>> oh, good. i guess my final thought is -- maria: all right. all right. it's great to see you this morning. dagen, close us out here. >> love you, mean it, maria. go for a good bike ride. maria: have a great weekend, everybody. that will do it for us. stay with us. "varney & company" begins right now. stu, take it away. stuart: i shall indeed. good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. trump versus china. trump versus twitter. two big breaking stories this morning. i'll start with the president's news conference which is coming up sometime this morning. he's not said -- he has said he is not happy, that's his quote, not happy with what china is doing in hong kong. he's promising strong action. larry kudlow told fox news moments ago america's government is quote, furious with china. now, what action the president takes, we don't know, but it could be new tariffs, a change

in the trading status of hong kong, limits on chinese students at american universities, or other measures to punish china. when it happens, you will see it. that announcement really hangs over the market. in advance of the president's announcement, stock prices show losses this morning. actually made worse by kudlow's statement of the government being furious at china. futures dropped a little on that statement. the dow is looking down about 170, down about 14 for the s&p, just a three-point loss for the nasdaq. now, here is the ugly background to the twitter versus trump fight. rioting in minneapolis. dozens of buildings set on fire. police chased out of the precinct that was involved in the death of george floyd. just before 1:00 a.m. eastern, the president put out a series of tweets. one of them referring to t minneapolis contained the following sentence, quote, any difficulty and we will assume control. when the looting starts, the

shooting starts. thank you. well, twitter flagged that tweet, saying it glorified violence. they didn't take it down but they put a warning label on it. this is the second time they have done that. they appear to be targeting the president. twitter is a public platform now apparently engaging in political bias. that's my opinion. i'm inclined to say thank heaven it's friday. "varney & company" is about to begin. we are not happy with china. we are not happy with what's happened. all over the world, people are suffering. 186 countries. all over the world they're suffering. we're not happy. stuart: we're not happy. all right. now, we don't have a time for the president's news conference but here again are some of the actions that he might take.

new tariffs, end hong kong's special trading relationship, kick out chinese grad students with ties to china's military and/or communist party, target senior chinese officials with sanctions. gordon chang joins us. gordon is vigorously opposed to xi jinping's communist government. welcome to the program. it seems to me there's trouble for both sides in any of these punitive options. what say you? >> yes, the relationship will get more tense, but we've got to remember that china is driving this, stuart. we have seen china put its troops deep into other territory, it has moved in forceful manner against six of its east china sea neighbors. it has also increased the tempo against the u.s. navy with these dangerous intercepts on china's periphery and of course, there are threats of invasion of hong kong and -- taiwan and what it's doing in hong kong. the chinese are going to view

today's press conference as a test of will, and if president trump in their view fails, what we are going to see is even more hostile and belligerent chinese behavior. so stuart, i don't know what to say except that this is not really a u.s. issue. this is what china is driving the international community towards. stuart: okay. gordon, i want to play for you this clip from joe biden speaking at a university in china. this was back in 2011. listen to what he's got to say. >> in order to cement this robust partnership we have to go beyond close ties between washington and beijing which we're working on every day, go beyond it to include all levels of government, go beyond it to include classrooms and laboratories, athletic fields and boardrooms. stuart: i don't know what joe biden is saying now but gordon, what's your response to what he said back then?

>> well, that's obviously the product of five decades of failed american engagement policy to china. you know, the vice president can talk about more chinese involvement in the united states, but china was absolutely determined to remove american involvement and influence in china, and that's what xi jinping did during the obama years and what he's been doing during the trump years. so yeah, it sounds nice but it is actually naive. i think dangerous, because we can see china's communism is not reformable which means the only way we can protect ourselves, stuart, is to reduce our vulnerability to it which means reducing trade, reducing investment, reducing all sorts of cooperation, especially in the tech area. stuart: all right. we will find out what we are going to do a little later this morning. gordon chang, thank you very much indeed. now, i want you to listen to what larry kudlow had to say just moments ago on fox news. roll tape. >> frankly, the u.s. government

is i'll use the word furious at what china has done in recent days and weeks and months. they have not behaved well and they have lost the trust, i think, of the whole western world. stuart: all right. i want to bring in market watcher mark tepper. it seems to me that china is going to be a problem for this market. what do you say? >> yeah, so china actually remains the elephant in the room just as they have always been. if you look at the markets, the s&p actually is exactly where it was prior to us signing the phase one trade deal. so china was the catalyst that took us from 3,000 to 3400 and china has caused literally every single pullback in the market over the course of the last 18 months, including the virus. our relationship with them deteriorating, it seems less and less likely the phase one deal is actually solid. they are becoming more aggressive while other countries are reeling from the virus. but they need to be dealt with head-on.

if that means the market pulls back in the short term, so be it, because in the long run, all of our 401(k)s are going to be very happy, very thankful that we didn't allow ourselves to get bullied into submission. stuart: got it. hold on a second. this morning, just about a half hour ago, we noticed a big jump in personal income and a big drop in personal spending. now, aside from that, what signals are you seeing for the market to keep going up? >> all the talk has been about flattening the curve, the virus curve, but we have finally begun to flatten the other curve. yesterday we saw continuing jobless claims unexpectedly fall which means people are going back to work, which is great, because that's really what matters most for the stock market. 70% of our economy is consumer spending, and consumers don't want to spend when they're scared. they don't want to spend when they have no job. today's numbers prove that. the consumer needs to be employed. we need to have confidence and typically in that order. having a job leads to

confidence. now, on the technical side of things, there's lots of good stuff happening there, too. right now we are in the 99 percentile of s&p stocks trading above their 50-day moving average and historically when that's been the case, the s&p is up about 12% 12 months later. that would put us back at all-time highs within a year. who would have thunk we would be in the deepest recession since the great depression and be right back at all-time highs within 15 months. that's what we're watching. stuart: it has been an astonishing year and we aren't even halfway through. mark tepper, thank you very much indeed. by the way, literally moments ago, the president came out with a one-word tweet. unusually short and to the point. the word is, china. exclamation point. there you have it. i'm going to check some other stocks for you. first of all, williams-sonoma saw a big rise in online sales, actually, up $6 this morning. that's 9%.

ups has announced a new surcharge on deliveries from retailers such as amazon, target, best buy. that's because of the flood of orders they received during the lockdown. the surcharge starts on may 31st. ups down a fraction. some retail earnings for you. how about costco. they took a hit from the virus. extra costs took a chunk out of their bottom line, about $68 million out. but costco this morning is down a bit but still above $300 a share. nordstrom, another virus ice age story. sales down 40% but their ceo says they are ready to weather the rest of the storm and they gave a rosy forecast for the second quarter. nonetheless, nordstrom down 4%. let's get to the great reopening. yes, it is moving forward. the states on your screen easing more restrictions as of this morning. this is what's been helping the market, the great reopening. come on in, ashley. you have numbers showing the economy is indeed bouncing back. what have you got?

ashley: i do. certainly do. let's begin with air travel. we talked a lot about this and how decimated the airlines have been and how nervous people are to get back in the air but the tide is turning, as they say. the number of let's see, daily passengers screened down 80% or 88%, actually, year over year, but the average over the past seven days has tripled since those mid-april lows. you can see that graph coming down through march 31st but now moving on up. let's take a look at restaurants if we can. seated diners at restaurants, according to the open table network, at the best level now since march 17th. that's still down more than 80% year over year but at one point, you can see that flat line, that number was down 99.9%. slowly but surely, we are starting to get back out to the restaurants when we can. take a look at hotels. occupancy rates across the country have risen now for five straight weeks. you can see them crashing down just after around april 20th but

now on the way back up. the occupancy rate for the week ending may 16th, 32.4%, nearly 11 million rooms sold. that's up from a low of 21%. pretty darned good. all right. let's take a look at another aspect of the economy, trucking. truck stop.com says weekly index has improved for four straight weeks and available loads are now up 27%. that's as of the week ending may 18th. then let's take a look at the freight. we are starting to move freight aga again. freight shipments matched to available trucks, the index was up 22% from the previous week. so as you can see, a broad look at the different economies, we are seeing improvements. stuart: i love to see it. thanks, ash. all right. look at futures, please. the china announcement from the president coming up at some point this morning, that's really hurting the market.

we are down 200 points for the dow industrials. as we mentioned at the top of the hour, president trump's going to hold that press conference on china. still no word on what time it will happen but when it does happen, we will cover it, obviously. some of the big tech names reportedly helping out prominent chinese surveillance companies that have been blacklisted. we will explain all of that. right now, we've got the big tech companies on the upside this morning. the forecast, the weather forecast, not looking real good for tomorrow's second attempt at the historic space launch in florida. maybe second time's the charm? we can surely hope so. nasa administrator jim bridenstine joins me next. more after this. 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 tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. and it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations.

so it's like my streaming service. well except now, you're binge learning. for a limited time, get up to $800 when you open and fund an account. call 866-300-9417 or visit tdameritrade.com/learn. ♪

stuart: now to the ugly situation in minneapolis. another night of violence. numerous fires were set. some are still burning. this follows the death of george floyd at the hands of the minneapolis police. president trump tweeted about the riot. twitter then flagged one of those tweets. come in, susan. why did twitter flag it and what does it mean for the trump versus twitter fight here? susan: obviously escalate tensions between the social media platform and president trump, taking unprecedented action overnight. twitter actually hiding now from public view one of president trump's tweets, the one you just mentioned, and slapping a warning label on it. as you see there in that yellow box. that means you can only retweet it with a comment, you can't like it, you can't retweet it and you can't send it on. so you know, we had president trump calling the demonstrators thugs and warning when the looting starts, the shooting starts and that's the line twitter took some i guess insult with. twitter saying it breaks the company's rules on glorifying violence, saying this tweet violates our policies,

especially that last line, and its historical connection to violence and the risk that it could inspire some similar actions today. so yesterday, we had the president signing that executive order when it comes to social media companies and removing some of the protective shields that social media companies enjoy like twitter and facebook from i guess escaping liability from users' posts and content it has on their web sites. however, this will likely be appealed and most likely won't be enacted. if you think about it, this comes after we had twitter for the first time also fact-checking president trump's tweets and that's why the u.s. president says these platforms are editorializing and should be treated as media companies. stuart: a very difficult situation but frankly, i don't know how you go to censor political speech on twitter. i don't know how you're going to do that. i just don't know. susan: how do you choose? stuart: and who's the decider? who makes the choice? i don't know. susan, thank you very much. more from you later. complete change of subject,

please. nasa and spacex will try again for their historic launch tomorrow and joining us now is jim bridenstine, nasa administrator. very good of you to come on the show today. i know you're real busy. elon musk gets all the publicity, spacex, for this launch. what's nasa's role? >> well, to start, this is about a $3.5 billion investment by the american taxpayer, and of course, spacex will be launching to the international space station, which is about $150 billion investment by the american taxpayer, and nasa's goal here is this is a public/private partnership. our goal all along has been to develop a private company or in this case, numerous private companies that can take our astronauts to the international space station commercially. in other words, we want to buy services and of course, we don't just want to be one customer of many customers in a robust commercial marketplace for launch. we want to have numerous

providers that are competing on cost and innovation and safety driving down costs, increasing access to space. look, nasa is at a crossroads here. this is a new dawn in how we view human space flight not just for the united states of america but for the world. stuart: okay. so you carry the astronauts to the space station. they come back again. then what? what does the public/private partnership do after delivering people to the space station? does it go to the moon? does it go to mars? what happens next? >> well, certainly we do have a moon program. president trump has been the absolute best president since john f. kennedy when it comes to space exploration so that program is under way but for this mission, it's just to the international space station. we're using the international space station to commercialize low earth orbit in general. we are compounding pharmaceuticals in a way that you cannot do on the -- in the gravity well of earth. we are creating immunization

like for pneumonia in a way that you cannot create immunizations on earth. we are advancing materials. we are proving that we can print human organs in 3d in space in a way you cannot do here on earth, because in the gravity well of earth, that tissue will just go flat. but in space, the tissue grows in three dimensions. in other words, we are revolutionizing life on earth by using the resource that is the microgravity or almost zero gravity of space. today it's about launch but we are using the international space station to commercialize these markets. think about this, stuart varney. you are going to love this. imagine somebody with macular degeneration is about to lose their eyesight. we are proving on the international space station right now that we can create advanced materials, we can create an artificial retina for the human eye that is one or two atoms thick. something you cannot do on earth. imagine flying to the international space station with a box that fits in the palm of your hand and in there is all

the material robotically to create a thousand artificial retinas. that box goes to space for a number of weeks, it comes home and each one of those artificial retinas are reimbursed by medicare at $50,000 to $75,000 apiece. in other words, the business case closes. but it's about fiber optics that are improving as well. there is a robust -- yes, sir. stuart: no, i don't mean to interrupt you because that's really good stuff. you are explaining what we are getting out of this and the extraordinary prospects for the future. jim bridenstine, thank you very much for being with us. fingers crossed for the launch tomorrow. we hope you get off okay. thank you. see you soon. let me go to elon musk. he's just received a big chunk of change from tesla. susan, how much and why did he get it? susan: well, he gets his first tranche of $775 million opportunity to sell some of his options at a cheaper price so he bought it at $350. the stock price is trading at

above $800 so you do the math. he pockets the difference which equates to $775 million once he gets to sell all of it. the reason he gets this privilege is because tesla in its market cap has to hold above $100 billion for six months. so far, it looks like we are past that point or very close to it. i was looking through that s.e.c. filing yesterday. elon musk has only paid $23,000 last year, compare that to $2.3 billion he was paid in 2019 but still, if he pockets some of this stock sale, that's still pretty good change for a year, don't you think? stuart: it's a wonderful piece of change but i'm told he will put a lot of that money into his space project which i'm all in favor of. susan: the surprising part was that he's now increased his holdings to 20% of the company. that's worth about $30 billion. stuart: wow. that guy is quite an entrepreneur. all right. look at the futures, please. we will be down at the opening bell. the market really worried about what the president will say

about china. still to come, the business owner who is suing governor newsom. wineries that serve food can open. wineries that offer only tastings cannot. we are talking to a very important vineyard owner. that's in the 11:00 hour this morning. we'll be right back. 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. ♪

we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get 2 months free.

stuart: check the futures one more time. couple of minutes away from the opening bell. wor we're still down just over 200 points. how about the big tech companies? susan, there are some of them reportedly helping chinese companies blacklisted chinese companies. which of the big techs are doing that? susan: talking about amazon, microsoft and google. according to this research website top ten vpn, they say amazon is supporting nine of those blacklisted companies, google is supporting seven and microsoft continues to work with four of them. here's a list of the 18 surveillance companies that were blacklisted in october by the commerce department, and they were blacklisted specifically for human rights violations and abuses when it comes to the suppression and repression of the chinese uighurs, estimated a million are being in concentration and detainment in these camps right now. amazon and microsoft and google say that they are just doing web

hosting, maybe they are doing some content delivery networks but nothing directly with them. still, though, you would probably have to take a closer look at some of these business ties. stuart: true, but look, none of those stocks which you mentioned are under pressure this morning. in fact, they are going the other way. i look at microsoft and they are up $1.44, reaching $182 this morning. google is up, amazon's at $2400 a share. apple is at $319.59. susan: well, they have been sold off this week because there's been a rotation from growth to value, value meaning some of these stocks that have not come back from the depths of march, talking about boeing and at & t and those more traditional blue chip companies. stuart: yep. you got that right. now we are still looking at a market that's going to open on the downside this morning. we've got about 30 seconds to go before that opening bell rings and we start trading. it's a friday morning. i've got to say that one thing that really is overhanging this market this morning is the

president's announcement coming up of what he's going to do with china. he says he's very unhappy, there could be sanctions of all kinds. we'll see when he makes the announcement. larry kudlow says our government is quote, furious with china, and that is putting out some negative sentiment this morning. the bell has stopped ringing. they have started trading. right from the start, we are on the down side. so far, it's not a huge loss. i would say about two-thirds of the dow 30 are in the red, down. about one-third are up and the loss at this moment is limited to a half percentage point on the dow. how about the s&p 500? a broader indicator, of course. that is down about .33%. as for the nasdaq, i've got a suspicion that won't be down very much. no, it's up, a fraction. a nine-point gain, .1%. but it is on the upside. i want to show you the social media stocks. they are very much in the news this morning. we've got the trump versus

twitter fight. we've got president trump signing that executive order limiting the liability or rather, extending liability to those social network companies, and all of them are down except for snap and google. they are up today. now, some of the big u.s. companies with a lot of exposure to china on your screens, starbucks, mcdonald's, nike, boeing on the down side but apple still staying up. china stocks themselves, where are they? again, it's a mixed bag. only baidu on the down side. alibaba struggling but almost back to $200 a share. the rest of them, up very slightly. now, the bottom line this morning is another big day for retail. they have been reporting, two big ones reporting this morning. ash, first of all, take me through costco. what are they doing? ashley: yeah. costco, as you can see, their shares moving slightly lower in the early going here. they saw a huge surge in shopping in the early weeks of the pandemic as people kind of

stocked up and panic bought but that growth, of course, cooled off as people stopped stockpiling at the same level. they were told to stay at home so you can imagine shares were hurt at costco. let's look at the net income, $906 million a year ago. fiscal third quarter which just finished, that came in at $838 million on the net income. do the math. the net loss, $68 million for costco. let's take a look at same store sales. they were up ultimately 4.8%. not bad for costco but certainly much better in the early going in the latest quarter as opposed to the end. let's take a look at nordstrom. nordstrom sales as you can see down 10% as it opens today and that last earnings call showed that sales were down 40% in the fiscal first quarter. but it says it has enough finances, nordstrom says, to weather the storm, unlike other

retail chains, as we know, such as neiman marcus, jc penney, to name just a few. nordstrom says it does have the money and liquidity it says to weather the storm until they can get all their stores reopened. stuart: you probably can't see it, ashley, but on the left-hand side of the screen, i'm looking at williams-sonoma, up 9.5%. what did they do so right? ashley: well, of course, they were flat sales like everyone else have suffered but you know where they have done very well is on e-commerce. i was just looking at the growth of revenue online is north of 30%. that is why you are seeing this stock kick in very nicely, nearly up 10%, right at $80 a share. so they are really cashing in for people who wanted to buy expensive spatulas. stuart: that's the old joke we used to run on this show. the $40 spatula. they never lived it down. they are doing very well today,

i've got to say. overall the market shows a small loss now. we went into the opening of trading and were going to be down about 200. well, we're not. we are three minutes in and down just 85 points and actually gaining some ground. susan, come on in about ups with these surcharges. what's going on here? susan: they are going to add extra cents per delivery during peak hours because look, in these covid times, most people are ordering online so there's a lot of shipping taking place and so the surcharges will i guess apply to a lot of big companies. amazon, best buy, a lot of these companies still use ups for last mile delivery, target as well. they are saying, ups is saying the last mile delivery and delivering straight to the door has increased by 70%. now, 73% of packages they handle go straight to the door from the shipper. before last year, all of last year it was only 54%. so because of the spike and the need to first of all i guess, you know, pay the people that actually do the shipping and then to preserve their own

revenue, they are adding 30 cents per package. that's a lot of money for the millions as you can imagine being shipped around the world and across the u.s. in these times. stuart: good for revenue but the stock is down about 50 cents. that's it. not such a bad loss there. one of the big stories which we have covered for you is the meatpacking plants and some of the problems that they have been having. we now find that tyson, tyson foods, spike in virus cases at one of their plants. a big spike, at that. what have we got, ash? ashley: yeah. stone lake, iowa facility, a fo pork processing plant. of the 2517 workers tested, 555 of them tested positive for the coronavirus. that's more than the 22% of employees that would trigger an alert to the state. the company says look, we are going to shut it down temporarily and maybe try and restart later next week after giving this facility a very thorough cleaning. but you know, we have seen this

across the country. many plants have had to halt their production which has had an impact as we know on the food supply. many have started to re-fire up those facilities, even with limited number of workers. they are starting to crank up again but this just shows you that these tests have to be done regularly and in this case, it shows that more than 20% of the workers indeed tested positive for covid-19. stuart: ash, thanks very much. tyson foods down. check the big board. we did not go down 200 points at the opening bell as futures indicated but we are down 100 points after six minutes' worth of business. the ten-year treasury yield, haven't seen much difference in that over the past few days. the ten-year treasury now yields .67%. a little lower than we had been recently. the price of gold, where's that? $1744. it's up 16 bucks today. maybe that's the china tension working in there. as for the price of oil, still around, what, $33 a barrel as of this morning. take a look at electronic

arts, renewing their deal with the nfl for the madden game. that's a big deal. it's a big money maker, isn't it, susan? susan: there are also ten million people play this game. it's been around for 32 years. that's a long time. i didn't know that. that means even you might have played it. look, this exclusivity extends possibly through the 2026 season. i didn't know it was the only nfl simulation game allowed on the market. how extraordinary is that. that's been the case since 2005. wonder how much ea is paying nfl in order to have that exclusivity? stuart: i would like to know how much john madden made from that, since it's got his name on it. susan: probably recurring revenues. what do we call it, residuals in entertainment? stuart: that's right. yeah. huge. remember when we used to say, what did president trump say, huge? i think the recurring revenues will be huge on that.

thank you, susan. we are down 100 points for the dow jones average but i think the nasdaq is on the upside. yeah, big tech's doing okay this morning. as many as 400,000 new yorkers could get back to work by mid-june. this is under the city's phase one reopening plan. how's that going to roll out? we will try to tell you. we are expecting president trump to make an announcement on china at some point today, as he says he is not happy with them. but i want to know what about the democrats? they have been nearly radio silent on china. and what about joe biden? we have an old clip, we have run it already, we will run it again, that suggests he will just let the country take advantage of us. it's an old clip but we will run it for you. chaos and another night of violence and riots in minneapolis over the death of george floyd. president trump is speaking out on it. but twitter is blocking users from seeing his latest tweet. we will have that story next. it's hard to eat a whole pizza.

but a slice is just right. that's why fidelity offers dollar-based trading. buy what you want based upon how much you want to spend, even if it's just a slice of a share.

currently, social media giants like twitter receive an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that they're a neutral platform which they're not. not an editor with a viewpoint. social media companies that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield. stuart: well, the president signed that executive order removing liability protection for social media companies. chaos in minneapolis in the wake of george floyd's death. watch as police are chased out of their own precinct, their own station, as rioters broke in and set it on fire. 500 national guardsmen activated as the chaos continued into the early morning hours. storefronts damaged, stores set on fire. the fire department putting out fires throughout the night. president trump tweeted about this, about the looting. he said look, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

twitter labeled that with a warning, saying his tweet violates their policy by glorifying violence. bruce daisley is with us, former vice president at twitter. bruce, welcome back to the program. right from the get-go, do you support twitter putting these labels on two trump tweets? >> well, it's immensely difficult. if you can imagine running a platform like twitter, it's impossible to not have a set of rules simply because if people were able to make threats, then clearly the platform, the revolution that social media represents would make it immensely unjust if they are all able to do that. i think what people have observed over the last few years, social media companies have really tried to stay out of the story and there's been a lot of pushback, lot of criticism from both sides have been criticizing the position of social media companies and i think they have reached a point

where they felt like they had to make an intervention because it was becoming -- it was becoming -- the news story was there. stuart: but bruce, they have only intervened against president trump. for example, why didn't they intervene against the iranian mullahs who tweet all the time, the most outrageous stuff? they don't censor them. they censor the president of the united states. >> far from it, routinely other people are censored. in fact, i used to have a job there where i was contacted all the time about people who were very upset we have taken some action against them. in fact, until now, we have -- i no longer work there, twitter set about trying to be [ inaudible ] an immensely difficult situation. i was reminded this week, the week of the albeit scrapped launch of the men into space, i was reminded, i was shown a video of ronald reagan's speech when the shuttle blew up in

1986, and it was a combination of elegance, sophistication, beautiful language and it just reminded me of a far more decorous time. i do feel we are living in an era where we should all take a pause and think about how we can get back to some of the values people like ronald reagan embodied when they were in power. stuart: i don't think you can do that. you can't just take a pause at a moment like this. you absolutely can't do this. somebody is going to make a political bias decision on the part of twitter or somebody else. i don't see how we can really live with that. i just don't see it. all right. bruce, thanks for joining us. let's move on. it's only a matter of time. california deeply in the hole financially and now what are they going to do? tax the big tech companies. is that right, ash? who are they taxing? ashley: indeed they are. the state is facing a budget deficit of $54 billion so why not go after big business. why not indeed. they've got lots of money, right? guess what that's going to do? probably chase them out of the

state. regardless, they are looking at this tax, big companies with more than 500 workers would pay a tax, it basically works out to $275 per employee. so only a proposal. this would start in january next year and go for five years, expiring in december of 2026. oh, yeah. once a tax is put in place, it's very hard to get rid of it. we know that. seattle tried this back in 2018, doing basically the same thing until starbucks and amazon said yeah, you do that, we are going to start moving our projects somewhere else. they quickly backed off. so be interesting to see what happens in california, but do you really want to go after big business that's headquartered in your state when you are desperate for money? probably not. stuart: they are the crown jewels of the economy of your state. that's a fact. all right. we'll see. thanks very much, ash. we have a read on manufacturing in the midwest. it's called the chicago pmi. susan, what is it telling us?

susan: well, anything below 50 means contraction. right now we are looking at 32.3. this is a forward indicator which is what we are looking for in these covid times. so that's not good for manufacturing which means a big contraction but also, if you think about it, manufacturing only represents around 10% to 11% of the u.s. economy and we know it's been tough on the factory floors across america, but yesterday, there was a bright spot, continuing claims went down four million in the past week and some are saying the factory floors in america are opening up as states start to reopen. stuart: a reading of 32 is really really low. look at this. the dow is at i'm going to say the high of the day because it's down only 40 points. the s&p is up and the nasdaq is up. that's a real turnaround from the opening bell. we have this for you. a defiant barber in michigan says he's staying open despite the state's lockdown orders. he is defying a court order he

is to stay closed. he joins us next hour with his story. disney world set to reopen in july, but with a whole bunch of safety measures in place. our next guest says the reopening will be a success even though they are taking away a lot of the fun. professor who studies the theme parks, next. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference.

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: 23 minutes into the friday morning trading session. it's a mixed market picture. down on the dow, up nicely on the nasdaq, up a half percentage point. a fraction lower for the s&p. i'll call it a mixed market. how about disney. planning to reopen their florida parks in july. there will be a lot of changes, however. for a start, contactless payment, expanded mobile ordering for food, temperature screenings for everybody, face masks for everybody, no parades, no fireworks and you can't hug mickey. how about that? our next guest is a professor who specializes in theme parks. big zaneti is a professor at the university of central florida. welcome to the program, professor. with all these restrictions -- >> thank you for having me. stuart: -- it's really a different place. will it be successful?

will it pull in the crowds with all these restrictions? >> well, i think the thing to remember is that walt disney world is a humongous property and there's actually a lot of room inside the theme park to spread out so you can do all the social distancing and on an average day at walt disney world, they never reach anywhere near the full capacity of the property. so even at reduced capacity, you still can fit quite a lot of people in the parks. however, they are -- stuart: they say they are allowed -- they say they are limiting capacity to 25%. i don't know what it is but i think it's about 25%. can you make a profit on that? will they get 25% capacity? will they fill it to 25%? >> i think there's enough demand. there's tons of disney fans out there that are just willing to come back to the parks, especially in florida. they don't even have to travel very far. stuart: do you think the magic has gone out of it, though? just talking to our executive producer, his young daughter won't be able to hug mickey. no real contact with the

characters. that takes a little of the magic out, doesn't it? >> i think it does a little bit, but at the same time, they are still going to have mickey. you will still see a lot of the characters. they will be on different floats and different ways to see them around. if you look at how shanghai opened their park, the characters still appeared. they're just not touching you in any way. stuart: so all round, you say this is going to be a success for disney when they reopen, restrictions or no? >> i sure hope so. i think the biggest thing we have to worry about is the weather in florida and how hot people are going to be wearing masks all day. stuart: okay. tell it how you see it. professor, thanks very much for joining us. i hope you're right. i really do hope you're right. thanks for joining us. appreciate it, sir. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. thank you. stuart: now, listen to this. i'm going to admit that i was wrong about elon musk. okay. this was years ago. i called him a showman. i'm taking it back. i think he's now the most

important executive in the world, with enormous impact on all of us. i'll back up my case in the 11:00 my take. we are still expecting to hear from president trump on china at any moment. when we hear from him, you will, too. but what about joe biden? his own words back in 2011 suggest he would be weak on china. more "varney" after this. >> in order to cement this robust partnership, we have to go beyond close ties between washington and beijing. we go beyond it to include all levels of government. ... is dentures only new poligrip cushion and comfort will do. the first and only formula with adaptagrip

cushioning technology. choose new poligrip cushion and comfort. and my side super soft? yes, with the sleep number 360 smart bed, on sale now, you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. can it help me fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. so, you can really promise better sleep? not promise. prove. don't miss the final days of the memorial day sale, save $1,000 on the sleep number 360 special edition smart bed, now only $1,799. ends sunday. and let me tell you something, rodeo... i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. it's just a loan designed for older homeowners, and, it's helped over a million americans. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home.

it's a loan, like any other. big difference is how you pay it back. find out how reverse mortgages really work with aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage guide. eliminate monthly mortgage payments, pay bills, medical costs, and more. call now and get your free info kit. other mortgages are paid each month, but with a reverse mortgage, you can pay whatever you can, when it works for you, or, you can wait, and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. discover the option that's best for you. call today and find out more in aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage loan guide. access tax-free cash and stay in the home you love. you've probably been investing in your home for years... making monthly mortgage payments... doing the right thing... and it's become your family's heart and soul... well, that investment can give you tax-free cash just when you need it.

learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse mortgage loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio, and so much more. look, reverse mortgages aren't for everyone but i think i've been 'round long enough to know what's what. i'm proud to be a part of aag, i trust 'em, i think you can too. trust aag for the best reverse mortgage solutions. so you can... retire better.

stuart: half hour into the session, and we've got a mixed picture for you the dow is down about 120, nasdac is up a third of 1% small loss for the s&p. this is interesting, what we saw this morning. personal spending in april dropped at the steepest pace on record, but personal income was way up 10.5% that is really an extraordinary gain i can explain it too. stocks pretty much mixed across-the-board today as we wait to hear what the president is going to tell us about what he's going to do with china. i should tell you that earlier, larry kudlow told fox news that our government is "furious" with china's move on hong kong. i'll have more on that in my take coming up. but first, we're getting numbers , these are numbers here consumer sentiment what do we

have ashley? ashley: final reading for may, stu coming in at 72.3, the expectations i know you hate the word, but the estimate was 74, so falling a little short and it's below the preliminary number of 73.7, again 72.3 consumer sentiment reading for the month of may, it was 71.8 in april, so you want to take a little bit of comfort we're up slightly from april in march it was 89.1, so if you want to look at the graph on this one, ever so slightly edging higher. stuart: maybe we should look at the graph as opposed to expectations. ashley: yeah, do that. stuart: look at the graph. and ryan belski is with us, and brian i always think of you as almost a permanent bull because you have been bullish, you keep on saying the stock market is going to keep going higher. you're still in that camp, the market keeps going higher. >> you know, here we are thanks and welcome, thanks for having us and hello from minneapolis where we're all fine here, by

the way. stuart: oh, good. >> i would say this. i think that to be bullish or bearish to have this type of by area it opinions is very dangerous and i think what we saw in april, i'm sorry in february and march were that people were way too bearish, and what you're seeing with the real numbers in terms of not only economic numbers, but earnings numbers is a lot less bad than people thought, and this is one of your classic turns in the markets where you move from despair to hope and i think there is hope and when you're an american, you believe in your country and i'm an american and i believe in my country, but more importantly, stu, i believe that we still have the best companies in the world here, and i think those people that are right now being excessive but bearish whether or not they are portfolio managers, hedge fund managers, economist it's because they missed the move and they are bitter and angry and i still think there's room to go here

and we're standing behind our 3,400 target within the next 12 months and we think it's going to be hit some time in the first quarter of next year. stuart: brian let's see what you think of this. i was intrigued at those numbers that came out this morning. spending way down, income way up now, income was up because of those government transfers essentially, but it seems when you combine the two, spending down, income up, you are looking just a few months down the road at some serious spending power, hitting our economy. i find that bullish for the economy and the market. what about you? >> we have been very bullish on this fact and i'm so glad that you're delineating this in a very clear fashion too you have to also remember savings rates are at all times highs as well. april clearly we were in lockdown mode and what wie receive with respect to the retail business and consumer discretionary the amazon effect of the last 10 years cut down capacity and forced investors and consumers alike to be much more selective, and they are buying their stuff on the amazon

machine or costco, or a fancy boutique orphans it retail and that's about it and so our theme for consumer discretionary is lifestyle and we've done a tremendous amount of work over the last 30-plus years to know that you need to be overweight in your portfolio consumer discretionary during a recession , because that's when it really starts to take a foothold and you buy the best companies coming out of here and that's why we've had long term core positions and names like lu lulemon and costco and walmart and t j maxx. these are the names that lead and continue to lead and investors we think still under expose those names. stuart: you're still looking for 3,400 on the s&p and i see it now right at 3,000 so we'll leave it there. brian belski, still bullish,bbb. brian thanks very much, indeed. >> [laughter] stuart: i'm going to show you a live shot outside of our windows

this is middown, manhattan you're looking at sixth avenue at friday morning at 10:04 eastern it's a ghost town but do you know what? that could change, ash, the mayor is talking about a very partial reopening? ashley: indeed, phase i at least it's something, right? within the first couple of weeks of june, maybe by mid-june we will see up to 400,000 new yorkers back to work, that's according to the mayor he says construction manufacturing, wholesale and restricted retail stores can get back open limiting the workforce capacity though to 50%, those stores be restricted to curbside pickup , or in-store pickup, but it's interesting, he says that this is phase i. he says we'll have a look at phase ii but he calls it exciting and all of the numbers with regard to the coronavirus shows that we're on the other side of the curve most definitely but he's doing it very cautiously and again

400,000 back maybe by mid-june, that's a very tentative start but at least we're talking about it. stuart: yeah, it's a couple of weeks away, all right, ash thanks very much indeed. i'm going to put mgm stock price up on the screen it's down a little and they are going to reopen some of their vegas strip casinos on june 4, and the stock s at $17 a share. its been badly beaten down recently. how about disney? they are canceling the fast pass system when they reopen and no dining reservations for the rest of the year. disney at 116 this morning. how about apple? starbucks, mcdonald's, nike, boeing, five of them we're calling them stocks with china exposure, mixed bag this morning , mostly on the down side. now, here are the china stocks that we follow for you. alibaba, j. d., again a mixed picture there only jd on the up

side. now this. we are about to hear from the president. he is not happy with china. the hong kong crackdown lying about the virus, stealing our science and he's really not happy. what can he do? several options. he could end the special trading status that hong kong currently enjoys, looks like that is a near certainty. he could impose new tariffs on china's products that come here, that will be directly punitive. he could offer financial incentives to american companies to leave china and bring jobs and manufacturing back. he could target students at colleges here who have ties to the chinese military. that appears to be happening already. now, maybe there are other options. we'll find out soon, but clearly , the world's two largest economies are on the brink of another clash and that means frankly, trouble for everyone. the president feels justified because they started it, and he

has the support of most republicans, but what about the democrats? we've not heard much from them recently but we did find this from then-vice president biden, speaking in china. you got to watch this. >> we're going to cement this robust partnership, we have to go beyond close ties between washington and beijing, which we're working on every day. go beyond it to include all levels of government, go beyond it to include classrooms and laboratories, athletic fields and boardrooms. stuart: oh, okay he said it and flat out opened the door to china and china walked right through it. joe biden cannot now accuse the president, our president of being weak. he can't do that. what i'm looking for is the reaction of the market. how does the world of money feel about the trampling of freedom in hong kong? i don't think it will be popular because no freedom means less trade and less profit. i don't think punitive tariffs will be popular either, less

trade, less profit, but i do think that making china accountable will be popular in the long term, especially if money and jobs return here. when hard line communists are allowed to ride across the globe , democracy takes a hit and so does capitalism. wall street doesn't care much for communist china. we'll hear it from the president , very soon. you heard what i've got to say and so did tammy bruce who joins us now. tammy first of all -- >> good morning. stuart: would you just take a look, i'm not going to run it again but you saw what joe biden said in china, just a few years ago. nine years ago. i don't know how he gets out of that? >> well he doesn't but he's also a reflection of the establishment. we know there's been a political argument about he and his son's financial relationship with china, but again, they weren't alone. the establishment in this global world order was effectively askings to run into china's burning house and to jump into bed with them and we find ted bu

ndy there next to us but that was the new normal. the fact of the matter is china consistently, the chinese communist party is a malignant actor that even with us thinking well, you know, weave got trade going on and we've got negotiations, they unleash the coronavirus, so even if what we think is a normal environment , that kind of a dynamic occurs and that not only itself has to be addressed, but the nature, yes, of what they've done to hong kong and pompeo is determined that hong kong is no longer an independent entity, which of course effects the nature of our relationship with hong kong. what they're still doing in the south china sea of course has been problematic for years but ignored by our establishment , donald trump has brought in at least a new realistic point of view about the problem next door is that you don't embrace it. you have to deal with it, and either get it rejected and fix it or reform it.

stuart: do you think the country is behind punitive action by the president against china? because it will mean pain in the united states. i mean, it's not pain-free. it's going to be painful. will the country support him? well look, that was the argument when all of this fight regarding sanctions and tariffs and all of that first began. stuart: it was. >> but what the country found is that even with all of that starting, the beginning of his presidency, this was a frame work of his. it was a campaign element, and so we saw that in fact things changed a little bit but look at still our economy, american ingenuity, american power, and opportunism, we overcome that. we understand that we've seen the difference. if china is left without being answered to anyone, if the chinese communist party is in charge, you get a worldwide pandemic, and so what is the worst pain? what we've been going through for the last few months and not holding them accountable, or in fact moving through forward,

understanding our power and using it for not just our benefit, but for the benefit of the world and first and foremost , for the benefit of the chinese people. stuart: you know, tammy you make a lot of sense, and you're a very welcome guest on this program. >> thank you. i learned it from you. thank you, stuart. stuart: flattery is the mother's milk of television you know that tammy bruce everyone she's all right appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: back to that market, se. down 135 for the dow, down on the nasdac, is 1 points, down on the s&p 11 points as well. uber, check them please. uber says it's launching, this is interesting, launching an hourly option in select cities, in other words, pay them $50 for an hour, i like that. the stock is up but only at 34 almost $35 a share. nasa and spacex still targeting tomorrow for their launch to the international space station. the launch was scrubbed this was a couple of days ago because of

bad weather all right susan take me through tomorrow if you can. >> yes, attempt number two for 3:22 p.m. eastern time and after wednesday's launch was scrubbed and a countdown before crossing their fingers hopefully a launch on saturday so a lot of things have to go right for this launch, that includes of course better weather near the launch site but also in the surrounding areas as well so the east coast and the north atlantic has to be free of active weather and this is just in case the astronauts have to abort and then splash down into the ocean. so saturday is looking a little bit better, not great, according to the weather forecast, so 40- 70% chance of thunderstorms but hopefully no tornado warnings near the launch site which took place on wednesday, but we just spoke to the nasa administrator and he told us how important this mission is. listen. >> we're using the international space station to commercial commercialize the orbit in general so we're compounding pharmaceuticals in a way that you cannot do on the gravity in the gravity well

of earth, we're advancing materials, we're proving that we can print human organs in 3d, in space, in a way you can not do here on earth, because in the gravity wall of earth that tissue will just go flat, but in space, the tissue grows in three dimensions. >> and cutting costs as well. the space is saving nasa and the u.s. government a lot of money previously when they paid the russian government to launch u.s. astronauts near the iss or to the iss it cost over $ 80 million per seat and with spacex it's costing $55 million so that's a pocket of change there. stuart: it's a fine thing for the first time i think the public is fired up about space travel again. >> its been 10 years so yes. its been a while. stuart: we've been on pause for a lot of time. president trump promised to take swift action and soon on china, we're waiting for his news conference and when the president appears when he makes his announcement you'll hear it directly right here of course. the great reopening, key midwestern states now easing

some restrictions today. one major city staying closed and we're going to take you to that city. i'm calling it a revolt. businesses across the country fighting back against the lockdown, one michigan barber defying court orders to stay closed, he says he's not backing down, he'll keep cutting hair even if it means going to jail. he'll tell us his story next. >> ♪ ♪ 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. ♪

100% online car buying. carvana's had a lot of firsts. stick with it. car vending machines. and now, putting you in control of your financing. at carvana, get personalized terms, browse for cars that fit your budget, then customize your down payment and monthly payment. and these aren't made-up numbers. it's what you'll really pay, right down to the penny. whether you're shopping or just looking. it only takes a few seconds, and it won't affect your credit score. finally! a totally different way to finance your ride.

only from carvana. the new way to buy a car.

staying connected your way you're just a tap away from personalized support on xfinity.com. get faster internet speeds with a click. order xfi pods to your home in a snap. or change your xfinity services with just a touch. all in one place.

you're only seconds away from all of that on xfinity.com. faster than a call. easy as a tap. now that's simple, easy, awesome. stuart: we have turned south pretty much across-the-board we opened with a mixed market and now we're lower for the dow, the s&p and the nasdac. not a major loss, we're waiting to see what the president says

about china. salesforce, they're down they lowered their forecast for the rest of the year and look at that down nearly 5%. more reopenings today, washington d.c. and virginia easing lockdown restrictions. all right, ashley, how far are they really easing? ashley: well it's a good question. d.c. maybe about that much, let me show you what we're looking at in d.c. they have seen a 14-day decline in the number of virus cases so that has allowed this easing to take place. restaurants can open outdoor dining with physical distancing. retailers offering curbside pick up or delivery, barber shops and salons can reopen with again physical distancing, parks , fields, tennis courts, golf courses can reopen, just don't gather in groups of 10 or more. let's take a look at virginia if we can we're looking at what they could be doing there, public beaches by the way in virginia will be reopening, and there are restrictions, however,

no tents, no gatherings of 10 or more and no team sports so if you're going to play a game of soccer inside a tent at a virginia beach you can't do it, but nothing about lounging as we know in florida you're not allowed to lounge. you can just walk quickly by the ocean, but there you have it it is a start, and virginia by the way, could begin phase ii very soon. so little steps but we're getting there slowly but surely. stuart: do you remember that movie what about bob? baby steps? ashley: yeah of course. stuart: it's a classic, my favorite. i'm staying on the reopening theme folks, here we go shops and restaurants in the midwest reopening today up to a point again you got to qualify it like that. much of illinois is entering phase iii of reopening and that's today; however in chicago , illinois they're not. grady trimbul is at a restaurant that can not open. tell me more, grady. reporter: so stuart all of illinois can begin outdoor dining today, except restaurants

in the city of chicago, like this one so they have all this space out here that they won't be able to use until five days from now when the mayor says it's okay for them to do outdoor dining, but get this. we're at the city limit right here, right across this street is the suburb of evanston, which means this restaurant across the street from the one that can't open can start outdoor dining at that patio area as well as the entire parking lot area so the owner of guliver 's in chicago says he's been dealing with people leaving for indiana and wisconsin and now he's losing business to restaurants in other cities outside of chicago as well. >> given that other states are already opening up and seeing good results, people are flock ing to go to wisconsin, and other states where it's packed at this point, and people are just tired. they want to come out and get out of their house. reporter: in fact, the owner of

gullivers has another location just outside of chicago which is allowed to reopen for outdoor dining today. the owner at this restaurant and many other restaurants in chicago especially those close to the city limits say this just doesn't make any logical sense. stu? stuart: i understand that but i'm going to tell you grady you've got a lot more traffic in the background in chicago than we've got right here in midtown manhattan. you've got a lot more. you practically got run over, grady we'll set you free and see you later. i'm staying in the midwest here. a court has ordered barber shop in michigan to close. that same shop defied the lockdown orders and had reopened. carl mankey is back with us the guy who runs that salon. welcome back. you opened up, the court says shut down, what are you going to do? >> i'm going to stay open. stuart: okay, what happens if they come to arrest you? >> well they will drag me out in handcuffs i guess. i won't resist arrest but you

know, listen i've been in business longer than this governor has been alive. i'm exercising my right to work. i lived under 14 different administrations starting with fd r. i've never seen anything like this , not even in the 1960s when we had the cruel tests going on at that time. this type of oppression going on by the democratic party, this type of censoring, free speech, right to work, human rights, i think the people in this state should be up in arms over this. the dentists, the chiropractors who practice the same distance that we do, are back to work. this is a type of selective prosecution, and it's unfair, it's illegal and as far as i'm concerned, the people in this state need to stand up, they need to open up, and like the field of dreams the people will show up. stuart: carl the last time we

visited you i asked you about those armed malitia people standing outside. if they come to arrest you, what are those malitia people going to do? i know they said you're not part of our operation but it is provocative when you've got guys with huge guns and camo outfits that is provocative, carl. you lose a lot of support with those guys outside. >> i understand, i understand stuart. you come from england this is a right to bear arms state and in this country we have that right to do that. and as far as recommending the rights and i'm not going to stand in the way of them. stuart: but it's a distraction carl. >> it's my first amendment rights. stuart: its got nothing to do with me coming from england i've lived in america for 45 years no it's not, it really doesn't. those guys standing outside with the guns that is a distraction. you are protesting your right to work, your right to open, your right to make a living, not protesting the second amendment

or supporting it, there are a distraction from your cause. >> well my cause is listen, as americans we all have the same cause. as americans, we stand together. i don't have, i'm not selecting my cause from their cause when the constitution is being violated and they are out of order and we have a police state action then everybody stands together in this country. and stuart i know you love this country and you're here. stuart: i do. >> and these are part of our god given rights. stuart: okay. carl, we're going to leave it at that but we'll keep in touch and see what happens and i wish you the very best of luck i really do, thank you, sir. all right interesting. cvs this has got, look at that on your screen. it's testing a new way to get your prescriptions what you're seeing on your screen is a driverless car. how about that? prescriptions via driverless car we'll tell you all about it. next though we're seeing some

signs of a come back for the economy. in a moment we have a top economist who says we could be in for a world of hurt. we'll be back.

lively hearing aids have been a game changer for me. the process with lively. is insanely easy, you take a hearing test on your computer the doctor programs it, it shows up at your house a few days later. you can stream calls or music through it, it's got multiple settings, audio adjustments, so you can raise and lower the levels. but it's a fraction of the cost of the other devices. it's instilled some confidence i didn't have before. try lively risk free for 100 days. visit listenlively.com

stuart: still waiting for the president's announcement on china and we're still down just a little all across-the-board on the market. let's get to the social media showdown between the president and twitter. the point here is that twitter flagged a tweet from the president about the situation in minnesota. susan, there are real cases of social media censorship here, right? >> well there are real cases of lawsuits alleging censorship, so let's go through prager university vs. google, this is the conservative advocacy group, filing lawsuit against google back in 2017 alleging that you tube had unfairly restricted access with some of its videos but then the california federal judge out right dismissed the case in 201e are private entities who create their own via sharing social media site and make their own decisions and appeals court actually upheld this decision in february of this year. now another high profile case against google, tulsi gabbard in

the former candidate in 2020 and google suspended her account and then she sued google last year after the brief suspension, alleging that the company is trying to undercut her bid for the parties nomination so in this case it's not just conservative bias being alleged on the democratic side as well so this suit, the lawsuit was dismissed in march again with the california district judge, saying that google is not in the u.s. government but then yesterday's executive order that president trump signed into law, again alleges that the social media companies are editorializ ing some of the content and his content, by the way, making this unprecedented move to shield one of his tweets on the website, so how should the social media companies been regulated. we just heard from ted cruz the texas senator by the way, stu saying there should be a criminal investigation into twitter. but the executive order i should mention to you signed yesterday, which removes some of the shield

s, the liability shields of the social media companies like twitter, like facebook enjoy sharing the liability they would get from some of the user content. that's an executive order which will likely not go into law because they can take it to court and appeal it for a long time. stuart: yeah, but i'm intrigued about what senator ted cruz is saying about criminal investigation. by the way, senator cruz will be on this show a little later. that's in our 11:00 hour this morning, ted cruz coming up for us. totally separately now, how do we get this economy going again? how do we get it up and running and in my opinion the best way to do that is to get people back to work and open up the economy. but joining us now is third way senior resident fellow and a former ford motor company chief economist, alan hughs. ellen, i think you want to see another big stimulus program , correct? that's how you think we get this economy going again, make your case. >> yes, good morning.

you know, when we get the employment report next friday, we're likely to see now cumulative job loss of around 30 million, and that is such a large number, even in april. we had an unemployment rate counting everyone including 6.4 million people that dropped out of the labor force, we had an unemployment rate above 20%. we are in very dire straights reopening the economy will certainly give us a little bit of a bounce. it could be temporary and that's what i'm concerned about. stuart: so what do you want do you want another stimulus program on top of what the federal reserve is doing and the stimulus programs that we've already seen, you want another one? what be in that next one? >> when you dig into the data what you find is that we cohen

counter a very severe recession following this reopening bounce. let me just give you a couple of signals there. one is that when we looked at all publicly traded companies, that had either an investment grade notch just one above junk or below investment grade, one in three of those companies had over 50,000 employees, so think about that. the financial conditions of our company are extremely challenged and they're ready to lay off more workers. you've seen a lot of these large companies already start to trend stuart: so what do you want? how would you resolve that? what would you do? >> we need support. we have got to help. stuart: what form would that support take? government, money farmed out to big companies? >> we need to provide way more

support than we're doing right now. stuart: for who? individual workers or companies >> look, this morning when we got the university of michigan consumer confidence report just at 10:00 eastern, a few minutes ago, there are a significant portion like 50% of households say their financial conditions are going to be difficult for the next five years. how can we get the economy going without more government support? it won't happen. stuart: so i'm pushing hard here , ellen forgive me for doing this. i'm pushing hard. what do you want? do you want an extension of the 600-dollar unemployment fund to the end of the year? >> absolutely. we need more help. we need it for healthcare. we need to help our hospitals. we need to help our companies. there are many different actions

and let me just mention another point here. if we delay and we don't provide this kind of support now, the recession will be far worse. this is not going to mend without more government support. a health crisis can lead to a very severe economic crisis if we don't help now. so it's kind of like the leak in your roof. if you let it sit there and you don't repair it, the repair is far more costly later on. stuart: okay. >> we have too many people right now that are unemployed that don't have jobs and we have too many businesses, i just mentioned over one out of three companies are on the edge and they're all large employers. they employ over 50,000 people. what do you think they're going to do if demand doesn't revise?

so the point is around what happens to demand conditions? if they're weak, i know having been at ford motor company -- stuart: we're out of time here. okay, i think there's a difference between us. you want a lot more government money farmed out into the economy. >> yes. stuart: okay, i hear you. we've got to leave it there i'm afraid, because we're out of time, but ellen thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: sure thing. totally different subject now. major league baseball still hashing out the terms of when and how players return to the field. we've got the story for you. we're awaiting that news conference from the president, where he's expected to announce new sanctions or action i should say against china. my next guest says whatever action we take will hurt us all. good story, we'll be back. president trump: we'll be announcing what we're doing tomorrow with respect to china, and we are not happy with china. look, this isn't my first rodeo...

and let me tell you something, i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. it's just a loan designed for older homeowners, and, it's helped over a million americans. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home. it's a loan, like any other. big difference is how you pay it back. find out how reverse mortgages really work with aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage guide. eliminate monthly mortgage payments, pay bills, medical costs, and more. call now and get your free info kit.

other mortgages are paid each month, but with a reverse mortgage, you can pay whatever you can, when it works for you, or, you can wait, and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. discover the option that's best for you. call today and find out more in aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage loan guide. access tax-free cash and stay in the home you love. you've probably been investing in your home for years... making monthly mortgage payments... doing the right thing... and it's become your family's heart and soul... well, that investment can give you tax-free cash just when you need it. learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse mortgage loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio, and so much more. look, reverse mortgages aren't for everyone but i think i've been 'round long enough to know what's what. i'm proud to be a part of aag, i trust 'em,

i think you can too. trust aag for the best reverse mortgage solutions. so you can... retire better.

stuart: as usual we check the market for you and right now we're still seeing quite a lot of red down 180 on the dow, down on the s&p, and look at the nasdac, a fraction lower, 8 points lower for the nasdac. president trump is going to hold that news conference on china today we're waiting for that to happen, when it does, you will see it. first though, i want you to listen to what president trump said last night. roll tape, please. president trump: we'll be announcing what we're doing tomorrow with respect to china and we are not happy with china, we are not happy with what's happened. all over the world, people are suffering, 186 countries, all over the world, they're suffer ing, we're not happy. stuart: okay, so that's the president last night. come in, susan because i think china is threatening counter measures right? >> that's right they say hong kong first of all it's their own sovreign issue to deal with an internal issue that the u.s. and other foreign countries should not step into,

and they have promised counter measures if president trump and the u.s. enact any type of measures and that could include sanctions, financial penalties, as you mentioned revoking some of these visas for chinese officials and also possibly students that have links back to the chinese government. also there's been talk though because often actment and now that the secretary of state mike pompeo says that hong kong is not independent of the mainland they can enact some of those measures in the hong kong and democracy act and some have said and floated the idea this could include maybe ways some of the export tariffs that come from hong kong. the hong kong government last night issued a statement saying that any sanctions would have a double-edged sword to them, and they say actually, u.s. enjoys a trade surplus with hong kong, one of the largest by the way amongst the trading partner, that the u.s. actually exports to hong kong and then doesn't by that much coming back and don't forget we have 1,300 u.s. firms have their headquarters in the

city and it's true, because if you raise export tariffs on hong kong goods you actually hurt the local economy and by extension you're hurting hong kong and not china. stuart: so our measures could hurt us. i think that's the way to put it >> that's what they are trying to say but then there's also talk that maybe there might be an emergency meeting of the u.s. security council but what are you going to do when china holds a permanent seat on the security council, and there are very few measures you can enact but tariffs i suspect are one of them. stuart: well we're going to see at some point this morning maybe by early this afternoon but we shall see , the markets waiting for this , susan thank you very much. i want to bring in arizona republican senator martha mc sally. senator, whatever action we take , everybody is going to get hurt. there's going to be pain but everybody here, do you think it's worth it? >> well stewart i don't know if i agree with that. look we're americans and we're not waking up to the threat of

communist china. not just unleashing this virus and taking over hong kong, but the actions in the south china sea and stealing our technology, so i think that this is a time where we can incentivize american companies to bring those jobs home bring that manufacturing home. that will help us here in america. american jobs and we need the rest of the world to wake up china has been able to be on the rise, to be our adversary because of the life blood they have, by our economic entanglement so as we pull that back and start to cutoff the oxygen and we work together in order to protect american sovereignty and jobs and american security. that's what my constituents want and i see this as an opportunity for us to wake up and work together to take on the chinese communist leaders. stuart: what's the mood of america? i'm not sure how i would assess it. i think you're in a better position than i am. i sense that the country is probably on the side of the president and you that we

need to make china accountable. are you sure where the country stands? >> absolutely, stuart. i had a town hall this week over 15,000 from arizona were on it and i asked a question. 85% said they want china held accountable just for the coronavirus. never mind all of these other issues. i wore the uniform for 26 years and i've been fighting against the communist and totalitarian governments as everyone in the military has standing up for our freedoms. i think this is a time of american unity for us to ensure that we keep our freedoms, our rights and we're the global leader and let's take on china. i talked about a lot of those experiences in my book. stuart: i know. i'm getting to that. i'm getting to that, and on that note, i wanted to listen to what general jack keane had to say about troops, our troops being pulled out of afghanistan, before the election. watch this , please. >> all i'm concerned about is

the immediacy of it regardless of what that month is associated with and what that would mean. also i would think it would tell the taliban that we're surrender ing. they would claim victory, the peace negotiations would break down almost immediately and we will not be able to make any kind of progress. i think it really be a huge mistake to do it. stuart: he ended on that note it be a huge mistake to do it and now senator as you said you've got a new book, dare to fly, sharing some of your experiences in afghanistan. what do you think? is it a military mistake that a political win to bring the troops out before election? >> oh, stuart i do share in my book my journey from being a shy pudgy kid being the first woman to fly a fighter jet in combat. i was actually in saudi arabia in 9/11 and part of the team planned the initial afghanistan operation and we just had mission creep over the years to follow. i share stories of being a

heroing canon in afghanistan and bringing the reader into that but after the time we were protecting americans on the ground fighting against the bad guys and the afghans were nowhere to be seen trying to take their own security seriously, so over the years, this mission creep has happened, we're 19 years later, and it's doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. it's time for us to do something , while protecting our security so i share the president's frustration about where we are, but we can't allow anybody to grow terrorist activity that can hurt americans begin. stuart: so bring them out before the election? yes or no? >> well, i think we need to have a plan in order to bring americans home. it should be condition-based in my view, while we can still go after the dozen terrorist organizations that are operating in the region. stuart: senator mcsally thanks for joining us as always. we'll see you again soon, thank you. >> absolutely people can go to dare to fly.u.s. and share their

inspiring stories with me and get a copy of the book. thanks stuart. stuart: think we got that check twitter, please. left-hand side of your screen it's down 1.7%, senator ted cruz , calling for a criminal investigation saying twitter violated sanctions against iran. the senator will join us in our next hour. first though, we got to see the return of baseball? what's the problem here? the only major sport without a plan to get back in action? we'll deal with it next. >> ♪ ♪ meet jim. for jim, comfort is king. which is why when it comes to his dentures only new poligrip cushion and comfort will do. the first and only formula with adaptagrip cushioning technology. choose new poligrip cushion and comfort. sleep number 360 smart bed. memorial day sale on the can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. it's the final days to save $1,000 on the

sleep number 360 special edition smart bed, now only $1,799. ends sunday.

stuart: well let's talk baseball because the players and owners are still fighting about when and how to return. todd piro, what's going on? todd: stuart this is bad news bears. this week was supposed to be the week that we finally got the negotiation all completed, and if you look at your calendar , june is next week. well the middle of june is when the players were supposed to report to sort of restart of spring training with games to potentially begin the first week of july. we don't have anything and it looks like these two sides are very far apart. little quick back of the napkin explanation. they came to an agreement in march as to how they play this

based upon prorated salary based upon games played but there was a clause in there and if i put my legal hat, you know they have a clause that the owners say they gave them an opportunity to renegotiate and they proposed a 50/50 split based upon revenue with the mind set of if they aren't going to be fans in the stands we're going to lose upwards of 700,000 dollars per game. the players said whoa whoa whoa we agreed to a prorated deal, not this 50/50 revenue split. you have to deal with the bargain that you bargained for and if you lose money, so be it. stuart: sort it out and get back on the field, or kill the sport that's my opinion. todd, thank you very much indeed we appreciate it. thank you. nascar is one of the sports that's back on the track already the next hour, i'm going to speak with one top female driver on the return of racing, and by the way she races trucks. we'll cover it for you. senator ted cruz sounding off on twitter calling for a criminal investigation for violations of sanctions against iran, senator cruz joins us next hour.

and i'm going to admit it i was wrong about elon musk. i once called him a showman. now i think he's the most important executive in the world , one an innovator. my take on that coming up, next. in this world where people are staying at home, many of life's moments are being put on hold. at carvana, we understand that for some getting a car just can't wait. that's why the new way to buy and sell a car is also the safer way. at carvana, you can do it all 100% online from home

with a touchless delivery and pickup process to keep you safe. and for even greater peace of mind, all carvana cars come with a 7-day return policy. so if you need to keep moving, it's our goal to keep you safe. check out carvana, the safer way to buy a car.

stuart: well, it is almost 11:00 eastern time and at the moment, the market is pretty close to the lows of the day.

we're off more than 200 points on the dow industrials. we're down about 14 on the nasdaq. that's not much of a decline, i understand that, but they're in the red anyway. the s&p, that is down abo about .66%, 19 points. so you've got red arrows all across the board. i think the market is a bit worried about what the president will say about china. but right now, it's 11:00. fed chairman jerome powell is about to speak on the economy. i believe that edward lawrence, come in, please, i think you know what he's going to say. give me the headlines, please. reporter: well, they have some of it. we actually -- it's a question and answer that's going to happen here. the fed chairman is speaking in literally a matter of seconds, with a princeton university economist there. they are going to talk about the economy, the state of the economy as it is, the coronavirus as well as opening up the economy. the big thing the market's going to be watching for to see is the fed chairman talks about how this economy is opening up, and

what can go forward to the end of the year. they are also going to be looking for that main street lending facility and exactly when that's going to start. he had testified in the past it would start by june 1st. that lending facility can help small and midsized businesses with low income loans to sort of bridge the gap until we can open up this economy. we have already seen 27 bankruptcies at least this month alone. you know some big ones, jc penn penney, ravenair. it will be interesting to see how he answers these questions. stu? stuart: we don't know exactly what he's going to say but there's a level of anxiety on the market in case he says something that's going to hurt the market. check it out for us, edward. we will be back with you for anything he's got to say. i want to bring in bob doll, chief equity strategist at nuveen. we don't know what the chairman is going to say, but we do know president trump's going to make an announcement at some point today about what he's going to do with china.

i consider that a negative for the market. are you with me on that? >> you know, probably so many uncertainties, just like the uncertainty with powell, is not a positive for the market but i'm not sure he's going to do anything that's market-hurting. my guess is going to be around visas and tough talk. i don't think he's going to impose anything significant that's new related to tariffs or the trade deal. if he does, then it is market-moving and a negative but the tension is rising and the acrimony between the two countries is not helpful for the market. china has moved from competitor to adversary in the last few months and that's not healthy. stuart: okay. put china on one side. put chairman powell on one side, if as an investor you can do that. put him on one side for now. overall, where do you stand with the dow at the 25,000 level? where are we going from here for the rest of the year? >> i think we are a little ahead

of ourselves. the decline obviously was ghastly, but the recovery has been amazing. i think the stock market's a little ahead of the economy. i think it's going to be a bumpy reopening of the economy. some things will come back immediately, some will never come back, some will take longer. so the market's expectations are a little too soon for all the good news. i don't expect any big declines, but i think we will meander for awhile as the market consolidates. stuart: but no big decline in the immediate future. what happens if we get a second wave? i mean, people keep talking about a second wave. what happens? >> that will be certainly part of the reason why i think we will see some sloppiness. look, we are going to learn to live with coronavirus. there are going to be more shutdowns. we shut down so we can test and not overdo the hospital system. now we are learning to live with coronavirus. there will be some second wave.

let's hope it's not very big. if it's big, yeah, we will have another decline of significance in the market, but i think it's going to be push one day, pull the next, as it were. stuart: how about the economy? separated from the market for a moment, the economy. it seems to have bounced back a little bit. where's it going? >> it's going up from here. there's no question about it. may will be better than april. june will be better than may. the problem is, we are starting from such a low base. we will get a horrible second quarter gdp. everybody knows that. but i think we could be surprised how good the third and fourth quarter will be. the levels won't get us back to where we were earlier this year, but the rise of 5%, 10% on gdp could be staggering. stuart: i don't think you get a real solid rebound, a real vigorous rebound, until people go back to work in their offices, in our major cities.

these are major population centers and they are very slow to open up. i think people will be very slow to go back into those big office buildings. that's a big chunk of gdp that's not going to perform in quite the way we would like. i see the cities and the blue state lockdown situation as a real hold on our economic growth. what do you say? >> i won't disagree with you at all. it will take -- i'm using a checkmark, big decline, short, sharp. this will go in the history books as the deepest and briefest recession but that other part of the checkmark is less of a slope. it will take a long time, many months, to get back most of what we lost. we won't get it all back. it's going to be a slow recovery. stuart: i've got to tell you, i do not envy anybody in the investment business this year, 2020. it has been such an extraordinary year. i don't know how you keep track of it. i don't know how you keep an even keel when you've got these

kind of events going all over the place. you've done a great job and i take my hat off to you, bob doll. >> you're kind. it's one day at a time. we are all learning a lot. we didn't know much about this science before but now those coronavirus curves, we're all paying attention. stuart: i never thought i would live through a year like 2020. we're not even halfway through. >> hear, hear. stuart: who could see that coming? bob doll, thank you very much, sir. appreciate it. bob doll, nuveen. got you. the white house will appear on your screen any moment now because the president will be making an announcement from there momentarily. we don't know momentarily. we thought it was going to be this morning. we are waiting for the president making an announcement on china. all right. quick stock checks, please. first of all, let's look at nordstrom. they reported their financial situation. they are another virus victim, if i can put it like that. their sales were down 40% in the quarter. however, their ceo did say they are ready to weather the storm

and they gave a rosy forecast for the second quarter. the stock, though, another department store casualty, down nearly 10%. that's nordstrom. uber launching a new hourly ride program. i like this. 50 bucks an hour in select cities. some restrictions. people can't use the function for trips to or from the airport but 50 bucks an hour gets you an uber. the stock is up a buck. let's go to the reopening because that is a positive for the market and the economy. at least it has been. the states on your screen easing more restrictions just a little, starting this morning. take me through some of them, ash. i've got a feeling this is incremental tiny little moves. ashley: it is. i am the reopening guru. let me pick some out for you. illinois. take a look at illinois. they are actually outdoor seating at bars and restaurants. that's a good sign, right? all state parks are reopened, get out and enjoy the great outdoors. salons, stu's favorite tattoo

shops and other personal services may open with restrictions. all retail may open for in-person shopping with, of course, capacity limits. but all very encouraging. take a look at michigan. it has been locked down again since seems like years. non-essential medical, dental and veterinary procedures can now resume in the state of michigan. so for the doctors, dentists and vets, good news indeed. let's take a look at texas, if we may. the zoos there can reopen and water parks also may open, but must limit their occupancy to 25%. small steps, but we are getting there, stu. stuart: please keep me up to speed on the reopening of tattoo parlors, ashley, because that's very important to me. ashley: i'm on it. stuart: one of the things i share with president trump is i don't like tattoos and neither does he. did you know that? ashley: i didn't. stuart: you do now. ashley: there you go.

stuart: moving swiftly along. i want to talk about the president's executive order on social media. are some companies besides twitter getting hurt by that? susan, you've got the story? susan: that was bordering almost on too much information there with you and ashley and tattoos. yeah, we have other social media companies that might be hurt in this. you heard president trump reel them off yesterday, including instagram and facebook, but also, other ones you didn't think of. for instance, the airbnb, yelp, trip adviser and even google, which also has some of its review sites and the reason is, look, this executive order has to do with section 230 of the communications decency act which became law in 1996, and part of it shields these platforms from the content and what some people say on their platforms and that includes reviews. in the future, you could theoretically think that trip adviser and even others that write these reviews could be liable for content posted by third parties so it's not just

the twitters and facebooks but other unintended ones as well in the travel sector in particular. stuart: i got that. thank you very much indeed. the white house taking aim at the media's response to twitter's new fact-checking feature. watch this, please. >> if you're going to get into the fact-checking business, there's no one that should be fact-checked more than the mainstream media. stuart: all right. coming up, we've got to talk to senator ted cruz, get his take on that, and why he's calling for a criminal investigation into twitter. he's on the show. back to some good news. i think this is good news. our economy is showing some signs of life. back to ashley. no talk anymore about tattoos. give me the numbers that show the economy's coming back. ashley: well, let me tell you, i don't have anything on that. but i can tell you if they bring up the screen, i can read them off the screen for you. there you go. tsa daily screens -- kidding. i do have these. we talked about these in the 9:00 hour and they are very encouraging indeed.

the number of screenings basically bottoming out in early april, but we are up to 400,000 but as you can tell, 2.7 million or 2.5 million was the same period last year so that is perspective, but nevertheless, more people are getting on to planes. take a look at, what do we have, restaurants or hotels? let's take a look if we can at restaurants. this was according to open table network. at the best level since march 17th. still down more than 80%, as you can see at the very bottom there. however, as it ran along the bottom, the numbers were down 99.9% so restaurants attendance is starting to move up. let's take a look at hotels. we know they, of course, have been very hard hit. occupancy rates across the country have risen for five straight weeks. that's good news. occupancy rate for the week ending may 16th was 32.4%. that means nearly 11 million rooms sold. i think that sounds pretty good. it's up from a low of 21%.

nevertheless, people are having some confidence now to book a hotel room which is great. stuart: it's not a question of bouncing right back to where we were in january. ashley: no. stuart: it's about bouncing back a little and making real progress towards coming back strong and profitably. that's what we're looking for here. ashley: exactly. stuart: that's what you just showed us. i like it. ashley: it's happening. stuart: yes, it's happening. now this. i am going to confess i was initially wrong about elon musk. wrong. i previously thought he was just a showman type guy. but i'm reversing course. i think he's the most important executive in the world and i'm going to tell you why. nascar, that's one of the sports that is back in action. fans are still not allowed. coming up, we will speak to a driver and i want to know do they even notice that nobody is in the stands? i will ask. the state of arizona sues google. they claim the company collects data from users' phones even if they turn the location tracking device off. we will dig into that in a

moment. ♪

stuart: fed chairman powell is livestreaming from princeton university. so far he has said we will use all the tools available to us and he's also said yes, this is a difficult time for many americans. that has not so far moved the market. we are still down 200 points on the dow industrials. now to a story which i freely admit i don't really understand. in arizona, the attorney general there is suing google. i think this is all about privacy. mark brnovich is the attorney

general of the great state of arizona and joins us now. sir, can you make me understand this? don't laugh too much but i don't get it. it's about privacy. why are you suing google? >> what google has essentially done is create a business model where they make misrepresentations, they don't inform consumers as to what information they are collecting, and they use that information to basically sell it in advertising so they have created these models that are based on knowing about -- everything about you, where you go, where you go to the bathroom, the doctor's office, the dentist's office. the reality is they know more about where you have been than your spouse does and more about where you're going than a travel agent does. my problem and our issue is the fact that when consumers try to opt out of these services, google is still tracking them. so that's a big problem that people think they are opting out. they made it almost impossible to opt out. they are collecting all this private, personal information and using it to their financial

benefit. stuart: that is their entire business model, as i understand it. they know everything about you and use that information to tailor-make advertisements to you. you are saying that that is a breach of your privacy, that they have not stopped that information flow when they said they did. have i got that right? >> yeah. the reality is i believe very strongly, all of us have, there's a dignity in all of our personal private information. furthermore, i do believe there is some property right in the value of the information we have. so if i'm not telling google, i'm not giving them permission for them to track me when i go to the doctor, when i go to the dentist, you know, how long i'm at my house or everything i'm doing, if i'm not giving them permission to do all that, they shouldn't be doing it because they are obviously monetizing it. if they want to do that, then they should be telling me they are doing it and they should pay me accordingly. so the reality is we can't escape google this day and age. nearly 80% of global mobile

hand-held devices operate on an android system which is run and owned by google. i mean, about 85% to 90% of internet searches are done on google. so goggle hogle has all this pod methods and ways to track everything you're doing. i think the reality is any entity that gets that big and that powerful with all that information has the ability to undermine not only your privacy but to manipulate you and undermine you and our democratic form of government. stuart: i just reread "1984" all about big brother. i'm sure you have read that, too. meanwhile, sir, i just want to tell you how google has responded to your lawsuit. in a statement, they say this. the attorney general, i think that's you, and the contingency fee lawyers filing this lawsuit appear to have mischaracterized our services. we have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. we look forward to setting the

record straight. mark, would you respond to that? >> everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not to their own facts. the facts, they are stubborn things and they are what they are. the reality is that any consumer, even someone who is fairly sophisticated who tries to opt out of all this tracking is unable to do so. so whether it's apps, whether it's your actual device, whether it's your search engines, there are all these different ways, all these different tools that google uses to basically monitor everything you are doing, everywhere you're going and then create all this information, these profiles of you where they cannot only play advertising but manipulate you as well. the reality is google in 2019 made more than $130 billion in revenue based on advertising. they are a huge global elite corporation and they have a phalanx of lawyers, lobbyists, political consultants. look, i'm the attorney general

of the great state of arizona but you know, we don't even have the resources to fight back against that kind of, you know, mega-company that's going to come at us. so i don't think there's anything wrong with having people assist us in this case and just one last thing related to this. i have tried to intervene or intervened in more class action lawsuits than any attorney general in this country opposing settlements where money went to trial lawyers versus victims that were harmed. in fact, we tried to intervene in a lawsuit against google where millions went to the trial lawyers and millions more were going to google's favorite nonprofits. it was a b.s. settlement. so i want to make sure, you know, they can throw out their talking points but at the end of the day they need to be held accountable to the american people and they need to make it as simple as even an on/off switch and they need to disgorge all the profits they made with all these alleged misrepresentations and not providing full disclosure to consumers. stuart: disgorging the profits. that's a big deal. mark brnovich, we appreciate you being on the show.

you made me understand this story which i previously was confused about. thank you very much indeed. we appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you. stuart: sure thing. still on google, bring in susan. what's this, susan -- sorry. not you. susan's -- no, google's got a tool for a new social distancing tool? i can't get this out. go ahead. susan: it's okay. it's a new augmented reality tool which is a.r. for short. i'm going to explain this to you. this helps measure two meters to maintain proper social distancing. if you have an android device, just open up the chrome browser and go straight to launch the tool called sodar. there's no app required. why do you need an a.r. tool to measure out two meters? can't you just eyeball it? we already have a measuring tape availability, that function in the iphone as well. i just think this is just not a good use of -- stuart: no, no, susan, they want to know where you are and how close you are to other people and who those other people are.

think of the information there. susan: location tracking. okay. stuart: you've got something on zoom? trying to help out startups or something? susan: zoom has got to be the stock of the year. you are going from $16 billion at ipo time just last year now to worth $50 billion, ford and gm combined. they know that a lot of people are coming after this business. we know facebook, google and microsoft have all increased their video conferencing services so in order to i guess copy up and innovate and iterate, they have an open marketplace concept kind of like a shark tank type of style where 600 pitches have been put in and they will incorporate some of this new technology and these new features in the zoom app itself. zoom went from ten million daily meeting participants at the end of last year to 300 million so they feel their business is under threat and it is with all those security lapses and people using other -- other apps as well. stuart: come on, susan. why didn't you tell me about

this social teleconferencing thing before the lockdown started? susan: social teleconferencing thing. you mean something like zoom? stuart: yes. susan: i didn't tell you that in advance, is that what you're saying? stuart: that's exactly what i'm saying. susan: i think it's because we share the same studio but we can definitely i don't thuse that n probably will in the future. stuart: i might have made some money out of that. susan, time's up. thank you. a michigan restaurant owner who specializes in something called pasties, he's lost 75% of his revenue during the shutdown. i'm going to ask how he plans to recoup those losses. i also want to know what exactly is a pasty? we are on it. ted cruz calling for a criminal investigation into twitter for what he calls a blatant and willful violation of u.s. sanctions on iran. he's going to join us in just a few minutes. i have a big admission. i was wrong about musk. i once called him a showman. now i say he's the most

important executive in the world. you will hear that in my take, as musk prepares to blast humans into space which is scheduled for tomorrow. we'll be right back. ♪ meet jim. for jim, comfort is king. which is why when it comes to his dentures only new poligrip cushion and comfort will do. the first and only formula with adaptagrip cushioning technology. choose new poligrip cushion and comfort.

you get the freedom of what a 7-day return policy. this isn't some dealership test drive around the block. it's better. this is seven days to put your carvana car to the test and see if it fits your life. load it up with a week's worth of groceries. take the kiddos out for ice cream. check that it has enough wiggle room in your garage. you get the time to make sure you love it. and on the 6th day, we'll reach out and make sure everything's amazing. if so... excellent. if not, swap it out for another or return it for a refund. it's that simple. because at carvana, your car happiness is what makes us happy. as someone with hearing loss i know what a confusing and frustrating experience getting hearing aids can be. that's why i founded lively. high-quality hearing aids with all of the features you need, and none of the office visits. lively offers bluetooth connected, fda approved hearing aids delivered to your door, sold at a fraction of the price, with direct access to an audiologist whenever you need it. i use lively hearing aids and it's been wonderful. it's insanely user friendly. you take the hearing test online, the doctor programs in the settings.

you don't even need to go into an office. the audiologist was so incredible she's full of all kinds of little helpful hints i love it. they're a game changer for me. your hearing is more important than ever. with lively you get high-quality hearing aids and care, without leaving your home. better hearing has never been this easy. try lively risk-free for 100 days. get started with our free online hearing test. visit listenlively.com

stuart: i'm going to paraphrase what fed chairman powell has been saying so far this morning. he has said the confidence displayed by the stock market is because of the fed's actions. he says the fed is going to continue to use all the tools that it's got available but he says it will stay in its lane. that's how he put it. that has not really affected the markets that much. we are still down just over 200 points. we were down 200 when he started. we are down 218 now. and now this. i have been wrong about elon musk. i dismissed him as a showman, always eager to grab publicity with outrageous tweets and wild claims. look at him now. he's getting a $775 million performance bonus. the stock price stayed way up there despite what so many people said, including myself,

and he gets a big chunk of money right there. but that pales before his other achievements. he founded and still runs the most exciting car company in the world, tesla. he makes electric cars in asia, europe and america and most people i know who have them say those cars are the best electrics on the market. he also founded and still runs the boring company. that's a budding transportation enterprise that just opened a tunnel in las vegas. he and jay leno drove through it in a prototype tesla cybertruck. tomorrow, maybe another triumph, weather permitting. a spacex rocket lifts off with two american astronauts aboard. it's a first for commercial space flight and elon musk did it. you could make the case that he's a lot like steve jobs. musk is famously difficult to work for and with and so was jobs. but more importantly, musk may have the same impact on the

world. the iphone changed so many things. arguably, so will tesla cars, tunnel transit and hyperspeed and spacex. i was wrong. musk is a game changer. as of now, i think he is the most important executive in the world, bar none. let's see if steve hilton wants to pass judgment on that. i know he's been listening. steve, you are a california guy. it is another good thing about musk, he led the revolt in your state. ri right? >> exactly right. i think i have been on the same journey as you, because i found him from time to time incredibly annoying and irritating. some of the things he says on twitter, for example. but i have reluctantly come to the same view that substantively he's an incredible business leader. actually, you left something out of that list which was his work on energy storage, batteries, solar power and actually really

improving the technology for storing solar power to make that technology really work. they've got this product called a tesla power wall which is basically a wall of your house that stores the energy from the solar panels, powers your car and your house. really transforming the way we live. so i agree with you, i think substantively he's incredibly impressive and the things he's working on, i would say, are even harder than the kinds of things steve jobs worked on. you know, sending rockets to space, that is not an easy thing to do. stuart: no. brilliant people are often rather crazy. i hate to use that word. but i think it's accurate. now, i met steve jobs obviously many, many years ago and he was a very very difficult guy. and he was truly crazy. this man went for a couple years without taking a shower, lived on apples for at least a year, all kinds of weird things.

but it brought us the iphone. along comes elon musk who smokes weed during a podcast, puts out wild tweets, he's terrible to work for. would you compare the two? do you think they are about the same in terms of ability, brilliance and achievement? >> yes, i think you've got that same sense of drive and believing that impossible things are actually things that just haven't been done yet and you can do them, and not accepting any kind of obstacle. i think that is why we see the positive side where he's saying to the political leaders in california what the hell are you doing closing down my factory, it's one of the last great manufacturing employers in the whole state, can you just be sensible and actually fighting back and leading that resistance because that same spirit of challenging the rules, breaking the rules, in order to achieve a positive objective and i think it's admirable. stuart: how is the revolt going

in california? >> well, a really interesting development just yesterday, which is that in a county near where i live, sonoma county in the north of the bay area, the local sheriff has announced that he is refusing to enforce the stay-at-home order until, in his words, there is more clarity from the public health officials about why they are still imposing it. he points out that the case numbers are down, the hospitals are not overloaded, there's no reason to have this stay-at-home order so the sheriff is saying i'm not enforcing it anymore until you give me a good reason for doing so. that's a really interesting development. stuart: yes, it really is. steve, thanks very much sgroifo joining us. i will be watching sunday night guaranteed. thank you very much, sir. appreciate it. by the way, there is another revolt brewing in california. wineries that serve food are being allowed to open partially, but if they offer only booze, as in tastings, they've got to stay closed. our next guest says that is

discrimination. he's going to make his case. this is a famous guy from a very famous vineyard. we will talk to him after this. ♪ can my side be firm?

and my side super soft? yes, with the sleep number 360 smart bed, on sale now, you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. can it help me fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. so, you can really promise better sleep? not promise. prove. don't miss the final days of the memorial day sale, save $1,000 on the sleep number 360 special edition smart bed, now only $1,799. ends sunday.

stuart: the market's still waiting to hear from the president about what he's going to do with china. they are also reacting to what fed chairman powell is saying in a livestreaming event. it's not had much effect on the market. he just said negative interest rates are not appropriate. no response from the market whatsoever. we are still down about 200 points. now, senator ted cruz tweeting this in the last hour. he wants a criminal investigation into twitter, saying they violated sanctions on iran and the senator joins us now. sir, would you elaborate on your case? >> well, absolutely. good morning, stu. it's good to be with you.

over a month ago, i sent a letter to twitter along with several other senators asking them to explain why they continue to provide a platform for the ayatollah khomeini. the united states congress has passed a law making it a criminal offense to facilitate the oppression of the iranian regime, the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world. twitter sent back a letter that essentially said their company policy was to allow as much discussion as possible and they apparently believe they are exempt from the criminal laws of this country and so today, i asked the department of justice to open an investigation. those sanction laws are designed to stop u.s. companies from facilitating iranian terror and stu, the irony of this is that the same time twitter, that jack dorsey is publishing worldwide

the anti-semitic threats of violence from the ayatollah khomeini, jack dorsey is also trying to censor the president of the united states, he's trying to silence genuine political speech by americans while facilitating terroristic threats by iran. stuart: are you wrapping in your lawsuit, your criminal investigation of twitter, you wrapping that into twitter's fight with the president of the united states? is it all one thing? >> well, they are separate insofar as the sanctions on iran are u.s. law passed by congress, signed by the president, actually signed by barack obama. they have been long-standing u.s. law. but the two are related in a couple ways. one, big tech, the silicon valley billionaires, have an arrogance that they don't believe the laws apply to them. they believe that they are the new kings of the universe and so i sent them the letter asking them to cease and desist violating u.s. law and they

essentially said pound sand. u.s. companies don't get to ignore american law. at the same time, you can see twitter, you can see jack dorsey getting ticked off at the president and so initially, initially he put a warning on one tweet and then last night, he got mad that the president was tweeting, trying to stop the violence in minneapolis and so they are now blocking the president's tweet. i think big tech needs to get the hell out of the censorship business in terms of americans. the first amendment protects american speech and twitter has no business deciding which politicians they like and which they don't. they should be a neutral public forum and let free speech and the american people decide. stuart: that, sir, is fascinating because that draws a distinction between us, americans, and our freedom of speech expressed on this public platform, and foreigners, notably the mullahs, and what they are allowed to say because

that's the first time i have heard that distinction, that difference made clear. >> stu, the reason that matter is the first amendment to the bill of rights to our constitution protects americans. it doesn't protect the ayatollah khomeini. he has zero protections under the first amendment. he's not an american, he's not in america. he's a foreign enemy and a terrorist so we don't protect his free speech rights, we don't protect the free speech rights of communist china because they are not protected by the first amendment. the constitution is about protecting americans' rights and we are fighting against our enemies, in the case of the ayatollah, have killed and are trying to kill americans and are rabidly anti-semitic, anti-israel, anti-american and twitter facilitates their terroristic threats nonetheless. stuart: thank you for being on the program, mr. senator. because you just made something more clear to me than it's been clear in a long, long time. i was confused by this story but you have made it real clear. senator ted cruz, republican

from the great state of texas, thanks for joining us, sir. we appreciate it. >> thank you. stuart: our next guest, i'm really switching gears here, believe me, i'm switching gears, our next guest is a restaurant owner in michigan. he closed two shops in march and lost, what, about 75% of his revenue. brad mantella is with us, the owner of dobbar's pasties. that's the british way of saying it. >> as in cornish. stuart: that's right. okay. before we get to that, your revenue is down significantly because of this shutdown. i don't know what your status is as to whether you are open or not now, but can you survive when your revenue's down so much? >> we can. we are holding on. we were able to remain open and

to some extent, and do internet shipping. we also ship our product nationwide. that really sustained us during the initial shutdown period. we were able to keep all of our employees working and -- but during that time, we did see a revenue loss of 75%. stuart: so how much longer can you keep going? >> right now, we are in the shape where we are moving product, but the opening, it is slow here in northern michigan. we have opened some. we are hopeful that within the next couple weeks, that things will speed up and it will be okay. i know there are several businesses that are not doing as well, and are at the end of really would have to make a decision if they are going to stay open or close. we are not in that position, thankfully. stuart: look, i wish you well, brad. i hate to see businesses in

trouble like this through absolutely no fault of their own. that's really a nasty thing. i just wish you could open up not necessarily fully, but say 75% of your capacity. i mean, if you could do that, then you stay in business. but with a very low capacity, i think you've got a real problem. i'm sorry to say i'm out of time, brad. but come on back and keep telling us how you're doing, please, up there in northern michigan, because we really want to hear about this. brad mantela, seller of pasties as in cornish pasties. sorry, i've got one more thing. sorry, one more thing. you're going to meet with the michigan speaker of the house today, a republican. are you asking him for help? >> yes. i had that meeting this morning. the speaker gave us an update on what our legislature is doing. we have asked him for help in that can us, as local businesses and business owners, have some input on the reopening process, because we have had none at this

point. stuart: okay. cornish pasty. you can get them at dobber's in north michigan. good stuff. brad, again, thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. stay in touch. all right. we'll be back after this. ♪ limu emu & doug

and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. and now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

stuart: caymus vineyards, the script i'm reading says it's a winery in california. no, it's not. it's a fantastic winery in california, one of the best. well, caymus is suing governor gavin newsom. he allows wineries that serve food to open, but forcing those who only offer tastings to stay closed. the gentleman on the right-hand side of the screen is a very famous guy in the world of wine. he's chuck wagner, caymus founder and president. first of all, let's deal with this suit that you've got going here. you say it's discrimination against your vineyard, right, chuck? >> well, yes. it is discrimination against our vineyard. however, [ inaudible ] that are being affected in a negative way, and the fact that it's time to treat us equally, allow us to open. instead the governor has [ inaudible ] to open. stuart: are you totally shut down, then? you can't -- no tastings, no nothing, that's it?

>> well, part of our business is considered essential, so that continues. about a third of our business is, those employees are staying home on full-time pay and they have been gone for months. we want to get back to work and make sure we get a chance to get back to work and get things going again. stuart: while i've got you on the air, i have to ask you a couple questions about caymus because you really are very very famous. may i ask, what proportion of your business is with tastings? i can't imagine that you allow party buses to wheel up to caymus and drink, chug, you know, a bottle of wine. you don't do that, do you? >> no, we don't allow party buses. it's smaller groups that come in to the tasting area here. in fact, i'm standing in one of our tasting areas right now. it's morning in napa valley,

typical, cool, 55 degrees or so. [ inaudible ] with that, people come by twos and fours and take a seat and that's what we've been doing for quite awhile. we're not alone in this. other wineries use this as a tool. the landscape is beautiful and it's comfortable in the shade. stuart: it's fantastic. yeah. would you like to compare caymus to stay stag's leap or jordan? >> well, of course, those are other wineries that exist in the area. but pretty much i think everyone feels as i do. we want to comply with all the standards, the new standards coming our way, no doubt about that. it's just that we do not serve food at our winery. caymus is a winery, not a

restaurant. with that, in fact, the county disallows wineries [ inaudible ] so we're caught between a rock and a hard place here. stuart: yeah, you are, but what you really want is to be treated on an equal footing with other wineries which are in the same business. that's what you are demanding of governor newsom. that's it? >> that is it. stuart: okay. chuck wagner, it was great having you on the show. i hope you will come back, because we would love to see more of caymus vineyards. you are very famous and you know it. chuck, thanks for joining us. see you again soon. thank you, sir. >> stuart, thank you. stuart: sure thing. more "varney" after this with the dow down 180. ...

look, this isn't my first rodeo...

and let me tell you something, i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. it's just a loan designed for older homeowners, and, it's helped over a million americans. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home. it's a loan, like any other. big difference is how you pay it back. find out how reverse mortgages really work with aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage guide. eliminate monthly mortgage payments, pay bills, medical costs, and more. call now and get your free info kit. other mortgages are paid each month, but with a reverse mortgage,

you can pay whatever you can, when it works for you, or, you can wait, and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. discover the option that's best for you. call today and find out more in aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage loan guide. access tax-free cash and stay in the home you love. you've probably been investing in your home for years... making monthly mortgage payments... doing the right thing... and it's become your family's heart and soul... well, that investment can give you tax-free cash just when you need it. learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse mortgage loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio, and so much more. look, reverse mortgages aren't for everyone but i think i've been 'round long enough to know what's what. i'm proud to be a part of aag, i trust 'em, i think you can too. trust aag for the best reverse mortgage solutions.

so you can... retire better. stuart: i've got to say i'm a little surprised at the way the markets acted so far today. it's friday morning, and we're down what 190 points on the dow industrial i'll focus on that for a second down 190 that's three-quarters of 1% that's not a very big sell-off whether you've got to 25, 200 is your level, bearing in mind, there's a lot of negatives in the background here. we're waiting to hear from president trump on what he will do about china. that's a negative because if he comes down hard on them, everybody suffers. we're also dealing with the aftermath of the riots last night in minneapolis, that the president tweeted about it, twitter flagged the tweet, so that's set off and renewed the war between the president and twitter, and we've also got

jay powell the fed chair stream ing his comments about the economy. he says that he doesn't think we should go to negative interest rates. i thought maybe the market would want that but no. that's not what we're getting, we're down just 190 as we close it out. neil it's yours. neil: all right, stuart thank you very much we are following those jerome powell comments, one that interested me is this princeton virtual forum going on that the federal reserve is supposedly days away from starting a main street lending facility and that sounds like a lot and i didn't want to start off on that way but what he's saying is help for main street entities not just big business entities, it's going to pick up steam and this of course on the heels of even republicans talking on the hill about providing relief checks, stimulus checks, to individuals, or maybe extending unemployment benefits beyond what they are now, and now it's all very early in the game but any time you do something to potentially goose