recovery. we think investors should look at investment planning opportunity when markets are low. converting toe a roth, asset prices are lower. do it now, securities much cheaper -- liz: thanks to both of you, greg, michael, thanks very much. time for "after the bell" on a day in the red. connell: it is over. the worst quarter for stocks since the 2018 financial crisis. we ended up in the red as market reverses earlier in the day gains. washington now, said to be weighing what would be a fourth stimulus or relief package to try to counter the coronavirus impact. we'll talk about all of that. good to have you with us once again. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis. this is "after the bell." all 3:00 major averages ending in negative territory, extending losses for the month. it is the worst march

performance for the dow and the s&p since the great depression. we have fox business team coverage. blake burman with the latest, with the president. lauren simonetti watching the markets. edward lawrence is live in d.c. lawrence, let's kick it off with you? >> i have to say good riddance to the month of march and it was really awful. let me tell you how awful it was, the worst month for talks since the 2018 financial crisis. if we're talking, dow lost, nasdaq lost more than 900 points this month. not one dow winner in the entire month of march. in fact four march, worst one for the dow and s&p 500 since, ready for this, the great dedepression. does it get any better for the first quarter? not really, the dow down 23% in the first quarter of the year. s&p down 19%. nasdaq down 12%. we had a winner in the quarter,

just one. out of 30 dow stocks it, was microsoft up barely but in the green. the worst stock for the month, for the quarter on the dow was boeing. this is a stock that saw 330, then $89, settling now at $150 a share. so it was certainly volatile and crazy. this is a month and a quarter where we saw circuit breakers hit saw human traders not on the floor. we saw the bottom of the market in quotes, on the 23rd of march. will we mitt hitt a new bottom other was that the bottom? no one has answers until the coronavirus peaks in the u.s. we have adp tomorrow, culminating with claims. and then earnings.

we'll see how bad this really will get, guys. back to you. melissa: all right. lauren, thank you. connell? connell: let's talk about it a little bit. our market panel today is gary kaltbaum, kaltbaum capital management's president. liz peek joining us, columnist for fox news.com and both gary and liz are fox news contributors. we have not these where do we go from here market segments lately because to lauren simonetti's point nobody knows, right? caveat to start the discussion. gary, we never miss one of your morning notes. i saw this morning, i don't know where you got this, there is 35% chance we've seen a bottom in the market. let's start the talk about the quarter is finally over there. what are you looking at? >> last monday i really thought a real good low was put in and it has gotten better but i do think in around here over the last three days we're seeing a high for this second. i think we'll start seeing some

pulling back, some bouncing around. but you got to remember, when you get drops like this, they have to work themselves out over time. so i think if we get really great news on the virus that will be a big help. but i remember the '87 crash t took one year of sitting around doing nothing. you go back to 38, same thing. i think we'll back and file right here. i wish i gave you better news. what i will look on the pullback to see what shows up best on my screen, great relative strength, companies with great earnings and revenue growth even though i'm not sure we'll have too many in the next quarter but i believe last monday could mark the low of the bear but i need some more cards coming out of the deck in the weeks ahead. connell: fair enough. liz, your view on this? you followed energy for years. it is striking we'll talk about this in more detail later in the hour. asset classes and declines we've seen, crude oil for the quarter, first quarter, forget stocks for a minute, crude oil is down 65 plus percent, something like

that. obviously that translates into big drops for the energy stocks. how do you look at some of these, these names that have fallen so much? >> well, i would say this, connell, i don't think it is appropriate to look at oil prices as a measure what is going on in the global economy. obviously it is related to that. but when you get to a certain level of glut, which is where we are right now, it costs people money to store oil. also they run out of storage. that is what is happening now. in other words, there is almost a negative value to oil right now. we've seen this happen before where you get to sort of an economically reasonable price. then it just completely craters because nobody wants to hold on to excess supplies. so, i think, first of all, i think in general, that is the situation in the oil business but by the way, this cannot persist. the ol' oil market will right

itself. may take upturn in demand and supply will go downtick larly in the u.s. the rig count, economics suggest, that et cetera. so oil prices will eventually even out at a higher level but right now as i say the incremental barrel is worth basically nothing. and that's the problem. melissa: yeah. i would like to store a few barrels in my basement. meanwhile -- >> exactly. wouldn't we all. melissa: the jobs report coming up on friday, right, exactly, how much damage is permanent in the economy? gary, let me start with you because as you look out across the economy, what is going on right now, the big question, what will bounce right back? on services will come right back, and what is the permanent damage out there? what is your thought? >> you start with the fall, one of our favorite restaurants in lake mary florida, said they're shutting for good. you go to the big, if i'm ceo of a major airline, demand starts

to come back, what do i do? you can't just go back to full capacity. you will start somewhere and edge higher as demand comes. leave no doubt, a lot of things will be left in the wake of businesses that do come back but 50% of the way, 75% of the way, 100%? that, in time, you know i think time will heal all wound but i think, two words, damage done, and it is going to take a while for a lot of businesses. i also think about what happens with disney when they open up. international flyers, tourists are not going to come here as quick. again, time will heal but again i think we're going 50 to 75% of the way back. then thrill with be a lot of reassessing. melissa: yes, liz. i mean i guessder how much pent-up demand there is going to be when it is over? or will consumers feel like they don't have the luxury of spending because they're so worried after it is all over? >> i think, the problem with all of this estimation is there is

nothing that is ever happened like this before, in the sense that we have intentionally shut down economic activity and suppressed demand. i think president trump is right, there will be huge pent-up demand. not everyone will lose their job. not everyone will see their business fail. meanwhile everyone will have put off, most of their purchasing for three months. and also travel and stuff. i'm not sure gary is right. seems to me when disney reopens, there will be a lot of families if they're able to, who have put off the vacations they will want to have a vacation. this has not been a particularly cheerful time. melissa: right. >> so it is impossible to know. obviously job losses tomorrow will be horrific. the adp number, i think estimate is around half a million jobs lost. it will be very bad for a period of time. all the numbers are going to look terrible for the next month or two. beyond that, we hope it will start turning a little more positive obviously. melissa: i mean, one interesting

factor is that nobody is giving you your money back. so if you don't do the travel, if you didn't do the trip, maybe you got a credit for the future. so people end up going back out kind of getting in that way. it is not like you got a refund. gary, liz, stick around. connell? connell: let's go to the white house to get the latest news from there today. we are awaiting for a coronavirus task force briefing that will come our way, if it stays on schedule at the top of the next hour. blake burman joining us with all the developments. blake? reporter: connell over the next hour or so the president's coronavirus task force was set to be meeting. this comes ahead of what is coming in the upcoming hour we're likely to hear from the president himself and members of the task force about the guidelines going forward. this was the end of the 15-day window that the social distancing guideline that the president and members of the task force had put in place. on sunday we heard from the

president in the rose garden say, the social distancing procedures he would recommend and the task force recommended would stay into effect for the end of april. we're waiting to see the other guidelines, the other recommendations. for example, will they recommend staying in excess of six feet away from someone? gatherers, 10 feet or fewer? a couple of different items. we anticipate we should be hearing from the task force potentially in the upcoming hour. on the economic side of things earlier today though, the president weighed in as well saying what he would like potential phase iv relief package to look like. he wants it to come in the form of infrastructure. this was the president's tweet earlier today, teeing that up, saying quote with interest rates from the united states being at zero, this is the time to do our decades long-awaited infrastructure bill. it should be very big and bold. two trillion dollars and be focused solely on jobs, rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our country. phase 4 wrote the president.

this afternoon, by the way, connell and melissa, the president spoke with leaders in the telecommunications industry. the topic of conversation there likely being sure americans all over the country will have access toe needed information at this time, the surge of bandwidth considering so many are at home right now. back to you. connell: we know all about it. thank you, sir. blake burman in washington, melissa. melissa: now to edward lawrence in d.c. with the latest how americans and businesses can get the money from the relief bill. this is the report everyone is waiting for, the information. edward, take it away? >> melissa, for most eligible americans you don't have to do anything except look at your bank account or watch the mailbox. starting on april 1th the irs will deposit those checks and send out the rest of them afterwards as they are down processing them but there are some, say if you have a bank account you have changed or you've ended a relationship with a bank.

the irs next week will put on the website a way for you to identify yourself and change the routing information there, to go to the correct area. say you're one of the few people who don't have to file a tax return? the small group there, like low income taxpayers, some veterans or people with disabilities you have to submit a simple tax return. no taxes will be taken out but it puts you into the system to get the direct deposit check. for senator lindsey graham he thinks the direct money will work but the states will be overwhelmed with the expanded unemployment insurance. >> the unemployment part of phase three i'm very worry worried about. the every state has unemployment commission to issue unemployment checks. three million applied last week. there will be million more this week. i'm concerned it will take six to eight weeks to get an unemployment check. reporter: in order to make sure small businesses keep employees on the payroll the treasury

department sped through the process to get this $349 billion of loans out. the result, the rules for lending posted for banks today. small business owner will walk into the bank. they need to verify they were in business on february 15th. banks will then want to verify a business has under 500 employees and paid salaries and taxes on those employees. the banks will look for documentation on the average monthly payroll costs for 2019, and the banks will follow the bank secrecy act requirements. in order to process the loans all the fees for the profits sing will go from the federal government to the banks. no fees are charged for the small business owners. those are starting on friday. small business owner can go online into a bank, or bank branch and have the money the same day. back to you. melissa: edward, thank you. so let's bring back in gary and liz to react to all of that. relief is on the way, money is on the way. what impact do you think it has,

gary? >> i'll tell you a lot. people who worry, people are out of jobs, people sitting home not knowing where the next paycheck is. so the fact this thing is getting done quick, terrific. but as far as the loans and sba, i was on a 45 minute conference call before doing this television hit with big charity i'm with. they're not even sure yet how to get it done. so the good news this has come out. what i would do if i was administration, you know how we get tons of ads pushed to us on the web? maybe the government pushes ads to everybody how to qualify and how to register for these sba loans because i got to tell you, 30 million small businesses with a lot of them on their knees right now. they are going to need help and quicker the better. let's hope they recognize that, and i would be just about as loud as can be sending this information out. melissa: no, liz, that is true. as soon as edward lawrence send

me information i immediately send it out to all small business owners i know but we heard people say, go get started. go to the usual lender. go to the bank. tell them you're eligible for this loan or go directly to the sba but go where you normally get money and tell them you want to get the process started, right? >> that is absolutely earnings. by the way i went on the sba website earlier today and it is very clear. the homepage directs you to a very simple form that you have to fill out. i should say it is very simple compared, for example for filing for taxes and they say it takes two hours. it goes through a lot of documentation perhaps. i didn't get all the way through the thing because i'm not applying for a loan but i have to say i was very impressed that it was front and center. it looked very straightforward but i think you're right, melissa, it is a great service you can do on this show and everyone can do to tell people if you're, i mean i have friend,

little companies of one sort another, get started because you know it will not happen overnight. as much as the administration is cutting red tape trying to make this happen, it will take a while. oh, boy, is this important for the nation's psyche and employment and everything else at this point. melissa: yeah, there are a million small businesses around me i know are going to have a ton of customers when everything comes back online. they have been around for a while. they need help in the short term. i keep telling them the same thing, go to the bank, go to the sba, get started. don't wait to hear about it somewhere else but money is on the way. gary, liz, thank you for that. >> thank you. melissa: meanwhile more than 838,000 cases worldwide, and 177,000 right here in the u.s. the nation now leading the world in the number of coronavirus cases but also in the number of tests with nearly 100,000 tests conducted per day. we'll have the latest on the

pandemic and which regions are flattening the curve. connell? connell: we also talk all the time about businesses fighting back. now there is a growing list of companies who are seeking thousands of new employees. they're hiring in the middle of the pandemic. some industries remain under extreme pressure. we'll break it down. both sides where things stand. stick around. that's why we're a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. so, what do you provide? cookie cutter portfolios? nope. we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? we don't have those. so, what's in it for you? our fees are structured so we do better when our clients do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different.

connell: we have "fox business alert." this is on xerox. xerox is actually ending that 30 billion-dollar bid it had out to buy hp. what happened was according to the report, the pandemic basically undermined the ability of the company to pull off the merger which was laden with debt to begin with.

it is not happening. the report from dow jones, xerox ending its bid for hp. melissa? melissa: the economic bright spot amid the pandemic, companies spanning from retail to technologies are expanding their workforces to meet the surge demand for goods and services. here is jack hough, "barron's" associate editor. also the host of "barron's" street wise podcast. these are the numbers i'm trying to balance. look at all the companies, mostly retailers like macy's, hotel chains are furloughing their employees and that is really tough news. at the same time you see a long list of companies who are desperate for workers because there is so much demand for workers. instacart looking for 300,000 employees. amazon 100,000 employees. the list goes on and on. it tallies up to a really big number. how do you think it shakes out? what is the net effect of all of that, jack? >> the net effect is going to be

negative for jobs in the short run but, i'll tell you, the smartest people out there are figuring out how to pair those two things off that you're talking about. i will give you an example. i spoke recently with larry merlow, the chief at cvs, the drug chain. he is looking to hire 50,000 people. some were already requisitioned. some to provide relief for front line workers who need time off or things like that. and what he did was, he went out to some hotel chains that furloughed people, clients of theirs, like marriott and hilton, he says they're getting excellent results, hiring from people there directly. if you need people in a hurry, that is a great place to find them. melissa: no, that is absolutely brilliant. i heard other stories like that. you look it, i'm scrolling through, cvs looking for 50,000 people, dollar general, 50,000, pizza hut, 30,000. loews 30,000. dollar tree, 25,000. as we go through all the

numbers, that is a lot of people and it is real hope for the economy. i wonder too, i mean this is kind of the transition was happening anyway. macy's needed to shut down stores. they needed to get rid of workers. people weren't going into their stores. this kind of made that happen quicker but other places, you know, when you look at the list, you know, dominos, amazon, these were all places people were ordering online and kind of learning to live their lives that way. did we kind of speed up what was naturally happening, do you think? >> it is such a good question, and it is something that i'm, kind of thinking about, working on right now. i did a cover story in "barron's" late last year, it was on retail and what i wrote about it is, we're likely to go through a decade of accelerated store closures in america, not because, at the time, not because of the pace of consumer spending was bad, it was quite good. because we have too many stores. we built way too many malls in the 1980s.

our chains expanded far too fast. we have more retail space we need. that was before the pandemic. so you can imagine now how we were already going to have this reckoning. we're doing it now on an accelerated pace. we'll have some profound changes to this economy that will last long after this virus is gone. melissa: well, so let me take you to the real estate front on that one then. if you take that sort of logic and theory forward, and you look at the turnover, so you have huge malls and stuff, obviously aren't needed anymore, but you do really need big depots when you order something for them to organize it, whether it is groceries, what it is, get it back out, i look into urban areas, if you look at new york, there are so many empty stores because nobody is going into stores. we also have the tax problem, all kind of other things compounding that, but you see more pop-up places like a nordstrom stop-in, doesn't have the merchandise but a place for you to bring back what you're

returning or maybe get some sort of service if something is broken, maybe this real estate gets used for different purpose? what do you think about that? >> everybody's thinking about that now especially within closed malls. before the pandemic, you know, i would have guessed that probably 2/3 of america's enclosed malls were headed for death basically. we don't need them anymore. you can already see it. if you drive up the hudson river from where we are, you can drive three malls you come to, find one on east side of the hudson was doing pretty well in poughkeepsie. two on the west side that were dying. what is happening developers are coming along, they're buying the malls. the malls are ghost towns. they have very few stores. developers will buy them. these sold recently for seven million bucks, they will basically flatten most of the enclosed small space. they take a cluster of the anchor stores, if they're healthy anchor stores, ones doing well, best buy, dix

sports, something people are shopping, not a sears or something like that, they keep the stores, but they want stores outward facing. customers no longer want to go into the maul to look for the store. mall. they will add residential, office space, medical offices they adjust to the way people are shopping and doing and living now. melissa: that is so true, jack. especially i'm glad you mentioned health care there, that is a lot of what you're seeing whether the urgent care or doctors or whatever it is for an aging population, you know that is another thing that takes advantage of that space. jack, thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. melissa: so combating a sharp spike in cases, emergency field hospital is operating today in central park as chicago is transforming its largest convention center to serve strictly covid-19 patients. plus, connell? connell: calling for new oversight. how thousands of pharmacies across the country are responding to the potential

prescription shortages. we'll have that story coming up. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ and platelet donations and asks all healthy donors to schedule an appointment to give. now, with the corona virus outbreak, it is important to maintain a sufficient blood supply. your blood donation is critical and can help save lives. please schedule an appointment today. download the blood donor app. visit redcrossblood.org

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we spoke up and it made all the difference. ask your parkinson's specialist about nuplazid. connell: "fox business alert," in from toronto, canada. the mayor made announcement up there, they're canceling all the public events in the city of toronto through june 30th. threw june 30th. quite some time from now. back closer to home, emergency field hospital opening up in

new york city's central park where professionals gear up to help overthrow patients from mount sinai hospital. in chicago venues continue to convert into makeshift hospitals in preparation for aing increase in covid-19 cases. we have fox team coverage from both cities. david lee milner new york, matt finn in chicago. david lee, we start with you. reporter: connell the field hospital here in central park should be up and running in little more than half an hour's time. the field hospital, you may recall, started construction on sunday, and for the next 48 hours crews have been on the scene, the felt hospital is going to have 68 beds including 10 that will be icu capable. admissions are going to be handled by the nearby mount siocated directly across the street. mount sinai like many facilities in the city is struggling to

cope for the growing number of coronavirus patients. all hospitals in the state are ordered to increase bed capacity by 50%. at mount sinai, they are now constructing facilities in the building's lobby in order to accommodate additional patients. in new york city borough of queens, part of u.s. open stadium will be converted to a hospital. 350 beds at the billie jean king national tennis center. construction will take about three weeks. mayor bill de blasio says the city obtained 250 additional ambulances from fema. the city is distributing badly-needed supplies to all hospitals, hospitals owned by the city and private. those items include three million surgical masks. still though in short supply, ventilators to create those critically ill. de blasio issued a plea to anyone that might have one that is not being used. >> if you have got a ventilator in your office in your operating room, we need it now. it should not be sitting there doing nothing. this is a war effort.

everyone needs to contribute. you will get it back when this battle is over. reporter: in recognition of the hard work by emergency workers last night the empire state building replace its customary lighting with ones colored white and red. the colors resemble an emergency beacon. the operators of the building say the practice will continue until the crisis is over. melissa, a iconic image in new york city has taken on very special significance. melissa. melissa: thanks, david. matt finn live in chicago where the city prepares for an increase in cases. matt? reporter: melissa, just a grim scene outside of the cook county medical examiner's office here in chicago. a large refrigeratorred truck has been tamped to the facility to accommodate the bodies of covid-19 patients. the medical examiner tells fox business right now there are 30

deceased being stored in this trailer. the refrigerated truck serves two purposes. abundance of caution to keep covid-19 bodies away from others and the truck will free up space when the city's expected surge of covid-19 deaths hits. chicago, cook county, one of the nation's hot spot. illinois has 6,000 confirmed covid-19 cases 99 deaths. majority in the cook county and chicago area averaging 15 to 20 deaths per day. chicago is home to the largest convention center in north america, mccormack place on lake michigan. the army corps of engineers right now transforming thousands of square feet into a 3,000 bed facility to treat coronavirus patients. chicago's mayor says she hopes the 3,000 beds will alleviate chicago's health care system similar to the u.s. navy hospital ship comfort in new york. >> i don't anticipate a large

naval vessel on the shores of lake michigan but that is why we're taking other steps to make sure that we have added capacity to help meet the challenge and the surge that will come to our hospitals. mccormack place is a pretty good example of that. reporter: the city of chicago now has 2600 hotel rooms that are available to first-responders that worry about bringing the virus back into their home. melissa, connell? melissa: thank you, matt. a possible slowdown. new research of several virus hot spots suggest restrictions are working. we're breaking down the numbers next. plus, connell? connell: we're waiting, melissa for the update from the white house and the coronavirus task force on the pandemic. president trump moments ago on twitter saying that will start today at 5:15 p.m. eastern. so it is a quarter after the next hour, says the president. we'll have that live for you of

course. also today the ncaa approving an extra year of eligibility for all student athletes in spring sports. they had their seasons canceled because of the pandemic. it allows the schools to expand their rosters beyond the current scholarship limits to try to account for incoming recruits and seniors who were expected to leave. ♪. there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know.

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♪. connell: financial crisis of '08, worst quarter for s&p 500 in its history. look at quarterly performance of other asset classes some is kind of interesting. the worst performers was the dow jones industrial average with a 23% decline. look at crude oil for the quarter. oil prices down 66%. we look at cattle futures, live cattle down by 26%. so with all the restaurants

closing not a surprise i guess to see that type of a movement. then we're looking for some winners. there are a few. one that i guess stood out, was bitcoin. bitcoin for the quarter was up 22%. that other one, orange juice, we're all stocking up, stocking up on household items, orange juice 20% higher for the quarter. what a quarter. states meantime trying to flatten the curve, data coming in, the coronavirus that suggests that a slowdown in spreading may be happening when people do indeed practice social distancing. now that we had a little time to look at it. dr. chris martin send, a stocks come gift on the show did, toxicologist. there are little pieces of data, dr. martin, the kind of increases in percentagewise in san francisco and others we're not seeing them anymore. is there enough there, a glimmer of hope that what we're doing might be starting to work? >> well, yes there is.

social distancing works and we're very glad to see that it works. of course we don't know how long you have to keep that up but everywhere we've seen practice so-called lockdowns, quarantines, shelter in place, whatever we are calling it, as long as we have people not interacting with each other, not assembling in large crowds that is an important step. in the countries really flat ening the curve, everybody is wearing a face mask. that seems an important addition to all of the other social distancing things that we're trying. connell: let's talk about that a little bit because it came up yesterday. the president was actually asked about a report, we had one of the authors of that report prior to his comments on our show from the american enterprise institute report, scott gottlieb, former head of the fda helped to write it and dr. mcclellan who was on with us was one off the coauthors, and they mentioned in their report when we get to the next phase, when we start going back to work, when we start going back to school that wearing a mask might be a good idea.

in the past we're told, if you're healthy, don't wear a mask. tell us what the research, the data has shown on that? yeah, it couldn't be any clearer on this at this point. the reason everybody wear as mask, we don't know who is sick, because we have this asymptomatic phase where people have the virus, they're shedding the virus, but they don't have any symptoms yet. because we have that condition, we can't tell who is sick. of course they had rules before, guidance -- connell: we're losing that shot a little bit as it, kind of freezes up on us. all right. well the idea there, as dr. martin send is saying we'll have a time in coming days and weeks to debate it a little bit more. you wear a mask when you start to go back to work, so if you don't know you have the virus and you're asymptomatic you don't spread it to somebody else. we'll continue that conversation hope fully in the coming days. melissa. melissa: the joys of everybody doing interviews from home.

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♪. melissa: pharmacies under pressure. tens of thousandses of locally owned pharmacies nationwide looking to remain open to serve their communities. we have doug how, ceo of the national community pharmacist association. talk to me a little bit about the struggles right now. i imagine there is more demand than ever to go to the local pharmacy given what is going on but what are some of the pressures you're facing? >> yeah there, are melissa. thanks for that question. there are over 20,000 independently owned pharmacies and right now they are definitely on the front line. they're seeing patients every day. they act as a safety net for these communities both in normal times and in national emergency times. so they're seeing increase of patients with questions, asking about therapy, the therapies they have been taking and new therapies. we're seeing expanded use of home deliveries. these pharmacies have always been doing same-day home delivery. those have exploded a number of them. they're compounding hand

sanitizer to fill that public health shortage. so they're very, very busy right now. they're fulfilling this role as a safety net for their communities. melissa: yeah. no, we have a couple really grade ones in new york and we really count on them, you know, they aren't, sort of that generic, you walk in, they don't really know the answers, they may or may not have the product. when you have a real local pharmacy you dean pend on, they know you, they're there to actually help you, so that is a great thing but i imagine it is really tough right now. one of the biggest concerns is our supply chain for drugs. you know, with some of the products in them coming from china, and then, you know, also, just trying to get these latest therapeutics, talk to us a little bit about that. >> well, right now, job number one is stopping coach individual 19. that is the -- covid-19. that is the enemy of the day,

when everything is settled down we get past this as a country we definitely will get past this, we believe there needs to be a strong look, what we believe is overreliance on active pharmaceutical ingredients from china. just as we wouldn't buy all the military supplies and allow that from one country, let alone china, much of our active pharmaceutical ingredients come from china and we think that is a real vulnerability in the supply chain and a real vulnerability for the health of america. the time may not be now but the time will come soon, we really need to look at that to make sure we're protected as a country from again, all these active pharmaceutical ingredients coming from somewhere else. melissa: i know the value of the neighborhood and the single pharmacy is versus giants like cvs. how do you compete with them? has it been difficult in the past? does a crisis like this make it

easier because people are more focused on you? is there a chance of the little guy going out of business? >> we compete very well with the big guys because you can't put health care on an assembly line. people want very much customized care for them. so those folks who have greater prescription needs, they will come to you, independent pharmacy. "consumer reports," j.d. power, other independent sources rate independents the very highest where we, struggle sometimes is with the insurance companies and reimbursement for what are called pbms, pharmacy benefit managers. and that is a concern right now there is such an increase in business and it can affect cash flow. we are excited about the cares act that was passed to help small business. we are hopeful that some of those small business provisions will be helpful to these independent pharmacies. melissa: no, that is a great point. all right, thank you so much for coming on. we appreciate it.

connell? connell: we know, melissa the hospitality industry has been absolutely crushed by the virus and you know, travel in this country has basically come to a halt. some hotels though have been coming up with creative ways to help some of their workers who for the most part have been laid off and they're even repurposing their rooms in some cases. so we're joined by amy gill now, the owner of hotel st. louis and we thank you for coming on with us, amy. we try to do a story like this once or twice a show if we can, just because, i think people watching that own businesses might be inspired by it. there are many business owners who are doing a lot of great work in this country. tell us about this program called hospitality heroes. what is it? >> so basically what we're doing is, trying to make sure because, the new act that was passed will help a lot of our employees, but it won't help all ever them, especially what we're concerned about, people that were part

time and, so in our business, what we're trying to do is, we're doing meals for hospitality workers whether ours or somebody else's. making sure that we have meals for them. we're doing low-priced meals. also we're doing, for our employees free family meal every night, take out, so that you can feed you and your family and, hopefully like bridge that gap because, as we all know, with people applying for unemployment and applying for food stamps and everything it takes time. just making sure that our people are take care of while this is going on as well as all the other hospitality workers there with somebody who can't afford to do something like that. we're basically lucky to be able to do it. connell: good for you. obviously it takes time. you apply for unemployment as many people applied last week,

there were plenty of others, we heard about this in new york the website was crashing, whatever the case may be are frustrated by it. also with part-time workers i believe in the next time they will be eligible under the act but to your point they couldn't do it either. we have heard so much about our city in new york that hit so hard and others. how are things out there? how are things in st. louis? >> we got hit much like new york. we locked down about the same time you guys did. so at least in the city of st. louis. so we're experiencing the same kind of things that you guys are experiencing. we're trying to make sure that you know, we're covering our people and, i think, you know, hospitality has been hit very hard. restaurants have been hit very hard. we're trying to make sure we cover our people, taking care of our people. there are so many people out there who are trying to do

something. connell: yes there are and you're one ever them, amy gill, thank you very much. all the best to you. tell your workers out there we hope you bounce back sooner rather than later. melissa. melissa: we're awaiting a briefing from the white house. the task force is set to give around update on the pandemic a few moments from now. we'll bring you the latest numbers and information next

melissa: just a few moments from now the coronavirus task force will give an update on the pandemic. reporter: they will tell us what is working and what is not as 3 in 4 americans are in some sort of lockdown or stay at home order. will the president stay say 6 t away is working or is 27 feet needed. more than spain, more than italy and china, new york state ground zero, about 75 thousand infection. increase 8400 since this morning. imagine that. new jersey, california, louisiana also dealing with outbreaks and high numbers. is social distancing working,

yes. looking at state of california their peak number of infection one week after stay at home orders went into effect. as we heard from governor cuomo today, the apec for infections in new york city and state is weeks away. back to you, president about to peak in 20 minutes. melissa: thank you for that it is worth noting, in manhattan they are staying apart but in other neighborhoods they are not following it. in outer boroughs they are not following rules closely enough. i don't know, we'll pay for that. connell: better than it was. not where it needs to be, governor cuomo talked about parks too crowded and the like.

we'll see what the president says about it. we will see you on after the bell tomorrow, "lou dobbs tonight" starts right now. lou: the president and the coronavirus task force are getting ready to brief the american people about the ever spreading wuhan virus. once the president enters the white house briefing room, we'll take you to him live. sparsely populated, that is more than appropriate social distancing. it was two weeks ago that there were fewer than 8 thousand cases of the china virus, the coronaviru