it will turn but hasn't for me. and health care. we have an election coming up right now. charles: i don't think bernie sanders rocketing to the top of the polls will help health care for now. you helped the show for sure. thanks, appreciate it. folks, we have cut the losses in half as i hand it over to ashley webster. ashley: that's the first line on my script here, charles. wall street cutting losses. thank you, charles. late in this first session after the three-day presidents day weekend, the coronavirus remains a major business concern, as apple cites that virus for a hit to the bottom line. you can see the dow, just off 148 points. it's come back from its morning -- i think we were off like 280 points at one point. the s&p trying to get back to flatline and the nasdaq with a slight gain on the session. meanwhile, while the markets search for clarity, president trump passing out pardons. why not. some big names getting a pass on their legal troubles including

one famous wall street name. we will get the very latest from the white house. and the daytona 500 overshadowed by a final lap crash that sent ryan newman to the hospital right there. there goes his car. also sent denny hamlin to victory lane. the man of the hour himself will join us in moments on his second straight victory in the great american race. incredible stuff. less than an hour now to the closing bell, i'm ashley webster in for liz claman. let's start "the claman countdown." ashley: all right. we have this fox business alert. the jury has just returned from recess during day one of deliberations in the harvey weinstein case. the jury made up of seven men, five women. weinstein is accused by two women of rape and criminal sexual acts. weinstein also facing two

aggravating counts which could keep him in prison for life and of course, we will bring you all the latest developments in this case if the jury returns a verdict. that's going on right now. well, as the markets search for direction, just take a look at gold, breaking past the $1600 level, spiking up now little more than $18 per ounce. that is on pace for its highest close for gold since march of 2013. almost seven years. also pushing higher, investment manager franklin templeton is popping after announcing it will be acquiring legg mason in an all cash deal valued at $4.5 billion. franklin templeton agreeing to pay 50 bucks per share which is currently trading above that value and hitting a multi-year high, as you can see shares of franklin up 7.5%. legg mason up 24%. absolutely surging. the u.s.'s largest grocer by revenue, kroger, touching its highest price since november of 2018 after warren buffett's

berkshire hathaway disclosed late friday it had bought up about $18 million worth of shares. that's worth more than $500 million. that gives berkshire hathaway about a 2.3% stake in the grocer giant which has been hit recently due to increased competition in the space. look at that stock today, up nearly 6%, close to $30 a share. well, it is a tale of two coronavirus stories. walmart says it will not be lowering its 2020 forecast because of the virus just yet. the retail giant saying it will continue to monitor the outbreak but so far, sales at their 430 stores in china have not been hit. but this of course comes just one day after apple warned of a slowdown at chinese factories where smartphones are actually made. apple also saying demand for the popular iphone in china has been hurt and all of apple's 42 stores have been closed. two very different stories there. apple, though, remarkably, not just dragging down the u.s. markets, which it has been.

take a look at how the european markets closed today. awhile ago, they were all down anywhere from a half to .75%. major apple suppliers like broadcom, corvo and skyworks solutions taking a hit on the back of the apple outlook, all down 1% to 2%. the question is, is walmart being too optimistic or is apple being too cautious? or is the answer somewhere in between? it's maybe too early to say how much of an impact the coronavirus will have on major corporations but let's get to the floor show and get some opinions. let's get to tim anderson. he's down at the new york stock exchange. every day we talk about the virus, coronavirus, we get a comment like we did from apple, kind of sends a chill through the market. but then walmart says it's okay. what impact is this having on the psyche of the markets? >> i just think you got two completely different situations with apple and walmart.

apple is kind of getting it on both ends because they have very direct manufacturing right if china and also connection with foxcon and they have a tremendous amount of stores, retail presence in china also. walmart, on the other hand, they are getting maybe hundreds of their suppliers and people that sell through walmart, they may all have different experiences as to how much disruption their supply lines might be going on and even though they've got some retail operation in china, it's probably a very small part of their global sales. ashley: that's very true. phil flynn at the cme, come on in. despite what apple has been saying, remarkably, the nasdaq which is very tech-heavy, still on the positive side today. i would say overall, with even the dow just down half a percent, from record highs, frankly, the reaction so far has not been that great. rather muted.

>> absolutely. you are trying to compare apples and kmart. it doesn't work. like apples and oranges. at the end of the day, listen, is anybody surprised that apple was going to take a hit from this? we have known for weeks and weeks and weeks that they have closed stores, shut down cities in china which was one of their biggest areas of growth for their product and we know that's all been put on hold. but at the same time, we know that this isn't going to last forever for apple at all. there's going to be an end game to this. so there's probably going to be some pent-up demand. as far as kmart, absolutely. their focus on china totally different than apple. they don't rely on everything from china. a lot of their products. but at the same time, they've got a strong u.s. economy to get them through and are going through a transition phase where they are very optimistic that this year will be a great year for them. i would agree with where we are seeing from kmart -- ashley: walmart. yes. >> walmart, i'm sorry. whatever happened to kmart? bring back kmart. ashley: they both have blue

light specials, i believe. not sure. scott's in the house. scott, we talked about this with stuart varney today, but his belief and many is that the u.s. markets, it's still the only game in town, if you like. yes, the rest of the world is trying to recover but now we have the coronavirus but the u.s. is still a very strong market to invest in. >> yeah, and it's losing competition by the day. we still don't have anything to talk about as far as interest rates go so if you have any extra cash around, you have to put it in the u.s. market and by default, that's shown to be a lot stronger even in the face of something like the coronavirus, which i agree with phil, we are going to get through it. it's just going to be about timing, when you want to jump back in and see some of the demand pick back up. however, with what's happening so far, i don't think it's over yet, there is definitely going to be some sort of slowdown. i don't think apple is wrong by coming out and saying what they have said, number one. number two, i think that maybe, you know, apple is getting punished for telling the truth and walmart is being rewarded for putting their head in the sand a little bit.

i'm going to have to wait, i don't think it's over and i like to think that we will get through it. i don't know when we will. by telling the truth, i think apple is playing a better game than walmart by trying to ignore something that really could be a little bit of a global slowdown. take a few percentage points off the gdp. ashley: little cynical today. scott, i hear you. others agree. phil, tim, thank you all, gentlemen, for joining us today. we really appreciate it. to the white house now. president trump boarding air force one in just the last hour for a trip to california, but not before breaking some news at joint base andrews. the president pardoning or granting clemency to a who's who list of famous names, from former 49ers owner eddie dibartolo, jr. to junk bond king michael milken. blake burman has more at the white house. reporter: president trump in the air right now aboard air force one as he will head out west for four different states over the next four days there. one of the events the president

will be partaking in on thursday at a prison in nevada for a graduation ceremony there. ahead of that today, the president announced that he would be pardoning the sentence or commuting the sentence of 11 different individuals, that includes some of the names you just went over, michael milken, the financier, former san francisco 49ers owner eddie dibartolo jr. and the former new york city police commissioner bernie kerik received pardons. the former illinois governor rod blagojevich's prison sentence has been commuted as well. here was the president. >> we have bernie kerik, we have mike milken who's gone around and done an incredible job for the world with all of his research on cancer and he's done this and he's suffered greatly. he paid a big price. paid a very tough price. but he's done an incredible job. reporter: before boarding air force one this afternoon, the president also shot down the

idea that china wouldn't be able to buy some u.s. technology due to the fears of some citing national security. listen. >> i'm very concerned about national security. number one, i'm concerned about national security. but i will say that we're not going to be sacrificing our companies for all of the growth and everything else that they're exploding, they're doing so well, by using a fake term of national security. it's got to be real national security. reporter: president trump will land in california later this evening. once he gets on the ground there, he will be hosting a fundraiser in beverly hills. he will also partake in a meeting for the 2028 olympics in los angeles, a planning meeting, then tomorrow, he heads to rancho mirage for another fundraising event, this one got a high profile name attached to it, larry ellison will be hosting the president and there are some reports out of california that it could be up to $250,000 per guest.

ashley: oh, yes. i have to look through the window. i'm not getting into that one. blake burman, great stuff. thank you. let's take a look at the big board for you. the dow still off some 140 points at this hour. we were down at one point like 281. so we have come back. it's been in the same range for awhile now, in the session. coming up, that fiery crash at the daytona 500 results in a dramatic photo finish and a second straight victory for denny hamlin in the great american race. the man in the center of that action will be joining us in moments. and president trump, by the way, hitting vladimir putin where it hurts. new sanctions on russia's state-owned oil company. we will also take a deep dive into the oil market when "the claman countdown" comes right back. as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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coronavirus, whatever that impact will be. we're not sure. let's bring in bob phillips, cre crestwood equity partners chairman and ceo. great to have you on the show. i guess at this point, it is very difficult to get your head around the coronavirus and what it means. we don't know how long this is going to last. but if people are traveling less, businesses are shutting down, industry is slowing down, that's got to be negative for the oil industry. the demand goes down, right? >> well, i think that's right, ashley. it's clear that there's going to be an impact on consumption in china, in asia, at some point in time in the future. i think the fact that prices didn't move a whole lot today given the apple announcement, the new russian sanctions, really just tells you that the market doesn't quite understand and appreciate what that impact's going to be. we know that some china oil buyers have been issuing force majeur alerts, turning back some cargoes. it's not really impacting u.s.

production that much, as you know, because of trade tariffs, we have pulled back significantly in our deliveries of lng and crude oil products back in 2019. so probably not a lot of impact today and possibly in the future. ashley: when we talk about price, west texas, i was just looking, is at $52.07 a barrel. at what point does it not become worth the effort, time and money say for frackers to start producing this product? is it below $50 a barrel? >> it's really not. it's significantly below $50 a barrel. that's a common misconception with investors and with the public. at $50wti, there are a number of shale plays in the u.s. like the delaware permian, like the powder river basin in eastern wyoming. they are very economic at prices well below $50 a barrel. that's due to the significant technology improvement that our upstream producers are experiencing at the drill bit.

they can drill longer laterals, bigger frack jobs, the cost of the well is coming down as service costs come down and the wells are just much more productive. that's why you have seen volumes expected to increase in 2020 despite a lower rig count. ashley: amazing, isn't it. more and more, is opec becoming of less significance? >> they are. u.s. production has just reached an all-time high of 13 million barrels a day. we expect that will be stable for at least 2020, if not into 2021. there were, of course, some expectations that production was going to grow faster, like it did in 2018 to 2019, but the realities of the capital markets are investors are demanding more financial discipline, as a result producers are pulling their capital budgets back on the order of 15% to 20%. i think we will see fewer wells drilled, less rig activity, but volume stay flat to up slightly. oil is expected to increase by

about 6% in 2020. natural gas going from 93 bcf a day to 98 bcf a day, about a 7% increase. the markets will remain solidly supplied and largely in balance here in the united states. ashley: very good. very quickly, i want -- sustainability is a key for your company. you say that should be a key for the industry as a whole. can you quickly explain? >> esg sustainability is what we are all talking about in the midstream space right now. we have to embrace it as an industry. we need more transparency around risk. we need more community engagement. we need more environmental stewardship and crestwood has taken the lead in the sustainability effort in our peer group, the gatherers and processers. we were just recently recognized by corporate nights, a canadian sustainability ranking firm, as one of the top 50 in the world, in their global 100 countdown.

that really is attributable to our commitment to operate a more sustainable business here in oil and gas industry. we hope all of our partners along the energy value chain can embrace sustainability and make significant moves in that direction over the next several years. ashley: very good stuff. bob, glad you got that in. bob phillips, crestwood equity partners chairman and ceo, thanks for joining us. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: let's take a quick look at the big board. just under 40 minutes to go before the close. the dow still off, we have been in this same range, down half a percent. 29,250. advance auto parts rallying after posting higher fourth quarter earnings. the auto parts retailer beating estimates as its spokesman, nascar driver ryan blaney finds himself in the center of that daytona 500 crash controversy. doesn't hurt the stock, though. it's up more than 7%. advance auto at $143. blaney's bump did help denney

hamlin squeak out his second straight daytona 500 win and touch off the victory lane celebration. the man of the hour himself, denny hamlin, joins us next live from the floor of the new york stock exchange when "the claman countdown" comes back. are comm. and when you open a new brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate. that's why fidelity leads the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. ♪ talk, talk while our competition continues to talk. my body is truly powerful. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to. trulicity is for people with type 2 diabetes.

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ashley: well, there are dramatic finishes, then there was the one at the daytona 500 yesterday. a fiery crash and a photo finish. ryan newman's car going airborne and denny hamlin slipping across the finish line in the second closest race in the history of daytona. doctors say newman does not have life-threatening injuries but remains in serious condition at the halifax medical center near the racetrack. let's go live to jackie deangelis at the new york stock exchange with daytona's latest back-to-back winner, nascar driver denny hamlin. take it away. jackie: good afternoon, ash. thank you so much. congratulations to you.

what a w got to tell me how it . >> feels pretty good. i need some time for it to sink in. everything is so new and fresh. i haven't really had too much of an opportunity to sit back and enjoy it and kind of think about how things went down. but obviously it's a great feeling to be here celebrating it. jackie: speaking of how things went down, it was a very dramatic end to the race. ryan newman, not life-threatening condition right now, thank goodness. your thoughts on that and your reflections on how it ended? >> it was tough. he was so close, he was in a three-way battle with myself and blaney and you know, it ended up bad for him, obviously, but those two battling down there, you know, things can happen and we know in our sport, things can get dangerous. sometimes we take for granted how safe these cars have been over the last few years. but certainly, you got to think about it, when you have an

eye-opening moment like this, you got to kind of put things in perspective. jackie: second closest race in history. we are talking about fractions of seconds here. what's going through your mind as you are going through the finish line? >> i didn't take the lead until right before the start/finish line so i was having to battle from behind. i was leading on the final lap but i got passed on the back stretch by two cars, newman made a bold move off turn four but i'm trying to do everything i can to manipulate the air as good as i can. everyone is wide open on that type of racetrack so it's whoever uses the air around the cars the best, are the ones that win. jackie: i read that you said it's all about instinct in the final moments that you are trying to figure it out and read that space. what does it take to have the instinct to win? >> yeah, i mean, it's difficult. this type of racing is very difficult anyway but racing like that, the driver plays a big role and he has to understand the air, understand aerodynamics

to figure out how he can get his car to the front. for me, i trust my instincts. i have been in this situation so many times that i feel like i've got a playbook, i go by it and i don't second-guess myself. jackie: really quick, the president came down the race, daytona 500, it was a huge moment not just for the people that were there, the patrons, the fans, the drivers as well. your thoughts? >> it was great, to have him there supporting was huge. there was a lot of buzz around the daytona 500 this year and obviously, a great ratings bump because of it. we were really encouraged and it was a great feeling for all. jackie: great to see you. thank you so much. back to you, ash. ashley: great interview. jackie deangelis and denny hamlin, winner, back-to-back winner of the daytona 500. great stuff. what a race. let's check the markets for you. the dow still stuck in the same area, down about 157 points at this hour. the s&p also struggling. and the nasdaq. any positive close today will be

a new record, but we are desperately hanging on with about 31 minutes or thereabouts left in the session. the nasdaq up four points. by the way, tesla is surging this hour after bernstein analysts boosted the price target on the electric vehicle automaker, nearly doubling it, in fact, from $325 to $730. that is still around 14% below current levels but he did qualify it by saying it is still difficult to justify tesla's share price. he's had a market perform rating for the last three years. tesla up more than 6%. another $51 gain for tesla at $851. meanwhile, it's a battle of the billionaires as tesla's elon musk takes a bit of a swipe at the second richest man in the world. what mr. musk said about bill gates is straight ahead on "the claman countdown." ies firsthand, like innovations in agricultural research.

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ashley: the auto sector showing some signs of life in the wake of the coronavirus, as several auto makers are preparing to restart production in china. that is outside of wuhan. we are looking at names like neo, the chinese electric vehicle giant, ferrari, honda and u.s. auto parts. but it is a different story for jaguar land rover. the ceo speaking out earlier today about the challenges that his company is facing as this crisis worsens. he says uk production is set to run out of parts from china in just about two weeks. that's not good. he also says sales are just not happening in china and they're not sure if those lost sales will come back. pretty pessimistic. but he does say he believes a clearer picture of the virus's impact will be known soon. shares of the parent company tata motors down more than 4% today at $11.22. meanwhile, we have also gotten an all electric

billionaire smackdown. that's what we are calling it. microsoft co-founder bill gates purchasing himself an all electric porsche. why not. but it was of course instead of a tesla and that news didn't impress fellow billionaire elon musk. the tesla ceo blasting him on twitter, calling his conversations with bill gates quote, underwhelming. while gates and musk disagree, one thing electric vehicles have in common is their innovative artificial intelligence. our next guest is ceo of the company behind in-carinfotainment systems. back from ringing the opening bell at the nasdaq this morning, he's had a busy day, we welcome sanjay. he's here in a fox business exclusive. great to have you here. i've got to get to the gates/musk thing in a minute but we were just talking in the commercial break, it's a chance to get people to get into the electric vehicle market. a lot of suvs in america, lot of people like their independence,

they are concerned how far they can go on a single charge and what happens if they cough out somewhere, where do they plug in. before we get into what your company does, can you address that issue? is it taking longer than people thought to catch on? >> i think the main technology there is basically how fast can you charge the cars and also, how long the charge lasts, meaning how much distance you can travel. and finally, what the network looks like to charge, so in certain countries, adoption is faster. i'm in california, you see a lot of teslas and other cars but the adoption is going to depend upon that. ashley: your company, you focus on, you know, infotainment, basically artificial intelligence. you really want the driver, hands on the wheel, of course, ten and two, least distraction possible, and basically

everything is voice activated. is that right? >> that's right. cerence is a new company, we got established about five months back. we are a spin from nuance. nuance used to have different businesses and they spun us out into independent company. so we are completely focused on automotive. as the car becomes more and more digital, the interaction of the human and the driver who is driving the car is going to change. what we do is basically provide these voice platforms which we have shipped in almost 125 million cars. one in two new car ships with our platforms. it basically enables voice interaction -- ashley: like what? >> starting from, you know, turn the radio on, take me to the nearest starbucks, turn the windows down, to more complex functions like, you know, switch

the light in my bedroom on and we would basically work with the home -- ashley: alexa, google. >> to basically enable that. and for the record, the porsche that bill gates bought, when you sit in that porsche, when bill gates sits in that porsche and says hello, porsche, that is our technology. ashley: that is your technology. the car says good morning, mr. gates, how are we today. where to we go from there? the ultimate artificial intelligence for cars is you don't drooef ive it at all. are we getting to that point? they are out there testing, we know. >> sometime in the future but that's a distant future. that's level 4 or level 5 autonomous. in the more near term, two to five years, what you will see is more different modes of interaction which are going to be introduced in the car. what i mean by that is voice is very important because you want

your hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, and you want to use voice as the main interaction mechanism but as humans, when we interact, we use more than voice. we use gaze and gestures, we use our hands. ashley: especially when you are in a car. some of those gestures we wouldn't want to repeat. i digress. >> so the gestures we are enabling in the car, when you are driving and point and say what's that building, the car should be able to basically figure it out -- ashley: how close are we to that technology? close? >> pretty close. we are going sop, meaning start of production, with certain eoms this year. ashley: fascinating. we are out of time. thank you so much for being here. congratulations. you have had a long day, down at the stock exchange earlier today. great to have you here. >> thank you. ashley: fox business exclusive. thank you. let's take a check of the board for you. we are starting to lose ground on the dow, off 168 points.

29,228 on the dow. coming up next, virgin galactic's stock price rocketing into the stratosphere as a major stockholder is revealed. and the space flight test program nears the final stages. more on that when "the claman countdown" comes right back. president trump warned the drug companies. it's unacceptable that americans pay vastly more than people in other countries, for the exact same drugs. but they aren't listening. they've just raised the prices of over five hundred drugs. president trump supports a bipartisan plan, that would force drug companies to lower prices. but the senate won't act. tell senate leaders to stop drug company price gouging and lower drug prices now.

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and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. and now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ashley: virgin galactic, well, coming back down to earth after shares rocketed up as much as 20% -- 26%, that is, earlier, touching an all-time high. this after park west asset management disclosed a 2.1% stake in the space company.

that made the seventh largest shareholder. virgin galactic stock has tripled over the past three months but coming back a little bit. the stock up now just over 4%. also heating up, the space race. blue origin has opened a new rocket production facility in huntsville, alabama. the rocket company which is controlled of course by amazon's ceo jeff bezos will begin producing the be-3u and be-4 engines essential to launch rockets into space. the new factory will host more than 300 employees and produce up to 42 engines a year. what we need of course is some test astronauts. i wonder if connell mcshane would volunteer to try out one of those space rockets. what do you say? connell: we have had that list of colleagues we would volunteer to go into space. you don't want me to make that public, do you? ashley: no, no. connell: oh, man, that would be fun. ashley: what's coming up at the top of the hour? connell: everything. all the usual, the closing of the markets, the coronavirus

fears, which seem to be the usual concern these days. we also have this story, we all hate the robocalls that come in, right? there's this app this guy came up with, apparently you can automatically sue the company that's spamming you, essentially. six of one, half dozen of another. do we need more lawsuits, fewer robocalls? anyway, the great lauren simonetti in for melissa today, will speak with him next hour and more when we see you "after the bell." ashley: hang on. just got this robocall. connell mcshane, great stuff. see you at 4:00 p.m. thank you. the closing bell ringing in just about 13 and a half minutes from now. up next, a jump in manufacturing has today's "countdown" closer, well, ready to jump in. find out where she thinks you should put your money when "the claman countdown" returns. (woman) no matter what business you are in, digital transformation never stops. verizon keeps business ready for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business...

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ashley: the closing bell rings in just about ten minutes from now. nasdaq just turned negative in the last few moments, definitely trying to eke out another record. a gain, by the way, any kind of gain for the nasdaq will be a record close, but we now have red across the screen. president trump doling out high profile presidential pardons to junk bond king michael milken and others just over an hour ago. but if you follow charlie gasparino on twitter, these pardons should come as no surprise. he scooped the story this morning. there it is. he's now here with more details. the president on a roll right now. charlie: on blago and kerik. the timing was surprising, coming out right around the time he gave his presser today. he kind of snuck it in in the presser, saying something about milken. most people didn't really pick it up. when he was done, apparently they put out -- ashley: that's a name i haven't

heard for a long time. charlie: i know him somewhat. i have covered him for years. i know him a little bit. i go to the milken conference. let's take each one of them in isolation. first off, i would like donald to pardon me for that panty raid i got caught up in back in high school. ashley: last week? oh, high school. okay. charlie: maybe he could put a good word in. ashley: sure. very disturbing news. charlie: i'm only kidding about that. it wasn't yorktown. guess where it was. ashley: i'm not going to speculate. charlie: so let's take kerik. kerik, long-time friend of rudy giuliani, worked for rudy giuliani, was going to be named homeland security director and that nomination was pulled for a variety of reasons, and as they were pulling that, people dug into some of his financial background and some weird stuff. i didn't think it was all that bad. apparently he lied on a mortgage application of a mortgage that was already paid off.

i mean, he lied about some source of the funding of it. so it was kind of murky. but they threw the book at him. i think he was sentenced to five, he served three. long time in jail. you can make a great case that that is something that shouldn't have happened, should have been pardoned, there was a lot of political pressure. blago, another story. if you listen to a tape, he basically said we can sell, he was governor i guess of illinois, president obama was then the senator running for president, and it goes the governor gets to i guess choose the person for that seat. ashley: he insinuated that hey, it's up for the highest bidder. charlie: but it sounded more like a -- i don't know, maybe i just have a low bar. ashley: a boat? charlie: a boast. it didn't sound quite nixonian. it sounded bragging. ashley: right, right, right. right. charlie: the interesting thing about him, the prosecutor for that case was patrick fitzgerald, who is -- who is

best friends with james comey who president trump despises. ashley: yes, indeed. charlie: he's not a big fan of fitzgerald. i'm sure that had something to do with it. milken will be very controversial. we will be debating this for a long time. here's why. lot of people like myself think he's a great man, that he created a market that brought companies that couldn't get cheaper financing, got them that financing. we should point out i believe one of the companies was our company. just so you know. early stages, 21st century fox. that said -- ashley: talking about very high yield bonds. charlie: high yield bonds. his whole notion was these bonds are generally money good, that banks should not be supplying that market with financing, it should go to the bond market which is more liquid. not only that, costs less to borrow money which donald trump was the beneficiary of that, too, for some of his casinos. he gets caught up in the financial dealing because you know, milken when he was at drexel kind of controlled that market in many ways. the feds, they were rudy

giuliani in particular and the s.e.c. chief, gary lynch at the time, brought like massive cases against him. again, read -- ashley: there are some tax issues as well. charlie: no, no. there was an insider trading charge, there was stuff known as parking and all these crazy things. the biggest witness against him was kind of not a great guy. ivan bosky. ashley: another name. charlie: i have read every book on michael milken. when i study the charges, i'm not saying he was a nice guy to deal with in the markets. the charges were like that's really a crime, doing that? it wasn't as clear-cut. i believe, you have to check me on this, the insider trading part got thrown out eventually. his jail time was initially sentenced for a fairly long jail time. he only served i think a year and a half, two years, becau because -- ashley: club fed? charlie: oh, yeah. he underwent cancer, i think it was prostate cancer. when he got out of jail, after

paying massive fines, this guy created an amazing philanthropy, amazing think tank. he's been nothing like the most amazing private citizen in the world. i think you can make a good case for each one of them. i will just say one thing. again, presidents do this at the end of their tenure. the fact that he's doing it now to me, i was watching cnn, they're like saying he's flouting his power. i think it's full transparency. ashley: he can do whatever he wants. charlie: he's telling the voter you still have to vote for me. i'm not going to do this when i'm voted nointo a second term i'm about to leave, i can do it. he's doing it now, full transparency. ashley: we will see if we can get you a full pardon, too. charlie: the panty raid is a very serious blot on my record. ashley: very true, charlie gasparino. we shall see. thank you so much, as always. let's get back to jackie deangelis, live on the floor of the new york stock exchange as we head to the final bell. jackie: good afternoon, ash. we are watching the dow down 176 points, near session lows but

not quite there. but still pretty deep in the red. and also watching the nasdaq which now has dipped -- now back in positive territory there. it's going to be a close one because if there's any gain in the nasdaq today, it will in fact be a new record. but earlier in the day, the leg lower for the market coming after the apple news, after the walmart news, was the u.s. placing further sanctions on roznev for dealing with venezuela. that raised the hackles of traders on the floor saying could this escalate . >> that is one of the keys. all eyes on apple and the coronavirus. how this could impact other businesses going forward as well. this will be really key here in terms of how this epidemic unfolds. does it become worse? does it become more of a problem as the year progresses? it could have chilling effect on

stocks. we're starting to see that reflected in dow, guys. back to you. ashley: jackie deangelis. thank you very much. good news from the new york federal reserve. the empire state manufacturing index rising to reach 12.9 this month. that is the highest level in nine months. the number crushing the 4.0 expectation from economists. what do they know, right? this must be music to the ears of today's "countdown" closer we have federated senior portfolio manager linda bakshin. welcome. in this environment, with the coronavirus virus everything, else, where are you putting your money? where are you telling your clients they should put their money right now? >> sure. we do think the second half of this year you will have boeing production that will come back. coronavirus will probably be a short-lived issue at least for the first quarter. we'll get a v-shaped recovery. stimulus from china to help

their economy along. central banks are pretty supportive. we like a pretty good backdrop for the second half. we like value sectors like industrials, financials and technology. ashley: interesting. only financials. it has been a long time. we keep saying they are the next sector to really take off here and they never really have. we're in a very low interest rate environment. so it is hard to make money on loans. why the financials? >> if you think about it, over the last month 1/2 or so since the coronavirus the 10-year has corrected by like 10, 230 -- 20 basis points. financials have not corrected that much. financials are telling you the underlying economy is okay. the 10-year fall something more to do with u.s. being a safe haven for the rest of the world. ashley: you like technology. seems like technology is carrying the burden for quite some time now. is there still good value in this sector?

>> yeah. i think so. value is always relative. if you look at structural growth rate of technology to do with 5g, augmented reality, gaming, computing, clouding, structural growth rates are among best of any of the s&p 500 sectors. not only do i think technology will continue to outperform, it will probably do so for a number of years to come. ashley: for the second half of the year, linda, to recap you're convinced economy will hum along. the coronavirus eventually will start to fade as far as impact and you're fairly bullish? >> i think all of those things will show pretty strong economic growth in the second half. you will have volatility with politics of course. but the underlying gdp growth will be pretty good for the s&p 500 and for forward earnings as we see it. ashley: got it. linda, thank you so much for

joining us. [closing bell rings] much appreciate your input. the dow stuck in this area for most of the session. that will do it for "the claman countdown." get it over to connell mcshane and lauren simonetti for "after the bell." lauren: thanks, ashley. wall street on edge. nasdaq fighting for a record close. any gain today is a record. the second in a row for the nasdaq as investors continue to weigh coronavirus fears after apple issued a revenue warning over the outbreak in china. the dow jones industrial average is ending down 165 points. i'm lauren simonetti in for melissa francis today. connell: i'm connell mcshane. welcome to after the bell. s&p looks like it will settle lower. it was nasdaq, the one we're watching. that could be the 15th record close for nasdaq. it has been pretty much