maria: thank you for joining us for this jam-packed show. thank you, everybody. see you tomorrow. "varney & company" begins right now. ashley webster in for stu this morning. ashley, take it away. ashley: thank you very much. good morning, maria. good morning, everybody. stu indeed is off today. but we begin with a big drop in jobless claims. 963,000 people filed for unemployment benefits last week. that, by the way, the first time it's been below a million since the lockdown began in march, 20 straight weeks. that is a positive sign for the recovery. and that turned around futures. we are now slightly positive, as you can see, although the dow just slipping slightly negative. we were negative all morning,

though. we could see records on the s&p and nasdaq at the open. we are within a few points of a record close for both. here's another positive sign for the recovery. new cases of the virus down 17% compared to just two weeks ago. president trump is watching the markets as well, telling maria last hour that we will still see a 1929 style crash if joe biden is elected. he also says those polls are wrong. well, of course he would say that. but so does big-time billionaire hedge fund manager jeff gundlach. he says president trump is going to win in november and the polls are just a response to the toxic political environment. but if you listen to joe biden and kamala harris, you heard a very grim view of the virus and the country in general. the market, by the way, did not react to the harris pick despite her progressive policies. perhaps another sign of what's to come in november. hm.

maybe. we will continue the discussion of the democrat ticket with paris dennard, black voices for trump, charles payne will be here, and larry elder. good stuff. i'm ashley webster. we have a big three hours ahead. "varney & company" is about to begin. you will see a depression the likes of which you have never seen. you have to go back to 1929 i guess it doesn't get too much worse than that. this is almost like a replay of four years ago. they said i was going to lose every swing state the day before. he will lose every swing state. it will be a very short evening. except i won every swing state. every single one of them. ashley: well, he's right, that was president trump just moments ago on the request mornin"morni maria." he says if biden wins, our economy will drop to the great depression levels. all right.

here with me today, susan li, lauren simonetti and of course, susan, let's begin with you. i guess the question is, is wall street worried about a biden win? susan: well, i would say that they are concerned about the tax hikes as we know the corporate taxes are definitely going back up from 21% to 28% and we know that a lot of the stock rally that we have seen over the last four years has been because companies have been able to keep more of their own money than spend it, put it out in the economy to hire more people. there are concerns if taxes go up even personally and for the corporate side, that the stock market may not stay at these lofty levels. ashley: interesting. susan, what do you take? of course, if the democrats take the house and the senate, not saying that's going to happen, if they do, that would be -- lauren, rather, i'm sorry -- that would be a case for wall street to be very worried. lauren: all right. let me tell you what kamala harris said when she was running for president of the united states. she said she would tax wall street stock trades at .2%.

bond trades at .1%. also a small tax on derivative trades. she said that. yet wall street is so close to record highs on a closing level and on an intraday level. so when you look at that, you can ask yourself two things. is wall street calling her and biden, calling their bluff that they don't actually think in the middle of a pandemic they would raise taxes that much, or does wall street actually think that donald trump is going to win again? i posit the question. i don't know the answer. but it's unbelievable when you look at the state of the economy and what the stock market is doing. ashley: that's very true. good point, lauren. let's take a look at the futures, if we can. they did turn around on the jobless claims numbers but the dow as you can see, down some 24 points now. the s&p again just turning slightly negative and the nasdaq is up about half a percent, 62 points. all right. president trump also telling maria bartiromo the election polls are wrong again, just like in 2016.

boy, were they wrong. but jeffrey gundlach, the billionaire hedge fund manager, agrees with the president, saying mr. trump will win in november. hm. let's bring in danielle dimartino booth, good friend of the show, former adviser to the dallas fed. is the president correct, do you think? >> well, we are certainly going to find out, aren't we. i would never look past anything that jeffrey has to say. i was out in los angeles and interviewed him for an hour and a half a few weeks ago and he's extremely prescient. he's thought-worthy and he also probably pays more attention to what las vegas is saying than what the polls are saying. that was a lot more reliable going into 2016 versus a lot of these polls which are very very biased in many cases. ashley: same with brexit, by the way, in 2016. same story. danielle, you say, by the way, retailers and restaurants, they are still struggling so of

course, do they need more help from the government now, no more waiting? >> well, i do think there's an area where the government has truly failed and that is the small businesses. good solvent small businesses that needed a liquidity bridge that didn't get it. i think we are finding out the pandemic protection program wasn't devised as well as it could have been. i think it's paramount in the months leading up, the days leading up to the election at this point, that we do have the administration, congress, come together and reach out to the small business community. we are clearly continuing to see some very weak signals from them. last thing you wants to do is have permanent closures leading up to election, leading up to any day, for that matter. because they are the backbone, the fabric of society, a lot of these communities, especially what we are seeing with a lot of college towns not having as many students come back. that's going to be another kind of nail in the coffin of some of these smaller businesses that we

really need to keep americans working. ashley: very quickly, what do you make of the jobless claims, showing the economy is heading in the right direction? yes, it's close to a million but it's under a million. very quickly. >> it is under a million for the first time in 21 weeks. we have to wait and see whether or not the data reflects the fact there were no extended benefits and therefore people not actually applying for them, knowing that. we will see what happens. ashley: we will indeed. danielle, thank you so much for joining us this morning. yeah. let's check tencent, if we can. they own the app wechat. president trump signed an executive order banning americans from doing business with the app. this is a very popular app, susan li. come in. corporate america worried the bank will be bad for business. makes them less competitive. susan: companies on a call with white house officials raising concerns of the impact of an upcoming ban. think about apple, walmart, ford, walt disney, among a dozen or so, including goldman sachs,

ups also on the call, of course, "wall street journal" and these big american companies are concerned about their business in china if the ban goes into effect. wechat is used by nearly everybody in china. you can't get around without using wechat from payments to messaging to ordering food and rides. it has over 1.2 billion users around the world. those are potential consumers using wechat. it's also a marketing tool for these companies. wechat's owner tencent also owns stakes in big u.s. firms. for instance, it owns 5% in tesla. activision blizzard, 12% of snap and a big chunk of fortnite maker epic games. a ban on the u.s. will likely have an impact on u.s. companies. ashley: no doubt. i think it's 1.2 billion users around the world. all right, thank you. moving to the airlines, take a look at southwest. their ceo making some pretty pessimistic statements for this year. lauren, how pessimistic? lauren: yeah. southwest airlines ceo gary

kelly does not expect the carrier to be profitable at all this year and that will be the first time in 47 years. he says look, traffic's down, revenue's down, both about 75% from last year which is making this idea of profitability, he says quote, unrealistic. they are also still burning through $20 million in cash a day. a lot of people, lot of analysts say southwest is the best positioned here because it's a domestic carrier. we are more inclined to take trips in the u.s. than overseas. even southwest struggling pretty badly. ashley: $20 million a day. lauren: a day. ashley: that is staggering. some of the other airlines are even worse. staying on the airlines, take a look at united. i guess they are betting big on one stake, adding dozens of daily flights. the question, of course, which state? lauren: florida. the bet is that when the weather turns colder, people will want to just do something, go to the beach, enjoy the warm weather.

starting november 6, they are adding dozens of flights to florida. it's a big bet by united and it's actually, if you look at where they are flying, milwaukee and cleveland, for instance, it will be a non-united hub and this represents the biggest expansion of that type ever for the company. ashley: run to the warm weather, i guess. all right, thank you very much. lauren: i'm nervous about this winter. ashley: well, yeah. lauren: sorry, ash. being cooped up at home. ashley: that's okay. if you want to shout out statements, that's great. i'm right there with you, believe me. let's get to some big earnings reports. first, lyft. their revenue dropped by 61% last quarter, but rides did start to increase in july. up almost 80% compared to april. that is progress although you can see the stock is down about 2.5% in the premarket. take a look at vroom. that's just fun to say. vroom. the online used car company reported higher profits last quarter but the big problem,

they gave a bleak outlook for the third quarter. you know what, investors don't like that. that stock down 15.5% in the premarket, down nearly 11 bucks. take a look at cisco. after a dismal quarter, they announced a restructuring plan that will include layoffs and voluntary early retirement. the silver lining, the current quarter revenue will drop by only 9% to 11%, less than wall street is expecting. isn't helping the stock, down 8% in the premarket. take a look at smile direct club. last quarter's revenue fell 45% compared to last year. that was still far higher than the analysts bet. the stock, as you can see, down 5.5%. yes, i'm going to say it. not a lot of smiles on that. down to $8.81. check the futures. we were negative. we turned positive on the jobless claims numbers. now we are kind of slipping down, let's call it flat, shall we. the dow off 28 points. the s&p flat essentially at

3369. the nasdaq up .6%. take a look at online insurance company lemonade. that stock down after reporting their very first earnings since going public in july. the question is, how has the pandemic treated the insurance industry? guess what? the ceo will join me later to talk all about that and the company's earnings. president trump is wasting no time slamming joe biden's vp pick, kamala harris. take a listen. >> she's done things that are terrible in terms of the police, in terms of the second amendment, in terms of everything else, and she is a big taxer. ashley: kamala harris also had some pretty deep ties to big tech so the question is, could her nomination actually be a win for silicon valley? we will explain that story to you. and check those companies working on a vaccine. researchers have investigated a coronavirus antiviral nasal spray. does it work? i will ask dr. marc siegel next.

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ashley: all right. take a look at amc. the company says some theaters will reopen on august 20th. a sign finally perhaps of a recovery, as you can see the stock up 7.7% on that news in the premarket. now let's take a look at moderna. they rallied off that news that they will -- that made that big deal with the government, but wall street analysts apparently not so bullish. lauren, why?

lauren: okay. it's because of the expected cost of their vaccine. the government's latest investment takes the price to $15 a dose. that's less than some analysts had wanted. it's in line with pfizer's vaccine price. it's $5 more than johnson & johnson's but here's the rub. if moderna can't deliver on this or if they are late or fail to get fda approval on an emergency use basis, they will lose those incentive payments included in the contract with the u.s. and that would further lower the price. so some analysts see that as a risk to the stock and shares are down this morning. actually, down more than 6% this week. ashley: wow. okay. that explains it. lauren, thank you. let's stay on the coronavirus. several companies we know have been racing to make a vaccine. let's bring in doc marc siegel, fox news contributor. good morning to you. the question everybody has, russia aside, how close are we to a vaccine?

>> well, we only know the billion dollar answer exactly but i will tell you this, we have 31 companies in clinical trials right now, eight of them are in late stage trials. lauren mentioned moderna. there is also the pfizer vaccine, the oxford vaccine, nanovax which is really very promising technology, johnson & johnson starting in the fall. the race is on in operation warp speed. i think what remains to be seen is when you give this vaccine and they are all brand new technology here, never been used exactly as they are, when you give them to 30,000 people, what are the side effects, how does it work when the virus comes, when you actually encounter the virus, and what the fda is going to be looking for is a 50% effectiveness compared to not having gotten the vaccine. that's the standard. i have a very good optimism that at least one of these vaccines is going to meet that by the fall. so we will be looking at approval. the government of course is matching the dollars. they are making sure that

manufacturing is not slowing the science here which has never been done. we have never had a vaccine out in less than four or five years before. this is revolutionary. so far, so good. ashley: but does it raise safety questions? >> it better not. i mean, right now, no. right now, they have given it to primates and shown it has an immune response. we have given it to humans without any safety problem. but we're not talking about 30,000 people now, right. so we have to see how each vaccine does with 30,000 volunteers before we take safety off the table. but the purpose of the early trials, ashley, is to test safety. phase 1 and 2 test safety and in the early trials, they were safe. ashley: let me move on to this development, doc. researchers at uc san francisco say they have invented a coronavirus antiviral nasal spray. what are your thoughts on that?

>> one of the things i love on "varney & company" is we break news no one is even talking about. we are talking about nanotechnology, we are talking about nanobodies. you know what those are? they are like antibodies, proteins that attack the virus, okay? but antibodies are bigger. nanobodies are tiny and they get right in there into the spike protein we are worried about that causes covid-19, coronavirus to actually infect your cells, they get right in there and block that spike protein. the company you are talking about has made three of them together. it's synthetic, it combined three nanobodies together. in early studies it looks very good at both preventing the virus from growing and from getting into the human cells. it's an inhaled version here. that's good, too, by the way, because that's where most of the infection occurs, through the nasal membranes. that's where most of them occur.

if it kills and blocks the virus here, it's a very very good early treatment and it may be useful to prevent infection. we don't have proof yet that this works in human trials, but there's not a lot of downside to it and it's being tried now. ashley: very encouraging. as always, doc siegel, thank you so much for joining us this morning for the latest on the race for a vaccine. let's go on to florida. lauren, what is disney doing now? lauren: they are letting their cast members and the cast members' families be covid tested. it all starts tomorrow right outside of animal kingdom. the test is a nasal swab. you get the results between three and five days later. this is a big win for the actors union that was pushing disney and the state to test them. you make your appointment today, you can start getting tested tomorrow if you work at disney. ashley: all right. seems to make sense. thank you very much. as we head to the break, let's take a look at the futures before we officially get under

way in just, what, seven, eight minutes from now. we are showing slightly lower on the dow and s&p, but the nasdaq continues its march higher, up .5%. we'll be right back. ♪ 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.

ashley: all right. welcome back, everybody. taking a look at the markets, just a few minutes away now from the opening bell. the dow and the s&p slightly lower, but the tech-heavy nasdaq still rum bling along very well in the premarket, up 49 points. up about .5%. let's bring in market watcher d.r. barton. great to see you, d.r. you say the markets are waiting for another government stimulus bill, right? >> well, they are waiting for it but i think there's a little surprise when we get there, ashley. you know, speaker pelosi said yesterday that they are miles apart, the market has a down evening, we are coming in as you say, the s&p down a little bit, nasdaq up, but we're probably going to retrace that again like we have multiple times. here's the reason. i believe that that stimulus package is going to come.

i believe every trader and investor on the planet believes the package is going to come so we are already pricing that in. when the package does come, it might be a little bit of a sell the news moment because it's going to be such a weak mish-mash compromise package that we won't get as much excitement about it as people are thinking. ashley: then you look at the jobless claims numbers today, d.r., better than expected, under a million. how much stimulus is needed because it really feels like the economy, other data as well, is starting to improve. >> boy, you have nailed it, because here's what's happening. why are these negotiations being drawn out? it's because the s&p closed six points away from its all-time high yesterday. we got these numbers, the first in 20 weeks under a million new jobless claims. maybe even more important, we had week over week, 600,000 fewer continuing jobless claims.

so because of all that strength, neither side feels like there's an urgent need to go get a negotiation. they are trying to get what's best for their election results and i think that problem is why this thing is going to draw out a bit longer. ashley: that's interesting. i was going to follow up with the election story. now we have the democratic ticket. how does wall street react to all of this? we spoke, lauren said look, we know what kamala harris wants to do, you know, putting taxes and putting fees on trades. this is something wall street must fear, right? >> it is and it's a head scratcher. you think about usually you bring in a vice presidential candidate when you are trying to find some voting blocs you want to get. you know, former vice president biden was already strong with the black voting demographic. they already, the dems already had california wrapped up, no matter what happened so it's a little bit of a strange one

there. i don't think they bought themselves a lot electorally with that selection so i think the market's just kind of acting normally. they're not going oh, that really sewed things up for biden. the market's going ah, nothing new. ashley: d.r., thank you. stay right there. we are getting ready to open and here we go. by the way, we are kind of at session lows following the release of the jobless claims that came in under a million, 963,000. we are now starting to sink a little bit more, nothing drastic. the dow off 63 points. a lot more red on the screen than green on the heat map for the dow. we do have apple and 3m at the top but we have cisco down, boeing down, exxonmobil down. let's take a look at the s&p. we are down off 100 points on the dow so certainly downward momentum. take a look at the s&p. if we close i think at 3386, as d.r. just said, that would be a new record close. right now, the s&p down about .25% at 3370.

let's take a look at the nasdaq. that was still showing positive running in the premarket. still barely hanging on, just up .1% on the nasdaq at 11,025. next, apple, sorry, is that a record high? all-time high. $456.25 for apple, up again another 1% today. they are also mere dollars away, we talk about this as well, from that $2 trillion market cap level. remarkable. $467.76 is that magic number. you can see we're not that far away. i guess, susan li, how could their business in china hurt them? susan: well, their business in china might be affected by a wechat ban. we know that apple gets around 20% of their sales from china and they also do a lot of marketing as well. there's one study that asked consumers in china if you had to get rid of wechat or if you had to get rid of your iphone which

would you choose, they said their iphone. this is a big deal for apple. we are just, what, just about 17 bucks away from breaking that $2 trillion mark of $476.67. now, some positive news for apple today, because there is a report, bloomberg's reporting that they could be bundling their services into maybe one low cost fee for you monthly and that could be a bundle of apple music, apple tv plus, also icloud and apple news, all together in one. this could launch along with the new iphone some time this fall. that is exactly why you are looking at apple today rally despite the fact there's virtually no news the last two days but we are heading into that stock split at the end of this month. ashley: that's right. let us not forget that. thank you, susan. speaking of apple, lauren, come on in. they are reportedly working on a peloton-like exercise app. lauren: what aren't they working on. so that is what is taking peloton shares down today, but

also, this is day six that peloton shares have been down. so six straight losses. bloomberg is reporting that apple is now developing a subscription virtual fitness class service. it's taking direct aim at peloton. but also nike. you can see both of -- nike is now up. peloton is down. but if you look at peloton, this year it is more than doubled, up 127%. it certainly has been a winner and this report taking some air out of its sails. susan just said this. apple is releasing apple 1, that service that would allow customers to bundle services together and that's recurring revenue for the company. so wall street likes this. look, apple, big winner once again today on the path to $2 trillion cap. ashley: you are absolutely right. everybody loves recurring revenue. some news on the ride sharers. check out lyft. they just reported earnings. we know rides were down but improving and that stock, though, down as you can see 4%.

susan, the virus hurt their revenue flow but there is some light at the end of the tunnel, right? susan: yeah, because they say they will be profitable outside of expenses next year, 2021, and that's despite the fact that ride hailing has been decimated, dropping over 60% from the march to june period but hey, it's a big improvement in july that lyft is reporting. july rides were up 78% compared to april this year. that's during the height of the covid lockdown. narrower loss than anticipated also in that march to june period as well. ashley: yeah. susan, want to get to this story. what about uber, saying they could shut down completely in california because of that new court ruling? susan: lyft, like uber in the earnings call again threatening to shut down their entire service in california, at least temporarily, if they are forced to immediately reclassify their drivers as employees that are paid with benefits instead of just independent contractors. lyft and uber both employ hundreds of thousands of drivers in california. today, they have a hearing, a

court hearing, for a stay from monday's ruling which is forcing them to comply immediately to reclassify. uber and lyft along with other gig economy companies like door dash are sponsoring a new fall ballot which they hope will pass and if it does, it will exempt them from having to reclassify their workers at employees. that's a big, big threat to their business model and why they are trading at these low levels that are way off their ipo prices. ashley: absolute game changer. susan, thank you. next one, vroom, online used car dealership, just reported earnings and lauren, i'm looking at the down 20%. i'm assuming it wasn't great. lauren: no. no. this is a hard one. this was their first earnings as a public company and there was a loss of $63.2 million. it's an online used car seller. here's the biggest reason why. the ceo says yeah, we are still selling a lot of cars but they are cheaper because that's where demand is in a pandemic economy. so if you are selling cheaper

vehicles, that means you have smaller revenues and that really hurt the company. they expect it to stay that way for the near term, too. the stock, it ipo'ed at 22, was a big winner. now down almost 21%. ashley: tough day. thank you very much. let's bring back in d.r. barton. d.r., thanks for sticking around. you did bring us your picks as you always do. they should be on your screen now, once we get rid of vroom. you still like apparently the old school industrials. why is that? >> well, ashley, you and i have been talking for years and you know recently, throughout the coronavirus, you've got to own apple, got to own amazon, got to own microsoft and facebook. we already know that. what we need is a little bit of diversity. we have noticed like at the beginning of this week, where we rotated out of tech for a few days and these companies like union pacific took a nice big pop. dupont is doing a lot of things

well. my former employer. and you know, you are looking at honeywell who is so diversified and doing well, climbing the ladder, to have those when we rotate out of tech in your portfolio, i think is going to be a great balancing act and as industrials play catch-up in an inflationary environment, you are going to want to have some money in those kind of old school stocks that make stuff that hurt when you drop it on your foot. ashley: nothing wrong with classic, d.r. thank you so much for joining us today. thank you all as wall street is off and running. the dow down 84 points. all right. let's get to this. the restaurant industry's next best thing in a post-pandemic world. faster, cheaper and more efficient and we have the numbers to prove it in a live report coming up. what is happening in new york city? the homeless are running rampant, daytime drug use is a normal thing to see, violence is increasing daily.

what does former new york governor george pataki have to say about this? i will be asking him. kamala harris has deep ties with some of the biggest tech giants. is her vp nomination a win for silicon valley? we will explain next. ♪ hey, can i... hold on one second... sure. okay... okay! safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out. safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%.

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♪ ashley: all right. welcome back, everyone. back to joe biden's vp pick. kamala harris. susan, we have been talking about this. turns out -- no, i'm going to -- forget that. let's do this story first. let's get back to smile direct. the prompter went wacky on us. let's get back to snimile direc. we have the earnings and another pandemic loser, right?

lauren: we should not be smiling about this one. i will start with the good news and that is the loss narrowed to $26.8 million. sales also down, but this really tells the numbers. if you look at the shipments of their aligners, basically a retainer, that truly tells the story. before covid, they shipped almost 123,000. okay? in the quarter just ended, so during covid, that number went from 123,000 to 57,000. that is a tremendous decline. if you want to be a little bit more positive, they say look, we are moving into teledentistry more now and that is helping them navigate through the pandemic. but look, stock is down 14%. nothing to smile about for smile direct today. ashley: i see you went there, too. all right. thank you very much, lauren. now let's get back to joe biden's vp pick. the last time was just a tease. kamala harris is the pick. susan, turns out that kamala harris could be good for those big tech names over in silicon

valley. susan: well, the california senator has strong silicon valley ties with supporters that include sheryl sandberg, marc beniof, throw in brian cheski. these are some of the titans that attended or donated to the senator over the years. she may not be calling for the breakup of big tech like elizabeth warren but she hasn't always sided with big tech on all issues. for instance, we talked about uber and lyft earlier fighting that gig economy legislation that would reclassify workers as employees. kamala actually backs that bill and she always wants more safeguards around user privacy and said last year during a town hall that social media is a utility that has long gone unregulated. despite that, harris is seen as a strong fund-raiser with access to deep-pocketed tech billionaires and the biden/harris campaign say they raised $26 million just in the past 24 hours since harris's vp

announcement and the reason why wall street didn't react negatively to this choice since she's seen as more moderate at least when it comes to workers policies than say the progressives like elizabeth warren and bernie sanders. ashley: all right. susan, thank you very much. good time to bring in mark douglas for this. steelhouse ceo. mark, what do you make of silicon valley's potential sway on kamala harris? >> well, she's definitely a better pick than elizabeth warren. that is for sure. i think in that respect, people view it as positive. but you know, i think the perspective on her is that she has a lot of perspective but she doesn't have a lot of ideas. silicon valley is all about ideas. so you know, to really get a lot of enthusiasm, i think she and biden have to bring a lot more ideas to the table, something for people to invest in. that's not happening so far. so it's better than it could be, but i don't think it's a roaring

welcome either. ashley: obviously as susan just pointed out, there are big donors to her campaign. is that just liberal -- limousine liberals trying to soothe their social consciousness giving money to a candidate like kamala harris, who as susan also pointed out, would like to regulate social media as a utility? >> yeah. i mean, remember, silicon valley, the age of the people who work there is pretty young. a lot of 20-year-olds, a lot, you know, it's very liberal. they are going to support liberal candidates. they are probably going to support, there's probably going to be a lot of support for progressive candidates. i think those donations might reflect that some of the leaders in silicon valley are wanting to lean more liberal and not necessarily go full progressive. in terms of, you know, her views on regulation and things like that, they are progressive.

i think like i mentioned earlier, there's a bit of a love/hate relationship there. it's not all love. ashley: right. right. very quickly, change of topic. you are bearish on tesla, i understand. why? >> yeah. there's a massive trend on the way. i mean, huge. i don't know a person who is not thinking about where they want to live going forward. i think that's permanent. that goes beyond covid and to the extent -- i don't know anyone saying i want to live in l.a., i want to live in new york. they want to move to austin, texas. they want to move to smaller towns. that doesn't benefit tesla. tesla's products are built for that urban professional and when you move to a small town, you tend to buy a bigger vehicle, and tesla doesn't really sell those vehicles. i think their product strategy is not currently aligned with where the world is headed with a massive shift from large cities to living in smaller places. so i'm bearish -- ashley: very interesting.

>> say again? ashley: yeah, that's a really interesting take. i didn't even think about that. we are out of time. mark douglas, thank you so much. appreciate it. thank you. the magnificent mile, you have probably heard of that, has long been a hot spot for tourism in chicago. but growing violence and recent looting has left the city in shambles. now businesses say they are on life support because of it. we will have a live report coming up on that. also, check online insurance company lemonade. falling short on their very first earnings report since going public just last month. when do they expect to turn things around? i will be asking the ceo who joins me next. ♪ ta-da! did you know liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? i should get a quote. do it.

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ashley: welcome back, everybody. take a look at lemonade. they are an all online insurance company, just reported their first quarterly earnings as a public company. revenue doubling from last year, but they are losing and they are also losing less cash, but the stock tanked a little bit on the news because of weaker than expected third quarter and full

year prediction. let's bring in daniel schrieber, lemonade co-founder, ceo. great to have you here. how would you describe the last quarter and the forecast you gave didn't seem to impress wall street. what's going on? >> yeah, so we are feeling really fabulous about the second quarter. nobody watching this needs reminding what a weird quarter it was, pandemic striking and transforming businesses across the globe. we have come out of it with over 100% top line growth. it was really spectacular for us. we are feeling very relieved and thrilled by just the accelerated pace of our business even as so much in the world was going wrong. it was nice to have that island of accelerated growth, as i say. we think that that will continue into q3 and q4. our guidance for the year is having something like 100% growth in terms of our top line

and over 100% growth in our gross profit. we are seeing those trends continue. the only thing we said in terms of our guidance which seems to have caused some consternation is that moving season across america happens about now. it's because of the school year so people tend to move more in this quarter which is why q3 is our strongest quarter. we just don't know how this year will play out. it may be unusual. but that is the only chink in the armor we are seeing. all the other lights are green. ashley: very good. it's interesting, you appeal to millenials because of your online platform. are you seeing more renters turn into homeowners? is there a trend there? >> there is, although i have to say, we have been seeing this for the last three years in our book of business. so lemonade does things differently. it's entirely digital. you buy insurance in 90 seconds, you get paid in as little as three seconds, millenials buying

insurance for the first time can be half of what it would be with competitors. we are definitely attracting younger consumers. but we are seeing this trend towards growing with them. so about 10% of people who have condo insurance with us started life with us as renters, then graduated with us as they became homeowners. that's fabulous from a financial perspective because the premiums grow oftentimes 10x with no incremental cost to acquire that incremental premium. that's the essential plank of our strategy. ashley: very good. daniel, sorry it's so short but we are heading towards the top of the hour. i'm happy to say your stock is up 2.5% at $62.17 today. that will make you smile. daniel schrieber, co-founder and ceo of lemonade. thank you so much. appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: the dallas cowboys say they are playing in front of fans this season. what a concept. but how are they going to keep people safe? that's the question people are asking. we are on it. and still to come, jason chaffetz on the stimulus

standoff. former new york governor george pataki, what does he think about mayor deblasio and governor cuomo's handling of new york? i'm sure he has something to say there. and k.t. mcfarland on the state of our relationship with china and charles payne will be here for the top of the 11:00. ♪

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so you can... retire better ashley: welcome back, everybody. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart. we are 30 minutes into the trading day. let's take a look where things start right now. as you can see the dow off just 20 points. we were down more than 100 points at the very open. we're languishing a little bit. nasdaq slightly positive, up half a percent on the nasdaq. rather the s&p is just up a little bit at 3382. look at apple shares. see what that's doing. they hit an all-time high earlier in the session. the stock coming back a bit, still good snuff for a five dollar gain. we're showing you cisco. among the stokes drug h drag the dow down today, off more than

10 1/2%. tell but the big drop in jobless claims, 963,000 people filing for unemployment benefits. that marks the first time jobless claims have been below a million since the start of the pandemic. we call this for a positive sign for the recovery. heading in the right direction we like to say. it is thursday morning. we got the latest read on mortgage rates. it is freddy time, lauren, you have got the number. lauren: are you jealous today, ashley? i have the number. ashley: yes. susan: it is 2.96%. i remember last week when my jaw dropped when you said the rates were 2.88. i want to add one thing. the deputy chief economist of freddie mac, if you look at the financial recession it took about five years but rates fell three full percentage points. so if that pattern repeats

itself are we seeing mortgage rates go to zero? entirely possible. according to economist at freddie mac. ashley: wow, imagine that, zero, no interest at all. by the way, lauren you have numbers on mortgage refinancing which is obviously popular with these historic low rates. lauren: it's a hot market. it is up 47% since last year. it is predicted 18 million homeowners who can save an average of $287 a month if they lock in lower rates. many are rushing to do so. many say, oh, do rates go up, go down? where are we at? it is the huge push to refinance and save money. ashley: all right. you're earning your paycheck today. last one for you, national home prices, also with a record high, what's that all about. lauren: this comes from red fin. nationally prices hit record

average of $311,000. gain of 9%. homes are selling at record pace. half the homes in the market selling two weeks time. we talk about the big city exodus. people leaving manhattan and san francisco, lower taxes, better lives, et cetera. i was talking to zillow. they told me this, in manhattan the home on the market is sitting there two times as long as last year. if you look at san francisco, inventory up 96% from last year. that tells you the story. everywhere is looking good exempt for some of these big high-taxed cities. ashley: people are getting the heck out. thank you, lauren, very much. the dow turned positive. we're in the green across the board. well-done, lauren simonetti for doing that. look at the big tech names we follow every day. let's have a look. they're all higher right now. apple, amazon, facebook, all up well over 1%.

good time to bring in our friend, gary kaltbaum. gary you saw a correction is coming for technology. why? >> a correction started on july 13th. most technology names put in little tops. the good news, it has been shallow. you have a few names moving back to old highs, apple breaking out, nvidia. i think it will not be so much of a big deal. the best thing with the market in the last month is all of sudden my screen has been lit up with names like fedex and ups and sherwin-williams and whirlpool and all kinds of stuff that you wouldn't be expect to be moving in a pandemic. so the broader market is coming on. which means we have higher prices to come going forward. ashley: that brings me to the next question. you think the opening up economy is a very good place for investors to be, including the very, i can't believe this, but i will say it, very beaten down airline industry. i guess they can only go one

way, right? >> they have been hit so hard and i'm a reader of the tape and i'm just seeing the airlines, even the cruise lines who i keep postponing cruises getting defended here in and around these levels and are starting to move off of it. so i'm seeing accumulation. i think some bets are being made right now getting past all of this. look, i'm just a big believer, once we are past, i don't know if we go back to capacity. but we'll certainly go back in a pretty big way. airlines are down 80%. i saw royal caribbean sales were down 94%. that is going to change. i think those stocks will reflect. those are on my screen also right now. if they ever get into favor, i think they will have big moves. ashley: seems like the markets are moving a bit sideways these days. of course we have the big election coming up in november. more importantly the standoff over stimulus in congress. is that what the market is waiting to make sure we get the

stimulus agreed upon and out into the economy? >> the market remains strong but look on a human level. there are still a ton of people that don't have jobs and are no longer getting checks. that means they're having sleepless nights and for certain things. i do believe something will get done, whether it is done between the parties or the executive orders getting done, i'm sure there is going to be coming out there especially for the people that really, really need it. if something doesn't get done, you're just going to be hurting a lot of people on their backs right now, still waiting to get their job, especially in the service industry. you're in new york city. you see how many restaurants and stores are shut or halfway open. that's personnel. that's down. that has got to be addressed going forward. ashley: you are absolutely right. gary kaltbaum, thanks as always for joining us. appreciate your time today. let's move on to politics.

look at the latest poll from monmouth university, shows 5% say they would vote for joe biden and only 41% would vote for the president, but we've been talk about throughout the show, billionaire fund manager jeffrey gundlach says the polls are wrong, that trump will beat biden. let's bring our friend in, jason chaffetz. former utah congressman. jason we know the polls were oh so wrong in 2016. does mr. gundlach have a point do you think? >> they are eerily similar to 2016. i don't think trump polls well in general. people taking anonymous call will not stand up and say. that but there is great enthusiasm for donald trump. i do think he will prevail. i really do believe that joe biden and kamala harris suffer from an enthusiasm gap and that donald trump is in a

commanding position there, but you would always like to be on top of the polls. i think on november, at the ballot box he will be. ashley: we have three debates before that, before the big vote. so interesting to see how those play out. but another one for you, jason. congress as we know, still far apart on a deal for another stimulus package. the longer this drags on the more people are hurting. do they get this done? >> well, the executive action taken by the president on those four key areas, i think, will have a good deal of relief for people. but remember, we have a $4.2 trillion budget. we've done three stimulus packages worth more than $3 trillion. so $7 trillion being infused into the economy from the government at some point i think conservatives, people say, well you know, that is a lot of money being flowed into there. statings that been given a lot

of money not fully used it. not all of the money has gone into the marketplace but as long as nancy pelosi and chuck schumer stay true to this idea they want to make adjustments on voting, ballot harvesting, giving money to illegal immigrants, those type of things, i don't think you will see republicans move at all. i don't know pelosi and schumer are incentivized enough to do what is right. i think they like the score muched earth going into the election. ashley: yikes! we'll leave it there, jason chaffetz, thank you so much for spending time with us this morning. much appreciate it. look at peloton if we can. apple is looking to launch their own exercise app. doesn't seem to bother peloton. they're up 2% in today's market. bloomberg is reporting that the company is releasing apple one. that is a subscription service that allows customers to bundle

multiple apple services together for a discount. the stock you can see, up 1.25% at 457. hit an all-time high earlier in the session. still positive but coming back a little bit. take a look at kroger, the online shopping company got a bump during the pandemic as i'm sure you would imagine but the ceo is also issuing a warning. susan, why, what is he saying? susan: online shopping spiked during covid you about might not stay at these high pandemic levels. a shift to online which was planned for three years took just two weeks. it will still be higher than say before the pandemic. a shift to online has been way faster than anyone could have expected including the analysts. how do you capitalize off this trend? according to kroger that is to make the experience seamless in their words. that is online delivery or pickup. the stock is up 50% in the past

year. that is despite losing ground to walmart and amazon comes to digital sales. so the playing a bit of catchup here. ashley: susan, thank you very much. let's look at stein mart, that is the discount department store. i know it well from my time in nashville. they are filing for bankruptcy. lauren, how many stores are they looking to close? susan: all of them. 281. this is a little unusual because stein mart is a discount chain you might say they would do a little better in times like that. the ceo said the pandemic completely changed the business climate. it is impossible for them to survive right now and keep their doors open. they're looking to sell the website as well. stock, 16 cents ashley. ashley: wow, lauren, thank you very much. let's move on. the dallas cowboys planning to play in front of fans this season. great. roll tape. >> it can be an inspirational

part of how they address covid, not only the remainder of this year but was we go into 21. ashley: that is jerry jones but the question is, what is the plan to keep people safe? i'm going to ask texas lieutenant governor dan patrick in the next hour. also coming up in our next hour johnson & johnson's chief scientific officer. they just signed a deal with the government to deliver 100 million doses of a virus vaccine. i want to know, when will it be ready? we all want to know. first we have a guy that says kamala harris is a bad choice for black americans. he will make his case right after this. it's easy to get lost in the economic uncertainty. the volatility. the ambiguity. the moment calls for more. and northern trust delivers more.

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president trump: she is radical left. now she tries to pretend she's not. she is the most liberal person in the u.s. senate, acknowledged to be. she has done things that are terrible in terms of the police, in terms of the second amendment, in terms of everything else. and she is a big taxer. ashley: well that was president on mornings with maria earlier slamming kamala harris for her far left policies. let's bring in paris denard, the black voices for trump advisory board. paris you say kamala harris a bad choice for black americans. so make your case. >> thanks for having me. absolutely. kamala harris is a bad choice for the black community because she is lining herself up with a ticket who is about nothing that is going to benefit the black community. when you look at raising taxes

the biden harris ticket will raise your taxes. that is not good for the black community. when look at their record, they have records for putting black people in prison for long sentences. they had a very aggressive, bigoted sentence of how they went out and prosecuted and dealt with black people, especially going back to the 1994 crime bill being when joe biden called young black people predators around wanted to lock them up. kamala harris has a record for young black men and women with offenses on mayor marijuana use. they have a record that will not be beneficial. look at the green new deal, getting rid of charter schools, not supportive of school choice. these are things supportive of the black community. criminal justice reform, low taxes, supporting hbcu schools and they are not on the side of

the black community. it is apparent by the fact that joe biden has to pander the black community so much to get the vote. he is not performing well. he doesn't have the enthusiasm. if kamala harris would be such a strong candidate she would have won the democratic primary. she didn't get close to the winning because she dropped out. the black community didn't embrace her then and i don't believe they will embrace her now. ashley: she struggled in the debates, paris, especially pushed on her record in california. senator harris says she is ready to debate vice president pence. brought it up a couple times yesterday with the event with joe biden. pence says, bring it on. should be good. how do you see that debate shaping up? >> senator harris will have to remember she is not debating the president of the united states. she is debating the policies. vice president is veteran, been

vice president for four years. he knows the facts, details and knows the record of the trump administration, how positive, impactful, empowering it has been to the black community. he knows that the record of joe biden and kamala harris. and so he is going to lay out the facts and the contrast and do so in a very respectful and very pointed way so that the american people can see the difference in leadership styles and difference in records and differences are very clear. ashley: it is interesting, paris, how the mainstream media is classifying kamala harris and her politics. they say she is middle of the road moderate. "new york times" says she is a pragmatic moderate. "the washington post" said she is a small c conservative. abc calls her a moderate and not the first choice of progress serves. i think she leans a lot further left. what do you say? >> let's be very clear, kamala harris is a radical liberal democrat from california, northern california there is no

moderate, no conservative bone in her body. this woman is a radical and it is part of a democratic party's radical take over. her policies, especially being, with abortion rights, her policies on not supporting school choice, her policies on whole host of issues, comes to taxation, raising taxes, supporting the biden plan, the green new deal. there is nothing moderate about kamala harris. the biden harris ticket is ad one one. look at full takeover of health care is something no moderate for conservative would support and that is what joe biden and kamala harris are supporting and pushing. ashley: very quickly, paris, what does the empty have to do to reach the african-american community in the short amount of time before the november election? >> president trump will have to be continue to be on offensive

and highlight the bigot pasts of the joe biden and kamala harris and black communities. they destroyed communities because much their policies and when the president makes that point he will do really well in november. ashley: paris denard, thanks for being with us today. >> thanks for having me. ashley: let's take a look at the markets if we can. we started somewhat down to say the least. down more than 100 points on the dow. we're down 46 points. the s&p essentially flat at 3380. up half a percent. talk a look at novavax, the shares are surging after will provide antiagain for the coronavirus vaccine. it has been on a tear lately. mark douglas says he was not a fan of it, up another 63 bucks, tesla, at $1617. take a look at lyft. the raid share company reporting

a 61% drop in revenue. that stock, it did see an uptick, rise in july. was seeing improvement, but the stock today down close to 5%. all right, airbnb, revenue absolutely tanking last quarter but, susan li, they're still planning to go public, right? susan: that's right. an ipo as possibly as early as august and definitely before the end of the year according to "bloomberg news" which got ahold of their earnings interior documents. sales were down nearly 70% in the march to june period. airbnb lost nearly $400 million during those three months. now it was ready to file for highly anticipated ipo in march of this year but having to shelf those plans as covid hit, virtually wiping out all of travel. the company was worth $31 billion at the start of 2020. it had to raise emergency funding during the pandemic. nearly half that valuation, $18 billion. any airbnb ipo value will be

interesting and does airbnb sell shares to raise money in traditional listing? does it go through a traditional listing like spotify did or trendy spaces like nikola did. you have to test it. ashley: you do. new study finds millenials expect highest returns in their investment portfolios. come back, susan. how much are they expecting? susan: they're expecting to make 12 percent which is very optimistic. seems the older you get the less optimistic you are. this comb from a global investment study. the generation above the millenials, gen-xes almost as optimistic. expecting 11% returns over the next five years. baby boomers slightly less at 10%. older, 70. millenials, don't forget they have gone through two crises,

financial within in 2008 and coronavirus but each time they see stock markets come back. which believes they can continue to make more money. that is part of the dave portnoy, robinhood day trading brigade where they say stocks only go up. that is not true. stocks don't always go up. kodak is a good example. you can lose money. ashley: it really is, but i they're right for all of us. as you get he would older you get a little more conservative. i hope you get wiser. hong kong activist media tycoon, jimmy lai was released from prison. he still faces charges. he spoke to maria bartiromo about that earlier. watch this. >> i don't know what the charges will be but whatever comes it will it will be okay.

i'm ready for it. ashley: he is ready for it. we'll see what is coming forehong kong. interesting stuff. retailers on chicago's magnificent mile on the brink following extreme looting and violence. we'll tell you how bad it has been for small businesses. new york city also riddled with problems, retailers, restaurants are closing as complaints of homelessness rise. the question is, are cuomo and de blasio failing new yorkers? i'm asking former republican new york governor george pataki all about it next. ♪. introducing stocks by the slice from fidelity. now you can trade stocks and etfs for any amount you choose

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♪. ashley: welcome back, everybody. let's take a look at the markets for you. kind of just bumbling along. the dow down 22 points. s&p essentially flat at 382 and the nasdaq 11,095. >> >> smile direct club that dock town 13 1/2% because of pandemic

closures. lemonade, online insurance company, reporting the first earnings since they went public. the stock was essentially flat, right around $60. revenue did double last year. take a listen to what the ceo had to say about it last hour. roll tape. >> we're feeling really fabulous about the second quarter. nobody watching this needs reminding what a weird quarter was. pandemic, strike businesses across the globe. come out of it 100% top-line growth and 200% growth in terms of our gross profit was really spectacular for us. ashley: all right. says he is optimistic for the third quarter and the rest of the year although wall street didn't like their estimates. nevertheless the stock right around off dollars. flat on the day. this is interesting news. "new york daily news" shutting down the newsroom.

lauren simonetti what is going on? lauren: the parent tribune is closing five newsrooms entirely. the papers will be published and still get them but employees are writing from home the last couple months. this is newspaper without a newsroom. very much, ashley, a sign of the times because companies like newspapers they were struggling, ad sales down, competition online before covid. now while, it is even harder for them. the other big newspapers that tribune is closing the newsroom for, also "the orlando sentinel." that is a paper i actually like to read. ashley: wow. it is a good newspaper. as you say the covid-19 pandemic pushing operations over the edge. lauren, thank you. couple national retail restaurant chains in new york city are closing their stores. which ones is it. susan: jcpenney, subway, and all

large brands like victoria secret and the gap kept their flagship closed not paying the hefty rents this impacts building managers and city and state economy. for example, victoria secret fifth avenue flagship store they have not paid 9037 rent for nine months. kate spade is doing battles where according to analysts. the streets are busier than in march and april but not the bustling metropolis we've come to know in new york. crime has spiked with higher unemployment. some say this might be the death knell from new york city. it has come back from 2008 and 9/11. ashley: also, susan, movers say relocations from new york city are accelerating at a feverish pace what they say. susan: i don't think this surprises anybody. according to higher he helper,

15% of all moves tracked were helped by the pandemic. of those moves 37% were moving because they could no longer afford to live in the cities they're living. that means exodus from high rent cities, like new york, san francisco, which saw more people leaving than moving in. both cities have 80% more people moving out of the area than moving into the area. new york city has 64% more people leaving than moving in. you wonder where they are going to? surprise, surprise, idaho saw the biggest jump. close to 194%. that is tripling the number of people moving in compared to leaving. the next closest state is new mexico with a 44% jump. definitely cheaper. ashley: fascinating. i've been to idaho many times. beautiful state. famous potatoes. thank you very much, susan. yeah, hey, stay on this. good time to bring in former new york governor george pataki. governor, thanks for joining us. i guess the first question for you, are mr. cuomo and

mr. de blasio failing residents and business owners in your opinion? >> there is no question government in new york at all levels is failing miserably. you know new york city always comes back and i hate say anything bad, i love it and i worked there you about every day the death spiral continues unchanged it becomes harder and harder for new york to come back. the policies all finally come together in a negative way that is killing new york city's future. it is hurting new york state. we have a mayor, who in addition to his many other mistakes now has decided in his wisdom to place thousands of homeless into midtown hotels. these are often people mentally ill. it is becoming difficult to even walk on the streets in midtown manhattan in the middle of the day and not be harassed, combine it with the taxes, the ridiculous regulations, the lockdowns, still one of the most draconian in the country that people are saying, i can't do

this anymore. so it has got to change and got to change quickly. ashley: if you were governor during this difficult time what would you have done differently? >> there are many things you should do, starting with the nursing home issue where you don't put covid-19 patients into nursing homes to say they're unprepared to take care of them. but also the criminal justice system. it is not just the taxes and the regulations. when you have laws where the police can arrest somebody for a felony and that person is released immediately, commits the same felony on the same day and is released again, you will see a spike in crime. we're seeing that across new york where the crime is going up dramatically. i declare a homeless crisis. take the issue away from the mayor. the mayor's wife spent over a billion dollars in so-called mental health programs to help the homeless. they're not helping the homeless. they're having home less out on the street harassing new yorkers. you mentioned the cream

statistics. they don't point out the incidents, the incidents i fear of every single day, of people being a hassed, being told give me your wallet i will kill you. the police coming they can't arrest the person because the administration said we don't want to escalate things. you cannot arrest somebody, even if they're threaten to kill someone on the streets of new york. so it is an emergency. no one is dealing with the emergency. -- future of new york is more bleak and bleak. ashley: all right. governor pataki, thank you very much. i hope you're right. new york will recover at some point. the question is how long. governor pataki, thanks for joining us this morning. much appreciate it. we have news on uber. they may temporarily shut down in california if they are forced to classify drivers as employees. that is a big deal. what does larry elder think about california stifling the very innovation that was developed in that very state? you know stu is fuming about

this. we'll ask larry elder. up next china and the u.s. will hold talks this weekend and our next guest says china is the biggest threat we face, no doubt. kt mcfarland will talk about that coming up. ♪ we made usaa insurance for veterans like liz and mike. an army family who is always at the ready. so when they got a little surprise... two!? ...they didn't panic. they got a bigger car for their soon-to-be-bigger family. after shopping around for insurance, they called usaa - who helped find the right coverage for them

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ashley: before the break we talked about problems in new york and new york city. now let's go to chicago. grady trimble is at a restaurant near the so-called make any of sent mile. grady the unrest, on top of the pandemic has to be taking a toll on businesses there? reporter: it has.

you know we're here in chicago because you can hear the l train go by. many are boarding up, no sign they will reopen anytime soon and there is real concern among elected officials as well as the chamber of commerce in this area some of those businesses might leave the city for good after this second round of looting. on top of the national chain brands that were hit, small businesses like this one as well. this is gene and georgetti. it has been here for 80 years. on top of sales been down because of pandemic, they have been looted twice. the third generation owner of this business. you guys have been put through it. >> it has been six months, between the pandemic and this happened and rug is constantly coming out from unyou. reporter: you have this operation behind you, outdoor seating, a little coffee window trying to get through this. after this looting it has to be pretty disheartening to see in

this city and your family's city all these years? >> we've been here almost 80 years. we love chicago. it is heart breaking to see what is happening. heartbreaking to see people afraid. it affects business and that is heartbreaking too. reporter: ash, this business was here almost 80 years. they used to joke this business will out live everybody in the family. thereby concerned they may not make it, 79 1/2 months or 80 years of business so there is real concern among small business owners. ashley: i can only imagine with the looting on top of it all. grady, thank you very much. with the background of the l train going by. let's track the markets if we can. it is treading water a little bit. the dow is down slightly. s&p and nasdaq slightly higher. nasdaq up nearly 1%. let's move on. the latest round of talks between the u.s. and china are

this weekend. as we know tensions between the two nations have never been higher. here is what president trump told maria bit this morning. roll that tape. president trump: we lose for many years, 400, 500, 300, $200 billion a year, billion with china, dealing with china, first of all, before we even get into security. it's been been a ripoff the likes of which the world has never seen. they charge us massive tariffs and they pay us tens of billions of dollars in tariff. right now i view china differently than i did before plague. ashley: yep. tensions are high. let's bring in kt mcfarland, former deputy national security advisor for president trump, author of "revolution, trump washington and we the people." kt, great to see you. you say it is now or never to stand up to china.

what can we expect to come out of these talks if anything. >> let me answer that in two parts, ashley and thank you for promoting my book. i talk about a lot of this in my book. i talked about how we put china first for decades and now president trump is putting america first. he treated china differently before the pandemic and now after, he is the first president whod into you have to deal with china from a position of strength, not a position of weakness. when you talk about the tariffs which are on the agenda for this weekend. so the chinese had tariffs up to here on our goods and our tariffs on the chinese goods were here. the tariff war was really trump coming up here, okay, now we have equal tariffs. let's get the tariffs back down so it is reciprocal. so their conversation will be about three things. first, it will be about the phase one trade deal, that the united states and china agreed to. well the chinese buy certain american goods? will they limit some technology

transfer of theft they have done? will the united states reduce some of these sanctions? so that is number one. but number two, there is going to be a tough conversation about the bans that president trump has put in for september, mid-september on wechat and on tiktok being used in america. ashley: very quickly, i got 20 seconds, kt, big american companies say that kind of ban will hurt their business? >> wait a minute. china bans google, facebook, wechat, so they're already ban us there. they have a great firewall of china. trump is just saying, let's have reciprocal. let's all get rid of the bans together. ashley: fair enough. i'm sorry it was so quick but we got what we wanted to hear from you, kt mcfarland. great stuff as always. thank you for joining us. thank you. next case, jimmy lai, next digital founder and hong kong pro-democracy advocate, he is

out on bail after being arrested on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces. interesting he was on maria's show this morning. susan, what's next for him? susan: he hasn't said if he would leave hong kong and kept in jail 48 hours. he was surprised being released after two days. lai was treated politely and given a hero's welcome. he might not be leaving hong kong but china's security law might drive away international businesses. china is going backwards not forward. >> xi xinping is totally the most objective hardcore communist. he wants to bring china back the old time. the control that he increases is exactly the way that moo was controlling the country. so it is not hopeful that they can change but they need to

change and they know that now. susan: jimmy lai is the highest profile arrest yet under this new national security law which allow beijing to arrest citizens, police the city as they wish. despite being taken in along with his two sons, his pro-democracy newspaper, the apple daily, continued work and print. a great example of for fight for press freedom in hong kong. the reporters at the apple daily they would finish and print their investigative pieces even if they weren't paid. they would not be muzzled. that is sew endearing. ashley: it is and very brave. susan, thank you so much. joe biden trailing president trump by just two points in texas. does kamala harris help biden in the lone star state? i will ask texas lieutenant governor dan patrick that question and others in the next hour.

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ashley: with restaurant dining rooms closed around the country, so-called ghost kitchens are popping up all over the place. guess what? our jeff flock is in a chicago suburb on this new trend. jeff, give us details. what are we talking about? reporter: ghost kitchen is kind of a misnomer. sounds kind of mysterious. it is not only not mysterious but it is probably a big trend. i don't know if you have a wing man, ashley, wing stop, hard to find anybody that has done better during the pandemic is wing stop. they have been opening new locations in the second quarter, their sales compared to last second quarter, were up 32%. why? they focus mainly on delivery. their strategy is to at some point 100% digital online. the whole concept of walking into a store, saying i will have six wings, whatever, no, they

want you to do that all online. you know the best, most efficient way to do that through something called a ghost kitchen. it is a place where you don't have the story front, that sort of thing. it is located off in a back alley somewhere. it is just a kitchen. so they prepare the meal. then it is delivered from there right to your house or come by there to pick it up. they don't have the cost and expense of a storefront like the one you see back there behind me. it's a strategy that the ceo says is going to be big time for them going forward. i quote charlie morrison, the chairman and ceo of wing stop, he says we think a great strategy to place the post kitchens in areas where we otherwise wouldn't have retail locations. wing stop has 1300 retail locations. they were among the first to close their restaurants to in person dining and they say they're going to be one of the last to open them because they like the delivery model. makes a lot of sense.

if you like wings, i don't know, i kind of throw the wings away. if i get a chicken, i want the thighs. i dent want the wings. not enough meat on there. ashley: i know. i'm right there with you, jeff flock. all of this sounds very efficient. now i'm just a little hungry. jeff flock, thank you so much. we have some breaking news for you from president trump, just tweeting this seconds ago. huge breakthrough today. hisser to rick peace agreement between our -- historic peace agreement between our two great friends, israel and the united arab emirates. we'll have more on that and so much more. we're wasting for an 11:00 a.m. at the white house which was just announced. expected to be foreign policy related. we're on it next. stay with us. ♪

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over a million older americans have used a reverse mortgage loan to finance their retirements. it meant so much to nellie, maybe it could mean as much to you... call now and get your free infokit ashley: welcome back, everybody. it is 11:00 a.m. on the east coast. let's get right to a fox business alert. right now, we are awaiting an announcement from the white house. the president just tweeting moments ago quote, huge breakthrough today, historic peace agreement between our two great friends, israel and the united arab emirates. the united arab emirates for so long had not even recognized israel as a state. the two countries did not have diplomatic or even economic

relations but in recent years, there has been a warming of the relationship. many observers said that is due in part because of the threat of nuclear weapons and iran and also, iran's growing influence within the region. because of that, we have seen the thawing of relations between united arab emirates and israel. interesting developments. the president tweeting there's an historic peace agreement. not exactly sure what that is, what it means. i will have more on that coming up. as soon as that event at the white house we are being told will take place on foreign policy, we will take you right there. that's the news breaking right now. let's take a look at the markets as we wait on that. markets, well, the dow has been off and on. it was down over 100 points at the beginning. now just down 56 points. the nasdaq has been on a tear and continues to grow, up nearly 100 points this morning at

11,108. the big tech stocks doing the heavy lifting again and the s&p has been flat most of the morning at 3383. let's take a quick look at apple, if we can. that stock hitting an all-time high this morning. they will reportedly launch subscription bundles for things like music and news in october along with those new iphones, they want people to try more of their services at a discounted price. apple, as you can see, up 2%, $461.33. let's get back to k.t. mcfarland with news that we just got from the president's tweet, k.t. historic peace agreement. i said earlier that relationship between the uae and israel was nonexistent. the uae didn't even recognize israel as a state but that has changed in recent years. i think because of the threat of iran. what do you think? >> well, definitely the threat to iran but also, because of the diplomacy, in fact, personal

diplomacy, i think that jared kushner has himself conducted from the very beginning of the trump administration, that the united states, president trump took the country in a different direction. president obama was tilting towards iran. president trump has gone back to our more traditional -- u.s. traditional allies in the region, things like saudi arabia, united arab emirates, et cetera, and they have personally brokered this. it's a hugely significant thing, ashley. not only is it something that hasn't happened before but what it allows is the possibility of trade, the possibility of economic development, and it firmly shows that the sunni arab nations, the oil-rich arab nations in the middle east, are siding with israel against iran and it's a united front and that changes the complexion of the entire region. ashley: that's my next question. if this can happen, what could happen next? relations between israel and the

arab nations has been contentious, to say the least. could this pave the way for other sort of agreements? >> yes, it could pave the way for other agreements, economic as well as diplomatic agreements. what it also does it really puts a nail in the coffin of radical islam, the isis variety, the al qaeda variety, the sunni arab radical movements that have happened in the middle east for decades because united arab emirates, the saudis, et cetera, all signed up to say wait, we will put a stop to this, we are not believers in radical islamic movements that are terrorist movements. it's important a lot of reasons. diplomatically, yes. economically, yes. with regard to american security and security in the region, yes. so this is quite huge and the neat thing is this was happening out of everybody's eyesight. nobody knew this was happening. this is brand new breaking news. good for president trump, good for jared kushner, good for

secretary pompeo, good for the united states. ashley: very quickly, were you surprised when you heard the headline? >> i was. i was really surprised. because there has been no movement on the middle east process in a couple of years. so this is totally out of the blue. we are all focused on sort of iran but really we are focused on china, iran, election interference and here we have something that's hugely earth-shattering. bravo to everyone. bravo to israel, bravo to the united arab emirates. this is a really big deal. ashley: bravo to you for rushing back to the studio to talk to us about it. k.t., thank you very much for going the extra mile today. we appreciate it. by the way, we expect to hear from the president this hour and of course, when we do, you will see it right here. now let's take a look at the

real clear politics average poll. let's get into this. showing joe biden keeping his comfortable eight-point lead over the president. nationally. but according to billionaire bond fund manager jeffrey gundlack, the polls don't really matter. he says the president will win anyway. sounds like 2016, does it not? to charles payne, host of "making money" on this very network. charles, he predicted trump's win in 2016. you think he's on to something this time around, right? charles: absolutely, ashley. i think also that the stock market believes president trump is going to win. hence why it has not gone down. the stock market not reacting to these kind of polls. i look at other things. i look at consumer sentiment numbers, the michigan sentiment survey, the conference board. if you look at those, they are so nuanced and really good when it comes to independent folks, how they truly feel about

things, without the typical sort of, i mean, you look at how some of these polls are asked, they ask so many questions in a row, is trump too abrasive on twitter, is trump this, is trump that. by the way, do you like him for the election? if you said no four times, the fifth answer is not going to be yes. take the polls for what they were. the only thing polls are good for, honestly, are direction. in other words, directionally i think they can give you some glimpse but there are better ways of judging how the american public feels and i look at some of these other sentiment readings as much more effective. also, i look at what corporate chieftains are saying, not where they donate money or what they say at the fund-raiser but what they say on conference calls. we are coming to the end of earnings season. almost 500 companies have reported. we just established an all-time record for positive guidance over negative guidance. i want to say that again because no one said it before except on my show. all-time record for the ratio of

positive guidance versus negative guidance. listen to what these folks are saying, the most opaque confusing and particularly sort of dangerous spirits of any time. i think right now president trump has a really good shot at being re-elected. it's not a shoe-in. he's got to fight for it. i think there are a lot of other things he could be doing to expand the tent, the base and all these things so at this very moment, i think president trump has an edge over the biden/harris ticket. ashley: charles, i want to get back to that jobless claims number. for the first time in, what, 21 weeks now, less than a million people have filed for unemployment benefits. that number now at 963,000 for last week. not great but it's certainly better, heading in the right direction. but charles, you say our economy is a reflection of the virus, not the president's economic policy. can you explain exactly? i think you were quite, you know, heated about this.

charles: i am heated about it. listen, i get that's why i wouldn't make a good politician. i just can't be that far being disingenuous. when biden and harris blamed the current economic conditions on president trump, suggesting his policies are somehow at fault, that's wrong. the media is doing that, too. the same media that never, ever mentioned the economy in february, never talked about blue collar wages, never talked about black unemployment, never mentioned it once, not once. now it's all of a sudden an issue like you know, we know this is a unique thing and has not happened to the world in over 100 years so -- but it's incumbent upon president trump to get that message out. he better take it seriously. i don't know, i've got liz harrington coming on on my show. i'm going to tell her, i listened to maria's great interview with president trump this morning. i don't know -- i think president trump is not taking this seriously enough that everyone in this country

realizes what did his economic policies achieve and what's happening right now, two distinctly different things. before you let me go, i was listening to you and jeff. i can't wait to go to chicken dinner with you because i love the wings. you and jeff can -- ashley: they're all yours. charles: i will give you the breast. one more thing, jeff should have mentioned wing stop, the stock, up 81% this year, up 543% in the last five years. it is a juggernaut. ashley: the wings are all yours, my friend. i'm not going to let you go yet. you mentioned the president's appearance with maria earlier. you know, i don't know if you heard it, but he didn't mince words when it came to how a biden presidency would affect our money. take a listen to that. i will get your reaction. >> -- depression the likes of which you have never seen. you'll have to go back to 1929, i guess it doesn't get too much worse than that. this is almost like a replay of

four years ago. they said i was going to lose every swing state the day before. he will lose every swing state. it will be a very short evening. except i won every swing state, every single one of them. ashley: well, yes, he did but he also right at the top there said he predicted a depression with a biden presidency. you agree with that? charles: you know, if they hike taxes, if they were to win and hike taxes in january as their first order of business, ban fracking as their second order of business, go back into some of these old agreements like nafta as a third and fourth order of business, we will crater. there's just no doubt about it. i bet you there's no way jason furman or jack lu or some of these other folks who were part of the economic team under president obama would agree to some of the things that president biden, would-be president biden is threatening. i do want to point out, when

obama and biden were in office, they came into office in january 2009, blue collar wages at the time were growing 3.8% year over year. when they left, blue collar wages were growing only at 2.4%. well under inflation. in january this year, blue collar wages were up 3.3%. in october, 3.8%. so you know, you talk about comparing actual policies, actual track records, and the thing that matters most to the heartland of this country, blue collar wages, without a doubt president trump's policies had a much better impact on the american public. ashley: they certainly did. and he has to get that message across. thank you so much, charles. charles payne, we will be watching you on "making money" and eating wings, today at 2:00 p.m. eastern. all right. let's take a live look at the white house, if we can right now. we are awaiting an announcement from the president on what he calls an historic peace agreement between israel and the

united arab emirates. we will bring you the president's remarks of course as soon as they come in. interesting day. johnson & johnson wins a $1 billion government contract for a virus vaccine but how soon could it be available at your doctor's office? that's a big question. we will find out. and lyft joining uber in their threat to shut down in california over a new labor rule. should those drivers be classified as employees? we will discuss. "varney & company" will be right back. (vo) we've got your back, road warriors.

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ashley: the president about to make an announcement on foreign policy at the white house. he put out a tweet. let's listen in now. >> -- congratulate all the people standing behind me because they have done an incredible job. this is something that hasn't been done in more than 25 years. just a few moments ago, i hosted a very special call with two friends, prime minister benjamin netanyahu of israel and crown

prince mohammed bin zayed of the united arab emirates where they agreed to sign an historical peace agreement. everybody said this would be impossible. as you know, mohammed is one of the great leaders of the middle east. after 49 years, israel and the united arab emirates will fully normalize their diplomatic relations. they will exchange embassies and ambassadors and begin cooperation across the board and on a broad range of areas including tourism, education, health care, trade and security. this is a truly historic moment. not since the israel/jordan peace treaty was signed more than 25 years ago has so much progress been made towards peace in the middle east. a uniting of america's closest and most capable partners in the region, something which they

said could not be done. this deal is a significant step towards building a more peaceful secure and prosperous middle east. now that the ice has been broken, i expect more arab and muslim countries will follow the united arab emirates' lead and i want to just thank them for -- it's not surprising, knowing mohammed so well, it's not surprising they are in that lead position, and normalize relations with israel. we are already discussing this with other nations, very powerful, very good nations and people that want to see peace in the middle east, so you will probably see others of these but this is the first one in more than 25 years. this deal will allow much greater access to muslims from throughout the world to visit the many historic sites in israel which the muslims want to see very badly and have wanted to see for many many decades, and to peacefully pray at the

mosque, which is a very special place for them. my first trip as president was to saudi arabia in may of 2017 and my speech to the assembled leaders of 54 muslim countries, every single one was by their leader, their number one leader, it was an amazing, really an incredible event. very important event. i made clear that the problems of the middle east can only be solved when people of all faiths come together to fight islamic extremism and pursue economic opportunity for people of all faiths and when you look at what's happening, you are seeing a lot of progress is being made that nobody thought could possibly be made and things are happening that i can't talk about but they're extremely positive. i want to thank the leaders of

israel and the uae for their courage and for their leadership to forge this tremendous agreement. it will be known as the abraham accord and i would like to ask our ambassador to please explain why we are doing and calling it the abraham accord. david? >> thank you, mr. president. congratulations to you on brokering this historic peace agreement. abraham as many of you know was the father of all three great faiths. he's referred to as abraham in the cristian faith, ibrahim and abrahim in the jewish faith. no person better symbolizes the potential for unity among all these three great faiths than abraham. that's why this accord has been given that name. >> great thing. i wanted it to be called the

donald j. trump accord but i didn't think the press would understand that. i didn't do that. say a few words, please. >> thank you, mr. president. it is an honor of my life to work in your administration. i think this reaffirms your commitment to israel, to stability in the region. just an extraordinary accomplishment and it's peace. peace is a beautiful thing. it's something everybody in the country should celebrate. i'm just so honored to be here, sir. >> you have done a great job. jared has done a fantastic job. people don't really understand the things that he's able to do. he's done a fantastic job on this. you and your team, nobody else could have done it. i don't think anybody else could have done it. jared, say a few words. >> thank you, mr. president. i would like to say that i want to thank the president for his leadership on this historic

peace effort. the president like with all things urged us to take an untraditional approach. you can't solve problems that have gone unsolved by doing it the same way that people before you have tried and failed. the president takes untraditional approaches, he does things in different ways, but uses common sense and he tries to unite people by focusing on common interests as opposed to allowing us to focus on their common grievances and what happened here is we were able to achieve results that others were not able to achieve and this will advance the region and this will advance the whole world. i would like to say tohe peoplele oth o reonreon mus,sl , ristchrins tsives gives g ththpet thaet trot emems oth o t dnondconndounoou t ctfuitrefu ititnfcoctnf eerse oot h oe h hndot ofofottitind ahi wil w il t aou i a a a wil a w a wlso al nebetfieo p hen arimerime s iericer we w used to t have ahave bveig dendencenydeyn ea for andnd f oil,nksnk totorto leadershidersrsmerica i w enew eyw depededet. n longer have that.

but a lot of american soldiers have fought for securing our allies in that region and making more peace there, lessons are needed to have less soldiers in that region and less conflicts in that region. obviously radical extremism which we see as a cancer that has infected so many regions in the woshlg world, so many extremists have used these conflicts to say the mosque is under attack and muslims don't have access to the mosque and now this will enable people to take flights from dubai and abu dhabi directly to tel aviv. muslims will be welcome in israel. this will create better inter-faith exchange. this is a tremendous step forward for peace in the world, for america, for israel, for abu dhabi and all would not have been possible without your leadership. >> thank you, jared. what a great job. what jared said, we don't have to be there anymore. we don't need oil, we don't need

anything there except friendship. we have some great friends. these are two countries that have been great friends and we have been great friends to them. but we no longer have to be there. it started off where we had to be there but as of a few years ago, we don't have to be there. we don't have to be patrolling the straits. we are doing things that other countries wouldn't do but we put ourselves over the last few years in a position where we no longer have to be in areas that at one point were vital and that's a big statement but we are there for our friends and we always will be there for our friends. robert, would you say a few words? >> mr. president, thank you. you inherited a middle east that was a mess when you came to office. and this is one more historic step in bringing peace to the middle east. first of all, there was a caliphate that was raging, isis caliphate, and that physical caliphate was destroyed, you brought justice to al baghdadi. you reassured our friends in israel who had suffered at the

end of the last administration with the u.n. resolution. you moved the capital to jerusalem. you recognized the golan heights. in the broader region, you had a very difficult situation in afghanistan where soldiers, our american soldiers were coming home injured, wounded, sadly in some cases, dead. you brought -- got a peace agreement now with the taliban and we will have less than half the number of troops in afghanistan that were there when you started your term of office. and now you brought about this historic peace deal between the uae and israel. this is the first time in 25 years that israel and the arab country have normalized diplomatic relations and entered no into a peace deal and they are the two most capable countries in the world, very capable, very skilled, very innovative allies of the united states. it's great for israel, great for the uae but also great for america and the american people. so you came into office with a region that was really aflame and you brought peace to that region and there's more to come,

and so it's an honor to be part of your team, mr. president, to serve under your leadership. >> we do have a lot more to come in the middle east. a lot of very positive things are happening. you will be seeing that taking place but when we can get a leader like uae to head the band and get along with israel, that's a very big step. would you please say a few words? you have done such a fantastic job. >> thank you, mr. president. the trump administration made history today. it's been an honor to be part of this team jared has led. peace between the arabs and israelis is iran's worst nightmare. no one has done more to intensify the conflict between the arabs and israelis than iran. what we see today is a new middle east. the trend lines are very different today. and we see the future is very much in the gulf and with israel and the past is with the iranian regime. it clings to power on the basis of brute force but is facing a crisis of legitimacy and

credibility with its own people, and the president's maximum pressure campaign has achieved historic results. >> great job you've done. would you like to say something? >> yes, sir. as a soldier who has been in every war since desert storm, it is an honor and a privilege for your leadership, the sheikh and prime minister, to get to peace. your vision and those leaders' vision on what we can do in the future is just incredible. i would thank you as a soldier. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. would anybody like to say a few words? anybody here? you were saying plenty of words during negotiations. they got very quiet. that happens on occasion. >> mr. president, at this historic moment, thank you for being -- letting us all be part of this. it is really extraordinary. nothing is more important than peace. this is an unbelievable moment and i would just echo what brian

hook said. your maximum pressure campaign under your leadership, we've had the strongest sanctions on iran and your commitment to make sure that iran will never have a nuclear weapon is part of the most important legacy for peace in the middle east. >> so which is easier, dealing with the democrats or dealing with the middle east? >> a lot of people never thought you would get this type of deal so i will be hopeful we can deal with the democrats. >> the middle east is more reasonable. thank you. i would like you guys to say a couple of words. you have been so instrumental. >> sir, it's a privilege to serve in your administration. this is a remarkable achievement that will stand the test of time. and we look forward to the prosperity and the peace this brings in the middle east and the ways we will be able to leverage that for the united states national average. it's a privilege, sir. thank you. >> i would echo what rob said. thank you for the opportunity to be part and i especially want to thank for the opportunity to serve in the negotiating team, to do something so historic. thank you for this opportunity,

mr. president. this really changes the world. >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you all very much. [ applause ] reporter: mr. president -- reporter: could you just describe the tenor of the conversation you had with the two other leaders? was there any hesitation on their part in reaching this deal? >> no. it was like and love. it was a tremendous relationship that's been built up over the last i would say year. before that it was very tense. as everything in the middle east is. it's very tense. it's a very tense place. but it's becoming less tense.

i have great relationships with all the leaders and some are enemies against each other. i get along with both. i guess that's the big thing people don't understand that about me. actually, i've gotten along -- remember when i was elected they said the war will start with somebody within days and i kept us out of war. you look at north korea, everybody said including president obama that's the biggest problem. everybody said you would be at war. well, we're not at war. it was somebody else. now we're doing very well in the middle east and i'll tell you what, it's been an incredible thing but no, it was tense but the relationship has become a very good one between uae and israel and also with other countries. many other countries that i think you will be seeing some very exciting things and really ultimately, with the palestinians. i think that's going to be happening at some point because it makes a lot of sense for them to make it happen. reporter: [ inaudible ].

>> we're talking to israel about that right now. reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> you really know your stuff, don't you. we're not going to talk to you about that. we are going to work something out. then we will talk after it's completed but it will be very satisfactory. reporter: why now did they come the an agreement? >> we have been working on this for a long time. it's been a labor of love for a lot of the people in this room. a lot of them love israel and a lot of them love the middle east and they love the countries we are talking about, like uae as an example, standing right here. and it's been a labor of love. they know it has to happen. and i don't want to be speaking too much about it but if you look what's happened since i broke up that ridiculous iran nuclear deal, money has been going to some horrible, horrible groups and you haven't seen the kind of terrorism that you saw before. now, i don't like saying it because all of a sudden they'll say we've got to do something but you know what, they're not

getting money because iran isn't giving money. i appreciate that. but iran is going through very difficult times and i appreciate that. i will say this and i can say it very publicly, that if i win the election, i will have a deal made with iran within 30 days. we will make a very fast deal. they're dying to make a deal but they would much rather negotiate with sleepy joe biden than with us. but we will be having a deal made very very quickly. but you know, rightfully they are waiting until after the election because there's nothing china, iran, russia, all of them would like to see more than have trump be defeated where they can deal with joe biden because that would be like a dream and this was something that was really exciting. we thought this would be the first country, he's a great leader, mohammed's a great leader, and we are very happy that he was the first country, i would say. you will see many other things happening in the middle east over a fairly short period of time. but this is the first time in more than 25 years and uae is

big stuff. uae is very powerful, very strong. has one of the strongest militaries. it's big stuff. reporter: do you know when the delegations are going to meet specifically? >> very soon. i guess they will be setting up the meetings. do you have any time? >> we expect there will be a meeting here at the white house with the leaders. >> there will be an official signing at the white house over the next few weeks. okay? and other than that, we will meet you at 5:30 or so. we will actually take one of your questions. okay? [ applause ] ashley: all right. there you have it. president trump announcing this historic peace agreement between israel and the united arab emirates, who will now normalize

diplomatic relations. these are long-time foes although their relationship has been growing warmer in recent years. much of that in cooperation, some would say a forced marriage to face against iran. k.t. mcfarland has done a yeoman's job, staying behind. i want your response to what you just heard from the president at the white house. >> you know, i never thought i would say this but donald trump underestimated his contribution. he said well, this is historic, it hasn't been done in 30 years. how about a couple thousand years. this really is a major change. because of president trump's policies, first canceling the iran nuclear deal, secondly making relationships with the sunni arab countries, he made -- then finally, american energy independence as jared kushner pointed out, that made all this possible. the fact that they have done it outside of the spotlight, they have done it away from the noise of the national media, i think

is really significant. it will have a huge economic impact in the region. you know, israel can't trade with arab countries. arab countries can't trade with israel. now they can trade with each other. now they can officially cooperate with their security. now they will officially go and challenge iran in the way they need to challenge iran and stop the terrorism. so bravo all around. a great achievement for the president, for jared kushner, for this wonderful country of israel, for the united arab emirates and i suspect as president trump indicated, a lot of other sunni arab countries will follow suit in the very near future. ashley: we have to leave it there. you are making me smile. it's a big day, an historic day. we thank you for your expert input today. thank you, k.t., very much. we appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: okay. all that said, let's get back to the market, why don't we. let's see where we are going now. the dow still off 65 points. not taking any of this foreign

policy into account, clearly. nasdaq still up .75%. the s&p essentially flat at 3380. could be heading close to a record close. it won't take much. if it can close at 3386 so we are only seven, eight points away from that. we should also point out that apple hit an all-time high this morning as well. all right. moving on. dallas cowboys owner jerry jones, very adamant that his team will play in front of fans this season. roll tape. >> the dallas cowboys plan on playing all of our football games and we plan on playing them in front of our fans. the nfl can be an exciting, when i say exciting, it can be an inspirational part of how we address covid, not only the remainder of this year but as we go into '21. ashley: all right. now, this comes as texas's governor greg abbott tells

residents to maybe rethink those large gatherings which goes counter to what was said there. let's bring in lieutenant governor dan patrick from the great state of texas. your honor, can you settle the score on this? what's happening in your state? can we gather or can't we gather? >> well, as we talk about america's team, i just want to say what the president did today underscores what genesis says 12:1-3, those who bless israel will be blessed. he's moved the embassy to jerusalem and he's made this move for peace. god will bless the president and that's one of his secret weapons, i really believe god's on his side. now, america's team, dallas cowboys. i wrote an editorial a couple months ago how we can have fans at games. we can have fans at games because if you social distance, you can put 10,000 or 15,000 people spread out very easily in a stadium that holds 100,000 and yes, we are asking people individually, a lot of the spread of the virus comes when

there are gatherings where there's no social distancing, people aren't wearing masks but in the dallas cowboys and i think the rest of the nfl can do this as well, there's no reason with proper protocols that the dallas cowboys can't have 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people socially distanced around the stadium, wearing masks, so they stay in their own group, their own family group. you separate them from others. we cannot continue to shut down america over a virus that we are going to have to learn to live with. the big 12 besides pro football yesterday, university of texas and baylor and other schools in the tcu and the big 12, they said they will move forward. texas is going to move forward. i agree with what the governor is talking about, our smaller groups, but in terms of not wanting to have 50, 100 people at a beach and no one social distancing, but having an organized manner to come to the stadium to watch the dallas cowboys, if that all happens, i plan to be there. ashley: i'm sure you do, front

and center. lieutenant governor, have to leave it there. i'm so sorry it's short today. obviously all this break news at the white house. [ speaking simultaneously ] ashley: thank you for being with us. thank you so much. we should mention this. the fat brands restaurant group announcing plans to buy johnny rocket's for 25 million bucks. is buying a burger joint in the middle of a pandemic a good idea? guess what? i will ask the ceo himself. and johnson & johnson will produce 1 billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine next year if it proves to be successful, of course. how close are they to releasing their shot? we will ask their chief scientific officer next. ♪

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ashley: all right. welcome back. let's take a look at the markets. generally moving not very far

today, slightly down on the dow and the s&p, as you can see, but the nasdaq hanging in there, up about .75%. also, some quick headlines from the new york fed. a new study finds that households with children are more likely to suffer job and income losses during the pandemic. they are also more likely to rely on unemployment benefits. now this. talking of the pandemic, johnson & johnson securing a deal with the u.s. government for 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine for more than $1 billion. joining me now is dr. paul stoffels, vice chair of the executive committee and chief scientific officer for johnson & johnson. doctor, thanks for joining us. the question we all have for you, how soon could this vaccine be ready? >> well, we are working hard on the clinical work. we just started end of july, the phase 1 study, in thousand people. that's going very well. the first data will be available

the first half of september which will allow us if things go well to start phase 3 in the second half of september and that then could result in data by the end of the year or early next year. so we anticipate that vaccine could be available in the first quarter of next year. ashley: okay. in the next question, what's the distribution plan? that can be quite a headache. how soon after the vaccine is ready, you know, how can i get it, how quickly can i get it? >> well, the distribution plan will be decided by the government, but we are making, johnson & johnson, our operations, up to one billion vaccines in the course of next year and the distribution plan will be i think according to risk. so people at high risk will be first vaccinated, then others. there are several vaccines in development so i hope in the course of next year, many vaccines, many people will be

able to be vaccinated and get protected from covid. ashley: okay. so you say maybe the first quarter of next year, it could be ready to go, assuming you pass all the trials and tests. but russia says they have already developed a vaccine. what's your sense of that? it's been met with a lot of skepticism. >> well, it's difficult for us to evaluate because there are no data at all which have been published. that's why it's difficult to say what they have done and how extensively they have tested. we know that it takes at least, we are working since 15th of january on this and there are timelines which are extremely accelerated, gets us to the end of the year, but that includes this testing in at least 30, 50, maybe even more thousand people on the platform which we have been working already for 30 years. so we have an extensive safety data base on which we can base ourselves and also several vaccines which have been developed on our platform.

so we trust that we can bring a vaccine which is safe and effective. but still, to do a good development, we count on at least 12 months to get to a safe and effective vaccine. ashley: of course, doctor, we wish you the very best. we look forward to getting that vaccine as soon as possible. we thank you for joining us this morning. thank you. >> my pleasure. thank you. ashley: all right. let's get a check of the s&p 500. we mentioned this a couple of times. just a hair away now from record highs yet again. susan, which names have been bringing us within striking distance of this record? susan: the tech names, of course. tech now counts for around 30% of the s&p 500 and that's actually bigger than health care and consumer discretionary combined and apple of course as we know that apple hit a record high this morning, i think it's advancing, rallying around 2% and that's helping lift the s&p today. apple, by the way, is just around ten bucks away from being the first company on the planet

to cross $2 trillion. apple is now the most influential single stock on the s&p going back to 1980, in 40 years. as for record territory for the s&p 500, itself, we are at record watch. we need to close above 3386 for a record close for the s&p. one more number and one more intraday line to watch is that record intraday level for the s&p. we need to cross 3393 which i think we are just a few points away. we are about 12 points away from doing that. but again, this all comes back to tech and that's what's helped drive the nasdaq this year to 30 records so far in 2020 during a global pandemic, mind you. so the s&p is looking to cross over its first record so far in 2020. ashley: who would bet against it. all right, susan, thank you. let's take a look at amazon, if we can. lauren, they are actually cutting drivers. how many? lauren: reportedly about 1200 of the delivery drivers, because amazon cut the contracts with

the small companies that these drivers drive for. they usually operate the gray cargo vans that say amazon on the side of them. you've seen them. they are very popular and important in that expensive last mile delivery so amazon doesn't have to use fed ex or ups. this move is unusual because home delivery is booming and amazon did scale up this part of its delivery network a few years ago to accommodate but reportedly severing ties with the small companies and 1200 drivers expected to be laid off. ashley: all right. thank you very much, lauren. not great news for those drivers. all right. breaking this morning, the fat brands group is buying the 1950s themed burger joint johnny rocket's. there are now plans to modernize the menu. oh, yeah, with vegan and plant-based options. stu would love that, right? the fat brands ceo joins us next. ♪

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ashley: let's check some individual stocks, why don't we. first up, amc entertainment. they say they will reopen about one-fifth of their cinemas, about 100 theaters.

they will do that on august 20th. we are told tickets will be just 15 cents on opening day. that's a good promotion. the same pricing from the year 1920, 100 years ago. that stock now up 11.5%, 54 cent on s on a $5 stock. peloton and apple could soon be competitors. why? a new report says apple is developing a subscription virtual fitness service. that is impacting peloton's stock today but not much. in fact, peloton now up 1.5% at $65. apple already hit an all-time high earlier in the session, still up nearly nine bucks. new this morning, this is interesting. restaurant giant fat brands is acquiring johnny rocket's. let's bring in andy wiederhorn, ceo and president of fat brands. great to have you, andy. my first question to you is, the restaurant industry is struggling so why would you acquire a new chain in the middle of a pandemic? >> sure. thanks for having me.

you know, look, covid-19 is a short-term crisis. we are buying the johnny rocket's brand for the long term. it's a great brand. we think it has a lot of legs. we can distribute it to our franchise network and help take it to a new level. ashley: how have you survived in the pandemic? are you seeing business pick up? you know, delivery, curbside pickup, you have any restaurants open? >> sure. sure. the johnny rockets acquisition will take us over 700 restaurants. the delivery seems to be about 35% of our business and during the pandemic it rose to 70% of our business. so crazy, you know, uptick in delivery to go and we coached all of our franchisees because all of our system is a franchise system on how to take advantage of the delivery systems, we were already on all the delivery apps everywhere. we have outdoor dining rooms. all of our wings and buffalo cafes up and down the coast come with outdoor dining rooms. we were prepared for it,

fortunately. we are very lucky we're not in fine dining where those poor guys have a long road ahead. ashley: very quickly, you kind of touched on it, why johnny rockets? what about it did you like that made you finally sign the agreement? >> well, we have been working on this deal for a long time, several years, and it finally came to market for real in the beginning of the year, and was put on hold with the pandemic. we just feel like it fits in our portfolio very well. fat burger is a very urban brand. we have elevation burger which is a very healthy organic brand. johnny rockets is a new brand. now we have a complete portfolio of burger brands we can offer to any operator or any real estate fit to see what works best. it really completes us. half of the brand is international and there's no overlap with our fat burger footprint. ashley: very good. well, congratulations on the acquisition. thanks for joining us today. andy wiederhorn, thanks so much. all right. more "varney" after this.

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points. the s&p essentially flat at 3381. nasdaq has been the stronger of the three. take a look at crude oil. iaea said reduced demachined expected through 2021. my time is up, but i'm expecting a suggestion from neil cavuto in tomorrow's "friday feedback" he sent me was get off the air. neil, it is yours. neil: that's not true. i finished one. i hope you can use it. dear, stuart, use ashley all the time. i wanted to keep it short and sweet. ashley: ah. neil: you don't know the kind i get, cut out magazine letters and, no. thank you, my friend, very, very much. ashley webster is such a great guy. always working these incredibly long hours. obviously some surprises he got into with you today.