that's another thing that's keeping the markets really on its heels. charles: i would suggest folks check out the texas manufacturing report. blew away estimates along with durable goods. erin, shah, thank you both very much. all right, folks, dow is up exactly 200 points as i hand the show over to ashley webster. ashley: thank you very much, charles. great job. a call for calm, sending stocks higher in the final minutes of trading. president trump is aboard air force one at this very moment, returning from france after the g7 summit. it has been a whirlwind weekend as we know, as the president met with leaders from around the globe after raising tariffs on china friday that sent markets plummeting. different story today. after the president said chinese trade negotiators are interested in getting back to the table which he views as a very positive development. he made the remarks in his press conference with french prime minister emanuel macron this morning. wall street seems encouraged. markets shooting higher after closing out friday with its

fourth straight weekly loss. tech companies and others with big exposure to china leading the rally. the dow up 233 points. the s&p up nearly 1%. the nasdaq having a strong day, the tech companies up more than 1%. one company that is struggling, though, with the trump trade war is delta children. the ceo of the world's leading crib manufacturer is here exclusively to tell us, well, why he's not sleeping like a baby right now. and the president coming home with a deal on the french digital attacktax. we will get the story from the ceo of information technology industry council. less than an hour to the closing bell. i'm ashley webster in for liz claman. let's start the "countdown." ashley: pitney bowes is rapidly reversing course. it's trading 50% higher in

premarket. the shipping services company said it struck a deal to sell its software business for $700 million. pitney bowes said it would use the proceeds from the sale to pay down near-term debt maturities. but it also cut its 2019 adjusted earnings forecast thanks to lost business from the sale as well as the trade war impact. that stock now down 7% after being up 15% in premarket. the major averages right now are rebounding after friday's bloodbath. right now, off the highs of the session although we're getting there, up 223 on the dow, the s&p and nasdaq also up around 1%. biotech amgen buying celgene's psoriasis drug in cash, clearing the way for bristol-myers squibb to go ahead with its buy of celgene within

the year. they are selling the drugs amid concern from the federal trade commission because of a competing treatment that it is developing. shares of apple, meanwhile, are leading the dow higher after president trump said china had shown a willingness to resume trade negotiations. apple up about 1.5% on the day. take a look at some of the other tech stocks, those most affected by china, facebook, amazon, alphabet, netflix, all the big tech stocks all moving higher. also the chip stocks today as well. take a look at tesla. starting the last week of august, as you can see, up 1%. it lost ground last week. people familiar with the matter say that the elon musk-led car maker will raise prices in china earlier than planned with another possible price increase in december. doesn't hurt the stock. tesla up more than 1%. now to the group of seven. president trump not backing down but standing firm when asked about the impact that his trade strategy with china has had on the international markets.

the president earlier defended his handling of trade relations with china during a press conference at the end of the g7 summit, adding that those calling for him to back down in negotiations quote, don't have the guts. that sounds like president trump. fox business's blake burman certainly has the guts. he's standing by at the white house with the very latest. blake, it wasn't just china news that got the markets fired up. also a trade deal with japan and comments regarding a potential meeting with iran's president rouhani if the circumstances are right. reporter: it was a headline-making day and headline-making weekend over there, no doubt about it. in france for the g7 meetings. let's start with china, though, as we heard the president say in the past that he thinks there could be a trade deal with china and that china wants to make one quote, very badly. there were a couple different headlines, though, today that really shot the market upward, especially over the last few days in which it seemed like

there was a whole lot of escalating tensions. on the one hand it was the vice premier liu he who said china would like to strike a deal with cooperation and a calm attitude, but also, the president said that over the weekend, there were a couple different phone calls from china and that china said that it wanted to get back to the negotiating table. china, though, is denying that those phone calls took place and the administration right now is not saying who might have spoken with who, though the treasury secretary steve mnuchin earlier today said the sides are quote, communicating through intermediaries. the president at that press conference was later pressed for details and this was his response. listen. >> i don't know the gentleman. i think that -- i think i know him a little bit just by watching over the last number of years what's happened. tell you one thing, he's a great negotiator but i think he's going to want to meet. i think iran wants to get this situation straightened out. is that based on fact or based

on gut? that's based on gut. reporter: that very clearly was the president not talking about china, rather talking about iran. that issue and the iran nuclear deal also became a focus of discussion at the g7 as the french president emanuel macron invited iran's foreign minister to france during the meeting, the president did not meet with zharif. that would be a level beneath the presidency but the president said in the news conference as you just heard there that he thinks he could meet with the iranian president rouhani potentially here within weeks. that timeline, the president was asked do you think it could be within weeks, and he said he thinks so. we'll have to see how it all shakes out. ashley: indeed we will. quite right, ten separate headlines in about an hour. blake burman, thank you. appreciate it. remember the rhyme, the grand old duke of york? that's what the markets kind of feel like with the trade war. today they marched up to the top of the hill but who knows if

they will be marched down again tomorrow. maybe. let's get right to the floor show. we have traders at the new york stock exchange, the cme group and the nymex. john, you know, look, we lose 620 points on friday when the tariff war heats up, then we hear from the president today that hey, you know what, china wants to get back to the table. this is reality. are we going to expect this day to day now? is this just the volatility is what we have to live with? >> yes. i like to think we are here at the heart of capitalism on the floor of the new york stock exchange. if they are down, don't frown. look around. there's bull markets everywhere. right next to me, there's the market makers for gold and gold miners. that trend has been doing just fine. as a charted market technician we have up trends everywhere but you have to be more selective in choppy markets. this is not strange for august, september, anyway. this is the time of year when you have low volatility and you can see down here on the floor

it's pretty quiet. summer doldrums. we'll see what october brings. ashley: certainly hasn't been quiet on the markets. to that point, john, you're right, the volatility is very high. we had low volume. phil flynn at the cme, phil, you know, despite everything that's been said and all the volatility, the u.s. economy is moving along quite nicely. we got the durable goods orders for july, up more than 2%, more than expected. it seems to me that despite everything that's going on and the global economy slowing down, the u.s. is the only game in town. >> it is. i'll tell you what, lot of the consumers, if they didn't turn on the tv, wouldn't know things are slow, right? we have great consumer confidence. we've got gasoline prices going down. we've got a stock market that if you haven't checked your 401(k) for a couple weeks, it's about the same place. and yes, all this volatility is really losing the story that the u.s. economy is the best in the world. i tell you another thing. going into this g7, they were

predicting it was going to be the end of donald trump, oh, my gosh, he's going to make a fool of himself. it looks like he came out of that looking pretty good. looks like we might have some talks with china. we might have some talks with iran. so i think there were more wins for donald trump at the g7 than losses. maybe it's because of low expectations. who knows. ashley: i think he had a good summit as well. i think you're right. to chris robinson, chris, i guess we should keep it in perspective. we look at this decade -long bul run. the fact we lose 600 points never feels good but 3%, you need to get perspective. it's not 10%, 12%. this is going to happen but there are a lot of people that never experienced what a normal market is like. >> yeah. obviously, the guest said it earlier. in august the markets get thin because people are on vacation. that's why we have had a couple 2%, 3% moves. i will say this. we opened up last night electronically, we were gapped open lower, made new lows, we

were almost, you know, looking like we were going to go for the 10% correction again, then the market turned around. we rallied 700 points last night and most people out there were barbecuing and not paying attention. that was an impressive rally back and i think that president trump did have a good meeting today. i think the markets calmed down, we were only in about a 200 point trading range. all in all, pretty good. i think you will have to get used to -- remember, 1%, when the dow is at 25,000, 1% is 250 points. ashley: very true. >> so it's going to be a wild ride until we get through september. ashley: it will indeed. gentlemen, we are out of time. thank you so much. john, phil, and chris, thanks for being here this afternoon. let's get a look at the big board for you. just under 50 minutes before we close, the dow up still 189 points. we have been in this same range for quite awhile now. all right. dishing out the praise. dish network jumping higher on a double upgrade from raymond

james to a strong buy with a price target of $44. it says dish's recent pullback on its involvement in the t-mobile/sprint merger settlement has created a quote, opportune time to buy the satellite giant. the stock up nicely 3.5%. coming up next, the man representing america's biggest tech names from facebook to google to apple, he's going to be here with exclusive reaction to today's compromise on france's digital tax and why collateral damage from the china trade war is still the biggest threat not only to tech's most powerful titans but to your pocketbook as well. "countdown" will be right back. imagine traveling hassle-free with your golf clubs.

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ashley: while u.s./china trade relations continue to hang in the balance, france and the u.s. have struck a deal. or at least a draft, perhaps. american negotiators reaching an agreement at least with the french at the g7 summit on france's digital tax law which is poised to place a 3% tax on yearly revenues of big tech behemoths that make at l 750 million euros a week, like apple, google, facebook and amazon, all of them being targeted under that new french law. according to the agreement, france would have to refund to u.s. companies the difference between the tax and the planned mechanism being drawn up by the organization for economic cooperation and development. have no idea what any of that means. here to break it down, thank goodness, what this means for u.s. tech companies going forward, information technology industry council ceo and president jason onson here from d.c.

thank you so much for being here. please make sense of this. is this a big win for the u.s.? >> good to be with you. and it is an open question. we have as you noted a little bit of an outline of what happened. here's the underlying challenge here. france has imposed as you noted a unilateral tax. it's a unilateral tax that falls almost exclusively on u.s. technology companies. that's not good public policy and we applauded the trump administration when they stood up and said we will look into this, investigate it, make sure this doesn't become the norm. we don't want every european country adopting this kind of tax. so the deal that we think was announced today is some positive momentum but it doesn't address the underlying issue. it's positive momentum in that as you noted, france has agreed perhaps to repay that tax if it's collected and the oecd adopts a multilateral, mul multination approach. we shouldn't just pause here and say everything is resolved. we should be making sure other european countries don't do the same thing. ashley: i know there are others

out there, looking at it, the uk for one. we do a lot of these stories, it's just a big money grab. these are big dominant u.s. companies and the eu, i'm convinced there's like a budget, line item budget on their budget that income from big u.s. tech companies. okay. we put this aside but they always seem to be a target. >> that is our concern here and the way in which france has structured this 3% tax really does appear to be going after u.s. companies. that's why we were pleased when the trump administration stood up and said we are going to open an investigation. and the real concern moving forward is if we don't go with the oecd, that's what we should be doing, that's what we advocate for, we should be making this continent-wide approach to taxation, then every other country will say we can do the same money grab, do the same thing and that target on u.s. tech companies gets even larger. ashley: so this is the tweet from macron. some digital players pay very little tax. this is an injustice that

destroys jobs. donald trump and i have just agreed to work together on agreement at the oecd level to modernize international tax rules. is that an injustice the way the current system is set up? >> it's not. the injustice is actually the new tax that france has imposed and we know it's an injustice because it targets u.s. technology companies and doesn't target companies from france or other countries as well. what we would like to see happen, this is the reason the oecd process is so important, we want to see a multinational approach to taxation. we don't want to see individual companies targeted by countries like france. if we can do that approach, that gets us where we need to be. ashley: let me change gears here, talk about china. how important is it to get a deal with china, with regard to the tech companies? >> well, it's incredibly important. china/u.s. trade is something that's dominating the headlines today. we really appreciate frankly the work that the trump administration has been doing to try to address very serious

structural problems with the way china does business. the challenge we have and the concern we have expressed is some of the tactics we're using, the tariffs we are imposing, the increased back and forth tariff war that seems to be in place is not moving us in the right direction. a china trade deal was incredibly important. it's great for both countries. it's particularly good for the u.s. economy, the technology industry supports that move toward a trade deal. we fear that we are moving backward. we want to move forward and get this deal done as quickly as possible. ashley: i wanted to get your response if i could very quickly about the relationship between president trump and apple's tim cook. who the president had, you know, dinner with and tim cook has expressed the concern about how, you know, apple is having to pay tariffs and samsung isn't and the president listened and said i'm going to really seriously consider what we can do. is that what other ceos of tech companies should think about doing? >> we have been very lucky that the president has been a great supporter of the technology industry, is very engaged with leaders across the tech sector. he's had tech ceos from a

variety of different industry segment toss the white house, he listens very closely to their input and we know that he recognizes the enormous economic benefit the tech industry employs tens of millions of americans, it's responsible for 10% of the u.s. economy, generates 1.8 trillion in economic impacts in the u.s. so we know he knows the tech industry is very important to the country. ashley: those are some big numbers. jason oxman, thank you for joining us. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: the mouse house. disney taking the lead on the dow 30 heat map after releasing a slew of new trailers for its streaming service and announcing a retail deal with target. disney shares currently up $134, up 2.77 points. not bad. we are also watching dow component johnson & johnson. shares up much of the day but losing some steam ahead of what could be a landmark legal ruling that could upend all the big pharma in little over half an hour from now, with billions of dollars on the line. we are taking you inside the

decision that could see the biggest business casualty yet in the war on opioids. that's next on "countdown." stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ introducing the all-new chevy silverado. with fifty industry-firsts. it's the strongest, most advanced silverado ever.

ashley: breaking news. a landmark verdict due out in less than 40 minutes now that could forever change the entire landscape for drug makers. johnson & johnson executives on pins and needles. an oklahoma judge is set to rule on the first civil case accusing the drug maker of fueling the country's opioid epidemic. the outcome could put j & j on the hook for more than $17 billion as well as open the door for future cases against big pharma. johnson & johnson currently trading just up half a percent, up 72 cents on the day, ahead of the decision. grady trimble is live in chicago. grady, just how big of an impact could this court ruling have? reporter: well, it could be huge and that's why all eyes are on oklahoma today. this is the first of its kind

case. it will culminate in that ruling in just about a half hour's time and no other such cases have made it to this point. all of them have been settled outside of court. this is the first time it's gone all the way to trial. as you know, opioids have ravaged the united states. the painkillers are responsible for 400,000 deaths across the country in the last 20 years or so. 6,000 people in oklahoma alone have died since the year 2000. that's why the state is seeking $17 billion from johnson & johnson. if the judge does side with the state it will use the money for drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation programs. attorneys for oklahoma are arguing the company created a public nuisance by aggressively marketing the opioids, downplaying the risks of them and promoting the benefits, and that flooded the market with painkillers, according to the state's attorneys. it went so far as to label johnson & johnson an opioid kingpin. the drug maker's lawyers, on the other hand, say that's just not true. they argued the company's

marketing was backed by science. they also claim its painkillers made up only a fraction of the total opioids prescribed in oklahoma. other similar lawsuits in the state as i mentioned have been settled outside of court. purdue pharma, for example, settled with the state for $270 million. teva pharmaceutical settled for $85 million. those are big payouts but that's why this is so important today because $17 billion, a lot more than that. there are also several lawsuits still pending. in ohio there are more than 2,000 cases. they are set to go to trial in october. they are going to be tried all at once and if it does happen, if this ruling comes in favor of the state, it might change whether they settle outside of court or if the drug makers decide to go to trial on it. ashley: a lot at stake, certainly. thank you very much, grady trimble. stay tuned to fox business. we will have that verdict for you coming up at the top of the hour, in about 34 minutes from now. let's take a look at the markets. the dow up, gaining a little

more momentum, up 197 points now. the s&p and nasdaq also up close to 1%. the nasdaq is indeed up 80 points. the lucky horseshoe not so lucky for colts fans this morning, after quarterback andrew luck's retirement bombshell. but a new report says americans may be making a big mistake when it comes to their own retirement. we will fill you in as we travel down the road to retirement when "the claman countdown" comes right back. kevin, meet your father. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you.

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everything you need to go. ashley: colts quarterback andrew luck, shocking his fans with a sudden retirement saturday. luck made more than $97 million during his seven-year career but most americans won't have that kind of nest egg to rely upon in their golden years, and a new report says they are actually slacking off on saving. a new poll from bankrate shows only 29% of working americans increase their retirement savings contribution rate compared to last year. increasing those rates is a standard retirement savings technique to help your funds grow. but in a surprise twist, the most common reason for not increasing their rate, 24% of workers said they were actually comfortable with their level of retirement savings or the amount they were contributing. while 23% said well, they couldn't increase their savings because of stagnant or falling

income. interesting. 57 million, 97 million, whatever it is, most people don't have that. checking the markets, the dow up more than 200, up nearly 1%. the s&p and nasdaq also showing some strong gains. let's go to jackie deangelis on the floor of the new york stock exchange with today's fox business brief. jackie: good afternoon, ashley. kfc saying yum to beyond meat. the fast food giant cooking up a chickenless version of its nuggets set to debut tomorrow at one of the chain's atlanta restaurants, beating rival popeyes and chick-fil-a to the vegan punch. beyond meat racking up its sixth quick serve partner after making deals with five other major brands in recent months, including subway. restaurant brands tim horton's. yum trading a little higher today, up about 1.5%. also, set for a major debut tomorrow, starbucks brewing up its first pumpkin flavored drink since the introduction of the coffee behemoth's popular pumpkin spiced latte in 2003.

the pumpkin dream cold brew will start tomorrow with the return of the fall menu. pumpkin spiced latte, starbucks' most popular seasonal drink, selling 524 million per year. starbucks trading higher by 1.5%. in non-food news, lyft investors hitting the gas after guggenheim upped its rating on shares of the ride hailing giant to a buy with a $60 price target, citing profitability hopes. guggenheim echoing a similar bullish sentiment on the uber rival's earnings expectations from jpmorgan last friday. lyft shares are up more than 3%, close to 4% in today's session. the trading war stealing profits from a baby? up next, the ceo of u.s. grown family-owned company that skyrocketed to the top of the children's furniture market on the threat of tariffs, n.

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oh, and happy birthday... or retirement... in advance. we're down on the floor, lower than the floor. can't make a 50/50 deal. this has to be a deal that's better for us and if it's not better, let's not do business together. we have to balance our trading relationship at least to an extent. ashley: president trump explaining what a china deal has to look like with just six days left now before new tariffs kick in, with even higher stakes. president trump hiking tariffs set to go into effect over the labor day weekend from 10% to 15% in response to china's tariffs which were a response to mr. trump's original tariff threat. it's tit for tat. delta children is one of the countless companies scrambling to try and deal with an ever-changing landscape.

the company's ceo joins us now. joe, thank you for being here. rehear the r we hear the rhetoric all the time but you are the ceo of a company that's very much dependent on china and you are now having to eat the costs which can go up again by another 5% on september 1st, next weekend. how is it affecting your business? >> devastating effect. we don't know where to go. we don't know where to place our orders, where to invest our further machinery. one day the tariffs are on, one day they're possibly coming off. we spent decades, our company is 50 years old. we have a long history with china building a great infrastructure of personnel that are constantly checking the products, making sure they're safe. we have nine test labs in china and several hundred people checking those products. ashley: it's hurting your bottom line, i would imagine. >> for sure.

we can't possibly -- our typical bottom line is 5%, 6 pr%. how do you deal with a 25%, 30% tariff without passing it on to the consumer? the average mom and dad trying to raise a family who all of a sudden now has to pay more for a baby product. ashley: the president has said look, he's told companies look for alternatives to china, look for another supply chain. that is feasible, in your case? >> absolutely not. nobody has the infrastructure available, materials from wood and steel and plastics and wheels and things that go into making a crib. we also have, as i mentioned before, the infrastructure, testing facilities and personnel and so forth. how would he expect us to move on a dime? it's like can i ask him to build a building tomorrow and have it finished by next week? it doesn't work. ashley: the president says look, we have to take a stand. the trade, there's an imbalance, china has been getting away with murder for many, many decades and it's time to take a stand,

and short-term pain, long-term gain. what would you say to that? >> the short-term pain is being held mostly by the average mom and dad and is it fair for them to have to, who their income did not go up, for them to have to pay more to have a child. you literally put a tax on having a baby. a tax on having a child. it's not fair to them. him and i are not suffin maybe my company is going to go through a little bit of a hard time. we will come out of it okay. we are financially strong. but the average mom, the average dad, is not. they are the ones take are paying the price. ashley: i spoke to someone earlier about tim cook, the ceo of apple, actually went to the white house, had dinner with the president, sat down and said look, we can't compete with samsung when you are making our phones this much more expensive. have you had a chance, have you contacted the white house, have you spoken to your local representative? what have you done? >> i have spoken to numerous local representatives who basically, whether they be republican or democrat, basically throw up their hands, say listen, we have no control

over the president. we understand what you are saying, we understand the jobs you create here in america, and we understand that it's a huge problem. guess what? i'm asking right here on fox news, please, president trump, you have met with tim cook. it's time to meet with joe shame shamie. i would like to talk to you about the safety of your grandchildren, the safety of the grandchildren around the world. i would also like to give out the family business we represent, three generations are in this business and what we have done and the nearly 400 employees we directly employ. president trump, i'm begging to meet with you, any time, anyplace. please. ashley: he's on a plane right now coming back from france. maybe someone will pass that on, joe. what percentage of the materials that you get from china, i mean, you put together children's furniture. how much comes actually from china? >> so on the cribs and bassinets and beds and so forth, they come in complete, 100% from china.

ashley: 100%. >> 100%. on the mattresses, we manufacture those in america, right in wisconsin. those mattresesare taxed. here's another kicker. we are trying to expand our production and buy new machinery and that machinery is coming from china which is supposed to be taxed at 25%. where are we going? what are we doing? ashley: have you ever thought of trying to diversify a little bit? being so exposed to china, is there, what's your alternative? >> we are manufacturing some products in indonesia, vietnam and malaysia. but they don't have the infrastructure to do it. they don't have the capacity. they don't have the personnel, people and so forth. so there's no way that we can produce what china produces. remember, china is a billion and a half people with a huge, huge amount of resources. the other countries do not have all of that. ashley: there's a big safety

issue, too. i would imagine you've got all of that down with your chinese, you know, producers. >> some of these factories have been dealing with my father, may he rest in peace, for 40 years. we have been dealing 40 and 50 years. we have been together and we have figured out how to make a safe product for an affordable price. that doesn't happen overnight. that happens over a lot of time and effort. i cannot move automatically to any other country. i will not move. i would close down because i would just move overnight and run the risk of putting children in danger. so it's a huge problem. we have nine safety labs in china set up, hundreds of people in china set up. how easy you think that will be for us to unwind? ashley: very very difficult, i'm sure. joe, thank you so much for being here. i'm sure, for stating your message and hopefully someone has heard it. thank you very much. >> thank you for the time. ashley: let's check the big board, if we can. as we were talking, lost a

little ground. the dow up 173 points, 25,801. how about this story. overstock shares getting burned figuratively and literally. coming up next, charlie gasparino goes inside the world of former ceo patrick byrne and the real reasons behind the executive's dramatic exit from the e-commerce giant. charlie will break it down next on "the claman countdown." there's a company that's talked to even more real people than me: jd power. 448,134 to be exact. they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years.

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ashley: investors hitting the return button on overstock shares at this hour, as you can see down. this is since the close back i guess it was since 8-22 so since last week, down 20% ever since the shocking exit of ceo patrick byrne.

overstock's founder claiming that distractions due to his involvement into an fbi investigation into a russian espionage case, no longer allows him, he said, to lead the online retailer. charlie gasparino joins us now. charlie, you have been looking in the series of events that kind of led up to his resignation. >> i have been having text message conversations with patrick on the story. i should point out that he tells me that he will have more details to explain more about his relationship with the russian spy maria butina at the center of his claim -- ashley: can't wait for that. >> he said he was like a mole for the government? ashley: a mole for the government. yes. and was basically running an operation for them. >> among other things. here's what he said. he goes i'm planning a web posting about me and maria butina later today, tonight. it's going to be on his website, deep capture, and he says that

he left the company for one reason, one reason only, that because of this relationship was becoming a distraction for him to run overstock. okay. that's what patrick's saying. i'm not disputing that, because i'm not there. reporters can only report on what we hear verified and what's happening. but i will tell you this, okay. again, i always liked patrick. ashley: he's a likeable guy. very affable. >> i have known him for years. i thought cnbc was giving him too much of a hard time on short selling which was pretty much on the money in some respects. he brought up a decent issue to bring up. but you just cannot divorce him leaving from some of the stuff that's going on at the company, meaning there's stuff, there's real stuff going on at overstock, at the company, when -- as he left. that doesn't mean ther kaey're connected but it's happening. that is what i understand, and i understand this not because someone at the s.e.c. is

whispering at me, whispering to me. i understand this because i went back and looked at the public filings. there is an ongoing investigation. you can fairly maintain, i think, or surmise that that investigation that the s.e.c. is conducting is expanding based on both disclosures and there's some of the timeline, disclosures and statements, and you know, what's interesting is if you look at some of this stuff, again, go back and look at the documents, okay. they start talking about an investigation, mainly, not into just overstock but into this crypto venture. ashley: investigation into tokens. >> the crypto token business that he has. it starts on 2-1-18 based on the s.e.c. filings. the company's own filings. it expands later that year, it

looks like, in november. the company again this year in may brings it up again. it's still ongoing. interesting, company officials in a coin desk, a crypto publication, it wasn't patrick, it was a company official basically said that the s.e.c. is now requesting even more information including e-mails and documents in the may-june period. so it clearly is an expansion of what they're starting. by the way, we should point out that s.e.c. investigations, they last for a long time. they often don't lead anywhere. not saying anybody's guilty here. ashley: what's going on in the background. >> they launched the token market in august and then as you know, last week, patrick resigns. again, confluence does not mean there's a -- it's directly

linked. i'm not going there. i don't know. i can only tell you what patrick told me. ashley: i was going to say, have you spoken to him about it? >> you know, e-mails and we have a statement from him. the only thing i know about the s.e.c. investigation is t-zero is working with them on developing a new block chain capital market. i got that. the company, just so you know, the company is disclosing much more than that. the company is disclosing an ongoing probe, you can fairly surmise from the public disclosures and statements this ongoing probe is expanding -- ashley: not going away. >> as of recently. ashley: yeah. >> and you know, there's some -- there's issues here. now, again -- ashley: i'm looking forward to his latest blog. >> he tells me later today we're going -- like tonight on deep capture, i guess we should all tune in to deep capture, he's going to have more on his relationship with maria butina. ashley: you can't make this stuff up. >> whatever's going on with the fbi. should i call the fbi for

comment? ashley: i think you should. >> overstock had no comment on this. ashley: great stuff as always. thank you. the closing bell coming up in seven minutes from now. the market ping-pong ball, bouncing higher after friday's big selloff. up next, our "countdown" closers have the picks they say can weather all the market's ups and downs for your portfolio. "the claman countdown" coming right back. managing type 2 diabetes? audrey's on it. 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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♪ ashley: well the dow hovering around the 200 plus mark. we have hung in there all day as we wrap up today's session, wrap up friday's big selloff after the downturn, our countdown closers say rely on reliability and safability for your portfolio. we have investment managing director, john crestwell here in the studio.

thank you both for being here. john, let me begin with you. resilient, reliable, where do we go to find that? >> one in the reit market. manufacturing housing and another in wireless towers. both domestic markets don't have a lot of economic sensitivity. will not be affected by any global treats tweets. ashley: to john's point what is the safe haven play other than gold and treasurys? >> we would suggest going into consumer staples companies as well as health care. avoid highly leveraged companies that rely on the credit markets to keep themselves alive. we would advise in this uncertain economic time, move up the quality spectrum within fixed income. reduce high yield. go into high quality bonds. ashley: headlines aside, we do know they have impact on

minute-by-minute basis. you have algorithmic computers looking for key words but i want to talk about the 10-year, the two-year inversion, how is sign of recession coming, we don't know when, how reliable is that and do we believe that? >> it has been somewhat reliable, not perfectly reliable, gave a couple false-positives. when it typically has inverted, took 11, 12, 13 months to enter recession. it might tell you it is coming but still takes a while. the second point i would make, given the global qe we're in right now, it is fair to say if there is ever a time you got a false-positive it would be now because of massive easing going on globally, where the u.s. is it ising with higher rates. ashley: we're the only game in town when it comes to yield. it is not much to john's point are we looking towards

recession? the u.s. economy is perhaps slowing but it is pretty robust? >> our expectation is 2% handle on gdp this year as well potentially next year, maybe 1 and 3/4. the real slowdown is coming from the em side, i.e., china, as well as the eurozone. that is what is giving, pulling down our rates but overall the global growth backdrop for 2020 will be one of deceleration. so even though we may not be in a recession you may actually see the feedback loop into earnings as well as revenues. hence the reason why we're suggesting to be balanced in high quality investments. ashley: sounds like sound advice for sure. very quickly, john. the fed has the market's back anyway, right? >> they do. although monetary policy seems a little exhausted here. even if you get 50 points may not be enough. we'll see. buy quality companies. ashley: john, chad, thank you so

much for joining us on this monday. really appreciate it. [closing bell rings] the bells are ringing on wall street, they're smiling, they're clapping. the dow up 247 point. getting a little bit of oomph at the end. that is it for claman countdown. connell mcshane and kristina partsinevelos. connell: getting back to the negotiating table. president trump claims china wants a deal. kristiana: i'm kristina partsinevelos in for melissa francis. this is "after the bell." connell: not bad. we'll take the gains across t