because i'm not ashamed of it. i'm recovered from my mom's death and i'm dealing with this like everybody. maria: thank you for sharing that, dagen. thanks for a great show. scott, mitch, dagen, good to see you. have a good day. seize the day, everybody. join us tomorrow. "varney & company" begins right now. s stu, take it away. stuart: good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. this is the beginning of a crucial week. it's the end of the month. it is the start of a new quarter. decisions have to be made. pay the rent, pay the mortgage, lay off employees. it is now crunch time for businesses. i should tell you in about 15 minutes, i'm going to ask treasury secretary steven mnuchin when small business owners can get their money and how they should apply for it. that's about 15 minutes from now. meanwhile, a dramatic statement from dr. anthony fauci. there will be, he says, millions of cases in the united states

and up to 200,000 deaths. the president listening to his medical advisers and he has adjusted policy. the social distancing rules will be extended until april 30th. therefore, the shutdown of the economy will continue well beyond easter. the president says the recovery will start by june 1st. on the markets, expect continued volatility. we have certainly seen that already today. at one point early this morning, futures showed a loss of a couple hundred points. now we are looking at a gain at the opening bell of a couple hundred points. that would be almost 1%. a similar gain, better gain, actually, for the nasdaq, up about 1.25% and the s&p also up over 1%. a rally at the opening bell. investors seem to like the idea of more pain now so we get out of it faster. the other big financial story is the price of oil. this is apart from the virus.

this is the price of oil. look at it. it's down to $20 a barrel. earlier it hit $19. $20.48 is the price right now. the saudis have declared war on american drillers and at this point, they appear to be winning. more on that later. but look at this. the price of gasoline coming down truly rapidly, about two cents a day. the national average is now $2.01 per gallon. in oklahoma, the cheapest state for gas, the average is all the way down to $1.58 a gallon. time to update the progress of the virus. remember, it first arrived in the united states in washington state. seattle now offers some hope. the mayor there says quote, we have slowed the rate of transmission. that is good news. at the end of february, seattle became the first place to advise people to keep social distance. five weeks later, the policy appears to be working.

perhaps that is a lesson for the whole country. the more stringent the restrictions, the sooner we make progress. all right. keith fitz-gerald is based in the seattle area and has been reporting on the situation there for some time. he joins us now. keith, how are the people of washington state taking their five-week lockdown? >> tell you what, stuart, initially seattle residents were skeptical because this is a progressive city, a lot of things that make this the democratic socialist republic of the northwest worked against us. now everybody is in sort of a positive mood. it's scary, there's a long way to go but it appears to be working and there's a confidence that sort of is working its way through the system. people are beginning to associate these measures with the fact that hey, maybe we really can get a handle on this. stuart: now, in washington state, that's where you are, you have been there for some time,

obviously, do you think you can see the other side of this? >> well, tell you what, i'm a lot more optimistic than a lot of people so yes, me personally, i can see it but i believe that a lot of my neighbors, a lot of the folks that live here, are also beginning to think about what this looks like on the other side. stuart: all right. keith, hold on for me. i will get back to you in a moment. we will talk about the market. let's get more ashley webster is with me. if you look at the shot it looks like the man is outside but -- i don't know whether he's outside or not. ashley: i am. i am. stuart: ashley, yes, you are, tell me about this travel advisory for people leaving new york, new jersey and connecticut. ashley: yeah. the cdc has said they would like people living in basically the tristate area, new york, new jersey and connecticut, to refrain from non-essential travel for the next 14 days. in other words, if you don't have to travel out of the area, please do not do it.

it kind of comes after the president walked back his comments that he was considering a quarantine of new york. that drew the ire of new york governor andrew cuomo who says that's like the federal government declaring war on us. so that's not happened. but the cdc says those people living in the tristate area, please do not travel but it does not apply to critical workers and those that are needed to keep the infrastructure in place. stuart: ashley, can you tell me 'the roadblock on i-95, i think it was at the florida/georgia border, what happened there? ashley: yes. exactly. well, the state of florida decided they want to monitor who's coming into their state, especially those vehicles with new york license plates. so they set up a checkpoint and it didn't go well because they said it completely interrupted the flow of traffic. it's a big trucker route. i don't know if any of you have ever taken i-95 south but it's

all trucks all the way and the backup went for miles. eventually they had to break down that traffic stop and let the traffic go smoothly and get that jam cleared. they did reinstate it a number of hours later but a little less restrictively. it just gives you a sense of the fear out there, the containment effort, that now any car with the new york license plate is definitely on the radar. stuart: thanks, ash. let's go to susan li. she's with us this morning. i believe there's a new virus test from abbott labs. tell me more. susan: just approved by the fda and apparently it gets you results in just five minutes, up to 13 minutes depending how much actual coronavirus you have in your bloodstream. it's an actual physical box and they will be available on april 1st, 50,000 tests a day and testing has been lagging in this

coronavirus pandemic for people to try to detect who's actually got it and who don't. this is very positive and promising, i would say. stuart: what's the news from johnson & johnson? i believe their stock is up. have they got an announcement? susan: up 4% premarket because they are starting to test the coronavirus vaccine. human trials by september according to j & j in conjunction with the health and human services department, billion dollar investment for them. they say actual physical clinical tests could start in september and that means also approval possibly for use by early 2021. we know moderna has another trial, preclinical trial under way for a possible coronavirus vaccine but again, a lot more drug companies are getting involved with this. gilead also has remdesivir, this potential drug that could help of course alleviate coronavirus. stuart: thanks, susan. progress on that front for sure. dr. kate tulenko joins us now. doctor, the abbott labs test

seems like a breakthrough. what do you think? >> yes, so it's different in two ways. one is maenas mentioned it can results in five minutes and two, doesn't need a laboratory. you can process tests in a clinic, nursing home or even parking lot testing center. that will make a huge difference. stuart: it seems like the effort against the virus is now being led by health professionals, that the president is listening to them. would you agree with that? >> i think we are all encouraged that the social distancing guidelines have been extended to the 30th. i think that will make a big difference because it will give the health system time to increase its capacity and give us time to increase the testing and also look at emerging treatments. it was interesting that the american enterprise institute yesterday published its road map for reopening the u.s. and it had everything that you would expect to see looking at increasing testing, looking at

maintaining social distancing during the opening, looking at increasing the health system capacity and very interestingly, recommending a data platform so that all the states can get accurate, timely data available to the federal government and to businesses and anyone who needs to make decisions around the coronavirus. because currently, the cdc is not updating its website on a daily basis. taps w that's why you see people relying on the johns hopkins website. this access to data will make a big difference. one thing i would like to see expanded in the american enterprise institute proposal is the rapid increase in production of the emerging treatments. for example, i would love to hear how many doses of remdesivir can gilead produce in the next month and how can producers of the interleukin 6 inhibitors scale up as well. one thing we learned from the hiv/aids epidemic is early treatment is prevention. if you can get to people early

and treat them, you will prevent them from spreading it to others and also, you can probably reduce mortality as well because we know once people are on ventilators, the mortality rate is about 50%. assist doctor, thank you very much for joining us. we do appreciate it. breakthrough from abbott labs. got it. now, on to senator bill cassidy, republican from louisiana. the new hot spot in the country appears to be new orleans. what's the situation there with the hospitals? >> yeah, so good morning, stu. we are increasing capacity. there's going to be an off-site hospital, if you will, set up but clearly we have a lot of cases. per capita, new orleans, the parish in which it is, the county in which it resides, is the highest in the nation on a per capita basis. so we've got a major problem here. we are doing our best to cope. stuart: are you asking for the federal government for help building field hospitals, for

example? on the phone: absolutely. there will be a field hospital that will be established here, our hospitals are coordinating with one another so that those facilities which are -- where you normally get a colonoscopy or get your orthopedic procedure are now being enlisted to also help so there's a variety of things being done but ultimately, if the number of cases continues to increase, they will overwhelm our facilities which is why we need these additional facilities. stuart: senator, in view of all these cases coming out of new orleans, do you wish that mardi gras had been canceled? on the phone: you know, we live life forward. at the time there was no indication from the federal government that there was anything in the united states except the pacific northwest. so i think in the first -- the first thing that was canceled was south by southwest which was two weeks later.

i think it's better to say using the best available information, everybody went with how they did. i will say the mayor did begin canceling parades after that but that's after cases began to turn up. it's hard to imagine a future, if you are being told the future is okay. stuart: senator bill cassidy joining us on the phone. thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. let's go back to susan for more on the health insurers humana and cigna. susan: that's right. we heard that at the press conference yesterday if tn the e garden they are saying if you have coronavirus we will waive all co-pays, all payments involved in coronavirus treatment which i think is very generous and when mark meredith of fox pressed on whether or not that's true, the president said yes, it is. that's something patients should obviously look at, talk to your underwriters when it comes to these co-pays and possible payments, they are affected by

coronavirus. stuart: thank you, susan. check out the market as we head towards the opening bell. it looks like we've got braa broad-based rally. dow up 200, nasdaq up 100, s&p up about 30. next, treasury secretary steven mnuchin. so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase.

stuart: joining us, treasury secretary steven mnuchin, joining us on the phone. mr. secretary, this program has been deluged with small business owners asking us please tell us how do we get our money and when do we get it. would you answer those questions, mr. secretary? on the phone: -- up and running with the sba is one of the most exciting parts of this package. i've said these loans will be available starting on friday which will be at lightning speed. we hope later today, that we will be releasing the documents and the instructions. it will be a very simple process where small business owners can go to any of the existing sba lenders but they can also go to any fdic insured institution, any credit union, and any fintec

letter that signed up for this program. we expect it will be very easy. they will get eight weeks of payroll, plus 25% for overhead and as long as they use that money to bring back their employees or pay their employees, it will be forgiven. this is a great way of getting americans back to work. stuart: how much money will be flowing out there in the way you've described to small business? on the phone: $350 billion. we think this covers about 50% of the private work force so again, this is a very effective way that the president has designed for us to keep people at work so that when the economy opens up, they're ready and small businesses have their employees and are open for business. stuart: if the number of applications surges, is there more money available perhaps in the future above and beyond $350 billion? on the phone: well, this is a very popular program with republicans and democrats and the president likes it a lot, so

if we run out of money and this is a huge success, we will absolutely go back to congress and ask for more money. by the way, it makes economic sense because every single person that we put through this program, we don't have to pay unemployment insurance. so this is a great way of protecting our small business workers and the companies. stuart: how confident are you that the economy can start to recover by june 1st as the president suggests? on the phone: well, i think the president's done the right thing listening to medical professionals that we are going to wait a little longer to make sure we kill this virus, and we are prepared. we have a lot of money, as you know, over $2 trillion to put to work, plus we can lever another $4 trillion with the federal reserve and the president and i are 100% determined to provide liquidity to the market. we think this existing package gets us through the next eight to 12 weeks so we are in the process of putting a lot of

money into americans' pockets and providing liquidity for business. stuart: but it is going to be a rough eight weeks, as we have extended the social distancing rules out through april 30th. going to be a rough quarter, isn't it? on the phone: it is. i would just say we are very sympathetic, there will be people who lose their jobs, hopefully this is a temporary issue, and through the three-part program, the small business program, the direct deposit checks that we'll have in people's accounts in three weeks and the enhanced unemployment insurance, you know, that's a way to protect american workers who, no fault of their own, this has nothing to do with the american economy, this all has to do with a medical disease. stuart: a few minutes ago, president trump appeared on "fox & friends" on the fox news channel and suggested that hazardous pay, hazard pay for first responders, nurses, would be considered. are you considering that, sir?

on the phone: i think i agree with the president, i think that makes a lot of sense. when we get to the next bill in congress, that's definitely something we will put in the next bill. stuart: the next bill, that implies a fourth stimulus program. are you organizing that now? on the phone: not yet. we have a lot of money now that we're deploying and our number one job at treasury right now, we have the team working around the clock making sure we get these programs up and running. these programs don't do any good for americans three or four months from now, so we are deploying this money now, and as we see how the virus goes forward, we are ready to work with congress if we need more enhancements or additional funds. stuart: you talked about the economy coming roaring back. you hold with that, we come roaring back after june 1st? on the phone: i think so. i think we will have a rough

order because we shut down major parts of the economy, but our economy was in great shape. our economy was the economy that was really growing and leading the world and american business is going to get through this and we are going to be prepared, and i expect that with all this liquidity we are putting into the economy to get through the next couple of months, when we reopen, we will be ready and the economy will surge back. stuart: if the economy surges back, would you suggest that the stock market does as well? on the phone: absolutely. if you see the stock market, you see the bond markets, again, i have always said i can't predict where they are going to be in another day or another week, but i think a year from now, u.s. investments are still the best investments in the world and for long-term investors, it's a great time to continue to invest in the u.s. stuart: mr. treasury secretary,

steven mnuchin, thank you very much for taking time out to be with us this morning. it is much appreciated, sir. thank you. on the phone: thank you as well. bye. stuart: thank you, sir. thank you. peter morici is with us, economist, professor emeritus of economics. professor, if i can call you that, you were listening to treasury secretary mnuchin. i was particularly impressed with the amount of money going out to small business, the way it's going to be put out there very very quickly. looks like this is a real dynamic program. what do you say? >> i think so. if he can get it out in the manner he described, if he delivers, this is going to be an extraordinary program and a very different way of doing fiscal policy than in the past. but given the circumstances, it's warranted. i think it's a real boost in the arm. it's not going to avoid a bad quarter but it's certainly going to make it not as bad for everyone and then it will help speed the recovery. stuart: he also said the economy

can surge back after june 1st. you agree with that? a surge in the economy? look, the second quarter is going to be rough. we are going to have tens of millions of people out of jobs and the economy basically shut down. do you think it can surge back? >> i don't know that surge back is the right word. i mean, we have been through this before. we had the 1957 flu epidemic which killed 100,000 americans. that's roughly in line with the arc that the administration, the cdc described this weekend of about 100,000 to 200,000 in relative terms of population, 200,000. my feeling is the second quarter will not be all that red-hot -- excuse me, the third quarter will not be all that red-hot and the real surge will come in the fourth quarter. i expect the stock market to recover sooner, though, than the economy does simply because it will be anticipating the growth. following the flu epidemic of '57, we had a recession. following the spanish flu, we

had a recession. these things are normal but i do think that we are well poised to have a good recovery. the economy won't be quite the same as it was before but it is never the same after a crisis as it was before. stuart: okay. peter, thank you very much indeed. i'm just going to recap the market action thus far. we are five minutes away from the opening of the market this monday morning. we are going to be up, i see green arrows across the board, up over 150 for the dow, up 80 for the nasdaq and 26 for the s&p. green arrows this monday morning. back in a moment.

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stuart: 90 seconds to the opening of the market and i see green arrows for premarket activity. keith fitz, do you think maybe

we have seen the bottom, 18,000 on the dow? was that the bottom? >> i tell you what, it's hard to call the bottom but the markets anticipate going forward, they anticipate healing. i think we are still closer to the bottom than we have been, but the bottom, that's a tough call. stuart: it seems like investors liked the extension of the social distancing rules to april 30th, as if you maximize the pain now, crack down hard, because you will get out of it faster. i think investors approved of that move. what say you? >> i agree with you, stuart. because people all of a sudden, it was an a-ha moment. they realize this is very serious. that's one of the great things about america. if we band together, we can get through danningdanged near anyt including something like this. i interpret that positively. the markets are interpreting that it's good to be an investor at this time because history says you will have some monster

returns 12, 24 months from now. stuart: okay. we have 15 seconds to go before this market opens on a monday morning. we are expecting an upside move for the three major averages. i'm expecting an upside move for abbott labs. they have a five-minute test for the virus. here we go. it is now 9:30 on a monday morning. we are opening up again. this is a crucial week. let's see how we actually open this market. so far, couple of seconds in, dow is up 100, nasdaq up 85 and the s&p 500 is up 28 points. we have opened with a lot of green. about two-thirds of the dow 30 are in the green. we are up 120 at this point. the dow is at 21,790. just a few days ago, we were trolling around the 18,000 mark so we have bounced back nicely. i'm going to run to different groups of stocks on the left-hand side of the screen so you can see how we have opened. these will be crucial groups of

stocks. director, where do we start? put it up, please. let's go with that. what have we got here? boeing, excellent. the president speaking to "fox & friends" on the fox news channel said that boeing would be getting some help. it has not helped the stock in the very very early going. it is down 6%. boeing is back to $152. we do have news on amazon. before i go through the rest of these stock groups, susan, can you tell me the news about amazon? i think a potential walkout? susan: that's right. the staten island fulfillment center, 100 workers at amazon saying they are going to walk out because they don't feel safe working in those conditions. this is being echoed across most of america since we know there have been close to 11 facilities across ten states that have reported coronavirus i guess cases at some amazon warehouses. staten island says we are walking out at 12 noon. they say they have been

unresponsive, amazon has been unresponsive to our safety concerns, they have not been giving us protective gear that we need. in fact, rationing some of the hand sanitizer so as a result, they say they are walking out for a bit. even the fact they are paying $2 extra on top of $15 an hour minimum wage, they say that isn't enough. stuart: okay. let's move on, can we go back to big tech? that's where the money is. they've got a lot of money in the bank. they are truly positioned to ride out this storm and the stocks are gradually moving up. i've got microsoft this morning at $153. i've got facebook at $160. apple, $252. amazon, $1925. alphabet, as in google, $1120 per share. the financials. they have been taking it on the chin recently. any bounce this monday morning? the answer is no. jpmorgan is up a little and we just moved positive for morgan stanley, up a tiny fraction. but goldman is down some more,

citi down a little and wells fargo still around the $30 per share level. credit card companies, very important, as we heard from the treasury secretary money's going to be pumped out there. that's good for the overall economy, especially for the credit cards like mastercard, up again. mastercard's at $247. they were below $200 last week. visa at $162. they have come a long way up. a fractional loss this morning for american express. next group on the screen, please. who do we have? we have the price of oil. ouch. $20.26 per barrel. that is a major disaster for the drillers and frackers across america as we constantly say you can't make money at $20 a barrel. earlier this morning, we actually dropped to $19. price of gasoline as we told you earlier, $2.01 per gallon. that's the national average. exxon is at $36, down a fraction. bp is at $23 a share.

that's a stock that in five or six weeks has been cut in half. the grocery chains, walmart, kroger's, bj's, target, costco, all of them on the upside again. walmart's not quite back to its all-time high but the news of this money being pumped out to consumers, pretty quickly, that's good for the grocery chains which are, of course, open. amazon, these are the online retailers, amazon's doing well. ebay is doing well. etsy is on the downside. it's down to $37 a share. what's next again? we've got the cruise lines. no joy in cruise land. royal caribbean, $32. carnival, $12. norwegian cruise line is at $10. will they get government help? we don't know. hotels, taking it on the chin something rotten. the occupancy rate in america is between 10% and 20%. that's it. hyatt down. hilton down. marriott down. any kind of travel and leisure

stocks really getting hurt. casino stocks fall within that group. casino stocks like caesar's, mgm, wynn, las vegas sands, el dorado resorts, all continuing to come down. mgm at $11 per share. okay. travel bookings. we will keep on going through this. booking holdings, $1248, down just a fraction there. expedia down to $59 a share. trip adviser, $17. come in, we will show you movie theaters right now. obviously taking it really on the chin. if you extend these social distancing rules out through the end of april, clearly the movie houses, the theaters, they are going to get really hurt. keith fitz, do you see any value in the travel and leisure stocks that we have gone through so far? would you touch any of them with a ten-foot pole? >> maybe a six-foot pole. i will tell you what, alaska

airlines was a great-run airline before. i go out of my way to fly them. when travel resumes, that's the airline i'm going to. boeing i think will be back but they have rough sledding. the max situation hasn't gone away. they have drawn their credit line. those two areas are companies i'm specifically watching. i don't own either of them but i'm looking at them very very carefully. stuart: peter morici, economist, come back in again, please. i think investors are looking to the other side. sorry, we lost peter. sorry about that. line went down. no problem at all. okay. dow industrials up 140. nasdaq up 100, s&p up 29. so to recap, this monday morning, we have gone up pretty much across the board but the travel and leisure stocks continue to take their hits. most of the big techs are up and the dow is up 122 points. back to you, keith.

again, you have often said there is value in apple and microsoft. they have not gone back to test their old lows. that's a good sign, right? >> that's an incredible sign. because when you think about these two companies, i think microsoft has experienced nearly an 800% increase in its cloud related traffic. they placed something like 900 million minutes on their teams application last week, if i remember. don't quote me exactly. but the figures have jumped dramatically. apple, same thing. with their push into the medical environment which is obviously kind of critical at the moment, that company is well positioned on the other side of this crisis. both of those are still very compelling long-term investment choices even at these prices and even if there's more selling to come. stuart: all right. susan, come back in again, please. what do you have? susan: we were coming off the best week for the market since 1938 and i looked at some comparisons of 2020 to 2008 and

obviously, the $2.2 trillion stimulus package helped rally sentiment last week. if all of 2008 they didn't spend more than $2 trillion in stimulus and we are just talking about phase three. there might be a phase four and five coming down the pipeline as well. at its depth if 20n 2008, we we looking at a shrinkage of 8%. we are expecting 10% in the third quarter and we saw jobless claims way surpassing what we saw in 2008. at the peak of 2008 the top was 185,000 for weekly jobless claims. in some ways, this has been much worse and a lot faster in the speed of decline. stuart: thank you, susan. left-hand side of your screen, we have johnson & johnson up four bucks. 3.6%, nice gain. they are working on a vaccine. abbott labs has the real breakthrough here with a test for the virus that can be administered and get the results

in five minutes. it's a small test, can be used anywhere. that is a real breakthrough. abbott labs' stock is on the upside. all right. 9:38. almost 9:39. we will take a short break, regroup. lot more news for you after this.

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the opening bell. we are now down 78 points. we were expecting volatility and that's what we've got. now, the markets of course affected by the virus and the state of the economy, but there's another crisis on our hands and that is the price of oil. right now, we are down to $20.13 a barrel. earlier this morning, we dropped to $19 a barrel, a new low. ashley, come in, please. because of this low price of oil, you've got news on exxon. what have you got? ashley: yes, i do. with it down under $20 at one point, it's very hard and of course, demand is a big part of that drop in the oil price. exxon saying it is now shutting down a crude unit at a refinery in baton rouge, up the mississippi from new orleans. says it is shut down purely on low demand. no need to be operating it if nobody wants to use it. that's the latest from exxon. stuart: yeah. about four or five weeks ago, exxon was in the mid $70 per

share range. now it's been cut in half. back to susan. i want more about amazon and instacart workers, thinking of a walkout? susan: that's right. because of the same conditions and complaints that they have at amazon warehouses. instacart, they employ around 200,000 across the u.s., 20,000 are part-time and they say they are walking out because they don't feel they are working in safe conditions, meaning they also want $5 extra an hour in hazard pay in order to make these deliveries and they also want more protective gear, whether it's gloves, more sanitary wipes, et cetera. this is detrimental to those ordering online, if amazon warehouse and instacart workers are walking out today. stuart: yeah. the delivery is key here. thank you, susan. i want to bring in gerald storch, our retail guy. instacart and amazon workers talking about a walkout. is the whole delivery system in danger here? is there a threat? >> i think they are going to work this out.

this comes against a backdrop of dramatic increase in online e-commerce by consumers so i have heard some grocers i have talked to have seen a five-fold increase in their e-commerce business. of course, amazon business is also moving by all reports. so consumers want this product delivered to them. these companies are moving. meanwhile, if you recall, way before even the virus, there's been all this talk about gig workers like those at instacart and what are their rights, and what kind of health care, what kind of benefits do they have. there was a law passed in california, et cetera. it's inevitable these workers are going to get more of the rights of most of the workplace. i believe they will negotiate through this and work it out. the good news from a standpoint of e-commerce operators is that e-commerce distribution centers tend to not be very dense in terms of how many people there are per square foot so they aren't really great incubators for the virus the way a more dense gathering might be, but

they need to take care of their workers and i'm sure they will step forward and do the right thing. stuart: tens of millions of us are working from our own homes and going on teleconferences. as you know, all you can see on a teleconference is from the waist up. i am told that online retailers are selling a lot of top and teeshirts but no pants or few pants. is that true? >> well, relatively speaking, that's all they're selling. the problem is that that's just not enough to make up for the massive losses in apparel sales that are taking place right now across a broad swath of retailers. so most of them are closed. department stores and apparel retailers don't have stores, they only have online. within the online, since wore'r not going out to social events or work, we don't need to buy expensive clothes. they have seen an increase in the online component of their business, and they have seen an increase in online sales of leisure products, but it's not

nearly enough to make up for how much apparel sales we are losing overall and all i hear out of suppliers and retailers is they are canceling orders like crazy trying to preserve cash and that doesn't mean just orders now. that means orders for christmas, for the fall season. i don't think we will see any kind of turnaround in the apparel business until we get to next year. meanwhile, we will be casual because that's all we need but it isn't enough. stuart: those items that are special and specific to easter, i guess they have taken a hit as well? >> all seasonality is out the window. obviously you don't have easter get-togethers. i'm sure some of it is being solved but most of it's not. the same will be true when you get to other holidays throughout the year and will back to school happen? that will be a very interesting question. or when will it happen. i hope so. i think we will all be back by that point. but we certainly have a lost season or two here in the retail business. now, necessities are selling

like crazy. nou th you know that. we talked about groceries, target, costco, walmart, et cetera. stuart: yeah. some of the retailers, clothing retailers, are trying to make us buy more by offering huge incentives. some of or people are getting all kinds of e-mails about huge discounts for all kinds of leisure wear in particular. eddie bauer is offering 50% off leisure wear. is this common? >> it's very common. they don't have a choice. they own these products, they can't sell them through bricks and mortar, even the best e-commerce bricks and mortar, someone like nordstrom, about 40% of their business is on their e-commerce arm. 70% was in the stores that are closed. all these companies are just loaded to the gills with apparel they cannot sell. of course they are going to offer whatever deals they possibly can online to try to make up for it. i'm not hearing it's enough to make a difference. we have to be clear that during this period, when the economy is shut down, it's shut down.

meanwhile, if it's not groceries, if it's not household necessities, if it's not, you know, not something that you eat or makes you safer or maybe a little bit in terms of toys and games keep you entertained, it's just not happening out there. stuart: got it. gerald storch, retail guy, thanks for joining us as always. i'm sure we will see you again real soon. thank you. before we go to a break, quick check of big tech. where are we, please? i think it was a mixed bag earlier. we are doing okay. microsoft, facebook, amazon, apple, up. google is down. more after this. it's a challenging market. edward jones is well aware of that. which is why we're ready to listen. and ready to help you find opportunity. so. let's talk. edward jones. it's time for investing to feel individual.

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america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. stuart: we bring you news on different companies affected by the virus. google, what's happening there, susan? susan: actually got an upgrade

today from bank of montreal but it's not actually higher today in the session, but analysts do expect the big tech eventually will come back at some point since we missouri thereknow theg migration to using their services. this weekend, google says they are donating $800 million to those being affected by coronavirus to small businesses they can get loans to pay their bills if they need. stuart: $800 million. that's a lot of money which we glossed over, almost. you have news on apple as well? susan: reuters reporting the company could see an 18% drop in iphone orders year over year. that's pretty much been priced in since we have heard from china that smartphone sales there in that country, which is their second largest, are down 50% in the month of february alone. you can imagine that here in the u.s. you will probably see some similar results since people are staying home and apple has been rationing, by the way, the number of iphones you can buy online since stores are closed. you can only buy one right now

as they are trying to build up this pipeline and get production ramped up once again. stuart: thank you, susan. dan ives is with us, wedbush securities. dan was big on microsoft and apple before the virus hit us all. let's start with microsoft. i so them up 4.5% today. that's a very solid gain. would you say microsoft, when it was at $150, was that a screaming buy? >> in my opinion, i look at microsoft, if you look at the cloud trend, that's going to be rock of gibraltar in this market. that will be probably the outstanding risk and reward name. in terms of the trend, what we are seeing even stress testing numbers, that continues in my opinion on the other side to be the name i want to own and we think the attractive risk/reward given what we are seeing. stuart: okay. apple is at $250 a share right now. is that also a screaming buy, in your book?

>> look, i mean, in my opinion, you got the look on the other side of this. we have stress tested, no one has bought iphones the last two years, buys an iphone over the next two years and we still have numbers which at this valuation you are essentially getting the iphone hardware b attractive risk/reward, for those that have the sort of patience to hold on the other side. in my opinion, i looked at apple, it's a 5g super-cycle that gets pushed out, it doesn't evaporate. that's why we continue to like this name here and we continue to guide clients to apple, to microsoft, some of the larger tech names that i think ultimately get stronger on the other side of this dark valley. stuart: dan, tell me again about the cloud and why it's so important to have a strong cloud operation when we have come out on the other side. >> it's a great question.

as much as -- you talk about zoom and more and more at-home workers as well as even on the consumer side, the underlying bedrock of that is cloud. it's microsoft, it's amazon, it's google, that's enabling that. that's why cloud, they just put numbers, i mean, we believe $1 trillion is spent over the next decade. that's why you look at those three, they are the underlying bedrock. i think cloud accelerates in this environment, you know, in terms of what we have seen from remote workers. stuart: i'm watching the cloud from here on out. dan ives, thanks for joining us, sir. we do appreciate it. thanks indeed. all right. coming up to the top of the hour, look at the market, turned around again. we were down, now we're up 30 points. let's see how this thing works out. back in a moment. ♪

♪ . . dr. jerome adams: why should young people care about the spread of coronavirus? well we know that people with underlying medical conditions over the age of 60 are at highest risk, but they've got to get it from somebody. dr. deborah birx: so we're asking everyone to be selfless for others so that we can protect those who are most susceptible. dr. anthony fauci: not going to bars, not going to restaurants, it all just means physical separation, so that you have a space between you and others. dr. jerome adams: for more information on how you can social distance please go to coronavirus.gov

stuart: it is precisely 10:00 eastern time here on the east coast. the market has been open for 30 minutes. not that much volatility. we were up, then down, and now we're back up again but it's a small gain. we're up 40 points for the dow and we're up 22 points for the s&p. i think investors are reacting to two things here. number one, the president has extended the social distancing rules to april the 30th and number two, treasury secretary mnuchin on this program about 40 minutes ago outlined how small would get $350 billion worth of stimulus money, very, very quickly.

they're going to put it directly into small business deposit accounts. you can go through a fdic insured bank, the money gets out there quickly and there is a lot of it. i think that is helping the market. we're one minute after 10:00 we have the latest read on pending home sales. what's the number, ashley? ashley: i'll tell you, stu it is a surprise to the upside. we were expecting a pullback of about 1% but they went up 2.4% and january's number which was a strong number, has been revised even higher from 5.2% to 5.3% in january. so still some light in the real estate market, pending home sales, february, up 2.4%. it will be very interesting of course to see how march fares in this environment. stu? stuart: well-said, ashley. we were all expecting a rip-roaring housing market. that was in january, february, and early march and then along comes the virus and a lot of us

have been saying you and i, ashley, saying watch out for pause because the economy is shut down and home sales don't take place. the numbers were a surprise but they cover what? what time period do they cover, ashley? ashley: that's for february. so the february pending home sales up almost 2 1/2%. so we did see the beginning, of course in early february of the coronavirus but i think this month, march, may be a different story. we'll see. stuart: we shall. i will put this on your screen. good news for us new yorkers. the u.s. navy ship comfort, the big hospital ship, you can see it, just arriving now in new york harbor. it will contribute 1,000 beds to help hospitals treat the non-virus patients. it is an overflow place so conventional medicine can be handled there and virus cases in

already crowded hospitals in new york city. the navy says the ship should be up and running literally in 24 hours. the other hospital ship has docked on the west coast and is already taking patients. come on in please, ronna mcdaniel, rnc chair. great to see you today. >> great to be with you. stuart: it occurs to me that your campaign is now based on the response to the virus, not on the economy. right? >> i agree. right now everyone is focusing on the virus and they recognize that the president's leading and doing a good job. we're seeing a lot of polls showing that. and from an rnc perspective we've gone all virtual, calling voters, giving them information where they can find resources to help them, telling them about what the administration is doing to help them. stuart: you do internal polls. what are those polls telling but the president and the virus?

>> we have the president in very strong shape. we're obviously focusing on battleground states, and he is getting phenomenal reviews on how he is handling the virus. stuart, going on tv every day, bringing scientists. the move to listen to the science and push back further the date we continue to social distance and continue to stop the bump, to flatten the curve, those are things that are very critical. the american people recognize this is unprecedented and or president is is leading us through a very difficult time as the president says he is a wartime president right now. stuart: he is getting harsh criticism. speaker pelosi accused him of dragging things out and costing lives. ronna, listen to what joe biden said when asked if the president has blood on his hands? >> he should stop thinking out loud and start thinking deeply. should start listening to the scientists before he speaks.

he should listen to the health experts. he should listen to his economists, he should -- for example, the united states congress passed a significant piece of legislation to help deal with the incredible financial crunch that will affect working families, the whole economy. so we should be right now thinking about how do we get those small business loans out the door. >> joe biden -- stuart: go ahead. go ahead. >> i don't know if he is paying attention but all those things the president's doing and it was the democrats who were focusing on impeachment in january when the president restricted travel from china. it was the democrats who were focusing on impeachment when the president declared a public health emergency. nancy pelosi is the one who held up the care act to get her wish-list in of election reforms and other things that had flog to do with the virus. i think joe biden has his facts wrong there. the president is listening to the science. the president is the one recognizing economic indicators as steve mnuchin said on your

show, they're trying to get the money out to small businesses right now. stuart: but, ronna, i have to say, that was an extremely, almost a vicious question to ask the presidential candidate, does the president have blood on his hands? you must have recoiled when you saw that? >> oh, i think it was despicable. i don't know why chuck todd would even formulate a question like that. i think it shows why the media so underwater with the american public as they're trying to politicize something. chuck todd should answer for a question like that. do governors have blood on their hands? does anybody trying to deal with this crisis who are coming together in unified way, federal, state, local level? for him to ask that is just shameful. thankfully joe biden didn't take the bait but i think the president is doing an exceptional job and he is saving lives, saving lives with the actions he and the corona task force are taking.

stuart: ronna mcdaniel, thank you for joining us this morning. we appreciate it always. >> thank you. stuart: take a look at disney's stock. i'm not sure where it is this morning. i've not seen it. but i believe it will be a down a little bit. let's see, susan, yes it is. $95 a share back on disney. what is the news, susan? susan: disney lan and disney world will be closed until further notice. disneyland closed on march 12th and disney world on the 16th. they will keep paying the staff. this is big blow to disney. theme parks generate $26 billion of sales every year for the disney company. until further notice, they're not accepting reservations until june the 1st from what i see on the company website. several months of lost businesses will have impact on the balance sheet. stuart: that is enormous amount of lost business, theme parks are a gold mine. susan, thank you. dow industrials now up 100 points. you got volatility. not too extreme so far today.

now we're up 90 for the dow. ed yardeni is back with us. ed, do you think we have established a market bottom over the last couple weeks? >> it is possible. last week, monday, the fed gave us qe forever to infinity and beyond. in some ways powell became buzz lightyear, thrown an enormous amount of liquidity into the system. remember, the week before that we had just normal qe4 which was going to be $700 billion. that seemed like a lot but the markets got very disappointed. they said, if that is all you have with bazookas and ammo, that is not good enough. a week ago one day after qe4, just completely put it on steroids. i think we've gone from bazookas to helicopter money now actually b-52s dropping money, when you

combine the amount of fiscal policy. a lot of stimulus that should help stablize the market. stuart: treasury secretary steve mnuchin told me on this program earlier this morning there is more to come. that we've got 350 billion ready to go for small business and more if need be. and that they are in fact working on a fourth stimulus package. i mean, are you saying that all of this government help is in fact putting a floor under the economy and therefore a floor under the market? >> look, we live in uncertain times. i can't really predict where this virus is going to go. obviously everything will depend on the course of the virus but i think it helps a lot, might very well-put a floor on, but i can't predict where this virus is going. i think the working assumption i have, seems to be trending widespread is that, we are at peak in terms of cases the next

several weeks. by summer we should get some signs that we're moving towards some improvement in the whole situation. we can start opening up the economy and market looks ahead. i mean, right ahead here, it will be horrible news on the economy. terrible news on earnings. shocking news but not surprising news. we're all going to know it's coming but i think the market will look through it, now that the fed has i think, stablized one of the fronts. we have, it is a three-month war, really. it is a health war, a health front, there is economic front and there is a financial front and i think the fed stablized the financial front which helps a lot. stuart: ed, i'm not sure whether you look at individual companies or not but we have people on this program saying apple is a screaming buy. i'm not grinding my axe at all. i don't have any shares of apple at 250, but is it a screaming

buy for long-term investors? >> i don't do a lot of screaming in my research and we don't do individual companies but i think generally speaking, you know, stocks are long duration assets and if we can have reasonable expectations that the virus will pass, we may have to deal with it in an ongoing basis but i've seen lots of good news about possible cures, possible widespread tests, universal tests. so we're responding in a very good way but, kind of gives us a way forward. stuart: i think it may change investor optimism and mood of investing. ed yardeni, you look very relaxered in your library. come back to see us real soon. >> thank you. stuart: look at the market. we bounce ad little tiny bit. the dow industrials up 50 points as we speak. an american warship in the pacific has more than 30 virus

cases on board. how susceptible are these ships? i'm asking retired four-star general jack keane later this hour. plus new orleans, louisiana, quickly many about the new epicenter of the virus in this country. next, i will talk to the ceo of a hospital in louisiana. how is he doing? what are you short of? we'll ask. newday usa. your spouse's va streamline refi benefit lets you easily refinance when mortgage rates drop. and they just dropped to the lowest in newday's history. refinance now. there's no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. one call can save you $2,000 a year. refi now. from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills?

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stuart: we've clearly seen movement in the market. not the extreme movements we've been used to last couple weeks. now we're back up again to the tune much 150 points that has been the range. about zero, flat, to up 200, that is what we've seen so far this monday morning. susan, costco, what's the news? >> they're cutting hours. they will close 6:30 p.m. gas stations close 7:00 p.m. monday to friday. looks like weekend hours stay the same for the clubs and gas stations. we know major retailers are cuttings back on the hours, they're trying to give more hours, first of all to reduce the number of hours that workers have to work and stay in the store. also to sanitize and make sure that everything is clean for shoppers to be in. we know that costco has,

advocated for early hours on tuesday and thursday for the vulnerable part of the population, seniors, those that have sudden health issues to shop early. this is something every retailer is doing. costco is jumping on board. stuart: actually, susan, i was allowed into my local grocery store early yesterday morning along with other elderly citizens because we need special time. but i took advantage of it. i was there, keeping my distance and everybody was happy. susan: good. stuart: i lost track how many states issued a stay at home order but there is another one to be added to the list. ash, who is it now? ashley: that would be rhode island. probably easier, stu to list those that haven't put one ever the stay at home orders in place. in fact rhode island has taken to knocking on peoples doors especially in the coastal communities and stopping cars with new york plates on the interstate asking them where are they going and if they have been

in new york, they have to self-isolate for 14 days. it seems extremely draconian, almost staws sy-like, if you've been in new york, coming back to rhode island, visiting rhode island, you have to respect social distancing, self-isolate for 14 days. example after what one state is doing, stu. stuart: we should add, the checkpoints on i-95 on the florida-georgia border, they were stopping cars, saying look, have you been in new york? they were recommending quarantine. but i think it was quite a traffic jam there, ash? ashley: it went back miles, stu, all the way back up i-95 into georgia. four hours worth of traffic, just stuck there. in the end they had to pull down the checkpoint to get going again. it is a huge trucker's route i-95 south.

they reinstated with perhaps better traffic flow ideas but certainly north example, if you're coming from new york and we know there are a lot of new yorkers heading down to florida, they're being told you have to stay, self-isolated for 14 days. stuart: okay. i trust them they will do that ashley, thank you very much indeed. dow industrials now up 200. that has been the swing of the day, up 200 points. that is pretty close to the high of the morning. kirk solo is with us. he is louisiana hospital ceo. kirk, welcome to the program. very good to have you with us. i want to know about the condition and the situation of hospitals in louisiana? in manhattan where there is severe concentration of cases some hospitals are almost overwhelmed. how bad is it in louisiana? >> stuart, thank you for having me on the show. we're seeing the biggest amount of growth and biggest concern is

southeast region of the state that is the new orleans metro area. there has been substantial growth over time with volume of cases as well as the ventilator needs. so if this continues, the concern of the governor, and other health officials is, within, within eight to 10 days, we will be exceeding capacity in that region of the state. so the rest of us throughout the state are really -- i'm sorry. stuart: sorry, just wanted to -- if you're close to being overwhelmed in the new orleans area are you calling for the military to build field hospitals, for example, help out in that way? >> well the governor's made a plan as well as the officials of new orleans. they're converting the convention center into a two-thousand bed space which should allow for capacity as that growth occurs.

stuart: are you on top of it? i ask the question deliberately, because we're told overwhelmed at lack of supply of medical equipment. from your perspective would you say we have a grip on this thing, we understand the challenge but we are getting a grip on it? >> i believe we understand the challenge. do we have a grip on it will be seen over time. what we need throughout the state is it additional personal protective equipment, ppe they're referred to. the concern came out of washington yesterday, there may be hoarding. when you're preparing for a event like this, it is not really hoarding, you're prepared so the front line workers have enough resources for patients coming in. stuart: what is the situation in the hospital of which you are the ceo? you're not in new orleans. you're outside of new orleans. describe your situation?

>> we're in good shape here today. we have not -- i'm in the northwest portion of the state. we're the largest rural hospital in the state and we've been okay. we've seen several patients come in. we've tested scores of patients. we're moving to community testing tomorrow so that we understand what this growth may look like in the market, but i'll tell you, stuart, the bigger issue at the end of the day, is we're going to get over this as a state and as a nation. we'll get past this. the bigger concern though, that we need to be looking at is how do we use and how do we get funded stimulus dollars to be able to weather the storm? it is a significant issue today, when you look at health care has moved to more of an ambulatory outpatient setting where 620, 70% of our revenue is on the outpatient side that turned overnight when we began to prepare for care. that will be a huge issue for us

coming down the road. that's looming. stuart: fortunately there is $100 billion in the stimulus plan specifically for hospitals. kirk, we want to thank you very much for being on the show. good luck to you, sir. >> thank you very much. stuart: on that note getting money to small businesses and getting money to the economy, treasury secretary steve mnuchin was on this program this morning. listen to what he said about small business getting the money. roll tape, please. >> these loans will be available starting on friday which will be at lightning speed. we hope later today we'll release documents and the instructions. it will be a very simple process where small business owners can go to go any ever the existing sba lenders but they can also go to any fdic insured institution, any credit union and any fintech letter that signed up for this program. stuart: okay. that sounds not simple but

direct at the very least. susan, that does sound like the money is going to get out there real fast and that is what our viewers are asking us, small business operators. when do i get the money, how do i get the money? treasury secretary answered the question. susan: you can get a loan for two months of your salary and overhead as well. by the way, every dollar the treasury allocates and loans for 2 trillion-dollar stimulus package, that is five dollars, five or $10 of federal reserve money they can loan out as well. there is a multiplier effect here. stuart: that is a lot of money. who has got the news on boeing? i think there is news coming in. i'm not seeing the stock. but who has got it? ash or susan, who has got it? susan: i don't have any boeing news. ashley: i don't have it. stuart: okay. stuart: here is what i've got on boeing. i have got the stock down 11%,

even though president trump this morning, told "fox & friends," boeing is getting some money but the stock is down $18, 11%. it is a dow stock. that is, i don't know how many points that is taking off the dow, must be at least 100. the dow is still up 222 points. ash, susan, what do you think of this? the mood of the market has shifted as the president extends the social distancing rules and the treasury secretary comes through with a lot of money? what do you say, ash? ashley: i think that is absolutely right. look the only apparent cure to stop this disease from spreading is to do exactly what the economy doesn't need and unfortunately that is the case. but once we get through it, we will be able to rebound. we've seen the, in wuhan today, the very epicenter where this coronavirus came from, sixth straight day with no new cases. we're seeing a slowdown in spain. even though numbers are not

great, they believe that the curve may be flattening out. what we want to see is how quickly that can happen, so that we know we're on the pact to recovery. i think that is very important. we will get through this. having this huge stimulus is critical. susan: yes, we also heard from andrew cuomo, right? remember he said that cases were doubling every two days. now it is doubling every six days. maybe there is a flattening of the curve. i think that is pretty positive. stuart: we would love to see that. susan, ashley, thanks very much. back in a moment.

stuart: despite the very sharp drop in boeing stock, down 11%, it is a dow stock. despite that the dow is holding

on to a 200 point gain as of right now. a similar gain for the s&p and at nasdaq as well. in fact the nasdaq is up nearly 2%. now more world leaders going into quarantine. ash, israel's prime minister? ashley: benjamin netanyahu is going into quarantine. this after a close aide that dealt with governmental affairs, tested positive for the virus. mr. netanyahu and a number of his cabinet members also who with this aide have gone into quarantine for the next 14 days. that is what you have to do. as you said before with boris johnson, this virus can affect anyone, no matter where they are in life. stuart: do you have an update on prince charles who was confirmed positive last week? ashley: yes. some positive news on that positive -- positive isolation

verdict. he is out of self-isolation. that note, stu, came seven days after he knew. another seven days has gone past. he is in good health, we're now told and can move around freely. good news for prince charles. stuart: thanks, ash. let's get back to the market and the economy. market watcher rob sishan is with us. rob, president says we'll be on the road to recovery june the 1st. what do you say to that? because if we are on the road to recovery for the economy, presumably, the stock market will see that coming and go up before we get the recovery? >> today. every market eventually looks beyond the crisis of the day. they do two things. number one, they're forward

discounting mechanisms. number two, they desensitize to the news of the day because it is always in your face. i think, when you first hear about a shock, it is human nature to deleverage and, that de-leveraging both from a personal standpoint with, business standpoint, ultimately is too severe, causing forced leveraging in markets. what ended up happening, i think why we saw a rally over the last week, was the panic became greater than the problem. and as, as investors started to digest what is possibly the best-case scenario, we're social distancing and mobilization work, the infrastructure catches up, treatments evolve. markets desensitize. then you have the additional support on the economic side from fed and treasury, congressional packages and

support, and stepping up of the private sector, i think you got a rally off the low partly because, you know, market were looking beyond that. if you look out to june, sorry? stuart: all right. rob, i just got to interrupt you for a second. do you think we'll recess the lows of the last couple of weeks? low for me was the 18,000 mark on the can youdow industrials. are we going retest the low? >> markets are reacting real well to the news. the mark. america appears to be coming together and i think markets are actually discounting that. so i think we may have seen the lows. stuart: i think you're right. yeah, i think there is a different mood out there. the rob, i have got to run. thanks for joining us. we appreciate it.

the dow is holding on to a 200 point gain as we speak, despite a huge loss for bowing which is a dow stock and maybe taken 100 points off dow. pizza selling extremely well. susan, what news do you have from papa john's's? susan: they need to hire 20,000 employees to make them immediately. papa john's, pizza hut looking to collectively hire 50,000 individuals. what do you do when you are stuck at home? you order a pizza. bloomberg is reporting that one much their investor advisory firms, recommending that shaquille o'neal, the former basketball star sits on board of papa john's, should not be elected to the board because he missed too many meetings. owe neil attended less than 57% of the meetings. they say it is a good time for

pizza companies like papa john's's. stuart: sure is. can't beat this. stay at home, you can order pizza in a jiffy. thanks, susan. president trump says the white house is working on incentives to help workers go back to work. to help restaurants stay open, that is what i'm getting at here. roll that tape, please. >> i have directed my staff to use any and all authority available to give restaurants, bars, clubs, incentives to stay open. you will lose all the restaurants and they're not going to make it back. we're going to deductibility, so that companies can send people to restaurants. i think it will have a tremendous impact, maybe keep them open. stuart: absolutely it will. jon taffer is with us. he is the "bar rescue" host of that program's name. john, restaurants at this moment are crucial. their delivery service is vital for a whole lot of people. the president says he is getting behind you guys?

>> stuart, he is, and i think that is a big step forward. there are a couple other issues going on. one is business disruption insurance for all the restaurants around the company. they're not paying but there is not a pandemic clause within the contract. we're asking the white house to get involved in that, make certain insurance dollars come through. stuart, there is one really important topic nobody is talking about, when these restaurants reopen, because of the social expectation of spacing, even when the virus is over, tables will have to be spread, bar stools will have to be spread. all of the restaurants in america are going to lose, 40, to 50, to 60% of their seating capacity once we reopen. and nobody is talking about that. so if we have a model based on 100 seats, and we do 100 lunches, servings dur 50%, i'm now doing half the volume in lunch. nobody is talking about this, stuart and it bothers me very

much. we have tax credits from the government to help us with employment. i'm concerned about restaurants having dollars to buy the inventory. then what happens to our restaurant model? even our theater models, sports arena model, when the capacity numbers go down? that worries me, stuart. stuart: the truth is, jon, a awful lot of restaurants will not be reopening no matter what kind of government help they get, am i right. >> that is absolutely, correct, stuart. they will not have the resources to make it through. many restaurants delivery, sounds great for pizza restaurant, they're set up for it, full service restaurants that pay dining room, utilities for dining rooms. utility doesn't work. you can't do 100 lunches an hour by delivery. you can in a dining room. that capacity is going down. scary what happens. stuart: i noticed some restaurants in my area, i live in new jersey, some have started go fund me operations for their wait staff so that regular

customers can contribute. i think it is going very well. is that true nationally, a lot of restaurants doing this? >> it is. there is a lot of companies stepping up. miller brewing stepped up with a million dollars for employee funds. there is a lot of groups doing that. stu, it isn't only about payroll. when the restaurant reopens you have to get utilities going. inventory thousands of dollars. fresh foods. you can't use inventory from before. you have to train the employees again. tough get banking dollars again. it costs a lot of money to reopen. i want to make certain when they get the dollars to reopen as an industry we recognize our capacity will be reduced as a result of the virus. our seating capacity. so, not only is it opening, stuart, that is the big problem, how do we sustain business with 60% less capacity or 40% less capacity? that is the long-term issue that worries me. stuart: jon, i'm glad you brought that to our attention

because nobody else is talking about it. >> nobody is. stuart: it is extremely important for survival of the restaurant industry and individual operations. jon taffer, see you real soon. good luck to you, sir, thank you very much. anheuser-busch, they are giving away three months of beer. susan there has to be catch, so tell me what it is. susan: trying to help out animal shelters and rescue centers had to close the doors because we're socially distancing, people are being told to stay at home. anheuser-busch will give you three months of beer if adopt an animal. they are coming up with the midwest animal rescue to get dogs fostered and adopted and help incentivize to get some furry animals, they are so cute, at homes. three months worth. they will give you a $100 gift certificate, equates to three months of beer. depending how much you drink i guess. stuart: depending how much you drink, exactly, susan.

check that market, we've gone up a little bit more. this is i believe, close to the high of the day. we're almost 22,000 on the dow. two american warships in the pacific, confirmed more coronavirus cases s that a direct threat to our defense? retired general jack keane. he is on the show shortly and i'm asking after the break, is our defense intact? we'll be back. the american red cross urgently needs blood

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stuart: we've been open now for almost one hour and 15 minutes and we're close to the high of the day. the market is being consistently on the up -- upside throughout this monday morning. let me bring in ash and susan. first to you, susan. do you detect more positive attitude among the investors? maybe they like the president extending restrictions on social distancing? susan: i think it is good we have a date, a april 30th instead of hope of aspirational deadline of easter. that is positive for investors. we came out of the shortest bear market in history. three days in order to get off 20% of the lows. doesn't mean we will not retest the decline of market. the redown and recovery, that has been pretty positive for

market watchers. stuart: hey, ashley, while we have a couple seconds here. let me ask you this, why are you wearing a purple glove on your right hand and a black glove hand and you're in your own house? ashley: because i forgot to put my black glove on my right hand. i've gone completely all purple. i'm actually in a garage, i'm actually in a garage in connecticut, there wasn't anything, really that i could do inside. so i thought why not just give a nice vista behind a beautiful lake. it is freezing cold. i have a blanket on my lap and a scarf i didn't have early on but i'm trying to ward off hypothermia. stuart: speaking of your comfort, ashley, i brandt to bring you up to speed on the u.s. navy ship comfort hospital ship. it is arriving as we speak in

new york harbor. we have the video. left-hand side of your screen. the tugs are putting it into place. it is about to dock right there, actually docking on the hudson river, opposite weehauken, if you know that in new jersey. this is wonderful assistance for new york. there are 1000 beds on the hospital ship. they're treating non-virus patients to relief the overload on hospitals. the navy says the hospital ship should be up and running in next 24 hours. the other hospital ship, the mercy on the west coast has already started taking patients on board. there you go. more than 30 cases have been found i think the theodore roosevelt, theodore roosevelt. it is near guam. more cases have been discovered on the uss ronald reagan, that is off the coast of japan. general jack keane joins us now.

general, these warships have become certainly the roosevelt, is it out of action? after all if it is got all the cases on board and they are all going to be quarantined, that aircraft carrier capable of meeting a threat? is it farther of our defense still? or has it been taken out? >> well, if there was an imminent threat they would respond regardless of coronavirus. that is for certain. but, what the military has been trying to do, is balance preserving the health of the force against the preparedness and readiness of that force to be able to defend and, mostly to deter against our adversaries. i think probably what will likely happen as we get further into this over the next month or so the military will begin to weight a little more towards preserving the health of the force, and accept more risk with readiness and preparedness. what am i talking about?

we have 90 deployed ships any given day a third of the force. we could deploy less ships, that is number one and shelter down the others and accept risk for x number of months. number two, any replacement ship going out to replace another ship that is out there, we could test the whole crew and make certain before it leaves that it is 100% negative for the coronavirus. the army ground units have curtailed some of their training. they operate in close proximity. they will actually spread the disease as they continue to operate in close proximity. it is inevitable, stuart. so you can curtail some of that training and accept some risk and readiness. the other thing, the military will stop reporting the cv-19 patients aboard ships that are deployed and also army or marine or air force units also deployed because that is classified

information, we certainly don't want our adversaries to know where our weak points our in our defense preparedness. stuart: heaven forbid we get an outbreak on board of a submarine a nuclear submarine. general, thanks for joining us as always. i'm sorry it is so short. this is a rough-and-tumble day for news. jack keane. >> good talking to you, stuart. stuart: yes, sir. check the market. we're up 340 points for the dow jones average. this too, a new poll from abc and "washington post." it finds that president trump and presumptive democrat candidate joe biden are in a competitive race for the white house. what does trump 2020 national press secretary kayleigh mcenany think about that, a competitive race against joe biden? i'm a little skeptical but i will ask her after the break.

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stuart: nearly 200 points, the dow ask just shy, more positive mood out there for investors thus far this monday morning. let me bring you up to speed on the new poll, from "washington post," abc news. it found there was a competitive race going on here. 49% vote for joe biden. 47% vet for president trump. bring in kayleigh mcenany. she is with the trump campaign and joins us now. kayleigh, when i saw the poll i was skeptical about it, i looked inside the poll, there was guy goon tick enthusiasm gap. tell me more. >> yeah, there was. first, let me say our polling

shows president trump beating biden. we believe that will be the case and that is the case but the enthusiasm gap is notable in this poll. very interesting, among those who register strong support for joe biden, it is 24%. the lowest in the poll's 20 year history for a democrat nominee. president trump strong supporters show 453% enthusiasm. -- 53%. 15% of those who say they support bernie sanders right now, they say if he loses, they're giving their support to president trump. stuart: repeat that please. did you say 15% of those polled who, democrats this is, 15% vote for trump? tell me more about that. >> 15% who currently support bernie sanders, bernie still in the race, joe biden is ahead, they say if joe biden loses they're moving support for president trump. that bernie sanders cross over

voter there in 2016 is a real phenomenon still in play in the race today. stuart: you're fighting an election now, not behave on the president's economic success, or success or otherwise, facing down the virus, the whole nature of the campaign has changed, hasn't it? >> i think it is two-prong. we're still very proud of the economy that this president put into place. we will be touting that as we move forward but, yes, we're now in a phase where we're talking about the leadership of this president with the coronavirus. 60%, recent "gallup poll" said they approve president's handling of this. number cbs, monmouth, other outlets reflect that. people are recognizing leadership when they see the president for two hours without the filter of the mainstream media during these task force briefings. why cnn and others are no longer covering them. stuart: the task force briefings, with the president out front, that has taken the place of rallies. these task force briefings are a daily event spread across all

networks? >> yeah. they're not political events. these are opportunities for the president to talk directly to the american people about an issue that is plaguing our society right now. but when people watch the president speak on this, they say this is exactly who i want in this time of unprecedented crisis we're facing this man is showing leadership and that is why you're seeing the polling come up for the president each and every day. and that is why you see a direct correlation with media no longer covering briefings which are extraordinarily very stuart: i have to run. kayleigh mcenany, thanks very much indeed. the dow is up 274 points. we also have a problem with oil. the price of oil right now is down to $20 per barrel. big problem for our frackers. back in a moment. okay... okay! safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out. safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!!

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stuart: all right. it is now 11:00 eastern time. we've got that market rally. this is not a particularly volatile session. the high of the day was a plus 300. the low of the day was just about dead flat. that's where we are after 90 minutes worth of business. we are going to show you a live look at capitol hill, right-hand side of your screen. we just learned that speaker pelosi will hold a news conference at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. so 3:00 this afternoon eastern time, speaker pelosi holds that news conference and we are told it's about a possible fourth stimulus package. moments ago, the u.s. navy's

"comfort" ship docked here in the new york harbor area. it has 1,000 beds on board. these are for non-virus patients, for the overflow out of new york city, relieve the pressure on new york city hospitals. you can see it passing the world trade center. that is on your screen as of right now. that is the hospital ship right there. let's go back to ashley. any more details on that hospital ship? ashley: well, that ship is coming in at pier 90 on the hudson there. what's interesting is they spent the weekend dredging the river in there to make sure the boat could fit in there. they didn't want it to go aground because it's a big boat and it goes down deep. i found that very interesting. but as you say, it's for the overflow. it's for the non-virus patients to free up space in the city hospitals. it is a floating hospital, 1200 people on board and has 12 operating rooms in addition to more than 1,000 beds.

it could be very useful indeed. stuart: ashley, i'm told ther sether're setting up field hospitals in central park. is that accurate? ashley: that is absolutely accurate. there will be a 68-bed emergency field hospital inside central park. it will have capability, it will have icu capability which is remarkable, and there's going to be very experienced doctors that are going to be working on a rotation basis, experts in infectious diseases will be working inside that hospital set up in central park. it's quite a sight to see. stuart: i think they will be the only people in central park if i'm not mistaken because the city is a ghost town at this moment. back to the market. we are still up close to 300 points for the dow industrials. john lonski is with us. john, the president says the recovery for the economy

starting around june 1st and i want to get your take on what the treasury secretary steven mnuchin said on this program earlier. hold on a second. roll the tape so our viewers can see what the treasury secretary said. >> the president and i are 100% determined to provide liquidity to the market. we think this existing package gets us through the next eight to 12 weeks so we are in the process of putting a lot of money into americans' pockets and providing liquidity for business. stuart: john, obvious question. are we going to get up and running against june 1st? will this work? >> provided that we have the covid-19 fears begin to recede adequately, yes, it could very well work. i will give you an idea. consensus views on the economy right now have second quarter real gdp declining by roughly 20%. at the same time, third quarter

real gdp may spring back by plus 20%. so we could get a lot of lost business activity returning quite quickly. stuart: really, john? >> yes. stuart: that's the consensus opinion among economists that in the second quarter of the year, the economy shrinks 20% and then in the third quarter, it bounces right back again? >> yeah. it comes right back, i think. you have to realize you are coming off of that very low base in the second quarter. think of it this way. the people have been, you know, social distancing, they are staying at home, there has to be a buildup of pent-up demand that's taking place right now. it's sort of like going to be sailors who were out at sea, they come into the port, they haven't had a chance to spend money on much of anything and all of a sudden, they are free to spend. there is going to be a pent-up

demand for automobiles and other items that's now being suppressed by social distancing, by staying at home. another factor, third quarter is summertime. summer vacations. you are probably going to have a lot of people that thought of taking their vacation overseas in europe, let's say, instead staying at home. that will provide another major lift to consumer spending say come the month of august. stuart: okay. look, there's a separate problem for the economy and our society. left-hand side of the screen at the moment, we are showing oil below $20 a barrel. how big a negative is dirt-cheap oil and frackers and drillers in real trouble in north dakota and texas? how big a problem for the overall economy is that? >> it's a very big problem for frackers, it's a very big problem for those other

industries that service the oil industry, oil drilling is something you have to be concerned about. we have had a slew of credit rating downgrades that apply to these smaller oil and gas exploration and production companies. worrisome, yes. would it be enough to prevent a lively showing by the economy in the third quarter, i think not. this is almost a separate issue. not only is it covid-19 that's troubling the oil industry, it's also the fact that you have a global price war now taking place, where you have overseas producers trying to force u.s. producers out of business by keeping prices below the cost of production. stuart: okay. john, as an economist, can you look to the other side of this virus and its impact on our economy, look to the other side,

what do you think will be the single biggest change in the way we do business or the feel of the economy when we're on the other side? >> i think you know we have become accustomed now to not working at home. that could be a big difference. we are perhaps becoming more accustomed to shopping online. so going forward, there could be some problems with commercial real estate as it relates to office buildings and as it relates to retail that could linger. but i think that's one thing that comes to my mind. as i said earlier, there could be a reluctance on the part of americans to travel abroad, to go on cruise vacations, and that would have the effect of providing a boost to leisure activity within the u.s. borders. stuart: yeah. yeah. yeah, that's a possible good side to it. john lonski, always good. thanks for joining us again. we do appreciate it.

let's get to susan. what have we got on macy's here? they have been taking it on the chin. susan: they will furlough the majority of their workers. they employ 130,000 across america. they have been closed, stores have been closed since about march 18th. they are not making any sales. they are saying we will furlough majority of our employees starting this week as sales have evaporated but they will continue to pay benefits at least through may. l brands which operates and owns victoria's secret, bath & body works, furloughed many of their workers and are cutting base compensation of senior executive staff as well. these are really tough times for a lot of these retailers when you can't open your stores and people don't feel like shopping online. stuart: it's a shakeout of department stores. that's what it looks like. macy's all the way down to $5 a share. goodness me. on the phone, special guest david gibbs, ceo of yum brands.

david, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. you have 400,000 people worldwide working for you. what are you doing for your people? 400,000 of them. on the phone: that's right, stuart. we have a lot of employees. we have 400,000 in the united states alone and over 1.5 million worldwide. that's across our 50,000 restaurants between kfc, taco bell, pizza hut and our newest brand, the habit burger grill. we certainly recognize we have an important role to play in our communities with those front line employees serving the communities around the world the safe food they want, safe, affordable food that they want. we are doing a lot to take care of our employees. [ speaking simultaneously ] on the phone: the vast majority of our restaurants are open and we have certainly committed to paying those employees in the company restaurants where stores have closed. we are committed to those front

line employees and over 85% of our stores are open today, the vast majority of stores in the united states. so it's more about creating a safe workplace environment for them, taking care of them during these challenging times, making sure employees have access to enhanced pay benefits like what we just announced this morning with bonuses for the restaurant general managers and a lot of our franchisees are providing meals not just for the employees but for their families at home to take care of their families during these challenging times. stuart: i believe -- have you foregone your salary? on the phone: as part of the announcement today to create more funds available for our front line employees, that was part of the announcement, yes. it's really not about me. this is all about the front line employees, making sure we take care of them. stuart: you have a very large operation in china. are your restaurants up and running again there? on the phone: as the yum china team has announced, 95% of their stores are open and that's great

news because we have seen them go through this where they had as much as 35% of their stores closed at one time. we get the benefit as the largest restaurant company in the world of taking the learnings from all these or markets and applying them to the united states. we know we will come out of it in this country and come out of it stronger, as you and your last guest were talking about, and we want to be ready for that. consumer tastes will change. we took some of those learnings in china and started to act on them in the u.s. for example, people are ordering more family meals now. they are eating at home, they have larger party sizes so we are adapting our menu to meet those needs and there will be undoubtedly be different changes and consumer needs as we come out of this and the great brands around the world all adapt to changing consumer needs. when our businesses started 50, 60 years ago, consumers needed to access us in a different way. pizza huts were all dine-in restaurants. today, vast majority of their business is delivery/carryout and that's on point for what consumers want in a restaurant

occasion. stuart: one of our analysts pointed towards a longer term problem for the entire restaurant business. that is when you come back and open up again fully, you are going to have a lot of space between barstools at the bar, tables in the restaurant, so your actual number of meals you can provide, number of seats you've got is going to be limited. is that going to be a big problem for you? on the phone: it's definitely going to be a challenge for the industry. this is back to my point about um kwooe consumers will want to access bars and restaurants in a different way. we are fortunate in that the vast majority of our business is off-premise today between drive-through, carryout and delivery, all our brands do the vast majority of business off-premise but certainly the challenges of those dining rooms and how we adapt that environment to meet consumers' new needs, one example would be kiosks where our restaurants now, you can order at a kiosk but perhaps customers don't want to touch those kiosks in the new

world so you have another kiosk on you, your mobile phone. we will have to adapt and have more customers place orders on their mobile phones versus the kiosk. we stand ready to adapt and change as the consumers' needs change and i think the whole industry is going to be faced with that challenge. stuart: david gibbs, yum brands ceo, thank you very much for joining us, sir. pleased to hear what you're doing for your people. david gibbs, everyone. okay. now, the markets i notice, a new high of the day, now we are up nearly 400 points. we have news on under armour. what are they doing? susan: -- face shields at this facility in baltimore, donating them to the university of maryland medical system and several other medical facilities across the state. there has been a short supply of personal protective gear, ppe. under armour workers are apparently handing out 50,000 fanny packs filled with necessities for medical workers. president trump invoked the defense production act, he's trying to get gm to produce

ventilators but other companies are stepping up as well. apple is donating ten million n95 masks and nike will also look into making the personal protective gear for the medical staff and front line responders as well. this is great that america and business in america is stepping up. stuart: all right. viewers, you can no doubt tell we are all spread apart. susan is there in new york. ashley is out on his mansion estate in connecticut. i'm here in new jersey. ashley, how are you doing out there? ashley: i'm doing fine. listen, i have been in the city while my wife has been living out here for the last couple of weeks, so when i came back up from new york, i'm self-isolating so that's why i'm kind of in the garage while my wife is in the home doing her work from home, and i'm freezing out here but i think that's the safest thing to do.

i feel lucky to be able to do that. by the way, while i was in new york friday night, i saw police cars going around the streets with bull horns telling people that if they didn't have to be out, they should go home and to maintain their six-feet social distance. i found that very interesting indeed. stuart: yes indeed. susan, did you hear that? you are in the city. susan: i have been getting a lot of calls from overseas. i feel that people who aren't in new york are probably more worried about the situation than those in new york. i have been getting a lot of calls. my mother calls me every day. then also friends from hong kong, asia, europe, london, reading the headlines about how bad the epicenter here is in new york compared to the rest of the country. they just want to make sure i'm okay. stuart: i want to tell everybody that since i'm a senior, i did take advantage of the local grocery store which allows people like me to go in early sunday morning, 8:00 on a sunday morning, you can go in and have

the place virtually to yourself so you don't get interacting with anybody and i used that. for the first time, being an elderly senior citizen works to my advantage. all right, everybody. check that market. close to the high of the day, up nearly 400. we'll be right back. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase.

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stuart: the news from the market this monday morning is that we've got a steadily improving market. right from the get-go we moved up and now i think this is the high of the day. yes, it is. 22,087. that's a gain of 450 points. that's a 2% gain. that's true across the board. dow, s&p, nasdaq, up 2%. now, check the big winners among the dow 30 stocks. the biggest winner is johnson & johnson which is working on a vaccine. that's why that stock is up so much. merck, another drug company, up four bucks there, nearly 6%. a very big gain. i will get back to intel in a moment. it's up nearly 6%. look at the s&p 500. what are the big winners among the 500 stocks? i will tell you. auto desk, i don't know what the news is but it's up 12 bucks. vertex pharma, something new with the virus, maybe, they are up 7%.

asml holdings, another s&p winner, up 6%. the nasdaq, big winners on the nasdaq, probably technology stocks. what are they? nasdaq winners -- sorry. i got it the wrong way round. this is the s&p winners. whatever it is, i can't read that at the top. viacom, mckesson corporation, they are the winners. let me get back to intel. susan, come in. it's a big winner today. what's going on? susan: they are going to unveil their chips in april. intel is a big provider, chips provider to global hardware users and makers in the world and also, by the way, maintain an overweight by morgan stanley even though they cut the price target down to $61 from $59. still a ways to go and citigroup cut its price target to $58 as well from $67. stuart: okay. we've got the dow now up 475 points. i'm going to call that a rally. however, we have the price of

oil moments ago below 20 bucks. now it's at $20.35 per barrel. that is a real problem for the economy and certainly for oil producing states like north dakota. it's appropriate, therefore, that we have with us senator john hoeven, republican senator from north dakota. senator, you, the frackers and the drillers, are being attacked by the saudis and at the moment, the saudis are winning, with oil at $20 a barrel, they are winning. did you speak with the energy secretary about this and what did he tell you? i'm sorry. we appear to have lost audio. senator, if you can hear me, i'm terribly sorry to tell you that we cannot hear you. however, we do have oil way down today, $20 per barrel.

the president did say earlier on that he's going to make a call to putin, who is also involved with the saudis in attacking frackers and the drillers in the united states. do we have senator hoeven back with us? can we hear him? okay. not yet. we are working on it. this is what happens in live television. you have a problem sometimes with the audio, sometimes with the video. it's a great problem when you've got everybody reporting from all over the place. i thought we had senator hoeven back. no, no, not quite. we are very close, i do declare. very, very close. okay. dow industrials up 451 points as we speak. i think there's a change of mood amongst the investment public because we've got the president extending the social distancing rules to april 30th. the market likes that. perhaps the idea is that you take the pain now so you recover much more quickly. we also had treasury secretary mnuchin on the program this

morning spelling out how fast small businesses are going to get some seriously big bucks. i think all of that helps. and he's talking about a fourth stimulus package as well. dow is up 400. ashley, news on six flags? what do you have? ashley: yes. they are desperately trying not the lay off workers. they have announced they will decrease the salaries, full-time salaried employees will be losing 25% of their salaries. they are also scheduling worker hour cuts by 25% for full-time employees meaning they will do 30 hours per week at the reduced salary. they are also reducing the salaries of the executives at six flags by 25%. then the big announcement, they will be extending the park closures until at least, at least mid-may. that's from six flags.

we are talking about hours being cut, salaries being reduced and the parks closed until at least mid-may. stuart: earlier today, we had the news from disney, their parks will be closed indefinitely. that took disney's stock down back below $100 a share. markets, however, keeping to a 2% gain for the dow, nasdaq and s&p. coming up shortly, we will tell you all about what speaker pelosi is saying. we'll be right back. announcer: there are everyday actions to help prevent the spread of respiratory diseases.

wash your hands. avoid close contact with people who are sick. avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. stay home when you are sick. cover your cough or sneeze. clean and disinfect frequently touched objects with household cleaning spray. for more information, visit cdc.gov/covid19. this message brought to you by the national association of broadcasters and this station. it's putting that hard asset as an insurance you might say against the paper dollar. that's why i bought gold. it's not for my insurance, but it's for my daughters and the grandchildren's' insurance

that i felt like that generational aspect of passing down gold is securing them a future. of course, nothing is without risk. and that being said, i feel that by diversifying with precious metals, that i am covering my bases. it's a hard asset. you can turn it back into cash. whereas keeping a lot of cash in your bank account can really almost end up being nothing. you have these dollars over here sitting in a bank drawing practically zero interest. i think gold and silver has a greater potential for increasing in value. i mean, you have to keep cash. but you don't have to keep everything in cash, and you don't have to put everything in the stock market, and you don't have to put it all in a bond market. you do a little bit of everything. and then you sleep at night and don't worry about it. in fact, i sleep better with gold

than i do with the stock market. because it's tangible, it's there. - if you've bought gold in the past, or would like to learn more about why physical gold should be an important part of your portfolio, pick up the phone and call to receive the complete guide to buying gold, which will provide you important, never seen before facts you should know about making gold, silver, and platinum purchases. - with nearly two decades in business, over a billion dollars in transactions, and more than a half a million clients worldwide, u.s. money reserve is one of the most dependable gold distributors in america. stuart: we like to bring you news about how individual companies are responding to the virus. facebook is up five bucks at $162. there's news on facebook. susan? susan: that's right. they are issuing $100 million to

struggling news outlets. usually it's local news outlets they are trying to help, local newspapers and local tv divisions but those are usually owned and part of affiliates that are owned by bigger broadcasting companies so pledging $100 million. these are mostly in grants and hopefully some of these will be able to survive given that advertising revenue has of course disappeared in this coronavirus age. stuart: thanks, susan. let's go to ashley. i would imagine a lot of people are using spotify, is that correct? ashley: they are. they are. i guess that's good news, more time spent cooped up. it says here that not only have they seen a massive increase in the number of people using the service but they have created a whole category of music for working from home. i know a lot of the music services have done that, in some cases they have even offered it for free in an attempt to get people hooked into the service. for spotify, it's another like

netflix and peloton and those nesting type of companies that have actually seen an increase in their numbers of customers. stuart: okay. big increase, too. thanks very much, ashley. let's bring in john layfield, fox news contributor. i believe he's with us. are you there? >> yes, sir, i am. great talking to you. stuart: yes, he is. all right. good stuff. i sense a change of mood on the market. i think investors like the extension of the social distancing rules to april 30th and i think they like treasury secretary mnuchin on this program this morning telling about how the money is really going to be pumped right out there by the trillions. do you perceive that change of mood? >> i do, yes. i comploetely agree. i'm very bullish on america and on the recovery. i think it definitely happens. we will see a surge. ip n i'm not sure we see it june 1st because i think we will see a bit of a rollout with america

opening up. i think the markets perceive that it's very good what the government has done, that people will get the checks that need them but they are also looking at cycles that have been playing out. the netherlands have a reduction in cases, spain has a reduction in deaths, you are seeing washington state starting to see a reduction in cases that are being found out. once we see this cycle play out, specifically in new york city, we haven't had this cycle play out completely in america yet. once we see that, i think the market is going to be very optimistic about our recovery. stuart: looks pretty optimistic now. 500 points up for the dow industrials. that's a gain of well over 2% all across the board here. if you were buying something today, what would it be? >> disney. i think disney is losing $26 billion in revenue, a quarter of their revenue -- third of their revenue, excuse me, overall revenue, about $75 billion annually. but when you look at disney compared to say netflix, disney probably the streaming should be

compared almost one for one with netflix and it's not. that throws in all the espn properties, theme park properties, that you get basically for free with this. i think there's a seismic shift going on right now except for live television like news and sports, which no longer are running right now, people are starting to realize how easy it is to stream and what great content there is streaming. i think disney does incredibly well after this. i also think online delivery is a seismic shift that's going on, walmart and amazon, i like both stocks. i own both those stocks and i think they will do well specifically after this because the hardest thing about setting up an online account is setting up the account. once you do it, people don't go back to bricks and mortar. i think that's what we will see once this whole virus issue is over with. or at least mitigated in some respect. stuart: well said, john. fundamental change, here it comes, staring you in the face. john layfield, everyone. thanks for getting into the show. always appreciate it. new high for the dow.

now we are up 500 points. the dow is well above 22,000. crude oil, down a buck at $20 a share. ashley, come in. you've got news on putin. because he's involved with the saudis in this fight against our frackers and drillers. ashley: yes, he is indeed. we understand that mr. putin, president putin of russia, has discussed the oil market situation with president trump. the kremlin says that putin spoke on the call with trump and they say they are going to continue these talks on a ministerial level. let's not forget russia didn't want to cut production in the first place and wouldn't agree with saudi arabia on that issue and that's when saudi arabia pushed the nuclear button option and said fine, we are going to increase our production and try and take out the american frackers. but no one is winning with oil threatening to drop below $20 a

barrel, at least west texas. so it's interesting to see what will come out of the talks between the u.s. and russia. stuart: all right. thank you, ashley. come in, congressman greg walden, oregon republican. welcome to the program. good to have you with us. you are on the energy committee. what's your take on oil at $20 a barrel? can we do something about this? saudi arabia is supposed to be our ally. can't we elbow them to do something here? >> well, i think we can. i think the president will. he's on the phone obviously with these leaders, secretary pompeo is leaning in. there's a lot that can be done. there's something we could have done in congress, too, in this last bill and that's put cheap oil into the strategic petroleum reserve. we had $3 billion set up to do that. that would help the oil patch. unfortunately, that got nixed in the process. at least we're not selling expensive oil at reduced prices. we did get that stopped. we should have been adding oil

into it. stuart: congressman, you are in the northwestern part of the country. would it be true to say we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, especially in washington state and seattle? i understand that the rate of transmission is beginning to slow down. >> i think it's too early to tell. i think we have to see what happens now that we are expanding testing and i want to give a big shoutout to dr. hahn at the fda and the whole trump administration for moving the emergency use authorities so abbott could have tests in the market by the end of this week or thereabouts that can give a result in five minutes. once we get more ubiquitous in testing, once everybody can get it that needs it and get a return in a very timely basis, we will have better data that tells us social distancing is helping, we hope this is flattening the curve but i think it's still too early to say. stuart: okay. i want to talk politics.

speaker pelosi went on cnn again, bashed the trump administration, bashed the president, his handling of the virus. hold on for me for one second. i want to show our viewers what transpired. roll that tape, please. >> the president, his denial at the beginning was deadly. his delaying of getting equipment to where it continues, his delay in getting equipment to where it's needed, is deadly but as the president fiddles, people are dying. stuart: that's strong stuff, congressman. your reaction, please. >> remember, she was handing out impeachment pins at the same time president trump was convening a coronavirus task force back in january. we didn't get the genome from china until january 10th. he put a stop flight order in on china by i think the 21st of january and got heavily criticized for doing the right thing.

he's been leading all the way along. look, i chaired the energy and commerce committee. we wrote the pandemic all hazard preparedness act. we were asking for hearings and the democrats wouldn't do it. you know, look, we got to focus on the immediate now. what is it that we can do that will help people, save lives, get the equipment out there. i think the president has used every authority effectively and with dr. fauci and dr. birx right around him, they are doing a good job in a very difficult environment. i even heard former hhs secretary donna shalala not a few weeks ago say look, i headed hhs, [ inaudible ] i'm not going to criticize. i think that sort of ad hominem attack by speaker pelosi is not accurate, not necessary and not helpful. stuart: this morning, treasury secretary mnuchin joined us and spelled out very clearly how

$350 billion was going to get to small businesses very quickly. you can actually go to your bank and apply and get the money in your account, i think he said by friday. that's an extraordinary effort. >> it is, stuart. it's a herculean effort. i was with secretary mnuchin and the president in the oval office on friday when he signed the bill and secretary mnuchin said then i'm going to make this happen, i'm going to throw everything i can at it. because i was a small business owner with my wife for 21 years, we were in the radio business, i understand small business. this is a very helpful package. you will be able to go to your lender, 100% backed and if you keep your work force on, that loan will be forgiven in large measure. stuart: that's money being pumped out real fast, with more to come maybe. congressman greg walden, thank you very much for being with us. really appreciate it. the dow is holding on to a gain of over 400 points.

it's a rally. we'll be back.

stuart: things amaze me during this lockdown, like the number of people using microsoft's skype. it's a boom, isn't it? susan: 40 million people have used it daily in the past few weeks. that's up 70% from last month. they are seeing a 220% increase in skype to skype calling minutes from a month ago. this is very interesting.

not only zoom video but other video conference services like skype are doing very well. facetime usage is up, so is facebook messaging and chats. stuart: yeah. huge gain for the stock as well. it's up 6% at $158 now. let's go to ashley. news on whole foods which is, of course, a subsidiary of amazon. what do you have? ashley: it is indeed. stu, employees who work for whole foods have been trying to unionize and are now calling for a mass sick-out tomorrow, march 31st. they say they want -- they are calling on whole foods or amazon to allocate what they call the necessary resources to do their job safely. they are calling for guaranteed paid leave for all workers who isolate. they also want hazard pay in the form of double pay during their scheduled hours. they also want adequate, what they call sanitation equipment and procedures in place, and

implementation of new policies to facilitate social distancing. we should also mention that amazon warehouse workers in staten island and instacart grocery delivery workers having nationwide walkout or strike today, demanding that they get more pay, hazard pay, and also better protection as they continue to work with so many people ordering online. this is -- we are starting to see this more and more, workers who are considered essential wanting more protection, wanting more pay. stuart: got it. all right. thanks very much. the stock, though, not hurting. amazon is up $64. it's getting pretty close to $2,000 a share again. overall, we are holding on to a 2% gain pretty much across all markets. dow, s&p, nasdaq, all of them up much better than a 2% gain this monday morning. finally, we have restored the audio and video connection with

our colleague -- not colleague, but certainly friend to the program, senator john hoeven, republican, north dakota. mr. senator, left-hand side of the screen, oil is all the way down to 20 bucks a barrel. our frackers and drillers are being attacked by the saudis. i believe you spoke to the energy secretary about that. what's he going to do about it? >> i have spoken to the president about it, i spoke to secretary mnuchin, on friday i talked to the secretary of energy, also talked to larry kudlow, putting a big push on to get the president to talk to saudi arabia, russia and others. we've got to end this oil price war. we are fighting the pandemic. we don't need an oil price war at the same time. stuart: are you close to layoffs in the north dakota oil business? >> sure. not only here but in texas, you know, throughout the whole energy belt. you are talking many -- hundreds of companies and thousands of jobs. you just quoted the oil price

down at $20. look, we are going to have low and stable gasoline prices for our consumers as long as we have that domestic industry but with a price war like that, if it starts like we have, that starts putting our people out of business and hurting our industry, that's when you get those spikes. so very important here that the president intervene. he's doing that. you see that happening today. again, we need to get these other countries working with us, not continuing this price war. stuart: how does it feel in rural america? i ask the question because in urban america, suburban america, we are on lockdown, staying in our houses and apartments no matter where we are, so there's a feeling of lockdown but i don't think that's the case in a place like north dakota, where you are all spread apart anyway and in fact, rural america, i think 85% of the rural counties don't have a single case in those counties.

so it feels different to you than what it does to us. >> it does. i mean, we still have coronavirus, we are still doing the stay at home, social distancing, all those kind of things, but there is more space. you can get outdoors, enjoy the outdoors and people try to do that still, being very careful to social distance and all that kind of thing but it's not like being in new york city or being, you know, in san francisco or new orleans or one of these places that are really having a hard time right now. but we still have to follow the procedures. the other thing about the midwest, very common sense people. i think they do a very good job of looking at this and saying hey, we know what we are supposed to do, we are going to beat this thing and work to beat it sooner rather than later. stuart: those rural counties and a state like yours would probably be the first to relax the social distancing rules after april 30th. you would be the first, i think. >> well, i hope we are early on.

i think it will be kind of a phased approach. you saw the president extended those guidelines now until the end of april but we know it will work differently throughout the country. that's one of the strengths of america. so we will start to figure out how to do it following the advice of the experts, but again, you know, we want to start figuring out that game plan, how we come out of this sooner versus later while still making sure we protect the vulnerable populations. stuart: senator john hoeven, republican, north dakota, thank you for joining us. appreciate it. always. the dow is holding on to a nice gain. we are still up 400 points. that's almost 2%. it's been this way just about all morning. more news for you after this. boston light, america's oldest lighthouse, has stood strong through every dark hour and bright dawn our country has endured. it has seen the break in the clouds before anyone else. for the past 168 years, we've also stood by you,

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stuart: earlier this morning i saw macy's stock all the way down to $5 a share. it's been there before, of course. but susan, tell me, what is macy's doing with all its staff? susan: furloughing 130,000, the majority of its 130,000 staff members because they have been shut now since the middle of march, and basically, they are telling their employees we will pay your benefits, we will cover 100% of your premiums through to may but there have been virtually zero orders, according to macy's. they say that business has evaporated especially for bricks and mortar shop like macy's. stuart: thank you, susan. i made a mistake there. it's not all the way down to $5 a share. it had actually been at $4 at one point not too long ago. got that. all right. imran khan is with us, the ceo of an online luxury retailer. welcome back to the program.

very good to see you again, sir. >> very good to see you. thank you for having me. first of all, my heart goes out to everyone who has been infected pby this terrible viru. stuart: it is indeed a terrible thing. thank you for that. i know your site is booming. i'm told that your home goods sales, kitchen -- no, home goods, up, what, 158%? tell me more. >> yes. i think one of the interesting things we are seeing is the change in consumer behavior. i think we are a multi-brand, multi-category platform. you can buy clothing, you can buy home, you can buy beauty. we saw decrease in sales for women and men fashion but we saw 158% increase in home goods, we saw 180% increase in kitchen product, we are seeing 107% increase in beauty and wellness. i think people are changing their behavior and we are seeing that interesting trend, how

people are adapting to this new world. stuart: those are spectacular increases. you've got up 150% in home goods, what's that, like cooking equipment, that kind of thing? >> yeah -- stuart: 180% up in shower and kitchen stuff, 107% up in beauty products. those are extraordinary gains. >> i think, you know, these are necessary products and i think in a time like this, people are more focused on staying home, connecting with their families, they are cooking more as they're not going out, they are also now taking care of themselves so i think big focus on wellness and beauty. we are seeing very strong growth in skin care but at the same time, we are seeing softness in color cosmetics so people are not putting makeup, necessarily. stuart: hold on for a second. one second, please. i want to bring susan into this. you have a question. go.

susan: so many retailers are discounting, how do they stay alive in this environment. do you? >> i think one of the things we have been always very focused on is guaranteeing the best price to our consumers. if you buy something from us and within next 30 days you find it cheaper somewhere else, we match the price. we are always about giving the best price to our consumers. it doesn't change this time or even in a good time. stuart: all right. imran khan, not the cricket player, we are pleased to say, ceo of verishop, appreciate you being on the program today. congratulations on your exploding volume there. all good stuff. dow industrials still up about 2%. we have held on to that gain all morning. seems to be a more positive mood amongst investors today. back to close out the show after this. life isn't a straight line. and sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward.

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stuart: two stories for you. one a surprise, one expect the. here is the surprise. new york city's mayor, bill de blasio, has changed president trump. he has thanked president trump for sending the u.s. navy ship comfort to the city. here is what was expected. the governor of texas, greg abbott, his state is mandating self-quarantine stint anybody traveling from california, atlanta, chicago, detroit or louisiana. that just about closes it out. i want to thank ashley and

susan. ashley first time reporting from his mansion, his country estate. you look cold. susan holding out in new york city. good for you, girl. good for you. great to have you with us. i think it worked. my time's up. neil, it is yours. neil: all right, stuart, thank you very, very much the big news help is here. usns comfort arrived, stacked with goodies they need in new york, stacked with hospital beds up to 1000 of them, clinical supplies, cat scan equipment, needed drugs, and doctors and specialists that can offer a great deal new york needs right now. the very latest from connell mcshane on what this means to the big apple. connell? connell: neil, they said they could put 750 of those hospital beds to work right away in this giant hospital ship which sailed into new york harbor earlier today.