know. my family was tortured in communist cuba but i have, for the eight years i have been in the senate, every year made standing up to china and strengthening america against china a top national security problem. maria: that's partly what this election will be about as well come november. who do you want there to stand up to china. senator, thank you. thanks for all your leadership. appreciate your time. see you soon. ted cruz. "varney & company" begins right now, already in session. stu, take it away. stuart: all right, thank you, maria. good morning to you. by the way, well said at the end there. thank you, maria. see you later. good morning, everybody. look, we are waking up to a startling reality. over 1700 dead in new york state. over 4,000 nationwide. it is april 1st and this month will be very difficult on all of us. the president spelled it out. roll tape. >> i want every american to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead.

we are going to go through a very tough two weeks and then hopefully as the experts are predicting, as i think a lot of us are predicting after having studied it so hard, we will start seeing real light at the end of the tunnel but this will be a very painful, very very painful two weeks. stuart: the president's top medical advisers project a death toll in america of up to 240,000. everyone is now paying attention. now we've got to focus what will likely be the worst economic news coming at us in generations. millions of people will not be paying their rent this month. how will that ripple through? millions of people have just been laid off. new unemployment claims coming out tomorrow will again show millions added to the jobless list. the airlines, they are reporting passenger traffic levels down 88% in two weeks. and mortgage applications down

24% from last year. the market, of course, reflects these new uncertainties. the dow dropped over 400 yesterday and this morning, it's likely to open with another big loss. the dow looks like it's going down 700 to 800 at the opening bell. that's a loss of 3%. a similar 3% loss for the s&p, almost 3% down on the nasdaq. red arrows cross the board this morning. here's another crisis number for you. the price of oil which this morning is holding right around $20 a barrel. there is a vast oil glut. the president is offering to open up federal storage space. many american drillers face bankruptcy. of course, the tumble in gasoline prices continues. the national average for regular is all the way down to $1.98. in oklahoma, the cheapest state for gasoline, the price there down to an average of $1.54 a gallon. so yes, it is grim on all fronts. as the president says, the next

two weeks will be very very painful. roll tape. all right. my apologies there. we were going to roll some tape for the president. didn't appear. but he said some pretty dramatic things yesterday. liz peek is here. liz, the president laid it out. the media and the democrats are just sniping at him. i think the president was flat out honest and made us all realize just where we are and the democrats seem to be just diverting from that. >> i think you are absolutely right, stuart, and they hate these briefings because donald trump is speaking to the american people unfiltered by the media. it has made him credible to a lot of people who haven't voted for him, who don't approve of him, at least in the past. the "new york times" has a story out today about where his improved ratings are coming from. guess what? a lot of independents and democrats are behind those who are seeing the president not

filtered through cnn and so forth but actually watching him manage this crisis and i think there have been a lot of high points in those sessions, including to my mind bringing in the top leaders of america's biggest and best corporations. i don't think we have ever seen a more full nation assault on an enemy than we have seen in combatting this coronavirus. i take great comfort for the fact the private sector has been engaged. i think a lot of americans should. it's a tremendously vivid contrast with democrats' all-out assault on big business. i think americans are going to look at the pharma companies, the logistics companies and so forth and say you know what, they are part of the solution here, what is all this vilification about, let's work together and the president is leading that effort i think pretty credibly. stuart: stay there for a second.

i want to bring in ashley. is there some evidence that social distancing is beginning to work? tell me. ashley: yes, indeed. let's look at some of the statistics. i find this really interesting. let's begin with the state of washington, where the very first confirmed case of coronavirus was reported. if you look at two weeks ago, the rate of infections was at 20.6%. now, you go to since the 23rd of march, that number drops to 13.9% and then over the last three days, 11.2%. the combination of stay-at-home and social distancing. look at california. two weeks prior, 22.5%, the rate. now since march 19th, down to 19.3%. over the last three days, down to 14.8%. perhaps the most stark example is new york. that is the epicenter right now in this country of coronavirus. two weeks prior, 41.4%.

it was spreading like wildfire. since the 22nd of march, that number dropped to 19.8% and look at the last three days. 13.2%. stay at home, keep your distance and it is being effective. these numbers bear that out, stu. stuart: those are very important numbers. i would say that's a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. let's get back to the media's reaction to the president and his daily briefings. i want to roll a clip from msnbc's chris hayes slamming the trump press briefings. watch this. >> i think that regular information in times of crisis from the government on sort of the science and facts and policy are essential, but i personally can't help but feel these daily sessions are bad for the country, even dangerous from a public health perspective. it's obviously above my pay grade, i don't make the call whether we take them or not but it seems crazy to me everyone is

still taking them when you have the my pillow guy getting up there talking about reading the bible. stuart: liz, come back in again, please. i'm fit to be tied at the media reaction to our president. go. >> yeah, well, it's dangerous, all right. it's dangerous to democrats. why? because they're seeing a wartime president and nothing could contrast better or more effectively for president trump's re-election prospects than the contrast with joe biden, who is obviously holed up in his basement struggling to get a message out and what is his message? only that everything president trump is doing is wrong and he could do a better job which is sort of up to the voters to decide, i think. look, i think that what we have seen in the ratings is that these briefings have helped president trump but again, i think it's all about not seeing the president filtered and that's of course why he's always relied on social media, stuart, is because that's his way of getting to the american voter directly, and now he's able to

do that on television and that's proved to be pretty effective. look, there are going to be mistakes made by this administration. this is an incredibly complex, life-threatening situation. the entire country should be behind him. by the way, when the media wants to get rid of these briefings, they really need to acknowledge that some of the information is terribly important. for example, one session recently had a segment on how low income families were supposed to access expanded s.n.a.p. benefits. if they weren't watching, for example, there's a seattle public radio station that's not covering them anymore, they are not going to get that information and shame on that outlet, taxpayer-funded outlet for not carrying that information. but to your point, it's important to enforce the social distancing. stuart: really. what kind of a news network doesn't carry the president of the united states in a news

briefing in the middle of the worst crisis in generations. extraordinary. liz, thanks very much indeed. i really want to get to money real fast. i've got futures down 700 points for the dow industrials. shah gilani is with us. we had a statement yesterday that when there's blood on the floor and there is blood on the floor, shah, that's when you buy. how are we going to react to the terrible blood on the floor news that's coming at us in april? >> well, right now the market's holding fast. i think it's doing a pretty good job. charles payne called it a short-term bottom and i think so far he's right. at 22,000 for the dow, the dow has about 9% on the upside before it gets to 24,000 with the psychological resistance there. 22,000 is a good point. below that is 20,000. that's another 9% to the down side. we've got this middle range where we will probably see a lot of volatility. what we don't want to see happen is the market break through 20,000, go back and test the

lows at 18,fin 591. let's hope the short term bottom holds. has there been good opportunity to to buy stocks? there's plenty of great companies on sale. that doesn't mean the market isn't going to go down. what i suggest your viewers do, if you want to get into the market and have cash, now's a good time to start to take positions and keep plenty of powder dry and buy more later. because at that point, at some point if you average down, you put 10% to 20% of your allocation into some stocks now and there's plenty of great companies on sale, and the market continues to go down, and you average down lower, you are going to get somewhere close to the bottom, you will end up with a great price of a lot of great stocks and catch the bounce, however long that takes. that's the way i'm playing. i think that's the way your viewers should play it. that's how to make a lot of money off of this move. stuart: stay there, please. we will bring you back when the market opens. i want to go to lauren. let's talk about amazon. i think they are our lifeline in this nationwide lockdown but tell me, are they struggling in some areas?

lauren: absolutely. if you just look at traffic to amazon's website march 9th week, 693 million visits. it is so much demand that amazon is having trouble handling it. it's like the holidays but they came unexpectedly now as we deal with coronavirus. there are delays in shipments, there are shortages, there is worker unrest and they are consulting every single day with health officials and other authorities to make sure their workers are safe and that they can get customers goods they need. stock down 1.2% this morning. stuart: we need them badly. that's a fact. thanks very much. check futures, it's going to be a down day pretty much across the board. we are looking at a 700 point loss roughly for the dow industrials. who knows how we will close. nasdaq down 200, s&p down 86. now this. in addition to more relief checks coming from the government, democrats are looking to expand a well-known tax credit. we will discuss that in a

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be airborne. ashley, come into this, please. make sure i've got that right about m.i.t. tell me what dr. fauci says about it. ashley: you have it right exactly, stu. the m.i.t. study concluded that droplets containing the virus could travel up to 27 feet. think about that. 27 feet. dr. anthony fauci said no, i don't like this study, i find it very misleading and he spoke out about it. just take a listen. >> what it was, was looking at the distance that droplets fly by speaking, by coughing, by sneezing, so if you go way back and go achoo and go like that, you might get 27 feet. but when you see somebody do that, get out of the way. i'm sorry, but i was disturbed by that report because that's misleading. that means that all of a sudden, the six-foot thing doesn't work.

that is a very, very robust, vigorous achoo sneeze. that's what that is. that's not what we're talking about. ashley: very robust sneeze, that's not what we're talking about because that would have huge implications, of course, to the at least six-feet social distancing. the doctor saying don't pay attention to the study. stuart: that was very good news when dr. fauci said that because that really put the cat amongst the pigeons when that m. vment -- m.i.t. study came out. thank you, ashley. i want to bring in grover norquist. look, grover, they are talking about a fourth stimulus package. not all republicans are on board with this because they don't like spending all of this money. what do you say? >> it's a problem when you call it stimulus. what we are doing is trying to

make people whole who have been damaged by the government's decision you shouldn't fly, go to a restaurant, shop in certain places. that's not a stimulus package. that's an aid package. it does what it's supposed to do. if you want stimulus, we need to make the present tax cuts permanent. some of them lapse after five and ten years, the trump tax cuts, and we need to look at continuing all the deregulation that has begun. stuart: you're right, grover, but havi've got to make this po. we are all big spenders now. both sides of the aisle, there is no objection to huge spending. right? that's a sea change, grover. >> i would argue there's a difference between permanent spending programs like entitlements which would be a disaster if you did that as a reaction, and stuff you do right now that's expensive, too expensive, but gets you through the day and then goes away when the virus recedes.

there's permanent damage, like cutting your arm off, and there's hurting yourself which you can recover from, spending too much doesn't have to be permanent damage. a new program -- stuart: grover, i know that your organization has been tracking the waiver given to some rules and regulations. i believe that's ongoing, part of the president's ongoing response to this crisis, waiving rules and regulations. how many rules and regulations have been waived and what kind? >> we have 147, we have counted now, state and federal. some of them are very significant, telling the fda and cdc to allow states more flexibility in what kind of testing they do, designing their own tests, getting information to and from patients, telemedicine allowances, making that easier. the president said if you are a doctor in maine, you are also a doctor in kansas and this idea you are bottled up in one state

and you have to go to medical school again or go through some process that takes too long to get approval, a registered nurse, doctor, answthis needs t a process where your license from yale is good everywhere. that happens in the law, that is right now the rules, and states began to make some of those changes. we had some stupid regulation from obama on how long you could drive and how far you could drive for the purposes of getting stuff to hospitals. forget about the paperwork. just get stuff to the hospitals and grocery stores. little goofy stuff. texas, you couldn't put alcohol and groceries in the same truck. alcohol is what you i donuse in purell and hand sanitizers. they said forget that. we are discovering how goofy and expensive some of these regs are. stuart: that's a good discovery

to make and maybe some of these foolish rules and regulations, and some of them are, could be swept aside for good. thanks for joining us this morning. big day. here we go. thanks very much. now, we like to follow individual companies and what they are doing in response to the virus attack, i will call it that. caterpillar, what are they doing? i see the stock down 3%. lauren, what are they doing? lauren: they are cost cutting. they make bulldozers and big machinery. they are cost cutting by withholding annual salary increases for executives, no bonuses for next year, all so they can save money. of course they withdrew guidance for this year. some of their operations throughout the world are closed now. stock down 3% to 4%. stuart: i want to go round the block here to all of us. lauren, ashley, myself. we are all in different locations. we are all responding to the news of the day.

lauren and ashley, i've got to tell you that yesterday when i was watching the president, he made me realize that this is it, if we hadn't realized already, this is it and when we heard that projection of maybe 240,000 deaths in these here united states, that really made everybody, i think, it was a game changer. that was the moment when we realized it is upon us. what say you, ashley? ashley: yeah, absolutely. the numbers have been sobering. i get the feeling and i have nothing to base this on, but we are going to at least in the new york area, going to hopefully see this apex the governor talks about in the next 14 days or so. but yes, we are now into the heart of it and there are many other communities across this country who are gearing up for what we have experienced in new york. by the way, very quickly, last night, got a telephone call from the local they call them selectmen in connecticut, like the city councilmen, with a

recording saying please stay at home. if you do have to go out, take all necessary precautions and if you have come here from new york, self-isolate for 14 days. then they make you click a button to make sure that you have accepted that call and you understand it. shows you how serious it is. stuart: lauren, what do you have? lauren: andrew cuomo, governor of new york, said it perfectly. he said you have to calibrate yourself. those are the words he used, for the next month. which is going to be tough. we did see a measured shift in tone from the president last night. i want you to look at the big monitor behind me. it's an example of how our lives have, conveniences are just no longer the same. the monitor came and we were setting it up and it needed special screws which were not included. you go to home depot to get the screws, except home depot closes early. it wasn't open. then you google all the other places you can go and it's little things that you are used to being able to do that you can

no longer do. there's no access right now. stuart: yeah. yeah. you're right. lot of things you used to do naturally, now you don't. we will take a short break. we are looking at the left-hand side of the screen. we are down across the board. we will take you to wall street after this. 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. quadrupled their money by 2012? and even now, many experts predict the next gold rush is just beginning. so call u.s. money reserve, the only precious metals organization, led by a former director of the united states mint.

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stuart: we have more companies responding to the virus attack. uber responding. ashley, what are they doing? ashley: yeah, nice positive story. they have already been providing free rides and meals, by the way, to health care workers but they made this announcement saying we are now committing to providing ten million rides and food deliveries to health care workers, seniors and people in need, free of charge. they say all you have to do is

reach out to the company and they will take it from there. they are doing this, they want to work with more cities, food banks, hospitals and others around the world, says the company, to help people get where they need to be and get meals to people who need them. it's a nice story from uber. stuart: yes, it is. next up, lauren, you have news on the first retailer, jc penney. what are they doing? lauren: penney has extended their store closures. not sure when they will reopen. most of their hourly workers starting tomorrow and this week will be furloughed. stock's down 2.66%. we talk about which stores, which kes can make companies ca of all this. jc penney may be a question mark. stuart: how about macy's? i see their stocks down to $4 a share. what's the news there? lauren: big news on macy's. their market cap is down to $1.5 billion.

as such, they are out of the s&p 500, being moved to the s&p small cap 600 index at the end of the week. stock is down, you're looking at the chart, 70% so far this year. who replaces macy's? the air conditioning company called carrier global. stuart: okay. thanks very much. now we've got one minute to go before we open this market. i want to bring in d.r. barton. before the market opens, d.r., can you tell me, and you, shah, first of all, d.r., are you going to buy anything today? tell me. >> stuart, the only thing i'm looking to buy today might be on the pullback from yesterday, a little bit of some gold shares. other than that, what i'm looking for today is some stabilization. we are going to have a big down open and i'm thinking if we can hold some levels from earlier

last week that this may be a minor pullback but right now, i'm not betting on that. stuart: got it. thanks. the low for the dow recently has been 18,591. let's so if ee if we get back t challenge that. here we go. it's 9:30 eastern time. we are off and running. the market is open. i'm going to go through all the major indicators. first off, the dow industrials. as expected, we read it in the futures, down 880 points. that's the dow jones industrial average. that's a loss of just over 4%. we've got a similar loss in the s&p and similar loss in the nasdaq. it's a big-time selloff across the board. got that. what i want to do is -- there you go, on the screen, 863 down for the dow, 230 down for the nasdaq, 94 down for the s&p. now, we will go through whole groups of stocks, put them on the left-hand side of the screen.

this is how these big name companies are opening up. first of all, big tech. that's where the money is. that's where you've got to go to see the direction for our biggest and most profitable companies. apple is down 8, amazon down 16, microsoft is down 3. next case. more stocks coming for you. i will read them out for our radio listeners. $160 is the price of facebook, down 5. google, down $34. jpmorgan is down five bucks, 6%. goldman is down 5.9%. morgan stanley down to $31 a share. the reason here is super low interest rates. the yield on the ten-year treasury coming down to .60%. citigroup, wells fargo on the downside. credit cards. we know we are facing a very rough april. most retail operations except

for grocery store chains are shut down. that is now beginning to hurt mastercard, visa and american express. they ran up on news of the rescue package, putting money out there. now we know how grim april is going to be. down come the credit card companies. the price of oil this morning is just $20 a barrel. naturally, you are going to have all kinds of oil related stocks on the downside. gasoline is down to $1.98. exxon is down, chevron is down, bp may have hit a bottom. it's been cut in half, the stock price, down about 50%. the drillers, they are really going to take it on the chin because they are drilling for oil, producing oil, but running out of a place to store it. president trump late yesterday was suggesting he might open up the petroleum reserve, the space that's still there, so you can store the oil the drillers cannot sell. diamond shamrock is down to

$1.71. now show me the grocers. they are doing well. they have been doing well. whether they are doing well this morning is another story. the grocers are down -- well, kroger is up a little. bj's wholesale is down, walmart down a fraction, that's interesting. the grocers are open, doing good business. costco down a little, dollar general, target down a little. nothing like the losses for the overall market, where the dow is down 3.6%. next one, the online retailers. amazon is only down ten bucks, holding up at $1938 a share. ebay is off a little bit, 2%. etsy is down. they are taking it badly, down 5% this morning. okay. that's the online smaller retailers. airlines, boy, oh, boy, their passenger traffic levels are down 88% in the last two weeks.

you can't expect much of a recovery for the airlines. whether or not they get government help. american, $10 a share, delta at $25, united at $28. the airlines still way down. more of them, jetblue is at $8 a share. southwest is at $33 a share. do we have the cruise lines? i can't imagine any recovery there. no, it's not. royal caribbean down, carnival down, norwegian down. all of them, 5%, 6%, 7%, 8% on the downside. that's the cruise lines again. do we have hotels? hyatt down 3%. hilton down 3%. marriott down almost 5%. so travel, leisure related companies, some retailers, really getting clobbered, left-hand side of the screen. dow industrials now down 770. that is 3.5%. back to you, shah gilani. are we in the process, you think, this month of april, we

are going to get some dreadful economic news. we know it. we can see it coming a mile off. does that mitigate the bad news a little because we know it's coming? >> it does. the market often discounts the bad news and we are going to see that this week, whether or not it's discounted enough because we got the pmi number this afternoon, we've got initial unemployment claims for the previous week tomorrow. i think the market can theake a hard look at that and then on friday, the non-manufacturing ism pmi number. that's going to be really telling in terms of the service industry and how many jobs are lost and what the survey says about expectations for next month. the market will be looking at these numbers very very closely. if they don't like what they see i think we have further to go on the downside. however, i will go back to what charles payne said. we have gotten some support, if the market can support i'm going to start buying. if it can't support here, i'm looking for the next level down and i think we see the next

level down, it will probably be, i think we will hold at 20,000. if we don't, 18,591, the low, is definitely in range. if we get there and break there, the bad news is i think we've got 28% to go from here further which would be about 49% drop from the highs to lows. i don't expect we will get there but if the numbers continue to come out poorly, and i don't expect they are going to be positive in the sense that better than expectations, i think the market's going to take it on the chin. that's what i'm worried about. i want to buy, i want to start buying but i'm nervous about dipping my toe in the water right now. stuart: understood. d.r., this is for you. this is about friday's jobs report. of course, jobs report this month, anything to do with employment will be really really bad. but friday's big jobs report will only relate to that one week, the survey week, which is march 8th to the 14th. that was before the real impact

of the virus hit the employment scene. i'm not expecting such a bad report friday, although tomorrow, with the jobless claims, that i think is going to be over three million people. same question to you. if we know that this bad news is coming, doesn't that mitigate its impact on the market? also, one quick one. what do you make of this low on the dow, 18,591? do you think we will challenge that? >> well, a couple of quick things, stuart. number one, i think your analysis of the employment numbers is exactly what i'm looking at, because the big friday number, the once a month number, doesn't cover as much of the real employment pain that we have seen. this is going to be one of those unusual times where i believe that the thursday number is going to be more important than the friday number, as you just

said. that's what i think people will keep their eye on when that three million-ish number, will we see something worse than that. i believe anything that disappoints to the down side is going to be much more painful than a little bit of beat expectations by a little bit when the numbers come out. so you talked about -- stuart: hold on a second. hold on. hold on. [ speaking simultaneously ] stuart: great difficulty dealing with a huge delay, because nobody can hear what i'm saying. i've got to move on. lauren, come in, please. you've got news on kroger. i think i saw kroger stock go up moments ago. what's the news? kroger. lauren: the news is surprising. their same store sales for march increased by 30% because we are stockpiling because of the coronavirus. the stock is down a quarter percent right now but they noticed that demand cooled last week, in the final week of march. why that is, no idea.

maybe people had bought so much earlier that they didn't need to go out to the store again. but demand is big for kroger but cooling off and they're not sure what the future holds there. the stock is back in the green. stuart: my goodness me. thanks, lauren. i have to say thanks to d.r. and shah gilani for joining us this morning. we have the dow coming back a little bit. we are down 650. we will check the big board. down 660. keep it here. this is "varney & company." i've always focused on my career,

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stuart: it is wednesday morning, april 1st and the markets have opened today on the downside. at one stage the dow was off 800. now we are off 624. ashley, come back in again, please. you have news from treasury secretary mnuchin. what's he saying? ashley: yes, he says look, the small business loan program, he initially said would be up and running tomorrow, a day early, but he said wait a minute, no, i'm wrong, it will as planned start on friday. that's good news for all small businesses who are really struggling right now to stay afloat. that's on course. he also says what a great time to invest in infrastructure. remember when the president first came into office, a lot of talk about infrastructure. treasury secretary says maybe

now's the time to look at that as well. i also want to mention the number of startup companies certainly in the bay area, the tech area, reportedly have laid off some 4,000 workers just in the month of march alone. clearly a terrible time for startups to try and get off the ground and therefore, it's taken a big economic toll on those startups and now nancy pelosi together with another local rep there that represent the bay area are pushing the federal government, the trump administration, to include startup businesses to get access to the relief program, in other words, to get access to funds that could keep them afloat rather than just having to fold all together. we'll have to see how successful that is. just another part of this economy that's been absolutely decimated. stuart: a wealthy part of the economy which has been decimated. we should point that out. thanks very much indeed. look who is here now. maria bartiromo, agreeing to

double duty with us. thanks very much. great to see you. you've done three hours already. now you got some more air time. thanks for being here. i really appreciate it. look, you are -- maria: i'm happy to talk about markets with you, stu. this is an incredible moment in time. stuart: can i start with politics, however? aoc, alexandria ocasio-cortez, slamming governor cuomo because she thinks that what he's doing for the new york economy and the new york situation favors the wealthy. you are in new york. i'm in the new york area. what the devil is going on here? maria: stu, i have no idea what she's talking about. governor cuomo has gotten such high marks in terms of his leadership during this, he's giving press conferences every day to alert people as to the severity of the situation. new york is obviously the epicenter right now and new york city is the epicenter of new york state. i think that this whole line of

attack that you are just in it to help rich people, the line of attack that all the tax cuts go to the rich, is all more of the same that she thinks plays well to the populace, even if it's 100% wrong. you and i both know, income inequality is narrowing. it was narrowing before this crisis occurred because wages are going up. you have seen the president's economic policies truly move the needle, not necessarily on rich people but on the bottom earners. it's actually the bottom earners that are doing the best. so i have no idea what aoc is talking about. i think she's just trying to use an old tool in the toolbox that has worked before and that is, you know, classes, class warfare, throw it out there, it resonates and use it as much as they can. i think this is all politics. stuart: maria, the english invented class warfare. i know all about it, believe me. i really do. let me talk to you about

housing. four weeks ago, you and i were talking about how housing could really rebound nicely but it seems right now that the real estate market is just on hold. i see mortgage applications down 24% from a year ago. that's bad for the overall economy. maria: it is. don't forget, this is the single largest, most valuable thing we have, each individual, that is a home and real estate. you are no longer able to go into people's homes to see and check out a home to see if you want to buy it. the real estate market is, in fact, at a standstill. i would say one glimmer of hope is these interest rates. when you look at where mortgage rates are now and where the ten-year is now, which is the rate you want to look at because it's tied to housing, you have seen a huge refinancing boom. i think for those people with, you know, enough courage to put their foot in the water here, you are probably getting a great deal in terms of borrowing for

basically nothing with rates where they are right now. but no doubt every sector is feeling it. real estate is not immune. we will see a serious contraction in real estate as well as the broader economy. i will only point out that everybody i have spoken with from the treasury secretary, as you have, to senator ted cruz to steve scalise, everybody is saying the same thing about the fourth quarter of this year and it has to do with rebound, boom, gigantic is what mnuchin said, so we are actually going to see some pretty good news on the other side of this. but getting through this no doubt is going to be difficult. stuart: i can't wait for the other side. that's a fact. i want to go to ashley. you've got the latest news on the manufacturing sector just breaking. what do you have? ashley: yes. this is the manufacturing index. it's the purchasing managers, how optimistic are they. anything above 50 is expansion. below 50 is contraction.

for march it came in at 48.5. that is contraction. it's down from february of 49.2. no big surprise, the contraction in the manufacturing index. we also have ism coming up at the top of the hour. all sorts of economic data coming out and all of them pointing in one direction, down. of course, we will continue to see that for a number of months. stuart: all right. thanks, ash. a question for our viewers. are you sitting at home, locked in the house, drinking? lot of people are, because alcohol sales are way, way up. that's next. nah. not gonna happen.

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stuart: some people -- some companies are laying people off,

furloughing others, but some companies are handing out bonuses. lauren, tyson foods? bonuses? lauren: yeah. they are. okay. $60 million in bonuses to over 100,000 of their front line workers. these are the workers in the stores, factories and truck drivers. but look, they say we understand our role right now, providing food to the nation and as such, they have to keep their employees safe. they are doing daily temperature checks and they are also providing the masks and gloves as needed. tyson foods, unfortunately, good news for the company but it's down almost 4%. stuart: but it's good news for those people and that's a fine thing. we have another similar story. patron tequila, they are donating $1 million to help the hospitality industry. we have with us adrian parker, patron tequila's vice president of global marketing. it's great to have you with us, adrian. i've got to point this out to

our viewers. alcohol sales are absolutely booming, up 55% last week compared to a year ago, and spirits, tequila is a spirit, up 75%. you're having a good time in this nationwide lockdown, aren't you? >> well, stuart, i mean, your observations are correct. we are absolutely i think in a business that has seen a rise not only in consumption, but consumption at home during this work from home economy. for patron this is a very personal fight for us. 16% of the american work force is in food and beverage so while we have been privileged to enjoy a bump in our delivery and liquor store sales, for a large percent of the population, this is still a crisis. for us, it's really about not turning our backs on people who have had to close restaurants and bars for their safety. stuart: i think what you are doing is terrific. look, what you are doing is terrific, both for the

hospitality industry and also for the people at home. you are rather encouraging people to sit back and spend their spare time with tequila. you are making it fun for some people. enjoy it, lad. come on. >> well, we like to say it's about celebrating moments that matter and mindful drinking. even though people are at home and have access to any number of entertainment options, i think for us it's about encouraging mindful consumption but really staying focused on how do we provide not only for consumption but also for employees and people of that nature, how we can support them in a really patron manner. we are a family-owned business. for us, we take it very personal but yeah, we are happy to enjoy i think -- liquor store sales over the past two weeks have been up 25% because people are using that, you know, as an ability to have that comfort, to stock up their bars, but we always encourage mindful consumption.

stuart: yes, you do. that's a good thing. adrian parker, patron tequila, thanks very much for being with us. all good stuff. we really appreciate it. all right. we've got a big show coming up for you. we've got mark morgan, border patrol guy, developments there. we've got senator kevin cramer, north dakota, oil guy. real big developments there. lawrence jones will be with us, taking the pulse of america. and a really big guest, yeah, guy fieri on this program. how about that. my kids are mad as hell that he can't meet them. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪. stuart: it is 10:00 eastern time. we're oaf and running this wednesday morning. it is ape the 1st. we have -- april the 1st. the dow is off 690. it was off over 800. what you're looking at is a two to 3% decline pretty much across the board. here are the big dow losers. american express, jpmorgan, boeing, those are dow stocks and they're the biggest losers within that 30. check the airlines, they are down again today, pretty much across the board. you're looking at significant percentage losses. down 9% on american. delta down 10%. united airlines off 10%. they have already been hit. they're being hit again today. april will be an awful month.

jetblue, $8 a share. southwest $33 a share. remember the airlines are running88 lower passenger traffic the last two weeks. 88% down. interest rates are way down. the 10-year treasury yield is .6%. that is not good for the banks. look at wells fargo, $26 per share. the price of oil this morning as of right now is barely holding $20 a barrel. at 10:30, half an hour from now we find out how much oil is in storage that will be a important number. that could move the market. mark morgan will join me. there is important developments on the border. the president sending 500 troops. we'll check that one out with mark morgan. now listen to this, walmart this, hour, vice president mike pence touring ire distribution

center in gordon'sville, that is in virginia. we'll see what the veep has to say. first, breaking news, more on the manufacturing sector. ash, what have you got? ashley: ism manufacturing, stu, coming in at 49.1, still in contraction. the estimate was 45 for the month of march. it was better than expected. construction spending fell 1.3%. i think as we go forward, you know this, stu, these numbers will get worse and worse because we look backwards with these and we know what the virus has done to the economy but better than expected on ism manufacturing, 49.1. stuart: got it, thanks so much, ash. john lonski, economist is with us now. that is note such a bad reading, 49.1. i don't give much about all the details and number. bottom line that is a minor shrinkage there, john, you have

to admit there is much, much worse to come, am i right? >> unfortunately you are correct, stuart. you know we had a reading on private sector employment from the adp for the month of march. that showed a loss of only 27,000 jobs. i would not be surprised if the loss of jobs in the month of april, perhaps i will go out on a limb. it will be at least one million. stuart: how about the unemployment rate? i know we get the rate on friday but that won't reflect the full depth of this recession? do you think it can go to 10% in the month of april at some point? >> easily. i think it may go even higher t may go up to 15%. the important fact would be we make progress at flattening the curve regarding the virus. if we can do so, then we can expect to see a ramping up of economic activity in the month

of may. stuart: all right. john, stay there, please. i'm going to ask you in a moment what the ripple effect is when millions of people this month do not pay their rent. i will get that question to you shortly. meanwhile, i want to go to lauren. how many people is walmart hiring? i know it's a lot. tell me. lauren: 5000 a day, stuart, 5000 workers a day. so many people out of work applying for jobs at walmart, that walmart has cut the process. used to be two weeks for them to vet a candidate. now they're doing it in 24 hours. so very good news coming out of walmart today. stuart: what is the news on home depot? lauren: this is also good news. they are giving bonuses of $100 a week to some much their workers and doubling pay for overtime workers. but as you know, they have to cut back on their store hours, just for safety. they're limiting the number of customers who can go into the

store. sew if you are stuck at home like most of the country is, oh, let me work on something on the house. it is now more difficult for you to do that because home depot isn't open as long as they would have been. they also canceled their promotions during this time too. stuart: i'll tell you, the stock is down nine bucks, nearly 5%. i asked that question earlier. what's the ripple effect through the economy if people don't pay their rent? it its april the 1st. a lot of people pay their rent now. john lonski, come back in again, this is serious stuff if people don't pay the rent what happens? >> it is a big number and we want to remember that a lot of, individuals own properties, from these properties they get rental income. it is just not corporations. i took a look at the gdp accounts and the gdp accounts tell me that rental income that is paid to persons, not to companies, amounts to

$800 billion per year. that is a hefty sum and unfortunately if they don't receive this rental income these small-time operators on the real estate front are going to be hurting. they're depending upon this money. so it is, you have to be came not to think that this is just denying money to giant real estate companies. many households who earn money, maybe on the side, most of their income from renting are going to suffer from this. stuart: now, i have looked across the spectrum of countries, companies, rather, how the virus affects them. seems to me the smaller the company the worse the impact. what do you see? >> that's so true. that is why we have the small business administration now, they have this credit facility. they're making it available to small businesses. again, if the small business

borrows the money and keeps the staff on hand, over the next several months, i believe that this loan will be forgiven. that's an important step helping to alleviate the damage done to the economy by covid-19. stuart: a alleviation, good word, john, thank you very much. i will check the markets for you. if you're listening to us on the radio, by any chance you're driving somewhere and listening to the radio, hooker is what is coming, the dow is down 700, over 3%. the s&p is down 88, that is 3.4% and the nasdaq is down 219. that is actually 2.8%. red arrows all across the board and now this. i scan the media on a daily basis and what i see on a daily basis a constant drumbeat of sniping, whining and open hostility to our president.

this is not helpful. this is not constructive. we are in an unprecedented national crisis. it should be all hands on deck, pulling together in a national effort to beat back this challenge. all too often the attacks are personal. that is the last thing we need. "the new york times" carried an opinion piece, the title was, the virus has taught us more about trump than we wanted to know. oh, dear. how snide can you get, how sarcastic. you can tell the writers had contempt, personal contempt for the president. it was a personal attack. on msnbc an anchor declared that running president trump's daily briefings was bad for the country and dangerous. as if mr. trump tries to mislead when in fact he is leading and polls show a large majority approves of that leadership. cnn didn't even carry mr. trump's opening statement where he outlined just how bad

things are. a news network does not show the president telling how it is at a time of national crisis? that is ridiculous. and chuck todd on nbc actually asked joe biden if the president has blood on his hands? this of course follows speaker pelosi suggesting that the president's policies had cost lives. there is nothing wrong with making clear policy shortcomings, say it, nothing wrong with that. it is constructive criticism, but there is everything wrong with sarcastic, demeaning and personal insults. it seems to me that the left and the media supporters can't get past the personal dislike of donald j. trump. the sting of hillary's loss never went away, and now at a time of grave national crisis, the contempt spills over and affects the national discussion. we talk about the economy making a comeback some day. will the establishment media get its reputation back?

very doubtful. they can't keep their contempt in a box. they detest the president. it shows and it is not helpful. just listen to this. >> i think that regular information in times of crisis from the government on sort of science and facts and policy are essential but i personally can't help but feel the daily sessions are bad for the country, even dangerous from a public health perspective. obviously my opinion. i don't make the call. we take them or not, but seems crazy everyone is taking them when you have the mypillow guy getting up there talking about reading the bible. stuart: oh, dear. bring in joe concha, the media reporter for "the hill." joe, look, i just slammed the media there. do you think i went too far? >> no, stuart. i think you're in line with the american public. if we look at polling in gallup. 60% approve the president's handling of the crisis. that is not a partisan thing.

that includes 60% of independents, nearly three in 10 democrats a high number for any president talking about the opposition party. in another poll, this one from monmouth, give you perspective, president 60% approval, the media only gets 45% approval of the way that they're covering this crisis and given the stakes, given how many people are tuning in because they're at home, underwater, if you're the media, is disgraceful. just to put this in perspective again, 72% believe their governors are doing a good job, 65% believe health agencies are doing a good job. there you have the media, 20, 30 points lower. so the argument appears to be from the chris hayes of the world and msnbcs or don lemons on cnn. don't air the briefings. listen to us instead. trust us. don't trust dr. fauci. don't trust dr. birx. don't trust the vice president leading coronavirus task force, surgeon general adams or president of the united states

who gave very grim expectations yesterday. to cnn not air the beginning of that briefing when the president of the united states was on, when they scream about transparency, when they aired podiums, empty podiums of the president in 2016 saying, waiting for president trump to speak and aired almost every rally he had during that time because it was good for ratings is hypocritical, quite frankly it is disgusting. stuart: i must confess that i expected things to change. when i realized the scope and extent and severity of the virus crisis i thought that we might all come together, that some of the harsh, personal criticism of the president might be at least a little muted. obviously i'm very disappointed because that's not happened but my question to you is, joe, do you think, between now and the election, there will be any change on the part of "the new york times," "the washington post," msnbc, and cnn? do you think they might just see the light and might just do

their jobe trying to bring us together, what do you think? >> no, stuart. the light they will see to take out a president, an opportunity now, because the economy will obviously go south particularly in the second quarter. could recover if we come out of this, but they see this as a opportunity. bob woodward who i still think one of the few great journalists out there, he called it smugness. he says you see the condescension and smugness from our media in terms of the way they cover this president, calling it the trump virus for instance. and again, what we need is education, we need people to be informed and we need all of the politicization of this taken out of this because people are at home right now and they just want to know what do i do, what happens next, when do we come out of this? i think that is the most important thing right now. you do think will be a change? it will only get worse, stuart, believe me. stuart: i could not believe that a news network, cnn would not carry the president's

all-important briefing, at least the beginning of it yesterday, that all important statement. i think the president looked real good. i think he laid it out in somber terms this is how bad it is. i actually thought is had speech was almost churchhillian, you're too young to remember it i remember the aftermath. in 1940 he said i have nothing too offer but blood, sweat and tears. i was reminded to that yesterday. how about you. >> i saw the gary oldman movie, there were several movies about churchhill but i understand your point. cnn cut out the end for over ten minutes, during a time when their own white house chief consider correspondent jim acosta, the was asking questions, president was asking, back and forth including questions to dr. fauci and dr. birx, the argument, put on a panel to analyze what the

president is saying right now instead of hearing from him on live television or hearing from dr. fauci on television. just something i hope that today they learned their lesson because they're getting a lot of blowback on this one, as they should. carry the briefings in full. let the american people get informed, stuart. stuart: you got it. joe, thanks for joining us today. we really appreciate it. joe concha. the markets are still lower. we're off 600 for the dow industrials. here is what we got coming up for you, legendary chef wolf gang puck, he is working with the president to save the president. he is on the show. good stuff. first the u.s. is sending 500 troops to the border. acting commissioner at the border mark morgan will be with me next. and they just dropped to the lowest in newday's history. refinance now.

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stuart: even though gas is dirt cheap i wouldn't expect car companies selling many vehicles. let's go to lauren to find out what fiat chrysler sales is. lauren: first quarter, stuart, down 10%. january, february, looking good for the company. then the month of march hit, down 10% in the quarter. ram was a bright spot. those sales increasing by 10%

for the first quarter. what fiat chrysler is doing, 0% financing for customers for 84 months as an incentive. stuart: okay. 0% financing. that is incentive. even the low interest days. i will get an update now on the aircraft carrier, the roosevelt, theodore roosevelt. ashley, tell me, more sailors are testing positive on that ship? >> yes. more than 100 sailors now and it has gotten quite frantic on that boat. it is now docked in guam and the captain of the ship has sent a letter to the navy saying, essentially, pleading for help for more resources. he says the virus spread is on going and accelerating. the problem is, he wants to get all the crew of more than 4,000 on to dry land and isolated. but there are just not enough beds in guam. they're looking setting up some

sort of a tent city or maybe, using local hotels, but he says this is a desperate situation. the men and women aboard need to be protected and he is wanting help now. the u.s. navy says it is aware of the situation, trying to make plans now but you know, a huge aircraft carrier is just like a carnival cruise ship. you know, you're all in very tight quarters. so not a great situation. stuart: not a great situation indeed. what a tough situation actually, ash, thank you very much. ashley: yeah. stuart: the news this morning on the border we're sending 500 troops to the southern border. mark morgan is with us, customs and border protection acting commissioner. mark, welcome to the program. what are those 500 troops actually going to be doing on the border? >> so, stuart, they're going to be helping cbp address this absolute public health crisis that really, the entire globe is

facing right now. just a couple of weeks ago we worked with cdc, who recognized that both at our ports of entry and in between the ports of entry, those coming across poses an absolute danger to this country. this is part of a set of reasonable but aggressive containment mitigation strategies. that the cdc has pushed forward. this president has authorized given stability to do just that at both ports of entry and in between the ports of entry, stuart. stuart: will those troops be armed, mark? >> no. it is, what they're going to be doing there, helping is behind the scenes. helping us in our emergency operations centers. helping us with our surveillance capabilities. stuart just like they are right now. we had thousands of troops on the southwest border for a very long time. they will come in to do the same type of functions. that will enable border patrol agents to get back on the line. i will give you an example.

right now, those that have illegally entered our country just within the past 10 days, that overall flow has been reduced by 50%. those that we are encountering now illegally anything the country, we don't anything about, we don't know where they have been or what countries they traveled through, we've been able to within just a couple of hours immediately return those individuals to mexico at a rate of 80% of those we're encountering. stuart: mark, i understand, that the government of guatemala does not want us, america, to send back illegal immigrants because that would spread the virus there. what is your response? >> so i understand that. i think every country is working with their resources to do the best thing in the interests of their country while working with other countries. actually what we're doing right now with mexico, guatemala, canada, we're really working this as a global issue that it is. we're working with guatemala, for example, to take back their

own citizens. then we're working with honduras, el salavador to take back their own citizens as well. the same thing we're doing with mexico. the same thing we're doing with canada. we're seeing this as a global pandemic, global crisis it is. we're making progress in that step. stuart, let me give you another example with mexico. at our ports of entry we established what we called reasonable travel restriction, essential travel, meaning if you're not coming here to provide a essential function in this country we're not allowing you in. within 10 days the flow at ports of entry has been reduced by 200,000 per day. that means 200,000 less people and vehicles are coming into this country. that is absolutely an effective strategy. stuart: mark morgan, thank you very much for joining us with very interesting information. we're obliged to you, sir. thank you very much. speaking of troops and the national guard, ashley, come in,

please, you have news on max rose, who i believe is a national guardsman? ashley: yes he is. he is a captain in the guard. he's, he's also representative of staten island and a section of the brooklyn, i believe, yes. he has decided he will activate the guard and help be a operations officer there, using his experience, using the guard to help in the, keeping the spread of the coronavirus to a minimum. as i say, he will return to d.c., he says, if he is needed for a vote. but he is putting his, he is a combat veteran as well we should say. congressman mack rose putting on the national guard uniform. he will try to keep the community of staten island and brooklyn safe but ready to vote if needed, stu. stuart: interesting, we'll take it. a couple of quick market checks. the first of all the dow, not saying stablizing but down 600, it has been there for some time.

secondly oil, this may be affected by the numbers which are coming in a couple mints on how much oil we have in storage. let's see what happens to the price when we get the storage numbers. we will be back. here's huge news for veterans with va loans.

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by refinancing now, you can save $2000 a year. and newday's va streamline refi shortcuts the process. veterans can refinance with no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. one call could save you $2000 a year. stuart: happening now, vice president pence touring a walmart distribution center, in virginia, gordonsville, virginia, to be precise. walmart is hiring 5000 people a day because of extraordinary number of surge of people shopping online and in their stores, stocking up.

he is in gordonsville. s&p is down 81. the nasdaq is down 193. that is a drop of nearly 3%, pretty much across the board. pretty true for many leading sectors down two or 3%. what we're waiting for right now, very important numbers on how much oil we have in storage. in other words, how much are we putting in, how much are we taking out? currently the price is $20..26 per barrel. i think we got the numbers on storage? i think we do? arcly, do you have the numbers? what have you got? ashley: yes i do, i did a double-take if not a triple take, we are up, meaning more oil in storage by

13.8 million barrels. 13, almost 14 million barrels. that says it all about the impact the coronavirus has had on oil demand around the world and certainly in the united states. that is a staggering number. stuart: yes, it really is. we're just not driving. so the refineries are not taking it all out of storage and refining it into gasoline. the price of gasoline continues to tumble. we have oil at $20 per barrel, desperation levels. ashley, thank you very much indeed. the president is offering federal storage space for this oil, which the drillers really cannot sell. mike summers is with us, on the phone, american petroleum institute president. mike, i would call this, if you don't mind, i would call this is a disasterous situation for the energy producers of this country. we've got, we had a forecast yesterday from a leading oil analyst who says the price could

well drop below $10 a barrel. sir, this is a disaster. >> certainly is a disaster, stu. thanks for having me on today. it is a similar disaster that every company in the united states is having, the shock that we have right now mainly the demand shock. so just to put it into numbers, you know, there are some analysts who think that the demand in this country, in the world is going down to 80 billion barrels a day. that is 20 million barrel-a-day drop. that is certainly is concerning and, we're concerned about it, because it really is hurting american oil and gas producers. stuart: there is not much you can do about it, really, is there? >> well i think -- stuart: saudis and russians to stop their war, but, there is not much you can do to restore demand until america gets back to work and the world gets back to work? >> you put your finger on it. this ismanly a demand problem,

not a supply problem. so of course the united states and our diplomats should be working with saudi and russia. but until we get corona behind us you will not see oil prices respond accordingly. we need people to get back to work and we need people to fly and to drive around that is going to be the ultimate solution to this dilemma but you're also seeing producers -- stuart: i'm sorry, sir, just want to jump in because we've got this report that the president will make available storage space at federal facilities for oil being pumped but you can't sell. do we have enough storage space to take account of all the stuff coming out of the ground? >> what you're going to see is you're going to see producers cease production around i think the market will ultimately take care of this. you're already starting to see it. there was a wood mckenzie report out today, there is

$50 billion being cut right now in terms of capital expenses from oil and gas companies. so the markets are responding. refiners are also ceasing production as well of gasoline and other refined products like jet fuel. so the market right now is responding, and the federal help to put more storage online is certainly welcome news for american producers. stuart: mike some, taking time out to talk about the situation from the american president troll yum unstatute. >> good to be with you, stuart. stuart: yes, sir. one of the brute spots sitting at home you can watch netflix. i've been watching a lot more of netflix. lauren, tell me more about net flux? lauren: yesterday, i said my friends can't wait to cancel the netflix subscription when we're done with the lockdown. the researchers and bernstein

say the opposite. people are loathe to go back to light without netflix. bernstein giving them a 487-dollar price target. one final thought, netflix has a lot of content and a lot of production from rival companies has been halted at netflix too, because of coronavirus. netflix has so much, analysts say we'll not need anything to watch anytime soon. they can supply us. stuart: you know what, lauren? i suspect that a lot of people will be sharing passwords in these difficult times. am i right, lauren? lauren: yes, we share our password with many people. we share a lot of passwords for a lot of services these days? stuart: yes, we do. that is very true. let's go to ashley. we heard moments ago that fiat chrysler sales were down. i think you got the numbers from general motors. what do you have, ash? ashley: yeah, and it just came up on the screen there, down 7%,

stu, for general motors. delivering just over 618,000 vehicles and by the way the inventory at the end of the first quarter for gm was down 18% year-over-year. we're hearing pretty rough numbers from the automakers. again, gm motor sales down 7% in the first quarter. stuart: the stock is at $20 per share. ouch. overall the market, well, not going to say it is coming back but it is still way down, but the dow is down 593. the s&p is down 75 points and the nasdaq's down 171. again we're 2.25, 2 1/2% down pretty much across the board. on the phone, gordon johnson, glj research kind of guy. we used to have him on talking a lot about tesla and now you're going to talk about the overall market. i have got one question for you, gordon, here it is. >> sure. stuart: how does the market respond to the terrible economic

news which we know is coming down the pike in april? >> well, stuart, thanks for having me on and i think one of the most important dynamics you have to consider is, rebalancing, if you go back to the 2008, 2009 crisis, as pension funds and stocks fall, allocation of 60/40 equities treasurys or bonds -- [inaudible], stock market lost 30%, 10%, you're at 42, 44 you have to rebalance. we think 850 billion buying started march 20th needed happen by end. month to rebalance. that is what we think drove the rally. now we think that is over, we'll get big selling in the market through the month of april as financial results come out. stuart: okay. one last one, here. the low for the dow recently was 18,591. do we, this month, retest

18,951? >> not only do we think we retest it. we think we go below it. think of this, lows set in december 2018 when s&p earnings were up, gdps were growing and the fed was actually going to cut rates is lower than where we're at right now. we think one of the key do dynamics here, given fed policy over past years you have a lot of passive investors. that created low volatility we don't think is normal or healthy. what happened is a lot of hedge funds previously would buy call options to protect the risk of downside in the stock market, they thought stocks would never fall. so they started selling call options. you have negative gamma we think selling will beget selling, you will have big selling first half, 3/4 of april. of pension funds don't have to rebalance so you don't have the backstop in the market. we would be cautious. stuart: gordon, you make your points very well. i will summarize it.

you think we will recess the low of 18,591 on the dow. gordon, thank you very much indeed. i like to point out the dow at the moment is 21,500 level. next case, major cities, new york, seattle, for example, they're suffering clearly from the virus outbreak but next, we have a guest who is is a the country needs to focus on rural areas. we have the story for you coming up next. 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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stuart: where are we now on this market? for the radio listeners, we're down 600 on the dow. not much change in the last few minutes. nasdaq is down 176 and we have the s&p down 76 points. now, larry david, i know that comedy show, i really like it, we have news on him, what he is saying and, lauren, you have got the news for us. lauren: he is the perfect spokesperson for social distancing. basically says young people, "curb your enthusiasm" for going outside. watch? >> i want to address the idiots out there, you're socializing too close. it's not good. the problem is you're passing up a fantastic opportunity, once in a lifetime opportunity to stay in the house, sit on the couch and watch, watch tv. go home, watch tv. that is my advice to you.

lauren: and stop hurting old people like me. that was his message in that pda, stuart. psa, stuart. no pda right now. that is the public service announcement. [laughter] stuart: i honestly find him hard to take. i think the man is brilliant and original, but my goodness, if there is one person i would like to keep my distance from it would be larry david. i don't mean that in the nasty sense of the word at all. let's move on, shall we? before we get in trouble here. states have stay at home orders, three quarters of the population is at a stay home order. this mostly applies to urban areas or applies primarily to areas which are urbanized. let's bring in congressman scott tipton, republican from colorado which is pretty much a rural area. so, congressman, bearing that in

mind, the nature of your state, certainly states close to you, would you support a national stay at home order, would force rural people to stay in home for a month? >> i support the federal system. i think governors, local officials are probably best to determine what will be appropriate for individual states. we have a stay at home order here in the state of colorado. impacted certainly a lot of our businesses but the whole goal is to make sure we're doing what we can to be able to curb the spread of the virus. stuart: what can be done specifically to help rural areas? >> that's one of my primary concerns. we have fewer hospitals, fewer providers, fewer grocery stores, frankly for people to get out to get the necessities that they need. making sure we have the availability of testing, that we do have ppe equipment to be able

to make sure that our providers are going to be protected while they're providing much-needed health care, this is something we need to make sure that while we focus on major metropolitan areas, we do not forget the smaller, rural communities who are impacted disproportionately many times simply based off of our population. stuart: well, are you, what are you short of in the constituency that you represent? >> you know we've visited with our hospitals, our clinics, our providers throughout our district. there is still a shortage of ppes for people to have the equipment. we are rolling out more testing throughout our state right now which will give us a far better, clearer picture in terms of what we're facing throughout the entire state, that it is, what we're hearing primarily in our metropolitan areas as well, simply is shortage of equipment to be able to work with, to make sure that the health care providers are being kept safe. stuart: when i saw president

trump made that speech, that statement yesterday, it really brought home i think to all americans that we are all in this together and it its going to be a very grim and tough two weeks. what do you make of the president's leadership at this point? i know you're a republican. i'm sure you will stand by the guy, but what do you really think? >> you know i think the president's done excellent job in terms of trying to address the crisis, to be able to ramp up production, in terms of what we're needing for the medical community, to be able to provide services that are needed. we need to keep in mind this is unprecedented. some of the critiques we've heard that we didn't have the availability of products, no one anticipated this and so, we're doing a great job i think under the leadership of the president to be able to get the tools that we need to be able to make our communities safe and then under the guidance of the administration and what we're seeing at our state levels as well. this is something we will

overcome and hopefully we'll be able to get our businesses open once again. >> we're all in this together, representative scott tipton, republican, colorado, thanks for joining us. >> many thanks to you, stuart. stuart: let's have a look at the market. energy, drillers, energy companies under real stress here. we had a huge increase in the amount of oil that we've got in storage because people are not driving. we're just not using oil. demand around the world is down by 20 million barrels of oil a day. so you got all kinds of sectors of the economy taking it on the chin. do we have time for anecdotes here? i think we do. show them up on the screen. lauren, ashley, myself. my news is this. for what it's worth. i'm an avid reader i'm reading a lot more now than i used to because i got the time. i'm reading the latest book by hillary mantel.

you might think that is obscure. part of a trilogy of thomas comewell. that is what i'm up to. any advance on that. ashley: you're a wild man, you're a wild man, stuart varney. i'm watching the third season of "ozark" which is absolutely fantastic. there you go. i'm going to give a plug to "ozark," fabulous stuff. lauren: i'm watching, watching nothing at all. trying to entertain the them as best we can, getting very creative in the process. face painting is happening on a daily basis. my face included. and we've organized a birthday party for one of our friend by driving up in front of her house. we'll throw balloons and cards and gifts out the window to say happy birthday. stuart: sounds good. on your screens, ladies and gentlemen, that is the vice president of the united states. he is touring a walmart distribution center, it is in virginia. walmart by the way is hiring

5000 people a day to cope with the huge increase in selling and stockpiling which we've been seeing around the country. the president, vice president there, he leads the task force on the virus and he is now actually visiting that gordonsville walmart distribution center. we'll keep an eye on that. he if makes any headlines what he has to say to the workers there, you will hear it real fast. here is what we have for you. bars, restaurants, closed all across the country but one thing that is booming, is online hair care. yes it is. on the show next, one company that is seeing booming sales. it's a new day for veterans all across america.

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stuart: we'll check big check for you. a little sip. google is, amazon is down 17. microsoft is back to 156. so big tech, suffering with the rest of the market, on the downside. now, a lot of people ordering online, a lot of specific products by the way. our next guest is the founder of madison reed, online hairstyling company. amy is with us. i will not make light about this, this is all about roots, isn't it? in the absence of hair salons and barbershops a lot of people are worried. you tell me, how much have your sales gone up? >> well, first of all, thank you for having me this morning. madison ree sells hair color and our sales have gone up 10 times since this started.

stuart: 10 times, goodness me, that was far more than i was expecting. anymore you got to tell us? >> first of all this is obviously a very hard time for folks and i'm glad that our company that is really predicated on primarily women making them feel empowered by their hair and confident, are sort of trusting us but with salons being closed, we've always had a very large business in terms of our at-home hair color but with salons being closed we obviously have a lot more customers coming to us. so -- stuart: first of all, let me offer congratulations for what you're doing. tenfold increase in sales is absolutely terrific. you are doing valuable work. one last question, do you need to hire anybody? >> well, we actually have stores and we have closed those. so we have been able to continue to pay those workers and actually shift them over to the

customer service online. so we've been able to help -- stuart: that is great news. terribly sorry to cut you off. we have the delay. you can't probably hear me. amy eritt. madison reed, great sales numbers. he thank you very much indeed. we'll be back after this. 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, helping you weather storms like this one, to protect your loved ones. and we'll do it for 168 more.

stuart: all right. we are coming up on 11:00 eastern time. same story on the market, holding with a loss across most

sections of about 2% to 3%. it's been that way all morning. down 400 on the dow yesterday, down 550 on the dow as of right now. better check the price of oil. an extraordinary event reported, actually 25 minutes ago. we build extra, 13 million barrels of oil were put into inventory because we can't sell it. we're not driving, not using gasoline, not using oil. down goes the price. actually holding at $20 a barrel. the american petroleum institute earlier on the program said that's a disaster. the big auto makers are reporting sales figures for the early part of the year going into march, and they are reporting lower sales. general motors was down i think 13%. fiat chrysler was down about 11%. downside move. they are selling far fewer vehicles. we are also watching vice president pence. he's touring a walmart

distribution center in virginia. it occurs to me that they're not keeping social distance and they're not wearing masks. i think that's not quite the right thing to do there, if i may say so, but that's what's happening as of right now. if the vice president makes any other headlines, you will certainly hear it from us very quickly. and later in the show, we are going to be talking with a real star of the food industry, celebrity guy, guy fieri. he is on this show. now this. the president laid it out in an honest, straightforward and yes, somber tone. we are at war, he said. we are in for a very, very painful time, a very tough two weeks. if we didn't know it already, we know it now. the president told us the

startling reality. the death toll in america could be measured in hundreds of thousands. extraordinary. the president did exactly what a leader should do. this is what we are facing and this is what we are going to do. he told it straight. frankly, it reminded me of winston churchill when britain faced invasion by the nazis. i have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears, that's what he said, but he also said we will never surrender. i got that from the president yesterday. the virus has brought us to this moment and the president tells us the plain truth. it's going to be grim but we will come through it and we will come through it together. let's bring in our company, ashley and lauren. what do you make of the president's speech yesterday? i thought it was flat out straight good leadership but look, if you want to criticize, go right ahead. this is a free speech show. ash, you first. ashley: yeah, i thought the message was spot-on. you know, look, the president

from day one has had a different style. it's why he was elected. he isn't a politician. he just shoots from the hip and he's very honest about his feelings and doesn't have a filter. but at times like this, just putting it on the line like that i think is important. we know these are tough times and when he says it's going to be very very painful for the next couple of weeks, it is a grim forecast but it's reality. i think he got that message across very well. stuart: lauren, what do you have? lauren: his tone was different. it was more serious. it just struck a different chord. he even said and this resonated with me, as you think about your interactions with other people in places that you might have to go to, think of that as an interaction with life or death, so the next 30 days he said is going to be really tough and, well, it is, but it was honest. stuart: yeah. yeah. it was honest and

straightforward in the plain, simple truth and i think we all appreciated that. meanwhile, we've got this developing story of the spring break people. ash, i think you have this. the spring break people coming back i think it was from mexico and bringing the virus back with them. can you give me more on that? there's real outrage about this. ashley: and rightly so. about 70 young adults from university of texas at austin took a chartered flight to cabo san lucas on spring break about ten days ago. 28 of the 70 have tested positive. get this. they took separate flights back which means that they allowed the virus to spread even more because they didn't all come back on the same flight. again, they are all students at ut. they are trying to track down who came in contact with them but it's just one of those stories that happened again about ten days ago that makes you so mad, because these

youngsters just not taking it seriously and didn't want the coronavirus to interfere with their spring break fun. now they are paying the price. and other people, too. innocent people. stuart: you got that right. there is real outrage about this one all cross the country. thanks very much, ash. lawrence jones is with us. we like to think of lawrence as keeping us in touch with the pulse of america. welcome back to the show. i know you saw my editorial where i was just really saying the president made that speech yesterday and brought it home. i thought that was real leadership. now, look, we can debate about this. how did you see it? >> no, i think you're right. i think the majority of the country sees it that way as well. there's a reason why the president's approval is going up right now. it's because the way he's handled this. look, i was really struck by one of the questions in the press room yesterday by jim acosta and

what he was implying was that the president wasn't taking it seriously, and the president really took a step back and you know, he kind of went back and forth with him but he said look, you don't think i saw the numbers, you don't think i knew the direction that we were heading, but he said i was trying to be optimistic. i didn't want to -- i'm the president of the united states, what i say matters and it would have freaked out the country so he said you know, but right now we have reached the point where i have to deliver these numbers to the american people so they know what is coming, but before i want to be optimistic, i wanted us to get ahead of this and now we are where we are. you know, it's not just the health crisis that we are dealing with, which is horrible. i mean, i'm in the epicenter. we are in new york city, where this is all going down. but as i was coming into the studio this morning, the driver was talking about his rent and he goes lawrence, i only have half of it. i'm really worried about the country right now because we

have decided what is essential and what's not essential and there are people hurting, and you know, these landlords, you know, they're not going to evict but they want their money. there's a lot of people that don't have that money, they can't provide for their family as well. so what you saw from the president yesterday is trying to bring the nation a calm but also give them realistic facts of what we are going to see. stuart: right. look, this is crunch time, isn't it. today is april 1st. we are not going to do any april 1st fool's jokes, but it is april 1st, start of the month, and we know that this month is going to be absolutely awful for the economy. the numbers that are going to come at us on unemployment, closures and hardship, genuine hardship, is going to strike a chord in america but again, i go back to what the president said. face it, he came right out with it, face it, you might have up to 240,000 deaths in this

country. face it, we've got to shut down for a month. face it, we can take it. that's the kind of speech that i wanted him to make and that he did make, and i think we are all better off for it. last word to you. >> you know, i think we are better for it. i think the country -- this is a war, obviously. it's not the type of war we go overseas and fight. it's right here on the homeland. i think we will overcome it but at the end of the day, when this is all said and done, there are going to be real conversations about did we make the right decisions for our economy, did we make the right decisions when we decided what is essential and what is not essential, and i think when it comes to the civil liberties, when people feel like they can't go certain places, i think the majority of us know to stay at home but you got pastors being arrested. there are going to be real conversations about this, and i think we will be better for it, but it's going to be difficult. stuart: a sense of personal

responsibility will be challenged, each and every one of us. lawrence, thanks very much for coming on the show today. i know you made a great effort to be here. it is truly appreciated. lawrence jones, everyone. he's a good man. he's a brother. good man. all right. steve cortez is with us. not heard from steve for a long time but we value his company and he's back with us. here's what i want to talk to you about. aoc. alexandria ocasio-cortez. she went after governor cuomo, democrat, new york, saying that cuomo's ideas for fixing this problem in new york state are geared towards the wealthy. i couldn't believe she said that. what's your reaction? >> right. first of all, no relation. different cortez. that's for sure, in every way, particularly philosophically. listen, i think andrew cuomo who, by the way, has governed as an absolute radical historically so he's not a moderate, but that said, right now he's acting like a statesman, doing what leaders should do.

he's doing what president trump is doing at the national level and governor cuomo is doing at the state level and he's really acting i think in the best interests of new york, a place which as you well know is under siege right now. so it's a cheap shot for aoc. i'm not surprised, unfortunately, because this is often what the left does. the left tries to use situations of crises for political advantage and unfortunately we sth see that with aoc. stuart: i notice joe biden, presidential candidate, is saying a convention of the democrats as planned in july is now unlikely. i'm wondering, however, if joe biden is going to change some of his policies. i mean, the man is nowhere. you hardly hear from him at all. is he still going with a gigantic tax increase if elected? has he not modified his policies at all? >> no, and you know, stuart, i think when we look at joe biden now, what do we see? we really see that he and other democrats, but chiefly he because he's the presumptive nominee, is playing pandemic

politics right now. at a time that our country should be united and is uniting for the most part, of course, against this common foe, we face a common enemy right now just as we did in 9/11, in previous wars, now we face this invisible foe. when we should be coming together, what's joe biden doing? first of all, he's spreading outright lies. he's doing it in his interviews and on twitter. for example, he said that walls don't stop a virus. well, yes, joe, actually, they do. that's the entire point of a quarantine. and his pack whi which is calle unite the country is spreading its own divisive lies. it has a commercial airing in the middle of this crisis, in the middle of this time when people are losing their jobs, getting sick, when the entire country is worried and needs to unite with one purpose, joe biden's pac instead is putting out commercials with three lies, including the one that president trump called the virus a hoax which even "the washington post"

concedes of course he did not. he called the democratic response to him a hoax. he never called the virus itself a hoax. unfortunately, joe biden and his pac, unite the country, are playing politics with a pandemic. stuart: look, steve, without putting to fine a point on it, the election in november, when it takes place, will be all about president trump and how did he handle the virus. that frankly is it. 30 seconds. last word to you. >> you know, i completely agree. 84% of americans say they are watching at least part of these daily coronavirus briefings from the white house. i think what they are seeing is number one, a president in total command without a script. i think when they view that versus the contrast of joe biden, somebody who can't even get through a three-minute softball interview without a script, they are going to know that the commander in chief we have is the commander in chief we need for the second term and that's president trump. stuart: steve cortez, pleasure to have you back. don't be such a stranger. see you again real soon.

>> thank you, stuart. stuart: okay. quick check of the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. the dow is now down 460 points. i call that a modest comeback. left-hand side of the screen, carnival corporation, the cruise line, down 14%. they have already been clobbered. now they are down another 14%. lauren, what's the news on carnival? lauren: they're the first cruise ship operator to cancel sailings until the end of the year. not all sailings, but for instance, all those coming out of san francisco. so the stock is down big on that. imagine that, saying look, business in some areas dried up until the new year. stuart: my goodness me. the rest of the year. got that. lauren, the other industry very much under pressure is the airlines. you have news on the flight attendants and what they are saying about this virus and flights? go. lauren: just this morning, the

flight attendants union, 100,000 strong, wrote a letter to treasury secretary mnuchin essentially saying look, modify the airline grant program because what that means is the airlines have to give a stake in themselves to the government in exchange for this money if they keep the workers on their payroll, the flight attendants on their payroll, and the flight attendants union is saying look, those payroll grants, they are quote, a poison pill and will ultimately cost them their jobs in the end. so this letter and this stance from the union might affect and complicate negotiations between treasury and the airlines going forward. stuart: yeah. down go the airline stocks. well said. good report there. thanks very much. now, i first realized the real impact of this virus maybe three weeks ago, when suddenly in a 24-hour period, sport was canceled. ash, vice president pence is speaking. let's listen in briefly. >> -- whether it's truck

drivers, whether it's people working here throughout the distribution center, we know you're on the front lines and the fact that you're showing up every day, you're rolling your sleeves up and you're doing the work, says an awful lot about each and every one of you, about the way you love your neighbors, the way you love your country, and i just, i wanted to be here today, the president wanted me to be here today, just to pay a debt of gratitude to each and every one of you. we are going to get through this. we are going to get through this by working together and by every american doing their part. we all know what each one of us needs to do to slow the spread. you heard the president last night, we're calling on the american people to put into practice all of the president's coronavirus guidelines for america and we are making progress, because tens of millions of americans have done just that. we got strong leadership at the state level, i promise you this president and our team will continue to bring strong leadership and guidance at the

federal level. but you're the people, you're the people that are making the difference on the ground. really, it's our health care workers, and it's the people that are keeping the supply chain rolling in america that's going to make it possible -- stuart: okay. that's the vice president there. he's visiting a walmart distribution center in virginia. he just said you know what you ought to do, follow the president's guidelines, and that is keep your distance. i don't want to be critical, but the vice president is not exactly keeping his distance from the people immediately around him and they're not wearing masks, either. little bit of a contradiction there. perhaps the vice president and the rest of the team should set an example by truly following the presidential guidelines there. what have we got next? i see the dow industrials still down just under 500 points.

what do we have? hillary vaughn. hillary, come in, please. i understand the democrats are pushing for another tax credit, a specific tax credit expansion. explain it for us, please. reporter: stuart, that's exactly right. in fact, speaker nancy pelosi is asking for chairman richard neal's assistance. he's chairman of the house ways and means committee. basically, asking for ideas of what should be part of this phase four stimulus package and chairman neal was quoted over the weekend saying that he really wants an expansion of the earned income tax credit to be a part of this and he also wants to see an expansion for the child tax credit. he says that's the best way to get more money into the hands of americans in the paychecks that presumably they are still getting every week or several times a month. we also did hear speaker pelosi speak in favor of retroactively rolling back salt taxes, state and local taxes, that took a hit

or reduction for high earners, particularly in new york and california. she's floating that as an idea to get more money into the hands of people. these are kind of alternatives to issuing another round of direct payments to people as part of the phase four and then lastly, i will add they are actively looking to include an infrastructure package in this phase four package, but i want to fold in some reporting from my colleague blake burman at the white house, who says the administration's perspective right now, focus on phase three, getting the money out to small businesses, getting the direct payments out, then they will focus on phase four. surt? stuart: hillary, good stuff indeed. thanks for joining us. i think maybe the major news item there is that a phase four rescue package is actively being planned and the plans include a huge amount of money that's going to be flowing out, more money flowing out to ordinary people. that's big news right there. now, as i was saying, i got -- i realized how big a deal

the virus was when they canceled all sport in just, what, a 24-hour period. so ash, give me the latest news on sport. what have you got on womimbledo? go. ashley: another sporting event, this time the wimbledon tennis championships announcing today it will not happen this year. woit ha it would have been the 134th edition. they will push back these championships to 2021, from june 28 to july 11 of next year. so another favorite sporting event has succumbed to the pandemic. wimbledon tennis championships will not be happening this year. first time, by the way, since world war ii. stuart: my goodness me. the president said we are on a war footing and my goodness me, we are. all right, good stuff. thank you. let's check the price of oil again, please, because earlier this morning we had this huge increase in the amount of oil in

storage of 13 million barrels. i can't remember a thing like that before. the price right at $20 a barrel. senator kevin cramer is with us, a republican from north dakota, which is an oil state these days. mr. senator, welcome back to the program. we have the american petroleum institute guy on the show this morning who said look, this is a disaster. on the show yesterday, we had a leading oil analyst who says look, you could probably see the price of oil drop below $10 a barrel. i would imagine, sir, that is just devastating for your state. >> well, stuart, whit was $42 a barrel when saudi arabia and russia picked a price war fight, and that's too low in many cases in north dakota. $20 is well below the cost of a profit and below 10 would be devastating. what's happening is we have

obviously this downturn in demand because of the virus, which was already happening as a result of other factors. then you have them, them being saudi arabia, oversupplying and now many of the other opec nations are doing the same. every ship, tanker, rail car, refinery is getting topped off and we will have a glut for years, frankly, if this continues. stuart: i must say, senator, we always thought of the frackers and the drillers, north dakota and texas, i think of you as american heroes and we just hate to see this happening. i hope it doesn't end america's energy independence. let me turn to a different subject here. we just got reports that a fourth stimulus package or rescue package is probably a better name, is being planned. now, that means a lot more money flowing out into the economy. some republicans oppose it.

they don't want to spend that kind of money. where would you, sir, where would you stand on a fourth rescue package? >> i would think a fourth package would be more of a recovery than a rescue, i hope. i think what we ought to do is take our time. remember, we just passed a $2.2 trillion safety net package that includes the opportunity to leverage another $4 trillion from the federal reserve in various credit facilities. let's see how that works. but when i think the opportunity for us as congress is to do the things we are supposed to do that stimulate the economy and that is build out a massive infrastructure. maybe think really big, like the president is thinking, in terms of a highway bill, as well as other transportation infrastructure. those are the things that not only put people to work, but at the end of it, we have an asset that has as its primary purpose the profitability of the private sector because this supply chain

thing, as the vice president is speaking to now, at the walmart center, the supply chain requires this. we are far behind in maintenance of our highway system. we have already passed a bill 27-0 out of the environment and public works committee i sit on, so there's a lot of good work that can be done but let's not get crazy. let's look at the things we are supposed to do and maybe we can be inspired to do them better, faster. stuart: mr. senator, thank you very much for being with us today. please pass along our very best wishes to all those wonderful people who provided us with oil from north dakota and helped out the whole country. pass along our best wishes, please. now then, i think we've got news on state by state stimulus relief. ashley, do you have the details on this? i'm not familiar with the story. ashley: yeah. well, i have -- look, obviously there's 50 states, they are all doing their part to try and keep small business afloat. those that are really suffering. i wanted to highlight what some

of the states are doing, especially the hardest-hit states. let's look at some of these. new york, what's available for people in new york. well, the small business administration or the continuity loan program, as it is known, is offering businesses with under 100 employees and they can show that revenue has been hit by 25% or more because of the virus, they can have interest-free loans up to $75,000. i wanted to go to california, if i can. some state programs. this one involving businesses with 500 employees or less. you can get up to 100% coverage on losses due to loan default. that can help. also in california, businesses with 750 employees or less can get up to $1 million in loans in disaster areas. that's from i-bank. this is going on across the country but it's in addition to

what the federal relief program is offering. so there is help out there. the key is getting it to these small or medium businesses as quickly as possible because as we know, they are hanging by a fingernail right now. stuart: all right. ashley, thank you very much indeed. watch that market. now we are still down 500 points, 2%, 2.5%. that's where we are. maine, they have become the latest state to issue a stay-at-home order. a bit more for you after this on that subject. and a lot more for you. remember, please, guy fieri coming up on the show. wolfgang puck coming up on the show. these guys are major stars and they are going to be on "varney & company." back in a moment.

stuart: let's check that market. we are going to keep a regular check on the market for you. we are down 600. been pretty much like this most of the day. but i do want to check the airlines. look at them. down again. there's all kinds of complicating factors as to whether or not they get money. the airline flight attendants have a problem. that may complicate them getting the money from the government. look at this. jet blue is down 8%. american airlines down nearly 9%. that's true across the board. airlines, beaten down again. let's go to chicago and bring in grady trimble. he's actually found a grocery chain that's hiring. tell me more. reporter: stuart, it's hard to find companies that are hiring right now, but pretty much across the board, grocery stores are. whole foods is one of them. they've got 5,000 openings and if you add up all of the openings at kroger, walmart, the largest grocery chain in the country, there are hundreds of

thousands of openings in this industry right now and that's because shoppers are going gangbusters. they are stocking up on supplies, if they don't have them already, and they are continuing their regular grocery shopping. i just talked to someone who was in line at a trader joe's who told me these people who work for these companies, they are heroes and we need them now more than we ever do. i do want to touch on one thing since we are at a whole foods and we talked about this yesterday. there was a sick-out yesterday. some of the grocery store employees at whole foods said the company wasn't doing enough to keep them safe and protect them during this pandemic. so they were encouraging people to call out sick as a protest. we did hear from whole foods as a followup to that. they said operations weren't affected by this, that it didn't really impact their business in any way. they called it a small but vocal group, some of whom didn't even work for whole foods, that organized that. but nonetheless, the local chain here in chicago, whole foods, any regional national chains,

they are hiring right now. stu? stuart: i like to hear that. grady, thanks very much indeed. let's get more on the grocery stores hiring. i believe walmart is on a hiring spree. lauren, how many are they hiring? lauren: so 5,000 a day is what it works out to. since march 19th, so not too long ago, they hired 50,000 workers and their goal by june 1st is to have 150,000. but we are seeing such a rapid pace of hiring right now and demand for what walmart and other stores sell is they think they will hire more than 150,000 in the next two months. they are also asking their workers now, this is critical, looking at the vice president touring that walmart in virginia, no one had masks on. the company says what they are doing right now is they are offering not an n95 respirator but another type of high quality mask to workers if they want to wear them, and they are also starting to do temperature checks for workers who are

entering their stores and warehouses. stuart: got that. because it was noticeable that they were not keeping their distance at that walmart in virginia. it was. okay. got it. thanks, lauren. on the program today, we have covered the awful economic news that's likely to come at us in april. we have covered the president's remarkable speech yesterday spelling out how bad it is. and we have looked at the market heading south as the bad news on the economy begins to sink in. let's get back to politics. doug schoen is with me. doug, welcome back to the program. i think the campaign at the moment is an absolute mess. we got primaries delayed, we got joe biden saying the july convention looks unlikely. where do you see this campaign going?

i think it sounded like doug just dropped his microphone. he's laughing. i can hear him laughing. okay. go ahead. where is this campaign going? on the phone: i see it going in a frankly holding action, stuart, for the next few months. i think this is really going to be a referendum on president trump and if he continues to perform as he did yesterday in a straightforward, more conciliatory way, i believe the benefits will be clear and obvious to him politically as they have been in the polls so far. stuart: sounds like you are discounting the possibility of joe biden becoming the president. on the phone: i'm not discounting it. we have a long way to go until the fall, stuart. but joe biden, let's be honest, is a place holder for alternatives to trump. this election, i believe, will be a referendum on the president, his performance and

how people think he's doing with the critical public health and economic problems. if he's doing well, i think he will be re-elected. if not, it will be a very close election. stuart: don't you think that the democrats have to come up with some alternate policies, bearing in mind the state of the economy? for example, i don't know how on earth you can go into a presidential election recommending enormous tax increases for whatever purpose. i just don't think you can do that. but i don't see anybody on the left budging in their position on tax the rich, introduce big new tax increases and the green new deal. doesn't there have to be some acknowledgment on the other side, on the left, that this is a whole new reality requiring whole new policies? on the phone: if i can be clear and unambiguous, you are absolutely right. the democrats, rather than maintaining a leftist posture as

some have, not all, but some, need to abandon that and work with the republicans as they did on the first $2 trillion relief package. if that happens, they will be seen as a loyal opposition and if they adopt moderate to centrist policies, perhaps more socially redistributionist but not, not confiscating wealth, not green new deal, not huge new taxes, then i think they will have a better chance. stuart: there's a lot of talk that governor cuomo of new york is coming on real strong and looks presidential. is there any chance that governor cuomo or someone else could replace joe biden as the frontrunner and be the democrat nominee? on the phone: it's a fair question, stuart. i think it is very clear governor cuomo is clearly the superior, one of the superior

democratic officials now we have in the country. very high approval rating. but joe biden, if he continues to be even with or slightly ahead of president trump in the polls and win the primaries that are coming up through april, may and june, i believe will be the nominee unless for some reason he is unable or unwilling to continue. stuart: all right. i think you've got it in a nutshell right there. always a pleasure. thanks for coming back to us today. appreciate it. on the phone: thank you for having me. stuart: sure thing. sure thing. be well. now, the virus in china, i think we've got an update on that, news certainly from china. ashley? ashley: yeah. stu, reports via social media accounts that in hunan province, which is in central china, about five and a half hours north of hubei where the coronavirus first was reported, there's a partial shutdown or closedown,

if you like, lockdown in hunan province because of reported coronavirus cases. now, this is just on social media but scientists have been warning that once the pandemic seems to have died down a little bit in china, and the regulations are relaxed, scientists have feared a second wave of virus outbreak so it's interesting to see that these reports coming in from a province north of hubei that maybe they are seeing more coronavirus cases. this hasn't been confirmed but it is being picked up on social media. stuart: you know, that would be very bad news. that would mean that a second wave can come on pretty strong which affects us, because if we are wanting to try to get back to work in may, we have to be worried about a second wave coming here. are you with me on this? ashley: absolutely. that's been -- you've got to tread the line. it's a very careful line.

you don't want to relax the restrictions too early because you could have a second wave and a whole new round of reinfections or people who missed it the first time around. it's very difficult, really. the only cure is to just stay at home and stay away from everybody to stop the spread. so what happens in china is going to really dictate what happens elsewhere in the world. stuart: you got it right. ashley, thank you very much indeed. now, one of the things we have been covering which we have got to promote on this program is restaurant industry, and the terrible damage that's been done to it. coming up, we have two stars of the restaurant industry. first, before we get to them, i want you to watch this. roll tape. >> today i spoke with wolfgang puck. wolfgang puck is a great restauranteur, as you know, as is jean george and thomas keller and other leaders in the

restaurant business which has been probably one of the hardest hit industries. stuart: yes, it is. you heard the president there. all hands on deck for america's restaurants and that gentleman on your screens right now, that is wolfgang puck and he is on the show shortly. that's not all. guy fieri is here. he's setting up a relief fund for all those out-of-work restaurant workers. i will ask him about that. he's a star. he's next. 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: bear with me, please. i do have star restaurant guests coming up for you shortly but i've got to check that market because we started to head south. now we are down the best part of 700 points for the dow. the nasdaq is down 215. the s&p is down 90. this may be in part because of the sharp decline in the price of oil. okay. it's holding at $20 a barrel, but it looks like it might come down significantly. that's upsetting a lot of sectors of the industry and that's part of the reason why the dow is off 685 as we speak. big tech, what's that doing? we always cover this at length because they have showed the best gains and the highest profitability and that was certainly true before the virus hit. apple this morning is down to $245. so $250 did not hold. microsoft is down to $155.

but i've got to say maybe the $160 level did not hold. $155 on microsoft. amazon is further retreating from the $2,000 level. it's down 25 bucks at $1923. that is big tech. have we got any more big tech stocks there? we should have. have we got them? yes. no. we got financials. okay. we will take that. here's another group that's just been absolutely clobbered. they have extremely low interest rates, that's what they have to deal with, and as rates decline, they can make less and less money on the loans that they make. the yield at the moment on the ten-year treasury all the way down to 0.60%. awfully hard to make any money out of that. okay. all right. now, ladies and gentlemen, now this. >> today i spoke with wolfgang puck. wolfgang puck is a great restauranteur, as you know, as

is jean george and thomas keller and daniel bleu and other leaders in the restaurant business which has been probably one of the hardest hit industries. i have directed my staff to use any and all authority available to give restaurants, bars, clubs incentives to stay open. you are going to lose all these restaurants and they're not going to make it back. stuart: they're not going to make it back. didn't like to hear that. wolfgang puck is with us now, the man who spoke with the president. wolfgang, it's great to have you with us on the show. are you satisfied -- >> thanks for having me. stuart: -- you are getting the help the restaurant industry needs from the administration? >> you know, it is really an amazing thing. we are about 15 and a half million people in the restaurant business, that's a lot of people. the biggest employer really in america, plus we also get orders from retailers. we feed like 30 million people

over so many years and they used to pay business interruption. for us that's really an important part. if they would pay up and own up to the commitment, even people like thomas keller, he had the virus insurance also on his program but they refused to pay. i really believe that is the problem now if they don't have the money, the government can subsidize them and help them like they did in many other disasters. stuart: one problem, when we do get back to work, when restaurants open again, one problem which we hear about is you are going to have to keep those social distancing rules in place so your tables in a restaurant have to be more spread out, which means you can serve less meals which means your revenue's going to be down. what are you going to do about

that? >> you are absolutely right. we have to hire back people or put people on a schedule because we cannot have 100 employees and 100 customers. we would have to charge so much money. it would be a gradual ramping up of the business and hopefully we get, you know, by then, better testing, maybe we get a vaccination and then we can open up. i think what trump said the other day, he's going to have the restaurant industry really get the deduction taxes so that way we can deduct meals and so forth in restaurants as a business expense. i think that will help to stimulate the economy in the restaurant but i think there's also so many small retailers out there. i know our guys who send us the

vegetables, they are all small farmers, so we are all interconnected. restaurants, small businesses are one thing but all the people who work behind the scenes, they are out of work so i'm really concerned how are we going to hire back people after this is over. now hopefully we get the insurance to pay up and hopefully the administration really will help us to get some money sooner than later, because a lot of people have basically their salary from week to week or month to month. stuart: i want to tell you, wolf wolfgang, we all feel for you. your food is wonderful. your operation is terrific. we really hope you can get back on your feet as soon as possible. tell all your workers, please, "varney & company" and fox business are with you all the way. wolfgang puck, everyone. great stuff. all right. >> thank you. stuart: got you. i'm sorry. i've got to go.

okay. all right. thanks, wolfgang. check those work-from-home stocks. zoom, for example, has been doing very well recently. zoom, google, slack, they have come under fire for privacy practices. we will deal with that shortly. we are trying to get guy fieri for you. having a problem hooking him up on the show. but we are trying. we are trying real hard. we will try even harder after this. tention veterans with va loans. mortgage rates are now at all time lows. by refinancing, you can save $2000 a year -- with one call to newday usa. our team is standing by right now to take your call. and from start to finish, you can do it all without ever leaving the house. with our va streamline refi, there's no income verification. no appraisal. and no out of pocket costs. one call can save you $2000 a year.

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stuart: do you use zoom? in these perilous times of living mostly inside our own homes, a lot of people are indeed using zoom. we actually use it here on fox. i want to bring in alan snyder, an expert on this subject.

zoom can be hacked into. that's kind of worrying for a lot of people. is it easy to hack into zoom and the other streamers? or rather, the other conference operators? >> well, thank you for having me. actually, i think what we have looked at and seen, zoom is actually relatively secure. there's been some concerns around privacy in terms of how they are doing data sharing, but the actual security of zoom and several of the other products we took a look at are actually quite good. stuart: what's -- was it actually proven that zoom could be -- i think the expression was bombed, zoom bombing or something. did that actually happen? >> there are definitely ways that people can let's just say abuse or if you don't put say a password on zoom account, that people could take advantage of that. but that's more the usability

and how people use it as opposed to the actual fundamental security posture of zoom itself. but it is a significant concern as folks have moved from in essence an office environment that had controlled and secured facilities to a home environm t environment, where anything goes. stuart: alan, thank you very much indeed for joining us. i'm sorry to cut this short. we have been trying all morning to establish a connection with guy fieri and we have got a connection with guy fieri. let me see him on the screen, please. there he is. this man is a star. this man provides comfort food to all americans and it's great to have you on the show. first of all, guy, i'm told that you have established a relief fund. tell me about it, please. >> well, partnered up with the national restaurant association educational foundation and awesome people to work with, because they have got the infrastructure to take in all these millions of dollars that we are getting in donations and

get them out to the employees at the restaurant association or employees of america that work in the restaurant business, and i'm telling you, we are making some great strides right now. stuart: you know, myself and our family, we watch your show, we see you go out to the diners across the country doing these brilliant hamburgers and hot dogs. do you think, though, that when we do get back to business, do you think we are going to be a little gun-shy about going into restaurants and mixing and mingling again? >> you know what, i don't think so. i think that the restaurant experience for all of us, we celebrated our greatest milestones there, we have gone to our restaurant for just about everything and i think it's a meeting place, a comfort place, a place to enjoy great food, great service, a great experience. so no, i think there will be a lot of changes that will be coming and i think restaurants will adapt, but right now, we've got tens of thousands of restaurants that are closed. we got millions, millions of employees without jobs. three million now, estimations

of going to five to seven million. so that's why we partnered together with national restaurant association to create this relief fund, rerf.us, a website to go to if you would like to make a donation or get one of the $500 grants we are getting to the employees. listen, the restaurant business, if you have been in it or just enjoy it, it's something that's the fabric of our community and we really do need some help for these folks. stuart: yeah, as a matter of fact, my son runs a restaurant in south australia and he's had to close down. i see restaurants closed all over the place. actually, in new jersey, where i live, my local restaurant has started a go fund me operation to help out the employees. i think that's happening across the country, too. >> well, it is happening in all different forms and styles and methods, and i also want to remind everybody that not only is it a great way to support the restaurants through this rerf.us but a lot of restaurants

some are offering delivery. so you may think they're closed, may only be a couple people working in there. but that is another great way or buy gift certificates to use in advance. anything you do. this industry supports so many single families, single moms, so many students, people have two jobs. these are paycheck to paycheck people. they don't have savings. a lot are just hourly. if we think about this, sometime, some way, shape or form we had a direct connection to the restaurants and they really need some help, they really do. i think a lot of industries that do. this happens to be in my wheelhouse. this is the one i'm promoting. those of us get to be safe, secure and be at home, take some time look into the charity you want to support and pa group that needs the help. stuart: the tragedy is, you just couldn't see it coming, could you? i certainly didn't. did you?

did you have any inkling this crash of the restaurant business would fall upon us, no idea at all? >> i think i'm, there are certain things that will never going away. your restaurants don't go away. your favorite watering hole doesn't go away. now to hear stories, these are my close friend, colleagues, and people i've done on diners, drive h ins, and dives, they appeared on my show. we didn't see it coming, they didn't see it coming. anything you can do, someone said i can only donate $10. $10 from you that somebody that doesn't have $10 mean everything. smallest donations make impact. it is not just the money. it is about the understanding and the relief and the support and sometimes people just knowing that others are out there. the restaurant industry has been serving us for years. it is a great opportunity for the community to serve the restaurant and, again,rerf is a

great way to help. stuart: food we're eating in america, you review and look at comfort food. we're eating a lot of it. i got to tell you, goo i, we really want to see you coming back strong. we'll do everything we can to support you. i intend to become a big tipper when the restaurant business gets running again. i will make a contribution to various gofundmes of various restaurants. guy fieri you are a store h star. thank you for coming on the show. what is it again? >> the website is rerf.u.s., that is the website that national restaurant association educational foundation. here is the last thing. 100% of the donations go directly to the employees. there is no middleman, no admin

fee. 100% of the donations to people that need it. stuart: love it. you're a decent guy, guy fieri, my daughter angela is a major fan. tough get that in. guy fieri, everybody, he is a good man. my time is up, let me hand it over to, neil, it's yours. neil: news story there you will become a big tipper. that is -- stuart: knew you would say that. neil: good going young man. good going young man. stuart varney on all of that. we'll pick up the baton. we're looking at same selloff stuart had and is. we're looking weak economic numbers which was pretty much the case even before the virus data hit us all. we're getting revised figures on death tolls across the globe, united states and new york metropolitan area. governor cuomo will be updating everybody in about 15 minutes. ahead of that, let's go to connell mcshane where things