campaign trail the trump administration will have to keep hammering over and over and over again. maria: we will see if they do. communication has been an issue, tax reform is hard to communicate. dagen: wrote trump is his own communicator, he is the best communicator. maria: see you soon, have a great day, varney and company begins now. stuart: history about to unfold on "varney and company". dignitaries assembled in the white house for the formal signing of the china trade deal. it will be quite a show. the president, vice president, cabinet, members of congress, top white house officials will all be there and so will china's top-level delegation. the vice premier, the commerce minister and the governor of the bank of china. this is a political and economic win in my opinion for the president of the united states. that is why an hour before

that, 10:00 eastern, nancy pelosi will try to upstage the president. he will hold a news conference to announce who will manage the impeachment drive when the senate trial begins next week. there is some gamesmanship involved, the speaker's announcement is time to upstage the big event of the day, the trade deal signing. nancy pelosi wants to keep the focus on the president's troubles, not the president's triumph. the market opens half an hour from now, no fireworks expected, the earnings report from big banks largely solid, no big surprises. the dow is going to be down 70. the s&p seven, nasdaq down maybe 11. the stock price of target premarket way down. disappointing holiday sales, stock is down seven% but please remember target stock is up 94% last year, almost doubled so even a minor slip is enough to pull it down and that is what

we are seeing now. he will be a rock 'n roll live-action show and wait until you hear what the democrats said at the debate and what the president said. we haven't side-by-side for you. "varney and company" starts right now. ♪ >> we are going to be up against a republican incumbent who has cut healthcare for millions of people. >> liberal lawmakers pushing a government takeover of healthcare that would strip 180 million americans of their private health insurance. >> my democratic socialism says

healthcare is a human right. >> left-wing politicians, i call them the do-nothing democrats. >> we can overcome four years of donald trump but eight years of donald trump will be an absolute disaster and fundamentally change this nation. >> with your help, your devotion and your drive we are going to keep on working. we are going to keep on fighting and we are going to keep on winning. stuart: we cut him off, i think he said winning and winning and winning. we cut him off early. what a night it was, the democrats in the president competing screams, market watcher's david vinson is with us. i did not listen but i watched the reruns, highlights, not a word from the democrats about economic growth, not a word. >> they pivoted to foreign-policy a lot more last night probably understandable in the wake of the iran -- they have not been talking foreign-policy at all. economic growth is nice when you don't talk about it. when i hear candidates talk about economic growth there message particularly the warren sanders wing is so incredibly detrimental to us economic growth, how badly they would hurt the middle class. stuart: you wrote a book about

elizabeth warren and last night we heard a lot about her giveaway plans including counseling student debt, the taxpayers expense, i put it to you she is fading in the polls, bernie sanders is making the run now. >> is elizabeth warren fading showing americans rejecting her socialist message but clearly it is not because the numbers are going to bernie. they are not trading one socialist for another, it is very fluid. i don't want to write her out completely. he needs to come out first or second in iowa and new hampshire, she has a chance to do that. they have plenty of money to go the distance but ultimately i am more concerned about the message. elizabeth warren, attacking her as a person, it is the ideas had her attack on the aspirational society i am so concerned about. that message has gotten

currency in the democratic party and she brought the whole center of gravity to the left. stuart: i don't see any of the four leading candidates beating donald trump no matter what the polls say from november, they lose. >> you know you're my friend and i respect you but that is what i'm concerned about, so many in outside might fall into complacency or apathy. i think i'll four of them could beat donald trump. i'm not saying any of them will this is going to be a close election, the margins are so tight in the states that will make the difference. i don't want to take anything from this. stuart: no complacency, hours from now donald trump signs the china trade deal. i want to bring in edward lawrence. you have the numbers on what china is going to buy from us? you've got those numbers. >> what they are going to buy from the united states is in the annex that will not be made public. very big numbers, $40 billion

in services, $50 billion in agriculture according to the administration, china says they commit to $40 billion, $50 billion in energy, $75 billion, $80 billion in manufacturing, depending what you believe the chinese sources of the administration, $220 billion, huge numbers in the short-term. in the long-term the administration is saying protections on intellectual property as well as allowing companies to be 100% owned inside china will make a big difference going forward. stuart: thank you very much. live look at the white house, a few hours from now the phase i trade deal will be signed. let's bring in gordon chang, the treasury secretary is calling this a hit strike deal. you agree? >> i certainly do. what donald trump is doing is ditching four decades of failed

trade policy with china. he is going to manage trade. those are targets, maybe even legal commitments. we don't know what the formal wording of the agreement is. free traders hate this but we've got to remember china is itself moving towards more of a state dominated economy, more state involvement and so if you are going to have a good trade relationship with china it has to be managed trade and i think trump has the right idea. stuart: what about the cybersecurity rules? that is off the table. >> steve mnuchin just gave an impromptu press conference on treasury grounds an hour ago and he said the cyber security rules would be deferred to phase two. china's new cyberrules allow china to take all the data, all the communications in their networks in china, turnover

encryption keys to the chinese which means with the chinese have those inclusion keys and once they are in the china networks they can go through worldwide networks, gives them the ability, better ability to do that which means they can take these companies down. they did this with canada's networks which went bankrupt. they can do this to other companies if they can rummage inside the networks. stuart: that is not sold, it is still pending down the road. appreciate it. the ukrainian jet, new information, the one that crashed in tehran, new video shows two iranian missiles hit the jet. ashley: security camera footage shows two missiles, one, shortly after the plane took off, they got to 8000 feet and another missile, 30 seconds later. if you look at that and see the spot shadowed missile, what it actually shows is the plane did

not immediately go down after being hit by the missiles. the new video shows are on fire, tried to circle back to the airport and there is a loud explosion and the plane comes down where it was. this has been suspected from the beginning, iran for the first three days said no and now they are investigating, several people arrested. that shows you what happened. they fought of the cruise missile fired by the us, that makes no sense, the same as operating normally, this plane was taking off a 2000 feet. had no signature of a missile but human error says iran but terrorist circumstances. stuart: it is going to be a big day for the trade signing but not necessarily affecting the stock market directly. we will open lower pretty much across the board but not a major selloff. you are about to see political gamesmanship, donald trump signing the china trade deal. nancy pelosi making an announcement on impeachment trying to upstage the president may be.

here's the one moment that stood out in the debate last night. elizabeth warren's refusal to shake bernie sanders's hand. maybe the gloves coming off, there was no handshake. the president holding a rally in wisconsin last night. pete hegseth and brian brennanberg at a diner talking to donors. we are just getting started. rd. oh yeah, rd. we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board. excellent. and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. have a great flight. thanks. we'll see ya. ah, they're getting so smart. choose the app that fits your investing style. ♪

>> as we begin the year wages are rising, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling and america is the envy of the entire world. and then our opponents say we are not going to win, let's impeach donald trump. the greatest economy in our

history, our military has been totally rebuilt, let's impeach him. stuart: he puts on a good show, donald trump in milwaukee counting the economy at the same time democrats take the debate stage in des moines iowa. pete hegseth and brianbremberg, what are they saying this morning? >> that is who we are talking to. it has been a great conversation. the hard thing when you ask these questions and have great food in front of you is can you stay focused or do you just want to eat? >> what a contrast between what you saw in do morning with democrats talking how much free stuff they can get away at this great crowd in wyoming,

minnesota, our hometown, if we make, we bring some of that in right now. >> we have the mayor of wyoming, thank you for being here. you are concerned about the economy, jobs, what do you make of the economy that donald trump has given us? >> of our economy is thriving and that has been great for our manufacturers in the city of wyoming but they can't expand because we cannot find enough employees to fill those jobs. >> reporter: in this economy one of the biggest problems is so many jobs available and getting the right people in those jobs. there's a chance you have candidates like bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, very different economic policies, what would that mean to be economy, industries and jobs that sustain a small town like wyoming, minnesota? >> they want to give everybody something for free, somebody has to pay for and that means we have to pay for it and taxes go up, that goes onto manufacturing as well and will probably kill the growth we are in right now.

>> reporter: the message of free free free doesn't sell in small town america. >> matt is a friend of mine, full disclosure. you watch the democrats last night versus the -- donald trump's rally. if you're trying to make a choice what do you see? >> what we mentioned earlier. i'm a big believer in the american people and if you give the money to the american people they will make the right decisions as far as the economy and business goes let the people that are starting putting their lives on the line, putting everybody families on the line let them control their own destiny and their own money. i don't see that from the democratic platform and i have seen it from donald trump. >> not a lot of love for socialism here in wyoming, minnesota. stuart: music to my ears. even in minnesota.

hold on a second. i want to throw to the soundbite, democrats bashing the trump economy. role that tape. >> whoever will defeat donald trump has to beat him on the economy. i have the experience and expertise to show that he is a fake and a fraud. >> i'm ready to take on this president on the economy because i am from the exact kind of industrial midwestern community he pretends to speak to and has proven to turn his back on. >> where i come from the neighbors i come from are in real trouble. working-class people and middle-class people. we have farmers in iowa who are hurting and they are hurting because of donald trump's initiated trade wars. stuart: what to do good people in minnesota think of that? >> i think they would hear that and say that is a bunch of bunk. we are talking low unemployment, wages growing up, lisa's point, so many jobs available, how do you get people into those jobs, democrats will have a hard time

making that case when we have the economy we have. >> or you might say it is a bunch of malarkey. what you didn't hear there was any evidence, they didn't point to assist a stick or reality but the economy is not working for people. i want to make it better yet you hear evidence that says my industry is booming, we are hiring people, can't find enough people to hire and things like manufacturing, you need a magic want, magically appearing back here and we are hearing from wyoming, don't count minnesota out in november of 2020. there's a lot of energy here. stuart: how come you guys grew up together? i didn't know that. >> we grew up across the street from each other, two houses down. we were filming yesterday, fox

and friends this weekend and on the map brian moved to wyoming which felt like a world away but was only four miles. stuart: i feel differently about minnesota already. thanks for joining us and a big hello to the guests you have got in the diner. thanks. stuart: i am going to get back to your money. have to do that. apple, donald trump not happy with them because they are not unlocking the phones incremental investigations. he tweeted about this but went back on the stock, $311 a share. google, we are on the lookout for the trillion dollar market value. it is not quite there yet. it has to go to 1450, 1429 premarket. overall a slight downside move

for the market, i don't think the signing of the china trade deal will have much impact, we are up 60 on the dow. the signing of the phase i china trade deal happens in two hours. montana senator steve gaines will be there but he will talk to us about this historic deal and historic day and another trade deal coming down the pipe, us mca. it'll ruin your house. so get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like meow.

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>> there has in misreporting about side agreements. there are no side agreements. the only way the president will reduce the tariffs is if there is a phase two part of the agreement that is fully enforceable. stuart: there was steve mnuchin last night. the gentleman on the right is a republican from montana who is on the senate us china working group. you went to china frequently discussing this trade deal. it was two years, very intense negotiations. was there ever a time you thought it would never happen? >> once upon a time i lived at procter & gamble building, selling american brands. i have a lot of experience working in china. it is important to step back

and take the 30 foot view for a moment. what this president has done, the last hundred days has addressed the four largest trading partners we have with the united states, mexico, canada, china and japan. let's not forget in october we had a huge trade deal signed was to pay lowering tariffs, getting better access, agriculture, we will be at the white house in two hours in this historic phase i china deal and tomorrow morning god willing nancy pelosi gets away with impeachment we will pass the us-mexico china mexico canada trade agreement. those four countries represent over $2 trillion of trade in goods and services. i applaud the president, his perseverance protecting american intellectual property with china as well as providing access to $40 billion for us agriculture. that is the second largest export market in the world in china.

the producers in montana are happy. stuart: nancy pelosi will try to upstage you have an hour from now, names the managers of the impeachment drive in the senate. you ready to be upstaged? >> good luck with that. the americans who are working hard every day now this economy is booming. when you think about 90% of the world's consumers live outside the united states these trade deals are very important. i applaud the president and his team, they have focused on the four largest countries in stack rank border with mexico, canada, china and japan and in 100 days executed trade agreement, this is a really good thing for our country and the future of our prosperity in our nation. stuart: we will be looking for you later in the white house because you are attending the ceremony. thanks for joining us, see you again soon. michael bloomberg was not on the debate stage but is spending a ton of money to take

out donald trump from the white house. ashley: he was on the late show last night so got into all sorts of issues that made the point i only have one donor for my campaign and that is myself so he was asked how much of you kicked in so far? listen to the soundbite. >> how much of you spent so far running for president? >> we have to report in a while but it would be a couple -- hundred million dollars. but that is my investment in trying to get rid of donald trump and get a decent president. >> makes it sound like it changed -- ashley: although he has not campaigned in the first four states that go to voting he has been to 20 states in 40 cities and spent a ton of money on television ads and what have you around the country so we will see. stuart: can you buy your way

into the democrat nomination? he has the money to do it? ashley: we will find out. he came in late, but we will see. he could emerge. at this point -- >> he will have to pull off something he has never done before. he is expected to spend $200 million until march and if you compare, that means what barack obama's campaign spending 2012 on his presidential reelection. were amended is the richest in new york state, the wealthiest in the country. stuart: his reaction last night, shrugged, a couple hundred million, that tells a big story. you can have a big impact on politics in america spending a couple hundred million dollars and basically spending it on the supertuesday primaries. and hope to make a big splash in those primaries and march to the convention with a bunch of delegates in california.

i am being pejorative. i am buying this and buying that but quite successful. left-hand side of your screen the futures market indicates how the market is likely to open a couple minutes. when we open up this wednesday morning. down 70 for the dow, six on the s&p, eight on the nasdaq. the impending signing of the china trade deal having 0 impact on this market. i think it is all about earnings reports. we are going to be joined by shot gilani, susan is studying her phone and ashley webster all together. how is this going to play on the markets today when investors look at the china trade deal are signed, any impact? >> it will be positive. markets have anticipated we would get to a phase i deal. we are here now. it is a little bit maybe buy on the rumor and so on the news.

i don't believe it will have a huge impact other than the support mechanism underneath the market. the unknowns are taken off the table. stuart: whatever you see "the opening bell" is ringing and we are due to start trading. we have three seconds to go and then wall street will open and off we go. the initial run, we are down. not a huge selloff. we are seconds in and a lot of dow stocks have not opened. they are opening gradually. looks like a fairly even split, winners and losers and the dow is up 30 points. the s&p 500, show me that, that is down a tiny tiny fraction, i say basically flat. the nasdaq composite is up five points higher, 9256, looks like

the big tech is doing well. still riding high. can we see in the early going? we have facebook, alphabet, microsoft, amazon up, apple down a tiny fraction, $0.23. big names we talk about every single day, are they getting a little expensive for average every day people to buy? >> in terms of the metrics investors look at i would imagine they would look a little expensive but this anticipates for the most part earnings going up so if earnings go up prices got ahead of themselves for a little while but earnings justify the higher prices and when the market is moving as upwardly as it has been moving there are additional multiples added to the grade stocks moving forward. all of the text box have everything great companies

need, the customer bases, the ecosystems, the platforms, the profits and they are generating tons of cash, no reason not to continue to lead the market. they could all go a good bit higher for sure. stuart: i sold too really. >> they predicted shares would rise 355. despite that we are seeing underperformance. these big techs represent 18% of the s&p 500 which is the highest in history according to morgan stanley but there are concerns from bank of america when these games concentrate and get a head full of stocks there isn't a lot of breath in the market. how sustainable is this rally? ashley: the same after ten years. we wondered if someone else at some point was going to take the load, financials for a while but it continues to be big tech. ashley: gary said this is

looking a little too frosty but it is hard not to invest in these companies. stuart: yesterday i was mentioning if the earnings report of microsoft or apple is not absolutely knock it out of the ballpark so you could expect a little bit of a pull back because perfection is priced in here. they are priced to be spectacular no matter what. >> i don't know if they are priced to perfection, they are priced to increasing earnings. for the stocks not to go higher, would they take a hit? apple and microsoft, if they fall short of expectations, i doubt they will. then stocks could come up a little bit. it will be a function of the rest of the market. of the market moves back up everything, winners and profitability. investors go right back into that. stuart: for five big tech stocks moving higher.

it has been on a tear, look at that, $531 per share. >> if stock hits $554, and $100 billion. if it holds that level for six months this would unlock several potential share-based payments. elon musk himself would receive a bonus payment, the highest in history, $350 million. hold it for six months and we have elon musk, and -- stuart: that is a $100 billion valuation, he is worth $19 billion and get $350 million bonus of stock is 55480.

i will never stop. donald trump wants the company to be more helpful with unlocking phones for investigations especially national security investigations. i thought trump and tim cook were friendly. >> a burgeoning relationship but they defer on things like immigration and climate change etc. and when it comes to unlocking the iphones, linked to the pensacola shooting and william barr says we need apple's help in unlocking them but apple says if there is no reform why did you wait a month to ask us to unlock the phones in the first place and these are older folks, iphone seven at iphone five, do you need apple to create a backdoor here? and if you create a backdoor for one person, the bad guys can get in. stuart: if apple create software there is a key to unlock phones, somebody else

will get it at some point. >> totalitarian regimes, what they do with access. stuart: apple has turned around, we are at 31367. the dow has turned around, now we are up 38 points. 28,977, we might see 29 k this morning. check the treasury yield. it is still there, 179. i will not read too much into that. price of gold, 1552 up eight points. the price of oil around 58. $58 a barrel, only just, 5804. beyond meat, stock losing steam after being on a tear lately. a downgrade from bernstein but it did get together with

rickett on ip protein deal. down $3 as we speak. games stock, don't know if we will play the organ music begin stabilized at 471. a big drop yesterday. the biggest rally since 2012. look at it go, $2,800 per coin. >> we start with the biggest rally since 2012 and this is because of concerns. searches on google went up 1000% the night of the iran iraq missile firing. stuart: still not going to. the story of the day, retail stock is target, disappointing holiday sales, it is down $7, 5.5%, it had a wonderful run up

last year, almost doubled. would you buy it at 115? >> i would consider it but i am hoping it comes down to 110 in which case i am a buyer all day. i love the stock, didn't get in, missed the ride up and with some pressure it might get down there. and some of the sector can come down more. and it is down to 110 where i load up on it. stuart: we have your target in which case you would buy. >> target actually, sales including digital channels and it is less then half. and it is in strong categories like toys and electronics, week in the quarter according to target and this is the company

people thought were adapting to consumer shifting better than others. surprisingly despite the fact they cut sales targets they are maintaining their profits for the quarter. hired ticket items mean more revenue per item sold. stuart: why don't i called target a $7 per share disappointment? that is where you are. >> don't you think if you underperformed during the biggest season of the year that this doesn't bode well for the rest of the year especially when amazon had a record season? stuart: the stock is down and i'm not going to buy it. the dow industrials now up 73 points and back above 29,011 is where we are right now. move on to boeing.

so much negative news, and they hold around that level. would you buy it? i did by the way. >> i have been trying to. i said on your show, and a shade below that. i don't know that all the bad news is out. and at lower-level's, nothing to do. and the question, what level i get in at. it went lower. stuart: already bought too high. i sold microsoft at the long level and bought boeing at the wrong level. >> good for you but boeing is a china proxy play given we have a phase i trade deal with $80 billion expected to be

spent by china, and none of that goes to boeing planes, that is a big price tag. this might be a china play on today's signing. stuart: if that is the case i wonder why boeing isn't up a bit on that news. >> probably priced in. stuart: disney plus, the streaming service, most downloaded apps in the month of october and november and december. how many of these -- ashley: november's 12 lunch, 12 million subscribers, it averaged 1 million a day. it slowed down a little bit. combined fourth-quarter disney plus, 31 million combined downloads across apple store and google play and one look at the other downloadable apps, facebook's messenger three, facebook itself five. if you want to look worldwide,

disney is not in the top five. what's apps is number one across the world and facebook, messenger and instagram and the gaming downloads, only one game in town, call of duty, you name it, that is a hugely popular downloaded mobile version. stuart: i am so far behind the times. >> it is early innings for disney plus, just a few weeks. >> very early innings. stuart: we don't know how many of those downloads were paid for, how many people were paying for the streaming service. didn't they have an idea a lot of them would be free to start with? >> analysts say 82 million by 2024.

>> all the big streamers are going to be big gainers. stuart: all the streamers will be gainers, he said it right here, january 2nd whatever it is. thanks for joining us on a big day. always appreciate it. let's move back to the us china trade deal signing later this morning. the governor of south dakota, i believe you will be at the signing ceremony. and what will he give to your state, south dakota? >> this will reopen, into china. to make this type of progress for us, phase i is incredibly important. deals with agricultural products which is our number one industry in south dakota. stuart: we are told the china will buy $75 billion-$80 billion worth of american agricultural products in the next two years.

you say a chunk of that comes in south dakota? >> that is what we do best, feed the world. today at the white house i have two of my farmers with me. jerry schmidt is with the south dakota association and craig anderson, the first visit to the white house, i love the fact the president allowed us to bring farmers here to tell the story of what this agreement does for our country and my message on this agreement has been it is not just good for the economy across the country but agree it's a friendlier neighborhood. it helps us have relationships with them and that is important too. stuart: just in a matter of days we will have trade deals with our largest trading partners, canada, mexico, china, japan, this is an all-around star performance on the issue of trade.

>> i worked on policy for a long time, lifelong farmer and rancher, the nafta agreement getting us mca across the finish line and make progress. >> nancy pelosi will have a news conference and will announce the managers of the impeachment drive in the senate and might be trying to upstage you. >> they talk about what they can do to be successful. we had a tough year in our state with natural disasters, people in the state, it is important to be focusing on the agreement the president is signing. phase i is something he promised, a big win for the country.

stuart: what do you produce in south dakota? big agricultural state. this trade deal, $50 billion of any products. is that an energy producing state? what about south dakota? >> we don't have their -- and we have mount rushmore. we are thrilled to have that and what we do is feed the world. we market a lot of soybeans to china, heard by a couple different things, trade negotiations but they had a swine epidemic that hit the market as well. we export some pork and other commodities. corn and other markets we can access. a lot of mouths to feed and in

south dakota we grow our food to export its, to feed them and that is what we do best and we are excited about the opportunity the phase i agreement will provide. stuart: i don't want to digress too far but i want to tell you last time i was in south dakota i was in the northern part of the state and driving along a road that was absolutely dead straight but you come to a point you have to take a zigzag all of a sudden to account for the curvature of the earth. that is the way it was explained to me. is that accurate? >> it is the most beautiful -- you come back and i will drive you across the state. for mountains, rivers and grassland, to the glacial lakes region, absolutely beautiful no matter what time of year you come. stuart: will you take me to mount rushmore? >> one of the things they are talking about as we are getting fireworks back at mount rushmore on july 3rd. we are excited to have that,

you could come for that and everything south dakota does. stuart: if you are not careful i might take you up on that. it was a pleasure having you on the program and we will look for you at the signing ceremony later this morning. we have charlie gasparino on the phone with news on an election year stimulus proposal. that is news. tell me more. >> on top of the trade deal. and some sort of election-year physical stimulus, and on the table, larry kudlow will be on the show later today and will include a payroll tax reduction for armed income tax credit.

and the trade deal, and positive for the market and economy that they don't have that tension. that is counter -- stuart: if you are talking about payroll tax cuts will increase, can you do that without congress? >> of course not but it is a proposal and election-year proposal. payroll taxes, and a regressive tax out there. earned income tax credit is something both parties generally -- this could go through as you think about it. and running on tax increases that you see the trump administration laying out the

strategy, we are going to cut middle-class taxes. the election-year posturing, there's a chance it might not go through. we hear donald trump and the white house, at least mauling as part of the budget proposal. before i end this, it is not back for that. stuart: very important news. that is a nice thing today go before the electorate right before and election-year. it is good to dangle in front of the stock market and the economy, stimulus coming if you vote for me. thanks for being with us today. come on in herman cain. i hope you were listening to that. the possibility of an election year payroll tax deduction, and an income tax improvement putting money into middle

america's pocket, it is a good idea from your point of view. what do you think? is it likely? >> the trump administration figured out they have to give something to the democrats. the reason we got the last tax cut is because they gave some of the things democrats want. they want more pork, more big social programs. for the administration to be mulling those tax cuts, they give something up to the democrats and the democrats are going to try to run on maintaining big social programs while the administration runs on the tax cuts they have given twice. >> going to this before the election, i can't see that. for the president's reelection,

and can't quite see it. where it is important for the market and for the economy the idea that if mister trump wins a second term you get more stimulus, more fiscal stimulus, tax cuts, more money pumped into the economy. >> you look at it one dimensionally, the democrats would never go for this proposal in a one-dimensional sense. when they negotiate other pieces you hardly ever hear about and the trade deal is a big plus. for them to be dangling the idea of tax cuts is a good idea. it hasn't happened yet, you can't look at it one dimensionally. congress and the democrats would never go along with it,

they get something in return and the administration is fully aware they would have to do that like they did before. we went got it. you are quite right but let me bring this up too. for the first time in 26 years all us metro areas saw income gains. every single one of them, all 26 of them saw income gains in 2019 and we have not seen that for a quarter-century. that is remarkable. that tells you the impact of trump's epidemic the policies with boots on the ground. >> i agree with you 100% and remember when is mrs. have very low unemployment rate to deal with which we do as you know it start slow that means they are looking for workers and they want to keep the workers they have so they increase wages and as a result that is why the

metro areas are experiencing wage gains because employers are smart enough to know they've got to keep the good workers they have and that is why you are seeing that increase, historic increase in all the metro areas. stuart: i don't know if you are a late-night kind of guy, i don't know if you watched the debate in school but i have to ask about it, the democrat debate, they were essentially focused on foreign policy but they spent some time bashing the trump economy. hold on a second and let viewers watch this please. >> i love that debate because the american public is getting clobbered, the wealthy are the only ones doing well. how does it happen in the richest country in the history of the world, half of our people living paycheck to paycheck getting by at $9, $10 an hour? >> we need to put a will fax in place, ask those on

corporations to pay. that is how we build an economy and those who talk about it bring down the national debt. stuart: i have no comment but i'm sure you do. >> first the debate was not really a debate, it was a group of socialists trying to out socialist one another. they all believe in raising taxes was one of the common threads last night, i did not watch the entire debate. one of my guys, robert lowery put himself through the pain of watching this and gave me a summary which i knew the difference what they were going to do. they are all against fossil fuels, only because of the policies of the trump administration we no longer have to depend on oil-producing countries even in this very sensitive world environment we live in. secondly they all want to raise

taxes and they are trying to convince the american people that is a good thing. thirdly, all of them lied about the middle class being clobbered, people being clobbered. those are absolute lies, now they are not. they are trying to lie to the american public in order to try to gain in the polls. that is the bottom line. stuart: you did watch it. i know you watched it. herman cain, always a pleasure, great to see you again, see you soon. in an hour and a half from now, roughly 11:30 eastern this morning the president will be signing phase i of the china trade deal and you will see it right here as it is happening, a very big deal. the president is on a big winning streak, democrats are trying anything and everything to take him down. we will show you how their desperate attempts to knock his economic policies weren't doing it last night at the debate.

house speaker pelosi trying to steal his thunder within impeachment announcement in just a couple minutes. i will tell you why the left's attempts are futile, that is my opinion. the second our of varney and company is next. confidence. so we can spend a bit today, knowing we're prepared for tomorrow. wow, do you think you overdid it maybe? overdid what? well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement. . .

stuart: bang, exactly 10:00 eastern time. i will repeat the news we brought to you from charlie gasparino, fbn's guy. the white house is reportedly mulling an election year stimulus proposal. gasparino tells us the ideas on the table include a payroll tax reduction and increase in the earned income tax credit. more as it comes. we hit all-time high on the dow jones industrials and s&p 500. this is a up market. right now we're up 116 on the dow, 29,056. that is the new high. 3294 on the s&p. that is the new high. the nasdaq bumbling along, 9290.

now this. right about now speaker pelosi will reveal with great fanfare the managers of the impeachment case when it goes to trial in the senate next week. the timing is deliberate. the speaker wants to up stage the president signing of trade deal, phase one with china, which is scheduled for the 11:00 hour. the trump hating media will breathlessly report on the trump haters who will present the impeachment case. across most of the media that is a given. nothing this president does is good. everything is bad. if it does look like a trump win, just block it out, change the subject. never acknowledge success. we showed you the bias. network news broadcasts gave overwhelmingly coverage to impeachment and virtually nothing to the booming economy. so it is today. the impeachment news is brought forward to divert attention from the china trade win. okay. but next week the president will

turn the tables. as the impeachment trial begins, mr. trump will be in davos. that is the annual grand assembly of the global elites in the swiss alps. he will create his own news cycle, tweeting up a storm, answering any and all reporter questions and generally dominating the headlines. you know the china trade deal, america's top performing economy, historic wealth creation, the narrowing of income inequality gap, you know, compelling stuff from the president. meanwhile, inside the beltway the impeachment press will furiously report on who said what about ukraine. compelling stuff? not. stay with us for the real action, the meaningful action, that is going to appear on your screens over the next couple of hours. the formal signing ceremony for the historic china trade deal, the president his cabinet, members of congress, state governors, china's vice premier, commerce minister, governor of the bank of china, they will all

be there at the white house and our cameras will take you there too. this is not the first time the democrats tried to up stage the president. on your screens, video of the house judiciary committee holding hearings on impeachment while the president was at the nato summit in london. pelosi and democrats taking credit or trying to for fixing the, what they thought was the flawed usmca. you got to watch this. >> in terms of our work here it is intimately better than what was initially proposed by the administration. >> our constant emphasis was on enforceability, enforceability, we fixed that. >> the trump administration sent us a deeply flawed trade deal. we now have new, improved renegotiated nafta. >> this is a new trade agreement that the working group and democrats have achieved. stuart: i'm sorry, i should not

laugh. it is impossible not to for heaven's sake. democrats taking credit for fixing of usmca deal? brad blakeman, bail me out before i collapse in hysteria. that is utter nonsense. >> it is. democrats know no shame. they take credits they don't deserve credit for. they demonize the president, when the president is winning. they have to figure out a way to root for america and cheer for losing. we don't lose here in america. we're winners. there is no crisis in america on impeachment. the president has not missed a beat. his polling reflects. usmca agreement. the agreement with china. successes continue t confounds the democrats. stuart: as of right now, very soon, speaker pelosi will announce managers of impeachment process with great fanfare. will that really up stage what the president is about to do with the china trade deal? >> it will not. the fact that the america people are tuned out on impeachment.

i traveled over the holidays. i talked to uber holidays. i talked to service people. i talked to friends. outside the beltway people are humming along. they see impeachment as a political witch-hunt. they also see democrats using the constitution as a sword to impale a political opponent as opposed a shield to protect americans. they have absolutely prostituted the constitution for political purposes. stuart: just hold on for a second for me, brad. larry kudlow, president trump's top economic guy has been appearing on the fox news channel. ashley you have got the headlines. ashley: yeah. he says the estimates for the china trade deal will add half a percent on to gdp this year and next year. he also says the toughest part of phase two he believes will tackling forced transfers of technology which has been a real sticking point as we know. half a percent on gdp. stuart: that is what i picked up on. ashley: today, this year and next year. stuart: bring in economist

john lonski on that. you'red why the al person to make a comment. as you heard from ashley, larry kudlow says this trade deal adds half a a to gdp this year and next year. your judgment on that? >> my judgement is the consensus view of gdp growth and it is significant. it should add a quarter percentage point, half a percentage point is at the high-end. this deal further reduces risk of recession in 2020. it makes it all the more likely we'll probably be looking at lower unemployment rate by year's end. stuart: what we're also hearing is that china will buy from us $40 billion worth of services, $50 billion worth of agricultural products. $50 billion worth of energy. 75 to $80 billion worth of manufactured products in the next two years that sounds like a lot of money changing hands. >> i believe it. i think that number in agriculture may turn out to be higher. china has a big problem with pork.

they may be buying pork helter-skelter from the united states very soon, rapid rate. i would add china general has a problem with food price inflation. if the chinese government wants to please the population, remain in good form with their population they have to get the food prices down of the how do you do it? buy more agricultural goods from the united states. stuart: i believe treasury secretary steve mnuchin was on with lou dobbs last night and made a comment that the tariffs would stay on, tariffs currently in place would stay on until a phase two is signed. now is that a problem for the economy, if the tariffs stay there? like $260 billion worth of stuff. >> some tariffs being reduced or cut in half. that is important consideration. they also, i think announced they suspended any planned new tariffs. that is also important. i mean this tells us, that the trump administration is willing to be flexible on the trade

front, believing that the chinese will respond in kind. stuart: okay. so we've got four trade, we've got four trading partners. we have canada, mexico, china and japan. we have deals with all of them. that is a big plus for the economy. wrap it up. >> it is a beg plus. makes it easier for business leaders to go ahead plan capital spending and in turn, it reduces risk of recession. that is fading quickly. i think good news for the economy. we see that reflected in the new record highs for u.s. equities. stuart: let me turn to that right now. john, very good segue. you wrote that for me. >> i read your mind. stuart: look at this. up new record high for the dow. new record high for the s&p. what have you got, ashley. ashley: larry kudlow says the phase one deal will boost manufacturing purchases from china by 75 billion. energy by 50 billion. so.

stuart: clearly helping the markets. talking about that kind of money coming into america for our products bought by china, that is why we're up 150 points. brand new high. we will check individual stocks here. they have been caught up in the upside move. much tesla coming back a little bit, down a buck. that's not much. apple at a new record high. 315.18. that is the story on apple. way up again. facebook, google. did google go to 1450, not quite? ashley: no. stuart: if it reaches 1450 it up to trillion dollars. susan: amazon is close to the trillion dollar mark. past that. we're at 980. if you think about it, virtually the top four trillion dollar companies are all tech, microsoft apple,. stuart: don't remind me i sold microsoft.

susan: you bought boeing. it might be a smart play i think. stuart: it will be. what a day it is, i'm telling you. next hour president trump signs the phase one trade deal at the white house, big ceremony. i want to know how much china will spend on farm goods. to get the answer i will ask that question to sonny perdue. he is bigging a account ral minister. we don't call them the agricultural minister. i don't know the correct title. susan: secretary of agriculture. stuart: sonny perdue. democratic candidates took to the debate stage. talked down president trump and the economy. on the other side of the screen the president rallying voters in milwaukee. what a contrast. we'll she you some of the highlights. they're pretty good too. michael bloomberg he said this very casually on colbert i spent a couple hundred million dollars running for president. he calls it an investment to beat trump.

we got exactly what he said, how he said it coming up. look at this market. you just got to look at this market. all-time high for the dow industrials. now we're up 150 point. that is extraordinary. up 150 points for the dow. i got to say, this has to be mr. kudlow is saying trade deals add half a percent to gdp. john lonski says it is more like a quarter percent. that is still an addition. ashley: right. stuart: charlie gasparino saying they may dangle tax cuts in front of the electorate before the election this year. that too is looking good for the market. ashley: yeah. stuart: you guys are playing ball pretty well, brad blakeman. >> you have to hit on all cylinders, take nothing for granted. when the economy is doing well, you put the pressure on. don't back off a good economy. you continue a good economy with good policy. stuart: meanwhile, i have monitors all over the place. i can see other news channels,

scrambling all over speaker pelosi announcing the impeachment managers. well, that is important. dow industrials are up 140 points. your 401(k) is going to the moon and back. iras are going straight up there. your pension plan is doing absolutely wonderfully. you might get a tax cut. how about that. susan: impeachment has no impact on the market. meanwhile china trade has had a big impact. the most important parts of this agreement. i think robert lighthizer said it well on fox business the other night. he said nothing is impossible. you're not negotiating the deal. we have the wind here. enforcement mechanism i have never seen before in a u.s. china trade deal. basically they have snap back procedures in place and they can put on new tariffs on goods if china is not adhering to the promises. people said president xi xinping would never sign the deal because he would lose face. basically trapping china under the thumb of the u.s. instead he

is signing this deal. i think it's a big win. >> question becomes enforcement, how do we know they're living up to it? stuart: true. last word, john lonski. >> the last word is this, the first time in more than 50 years the biggest problem facing the u.s. economy is a shortage of qualified workers, not a dearth of jobs. this is incredible. stuart: pretty good news i would say. john, you're all right, brad, thank you very much, gentlemen. now this. while president trump was in milwaukee last night the democratic hopefuls were debating. just watch this. roll it. >> we're going to be up against a republican incumbent who has cut health care for millions of people. >> liberal lawmakers are pushing a government takeover of health care that would strip 180 million americans of their private health insurance. >> my democratic socialism says health care is a human right. >> left-wing politicians, i call them the do nothing democrats. >> we can overcome four years of donald trump but eight years of

donald trump will be an absolute disaster and fundamentally change this nation. >> with your help, your dedoings and your drive, we going to keep on working. we are going to keep on fighting and we are going to keep on winning. stuart: we cut him off. i'm sure winning and winning and winning. are you tired of winning yet? that is one of his favorite expressions. kelly sadler with us, america first action pac communications director. you saw that and i can see a big smile on your face. no wonder, that was really telling i thought, go. >> it was such a tale of contrasts last night. you have the president speaking at a rally before thousands of supporters. he has high energy. you just, touting all of the accomplishments. great economy, strength at the border, passing two trade deals, usmca, signing the china trade deal today. and then you have the democrats. low energy, boring, i mean,

just, it dragged on and on. nothing really new came. this president wants to build this country. he loves this country and thee democrats want to tear it down with their socialist agenda. stuart: by the way, kelly, speaker pelosi just announced there will be seven impeachment managers. >> wow. stuart: the lead impeachment manager will be adam schiff. >> of course. of course. i mean, this is no surprise. it is not shocking. we're going to see replay of what we saw, hopefully not in the house but, the bottom line this has lost the attention of the american public. it is boring. it is not moving markets. not making headlines. the president did nothing wrong. he will be acquitted at the end of this but it will drag on and drag on past the iowa caucus, maybe into new hampshire. that is going to hurt senator klobuchar, senator sanders, you know, senator warren. i think nancy pelosi, there is a bubbling strategy doing it to help biden. stuart: kelly, i have to go straight to larry kudlow talking

about the china trade deal to reporters. let's go there, please. >> 4 can our farmers do this? they can. we're the most productive agriculture community in the world but don't forget you have $75 billion targeted for higher u.s. manufacturing exports. we've had a soft manufacturing for a variety of reasons. monetary policy, trade issues and world slump. that is big numbers, 75 billion and you've got if i'm not mistaken i hope i get all the numbers right, $50 billion in energy which is huge. we're the biggest energy source in the world today. china needs it. they need our nat-gas, lng. we even sell them coal and so forth. finally services which gets to your point. all manner essentially, all manner of financial services, banking, investing insurance and

so forth. there is even a section about working out bad loans which they need help on. that is another 40 billion in services. so it really is across the board widespread, with these backup provisions to enforce it. reporter: there was the deal last year, early last year that never made it to the finish line that was bigger presumably than this one. the president has -- >> actually, can i tell you something on that? exempt for a complete, a completion of the issues recording forced tech transfer, those were licenses ownership, you know, stealing information, except for that, we got pretty much what we wanted back from last year. it is interesting. overall, hard to weight these

things proportionally. i don't want to get into it, but you know, we probably got half total in phase one. the other half, not that we didn't get it, just incomplete. so, i just, and i want to make a point, my friend, ambassador lighthizer, we've known each other since we both worked for reagan in his first term many years ago. i'm on the phone with bob this weekend. he is thanking me. you know, the heavy lifting here was getting phase one, make no mistake about that. nothing like this has ever happened before in history. you may be cynical and that's your job i get that, i appreciate that, i've been on your side of the street in my career, but i'm just saying, at least on paper, with enforcement, this is a really widespread and the fact that it happened is historic. reporter: got half of what you wanted. was this the only deal, the best deal, how would you characterize it? >> i think it is the best deal.

i think it is a terrific deal. as i said in one of the other programs, you know the stock market has been rallying, for a lot of reasons. monetary easing and so forth. but a lot of it is, this is a pro-growth deal. this also came up at our dinner last night. this is good for america's economy. it is good for china's economy. it is good for the world economy. and, cooperation, u.s.-sino cooperation at least on trade and economy is certainly improving. we've shown it can be done. is it definitive, is it final? we'll see. but i'm just saying nothing like this has ever happened before. that's why, in all honesty i know you will say it is my job, i think historically, i don't care which side of the aisle you're on, this is a historic deal. stuart: let's end it right there. that was a remarkable statement from the president's top economic advisor larry kudlow. he has been working the

newsrooms across america so far today. what he has had to say has truly improved the stock market and i says these trade deals are going to give a nice boost to the economy. let's not forget. we got the china trade deal signing coming up. we have a trade deal agreed to with canada, mexico, japan. four trading partners, we have deals with them all, finalized very recently. kudlow says that adds a half percent to gdp this year and again next year. that is a big chunk of stimulus for the economy. ashley: pro-growth he calls it. not only good for the u.s. economy, the chinese economy but the global economy. once we get this out of the way, phase two. stuart: i think mr. kudlow. exactly phase two, what comes with that. ashley: right. >> but what kudlow is saying this is extraordinary. china agreed to buy $40 billion worth of our services. $50 billion of worth of our

agricultural products. $50 billion worth of our energy. 75 to, $75 billion worth of our manufacturing products. that is huge stimulus for the economy. the dow industrials reacting to that with another record high. right now we're up 140 points. 29,077. you have an addition, susan? susan: back in 2017 china bought $187 billion worth of u.s. goods every year. getting to 200 billion, adding more to 200 billion for the next two years will be good for chinese proxy plays. 3ms of the world, boeings, caterpillar, if you need more heavy machinery. i think banks will be a big part of that. hot zare companies. microsoft possibly will get a good chunk of purchases from china. very good for u.s. corporations. stuart: clearly. can we check some trade related stocks? yes we can. boeing actually down this morning.

caterpillar is down. 3m is down. wasn't expecting that. maybe the word hasn't gotten out there yet. they are not down a lot. i'm surprised they're down. we'll see how we go later on. kelly sadler i have to say the administration has done pretty well getting the word out there. mr. kudlow clearly made a big difference to the economy, markets certainly. you're doing a good job. >> thank you, stuart. this president came into office promising to realign our trade, you know, deficit, our trade agreements with china and renegotiate nafta. he has done just that. now, his tactics with tariffs, i know they roiled the markets but but you're seeing the end result. this president says what he does, does what he says. is is going to do and more promises kept. stuart: hold on kelly. i have to go back to the market.

we have fast and furious action here. mr. kudlow said, look we've never seen anything like this before. agreements on trade with our four leading trade partners, canada, mexico, china, japan. big stimulus for the economy. he said it will add a half percent to gdp. remarkable impact. new high for the dow industrials. new high for the s&p. stocks going up across the board. what have you got? susan: chinese currency is -- i know it is boring. because of weakness in the economy so as you mentioned attendees in the signing, the chinese central bank governor will be there in attendance and china has been removed from the currency manipulator list by the treasury department last night in anticipation of this signing. this is respect, giving face to chinese delegation in attendance. they're signing a phase one trade deal. the fact we do have the signing, china will keep the currency steady, they won't weaken it any

further to match what is happening to the economy. that is good for global markets. i think it is strongest since the summer which i think has had impact stablizing markets around the world. stuart: i don't think anybody expected, xi xinping, china's leader, to sign, sign on to a deal like this. susan: right. stuart: which is heavily favored for the americans. it seems to me, maybe i'm wrong, it seems america is faded, favored. susan: i would say the enforcement mechanism is probably key. it is about respect, showing respect to us. in china there is a lot of talk around the social media circles how can china and president xi xinping sign a deal where basically he is letting u.s. keep tariffs on while they negotiate their phase two? i mean that doesn't seem fair. they would say that is not really a fair deal but in the end i think china came to the reality our economy is slowing. we need u.s. goods anyways with

what is happening with swine flu and what is happening in the economy. i'm really surprised the enforcement mechanic system is strong as it is. stuart: let's go through stocks we have really active here. you're looking at three major indices, dow, s&p, nasdaq, all on the upside very nicely. if you show me big tech. i believe all of those stocks are up as well. win pretty much across the board. there is big tech. look some people say look, why on earth do you go to big tech, keep quoting big tech? very simple. they dominate. you have two trillion dollar companies, microsoft and apple. google is awfully close to being a trillion dollar company. susan: amazon as well. stuart: you're right. amazon as well. microsoft, they're 800, a trillion. who am i missing. facebook is nowhere near a trillion dollars. ashley: no. stuart: the big four, the other

big four, they are pretty close. facebook is at a new record high, 221 as we speak. susan: right. stuart: i'm not sure how big tech benefits from the trade deal with china. you will spell it out for me? susan: okay. the only one actually has probably the biggest market share is apple which gets around a fifth of its revenue from the big market of china. they assemble a lot of their phones. over half of iphones around the world are assembled in china. apple, think about it, a year ago they had first profit warning because of sliding sales in. first time they ever said that in history. 12 months later, apple record highs, representing 4% of the s&p 500. that is fifth time it happened. all these big tech represent 18% of the s&p 500, the biggest in history, right? i would say apple is most dependent on china. microsoft does business in china.

google doesn't do that much. they left the search market in 2010 after they what they accused to be a hack in the country. they still provide google maps. a lot of other stuff for android phones sold. i would say those two, apple, microsoft are the biggest dependents on chinese market. stuart: while all this is going on, kelly sadler, you will like this. i will feed you good stuff here. >> good, good. stuart: you will look good, i promise you. the dow industrials going straight up. big tech straight up. economic stimulus, here it is. a triumph for president trump. precisely the moment the market is doing this, we have democrats announcing their impeachment managers, the lead manager is going to be adam schiff. i'm looking on my screens. don't change the channel viewers. you don't have to see this, but i'm looking for you, there is parade of democrats saying just how awful president trump is. an extraordinary economic

performance. market highs from the president. how bad he is for the democrats. i think i said it for you, kelly, but say it again. >> it is just trump derangement syndrome. these democrats are unhinged. they cannot give any credit to the president, you know what? they can do what they want to do. the american people are feeling benefits of this economy. they're feeling it in their wallets with their small businesses. they're feeling optimistic. these democrats are not relatable. they don't have a message. they have nothing inspirational to say. when the big headline from the debate last night when a woman can become president, you know democrats have a messaging problem. stuart: i want to digress a little bit further to repeat what our own charlie gasparino told us earlier. his sources within the administration are talking about a package deal that dangling the idea of tax cuts before the election. specifically, a cut in what was it now, the payroll tax.

susan: yep. stuart: and the earned income tax credit, an improvement in that. that would be a way of putting more money into the hands of people on the lower end of the income scale. it will be stimulus for the economy. it, it probably wouldn't pass the congress this year because it would have to go past the democrats, however the president could dangle this to the electorate, you vote for me, you get more tax cuts, more stimulus, our prosperity will roll on. that is very important. larry kudlow said that boeing is a drag on the economy. ashley: yeah. stuart: its stock is down 90 cents right now. but it is at 331. what else have we got here? >> he basically echoes what wilbur ross, boeing grounding of 737 will shave half a percent off gdp. but if china trade deal -- stuart: it is a wash. trade deal gives us half a

percent up. boeing gives us a half a percent down. susan: right. stuart: wash it out. triple digit gain for the dow industrials. we were at new high. 29,068. new highs across the board, a remarkable story of politics on the left. nancy pelosi, the impeachment managers, adam schiff, i call that negative politics on one sight -- side, but positive economics from the president and four trade deals. are we taking a break? are we playing the beatles? we got oil. ashley: middle of all of this. stuart: ash, have you got a number? ashley: oil crude stocks down 2 1/2 million dollars. that is dollars. barrels. that is more than expected by about two million. we're using more of the stuff. we've drawn down 2 1/2 million barrels. stuart: look at price action. ashley: below 58 bucks. stuart: now $57 a barrel.

that means -- ashley: 10 days ago it was up to 65 after the tensions with iraq. stuart: completely forgotten, isn't it? just disappeared from your news screens and we're back to $57 a barrel. that means, by the way, we might get some further reductions in the price of gasoline. the national average at the moment is 2.57. it has been falling. we could go back down around 2.50. i have got a smile on my face. that's a fact. i'm looking at about 27 states at the moment where the average price of gas is below $2.50 per gallon. i would call that cheap. although it was cheaper a year ago. ashley: energy independence or energy insulation. it's great. stuart: don't you love it? ashley: yeah. stuart: at the debate last night, the democrats were droning on no fossil fuels. none of this fracking. you can't have that. susan: they linked any signing of trade deals to climate change

in the future, that handcuffs u.s. with negotiations, doesn't it? trying to trade with globalized partners? stuart: can't make it up. got to get back to the trade deal signing which is coming up rather shortly. tariffs on, i think 260 billion. susan: 360. stuart: you're right, susan. tariffs on $360 billion of chinese products remain in place. david macintosh is with us, club for growth president. i know david macintosh does not like the tear i riffs, but sir, there ain't much you're going to do it, sir? >> stuart, you're right. let me put it this way. i think a lot of good things came out of the phase one agreement. you've been covering them really well. it is missed opportunity not also release the american people from paying those tariffs, so you could have a double boost to our economy. i think that equates maybe as

much as 1% we believe on the table in terms of gdp growth. so you have got a very good economy under trump, two, 2 1/2% growth, steady, reliable for the rest of the year. we lost opportunity to get to 3, 3 1/2% if we could remove those tariffs. unfortunately, that sends a signal, they like the tariffs, they like to keep them. stuart: we have no other opportunity or no other weapon. don't tell me talks and diplomacy are way to go because it failed the a generation. >> that leverage isn't doing anything. stuart: what leverage? , you take it away, you tell me, take away the leverage of tariffs what have you got? >> no, my suggestion, relief the american people now because we got an agreement from china and then threaten to put them back on if china doesn't come back to the table. stuart: that is what they're doing. they are saying that. they can go back up again. we can reimpose them, if you don't play ball in phase two.

that's the leverage. >> right. but to reimpose them you have to get rid of them now. they're not doing that. so they're leaving one of their tools, taking away one of their tools which is they could put these tariffs right back on. stuart: let me change the subject because we're going around in circles here. >> okay. stuart: larry kudlow says, the trade deal, specifically the china trade deal, will add half a percentage point to our economy this year and next year. do you dispute that figure? >> i think that's right. that is great news that larry is putting out there. like i said, i wish it could be more like one, 1 1/2% if they did the other half, got rid of tariffs. i think larry is doing a great job helping president get to pro-growth economic opportunities. we disagree with them on tariffs they use. although we've come around to saying yeah, president makes sense, using tariffs as leverage

to get a good trade deal. once you get the deal, you don't need leverage. it is american people that pay that. honestly folks in michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, some key states that we want to see donald trump win to win re-election. stuart: okay. i'm going to repeat what the details within the trade deal with china. they will buy $40 billion worth of our services. a lot of financial service transactions going on there. $50 billion worth of farm products. 50 billion of energy. 75 billion in manufacturing. those are pretty big numbers i have got to say. you have got to be happy with that. >> i am happy with that, you're right, stuart. it will be great for those sectors of economy. see if we keep building on it, get even more. stuart: there is enforcement mechanism involved as well, when it comes to the theft intellectual property or forced transfer of technology. there is enforcement mechanism in there. i never seen that before ever, in any trade deal. >> with the chinese it is

particularly problematic because they agree, yes, yes, we'll honor intellectual property rights. then they don't do it. that is a huge stumbling block for round two, getting them to actually agree, we're going to honor property rights in our economic model. that is a huge change because they're still communists on the question of property. they don't believe in individual private property rights. stuart: can i interrupt you, david a moment. i have a trump tweet coming at us. i will read it for you. here we go again. another con job by the do-nothing democrats. all this work was supposed to be done by the house, not the senate. i guess the president is referring there to the speaker pelosi who just named seven managers of the impeachment probe when it goes into the senate. the president is just tweeting about that, saying look, the work should have been done by the house. we're not going to be doing it in the senate. very dismissive of it right there. i noticed by the way the dow has gone up some more.

we're up 160 point. 29,101. that is an all-time record high. s&p up to 3294. nasdaq 9288. kelly sadler, pac lady on the republican side, forgive that expression. >> pac lady, huh? >> i'm very sorry about that i am ad-libbing. this is rock an roll, live action news. you're having a lot of fun. >> it is a great day. stuart: you're happy, aren't you? >> yes i am. stuart: come 11:00 we'll see dignitaries arrive. i think it will be quite a spectacle, president trump is good producing this kind of event. he is made-for-tv, am i right? >> good point. you're absolutely right. this is such an historic day. this is such an historic agreement to what larry kudlow said earlier. we haven't seen a teal like this ever in our history with china.

it will bring prosperity to all of the industries that are incorporated in it and enforcement will be a big deal. this is something that the u.s. will not let down on. i know ambassador lighthizer, larry kudlow, those in the white house will very much take china to task enforcing this agreement. so, but in terms of the optics today. this is historic day. president said he was going to do this, he delivered on it. it is quite an accomplishment. stuart: yes it is. i remind everyone, back when president trump made the statement about iran, and what they have done with the missiles coming into our buys, the military brass was standing there, there was the camera on the podium. suddenly the doors opened and there was the president marching straight towards the podium.

that was a piece of tv production like i never seen from a president since ronald reagan actually. i'm wondering if we'll see something similar at 11 or 11:30 this morning. kelly sadler, hold on a second. i have a lot more coming your way probably. about an hour from now the president sign as phase one trade deal. this is a white house ceremony, a big deal. on the phone from the white house, michael pillsbury, hudson institute senior fellow. a guy very much involved in all of these trade discussions. michael, thank you very much for joining us. you have got the agreement. you can't show it to us in your hand. you have got it right now. can you give me nuggets about it that we don't know right now? >> stuart, it is very detailed on the enforcement mechanism, a

court-like mechanism set up. stuart: really. >> appeals can be handledded 90 days. if there is technology theft or some other violation of the 86 pages, ultimately goes to the two presidents and tariffs or other kind of punitive measures will be applied. i think this is really good news because we don't want just a commitment in principle from the chinese where they say they will make their best efforts. this is what ambassador lighthizer is working on so long. all the details in one agreement. i have taken a look at the chinese translation as well. it is pretty accurate. it softens the way it sounds so china can save face but i'm very optimistic this deal is going to work but we won't really know, stuart, until the first challenge is adjudicated and we find out if the chinese are going straight and give up the technology thefts. stuart: that's for sure. i do understand that.

we don't really know how it will go until we get the first challenge. i don't think we've ever seen anything like this before. a detailed enforcement mechanism. spelled out, chinese and english, signed by the president and china's vice premier. i don't think. this is unique in trade agreements, isn't it? >> unique in almost any kind of agreement. we have a lot of agreements with china. more than 100. none have enforcement mechanism with a review ses like this. i think no other country has the agreement with china either. that gives a historical quality. i talked to the president. he is quite happy. i would even say ebullient what he -- stuart: michael, it is a triumph for the president. he has been at this for two years. the naysayers were all over him, saying he can't do this, can't do that, it will not work. here we are with a major signing ceremony about an hour away. this is a triumph for the

president. >> historical occasion. it will compete well with nancy pelosi's articles of impeachment vote. i mentioned, stuart, you were quite prescient to talk about the idea of a first phase deal or partial deal early on. i used to tease you, calling it the stuart varney approach. something like that is finally what has been agreed to. may have to have a round of applause for stuart varney too. stuart: michael, let me tell youing, flattery is the mother's milk of television and if you want to keep going keep going. i have some numbers here i believe are in the agreement. i want to know if they match your numbers. $40 billion worth of services, our services to be sold in china. $50 billion worth of agricultural products. $50 billion worth of energy. $75 billion worth of manufacturing products in the next two years. does that square with what you're seeing, michael

pillsbury. >> i better not confirm those numbers. there is a concern not everything is going to be announced because, many ways, we don't want to gloat to ruin what the chinese agreed to do. president talking up to $200 billion of new chinese purchases, from america. with i translates, stuart, into enormous number of new jobs. export totals can be converted almost by arithmetic into jobs for americans. stuart: that is extraordinary. >> this is not just a one-time agreement. the idea we now reformed u.s. china trade track -- practices forever. stuart: that is a big deal indeed. new perspective. michael pillsbury you're involved with this a couple years. we appreciate you sharing expertise on the big day the spectacle is coming. mr. pillsbury. we appreciate it. >> the good news, stuart, the chinese just announced they are

going to be here and they're going to sign. there has been some suspense whether they would show up and some kind of last minute snag but there has not been. so everything is going ahead. stuart: heaven forbid. we're not geared up for that. mr. pillsbury, we appreciate it. >> quite a room full of people with senator congressman, trade association people. stuart: don't disappoint them. >> i wish you were here, stuart. stuart: i do. but i have a program to do. thanks, michael. >> okay. stuart: on the phone, sonny perdue is on the phone. no, not on the phone. he is on camera, i'm sorry mr. secretary. sonny perdue the secretary of agriculture. can we confirm that china is going to buy $50 billion worth of american agricultural products? >> i think between 40 and 50, stuart, will essentially double what they ever bought before. this is a big day for the american economy. out of that 200 billion you talked to mr. pillsbury about,

40 to 50 billion will be agricultural products. it is a great day for american agriculture. stuart: what about the rest of it, $50 billion worth of energy? i'm not sure that falls under your purview. 75 billion manufactured goods. 40 billion, services. big numbers? >> you said it earlier. what that means is american jobs. obviously president trump came in and determined to reset the trade relationship. this phase one agreement is exactly doing that. $200 billion there with china commitment and the best thing, stuart, there is unilateral enforcement opportunities here we never had before. this is a new resetting agreement as mr. pillsbury said that will benefit the american economy for years to come. stuart: i think what michael pillsbury revealed to us the idea there is an enforcement mechanism, almost a court-like system so if there is a challenge, it goes to this court, there is an appeals

possibility as well. that's unique. never seen that in a trade deal before. >> very unique. essentially, very unilateral in its enforcement mechanisms. the only way is just a total exit from the agreement from both countries. the united states, ambassador lighthizer, secretary mnuchin did a wonderful job negotiating this agreement. it will give us confidence that these numbers will be reached. stuart: can i take it that the farm community is very happy today? >> very happy. obviously they want to know the details just like all of us do and about what it is and obviously those will be confidential for a while. as you can imagine market products, those type of things, china wants the ability to be able to trade in a free environment but you think about doubling those import expectations. that is a big deal. stuart: sir, i don't want to digress too much, but i do own an run a tree farm in upstate new york. i'm selling some black cherry,

hard maple and some red oak. this open up the china market to my lumber? >> actually lumber and timber and, from pine to harwoods is aning cultural crop. it will be counted towards 40 or $50 billion. as you know, china is a great customer. in fact our hardwood industry is hurt because of lack of retaliation over past couple years. hopefully we'll see more of your timber go to china and more of our soft woods as well. stuart: put in a word for me. sonny perdue, seriously sir. thank you for being with us on a great day like this. >> thank you. stuart: howard kurtz, media watcher kind of guy is with us. welcome to the show. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: i think president trump will make this signing ceremony into a tv production, you know what i mean? you remember when he did the iran announcement and the doors

opened and there was the president marching towards the podium. you think we'll see something like that today? you're the media guy? >> this president is not unfamiliar with the production of television. we're in a classic split screen moment now. dow, s&p up at all-time highs. president about to announce the phase one deal. the other channels until just a few moments ago covering nancy pelosi and her house managers talking about sending articles of impeachment over to the senate. it is really quite a contrast. it is a contrast stuart with the democratic debate in iowa which i stayed up late to cover. joe biden toward the end talking about the middle class is getting killed. we have to do something to save the middle class. i understand the inequality argument but to argue that the economy is not on fire right now seems to be the wrong strategy. stuart: let me go back to the split screen, dow industrials economy, china trade deal, versus impeachment managers

announcement, that seems like a piece of media gamesmanship on the part of speaker pelosi, if she is trying to get ahead of president trump's very important china trade deal announcement. is she playing sort of gamesmanship with the media? >> everybody tries to grab some of that media oxygen. i don't know whether she went first, deliberately scheduled this before the president's china announcement. i will say, there is journalistic skepticism about the phase one deal. will china fact buy $50 billion of american agricultural products and obviously some more difficult issues were kicked down the road but nevertheless the long arduous negotiations and tariff war which has hurt some americans as you know, this is step forward. the markets certainly seem to like it. stuart: can i set the scene for next week. the impeachment trial i believe is supposed to start on tuesday of next week. i'm sure the beltway press will be there in force.

on precisely the same day our president goes to davos. that's the get together of the elites in the swiss alps for wont of a better word. i can see him tweeting up storm out there, grabbing all the headlines, leading the news cycle, leaving the impeachment process in the dirt, except for the establishment media which will be all over impeachment. what do you say? >> certainly it is a striking contrast. the president will be seen performing on the world stage with all those rich people who go skiing or whatever it is they do out there but at the same time when you say establishment media, a senate impeachment trial will be covered wall-to-wall on all cable news networks. so that is going to gets lots of attention. it will be a challenge for president trump. he will use twitter. he will talk day and night. i'm sure he will break through but at the same time, if it is a trial in which everybody knows the outcome, which certainly seems to be the case now, we don't know how long, we don't

know whether there will be witnesses we know president trump is headed for acquittal, this may not deliver the punch democrats once hoped. stuart: no i don't think it will deliver ratings. as we say in the journalistic business, only time will tell. >> classic dodge. stuart: classic dodge. that is precisely what it is i don't know what will happen but time will tell. thank you very much, sir. appreciate. keep a close watch on this. record highs across the board. we're up 150 on the dow. 25,092. quickly check trade sensitive stocks, that is boeing, caterpillar, that is, 3m they're all down actually. i would have thought they would gone up because china promising to buy a lot of our stuff, planes from boeing, tractors from caterpillar, all kinds of stuff from 3m. those stocks are down. try to work that out for you. back to impeachment. political trial starts tuesday. will it go on for weeks? i say democrats playing

political games. come in senator mike braun. you're a no-nonsense kind of guy, what do you make of all this nonsense? >> i think it is interesting juxtaposition between impeachment, phase one, usmca, so many things kind of converge at once. but what i liked earlier, stu, i heard you talking about your red oak. i'm a tree farmer and egg farmer. stuart: you are? >> yes. forestry was before getting involved in farming and this will be a big deal because most of our quality logs were going to china. it not only impacted farmers, it impacted tree farmers including yourself sounds like. stuart: yes. i'm so glad you're on the show, you started out in forestry? >> yeah. stuart: i didn't know that? >> i fell in love with it, mid to late '80s. started with 100-acres. i built it into, it is my

therapy along with a good investment to boot. stuart: what is your primary product. >> white oak trees, red oak trees, hard maple, quality hardwoods, which would have included ash until recently, but the emerald arbor from china decimated our ash stands. stuart: we had to cut the ash, the bore, whatever it is called, bo weevil. >> emerald asr borer. stuart: we had to cut all the ash. the markets collapsed for ash. i seem to be digressing. you got me, it is your fault senator. it is your fault. we've seen a market gone straight up again. we hear from larry kudlow the china trade deal will add significantly to our economy. i see this one long positive about your money. what say you? >> i was with larry yesterday among other senators.

of course, .35% impact on gdp up to a point, when you throw usmca and phase one. i think it could be at higher end of the scale. when it comes to the economy on main street, i reflect that. that is where i come from. it is never been better. that is what is difficult for the democrats because a lot of what they're talking about i think would derail the economy immediately if it took place. stuart: last neither in the debate, democrats were bashing the economy. saying it is not working. i find that very hard to take quite frankly, because this is the best economy i can remember in 40 years in america no doubt about it. , if you talk to any business owner, only weak spot is in agriculture. it is dominated by large corporations and chronically low prices. i think it gets back on track.

it is issues go deeper in trade and so forth. in general, in indiana, we're the biggest manufacturing state per capita in the country. agriculture is a significant industry, good news on phase one and usmca for both. stuart: one more point on phase one. which was revealed to us by michael pillsbury who has been involved in these discussions for a couple of years. he says, look, there is a dispute resolution system in place. 86 pages of detail on how this thing will work. there is going to be a court-like system which will deliver a verdict on any challenge in 90 days and there is room for appeals as well. that is absolutely unique to any trade deal i have ever heard of. it actually makes the economics of the whole thing even better, senator. >> i think so. with the chinese you can have a handshake but sadly you will

need maybe 86 pages of rules to make sure they're doing what they say they're going to do. they are going to be an unbelievable competitor, geopolitically and they have shown how they rolled early. i hope this is opportunity through phase one, two, whatever they get to, they come within the mainstream of how other people behave. it will behoove them in the long run. it will be good for us as well. stuart: one more point, senator, our own charlie gasparino reports that his sources within the administration are telling him that the republicans, the president may propose payroll tax cut, improvement in the payroll tax credit. it is something that the president could dangle in front of voters, vote for me, you get more of a tax cut. what do you say to this? >> i think anytime you can generally take taxes down, that's good, but the problem

here, stu, is not revenue. record levels, with the tax cut, from 2017, spending is go egg through the roof at about 7% a year. driven ironically, by social security, medicare and other things that people people want and sadly we don't have the political will to fix it. that is why i'm here. stuart: i don't think there will be a political will to fix spending. don't see anybody capping it. >> not in the short run. not in the short run. stuart: i don't think president trump is on board with cutting spending. >> we'll see about that once he gets reelected in november of 2020. stuart: senator braun, thanks for information on tree farming. use every last bit of it. >> thank you. stuart: guess who is on the phone? man appears at moments like this. keith fitz >> i'm loving it, you know? this is what we've been talking about for a long time.

it's going to unleash a fresh flow of money that people have been waiting with in the wings. it also ignites the premise of real profit, and that's what the market has held back on. stuart: this rally that we're seeing right now really took off when we got some details on this china trade deal, specifically that it's going to be, what, $50 billion worth of agriculture, $75 billion worth of manufacturers, $40 billion worth of services, etc. and then larry kudlow said, look, this'll add a half a percentage point to gdp. that's when the market took off, right? >> absolutely. and don't forget the other -- [inaudible] one of the big sticking points coming into in that the nervous nellies were worried about. they have made it very clear in this deal that there are serious enforcement mechanisms. china is playing ball. stuart: keith, i'm afraid you're breaking up a little bit, so

i'll have to end it there. let me just recap what's going on in markets. i see trade-related stocks, strangely, on the downside. but all the major averages way on the upside. look at that, the dow industrials up 170 points almost, 29,108. that's a big deal. what's the percent? over half a percent. nice gain for the s&p, 13 points there. i think that earlier hit an all-time high. the nasdaq, technology stocks doing very nicely, thank you very much, indeed. 9, 297. it's a gain across the board -- ashley: half a percent. fantastic. stuart: all right, everyone, here we go. it is almost 11 eastern. we have a historic hour ahead. any moment, china's trade delegation arrives at the white house. they'll meet with president trump first, then around 3 -- 11:30 roughly speaking, the official signing of the phase

one deal will take place. of course, you will see it right here x. now this. i guess i'll e keep talking. [laughter] you know, i'm on the edge of my seat. [laughter] rock and roll news. live action television, and occasionally something doesn't happen that you think, you were very confident was going to happen, but it doesn't. ashley: that's all right. stuart: and you know the secret in television when something like that happens? you smile. nothing gets to you. especially on a day like this, you've got the dow up 170 points and all things are happening. now this. now this. [laughter] it's been two years in the making, and we are minutes away from the formal signing ceremony for the china agreement. it is a political victory for president trump and an economic win for america, especially manufacturers and farmers. the administration has created something of a spectacle. the power elite is about to assemble. ing that's the power elate of the republican -- elite of the republican side since the democrats took no part in

negotiations. you will see robert lighthizer, peter navarro. they, along with treasury secretary mnuchin, they'll all be there, they worked long and hard to make this happen. white house staff, ivanka trump, jared kushner, larry kudlow, they will be there. members of congress and state governors, they'll be there, including many who have appeared on this program as commentators on the negotiations. and to match the high-level americans, china has sent a top-level delegation. the vice premier, the minister of commerce, the governor of the bank of china, beijing's ambassador to washington. it's quite a spectacling designed to show the importance of reaching this monumental deal. charles payne, host of "making money," is with me. i bet you like that market action, don't ya? >> i do, i actually love the market action. one thing i've been flying to watch the -- trying to watch the show as much as i could this morning. you haven't mentioned united health care -- stuart: we've got record highs. >> why do you think we've got

record highs today? united health care. it's got a $280 billion market cap, goldman has an $85 billion market cap, target has a $6 billion market cap. united health care did $61 billion in the fourth quarter. gold match did $9 billion. it's so much more important. it's the number three most important stock on the dow, it's the number one percentageer on the -- gainer on the s&p. it's huge. stuart: leading the way. [laughter] >> it's not just the signing, it's the fundamentals. the fundamentals beneath the -- stuart: that's what i've been saying all day. >> today's example is united health care. it's $61 billion! we're going to spend all day talking about goldman sachs. the company is, like, ten times bigger than gold match. stuart: have you ever herald of decaf? [laughter] >> you know another reason i bring it up? because this is going to be a big issue in the election. it really is going to be -- stuart: hold up a second. >> i don't want to digress too much. >> you already have.

[laughter] stuart: liz peek is with us. you agree with this gross interruption? >> and that grossty version -- diversion, which i think we've already had. last night in that stunningly boring debate there was a good part of it devoted once again to the minutiae of various health care plans which will never be enacted. most of america turned off their television sets, but the truth is i'm assuming some of the stock behavior in this group today is because of what was said last night. and people looking at this group and saying this is never going to happen, and these companies are going to be in good shape. let's talk about the trade deal because this is, you're talking about the spectacle? rightly so. this is a mow 9/11tous -- momentous event for this country. who else has stood up to the chinese who have basically undermined world trade for decades? i mean, i, you know, you just cannot overstate the importance of this. and to have chuck schumer and all these people writing editorials and letters about how

very concerned that they haven't followed through on enforcement, very concerned about this and that, what bologna. they don't have anything to say about this. this is a win for america. stuart: now, when we got some details of what's in this agreement that's going to be signed shortly, we got the details on how much china would buy of our manufacturing, agricultural products, services and energy, then we found out that this is probably -- according to harry kudlow -- going to add a half percentage point to our gdp. it's at that point that the market took off. art laffer, foreman reagan economic adviser, with us now. art, what do you a? mr. kudlow says this adds a half percent to gdp now and another half a percent next year. what say you? >> i've worked with larry kudlow now for 30 years, one of my best friends ever. i just think the world of him. and when he says it'll add half a percent, you can take that to the bank. and i think he's completely correct. the thing i think is missing in

today's conversation is china is not so much our competitor as our partner. the transition with this deal makes china go from competitor to partner and the mutual gains from trade are huge. and china as our friend, we are going to be prosper because of china not only on the production side, but also on the consumption side. without china there is no walmart. and without walmart, there is no lower or middle class prosperity. this is such a huge deal, stuart, that i just can't believe it. and, by the way, i love charles, by the way. [laughter] give me some of that coffee if you've got. i need that coffee. stuart: he's mainlining espresso at the moment. [laughter] >> whatever, it's just wonderful. stuart: let me develop this theme here. art laffer's just told us in the future we've got a relationship, a cooperative relationship with china economically. >> could i actually, all right,

i think it's a very interesting point you make. i i was thinking earlier that one of the momentous aspects of this, this could be a rebranding of china's role in world trade. that may be a stretch too far, but the chinese may have come to the understanding -- and, by the way, one of the things no one's talking about is that the e.u. and the u.s. and japan have gone to the world bank and said we're going to change the rules, and they're going to get a small group of members of the world -- i'm sorry -- stuart: world trade organization. >> -- world trade organization, we're going to change the world. i think the chinese are on notice that their game is over x this could be a time when china kind of rebirths, if you will, their role in world trade. i think that could be a gigantic thing. stuart: okay, charles payne, come n. hold on a second, art. >> listen, listen, we are competitors with china on a number of fronts, and that's not going to change. it's going to become more intense. you know, we have a symbiotic relationship on trade that should benefit both countries. i honestly believe china spent a

lot of time talking to the chamber of commerce and the business round table, and i think didn't think president trump or any president would blink. that, you know what? the criticism, the sering criticism from within the republican party, conservatives, that you don't have trade wars and you never win. smoot holly, it never happened. president trump never blinked, he never wavered. so on that front, they made a huge mistake. they miscalculated president trump. so we can have a symbiotic trading relationship as long as it's fair and smart and good for both nations, but we are going to be competitors in a whole lot of different ways, and that's the wake-up call for america. stuart: art laffer, shi gin pip, did he blink -- xi jinping. did he blink? 86 pages of detail about a court-like system, 90 days to make decisions, appeals thereafter. we've not heard of that before ever. this is unique, art. >> yeah. well, this is what contracts

should be all about. i mean, when you look at china and the united states, it's like a supplier and the company that's purchasing, and they've in turn purchased from the producer. if one side starts exploiting its partner, it's not good. those rules will stop that exploitation from occurring and will make it a win/win all the time as opposed to one party trying to get leverage on the other. and that's been just terrific for the u.s. believe me when i tell you, institute, it's good for china. it's going to be great for china. not just because trump threatened them, but because their trade with the u.s. is great for china, and it's also good for the u.s. it's called comparative advantage, gains from trade. this is exactly what textbooks tell you should happen. and, yes, we will be competing. it's not one country. but it reduces the risk of war dramatically. you don't want to fight people you're in great trade relationships with. and, you know, i don't think trump ever wanted to be a

protectionist, to be honest with you. i've had a number of conversations, and i think he wants a free trade situation, and he's getting it, he's succeeded beyond our wildest dreamings. stuart: i think he wants to -- >> i couldn't be happier with this deal. larry's 100% right. he may even be low on the -- stuart: hold on a second. susan? >> there is one present person that is not in attendance today, and that's chinese president xi jinping. liu he has been stripped of his envoy, and xi jinping's name, by the way, not be on this trade deal. stuart: and that's deliberate -- >> it is. stuart: -- because he doesn't want to look like he's signed something that's not in china's advantage. >> correct. stuart: so he tax his name off of it, and he removes the status of the vice premier. a little inside politics and inside deal-making -- >> we spoke to mike pillsbury

who said he's looked at the chinese translation of the deal. to his point, to perhaps save face to people back in beijing, which i find fascinating. stuart: i just want to set the scene for you. it's now 11:10 eastern time. the signing ceremony's supposed to take place at 11:30. we've yet to see, i don't know where our cameras are, but there's a whole load of digny tears who will be in the room -- dignitaries who will be in the room. the administration, top people at the white house, in the administration, the chinese delegation, members of congress, state governors. they'll all be there, a large mass of people for this signing ceremony. i've not seen arrivals yet. i'm seeing it now. you ask for it, there you go. rights up on there on the screening there's a fleet of suvs no doubt bringing the top officials to the white house. in progress. but i don't believe they're going to actually sign it at 11:30. >> no, probably not.

stuart: we might push that back. >> good guess. stuart: christian whiton with me now. christian, i want to know about the production value here. i think the president is going to produce a great tv to occasion to impress upon us the extraordinary nature of this event. what say you? >> well, i hope so. i mean, i hate to run on your -- rain on your parade. there's a whole lot less than meets the eye, so hopefully he gets some good pr out of this. you're going to have a situation where the democrats -- look, you had kudlow saying your going to -- you're going to add half a point to gdp this year and next year? you don't need to be an economist to know that's wrong. you need to understand math. $120 billion exports in china, divide that into a $22 trillion economy, that's half of 1%. so we would have to triple our exports to china, and that just isn't going to happen. there really is just a whole lot less than -- >> that's not really the extent

of it though, christian. hi, it's liz peek, good morning. i think participant of it, this has been such an overhang. all we've heard for the last year is has been how investment in the united states has been stalled because of this trade uncertainty, and manufacturers have been up willing to invest in stuff. we have to admit that spending from the industrial sector has been disappointing. presumably, this boosts the confidence of ceos in america, and they begin to invest again. that, i think, is as important as the actual export numbers are going to turn out to be. stuart: and hold on a second, christian. before you respond to that, charles payne gets his $10 in worth here. >> yeah, i don't like playing to the ceos of america. if they want to be flat in a rising economy and don't informs in a -- invest in a business, their boards should fire them, in my opinion. they got the biggest tax cut in history, they got rid of regulations, they're making more money than they've ever made, and they don't want to fight the ultimate fight against the

ultimate foe at this time in our history, i say a pox op their house. but, you know, ultimately there is a feeling, and you can't measure it, right? there is a feeling of optimism. there's a feeling unlike the day after the election of animal spirits that are out there. and i do believe that we've got economic momentum and that, you know, listen, you're going to get more business investment. probably not in structures, but that's a whole different story. certainly in ip,, that's why it keeps going up. certainly in equipment. it's an amazing deal. it's going to help the economy. it won't be a negative, it's going to be a huge plus. and i think from everywhere across the board, everyone should be celebrating this. stuart: yeah, kris chap. [laughter] come back -- christian. come back in again. [inaudible conversations] stuart: hold on a second. i don't know whether you can hear me or not, but listen to me. there is a dispute resolution section built into this agreement. there's a court system going to be created where you've got 90 days to make a decision if a

challenge is made. then there's an appeals idea after that. that's unique. you've never seen that in a trade dispute or a trade deal before, to my knowledge at least, and that's what pillsbury's telling us. surely, that's something really good and important here. >> we actually have had a mechanism for decades, it's called the world trade organization, and it failed. this is the big problem. art laffer just took us down a reck by yum for 20th century trade policy. the whole point of this trade war was not just to sell more soybeans and hogs to china, it was to aaffect fundamental change in china, to move them away, to give them incentive to move away from a kleptocracy, a economy based on funding state-owned enterprises, on stealing intellectual property from the west x this doesn't really do that. the agricultural changes, a lot of that will just be hogs that they need to purchase because they've been decimated by swine flu. the manufacturing will be a single charge-up from the

selling of boeing 737 maxs when those come back on. you know, it's not as much as was originally billed. stuart: okay. all right, christian, you got your two cents in there, lad, and your time's up. [laughter] no, no, no. look, your opinion is welcome, it's valid, and we appreciate you being with us today, christian. >> thank you. stuart: you calmed down the euphoria, which i'm beginning to indulge in. okay. on the screen just moments ago you saw liu he, that is china's vice premier, and he just arrived. he leads the delegation. i think he had the commerce minister with him. these are the officials, the delegates who are now arriving at the white house for the signing -- >> also the chinese ambassador to the u.s. in attendance, the commerce minister as well. it's a strong delegation, although the agricultural p minister, from what i understand, will also be in attendance as well. this is a strong delegation from china and, again, showing the u.s. their willingness to commit and to open up some of these markets.

and one particular celebration for the u.s. in the corporations is the financial sector. you know china's opening up their banking system, their joint ventures, mutual funds a year in advance. right now we have foreign ownership only at 1.6%, but they say they are opening it up to more, possibly firms like jp morgan coming in, ubs, and i think this is the pressure that china went under during those tough negotiations. >> and jpmorgan coming in without global partners -- >> that's right. 100% -- >> that's a very big deal. [inaudible conversations] stuart: i've not seen, are you reading this -- >> no. they have said this -- >> announced it. >> they announced it that they were going to open up in 2021. they brought that one year in advance, and now the likes of jpmorgan, the goldman sachs of the world can own their operations in china 100%. also insurance companies can do that as well, and that's something that china has been

resistant to. but it looks like they are now trying to go through with it. stuart: now, obviously, the details are in this agreement. the details cannot be revealed until the deal has been signed. >> right. stuart: and we expect the deal to be signed around 12 noon or shortly thereafter at which point all these details will be made known. we have some idea of how much the chinese are going to buy. we've got some idea about this resolution system, the court system. >> yeah. stuart and we've got some idea about the financial firms going in there without requiring a local partner. >> right. stuart: i think that is a big deal. >> well, they entered the market in the 1990s, i think morgan stanley had to have a partner, and then the wto in 2001. but a lot of these corporations, u.s. companies, have only been able to operate in china with a partner. and now we're talking about they have the forced technology transfers, china has to work on as we know with this deal, and i'm sure it'll be a major component of phase two.

but you don't need a chinese partnership. stuart: if a company can go in on its own, doesn't need a local partner, 100% ownership, you're in there, then the opportunity to steal your technology is vastly reduced because it's just you. >> correct. stuart: just your american company. >> and remember, these companies, these banks are spending enormous amounts of money on technology. that is their comparative advantage and competitive advantage these days. i think jpmorgan spent $11 billion on tech last year. they don't want to have anybody share that or steal that from them. but remember also, this is a very big sector of the u.s. economy, one of our most productive and profitable sectors. and the truth is it's something that we've always wanted china to open their doors to. so this is a big win. it's really not part of this trade agreement, but i think it's part of the kind of constant pressure on the chinese to become a better and fairer trading partner which is really what all of this is about. stuart: do we have doug wead

with us, presidential historian? doug, are you there, by any chance? doug wead? >> i'm here, stuart. stuart: oh, thanks. great to see you. i've been saying and most of our guests have been saying that this is an historic agreement, and it will be an historic event in the white house. you're a presidential historian. does it meet the smell test of an historic event? >> well, you know -- [laughter] a lot of people may disagree with me, but i think this is the greatest event since nixon's trip to china, and let me explain that. we had four presidents -- two that i knew very well if traveled with and went to chinese food with -- four presidents preside over the largest transfer of wealth in world history outside of the middle east, and that was the wealth of the american middle class to china. the whole wto scenario, work with republican establishment, democratic establishment reaching its peak under obama

with $500 billion trade deficits. and i interviewed donald trump for the book "inside trump's white house." he said this day would come, and it was going to come, and i didn't believe himment. [laughter] but he was right. he pulled it off.monumental? >> absolutely. and i think bringing up the world trade organization, that's been the second time it's been with referenced. liz brought it up once before. you know, people who push back against president trump kept saying, well, we alrthe way, we. they never had the power to enforce the victory. so if you go historically and look at the last 30 years, we end up refighting the fights we already had. so we can win, but they've never had the ability to force china to change. this is why our dispute resolution in this deal means so much more than a dispute resolution in the world trade organization. >> but, charles, it seems to me that trying to reform the wto, trying to make it an effective organization, they tried that 15 years in, they canceled the

effort because there are too many -- >> i'm with you. >> so now it does a appear and, again, this wasn't reported in the u.s., it was reported in the "ft," it does appear -- >> i talked about it on my show yesterday. >> good for you. >> and this gets back to another point p. everyone said president trump should wait, rally our allies. >> yes, exactly. >> it would have never worked. with china going through europe with the belt and road money dangling out there, listen, our european partners want to do business with iran. do you think they would turn down china's money? that pocketbook? no. for the e.u. and japan to go to the world trade organization and say next step, no more subsidizing industrial production. >> absolutely. >> that's not in this bill. now they're trying to do it through the world trade organization. >> and that's huge for all these countries. everybody wants their steel and manufacturing companies protected. stuart: okay. charles, i believe you've got a program to do.

>> i'm going to go get ready for it. [laughter] stuart: it was a good story. >> it is, it's huge. it's another fundamental story because -- >> bigger than goldman sachs or smaller? >> just a little bit bigger, just a little bit more important, believe it or not. stuart: you really shocked me with that. [laughter] but it was good. >> had to wake it up a little bit. stuart: decaf next time, son. >> i'm going to go get my seat and my popcorn, so i can watch this in my office. this is really exciting. stuart: doug wield, i want you to comment on that. you've got the dignitaries from china, the republican party and the administration in the white house all assembled. i think this is going to be a spectacle. is it? [laughter] >> i hope you're right, stuart. it deserves to be a spectacle. in my interviews with jared kushner, he needs to get a lot of credit for this. he was the behind the scenes guy in nafta along with lighthizer, of course. you can't overestimate what jared did.

but i remember long conversations with jared about this moment with him saying we won't see it in our lifetime. my father-in-law knows he won't get credit for this in his lifetime. but he knows that someone has to begin the work moving back from this deadly embrace with china, or it will destroy our country. well, what do you know? it's going to happen in our lifetime, and jared's going to get to see it. stuart: okay. hold on a second, doug. i want to turn to lee is and ask her -- to susan lee and ask her about something doug wead just said. he said the signing of this trade deal is as big as nixon's trip to china in -- >> well, that might be a little exaggerated because i think everyone remember ares and knows ping-pong diplomacy. this might not have a sporting tag to it, but i think it's significant. the fact that i've never seen ab administration -- an administration pressure china to negotiate more on the u.s. terms than the chinese terms, i've

attended a ton of these strategic and economic dialogues during the obama administration. you will hear the commerce ministry or the commerce secretary say we will negotiate the talks further. in fact, china has dragged their feet on a lot of their promises during this negotiation like opening up their banking sector. they said they would do it in 2016, they only handed out the first licenses three years later. so the fact i feel the tough talk, the hard line trump has gotten china to the negotiating table to follow through has been pretty success. stuart: surprise, surprise, here we are. just a few minutes away. and by the way, edward lawrence is with us. he's in washington d.c. am i right in saying that you have the deal in your hand, is that accurate? yes, he does. >> reporter: i do, i cannot, i cannot tell you what's in it right now. this has been embargoed until the actual signing. now, what's going to happen now is the chinese will start to arrive. we've had some dignitaries arrive already. they'll start to arrive, and at 11:30 there's going to be a

ceremony. about 12:03, we're hearing, is when the actual deal will be signed, and then i can start opening this up and tell you exactly what's in it. we will have all the information as soon as it's signed, but as of right now, i can't tell you what's in it. i can tell you what we were told this morning from the treasury secretary, that it's a very detailed agreement. the treasury secretary said this morning that it has strict enforcement within this agreement. also on intellectual property going forward, he says this agreement will create structural changes which has already started in china. so, again, all from the treasury secretary this morning. i will tell you exactly what's in the deal after it's signed. stuart: thank you very much, edward. just as a quick observation for our viewers, i have monitors in my studio, and i can see what's on other news networks. don't switch, please. the other news networks are all about impeachment. that wicked mr. trump, and we're going to get him. we've got seven impeachment

managers including adam schiff. we're going over there, and we're going to sort him out. i mean, it's really extraordinary. >> doesn't give the president any credit at all -- stuart: certainly not. >> but isn't that what this is all about? isn't that what the impeachment thing is all about, the economy, the accomplishments the president has scored in terms of trade deals and everything else? i mean, you know, it's very hard for democrats right now to know what their economic message should be. you know, they can talk about how terrible the middle class is as they did last night in the debate. >> yeah. >> i really don't think most americans think that's true. 75% of americans poll that their economic outlook is pretty good and their economic situation. that's tough to beat. stuart: on your screen right now, the room -- >> the east room. stuart: it's the east room, thank you very much. >> standing room only. stuart: yes. there's a mass of media people from china and from the united states. actually, from all around the world. >> yeah. stuart: that's an acknowledgment

that this is an historic occasion and an historic signing of a deal here. i'm told it's something of a madhouse. >> yeah. stuart: pejorative -- [laughter] >> watch it. >> the fact that you have a big contingent of chinese media in attendance, it means that china's also going to plait up as well, that this is a -- play it up as well. china got something out of this as well, being able to sell to the largest economy in the world. but just to get back to the democratic debate last night, they were talking about the u.s./china trade deal and how people have been affected negatively by the china tariffs. we haven't really seen that. that hasn't shown up in inflation. prices haven't gone up that much. remember they said that christmas would be canceled because of tariffs. that didn't happen, record spending. the economy would be hurt, not true. we are still looking at the longest expansion on record, longest bull market run in history and the best jobs market -- >> even import prices haven't gone up. >> no.

>> which is kind of surprising, because that's where you would expect to see the impact. they really haven't. stuart: okay. the crowd has assembled. i hate to call them a crowd. there's a lot of dignitaries right there. the leading lights in the white house will be there, ambassadors will be there, members of congress will be there, the president himself, the vice president will be there, blake burman, he is at the white house. are you inside that room, blake burman? >> reporter: the east room, we're all crammed in here, stuart -- [laughter] as big of a gathering in three years that i've seen here in the east room. the president is about to sign this trade deal. looking at the folks behind me here who are seated as they're trying to get everybody in right now, quite literally, it is a large -- [inaudible conversations] folks from the u.s., u.s. governors, lawmakers we've seen here, members of the administration. i was told, for example, that ceos would be here of energy companies, manufacturing companies, american workers as well, farmers from iowa and

other spots within the midwest and throughout the u.s., i was told. when you talk about the chinese contingency, it is just over here and maybe a dozen, maybe twenty or so, but that's to be expected as they had to travel here, and this ceremony is in the white house. a rather joyous day for this administration, stuart, considering this is something they have been pushing for quite literally almost three years. this trade war that started officially when tariffs started going back and forth in march of 2018. it's been some, like, 650 days. there are still tariffs on the books, there is the threat of more tariffs down the line being added on should the u.s. and china not be able to implement this thing or at least go forward with it as the u.s. sees fit. but today you have got the president, the vice premier, liu he, presumably still inside the oval office for initial greetingsing, and then they're going to come over here, sign this deal. you'll hear speeching, talks

from -- speeches, talks from a handful of people. robert lighthizer and the u.s. treasury secretary, liu he, he'll speak, also another member from the chinese delegation. and after that, the complete opposite side of the white house -- though a short walk over to state dining room -- is when the two teams will have lunch. expect this to get underway here fairly soon, stuart. stuart: i'm dying to see how it actually works out. >> reporter: yeah, it -- stuart: what i'm getting at, blake, is that you've got a room full of people, you can't just have the president march in, sit down, sign and then make a few speeches. i mean, it's got to be produced in some way. i want to see how the president arrives, what he says before he signs, who signs with him. have you any idea what happens? >> reporter: it's a great point, stuart, because it was made to me just a couple days ago as well, keep in mind this is a huge moment for the president and the administration. but it's not like he can just

spike the political football and say victory, throw his hands on and move out because the chinese delegation is here as well. by the way, they're going to be holding -- there's going to be a press conference later today over at the chinese embassy as well. you've got a lot of different moving parts here. clearly, the administration is going to hail this as a victim my for -- victory for them, for trade, for the u.s. worker and to on down the line. this is what was pointed out, it'll be interesting just how vick tour yous this speech is considering the top chinese negotiatorses and some of the top members of the chinese government are going to be in this room. stuart: that's a good point. you don't want to sort of spike the ball, as you say, and go up against your rival and say we won. >> reporter: right. stuart: you don't want to say that. understood. blake, thanks very much. i'm sure we'll be back to you, lad. it won't take long. may i recap what's going on here? you're about to see the formal signing ceremony of the phase one china trade deal, and this is a big deal. dignitaries from both countries

are right there in that room. they're going to be signing it any moment. we don't know the details of this agreement until it's actually signed. but we've got a pretty good idea of what's in it. specifically, $40 billion worth of services to be sold from us to them. $50 billion worth of agriculture. $50 billion worth of energy. $75 billion worth of manufactured products. we also understand that there will be a resolution, a dispute resolution system built into this. you're looking at elaine chao, sonny perdue, wilbur ross, members of the cabinet right there. but this dispute resolution system is actually very important and really quite unique for this particular -- >> gives it teeth, doesn't it? stuart: yes. >> which has been a long problem. yes, we'll do that, but how can you enforce it. well, this addresses -- >> and that's been the biggest thing democrats have been critical of, that there would not be. they were sure the president would back off and not insist on this.

i do think, going to blake's comments about the chinese and how this is going to be presented to both sides, i really think they can talk about a new partnership, a new trade partnership, u.s. and china. because, in effect, it will be that. it's a new deal, if you will. and i think both sides can claim some victory here. stuart: is it a new relationship? >> they're calling it a rebalancing of the u.s./china trade relationship in this agreement which will be revealed. but, you know, the resolution, how it works supposedly -- and this is from our understanding from our sources in the white house -- is that if you have a problem with each other on certain trade issues, you'll go through three rounds of negotiations, and then if that's still not resolved at that point, that's when snapback tariffs can be reintroduced on chinese goods meaning that more tariffs can be put on, new tariffs or the 7.5% can go up to 15, 25%. other parts includes the dispute resolution, intellectual property protection,

enforcement, ending the forced technology transfer, removing barriers for american financial firms as we just discussed in terms of having 1 is 00% ownership in the country. now, the part that's missing which will be negotiated in phase two, i think, will be the state-owned companies and the subsidies that they receive in order to better compete with the global stage and also domestically. stuart: all right. left-hand side of your screen, a rather animated discussion among several senators there. i see lindsey graham, i see senator capito. >> pretty tight in there. stuart: they're tightly packed in there, and they're waiting for the go signal. i see the flags, i see the chairs in the front. i don't know who will be sitting in front. ahs, that looks like the agreement wheeled up to the front right there. they're getting their pens ready, ready to go. and it'll all play out. >> well, it's a trillion dollar trading relationship between the two largest economies in the

world, so everyone has a play. and i'm sure a lot of different states and different parts of the economy and sectors of the market, everyone has a stake in this. so i'm not surprised it's such a packed house looking at what the details are. stuart: art laffer's still with us. when i came in this morning, i didn't expect that this trade deal signing would have any impact on the stock market. i was totally wrong, because now we find out that it might contribute to the economy, and that's helping the markets. i didn't see this coming, art, did you? >> yes. this is exactly what i saw coming, and i'm really pleased with what's happening. i mean, i've had a long relationship with china, as you may know, stuart. in 1970 i went with george schultz and john ehrlichman on the pre-kissinger trip which was really the fest to china -- first to china there. the president's asked me to come today as well. i didn't think it would be this big a deal, or else i would have gone from nashville over there. but it's a huge deal, and i

think liz is correct. i think wead is especially correct on this. this is monumental, and i think it will have, as i said to you with, i think, on a couple of shows, this would have a total effect, i think, of about 4-5,000 on the dow. and, you know, that is going to happen. it happens over a long period of time, as long as this keeps working on. it will add a great deal to economic growth, and it will add a great deal to asset values. i still think this is one of the biggest deals the president's done. stuart: does it turn the corner on u.s./china trade? we've been in a standoff situation for a couple of years. is that now over? have we progressed to much more trade between the two? >> i think it's much more trade, and i think the standoff is reduced dramatically. there are obviously going to be lots of conflicts still between china and the u.s. but you remember, stuart, on days where there were threats of new tariffs, the market would crash. and then when they withdrew the tariffs, they would rise again. all those were telling us that

the market really takes this stuff very seriously. and i think we've gone into a new relationship where we will end disputes. but the general situation now is that we're going to be in a partnership with china to create prosperity for both countries and really reduce the conflicts between us. i mean, to make it so that china's more of our partner rather than our antagonist or enemy. i think this is hugely a plus, and it has been for a long time. since nixon actually really did the trip to china, we've been moving in a very positive direction with china ever since then, and trump has made a huge, huge step in this direction. and, actually, i think wead is completely correct. stuart: bring back, is christian whiton still with us? where is he? where is christian -- >> i'm here, stuart. i'm here. stuart: there he is. now look, christian, you've been listening to all of this. a brand new relationship with china stimulates the economy, new trading system going on, dispute resolution system, they buy a opportunity of our stuff.

are you still throwing cold water all over this? [laughter] >> i am. you know, robert lighthizer, the u.s. trade representative, said on this very network that this deal will work if reformers in china make it work or want to make it work. well, guess who's in charge of china? it's xi jinping, it's the hard-liners, it's people who, you know, are political revisionists, it's people who don't view us as partners, don't view us as ewalls. -- equals. they want to defeat us. they view this as a zero sum game. so the idea this is some big, huge change, my guess is the chinese won't buy what they say they're going to buy, they won't actually engage, you know, the idea that our financial services, we're going to start selling life insurance on the mainland? that's the other thing with china, the nontariff barriers to trade. everyone over there is in on the joke about allowing access to america and western companies. i think we're going to be right back at the trade war probably after the elections. stuart: okay, christian. we did hear that.

[laughter] not sure that most of of our gus agree we that. nonetheless, we've got a nugget from watching this scene unfold, susan? >> we just with heard from larry kudlow on our programming that the phase two negotiations would start immediately, but it looks like chinese media, and this is part of the mouthpiece of the chinese government, says phase two negotiations won't start immediately. now, is this a surprise? not really because bloomberg has reported that the tariffs would remain in place for at least ten months, and if that's the case, then phase two negotiations and talks probably wouldn't start right away. stuart: okay. but we till have the stock market rally very much in progress. >> we see larry kudlow's in the room, jared kushner -- >> steve schwarzman. >> we're getting closer here. stuart: that's senator portman, i recognize right there. look, anybody who's anybody on the right-hand side of politics is there. i don't see any democrats, and i don't believe that any democrat senators or congressmen or governors were invited.

they were not part of the negotiations here. this was mr. trump, the republicans and the white house team. so it's kind of a one-sided deal, if you want to put it like that, liz. >> we think that the trade agreement as it -- what we're hearing about it pretty much follows what was close to being signed. remember last spring -- >> oh, yes, when they walked away. >> and they walked away from it. it seems to me other than the state-owned enterprise subsidies, pretty much everything that was talked about then is in this deal. so maybe, maybe it was, you know, pretty close. i mean, the democrats completely disregarded the idea that we were close to such an agreement. now it seems like we actually have such an agreement. stuart: doug wead, i take my hat off to president trump as the negotiator in chief mere, because it -- here, because it seems to me that he has negotiated a pretty strong agreement with china and that it is china that's backed away a little in the face of this strong negotiating. what say you?

>> yeah, stuart, that's -- [laughter] that's the big point that's been missed in this whole discussion. it's not about the chinese. the chinese haven't changed. the american president has changed. we've had four american presidents, 30 years, an entire generation of giving to china whatever they wanted and looking the other way when they broke the rules. now we've got a president who doesn't look the other way. and whether this particular deal is perfect or not, donald trump will not change, and he's shown he's going to turn this thing around and head it in a different direction. that won't change no matter how the lines of these agreements change. and we also haven't discussed what is this going to mean for north korea. there are so many ramifications that can come out of this closer relationship between the united states and china. stuart: well, what do you think might happen with north korea? >> i think -- [laughter] i wouldn't be surprised if we

see some dominoes fall now. i thought this was impossible. i was told this was impossible. only donald trump was saying to me, you watch, this will happen. i thought, that poor guy, he's a student of norman vincent peale, it's gotten to his head, but he proved right. i wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some further openings with iran, with north korea. it could happen. stuart: okay. let me recap because bottom right-hand corner of your screen, you're watching another part of history being made, and that is wall street history. we have seen the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq, all three of them, major averages, all three of them reaching record highs again this morning. record after record after record, and now crouped with this agreement -- crowned with this agreement with china, and the market's going straight up. right now the dow's at 29,114. now, i'm doing the math real fast in the back of my mind here. i'm pretty sure that given this current stock market rally if

you look at the gain in the value of american business from the day donald trump was elected to this day now, i think you've got a gape -- a gain of $13 trillion. we'll confirm that later. >> the dow was at 20,000 when he entered office, january 2017. stuart: it was 18,000 when he was elected. >> that's right. stuart: 11,000 points. >> 50%, at least. stuart: that's right. yeah, i'm trying to do the math. >> i used my abacus. [laughter] stuart: art laffer, i'm told that people believe, okay, the value of all stocks has gone up $13 trillion. so what? answer that question, so what? what does it mean for america? >> well, it means everyone's better off. it's just wonderful when asset values go up and we all have a prosperous economy. it means that the markets are telling us that the future's

going to be a lot better than it has been. remember, stuart, markets tell us what will be, not what has been. and when they're looking at this market today rising the $13 trillion you talk about, it's all projections of what's going to happen because markets tell us what will be. you know, the past is prologue. i think this is a wonderful sign for the future of the u.s. economy. and i think it's also a good sign, by the way, for the election results as well. i don't think an economy this good, i don't think they'll throw out a president who's this good. stuart: no chance of a recession this year. >> not that i can see. i don't see anything out there that would cause it. and this is a clear sign not only of not a recession, but of actual acceleration in growth. stuart: okay -- >> look at those markets. the people who really know think the future looks much brighter today than it did three years ago, a year ago, six months ago. stuart: okay. let me advance this. we're about to see the signing of phase one. but come in, edward lawrence,

who is in d.c. at this moment. do you have anything on phase two? >> reporter: chinese state media saying phase two won't start right away, but that fits in line with what the treasury secretary, steven mnuchin, said this morning. both sides want to make sure that this agreement actually works. they want to see the implementation of this agreement as we wait. i can tell you that the chinese delegation is sitting in that room right now, but they want to make sure on both sides, china and the u.s., because there's mistrust on both sides. they want to make sure that this is implemented in china, they want to make sure the u.s. follows what they're going to follow in terms of the market access that china is going to be get and some of the tariffs not being put in place going forward. the other issue here is extra tariffs down the road possibly. you know, with phase two agreement the president has said that, you know, if phase two comes through, then other tariffs could be taken off. but this, again, is predicated on the chinese coming through with their end of the bargain.

again, there's going to be that period where they're going to try to figure out if this deal works the way it's written. stuart: edward with, thank you very much, indeed. i notice on the left-hand side of the screen the room has gotten a little more calm. the camera is now focusing in on the agreement which is on the table right in front of the established crowd. make burman is in the crowd. we can't -- blake burman is in the crowd, he's there, and he's on camera right now. any word on timing? because we're now about 15 minutes late. >> reporter: about 15 minutes late, but that's par for the course around here, stuart. [laughter] we haven't been given any guidance, and quite frankly, i'm not sure that would matter much east given past history. -- either given past history. most of the main dignitaries are within the room, the who's who from the trump administration, capitol hill, republicans as well, business community and the like. all the seats are taken here. we don't have the remarks yet on the prompter, but the agreement is up there on, up there on the table. so we believe this is coming soon. i guess, you know, right now they are in the oval office, by

the way, the president, the vice president and members of the delegation. i do believe that some members of the chinese delegation just walked in. there's been a little bit of a hush. did we just get a two minutes? stuart, we just got a two minutes. start the watch there and see what happens. stuart: by the way, you're wrong on par for the course. people who are left of center are late. people who are right of center are on time or early, okay? >> reporter: it was a complaint of the obama administration as well, and i can tell you from being here for three years, we just roll with it. [laughter] stuart: okay. less than two minutes to go. liz, got anything to say? >> look, i just think this is wildly exciting. i want to go back to that $13 trillion increase in the country's net worth. what that -- it's a virtuous cycle, right? that basically makes consumers a happy, it makes consumers spend, it does increase the intending level and boost economic growth. so that's something that the left really wants to sort of totally disregard and dismiss. it's a very important reason why

the economy's going so well. stuart: okay. there is a hush in the room, we are told. everyone has taken their seat. the agreement is on the table at the front of the room. we've gotten the two minute warning, that was about 45 seconds ago, about a minute ago. [laughter] so we've got a minute to go. let me recap what we've got here. this is the formal ceremony at which the phase one of the china trade deal will be signed. china's top-level delegation is seated. the president is about to appear. the signing will take place. in response to that and having gotten a few of the general ideas inside this agreement, now known on wall street, we've got a rip-roaring rally on our hands. the dow right now, i think it's hit the high of the day, we're up 170 odd points, 29,112. records also on the s&p 500, records also on the nasdaq. big name technology companies are doing very well today. they will be beneficiaries from

this deal. strangely, some of the trade-related stocks like caterpillar and boeing not doing well. even though i presume that they would do well from the agreement that's on the table on your screen as of right now. so we're waiting for what will be an historic occasion. i'm just wondering how the president will make his entrance. >> oh, it'll be grand, i'm sure. it'll be very dramatic. yes, possibly. but i like this new reset and this new rebalance of the u.s./china relationship. it sets a new foundation in a very important year, by the way, for presidential elections, 2020, for the u.s. and also for china to set this new foundation between the world's two largest economies and two superpowers. >> and by the way, one of the reasons the market's up is there's a lot of money on the sidelines. if you look at what hedge funds were doing through the end of the year, they were not invested heavily in this market because everyone was concerned about growth. i've been reading some

economists the last few days saying the risk is on the upside. basically, people are too cautious about 2020 and what the growth will look like. if larry kudlow's right, he said half a percentage point incrementally, we could be looking at 3% growth this year, and i think that's going to surprise companies, markets and everything else and, hopefully, will turn around business sentiment which i think charles payne mentioned earlier. it's a very important thing. >> do you feel the buzz in the room? there's definitely a buzz, the excitement. those people who said this would never be accomplished. >> yeah. >> and the details that we believe are in there, to liz's point, they're pretty close. >> hold on a second. hail to chief is being played. >> accompanied by the vice premier of the people's republic of china. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ >> thank you very much. please. we greatly appreciate your joining us at this white house event. this is a very important and remarkable occasion. today we take a momentous step, one that has never been taken before with china, toward a future of fair and reciprocal trade as we sign phase one of

the historic trade deal between the united states and china. together we are righting the wrongs of the past and delivering a future of economic justice and security for american workers, farmers and families. i want to thank president xi, who is watching as we speak, and i'll be going over to china in the not too distant future to reciprocate. but i want to thank president xi, a very, very good friend of mine. we've, we're representing different countries. he's representing china, i'm representing the u.s., but we've developed an incredible relationship. but i want to thank him for his cooperation and partnership throughout this very complex process. our negotiations were tough, honest, open and respectful, leading us to this really incredible breakthrough. most people thought this could never happen. it should have happened 25 years ago, by the way, but that's okay. a man who also has become a good

friend of mine and somebody who's very, very talented and very capable, we're delighted to be joined by vice premier liu he, the ambassador and many other representatives from the people's republic of china. we are especially proud of the efforts of vice president mike pence who is with us and, mike, i'd like to have you say a few words, please. >> thank you, mr. president. it's an honor to be here with you, with vice premier liu he, with our treasury secretary, with ambassador lighthizer, with so many distinguished guests, members of congress, governors from around the country. this is a good day for america, china and the world. and it's an honor to be with you. mr. president, we gather here today thanks to your leadership at a time that the american economy is booming. with the strong support of

members of congress who are gathered here, we are now experiencing an economy that's created more than seven million jobs, the up employment rate is at a 50-year low. the average american household income has risen by more than $5,000. that's all a result of your commitment to cut taxes, roll back regulation, unleash american energy. but it also reflects your commitment to free, fair and reciprocal trade. early in this administration you made it clear that the era of economic surrender was over. and you took a strong stand for american jobs and american workers. you said to our friends in china that things had to change, and thanks to your leadership, today the change begins. [applause] thanks to your efforts, mr. president, we announce today great progress on protecting

intellectual property, on preventing forced technology transfer and currency manipulation. and i know it means so much to you, the greatest impact may well be on americanal church some $40-50 billion in purchases secured in this deal that'll result in greater prosperity for farmers all across the land. mr. president, your commitment to a growing and prosperous america has been the centerpiece of your leadership. and today with the signing of phase one, it's one more example of your commitment to put american jobs and american workers first. and we recognize, as you do, mr. president, the differences will remain between our two nation, but today it is the start of a new chapter in trade relations between the two largest economies in the world. but i can assure the american people that this president will continue to stand firm and put america first even as we forge a more productive relationship with china and with the world.

mr. president, you know there's an ancient chinese proverb that says men see only the present, but heaven sees the future. so let today be the beginning of a brighter future, more produce produce for the american people -- prosperous for the american people, the chinese people and the world. thank you, mr. president. [applause] >> thank you, mike. an incredible job. incredible guy. i also want to give special thanks to our u.s. trade representative who's been kept very busy, who's doing a lot of deals. we'll have another big one next week. it should get approved very shortly, and that'll the be tremendous, with canada and mexico. we'll talk about that next week. robert lighthizer, are we keeping you busy enough? huh? [laughter] poor guy can't sleep. he tosses and he turns. what happened to him? >> [inaudible] >> okay.

[laughter] thanks -- you are all-purpose, come to think of to it. [laughter] but bob lighthizer's really an outstanding guy. he's smart, he's sharp, he understands trade better than anybody. when i first took this, i said i gotta get the best guy, and all signs pointed to robert lighthizer, so thank you very much, bob. thank you. [applause] i have one question. was this easier job or tougher job than you thought? >> tougher than i thought. [laughter]. >> i had a feeling you might say that. also our great treasury

secretary steve mnuchin has worked with bob hand in hand and thank very much, steve. great job. [applause] so this really is a landmark agreement but along with them, we had the exceptional effort of jared kushner. where is jared? great job, jared. [applause] he worked hard. he left a beautiful, nice, very prosperous real estate business and, came here and i can tell you that was harder. this is harder than real estate in new york, isn't it, jared? but you have done a fantastic job. you don't get people like that. ivanka, nice to here. thank you, honey. somebody i have heard for 35 years, the voice, a great gentleman, a friend of mine but a great gentleman.

we brought him in and he has been outstanding. the only problem is he doesn't like going on television very much. he is little bit shy about that. larry kudlow. where is larry? [applause] where is larry? we had a day where the market went down one trillion dollars. think of that. in other words, one of those few days. we had 141 days we hit all-time highs as we broke, as you know, we broke the 29,000 mark on the dow as we're walking in. market is up substantially today. with all the business leaders i'm sure they don't care. [applause] but larry kudlow went out into the beautiful lawns of the white house, actually he was standing in the middle of the rose garden. he had a beautiful scarf waving in the wind. everything perfect, right out of greenwich, connecticut, and he

started talking and by the time he finished, i just said you made a trillion dollars, a trillion. because the market went up 250 points. i said, larry, what the hell did you say? and it didn't matter but we were even. we went from being a trillion down, to even. that was pretty good. larry, you've been fantastic, thank you very much. appreciate it. [applause] and by the way i see in the audience our great ambassador to china, right, governor. so we had the governor of iowa and he loves china and he's, you're the longest serving governor in history of our country, like 24 years. i called him. i said, governor, you have to do me a favor. i remember one conversation i had with him. i was going in to make a speech before the election. and he said, sir, please don't say anything bad about china. first time anyone ever said that