that's a difficult discussion. maria: there's going to be a fair amount of retrofitting going on once we get back in business. before we go, when do you think the president should reopen the economy? what's your take in terms of getting things fired up once again? >> look, i can tell you what i'm going to do. i'm not going to let any of my people work until the scientists and doctors tell me it's okay. honestly, i'm not going to listen to government or politicians. i'm going to listen to scientists. the only other thing i will add, right now -- maria: you will miss the whole nba season. that's okay, you miss the whole nba season? it doesn't matter? >> i don't think that's going to happen. i know the nba will put safety first. you just got to. but i will say this. what businesses also should be doing right now while they are shut down is getting information on how to sanitize and sterilize your business, so the minute you are able to open, you are able to open. because you don't want to be in a position where okay, you are not clean and ready to go. maria: that's very important. great to get your insight. we wish we had more time with you. good to see you.

we will see you soon. >> thanks, maria. maria: mark cuban joining us. that does it for us. "varney & company" is in session. ashley webster is at the wheel. ashley, take it away. ashley: thank you very much, good morning. good morning, everyone. the phrase of the day seems to be light at the end of the tunnel and guess what, the market likes it. we are looking at another big rally at the open today, following that 1600 point surge to begin the week yesterday. optimism that the coronavirus pandemic is stabilizing is fueling the market right now. italy and spain appear to have flattened, even bended their respective curves. and new york governor andrew cuomo says the numbers show new york, the epicenter of the virus here in america, could be at the apex. also helping the market, a fourth stimulus, now being discussed between the white house and top lawmakers in congress. $1.5 trillion in tax cuts and spending. as for the last stimulus, $5

billion in small business loans have already been handed out since friday. there are calls for more help for the restaurant industry in the new stimulus. they want a $100 billion relief fund. essential workers, meantime, at target not happy. same day delivery employees expected to walk out today. store workers could also walk out later this morning. they are all demanding more protective gear and safety measures. and of course, we will be following the developments out of london. uk prime minister boris johnson remains in the icu at this hour. we will follow that story, of course. good morning. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart. we begin with that positive phrase of the day from president trump. >> i just want to thank everybody, i want to thank the american citizens who are doing a great job. stay inside and let's win this and let's get our country open as soon as we can. i think it's going to be sooner

than people think. things are going really well. again, light at the end of the tunnel. ashley: light at the end of the tunnel. let's bring in scott shellady, founder of the cow guy group. thanks for coming in. great to see you. how fast do we rebound once we are back open, do you think? >> not as fast as everybody would like to think. i'm a positive person, i'd like to see us rebound as quickly as possible. i would like to see us having a rolling open as soon as possible as well, but not until the 75-year-old couple that's been married for 50 years can celebrate their wedding anniversary in a crowded chinese restaurant will this thing be over. that's going to be the litmus test. we have a psychological issue to get over and that's going to be a long time. you just were talking, maria was talking about restaurants. they will have to take out 30% of their seats to make people comfortable. they are already taking it on the chin. it will take a lot longer but we will get there in the end but it

won't be as fast as we like it to be. ashley: i want to bring up a tweet you put out, saying how is everyone enjoying their free 30-day trial of socialism. >> yeah. it's like that record club of the '70s that you got sucked into, buying 15 records for a dollar and could never get out of. that's what it feels like. yeah, it's almost like -- it's unfortunate, this will be the case we have to fight the psychological issue, the government is trying to do it with dollars but that's not really going to do it. as mark cuban said, it's when people feel comfortable enough to go back in a crowded room and that's going to be the litmus test. that's going to take, psychologically, longer than it will stimulus wise. that's going to be the problem. ashley: but scott, if we don't provide that lifeline to many small businesses, they are barely hanging on, if you don't provide that and just hang on and try to get this economy reopened in as quick a fashion as possible, there's going to be

a lot of businesses that will just disappear. >> you are absolutely right. they just won't make it. this lifeline is so that they can make it to dealing with the psychological issue. once we get to that psychological issue, it's still going to be difficult but at least this will keep them in the game so they will have a chance at the plate when that happens. ashley: so what do you make of this rally, 1600 points yesterday, futures pointing to another 850. we hit the lows back in march. was that it? have we already seen the bottom? where do we go from here? >> i can't say for sure if we have already seen the bottom. we will have a bumpy ride going forward. what i think is happening in front of our very eyes, this is the first time we have had a bit of optimism. look what happened over the weekend, with the weekend press, with the surgeon general. our 9/11, our pearl harbor. we were set up for some sort of boogeyman to come around the corner with a tsunami of death and as each day goes on and that doesn't happen, this is i think a relief rally to what the government was prepping us for

during the weekend. ashley: would you agree, scott, the problem here is everyone wants to just get back to normal, whatever that is now, but the problem is if you do it too soon, you could have a cycle of reopen, reclose, reopen, reclose, which would be absolutely catastrophic. >> right. so i don't think this one size fits all works for anything. a bunch of healthy people, one size fits all, everybody's got to be locked down, some great businesses, one size fits all, everything's got to be shut down. there are some people that are healthy, they should be able to work. and there are some states that don't have any problems with the virus, they should be able to be open. i would think if are you in a risk category, you've got a high risk, stay home. if you are in a state or business that doesn't have a high risk, you can have a rolling open. we have to have a little leeway on both sides because the one size fits all for both locking down and shutting down just isn't going to cut it. ashley: all right. our 30-day trial of socialism. i guess you're right. bernie did win in that respect.

scott, thanks so much, as always. appreciate your input. let's get to susan li. welcome, good morning. russia claims, of course, you have to take that with a grain of salt, they are ready to cut oil output. susan: part of opec plus, right, they will have the call amongst all members on thursday and according to reuters reporting, quoting two anonymous sources in russia, they have agreed to a very substantial oil production cut. now, how much? we heard from vladimir putin last week saying that it might amount to 10 million barrels per day, which would be a combination of everybody in opec plus including saudi arabia and that's contingent also on the u.s. cutting production as well. we know that oil is down and that's a big factor along with the coronavirus spread in really i guess selling off the market, but if we do get this 10 million barrel cut tomorrow agreed to by opec, is that still enough as we do have a demand down from 30%, people are not using oil.

there's a glut of it. so there's also a poor track record with opec members adhering to these production cuts. right now we do have oil, we are up 3% but still, there's a lot of doubt out there. ashley: we are running out of places to put it. very true. let's bring in lauren simonetti. president trump spoke on the phone to joe biden, who has been sniping from the sidelines for weeks now. lauren: yeah, and believe it or not, ashley, that phone call was described by both sides as very friendly. listen. >> i also spoke just a few minutes ago with vice president, former vice president biden, who called and we had a really wonderful, warm conversation. he gave me his point of view and i fully understood that, and we just had a very friendly conversation, lasted probably 15 minutes, and it was really good.

it was really good. really nice. i think it was very much so. i appreciate his calling. lauren: both sides agreed not to share details publicly about what exactly that they spoke about, but you alluded to this at the top. the former vice president has been very critical of president trump's handling of the coronavirus response. so this phone call is the first direct speaking between the two since biden launched his 2020 bid for president almost one year ago. ashley? ashley: yeah. at least they're talking and it was warm and wonderful. let's take it at face value. good stuff. thank you. by the way, i want to get back to scott shellady. scott, i just want to ask you this. citi says global earnings may fall 50% and stock prices could then drop by the same amount. what do you say to that? >> well, we have done a lot of work already so i mean, to go another 50% from here would be pretty heady.

i don't think that's going to be the case. i absolutely agree with a lot of these dire predictions because we have reports of yesterday losing 40% of the retail sales force. we have seen already at least 11% of our restaurants never going to reopen again. i reckon that goes higher. you have seen all the furloughs we have seen happening. so it's not good. again, back to what we just said, yeah, they are going to get a stimulus to stay in the game so they can really reopen and swhee what they can do but once they reopen, bills start coming back in, there is social distancing, we still have that psychological issue. citi is right. we have a longer track that will be bumpier than we think. we will get there in the end but it's going to be painful. ashley: yeah. buckle up, for sure. scott, thanks for sticking around. appreciate it, as always. some stocks that we are watching for you. take a look at xerox. they are producing thousands, we are told, of disposable ventilators. xerox up 4% premarket. take a look at kroger. starting today, the grocer says it is limiting the number of

shoppers in the store. probably makes sense right now. just down .33%. walmart, meanwhile, facing a wrongful death lawsuit. one of its employees died from the virus. we will get into that story a little more later in the broadcast. you can see target also, check target, delivery workers there staging a walkout, we are told. target stock not affected, up nearly 1.5% before the bell opens. let's take a look at the futures. again, looks like a positive start. we gained 1600 points on the dow yesterday. up 50% of that again, 833 points. all the major markets, up about 3% or more. president trump sending best wishes to britain's boris johnson after the prime minister was moved to intensive care with the virus. we will have more on that. another round of stimulus now being discussed. it could add another $1.5 trillion to the more than $2 trillion already promised. of course, the question is when will we get it? also, the coronavirus death

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ashley: all right. edward lawrence, a big announcement just moments ago from the treasury secretary, right? reporter: yeah, exactly. the treasury secretary steven mnuchin touting this program going forward. in fact, the small business administration tells me that they have given $50 billion in 175,000 loans. that's 175,000 businesses that have received some money from this, over 3,000 lenders that are working with it. at one point, the small business administration tells me that they have processed $2 billion an hour in loans.

listen to the treasury secretary here about this program. listen. >> during this period, the president wants to make sure that employees are paid, so the whole purpose of this is because people have zero revenues. go take the loan, pay your employees. if you can't get the loan today or tomorrow, don't worry. reporter: the program has been wildly successful. so successful, that the head of the small business administration is going to the white house today to update the president personally. this is the most the small business administration has ever processed in a five-day stretch in the history of the organization. again, treasury secretary steven mnuchin saying that if the program runs out of money, he will go back to congress and ask for more money on this. on a side note, i'm told from an sba official that the system never went down, again, processing $2 billion an hour with these loans. ashley? ashley: yeah. there were reports that it crashed but you're saying that was not the case at all?

reporter: yeah. i hear from an sba official saying they were never contacted about those reports at all, telling me late last night that the system never crashed. again, $2 billion an hour, $50 billion in loans in this five-day stretch. ashley: wow. $2 billion an hour. all right. edward lawrence, thank you so much. appreciate that. let's bring in louisiana senator bill cassidy. senator, welcome. let me start here. are we going to get a fourth stimulus package? >> yeah, i think we will. it could be one of two forms. it could either be because the coronavirus is with us and we need to support business. another form, which i spoke of, now the president speaks of, is the infrastructure package which would put americans back to work in construction, would pull through from manufacturing stimulating the energy industry and service industry. i think that fourth phase is a given, personally. ashley: all right. i've got to mention the death

rate now in new orleans is double what we have seen in new york city. maybe you can just kind of bring us up to speed on the situation there. >> yeah. so orleans parish has been the county most affected by -- per capita in the nation by far, but it does appear the curve is flattening and the number of people coming to the emergency room, the number of hospital beds and the number of vents being used are all moving in the right direction. so there is promise. unfortunately, the disease is now spreading across the rest of louisiana. it may just be the peak, the wave is spreading out but at least in southeast louisiana, there is some hope that things are getting better. ashley: let's hope. fingers crossed. senator, also wanted to ask you, you have an idea on how to get americans back to work and apparently it involves immunity testing, right? >> correct. it appears that if somebody has recovered from coronavirus, they are now immune. so countries like england,

germany and italy are thinking of giving immunization certificates. that's good but you also have to document and reconcile all the tests being done. i am proposing as well something we call an immune registry patterned after the immunization registry that's currently used, a document that somebody's been vaccinated, therefore protected, an immune registry would document that you have recovered and are protected, go to your employer. your employer can put you front line in a nursing home without fearing that you would be infected or infect others. other examples, too, but this is a way to integrate everything for the safety of those who are not immune and for a freer economy. ashley: how quickly do you think that could be achieved, senator? this is a big country. getting tests and whathave you, it's difficult to get this done in a short amount of time, is it not? >> those tests currently are being reported to the centers for disease control, but the centers for disease control, as

far as i know, does not have the ability to integrate. so i think you could stand up within six weeks a system building upon that which they already have, but a system which would integrate these tests and be able to tell a community, for example, look, you got 40% of your folks who are now immune, you can have a freer economy. or boom, you need to know that you are immune to give it to your employer, we can provide you that information. i think that could occur within six weeks after the cdc request that it be done. ashley: all right. very good. good idea. senator cassidy from louisiana, senator, thank you so much for joining us. all right. let's expand a little. lauren, italy and spain appear, i say appear, to have flattened the curve. lauren: yeah. yeah. these are encouraging signs. it's maybe something the u.s. could look forward to. let's start with italy. if you look at the past three days, the daily number of

increases in coronavirus infections have averaged 3.4%. take a look. not only does that curve, that dotted red line appear to have flattened, it actually appears to have bent. you so the same exact thing in spain. their average daily increase has averaged 4.3%. now look at the united states. we are not there just yet but we are headed there. for the first time, we saw the daily number of infections rise by less than 10%. so right now, at least as far as investors are concerned, that's considered a good sign we are on our way to flattening the curve. ashley: very encouraging, containing the pandemic and the market's responding to that. fingers crossed. thank you. les let's bring in susan li with the headline that took everyone by surprise. boris johnson moved to icu. susan: almost unprecedented, leaves a rudderless government in charge of one of the largest economies in the world in the uk. boris johnson is in intensive

care, admitted on monday night. apparently not on ventilator, which is a very good sign. apparently he's being given oxygen, according to a spokesperson. people are wondering what happens to the government in his absence. well, he has the foreign minister aide handling foreign affairs, no decisions on removing or appointing ministers but the foreign minister will take the cabinet meetings and updating the queen. but there are concerns about what happens if boris johnson doesn't recover. that's an unlikely event which we hope doesn't happen, but unfortunately, that tragically does happen. they are thinking about succession goes to the foreign minister, possibly the treasurer, then we have open governments and voting takes place. ashley: let's hope it never gets to that stage, as you say. but it was a shocking headline, no doubt. thank you. new apple iphones facing delays because of the coronavirus pandemic. i will be asking dan ives in our

third hour when it will be released. as we head to break, look at those futures up 900 points on the dow following yesterday's 1600 point gain. what a start to the week. we'll be right back. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it

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ashley: okay, let's get to susan li. bring her in, story on luckin, the coffee franchise. susan: it was meant to be the starbucks killer in china but the c.o.o. fabricated most of 2019's sales. hence, we have had i ba big dron luckin coffee sales, halted right now, probably because the chairman defaulted on half a billion dollars' worth of loans so this is something they are trying to i guess explain and

probably need to take stock of. goldman sachs says they are right now looking to get rid of a lot of assets in order to raise cash. we will see how this goes. ashley: yeah. talk about a rough ride for luckin in the last several days. susan, thank you. well, the markets just moments away from opening, about a minute from now. let's bring in mike murphy, founder of rosecliff capital. you are always pretty bullish, even despite everything we have gone through. expecting another day of gains? certainly the futures point to it. >> good morning, ash. yes, we have strong gains this morning at the open after a very strong session yesterday. i think it's important for people to realize we have now rallied over 20% from our lows, but we are still more than 20% off our highs. so still, we are right in the middle ground right now and what's going to dictate this market is news around coronavirus. i am in the bullish camp. i believe we are going to see

some progress and the market will continue to move higher. ashley: so are you jumping in or are you just waiting to see what happens next? it's difficult on the way up, for sure. >> it is, but look at companies like disney and jpmorgan. still quality names, more than 30% off recent highs. i think when we get past the coronavirus concerns, those are two companies that have a lot of ground to make up. ashley: all right. we are off and running. i see a couple red stocks on the board. walmart, procter & gamble, but up 1 yo poin82 points on the do. boeing leading the way, raytheon, 28 of the 30 dow stocks in the positive. we are now up 900 points on the dow. we can see also the s&p moving up nicely as well as the nasdaq. another nice start to the day again after that 1600 point gain with a surge yesterday afternoon on the markets. all of this, of course, on

perhaps the optimism that the pandemic may be contained. we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. of course, a long way to go yet but there is cause, perhaps, for optimism and that's being reflected in the market. i want to talk about apple. susan, we may not see a new iphone for months. is that right? susan: well, we were expecting a cheaper iphone this spring but indications are given the disruption when it comes to the supply chains over in china and the coronavirus pandemic and the spread causing closures of their stores, we might not be seeing it this spring. what does that mean for the new launch of the 5g enabled iphone in september? i think analyst consensus is we will probably see it delayed. it's still probably going to happen this year but people are very bullish on apple. you hear it over and over again. you want the buy high quality names with a lot of cash on the balance sheet and apple, by the way, has outperformed the market. from what i see so far year to date it's only down 10% compared to the 20% to 30% drop we have seen in the broader market.

on the month, you are up 6% so a lot of people are still bullish on apple. by the way, they were ahead of the curve, wouldn't you say? they were the first to get out there to say coronavirus has hurt and dampened our sales, but they are also probably the first ones to come out of it since their production lines are in china, right? ashley: very good point. mike murphy, bring you back in on apple. we are in the middle of a pandemic, millions of people are losing their jobs or furloughed. not a great time to bring out a new iphone, right? >> absolutely. i think when you look at a name like apple, the biggest company out there, they are going to have a tough quarter, obviously. they have shut down a lot of their stores globally, starting to reopen some now. but if you are going to invest in apple, you are looking out three months, looking out six months, looking out a few years. and if you believe as i do that they are the top tech company, great innovator with a fortress balance sheet and you can buy it at a 25% discount, that's what

you want to look at. the quarter will be tough but it's a great name and it's on sale right now. ashley: very good. lauren, let me bring you in. 3m apparently reaching a deal with the white house about those face masks, right? lauren: it looks like that dispute ended for now. so the government will buy 166.5 million masks over three months from 3m. 3m getting the most of those masks the government is buying from china. as you know, the president did invoke the defense production act to prevent 3m from selling masks abroad. they will still sell a small amount to latin america and canada. but over 166 million masks in three months coming to the united states from 3m. ashley: that is good news indeed. want to move on and talk about xerox, if we can, producing thousands of disposable ventilators, right, susan? susan: that's right. so these ventilators are not going to replace the ones in intensive care units.

they are more of those used in emergency situations, but you know, it looks like xerox is teaming up with bortran which makes these disposable ventilators so they can be put together in minutes and disposed of after a use of just 30 days. this is something that we need because it looks like they can ramp up production to between 150,000 to 200,000 a month by june, they say. and start developing 40,000 ventilators in april and as many as one million ventilators in the coming months. we have heard this over and over again that we are very, very short, in a dire situation in need of these ventilators. again, this is not for the intensive care unit, it's more for the emergency situations where you might be on the verge of being put into the icu. ashley: good stuff from xerox. also, quickly, boeing now suspending production in a new area, right? susan: but look at the stock. we are back above $150 apiece. yeah. that's despite the fact we had everett, washington, near seattle, that is their primary

development and production line and that has been shut down because 100 of their employees have tested positive for coronavirus. now experiencing the same thing as 787 facilities, not 737 facilities. this takes place in carolina after the governor issued a stay home order because of the coronavirus but if you couple the problems for boeing, whether it's 737 production over in everett, washington state or now south carolina, the 787 production, and not selling a lot of their bestselling 737 planes, they say they need $60 billion from the government for their suppliers as well. it looks like the government has half a trillion to delay with. how much will they get? that's contingent on how the stock does or how the stock -- how much money they get. ashley: right. mike, let me bring you in on boeing. this is a company that's been stumbling from crisis to crisis for, what, 18 months now. at 158 bucks, what do you think of boeing? >> so i think when i'm investing

right now, i'm looking at coronavirus as this global pandemic that i hope we solve, we solve quickly with minimal, as minimal loss of life as we can. what i'm looking at investing, i want to look out a longer time horizon. boeing, you are correct, the 737, and they have had numerous missteps along the way, but if you believe that the government is going to bail them out and they will be selling planes in 2021, 2022, it's a name that you can buy. i wouldn't put it up there with apple or disney or jpmorgan. the reason is there is so much uncertainty around it and around the litigation risk, amongst other things. but it's a quality name and they will be selling planes but you have to have a longer time horizon. ashley: yeah, exactly. mike, thank you. lauren, news today that target delivery workers staging a walkout, right? lauren: they are planning to. these are the contractors from

the service called shipt, s-h-i-p-t. they are saying we are on the front lines delivering all these items for shoppers but we want $5 per order in hazard pay, we want more gear, more masks and gloves, and they want 14 days' paid sick leave. right now if you do test positive for coronavirus, you get that leave but not if you are just sick. they plan to stage a walkout today. ashley: all right. we will continue to follow that story. thank you very much. what are some of the stocks you're watching, mr. murphy? let's begin with disney. what about disney? >> so you know, disney has shut down their parks and there's been a lot of concern after their last quarrying earnings announcement that was good. bob iger was leaving. remember, the stock trading from $150 area all the way down to below $100 a share. again, longer time horizon, i look at theme parks will be open

again, the streaming business is getting a lot of eyeballs right now with people sitting at home. disney is a company that has always delivered for their shareholders. i think that will not change. i think seeing disney down here in the $100 range is one of those companies that you can close your eyes, buy it and put it away and i think you will be very happy over the long term. ashley: all right. on the other side of that, you are also watching twitter which is always a bit of, you know, some of the headlines with twitter are not always that great. why are you watching that particular stock? >> whenever you have some huge news like we have seen with coronavirus, people flock to twitter. of course they go to fox business first. but then people are going to twitter to get their news. another stock that has sold off aggressively from north of $40 down to the mid $20s but i think twitter is going to find a better way to monetize their platform, because when people

want information, and they want information fast, they are going to twitter. that's not going to change. there was talk that it may go away or that it may be replaced by something else. right now the platform for information quickly from around the world is twitter. if they monetize that, we are back north of 40 quickly. ashley: we have to leave it there. mike murphy, thanks as always for joining us today. the dow up 678 points or thereabouts. 23,356. been a session and a quarter, we have gained 2200, 2300 points. such is the markets these days. the s&p and nasdaq also moving very nicely, thank you very much. check this out. actor matthew mccokon conaughey hosting a virtual bingo game with seniors who are quarantined in texas. he's really getting into it. dominoes pizza donating 10

million slices to health care and essential workers. we like to call that america together. good stuff. major league baseball wants to return in may, hosting all the games they hope and believe, maybe, in arizona in empty ballparks. we will tell you how it's going to work after this.

ashley: guess what, no big surprise. we know lots of americans are ordering takeout. so the question is, which delivery service is the most popular? let's ask that question, who has that? susan? susan: well, i'm here to talk about uber eats because there are some certain quarantine cravings taking place. uber eats not surprisingly says deliveries are up some 30% since the middle of march. in fact, they have been signing

up a lot more restaurants because how else will you make money in this time, deliver your food. uber eats just came out with the most popular ordered items across the 50 states of the u.s. and by my count, french fries and pad thai were the number two foods. some sort of fries in a multiple number of states, florida, arizona, illinois. it goes on and on. ashley: well, throw in ice cream and chocolate and you have my food pyramid. really impressive. yum. still early but i'm already hungry. thank you, susan. let's bring in bill barouk from blue line capital. thank you for joining us. as we look at another nice big rally on the markets this morning, you like the so-called

remote work starts like slack and zoom, right? >> i do think that those stocks are definitely ones to keep a pulse on. i do believe that there's better val value, don't want the chase those stocks. docusign and zoom made record highs and they are relevant right now but also at the same time, they are a good pulse on the risk sentiment or risk appetite out there. you can see investors chase into some of those because of how relevant they are right now. ashley: are you not concerned about the problems zoom had, the zoom bombing and the ceo saying, putting his hands up saying hey, i messed up so. does that hurt the image of the company? >> absolutely. zoom is not on my favorite list. i like slack, ticker work. that's one i leaned on quite a bit. i i donuse that every day.

go to meeting is a stock that performed very well. across the environment of collaborative work now or working from home, you also bring in technology, logitech is another one that's fared very well. because of the environment we're in, it's not just work from home but what type of technology are we using. amazon, netflix, they both have performed very well, too. so those are nice little fox of stocks to keep a close eye on, keep a pulse on the risk environment. and volatility is here to continue. we are up 10% this week but make no mistake, there is going to be continued volatility and there's still a lot of uncertainties lingering out there. ashley: but my question to you on these work-at-home stocks, slack, docusign, whathave you, once we get through the pandemic and go back to normal life, so to speak, do these stocks start to lose a lot of customers? >> i don't believe so.

i think we are seeing a sort of new wave of technology software that's going to be imbedded in companies day to day. a number of newer edge companies already had slack. it's a great way to communicate, to store data on the cloud or just important documents that you may need to access easily, communicating between individuals within the company or outside the company. you can communicate off your web sites on slack. i do think you will see a new wave here of demand but again, that's exactly why i would never chase these stocks. i think you want to have your buy levels, you want to pick your targets. slack, there's good support at 20 bucks. i wouldn't be looking at docusign until closer to $70. logitech is different. it's moving well, i think it's a good technology company, has upside from here but again, just as with the market in general, don't get caught up with this fomo that's going on now. the market gets up 10% this

week, there's still uncertainties ahead. pick your spot and stick to your game plan. that's what's important over the near term, intermediate term and long term. ashley: all right. have to leave it there. bill baruch, thank you so much for joining us. much appreciated. as we head to the next break, you can see the dow up 705 points. not bad at all. the s&p and nasdaq up 2% and 3%, all very good. all right. south carolina's governor henry mcmaster has issued a new executive order for his state. he says residents can only be at home or work. did he move too slow in all this? we will ask south carolina senator tim scott in the next hour. first, competition in europe killing tesla, according to our next guest. he will make his case after this.

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ashley: all right. let's take a look at these markets for you. nice market rally, continuing on from yesterday. the dow up 812 points at 23,490. not bad. also, check darden restaurants. this after the company announced it has a billion dollars in cash on hand. the company also says it will furlough some employees and

executives will take a 50% reduction in pay. darden restaurants up nearly 17%. lauren, let me bring you in. allstate giving back to drivers who are not hitting the road. lauren: right. so you are likely not having accidents, so allstate is refunding $600 million total in premiums to over two million customers. it works out to be about 15% of your monthly premium. thank you. it is good news. however, it's probably just a fraction of what allstate is actually saving because we are driving less. true story, ashley. a few days ago, which was the first time i have driven in a very long time, we tried to find a starbucks drive-through that was open. none were open. but i literally forgot how to go to my local places because it's been such a long time since i've actually been behind the wheel. i forgot how to get there. ashley: i hope you -- i hope the rest of the viewers in new jersey have been warned if they see you behind the wheel any

time soon. thank you, lauren. want to bring in wall street analyst gordon johnson. gordon, you say market buy-backs could be a problem. explain. >> yeah, so if you look at the stock market over the past several years, through the rally, market buy-backs have been a key driver. over 50% of the buying activity. and there's roughly 50 companies that have cut share repurchase plans. they represent roughly 25% of those buy-backs. we think a key backstop of the broader market is now gone. so when things normalize, i don't think you will have that support you've had over the past roughly decade. ashley: very quickly, competition in europe, you say, is killing tesla. >> yes. so we think tesla has a major competition problem. think about this. over 50% of european demand for tesla's cars in the fourth

quarter, tesla's market share is falling 36% [ inaudible ] roughly 7%. they are losing significant market share. they are basically flat versus 1q of '19 and down roughly 30% year over year. they are losing big share in europe, big share around the world. we think they will have major problems this year. ashley: got it. sorry it was so quick. you got all the info in. gordon johnson, thank you so much for joining us this morning. much appreciated. msnbc's "morning joe" blasting president trump over his white house virus briefings. take a listen. >> the president now is getting to the point where his news conferences literally have no value. ashley: meanwhile, cnn's anderson cooper accusing the president of hijacking the briefings. you will hear it. plus there's talk of a fourth stimulus package worth $1.5 trillion. are lawmakers worried about spending too much?

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in this world where people are staying at home, many of life's moments are being put on hold. at carvana, we understand that for some getting a car just can't wait. that's why the new way to buy and sell a car is also the safer way. at carvana, you can do it all 100% online from home with a touchless delivery and pickup process to keep you safe. and for even greater peace of mind, all carvana cars come with a 7-day return policy. so if you need to keep moving, it's our goal to keep you safe. check out carvana, the safer way to buy a car. ashley: it is past 10:00 a.m. on the east coast. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney. guess what? the markets have been open for 30 minutes and we're again in rally mode. the dow up 800 points. s&p and nasdaq up close to two or 3%. we got the latest read on jobe

openings in february. susan you have the number? susan: backwards looking but 3.28 million jobs open for americans to fill in the month of february compare that to january, which saw a strong start to the year. this is backyard looking. january, february numbers. we're looking ahead, march saw 701,000 jobless when comes to the jobless unemployment, the actual labor statistics right? when it comes to jobless claims, 10 million already enrolled. you can imagine this will be a very ugly job market for the next few months. ashley: it is indeed. february not too bad. but as you say going downhill from there. let's bring in bill mcgurn, "wall street journal" kind of guy as stu like to call him. >> good to see you. ashley: media affair with president trump, not a love affair but a hate affair.

listen on msnbc's "morning joe" this morning. roll tape. >> president is now getting to the point where his news conferences literally have no value. i think, the media, this is really tough but the journalism community, the media community has to look whether or not toe carry his words because we cannot be a part of spreading disinformation, of lying to the american people. we need to listen and to try to cull the news out of anything he is saying but not carry his lies. it is not fair to the american people. ashley: what do you say about that, bill? essentially saying, no value at all, the updates on the coronavirus, your thoughts. >> it is an interesting school of journalism to, you know, bury your head in the ground or put your fingers in your ears pretend the president of the united states doesn't have information that the american people would like to hear at least some of them would like to hear. ashley: i also wanted you to

listen to this one from anderson cooper, bill. roll that tape. >> well we mostly heard was the president. what we saw was a hijacking, hijacking of the task force press conference by a president determined to rewrite the history of his early and rep prehensably irresponsible response to this virus. ashley: irresponsible hijacking, bill. these are very strong words. this isn't just a criticism. this is a full-on assault. >> yeah. it is insane. it is his task force. he can do what he wants. he is the president. they're there to serve him and give answers to the american people. it is just crazy. the president's approval ratings have risen in the past two months or so with these news conferences. i'm not sure if that the president has been so good, although i do think he improved greatly along the way. i think it may be just the media has been disgracing itself. it is so overtly hostile and

obsessed with minutia that doesn't matter. i think, again, if you look at the approval rating, it is press going down so much that is boosting president trump. i don't know whether they're secretly working for him but they're probably the best thing he has right now. it is ridiculous. i most of us are tired of the noise. i want to hear what the president says, what his experts say. i don't want all these "gotcha" questions that are silly and hostile. he has been calling them out t wouldn't be my style. it works for him. he is tired of it. and the american people are tired of it. ashley: bill, the president doesn't have a filter. we know that look at this headline from the "wall street journal." it reads coronavirus, who's bows to beijing harmed the global response to the pandemic. now this is a story that is growing. you believe that the world

health organization was basically, blew it, especially in their dealings with china where the virus first erupted. >> absolutely. we have a long editorial on this look everyone makes mistakes and i don't blame people for pandemic for making mistakes at the outset, then changing their minds, adjusting, so forth. that is just human but there is a difference between making mistakes and, doing things wrong because of political or idealogical pressures and you look like a lot of this at the beginning, the taiwanese informed w.h.o. of evidence of human toe human transmission. because it is taiwan and beijing doesn't like taiwan, they basically sat on it for a while. the head of we think of these international bodies, give them undo deference.

the guy runs it is not a medical doctor. he comes from a very left-wing party, a marxist party in ethiopia. we defer to them. it is crazy. then politicizes anyone else. it us disgraceful we pay so much money to them. ashley: yeah. bill, stay there. i want to get to this. treasury secretary steve mnuchin steve mnuchin talking about the business loans. roll tape on that if we can. >> if you can't get the loan today or tomorrow, don't worry. there will be money. if we run out of money, we'll go back for more. ashley: all right. i want to bring in hillary vaughn if we can, bill, i will get back to you. hillary, restaurants are now asking congress for help. they're asking for a lot of money, right? reporter: that's right, ashley. in fact they're asking for significant changes to be folded into what is being discussed as a phase four legislation that would rescue a lot of independently owned restaurants.

these are not franchises but independently owned restaurants because they say they're in a tough spot. they don't have enough capital to stay open and they say that they need a lot of money up front to reopen. they're asking paycheck protection program be extended so when you're taking out this loan, you have the opportunity to pay it back over 10 years as opposed to two years. they're also asking that in the phase four legislation that congress would be working through that they implement changes that require insurance companies to use covid-19 as a qualifying part to get access to the business interruption insurance that a lot of these restaurants have but they're not able to access because insurance companies are saying that this does not apply to a covid-19 pandemic. they're asking that they add more money to the paycheck protection program and also provide tax incentives so they can hang on to their employees but i did talk to one chef and restaurant owner yesterday who

told me, look, they're facing a heavy, heavy burden financially coming to reopen their doors. they will first have to pay back a lot of vendors they still owe money to even be operational, ashley. ashley: hillary vaughn, thank you very much. restaurants especially hard hit. they are asking for a lot of money, we need help, a lot of these restaurants may never reopen their doors again. hillary vaughn, thank you very much. the prompter says, lauren simonetti. what have you got for me? lauren: let's continue with the food theme. continue with kraft-heinz shares. they are up today, they reported a surprise increase in the same-store sales in the last quarter. so that's good news. why? we're staying at home, cooking and using heinz ketchup and develop -- velveeta, mac and cheese. we have a lot of that. stock is up almost 3%.

stay at home winner. ashley: stay at home winner. ketchup with everything. susan li, your name on the prompter. what have we got? susan: hydroxychlorquine which is the drug you hear from president trump over and over again in the task force briefings as possible remedy for those with coronavirus. there is still a lot of debate about this, whether or not there is actual clinical studies that show that it works. we have four thousand cases four thousand patients here in the new york state, test trying this malaria drug. we did hear from kaiser hospital group which is one of the largest hospital groups in the western part of the country in california as well. they're really concerned about the lack of supply when it comes to hydroxychlorquine and as a result, they are now, i guess switching people that aren't suffering from coronavirus, that do need some of these drugs to maybe a 90-day, 100 day supply, instead of a year-round fill. this is an interesting debate

whether or not this works. other countries like france and south korea have been using hydroxychlorquine. they have reported success. here in the u.s. it is still to be determined. ashley: susan li, i will say hcq. it is easier. it will catch on, execute. let's bring back bill mcgurn if we can, i want to ask you, bill, about a piece you had in the journal. it is an interesting piece. what if there were a middle way in recovering the economy, how do we get our lives back. what is the thrust of this? we don't want to get caught in the reopen, reclose cycle but we do want to get something reopened? >> look, the cost, the idea is that we know that the disease will not be defeated, like finally defeated until there is a vaccine or enough of us have the disease that it is harder for it to infect other people. that is called herd immunity, right? people are talking about the

absolute kind of lockdowns, versus going fully back and you know, i was talking to some medical experts i think there is halfway, this director of harvard global health initiative says, you know, we could get 90 percent of our lives back, reopen our factories. won't be quite as normal. probably have to observe sort of social distancing in the workplace but it would be a lot better than keeping us on full lockdown or getting into as you mentioned this depressing thing where we reopen, there is more cases which is almost inevitable because of testing. then people panic and close down again. so i think we should start to be talking about, not just when we reopen but how we can reopen and at least get parts of the economy going again. ashley: yeah. anything is better than nothing. bill mcgurn, great stuff as always, bill, thank you for taking the time. >> thanks, brother. ashley: all right. thank you. let's check the markets.

we're still very positive. we're off session highs. we're up in the 900-point range, thereabouts. 23,300 on the dow. s&p and nasdaq nicely in the green. all right, the virus we know has disrupted sports but now major league baseball says it is discussing playing all games in phoenix, arizona, really? what does brian kilmeade think about that? he will be on the show later this hour to weigh in. also, take a look at this. nurses at a coronavirus hospital in paris, france, working around the clock to save patients. coming up we'll have more updates from around the world. it is certainly a global pandemic. i guess a pandemic is global. plus there is talk of a fourth stimulus package. i want to know are some lawmakers worried? i will ask south carolina senator tim scott that very question later this hour. we'll be right back. (music)

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ashley: all right. every day of course we like to keep track of the coronavirus and what it is doing around the world and let's bring in lauren simonetti with a wrap-up of certainly what has been going on in europe. lauren? lauren: there are 1.3 million coronavirus infections worldwide. the most in the united states, 368,000. but listen to this, ashley, in new york state we are so close to having more infections than the entire country of italy. it is possible that new york state has more cases than the countries of italy and spain put together. the good news, new york is near the apex. it looks like from recent data to both italy and spain not only flatenned their curve, but they have also bent the curve.

that is the good news this morning. that is the reason stocks are up for second day in a row. ashley: very good indeed. let's see what we can find out about boris johnson. we know he was tested positive. he was taken to the icu, susan. anything more? susan: we is have been flattening the curve when it comes to the uk coronavirus cases as well. hour ago, they said the cases now ticked up to 5655 in the day. in the past 24 hours 758 deaths which is higher than the previous day. 29 of those 758 had no known underlying conditions this is a very scary number which shows there is still a lot of work to be done in the uk. by the way, one of the major sufferers of coronavirus, high-profile one is uk prime minister boris johnson as you mentioned, admitted to the icu on monday there is concern about rudderless government. hoe is running things right now, foreign minister running things, dominic raab. the queen sent her best wishes

and donald trump. if we can quickly play that sound for you. >> i also want to send best wishes to very good friend of mine, and a friend to our nation, prime minister boris johnson. we're very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care this afternoon but, i have gotten to know him. he is such an incredible guy. it was so shocking to mean that. you know what that means, intense system care is big deal with regard to what we're talking about. susan: a lot of well-wishes for "bojo." boris johnson is in the icu but he is not on a ventilator which is very good news. he is being pumped with oxygen. everyone around the world hopes he recovers very, very soon. ashley: yeah, fingers crossed. hopefully we'll get an update on boris johnson soon. susan, thank you very much. let's bring in scott whitaker. he is ceo of afromed i think i'm

saying that right. thanks for joining us, scott. explain what your company does and how you're involved in the task force as this country battles the coronavirus. what role are you and your company playing? >> we are a trade association based that represents medical technology companies across the u.s. and globally as well. so our companies are on the front lines of dealing with this disease from the diagnostic testing side, manufacturing of ppes and also manufacturing of ventilators and other supplies as well. so we're dealing with the white house every today, fema, hhs, fda the interaction is great and increasing more product for hospitals where there is need. ashley: banker jamie dimon has just come out and said that he doesn't believe that the u.s. was prepared at all for the pandemic. you've seen the response first-hand. is jamie dimon right? >> well to me, ashley the

question today is not were we prepared, the question today is how did we respond? our experience the response has been excellent. interaction with fema has been excellent. interaction with the white house task force, vp, president, secretary azar, fda commissioner everyone is engaged with us in tremendous way. let me give you one example. on the diagnostic testing side i talked to a ceo few days ago, the process would normally take a year to get a new diagnostic test through the morass. in this case a diagnostic test was out in a week and cleared the fda collaboration has been good. there is time to reassess how we will we're prepared. today the question is the how we will we're responding. the industry is responding well and we're pleased with response to the government as well. ashley: what is the biggest issue right now, is it the testing or the vaccine? >> vaccine is a big issue obviously and testing is an

issue as well. getting to more americans, we're close to two million lives have been tested now which is real improvement so we're pleased with that. scaling up to a larger number will be important. the next test also is serology test to do we make sure we better understand who has the disease and level of immunity they have. we're scaling up on those tests as well. in each area there are challenges, ashley. we're trying to overcome those. we're proud of the work we're doing. we'll tackle this -- ashley: very quickly, scott, there is some sense of optimism that perhaps we're reaching, we're flattening out the curve, starting to see some hope. would you agree with that assessment? >> yeah. the sense is that things are starting to get better but we're not resting as a result of that news. we're continuing to prepare as if it is going to continue to escalate, continuing to scale up the manufacturing in a meaningful way. if it is not necessary for this time. we'll be better prepared next time. that is what our focus dealing with today, preparing for next

time. i think we'll do a great job with that look forward to continuing to work. ashley: we'll leave it right there. great information, scott whitaker. thanks for joining us. much appreciate it. >> good to be with you, ashley. ashley: thank you very much, scott. let's get to susan li. starting today, susan, kroger limiting number of shoppers they allow in the store. susan: by 50%. if you have been to any grocery store recently, line up in single file, six feet apart to get into a lot of them including whole foods and the like. kroger says starting today, 50% limitations getting into the store. by the way they're looking for one-way walk. you can only go one way and one way lines in the entire store. if you walk into other stores right now, like the walmarts and whole foods you can pretty much walk wherever you need to go but they're limiting capacity. this is for social distancing to make sure everyone is safe inside of the stores. kroger just like walmarts and amazons, they're looking to hire

23,000 more workers because of the bump that they have seen in a lot of people's stockpiling and buying a lot of supplies. so this is a positive for kroger. but they're trying to keep this safe for everybody, right? ashley: that is exactly right. social distancing. susan, great stuff, thank you very much. look at markets, we are, losing a little bit of a wind in our sails perhaps. the dow was up 900 points at outset of this market. you can see we're up 422. still up 2%, we lost some of our, lack of better word, oomph we'll follow that. let's head for the break. before i do that be the family of a walmart employee who died from complications of coronavirus, that family is suing walmart for wrongful death. judge andrew napolitano will join us next on that. plus take a look at this. earlier today, the spacex dragon cargo craft departed from the international space station. it is headed back down to earth

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ashley: all right. we're hearing from new york city mayor bill de blasio. lauren, what is he saying? lauren: this is positive news, ashley.

he says that the situation of people needing ventilators has improved. he has been warning all along we will run out of the ventilators that new york city needs, also warning supply is running out but now he is saying the situation has improved. just so you know new york city has 55% of all the coronavirus cases in new york state but positive comments coming from the mayor. ashley: indeed, lauren. perhaps another, you know, a bit at the light at the end of the tunnel. that is good news. we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. good stuff. lauren, thank you very much. let's bring in tal cohen, want to talk about the markets. in particular, the stimulus plan, we have three, talking about a forth, how much will this help the economy because ultimately we have to get back to work, right? >> thanks for having me. i think that is absolutely right. the fed stimulus, starting with the fed, the monetary stimulus

that we saw in the different announcements we've seen over the last month, that direct intervention, that open and scalable involvement really signaled to the market they would do whatever they needed to do in the short term to help address some of the liquidity issues, some of the dislocation in the market. now with the government stimulus. the fiscal stimulus starting to kick in here. i think people are now looking to the future, trying to understand what this will mean for us longer term. so i think the fed bought us some time. i think the government stimulus, they have indicated they will do whatever it takes because we're in a new reality now. we would encourage the government to insure that they continue to communicate clearly and with certainty and make sure they get money in the hands of people and companies who need it, mostly small businesses. ashley: you know, we heard a lot from the administration. larry kudlow saying yesterday he does expect a strong snapback once we get on the other side of this virus.

what is your take on that. will it be a little bumpy to begin with and are we going to see a different economic landscape perhaps? >> what we've seen over the last couple of weeks is, the markets are beginning to process information more efficiently. they're able to absorb information that is, maybe, something they have heard for the first time because it is everybody's first global pandemic here. i think people were trying to understand, the markets were trying to understand what to do with the new information real time. i think greater clarity we have on the virus, first and foremost it is a health crisis, that will allow us to then understand the contours of this crisis and allow investors to understand what the long term impact is. absence any greater clarity on the virus it will be actually very difficult for us to know how long this will persist and how severe it will be. ashley: right. let's face it. the economy was just humming along so well before this virus came into play. can we get back to that point?

>> lots of sectors of our economy were playing from a position of strength before this crisis. and we expect that investors will take a look at that, that information and understand what sectors are vulnerable, what sectors were coming in from a position of strength, into the crisis. i suspect those, those sectors will come out of this crisis in a position of strength. ashley: all right. tal cohen, thank you very much. appreciate your comments. i need to get to susan li. susan: we do indeed. another shakeup in the white house ranks. stephanie grisham is leaving her post as press secretary and communications director and she is rejoining the first lady, melania trump as her spokesperson and her chief of staff. that is two roles that need to be filled. according to fox reporting we do have john roberts is saying from what he is hearing, according to his sources they already have a name to fill the positions at least for the press secretary.

alyssa fair a mark meadows stepped in for chief of staff of president trump wants to bring her into the white house. two roles to fill, communications, press secretary, whether two people will come into the white house or one individual fill both rolls which we saw stephanie grisham do. she is now returning back to the first lady. ashley: interesting, susan, thank you very much. i want to bring in jeff flock, walmart making changes to the way you shop. what are we talking about. reporter: yeah, you can see the walmart in the town of evergreen park, just outside of chicago. this is the location -- yes you got me okay? you got me okay, guys? as i was saying this is the walmart in evergreen, park, illinois, just outside of chicago where two employees came down with the coronavirus and died. one of them has filed a wrongful

death suit. what walmart has done now is, you know, limited number about of people, this is of course systemwide but here at this store in particular, limited number of people that can come into the stores. they're enforcing social distancing which this man's lawsuit suggested they hadn't been doing before. he suggested in the lawsuit he record his symptoms and had been ignored by walmart. he was found dead in his home eventually. i point out that the walmart has responded in part, the statement, that they gave to us says they're heartbroken and are mourning with the family of this dead gentleman. they also say that they will respond specifically when they have been served with the complaint. but yes, things are changing at walmart. they say they're going to do some of the things you were talking with susan about at kroger earlier which is to have one-way lines and aisles. they're not doing it, i was just

inside of the store. they're not doing it. i talked to a guy inside of the parking lot who is walmart employee coming to work. he has been told to come to work. he is a little bit scared. walmart says it will provide protective gear, and masks, gloves, if any employees want them. ashley? ashley: great stuff. jeff flock. reporter: one other thing. can i tell you? can you listen to this. this is the announcement playing in the parking lot. >> to make it easier for associates to stock and perform enhanced cleaning and sanitizing across the store, please remember to wash your hand often for at least 20 seconds. stay home if you're sick, and practice good social distancing of at least six feet if possible. to make that easier we're limiting number of shoppers inside the stores. associates and signs will direct you. lot everying inside or outside of the store is strictly prohibited. thank you for choosing walmart. reporter:th is the announcement playing outside the

in the parking lot. as you see a number of people here. ashley? ashley: we heard that loud and clear. walmart giving advise to its customers. i will bring in judge andrew napolitano. i want to talk about the family of that walmart employee jeff was talking about who died from complications from the coronavirus now suing the company for wrongful-death. what is your take on this, judge? do you think they have a case. >> this is the first of a avalanche of lawsuits not just against walmart but fence any employer where there is evidence the estate of the decedent, can claim that the decedent was not provided a safe work place. the law in illinois, everywhere in the united states require as safe work place. so a jury will have to determine whether or not walmart ought to have known about this ailment that none of us heard of more than five months ago. the allegations are that walmart

had heard of it, did know of it around did nothing to protect this employee. it did nothing to enforce, these are just allegations. walmart hasn't answered the complaint yet. you saw the statement they made which expressed sorrow which says they will answer but the allegations are they did not enforce social distancing. they did not wipe down common areas that customers and other employees touch. they did not provide protective gear. they did not warn their employees they should care for themselves in ways we now all do. if all of this is true, if all of this can be demonstrated to a jury, yes, estate of this deceased salesperson has a case and it might very well be a bellwether. that is, a case that will tell us how the thousands that will follow it are likely to be resolved. ashley: yeah. you know, i guess walmart comes

under earnings services. they have the good, they have the basic supplies that people need but can they force their workers to come to work? what if the worker says i don't feel safe, like the employee told jeff flock as he was heading into work. >> they can and they can't. they can't fire you for not coming to work but they certain live don't have to pay you. you and i work for an employer permitting a lot of us like you to work off premises and we're being compensated but not all employers are doing that. so you can certainly do what you need to do for your own health and safety but if you can't come to work, then the decision is up to the employer whether or not you would be paid. in the case of this decedent as jeff flock indicated no one knew what happened to the person. the person was found dead in their apartment uncared for and unreported. it wasn't like she crawled in, said i have the coronavirus. i tested positive.

i'm going to be out for 14 days. she just disappeared and they found her dead. ashley: oh. sad story, i think you're right, judge, we'll hear a lot more of these lawsuits as we go you there the days, weeks and months. judge napolitano. thank you for joining us. >> a pleasure, ashley. ashley: by the way want to make sure we mention this, happening thursday, 2:00 p.m. eastern, "making money"'s charles payne will be hosting a virtual town hall. it is called, "america works together." he will ask experts about the biggest financial questions we're facing during this crisis. april 8, 2:00 p.m. be sure to tune into charles payne. up next, south carolina's governor henry mcmaster issued a new executive order for his state. a home or workman date. south carolina senator tim scott will join us to talk about that and more. we'll be right back.

>> we got i-24. richard. we got two winners! ashley: two winners. that was actor matthew mcconaughey playing virtual bingo with number of senior citizens. that is how he is spending his quarantine. so much fun. i love the video. let's bring in senator tim scott from south carolina. senator, thank you so much for joining us. you're following matt mcconaughey, virtual bingo, not an easy act to follow. i think you will be more than capable. yes, sometimes you have to laugh in the face of everything we are facing. of course first thing i want to ask you is, south carolina issuing a home or work order, a little different from most other states. what does that mean? >> well it means that you have the ability to go to work and stay there or stay at home. the governor has been leaping in this direction for several days. he closed our beaches which was a very positive and necessary

move. then he started closing state parks. he has been sending the signal people need to stay at home in order for to us flatten the curve. most of our large cities and large counties had mandatory stay stay-at-home orders already. he wants to make sure it is clear you can go to work and go home as well as getting exercise one needs but there is no doubt that the governor has made a good decision and a prudent decision. ashley: very quickly, i'm sorry this is so fast, but, senator, quickly, fourth stimulus plan, are you worried about spending or do we spend what you need? >> i think you have to be concerned about the spending. someone has to pay this back. we need to make sure we're making positive and good decisions. the infrastructure part of it is one that will bring a little controversy, who pays what, what is the federal burden, what are the state and local burdens? a sector by sector analysis of what we need to make sure that our restaurants or our hotels,

the aviation sector has what they need to continue to function. that question needs to be answered in phase four as well as forbearance. we're saying to tenants, you don't have to pay the rent but we're not saying to those folks who own the property that their noters can be delayed. so we'll have to pay a little closer attention to the unintended consequences in phase three. ashley: exactly. senator, again, sorry it is so short. we thank you for your time. senator tim scott from south carolina, under a home or work order. coming up next, brian kilmeade will join us. i have to ask about major league baseball planning a may comeback? more "varney" after this. his sl? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady? [tina] you're an old lady.

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grady trimble joins us now. major league baseball wants to come back in may? reporter: according to major league baseball. all 30 teams in the mlb according to this report from espn would be playing in arizona at 10 spring training fields as well as the diamondbacks field. they would be sequestered at hotels. the stadiums would be empty but the games would be televised this woe be a big cut to revenue

from ticket sales but, i think people want something to watch right now. they miss live sports. so this would be a way to do it. there are some skeptics who think america wants sports though. ashley? ashley: all right. grade i did, thank you very much. we'll, guess, this time of the week, joining us live on the radio is brian kilmeade. brian, we're talking to grady trimble out in chicago. major league baseball talking about a may season, all in arizona in front of zero fans and sequestering players in local hotels. what could go wrong, right? >> put it this way, this would be good bit. i would not being watching axe throwing sunday nights at 8:00. i was literally watching that. people were interviewing the people throwing axes. the most shocked people were people throwing axes. you want to interview me? why are you here? that would be great. what i love, they're playing games. number two you get to watch competitive games. what is bad bit, small stadiums,

hard to get a ticket. look, everybody's lives have changed. professional players are saying wait a second i can't go to the facility to train with other people. if i don't have a home gym or peloton, i have to do sit ups with my kids. so i think triple headers in same stadiums, every major league team it, would be a good start. get a hoed of this thing, summer, august, september, you spread it out again, i'm for it. i would like to see it happen. ashley: i think it would be good for the cycle of the country, a semblance of getting back to normal. i agree with you, brian. what about college football a lot of talk about pushing this season back to spring of 2021. >> first of all i like you better than stuart, because he never agrees with me. for college football, i am totally against it. it is a fall sport.

you have a spring draft. i understand we have to be ready to change. the nfl will get ready to go. as much as i can tell we're bending the curve. if there is a few weeks delay there is a few weeks delay. in august they plan on playing golf tournaments. i believe, nfl plays in the fall. college football should play in the fall. what is at stake? college football, major programs, some programs that won't win national championship fund every other sport. they can't afford to lose the revenue. it is not replaceable. to go in the spring when everything else is going on from baseball, basketball, to hockey play offs, to the xfl season emerging, it would be a disaster and panic move for the ncaa. it wouldn't be fair for players. how do you get drafted only playing three or four games before the nfl draft? ashley: talking about the nfl, we will have a virtual draft. the draft event is a big

business. i remember downtown nashville, 100,000 people packed down broadway. we were going to have a three-day event in vegas. now we get to watch it on tv virtually. >> ashley. i think this is the easiest thing that is out there. they do this all the time. basketball drafts don't get a lot of opinion. they don't have a lot of heat around them, do it all the time. minor league sports do it all the time. mls do it all the time. no one is in attendance. this is easy. you can't do physicals or player interviews. even tom brady had tough time to get a physical to go to tampa. this will be the hardest draft ever for the nfl, the actually executing it will be a lay up. i have can't wait to watch something that wasn't played in 1986, anything. just show me anything. a lot of people will go on hunches instead of analytics. i am fine with that. ashley: i'm, finally this is

complete sports segment, i'm a sports nut, you're a sports nut. what about the masters in november? i just can't get my head around that one. >> number one i like they will play it. number two, i don't know why they're canceling it. golf, not impact. only caddie and you touch your clubs. we don't need to see fans. not supposed to hear them. go to the clubhouse by yourself with other great golfers and go play. this is the only sport that could have been saving us. instead they postpone. at least we'll get it in june. please explain to me why they're not playing golf? as long as they promise not to touch each other or high-five, which is okay, let's go out there and have somebody with rubber gloves hand it to another golfer with golf gloves, who holds up a trophy. we had a tournament. we're back to pro sport. golf you were my greatest hope, now you pushed it to november, where the first tournament supposed to be with you. ashley: i'm with you. they call golf the loneliest walk, that is for a reason.

we have to leave it there. brian kilmeade, get back to your axe throwing. thanks so much for joining us. we'll see you in the hallway susan li, bring you in. news on video games and coronavirus? susan: golf is the loneliest walk. video games is the loneliest sport but people are playing a lot of it as they are stuck at home in quarantine. online gieames have surged. what about video game addiction? there's real concerns out there this is helping this addiction because there are estimates of 25% of gamers can't get off games. ashley: all right. thank you, susan. coming up, another big hour for you. the markets are still up. we'll be right back.

ashley: it is 11:00 a.m. on the east coast. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney. let's take a look at the markets. we are an hour and a half into the session and we are still higher, well off of our highs. we were up over 900 points on the dow. we are still up 400 points on the dow, the s&p and nasdaq both up, although the nasdaq is just up half a percent after being up 2% to 3% earlier. turning to the white house, where the trump administration is working to reopen the u.s. economy in four to eight weeks. just listen to what national economic council director larry kudlow said earlier on small business loans.

>> as the president has said, if we need more money, we will ask for more money. okay. those loans can be expanded and we tryiare trying to cover folk. as you know, the number i love the most because i have never seen anything like it, i have been around since the latter part of the 19th century and i have never seen a rescue package like this before. ashley: you want more money, you can have it, says larry kudlow. meantime, secretary of state mike pompeo says given the need for personal protection equipment in america, they will focus on keeping critical medical items in the u.s. meanwhile, in new york city, the biggest coronavirus hot spot, mayor bill deblasio says the situation of people needing ventilators has quote, improved a bit, unquote, in recent days. another perhaps positive sign. and breaking news. within the last hour, we have learned that stephanie grisham is out as the white house press secretary. she will be rejoining the east

wing full-time as chief of staff and spokesperson to first lady melania trump. first let's get back to the economy. why not. joining me now is marc tepper with strategic wealth partners. good to see you. i guess the question we continue to ask, there's a little more optimism. how soon can we reopen, in your opinion? >> so look, larry kudlow mentioned maybe four to eight weeks, the economy snaps back. we have no idea what snap back means. what i can say is there's no possible way we will be back to whole in four to eight weeks. we are already probably at like 10% to 15% unemployment, people are talking about 30% over the course of the next few months. you've got analysts projecting a 30% contraction in gdp for the quarter. really, what that means is we have lost a decade of economic growth and a decade of jobs growth so it's going to take some time to be made whole. we need to figure out when the curve actually begins to flatten in the u.s. we are seeing some progress in

new york but when does that translate through to the rest of the country, and once that happens, how long does it take until the economy begins to slowly reopen. in my opinion, the longer we stay shut down, the longer that road back is. small businesses employ about 50% of that private work force and their financials may not allow for a month of zero revenue. if they close down, they might not reopen, those jobs are lost. we need to make sure they stay in business. ashley: you know, this economy was going gangbusters prior to the pandemic, record low unemployment, it was really humming along very nicely. how long do you think it would be, i know this is just a guess, but how long is it going to take to get back to that point? >> so we need to be realistic. things are looking a lot better but we do have to understand it's going to take some time to get back to even. we are talking about a really, really severe economic contraction. i think it's at least a year away, if not more, to get back

to even. i do think that once the economy begins to reopen, you will see consumers begin to spend again but i am a little worried about how long they are psychologically damaged. are people going to be comfortable going into a crowded restaurant in the summertime? maybe not. how long does it take until they are willing to board a flight? that might take awhile. i think there's going to be a little bit of lag here as it relates to when people are comfortable getting back to full consumption. ashley: are you content or happy with what the government has done, and the fed, of course, but the government trying to make people whole, to use your expression, as long as possible before we can start reopening the doors? do you think we need more money and should we just spend, spend, spend until we get through this? >> well, you know, i don't like ever talking about us writing blank checks to people. i'm not a big advocate of spend, spend, spend but let's face it, we are all keynesians now.

we are really experiencing this stuff right now. am i happy with what's going on? i really wish there would have been more focus on the small business owners. $349 million is not going to cut it. i'm a member of entrepreneurs organization, a bunch of small business owners across the country. i think there's like 8,000 members in the u.s. and what i'm hearing from people that own other small businesses is that they are concerned they might not get a piece of that $349 billion pot. so i really wish there was more money going toward that direction because that's the key, is the small business stays open, they continue to employ people for a long time. that's a heck of a lot better than giving somebody 1200 bucks one time that will be spent within a month, no doubt. if you can keep them employed, they will have money for the next several years. that's key. i wish there would have been more money that went there as opposed to some other places. ashley: to change the subject a little bit, you say people are stuck at home doing diy projects.

what's the importance of that? >> so i think initially, everyone was binge-watching everything they possibly could absorb. now we are ready to rip our hair out if we have to stare at the tv any longer. everyone is looking for a change. i know i want to feel accomplished coming out of this lockdown. that's where the diy projects come into play, whether you are fixing up your home or a nagging issue on your vehicle like a busted taillight. we began building three positions in three different companies that fit that theme in mid-march. you've got home depot, o'reilly automotive and constellation brands, believe it or not. home depot is one of those few essential retailers. i had a few buddies go there over the weekend. the place was jam-packed. they are using a counter to let people in. spring season, always been good. there's landscaping projects. whatever projects you have been putting off, whether it's bathroom, kitchen, you are probably going to do that now. with o'reilly, you have a great recession-proof stock. from the beginning of 2008 through mid-2009 when the s&p

was down 34%, o'reilly was up 17%. that's 51% outperformance. gas is cheap, people aren't going to be flying when the economy reopens, more people are going to drive. constellation brands, because beer tastes good, whether times are good or bad, alcohol has been labeled essential so that people can self-isolate and while you're outside doing your projects, maybe it's a little more fun drinking a beer. ashley: mark tepper, a wealth of information. if i fix anything, i have to pay someone else to undo what i fix so let's put it like that. great stuff, as always. thanks for joining us. appreciate it. workers protesting in boston. susan li has the story. susan: so after we saw amazon workers outside fulfillment center on staten island walk out because they feel they are being endangered with not the right protective gear at work, same thing is happening in boston. grocery store workers are planning to protest a lack of personal protection gear, ppe, and they plan to gather outside, what else but a whole foods

which is owned by amazon as well, in the south end this morning. also, it looks like thousands of construction workers in the state of massachusetts also say their work sites are not safe because they are not being given the right amount of equipment. we are looking at two unions, representing 17,000 workers. they have issued a work stoppage saying construction sites really need to follow the issued guidelines in limiting exposure to covid-19. ashley: yeah. all right. worker unrest is being reported around the country. thank you. lauren, you have news on boeing? lauren: yeah, i sure do. so the workers who make the 787 dreamliner in south carolina, their last shift will be tomorrow. we told you yesterday, the stock was up 19% yesterday, when they temporarily and indefinitely closed down their seattle area factories, now doing the same in south carolina. the stock up once again 4.5%.

in the backdrop of all this, the south carolina news is that the governor of that state issued stay-at-home orders yesterday that go into effect tonight. ashley: thank you very much, lauren. susan, you got news on walgreens? susan: what about testing, because there has been criticism of course of a lack of testing in comparison to countries like south korea and the like. they are trying to set this up. walgreens is looking at 15 drive-through testing sites in the future. these testing sites will be in arizona, florida, texas, louisiana, tennessee, illinois, kentucky. they are looking to conduct about 3,000 tests per day so add that, this will be part of abbott labs, that toaster-like machine that will give you fast reads on whether or not you are positive for coronavirus. and this adds to cvs which has two off-site testing locations right now and cvs says they are testing 1,000 people a day. walmart says they are chipping in, looking to i donuse their pg lots for testing sites in chicago, also a pilot site in

bentonville, arkansas, the home of walmart. a lot of retailers are stepping up as they said they would in that rose garden event with president trump. ashley: very good. the more, the better. thank you very much. let's take a look at walmart, if we can. as we talked about earlier, they are being sued for wrongful death by the family of one of their employees who died from coronavirus. right now, just slightly lower. walmart down 55 cents at $125. also, take a look at tesla. they, by the way, are building ventilators out of car parts. that stock up nicely, up 6% in a strong market today, up $32 at $548 for tesla. also, let's take a look at xerox. they will begin producing thousands of disposable ventilators. that stock up 6%, almost at $20 a share for xerox. president trump, by the way, just tweeting and this is what he had to say. he says the who, not the band, the world health organization, really blew it. for some reason funded largely

by the united states yet very china-centric. we will be giving that a good look. fortunately, i rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to china early on. why did they give us such a faulty recommendation? that from the president aimed at the world health organization. be sure to tune in tomorrow to our virtual town hall, america works together with charles payne. i believe that's on thursday at 2:00 p.m. we are also highlighting some feel-good stories and will have those and a taste of those later in the show. also, as we mentioned at the top of the broadcast, the white house says they will just ask congress if they need more money. you want it, we will bring it. indiana senator mike braun will join me next to talk about that and more. this piece is talking to me. yeah? so what do you see? i see an unbelievable opportunity. i see best-in-class platforms and education. i see award-winning service, and a trade desk full of experts,

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ashley: new york's governor is giving his daily briefing. what news is he making, lauren? lauren: three pieces of information. first, this is good news, the governor says new york state is reaching a plateau when it comes to the number of hospitalizations. however, the number of deaths in the state has seen its biggest overnight increase so far. 731, up overnight, so new york state deaths now, 5,489. does that mean we are close to a peak? one final thought, the governor says that the "comfort" ship, naval hospital ship right outside of new york, the hospital capacity on that was halved to 500 beds because they had to switch to startles treating coronavirus patients. and of course, one crew member from that ship did test positive.

ashley: all right. lauren, thank you very much. let's check kraft heinz. they are expecting 3% growth in sales and 6% growth in organic net sales, that is, in the first quarter. they are up 3.5%. up nearly a buck for kraft heinz. let's take a look at luckin coffee. u.s. listed shares were halted after they promised customers free coffee if they download their app. there's an incentive. you can see, unchanged, luckin at $4.39. they are halted, the u.s. shares. let's go to edward lawrence in washington. you have new small business loan numbers going up, up and up, right? reporter: up, up and up. they are led by community banks at the moment. the big banks are taking applications but haven't really yet processed through the money. so as of right now, you have $60 billion worth of loans that have been given out. this is money that's been given out to small businesses.

we are talking about 225,000 different loans that have been made. those are 225,000 small businesses that have come to the banks for help. but even more important number than all this, an official with the small business administration saying they are estimating they are saving 5.7 million jobs. the way they get to that number, that's basically all the employees that are on the application, all the 225,000 applications. that's the number of employees there. now, the layoffs may have been a portion of that but the only way they have to gauge it is 5.7 million jobs are all of the people who are employed in those 225,000 loans that have been given. those people will now still have a job because of this program. back to you. ashley: very good. edward lawrence, thank you very much. talking small business and trying to survive, let's bring in indiana senator mike braun. senator, thank you for joining us. we should point out your wife runs a small business.

i'm assuming she's shut down, as much of the economy is. how is she and you surviving during this period? >> she started the business back in september of 1978 and was one of the businesses that would have been considered non-essential in indiana. got a bit of good news today, though. the governor i think, listening to business owners across the state, will allow curbside pickup where you can actually kind of do like restaurants have been able to. so that's a bit of good news. i have been here roughly ten days since i left d.c., talked to business owners, small, medium and large across the state. real concern about how they get back on their feet even with the government help that we put together. i heard the small business loan figure. of course that's just, that went live last friday. many are worried that that may not be enough in terms of

dollars, but that we might have actual demand and supply disruption the way this whole thing has been handled across the country, from an economic point of view. but when you look at everyone being focused on the disease, i think we are reaching that pivot point where that next discussion might be, how do you with everything we've learned selectively roll the economy ba back? in indiana you have basically three categories. you have businesses that are lucky that are off 10% to 20%. my company, which three of my four kids, a good young executive team, run, we are off 30% to 35%. we can probably find a new break-even. the tragedy is where businesses are off 50% to 100% and many of them, essential businesses. but that ripple effect of demand destruction is now threatening possibly supply disruption.

so we really need to be thinking carefully about when we turn the switch back on on a selective basis and do it sooner rather than later, in my opinion. ashley: well, the white house said -- has been putting this message out that if you need more money, they will just go back to congress. if you need it, we'll supply it. does that give you any comfort? >> well, i think on the small business component, we will do that. we all feel comfortable doing it. but i think what i'm hearing, i have talked to so many chambers of commerce, i have talked to many, many business owners, and in a state like indiana, indianapolis is put on the cities to watch list but most of our cases have been concentrated in a small area geographically. we have learned a lot about how peculiar this disease is with its asymptomatic nature in many cases. but i think with all that collective information, we need

to focus on what the next move is both against the disease and economically, and yes, government will have to be part of it. everything that's affecting the economy has been caused by government to tamp the disease down. so we'll be okay if it's for small business. the businesses that are affected as well, over 500, and basically they just got access to more liquidity and there will be a lot of economic damage, whether we can recover it with a quick bounce back or not, that's what most business owners are worried about currently. ashley: will the curbside delivery really kind of save your wife's business? obviously when you shut the doors and have no customers, each passing day makes it that much more precarious. >> i think that's going to be different for every business. the fact that she's been doing this for a long time gives you staying power. what i'm worried about are the fledgling businesses.

we had one just recently that was a recent startup that couldn't make it through, decided to shut their doors here in this town. i'm from the lowest unemployment county and town in the state of indiana. indiana is a big manufacturing state. we've got a lower unemployment rate going into this than surrounding states, but we are really at a point from collectively listening to business owners across the state, to where they think the solution is a selective rollback being careful, not necessarily needing more government help. they are really kind of uncertain about whether that will be comprehensive enough and whether it will be there in time for the businesses that are on the, you know, shaky going into this and that are really struggling currently. ashley: yeah. that's the big question. thank you so much, senator braun, for joining us. best of luck with you and certainly with your wife's business. we wish you the best.

thanks for joining us. >> thank you. ashley: all right. susan, you have news on starbucks? susan: after the cdc recommended guidelines that americans start wearing face masks in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, starting today, starbucks will require all its employees to start wearing face masks. don't forget, most of these restaurants, in fact all across the u.s., are closed so only carryout and delivery are available at starbucks and they say they have extended their coronavirus emergency measures until may 3rd, from what i see. that means extra pay, extra pay of $3 an hour for their 346,000 employees across the u.s. think about it, starbucks has actually outperformed this month and have had to face coronavirus not only in china but now here in the u.s. as well. ashley: susan, thank you. what about those other stocks that have been hit hard, travel and casino stocks? lauren? lauren: yeah, this is all about the return to normalcy. in fact, governor cuomo just

said he's about to start talking to new jersey and connecticut about restarting life, when you can go out again and go places, maybe take a flight somewhere. imagine that. we are seeing the airlines up double digits today. look at that. jetblue and american each up 15%. the hotel stocks are surging. even the cruise lines are surging. but it begs the question, what does life look like, what do vacations look like when we do return to normal? are you going to be more inclined to stay at a hotel or airbnb, for instance? will you drive to your summer vacation? can i say summer vacation or is it more like your fall or winter vacation? i don't know where we're headed. what does that vacation look like when we return? ashley: right. i understand you are a little rusty behind the wheel. that's a story for another day. let's take a look at big tech. we like to look at the big tech stocks as they carry so much weight, as we know.

you see the casino stocks, very quickly, what are we doing? apple up nicely, a couple bucks, $264. amazon higher, also microsoft up just a little bit. at least they are heading in the right direction. speaking of big tech, dan ives is launching a tech etf. he's here to talk about it. plus golf reshuffling its schedule. we will have greg norman joining me next. here's huge news for veterans with va loans.

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download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. ashley: all right. the markets have been open just about two hours now and we have been in the positive for that entire period. we are up more than 900 points, came back to 300, now kind of gaining a little momentum. the dow up 550 points, the s&p and nasdaq also up 1% or 2%. not bad at all. all right. it is a story that you will see first on fox business. dan ives, wedbush securities, joins me now and dan, you are launching a tech etf, is that correct? tell me about it. when does it start trading? >> yeah. so it's great to be here. it starts trading tomorrow morning. we really collaborated on this brainchild to have an investment vehicle to go after the trillion dollars of cloud spending that we see over the next decade and

really, it's a midcap global way the attack, i know you and me talked about cloud many times, it's one of the most transformational themes i have seen in 20 years of covering tech, which is why i really was excited to put together a vehicle to capture that spending. ashley: so what kind of companies do you have in there again? how many and how did you decide which went in and which didn't? >> sure. it's a great question. it was really putting together a smid cap infrastructure cloud sack that i believe is an area of cloud that's not really as appreciated boy moy most invest. many look at amazon, microsoft, google, but this is really going after where we see the vast majority of spending on the cloud stack. as you look, even you look today, the stay-at-home theme,

applications like slack, names like docusign, zoom, those don't run without the cloud stack. it was putting together roughly 50 names that attack this trend globally not just in the u.s. but internationally, which is something i'm pretty bullish on. ashley: dan, of course we talk apple. i understand the iphone 9, a midrange, cheaper phone, is coming out at a time when we have a pandemic, people are losing jobs. maybe not the best time, but you say apple is going to go ahead with the iphone 9? >> yeah. i view this as obviously a quagmire for apple but it's more of a sort of entry level product. the big one's going to be iphone 12 and to that point, the 5g, we do believe gets pushed out past the fall into holiday season. that's front and center for investors, in light of what we are seeing with the pandemic and

obviously very uncertain demand environment for consumers. ashley: must be difficult for apple and the gang there to try and think forward, because you really don't know where this thing is going. we are seeing signs of improvement with the virus, but trying to decide when to launch such an anticipated new model of the iphone must be very difficult. >> yeah, i think it's a balancing act. i can tell you, supply chain could hit in october time frame but ultimately, in terms what we are seeing in demand even coming out of lockdown sort of in the summer going into fall, it's just not the ideal time to release it and you get one shot at it. you cannot release it into a temper environment. i think that's a balancing act for all these companies, not just apple but really across software, across tech. that's why i think we are really going to have a back-end loaded, weighted year across tech. we continue to view bullish on

apple. it's the other side, the dark valley, in terms of why we want to own this stock, in terms of a 5g super cycle which is delayed but still there. ashley: we have the leave it there. dan ives, a new etf and appropriately enough, it's called ives, i-v-e-s. thanks for joining us. much appreciated. let's get back to sports. in particular, a good friend of the show, greg norman, golf legend. i grew up watching this guy, love him. greg, thank you so much for joining us. what a tough time for all of us. golf included. we have had this massive reshuffle of all the majors. not an easy time. what does that do to the golf world itself? >> well, first of all, thanks for having me on under these strange and insane times. at the end of the day, the powers that be from the usga to the masters to pga of america to

the tpc tour, they have done a masterful job of nipping this in the bud very very quickly. obviously the players have been frustrated because they want to get out and play, and golf is no different than any other sport, formula one, basketball, tennis, whatever it is. i actually am really excited about the end of the year schedule, tell you the truth. when you think about yes, the british open has been canceled this year but when you look at the pga u.s. open, ryder cup and masters almost in a five or six week time period, i think that's very very exciting for all the golf viewers and the players. ashley: got to ask you, you are an entrepreneur, you travel around the world with your businesses. of course that has to come to a stop right now. what impact has this pandemic had on you personally and all your business enterprises? >> well, great question. tens of thousands of other small businesses like mine, restaurant business, that suffered,

basically from our shock experience or gn media, that suffered, so we are not impervious to the pain like everybody else. my team, my employees have done a fantastic job. we have had to furlough people but a lot of people have stepped up to the plate and even the retail side of things, with my partnership with abg has been affected. look, we know this is short term. we know we will come out the back side. we know everything before this, just in my business, was just rocking and rocking, going great. one thing that really hasn't been affected which is kind of interesting is golf course design business. we are still going well in the middle east, still going well in vietnam. vietnam is at a very low case level. pockets of the world, we are still going. yes, i cannot travel but at the end of the day, they are ready to go and having me onsite as soon as this whole thing passes.

ashley: as soon as we get on the other side we will snap back, as they say. greg norman, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. stay safe. we appreciate your time. >> stay safe for everybody. you, too, as well. ashley: yes, thank you. let's get to susan li now. news from the treasury? susan: so you know that $350 billion small business loan program that's part of the treasury stimulus package, we knew that $350 billion was just too small of a number. according to "the washington post" they are going to apply, the treasury will apply for $200 billion more. this is a first come, first served program and according to the treasury, it looks like there's been frenzied activity to grab some of these loans which protects your payroll for two months, including overhead and those loans will be forgiven if you keep everybody on the payroll. this is not surprising. it's only day three of this program being enacted and we have a lot of reporting that a lot of these banks, the big ones, are still not ready to

disburse these loans just yet. a lot of people are looking for some help. ashley: there you are. those community banks really playing a key role. susan, thank you so much. oh, yeah. by the way, it's the show that everyone is talking about. "tiger king." i have not watched it but i have to give in, i have a feeling. soon fans may be in for a special treat. meantime, a mobile streaming service is being launched and the founder joins me 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.

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it's what you'll really pay, right down to the penny. whether you're shopping or just looking. it only takes a few seconds, and it won't affect your credit score. finally! a totally different way to finance your ride. only from carvana. the new way to buy a car. my name is joe exotic. this is sarge. >> he was like a mythical character living out in oklahoma. >> if he ever had an enemy in his life it was baskin. ashley: the executive producer justin says best show ever. well, it is a show that has everyone talking.

"tiger king" holding the longest streak as number one on netflix's top ten list. lauren, you have an update? lauren: it's been number one for 15 days, ashley. so that is the longest streak that something has been the most watched on netflix. guess what? so popular that right now, they are producing a new episode and they are going to drop it next week. so another episode is coming. a sequel is coming. it's not on netflix, it's on investigation discovery. it will come later this year. it's going to reveal more details on carol baskin. for those who watch, this is the rival of joe exotic. in fact, he's doing jail time for allegedly plotting the killing of her first husband. now you know. ashley: oh, boy. lauren: start watching. ashley: now i have to watch it, right, so i can join in the conversation. all right, thank you very much. okay. i want to talk about quibi. if you haven't heard about it,

it's a site, mobile site with short individual yvideos, could movie cut up into episodes of no longer than ten minutes. the co-founder of this jeff katzenberg is joining us now to talk about quibi. thank you so much for joining us. why did you get involved in this? why are you excited about it? >> well, i think that today, there are two billion of us that are watching two billion hours of content on our telephones every day and it's mostly on social media platforms like youtube, instagram, tik tok. it's fun and it's great stuff but it's not what we do here in hollywood. i thought the opportunity for us to take the talent, the most gifted storytellers and film makers both behind the camera and in front of the camera, give

them a new technology that we created, i will show a little bit to you now, to make watching on the phone beautiful and tell great stories seemed to me like a great opportunity. this seemed like the right moment and the right time. ashley: is this a subscription service? how much do i have to pay a month to get it? >> it is, it's $4.99 a month. but right now, you know, i think in recognition of launching this in the middle of a very very very stressed, if not distressed time, we decided for the first 90 days it's free, for everybody. you can download the app, go to quibi.com and you can get it free for the next 90 days. ashley: for someone who has been so involved in the movie industry, jeff, you say that industry is ready for at-home viewing. right? >> oh, for sure. there's no question. you look at the amazing stuff that is being made today and you

talked about netflix and, you know, "tiger king" and you do need to watch it, i'm sorry. ashley: okay. >> here's the thing that's interesting. viewing today on a telephone is up 60% over one year ago. so even though we aresheltered our homes and probably watching more television, i know we are, i'm sure the ratings are up on your show, we are also watching a lot more on our telephones. so in a way, even though it's sort of a different way and different watching pattern than we traditionally have, it is a huge opportunity. ashley: and i read somewhere that the only requirement you have for the people providing the content, and it's not easy to split something up into, say, ten episodes but you want each episode to end in a cliffhanger, is that right? >> that is correct. but i will tell you the best

storytellers, whether it's spielberg or del tormo or pete farrelly, they have already made content for us and it's worked and it's beautiful. when people actually get to see this, i think they will realize this is unique and different and premium. ashley: very quickly, i know you have been working with meg whitman. she's a titan of industry. how has that partnership worked? >> she's amazing. she's the ceo of a company. we have known each other for 30 years. i know what i know on the content side. on the technology side, i needed somebody who was frankly, you know, as much a go-getter as me and i found someone that's even more so in meg. she's just an incredible, incredible executive and leader. she has created this technology and i can just show you a little if you want here.

it is game-changing and makes watching on this phone something like you have never seen before. that's really what meg has brought to the partnership, and much more, but at minimum, that. ashley: we wish you and meg and the rest of the team best of luck. quibi. i will be sure to check it out along with "tiger king." thank you so much, jeff katzenbe katzenberg, for joining us. be shower ure to tune in thursd our virtual town hall, america works together with charles payne. he will have great stories to share, thursday, april 9th, 2:00 p.m. eastern. tune in. america works together. we'll be right back.

ashley: all right. let's bring in susan li, if we

can. news on dominoes and little caesars. my favorite topic, pizza. susan: who doesn't love free pizza, especially for first responders and health care workers that absolutely deserve it. let's start with little caesars. they are kicking off a nationwide donation campaign and they themselves will donate one million pizzas for the health care and first responders group. users can also go on the app and make donations themselves. as for dominoes pizza, they are donating 10 million slices during the coronavirus pandemic. not only for health care workers but also for those that are in need right now and those that can't get access to food, don't have a paycheck. go to dominoes. they will give you some free pizza. they are also hiring as well because people are quarantined and stuck home so the likes of dominoes, papa john's and pizza hut collectively, they are looking for 50,000 pizza deliveries. ashley: that's a good story every way around. offering free slices of pizza to

essential workers and then offering jobs. what a deal. lauren, do you have a feel-good story? lauren: what do people do in the early evening? they go outside on the front stoop and wave and talk to their neighbors from across the way. now photographers are going around and taking a picture, a natural picture. you might have a lysol can in your head or pet in your pajamas and they are taking pictures outside your doorstep. look at that. we see all sorts of scenes. these are what america looks like right now. that money of course going to food banks. ashley: that's a great picture. i love it. look, it's a time in history where we will look back and these are the kind of pictures, and say can you believe we did this, we were all essentially locked down in our homes and would come out for a short period of time to wave to neighbors, in some communities i have seen some in the uk where they all come out at 11:00 in

the morning and sing a tom jones song or dance together, of course keeping lots of separation. i think that kind of stuff is fabulous. we are all in it together and all just trying to do the best we can. great stuff. thank you very much. got to get this promo in again. charles payne, america works together. it is a virtual town hall, having all sorts of guests. charles payne, host of "making money." that will be on thursday, april 9th, 2:00 p.m. don't miss that. tune in if you can because everyone is at home. there's no excuse for missing it. again, charles will be hosting that virtual town hall at 2:00 p.m. all right. more "varney" after this. america's oldest lighthouse has weathered many storms. seeing the break in the clouds before anyone else. together, we'll weather this storm.

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ashley: we have some breaking news for you. we have learned that trump campaign spokeswoman kayleigh mcenany will become the next white house press secretary. we heard earlier today, stephanie grisham will leave that job. kayleigh mcenany will become the new white house press secretary. before we say good-bye, we have to look at these markets. we're up more than 900 points at the beginning of the session, following on from yesterday's 1600 point gain. as you can see starting to move up again. the dow up 2 1/2%. the s&p up two, the nasdaq up not quite as much but up nearly 1 1/2%. i just want to thank susan and

lauren for hanging with us, yesterday we provided 1000 points. today a mere 593. boy we have done well, guys, thanks to you. all right. that's it. our time is up. neil cavuto. come on in it is all yours. neil: ashley, by the way you if you could work a little harder, my friend, just a little more we would be in good shape. thank you very much, ashley. we're following all developments, incredible run-up in the dow. look at over 1600 points for the dow. in case in rough percentages here has soared close to 30% from lows reached a little more than a couple weeks ago. so we're up more than 5,000 points from those lows. now we're a long way from the 30,000 we were flirting with in the middle of february but it is remarkable in these fast market conditions. you know the drill by now. a lot has to do with the deemed