drug with ebola. i think they will be able to leverage that data in their application. maria: we will leave it there. thanks for very much for joining us. great news to end the show on. want to thank you, dagen and steve and jackie. we will send it to "varney & company" right now. stu, take it away with this positive news on remdesivir. stuart: absolutely. it's wonderful news. good morning, maria. look, it's positive news, got that. good morning, everyone. let's start with the economy. question, how did the economy perform in the first three months of the year? well, pretty good in january and february, terrible in march, when the virus lockdown began. the economy contracted at a 4.8% annual rate. bear in mind the april, may, june period is likely to be much worse and next friday, we will likely see an unemployment rate well above 10%. yes, it is bad right now. so why is the market going up when clearly the economy is going down? the first reason is this.

gilead sciences, as you heard from maria, positive news from a government trial of their remdesivir and also from two of their own trials. positive news on a treatment. that sent futures straight up earlier this morning and look at the stock, also straight up, 6.8%. that's the effect of this effective trial of remdesivir. up go futures, up goes gilead stock. more on this in a moment. a second reason for the dow's gains, investors expect a strong recovery for the economy starting in the summer. the market always looks to future conditions. there's a third reason. the federal reserve is likely to say today they will do whatever it takes to stabilize your money. wall street's expecting more stimulus. the dow will be up close to 550 points at the opening bell, close to 2%. the s&p up 2%. the nasdaq solid indeed, up over

2%. we had boeing's numbers out this morning. continuing problems, but it's cutting 10% of its work force and investors like that. the stock is up nearly 6%. okay. more on all these stocks in a moment but look at the price of oil. we are at $15 a barrel as of this morning. that's up 23%. how about that. the price of gas, down another swoe one cent. the average nationwide, $1.76. wisconsin's average price went up again. it's now at $1.22. how about that. now that that flyover yesterday, great video from all over, but it raised a problem. crowds gathered to watch. not everyone was wearing a mask. this shows the difficulty of enforcing the rules when people pour out of their homes to celebrate a spectacle in great spring weather. this weekend, it's the rules versus spring fever. we will follow it. we have a really big show coming up. larry kudlow in the 11:00 hour.

the ceo of chipotle, who is doing a huge online ordering business and in just a few minutes, the man who runs google's all-important cloud operation. big deal. "varney & company" is about to begin. stuart: it's the story of the day. it emerged moments ago. gilead sciences. the cstock is up, they've got positive news on their remdesivir as a treatment for the virus. ashley, the details? ashley: yeah. the antiviral medicine according to the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, met its primary end point, meaning they had done the trial, it appears to be, you know, worthy of more study so it will go on from here. we will hear more from that government agency today. but very encouraging. remdesivir, of course, has been around for awhile, first tried

out with ebola patients. has not been licensed or approved anywhere in the world and gilead itself is in phase three trials on this drug, saying that five-day courses and ten-day courses seem to show the recovery rate among patients was around 50% for those patients who were totally recovered within 14 days. but again, still more trials to go but this is promising news. stuart: thanks very much indeed. let's get dr. siegel involved in this. welcome on board. you've got three studies here which suggest remdesivir is a promising and successful treatment for the virus. now, what do you make of these test results quickly? >> very encouraging, stuart. nih, national institute of health, is overseeing this and ashley just said 53% of patients, they studied 19 patients, showed remarkable clinical recovery after 14 days. 52% were discharged. it's only a small number, 19,

but it already tells me it's got a place in my armamentarian against covid-19. this is the first drug we can say that's shown to be of clinical use. what remains to be seen is how early in the game do we give it. this was late in the game, which is even more encouraging. a lot of these patients already have severe symptoms and you wouldn't think that an antiviral drug would necessarily work in that stage. if it's working later, it's probably going to work earlier. as more and more trials come out, we will figure out exactly how effective it is, but it clearly showed effect in this clinical trial. very encouraging. stuart: doctor, it's not a pill form, is it? it's an injection which imply -- or intravenous infusion, not sure which, but that implies you can use it in hospitals and not in your home. >> it's intravenous but it doesn't necessarily imply it only can be used in hospitals. it can be used in treatment

centers. it can be used in home, with home infusion. but what it does imply is that it has to be carefully supervised. i wouldn't want it to be given without a nurse at least in attendance. doesn't necessarily have to be in the hospital. of course, with severely ill patients, that's where it will be used but i anticipate that it will have uses outside of the hospital as well. stuart: doc siegel, thanks for jumping on so quickly. this news broke literally 25, 30 minutes ago. thank you very much. let's get back to the economy. it's shrinking at an annual rate of 4.8% in the first quarter of this year. john lonski, economist at moody's, is with us. it's bad in the first quarter, probably getting worse in the second quarter, april, may and june. does this change your outlook for the recovery on the other side? >> i still think we will look at a fairly vigorous recovery. we should have double digit percentage growth in the third quarter, maybe slowing down a bit in the fourth quarter.

but what's important to remember is that the equity market has been moving higher. my goodness, it's up by more than 25% from its low of march 23rd so the equity market believes that economic growth will be sufficient so that profits growth can become a recurring phenomenon and if that's the case, a lot of these jobs that have been lost are going to be returning. stuart: okay. john, real fast, positive results from the remdesivir trial, a treatment for the virus, looks promising. does that help the economic recovery? >> oh, most definitely. this recession is entirely about covid-19 and anything which can substantially reduce the risk associated with covid-19 is going to help the economy. if you want to have a v-shaped recovery, then go ahead and develop a vaccine that will prevent covid-19 in the first place. i promise you that.

stuart: okay. john lonski, again, thanks for jumping on board real fast. we appreciate that, john. now, let's get to boeing. they reported earlier this morning. grady trimble is here to break it all down. i see the stock up $7. what did they do right? >> so it's unusual to see a company post a quarterly loss of $641 million and then its stock is up so high but the company also announced 10% of its staff would be either laid off voluntarily or involuntarily and investors like that and they see that as a plan. the ceo, dave calhoun, also announcing that the company would have access to funding should it need it, and it will. as of this moment it's exploring all options. but this was by no means a rosy picture. the company cutting production of two of its planes, the 787 dreamliner and the 777, the 737 max is still grounded and they expect this to take several years to recover from. stuart: thanks very much, grady. the real price of boeing is not that chart you are seeing this morning premarket, it is up

seven bucks. remember that. now google. reporting late yesterday. susan, look at that stock, up $107. don't give us all the numbers, just give us what they did right. susan: i will tell you the story. how about that. indications also that silicon valley will probably do better than most. we had actually a tale of two quarters, according to the cfo of alphabet who i spoke to after the earnings release. she says january and february, strong. march, of course, when things fell off a cliff because of coronavirus spread around the world. still, you saw strong increases in cloud, up 52%. youtube up 33% in sales and even searches on games and also april is stabilizing and they are still returning cash to shareholders. big banks, chevron, at & t, intel have had to shelve share repurchases. not the case for alphabet. when you have $100 billion on the balance sheet you can afford to continue buying $21 billion in your stock. by the way, also a big feature

on the earnings call, google meets which is their answer to zoom, we will speak to the head of google meets later on today because they are making it free for everybody. stuart: that's good news. javier soltero will be on later on in the 9:00 hour. i want to bring in sthah gilani. looks like big tech is leading us to the promised land of higher stock prices. looks like big tech's leading. >> not unusual, stuart. it has led for so many years. the markets really tliek see big tech leading once again. we had a couple days where it was a little bit suspicious in terms of some of the stocks were selling down coming into earnings. google sets the stage i think for the rest of the big tech companies to post good and if not decent earnings, good earnings, and i think the market's going to see that as a positive. they are going to continue to lead the markets higher. as long as the big tech stocks are going to go higher, this market is going to go right along with them. stuart: premarket, all those big

tech companies are way up, in percentage terms and dollar terms. i'm still looking at google up $107. shah gilani, thanks very much indeed. quick check of other stocks in the news. pfizer, their chief executive now says a vaccine, their vaccine for the virus, could be ready and available by the fall only for emergency use. the can sto stock is up on that best buy slated to reopen stores at some point in may by appointment only. make an appointment to buy your tv. how about that. stock up 1.8%. more reopenings on the horizon. simon property group, the biggest mall operators in america, maybe in the world, actually, they are planning on reopening 49 of their properties this weekend. the stock is up 7% on that. darden restaurants own olive garden and many others. they reopened all olive garden restaurants in georgia. the waitstaff were wearing masks, of course. they won't take parties of six or more.

lots of social distancing. stock is up 4.7%. the futures still show a solid gain. you're up nearly 400 for the dow. busy news day. we have national economic council director larry kudlow here exclusively to react to all the numbers. did you see this. twice failed presidential candidate hillary clinton endorsing joe biden. it comes as accusations of sexual assault continue to grow for the 2020 hopeful, joe biden. there's lots of chatter about a fourth stimulus or rescue plan. do we really need it? house ways and means committee chair kevin brady joins me next. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist. nothing stronger.

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stuart: friday, may 1st, that's mayday, that's big for the socialists and guess what, of

course, walkouts are planned. lauren, who's going to be affected? lauren: i count six major companies where the front line essential workers are expected to either call out sick or walk off the job at their lunch break. amazon, walmart, target, whole foods which is owned by amazon, fed ex and instacart. this is what they want, stuart. they want better pay and safety standards as well as hazard pay. the companies have been generous in upping their wages but say we are incredibly important to these organizations and our work is largely invisible. stuart: it reminds me of europe but let's not get into that too much. okay. next case. we are hearing talk about a fourth rescue package. it may be on the horizon. watch this, please. >> -- payroll tax cuts, i've liked that from the beginning. that was a thing i really would love to see happen. >> -- in passing a bill that

does not have liability protection so that's an integral part of our economy. >> minimum income for, a guaranteed income for people, is that worthy of attention now? perhaps so. stuart: well, there's lots of suggestions there about another rescue package. the gentleman on the right-hand side of the screen is an old friend of the program, kevin brady, texas congressman who used to chair the house ways and means committee. congressman, do we need right now or at any point in the near future another rescue plan? >> you know, stuart, i don't think we need a rescue plan per se. i think we need to assess other smart things we can be doing to help reopen the economy. the jobs numbers today are a bit heartbreaking from the standpoint of the virus turned the strongest, most competitive economy in the world in january and february on its head but also, tells us how important it is for us to reopen safely as

health conditions permit and from that standpoint, i think congress ought to be looking at what more do we need to do to help as we keep maximum pressure on the virus, what more do we need to do to help businesses reopen in a way that's safe and healthy for the workers and for their customers. how do we create an environment where businesses can invest again with confidence and i do think we need to address this issue of the unemployment being more generous than the salary you get at work. i know why the senate and white house agreed to this. democrats were insisting on 100% wage replacement which is just a recipe for extended recession. i think they battled it back to where it is today but i think there's a huge disincentive in some regions, in some industries, to work. so to the president's point, we may need a payroll tax cut, a pay raise of 7% for workers just

to compete against an unemployment benefits that are in some cases more than what you would get at work. stuart: okay. the states, many states, i should say, are demanding help. they want the money they have lost from the virus replaced. one suggestion from governor cuomo of new york is that you repeat salt. you put that in place when you were chair of the house ways and means committee, or you helped put it in place, the state and local tax deduction, done away with largely. would you consider getting -- moving back to allowing state and local tax deductions against your federal tax return? because that really would help the states, especially new york, new jersey, connecticut, california, illinois. would you consider it? >> well, those states haven't lowered their taxes since tax reform got in place and if we repeal the salt, more than half of that go to homes and households making $1 million. i'm not sure that's the middle

class relief that's needed and the truth is, congress has sent over $700 billion, $700 billion to state and local governments either directly through unemployment, mass transit, their schools, colleges, hospitals. we have seen dramatically increased their medicaid. so it's not like there's a lack of dollars from washington coming down the state and in fact, what i am really concerned about is that of the dollars we sent, congress sent to the governors, to be sent to those smaller communities, some governors are hoarding those dollars, not helping local cities and local communities with the costs of coronavirus. and i don't think congress should have any discussion about additional dollars until we see if states are handling these dollars correctly and in my view, many of them are not. stuart: okay. we got it. congressman kevin brady, thanks for joining us, sir, on a very

busy day. appreciate it. thanks very much. it's busy because you look at the futures. look at that. we will be up about, what, 400 points for the dow industrials. you are getting way above the 24,000 level. across the board we are up, what, 1.5%, 2%. mcdonald's, their locations in canada will start importing beef from other countries. the virus hits the domestic supply chain. mcdonald's is up to $188 per share. mastercard profits fell. the ceo says however, the spending is stabilizing. that's done their stock a power of good, up nearly 15 bucks on mastercard. 5.5%. starbucks, i know there's news on them. i know the stock is up just 1%. what's the news, lauren? lauren: all right. too good, too bad. they reported earnings. here's the bad. we will get that out of the way first. their global sales fell 10%, first drop in 11 years, okay? number two, they expect the impact of the virus to intensify in the second half of the year so things might get worse.

here's the positive and i think you are going to like this, because on monday, they are going to start to reopen their closed stores here in the u.s. not the dining rooms, but the drive-throughs and the delivery options so those stores that were shut will start to reopen. 90% will be running by early june. stuart: we always like the news of getting back to work, getting back to business. thanks very much indeed. you're looking at a rally when the market opens. 400 points up for the dow. remdesivir may be an effective treatment for the virus. that's what's helping to move this market. we'll be right back.

stuart: let's get to the price of oil. that's interesting. it's up three bucks this morning. $15.52 is your price. that is a 25% gain. maybe that's good news for the stock market. how about tesla. what's their stock doing? this is premarket. they are up another 22 bucks, 2.9%. what's the news on tesla? susan: we also have earnings, by the way, very shortly today. musk set to get a $725 million payday if tesla keeps this $100 billion market cap for six months. they are just two months away from that. that means he will get and pocket $725 million which would be a record for any ceo.

compare that to sindar pichar's alphabet. for someone who is worth $40 billion which elon musk is, this might be pocket change. more importantly is that elon musk and tesla might be on the verge of being included in the s&p 500. you have to prove four quarters of profit which they are close to doing, and if it does, can you imagine the etf and index funds that have to include tesla and that means the stock goes up because demand goes up as well. tesla sitting at $143 billion in market cap, three times gm and ford combined. stuart: i just wonder what bernie sanders thinks of the billionaire. i didn't ask. i haven't found out. here's another car company. ford motor company. come in, ashley. they reported a whopping great big, it was a downturn in revenue, right? $2 billion? ashley: yeah. down $2 billion in the first quarter and by the way, they say second quarter losses could come in at $5 billion. but on the upside, they say they

have $35 billion in cash to help them get through the end of the year without even resuming production. but that revenue number, down 15% year over year and they say it's going to be worse in q2. stuart: have they just canceled one of their electric vehicle ventures? ashley: they have. they paid $500 million last year to get in partnership with an auto technology company and they were going to build a new lincoln brand electric vehicle. they have decided to cancel those plans. they say based on the current environment. so that is the ultimate understatement. but they say their commitment to electric vehicles remains quote, unchanged. stuart: well, they have to. they've got so much money in electrifying their vehicles in the future. all the car companies do. it would be quite something if they retreated now on the grounds that gasoline is dirt-cheap so we are going back to the combustion engine. not going to happen. there you are.

all right. we are literally 15 seconds away from the opening of this market. it's going to open on the upside. i can confidently say that. all the stars are aligned for a rally at least at the opening bell. we've got what looks like a promising treatment for the virus from gilead sciences, remdesivir. that really moved the market before it opened. it is now open. off we go. right from the get-go we are up 1.8%, that's 430 points. we will open the dow 30 shortly and then you will see how many are up and if there are any that are down. 1.82% to the upside, 24,500 on the dow as of now. that is a rally. the s&p, that's on the upside to the tune of 2%. a better percentage gain there. the nasdaq, i'm expecting a big win because of gains in big tech companies, and we've got it. nasdaq up nearly 200 points. let me show you gilead. they reported positive data on the remdesivir drug as a treatment for the virus.

it was up 10% premarket. now it's up nearly 6%, 5.6% to be precise. nice rally there. we are showing you pfizer. their chief executive says a vaccine for the virus could be ready and available by the fall, only for emergency use but that's a speedy time frame there. boeing, earnings out earlier. big deal here. they are going to cut around 10% of their work force. that's the virus effect for you. the stock is up 4%. that is helping the dow, because boeing is a dow stock. check also google. look at that, up $107 a share. susan, tell me why google is up -- give me the one factor that's pushing google up. susan: ad revenues didn't fall as much as anticipated in april. things look to be stabilizing a bit. we know january and february was strong, march of course was difficult given the coronavirus spread, but april looks to be

stabilizing and it's a tale of two quarters. th also, cash returns, the cfo says we are sticking to $21 billion in stock buy-backs. don't forget when you have $100 billion on the balance sheet, looks like silicon valley is probably going to come out of this and be insulated more strongly than other companies. stuart: what have they got in cash, $100 billion? susan: at least on the balance sheet. stuart: they can afford a stock buy-back. up 9% for google as we speak. then there's ge. do you remember them? that was your dad and grand dad's stock. well, it's dad. what's the news, ashley? ashley: they bring good things to life but apparently not the earnings. revenue down 8% year over year. that revenue coming in at 20.5. their hardest-hit segment was certainly commercial aerospace. revenue there down 13%. profit down 39%. orders down 14%. the only bright spot in this report was their health care revenues, you can imagine that based on the pandemic, were up

7%. overall, revenue down 8%. stuart: lots of talk about how the big malls will do when we all get back to business and when they reopen. there is news from simon property group. they are up 7%. lauren, what are they doing? they are a big mall operator. lauren: the biggest one in the country. they are reopening 49 shopping centers across 10 states, starting friday through the weekend. what is that going to look like? first of all, if you go to the bathroom, there will be taped-off separations between like every other sink will be taped off, for instance. same with bathroom stalls. the food courts, they are taking out a lot of seats, respecting social distancing. drinking fountains and the kids' playing areas will be closed. if you want a face mask, just ask, you will get it. it will look a lot different. some of the stores might be closed. it's up to the individual retailer whether they want to open up. stuart: we just have to wait and see. will people go back to an

environment like that now that the malls, 49 of them, have been reopened. we will check that this weekend. meanwhile, the stock right now is up 8%. very solid gain. overall, we are keeping that solid rally. overall, the dow is up nearly 400 points now. look at it, right at 24,500. up 1.65%. can we see winnebago? set to resume operations as scheduled in may. they are up 3%. 44 bucks a share. the yield on the ten-year treasury, we always like to check that, it's an anxiety indicator. the yield is straight right there at .60%. the price of gold, well, it's still above $1700 an ounce but only just. $1714, to be precise. oil, i think we are at $15 a barrel still. yep, $15.61. what's the story? have we got more on this, susan? susan: look, instead of june contracts, as we know that may went into negative territory,

june is being sold off possibly going negative as well. the front month contract is now july. so it looks like there's a bit of recovery being priced into oil prices. we are up as you see, close to 27% and you know, it looks like there might be storage space hopefully in the summer months. i think that is the big story right now and also china and chinese demand for oil, largest demand out there since the u.s. produces their own oil, uses their own oil, there has been a floor set and they lifted off those temporary lows. stuart: 15 bucks a barrel. susan, give me more on uber. i think there's news there. susan: yeah. it looks like the information which is the technology outlet saying that they are going to cut around 20% of their total staff. that's around 5400 people that might be laid off out of the 27,000 that they employ. given that rides and ride hailing is down some 80% in some markets and mostly across the u.s. they have recovered in other markets that have come out of covid-19 but still, you also have the chief technology officer who is the last of the executives that was hired under

the founder, also tendering his resignation in the middle of march. there are concerns that the head count is coming for the ride hailing giant. stuart: thanks, susan. look, we are six minutes into the session and this is a rally by any other name. we have lost a little ground but are still up 370. 1.5%. i want to come into the whole company here. i can count a few factors as to why we are up this morning. number one, we have got this remdesivir from gilead sciences which looks promising as a treatment for the virus. number two, we have the fed, maybe this afternoon they will announce more asset purchases. what that means is lots more money going into the economy. number three, this is what i want to concentrate on, i think this market is looking to the other side of the bad economic news that is current. we've got a rotten economy now but i think the market's looking to the other side. what say you, susan? start it off. susan: i think it's earnings coming in better than expected at least for some companies, particularly tech, since we know

a lot of the rotation in the bids in the markets in this recovery, in this bounce up of 30% from the march lows is going into big tech names. you know, 20% of the s&p now represented by amazon, apple, google and the like, so you saw alphabet's earnings yesterday saying we are doing a little bit better than everybody else and we still have cash on the balance sheet. stuart: i think we have a job on our hands this morning. we have to explain to our viewers how come the economy is so bad but the stock market is rallying so strongly. any ideas on the explanation, ash, lauren? what do we do? ashley: well, let me jump in quickly. lauren: go ahead, ashley. ashley: no, go ahead. lauren: i was just going to say -- ashley: you have to pick a reporter, stu. lauren: the thaw is beginning. you have to remember, we got that first quarter decline, i mean, in how fast the economy

grew or in this case, contracted, and we only have the lockdown in the final two weeks of march so the numbers are bad, but we have to remember we created this shutdown because we are responding to the virus and now we are starting to see the thaw begin and there's optimism on what the other side looks like. stuart: ladies and gentlemen, i do apologize. we talk over each other because there's a gap in terms of when we hear each other. we are all in different locations. it's very difficult to get it straight but we have been doing well so far. we will do well in the future. that's a promise. thanks, team. chipotle's online orders up a whopping 81%. the ceo focusing on growing the company's digital sales. that ceo joins me in the 11:00 hour this morning for an exclusive interview with us. explosive new developments in the case against michael flynn. jim jordan, he's been ranking member of the oversight committee.

he's been all over this case since day one. he's going to react to what's going on with general flynn. big news. google now making its video meeting tool called google meet. it's going to be free for everybody. the vice president of google's g-suite, the guy who runs their cloud operation, he's on this show next. he's joining me. i came across sofi and it was the best decision of my life. i feel cared about as a member. we're getting a super competitive interest rate on our money. we're able to invest through the same exact platform. i really liked that they didn't have any hidden or extra fees. sofi has brought me peace of mind. truly thank you for helping me prepare for

whatever the future has in store.

stuart: just take a look at google's stock, up $103 a share. goog google's competitor zoom, called google meet, is now free for everyone as of today. susan, take me through this. susan: you heard this over and over again on the earnings call last night from the ceo of alphabet. very exciting given that google meets is signing up three million daily. you have 30 times increases in usage because of covid-19 and as you mentioned, even better, it's

all free starting today. let's bring in javier soltero, vice president of google's g-suite. great to have you. very exciting. so this has been around since 2017. i guess the obvious question is how did you take the lead from zoom? >> we have been bringing this product to millions of business customers now since 2017 and the growth we have seen over the last, probably the last three months has been incredible in response to all these companies kind of moving their work forces to working from home and being distributed so we have really been investing heavily and making the product even better and now as you said, we are making the product available to everyone. susan: up to 16 participants but zoom allows for up to close to 50. so i assume you are going to keep improving this product, right, to make it more user-friendly? >> well, yeah, actually the 16 participants, it's the ones you can see on the screen at the same time. we support up to 250

participants on any given call. so this is more about like what we affectionately refer to as the brady bunch view, how many people you can see on the screen. stuart: you realize that you are doing your best to kill business travel, because why should i take a plane to fly across the rest of the country if i can use your g team or g meet, i'm sorry, for free? you're killing the travel business. >> we believe that the more we do from home, the more dwwe do help. certainly i miss getting on airplanes for various reasons. certainly the more we can do right now to help people be able to be productive and effective from home, the more we do to get out of this whole situation. stuart: i believe you run much of the cloud business at google. could you explain to our viewers who may not be really technical kind of people, why is the cloud so important going forward? people are laughing at me. you've got to explain to me, javier. that's the bottom line. why is the cloud so important when we come through on the other side of this virus and the

lockdown? >> well, first, i run the g-suite part. the cloud is a very large organization. the way to think about it is this. we have had a lot of this technology around for a long time. we've had video conferencing. google has been at this for awhile. the important thing now is that across every sector of life, whether it's personal things, education, or the workplace, we have now established that we can actually do a lot more than we previously thought without sitting necessarily right in front of each other. we still crave human contact, of course. i miss it, i'm sure you all do as well. but the potential for us to be able to teach kids, to run large companies, do all kinds of activities without necessarily always having to be in the same place opens up a lot of very interesting possibilities for the future. susan: i spoke to the ceo of alphabet yesterday and asked about demand going forward, especially in coronavirus, given that you oversee g-suite.

i'm wondering if you have seen customers saying i need to preserve cash and cut some spending. have you seen any contracts cut? >> what we have seen actually is a lot of people coming to us saying hey, we are glad to switch to g-suite prior to coronavirus, you know, imposing all these different restrictions on business operations. the ability for our product to help them transform and adapt to a very very unexpected, challenging scenario is something we are very proud of. we are also seeing frankly a whole bunch of new customers coming to us saying hey, we heard you are really good at this, we would love your help, can you help us actually transform our workplace, we really need it now and we have an opportunity to change the way we work for the future. stuart: if you've got all these new people coming to you, will you be taking their information and using their information? >> absolutely not. actually, one of the important things, the highlight about google cloud and g-suite specifically is that we use no information for advertising, for any purposes. this is corporate data. this is data that belongs to the

users, to the people and companies that are actually transacting over our services. so absolutely not. stuart: javier soltero, you realize you are killing zoom. its stock is down very significantly this morning, down 6.5%. you will probably have a negative impact on business travel. but it was great having you on the show. we are very thankful to have you here. please come again soon. >> thank you. stuart: thank you, sir. susan, thanks for your help on that one. helped straighten me out a little. susan: my pleasure. stuart: thank you very much. left-hand side of the screen, amazon up 32 bucks. they've got news, ashley, on the nfl as well. ashley: yes. renewing their partnership with amazon and twitch, the gamer platform, to air thursday night football. amazon prime members can enjoy 11 regular season games on a thursday night. also, by the way, they will offer a saturday game, a regular season game in the second half

of the season. of course, we don't even know when the season begins yet. but in the second half of the season, you will be able to catch a saturday game on both nfl, on amazon and twitch and by the way, the thursday night games are aired by fox and so this is the renewing of a partnership to bring livestreaming football in this day and age, i stliethink strea is a very good way to go. stuart: we have a busy day. big show for you. in our 11:00 hour, larry kudlow. he's the white house top economics guy. he's joining us exclusively. now, he's going to talk about the gdp numbers, yes, indeed, but i also want to know what he thinks about gilead's remdesivir drug which might be an effective treatment for the virus. does that affect the economic recovery? i will ask him about that. facebook. they are coming out with earnings later on today. the stock is way up this morning. look at that, up $11 a share. even before we see the actual

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stuart: i'm going to put on the screen delta and jetblue. they are both -- they teamed up actually to ask the transportation department if they can halt flights to 25 airports around the country.

they are trying to cut the cost of the virus impact. there you have it. better take a look at spotify. paid music subscribers surged to 130 million. that was in the first quarter. can't get the stock -- yeah, i can. it's up nearly 20 bucks. that's 14% on spotify. facebook, i think they are still way up. last time we checked, they were up 11. still up 11. that's a big 6% gain. now, they report their earnings after the bell this afternoon. jim anderson is with us, a close follower of facebook. jim, the stock's up nearly $11 a share before the earnings. what's this all about? >> well, i think people are expecting, facebook will have a bad quarter at least as it relates to facebook standards but bad for facebook is really great for everybody else. all of these tech titans, we saw it with google and will see it with other tech sites, people are recognizing they are really well positioned to weather this storm. stuart: well, wait a second. surely the market's looking to the future and the market is

saying advertising is going to come back. nasty slump right now, but it comes -- that's what the market's telling us, isn't it? >> yeah, i think so. facebook, 98% of their business is advertising revenue so you would think oh, my goodness, they are really going to hit it, and remember, i mean, most of the impact in q1 has not really been felt, right. as the pandemic really came upon us in march and one could argue the most significant advertising impacts were really the latter half of march. so i think the better view for how it's really going to affect facebook and google for that matter is going to be in q2. stuart: i haven't heard any talk about breaking them up or severely restraining them or regulating, i have not heard any of that kind of talk in months. is it still on the table? >> i think it's still on the table but it's certainly not at the forefront. i think one of the things facebook has done well and really some of the other big tech companies have done well is show the power for positive that having that kind of scale can accomplish. facebook can connect the world like nobody else. they haven't yet gotten into contact tracing and things like

that and there are still very significant privacy issues, but certainly mark zuckerberg has been saying for a long time we can do, we being facebook, can do things that other companies simply can't do because of our scale. and that's certainly true. what we ultimately think about that and what the governments are going to think about that, that's what we have to see post-pandemic. stuart: watch facebook, google and big tech go today. they are up big-time. jim, thanks very much. we have a big show still to come for you. bob doll is on the markets. we have -- and the rally, of course, which we are seeing. steve shork is the ole guy. could we get back to negative prices on oil? we will ask him. and larry kudlow, top economic guy at the white house. i want to know about the recovery and about remdesivir's effect on the recovery. more after this. in nearly 100 years serving the military community, we've seen you go through tough times and every time, you've shown us, you're much tougher your heart, courage and commitment has always inspired us

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stuart: exactly 10:00 on the east coast. we have latest read, numbers are in, pending home sales. susan, if you have got the numbers, i have a question do they look backward because they're the numbers from march? are they relevant? susan: pending home sales are leading indicator of the health of housing market. these sales have not closed yet. so not part of the existing home sales portion. not a good number in the month of march. we're down 20.8%. we're up 2.1% in month of february. month after month, this is a drop off of a cliff. this is coming after two months of consecutive gains.

i to have good news for mortgage applications if you want to have me that. stuart: what good news on mortgage applications? >> they're actually up. it is a strong recovery for mortgage applications as rates hit record lows. i saw 3.3% for 30 year fixed. refis are down. there are indications with lower interest rates that pete might be looking to buy homes again. stuart: looking to the future, it looks more positive than slightly looking backwards there. susan, thanks very much indeed. let's get to hotels. they are going to reopen. i think there will be big changes in the post-virus world. lauren, what do we know? lauren: if everyone will be wearing a mask, stuart, you will not see a smile, so you might see something like this. this might the way some hotel workers greet you, thank you for coming, hello, because you can't see me smile. some other things. thermal cameras at entrances.

they take your temperature as they go in. if you're over 100, not allowed to stay there. you're escorted to a medical center. buffets might disappear. individual grab-n-go meals would replace that. you know when the hotel is packed, want to get the pool chair by the pool, go down really early, put towel and bags on it. good luck. taking away a lot of pool chairs, separating ones that exist. casinos how do you do that? wynn, their ceo came up with a road map how to reopen. he wants to do that by mid-may if possible. constant sanitizing of rails, dice, whatever is used at each table. stuart: i fine this just fascinating. how do they entice you to come back to a hotel or casino? they're clearly trying very hard, i give them that. lauren: i think camping, rv sales are going up, stuart. stuart: that's interesting. that is another part of the puzzle, camping rv sales going

up. i like that. we have best buy. they are planning to reopen. you have to explain how this works. they will reopen by appointment! ashley: i know. you want a new tv. make an appointment for you, sir. you can do this by phone, online or through the best buy app. but starting in early may, in about 200 of the 1000 u.s. stores you indeed make an appointment. check with a technical expert, i.e., one of the staff working at the store. they will go over what you need, then you can make your purchase. right now they are operating on curbside pickup. also in early may, they begin home installation service, delivery and repairs with greater safety standards. by the way, they did furlough best buy, some 51,000, mostly part-time workers, but some full-time workers earlier this month. the only bright spot for best buy, online sales up 250%. you can make an appointment. stuart: i like the idea, ash, i

like idea of making an appointment. you know what you want to buy. you know you want to take it away with you when you bought it. that is the way to go. i kind of like that a lot. the market, look, we're 33 minutes into the trading session, and we are up. this is a rally. we're at 24,500. the dow up 400 points. s&p up 2%. look at that, the nasdaq is up 2 1/2%. that is a rally and now this. joe biden, still running against donald trump. his campaign is weak, the candidate is unfocused, his policies in my opinion, irrelevant to the current situation and he is confined to his house. yet he is still in the race. if he wasn't the last man standing running against this particular president he would have been dismiss adlong time ago. this candidate is so beset with troubles. allegation of sexual assault, frequent gaffs, the open

hostility of bernie sanders supporters, that is for a split party, enthusiasm gap a mile wide. the difficulty of campaigning from your garage. now endorsement from hillary clinton, which renews the questions surrounding politicians and sex. he still has to name a woman to the veep spot. that too will bring back the sex assault charge, who to believe. why is he still in the race? first of all he gets unquestioned support of the media. his gaffs go unmentioned. network anchors do not ask about tara reade and her sexual assault allegation and he is not asked about what affect his proposed tax hikes would do to the economy just been through a depression. he get as pass on everything. the media is contemptuous of this president. they're in the business of defeating trump and getting biden elected. second, there is joe's good fortune, not, repeat, not being able to campaign face-to-face with voters. if he were out there, working

rope lines and doing listening tours, he might get asked some awkward questions. or he might forget where he is, or he would lose his temper. when he called a woman a lying dog-faced pony soldier? in his basement or his garage, he can read the teleprompter. no danger there. how convenient. finally the last man standing. he represents the last chance for the democrats to beat trump and beating him is the number one goal. that's why democrats from hillary to bernie are getting behind him. that is why he still in the race. but, still six months to go to the election. he and his vice-presidential pick will have to address the sex assault allegation at some point. his donors will have to ask, if raising taxes is a good idea. the socialists will have to ask if they can support the man who aced them out of the nomination and everyone of us will have to ask, just who handled the vice russ crisis and who sniped from

the sidelines? so with more on biden, tara reade, biden's accuser, now says hillary is enabling a sexual predator after she endorsed biden. not sure about this. there was no mention of tara's allegations as biden hosted a woman's town hall with hillary. let's bring in liz peek, welcome back to the show, liz. i'm coming on pretty strong here about why biden is still in the race when i don't think he should be, what's your opinion? >> thanks for having me on, stuart. look, i think you said it right, he is the "last man standing." i think he would be out of the race. i think democrat was have fastened on tara reade as their exit strategy except for one thing, the runner up is bernie sanders who they deem unelectable. but stuart, consider this. a brand new poll out, 57% of voters think that trump's going to win in november. the idea that joe biden is the inevitable victor here, that he

is safe and sure candidate, i think that is totally gone. as you point out, he will have to emerge from his bunker at some point between now and november. and voters will get a chance to see what you just commented on. most of us have already taken note of, he can't string two sentences together without getting hopelessly lost in a word salad. i think they have a real problem and they know it. stuart: you've got an op-ed piece on biden t reads, biden assault allegations turn race on its head. here's why. make your case, liz. >> well, again, i think that democrats should be considering a chance to eject joe biden from the inevitable candidate seat and bring in somebody else. the problem is, who? bernie sanders, they don't want. andrew cuomo was lofted recently. democrats voters say we rather see andrew cuomo. it is incredibly messy.

stuart, as you point out, democrat want more than anything to beat donald trump f it becomes clear, because of a 19-point enthusiasm gap, because he can't raise money, because people are not excited about his candidacy, that joe biden can't beat donald trump, let's talk about me too. this is a way democrats could move to the "me too" movement, reembrace women a big constituent. yes, we believe women. we have to take this seriously. mark my words, if another woman comes forward with similar allegations, joe biden is history. stuart: so who takes his place, any ideas? >> that is good question. i thought hillary clinton, we know she is champing at the bit. i would note the first democrat that joe biden could step aside was a ex-hillary clinton staffer that always raises red flags to me. her network is intact. they still want her to be the president. and i wouldn't, at all down that her name comes back.

stuart: you know, liz, i don't know where you are, but wherever you are, you are having too much fun. i can tell. >> well, i mean, looks, these are tough times and president trump is under a lot of pressure but i thought this poll was pretty astounding. 57% says he will win in november and i think they're right. stuart: 57%. liz peek, thanks very much for coming back on the show. we will see you again real soon. >> hope so, thanks. stuart: look at that market, it's a rally. up what, 382 as we speak, and big gain for the s&p and even bigger gain for nasdaq. couple stocks in the news, hasbro, toy-maker missed. after first quarter profits. i'm not sure what missed means. i guess expectations. nevertheless the stock is down 3/4 of a percent. starbucks, store openings, where an when, lauren?

lauren: the stock is down 1 1/2%. this is good news. this is unexpected. the ceo says starting on monday and next week, they will start to reopen some of their u.s. locations that have been closed to both delivery and drive-through. you can't go in to sit down at a table. but you will be able to go to store h starbucks to get what you want. by early june, 90% of u.s. locations open. stock negative. stuart: not sure about that. it doesn't make that much rational sense to me, that's a fact. lauren: if you look at their earnings, they saw for the first time in 11 years, same-store sales go down by 10% that could be what investors are responding to right now. but i will say something, i'm used to starbucks, for bucks, as you used to call it. i driven around where i live. a lot of starbucks are closed. ceo says people spend a little more money, as they shelter in place, getting starbucks

delivered to you, or picking it up is quote, familiar and rewarding. i think that resonates with a lot of people. i was looking for it. i miss my vanilla latte. stuart: last time i went out and about in my car, the biggest line was for the drive-through starbucks. it was lined up round the block to get in there to pick it up. thank you, lauren. still to come on the show today, market watcher bob doll. ii want to know where we put our money in the market when it goes up. of course larry kudlow joins us in the next hour. better look at chipotle, the company's digital sales more than doubled in the month of march. the ceo is on the show, again in our next hour. big hour coming up. but first president trump signed an executive order to keep meat plants open. can this help prevent a nationwide food shortage which we are facing? i have will ask the question to those who know the answer. more "varney" after this. economy

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stuart: by any other name it is a rally. the dow is up 420. the s&p is up 60 and look at that nasdaq go. 233 points. general electric, okay their revenue declined eight% in the first quarter. they say it will get even worse in the second quarter because of the pandemic. look the thing turned around. before it was down. now up. only two cents. 6.82 on ge. boeing lost 640 million bucks in the first quarter. reportedly they will cut the workforce by around 10%. the market likes that. the stock is up 4%. british airways, whoa, they will cut 12,000 jobs. wait for it, they say passenger demand will take several years to recovery. grady trimble, i want more on that. several years? reporter: 12,000 jobs. that is out of its 45,000

employees. so that is more than a quarter of its employees. the airline also notified labor unions this restructuring plan they put forward will affect most employees in some way even if they're not laid off. the parent company, international airlines group, saw a revenue dip of 13% in the first quarter. a loss of $579 million. they're expecting this current quarter to be much worse. as you said, they're expecting this to take several years to recover. i will point out, boeing said the same thing, so, that seems to be what the airlines and aviation industry in general are pointing to, to get passenger demand back up to 2019 levels. it will be a long haul. stuart: yes it is. some things will change. that is one of them that will change big time. thanks, grade i did. good stuff. get to baseball. officials are planning, coming up with a plan to restart the season. they want it to start in late june, no later than july the 2nd. they want to play maybe 100

regular season games. but they will be playing in empty stadiums. the league is considering three divisions with 10 teams per division. kristina partsinevelos joins us now. what do we know about reissuing refunds for tickets that i bought where there is no game? reporter: well, it seems now that the major league baseball position is now allowing refunds. the key word is allowing. doesn't necessarily mean you will get 100% refund. it will be up to the individual baseball teams to decide their own policies. i reached out to several to see if they can give me information this morning. i was expecting them to announce the policies this afternoon, but it doesn't necessarily mean you will get all the cash back. think, fans have season tickets, thousands of dollars. according to "usa today," one billion dollars consumer capital is tied up with professional sports. so the situation could be, you could get a credit for 2021. this is another situation. you have a lot of online

offering refunds. ticketmaster seats, geek, as well as live nation. if we can bring up the stoke of live nation, they will announce issuing refunds. share price is up because saudi arabia took a steak. nonetheless, credit card companies, if you have a credit card with amex, they are issuing refunds for a lot of these professional games. bring it back full circle, stu, you brought up major league baseball, they have not said they are canceling all 162 games. i think it is very important point to point out, rumor they could be playing in divisions, players don't have to move, stay on east coast, central, west coast, end on this little tidbit, for really hardcore fans, korean baseball starts may 5th. there is a lot of american players out there. there will be no fans, no spitting. you have temperature checks. it could be a precedent for what happens here in the united states. we have to wait for the refund this is afternoon. we'll find out details. back to you. stuart: no spitting charge was

the interesting nugget right there. kristina, thank you very much indeed. you might see, i think we're on the verge, i am told, we're on the verge, of a food production crisis because of the virus. let's bring in south dakota senator mike rounds. in south dakota, mr. senator, meatpacking plants have been closed and the president says he will sign an executive order to force them to reopen. can you force these plants to reopen? >> thanks for the question, and on sunday, i asked the vice president and on monday i asked the president. both to consider reopening these plants, using the defense production act. and so i'm very happy to see that they have followed up on it already. that we actually have them being directed to reopen. that opens up the federal assistance to them to be able to provide the appropriate equipment for their employees to be able to open safely.

it provides guidance for the department of ag and through osha, through cdc through an incident command system. this is the right thing to do. if you would like, i can share with you how serious this is. in a nutshell you have got about, you have got about 35% right now of all of the hog processing facilities in the united states, 35% of their ability to process those, is idled right now, it is shut down. by the end of this week it would have been 45%. now in terms of cattle right now, we got 25% of our ability to process cattle in the united states, which has been idled as well. you can't have that type of a short fall in production and be able to maintain food supplies for consumers over an extended period of time. at the same time, for our producers here in south dakota, they have got hogs that are ready for market, no place to go. right now they are euthanizing some of them. that is terrible thing for producers have to do. it is a terrible waste of food

that americans really do need. stuart: can you give us some kind of a time frame when you get that plant in south dakota back up again? the president says you got to do it. you got to do it soon, when can it reopen. can you give me a time? >> i can't give you an exact time but i can tell you this was the most important thing to happen, is to have the president respond this quickly, means now that the company has the ability and the resources to appropriately reopen that plant. we've asked him to at least begin opening their facilities that would help euthanize some of the livestock, during the time they're getting rest of the facility ready. they couldn't do that without having the president's direction through the defense production act. so we're moving in the right direction, but we got a couple of days to go yet. stuart: you pushed for it. senator mike rounds of south dakota, we appreciate you being with us. always. >> thank you. stuart: secretary of state mike pompeo, speaking just moments ago.

ash, what did he say about china? >> yeah, we're just getting these headlines, stu. he says, you know the world still has not gained access to the wuhan virology institute in china, which is interesting. this is the lab that is suspected perhaps the coronavirus escaped from this lab. he says the world still has not had any access to that laboratory. he also says he is urging everyone, including private donors to ask whether the world health organization system is the right one. so again raising questions about w.h.o., the way it does its business. the system it puts in place. re-emphasizes that still no access to go that lab in wuhan. stuart: okay. that is the demand. ashley, thank you. you can't drive to many places right now. you can't do that. there are not that many cars on the road fur looking for a new car, feel confident about your money, your finances you can get

a pretty good deal right now. we have details on that in a moment. latest details on oil inventory, that is very important these days, how much oil we have in storage, how much are we using, long time analyst stephen schork is with us. what are prices going to be? i will certainly ask him. more "varney" 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.

stuart: in the last hour since the market opened we have up 400 points own the dow. we're up 2.2% on the s&p and a whopping 2.95% on the nasdaq. that is a rally. blue apron, okay, they didn't do well with their revenue coming in. in fact they did very badly. they're down 23%. now gilead, that's the stock of the day and it is very important for the market. they have got positive data on the remdesivir treatment for the virus. positive results from three different tests. get to gasoline, $1.76 on the national average. down a sent a day. cheapest gas is still to be pound in wisconsin.

the how much oil have we got in storage? how much did we use? this is very important stuff. because if you remember a couple weeks ago, we reached a negative price on oil, because people didn't want to take delivery of the oil they bought. they had to pay somebody to take it away and store it. well now we're getting numbers how much we got in storage now, how much we used. that may well affect the price on left-hand side of the screen which is the price of oil. ashley, do we have the number? ashley: i think. 8.99 million barrels build. we're expecting a build of 10.6 million barrels. now of course by historic measures that is still incredibly high, however, that is the lowest build we've seen in oil supplies in a month, stu. so when you only building by eight million barrels, that is nothing but what we've seen in

the last four to five weeks. stuart: you know what it could be? it could be that the producers are no longer delivering it to cushing, oklahoma. ashley: right. stuart: so, the build is not as big as it would have been if they were still delivering it in the way they did a couple months ago. ashley: exactly. stuart: let's bring in stephen schork. he is the guy who knows all about oil. welcome back to the program. let's get straight too it, without being too technical if you can. is there a chance they will repeat the negative prices that we saw a couple weeks ago? >> yes, stuart, there certainly is a chance, if not negative, there is a chance that we'll see another significant leg lower in oil prices. we have to keep in mind that price is a function of the fundamentals and supply demand function in the spot market. clearly the spot market today is, we're producing too much, we're not consuming enough. so what happened last week is, we were going into the expiration. we were producing too much oil.

we aren't consuming enough in the spot market. therefore you have to store it. the problem is, there is no place to store it. so two days before the expiration, you could literally not geoff give your oil aday. you had to discount it $40 negative. to get someone to take it from you. last week's plunge was factor of we had too much smaller retail in the mon market. doctors and lawyers taking exposure to the upside buying into the downdraft. stuart: stephen schork is calling doctors and lawyers the dumb investors. be careful there, stephen, you're offending a lot of our viewers. >> when it comes to money these are particularly your dumbest investors because they have the big egos. their egos allowed them to hold on to the length going into expiration. when they realized no one had to buy their oil they had to

discount it. that will not happen this month because brokerage houses are not allowing retail investors to take a position in the spot market. you're taking that stupidity out of the market. but you will not clear the over all supply demand function. we have too much oil on the spot market. we're vulnerable to another significant leg lower and potentially another dip below into negative territory. stuart: how long is this massive world glut of oil going to last? i mean are we looking at years here? >> oh, certainly looking through, through the summer and into next year. you have to keep in mind that the federal bank of st. louis is correct, more than 50 million americans will be unemployed on july 1st. we are already halfway there based on the weekly numbers. when we get to july 1st, the start of the gasoline driving season, 55 million unemployed americans translates to 40 million americans who are not going to be driving cars to their employment. that does not take into account

the tens of millions of americans more still fortunate to be employed that will be still working from their homes. so gasoline consumption this summer is dead on arrival. then we transition into the fall turn around season when we see a natural pullback in demand. so we are at least a year, stuart, away from clearing up the underlying dysequalibrium between supply and demand in this market. stuart: at least a year away. who knows what the underlying effects will be. stephen schork, thanks for being here. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: let's turn to the stock market now, in terms of energy stocks. we have goldman sachs, big investment firm. they say they have five reasons why traders, that is you and i maybe, should load up on energy stocks. what are the reasons, lauren? lauren: yeah, i will work with stephen schork just said into this. the first reason goldman says is that oil prices are so low right now, that has forced production

cuts. that puts a floor under prices. they also say demand is going to recover. the whole story will take about two years. but we'll see a snap-back in demand. they also say that, look, all of this negative headline news, cutting dividends, production shut-ins, stocks and energy sector isn't even reacting to that anymore. they know the situation is bad. but the risk goldman says, to the market is exactly what mr. schork just said. if we're not driving our cars to work for instance, demand won't recover at the pace that many people want it to. so that's the risk to the model why goldman thinks you should buy oil stocks right now. stuart: oil stocks are depressed as we speak. they're up today, but historical basis they're truly depressed. goldman is saying jump in for these reasons. tesla, let's have a look at them. what is the milestone they might hit? why it significant, susan? >> if they're worth $100 billion

for six months, elon musk, founder and ceo of tesla gets20 million-dollar payday. he gets to sell the shares he bought at cheaper price on the market. also, by the way, more importantly for the stock which will report earnings after the bell today, is that if it is has four quarters of consecutive profit, it also gets included in the s&p 500. so we're trading at close to 800-dollar levels. that is pretty much priced in. when you are included in the s&p, that means index funds have to include you in their funds as well. they have to buy the stock. that means the price goes up. but if you think about elon musk, does he really need $70 million, stu? the man is already worth $40 billion but he really wants to get back to work. stuart: susan, i'm shocked. susan li, i'm shocked. you're sounding like bernie sanders. susan: oh, stop. stuart: does he really need -- susan: whatever you can earn good for you. but i would say tesla needs to prove it can deliver cars later on today, guiding for 75,000 in the second quarter.

get back to business, prove you're worth $40 billion, how about that? stuart: he is worth $40 billion. that is proof. let's not get into it. don't bring socialism on the program. susan: what about sales. 10% of ford and gm, yet the stock is worth three times gm and ford combined. what is that? is that market distortion? stuart: i no idea, susan. i don't get into that. i might stay a night at the holiday inn express. that might move me along. we're not driving very much. car companies are not selling many cars. does that mean i can get a bargain if i do want to buy a car now? ashley, tell me. ashley: yes, stu, not so much on the price. prices have not come down. new car sales down 59%. you would think they would be absolutely dropping prices just to move the inventory. well they are offering incentives on financing side. right now the big three auto companies, ford, gm, fiat

chrysler, 0%, 84 month loan. that is seven years. you can save yourself anywhere 3 to $5,000 on interest. that is pretty good. you were paying five to 6% interest going into the pandemic. but let me just say, this is going to be a long road back for these automakers. but you can get some deals as long as your credit is good. stuart: seven years is a very long time that would bring your monthly payments way, way down. i mean way down. ashley: make it affordable. stuart: very affordable. good story, ash. thank you. there are explosive new developments in the case against michael flynn. he could be exonerated and soon. kt mcfarland is going to join us. she has a lot to say about this. she will be on the show in a moment. films released into streaming will now be eligible for an oscar. the academy of motion picture people making the exception because of the virus.

details on that coming up.

stuart: world tour. that by the way is a movie -- trolls world tour. that is movie. it goes straight into streaming. does that affect status as possible oscar candidate? lauren: yes and no. does that account for an answer? let me explain what is happening. with theaters, being closed. released trolls to digital. made $110 in release by end of this month. academy of motion picture sciences screened films like "trolls" are eligible for oscar nomination while theaters are closed. here is the question, when you adapt to the new way, are you going back to the old way? this obviously, the new way is

good for netflix and amazon and other streamers but not necessarily for traditional hollywood. stuart: it is a compromise, isn't it stay tuned to see what happens when it is over. it is a compromise. thank you, lauren. still on the movies, a fascinating industry, especially now, amc, movie thain of theaters, they will not run any firms of universal pictures. tell me about that, susan. why not? susan: amc theaters largest chain in the u.s., will no longer screen any films made by universal, under nbc universal umbrella, this goes back to "trolls world tour ." the nbc jeff, because of trolls success online, we will release movies on both formats. meaning big screen and streaming as well. this according to amc ceo is not in line with their business model. because, you know there is a

thing called theatrical window, usually movies are released on the big screen. then it goes on to streaming. you get the big ticket numbers, buying cinema tickets. then you get the digital sales but in the future if you have both, amc's business model is obviously under threat, right? stuart: i can see that. how and when, in what way are they ever going to open again. a the the loot of pressure there. would you go to movie again anytime soon? susan: depends what movie. i get scared with the sticky bubble gum on the floor, popcorn everywhere. i never liked it. it is even worse now i would say. stuart: they will clean it up, they will clean that up, that's for sure. susan thanks. look at the market please. still going up some more. we're up 2% for the dow. that is 477 points. big gains or the s&p. a whopping great big gain for the nasdaq. big tech doing very well. now this. new court documents given to

michael flynn's lawyer have exculpatory evidence. in other words he could be exonerated. kt mcfarland is with us. kt, he could be exonerated right? it sure looks like it, doesn't it? >> yeah. he should be exonerated and the people who went after him in the justice department, the fbi, the intelligence community, they should -- for what they did. they went after flynn because he, he and president trump promised to reform the sprawling intelligence community. so he was candidate number one to get rid of. they also wanted to horrible trump before even started. stuart: kt, didn't they go after you as well. >> yeah. stuart: in somewhat similar way. i don't want you to reveal any details here but i think i'm right in saying they came after you? >> oh, they did. i write about it in my new book, in great detail of how they did it. and they did exactly to me what they did to flynn.

they implied you don't really need a lawyer. this is not, we're not targeting you for anything. they were assembling and had seized all of my documents, emails, text messages, phone logs, which they got from the government. i didn't have copies of them. they used them. they looked through them. basically quizzed me. what about this phone call? what about that person? any lapse of memory in my case they could jump up say, well you should have remembered that. obviously you must be lying. what they implied to me, i think they made clear to flynn's lawyer -- [inaudible] stuart: sorry. freeze frame right there. just at important point. are you back with us, kt? can you hear me? lost, what a shame. what a shame. i was going to ask her about this as well. earlier this morning secretary of state mike pompeo was speaking publicly and he was speaking about china. can we just put that on the screen, please, because it is an

important sound bite i think our audience should know about. roll the tape, please. >> what the chinese communist party did here in not preventing the spread of this around the world, they're responsible for. america needs to hold them accountable. they continue to try to hide and obfuscate. that's wrong. it continues to pose a threat to the world. stuart: that's important stuff because clearly, the secretary of state mike pompeo, clearly taking a hard-line on china, going to hold them accountable. this is ongoing story. looks like this is cold war a new cold war. i will reverse a second here. i'm sorry we lost kt mcfarland, very important guest, but i will tell you this, talking with jim jordan later on about this new evidence on michael flynn and his possible exoneration. jim jordan has been on this case forever. he knows a great deal about it. he is on the show a little later on the program. we have a ppp, paycheck

protection program loan success story. we love success here. the coffee company, one of them, it was one of the first small businesses to get a loan. great story. the founder and ceo of that coffee company, they got the check. coming up next. i feel cared about as a member. we're getting a super competitive interest rate on our money. we're able to invest through the same exact platform. i really liked that they didn't have any hidden or extra fees. ♪ sofi has brought me peace of mind. truly thank you for helping me prepare for whatever the future has in store. ♪

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stuart: look at this. less than 90 minutes into the trading session. you have a very solid rally. pay attention especially at nasdaq composite up better than 3%. that is 262 points. big gain. part of the reason for this rally is this. gilead sciences. they have positive results in three tests, as a treatment for the virus. that is remdesivir. when the market heard that news, because that affects the recovery of this economy, the market went straight up and it is holding with a 500 point gain for the dow. next, whoa, we have a success story for you. a small business ppp success story. listen to vang can ivanka ivanka trump. >> we she was able to rehire 120 workers she was forced to lay

off. all of workers have some form of disability are able to bring cheer and bring comfort to your clients as you're serving them. stuart: okay. ivanka was referring to bity and bo's coffee. the founder and ceo is with us, amy wright. there you are. >> good morning. stuart: we love success stories on this program. you, madam, are a success story. first of all, you are one of the first to get a check. how did you apply? was there any snafus getting this money? >> well, we have a long-standing relationship with live oak bank. they are also headquartered here in wilmington, north carolina and, chip mahan and his team just did an exceptional job holding our hand through the process of applying for the ppp loan. we put in our application the day it came live. i believe that was the 3rd.

by zick in the evening we received initial funding. stuart: that is really good. that is sensational. you got the money. what did you use the money for? >> so as ivanka mentioned we have we have 120 employees. they have all disabilities. we had to temporarily lay them off, because we closed all five shops temporarily. when we put them back on the payroll, we came up with creative ideas to keep them engaged and working from home. they write handwritten note we include with the online orders. they are a very valuable part of our business. they continue to contribute to our success. stuart: is it billy and bo's coffee. is that the proper name. >> it is bitty and bo's, it is name after our two youngest children who have down syndrome. being parents of with children with disabilities. our oldest has autism, lily is

21, works at coffee shop. you aware of people that work with disabilities in our world. 80% of people with disabilities are unemployed in our country. why we started this coffee shop. why getting the ppp loan meant so much to us and our employees. stuart: amy wright, we love success. you are a success. much obliged to you. >> thank you. stuart: big hour for you. market watcher bob doll, top white house economic advisor, larry kudlow on the show next hour. ceo of chipotle as well. i want to know how they plan to serve dine-in customers once they're allowed to do that. remember that fly-by yesterday, that caused problems with the crowd that was watching. we'll be back. look, this isn't my first rodeo...

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i think you can too. trust aag for the best reverse mortgage solutions. so you can... retire better. stuart: it is exactly 11:00 here on the east coast and we've got a rally on our hands, and we have also got a huge show coming up for you. white house economic adviser, top guy at the white house, larry kudlow, he joins us. this is moments from now. we got an exclusive interview with the chipotle ceo brian niccol. we have nuveen's bob doll and we will speak with congressman jim jordan all coming up in this hour of "varney & company." also happening this hour, the president meets louisiana's governor, john bel edwards in the oval office. if there's any news headlines coming out of that meeting, you will get that real fast. all right, ladies and gentlemen.

now this. two events demonstrate the difficulty of enforcing the lockdown rules. i'm going to start with this. the spectacular flyover by the thunderbirds and blue angels. two formations of f-16s flew over new york city and philadelphia. they weren't the problem. it was the crowds who lined the streets, some without masks, and many ignoring social distancing rules. tough call for the police. the crowds gathered all over the place, stretched out for miles. now, in this situation, enforcing the rules is very difficult, if not impossible. does that mean no more flyovers? no more fireworks displays? well, that's an option, that's a consideration here. the second event was this. a funeral last night for an orthodox rabbi who had died from the virus. hundreds of people gathered in brooklyn and they were real close together. the police broke it up. mayor deblasio issued sharply

worded tweets including this. he said my message to the jewish community and all communities is this simple. the time for warnings is past. he threatens arrests. he's put himself in a difficult position. what happens this weekend if the weather is good and new yorkers pour out of their homes and apartments and gather in crowds, they get too close together, all in central park? what's he going to do? this is true anywhere in the country where social distancing rules apply and that's just about everywhere. across the country, businesses are reopening. the restraints are coming off. as we have said all week long, cabin fever is meeting spring fever and we are getting out and about. can we enjoy the spring responsibly? we had better, because a spike in new cases would mean a second wave and perhaps a new and more crippling lockdown. nobody wants that. surely the answer is this. wash your hands, wear a mask,

and keep your distance. that minimizes risk. if you are still worried, stay home. one last point. it does not help when public officials ignore their own rules, like vice president mike pence at the mayo clinic yesterday. he should have worn a mask. he didn't. we should all obey the rules. coming out this week, we can have our cake and we can eat it, too. here's the president with the louisiana governor. >> now that our experts believe the worst days of the pandemic are behind us, the safe and rapid reopening of our country, our swift action saved 30 million american jobs at least. people want to be back. they want to come back. they want to bring our country back. they want to get to work. stuart: that was not with the louisiana governor, it was the small business roundtable. the president says we want to bring the country back.

this is a pretty good time to bring in larry kudlow, top economic guy at the white house. larry, welcome back to the program. always good to see you. i want to start with the possibility of a fourth rescue package. do you think we need one now? >> well, look, i think we are going to be looking at one, just to review. president trump's leadership, we basically put in about $9 trillion worth of assistance, roughly $3 trillion on the budget side and the remainder on the federal reserve side, as much liquidity, as much cash, as much help as we possibly can, to deal with the shutdown from the pandemic. so i think the economy is going to suffer through very bad numbers. we saw some of it today. it's going to be worse in the second quarter. the unemployment rate's going to

go up, very serious matter. there's a lot of hardship there. now, we are doing the best we can, as you know, we talked about this, this payroll protection program, we have launched phase two. the numbers are gigantic. we have already saved about 30 million jobs, according to calculations. treasury secretary mnuchin believes we will save another 30 million jobs. we put out so far $81 billion worth of assistance. those are big numbers. i just say that because we put in the liquidity to try to help people get through this whole period and as the president said yesterday, stu, i think the worst of the pandemic is over. we have our phases, our guideline phases one, two and three. you went through some of the best practices. i couldn't agree more, absolutely. and the point is, i think folks are getting ready not only to reopen the economy but to go back to work, okay.

i think that's the key. the spirit is there. we're seeing it and hearing it from the governors and the mayors. we had a meeting of small business people, wonderful meeting yesterday, that the president led, ivanka trump led. mnuchin and i were also there. now lookit, on your question do we need another stimulus package, i think the second half of this year is going to grow, big snapback, 17%, 20%. congressional budget office is saying that. private forecasters, "wall street journal." i think it's important, though, for new policy measures that will create incentives to grow in the medium and longer term, okay. things like payroll tax holidays. things like middle class tax relief. things like small business regulatory relief, things like infrastructure, things like liability protection so we can

get these businesses open and have some confidence. i think we need to look at a longer term perspective which will give confidence to people. you know, incentives matter. got to pay more to work, to invest, to run a business. i think that's where the emphasis should be. i think the liquidity and cash phase is coming to an end. i mean, it's going to play out for the next month or two, what's already been legislated through four phases. now i would like to see a more incentive-minded approach that will get this economy roaring. we will come out of the chute in the second half and go right into 2021 with a very positive rebound. stuart: but there's a political element to this, isn't there? i know you are unwilling to discuss politics but there is a political element here. the political element is if president trump does not win re-election, you will have joe biden as the new president and he favors tax increases, and i don't think he favors the kind of measures that you have just been talking about.

so what you're saying, a rip-roaring second half of the year and into next year, doesn't that depend on a trump victory? >> well, i think it does, in part. that's exactly right. i think it would be extremely unwise and probably prolong recessions and slumps if we start going on a regulatory binge, if we close down the fossil fuel industry, if we start raising taxes across the board. what we want to do is incentivize the animal spirits, okay. we want to say you take a rip at the ball, we believe success should be rewarded, not punished. this is not about class warfare. this is about business investment, capital formation, entrepreneurship, helping folks, keeping their jobs and getting pay raises. for example, a payroll tax holiday will increase employee wages after tax by 7.625%.

if i have that number exactly right. that's the kind of thing we want. we want people to have more after-tax gains, both sides. i have no time for class warfare. this is no time to destroy the energy economy which is already suffered from prices. but they will come back, too, as soon as these economies come back. we just have to say to people the things we use in the first several years of the trump administration, i guess i'm being partisan here but on policy grounds, this is consistent with my lifelong philosophy, on policy grounds, as long as it pays to work, invest, save, take risks, start new businesses, don't let the insurance problems, liabilities, get in the way, remove regulations where possible, the three years we had growing, you know, stu, this year was going to be 3% in the first quarter before the pandemic hit so no, i think that from what i gather,

the other side of the aisle was punishing the economy. we want to resurrect and rebuild and essentially pick up where we left off before the pandemic. stuart: totally different subject but earlier this morning we got somewhat i think is pretty good news from gilead sciences, their treatment for the virus, remdesivir, was shown to be positive results in three different tests. is that a positive for the recovery of the economy? >> has to be. has to be a tremendous positive. incidentally, first of all, it's a great company. i hope the reports pan out. it's very important. not only will it deal with the problems of the virus, you know, and sick people and protect in the long run but also, you've got these private sector companies we have been meeting with here at the white house on a constant basis. mike pence has done such a great job running the health task force. president trump has pushed them, you know, go, go, go. we have used the private sector.

this has been a partnership between the administration and the smartest people in the private sector. they are also developing therapies, right, and medicines, vaccines, you said gilead, i read a story this morning, some great stuff coming out of oxford university in great britain and so forth. these are confidence-inspiring things that will help open the economy and get folks back to work and when they do work, we want to make sure that their success is rewarded. stuart: right around 8:30 this morning, precisely 8:30 actually eastern time, we got these gdp numbers and they are just awful. everybody knows they are going to be even worse for the second quarter. got that. it's bad. can you explain to our viewers, because i was getting a lot of e-mails and questions, how come the economy looks so bad and yet the stock market is roaring ahead? now, not all of our viewers are sophisticated investors but they want that question answered.

how is it that you've got a rotten economy and a soaring stock market at the same time? >> well, look, to a large extent, stu, the sinking economy and you're right, it's going to sink further, the contraction in the second quarter is going to be much deeper than the first quarter, the unemployment rate is going to go up quite a bit. however, i think people are looking ahead. that's a very key point. first of all, i think these rescue packages that the president has led and bipartisan support in the congress, those packages aren't going to have some effect, some positive effect, in stabilizing the situation, they are not a cure-all when you shut down an economy, you shut things down, but they are helpful. that's point number one. point number two, the curve on the virus in terms of new contacts, new infection rates, mortality rate, that curve is flattening and we are seeing a slowdown and i think pretty soon

there will be a downward adjustment. you know, we need a downward adjustment inside 14 days as phase one to begin the opening and the transition i think will be in may, maybe into early june. i think people look at that and they say you know what, things are going to get better, this is a temporary problem, it is not going to go on for years. one little interesting nugget. in the consumer confidence survey yesterday, confidence level dropped sharply. okay. no question. but when you go down the list of items that they discussed, expectations for the next six months for jobs, stu, for jobs, shot straight up. almost a record increase. now, that suggests to me, it's just one little morsel, not a whole complete story, that folks are beginning to look over the valley and they see that as progress has been made, as the

health and safety and security steps taken by our health care scientists and the administration, with the help of the governors, with the help of private industry, as progress is being made, it's going to get better and this will prove to be temporary and by six months, let's say the second half of the year, the autumn, things will get better. i was just interested in that little nugget in the consumer confidence package. stuart: thanks for sharing it with us. larry kudlow, always a pleasure to have you on the program. don't be a stranger. come back soon. thank you. >> thank you, stu. appreciate it. stuart: yes, sir. thank you. now, we've got more where that came from. we got a big hour coming up for you. i think you know what we've got coming up. the house pushing back its return to capitol hill. unemployed americans wait for more relief. what does congressman jim jordan think about that? and about general flynn? that's a key question. we have an exclusive interview with the chipotle chairman and ceo brian niccol. digital sales skyrocketing as

dining rooms were shut down. what does that mean for the future of the food industry and chipotle? we will discuss. he's on the show next. now more than ever, you need technology you can rely on. and people you can rely on. i'm a dell technologies advisor. me too. me too. me too. and if you're a small business, we're with you. we are with you. we're with you. we want to help. so we'll be right here. at home.

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stuart: well, look at chipotle. nice gain there. okay, it's 2% but it's at $886 per share. their online orders were up a whopping 81% in the last quarter, and look who is with us now. the chairman and ceo of chipotle, brian niccol. brian, thank you very much for being on the show today. you are a star. it is great to have you on the show. >> thanks. great to be here. stuart: okay. an 81% jump in online ordering. real good but it doesn't make up for the loss of your dining room business. do you have a plan for when you

can reopen these restaurants? what will it look like? what about social distancing? how are you going to cope? >> so you're exactly right, we are delighted with all the investments we have made in our digital business and how consumers have really responded and all the customer feedback has been really positive to our app and all of our applications around that, the contactless pickup, the contactless delivery, and then obviously our reward program. so that served us very well. but you're right, until we get our dining rooms reopened and our customers can have the full chipotle experience, we are going to keep grinding to reclaim the lost sales and transactions and to your question, on opening the dining rooms, you know, we will be really careful about it. our first priority is keeping everybody safe and healthy. we want to be doing our part in this crisis. but obviously, as we start to see states open, we are going to start exploring when is the

right time for us to open and we will take feedback from the local communities, the cdc, and -- stuart: brian, look, i've got it. you want to reopen and you want to make everybody feel safe. but in doing that, you are going to cut the revenue that's going to come into the dining room, because you can't seat as many people if you've got social distancing, and you don't need as many staff with social distancing and a lower revenue. i think you'll admit that you won't get back to the old revenue stream you had two, three months ago. >> yeah, that's right. i think it's going to be a walk back to where our in-restaurant revenue was. the good news for us, though, is a lot of our business, even when they come into the restaurant, they ultimately take their food to go, but obviously we will do all the things we need to do from a social distancing standpoint, limiting the capacity in the dining rooms to keep everybody confident in their health and safety. but it's going to be a slow walk

back. stuart: i've got to get this in. several items here. you are issuing, publishing your guacamole recipe, i believe, you are giving a pay increase to your workers and $9 million worth of bonuses i think are going out there, and you are catering to people who are gaining weight at home, trying to do something about that. i mixed it all up together. sort it out for me. >> yeah, sure. so you know, obviously one of our big priorities was investing in our people during this time and ensuring that they were supported with, you know, obviously their jobs and the compensation around that but also benefits from mental health to access to telemedicine. we just wanted our employees to know that we stand by our values and we are a purpose-driven company around cultivating a better world. we have given our hourly employees the 10% increase. we have delivered on bonuses for quarter one and we have most

recently provided bonuses for the month of april, which will be paying out in a couple days. so very proud of what we have been able to do investing in our people. then on the food side of things, obviously one of the things that makes chipotle really special is our food with integrity approach. we thought you know what, people are trying to cook at home, they are getting some fatigue, who better than to get our world class chef to help people make this terrific guacamole at home. we did that. it's kind of funny. we did it at our house and our kids were like dad, this is like chipotle's guacamole. so the good news is i guess we did it right. then obviously we are doing some things with lifestyle bowls as well. stuart: brian, before we close, i have to tell you that i owe you a profound apology. when you took over at chipotle and in the early days of chipotle i dismissed your food as expensive rice and beans. i take it all back. i absolutely insist that i will now start to eat occasionally at

chipotle, if it is take-away, i will do it. brian, i want to thank you very much for being on the show today. your stock is still up 20 bucks after all of this. you're doing okay. thank you. >> all right. great. thanks for having us. stuart: sure thing. see you later. >> take care. bye. stuart: we are holding on to a $20 -- well, okay, now $18 for chipotle, on the upside, $887 per share. the dow, whoa, still up 534 points. how about honeywell? los angeles mayor garcetti says they will buy 24 million n95 masks from honeywell. the can sto is stock is up 2%. mastercard's profits are down but spending levels are stabilizing. that's good news. 7% higher right there. darden restaurants, they own olive garden, several other chains, of course. they are opening most dining rooms in georgia, real fast. that's good news for the stock. it's up 7.5%. the simon property group,

huge mall operators, biggest in the country, reportedly preparing to open 49 malls in ten states by the end of this weekend. full disclosure, i own some of that stock. bought it much higher. it's at $69 a share now. and up 10%. amazon, walmart, target, their workers planning to strike may 1st, that's friday, to push for better health and safety measures. amazon's up but walmart and target are down. explosive new developments in the case against former national security adviser michael flynn. he could be exonerated and soon. jim jordan, he's been following this for years. he's on the show coming up. i want his opinion on the exoneration possibility. nuveen's chief stock strategist bob doll says the global reopening of business will be uneven, confusing and inconsistent. what does that mean for stock investors?

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2.5% up for the s&p. green all across the board today. where's the price of oil right now? we've got an extra 8.9 million barrels of oil in storage. whoa, it should have been a lot more than that. that's good news for the price which is up to $16 per barrel. let's get the latest on gilead. earlier they reported positive results for their virus treatment, remdesivir. what's the latest, susan? susan: positive results from a u.s. clinical phase that showed a shorter term treatment with remdesivir actually yielded some positive results. not the case, though, just being reported by the lancet, a medical journal, and they are reporting this control, random double blind placebo controlled study in china, ten chinese hospitals, and the results did not speed, remdesivir did not speed up the recovery and decrease deaths from covid-19 versus the placebo and the adverse events being reported in about 66% of these remdesivir

recipients was pretty severe. 66% exhibited adverse effects from taking remdesivir. now, last week we also had this report being posted by the w.h.o. of a china study that also showed disappointment with remdesivir and gilead. they withdrew that because gilead said this is not true, you didn't even have enough participants in the study. i think the market is taking this in stride as you see. stuart: i would like to see what's gilead's response to this report in the lancet that this latest round of chinese double-blind trials did not work very well. i don't know if gilead's responded to that yet but i'm sure they will at some point in the future. the stock price is still holding up. you are still up 4.3% at $82 a share. good stuff, susan. thanks very much indeed. look who's here. bob doll, nuveen chief stock strategist. bob, welcome back. how you doing? >> great, sir. how are you? stuart: i read your stuff.

you may be holed up some place outside of new york city but i read your stuff. you say that the market, the world recovery is going to be inconsistent and uneven. how am i supposed to invest as an investor in the stock market if that's what you're talking about? >> well, we turned the economy off and everything went off basically at the same time. we will slowly, irregularly turn it on. that's what my phrase is meant to be. it's going to be a bumpy process. you might have a street where there are two restaurants and one opens up and the other decides to wait for awhile. it's going to be that sort of thing. we will have some parts doing better, some states will start putting the green light out, some will hold up with the red. in other words, we are going to have a lot of back-and-forth and not everybody is going to be exactly on the same page. but make no mistake, we are in the worst of it right now. the month of april, stuart,

might be the low for the recession. if not, it's may. we are going to slowly, irregularly in a bumpy way recover. that's why the stock market is doing so well. stuart: larry kudlow told us that by the fourth quarter, the economy should be growing again, maybe 17% or even 20%. he was quoting other economists but that's a rip-roaring comeback in the fourth quarter. one more thing that he did say was that, bob, he said look, that depends on the election. if president trump is reelected, okay, you momight get that kind growth rate. if he's not re-elected, you won't. what's your opinion there? >> i don't think the growth rate in the fourth quarter is going to matter much from the election. it will be the growth rate later and the policies enacted when we do our research and analysis and listen to investors, their first choice is the re-election of president trump. the second choice which they could live with is a joe biden presidency, as long as the senate remains republican.

for the kind of things larry talked about, higher taxes, et cetera, the republican senate would have to say yes. they're not going to. if the senate goes democratic under a biden presidency, then treatment of tax and capital is probably not going to be market-friendly. stuart: okay. whenever you're on the show, we ask you for your stock picks. i know you are reluctant to give us stock picks because you are a big picture guy. nonetheless, i do read your stuff and you like target. make your case. >> target is obviously a beneficiary for the economy beginning to do better. they reported earnings recently, they were mixed. higher costs to pay for workers, a premium wage, costs for pickup drive-by but they are gaining market share. in an environment where retail is struggling, some will go out of business, not target. they are one of the winners. they are gaining share, servicing customers in store, online, pickup, you name it.

stuart: okay. the other pick that i noticed was humana. we had the stock on the screen a moment ago. look at it go, 5%. what's so good about humana? would you still buy it at $381 when it's already rallied? >> we like the hmo area in general. i picked humana among all we like because they reported earnings earlier today, they were better than expected. they reiterated guidance in this difficult environment. their medical loss ratio actually dropped some, even though they raised reserves. so that's good news. this is an area of our economy that's likely to continue to do well. we like humana. stuart: bob doll, thanks very much for coming on the show. we always appreciate it. bob doll, nuveen. >> all the best. stuart: check that market. the rally holds. 500 points up for the dow industrials. you are back to 24,600 as we speak. that's a gain of better than 2%. similar gain for the s&p and a

much better gain, 3% up for the nasdaq. tech's doing well. all right. look at capitol hill. they got it on the screen right now. congress delaying its return date. that's interesting. unemployed americans are sitting around waiting for relief and they're not going back to work yet but congressman jim jordan, he says he is ready to get back to washington. he's on the show in a moment. i will ask him about that, getting back to work, and developments in the michael flynn case. he's been on top of that for years. he will update us all on that next. ♪ ♪

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payroll protection program, we've launched phase two. the numbers are gigantic. we've already saved about 30 million jobs, according to calculations. treasury secretary mnuchin believes we will save another 30 million jobs. the second half of this year is going to grow, big snap back, 17%, 20%.

congressional budget office is saying that. private forecasters, "wall street journal." stuart: you heard that. that was larry kudlow on this program moments ago. big snap back at the end of the year. growth rates of 17% to 20%. look who's here. ohio congressman jim jordan. jim, always good to see you. you got a great smile on your face this morning. you are all doing well. now, i will get to general flynn in a moment. our audience really wants to know. in the meantime, we've got larry kudlow saying we are going to snap back big-time. you think we need a fourth rescue package? >> well, i think the best phase four, the best rescue package, the best stimulus, the best bailout, use whatever term you want, the best one is to go back to work. and states are starting to reopen and that is a good sign. so the best phase four is go back to work, plain and simple. that's what we need to be focused on. good to see governors are doing that. i hope, i hope every state starts to move back to work. follow the guidelines and protocols and the processes that are in place, but let's get back

twoshg a to work and get this economy back up and running and humming again. stuart: do you get the sense, i certainly get the sense the flood gates are about to open and we've got spring fever, we've got cabin fever, everyone wants to get out and about, i think people want that paycheck again, i think it's about to explode. am i going too far here? >> well, i agree. i think the great american comeback is about ready to get started and about ready to happen. let's let's get this thing up and remember, there are all kinds of workers and all kinds of businesses that never closed. think about this. you got farmers planting crops, truckers moving goods, you got all kinds of things happening, you got front line health care workers who have never stopped, grocery store workers who are stocking shelves, but the congress of the united states can't work? so let's get congress back to work, working for the american people. let's open up our economy and get this great american comeback started again. stuart: all right. let's talk about general flynn.

i understand that he may be exonerated, maybe as early as this week. bring me up to speed, please, on the whole situation here. >> well, let's hope so, because what happened to general flynn is wrong. what happened in this entire episode where four years ago, the fbi went and spied on two american citizens associated with the presidential campaign because they were so determined to get president trump when he was candidate trump at the time. i mean, that should never happen but it did. we know that the evidence they used, the dossier, we know now based on mr. horowitz's report, that it was russian disinformation and more importantly, we know that the fbi knew that it was russian disinformation, yet they used it to go spy on the trump campaign because they were determined to get the president and then they went after michael flynn in their extended effort to get the president and what happened to this three-star general who served our country is absolutely wrong. what the fbi did is absolutely wrong and we know it was wrong because michael horowitz's

investigation told us it was wrong. now most importantly, let's hope attorney durham and the justice department hold someone accountable. stuart: let's be clear here. you are saying, everybody is saying the fbi sat on exculpatory evidence that would have exculpated, so to speak, general flynn? that's what they allegedly did, right? >> that's the news today. it sure looks like that's what happened. but we also know based on depositions, based on things that we have already learned that the agents who interviewed general flynn didn't think he was giving them any misinformation, didn't think he was lying in any way whatsoever, yet they still pursued him, still went after him for supposedly lying to the fbi, even though the agents doing the interview didn't think he was and one of those agents, of course, was the now famous peter strzok. so that's what's also so egregious about what happened to, again, this three-star general who served kouour count stuart: does this open up all

over again the so-called deep state situation? >> well, we have known there's been a problem at the upper echelon of the fbi. that's the term bill barr used over a year ago when he said there was a failure of leadership at the upper echelon of the fbi. the vast majority of the fbi people great people working hard for this country but the top people, comey, baker, mccabe, strzok, page, there was certainly a failure of leadership. all those people were fired, under investigation, let go, left. that was a problem. so there was a big concern there and we know what they did in the summer of 2016. we know what they continued to do in 2017 and then we know what bob mueller picked up from their investigation and what he did for his two-year investigation, all, all wrong. that's why hopefully, hopefully michael flynn will be exonerated in the end. stuart: yeah. let's see it happen soon. jim jordan, thanks very much for being with us. it is always appreciated. see you soon. thank you, jim. all right. look at that market. that is a rally. 500 points up for the dow, better than 2%. big gains all across the board.

we've got news on individual companies and stocks. uber is back in the news. this is interesting. what have we got? susan: a technology news outlet is reporting that they are going to slice and slash 20% of their staff, 5400 jobs might be going out of their 27,000 around the world. also news that their chief technology officer, the last executive that was hired under the founder before he was kicked out has tendered his resignation and resigned back in the middle of march. i think the concerns are about ride hailing obviously, given the coronavirus and shelter in place orders across the country, really around the world, looks like in some markets, ride hailing is down at least 80% and the pickup in uber eats and meal delivery is not making up for it. last count, some analysts were reporting a jump in food delivery by 50% or so. stuart: here we sit celebrating the stocks comeback, it's up 5% today, but what we are really talking about is job losses

across a variety of industries and companies. that's a really sad thing. susan: very sad thing. stuart: main street is hurting and the stock market's rallying. hard to explain that in human terms. let's move on to ford. a huge loss in revenue. how big, ashley? ashley: yeah. in the first quarter, $2 billion. of course, all the factories closed in mid-march because of the coronavirus. second quarter losses could reach $5 billion. that revenue in the first quarter was down 15% year over year. ford has halted its dividend, it's taken out $15 billion worth in credit, offered another $8 billion in unsecured debt. they say they have about $35 billion in cash which they believe is enough to get them through this crisis. but no big surprise, as we have been seeing with all the auto makers and the economy as a whole, it has been a very tough go for ford. stuart: by the way, ashley, i hope you saw this, boris

johnson's partner delivered him a baby son. did you see that? ashley: i did. congratulations to them. how frightening was that, because both of them tested positive for coronavirus, including carrie simmons, who was, you know, pregnant at the time. everything's worked out fine and it's great to see some good news. stuart: i want to see the bookies and what odds they're putting on the name of the young lad. it won't be stuart or ashley, guaranteed. thanks, ash. ashley: sure. stuart: watch this. a man with special needs in the spotlight at the president's small business event. he says we are not broken. had a powerful message. we will bring you more of it in a moment. hey, can i... hold on one second... sure. okay... okay! safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out. safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!!

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i love my job and i'm excited about going back to work. we like to use the phrase called not broken. that means me and all my amazing co-workers are not broken and we have lots to offer. i know the great country of the united states isn't broken either. >> this guy right here is the biggest star in the room.

we'll all agree, i vote, i vote for you. stuart: yeah. that was young michael heup. he's an employee at bitty & bowe's coffee. he combagave that message at a business event at the white house yesterday. the paycheck protection program sthaifd you saved that young man's job. listen to what the owner had to say earlier today. roll tape. >> so as ivanka mentioned, we have 120 employees. they all have disabilities and we did have to temporarily lay them off because we closed all five of our shops temporarily, but when we were able to put them back on the payroll, we came up with creative ideas to keep them engaged and working from home. they write handwritten notes that we include with our online orders and they all are very valuable part of our business and are continuing to contribute to our success. stuart: ashley, did you know that all the employees have a

disability? ashley: it's amazing. you know what, stu, fox business is the network of numbers and statistics, whether it's the market's earnings, you name it. we talk about money and numbers but when you put faces to it, that's when it has real impact, to see that the ppp is saving jobs, helping businesses and to see michael there give that speech, the president's right. he was the hero of the room. it's good news, it's encouraging, it's inspiring. stuart: yeah. and that company was one of the first to get the money. lauren? lauren: i have two things to say here. number one, as larry kudlow told you, stuart, 60 million jobs saved because of the small business lending. those were just some of those workers. by the way, what a saint that owner is. didn't she tell you she has two children with down syndrome? stuart: yep, she did. that's right. two. all of the employees -- lauren: she is a hero. stuart: absolutely. 100%.

got that right. susan, what have you got? susan: i was just crying through it because my brother suffers from cerebral palsy so i understand and you know, obviously i have to give high marks to people like the owner of that cafe and obviously for the ppp to be able to save these jobs. i'm sorry, i'm a little shaken here. it's a great story. stuart: it is a great story. you are entitled to react like that. good stuff from one and all. more "varney" after this. . . economy

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stuart: happening now, breaking news on automakers, general motors in particular. they're reportedly part of a federal probe investigates the union, united auto workers union. what do we have, grady? reporter: that probe going on for years now. according to "the wall street journal" agents for the federal government investigating this interviewed current and former general motors companies in the human relations department. they subpoenaed records from 2005 to 2019. at center it detroit based training center set up between general motors and the uaw they're looking whether the center made payments for travel and credit card spending for uaw officials and allegations relatives of union leaders were given preference for jobs. this is part of the wide-ranging corruption investigation, which led to ouster of several top uaw officials and charges against several top uaw officials

including former president gary jones. stuart: thank thank you, grady. no impact on the stock. it is up 8%. the market overall, a very solid rally. the dow is up 500 points. the nasdaq is up 260 points, the s&p is up 71. neil, it is yours and this is a rally. neil: indeed it is. only 5000 points away from the all-time highs. all right, stuart, thank you very, very much. oil is a very big reason for this sprinting ahead about 30%. taking a look right now at the dow up about 550 points. again oil is sprinting ahead. it's up another 31% doing the math backwards here, maybe 29% there, but right now at $15.94 a barrel. that's pretty strong. i know where we were near the beginning of the year when we were looking at oil north of $60 a barrel but