for republicans win. elizabeth warren is a great person to fill that role. charles: congressman, thank you very much. we always appreciate it. in the meantime, folks, the dow's off almost 50. we got within 4 points. ashley webster, you're going to have to bring it -- ashley: i'm going to do the heavy lifting charles, thank you very much. breaking news, possible movement on day 33 of the strike by -- 11 of unite autoworkers against general motors. a deal could be coming soon as gm extends an olive branch by returning health care coverage to its striking employees. we will go straight to the motor city for the latest developments. meanwhile, trade deadlines still drive -- headlines still driving the market. economic adviser robert -- is here to tell us if the dem' impeachment gamble is really just a cover story to pass the president's new nafta plan. we'll get into that. on wall street markets cutting losses into the final hour as the major indices searching for

direction. the dow off, as you can see, 40 points. the s&p and nasdaq also down slightly, in muted fashion. let's put it that way. plus, the government's blacklist of chinese smartphone maker huawei could get longer. we'll talk exclusively to the ceo of vmware about the impact of all of this on the tech industry. and, well, yes, it's been an uphill struggle for peloton as its makes its debut. gerri willis talks to ceo about first day bumpiness. i'm ashley webster in for liz claman, let's start "the claman countdown." ♪ ♪ ashley: well, let's take a look at some breaking news. oil prices paring their losses after the pentagon said it will deploy military equipment, support personnel to saudi arabia. this comes following the attack

on the country's oil production facility ten days ago. oil just essentially flat, at 56.45. meanwhile, stocks on the dow off 36 points. we were down 166 at the low point, but are we on pace for the second down day in three? we'll have to find out. take a look at some of the stocks. chevron, united health care and disney accounting for all of the blue chip indexes losses today, well, not all of them but certainly not helping. chevron, united health, walt disney, disney down 3.5%. 1.5%. investors not exactly riding high on peloton. the stock right now at $25, down $3.86 after opening at $27 a share on its very first day of trading on the nasdaq. the fitness company's initial offering was priced at $29, so off as you can see from that price, down 13 percent. if you didn't know, peloton makes high-end cycles and tread mills equipped with screens for users to join live classes

remotely. that is the attraction of peloton. meanwhile, mcdonald's making some diet changes, helping beyond meat to soar. you can see mcdonald's up just slightly, about a quarter of a percent. they say they are going to try the plant-based burgers in canada, try them out in canada. if people like them, maybe they'll expand it. secondly, keurig dr. pepper will replace kraft heinz as a from cider of -- provider of packaged coffee. that breaking news, could the gm strike be coming to an end? a big hint earlier after the automaker said it will continue to provide health coverage to the nearly 48,000 workers across the who are picketing over such issues as higher wages and greater job security. eight days ago gm said the autoworkers' union would have to cover those health costs. so could gm's olive branch help

to end a walkout that is costing the company $100 million per day? gm's stock up 1%, we are now joined by grady trimble who's been on the picket line in detroit for some time. grady, how are the workers reacting to the latest news? >> reporter: well, i would say they're happy to have that full health care coverage, but i wouldn't say they're thrilled because in their eyes that's something the company should have kept providing all along. but as we first reported last week, general motors can decided to stop paying for health care coverage while the workers were on the picket line. that did a few things. first, it forced the union to pick up the tab for that health care coverage. it also caused the workers to lose their vision and dental insurance. and then on top of that, it just caused a lot of confusion. so today general motors announced it was reinstating full coverage. here's their announcement. it says in a statement: gm has chosen to work with our providers to keep all benefits fully in place for striking hourly employees so they have no disruption to their medical care

includg vision, prescription and dental coverage. now, it's not clear if this is an indication that talks could be coming to a close or if it just got bad pr that gm did this in the first place, because there was a lot of backlash on social media. this is a statement from the union. they weren't thankful, they were pretty or harsh on general motors. say today it should not have taken stories about workers who faced lin their cancer drugs or postponing surgery dates for gm to see their workers as human beings, not pawns on a chessboard. now, separately from all of this this there's another issue. we've talked to dealerships who say that they're not getting the parts that they need, or it's taking longer to get the parts that they need to provide service. so anyone who might be bringing in their gm car to a dealership, you might have to wait a little longer to get your car serviced. as far as the talks go, we're told they're closer than ever to reaching a deal. the talks moved up the chain, and now the top negotiators are working things occupant. so we'll see if this is wrapped

up in the next few hours or could be several more days. ashley? ashley: all right. grady trimble, he's been on that picket line for many days now, thank you very much. let's get to the markets where we've seen, well, somewhat of a reversal. we were down over 160 points at point, down 166 was the low point. we've tried to come back. haven't quite got there yet. the latest economic data today shows second quarter gdp final number coming in at 2%, that is down from 3.1% in the first quarter. and as usual, we'ved had headlines dealing with huawei, a whistleblower and trade, so the question is what is driving the market as we head toward the close? all of it, nub of it? let's -- none of it? >> let's got to the floor show and begin with stephen guilfoyle. sarge, what is driving this market? all sorts of headlines, but we seem to be lacking direction. >> well, you know what? you know what's funny is that the direction came from somewhere nobody's even talking

about. yeah, we have a lot of uncertainty and a lot of jitter this morning in the marketplace as things looked a little bit bleak. at 1:00 the u.s. treasury department offered $32 billion worth of seven-year paper, all right? it was a very strong auction. 65% by foreign central banks. what does it all mean in it means that the fed is probably going to go ahead with not quantitative easing, but permanent open market operations which is the same darn thing, pretty aggressively going into the end of the year, and the ecb we expect to start ramping up their own qe program on november, november 1st, and that will chase money like this afternoon into u.s. markets. although -- what i'm saying is the long end of the yield curve is going to be come pressed. ashley: got it. scott, and to sarge's point, i think it's been this case for a while that the u.s. is the only game in town, but do all these headlines -- impeachment and all the tweets and everything -- how much of that affects the investor, or are they just

looking straight ahead and trying to focus on the fundamentals? >> you know, for the investor it doesn't really affect them very much at all, ab arleigh. for the trader it certainly does because we're seeing hour by hour movements in the marketplace. but so far the market has shrugged off all of these major headlines. now, you just mentioned the u.s. is the only game in town. look at the dollar, the dollar rallying to pretty much its yearly highs right now. so i think that really underscores what you were saying there. in terms of market fundamentals, yeah, i mean, sarge made a good point too, there is an extension here of basically a form of qe, right? which it sure seems like the fed is going to backstop this market right now. so, you know or, where else are people going to put their money? where's the retail investor going to go, and that's why i really believe it doesn't impact the retail investor. ashley: phil, let me bring you in to talk about the fed again because we had one of the fedheads out in california are today talking about, hey,

listen, unemployment is where we would like it to be, inflation not a problem, wages are rising, is seemed to be making the case of why would we want to cut in this kind of environment. what would you say to that? >> i know what donald trump would say -- [laughter] cut last time, we'd be 5% gdp, not 2%. i mean, listen, some of the fed officials are looking at the numbers, and despite all this talk of recession and doom and gloom that we've been hearing, the fed's saying, hey, things are pretty good. and the fears about the trade war, you know, basically siccing the u.s. economy -- sinking the u.s. economy, you know, based on a curve and comparing it to other countries, it's actually been a win. now, i know there's a lot of businesses that have been hurt, farmers have been hurt, but if we make any progress, i think we're going in the right direction. but i'll tell you today it really, in my mind, it was watching the impeachment, you know, when they started to have that testimony, the market went down. it's almost like there's an inverse correlation.

i'd like to do a chart versus impeachment odds versus the stock market because the last two days it was like this. ashley: yeah. we could do a lot of that, for sure. we're already out of time. sarge, scott and phil, thank you, gentlemen, for joining us today. unitedhealth, by the way, trailing behind on the dow 30 heat map after morgan stanley cut its price target on the insurer by $4 to 294. right now you can see the shares down at 216 on united health group, lagging in the dow 30. also coming up, by the way, after the break we'll get into political strategies; that is, trade deals and, of course, your money. and the question is could a call for impeachment provide cover for a new nafta? economic adviser robert rolf will be weighing in on that when we come back with "the claman countdown." ♪ ♪ so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner?

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ends saturday ♪ ♪ >> one of the things that actually may come out of this whole impeachment nonsense is that moses now has the cover to bringsm to a vote. ashley: billionaire and fox news contributor steve forbes floating that theory today that the impeachment process is, essentially, an elaborate democrat cover to take a trade victory away from president trump when it eventually does pass a new trade package with mexico and canada. let's bring in former ubs american ceo and fox news contributor robert wolfe, he's also a former economic ad visor to president obama. i have a feeling, robert, that you don't agree with mr. forbes' take on that. >> well, i don't, because we have been through an impeachment environment before with bill clinton when we had a republican congress, and things got done.

so, one, i think there is a chance usmca could get done before year end. actually, i was in washington last week before this whole impeachment process began, and both sides of the aisle were hoping that they could rectify -- there were about four or five issues, and they helped toectify it before year end. those four or five issues have not been rectified, i think it has zero to do with an impeachment inquiry. ashley: people would argue that democrats are so focused of getting rid of donald trump, that they're not doing the business of legislating. drug prices, infrastructure, trade deals. i mean, these are the things rather than continue to shout russia, russia, russia, get on the with the -- >> ashley, you're giving me a big softball here, because congress, the house has passed, like, 200 bills that are sitting on the senate desks. so if you ask about why things are not getting done, it's in the republican-led senate. there are bills ready to go that

are not happening. ashley: all right. i don't know if this is a softball, we'll find out. >> all right. ashley: there's a story out there that says those people on wall street that want to contribute to democrat party members have basically said and admitted that they don't want to be a part of the process if elizabeth warren is the candidate put forth by the democrat party. she's very anti-banks, she wants a wealth tax, and they say they just can't be put into a box where they're going to hurt themselves if they contribute to that person's campaign. >> i saw that story today. ashley: yeah. >> i think elizabeth warren is probably applauding that story. i think it helps her more than hurts her. i think that there's a difference between a democratic primary process where, yes, i would say many people in financial services would pick someone like joe biden or mayor pete over necessarily bernie sanders or elizabeth warren. but when it comes to a presidential election, it will be someone on the democratic party versus president trump, and i think at that point there'll be a whole new jury

that comes out on which would you rather have leading that country. i would certainly pick elizabeth warren over president trump. that being said, i've given to 12 candidates, and i have not given to elizabeth warren or bernie sanders. ashley: okay. what happens to the stock market the day after elizabeth warren is made president? >> you know, i think -- i don't like to predict anything -- ashley: no, your opinion. >> i've been wrong so many different times. ashley: sure. >> i think it depends where the economy is. if the economy's doing poorly in 2020 and we're seeing capital spending slow like we're seeing today, then i think the stock market's going to be in trouble -- ashley: we've had, you could argue we've had a pretty strong economy. you look at the unemployment -- >> and i'm for a strong economy. of. ashley: right. elizabeth warren comes in, tax thing, taxing, regulation, that's going to strangle the economy. >> a few things, one, a president can't just pass a tax bill, right in that has to go through the senate. you asked -- yeah, there's no question that her populist

rhetoric i would not say is probusiness, but you have to be able to get things passed. so this is right now a primary. i would also argue, to be fair, president trump's tariff is not pro-business and neither is his anti-trade rhetoric. i mean, it's not -- let's be clear, we just gave a $28 billion bailout to farmers. that is double what we gave during the auto bailout. ashley: sooner they can get that sorted, it'll be great. we're already out of time, i was just getting warmed up. >> come on, fox, give me more time. ashley: robert wolf, great stuff. thank you. let's check the big board as we head to the break. all right, we're trying to come back, just down 27 points on the dow. we've been down as much as 166 today, so it could have been worse. dunkin shares losing, well, some flavor. the doughnut and coffee giant being sued by the empire state for failing to notify nearly 20,000 customers that their accounts had been compromised because of a series of cyber

attacks back in 2015, breaches that new york's attorney general also alleges were just not investigated by the company. the stock, as you can see, down about 2%. from cybersecurity to your real-life safety, the new recommendations out of the ntsb in the wake of the deadly twin boeing 737 max crashes and how it could upend the entire certification process about the airplanes that we all travel on. interesting and important subject, it's up next on "the claman countdown." ♪ ♪ ghest growth in manufacturing jobs in the us. it's a competition for the talent. employees need more than just a paycheck. you definitely want to take advantage of all the benefits you can get. 2/3 of employees said that the workplace is an important source for personal savings and protection solutions. the workplace should be a source of financial security. keeping your people happy is what keeps your people. that's financial wellness. put your employees on a path to financial wellness with prudential.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ashley: the federal regulator reviewing the safety is certification of the boeing 737 max plane, well, came out with a list of recommendations today. the national transportation safety board says the faa should take note before giving the max the green light. joining us now, fox news reporter dan springer. of dan? >> reporter: hey, ashley. the national transportation safety board is critical of

boeing's assumptions on how pilots would react to emergency when flying the boeing 737 max. boeing tested pilots by giving them a single alert that the plane's anti-stall system was malfunctioning and pushing the nose of the plane down. the company assumed pilots would is simply flip a couple of switches and regain control of the aircraft. but in the two fatal crashes, the pilots had several alerts going off at the same time, and they definitely did not respond the way boeing assumed they would. >> they had multiple alerts in the cockpit. and, obviously, the more alerts that you might get as a pilot, the more likely it is that you might handle something incorrectly. so we felt like the assumptions did not account for multiple alerts. >> reporter: so today the ntsb issued a number of recommendations to the faa to consider before allowing the 737 max back in the air. two main points, better understand how pilots react to emergencies -- especially when

there are multiple alerts -- and come up with a tool that prioritizes those alerts to cut down on confusion in the cockpit. now it's up to faa which has been working with boeing to recertify the 737 max and end this expensive grounding. boeing officials say they have been focused on easing the pilot workload, so it might already have a partial solution in hand. meantime, the company has reached its first settlement with victims of the two crashes. boeing has agreed to pay 11 victims of the lion air crash $1.2 million each. there were nearly 100 lawsuits filed. the company is bleeding money. it already has a victim fund set up for $50 million, and it will compensate the airlines that have been -- that bought the max and and cannot fly them, $5 billion. the company lost a record $2.9 billion just in the second quarter this year. boeing is still optimistic, they tell me they can get the planes trying again in early fourth quarter which means just a couple of weeks away.

that's very optimistic. ashley? ashley: yeah. dan springer, thank you so much for the latest on boeing and its travails with the 737 max. dan, thank you. let's check the markets now. the dow struggling, trying to get back to at least the starting point of the day. we're down 33 points, the s&p off about a tenth of a percent, the nasdaq also down half a percent at 8,034. carnival cruises, the worst performer at this hour after cutting its forecast on multimillion global headwinds and, yes, higher fuel prices. those shares now down 8%, $44.31. carnival cruises not the only big name underwater, 2019's latest ipo peloton in its market debut, coming up next, how the on-demand exercise class company ceo john foley is spinning this rocky start. "the claman countdown" is coming right back. ♪ at fidelity, we believe your money

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ashley: all right. we have some breaking news, could be good for the market. chinese foreign minister says the u.s. has shown goodwill by waiving tariffs on chinese products, so he says china is willing to buy more products needed by the chinese market. he goes on to say he hopes both sides can take, quote, more enthusiastic measures, reduce pessimistic language and actions in trade disputes. and if everyone does this, talks

will not only resume, but will proceed and yield results. how about that from the chinese foreign minister. not a massive popback on the dow, just down 12 points. the s&p and nasdaq down just slightly, but that positive talk may help as we head the last half hour of trading. all right, new story, the hottest unicorn in the workout world, peloton interactive, began trading at the nasdaq at $27 a share, $2 before its initial price offering. as you can see, peloton trading right around $25, that's 13% down. gerri willis, you had a chance to speak with founder and ceo john foley justs a after the company rang the opening bell, right? >> reporter: yes, that's right. and the very facts you just cited, the fact that the company came in lower than expected, first trade was at $27, the expectation was higher than that at $29, he said he was disappointed with that.

i also asked him about the other big question for the company, and that is lack of earnings. he had a very interesting take on this. listen to john foley talking about peloton's earnings. >> you think that we are losing money. it's she plant you cans, but i -- semantics, but i call it investing. we're investing $50 million in a new studio in midtown man hat t.a.r.p., $50 million in london, $100 million in a headquarters here in midtown manhattan where we will have thousands of the best software engineers and marketers and finance folks all in one building. so these are investments, you know? fixed cost leverage, our subscription mar win was going to go well past 70% as we scale the investment. >> reporter: don't you think your investors, now that you are a public company, might demand profits? >> eventually, of course, yes. i mean, i think we're filling in 23, so we, we're going to get

there. >> reporter: so we're going to get there, that's what the ceo of peloton says. that day will be 2023 in his words. but i thought it was fascinating he said that earnings are just semantics. sec may disagree with that. instead of bringing the money to the bottom line, instead they're investing in studios to make the very kinds of videos that you're seeing right now in manhattan, in london and $100 million for a new headquarters right here in new york city. the company has sales the last fiscal year of $915 million but no earnings. and we've talked about a lot of companies similar to that. uber and lyft come to mind. back to you. ashley: thank you very much. i like that, we're not losing money, we're investing. all right, chipmakers having a rough day on new drama over huawei. a particular focus after an analyst predicted the two semiconductors could lose their huawei relationships completely, both those stocks moving lower.

one down almost 2%. huawei's potential threats to america's top tech secrets and national security putting american businesses' ability to do business with the chinese telecom pretty much up in the care. coming i next, the ceo of very m ware talks protecting america's ip and digital security amid the trade wars expect coming 5g revolution. lots to talk about, stay with us. ♪ ♪ car like i treat mine. adp helps airtech automotive streamline payroll and hr,

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ashley: i don't want to take the credit, but i will. the dow and s&p have returned to positiver territory, and just ai said that, they're turning negative again. the last few minutes we heard from the chinese foreign minister who says the u.s. has shown goodwill, talked about optimism and maybe we can get this whole thing worked out.

hasn't been a really big jump back on the dow, but as we say, just turned the positive on the dow, barely on the s&p, and the nasdaq still down about a third of a prosecutor. the blacklist on what way not stopping the tech giant, the company already building 5g base stations free of u.s. paths, and the ceo is floating the idea they're willing to license their 5g tech exclusively to a u.s. company to foster a level playing field. this as administration sources tell fox business there's no decision made yet about extending the waiver permitting u.s. companies to sell to huawei. there had been an exemption. it was temporary, and that waiver expires in november. the u.s./china trade war first threatening to put up you could say a digital iron curtain that could slow down tech progress, maybe. well, software company vmware says it has its eyes on the future of tech. it has partnered with all of the major cloud vendors and has

acquired pivotal black saying those acquisitions will help drive their customers' digital tran transformations. how will the trade war impact plans though? here to make sense of it all, ceo pat gelsinger, pat, great to have you here. >> ashley, great to be with you. ashley: and all sorts of really loaning technical terms in there -- [laughter] can you explain what the heck does your company actually do in layman terms? >> sure. and everybody, when you hit any web site, there's some data centers that that is running on. you do the software that runs in those data centers to optimize the hardware, as we've talked about. you have this magic of turning ten physical servers into one. so huge efficiencies, huge cost savings and energy savings, and we make them secure, and we allow you to correct across -- connect across multiple clouds. major partnership with amazon, i e bm, google,al by baba. -- alibaba. so this magic of virtualization,

connecting it all together, that's what we do, and pretty much every company in the world uses us. huge penetration around the world. ashley: and still plenty of room for growth. >> absolutely. we're quite excited to see the growth of the company. i think we're well over a dozen double-digit growth quarters in a row, so continuing good momentum -- ashley: and i mentioned before i introduced you those acquisitions, pivotal software, carbon, black, you just did this last month, i believe. $4.8 billion. that's not cheap. >> no, i told my wife i went shopping -- [laughter] she said, hey, honey, i'm going to go shopping. that's a little bit scary. ashley: dangerous. obviously, that is the way to move forwards to generate more revenue, just acquire these companies that are key in their own particular areas. >> well, we see that, you know, our strategy clearly has been very successful, way above telephone as i say, we punch way above our weight in act a by cigs. being able to acquire well,

execute well andlso doing organic innovation. and we inorganic and organic innovation, bringing those together that has made our company tremendously successful over time. ashley: how do you make money? subscriptions? >> we do perpetual and subscription. we sell you a license to our software, and you pay us for that. we pay maintenance, and that'll be the perpetual business. but we're over 10%, we now hit 12% at subscription, and that business is growing very rapidly -- ashley: that's great, because money keeps coming in. >> yeah. customers in that case we're sort of sharing the risk. we have to operate it for them, so instead of me operating it, you operate for me, so we share the risk. they like that business model. plus, they get to buy by the drink. [laughter] as they grow, they don't have to guess how much they're going to do with us in the future. ashley: i want to talk to you about huawei. you obviously do business with huawei. what kind of business do you do, what has this whole trade problem with them and the

security sense, how has it affect your company? >> well, we have a small business in china, less than 5% of our business. so overall, not that large. that's -- we have a lot of customers in china, and some of those get service through and by huawei, and that's really where our relationship comes in place with them because customers say, hey, i want to get vmware value, and i want it on my huawei gear. so we have to together with them in satisfying them. ashley: do the blacklists affect you at all? did you have to apply for a waiver? >> yeah. we are in process with the waiver, and we've also had to find ways to continue to support those customers which are highly committed, a strong presence in china development wise supporting those customers and making sure that anybody who's using our software continues to get a great experience. but i think more importantly, ashley, is the 5g future. and that's really where all this discussion sort of boils down to, where 5g is probably the most important technology of the

career, right? viewing this massive buildout of capital, this radical increases in bandwidth, the reduction in latency for smart cities, smart cars, smart factories -- ashley: right. >> and, of course, the role that we can play because many of those technologies were built in the very traditional way in the past. we believe we can bring the magic of virtualization, the software approach to 5g. and that's well underway now in the marketplace. ashley: can't wait to see 5g, but are you concerned of lawmakers, congress getting involved to try to crack down on the big tech companies, antitrust issues, is that a concern? >> anytime the tech industry is in the news, of course. ashley: it's been in the news every day. >> we would say you can't paint the tech industry with one brush, right? in that i'm a b to b company, right? and many of the discussions are b to c conversations. they're how is data being used, how am i being protected as a consumer. and those areas i think, you know, aztec plays -- aztec plays

a more and more critical role in the lives of every human on the planet, your medical data, financial data, social data, hey, that is appropriate for regulators and lawmakers to look at those issues because they affect every human in their political sphere. ashley: so maybe some regulation but smart regulation. >> absolutely, right? and you can't paint tech with one brush. ashley: right. >> and it must be viewed in the international lens as well when we have thing like e.u. and gdpr. those are good regulations that say, okay, how are you going to protect -- ashley: yes. without stifling the actual business -- >> absolutely. and clearly from a u.s. perspective, tech has been such a juggernaut of growth. silicon valley is the envy of the planet. please continue to support that leadership because it's good for all of us. ashley: pat, it's been an absolute pleasure and thank you for making me understand it, no easy task, believe me. pat, thank you very much for being here. let's take a check of the big board, why don't we.

we're down 42 points again, what happened? we had some positive commentses from china, kind of taking away from itself, apparently. the dow off now 44 points. google and facebook finding themselves on the government's anti-monopoly radar, but how afraid are the two tech titans of the administration and congress' regulatory guns? guess what? charlie gasparino with the news of new insight, details in what is being said right now behind closed doors in silicon valley, pat. silicon valley. charlie breaks it next on "the claman countdown." ♪ ♪ tv announcer: it's just as powerful as the lexus rx... as many safety features as the rx, the new... the lexus rx has met its match. if they're talking about you... you must be doing something right. experience the style, craftsmanship, and technology that have made the rx the leading luxury suv of all time.

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apparently, with exclusive details, charlie a gasparino joins us now. how are they approaching this scrutiny? >> this is the story we're going to be playing for the next, i think, year and a half. i mean, a congressional campaign, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on here on both sides of the aisle. both sides of the aisle, both democrats and republicans, are putting on the pressure. we went to the tech firms, we've been talking to investors that deal with facebook and google in particular, those are the ones with the biggest targets for lots of reasons including size and, you know, they kind of hit all the areas that people are worried about, privacy, tax avoidance, antitrust, national security, you name it. those two -- ashley: yeah. >> those are all the areas that the regulators are looking at both on the democratic side, the republican side, at the white house. so what the tech firms are doing is this, when they're being approached by investors -- and, you know, take it for what it's worth, particularly facebook anding google, they are downplaying this. they are saying that, you know,

we've survived this in the past, we've got a lot of money, and here's what they do which is fascinating, they are pointing to the republicans in the senate as their savior. [laughter] now, you would think that republicans have generally hated tech because they supported democrats for so many years. ashley: yes. >> mark zuckerberg is a bigtime obama supporter. of i'm sure they spread money around a lot, but they are saying that the sort of, the defense against particularly the break-up calls that occur largely, it's on republicans, but it's largely on the democratic side will be the house, the senate republicans, and it will be mike lee of utah, that he is dead set against this, and they have a friend in mike lee. now, utah is somewhat of a tech state, as you know. ashley: it is, yeah. >> not just california. a lot of the tech stuff has bled over into utah. so that's who their friends are, and it's a fascinating -- ashley: what are they doing, wining and dining them? >> you know, i haven't looked at the contributions lately, my guess there is some --

ashley: soft some of that. >> there's going to be some of that. but it's interesting that mike lee and many republicans have been very critical of google and facebook for supporting democratic causes and candidates, now they're like the only friends they have. now, that's a statement from mike lee's office. and what's interesting, they think, is we asked the smokesman about -- spokesman about whether they were going to crack down on antitrust, and he said, no, we're not. what he said was we care about privacy, we care about data misuse, we care about bias, obviously, political bias. google's search engines might be biased9, but he basically said no to antitrust thing that we're looking to break them up, and that's coming from his office in mar. as this thing plays out, it's both a market drama because these are big stocks that are -- and they control the index. so if you invest in an s&p 500 fund -- ashley: it's in there. >> they are among the biggest stocks, biggest market caps. it's a market story, it's

obviously a technology story about what these companies do, it's a wall street story about how they expand and -- i can't imagine facebook going out and buying another instagram anytime soon with this pressure, but it's also a political story. the political story is getting somewhat complicated. it's not just that everybody hates them. there are fiefdoms, and the silicon valley has to build strong ties with the senate republicans, and -- ashley: this is fascinating. as you say, they are politically opposite. >> it's so opposite. and it's fascinating to see mark zuckerberg -- ashley: navy, yeah, is that what he was doing right there? >> become a republican. ashley: well, schmoozing. >> i've got news for you. mr. zuckerberg, jeff bezos who hates donald trump -- ashley: and vice versa. >> -- the guy who runs -- >> microsoft, far della? >> any of these major tech firms, tim cook -- ashley: oh, he's having dinner at the white house. >> right. he's coaz cozying up to trump. they are all becoming

republicans because as much as the republicans are onboard on the tech crackdown, they do not pose an existential threat to these companies. ashley: interesting. >> if facebook was forced to get rid of instagram, 40% of its revenues would go. ashley: that's a lot. >> i just read that in the journal. so now if facebook was broken up, what would you wreak -- break up? that's how you get them smaller and less powerful. ashley: right. >> their only hope is maybe mitch mcconnell, donald trump -- a. ashley: it's hilarious. good stuff. >> thank you. ashley: charlie gasparino, thank you very much. the closing bell rings in about seven and a half minutes. how about this? hard assets may be the key to rock solid returns. our $17 billion countdown closer has some ideas that could open the door to big profits in, let's face it, an uncertain

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ashley: remember where we heard when we heard this news. breaking news. jennifer lopez and shakira will be performing at the super bowl liv halftime show in 2020. it will air sunday, february the 7th, right here on fox. a lot of thumbs up from people in the studio. closing bell ringing four minutes from now. the dow tried to get back to the water mark now down 75 points. by the way micron taking a hit on earnings after the bell on a report that the u.s. unlikely to extend the temporary waiver to supply huawei. down to gerri willis live on the floor of the stock exchange. what can investor expect from micron earnings do you think? reporter: 49 cents a share. revenue of 4.57 billion. those are the expectations. you said it, u.s. unlikely to

extend temporary waivers to supply china's huawei. that is a headline affecting a lot of these chip stocks. endeavor, company coming public on floor of new york stock exchange tomorrow. price reduced to 26, $27 from 30 to 32. deal size is cut from 15 million to 1919. does not bode well. ashley, back to you. ashley: thank you very much. more americans putting their name on the dotted line. national association of realtors said the home sales rose 2% from a year ago. our "countdown" closer says real estate is where to be when adding to your portfolio. randy thanks for being here. the housing market is a tough go to get some traction. low mortgage rates. you would think rising wages,

the housing market would be taking off. it hasn't. but you like it. >> i'm actually a commercial real estate guy. ashley: okay. >> i am excited by the super bowl. whether single family homes or multifamily homes hasn't kept pace. what we're seeing people on single-family home are still worried about what happened last time. prices got high. they had negative equity. people saying it is pretty expensive out there. i want to rent. flexibility of renting. affordability is tough on the renting side. demographics are favoring renting. ashley: can you invest in real estate like reits, real estate investment trusts. are there other ways to do that. >> that is nice way to invest in real estate a year ago i said the economy would be slowing down a little bit, we'll be in 1 1/2, 2% growth range and

people will look at something defensive. private market sales to up and reits were flat. here we are, people worried about the economy. they want a hard asset. coupon of reits are leading the pack today. ashley: timing could not be more perfect. commercial side you say you're in economy is how is real estate on the commercialside? >> on the commercial fundamentals have never been better. rates are low and. you need to worry about economic growth you need to stay in the defensive sector. we like multifamily, industrial. office get as little risky. most expensive part of workers are buildings like us and buildings is the most expensive part. retail has a whole segment on. ashley: thank you, randy. markets fall into the red as we head into the closing bell,

despite positive comment from the chinese foreign minister. that will do it for the "claman countdown". [closing bell rings. connell mcshane and susan li for after the bell. susan: s&p 500 closing down four out of last five days. i'm susan li. in for melissa francis. >> i'm connell mcshane. here is what is new at this hour. political firestorm. president trump calling the whistleblower controversy, quote, another witch-hunt as democrats have been ramping up their impeachment push today. critics say could put the trade talks at risk. we'll be live from the white house where things stand. >> other scandal still rocking the nation, a