maria: if you were questioning why the market is down in the face of job growth, you were right. take a look at futures. a complete reversal. we say good-bye to our panelists. thank you so much for joining me this morning. markets have completely reversed course on job growth in may. job growth in june. have a great day, everybody. "varney & company" begins right now. ashley webster in for stu. take it away. ashley: good morning, maria. thank you. good morning, everybody. yes indeed, the market way off its lows and coming off a historically positive quarter. take a look at this, the numbers remarkable. the best quarter since 1987 for the dow, up 17%. the s&p up 19%, the nasdaq led of course by big tech, up a whopping 30%. it's all about the reopening and the recovery. now, here's what turned around the market this morning. 2.37 million private sector jobs added in june. that's according to adp. but listen to this.

in may, it was revised to a gain of three million jobs. initially a drop of 2.75 million was reported for may. that's a huge revision and a very bullish sign that the economy is ready to come back once it reopens. also, by the way, we get the jobs report for june tomorrow. a gain of three million jobs is expected as the nation begins to open up and by the way, larry kudlow will join us on that very subject tomorrow morning. do not miss it. we are seeing a battle, meantime, between government and business once again as cases of the virus rise in some areas. in houston, the mayor putting several businesses on a so-called wall of shame on the city's website after they defied lockdown orders. those businesses, all bars, by the way, not happy at all. in arizona, a gym owner is suing the state over the order to shut down again and is vowing to remain open despite those orders from the governor.

confrontations are a'rising. another battle as we head towards the long holiday weekend, whether or not to wear a mask in public. should it really be political, though? top health officials say wear a mask, republican senators even agreeing. some now calling on the president to set the example and wear one himself. we will talk about that. we also have to talk about joe biden. he held his first news conference in three months and of course, there was a gaffe. we have that sound for you coming up. a big show ahead. i'm ashley webster in for stuart. "varney & company" begins right now. ashley: all right. let's begin with the winners, why not. we are seeing new highs for the two tech names on your screen. microsoft and tesla. microsoft closed yesterday at just above $200 a share, as you can see.

this stock up 29% in the last quarter. that's in line with gains in the nasdaq around 30%. as for tesla, sitting very comfortably above $1,000. it has now crossed the $200 billion in market value. remarkable. it has indeed been a great week already for elon musk. spacex just completed yet another successful launch, this time it was a gps satellite, but a space force. roll that tape. >> three, two, one, zero. ignition. liftoff. go, gps. ashley: just love watching these takeoffs. there's something very cool about it. that satellite joining a fleet of 31 other gps satellites circling the earth twice each day. good stuff. back down here on earth, take a look at the futures. they were down this morning but now we turned it around nicely with some revised numbers for may when it comes to jobs.

the dow up 62 points, the s&p and nasdaq, well, the s&p up about .25%, the nasdaq just above the water mark at 10,152. let's bring in market watcher shah gilani. he joins us now. you know, shah, the market, despite all the headlines and talk about a second coronavirus wave, the market just doesn't seem that concerned. >> not only is it not concerned, it's bulling its way ahead and i don't think we are ever going to see another quarter like we just saw. it pales, what happened in terms of the index pales in comparison to what happens to some of the individual names. microsoft was up 29% in the quarter. facebook was up 36% in the quarter. amazon was up 43% -- 41% and apple was up 43% in the quarter. they are all up year to date between 10% and almost 50%. so the thing here, the theory and strategy is to stay with the big tech winners.

ashley: what about the jobs report tomorrow? expecting another decent number, one that will give cheer to the recovery effort? >> well, based on the number today, i would expect it to be better than expected. the range is all over the place from up maybe 300,000 to up 9 million. i have no idea, i'm not even going to take a stab at it but based on the way the market has reacted today, if the number is anything positive, i think the market goes higher. ashley: i just wanted to very quickly bring up the housing market with you. mortgage applications dropping for a second week in a row and there is concern there's just not enough supply of homes out there. the headlines about more coronavirus cases has given people pause and the housing market slowly down. what are your thoughts? >> i think you hit it on the head. it's really about inventory. there's just not enough inventory out there. prices keep rising so that's a good sign. money is available in terms of

the mortgage market, some of the standards have gotten tougher but there's plenty of money and rates are pretty low historically. that should bode well for the market. just a matter of inventory and builders are building. we should get the correction there in terms of the supply coming online and prices continuing probably to go higher. this is all good for the economy. ashley: what are you telling your clients about where to put their money? big tech? >> big tech, we are going with all the winners and we've got a little bit on board too late. we didn't catch the bottom or anywhere near the bottom but certainly piled on later when i was confident that we had seen the worst of it because the market certainly wanted to prove to everyone that it saw a v-shaped recovery for both itself and the economy. so all the leading names are the ones you need to be in and we are taking some shots at some distressed companies including some of the banks right now, we are looking at some of the financials right now, too. cyclicals, some industrial companies, some material companies, some of the laggards we are looking to take a shot at now. that is based on a hopeful

recovery very soon. ashley: all right. shah, stay right there. we've got some breaking news for you regarding pfizer, some positive data. lauren, i think this is helping turn the market around. what news do you have? lauren: and pfizer stock, up 7% on this news. the market is up as well. so with the company called bioin tech, early results from a vaccine are very positive. they found it spurred an immune response in healthy patients or likely generated antibodies in those patients. they did notice fever, sleep disturbances, some other side effects not considered severe in others. they will continue to test this but they are testing four different versions of this experimental vaccine. the results very positive. the stock and the overall market up on this news. ashley: very interesting news. thank you very much. the futures up 93. this is a good time to bring up

dr. marc siegel. doc, sorry, do we have dr. siegel? do we have him? there he is. >> i'm here. ashley: this is good news, doc. of course, it's not definitive but your reaction to that news from pfizer and biontech? >> i'm very very excited about this. i actually know someone who is a candidate that actually received phase one trials and had that fever but also appeared to have an immune response and the antibodies being positive, ashley, extremely exciting and important. this is a brand new technology where they basically make your cells make the proteins that then cause the immune response. very positive and they are about to go into trials with a large number of people, 30,000 people around the country. so this is a big step in the right direction for a vaccine by the end of the year or early next year. ashley: that was my next question. is it feasible that we could have this before the end of the

year? obviously everything is being fast-tracked but having a vaccine available to everybody would really be the game changer and you say that could happen by the end of the year? >> well, i think by the end of the year, if we keep going in this pace, we might see vaccine available for high risk groups. you are going to give it to health care workers, elderly, those with chronic conditions first. those who are most desperately at risk are going to get it first. that's what i see as possibly happening before the end of the year. then the whole entire public by the beginning of next year. that's optimistic but i think it's possible if it continues to work like this. very good news today. ashley: it is. it's the kind of news we have been waiting for. doc, stay right there. i want to get a quick update on the virus. first in miami beach, where you are now required to wear a mask indoors and outdoors. if not, there's a $50 fine. not sure how they enforce that. meanwhile, on the west coast, in

california, more than 8,000 confirmed cases, smashing the state record and remember, the governor there, gavin newsom, closing l.a. county beaches and other areas for the fourth of july weekend. so come back in, doc. want to talk about face masks. lots of people have different views but it shouldn't be a political issue, but they are. let me ask you this. should the president start wearing a mask, lead by example? what do you think? >> i think he should. i'll tell you why, ashley. i think masks add something, especially with the young people spreading this virus with minimal symptoms. we need the physical distancing. we're not getting it. the masks add something if you happen to be sick and don't know it, especially if you keep it clean, especially if you change it frequently, especially if you don't touch it all the time. but the president needs to do it for symbolic reason, to send a message to our young people, to our young adults, if i'm going to do it, you should do it.

that's not the answer to the problem but it's a step in the right direction. i say absolutely yes, and let him put embroidered on it make america great again. ashley: if he's watching, that's a good suggestion. maybe he will take you up on that. doc siegel, thank you so much, as always. we appreciate your feedback especially on news of a success or at least early success of the vaccine. quick programming note. today, fox business's blake burman will be interviewing president trump and you can catch that on "the claman countdown" at 3:00 p.m. eastern time today. do not miss that. all right. take a look at the futures. we are expecting a down opening but forget all of that. we had better job numbers, we have some news about a possible vaccine for the coronavirus. the dow up after all of that about .25%. after 89 days, the press finally gets the chance to ask joe biden questions and well, here's how that went. >> i'm happy to take questions

if you have any. they gave me a list. reporter: what keeps you up at night as you look ahead? reporter: how are you, mr. vice president? >> how are you? reporter: if elected, how are you going to get americans on the same page? ashley: well, it didn't stop there. we will have more on that next hour. lot of softball questions, by the way. new york city, by the way, has entered phase two of its reopening but the show won't go on for broadway until next year. now they are asking for a bailout. we will have the details in a live report coming up. we mentioned this at the top of the hour. the mayor of houston putting businesses on a wall of shame for violating shutdown orders. question is, is it okay to publicly shame owners who are just trying to make a living? we will debate that next. ♪ i wanted more from my copd medicine, that's why i've got the power of 1,2,3 medicines with trelegy.

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ashley: welcome back, everyone. quick check on pfizer and biontech, two companies working together on a possible vaccine against the coronavirus, and the initial reports have been positive. they will continue to grow the number of people within the study but so far, that has been positive, helping the body create proteins that will then attack the virus. that's basically the bottom line. as you can see, pfizer and biontech, both up nicely on that news. it also helped to turn around the futures that were showing a negative opening. the dow up now a modest 39 points. all right. next case. fed ex, that is a pandemic winner. susan li, come on in. i guess this is all about everyone buy basically everything online, right? susan: package deliveries,

that's right, soaring in the year's first three months because we saw a surge in personal protection equipment demand and that also boosted international shipping and ground activity, that last mile delivery rising over 72%. but don't forget, despite the better than expected numbers, profit is still down 50% from a year ago and fed ex also warned that air cargo capacity will take at least 18 months to return to pre-covid levels. fed ex didn't provide any guidance for the business the rest of this year but we do have a bullish call from jpmorgan calling the stock a buy because of these blowout earnings and they expect fed ex to be able to raise prices because of the surging delivery demand. that also bodes well for ups. definitely a lockdown winner and definitely bullish for the stock market today. ashley: packages galore. all right, thank you very much. quick check on united airlines. lauren, they are putting more flights back on their schedule. that's an encouraging sign, right? lauren: yeah. they are adding 25,000 domestic

and international flights in the month of august. just to give you an idea of how much that is, that is three times their schedule from last month. but still, when you do those year over year comparisons, because of course, the economy has been hit by the virus, it's only 40% of the 2019 august schedule but nonetheless, united is taking advantage of increased demand in the skies so they are adding 25,000 flights for august. ashley: all right. i'll take it. thank you very much. the usmca, remember that, the trade deal, it kicks in today as the president actually threatens more tariffs on aluminum. edward lawrence joins us now with the latest on that. edward? reporter: hey, ashley. yeah, the usmca agreement coming into effect means there are new rules now for trading in north america, possibly creating up to 600,000 jobs over the next five years. the administration touting this because it's the first agreement where it protects intellectual property of u.s. companies in

mexico and in canada. also, it adds a new chapter on digital trade which didn't exist back when the old nafta was involved. we are talking about e-books, video, music as well as video games. now, the administration also saying 99% basically of goods going back and forth across the border with mexico and canada will now be tariff-free if it meets that standard. in a statement, u.s. trade representative robert lighthizer says this. quote, the recovery from covid-19 pandemic demonstrates that now more than ever the united states must stop the outsourcing of jobs and increase our manufacturing capacity and investment here at home. now, he believes that usmca does just that. democrats, though, are concerned that mexico won't live up to their part. starting today, though, the u.s. can use the enforcement mechanism in that agreement to answer those complaints and address those complaints. that's one of the reasons that this was not delayed until later because of the covid-19 as other things were.

ashley? ashley: -- senator, good morning to you. you say that the usmca is a win for america, right? >> i believe it is a win for america and specifically for american workers. i think it's a very important time for it to come online today because of the jobs and the economy and specifically economic growth so it's not just free trade, it is fairer trade and especially when you take a look at what's happening around the world with coronavirus and china, what we know about china, we can never be dependent again on china. never again, for minerals, for material, for our medicines. that's why all we can do to increase the amount of production in the north american continent, great for the united states, also i think very good for mexico and for canada. ashley: all right. want to change subjects, senator. we want to show the audience this. we mentioned it earlier. the houston mayor is putting

three houston bars on a wall of shame for violating shutdown orders. there they are. in arizona, a gym owner is suing the arizona governor over closures. he says he's going to open anyway. listen to this tape very quickly. >> it wasn't just about fitness at that point. it was about all business and what our rights are and where those decisions are coming from from our leaders, if it's mountainside today, it could be anybody tomorrow. ashley: yeah. senator, we are seeing more confrontations like this. which side do you stand on? i guess that's the question. >> i always want to encourage good behavior. we need to get to the basics and we know what they are. i'm a doctor and as your doctor previously said, we need to do things in terms of personal hygiene, social distancing and wearing masks. i think that's really important. but in the big picture of things we need to get americans back to work, we need to get kids back

to school, we need to make sure we continue to protect our most vulnerable, our elderly, and the good news you brought this morning, we need that vaccine. that's going to be the ultimate game changer for getting coronavirus behind us and our economy roaring again. ashley: very quickly, you understand the frustration of business owners that are barely hanging on. >> absolutely understand the frustration. last night, the senate passed an extension of the paycheck protection plan so that business owners will continue to be able to borrow all the way through august eighth8th because we kno some businesses they haven't been able to open early enough to help them with keeping people on the payroll. we think that's a positive step forward to help businesses all across the country. ashley: senator john barrasso from wyoming, beautiful place, thank you so much for joining us. much appreciate it. okay.

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ashley: getting ready for the market to open, checking the markets for you. the futures turning around on that positive news on pfizer's covid vaccine, giving a nice little turnaround if you like before we open. let's bring in market watcher ed yardeni. do you think the market can keep up this momentum in the second half after coming off a remarkable last quarter? >> i think it can. i'm worrying about continuing meltup here because meltups eventually are followed by meltdowns. for now, the fundamentals are looking pretty good in terms of earnings expectations are starting to pick up. we saw some great employment numbers this morning and as you said, the market wants the vaccine and any news that a vaccine is possible is good news. ashley: it's interesting, i was

reading an analyst this morning that's saying he's worried the market is not factoring in enough a joe biden win. it's not fully priced in. we talked about the virus, of course, but what about the politics impact on the market? >> well, the politics will be determined by the election results, of course. we could have a continuation of gridlock. founders called it checks and balances. the senate could stay in the hands of republicans. but i don't know that politics is going to be all that critical. we always worry about politics and yet the market always tends to focus on the fundamentals. let's also not forget that whatever the politics turns out to be, if the economy continues to recover with the kind of stimulus that's already been provided to the economy, i think that continues to drive stock prices higher. the bond yield is less than 0.7% this morning. if it stays below 1%, stocks

will remain in a very positive trend. ashley: ed yardeni, thank you very much. the markets like gridlock, right, because it means washington can't make any boneheaded moves, according to investors. so you know, logjam means good news for the market. here we go. spit it out, ash. here we go. we are off and running. as we said, we were expecting a lower open, then we got some positive news on a potential vaccine from pfizer and a company called biontech and it turned things around. in the very early going, the dow up 73 points. certainly more green than red. not surprisingly, pfizer leading the way on the top of the dow 30 followed by caterpillar and walt disney. the energy stocks on the other end, exxonmobil dragging along. let's take a look at the s&p, if we can. we were expecting perhaps a positive open there and we are, modest as it is, up a quarter of a percent. the s&p at 3107. let's take a look at the nasdaq.

the nasdaq gained 30% in the last quarter, remarkable, up again today barely, about t.1%, 14 points. let's take a look at pfizer and biontech, that's the name of the company. they are reporting what they say is early positive data from an ongoing coronavirus vaccine study. biontech is unchanged but pfizer getting a nice bump, up 5% or thereabouts. pfizer up $1.50 at $34.29. let's get a check on those stocks that are around new highs, if we can. first tesla. nicely, very comfortably above $1,000 now. up another 16 bucks as we open a new day. up 1.5%, $1,096 for tesla. microsoft pulling back just a little bit. certainly finishing the day yesterday well above $200. still over $200 at $203, down about .1% in the early going. i would also like you to take a look at fed ex, if we can. we are calling this a lockdown winner with more people of course buying online and their

shipments have been surging. fed ex carries the packages. look at that. it's up 14.3%, up 20 bucks. fed ex at $160. next one, macy's reported earlier this morning. lauren, they did lose around $630 million in the first quarter but some good news? right? lauren: there's always a silver lining, ashley. they did report that net loss. sales fell 45% to just over $3 billion in the quarter. but the ceo says yes, of course we are going to see impacts from the pandemic through the rest of the year but we do not expect to close our doors again should infections rise. so they expect to stay open. they also said they expect sales to gradually improve over the rest of the year. since the march lows, the stock is up 43%. i don't know if you want to hear this, though. macy's stock is down 60% this year. ashley: ouch. we will focus on the positive.

all right, lauren, thank you very much. what about general mills? also reporting. susan, it looks like we have another i guess you could say virus winner, right? susan: that's right. cheerios, and nature valley granola bars selling very well during the covid lockdown. general mills says sales of refrigerated baked goods, soups and flour saw a significant jump because people are baking and cooking at home. that saw a 75% increase in that category. people are eating more cereal. it's a comfort food. 26% increase is helping general mills' bottom line. the company expects consumer concerns about covid to -- and the recession to drive what they say elegant demand for food at home still and that's even better than what it was before covid hit. that's positive for general mills. people are cooking more at home and eating at home and it's more comfort food eating. ashley: i love comfort food. cereal. susan: mac and cheese. ashley: yes. all right, susan, thank you very

much. what about constellation brands? they are a big liquor distributor. lauren, they lost $180 million last quarter but are up today nicely. why? lauren: yeah. i would rather talk about liquor than ice cream and cereal. the stock is up today for two reasons. first, they said their beer production, they make corona beer, that has returned to normal. investors like that. they also are purchasing a direct-to-consumer wine company called empathy wine, that's a sign of the times. you want to get your wine delivered to your door, especially right now. one other thing on constellation brands. by the way, the results were better than expected for earnings and revenue. but their wine and spirits sales are doing better than their beer. go figure. not sure what you drink, ashley, but wine is popular in my house. ashley: all of the above, i think. we will leave it at that. thank you, lauren. depends on the day and the direction of the wind. all right. next one. two names on your screen.

alibaba and beyond meat. why? well, susan, they are coming together to push fake meat in china, right? susan: that's a big deal for beyond meat, because there's a huge demand for protein in the world's most populous country. there are 1.3 billion in china and also, beyond meat is teaming up with china's biggest company alibaba and their grocery stores. beyond meat will hit the shelves of chinese supermarkets for the very first time. beyond meat which is the maker of meat alternative, you try saying that 3,000 times all at once, but beyond meat entering mainland china in april this year and that was through a partnership from starbucks and also yum china which owns kfc, taco bell and pizza hut. this is the first time they will directly be on the shelves. they will appear in several chinese cities. so beyond burgers apparently will be available at 50 of these alibaba free shipo locations in shanghai, that starts on saturday. then they will move to other cities including beijing as well. 48 other cities.

but beyond meat, if you take a look at the stock, you know, we are rallying on the back of this. i think this is a really great move for beyond meat to finally crack into one of the probably highest demand countries in the world. ashley: very encouraging. good stuff. thank you. let's take a quick check of the big board as we are just getting under way. a brand new quarter, brand new month. i can't believe it's july already. there you go. now the market's starting to pick upward momentum. the dow up as you can see 165 points or thereabouts, all over the place, but closing in on 26,000. let's take a look at the ten-year treasury yield, if we can. ed yardeni mentioned it when we talked to him, said it was under 0.7. he was right. 0.693%. it's up 3.8 basis points but the yield on the ten-year treasury remarkably low. let's take a look at gold, if we can, very quickly. gold has been moving along above $1800 but now off. does that mean risk is off? i don't know.

let's take a look. $16 down on gold at $1783. all right. let's get back to this. joe biden holding his first press conference in 89 days. how did it go? you can judge for yourself. take a look. >> stop appealing to the -- let's hope he decides -- ashley: hate it when you forget what you were going to say. wait until you hear some of the questions asked by the reporters. we will have more of that in the next hour. meanwhile, chaos in the big apple overnight as new york council approves cutting $1 billion from the police department but guess what? that's not enough for some. people like congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez is demanding some more change. more on that story. democrats are unveiling another green new deal.

what's in it? we will tell you what, we will let you know after the break. ♪ this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

ashley: all right. let's take a look at the markets as we get under way here on a new quarter, new month, kind of a brand new let's start over again after a great second quarter. the dow up 175, not bad. the nasdaq up .25%. the s&p up now .50%. a solid opening. let's take a look at roku and peloton if we can. we are calling them stay-at-home stocks because roku just announced the peloton app will be available on roku. so users will be able to access peloton classes. stu will be delighted because we know he does those. let's take a look at tesla if we can. just hitting another all-time high. my word. elon musk having a stellar time of it. his stock now up $35 for tesla

at $1,115. good for another 3% plus gain today. let's check big tech if we can overall. f it's been a bit of a mixed bag recently. facebook, apple, amazon, alphabet google, all up today. talking of big tech, next case, facebook after hundreds of brands boycott the platform, mark zuckerberg apparently is going to face the music. right, susan? susan: 400 brands including the large ones like starbucks say they are going to pause on advertising on facebook this week. so mark zuckerberg is set to meet and has agreed to meet with a civil rights group that started this movement called #stop hate for profit group which included the naacp and anti-defamation league. they contend that facebook is a platform for hate speech and misinformation, so the group outlined ten demands for

facebook to meet including allowing people who experienced what they call severe harassment to speak with a facebook employee, then giving refunds to brands whose ads show up next to offensive content that is later removed on the platform. despite all these concerns and all these boycotts, yes, facebo facebook sold about 10% last friday but recovered off those losses and then some. we are up over 40% from those march lows and we still have the analyst community giving a vote of confidence to the stock. in fact, baird reiterating their buy, saying it's a $300 stock. all this controversy kind of like 2018 with youtube, not really hurting the stock price. ashley: yeah. stock marches on. interesting. thank you, susan. get ready for this one. democrats in the house just unveiled a new green new deal. that's two news in there. a new green new deal. what's in it this time? let's get to it. they want to cut emissions by 90% by the year 2050, by making

utilities use carbon-free power sources and auto makers can only sell zero emission cars after the year 2035. all right. that's the newer deal, i guess. let's bring in andrew wheeler, epa administrator. great to have you this morning. let's start there. how realistic are those goals we just outlined? >> thank you for having me on the show. they are not realistic at all. they are actually going to turn around the economic growth the president trump has delivered to the american people. it's going to force the manufacturing jobs that president trump has brought back to the u.s. will be forced back to china and other countries on the car side. today is the first day of the usmca trade agreement and that's going to help create more auto worker jobs here in the u.s. the green new deal that they announced yesterday will drive those jobs out of the united states and force detroit to make cars that americans don't want to buy. it's going to decimate the auto

workers as well as the oil and gas industry as well as american farmers because you won't be able to use biofuels after 2035 either. it will hit corn farmers and soy farmers hard as well. ashley: all right. next one for you. because of the virus, the epa has relaxed enforcement of pollution violations but that actually ends next month. i guess the question is why so soon? >> well, we didn't actually relax enforcement. all we did was tell companies if you're not open, if you don't have employees, in your facilities, you can postpone submitting your reports to us. this is a bookkeeping exercise. nobody was allowed to increase their emissions at all during coronavirus. but we told them if you can't file your reports on time because your employees aren't in -- on the job, then you can delay reporting to us as long as you specify and give the reason why under coronavirus. but at this point, most

facilities are reopening and we don't believe it will be a problem for everybody to start reporting again. quite frankly, very few people weren't able to report. but there is no increase in emissions at all during coronavirus. in fact, under president trump, air pollution is down 7% as of the end of last year. it's going to be down further this year because of coronavirus. president trump has delivered on his promise to reduce air pollution. ashley: the frustrating thing about that, if you want to get back to the paris accord, is that other countries simply are not playing by any of those rules. i.e., the chinas and indias, that continue to pump pollution into the air. that's the frustrating thing, when you look at this from a global point of view. >> absolutely. we pulled out of the paris climate accord but we have reduced our co2 emissions 12%. most other industrialized countries haven't come close to that. of course, china, india, other countries are increasing their co2 emissions. so president trump is delivering once again on his promise to

clean up the environment, cleaner air, cleaner water and create more jobs for the american public. ashley: all right. have to leave it there. good stuff. andrew wheeler with the epa, thank you so much. appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me on. ashley: my pleasure. let's check those food delivery stocks, if we can. uber is now reportedly in talks to buy postmates after the collapse of its takeover deal with grub hub. is the demand for food delivery here to stay in a post-pandemic world? we will get into that issue. broadway shows here in new york city won't be returning this year and now there's talks of a potential bailout. we will have a live report what that may look like, next. ♪ wherever you live, certain truths are universal

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ashley: i want to talk about broadway. here in new york city we have heard the curtains won't go up until early next year, january. that's got some calling for a bailout. kristina partsinevelos joins us now. kristina, how many people are affected and how much money are we talking about here when we

talk about broadway? kristina: we are talking about roughly 100,000 people that will be left in limbo. this comes at a time when new york is starting to reopen. like you mentioned, the show is not going to go on at least until 2021. the $15 billion broadway industry here in new york city is going to be issuing refunds through january but already three major shows like disney's "frozen" are flat out canceling production. that means some of the country's most recognizable entertainment franchises could be forced to find new ways to stay afloat. i'm standing right in front of "hamilton" right now. lot of people like it. i haven't got tickets yet because i know they were really expensive so i wasn't fortunate enough but coming to a small screen near you, they will stream on disney plus as of july 3rd. i spoke to the president of the broadway league, a trade association that represents theaters across the country and new york and she said don't expect other shows to be coming to a small screen near you any time soon. listen in.

>> it's like making a movie. the cost to livestream and present a show like "hamilton" in that environment is the same as presenting a movie. broadway's financial structure is just not set up to do that. kristina: the live performance industry is reaching critical mass. an actors union is asking for a government bailout to the tune of $4 billion to help performers and actors across the country. to put this into perspective for a lot of people, the impact of broadway being closed, in 2018-2019, let's say last year's season here in new york, they had a record season for spectators, attendance. they had more attendees attend all the broadway shows than ten professional new york city sports clubs combined. that means mets, yankees, all of those combined, broadway still beat it.

broadway we know brings in tax revenue, jobs and tourism, and to just wrap up, i know i said that the show will not go on this year, but tickets are going on sale in the coming weeks for 2021. so eventually, the show will go on. ashley? ashley: yes, it will, with a dramatic almost vanna white-like presentation of "hamilton." great stuff. thank you very much. tough for the actors, though. what are they going to do between now and january assuming we can get going in january? thank you for that report. by the way, we debuted our first-ever friday feedback segment last week and we want to keep that going. turns out i'm 119 years old, if you were watching last week. stu's out. the markets are closed friday. so this week we will try something we are calling, well, we just scratched out friday. thursday feedback. clever. be sure to e-mail your thoughts to varneyviewers@foxbusiness.com and who knows, you may have a chance to be featured on

tomorrow's show. please be nice. you can say whatever you want. all right. big show ahead. still to come, look at this lineup. liz peek on the state of the 2020 race. brian brenberg and david asman on the partisan divide on the economy and joe concha on the media's handling of joe biden's i know that every single time that i suit up, there is a chance that that's the last time. . . during turbulent times, consider protected lifetime income from an annuity as part of your retirement plan. this can help you cover your essential monthly expenses. learn more at protectedincome.org .

ashley: welcome backs, everybody, i'm ashley webster in for stuart. here is the where things stand. green on the screen. the dow come back a little bit, up a quarter percent own the dow. 25,873. s&p up a third of a percent. up about a 10th. helping the dow this morning. that gave a nice little boosted toe to the market. futures showed we would start the day to the negative. but no. secretary of state mike pompeo, he is holding a news conference on the u.s. china supply chain, well he is, take my word for it, people staring at an empty

podium but mr. pompeii -- pompeo will come out. that is the at the state department right now. let's move on. we're getting the latest read on manufacturing. susan, give me the number. susan: another positive boost to stock market sentiment. we're increasing more than anticipated. expansionary mode. this is pretty positive. for the month of june looking at 52.6, versus estimates calling for 49.5. 50 is the demarcation line, anything above 50 is ex-pap shun airy. this is the first expansion this year. we saw revisited financial crisis lows with four straight months of declines and contraction, shrinkage in industrial manufacturing. so this very positive. we're looking at a boost in the stock market. ashley: very good. ism manufacturing. let's moving, actually in

expanding mode. that's good. we just got by the way the latest on construction spending, another sign of progress. lauren? lauren: construction may, construction spending declined, a surprise decline of 2.1% in may. it was equally bad in april, decline of 2.9%. many operations were ceased. you couldn't build because of lockdowns. expected the number to rise for may as the country reopened. that did not happen. down 2.1% in may. ashley: lauren. thank you, a mixed bag we'll call it. let's bring in john lonski, moody's analytics, chief market economist. we got revised numbers. we actually added three million jobs, in the private sector. that is like a five million difference. that is very bullish sign is it not for the economic recovery?

>> most definitely is, ashley. i think we're, at the start of a new economic recovery, third quarter growth could come in between 15 and 20%. we also got fairly good news on homebuyer mortgage applications. the latest week was down. the latest moving four-week average for homebuyer mortgage applications was the highest since they changed the estimation methodology back in 2011. ashley: that is interesting. the housing market is it hard to get a handle on. as you say. if you look at bigger picture, housing continues to do well. there is lack of homes on the market which is frustrating. we're seeing mortgage applications tick slightly lower. we thought housing was one of those areas that could bring us out of the funk but do you expect a slowdown? >> no, i think housing will do quite well. earlier this morning, walking a

dog i ran into a realtor from westchester county, new york, just north of new york city and what i heard was that this has been the strongest housing market for westchester county in the 30 years this person has been practicing real estate. that's a good sign. i imagine we're getting good news elsewhere in the u.s. economy as we move out of the recession. real estate will be a leader. ashley: you're expecting for the non-farm payrolls report tomorrow. could we surprise again to the upside? >> you know, let's say that we should see the return of maybe 2.7 million to three million new jobs. i think unemployment rate drops from just over 13% to just over 12%. we're continuing to make progress on the jobs front. somebody from the construction industry said what impediment we have nowadays, is getting

construction workers back on the job because of the deterrent supplied by very generous unemployment benefit programs. it is hard to take on a job when you're getting more money, not working. ashley: you're still bullish john, despite the headlines suggest, certainly resurgence of virus cases across the country. that does not dampen your outlook? >> we have promising news on vaccine from pfizer. as far as the rising covid-19 cases. you expect that will happen as the economy reopens. as it turns out a lot of cases seem limited to younger people who perhaps will recover more quickly from covid-19 than older individuals. one report that i came across was that sure, you have an increase in icu utilization rates at these hospitals in

texas and houston but according to this one source a lot of those, that increase utilization is not because of the virus, it is rather because of other illnesses. for some strange reason, a local doctor told me this too, emergency room physician, we had a drop in heart attacks and strokeses at worst of covid-19. all of sudden people are having heart attacks and strokes again, that is increasing utilization for icus. ashley: sometimes the numbers can be misleading. thank you, john lonski for joining us. >> my pleasure. ashley: let's take a look at boeing if we can, take a look at this stock, boeing up a percent up 185. according to the the inspect inspector general report. the boeing boeing kept the faa

in the dark on the 737 max changes. the european aircraft maker, stock up slightly at $18.19. take a look at united airlines. they are going to add 25,000 flights in august. that is a more positive sign. the stock moving higher on that news. let's take a look at the lockdown winner for you. we talked about it earlier, fedex. that stock this morning up nearly 16%, up another $22 at 162. all because of a boost of course in online shopping and all the delivering of those packages. let's look at ups. would imagine it too is moving higher on that news. it is. ups up five bucks at 117. that because of fedex's strong earnings, getting a nice lift as well. let's take a look at tesla. it has been on a tear.

it has reached a milestone in its valuation. susan, how much? susan: $200 billion and countying. the stock hit another record high today, officially the now the world's most valuable car company on the planet, passing toyota and honda. it is bigger than ford, fiat and honda combined. after a leaked email from elon musk predicted break even. he says it will be super tight but might happen in the second quarter of this year. response to this tweet of crossing $200 billion in market cap, 10 years after hitting the stock market on the nasdaq, very close to the anniversary date, elon musk says, great, celebratory. in terms of the actually the stock price itself, we know it is about $1000, counting 1100 this morning. some people say it is maybe too expensive, maybe weapon should discuss a stock split. elon musk in response said it is

worth discussing at the annual shareholders meeting on battery day. the stock is doing sew well. we're expecting the tesla delivery numbers this week. the market anticipating something over 72,000. it is pretty impressive given than fremont in california, car production factory was closed in that quarter. klein doing heavy lifting for that number. we're expecting 500,000 deliveries by end of this year. actually lifted their price tar guest on the stock. that is probably why getting another boost this morning. tesla, you can't bet against elon musk, can you? ashley: well above 800, that's for sure. thank you, susan. now this, joe biden held his first news conference in nearly three months and he had another weird interaction with a reporter. listen to this. >> you're a lying dog face --

>> that you are subject to some degree of cognitive decline. have you been tested for some degree of cognitive decline? >> i've been -- on testing. look, all i got to do, watch me, i can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man i'm running against. ashley: all right. he loves that expression, lying dog face. it is a very strange one, is it not. that was to doug mckelway. let's bring in liz peek. liz, he is out out of the basemt but continuing to stumble his way along, does he not? >> he almost made it through it, ashley, but not quite. it was close. this was not a great step forward for mankind, certainly, certainly a big step forward for the biden campaign, after three months to actually take questions, presumably unscripted

questions from reporters. the only issue i have, first of all, as always he says something that raises more questions. when has he been tested? are we going to see the results of those tests? remember in september he promised to release his medical records and did so in december with the exemption of any assessment of his cognitive capabilities. and here's why this is an issue, ashley. it is not just an issue for people on the right. people on the left have also questioned, remember during one of the primaries julian castro kind of raised the red flag that biden couldn't remember anything. many of his other rivals during that time questioned his ability to kind of get through a democrat primary debate and he didn't. every time he sort of scrambled his words, forgot important dates, mixed up people and places and things. he continues to do this. 38% of americans in a recent "rasmussen poll," likely voters,

excuse me, said they think he has some cognitive decline. i know everyone really is ready to vote against donald trump but the question is, are they really going to vote for somebody who is afraid to meet the press, deal with the give-and-take after campaign? so far the answer has been no. ashley: which raises the question, liz, who he picks as husband running mate and we discussed this a lot. this is actually a very, very critical pick. is there anyone that he can select in your mind that could give him the kind of, give the ticket, the reassurance, all is well, given his, i don't want to say mental capacity, but something along those lines? >> i think, whoever he picks, everyone is going to be looking at the likely next president. i think many people expect that joe biden might not make it through four years. at the very least, he won't run

again. his vie presidential pick, will be the person should he win undoubtedly carrying the banner forward. this places enormous pressure, i think on the first time our country's history the vp pick is unbelievably important. he is pressured to pick someone of color, a woman of color. a lot of those women come from law enforcement backgrounds. his real issue here is not just going forward can this person being president, can he gin up excitement about his candidacy. as we all know there is big enthusiasm gap between him and donald trump. donald trump supporters really want to vote him and biden's supporters are voting against donald trump. that is a problem for him. ashley: it really is. we could talk all day long and it would be great. but we can't, liz peek. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me. ashley: thank you. quirk check of the market before we head for the break.

can see picking up more steam, the dow picking up 138, 140 points, nasdaq, s&p up half a percent. now this story. the new york city council approved slashing one billion dollars from the police budget, but congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez says that's not enough and is demanding more. meanwhile in los angeles, lawmakers are closer to replacing police officers with unarmed first-responders. our california guy larry elder is fired up about that on the show. first we ask uber's former chief business officer on the company's reported 2 billion-dollar bid for rifle food delivery company post mates. will demand for food delivery remain at this level? that is a good question. first hour of "varney" is just getting started. ♪

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♪. ashley: all right. let's turn now to seattle where police there are clearing out the "chop" zone. lauren, haven't demonstrators there put up roadblocks? lauren: they sure did. when seattle began tearing down the concrete barricades around the "chop" autonomous zone, using heavy machinery. the protesters tried to rebuild them using anything they could find. this morning seattle police starting to clear out the area, making more than a dozen arrests so far. after the seattle mayor declared the gathering unlawful followed a series of shootings, and two

teenagers died as you know. now the seattle mayor ordering "chop" cleared and the police are moving in. ashley: a little late. but at least something is happening there. lauren, thank you very much. now this, "wall street journal" is reporting that uber is in talks to buy postmates. that is another food delivery service for about $2.6 billion. let's bring in emo michael. he is former uber chief business officer. emil, thanks for being here. will the demand for food delivery go away ever? >> i don't think it will go away ever but i think you're going to see a fundamental shift toward more food delivery even after the pandemic is finished. and the reason is because that people are going to develop new habits, right? they will carry those habits with them. ashley: well that's my question to you, emil.

taking a broader look, looking at uber and others, connecting with drivers in some form or fashion. does the company have to reinvent itself, reinvent the model, i don't think ride-sharing for instance i think goes out the window, will not want to share rides with people, who don't know whether they will take precautions, whether the cars were cleaned out in between rides. i have a feeling that the business model has to change. do you agree? >> i think parts of it will have to change but let me suggest this that there are, for example, ways to show in the app that this driver has cleaned his car, maybe even was tested for coronavirus and is clean. so you might have the ability to show the consumer that this driver has been, is vetted and ready to go. the other thing you might see people switching from public transportation like buses and crowded subways to ubers. now it may be better for them to go all the way to their own

private car but they are then, uber is a nice substitute for that. so i think you will see a lot of changes one way or the other in that business. ashley: another one, emil, a number of restaurants have complained about food delivery fees. in new york city, uber eats reportedly offered restaurants a break on those fees. is that an issue? >> i think it is smart for uber eats to be giving breaks to restaurants during this difficult time but i would challenge the cities putting in these price controls, instead of just doing that, why don't you reduce the fees, the red tape, taxes that go along to the restaurant themselves? that will reduce the cost of ownership and cost of operating today and tomorrow. reduce their property taxes through their landlords. let that pass through to the lower rent payments. that will make much more of a difference forcing private companies already being competitive to cap their fees in certain areas?

ashley: as an uber guy, former uber guy, i should say, does it make sense to try to buy postmates? is that a good marriage? >> postmates is the fourth player in the market. and i think it could make sense at the right price. i don't think uber gets a lot from it. they basically changed their market position in one major metropolitan area, los angeles. that is all they get for $2.4 million, billion dollars? i think there is a lot better uses for that $2.4 billion. in they get their price materially. i think it might be worth it. right around that price it feels a little expensive. ashley: we'll leave it there but great insight. emil michael, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, have a good day. ashley: you too. check the markets. the markets are having a good day. we have thought it might start on the downside but now, the 1st of july we're up. it has been very much up and

down. feels like the markets are treading water until the jobs report tomorrow. but the dow up 91 points at this stage, moving along. let's take a look at kroger, it has received fda emergency use authorization, a mouthful for its covid-19 at-home test kit. that you would think was a positive. the stock down half a percent at 33.6. take a look at beyond mae and alibaba. the move to get fake meat in the chinese market. alibaba down slightly. beyond meat, investors like that news, up more than 10%. up 13 bucks on the day. we should note this. secretary of state mike pompeo talking about hong kong this morning. susan, what's he saying? susan: he says that the u.s. is deeply concerned about the safety of everybody living in the hong kong after the passage and implementation now of the new security law, the national security law that went into effect and china imposed it on hong kong last night. so this new law means local

hong kong residents and even foreigners could be jailed up to life in prison if they are convicted of trying to separate hong kong from china, what chinese officials call succession and subversion. the part of the national security law as i mentioned is also very concerning because likely includes americans. it is an affront to all nations. they're standing by president trump's stance that they will end hong kong's special status, special trade status which repeals some of the shall we say generous, some of the generous terms that hong kong has to trade under and where some of the capital flows to the city as well. despite the passage, we saw hundreds of protesters on the streets on july the 1st, which is a very symbolic day in hong kong. that was the same day back in 1997 where hong kong was handed back to chinese rule from british rule. during this protest, police said they made arrests of over 100. including a man holding a black

independence flag and a woman with a sign that hong kong independence should stand. ashley, should take a listen to this, this breaks the terms of the 1997 handover. ashley: very true. it may indeed but what is china going to do about it? probably not a lot. susan, thank you for that. the latest from mike pompeo, secretary of state, talking about hong kong. minimum wage is going up in several states today. former mcdonald's chairman ed rensi says this is bad news for already struggling small businesses. he is on the show in our next hour. also retail was in a tough spot in big cities like new york before the virus, but now, many are at risk of never reopening. that is according to our next guest. he is forecasting depression numbers for new york city retail. yikes! he makes his case next.

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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 part of aag, i trust 'em, i think you can too. trust aag for the best reverse mortgage solutions. call now so you can... retire better ashley: all right it is that time of the week, weekly oil inventories breaking right you no. lauren, what are they telling us? lauren: demand is recovering. we have a decline of 7.2 million barrels stockpiled last week, far greater than expected. the price of oil, right near $40 a barrel on this news.

so this is a major drawdown in the supply of oil last week shows, you know, people are getting out and about, starting to hit the roads, businesses reopening and they are using fuel. ashley? ashley: that is, that is and encouraging sign, using more as demand goes up. thank you very much, lauren. big cities have been deeply impacted by the lockdown and protests. listen to what stu had to say about new york city earlier this week. roll tape. >> new york city is in crisis, clobbered by the virus and lockdown and urban unrest. it is very hard to see how new york and other cities can come out of this in even halfway decent shape. city dwellers, are facing in my opinion, a grim future. ashley: well there you have it, stu, laying it on the line. let's bring in meridian retail leasing president. james, good morning to you. look, you're concerned a lot of

these retailers won't be able to reopen at all is that correct? >> that's correct. thanks for having me, ashley. i actually agree with stuart. i think the longer we prolong the opening of these businesses the more we're going to see closures. every day we get different announcements. starbucks closing 400 stores. zara closing 1200 stores. i mean the four billion dollar loss that macy's just posted doesn't surprise me at all. we're going to continue to get bad news every single day. ashley: well i wanted to bring up macy's as you mentioned. they did report profits today. they did see a sales slump as the lockdown begins to wane but they posted a 630 million-dollar first-quarter loss. for a company the size of macy's, do you really feel they're going to struggle to survive? >> i mean they were struggling before the pan dim mick. ashley: right.

>> they announced 160 stories closing and how does anybody expect them to be profitable with all the stores closed? and with the daily threats from the governor and the mayor of new york city, saying that we are going to extend the next phase we might closeout door dining, we're all in survival mode. we need to open, we need to open safely. ashley: yeah, you know what is interesting, you mentioned that macy's was struggling before the pandemic but if you walked along with new york city, fifth avenue, lexington, there were a lot of boarded up windows anyway. stores were struggling against online competition and incredibly high rents charged in new york city. it feels like this is the moment where they literally get pushed over the edge, it has a huge impact on a city like new york

when you have so many people just not returning and unable to afford the rent. so those places would stand empty for sometime? >> i agree. i think fifth avenue and madison avenue are two of the hardest hit corridors in the city as you mentioned the high debt levels. the daily closings. slowly but surely you see the boards come down. that gives a little little bit f optimism but it is still very bleak at this point. ashley: so james, i guess the survival comes from those retailers who have been aggressive in getting their e-commerce side up and running and competing at some level. it is very hard to deal with the amazons and the other big behemoths but can retailers still carve out a niche for themselves in this environment? >> i mean, it is an ongoing

challenge, online versus brick-and-mortar but i think at the end of the day, people always need the experience of being outdoor and interacting. it is human to be social and after all this time being locked up, i look forward to the day that i could walz through a department store, go to restaurant and sit down like a normal human being again. ashley: yeah, i'm right there with you, james. stay right there if you can. i have some breaking news right now. new york city planning apparently to roll back some part of its reopening plans? susan? susan: new york city is joining new jersey shelving indoor dining indefinitely according to mayor de blasio as bar and restaurant linked covid cases are surging across the nation. we know 17 states have rolled back or paused some of their reopening, this includes restaurants now here in new york. de blasio says now is not the

time to forge ahead with indoor dining in the five boroughs. ashley: all right. susan, thank you. james, come back in if you can, news like this hurts all businesses, does it not, including retailers? >> it actually does, it does and right now people are in survival mode. so they need to open. people are struggling. the ppp money and the sba money will only last so long. so this partial opening, this curbside pickup, this outdoor dining is really a lifeline. now he is pulling back the ability to make money at this point, it is only going to hurt. what the mayor needs to do, meet with some of these small business owners to come up with a cohesive plan to reopen safely. of course we'll get a spike in new cases because testing is up. that is only natural. that is common sense.

ashley: very good. we'll have to leave it there, james, thank you very much. great stuff. thanks for joining us this morning and what is a very tough environment for retailers no doubt. let's take a look at those market as we got the news from mayor de blasio. the dow certainly not up as much as it was earlier. still up 56 points. the nasdaq and s&p up right around a half a percent. by the way a quick programing note, our very own blake burman will interview president trump today. catch the full interview right here on fox business at 3:00 p.m. eastern. don't miss that. but first, one liberal city wants to replace its police department with unarmed emergency responders. find out where when we return. ♪

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ashley: there are moves, as you probably know around the country to defund the police and in los angeles the city councilmember has announced the first step to replace the lapd. oh, this is a good story. come in larry elder, our california guy. all right, larry, so i'm in trouble. i call 911 and under this scenario who shows up? a counselor? >> i guess so, somebody with a notepad maybe and, i have no idea. look, i suspect that this person, council person is directing this towards domestic violence calls and that they're going to send out trained counselors to deal with that, i guess. look, the premise seems to be that the lapd is out of control, unfair, especially to minorities. i was born and raised in this city, ashley. the land has evolved tremendously. the city is roughly 40% hispanic

as is the lapd. roughly 10% black as lapd. the rest are pacific islanders and asians as is lapd. for period of 10 years there were back-to-back black police chiefs including during the o.j. simpson case. it came out with a full study and found out nobody did anything wrong. still the people felt o.j. simpson was innocent man framed by the lapd. still felt that o.j. simpson was a innocent man framed by the lapd. so it didn't matter. ashley: but as you say, larry, the l.a.p.d. reflects the community it serves. los angeles used to be an economy built on freelancers. it is suffering what is going on? >> california lawmakers, dominated by the democrats, they

just not have pa majority or but they have supermajorities. the republican need not show up to work. they passed ab-5 converts uber drivers and lyft drivers into employees, requiring employer to pay all the sorts of benefits. making it less enticing for consumers, or individuals to work, less enticing to hire them. you're taking a baseball bat one more time to an economy already suffering. people born and raised in california are going elsewhere, going to arizona and texas n their place are people who don't have the same kind of tax base. the state is suffering because of the stupid left-wing policies that tell business people to leave. the reason ceo magazine in 16 year history named california, ashley, the worst state to do business all 16 years. ashley: oh, my gosh. last one for you, larry, l.a. closing beaches this holiday weekend due to spike in virus cases.

the state recorded nearly 7600 cases just yesterday. is this increased testing? what's going on? >> i think that is what it is. increased testing as one of our guests earlier said. by definition, when you increase testing you will find more cases. i don't believe the economy should have been shut down in the first place. we'll have to figure out a way of coexisting. we know the target areas, vulnerable people, people with comorbidities. we know all this. whether people want to wear masks, social distancing all the things you and i know what should do. on the other hand people will die because they commit suicide, depression, alcoholism, drug abuse will go up, domestic violence calls go up because the baseball bat we've taken to the economy. we'll have to figure up a better way to coexist until we come up with a better treatment and a

vaccine. ashley: wow, you're on fire, larry elder. thank you for giving us all the perspective from california. as always, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. ashley: let's look at the markets if we can, a new month, a new quarter underway. we're still on the upside, but losing some steam. dow up 27 points, s&p also up half a percent. markets are really treading water until the big jobs report tomorrow. it gives us another look at unemployment and how the economy is doing. take a look at apple, while we're talking about big tech. the stock as you can see, up at 366. the company reportedly pushing suppliers to cut production delays. susan, what is going on with this? susan: apple finally expected to release its new 5g phones in september or october. they predict we'll get four new iphones, three different screen sizes. because of the global pandemic there is a production delay of four weeks up to two months from

some of their suppliers. in order to ramp up the production to get the phones shipped before the all important holiday period, apple is pushing suppliers to catch up and minimize delays. nikkei news says the new phones will be released this year. they guarranty that. there were worse case predictions that the iphones would be delayed until next year, 2021 which would not be good. final assembly may be delayed to october. according to report. in fact the iphone cycle sun with of the most important because it kicks off so-called 5g super cycle for apple which means a lot of older iphones, there is one billion in use, 800 million might need to be upgraded. people might have to buy new phones. that increases the profit and bottom line for apple. still we're closing in on the record highs once again, ashley. we have to get above 370. this has been powering the stock market this is year. ashley: it really has, it is

remarkable. thank you very much. it is incredible. coming up it is pretty obvious the liberal media is not a fan of president trump. roll tape. >> can you state -- >> quiet. >> mr. president-elect -- >> ask a question. >> mr. president, are you a racist? mr. president, are you a racist? ashley: yeah. but it was quite a different scene at joe biden's first press conference in nearly three months. wait until you hear the softball questions that he had to receive and one, by the way, we'll get into that. by the way one baseball team is allowing fans back in the stands. yeah, but there is a catch. we'll tell you what that is later in the show. but first, live sports on pause, thanks to the pandemic. but a different type of sport is gaining traction, esports. it is already huge. we'll have the details when we return. or what's next no matter what challenges life throws at you,

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to stream the entertainment you love. xfinity. the future of awesome. ♪. ashley: the gaming revolution. twitch, the live streaming platform owned by amazon that is, temporarily suspending president trump's channel citing hateful conduct. all right. let's bring in a professional

esports and steeling consultant. great to have you, rod. are you surprised by this? is this a political move? >> well twitch as a company and from what i understand this was based off of him reairing the rallies in 2016 where he infamously called mexican immigrants rapists. that specifically is the rally that was rebroadcasted for why they did this. twitch internally as a company has tried to set themselves a little bit apart from twitter or instagram or facebook, where they want to treat the president of the united states, which is trump, just like any other user on the website. that has been a contested issue from the left and right on the social media websites, at least for twitch they want to make is same as random person on the website that they would suspend him the same way they would anybody else. ashley: we'll move on from that. another one for you, rod, with sports on pause because of the virus, people have been turning to e-sports to fill that void.

they were already doing that by the millions before the virus but in some strange way has the pandemic increased exposure of these sports? >> yeah. esports is the only sport out there in the world where you can play it online. where competitive video games got the growth to begin with. with no one able to move across the country, competitive e-sports, and competitive gaming, all the major leagues with one or two weeks, took the in-person events, put them online and we had broadcasts, played professionally last view months. think broke record viewership. nascar was able to put on i-racing events when there wasn't real nascar. that gave a sense of peace for a lot of nascar fans that were not able to watch week after week. they were able to watch sim racing on tv. and became fans afterwards. ashley: is there plenty of room

to grow for the esports gamer world? we're talking a lot of people. we're talking real big money? is the sky the limit on this phenomenon is what i call it? >> i mean, yeah, these last few months have been a really big boom for professional gaming w professional sports coming back that will not hurt the gamers. all the new fans e-sports has got an rocket league or simulated racing will transfer over to all those people even when tradition aol sports come back. ninja is now making $40 million off of a mixer deal most recently. competitive gaming and streamers overall are only going to continue toe toe grow for the next few years. ashley: out of interests, rod, do you play yourself? are you competitive? >> yes i've been playing games myself for the last 20 years. i've always been a gamer my whole life. i don't really see that changing anytime soon.

i'm going to continue being in the industry and the niche that i love. i'm really here to help make this mainstream for everybody. ashley: living the dream as they say. rod breslau, thank you very much for joining us today. really appreciate. >> thanks for having me. ashley: thank you. has a great radio voice too. good news for folks planning to take a dip in the pool this july 4th weekend. health experts say you cannot catch the virus from chlorinated pool water but you still need to practice social distancing. coming up in the next hour, we'll show you the steps pool are taking to keep you safe. but first, new york city passes a budget that will slash a billion dollars from the city's police department but get this, aoc says that is not enough. her bizarre claim when we return ♪ y-yeah ♪ ♪ yeah

♪ hey, hey

ashley: welcome back, everybody. it is 11:00 a.m. on the east coast. the markets hanging in there. all sorts of news but we are on did upside. the dow off about quarter of a percent. same story on the nasdaq and the s&p, up half a percent at this hour. the dow, by the way, losing all of its gains from earlier. it was boosted by pfizer and bi biontech, one of their virus vaccine tests showing positive results. that gave a boost to the markets. this morning, we also learned that 2.37 million private sector jobs were added in june. that's according to adp. by the way, adp is now revising

its may report to a gain of three million jobs. they initially said there was a drop of 2.75 million. that's a huge revision. they didn't explain why they got it so wrong but hey, it's on the plus side. now this. take a look at your screen. a new study suggests the partisan divide on the economy is bigger now, get this, than at any point during the trump presidency. with us now, the host of "bulls & bears" great guy, david asman. great to have you with us this morning. why is this so polarizing? we all want this country to do well, and the economy to be, you know, roaring on all cylinders. david: the partisan divide on every issue has never been greater. look at the protests. look at any one of a number of things that's happening. look at the different opinions on how quickly or slowly we should reopen the economy.

this is a combination of events, the primary event or unifying event is the election that's coming in november. then you have all of these events surrounding that event that are all affected by it which of course include the coronavirus, include the protests, et cetera. within the parties, though, you also have this divide. you just had alexandria ocasio-cortez tweeting out that she's opposed to what the far left city council of new york has done and the far left mayor of new york has done. it didn't go far enough in defunding the police so within parties, you have the same kind of divide. but markets and the american people i think want to mitigate toward the center. eventually they move toward the center. you look what happened with the market today, it popped up as soon as news came out that the police went into seattle. there was a direct correlation i think between the good news seen by the markets and seen by most

americans that finally, some semblance of normalcy was at least tried to be put into place in seattle, in that so-called chop zone which hopefully, according to the police chief there, is no longer. so it is a crazy time, it's a crazy period, it will probably continue to be so. i think between now and the election there is going to be this move towards normality that the extremes of all sides are going to sort of find the american people and the markets specifically to our interest as a business channel, are going to want a more centrist mode, wherever that happens to be. i think that's the people that -- at the top that are going to be running for president, the president running for re-election and joe biden, are going to find that appealing to the far side of either side of their party is not going to win them the election, certainly not going to win them the support of the markets. ashley: absolutely right, david. extremes on either side are

never good. if you can stay right there, i want to get back to you on that defunding police issue. stay right there, david. i will bring in brian brenberg from kings college in manhattan. brian, listen, we just finished a remarkable quarter, best quarter since 1987. what is the market telling us right now? >> well, i think the market's telling us right now that they are pretty confident we are not going back into the generalized lockdowns that we saw in march and april. that's why there's confidence that we can rebound and i think that's probably right. the american people have no appetite for the kind of pain, the economic pain that we endured with these lockdowns, but i don't think it's a risk-free situation. the news out of new york city today was striking to me. mayor deblasio says no indoor dining in new york city. new york city right now has one of the best trending data sets of any city, any state in the country, and they are choosing to not let people dine indoors.

that's problematic. you saw the market today come off its highs with that news. that's no accident. that's the kind of data traders are watching right now. ashley: i want to move on. i want to talk about what jay powell said. he said, if you can take a look at your screen right now, 16 states are now either pausing or delaying or rolling back their reopening plans. to follow up what you said about new york city. this as federal reserve chairman jay powell warned that a second wave of the virus would quote, undermine public confidence and further damage the economy. in some ways, as we see this pausing or rolling back, is that damage already being done? >> well, we kind of have the second wave, if you want to call it a wave. i think that localized spike is a better term for it. we've got it. i don't think that's the thing that undermines confidence. what undermines confidence is if governors and mayors go back to this sort of all-inclusive

blanket lockdown mode which just crushes small businesses, which crushes economic opportunities. that's the thing that's going to undermine confidence because the profile of the surging has changed. it's younger people now. the hospital stays are shorter. those kind of stats give us hope that even if we see a reemerge ens, it's going to look differently. if we use the same approach to deal with a different kind of problem, then i think you see traders, i think you see average people getting nervous because they think here it comes again, we are going to wreck the economy again and this time i might not bounce back from it. ashley: what about the small business owner who is barely hanging on, maybe got some federal help but just saying come on, let's reopen, then being faced with the possibility of reopening put on pause or even going backwards? we are going to see a real, real problem, are we not, among small businesses? >> well, small business owners are going nuts right now, particularly in places where they are looking at the prospect

of a rollback. you can't deal with that kind of uncertainty. you can't plan around what a mayor may or may not do from one day to another. think about these small businesses, think about the restaurants and bars in new york city. they were gearing up to reopen, they were investing money to reopen and now the mayor who again, we don't have data in new york city yet that indoor dining's going to create a problem. the mayor says you can't do it. these guys just spent a bunch of money and they can't make any money off of it. that's the kind of thing, at some point you throw up your hands and say i'm out, i can't do it. we simply cannot have that because the ripple effect doesn't just affect hospitality. it affects everybody and at some point you get to a situation where you can't come back from it. we have the opportunity for a strong recovery right now. we cannot throw it away willy-nilly. it's got to be a tailored approach to these spikes. ashley: couldn't agree more. brian brenberg, as always, great stuff.

thanks for joining us. i want to shift gears now back to an issue we were talking about earlier. new york city slashing $1 billion from the nypd budget but democrat socialist and new york congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez says still not enough. david asman just mentioned that minutes ago. david, what's the end game here? how can we take $1 billion from the budget of a police department that's already overworked? david: while new york crime is skyrocketing as a result of the lack of support from the mayor's office for police over the past couple of years. i mean, this is a long-standing problem and it's going to get worse before it gets better, i'm afraid. we see the reaction to not supporting the police in terms of the rise in crime. everybody here who has been through all of the ups and downs of new york knew this was going to happen because we have been here before. we have seen this before. look, you are looking right now at a mob, right now. a mob is trying to take over the views of the new york people in

general. this is a democracy. polls show that new yorkers do not want to -- they certainly don't want to defund the police the way aoc does, and they don't even want to lower the amount of money paid for police, which by the way, is going to be diverted into the pockets, some say, of the mayor's wife because a lot of the social programs that she's been championing are now going to be funded by the money that was going to the police so there's this inside stuff happening which is really unseemly. the bottom line is we're about to celebrate the fourth of july, ashley, as you well know. you love that celebration, i do. i think it's one of the best celebrations we have all year as americans. i like it even better than thanksgiving, by the way. one of the things it celebrates is the rule of democracy over the rule of the mob. the mob should not win. we just had a guy with a blmt shirt and megaphone out last night at city hall saying, i'm not going to be able to quote everything because there's an

obscenity in here, but said i want to hang him referring to the police from an f'ing tree like he do us. in other words, they are advocating hanging police right now. that kind of mob behavior cannot be tolerated and yet we understand the mayor is going to write black lives matter in big letters on fifth avenue. if that's what black lives matter stands for and this guy appeared to be leading the black lives matter charge at that particular rally last night, i don't want it down fifth avenue. i don't know about you. ashley: no. no. it's -- you're absolutely right. the mob has taken over. we are all just left standing on the sidelines and it's not acceptable at all. unfortunately, as you know, new york city has a mayor that doesn't have the backbone to do something about it. another issue for another day. david asman -- david: can't let the mob rule. it's a part of our independence heritage and happy july fourth, ash, and to everybody out there. ashley: thank you. same to you, david. great stuff as always. thank you very much.

three big tech names hitting all-time highs this morning, oh, by the way. microsoft, tesla and amazon. take a look at tesla. $1,130, up another $51 nearly. amazon up at $2800. remarkable. take a look at apple. they reportedly are pressuring suppliers to ramp up production on its next generation iphone after lockdown closures delayed that process. apple itself up half a percent at $366. what about beyond meat and alibaba? we have been talking about this. they are teaming up to sell fake meat in grocery stores across china. could be a very big deal for beyond meat. that stock up 9%. alibaba essentially flat. the cdc expressing quote, substantial disappointment with american airlines over its decision to resume full flights but lauren, american isn't the only one looking to fill more seats, right?

lauren: yeah, today american as well as united will fly full flights, meaning they are not limiting seats. the middle seat will not necessarily be open. but they will notify passengers if a flight is full so then the passenger can switch to another flight free of charge but as you noted, both the cdc and dr. fauci say the lack of social distancing on planes is worrisome. what does american say to that? they say look, we are requiring face coverings. we clean our planes all the time. those are the protections that you need. united says look, keeping the middle seat open, that's a p.r. stunt, nothing more. ashley: interesting. this is also interesting. alaska airlines taking a page from professional soccer. what's that about? lauren: okay. so there's a yellow card, a warning card. if you get it as a passenger, it's your final notice to put on a face mask or risk not being able to fly alaska. the cards will start to be distributed this month. if you get it, you put on your

mask. if you don't, they file a report on you and you could lose your flying privileges. how do you feel about that. look, there's no national law here so the airlines have to take it upon themselves, how do we get our passengers to wear face coverings and this is alaska's way. ashley: interesting. yellow cards in soccer is, you know, the warning, your name goes down in the book. the red card is you have been sent off. if you get a red card from alaska, i guess you can't fly. all right, lauren. youtube announcing it is jacking up the prices of its cable bundle, youtube tv. by how much? susan: 15 bucks more. so in all for a month, it's $65. not cheap. because they are now including viacom cbs channels like comedy central and b.e.t. you have to pay more for that. now, this is youtube's live television package which replaces cable bun widles if yo cut the court. price hikes start today for new customers. hikes for the july billing cycle for existing customers, at last count there were two million

subscribers on youtube tv. compare that to comcast which had nearly 20 million residential cable subscribers. look, we know that cord cutting is alive and well. in fact, accelerating. more than two million americans cut the cord just in the first three months of this year. just for comparison, hulu prices its package at $55 a month. at & t is $60 a month. this is the new reality we are in. this is the consumer trend that obviously we need to focus on and will continue to accelerate from here. ashley: that's pretty steep. all right, susan, thank you very much. by the way, we showed you these cardboard cutouts filling up empty baseball stadiums in asia. they are across all the soccer stadiums as well in europe. now that trend is coming to the u.s. we will tell you where you could get in on the action. coming up. a new study shows more than half of restaurants are closed as more states hit pause on reopening. will they ever be able to come back? we will get into that discussion. first, a new survey shows

voters are twice as enthusiastic to vote for president trump than joe biden. could that help boost his polling numbers and win a second term? we will have that story next. ♪ the best tv experience just got better

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ashley: all right. little bit of country music for you from florida georgia line. the fourth of july just days away. a new poll suggests that most americans won't celebrate. i find that hard to believe. lauren, what's going on? lauren: well, the fourth of july, the celebration, the

party, apparently makes people nervous amid coronavirus. there's an axios poll that finds three of four people think the july fourth celebration is just too risky. in fact, most consider it a large risk. of course, the ways to celebrate in crowds are certainly diminished with beaches and other places now closed but goldman sachs's chief economist is recommending look, just nationally mandate face masks. that will cut down on the infection rate and that move alone could substitute for the lockdowns and closing some businesses, and in the end, maybe that helps our gdp, right, because when you close down a business, well, that hurts the economy overall. so wear a face mask, that could protect everybody, keep everything open, but i think people are nervous in general. that's why three in four of us said we are avoiding the crowds. we will do a small celebration amongst our close family and friends this year. a backyard barbecue. ashley: there you go. i understand that. yeah.

you can still wear patriotic face mask. i understand the aversion to large crowds. interesting. thank you, lauren. by the way, brand new campaign ad is pushing the president's economic accomplishments. take a listen to this. >> america's beginning to open up, getting back on track and working together. america always fights back. now america needs congress to work with president trump. ashley: all right. let's bring in america first policies communications director and former special assistant to president trump, kelly sadler. great to see you. >> nice to see you. ashley: before i get into the mask issue, i just want to ask you, the feeling behind this ad is to stress what the president has done to drive the policies to help the economy, correct? >> not only what he has done but what he is going to propose to do. you know, come november, we are going to have to vote for somebody who is going to drive this economy forward

post-covid-19 so republican policies are very popular in polls we have conducted. things like liability insurance for small businesses, incentivizing businesses to bring back their supply chains to the united states, you know, negotiating better trade deals, usmca for example goes into effect today which is going to bring $68 billion, you know, back into our gdp and create 176,000 new jobs. so it's advocating for policies like this that will drive our economy forward in the future and then contrasting that with what joe biden is proposing, increasing your taxes, banning fossil fuels which would drive 600,000 jobs away from pennsylvania alone, voting for bad trade deals. it's a compare and contrast and we believe it is going to come down to the economy in november. ashley: want to ask you about face masks. we have been talking a lot about this this morning. would it resonate with the country, if the president wore a mask at his upcoming rally at mt. rushmore?

is that something you think the president would consider, something that health officials would like him to do? >> well, you've got to understand the science behind wearing face masks and that's for asymptomatic carriers who might have the virus to protect others. the president is in a bit of an exceptional situation in that he gets tested regularly and he is covid-free. also, the last time i checked, mt. rushmore is outdoors and these face masks are required in most states to be worn inside where the transmission is more readily apparent, not in outdoor settings. ashley: so as long as he's not among a crowd at mt. rushmore. >> as long as he's not among a crowd inside and covid-free, i think that he's just fine carrying on without a face mask. ashley: all right. want to ask you now, moving on, about a new poll. this is according to "usa today ". joe biden now leads the president by 12 points nationwide. 53-41. but the president holds a huge lead when it comes to enthusiasm.

basically doubling joe biden's numbers. can enthusiasm be translated into tenthusiastic to vote? >> absolutely. this poll is also among registered voters and we time after time again say likely voters are the more accurate polls because those are the people that are enthusiastic to get out and vote. so these numbers are huge for the president and we see this on the ground every single day. the president in this poll among registered voters and it's a national poll, also wins and beats joe biden on the economy. thus, that is the message we are moving forward with in november. ashley: terrific stuff. kelly sadler, thanks for joining us today. really appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: thank you. well, you know, for a lot of americans the fourth of july weekend means a trip to the beach or the pool, if you're lucky. with the virus sweeping through much of the nation, what is the best way to stay safe in the water? guess what? jeff flock is live at a pool in vernon township, illinois with

more. jeff, take it away. reporter: you are looking at something, ashley, you haven't seen here since last summer. just moments ago, actually, 25 minutes ago, okay, fine, they just opened this pool. it's one of the few pools that's open in the chicago area, public pools. it's all about safety. as you can tell, i haven't joined antifa and if president trump were here he would have to have a mask on because that's the rule, six feet apart. jonathan altenburg is the township supervisor. you are all about, i will keep my distance from you, it's all about safety and being able to open safely, yes? >> yes. we are really excited to be offering this service to our community. no one else really on the north suburbs is doing this. reporter: you are the only one. >> we are the only one. we will be able to have about 48 people here starting at noon to 7:00 every day. reporter: i'm looking, there's a swimming class right now? >> tlahat's a swimming class, y. reporter: the lifeguard or

teacher has a mask on, correct? >> teacher has a mask on. they are not supposed to be touching the kids. if the kids need assistance the parents will get into the water. we keep social distance as you can see with some of the cones that are around here so when people are sitting in their lounge chairs they must wear masks. we have cleaning that goes on after every session and then once a week full-out sanitation. reporter: got you. thank you so much for the tour. there you go. beautiful. it's hot. i wish i could be in there. ashley: i was going to say, must be tempting not to do a cannon ball ron burgundy style. you were very restrained. thank you very much. a new poll shows that 72% of democrats say it's important that joe biden pick a woman of color to be his running mate. who is most likely to win the spot? we will have joe concha here to weigh in, coming up. first, minimum wage hikes

kick in today in three states and washington, d.c. but the question is, how can businesses afford to pay employees more when they are already struggling just to make ends meet? that story's next. ♪

♪ ashley: all right. we are officially halfway through the year so we want to look back at the wild first few months of 2020 and it was wild. let's bring in susan and lauren. i want to begin with the big winners so far. susan, i will begin with you. susan: i will start with zoom. that's got to be the biggest winner so far this year, just ten million daily active participants at the end of last year, up to 300 million daily meeting participants because of the covid lockdown. this is a company that's kept us in touch around the world despite the fact we had a global pandemic and the stock has rallied 300% this year. but on the horizon, lots of competition. google meets, microsoft teams and facebook vroroom. ashley: lauren, big winner in your mind?

lauren: i go with home depot. i think your home is your palace right now as we are staying at home more than ever. we are fixing them up. a lot of people are looking at their home and where it is and saying yeah, no, this isn't for me. they are moving. i think home depot, while it's not a winner today, certainly a winner in the first half of the year. i think it continues to be. ashley: suddenly the floors in your home become more obvious when you are in lockdown. okay. biggest surprise, susan? susan: $1100 today, tesla. it was worth less than $200 just a year ago. you really can't discount charismatic leadership. tesla is one of the stocks that's been a big surprise, despite the fact we actually almost had a cash crunch for the company but china came in faster than expected and also, what about square? remember square, that is being held by jack dorsey? square was actually stagnant for awhile but because of the coronavirus pandemic and accelerated global banking trends, this stock continues to rally hitting another record high today.

ashley: very good. lauren, your big surprise? lauren: tjx. the owner of marshall's, home goods and tj maxx. the stock is actually down this year about $10. the reason it's a surprise for me is because of the decision they made when everything shut down, businesses relied on online shopping, e-commerce. tjx did not do that. they shut down their e-commerce operations and they made a bet, they said when things reopen and they have, people are going to return to our physical stores and engage in that treasure hunt where you just try to find the best deal you can. i also think they will benefit because the department stores, they can't sell all of their items, they unload them to marshall's, et cetera and you can get more of a discount. ashley: never underestimate the treasure hunt. finding that designer shirt for $9.99 and you are kind of running around like it's a trophy. susan, how about the -- lauren: or lauren's ability to shop.

ashley: that's true. susan: so on shopify, second largest e-commerce player behind amazon. we know amazon is worth around $1.3 trillion. shopify is only worth $100 billion and counting. you know, in investing we have this term called tam, total addressable market. in e-commerce that is growing exponentially because online penetration is only 20%, only 20% of the population has been buying online. obviously with covid-19, that has obviously changed trends and habits. ashley: what have the other 80% been doing? lauren, your big prediction. lauren: my prediction for the second half of the year is lululemon. i'm thinking lulu plus like disney plus. they bought mirror. you are sitting home, wearing athleisure which is what they sell, then if you start taking these interactive classes on the mirror, that's a social network. lululemon now owns it. i'm going with them for the second half of the year.

ashley: athleisure has it. great stuff, susan and lauren. good stuff. summing up the first six months of the year. by the way, starting today on july 1st, minimum wage is going up in some places including illinois, nevada, d.c., parts of oregon and alameda, california. how does all that play in an environment when let's be honest, small businesses are just struggling to survive? let's bring in now fat brands chairman, former mcdonald's usa president and ceo, this guy knows his stuff, good friend of the show, ed rensi. ed, it's almost a joke to say that in this environment, oh, by the way, to businesses, you are going to have to start paying your workers more money per hour. >> it's devastating, on top of this pandemic, just some statistics to think about. on the yelp platform, it suggested that 53% of the restaurants on that platform are going to close permanently.

that's almost 3% of the total restaurants in the united states. retail down 35%. hair and beauty salons, 24%. these are permanent closings. now you want to pour a box of salt in that wound with increases in the minimum wage? how idiotic, think about illinois, chicago. if you have 21 or more employees, you have the pay 50 cents more per hour than a store, retail place, that has 20 or 19 employees. that's a delta of two people. they are going to lay people off. who's going to get laid off? they are going to get the highest wage earners are going to get laid off. people above the minimum wage. that's going to impact blacks and hispanics dramatically. you know, the best thing we can do is not the minimum wage. we ought to be driving our economy. we ought to be at full employment. we need to get this economy reopened. trump said it and got it right. the cure cannot be worse than the disease.

we've got business failures all over the place and then they are going to throw the minimum wage in on top of it? it is absurd. they need to rethink what they're doing. ashley: they do. i literally have 30 seconds. i apologize for being so quick, ed. for businesses barely hanging on, when they can reopen, it's under very limited capacity. it's hard to conform to all the rules. my question is, are they actually making a profit anyway by doing that? >> absolutely not. when this payroll protection money and other assistance wears out and the money that's not been distributed yet gets used up, these businesses are going to just close. they just can't survive. i talk to people every day, they keep saying ed, what can i possibly do? you know what? you got to get a different leadership at the political level in this country because we're not going to go forward in this nation. ashley: all right. we'll have to leave it right there. sorry it was so quick but it was great as always. ed rensi, thank you. more after this. what'd we decide on the flyers again?

uh, "fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance." i think we're gonna swap over to "over seventy-five years of savings and service." what, we're just gonna swap over? yep. pump the breaks on this, swap it over to that. pump the breaks, and, uh, swap over? that's right. instead of all this that i've already-? yeah. what are we gonna do with these? keep it at your desk, and save it for next time. geico. over 75 years of savings and service.

-- as the former mayor of new orleans said, the difference between -- there are latino women, there are asian, there are -- where is the wilmington -- the delaware state news? i mean, delaware news journal, i should say? ashley: all right. well, some of the bumbling moments from our former vice president holding his first press conference in 89 days. good time to bring in joe concha, media reporter for the hill. joe, you know, where do you begin. i would call it a bit of a disaster, would you not? >> i would call it certainly a disaster not only for the former vice president, ashley, but also for the reporters asking the questions in that room.

this wasn't just a softball session, it was tee ball with a beach ball on the tee in terms of some of the questions that were asked of the former vice president. look, here's some things he wasn't asked about, for example. the new york city police department is cutting $1 billion from its police department, there are calls to defund the police nationwide by members of your party. what is your position on that. of course, that can't be asked. meanwhile, in new york city, homicides are up 42% so there appears to be a bit of a disconnect. how about asking about also alexandria ocasio-cortez is leading your climate change task force. she also supports the green new deal. she co-wrote the bill that was shot down. you say you support that bill as well or at least that proposal. that would cost trillions of dollars and the only way to pay for that would be to raise taxes probably on the middle class. how do you plan to pay for that, mr. vice president. or also, russia was brought up a lot obviously around that report that's getting some pushback around bounties on u.s. soldiers. you say you would be tough on mr. putin, mr. biden, yet during your administration, russia

invaded crimea and went to war with ukraine so why should we believe you now. these aren't gotcha questions, these are fair questions. instead, he was asked questions like ashley, how do you sleep at night, for example, was one of them. or how bad of -- [ speaking simultaneously ] ashley: listen, you just led right into my next question very nicely indeed. by the way, those were great questions that were never heard. hold on a second. i want to talk about how easy, talking of softball, how easy the press is going on joe biden for some reason, ignoring his gaffes, throwing him softball questions. let's set it up. listen to these. >> i'm happy to take questions if you have any. they gave me a list. reporter: what keeps you up at night as you look ahead? reporter: how are you, mr. vice president? >> how are you? reporter: if elected, how are you going to get americans on the same page? ashley: oh, my goodness. that's a stark difference from this moment at the white house earlier this week. listen.

reporter: a lot of people are trying to understand what his view of memorializing the confederacy is. does president trump believe that it was a good thing that the south lost the civil war? >> your first question is absolutely absurd. he's proud of the united states of america. ashley: you know, i mean,'s the been like this since day one for donald trump but does the president believe it was, you know, the south lost? is that a good thing? i mean, it's just -- it makes the press, the national press corps, look incredibly dumb. >> that was ryan lizza of politico and of cnn. i would imagine the next question he's going to ask kayleigh mcenany or the president is, is the president upset the nazis lost world war ii. i mean, these are questions that aren't designed to get an actual answer or inform the public, ashley. it's all about hey, i went viral to get some high fives from reporters on the way out for asking such a ridiculous question. that's where we're at at this

point, the state of the press in 2020, 123 days until election day. this is a preview of what you will see with regarding joe biden at press conferences and obviously donald trump at press conference moving forward until election day, ashley. ashley: you know, there's still a ways to go and so many more ways we will probably be exasperated but there's always great stuff, joe concha. thanks for pointing out some very interesting things on mr. biden's first press conference. much appreciate that. all right. let's move on, if we can. thank you, joe. another one, lauren, fans of the oakland a's will finally be allowed back in the stands, although they may look a little stiff, right? lauren: cardboard cutouts. exactly. that look just like you. you can buy one for $89. personalize it. then that board will fill up the a's stadium in lieu of human fans for the entire season. now, if a foul ball hits your cutout, they are going to send you the ball. then at the end of the day, at the end of the season, you can pick up your cutout dirty and

all and say yeah, i sort of went to cbas this year. ashley: i think that's kind of cool. good stuff. and you get a ball. good stuff. lauren: totally strange. definitely cool. ashley: all right. strange but hey, these are strange times. all right. let's move on. the state of florida recording more than 6,000 new virus cases, that was just yesterday alone. now one city is imposing a fine if people go without face coverings, they will get fined. we will tell you where and how much after the break. ♪ it's pretty inspiring the way families

redefined the word 'school' this year. it's why, at xfinity, we're committed to helping kids keep learning through the summer. and help college students studying at home stay connected through our university program. we're providing affordable internet access to low income families through our internet essentials program. and this summer, xfinity is creating a virtual summer camp for kids at home- all on xfinity x1. we're committed to helping all families stay connected. learn more at xfinity.com/education.

ashley: happening now, seattle police are clearing out the so-called chop zone. let's go live to fox news' dan springer. dan, how's it going? reporter: yeah. you know, the mayor of seattle said all along she did not want to take back the chop by force. she said she could negotiate her way through this. well, force is exactly how she's getting back her precinct. these are the seattle police officers out here at one of the

i guess now another one of the barricades. you have police here but inside, you can see that they are dismantling the chop zone. there are city workers with front loaders taking away the cement barricades that were all the way around. in fact, up past that light is where the seattle police department east precinct is and that is where the center of this protest was, and it is now being taken back over by the seattle police. we have it on good authority that the police are now inside that building, they are clearing out lots and lots of trash and all the barricades but we will send it back to you because right now, police are still doing their work. stuart? ashley: they are indeed. finally. dan springer in seattle, thank you very much. like to bring in ashley moody, florida attorney general. your honor, we talk a lot about defunding the police in these protests, something you are not for at all. make your case. >> you know, look, i'm the attorney general, yes, but i'm

also a former judge, a former prosecutor, and the wife of a law enforcement officer. you cannot in these liberal cities come out and say you're going to defund the police and in some of them, they are saying they are going to defund special victims units which address child rapists, gang violence, cyberfraud. that is just going to embolden and empower criminals to prey on the most vulnerable in these communities. it's irresponsible and it will be destructive to those communities. ashley: i'm sure you know that miami beaches are closed for this holiday weekend. well, we understand there's going to be, to put the icing on the cake, so to speak, they are going to be making masks mandatory in public. if you are caught without wearing one, that's a $50 fine. are you on board with that? >> you know, florida is a unique state. it's gigantic and we have some localities in florida who are not facing the same -- the same

increase in covid and so our governor responsibly has said i'm going to work with the localities, i'm going to let them determine what's right for their specific areas and as you know, south florida has experienced a lot of increase in covid and they are trying to be cautious and safe there. ashley: how are you going to enforce that? you are the state's top law enforcement officer. i would imagine it's very difficult to enforce something like that. a lot of people become confrontational, they don't want to wear these masks. how are you going to collect, i mean, i guess you hand out tickets but in my mind, that's going to be a very difficult thing to do. >> you know, from the beginning of this declaration of emergency in florida, as we have dealt with new yorkers coming in, as we have dealt with other states' population coming into florida, trying to deal with these executive orders, we have done so in a way that has been responsible, tried to make sure that people understand look, please, this is your health,

this is your family's health, take responsibility for that. we are trying to give you guidance through executive orders and advisories. i will continue to do that but we want people to be safe and heed warnings, especially as it relates to a personal protection equipment like masks. i wear a mask. i wore one right before i went on air today. i will continue to do so and we hope that the localities will stress the importance in those areas where we are seeing the largest increases. ashley: all right. good stuff. we are already out of time. thank you so much, ashley moody, attorney general of florida, for joining us today. we appreciate it. happy fourth of july to you as well. a safe one for sure as we just said. no face masks on miami beach. hopefully that message gets out to the young people out there who like to congregate. more "varney" after this.

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as long as he or she accepts medicare patients. and three: these are the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. learn more about why you should choose an aarp medicare supplement plan. call today for a free guide. ashley: guess what? we bay beaud our first ever friday feedback segment last week. we want to keep it going. we have something we're calling thursday freed back. we cleverly scratched out friday put in thursday. email to varney views @foxbusiness.com. last time around someone says i'm 119 years old. i don't look a day over 70. 3:00 p.m. president trump joins

"the claman countdown an here on fox business. he will do interview with our very own blake burman. "the claman countdown today. look at markets. trying to keep them up. neil cavuto, we're essentially flat. i think the markets are waiting for tomorrow's's june jobs report. back to you. neil: you seem to have limitless graphics budget report. ashley: i don't like to brag. neil: whatever, whatever applies. thank you my friend. very, very much. we'll see if we keep this going. ashley webster, you're the best. take the corner of wall and broad. the dow is down five points. we were looking potentially down a lot. we got surprising strong report on the private jobs sector front. revision of the prior month. that was up even more sharply than that. that east ad lot of