people or less, and in our plan, there is money for those owners to keep those people employed. so we see no reason why those restaurants should be permanently closed. those restaurants should be closed for a short period of time, the workers should be paid. that's only fair. not their fault. and those restaurants will be ready to open. now, as it relates to the oil market, let me just say this could not have a curve at a worse time but this has nothing to do with the coronavirus whatsoever. so there is no question that there's both supply problems as well as the demand problem. i'm going to tell the president that my recommendation is that he goes to congress and asks for a lot more money to fill the strategic reserve at $22 for wti crude. we should be filling up the reserve for the next ten years. so we are energy independent obviously at these prices, we

will have issues producing energy so let's go out and buy $10 billion or $20 billion worth of oishlgs fil, fill up the res. the oil market has nothing to do with the coronavirus other than there's just a lot less demand at this point. but you're right, unprecedented issues. maria: yeah. no surprise, russia would pile on just in the middle of a crisis for the united states and say i'm not going to cut production. secretary mnuchin, a pleasure to have you. thanks very much for the clarity. we appreciate it. >> thanks, maria. great to be with you. maria: see you soon. secretary mnuchin. we cut into varney's time. stu, my sincere apologies. "varney & company" begins right now. have a great day, everybody. stuart: good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. if i may just say very quickly, the key sentence to me from listening to secretary mnuchin was we will destroy this virus and the economy will come roaring back. we will go back to a normal world. good morning, everyone. let's get going on the program. america actually is shutting

down. the president has put the country on a war footing and the closures, like the virus, are spreading. that's to be expected. more people are being tested, more people are testing positive. so the social distancing rules intensify. napa the latest area ordered to shelter in place. in other words, you stay home. towns and cities across the country look so different from just a few days ago. ghost towns, really empty sidewalks. you are going to see bank branches close. jpmorgan shutting 1,000 chase branches. will they reopen in the era of electronic banking? good question. factories are closing. seven auto makers announcing plant shutdowns. harley davidson suspending production. that's how america looks and feels right now. it's quiet, empty and shutting down. in washington, the president leads a support and rescue operation for the economy.

$500 billion paid directly to individuals. the checks are going out april 6th, may 18th. $500 billion in loans to businesses and much more, we are told, to come. the federal reserve keeping the financial system lubricated. everybody wants cash. the fed is supplying it. you add it all up, we are spending much more than in the financial crisis of 2007-08. we are talking trillions, plural. here's your market action. we are not limit down. the dow closed below 20,000 yesterday. that means most of the gains in the last three years have indeed been wiped out. this morning, futures suggest a loss of about 250 points at the open for the dow, 35 down for the s&p, and the nasdaq down maybe 50 points. limited losses but we were down big time yesterday. some other crisis indicators for you. oil off its lows but still at severely depressed prices, $22

per barrel. gas down to a national average of $2.19 and falling fast. it's $1.83 on average in oklahoma. but $3.28 on average in california. as for the treasuries, ten-year yield, we are at .475%. not that many hours ago, we were around .6%. yesterday it was .7%. so we have come down on the yield. that means money flowing into treasuries and that pushes the price up and the yield down. 0.475%. this is important. the president leads the virus briefing at 11:00 a.m. eastern this morning. it has become a daily event and it could move the markets. we begin, though, with what i'm calling unsettling news. it's a report. of the 508 people hospitalized with the virus in america, 38% were between the ages of 20 and

54. let's bring in dr. marc siegel on this. doctor, over a third who get it bad enough to be hospitalized are young. what do you make of this? >> this is a disturbing trend and it's an emerging trend. it is not the news we got out of china when it was a huge problem there, cases have obviously flattened over there. i have been hearing this from around the country but it's especially true in the northeast, new york and massachusetts. i have heard this. not all of the patients have underlying medical conditions as well. still the majority, vast majority, do have underlying medical conditions or are elderly. they are most at risk. people are underlying lung disease. it does bring to mind is there a coincidence of people that are smoking but we haven't been able to determine that yet. one of the problems here is that there's going to be a lack of ventilators and the hospitals are being overwhelmed in new york and the cases have skyrocketed over the last week. so the hospitals are not prepared for this.

there are diversionary tactics. they are training doctors like me, internists, to take care of patients with covid-19. as you know, the u.s. navy ship "comfort" is going to be coming here in early april and will bring a 1,000 bed hospital to off the shore here in new york city. that will not be to quarantine covid-19 patients. it will be to take the overflow for other problems, emergency surgeries, 12 operating rooms on that ship. incredible, incredible ship the u.s. navy has. stuart: here's what i'm taking away from this. the young are at risk. if they get it, they can get badly hit by it. but the hospital ships are on the way. got it. stay there, please. i want to come back to you frequently. on this issue of ventilator production, we understand medtronic is doing something about it? ashley: this is a ventilator maker based in ireland. they are ramping up production to try and get as many

ventilators out there as possible. they recognize that there's a tremendous demand for it. they say they can't totally fill the gap but they have literally decided to go 24/7 with their operations. they have already managed to increase production by 40% to date. they say they hope to double their capacity in the short term. stuart: what's this, ford and general motors? ashley: general motors in particular, word that perhaps gm's mary barra, the ceo, has already looked into the possibility of using idle car plants to actually start manufacturing ventilators. stuart: general motors and ford? ashley: absolutely. they are looking into that possibility. also, ford said we are ready to help in any way, including the production of ventilators and elon musk of tesla says we will make ventilators if there is a shortage. a lot of people saying they will pitch in. stuart: okay. ashley: just like world war ii, when other factories were used to help in the war. stuart: the president put it on

war footing and that's a wartime kind of approach, do this now. got it. let's go overseas and check what's happening there. i tell you now, we've got 475 deaths reported in one day in italy. but china, what's happening there, susan? susan: actually, china recorded zero, no new domestic cases of coronavirus for the very first time since this epidemic broke out. they said they saw 34 imported cases, with those that were traveling back from overseas into china. but it's interesting because you mentioned italy. in china, 3200 deaths have stemmed from coronavirus. that actually less than what they see in europe. europe has reported 4,000 deaths. as you mentioned, italy saw its highest number of fatalities just reported on wednesday. stuart: staggering number. 475 deaths in italy. susan, thanks. lauren simonetti is with us this morning. they are closing the floor of

the new york stock exchange. lauren: this is the first time ever that no traders will be on the floor on monday while electronic trading goes on. they are doing take because there are two cases that they know of coronavirus at the new york stock exchange, one person who works for the exchange, one person, a trader. they had temperature checks when they came in last week, they were sent home, they were tested for coronavirus. they tested positive, last in that building on friday. the question for investors, we will see this play out on monday, will there be disjointment or higher volatility particularly at the open and the close trying to find price points, that's when humans are pretty instrumental. but also, a lot of investors sitting at home trading electronically don't care if a stock is listed on the new york stock exchange or nasdaq. they might not notice. stuart: to me the significance of this story is you get two people testing positive and everybody around them gets out. lauren: yep.

stuart: any group situation with a positive test, you got a problem for the whole group. that's what's making things shut down so rapidly, i think. lauren, thank you. stay there. back to you shortly. scott martin, kingsview wealth management kind of guy. look, we've got the cavalry coming in big-time from the government, spreading the money around all over the place. is that going to put a bottom on the market? >> eventually it will, stuart. you're right, the money is flying and flying fast out of many, many helicopters. they used to refer to ben bernanke as helicopter ben. this is going to be helicopters trump and mnuchin. but it is the right thing to do. i think one problem, though, that we have seen if we take a clue from the market so far is it's not enough. it has not been impressive in terms of wall street's appetite and as they continue to maybe refine and readjust the notes

that will be coming out of d.c., i think that's when the market may realize that help is definitely on the way. stuart: what does wall street want? if they're looking at the administration saying hey, what are you going to do for us, what do they want? >> i think they want one of two things. one of them is not very great but it might be the best. i'll tell you what that is in a second. i will bury that for a second. wall street wants trillions of dollars of backstopping on some of these bank loans. wall street wants trillions of dollars and i hate to say those words of backstopping in the mortgage market. i talked to a couple very very smart mortgage traders yesterday at some major, major mortgage companies in the country and mortgages just aren't trading right now. nobody wants to buy or sell -- stuart: okay. we got a problem there. okay. i've got a problem with the transmission right there. we will try to fix that up. i do want to point out the federal reserve has just entered

into its third emergency package, shoving liquidity into the market, big bucks, in other words. the third package in two days. i think that's the kind of help that might help wall street. we'll see. we are only down 200 points on the dow before the opening bell. now, we've got some developments to keep you in touch with. first, starbucks. what's going on? ashley: trying to reassure investors. the ceo, chief executive kevin johnson saying you know what, we did learn from our experience in china, having to shut down some 50% of those stores in china. they lost at least $400 million estimated revenue in china alone. he says this is a quote, temporary business setback and again, learning from china, he says he is battling some i guess you could say some sort of mutiny from starbucks workers that are still working. there's a letter going around, 16,000 signatures saying we shouldn't be working, we should not even through a drive-through situation, i know you shut down

the dining area but they say coffee is not a necessity and you shouldn't be risking our health. that's in america. they are calling themselves the committee of concerned baristas and plan to walk out on monday because they believe their concerns are not being answered. stuart: that's a development. we noted it. thank you very much. now, the auto industry, seven auto makers are shutting some factories. harley davidson is suspending operations. susan, give me an update on tesla and their plans. susan: that's right, there's a shelter-in-place order across california that includes alameda county where the fremont factory is that makes most of the model 3s around the world and the new model y crossover. yesterday there were reports in the parking lot thousands of cars were being parked, employees were still going to work and there is some confusion about whether or not this is violating the shelter-in-place order. according to tesla, they have struck a deal with the county for now. they say the factory will stay

open and reduce its work force from 10,000 to 2500 just in case. but some were confused as to whether or not elon musk was again going against the rules and laws. stuart: again. we will be back to you in a second. lauren, come in, please. two house members tested positive, house of representatives? lauren: a democrat and republican. representative mario diaz-balart and from florida, and ben mcadams from utah, both under self-quarantine. some of those who had been in contact with them are also putting themselves under self-quarantine. this raises questions. my opinion here, law makers will act fast, over the phone meetings, get something done. stuart: it's like the new york stock exchange. two people test positive, everybody around them quarantine. two members of the house of representatives test positive, does everybody have to leave? quarantine for everybody? i don't know the answer to that question. ashley: i would say yes based on everything we know. how could you not? you could very well have been

exposed. you have someone who definitely tested positive. stuart: if you are sitting around in a debate, close to him -- ashley: what option do you have? lauren: we go with speed over perfection. what mitch mcconnell said yesterday is perfect. they are going to get stuff done a lot faster now because this is a wartime footing, a health emergency. we are trying to stay alive. stuart: got it. thank you. brad blakeman is with us. you heard that news about two house members testing positive. does that seriously interfere with the operation of congress? >> not at this point but it certainly could. this is a continuity of government challenge that we have. we cannot put our government officials at risk. we have three branches of government. they have to continue. the question is how will they. there are ways to do that. as mitch mcconnell said, there's ways to delay votes where the chamber is open longer, less members have to be there. perhaps teleporting votes from remote locations is going to be the next step. but the first and foremost is we

have to protect the american people and the continuity of government. we have to keep running the best we can and we have to be nimble enough to change with the times. stuart: how about this fight with china over the virus? i'm referring now to a report in axios which details china covering up the outbreak. the report suggests that had china come out with it three weeks prior to when they did, admit what was going on, if it had done that three weeks prior, we would have 95% fewer cases and it wouldn't have spread around the world so fast. that's the report. what do you have to say about that? >> china should not be inoculated from their own negligence. i'm being kind. negligence is not necessarily intended act -- act of intent, i think they intended to do this because they did not want to let others know what was happening in their country. they thought they could contain it. they could not. and what did they do? they waited until the very last

moment until it was the point of no return to let us know what was going on. we offered help originally, as you remember, and it was rejected. we offered to send our best experts over there. they should be held to account and responsibility. they have a lot to answer for. we should not let them off the hook. stuart: we have a tit for tat situation going on here. president trump calls it the chinese virus and has repeated that a couple of times. meanwhile, china has kicked out or removed the dreencredentials some reporters for the "new york times," "wall street journal," "time" magazine and "voice of america." we have a tit for tat spat here. seems to me like a new cold war. >> look, we have to protect our own population. we also have to hold china to account so they don't do this again. china has a history of lying, cheating and stealing. this is just another example of what they have done to hide their bad activity. the president is right to call them out for it.

we called the hong kong flu the hong kong flu. we called sars, sars for a reason. and we call lyme disease after the place it came from in connecticut. you don't see people's hair on fire because of that. it is what it is. china is trying to deflect responsibility and they are not going to get away with it. stuart: 11:00 eastern time this morning, the president heads up another of the virus briefings. he's taking a very much proactive leadership position here. it seems to me he's assembling the cavalry, that is the money. we keep hearing about more and more money going to be coming on board to stabilize the economy. he's taking a leadership position right out front now. >> absolutely. this is exactly the type of leadership we need. we are at a crisis point. we are at war. it's all hands on deck. the president has made it very clear. i have been on conference calls with the white house. they are sparing no expense. they are sparing any idea that

is a good idea, they are listening to it. they have the best professionals in the world. we are going to get through this and be stronger from it. stuart: secretary mnuchin says we will destroy this virus and the economy will come roaring back. thanks very much for joining us. appreciate it. next guess, gregory rogano, adviser to stanford university's school of medicine. sir, please tell me more about this new study that what is it, you have the hcq, chloroquine, that actually works. tell me about this as a treatment. >> yes. before we go into the study i want to reiterate that president trump has the authority to authorize the use of hydroxycolhydrox hydroxychloroquine against coronavirus immediately. based on this study out of the south of france, by the most

eminent infectious disease specialist in the world, an md/ph.d. he showed that 100% of patients were cured within six days taking a combination of hydroxychloroquine and zithromycin. stuart: so you get it, you treat it with this and you can be walking away, you can be cured here? >> correct. most importantly, these are two generic drugs that are very inexpensive, have been around for a very long time and have very quality safety profiles. this could begin immediately today. hospitals across the country are implementing these protocols right now. stuart: i'm sorry, i interrupted you. i do apologize for that. the connection is a little loose here. what you are saying is these are generic drugs, chloroquine, a generic drug available instantly in mass supplies and it cures you if you've got it.

i just want to be accurate on this. go ahead. >> correct. so dr. didier's study was that this resulted in 100% of patients that were taking the combination being cured within six days of treatment. again, 100%. stuart: that's the kind of news we really want to hear. dr. gregory rigano, thank you very much for joining us. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: let's bring back dr. siegel. you heard that. sounds wildly promising to me. how about you? >> well, i want to talk about that. there's actually some evidence out of asia that he might be correct about that. they have given it to a number of people in south korea and in china. the drug hydroxychloroquine is an arthritis drug. it's pretty well tolerated. it's very interesting that that study is showing that. i think it should definitely be

fast-tracked. i don't know if i would go so far as to say we ought to give it to everyone. he's right, hospitals are definitely considering it in their armament. also, chloroquine, a malaria drug, has also been tried but it looks like study out of asia shows the one he's talking about, hydroxychloroquine, a relative, a cousin, is more effective. that plus remdesivir which is a drug, an antiviral drug under study, two hiv drugs are being looked at, these are things that are all being considered and used. i don't think that he's overstating this. i think it's a major, major possibility. stuart: we love to hear that. doctor, thanks very much. stay there, please. much more for you to come. we are talking about amazon. what's the latest development there? has somebody got a positive test? susan: a warehouse worker in queens, new york has tested positive. this has some concerns that we did see a "washington post"

article earlier this week talking about the unsanitary conditions in some of the fulfillment centers being reported by some of the workers. looks like amazon this week, according to a spokesperson, saying they are supporting the individual who is now in quarantine and they say since the early days of this situation we have worked closely with local authorities in queens to proactively respond. does that mean that a lot of these workers are going home in quarantine? i don't think amazon has stated very clearly as to what's happening there, with those workers, but they have said those fulfillment center workers are going home with full pay. they are being fully paid for their work. stuart: it's just an interesting question. if somebody tests positive, do those around you have to be leaving the group, leaving work, going home into quarantine? ashley: of course they do. otherwise they could very well be another carrier. stuart: sounds like it. susan: it goes further. lauren: if someone is sick maybe with the regular flu and hasn't

tested positive or even tested for coronavirus, they will send other people home. they are doing that. stuart: the momentum is towards more and more shutdowns, albeit in very difficult situations. that's what we are talking about. now, the new york city subway system. what's the news from that? ashley: interesting to know the impact of the coronavirus on how many people are actually riding the subway in new york. march 17th of 2019, 5.568 million chose to ride the subway. go one year forward, coronavirus, 1.7 million which is still quite a high number, but that is a drop of 3.7 million on the subway daily riders which is quite remarkable. stuart: sure is. that means people are taking notice. ashley: very much. stuart: acting responsibly. although you still have, what is it -- ashley: it's all relative. still 1.7 million. stuart: i will get more here on bill ackman. remember yesterday he raised

hackles when he said hell is coming. that upset a lot of people. have we got another tweet from him? lauren: he's tweeted some more. this is more positive. he said some investors have been confused by remarks. to clarify, i am confident the president will do the right thing and temporarily shutting down the country, closing the borders. if that happens, we can win the war against the virus and the markets and the economy will soar. he goes on to say he's buying stocks. he thinks this is a lifetime -- opportunity of a lifetime as we manage this crisis. so clarifying, deal with the issue now, save lives now, everything will recover. last week we were saying we would see a v-shaped recovery. this week people are saying maybe it's a u. now maybe it's an l-shaped recovery. what does the recovery look like. treasury secretary mnuchin says yeah, fourth quarter is going to be huge because there will be a medical response to the coronavirus. ashley: bottom line is how does

anyone know anything at this stage. even the best analysts out there are guessing at best. the problem is the best way to address the virus is to completely lock down. we know that. but the more you do that, the more damage you are doing to the economy. that is the conundrum. at this point you can throw as much money as you want at it but the bottom line is we have no idea what the end result's going to be. once we finally get through it. stuart: do all of us, put everybody on camera, please, all of us i think feel the momentum is towards more and more crackdown, less and less social interaction, more shutdowns of the economy. that's the momentum here. susan: just to get back to the bill ackman statement that hell is coming, i got a lot of notes, i don't know if you guys receive the same type of e-mails but a lot of people were questioning his motives. he is a hedge fund operator. was he shorting the market with these type of comments. by the way, he also said he called blackstone later on to say he was buying some of their

shares even though he slammed private equity in that interview which some say may have taken down some of the share value. so there has been some questions as to whether or not you can take sincerely some of his comments. stuart: truth is, he said hell is coming but in fact, all hell broke loose when he said it and hell came down on him. now he's trying to walk it back a little bit. okay. let's have a look at the markets. for the first time in awhile, we are not limit down premarket. put out the flags, boys. we are down 250 points. we are still down, but 250 is nothing like the swings we have seen before. this is premarket. this is as we approach the opening bell. red arrows across the board but not huge declines expected at the opening bell. can you show me oil? that's the other crisis area we've got here. when it dropped to $19 a barrel, and it did yesterday, that's a crisis level, obviously, but so too is $22 a barrel.

ashley: not great. stuart: that's where we are now. you've jumped 10%. so what? $22 a barrel doesn't make it. if you are a driller in these united states, you don't make a profit at $22 per barrel. show me the anxiety indicator. that's what i i don'ted used to. the ten-year treasury yield. it's at -- ashley: up to 1.12 now. stuart: maybe i was putting the wrong one on the screen earlier. ashley: it was the two-year earlier. this is the ten-year. stuart: ladies and gentlemen, i do apologize. i didn't mean to mislead. i got the wrong number up on the screen. my fault. very sorry. we have the yield on the ten-year treasury at 1.11%. very very important. all right. on the phone, mike murphy. he's the rosecliff capital fellow. mike, i will ask the same question to everybody. you see any signs of a bottom? >> i'm kind of shocked we have gotten to this point where we

are right now but i will stick with the same story. i don't know that you can call today a bottom. you are seeing a massive washout throughout the entire investing system and we will bottom. we are closer to a bottom now. doesn't mean we can't drop another 5% or 10%. but there are a lot of opportunities out there right now after this massive selloff we have seen in a couple of weeks. stuart: before we open the market, we've got about 50 seconds to go, you are on vacation. you're not in america, are you? where are you? >> i'm -- my kid's spring break, we had a trip planned to the bahamas and i'm speaking to you from the bahamas right now. stuart: big story, breaking here in new york this morning. people who went to the dominican republic on vacation or puerto rico on vacation, they can't get back. are you okay coming back from the bahamas? >> i am, yes. i'm checking, we are monitoring the situation but it's amazing,

when we left just five days ago, we left a different world than we will be returning to. i believe we're okay but we are constantly monitoring it. hopefully, yes. but the system is running full speed. we have a great staff in place. stuart: 9:30 eastern, bang, here we are. the market has opened. it's a thursday morning. we going to open on the downside. let's see how severe the decline is. we are getting used to 1,000 point swings at the opening bell in the middle of the day, at the closing bell, you name it. we've had these huge swings. we just opened the market. we are 30 seconds in. look at this, we are down only 126 points. that is about .66%. down 115. i would love to see some green arrows at some point. we haven't seen them just yet. the s&p 500, we often look at this first thing in the morning because if it drops 7%, the market closes for 15 minutes. nowhere near that now. down a mere .3%. the nasdaq is actually up.

a gain of 14 points, about .25%. now, as we always do at this time, we will roll through lots of different groups of stocks to show you how they have opened in this extremely choppy market. what have we got first? start running them down the left-hand side of the screen. i will respond in kind. here we go. okay. give it to me. big tech, thank you. amazon is up 18 points. google is down 8. facebook is down. a apple is up a buck. a mixed picture for big tech. dare i say stabilizing at lower levels. amazon, apple and microsoft are moving up. next group. we've got the financials. they just got creamed yesterday. they are down again today. whenever interest rates come down sharply, and they are coming down sharply, the banks take a hit. i do see citigroup just up three

cents. morgan, goldman, jpmorgan chase, all down. credit cards, if we are shutting down the economy, if retail is being shut down, visa and the credit card people, we are not spending that much on our credit cards. it is inevitable they take a hit. a hit they are taking. american express is down to $72 per share. next group, please. we've got now oil stocks. look, oil has come back up to $22 a barrel. you still can't make much money at that. ashley: even double that price, the frackers would still not be able to make it. stuart: even double the price. chevron is down, just picked up a cent. exxon is at $33 per share. bp down to $16. not that long ago, bp was $40, $45. drillers, they have been taking it badly. they are back up just a little today but still in crisis territory. diamond offshore up ten cents

the transocean, $1.13. energy stocks, there's a mixed bag there as oil comes back a little. right now, we are down 330 points for the dow industrials. 19,500. that's where we are. next group, grocers. kroger picking up a bit more ground. walmart, that hit a record high yesterday. walmart i think, was it $124? something like that? it's $123 now. that's close to the record. target's at $102. costco has done extremely well in this crisis. everybody goes to costco to stock up. ashley: load up. stuart: you get free lunch as well. i can't read the bottom. oh, bj's wholesale club. walmart, $123. amazon, these are online shopping places. amazon is up five bucks. ebay is down. wayfair is down. etsy is down. walmart, back to $123.

amazon, $1834. now we are down 400 points on the dow industrials, 2%. the all-important group, airlines. we do hear that a $50 billion package is coming, a rescue bailout, call it what you will, but they are down again. jetblue is at $7 a share. southwest, delta, american, united, all of them on the downside yet again. that group has been absolutely decimated. okay. what did you say, producer? susan, you've got something? susan: i want to talk about the levels, basically back to 2015 levels. have you read some of the economic forecasts up there by the investment banks, jpmorgan says the second quarter will see minus 14% if gdp contraction, minus 14%. i said that correctly. bank of america says q2, second quarter of this year, we will see contractions of 12% in the economy. bank of america goes on to say the jobless rate will double. you will see a loss of one million jobs each and every month in the second quarter

which will total 3.5 million in total job losses in three months from march until june. stuart: you know we are beginning to see the storm clouds gather in terms of economic data that's coming at us. for example, this morning, we got a sharp rise in jobless claims, up 70,000 in one week to 281. wait until next week. that number's going to go through the roof. the philly fed report, that was the -- was that the biggest drop, was it? susan: in many years. lauren: biggest drop ever, down 12.7%. they were expecting a rise of 10%. that's the manufacturing sector. that's the first indication this could get really ugly. stuart: yes, it is. the storm clouds are gathering. here comes the storm. you can tell. we are going to get some very very seriously negative economic numbers in the immediate future. susan: ray dalio of bridgewater says corporate losses will total, just here in the u.s., $4

trillion, with a "t" just from coronavirus. globally, he's looking at maybe $12 trillion in total corporate losses. i hope you have a fortified balance sheet if you are one of these companies to be able to weather this type of storm because a lot of these companies, we talked about them, boeing, cruise lines, hotel operators and airlines, are looking to d.c. for lifelines. stuart: scott martin, i hope we have a good connection with you. come in, please. we are hearing dreadful economic numbers. is that helping to push the market down and stopping a bottom being formed? these numbers are going to get worse. >> they are, stuart. the market kind of knows that already. a lot of this data we are seeing that is very bad as you all discussed is already kind of i think interpreted by the market. the question is, does the momentum pick up to the downside or do these eventually bottom out at some point. that's why just as investors, we have to remember stocks will likely front-run any kind of economic malaise or any kind of economic growth, too. just as quickly as this is

falling, just as bad as it looks, remember that when we get to the other side of this, the market will bounce back and bounce back strongly in anticipation of that economic rebound. stuart: we just don't know when. that's the problem. ashley: the bigger issue may be not so much from the banks, going back to 2008, the issue is how many presumably healthy companies out there are facing a collapse the longer this goes on. we don't know. stuart: no, we don't know. ashley: that's the biggest problem. stuart: scott -- sorry, mike murphy, it's awfully hard to find a bottom for the stock market when you don't know how far down the economy's going to go. that's the whole problem, isn't it? >> it is, stuart. then you have to add to the equation the potential for bankruptcies out there. last time i was with you a week ago, we weren't talking about potential for massive bankruptcies. now you have to put that into the equation. i want to stick to this point, finding a bottom is not the goal here because none of us are going to find that.

the bottoming out process will come and we are down 2.5% today roughly. we could be going through that process as we speak. for investors at home, the one thing you don't want to do right now is start reading things, reading headlines that tell you the world is going to end and liquidating after a 35% drop in your holdings and then missing the entire turn-around. a turn-around will come. where a bottom comes, i'm not sure. people watching at home, it's not pretty but you have to ride it out and if you have money, put it to work in quality names. do not sell into this type of selloff. stuart: i will quote treasury secretary mnuchin who was on with maria a half hour ago. he said look, we will destroy this virus and the economy will come roaring back. that's exactly what he said. scott martin, does that mean when the economy comes roaring back, does the stock market come back in a v, in other words, straight back up again, or is it

an l, all the way down, then flat as she goes? which is it? v or l? >> it may be a letter we haven't seen yet. i think it's going to find its own way. i think that's really the tough part about this. could be an h. look, steve mnuchin and the government officials, god bless them, have to say things like that, otherwise if they came out and probably really said what they thought, we would be even more scared. the reality is this. as i said earlier, there's trillions of dollars coming to the system here. whether the amount is enough for the market to be confident it's going to fix the problem, that's really the question. to your question to mike murphy earlier, one of the indications to me we are not finding a bottom yet is the fact credit markets are still very misbehaved, like my children. so the reality is until credit markets stop seizing up and we get that free flow of corporate credit, mortgages, bank credit, things like that, bank loans, those things have to shore up and get fixed before the market can heal itself on the equity side.

stuart: i just want to throw this out. i have not heard much commentary about it, but one of the great things that comes out of this worldwide global slowdown is far lower carbon emissions. the virus is doing more for the environment than -- ashley: the canals of venice are clear now. you can see fish. stuart: if you tamp down on economic activity all around the world and that's what we are doing, factories are closing in china, maybe reopening now, the amount of co2s, the volume of co2 is getting up there and the airlines just about shutting down, i'm trying to look for positives here. if i was a big-time greenie i would call that a big-time positive. i didn't get much pickup on that but there you go. session lows for the dow, down 600 points. that's a 3% drop. google is now down 24 bucks. barely above $1,000. amazon is picking up $17. big tech, microsoft is back.

we had a small blip up, now it's down to $139. apple is at $243. scott martin, i've got to say as i look around, i would have said microsoft and apple represent a lot of value two years from now, eight months from now, a year from now. where am i going wrong? amazon and apple? sorry, apple and microsoft? >> you're right on track. i would add amazon and google to that list as well. that's what we have to remember as investors. these are opportunities really long-term. we made money for a lot of clients and everybody wants the buy stocks when they are at all-time highs, going up every day. the reality is you want to buy stocks when they are perfectly valued or even cheap in some cases. that's getting to the point now. but nobody wants to touch them. we have to remember when we look at these great tried and true companies, you mentioned walmart earlier, costco is something we own, we have loved and talked about on this show over and over

again. who would have thought 50 boxes of macaroni and cheese, 40 pound bag of flour would come in handy one of these days and it is. these companies will be around a long time and should be part of your portfolio. adding them to at these lows or very low levels is a great way to accumulate wealth. stuart: reminds me of survivalist days, when you had bunkers and were buying dry food to make sure you were okay in the coming cataclysm. sit up straight, scott. you're slumping. susan? susan: he says that to me all the time. disney at five-year lows, $87 on disney valuation. they said the impact of the coronavirus will have numerous impact on their business. we talked about the theme parks, disney world, virtually every disneyland, disney world has been shut because of coronavirus. they are also talking about creation as well. we know they have a new

streaming service. they build a lot of their own content for movies, of course, and also tv shows that go on the streaming service. they are saying creation has been impacted and they are concerned this will lead, the covid-19 will lead to changes in consumer behavior. what does that mean for theme parks, for going out to movies and watching them on the big screen in the future? stuart: look what it means for the stock. i don't know whether you can see it. disney is at $85 right now. susan: close to almost a decade low, actually. i was looking at the five-year chart on that. stuart: is that a buy? ashley: you know eventually we will get through this. stuart: the parks will reopen at some point. the movies will be out there again at some point. $85 a share? susan: also, disney goes on to say there could be impact on the cost of borrowing, whether that's in a good sense in that they can get cheaper loans and maybe have credit to tide them over until people return to the parks and start watching movies once again. stuart: i got it.

i just see that some big name brilliant companies, their stock price is so depressed, i have to believe they will come back -- ashley: not like they suddenly blew their operation and made some terrible decisions. you've got to believe at some point we will come back. we will get back to whatever normal is. then you can ask yourself disney will reopen the parks, bring out more movies and so on. stuart: treasury secretary mnuchin told maria earlier we will go back to a normal world. don't know when. lauren: there's also psychological impact, for consumers, no doubt, but for many companies. do jobs come back, do companies, knowing the world is so risky with this black swan event, do they want to take on so much debt, overleverage themselves. they have been enticed to do so because rates have been so low but is that the best thing to do going forward? it's a psychological impact. stuart: i see the point but i do believe the american economy simply will not disappear. it will come, as treasury

secretary said, come roaring back at some point. i don't know when. but it's going to come back. ashley: that's the key. when. stuart: lots of companies are offering relief to their customers and employees. what have you got on ford, lauren? lauren: ford is offering customers who make new car purchases six months relief for their payment. the stock is down almost 8%, an 11-year low right now. they also suspended their dividend and have drawn from two credit lines so they have now about $15.5 billion in additional cash. those are the moves ford is making so they can, a, have cash and b, give some of their customers peace of mind. stuart: we've got to say good-bye to our two market guests. i will give them a last chance to chime in here. mike murphy, what have you got, last words? >> i think you want to look at quality names and keep an eye on dividends. you mentioned mcdonald's. the dividend yield is almost up to 4%. down $100 off a recent high. that's where you want to start putting money to work, disney

and mcdonald's. stuart: scott martin? >> watch credit markets here. if credit markets start to shore up, get more liquid, you don't see as much falling in corporate debt, high yield debt, that's where the bottom starts to come in for equities. stuart: both of you, thank you very much for joining us. much obliged. edward lawrence on capitol hill. the senate is moving quickly on the latest package. i guess it's number three? reporter: yeah. this would be phase number three, stimulus package they are working on. they will write that bill this afternoon. and senator chris coons would know, he's on the appropriations committee. there are the direct payments you guys have been talking about, $1,000 for each adult twice, possibly, and maybe $500 for children. also, the payroll tax relief may show up again in this. again, this is moving at lightning speed as far as congress goes and the senate

will be writing this, according to chris coons, later this afternoon. one more thing. there's another market here. we should make one of these holsters for these clorox -- i'm carrying this around the building for every door handle. stuart: we all do. everybody's got one of these. you should patent that idea. holster for clorox. you could make some money in this market. good lord. thank you, edward. good stuff. we like to concentrate on the medical side of the virus crisis. we brought you news this morning of what looks like an effective treatment. now we are joined by dwight egan, co-diagnostics ceo. i believe you've got your own test which is quick and easy to take. tell us more, please. >> good morning, stuart. nice to be with you. based on a new policy by the fda which is a very unprecedented policy, our tests are now available to laboratories

throughout the united states, and this new policy is really going to break the logjam. as you mentioned, our products are very easy to use. they give very clear results in terms of a diagnosis of the disease. stuart: one of the criticisms of the test which is not w in wide use is it hurts, you stick something up your nose and it goes right to the back of your throat and is very unpleasant to take that test. how about yours? is it easy and pleasant to take it? >> the sample that has to be taken from the patient is not any different really than what you have been describing. it's a swab of the back of the throat into the nose. you do have to get where the pathogen is. stuart: that's going to hurt. how about the time frame to get the results? >> from the time a patient has the swab taken out of their nose or throat, that takes about 30 minutes to do the extraction and preparation, then about 45 to 60 minutes to get the result. stuart: you can get this all over the country relatively

quickly? >> based on this new policy from the fda, that is correct. it's a very important thing they have done. the fda here has done a shift. this is the second policy they have changed in less than a month. it demonstrates the fda's willingness to pivot and adapt in the face of this global pandemic. stuart: now, you have this test but because of the fda change of policy, that change of policy allows you to put it out all over the country rapidly? it was the change of policy that did this for you, right? >> that is correct. we have been distributing this test worldwide on five different continents for about a month now. now we are able to do it in the united states and that is a very significant benefit to the country. stuart: is there any chance that at some point in the really, really near future, you could make it so that you don't have to stick something down the

bottom of your throat and it's not so unpleasant? can you do that for me? >> we will work on that, stuart. i think for the time being, we are where we are. stuart: i understand. we want the thank you for coming on the show today. i think you brought us good news. we like it. thank you, dwight. we appreciate it. thank you, sir. okay. look who's on the phone now. patrick dehaan, gas buddy guy, man of the hour. the gas is at a national average of $2.19, i think it is. we have about 16 states under $2 a gallon. how far down are we going? >> first of all, am i the only guest that's delivering somewhat optimistic news here? keep in mind it's very depressing news because of the economy, because we are on our way down. we are at $2.17 now. $2.19 yesterday. $2.17 this morning. just this morning we had our first station under $1 a gallon in london, kentucky of all places. a bp station at 99 cents. no matter where you are, even

california, we are going to see sub-$2 prices and a lot more decreases coming over the next few weeks of another 35 to as much as 75 cents per gallon. stuart: wait a minute. wait a minute. that puts us way under $2 a gallon. that puts us back in the range of $1.50 to $1.70 across the country. that's extraordinary. >> that's right. it certainly is extraordinary. especially looking at the price of oil yesterday, we hit our lowest since 2002. that's the kind of tidal wave that's going to come to gas pumps. people are out there filling their tanks, the few that are still driving are filling their tanks thinking i'm going to top off, this is great. the best is yet to come when it comes to falling gas prices. stuart: trouble is, we're not driving like we used to, are we? a lot of us are confined to our homes. a lot of us have been told to shelter in place. what a shame that we cannot take advantage of this wild positive that you are outlining for us. >> you make a great point. instead of going and taking

advantage of low prices myself, i'm staring out my window at the gas sign a block away here. i still can see it but for all those clidelivery services, instacart, alcohol delivery, i'm sure a lot of americans are making use of that, delivery services certainly have the ability to cut their costs based on the low fuel costs. stuart: i want to thank you for coming on board today with some very positive news. you're looking at gas prices of $1.50 to $1.70 couple of weeks from now nationwide. that, sir, is about as good a news as i could possibly hope for. thanks for joining us. much obliged. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: moving on to matt ailes, america's health insurance plans president -- i'm sorry, sir, i didn't mean to mess up your name, lad. america's health insurance plans president and ceo. matt, lot of people are asking will life insurance pay out in this pandemic? what do you say?

>> well, right now we are really focused on health care and making sure that patients have access to the coverage that they need, making sure that -- stuart: you know where i'm coming from. you know what the question is. lot of people are saying this is a pandemic. are you going to pay out on those life insurance policies? >> well, problem is that we focus on health insurance, stuart. we have -- our members are really focused on providing coverage for health care and services. they provide coverage through employers in the individual market, in medicare and medicaid. what we are really focused on is making sure that we help mitigate the spread of the disease, that we get testing and we get testing done in the right place, and ultimately provide coverage for treatment if and when those treatments are developed. right now we don't have any treatments directly for covid-19. there are no pharmaceuticals that treat it, there are no vaccines. they are under development and we hope they get approved as

quickly as possible but we are really focused on the health care piece. stuart: sorry, i misunderstood there. you were at the white house meeting, i think. what was the president saying to you, get it done? >> he wanted to know how are we helping to insure that americans can get tested, that we're providing coverage for services that we're enhancing things like telemedicine and telehealth. you don't want people going into the emergency room or into their doctor's offices needlessly. we want people to call ahead and figure out if they are facing symptoms, what's the best thing to do and right now, not going into the hospital, not going into the physician's office, checking first, figuring out what the best approach is, where you might be able to get tested, is better. we know that all of our members are expanding things like telehealth through mobile applications on your phone and in other ways and in many cases, they are not charging anything

to patients who do that. stuart: we like the sound of that. matt, thank you very much for being with us this morning. always appreciate it. thanks very much. >> thank you. stuart: the news is coming thick and fast. lauren has news on roche. lauren: swiss drug maker, they say only high risk patients should be tested for coronavirus because the simple reason is they just don't have enough tests out there, and they say the supply chain, however, is working. they are able to make the test even though several people and obviously infrastructure is locked down. they are also launching a clinical trial of one of their rheumatoid arthritis drugs, actemra. at the want to start a phase three test next month. stuart: that's a different condition, i guess you could say. lauren: it could work for coronavirus. stuart: i hear you. okay. what have we got from johnson & johnson? ashley: they say the demand in north america for tylenol is two to four times the normal demand. they are manufacturing at

maximum capacity. they have seen the surge, they say, in demand actually began three weeks ago but has actually skyrocketed this week. they say the good news is there's no shortage of raw materials to make the tylenol. that's just a little insight into stuart: enormous increase, is it not? ashley: huge. four times normal demand. looking market across the board. what i'm seeing here is lack, what we're not seeing extraordinary volatility. we kind of gotten used to 1000 points up and 500 points down and back the other way. it is not like that this morning. the low of the day was minus 600 and change, i think it was, now we're minus 350. walmart, a winner again? susan: stock price hit record high yesterday. probably adding to gains we've seen this week. two upgrades. oppenheimer upgraded to outperform. along with credit suisse, they said along with the coronavirus

spread, consumer habits will be different in the future the next five years and beyond. that means more online grocery buying. oppenheimer, coming from the government, more people spending some of that in walmart. i should note that walmart says they are shortening their hours and they will close at 8:30 p.m. for 5000 stores across the u.s. opening at 7:00 a.m. they will have dedicated senior citizen long hour shopping events every tuesday. only for senior citizens in the one hour in stores across 5000 in the u.s. stuart: susan. i qualify. i'm a walmart shopper. all right. ashley: get in there, stu. stuart: i want to pause for a moment and put out something which i think is really positive about america. our executive producer is justin manato he lives in a town in new jersey. justin tells me that every night at 5:30 his, what did you say? ashley: i'm an american. stuart: i'm an american.

he is in my ear all the time. justin, lives in a small town in new jersey, he is an american, at 5:30 each night his neighbors, they walk out of the house, stand on the sidewalk, look, 20 or 30 yards apart and they you know, shoot whatever, and have a glass of wine and they talk and they converse. it is a way, the other day they did the wave up and down the street. now isn't that -- i think that is just so american. my colleague steve doocy, who is on "fox & friends" in the morning, in his neighborhood, people are putting out lawn chairs on the front lawn or the front sidewalk. they now sit on them, 20 yards apart. ashley: shout at each other. stuart: shout at each other. trying to keep their spirits up. you can't mingle very much but get together as community. lauren: people are putting up christmas lights again, give you something to do. you have to put them up. you feel festive, when you look at them, you have something to do when you take them down.

stuart: let's not forget this is the best thing for the environment since the slice bed. co2 emissions are way, way down. i'm told that the water in venice is now clear. i saw a picture of it. ashley: can see the fish. stuart: can see the fish? there are fish? ashley: in the canal. stuart: how about that. move up towards the 10:00 hour. we had a great start to the market. we're not down as much as we have been. back to the 19,500 level, that means most of your gains in your 401(k) with president trump are gone. we're looking for a bottom. we haven't found it yet. market experts are looking. that is what we're looking for but we haven't found it yet. a half hour not trading session. it is thursday morning. it is march 19th i do

declare all day as my mother would have said, we're down 270 on the dow jones industrial average. the low this morning was a minus 720. that was a wild swing. i have got to say that. it was a big swing. here we go. 10:00 eastern. where are we? we're down 290 on the dow industrials and i believe, we're just got mortgage rates. now the significance here because all interest rates have come down, have mortgage rates? ashley: no. they have gone up quite a bit. we'll get to it. 3.65%, 3.65. it was 3.36 last week. tell me why. stuart: because the banks are experiencing a rush of refinancings. ashley: correct. stuart: and they haven't got all the money they would like to finance. ashley: they have been overwhelmed. so they raised rates. stuart: they have raised rates. i didn't expect that to happen. ashley: no. stuart: but i would imagine the federal reserve is coming in here pushing trillions of

dollars into the financial system. ashley: they are. refi applications fell 10%. that is the weekending march 1th. so looking backwards, but they're still up, refi applications, refinance the loan, 400,000 year over. 400%, 400% year-over-year for a refi applications but as you said the system is being overwhelmed. rates have gone up a little counter intuitive. stuart: 3.65%. counter intuitive, you have got it. gary kaltbaum with with us. you're a market watcher, but this mortgage rate increase, the banks not having enough money, a little short of money to booming refinance what do you make of that? >> all i can tell you whatever interest rates do if people are not doing anything with those interest rates it just doesn't matter at this juncture. i will tell you people should being refinancing the living heck out of their rates, their

mortgages if they can but, right now, a lot of things are standing still. there is a lot of distortions out there in the marketplace. without getting too much, the currencies are all over the map across the globe as well as rates. so, again, low rates. there is nothing bad about it. i'm seeing gas prices under two dollars here in orlando. if that continues, that's good news but i have to tell you, that is about the only good news i'm seeing this juncture. stuart: i'm asking all of our market guests the same question, do you see any sign of a bottom for the market? >> i'm seeing signs of near term. no way of calling the bottom after such a move to the downside, but last night i put out a note and i did early this morning like 7:00 a.m., it is feeling, like i watch the nasdaq at all times. i watch growth stocks at all times and i tell you flat-out they lead markets up and down. i have been noticing names like

amazon, apple, netflix, things like that, i call the glamour names, shorting to show real defense by the big institutional crowd. we see them popping up today. if that continues we have a near tomorrow low in place. believe it or not, regardless of news. this iser. >> term this is not big picture stuff. there is no way of calling the bottom at this juncture and it will all be about the news because we're in fluid times, my friend. where you wake up in the morning, you don't know what's next. stuart: the big picture, seems to me that there is a real push for more and more stringent restrictions on our association, travel and social distancing. i see a lot more of these shelter in place movement. that means, the economy is, the government is saying, shut this economy down. the authorities are saying, the authorities are shutting the economy down. until we get that whole wave

through our economy, through our society, you don't know where the bottom is for the economy or the market. >> business is in limbo. a very good friend of mine owns a day spa in miami beach. mime my beach called him yesterday saying you have to shut down. you are seeing that governments, city, county, states across the country, across the globe. that dynamic must change. the government can backstop them all they want. i hear about them, six to eight weeks, the problem we go past six to eight weeks, then what? every government around the globe throwing the kitchen sink at this. the european central bank overnight, japan, australia, us, i'm not so sure that does the job. the virus is the economy right now. that has to be fixed. i don't know what the markets react to. i don't know what the government reacts to, but that has to be taken care of. then everything else will get taken care of in time. stuart: well-said.

gary, hold on for me, would you please. at top. hour we announced that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, rate fon up to 3.65%. got some problems with that. susan, chime in on interest rates, please. susan: because they track interest rates and treasury yields, pardon me. treasury rate hit overnight 126 on the 10-year. we're back above the entire yield, back above the 1% line. that is pretty much when mortgage rates were tracking. this is because, there is a question, questions as to what the money is being raised to do in the markets right now. are people selling off treasurys. is that why yield is going up in order to buy stocks or holding in cash to wait for a better entry point? stuart: demand for cash. everybody wants cash. cash is king i guess you could say at this point. everybody is looking for cash, cash. up to the federal reserve toe supply it. get it out there. susan: they are. they are injecting a trillion dollars into the economy.

they bought $700 billion in bonds. there is bullish a lot of cash being raised yes, to cover margin calls. cash being raised for better entry points into the markets, there might be a v-shaped rebound. stuart: fair point, susan. we're only down, only down now 160 points on dow industrials. i live in hope of a green arrow at some point. that is just me. goldman sachs is up. morgan is down again. morgan stanley is down again. financials are hard hit. got it. throughout the show, ladies and gentlemen, you will see different groups of stocks appearing on the left-hand side of the screen. radio listeners i do my guess to keep you up to speed what the viewers are seeing left-hand side of the screen. come on in jason chaffetz please, fox news contributor. jason, i have got two congressman tested positive for the virus. how does congress function if lawmakers, some of them, have to stay home? >> well it is sad to see. i hope they get full recovery.

one from here in utah. got a democrat and republican diaz-balart out of florida. congress has actually a mini hospital at the basement of the capitol. there are attending physicians. dr. moynihan is from the united states navy. they have a full staff there. they have prepared for this in case of a natural disaster or some sort of terrorist attack. now it is in full swing given they're having to deal with coronavirus. stuart: i just want to talk to you about politics, please, and election coming up. seems to me joe biden is going to be the democrat nominee. i think the path is pretty clear for him. i suspect, however, this recession, severe recession we're going into might work to his advantage because he is going to come on strong and say, it is wicked rich, tax them, help the little guy. that could be a very attractive prospect in the election in november. what do you say?

>> perhaps but races are ultimately between two people and donald trump i think has shown command of this. he was taking action back in january to thwarting ability of chinese nationals to come into the country because of this, before it was popular and politically correct. i think his daily press conferences have given a lot of people a lot of confidence that he is in control of this. and i don't know what the case joe biden would make after his decades of service in washington, d.c., how he has any credentials to actually help build an economy where donald trump actually does. stuart: the president is definitely taking a leadership position right now. there is no question about it. i think he will do it again at 11:00 this morning. i would say he is now making impact because he is out front every day, right? >> he is showing that he is in command. he is in command of the facts. he is doing things proactively ahead of time. i think the private, public,

partnerships, you know, don't flip on a switch something laid in foundation for weeks. i think his cabinet, for mnuchin on down have been showing that they are adept to this. it is a difficult situation that nobody looked for, but generally when these types of things happen, we haven't seen anything exactly like this, the country rallies behind the commander-in-chief. i think the president is doing everything he can and come fall, when it, when hopefully this is all subsided they will look back, way, sow, donald trump did an exceptional job, given incredibly difficult circumstances. stuart: by the way, jasons, we heard congressman tom cole from oklahoma gone into voluntary self-quarantine because he came into contact with representative diaz-balart from florida. he was in contact. so now he is separating out. you know we've seen a lot of this. the new york stock exchange, the floor is closing because they have got two people who tested

positive, so all around them out. you know, that forces the slowdown of the whole country, doesn't it? it forces the shutdown of america. >> well, congress should still be able to operate. tom cole is a little bit more susceptible to this. his age, i don't have it right off the top of my head, he is probably in his 70s. i wish him nothing but the best. he is a great man. served a long time out of oklahoma but again, continuity of government, congress set up to deal with this. from the senate to the house you're going to have people that may contract it just like everybody else in public but the government will continue to operate. and it should and it is set up to be able to do so. stuart: good. jason chaffetz. thanks. left-hand side of the screen, i see green. nasdaq turned positive. is that 20 points?

no, 120%. that is up 1.7% on the nasdaq. big tech, that is what i want to see. technology very heavily into the nasdaq of course. amazon up 47. google up 8. facebook up nine. show me rest of big tech, please. microsoft back to 144. apple up to 249. four weeks ago it was 330. that is another story. look at the dow, only down 90 points. i live in hope of a green arrow for the dow. maybe i will see it, who knows. nasdaq is positive. let's deal with the border. who better to deal with that than brandon judd. he is the president of the border patrol council. president trump closed the northern border by mutual consent with us and canadians. what about closing the southern border? not done it yet. should we? >> yeah we should look at both borders. we have to look what is coming into the united states as example of why he closed the northern border, yesterday in

burke, new york, border patrol agents arrested three illegal migrants. two from india, one from italy. the individual from italy was exhibiting flu-like symptoms. he was coughing, spitting in trashcans, if he has the coronavirus he has infect ad number of agents. they will go home and infect their families, so on, so forth. when you look at this you have to take a proactive approach. you have to look what we can do, what we can't do. how we can isolate this virus from individuals crossing our borders illegally. we have to do everything we can, everything in our power. stuart: i believe mexico closed its side of the border. so i think, can you confirm this? i don't think we can go south of the border, at this point, can we? >> no. we can still go south. there are certain restrictions, yes, in place but we're putting certain restrictions as well. we're not trying to affect

trade, because again, economy being what it is, we're trying to get trade through as much as we possibly can but there are certain restrictions for pedestrians, from people going over there for tourism are, coming over here for tourism, so there are restrictions in place. stuart: by the way we got the green arrow for the dow i was looking for. it lasted a couple seconds at least. we're still up 13 points for dow industrials. brandon, i.c.e. will stop most immigrant enforcement, i don't think we're deporting people any longer but we're focusing on criminals during this time? can you explain this? >> yeah, absolutely. that's one of the reasons you look what happened in burke, new york, yesterday. what we have to do, we have to try to isolate this virus. we have to try to takes a few people in custody as possible because when they're in our custody, they come in contact with a great number of people. so we have to look at the criminals. we have to go after the criminals. we can never stop that we have to continue looking for the criminals. but for those individuals that

crossed the border illegally for misdemeanor crimes, we have to look past that right now at this time. this is an extraordinary time. we have to take extraordinary measures. stuart: even the europeans are putting up the border posts again. it used to be the schengen zone, you could travel freely. now you can't. so they're doing what they never ever, wanted to do and doing it out of necessity and you're saying we have to do the same here, right? >> we absolutely have to. if you look what happened in italy and how widespread the virus is. then look at south korea, how they contained virus very quickly. we have to ask ourselves, what is the united states going to be? will we be italy or we be south cree? frankly we want to be south korea. we want to contain this. infect as few as of our citizens we possibly can, the borders play a huge role in that. stuart: brandon judd, thank you for being with us. good for you. >> thank you.

stuart: look at that, the dow up 153 points, we'll take it. gary kaltbaum is with us. i will not fall into the trap of saying here is the bounce. we found the low. off we go to the races, i'm not going to say it, gary. >> as i said a few minutes ago i thought a near term low was being put in because i always follow the big tech glamour names. if they start doing better than the market, the market usually follows. that is exactly what you're seeing right now but we have a little motto in the markets right now, stuart, that is don't blink. enjoy whatever bounce or rally, let me be clear, we could bounce a couple thousand points, that is how stretched to the downside we are. i'm not saying we're going to. good to see the nasdaq leading at least for a day. i think it is probably going for a little bit. i will tell you about three weeks ago, i called a low in the market t lasted only four days before rolling over. again don't blink. good to see. definitely institutional money

is going towards some big cap glamour tech names. amples, amazons, things like that, hope it will continue for a while. people feel much better if the market is going up. stuart: you think we could get a w? we go down, we go up, we go down again and then finally we go back up again, w? >> i think we can see like, if your three-year-old took a crayon to draw on sheet of paper, that is how crazy things are. again i always look for simple clues in the market. i've studied 100 years of history going back, when the leading growth names are showing real good relative strength. they were starting to show the yesterday, we're getting close. even though we saw us down 700 on the open, i saw amazon green, a couple others. that is why i said at the outset, coming on here, that i thought we can get a low in place. so, again let's see where it takes us. i have no clue where it takes us. but again, good to see, let's

hope it continues. you never know, whether the market factored in all the bad. you never know. we'll look back and see. business is basically shut down that has to be considered. stuart: i got to go back to washington, d.c., because, look, they are really are doing stuff. the federal reserve has three emergency packages in two days. the senate has passed legislation for sick leave. they're working on a phase three, which is gigantic infusion of money, 500 billion going out in checks to individuals on april the 6th and, may the 18th i believe. $500 billion going into loans for businesses. maybe that is beginning to have some impact on the market because dow winners, dow, inc. is up. microsoft, walt disney, american express, goldman sachs. they're bouncing from a very extreme low. they are in the green. wouldn't you know it. as soon as i start talking about

the green arrows for the dow, they turn red. we're back up five points. ashley: just like yesterday. stuart: not going to say another word. >> don't blink, stuart. stuart: don't blink, thank you, gary. look at right-hand corner of your screen and i won't jinx it. ashley: thank you. stuart: i'm particularly interested in boeing, because foolish stuart varney bought that thing at $331 a share about five weeks ago. what's the news on boeing, susan? susan: microsoft raised cash, right? you can still get into microsoft 144 now. boeing, got cowan slapping lowest price target on the streets on boeing, still at $150 a share. $50 from the current levels. stuart: wait, wait. we have some analyst saying it will go to 150? susan: that's right. that is the lowest on the street. analysts didn't forecast, foresee, a, you would have this oil crisis merged in with this ex exogenous outbreak of

coronavirus. no one predicted boeing would get to $100 a share. they do expect, this is the trend for most companies in this environment, at least for the fir six months of this year, they will cut and quit their dividends going forward. stuart: sounds to me like analysts got it wrong. they thought the low was 150. it's not. it's 99. now they're coming out saying -- that is not a target. they just missed it, didn't they? susan: yes, but probably still keeping at 150. they probably expect it to lift at some point with government help. not $60 billion which is what boeing is asking for. as you heard from bill ackman, you have to nationalize, inject money into boeing for it to survive. stuart: one quick point i missed earlier, that is the european central bank, we don't spend much time discussing them, but this morning they came in with a 750 billion euro package of rescue for europe. dow jones up 17. nasdaq up 167.

s&p up nine. gary, what do you have for me? >> i just want to bring up boeing. since the tragedies, the two crashes we've been avoiding it. the problem with boeing is now simple. it is really murphy's law at this point. whatever can go wrong. who will be buying airplanes over the next, two, three years, when everybody is lowering capacity big time? even when we get past it, bring it back up. nobody will be buying airplanes. all the airline companies will decide on where they are. that will be a big problem for boeing. i guess like a lot of companies they will get largess and everything else. they are a big part of our gdp as well as our manufacturing numbers. i suspect they will get a big number. i'm not so sure they earned it, but the expectation that is going to happen. stuart: you're killing me, gary. you're laughing at me. >> just a fact, my friend, just the facts. stuart: just the facts.

did i hear you were buying gas in orlando for two bucks or less? >> i was just there. i saw 1.99 in northeast orlando for regular. i think it was 2.35 for the 89 fuel. so it is markedly coming down. by the way that doesn't factor in what happened to oil prices last couple weeks f it stays down here, i suspect you will be down another quarter, if not more. that is about only great news i can give but i don't know how much gas people will be using because not many cars on the road. stuart: precisely. i do have one headline from kentucky. one station in kentucky is selling gas at 99 cents a gallon. that means you have to drive to pick up a bargain i guess. news on slack. what have you got, lauren? lauren: i have got good news. people are working from home, you can use slack technologies to do that the stock is up one 1/2%. one 1/2 months, february through

yesterday, they added 7,000 paying customers. that is more than they do in typically a quarter which is three months. so their technology is popular right now. stuart: that works. the stock is up 4 1/2%. slack at $18.94 per share. susan, what have you got? susan: wanted to ask you, ashley, rest of the panel, what do you think about u.s. sovereign wealth funds? since we know other countries have them, singapore, china, norway, the list goes on and on. if they take out bail some industries why not out right own stakes in the companies an benefit from rise in share prices. >> there is that discussion, is there not? certainly in europe. that is something do they do. not only bail industries out but they take a stake. stuart: is your question, susan, whether or not we, if we say help the airline industry -- susan: or boeing. stuart: or boeing, should we take equity stake? susan: that is what it is, isn't

it? that is what you did during the financial crisis. tarp did in general moat to, took 60% stake in general motors and they lost money. fannie and freddie, bank bailouts be. why not outright own stakes in the companies. have the government benefit and see their money rise when the stock prices go up instead of losing money and giving, handing out loans instead? stuart: i see the point. i take your point. one thing we can rely on is, if we give a lot of money to the airlines, $50 billion we'll demand a lot in return. i believe that the package, as is being written, insists on limits on executive pay. one thing that is going to happen. susan: continuation. ashley: strings attached. stuart: strings attached. that is the way it. you asked a different question, susan, should the government take a equity stake, should they own a piece of the company?

susan: instead after loan, bailout, whatever you want to call it, outright buy the stake. companies get the cash. government owns part ofget equi. when the share prices go up, why not benefit from that? china has a trillion dollars sovereign wealth fund. norway has one of largest close to a trillion. singapore, why not the u.s.? maybe something to explore what happened in 2008 and what might happen in 2020? stuart: when the government takes over means of production, seems slightly socialist to me. ashley: just a whiff. susan: singapore is capitalist country and they do very well. stuart: that is very true. i think we have to retreat from idealogical positions. this is such extraordinary and pro profound crisis unlike anything we've seen before. maybe we have to walk away from the idea of ideology intruding into our opinions on what to do? ashley: yeah. susan: i don't like giving away money without getting something back in return.

that is how i felt in 2008. if you bail out the banks if bankers make money and bonuses on top and average worker can't get 3% raise in hourly wages, why shouldn't the government make something off rescuing the companies? ashley: that is a point of view. stuart: the question which industries do we help? ashley: right. stuart: i think we have to help the airlines in some form or another because you have to have some kind -- they're a utility do you have to help the ski industry or cruise industry? gary kaltbaum still with us. he dabbles in ideology and politics on occasion. two questions, gary. should the government take an ownership stake in the companies it bails out. b, which industries should we help and not help? what do you say? >> should have would have but they will. you will see a lot of creativity going forward. i don't think they will tell industry how to do their

business but they will tell airline executives how much they are going to make, keep in mind, airlines spent about 45 to $50 billion buying back their stock over the last 10 years while charging up zillions of dollars on luggage, things like that. so on a case-by-case basis i see loans, i see equity positions, and i think we did a little bit of that in '08 with some things, i don't believe anything is off the table. i will tell you, there are 30 million small businesses out there, making up 99% of all businesses. they will have to do some heavy and hefty lifting with that because there is no revenues coming into a lot of those businesses which means they can't pay employees and that is a lot of them. my expectation is high and i gather the white house is going to be working 24/7 on this you know me, i believe in letting business be business. but, different times take different manuevers and different decisions and we're in one of them. as you said, ideology may have

to tinker with that a little bit, my friend. stuart: thanks, gary. we're fortunate to be joined right now by ohio senator rob portman, republican from ohio. mr. senator welcome to the program. i wonder if you join this debate? i'm asking, you've been listening, i will just ask the question again. if we bail out or help an industry or a company like boeing, should we, the taxpayer, the government, have an ownership stake of that company? what do you say? >> stuart, i think we need to take a deep breath and realize that the last few years we've seen tremendous economic growth including to the point of wages, 19 months of wage increases over 3% until this month. we've seen unemployment at historic levels, 50 year lows. we've seen a lot of investment in our economy. so not just new jobs and better jobs but investment in technology and productivity. the market works when you provide the right kind of tax policy, regulatory policy, so

on. now we have a crisis. i think it is important that we not say, okay, during this crisis, let's change that fundamental view that markets work during normal times because we're going to get out of this and we all want the v as economists call it, where you go in deep and sometimes come out deep. we want the recovery to be very strong as well. so i think we need to be careful. with regard to the airlines we need to help save them, there is no question about it. one could argue that is not market forces. we're in extraordinary time but to own the airlines is a mistake in my view. stuart: okay. >> let's be sure the loans are collateralized, should be collateralized airlines have. they have tremendous assets. they would like to see grants. i think it is better to provide loans. to the point we were not made back after tarp, that is not accurate. in fact we made some money on that. that was appropriate. i think we need to be came not to change our approach, forget

the word ideology. let's look at what's the american approach which is to have created over the last few years one of the strongest economies we've had, certainly compared to the rest of the world, the most dynamic economy. stuart: which industries do we help? you want to help the airlines but which do we not help? i raise the issue of the cruise line industry for example, in dire straits, should we them? skiing industry is in dire straits, should we help them? >> this is very difficult decision. the list goes on and on as you can imagine. i'm in the strawn business. hose in the hospitality business including hotels are asking for direct relief as people in the entertainment business. think of movie theaters. there are others. bowling alice in ohio come to me, where is our relief? we need, broad, general relief. what things i'm excited about. one is idea of sba loans running

through banks, talking about commune banks and savings and loans and our credit unions. people getting their money if they're small business owners and being able to back up those loans. the thought 90%, maybe 100% backup if necessary to be sure these entities continue to be viable across the board. so that is very exciting. i think to think about the government being able to back up the banks. not running it through the sba but having sba back them up. second on the tax side. there are a number of things we can do, stuart, to help all industries suffering from losses right now. one allow their losses to be monetized. in other words, they can go back two years, three years, four years, five years, with net operating losses. this is helpful foreall the industries you name including cruise ships. that will be in the bill. i hope democrats and republicans agree on that. that can get cash to people right away. interest deductions, go back to

100% deduction on interest. you want people to borrow to get an interest deduction. right now under the current law that is restricted somewhat. to go from 30% to 50% of adjusted gross income, that will allow business folks who are, your viewers to say i feel better going out getting a loan to make it through the tough time. stuart: yeah. >> we all hope it will be a few months, not a few years. we all hope it will be a blip, we'll be able to get back on track. stuart: clearly help is on the way. just the mechanism which you use to help all those people badly affected. i do have to ask you, senator, about the proper functioning of congress. we have two house members who tested positive for the virus. one person, tom cole, who has been associated with them, he has gone into voluntary quarantine. can you proceed normally? can congress do its job in a situation like this? >> stuart, as you know, maybe itch a concern about this i

think that we should have the ability during times of emergency and these will be very rare instances, for congress to be able to express itself remotely. in other words, gathering the house of representatives right now is a decision, the speaker and the republican leader will have to make. i'm not going to prejudge what they might decide, but when you have people who have tested positive and people have been exposed to them, self-quarantining, it is hard for me to imagine right now people gathering in the normal way. maybe there is a way to gather through more social distancing but i think this is an example of where remote voting is necessary. in extreme situations like this. i'm introducing legislation in past few weeks with colleagues on both sides of the aisle t will be bipartisan. says leadership is able to ascertain when emergency like this, there is secure means to vote without being here. so the continuity of government

can be something we can be assured of. only used in very rare instances. we ought to have capability in instances like this. stuart: senator rob port man of ohio. thanks for being here. >> thanks for for for being on. i watch you and it has been very helpful. stuart: why did you not tell me that earlier. we have much better show. >> much better interview. stuart: senator, we're ebliged to you. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: get to susan with tesla. susan: we were down in the red last six sessions. they got an up grade from bank of america overnight. bank of america says it was based on valuation. tesla was up to $900 a share before the coronavirus kicked n given levels, looks like liquidity is not problem. premodel continues operating.

might looking cheap at these levels. not you upgrade but maintain on morgan stanley. reaffirming their confidence in the stock. morning morgue says tesla has sufficient liquidity and access to capital. they cut the price target to 46 for tesla. dan ives says he is lowering his price target to 425. stuart: b-of-a likes them. the stock is up 15% on that basis. susan: continuing to operate in free month and operating with the model 3s and model ys soon. stuart: andrew, what, are you buying anything as of right now? >> as of right now. last week or two weeks ago, amazon. amazon made itself more than a company right now. supply chain has become so important to the united states. quite possibly jeff bezos is the most important man in the united states. in these times i think you can buy amazon and actually go to

bed at night knowing their -- business and their growth knowing how important they are. this is trillion dollar company, might become the country's first 2 trillion-dollar company. stuart: we'll said, andrew. are you buying anything else? >> i'm still buying benefit technologies. it is a smaller company. getting seniors medicare advantage. i think that is very important. telemedicine theme is re importance. teladoc had a great run. it is too expensive for me. getting seniors medicare advantage and access to telemedicine is important theme not going away. other than that i'm staying anything from hotel or cruise related. there might be upside there but i have to go to bed and sleep at night. you don't know how long this will last. i'm not going to start predicting it. i am buying goose companies i would buy lower. amazon is, one investment is best. seems high. didn't sell off as much as rest

of the market but there is no reason why it will not completely over take the rest of market over the next 12 or 24 months. stuart: want your thoughts on bill ackman. as you know said yesterday, hell is coming. people wondered why he had said that. maybe that is out look -- >> no one, no one love as headline more than bill ackman. call yesterday the ackman bottom. hell is lose from where? from his penthouse in new york city? from his helicopter to his plane? is that where his hell was loose. that was reckless remark. didn't come from anywhere. there are not bodies lined up at hospitals. there are not children dying. he kept nothing in perspective. he is always talking his book. he loves to use pretty face in the news. that is all that was. that is not based on anything. we don't see hell coming t was reckless. i upset at media, even us giving him attention with that line. stuart: i will drop it from here on out. andrew thank you for joining us.

we appreciate your views on allison. you did recommend it two weeks ago. that stock is doing very well. andrew left, we appreciate it. 's get news oversees. 470 people died with nun day in italy. no new cases in wuhan, china. now you have news from spain. ashley: this is very sobering statistic from spain. president of region of madrid they believe 80% of the population of madrid will be infected with the coronavirus. 80%, eight out of 10 people. now they have recorded, across the country 640 deaths. spain is now just over 15,000 reported cases. and this president says, look, the majority of that 80% will have mild symptoms but for around 15%, the vulnerable population, she called the disease lethal. if you're elderly with an underlying health problem, she

characterized the disease as lethal. stuart: got that kind of a mass positive testing. ashley: yes. stuart: you have to look at the fatality rate. ashley: yes. stuart: for every one hundred people who test positive and get it, get the symptoms, how many die? ashley: 80% will be okay. 15% will have symptoms that may require more. 5% intensive care. stuart: intensive care. that, that 5% some will die until. ashley: yes. especially elderly. stuart: sobering news. ashley: very much so. stuart: on other side of the news, good news from japan, that right, susan? susan: epidemiologist on japanese government coronavirus panel, things are getting better. they say new infections are slightly decreasing in their view. changes in behavior has been effective. china reported zero new coronavirus cases. 34 reported nationwide were from travelers overseas bringing it

back inside of chinese borders. this is the other side of the coronavirus. what could happen if we are willing to take this measures and those steps that china did, which is lock down half of its 1.3 billion population. stuart: there are some signs that some parts of asia are coming out on the other side, taking dramatic action but coming out on the other side. japan, i think, closed all of their schools a couple weeks ago. susan: that's right. stuart: they are staying closed. susan: that's right, they're staying closed. the debate over july, whether or not we see the 2020 olympics is still being discussed. japan took drastic actions. south screen testing 20,000 a day and locking down their population. china taking draconian steps closing down their borders. locking in more than half of their population. the u.s. has to look at the examples, whether or not they're willing to take those steps in order to make sure the spread,

as they keep saying, the curve flattens, the spread doesn't widen. stuart: no question in my mind we're moving in that direction in the united states. that seems to be the momentum at this point. now, one group of people is getting some blame for not taking this social distancing seriously. i'm talking about millenials. spring break people as well. i understand that in florida -- ashley: they're cracking down. all public beaches in miami, miami-dade county closed as of 9:00 a.m. this morning. it is always sickening to see the same people, laughing, i will not get it, blah, blah. irresponsible at the very least. but they are now closing the beaches. which again, i mean a lot of people, small businesses rely on this at this time of year. so, you know, you have to do what you have to do but the long-term economic impact is great. stuart: the sight of them own beaches socializing in crowds, didn't go down well. ashley: nor should it. stuart: nor should it. you got it.

judge napolitano joins us right now, fox news senior judicial analyst. i know you're aware of this, los angeles releasing some prisoners early because of virus concerns. how does that work? what is the legitimacy of releasing prisoners like this? >> well, in order to release them early they would need the approval of the judge had who incarcerated them. the people they're actually releasing are those being held without bail or bail that they can't make awaiting trial. many of them technically under the law are not guilty but a judge would have to reduce the bail or readjust it so as to make the release legal. stuart: judge, wouldn't you have to test them before you let them out? >> theoretically yes, theoretically they would. i doubt they have the tests, federal protocol is not administer a test without a set of symptoms. on the other side of the country in philadelphia it is actually worse. the police commissioner of

philadelphia has given a list of 10 crimes, some of which involve violence, for which the police in philadelphia will no longer be arresting people. they have made that list public. meaning, if you're in philadelphia, i hate to say this, somebody is watching me, can go in a store and shoplift, you won't be arrested. stuart: is that to protect the police officers, first-responders? >> yes it is. i would like to see the police department come up with a better way to protect the police because this is unleashing people own the public who now know, that there is a category of crimes which they can commit with impunity. stuart: apart from which, you're also saying look, we're all in this together, why should we release possible suspect carriers into the general population? what about my freedom as part of the vast majority. >> i fully agree with you. the federal protocol that people be kept no more than 10 in a

room, no less than six feet apart. the jails are not equipped to do that. they physically don't have the space to comply with the federal protocol. you can only imagine how catastrophic epidemic would be in a jail, which can only provide minimal services as it is? stuart: i hate to say this, judge. i can see a lawsuit filed on behalf of some prisoners who do not wish to be confined with other people very close to them, and they want out. >> yes. stuart: i can see it coming. >> yes. because, i mean there is much case law, that the cruelty of confinement can constitute a violation of the eighth amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, particulary for people who, as matter of law, because they haven't been convicted yet, whether they did the or not but haven't been convicted, they're not guilty and still being punished. stuart: this being the united states of america, i can see a avalanche, tsunami of lawsuits

from everybody, to everybody, when this thing, even now, i think it is starting now. avalanche. >> so at 4:30 this morning a very dear friend of mine sent me a cartoon which was a picture of the signing of the constitution of the united states and jefferson turns around, i think jefferson says, it this doesn't count if people get sick, right? stuart: that was me. that was me. >> it was you. stuart: i sent it to you. >> it had us going at 4:30 in the morning. other thanly in this business can you have a philosophical conversation with your colleagues at 4:30 in morning. stuart: these are special times. >> yes, they are. stuart: we will have discussion all the time, personal liberties sankfied by the constitution, broken by the virus. that is it where re. >> it is profound conversation. it affects every human in the country. stuart: i won't have it at 4:30 in the morning. that is a promise. what have you got.

ashley: quickly, bank of england cut rates again in last two minutes from quarter of a percent to .1%. why they didn't go to zero i have no idea. that is kind of interesting, whatever it takes. keeping a tiny piece of dry powder. .1%. of course there is negative rates if you want to go down that road but anyway. stuart: we like to look at industries, regions severely affected by this virus. most regions are as well. catherine hall, she is owner of five family wines operating north of san francisco i believe. broad-based question to start with. you operate several wineries. are they shut down? >> hello, stuart. our hospitality operation in every one of our tasting locations is shut down. however we still continue in production. so that part of our business remains open. stuart: we really feel for you

because you had to suffer through dreadful fires, lack of power on frequent occasions and now the virus. i don't want to be pejorative here but i can't imagine the northern california wine industry coming out in good shape. i can't see that. >> this is very tough. we're taking it very seriously. it is tough for the business, tough for our employees. for example the employees can no longer come to work because there is no way you can greet a guest remotely. that is issue and long-term issue we'll have to deal with in the valley. we are resilient n agriculture every year you're subject to the vagueries of mother nature. we have that built into who we are. on top of that i would say we feel like, we've been here before. we've dealt with lots of

problems. as you say, we all, we made it through those. stuart: what about your employees? i mean, i take it, you have laid them off. i don't know whether you laid them off or not. but what do they do for money? >> it's turf. we're taking this one day a time. right now folks use some of their sick time. we amended sick leave policies, if they need to stay home, they can do that. we also have in place, actually a long-time program for the winery, each of our employees can take 40 hours off a year to work in charity, they get paid the normal salary. pretty much everyone at the winery is taking advantage of this opportunity. i think this week we actually flooded the napa food bank which is terrific, not only for the food bank but also for our employees. stuart: did you give them wine to the food bank? >> you know what? we're in this business. we consider wine an essential part of life.

stuart: most definitely is. i will ask you a completely different question, if you don't mind. the wildfires that swept through napa. did that make a difference to the wine itself? was there, i mean i hate, i'm not an expert in this, was there a smokey taste to the wine? >> that's a great question. there would have been but actually the wineries here in the valley culled out that part of, part of the batch that had any smoke taste. it is difficult. those wines are just coming on the market. we'll all have a chance to taste them generally but i taste ad lot of them, obviously all of our own, in addition to some of the other wineries and i think the winemakers here in the valley did a really good job dealing with the taste, but, i would also add that the production is going to be lower that year from the 2017 fire. those are wines we'll see in 2020. stuart: katherine, thank you for being with us.

we feel for you. all the stuff that comes your way is just awful. obviously you'll deal with it. you will come through on the other side looking just great. kathryn hall, thank you. >> thank you very much, stuart. stuart: couple news items. you may have seen on the bottom of the screen. tulsi gabbard has suspended her campaign. i think that leave, joe biden is now clearly the guy who will be the nominee for the democrats. i don't think there is much doubt about that. bernie sanders has not withdrawn from the race at this point but i understand he is at least considering that. there is another news item. ash has it for me. governor cuomo, new york's workforce. ashley: says, asking 75% of new york workforce to stay at home t was 50%. that has been raised to 75%. new york has more cases than any other state in the u.s. also says there are thousands of people with the virus that have not been tested. stuart: so the shutdown continues.

>> the key is, keep people away from each other, to try to stop the spread. 75% of the workforce should stay home. stuart: do they get paid? ashley: that's a good question. stuart: we don't know. ashley: i think he is talking about mortgage relief, mortgage payments for three months in some cases. he is in the middle of announcing these things right now. we're watching headlines. stuart: of course he is involved in, not exactly dispute. it is an argument with the mayor of new york. ashley: correct. stuart: do you shut down new york? do you, one of shelter in place things where you got to stay in your own home which would be extraordinarily difficult in place like new york. ashley: he is governor of the state f i do that for new york, what about other cities in new york. you can't have one rule and another rule for everyone else. we'll see how it progresses. 75% of the workforce being told to stay home. stuart: new york state. across the state. ashley: governor of new york. stuart: that is thousands of people. stay home. we got news, the surgeon

general, jerome adams, asking celebrities to help the fight. what have you got, lauren? lauren: kylie jenner, instagrammer, influencer, also kevin durant and other basketball players tested positive for coronavirus. the point young people think they're immune. they are not. they can and they are getting the coronavirus. people are dying. and the young cannot only get themselves sick, they can get others sick as well. new report from the cdc, people in the hospital because of coronavirus, about 40% of them were between the ages of 20 and 54 years old. so the surgeon general saying, young people, this affects you too. if you don't listen to me, listen to kiley generaller and kevin durant. stuart: that was shocking news this morning, those people hospitalized, i don't have the exact numbers, on me, 3% -- 38%.

whoizeed, 24 to 54. that was quite a scare. it extends the risk factor. lauren: think of spring break beaches which are closed in miami in florida. think of all the young people partying together. returning home through the airports on spring break. i spoke to a student this morning from the university of pennsylvania. he said his friend got coronavirus when they were in spain on spring break. the friend had symptoms. he did not, zero symptoms and he did test positive for coronavirus. so he is in his room. his whole house is now quarantined but he is in his room. stuart: he had no symptoms. he didn't know. walking around, could have spread it without knowing it. now he find out, he is in his room. lauren: that is message to young people. you might be okay. likely recover quicker than someone 70, 80, 90.

you can get it too but harm other people in the process. stuart: well-said, lauren. marijuana industry, you would think they do well when everybody is locked down, that is my imagination. we have the ceo of canndescent. he is a cannabis kind of guy, sells the stuff. markets the stuff. adrian, are you telling me there is demand for cannabis is skyrocketing? tell me? >> stuart, i would absolutely share that demand for cannabis is robust and up right now. when you look at data across the board from all the major reporting channels, trees is reporting twelve 1/2% increase in average order value. pds analytics reporting 92%. stores across the board, 92% of them are reporting sizable increases in traffic. i can tell you, if you look at the trailing four-week data this week, we're up about 20%.

and our internal orders on monday shot up about 56% at canndescent and this week today we're up about 46%. stuart: am i right in saying when the six counties around san francisco went into kind of a shelter in place, stay at home, lockdown situation, at first the cannabis dispensaries were ordered to close but am i right in saying there was such an outburst of hostility to that, that they allowed them to reopen? is that accurate? >> yes. and, stuart, thank you for bringing it up. it is important to remember that cannabis is rooted in the medical industry. we fought for 25 years for 40 states to deem it a medical product and, even though 90% of the tax revenue comes from, quoted a duty users, not people with a medical card, 50% of adult users report using it for

medical purposes. and sew when this state or, the state still has not deemed it an essential good and our concern in the industry is, we serve four million patients or two million active patients in california and, if those people can't get to their medication i'm worried about the implications how they start showing up, whether you have ms, you're under chemo, you have crohn's disease, how those people presenting into the traditional health care system if they can't get ahold of their medication. it is critical for states across the board to act, to make sure cannabis dispensaries continue to dispense medicine to adult users and patients alike. whether it is people sheltering in place, who are just trying to reduce their anxiety, or, we're talking about more serious conditions, it is important that people have success to their medicine. stuart: one last one, does cannabis reduce your anxiety or make you paranoid.

>> i think that depends on the user, generally speaking reduces anxiety. it is a great substitute for things like xanax with much fewer health consequences. stuart: we hear you, adrian sedlin, stuart: let's go to grady trimble. he's in chicago. he's been following developments in the supply chain and how it's being affected. what's your news? reporter: well, it's a trying time for farmers. you see the pictures of empty grocery store shelves and you think this must be good for farmers but it's a lot more complicated than that. on the positive side, the supply chain has held up to meet the demand that everybody's been going to the store and grabbing everything they can, including meat. tyson for one has shifted their production and their distribution from restaurants and grocery stores and shifting more of that to grocery stores to keep up. that's something that ag

secretary sonny perdue touched on yesterday about the supply chain. listen. >> the food will be there but they can't stand all this hoarding demand at one time. that's why it's important for the public to look out for their fellow citizens and neighbors and leave some for them. these shelves will be restocked, our food supply chain is very sound. reporter: i just got off skype with a farmer on the negative side, they were expecting a deal with china which meant a lot of ag purchases, then coronavirus moves in to china, now it's spreading in the united states so that is up in the air right now and the commodity markets, the farmers have seen, are mirroring the stock market. that's not good for them, either. it's also coming up on the time that they would plant and they don't know if they will be able to do it. one thing they stress to me is that they need to be considered essential during these times, because the american people are relying on them to keep the

grocery store shelves stocked and number one, it would be bad for their business if they had to shut things down and number two, we don't know what it would mean for people going to the grocery store to try to get food. stuart: precisely right. grady trimble, thanks very much indeed. it occurs to me that never before has the whole world been turned upside down in quite the way it's being turned upside down by this virus. ash, state department, new travel restrictions? ashley: according to politico, state department getting ready to issue a level four travel advisory applying to all international travel. basically they say will advise all americans abroad to either return to the united states or prepare to shelter in place. it also would instruct americans simply not to travel abroad. stuart: that's a very strong item. ashley: very much. stuart: if you are american, overseas, get back now fast or -- ashley: hunker down and shelter in place. don't travel abroad, essentially, is what the advisory says.

i don't know who is. stuart: who is these days? i just can't imagine. we would like to bring you the latest news developments of individual companies and industries. lauren has news on tiffany's. lauren: yes. but they are closing all of their stores here in the u.s., also in canada, and some of them around the globe. just a few days ago they said they were just closing some, but now all here in north america being closed. friday, they report their latest earnings. i know earnings mean nothing. there is no visibility going forward. but we will know a little bit more about the state of their business pre and post-coronavirus. stuart: tiffany's closing up shop at least for now. got it. coming up on 11:00, we are expecting a coronavirus update. it's a briefing. this is the virus task force briefing. it comes up, it's scheduled for 11:00 which is literally 20 seconds away. these events, however, are a

daily event and in the recent last few days, they have been late. it's entirely understandable. you will have a panel of people standing in front of that podium that you can see on the right-hand side of your screen. they will be standing there. they've got to be absolutely precise in what they say. they are getting ready. bang, 11:00 eastern time. here we go. let me reset where we are and what's happening to your money. i will start with the markets. we have been open now for, what, about an hour and a half. we have seen some up and down movement. not as extreme as in recent sessions. the low was a minus 700, i think. the high was a plus 200. you got a 900 point swing right now, the dow is down 89. ashley: 900 point swing in about an hour and a half and we are saying not as volatile as it has been. that kind of shows you where we've been. stuart: well said. exactly right. precisely the way it is these days. 1,000 point swing, nothing. happens almost every single day.

you've got a 900 point swing right now. and we are down 48 points. i like to get the news flowing with all kinds of different companies coming in with news. susan, news on uber? susan: the stock price is rallying 35% this morning. this is because the ceo, dara khosrowshahi, just held an investor call with their big money investors and a source familiar with this that was on the call telling me he talked about having ample liquidity, meaning there's enough cash on hand for uber to survive. he also talked about the fact they have a lot of levers they can pull in order to control their costs. there have been concerns a company like uber in a gig economy which also said, the company said on march 2nd the coronavirus pandemic would have a material impact on their bottom line, on their sales and their business. now they are reassuring investors, although they said the ride segment might see a 60% to 70% decline in areas hit hardest by the coronavirus

pandemic. but there are a lot of structural geographic advantages, a global platform, multiple layers of business including uber eats, and the ride business in their view, according to my sources on that call with dara khosrowshahi says the business will bounce back quickly once the cities start moving once again. uber got down to as low as $14 a share yesterday. it went out at ipo last year at $45. this is reassurance it's bounced back close to 30% in the session. stuart: i saw it at $14 a share, nearly fell off my chair. i couldn't believe it. that thing went out public at $45 i think it was, dropped to 14. very nice bounce now, up 31%. uber is back to $19. i want to bring in pete hegseth, "fox & friends" weekend cohost. here's what i consider a major positive. the government will send out $500 billion worth of checks,

$250 billion going out on april 6th, i think it is. another $250 billion on may 18th. i think there's more to come. that's a big shot in the arm for ordinary people. i think there's more to come. >> i agree with you. i think the realization has fully soaked into washington, d.c. across both sides of the aisle that this is a come together moment. this is not a sink or swim moment because the winners and losers are everybody in this case. we are all losing from this. this is not an industry that's failed so people suffer. this is an entire economy, entire country frankly, an entire globe facing a virus that without government interaction, entire industries and individuals and families will not make it back for quite some time. so the fact that washington is recognizing this, i hope it's targeted, i hope it is focused just on this moment, but it's going to have to be big because everybody's feeling it and i'm glad to see washington is dialed in on that.

stuart: the president every single day is right out front with new developments, new programs, pushing it forward, clearly taking a hands-on leadership position in this. on the phone: absolutely. even his critics. some of his harshest critics. ilhan omar, other democrats saying he is the leader we need right now, he's responding the way we need to, he's recognizing the needs of regular people and the pinch, the big pinch that they're feeling. and frankly, the fear and the panic. when you've got a 24/7 news cycle, every bit of information is broadcast far and wide, people don't know what the next chapter holds, everyone is closing schools, extending the amount of days it's closing, where do i provide child care, where is my job going, i have an hourly wage, how about health care with the flooding of or health care system if that does happen. he needs to be front and center and he's changed his demeanor in a way that reflects how people feel, serious, somber, experts, direct action, bold action. that's what people want to see. as far as the market and how

it's reacting to all that, i will leave that to you guys because i don't know why and how and how much of that is baked in. stuart: in political terms, seems to me that the virus has completely taken over our political life. absolutely dominates it from top to bottom. how many of us are paying attention to what joe biden is saying on the campaign trail? how many of us are paying attention to tulsi gabbard who today suspended her campaign. bernie sanders, i have not heard anything about him or from him for several days. this is the virus. this is occupying our attention 100%. frankly, pete, i think the whole election process is on kind of hiatus. on the phone: i think you're right, absolutely. i think that's part of the reason tulsi gabbard got out. there's no time for silliness and frivolousness. if you're not going to win the race which has been clear for weeks and months, get out. everyone kind of says okay, about time, but it's a

reflection of the fact there's no time for vanity, no time for veneer. this is serious stuff and it probably benefits the biden campaign that they hit a pause because he's the prohibitive front-runner but it's hard to be critical in the typical partisan way that democrats would want to be in a political season of the president in a moment when we are supposed to rally together and frankly, we are, and we are starting to see people recognize that leadership matters, regardless of whether it's republican or democrat, and oh, my goodness, donald trump might actually care about people and want to deliver on it so we are going to see that pause. i'm seeing that pause in my own house, in the conversation, what's happening to my family, with my kids. i'm basically home-schooling them now at the hegseth school for higher learning and you know -- ashley: what's tuition? on the phone: real cheap. get in while it's early. those are the types of things we are focusing on and the political stuff can kind of wait because we will have time for that. stuart: forgive me but i'm going to share a personal story with

you. to me, this is the mood of america. this is the kind of country we are. our producer, you know him, pete, he lives in a town in new jersey and every day at 5:30, he and his neighbors walk out the front of their house, stand on the sidewalk, they keep 20 yards apart, they crack jokes, they do the wave, they wave the flag, they have a glass of wine. that seems to me to be america lightening the mood in very dark times. i don't know where you are now. i think you are in new jersey. you see something similar? on the phone: absolutely. first, that gives me chills to think about that. the morale that that boosts for people, the connection it creates for people, we are seeing similar things here, more informal, but you are in your own universe and the ability to connect in remote ways with people you live nearby really does matter. i think it will have a rallying effect. we create so much distance often

in our own cocoons. we are all americans. the virus doesn't care what your background is. it's a chance to reconnect. that's a wonderful story. i bet more things like that are happening right now. stuart: there will be a lot more stories like that. thanks very much for taking time out with all those kids of yours. come on the show any time. we like that. you get light relief when you come on compared to all those kids at home. thank you very much indeed. we are waiting for the president. he will appear any time now. scheduled for 11:00, okay, we are running a bit late. any idea what he's going to say? ashley: the "wall street journal" is reporting that the white house, they say, desperate to get drugs to americans through this pandemic, are planning to detail a range of therapies that may help patients, all of which are still in the very early testing. the plan is expected to be detailed probably any minute now, as soon as we see the president come out but it could be controversial, says the "journal." urging, because the white house may urge an executive order that

would take virtually all investigational drugs and allow them to be used quickly against the virus. it's a step that senior officials at the fda apparently have been pushing back on because they contend the step could harm patients. stuart: so -- ashley: he wants to fast-track the use of drugs that haven't gone through the full testing phase. stuart: how do we feel about that? isn't this crisis serious enough to warrant bending some rules which may be and are in place to help patients, but you bend the rules in the interest of helping a lot more patients? ashley: we heard earlier today somewhere in the south of france they have a procedure using two separate drugs which combined, is very very effective. why aren't we cranking that up as opposed to using drugs we are not quite sure what the long-term impact could be? stuart: i presume the president will be, the vice president will be there, dr. fauci maybe, and the rest of the medical team, the task force. they will be appearing. what you are seeing is the

podium, there it is, close up to the podium. we are waiting and we will continue to wait and you will see this thing when it happens. because it could move the markets. it's certainly a very important point in how we deal with this nasty virus. wait a second. i'm reading the teleprompter. let me get through this. a royal member, i guess that's the british royalty? ashley: no. bit of a -- no, prince albert of monaco. stuart: okay. spell it out, lad. ashley: prince albert of monaco, 62-year-old monarch of the principality, has tested positive for the coronavirus. he is the son of grace kelly. stuart: that's right. that's right. i had forgotten that. i remember her wedding. you don't, but i do. ashley: i wasn't there. no. stuart: i believe that queen elizabeth, 93 years old, almost 94, has been moved to her country house out of buckingham palace. ashley: i think it's windsor. she's out of london, i know

that. stuart: there's a small cottage on the grounds there, seven rooms, whatever it is. heather zumarraga is with us. heather, come on in, please. can i see you? no. i don't have to see you. we are watching the podium. we will keep it on the podium. on the phone: i'm here. stuart: can you tell us you see the bottom? if so, where is it? on the phone: no, i can't. i have heard you ask everyone that this morning and rightfully so. that's what viewers want to know. anybody who tells you they know when the market is going to bottom, i think they're lying. until we have more clarity on the true longevity of this virus, you can't call a market bottom. i do appreciate that the market turned green briefly today but they are back down 170 right now. stuart: to you, looking for a bottom on the stock market, the secret is the longevity of the virus, not the severity of the recession that we are going into? on the phone: i think the

severity of the recession, if there is one, i think that we will get some clarity now from the president and the white house on if we will have a potential recession or not. but they are doing -- the administration is doing a phenomenal job of protecting american jobs. that's what the stock market also wants to see, that the u.s. is going to keep people employed because the economic policy institute estimates that three million people may lose their jobs by the summer. that's why the markets have also sold off. stuart: we did get that report this morning that 281,000 new jobless claims, a spike of 70,000 in the latest weekly period, that inevitably is going up into probably the hundreds of thousands in the very near future. that will make a very negative headline. but the worse it is near term, the shorter the duration of this virus and the economic setback. would you go with that? on the phone: yeah, i agree. i don't hear anyone talking about a v-shaped recovery where

we snap back very quickly at this point in time, but i think a u is potentially on the table, or definitely if we are in an l-shaped recovery, we will eventually come out of this and so be it. you hear gap closing stores, tiffany closing stores. retail giants are going to be hit hard as well as travel and leisure. the big companies will survive, the big corporations. it's the small businesses that matter most to the american people. that's why they are passing the stimulus plan, like the $1 trillion stimulus plan yesterday, that is to help two weeks paid leave for sick people and help the employers cover some of that heavy burden and costs that are associated with shutting down, because the economy, just four weeks ago, was firing on all cylinders. the u.s. economy is very strong. this is just a very unfortunate situation right now. stuart: see what you did? on the phone: i tried.

stuart: look, in your position, in my position, i get a lot of people coming up to me and saying shall i buy this, shall i buy that. in our studios we have lots of young people working. a couple of them have come up to me and said should i buy the airlines because they are so, so depressed, they've got some money in the 401(k) or i.r.a., should they buy the airlines. the they ask you that question, give me a fast answer. on the phone: i don't think it's a bad idea. i don't think cruise ships would be bailed out. they are not deemed a necessity. but we may not have to sail, you have to fly. we look at boeing as potential national security issue. whether you are in favor of bailouts or not, put the politics aside for now, those companies will need -- may need to be helped and the government is standing by with $50 billion was the number we heard of helping the airlines with. so over time, we need travel to exist in this country. maybe not cruise ships, but definitely flying.

stuart: thanks very much, heather zumarraga. appreciate you being with us. important day. we have been showing on the left-hand side of the screen the airlines which are again down pretty much across the board despite youngsters nibbling at them. they are down again. what better time to bring in nick kalio, airlines for america president and ceo. sir, you want help from the government. the airlines generally want help from the government. there's going to be strings attached if you get it. you understand that? on the phone: yes, we do. i would say there shouldn't be so many strings attached that the aid isn't worthwhile. that's what happened after 9/11. we put so many strings, i was at the white house at the time, we put so many strings on those loans, guarantees, that they became virtually unusable. that cannot happen here given the enormity and gravity of what's happening to our economy and what's happening to airline

companies and our employees. stuart: it's dramatic stuff, i understand. but you know, some of the airlines have been involved in stock buy-back programs. that's not going down well, because okay, it's their money, they bought their own stock with it, and now they are going under through no fault of their own and they want taxpayer money. you're going to get a lot of resistance to giving this money to the airlines, bearing in mind the stock buy-back programs of the past. on the phone: it has to be put in context. during that same period, we invested or paid $424 billion in wages. we hired 186,000 new employees. wages went up on average 41%. we invested $140 billion in our product which is our fleet, our airplanes, our products, all the new high tech things you see, and in the airports themselves. we also retired debt. so there's a lot that goes with that.

as a healthy company, which we were up until two weeks ago. as you know, our balance sheets looked good two weeks ago when we first met with president trump. i have to say the president, vice president and secretaries mnuchin and chao have been great during this crisis. they realize the gravity of the problem, they realize the impact on the airlines themselves and how that filters down to our employees and also how that's going to filter down to the entire economy. if you want to come out of this strong on the other side, we need a healthy airline industry because we drive so much of the economy, we have 750,000 people who work directly for our airlines in the united states. we have another ten million jobs that feed off those 750,000. so we need to come out strong, we need to have our employees in place to help us fly, as your previous guest just said, and ship our goods all over the world and throughout the united states. it's critical that that happen. so watch this happening.

i have never seen anything like it, nor has anyone else, really. what we're not sure that everybody realizes what's going on, but at this rate, we are flying planes that are 10% to 20% full. cancellations have soared through the sky. our revenues are going down to a negative position very quickly. even a month ago, we were flying people because of historically low fares at record rates all over and shipping 58,000 tons of goods. right now, that has plummeted in a way that no one has ever seen or could have forecast. we are going to be burning through cash at the rate of $10 billion to $12 billion a month. we have done as much self-help as we possibly can. we went back out into the markets to get more loans, we understood how steep this curve was going down and by the way, we're not sure it's going to go up like this, it never does. as you know, leisure travel will come back faster than business travel will. that's the most lucrative part

of what we do. stuart: nick, i'm sorry, i have to leave this. but i think a $50 billion package is on its way. i believe it's going to be written this afternoon, if i'm not mistaken. i may have the timing slightly off there. i think the money is on its way. thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate you being here. thanks a lot. on the phone: thank you very much. stuart: one of the debates we are going to have, we are right in the middle of, look, we are going to have to decide which industries get help and which don't. we have to make the argument we must -- ashley: what's critical. stuart: what's critical and what's not. i keep using this example, maybe strangely. the skiing industry. i know it's been clobbered. people are not skiing. ashley: that's not a critical part of the infrastructure. stuart: it's not. cruise lines. are they a critical part of our society? ashley: i would say no. stuart: no, i don't think so. they will be wanting money because if they don't get it,

they will go bankrupt and jobs will be lost. maybe that's what you need to do. bankruptcy might be necessary in some circumstances. government bailouts are not necessarily the best way to go. for an airline, yes, i'm with it. ashley: the debate that's raging right now. stuart: lauren, you have news? lauren: they are also looking at the health of the company and the industry before the coronavirus. do they have the ability, the funding, the infrastructure, to bounce back when this does pass and say they get a bridge loan, for instance, can they pay that back. maybe looking at the financial condition of some of these companies and industries before this happened. you're not throwing money into a company that was failing before. stuart: fair point. fair point. pete hegseth still with us, i believe. yes, he is. pete hegseth is a conservative kind of guy. i don't think you care for bailouts the way we did 10, 12 years ago. but would you help the airlines?

on the phone: yes. i would. this is critical infrastructure any way you spin it. you don't want to create a situation where -- we have already seen a reduction in the number of airlines in this country, consolidation of companies and buyouts and the like. you have to do something there. i think it's a combination of circumstantial bailouts because again, this was not like the financial crisis where the industry or the companies themselves created it, and then you got to look at small business and individuals. more money we can give individuals through giving them the latitude and flexibility to use it, the better. it's got to be targeted and then some companies are just going to go bankrupt. the question is what do you do with those employees, how do you find jobs for them going forward. stuart: lot of people are going to get hurt and hurt badly. that's a fact. i want to bring in hillary vaughn. she's on capitol hill for us. what do you have on the virus relief bill? reporter: what we are hearing in terms of timing, a senate leadership source tells me this.

majority leader mitch mcconnell is expected to speak on the senate floor at noon today and highlight some of the details in this bill that have been negotiated overnight as they are pushing phase three, the focus on this is speed. later this afternoon, the goal is for republicans to roll out the actual text of the bill and then after that, begin negotiating with democrats, trying to get enough consensus to get this phase three relief package through. stuart: hillary, that sounds to me like warp speed. we are not used to that from congress. reporter: yes. moving really quickly here. that's something that i think there is consensus on, bipartisan democrats and republicans want to get this relief to americans, to businesses, so there's not much time on the clock. they know that. i think that will actually help in negotiations really trying to come to consensus as fast as possible. stuart: hillary, thanks very much. pete hegseth, come back in again. that's news to me.

the idea that you can get something through congress so rapidly and get the other side of the aisle involved in the discussions, not in a contentious nasty sort of way but coming together because we've got a crisis. i think that's good news. >> it's great news. thi think about it, think about the initial knee-jerk reaction a lot of us had. i had it. anybody who has been watching the impeachment, the way they have gone after this president, ever since the election day, there's this reflexive desire to punch back, impugn motives, not trust, and that was real. you saw that at the beginning of this. i think finally now, people are realizing that is silliness, that is nonsense, frankly voters are going to reject that so it's not good politics either, and you saw the democrats early on try to slide in abortion funding or we're going to make this permanent and even that was rejected. i think there's a recognition you got to do something now for the people that are hit the

most. this is not a time to try to grow government even though inevitably that does happen in these moments. that cannot be your intention. it should be the focus on getting people the relief they need and there's nothing partisan about that. viruses and aliens are about the only two things that people can say all right, i agree, let's come together appear deal with this. who knows where this leaves our politics? i don't think it changes the fact we have capitalists and socialists in this country. but when it comes to a response, it's heartening to see that they can move when they need to, especially when you strip away all the things they try to put on the christmas tree. hopefully it continues. stuart: well said. thank you. now, there's a couple different crises we are dealing with here. there is of course the virus which preoccupies all of us. there is the market which has been going down and down and down. there's another crisis. that is the price of oil. i hope you noticed it just as

pete was speaking there, we put up the price of oil and it's gone up. since when did i think the price of oil going up is good news? since now. it's up to $24 a barrel. that's $3.82 a barrel up since yesterday's close. why is that good news? because you cannot drill for oil in america and make a profit on oil at $19 a barrel. you can't make much money -- you can't make any money -- it's about $40, $45. when i see the price of oil going up, relieves pressure on the drillers, look at them. diamond off, transocean coming off the floor, up 13%. noble up 21%. all of which is good news because these drillers are heavily extended. they all have loans out and they can't repay them when oil crashes the way it has crashed. any sign that it's going up, the price of oil is going up, that is a positive sign, believe it

or not. it may have had something to do with the stock market. the dow is now up 200 points. maybe it's got something to do with the price of oil. it's probably got a lot more to do with what we heard from hillary vaughn moments ago that we are indeed rushing through phase three, i hate to call it i bailout plan, it's not bailout, it's rescue in operation plan, it's zooming through. ashley: remember a few minutes ago i said the "wall street journal" had reported that perhaps the administration would try and fast-track some experimental drugs. the vice president's office saying that that article is not correct. we are waiting for this press briefing to start soon and maybe we will hear more about that, or news conference, but haven't had any, you know, they say this is simply not true. they aren't going to fast-track these drugs that have shown some promise. stuart: they were supposed to start this at 11:00. it's now 11:26. this is entirely understandable.

you've got to be absolutely precise. at a moment of crisis loike thi, you really do need to know and you need to tell the people in very precise terms what is going on. do i have dr. marc siegel available? do i? he's not? okay. sorry about that. the market is now 200 points up for the dow industrials. that means we have had -- ashley: i think the energy sector has helped in the turn-around. stuart: even the financials are turning around a little bit. energy stocks on the screen right now for the benefit of radio listeners, okay. wait a second. let me interrupt. lauren, you have news on oil? lauren: this is why we are seeing a bounce back, recovering almost half of yesterday's steep losses. it's because the energy department, the government says it's soliciting the purchase of 30 million barrels of american-made oil today and treasury secretary mnuchin has hinted that far more may be to come.

so assad r saudi arabia and rus pump, pump, pump, we are tapping our strategic reserve and will continue to do so. the energy secretary will be on "varney & company" tomorrow. stuart: okay. what was the last bit? who is on with me? lauren: the energy secretary. stuart: thank you. sorry. i had someone talking in my ear. that's good news. energy secretary. we will take that person on our show tomorrow. all right. we've got the warning the president is about to appear. i'm going to say thanks very much to pete hegseth for coming on the show. i know you are a busy man with all those children. heather zumarraga, thanks very much for coming on. we do appreciate it today. now we are waiting for the president to appear. the market is going up a little bit, session high. the high of the day for the dow at this moment, 20,219, 346 points higher. nasdaq also at session highs as we speak. nice gain there. look at it, middle of the line

there, up 3.6% on nasdaq. look at that, 258 points. ashley: financials leading the way. stuart: why would that be? i'm trying to think. ashley: all the help that's being pumped in. stuart: i guess so. the federal reserve has had three emergency aid packages in two days. all of that helps the banks. it helps all kinds of people as well. it puts liquidity into the financial system. the banks are at the center of the financial system. you pump in that money by the trillion and you've got some help that really works. jpmorgan, goldman sachs, morgan stanley, citigroup all up. poor old wells fargo, $27 a share, down a bit more. another new high for the session for the dow industrials. now we are up 373, 380 points. we have an upside move there on the back of the upside move for oil, on the back of the upside move for the financial companies. you've got a nice little

movement going here. let's don't get carried away, stu. we are up on the dow. here comes the task force. you will see the members assemble, task force members will be assembling right behind the podium waiting for the president to arrive and conduct the whole process. you are going to see -- the admiral is there on the far right. i see dr. fauci coming in there. you will see the vice president. no doubt they are conferring in the back there, final details exactly what you are going to say. i think the president does a remarkable job. he doesn't i don'tuse a telepro. i'm sure he's got notes. i do see him reading notes so he's very precise but at the same time, the man ad libs all the time. i believe, look, i see the media there, he will be taking questions. there is no way on god's green earth this president walks out to the podium, makes a statement and walks back. ashley: and ignores questions. stuart: no way that's going to happen. you are in for an entertaining

half hour or hour, however long it lasts. right now, we have the dow up 300. the nasdaq is up 230. the s&p is up a solid 35 points. that's the status as we head into this briefing on the virus which will be led by the president of the united states. you can see the aide there telling everybody where to stand. there is some protocol. move left, move right. what you are not allowed to do, what you should not do, don't stand right behind the president because the audience can't see you. you don't want to stand right next to him because that's crowding him out. you are not allowed to do that. just trying to set the scene. this is how things work. this is the way television works. the president is a master at working television correctly. dow up 314. ashley: what about social distancing? not a lot of that behind the podium. stuart: that's an issue that's been raised.

ashley: i know. stuart: it has. there's been some talk about that. ladies and gentlemen, listen in. this is your daily briefing. >> thank you very much. i think this is going to be a very important conference. i will get to that toward the middle. i have a few things to report. want to thank you all for being here. i have to say i think with social distancing that the media has been much nicer. i don't know what it is. all these empty seats in between chairs. we probably shouldn't have anybody sitting behind you, either. but you love it. it's so much nicer. i shouldn't say that because you will get me now. thank you all for being here. we continue our relentless effort to defeat the chinese virus. before i begin i want to start by announcing that today, we are bringing home another american citizen. it's a big thing, very big.

he's on his way back to the united states after being imprisoned in lebanon since september of 2019. he's battling late stage cancer. he will now be able to receive the much-needed care and treatment in the united states. we've been working very hard to get him freed and he's finally able to have his entire family at his side. so i'm very grateful to the lebanese government. they worked with us and we are very proud of his family. they stood by him so strongly and they are thrilled. the united states has no higher priority than the safety and wellbeing of our citizens. we've gotten a tremendous number of hostages out, as you know. i think we are 42-0 and roger o'brien was our chief negotiator

for a large part of it. did so well we now have him in a different position. i want to thank and congratulate robert and his team and let everyone know that recovering americans held captive and imprisoned abroad continues to be a top priority for my administration. we have one young gentleman, austin tyce and are working very hard with syria to get him out. we hope the syrian government will do that. we are counting on them to do that. we've written a letter just recently, he's been there for a long time, and was captured long ago. austin tyce. his mother is probably watching and she's a great lady and we are doing the best we can. so syria, please work with us and we would appreciate you letting him out. if you think about what we've done, we've gotten rid of the

isis caliphate in syria, we have to see if they are going to do this so it would be very much appreciated if they would let austin tyce out immediately. as you know, my administration is working every day to protect the american people and the american economy from the virus. yesterday, i signed into law a critical support for american workers, families and small businesses. big thing. we're providing sick leave and family medical leave to those affected by the virus and more help is on the way as we speak. our entire team headed by secretary mnuchin is on the hill. we're working with democrats and republicans and there's a lot of good will going on. this was something that happened that was some people would say

is an act of god. i don't view it as an act of god. i view it as something that just surprised the whole world and if people would have known about it, it could have been stopped in place. it could have been stopped right where it came from, china. if we would have known about it, if they would have known about it. but now the whole world almost is inflicted with this horrib horrible -- with this horrible virus and it's too bad, it's too bad because we never had an economy as good as the economy we had just a few weeks ago but we'll be back. i actually think we'll be back stronger than ever before because we learned a lot during this period of time. i also just invoked the defense production act to help facilitate distribution of essential supplies if necessary. we're working with congress to provide major additional relief to the workers, small businesses and the hardest hit industries.

we want to make sure that everybody is able to continue on so that when we recover, all of these companies and these great businesses both very very small and very very large, they're not going to be broken up and you would have to put them back together. that would take a long time. because we really believe, i believe in the v-curve. i believe it's going to go, when this is defeated, this hidden scourge is defeated, i think we are going to go up very rapidly, our economy, and get back to where it was and beyond. today i want to share with you exciting progress that the fda is making with the private sector as we slash red tape like nobody has ever done it before. somebody was on yesterday on one of the networks and said that there's never been a president even close that's been able to do what i've done in slashing all of the red tape and everything to get very important things to the market, medical. so we slashed red tape to develop vaccines and therapies

as fast as it can possibly be done, long before anybody else was even thinking about doing this. as you know, earlier this week we began the first clinical trial of a vaccine candidate for the virus and that was launched in record time. it was just a few weeks. that would have taken years to do not so long ago. as we race to develop a vaccine, we are also pursuing antiviral therapies and that's what really we are going to be talking to you about today. that's the purpose of being up here today. to me, that's even more important. the vaccine by its nature, you have to have long tests because you have to make sure what goes into somebody's body is not going to do destruction, do bad things, so you need long tests and they're doing great with the vaccines but it's still a long process. but the therapies are something

we can move on much faster potentially and the treatments that will be able to reduce the severity or duration of the symptoms, make people better, essentially we're looking at things to make people better or at the very earliest stages, they wouldn't even know they had it. that's where i believe it's going to work even the best. the fda commissioner is with us. he's fantastic. and he has been working 24 hours a day, he's been -- he's worked probably as hard or harder than anybody in the group other than maybe mike pence or me, and -- what the fda is doing is incredible. they've done things in times that were not even thinkable and i've directed the fda to eliminate outdated rules and

bureaucracy so this work can proceed rapidly, quickly and i mean fast, and we have to remove every barrier. there are a lot of barriers that were unnecessary and they've done that to get the rapid deployment of safe, effective treatments and we think we have some good answers. we'll find out very very soon. clinical trials are already under way for many new therapies and we're working on scaling these to allow many more americans to access different drugs that have shown really good promise, really good promise. we will do so in a way that lets us continue to collect good data to know which medicines are safe and which medicines are working the best. we have a couple that we're in

really good shape on and that's for immediate delivery. immediate. like as fast as we can get it. the fda has also approved compassionate use for a significant number of patients. you know what that means. we are also reviewing drugs that are approved abroad or drugs approved here for other uses. you know, one of the things that i'm most proud of that i got was right to try. that's where somebody who's ill, somebody who is very sick, terminally ill usually, in past administrations, we signed this a year and a half ago, you wouldn't be able to think about getting any of the drugs that may be showing great promise now and they have been trying for many decades to get this approved and it sounds simple but it's not because there's liability involved and lots of other things. i was able to get it approved working with congress, right to try. this is beyond right to try.

what we are talking about today is beyond right to try. right to try has been, by the way, tremendous success. people are living now that had no chance of living. where we take treatments, things that would have to go through years of a process and if somebody was terminally ill and i would say why wouldn't they be able to try this, they would go to asia, they would go to europe, they would go all over the world to try the find something. of course, some people if they had no money would go home to die. they would go home to die. they had no hope. right to try has been an incredible success. but this is beyond right to try. if treatments known to be safe in europe, japan or other nations are effective against a virus, we'll use that information to protect the health and safety of american people. nothing will stand in our way as we pursue any avenue to find what best works against this horrible virus. now, a drug called chloroquine,

some people would add to it hydroxy, hydroxy chloroquine, so chloroquine or hydroxy chloroquine. this is a common malaria drug. it's also a drug used for strong arthritis. somebody has pretty serious arthrit arthritis, also uses this in a somewhat different form. but it is known as a malaria drug and it's been around for a long time and it's very power l powerful, but the nice part is it's been around for a long time so we know that if things don't go as planned, it's not going to kill anybody. when you go with a brand new drug, you don't know that that's going to happen. you have to see and you have to

go long tests but this has been used in different forms. very powerful drug, in different forms. it's shown very encouraging, very very encouraging early resul results. we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. and that's where the fda has been so great. they've gone through the approval process. it's been approved and they did it, they took it down from many, many months to immediate. so we are going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states, i spoke with governor cuomo about it at great length last night, and he wants to be right on -- he wants to be first on line and so i think that's a tremendous -- there's tremendous promise based on the results, and other tests, there's tremendous promise. normally the fda would take a

long time to approve something like that and it was approved very very quickly and it's now approved, by prescription. individual states will handle it. they can handle it, doctors will handle it, and i think it's going to be -- i think it's going to be great. we are quickly studying this drug and while we're continuing to study it, but the studying is going to be also done as it's given out to large groups of people perhaps in new york and other places, we will study it there, there are promising therapies produced by gilead, and that's remdesivir, remdesivir, and that's a drug used for other purposes that's been out and has had very good results for other purposes, but it seems to have a very good

result having to do with this vir virus. that drug also has been approved or very close to approved in that case by the fda, and i can't tell you how much we appreciate what the fda, these people are incredible patriots and the job that steven hahn is doing, dr. hahn, one of the most respected doctors in the country, by the way. when i took him, i said you sure you want to do this? we didn't know this was going to be in the playlist, what happened here, but he really has stepped up to the plate. wherever you are. where is he? you really have. i would shake his hand but i'm not supposed to do that. get in a lot of trouble if i did that. but he's been fantastic and i thank you, doctor. he's going to speak right after i'm finished. regener regeneron, again, is a company that's done fantastically well, as i understand, with ebola, and

some other things, great company. they're looking at some very promising events also. so you have remdesivir and you have chloroquine and hydroxy chloroquine. so those are two that are out now, essentially approved for prescribed use, and i think it's going to be very exciting. i think it could be a game changer and maybe not. and maybe not. but i think it could be based on what i see, it could be a game changer. very powerful, they're very powerful. so i want every american to know we are doing everything we can and these actions are important next steps. for the fda to act the way they acted with this kind of speed is an incredible thing. normally they say well, we can have it by next year or we can have it by -- in two years from now. you understand this is the way normally, years and years and

years. they had it immediately based on the fact that it's been used for other things totally unrelated things. we believe these therapeutics and others under evaluation right now will be able to provide relief to many americans. we really hope that's going to be. this could be a tremendous breakthrough, tremendous breakthrough, and we will work toward a much-needed vaccine in the future, as i said, and what we're doing with the fda is so exciting and so many other fields, so many things are happening. it's a very exciting time for medicine and we appreciate that the american public has pulled together. they are really staying home and there's tremendous spirit in this country right now like a lot of people have not seen. people have not seen anything like it for a long time.

that means democrat, republican, they're pulling together. i hope everything's going good on the hill. maybe i shouldn't say this until i check out what's going on because you never know. but i think there's a great spirit where the democrats, the republicans and everybody else are getting together and trying to get things done. but most importantly, the american public has been incredible. we took the best economy we've ever had and we said stop, you can't work, you have to stay home, you know, there's never been a case like this. normally you pay a lot of money to get things going. here's a case we are paying a lot of money to stop things because we don't want people to be together so that this virus doesn't continue onward. so there's never been anything like this in history. there's never been, nobody's ever seen anything like this. but we're doing the right thing. we have to get rid of it. our big war, it's not a financial war, it's a war, a

medical war. we have to win this war. it's very important. with that, i would like to just introduce dr. steven hahn and again, i would like to send back with him our thanks to all the people working at the fda who are fantastic, talented people. we appreciate very much everything you've done, especially the speed you got these two elements, these two very important drugs, passed. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. i want the thank you for your leadership during this coronavirus outbreak and thank you for the kind words about the fda staff. we have 10,000 scientists, doctors and others and more than that, working around the clock to aid the american people in this fight against the coronavirus, and those words are very much appreciated, sir. so before the president nominated me and i was confirmed as commissioner of food and drugs i was a cancer doctor, and i sat across from countless

number of patients and had to talk to them about their diagnosis and their treatment, and one thing that was really important is to provide hope. i have great hope for how we're going to come out of this situation. what's also important is not to provide false hope, but to provide hope, and as a doctor, that's the way i come to this. i'm speaking now to the american people as commissioner of food and drugs, that that part of me has not left. just look at the way the american people have responded to our calls for mitigation, for social distancing. the american people have great resiliency and i'm so incredibly proud of how the american people have responded. as the president mentioned, he asked us to be aggressive, to break down barriers to innovation and to accelerate the development of life-saving treatments. we are doing that at the fda. the fda is committed to continuing to provide regulatory flexibility and guidance, but let me make one thing clear. fda's responsibility to the

american people is to ensure that products are safe and effective and that we are continuing to do that. our folks and they're tremendous professionals, are working day and night to do this. you just can't even imagine how much they are working to provide the support for the american people and i thank them. since early january, long before the first domestic case, fda began working in collaboration with cdc. i also want to note we stood up an incident command group and have been focused on the coronavirus since the very beginning of this public health emergency. this is in addition an all of government and all america approach and i will describe what i mean by that in terms of the development of therapeutics. an important part of that work is expanding the potential therapeutic options associated with coronavirus and we have learned from our colleagues across the globe about this, but i want to focus on one thing. i was a cancer researcher before all this, and one thing i know 'this great country of ours is

that we have unbelievable innovators. we have people who every day, it's their job to develop treatments for all sorts of diseases. we are incredibly blessed as a country to have this. as is true , great american innovators, academia, private sector, have engaged us about the best possible treatment options. we are looking at everything that's coming across our desks as possible treatment options for coronavirus. we are extremely encouraged by the interest and the promise that we have seen from these great american innovators. again, we need to look at it, we need the data, we need the information to make the absolute best decisions for the american people, but i want to assure he we have over 17,000 people at fda who are doing this every day. we need to make sure that this sea of new treatments will get the right drug to the right patient at the right dosage at the right time. as an example, we may have the

right drug but it may not be in the appropriate dosage form right now and that may do more harm than good. those are the things that that's our job to look at. that's why it's really important we have these dedicated professionals looking at these aspects of therapeutic development. we are also working through different mechanisms to actually get drugs into the hands of providers and patients. the president mentioned this but one of the mechanisms is called compassionate use. let me tell you about this. if there's an experimental drug that's potentially available, a doctor could ask for that drug to be used in a patient. we have criteria for that and very speedy approval for that. the important thing about compassionate use, that's what the president meant, this is even beyond right to try, is that we get to collect the information about that, because one of the things we promise the american people is we will collect the data and make the absolute right decisions based upon those data about the safety and efficacy of the treatments. we are working expeditiously and we are working to make sure that these products are as safe and

effective as they possibly can be. let me tell you about a few things we are currently working on. this is a plan that was developed with many of the people at this table, our infectious disease experts on the task force. in the short term, we are looking at drugs that are already approved for other indications, so they are already approved as the president said for other diseases. as an example, many americans have read studies and heard media reports about this drug chloroquine which is an anti-malarial drug. it's already approved as the president said for the treatment of malaria as well as an arthritis condition. that's a drug that the president has directed us to take a closer look at as to whether an expanded use approach to that could be done to actually see if that benefits patients. again, we want to do that in the setting of a clinical trial, a large pragmatic clinical trial to actually gather that information and answer the question that needs to be answered, asked and answered. let me give you another example.

there's a cross-agency effort about something called convalescent plasma. this is a pretty exciting area. again, this is something we have given assistance to other countries with as this crisis has developed so fda has been working for some time on this. if you have been exposed to coronavirus and you are better, you don't have the virus in your blood, we could collect the blood, this is a possible treatment, this is not a proven treatment, just want to emphasize that, collect the blood, concentrate that and have the ability once it's pathogen free, virus free, able to give that to other patients and the immune response could potentially provide a benefit to patients. it's another thing we're looking at. over the next couple weeks we will have more information that that is more medium short term. that will be a bridge to other therapies that will take us three to six months to develop. and this is a continuous process. there is no beginning and end to each of this.

this is, we're pushing this through. the other great thing about the great innovators for america, some tell us taken us years, years to develop therapies. they're looking at pushing that to the months period of time. we're trying to provide them the regulatory flexibility, but same the scientific oversight to make sure that gets done in best way possible for the american people. the president mentioned there is a vaccine trial currently being performed. it is a phase one trial. so it is the earliest study that gets done. we expect that to take 12 months to completion, actually a time to approve a vaccine but that's, these are things to bridge to the prevention part of this with the vaccine. it is exciting work and the president is right, this is record time for the development of a vaccine and impressive public/private partnership. the fda effort to facilitate the development of these products are focused on insuring timely access to meet the agency's world respected gold standard,

relying on strong data from clinical trials, to determine if an experimental or off-the-shelf drug used for something else can safely and effect tiffly treesh patients. we want to assure the american people that the fda is all hands on deck as the president mentioned. we work with interested sponsors to help expedite the work. we remain steadfast helping to foster the development of safe and effective therapies for covid-19. >> mike, the mask. >>, thank you, mr. president. the white house. connell: met this morning on this very first day of spring we make steady progress toward's president trump's effort to mark shall efforts of federal government, state government, every local health official but also to harness the power of the american private sector and

activities over the last day affect all those priorities. yesterday the president spoke with america's top physicians and nurses and garnered helpful insights how we can best serve those who are serving americans that are dealing with the coronavirus. we also had a productive call with over 5000 state and local officials explaining the federal government's approach and our strong and seamless partnership with all 50 states and the territories. last night as you heard the president signed first family first coronavirus act. paid sick leave, food assistance for the needy among a broad range of benefits and today as the president indicated we expect that the senate will begin to work on economic relief package. later today, the president and i will meet again in a teleconference with the nation's governors. we will meet at the national

response coordination center at fema and outline president trump's decision to have fema take the lead in our national coronavirus response. our nation's response through fema will be locally executed, state managed and federally supported. on testing, we want the american people to know once again that testing is available in all 50 states. it is becoming increasingly available literally every hour of the day. because of the public/private partnership that the president initiated several weeks ago with major commercial labs i'm pleased to receive a report today that tens of thousands of tests are being performed every day and with the passage of last night's legislations a state and private labs are now required by law to report all coronavirus testing directly to the cdc which will give the american public and also give our researchers timely and important information. it is important for every american to remember that if