board members. this company has been the subject of hostile investors. silver lake will invest $1 billion in twitter. they want jack gone. we will watch twitter. >> i like twitter. maria: great panel. thanks so much. have a good day. seize the day, everybody. "varney & company" begins now. they will take it to the open. take it away. stuart: good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. this is a selloff of major league proportion. we will start with stocks. as you can see, the three indicators are stuck at what's called limit down. after the opening bell if the s&p goes down 7%, trading will be halted for 15 minutes. this is the circuit breaker system designed to give investors a breather and to prevent the market running away with itself. the dow is down, the s&p is down, the nasdaq is down nearly 5%. they are stuck in limit down. that may change at the opening bell. now, here's the virus problem. dr. anthony fauci says social distancing is the way to go.

quote, don't go to crowded places. look, that's going to slow the economy. we don't know by how much. remember, friday, larry kudlow was on the show, told us that targeted stimulus is being considered. the fed is being urged to take steps, too. we're watching for any announcement. here's the other big problem. the price of oil is tumbling. the saudis have launched a price war, promising to flood the world with a glut because russia wouldn't agree to production cuts. american drillers will take a huge hit. they can't make a profit at 30 bucks a barrel. $31.89 right now. look at this. money pouring into treasury securities, pushing the yield way down to yet more record lows. takes your breath away. we were down to 0.31% at one stage. now we are 0.41%. extraordinary. it has to be said, the united states is in a better position to weather this storm. that jobs report was a blockbuster.

look at italy. it's locking down a quarter of its population, locking it down. that lwill ensure a deep recession and have fallout throughout europe which was already in a downward spiral. japan's economy is already contracting an astonishing 7% annual rate. china's economy struggling to get off its back. that's just a little perspective. we should remember it. in all this turmoil, don't forget the michigan primary tomorrow. could be bernie's last stand. joe biden has picked up endorsement from kamala harris and cory booker. he's got the momentum. within 36 hours we will know a great deal more about november's election. on the show today, joining me now, in fact, elizabeth macdonald, host of "evening edit," andy puzder, former cke restaurant ceo. andy, are we strong enough to withstand the shock we know is coming without going into recession? >> yes, we are. as a matter of fact, if you look at gdp now, the atlanta fed's

model that projects gdp, what it's going to be by quarter, it was updated friday and came in at 3.1%. there's only three weeks left in q1. i think we will have a stronger q1 than people believe. i think we will overcome this. this is not like 2008 where we had this financial bubble that burst that we had to overcome. this is something that when we have a vaccine, it will be better, maybe during warmer weather it will be better. we're just seeing an overreaction in the market and as i said, i think we will overcome this. stuart: stay there, andy. you say overreaction in the market. liz is with me, liz macdonald. do you think that maybe we are setting up a monumental buying opportunity? liz: yeah. so the adage is when the markets take the escalators up but the elevators down, i will be standing at the ground floor when the doors open to say bring me, give me, give me your now cheaply valued stocks. i will take them off your hands. thing is, you have to be right twice, know when to get in and

when to get out. this is the talk on wall street. i was just on the phone working my wall street sources. they are saying yes, this is a buying opportunity. what they are having difficulty pricing in as we talked about is the governments response to this. they are seeming to -- let me give you some information from elon musk, michael milken, who is saying this feels like the hiv or polio panic. they are looking at south korea, how south korea, to your point, has done way more testing than we have. south korea is finding a fatality rate of less than one percentage point because it's about testing. we don't know who has antibodies in the population. we don't know who has mild asymptomatic, you know, conditions with it. so it's a problem of lack of information. stuart: you are saying this could be the washout -- liz: yes. it could be the washout. stuart: anybody who's got a weak stomach, at that point you set up a buying opportunity? liz: that's right. that's right. stuart: andy lipour is with us. obviously we want to talk to you

about this plunge in the price of oil. i've got it at $31 a barrel now. there's a glut developing around the world. i don't see any bounce-back for oil prices any time soon. do you? >> no, i don't. in fact, the opec meeting last week ended in disarray because they were unable to figure out a way to cope with the demand destruction from the coronavirus. instead we had an opposite reaction where the saudis have now decided to increase production, making matters worse. stuart: on the one hand, yeah, we've got demand destruction because of the virus around the world. but on the other hand, we've got a full-scale price war between russia, saudi arabia and i think maybe against american frackers, too. what do you say? >> well, i think that's right. i think russia has been looking for an excuse to really inflict some pain on the u.s. shale producers because they feel that they are always participating in production cuts in order to support prices to the benefit of

the u.s. producer and they really want to produce even more oil. stuart: do you think we could drop below $30 a barrel? >> we actually saw that last night when crude oil dropped to $27.50 a barrel. i think we will continue to slide towards $30 a barrel and even go less. think about that poor canadian producer who is getting less than $20 a barrel for their oil up there in alberta. they are really under a significant amount of stress. stuart: is there any chance the saudis will withdraw from their flood the world with oil policy? >> well, i think there's a chance but they really need russia and the rest of the opec plus members to come to the table and decide they actually need to cut production, but on the other hand, they might have decided that the demand destruction for the coronavirus is so great that no matter how much they cut production, it won't be enough for the market. stuart: andy, we will leave it

there. crude as we speak, $31.75 per barrel. now joining us on the phone, market watcher keith fitz gerald. you are in self-quarantine still, i believe, is that right? >> that is correct. we took precautions because my wife and older son returned from japan. we didn't want to inject that into the community. but it may be for naught as fast as this is spreading. stuart: let's return to this theme. are we setting up a monumental buying opportunity? >> there is no doubt in my mind we are setting up a generational buying opportunity, the kind of thing you see once orlifetime, not yet. stuart: that implies there will be a rebound when we come out on the other side of this thing. >> there's no doubt in my mind there will be a rebound because capital is a growth instrument. it was that way after world war i, world war ii, other banking crises, other crises around the planet. stuart: what do you make of this, on the screen just a moment ago, the yield on the ten-year treasury right now at

0.40%. that seems like it's a good thing for mortgage rates, i can see that, but i guess it's a bad thing taken all told, right? >> well, you know, again, remember how the markets are -- what we are experiencing now is the world's largest margin call, meaning many of these traders are leveraged up to their eyeballs, getting rid of anything that applies debt to their trading, big tech, banking stocks, everything else. that's not apparent to the retail investor. so the run to this, to push the yields as low as they are, is people putting their foot on the brake, if you are in a car, they are playing chicken, they have their foot as hard as they can the brakes and there's smoke coming from the tires. that's how hard they are pushing the brake pedal right now. stuart: stay there, please. kristina partsinevelos at the exchange, set the scene for us. what's the mood? there's possible circuit breakers coming up, right? kristina: this is a big story with a lot of traders here.

many were here very early this morning, earlier than they normal normally come in around 8:00 a.m. eastern. some told me they are nervous, one said we are built for this so please know we are prepared, hence the reason they are coming in early. the big question is these circuit halters. if the nasdaq, for example, opens right away, nasdaq is automatic so all the stocks will open. if s&p 500 stocks drop 7%, that will trigger a circuit breaker to close the market even if not all the stocks on the new york stock exchange are open, because there's a human element to it, hence some of the men and women that are around me here today. a lot of people are milling about. some people saying buckle up, it's going to be a ride. they are expecting from those that are around me right now, they are expecting that 7% circuit halter to actually be triggered and that means that markets will be shut for 15 minutes so there can be some repositioning with money makers to make sure we can open and try to lift things up from here.

you are soggy eeing in the futu market, the dow down over 1200 points. the mood starting to ramp up. you can feel it. i'm looking around, there's a lot of people moving around. you always ask me, wall street walking around here, way fewer people outside the building. that's because a lot of banks, businesses, have told their employees to work from home today. back to you. stuart: good stuff. let me pursue that theme for a moment. all of us have gone out and about over the weekend. i did notice significantly less foot traffic in some of the places i went. ashley: restaurants in particular, maybe half full. just walking around manhattan, not as many people. it was noticeable this weekend. lauren: probably went to watch "hamilton." a packed house, as you can imagine. i would say restaurants and bars, less full than usual. liz: people are being smart, right? don't panic but be smart. that's it. just have the information and be smart. goldman sachs is talking about shutting, you know, what to do

with the trading desk. jpmorgan, they have an announcement at 10:00 about working from home. we missouri tknow the federal r acting to increase liquidity -- stuart: wait, wait, wait. the repo -- you mean the federal reserve is pushing money into the economy. liz: that's what they are doing as of right now because there's worry about a credit crunch and lack of liquidity. that's why you see the money markets -- this is a money market bet, the fed will cut rates at its next meeting which is coming up shortly. they were talking about an 80 basis point cut. that's what the prediction -- there's a lot of things driving down not just the chase to safe haven, race to safe haven but also what would the federal reserve do. stuart: let's bring in dr. marc siegel, fox news medical contributor. okay. i want some perspective. i really need this to be put in perspective. we're not panicking. we're all very aware of this virus. how bad is this virus compared

to, say, sars or the flu, even? >> i want to answer all those questions because liz said before there's a lot we don't know. actually, i think there's a lot we do know. it's more contagious than sars, for sure. we think it's quite possible that it could be seasonal. we don't know that yet. that would mean it would start to diminish. it started to diminish in certain places already, like china. it looks like in singapore it never took off because it's so hot there. it's a possibility of that. italy, it still seems to be burgeoning. south korea, looks like it's on its way down. here i predict it's on its way up because we are finally testing for it. we have talked about it for weeks. now they've got the test. quest diagnostics, labcorps are going to be testing as of this morning. major medical centers have had to send it out to state health labs and cdc, are now going to be testing. we are going to see a lot of negatives but we will see some positives. the fear factor is people think it's all over the place.

it probably isn't. stuart: but the tests are in place. anthony fauci told fox news this morning there are 1.1 million tests out there now. >> correct. stuart: 640,000 more come today. >> yes. yes. stuart: millions later this week into next week. >> i talked to labs all weekend. they got them. they will start testing all over the place. stuart: there was an example in new york over the weekend of a taxi driver, walks into a hospital, he's got it. they have to sequester him, quarantine him, and 40 medical workers at that hospital, they too had to go into self-imposed quarantine. >> which is terrible because we need the workers. i want to explain the strategy here. stuart: let me go through with those. those 40 people, those medical workers, they've got to stay home, they are in quarantine. if we had the test, couldn't we just test them to find out who's got it and if they haven't got it, let them out? can we do that? >> no. because it can take a few days for that test to turn positive. it can be negative at the point of exposure, then turn positive

a few days later. but i want to explain the strategy here that the entire public doesn't understand. it's something calledcocooning. we want someone who is 80 to 90 years old that has a chronic condition that could die from this, we don't want that virus crawling up their door so the reason we are restricting everything is so there's less virus in the community. it's not that if i got it or you got it or liz got it or especially if sue got it, who is young and healthy, that we would have severe complications. we are all young and healthy. but i'm saying we are worried about 85-year-old people with em emphysema. it's a public health -- ashley: if i contract the virus, but i'm not showing symptoms, and you test me, would it come back positive or negative? >> it will come back positive. but i'm saying to stuart, it may not come back positive in the first day. it may take a few days. the 40 health care workers

should be tested but then have to be tested over the next few days. liz: i hear you, i understand. i'm saying this is about calm. elon musk is now in a big fight with msnbc, he's saying stop panicking. we just need information. we need the tests to come in and get the results. >> we've got them. liz: not yet. south korea is testing. watch south korea, watch the hospitals that are testing and what they are saying. they are saying the fatality rate in south korea is a lot lower than what w.h.o. is saying. >> i completely agree with that. that's what we will find out here. the death rate -- it's always true when a new virus comes out. first blush, they always think it's more deadly than it is. this is going to show this is a relatively mild virus. dr. fa fauci is right. you will see a million tests out there. i don't know how many they will do in one week. they have the ability now to test all around the country and they are going to. stuart: i'm not self-quarantining but i am keeping my distance from everyone, everyone. >> your executive producer asked me to demo the clorox wipes

because they were only mentioned today on fox business. i want to tell you, here's the key. i made this a few weeks ago. i'm going to clean this with a clorox wipe. it's the best thing going. you actually have to let it dry for four minutes for it to be effective. do not put your coffee here for awhile. wait and let this breathe. stuart: four minutes? >> four minutes before it kills every single bug on this surface. stuart: most people do not do that. i'm telling you, they don't do that. look, seriously now, you've got these wipes, you do this, that, this, that, bingo, you're gone. you don't keep it on a doornobodoorknob for four minutes. >> i'm saying it takes four minutes. it's got to dry completely before it's really effective. you have to really alert it ola. wait for it to dry. stuart: i don't want anyone coming within five, six feet of me. ashley: back up, liz. stuart: back off. i don't want anybody touching me. i'm not even going to do the

elbow bump. not going to do it. i'm not going to bars, restaurants, to a supermarket, to a hotel. not getting on a bus or subway. i think we have to do that. shdz wou ashley: would you fly? susan: how do you get home? stuart: drive myself. i've got a car. i'm the only one that uses it. i'm saying what i'm going to do. >> use the clorox wipes if you can't do what you can do. liz: forgive me. i want us to be the common sense corner. we are not the ones going off on other networks like panicking people. this is common sense. we are the common sense corner. this is the fight that's happening now with elon musk. this is important. this is about how viral is this. wait. he is saying people are misapprehending and misunderstanding, people are saying when you are diagnosed, that's when you contracted. it looks like people, it's really viral because a lot of people in a short amount of time are getting it. he's saying that's not the case. you don't know when you

contracted it. remember china said -- wait, wait, wait, china said maybe it started in october. we don't know when people contracted it. maybe it looks like it's more viral than it is. that's a fight he's in now with msnbc. stuart: but social distancing makes sense. of course it does. >> it's true it takes awhile to know you have it but i also want to counter this by saying i think our perception because of fear is that there's way more of this out there than there really is. when all is said and done and all these tests come back, you are going to see thousands of cases we didn't know about. you are not going to see millions of cases we didn't know about. stuart: hold on a second. the market opens in 12 minutes. i want to get as much expert opinion as i can. art laffer, former reagan economist. i have been saying consistently that america is the best positioned to weather this storm. that blockbuster jobs report showed december, january, february, we had a very strong economy. that competes very well with europe and with china and with japan. are we in the best position to

deal with it? art laffer? >> yes, we are. we are kicking tush. we are far better than the rest of the world, have much better policies and are in much better shape. let me, ask i can, just say a couple things if i can about the market. you know, if you are an investor and are just panicking, that's when you could lose everything. don't try to catch a falling knife. it makes no sense. when people make decisions, when they are either panicked or drunk, the consequences are rarely attractive. you know, this is what i'm worried about now, is that the government will try to do something rash. you know, it's in times like these that free markets are the single most important thing you can do. free markets mean don't try to do something when everyone else around you is collapsing. i'm not a medical doctor by any means, but -- stuart: larry kudlow suggested on this program on friday that they were considering targeting

stimulus, like if workers have lost money and wages, because they are in quarantine. maybe we can do something for them. maybe if a worker can't afford medical care, maybe we can do something for them. you wouldn't object to that, would you? >> yes, i would. stuart, i'm going to tell you in 2008-2009, the reason we had the great recession because what government did, not because of the precipitous event that caused the first decline. it was the longest, deepest recession we have had except for the great depression which was also caused by huge increases in taxes and government intervention in the marketplace. now is the time to stop, let the markets do it, let it settle down, then make very clear and cognitive decisions. now, if you are going to do something, i would take you back to the reagan days in '87 when i was really involved in all of this stuff and we had the huge market crash. back then the phrase was don't just stand there, undo something. don't do the government spending programs trying to make up for

it because you are going to be chasing your tail and it will make it worse. if you are going to do something, i would love to see a three-month tax holiday where everyone's taxes are cut in half so you have all the incentive to increase production, but don't do government spending, don't do these other things. now is the time to keep a cool head and not panic. you can in four or five days ruin a lifetime's work if you panic and make a bad decision. markets are the best things right now and i really mean that. this is not a time to make decisions. it's not a time for a group of people in washington to get together and throw out ideas and then get a panic going in the room and do something that's going to cause a problem. [ speaking simultaneously ] stuart: liz said this is going to be the calm corner of the morning. >> please be the calm corner. make sure your investors are the calm corner as well. wait until all the dust has settled and all the thing is cleared. then you can make good decisions. don't do it in a panic. you will always come out wrong. stuart: got to get this in.

we have news on apple. kristina at the exchange will bring it to us. what do you have? kristina: a huge drop in the shipment of smartphones. more specifically, all across china, they saw almost 55% drop in shipments of smartphones for the month of february. that means literally going from 14 million to a little over six million. apple are seeing less than half a million smart wiphones shippeo china in the month of february. keep in mind they closed most of their branded stores in china for almost two weeks there and tim cook, i know he will speak to this, said they would not meet their initial revenue guidance for the quarter due to the coronavirus outbreak. we are seeing numbers coming out of china, displaying that smartphone shipments have dropped for the month of february due to the virus. back to you. stuart: thanks, kristina. apple down $26 a share, 9%. i have not seen a drop like that, 55% less smartphones in

february. susan: less than half a million sold in february according to government data. we have been expecting this. starbucks as well saying comp sales, same store sales compared to last year are off 50%. this is not surprising given the constriction in supply and the closure of all 42 stores. how do people buy their iphones? they can't. stuart: it really takes the stock down. i have not seen a drop of $26 per share, 9%, in a very long time. that is a serious downside move. if you are wondering what's going on here because we keep showing you the dow, s&p and nasdaq, the word is these are futures contracts. they are limit down. there's a limit to how far down those futures contracts can go. when we open the market, the limit down changes. if we go down 7% as opposed to the fuf5% drop you see now, you will have a 15-minute trading halt. that is likely at the opening bell this morning. if you track these things called

etfs which follow the indexes themselves, they indicate a loss of more than 7% for the s&p 500. so right as that market opens, you may well see the circuit breakers come in and a 15-minute halt in trading. ashley: if it goes 20% god forbid, it's halted for the day. stuart: it is indeed. ashley: there are three levels, 7%, 13%, 20%. stuart: that refers to the s&p 500, not the dow and nasdaq. ashley: the s&p. susan: we are also on the verge possibly, 8% down across the board, that's the end of a record bull market run, longest in history, close to 12 years since 2008, and that is in danger now within striking distance. stuart: dr. marc siegel still with me. i really want to get a grip on this virus and the extension of it. you are telling me we do have the tests in place? >> yes. stuart: yes? >> in labs that are commonly used, labcorps and quest as well as most major medical centers.

this will cut down on the time. stuart: can you get the test and have the result within hours or are we talking days? >> it takes two hours, about, to run this test. the question is, how long before they then release it. they always add a couple bureaucratic hours to that, believe it or not. let's say five or six hours total. not days anymore. not days. stuart: if you get the test, you can administer it widely, that could mean some people will come out of quarantine? if they take the test and are not positive? >> yes. yes. provided that you believe that they don't have it, that it's taking awhile for the test to turn positive. if you think they don't have it and just want to rule it out, this is the way to go. it's a very very very useful test to tell someone they're not currently carrying it. stuart: what we are trying to get a handle on is the impact of this social separation, the social distancing that we are calling it. andy puzder, come back in, please. we don't know, do we. we don't know the impact on the

economy of this social distancing, because we don't know how much social distancing america's going to go through, right? >> we really don't have any idea. we really don't know how the balance is going to go. we can see some industries, some companies are going to be hurt by this. some are going to be helped. we are really just going to have to wait for time to go by before we know what the impact will be on the economy. we do know it's not going to be as bad as it was four or five years ago because even if people are social distancing, now you can order anything you want on amazon, so that will help amazon, but help companies who sell through amazon. if you want food, you can order on uber eats or door dash so restaurant companies that are prominent on uber eat and door dash, for example, or grub hub, may see business go up. there's a lot going on here. this is a big change but i think the way we change the way we purchase things the last four or five years. we are doing more of it without social contact or with minimal

social contact and companies that have bought into that may be helped. >> to your point, you will have people walking down the street with a sign that says here, this is my negative test result, i'm clear. then they will be able to get into the store. that's where we are heading. stuart: you think? >> a lab result, i don't have it, i don't have the coronavirus, i'm okay. liz: sars took about eight months to shake out. so did mers. took about eight months. we didn't have social media back then, twitter, social media, like giving information that may not be the best information out there. michael milken copies sayikeeps have more computer power, algorithms, than we did back then, and great health care system that can work full bore to fix this problem. stuart: tell you two groups of stocks we are going to be paying very close attention to. the cruise lines and airlines. obviously the oil companies, just about everybody else, but cruises and airlines. dr. anthony fauci said this.

don't go to crowded places. think twice before a long plane trip and for goodness sake, don't go on any cruises. united, delta, southwest, jetblue, all of them way, way down this morning. airlines not looking good. but you can't get it by air that's circulating in the plane, can you? >> no. no. also, fauci was mainly talking about people at high risk. he's worried about the elderly, about people with chronic conditions. he wants to protect them. he doesn't want them in the closed air of a plane. chances are you're not getting it on a plane, no matter what. very unlikely. stuart: define elderly. >> someone way older than you. 80 years old. stuart: the people who have got it -- >> i can't say it's younger than 80. people running for president are 78. stuart: in all seriousness, there's 100,000 cases around the

world. is it 70 and 80-year-olds who have got it worse and have the worst effects from it? >> absolutely yes. stuart: if they have an underlying -- >> much worse, especially if it's a lung condition. if you are 75 to 80 years old, that group is at particular risk. stuart: a minute to go, precisely 60 seconds before this market opens this monday morning. not going to be pretty. on the screens now, you see there's going to be a huge stock market selloff. it's going to happen. we may even be down 7% on the s&p 500 which would mean the market closes for 15 minutes. look at the price of oil. that's the other blockbuster story we have going here. there is a price war being raged by saudi arabia. they are going to flood the world and create a glut. ashley: believe it or not, the wti has come up a little. it was down more than that. now look at it. stuart: are we grasping at straws? ashley: yes.

stuart: all right. maybe oil has come back up a little, $32.68. the other one is the extraordinary flight to safety of treasury securities. we have the yield on the ten-year treasury drop to 0.31% this morning. it's now about 0.4%. here we go. it's 9:30. we are open, off and running. i confidently expect to see a serious decline. what i'm looking at is the dow industrials, a sea of red, ladies and gentlemen. an absolute sea of red. we are down 1500 points. ashley: big oil companies are the biggest drag. stuart: they are indeed. oil dropping like that, you can expect to see that. the s&p is down 6.49%. stay on that. just stay on that. if that goes down 7%, the markets hold it for 15 minutes. 15 minutes' halt if it drops 7%. right now it's 6.53%. that's the s&p. bottom right-hand corner of the screen, you have not seen anything like this for a long time.

the dow is down 6.92%, 1783 points. that puts the dow back to 24,000. it's barely holding above 24,000. you've got a big selloff here. almost all the dow stocks are down. almost every single group of stocks are down. ashley: the nasdaq -- stuart: the dow is down 7%. i don't believe you closed it if the dow is down. it's got to be -- ashley: s&p. stuart: the s&p. the s&p is down 6.81%. edging lower. ashley: nasdaq down about 7%, too. stuart: nasdaq down about 7%. all eyes on the s&p. got the hoo hold it there becau that drops 7% you are closing for 15 minutes. liz: we are basically at december 2017 levels now. stuart: all the way back. 6.9% down now. that's the number to follow. that's the one that will impose the circuit breakers if you get

down 7%. not there yet. not quite there yet. we are almost there. 6.95% down. i don't know what the mechanism is. does a bell sound or something? liz: a flash goes across the computer screens at the trading desks. stuart: so all the trading desks get a flash report. 6.95 down now. dow is down 7.03%, 1800 points. the dow is barely above 24,000. 6.95 still. s&p down a whopping 206 points. 6.91%. if you hutit 7% you are closing the market. liz: i've got to say, talking to the trading desk at goldman and jp, they say this is a classic credit crunch liquidity panic right now. in the markets. also, this is the type of hiv/polio panic, if you listen to michael milken. he's saying it's an overreaction there. that's how it feels to him. they vague tare saying the fed

start pushing out more money so trades can be settled, that we don't have a washout in those companies that are on the margins with a lot of junk debt meaning maybe in the oil sector, maybe some hedge fund, they need liquidity right now for them to open discount windows at the fed to get liquidity into the system. stuart: are they going to do that? liz: that's the word from the new york fed. susan: they are pumping $100 billion, $150 billion now into the credit market so nothing seizes up like 2008. it's really the balance sheets of these indebted companies like teslas and oil companies, halliburton and builders, they will be hit pretty hard today. stuart: they can't go to the window at the fed, can they, knock on the window and say give me some money. they have to go to a bank. ashley: correct. right. stuart: get the money from them. but the fed is making it available. susan: that's correct. stuart: market watcher david nicholas with us now. we have had market watchers on this morning saying don't panic, this is not the time to sell.

what do you say? >> markets are suffering from a crisis of confidence. it's pretty clear. there are either two scenarios here. either the market is signaling impending recession or this is a temporary selloff, the volatility we are seeing. i have to think it's the latter. for the u.s. economy and u.s. consumer, we are going into the selloff from a position of strength. i know job numbers last month, almost 275,000 jobs. thankfully, the economy was in a much stronger footing to start with, to deal with this. i also think we have to respect the technicals. stuart: i have to interrupt you. we are down 7%. that means the market should close for 15 minutes. i don't know how that is indicated to the world. ashley: looks like it's halted. stuart: there you go. it's halted. there you have it. i don't remember a circuit breaker being imposed for a very long time. down 7%, you have a 15-minute halt. the market should reopen at

9:49-ish, somewhere around there. everybody take a big deep breath. all things on hold as we speak. liz: the market's working correctly. it's moving correctly. they are trying to get the correct pricing for stocks right now. remember the last flash crash, etfs really dropped faster than the market plunge because you couldn't get the pricing correct on the stocks inside the basket of funds. stuart: kristina, dead stop, i take it? kristina: i'm not sure if you can see it above my head, that's the screen all white right now. all the screens just changed completely the moment you saw that 7% drop, then people yelling at each other. you can see just a lot of traders right now are checking their screens, standing there with their hands crossed. the concern is we are hitting this 7% halt right now, who will want to get into this market if we know that once that 13% drop comes, you will see another selloff. right now, like you mentioned, 15 minutes, people are running around because market movers have to figure out to improve the liquidity situation. that means having enough buyers

and sellers so when markets reopen in 15 minutes, we can start to see a pickup. if that's not the case, then we could see further selloff. hopefully we are not invoking any type of panic whatsoever. just trying to describe the mood right now, people are talking to each other quite drastically. i have one trader shaking his head. this move right now, all the boards above my head have turned to white because there's no more red, no more green to indicate if they are up or down. complete white across the board. back to you. i will have a lot of updates throughout the day. ashley: the critics of trading halts say all it does is build up selling pressure. they should let the markets figure it out, find its own feet. those are the people that do not like these trading halts. which us interesting. susan: remember 1987, the market sold 25%. that's pretty much where they instituted circuit breakers to make sure there isn't that sort of panic once again. that momentum takes you down pretty quickly.

stuart: after the crash of 1987, october 19th, 1987, there was a feeling that the internal workings of the market had let the market get out of control. so they wanted to put some controls in. what you are seeing now is one of those controls. ashley: in the days before high speed computers and algorithms in 1987, those weren't in place. they are now. liz: i've got to say the etfs are trading, it's not that crazy action we saw on flash crashes. the etfs seemed to be trading nicely. the market regulators stepped in to fix the mechanics. it seems to be doing what it's supposed to do. stuart: in about 12 or 13 minutes, the market should reopen. the question is, how will it reopen. will anybody be prepared to buy when you have so much selling pressure that you brought it down 7%. there will be another market break, another 15-minute halt, if the s&p 500 on the screens

right now, if it drops 13%. you go down 13%, there's another trading halt. ashley: unless it's before 3:25. after 3:25, believe it or not, they just let it go. stuart: that's right. yes. ashley: all these little rules and regulations. stuart: ashley is quite right. if any of this action takes place after 3:25 eastern time this afternoon, that is 35 minutes before the scheduled closing of the market, if anything happens in that 35 minutes, no trading halts at all. it can go down 15% or 20%, doesn't matter. they will stay open, no trading halts. let me see, andy, let me go to david nicholas here. what do you think about these trading halts? is this the way the market should work? >> yeah, i think it should. the good thing is the market is acting orderly. what we want to see is consistent steady trade, even though the pressure is on the selling side.

we are seeing an orderly market and that's a good thing. but as we look forward, for me, there's a lot of positives for the consumer when we get on the other side of this. we have low fuel prices, low energy prices, refinances that are happening, low credit lending for business. so we have to respect the technicals but when we get past the selloff, i think there's a lot of positives for the consumer that can ultimately bring the market higher. we just have to be careful in this trading environment. stuart: i'm trying to think of positives here. let me bring in andy puzder again. i have several positives which i can list for you here. number one, we are coming off a strong economy december, january, february. so we are in strong position to start with. number two, we will have very cheap gas. number three, we will have very low mortgage rates which could put a shot in the arm for the refi market. can you think of any other positives here? >> i think you can build on that. you've got stocks like, for example, fidelity national financial which is a stock i cover, a title insurance stock, and it's got right now the yield, the dividend yield's up

over 3% which is certainly better than investing in bonds. and you know with interest rates coming down, their business is going to soar when people go through and do these refis. you have companies like that, where these positives you mentioned can really impact value. people should take a look at those stocks. you also have these low interest rates for the government. remember, a week ago or two weeks ago, one of the big issues was the deficit. the deficit keeps growing and growing. well, at these interest rates, the government should refinance all the debt it has. they should sell every bond they can possibly sell and borrow at these interest rates because that will help keep the debt down. stuart: fair point. kristina, what do you have for me? kristina: i can tell you that markets are going to reopen at 9:49, just a little past 9:49 a.m. eastern time. you can't see it now because of where i'm standing but there's at least 15 traders just off in the corner over here discussing what's going to happen once the market reopens. you also have the president of the new york stock exchange on

the floor. you have a lot of executives on the floor because it seems the traders are asking a lot of questions in regard to the orders. what will happen the moment the market turns back on 9:49, just a little bit past that. the mood, we will show you the screen, i think we can pan up because i have been pointing at it right now, just above my head, the boards over here are showing no longer any red across the board. instead, there you go, you can see across the board a sea of white. that means those stocks have all been halted. again, this is because the circuit, there was a trigger 7% lower so people are running around, definitely the energy level here, one trader emphasized they are ready for this, this is showing having a human trader on the floor, everybody milling about on the phones, because the markets will open in about eight minutes. stuart: i want to bring in dr. marc siegel. i'm trying to look for positives here. number one, china, new cases way, way down. south korea, new cases way, way

down. the test has arrived. go on. >> also, we are not seeing it around the equator. we are not seeing it in africa. we are not seeing it in -- stuart: is that because of the heat? >> that theory usually applies to respiratory viruses. we are not seeing it in many cases in australia, we are not seeing it in south america. so that implies this is seasonal. we don't have proof of that yet. there's a very positive indicator. we are not seeing it spread in singapore which is very hot. and the test kits are now available. stuart: hhs secretary alex azar says over one million tests have been shipped as of saturday. so they're there. >> i checked the labs. they're there. the labs have them in the new york area. stuart: i want you to take us through this again. i'm not sure i understand this test. if i was tested -- >> it's a genetic test. stuart: what happens? >> if you're tested we find out if you have the genetic component of the virus, if the virus is present in your system.

i can't tell you with absolute certainty that you couldn't have a negative test one day and have it turn positive the next day. ashley: is the result instant? >> it's not. ashley: how long does it take to get the result? >> i thought you were asking something else. when you breathe it -- ashley: no, when you get tested -- >> takes a couple hours to run the result. then there's usually another couple hours before they give you the result. but they don't have to go to cdc anymore. that's the most important thing. they can do it locally. these labs have been cleared by cdc. they can do their own work now. stuart: got it, doctor. ed yardeni is with me, joining me on the phone. we have been around a long, long time, been through this kind of thing before on several occasions. what's your advice to investors right now? >> right now, i would not panic. i would -- i mean, it's too late to panic. the panic was february 19th but very few people knew that. the problem with trying to get out at the top and get in at the

bottom in a panic situation is you will probably get out at the top but may very well forget to get back in at the bottom. as you said, the news is improving out of china, improving out of south korea. the weather is improving and i think there's still hope this will turn out to be a flu, a viral kind of situation that goes away or becomes seasonal and we learn to live with it. stuart: ed, some of these huge selloffs in the past have turned out to be monumental buying opportunities, if you've got the strong enough stomach to do it. you agree with that? >> absolutely. when you look at it back in history. but when you are in the thick of it, and your stomach feels like you just got hit by a truck, it's hard for most investors to do that. but look, a lot of people are already fully invested and the question that most people have is should they be getting out at this point. i think it's too late to get out. i would stay with it.

i think this is largely fear. fear is spread a lot faster than the virus. i think the fear will dissipate assuming as i do that the news on the virus is going to get better, not worse. stuart: hold on a second. i just want to ask a political question. politics is a part of this. tomorrow is the michigan primary. i think it's bernie sanders' last stand, to be honest with you. joe biden's got the momentum here and he looks like he's got cory booker's endorsement, he's got kamala harris's endorsement, bloomberg's money and endorsement. he's got all that going for him. ed, you are still with us. >> yes, absolutely. stuart: isn't that a mild positive for the market? if it's bernie sanders' last stand and joe biden on the run, isn't that positive? >> i think after super tuesday, the market had that one-day surge and the result that bernie

had kind of lost it. i think it's pretty well priced in. i know you are looking for positives but i don't know that that's going to -- stuart: that's not going to make much difference. no. >> i think what hit the market today is that the oil pashmarket infected with the virus. it suddenly dawned on everybody if we are not going to take cruises, we are not going to fly, there's going to be a big drop in demand for oil and at the same time, the saudis and russians just couldn't agree on production cuts so here we are with the collapse in the oil price. by the way, for those of us who use gasoline it's going to be great news as we drive by the gasoline pumps. look at these interest rates. you know, the consumer is the beneficiary here. stuart: all right. art laffer, come in, please. we have a sharp stock market decline. do you think we will have a negative wealth effect? when the market runs up and runs up and runs up, lot of people feel i've got a little capital here, maybe i can buy that

second house or go on that nice vacation or whatever it is. that's going to come off the table now, isn't it, art laffer? >> yes. i mean, what you look at right now, i want to do a little positive with you if i can, first. in 1987 we did not know why that market crash occurred. we still don't know why it did. but it reversed itself very nicely because there was no panic policy measures done by the administration. what i would like to do, as your other people on the show here have all talked about low interest rates being wonderful, low gas prices being wonderful, no one makes a loan to first time home buyer for 90% mortgage at low interest rates. remember, low interest rates discourage the supply of funds going into those areas as well. low prices are a double-edged sword. they are good for the consumer, very bad for the supplier. please don't just think these are all positives. they aren't. but as long as the government doesn't do something short, i think we will be home-free. the real worry is what do policy

makers do when they panic and that really is the crux. it was a problem in 2008. you remember i was with you and cavuto and all that. all of these guys, republicans and democrats, panicked back then. we have to make sure we don't do something to make this a lot worse. if that happens, this market is short-lived down and will be a nice bull market. that's just not a natural thing unless the governments step in. if they do, all bets are off. stuart: here's what i think is the major problem that the economy and market faces at this point. we simply don't know how much our economy will slow down given this social distancing that is now coming into effect in just about the whole country. we don't know. >> yeah, but we are in the best shape of all. we are by far the best shape of any country. we couldn't be in better shape. let it work its way through. don't do something dumb in a panic situation. that's all that we can hope.

stuart: i've just got a few seconds before the market reopens. what you are seeing on the screen is a closed market because the s&p dropped 7%. in just a couple seconds, literally five seconds, the market reopens and i don't know what happens on the screen. at that point, stocks can be moving up and down as opposed to being frozen in place right now. let's see what happens. we are about to start trading again. again, this is kind of a new experience here because we've got very fast communications these days. let's see how that market looks. ashley: we are off. stuart: here we go. okay. so the dow has dropped a little bit more. i heard that bell ring. i guess that's a signal. off we go. the s&p has dropped a bit more, now down 7.2%. the dow industrials are down -- ashley: 7.5%. stuart: that's 1900 points on the downside. just keep it here. just keep a look at this. now we have reopened. how far down do we go from here,

or do we bounce at all? the answer to the first question is, we haven't got that much further down. that's the truth. frozen at a 7% loss. now we are down 7.2% as trading resumes. there wasn't a surge of selling. the market reopened. there wasn't a surge of buying either. looks like it's hands off for this moment. are we in a position to check the treasury yield and price of oil as well, please? i would like to see those. ashley: oil is down -- susan: the worst selloff, single day selloff since 2008, december 2008. stuart: what is? oil? susan: today's declines of 1700 points on the dow. that's a big loss. ashley: .44%. stuart: the low reached much earlier this morning was 0.31%. we have bounced off that low so to speak. oil is at $32.76. that's bounced off a $29 and change price. you've got a very modest bounce

back for the treasury yield and the price of oil. am i grasping at straws? liz: we are watching history. we are in the middle of market history right now. it's an interesting perch to be sitting here. i worry about pension funds and insurance companies that are investing in treasuries. right? stuart: yes. liz: that's an issue for them. stuart: i'm worried about corporate issuers of high yield bonds. can they pay interest. can they do it. is there a credit crunch here. ashley: how quickly do we get to zero on the fed? there is that feeling that that's coming and there's a 20% chance of negative rates. that's something the fed will try and avoid at all costs. stuart: we do have some fed stimulus, if i can put it like that, early this morning. am i right? $150 billion? susan: $100 billion to $150 billion of cash to make sure the credit markets don't seize up, that trading goes orderly and markets behave. i think it's also important to note as well that oil prices are probably the main catalyst today. we are down 30% for brent,

bounced up for wti. we were down about 20% or so. haven't seen since the gulf war, first one. liz: remember the fed stepping in to buy bonds? looking for that. waiting to see if they do that. stuart: to actually buy bonds. liz: to step into the bond market. stuart: there has been a suggestion the fed should buy more than that, other new assets. susan: they would need new rules for the fed. right now they are handcuffed that they can only buy bonds and mortgage bonds. ashley: the dow is off 2,000 points now. stuart: worth noting. ashley: below 24,000. stuart: the s&p which has reopened is now down 7.21%. kristina, what have you got for me at the exchange? kristina: i would like the point out that even though we have reopened, not all stocks have opened up just yet. again, this is exemplified by the board behind me. you are still seeing some white. traders have hand-held. think of it like an ipad, they

are walking around with ipads on their hands. some are telling me it's freezing so you have a lot of running around because traders can't put in their orders, buy or sell. there's a lot of i guess people are prepared for this, they are ready, they are excited -- well, not excited, you don't want to be losing money but not everything has reopened. i would like to point it out. if we can pan up again, there's a lot of yelling going on, if we pan up, you can still see on the boards, these are stocks that are still not open. i will throw it back to you. you can see it on the screen there. back to you. stuart: i can see it. thanks very much. jack hough, barron's associate editor, joins me now. would you say the market is behaving the way it ought to? the market's mechanisms are behaving the way they ought to operate? >> i think so. i know it looks crazy, what you are seeing, but i think you have to at this point put recession on the table. i don't think recession is imminent but i think when you take what we already have, the depressing effect of the coronavirus, and add an oil shock, you now have to say what if. so what happens in a typical recession. if you look at the past 11

recessions going back to the '40s, the typical earnings per share decline for the s&p 500 is 13%. right? so you got to think that could -- we could have a recession and if it's a typical one, we could see a 13% decline in earnings per share and you would expect a corresponding decline in stock price. we are pricing in a lot -- this is by the way going off of friday's close. we are pricing in a lot of that now. you could see five or six percentage points further downside, assuming investors are still willing to pay 18 times earnings for stocks. it's kind of a little bit of a lofty price because interest rates are so low. we have never seen rates this low. we don't know what effect that will have on the price investors are willing to pay. stuart: the threat here is of recession. the social distancing that we are doing now because of the virus, that could create a recession? >> when you add those two pieces together and think about the negative wealth effect, where people start to get depressed because they see stock prices falling and they don't want to spend, i think it's a clear possibility at this point.

stuart: let's not forget we are starting from a very strong base. december, january, february, this economy was doing very very well indeed. we've got a cushion, so to speak. we don't know how big the impact will be. ashley: market's come back just a little bit. not down 7% on any of the major indices now. the dow off 1700 points. it was down almost 2100 points just a few minutes ago. oil above $33 a barrel now. so just a little bounce-back. stuart: because of the great unknowns, whether or not we get a recession, how much the economy slows, where to the price of oil, you will get ups and downs all day long. hold on tight, folks. liz: dr. fauci said those who are elderly or vulnerable because of maybe pre-existing conditions, those are the individuals who should do social distancing. he's not saying the whole population. on "60 minutes" he was talking about the elderly and those who are vulnerable. stuart: you are mentioning those who were most vulnerable.

liz: that's correct. stuart: he did say social distancing like in seattle is the way to go. i'm not talking about locking down anything. but don't go to crowded planes, think twice -- places, think twice before a long plane trip and for goodness sake, don't go anywhere near cruises. whether he was specifically referring to elderly people only, i'm taking it the other way. i'm socially distancing myself because i just can't afford to get into quarantine. period. can't afford it. just can't have that. i've got to do this show. liz: we all do. ashley: phone it in for three hours. stuart: keep your distance from me. let's be clear here. the market has come back a little bit. the market was closed -- not closed, halted, that's the correct expression, halted for 15 minutes, where the s&p dropped 7%. we have reopened at why are you laughing?

susan: almost 100% probability we'll get 75 basis point fed for the fed this week. liz: money markets are predicting that. susan: we lose in75% basis points we have half a percent interest rates. stuart: does everybody think that is good thing? sharply lower fed funds rate is that a good thing? we have experts here. andy puzder, do you think it's a good thing if we brought the federal funds rate, extremely short-term interest rates down to zero, is that good? >> i agree with art. sometimes there are positive aspects to lower interest rates and there are negative aspects to lower interest rates. when they lowered half a percent last week the market reacted adversely. it did not react postively. the less government does, i consider the fed part of the government, the less the government does the better off

we're going to be. we will come out of this. the underlying economy is strong. we need to get past the coronavirus overreaction. we need prices stablize. what saudi arabia is doing is completely irresponsible particularly when you look at the global community. we need to let these things pass. i think american companies will be fine. i'm not a huge advocate of interest rate cuts. stuart: we're looking for some kind of action from the administration. i'm not sure what kind of action but we are expecting something to come down the pike? blake burman with us from the white house. blake, you have what, what do you have for us? reporter: something at some point, stuart, is a kind of a broad way to put it. we don't know what might come the economic stimulus and what it might look like. why i'm being so broad and general, stuart, in speaking with a source a while ago, i was told by members of the economic team were speaking over the weekend, bouncing back various

ideas off of each other. things are still being hashed out it was put to me. there will be a meeting with president trump at the white house when he lands in florida later today. the president is expected to land three, four, 5:00 hour at some point. larry kudlow talked about this friday. this would be timely, targeted, not some big money drop from the sky but really to targeted areas. we still don't know if it will happen, when it will happen and what it might look like if it does happen. the point being it is still being discussed. it is still fairly new. they are discussing it, stuart, is what i can tell you at this hour. stuart: point well-taken. we're coming up 10:00 eastern time, 30 seconds shy of that. we'll reassess where we are. stocks in a very broad-based selloff, clear from what is on your screen.

s&p down 5.8%. dow is down 5.8%. that is a minus 1500 points. the price of oil we're i can checking, it has come back a little bit. we're $33 a barrel, still down 8 bucks, but up a little from $29 hit earlier. there is price war in the global oil market. led by saudis threatening toe flood the market, flood the world with oil, create a glut and drive down the price. our frackers and oil companies are not doing well in this, believe me. treasury indicator that is my anxiety indicator, that moved up, the yield we were talking about. down to, now we're up to 0.47% on the screen. fast moving. you're coming back a little bit here. i don't want to be grasping at straws but we're not in a freefall situation here. let's be clear.

let's not panic here. that is the word from all of our special guests here. are we coming back a little bit? >> think about the number, 10-year treasury, if you have $3 million, saved up your whole life, retirement pot, put it in the 10-year treasury you're scared. on friday i wrote to people, you will get yearly income of $23,000. i looked up who makes 23,000. a dishwasher makes 23,000. i used to be a dishwasher, it is an honest job, you think you do better with $3 million. liz: i love being in the common sense corner. i loveliesenning to the geeks and old-timers. i like listening to people like michael milken. he says capitalism has remarkable recuperative powers. purchasing rates are strong. housing market could have a nice tailwind because of what is happening. he is also saying, this is a not the same kinds of sharp shocks we've seen in the past, because

we are at a different time right now in terms of computer algorithms, and what artificial intelligence can do. i hear what you're saying, it is not great. he is saying it will not be the end of the world. stuart: we have come back 500 points on the dow industrials. that is worth pointing out. holding i should say with a 6% loss for the dow and a 6% loss, almost section% now for the s&p and five 1/2 for the nasdaq composite. a lot of questions obviously, how seriously will our economy be affected by the social distancing. ashley: depends how long it goes for. we don't know the answer. stuart: are we setting up a terrific buying opportunity. a lot of people would say yes but you don't know when to buy. liz: footnote what milken and other trading desk are the saying, with the purchasing power of consumers going up with the mortgage rates and oil prices going down, they're saying this could lead to faster

recovery of any recession caused by this virus. stuart: what do you say, jack hough? >> i will say one thing. you were talking about stimulus earlier. we might see a fed cut, payroll tax cut, stay at home pay. we know we need trillions of dollars in infrastructure in this country. the same thing hurting the ability of the fed to provide stimulus which is these low interest rates, low starting point that is helping our ability to finance things at incredibly low rates. don't let a good emergency go to waste if it can bring congress together to pass a infrastructure bill. stuart: joining us, rebecca walser who has been listening to all we had to say, what do you say about the possibility that we are setting up a really strong buying opportunity? >> i'm with you, stu. i think that's absolutely for sure because the fundamentals, i agree with liz, the fundamentals are still there look at february's job number. consumer confidence, the survey

go a eight points to the bullish side. consumer confidence is still strong. it is absolutely right, we need to calm down, take a deep breath, not overthink the coronavirus. this such more oil driven. price wars between saudi arabia and russia. russia is retaliating against executive order 1380 that was signed three weeks ago by president trump. i think putin is doing this intentionally because he is not happy about that executive order limiting their ability to transport venezuelan oil. so this is all going to shake out i think very quickly on the oil side. the coronavirus, more data we get, the more we know it is not lethal for most people, we can start to react, breathe, this will be a great opportunity to the downside for buying. stuart: you would not be selling now but do you think we'll be buying aggressively by late spring? trying to put a date on this, may, june, do you think?

>> yeah, i said originally two weeks ago, stu, we could see a 25% pullback, we're not there yet. that would be the worst-case scenario, i'm still expecting a little bit more of a down cycle to continue, a lot of volatility to continue and yes, it is a buying opportunity because we are the best place in the world right now. where else are you going to go to invest your money. it will be the united states of america and it is going to happen, and we'll come back strong, we'll come back strong this year, i absolutely believe that. stuart: you're trying to put a time frame on it and i welcome that. hold on a second, rebecca. susan? susan: looking at bear market, we're 200 points from a bear market from the dow, 20% from the recent highs. if we get closest to 20% down, that is fastest decline after bull run from the 1929 depression which took 42 days. we're running 20 days to lose 42%. that would be the fastest on record if it happens.

stuart: indicator i look at price of apple stock. earlier this morning, we got 55%? susan: 50% of down smartphone sales in february. stuart: 50% down. that is extraordinary. at that point apple was down 26, $27. susan: 9%. stuart: 9%, thank you. i believe it has come back. get me apple back on the screen. i believe apple has come back significantly. ashley: apple is down 5%, 16 bucks. stuart: almost cut the loss in half in a matter of minutes. susan: this is different from 2018 we need to point out as well. liquidity is still flowing. companies are making money. first quarter companies made 4% in profits instead of losing .3%. companies are tell turning out profit on the balance sheets this is different from 2018. this is different from the dot-com bubble which by the way

peaked on march 10th, 2000. this is when the dot-com bubble burst. stuart: apple is down 15 bucks that was 5.3%. it was down over 9% earlier. i expect that kind of premier stock, premier company -- susan: lots of cash on hands, sales, dividends. stuart: getting a few bites. good english expression. peter morici, former init international trade commission kind of guy is with us right now. peter, is there any way you can tell us what kind of impact you think you think the virus and this social distancing will have on the economy? >> oh, i think it will be significant. we're looking at 2% growth the first half of the year. now we're looking at one. if things continue to unravel as they have this weekend. that's a little bit further cut than i had a week ago. stuart: wait a second, peter, that is still very good because

the rest of the world is rapidly going into recession? >> i think we will survive this without a recession. what we just don't know, what spring weather will do to this virus. what we do know local authorities are tending to be reactive. they're suggesting social distancing after the horse is out of the barn. a classic example here in washington this weekend, you don't need the details but they totally must muffed it. we'll get through it thing and survive. best thing for investor buy into the ditch. how would you do that? you don't know where the bottom is. have $100,000, whatever it is, divide it up into eight pieces, buy every friday. that is what i would do, yeah. stuart: dollar consist offrage. >> dollar-cost-average into the dip. i'm assuming you're not 7 years old, that you need money tomorrow. i would dollar cost offrage into the dip.

i'm continuing to buy. because i frankly have got a nice cushion for my retirement here. i'm buying. i'm buying into this thing but buying in the manner that i described. stuart: tell me the main stock that you're buying? >> no. i buy index. i'm an economist. we don't believe in stock picking. we listen to warren buffett. if the world listened to guys like us there wouldn't be this show. stuart: did you buy the s&p, the spdr index, do you buy that? >> no, what do i buy? i buy vanguard s&p admiral fund. got cheapest rates. it is most reasonable thing to do. for the ordinary investor. let's face it, as successful i might be, i'm ordinary investor. i'm not jeff bezos or even stuart varney. stuart: i knew that was coming. an element of lefty is a good then on the day like this -- levity. >> we need that right now. today is the day to keep your sense of humor, balance, not to

panic. i get emails from relatives and friends, peter you're on tv, what should i do? i say, nothing. stuart: listen to this, market says there is 75% chance of -- susan: 100% chance of a 75% basis point cut. stuart: peter there, is 100% chance of a 75 basis point cut in short-term interest rates. the fed sin projecting cash vigorously into the banks. we're hearing $100 billion. there may be announcement of some kind of short term targeting of vulnerable groups of people or industries or companies? do you think all of this helps? >> it helps but it is hardly enough. interest rate cuts don't help with a supply chain problem, people social distancing, all that. what we need to do is put cash in people's pockets. what you know i advocated electronic currency so the fed can do that. we don't have it. i'm not with kudlow on this thing. i would be up on capitol hill. i think trump should have been

here on saturday morning with nancy pelosi, look, this days of all days we have to get along. we should cut the payroll tax in half. the bill should be on the floor on monday, right now. these people are simply not moving fast enough. they have become accustomed to gridlock and moving slowly. this is not the time for that. stuart: i have vigorous agreement with you from liz liz liz i couldn't agree with you more. health officials surgeons who are on the front line agree with peter. this is common refrain from health officials, please, washington, stop politicizing this. come together now. have a unified response. stop trying to score points of each other. >> during the spanish flu -- stuart: there was a headline in the "washington post," it was an op-ed, something like now is the time to go after trump. ashley: oh, great.

stuart: i will get the exact expression later. there is not this coming together that one would really like to see. liz: this is a quickest way to lose your credibility in times like this when you don't act like a leader. when you don't unify. when you try to score political points off of each other instead of saying country we'll come together. this is not about political party this is about us. stuart: okay. two groups of stocks really taking it on the chin. that would be the cruise lines and the airlines. let's go to grady trimble in chicago with news on southwest. what do you have? reporter: stuart, they're still trying to reassure customers that it is safe to fly not a risk to your health. they're sending out an email that they're enhancing cleaning process. they clean the ones as it is, ones on the ground as it is for six or seven hours. now they say they use hospital-grade cleaning throughout the plane. they usually use that just in the bathrooms.

they will use hospital grade cleaning throughout the entire plane. all the airlines are trying to reassure customers, including delta, american. they're changing cleaning procedures, a lot of them. they're saying they have these filters that are, high-efficiency particulate air filters that essentially recirculate the air every hour, 15 to 30 times each hour to make sure the air is as fresh as possible. not recirculating air with airborne viruses in them. they're doing that. along with their flexible cancellation policies if people just don't want to travel all together. stuart. stuart: that is a good pr move if i ever heard one. ashley: filters. stuart: you have got to do that. look who is here. maria bartiromo fresh from her own three hour extravaganza and on fox news. you talked about earlier how this could be setting up long

term a monumental buying opportunity. you and i seen these things happen before, you bounce back. at some point you bounce back. >> absolutely, stuart, i totally agree with you. at some point people will look at some stocks like xyz at $10 a share, xyz, $15 a share. let me share with you one of the analysts wrote in the morning notes looking at the sell-off in oil. every dollar decline in price of oil, $100 million a day, 36 1/2 billion a year in lower energy costs. look where we'll be at the end of this when you see what happened to oil. now some of the shale producers have to get through this we may see defaults or bankruptcy in the shale industry if they can get through it. this will be a real boom to consumers afterwards. you were talking about let's not get political all of this within the congress as they talk about what can be done in terms of stimulus. how about the idea this is as much a foreign policy situation as an economic story? russia is doing this on purpose,

you know that. during the financial crisis there were reports putin was talking to the leadership in china saying the u.s. is going through a financial crisis. let's pile on now, start selling some of the bonds we hold. russia is piling own now because of coronavirus. opec comes out, look we have a proposal, we want to cut production. russia says, i'm not having any of it. i will not cut production right now. why? russia wants to put out of business the shale industry in the united states, bottom line. stuart: they will go a long way to doing that. >> that is what they're trying to do. stuart: oil come back a bit, $30 a barrel, now 29. even at that price -- ashley: shale needs 45 to $54 a barrel to survive. >> russia knows that. that is what i'm saying this is foreign policy russia is piling on any weakness. stuart: but the russians are getting taken to the cleaners. >> yes, they are. stuart: did you see the ruble this morning? the ruble has come way, way down.

>> how far will they take it in order to take out a massive competitor, the united states on oil? the stock market, we've seen this before. the markets are coming back. stuart: wait a second, the saudis are pumping out the oil. they are -- you russians wouldn't agree to any kind of cuts. we'll flood you out. >> that's right. saudi aramco cuts prices. they're all hurting themselves to make actions to get up on the next guy. stuart: that is part of the policy thing. mds is supposed to be our ally. trump supported him. now he is driving down price. >> my big issue with russia, you're right but as congress is fighting with each other, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer over here criticizing donald trump, look what is happening with our frenemies across the world with russia undermining important industry and saudi going along with it, cutting prices. this is a serious situation. the politicians in washington should go home, start putting adults in the room to deal with

something serious on foreign policy level. stuart: they will listen to you, maria. watch out. the market is coming back. not saying it will come back for the entire day, far from it. we've come back about 700 points. the low of the day was minus 2046. now we're down 1386 which is the best part of 6, 700 points. ashley: 700 points. susan: energy index touching lowest sense 2004. not inexpected with given the oil markets and oil pricing. 11% of waiting comes from oil majors, exxon and the like. not a big component of the s&p but a pretty bad day. stuart: do you think we could see a bounce in the next couple of days? i mean, michigan primary, maybe i'm grasp at straws here. >> i think this is enormous buying opportunity, not only

stocks. look at the rates. time to take out a mortgage right now, guys. look at 10-year. stuart: i have to bring the the politics in. michigan primary is tomorrow. i think bernie will lose. joe biden has momentum. market will like that. the very hint, if bernie does well -- >> you want to see the market taken at even more than today, have a victory for bernie sanders. that will really kill they expectations of a comeback here for sure. stuart: i'm looking at boeing at 240 now. down -- ashley: only down 8 1/2%. stuart: personal history here. ashley: yes. stuart: i sold microsoft at 159. >> finally sold it? stuart: oh, yes, 3/4 of what i had. >> held that for years. stuart: decades actually. susan: talking about it all year long. >> i know he has been talking about it. stuart: can i get a word in edgewise? i put some of that boeing, i bought boeing at 331. now it is at 240. you think i can retire? no way i can retire.

ashley: you don't want to retire. stuart: let's move on. >> what are rates and oil telling us about global growth is my question. at the end of the day that is what stock investors care about. selloff in oil, huge plunge in rates is indicating perhaps we're seeing a sharp slowdown if not recession later on. three banks in the last two weeks came out said zero earnings growth for the s&p 500. that is a question worth delving into, stu. stuart: has anybody seen the social distancing yet. i have. i'm distancing myself socially. not making a big deal out of this, but how far this social distancing goes will make a big difference to the -- ashley: how long it lasts. stuart: how long it lasts, exactly, susan. susan: dow jones is reporting that white house officials are meeting with trump on a economic response plan this afternoon. they're quoting senior official here in the white house. stuart: that helps.

susan: talking about fiscal needs, fiscal measures. you can only cut interest rates so far. it only has so much effect on the economy. economic team, proposals according to dow jones, they want expansion of paid sick leave, deferring tax payments amidst the coronavirus outbreak. would help alleviate some industries heavily hit by the coronavirus like travel industries, airlines. stuart: that is important because on the show on friday, larry kudlow told us they were doing this, thinking about this narrow targeting of groups of people who have taken a hit because of the virus. if they're talking about expediting six leave payments, deferred tax payments, maybe even paying people who suffered because they got to go into quarantine, they can't get income, maybe make that up. are they holding a meeting today? susan: apparently so, later on this afternoon. they will meet with the

president this is reported by dow jones. we don't have our own independent verification of this economic response plan, yes. stuart: he arrives back at the white house this afternoon. what have you got? >> kevin mccarthy, head of the gop, told me they are considering a surgical plan, something very specifically tied to industries that have taken biggest brunt like airlines. liz: cruise industry bailout? >> i don't know if it will be a bailout. liz: i'm teasing. >> it will be certain stimulus. liz: common sense corner, all of us, is what's the information, what is the best information we're getting out of south korea and china? china, hebei province, 59 people. they have population of 1.4 billion in china. they have 3,000 deaths. so you have to look at it in context. south korea is now reporting a fatality rate of 0.5%. why? because they have better testing. they have got great testing going on in south korea and china. china is pumping out 1.6 million

tests daily in the last couple weeks. they have turned a corner. they're turning a corner in terms of cases going down. i'm really taken with elon musk's fight with msnbc right now. elon musk is saying don't panic. he is in a fight saying, listen virality, how virulent this is overstated. stuart: 1.2 million successes have arrived. 640,000 tests arrive today. millions later. >> what does that mean? we'll have a lot more confirmed cases of coronavirus. that could lead to another way of fear in the market before we get through. liz: unless lower fatality rate. ashley: huge jump in cases will have huge impact. >> tens of thousands of cases will lead to hundreds of thousand of cases in the united states. the reason people are telling me, the administration is trying to get ahead of this. this is not a death sentence. most people have flu-like

symptoms. very high numbers about to tick up in a big way. stuart: what we're discuss something internal functioning of the market. we've already seen a 15 minute halt to trading that was earlier this morning. let's go to the exchange. kristina has with her nyse president stacy cunningham. tell me about the workings of the market please? >> get into it. traders with their handhelds. can you describe what to expect right now? >> sure. market systems are designed to give a little bit of a pause, a major breather. this morning we expected we might trigger levels at 7%. we did. paused for 15 minutes. stocks reopened, that gives investors an opportunity to absorb information in the market, put their interest back in. important for investor to keep in mind, markets are here long term and shouldn't react to momentary disruptions. >> what about fact handhelds frozen for some traders. have you heard that?

>> i haven't heard that? >> you have experience on the floor late '90s, how many years? >> mid '90s to 2005. >> the fact times have changed, triggers are different, 13%, 20%, what is different between then and now? >> one of the things we do, every time there is a market event, we look back is there anything we should change. actually trigger ad market circuit breaker when i was a trader on the floor several years ago. we have taken the levels. we tightened them up a little bit. the industries really comes together to the periods see how the markets evolved over past seven years and is there any changes to make further resiliency in the markets. things worked as they were designed today. >> tested for 13% drop now? nothing happens when we hit the% drop. >> every quarter we hold industry test. all market participants get opportunity to ses 7%, 13%.

those are regularly held each quarter. >> up with last question for the coronavirus. a letter sent to traders last friday. how are you preparing here? no guests on the floor? >> we increased amount of cleaning that happens. we segmented guests across the trading floor community, just minimize interactions but nothing severe yet. >> stacy cunningham, president of the new york stock exchange throw it back to you guys, unless you have a question. stuart: we're all set. thanks very much indeed. last word? liz: i like the quote fear spread as lot faster than the virus. stuart: very true. liz: get testing out there. it has been a lovely time spending with you in the common sense corner of varney. stuart: common sense corner, you invented that expression and we'll steal it. >> breaking news, goldman sachs is now expecting the federal reserve to cut interest rates 50 basis points both in march and in april. within hundred basis point cut expected at goldman sachs from

the federal reserve. i don't know why they i the fed will be able to cure this but goldman is making a pretty big prediction here. stuart: the trump administration is now organizing and drafting measures to respond to this selloff and respond to the virus. that is being taken, not taken care of, that is being discussed actively as we speak. they have got all these different ideas about a tax holiday, paid sick leave, deferred tax payments all kinds of ideas, a package we believe is coming. under discussion right now. maybe that has got something to do why the market did indeed come back. the dow at one point was down well over 2,000 points. now it is down 1490. there is a element of comeback here. what is this update on klop rocks? ashley: market awash in red, clorox on the upside, probably not huge surprise given selloff. research analyst raising toe buy

from hold. deutsche bank raising price target to 159, from 150. already at 174 but comb votes of confidence for clorox. boeing at 2 1/2-year low. stuart: our producer said, that is the first time green on the screen. clorox has the green shoot poking that up there. maria, i'm intrigued at this white house meeting where they're organizing package of various items. art laffer was saying, don't do it, lept let politicians anywhere near this. let the market run its course. what do you say. >> with $23 trillion in bent it will be hard for the administration to spend more money. there are something that will not cost significant money, like you said earlier, paid sick leave. kevin mccarthy, gop yesterday on "sunday morning futures" told

me they are considering a surgical program. in other words going specific industries that may very well need some assistance in terms of a tax break, forgiving taxes for a certain period of time, things like that but if you will come out with a big billion dollar plus stimulus package for this, that will not be seep well. stuart: i also remember you saying goldman is looking at a 50 basis point cut from the fed in march and another 50 basis point cut in april. wouldn't that take us to zero? >> exactly. two weeks before the fed regularly scheduled meeting. if we see another emergency move before the fed meets on march 17th, i think the market view this is negatively. there are questions will that actually do anything, move the need fell? you will have to see other moves. innovative moves from the federal reserve away from interest rate cuts. stuart: the fed is moving to act. the administration is moving to act. that is the bottom line. whether it works is another story entirely. but they're not sitting on their hands.

susan? susan: boeing 2 1/2-year low, one of the major drags on the dow today. we should mention i believe exxon is one of the dow components. so the big drags here, boeings of the world. there is one greenstock today on the dow, that is walmart. people are rushing to buy supplies. stock up with water, cleaning supplies, et cetera. so there is very small slivers of green. >> i think you will see more green. people see the market as a buying opportunity. there is no way this market is telling you the story of actual growth and corporate strength based on these numbers. i'm not buying it. stuart: did you see the cruise lines a moment ago? >> unbelievable prices. stuart: put them back up again. i see carnival way down there. carnival at 24. that is down 10%. royal caribbean is down 20%. norwegian is down, can't read it, 13%. historic selloff there. i can see the administration coming in saying, maybe you need

a little help here? >> this is also about expectations. we don't know what the earnings period looks like. all we know is nobody is taking cruises right now. all we know this industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus along with airlines. once the market has expectations what the earnings look like for the rest of the year, these markets will be huge buys. susan: royal caribbean, carnival warned that the first quarter will not be great obviously. royal caribbean says all asia itineraries are canceled. 10 times the damage of hurricane dorian on earnings. ashley: how long the stigma lasts for cruise lines, how long? boy, nine months a year from now, whatever happens with the coronavirus, it could have long-lasting damage. stuart: really could, that's for sure. matt schlapp with us, cpac chair. you are still self-quarantined, matt. you came into some contact with the cpac conference with a carrier i believe. are you still in quarantine?

>> stuart, i'm describing this in a different way. i'm talking to the health care officials in the area and to my doctor and i'm practicing what they call separation. i'm not going to any events. i'm not going to nip -- any gatherings where people are at. thank god, god is grazing you with beautiful weather. we're getting fresh air through the windows. yes, we're taking every precaution we can in talking to our doctors and our health care professionals. stuart: tell me about the politics of this, the virus, its impact on america. seems to me the administration it must prove itself. it must show it is capable of dealing with it and keeping panic out. this is a test of president trump's leadership, isn't it? >> no. that is a fair statement, stuart. you know, the great thing about america, at times when we have trials and challenges it is a

time usually in our past where americans have come together and one of the great things about the way the administration has responded and just example of the one person, still just one person who has the coronavirus at cpac were 10,000 people assembled, you know what the great news, stuart? because everybody is listening, responding, being responsible, we don't have any new cases we can't find anybody in our greater cpac community that is symptomatic. that is one thing the media is getting wrong. they're trying to think who brushed up against whom at some point f we handle this virus that way, essentially nobody would be able to leave the house. the wrong way to think about it. the way we should think about it, are you symptomatic? what the department of health is telling us from the state of maryland where we had cpac, if you are concerned, check that temperature twice a day. if you don't have symptoms or you don't have a temperature you

will make yourself sick over worry, more than you will make yourself sick over potentially having this virus. stuart: i want to talk politics and the michigan primary for a second. it is tomorrow. i think it is bernie's last stand. i think joe biden is running away with this thing. i think that may be a very mild positive for the market. what say you? >> yeah it is interesting to watch, stuart. i can't know exactly what will happen on the democratic side but i think people are incredibly worried about the prospect that somebody else would be in the command of the economy. the president doesn't make all the decisions in the economy because we mostly have a private economy, thank god but he can sure screw it up and what president trump did more than anything else, he got the government out of the way. can you imagine if we put a socialist or somebody with socialist policies which is what joe biden is, in charge of our economy, we'll have a turnaround. i'm not trying to create panic on the economic front either.

i'm just talking about history and facts. we finally got the balance between government and private activity more in line what allows for economic growth and prosperity and the number one thing that matters to me on that, you know what the best politics, is, stuart? somebody having a couple thousand dollars more in their pocket to spend on their families, to invest, invest, create a better life for themselves. that creates great political support. the president is accruing that benefit. stuart: how long will you stay in your, i don't know how to describe it, isolation or distancing yourself, how long? >> yeah. i'm practicing distance from large groups of people. i will take this day by day. the old prayer, the serenity prayer, i'm taking it day by day. every day we talk to our doctors, we're already, this is the key, after today, stuart, we'll be nine days away from the conference. most medical experts will tell you that is the zone which potentially pick up the virus. some people round it up to 14

days, but that nine-day period is critical. most people will show symptoms after half that time or five or six days. nobody in my family is symptomatic. i feel great. my 80-year-old mother who was there with me feels great. mercy's 8-year-old father feels great. nobody in the cpac community steams to be symptomatic. what this will demonstrate, this is important for everybody to listen to, i'm sure some people, there is a chance some people start to have symptoms but to this date nobody has symptoms. that means 10,000 people go to a hotel with one infected person and it clearly very hard to get this virus, number one, and number two, it's hard actually have the ultimate price paid by this even that one person who had that virus is recovering nicely in the hospital. so i'm not saying that we shouldn't be concerned and sober and serious but we need to be

rational, calm, and listen to the health care experts. if we do that, i think it will be one of these moments in american history where we pull together, made the ride decision, it will make us stronger and it will make us better. stuart: matt schlapp we hear you. our best wishes to you, all your family, we'll see you again real soon. >> thank you very much, stuart. stuart: jason katz joins us on the phone that is. jason you manage the money of very wealthy people. what are you telling them to do? >> biden, i got to tell you, when we were on last there hasn't been avalanche of calls or e-mails, i don't know that i want to characterize it avalanche, the anxiety is palpable, emails, calls, et cetera. what i'm telling them to do on extreme days with massive volatility, tremendous derisking by institutions, emotions are running really high, the best thing you can consider doing, if you're appropriately allocated

is nothing. stuart: nothing at all, nothing at all, don't buy, don't sell, don't panic, stay put. >> sometimes the best trade is no trade. people overweight equities are not appropriately allocated. you have to rethink your positioning. but for new mandates, people layering into the market, now is the time to consider doing that. albeit at a very glacial pace. stuart: okay. we hear you. on koreans right now, we have the 10-year treasury yield, talk about, i'm not going to say recovery by any means, earlier this morning that yield was 0.31%. we've come back up to 0.52%. the 30-year treasury on your screens right now, at one point dropped to like 0.7 something, it was in that range. now it's bounced back up again to 0.968%.

so a little bit of a comeback in treasurys. a little bit of a comeback in stocks, a little bit of a comeback for oil. not much, but a comeback it is. greg smith is with us, evolution partners, this man is a venture capitalist. you made a ton of money in various stock, good for you. what are you doing today? >> good morning, stuart. i look what is happening today. my first job on wall street was working for the stock exchange in summer of 1988. what i would learn for disruptions from elder sage, elder statesman market, would remark to younger generation of new people on wall street, hey kids, you never seen anything like this. they sort of new what was going own. i feel like we've hit a paradigm shift in the market really nobody has seen volatility what we're witnessing today. so i think we have to ask ourselves, what i learned over that time period is, in real times of panic is really best time, best opportunity to almost commit to the market. we have to ask ourself, have we

really seen panic in the market. are people really panicking? if you listen to the last guest on the phone he sensed probably some complacency from average investors. stuart: you make the judgment. have you seen a washout capitulation sale this morning? >> people are scared of virus. we're still own the front nine here in the states from china. hopefully we come over the bell curve in terms of cases climbing. people are nervous. staying at home. companies preparing for workers to work at home for long period of time. stuart: have we had the washout yet? >> i don't know if we have had the washout. there is a lot of uncertainty. market doesn't like uncertainty. only thing we do is preventative measures, hygiene and we don't have a cure for this. coming into the bell curve, time to commit to the market and begin buying? if you're investing for the long haul probably is but you feel like catching falling daggers. stuart: market has been over one hour and nine minutes, have you bought anything? >> i have.

stuart: what did you buy? >> etf index on tech called tecl. down almost by half. traded 335 several weeks ago. i bought some this morning at 170. i'm committing capital i don't need for the long term though. stuart: hold on a second, greg. president trump tweeting a moment ago. here it is. saudi arabia and russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil. that and the fake news is the reason for the market drop. ash? ashley: goes on to say good for the consumer. gasoline prices coming down. >> i will also add to that though, at some point with this move in oil, that is going to create less activity in terms of rigs out there. one analyst on wall street today predicting that the u.s. oil industry will respond with an approximate 20% decrease in activity to 500 oil rigsby august. that is the issue hire. talk about cap-ex a lot. cap-ex will dry up in the energy

space. ashley: what about job losses in texas, oklahoma, north dakota? stuart: yes indeed. susan: goldman sachs oil price will get down to $20 for west texas. bring back politics this, is most unloved bull run and economic expansion. were the other side democrats talking economy into recession last year. we saw expansion. this time around this is something they might want before the november 2020 election. stuart: you're right actually. before we go any further i have to say good-bye to maria. she still has work to do elsewhere. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: been on mere five 1/2 hours i would say. i couldn't do that. maria, thank you very much. >> thank you. stuart: let's go to the white house. blake burman is there. limiting face-to-face meetings at the white house, i believe? reporter: you had had a sense it would eventually get to this senior administration tells fox news that the white house

will be limiting in person meetings to face-to-face meetings. the source also said that the white house and the state department are discouraging foreign officials from coming to the white house. instead opting for telephone calls, opting for video calls as is off then the case in some other times. that a different says the following of this, quote, nothing formal but i think like most of the guidance out there, these are just common sense decisions to make. bottom line you might be seeing fewer to face meetings here at the white house like we're seeing in so many other places of work, so many other places of gathering all across this country. i was late to your camera, stuart. i apologize. there is a good reason for it. i was late speaking to a senior administration official who told me the following, separate issue. as i told you earlier on your show the folks who are trying to figure out what might an economic stimulus package or not package or economic stimulus would look like, had conversations over the weekend.

this is still being hashed out. a senior administration tells me they're not even sure what their department will be putting before the president. there are staff level discussions. they're trying to flesh that out. one analogy they tell me they don't want to take a bazooka to a problem when eventually you could take a rifle shot at it. this person also said, one idea being considered at this point, purely considered, just paid leave. if you miss work because of the coronavirus, you would be made whole in some form or at least paid one way or another. stuart: blake, you won't get any announcement of any kind of package until the president arrives back in the white house and holds that meeting. he is not due until later on this afternoon. reporter: 3:45 he is due back. i'm told after that there will be a meeting here with the president and many of his economic advisors t was interesting just on fox news right now, health and human services secretary alex azar

said he hadn't spoken to the president today. so clearly a lot of folks still need to get in touch, circle around and sort of put their ideas before him going forward as he gets back to the white house this afternoon. stuart: blake, thank you very much. peter morici still with us i do declare? >> i am. stuart: targeted, sick paid leave, deferred tax payments, do you think this is a good idea? art laffer on the show saying earlier, get government out of it, get politicians out of it, we don't want them to do anything, let the market work. >> extension of paid sick leave opens the door. you know what happens on the democratic side. schumer will want a permanent program. old rahm emanuel approach, don't let any good crisis go unused. they will try to get another social program out of this. we can't let that happen. my feeling you want to put cash

directly in people's hands broadly. i think mr. kudlow is wrong on this one. i like larry. we agree about a lot of stuff. this i don't agree. i don't think it hurts to put a lot of cash out there now, not with these borrowing rates that would give people money to spend. they might not be able to buy a monopoly set from china, but sure as heck can buy something else. stuart: what do you make of this from goldman sachs? they are expecting a 50 basis point discuss in march and a 50 basis point cut in april which i think would take the federal funds rate down to zero. do you abrief? >> no. i don't think so. they're wasting their arrows. this is not an opportunity to cut interest rates. it will not do much good. there is broad consensus on that in the economics community. what you have got a federal reserve chairman without sound grounding in economics and a staff that lives in a bubble over there. they have been fidgeting around, talking about new tools but get

no place. all they talk, we'll make a statement we'll keep rates very for a very long time. does anybody think in a crisis we'll raise rates? they refuse to think outside of the box, to look at a new fed, with new tools for a modern electronic age. my feeling is, there were a lot of mistakes made by mr. obama and mr. trump in appointments they made to that body, peter, hold on a second, i got with me, health and human services secretary, alex azar. mr. secretary, welcome to the show. come back again, please. what everybody is looking for here is an update on the status of these tests. how many have arrived, how many are coming, and how good are these tests? >> so, stuart, thanks for asking about that. there is a lot of falsehood out there, a lot of bad information. over one million of these tests shipped by this weekend. we have a total of 2.1 million tests that have been produced and are available for continued

shipment. and at no time has a public health official who needed to have somebody tested been unable to get that test done by the cdc. this test is validated by the highest fda starts and this is the staple test going out. in addition our private sector clinical labs are putting out their tests likely in the next several days as they validate their work. that is the labcorps, quests, et cetera, getting their own version of these tests out there. so we have plenty of testing capacity and test kits out there in america. stuart: does that mean that as these tests are distributed around america there will be a lot more cases discovered, those numbers will go straight up, right? >> it does mean that, stuart. the more we test, the more we find there are cases out there in the community, united states, and we need to be ready for that. there are certainly cases here in the u.s. we identify them. people are presenting, when they present with serious

influenza-like symptoms they're being treated appropriately but what i think we'll find there are other individuals who have very mild, moderate disease, who really aren't presenting as if they have got any type of serious medical condition and we'll be able to uncover those through further testing. stuart: is the administration saying seeing distancing is a good thing for everyone? is your administration encouraging that. >> as a general matter it is appropriate for all of us to take appropriate precautions, thinking whether to shake hands or whether to take long distance travel. we made a special alert for individuals who are older or individuals who are medically frail, that they should be very careful about large gatherings. they should be very careful about long distance travel, especially stay off cruise ships. but in localized areas, we're embedded there with governor inslee's team in washington in california and we're advising them on the localized type of

social distancing measures, whether school closures, public transportation, large gatherings to give them expert advice. there are few national level warnings in place at this point. it is much more based on the data in local communities to take action. stuart: do you think we're going too far? are we own the verge of panic? >> i don't want to tell people how they should be feeling. i understand people's concern and uncertainty but i want them to understand that we will use every tool we have to protect the american people. that will involve local tools that state and local governments use. it will involve national tools like travel restrictions, closing our border to individuals who are at risk, quarantining of individuals, developing vaccines, therapeutics, procuring personal protective equipment for health care workers, surging hospital capacity and ventilators out into needed areas. these are the steps we're taking. we have a response plan last

updated in 2017, comprehensive state, local, federal government plan. we're executing against that. so the american people should know president trump is leading a whole-of-government approach. we will protect the public health across the entire, every level of government. it is the number one priority of this administration. stuart: all eyes of course on the virus and our response to it but i believe you have a new health initiative from the president. can you deal with that relatively quickly? >> you bet. so today we actually rolled out final rules that give you as a patient ownership of your personal health information, that electronic health record and make it portable. make it so wherever you go that information will carry with you. like with your financial information, using quicken or turbotax, collect it all in one place securely. that will be available for the american people. stuart: mr. secretary, i have got video on the screen right now shows the president just having arrived in orlando, shaking hands along the rope

line. what do you say to that? >> i'm sure after he shakes his hands he will be taking appropriate precautions. i can assure you of that clean his hands in sanitary way. make sure he is protected. i encourage other toes do the same. stuart, i moved to a good elbow bum as my approach. stuart: i'm keeping five or six feet away from everybody, which is difficult in everybody because they get close to you. mr. secretary, thank you very much for joining us, sir, we appreciate it. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: doc siegel, you were listening to all of that. what did you pick up from the health and human services secretary? >> he is using a elbow bump. stuart: apart from that? >> one million tests shipped. 2.2 million tests produced. interesting clarification, those in my opinion are going to the state and local health labs. that is not the same, he differentiated just now with your interview between the what labcorp and quest are doing.

initially a public, private partnership, sounds like labcorp and quest are doing their own tests. the government tests cdc tests are shipped around the country to the state and local health labs. tell you why that is important. if i send a sample to the new york city department of health, they will run it. now they don't have to send to it cdc for clarification. that is still big improvement. still a day or two i get results back from my local health lab. when quest and labcorp get it will be faster. over all we'll get millions of results we didn't have before or at least hundreds of thousands. as the secretary pointed out that will lead to positives. stuart: if we start testing literally millions of people, and we will, do you think it is possible we'll have 100,000 confirmed cases in the united states? that is possible isn't it? >> i don't think it will be that much. my prediction it will be in the thousands, tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands. i hope people out there, headline will be all the

negatives that was the south korea story. they tested over 200,000 people and they got 6, 7,000, positive. i want people out there to stop panicking by understanding the information is just as much important of how many people test negative as how many people test positive. when i know somebody's negative, i can reassure them. i can say you can go back out into the community. stuart: got it. thank you very much indeed, doctor. stay with us for a bit? >> of course. stuart: ongoing story. howard kurtz, host of "mediabuzz" on the fox news channel. i'm looking at a headline here in the "washington post." it says now is the time to go on the offense against trump. seems to me that the media is really trying to make the president look bad during this virus outbreak. what do you say? >> there have been absolutely an onslaught in many publications, many media outlets. this is trump's fault. trump acted too slowly. there is a place for legitimate

criticism. why weren't more tests available earlier in the process? you talked to the health secretary about that. making it a political football at a time it is becoming the major economic story of our time, as well as a health story, with so many different angles i think shows you that those who oppose this president will use anything, including this crisis, if it is a crisis against him. the president not shy about punching back, the fake news media are blowing this up, intentionally trying to scare people. i don't think anybody is trying to scare people like you think. the sheer volume in the country is causing concerns. stuart: we have a tweet from the president of course saudi arabia and russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil. that around the fake news is the reason for the market drop. what kind ever fake news do you think he is referring to? the virus maybe? >> well, i mean the president has this view that those in the press who he is not obviously big fans of this industry are

deliberately trying to scare people to undermine the president sy. as we just say, some people may be using this to take potshots at the president. some legitimate, some not. i don't think you can blame a market drop of this magnitude on the media. russia and other oil producers sure, that makes sense. i have been grappling with this question, stuart, are we scaring people? because you go to "new york times" homepage, first five, six, seven stories about coronavirus. it is a huge global story. of course we need to recognize that. we need to cover that and we need to address that but i do think public confidence at this point would be better served if we keep our heads and if the president tries to convince the country that the administration is doing everything it can. the fake news thing i think in this particular situation not working so well. stuart: what drew my attention particular, headline on saturday i think it was in "the new york times," describing the white house's response to the virus as chaotic. now that is pejorative word.

i suspect that in similar times if it was the obama administration, "the times" would not have used that word chaotic. i think that bias is just showing here? >> at times, absolutely, both "the washington post" and "new york times" have done huge ticktock stories about the response through the crisis and they have a split with some federal health officials, some on the record, some not, they warned, urged more aggressive action earlier. so you have leaks from within the administration undermining the president's position. i think aggressive journalism is important at a time like this, but to just say, trump's fault, trump is exacerbating it, trump caused it i think is not helping anybody in this thanks very much for joining us. see you again real soon. good stuff. now, on my right -- left here, i should say, keeping five feet away, is the only person on the program so far this morning who has actually bought anything. to my knowledge.

maybe some other guests have bought, i don't know. none of them have said so. greg smith bought something. last word to you? >> last word to me. well, this reminds me, i don't know how many of us remember "animal house" but i feel like a very young kevin bacon standing in the waning scene during the town riot in his military uniform saying all is well, remain calm. this i think will pass. there are brighter days ahead. i think we will get through this. it's going to continue to be agita and fear for people but we will get through this. stuart: we shall follow your progress closely. joining us on the phone, scott shella shellady. what's your comment? we have a big selloff in stocks, we have the ten-year treasury yield all the way down, 0.3% at one stage. it's bounced back to .51%. what do you make of this whole day? >> well, that's fantastic news it bounced back as much as it did because the bond market's much bigger than the equity market and that was really

flashing and still is flashing some definite yellow signals and maybe a few reds. that market is very concerned. i think this is totally different than any other thing i have lived through and i have been in the business for 32 years. i say it because every other crisis that you have seen the market react like this, whether it be the bond market or equity market has come because of an economic or financial problem, right? this one is a virus, really, and i know we had some oil news fre a friday and over the weekend but this market has been tailing off because of a virus. i said on thursday or friday, whenever i was last on, can't plug the market with cash to cure a virus. i know the virus will be something that's going to be tailing off gdp or at least curtailing gdp, maybe a little, maybe a lot, depending who you speak to. but this is the first time in my trading career that we have seen these markets react to something that didn't start off like a housing crisis or savings and

loan problem or something like that. this is something beginning outside of our sphere for the first time in my lifetime. stuart: i think the problem overriding is we don't know what impact on the economy there is going to be from this social distancing. we have been advised to do some social distancing and we don't know the full impact. that's the bottom line problem, isn't it? >> 100%. the markets don't like uncertainty and uncertainty is our gdp cut in half, do we have a negative gdp, does china have a negative gdp? that's why the market's reacting exactly the way you say. and we are canceling events. people aren't going out. that's a psychological problem. i say this all the time. i would rather have a monetary or fiscal problem than psychological problem because a psychological problem, those are very fickle and very very difficult to remedy. that's the problem. the market is fighting with that right now. how much, how deep, it's a black room right now and nobody is turning on the lights for them.

stuart: well said. thanks for jumping on the line so fast. we always appreciate it. thanks very much indeed. all right. the market has been open now for, what, two hours, two and a half hours almost, and here we go. it is almost exactly 11:00 eastern time here on the east coast. bang. 11:00 eastern. let me reset all that's been happening. you can see on your screens, left-hand side, bottom right-hand corner, those are the three major averages. the dow is off 6.5%. s&p, 6.5%. nasdaq, down almost 6%. earlier this morning, when the s&p dropped 7%, we had a trading halt for 15 minutes. we are back trading again. the ten-year treasury yield has been all over the place this morning. it was down to 0.31%, an extraordinary new low. look at the bounce, it's come all the way back to 0.50%. in bond market terms, that is a

tsunami moving in two different directions in terms of money. vast amounts of money, though, are still flowing into the united states and into that treasury security. 0.50%. price of oil coming back just a little bit. we were down to $29 a barrel. now it's $34 a barrel, down 17%. market watcher heather zumarraga is with us. i have looked around, all the people we have had on so far today, i have asked have you bought anything today, have you bought anything, like are we there yet. have you bought anything, have you bought anything. only one person has bought anything. have you bought anything? >> no. i have not. that's one brave soul. i'm not saying that there won't be opportunities in the future, but i think right now when the market moves are exacerbated, when we opened at one point, we were down over 2,000 points, we may never see that again in our lifetime. i think it would be prudent to wait at these levels until the volatility calms down. stuart: do you think we will

come back strong at some point? in other words, are we setting up an extraordinary buying opportunity? >> well, i think at some point in time when we get past the virus and we also have to get past saudi arabia and russia need to sit down and resolve their oil disputes because that's taking a toll on the markets. energy itself doesn't account for a big percent of the broader markets, only about 3%, but it does matter in terms of jobs in this country. the u.s. is now a big major exporter, net exporter of oil so it does hurt our economy because a lot of jobs since the financial crisis in 2008 came from the energy sector, and the lower oil prices go, the more plants have to close down. stuart: what are you looking for as a signal to buy something, anything? what's that signal? >> unfortunately, right now i think the only things to buy are those that are benefiting like drug stocks from the coronavirus so i would wait for the markets

selling and buying on the upside to subside below, say, you know, below triple digit moves in one day, when you are seeing 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% moves, like we are seeing today, 6.5% moves we are seeing today, regardless of if it's on the upside or the downside, if you are a retail investor, i wouldn't touch it. stuart: hold on a second. i want to bring in christian whit whiton, former state department official. let's talk oil. seems to me we've got flat-out war in the oil patch. saudi arabia is flooding the market to destroy the russians and also, to hurt us. this will hurt our frackers, our drillers. it's saudi arabia versus everybody else by the looks of it. >> it's a short-term phenomenon, perhaps. even though domestic producers will be hurt, this will reduce the price of energy and transportation for just about everyone else. so there is a stimulative impact

of very low oil prices on the u.s. economy. it will hurt some people, help others. the back story is saudi arabia was trying to collude with russia to actually constrain demand and increase prices. the saudi crown prince who effectively runs the country reached out to putin, couldn't get any joy, he had his dad the ailing king call putin. putin did something very putin-esque. he refused to take the call at first. this is something putin does. if a foreign minister shows up in moscow, they have to wait well past the appointed time of a meeting. it's just a trick they do. anyway, that ticked off the saudis enough that you see this now. if you look at the cuts saudi arabia has made to medium grade crude, 6% for asian customers, $6, $7 a barrel cut for american customers, but $8 for northern europe. they are specifically trying to harm russia or scare them back to negotiations. stuart: it's working, isn't it. i saw the ruble, russian ruble, their currency, i saw it tumble early this morning. they will take a lot of heat for

this. besides, the oil economy is the basis of russia's economy, and the basis of putin's funding. the saudis have got these guys over a barrel. pardon the pun. >> right. putin is trying to go through machinations to extend his rule. can you do that if the economy is in trouble, especially, you know, i don't presume that russia's public health system is going to be able to handle coronavirus as well as western europe or the united states. they do have an economy that's a little more, certainly more diversified than saudi arabia when it comes to oil versus the rest of the economy, but oil has been a bright spot for putin in perpetuating his control. so this will cause problems. stuart: aren't the saudis supposed to be our allies here? what are they doing flooding the world with crude and hurting our drillers and frackers? >> well, there's a long-term play for them because in the past, when you've had situations like this, they really don't

want to lose market share. in the past when opec has inched up prices and it's led to a long-term loss of market share, that really has hurt the saudis in their eyes. they have up to 12 million barrels per day of capacity. they are going from 9.7 to 10 so they still have room to grow. the flipside of this, it will be more pressure on iran, more pressure on russia. there is some thought the saudis doing this to the soviet union in the 1980s helped expedite their demise. i think this is probably a short-term phenomenon. stuart: hold on a second, i want to bring in lou dobbs, joining us on the phone. "lou dobbs tonight" he is the host thereof. you were the first guy actually to call the '87 crash a crash. you did that back then. what do you make of today's ation? >> well, it's a little late to call a crash on this one, isn't it. this is something i don't believe we have seen before in any form. when we were looking at the

treasuries going south, looking at crude, an outright crude war, and i happen to agree with you, i think it's a little strange where the saudis are playing right now, because we're talking about a marginal capacity that's going to be, you know, priced not to market but to the bottom of the market. i just don't see how they can -- it's like the old joke, we're losing money on everything we sell, so we're going to make it up on volume. this is not a strategy. this is a desperate strategem of some sort on the part of saudis and i don't know who they are truly aligned with, whether it's russia or us. stuart: in all the previous significant selloffs that you have seen, we always bounce back, actually fairly quickly.

are we going to bounce back fairly quickly from this one? >> i wish i could give you a strong sense of it, with the breakers coming into effect. but having really -- offering very little confidence that we are at a bottom, i'm not quite sure how it's going to play out. that's just, you know, that's just the straight up fact of the matter. i think the way we are watching these markets behave right now, i don't believe most investors, whether professional or otherwise, have a sense of where that bottom is. stuart: do you think the president has handled the virus outbreak well? >> i think he has. what more could he do? we are dealing again with unknowns. the number of unknowns are mounting here rather quickly. a virus that is deadlier, perhaps not in terms of mortality rate but total numbers of lives lost, that has already passed sars, it is spreading

without seeming capacity to contain, whether in china or whether it's in europe. we're watching something -- well, we have just never seen before. these unknowns are mounting. stuart: we have never seen, to my knowledge in this country, this social distancing that is now being recommended for some vulnerable groups. by that i mean you don't come into close contact with people, you don't get on a plane, don't take a cruise, don't go out in crowds, avoid people. we have never seen that before. therefore, we don't know what impact that will have on the economy. >> well, we know the impact will be negative, certainly. as you say, we don't have any idea what the specifics will be because we have no template for this. there's no historical template for it. but we are dealing with such a serious contagion that it seems to me there is no choice. i know that initially, all of

the public health officials were very reluctant to go to what they are calling euphemistically social distancing or self-quarantine, but you know, it seems it's really the last line of defense here. so i don't know that we can, you know, properly question them on that. it makes all the sense in the world. i mean, to have to tell people they are going -- they should get off a cruise ship to me is just insane. cruise ships have been notorious for the norovirus. we know how quickly disease spreads. that seems to me to have been a no-brainer from the very beginning. stuart: i won't be seeing you on a carnival cruise line in the near future, i can tell. i can just tell. i really can. >> or any other. stuart: or any other. right. lou, thanks for joining us. we will be watching tonight, 7:00. you will be wrapping it up for us then. appreciate it. david avela is here, go pac

chair, basically a political guy on an otherwise financial day. is that right? right. i just want to -- i'm appalled at what the media is doing here. i think the media is trying to blame president trump for the vir virus, it's his fault. the "new york times" on saturday referred to chaotic white house. i don't think they would have used that expression under president obama. this headline in "the washington post" now is the time to go on offense against trump. i'm appalled. >> it's two world views, stuart. you have -- stuart: there's room for decent criticism. that's fair enough. but when it becomes this emotional he's a rotten guy, let's get rid of him, i've no time for that. >> i understand. as you get ready for the election and who knows if this will still be front and center on voters' minds, certainly the action today with the markets and with oil prices will be

impacting the election. you think about the fact, there are projections that gas prices could come down 10 to 25 cents. mortgage rates are at an all-time low. both of those times when that happens, what happens? consumers start spending. what's the best thing for the economy? consumer spending. as you get to may and june and voters start locking in their opinion of the economy, an economy where consumers are spending money is one that favors republicans. stuart: i think there's another political angle here and that would be tomorrow's michigan primary. i think that's make or break for bernie sanders. i think it's going to break him. i think joe biden will emerge with enormous momentum. cory booker is now backing him, kamala harris is now backing him. i think emerges after tomorrow as guy who will take the nomination. i think that will reassure some investors. >> many have agreed with you on that.

but let me remind you that in three of the four states that joe biden actually campaigned in and actually spent money, he lost. the more you got to know joe biden, the less you liked him. here is who has the most to gain or lose tomorrow and that is michigan governor gretchen whitmer who wants to be the vp pick. if she can't deliver michigan for joe biden who she endorsed, she's not going to be his vp. stuart: i didn't know that's kind of the back story here. michigan is absolutely crucial for joe biden, as much as it's crucial for bernie sanders. >> really crucial for gretchen whitmer. stuart: i wasn't thinking of that. she wants to be the vice president. but if she loses michigan or rather, if biden loses michigan, she's not the veep. >> that's right. stuart: i'm told he's going to have a woman candidate vice president. that seems like a return to identity politics. >> we have this every four

years, this speculation. it's every person's choice. we don't know what's in president biden's head. we didn't know what was in trump's head before picking vice president pence. we don't know what any presidential candidates are really thinking about what they want until we see who they actually pick. stuart: later on today there's a meeting in the white house, the president gets back from florida. he will be holding the meeting, discussing ways to get some money into the people who need it during this virus outbreak. vice president pence is going to be holding a news conference after 5:00 this afternoon, an update on the briefing -- sorry, on the virus. and we've got the federal reserve expected to lower interest rates, maybe 50 basis points in march, 50 basis points in april. that's according to goldman sachs. there's a lot going on to get through this problem here. >> the markets are up and down. it is certainly not time for the

wary when it comes to this but you just laid out what in the past has been an entire week of news. we will do it all today. stuart: it happens every hour. really remarkable. hold on a second. kristina is at the exchange. news on oil? kristina: yeah, i want to focus on occidental petroleum. their shares have been halted for a second time today. $17.34 stock price. that's because it dropped over 13%. you will see it on the board soon. a lot of it has to do with of course the price war that's going on between russia and saudi arabia, putting pressure on oil. sun trust, an analyst there downgraded occidental to sell from hold. price target, get this, $15 a share. the interesting thing, this is anecdotal, the number of analysts today that have chosen to downgrade all their shares on a day when we already know the markets are continuing to fall, another note that came from goldman sachs, they are predicting possibly $20 a barrel for oil and saying that has a

lot to do with just weaker demand across the globe. so $20 and occidental halted twice today, because of the volatility. it's $16.86. must be reopened just after we went live. stuart: i think so. ouch. $20 a barrel is one forecast from goldman. that would be quite a selloff indeed. occidental taking it on the chin. susan? susan: speaking of oil majors, they are taking the brunt today. chevron is at its lowest since february 2016. exxon, lowest level since march 2004. these are two heavyweights on the dow, part of the dow 30. that's part of the drag along with boeing which has hit a two and a half year low today. stuart: lauren simonetti joins us. i've got to ask you a question you may not have expected. as you may know, the administration is going for this social distancing. that's the way to go, less contact with each other. as you are out and about over the weekend and in new york city this morning, have you seen

social distancing? lauren: i haven't. i do know people are talking about this. i personally don't see anybody who is actually doing it. i can tell you something that was relayed to me first-hand. my father and daughter went on the movie theater last night. they were the only ones in the theater. stuart: only ones? lauren: the only two. it was a 6:00 showing last night in new jersey. what does that say. it was for "onward" which was the number one movie at the box office. stuart: in new jersey. lauren: but you know, de blasio is saying when you take the subway in new york city, try not to take it during rush hour. you have these constant warnings. as the numbers go up, several universities in new york city are closed for this week, the message is being sent and people are starting to -- if they're not already panicking, are starting to question as to when they should panic. stuart: it's about the only thing you can actually do, isn't it. ashley: yes. not being around people. stuart: try to avoid people.

you don't have to go into quarantine in your own home. you don't have to go that far. but avoiding unnecessary contact is something you can do. lauren: france and germany, for gatherings of more than 1,000 people, it's not allowed. they are trying to keep people away from each other and away from crowds of people. i think you got to keep the consumer strong here so they do spend, whether online or somewhere else. that's the first line of defense for the administration. when they talk about how they are going to prop up the economy, are they going to do it through tax subsidies to those companies so they don't lay off workers, the companies and industries that are most affected, or paid sick leave, for instance, so the consumer has money to spend on the economy. stuart: that's what they are trying to do. get some money to the people who are going to be hurt by this and do it fast. they are discussing how you do that. quick point? susan: that's right. injecting cash into small business as far as fiscal measures, that's possibly being proposed later today by the white house senior policy advisers, how to get this economy going right now.

we also have talking about tax deferment for cruise lines and hospitality groups and paid sick leave which is among the other options. because people are talking about recession. people are talking about recession in the next quarter and the third quarter of this year. stuart: understandable. you don't know the effect of social distancing. ashley: how long it goes on for. that's the big unknown. we can take steps. how long do we have to take the steps for? stuart: how much do we suppress our own economic activity by keeping away from other people? don't eat in restaurants, don't go to movies or the mall, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. maybe the administration's attempt to come up with a way of putting money into people's pockets, maybe that's put a lid on the market. i notice we are down about 5.5% on the dow. we have been there for some time. i hate to say we are stabilizing, minus 5% is where we are.

susan: morgan stanley says we could drop another 6% on the s&p to the 2600 level. stuart: when? susan: they say that could be potentially priced in with the coronavirus and right now it continues to spread. stuart: we are all looking for a bottom. charlie kirk is with us. good timing here. founder of turning point usa and author of "the maga doctrine." social distancing. what are you youngsters doing about this? >> we are hearing a lot about it. i try to be anti-panic, against hysteria. we are moving full speed ahead and people are asking what are you going to do about this. look, we are going to keep on doing our events, doing our conferences, going to college campuses across the country. i want to reinforce a point you made earlier. i think it's very irresponsible the way the media has been handling this. i think they have a duty to communicate clearly what's happening in our country without trying to instill panic and when they are running op-eds, running

pieces that say it is now time to go on offense against president trump, that only reaffirms what i have been saying for a couple years, that they are almost cheering for bad things to happen and it's awful. it's almost like they want to see chaos for their own political benefit. i think that things will normalize, we will get back to equilibrium. what we are doing, we will continue to move full speed ahead. stuart: you are a great supporter of president trump. you know him well. you are with him frequently. i guess you would say his handling of this virus crisis has been good. do you find any fault anywhere where you think he might have done better or differently? >> no. he's a phenomenal leader and has exhibited terrific leadership. where i will have fault, though, in my opinion, in the international community, specifically how china handled this. i think that if our media was truly being fair, why have they not been as harsh on china as they are currently on the

president of the united states. we still don't know who patient zero is in china. they did not handle this correctly in their own country and they lied to the international community about the extent of this, so i for one think that china needs to be held accountable for what they did in this particular spread of this virus. look, the president has exhibited terrific leadership. this is uncharted territory, and you know this. we have not seen anything like this in the way the markets are reacting and in my opinion, i think that some of these companies that are telling people to work from home, as quickly as they are, i think that is -- i think that is a rush to judgment in my own personal opinion, especially when we look at who is actually being affected by this virus. i for one am trying to bring people down and say don't panic, be against hysteria. i think things will be just fine. stuart: got it. charlie kirk, thanks for joining us. appreciate it. good stuff. now, josh berman is with us, the former myspace co-founder, troy capital ceo. welcome back.

good to see you. i don't have a specific question here. we are in the middle of a virus crisis and a sharp decline in the price of oil. what's your take on the financial markets right now? >> i'm a private investor. i look at companies with cash flows, long-term bets i'm making and i'm still excited in the long run. i think we are having a very interesting volatility experience but i have a business where i lend money to employees at private companies, and we are still -- we are waiting for an opportunity like this. we think the private markets might dry up, there might not be in the short term as much cash coming into these companies but we are ready for it. we are excited about longer term companies and actually, the funny thing this morning, i was with my kids and they are at high school and are excited to come home and buy some stocks tonight. it is an interesting time. stuart: so you think there's going to be -- this is a real good buying opportunity, not necessarily right now, but in the very very near future,

setting up something of jaa generational buying opportunity. would you go that far? >> my kids are millenials, 17 years old, and are excited to come home and not do their homework but to look at stocks to buy. i think if you look out four, five years out, certainly five years ago until today, the market's still up 50% over the last five years. we do have outrageous times but i think in the long run if you find great companies, should be exciting. stuart: part of the problem here is we have never dealt with anything like this before. i have lived in america for 45 years, covered the markets four decades, i can't remember an event of this nature that had this kind of effect. we don't know, we just don't know the full impact of this social distancing on the economy. we just don't know, do we? or as ash's point, we don't know how long it lasts. >> we really don't. i have never seen anything like this. however, again, this uncertainty

brings opportunity. you know, you just got to be positive. hopefully in the next year or two we will have a great vaccine out there and look at the markets in the next few years -- stuart: let me interrupt. you are convinced that at some point in the relatively near future, say later this year but certainly this year, there will be one big rebound? you convinced of that? >> i'm convinced. i'm convinced. it's going to be volatile, choppy. i have never seen anything like this. but i do think with this volatility we will see some nice swing back. stuart: you think politics makes any difference to this whatsoever? >> of course. i think it's a huge play. it's going to be an exciting day tonight and for months to come. stuart: you mean the michigan primary tomorrow? >> exactly. stuart: you think it will be good for investors if joe biden runs away with it? >> i do think so. i do think he's the candidate that most of us as investors would like to see in there rather than bernie. but i do think there's a lot of momentum with joe right now. stuart: would you say president trump is more popular than joe

when it comes -- with investors? >> i would say that is definitely true. certainly since he's been in office, we have seen even with today's turmoil, we are still seeing the market up quite a bit. like i said, it's been up over 50%, both the nasdaq and dow, since he's been in office. i think there's a lot of confidence in investors with president trump. stuart: thanks for jumping in real fast. we appreciate it. good stuff. >> thank you so much. stuart: we like to keep you up to date, up to speed, so to speak, on all the developments and we've got a development with the cdc, centers for disease control, regarding universities. lauren: their study abraudz progr abroad programs, they are considering calling back students who are studying abroad. several colleges are closing this week, and there's an issue, we are seeing it in grade school all the way up with spring break upon us, you can't police where these students and their families go, so what do you do when they come back? you have to vet everything,

where they have been, if they have been exposed and should we study programs using skype and issues like that when teaching students because we don't know where they have been on spring break. stuart: bringing them back from a year abroad, that kind of thing. ashley: italy doesn't allow them to leave. lauren: what happens to their credits, too. stuart: do we bring them back on the grounds they are americans and we have to take care of them? on what grounds do we want to bring them back? i don't get that. lauren: they are considering -- the cdc says colleges should consider asking students who are studying abroad to return home to the u.s. i guess the next discussion would be exactly how that goes about. stuart: classes are all online. stanford university did it last week. lauren: harvard is using zoom to do their lectures. stuart: heather zumarraga, i know you're there. you are there, aren't you? >> yes, i'm here. watching. i'm watching the market.

stuart: you have been listening to all we've had to say. a consistent theme is at some point in the relatively near future, we bounce back out of this. we come out of it and the market goes back up again. you think it will happen this year? >> i understand, i think it could happen this year. we need a vaccine and treatment for the virus. that's first and foremost. then the fact that oil is down over 30% in one day because of both the demand story from the coronavirus, no one is flying, the cruise ships, no one's taking a cruise anywhere, and china is not using as much demand, i think they use about 14 million on average per day, they're not using as much demand. couple that with the political story of saudi arabia and russia both in a price war on the price of oil, and that's what's really putting pressure on our markets. and the ten-year was below 50 basis points, i think it still is. that is a problem. it's not due to growth in the future.

it's not saying hey, we think the u.s. is going to slow down, because it's not. our economy is doing well. the problem is that people are buying our bonds and flocking to the u.s. as a safe haven, flight to safety, place of quality. stuart: i can tell you the virus is indeed spreading. new york's governor andrew cuomo, you are about to report that, the head of the new jersey/new york port authority has got it. he's confirmed -- ashley: tested positive. stuart: yeah. the port authority as it's colloquially called runs the airports, runs the ports, literally, and runs some of the trains, i believe, as well. penn station, for example. it's spread to rick cotton, who has announced he has tested positive for covid-19. he will be working from home. susan: new york state now has 142 positive cases of coronavirus. so that's up from 105 as of sunday, according to governor

cuomo. the numbers keep going up, including the port authority. wow. stuart: quite a development, i would say. in just a few moments we will be joined by sandra smith, c co-anchor of "america's newsroom." we are simulcasting with fox news. >> we will appear on each other's networks and shows. hello, stuart. stuart: good morning. let me report to you from the financial desk here. we've got a significant selloff on wall street. that is stock prices, way down. the dow industrials down 5.8% as we speak. the price of oil has tumbled all the way down to $34 per barrel. there's been what we call this flight to safety. a mad rush into the treasuries. united states treasuries, because they are dead safe. the money goes in, the price goes up and the yield comes tumbling down. in a nutshell, that's what we've got on the financial markets this morning. >> i know, stuart, from watching you and your show, as i dvr it

and watch it after mine, of course, that you are very optimistic on the u.s. economy. you are very positive on the economic numbers that you continue to see. so bring it all together as we see this more than 1500 point selloff on the dow and what happens next. stuart: in december, january and february, this economy was very strong, as you can see from the jobs report which we received at 8:30 eastern time on friday morning. 273,000 new jobs created in america the previous month. that is a very significant expansion. what it means is we have a strong economy, we know we are going into a slowdown situation here. we know that. but we've got a strong economy. in fact, we are probably best positioned to deal with this virus economically, that is, compared to our rivals and not necessarily opponents but other people. for example, italy has just

clamped down on and put in quarantine about a quarter of the population. that will almost certainly mean a recession and a bad one in italy, and that will spread to the rest of europe which is already close to recession. in other words, europe is heading south. japan already in a deep recession. their economy, amazingly enough, is contracting 7% per year as we speak and might get worse because they closed all the stores there. as for china, that economy is still on its back, supposed to be recovering gradually but still very much on its back. so we still have growth, strong economy, best positioned to weather the coming storm. >> let me give you some news that is coming in to us right now, and have you react to it. as far as the growing fears and cases of the coronavirus. we are getting word now that the port authority director has

tested positive, making now in new york state, the top state with the most cases, 142 cases now. stuart: yes. what this will do is encourage this movement towards what we call social distancing. that's the words used by dr. fauci at cdc. he says look, social distancing, i will spell this out, social distancing like in seattle is the way to go. i'm not talking about locking down anything, but don't go to crowded places. think twice before a long plane trip and for goodness sake, don't go on any cruises. that's the administration encouraging us to separate out, to have much less contact with our fellow human beings. that means less mall traffic, less plane traffic, less interaction between people, less economic activity. this means that the economy is going to slow down. of course, we don't know by how

much it will slow down and we don't know for how long it will slow down, but slow down, here it comes. you can see it. >> there was this production war over oil. you and i have covered oil and the oil markets for years. what do you think about seeing oil nearly $30 a barrel? stuart: i'm as stone shatonishe. you can't make a profit drilling in america for $30 a barrel. you can't make a profit. long run, however, the price of gas that you and i pay is going to come way, way, way, way down. >> already is down. stuart: that's one possible bright spot in this mess. >> stuart varney, we will let you get back to "varney & company" on the fox business network. appreciate your time this morning. thank you. stuart: my pleasure. thank you. we continue on the fox business network. the dow industrials, i'm going to say in a holding pattern, actually. ashley: for some time now. after we went down nearly 2100 points on the dow, we came back

if you want to call it that and have been in this range for the last hour. we are getting headlines from the national retail federation. they say the impact on imports is expected to be larger and last longer than previously expected. however, this as they say as factories in china continue to come back online. the products are now flowing again. that's good news. that's a sign things are trying to get back to normal in china. but the impact on imports will be larger and bigger than expected. stuart: look at the winner. top left-hand corner. walmart. that's a winner. up two bucks. we just don't see that much green, do we. walmart is up two bucks, $119 per share. you've got news on target? lauren: target stock up today? we do know they are limiting sales of disinfectant wipes because everybody is nervous and going out and buying any spray or wipe or hand sanitizers they can. they are limiting sales of

disinfectant wipes because there's high demand. you can't go in and buy everything they have. they want to make sure there's something for everybody. stuart: you can buy something, but you can't buy the entire shelf. lauren: correct. we had trouble buying toilet paper this weekend. susan: do you know how much clorox wipes are costing? they are being charged $90 on amazon. price gouging is real. stuart: let me give an important update on clorox wipes. did you see this this morning? we had it demonstrated on the set. you've got a clorox wipe, doing all this all over, you've got to leave it for four minutes until it dries. so you and i may be just go over the door knob and walk away. no, you have to do a thorough job and make sure it dries. it's got to be kind of wet and disinfected and away you go. clorox is up. why are you leafing?

why are you laughing? >> you bring up an interesting point. there was a time in our economy when this slowdown would be a big deal but the digital economy helped cushion some of this concern. you can order food to come in. you can order your supplies. the digital economy does help consumer spending continue. you know what the low gas prices result in? low gas prices mean people go out and buy bigger trucks, they get around more. in many ways as we have said, it's going to hurt parts of the economy and parts of the economy will do quite well. stuart: the average price for gas is about $2.40 a gallon and falling very very quickly. i think you will get back to $2.20 pretty soon which i think is bad news for the electric car business, isn't it? why would you buy an electric car if you can get gas at $2.20? ashley: exactly. stuart: andrew left, citron research guy, with us now. obvious question, what are you buying, anything?

>> amazon. if you talk about social distancing, a great company, they had a great number last month. amazon is outperforming the nasdaq today. i think it just hits on all different areas right now. you can go to bed comfortably and buy if it goes lower. stuart: have you bought it? >> i'm long amazon. i was long some last week, down, i bought a little more today. i'm being cautious, obviously. but i think of all the names out there right now, amazon is, for a blue chip stock, the safest bet. stuart: what else can you see that's depressed which you would consider buying in the immediate future? >> how about it's easier to say what i will stay away from. i have zero interest in bottom picking any of the hotels, cruise lines, airlines, air canada is positioned the best of all the airlines, i believe, but to go find the bottom or think it's down 40%, down 50%, it's just foolish.

there's other, there are great companies out there to buy. you have to accept the fact the social distancing trend is not going to come to an end, meaning we will find ways to work, when i say zoom, telemedicine, t-doc, to find ways to work, new ways to live in this world. stuart: i think you're right. >> using technology. stuart: i think you are exactly right. i think an awful lot of those people who will now be told work from home or work three days a week from home or four days. i think -- >> it's very important also for medicare, for people over 65, to be able to visit their doctor without actually having to go to the doctor and possibly make themselves more sick. i think telemedicine is a big trend we will see in the next five years and medicare advantage, the rush to medicare advantage, i believe that's another big trend we will see. i'm buying benefit technologies, bfyt, they enroll people in medicare advantage plans. i think that will benefit from

the move to telemedicine. but it's a change in the way we live and it's okay if the economy comes back a little bit. not everything can keep growing. we will probably come out of this, i can't predict when, i'm not a doctor, not a viral specialist, but when we do we will be a stronger country knowing how to deal with these situations. stuart: will it be a strong bounce back when it comes? >> well, this whole country is predicated, the economy, on the american consumer. we don't see any jobs being lost. so that's fine. yes, there should be a strong bounce back but you have to be particular into what stocks you are going to buy. do i think the cruise industry will recover so fast, maybe not. i see live nation which is a wonderful company with the live events, how much do people go back to concerts and sporting events, live events, they will still be a bit shy. but amazon and apple are good strong companies. stuart: you are buying bfyt, is

that correct? benefit technologies? that's it? >> yes. stuart: bfyt. okay. andrew, thanks for joining us. we do appreciate it. good stuff indeed. okay. susan, you have news on the coronavirus? susan: the white house is clarifying what exactly social distancing means. stephanie grisham just came out with a statement saying that reports that the white house has issued formal guidelines to staff instructing them to limit in-person interactions and meetings, she says are completely false. in fact, she says what we have asked all americans to exercise common sense hygiene measures, we are conducting business as usual and she wants to remind the media, by the way, once again, to be responsible with your reporting. stuart: that is interesting. we did get that report, i forget what the source was. i honestly can't remember. we were told that the white house was discouraging face-to-face meetings. but apparently stephanie grisham says not so.

susan: not instructing them to limit any in-person interaction while companies are informing -- instructing their global employees to stay home. apple has done that for all global offices, if you can stay home for the week, stay home. stuart: we did see president trump work a rope line earlier this morning, shaking hands up and down the line. david? >> the president is going about business as usual which is what americans should be doing, being properly cautious about washing your hands, limiting some interactions. stuart: it's a fine line, isn't it? >> it is. stuart: you don't want panic. you just don't want that. you don't want to catapult people into a crazed situation. >> fear of the unknown. stuart: at the same time, you can't give too much sit back and relax, it's not that bad. it's a very fine line right down the middle there. >> it is. but we are getting daily briefings from the cdc, we are encouraging the pharmaceutical companies to come up with a

virus which there are reports that by the end of the year, there may be a breakthrough on that. stuart: vaccine. >> americans asked in survey after survey have a high approval rating of what the government is doing. ultimately this potentially from a political perspective could be another one where you have the media and the democrats trying to pin fear on the president and in the long term it becomes a political winner. people right now believe he's doing a good job on it. that can only continue if we can limit the number of those who contract it and the economy continues to stay strong. stuart: well, the health and human services secretary alex azar, he was on this program about an hour ago saying look, we've got 2.1 million tests that are out there and a couple million more to come. i always think the test is the most important thing, because if you can say you've got it, you don't have it and you can say it relatively quickly, you can say who goes into quarantine and who

comes out of quarantine and lessen the economic impact. i thought that was interesting news which may have helped move the market a little bit. let's recap. we have the dow down 1,300 points. sounds like a lot and it is, but it's back almost 800 points, 750, maybe, from the low of earlier this morning. got it. now, speaker pelosi has been talking about the markets. here's what she had to say. roll tape, please. >> well, it's very sad but i believe what we know about the dow is that they want certainty. they want confidence that there is a plan. i think what is happening there is a reflection of the lack of confidence. so we would hope that what is coming out of the white house will be more consistent with what the health advisers are putting forth and we are very proud that we were able to pass last week in a strong bipartisan

way an $8.3 billion legislation to help address this challenge. stuart: okay. the speaker there had some comment about the administration's handling so far. she doesn't think much. >> the appropriations she talked about that was requested by the president, he requested, congress gives it and yet today, she says wish he would be better on this issue. it goes to, again, when you are criticized for everything, you ultimately get criticized for nothing. the democrats continue to want to put fear -- the fear of the unknown drives much of this for the democrats in their messaging, we don't know what's going to happen, it's going to be terrible, then it's not as terrible as predicted. sometimes it's even better.

that's why i just said politically, this could long term be a winner for president trump. s stt. stuart: heather zumarraga with us. you have heard this plan to inject money into vulnerable groups. you heard about the federal reserve maybe dropping 50 basis points this month, 50 basis points in april. you have heard about the tests, you saw the president working the rope line, you know there's a meeting at the white house this afternoon. all of that taken together, is that why the dow has come back by 800 points? >> i think the administration is handling this very well. the coronavirus is not a political situation. i think i heard steve forbes say the virus did not come from trump tower, okay. this most likely originated in china, in wuhan, and the president has taken commendable

steps in the beginning from day one from banning visitors from china, and he didn't get a lot of credit for that. now the 8.3 stimulus is a bipartisan stimulus plan passed, again, not getting a lot of credit for that either. so no matter what he does, the media will bash him. the economy in the u.s. is very strong. you briefly mentioned the jobs data we got on friday, 273,000 jobs added, and i feel like maybe cnn and msnbc are just going to cover that up and only focus on the virus which again, this is not something that's political. this is an epidemic. it has nothing to do with the president. stuart: for how long on cnn and msnbc was it russia, russia, russia, then obstruction of justice, then impeachment. all that's gone. now what have you got? you've got the virus to go at him with. i mean, really. it drives me up the wall. christian whiton still with us. what's your reaction to this? i just think the democrats, really negative on the president at a time when they should be looking towards national unity.

>> yeah. nancy pelosi's comments just struck me as very inaccurate, unhelpful. she is literally the least effective speaker of the house in modern history and to use this to sort of try to score a point or two off the president, the president has tweeted out in the last hours some very basic information, comparing this outbreak to mortality related to the flu and i think a lot of americans are going to react to that. they are not going to react to the scare mongering. they will react to what they see in their communities. when people don't start dropping like flies from this, they unfortunately expedite health problems for people who are already at risk or ill. but it's not going to change things fundamentally. believe it or not, we have forgotten, we have been through things like this before with h1n1, swine flu, in 2009, that did lead to a round of mortality. it wasn't gargantuan but that's what people are going to respond to after this initial scare, and frankly, i don't think the news is that bad. stuart: okay. i've got time to bring in jeff

hoffman, the man who helped build expedia and priceline. you were heavily involved in organizing travel companies and they are being taken to cleaners today. what do you make of this? >> oh, they sure are. it's bad everywhere. the numbers are down everywhere and it's hurting the little people. you have been talking a lot today about the effect on the economy. what people don't see, for example, obviously the travel stocks are way down and revenues are way down and rooms and planes are a lot emptier but it hurts people on the far end. there are hotel workers, for example, when you think of the maids and janitors and all these people that are being furloughed and laid off because they don't have rooms for them to clean, they are not spending their money in the economy so the ripple effect of travel being down is massive. stuart: how long do you think this lasts? i'm talking about the soercial distancing where we don't travel so much, don't rub shoulders with people, don't go shopping, don't go to the mall, how long

does it last? >> i think per your previous guest, i think this will have more of a long-term effect than people think because companies that haven't used social distancing, haven't used zoom for a meeting, haven't used a lot of teleworking and are using it right now in the interim thinking they will just use it during the time of coronavirus, they are going to find there's a lot of efficient technology tools that limit the need to travel so that they can do work socially online with technology. i think it's going to last a little longer than we think. i can't predict that either. but i think the long term effect is going to be negative on travel as well, because of the use of technology now. stuart: do you have an opinion on what we should do with these cruise ships that are moored off our shores which contain passengers who have tested positive? what should dwwe do with those people? >> you know, you said last week, i think it was, i'm not afraid -- i'm not afraid of getting the coronavirus as i am of being quarantined.

stuart: yes, i did say that. >> on a ship or in a little room somewhere. that is a very frightening thing, more than the virus, being stranded away from home, away from work and it's stressing people out. i think that until they -- one of the things cruise lines are doing now is they are doing onboard testing. you are being screened before you ever get on the ship. but cruise ships stop at ports and let everybody off. each time you come back on, it's a much more difficult process to screen them. until they can check and separate the passengers on a ship, come on board and separate the passengers on a ship that have the virus and those that don't, those quarantines i think are going to continue. stuart: i know you were a founder or helped get going expedia. may i ask, do you have any stock left in it? >> i do not have any stock left in it, but the stocks are obviously taking a huge beating. i think i wrote -- i looked a month ago, they were 108 and i think they are low 80s today.

booking was at like 1880 a month ago, today it's 1540. airlines stocks, the same thing. american i think a month ago was $28 a share and it's like $14 today. travel stocks are getting beat up really bad for obvious reasons. but it's not all bad news. there are some absolutely incredible travel deals out there right now for the people that want to go somewhere. stuart: i'm told that some of the airlines, i'm not going to use a particular company name, but i'm told they are offering like round trip tickets to europe for 200 bucks. ashley: you would be the only one on the plane. stuart: if you cancel you get your money back no problem. is that accurate? >> that is absolutely accurate. there are flights round trip, paris, rome, for two something round trip. i saw one just under $200 round trip to hawaii. europe is on sale. a lot of destinations are on sale. they don't charge cancellation

fees right now. you can get a refund and i have to say this, stuart. airplanes have never been cleaner. the world health organization pointed out that you are not more likely to get the virus being on the plane as you are in any other area, where you are sitting with a bunch of other people and planes are a little more empty now. southwest airlines announced yesterday they are spending six to seven hours every night cleaning planes. the airlines are sanitizing planes in between flights which they never did before. and people talk about recirculated air. air planes use hepa filters, the same filter that's in the intensive care unit of a hospital. online conditions have never been cleaner on an airplane. probably unless it's the person sitting next to you, which is a possibility, your odds are not any higher of getting the virus just because you are on an airplane. stuart: thank you very much for joining us. i will explain to our viewers on the right-hand side of the screen, that is the cruise liner which is approaching oakland,

california. it will dock at around 3:00 p.m. -- sorry, 3:00 p.m. eastern time, that's correct. so approximately three hours from now. it will be noon in california. and it's going to dock but it's only going to be allowed to stay there for three days. the mayor of oakland has insisted that the thing dock in an area which can be quarantined off. anybody who has got the virus will be then airlifted to a military base somewhere and the ship will sail out of there after three days. that was a condition applied by the mayor of oakland, california. all right. i think we better do a check on the market because we have come back a little. ashley: under 5% down now. stuart: look at this. first of all, the ten-year treasury, that's an extraordinary thing. the yield has actually almost doubled since early this morning. we were at 0.31%, at historic

lows, extraordinary low. ashley: the 30-year is back to 1%. stuart: look at that. the ten-year is back to .589, a virtual doubling -- i have never, ever seen anything close to that before. dow industrials down 1200 points as we speak. that's a comeback of 800 points. now, look, there's another, what, four hours of trading left here. we are nowhere near the end of the day and nobody in his right mind would attempt to say where we are going to close this afternoon. i'm not going to even try that. anybody here want to try it? susan: i have a feeling it turned around when the administration said they were going to come up with measures to help out the hardest hit industries and also paid sick leave and other fiscal measures to help prop up the economy so we don't fall into recession because you can only cut interest rates so much, and interest rates only have so much of an effect. by the way, alex azar after his interview with you said the trump administration has tools to keep the economy strong. stuart: that's what -- there's

this meeting at the white house this afternoon when the president gets back, what are you going to do to keep it strong. look at the options. by the way, here's a social gathering that's just been canceled. if you were planning to go to dublin for st. patrick's day parade, don't. ashley: not going to happen. stuart: it's canceled. st. patrick's day parade in dublin, ireland. ashley: wonder if that will happen in new york. stuart: good question. we have a gigantic parade in new york city every year, st. patrick's day parade. wonder if that will be held. y i don't want to speculate one way or the other but surely this is in question. ashley: these are the questions we are asking right now. susan: it's susan: sporting events are at risk. brackets come out middle of this month, games start own 17th and 18th, that the ncaa should be played without any spectators. >> lebron james doesn't like the idea, by the way.

stuart: doesn't want to play in empty stadium. susan: bnp paribas first major sporting event canceled because of coronavirus. stuart: i didn't hear that. where was it to be played. >> that was out west. that's done. stuart: south by southwest conference is gone as well. this news came to us 40 minutes ago,ed head of the new york and new jersey port authority, does, he has tested positive for this virus and will now be quarantined at home. you may well see a lot of this because we've got tests. there are now over two million tests in place which will be administered. more millions of tests coming. when those tests are applied, there will be some people turn up positive. the number of cases in america will go up significantly. how the market takes that i really don't know. a test is a very important thing because you can say you got it, you don't have it, you're in quarantine, you're not in

quarantine. i think we'll be in a position to say that. i think i'm technically accurate with that one. okay, so, this afternoon, meeting in the white house. they will come up with options. that appears to stablize the market. good news for president trump. >> yes and democrats should plan and be safe and go ahead and cancel the democratic national convention. you would not want to spread coronavirus. stuart: that is in july by the way. a long way away. >> you can't be too safe. stuart: heather zumarriaga, before we close out the show, last word to you, you sat there patiently, for the last hour 1/2, at least. observations, observations please, heather? >> look i think the market has come back. it is coming back off the lows. i still think if you're a retail investor it would be prudent to wait. you can dollar-cost-average into the markets that means you have a smaller amount of money. if you have $10,000, you invest $1000 over 10 different periods and consistent timing increments, taking advantage of days like today.

i still think it will be very volatile, both today and into the close, and over the next two weeks. stuart: thank you, heather. i did want to let everybody know, i did do an unofficial survey of foot traffic and stuff like that over the weekend. i went to a restaurant in new jersey which usually has a line out the door for sunday brunch. it was hat empty. i went to a couple supermarkets, could not buy cleaning fluids and wipes. all sold out. the foot traffic in those supermarkets was very, very low. i was there on a saturday and a sunday as well. very low. i as surprised to see that our producer went to the short hills mall, in new jersey, i'm sorry the willowbrook mall in new jersey, very famous, packed apparently. absolutely packed. >> they were packed. people were using wipes every time they used a keyboard or something like that but the stores are packed. stuart: fascinating to see how it will work out.

i will keep my distance from all fellow human beings. ashley: good. stuart: will be a popular move, i do declare. i don't want to get into quarantine. i want to be here to do the job. i want to say thank you to everybody who helped out today. many thanks. connell mcshane. it is yours. connell: wow, what a day. i'm connell mcshane in for neil cavuto. certainly coronavirus fears, played a big role in that but we also have a huge political clash we're covering between saudi arabia and russia over oil production, and with that a crash in the oil price. the largest single day drop in nearly three decades. oil at $34. it like the stock market is off the lows.