tomorrow. they better be ready for this because a lot of banks are pushing back, worried about liability so they better get on that, too. maria: all right. we will be ready for them as well. we got a big show tomorrow once again. don't forget to join us. we have the monthly job numbers. we will take a look at that. dagen, ken, liz, good to see you. have a good day. "varney & company" begins right now. stu, take it away. stuart: good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. well, it is a taste of things to come. layoffs by the millions. here's the official layoff number. 6,648,000. that's how many people filed for unemployment benefits just in the last week. that is an astronomical number. got it. doubling last week's record. now, we knew april would be bad and it is. the economy will be shut down for this month. to deal with this, stimulus plan number four is in the planning stage. we only just passed number three. now with all the bad news coming

at us, we are at number four. the president, the speaker pelosi and treasury secretary mnuchin, they are all on board with a grand infrastructure plan. leader mcconnell says hold back for now, but it sure looks like a lot more spending is in the works. after all, we are all big spenders now, aren't we? look at the markets. responding to the jobless numbers and the possibility of more stimulus. the dow looks like it could eke out a small gain of maybe 70. nasdaq up 17. s&p up maybe 10. a fractional gain for stocks despite that jobless number. look at the price of oil. up sharply today. the president wants a deal with the russians and saudis and he will meet with oil company executives tomorrow. the oil price this morning is up to, okay, up to just $22 a barrel. got it. but it's higher by 9%. the price of gasoline, look at this, keeps coming down.

$1.97. that's the national average. in oklahoma, hard to believe, it's all the way down to an average of $1.51. that's oklahoma. on the program today, the april slump, big spending to get us out of it, the democrat presidential campaign totally sidelined and at this moment, 280 million americans are ordered to stay home. let's get to that jobless number. bring in art laffer. he joins us now. art, that was a very big number, 6.6 million. is it possible that we are getting all the bad news up front, a gigantic jobless number, and maybe we can bend the curve as the month goes on? what do you think? >> well, it is true, you are getting a lot of jobless numbers. i'm not surprised with this number. i thought last week should have been about five million instead it was 3.3 or something. but i don't think we are moving everything up front, frankly. i think this is going to be a lot worse an economy than people think it is and i guess just

from my standpoint, i think the stimulus plan that the president and congress has done will hurt the economy, it won't help the economy. it will make the recovery slower than it otherwise would have been which is really a shame and it's going to increase debt besides. stuart: hold on for a second, art. i'm with you. i understand the worst is yet to come in april. let me sideline for a second and go to ashley. ashley, look, i'm told some companies are lowering their contributions to 401(k)s. i don't like the sound of that. ashley: no, suspending or reducing. remember when this happened back in 2008 during the financial crisis and now we are starting to see it again. we have amtrak, laz-e-boy, the travel company sabre made the move, marriott is suspending their 401(k) contribution until september. we understand macy's is doing the same thing. many companies are doing this because they need to save cash.

let's be honest. we don't know the full economic impact of what this virus is doing but we have a very good idea that it's extreme. just one point. back in 2008, 20% of companies who had 1,000 employees or more either suspended or reduced their 401(k) matching contribution so this is something i think we are going to see more of as we go through the coming weeks. stuart: on top of the jobless news, the news that maybe some companies will suspend or reduce 401(k) contributions, that's not good news this thursday morning. i want to get back to art laffer briefly. art, we do have, i think, a fourth stimulus plan, rescue plan, call it what you like, it's coming at us. you don't think it works? you don't think we should do it? >> no, i don't. as you know, i'm the biggest fan of this president ever. i think he's been the best president so far in the last 50 years. i mean, really, i'm a huge fan.

but this stimulus package will make things worse, not better. what we need to do is let people who work and produce keep their income, not have the government take it, and by putting that stimulus package in just like in the 2008-2009 period, and in the great depression, it will make the economy worse, not better. assist i don stuart: i don't get it, art. i don't get it. i don't see how massive spending, we are talking trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars, i don't see how that does not put a floor under the economy. i don't see how it hurts the economy. you explain it to me. you tell me how spending all of this money actually hurts the economy. >> i will. government spending is taxation. government doesn't create resources, stuart. they redistribute resources. whenever the government spends $1 trillion, it takes $1 trillion from workers and producers who otherwise would -- so government spending is taxation and as such, government spending will reduce the growth

rate of the u.s. and will hurt the economy in bad, bad times. now, when we are rich and prosperous, government spending is perfect then because we can afford to take resources away from producers. but right now, we need to be the fans of producers, not the fans of consumers. i'm very sorry, but that's what has to be done now. we need free markets more than ever. stuart: all right. we hear you. you are very much part of this fourth stimulus package debate. we will hear more about it later, that's a promise. all right. now, i see boeing's stock moving this morning, moving up. at least it was before the jobless numbers came out. lauren, do you have news on boeing that's -- i so tee the sk is down. what's the news? lauren: boeing is offering early retirement packages and buyouts to workers. this is its latest move to save cash. they have about 150,000 workers so far, have laid none of them off but now they are offering

those packages if workers want to go. stuart: well, it adds on to the story about companies need cash so some reduce their 401(k) contributions. boeing trying to save cash, offering that early retirement. it's very interesting how companies across the board are just desperate for cash. okay. boeing just tipped to the upside, $130 a share right there on boeing. market watcher scott martin is with us this morning. scott, i see dow futures still showing a very small gain. is it possible that all this bad news in the month of april is actually baked into the market already? >> i think a lot of it is but as you were talking with art laffer in the previous segment, there's more bad news to come. so the market knows the bad news of today and i think it's assuming obviously things get a little bit worse here, but my concern is as you guys were talking about these stimulus programs, i mean, do they really grow the economy, do they really

end up creating jobs? the answer is most likely no. do they restore confidence in the system? potentially. so that's one step. but eventually we've just got to get the economy back and going and firing on all cylinders. that comes with ending this virus and getting treatment. stuart: look, throughout the show today, i want to look to the other side. in the depths of our despair in april, i want to look to the other side of this virus attack on us and ask you and other market guests what looks good to you. when we come out on the other side, what kind of stock, what kind of company, which company, looks good to you? >> i'm still sticking with tech. microsoft, amazon, facebook, just because they have strong balance sheets, very good revenue growth. in fact, microsoft [ inaudible ] this environment and sticking with those companies that are going to come out of this a little better than some of the retail or hospitality stocks. to me, if you stay with tech even through say the next market selloff, if there is another downturn, i think you will come

out much better than selling out now and trying to get back in at the bottom. stuart: stay there, scott. we will bring you back when the market opens. i notice we have just inched into the red for the big tech stocks and for the dow industrials. crude oil is still up a buck. look at that price. listen to the president on whether russia and saudi arabia can make a deal. he had this to say. roll tape. >> i think that russia and saudi arabia at some point are going to make a deal in the not too distant future because it's very bad for russia. it's very bad for saudi arabia. it's very bad. i mean, it's bad for both. i think they're going to make a deal. you know, the free market is a wonderful thing. it's amazing how it can work. but i think they're going to make a deal. stuart: ashley, have you got any information on president trump meeting with oil company ceos tomorrow? ashley: that's what we are told. the head people at chevron,

exxonmobil, occidental petroleum, continental resources, basically to give the president an update on where those in the oil industry stand. we know they are hurting right now. perhaps they will discuss some measures in which the government perhaps can try and help the industry. one of those perhaps being discussed is placing tariffs on all imports from saudi arabia. that could be one. also waiving that rule that means that when you transport goods from one u.s. port to another, it has to be on an american vessel. that includes oil. there may be a waiver of that rule. bottom line, they are going to tell the president we are -- obviously we cannot survive with oil prices at this level so interesting to see what comes out of that meeting and what, in fact, the government can do to help the oil companies get through this. stuart: and encourage the consumption of american oil by american utilities and consumers. that would really help the drillers and frackers in north

dakota and texas. all right, ash. let's get to lauren. news on home depot. what are they up to? lauren: no longer selling those n95 respirators. they are redirecting them, donating them to hospitals instead. so many retailers, including home depot, were criticized for selling these masks when indeed health care workers and those on the front line needed them. home depot no longer selling them and they are also distributing thermometers to all their workers. take your temperature before you come to work. if you have something over 100.3, don't show up. stuart: it really is a national effort. private enterprise jumping into the fray here. the number of companies which are doing something with gowns and masks and ventilators and respirators is really, it's a terrific response. i've got to say. all right. more on all of this throughout the program. that's a promise. we will have more on this, too, the markets. we have had those terrible

jobless claims numbers, 6.6 million in the last week. the dow jones average futures now looking down about 90 points. we are going to cover the election, too. joe biden claims he knew more about the virus threat than the president. we've got him on tape saying it and you will hear it. next. 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.

[ applause ] stuart: i live in new jersey. you could almost hear those cheers across the hudson river, they were so loud. the whole of new york city turned out to cheer for hospital workers and rightly so. they are indeed the heroes of manhattan, new york city, new york state and the whole country. let's move on. we've got -- actually, i like this story. this is promising, positive news about the patriots. ash, give it to us. ashley: yes. this is a great story. it all goes back to massachusetts needing more supplies, especially those n95 masks that the first responders

and health workers need to protect themselves. well, turns out that the patriots' robert kraft, the son of, of course, mr. kraft, the owner of the patriots, and robert kraft said wait a minute, i think we can do something. so they managed to secure over a million masks from china. the question was how do you get them back to the united states. well, the patriots sent their plane. it was a red tape nightmare. they had to wait in alaska to get final approval. they landed in i believe it was shinzhen and had three hours. the people on the plane were not allowed to get off. they relied completely on ground crew. it took them two hours and 57 minutes. they did it with three minutes to spare to get all those masks on board the patriots plane and there you can see it, the big logo, six-time champions, it sas on that plane, and they managed to get out and are headed back to boston's logan airport.

amazing how worlds collide and how people can help each other at times like this. in this case, like them or not, the new england patriots and bob kraft, robert kraft, coming through to get those masks back to massachusetts. it's a great story. stuart: finally, some good p.r. for the patriots. got it. ashley: exactly. stuart: similar story, lauren, come into this. what's apple doing? on masks? for new york city? lauren: apple has donated 1.9 million masks to the state of new york and i do have bad news for you on the state of new york. overnight, a 17% increase in the number of infections here. more than 84,000 plus infections. 2200 deaths in new york state alone. those masks from apple coming to ground zero, which is frankly new york. mayor deblasio, the mayor of new york, says we need 3.3 million masks by sunday as we prepare

for the second wave of coronavirus cases that begins on monday. stuart: okay. thanks very much, lauren. i want to get to the election, i want to get to politics, because it is going on as we speak. i want you to watch joe biden on the "tonight" show last night. roll tape. >> well, i guess in a nutshell, jimmy, the president waited too long to start taking it seriously. you know, all the way back in january, i went on in major newspapers saying we got to get moving, this is a real problem, we know what's coming, and we know we got to get better, we got to provide tests, we got to be getting out and making sure people understand what's about to come, and -- but it's been a lot of lag time. remember the president saying this is going to end shortly and it's going to be like a miracle, et cetera. stuart: i think it's time we brought in charles hurt,

"washington times" opinion editor and columnist. charles, is that the democrat line, the president waited and it cost lives? >> well, if it is, stuart, i think it's going to be a -- they are going to have a hard time with it. i don't think that americans right now care about anything except what are we doing right this instant to solve the crisis at hand and get the economy back moving. this whole business of trying to go back on the timeline, i don't think is a very wise political move for anybody. but if joe biden and democrats want to go down that rabbit hole, it's going to be a very easy thing for president trump to combat because of course, what was going on in january of this year? the world health organization was telling the world that this was not an easily transmissible disease, that this was not a problem outside of wuhan. what were democrats in washington doing? impeaching the president over something they knew he would never ultimately be removed from

office over this nonsense remember ukraine? people have forgotten all about that. when that sort of thing comes up, especially in light of politicians trying to score political points by claiming that they were more right somewhere back on the timeline, i think it's a disaster for them. i think that president trump will, if there's anybody that is better at fighting sort of a rear guard action and a frontal assault at the same time, it's donald trump. if joe biden wants to try this against the president, it's going to blow up in his face very badly. stuart: i want to turn to the media. i notice that chuck todd on nbc offered up a disclaimer before running the president's briefing last night. i guess it was about drugs. he offered a disclaimer beforehand. cnn cut away. they didn't even cover it. i don't see how news organizations cannot cover a presidential briefing at a time

like this. >> absolutely, stuart. this is -- it reveals the fundamental unseriousness of these people. you have a global pandemic, you have a time where nothing is more vital than information itself, and you have the president holding these daily briefings and i think they are terrific briefings, they are very important, people dial in, they are paying attention, they are learning from them, their lives are affected by them, and to have these people in the media who are so fundamentally unserious that they want to turn this into ridiculous politics, i'll tell you, i have been covering washington for a long time. i have been hanging around unfortunately with this media for a long time. i have never experienced the level of disdain and distrust among not partisan people, but people who are particularly invested in politics, just average people who have zero respect and zero faith in the

media the way they do today. stuart: i'm with you 100% on this. i know people in the media. i know other individuals outside the media and the level of contempt that they are prepared to express publicly and privately for this president is to me astounding. this is the united states of america. these are prime media outlets yet give you the last 20 seconds. go. >> well, of course, people look at donald trump and they want to criticize donald trump. well, everybody already knows donald trump. they know that, you know, his pluses and minuses. so when they tune into this, they see the donald trump they already know. what they are seeing for the first time is an appalling, unseriousness and lack of professionalism and bias among the media and it's very disturbing. stuart: it will last for a long time to come. charles hurt, thanks for joining us. always good stuff. thank you, sir. look at the markets. we are down across the board.

now, this is a response to the 6.6 million unemployment claims just in the last week and the discussion about a fourth stimulus program. because of all that, we are down just 100 points. we'll be right back. 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, helping you weather storms like this one, to protect your loved ones. and we'll do it for 168 more.

it's putting that hard asset as an insurance you might say against the paper dollar. that's why i bought gold. it's not for my insurance, but it's for my daughters and the grandchildren's' insurance that i felt like that generational aspect of passing down gold is securing them a future. of course, nothing is without risk. and that being said, i feel that by

diversifying with precious metals, that i am covering my bases. it's a hard asset. you can turn it back into cash. whereas keeping a lot of cash in your bank account can really almost end up being nothing. you have these dollars over here sitting in a bank drawing practically zero interest. i think gold and silver has a greater potential for increasing in value. i mean, you have to keep cash. but you don't have to keep everything in cash, and you don't have to put everything in the stock market, and you don't have to put it all in a bond market. you do a little bit of everything. and then you sleep at night and don't worry about it. in fact, i sleep better with gold than i do with the stock market. because it's tangible, it's there. - if you've bought gold in the past, or would like to learn more about why physical gold should be an important part of your portfolio,

pick up the phone and call to receive the complete guide to buying gold, which will provide you important, never seen before facts you should know about making gold, silver, and platinum purchases. - with nearly two decades in business, over a billion dollars in transactions, and more than a half a million clients worldwide, u.s. money reserve is one of the most dependable gold distributors in america. stuart: let me offer a mild positive on the virus. 8,600 people have recovered. that's just in the last 24 hours. ash, do you have news on jamie dimon? ashley: i do indeed. also some more good news. he sent out a message to employees at the bank saying he is happy to be back at work this week. that's good news. if you remember, back in early march, jamie dimon took himself into the hospital with chest

pains and underwent emergency heart surgery. he had a tear in a major vessel leading from the heart but incredibly, in just about a month's time now, he's back at work. he was hoping to be back by mid-april. he's already beaten that and he says boy, i'm happy to be back. that's good news indeed for jamie dimon. stuart: that is good news. welcome back, mr. dimon. good to see you again. we are about to open up the market. we show a loss of 80 points for the dow, fractional losses across the board. i've got news on walgreens which is a dow stock. that could help the dow average or hurt it. not sure which. what's the news? lauren: the latter. it's really hurting it. walgreens is down 6.5%. look, the news is good. better than expected earnings for the last quarter. here's the problem. the quarter ended at the end of february, kind of before everybody really started stockpiling toilet paper and cold medicine. walgreens says look, no doubt the coronavirus upends

everything we have known and traffic is heavy right now, but they can't forecast their future because the outlook is clouded by the virus. that's down big. stuart: yeah. i don't know how many points that takes off the dow industrials. it could be quite a few because walgreens is a dow stock and when it's down 6%, that really hurts the dow. now, maybe without walgreens, we would have the market or the dow pointing higher because at the moment, it's only pointing down about 50. that loss could be accounted for just by walgreens. we are walking up to the opening bell. i'm going to have eddie gabb og scott martin is with us. they will help us cover this market. 30 seconds to the opening bell. let me give you the backdrop here. first of all, about an hour ago, we received word that 6.6 million people have registered for unemployment benefits just in the last week.

that's a huge number. we have also been hearing a lot more about the fourth stimulus package. really, it's a rescue package, but number four is being planned and looks very likely. art laffer doesn't like it. it still looks likely. that's the bell ringing. bang, it is 9:30 eastern time and the trading session this thursday morning has begun. it is april 2nd. let's see how we do. this is the very very early going. i'm seeing a little green on the left-hand side of the screen but not much. two-thirds of the dow 30 have opened in the red. they are down. at this moment, the dow industrials are down 126 points. that's about a half percentage point. how about the s&p 500? i think we've got a similar loss there. we are down .33%. that's not much. eight points down on a 2400 index. show me the nasdaq. home of the technology companies. that's an indicator of how tech is doing this morning. that's down .25%.

bottom line here is, you've got fractional losses, call it a fraction, fractional losses pretty much across the board and the dow industrials, bottom right-hand corner of the screen, are virtually dead even. i believe that without walgreens, the dow would actually be positive. we are going to do the same thing as we have been doing recently. along the left-hand side of the screen, we are going to show you whole industry groups. groups of stocks that have very much been in the news and which are moving. as we get that rolling, you read it off the left-hand side of the screen and i will talk to our commentators about what's going on. eddie gabor, scott martin with us. i will ask the same question to both of you. i bet you are seriously concerned about rechallenging that low, 18,591. you wouldn't want to see that, would you, eddie? >> no. we don't want to see that. but again, as we said last week, we warned clients that the news

is going to be really bad economically so this negative news really shouldn't come as a surprise. i think what we need to focus on is when we are going to get our economy going again because until that happens, this pressure to the downside is going to continue because at the end of the day, this has been a self-induced recession and bear market. what's going to come out of this is really good buying opportunities but in the near term, to expect any good news during this shutdown is just false hope. we need to focus on how we get this thing going again. that way these wonderful companies we can invest in will be worth a lot more 12 and 24 months from where we sit today. stuart: okay. scott martin, same question to you. heaven forbid we go back and challenge the low of 18,591 on the dow. right? >> well, i think it's coming, stuart. we got to be ready. i will tell you what the real challenge is. do we defend that low because if that's a good low and we actually hold those levels in

the dow and s&p, that would be a good sign the market has probably found a bottom there and that obviously goes along with how the data comes out in the meantime. but challenging that low and holding it would be pretty constructive. stuart: i'm going to read out some of the stock market quotes on the left-hand side of the screen from these different groups. producer, keep them flowing. i'm reading them for the benefit of our radio listeners, whomsoever is driving these days, you can listen to this. walmart is down a little, at $112 a share. big tech is on the screen right now. microsoft up and google up. not very much. microsoft is at $154. google just turned south along with amazon, facebook and apple. we will keep those numbers flowing for you. the financials, it's been a long time since we saw any good news raising financial company stocks. it's not there today. jpmorgan, goldman, citigroup, wells, all of them on the downside.

wells fargo back to 26. morgan stanley, the lone gainer, just six cents. that's it. credit card companies, again, moving nicely higher. mastercard is at $231. visa is at $153. no joy for amex, down at $77 per share. i want to break in for a second. i will put oil on the screen. president trump thinks the russians and saudis are going to get a deal of some sort, help out the world glut we've got going right now, but nothing will replace the loss of demand from the virus impact on the global economy. $22 a barrel for oil right now. lauren, come in, please. tell me about zoom video communications. that's become the teleconferencing company of the moment. lauren: yeah. almost 100,000 schools are using it for classes. i use zoom to take virtual yoga classes as a result of all of this, the stock is down 11% now, but the news is quite good.

daily users in the month of march, over 200 million people. 200 million. their highest ever before that was just ten million. the stock's at $121. the ipo went off last year at $36 so down today but obviously, the rise has been monumental. stuart: did you say 200 million new users? lauren: yep. in the month of march. correct. stuart: good lord. i just don't know how they make their money. huge numbers. 200 million total users just like that, that's huge. okay. but the stock's down 10%. come on, ashley. what have you got from ford? ashley: yeah, ford just released its sales numbers for the first quarter and overall sales were down 12.5%. not great numbers at all. now we are hearing a statement from the head of sales at ford who says the company believes that once we get through this crisis, that some level of government stimulus both to u.s.

consumers and the auto industry overall would be appropriate. in other words, a signal, message, if you like, we are going to need help. not only the consumers but the auto industry as well. stuart: okay. look at the stock, $4 a share, up just three cents as we speak. $4.43. ouch. all right. starbucks. what have they got going for us, lauren? lauren: good news for workers. they get $3 an hour extra and now starbucks is going to extend that pay raise and some other provisions for an additional two weeks. so until may 3rd. they are also considering to ease the drive-through lines and the pressure on the drive-throughs, if you place your order mobily, you can go to the door. the dining room would remain closed but the worker would hand you the order at the door so the

drive-through line wouldn't be as long. stuart: thanks, lauren. back to our guests. eddie gabor, here's a question for you we will ask throughout the program today. look to the other side of this, the other side of the virus, when we are coming out of it. what kind of stock, what kind of company, looks good to buy now if you're looking to the other side? >> i think you still need to focus on strong balance sheets. when you look at the amount of cash the microsofts of the world have, apples of the world, in my opinion, those two are wonderful long-term plays. on the health care side, united health care group, johnson & johnson are very, very strong balance sheets and companies that have some nice upside. in regard to maybe taking a little bit bigger risk, i really like the home builders in the second half. take a look at where we are going to be. we will have record low interest rates and pent-up demand. i'm betting that the u.s. consumer comes back like gangbusters once we get out of this. so home builders have been decimated and i think there's lots of upside in my opinion on that in the second half of 2020.

stuart: all right. i want to go back to lauren. you have something more on zoom communications for me? lauren: we were saying why is this stock down so much. the answer is they've got new competition, specifically from ring central. they are about to offer a video conferencing offering. because of that competition, it's putting pressure on zoom today. looked into that one for you. stuart: sure is, down 13%. thanks very much indeed, lauren. somebody has to explain a 14% decline for a colorado thatmpan very much in the news. look at this, we have turned around. now the dow is up, okay, 32. nasdaq is up 21. s&p is up 9. i see some green on the left-hand side of the screen. quick question to scott martin. i asked you this before. what looks good when we come out on the other side. you said big tech. tell me which big tech companies do you like? >> three names for you.

microsoft, amazon, google. strong balance sheets, positive free cash flow, consumer demand. a lot of those companies are doing very well in this economic malaise. i think they will come out smelling very good and the consumer is going to come back really strong, like eddie said. more demand for their products and services. stuart: okay. we are on the upside. scott, we appreciate it. eddie, thanks for being here. all good. we turn to the green across the board. small businesses, they are taking a major hit from this virus. what are they doing to get relief? we have some information for you. don't miss it. we'll be right back.

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stuart: can i see some green on the screen? yeah, just a little. the s&p 500 is actually up .07% but we have now got a fractional move down for the dow and nasdaq. this is not a huge move by any means. but there is a huge move. show me luckin coffee. i fi ththink that stock is way, down. lauren, what's pushing it down so much? lauren: this is probably one of the reasons starbucks is up. in a regulatory filing, luckin coffee, which is a huge coffee chain in china, said that its c.o.o. lied about 2019 sales by $310 million. that's pushing the stock down, this is correct, 74.5% this

morning. the coffee chain, after an internal investigation, said that a top official at their company lied about their 2019 sales. stuart: that will get you every time. down 74% just like that. got it. some u.s. banks, big banks, might not take part in the government's plan to help small businesses because of, what's this, edward lawrence, because of liability? explain, please. reporter: yeah. so reuters first reported this. i have been able to confirm the big banks have contacted the treasury department over concerns with the small business loan program that's starting tomorrow. the concern centers around three areas. the first, they are concerned they will be stuck with the liability because they are authorizing these loans. they are concerned that if they end up being fraudulent, they will have more costs on the back end of that. they are also concerned they will get blamed for not getting the money out fast enough because they will do their due diligence on the business to make sure it's viable. the third thing is they are

concerned about the size of, the amount of loan and the amount they have to lend out on their balance sheet. in that third point, the federal reserve made a technical temporary rule change that basically opens up more money which is already in the banks on their balance sheet to be able to lend out. a senior treasury official tells me that they are in close contact with the banks and they are looking forward to implementing the small business program tomorrow and more information later on today will be out to alleviate the banks' fears. stuart: i understand the liability problem. the lawyers are going to be all over this one. that's guaranteed. edward lawrence, thank you very much indeed. now, if you are a small business owner and have just been put out of business, what on earth do you do? you probably out of business for the month of april and maybe beyond. i want to bring in jeff hoffman. he actually worked and helped to create priceline and expedia. he knows a lot about small business operations and i have read your stuff, jeff. you say a small business operator should first of all

repurpose. you want to explain that? what does a small business guy do to repurpose? >> absolutely, stuart. i want to talk about my three rs. repurpose, retool and redeploy. things that small businesses can do. so repurpose, when you can't make money selling your current product like you said, what they're doing is they're taking an assessment of what are your skills, what are your capabilities, what are your resources in your business, then looking to see in the war against covid-19, how do you repurpose what you have to help attack this problem. let me give you a quick example that will make it clearer. a small distillery in nevada i work with, highmark distillery, have chemists who make vodka in big tanks using alcohol. they were not able to sell that during this time so what they did is repurposed their chemists, their tanks and alcohol processing and now they are making hand sanitizer.

they cannot keep up with demand, they are getting so much demand for hand sanitizer. stuart: look, i see that. that's a good example. i just don't know what on earth a restaurant owner is going to do to repurpose. wait a second. let's not get bogged down. let's move on. you said they should also retool. >> retool. this is in alliance with the restaurant question when we hit redeploy. retool, this is the time to do the things you never had a chance to do to take your business to the level, to the next level and upgrade it. for example, re-educating your work force. i was talking to a consumer products company yesterday that is having all of their marketing people take free online artificial intelligence courses and they are designing a predictive behavior algorithm for their market. retooling your company by taking a lot of free online education and upgrading your work force is a great opportunity during this downtime. stuart: okay. last one, redeploy. okay.

relate that to restaurants. >> yes. that's the one that could definitely help with restaurants. redeploying is if you can't repurpose your employees and you can't make a product that will help now, what you should do, what companies are doing, is they are looking to see the entity's nonprofits, health care companies, the entities on the front lines of the battle against covid right now, they are looking to see if the skill sets of their employees can assist in that process. i will give you two quick examples, one on the restaurant. one of them was a tech company i talked to who loaned their graphic designers and online marketing experts to two health care companies who are trying to get out accurate information about covid and are experts in those areas. the restaurant example is the millions of children who are not being fed right now because their only meal every day was from their free school lunch. i know a number of restaurant owners that are redeploying their people and food to feed

the people that have no access to food and can't order takeout, they don't have the money to do it. in some cases they are getting grants to do these things. in other cases they are loaning out their team. stuart: that's good, practical advice. well taken. thanks very much indeed. i'm sure we will be talking to you again. good stuff. check that market, please. we are 19 minutes into the session. we have been up and down quite a lot. there is some volatility today. not extreme. at the moment the dow is off 165 points. nasdaq down 42, s&p down 10. little bit of red right there. more "varney" after this. it's a challenging market. edward jones is well aware of that. which is why we're ready to listen. and ready to help you find opportunity. so. let's talk. edward jones. it's time for investing to feel individual.

stuart: for several days throughout the show we have been asking people what looks good on the other side, when we come out of the virus, which stocks look

good. almost all of them, without exception, say at least a couple of big tech stocks. so we are showing them to you right now. amazon, up a little bit but holding around $1900 a share. lot of people like microsoft, which has not revisited its low of $130. in fact, it's at $151 as of right now. the airlines, my goodness me, basket cases, really. with almost all airlines shut down in america, don't expect much from the stocks. jetblue is down, delta is down, american's down, red arrows across the airline sector. now you know. dow is down 120. let's have a look at the retail sector with market watcher, retail watcher, i should say, kristin bentz. we have asked you to look to the other side and you told us lvmh is best in its category, you like it? >> i do like it. you have a multinational brand, global brand with arguably the best ceo in the world, bernard

arnault, the alex ferguson, if you will, of ceos and very clever, and $13 billion in cash doesn't hurt. stuart: does this depend upon chinese buyers coming back to lvmh's luxury products? >> it's a big part of my premise. they have about 1850 stores in china alone which is the bulk of their business. so as the chinese come back online with their revenge spending, this is the stock to own. stuart: tell me again real fast, which brands does lvmh control? >> fendi, bulgari, all the "is," louis vuitton, sephora, moet chandon. break out the champagne because when this is over, we will need to celebrate. stuart: indeed we are. well said. one more. looking to the other side of the

virus, i know you like it, nike. make your case, please. >> i'm a nike girl. they have 16% of their stores were in asia, 80% of those are back online, and they have a playbook now. they have gone through this. they have seen through the other side. they will take that playbook for reforming and reopening their stores and take that to europe, asia, the united states. it's a sticky brand. it's part of your lifestyle. no one is better at communicating the psyche of their consumer than nike. stuart: lvmh, nike coming up on the other side. we like it. kristin bentz, thanks for joining us. let's go to lauren. have we got news out of costco and social distancing? lauren: yeah, we sure do. so costco member can only bring one person with them when they go to costco starting tomorrow. they are limiting the number of people to two people, as i said, starting tomorrow. but in terms of social

distancing and these stay-at-home orders, we are listening because if you look at costco sales in the third week of march, traffic was actually down about 9%. so people are going to the store less often and they are buying more. that is naturally reducing traffic. stuart: okay. very interesting. thanks, lauren. we still have a big show coming up for you. we have with us mike lindell, the pillow guy. peter schweitzer who will be all over joe biden. and dan henninger is on the show. he's got a great piece. stay right here. we are following everything for you. we'll be right back.

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stuart: here you go 10:00 eastern time here in new york. the markets have been open for 30 minutes. it is a mixed bag so far this morning. down a little on the dow. down a little on the nasdaq. up a fraction on the s&p. interesting a kind of go nowhere day despite the fact earlier this morning we pot the latest reading on jobless claims, the number was astronomical, 6.64 million people filed jobless claims. a huge number. we heard president trump thinks that the saudis and the russians will establish some kind of a deal, maybe to lower the oil glut that is strangling the

world market at the moment. that won't do much because demand is suppressed because of the virus effect. nonetheless, crude is going up to $21 a peril. thursday, 10:00 eastern, the latest read on mortar rates. what's the number, ashley? ashley: the magic number is, drum roll, 3.33%. that is down from 3.50 last week. the authorities say, look, the market is stablizing but home demand as you can expect has declined. as these rates drift lower. no one can really take advantage of them because we have no idea the impact on the economy that the virus is having. buying a house right now is probably the last thing on someone's mind. by the way the fixed-rate on 15 year mortar is down to 2.82%, stu. stuart: 2.82 on a 15. well that is an attractive thing. the thing about refinancing is, there is such a crush of people

who want to do it, i'm told it is pretty hard to get through to your bank and most of the branches are not open anyway? >> that is exactly right which is frustrating. so many people want to bring their mortar payments down but doing it is another issue. stuart: that's right the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. i read that somewhere. dow industrials is down 25 points, 3.33% on 30 year fixed-rate mortars. that's the news. now this. we're seven months from the election and the democrats know they have a problem. likely candidate joe biden is sidelined. he gets no traction. the primaries and the milwaukee convention, they're in chaos. even worse for the democrats, the president looks good in the polls. his performance thus far against the virus gets popular approval.

at this stage the democrats are not looking good, so what are they going to do? speaker pelosi has something up her sleeve, how about a new round of investigations, timed for september and october, right guest election. the speaker went to very friendly territory of cnn, called for quote an after action review. you know what that means? after the virus investigate the president's actions and come up with some dirt, some kind of a scandal and put it all on national television, wall-to-wall. congressman adam schiff has joined. yes he is back. he is demanding a 9/11 style commission, more investigations with him in the chair. there is no end to the democrats content for this president. adam schiff is just dying to get back on tv. it is a desperate political strategy. what a gamble. the democrats tried to smear the president with russia, russia, russia and robert mueller and then impeachment and now they're at it again.

but what else can they do? investigate, investigate, investigate. and come up with an october surprise, that is a gamble. if it fails, it surely opens the door to a second trump term, doesn't it? that is my opinion at least. phil wegmann with us, "real clear politics" white house reporter. what do you make of this? i think speaker pelosi and adam schiff, they want investigations and hearings in september and october. am i on to something? >> i think you are, because what we're seeing right now is that the campaign trail as we knew it essentially evaporated. rallies are no more. what is happening, joe biden is campaigning for the presidency from self-isolation. he is broadcasting every day from his own living room. he just started a podcast. that makes it very difficult when president trump is the only prime time game in town with those task force briefings to compete with him for the presidency. so i'm not surprised to see

nancy pelosi and others in the house push for these investigations. look, oversight is a good thing so long as it doesn't turn into a partisan circus. stuart: you're in the media. you're a white house reporter. i noticed that when the president made his briefing recently nbc's chuck todd issued a disclaimer before he put it on the air. cnn wouldn't cover the parts where the president was dealing with the drug problem here. you're in those white house briefings. do you detect real hostility from the reporters around you for the presidential team in front of you? >> i think that the press has never been more aggressive. i have certainly seen pretty sharp back and forth between the president and some of my colleagues but i will say this. the president is briefing the white house press corps again and he is stands there more than two hours. i was at a briefing on tuesday that went well into the night. at the end of that briefing every reporter in there as the president was walking away,

saying thank you, mr. president. president trump even complimented the press on different occasions saying coverage has been good. it has been fair. obviously there are going to be flair-ups between the president and others whether there are questions don't have to do about policy, instead have to do about politics or political correctness but overall i think that the actual reporters on the ground, on the white house campus they seem to be appreciative getting their questions answered. the networks, that might be a different question. stuart: phil, i see the president. stuart: speaker pelosi and treasury secretary steve mnuchin all on board with a fourth stimulus package grouped around a infrastructure plan. is that what you're hearing? does a fourth plan look likely? >> the president wants a infrastructure package. he talked about that recently. if you go back to his early days in office he has been talking about infrastructure from the beginning because this is in his dna the president likes to build things.

the question though when you have steve mnuchin, president, nancy pelosi all pushing for a infrastructure package, the question is what is mitch mcconnell going to do? he has signaled hesitancy thus far. the real concern for republicans they got burned last time they thought they were working with democrats in bipartisan fashion to get a bill across the finish line, only find out at the last minute the democrats would delay it. their big focus make certain any type of aid or spending is going to be pandemic specific, not going to include any of these other policy proposals that we saw democrats try to tuck in at the last minute. that is the battle line right now but i do think another bill is likely in the pipeline when congress returns later this month. stuart: all right, phil wegmann in the middle of it. still at home but in the middle of it. thank you for joining us. see you soon. background of books, interesting.

as of this morning we had 280 million americans ordered to stay at home. ashley, i believe another state has issued, what, stay in place order? ashley: yes. actually shelter in place. this comes from georgia. governor brian kemp will take the aggressive measure because time calls for it. more than 4600 cases in the state. 139 people have died. he says he is going to keep the shelter-in-place order. it will be in effect from tomorrow until april 13th. by the way, he says he is going to use these new restrictions by incorporating law enforcement. he said this is serious. we're telling to you shelter in place. again these times call for aggressive measures. another state stu, about every three or four americans under some sort of restriction being able to go outside of their homes. stuart: pretty soon, it will be a national lockdown or national

stay at home, maybe a couple of rural states outstanding but it looks like it really is approaching a national level at this point. ash, good stuff. look at the green. green for the dow. green for the nasdaq. green for the s&p. we've been hovering around break even all morning. at the moment we're up. goldman sachs, what's the news there, lauren? lauren: jobs for 36,000 employees at goldman sachs are safe, encouraging news after we got the jobless claims report today. that is what the ceo david salomon is telling his workers, their jobs are safe. extra 10 days of family leave should you need to deal with how the coronavirus is impacting you personally. finally, goldman helps small businesses. $300 million in loans to small businesses to get them almost immediately cash that they need to continue to operate, or to pay their staff, and keep them on payroll. stuart: i like that news, i just

love to hear the money getting out there, flowing freely and easily because that's what we all want. if you're a small business operator, your back's against the wall, you want it now. what is that commercial, you have got my money and i want it now, anyway. lauren, thank you. the dow is to the green to the tune of0 points. gary kaltbaum is with us. the president of kaltbaum capital, one much our favorite analysts. welcome to the program. >> pleasure, stuart. stuart: i read your stuff, i know that. i think you're saying heaven forbid we test the how on the dow, 18,591. heavin forbid if we test it again because if we do we head south, that's what we're saying? >> heaven forbid if we break those lows. if we do, we'll talk another 50% like we saw in 2008, like we saw

in 2000, and 03. that would be disasterous with everything we're seeing. all the people on unemployment, wealth effect combined, would not be good news. 2 would be a big one-two punch. stuart: doesn't look like we'll test the low, does it? we got dreadful news on the economy this morning. we got news on a fourth package, whether you like it or not, looks like it is coming and the dow is up 100 points. >> if we hold the lows, march, 10 million people going to unemployment and counting, fauci and birks, coming out saying we'll have 100, 240,000 people pass away if we hold the lows for that, that would be amazing. so far so good. we're in a little pullback mode after that 4400-point rally off the crash lows. i keep fingers crossed. if we can hold i think we'll be finding some leadership going forward. so i'm watching this about as close as i ever watched market

since i've been in the business. stuart: we asked all the market analysts, what do you like on the other side when we come out of this? what do you like on the other side? >> number one, microsoft, their business is accelerating big time before all this happened. number two, believe it or not starbucks. with luckin coffee out of china found out to be a fraud, they will benefit. costco also. they shown good or bad times to be able to produce in a very big way. i would say amazon. i'm worried about valuation on that one. i think amazon needs to be watched because they own the world at this point in time. stuart: all right, gary, thanks forking with us again. we always appreciate it. we will see you soon. thanks a lot. now then, i never read the "harry potter" stuff but i believe, the author, j.k. rowling is doing something for youngsters to learn with "harry potter" style. what have you got, lauren?

lauren: all right, she is giving away on a website, "harry potter" at home.com, free quizes, games and other activities about her fame must series, "harry potter." i love this it is not really about the kids. it is about the parents. this is giving parents a bit of magic during the lockdown to help them entertain the kids. her first "harry potter" book is going to be free, if you want the ebook copy. stuart: she was the first author to make a billion dollars i believe. now she is not spreading it around, but doing something for other people. she was, the first author to make a billion dollars. thanks, lauren. let's look at ashley. because, ash you set up your little studio, it looks like you're in a studio, but i know for a fact you're in your garage. ashley: i am. in fact i think i sent out a photograph earlier today. i had nothing to do with this. frank is the star who put this

together. he is the guy in the big red jacket. no insulation in the garage by the way. we have managed the close the door. thank goodness, because there is 30 million an hour wind. it is like a hurricane. it is a little warmer by five degrees. technology is amazing. i can see you, stu. we have everything set up. so there you go. three hours every day out in the garage. by the way it is not my garage. it is a great friend, susan and steven, who allowed us to take over the garage and turn it into the connecticut bureau. i kind of look like a deluded ron burgundy wanting to cabinet work anchor, decided to set up his own video. stuart: don't do yourself down, ashley, you're doing fine. good stuff. ashley: thank you. stuart: we'll get back to you shortly. look at market, a lot of green, not that strong of a rally. there is green out there. up 80 for the dow. 17 for the s&p.

38 for the nasdaq. now this. many will spend easter and passover on lockdown. jonathan morris up next, how do you celebrate easter and passover when you can't mingle? we have the answer for you and we'll be back. and best of all you can do it from start to finish without leaving the house. it's fast, too. with our va streamline refi, there's no income verification. no appraisal. and not one dollar out of pocket. our team is standing by right now to help every veteran who calls. from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase.

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♪. stuart: check those markets, por favor. nice gain of the dow. a better gain, 3/4 of 1% for the s&p. the nasdaq is up just a half percentage point. take a look at luckin, as in luckin coffee. the chief operating officer is being investigated for lying about sales and the stock is down 69%. just knocked out of the ballpark. starbucks, they're up today because of problems at luckin coffee which is a competitor. luckin down. a starbucks, a competitor, up, easy to see it. check ford. i think their stock is still down at $4 a share. their sales were down 12 1/2%. that was in the fourth quarter. not helping the company, $4.44 per share. that is ford motor company. we have news on pvh.

that is overhead company that actually owns tommy hilfiger and others. what is the news on pvh? it is up 6%, lauren. lauren: yeah, and calvin klein. they are looking at what lies ahead, the future, and they're back open in china. they said in china they are seeing early signs of recovery. they did report last night, the numbers were not good all they better than expected but the kicker to this story is, that their ceo, manny kirico, he is from the bronx, he recently visited a bronx hospital recently, he is member of the board and he tested positive for the coronavirus. he does continue to work. he says he is recovering and he feels fine. stuart: got it. that's good news. lauren, thanks very much. lauren: what a story. stuart: yeah. ashley, come in from your garage please, tell me about mayor garcetti and los angeles and face masks.

ashley: yes. he now says if you're going outside wear a face mask, not the surgical ones. you can make a made-up ones. maybe use a bandanna. we've seen a lot of people do that, home-made ones, maybe a neck warmer, something like that, he says if you're out there, especially out there as an essential worker, doesn't want people to use the normal health worker masks because he says health workers need them. he believes everyone should be wearing face mask. this is a issue a bit confusing u.s. surgeon general said to people, don't bother if you're healthy, don't wear the masks, because they don't protect you because they can develop more germs on the front of them. now that we know there are more asymptomatic people out there to could be carriers of virus, the idea you should wear masks is starting to gain popularity. even the cdc said probably best out of caution if you can to cover your face because, again as i just said, is it you, there

are people who have no symptoms but are carriers and they can be particularly dangerous when they move out and about. wearing a mask for anybody is probably a good idea. stuart: well that is entirely understandable, ash, that really is. thanks for the good report, good stuff. ashley: sure. stuart: let me get back to this week at the white house and the virus task force briefing. mike lindell, the mypillow guy, he upset a lot of people and the media when he said this. roll tape, please. >> god gave us grace on november 8th, 2016 to change the course we were on. god had been taken out of our schools and lives, a nation turned its back on god. and i encourage you it use this time at home to get back in the word. read our bibles and spend time with our families. stuart: there you heard it. his advice was, get back to your family, read your bible. mike lindell joins us right know. he is on the screen, right-hand side of the screen right there.

you faced quite a lot of backlash from this. why do you think that the -- >> reminds me of three years ago, when better business bureau attacked me when i went all-in for the p you remember that? stuart: i do remember that. why did you face such a backlash because you said go read the bible? >> you know, i don't understand it. i think, you know, what a perfect time for the greatest revival ever to get back. our nation did turn its back on god. that is what i believe. if there is some people on the left that are mocking me on, cnn. stuart: jim acosta all the people out there, i don't know these people, i am just saying i'm trying to give people hope, spend time with our families and when we come out of this as a nation and as -- it will be safer. we're never going to be reliant on china and stuff to bring all our medical supplies in but i don't know why they attack.

i have learned a lot since i went all-in for our president three years ago that, they're just haters out there. i don't know how else to explain it. stuart: but if i may bring something out here, you have a difficult history. your personal story is very difficult. i believe i'm not revealing anything people don't know, i believe you were addicted to drugs but i believe christianity brought you out of it or certainly reading the bible brought you out of it. is that accurate? >> right. you know, addiction affects all of us, no matter how many forks we eat with. i was a crack cocaine addict. by the grace of god through prayer, i'm coming to my lord jesus christ and replacing things from childhood trauma and i believe where addiction manifest from. when we come out of this, i have a big network, the lindell

recovery network. i want other addicts to be set free. we have faith based treatment separators like salvation army team challenge, that is something you work. you have a foundation, you have the foundation of god to move on and get past these wound. i couldn't talk to people. i was always had a fear of rejection, i wasn't good enough. drugs made me more, it was a mask for pain or a mask for false courage. stuart: understood. >> people need to look, if you're home receipt now, you can look at someone out there made it through, get on your phone, that will be your home patch. my story, i want to spread hope. stuart: good. mike, i've got to break in for a second, i have only literally 30 seconds before a hard break. tell me, how many masks are you making and delivering in this challenge? >> we're up to 50,000 a day. we're getting real close to that number. i'll tell you, i just delivered

them to my home state of minnesota, one county where i grew up, highest per capita. we delivered a truckload there yesterday. i'm proud to help people in this time. all my employees. my hats off to them. stuart: mike lindell, i know you, i have met you. i know your company. i think you're a good man. thanks for being on the show today, mr. lindell, you're all right. >> thanks for having me on it. stuart: check that market. sure thing. let me see the green please, why not. up 140 for the dow, 40 for the nasdaq. 20 for the s&p, i like the look of that green. small business owners they will be able to access relief loans and it starts tomorrow. we're breaking the whole thing down for you after this. attention veterans with va loans.

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stuart: do i still see green arrows? yes i do. dow is up nearly 200 now. nasdaq 46, s&p, 26. like that green. show me zoom, please. interesting that they are now seeing 200 million daily users but the stock is down 8%. why? because a company called ring central is offering their own teleconferencing operation. in other words, big-time competition. let's turn our attention to small business owners. we know for a fact that you are in deep trouble right now. we are told that small business owners can get same day loans from banks and this starts tomorrow. that's interesting. alfredo ortiz it with us. he is with the job creators network. he knows all about this. is it that simple, alfredo, if i'm a small business operator, i go to my bank, my local bank, show them eight weeks of payroll, give it to them, they

punch a few things into the computer, and i get the money, is it really that simple? >> stuart, i have to tell you first of all good morning. i hope you're well, your loved ones are well and you're staying safe. stuart: they are. >> believe it or not, this is unprecedented, stuart. just think about less than a week ago, the cares act was signed into law by the president. by tomorrow $350 billion of cash is going to be made available to small business owners across the country, not only through sba, and this is really, really important, stuart, your local bank, for example, your community credit union, for example, farm bureau lending institutions all of those will be made available to make loans to small business owners starting tomorrow which is unbelievable. it is a basically a one-page form. stuart: wait a second. that is what i'm interested in. it is a one-page form, literally is that simple? >> that's right. stuart: and anybody can do it? >> stuart, it is unbelievable.

quick caveat on that. this is, good part is, the provision, it is called the paycheck protection program. we like calling it the triple p and industry you will start hearing that, the triple p, or paycheck protection program. it is open to sole proprietors and gig economy employee workers, end of one that with will not be available to april 10th. that is a big caveat there. quite frankly they're trying to work through some specific issues how you capture that, what you show as income. for the small business owner, eight weeks of payroll, stuart. by the way it covers mortar rent payments, benefits, utilities. so it is an amazing program but it is basically a one-page, one-page program for small business owners made available tomorrow. stuart: okay. just real fast, some big banks are balking at this, about this lending program because of

liability. they're worried somewhere down the road lawyers will get into it you didn't do this, this, you're on the hook, that is going to be a problem, isn't it? >> you know what, stuart? i actually feel very, very good this will be worked out. when you look at it, they brought up a legitimate issues, for all intent and issues, treasury is deputizing the loan officers these are legitimate businesses. the issue raised is legitimate one. i guarranty you this will be resolved. remember issue a couple days ago, how seniors would get their checks, 1200 checks if they don't file irs and stuff like that, now it will go through social security, basically get a social security check, you will get your $1200. i guarranty you folks at treasury, i had communications with them, they will figure this one out, stu. they will know what to do from that perspective. already if you look at website, i looked this morning, pnc bank as one example. they're advertising. they're saying they will be

doing these loans. at the end of the day there will be no bank out there, saying wait a minute, because of liability, i will not lend to a vendor or merchant i have had relationship for years. this will be figured out, i guarranty you that. maybe simple as safe harbor waiver but it will be solved, stuart. stuart: weapon love to hear that. treasury secretary told us on this program we want to get the money out there fast and it looks like they're doing it. >> they're doing it. stuart: alfredo ortiz, thanks for joining us. now one of the things we're interested on the program is domestic travel restrictions. we're hearing about another one. what is this, cape cod? i have got my daughter and her husband and five kids are on cape cod. what's the restriction, ash? what's the proposal? ashley: there is no restriction but that is not how people who live on cape cod year-round wanted. they would like the bridges shut down to keep people who may be bringing the coronavirus with

them to get on the cape. there is petition going on right now, with more than 7,000 signatures, saying people, especially from new york who have a second home on cape cod, are starting to turn up. there is complaints that some of the kids that come with the families are now hanging out together on cape cod beaches, but, i don't think that protest is going to go very far. not one town within cape cod requested bridges be closed. those bridges are considered critical infrastructure. they say it is just not possible. the usual restrictions of self-isolation are in place, that they are taking every precaution, but no, they're not going to shut off cape cod from the rest of massachusetts and the rest of anywhere else in america, for that matter, stu. i know you have a vested interest as well. don't worry, the bridges remain open. stuart: okay. i won't worry, thanks very much, ash. now on the subject of domestic traffic restrictions who better

to bring in than judge andrew napolitano. i see these restrictions popping up everywhere, not in some kind of legislation, judge, but just recommendations. >> right. stuart: basically hostility to people moving around. it is not a question of the law though, is it it. this is social pressure? >> yes, it is. ashley described it very nicely. of course they would be crazy to keep you off of cape cod because if you stopped paying your real estate taxes on property that you can't use, the government would go bankrupt. only kidding. look, the government can't stop you from moving from a to b, particularly when b is your private residence that you own. one can understand the local animosity to the concept of people coming in from so-called hot spots, one of which is where we are now, new york city metropolitan area, but neither a petition, nor a decree by a mayor, nor a decree by a governor, nor even legislation

by a state legislature can stop you from traveling, stuart, from new jersey to massachusetts. stuart: judge, this camera shot we're using i can look right behind you, new york city, sixth avenue, i can only see one car moving on sixth avenue new york at 10:30 in the morning. i find that incredible, judge. >> stuart, you're exactly right. you know i live during the week just a couple of blocks from here. so i'm familiar with this neighborhood. the most deserted you see it about 7:00, 8:00 in the morning on christmas morning. that is jammed compared to the way it looks now. blocks and blocks and blocks are ghost towns because people are complying with the suggestions, not legal force of law but suggestions, made very articulately by governor

andrew cuomo to stay home unless your work is essential. it is gloomy and it is depressing but it might actually work. stuart: well-said. i mean it is working right outside the window, absolutely a ghost town. judge, thanks very much indeed. i want to move on, i got this announcement this, is really moving market. president trump tweeting this, i will quote it. just spoke to my friend, mbs, crown prince of saudi arabia, who spoke with president putin of russia and i expect and hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 million barrels, that's oil and maybe substantially more, which if it happens, will be great for the oil and gas industry. look at the price of oil after that. i'm sure it's up. the market has turn the around. look at that look at that. oil is up 24%. that is extraordinary. 25% at $25 a barrel.

and that is clearly helping the market because, look, you've got two crises here for the market. you've got the shutdown of the economy for the month of april and you got the crash in the price of oil which is really kez mating, drillers and texas and elsewhere. when oil rebounds like this, you can expect a rebound on the market. that is what we've got. let's break down the news we received this morning on the huge jump in jobless claims. lauren, you have the jobless claims. lauren: stuart, that number topped even the highest estimates that i saw. of course this is a proxy for layoffs. we get the big government jobs report tomorrow but that will not include the total damage. i want to include the silver lining in this report. we expected numbers to be big. we might expect them to get even bigger. to that last point, new york state, their claims last week

were only, this is ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic right here in the u.s., the new york state claims were only 366,000. so you should expect that number to get bigger, maybe overall getting bigger as well. one other point? because these numbers are so high outside of new york state, states overall are able to process the claims. so we're seeing the system work and hopefully americans out of work right now are getting money they need fast. stuart: all right. good stuff, lauren. thank you very much, indeed. i will go back to what turned the market. it did turn literally in a few moments after a presidential tweet saying that he got a deal, hoped that the saudis and the russians would cut oil production 10 million barrels of oil a day or maybe more. that put a shot in the arm to the oil market. we're at $25 a barrel. and a shot in the arm for the stock market. we're up 500 for the dow. we'll be back.

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stuart: market turn around. they're still up nicely. a gain of 360 for the dow industrials. it is really all about oil. president trump has tweeted about an oil meeting. saudis, russia, reducing out put. saudi arabia has just called for an emergency opec meeting. coming into this, lauren, tell me more. exactly what did the president

say? lauren: this moved the market positive to the upside. the president in a tweet said he spoke with the crown prince of saudi arabia, who spoke with russian president vladmir putin and they have, they expect to announce a 10 million-barrel cut in oil, so production cuts to take oil off the market and with that, we are seeing the oil stocks go up double digits, whether it is exxon or chevron. those companies and others meeting tomorrow with the president. but also the etfs. energy sector is rising as is the price of oil today. as you noted, stuart, saudi arabia is calling for an opec plus emergency meeting to rebalance the market. this is excellent news for shale producers here in the u.s. we're dealing with the coronavirus and also this russia saudi arabia price war. stuart: yeah. all right. lauren, thanks very much indeed. our viewers are seeing on the left-hand side of the screen the price of oil has gone to $26 a

barrel now. that is a 30% gain in a matter of two minutes. exxon is up 9%. chevron 12%. bp even up 11%. okay? oil, the news there turning stock market around. now, cruise ships, one cruise ship in particular i think it is off the coast of florida, with sick passengers aboard, what is the news on that cruise ship, ash? ashley: there are two of them, stu. there is an ever evolving story. these two ships operated by holland-america, zaandam and rotterdam, have been going port to port, trying to get on dry land and refused. between the boats, especially on the zaandam, they have nine people tested positive for the coronavirus. another close to 180 passengers who have flu-like symptoms. therefore countries have been very unwilling to allow these boats to dock. in fact florida at first said

no. there are over 300 americans on these two cruise lines and florida governor said i may be tempted to take on those people who reside in florida but now, just in the last few minutes, there are reports of both boats will, ships i should say will be allowed at port everglades in florida. how it goes from there, it is unclear. those who are sick will be taken into medical facilities but there are many more, there is a total of i believe 2500, between the two cruise ships. that is including the crew as well. how do they get back to their homes? that is being debated now. for the longest time, stu, since march 7th, when the zaandam left argentina they have been stuck in the ocean. horrible story for them as well. stuart: yes, well-said, ashley. you're absolutely right there. 2500 people, stuck, good lord.

change the subject, get this in. austin, texas, in that city, there is an investigation underway at the spring breakers return from mexico, then tested positive for the virus. we have the mayor of austin with us now, steve adler. your honor, welcome to the program, it is good to have you here. are you trying to establish accountability and hold these youngsters liable in some way? >> i think the most important message for our community right now is to continue to learn. this is a virus that is incredibly infectious and it can be passed by somebody who is asymptomatic. doesn't know that they have it. and, that's really the lesson that we need to learn from these folks on spring break coming back. stuart: your honor, i understand we got to learn, i understand we got to learn from it, i got it, but are you going to prosecute them? you are going to investigate, you think in terms of

prosecution? >> no, i don't think anybody is going there yet. i don't think we're at a blame place. right now these steps we're taking in austin are being taken around the country are not going to work because we enforce them. ultimately there are too many people. they are going to work because the culture and the norm adopts them. that is what we need. stuart: are you going to name them and shame them? >> again, i think we need to elevate the issue so that people learn, so that people change their behavior. we still have people that are bunching up on the hike and bike trails here in the city. the message has not gotten to everyone, especially to the younger demographic. and we're focused now elevating it, talking about it very loudly, because we want people to learn. that is the emphasis. your honor, look very which for joining us this morning. a touch choi subject, a lot of outrage about this. i'm sorry if i press ad little

hard there. you're right, sir, we all have to learn from this, the fact. steve adler, austin mayor, appreciate it. market still on up side. we were up 500 when we got the news on oil. we're still up 300 points for the dow industrials. countless companies suffering because of the virus, we all know that. but one company is trying to save itself by cutting executive pay. okay? we'll delve into that for a moment. 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, helping you weather storms like this one, to protect your loved ones. and we'll do it for 168 more. helpin♪ wash, washy wash,s ♪ wash your hands

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stuart: holding the stock market gain because of a rebound in the price of oil. we're still up 285 on the dow industrials. lauren has news for us on more furloughs in the retailing industry. this time it is ross stores. tell me more. lauren: right. so all of their store workers

and those in their distribution centers will be furloughed, starting on april this. what a furlough is, it is not exactly a lay off. you bear a hardship now. for instance you don't get paid now so we can save jobs in the end. a lay i don't have is more permanent, more definite than a furlough. also ross stores, ceo and chairman forgoing their salaries. the stock is down over 1%, stuart. stuart: okay. that is not a huge loss in that situation. thanks very much, lauren. do you remember dan price, gravity payments chief executive. he has been on the show in the past. you tried to help his workers with a 70,000-dollar per person minimum wage in his company. there is some trouble with that in these difficult times and dan joins us now. have you taken pay cuts for absolutely everybody, dan? >> so we had the employees organize and decide to do voluntary pay cuts on an

individual basis. there were a few employees that opted not to take a pay cut but i think something like 97, 98% opted to give a pay cut. so, this really difficult situation. our economics are a function of small businesses and small businesses are down 55% right now. it is heart-breaking. stuart: sure. did you yourself take a pay cut? you're the ceo? >> i did. my chief operating officer, tammy and i we both took our pay down to zero out of solidarity. it was really inspired by the employees. we had 10 employees opt to take 100% pay cut in this situation, completely voluntary, which is one of the most humbling moments of my entire life. stuart: well you made a big splash when you paid all of your workers that minimum wage, $70,000. we're glad to hear that everybody is pitching in to help and save the company, gravity payments. dan price, i'm glad you got on the show. like to share that with everybody. we appreciate it. i'm sorry it is so short.

this is a fast breaking news day. the dan price, you're all right. thanks for joining us, sir, appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. stuart: look at market, holding on to 300 point gain for the dow, 77 on the nasdaq and 38 for the s&p. in the next hour "wall street journal's" dan henninger is with us. his new piece is about the next coronavirus battle, president trump versus speaker pelosi. we're all over this story on oil. we've got it for you, coming up after this. refinance when mortgage rates drop. . . . there's no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. one call can save you $2,000 a year. refi now.

won't be a new thing. and it won't be their first experience with social distancing. overcoming challenges is what defines the military community. usaa has been standing with them, for nearly a hundred years. and we'll be here to serve for a hundred more.

stuart: the market has been up for most of the day, a nice boost just a few minutes ago when we received this tweet from the president, it is about oil but it moved stocks. just spoke to my friend in bs, crown prince's saudi arabia who spoke with president putin of russia and i expect and hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 million barrels of oil and may be substantially more which it happens, will be great for the oil and gas industry. now in bs is called for an emergency opec meeting thanks to the president call. oil almost $26 a barrel, no enormous gain at almost 28% as we speak. analyst andy joines is now on the phone.

andy, we're back up to $26 a barrel, does it stabilize in the mid-20s? >> i think of saudi arabia and russia go through with the 10 million-barrel a day cut, we certainly will stabilize at these levels but it's not enough to get the shale producers back into profitability. stuart: there is some talk that when the president meets the oil company executives tomorrow, they will suggest putting a tariff on saudi oil and maybe other oil that comes into project are domestic producers. what do you say to that. >> i think the oil industry is split on whether that is a good idea or not harold is in favor of it but a number of them are not. if you liquids imported the biggest reliance happened to be the west coast so if we were to put tariffs on everyone, certainly that would be of benefit to the domestic

producers. stuart: do you see anything in the near future that gets oil above $30 a barrel? >> it is going to have to be a resolution to the pandemic in a glimmer of light that oil demand starts to recover. unfortunately a lot of the forecast for april destruction around the world is about 25 million barrels a day. so one can see that this production cut by saudi and russia is really almost forced by the supply dynamic around the world. stuart: what kind of help do you think the president could give the oil industry tomorrow or any point in the near future which would help them out, bail them out, what can you do? >> there is very little you can do on the demand side, the only thing that he can do to continue to give them financial support, as you mentioned, tariffs or something that he could impose on imports into the u.s., of

course ratifications around the rest of the world about u.s., exports over products and maybe there would be counter failing tariffs to other people. it's a really a difficult situation with no easy solution but we have to unfortunately have a demand to return over the next several months. >> we got it, oil at $26 a barrel, thank you so much for joining us. the blip up in the price of oil did help the stock market, it certainly helped oil companies, the dow industrial of 400 points. and now this. stuart: we are all big spenders now, the 2.2 trillion dollars stimulus plan has only just past, most of the money has to be distributed, here comes

stimulus plan number four, in the planning stage and it has momentum. you can see another spending wave coming right at us. the president wants to build his new plan around an infrastructure deal, speaker pelosi also wants big infrastructure spending as well as perhaps reversal salt, that would put up auto money to the wealthy people in new york, new jersey, and connecticut, and california. isn't it interesting that she wants a reward the wealthy, she's a democrat. interesting. treasury secretary mnuchin says it is a great time to invest in infrastructure. it seems like everybody is on board although mitch mcconnell says we should hold off for now. got it. clearly, the desire to spend money now crosses ideological lines, both sides of the aisle are very much in favor. the theory is the virus is such a disaster that anything is justified, just do it. let's not forget there is an

election coming up in a few short months, which politician will stand up to the criticism, you did not do enough. who wants to hold back another spending binge. nobody. remember, presidents, governors, leading politicians, will be held accountable for their performance during the various disasters. we will sort out the damage in the debt and the deficits, that comes later. the urge to spend our way out of the mess is obvious. it has momentum, there is a clear feeling of just do it, yes, we are indeed all big spenders now. okay, let me bring in mark, at market guy with strategic wealth partners, i am making a comment about big spending, both sides of the aisle trying to help the economy, what do you make of it, we are all big spenders now. >> we are all big spenders, un t the nail on the head, republicans and democrats have been on the same page with the infrastructure bill for quite

some time, the issue is they have not been able to agree on the price tag so suddenly we see ourselves, we have a crisis on hands, we have historically low interest rates, unemployment trending up towards the double digits quickly and white might be the deepest recession, suddenly there is a blank check and there is lots of reasons why this would benefit but employment is the number one reason, this would create jobs and furthermore if you think, these people would be working in the social distancing manner they are not locked up in a building, they are outside. and as a country we need infrastructure, it is troubling. when you look at this thing broadly, it will have a much longer lasting impact than giving 701200 bucks or giving them juiced up on unemployment benefits that could just incentivize them for getting back to work great it creates jobs in numbe jobs is number on. there is a 12 - 18 month lag.

stuart: hold on one second, i'm going to get back to you in just a second and what you like in terms of stocks on the other side. i want to bring in our next best, senator todd young republican from indiana. we are all big spenders, are you on board, your republican, from indiana, are you on board with being a big spenders? >> i am on board with big growth. i think that's what the republican party needs to stand for. that means getting the table stakes right as we have in recent years through the trump administration, working with the republican-controlled congress we are able to reform our tax code and reduce the regulatory burden and take other prudent measures that the gop has been talking about for years in order to enjoy a healthy economy, some could argue the healthiest economy in five decades. some of that will involve strategic investment so our economy can grow. some of those investments do have longer payback than the

quarterly return that you see in the private sector and i think we need to rethink how we invest in infrastructure, other frontier technologies that will benefit all of us, public private partnerships crowding in as much investment as possible, it makes sense, something you typically hear from republicans and we will continue to press that responsible fiscally prudent message as opposed to throwing money out the door with the national endowment which nancy pelosi slipped into the most recent package. stuart: can i put it like this, you would be in favor of more spending, you are in favor of a fourth rescue stimulus package, on condition that we don't introduce a new entitlement program, would you go along with all of that. >> these are all what-ifs, i think right now the leader,

leader mcconnell and the senate, and so many other colleagues have been speaking off of the same script. i joined them in that. we just passed a major emergency relief package. the purpose of that was to make rank-and-file americans whole and when governments tell them to stay home for public health purposes, i think there's a moral imperative to make people whole and that's what we've done through the cares act, let's see how that is implemented in c with economy and american workers need and then we can start talking seriously about an additional piece of legislation if necessary but i am very apprehensive about spending money especially with the proposal that a here coming from nancy pelosi. with that said, there are other countries out there like the chinese who see this as an opportunity to turn our current

health pandemic crisis into their own advantage. through this information, were crappy market share around the world and yes, largely by our intellectual property by coming up with a conservative plan to dominate those frontier technologies of the future like artificial intelligence, reformed computing. in some other key areas, i think to the extent we will make investments working with the private sector, we need to do so in those areas and i have put together a proposal it's a national innovation strategy that would call for the national security investments. stuart: okay. i have got to run because i have some breaking developments here. senator todd run from indiana. thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. blake burman is with us, we have the statement of 6.6 new jobless

claims, we got that earlier, do you have the white house response? reporter: i do, i reached out to the white house earlier and this is the response that i got from the white house about the jobless claim number and essentially they are pointing back to the 2.2 trillion dollar package saying essentially that will help out the millions of americans who are now filing jobless claims. here is a statement in full. president trump has called on all americans to help slow the spread of covid-19. as always the american people are responding with great spir spirit. last week president trump quickly signed historic legislation that helped american workers confront and respond to the many economic challenges ahead such as increased on employment claims. his signature ensures access to incentives for businesses to retain workers and continue paying them as well enhance an appointment benefits. because of the presidents leadership we will emerge from this challenge stronger and with a prosperous and growing economy. that is a full statement from the white house and they are

saying the cares act legislation calls for all of these uninsurance benefits. but remember president trump himself, will double times has cast doubt on whether or not the state can handle the massive influx now as we have seen 10 million people over the last two weeks. stuart: blake burman in washington. thank you. i want to bring back mark taber, a market guy in this moment, i know you have been looking to the other side as some of her other guest and i know there are some companies that you really like when we do come out on the other side. i'm going to run through it, you have dominoes, activision, walmart netflix. start with dominoes and go through. >> we are in a pretty dark situation right now and they always say it's dark before the dawn so that's my dog portfolio. so when people are at home and hunkering down, these are the

things that they will do, dominoes obviously the demand for pizz pizza increases with sl distancing and they have a competitive advantage over everyone else. they're the best when it comes to digital ordering. activision, young folks love playing video games especially when they're stuck at home. you will see an increase in they have embraced the whole free to play model on the battle royal games with the latest released war zone. walmart, you need to get your toilet paper and basic necessities and that is for all of his people who do not like video games, i'm not a big fan of video games, what do you do, you binge watch stuff like tiger king. unfortunately, that's what people are watching. if you held that an equally weighted matter, you're outperforming the s&p 500 and was 20% since the february peak. that's a great strategy for treading water on these uncertain times. stuart: we like your energy. i don't know where you get it from. what did you have for breakfast,

i want some of that and i want your age as well. mark, come back and see us again soon. you know, remember when prince charles declared or announced i got it. we have an update on his condition. ashley laid on us. ashley: yes, it is good news, he is now on the other side, of this illness and he said he only had mild symptoms but he is still self isolating. in fact let's listen to the british throne himself. >> recently i've gone through the crisis of contracting this coronavirus. luckily i had mild symptoms. and i find myself on the other side of the illness but still in no lesser state of social distancing and general isolati isolation. ashley: there you go, the prince said he went on to say he and

his wife are thinking of those who have lost their loved ones and having to endure what he calls sickness, isolation and loneliness. but prince charles is 71 years old is on the other side of the coronavirus. that is good news. stuart: i like his accent. i wish i could talk like that. [laughter] we will move on. we are move on to tiger king. i try to watch it last night, i lasted 20 minutes and it's not my kind of thing. but lauren, you have an update on the central character. what is going on. lauren: i'm so glad you said that, i'm the only person on earth plus you that cannot get into it. everybody is talking about this netflix series and they are literally news on it every day, here is the latest, the main character serving a 22 year sentence in jail. there were coronavirus cases in the previous jail so he was

moved to a prison medical center in fort worth, texas where he is in solitary quarantine. he is isolated and quarantines and that according to his 24-year-old husband. stuart: i'm glad you put in all that detail, that is vital. maybe i will take another look at it. thank you. all right, the markets, we have a 300-point gain for the dow, 91 for the nasdaq, s&p up 41 despite some rotten financial news earlier this morning. the mainstream media gave mike lindell fla slack about bringint to the white house and told him to read the bible. all hell broke loose, excuse the expression, i want to know what the catholic priest thinks about that. in joe biden slamming mr. trump's response to the virus on the tonight show. we will tell you exactly what he said on that and that will be

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and now for their service to the community, for 100 days. we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. and now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ stuart: all right everybody, where are we now, we are still in the green and number 300-point gain for the dow jones industrial. check the airlines, i have no idea what the status is at the moment and terms of the stock price, a little degree in

southwest and a little decline for jetblue and delta and the others. their stock price depends not so much on a revival of passenger traffic, that will not happen anytime soon, it's how much money are they going to get from the government and how in when will they get it. that is a story on the airlines, there is no way down. the troubling story, that uss roosevelt and some of the sailors on the board have the virus, ash has an update on. ashley: the aircraft carrier is dusting warm, they want to get as many sailor sailors authorshs possible because of the readings on some of the sailors, we understand that nearly 7000 sailors will be taken off the ship by tomorrow, the big problem, where do you put them. guam is not exactly big and there's only limited amount of beds available.

and they're looking at various options including perhaps using hotels, perhaps building a tent city, we are told they are able to get 3000 off the boat. the captain told the navy that this is a situation that could go downhill very quickly. we do have coronavirus, it is accelerating, apparently that is happening and we will follow the story and the ship continues to be docking guam and looking for beds everywhere that they can. stuart: i bet they are. thank you very much. let's get to the election, it seems like it's on hold, i want to tell you what joe biden said last night on the tonight show. >> i guess in a nutshell, the president waited too long to start taking it seriously. all the way back in january i

went on major newspaper saying we have to get moving, this is a real problem, we know it is coming and we know we have to get better and provide test and be getting out and making sure people understand what is about to come. but it has been a lot of lag time, the president saying this will end shortly and it's going to be like a miracle, et cetera. stuart: trump delayed the popular democrat lies. peter schweitzer is on the green, the right-hand side of the screen, he's the guy who wrote profiles and corruption and other bestsellers. would you assess the state of joe biden's candidacy. >> i think it is on life support for couple of reasons. first of all were in the midst of a national crisis and he really does not have any role to play, he wants to play a role, he wants to get on the phone

with the president and offer advice, i don't think the president particularly interested in that. it is going to be difficult for him, i think also there are lurking issues within the democratic party which are being covered up right now because of the crisis but are going to reemerge this summer when i think the coronavirus will be something that we are looking at in the rearview mirror. stuart: we have the report about a week ago of some senators selling stock right before the market went way down because of the virus. we now understand that senator kelli loeffler was selling off more stock than originally reported, here is the book profiles and corruption, do you think those stock sales were a form of corruption? >> yes, i think this is a major problem, i wrote a book in 2011 called throw them all out which broke the story on insider trading by members of congress and it rea led to the passage oe

stock act. as i look at these cases we are starting to see emerge from the house as well because remember, not everybody has reported their stock transaction yet in this congress. but the one involving senator burr is critically egregious and in my mind the classic case of insider trading and i think he should be investigated and charged under the stock act by the department of justice. in his particular case he got a very apocalyptic briefing the next day, the next day he sold i believe 33 positions which amounted to well more than half of his entire net worth in a single day transaction. his claim was that he was watching cable news and decided to make the stock trade which i think it strange credulity. i think all of these needs to be looked at, kelly loeffler, feinstein, but bert is egregious and demands attention by the department of justice which it looks like it is getting.

stuart: peter sweitzer, come back soon, we would like to follow up on this one. thank you very much. stuart: look at ibm, look at the stock, the company is using artificial intelligence to answer your questions about the virus. i am going to talk to the chief artificial intelligence guy about that in just a moment. we will be back, by the way, it is thursday so dan is on the show talking about the virus were between trump in speaker policy. that is next. ♪

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upside threat the morning as far. ashley, we have some news about companies cutting or slowing down their contribution to your 401k. tell me more about that one. ashley: we are seeing this more and more, suspending or reducing contributions to the 401k plans, we have already seen this happen, amtrak, la-z-boy, the tech travel company, those have already made those announcements and suspending or reducing the amount of match. marriott said it will delay until september it's matching contribution, same story with macy's, this is the same thing that we sell in 2008 with the financial crisis, back then, 20% of companies with 1000 employees or more suspended were reduced their contributions, wide range of businesses this time around and we saw that in 2008 and they

are starting to do this in order to save cash as a buffer as we continue to see the virus have a major impact on the u.s. economy. it is bad enough when you look at your 401k now and see the damage being done on the stock market but now the contributions may be going away or at the very least suspended. stuart: not good. thank you. ibm has created, what i am told, a virtual chat, it answers your questions about the virus. rob thomas is with us, the top artificial intelligence guy at ibm and he joins us now. i want to know how i ask a question. if i am sitting here with my phone, i want to know how do i ask your chat bought a question. take me through. >> absolutely, great to be here.

ibm is built for critical situations just like the one we are facing, we have made and assistance available to anyone who ordered 90 days and we are working with government agencies, healthcare organizations around the world right now, you go to children's healthcare of atlanta, right on their website you can ask any question around pediatric care. if you want to know about symptoms that your child might have, watson can answer those questions, we done similar things in arkansas, the city of austin, all around the world, greece and spain, a.i. gives you superpowers with a virtual agent, anybody can have their questions answered. stuart: can you explain how artificial intelligence gives you extra power. >> absolutely. think of it this way, we built models that understand the way that human understands. if you ask a question, we understand the intent of your question, what the language means and we can help decipher

what you're actually trying to accomplish. so at university of arkansas with a medical of science, they can answer questions around symptoms and treatments of covid-19 and that is based on the power of watson. what is really amazing about modern technology, you can get this up and running in 24 hours. we have had organizations come to us in a day later they can answer questions and this is not just for citizens although it can be, this is for serving your employees, serving your customers, serving your business partners as we all moved to a distributed work environment, everybody needs a way to engage with employees. stuart: very interesting. i'm beginning to understand and you helped me with that. and i appreciate it. all hands on deck, let's beat this thing, you are playing your part and that's good stuff. ibm, thank you for being with us. stuart: the next one, it is

thursday, dan, the wall street journal, dan you got your new piece out, the next virus war. i have read it and it seems to me you are saying that trump, it is about infrastructure, but nancy pelosi is about power. you are implying speaker pelosi will use stimulus plan for as a vehicle to be an entitlement program or heavy-duty spending, is that the line of attack in your article today? >> that is right, after 9/11 we had a period of bipartisanship in which the parties came together, it is clear were living in an age where that is not going to happen anymore. bipartisanship is dead, we live in an error of polarization. a nancy pelosi is a general and the democrats army and she

intends to use this crisis for the war that will take place after the crisis passes and i think the argument they are going to make is that if the federal government was able to lead us through something like the coronavirus crisis then we should be willing to ask the federal government to provide more economic protections, more social guidance, and a general way whether in healthcare, education or as nancy pelosi suggested, paying the pension obligations of unions. in other words, much larger long-term role for the federal government. we all know that they are going to be changes after the coronavirus passes, after the crisis passes, i think it will apply to the political system as well and if the democrats fully intend to use the troubled state of mind like a lot of americans to push a more bigger and larger role for the federal government. long-term.

stuart: i am sure you are right, i think there will be heavy duty investigations that the president handling the virus in those investigations will be in september, october right before the election, dan, always good to see you on a thursday, we'll see you again next week, thank you so much. the next case, hobby lobby. i think they have a cease-and-desist order saying you cannot open, grady, what's more on this. reporter: this hobby lobby in illinois is closed but they did receive two cease-and-desist orders from attorney general and ohio and colorado, both of the states under stay-at-home orders right now in multiple hobby lobby stores in those states tried to stay open despite those orders, that is why they received the letters telling them that they must close, they're not considered an essential business or they could face legal consequences. so some hobby lobby stores apparently still open today but

they agreed and at least ohio and colorado to close their doors after getting those letters and the threat of legal action. i reached out to hobby lobby and i did not hear back and i also reached out to a representative of the ceo david green to see if we could talk to them about this, i did not hear back from him either. stuart: i don't see many people in those stories, there is one behind you i don't know if it's open and i don't see any customers. that's the way it is there. check the market -- he is shaking his head, no customers. the market holding on to the small gain, 240 points up, not that small, a 1% gain for the dow, 1% for the nasdaq, 1.5% for the s&p. we have some green here this thursday morning. look at the homebuilders. mortgage applications down 24% from last year. the real estate market looks like it's dead in the water. gerri howard, president of the

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stuart: if you are just joining us, over two hours into the trading session and we have been in the green almost all morning despite horrendous news on unemployment earlier in the day. look at the airlines, an interesting story developing here, lawmakers now want the airlines to refund passengers

cash because the virus cancellation of the flight. hillary vaughn, come on in. reporter: nine democratic u.s. senators are asking for 11 different airlines to issue cash refunds instead of waiting cancellation fees for a lot of flights that have been canceled and rescheduled due to the coronavirus epidemic, there saying these have a moral responsibility to do so. some of these airlines like united, delta, southwest say they are reviewing this request, or taking a look, american is standing by the cancellation procedure saying the vouchers they have in place meet their customer's needs but i also want to flag new info coming out of southwest airlines again they are going to ask the u.s. treasury for some of this relief money that was approved in the latest stimulus package, the phase three package approved last week. but i want to flag one part of that, there is a contingency to

this money, the treasury secretary does have the right or the opportunity to demand that any airline taking this money has to maintain routine scheduled air service, flights that they had scheduled before the routine service in order to take the money, the reason that is interesting because southwest announced they are cutting 40% of their flights through least june 5, a lot of them have been scaling down the flights they are taking. that is something to tak to take into consideration for the bottom line, senators at least nine of them are asking for airlines if you are taking this -- essentially what they are describing a bailout money, you should use that money not just to pay your workers but to pay your customers who need this cash to pay for basic needs. stuart: it is remarkable dynamic giving the collapse of the airline industry over the past couple of weeks and going forward. good stuff. thank you very much.

check the homebuilders, look at the stock prices, we have a couple of interesting news items on the real estate market, number one, mortgage applications down 24%, compared to last year. number two, 30 year fixed-rate mortgages all the way down to a rate of 3.3%. jerry howard nahb ceo, gerri, this looks like a disaster for homebuilders, you have all these homes that have been built, the builders are often indexed in the market is come to a dead standstill. i am calling it a disaster, isn't that bad? >> in the short term we are expecting it to be pretty bleak looking at traffic with so many saying and place orders around, traffic is down, we are not seen people looking at new homes right now. but the good news is the industry was in such strong shape prior to the pandemic that

we believe we will have a very bad second quarter as in the entire economy, we will bounce back very quickly starting in the third quarter and really strongly in the third quarter of this year. i am not sure were ready to declare a disaster just yet. stuart: some of the homebuilders especially the smaller ones are heavily in debt, they rely on a credit line, they have no money coming in, is there a danger that some will go out? >> there is a danger that some of them will however, our industry learned significant lessons and the smaller builders in the great recession, there very few building home, most of them are pre-built and they got the lending institutions and the local governments have been working diligently with her homebuilders to make sure things in the pipeline get through the pipeline. there is some danger that nowhere near as bad as we could even. stuart: it is such a disaster.

i won't use that word but it just came on so quickly, your guest on our program for january, fabric, march and we are talking about the terrific housing market and all of a sudden nothing happens. you could not see this coming, could you. >> no you really cannot. another emerging issue involves her rental properties and people who own properties and manage properties for rent with the forgiveness of rent going into the law, that is great for the tenants and something that needed to be done but the owners and operators still have to pay their debt and when they are only getting 30 - 35% of the rent money per month, that is something that policymakers and financial institutions are going to have to work at, the property owners need forbearance to. stuart: keep in touch please. we want to know what is happening in your sector of the economy. now governor cuomo holds a news conference every morning about

this time, i think he is in the middle of one now. what is the headlines. lauren: he is giving us new numbers on how the infections are in new york state. there was an increase from yesterday at 8669. so 92381 coronavirus cases right here in the u.s. as for hospitalizations, that's increase by 1100 since yesterday as well. additionally, he says it is false comfort to say were a rural community like some rural areas of upstate new york for instance. he says you are not safe even if you don't have the population as let's say new york city. stuart: thank you lauren. great news, i have to say. on your screen very shortly, new video of new jersey's governor, phil murphy touring a field hospital that was set up in the

lands. the field hospital is set up, the hospital will have a soft opening on monday. stuff getting done. check the market again, now it is up 300 points, i have to tell you it's been like this all day long, up 300 for the dow, 43 for the s&p and nasdaq is up 108 points, despite the terrible news about 6.6 million people are filing for unemployment claims, that is a huge number despite that, the market is up. mike lindell, the my pillow got urging prayer at a time like this from the white house, jonathan morris, former catholic priest talks about that on the show next. shouldn't you pay less when you use less data? now you can.

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stuart: governor cuomo is holding his press conference and he just said something of importance, i will quote it for you. the apex of the crisis is likely closer to the shorter and of the range of 7 - 30 days. this is going to have an effect between 7 - 30 days. he is really saying we will start to bend the curve maybe to the closer and of the timeframe closer to the seven days than the 30 days. i will interpret that as pretty good news. it has nothing to do with the market, we are up 300 points for the dow. then we have mike lindell, the my pillow guy as we showed you earlier on the program, he urged prayer from the white house, read the bible, watch it, roll the tape. >> god gave us grace on novembee course we were on, god had been taken out of our schools and lives, and nation turned its

back on god. and i encourage you to use this time at home to get back into the word, read our bibles and spend time with our families. stuart: there was quite a reaction to that and it was live with a hostile reaction with some members of the media. common jonathan morris, former catholic priest who now joins us. jonathan, why is there such an intense and hostile reaction when someone in the white house simply says go read your bible and this time of crisis. >> i think there is fear among some that this is somehow manipulating religion in order to support the presidency or the administration. honestly, if we look at our founding documents, there is only two mentions of how this relationship between state and religion should be handled. it is the free exercise clause

in other words the government and the congress should execute and establish no law that inhibits our free exercise. that is what mike lindell was doing, he was exercising his right of freedom of expression and religion and of course the establishment clause that the government should not establish or prefer one religion over another. and i think it is a totally bad understanding of the separation of church and state and some people would like to suggest, you keep your religion inside, not only said your church but your close doors, we don't want to hear. stuart: i am with you, i think the media wants everybody to be secular humanist and of course we are not. jonathan, easter, palm sunday, passover, almost upon us, but we cannot assemble in groups as we normally do. are we going to hold easter and passover via skype this year?

>> the most important thing is that we hold in our hearts. and that we do not need a big group to do it. i consider this a fasting both in the jewish tradition and christian can tradition, there is a great tradition of fasting, giving something up or doing without in order to purge herself, even in the secular world, nutritionist talk about fasting is a good thing. we are fasting from good things like gathering in. but it can also help the soul, go ahead and get dressed up for easter, make your easter baskets. pray in your home. do what is most import to get the soul right, we can do that with a big group or not. stuart: you are absolutely rig right, that's what so many, there will be 100 million americans celebrating easter and passover via skype. you have to do it.

thank you for joining us. the dow is holding to a 300-point gain and there will be more varney after this. . . . . if you're a veteran with a va loan,

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out there. what good stuff. all right, everybody, i'm afraid, similar things happening near me in new jersey. people are applauding on their balconies. same for you guys in new jersey and connecticut. it is all good, isn't it? i got a good feeling. i'm afraid our time is up, everybody. i wish we could have more on this we're having fun. neil, it is yours. neil: i can tell. thank you very much, stuart. great show. the dow jones industrials sprinting up despite the worst jobless claims in american history, but what is galvanizing markets, via the president himself, that he talked to leaders of saudi arabia and russia, about ending that feud or at least curtailing production. the indications are they mutually agreed to take 10 million barrels a day off the oil market. you know the drill there. there is less supply. still no constant