompassing deal. i think, much better to say look, here is what we can agree on. let's agree on that. here is what we can't agree on. let's continue to negotiate it. let's get a small agreement. let's agree this is the first of many. use the threat of tariffs as the existential threat in effect to

keep progress going. stuart: wait a second. they got a deal. the chinese walked away from it and refused to reinstate the terms of that deal. that's why the president is coming on strong and saying, wait a minute, you're taking too long, you're delaying it. you think a democrat will win in 2020. so you are going to delay. the president says, no you're not. tariffs are coming, september the first. i get back to it, that would seem to prolong the fight, no matter what. >> i think the point here is, in this latest tariff push, which may or may not occur. stuart: right. >> is that the deal that they're trying to work out is a smaller one than the one that they were originally talking about in the spring. and that's -- remember he is talking about just china buying agricultural products. so they have already scaling down in terms of the deal they want to get first. you're right, look, china is a tough negotiator. this is his schtick. this is the back and forth. one of the part of the problems

this is done on such a public stage with a lot of acting, what's behind becomes a little bit difficult to discern. stuart: i want to give you a compliment. in february, you said you were the only economist interest rates, everybody said you were cutting them. you said, the only one they would cut rates and they did. >> right. stuart: are we getting a slew more of interest rate cuts in the future? >> i said they were going to cut rates because the curve was telling them they had to. stuart: are we getting a series of more rate cuts? >> you will get another rate cut in september. are you going to get 25 or 50? depends on the data. stuart: i think we're going to get a slew of rate cuts, do you agree? >> i agree we'll get one more rate cut. and i think that, you're presupposing when you say they have a slew more rate cuts, what you're presupposing you will get a much weaker economic data as the year goes on. stuart: no.

i'm presupposing that the europeans will keep on cutting rates and we have to match. >> i'm not so sure that we have to match. there are other remedies. i think as mr. kudlow said in his, in your interview with him earlier, there is a trade war brewing with europe. there is dollar intervention brewing with europe. there is other ways to go about it. stuart: steve, i'm sorry i'm out of time. news coming at us so thick and fast. i cut you short. now i am cutting you short. steve, thank you. >> thank you. stuart: the u.s. formally pulled out of the nuclear treattry with russia. tell me more. ashley: this is the inf, dealing with intermediate missiles. this was signed in 1987 between then president ronald reagan and soviet leader gorbachev. the united states has been complaining russia violated with the treaty with deployment of missiles covered by this treaty.

mike pompeo put this out, secretary of state, on february the 2nd, 2019, the u.s. gave russia six months to return to compliance with the intier immediate range nuclear forces treaty. russia refused. so the treaty ends today. the u.s. will not remain party to a treaty when others violate it. russia bears sole responsibility. there are those fear a new arms race could evolve between the u.s., russia and china. stuart: bottom right-hand corner of your screens. look at it go down. that is the dow industrials. we're off 195 points. that i believe is the low of the day. democrats ramping up the impeachment talk, putting pressure on speaker pelosi to move on the president. next, a surprising number, how many house democrats say impeach the president. it is a surprisingly large number. we'll deal with it in a moment. joe biden wants to kill off the coal gist. west virginia, a big coal state,

what does their governor think about that. jim justice is here in new york city. a theme we hit regular on the show, e-sports phenomenon, $30 million worth of prizes, big money. how many people actually watch? we happen to know. we will tell you. ♪ robably gonna double. but dad, you've got allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. are you in good hands?

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stuart: low of the day, down 227 points. we're back to 26,300. add it up, the last three trading sessions, this one is not over, we're down about 800 points. i'm trying to do the math. down 800. check the 10-year treasury yield. is it lower? yes it is 1.87%.

money pouring money into america, driving up treasury prices, driving yield down. president trump in ohio, he called out democrats for giving freebies to illegals. watch this. >> then you have a governor, you have a governor, that invites the whole world to come into california, we'll pay for your health care. today i have a simple proposal for democrat leaders to support legislation to end illegal migration. you know they keep talking about, oh, the voters, the voters, the voters, they want all sorts of security. what about a thing called voter i.d.? voter identification. stuart: what do voters think about paying for illegals, a highlight for the president's speech last night? lisa booth, fox news contributor joins me. do you have any idea where voters stand? >> this depends on the voter. this is a challenge for the democrats.

a lot of policies they're embracing are popular for primary voters but not general population. democrat primary voters support it by 15 point margin, when you get to the general election, get to overall voters, they oppose it by 28 points. this is where, this is sort of, sort of the challenge for a lot of democratic candidates, embrace the policy positions to fire up the base, but when you get to the general election it's a challenge. stuart: middle america does not want to pay for illegals. it's a bold statement but it is true. >> a lot of americans sitting at home watching primary debates saying what about me? why are you focused on people that are not americans? why don't you care about me? stuart: you will kill my private health insurance for 150, 160 million people, but you will give it to free for foreigners who walk across the border? >> that is just a big challenge. not just for health care to illegal immigrants, democrats

viewpoint, what they're trying to do with health care overall. 90% of the country are insured, right? democrats want to entirely blow up the system. even kamala harris trying to have both ways between bernie sanders and joe biden, even her plan would kick you off your employer based plan. this is what she admitted. 156 million people would be impacted. most americans get their health care through their employer. i was at the nrcc in 2010 when obamacare cost democrats the election. i really think they're heading down the same fate if they move forward with "medicare for all," or even a plan like kamala harris's. stuart: i have a number for you, true shock to me, 117, 117 house democrats want to proceed with an impeachment inquiry. that puts enormous pressure on speaker pelosi don't want anything to do with it. do you think will cave to them? it's a split in the party. that presidentng at a lot of

trump won in 2016. he will be on be on the ballot , that is number one concern of nancy pelosi. tough get to 218 in house in order to impeach the president. they're not there yet. they have a lot of democrats, a growing number, but you don't have the majority in the house. that's what you need. stuart: that would be if you actually impeached him. what they want to do, the 117 do, move towards impeachment investigation so they -- >> sure, you're really far off that number. stuart: if you use the word impeachment, i think you're in trouble. >> exactly. i think that is what nancy pelosi is overall concern is, is, basically those republican districts that democrats won in, they will try to win again to keep the majority in 2020. i will mention one other thing i think it's a big deal not getting talked about much, democrats like joe biden wishing to end fossil fuels, i wish

president trump, talked about it a little bit at the ohio rally he needs to focus on that. you have that coming up. such a big impact to economy and jobs, particularly with states like ohio. stuart: the governor of west virginia, jim justice is on the show. >> great minds think alike, right. stuart: thank you, lisa. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: coming up we have the story of a 22-year-old accused of scamming amazon out of $370,000? how did he do it? he used dirt. ashley: we'll have the dirt. stuart: that's right. president trump's new tariff threat on china could end up costing you more in back to school shopping. we have the numbers for you. back in a moment. ♪ imagine traveling hassle-free with your golf clubs.

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stuart: headline, your back to school shopping could be, could be a little more expensive because of the possibility of tariffs on china products, lauren simonetti. not exactly crunched numbers because you can't? >> i just heard back from the national retail federation as you were coming to me. a lot of these items are already here. they're already in the united states for the back-to-school season. this weekend starts the back to school tax-free holidays. a lot of kids in warmer states heading back soon. the point is if the average family is spending $696 a record high, sending kids back to school, not include college, increase that number close to $1000 for college, if you will have a 10% tariff on a computer, a backpack, on a comforter, a pair of blue jeans, on sneakers,

this will cost americans more. stuart: if, if -- >> if it goes into effect. stuart: if the tariffs are imposed. >> increase. we're starting at 10% september 1st if there is no deal. stuart: but the stuff in the stores now for back to school shopping has already arrived. >> for the most part. stuart: it has not been tariffed, so to speak. >> not yet. not yet. but, the issue with this, i remember couple months ago the fax foundation out with that report, that the average family will spend 850-dollars more this year because of tariffs. it will go up so much when the additional 300 billion that the consumer products, iphones, when that gets hit, that is what we're talking about now. stuart: if, if the tariffs are increased on september the 1st. >> then christmas. stuart: it is the scare. >> the scare. stuart: lauren, you're all right, thank you very much. check that market. we're down 187 points. the focus is on china trade. the threat of that's tariffs

come september the 1st. a lot of speculation about martial law in hong kong, all take the market down. fewer goods being shipped around the country. volume of truck, rail, airfreight down 5% in june. we have the economist, the top economist at the american trucking association on that next. lyft, pulling their electric bikes from the streets of san francisco just two months after they debuted. in a moment we'll tell you why. ♪

♪ stuart: i amwalrus. this is a 50-year-old song. can you imagine when it came out? it was revolutionary in the day. i know when i first heard it. from the get-go. 22-year-old from spain, scammed amazon out of nearly 370,000 bucks. ashley is the dirt story? ashley: we've got the dirt. it was pretty interesting. this individual accused of ordering items on amazon. as soon as he put it on a weighing machine. he would register how much it weighed, take out the item, fill it back it back up with dirt, it equaled what was item with it. packaged, sent it back. got a refund on it. he still has the original item. he goes on to sell that. wouldn't amazon know? these returned packages were sitting in warehouses. they are not checked that often. it wasn't until through a random search they opened a package, it

was full of dirt. they said wait a minute. but this guy was so successful. even formed his own company. stuart: got 370,000 bucks? ashley: 370,000 on just returning dirt as a refun, taking the original item, selling it. it caught up with him. he is having to answer some questions. stuart: thanks. low of the day. i'm sorry, we have low of the day on the market. dow industrials are down 211. you're back to 26,300, in the last three days we lost about, about 800 points. pinterest is up. it beat on sales in the second quarter. very nice gain there. 18% run-up for pinterest. the price of oil, well it has come back up again a bit today. we're back to what, $55 a barrel. that is a gain of a buck 31. i want to bring in jeff flock. he is at the cme in chicago. jeff, if oil was down sharply yesterday because of the threat of tariffs, why is it up today

when we are still got the threat of tariffs on the table? >> that's a great question. you know, sometimes after the day trade is over, fundamentals actually do come back into it when it comes to oil. i mean yesterday, stocks, if they sneezed yesterday, yesterday oil was coughing up blood as it gets dark here at the cme. you know, we lost 8% yesterday. that's huge. we gained back almost 4%. we're now 2 1/2% up. phil flynn, our oil guy says very clearly he thinks fundamentals are still strong for oil as we get the lights back. he says base case, too many people are too bearish. oil will shake off this threat, stimulus will perk up demand and inventories will move lower. those are all fundamentals. a lot of things roiling the oil market. yesterday was a bad day. stuart: tell you, jeff, we had gas buddy on the show earlier and he forecast that the price

of gasoline would go down 50-cent a gallon by the end of this year. so he is looking -- >> he will take issue with that. he think that is a bunch of -- he doesn't think it will happen. stuart: it's a family show, jeff. jeff flock explaining it all. mr. flock, thank you very much indeed. i will read this as a economic negative, fewer goods being shipped around the country. the volume all of truck, rail, airfreight, down 5.3% in june. i want to bring in an old friend of mine, bob costello. he is the american trucking association's chief economist. all right, bob, a 5% decline in shipping rates. i always think of you guys in the shipping industry as an economic indicator. when i see a decline in freight, that is a bad sign for the economy. tell me more. >> yeah, first of all great to be here, again, stuart, great to

see you. trucking is by far largest mode of freight tans pourtation, we haul 70% of the freight tonnage. i agree the same thing. we're a. 2018 was the best year in trucking history. if we look at truck volumes specifically, contract freight which is the largest part, where you enter into long term contracts with your shippers, that's flat this year. the spot market which is overflow or small shippers that can't enter into contracts, that is down 40%. it is not very big, but when you add those together, i think we're in a mini freight recession here. stuart: that means the economy, the freight business reflects a slowdown in the economy. is that, maybe because of the trade problems? you are shipping less stuff around? >> well there is no doubt that the trade issues have changed volumes, right? there were a lot of retailers and so forth that brought in

volumes late last year. we have warehouses that are pretty full. so there is not as much movement with that. if we get a deal with china though, i think we can work through that pretty quickly. stuart: you might have to wait a long time. before we close, bob, i want to bring up the truck driver shortage. i understand it has reached the highest level. what's the problem here? why can't you get qualified drivers? >> yeah. so at the end of last year we did hit a record high. we hit 60,800 short. this year because of the volumes it will be probably flattish, maybe down a little bit. the problem is, pay is going up. i don't think you're short any product, what happens to price of it, it goes up. that is happening with truck drivers. that is good. it will help attract some in. generally longer term, trucking is doing really well up until the soft patch here. stuart: you have a problem with drivers who don't have clean licenses. drivers cannot pass a drug test? isn't that the bottom of it? i know you don't necessarily

want to talk about this, but isn't that at the heart of this? >> there is a lot of things that cause it. there is no doubt, stuart, we've seen, even though positive rates on marijuana are still very up. even in states like colorado, they have gone up even more. i know a company shut down a terminal there because they coin get enough employees to pass a drug test. it's a problem. it is bigger you're asking folks to go out on a road for a period of time. we have a great job that pays really good wages for people that don't have a college education. stuart: you're right. bob, great to see you again. don't be such a stranger. i think you saw that a moment ago. you can see the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, low of the day, down 253 points as we speak. now this. a story about lyft. they're pulling the electric bikes from san francisco. ash will tell me why. ashley: because they have had a couple of cases where these bikes caught fire. these are the bikes thaw pedal to generate power through a

battery. they kind of move along by their own power. as you say they have only been on the streets the streets of so and oakland, san jose from a couple months. one riders posted a picture after charred lyft bike. they're not sure what this is about. they are taking them all out to check, whether there is something wrong with the system. they say, they're doing it out of caution. could it be vandalism? they have no idea. they want to make sure these things are safe. stuart: it is hurting the stock, down nearly two bucks. ashley: it is not good news for them. stuart: definitely not. democrats touting their "green new deal." trillions of extra spending. joe biden was saying flat-out, he wants to end the fossil fuel business. he said it. that is a good headline for energy states, coal states like west virginia. the state's governor jim justice on the show next. thousands of people filling the streets of hong kong. another day of protests getting

going there. these photos were taken by frequent varney guest christian whiton on the ground in hong kong. we'll get the latest this hour. what is the speculation about a declaration of martial law? that is ugly indeed. more "varney" after this. ♪ ♪ all right brad, once again i have revolutionized the songwriting process. oh, here we go. i know i can't play an instrument, but this... this is my forte. obviously, for auto insurance, we've got the wheel route. obviously. retirement, we're going with a long-term play. makes sense. pet insurance, wait, let me guess... flea flicker. yes! how'd you know? studying my playbook? yeah, actually.

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this is the low of the day. we're down almost 300 points. that is better than 1% drop. we're down across the board. look at the s&p. that indicator is down 34 points. that is a huge drop. nasdaq, really interested there to see what's happening with technology and it's a bloodbath. look at that, down 1.8%, 148

points down for the nasdaq. it is below the 8,000 level. the main problem here is the threat, imposition of extra tariffs on china trade. that's what is doing this selloff. ashley: ouch. listen to this one please, joe biden talking about eliminating fossil fuels and coal and fracking at this week's democrat debate. you have to listen to this. here it is. >> mr. vice president, just to clarify, would there be any place for fossil fuels including coal and fracking in a biden administration? >> no. we would work it out. we would make sure it is eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, any fossil fuel. stuart: wow. you know who is a perfect guest for this? the governor of west virginia. why not. his name is jim justice. he happens to be sitting right next to me. jim, you may dismiss what mr. biden had to say there but you can deny there is pressure from all sides campus, coming at

you from all sides to do something about fossil fuels and coal in particular. you got to be a little worried here? >> well, no question we're worried. stuart i would like to say this, you mentioned this is the bottom of the day. you have got somebody from west virginia. this can't be the bottom of the ut the stock market. give me a break here. >> we want you to come to west virginia, enjoy west virginia, nevertheless, let me just say this, vice president biden is playing to a crowd. he is playing to a crowd of noise that's uninformed. i mean that is all there is to it. today, if we remove fossil fuels from us entirely today, honestly we would have a catastrophe in this country like you can't imagine. stuart: he said over 10 or 20 years. give the man credit, he is talking about about the gradual elimination of fossil fuels. >> okay. what i would say is just this, a good energy strategy, anyone's from coal, from gas, from all of

our alternative sources and everything, all of us would be all-in for, all encompassing strategy but we have to be real about it. we have to know that coal provides our baseload, for our grid, you know, we, let me just say one other thing, stuart, it is just this, who is going to lose in this, if we get aggressive with this? it will be the poor, it will be middle class people, those are people that will lose. those are people that will get hit the hardest. stuart: right. >> industry is going to lose, we finally got manufacturing back on the shelf and everything and jobs in this country. absolutely if we layer in a higher cost of energy, we're going to lose. stuart: am i right saying at this moment west virginia is doing pretty well? i'm not saying you're firing on all cylinders, that the economy of west virginia is doing well as it has done in any point, in a few years? is that accurate? >> it is doing better than it

has ever done in the history of the state. stuart: is that true? why would you say that. >> absolutely. we're first in gdp. we're first in personal income growth in the last quarter. we had a surplus in 2019 that was all time historic of all time. stuart: you have a surplus? >> we got an incredible surplus. stuart: in west virginia you have a surplus? >> an inincredible surplus. i hate to say this, a lot of people deserve a lot of credit, whether legislatures, whatever it may be, when i walked in the door, we were bankrupt, that is all there is to it. we have turned state in direction, tourism, roads, education. stuart: it is coal business turned you around primarily, isn't it? >> the coal business is great. i'm a real believer if we could add one more coal mine job we want to do it all the time, but at one time in west virginia we were mining 181 million tons of coal. when i took office we were mining about 75 million tons. and today we're on about

100 million-ton run rate, annual run rate. stuart: really? >> at one time we were 181. so we're 50% of our of our highest run rate. so to say it is coal, coal, coal, that is really not fair. stuart: but the left is going to come at you, say you, you, governor are killing the planet, you have no sense of responsibility. you are pumping out co2. look what you're doing, you're ending our planet? >> my response is just this, george clooney walks out on his deck and he can't see across the street. our air in west virginia is so beautiful every single day. our waters are just pristine beyond belief. george clooney's stuff floats up in the air, the smog, it makes its way to west virginia and blows over our incredible hardwoods and complains and calls me a bad guy. stuart: do you think i could make more money if i had a accent like yours? >> you need my accent.

stuart: the way you said smog. do it again. >> smog. stuart: [laughter], governor, you're all right. >> i love you guys to death. thank you all so much. stuart: yes, sir. theme parks, big business, especially in florida of course. we just learned universal studios is doubling down, they're opening up another park in orlando. called, epic universe. we'll tell you all about it in our next hour. if you watch "varney & company" by now you know that e-sports is truly a big money game, videogame competitions with million dollar prizes. you know all about them, we want to know how many people actually watch them? i want the real number. we have to the the real number for you coming up. ♪ when i walked through a snowstorm for a cigarette,

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anywhere in the country. so, if you're in another state visiting the grandkids, stay awhile...enjoy... and know that you'll still be able to see any doctor who accepts medicare patients. learn more with this free decision guide. call or go online to request yours. tick, tick, tick, time for a wrap up. a medicare supplement plan helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. you know, the pizza slice. it allows you to choose any doctor, who accepts medicare patients... and these are the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. whew! call or go online and find out more. stuart: still down nearly 300 points. that is 1.1%. this is a selloff all across the board. the primary reason is, the possibility of the imposition of extra tariffs on china trade. that is what is taking it down. stay another couple seconds, we might be down 300. last weekend the "fortnite"

world cup was held here in new york city. it drew a huge crowd. the stadium where it was staged was flat-out packed. i have a question, how many people streamed the event online? how many people watched this thing online? our guest has the answer. dan nemo is with us. the cofounder of stream metrics. i think dan wants to be the nielsens of the video streaming business, don't you? >> that would be fantastic if we're doing our job correctly. stuart: confirm that, young man, confirm it. that "fortnite" contest, how many people were streaming it? how many? give me a number? >> the numbers are a bit inconsistent and sometimes confusing and lacking. the numbers have gone anywhere from half a million up to 2.3 million, okay, watching online? stuart: any one time. >> that is part of the issue. in digital people have been focused more on unique users, the number of people watched it for like a second or at one time

that is the 2.3 million we're seeing. from a tv perspective what this media is more about, this is about viewership. so the marriage of digital and tv, what was average audience? that is a question not answered to date. we have a report that is coming out next week which will answer the question. stuart: are you going to tell me now or hold me in suspense for a week? >> we can come back next week and have the number. stuart: you can tell me conclusively that "fortnite" weekend world cup thing, there was over two million people watching -- >> at some point. stuart: at some point. that is the number they attract. >> that's right. stuart: does that attract advertisers? is advertising revenue based on numbers you're coming up with? >> that's correct, that's correct. brands and advertisers are seeing huge aiee seeing millionf they're trying to figure out exactly how to bridge in. that is what we're trying to do. we're a audience measurement platform. go ahead.

stuart: for example, hulu, you can't measure that audience at this point can you or can you? >> our methodology and approach is flexible enough where it could. right now we're focused on live streaming video and e-sports as a subsector, where a lot of brand and interest and viewership is right now. stuart: we follow this very closely because we can't believe the explosion in the numbers, the prize money, that people are packing the stadiums. now you're telling us two million people at some point watch that "fortnite"? >> that's right. stuart: astonishing numbers. >> so the numbers right now in terms of dollars are, they're quoted for e-sports, is 1.1 billion. stuart: that is what, total revenues? >> total revenues, sponsorship and advertising for 2019, far way too low of a number. the reason is that a lot of this measurement is not there. so, for example, the numbers that you see in the, in the ecosystem receipt now are global numbers.

lead yaw is bought low cali. we can tell you how many people in the u.s., you that is how many people we're reporting watch "fortnite" that is how media is bought. we can tell you on the east coast and new york, that is how media is bought. the other thing we do is provide demographic information, who it is. people say e-sports. it is all males. it is not. 17% of people, of grand theft auto audience is female. stuart: really? >> 36% of"fortnite" it is about. stuart: i have to end it. that is fascinating. you better comert: extraordinar. dan, thank you very much. the dow is down, now 300 points. it happened, 300 points down for the dow. since 2016 president trump has, in my opinion kind of run the show, his tweets give the media more access to the press

than ever before he relishes it. he controls the news cycle. i have never seen a president like this before. my take on that is next. a new study from the heartland institute, if democrats get their way on "medicare for all," taxes on the middle class are going up and going up big time. we have the numbers. cbd the stuff in marijuana that doesn't get you high some people claim it helps with you stress, focus et cetera, we will talk to a professional chef that cooks with it. big hour coming up on friday. ♪ welcome to the place where people go to learn about

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like to travel? this kind of plan goes with you anywhere you travel in the country. so go ahead, spend winter somewhere warm. if you're turning 65 soon or over 65 and planning to retire, find out more about the plans that live up to their name. before you go on medicare! r over 65 and planning to retire, don't wait. get started today. to learn more about the range of aarp medicare supplement plans, and their rates, call or go online today to request your free decision guide. oh, and happy birthday... or retirement... in advance. stuart: all right. it's just past -- no, it's right at 11:00 eastern time right now and that is the low of the day on the markets. now we're down 313 points. i have to believe that most of that loss is because of the

threat of more tariffs on china trade. president trump made that threat yesterday afternoon. it's carrying through into today and now we're down 320 and we're moving down. now this. my, how times change. just a couple of years ago, president obama would hold a news conference every few weeks. they were formal affairs with the media asking softball questions oh, so respectfully. obama's answers droned on frankly like a dull college lecture. it's different now. this president controls the news cycle on a daily basis and he does it with flair and vigor. it usually starts before breakfast with a tweet storm. it's the president stating his opinion on the issues of the day and he chooses the issues. no other president has been able to control the news flow like donald trump. the tweets continue throughout the day and so do the impromptu

news conferences. he's done away with the press room and the press secretary briefings. he goes out to meet reporters whenever he steps out of the white house. he marches up and down in front of the media gaggle, giving short and very pithy answers to any and all questions. nothing is off-limits. and he makes news on a daily basis. realize what's going on here? he's got the media on the run. you can't hear the reporters' questions very well. all you hear is frenzied screaming which makes them look bad. it's the president in control. compare and contrast. president obama was extremely cautious in whatever he said and frankly, his answers to reporters' questions were so long and complex that he often left us guessing as to what he had really said. with bush 43, well, it was often painful to see him so ill at ease with the press corps that didn't care for him at all. what a contrast with trump. he relishes a fight. he thrives on it. in fact, he takes the fight to the media and actually gives

them more access to the presidency than they have ever had before. he runs the news show. it is the trump show. the third hour of "varney & company" about to begin. stuart: here he is, steve hilton, host of "the next revolution" on the fox news channel. you heard my editorial there. it's the trump show. he runs the news cycle. you with me on this? >> he does. and actually, what's interesting about it, i thought it was a very great thing to throw into the conversation at this point because it's not just -- there's not just a media aspect to this in the sense he dominates the news exactly as you said and therefore, sets the agenda and what the rest of us sort of hear and talk about. there's something really deeper going on here, which is very populist in its nature.

populism is something i talk a lot about on my show. this is truly populist in the sense he's bringing the people into government, into the process of government in a way that we have never seen before. so transparent. what used to happen before is that in all these complicated policy questions, whether that's trade or the economy or dealing with foreign countries, china, north korea and so on, you have the establishment, the elite, say well, it's very complicated, we'll take care of it, and exactly as you said, every now and then there will be a press conference, oh, it's all fine and they use diplomatic language and wouldn't really bring the people into the process. what you have seen trump do is rip all that off and expose the wiring of government relations, of foreign policy, of economic policy, and people can see what's going on. sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. but it's truly populism democratic. it involves the people. stuart: it does. you're right in there with him. you can see it going on.

short, sharp, pithy answers. it's entertaining and very informative, too. sorry we have to cut this short but we will urge your audience to watch sunday at 9:00 on the fox news channel. this is the low of the day, down 314 points. we need to bring in charles payne, host of "making money" on the fox business network. charles, i'm going to say that that decline, 300 points, is the result of the possible imposition of new tariffs on china trade. what say you? >> i would say the overwhelming majority of it is. some of it on the tech side is a lot of bad earnings the last 24, 48 hours, also. but it's overwhelmingly about the anxieties associated with the trade situation. stuart: i want to raise a difficult subject here. there is a great deal of speculation, and that's all it is, it is pure speculation,

about the chinese authorities imposing martial law on hong kong on sunday of this week. we have heard a lot about it. it's pure speculation. if that were to happen, if that were to happen, that would be a disaster. >> unmitigated disaster. to your point, the speculation is being fueled by videos of the peoples liberation army practicing riot drills with tanks. all of this brings up tiananmen square. in fact, the hong kong commander of the garrison has just said this week that he is seeing extreme violence, that we have seen extreme violence in hong kong. obviously we have not seen extreme violence. we have seen interesting clashes but not -- nothing that would warrant the use of a tank. but it feels like they are getting the messaging out ahead of time by saying this and getting it on the record. stuart: this would have i think a serious impact on america. our market would not take kindly to that kind of thing in hong kong and the china trade deal, it's off. you do that to hong kong, i

don't see you get a trade deal. >> even thonow, to be quite fra they have a million people in camps because of their religion and some of the other things they've done to christians, it's hard to even, you know, it doesn't come up, it should, perhaps. maybe this thing is already too complicated with respect to cutting a deal. but the idea that so many people, so many big businesses in our country overlook that kind of stuff as they try to pressure president trump into cutting any kind of deal just to get this over with, that would certainly make it a nonstarter. stuart: just seems like it's a new cold war is what it seems like to me. >> the irony is we are moving out. we are going to move troops out of afghanistan. some people deride that as we are moving away from the world stage, but you know, the world stage has cost america trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of america's best young men and women. we got to be careful how much of a role we want the play because i think the american public has already said we shouldn't be the sheriff of the world, for sure, and if we're going to play any

kind of leading role, it shouldn't just be us leading with lives and money. stuart: i do want to tell our audience that at 2:00 this afternoon, i think 2:00 on your show, on the fox business network, you've got -- >> peter navarro. stuart: i think of him as a very hard line china guy. you've got him on the show. >> peter navarro is very hard line. he's written at least -- i want to say at least ten books on china. i'm talking going back a couple -- within the last 20 years. if you even google the titles of these things, this is a guy who has been building up and telling america we are going to have this fight. he's been warning of this fight for about two decades. i always find it interesting when he's invited to the meetings with china, i think president trump's sending a real hard message to xi. when he's not, i think he's trying to say okay, you know what, that's how, you know, i don't want to say he's a pit bull because he might be watching -- stuart: i'm sure he is. >> but, but he is no joke. he's predicted all of this and

he is very influential in the white house right now. stuart: yeah. okay. he's a hard line guy. >> a hard line guy. he's a hard line guy. he thinks the only way we can win this is -- can't win it softball. this whole thing about statecraft and diplomacy and the wto, all that's garbage. we have been doing that for years. the chinese will never respect that. i think they might respect strength. we will find out because i think navarro will tell us more. stuart: i will watch at 2:00. peter navarro. got that. now, we have a trump tweet just come at us. here it is. kim jong-un and north korea tested three short-range missiles over the last number of days. these missile tests are not a violation of our signed singapore agreement, nor was there discussion of short-range missiles when we shook hands. there may be a united nations violation, but chairman kim does not want to disappoint me with a

violation of trust. there is far too much for north korea to gain, the potential as a country under kim jong-un's leadership is unlimited. also, there is far too much to lose. i may be wrong but i believe that chairman kim has a great and beautiful vision for his country and only the united states with me ashat vision com. he will do the right thing because he's far too smart not to and he does not want to disappoint his friend, president trump. ashley: wow. stuart: if that's not an extraordinary tweet, i don't know what is. ashley: wow. stuart: who would think a president of the united states would say that kind of thing about chairman kim, kim jong-un of north korea. that's pretty extraordinary. i'm dying to see what the democrats will say about that tweet. say nice things. ashley: speechless right now, i guarantee you. then they will let fly. stuart: i don't know where there's any connection, but as

that tweet came out, the market started to come back a bit. look, this is pure speculation on my part again but now we're down 269. before that tweet, we were down 320. ashley: yeah. stuart: we've come back about 50 points. maybe because of that tweet. maybe not. i don't know. but they are simultaneously. okay. in the live tv news business, you can get shocked sometimes. that was a real surprise. ashley: oh, yeah. stuart: all right. now this. president trump taking a direct shot at socialism last night. he says a vote for the democrats is a vote for socialism. coming up, we are joined by kennedy. i think of her as an outspoken libertarian. what's she going to say? i'm also going to ask her about new york's mayor bill de blasio. she has some choice words about the mayor and his wealth tax. you will hear her sound off. here we go. >> it is hard for me to conjure up another negative adjectives to describe new york city mayor bill de blasio.

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stuart: we just had a remarkable tweet from president trump about north korea. he had very nice things to say about north korea and even though they fired off short-range missiles recently, he said that was not a violation of the singapore agreement. he said very nice things about kim jong-un. in fact, he said north korea has unlimited potential as long as i am the president of the united states.

that was a remarkable tweetstorm right there. you will hear more about it later, i'm sure. that may have had an effect on the market, pulled us back by about 100 points. we were down 330. now we're down 230. last night, president trump took a direct shot at socialism. roll tape. >> no matter what label they use, a vote for any democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of our great, our beautiful, our wonderful american dream. we're not going to let our country ever going down the route of socialism. stuart: tell us what you really feel, mr. president. while you're at it, here's kennedy. >> here we are. stuart: wait a second. think of you as outspoken libertarian, free market kind of person. >> absolutely. stuart: okay. do you think that all of the leading contenders for the

democrat nomination, all of them, are socialists? >> not the entire field but yes. i would say the five or six who are at the head of the pack, joe biden tries every once in awhile to talk about pragmatism and moderation, and he's sort of giving a wink and nudge to moderate democrats who i would say make up the majority of the democrat party, and that's his way of letting them know and he has to do it, you know, almost through -- stuart: so it's going to be capitalism versus socialism. >> yes. stuart: that's the way it is in 2020. >> yeah. it feels like either way it's going to be a mandate. stuart: do you think that middle america is ready for socialism? >> no. no one's ready for socialism. no one in the world is ready for socialism. government is not a good tool for redistributing wealth. not every single problem that these fake do-gooders have is going to be solved by more government and there are consequences to that. whenever you push any of these candidates about the consequences, and that means the

cost, they don't have answers and that's when they go on the counter-attack. i think the debate moderators have done a very poor job of pushing them on how they're going to -- stuart: cnn, the clinton news network network that was essentially asking the questions. what do you expect? come on. you just used the expression fake do-gooders. >> yes. that's what socialism is. it's these false good intentions and if you really had good intentions, if you really wanted to take care of people, why would you saddle them with so much future debt? stuart: true. now, you had some choice words about new york city's mayor bill de blasio. i will play a little bit more of your editorial from last night. this is entertaining. roll tape. >> his bad tax plan will never happen, because he will never happen, and that's because he's just a thick, stinky,

bloviating, unsightly, tardy lumbering wounded giraffe who needs to be put out to political pasture for good. stuart: i'm still hearing this. tell us what you really feel. you going to vote for him? >> no. i would never vote for someone like bill de blasio. bill de blasio is never going to get any national traction because a majority of the press lives in new york. a vast majority of new yorkers despise him. stuart: what's his role in this campaign? why is he running? >> he's a narcissistic blowhard. he can't control himself. stuart: everybody on television, you and i included, are narcissists. isn't that the truth? >> on m some level, it is. but there are degrees of narcissism. there's the happy meal narcissist and then there's like the giant plate of narcissists. he's gorging at the narcissism buffet. stuart: when is your show on? >> 9:00 p.m. eastern monday through thursday on the fox business network. stuart: you get friday

afternoons off? >> whoo! stuart: kennedy -- >> always good to see you. stuart: thank you very much. what? a legend? >> you know it. ashley: he's something. stuart: only in his own mind. all right. check the price of gold. let's start with that. we're up 23 bucks. that's a big gain. $1455. how about bitcoin? totally separate market. $10,500 per coin as we speak. by the way, put the big board back on the screen quick. we are down now 188 points. ashley: slowly but surely coming back. stuart: before the north korea tweet from the president, we were down 330. i wonder if that tweet, did that move the market? i can't believe that. we will report it. the guys on your screen momentarily founded a company called plant people. they cook food with cbd. that's the stuff in marijuana,

doesn't get you high. coming up, we are joined by the fellow on the left. i want to know, does he cook with thc as well? that's the stuff that does get you high. first, though, look at this. one company using artificial intelligence to take over the pub, the new technology helps recognize which customers were at the bar first and ignores the customers who push themselves to the front. ashley: excellent. stuart: is that a problem? ashley: yes. stuart: is it? ashley: yes. >> the worst! stuart: we'll deal with this problem momentarily. what a show. ♪ your daily dashboard from fidelity. a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place.

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stuart: the correct word here is volatility. about ten minutes ago, we were down 150. now we're down 240. we're all over the place but remember, this is a friday in summer before the weekend. the trading volume is very low so you can expect a lot of up and down movement in a low volume trading environment. that's what we've got. there's a data science company called data spark. they created an artificial intelligence facial recognition

system for bars. i think the experiment takes place in london in a pub, right? jackie: it does. they actually say the average brit over the course of his or her lifetime waits two months to get drinks. this gives you a sense of how this could help people. what's happening, they are using ai, facial recognition, and as you approach the bar, the mechanism in the system can detect an order to which people have come up and gotten closer to the front. so it's not now up to the bartender to say i think i saw you before you and that's a lot to do when you're pouring drinks. when it does, there's a screen and it starts ranking people so it makes it more efficient and also makes it more fair. sometimes there's pushy people. stuart: i wasn't aware -- >> jackie: -- who cut the line. apparently there is. ashley: a crowded bar, there is always the loud ones, the pushy ones. jackie: totally. stuart: artificial intelligence will do it every time. i'm going to show you some pictures out of hong kong.

they show massive protests are taking place. you can just discern that, that's the central district of hong kong. the pictures are taken by christian whiton, frequent guest on the show. he's there in hong kong right now. he will join us on the phone for a live report next. big goings-on over there. ♪ ♪ all right brad, once again i have revolutionized the songwriting process. oh, here we go. i know i can't play an instrument, but this... this is my forte. obviously, for auto insurance, we've got the wheel route. obviously. retirement, we're going with a long-term play. makes sense.

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stuart: yeah, volatility. now we're down 261 points, but as you can see on the left-hand side, about 80% of the dow 30 are in the red. it's a down day all across the board. take a look at these pictures again, please. sent to us from a former state department official, christian whiton. he is in hong kong. the crowds you can see, they are starting to swell in the street, this is another major protest taking place as we speak. christian joins us on the phone right now. am i right in saying that those are pictures you just took that the protests are developing all over again on a mass scale, is that accurate, christian? >> yes, stuart, that's right. that was earlier tonight but it's expected to be another big

weekend. incidentally, those were two separate protests today, both very peaceful, both overwhelmingly young people, very polite, not rioting in two different protests that were so large, they essentially merged into one. more expected tomorrow. the one tonight was more or less started with a compilation of civil servants but others are joining in, bankers, et cetera. stuart: i'm sorry, i have to break in because throughout the day, there's been this intense speculation that the chinese authorities will impose martial law in hong kong on sunday. now, have you heard anything about this? is this being talked about in hong kong at the moment? because i believe it may be affecting our markets over here. >> it is being talked about. i think people in the know are a little more worried that instead of an outright invasion by the peoples liberation army, there's a small component here,massing

border. it's more likely there will be civilian police who come in and make mass arrests of the leaders of this movement. that would really change the dynamic. but i have to say, the police here in hong kong and the protesters, sort of contrary to some of the images we have seen, are both being very very peaceful throughout this at least so far. stuart: earlier, larry kudlow told me this had no relationship to the china trade talks, but i suspect that maybe xi jinping is looking over his shoulder at what's going on in hong kong and that is a problem for him in the trade talks. what do you say? >> i think you have that exactly right. the president earlier today or yesterday commented on this, that it's between china and hong kong and i think that was wise in the sense he doesn't want to give it an american appearance. this really did spring out of something spontaneous here in hong kong, of younger people here realizing that there's no place to run, that they have to make a stand at this point, but what it does, what happens here,

news of this, unlike earlier time, spreads throughout the mainland despite censorship and does put political pressure on xi jinping. this is the man who crowned himself emperor of the 2017 party congress and it's really been downhill since then. bad economy, botched trade war with trump and i think it puts xi under a lot of pressure. stuart: right in the middle of it, christian whiton, thank you very much for reporting for us. we appreciate that. thank you, sir. i want to bring in market watcher john layfield. john, i know you are worried about the markets because of the trade tension with china and this possible tariff imposition on september 1st. do you think this speculation about martial law, is that a factor in the market as well? what do you think? >> i don't think it's necessarily a factor because i think it's going to be worked out and it's not going to have a market effect. it will have a geopolitical effect. i don't think what happened in tiananmen square is going to happen again. i don't think china necessarily can get away with that. they tried what they did with

the muslim uighurs to go in and basically enforce martial law. they ended up putting about a million of these guys in detention camps. they're not going that far but they did send in the police first to try to suppress that revolt. it worked there. it's not working at hong kong. this is a real problem for president xi but i'm not sure how much influence that will have over what's happening with the market the next few days. stuart: okay. let me talk to you about three stocks. the british petroleum, bp, at & t and ford. i know you like them. i suspect you like them because of the dividend play. is that accurate? >> absolutely. huge dividends with these stocks. they all seem to have gotten some type of base. about a 6.3% yield, for at & t and bp and 6% yield for the other stock as well. you've got a 6% yield right here with the dividend stocks. i think with all of the market geopolitical turmoil right now, that the market has no way of handicapping. you look at what's going on with brexit which has not been mentioned that much because so

much else is going on, there's been speculation from europe's going back to the dark ages to this is going to be great for europe. i'm not sure it's possible right now to handicap what's going to happen in brexit, what's going to happen at the strait of hormuz or the trade war. to me, i think you play it safe with dividend stocks. stuart: is the dividend safe? i'm referring in particular to at & t, one of the most indebted companies in the world. are you sure, absolutely certain, they can keep on paying a 6% dividend? >> not absolutely certain. but i'm certain enough to buy it. look, there's nothing that's 100% certain but it certainly looks like at & t has an obligation they are going to fulfill to keep this dividend. what i love about at & t is the streaming, the 5g, the fact that hbo is part of warner and it will be part of their streaming service. i think at & t is really in a good position here. i do worry a lot about the debt. but it looks like at least the dividend is safe for now. stuart: full disclosure, i bought at & t because i want a 6% dividend yield.

i made my own judgment on whether or not it's safe. thank you very much indeed. see you again soon. thanks, john. >> thank you, sir. stuart: the fbi says amazon truck drivers were involved in a major theft ring. this was in washington state. jackie, tell me how it worked. jackie: basically there were these pawnshops and the drivers would steal packages that were going to be delivered to amazon but it wasn't the drivers, it was others as well, and they would bring the goods to the pawnshops and the people who ran the pawnshops would then resell the goods back on amazon to recoup the money for them. they apparently were dealing with roughly 40,000 items. we are talking about more than $4.1 million in goods before they were sold for a profit. these are really major transactions. and the fact that the amazon drivers were involved in this is one of the red flags right there. stuart: yes. the inside job problem or possibility again. thank you. this one's for you, ash. the pentagon's delaying a $10

billion artificial -- no, cloud computing contract. ashley: the military, this is a huge hotly contested $10 billion contract, new generation of computing services. it's been ongoing for awhile. it's been down to amazon and its web services or microsoft. there was even talk those two companies could split the contract. but the pentagon says huh-uh, we want one provider. now, the whole thing is on hold because the new secretary of defense, mark esper, says he wants to review the whole matter. does that mean the whole process begins again? ibm and oracle were knocked out of the early bidding on this. there have been suggestions amazon has been a bit underhanded in this process and has some conflict of interest it's been trying to monopolize the contract, you know, procedure. we'll see. stuart: both stocks down. microsoft and amazon both down. got it. check that big board again. now we're down 275 points, just over 1%. it's pretty much the same story

on the s&p and nasdaq. we are down all across the board. these five stocks are dragging the dow lower. they account for about half of today's loss. those stocks are apple, goldman, visa, 3m and caterpillar. put those five stocks together and about half the dow's loss is represented right there, left-hand side of your screen. the outspoken tech billionaire peter theil tearing into google. we will tell you what he's saying in a moment. bernie sanders found himself defending his medicare for all plan in the democrat debates this week. remember, it's expected to cost, what, $30 trillion to $40 trillion over ten years. next, we have the numbers on how much it would cost each taxpayer. this is not pretty. we'll be right back. ♪ let me ask you something.

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whew! call or go online and find out more. stuart: the problem for the market is the potential imposition of new tariffs on china trade, possibly coming september 1st, an extra 10%. that's why the market's down all across the board. left-hand side of the screen, now, those are the five stocks dragging the dow down. we've got apple, goldman, visa, 3m, caterpillar, they are dow stocks, all of them sharply lower. that accounts for about half the loss of the dow. tech billionaire peter thiel, did he blast google in a "new york times" op-ed. he's blasting them because they won't work with the u.s. military. on your screen, the title, jackie, what does he say? jackie: really interesting and it's a long piece. i will boil it down for you. he basically says ai is a very, very useful technology when it comes to defense, right? there are some mundane tasks like we just talked about the

bar, for example, where you could use it but also, you can use it to defend against cyber-warfare. what thiel is sounding off on in this op-ed is basically why is google, one of the leaders in this technology, setting up labs in china, a place where xi jinping has said that if you do research in china, you share it with the peoples liberation army. why are they doing business there and sharing it with them when they're not sharing it with our defense department here? good question. stuart: very good question. it is outrageous to me that an american company, its employees, don't want to work for america's military. jackie: i will make this one point. sorry. they basically say we have this borderless policy where we should be able to work across the globe and thiel says that's really great in a bubble but doesn't really work in practical action. ashley: naive. stuart: thanks, jackie. new numbers coming to us from

the heartland institute. if the democrats get their way and we get medicare for all, everybody will pay a whole lot more in taxes, the middle class especially hard-hit. justin haskins is with us. tell me, let's start out with say you make $100,000 a year. you are upper middle class. you make a hundred grand. how much extra if we have medicare for all? >> you are going to probably end up paying, most people earning $100,000 or more will pay $20,000 or more in additional federal taxes. $20,000. stuart: that's an extra $20,000. you make a hundred grand, an extra $20,000 if we get medicare for all. on top of the tax you already pay on a hundred grand income, is that right? >> that's exactly right. that's exactly right. if you earn between $75,000 and $100,000, you are going to see your taxes increase by about $12,000 to $15,000 as a result of medicare for all. now, we are being told that this is all going to be offset by

these wonderful health care benefits that you are going to get as a result of this. you're not going to have to pay for deductibles, premiums and all that but our estimates show between 40 million and 60 million filers, households, are going to end up paying more in increased taxes than they will get in any sort of government provided health care benefit. this is a terrible deal for millions and millions of americans, including many middle class people. especially upper middle class people. stuart: can you put that graphic up again, please? the median household income in the united states of america right now is about $60,000 a year. put the graphic up, please. because if you make that kind of money, i think the graphic will show you, there you go, 50 to 75, an extra $7,000 to $9,000 in taxes. hold on a second. that assumes that medicare for all will be actually paid for in extra taxes. i don't think that's going to happen. they are going to print the money. that's what they're going to do. >> well, realistically, you may very well be right because when

people start to see these numbers, there's just absolutely no way that they can pay for this. this whole idea that wall street's going to pay for it, the wealthy are going to pay for it, is just fantasy. there's no way this is going to happen. we're not actually going to be able to pay for this program. if we do, it would be political suicide, but this is not what they're telling us. bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, they are saying we can pay for it and they are saying we can pay for it with tax increases and if that's how we are going to do it, then it is going to financially decimate millions and millions of families across the be just abs horrendous if they get what they want. stuart: justin haskins, i'm glad you crunched the numbers for us because those numbers are shocking. thank you. see you again soon. i want to get to [ inaudible ] for a moment. they lost revenue last quarter. they are down 15%. beyond meat up two bucks at $178. they had a slide recently when

they said they were going to issue another quarter million shares at $160 a pop. they are $178 per share as we speak, way above the ipo price of a couple weeks ago. universal planning a new theme park in orlando, florida called epic universe. it's based on quote, beloved stories. it's believed that it could incorporate nintendo character mario, dream works animation into the park. it's comcast, nbc universal's largest investment in the theme park business. no opening date has been set. i'm sure it costs an arm and a leg. the guy on the left, there he is, man with the beard, gabe kennedy, he's a chef and is leading the charge behind a new food trend, cooking with cbd. as we always say, that's the stuff in pot that doesn't get you high. i want to know why he's doing this. he's just waiting for the day when the stuff that does get you high becomes legal. we will ask him. ♪

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stuart: cbd is a craze right

now, the extract from the hemp plant that has allegedly health benefits. doesn't get you high, of course. our guest today is a chef who actually cooks with cbd. his name is gabe kennedy. he's co-founder of plant people. before we go any further, plant people, that's all about plant-based food, not just cbd, right? >> we are all about healing and connecting people on the planet through the power of plants. we do that by creating products. we also do that by education and of course, part of that initiative is cooking. stuart: all right. all right. you a vegetarian? >> i'm not. not explicitly a vegetarian. stuart: not explicitly a vegetarian. >> i eat a lot of plants but i do indulge in animal proteins every now and then. stuart: it's called meat. meat and fish. okay. cbd. that's what you -- you are a chef. you cook with it. >> i am, yeah. stuart: i know plant people, you're not primarily cooking stuff. but what do you put it in? >> yeah, so really, the best way

to utilize these compounds is actually on a daily basis through sublingual, meaning under the tongue or topical delivery. we found that by introducing these compounds to the public dru t through the medium of food, it's an effective tool of de-stigmatizing, educating and showcasing what opportunity there is within this category. stuart: does it work? >> so that's a great question. stuart: what's it supposed to do, relieve stress and -- >> yeah, inflammation. it may be very beneficial for inflammatory response. stuart: you cannot make that claim. >> no. stuart: because you can't prove it. >> right. i think what's very interesting around does it work, anecdotally, there are thousands of people who swear by this. personally, it changed my life. we also know that -- stuart: it changed your life? >> it did. stuart: cbd changed your life? >> yeah. yeah. well, hemp. herbs, cannabis, hemp. what i do think is important to

note is that the fda approved a pharmaceutical drug by gw pharma for epilepsy utilizing cbd and cannabis so there is proof that this does work. now, as owner of a consumer brand, we do have to be really careful around the claims that we do make. we believe that there should be, you know, oversight and we should be providing safe products to consumers. we support the fda in that. stuart: you do realize they are raiding stores in new york city which sell cbd because you are not allowed to ingest it. you are cooking with it. >> right. so the fda does not have a really clear stance. what that has created is municipalities assuming the responsibility. oftentimes, sort of overreacting. that's what we're seeing within the new york market. so they are taking these warning letters as law or as guide will did lines but in fact, that's not actually necessary. stuart: okay. have you ever cooked with thc, the stuff that gets you high?

brownies or something? >> we operate on the hemp side of the equation. so less than .2% thc. within a full spectrum product, meaning that it does have a little bit of thc. stuart: i've just go to throw this at you. you know gillette, the razor people? they are blaming an $8 billion shortfall in revenue on millenials who don't shave. you are a millenial. what are you doing to gillette? you're killing them. >> i actually do use a gillette razor and shave around the edges. stuart: that's not a shave. what is it with you youngsters that you like this rough look? >> that's a great question. stuart: is it reaction against old farts like me? >> no, i think you look great. it's just not my style. stuart: you, sir, are all right. you going to leave that here? >> help yourself. stuart: okay. maybe i will. >> sail through the day. stuart: sail through the day?

gabe kennedy. that was great. thanks for joining us. we really appreciate it. good luck. thank you. more "varney" after this. ♪ carvana is six years old this year and is the fastest growing place to buy a car in the nation. it's because we have thousands of people working hard to make our customers' experiences the best. it's because we have tens of thousands of cars ready to be delivered to your doorstep. and it's why hundreds of thousands of happy customers . . . we're carvana, and we want to give you the car buying experience you deserve.

stuart: really big stories, start with the jobs report. unemployment rate, 3.7%. i would characterize that as middle of the road average. what do you say? ashley: it its okay. not that we're slowing down. consumer sentiment number, okay, not blockbuster but humming along. stuart: jackie? >> i agree. what is dragging us is the china trade tension. you don't know if they strike back. they have retaliated in the

past. stuart: that is the other big story of the day. the president threatens to impose 10% tariffs on china products come september the 1st. that has not been imposed. that is taking market down. so too is the speculation i keep saying about this, speculation, that the chinese authorities imposing martial law on hong kong this sunday. that is pure speculation. that would be a huge negative for the china trade talks and for our markets. ashley: i hope that does not happen. stuart: sense searly not. left-hand side of the screen, those five stocks are dragging down the dow the most. apple, goldman, 3m, visa, caterpillar. add it up, they account for half of the loss on the dow. ashley: they are trade sensitive. >> across the board with tech and financials. it is broad-based. stuart: lest we forget i want to

tell our viewers, president trump tweeted out the interview i conducted with lou dobbs on this set. he tweet the whole thing. there you have it. it was mostly about lou. it was on my show. i'm perfectly happy. time's up, neil, it is yours. neil: pity he didn't tweet about me but that's fine. buddy, have a great weekend. where we stand at corner of wall and broad, the dow is down 228 point. no matter how you slice it, unless there is miraculous turn around for the dow, this is the worst week of markets. you have to go back do christmastime last year we experience the losses. we're keeping a close eye. a lot is driven by trade and on part of chinese. they will retaliate for all of this. we don't know what that means, because it is open ended. you don't know what the fear is on wall street. could they cut down on debt they