1938. [closing bell rings] s&p down 220, the worst session since late 2008, the worst price for oil since the persian gulf war in 1991. that will do it for "the claman countdown." connell: wow, what a day. we have a oil price war on our hands. put it mildly that is weighing own wall street. all three major market averages sinking. third day in a row we've seen that. we have coronavirus fears and oil, the biggest one day drop in 30 years. opec and russia failing to agree on deeper production cuts in face of weaker demand. the dow appears more than down 2,000 points. we'll see how this settles. it was down a little more than this earlier in the session. 2158 to the downside was the low. we're pretty close to bear market territory, down by 7.82%. we have not had a day like this since 2018.

this is worse than almost all of those days as well. -- 2008. we'll put it in perspective. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis this is "after the bell." the s&p 500, the nasdaq both closing down more than 7%. president trump is expected to meet with senior officials at the white house this afternoon amid coronavirus fears. we'll bring you any headlines from the president this hour. we have fox business team coverage. phil flynn is watching all the action. that is where the action is, in the oil pits of the cme. kristina partsinevelos is on the floor of the new york stock exchange and blake burman is live at the white house. phil, i'm going to start with you. i have some ideas. the president could open up and fill the spr. >> hey, that is a great idea. they were selling high a few months ago trying to get rid of it to pay off the budget. now they could be buying low. that is not the first that happened. president clinton did the same thing.

bought oil from russia when they needed money. melissa: that is great idea if i say so myself. >> hey. i love you being around here. email me this stuff. make a long story short, i actually think that is what china is going to do. they will take advantage of low prices. they have bought the oil they need to refine for this month. there is such a price war that they will continue to buy. the question is the fallout in the global economy. a lot of time when we see these kind of drops it is a crisis of confidence. it is not about low oil prices, not about who will survive, who will win opec, around opec plus, their credibility took a big hit. they're trying to build credibility as the world's central bank of oil. they failed miserably. if they don't get back together as an organization, they're going to have a hard time winning back the confidence of the global markets. melissa: phil, i know they're going to the mattresses when you talk about saudi arabia and

russia but you mentioned china. this is really important point because who is getting hurt economically by sars? china. what is one way they can help themselves in the recovery? they can buy discounted oil hand over fist, have it on hand for a low price for their recovery. they have the storage capacity for it too. you mentioned that. that would be a strong move both for their economy and to prop up oil prices, real quick what do you think. >> no doubt about it. it is like lowering interest rates for them. melissa: right. >> at some point we'll get a bounce of demand down the road, right? the question can we get through next couple months, u.s. producers. you're absolutely right, like lowering interest rates. at some point it will give a boom to the demand for oil but it will be a while. melissa: i have confidence those in washington will support those frackers here in the u.s. they're on the case. phil, thank you. connell. connell: let's talk about stocks right now. kristina partsinevelos joins us from the floor of the new york

stock exchange. obviously we had worse days percentage wise. the market crashed 22% in 1987. even if you go back to the financial crisis in 2008, i believe the worst day we ever had on october 15th of that year, we were down 7.8% on the dow. pretty close to that today. take us through what was an awful day for stocks. kristina: connell, amazing you brought up the percentage drop. we talked about all the points falling. we should look at the drop in percentage. all major u.s. benchmarks closing well over 7% lower with the dow. talk about a historic day. you fact you had circuit halters pause all markets in the united states, when the s&p 500 was down 7%. oil spiraling down which phil flynn spoke about. there is a lot of movement on the floor in terms how they will mitigate theistic going forward. it has been broad-based including nasdaq which is tech-heavy. we look at dow losers for the

day. unfortunately quite a few on the board. dow, chevron expected with the oil and gas producers. the fact that jpmorgan has 7% exposure to oil and gas out of total equity. one ever the stories on boeing the faa said the company needs to resolve electrical wiring issues on the 737 max. still not moving forward with that. talking about the 10-year treasury yield. the fact the yield jumped 20 basis points within a few hours. that is a lot of movement. it hit a record low of 31 or almost 32 basis points. the fact i have that to speak in basis points instead of percentages is really showing the change. volatility exemplified by vix, huge spike towards end of the day. back to you. connell: all together a 2,000 point down day by the dow. christina, thank you. melissa: blake burman from the white house with more. reporter: president trump arrived at the white house 35,

40 minutes ago. if he hasn't already president will meet soon with vice president mike pence. treasury secretary steve mnuchin, his top economic advisor larry kudlow, potentially others as well to discuss possible economic stimulus measures. i'm toll options will be put before the president for consideration. one option is paid leave if you miss work because of the coronavirus. another one is deferring tax payments for those in the travel industry, like airliners and cruise liners. nothing has been formalized. president's top advisors were talking amongst themselves talking about potential options. as of this morning it was still all being hashed out. what remains to be seen if the president acts on any, some or none of what was put before them. whether or not he might green light any of the possibilities. this won't be the only major meeting here at the white house this week. tomorrow the vice president will be meeting with executives from the health care industry. that includes heads of aetna,

unitedhealth, blue cross, blue shield to name a handful. i was told earlier today as well. the white house invited wall street executives here on wednesday to meet with president trump. as of this afternoon those invites to the wall street execs were still going out. melissa, connell, back to you. >> interesting. i want to hear more about that later, blake. thank you for that. are market fears spreading to the street? susan li talking to people outside of the new york stock exchange. susan, i don't know about you, when saudi arabia and russia decided to go to the mattresses over the weekend, people were talking about it in new york, a lot of financial people and lot of traders, what is the talk like down there? susan: uncharted territory, what they mentioned to me, saying this is an unknown in the market but here right on the corner of wall and broad, you can call this the heart of capitalism as well, there is a whole lot of movement as well. crone cron fears don't seem to be evident here. as you can see, wall street and

stock market plummet is one of the big stories. we have multiple camera crews here at the corner. speaking to the average trader, not wall street traders there isn't a whole lot of panic. listen. >> i did a lot of my selling actually. i got lucky up at the taupe. i sold a couple good things up at the talk. there is buying opportunity right here. there is great opportunities right now to buy. >> there is a scare with the coronavirus thing. it disrupted market. it will romp. i'm not really highly concerned. >> it is down pretty big today but i think with the jobs numbers for february i think the economy is strong enough it will come back after this kind of a scare. susan: person after person we talked to on the street here, they said we've seen this before 2008. this is a buying opportunity in their view, look how stock markets recovered and gone up since the financial crisis. also for the dow itself, we were

just 200 points away from hitting bear market territory. that is 20% down from the raiset peaks. there is a whole lot of optimism there is lots of tourists here, despite the fact we talk about the coronavirus and spread and increasing cases here in new york city. i would say this is a very optimistic day despite we're looking 2,000 points down for the dow. melissa: susan that is real new york. people are out in short sleeves. it is 70 degrees. there is coronavirus. there is a selloff, people are outside enjoying it. not a lot of panic. thank you. susan: yes. melissa: connell. connell: get out of new york, go to texas, talk about the plunge we saw in the oil price and pressure it puts on oil companies in places like west texas. our next guest joins us from there by phone. tommy keller is the head of oil and ranch development, the director there. i was lucky enough to spend the day with tommy back in of 2018

we were talking about the boom in your business, the midland, texas, area, now we're afraid to be talking about the possible bust. 31-dollar oil, tommy, i want to accomplish as much as i can in the few minutes we have together. where is the price, people in your business, the shale business, need order to be in order to be profitable in 2020? where is that price? >> hey, connell, good talking to you. i think certainly over $40 a barrel is what probably on average. it depends on what particular shale play you're in. some of them are more productive than others but i would say 40 is probably the number we talk about a lot. as bottom. connell: that number used to be higher. >> go ahead. connell: i was going to say that number used to be higher years ago. that's why i wanted to ask you about it. you can make it work for you at

40 but certainly not 31 if you want to be in your business. your company is privately held. a number of companies are not. we looked at them today. all the shale producers up on the screen got hammered in the stock market, 30, 40, 50% to the downside, even more. first of all, how is your company going to adapt and or deal with this, and what are you hearing from colleagues in the industry? >> oil, first thing we'll do see how long it lasts. is it going to be a west texas pothole or really fall off a cliff? i think cooler heads will prevail. we're in a unique time where supply has gone up and demand has flattened somewhat so there seems like there is a lot of negativity in the market right now a lot will depend on how long russia, saudi arabia duke

it out. connell: what about jobs in the industry or bankruptcies, words talked about and whispered on wall street today, are they talking about it or do you know anybody thinking about it in your area? >> yeah. you know, 2019 there were quite a few bankruptcies but there still has been a lot of activity. i remember when you were here during doing half million barrels of oil a day. we were saying can we get to 6 million barrels a day in the permian. we're at 4.8 million barrels a day right now. we increased production which is phenomenal. i expect if this goes on long we'll see a drop in the rig count and production. connell: we have to go. is there a role for government to play somehow helping out your industry? melissa brought up the strategic petroleum reserve earlier. talk about stimulus or help for

the lenders s there a role for government needs to play or best for them to stay out of it? >> well out of it if they're good traders they buy at low prices. that is what people do, you know. like they were saying earlier china could take advantage of that and buy some crude cheap. i think as it unwinds things will stablize and the price will go back up some. that is what we're hopeful for anyway. connell: good perspective as always. hopefully see you in person again. tommy taylor. melissa, exactly what you were saying. >> here is adam lashinsky, fortune executive director and john layfield, layfield reports, both fox news contributors. john, let me start with you, i don't know what the level of the strategic petroleum reserve is right now. it holds about 720 billion barrels, million, sorry, million barrels at a time. they could buy crude oil from these frackers like the gentleman we just heard.

they could also support them with sba loans to keep the industry stable. one of the things credit markets are afraid of those guys going into bankruptcy. what are your thoughts? >> this is a real contagion possibility out here in west texas because some of the guys are levered so high. chevron own as lot of land they drill on through a legacy program they had before. exxonmobil is okay. most of the rest of the guys are levered. most of them needed around $50 a barrel to pay off the notes. they were highly levered. they were starting to lose the ability to get more credit before this problem hit. as far as buying oil cheap and selling it high, that sounds great but what happens if it goes from 30 to 20, instead of 30 to 60? we don't know what will happen here, as far as what happens between saudi arabia and russia. remember the fall of the soviet union a lot was predicated because of low oil prices that crushed russia because of saudi arabia keeping the spying goat open. there -- spigot open. there is lot of contagion with

oil companies that need prices higher because they have a lot of things to pay oaf. melissa: that's true. it is not likely. they're the ones forcing down the price, adam. it is a race to the bottom ostensibly between russia and saudi arabia. it is one of those things i don't know how long either of them can hold out because they're very much dependent on the price of oil. they have to cry uncle at some point here in the meantime. d.c. could act like the federal reserve. this industry, especially when our oil fracking supply is critical to our security here at home, being able to have our own oil supply. what are your thoughts? >> well, i feel like we're juggling seven or eight different topics at once. because of the size of our industry in north america, particularly the united states so there is no concern for get thing supply so therefore there

is no security concern. oil and what it does to the economy is one much seven or eight topics i was alluding to so i feel like this is separate subject. as you point out this is far more top i can for saudi arabia and russia than the united states. those equity drops, for every company we put it up on the screen is just shocking. that is wall street thinking these companies are done, which you know, john was alluding to. melissa: you disagree with that? or you think these companies are done? >> no, i'm saying they might, investors may well be right for the reasons, for the debt issues john was talking about. melissa: interesting. guys, thank you. connell: president trump expected to meet with senior aides at the white house and talk about some sort of stimulus package to off set issues of coronavirus and other issues. we're live at the white house to get the latest next.

melissa: florida officials are advising people for people that travel to virus hot spots to isolate 14 days as passengers on board a ship off the state's coast are awaiting their test results. connell: putting the virus in some context, cdc releasing new numbers comparing it with the flu. ♪. ♪ do you recall, not long ago ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪ ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we need someone to lean on ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ all we needed somebody to lean on ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ all we need is someone to lean on ♪

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connell: we'll get to the white house weighing idea of some sort of a stimulus plan t would help businesses impacted by coronavirus. that would be the idea. edward lawrence at the white house with what we know, what questions we're asking, edward? >> out of this meeting, the president expected to be there. secretary in nichin they want toe see what the white house has to offer. for the list of house speaker nancy pelosi, number one on the list is sick leave, paid sick leave especially those impacted by quarantine. she wants clear protection for health care workers. reimbursement for non-covered coronavirus health care prices.

also anti-price gouging protections on medical and non-medical essentials. connell: edward, i'm sorry. the meeting where, were you throwing to a sound bite anyway. sorry to interrupt you. reporter: that is good. house speaker nancy pelosi is saying she is concerned that the white house is concerned with the tax relief targeted towards corporate america. she wants to see working americans are seeing that too. the white house saying they will look at americans. connell, that meeting is happening just to be clear now, it is underway. we'll check back. edward lawrence on the north lawn. melissa: we were talking about that. dan henninger, "wall street journal," fox news contributor. dan, they have the volume up and listening to ideas there. i don't want congress working on this. they have don't know anything about money. they will open a giant fire hose and spray indiscrimenantly.

>> right. melissa: we have the right financial team. larry kudlow, steve mnuchin, the president, they understand very well about credit. what would you tell them to do, and how much at this point? >> well i think the baseline going into any of these conversations is. >> the economy is very strong. there is note 2008 where the economy is not strong. we don't into evidence the obama stimulus of $800 billion thrown into the economy. more importantly i'm a little bit concerned as we try to get our arms around the coronavirus, you see the white house, democrats on capitol hill bogging down into usual political food fight. that is the last thing the american people want toe see in washington right now, is an argument how they should be spending money. let's face it, if we're looking at a crisis like this, somewhat

similar to crises hurricanes caused in houston, florida, puerto rico. you have disaster relief to deal with that sort of thing, people impacting by the coronavirus there are mechanisms to deal with that. melissa: we don't want the wheels of the economy to come grinding to a halt. things that would do that would be a lockup in the credit markets. >> yeah. melissa: the fed is coming in with injections in the repo market overnight. would you like to see more of that? we could see, you know, there is things like tarp. there is the sba. they could go in and back up, you know some smaller businesses that might be going under. you know i was suggesting before they could buy oil from the strategic petroleum reserve from these frackers that are leveraged to the hilt as we know. we could support that industry. it is important to security. what are, these teeny, targeted tools, that you could see kudlow and mnuchin go in with, what are some you would put in their tool

kit? >> far being it from me to suggest the president should start beating up on the fed again but i do think the federal reserve here has a responsibility to provide some short term liquidity into the system so banks, currency markets out there are able to function. that would reassure the country if the markets started to come back because the fed was putting in short-term liquidity. i don't think we need to do long-term injections of liquidity which would potentially create a problem inflation which would be harder to reverse further down the road. at the margin the watchword should be stability. stablize the markets. stablize a fundamentally strong economy until we get a better idea exactly what the extent of the coronavirus threat actually is. melissa: yeah. dan, thank you. appreciate it. >> good to be with you. connell: news on 2020 election. effect of the virus on primaries and the race moving forward.

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connell: we're back here with a fox business alert as we come up on the bottom of the hour. the federal reserve, wondering whether we would hear from them, releasing a statement. that statement is just coming in here from the fed encouraging institutions to meet the needs of their customers amid the virus outbreak. what does that mean? edward lawrence rejoins us with a little more detail. what is the fed saying, edward? reporter: federal reserve released a statement making sure agencies and government, also bank affected by coronavirus work with, understand what is going on, prepare for what could happen next coming months or so the federal reserve asking agencies like this, these couple agencies, fd-c. the occ, consumer financial protection bureau, to make argue arrangements if the little of service as the coronavirus expands. the agencies have to recognize the financial impact of

coronavirus on customers, members, operations of many financial institutions. it goes on to say the fed will help those institutions try to keep the status quo, keep the level of service that they have. they also say that banks should work with customers and borrowers who may be affected, or in those affected communities from the coronavirus knowing there will be a economic impact of some sort in those communities. also the federal reserve recommending those agencies, banks as well, financial institutions monitor their staffing and be aware this will impact them in terms of level of staffing they have, in terms of where their employees can work, possibly at home. or if their employees can't work at all. be prepared and make plans now for the future as the korean crone -- coronavirus spreads in the united states. connell: a lot of businesses are saying things like that. sounds to me listening to your language, encouragement, kelling companies and institution what is they should do, no

requirements or actions? >> no mandates. this is a warning signal. you need to be aware of this. you need to make plans to deal with this. i think a lot of banks i heard are making plans, limiting travel for their employees. also some financial institutions. connell: yeah. >> maybe some agencies haven't really thought about this on the local level. that is what they're encouraging everyone to do. connell: thank you, edward lawrence with us once again from the white house. melissa: going viral in 2020. how the coronavirus outbreak could hit this year's presidential election. that's next. connell: putting it in some context, how the virus stacks up against other threats to your health later in the hour. why don't you call td ameritrade for a strategy gut check? what's that? you run it by an expert, you talk about the risk and potential profit and loss. could've used that before i hired my interior decorator. voila!

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melissa: tomorrow's primary in michigan a pivotal moment for the campaign of bernie sanders, a clear front-runner two weeks ago, now almost fighting for his political life, down double digits in the latest detroit poll. jeff flock live in detroit with details. jeff? reporter: i think you're right, melissa. he will be rallying here in dearborn tonight. that is all about the auto industry. that is the ford world headquarters in dearborn behind me. with the virus i don't know how that will impact thing. joe biden came to the state first time today, rallying with cory booker, himself a presidential candidate until not too long ago. they met in flint for a big rally. bernie sanders has been here all

weekend. he senses how important this is, campaigning with jesse jackson and alexandria ocasio-cortez, who unless i'm off my gain, she struck a bit more con tiller to tone when she -- conciliatory tone and met with him and spoke on his behalf yesterday. bernie sanders on "fox news sunday" seemed a little more conciliatory towards millionaires. listen to both of them. >> in order for us to win we have to grow, we have to grow. we must be inclusive. we must bring more people into this movement. we must shed the unnecessary clothes of cynicism. >> no one is denigrating people who made significant achievements but enough is really enough. does mike bloomberg really need $65 billion to see his wealth increase by 15 billion the last three years? reporter: i suspect maybe mr. bloomberg's fortune has been reduced somewhat by his

presidential run. at any rate, look at numbers on the poll, you mentioned it, melissa, you broke it down as, by age. age group. it is young people still in bernie sanders's corner. old people like me tend to favorite people like vice president biden this is a state, biggest state on the map tomorrow, 125 delegates. finally how many delegates do they have now? bernie sanders as you point out was the front-runner after super tuesday. not so much now. almost 100 delegate lead for biden. i guess we'll see tomorrow. supposed to rain by the way. melissa: jeff, thank you. connell: bob cusack joins us to talk a little bit more about this. rain might keep young sanders supporters away. bob editor-in-chief of "the hill." jeff gave us a lot of information. bernie did win the state as you know in 2016. he had a pretty big comeback then. that is the hope, right?

they write him off and he comes back from the dead. >> it was a huge upset. hillary clinton was supposed to win michigan but sanders pulled off a big victory. he really need a big victory in michigan. i don't think it will happen if you look at the polls. it is such a swing state, such an important state in the general election. if you look at washington state, that is a different story. he dominated that in 2016. he is the favorite there. but he has got to make up some ground. the bigger picture, other than the delegate count which is important is momentum and joe biden has all of it right now on the democratic side. connell: it is crazy how much this race has changed. we've all gone on to talking now at least on our network about the markets and virus, everything else. to think back on change of dynamics in this race. that is another thing we haven't seen this happen that often this dramatically. it has to change, biden has the momentum. what about though, the state of the news cycle right now and how that plays out for the rest of the race? the virus being at the top of

people's minds? talked about so much in washington, how does that play first in the primary and you think in the general in terms of who it may help or hurt? >> the coronavirus is affecting all aspects of life, whether that is conferences or ports. there are some calls now to end political rallies. so this is a big deal. as far as who it helps i don't think it's a huge thing on the democratic side. democrats have been, you know, criticizing the president but that is their go-to in any type of election year, no matter who is the party, the president will get criticized. i don't think it is a huge thing. however at the next debate upcoming, next weekend, that is when sanders has to strike. i think that biden and sanders have to say, what they would be doing differently than the president right now. connell: or each other, right? sanders is revolution guy. biden clearly is not. "medicare for all" conversation, if you're bernie sanders, do you

make the case, others will make the exact opposite case by the way, is his argument saying we could deal with this better if we had government-run health care? that is his argument, right? >> you will probably see this argument. as well as specifics what congress should do. there is talk on capitol hill of congress leaving town. at the same time there is talk of congress acting. i don't see any action with republican led senate or democrat led house, they won't agree on anything but funding which they just passed. connell: yeah. one final point, everyone can't to be careful, no the to blow things out of proportion, to be realize i can about a political campaign in the midst of all this, in this case two older men running, everybody going around shaking everybody's hand in these rallies, there has to be a question addressed here next week or two, for the candidates sake and people at rallies. >> it is a great question, because the advise for all americans if you're over 60,

certainly over 70, you shouldn't do unnecessary travel. connell: right. >> as you mentioned, bernie sanders, the president and joe biden are all over 70. they are exceptions to the rule. they have to answer the question. connell: that may come up at the debate. we'll talk to you soon, bob cusack. all right. melissa: under pressure, the prime minister of italy announcing even tougher measures to combat the coronavirus after number of confirmed cases continues to rise. the latest on the country's efforts. we're on the ground in florence next. plus oil seeing its biggest single day drop since 1991, the start of the first gulf war. we're looking at global players in today's oil news next. ♪. there's a company that's talked to even more real people

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callan authorities hoped by this time they would start to see numbers going in the other direction and they're not. that is of course why that lock down was placed ponch much northern italy. we can report there have been 463 deaths overall. it is not all together clear why coronavirus spread so fast and has been so insidious in italy. one theory is some people have been tested. one violent reaction to the draconian measures taken, there were riots in two dozen prisons the last 24 hours. family visittations are limited to due to the virus. inmates set fires in some facilities, escaped in some cases reportedly. six have decided after overdosing on methadone after breaking into the jail pharmacy. mean time sporting events are only happening behind closed doors, now.

here was the scene in torino, when juventis played milan in soccer. they lingered around the stadium to watch players go inside as vetted staff had their temperatures taken. pope francis streamed his private mass this morning from his residence in the vatican. he did this in solidarity with the victims of coronavirus, also for those treating the victims of coronavirus. he admitted, that he too is feeling a bit caged in right now. markets were down 9% in milan, as the -- and concerns about what it means for the future mounting. back to you. connell: amy kellogg for news florence, italy. melissa. melissa: a clash of two oil titans. oil suffering the biggest one day drop in nearly 30 years as russia and saudi arabia gear up for a global price war, bringing

potential devastating re per cautions to number about of players, venezuela, iran and american political oil companies. we have dan pickering, pickering investment partners chief operating officer. we haven't seen you in a while but let me ask you, when we talk about the oil pricers, shale producers, anybody around the country what are they basing, you know their plans on right now? is it oil at 65.50? most people up and running obviously didn't see the decline coming what were they banking on? >> yeah, melissa, i think budgets were just set a few months ago and a few weeks ago and companies were think about 50 or 55-dollar oil. melissa: wow. >> obviously that's not where we're at. so this industry has been limping along for the last couple years and really now sort of facing a two-headed monster of coronavirus on the demand side and opec on the supply side.

so i think u.s. producers are now in basically a position, they will have to save themselves because this market is not going to do it for them. melissa: let's talk about kind of attacking those two sides of the problem. when you look at the supply side, if you have saudi arabia and russia saying we'll go to the mattresses, we'll not cooperate. russia saying they weren't going to cut production and saudi arabia saying great, then we'll slash prices, who is in, who can hang on longer? i know with saudi arabia, they have a lot of money but the political situation is a little more precarious because you have mbs is new to the throne. for russia they too pretty much depend on those earnings from oil, so who has more staying power? >> yeah i think like you said they're both heavyweights and typically in a good fight you're never sure exactly who is going to win. it feels like right now saudi is throwing the first punches. russia said, no we won't cut. saudi said great, we will go to

the mattresses or will cut price around they have gone aggressively. i think advantage to saudi right now. i think reality nobody wins in this fight. melissa: yeah. >> you know, the consumer, i guess the consumer wins but in terms of the industry, or those two countries they will have less money. so you know, this is something that may play out over the next 18 months but, you know, they could, they could get back to the table here in three or six if things stay as bad as they have gotten now. melissa: let's talk about the consumer. you mentioned that. one consumer is china and as you look at china, china is hurting on a lot of levels. the economy has slowed down. this was even before coronavirus. now they have been hammered by factory closing. demand for apple phones within the country, the ability to produce goods and put them out, they have been hurt all along. they are somebody who can soak up a ton of cheap oil and hang on to it for the recovery, it might cushion their recovery.

do you have any sense of what is their storage capacity? what is their appetite like? how much could they soak up? >> their storage capacity in china, think about it, 100 million barrels left. that is day's worth of supply. it is not unlimited. i think storage on the cheap oil side of this will play itself out in terms of inventories fairly quickly with demand having fallen off like it has and the new supply that saudi, russia, kuwait, u.a.e. are likely to bring on. melissa: what could our u.s. government do? we know they value american oil producers in terms of security and not being dependent on the middle east. you're talking about saudi arabia, iran, russia, venezuela. all these places that sell oil, we don't want to be beholdenned to them. we want to keep the u.s. oil industry strong. what could they do? you can only buy so much for the

petroleum reserve. but they could do financing. there is credit injections. what kind of things would help producers? >> you mentioned another thing, a number of things that would be helpful. i think the government is probably caught in a little bit after trap here. you don't want to lose u.s. energy independence. melissa: right. >> but at the same time, do you want to help big oil companies? do you really want to be contributing to in theory higher gasoline prices for u.s. consumers? so i feel like in the near term, we're going to see people sitting on their hands in terms of the government waiting to see how this plays out and you know, right now the risk is that at 30-dollar oil, you know, 25 to 50% of the u.s. oil industry could be bankrupt in a few years. this is not a sustainable situation but it is too early to see any kind of government help or support. melissa: certainly something the oil industry is used to. i covered it for years.

prices have gone up, and way down and it is literally boom or bust. dan pickering, thank you for your insight today. hope you come back soon. >> thanks, melissa. connell: very good. now the coronavirus in context, how the outbreak compares to some past outbreaks. also to the regular flu. we'll break it down by the numbers in just a moment. ♪. now through march 31st. lease the 2020 rx350 for $409 a month for 36 months and we'll make your first months payment. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. you have power over pain, so the whole world looks different. the unbeatable strength of advil. what pain?

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connell: comparing the risks, coronavirus fears weighing almost straight up we've been talking about. for most people it is everyday illnesses, the flu that would pose more of a threat. and as we talked about what category you fall into how old you are and all of that. let's bring in grady trimble in chicago who has looked into all of this. reporter: context is key, every day we're seeing the number of cases in death grow because of the coronavirus but the flu is much more widespread,

and the president trying to make the point in a tweet earlier, he said last year 37000 americans died from the common flu, it averages between 27,070,000 per year, nothing is shut down, life in the economy go on and at this point there are 546 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 22 deaths, think about that. worldwide, the number of flu cases has been up to 650,000, that's the number of deaths caused by the flu compared to 3400 caused by the coronavirus. but that data doing little to calm investors today. part of the reason is because of these numbers, the mortality rate from the coronavirus is much higher at 3.4% compared to a tenth of 8% on the flu. so of course no vaccine, no treatment, that's causing these concerns. connell: and not a lot of information. also if we had more testing.

thank you. one more look at the market today. melissa: closure eyes, better than 2000 points, about 7.8% on the day. connell: what a day. we will see you tomorrow. "bulls & bears" start right now. david: market may him as oil price showdown triggers a major selloff in an emergency halt to trading. all three major averages suffering the worst decline ever. the dow plenty more than 2100 points at session lows before closing down 2013. it is down 7.8%. we are just shy of their territory by a couple of hundred points. oil suffering largest one date decline in 30 years as a coronavirus financial contagion intensifies. hi, everybody, glad to be back, th