mike garcia holds a 12 point lead over democrat christie smith. this district covers the northern part of los angeles county, which by the way, is now considering extending the lockdown rules into august. could it be that california voters are tired of the one party state lockdown? maybe. listen to this one, too. in wisconsin, another special election shows the republican beat the democrat by 15 points. okay. that's the political developments of the day, favorable to republicans. on your screens, traffic. we've got new numbers on the back-to-work get out of the house movement. how about traffic on the roads? important indicator. up 60% last week. deserted roads in mid-april. we are way up from there. tsa security screenings at the airports, 163,000 yesterday. almost double the number from four weeks ago.

i've got another one for you. 25 million of us were indeed out and about over the last two weeks and that is a big increase. it's not back to normal but we are coming out of the total lockdown. dead on arrival. that's the speaker's $3 trillion spending plan. it would have encouraged staying at home. it would have bailed out the postal service. it would not have provided any liability protection for businesses. it was a vote-buying scheme. that's my opinion. thank heaven it's dead. now this. fed chair powell is speaking right now. this is the man who is in charge of printing money so whatever he says is important and it can move the markets. edward lawrence is with us. what's the headlines, edward? reporter: yeah, stu, the federal reserve chairman saying right now we are in the worst recession since world war ii. he says that this is a severe decline of economic activity and that job gains over the past decade have been erased. he says the coronavirus is the largest shock in history.

he's talking about no economic bubble created this. this is purely the virus doing this, the economic foundation he sees was strong going into this. powell talking about how the fed will take further action. this is not the final chapter in terms of stimulus going forward. the federal reserve will also use its tool kit to the fullest extent for well into the recovery. that's a signal from the fed chairman that rates will be near zero for some time to come. powell will say this has been the largest and fastest fiscal response in history. he calls the reaction to protect the economy swift and forceful. the federal reserve chairman saying they need to protect small businesses. for him in this speech, he's saying small businesses will be the clue as to how robust the economy can be if those small businesses can survive. stu? stuart: thanks, edward. the headline that i picked up on in particular was we've got to use the tools to the fullest to deal with this very very bad

recession, and what -- reporter: and it's not over. the stimulus is not over. stuart: right. picking up on that, he said to date, with the tools that we've used, that's not the final chapter. there's more to come. i think that's a plus for the markets. thanks, edward. that's what we are seeing right now, a modest uptick for the dow industrials. i see a gain of about 20 odd points. i want to bring in shah gilani on this. i liked what i heard there from the fed chair, especially the bit about we're going to use the tools that we've got to the fullest, and our response is not yet over. now, i know that you have been thinking about a second downturn for the market. does what the fed is saying make any difference to your prediction? >> it's a bit of a mixed message to me. on the one hand, he's promising pulling out all the guns as the federal reserve already has done, really the last step they can take is starting to buy equities and that may be in the future, if things get that bad.

but what he's saying in terms of having to supply whatever's necessary is that the economy looks worse than he had hoped for and that's a bad message for the rest of investors. stuart: i did notice that before we found out what he was saying, the dow futures were up over 100. now we are up just, what, 18, 19 points. so maybe investors are not as enthusiastic as i thought they might be about what he had to say. repeat for me, are you still looking for a second downturn in the immediate future? tell me. >> yes, stuart. the reason i am is because earnings, earnings, earnings. the first quarter earnings have been better than expected for the most part. they're down but we're not finished through the season, but we are down about 14% quarter over quarter from last year. that's not as bad as a lot of investors had thought. the market has not only held up, the market has basically reacted by rebounding in a v fashion. so far, so good. i think it's gotten ahead of

itself. now that earnings season is winding down, we are almost through it, investors will focus on the economic metrics and they don't look promising. that to me means that there may be some profit taking. that could lead theo a selloff, that could lead to negative feedback and we could see the markets once again head lower, maybe test their lows. stuart: whoa. the low would be 18,000 on the dow. you think that's a serious possibility, that we go back down to 18,000? >> mechanically it's absolutely a possibility. the markets have done a brilliant job, have been very resilient. that's really, i would give that credit to the federal reserve 100%. so they are saying today they will continue to back the capital markets, they have done a herculean job of doing that but i think the weight of the economy in terms of the dire metrics we may see over the next quarter, especially in terms of unemployment, may weigh on investors. there may be profit taking and that may turn into a rout.

stuart: i notice dow futures have now turned negative to the tune of 30 points. that's a real turn-around. before we found out what fed chair powell was going to say, futures were up well over 100. now we know what he said, in the process of saying, and we are down 11. okay. now, i want to hear news about all different industries and how they may or may the not coming back. we featured the real estate industry at some point on this program. i've got the latest read on mortgage applications. that's a pointer to the future. lauren, what do we have? lauren: the spring housing market is not dead. mortgage applications last week rose 11%. indeed, they are higher four weeks in a row now. the zillow ceo said some people say right now they want to move more than ever. so this market is slowly coming back to life as states do reopen. one quick final point.

refis which we have been following, yes, are higher by 200% on an annual basis but they actually fell last week. many banks are just overwhelmed right now. stuart: that's understandable. lauren, thank you very much indeed. new numbers on how many small businesses have closed their doors already because of the virus and the lockdown. on your screens, it's 100,000. ashley, give me more on this, please. ashley: yeah. that's the estimate. it's at least 100,000 and it is only just at the beginning, they say. they say it will be the worst wave of small business bankruptcies since the great depression. that, by the way, is just about 2% of small businesses in this country which doesn't sound like a lot, but it does have a ripple effect. if you think of the high street in local communities, you start losing businesses down that high street, you start losing customers and it is a ripple effect. so they are very concerned. 3% of restaurant operators will never, ever open again.

that number is expected to get worse. by the way, what we are seeing is a shift of power and jobs from small companies who have had to lay off a lot more than the big companies. so the big companies now we know that small business has been the lifeblood of the u.s. economy, but this pandemic has really, really seen a shift in balance, and as i say, economists believe this is just the beginning of that wave. if you don't have any income for weeks and weeks and weeks and then when you do reopen, it's at reduced capacity, it's just too much for so many of these businesses. stuart: 100,000 out already. all right, ash, thank you. economist brian brenberg is with us. what's your reaction to this? that's a very big number, 100,000 small businesses gone already. your reaction? >> look, this is exactly why you have people at state capitols, this is why you have people taking to the streets in revolt, in protest against the fact of being closed down. it's not the virus that is causing these bankruptcies,

these closures. it's our response to it, stuart. that's why so many people are so upset. small businesses are willing to fight, willing to fight against this, but they are tired of fighting against the government who won't let them fight and if you don't let them fight, if we don't give them the chance, this number is going to get bigger and it's going to be devastating. i think it's a terrible number. it's exactly why we have to change our policy response now. stuart: you have an op-ed in foxnews.com. the title is "virus recovery, protect businesses from this when they reopen." i know what this is. you are talking liability, aren't you? go. >> absolutely talking liability. look, it is so hard, forget about lawsuits, it's so hard for a business to figure out how to come back in this environment, but you make it almost impossible when they know lurking around almost any corner could be a frivolous lawsuit, even if it's frivolous, could bankrupt them because they've got to fight it. we need to protect businesses

from these kinds of things so they can focus on hiring and focus on getting back to work. this is pro-worker, protecting businesses from frivolous lawsuits is pro-worker because it gives businesses the confidence to hire again. stuart: brian brenberg, thank you for joining us. we always appreciate it. see you again real soon. next one, musk, elon musk, looks like he's got a win in california. alameda county will allow him to reopen his factory in fremont. susan, did the local authorities cave to musk? susan: victory, musk. you got to give it to him. that's right, alameda's public health department announcing on twitter that the fremont, california plant will be able to go beyond basic operations this week and start making cars this coming monday. the plant can reopen as long as tesla delivers on its worker safety protocols and what are those? if you can bring up the graphic, that means more ppe being used, temperature checks, providing disinfectants, adjusted work

shifts, social distancing, also reduce shuttle occupancy so people aren't too close together. elon musk of course was upset by the fact that his rivals ford and general motors were allowed to restart manufacturing over in michigan, in detroit. now, fremont police say they will be checking on whether or not tesla is adhering to these protocols but you have to give it to him. he pushed the limits and gets the victory. stuart: i think so. i think they caved. i think he won on this one. thank you. look at futures. we are looking down for the dow industrial average. mr. powell, fed chair powell is speaking at the moment. he has said we are going to use the tools that we've got to the fullest. i thought that might encourage some stock buying. apparently not. we are down 35 on the dow. big show for you today. arizona senator martha mcsally is here. she has a proposal that would allow us to sue directly china. congressman jim jordan. i want his take on the flynn case going all the way to the

top. he's got it for us. martha maccallum on getting people out and about again. they are, you know. and steve forbes has a plan to offer a huge prize, not him, but the government, for a vaccine. all on the show today. jack dorsey at twitter told his staff you can work at home forever. okay. how about that. we are talking about the future of the workplace in this post-pandemic world. big show on that one. then there's that $3 trillion spending plan from speaker pelosi. irresponsible government. that's what congressman dan crenshaw says about it. he's next.

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there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know.

to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. and a team of experts - here for you 24/7. we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us. stuart: more from the

all-important jay powell speech. he's answering questions right now. edward, what's the headlines from this? reporter: yeah, stu, he's saying the unemployment rate he believes will peak in the next month and then sharply decline. he does believe it might not go back right away to the 3.5%. it will be well above that. however, he did say we can get back to the 3.5% unemployment. he said we need to get on the road to recovery and stay there. stu? stuart: he did say the economy should substantially recover. i think that's a direct quote from what he had to say. all right. okay. all right. reporter: exactly. yes. he does believe that we could be on the road to recovery, he said the fundamentals were still there. the stimulus they're putting in there, he believes, provides a good foundation. we just have to see if the small businesses can survive this sort of bridge until the economy opens up. stuart: thanks, edward. keep checking on that for us, please. the market has turned around. futures now pointing slightly higher. first presidential tweet of the day. here it is.

big congressional win in california for mike garcia, taking back a seat from the democrats. this is the first time in many years that a california dem seat has flipped back to a republican. also, tom tiffany beat his democrat rival big in wisconsin. two great congressional wins. all right, everyone. now this. roll tape, please. >> it's a big price but it's a big problem, and the chairman of the fed said think big because interest rates will never be lower, so we are -- they use the interest rates to give confidence that credit will be available because interest rates are low. >> in terms of the house phase four bill, it's got so much unrelated to coronavirus, it's dead on arrival here in terms of a viable idea. stuart: there you saw it. speaker pelosi, senator lindsey graham going at it there over the democrats' $3 trillion relief package. congressman dan crenshaw, republican, texas, joins us now. sir, you say this is plain

irresponsible governing. make your case, please. >> well, there's a couple reasons why that is. for one thing, nancy pelosi and the democrats, they operate in a different reality. they operate in a reality where you can keep everybody locked down forever at the government's orders and then just keep sending them checks in the hopes that there will actually be an economy there when we come back. well, that won't happen. it will wither on the vine. i think we all intuitively know that. businesses continue to fail even with ppp funding that can't last forever. it's like they want to create this sort of socialist utopia where everybody is on some new ubi payment. that's not living in reality. that's living in a false utopia. but second of all, as lindsey graham said, it's dead on arrival. we haven't been able to see the text of this thing. they didn't draft this at all with republicans. there was no input whatsoever. you know, i remember all of these freshmen democrats coming to congress, they flipped a bunch of red seats and they said over and over and over again that they were here to work with the other side, they just wanted to solve problems. that has never been the case.

that has never been the case, not once during this session and when america needs them the most, needs them the most, to actually work and solve problems, they refuse to do it. listen, we have to be looking at the problems now with a scalpel, we have to be looking at individual issues, then solving them. know how we can do that? we could actually be at work. we could actually be at work debating and working in committees and moving forward. i have a bill to do something just like that. stuart: congressman, you do have a plan. i believe you would extend this $600 a week emergency employment payment, $600 a week, you would extend that, even if someone goes back to work. that sounds a lot like free money, no matter what you do. >> well, so this is an example of actually solving the problem because the way this was originally drafted and why a lot of republicans were against it was because it ended up that we might be paying more to -- people more money to remain unemployed instead of going back to work. that's a huge problem, especially when we are trying to get our economy back on track. so what this bill does is it

allows states to allow people to keep that $600 extra a week for six weeks, even if they go back to work. there's no way politically we are going to be able to remove that benefit at this point. democrats want to extend that benefit through the end of the year, by the way. if you want to make sure that americans don't work, and remain dependent on the government, well, that's a great way to do it. with my bill, it's a great way to actually keep stimulating the economy but encourage people to get back to work. and actually get our country back on track. stuart: congressman, could you just give us a quick update from the state of texas, which has opened up to as much as it can, given the restraints on it? how is it going? are people using the businesses, which are now open in texas? >> yes, they are. you know, there was a lot of people who said americans will be too tearful to go to a restaurant. that wasn't the case the first day restaurants were open. they were open to the capacity they were allowed to. people were out, people were enjoying it, and listen, americans understand how to keep themselves safe. they understand the notion of

personal responsibility. we can trust them with that. it does not take government enforcement to keep people healthy and safe. it never has, it's never been a tenet of the american spirit and it shouldn't be now. texas is leading the way. we can do this as a country. there is no data, no science, no common sense to support what say california is doing in l.a. county, they just announced three months of extra lockdown. that is not how you treat the american people. they are breaking the contract with the consent of the governed. stuart: congressman dan crenshaw, republican, texas, thanks for joining us, sir. we appreciate it. thanks very much. >> great to be with you. stuart: yes, sir. now, we brought you the numbers earlier about traffic, a jump in traffic because that's a key indicator of getting out of the house, getting back to work. repeat the numbers, please, lauren. lauren: hey, stuart. traffic in the last week, up 60% from the lowest point of the lockdown. look, it's still down from the start of the year, from before

coronavirus by 49%. but people are moving again. some going to work and doing things in states where they are allowed to. other people are just driving, because gas is cheap and in rural parts of the country, farmers are moving about more. so there's movement. we are on the road again. we are sick of sitting home. stuart: yes, we are. i'm looking outside at sixth avenue in new york city and there is a slight pickup in traffic. it was deserted. now a few cars going by. all right. thanks, lauren. jerome powell just said the fed is not considering negative interest rates. that's not made much of a difference to the market. we are still down a little for the dow, up a fraction on the s&p, but a nice gain for the nasdaq. i guess the techs are doing well again, up .33%. we'll be right back.

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stuart: let me bring you up to indica date on what jay powell has been saying. he's speaking right now and answering questions. pretty dramatic stuff, actually. he says this is the worst recession since world war ii, worse than i expected it to be. however, he's also said we are going to use the tools that we've got available to the fullest. whatever it takes, he's saying, and to date, we have used these

tools but you ain't seen nothing yet. it's not the final chapter. that's what the man is saying. but we still have the market down as we approach the opening to wall street. check out big tech, please. that's where the action has been for so long. all of them, premarket, on the upside this wednesday morning except facebook, which is down 11 cents. look at the airlines. some -- this is a surprise to me -- some names are telling flight attendants no, you don't have to force passengers to wear masks. i'm surprised at that, ash. what else you got on it? ashley: yeah, there's some conflicting information when you look into this. we are talking about american, delta and united. apparently they have told employees they can deny passengers at the gate from getting on the plane if they are not wearing a face mask. but once on the plane, if someone decides not to wear

their mask and they don't want to, the flight attendants then are being told you don't have to enforce it. you can be informational with what you're telling a passenger but you can't be enforcing and making people wear the mask. so you can stop them from getting on the plane but once they get on and want to take that mask off, flight attendants, not much they can do about it. little bit of mixed messaging there. stuart: i can see some arguments between passengers once you get on and somebody takes the mask off and somebody else does not. i can see that coming a mile away. let's go to lauren. we were talking recently about a four-hour long wait at tsa when the airports try to get back to normal. got any more on that? lauren: i certainly do. okay. so let's say you arrive at the airport, you might be forced to go through something called a disinfectant tunnel, where they literally spray you with a mist to sanitize you. then essentially do the same thing to your bags. maybe you hit those bags with uv light, they are clean as well. when you approach your gate, the

floors are being cleaned. this is actually currently working, you are looking at an empty seat back. move all the stuff out of the air planes that you don't need. but they are using robots to clean the floors even. there's the bell. back to you. stuart: thank you very much indeed. airports are really going to look different. that ts aline wia line will be different. we opened up 100 points down on the dow industrials. not all the dow 30 are yet open. we have a drop of about half a percentage point for the dow. that's the very very early going. how about the s&p 500? that is down .25%. the nasdaq, i suspect that might be in the green. yes, it is, up a tiny fraction. the tech stocks are doing well again this morning. now let's get some news on reopening the casinos, for example. mgm is talking about opening up. susan, do you have a date and what they might look like when they open? susan: they were targeting june 1st. probably one of the most

conservative on the las vegas strip. when they do open up, they have a seven-point plan to keep everybody safe. we are talking about temperature checks, hand washing stations, you have to stand six feet apart at a slot machine, also less people at the tables and dealers and even those that enter the casino and players have to wear masks and gloves. now, caesars is targeting reopening of may 15th. again, one of the most aggressive on the street, but then you also have wynn possibly targeting may 22nd reopening. we don't have any word yet from the governor of nevada in terms of when las vegas can reopen but 40 million people visit the gaming hub each and every year and they are hoping to get back to vegas at some point. stuart: got it. thank you very much indeed. we have the dow down 115 points as we speak. we've got the grocer stocks on the screen for you right now. i don't think they have reacted to this particular item of news, but it is important. prices have spiked at the grocery stores. lauren, tell me more. lauren: in april, grocery prices

were up 2.6%. that was the biggest monthly rise since 1974. look, we have all felt this. you go food shopping, meat, poultry, fish and eggs, all of those items rising the most. overall, prices for most things have come down, but in industries like food, where there are supply issues, covid-19 affecting the processing plants when it comes to meat, freight issues, prices are going up because there are bottlenecks. that's what we're seeing and paying when we go to the food store. stuart: thanks very much, lauren. i'm just going to check a couple stocks which are in the news at the moment. first of all, tesla. looks like elon musk has won his battle with california. they are going to let him open his factory on monday. i think it's open already. tesla's stock is up this morning. i'm going to check the big techs for you. a mixed picture but we do have amazon higher and microsoft slightly lower. so we've got a split market at the moment. technology doing okay.

the rest of the market edging to the down side. i want an update on a story we brought you yesterday. uber considering a takeover of grub hub. i think they are still considering it but they can't agree on a price. is that right? susan: right. they can't agree on a price and this is something uber approached grub hub with earlier on. this is an all stock transaction. it could still close by the end of this month, according to bloomberg, although you still have to get the pricing right. it kind of makes sense, as we know meal delivery is at an all-time high with people stuck at home and quarantined so you are seeing an increase of 50% on uber eats, 80% they tell me in the month of april. grub hub has also seen an increase as well, a spike in meal delivery. we know there are too many players in this space. you have uber eats, grub hub, post mates and door dash. so consolidation has been talked about for a long time. some say with ride hailing down some 80% in many markets around the world, and uber eats and meal delivery hopefully spiking and continuing this trend, some

think this might be a smart move for uber. stuart: okay. i can go with that. the market, though, is still reacting very much to what fed chair powell has been saying this morning. the market is -- it's not a huge selloff but it continues yesterday's selloff. at the moment we are down 150. the level is 23,600. now, jay powell has said he's going to use the tools that he's got available to the fullest. to date, he's used them but you have not seen the final chapter. he says the fed could help many companies and they are going to put these tools away when the crisis is over. i would have thought the market would react favorably, especially to this idea we have not seen the end of it yet, we will put the tools to use to the fullest. i would have thought that would be a plus for the market but apparently not. we are down nearly 200 points for the dow and that follows from yesterday's selloff. that's it. at the moment, powell and what he's saying dominating the market.

as for the treasury yield, we are up .66%. the price of gold, where's that? $1712 is your price. the price of oil this morning is $25 per barrel. if you look at the other indicators, they are completely removed, i would say, no connection to the down side move of the dow which is off 200 points. now, it may be that there are a couple of specifically dow stocks which are sharply lower, and that's bringing down the whole average, more so than the other indicators like the s&p 500. but at the moment, we keep on heading south, down 226, 236, 235 as we speak. next story, some big name companies canceling ads on the tv networks. ashley, why are they doing that? ashley: well, they signed what they call these up-front contracts, stu, you know, companies like gm and general mills, pepsico, they sign ahead of time and it locks them in for the contract.

this was done before the pandemic took over and we were all stuck at home, and now they are moving their advertising toward streaming services and also social media platforms such as facebook, google, you name it. may 1st was the first chance they could redo the contracts for the broadcast and tv networks, and they have cut back and they could be cutting back up to $1.5 billion. that's our world we are talking about, so we're not happy about that but that's what's happening. stuart: i am painfully aware of our world having a few problems with ads. thanks very much, ash. by the way, there is united health, that is a dow stock, it is sharply lower and it accounts for about 25 points of the dow's 269 point loss. we are lower pretty much cross the board as we speak. we always want the hear about what the office is going to look like when we go back to work. well, twitter's jack dorsey has

had something to say about that. he's telling his employees hey, you can work from home forever. that makes a difference to the future, doesn't it, susan? susan: yes. jack dorsey and twitter has really been ahead of the curve when it comes to coronavirus and working from home. he was one of the first really in corporate america to tell his employees to start working from home in early march, and he says that look, if you can stay there, you can do that permanently even after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown goes by. now, some jobs that do require some physical presence such as maintaining servers, you still have to come in eventually at some point, but all twitter offices will be closed until september. no international travel. in fact, no business travel, period, up until that point. they even increased their allowance for work from home supplies to $1,000 for all employees and they are going to reassess for the year 2021. as i said, way ahead of the curve. you have google, you also have facebook that have told employees you are probably going to work from home for the rest of this year, but he says you

can do it on a permanent basis if you can. stuart: back to jay powell. the market's still lower after his comments earlier. he did say unemployment should peak in the next month, the economy should substantially recov recover, not considering negative interest rates. nonetheless, we are still down 244 points. what did you say, justin? thanks very much, everyone. check that big board. we are down 245. buying votes and government handouts for illegal immigrants. that's all contained in nancy pelosi's $3 trillion stimulus program. we will discuss all of that one for you. we've got some examples of all of this wild spending. that's coming up in my take. arizona senator martha mcsally says we should be allowed to sue china for the devastating harm the virus has caused us. she's on the show very shortly. she's got a new bill that allows us to sue china. online shopping, people are

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stuart: look, we are still way down for the dow industrials, off 250 points right now. susan, can you come in for a second here? what did jay powell say that the market doesn't like? susan: negative u.s. interest rates. look, the market has priced that in for later on this year and it's pretty apparent that jay powell, and he says the rest of the fomc, were against using negative interest rates. traders are reducing bets because of that. also, some negative outlooks on the economy. you heard chairman powell saying this is the worst recession since world war ii and he also talked about the recovery and whether or not it's taking shape. he says it's a slower recovery as well. i think that has the market a little bit on edge. just some other factors i want to put on your table for you to assess, stu, is that we are looking at the lowest buy-backs by the way in history in the

first quarter of this year so all the heavy lifting has been done by the federal reserve, with its $4 trillion balance sheet, also $2 trillion being spent by washington, d.c. companies have tended to boost a lot of their stock prices over the years, by buying back their own shares. record low in the first three months of this year. stuart: i'm still surprised to hear that investors actually wanted negative interest rates and are selling stocks because powell says we're not going to have negative interest rates. i did not think of that -- susan: think of markets. they don't like uncertainty so if they have expectations of how things will work and what will happen and then someone else changes their mind in the picture, i mean, that obviously changes their rotation and their stock buying. stuart: do you think that if jay powell had said yeah, we're going to go to negative interest rates, the market would have gone up? susan: well, i think it wouldn't have fallen, i'll tell you that. gold is also down as well, because they are expecting more money printing, more stimulus in the form of negative interest rates. so that was a statement that took everything down. stuart: okay. that's very interesting.

i completely missed it. thank you very much, susan. all right. now, we are spending big on online companies because of the lockup. i mean, really big stuff here. greg smith is with us. you follow this stuff. you've got some extraordinary numbers on what is it, spending on pets, on furniture, on food? go. what have you got here? >> good morning, stuart. how are you? yes, i don't know about you, but i'm bored, i'm ready to drive from new york to georgia to get a haircut. as you know, with everybody at home, with stores closed and people sheltering in place, americans are bored. we are spending our time shopping online, we are watching our hair grow longer and our waistlines get bigger. if you are named prince and you are a cat or dog in this country lately, you are very well pampered. we are buying pet supplies, we are buying furniture. you can look at even just the increase in wayfair's stock in the last two months, having traded from 20 to $190. we are looking for things to do. stuart: well, i see here

spending on pets, up 1500%. i don't know if those are your numbers but that's what i'm reading here. 1500% up on pets. furniture, up 1100%. that's extraordinary. >> yeah, no, these are my proprietary numbers that i have as a result of being an investor in a company that does e-commerce checkout solutions. we process more than a billion dollars in transactions for many e-commerce companies so we can see different verticals of where people are spending money. we have compared pre-covid, post-covid numbers. we are seeing massive increases in pets, furnace yiture up 1100. people are buying games and i haven't even touched on video gaming and other at-home activities. we're bored. we're looking for things to do and stores are closed. stuart: you are right about the bored bit, that's for sure. take me forward here. at some point, the lockdown ends, we get back to semi-normal. do we continue with this very high level of online spending?

>> look, i think as we all know, our lives have changed, right. we will have a different outlook on how we work and commute or go to an office, and i think that, you know, covid has certainly solidified the nail in the coffin for many weak retailers and probably only accelerated the amazon effect in this country. people are getting more used the and more comfortable with shopping online, having their packages delivered, having that convenience of a package delivered to your home. and you know, i think people are going to continue to be scared to visit stores. so that's why we have seen an acceleration in bankruptcies at many retailers in this country in the last few weeks that just probably couldn't survive. stuart: you're right. i mean, things really will change in a fundamental way. let me talk to you about casper, the mattress people. i know you were an early investor in casper. we had the ceo on the program yesterday and he told us about the cut-backs they are going through and he says, i mean, he's optimistic about the future but the stock has been killed.

it's all the way down to $6 a share. you were an original investor in casper. would you go back into it now at six bucks a share, online mattress selling? >> well, all these companies are suspending guidance, they are nervous to give any guidance. i would almost say they are probably pulling punches based on the data that i'm seeing of other e-commerce companies. and it's just reasonable to believe that stores are closed, people are forced to go online and shop. based on the numbers that i gave you in terms of increases in furniture and pets and food and other categories, again, people are at home shopping. what we are also seeing is that a massive decline in ad rates so these e-commerce companies are seeing very big declines in what they call their customer acquisition cost. their cac is declining so that means if you are an e-commerce company, you are not pulling back on your online spending, you are accelerating because it's costing you less and less to acquire a customer. in turn, that's going to benefit companies like facebook.

so i have to believe that casper, who is rooted in being an e-commerce company originally, before they opened up their 59 stores, should be seeing a massive uptick in business in the post-covid era. stuart: okay. gregg smith, fascinating stuff, especially that bit about spending on pets, up 1500%. extraordinary. gregg smith, thanks for joining us again. appreciate it. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: now we have the judge in the michael flynn case delaying the decision to drop the charges. he's actually going to allow outside groups to weigh into this. jim jordan, he's been on the case since day one, he's fired up about it. he thinks this is an absolute injustice. dr. fauci warning of new virus outbreaks if the country reopens too soon. what does marc siegel think about that? he joins me next. family at home or those at work, principal is by your side. we're working hard to answer your questions.

like helping you understand what the recently passed economic package can mean for you. we're more than a financial company. we're a "together we can get through anything" company. now, more than ever.

my concern as some areas, cities, states, whathave you, jump over those various checkpoints and frprematurely on up without having the capability to be able to respond effectively and efficiently, my concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks. >> the consequences could be pretty dire, correct? >> the consequences could be

really serious. stuart: dr. fauci there, sounding rather ominous about reopening while testifying before the senate panel yesterday. marc siegel, dr. marc siegel, is with us now. okay. he talked about if we return too soon without proper safeguards, we run the risk of little spikes. do you share that concern? by the way, what is a spike? >> well, stuart, a spike would be a number of cases, a cluster of cases that could then expand. i think he's being a little bit too dire here and i think that's going to have big consequences on our economy. let me explain why i don't agree. i think there are certain states we really have to keep an eye on right now, like minnesota, illinois and texas, and the midwest, that are starting to show increases. but in the northeast here, like in new york and jersey, we are seeing a decrease in cases. decrease in hospitalizations. decreases in deaths. across the country, we are starting to see a flattening of

the curve. we should be celebrating that and another thing, as we reopen, we should go social distancing but understand these draconian lockdowns we have been talking about haven't really been proven historically to work. so i'm more focused on as we reopen, continue the social distancing than i am on giving these dire warnings out. it's time to start reopening. stuart: you and i both know, doctor, that any uptick in cases after any state opens up, the media will say that's a spike, that's a spike. you got blood on your hands. you know that's going to happen. >> we got to fight that, stuart. listen, as we test more and more people, we are going to see more and more cases. that's inevitable, right? the other thing is that dr. fauci downplayed a little bit yesterday in his exchange with senator paul, and i'm on senator paul's side on this, i think as soon as we get antibody testing out there and we know people are on the road to immunity, we can

use that to help us reopen, too. you had it, you are over it, you can get back to work. we are getting into the summer months now so we can have people outdoors obeying social distancing, and we can bring essential workers back first and start to reopen. i think we're heading in the direction of opening our businesses and we should be. stuart: i hope so. doc siegel, thanks very much. see you again real soon. how about this one for you. health officials in los angeles say stay-at-home orders will quote, with all certainty be extended for three more months. that's l.a. mayor garcetti's message, don't freak out. will residents really stand for another three months of restrictions? we are going to question it. we are just getting started this morning. still ahead, arizona senator martha mcsally. congressman jim jordan. martha maccallum and steve forbes, all on the show coming up.

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stuart: it is called vote buying. government handouts targeted at specific groups of voters. the latest example of speaker pelosi's colossal 3 trillion-dollar stimulus. with deep humanity the speaker says it is designed, for the opening of our economy safely and soon. soon? if you want to open the economy and get people back to work you do not offer a big incentive to stay home but that is exactly what the pelosi plan does. the 600-dollar a week emergency pay that is extended way through

into the summer. $100 billion, that is to pay your rent. $75 billion, pay your mortgage. those 1200-dollar checks, more of them will go out. why go back to work? dig a little deeper. the pelosi plan would repeal salt. who is in favor of that? the wealthy. who live in high tax democrat states. talk about vote buying. allowing a deduction for state and local taxes again, that is what pelosi wants, is direct support for the rich. by the way, these days the rich, the elite, they vote democrat. the speaker says, she is making this 3 trillion-dollar proposal with deepest humanity. well, has the speaker considered the social cost of stay at home rules, like domestic violence, alcoholism, and drug use? her plan encourages stay at home, it keeps people locked down in sometimes awful conditions. where is the liability protection for businesses that do open?

hoe, you can see this coming a mile off. a business says, come back to work. a lawyer sues saying you're putting my client under emotional duress. or my client got the virus in the work place. pay up. the democrats have no interest in liability protection. the lawyers are some of their biggest financial supporters. finally the speaker claims the plan deals only with the effects of the virus f that is the case why does the postal service get a 25 billion-dollar bail out? thank heaven the pelosi plan is going nowhere but it will be an issue in november with trillions of dollars up for grabs buying the votes of your supporters will never go out of style. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪. stuart: look who's here, look who's back, liz peek.

liz, welcome back. good to see you again. >> good morning. thanks for having me on. stuart: you're welcome. you and i agree this back to work versus stay at home, there is a political divide here. it seems to me that democrats want you to stay home. republicans want you to go back to work. are you with me on this? >> oh, without a doubt, stuart. it is, the reason is very simple, very simply. if the worse things are coming up to the election in november, the less likely that donald trump is reelected. that is the beginning of the end of the argument here but look, you raise a good point with your monologue. it lists an opportunity, longer we stay under wraps, the worse the economy is, for democrats to push through a 3 trillion-dollar spending bill larded with democrat handouts. the combination of those two incentives is pretty powerful. one other thing, chairman powell talked about in his comments

this morning the fact that low income americans are ones worst hurt by this virus and by unemployment surge. guess what? those people were looking to donald trump in gratitude because for the first time in decades they have found work. that is ex-felons, people who don't have a high school degree and so forth. all those people had an opportunity to enter the workforce and create a life. enter the mainstream of american life. and now those are the people being laid off. guess what? democrats want those voters back. they don't want them beholden to donald trump. stuart: so it is a very political proposal for $3 trillion. do i detect a note of cynicism, liz? are you saying that the democrats actually want an economy on its back because that would help them in november? that is kind of a slightly cynical thing to say, liz peek. >> it is but let's think about the way the media has been handling this, stuart, look at polling.

republicans in polls want the economy to reopen and democrats do not. why is that? because the media, the left-wing media has been so opposed and so, to reopening and so focused on the risks such as those that were raised by dr. fauci. the reality, we all know this, there is a segment of the population that needs to be protected, older people and also sick people. everybody else could go back to work. fatality rate is coming down on this virus. i think we've been misled enormously about the benefits of the lockdown. it is time to get back to work. everybody knows this. look, i hate to suggest that democrats want people to be miserable, but let's face it up until recently, up until two months ago, the optimism in the economy was so palpable because the economy was so good that democrats knew that donald trump was going to be reelected. all the odds were in his favor. now that has shifted. they're happy to see that.

stuart: good to have you back, liz peek, don't be such a stranger. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: the dow is still selling off but not that much. we're down about half a percentage point. that is off 135. a few minutes ago we were down 200. we got a new development from amazon. susan, my script that i'm reading said they have new devices. what's that? susan: people forget amazon makes their own devices. this morning an hour ago, they launched a new 90-dollar tablet to keep advantage many people around the world are stuck at home. fire hd tablet, has faster processor, 30% faster according to amazon. double the storage. 8-inscreen. it is really cheap. only 89.99, up 10 bucks from the last amazon fire hd tablet at 79.99. though price it so cheaply, apple the base price of the

ipad is at 329 is amazon wants you to buy cheap prices and sell up to the services so you will buy books and then shopping online on amazon.com. stuart: susan, you may not remember this, it was a few years ago, five, six, five or six years ago, amazon overred for christmas a special six-pack of these fire tablets. susan: right. stuart: something like you could buy five or six in a block for 250 bucks. susan: wow. stuart: dirt cheap. dirt cheap. way back when. >> this comes in a bundle. so you can buy the tablet with six month subscription to kindle, ram, extra subscription for books, that is calls you 109.99. i thought you were going to say five years ago you were sending faxes which wouldn't surprise me. i thought you were going there something like that. stuart: not quite right, susan. i will get back to you shortly.

look at the markets, still down, coming back a little bit. we're off 130 as we speak. john lonski with us, john, i need your comments what jay powell has been saying. the market sold off after he said it is going to be a long and risky recovery and we're not going to have negative interest rates. what is your take on mr. powell this morning? >> you touched on the negative aspects of mr. powell's speech. i would like to look at some perhaps some more positive aspects. that is the fed will do whatever it takes in terms of assuring an adequate supply of credit to the u.s. economy in order to limit any increase by bankruptcies. that will be of the utmost importance. we have this main street lending program. that is going to be going into a higher gear fairly soon. so i think, stuart, the market is perhaps misinterpreting jerome powell's remarks.

stuart: he also said the unemployment rate should peak in the next month. so that is a short-term out look. the economy should substantially recover. i think, missing some of the positives there as you say. we have moderated the loss on the dow. but i want to bring up another positive. we're reported earlier in the program some very positive numbers on an uptick in what we're actually doing during the lockdown. for example, traffic, motorized traffic on the streets, up 60% from the low point of the virus hit. 25 million of us are getting out and about. my bottom line, john, people are going back to work. they are getting out of the house. the opening up process is proceeding, right? >> never underestimate the american consumer, stuart. there is a lot of pent-up demand and that will be released fairly soon. i want to add something,

mortgage applications for the purchase of a home they bottomed back on april 10th. over the last four weeks homebuyer mortgage applications are up by 33%. the year-over-year decline has gone from a drop of 35%, april 10th, to a drop of only 9% and i think that drop will soon disappear. we might be looking at growth once again. the u.s. consumer will come back. i think with some vigor. we're underestimating the desire on the part of americans consumers to get out and spend. stuart: yes, i think the recovery will proceed, third and fourth quarters of this year. i think you agree with me on that one. john, time's up. thanks for joining us. see you real soon. >> pleasure. stuart: say on return to work theme, talk about universal studios in orlando. this is news. are they reopening? reopening tomorrow, lauren, that right? lauren: yes, this is universal citywalk, right outside the

closed universal resorts. they're opening tomorrow. this is before disney springs which is aiming for the 20th of this month. they will be open daily four in the evening to 10:00 in the evening. temperature checks and facemasks will be required. thank goodness they're opening at night. can you imagine wearing a facemask outside during the day and it is really hot. blue man group, theaters, performances are not happening. retail restaurants will be mostly open starting tomorrow at universal citywalk. stuart: that is the news, we'll take it. lauren, thank you very much indeed. still to come this hour, jim jordan, has been on the flynn case since day one. he is fired up about the latest developments. he is watching oil, we'll get latest on how much oil is in storage, how much we actually used. i want to know how much it will take before we get back to where we were before the virus.

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stuart: breaking news as we speak, homeland security, the fbi officially accuse china of cyber hacking. blake burman, is this about hacking into our vaccine research? reporter: yes, it is, stuart and this is being described as public service announcement that the fbi has just posted right now. let me read to you briefly the very top of this from the fbi. they say they are, quote, warning organizations researching covid-19 of likely targeting and network compromise by the peoples republic of china. health care, pharmaceutical and research sectors working on

covid-19 response says the fbi, should be aware they are prime targets of this activity and take the necessary step to protect their systems. the fbi also goes on to say if they think that anyone out there has been compromised by china, that they should contact their local fbi office. stuart, i can tell you as well from within the white house there have been many who have been working on this issue for months, worried that china is using research facilities in this country, whether it be labs or whether it be universities, to take the information that is being developed there on site, and send it back to china with those who are involved with all of this not really knowing that china is involved with this process but now this is certainly elevated with the fbi posting what it is describing as a public service announcement saying beware and if you are suspicious, let us know. stuart: all right, blake burman, look, that's good stuff. now it is official, it is a

warning, watch out, they're looking for our research. blake, good stuff. joining us now, senator martha mcsally. senator, i'm sure you heard this. what's your reaction? >> i said it many times, stuart, i never trusted communists. communist china is continuing to hack into our systems to try to steal our technology. this is just another example. they have been doing this all along but people are more mindful of their behavior with the coronavirus because of their lies and coverup but this is no surprise to those of us, i've been doing national security for a long time and we've been watching them steal and hack into our research and our technology for many decades. they need to be held accountable and it needs to stop. stuart: now i believe you've got a bill which would allow ordinary people, myself, yourself, other people, to sue directly, sue china. >> yes. stuart: and seek compensation in american courts. that is what you want, right?

>> yes. they're responsible for the death of over 80,000 americans. they, their coverup, their communist plot here for them to continue to have lies and disinformation. they destroyed samples, they silenced doctors, they kicked out journalists. they are responsible for the deaths of americans. narrow exception to the sovereign immunity act to hold them accountable for people harmed. many in america are mourning loved ones, both the loss of life, the loss of livelihood. stuart: do you have to make a special exemption in this instance? >> we do. this legislation is with marsha blackburn it allows a exception for this narrow instance, that they have unleased this bio agent, not saying it is manufactured, but unleashed because of their lying, their coverup, their irresponsibility, reckless endangerment, uk study

showed if they acted earlier there would be 95% less cases. they need to be held responsible. it is a narrow exemption. stuart: do the state department, mike pompeo, do they approve of this because that branches out to foreign policy. >> we need all approach. this is one of them. it is legislative approval. we need to work it through that process. in addition there is other things we can use in foreign policy, sanctions, other things, diplomatic economic, i think we're entering a new cold war in many ways, stuart. the rest of the world needs to wake up to china's reckless behavior to try to supplant us as leader of the world and it needs to stop. stuart: senator, you're from arizona that is your state. am i right this saying the governor, governor ducey, telling sports teams, hey, come to my state? you can return to the games on saturday? is he opening up arizona to professional sports? >> yes.

he made the announcement yesterday. we've always been a great destination state. come to arizona. it is a great place to work and live. we love to host the sports teams there from any sports. nothing like baseball to unify americans. people are tired of watching reruns of games they already know the outcome. so i appreciate the decision by governor ducey. we welcome any team to come to our beautiful state and play. stuart: i would like to come myself. senator mcsally, thank you very much for joining us. >> absolutely. thanks, stuart. stuart: thank you. left's get a little more on the china u.s. theme here. susan, am i right in saying china will not broadcast nba games once they return, susan? susan: that's right. this is the latest update after that last ball, that controversy, daryl morey houston rockets tweeted his support for the protesters in hong kong. had adam silver backing him up, he is allowed for free speech.

cctv, main way most people watch the nba in china, reiterated once the nba season continues, if it continues those games will not be broadcast on state television. according to nba commissioner, adam silver, that the nba lost $300 million since the daryl morey tweet controversy that started last fall. the cctv plan to rebroadcast those games? no. however how people watch the nba, you find this interesting, being streamed on tencent, which is one of the largest companies in the country. reporting results overnight, doing pretty well. people are stuck home, playing games. cctv has been broadcasting nba games since the 1980s, which was a smart entry point, really early entry by the nba ahead of a lot of other major league, major league sports. stuart: got it. susan, thank you very much indeed. here he comes. just got a presidential tweet. i will read it to you. when the so-called rich guys

speak negatively about the market you must always remember that some are betting big against it and make a lot of money if it goes down. they go positive, get big publicity, make it back going up. they get you both ways. barely legal? the president is watching the market this morning. what jay powell had to say too. how about gilead sciences, the remdesivir people? what is the latest on that treatment for the virus, lauren? lauren: it's decent treatment. dr. fauci says it is the best we have. certainly not perfect. so now researchers using gilead's remdesivir with other drugs to make it stronger. they are trying to make a stronger drug cocktail, if you will to really target coronavirus. like fauci said, it is the best we have. you have to remember remdesivir is given in a hospital

intravenously. they're working on ways to give it to yourself at home so you don't have to go to the hospital. stuart: that would be good. lauren, thank you. chicago and new york going after delivery apps like grubhub and uber. restaurants complain about the high delivery fees. that is an interesting story. we've got details for you. moments from now we get the latest read on oil, how much we used, how much we got in storage that could affect the price. i want to know when will we get back to driving, demanding oil and gasoline the way we used to? is it years away? i will ask an expert after this. want to brain better?

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stuart: all right. we're down 160, no, 130 points, that is what it is. the market is still reacting, selling off a little after jay powell spoke this morning about not going to negative interest rates. he did say, look, pull out all the stops, we'll do whatever it takes to get through the crisis. the market wasn't listening to that. we're still down 130. where is the price of oil right now? i'll tell you it is at $25 a barrel. i would like to tell you the also the price of gasoline is going up, inching higher again. we're at $1.86. that is the national average.

we're at $1.7610 days ago. we have gone back up since the low. where is chiefest in the land? oklahoma, 1.$56 per gallon, oklahoma. now this. >> we'll need natural gas. we'll need nuclear energy as well. that's what gives us the low prices. it is the competition in the marketplace. stuart: that was energy secretary dan brouillette. he was on the show yesterday. you heard we want a variety of sources yesterday. he did say even though the oil patch, north dakota, texas, in a lot of trouble with depressed prices. we'll come through this eventually and demand will go up again and we'll be the dominant energy power in the world. that is what we got from the energy secretary yesterday. i'm holding on for a few

seconds. we'll get the latest on oil. how much we got in storage. how much we used. these are important numbers because as everybody knows the demand for oil, the demand for gasoline is way, way down. it is picking up a bit but it is still way down from where it was. we are still producing quite a lot of oil in north dakota and in texas. so we're flooding the supply area and are we increasing demand? i think we've got the number. it is official 10:30 eastern time. ashley, what have you got? ashley: yes, stu. as it is being a, little bird telling me a draw-down, a draw down of 745,000 barrels. we were expecting another build of just over four million which would have been 16 straight weekly increases. we've broken the cycle on oil. under the demand issue, stu, one thing we noticed as we slowly try to get back to work more people are taking their cars. they don't want to take public transportation.

and so the demand for gasoline has gone up an extra 400,000-barrels in the last two weeks. so that may, just may be helping the oil surplus that we've seen for so many weeks. stuart: yeah, look, the oil price has responded, slightly. it is up a little bit, almost $26 a barrel. maybe the stock market's responded a little bit. we're down just 82 points on the dow as of right now. so maybe there is some response to those oil numbers. i want to bring in perhaps the world's premier oil watcher. his name is daniel yergin. i think you like that introduction. he usually does. >> i will take it, stuart. stuart: you owe me 10 bucks for that, daniel. [laughter]. let's get serious for a second. before the virus shut down the world i understand we were using, around the world, about 100 million barrels of oil a day. then the world shut down and we reduced that usage to around

60 million barrels of oil a day, roughly speaking. where are we now, daniel, do you know? >> first of all, stuart, i have to point out when i was on with you 2 1/2 weeks ago, since then the price of oil has doubled. remember when we were on you noticed the price was edging up. i think what is happening, several things are at work here. one is that big mega deal that president trump negotiated among the oil exporters is now in place. secondly, producers are what's called shutting in oil, not producing it. thirdly, actually when we look at china, which is is the second largest consumer, their demand is going up now. we're seeing a reopening in the united states. what is happening we are seeing this kind of gradual, uneven recovery in demand. four weeks ago gasoline was down 50% in the united states. now it is down 40%. so it is very key to what happens to the overall economy. stuart: when do you think we might get back to 100 million barrels of oil a day used globally? >> i think right now we've

looked at a framework, we sort of seen a stop and go related to vaccines, therapeutics which you are just talking about. so we're thinking about a year-and-a-half, to two years to get back into a really, what we would say a range close to what you were talking about. it is not going to happen quickly. but we'll see improvement for the reasons that we're seeing but in an uneven way. stuart: okay. do we still emerge from this crisis? maybe it is a couple years down the road. do we still emerge, america as the dominant energy power? >> i think we'll be kind of in a tie with the other two. it is a world of the big three, the united states, saudi arabia russia. we think u.s. production will go down significantly over the next year because people are not investing. but it will start up again. i think we'll start rising again, maybe about this time next year we'll be getting close to a low point. so we may still be number one

but we'll certainly be in the top three. stuart: got it. i think that is the president calling you. do you hear that beeping sound, daniel? i think that's you. don't worry about it. you are the expert on oil. we love to turn to you. sorry to cut it short. but i have got to run. thanks for joining us. >> bye, now. stuart: i want to show you the price of zoom stock, videoconferencing company. goes up and up and up. 5 1/2% up today. they are primary beneficiaries of the lockdown. $170 a share. that's zoom for you. here is cillo. that stock is down -- zillow. that stock is down 4%. they're going to raise less money than originally planned. that hurts them a bit. dow industrials down 70 points. we had been down over 200. let's talk about the return to work and what the office is going to look like.

i bring this up, twitter told their employees they can work from home permanently if that is what they want to do. what about apple? when will their employees return to the office? do we know anything about this, susan? susan: according to bloomberg report, apple has started a phase-in plan to get some employees back to cupertino and their main headquarters that looks like the round spaceship. apple reportedly wants to bring back employees to global offices in stages. the first phase is already underway. it will last through early june, the problem according to bloomberg, the fact some of these employees have had access, problems accessing internal controls. there is a lot of secrecy and security when it comes to product development. they want to make sure that obviously there is a lot more over what they're producing and what they are up to. bloomberg says one of the products they're working on augmented reality glasses. however that still needs to be

proven. compared to other silicon valley giants, like googles, facebooks, tentatively penciled in offices in june or july but employees can choose to work from home for the rest of this year. look at apple's stock. we're only 10 buck as way from record highes very close. stuart: what is the record high? susan: 326. the bump and boost in dividends has already kick-started. that is the reason why we're seeing a price increase. stuart: 326 not far away. all right, susan. i have got this for you. new tweet from the president. as i have said for a long time, dealing with china is a very expensive thing to do. we just made a great deal. the ink was barely dry when the world was hit by a plague from china. 100 trade deals wouldn't make up the difference, all those innocent lives lost. that just in from president trump. a big show for you coming up. first up, congressman jim

jordan, i want to know what he makes of the flynn case. does it go all the way to the top. this hour martha maccallum getting out and about again. they are, you know. next hour steve forbes wants the government to offer a whopping great big prize for a vaccine. more "varney" after this. i was born in '37... it was a very struggling period of time. up and down. depression to exuberance. and you could name many, many cycles like that over the years. my generation, having come through so many wars and so many things... persistence. it's the heartbeat of this country. stick with it. ♪

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so you can... retire better. >> what we have is a president who is bound and determined to delegitimatize those parts of the government he thinks pose the greatest threat to him. this is part of a plan to somehow make those institutions weaker so he can do the kinds of illicit things that he has been, he has been doing. he facilitated by this attorney general. this attorney general is actually complicit by weakening these institutions. he is weakening all he can to weaken guardian institutions that he leads. stuart: former attorney general criticizing a current attorney general and the president of the

united states. that man on the right-hand side of the screen is jim jordan. i'm sure he has a powerful response to this delay in the flynn case. go, jim. >> well, this attorney general is trying to get to the truth and doing a darn good job unlike the previous attorney generals in the obama administration. stuart, never forget what happened in january of 2017. january 4th, peter strzok tells the agents who want to say we should drop any pursuit after case against michael flynn, peter strzok says no, don't drop it, jim comey told us to keep going. the very next day, january 5th, 2017, comey in the white house with president obama talking about michael flynn. the day after that, january 6th, what happens? comey goes to new york and talks to president trump, president-elect trump at the time and talks to him about the does yea that jim comey already knew last false. he already knew was paid for by the clinton campaign and russian disinformation. 12 days later, january 24th, 2017, jim comey sneaks two

people into the white house, two fbi agents to set up and trap michael flynn. that is the key here. that is where the rule of law broke down. that is where the problem was. jim comey and the obama administration orchestrated this entire plan against president trump and three-star general who served our country for 30 some years. stuart: that is sickening because this delay means that that great general is now twisting and dangling in the wind for a long time because there is no telling when we'll get these third parties to weigh in on the case. could be until after the election. wouldn't surprise me. >> yeah. stuart: i want to get to today's news, which is, ric grenell has the names of the people who knew that we were spying on the incoming trump administration. are we going to see those names, who do you think is on the list? >> well there is, you can guess who is on the list. we know susan rice is. she admitted to it. you can sort of guess, these are probably the same people who were in the meeting, clapper, brennan, yates, rice, comey.

probably same people in that january 5th, 2017, meeting with president obama? but i don't know? what i do know is, let's get this information public so the american people can see this. let's get all of the truth out there, so we can see just how bad, just how wrong this entire effort by as bill barr said, by the upper echelon of the obama fbi, comey, mccabe, baker, strzok, page, see how bad it was getting the truth out there so the american people can see. so it never happens again. i say this all the time, if they can do this to the three-star general, do to the president of the united states imagine what they do to you and me and more importantly the 330 million people in the country. stuart: do you think we will get this before the election? we've been waiting for details to explode but we haven't yet. will we get there? >> we will. bill barr is doing great job. we wouldn't have the information on michael flynn for bill barr saying to u.s. attorney jeff

jensen look at the flynn case again. that is why that happened. that is why we got the information. bill barr tasked john durham working on this for a long time, to get the bottom of the entire escapade. this willed happen this summer. i think we will. i commend bill barr, commend mike flynn's lawyer for his work. the jeff jensen for his work. i hope they're looking hard at jim comey. he is the common denominator. he was in every one of the key meetings i talked about. he is making the key decisions when this stuff happened. when he gets fired in may of 2017. what is the first thing he does? what is the first thing jim comey does, he leaks the memo so we get special prosecutor bob mueller so bob mueller can run interference for the whole charade for the obama fbi. stuart: what a disgrace, jim, what a disgrace. this drags on and on. jim jordan, always great to have you on the show. always pleased to have you hear today. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: what is this? blake burman back with us? what is this you got about

china? something new? reporter: yes, stuart. you will remember own monday we broke the story that the trump administration and president trump wanted some four 1/2 billion dollars of federal workers retirement savings out of chinese equities. there was a fund with that exposure and the administration cited covid-19 saying do not have any exposure to chinese equities. they wrote, the federal retirement thrift investment board saving we want a decision by wednesday close of business. here we are wednesday, 10:45. the federal retirement thrift investment board has just written a letter saying that they are going to make that move. meaning they are not going to be having federal workers retirements, four 1/2 billion dollars invested in chinese equities. the backstory to this, stuart, is that the board was going to move from one fund, money out into another fund. they made that decision in november. they now say, quote, due to a

meaningful different economic environment recommended in large part to the impact of the global covid-19 pandemic, they go on to say pending further study the board is delaying implementation of the i-fund benchmark change. so president trump, larry kudlow and the national security advisor robert o'brien who you talked to yesterday on this very issue said, get that money out. the board in charge of the investment says, they are delaying that move. they're essentially going to be doing what the white house wanted. stuart: that's it. they will do what the white house wants. blake, thanks very much indeed, good stuff. now then, first of all the big cities closed down the restaurants. now chicago and new york are complaining about the fees charged by delivery services to deliver the food to your house. they're checking up on grubhub. tell me more about this, lauren. lauren: so in chicago mayor lightfoot starting on the 22nd is mandating an

itemized receipt. so restaurants and consumers see exactly the fees that the apps, door dash, uber eats, grubhub are receiving. let me show you an example. this is what the owner after chicago pizzeria posted on facebook. stop believing you're supporting your community by ordering from a third party delivery company. he attach as receipt for order taken in the month of march. 46. $1100 in food. after look at that, delivery commission, processing fee, proposition, more promotions he took $376. he delivered the 1042 in food and got $376. that is why the new york city council, the cap that apps can charge restaurants is 20%. stuart: okay. lauren: isn't it crazy? stuart: those kind of charges are just way out of line. i understand the problems there,

but, not so sure i like the government of the day, the city, turning around say you can only charge this, this, worries me. always does. lauren: yeah. stuart: 6'1", half a dozen of the other isn't it, really? health officials in los angeles say the stay-at-home orders, quote, with all certainty be extended for three more months. how about that? i will put it to martha maccallum. people need to get out and about. america is going stir crazy. we'll be back. safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today.

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stuart: got a couple states opening up a little bit more. i will start with georgia. they say that summer camps can reopen tomorrow, but, there is a catch here, only if they meet 32 safety criteria, that is georgia. i want to bring in martha maccallum here. she is the host of "the story" on fox news. i'm sorry? i'm terribly sorry, we have a communications problem with martha. that is what happens when you're doing live tv and we're spread out all across the country that happens. i will get to martha as soon as i possibly can. i'm looking at market. now i understand we have martha. martha, can you hear me?

i know you can. i can hear you too. >> i can hear you, sorry about that stuart. stuart: sure. look, i just get a sense that america, most of america is just bursting to get out and about, ready to break out, do you sense the same thing? >> i do, i do. when i have been out on the road i see that there are more cars moving around. i sort of waited to get on the highway a little bit the other day as i was heading out for a little bit. so you know, they say actually traffic is up 60% from the lows we hit the middle of march which i think is an interesting indicator. i was listening to your show early this morning, stuart. at twitter, they're saying if you are at home, like working at home, you might be able to stay home forever. i think that is a very dangerous trend for the workplace and for the country. i think we all need to get back to work. i believe we became so isolated

through social media and technology. in some ways it is very good. in other ways it isn't. this experience mate us even more separated than ever. i for one am looking forward to getting back in the place where i work in new york city, interacting with people, seeing people face-to-face. i understand things will change. we need to adhere to some of these protocols that keep us safer. people want to see each other, stuart. they want to get back to their lives in safest way possible. stuart: nobody talks about the social costs being confined to your home. >> yes. stuart: alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic abuse, child abuse. you know this is happening because we're confined all together. nobody ever talks about this. stuart: yeah. i think it is a very important point. we are human beings. we are born to be together. we're born to hug each other. we're born to spend time

together. you know, obviously we have made enormous sacrifices. i'm always amazed by the amazing adaptability of the american people. it literally went from you will be home for a few days. you're home a couple months. plaques are optional. no, you have to put your mask on. everybody tries to be part of the system that will make things better but one of the things i keep going back to, stuart, is the experience after 9/11. once again those of us who live in the new york area find ourselves at the epicenter of all of this. i remember very clearly people saying, i'm not going back into new york again. i'm not going to the theater anymore. i'm not going to a stadium. i'm not going to a big crowded places where somebody could plant a bomb or terrorists could attack. over time those things wear away. the nature is get back to the activities. i believe we'll get back there sooner rather than later, stuart. stuart: i feel exactly the same way, martha. thanks for being on the show. we appreciate it.

>> great to see you. thank you. stuart: more "varney" after this ♪ happy birthday! so, it goes... ♪ hold up your answers. how is mickey doing today? ♪

you're just a really hard worker. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. they're all possible with a cfp® professional. find yours at letsmakeaplan.org. stuart: it is just after 11:00 eastern time. the markets are still selling off. in fact, they are getting close to the low of the day for the dow, minus 230. jay powell, the fed chair, said this morning that once the virus is under control, the economy should substantially recover. he also said that basically they will throw the book at it to get us out of this virus crisis.

nonetheless, the market is still selling off. today, arizona eases some lockdown restrictions. pools and gyms can open their doors again, spas can also reopen with social distancing and enhanced sanitation. that's arizona. nine more states take steps to reopen by the end of the week. how about this one. actor matthew mcconaughey spoke out about america's reopening on "special report." roll tape. >> about a month ago, i could feel that this united purpose we all have as americans to beat this enemy, this virus, that purpose got hijacked by partisan politics and all of a sudden, the narrative became if you want to go to work, you're on the far right. if you don't want to go to work, you want to stay home, you're on the far left. this created a false divide, sort of two wars in america, an us versus them war and an us versus the virus war. stuart: i find that very thoughtful. very thoughtful indeed.

now this. in california, yes, california, a republican is leading in an election. long-time viewers of this program will know that that is not supposed to happen, but these are strange times, and it is happening. with 79% of the vote counted, republican mike garcia holds a 12-point lead over democrat christie smith. it's a special election and it's in southern california. this is extraordinary. it is a suburban area in the center of trump-hating country and the democrat got the support of president obama and hillary clinton. could it be californians are tired of one party rule? could it be? they surely are -- could be excused for getting tired of the democrats' lockdown rules. los angeles county is now saying stay at home, don't go to work until maybe august. and california colleges will go to online learning in the fall. students robbed of the college

experience and for what? to avoid any and all risk? you can't open up until there's no risk? that is preposterous and totally a nonstarter. for some time, we have been following the nationwide revolt against the endless lockdown. the california vote is part of that revolt. so too is elon musk, who demanded he be allowed to reopen his car factory in fremont, california. he appears to have won. they have let him reopen as of next monday. you know, i wouldn't be surprised to see musk tell them he's opened already and he's going to stay open. there's a political angle here. democrat-run states keep the lockdown going and this is where we are seeing defiance and revolt. republican-run states are opening up. not much of a revolt there. that's why the apparent republican win in california is significant. the district covers the northern part of los angeles county, hispanics, african-americans and asians form a majority of voters. prime democrat territory.

yet the republican has a big lead. maybe, just maybe in sunny california, voters are tired of being told to stay home. maybe some are prepared to accept a little risk in order to make a living and maybe parents want their kids back to learning in schools and their teenagers looking forward to a real college education. we live in hope. as the third hour of "varney & company" continues. let's get straight at it. that gentleman on the right-hand side of the screen there is the well-known steve forbes. you heard what i had to say there, steve. do you think it's possible that we'll get a republican representation in california because it's a one-party state and they keep the lockdown going? >> i think there is a reaction as you pointed out and i think what happened with tesla was really a tipping point. a couple weeks ago we saw what happened in orange county where you think common sense would say yes, go to the beach, get that sun, get that d3, they are virus

killers. i instead they shut them down. it's one thing with new york city. we had a terrible situation for a number of weeks. quite another in california. people are saying enough. this gets to mike garcia who is going to win that election, looks like, even the way they count votes in california, why that is so important is that he put the issues on the table and he also underscores why this is going to be the most important election since 1980. what direction do we want this country to go in. more of this kind of top-down control or more kind of the american way of cutting taxes, deregulation, getting the american people to do what they do best, creating opportunities for themselves and for everyone else. stuart: look, it seems like we are doing an equation, all of us, in our own heads. we are saying look, we want to get back to work, we recognize the risk of further infection but we are prepared to take that risk to save the economy. i think that's what a lot of people are saying. what about you? >> that's right. these top-down people who want

us to have us live in caves for the next three years don't seem to realize, stuart, this economy is another word for people. people interacting, people buying and selling with each other, people making things, doing things, so economy's people, it's not this thing out in the atmosphere somewhere. people want to get back to doing what they do best and i think you see revolt against it and i think people know yes, there are risks, people will take -- most people, smart people, which is most of us, thankfully, will take measures to make sure we minimize that risk but california, it's a highway state. they lose thousands of people each year on the highways. we know there's a risk and people are willing to take it. we do sensible things, we can start to rebuild this country. that's why i think the markets reacted adversely to dr. fauci yesterday where he was saying oh, you know, we can maybe not do it, blah, blah, blah. people know it's risky but by golly i think we know what we need to do and people want to get on with it. stuart: let me pick up on that.

you're right to talk about dr. fauci. he testified yesterday and he was asked about the virus vaccine. i want to concentrate on that for a minute. listen to what dr. fauci said. roll it. >> the idea of having treatments available or a vaccine to facilitate the reentry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far. stuart: in other words, it's going to take a long time to get a vaccine but what's this about the prize that you want, not you, but maybe the government, to offer to get a vaccine real quickly? what, $50 billion prize, really? >> well, sadly, with the trillions washington's been throwing around now, we also know what nancy pelosi wants to do, $50 billion seems small change. we have done prizes before. it goes back centuries. that's how we got the first vaccine, that's how we got the lifeboat, that's how we got instruments to measure longitude. so there's a long history of it.

you put a prize out there for an effective vaccine, 95% effective, winner take all, research shows that's the best way you do it so you get the minds working better than ever before to come up with a vaccine. maybe it won't work but if you have those brains out there motivated with those kind of prizes which you've had a good history of, let's do it. that's how you define things. if we always went by conventional wisdom of what happened in the past, we would still be in the horse and buggy stages, people going on the edge, finding things, thinking of things, it's often people are on the outside who come up with the big breakthroughs that people who are so-called experts like dr. fauci overlook. stuart: just don't tell bernie sanders about a $50 billion prize for a vaccine. keep it quiet, okay? steve forbes, you're all right. we thank you very much for being with us. okay. hold on. i've got a little more for you in just a second. let me do this first. you know, look, we talk about the future of travel, future of eating out, restaurants, after

the pandemic. what about the office? when we go back to work, in the office, what is it going to look like, because that's going to be very interesting. lauren, have we got any idea what an office of the future will look like? lauren: i can't wait to find out. because i can't wait to get back in the office. we are showing you some video of what cushman and wakefield is experimenting with, office pods. you work in a small section, six feet apart from everybody else and i'm thinking of this as like "back to the future." the offices of the '90s with the high walls in between the desks. you can't see other people, you can't see what so-and s-so is doing on their computer. messy offices might be a thing of the past, too. they are talking about giving you a paper place mat, you put that on your work space every day and when you're done, you throw it out. maybe some sort of cho, chief health officer, to make sure the company and employees are doing

the right thing. you know, we have to separate ourselves. we do have to get back to the office and do so in a mindful way. some companies will keep employees separate. some staying at home as long as possible. some will reconsider having to pay rent on these large office spaces, if you don't need to. then everything, think of all the things you do when you go into the building where we work. you touch the elevator button, you touch the coffee maker. doing that in an automated way. stuart: okay. clearly, we have to go through conniptions to come back to the office in any large numbers. steve forbes still with us. what do you say about that? i'm not exaggerating here. those are conniptions to get back to work in the office. >> yes, they are. i think short term, that's what will be done. but i think once we get a vaccine or get real treatments, i think people will do more and more loosening up, as long as we take measures. we know now, make sure our hands are clean, we may have to do

physical distancing from time to time instead of walls between us, maybe plexiglas so we can still wave at each other. but i think people do want to get together and yes, there will be more at home, people like the flexibility, but we were trending that way anyway. 50 million people are working as private contractors before this disaster. stuart: that's extraordinary stuff. steve, i have said good-bye to you once. i will say it again. thanks for joining us. you, sir, are all right. see you again soon. thank you. >> thank you. stuart: did you like those blockbuster movies? i'm thinking "jaws," maybe "back to the future" and a few others? you may be able to see them again in theaters and soon. grady trimble, you've got this story. is this how the movie theaters are trying to get us back inside the doors? reporter: at least for the time being, stuart. unfortunately, movie theaters across the country look like this one. logan theater in chicago. they are empty and because of that, the hollywood studios don't want to put out their big blockbuster movies at a time when most theaters are closed.

so this is what they are doing instead. they are putting out older classic movies like "jaws" and "back to the future" as well as newer old movies like the "harry potter" series and "hunger games" series. those would be in states where theaters will be able to open in the near future. the ticket prices might take you back in time as well. they are ranging anywhere from $2 to $5 to see a movie. been a long time since you could say that. unfortunately, though, for the new releases, the big blockbuster movies, the tentative scheduled dates for those are all the way in the second half of july. it could be awhile before we see any new movies in theaters any time soon. i guess they are hoping that will tide people over. stuart: i just wonder if it will really bring them back to the cinemas. i just can't answer that question. grady, thanks very much indeed. now, we talked a lot about going back to the office. what's it going to look like. i want to know about going back on a plane. what's that going to look like, what will it feel like. ashley is laughing.

i can hear him. you, sir, you have got the details on this. tell me what it's going to be like. ashley: i do. but let's be honest, it's not going to be last you remembered it, certainly not in the short and medium term. look, they are taking a layered approach, both airports and airlines. here are some of the safety guidelines that are being put out by industry. contact tracing. we know about that. contacting and tracing someone who may be carrying the virus. temperature screening, going in the airport, coming out of the airport. social distancing. extra cleaning. wearing masks. all of this is designed to not only stop the spread of the virus but to also try and create confidence among the public who will then feel like they can go and get on a plane and be perfectly fine. but let's be honest, there is no single measure that could mitigate all of the risks. but this is how much in normal times the airline revenue contributes to global gdp.

$2.7 trillion. remember the boeing ceo said it could be 2025 before we get back to where we were pre-virus. by the way, you know, it's so hard, each of these measures, like temperature screenings, stu, you may not exhibit a temperature that would put you at high risk that you have the virus. it may only be a mild version of the virus, or the virus could be in you but in an incubation period. it is not perfect. but a combination of these steps is about the best you can do. stuart: that's what it's going to look and feel like. all right, ash. got it. thank you. a republican, yes, a republican is leading a special election in california. what does that mean for the future of the deep blue state of the golden state, it used to be. we are going to talk to california gop chair coming up on this program. and a data firm that tracks gps information, gives florida a failing grade for social distancing. we will talk to florida senator rick scott about that.

north dakota open for business. it has been since the may 1st. next, we will ask senator kevin cramer how his state is rebounding. when you've got public clouds, and private clouds, and hybrid clouds- things can get a bit cloudy for you. but now, there's the dell technologies cloud, powered by vmware. a single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. that should clear things up.

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

and our exclusive bubblemassage. everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. stuart: north dakota reopened most businesses on may 1st, couple of weeks ago. since then, there have been 15 new virus related deaths and more than 460 new cases. north dakota senator kevin cramer joins us now. sir, you will be accused of taking great risk and creating more cases and deaths by reopening early. what's your response? >> well, my response, similar to what steve forbes said, i say well, we have had interstate

open for many years and decades and we live with risk every single day. the reality is north dakota has always been open. our governor didn't close most of the state. i think 80% of the businesses in north dakota remained open throughout this entire crisis. so the other thing i think you always have to keep in mind is we are talking about a very narrow range of numbers. you know, if you shoot 60% of your three-pointers go in and you drop to 59%, you are still more productive than the teammate who went from 5% to 10% success. so north dakota has had a grand total of 122 people hospitalized throughout this entire crisis. so i think it's a little difficult to measure north dakota in the context of the nation as a whole say compared to a place like new york. stuart: i believe that you and gove governor are going to the white house today to discuss this reopening. is that the case you are going to present to the president and the administration? you opened and the risk was worth taking? will you make that argument?

>> i don't know what argument the governor is going to make, but i think the point i think the governor would probably make, i talked to him many times about this, is to express appreciation to the president for not using a heavy hand and not using mandates but rather sharing guidelines and sharing information and then letting the states' governors put those guidelines in the context of their situation. in bismarck, for example, a little over a week ago they tested 620 people. only six of them tested positive. well, that's far different than what happens in minneapolis or what happens in manhattan, and the president has allowed that sort of -- that federalism to work and i think it's worked very very well for our state because we have good leadership and we have common sense people. that helps, too. stuart: sure does. i understand that north dakota schools will reopen in the summer, summer programs for youngsters. that really contrasts very sharply with california, where

california colleges are going to do online learning only i think for the rest of this calendar year. what a contrast. i mean, there's a contrast anyway between north dakota and california, that's for sure, but look, i think kids need to go back to school. i'm sure you're with me on this. >> i absolutely am with you, stu. i think what we ought to be doing, since we weren't before, we certainly ought to be doing it going forward, do everything we can to protect the vulnerable citizens in our country and let the less vulnerable citizens run the country, if you will. by that, i don't mean govern it, i mean run it, run the economy, go to work, go to school, and if we protect the most vulnerable it's pretty clear that there's a vulnerable population to this disease and it's pretty clear that there's a large vast majority of the population that isn't vulnerable to it. stuart: how do you protect the vulnerable, though? are you talking about elderly people who have an underlying condition? how do you isolate that group and protect them? >> well, first of all, i think with information.

most people are going to look out for their parents, their grandparents, whatnot, people that are in institutions. you look at what happened in new york, the policies there were completely backwards. if you tested positive for covid-19, you had to take that person into your nursing home, for example. so consequently, you have a lot of people in nursing homes that are getting this disease and they are the most vulnerable population. so i just think we have to again, apply common sense to the science and we can do both, grow our economy, get back to work as well as protect people. and be nimble and be prepared to respond quickly. the whole issue with regard to testing of course is critical to all of this because it does provide not just -- not just testing and good information but it also allows for confidence. that's what we are lacking right now. we have more than adequately scared people through this. i think it's time now to present some confidence to prevent people from being scared into paralysis. stuart: senator kevin cramer,

north dakota, appreciate it. thank you. >> my pleasure. thank you, stuart. stuart: this is interesting. intel is investing in chinese chip makers. susan, sort this out for me. looks like, sounds like intel is doing the exact opposite of what president trump wants them to do and other tech companies. susan: intel finds itself really in the middle of rising tensions between the u.s. and china when it comes to chip manufacturing. so the ceo recently wrote a letter to the department of defense saying that intel is ready to build a chip manufacturing facility here in the u.s. we know that the trump administration wants intel to possibly partner up with taiwan semiconductor and build these fast modern chips that only three companies on the planet can do right now and that includes intel. but don't forget that china is also a big customer of intel and they might see that as something to protect in the future as well. so intel capital, which is their venture arm, has invested in two chinese startups in the chip space. i won't get into the technology because it's a little too

advanced for you, stu, but basically, they have been investing in these small chip startups throughout the years, 2017, 2018, 2019, and we know china has been pouring billions of dollars into chip production because they want to first of all source their own supplies in the future, but also for the technology race between superpowers. stuart: got it. thank you very much indeed. i draw your attention to the stock market because we are at the low of the day, down 350 points. the market not reacting well to what fed chairman jay powell had to say this morning. he did say that we are going to get the unemployment rate back to where it was, 3.5%. he says we are going to pull out all the stops, do whatever it takes to beat this virus. nonetheless, the market sold off. i am told investors wanted america to go to negative interest rates. jay powell said we are not going to do that. that disappointed the market. that's one of the reasons why we are down. 350 as we speak.

universal in florida, the studios there, are going to reopen but just their city walk tomorrow night. is this a sign that florida's tourism is beginning to rebound? they are certainly beginning to open up. senator rick scott joins us on that shortly. as florida reopens, los angeles extends the stay-at-home order. listen to mayor eric garcetti's advice. listen to this. >> but it's important not to overreact and not to underreact. so it's just a reminder of how delicate and fragile this time is but to not freak out. stuart: not freak out. well, that's interesting. how's that going to go over? we will discuss it next. i'm searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. their award-winning content is

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the effectiveness of negative rates is very mixed, very mixed. there's no -- there's research that says they have been effective, there are plenty of doubters. stuart: all right. that's fed chair powell. doesn't want to go towards negative interest rates. that's what he's saying. i'm told that's one of the reasons why the dow is down so much. market watcher dennis gartman joins us. why is the dow down at the moment? is it all because of what fed chair powell had to say? >> no, actually i think it had very little effect. it should have been bullish and the fact that it wasn't

supportive is detrimental to the stock market but we were starting to break down technically yesterday afternoon, stuart. i actually sent out a note to you and a number of other people that something had begun to deteriorate within the internals of the market. as the market began to sell off yesterday afternoon, volume began to pick up dramatically. that's the kind of thing that i get fearful of. so i don't think that chairman powell's comments had very much to do with it at all. he has said in the past he had no intention of moving to negative rates. he did not change that opinion whatsoever. there are other things going on. the fact the market didn't respond yesterday to a good crop report from the usda, that it didn't respond well to the report from small business, number of things were deteriorating. i think the rally has run its course that we've had since the middle of late march and i'm very fearful that we are going to test the new lows. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> and i'm shorter again this morning. stuart: apart from the details as to why you think it's going to go down, repeat that, will

you, please. because you just said we may get back to test the lows. now, the lows to me are 18,000 on the dow. are you really looking for a 5,000 point drop for the dow from here on out in the coming weeks? >> let's just say i hope it doesn't go down 5,000 points. let's just say that i hope that the economy does better. let's hope that, let's just say i hope that i'm absolutely wrong. but the fact that we had a strong rally, a bounce, a dead cat bounce for lack of a better turn on reduced volume on the way up, has probably run its course. the market has to take into consideration the fact that we are not going to turn this economy around in a v-shaped rebound as the president wants to see. it's going to be more of a w and maybe an extended w with each leg on the w on each right side at a progressively lesser and lesser volume. the fact that the market has rallied on -- has been predicated upon the extension of an expansionary monetary policy on the fed's part and on the

part of the ecb, on the part of the bank of japan, that's probably run its course. stuart: give me 20 seconds on this. it's got nothing to do with politics and the election? nothing to do with that at all? >> well, i think it has something to do with it. the president's popularity numbers are deteriorating. the fact that we have a president and vice president who are now fearful of contracting coronavir coronavirus, whatever you have, 19, and the fact that if they have a problem, in the back of everybody's mind, if they have a problem, suddenly nancy pelosi becomes third in line. that can't be supportive. but politics at this point i think is less important than the expansionary monetary policies that have probably run their course and we're not going to see a great deal of expansionary policies going forward. i'm bearish, i can be wrong, and when i'm wrong, i admit it very quickly but right now, i'm rather heavily short. stuart: at this moment, you are right. dennis, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. always appreciate it. see you again soon. >> thank you, stuart. always good to see you, my

friend. be well. cheers. stuart: cheers, mate. let me remind you of this. republican mike garcia leads democrat christy smith for the open congressional seat in california. if he wins, it will be the first time a republican took a seat away from democrats in what 20 odd years. there's a head line for you. jessica patterson is with us, the gop chair in california. jessica, this is primarily a mail ballot. i think there are few physical polling stations open. it's mostly mail-in. from what i'm seeing, the democrats didn't mail in many returns. the republicans did. is that what you're seeing? >> well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on today, stu. but we are seeing a fantastic turnout machine that we have put together over the last year. none of this happens by accident. it starts with fantastic candidates which we have in mike garcia who i'm hopeful we can very shortly call congressman

garcia. but we also are here in california where as you know, you saw in 2018, it can take a very long time to count ballots here and we will still be receiving ballots up until friday of this week. we don't know how many ballots are still out there, they just needed to be postmarked by yesterday but right now the numbers look incredibly good and mr. garcia has been fantastic going into the -- stuart: is this a revolt against the stay-at-home lockdown rules in california? or is it part of a broader revolt against california being a one party state and has been for a generation? >> well, i was on this show just about a year ago and i was telling you about our california republican comeback. we have worked incredibly hard to build the right kind of organization, recruit the right types of candidates and deliver the right kind of message throughout our state. we are going to every single committee -- community, we are

not ceding one of them to the democrats. we are showing up, talking about the failures of california democrats and their policies here, and we are making sure that they are hearing the message of what republicans' solutions would be. none of this happened by accident. it was really a team effort with the rnc, the nrcc, their leadership with chairwoman mcdaniel, with chairman emmer, republican leader kevin mccarthy and of course, a fantastic candidate in naval fighter pilot mike garcia and the california republican party making sure that we take him across the finish line. stuart: well, you count votes until friday. we will get the final result then. thanks very much for joining us, jessica. always appreciate it. see you again soon. thanks. i'm staying on california for a second. restaurants there are reopening. several other businesses are beginning to open but restaurants are beginning to reopen. so in keeping with our theme, lauren, come in, please. tell me what's it going to look

like? what's it going to feel like if i walk into a restaurant in los angeles -- in california? lauren: it's not in los angeles. it's in some of those more rural counties, seven in particular. okay, so the obvious here, right. the menus are either paper so you can throw them out or digital. condiments, you don't share them. if you want guacamole prepared at your table, that's not going to happen. face masks must be worn which is interesting, because i go back and forth on this. i want everything to reopen in the safest way we can, but do you want to go to a restaurant and have to wear a face mask aside from when you are eating and drinking? what is interesting here, though, the state and counties did not put any restrictions on occupancy. so as long as there is physical social distancing, they are not limiting occupancy. stuart: that's new. that's different and that's new. because almost everywhere else, limits on occupancy. that's for sure. tell me more about los angeles, los angeles county, i think it is. may be extending the

stay-at-home order through august? tell me more about that. lauren: this is one quarter of the state population. the health director there said yeah, be prepared for this stay-at-home order to be extended until august. but not necessarily in the shape and form that it's in now. listen to the mayor, eric garcetti of los angeles on cnn. >> but it's important not to overreact and not to underreact. so it's just a reminder of how delicate and fragile this time is, but to not freak out when you hear a scientist say that it's still going to be here, we are still going to be living under health orders. lauren: it's hard not to freak out, stuart, when our patience is being tested and so is our pocketbook. stuart: yes. yeah, when you have been locked down for two months and you are going to be locked down for another two months, yeah, you can freak out very easily, i would imagine. thanks, lauren. take a look at this. you can now take a full 3d home

tour without ever leaving your couch. is this the future of home buying and home selling? we've got the guy who runs those videos on the show coming up. and a florida beach forced to close as crowds of people hit the sand. roll tape. >> there was like literally people everywhere. like we didn't even know where to sit. >> no social distancing at all. no masks. >> huge groups and it was like running the gauntlet just to get up the street and on to the beach. stuart: i know that beach. it's in naples, florida. the beach is now reopened with restrictions. florida senator rick scott on that, coming up next. in my line of work,

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parks. disney world is accepting reservations for july. hold on a second. lauren, we are now told no guarantee they will actually open the resort. is that accurate? lauren: that is accurate. so there was a meeting among the florida task force where they are looking at how they start to further reopen and disney world's vice president said this. we have taken reservations for july, but that should not mean we are operating in july yet. we have opened up shanghai which went very well. we were very prudent, very very conservative, and things went extremely well. but at this point, we have really nothing to report about walt disney world yet. i think they are being cautious. of course, they are trying to do this, if you speak to analysts, they say july is the likely opening date. hence, you can make a reservation. it just doesn't mean that the parks will actually be open. stuart: disappointing. i've got to say, disappointing. that's the way it is.

i want to bring in florida senator rick scott, frequent guest on the program and valuable guest, at that. senator, florida got, what, 133 million people visiting the state, i think that was 2019. i know you want to open up. if you do open up and bring those tourists back, then you run risk of more cases and more deaths. are you prepared to take that risk? >> well, first off, i would love to see disney open. my family, we love going to disney. but you've got to do it safely. first off, disney is a very responsible company. whatever they do, they are going to do it responsibly. i think here's where we are, stuart. every family's going to make a decision about what do i do, how do i do it safely, how do i go to a restaurant safely. every company, whether it's airline, whether it's disney, whether it's a restaurant, they will say how do i make my employees safe, how do i make my customers safe.

because you know, we all want to get back to a normal life. so i believe in families, i believe in our businesses. we are all together going to figure this out. stuart: you've got to give them liability protection, though. you can't have a business open up, somebody walks in, oh, i got the virus and it's your fault, give me some money. you can't have that. >> no, first off, you have to give them liability protection. i mean, look, we are all still learning about this. i mean, my wife sent me something this morning about an antibody test, i just had my antibody test. we are all constantly learning about this but we do want to get back to a remain noal linormal . we have to get this economy open. i appreciate dr. fauci, what he's saying. i appreciate what governors are doing. we are all in this together to get this economy going again. stuart: senator, i don't want to reignite a feud, but i do want to bring it up. governor cuomo of new york wants a federal bailout. he wants federal money. he says that he, his state, new

york, is paying into the feds and it's states like you, florida, that are taking out. you want to answer that charge? >> well, first off, i don't remember a dime coming -- i have been up here for 17 months, 18 months. i don't remember a dime coming from the state of new york. i do know their citizens pay into medicare, they pay into social security and then they get sick and tired of the taxes up there and move down to florida. i know that happens. so i mean, he's trying to say two different things. here are the facts. the facts are people are flocking out of new york because they are sick and tired of their taxes and liberal policies. i have two to three million more people living in my state and guess what, the state budget of florida is about half of what his is. that's how inefficient he is. by the way, medicaid, for every medicaid recipient in new york, his state gets a double, double from the federal government of what florida gets. places like puerto rico even get

less. so no, he doesn't want to live within his means. i got elected when he got elected. what's happened since? he doesn't grow jobs, he grows his debt, he grows his budget and what did i do? cut a third of the state debt, cut $10 billion in taxes and we added 1.7 million jobs and a whole bunch of new yorkers came down and he was always mad when i went up there and recruited businesses. he's always been furious with me because he keeps losing. stuart: i didn't want to reopen the feud but i guess i did. senator, thanks for being with us. we appreciate it. thank you very much. >> have a good day. stuart: yes, sir. got to check the markets real fast because this is the low of the day. now we are down 450 points. dennis gartman on the show just moments ago, he says it's got nothing to do with what fed chairman powell had to say today. no, it's part of a much broader decline that he says is now upon us. down 464. check out live nation.

the travis mccready concert schedule for friday in arkansas supposed to be the first public concert since the virus hit us. the state is now ordering the concert to cease and desist. it is off. got to tell you that. do you need to move? want to get out, move to a new house? you are stuck at home in the lockdown? well, you can take a virtual tour, home tour, that is. you can use your iphone. the man behind the matterport cameras and videos joins us next.

stuart: we showed you briefly this app, allows users to take virtual 3d tours of homes. this is from the matterport people. apparently they saw it on this show and now the ceo is with us. that's rj pittman, ceo of matterport. rj, look, you've got to make this understandable to me. if i get your app, put it on my little iphone, what do i do? i then take shots of my home, goes on the app and you sell it for me? is that how it works? >> well, a little bit like that. you've got the first part right. you start out by using the app to take a number of photos of your house, your apartment, then you hit a button, it sends all

of that information, all of the photography, up to the matterport cloud. we transform it into a dimensionally accurate 3d digital twin of your property, the entire property, which then you get a web link and you can share it with anybody. and anybody just opens up a browser and can go walk through your house as if they were actually there. stuart: whoa. do i have to be a realtor to use the app, or anybody can do it? >> well, that was the idea behind launching this for iphones, anybody can use it. if you have an iphone, you can use it while you're sheltered in place. you can pull out your phone, scan the space you're in, and share it with friends, share it with a realtor. you can kick off an open house right from your own house. stuart: how do you make money out of this? >> well, the idea behind this first of all is with everybody sheltered in place, we are trying to help keep the real estate industry running. as you can imagine, it's a bit challenging to sell properties when you can't get to the

property to check it out yourself. matterport's bridging that gap with a free offering that gets everybody on the platform and gets everybody, you know, unlocked, if you will, to share properties, to explore properties and ultimately, what we are seeing is houses are transacting. people are buying houses on the back of a matterport tour. stuart: i'm interested. what is it, matterport.com? is that how i get it? >> matterport.com. it's got everything you need right on the website. stuart: all right. thanks very much for joining us. that's interesting. i might use that. thanks very much indeed. more "varney" after this. 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. answering your calls.

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stuart: down 2%, nearly 500 points. susan, tell me in your opinion what is primary reason for this big selloff. susan: jerome powell and his speech. also by the way highly uncertain out look for the economy going forward. neil: i would add to that dennis gartman who still has a lot of clout in the market. he says this actually is the start of a much bigger decline. he sees it going back probably maybe to the 18,000 level on the dow. have we got big techs. is the money coming out of there now? have we got big tech please? we're working on it.

okay. we're down 467 for the dow. we're down 48 on the s&p. and we're down 38 on the nasdaq. my time is almost up. i have to leave you with a lot of red ink on the screen right now. again my time is up. neil, it is yours now. neil: all right, stuart. i don't think these delate openings in key regions across the country are helping. look at that, my friend. washington, d.c., is looking at least mid-july opening there. we're hearing certainly in los angeles county this could drag on for quite some time maybe up to the fall. you obviously heard about the california state university system will not reopen as scheduled in the fall. add it all up, you have concerns, as jerome powell pointed out makes him think the slowdown lingers longer than he wants or anybody else wants but it is all weighing on the stocks right now and technology stocks that have been leading the parade here. dow down about 472 points. s&p 500, nasdaq, also