some of these names are delicious. i mean, square, this keeps coming down, i'm in. eddie, thank you very much. appreciate it. all right, liz. you can't say i didn't do anything for you today. i'm starting the week off giving you the dow up 340 points. liz: i know. well, we just hit the highs of the session. thank you, charles. happy monday. good to see you. you know what, we are looking, look, here's why, you know this, here's why the dow is strong. they weren't hot with tech-hungry investors but they sure are now. cyclicals sizzling with the industrial big-wigs, boeing and caterpillar driving the dow now into the green by 342 points. but yeah, you see the tech-heavy nasdaq down about 36 points as the new tech cold war intensifies between the u.s. and china. china has volleyed new sanctions against prominent hong kong democracy defenders. more big name u.s. companies now kicking the tires of tiktok.

charlie breaks it for us this hour. plus, could the tiktok saga be distracting from an even bigger china stock drama? in a "countdown" exclusive, one of the market's best known and feared short sellers, citron research founder andrew left reveals the stock he says is the biggest fraud right now in that country and whether shopify will really add stamp.com to its cart bus he plus the names he's long on today. the ceo of the second largest gold miner in the world is here. and blitzing covid-19 fears. the former nfler whose wildly popular masks he was making way before the pandemic, now has the cdc saying touchdown. your masks score. by the way, we have some breaking news on a report that the big ten has now canceled its football season. we will ask our nfler about that. he played for the s.e.c. plus, buffett goes big on

berkshire and the latest from chicago where looters are targeting the miracle mile. let's start "the claman countdown." liz: and yes, we need to take you to chicago right now. you are looking at a live picture of what appears to be pretty much a blockade of police cars sealing off michigan avenue, the same street as its famed magnificent mile with all of the big fancy department stores and hotels. this after a night of looting and unrest. the windy city, parts of it torn apart after police shot a suspect yesterday in one of the city's neighborhoods. the unrest has led to the arrests of more than 100 people and damage to the city's shopping district. which is a huge, by the way, a huge tourist attraction. checking chicago-based companies

nordstrom, archer daniels, midland and cme group, we have a mixed picture. nordstrom is actually up 4.7%. let me get to our pop stocks. mgm's chip pile getting bigger in this final hour of trade. the vegas headliner joining forces with barry diller's iac to build up its digital gaming and sports betting business, bet mgm. iac is calling the $1 billion price tag for its 12% stake in mgm a quote, once in a decade opportunity. sure, mgm investors think so. that can sto stock is up 13%. iac's stock down about half a percent. no surprise that sports gambling rival draftkings and penn sinking on the news of fortified competition. they are both down. penn down 7.5%, draftkings down 7.33%. but the soon-to-be golden nugget branded spac is holding up relatively strongly here, up 4%. nikola investors getting

charged up. they are creating and buying 2500 electric trash collecting and recycling trucks. yeah. republic services is a waste management company so they are making the investment. they are up .75%. nikola jumping 23.5%. you know, you've got investors starved to see actual big-time orders. they got one today. exuberance in the electric vehicle land world. nio shares rising as rival and alibaba-backed xpeng company files to follow nio all the way across the pacific to the nasdaq. nio up 4.5%. fed ex delivering into the close on an upgrade by bernstein to outperform, due in part to a booming e-commerce environment that we just see continuing over and over as the lockdowns, yes, do actually relax just a bit but people are still ordering. shipping boom is boasting for

fed ex up at 8.5% right now and ups is getting a bit of the halo effect, up 3.5%. but the recent stampede into stamps.com and e-retail site builder shopify slowing down a bit today at least. stmp seeing profit taking after a record close on friday. stamps.com down 3.5%. but you've got shopify down 4.75% just as part of the rotation out of big tech and into the cyclicals. but that stock shopify still up 160% year to date. it's above $1,000 a share right now. you know what, this works perfectly because speaking of stamps.com and shopify, investors are still waiting on short seller citron research's prediction july 20th that a merger of the two could happen. where is citron's lead voice, andrew left, on that call today and on the chinese online education name, up 350% year to date that left calls a quote, massive fraud. let's bring in activist short seller, andrew left, here in a

fox business exclusive. andrew, good to have you here. i want to first quickly get over and start with your buyout call of stamps by shopify. even if a takeover makes sense for shop, we heard radio silence. do you still think it's in the offing? >> it doesn't mean it's going to happen tomorrow. obviously it's one component that shopify is missing, logistical shipping component. stamps does a terrific job at it. if you look at the sky-high valuation of shopify right now, they could easily use their stock [ inaudible ] and it would be a great acquisition for them. yes. liz: all right. i do want to get to china because overnight, major friction increasing between the u.s. and china. the chinese government has sanctioned 11 u.s. citizens including senators marco rubio and cruz. what we are looking at at the moment, that plus jimmy lie of next digital, a media mogul in hong kong, was arrested. he's a big businessman who has

been pro-democracy. you have real fissures when it comes to the political landscape. you look at the stock investing landscape of china. this puts a name in the cross-hairs for you called gsx tech adieu. you called this a massive fraud. what's behind this? do you still feel that way considering the fact that you called it the fraud back on april began shorting it, yet this stock continues to rise? >> it does. there's an initiative out of the white house right now to make chinese companies compliant with u.s. accounting standards. we have seen a wave of chinese fraud out of the last ten years. it's not representative of every company in china but specifically, gsx tech edu is an online education company. we are talking about a multi-billion dollar company right now. i don't even know what the market cap is today. $15 billion, $20 billion. the financials are completely fraudulent. this could never fly in the united states.

it's a direct affront to u.s. investors, to our markets, and this is the exact type of thing the securities and exchange commission and the white house should be doing. liz: have you been there? this is a serious charge. it's based in beijing. have you -- i mean, go ahead. >> it's not just me. there's around ten different you could call them short sellers, market commentators, who have deep dive information. if you go to the site that's been put up, gsx stock fraud, it shows undeniable information, facts, the company is committing fraud. if it was in the united states, it wouldn't even be trading right now. so the fact they are able to export companies to us, use our markets for liquidity, allow their businessmen to become billionaires, and have no legal recourse, this is a key thing, that luckin coffee scandal, no one got arrested. imagine here in the u.s. if you are a u.s. citizen, if you

commit securities fraud you go to jail. you could be chinese, come to the u.s., commit securities fraud, and nothing happens. that's what we are seeing. so it opens up an envelope for companies like gsx to say we will say whatever we have to say, let's get our stock higher. liz: what do you think of the fact that it trades on the new york stock exchange? they have p pyretterio ng stangndardsng -arng ng efiny itauinitaungdi titi dadada >>lutesoso.soso a it a oit aitnyf maraudn i pase hopullyil lilkilkk hiomspahisndhi tshehishis state als als undosed falsiffayilsfaffa reven rs j rut other cse fuds wes s s s een. kno it mhtht shtoundhthtrazy t say but just go look historically at what we have seen in the markets over the past ten years. think about luckin coffee. this shop has 4,000 stores that inflated their revenues by 40%. unheard of. what makes you think that a company that does online education would not do it?

it's the size and scale of this that's [ inaudible ]. liz: i know that we have luckin coffee chart, it's no longer listed on the nasdaq because that was a proven situation where they were inflating profits and inflating numbers. but overall, chinese stocks are very much in the cross-hairs. we are talking about tencent and which is the parent of wechat. president trump is putting out executive order saying if by september, these companies, whether it's tiktok isn't acquired by microsoft, or now twitter apparently, we will have charlie gasparino on that a little bit later, whether it's acquired, then u.s. companies are not allowed to use wechat's app or to use tiktok's app. is there any chinese stock that you do like right now? >> good question. i actually own alibaba. i also own jd. i think there's great growth in china. i think once we get rid of the bad players like gsx, it will be

better for the markets, better for the chinese markets. the thing with wechat and tiktok obviously is more of a national security privacy issue. this doesn't address that. these are two different issues there. but what it does show at the bottom, it goes to the word trust. do we trust the chinese. do we trust the financials that they give us. do we trust they won't spy, they won't use their software to affect anything within our society. so the answer is i do trust many companies. i think there's great growth. i think we must be vigilant and the s.e.c., about getting rid of the fraud and right now, gsx is the one that stands out like a sore thumb. liz: i know you like k12 which is sort of a u.s. competitor certainly to something like gsx and you also like rosetta stone. the bigger picture with investment froth, where you had a lot of millenials and people jumping on robinhood which is, you can buy a slice of a stock, and suddenly a lot of these stocks are moving whether it's

hertz which to me was a complete shock because it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and it was a dollar stock and suddenly everybody's piling into it, it goes up to four, now it's back down. do you look at something like robinhood and if you had friends who said should we be on that, should we be following the names that are super-hot right now, whether it's kodak, which today is falling on all kinds of concerns and news that it did not control a private deal with the u.s. government before officially announcing it? what would you say to investors about following the herd in that regard? >> trading stocks has become a national pasttime. i get stopped all the time by people normally the ages of 19 to 24 that tell me how much money they are making in the stock market. just a wonderful thing for a professional to hear that. so robinhood traders are robinhood traders. everyone has the right to buy stock. if you lose money, you hope you are a qualified investor, read before you invest, and sometimes

you can be lucky or you can be good. you can't say people without investment experience should not be able to invest their money. you are best off buying the s&p 500, buying apple but if you see a company and like what they do and want to own stock in it, go ahead. but if you want to gamble on vaccine companies or whatever the stock du jour is, that's a bigger problem. that's what you see them doing. liz: exactly. you did say vaccines. you make money trading vaccine stocks but you don't make money on actual vaccines because they are always in such desperate need that you have governments trying to -- [ speaking simultaneously ] >> -- handicap the vaccine stocks is quite difficult for anyone but if that's what the robinhood people want to look at, that's where the action is right now so that's what they want to trade. liz: they wanted to trade tesla.

you shorted it for a long time. you finally threw in the towel and went long tesla but right now, we look at that stock that has had such an unbelievable run and now there are a lot of competitors, workhorse or nikola or we talked certainly about nio and now li, l-i, is coming into the picture. tell me if you are still, if there's anything that would make you turn tail on tesla. >> i'm short tesla right now small. i want to make that very clear. i'm short small, in a very regulated position i would be willing to cover or add to at any moment in time. that's the more recent thing i have done. tesla is not going back to 400 or 500. they have a very compelling product that's changing the way we live. a valuation, that's a whole other story. we can say the same thing about shopify. probably about half the market. the question is, do they have a disruptive product, yes, tesla does. is it too high, the share price? i think it is right now.

but i'm not in the camp of it's a scam or is going to zero or elon musk is p.t. barnum. i'm not in that camp at all. liz: my final question before we go, with gsx, the chinese tech education company k through 12 which is getting so much tailwind from the online education stay-at-home learn from home effort here. if i listen to you and i was shorting this question, all it's done is go up and up and up over the past couple months. it's up about twlou134% since a 1st. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> it's the number one performing stock in the new york stock exchange. recently there's a company called wire card that turned out to be a fraud. wire card went up to 180, now it's at zero. you can't necessarily tell when it's going to happen. they are going to fight back. wounded animals normally do fight the hardest. the fact it is a fraud just

won't let the numbers speak for itself. hopefully marco rubio's office, someone from the s.e.c. is watching your show and will look into it. in the meantime, it's been painful ride. but if someone wants to buy an education stock, rosetta stone, k12, there are wonderful u.s. education stocks. liz: andrew, good to see you. for his part, we did put in a call to gsx. we are waiting on a response from them. they have in the press pushed back on your accusations but we shall watch and see. andrew left, citron research. coming up, barrick gold ceo on how long gold's record run can last. and the metal that's also helping their earnings. . they've really stood the test of time. much like these majestic rocky mountains. which must be named after the... that would be rocky the flying squirrel, mr. gecko sir. obviously! ahh come on bullwinkle, they're named after...

our first president george rockington! that doesn't even make any sense... mr... uhh... winkle. geico. over 75 years of savings and service.

liz: i'll tell you, this gold rush looking more like a stampede lately, with the precious metal blazing to multiple new records. gold finishing today's regular session with the third highest close in history. take a look at what gold has done just this past month alone. jumping 13%, it stands today at $2,035 a troy ounce. broadening out gold prices have

rallied more than 30% just since january 1st. these golden moves in 2020 have definitely helped restore the luster of mining stocks, some of which have been rustier long term but what will the year to date glow do? will it last the rest of the year and beyond? joining me, the ceo and president of the world's second largest gold mining company, barrick's mark bristow. i have watched gold miners languish for two decades in a way. they made some decent moves but now you have some real action, so much so that you guys beat estimates, you raised your dividend, i believe about 14% to eight cents a share. what do you think has accelerated it beyond the fear that we have about covid and of course, the weakness of the dollar? >> yeah. just to correct, it's a quarter. that's what we raised. liz: a quarter. yes. yes. >> you know, i mean, you touched on it.

gold mining and gold traditionally has always been a hedge to those days when the rest of the global economy is not operating efficiently and we certainly are in that scenario today and we were in that scenario at the beginning of the decade and 2010 to 2014, and what people invest in gold, both physical and the equities, is to be able to balance your risk in your portfolio. the drivers are, as you say, the flight to safety which is that response to global risk, economic risk, and at the same time, recently we saw that during the past global financial crisis where there was enormous amounts of printing press activity, you know, with quantitative easing, and we have

seen that at another level this recent sort of four months, and what happens is that when you print so much paper money, you debase the value of that paper currency and gold is the measure of that. that's the reference point. what's interesting both in 2011 or post-2011 and now is you are seeing the press in any currency in gold going up. that's what we measure. at the end of the day, the gold price will come down and find a new base, which is in line with the devaluation of the basket of global currencies. liz: now, you also mine copper as well. copper as we have always watched it is a proxy for industrial activity, for construction, certainly.

tell me about your copper world and what kind of demand you're seeing from say china. >> copper at the moment, we have long-term contracts, we have had no problem in moving our product. you know, copper for me, as important gold is, as a hedge against financial crises, copper is a real strategic metal. if you believe in a new, you know, world where hydrocarbon and the discipline of shepherding the environment is right front and center which i believe it should be, and so it's been -- copper is definitely a strategic metal and it often comes geologically associated with gold or vice versa. these two commodities are

connected geologically. liz: what i like about it is you have that mix of copper and gold and depending on what's happening with the economy, but i'm with you on all the money printing that's been going on and if washington gets its way, we will see more of that. mark bristow, great to have you. we appreciate it. >> thank you, liz. thank you. liz: don't be a stranger. gold's glistering. with the dow up 369, filling empty shelves at the mall once again. closing bell 35 minutes away. u.s. mall giant simon property is now looking to e-commerce giant amazon to turn some of its vacant sears and jc penney anchor stores into fulfillment centers. discussions have been under way for months and would not only provide the malls with a steady tenant but with fulfillment centers in residential areas, that will help speed up delivery times. it's unclear how many stores amazon is considering at this time. we have shares of amazon down .75% but simon properties,

up 6%. amazon's number one best-selling face mask taking north america by storm. the mission cooling net gator saw sales spike by 5 million percent in a 24-hour period at the end of may. what's the secret or rather, who's the secret behind these number one best-sellers? the ceo and former nfler chris valletta founded this company. stay tuned. you got to find out what the cdc thinks of these. introducing stocks by the slice from fidelity. now you can trade stocks and etfs for any amount you choose instead of buying by the share. all with no commissions. stocks by the slice from fidelity. get your slice today.

quadrupled their money by 2012? and even now, many experts predict the next gold rush is just beginning. so call us money reserve, the only precious metals organization led by a former director of the united states mint. as one of the largest us gold coin distributors in the country, us money reserve has proudly served hundreds of thousands of clients worldwide. there may have never been a better time to start diversifying your assets with physical gold and silver. and right now it's easy to get started. pick up the phone right now. call to receive the complete guide to protecting your hard-earned assets. don't put it off another day.

the call is free, and you'll speak with one of the us money reserve account specialists who will get you your free information guide in the mail right away. - i enjoy buying gold. gold has protected me. i feel comfortable. when i got involved with gold, and something i could physically touch and i could hold. no one could take it away from me. i have it and i have it secured. of all my years' involvement with buying gold, it's only gotten better in my faith in the company. the us money reserve. that's the company i do business with and i don't see doing business with anyone else. they're trusted and they've always done right by me. - if you've bought gold in the past or would like to learn more about why physical gold should be an important part of your portfolio, pick up the phone. and call to receive the complete guide to buying gold, which will provide you important, never-seen-before facts and information you should know about making gold, silver and platinum purchases.

pick up the phone and call america's gold authority, us money reserve. with nearly two decades in business, over a billion dollars in transactions, and more than a half a million clients worldwide, us money reserve is one of the most dependable gold distributors in america. liz: covid cases now crossing the five million mark in the u.s., and deaths now more than 163,000 as the mask wars rage on. we're not talking about the fight between mask wearers and deniers. this is a business network. we are talking about the divide over the sale of kn95 and n95

face masks. while hard to detect with the human eye, the n95 is made to meet u.s. standards and that's the one on the right, while the chinese-made kn95 meets chinese government standards. a may study by the national institute for occupational safety found about many of the kn95 masks lied regarding their filtration power. some really only blocked 15% of particles instead of the advertised 95%. but back in 2008, long before the pandemic mask surge, mission, the company, began manufacturing face gators for sports pros to help them cool off in the heat of the battle and now the cdc has deemed masks by this company as approved. these masks made by athletes for athletes are now the number one selling sports mask on amazon. we welcome chris valletta.

great to see you. well, of course, you are a former nfler. you played for texas a & m. i'm looking at these neck gators and now the cdc says they are approved for face coverings. tell me what your world has been like since that happened. >> well, we weren't surprised. no one could have expected this pandemic to hit, of course, but we weren't surprised when people naturally navigated to this product. mission is a textile technology company, we have been around since 2008. we have a portfolio of products, head to toe, to help keep people cool and comfortable and professional athletes, we founded the company with people like serena williams and drew brees, and this product, the neck gator, has been in our line for almost a decade. it goes around your neck, it's cool and comfortable, you can wear it as a face cover and it's really comfortable and so when the pandemic hit and the cdc made the announcement, i believe on april 2nd or 3rd, everybody should wear a face cover, it was natural that this just

absolutely took off. liz: have you been able to fill the orders? where do you manufacture? >> we manufacture all over the world. both in asia, we have near shore capabilities, we have factories in the united states but absolutely, that's part of i think what made our company most successful. we've got incredible resources internally and externally. on the internal side, a great partnership with a company called all-star innovation which really gives us infrastructure along the value chain, everything from sourcing over a million units a week and maintaining quality standards all the way to distribution and then certainly on the outside, great partners that came to us like walmart, like the home depot and several others who said listen, the world needs face covers, you produce a great one, how quickly can you get us product. so we partnered together to get product on the floor in record time and had obviously exponential sales as a result. those sales led to not just great sales for the company but also our ability to give back along the way which i think is important. liz: okay.

i love that you are a former ball player and now you are striking deals with walmart. how tough was that negotiation? i hear they want razor-thin margins. were you able to at least make a profit here and it's been a big learning experience, i would imagine. >> sure. but you know, i think the great thing about mission is we have had a partnership with walmart for years. we have had partnerships with home depot for years. this has been a brand that's been in market for over a decade. we have sold over 30 million units of our other products, too. the sales of this particular item, this neck gator and face cover, have led to a rapid adoption of our other products like our hats and cooling towels and other new products that are coming out so it's been pretty exciting but listen, walmart recognized there was a clear consumer need. we had the ability to fill that need. certainly margins can be made but we were able to peel off some of that margin and actually make a huge impact. we are feeding a million people in our local communities.

so i think we are all -- liz: yeah. i do love the mission of mission and finally, chris, we have gotten the news over the past hour that the big ten may have voted to cancel the football season. if you were a player in college right now, would you have opted out during the covid right now? >> you know, if i knew then what i know now, i don't know if i can answer that question. speaking on behalf of myself as an 18-year-old, 19-year-old college football player with the world before me, i would be devastated. i feel for those kids. i know there are a lot of conversations being had on both sides. listen, the ultimate goal is safety. we just don't know, it's the fear of the unknown right now. there is no playbook. football requires a playbook to be successful. so really time will tell. i've got people from texas a & m asking me if i know anything. really, look, i hope there's a season. i hope more that we get through this pandemic and that we all come out of this on the other side. football will be around for a

long time. let's get covid-19 behind us. liz: okay. chris, i love the gators. i was boiling this weekend shopping with a face mask on. all you do is wet these, twist them and they keep you cool. good luck to you. it's great to speak with you. come back again. chris valletta. up next, charlie breaks it on the financial giant that could now join microsoft in the tiktok tango. dow up 331. so is gold, up $7.40 a troy ounce. we'll be right back.

liz: the bidding war for wildly popular short video platform tiktok can't really call it a bidding war. negotiations are rife with treacherous political implications that go straight to the top. as in the top of the white house. president trump, who is watching this and tweeting liberally

about it. but this weekend, reports surfaced that twitter was kicking the tires along with microsoft. all this as charlie gasparino watches and reports breaking news. charlie? charlie: you know, liz, twitter is a real long shot. i will get into that in a minute. but this fascinating report out of national public radio crossed the wires and i have the no been ab -- not been able to confirm this. we are being told be careful with this story. it essentially says tiktok is poised to sue the trump administration over that executive order which essentially said you have a 45-day ban -- you will be banned from being used in the u.s. if you don't find a baier uyer in days. npr is reporting there's going to be a lawsuit that could be filed as early as tomorrow to try to block that. just so you know, the guidance we are getting from people close to the company is be careful with this story.

my guess is that they will try at some point, tiktok, to try to, you know, i don't know about a lawsuit, maybe a temporary injunction, something to sort of forestall this because here's the thing. the reality is there's really one company that can buy tiktok right now and it's not twitter. it's microsoft. they have the capital, $136 billion on their balance sheet. they also have the expertise. remember, they are experts in the cloud. all twitter's -- all tiktok's sort of data and their servers will be transformed to the cloud of microsoft which will guarantee that it is not infiltrated by the chinese. that's what they're good at. twitter is not a sophisticated operation to do that. not only that, twitter doesn't have any money. they have something like $8 billion on its balance sheet. this deal will cost something like $50 billion. that's what i think is going on in terms of this lawsuit. what tiktok does not want to do,

it doesn't want to be in a position that microsoft can buy it for ten cents. one way to do that is to get other bidders even though there's very few other bidders that can do this. another way to do that is essentially to say we can possibly remain on our own for awhile, where we don't have to sell in 45 days and one way to do that is to somehow get the courts involved. again, we have been told be very careful with this story. while that's happening, we should point out that there is interest in investors joining the microsoft bid. we should point out general atlantic partners, which is an investor, right now bytedance, which is the parent company of tiktok, wants in on the deal from what i understand. we should also point out that sequoia capital, another investor in bytedance, again, the parent company of tiktok, that they may want in. we also have reported that blackstone, the massive private equity firm run by steve schwartzman has expressed

interest in the past. i hear their interest is waning because of all the political issues we have been talking about but they have expressed interest in the past about joining microsoft in the bid. we understand they are not quite part of the negotiations now. privately, from what i understand, they could get back in at some point. it's not totally ruled out at blackstone about getting back in. they did kick the tires. that's where i think we are right now. it will be interesting to see this lawsuit. again, remember, there's not a lot of firms that can do this. twitter doing it, think about twitter doing it. where's the expertise in the cloud, which they have to do. where is the money. they will have to -- liz: they kind of fumbled, charlie, they fumbled on vine. vine used to be so hot. that was a short video platform. one last comment before we go because we do have to run. microsoft, i'm doing six degrees of separation. microsoft, of course, founded by bill gates, who used to sit on the berkshire hathaway board. warren buffett just reported a cash pile of $146 billion.

maybe he sweeps in as some type of white knight. charlie: think about it. warren buffett doesn't have that much more cash on his balance sheet than microsoft. microsoft can do this in a blink. liz: together, though. charlie: they are the best position to do this. they may take outside partners. they may not. they may walk away. i'm not convinced until i see the deal documents that they are doing this. this is a heavy lift politically, economically, financially, the whole ball of wax. this is a tough deal. liz: charlie gasparino, thank you so much. what must the administration be thinking? well, a programming note. lou dobbs will be interviewing vice president mike pence tonight live at 5:00 p.m. right here on fox business. let me guess. lou asked the question about tiktok. we will be listening and watching. that's 5:00 p.m. eastern on fox business. when we come back, a lot more with 15 minutes to go. it's a great day for the dow. not so much for the nasdaq which is down about 59 points. we'll be right back.

(vo) since our beginning, our business has been people. and their financial well-being. it's evident in good times, with decisions focused on the long-term. and crucial when circumstances become difficult. that continued emphasis on people - our advisors, associates, clients and communities gives us purpose, strength and a way forward. today. and always.

liz: warren buffett is putting his money where his company is, after months of sitting on a stockpile of cash on hand which, by the way, grew to more than $146 billion by the end of june, berkshire hathaway spent a record $5.1 billion buying back its own stock in the second quarter, and may very well have kept up the buying spree in july, indicating that buffett things berkshire is undervalued. right now a-shares up 1.5%, same with b-shares. quarterly profits did rebound. the company saw a 10% slump in operating income last quarter. couple of issues because the pandemic wreaked havoc on many of its 70 plus businesses.

burlington northern railroad taking a hit with the rest of the travel and shipping industry, and berkshire was forced to take a $9.8 billion impairment charge with precision cast parts, this is the airplane parts manufacturer it scooped up in 2016 for about $32 billion. i mean, that was a big, big acquisition. it hasn't quite played out the way buffett probably hoped at the moment. geico, its auto insurance behemoth, did see a temporary bump due to fewer auto traffic problems and accidents but now it's warning its 15% discount it gave equalling close to $3 billion to drivers who renewed their policies, that could actually trigger underwriting losses for the rest of the year. but in the end, buffett's waking up and saying thank you, apple. its net income jumped 86% last quarter to more than $26 billion because of its massive investment in apple shares. here's a look at how apple is doing right now. it's up 1.5% to $450.91 a share.

the tech giant is berkshire's largest holding. so you know buffett is always keeping an eye on it but what else is the oracle or during the quarter was he interested in? to ashley webster. ashley, he was buying stock, was he not? ashley: he was indeed. it's interesting, as you went over some of those highlights there. the stock buy-back, the biggest one, no doubt. $4.6 billion worth, that was in the class b shares. you're right, maybe he does think that side is undervalued. what's interesting is he picked up another huge lot of bank of america shares, $2 billion worth, to be clear, and that by the way puts him as the largest position he has. now, you will say no, apple is his biggest holding. yes, by value, but by number of shares, mr. buffett has his biggest bet, if you like, on bank of america which is interesting because wells fargo

and maybe jpmorgan chase have been a bit of a laggard when you compare it to some of these other stocks, especially apple and amazon. so it's very interesting that he doubled down, if you like, on b of a. he also cashed out on the airlines. i think he threw in the towel there in may, cashed them all out, is going to take a long time for the airlines to recover from the covid-19, of course, the pandemic and when people will get back to normal, if ever at this stage. you mentioned the big acquisition in 2016. that was really the last big mega-deal berkshire hathaway has done. yes, they bought dominion energy for, how much was that, $10 billion back in early july but not on a mega scale. they have all of this cash, okay, they are buying stuff back but where will he go with that cash in the future? we have to wait and see. that cash pile grew by $9 billion from the last quarter which was a tough quarter, as we know the stock dropped 19%

because of what the pandemic had done to many many industries. but as you say, interesting way to see where he goes but that big acquisition of bank of america shares raised a few eyebrows. liz: yeah. and you know what, you look at a precision cast parts years later since 2016, 10,000 job losses. we'll be keeping an eye on that as we know, listen, airplane parts, boeing, travel's not happening. we will be watching it. ashley, thank you very much. that apple investment, boy, that's been a winner for warren buffett. closing bell ringing in six minutes. dow up 353. the small caps having a 1% gain today at this point. as tensions continue to rise between the u.s. and china, our "countdown" closer says the place to be is in asia, but only certain markets. that's right. certain emerging markets. exactly which ones, you ask? find out when "the claman countdown" comes right back. sio.

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. choose the best precious metals for their retirement portfolios and many are in profit positions today because of those choices. so don't wait until the next crisis. get started securing your financial future today. one of the criticisms of traditional ira accounts is they're typically tied to paper assets that are often unprotected from inflation or even a market crash. recently, congress passed a bill that created a better solution. it's a new type of ira that allows you many of the same tax benefits of a traditional ira, but without the same types of exposure to market volatility. it's like somebody finally came up with a better mousetrap, but for the ira. so what's this better mouse trap called?

it's called a self- directed ira. and we're not talking about gold etfs or some other type of paper gold or silver note. we're talking about real solid physical gold, just like the gold i'm holding in my hand. u.s. money reserve agents are knowledgeable in all aspects of self-directed iras, and they can help you from the beginning to the end. - the u.s. money reserve, i highly recommended it to anybody out there looking for an alternative . . i couldn't ask for anything better. i really couldn't. - i would recommend u.s. money reserve, without any hesitation or reservation, to anyone. i would not use anyone else. honestly. - securing your savings with gold or silver and a self-directed ira is an easy way to protect your financial future. so you don't want to wait for the next market crash.

call and ask the experts at u.s. money reserve to send you their free information package. it's full of everything that you need to know about getting started on your self-directed ira today. you'll be glad you did. now every bath fitter bathbath fis installed quickly, safely, and beautifully, with a lifetime warranty. go from old to new. from worn to wow. the beautiful bath you've always wanted, done right, installed by one expert technician, all in one day. we've been creating moments like these for 35 years, and we're here to help you get started. book your free virtual or in-home design consultation today. they will, but with accident forgiveness allstate won't raise your rates just because of an accident. cut! is that good? no you were talking about allstate and... i just... when i... accident forgiveness from allstate. click or call for a quote today.

♪. liz, we've got about just under three minutes before the closing bell rings on this monday. the dow is circling its seventh straight session of gains. nasdaq though not able to turn it around. we're still down 49 points. the rotation out of tech throwing a little bit of hazard into the nearly unstoppable nasdaq road. where should you be investing right now? throughout the show we've been telling you a lot about the china situation, the alarming developments in the last 24 hours. the relations between the u.s. and china getting more fractious as we finish the day, but our "countdown" closer says asian emerging markets are still where it's at. china is still the reining sleeping giant of the region. to the third cio. john, good to see you or hear you, john. which airs of emerging asia you

really like right now? >> i think, liz, first of all thanks for having me on. i think you have to like china themes. china is driving the region. if you think about it a post-covid thing. they're probably, that region is closer to exit than maybe the west is and then on top of it you have got a dollar trade that seems to be favorable. you can see that in gold and other things that are percolating these days. if you have china themes, of course we're taking a broad approach, we're index investors. but we're taking a broad approach to it, you will pick up through the regional indexes 40% of china exposure and you will end up with a lot of tech as you mentioned but long-term i still think that is a great place to be for all those other factors. liz: all right. we've got taiwan, china, more heavily overweighted, plus south

korea. msci emerging markets etf incomes much of that. [closing bell rings] john, when you're on camera, we love to have you back. john forlines. thank you very much. what a session for the dow, gaining 357 points. a lag for the nasdaq, down 43 that will do it for "the claman countdown." have a great day. connell: dow has a rally. most of it coming in the afternoon, after president trump signed executive orders aimed at providing economic relief for millions of americans. good to be with you, here on monday. >> i'm jackie deangelis in for melissa francis today. this is "after the bell."