there. value seems to be the place right now. charles: jason, gary, two of the best. thank you very much. folks, make sure you check out gary on "bulls & bears" at 5:00 p.m. eastern time on fox business. we are near the highs of the session. 174 points. ashley, typically this is where i challenge liz claman to keep it going. ashley: very good. i will do my best to hold the torch, charles payne. no pressure, right? thank you very much. guess what? wall street ignoring the impeachment noise. zeroing in on trade in this final hour ahead of the close. trade-sensitive stocks leading today's gains as the markets look to snap a three-day losing streak. look at all the green. the dow up 167 points, s&p up, the nasdaq up almost 1%. good day for big tech. trade optimism coming from a new trade deal with japan and president trump remarks the trade deal with china could come sooner than you think. he is in new york city for the u.n. general assembly. the president expected to hold a press conference within the next hour and we will bring it to you

live. plus, millions ponied out to name the l.a. sta but now the personal finance company is turning its name to an investment warren buffett called rat poison squared. how do you really think? the ceo will be here exclusively to explain his plans for digital currency. now to the housing market. the man the case-shchiller inde is named after will be here in a fox business exclusive. plus, beyond meat getting burned. cash is king. and charlie breaks it on who is really behind elliott management's at & t push. we are now less than an hour to the closing bell. i'm ashley webster in for liz claman. let's begin "the claman countdown."

ashley: we begin breaking news. amazon is introducing new devices, including a smart oven, who doesn't need one of those, eight new echo devices and a wireless plug-in speaker. they all go on sale today. there's also a smart lamp called the echo glow. that's fun. the echo glow which is alexa-enabled, of course. let's get you up to date on what amazon is bringing out. let's get to the markets. the major averages right now are all higher, if you are riding around listening to us on sirius, the dow is up 167 points. the s&p up half a percent, the nasdaq up nearly 1%. but take a look at oil, trading lower after a surprise build in inventory, almost 2.5 more barrels in store than expected. the price of crude down to $56.60, down just 69, 70 cents on the day. take a look at philip morris. the group up 6% while altria down nearly 1%.

this after the dissolution of their $187 billion merger talks. apparently investors in philip morris like that that deal is not going to happen. altria also owns a 35% stake in the e-cigarette maker juul, whose ceo stepped down as a backlash against vaping intensifies. as you can see, nike, well, they just did it. that's what they say they do, just do it. they hit a record after the athletic wear maker's new products drove sales. the fiscal first quarter earnings estimates also topped expectations. sales in china up well over 20% and so is nike. foot locker, by the way, trading higher basically on the heels of nike's success. foot locker getting a nice 3% bump. to the united nations, where the president of honduras is speaking right now before the general assembly. president trump will be wrapping up a meeting with ukraine's president, just wrapping it up moments ago, with the president of the ukraine. that is the man in the middle of

the d.c. controversy of the day. the white house releasing the transcript of mr. trump's phone call with president zelensky. zelensky saying he never felt pressure to begin an investigation into former vice president joe biden and his son during the infamous phone call with president trump. but the big news perhaps on the markets today is that trade deal between president trump and japanese prime minister shinzo abe. the two signing a brand new u.s.-japan trade deal, one the president says will open japanese markets up to $7 billion in u.s. products. president trump set to hold a news conference in new york this afternoon. there he is smiling away with that agreement with mr. abe. kristina partsinevelos right there, covering what has been, well, another frantic day of diplomatic news. kristina? reporter: you put it very right, ashley. right now we are seeing some progress on the trade deal you just mentioned with japan. there's a focus on three particular sectors, agricultural, industrial goods

as well as digital trade. the president, though, weighed in on progress and the significance of such a deal. listen in. >> i don't think nancy pelosi will have time. she's wasting her time on, you know, let's use the word they used to use a lot, a manufactured crisis. are they going to get to take a vote? all they have to do, the agreement is signed, it's approved by canada, it's approved by mexico, it's a great trade deal, the greatest we've ever had, nafta was a horrible trade deal. reporter: so ashley, it seems like we jumped the gun with that sound bite. that was focusing on usmca. the press called back into the room after that bilateral trade agreement with japan, and they did question the progress about the usmca, and whether it would be roadblocked in congress since you had the president there weigh in, but to circle back, we were talking about japan, the reason why this deal could potentially go into effect as of january 1st is according to the u.s. trade representate lighthizer, the trade authority that allows the president to

increase and decrease tariffs without the consent of congress. so you can see right now, i'm at the intercontinental hotel in downtown new york. i'm sure there will be lots more we can talk about in regards to ukraine, potential trade deals, especially when it comes to china, usmca is definitely going to be a conversation as well. we will have much, much more. i will throw it back to you. ashley: thank you very much. busy day and week down at the u.n. trade optimism and strong economic data pushing the markets higher today, with one trade deal down and another hopefully on the horizon. investors are piling back into the markets, modestly but they're doing it. in an interview with foxbusiness.com, ceo jeffrey gundlach had this warning for investors. take a listen. >> one of the things investors need to do is to begin their asset allocation with the idea the dollar is going lower over the multi-year period, and that means you will lose the

advantage of the u.s. stock market. ashley: lose the advantage. right now, the dollar as you can see, all of these currencies down against the dollar. the pound falling as brexit uncertainty goes on. the pound down to 1.23.51 but the dollar is stronger. i want to bring in phil flynn at the cme and tim anderson at the nyse. phil, let me begin with you. you just heard the dollar is going to weaken, that's going to hurt the u.s. what do you think? >> he picked a gaybad day to ma that prediction based on what the dollar is doing today. bad timing. you know what, listen, if he's right, i don't think he is, then it means president trump probably got his way with the fed and we really cut interest rates dramatically or things are going to change and we are going to top out. but if we lose the value in the stock market, what is going to benefit if the dollar gets weaker? this room behind me will start rocking because that will be very bullish for commodities.

generally speaking, when you have a weak dollar, commodities do well, gold, silver, platinum, grains, meats should do very very well. but i don't necessarily see that happening any time soon, but if that's your concern. the other thing, too, i just want to touch on real quick, there's a lot of money on the sidelines right now locked into low interest rate situations. so i think before we get to a situation where the dollar tanks, we will see some of that money come back into the market. so i would be very cautious about trying to get too short before that money is moved. ashley: part of the reason, good point, phil, tim, let me bring you in, is that surely we have been saying this for awhile, the stock market here is literally the only game in town, when you look about where is money going to go around the world to get any yield, other than coming to the u.s. >> clearly that would be true for both bonds and stocks, with negative interest rates in europe and japan. so i just find his comment to be

a little odd, specifically a lower dollar would be positive for multinationals, big multinationals and export companies, maybe it would be negative for some domestic small cap companies that don't do a lot of trade around the globe. but i think he's looking at really, really long term, not even the next 12 to 18 months. ashley: let me follow up, tim, very quickly. we have had these dramatic headlines, impeachment and all sorts of chaos in washington, d.c. hasn't really affected the markets. we had a little dip yesterday on news the democrats were going to go ahead with the impeachment investigation. but today, as you can see, the president saying some positive things about maybe a china trade deal sooner than we think. we've got a deal now with japan. where does the money go right now, because there is a fear that nothing gets done in washington, so we don't get any infrastructure, we don't get a proper deal signed by canada and

mexico and so on. in other words, gridlock. >> well, clearly any time you get positive headlines on trade, the market's going to be helped by that, but really, the impeachment story has been driving the market since late yesterday afternoon. it took a pretty good hit late in the day on talk that pelosi was going to proclaim a formal impeachment inquiry after the close, which she did. and then the release of the phone call that trump had with the ukrainian prime minister really was very -- did not give any momentum to that impeachment story. if it had, we would not be up three quarters of a percent right now. we might be -- if that was a bombshell for t administration, we would be down maybe 2% to 3%. ashley: absolutely. we are close to session highs, up 182 points. we are out oftime. sorry, gentlemen. thank you very much, as always, for your input. all right. let's take a look at boeing, one

of the dow 30's high flyers this hour. this on news of a settlement in the lion air crash, the first of two deadly crashes that led to the grounding of the 737 max. boeing also announcing the foation of a new safety committee to oversee all future aircraft development. as you can see, shares up $3.42. cryptocurrency is attracting one of the biggest names in digital finance. coming up next, sofi's ceo will join us to explain why his company is taking the plunge into digital currencies. plus presidentrump set to speak at any minute with el salvador's leader. we will bring those comments to you live as soon as they happen. "countdown" will be right back. i get it all the time. "have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle.

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ashley: breaking this hour, take a look at the price of bitcoin right now. it's up $350, basically down to $8328. the cryptocurrency crashing as much as 15% yesterday, down to $7944. that's the lowest level since mid-june, by the way. bitcoin's major rivals, names like ripple, bitcoin cash and lightcoin, all recording even heavier losses, falling from 15% to 22% yesterday. some are saying hey, has the crypto market reached the brink? our next guest says no. in fact, his firm just announced today that it has added crypto trading to its fast-growing investment platform allowing members to buy and sell bitcoin and a handful of other cryptocurrencies. joining us is anthony noto, ceo of sofi. it's social finance, right? just shortened, sofi. that's an online finance

company. i see your billboards everywhere so someone is doing a good job of getting it out there. explain to some of our viewers who may not understand what is it? it's an online finance company, right? >> sure. it's a mobile first personal finance company that was originally started with refinancing student loans and quickly morphed into other products like personal loans and mortgages. i joined the company about 20 months ago and established that our job to be done for consumers is to help them get their money right. in order for us to help them get their money right, we need to provide a fast, easy way to borrow better, save better, spend better, invest better, protect. so over the last 18 months, we have launched sofi money which is the ability to spend or save or earn any way that you want all from your mobile phone so we provide 1.8% interest on all your cash, not just savings or checking. it's not a bank account. it's a cash management account. it allows you from your phone to pay anyone, any way that you want, when you want to. also get a debit card and atm card. we refund all your atm fees and

charge no fees. no minimum balance, no minimum spending and great interest. we have also introduced sofi invest which we are here to talk about today. ashley: let's get into that right now. why crypto at this point? there are some people who love it, they love the way the digital register that keeps, you know, it's somewhat mysterious. some people are just scared of it because they don't understand it and frightened that they're bitcoins, that their virtual money will just disappear. why are you getting into this? >> first and foremost, we launched sofi invest in february for the purpose of giving our members, we are a member-focused company, access to investing, to get them investing as soon as possible. if you don't invest in your 20s it's so hard to catch up later on to get to the point of having enough money to do what you want. we originally launched with stocks, single stocks without charging commissions. we added etfs, four sofi branded etfs that are particularly

tailored to help them be more diversified at a low price point and we also have robo or auto investing and now we introduced cryptocurrency. the reason -- ashley: what kind? bitcoin? what else? >> you can buy three different types of cryptocurrency on the platform today. bitcoin, lightcorn and etherium. the point behind adding them is our members told us they wanted that product, it was the number one thing they requested. we have seen great response so far. so now we are the only platform where you can sign up for a brokerage account within minutes, pay no fees on buying or selling stocks, trade on etfs, robo and cryptocurrency, all four asset classes in one place at low or no cost. ashley: how is business? you have people looking to invest their money? >> i'm really proud of the progress our team has made. we saw our first quarter of significant year over year growth in q2 at over 30%. we continued to see an acceleration in q3. so we are seeing really strength in our lending business. from a revenue standpoint and

also record levels of profitability. now we are seeing both sofi invest and sofi money really take off. ashley: i'm literally out of time. 30 million, you just paid, is that every year to have the naming rights for the new stadium for the rams and chargers in southern california? >> we have not disclosed how much the investmentere making is. ashley: oh, okay. where did i read that? >> but we are incredibly excited about using the stadium to help build sofi as a house hold brand name to build trust in all these great products. ashley: you think there's a lot of value in stadium naming. you have twoeams playing out of there, the rams and the chargers, as i said, so you obviously think that's good? >> it's a remarkable location. they are building something unprecedented as it relates to a stadium experience but it's also really a live -- a destination for live sports and live entertainment and will become very much an iconic destination, where the most important sporting events in the world will want to be there such as the olympics and the world cup, and national championship for football. in addition to the most

important live entertainment acts. those will be nationally broadc so we -- ashley: a lot of value. >> we see it as a national broadcast platform in addition to a great live experience for live sports and live entertainment. ashley: what is the economy telling you right now, in your segment for finance? >> well, i don't think we are the best example of an indicator for the economy, because we are largely taking market share from what's already happened. so secular growth as opposed to -- so we are seeing robust growth. that will be above and beyond what the economy is seeing because we are taking market share as opposed to seeing the economic cycle driving our growth. ashley: one note i did have here, this was reported that some of your products failed to gain some traction last year and you had to make a cut in work force, i think 7% at the end of last year. how is that situation? are you able to, you know, pick up the business a little bit, or are you still looking at more work force cuts? >> we have been able to see significant growth so what that specifically was, was when i came in i made a decision to focus on quality of loans over

quantity of loans. in our mortgage product we weren't delivering the type of member experience that we thought was up to the standard that we have established as a company. so we pulled back on that business, we reduced the work force there. we relaunched it in march on a new technology platform with a new service and are seeing robust growth there as well. so the overall revenue pie is growing meaningfully, over 30% in q2, faster than that in q3. we will see the same in q4 and mortgages adding to that. that was a conscious effort to focus on quality over quantity. ashley: it's interesting, i also, while you're here, the incredibly low interest rates, rates go down and down, great if you are looking for a mortgage, terrible if you are trying to save money and get some sort of return. >> right. we have a broad base of lending products so we are able to help our members in different cycles. as interest rates were going higher, we were able to leverage our personal loan which is unsecured loan to help people refinance things like credit cards and also find a cheaper way to maybe renovate their house than actually buying a new house. as rates have come down, we are refinancing student loans and

saving those that have student loans at a higher rate a significant amount of savings at a lower rate. ashley: with regard to your typical customer, are you harder to get a loan through? do you require a certain credit score that maybe above the average required? >> we absolutely do have a credit profile that we are underwriting to, and that's all done through an algorithm and not everyone gets approved because we have to match the risk with the cost of what it costs us to fund their loan. ashley: you may have to turn away some folks? >> unfortunately, we do. some day we hope to be able to satisfy the entire spectrum. today we are focused on one particular part of the segment. ashley: we have robert schillor coming up, the dean of the housing market. the report comes out every month. what would you like to hear from him about the housing market, because i have a hard time getting my head around it. sometimes we have some great data and sometimes we don't. from your perspective. >> like most businesses, a strong economy will be better for us than a weaker economy so

we are hoping that we continue to see a stable outlook for economic growth. we do anticipate that the fed will have to continue to look at being, you know, being more helpful and supportive from a monetary policy standpoint and we would like to see them continue to be very prudent about interest rates. ashley: back to kriecrypto very quickly. i said in the intro warren buffett had described digital currency as rat poison squared, purely because he clearly doesn't believe in it. what would you say to him? >> well, listen, if i could ever achieve one-tenth of what warren buffett has achieved that would be amazing. i would say the same thing to him as we say to our members. we are trying to provide a fast, efficient way for people to start investing because it's an absolute imperative that our members invest in their 20s and not wait in order for them to get to the point where they have the financial success that they are looking for. ashley: governments don't seem to like it very much. your peers are not very happy with facebook's libra. >> the second part of that description that i was laying out is they want to have a broad

diversified portfolio across different asset classes to perform well through different cycles. and focus on the long term. this asset class isn't something we are recommending. we are also not recommending any particular stock. ashley: it's just there if somebody wants to invest. >> exactly right. ashley: are there concerns will safety? we talk about hacking all the time. is it something that can be hacked? >> we have a very secure platform. our platform is not only secured for cryptocurrency but for whatever someone does across p.i.i. information as well as the transactions in their money accounts. one of the approaches we took specifically in cryptocurrency is we do not allow you to put currency in or take cryptocurrency out. you bring cash in to buy and when you want to take cash out, you take it out but you are not moving the actual coins themselves. ashley: i was going to ask about your customer base. research shows that you apparently are attracting more customers than others that are in your field, the competitors. but you are reluctant to tell us

exactly how many members you have. is that still the case? >> we have 8.5 million registered users. those are people that have -- ashley: 8.5 million? >> 8.5 million registered users, people that have applied for a loan or for a product. we have 850,000 actual members and we have seen really strong growth for sofi money and sofi invest. we haven't shared those numbers in particular. ashley: anthony nota, thank you for being here. let's move to this. president trump holding a bilateral meeting with the president of el salvador. >> we have had a tremendous success because two weeks ago we signed a cooperation agreement which is a big thing. great for el salvador, great for the united states. and worked very well with our people and have great respect for you, and i really appreciate what you're doing. the president has done an incredible job with ms-13. he realizes what a threat they are. they have been very very tough and we all appreciate that.

thank you very much for the agreement. >> well, we're very happy to be here. it's an honor to be with the president of the united states and with his team. it's very impressive, the whole team being here. actually, for us, the united states is not only a partner and ally but also friend. and that's one of the reasons we signed the agreement, because we want to show the friendship of our most important ally which is the united states and for us, it's very very important and looking forward, we are being a little more than 100 days in office but we look forward to be working with president trump for the next five years so i think that would be very good for us. >> i thought you were going to say longer than that. a little bit longer. they'll love that. that would be breaking news. >> i'm only going to be for five years.

so we are very happy to be here and we're hoping that this meeting will strengthen our relationship even more. i think it will, because president trump is very nice and cool and i'm nice and cool, too. we both use twitter a lot so we'll get along. and we have very honored. >> thank you very much. we are working together very well. our relationship has been excellent. mr. secretary, would you like to say something? >> thank you, mr. president. thank you. it's been a tremendous partnership for the fst hundred days you've had in office. i really see the advances you're maki making. it's very productive for the region. we will be alongside to support. thank you. >> importantly, we met with honduras, as you know, and we also had meetings previous to this but with guatemala and

tremendously successful meetings. we also signed agreements with them, cooperation agreements. some people use different terms but we use the term cooperation agreement. and at the highest strength and yours also. that's good for all of us. it's really good for all of us. mexico has been fantastic on the border. today we have 27,000 soldiers. the numbers are way down. what are the numbers you were just telling me? >> we are going to drop again on this month, mr. president, we will be over 60% reduction from the peak in may, from central america it will be closer to 75% or 80% reduction. >> 80%. i heard that before. 81%. the catch and release is gone almost now. there won't be catch and release. we're not releasing anybody into the country. especially we focus on the bad ones but the bad ones get taken out. we are moving them from our country. we are moving them fast. they are the ones that go first. you might want to discuss that a little bit. >> absolutely.

so we announced at the end the corpsman date of catch and release [ inaudible ] because of our partnership with el salvador on streamlining repatriation and working with mexico's migrant protection protocols for families who do claim asylum so they get a court hearing. we have reduced the overall flow, are taking profits away from criminal smugglers and making great progress with our international partners under your leadership. >> mexico frankly is doing a great job with respect to the cartels by having 27,000 soldiers on our border. they are decimating a lot of the cartels who are really coming in. so many people now, so many bodies and really strong, tough, hardened soldiers there that it's very hard for the cartels to break through. lot of bad -- if you have a cartel it has not been a good situation for you. mexico has been doing themselves

a big favor, too. the president of mexico has been outstanding in working with all of us, really, i think. we are very happy. the people that aren't working with us are the democrats. the democrats in congress are a disaster. we could solve so many more problems with the loopholes which could be done literally in 15, i always say it, 15, 20 minutes, maybe 30 if we are a little bit slower. but we could solve the loophole problem in a short period of ti. despite that, and we have asylum also which we could solve immediately but we solve asylum by going through different countries. can you believe it, where we go to el salvador, honduras, we go to mexico, we go to guatemala to solve problems of asylum because we can't go to the united states congress, because the democrats are playing games. they don't have any time to do anything else. they don't have time to do gun safety. they don't have time to do infrastructure. they have time to do nothing else. i'll tell you what, lot of people are very angry at what's

going on. they view it as you can never use the word joke because it's too serious but they view it as something that should never take place. they are never going to see anything done with this group in congress, the democrats. that's why i really think the republicans will take over the house, we might even increase in the senate and we will keep the presidency and we will do something that like this country has never seen before. but nancy pelosi has been taken over by the radical left. i watched it, i just find it hard to believe but she's been totally taken over by the radical left and she does exactly as they want her to do. a lot of her members now are having second thoughts. they're saying they're in a very bad position. they're in a very bad position. we were just with the president, the new president of ukraine and it was a fantastic meeting. he said no pressure, no nothing. it's all a hoax. i call it the hoax. and this is just a continuation of the witch hunt and that's all faded, that's all gone, and they

had to come up with something else. the same players, adam schiff, all the same players. now nancy pelosi was forced into a position that she didn't want to be in and unfortunately, she 't tsngh enough to stop it. so thank you very much, everybody. i think we're going to be doing a news conference in a little while. and that will be the end. thank you very much. thank you. ashley: all right. there you have it. we kind of hung on that shot a little bit to see whether the president would answer any questions. he's there with the president of el salvador. he's only 38 years old. he's just been in office less than four months. there he is right next to the president of the u.s. at the u.n. >> doesn't he have a pony tail? ashley: he does. he says he's cool. he says our president is cool. >> is he italian?

ashley: no, arabic. there you go. i did my homework. all right. let's move on. marathon petroleum leading the s&p this hour. the shares surging on elliott management's renewed push to split the oil refining giant up into three different companies, a move that could fuel a jump in shares and unlock up to $17 billion in shareholder value. the stock up 7.5%. marathon, though, not the only s&p bigwig in elliott's sights. charlie gasparino joins us with new details on what at & t is saying about its recent fight with the activist. >> paul singer, notable republican, runs elliott management. it's kind of interesting behind the scenes, there's paranoia at at & t. complete paranoia. two things we're hearing, they are very anxious about this, they think it could force them to do restructuring so we know john stankey, the c.o.o. of the

company, said they have no plans to get rid of directv, their satellite unit. as you know, fox business never reported that. we reported they were fielding banker calls. i think the other publication that said that, they were considering doing it, went too far out on a limb. but that's what he did. he gave another interview. they are worried about a massive restructuring that these guys will force on them. they are also worried they are working with the trump white house because trump has been very critical of at & t because of its cnn news unit -- ashley: connection. >> connection, part of the time warner purchase which is called warner communication. they believe, this is what i'm getting from my sources internally, that this is like a big conspiracy, elliott's going after them whole hog and going to force a restructuring and at the same time, they are working with the trump white house. now, i posed those questions to the p.r. guy at at & t and here's essentially what he told us. we should point out that trump has privately talked about boycotting at & t.

i can see why they are paranoid. okay? at & t, t fox business, the relationship with elliott management so far has been constructive. they met with them once. what they are telling me is that they are going to meet with them again. it's going to happen very soon. ashley: constructive. that's a p.r. word. >> they will meet with them again. they will keep meeting. i don't know if it's on the books but it's coming up. here's the other thing they said. no truth that top executives like randall stephenson, the ceo, stankey, the c.o.o., they believe there's some connection to the trump white house and the various efforts between the trump white house to attack them and elliott management taking a stake in the company. ashley: separate issues. >> that's what they're saying. that's what they're staying. randallsn't believe it. stankey doesn't believe it. i have sources that are pretty senior that everybody is talking about this. but that's what they say. also another thing people were talking about inside the company, elliott is just looking for a quick payday. according to the p.r. guy at at

& t, not true. elliott believes -- they believe elliott wants -- has a three-year time horizon on this. they both want a $60 stock. that's a pretty long-term deal. just so you know. but you know, the people i'm talking to internally, they think if he could get out with a pop, he will. we should point out there are more meetings out there. we ran this by elliott. they have no comment. but a person close to elliott, we will just say, tells me there's no connection with the white house. that's what they're saying. i will say this. just so you know, if you think there's a connection with the white house where i'm a little dubious of that whole -- ashley: right. right. >> paul singer, he's a noted republican, he's the guy that financed the infamous dossier first. everybody thinks that hillary clinton, the democrats, financed the dossier, the steele dossier. it was actually him, i think, that financed it, gave it to republicans and somehow it made its way into the democratic campaign. just remember that. ashley: because of that, you

think there could be a connection between the white house -- >> i think it suggests that elliott is not that close to the white house. but who knows. maybe they are making up now. it's crazy. i'm just giving you the politics of -- he may be a republican but it looks like he was one of the initial never trumpers. ashley: bottom line. paranoia running rampant at at & t. >> no doubt about that. they think there's a big conspiracy here. they think there will be a lot of changes. by the way, directv is never really off the table. ashley: never. >> it can't be. right? who knows what at & t, what elliott wants. i think they want -- i have heard they want -- i did a story on this, they want management. ashley: all right. we know whatever happens next, you will have it first. that's for sure. charlie gasparino. he breaks it. thanks, charlie. take a quick look at the markets. the dow, s&p, nasdaq, all in the green. look at the nasdaq. big tech gaining even more, up more than 1%. coming up next, is the

housing market heating up as the first full week of fall takes hold? we have a nobel prize winner here to answer that question. the namesake of the case-schiller index, here for a fox business exclusive. "the claman countdown" will be right back. we trust usaa more than any other company out there. they give us excellent customer service, every time. our 18 year old was in an accident. usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. all i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. if i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. we're the gomez family... we're the rivera family... we're the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life. get your auto insurance quote today.

ashley: sales of new u.s. single family homes rebounding more than expted in august, as mortgage rates fell, but healthy market data has continued to be a little mixed. in his latest book, "narrative economics" nobel prize winning economist robert shiller argues studying populist stories could help us predict consumers' behavior. with us for a fox business exclusive is the yale economics professor. he's also one of the creators of the s&p case-shiller national home price index. thank you so much for joining us.

>> glad to be here. ashley: i said that the housing market data could be a little mixed, a little confusing. on the one hand we hit like a 12-year high on this issue but over here, we start slipping. how would you characterize the health of the housing industry right now? >> the home prices have been going up since 2012. it's been a long time. they are substantially higher in many cities they are at a record high in real terms, even. but there are signs of weakness. notably, seattle, which had been the fastest growing city in terms of home prices just a year or two ago, growing at a double digit range, is now falling on a 12-month basis. so something changed in seattle. i think we'll see there's a lot of spread between different cities right now. ashley: even though, mr. shiller, we have had incredibly low interest rates, i always joke with stuart varney back in

1982, i think we got an interest rate of anywhere from 13% to 16% and thought i was getting a steal. now you can get a 30-year fixed rate mortgage for 3.5%. i mean, that surely should be a huge incentive to get in. >> well, it has been. you know, home prices are way up. in the latest, they are still going up in most places but at a lower rate. i think interest rates -- it's also helped to explain consumer consumption patterns. obviously it doesn't cost very much to borrow on your credit card relative to the past. but i think there's other factors that play into housing and housing is something, you know, upgrading your house is something you can always postpone. if you feel a little edgy about something, you might pull back a little. that's where we are now. it's still going up, though. home prices are still rising. ashley: explain, if you can, a

little about your book, "narrative economics." maybe i have gotten the wrong but if we talk about a recession enough, it's a self-fulfilling prophesy a little. is that kind of the gist? >> yes, that is the gist. the idea that we talk ourselves into a recession. that idea is not new. it goes back to the 1930s, when some people used that phrase. but it's been on our mind. self-fulfilling prophesy. but it's never been mainstream in terms of actual analysis. i think we have seen lately a lot of talk centered on things like an inverted yield curve or the trade war or the lack of growth in foreign countries. these are real things but they are also narrative things and they may create a psychological environment that goes beyond the real import of the facts. ashley: you say it enough, you believe it. very quickly, mr. shiller, what about the millenials who saw the

difficulty their parents went through during the financial crisis and maybe their american dream may not involve a house with a white picket fence? >> right. well, first of all, young people today are wary of debt. and household debt as a percent of gdp is way down from what it was. so that's one factor. but i think also, just the memory of the financial crisis is discouraging. there's also a taste change that young people today are more into social media. they're not so much into having a big dining room with fine china and entertaining friends at home. ashley: oh, well. maybe that will change. robert shiller, thank you so much. it's been an honor and a privilege to have ou tyou on th show today. we really do appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: all right. we are near session highs. let's take a look at the dow, up 179, 180 points. about 15 minutes to go until the

close. can we hang on? can we build on this? the federal trade commission showing no love for match.com. shares down on a new lawsuit accusing the tinder parent of using fake love interest ads in order to trick customers into signing up full paid match.com subscriptions. match denies the accusations saying it plans to quote, vigorously defend itself against the claims. the stock down 2% at this hour. match group not the only big brand feeling the sting of rejection. up next, why plant-based protein maker beyond meat is getting uprooted to its lowest level in three months. "the claman countdown" will be right back. oh, wow. you two are going to have such a great trip. thanks to you, we will. this is why voya helps reach today's goals... ...all while helping you to and through retirement. can you help with these? we're more of the plan, invest and protect kind of help... voya. helping you to and through retirement. imagine a world where nothing gets in the way of doing great work.

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ashley: all right. we are just about ten minutes away now from president trump

wrapping up his u.n. week with a pressference right here in new york city. we expect to hear everything from his meetings with world leaders, china trade deal and impending impeachment proceedings. all of that and more, i am sure. we will bring it to you live as soon as the president begins that press conference. all right. let's get back to stocks and the market. beyond meat shares feeling, well, rather raw this hour as investors grapple with new concerns over the company's long-term potential. let's get down to gerri willis live on the floor of the new york stock exchange. gerri? gerri: that's right, beyond meat having a heck of a time today, trading near a three-month low intraday. remember when the stock used to trade at $239? now it's $138. big fall there. why? there are lots of big companies coming out with their own version of plant-based meats. number one, sweet earth brand coming out with its own version called the awesome burger that will be available in restaurants and stores today.

that's a company that has a lot of reach, lot of distribution. and impossible foods is also announcing its burger will be available at east coast grocers, namely wegman's. this is a big problem for this company. what is the barrier to entry, lot of investors asking that question today. wall street kind of sitting on the sidelines here today. seven hold ratings on this stock, two buy ratings, two sell ratings. that gives you an idea of where we are going with is stock. back to you. ashley: you know, it's interesting, have you tried any of these products? just out of interest? gerri: yes, and i will just be blunt. i didn't like it. ashley: really? why? gerri: no. i didn't think it tasted very good. i think the reality is it sort of tastes different depending on who fixes it, right, how it's put together in the kitchen, right? i think at the end of the day, a lot of people have different, you know, experiences. mine, not so positive. on the other hand, i kind of feel like if you are going -- you want meat, eat meat. ashley: that's exactly right.

very quickly, i was going to ask you, i had to get into the fake meat conversation because we talk about it so much. very quickly, we are very close to 27,000 on the dow. we saw a nice spike when the president said maybe we are going to get a deal with china sooner than you think. what about the trade today? gerri: well, so the things we have been trading on lately, anything about china, anything about interest rates. today we have the really positive housing numbers. here was the interpretation down here. that means the economy is booming. therefore, we will not need a big interest rate hike from the fed and that caused a sell-off midday. you are seeing us up 186 on the dow right now. good news is we close in on this 27,000 number. ashley: very good. no fake meat for gerri willis. gerri, thank you very much. gerri: you're welcome. ashley: stocks just under session highs. the dow up 186 points with just eight minutes to go until the closing bell. here's a question for you. is cash still king? coming up next, a new report showing some investors stashing their cash under the mattress as

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ashley: breaking news for you the georgia department of public health identified the state's first death from a vaping associated illness. we believe this brings total number of vaping-related deaths to 11 nationwide. that news just coming in. closing bell is under four minutes. we're waiting for president trump's pressfere cone at the top of the hour. we'll bring it to you live. the dow closing in close to 26 or 27,000 i should say. by the way it snaps a three-day losing streak. all three at session highs in the final minutes. from the markets to the family-run firms that manage

your money. ubs, camden wealth research releasing the family office survey. it's a long title. the overwhelmingly response, money managers from the ultrawealthy are seeing troubled waters ahead, 55% of global respondent predicting a global recession in 2020. is it time to take your money and run or should you stay in the market? our next guest says cash is king or at least an option. greg joins us now. you said you believe cash is king. did i oversell it. >> it may be a little overzealous. ashley: a little overzealous. >> markets are about where they were 18 month ago. the markets have headwinds. earnings season, brexit. now it's a time for investors to assess their allocation, is it time to get defensive? we're approaching

fourth quarter. ashley: answer your question is it time to get defensive? >> look how good the last 10 years have been, ideal. will the next 10 years be half as good as the last 10? no one knows that but time to do year-end gifting. take money out of ira, this is a good time for markets at these levels. ashley: if you can't do, that can you do? what sectors do you like. >> couple themes. asian population and demographic of 65 and above, need more medical devices cell therapy. gene therapy. the large pharma is thinning this is an area we see because of the need of that demographic. the other trend we're observing value styles investing. the last three three years growth outperformed value by 3%. hasn't happened since 1919. we know what followed. ashley: right. >> free cash flow, that is a cycle we think has legs to it. ashley: do you still believe, we

say this a lot the u.s. is only game in town? look what is going on in europe? the economy is sputtering. money coming into the u.s. >> exactly right. i think a big issue investors need to think about, what happens with the china trade war. trade matters to manufacturing. manufacturing matters to markets. latest roundtable of ceos shows in the third quarter they're more cautious than the second quarter. that is not a good thing they're not hiring, spending, borro money to invest. that is not a good thing. then the fed. ashley: i was asking you that, the fed do they cut again? >> because of this uncertainty they're forced to prop up these markets with these cuts. our concern will they have ammunition when markets or the economy does decelerate in the next 12 to 18 months? are they being preemptive? they have no choice. ashley: cash is king. but that is an option. don't be overzealous. greg, thank you for being here. we appreciate it. as we head into the bell the dow

up 170 points. [closing bell rings] markets set to close out just above those highs, snapping a three-day losing streak. we came within a few points of dow 27,000. that is it for the "claman countdown." connell mcshane, melissa francis pick it up for "after the bell." connell: stocks in the green despite uncertainty hitting our nation's capitol. it has been a interesting couple days. high-stakes news conference from president trump is supposed to start at the top of the hour. the dow settles higher 163 point. not far as ashley said near the highs. president made comment about china this morning. the white house released the transcript of president trump's call with the ukrainian president. that is how we close it out. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis this is "after the bell." the s&p 500 and nasdaq snapping a three-day losing streak.