cheryl: ten seconds, go. >> the johns hopkins data is getting better because everyone is doing their part staying home. keep up the good work. cheryl: i love that. leigh carter? >> i think everyone will get comfortable again. 75% of people are scared to go out of their houses. it's not going to get better until people feel safe again. cheryl: thank you for the three hours you spent with me. "varney & company" and ashley webster is now. ashley: good morning, cheryl. thank you very much. good morning, everybody. okay. well, 6.6 million americans filing for unemployment insurance, for the first time just in the last week. add it all up, over the last three weeks, that number is more than 16 million. 16.7 million, to be exact. these numbers, of course, will fuel the political and economic debates over when and how to reopen the country. still, president trump says we are ahead of schedule on that. roll tape. >> be nice to be able to open

with a big bang and open up our country or certainly most of our country and i think we're going to do that soon. you look at what's happening, i would say we're ahead of schedule. now, you hate to say it too loudly because all of a sudden things don't happen, but i think we will be sooner rather than later. ashley: sooner rather than later. the markets responding positively in the premarket today. the dow up 330 points. it is a holiday-shortened week. no trading tomorrow. we have long weekend coming up. what will that do to the markets? we will get into that. as for oil, up as opec plus meets. we are likely to hear about a deal between the saudis and russians to cut production, although up until now, they haven't seen eye to eye. in the next hour, we will hear from fed chair jerome powell and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. powell could move the market with his remarks on the economy. a half hour ago, the fed announced $2.3 trillion in new

loans available. that helped offset the negative news on the unemployment claims. so the fed saying we will do whatever it takes, basically. meanwhile, mitch mcconnell will push for a quick vote to approve an additional $251 billion for the small business loan program. meanwhile, bernie sanders is out. we know that, setting the stage for trump versus biden in november. that's a positive for the market, we believe. the question of the day is, is this the president's race to lose? we will get into that as well. so much to talk about. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney. we begin with john lonski from moody's, our resident economist. okay, now it's 16.7 million filing for unemployment. this number could go, what, to 20 million and unemployment rate up to perhaps 15% by the end of the month, right? >> hate to say you're exactly right. these numbers were unimaginable just several months ago. looking right now, perhaps the

unemployment rate will easily break above 10% for the month of april, probably head higher as you said to a possible peak of 15% for the month of april. this tremendous jump by jobless claims over the past three weeks suggests we could see a monthly job loss of between five million and ten million jobs. you know that just today, we had a report from canada, smaller economy, that reported a loss of more than one million jobs for the month of march. ashley: wow. i guess my next question is could we be looking at more longer term and permanent layoffs as this thing drags on? >> that is so sad, because we had made such great progress of bringing down the unemployment rate, providing job opportunities to individuals who hadn't had any for the longest period of time, and now all of a sudden, the unemployment rate

goes from 3.5% to 15%. it will be difficult. it will take years to bring that unemployment rate back down to say 4% and that's why this new stimulus program announced today by the federal reserve was received so positively by the financial markets. we were down in response to jobless claims and markets moved sharply higher once the fed said well, we have another $2.3 trillion to make available to the u.s. economy. fed's doing the right thing. got to do everything possible to avoid an increase, a significant increase in bankruptcies and a significant increase in mortgage foreclosures. ashley: all right. so that's the monetary policy. what about the fiscal policy? the senate planning to vote today on adding $250 billion to that paycheck protection program but of course, politics will be in play, we know that. very quickly before i get to

susan on the actual issues here, how important is that? >> i think it's very important. it's showing that both fiscal policy and monetary policy, you know, recognize the unique nature of the current recession and they will do whatever is necessary to prevent the recession from becoming long-lived and perhaps deteriorating into something worse and i might add that we are going to see the federal budget deficit go up to maybe 15% of gdp but don't forget, world war ii, the federal budget deficit rose as high as 20% to 30% of gdp. ashley: all right. now let's bring in susan li. i want to talk about one of the issues on this extra $251 billion i believe it is, the two sides, the republicans and democrats, what do they want? susan: democrats want sweeteners in here and obviously, the republican side, they want a quick vote. let's get this through, get the money through to these small businesses so we can keep people

employed. democrats, besides $250 billion, $251 billion extra for this payroll protection plan, they also want 50% of the money to be channeled through community-based banks which a lot of people, you hear anecdotal stories that a lot of community-based banks are the ones that are actually doling out the loans, not the big ones like bank of america, citi, chase and the like. in fact, they have been dragging their feet in getting the loans approved and people that have stepped in saying i want a loan, unless you have a long credit history with these large banks, most of these people have been turned away at some of these doors. democrats also want $100 billion for hospitals, $150 billion given to states and local governments. so there is still some wrangling in politics, you give to get. let's see if we can get this quick vote through as everybody really understands american small business is hurting right now. ashley: thank you very much, susan. we will see how that goes. we will follow the course of that extra money for small businesses throughout the day. i want to bring in, get to the

political side, steve cortez, spokesman for america first. thanks so much for joining us. okay, as bernie dropped out, as bernie dropped out, we were on the air when that happened yesterday, the market shot up. coincidence or not? >> probably not a coincidence but look, i'm also really making an appeal to bernie voters because my message is this. we on the populist right understand and respect the bernie movement, the anti-establishment ethos that drove their entire crusade. i really am making an overture to them and i'm not trying to insult the intelligence of any bernie supporters and pretend we don't have serious policy disagreements because we do, but on the biggest issue that i think is facing america in 2020, the issue of the chinese communist party, and the existential threat that the ccp is to the national and economic security of america, i think the bernie movement and trump train can coalesce on this issue, because there's not much daylight between the two of us when it comes to policy versus

china. so particularly in the effort to protect the prerogatives and rights of american workers vis a vis china, i think this is a place where we can see a coalition of the populist left and populist right so i invite the bernie bros and bernie sisters to take a look at our movement. you do not want to vote for beijing biden. he's not your candidate. he's a globalist corporatist. you belong with us now that bernie is no longer in the race. ashley: i haven't heard that before, beijing biden. >> i'm trying to get that trending. ashley: i can tell. listen, i think sanders said he's going to keep his name on the ballot and i have a feeling that a lot of the bernie bros and sisters will vote for him anyway just to make a statement, which really hurts biden, right, who is trying to be a little bit more moderate. he's not wanting to be pulled as far left as they would like him to. all of this adds up to it's donald trump's race to lose, would you not say?

>> i think for sure. look, when we look at joe biden, number one on this issue of china which again i think is going to be the foremost issue of the november election, he has been completely complicit with the chinese communist party for decades, going all the way back to his senate career so he's totally compromised on the issue of china. in addition to that, i really just think this is a hollow candidate, this is a fighter who quite frankly no longer belongs in the ring, that will become more apparent when he has to go toe to toe against the heavyweight champ, donald trump, particularly into debates. again, i think there's a very real potential for us to draw some of those bernie voters over to our side. i cannot see them clamoring for the dnc corporate media candidate who is joe biden. ashley: all right. we will find out, of course. let me bring in lauren simonetti. lauren, the cdc has apparently new guidelines for essential workers returning to the job after they have been exposed to the virus. what does that look like? what does it include?

lauren: good question. how do you do that. how do you start to reopen the economy. let's hear from the cdc and dr. redfield. >> we want them not to share objects, that would be touching their face, and we would like them not to congregate in break rooms, lunchrooms and crowded places. we would ask those employers to take the employees' temperature and assess their symptoms before starting them back to work. lauren: so when we go back to work, and that includes us here as well, we are not going to be hugging one another. it's going to be a lot different. the cdc also says this, in addition to having your temperature taken, a mask should be worn at all times and you can't gather in the cafeteria or break room. you really have to respect those social distancing measures. it's going to look a lot different when we try to return to the workplace. ashley: it certainly is. dr. fauci also saying that maybe

handshakes will never happen again. lauren: i know. ashley: we will all think twice. lauren: can you imagine? ashley: thank you. no, it's going to be a whole new world after this. thank you so much. couple of stocks to tell you about. beginning with disney. disney up now, as you can see, 5.5%. disney plus subscribers have nearly doubled in two months, 50 million people are now signed up. a nice boost overseas in india. disney stock at $106. next case, starbucks saying earnings have been cut roughly in half due to the coronavirus in the second quarter. that stock barely moving, down a fraction in premarket at 71 bucks on starbucks. let's take a look at the futures for you. nice little surge after the fed said it's going to make more money available. now we are seeing the futures up 461 on the dow, both the s&p and nasdaq also well above 1% before we get going for real in about 19 minutes from now. so bernie is out of the

presidential race but he's still on the ballot. what's that all about? i will ask one of bernie's former campaign members in our next hour. also coming up, legendary baseball player keith hernandez. we wanted to get him yesterday. bernie booted him out but he's coming back. i want to know what he makes of the major league baseball making a may comeback in front of empty stadiums. president trump planning to investigate the world health organization. we know that, over its handling of the coronavirus. we've got exactly what he said right after this. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't.

get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase. you may not be thinking about blood donation, but blood is needed to save the lives of people who are sick with a range of illnesses. it's easy and safe to give. if you are in good health, please donate. we need heroes now. visit red cross blood dot org to schedule an appointment.

the theater home to you,t to with xfinity movie premiere. there's a world full of other trolls. how different can they be? our brand-new service that lets you watch all the latest movie releases from the comfort of home.

trolls world tour april 10th. i will protect you no matter what, pinky promise. just say xfinity movie premiere into your voice remote to bring the theater to you. ashley: welcome back. take a look at the dow. it's going to be up 450 points or thereabouts. the fed again announcing more

help, more liquidity, and that's giving cheer to the markets. by the way, we will be hearing from jerome powell at the top of the hour, at 10:00, and of course, we will be following his comments especially when he is asked some questions. we will follow news from the fed today as well. meantime, the government stimulus checks could be in your hands by next week. that's good news. come in, edward lawrence. edward, that money is coming sooner than we thought, right? reporter: yeah, this process going a little bit faster than we thought. a senior administration official telling me monday or tuesday, the first direct deposit checks will be made and following that, the week after on april 20th week, is when the actual paper checks will start to go out. also, the payroll protection program, wildly popular amongst small businesses, trying to get this. we have now reached a milestone. more than $115 billion has been processed through that program. a senior small business administration official telling me the total number of loans looking at 450,000 loans have

been approved, the number of lending institutions going up to 3800. again, community banks are leading the way on this, as the big banks, there's some frustration from small businesses, the big banks are holding back on those loan applications. they are taking applications but not processing them through at this moment. tomorrow, the program reaches a milestone. they will start to bring into this program independent contractors and the self-employed. those folks will then be able to be into this program. there's a little bit more complicated paperwork associated with them. that's because they have to figure out exactly how much money they made, how much they are losing and how much the loans will cover with that. again, milestones all cross the board. $115 billion. we are getting our direct deposit checks monday and tuesday. back to you. ashley: good stuff. we need to get the big banks fired up. edward, thank you very much. want to bring in texas congressman lance gooden. thank you for joining us.

the president doubling down on his criticism for the world health organization. i want you to listen to this sound bite. >> we're going to do study, investigation, and we're going to make a determination as to what we're doing. in the meantime we're holding back. we want to see -- very unfair. the united states, $452 million compared to $42 million. that's to the world health organization. world health got it wrong. i mean, they got it very wrong. in many ways, they were wrong. they also minimized the threat very strongly and not good. ashley: congressman, should we freeze or defund the w.h.o.? >> i think so. everything the president said is right and really, the president was probably too nice on them because what they have done is endorsed the chinese communist party policy of lies since this virus actually broke out back in

december and january. they have been right in lockstep with the chinese endorsing every bit of propaganda that they have put out. they criticized the president's travel ban on flights from china back in january. they have not been helpful. it's bad enough that we have to deal with a chinese communist party that is telling lies about just how serious this is. we would have been on top of this much earlier than we were had we gotten actual real information from china and had the world health organization not been so supportive of the lies coming out of china. ashley: congressman, tell us about your coronavirus lawsuit bill. what's that about? >> sure. i filed a bill last week that amends the foreign sovereign immunities act which was passed in the 1970s which protects other nation governments from lawsuits in american courts. we made an exception. this bill makes an exception with respect to viral outbreaks and says that the chinese or anyone, really, could be subject

to investigation in the american judicial system, because i think it's important that we find out the origins of this virus. the chinese say it started in a live wet animal market and we are just expected to believe them, and we are expected to believe the numbers of deaths that they're reporting. no one believes that they have only had 3,000 something deaths when we have had as many as we have had here in the united states in such a shorter amount of time. what's coming out of china is not accurate. we can't trust international bodies or international legal authorities. we can't trust the world health organization. i believe we need to bring this home, we need to investigate this here at home and if this is something that china turns out to have been responsible for, we need to hold them accountable, whether it was an accident or on purpose, you can't argue with the fact that lies are coming out of china and we haven't been able to respond as quickly as we would have had fwhoowe known thl picture in china back in december and january. ashley: have to leave it there, congressman lance gooden of texas, thank you for joining us.

we really appreciate your time. thank you very much. let's check the market for you. less than ten minutes to the open. check out the market. nice surge, up nearly 500 points now on the dow. as you can see on the bottom of the screen, that banner says fed adds $2.3 trillion, that's a "t" in stimulus loans. that's given a nice push to the market. the dow up more than 2%, s&p and nasdaq up 1.5%. i also want to tell you about yelp, the online company. they say page views and searches for restaurants have dropped 60% compared to the beginning of the month. they have also announced a cut to their work force with all the restaurants closed, you can only imagine, but the stock up in the premarket 1.75%, right around $22 a share. also, let's get to susan li, news from pfizer? susan: out of 140 concurrent ways to try to find a vaccine for the coronavirus right now and remedy treatments, pfizer,

one of the largest drug companies in the world, says they have identified a lead coronavirus drug candidate and are also testing their arthritic drug zeljan, which we see a lot of commercials for and whether it was any effect in tempering the symptoms of coronavirus and treatment as well. as i mentioned, 140 vaccines are currently in development, including lilly, gilead, roche, moderna which started clinical trials in humans, that started this year. inovio has dna vaccines. big drug companies looking for some sort of hope and vaccine solutions. ashley: the race is on. thank you very much. very quickly, let's take a look at these futures, if we can. the markets surging going into the opening bell. the dow up 473 points. the s&p and nasdaq up more than 1%. the opening of the market coming up and by the way, there's a three-day weekend coming up. how does that affect the psyche of investors? we'll be right back.

ashley: the markets will open two and a half minutes from now. let's bring in d.r. barton. d.r., as we can see, the futures higher on this 2.3 trillion fed stimulus.

your thoughts? >> yeah, you know, it was interesting that i think the markets were kind of waiting to see what happened with that unemployment number that came out. when it was higher but not tons higher than expected, i think you're exactly right, ash, the fed stimulus bill has people just excited that we can get on the other side of this thing and see some more up movement. $2.3 trillion, that's no spit in the bucket. that's a big cash support. ashley: i mentioned earlier that there's no trading tomorrow. good friday. so you have long weekend strategy. how hard will it be not to take some profits today heading into that long weekend? >> well, it's going to be pretty hard for me, because i think i'm going to take a little bit off the table, not a lot, but i think i'm going to take a little bit off the table in some more of my higher profit positions because three out of the last

four weekends we have had some pretty negative news come out. so i think if you're just a long-term investor, it's not something to worry about, but if you have some shorter term money involved, it might be a nice idea to sell a little bit at these highs. ashley: you know, if you look at the numbers, they are remarkable. the dow up 10% this week, as is the s&p 500. the dow is up 29% from its low. that would be, if we continue it today, the best week since 1938. i mean, do we just keep moving up? obviously this market wants to. >> well, i think there's a big reality gap right now between what we hope for and what the realities are. i do not think we have yet seen all of the negative financial news coming out. i don't think we are on a straight-up run here. i think we will go back and have some lower times coming when some of these numbers come out like earnings next week on the

big banks. but i will tell you, this is unprecedented. as fast as we went down, this is the biggest rise we have seen. ashley: yeah. it's remarkable. you can hear the bells ringing as we get ready for this last trading day of the week. here we go. the nasdaq down to one. we are off and running. expecting a nice gain at the beginning and there you have it. the dow up 320 points or thereabouts. majority of the dow 30, as you can see, from what we call the heat map, are on the upside. walmart, 3m, merck, verizon, negative right out of the opening gate here but we will let this market develop, as they say. as you can see, the dow now up 333 points. it started to surge in premarket after the fed announced more stimulus, $2.3 trillion in stimulus loans. the market liked the sound of that and as you can see, we are off and running. take a look at the s&p. s&p up 1.25%, up 32 points.

now at 2782 on the s&p. let's take a quick look at the tech-heavy nasdaq, if we can. about the same pace as the rest. perhaps slightly less exuberant. the nasdaq up just under 1%, 8,159 on the nasdaq. we are also taking a look at starbucks, if we can. starbucks saying their earnings have been roughly cut in half due to the coronavirus, but not having a huge impact on the stock in the early going. just down ever so slightly at $71 for starbucks. take a look at disney. there are now reportedly more than 50 million subscribers of disney plus. d.r., let me bring you back in. disney winning the streaming battle. i think they've got a nice big boost in india once they unveiled the service there. but it's been very positive. disney plus. >> yeah. i think there's more positive news to come because they have, even with that surge coming out

of india, they haven't really touched their global marketing as much as they are going to. so they are going to have a ton more new subscribers coming in, but it's interesting, i don't think netflix has seen the brunt of this. i think people right now are in the mode of adding extra services instead of swapping them out. so it's good news for disney and i think it's good news for streaming long-term. ashley: okay. d.r., thank you. want to bring susan in. google is banning zoom. why? susan: well, i mean, can you blame them? there has been zoom bombing we have been talking a lot about. that means a lot of these conversations and video conference calls have been hacked. not just that, though. min there has been undisclosed data sharing with facebook, reports of exposed linkedin profiles because of zoom and malware installers. google joining tesla and spacex so they are banning employees from using zoom on security concerns. you can use zoom on your own

personal time with conversations with your family and friends, but not for work. is this possibly commercially motivated since we know google has its own competitor as part of its g-suite offering? they say no, this is part of security right now. we did hear from eric yan yesterday and he says we will try to do all we can to prevent any hacks in the future. that means possible encryption in the next few months. also launching a feature called security that says all the privacy settings, to the highest right from the start as default settings. no way you can blame them for hackers getting in through lapses in settings. ashley: so they are insisting basically that their platform is safe. companies are not taking -- susan: can i also note, though, their users have jumped 200 million daily active users from just ten million at the end of last year? the coronavirus is obviously providing a bump and big

increase in users but were they ready for it? some say obviously not. ashley: remarkable. susan, thank you. d.r., you taking a look at slack? >> yeah, ash. you know, i think that just a quick note on zoom, the department of homeland security came out yesterday and said they were pleased with the progress zoom was making. i think that's kind of counterbalancing the google news today, although zoom is down just a little bit. but another of those work-at-home companies, slack, are doing amazing things. one of the really cool things they did was set up e.r. docs all over the country to be able to talk about fighting the coronavirus, what they are seeing first-hand on the ground, and they had 3,000 doctors logged into that channel in the first week. they are also going gangbusters. i like them as a name on the other side of the crisis for continued growth. ashley: right. okay.

can we bring up the oil board? this is going to be, we believe, a big day for oil. opec having a teleconference of course today. we can look at the price of crude. it's up 6.5% at $26.75. waiting to hear about a possible deal, the main opponents in the production cut plan is saudi arabia and russia, but d.r., part of this deal, there's rumors out there they may want the u.s. to join in in a production cut. i'm not so sure that will happen. how confident are you that opec can come to some sort of deal to try and support oil prices? >> yeah, it's a really difficult question because here in the u.s., we can't just say producers, cut, cut your production, because we have antitrust laws to work around. but you know, the whole thing we are doing here and the back narrative of this is that russia and saudi arabia are kind of frenemies. they are using to use this time to drop our exploration and

production way down and i think we have to resist that. i'm not so sure we will get that deal. ashley: yeah. doesn't matter what they do, no one's going out so there's no demand there. let's bring in lauren. lauren, costco sales jumped in march, by how much? lauren: by $1.5 billion to $15.5 billion for the month of march because people were stockpiling. look at this stock, it's at $302, so the broader market is up now so it's only down 1.2%. at one point earlier before we heard about this fed program and the stimulus, costco's stock was actually negative for the year. how is that possible? let me explain. this is how. you are going in and maybe buying a lot of toilet paper but you're not buying clothing, not buying jewelry, so sales overall, when you look at all categories, not the best picture for costco. one more quick thing on costco, they are letting first responders, health care workers, go right to the front of the

line. thank you very much. nice move. ashley: thank you very much. yeah, thank you very much. d.r., looking at some of the stocks you are watching very quickly, you like alibaba? >> yeah. i like alibaba. i like jd.com as well. alibaba, i think what is happening here, as they are further down the coronavirus timeline than we are, and i think both alibaba, the biggest online retailer there and jd, are both going to be excelling from here going forward. ashley: very good. we have to leave it right there. d.r., thank you very much for your input. the markets as we can see, the dow up 353 points as we head no the long weekend. all right. president trump says he's looking at two ways to reopen the economy. in sections or basically everything all at once. i will be asking bob doll what he makes of this proposal in our 11:00 hour. also, new data shows grocery

sales growing over 80% in march. that's good news, of course, for the supermarket guys including stew leonard's. big store here. the ceo on our show next hour. school may be out because of the virus but certainly not at the hegseth household. watch this. >> what are the four subjects? >> economics, history -- >> war. >> and war. yes. boom. ashley: i applied to the hegseth college and was rejected. i will talk to him about that. he will tell us about his home schooling and more in our 11:00 hour. we'll be right back.

lauren: ulta is planning massive furloughs. let's take a look at the stock right now. starting next friday, on the 19th, most of their store employees at their retail locations and salons will be furloughed. sad news, but something we are used to. stock is up 4.5%. here's the positive news on ulta, if there is any. they are donating about half a million gloves from their salons to their hospitals and also those that work in their distribution centers, because their e-commerce business is still up and running. they are getting paid an extra $2 an hour. ashley? ashley: all right, lauren. thank you very much. hopefully you can see me. let's get to susan, if we can. netflix has a new idea to help people cope with the virus crisis and it involves facebook and instagram, right? susan: they are partnering up for a program, weekly series in which stars of netflix's popular shall we say young adult

content, talk about self-care during this pandemic. we know it's causing a lot of stress, there's a lot of anxiety and fear, especially amongst the younger generation who are staying at home, they are not socializing and as you know, that takes a mental toll on a lot of these younger adults. so this will air thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on the netflix instagram account and a lot of these big netflix stars, for instance, all the boys have loved before, who hasn't watched that before, lana candor will be part of the series along with "stranger things" jerry harris and the likes. it's not just netflix launching this type of platform to address mental health during this covid-19 pandemic but also snapchat has a here for you feature that helps users find reliable resources and information. also headspace is offering free meditation and sleep exercises to get through this. it's good that big tech, a lot of these content providers are stepping in and understanding that people need some relief in these times.

ashley: they certainly do. little bit of meditation would be nice, as the rain pounds down on the garage roof. all right. susan, thank you very much. let's take a quick look at the markets. we have been open coming up 15 minutes now and look at that. the dow up 508 points. nice push today from the fed, $2.3 trillion in stimulus loans being made available. the markets like that. the s&p up now right around 2% and the nasdaq also up 130 points, up about 1.5%. meanwhile, wedbush's dan ives, new etf, told us about it yesterday, taking off, right, susan? susan: think about this. this is a thematic investment in cloud since we know cloud spending will be at least $1 trillion over the next decade and a lot of these cloud producers are some of the big winners. amazon, for one, oversees around 40% of the cloud market here in the u.s. and coming up next but with faster growth rates is microsoft and azure, we know

that stock before last month did about 80% in gains. then you have google number three. but globally, you have players like alibaba and the chinese tech players, and cloud is pretty much the future, right, if you want to compute because no one is going for physical data centers anymore. it's all kept up here somewhere. ashley: floating around magically up in the clouds. all right, susan, thank you very much. let's bring in steve schork, if we can. we are going to talk oil. the opec emergency meeting begins in just a few moments from now, the teleconference. are you expecting anything to come out of this? >> without the cooperation of the united states and an official cut in production, i'm skeptical we will see anything meaningful coming out of saudi arabia and russia. you have to keep in mind that the antecedent to the price war between saudi arabia and russia began at the end of february, when the united states decided to sanction russia's largest oil

trading company and therefore that company's market share of the global crude oil sales. therefore, without the united states playing along and one of your correspondents spoke to this a couple blocks ago, the united states cannot, its producers, the private companies, they cannot have a production cut because it would violate antitrust laws. what the government could do, either the states or on the federal level, they could mandate a production cut which would allow the companies. the problem is a lot of the market, from a u.s. perspective, u.s. companies are responding. last week we did kick off 600,000 barrels a day of production but what saudi arabia and russia are fearful for is that if we do get a price response and prices do retrace higher, u.s. production will follow along and that's the sticking point here. there has to be an official production cut by the united states. without it, i am skeptical that we will see anything meaningful coming out of opec today.

ashley: all right. you know, the president has spoken to the idea of imposing tariffs on oil imports to push more domestic use. is that one way around this? >> no. tariffs will not increase demand. at this point if the united states is still producing in excess of 12 million barrels a day, we have a demand problem. this isn't a supply issue. this is a demand problem. just in the past three weeks alone, 17 million americans have filed for first-time unemployment insurance claims. the back of the envelope estimate by the st. louis federal reserve has the unemployment rate in the second quarter going to 32%, over 50 million americans unemployed. even if you do get the [ inaudible ] lifted and you can come back to some semblance of normal, you have to appreciate all the 50 million americans that will lose their jobs, they are not necessarily getting them back in the summer. so we are looking at prolonged

demand decay throughout the summer. so when you have strong production, u.s. exports by the inversion of the spread telling us that u.s. exports are not competitive so we are producing, we are not going to be able to export our way out of it. we have a demand issue so that glut is going to persist. if you put tariffs o they will be meaningless, will have no impact on demand and will exacerbate the supply glut going on through the summer. ashley: all right. wow. all right. stephen schork, thank you for joining us this morning. we will keep an eye on what is happening with opec and whether we get any headlines out of it. we will, one way or another. dairy farmers are feeling the pinch from the virus, with restaurants and schools closed. they are being forced to literally dump their milk. we have that story for you. and up next, retailers can and cannot survive the coronavirus. more "varney" after this.

with coronavirus spreading, people at higher risk must take extra precautions. you are at higher risk if you are over 65, or if you have an underlying medical condition. please visit coronavirus.gov for more information.

beyond the routine checkups. beyond the not-so-routine cases. comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. all working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gig-speed network. because beyond technology... there is human ingenuity.

every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond.

ashley: all right. let's take a quick check of the markets for you, if we can. the dow, well, up close to 500 points at 23,930. there you go. the nasdaq and s&p also up 2%. the nasdaq up 1.5% but still

good news for the markets on that fed stimulus. let's bring in susan li. you have news, susan, from germany's angela merkel? susan: she has a very strong voice in europe and some say germany has handled this coronavirus outbreak probably one of the best countries to do it in the world. merkel says europe has to respond to the coronavirus in a united way baveand basically, s says germany will play its role to ensure solidarity in europe. overnight cases in germany climbing overnight. 5633 cases in total with 333 deaths. that has climbed but far less than the rate of course of what we have seen here in the u.s. that's because some say that germany has a lot more independent lab testing and has i guess been insulated more than other countries from this pandemic spread. ashley: perhaps a glimmer of hope in germany. susan, thank you. let's talk about retail now, bring in kristin bentz from the kb advisory group.

you say the hit to retail and its employees could be the death knell to many retailers. that's a pretty somber outlook. >> well, most of these wounds were already self-inflicted, ashley. so you know, i'm not really saying anything new out there. but post-pandemic we will see a lot of retailers that will cease to exist. ashley: any big ones in particular? maybe jc penney, perhaps? >> i think so. i think jc penney, something like the gap, i would not be surprised, something like dillard's, i would not be surprised. ashley: wow. okay. we look at some perhaps value plays after the virus, once we get on the other side, you like walmart, costco and amazon. seems like pretty safe bets to me. >> very safe bets. i think walmart is in a very unique position here, because they have what amazon doesn't have, which is real estate.

they are deftly moving towards their buy online, pick up in store. they want you out of the store, online and that actually would be less liability for them and a more cost-effective waf doiy ofg business. i really like walmart here. ashley: very quickly, you do like, and they are not cheap, restoration hardware. why rh? >> you know, for customers that are in a better cash position, restoration hardware is a great play on the high end. they are sitting at home, looking at those sourcebooks which i have to tell you are absolutely beautiful, and they are sitting there saying i hate this lamp -- ashley: have to leave it there. we heard what you had to say. thank you so much for joining us. the markets moving higher. we'll be right back. our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence. they help us with achievable steps along the way... ...so we can spend a bit today, knowing we're prepared for tomorrow. . . . it?

overdid what? see? we don't think so, son. technically, grandparents can't overdo it. it's impossible. well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement. there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. and a team of experts - here for you 24/7. we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us.

ashley: welcome back, everybody, 10:00 apartment on the east coast. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney and by the way the markets have been open for 30 minutes and we're looking at a nice gain up 535 points on the dow. the dow at 23,970. in fact closing in on the 24,000 point level. happening now majority leader mitch mcconnell is attempting to get an okay on extra $251 billion for small business amid the coronavirus crisis before an empty chamber. any news out of that, you get it right here. first to edward lawrence.

you are following fed chair jerome powell's speech right now. reporter: exactly. what he is saying these are unprecedented times. he said the coronavirus caused significant, economic and personal cost to the united states. he says the federal funds rate will remain at zero or near zero until the economy recovers. he said the fed is using unprecedented lending powers and their tools in an unprecedented way. they will continue to do so until the economy is on a vigorous recovery getting back to the other side. he does believe there could be a robust rebound at the end of this. employment or unemployment will be very high but federal reserve chairman jerome oil powell says temporary. he says the fed acted forcefully and the reason they acted forcefully he is going to say because he wanted to make sure markets kept moving.

he believes that is exactly what happened through all the actions. he says they're facing rare circumstances today. powell says the cares act is a very good start in order to solidify the economy. he points to possibly more legislation to help on the fiscal stimulus side. the fed will do what's necessary and continue to do what's necessary to get the economy on the road to recovery. back to you. ashley: very good edward, thank you. the market likes what the fed is saying. the dow up 500 points 32 minutes into the session. we're getting the latest reading on consumer sentiment. susan, the number? susan: it is not big. the biggest month on month drop in history. looking for a read in april of 71. economists were looking for a read of closer to 75. this is worse than anticipated. if you look at it, the drop from march to april is a drop of 17 to 18 point and that is the biggest on record. not a surprise given we saw

jobless claims jump more than expected this morning on the week, six 1/2 million. people are concerned about the economy. they don't want to go out to spend this is big problem for the u.s. economy. powered by 3/4 of it by the consumer. ashley: apparently it did not affect the market very much. the dow off 558, susan li. you know what? these numbers are, the economic data we know to expect it but it is staggering and disturbing, but nevertheless the fed will do what it can to keep the economy on steady feet to we get to the other side. we have the latest read on mortgage rates, lauren, the number? >> dead flat, 3.33% for the 30-year mortgage rate from freddie mac, ashley. ' decline in 15 year, 2.77%. interesting same from the group.

rates remain flat there is range for the rates to move down. mortgage rates have only declared by a third of a point. they think it will move down but flat for the 30 year, staying at 3.33%, ashley. ashley: how long will it take for the housing industry to get back on its feet? lauren, thank you very much. very low rates but no one taking advantage. let's bring in gary kaltbaum, our good friend at kaltbaum capital management. geir i are, okay, we're seeing a nice push today higher on the markets. the fed, $2.3 trillion in stimulus loans. what do you make of all this? >> $2.3 trillion of conjured up money on top of the four trillion already announced on top of the trillion they did from october to february. look, this is money they don't have. it is coming out of thin air. they like moving markets when markets are in trouble and markets have been reacting very well to these moves over the

last 11 years. ashley: but if you don't do this, gary, would you rather just let economy tank and then get through this pandemic and rebuild on the other side? is that what you would prefer? >> i would rather they stay out. they screwed aunt mary, uncle bop bob, their savings, going to 0%. they keep distorting markets and yields. we have so much leverage and so much distortion because what they have been doing for 11 years. if this was the first time out of the box i'm not sweating it so much. i worry what is about the end of the road. they're ending up being the market. market is supposed to be about investors and traders betting on price at a certain time. instead they're in there jumping in between it. so again i hope i'm wrong. the good news is wall street loves it. i suspect the market will be higher over time because of this

and we will get over the virus eventually and we'll be in good stead again. ashley: yeah, but you know what, very quickly, gary, you know, we've never seen anything like this and the damage it is doing to the economy, right? surely if the fed is going to act anytime now, now is the time. >> i can't argue your point. every time i do a little report blasting the fed i have to end i said, i know the virus. so i do get that but i think there are better ways of doing this. lower taxes. get out of the way of business. and eventually we're going to come back but again, i do get it. i just worry about -- ashley: gary we have to leave it right there. sorry, gary. mitch mcconnell in an empty chamber in the senate trying to win unanimous consent for another $251 billion in helping small business loans. let's listen in. >> and senator shaheen.

it gives small businesses emergency capital so workers can keep getting paychecks instead of pink slips. a few days after the program opened for business $100 billion in loans have already been committed. that is 30% of the total funding spoken for in just the first few days. i say that's very good news. it means this job saving program is attractive to small business. employers can access it. but it also means we need more funding and we need it fast. soon i will ask unanimous consent to increase funding for the paycheck protection program to a new total of $600 billion. i'm not talking about changing any policy language. both sides already negotiated together several weeks ago. i'm literally talking about deleting the number 350 and

writing 600 in its place. let me say that again. we're not talking about making any policy changes. we're literally changing the number 350 to 600. it is all we're suggesting here today. that by definition is a clean bill. i want to add more money to the only part of our bipartisan bill that is currently at risk of running out of money. so i was surprised to see this simple proposal met uneasily by the democratic leadership. the distinguished democratic leader and speaker of the house sought to use this crucial program to open broader negotiations on other topics, including parts of the cares act where literally, listen to this, mr. president, no money has gone out the door yet, no money has gone out the door yet. the democratic leadership

suggest they may hold americans paychecks hostage unless we pass another sweeping bill that spend as half a trillion dollar doubling down on a number of part the of the cares act, including parts that have not even started to work yet. the country cannot afford unnecessary wrangling or political maneuvering. treating this as a normal, normal kind of partisan negotiation could literally cost americans their jobs. we are in a situation right now where we're passing a bill either means unanimous consent or a voice vote. everyone knows, everyone, there is zero chance that the sprawling proposal that our democratic friends have gestured towards could pass either chamber by unanimous consent this week. no chance. and the president's already indicated he would not sign it.

country need us to be nimble, nimble, to fix urgent problems as fast as we can. to be able to have focused discussions on urgent subjects without turning every conversation into a conversation about everything. without turning every conversation into a conversation about everything. we need to patch holes as we see them and keep moving forward together. everybody in the senate voted to send historic funding to hospitals and health care providers. everyone supports funding hospitals. i'm in favor of even more funding for hospitals and providers down the line. i've been talking to a number of them as i'm sure our colleagues have over the last couple of weeks. but certainly we need to see the

fixing, the existing funding begin to work before we know what additional resources may be needed. i've been urging secretary azar to push this money on to the front lines as soon as possible. i'm glad tens of billions are going to go out tomorrow. there is only one part of the cares act that is already, already, at risk of exhausting its funding right now, only one part of the cares act is at risk of exhausting its funding right now, the paycheck protection program. we're asking small business owners across america to place their faith in us. we're asking them to keep workers on payroll because congress, the treasury and the sba will have their back. we must not fail them. my colleagues must not treat working americans as political hostages. this does not have to be, nor should it be contentious. we don't have to divide along

the usual lines so soon after we came together for the country. to my democratic colleagues, please, please, do not block emergency aid you do not even oppose just because you want something more. do not block emergency aid you do not oppose just because you want something more. nobody believes this is the senate's last word on covid-19. we don't have to do everything right now. in fact our posture of needing unanimous consent does not even permit us to try to do everything right now. we cannot play games with this crisis. let's pass more non-controversial funding for

americans paychecks. let's do it today and then let's continue to work together with speed and bipartisanship. we will get through this crisis together. ashley: all right, you've been listening to mitch mcconnell in an empty chamber, making an appeal to add another $250 billion to the small business loan, payroll protection program, saying literally all we have to do is change 350 to 2, to 600. that doesn't require any policy changes. we cannot treat working americans as political hostages. quite an appeal there. let's bring in hillary vaughn. you've been following mitch mcconnell on the hill. hillary. reporter: well, house speaker nancy pelosi indicated that she doesn't think this straight approval, essentially what you heard leader mcconnell just

say, deleting 350 billion and putting 600 billion in place to give much-needed cash injection to the paycheck protection program, pelosi says the house will not be able to approve that by unanimous consent because she says her members want additions added to that, as you heard mcconnell spell out, the house and senate are not here. most of the members are at home. they're not able to go through the negotiations that they would need to add these additional things. pelosi and schumer want to add $100 billion for hospitals. mcconnell moments ago said look, the money we already approved in the cares act has not even gone out to the hospitals yet. it has not been spent. 30 billion is slated to go out on friday first time to the hospitals and providers. they also wanted to add more funding to the food stamp program, raising benefit by 15%. that would not be temporary tied to the covid epidemic that would be permanent. the problem is, a lot of republicans are not going to be on board with that, which means,

if there is one dissenting voice on either side, ashley, this straight approval to get more money to the paycheck protection program does not go through and mcconnell's appeal really is this, do not hold this program, do not hold paychecks and do not hold workers hostage. so we'll see if there is a dissenting voice from the democrats on the senate side. then they kick it over to the house. we'll see if pelosi can get it through there. ashley. ashley: yeah, now is not the time for politics to take money away from people who could very well lose their jobs. thank you very much, hillary. appreciate that summation of what we heard from mitch mcconnell. take a quick look at the markets while this was going on, we're down 400 points. we're up 400, close to 500. we're later joined by citron research andrew left. always like to get his thoughts on the market and what he is looking at right now. the nfl is planning its draft

later this month, as we know it will be a virtual draft which will be weird. i will ask former new york giants running back, tiki barber what he thinks about that later this hour. senator bernie sanders announced he is suspending his 2020 presidential campaign but will still be on the ballot. we'll break it down with tezlyn figaro, she was part of the sanders 2016 campaign. 2:00 p.m. eastern, set your watches for this one, making money's charles payne is hosting a virtual town hall. it is called america works together. about the financial questions, americans are fairing with this crisis. that is 2:00 p.m. with charles payne. more "varney" after this. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase.

mortgage rates are now at all time lows. which most pills don't. by refinancing, you can save $2000 a year -- with one call to newday usa. our team is standing by right now to take your call. and from start to finish, you can do it all without ever leaving the house. with our va streamline refi, there's no income verification. no appraisal. and no out of pocket costs. one call can save you $2000 a year.

>> i think joe is a good politician and he understands that in order to defeat the president that in order to defeat trump he will have to bring new people into his political world and he will have to listen to their needs, young people working people, and maybe start moving in a different direction to some degree than he has in the past. ashley: that was bernie sanders on colbert last night, interesting. let's bring in tezlyn figaro, 2016 bernie sanders campaign. tezlyn, we hear from bernie sanders there saying biden will have a problem, will have a program that is with bernie voters if he doesn't move further to the left on certain issues. how likely is that, could you think? >> oh, it is very likely. senator sanders obviously was being nice because i guess yo biden is his friend. let me give it straight shot no

chaser. he will have a hell after time moving forward getting senator sanders supporters, i don't care what senator sanders said. i have warned folks repeatedly over and over, bernie sanders are dead serious about the platform. it is platform or else. they could care less about donald trump being reelected because they see their lives being affected the same either/or. they have no problem going to the convention with delegates in hand willing to negotiate and senator sanders is not going to be able to tell everybody to get behind joe biden and think all is well. the pundits this morning are getting it absolutely incorrect. james carville will say, everybody will come together, vote blue. he has no idea what is in the heart and mind of a true senator sanders supporter. he is completely wrong and i am telling you once again that senator sanders supporters will move forward with or without senator sanders. so he can either go to the convention and negotiate or he can fold and they will move forward with the convention, move forward with the movement without him.

ashley: it is interesting because the democrats, tezlyn have a history of moderates, who don't win. john kerry, al gore, hillary clinton. there is not exactly a great track record with those moderate democrats. >> of course there's a not. i always tell people, i lean center left. i'm not a socialist by any stretch of the imagination. i joined senator sanders in 2016 because i was anti-establishment. but we could have an entire show on why democrats keep losing. there are also sectors that still have not had their issues spoken to, particularly black voters. i understand black voters voted overwhelmingly for vice president joe biden, but there is a sector, no, those list of demands have also not been met and they will be sitting at home. everybody wants to get along and have a kumbayah moment, barney we have a lot to talk about this subject as soon as we get through the covid stuff.

it will get real in august. a lot of folks are disenfranchised and will be further disenfranchised as we move forward in this election. ashley: what you're saying to summarize, tezlyn, you don't see the bernie bros and bernie sisters putting their vote next to joe biden's name unless he radically changes some of his views on some of issues. >> right. i'm not saying likely. i'm saying what i know, not what i heard. senator sanders supporters will not, majority, will not get behind vice president joe biden. vice president joe biden will not radically change his platform. folks voted for him because they didn't want that type of platform. why woe he change it? that doesn't make any sense this officially is even more divided. joe bide renn will have to figure out how to get other voters. they won't be senator sanders supporters. that is the bottom line. no point playing games and pretending joe biden will become a left-wing democrat. he is not.

those are not voters that voted for him. sides have been chosen. a line is drawn in the sand. pick a side or step aside. senator sanders can pick a side with his supporters or step aside. there are people waiting to take over, mike and senator nina turner are ready to take the party over and pick the ball up where he obviously dropped it. ashley: tezlyn, you're a great guest. you are very clear on your points. you make them clearly. that is something we love on this show. tezlyn, thank you so much for joining us. it will be fascinating to follow what happens here. your message has been heard. let's bring in lauren. you have news from kansas? lauren: yeah. churches in kansas could be open on easter sunday. ashley: oh. lauren: this is what happened, the governor there, democrat banned social garterses of more than 10 people but then the republican state legislature voted to overturn that ruling, essentially sending the message, yeah, churches could be open for

easter sunday. governor kelly is seeking legal counsel to challenge that in court. this what you need to know about kansas, they do have outbreaks in the state. they think that is centered around church gaaterss. that is where it started. past 24 hours, 40% increase of number of deaths in kansas to 38 with more than 1000 infections of coronavirus, ashley. ashley: interesting stuff. lauren, thank you very much. let's check the markets for you, losing a little little bit of e. we are now up 363 points. talk about oil. susan li, headlines we're now getting out of the teleconference between opec an allied opec members. sues an, what have you got? susan: reuters is talking about we have a deal between the two largest oil-producing nations, russia, saudi arabia. somehow they managed to remove the main on tack schedules to have a new deal on oil cuts according to a senior russian source. saudi arabia and russia have a

deep deal, deep deal on oil out put costs according to the opec source. we don't have any numbers right now. it was floated maybe they would cut. president trump said they would cut 10 million barrels per day. that is a lot of oil. that is pretty much half of both of these countries combined in daily oil production. you heard bloomberg this morning saying i think russia was looking 15% of their oil out put. that is maybe two million barrels, not 10. but we'll see what type of agreement we have. right now you see the oil price spiking on the back of this news. ashley: yeah. still though just at 26 bucks. susan, thank you very much. you're right. we need to get details on the reported deal but doesn't of course address the demand problem because people are just not using it. price of food and other items are starting to rise as the demand for at home delivery of course has gone up because of the pandemic. what does grocery chain owner stu leonard think about that?

he is on the show next to talk about it. this is feel good story for you. actor tyler perry surprised tons of louisiana residents by paying for their groceries. what a deal. teamed up with 29 winn-dixie stores to pay for seniors, essentials and tyler perry, great, great action. more "varney" after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪

ashley: all right. let's take a look at these markets for you. the last trading session of the week. markets closed tomorrow for good friday. the dow rising back up again up nearly 400 points. we were up 500 points little earlier in the session. s&p also up 1 1/2% but the nasdaq, a bit of a laggard. tech-heavy, up just a quarter of a percent on the nasdaq. let's check oil if we can. we got some early headlines from the opec meeting. russia and saudi arabia reportedly have reached a deal on deep oil out put cuts. we don't exactly know what those numbers are so we're waiting to hear those but they're trying desperately to support oil prices. as you can see oil prices up $2.62. that is good for 10 plus percent raise. crude oil at 27.73.

let's bring in edward lawrence. he has been following the fed chair jerome powell with his comments today. edward, what have you got? reporter: ashley, he is taking questions and answers. powell says he believes we could see a rebound in the third and fourth quarters. how big of a refund bound depends on us staying home and healthy at this point. they will pull back the lending only have they see clear signs the economy is on the road to recovery. talking about after september pulling back lending. he says further stimulus, fiscal stimulus is a good idea. he talked about adding money again to the payroll protection program. he said that is a good idea. possible help for state and local hospitals directly from the federal government. back to you. ashley: great stuff. edward, thank you very much. i want to bring in blake burman who has some staggering numbers from the airlines, blake. reporter: pretty devastating, ashley, when you talk about airline usage, airline usage right now as the passengers that

are trying to fly, 94,931 passengers made their way through tsa checkpoints yesterday. that is a 96% decline from april 8th of last year when there were 2.2 million passengers on the very same day. 365 days ago. the treasury secretary steve mnuchin said that later today he is going to be meeting with president trump about preliminary information on the airlines. he said the next big roll out coming from the administration is going to be regarding the airlines, saying that they hope to be getting to the airlines either tomorrow, maybe even over the weekend. of course one of the big outstanding issues is, if airlines accept this deal with the federal government, how much of a stake, equity stake the federal government would take in those companies. when you talk about 94,000 passengers to give you a sense how significant this drop is, ashley, march 27th, 50% decrease from then. you're talking about a 96%

decline year-over-year. ashley? ashley: all right. that is remarkable, blake. just to reiterate, 96% drop in passenger traffic year-over-year for the airlines. that brings it home, does it not? blake, thank you very much. let's bring in grady trimble. a story about milk i believe. what is going on with farmers, grady? reporter: they're having to dump it all. this is where they milk the cows at this farm in wisconsin. they pump it through pipes into this room here where they normally load it into trucks but instead of doing that, they're literally emptying it out right into the drain here. 25,000 gallons a day. that is money right down the drain. the reason they're having to do this, is because demand has just collapsed. 40% of sales in the dairy industry goes to food service, restaurants, schools. with all of them closed, there is nowhere to send it. so they're calling on the usda

to buy some of this milk to send it to the food bank so that it doesn't go to waste like this. like i said this, is money down the drain. thousands of gallons here. think about all the dairy farmers from new york to california who are having to do this exact same thing. ash? ashley: that is a remarkable video. very sad frankly. grady, thank you very much. you think we could give it to somebody rather than throw it down the drain. grady, amazing story. stew leonard, jr., come on n you join the conversation. listen, grocery prices rising as home delivery surges. how much have you seen of that? >> well we haven't seen any increase in prices at all except maybe in the egg market right now which was very low last year and it is a little bit higher this year but other than that, we haven't seen any big bumps in commodity prices. home delivery is definitely

surges you know. it surged at stew leonard's right now. so has curbside pickup where people order online. they come to the store to pick up. ashley: have you seen problems with supply chain? have you had many issues there? >> we have not seen any problems. i have talked to our ranchers, our farmers, our people picking fruit out in california. they have all assured me we will have plenty of food. the only little hiccup we're probably getting in transportation. it its difficult all the truckers right now, america's truckers have done a great job. we're getting a day late here, a day late there. we're scheduled, we have 100 deliveries every day at stew leonard's with all our stores in the metro new york area. we see maybe just a little delay. that's all right now. ashley: taking time to chat for us, stew leonard, jr. thank you so much.

>> one thing, can i add just one thing to you? i talked to stuart about this it is called our mash potato index. okay? here is something, this has happened right now. these are loose potatoes at the store. about one dollar a pound. okay? then we have mashed potatoes like this, which are probably $4 a pound. when the market goes down, okay, we have what we call a mashed potato index, right? so we're seeing a big spike in people cooking from scratch at home right now. ashley: there you go. that is the mashed potato index. i do remember that on the varney show. stew leonard, jr., thank you so much. we appreciate it. take a quick check of the markets. we gained what we lost earlier. over 500 points on the dow. not bad, lots of stimulus out there. the fed kicking in 2.3 trillion in stimulus loans. meanwhile the nfl draft will

take place two weeks from now and it is all going to be done virtually. what does former football player tiki barber think about that? i will ask him next. if you're the spouse of a military veteran,

here's money saving news from newday usa. your spouse's va streamline refi benefit lets you easily refinance when mortgage rates drop. and they just dropped to the lowest in newday's history. refinance now. there's no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. one call can save you $2,000 a year. refi now.

>> it is not going to be all that weird to me. i know we as fans are going to miss being there with the excitement of the crowd and auditorium and all but we'll adjust. the animal that we are, man, we can adjust. the nfl adjusts and it's going to be good. ashley: going to be good. all right, let's check the markets why don't we. we can. we will have a nfl virtual draft, we know that. we'll be talking to tiki barber in just a little minute about that and get to the markets and what fed chair jerome powell is talking about the markets. as for jerome powell he says we have every reason to think we will have a robust recovery. he says that second quarter is going to be very weak but he believes that we indeed can

start the recovery in the third and fourth quarters. so perhaps a glimmer of optimism from the fed chairman. of course he says the fed will do whatever it can to maintain and to try to get people bridged from now until we can get into that recovery. a lot of headlines from the fed. also of course the stimulus, $2.3 trillion. that helped sentiment of the market as well. we heard from joe namath at the top there, talking about the nfl virtual draft. i want to bring in now, tiki barber, everyone knows, tiki, former nfl running back. great to see you. get your thoughts on a virtual draft. how weird is that going to be? >> it is going to be for sure, but i think the teams will be rewarded and go off without a hiccup are ones that prepared. they have all their notes, all of their scouting done. when things go awry on draft day they're able to quickly adjust. it is the ones that like to sit in a room in the proverbial war

room we're used to seeing and throw stuff on the wall to see if it sticks, they will not be able to do that. they are the ones that may have some trouble. i think the nfl is doing this the right way. they have to do it this way given the crisis we're all going through. how it goes off without a hitch that is to be determined but it will make for great television for sure. ashley: it will and god knows there is a captive audience for it. tiki, what do you think, once we get through this, if we get the nfl season up and running, assuming that, are you concerns that the stadiums could be pretty empty because people are a him traumatized about being in large crowds? depends what region of the country you live in right now. there are certain places that aren't feeling this coronavirus epidemic or pandemic like others. new york has been devastated as you know, ashley, but in the south, my brother, for instance, isn't feeling it the same way we are. so if you're a new yorker and you're thinking about going to a live sporting event without a

vaccine being out, without the understanding of how immunities are affected or benefiting us, you're probably going to think twice about it. so playing the sport without fans is necessary early on i believe because, the money that is being lost by not playing the games is going to become untenable at some point. ashley: talking of money, tiki, the colleges says there is a suggestion, that college football season be pushed back into spring of next year. that will be devastating from a revenue point of view, would it not, for many colleges and universities? >> well i think by missing out on the major sport revenue, we already saw this with the ncaa men's and women's basketball tournament, billions of dollars not earned by the ncaa, the same thing would happen with the college football season but the reason you're hearing them talk about pushing later into the fall or into the spring of 2021

so you can still generate that money. so many athletic departments depend on the football revenue. if it is not available to them who knows what will happen to some of the other smaller programs, the olympic sports, the ones that don't generate revenue. we know that colleges and universities are not-for-profit. so their goal is to break even. they're not trying to make a profit but if they go that far in the red because they don't have major sport revenue, it could lead to some dire consequences. ashley: just on a personal level, tiki, you run a sports events company. how has the virus impacted your business? >> well just like the nfl draft everything has to go digital. i broadcast my show on "cbs sports" radio every day from this very office. my event company i started about six or seven years ago, we've been forced or guess prudently gone towards virtual appearances where we engage with companies

in their meetings, whether on zoom, meet-ups or whatever digital service you have so the opportunity to tell stories is still available. we know we love the inspirational and immediate moments that come from interacting with athletes. by going online and doing things virtual lie, we're still able to present a product that i think companies around this company are loving and we've had a great response to it so far. we hope to do more of them as this pandemic continues to rule our world right now. ashley: hopefully we'll get through this sooner rather than later. tiki barber, fantastic stuff. thanks for taking the time to chat with "varney & company" today. appreciate it. >> appreciate you, ashley. be well. be safe. ashley: you too. you too. tiki barber. great guy, a great running back in the day. he was, wasn't he? susan: looks like according to reuters we'll find out very soon hot names are in the white house

economic coronavirus task force. quoting a senior administration official, economic task force likely to include the treasury secretary steve mnuchin, economic advisor larry kudlow of course, others according to this official and this task force, the economic task force will be tasked with reopening the economy after we get past this covid-19 pandemic, when they feel it is safe an necessary to reopen business in this economy. now one more piece of breaking news i want to bring your way. this is getting a lot of talk and discussion and eyeballs right now on social media and really across the entire investing community is morgan stanley's boss, ceo james gorman, has surprised his staff this morning by disclosing in an internal video he has beaten his battle with coronavirus. according to sources people were surprised. they were notified by email at 8:00 a.m. this morning that the 6-year-old chief has beaten covid-19. they didn't tell the market

because the ceo was not incapacitate the there are concerns that maybe morgan stanley should have disclosed to the markets and investors. remember when jamie dimon had the aortic dice section, that heart procedure, and they see this as information that they should haves disclosed this to investor. ashley: at least he had it and through it. that is good news. we like to hear that. susan, thank you very much. with the markets moving higher, "varney & company" will be right back. announcer: wash your hands... avoid sick people... and touching your face. there are everyday actions to help prevent the spread of respiratory diseases. visit cdc.gov/covid19.

brought to you by the national association of broadcasters and this station.

of broadcasters it's more than just fast. it keeps all your devices running smoothly. with built-in security that protects your kids... ...no matter what they're up to. it protects your info... ...and gives you 24/7 peace of mind... ...that if it's connected, it's protected. even that that pet-camera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that? xfinity xfi can because it's... ...simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ]

that's it. i'm calling kohler about their walk-in bath. nah. not gonna happen. my name is ken. how may i help you? hi, i'm calling about kohler's walk-in bath. excellent! happy to help. huh? hold one moment please... [ finger snaps ] hmm. the kohler walk-in bath features an extra-wide opening and a low step-in at three inches, which is 25 to 60% lower than some leading competitors. the bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. are you seeing this? the kohler walk-in bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath.

yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. ashley: take a look at price of oil news now, opec teleconference on production cuts. we have a number of two million barrels a day from russia. four million barrels a day from saudi arabia, for a total of six million. the president had said 10 or possibly even all the way up to 15 million barrels a day being cut. that is not the case but never the less, crude oil, west texas up 8% on the day, up a couple of bucks at $27 on crude oil right now. so maybe not the massive amount of cuts we were expecting but it's something i guess. of course the problem is, no one is using oil anyway. let's bring in south dakota

senator mike rounds. senator, thanks so much for joining us. i want to get to the help for small business. mitch mcconnell trying to put through a unanimous consent bill, adding $250 billion to the first round of funding. is this doable? we hear from the democrats they're not happy with it. how does this get done? >> this is a program that has been supported unanimously by republicans and democrats. it is working. it is running out of money. we have 350 billion in it. we wanted to go to 600 billion. we thought we would have a good solid support on both sides of the aisle. unfortunately sounds like our democrat colleagues want to make a look at making even bigger package, adding in items which we haven't gotten other programs implemented yet. they would like to add to those. we'll have some challenges. ashley: i want to talk about whether we indeed can get back

to work at some point. how do we do that? do we do it en masse or do it in a staggered fashion. all parts of the country will be different. in south dakota, we have got a different approach here that is work forge us. nonetheless, we have farmers and ranchers that need to be in the field right now. they need to have their access to chemicals. they need access to their seed. they have got to have their businesses opened. in other areas, i think across the country i think these governors have done a great job in terms of the deciding what's right. ashley: very good. senator rounds, thank you so much. we'll be right back on "varney" or the third hour. don't go away. guys! guys! safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today.

ashley: it is 11:00 here on the east coast, 8:00 a.m. on the west coast. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney. let's check these markets and the rally that goes on. check this out. we just lost a little bit of steam, nevertheless, the dow up 400 points at 23,848. been threatening 24,000 all day. the s&p up nearly 2% and the nasdaq a more moderate -- modest gain, that's what i'm trying to say, .75%. just moments ago, chairman jerome powell, fed chairman, says he expects the second half of the year to be a rebound for the economy. roll tape. >> we've used our tools to keep the financial markets functioning. that's going to avoid

significant further damage to the economy and really, the most important thing we can do is while providing stability during this period will be to support a robust recovery when it does come. that's really what our tools are most important for. ashley: robust recovery when it does come. of course, the question is when but the fed chair saying maybe third and certainly fourth quarter. let's hope he's right. let's check oil, also breaking within the last hour, saudi arabia and russia reaching a deal on oil cuts, about six million barrels per day combined, four by saudi, two by the russians, millions, that is. the oil price just lost a little bit of its gains, up still 4% at $26 a barrel. but maybe not as much as far as production goes, production cuts goes, as was hoped for. also within the last 30 minutes, democrats have blocked senate majority leader mitch mcconnell's $250 billion proposal to help small businesses. that was extra money that was to

go with the $350 billion already approved. first let's get to susan li with the breaking news. susan: from the white house, we are expected to hear soon who will be part of the formation of a second coronavirus task force. the ones who get the u.s. economy going and open once again when the time is right, according to senior administration officials being quoted by reuters. president trump said earlier this week he was considering the idea as he ponders to bring back greater economic activity across the country after this virus-induced collapse we are seeing across the country and in the economy. 6.5 million more americans filing for jobless benefits just in the past week. the task force expected to include treasury secretary steve mnuchin, white house senior economic adviser larry kudlow, according to the official, among others, and this will go hand-in-hand with the original task force which includes dr. anthony fauci, dr. deborah birx and they were devoted to slowing the spread of the pandemic and also to find a vaccine but this is the economic task force and

hopefully they will work hand-in-hand to get the economy and the country open once again. ashley: all right. susan, thank you very much. let's bring in bob doll from nuveen. great to have you with us. listen, we have a task force now that susan just outlined, charged with getting this economy back on its feet. what's your reaction to that and how soon can that happen, do you think? >> good news. it's going to be slow. you turn it off, you can't just turn it on. there will be parts that turn back on but some parts take a lot longer. what the market's loving at the moment is this $2.3 trillion program from the fed to aid small and midsized businesses, state and local governments, even credits that were downgraded as a result of coronavirus. the fed is standing up strong and tall and really helping here. ashley: talk about recession.

are we headed for recession? many people say yes. i guess the question is for how long? what are your thoughts, bob? >> there is no debate, we are in a deep recession already. the unemployment rate as we speak is in the teens, probably heading toward 20, so it's going to be a smack in the face, or is a smack in the face. i guess like most viruses, it hits you hard like a two-by-four, knocks you over, you don't know what hit you. by the time you get back up on your feet, you look around and you can't find the virus anymore. i'm exaggerating a bit but not by much. this is likely to be the sharpest but hopefully shortest recession you and i have seen. ashley: i hope you are right. we are already out of time. busy day. bob doll, always great to have you on the show. thank you for your thoughts this morning. much appreciated, sir. let's get to professor pete hegseth, "fox & friends" weekend cohost and author of the upcoming book, wake up,

"american crusade." i've got it. thank you. pete, lot of talk now about reopening the economy. where do we stand on that? we've got to be careful, do we not, to have to not get ahead of ourselves? >> yeah, we do but i think the president's instincts here are correct. we are learning a lot of the models we are looking at have been off from the beginning. we are learning in the "new york times" today this virus was likely here in mid-february, if not sooner, across the country. so some of the effect may have been more baked in than we think. again, i'm not a doctor. i'm not trying to play the role of our medical officials here but they are looking at all of this data and realizing there are responsible ways across the nation where people can come back out which actually becomes beneficial, herd immunity is a real thing, you continue to shelter people who are most prone and vulnerable, and you can start to go back and i think the instinct you see from the

president at the podium every night is we can do this, we can find ways, it's true. i think the second task force is a great idea. hopefully they are floating may 1. we may look back at this tape and say that's ridiculous but i think people are putting their hopes that maybe in a month's time, we could be back to a new normal which isn't quite where we were, but you don't see the huge dip you are seeing right now. ashley: right. pete, hang on, if you can. i want to bring back bob doll, who is still with us, which is great. bob -- all right. no, we're not. we will keep pete. i'm sorry. i thought we could keep bob but we couldn't. oh, well. pete, we are very happy to have you with us, though. i want to ask you about bernie dropping out. your thoughts on that? i guess it's no big surprise. the markets seem to like it, though. >> it's no big surprise. bernie accomplished what he wanted to, though. he effectively changed the entire core of the democrat party and lurched it left. you are already hearing part of the negotiations between the

biden and bernie camp, him adapting his health care policies and others, to sound good to bernie supporters who are going to be skeptical of moving over to biden. that's the first task of joe biden, consolidate his left wing base which has never been a fan of joe biden. so it's not automatic that it all shifts but it was so obvious, it was clear, especially in the era of corona, it was going to be joe biden. listen, careful what they wish for. if it's joe biden he will have to step up his game and we haven't seen that yet. i also lost a bet to ed henry. i took bernie sanders. i thought he would be the nominee. then everyone turned into bernie so i'm out on that one. ashley: not sure henry's good for the money. but we do have bob doll, we thought we lost him, we don't. we have you back, which is great. i just asked pete hegseth about bernie sanders. that seemed to give a boost to the market or are we just reading too much into it? >> yeah, i think we are reading too much into it. i think the market had already

decided it was going to be joe biden and not bernie sanders. but i think, look, the market has said i think in the way it's reacted over these months, we can live with donald trump re-elected. we could live with joe biden. not so sure about bernie sanders. that's the market's vote, i think. ashley: all right. bob, we can now officially say good-bye. thank you so much. we worked hard for that so we appreciate you sticking around. now let's get back to pete. i want you to listen, if you can, to what dr. fauci said about shaking hands. roll tape. >> welcome to the hegseth school for higher learning. pick subjects many kids would normally talk about. [ inaudible ] what are the four subjects? >> economics, history -- >> and war. >> and war, yes, boom.

ashley: i don't know. to me, we are kind of losing control. that wasn't dr. fauci. that was professor hegseth. by the way, he was home schooling his children and how's it going? >> it's going well. listen, i host "fox & friends" weekend. i know all about rolling with the punches when it comes to clips. no worries there. ashley: thank you, sir. >> if you go to fox nation, you can see five episodes right now of my library lectures at the hegseth school for higher learning. while we are all cooped up at home, i'm trying to take advantage of infusing the values and history and things that i believe in, in my kids and a lot of people said hey, can we get a part of it so we filmed five episodes and they are up. it's been amazing. it's probably been more fun for me than it has been for the kids, to talk about politics and economics and american exceptionalism and the history of our founding and war and peace. so if people want to check it out, go to fox nation to see all the episodes. i'm getting used to this principal thing.

principal, professor, doctor, whatever you want to call me, i'll take it. ashley: very good. i tried to sign up but couldn't afford the tuition. couldn't get a loan. i will take your word for it. it's steep but i'm told it's well worth it. professor pete hegseth, thank you for rolling with the punches today. good luck with your afternoon classes. let's bring in lauren simonetti. hopefully lauren is there. you have news on april rent? lauren: hi. yeah. this is the first hard look at the pain that people are really feeling because of coronavirus. how many people did not make the rent in the first week of april? 31%. that means 69% of people paid their rent in the first week of april versus 82% during the same week last year. so 31% of tenants missing the first week of april. where is the money going to come from?

yes, good news that the checks are being sent out, but not coming fast enough for so many people. ashley: yeah. who are desperately hanging on. all right, lauren, thank you very much. susan, you have news on carmax? susan: this morning we saw the six and a half million jobless claims number which was actually higher than expected in the week so in total, at the end of march, more than ten million americans are out of work and if this continues on that theme, sadly, carmax is furloughing 15,000 workers. yesterday we heard from tesla doing the same, bvh purchafurlo workers and cutting pay. tj maxx doing the same, 280,000 plus workers around the world for them. macy's, kohl's, marriott, just this long, growing list of companies that they were going to furlough, not lay off, but will furlough and hopefully bring back some of these employees once the economy gets up and running and the businesses are reopening. carmax, like other companies, will be paying some of the benefits and apparently paying the medical plan until further

notice which is pretty generous. ashley: it is indeed. by the way, if you are furloughed you can apply for unemployment benefits. i read that today. so that's good. hopefully the promise of the job on the other side of this. susan, thank you very much. take a look at costco. sales jumping more than 1.5 billion because of the virus spread in march. we know that. but they are also allowing first responders and health care workers to cut the line which is great. the stock itself struggling a bit, down 2%, six bucks at $299, just under $300. also check etsy. their ceo says 20,000 of its shops are now selling face masks following the cdc's recommendation to wear them. that stock up nicely more than 3% at $52 on etsy. also take a look at ulta. they are furloughing most store and salon employees. also donating 450,000 medical grade gloves to the cause. good for them.

ulta up nearly 2%. by the way, want to reemphasize this, be sure to catch our virtual town hall. it's called america works together, hosted by charles payne. you still have time to e-mail your questions, by the way. it's today at 2:00 p.m. eastern time right here on fox business. charles payne right there. all right. dan henninger says the u.s. was caught napping by coronavirus. it's the title of his latest "wall street journal" op-ed. he joins me later in the show to explain. and bernie sanders may be dropping out of the race but he's still staying on the ballot. mercedes schlapp, senior adviser for president trump's 2020 campaign, joins me next with reaction.

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.

mortgage rates have dropped to all time lows. which most pills don't. by refinancing now, you can save $2000 a year. and newday's va streamline refi shortcuts the process. veterans can refinance with no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. one call could save you $2000 a year.

-- give it to you straight shot with no chaser. he's going to have a hell of a time moving forward with getting senator sanders supporters. i don't care what senator sanders says. the bottom line is i have warned folks repeatedly over and over and over that bernie sanders' supporters are dead serious about that platform. it is platform or else. they could care less about donald trump being re-elected because they see their lives being affected the same either/or. senator sanders' supporters will not, the majority, will not get behind vice president joe biden. ashley: straight shot, no chaser. that was the former bernie sanders 2016 campaign staffer on our show laying it out very clearly. let's bring in mercedes schlapp, trump 2020 senior campaign adviser. great to see you. she made an interesting point. bernie's supporters, she says, won't just like sheep jump on the biden bandwagon. that's a problem for joe biden, is it not?

>> yeah, there's no question that joe biden is going to have a very difficult time uniting a fractured party, and having those bernie sanders supporters move over to biden's column is going to be very difficult because biden is viewed not only as status quo, incredibly washingtonian but a globalist. a lot of these issues especially that impact blue collar workers have to deal with these trade deals that biden supported, including nafta, including tpp, and those were job-killing agreements that were made, and quite frankly, needed to be eliminated and as president trump did, moved towards an upgraded version of nafta, usmca. so i do think that biden will have a very difficult time courting the bernie sanders supporter, especially when it comes to the trade agenda and the globalist fashion that is part of biden's history.

ashley: so is this a race that president trump's to lose basically now that we assume that it's joe biden? you can never assume with 100% but it appears it's joe biden and donald trump. is it mr. trump's race to lose? >> well, president trump will win in november. there is no question that this president is working 24/7, where he was able to build a fundamentally strong economy that although it's been artificially interrupted by coronavirus, will work on getting our economy back on track while at the same time, he's been an effective leader in handling one of the worst pandemics that we have ever faced in the nation. and being able to provide hope to americans, being able to provide answers to americans, ensuring that our country is able to handle what we have seen has been a major crisis in our country.

ashley: mercedes, we are already hearing it now, the democrats are going to make the president's leadership during this pandemic their big issue. that's what they believe the election is going to turn on. how is your response? how will the president respond to that? >> well, the one thing about president trump as you know is that he's a fighter and he is going to keep working on what is important, which is he's focused on the crisis right now which is ensuring that we are able to flatten the curve, that we are able to get out of this situation, but at the same time, he's looking at the economy and making sure that he's providing relief to american families and to the american people, that's being important, and figuring out that we have to move towards reopening the economy as well as we move through this process. but i will tell you, biden has huge problems because his focus has been well, let's add components of the green new deal

into an economic stimulus package, which of course as we know, the green new deal would lead to destruction of jobs, it would lead to more regulations on employers. that's something that our economy simply cannot take. he is out of touch, he is what i would say a stale politician who has been in washington for way too long, and he's a globalist. he's too friendly with china. that's just not going to cut it. i think you will see that contrast being made where literally it's been the president has been tough on china, making sure we get the right trade deals in place, and ensuring that when we get through this crisis, we need the leadership of president trump to rebuild this economy. ashley: have to leave it there. mercedes schlapp, thank you so much, as always, for joining us. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. ashley: mercedes, thank you. let's bring in susan. bernie, though, with all this talk, is still going to be on the ballot even though he's dropping out. susan: all the primaries upcoming, in fact, he justified

it yesterday in his speech. listen. >> i will stay on the ballot in all remaining states and continue to gather delegates, while vice president biden will be the nominee. we must continue working to assemble as many delegates as possible at the democratic convention where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform and other functions. susan: there are still 1700 national delegates up tofor gra, some 21 states left to vote, some have pushed it off and delayed it due to the coronavirus. but if bernie sanders keeps his name at the top of the list when it comes to the dnc and convention to take place in august, that means he can also influence the party and how far left it pushes and this might be, some would say, the barry goldwater time for bernie sanders and how much influence he has without actually winning the vote. ashley: exactly. thank you, susan. let's bring in lauren with news from new york governor cuomo.

lauren? lauren: right. one of those primaries that susan was speaking about has been pushed back right here in new york to june 23rd from the end of april. now new york governor andrew cuomo is expected imminently to sign an executive order saying all new yorkers can vote via mail in ballot. so you go to vote.nyc, fill out the application, mail it in. obviously this is raising a lot of question marks. the president has said this exposes potential for fraud but nonetheless, cuomo's point is look what happened in wisconsin, you have people during a pandemic lining up even with face masks on, they are pretty close the each other, we should have opportunity for our health to stay home and mail in our ballot, our civic duty. ashley: that's a big development. lauren, thank you very much. by the way, president trump threatening, as he's been saying for days now, if not weeks,

threatening to cut funding for the world health organization. dan henninger from the "wall street journal" will join me next to discuss that. and democrats blocking senator mitch mcconnell's push to approve more money for small businesses hit by the virus. we will have a live report from capitol hill, next. so what are you working on?

>>i'm searching for info

on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. wasted time is wasted opportunity. >>exactly. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. see, you just >>oh, this is easy. yeah, and that's >>oh, just what i need. courses on options trading, webcasts, tutorials. yeah. their award-winning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. and it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. >>so it's like my streaming service. well exactly. well except now, you're binge learning. >>oh, i like that. thank you, i just came up with that. >>you're funny. learn fast with the td ameritrade education center. call 866-285-1934 or visit tdameritrade.com/learn. get started today, and for a limited time, get up to $800 when you open and fund an account. that's 866-285-1934, or tdameritrade.com/learn. ♪

dropping to near record lows, my team at newday usa is helping more veterans refinance than ever. the newday va streamline refi is the reason why. it lets you shortcut the loan process and refinance with no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. one call can save you $2000 every year. call my team at newday usa right now.

ashley: all right. welcome back. let's take a look at the markets for you. been open now for coming up two hours, and the dow still very much in the green, up 363 points, although we had been up at some points above 500. the nasdaq been a bit of a laggard on the day, positive, but up less than .5%. the s&p up 1.5%. all up, to varying degrees. put it like that. hillary vaughn, the democrats, let's bring her in, the democrats are blocking mitch mcconnell's proposal for small businesses. we heard from mcconnell earlier but the dems say no way. reporter: that's right, ashley. what's interesting is we did hear from senator ben cardin, the democratic senator from maryland. he is the one that stood for the democrats essentially rejecting this motion to approve this emergency funding by unanimous consent but what's interesting is he actually was one of the key senators that put together and worked with republicans on

the paycheck protection program, so he's blocking additional funding for a program that he helped build and helped collaborate on a bipartisan front with republicans. senator marco rubio was also heavily involved in that. he says right now, the paycheck protection program is essentially going through a burn rate of $3.5 billion every hour which means workers have days, not weeks, before this money dries out. senator cardin on the senate floor saying they have only burned through 30% so far, so he essentially has tried to call republicans' bluff saying we don't need the money just yet, but as we had heard from senator marco rubio, this burn rate is going very quickly, which means there's not a lot of time for congress to figure out how to get this additional funding that the president has requested to this program but right now, ashley, things are at an impasse. republicans and democrats on both the senate and house side cannot come to an agreement to get this funding through and because both of them are not in

session, any deal has to be approved by unanimous consent which means there cannot be one person against it because then the motion does not go through. ashley? ashley: yeah, frustrating. hillary, thank you so much. you want a wide-open pipeline right now. it's clogged with politics which is not great. all right. thank you very much. it's thursday. that means it's time for dan henninger, "wall street journal" deputy editorial editor. i lose my breath just with the title, dan. your new piece is called "caught napping by coronavirus." you believe indeed that the u.s. was caught napping and it was a catastrophic failure. that's strong stuff. >> that's right, ash. you know, i took my cue from the surgeon general, jerome adams, who said last weekend we were going to head into an experience akin to pearl harbor and 9/11, and i think he was more right

than he knew. pearl harbor was an intelligence failure, just as 9/11 was an intelligence failure, which is in both cases, we knew a threat existed but we missed seeing that it was imminent. we missed the call. the fact is that national health authorities knew as far back as 2000 about the possibility of these pandemics. that was when sars erupted in asia. so they knew the threat of these pandemics was real, and yet we in the united states and indeed, in europe, really didn't act until, you know, in hindsight it was too late. we are in the middle of these problems. i raise the question of why it is that some of the southeast asian nations such as south korea, taiwan and singapore seem to have reacted more quickly and i think one argument that could be made is that for them, these pandemics have been a real experience. they have lived through sars and mers and the swine flu.

they have had mortalities and were mobilized to some extent back when that happened. we here in the united states have never had that experience, nor have the europeans. so there's a sense in which even for our experts, it was something of an abstraction. everyone is talking now about what a bizarre experience this is, and it is indeed that, but some of the southeast asians have been through the bizarre experience and i think that is in large part why they were more prepared than we were. it was more real for them. ashley: i want to get into the issue of the w.h.o., world health organization. listen to this sound bite from president trump and what he thinks. roll tape. >> we are going to do study, investigation, and we are going to make a determination as to what we're doing. in the meantime, we're holding back, we're going to -- we want to see -- very unfair so the united states, $452 million compared to $42 million. that's to the world health

organization. they got it wrong. they got it very wrong. in many ways, they were wrong. they also minimized the threat very strongly. not good. ashley: you know, dan, did the w.h.o. blow it? they were certainly steered very early on by china. they weren't allowed to get into china for awhile and basically regurgitated everything the chinese authorities said. what's your view on w.h.o.? >> well, that's a complicated one. there is no question that w.h.o. was late to the call and i now think we agree there's no question that the organization to a great extent had been captured by china. but someone, you know, even if we defund w.h.o., someone has to make this call about pandemics so if we eliminate w.h.o., we are going to have to reinvent it at some point. someone has to do detection. someone has to do data

collection. i think again, we have to look at why something like this could happen. the virus was identified in november. w.h. was slow but everybody else was, too. one of the reasons historically, going back to experiences with other pandemics such as those that india went through in the 1990s or some latin american countries, is that most people do not want to face the reality that you're going to have to do extraordinary restrictions on things like travel. president trump made a good call when he banned travel from china in january. nonetheless, you could have argued that the quarantines, should have gone much further than that. we are all used to international travel for business and pleasure just being a way of life. but i don't think we have quite come to grips with whether they had made that call in november or december, we were willing then to shut down airline travel or at least limit it to the extent it would have been

necessary. so there's a lot of questions that are going to have to be raised in hindsight about this missed call. ashley: yeah. a lot of lessons learned, we hope. dan henninger, great stuff as always. from the "wall street journal." dan, thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. let's get back to the markets, if we can. we see the dow still, hello, heather, how are you? heather zumarraga joins us now. listen, the market just wants to go up. the fed is kicking in as much money as you want, apparently. what's your take on the market action this week? >> well, i mean, the market action this week is the optimistic case looks pretty good, over 10% rally to the upside. a lot of investors think right now the big question is will we retest those lows that we have seen not too long ago. i think what the federal reserve has done this morning, pretty much $2.3 trillion and more if

necessary in backstopping everything from state and local municipalities to small businesses to households, in terms of lending, is really a game changer. we may go back down, but i don't think we will retest those lows that we have recently seen in the market. ashley: that's interesting. ray dalio, founder of basically the world's largest hedge fund, says don't go into cash. he said the dollar is going to weaken because of all the money printing that's going on. so you don't want to be in cash. would you agree with him? >> i would agree. at some point in time when you look at the $2 trillion coming from the phase one through phase two, three from the government right now, from the fiscal side as well as from the monetary side, the fed being the lender of last resort, providing unprecedented levels of cash to the markets, i mean, now is not a time even steven mnuchin said this, to worry about debt and deficit, but at some point, that's what ray is referring to, that this will create inflation. we have been saying that for

years after 2008, it just hasn't manifested as you know, jay powell addressed this morning that we had a deflationary problem, not an inflationary problem. but i can't imagine after all of these trillions that there would not be an inflationary situation in the future. ashley: i'm sorry it's so short. heather zumarraga, great to hear from you regardless. we appreciate your time. thank you so much. let's get to the -- set up the next break. let's check the mask makers, why don't we. we have a company that blew past their 100,000 mask donation. they were going to donate 100,000 masks and thanks to fox news, they are going to join us today with a special update. it's a feel-good story you need to hear about. first, two-time world series champion keith hernandez is on the show and he's next. don't go away. it's a challenging market.

edward jones is well aware of that. which is why we're ready to listen. and ready to help you find opportunity. so. let's talk. edward jones. it's time for investing to feel individual.

i won mvp in '79.

i can do whatever i want to. >> this is getting awkward. >> well, good night. >> good night. who does this guy think he is? >> i'm keith hernandez. ashley: i'm keith hernandez. i was mvp in '79. i'm so sorry, we could show some baseball highlights but every time you kindly agree to come on "varney" we always have to run the "seinfeld" clip. i apologize for that. you gave us so much joy and fun with the "seinfeld" appearances. you still getting residuals for that, by the way? >> oh, yes, i am. that show has been shown around the world. it's still very popular on the rerun. yes, i do get a nice residual check. ashley: good for you. you earned it. you are a two-time world series champion. getting back to baseball now.

major league baseball is looking to play all games in arizona. this idea has been put out there. the players will essentially play in empty stadiums and we will all get to watch on tv. what's your thoughts about that? >> well, you know, the japanese major leagues tried to play their season, they started it up and they played without any attendance and a couple players came up positive and they had to can the season or re-postpone it. baseball, i mean, sports are part of -- imbedded in the fabric of our society. a lot of people are missing things and there are a lot of things we have taken for granted have come to the fore here. sports is a very important part of our society. but i just feel that that's going to be a very, very difficult thing to do. you've got -- i read an article

yesterday, there's -- they expanded rosters to 26. you've got all the other subsidiary personnel, around 50 people a team. if they were to do testing before every game, it would be in a month, it would be 20,000 tests for the virus on the players and everybody else, and in arizona, the most that they have tested so far is 30,000 in a month. so it's really a steep hill to climb. ashley: it is. and you know, it would be very strange to have players holed up in hotels, highly paid guys, i mean, i'm sure they won't be at the comfort inn grabbing a continental breakfast on the way out, but they are going to be almost living in dorms, aren't they, playing in front of empty stadiums. that would be very strange. >> well, that would affect me, too, because i'm part of the broadcast team. they will broadcast the games so i would have to go to arizona.

yes, families will not be allowed, just the players. they would be quarantined, it would be very difficult, plus you are going to be playing in the summer in arizona in phoenix, where it's going to be 110, 115 degrees. oh, boy. that's going to be tough. ashley: every fly ball, at least you got the excuse of i lost it in the sun. how are you holding up, keith? how's life for you these days? >> well, this all came down in spring training and i have a condominium in florida, south florida in the palm beach area. we spring train up in port st. lucie. i never left. i go up north to new york when the season starts, i'm up there for the entire season, so i stay down here. we didn't know how long this was going to last, if spring

training was going to come up again. as it turned out, we are in quarantine for indefinitely here. hopefully there's been some good news that we can get back to normal. americans can get back to normal, start socializing and i think when we come through this, ashley, i think that americans will have a greater appreciation for what this country has to offer us and what a great place to be able to grow up and live in. ashley: i think you are absolutely right. keith hernandez, thanks as always for joining us. you are always a great guest. keep the "seinfeld" checks rolling in and stay safe. >> you too, ash. ashley: thank you, keith hernandez. great guy. i'm mvp, 1979. ah, susan. we have news on wimbledon. susan: so many great keith hernandez "seinfeld" episodes, running through them through my head. yeah. no wimbledon this year, unfortunately. no strawberries and cream. that was very sad. however, it looks like the pandemic insurance policy that they have paid for will give

wimbledon and the all england club $141 million as a result because they had to cancel wimbledon according to the action network. they have been paying pandemic insurance for 17 years at a cost of roughly $2 million a year, according to multiple reports. in hindsight, very smart. they also had payouts after the sars outbreak back in 2003. so it looks like the insurance policy should make up for a little bit for the $300 million in lost sales and revenue that the wimbledon tournament would have brought in. i bet a lot of that came from strawberries and cream and champagne, right? ashley: strawberries and cream for 25 pounds each. anyway, whoever came up with the idea of saying we have to pay this insurance in this event, they are going to get a promotion because that's where insurance really pays off. clothing company buck mason is shipping part of their production to help create face masks.

the co-founder of the company will join me next with an exciting update. stay with us. these days you need faster internet that does all you

expect and way more. that's xfinity xfi. get powerful wifi coverage that leaves no room behind with xfi pods. and now xfi advanced security is free with the xfi gateway, giving you an added layer of network protection,

so every device that's connected is protected. that's a $72 a year value. no one else offers this. faster speed, coverage, and free advanced security at an unbeatable value with xfinity xfi. can your internet do that?

ashley: we have more news from new york governor cuomo. lauren, what have we got? lauren: yeah. in his daily press conference, he has some good news, that the

new hospitalizations, that number is going down. about 18,000 right now. he looked at every worst case scenario model out there, and he said we can't handle this, no matter what happens, we don't have the number of beds to handle the worst case scenarios, but if we keep this social distancing, this stay-at-home, it's 18 days since new york is shut down, we will be able to handle the influx that we get. the number of cases in new york state, over 151,000 and the only place in the entire world that has more than new york is the overall number in the united states of america. so we got hit hard here and we can't relax the social distancing just yet. ashley: no. but a glimmer of hope. we will hang on to that. thank you so much. let's bring in sasha cohen. buck mason co-founder and chief brand officer. thanks for joining us. look, you shifted production, what did you make and now you are making face masks. tell me how all this came about.

>> yeah, thanks for having me on. yeah, buck mason makes classic american men's wear. we have been designing and manufacturing clothing for the last seven years both domestically and globally and you know, at the time of the crisis, my partner eric and i, you know, we were looking at our teeshirts and five-pocket jean coming off the line and we said what can we do right now to address reality and address this crisis, and support our community. and the product that came out of that conversation was face masks. it was quite an easy pivot from a manufacturing standpoint. we have been, again, making -- we have been sewing cotton with single needle stitching for years now so the pivots to retool our machinery was an easy one to transition to. ashley: and how many have you been able to make? >> yeah, so i mean, when we launched face masks about a

little over a week ago, we set out a goal to make 100,000 face masks to donate to our community of non-essential workers -- i'm sorry. i'm sorry. we wanted to donate masks to essential non-medical workers, because we felt like those were the community that need it the most beyond just the health community, but what happened was that when we opened up this m program, the health community was overwhelmingly responding to us saying they will take anything they can get and if we can give them face masks, please send them. so what happened, we set out with an initial goal of making 100,000 face masks. we blew through that goal in less than three days and -- ashley: we have to go. i'm so sorry. we want to thank you for what you have been doing. it's a tremendous story. it's a feel-good story. keep up the good work. we have to go. more after this.

. .

. . d use. call my team at newday usa. >> biggest rating hits of the coronavirus show on netflix called "tiger king." the man who is the star asking you for a pardon saying unfairly convicted. >> i will take a look. is that joe, so the tick? that is joe exotic. ashley: of all the questions, you get your shot at the president, you ask about tiger king and pardoning of joe ex-society i can. have you watched this show. susan: i refuse to. everyone is on board. i will wait. ashley: lauren, have you? >> some of it, yes.

have you, ashley. i know you intended to? ashley: no. saying you have to watch this. so i can't talk about it i don't watch it. i will do that. markets are higher. guess what, our time is up. neil cavuto take it away. neil: great job, ashley, thank you very, very much. we're on pace to see a trading week we've not seen since 1938. welcome, everybody, i'm neil cavuto. you have gains across the board. keep in mind markets are closed for good friday. whatever they close out the day, a finishing touch on the week. dow and s&p sprint ahead about 13%. again a performance you've not seen since, again, 1938. now what is going on here has to do more with perceptions of the virus slowing down than any stimulus coming its way. when it comes to what republicans want to cook up