[closing bell rings] stocks still represent a very attractive alternative. both from the capital appreciation and also from the current yield and dividend growth perspectives. liz: thank you, ernie. thank you. that will do it for the "claman countdown." connell: you guessed it, when we're in the green we saw renewed trade optimism. we had positive data on the economy which we'll talk about as well. the dow settles in up 372 points to the upside a really good day for stocks. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell." the s&p 500 and the nasdaq continuing their rallies from yesterday, pushing us toward record levels we saw back in july. we're keeping track of dorian as it moves north. the category 2 hurricane battering the carolinas, could

make landfall tonight or tomorrow. 250,000 people are currently without power in south carolina as charleston braces for a possible 10-foot storm surge. can you imagine if governor of north carolina is expected to make comments about the impact of dorian. we'll keep you updated on the storm's path throughout the hour. connell: then there is president trump, expected to speak any moment from now at the white house. a event awarding the presidential medal of freedom to the basketball hall-of-famer, jerry west. the logo himself. we'll bring you any headlines out of that event. especially if the president talks about other subjects. gerri willis watching that rally on the floor of the new york stock exchange. edward lawrence and blake burman are both on the north lawn off the white house elbowing each other out, searching for space there on the lawn but edward, on the tray front, we start with you, sir. reporter: connell there, was a phone call, big phone call between the two trade

delegations. trade sources in china are saying that call went very well from their perspective this is positive steps forward towards a trade deal with china and the united states. we expected this phone call, long anticipated phone call that would happen to set up a meeting between the two delegations. that meeting was supposed to happen this month but chinese sources tell us that meeting will be in early october. this is progress after 23 days with no sign much movement. china got consensus from the u.s. to work toward a mutual deal. the two sides agreed they should work together to take practical actions to create favorable conditions for consultations. >> translator: trade wars is not beneficial to china nor u.s., not to mention the entire world. we are firmly opposed to that. reporter: the chinese are saying that the escalating tariffs will do nothing to bring the two sides together for a trade deal. the president believes tariffs

will cause enough pain in the chinese economy that china will agreed to a trade deal and stop stealing intellectual property however some experts say this is a multilayered standoff. listen. >> china is not playing purely a bilateral game here. what they're doing is reducing their tariffs they are, on other countries. so they are, as supply chains realign themselves they're making china a more attractive place for other countries to trade with, to invest in, so forth. they're not waiting on the united states to blink here, they're taking action proactively. reporter: china's president told his people they should anticipate a long road, endure possible long term hardship economically because of this trade battle. the president, president xi does not have to deal with an election in 2020 or ever like president donald trump. back to you. melissa: edward, thank you. the dow closing at 372 points well off the session highs. so let's go to gerri willis with more on all of the trade, gerri.

reporter: everything ed lawrence was saying this is what is really encouraging this market. it is trade optimism making stocks go higher. at its high the dow was up 481 points. what we're seeing now, the old-fashioned technology, ibm, cisco, hewlett-packard. these stocks were on fire today. it used to be facebook. it used to be all the new technology companies were doing so well. those stocks have been bid to the sky. now investors looking to old school technology to do better. nasdaq winners today, also including a lot of chip stocks. you know how important that is in trade. china stocks, really influenced here. nvidia, western digital that is and micron. you can see how they moved here up 6 1/2% for nvidia. very big news there. we're seeing big news for companies that have a lot to do with china. now investors scouring for other things that might be advantaged as well from the trade talks. melissa, back to you.

melissa: thank you. connell: the other thing today on the data, u.s. adding 195,000 private sector jobs in the month of august, ahead from adp ahead of the highly anticipated jobs report from the government tomorrow morning. many americans are looking for clues how the economy is actually faring. we have paul after sano, paul, add into the mix, the services report, some better than expected, counteracting weakness in the manufacturing. that is almost more interesting than getting into a back and forth with china at least for today. the data we're getting on the economy what did you take away from it? >> i think the new york fed president in a speech yesterday summed it up perfectly. the comment was the u.s. economy is in a good place right now but it is not without risk and uncertainty. i think that's what we're seeing. obviously china trade being a big global risk. there are many others out there,

two of the biggest ones, brexit, and civil unrest in hong kong. there is a lot of things going on around the world that create risk and uncertainty arguably what is a good economy in the u.s. connell: brexit, that is some sorry. we'll tack about that by the way a little later on in the hour. sara, what is your take, you could be glass half-full, a lot of people are, we're the best of the bunch, today was a day that showed up and really holding up pretty well? glass half empty, you would say to yourself the weakness in manufacturing eventually spreads to services eventually, works its way into the employment data. which side of that argument would you take? >> sure. i think right now there is enormous volatility and outside risk in the economy both in the short, medium, especially in the longer term. we see see a monster hurricane bearing down in north carolina. there is global unrisk. it is unclear if tomorrow morning president trump will wake up, send out a series of tweets throws all the good news

about trade talks resuming out the window, right? that is just the environment we're operating in. i think when you look at kind of day-to-day statistics rolling out, those are certainly meaningful. connell: right. >> adp numbers tend to be unreliable. we'll see what happens tomorrow. in general this is enormously volatile time and very hard to make predictions you can stand by. connell: stick around, guys. more from both of you in a moment. melissa: mary barra goes to washington. the general motors ceo meeting with president trump in the oval office less than a week after the president took to twitter to lament gm's significant races in china. blake burman live from the white house with details. blake? reporter: every now and then the president takes to twitter to give a an opinion on general motors. he got to sit down face-to-face in the office office to speak with chief executive mary barra. the white house not providing a readout what the two talked about citing private

conversations. there are a host of issues for the automaker. among them negotiating a new contract from the uaw and the closure of plants. they stand as an interested party to the president's trade war with china, a battle over fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. you're looking of video of barra as she left the white house this afternoon, a very, very short comment from her as she faced the cameras after meeting with the president. listen. >> what did you hear from the president today? >> we had a productive and valuable meeting. thank you. reporter: productive and casual meeting, thank you. you mentioned the president and his comments about general motors. just last week he suggested that gm should move factories back from china to the u.s. how gm's workforce in the u.s. is smallest of the big three, saying quote, now one of the smallest auto manufacturers out there, at least that was his take on twitter. last week, got to imagine, melissa, they touched on several of those topics in the oval earlier today. melissa: no doubt, blake, thank

you. okay, let's bring paul and sara back to react. paul, i almost feel like the president takes to twitter to trash talk about you. maybe it doesn't have the, not you in particular. >> me? melissa: i haven't seen that yet. about one, and perhaps it doesn't have the same impact that did it before. i don't know that people still panic. he is kind of trashing someone new every day. you go, all right, what is he upset about? let's go talk. that is sort of what she looked like. i don't know what is your take? >> i think you're right to a certain extent, it has been watered down a little bit, people have gotten used to it. sarah touched on it in her earlier comments. i refer to the world as a vortex of volatility for several years now and volatility around the world is not just limited to the economy, economic events or even geopolitical. things such as climate change. things such as hurricane dorian. these things all have an impact and create tremendous volatility in the markets. trump's twitter feed is just

another one of those items in the vortex of volatility as far as i'm concerned. >> sarah, let me take you back to the point you made before how the president can get up and tweet at any moment. paul says the vortex of volatility i will put another v to that. how about victory? he could declare victory with china as much as many people come out of the woodwork whatever deal he made is not enough wasn't worth waiting for that time, it still is true the market would take off, the economy would expand. he could declare victory at any moment. are you prepared for that? >> that's right. we have to look at the underlying situation here. with the u.s.'s trading relationship with china that in itself regardless what the president tweets poses deep risks and deep challenges in the way our economy is structured overtime. our organization, open markets looks at market power, looks fragility from this sense. so we have seen a lot, a lot of our kind of economic agency

outsourced to china, including really critical national security components, things of that nature. we're taking a long view. that, that sort of acknowledgement and work needs to be done to really create sustainable u.s. economy over the long term. melissa: we have to divorce ourselves, become less dependent on it. facebook official, social media giant rolling out a online dating service in the u.s. today. the new feature, dubbed, facebook dating, allows anyone 18 years old or older to set up a dating profile within the app. security and privacy, are at the forefront of this product. [laughter]. sure it is, paul. if you believe that, i have a bridge i want to sell you. what i think is fascinating about this, their entire game at facebook, try to give you as much information as possible, spend as of much time there you possibly can. it has taken them this wrong, getting people hooked up in a

romantic way would keep you there? although information you give might be fake. >> i am married. i haven't been on a date in probably a quart he have of a century. melissa: we hope. i know your wife is lovely. >> that being said, i don't know about you i'm on facebook with my parents, my kids. if i was in the dating pool i'm not sure that is where i want to dip in. melissa: interesting. sara, i deleted my facebook page for security reasons. they are selling everything to everyone. they have lost control of the platform in my opinion. you think this is good, is it a good idea for them to go even deeper on personal information? >> it definitely isn't but it is true to form for them to just continue to plow forward without regard to their, essentially too big to manage problem which you alluded to. melissa: yes. >> the other thing you alluded to, pun is almost too easy,

moving into a kind of a dating space at the same time when wagons are starting to circle around a serious antitrust investigation what it might look like to break up the company. i think we've heard rumors that next week or soon after that state attorneys general might announce a similar investigation into google and facebook. google, facebook are very much sort of twins when it comes to their business models and investigations into the corporations. they are kind of flirting with a very, very serious intervention by the part of act at this trust enforcers. that is something that our organization has been calling for for a long time. melissa: thanks, guys. great stuff. sara, paul, see you back here soon i hope. connell: to the storm, hurricane dorian's next target. hundreds of thousands of people from georgia to north carolina without power as we speak. deadly category 2 storm taking aim at the carolinas. we're tracking the path as it heads up. that is coming up. melissa: terrifying explosion caught on camera.

tornadoes, dangerous winds, look at that, knocking down trees and toppling down power lines in south carolina. forecasters are warning that tornadoes could pop up as the storm moves up the coast. we're on the ground in a hardest hit areas. connell: a big issue, tornadoes. escalating crisis across north america. officials sound the alarm what could be another death linked to vaping. that is coming up. ♪ so you can save big. get a no-fee personal loan up to $100k.

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connell: storm certainly has been taking it time, hurricane dorian moving up the eastern seaboard quite slowly. last time we checked it was 8 miles an hour. we remember it was over the bahamas moving literal at one mile-an-hour. moving over south carolina, dumping massive amounts of rain throughout the day. 250,000 customers without power in that state. that is almost one in 10. jeff flock is now live from jeep's island in south carolina with the latest from there. jeff? reporter: i have one of those customers. this is michael's yard. this is jean's island. this is off the coast. folly beach, and there is jean's island. that is kai, he survived the hurricane.

so did his master. no power. >> out of power since 11:30 last night? >> yes. reporter: you expected it. >> every time power goes off during a hurricane. you expect the power to go off. expect the worst. hope for the best. reporter: connell, was the best. i have got some pictures for you from charleston. a water event in charleston, big time. a lot of street flooding there. no catastrophic damage. and you know, this, the scene here, you lost a tree but, you know, all things considered, the house is okay. >> the house is fine. that is best thing that can happen for me, to lose a tree. you know, not have to worry about insurance going up and having to deal with somebody to come by to fix it, losing time at work. reporter: got you. the good news here is that, you know, could have been worse. we often say that in hurricanes but that's a good thing. now it is headed up the coast. so we'll see what the guys in

north carolina have to say tomorrow morning. connell: you've been through one or two of these, jeff, in your day. for those people watching, someone watching say in north carolina, what would you say to them about this storm as it makes its way, maybe goes onshore what would you say about this storm to them? >> i would say you don't need to have it come on shore to have a mess. speaking of a mess, holy crow, he is digging, digging a hole as we speak. he is going to bury the next tree. you would say you don't need to have a hurricane in order to have a lot of trouble. flooding, wind damage, trees down. power down. this storm may well never hit the u.s., with all of the talking we've done about it, in coverage. it may never hit the u.s. that doesn't mean it hasn't done a lot of damage. connell: we san see it there. good job of the dog taking advantage of moist soil. good weather. melissa: showing them where to

put the power lines underground next time. connell: probably. jeff, be good. reporter: we'll see you. melissa: more on the ground perspective we're join on the phone by brenda bethune, mayor of myrtle beach south carolina. they declared a civil emergency this afternoon. what are you seeing in the area that necessitated the emergency? >> well, we are waiting for the worst of the storm to get to us which will probably be after dark much the civil emergency really was precautionary measures, if we have to enact a curfew or anything like that, we would have a the ability to do so. melissa: we watched people on the screen, a second ago, walking out into the water. we have people who are not necessarily taking this so seriously, even as you see downed power lines, you see storm surge. you see water. what do you say to those folks?

>> you know it is frustrating. we see this every time we have a storm, no matter what the weather reports are, the update, there are still people who just don't believe that it is going to get worse. we don't know what the exact time that will be. right now, we are experiencing tropical storm effects. so we could have downed power lines and trees. we do have some standing water in places. and it's just too dangerous to be out right now. melissa: yeah, i mean you talk about the one in 10 in the state without power. we've seen video of, you know, explosions of power lines snapping and the like. how big of that problem in the area and how long do you think it takes to get everything fixed? >> luckily we've been okay as far as power. in the city of myrtle beach as of 3:30, we had only 23 homes without power. we're still waiting on the worst of the storm. hopefully we can maintain that.

but we also are ready to get back up and running. we are a tourist destination. we depend on it. we have crews already staged with equipment to get out first thing in the morning, do damage assessments, start the cleanup, have this beach up and ready to welcome visitors back. melissa: how soon do you think that will be? i know you don't know right now. that is one of the big stories of this storm. i was down in the bahama is with my family labor day weekend. we left on saturday along with everyone else. obviously with the loss of life and devastation which is hosch, but they were still evacuated before the big labor day weekend started. for you guys, you said end of summer and fall is a big time for you. how quickly do you think you can be back up and running and how important is that to your local economy? >> it's crucial to our economy. tourism is our main driver here.

and, we thrive on it. we depend on it. so, we will have this place up and running in no time. as long as there is no major damage. as i said, we haven't seen how bad it will get later this evening, but even after hurricane florence, we were up within a matter of days. we just couldn't get people into us because of flooding. melissa: keep us posted mayor. send us pictures. we'll tell people when you're ready have them down to visit. we appreciate it. >> thank you so much. connell: we'll watch it tonight. i guess early tomorrow morning too. melissa: yeah. connell: family loyalty and the national interest. the prime minister, boris johnson over in the uk under pressure after a personal blow from, well his younger brother of all people. melissa: amazing. connell: what the move could mean for the escalating brexit fight is coming up. plus the cream of the college crop, which university drops this year's list. melissa: hmmm. connell: i would think fordham. melissa: i would think. connell: we'll break it down

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melissa: breaking news right now. new york city mayor de blasio presidential campaign is launching a so-called robot tax. what a great idea. aimed at protecting workers losing their jobs to automation much the plan creating a new federal agency, that's what we need! another federal agency. this will regulate automation. he will be on with tucker tonight. i'm sure he will ask about that. making its mark on students across the nation, harvard university ranking as this year's top school in the u.s. connell: come on. melissa: according to "the wall street journal" 2019 rankings followed by its neighbor mit and yale coming in third. the overall rank something based on 15 factors across four categories, measures of graduate salaries, debt burdens, academic resources. stanford nowhere to be found.

connell: rigged. melissa: university of california at los angeles, top list of public schools. connell: you went to harvard. melissa: ranked highest as the best value in the country. connell: better say it right, harvard grad. melissa: all right. connell: fordham. torn between family loyalty and national interests, uk prime minister boris johnson's brother his brother, joe johnson announced he is stepping down from the british parliament today. it has been quite a week for boris. lawmakers are working to block what they call a no-deal brexit as the embattled prime minister is seeking common ground. vice president mike pence over trade today. hillary vaughn reporting more on this live from the white house. reporter: connell, vice president mike pence assured prime minister boris johnson today once the uk is out of the eu america is ready to step in and negotiate a free trade deal. >> the president told me today to tell prime minister johnson

that when brexit is complete we will begin negotiations on a free-trade agreement right away. our message is clear, the minute the uk is out, america is in. reporter: but that won't happen until prime minister boresries johnson gets brexit to go through which is getting tougher and tougher as oppositions against leaving the eu with no deal is facing major backlash in parliament after they approved the force johnson to delay the eu as planned october 31st. johnson is looking at a plan b, a general election on october 15th to pick up more conservative seats in the parliament to let a no-deal brexit go through. >> i hate banging on about brexit. i don't want to go about this anymore. i don't want an election at all. i don't want an election at all. frankly i cannot see any other way. the only with to get this thing done, get this thing moving is

to make that decision. reporter: the vote to launch an impromptu election failed yesterday. they will try to vote on it on monday. when asked today by reporters if he would ask brussels for a delay for brexit, he said he would rather be dead in a ditch. no movement on that. connell: that is quite a quote. connell: thank you, hillary at the white house. anthony gardner, joins us, former ambassador to the european union. rather be dead in a ditch. talk about what we should bet on in your view. i'm trying to figure this out, what is the most likely kind of scenario here in the next few months? some sort of delay in brexit? a no deal brexit? no brexit at all? what would you have to bet on if you had to? >> everyone speculating has been proved wrong the last three years so it is hard to do. i suspect there will be a delay because he can't call for an election. he doesn't have the votes for that. he is a prisoner of the

parliament. the parliament doesn't want to crash out with no deal. probably another delay. but at some point there is going to have to be a national election. clearly this is unsustainable. many people in britain are concerned about what is happening to the image of the uk worldwide. this is one of the world's oldest democracies. connell: right. >> it is looking pretty sad to see this country tearing itself apart over an issue, let's remind ourselves is really not a first order issue, membership in the european union. it has been tearing itself apart for three years. connell: now we've had all kinds of conversations going in circles on this. yesterday as a matter of fact, if brexit happens with no deal, maybe it is not the end of the world. that is one view. others have a different view, thinking there would be dire circumstances economically to deal with. people who oppose brexit right now in the uk, what is their goal? they just want to cope keep

putting off? or do they think they can actually avoid it? what is their goal? >> some believe this should be put back to the people in another referendum. the views first referendum was so tainted because of lack of clarity about what the choices were, what the implications of those choices were. now it is much clearer. the problem with that a second referendum might be different. remainers might win and the second vote may not solve anything. some may want a national election to clarify what the company is doing. it is unclear whether boris johnson would win. connell: do you think he would? >> polls are unpredictable. the polls right now show that he, might win but, there is a, hypothesis that the opposition

parties together could cobble together a government. it is possible. connell: i wonder who his brother would campaign for? what a world. ambassador, good to see you again. we appreciate it. >> thank you. melissa: hurricane dorian leaving thousands homeless in the bahamas after decimating parts of the island. dozens are death. officials say the death toll is expected to rise. we're live in nassau after the break. connell: we're tracking the hurricane as it continues to inch its way up the east coast. the heavy rain you saw in the carolinas. we'll have a live report from wilmington in north carolina later in the hour. ♪ yeah, that too. i don't want any trade minimums. yeah, i totally agree, they don't have any of those. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely. do you just say yes to everything? hm. well i say no to kale. mm. yeah, they say if you blanch it it's better, but that seems like a lot of work. no hidden fees. no platform fees. no trade minimums.

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melissa: rising death toll, at least 20 people are now confirmed dead in the bahamas after a hard hit from hurricane dorian. that number expected to go up. the country's prime minister is calling the deadly storm a historic tragedy. fox news ace steve harrigan is live in nassau with the latest. steve? reporter: melissa, they are bringing a the love survivors here -- a lot of survivors here by u.s. helicopters. it is the case the survivors have to be carried off the helicopters by the u.s. pilots. they are injured, too weak, too traumatized to walk on their own. many of them have life or death stories, including this man who fought hard to keep his wife and two small children alive during the storm. >> we got in about maybe

hour 1/2 from the eye passing through. tortnados came, took the roof off. heading my wife and two kids for hour 1/2. sea crashing on my back. only thing that saved my life was a single door. reporter: stunning hanging on to a single door. hanging on to his wife and two children. at the same time we've seen a lot of reunions here. people hugging for a minute at a time. it is a real mixture of sadness and joy. a lot of red-eyed crying people, who weren't sure their relatives were dead or alive. so far we're seeing them find out they are alive. the death toll as you mentioned was officially noted as 20 by the prime minister. but that number is expected to change dramatically in the days ahead. melissa, back to you. >> steve, thank you. connell: boy, raising the stakes. iran is out with a warning ahead after looming nuclear deadline. we'll talk to jack keane, retired four-star general about

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melissa: a second person known dead for severe lung illness linked to vaping in oregon. officials not releasing the identity of the person who died in july. the brand of the e-cigarette device was used. that was coming after an illinois patient was reported dead just last month. connell: potentially accelerated timeline, meantime. iran warning it plans to take up new measures to speed up its uranium enrichment, possibly shortening the time to build a nuclear weapon. rich edson at the state department with the latest on all this. rich? reporter: good afternoon, connell. iran is promising to unveil the specifics how it will exactly accelerate its nuclear program over the next couple days. a state department spokesperson said iran's announcement it will take new steps regarding advanced centrifuge r&d, is apparently attempt to negotiate leverage and extort the international community. we made it clear that the regime's political and economic isolation will only deepen if it

takes further steps that increase concerns about its nuclear program. in other words, more sanctions on the way. there is also a question of whether president trump will meet iranian president hassan rouhani at the united nations general assembly in new york. the president says he wants to meet. rouhani says only if the u.s. drops sanctions first. president trump refuses. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu acknowledged this morning a meeting with between president trump and rouhani is possible but he stresses outright opposition to a meeting especially after iran's promise to build a nuclear program. >> translator: this is in addition to iran's aggressive actions against international shipping against regional countries, also its attempts to carry out murderous attacks against israel, attempts have not stopped. this is not the time to hold talks with iran. this is the time to step up pressure on iran. reporter: iran has been putting pressure on european countries to try to find a way to help

iran sell its oil after the u.s. left the iran nuclear deal last year and restored sanctions on the top exports, especially oil. connell. connell: rich edson at the state department. melissa: here is general jack keane, fox news senior strategic analyst. there is a lot to react there. let me ask you, there is potential meeting on the sidelines of the g7, they had their foreign ambassador was there, macron seemed to be trying to broker a deal. do you think any members of the u.s. delegation met with any iranian members at that meeting? >> i'm not aware of but you know, that wouldn't be surprising. the iranians clearly are in a very desperate situation. the maximum pressure campaign has taken its toll. they're back on their heels the way they have not been in 39 years to be frank about it. you know. you're conversant with the state of their economy. inflation is spiraling out of control.

unemployment is at record levels. their currency has devalued significantly, and most importantly their number one commodity where they used to punch out 2,500,000 barrels per day, now they're down to a little north over 200,000. it shows you what a dramatic turn-down in revenue that they have from that alone. it is, it's dramatically significant. melissa: yeah. >> revenue sources have dried up some 40, 50%. so here, hear what they're trying to do, you're right, melissa, they have gone to european nations, they're blackmailing them saying we're going to increase uranium enrichment, increase centrifuges, those are pathways to a nuclear problem, in violation of a nuclear deal struck with the countries in returns for us finding a customer for our oil. i hope the europeans don't take them up on that. they're giving in to that bribery. if they do, the night has to get

real tough with those nations. melissa: what do you think about the fact, we're within months being back to where we were before this deal was struck? it makes you think, what was the deal really worth if it was that easy? then macron steps in says maybe europe will give you this 15 billion-dollar line of credit to help you out while the sanctions are on? what do you think of those two things? >> well they, they got what they wanted out of the deal. they wanted their money back and north of $130 billion was provided them because of the immediate sanction relief once the deal was struck. and of course the united states was arguing with the world community, this would be a good thing because the iranians, treating them legitimately as a responsible nation, maybe they will act as a responsible nation. what did they do with the money? they poured it into their proxies in the middle east, in hezbollah, in hamas, in the

houthis, iraqi shia militia, created more aggressive maligned behavior. and now they're trying to say that the nuclear deal, they have been abiding by it. well they have to a point. the nuclear deal they accepted gets them a nuclear weapon when they want it in 15 years. they're well on their way to that pathway right now. melissa: yeah. >> i don't think the nuclear deal benefited the people in that deal. the principle nations in that deal, we've already lost as a result of it, because they have got the money to flush their operations which have been more aggressive and more detrimental to instability in the middle east. melissa: the point of that deal was, you know, the europeans wanted another market into which to sell their products because their economies were slowing. they thought they could sell products into iran. you have a fresh market that hasn't been exposed to all the things out there that they know they want. they now in exchange what could happen, obama's argument was the

people, they will see coca-cola and apple computer, all these things, they will decide they don't want to live under this oppressive regime. well, nothing ever reached those people. that didn't work out. now you have rouhani coming to the u.n. at the end of the month. do you think that president trump meets with him while he is here? >> i think there is a possibility. given the current terms rouhani has, that he would only meet with the president of the united states if we took sanctions -- melissa: that could be bluster. >> it could be. certainly the president will not do that. this maximum pressure campaign is comprehensive as it is, all of the things that the iranians have tried to do, melissa, to get us off that path, disrupting oil flow, sabotaging tankers and stealing tankers, and hitting saudi oil fields and shooting down an american drone, now with the enrichment what happened as a result of that? have we decreased any sanctions?

no. the united states increased sanctions. they called the president. they tried to get the united states politically isolated. it has not worked. they are failing in a way that i have not seen them in many, many years. melissa: interesting. we'll see where it goes from here. come back soon, general. thank you for your time. >> good talking to you, melissa. melissa: you too. connell: the cross-hairs of hurricane dorian, north carolina now bracing for the storm as it moves up the coast. forecasters have been warning residents there to stay off the roads. now we're live in wilmington, north carolina, with the latest when we come back. ♪ a money market fund when you open a new account. just another reminder of the value you'll find at fidelity. open an account today.

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or go to the website on your screen. the buck's got your back. melissa: breaking news right now, look at that, you are watching live video from murrieta, california, where a wildfire has scorched more than 1400 acres. nearby residents have been ordered to evacuate, and the fire is only 7% contained. connell: wow. all right, back to the hurricane now, power outages reporting

throughout the day on hurricane dorian. raging off the coast of the carolin carolinas. that car i believe is in myrtle beach. you know, you still could make landfall. that's possible, later tonight or tomorrow. doug mcelway is in wilmington, north carolina with the latest from there. doug? >> the first sign of the deteriorating conditions in wilmington occurred this morning when we saw a series of tornadoes around this region. we shot one of them in emerald island on the outer banks of north carolina. not major damage but a lot of trees down. some property damage as well. officials are really taking this very very seriously still because as you know, the coastal area of north carolina jets well out into the atlantic. it is the farthest out eastern-facing point of land anywhere on the east coast, until you get up to long island, new england, those areas. and because of that, it's still a possibility that dorian will make a direct hit on the outer banks. here's the worst-case scenario, according to some wilmington officials. >> we anticipate to see those

winds until around 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. from 6:00 p.m. to 1:00 to 2:00 a.m. friday morning is where we're going to have our peak winds. right now the peak winds are projected to be around 105 miles-an-hour. the total rainfall estimates for this storm now are currently projected to be between 10 to 15 inches. we're looking at 4 to 7 foot of storm surge. we do expect a high tide at the beach around 1:30. >> right now we're sitting on the banks of the cape fear river. this is the other risk here, in past hurricanes, this river has overflowed its banks. i'm standing on a board walk which is solid ground right here. on the other side of this railing is a floating dock. it was down about 4 feet lower than it is right now, when i came out here earlier this morning. so it's risen level with the board walk. couple more feet and it will be over the banks, and the river will be streaming into the board walk into the parking lot of the

hotel beyond us and hopefully not beyond that. so we're waiting and watching. i'm really surprised at how the light winds are at this point. a lot of rain, but very little wind. gusts up a little bit, gusting up right now, but nothing over 30 miles-per-hour. you look at this bridge off in the distance right here. that will shut down when we have sustained winds of 45 miles-per-hour. i've seen cars traversing that bridge. in fact, you can see one at the top of the bridge right now. so that means no winds of sustained 45 miles-an-hour, still functional. when it's shut down, wilmington in effect becomes an island of 117,000 people. we're waiting and watching. we will be on the overnight shift here. connell: real quick, doug, those tornadoes come with almost no warning; right? you shot some video earlier of the tornado. pops up real quick; right? >> yeah, that's right. my older sister lives a couple miles from where we are right now. she sent me a picture of a big tree that was down just a block from her house, spared her

house. but it was pretty much without warning. connell: all right, doug, be careful tonight. thanks for the reporting. melissa: a lot of damage, a lot to keep an eye on there. connell: that does it for us. thank as far as joining us. melissa: bulls & bears starts right now. david: waiting on wall street, take a look at this, stocks surging on positive news from the china trade front. also on some strong economic data here at home. all three of the major averages ending the day more than 1% higher, with the dow closing up 372 points. joining me on the panel today: gary smith, christina partsinevelos, gary kautbaum and liz peek. i'm david asman. stocks getting a big pop from news of top level trade talks, scheduled for october. we have been here before. the question is are markets getting ahead of themselves? what do you think >> i don't think