the other big story is big tech. falling out of bed at this hour, way down. amazon is down 70. apple is down nine, et cetera, et cetera. that's what is hurting the market. the dow is off 600 points. neil cavuto, sir, it is yours. neil: thank you very, very much, stuart. an amazing turn of events with technology which has been leading the market higher now taking a big chunk out of that market today. we'll explore what is going on. also explore what is going on with oil right now. this is the june contract you're taking a peek here, down $13.41 a barrel. at its lows it gotten down to $11 a barrel. the may contract, that finishes up today, the source of all that negative pricing yesterday still negative, closing out today, a lot of people are saying, good riddance to it. the fact of the matter is though, with this particular contract, look at that now up, into positive territory. that is the one they have to figure out, all right, we have to close out on this, cash out

on this, and take the oil and find a place to ship it. that is proving to be a real conundrum for these markets here. there is a company, variety of companies that do this for a living including one called v-alpak. it has storage barrel systems i don't know what you call it all over the world, include places in singapore, rotterdam, they're essentially saying there is no room at the inn. we've run out of space for the space people are looking. sort of a double-edged sword here. the fears in the market they have not gone away. at love oil suppliers, their concerns have not gone away. a lot of wildcatters, smaller businesses if you take exxonmobils and chevrons out of this, to lesser extent occidentals host of others they're still feeling the pinch. not as much as you would think. off lows early this morning but still down appreciably. so we'll be looking at the forward month contract where june is the most heavily traded

at the moment. so we will keep an eye on that but we will also keep an eye on some forward-looking contracts that go into september, october, november, where the betting seems to be that oil will recoup a lot of these losses and be at the 25, 27 a dollar a barrel range. no way of knowing. i know one guy has the idea of connecting the dots. best oil reader on the planet, phil flynn. he joins us now. phil, how is this playing out in your eyes and what can we expect now? >> what we're see hearing is is a lack of confidence. yesterday when you looked at the back end of the curve, june, july, august contracts, they were saying quite clearly that oil demand will come back and the situation we're seeing with the may delivery going negative was a temporary situation but it seems 24 hours later, this fear is growing that maybe this isn't going to be a short-term situation. maybe, just maybe we'll have this situation where we're going to run out of storage and it can

affect later months. that the economy will not open up fast enough. that opec is not going to cut fast enough to alleviate this shortage. in fact it has gone down so much today, neil, that it actually caught the attention of opec quite clearly because there is now a very hastily-arranged opec conference call. that's right. they're talking about fast forwarding the production cut to immediately cut production and not wait until the original state which was supposed to start at the end of this month to cut production. in other words, they're saying that we can't even wait another two weeks for this production cut to go in place. we need to cut production now so the global storage doesn't run out. neil: you know, what kind of production cut would it take? you know, they had talked about 10 million barrels a day. they were hoping they could get to 20 i guess. but even that wasn't enough to

address concerns i know you raised it would have to be significantly more than that, maybe 30 million barrels a day, maybe 40, i don't know. >> yeah. neil: even talk of 20 doesn't do it, what would? >> you know, i think that 20 wouldn't be enough to slow down the onslaught of prices because that would allow some of the storage spaces not to get filled up. the problem with this opec deal wasn't the numbers so much, it was the timing. you know, what we're seeing in this oil price right now is the remnants of a deal that was agreed to but never actually went into place yet, right? for the last couple of weeks saudi arabia and russia continued to pump oil at a record pace. they haven't slowed down production. we're still seeing that oil hit our shores. we're seeing saudi oil filling our u.s. oil storage right now and our producers have no place to put it. that's nuts, that is absolutely

nuts. this is creating this situation. i believe today, we saw may turn positive, if opec comes out says they will start the cuts immediately, it might be enough to put confidence back in the market. we could see the june contracts start to rally. if not, we could still have a problem and we may repeat in the june contract what we saw in the may contract yesterday. i don't expect that to happen but if things don't change, if we don't put oil in the strategic petroleum reserve, if opec doesn't cut production, and if the u.s. doesn't cut back on production we may run into the same problem 30 days from today. neil: phil flynn, thank you very, very much, my friend. we shall see how the day ensues here. we were showing you a lot of ancillary oil issues. these oil giants apart from the exxonmobils and the chevrons. they're not as directly impacted by the price of oil. i'm not saying that they're not but these other players most certainly are.

it makes up a much larger percent of their earnings and a lot of them have very high debt levels. so when the cost, the money that could allay that debt is not coming in or called into question, they suffer disproportional losses. so we're keeping eye on that, something that could reverse what is happening on the energy front is something happening on the washington stimulus front. talk now that a deal is very, very close. much more than the $250 billion for so-called business relief. paycheck protection program. because it is going way beyond that that is how deals are made, how the sausage is made. edward lawrence has a view from the kitchen. edward? reporter: yeah or the basement in this case but the sausage has yet to be made or finalized. before we get into that, following what you're talking about with oil and phil flynn, the president trying to do something about this. he actually directed the energy secretary and the treasury secretary in a tweet to come up

with funds, available funds to save companies and jobs. now on that job front another popular job program has been out of money as you mentioned for five days now, the paycheck protection program. senator chuck schumer says they have a deal related to the program, to add money back to it. we have yet to hear from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell what he says about a possible deal. the hold-up in the testing portion of the program. the democrats want to see the federal government run the testing. republicans want to have states do individual plan to implement it there. the deal will have 310 for the payroll protection program. $10 billion in disaster relief grants and as well as 25 billion for testing. now this changed to the program could spark further delay because the small business

administration has to go in, read it, and then implement their own guidelines for banks to follow related to that. the delays are very frustrating clearly for republican senators. listen to this. >> i think the delay caused by speaker pelosi and senator schumer has been wildly irresponsible. we're going to do some extra things in the bill besides supplementing the, what i call the small business loan program but we could have, those are not emergencies. the ppp program is an emergency. reporter: it may be next week before the money flows. the new money flows to the businesses. you know we'll have a vote possibly today at 4:00 p.m. in the senate. that is when the senate is scheduled to come back into session. tomorrow or thursday, tomorrow is when the house comes back and

representative steny hoyer indicated that possibly thursday we could see a vote on this possible package in the house there. so again, that puts us to the end of the week. back to you. neil: all right, my friend, thank you very, very much. edward lawrence. also in that little bit of news he shared with us concerning the administration looking for ways to help out the energy industry, the former acting deputy for the energy department under president bush 43. secretary, always good having you. thank you for taking the time. >> glad to be here, neil. let's talk a bit. -- any of these industries, states, they're looking to get some federal help. the energy industry here, what do you think that would look like? >> well i think it's in these times it's appropriate for the

federal government to think about various ways to help out the industry and so, besides making sure that all of the programs that are already in place are available to any of the energy firms, i think looking at some of the federal assets that are out there, such as the stratteen i can petroleum reserve. we talked about different ways to use it. allowing private companies to store some of their reserves there during a period of time and then also having the government think about purchasing oil from the companies to fill up the reserves because there is, there is space in those reserves that can be used. neil: you mentioned there's space. how does it work? because right now it is like we have all this oil ready to go but not ready to store. is it that bad? i mean, are really facilities all locked out now for any

additional oil? because i'm reading about these saudi tankers on their way here with still more oil. what's the deal? >> yeah. clearly there is bottlenecks at various places in the country. we've seen that the storage tanks of cushing have filled up and are getting closer to their capacity as many other places around the country, especially in texas. so there is clear there are bottlenecks in various locations, and there will continue to be, some midstream companies and others who ship oil have sent out notices to the producers they will begin to have to curtail the production, the inputs that they receive. so it's clearly an issue. we've seen that in some of the pricing for the futures contracts, both in may and in june reflect that. in terms of what the u.s. government has, the u.s. government does have the ability to store some much the crude oil. can't take it all at once but

can take it in bite-sized pieces over the next month or so and the facility does exist to do that so i think that is a legitimate way that the government can look at trying to do something favorable for the industries and to help out of economy as well. neil: secretary, thank you very, very much. as secretary is speaking we're showing you the may contract, that one had gone heavily into negative territory. right now it is positive territory, but priced at 4 loin $42 a barrel. it is up -- $4.42. it is certainly one of the most volatile contracts if not the most in history. a lot of people will be happy to say good-bye to it in a couple hours when the contract officially closes today. we move to where all the open interest and attention is right now. june contract, that has prices a little higher than that. but well down from the $22 a barrel it was looking at earlier

last night before collapsing like so much else in oil. the read now on all of this from danielle dimartino booth, the former dallas fed advisor. you know, danielle, you could look what is happening to oil and could look what is showing up in existing home sales which collapsed 9% in the latest month, there is no threat or real inflation out there. i'm wondering given fact bond prices go up, yield down on 10-year note over half a percent, someone is gaining on this. i am wondering is it the bond market what do you think? >> bond market is sniffing out what the stock market is always late to read and accept f there is ever a market in denial it is always going to be the stock market but i think we had interesting developments overnight and overseas as well playing into what is happening. in addition to the june contract you've been talking about we've seen brent oil collapse. that is a reflection that the

coronavirus economic downturn is really becoming a global phenomenon and it is reflected in what we're seeing in this deflationary huge decline in oil. you have to think, neil, about countries like colombia for example, that are oil dependent and rely on dollars as well for their financing. so the situation i think with oil is beginning to reflect a bigger picture of what is starting to happen that could end up with the fed again trying to make sure that there is adequate dollar funding all around the world, especially as we see this collapse in oil prices that i think is indicative of a much bigger picture. neil: you know the president of course, a frequent critic ever the federal reserve chairman jerome powell, i'm not trying to cast aspersions one way or the other but jerome powell has done a lot here, beyond whatever fiscal stimulus we have had, the federal reserve role has been far more dramatic and sweeping. i just wonder what you think of

that and whether that has changed the environment that jerome powell might yet get reappointed, again in the president were to be reelected or a democrat comes in, joe biden let's say, would he look in this environment, saying you did good through this? >> look, everything that powell has done would make everybody from alan greenspan to ben bernanke to mario draghi or janet yellen absolutely blush. the whole idea of buying junk bonds. today we're seeing energy drunk bonds for example, absolutely melt. the only thing jerome powell has not done is buy the stock market, take interest rates to the negative realm. other than that he threw in the entire kitchen sink. there is not much more you could ask of a fed chair. i'm highly disappointed how much the fed has intervened in the markets because at some point you will crowd out natural investors and their ability to do what their job is which is to allocate capital. if you have a larger bodyworking

with treasury, that is simply no longer feasible and that is not also american. neil: all right. danielle, the word on that tomorrow, the old, you know scarlet o'hara thing, we'll see. danielle dimartino booth. that is by the way a "gone with the wind" reference, everyone maybe over the age of 50 got it. i don't know if you got these governors press conferences, for my money, even though he doesn't get the publicity or notoriety governor cuomo does in new york, to watch ned lamont how he is handling the situation in connecticut, very calmly, very rationally without shout fest or snapping at reporters. it is something to watch and something to follow. we thought we would follow up with him, the connecticut governor ned lamont, after this. ♪.

neil: more and more states are looking gradually reopening their states, some as soon of this week. we'll get into details of that. a state also considering it but a staggered fashion is connecticut. the state's governor joins me right now, ned lamont.

governor, very good to have you back with us. how are things looking there? >> hi, neil. we're making progress every day. we are planning to open the state own a very careful and thoughtful way to keep people safe. neil: so is it going to be geared still around may 15th, governor? i know and your colleagues and large northeast states of new york, new jersey, pennsylvania, massachusetts, road island, they have all kicked around the middle of may to address this but is that still your plan? >> yeah, we told the schools we're not going to reopen you anything before may 20th. small business we said you should assume something along those same lines but remember here in this state we never closed down big construction projects, they kept going. we never closed down manufacturing. we kept that going. we never closed down the state parks. we kept that going as long as

people maintain ad safe social distance. so a lot of these other governors talking about opening things up now are things we never closed down. neil: still you have encountered protests. virtually half the states have some form of health everying provisions there have been protests. you dealt with them as well. is it they want it ended now or what's the latest? >> i think that's right. my house here was surrounded by beeping of cars for about an hour 1/2 last night. something along the lines of liberate connecticut. same thing you heard coming from the white house, but you liberate connecticut too fast, you're also liberating the virus, that doesn't do anybody any good. neil: you know you called for much more rapid testing and more testing locations. i was surprised given the population in the state compared to new york city and california,

you have had quite a few tests done already. the last count governor, was almost 63,000 tests. now you, is there a number that you're aiming for before you can say, all right, i can ease up on this? >> yeah, we started doing broad-based testing based on an app with cvs-abbott lance in the new haven area. we done a couple thousands tests. up at harvard we're doubling capacity over the next few days. we're ramping up. we're taking this on our own account right now, getting reagents, working hard with abbott who have been a great partner for us. neil: you know, governor, you don't just look at more tersing obviously as you said in your priest briefings, you want to see decline in number of cases, number of deaths, hospitalizations, i think that is improving in your state as

improving in a lot of other states but there are bumps along the way. the latest numbers i have show 19,850 cases. data might be delayed. so that is up about 1853. deaths increased 204 to 10331. is the arc changing, are the rates of increase in both changing? >> yeah, absolutely. i think our hospitalizations are leveling off, except for northern connecticut. neil, what we have to watch out for is flare-ups. that is why we have the smart thermometers. we use how we feel app. we have thousands of people on that. that we'll be able to tell whether bridgeport flairs up at the same time new haven is under control. neil: so when you talk about fairfield county, which is the largest county in your state hitting the apex, what did that mean? that it's trending down now,

your hope is it is trending down, right? >> in fairfield county, which is part of that new york hot zone the number of hospitalizations, number of people being admitted, the net increase is going down. we have more bed capacity, more icu capacity today than we had a week ago and that's a really important metric as you figure out how much risk you can take in terms of people getting back to work. neil: you know, governor, i was mentioning earlier before i introduced you with very little fanfare, you don't fight with reporters, you don't get snippy, i'm not criticizing those who do on the right or the left but it's just the facts, just you know, jack webb approach, here is the latest, here is what i got and constituents have responded to that. do you, if you were to advise other governors of any party, the president, i always think of these times, governor, people are very, very anxious. the last thing that they want to

do is freak out over something. do you think of that when you address the press? do you say, all right, i'm going to be as monotone as i can here, just the facts as i can because i don't want to freak people out? >> i want them to know that it's serious, that we take it seriously, but you're right, i don't want to create panic and now i have to have the balance between take this seriously, don't take your eye off the ball but there is a way out of this. we understand how much people want to get back to work or get back to school and get the right balance there but every governor sort of reflects the temperment of their particular state. i think andrew's new york and i'm connecticut. neil: i have met a lot of tempermental people from connecticut though. so i mean, some. so we'll see. governor, thank you very, very much. be well. i'm glad, by the way, you got the scarlet o'hara reference i

made a little earlier. >> thank you. neil: so far, governor, no one has. governor ned lamont, beautiful state of connecticut. we have a lot more coming up here. we're going to get the read what is happening on this kim jong-un situation here. something happened. he missed obviously this big celebration, national event to honor his grandfather. now a lot of people are saying he is a lot sicker than we thought. maybe gravely so? after this. ♪. to everyone navigating these uncertain times... whether you're caring for your family at home or those at work, principal is by your side. we're working hard to answer your questions. like helping you understand what the recently passed economic package can mean for you. we're more than a financial company. we're a "together we can get through anything" company. now, more than ever.

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♪. neil: no one knows, no one on this planet knows for sure the status of kim jong-un. there are reports that he is in grave danger after heart surgery but there is no way of knowing for sure because no one is saying anything. compare this to a couple of weeks back when everyone was monitoring the health of boris johnson, who had checked into the icu because the coronavirus

situation, wasn't getting any better. in fact it was getting a lot worse. so no one knows for sure exactly what is going own here but it has the world on tenterhooks right now. greg palkot with the latest from london. hey, greg. reporter: neil, you nailed it t broke overnight the story about the health of the north korean leader kim jong-un. a lot of questions, not too many answers. here is how it goes. according to a south korean website i'm familiar with with some reasonable stature, after appearing at a meeting about a week ago saturday kim jong-un, according to this report, underwent heart surgery at a hospital north of pongyang and since then he has been recovering at a nearby villa. in fact, neil, he has been sort of missing in action for the past week or so, especially a celebration for the birthday of his grandfather, north korean

founder. one report said that after this surgery he was in grave danger. others frankly thought that maybe he had covid himself. here is what the national security advisor robert o'brien had to say on this morning. >> so we're watching reports closely and we'll have to see, as everyone near knows the north koreans are parsimonious with information they put out about many things especially when it comes to leaders so we'll keep a close eye on it. reporter: i don't have to remind your viewers the health of this leader is crucial. he sits on a pile of nuclear weapons. he is in the middle of somewhat bad talks with president trump over the past couple of years. south korean government officials, neil, have tended to tamp this down. they say they don't see anything unusual but a very important source of ours in south korea, he is the editor of a nk news,

chad, says he says there he reason for concern and even neil, some people are beginning to look at succession possibility. they point to the recent political elevation of kim's sister, but they say o'brien noted it is really too early for that. so we have questions. we have some ideas but really no clear vision of what is going on there. we know it is very important for us to find out, neil. neil: greg palkot, thank you very, very much, my friend. all right back to what has been happening on the energy front as you have been hearing. energy prices collapsing yesterday. the may contract closing today, getting a great deal of attention. the most open interest and activity obviously is in the june contract we're showing you right now trading a little short of 11 bucks a barrel. the much controversial may contract seems to be going out mildly on the positive side here but it has been a wild swing of

better than 100%. we'll keep you posted on that but the contract that matters right now are these forward-looking ones that show a big drop from where we were but that also could translate into a lot lower gas prices. there are now 13 states in the country that have gas under a dollar a gallon. jeff flock is in wisconsin where some of the dramatic drops have been the most noteworthy. jeff. reporter: pretty amazing out here, neil. if you remember "gone with the wind" and jack webb you remember the days you could go to the gas stations to get a dollar's worth. that hasn't gotten you much lately. this is the woodman's station in kenosha, 99 cents. that is the tip of the iceberg in wisconsin. lowest gas price in the the nation in wisconsin, many of them lower than 99 cents. only lena's fuel depot in a town of watoma, wisconsin, cheapest in the state, 89 cents a gallon

for regular. we're at 1.81, we were 2.17 a month ago and were more than a dollar than we are right now just a year ago. a lot of our analysts like phil, our friends at bass gas buddy think it will go lower than that. national average, big states, that ones that have a lot of taxes. hear what patrick dehaan told us early on fox business. >> yesterday was the big hubbub was oil prices going into negative territory. today we have the june contract rolling into $14, excuse me about $10 a barrel. motorists need not be in any hurry. i think the national average could still drop another 30 cents a gallon. reporter: neil, there are now a handful of states currently have their lowest gas prices in a

decade. those include, kentucky, michigan, oklahoma, minnesota, even illinois, down to 1.77 for their average in the state. we have 80, eight straight weeks of 5straight days of declining gas prices. the only thing i report to you that is the other side of that, you look at the station here, you would think everybody would be in there gassing up. well, nobody's going anywhere. so this cheap gas is going wanting in some way. neil? neil: you know what i also notice, jeff, might be just a crazy musing of mine, would fit with that, that, higher grade gasoline, they're not moving down dramatically. i mean, they come down but doesn't seem like the regular unleaded has? reporter: i think they have been overwhelmed. that is why one ever the reasons in wisconsin it's lower than a lot of other places, in the central part of the state, not a whole lot of people there. they have so much supply, they

need to get rid of it. you know, the premium, they don't have as much supply of premium, don't sell as much premium. the regular is what's killing them. neil: yeah. it is amazing to watch. jeff, thank you very, very much. appreciating the scarlet o'hara references and jack webb thing, you have saved me my friend. we have a lot more on the impact, oil impact on our country. as we've been saying a little bit earlier the president already asked his energy secretary to look into what funds could be made available to help the energy industry out. no talk about size, amount, whether this would be a rescue package. congressman guy resenthaller, pennsylvania republican. key player on the foreign affairs committee. much, much more. congressman, thank you for taking the time. do you know what the president might be contemplating or whether he is looking at relief of some sort for the energy industry? >> i was just on a call a few hours ago, actually with the

energy secretary. one thing that could be done is purchasing more of the strategic reserves for petroleum. we could look at that we could look at aid in phase four if we get to it on this. oil and gas industry, the natural gas industry rather in southwestern pennsylvania is getting hit because of energy prices being down. neil: in the meantime, as you know, congressman, there are these saudi vessels coming, you know, filled to the brim with oil. they obviously want to take it here. i don't know whether all of this was arranged prior to this collapse in prices. i'm sure it was, but, we don't need that oil. like you say, we're looking at ways we can buy oil and put it into the strategic petroleum reserve to help the energy giants id in that is tap out. what do you think of that and whether the saudi vessels should

be told to turn around what do we do? >> neil, we know russia, saudi arabia, the other opec nations are fighting against the american fracker and i think that the saudis and russians reducing the cost of petroleum, increasing production, shipping it to the united states is a shot across the bow at the american fracker. they know that cheap, abundant natural gas is making it more attractive to move to natural gas rather than petroleum. this move is clearly indicative of the war that saudi arabia and russia is waging against natural gas in the united states. neil: congressman, thank you very, very much, good catching up with you. i apologize for our brevity here. we got a lot of news items we are following including this. we talked about this new funding mechanism to help the paycheck protection program get a few more funds but has to spread it out to hospital health care workers but one of the things interesting they discovered with the monieses being made

available for small businesses, 80 u.s. companies tapped rescue funds that were meant for the small business guys. they didn't do anything illegal or untoward. i'm not saying they were ramping themselves to the front of the line. technically by definition it was supposed to go to small business. you might recall yesterday, shake shack benefit to the tune ever $10 million, loans, grants, whatever you call it, pulled that it was raised. a host of others have not. is there something inherently problematic with the program? the wrong guys are benefiting. charlie gasparino looks into that after this.

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and ask for your free decision guide. learn more about aarp medicare supplement plan options and rates to fit your needs oh, and happy birthday... or retirement... in advance. ♪. neil: you know ever since the shutdown of that smithfield food plant in south dakota a lost people say it doesn't take much to suddenly stop meat deliveries. all of sudden, they say what about our food chain itself and food supply how it makes its ways to grocery shelves? is that in danger here? is that whole virus raising that as legitimate and scary issue. hillary vaughn is look being into it. hey, hillary. reporter: at the smithfield plant in south dakota, 230 workers became sick. they had to shut the plant down. the ceo is warning plant closures industrywide is pushing

meat supply in the u.s. perilous close to the edge. a food and commercial workers represents a quarter of a million plant workers around the country is sending a letter to secretary sonny perdue asking for more personal protective equipment for their workers to prevent these plants from shutting down in the first place. they're also asking for the usda to stop issuing waivers essentially allow the meat plants to ramp up production and increase out put. when they do that, the waivers are issued, workers are more cramped, they're not allowed to socially distance and that is a problem. tyson president dean bates telling fox business's maria bartiromo this morning they have decked out workers in protective gear saying that their processing plants now look more like operating rooms. >> instances where we've taken plants down for a day for deep cleaning, that sort of thing. we have some lines operating at, at slower rate than normal but we're doing that really to take care of our team members to

mange sure they can stay safe and healthy through this crisis. reporter: meatpacking and food processing plants remain shuttered around the country. some have reopened. jbs is the world's largest meat processor. they temporarily closed three different plant locations due to coronavirus outbreaks among its workers. one of those locations since reopened. also other major processors, smithfield, tyson, cargill had to shut down one much their locations. neil? neil: hillary, thank you very much this virus started in china, has a lot of folks saying if only we could sue china. there is a lawyer for that. after this. so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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neil: more help is on the way. they have reached an agreement, democrats and republicans, lifted the price of that paycheck protection program aid from $250 billion to north of $450 billion. no way to know for sure but a deal has been scored. charlie gasparino on the aid for small businesses they might want to lock down making sure it is going to small businesses. charlie, what do you have?

>> neil what we have is breaking news on the ppp program. as you know fox business has been at the top of this, at the forefront of this story, reporting how small businesses are not getting the money fast enough or not getting it at all. that the system has been problematic. that large corporations have apparently getting it because of apparently loopholes in the law. financial firms, brokerage firms are getting it because they have deep relationships with banks. sources telling us, banking sources, the u.s. treasury is looking to close those loopholes as this next tranche of ppp money, low interest forgivable loans gets ready to be passed by congress, hopefully in the hands of small businesses. this move comes after our reporting on this. as you know, chuck schumer earlier today, senate minority leader, said there would be some sort of a fix to the program to make sure small businesses do get the money. remember, the ppp program was essentially designed for small businesses because restaurants,

salons, they were losing, there was no traffic coming into their offices. they had to lay people off. it was a big part of why we have a steep economic recession. the money just wasn't getting there. so we do hear that change is on the way, that there are going to be fixes. we do not know how they will fix the program. as we reported yesterday the big banks were pressuring treasury to fix it because the banks feel powerless. that they will be blamed for the problems in the loan program, that is essentially they have to carry out the treasury's wishes. so what we have right now simply is that banking sources are telling us that treasury is working on fixes. as we get those fixes, how they do this, maybe there will be a cut-off on profitability, maybe a cut-off on size, we'll get back on the air to report it to you. neil, back to you. neil: you know, charlie, separately we're hearing that the president has sent out a request, you know, an order i guess, to the energy secretary, let's see what we can do to help all these energy guys out, either buy their oil, put night

in the strategic petroleum reserve. i understand that thing is all but tapped out but something to help the oil industry now. we're talking a lot of money for a lot of rescues and a lot of sectors, i get it, all in this bind through no fault of their own but that is a lot of folks and a lot of dough? >> yeah. the fed is particularly equipped to doing stuff like that. i don't know how they're going to do, how they're going to do this program but you know in times of need, particularly when there is a liquidity crisis, the best agency out there to get companies through liquidity crisis has traditionally been federal reserve. does it with banks. banks regulators have enormous powers. it is a semiindependent agency. maybe they can do something with the fed. i will tell you this, neil. this shows you the fact that oil prices crashed, there is a lot of technical reasons for that. there is an underlying reason. the underlying reason despite

what is going on with the dow, off its low -- couple weeks ago with all the stimulus it has been rising but despite that the real economy, the main street economy is still very much hurting. it's not, and the stock market does not reflect the type of pain on main street. one of the reasons why there is a lot of pain on main street to be honest with you, this fiscal stimulus this, ppp program did not get money in the right hands. it is good thing treasury is fixing it. but there are other levels of this economy. let's be real clear here, if the economy doesn't open up real soon here, we'll be in deep fiscal shape. there is effort to get things going at least sometime in mid-may. back to you. neil: i hear you. got to do it a lot more on this including what's happening on the latest test front for the coronavirus, one that's very promising. one you can do at home. after this. e has weathered many storms.

seeing the break in the clouds before anyone else. together, we'll weather this storm.

neil: all right. not as crazy, crazy, crazy as we were in the market yesterday but oil is still down. you are looking at the june contract, that showing oil prices at $12.20, down a little more than eight bucks. it had gone down to 11 bucks a barrel. forward-looking contracts from there have seen a roughly similar percent decline, anywhere from 35% to at one

point 50%. but rebounding from the worst levels of the day but still a reflection that the trend is down in energy, the may contract is now in positive territory. suffice it to say at $4 or $5 a barrel, closing this out, it is still pretty weak. that is a sign maybe of things to come. jackie deangelis has been looking at all of that. hey, jackie. jackie: good afternoon, neil. that was really something that we saw yesterday and as you said, good riddance to the may contract, i think a lot of people feel that way. this is really about demand for oil and it's really about the fact that it slipped drastically as a result of the coronavirus pandemic because people and businesses globally are not using it. but in the past when this would happen, when prices would drop so low, oil would be scooped up and it would be stored. it would be sold later. a lot of times for a profit. the reason it's different this time is because the length of the global inactivity and the storage centers that we're seeing are pretty much at capacity. floating storage has even become an option here. giant supertankers holding

millions of barrels of oil, moving them around the world. you can i donuse ships as tempo storage centers. i like to put it like this. when you are trying to land an airplane, sometimes there's no space to land, the airplane will circle a little to buy some time. that's what's happening on these tankers. floating storage has been a bright spot for the stock market. two companies are paying nordic american, tk corp, scorpio tankers to temporarily store this oil at sea and to move it around. reuters actually reporting that 160 million barrels are being stored on ships and that's a 60% increase from the previous record that we saw in 2009. let me also add that the reason we've got an oil glut here is because this is not like a light switch. you cannot turn them on and off. there's a reluctance for companies to shut rigs down because getting them back up can take time. final note on oil, which as we saw turn negative yesterday, is that the contract is expiring

today. you mentioned the june contract. that is a big drop in june. yesterday i had said if we see that 22 number come down to the number that we're seeing now, it indicates that people are not optimistic about the recovery or at least how long or how quickly it's going to happen here in the united states. i'm just going to end on two final points. march existing home sales came out this morning, another negative number, adding to why you are seeing the dow down, adding pressure amid this kind of oil crisis. an 8.5 decline, largest since 2015. finally, the ten-year note, the yield is lower today. give you a sense these investors are going back into bonds and that this is a time to get the risk off the table when it hasn't been over the past couple of days. we have seen the market go a little bit higher. neil? neil: yeah. they are all readjusting for the slowdown, maybe the degree to which they didn't envision. thank you very, very much.

frank, you know this stuff inside and out. i'm wondering if the markets are adjusting to the reality here. oil isn't -- it's poorly priced, it doesn't reflect the reality. this is closer to the reality, or is it overdone? what do you think? >> sure. thanks for having me on, neil. i appreciate being here. so i think what we are really experiencing here is a significant supply and demand imbalance. what i mean by that is, at the outset of the covid-19 outbreak, the world demanded about 100 million barrels per day. that amount of demand was built up over the last 20 years from around 75 to 80 million barrels per day globally. in one month, we have gone back 20 years in demand. on supply side, it's a big of a

lag to be able to recover to the market, so what we have seen is through the announcement of the opec countries in the last week as well as market-based reductions here in the united states. we do see supply coming in a bit, but it's going to take time to work through and in meantime, it's difficult time for the energy markets. neil: you know, i know it's not like trading a stock but if the price of amazon or apple had suddenly been cut in half or more, logic might say you know, i'm going to buy that. that seems overdone. so would you see at these levels, oil being an attractive buy or countries that want to take advantage of that cheap oil, as the president said, just store this anywhere and everywhere you can, because this ship will not come by again. what do you think of that? >> neil, i can't speculate on

prices. what i can tell you is that the prices are a reflection of the market situation that i just described and so really, the way to bring demand back is to bring our economy back. it is safe and effective manner but the fact of the matter is, oil is inextricably linked to economic growth and advancements of standards of living. so what you see is as an economy contracts, the price of oil and demand for oil contracts as well. the good news, though, the silver lining to it is over the long term, the world is going to require oil and natural gas to be able to drive that economic growth and to be able to move people and lift them into better standards of living. but in the short term, there's some real difficulty in the economy right now. neil: i'm old enough to remember what happened in the 1980s,

early 1980s, when oil just collapsed and a lot of the wildcatters went out of business. you think about it, that was the impetus for some of the big oil companies to merge, exxon and mobile come to mind. looking back to that '80s experience and the fact that it took awhile to sort out, how long would this take to sort out? i know you're not a market timer, you just look at the macro picture, but we have learned from the past something similar, took quite a number of years, close to seven years. what do you envision? >> i think a lot of this again is tied to when our economy is unleashed. we have never gone through a situation where the government has intentionally stopped economic growth. so as i said, that 20 years of demand that i talked about globally, you know, you look on the jobs front, you're talking about years and years of job

creation essentially being eliminated in one month. now, the good news is we started from a strong point and so you know, i sort of think of the warren buffett quote, the future for america is full of opportunities and there are problems as well but there's always more opportunities and to never bet against america. so looking forward, i do think there is a positive outlook for oil and gas in this country but in the short term, there's some real difficulties associated principally with the demand situation. neil: that is an understatement. frank, thank you very, very much. good catching up with you. chad pergram is with us now following these developments. there's a lot going on in your bailiwick, not the least of which is this stimulus measure. there's talk right now that they're looking for relief for the energy industry. i don't know how that's going to work out. again, you have been keeping track of all this money and the

trillions upon trillions to do that and support that. what's the latest? reporter: well, they are close to a deal on this next coronavirus response. this mostly is money that go to small businesses. republicans over the past two weeks have been pushing for $251 billion for small businesses. this package will probably clock in at about $470 billion. the senate is expected to vote on this sometime after 4:00. they will have a skeleton crew on hand and they will do this via unanimous consent but we still don't have the bill text just yet. here is the senate minority leader chuck schumer. >> they are still dotting the is and crossing the ts but every major issue was resolved by the four of us last night and i know that mnuchin and meadows were in good touch with leader mcconnell and with the president as we went through this. so yes, i believe we have a deal and i believe that we will pass it this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. reporter: here's the breakdown.

$310 billion go towards small businesses. that fund bled dry at the end of last week. there would also be $60 billion allocated for economic disaster loans for businesses, then $75 billion for hospitals, $25 billion for testing. the final issue in the bill is over testing and how states would be in charge. now, if this bill is not ready at 4:00, the senate could lag and maybe pass this later this afternoon or this evening. i'm told it will be done by dinnertime. then it's on to the house of representatives and they would consider this on thursday. now, we are told that the house of representatives will likely take a full roll call vote on that. what that means is bringing as many members who are willing to come back to washington into the chamber. they are not going to have all 429 current members come but thinking about 280, maybe 300, and they would space people out, bringing them into the house chamber in clusters of maybe 20 or 30, and this would take several hours. then it's on to the phase four bill sometime in the coming weeks. back to you.

neil: how does the senate handle that part? reporter: that's where they do this via unanimous consent. we just think there's going to be about two or three people in the senate chamber when they do this later today, so long as no senator in the chamber objects, they pass the bill. you can do that in the house of representatives, but we have been told that those on the republican side of the aisle are insisting on a roll call vote here, which you can do -- neil: all right. thank you very, very much. senate marsha blackburn joins us, republican of tennessee. tennessee is one of three states that could be set to reopen or partially reopen as soon as next week. >> that's right. neil: the others are georgia and south carolina. so tennessee as well. senator, how likely does that look? can you explain what will happen in your state, what will be open, what will slowly be

brought back to what it was? >> well, governor lee is the one who is in charge of making this happen. but we know that he is looking forward to getting areas of the state that have not had an expansion of covid and getting industries that are able to go back to work easily and state parks for the enjoyment of our citizens, getting those open and i believe he's going to be able to do it. he's being smart and strategic and systematic about this. one of the things that has really impressed me, is i'm talking to business owners and employees every single day. people want to go back to work. they are ready to get back in a very safe way in going back to work. they want to be wearing their masks and their eyewear and gloves and taking the task up as they come before them, they all have mentioned they want to

protect those that are part of their company that maybe are vulnerable, have heart or lung diseases, and individuals who are expecting babies, women that are pregnant. so i think you're going to see a great deal of effort go into a very safe and secure workplace for our citizens. neil: obviously, there are a lot of americans who have mixed views on this. they do want to get back to work but there are fascinating polls of late that show 6 out of 10 in one survey were concerned we might risk rushing it and they worry about the fact that the virus obviously is still out there and that the cases are still growing, albeit not nearly as rapidly as they were, and they are worried that we might risk a spike in such cases. are you? >> one of the things that we're all paying attention to is how you can do this in a manner that

is going to eliminate a spike and is going to continue to see a decrease in the growth rate and i believe that employers and employees are going to work through this, having fewer people in office settings, making certain that as they are going into manufacturing plants, that everything is appropriately sanitized. people are contacting me and saying let me tell you how we're going to do this, and there are friends that i have that are excited about doing it and having a safe and secure workplace. so i really think they're going to be able to do this. we are the usa and we are going to figure this out. people are very creative, they are resourceful and we've got a lot of good entrepreneurs that are out there. they are going to figure out how

to have a safe workplace and still get the job done. you know about a third of the jobs can be done from home and indeed, i think you will see many people continue to work from home for awhile. there are about two-thirds of all the jobs that you need to go to a workplace. those individuals are going to be able to monitor that and figure out how to do that safely. there's no one that wants to spread covid to someone else. people want to be able to go back safely, they want to be able to eventually get a test and figure out if they have been exposed or if they had a case or if they have antibodies. people are looking forward to defeating this disease. neil: real quickly, senator, all of this originated in china. we know that now. even leaving aside the debate about what the chinese knew and when they knew it, you are open

to allowing people to sue china. can you update me on that, what you are looking to do? >> sure. senator mcsally, congressman gooden and i have the legislation that would open that foreign service -- foreign sovereignty immunity act. this is the same provision that was used through 9/11 but there is a part of that act that mentions biological agents and covid-19 fits that biological agent, and we know that china has tried to rewrite history and say it didn't come from them. the world knows it did come from them. and individuals who have lost family members, who have lost their livelihood, just as with the 9/11 families, they should have the ability to go to court with the right of action, u.s. courts have jurisdiction over

this, we know doj is looking at how they approach china on this, but citizens need the ability to recoup what they have lost, or to receive remuneration for the harm that has been done. neil: can you see china ever paying anyone anything for this? >> china is -- they live in a state of denial on this issue. they have tried to demand meetings with me and with others. they have blocked me from twitter, as i know they have blocked others. they are trying to make it seem as if they had nothing to do with this, that it was the u.s. military or italy or some other entity that caused covid-19. the problem they have is the world knows differently and i think one of the things you will see us move on to is reviewing the relationship that the w.h.o.

and w.t.o. and u.n. have with china and how we approach them. they had the opportunity to ask for help, we offered help, they didn't want that help, so we could have handled this so that it was an epidemic in china and not something that became a global pandemic that has cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars in economic impact. neil: senator, thank you. we will follow that very very closely. be well. be safe yourself. marsha blackburn of tennessee. we are talking about more relief right now that will come out of washington that will be expanded beyond the paycheck protection program, more money set aside for hospital and health care workers. a lot more money that could be considered for the energy industry. support for the airline industry, hospitality industry, small businesses, individual folks, stimulus checks. in the end, someone is going to

have to pay for this. ken langone was saying that might be us. higher taxes to come. after this. you doing okay?

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been going on, republicans and democrats have been doing it, to just try to get us out of this, it's trillions of dollars. you talked about it having to be addressed down the road but you're open to higher taxes. >> yes, absolutely. they got to have a hard look at entitlements and ask the question who should have it, who shouldn't. neil: all right. that was ken langone saying guys like him shouldn't have social security so he thinks that and rich people, not just rich people, paying higher taxes, that all this money that's going out the door he says is perfectly justified and the wise thing to do but you will ultimately have to pay for it. that's trillions of dollars that have been added to our debt. a lot of people don't want to think about it right now but jack mcintyre is. he's with brandywine global portfolio, he's the manager there. what he's saying, essentially, it's going to lead to almost a transformation in this country. i'm not so sure i buy that, where people are going to look very closely at how much we spend, they see it as an opportunity to address entitlements, maybe raise taxes,

all of that might happen but what do you think? >> that's the operative word, neil, it might happen. i think i'm kind of bracing myself for the idea we are taking a giant step towards socialism as a result of what's unfolding and i think part of this is also the markets are struggling here as well, because we have had a big move in risk assets but you know, there's still uncertainty over how we are going to kind of come out of this, how long it's going to take. there's a lot of uncertainty. that's my point. markets priced in uncertainty. i imagine we will see more volatility here. neil: you know what's interesting, there's a "new york times" editorial today, a yale professor was saying well, we do have to pay for this. he had a different idea than ken langone but i think he was looking at a 5% or tax on the top 5% that could raise about, you know, $2 trillion, he says.

it would be 5% on the 5%. i'm wondering, does it end there? where do you see this kind of talk going, because whether you like to pay for things or not, you're going to have to find a way to pay for this. we are doing this extra borrowing to support this in a low rate environment, i get that, but this is a reality people have to realize after this hopefully ends. then what? >> yeah. it's a great question. i wonder if it's almost too early to ask the question, because we haven't even come out of this, we haven't even seen the growth sort of come out of this. ultimately, i personally think we are accelerating a lot of things as a result of this, and this idea of mmt, the idea that several banks are going to be buying permanently more bonds, i think that's kind of the path we are going down because the amount of deficit we are running, i struggle to be able to think we will generate enough tax revenue to offset that.

so i think, you know, it's a good question to ask but i'm just not sure we can come up with an answer today on how we are going to ultimately pay for all of this. neil: you're right about that. i'm just sort of wringing my hands over the cost of this. shame on me for thinking of that. but i am curious what you make of the v shape up for recovery after this. because that can pay for a lot of things, too. a smart rebound, things are going your way, and that will be the answer. do you envision a v-shaped recovery, a boom in activity that will make a lot of these issues at least subside? >> i don't think it's going to be a v. okay, so we are clearly, given that this is a man-made depression, you know, in response to the virus mitigation and containment, so we are going to get some type of snap-back. i just don't think it will be a big v. i have kind of been describing it as either a square root sort of sign, maybe a reverse check

mark, something you are going to get, you clearly are going to get some kind of snap-back but then you will kind of go flat. i just don't think we are off to the races. i hope i'm wrong. but i think treasury yields are going to tell you that hey, we are worried about growth coming out of this as well. neil: all right, jack, thank you very, very much, my friend. again, we are looking past this immediate issue. as jack properly said, the focus should be getting past the immediate issue. i don't want to soil that with the issue of how you pay for it. but we are going to have to find a way to pay for this. stick around. i'm your mother in law. and i like to question your every move. like this left turn. it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. my son, he did say that you were the safe option. and that's the nicest thing you ever said to me. so get allstate. stop bossing. where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me.

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neil: all right. i don't know if you knew this, but governor andrew cuomo of new york is meeting at the white house today with the president of the united states and you know the history of their back-and-forth and how things got nasty a few days ago, but

the governor will be there, i believe alone. i don't believe he's coming with any other governors there. but that's at 4:00 p.m. so about two and a half hours from now. it's easy for me to be a fly on the wall because that's assuming the fly would understand the conversation but leaving that aside, it's something to watch. i don't know if there will be tape of that or playback. blake burman on top of all that. what are we looking at here? reporter: closed press for now. but we hope upon hope upon hope that this one will eventually open up, though the last time the new york governor was at the white house meeting with president trump, they kept it closed, behind closed doors. we never got to see the playout there. we will see how this all shakes out later this afternoon. in any event, you're right, these two were on pretty friendly terms for several weeks as new york was the epicenter and president trump and the new york governor cuomo were communicating well with each other, then that all got pushed to the side last week during a press conference when cuomo called into issue the federal government's response saying

they need to help more with testing and they need to help more with funding. at his daily press conference earlier today in new york, cuomo was asked exactly what he wants this conversation to be about and this was his response. watch. >> testing. and what does testing mean and how do we do it and how can the federal government work in partnership with the states. from my point of view, i think the federal government has to take that national manufacturers supply chain issue. reporter: so we will be tracking that. also in washington, tracking the latest back-and-forth about replenishing the ppp small business loan and the other deal that is associated with that. we have been told for a couple days now that it is near the finish line, but still hasn't been completed. president trump, the reason why i bring that up, took to twitter just a little while ago and said once that gets completed, he wrote the following. he said quote, after i sign this bill, we will begin discussions on the next legislative initiative with fiscal relief to

state and local governments for lost revenues from covid-19. much needed infrastructure investment for bridges, tunnels, broadband, tax incentives, restaurants, entertainment, sports and payroll tax cuts. you get a little window to the presidency down the line. the reason we saw mayor bill deblasio there, he said today he believes a lot of states and a lot of cities will go bankrupt as he put it if there is not funding for state and local governments, you saw in that tweet from the president he wants to get that done next batch and the top adviser to the president today said it is quote, very very likely that it will happen at some point down the line. neil? neil: blake burman, thank you very, very much. look forward to that pow-wow. hopefully no pow, just a wow. quiet constructive meeting. you never know. meantime, you never know what a landlord will do to keep

track of his or her erenters. this one caught my attention as it did gerri willis. what's going on here? gerri: hey, neil. that's right. i want you to take a look at exactly what a landlord is sending a tenant. these are the texts austin goodrich of oregon says his landlord sent him. you got your stimulus, just asking. are you going to pay rent. the tenant says how did you check. the answer, online. where? irs. did you need to use my social security number? the chilling answer, yes. joshua broader, founder of do not pay.com brought this to the forefront when goodrich, the tenant, reached out to him for help. >> it's a disgrace how little the government is protecting our data. any landlord can go on this government irs website, put in the tenant's social security number and a few basic details, which they have from the rental application, and use all of that

and instantly see where the tenant is and whether they got their stimulus check. gerri: landlords using this portal to track their tenants' checks. all they need is basic rental application information. it could be a lot more than a disgrace. it could be illegal. >> congress has prohibited that. it's my understanding, again, this is a novel area of the law, because this is happening as we speak and there are no cases on it, there is nothing, nothing the landlord can do legally to interrupt the flow of the cash from the irs to the tenant. gerri: the irs does warn users in big letters on the portal, unauthorized use of this system is prohibited and subject to criminal and civil penalties, including all penalties applicable to willful unauthorized access.

now, texts like the ones we showed you are a widespread issue and a federal investigation is under way. what can you do if your landlord is pressuring you? a number one, no surprises. tell them if you are not going to pay. nobody likes a nasty surprise. and check out the laws in your state and your municipality to find out if something has been passed to protect you. as you can see from this map, many have. finally, send your landlord copies of the law. if nothing else works. neil, we have reached out both to the justice department and the irs. no word yet from them confirming any investigations. neil? neil: gerri willis, thank you very, very much. in the meantime, it's all about the testing. you hear one governor after another say as soon as we get more tests we will feel comfortable sort of getting a sense of how big and how widespread this whole covid-19 thing is. there's one that could be a game changer in that.

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neil: we want to update you on a study out of the va that shows there have been more deaths and no benefit from this malaria drug in a va virus study. you may remember hydroxy chloroquine had been used as a way to combat the virus, that it had shown some promise, but according to a study just conducted, not the case. the new england journal of medicine looking at all of this has said the study, the rigorous experiment with some 368 patients, the largest look so far, at the impact of hydroxychloroquine on dealing with this, and said in some cases there was an increase in

deaths but no net benefit from all of this. there have been issues raised by a number of cardiologists and other doctors with whom i have chatted that those who suffer such ailments or have other respiratory issues when the president raised the possibility what have you got to lose taking this, one was your life. it could kill you. if you are in that endangered group or vulnerable group, taking this was a high risk. the study does not detail who were among those who succumbed to the illness regardless, but what it does show is that maybe the hoped-for benefit from this what had been a malaria drug was not quite as pronounced as the president has said or hoped. a little early. they will look at other options here. in the meantime, i do want to raise it with dr. petrie of the mt. sinai school of medicine, a cardiologist by training. what do you think of this as an early finding but it seems to

pour cold water on this notion that it's a potential treatment. what do you think? >> yes, neil. we have some preliminary data. we as cardiologists do have a concern before because we know this drug can trigger a lot of cardiac arrhythmias. also, there's another angle to this. we know coronavirus doesn't just affect the lungs. one in four patients do have evidence of heart damage. adding a medicine like hydroxychloroquine could add to this arrhythmia potential. this could be quite worrisome in a lot of patients. however, the studies are still early. we still need to see what is the right dose, what is the right level of treatment. also, we know coronavirus doesn't affect just the heart or the lungs. there are so many other mechanisms. we are learning about blood clotting and so many other things that would affect mortality. we know hydrochloroquine works

as an anti-inflammatory drug but may not help all the angles of how this virus attacks the body. neil: in the meantime, i know you have been a huge proponent of more testing, as much for the fact that it could give us an idea how many people have this and i was thinking of you when i heard in l.a. county, the testing showed an outbreak that was 50 times bigger than the reported cases. in other words, there were a hell of a lot more cases than was earlier thought to be the case. now, is this coming from these antibody tests that can show it was present in you, or you had it for awhile, or what? >> yes, neil. los angeles ran the first population study to look at antibody testing in a random selection so their results are actually staggering. when they looked at the first

3,300 patients, they found that the number of immune patients in general population to be 50 times higher than the number of cases confirmed. however, we need to determine the accuracy of this study. did we have a high number of false positive, we don't know. every test has its own imperfections. we have to learn more about it. second, was their recruitment biased because it was based on volunteer participation. if someone is more exposed maybe they would be more likely to get himself tested. anyway, numbers are staggering and if you think that it's 50 times more than the positive numbers, we think new york is the epicenter, can we reproduce the same model here. we already are doing a study in new york, it started yesterday, and we are hooking up 14,000 residents, random samples, testing 2,000 people a day, and

we should have the results within two weeks. but if those numbers are indeed accurate, we are looking at a multiplier of 50, that means 60 million new yorkers already have been exposed. it's like 3 in 4. neil: well, it could certainly give us a better idea of something you have been championing long before anyone that i know, so good on you. thank you for all your hard work. i know it's been a lot of sleepless nights but a lot of folks appreciate it. thank you very, very much. we are learning more about this study i want to pass along and clarify here. 28% in this study who were given hydroxychloroquine plus the usual care died versus 11% of those who got routine care alone, 22% of them getting the drug also died but the difference between the group in usual care was not considered large enough to make a significant statement one way or the other. researchers went on to say they did not track side effects but

noted hydroxychloroquine might have damaged other organs. the drug has long been known to have potentially serious side effects. as the doctor pointed out, heart arrhythmias and for those who have such issues with their heart anyway, that can kill them in a couple cases here, it did. stay with us. it's my own thing that i can do for me. since i don't have time to read, i mean i might as well listen. if i want to catch up on the news, or history, or learn what's going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. i listen to spanish lessons sometimes to and from work. yea, it makes me want to be better. audible reintroduced this whole world to me. it changes your perspective. it makes you a different person. see what listening to audible can do for you.

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neil: all right. looking at oil, still slip-sliding away here. you might find this hard to believe, but we're awash with oil. there are some saudi tankers coming here to drop off still more oil. this senator saying enough, already. kevin cramer, republican from north dakota, wants to make sure they don't drop off that oil here. senator, always good to have you. i was surprised to hear that this was even happening, it was prearranged, but you're saying they should turn around, right? >> well, i am. i'm just thinking, neil, if we are awash in oil as you said, everything is filled to the brim, i think there's some swimming pools in saudi arabia that have even been filled up, why in the world would we need not just the traditional amount of oil coming from saudi arabia to our refineries but what sounds like to be a much, much, much more. we are energy-independent and

what good is independence if we don't demonstrate our independence, especially since saudi arabia in my view is the most guilty party in terms of the oversupply, going back to, of course, their price war with russia. neil: people forget north dakota is a huge energy state and obviously, your folks are feeling this pinch and probably very anxious about where things stand now. the president seems to be contemplating doing something for the industry. it includes everything from buying more oil to put in the strategic petroleum reserve to help ease the shock here but maybe there are other measures. what are you hearing, what are you recommending? >> yeah. well, certainly filling the strategic reserve is fine, but i think it's pretty well full, like everything else. one of the things i did is i did write a letter that was signed by a number of my colleagues to the fed chairman and secretary mnuchin, secretary brouillette over at energy to make sure none of the cares package financial tools, especially, these fed --

federal reserve credit facilities, aren't biased against oil or fossil fuels. today, i'm sending another letter signed by a number of my colleagues to the same leadership to make sure that they have the right sort of standards, if you will. the early guidance says that if you don't have a triple b rating on march 22nd, you are probably not eligible for any of these facilities. while march 22nd was long past the impact of covid-19 and the demand drop and long past, of course, the price drop that was the result of the price war between russia and saudi arabia, i just think it punishes those companies who have been in good standing for all this time to now suddenly be faced with this restriction, because of the pandemic and really, the assistance should be there. most of these companies are good companies, but for whatever reason, they are either heavily leveraged or they didn't hedge, didn't have the cash that they

needed, so they are good companies but we need to make sure they get to the other side and we need to be able to restructure some of their debt. neil: senator, i don't have the latest on stay-at-home provisions in your state, but i know that they did generate some protests yesterday. that's not new. it's happening in lots of states. >> right. neil: do you see these rolling back, any discussions with the governor, do you so theee these easing up a little bit? you get two stories, people are getting anxious about them and maybe a little cabin fever but there are still a large number of americans that are anxious about going back too soon. how are things looking in north dakota? >> that's a great point, because i think north dakota is sort of the right laboratory for rolling back some of these stay-at-home provisions. remember, north dakota doesn't even have an official stay-at-home order. we have our governor has taken the guidance from the federal government and applied the guidelines to the state and the state is largely followed them.

certain businesses, of course, are required to close down, but you know, we have ten people for every square mile out here so social distancing comes pretty naturally. we are common sense people. we are pretty compliant people as long as we feel the government is doing the right thing by us so yeah, there's some anxiety, neil, but i think this is as good an experiment as you can have is right here in north dakota in terms of rolling some of those restrictions back and putting our economy back on track. neil: sir, real quickly while i have you, there's talk that this measure, this stimulus measure, now that it's added money for health care workers, hospitals and all, is a go in the senate, looks like it will be a go in the house in a couple of days. are you for it? >> i'm definitely for it. i was for it several days ago when we should have done it. just like i was for the cares package several days prior to i was voting for it. it gets a little tiring to see some of these roadblocks put up by speaker pelosi, always leading to sort of the same outcome.

but a lot more pain in the process. the one thing i worry is that it's not going to be enough again, and that there are going to be people left out that ought to be in the mix for the paycheck protection program, and i start-ups. the independent contractors, sole proprietors, self-employed folks like that who don't maybe have the sophisticated banking relationship some of the larger small businesses have had. it is clearly first-come-first-serve basis but that doesn't mean there is not some institutional bias just the result of people not having resources that they need. so i do worry that it won't be enough but, more is better than none. neil: got it. senator kevin cramer, thank you very much. good seeing you again. be safe, be well, same to your constituents. the senator touched on it here, what is been happening with oil. it is collapsing. now, a little better than the

free-fall we were in questioned that turned prices into negative territory but the fact of the matter is it is an awful environment for oil, even in forward contracts they seem to be telegraphing at the very least, at jackie deangelis mentioned at the outset of the broadcast a slowdown. jackie, i don't think the sentiment changed one bit since you last spoke. reporter: no. everyone was saying neil, look at futures contracts. look to the end of the year we're ranging anywhere from the 20s, to the 30s, things will get better. that is what the market is saying. no. the market is saying a red flag. now that it is pounding the june contract lower as well, it is concerned about the coronavirus in terms the speed of the recovery. all this depends on treatments and vaccines. that is how quickly you can get people back to work once you have those things in place. now, neil, they're unknowns. the oil market is telling you it is worried about demand, it is

worried about the global growth. this is not a u.s.-centric issue. it will impact russia and will impact saudi arabia. neil: if you think about it, they could cut, 20, 30 million barrels a day, i wonder if that would do anything, change far weaker demand, right? reporter: think about opec production of 30 million barrels, and russia around 11, 20 million barrels is 50% of their production. that is why it is so hard for them to actually do it, the you wonder if they will, even though they say that is massive amount to tell the countries, cut your production in half? neil: yeah. it's just staggering to think about. where all this out here, where do they put it? company called opec has storage containers, large swaths of land buried under the growth.

they go from rotterdam to singapore, they're all filled. what sit filled is being repaired right now and updated. they literally don't have room for all of this stuff. here we are facing a situation with the cheapest oil ever, no place to put it. just one of those crazy things. now to charles payne. hey, charles. charles: bring it to might have house, neil, i have a empty pool. you're right, there is no place to put this stuff. i'm charles payne. this is "making money." all eyes back on the oil contracts. they continue to collapse. the oil war, the supply glut, even the sharp decline in demand is really old news. investors are grappling why the implosion now? coming up reaction from former shell ceo john hoffmeister. it is not just oil, many said the broad pull back was due after the monter rebound. what are the downside