dagen: thank you, sean and angela. that does it for us. ashley is in for stuart on "varney & company." take it away. ashley: good morning, everyone. inning deed, i'm ashley webster in for stuart varney. dr. fauci in the headlines again, this time for saying the cdc is, quote, actively considering reinstating the mask mandate. this would be regardless of your vaccination status. so do we really need another mask mandate? well, i'm going to talk to dr. marc siegel about that. meantime, crime is spiking across the country, but instead of finding a solution, democrats want to pin the blame on

republicans. have they forgotten all their calls to defund the police? well, if they have, we've got the tape to remind them. but first, take a look at the markets. we'll talk about earnings in a second. stocks right now focused on the fed meeting tomorrow, all moving lower by about a third or a quarter percent. the dow off 111 points in the premarket. let's take a quick look at the 10-year yield as well, if we can, that is also down about a basis point, down to 1.266%. and as i mentioned, it is a huge week for earnings. more than one-third of s&p companies reporting this week. big tech had been in the spotlight. all five of the companies right there on your screen are reporting this week, is we'll tell you what to look out for. also take a look at bitcoin. it topped $39,000 earlier. that would be the highest level in six weeks, right now up nearly 6,000 at $38,190.

we'll have liz peek, leoer the april, charlie hurt, and this monday, july 26 theth, "varney & co." about to begin. ♪♪ ♪ more than a feeling when i hear that old song play -- can. ashley: yeah, it's more than a thk yanou,anou,outo bn.os bos feelinfeg,fe if l lng et ma p sois toiog t sligh sytly lowerlor ope o t's get rightht you y m anheck t chose t f we said,d,he t dowff off o jt ov 00 p the t s dow d ar qur terte p same sam story s heq.as wels get earni eropp ononon and a a tesla tes in inna ok tha b n in bre it -------- c--e

in andn bre i down f us. >> a>> l o w wseek, ey.ten dotewn n n stos, 3m 3mm, but let's start with tomorrow and big tech. apple will post revenue likely topping $73 billion. will cock and co. deliver -- cook and co. deliver formal guy dance that was put on hold during the pandemic? it could mean the new iphone 13, will it launch sooner? microsoft expected to rise to a record $44.1 billion, but tonight we get tesla. what will get shares out of this tight range that they've been in? the stock has been down 9% this year, and i think the answer is strong operating profits and strong guy dance on the number one market which is china, ash. ashley: indeed. thank you, lauren, very much. let's bring in brian belski. good morning to you, brian. let's start with big tech. are you bullish on these big names? >> yeah, we are, ashley. good morning and good morning,

fox business. the new consumer staples are these big tech stocks. and what's interesting is that the market has been acting like growth is scarce, but growth is not scarce, ashley, and earnings numbers have been going up pretty steadily. and, in fact, over the last month or so second quarter earnings expectations were up 10%, 10 percentage points alone for the quarter but still remain at double digits for 2022, and i think that's meaningful. i think the key thing is what lauren said in terms of guidance. the majority of companies in the s&p 500 pulled their guidance well over a year ago, and they've been slow to come back. so i think guidance from the tech companies are going to be key for the next 6-12 months. and i still think from a portfolio construction basis, ashley are, you want to maintain these big tech positions. we've been very steady and consistent on that, and we we think many investors sold tech way too early at do beginning --

at the beginning of the year and have been a rush to get back in. ashley: very good. stay right there, brian. bitcoin surged to 39,000 for the first time in nearly six weeks. lauren, come back in. how much did that surge add to the crypto market? >> $114 billion in 24 the hours. 38,150, it's now up for the sixth day in a row. a lot of reasons for this. i think the real catalyst was amazon, those reports that it's looking to skip bitcoin -- accept bitcoin by the end of the year, and they're considering mining their own tokens next year and also the cheerleading that went on at the b-world concerns last week with elon musk, cathie wood and jack dorsey. ashley: boy if, that would be a game-changer. that would be huge. brian, do you think bitcoin is about to make another run here? what's your feelings on this? >> well, it's a pure momentum stock, ashley. i don't think it's an asset at all, i think it's more of a

trading instrument, and it kind of speaks to people feeling better about the markets. but we think too that it's going to continue to be a volatile trading instrument for several more quarters, and it's just one of those areas that i think you can't count on in terms of your investment portfolio. ashley: very quickly, brian, i read your notes, i love it. it says turn off the negativity. you say there's a 2406 year bull market -- 20-year bull market, it's still alive. >> we still think we have the best companies in the world right here, ashley, and as lawrence said, operating profits -- lauren said, operating profits continue to improve. ashley: that's the attitude on a monday morning. i love it. brian belski, thanks so much for joining us. appreciate it. all right. now this, let's get to politics. a new poll showing 55% of americans say they are pessimistic about the direction of the country over the next 12 months. a that's down nearly 20% since june. so in just two months, the pessimistic outlook is picking

up. let's bring in brad blakeman. great to see you this morning, brad. look, that's a significant drop. are you are surprised? if. >> no, i'm not. it's because we have a president who's not leading in the white house. they roll him out here and there for appearances, and it's never about the news he's trying to make, it's about the gaffe or the awkwardness of the president being able to communicate. and what's really troubling about these numbers we're seeing is we see a vast majority of americans now turning and saying they're pessimistic, but 7 in 10 democrats are supporting this president. that's not where he should be in this what should be a honeymoon period of the first six months. this is the best days of the biden administration. so his approval is in the basement. and as we approach the midterms next year, the president is going to be in tough shape because we know historically typically in midterms when you control the white house, you can lose are up to 26 house seats and 4 senate seats. democrats can't afford it, and

republicans now have a record to run on. ashley: well, you mentioned the approval rating. it has dropped to 50% in june. that, by way, the lowest mark since he took office seven months ago. i mean, there's a number of things we could talk about, but what do you think is behind this drop in his approval rating? >> lack of leadership and the policies of this president, ignoring the border crisis. we're seeing inflation start to emerge in america at the gas pump and in household commodities. if i also think that this president is not leading himself. the white house is being led by a committee. people who are unseen by the public, the chief of staff of the white house, pelosi, others, chuck schumer, the secretary of state. we're not seeing the type of up-front leadership that the president promised in his inaugural address. ashley: you know, it's interesting, when i watched that town hall on cnn, there were a couple of occasions there, brad, where he was asked a very

pointed question, and his answer, quite frankly, made no sense. that's got to be a concern for those around him, that committee, as you say, that's basically leading the country. >> absolutely. and a lot of them are, of course, appointed officials, unelected, not known to the public. and we're looking for leadership, and leadership comes from the top. it comes from the chief executive. and the president, rolling him out here and there and then not being able to make the news that's intended because of the gaffes or the awkwardness, as you point out, is troubling for america. because we don't see a leader who's up front. we also see now warnings by democrats that we may go back to lockdowns. kids may be prevented from going to school this fall because of the delta variant. so they're looking and hoping for leadership s and we're just not seeing it. ashley: brad, as we head a towards the midterms, and i know that's a ways off, but what is the key issue that could prove pivotal? if i mean, is it crime, the surge in crime certainly is

worrying a lot of people. >> i think the key is the bread and butter issues of americans. americans want their kids back in school, they want jobs, they want to get back to normal. and it's always the economy. and if we don't have a robust economy and people don't feel good about the future of america, then the democrats are in bad shape. their policies so far have not been able to open up america. we're still dealing in this lockdown, and it's not healthy for our country while other countries are expanding. america's contracting. stuart: yeah. it's fascinating, isn't it? -- ashley: yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it? we get word that the white house thinks they're being too wonky and technical by using the word transitory, but if they're going to get this massive spending bill through, how does that combat inflation? >> well, you know, the more you spend, it fuels inflation.

because we're -- ashley: right. >> -- back to taxing and spending. we're not cutting the budget. there isn't one democrat who said or suggested we should be cutting budgets in our big agencies at the federal executive branch. there's no talk of cutting, there's only talk of spending. and anytime you spend money you don't have, you have to pay for it. ashley: you certainly do, you have to a pay the piper, as they say. brad blakeman. brad, thanks so much for joining us on this monday morning. >> thank you. ashley: all right. we mentioned cnn earlier. even cnn is saying something doesn't seem right with hunter biden's upcoming art show. listen. >> this is a huge optics problem and ethics problem. >> i find it hard to believe that there is any such thing as a blind sale when they're purchasing art from the president's son. >> you think of ivanka trump and her fashion line that was shut down. ashley: ah. but the white house is sticking by his art. we'll have more on that coming up. did you see this in the

"wall street journal"? president biden facing fresh challenges on covid and the economy. i wonder if stephen moore agrees? i'll be asking him in just a few minutes. but first, check the futures. slightly lower at the open, at least that's what the premarket says. we'll have more "varney" after this. ♪ you got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em -- ♪ know when to walk away, know when to run. ♪ you never count your money ♪♪ gold. your strategic advantage. with voltaren arthritis pain gel my husband's got his moves back. an alternative to pain pills voltaren is the first full prescription strength gel for powerful arthritis pain relief... voltaren the joy of movement

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afternoons in portland, oregon. let's take a look at the futures, on the cool side if you want to do a temperature analysis. the dow down about a quarter of a percent, the s&p down about two-tenths, same story on the nasdaq. a slightly lower opening is what the premarket is suggesting. all right, now this, the white house is shifting its message on inflation. lauren, i guess they're not going to say transitory anymore, right? >> that's correct. but their view remains the same, ashley, that inflation is transitory, and it is isolated, but i don't think americans agree with them. so they now see this whole inflation story as a vulnerability, and that's hurting president biden's approval ratings. republicans now are blaming democrats for stoke ising inflation with their expensive still lis, their expensive -- stimulus, and that could hurt them in the midterms overall. at first you say just lumber prices are higher, plane tickets

are higher, but everywhere you go, it seems like everything is higher. that's not isolated. ashley: absolutely. and everyone 's talking about it, you're right. lauren are, thank you very much. let's look at this quote from the "wall street journal," if we can. it reads, quote, concerns over the spread of the pandemic have have caused some turbulence in the financial markets, and consumer prices are ticking up prompting warnings about long-term inflation. a bipartisan infrastructure deal and a broader democratic spending bill remain in deep negotiations and a long way from mr. biden's desk. it's a long title, but there you have it. let's bring in stephen moore. good morning -- >> good morning. ash when you read that headline, it looks like a long, uphill battle ahead, right? >> yeah. my white house sources are telling me that although joe biden keeps maintaining this stiff upper lip when it comes to inflation, and their line as you know the last couple months that this is transitory, that they

have in doubt about inflation. they understand the political and economic dynamics of inflation, if it goes higher, 5, 6, 7%. that is a big problem for stocks and the economy generally, but it's also a big political problem for biden. they remember what happened with jimmy carter. jimmy carter's presidency was ruined by 10 is % inflation. they don't want to get anywhere near that. ashley: yeah. >> it's a problem because here they are trying to pass this $4 trillion spending bill -- ashley: right. >> -- and i heard your previous conversation on this, and you were right that, you know, if you want to stop is inflation, you don't spend a $4 trillion debt can bill. it just doesn't make any sense. ashley: well, the fed meeting starts tomorrow. we'll get the latest update from them on wednesday in a statement. look, they're facing, as we've just talked about, rising prices. we've got rising covid cases, we've got a global supply chain that's still not operating as it should be. these are a lot of things for

the fed to consider, right? >> yeah. and i think the big one there is the jitters about, you know, the variant on covid. you know, that is something that could lead to shutdowns in europe and hopefully not in the united states, but there is some talk about that. we're seeing new mask mandates, and at some places, some selective places in the united states you're starting to see some talk about lockdowns again. that would be, obviously, very negative for the economy. i think there's a good chance we'll avoid that, but there is a possibility. and just when we thought covid was behind us, now we're seeing these rising cases with the delta variant. ashley: i was going to ask you, do you think the economy and the rebound has somewhat peaked, or do you believe there's still a little further ways to go before we hit that peak in. >> boy, that's a tough question. if you'd asked me a month ago, i would have said for the rest of the year economy looks really strong, and i'm going to stick

with this, but i'm a little more pessimistic now. i think the markets are starting to see how lunatic these fiscal policies are that are coming out of the white house. there's been a big bet, in my opinion, on wall street. the big bet is this: that republicans will be able to stop the tax increases and the massive spending. and i think that's still yet to be determined, right? i mean, the fate of the western world rests on the shoulders of joe manchin. because if he sides with the democrats and they push this stuff through without a single vote which they could potentially do, that would be, i think, extremely reckless and very bad for the markets. and so that's the big bet, can the democrats push this thing through, the tax increase and the $4 trillion spending bill, without a single republican vote. because i guarantee you they don't have any republican votes on this. and even the bipartisan is bill, the so-called bipartisan bill, is in a lot of trouble right now. ashley: exactly. all eyes, as it always seems, on

joe manchin. stephen moore, thank you so much. appreciate you for coming on today. all right, now this, goldman sachs is slashing gdp estimates. that doesn't sound good. why, lauren? >> yeah. they took the forecast for the back half of next year down to 1.5-2%, ashley, and they say the tell cra variant will postpone the return to the office. everybody's expected to come back after labor day, but that might not happen. they say the full service sector recovery will take longer than anticipated. and in order to get peak growth, you have to have consumer spending on services as well as goods. so the goods recovery seems to be there, but the services is stalled. ashley: yeah. a lot more caution out there right now. all right. lauren, thank you very much. let's take a look at these, the futures, if we can, as we head towards the opening bell in about seven and a half minutes from now. we're pointing to a lower open. come off of some of the lows that we've seen in the premarket, but all down about a

tenth or two-tenths of a percent. let's take another look at big tech. lots of big names reporting this week. probably the most important week of the earnings season because these stocks account for so much both in the s&p and the nasdaq, and they're a mixed bag right now. keith fitzgerald, i'll talk to him about what he is looking for when we come back right after this. ♪ ♪ night fever, night fever ♪♪

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♪ ashley: all right, let's get right to your money and take a look at these futures. plenty of red on the screen but mutedly sow. the s&p down 5, the nasdaq down 17 points, about a tenth of a percent. take a look at the big tech names. apple slightly lower but amazon, facebook, google slightly up. this is the chem for big tech's earnings -- schedule for big tech's earnings, i said this is probably the most important week of the earnings season, and this is i why. some very big names in there.

let's bring in keith fitzgerald. keith, good morning. are you predicting big earnings for these names? >> i think these guys are going to knock the leather off the ball, ashley. i think the numbers are going to be super strong. ashley: it does seem more caution coming back into the market. we had a bit of a meltdown in hong kong on the hang seng because, as gary kaltbaum put it in his note this morning, it feels like the chinese government is trying to get its hands on everything, and that is really pushing the markets a lot lower, especially in hong kong as it sees its autonomy go down the drain. >> well, i tell you what, as you know, i spent an awful lot of time in that part of the world, and i think the chinese government is making a grab for control. the clampdown is very unfortunate because i think it is going to disturb world markets. ashley: yeah, it really is. as for the fed meeting, i don't

expect much to come out of that, keith, but we talked about this this morning, rising inflation, rising covid cases and a supply chain that's still choked. this is a problem, is it not? >> it is a huge problem. the fed lost the plot a long time ago. everybody that has to pay for food, medicine, gasoline knows that inflation isn't transitory except, evidently, the fed. but the way through that is the big tech stocks, the companies that can protect margins. investors actually have the upper hand if they have the nerves to take a deep breath right now. ashley: you know, we often follow the 10 is-year yield, keith, you know that. everybody does. but i'm kind of flummoxed. what is it telling us right now in i'm not sure i really understand. >> well, keep it very simple, ash. so the market's trying to decide does it fear inflation or does it fear slowdown in growth. the two are really sides of the same coin. so again, most treasuries in the

institutional world purchased and never sold, so there's a very limited supply. it's a strange world behind the scenes but the big picture thing is don't fear it because if it's signal that, the market is trying to to make a decision. ashley: very good. thank you, keith. i needed that. the opening bell, as you can sell, ringing in just about five seconds from now. everyone's happy, they're clapping, smiling, why not? let's have a look at the dow 30. we have some green but we seem to have a little more red. we're off about 57 points right now. chevron down, american express on the upside, home depot, boeing, coca-cola the laggards at this point, you we're off 70 points or thereabouts on the dow. let's take a look at the s&p, if we can, see where that stands, and that's -- we saw in the premarket -- down just is about 5 points at 4406. and let's take a look at the nasdaq, home to all the big tech

stocks, as we know. that too down 20 points, down a tenth of a percent at 14,816. lauren, you're looking at some of the earnings before the bell. let's begin with hasbro. >> what a winner, up 5.66% right now. revenue a came in $1.23 billion. they were helped by a board game called dungeons and dragons. yes,sing people play games x. the rebound of tv, the drama cool her and kid shows like peppa pig. it's interesting that shares are -- hasbro did not hike their guy dance. they said inflation at the five boltnecks, that could pinch demand. so they didn't up their guidance. but take a look ating lockheed martin, earnings of 652, lower than expected. real weakness in the aeronautics unit, that stock depletely unchanged. pet med express, wow, down 10 is

%. earnings, revenue lower than last year, also lower than wall street expected. everybody adopted pets. everybody i know got one or two pents during the pandemic -- pets during the pandemic, ashley. but, you know, the advertisers started to come back, and just demand was down, so they said advertising was ineffective for them, and that stock's a big loser today. ashley: i guess that's honest. down 10%. thank you. let's a take a look again at these big tech names ahead of the earnings week ahead. take a look at amazon, up two-ths of a %, and it was mentioned earlier, reportingedly moving towards accepting bitcoin as payment. also creating their own digital token as well. not a big reaction to all of this, as we say, just up 4 points on amazon. let's take a look at tesla. they report after the bell. what are we expecting, lauren? >> revenue to rise to 11.3

billion and earnings to more than double to 98 cents a share. shares are are up today but they are down this year, ashley, so what is the next catalyst for investors. maybe a timeline, an accurate timeline for the cyber truck because end of 2021, that's not looking too likely right now. also china, will they be bullish on the market for them. they just recalled at that shanghai since last march. the regulators are looking at industries where there's dominance. so ten icent controls 80% of

exclusive music streaming in china, and beijing is telling them you can no longer engage in such exclusive deals x you must dissolve existing agreements within 30 days. didi is suffering today, it's down 4.5%. cut them to newtal over uncertainties -- neutral over uncertainties about china's crackdown and also said a delisting could not be ruled out. so if you're invested in didi, you have really, really paid for it in the past, what, few weeks, right? ashley: yes. ouch. the dreaded d-word. now this, lauren, sir richard branson announcing who will be on virgin galactic's next launch to space, and i don't think it's stuart varney even though varney maintains that branson owes him a ride for a bet that stuart won. >> well, maybe he's one of the 600 people that far reservations on upcoming rides but not the next one.

likely later this summer. so it's -- the person who's going up to the edge of space is the former ceo from 2010-2020, forrest whiteside. he's now the chief space officer at virgin galactic. he's on the next one with three others. paying passengers, they go up next year, ashley. ashley: how cool. all right, lauren, thank you. let's take a look at some of the dow winners as we're literally five minutes into this session is. chevron, energy stocks, walgreens, boots alliance, travelers, american express and dow all up more than 1%, chevron up 1.75%. let's take a look at the s&p winners, if we can. aon corp., hasbro which lauren just talked about, freeport-mcmoran, hewlett-packard, schlumberger all moving higher, hewlett-packard up 3%. and the nasdaq winners, walgreens, yes, tesla ahead of their earnings after the bell,

intel and marriott all moving higher today. and the winners on the nasdaq. let's take a look at zoom if we can. the video people, bank of america say they're a top pick. they say that zoom's latest acquisition will help them remain player in enterprise software in the years ahead. that's up, stock is up nicely as is 599, up 1.25 president. show me krispy kreme. jpmorgan says they're overweight. [laughter] no, that's not a joke. it's actually an analysis of the stock. they see they see a potential 13% rise ahead. krispy kreme, overweight. come on, you've got to laugh. all right, a check of the big board, slightly lower. the dow -- ooh, hello, we've turned it around. is that right? up 17 points at 35,074. turned into an even smaller

loss, right on the water mark, if you like, on the dow. that take a look at the 10 is-year. now that's turns around a little bit, tiny, up .4 basis points to 1.28 on the treasury. check gold. any flight to safety for gold? no, essentially flat at $1806. and bitcoin, we know rumors, speculation, if you like, that amazon may begin accepting bitcoin, and look at that, up 18%. did get above $39,000 earlier, so bitcoin enjoying a nice run. and take a look at oil. by the way, the national average for a regular gallon of gas is $3.15 is. ah, but in california you're going to a pay $4.33. oh, don't you love taxes? mississippi, by the way, paying the lowest with an average of $2.77. crude oil down slightly at 71.87 a barrel. we talk about it on this show, well, basically every day, crime spiraling out of control in our big cities.

but did you know some of those very same democratic lawmakers who were calling to defund the police are actually getting private protection? of course they are. hypocrisy. we'll have the story. it feels like president biden has a bit of messaging problem regard regarding inflation. >> the overwhelming consensus is it's going to pop up a little bit. some folks have raised worries that this could be a sign of per sunt inflation, but that's not our view. we will, in fact, reduce inflation, reduce inflation. ashley: okay. scratching my head a little bit. liz peek thinks the president is extremely confused about inflation. she wrote about it in a new op you would, and she'll join me next -- op-ed, and she'll join me next hour to make her case. we'll be back. ♪ you make me feel so good, so good, so good. ♪ so fine, so fine --

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♪ ashley: all right. we're back with a fox business alert. today new york city mayor bill de blasio is expected to announce that all knew mispal workers will be required to be vaccinated by mid september or face weekly testing. the new requirement would apply to roughly 340,000 city workers including teachers and police offers. police officers. so there you have it, that's breaking news. meanwhile, back to the markets. the dow just off slightly, just slightly lore. jeff sica joins us now. good morning, jeff. you think the market is heading higher. make your case. >> well, i think, you know, ashley, one thing i can tell you is that we are seeing oceans ofly liquidity coming into the market. of all the company, out of all the companies that reported in the s&p 500, close to 80%, close

to 90% of those companies have reported earnings better than expectations. we're seeing an 80% increase in earnings. i think there's a lot of concerns with inflation, but i think earnings -- we have about 165 companies reporting this week, i think earnings are going to drive us even higher as we move forward. ashley: you're also, jeff, a bitcoin bull with. do you think it's tested its lows right around that 30,000 mark? it stayed there for a while but didn't drop any further. do you believe it's up from here? >> yeah, ashley, i said on this show that bitcoin would probably drop to around 28 or 29. now it's reacting to the rumor, and it is a rumor, i can't confirm if it, that amazon is going the start to accept bitcoin as currency. which i've been saying all along and knowing that amazon ultimately wants to control the

whole ecosystem, it makes perfect sense that they'd go into a cryptocurrency. what i believe is they're going to eventually have their own. so the owners of bitcoin, it's been a wild, wild ride, and that ride is going to continue as things like regulation come into play. this is going to be a lot of volatility, but i think amazon will eventually adopt bitcoin. i believe that we will see more integration into the banking system, and we will begin to approach those old highs at some point in the very near future. ashley: all right. next one for you, jeff, netflix. look, they say they're going to expand into gaming. you think it's a good idea, but the way i read it, jeff, they're really focused on mobile phone, not tv gaming. and that it would be free. it's like an added bonus. so why is that a good idea? >> well, what i see gaming, it's about a 3-400 billion industry.

it's bigger than movies and tv combined. netflix, netflix going into gaming is good con to accept chilly -- conceptually, but i will tell you you've seen amazon, microsoft, google, they've all gone into gaming, and they've all really gotten their teeth kicked in. so amazon has a lot to work on. [laughter] plus the fact that, yes, on mobile devices what amazon -- what netflix really wants, what netflix really wants is they want interactive video games that are centered on their shows so that promotes more engagement and activity within their shows and movies. so that's going to help them. but they have their work cut out for them. i happen to believe netflix is going to succeed. and then they're going to go into cloud, into the cloud gaming which is probably the gold standard. so there's a lot to watch with

this stock. ashley: there sure is. last one, jeff. one of the most anticipated ipos of the year, robinhood, scheduled to list its shares on thursday. so my question to you is, are you buying? >> i am not buying. i mean, i like robinhood and the whole concept behind it. the ipo is going to be crucial, but keep in mind robinhood makes 80% of their revenue from what's called order flow, giving their orders to hedge funds. that's how -- and primary market makers. that's how they make money. the regulators have been scrutinizing that for quite a while. what i would do with robinhood is i would wait until there's more clarity on that, because if they can't make their money from from order flow, there's very little ways that they're going to make money going forward. and there's a lot of companies that could just come into the industry and bowl them over, you

know? being the first -- ashley: right. >> -- meme stock, if they do well, you're going to see all the meme stocks, so much activity with the meme stocks. i would just avoid this at the open. ashley: very good. due diligence. jeff sica, great stuff, as always, jeff. thank you, appreciate it. and staying on ipos, lauren, they're on track for a record year as companies cash in on sky-high stock prices, right? >> this race to go public. so already ipo proceeds, 230% higher than this time last year, and 89 billion, you have a strong equity market, you can get a high valuation right now. investors are looking for return, you have a low-rate environment, and so many of these start-ups or unicorns, they're well funded and are just waiting to come to market. so right now according to renaissance capital, the number of ipos is at 250. for all of last year, that number was 218. so we've certainly come a long

way and rolling its way through. ashley: that's exactly right, lauren. thank you. well, here we go again. dr. fauci says that mask mandates are under active consideration. so we're going to ask dr. siegel if he thinks another mask mandate is really needed. and, by the way, it's not just the suburbs that people are moving to. smaller and more rural housing markets are also seeing a major boom. we're going to take you to one next. ♪ you want it, you got it. ♪ if you want it, baby, you got it. ♪ just bust a move ♪♪ into this chip i invested in invesco qqq a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq 100 like you become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq

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♪♪ ashley: a few clouds in bakersfield, california. already 79, going up to the mid 90s today, 105, the expected high tomorrow in bakersfield, california. yes, it is late july and it's hot. home prices are also hot, and they've shot up over the past year, and the housing boom and bidding wars have also spread into small towns. point in case, grady trimble is in the elkhart area of indiana and, grady, it's known as the rv capital of the world, right? >> reporter: it is the rv

capital of the world, ashley, but today it's getting attention for another reason, and that's its booming housing market like this house on the market, $690,000 which might sound like a lot, but in an area like chicago, two hours from here, it would be well over $1 is.5 million -- 1.5 million. three bedrooms, five baths, a pool,ing the workings. and a lot of people are moving here as marilyn will tell us. what's driving this move of people from other major metro areas into smaller towns like elkhart? >> sure. so people are seeking peace, they're seek ising space. it's affordable here. they can work from anywhere. so, yeah, they're moving to elkhart county. >> reporter: are you hearing that from people who say, oh, i can work from home, i don't need to live in illinois where the taxes are higher, i can move two hours down the highway the a place like this? >> absolutely, yes. we are hearing that. >> reporter: and do you think they'll stick around once the

pandemic subsides? >> i do. elkhart county is a great place to work and raise a family, it's affordable, lots of things to do here. >> reporter: and i want to show row some of the other smaller townspeople are moving to, billings, montana, coeur d'alene are, idaho can, and another indiana city, fort wayne. all of this based on property values, the relatively low taxes in all of these areas as well as, ashley, the job market. that's something that is important as well. and with the rv industry here, that is a booming industry for people who are moving here. ashley: i love it. peace, space, affordable. i think that's a pretty good combo right this. grady trimble in the elkhart region of indiana. grady,ing thank you very much. by the way, just a reminder, the latest read on the housing market is out in just a few minutes, expected to rise 3.5% in june. we'll find out if that holds

true at 10 a.m. eastern, just coming up in under five minutes. all right, let's check the markets. you just saw home builders moving lower, the s&p flat, ever so slightly in the green, but the dow off 35 points, the nasdaq essentially gnat as well. >> all right, still ahead we have liz peek, leo terrell, charles hurt and tiki barber. what a lineup. the second hour of "varney" is next. ♪ feels like the first time, feels like the very first time. ♪ it feels like the first time, it feels like the very first time. ♪ i have waited a lifetime, spent my time so foolishly ♪♪

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♪. ashley: good morning, everybody, it is a monday, lazy, cloudy, in new york city. i'm ashley webster in for stuart today. it is 10:00 eastern. let's get straight to your money. the sooner the better, right? the dow off slightly. but the s&p and nasdaq ever so slightly higher. really a market treading water right now. we have the fed beginning its two-day meeting tomorrow. it's a bit of a wait-and-see situation.

look at 10-year treasury basically if we can. unchanged at 1.277%. look at big tech. this is a huge week for big tech names. amazon, apple, microsoft, facebook, all reporting earnings this week. probably the biggest earnings week of the season. apple, amazon, facebook, alphabet, all, some are slightly higher. amazon up 1%. microsoft the only fly in the ointment down half a percent for microsoft look at bitcoin. it is heading higher at 38,655. good for a 6,000-dollar gain. up 19%. certainly more money going into bitcoin. talking of data, we got the latest read on new home sales. lauren, the number? lauren: this is the june number, seasonally adjusted rate is 76,000. this is a big miss, ashley --

676. as you see return to work get pushed back. new home sales amid super high prices and very low inventory down for the third month, 676,000, seasonally adjusted rate. ashley: thank you, lauren. interesting. look at this headline. biden wrong on inflation. the president is ignoring realities that americans see every day. the author of that piece? our good friend liz peek. liz, good morning, great to see you. tell me why is the president wrong on inflation? >> good morning, arcly. let's start with his assumption that spending trillions more in fiscal relief in the program he wants to pass through reconciliation with only democrat votes is going to bring prices down. he talks about no serious economist worried about inflation. i don't think there is a serious economist on earth who would

tell you goosing the economy at this point, growing 7, 8% on annualized rate by another $4 trillion is the way to cool inflation. in fact it will have just the opposite effect. let's go deeper than that. obviously what the economy is struggling with right now is a huge injection of money from the federal reserve which continues to pump $120 billion into the economy every month. shortages everywhere. but here's the thing, ashley, all of this should be somewhat predicted by the federal reserve. why? because inventories are at record lows. that will continue the economy running very, have he hot. consumers have seen an increase in their net worth of trillions, tens of trillions of dollars over the past year because of rising stock prices and home prices there is 2 1/2 trillion dollars of objection ses saving on the sidelines.

what world does the he had fed think they need to expand the money supply and build up the economy at this point? it is madness. i think we'll hear out of this meeting some, more aggressive commentary about tapering. i think they have to do it because consumers are getting hit with price increases everywhere. by the way, the politics are beginning to come home to root for democrats and joe biden. ashley: yes indeed. that may be the explanation for a new poll shows only 45% of americans are now optimistic about the country's direction. that is down a whopping 20 points just from may. i mean is it combination of things, liz? is it concerns about the way this administration is going about its business? >> well, i think common sense americans are finally recognizing that joe biden is doing nothing about the southern border. that is where 61% of the country, everybody, democrats

included disapprove of biden's handling of an issue. 61% disapprove on his position on crime. every day we see horrifying stories, ashley, little kids gunned down in d.c. or chicago. for heavens sake, we have to get our arms around safe streets, closed borders, secure borders. everything else is secondary to the safety of the american people. in addition, yes, people are worried that jobs are not growing as fast as expected. people are not entering the workforce as expected they would do. wages increasing, prices increasing. now we have really a lot of uncertainty about the vaccines, whether they keep you safe. why it is so many vaccinateed people are getting sick again. the white house really muddled the messaging on vaccines.

just in in general, everyone is taking stock and things are not as expected. ashley: i think you're right, liz peek. thank you for your time on this monday. thank you. let's get back to the markets as you can see. the nasdaq, s&p, just above the water line. the dow is down slightly. it is a no-move monday as it is. let's bring in dennis gartman. good morning, dennis. you say the fed tapering has moved forward by a quarter or two. make your case. >> given the fact at&t fed has been expansionary as they have been and as liz said they have been spending $120 billion a month for agencies and treasury said they put off monetary tightening. after the fomc meeting this week they will make the announcement, they will reduce the amount of

time incumbent in it walling. they will bring forward a quarter, two quarters. instead of late 2023, they will bring it to 2022. i think they should start the tapering process immediately but they have told us this is transitory inflation and they have been waiting for a period of time. they have been holding off tapering for a period. i think they will move it forward just a little bit because the economy indeed is very strong. ashley: but couldn't the rise in covid cases, maybe slowing down the reopening, could that give them more ammunition to delay that tapering? >> yes. of course it can. we'll see. thus far the numbers have been, they have been rising for the past month. that is discone certificating the very least, no question about it. will they take it into consideration? absolutely. but do i think the economic data numbers coming out for the past several months indicate they should move forward their tapering? i do. yes, of course, a quick and violent increase in the number

of covid cases would be deleterious to that idea, no question about it. ashley: let's move on, dennis. take a look at bitcoin if we can nice jump above to $36,000. it is up 20%. you say you've been wrong about bitcoin. you expected the bottom to fall out when the 30,000 level was broken. >> i really did but last week when amazon said they would think about taking bitcoin in the payment process, that changed the game. midweek that game changed completely. i did really think, how do i want to say this? i've been ambivalent on bitcoin for some period of time. i planned it to be the biggest ponzi scheme of our time. i think it's a worthless investment to be quite honest. as long as the next person wants to believe in tinkerbell, that bitcoin will go off in price, as long as millenials are there to buy it, god bless them.

i wish them well. they will do it without me. ashley: i wouldn't call that a ringing endorsement, dennis. you like things, when you drop them on your foot had hurts. if anything is the complete opposite of that it's a digital coin. i get the feeling you would never ever buy one single bitcoin, not half a coin, not a quarter of a coin? >> you have got that absolutely correct. i will not be a buyer of bitcoin. maybe daughter will. or one of my two daughters may eventually may be forced into it. i shall sit on the sidelines and watch f it goes to $500,000 a goes to a million it will get there without me. let me buy railroads, steel, let me buy ships and copper, things i understand, it is beyond my kin. ashley: even if amazon takes it? >> even if amazon takes it. i don't understand how amazon can take it given the fact that bitcoin can move, seven, eight, nine, 10, 15%.

how do you price something over a weekend? how do you price a house over a weekend? how do you price a car over a weekend? i guess when you're buying a pair of trousers or shoes or stockings or golf clubs over the weekend maybe the difference in price of bitcoin doesn't mean much, i for one, as i said, other people can do well in it. god bless them. they will do it without me. ashley: dennis, been a fascinating conversation, i think we know where you stand now on bitcoin. thanks so much as always, great stuff. let's bring in lauren. lauren, good morning into the 10:00 hour. you're looking at some of today's movers. begin with lowe's. lauren: down 3%. cut at wedbush. housing starts is starting to cool and that is not good for lowe's or home depot. wynn was cut from to a buy from a strong buy. it hit 600 earlier and that

would be a six month low. the reason is macau and it will be significantly hop belled by travel related restrictions. not good for the stock. biontech at a new high up 4%. pfizer, biontech as you know taking the covid mrna technology to africa where they will start to velma lair yaw and tuberculosis stocks using that same technology, ashley. ashley: up more than 4 1/2%. all right, lauren. bitcoin as we've been talking about briefly topped 39,000, dennis gartman aside, how much did that add to the crypto market? lauren: $114 billion in just 24 hours. it is holding 38 but pushing towards 39,000. it is up six days in a row. we saw massive cheerleading by elon musk. maybe andy jassy and those reports that amazon may come in

here accept bitcoin for payment. everybody buys everything with amazon. what if they did it with bitcoin or had their own digital token. they had a advertisement for a job. a bitcoin currency blockchain lead position f amazon comes that is very good for bitcoin acceptance. ashley: yes indeed. one more for you lauren, the meeting between u.s. and chinese officials is apparently off to a rough start. what happened? rachel: lauren: nothing. high level and face-to-face talks, between china's vice minister as you say, wendy sherman, deputy secretary of state. ideally they want the dialogue between washington and beijing to keep moving. then you have a meeting between president biden and president xi during the g20 meeting in october. this was china's take of the situation. some americans portrayed china as an imagined enemy and are trying to suppress it.

then the south china morning post, they went a step further. they say for the first time china gave the u.s. a list of red lines to repair relations including lifting sanctions and dropping the extradition request of the wah way cfo. -- huawei. those are the red lines. biden administration has been relatively tu on china as the trump administration was. that is continuing. ashley: look on faces of people in the room tell the whole story, they look very unenthused to say the least. lauren, thank you very much. now this, you know it's a problem when even cnn is raising questions about hunter biden's art dealings. roll it. >> this is a huge optics problem and ethics problem. >> i find it hard to believe there is any such thing as a blind sale when you're purchasing art from the president's son. >> you think of ivanka trump and her fashion line that was shut down. ashley: oh, yes, they say it with a smile. media watcher brent bozell has a

thing to say about that. plus 160,000 protesters taking to the streets of france, expressing their anger over strict new covid policies. we'll tell but the new requirements straight ahead. plus the height of hypocrisy. democratic lawmakers across the country hiring their own security guards as they push to defund the police. you can't make it up, you really can't. we have a live report and reaction from leo terrell after this. ♪ not everybody wants the same thing. that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 'cause i do things a bit differently. wet teddy bears! wet teddy bears here! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ with voltaren arthritis pain gel my husband's got his moves back.

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ashley: let's take a look at these market as we're just what, just an hour or so into the session, hour and 20 minutes and we're kind of just treading water. the dow and the s&p down slightly. the nasdaq up ever so slightly. but let's look at the big tech names. they will get earnings from all the big techies this week. very important week for the earnings season. apple, amazon, facebook all moving higher. they're all reporting this week. microsoft down as is alphabet/google down a quarter of a percent. a new report shows how much some democratic city officials are spending on private protection after, oh, yes, they called lydia hu is in new york. okay, lydia, how much? reporter: ashley in some cities like chicago and san francisco it is costing taxpayers millions of dollars. these findings are coming from a group called open the books. it's a non-profit that tracks

government spending. they found there are 20 cities either defunded the police or proposed to take funding away from the police but l also spending millions of taxpayer dollars for private security for mayors and other city officials. look at this. chicago is one example. they cut 400 police officer positions last year but spent $3.4 million for private security, quote unnamed city officials. shootings are up 10% over a year ago. san francisco, officials plan to divest $120 million from police over two years, they spent 2.$6 million on the mayor's security. baltimore maryland, that is another example. they eliminated $22 million from the police budget as the city spent 3.6 million on private security for the mayor. now we reached out to the cities that we just mentioned and ashley we did not hear back. back to you. ashley: not surprised. lydia, thank you very much on

that. let's bring in leo terrell. okay, leo, what do you make, it is hip pock criminals hypocrisy, you want to take officers off the streets in neighborhoods in the cities but what it comes to your own safety you hire security. what do you make of the hypocrisy? >> thanks for having me, ashley. i'm very upset by. this let me tell you the reason why. the democratic playbook is outdated. this is not 1960. look at the three mayors you highlighted. they are people of color. they are black people running democratic cities, primarily minorities. and what is happening is, they get security but yet they're denying, these are black mayors, you're denying security for black people. they have police chiefs. they have people of color running their police department. why? because they play the race card. they play the systemic racism. the police departments i submit to you, ashley, are not racist.

you have got people of all colors running these cities and yet they play the race card and they're denying police protection to black americans. it is shameful. ashley: it is shameful and it is becoming its own vicious cycle because police, the morale is so low. a lot of them are taking early retirement or simply just quitting. it is very hard to get new recruits. i mean it is just feeding this problem. yet, when the democrats are challenged they blame republicans for the whole defund the police movement? >> this is the part that is so insulting. basically the democratic party in order to appease aoc and "the squad" they have basically stripped the whole concept of police protection of black communities. i got a newsflash. black people want police in their community. it is the only line of defense from criminal activity but in an attempt to appease the far left

and aoc they are afraid to support police. and they try to blame the republicans which is a lie. ashley: it certainly is. next case, leo, we'll change subjects. you say critical race theory is racist theory. make your case? >> great, thank you for asking that question. being a former educator i have some credibility on this. the fact is simply this, critical race theory is not grounded in facts. they want us to throw away the whole concept of this country being founded on independent liberty, 1776 and play the race card. that is the race card. everything is looking through the prism of race. apfainterly i'm oppressed because of skin color of another person. it is racist. and i applaud all these families at these school districts challenging this racist policy. it is not grounded in fact at all.

ashley: yeah. but the crt supporters, leo, say those family members who are speaking up at school board meetings a you rightly say across the country, they're just ignorant. they don't understand what they're protesting. how would you respond? >> oh, thank you very much. here is the game of those who are supporting critical race theory. they want to make it a black and white thing. this black american opposes critical race theory, but for fox news, fox business, you see people of all colors, black, brown, yellow oppose critical race theory. i'm more than happy to debate those proponents. they know one thing they play the race card. when you talk about the police, it is the race card. people cannot back away from. this you have to challenge this. in 2022, ash, these two issues, policer and education are going to be the basically death sentence of the democratic party. ashley: all right. i think you're right. and look, you know, these are the kinds of issues as you say,

i think are going to be a big issue in the midterms next year because the democrats just don't seem to have an answer when they're challenged. they don't like to be challenged. if you do challenge, you're racist. >> yeah. that is the game. we've got to say, no, no i'm not. ashley: right. >> their whole argument, they're playing the race card 24/7. i have no fear of that race card. bring it on. let's deal with facts. they have none, ash. they have no facts. they call out you as a racist and nothing more. ashley: that's it. that is all they have got. leo terrell, terrific stuff. thanks for joining us today. >> thanks, ash, my pleasure. ashley: thank you. coming up border officials sounding the alarm after apprehending more than 20,000 illegals crossing the rio grande in just one week. we'll take you to texas for a live report straight ahead. first, are mask mandates coming back even for the vaccinated?

dr. fauci says, yeah it is a possibility. i will ask dr. marc siegel what he thinks after this. ♪. retirement income is complicated. as your broker, i've solved it. that's great, carl. but we need something better. that's easily adjustable has no penalties or advisory fee. and we can monitor to see that we're on track. like schwab intelligent income. schwab! introducing schwab intelligent income. a simple, modern way to pay yourself from your portfolio. oh, that's cool... i mean, we don't have that. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management.

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♪ i can't fight this feeling anymore ♪ ashley: a little bit of reo speed wagon as we look at a shot of wildwood, new jersey. 79 degrees, not bad to take a stroll along the boardwalk. now this, some parents are suing the governor phil jersey to block him from mandating masks in schools. high schools have joined the mask as well? reporter: ashley, that's right, high schoolers and parents are joining this call to prevent masks from reentering classroom this fall. so far they raised $47,000 for the legal battle. they're suing new jersey

governor phil murphy. they're seeing the head of the state department of education and the state commissioner of the department of health. kids attend 12 different districts, all those involved in the lawsuit across the garden state. among them is mark ford, who says his asperger's created issues during the pandemic preventing him from connecting with his pierce. >> i communicate by expression. i see smiles, i see frowns, i see scowls and without that everyone is motionless. i don't know what they're saying. i don't know how they feel. reporter: it is just one of many legal battles nationwide to remove masks in class. in the suit, the lawyer, claims that they will gain traction because no other cases brought up their key argument which is the first amendment, freedom of speech and expression. >> we're arguing that children have an associational right to

be with other children, to see their faces, to communicate normally, to be able to be up to and touch another kid and to see their teachers. no one has ever argued this before. reporter: we did reach out to the governor, the department of education and the department of health, all declined to comment on pending litigation. the governor's office reiterated there is no mask mandate for schools in the fall. that districts will have the power to make the local decisions. so far, chicago, boston, atlanta, new york city schools say come this fall masks will be required as well. ashley? ashley: interesting stuff. alex, thank you very much. now this, i want you to watch dr. fauci and what he had to say when asked about bringing mask mandates back to those who are vaccinated. roll tape. >> this is underactive consideration if you're asking in my part of the discussion, yes, i am. part of the discussion but i think what you are seeing, even

though as of our conversation at this moment, the cdc still says and recommends that if you are vaccinated fully that you do not need to wear a mask indoors. ashley: so why is it under consideration? dr. marc siegel joins me right now. doctor, do you think the mask mandate will come back for those who are vaccinated? >> well, certainly sounds like the rumblings are such that it might. i'm very concerned about it because ashley, it is really a diversionary tactic. what do i mean by that? the focus on masks suddenly when vaccines, even against the delta variant are about 95 percent or more effective keeping you out of the hospital and getting you very sick. masks, don't forget that only mask that works which is n95 mask which i wear in the doctor's office. it gives you 20 hours of protection you have a form feet

that you know there are no leak. cloth masks, surgical masks, hang off their face, wear under the chin, doesn't have proper seal, might protect you for 15 or 20 minutes. they're talking about something that has a minimal impact. then they're sending a message being vaccinated may not be enough when being vaccinated is like hitting something with a hammer. ashley: yeah. well the problem is, we're seeing more people who have been fully vaccinated, you know, contract the virus. >> well, so that's true too and that is a fair point but that is what is called breakthrough infections but again, number one, vast majority of them, 100% are asymptomatic cases and two, the vaccine does decrease your ability to spread this to other people. so it is way more effective than a mask. if you want to wear a mask indoors as a precaution, i'm not against it. but i'm talking recommendation versus mandate. the word mandate is going to

cause this huge backlash that you just showed without alex' report. ashley: you're right. another one for you, doctor, company in japan apparently has begun human trials for a covid pill. how far away do you think we are from a covid pill? >> you know, this is a very interesting competition that we love in the free market, right? a company made in japan that made chris store, that fought with lipitor. u remember crestor, that has a pill very similar to what pfizer working on already. it is a inhibitor and works for hiv incredibly. what it does it prevents the virus reproducing inside of your cell. a lot of people are very excited about this drug and pfizer thinks they might have it available by the end of the year. i still think pfizer way ahead of the game on this. they're months ahead of

shianogi. merck is working about another drug that we talked about on the show here that actually fools the virus. that is also looking very good. these are small molecule drugs, pfizer, morning, and now shianogi, i think we might have something by the end of the year. ashley: by the end of the year, that is pretty quick, doc. that is good news. >> going into later stage trials, absolutely, fantastic, doc, we'll have to leave it there but you always make me feel a little calmer once i talk to you. we're doing fine. we're doing well. dr. siegel as always. thank you very much. >> you're calm to begin with. ashley, you're calm to begin with. good to be with you. ashley: stay calm, carry on, have a cup of tea. now this, protests erupting over the weekend in france as the country approves a law making health passes mandatory. as you can see some folks not happy. come in lauren, what will this pass be used for? lauren: everything, go to a

restaurant, bar, museum, have to show proof you're vaccinated or negative test within 48 hours, or recovered from covid, that you have immunity. look at protests in the street. this is on a sleepy summer weekend in france. people want their freedom. they're also saying according to the law, the end of september, if you're 12 and older you also have to carry this health pass. look, they don't want to close the economy down once again. the way to do that get more people vaccinated. when they first started talking about this, france said we saw an uptick in number of people who said heck with it, let's go out to get vaccinated. as it stands ash, only 44% of french citizens are fully vaccinated. this he have a way to go. italy is doing something similar starting august 6. ashley: boy, they're not happy, are they? those are pretty violent protests. lauren, thank you very much. one democrat blaming the rising crime on republicans of course.

roll it. >> some extreme voices in the democratic party are quoted as saying defund the police but hundreds of my republican colleagues have voted to defund the police. ashley: well, charlie hurt will be here to react at the top of the hour. he is always great to listen to. first, san francisco considered taxing traffic but it wouldn't hit all drivers equally. they want high earners to pay more. of course they do. we will have that story after this. ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪. ashley: the rio grande valley remains the busiest immigration sector in the country and that's where rich edson is.

rich, good morning. texas has begun arresting and jailing migrants for trespassing? reporter: that's right, ashley. that's what the state is doing in response to all of this. there is plenty of friction between local communities, the federal government, the states here, this is the rio grande valley. last month customs and border protection apprehended 60,000 migrants here. last year in the month of june, it was 5400 people that was a covid year and numbers were depressed because of that. look at what the head of the cpb for this sector said, for border patrol said for this sector, quote, it is the hottest part of the summer and apprehensions are skyrocketing. u.s. border patrol apprehensionses surpassed the one billion milestone this june. this week alone the rio grande valley arrested 20,000 illegally present migrants. officials are stepping in and arresting migrants themselves. >> slow at first.

we're just beginning this process. we've been forced into this. the governor has more access to resources and financial resources declaring this is a disaster. it is clearly a disaster for our state. reporter: now it is the federal government's job to enforce immigration laws. the state of texas declared a disaster on the border and arresting jailing migrants on trespassing charges. those arrests are 300 miles up the river. those officials argue they don't have the authority to arrest migrants because it is federal government's responsibility. across the entire southwest border region, you're looking for 188,000 apprehensions for the month of june. that is the highest monthly total in more than 20 years. ashley. ashley: wow, what a mess. rich edson, thank you so much for that. let's check the markets if we can. we've been treading water since we opened this morning.

as you can see, the dow a slight leg down. the nasdaq essentially flat. the s&p down a 10th of a percent. it is a wait and see market. fed meeting begins tomorrow and we have big earnings for big tech this week. let's look at some of the individual names. lauren, come in with zoom. what are you looking at for zoom? lauren: it's a winner up 2 1/2%. bank of america named them a top pick. pending deal for 5'9". ashley: a major player in contact centers. it allows zoom to be in better contact with their customers. bed, bath & beyond, another winner up 2 1/2%. they're working to modernize their supply chain through a deal with company called ryder system. it is a logistics provider. they will have two regional distribution center for replenishment time to cut. it turned higher.

it hit a new low earlier. revenue was disappointing down, 17, 18%, missed expectations. a lot of pet owners returned to the veterinarian, got medicine from the vest and not from pet express. there you have it. ashley: i see that, lauren. we mentioned big tech reporting this week. can you break it down for us? >> absolutely. tomorrow is the big day. you have apple, microsoft both reporting two trillion dollar companies. apple to post revenue that tops 73 billion. analysts want to know, are you bringing the guidance back? what does the future hold for you? anything on the new iphone release. microsoft, those shares had been at a record. they are expected to post record revenue of 44.1 billion. they're firing on all cylinders. they are having strength in the cloud, pc unit, business unit that includes office. amazon suppose on thursday. this is the last quarter when

jeff bezos is ceo. year-over-year comps will be really hard to beat, but still, ashley revenue is to rise nearly 30% to $215 billion. all in. those companies and 166 others in the s&p 500 will open their books for the quarter. ashley: amazon, such a juggernaut. lauren, let's kind of change the scenery. san francisco considering a congestion tax but not for everyone but who for? lauren: no. if you make over $100,000 a year you have to pay $6.50 to drive into certain busy congested areas of san francisco. if you make less than $46,000, you don't have to pay anything. they have been talking about it. they have been talking about it for years. it will take years to implement if it is approved. critics say look, san francisco is still trying to recover from the pandemic, from drug use, from homelessness. you're going to america people pay 6.50 to come into certain parts of the city?

that will kill you even more. ashley: they may pay it if they're going shoplifting because they know they will not get caught. anyway, i digress. next one for you, lauren, staying in san francisco, that city considering new 20,000-dollar trashcans? why are they so expensive is. lauren: they're so pretty ashley they're sleek, silver and smart. they will let you know when they need to be emptied? is that good use of taxpayer dollars? let's spend $20,000 each on 15 trashcans. get the best trashcan you can to fix our city. that is great use of taxpayer dollars. ashley: it would be funny if it wasn't true. it is crazy, lauren. thank you very much. by the way, the nfl laying down the hammer on unvaccinated players. they could face up to fines of

$15,000 for violating covid rules. former player tiki barber will be here to react. interesting to hear what tiki says. one chef says we can battle climate change by cooking the way the mother did. i will ask environmental expert bjorn lonborg about that one. ♪

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ashley: take a look at this headline. more people die of cold. media heat death climate obsession leads to lousy fixes. there is a headline. the author of the piece, bjorn lonborg joins me now. good morning to you. you say the media is getting it all wrong, basically leaving us badly informed. make your case. >> look the media tells us a lot. you see all the stories how a lot of people are dying in heat and because of global warming we're likely to see more heat waves. that's true. so we should be telling people this but what you're not told

is, cold deaths vastly outweigh heat deaths. actually because of global warming, many fewer people die from cold. so in the u.s. an canada which obviously has been in the news, about 2500 people each year die from cold, sorry, from heat but more than 100,000 people die from cold. why are we only being told about the small bit and not about the big bit? ashley: that's really interesting because it doesn't fit the narrative is the answer to that one, bjorn. i want to move on. this is interesting. chef camilla marcus one way to tackle climate change is cook the way our moms used to. the way our moms used to cook was more about zero waste and being sustainable. what do you make of that? >> well, look there is nothing wrong with trying to be frugal, not wasting stuff.

i think most people want to do that because they paid good money for all that food but the reality is, if you actually have people save more of their food, they don't throw out as much food, what does that mean? it means you spend less money on buying food. you can spend the money on other things like going to cancun. so reality, this is economist point, that you end up simply shopping elsewhere and emitting about the same co2. it is very owes to believe these silver bullets will work but they don't. ashley: seems to me, getting on to your first point, there anything that is considered out of whack immediately becomes a product of global warming? here is yet another example of how we're destroying the earth and yet to your point that is not always the case. it feels like they're trying to brainwash viewers and in some

cases it kind of works. everything is blamed on climate change these days. >> yeah. not only does it make you scared and make you focus on wrong solutions but it is also very likely to actually lead to more deaths. remember when there are many, many more cold deaths. what really matters to make sure people can keep warm in the winter. if you increase fuel costs that will make it harder. ashley: coming to the top of the hour. great stuff. thank you so much. another big hour coming up. we got charlie hurt. brent bozell will be here, tiki barber and so much more. ratings for the tokyo olympics are coming in at a 33-year low. so why aren't people tuning in? we're on it after this. ♪

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>> we have a president who's not leading in the white house. his approval is in the basement and as we approach the midterms the president will be in tough shape. >> the big bed is this, the republicans will be able to stop the tax increases and massive spending and i think that's still yet to be determined. >> the fed lost the plot along time ago. everyone will have to pay knows that inflation

is transitory. >> growth is not scarce and we think many investors sold tech to early. >> we are seeing notions of liquidity in the market. i think there is concern with inflation, but i think earnings, we have about 165 companies reporting this week. i think earnings will drive up even higher. ♪♪ ashley: well, fergie a little party. it's monday morning, a little hazy in new york city. good morning. it's 11:00 a.m. on the east coast this monday, july 26 and i'm actually in for stuart varney. plenty of red ink on the screen, nothing too drastic with the dow off 62 points, down 210, s&p down three points, essentially flat, same

on the nasdaq, it's a way to nc treading water kind of morning. let's look at the big tech names, amazon, apple, microsoft and facebook all reporting earnings this week. apple, amazon and facebook are up, alphabet down, microsoft down nearly 1%. let's look at the 10 year treasury yield. it's down ever so slightly. the yield and now 1.275%. good time to bring in jason katz. jason, good morning. you say we should not be worried about a bear market, so make your case. >> a good morning. the preconditions of a bear market simply aren't in place. let's start with a earnings. we will have a third of the s&p companies reporting this week, 25 have reported thus far and the vast majority, 87% have it beaten by 16% margin. now, the second thing is

the fed, are they turning hawkish? i don't think they are going to waiver. i don't think they will blink whatsoever and the last thing is that economy is a slowing and the only impediment at this point and i don't mean to be dismissive is the delta variant, but the fact of the matter is there is a zero political will, zero political will to turn backwards so, no, i don't think the economy is slowing down. the culmination of those three factors to us or should just the bear market is still midcycle , it's a bull market. ashley: yes, bull market. explain what you mean by buy from the fearful. what you mean by that? >> what i mean is that there's a constituency of people out there that have continued to root against the market and it's futile to call a selloff because the fact of the matter is we get them. since 1980, the average peak to trough selloff has been about 14% and

i'm sure that will happen and when it does you want to back up the truck with two hands and be a buyer because if-- as i said earlier i think the surprises will be to the upside, not only with respect to earnings, but with respect to the economy, so volatility is a part of investing. it's part of being a long-term investor. you are bound to get it with the inflation narrative going on out there and the spike in covid cases, but again you want to be a net buyer in that scenario. ashley: and quickly, we mentioned the big tech companies reporting. what are you expecting? >> i'm expecting a bar that is set fairly high to be exceeded even higher, and i think you may get a muted be reaction because we had a run up into it but arguably the best quarter on record for many of these stocks. ashley: terrific. well, it's all encouraging. jason katz, thank you for joining us on a

morning were quite frankly get the markets are literally treading water with other things coming up including the fed and they will give their statement wednesday but jason, thank you. democrat congressman brad sherman is blaming the rise in crime on two things, on a covid and republicans. take a listen. >> covid has upset everything in our society and has pulled the social fabric apart. that being said, some extreme voices in the democratic party are quoted as assaying defund the police, the hundreds of my republican colleagues have voted to defund the police. ashley: i don't think that's true. let's bring in charlie hurt. what you think of the congressman's explanation? >> you are being kind. it's nearly impossible to keep up with allies people tell it when they tell lies like this it's

almost impossible to come back with a rationalized summation, but you are gob smacked that they have the kahunas to make the claim in the first place but the fact remains i think it's evident probably that the whole reason he is making this argument is because they are trying to distance themselves from this defund the police movement, which i would say is good news that. i'm glad to hear people like congressman sherman don't want to be associated with defund the police movement in his own party but the fact remains it's a total lie. of course, those people that called for defunding the police include people like vice president kamala harris, the democrats all up and down the party, but it wasn't just calling for defund the police, it was a lot of other aspects to this including ending qualified immunity for police officers who do impossible jobs on the streets and other things such as ending cash mail

, which causes crime to increase. of those are all policy platforms that the democrat party made. ashley: it's so disingenuous because they are basing a lot of this on the fact that the republicans would not sign onto this massive spending bill, which the democrats claim including money, but would not specifically earmarked for police departments. that's what they claim and so therefore democrats want to defund the holy spirit it's nonsense pure i want to move on to this issue as president biden's approval rating dropping to 50% last month, the lowest since he took office, so do you think-- what do you think is actually leading to this? anything in particular or a combination of issues, charlie? >> i think despite the tremendous effort we have seen in most of the media to kind of prop up joe biden, the truth is most americans watch like the cnn town hall last week where he mumbles and bumbles and goes through the steps,

completely incomprehensible and they start to get weary. i don't think it means that they actively disliked joe biden. joe biden is hard to actively dislike. it does mean that the if that is as important him is tanking and that's why you are seeing record low numbers for him and that lack of enthusiasm, at points during the obama administration when so many conservatives did not like barack obama, the left loved him. there were huge enthusiasm and that's probably what saved barack obama in 2012. joe biden doesn't have that right now. that enthusiasm for him is completely gone. now that donald trump is out of office, there is no enthusiasm for joe biden. that's a problem for him and the democrats. ashley: i think people get the impression that this administration is led by committee, not by joe biden. do you think that is true? [laughter] >> yeah and i think a

lot of people are hoping it's run by committee and not joe biden because when joe biden opens his mouth it's usually a disaster. ashley: yeah, sucking blood from children comes to mind when asked about whether democrats want to defund the police. i still have no idea what he was talking about. we will have to leave it there. charlie, thank you. let's get back to the market. look who is here, susan lay, great to see you. you are following the insurance brokers. susan: we are looking at 30 billion-dollar deal that's been put off. they have agreed to call off their insurance broker merger and end at litigation with that apartment of justice because the d.o.j. said the tie up was anticompetitive, it was merge vacant predator in the space with aon up on the news. cruise lines a setting

sail again after a 500 day succession. they are getting back to normal. norwegian j the first to ship to set sail for the norwegian and dishes up today one of the rare outperformance but look at the upgrade from an influential media analyst and they are calling it neutral, up from a cell in their view. it's worth $40. it may like the transition from just being a pay-tv subscriber provider. i went to check on the chinese stocks getting squeezed by beijing. they have to hand over exclusive music rights and china has been clamping down on after hours with both the stocks getting hammered over hong kong trade. a downgrade this morning from atlantic equities. still worth $25 but look at alibaba, up 200, i mean, something we haven't seen for a number of years almost. ashley: that is true, but the

growing resignation-- regulation beijing having an impact on these stocks and you are also following. susan: makes me wonder what china wants to accomplish by clamping down on their own homegrown tech giants. they have been clamping down on bitcoin and crypto mining and training but other is in the news. is the third most valuable crypto currency after bitcoin and ethereum. it's a stable coin and executives are facing a criminal probe into bank fraud to the justice department is investigating conduct that took place a few years ago when tether was still in its early stages. tether accused of concealing from banks. these transactions were linked to crypto which you have to declare and we now the irs wants to know it's being used and transferred over crypto. a $62 worth in circulation for tether. third-largest. able coins are different from bitcoin and ethereum and that they are pegged to currency,

actual fiat money or actual gold so assets there. i turn around and look at bitcoin, pushing closer to 40,000, a major prize pump this weekend and i would call it may be short coverings if people had put in some of the by i guess contracts that are up 25,000 and also i told you friday about amazon's crypto job posting that has led people to believe that maybe the e-commerce giant might be accepting bitcoin for payment soon, but i would caveat that and say first of all it's a single source story right now and e-commerce amazon moving slowly and they are very conservative. ashley: speculation, we call it to. thank you. we have a huge show still to come former football star tiki barber will be hear! hear! and we will get his take on the nfl vaccine warning coming up and also the white house more than $52 billion to deal with the ongoing chip

shortage and we have a report on that from washington, but first even the cnn panel agrees there is a problem with hunter biden's art career. roll the tape. >> i find it hard to believe that there's any such thing as a blind sale when purchasing art from the president's son. ashley: well, brent bozell from the media research center is here to react next. ♪♪ with voltaren arthritis pain gel my husband's got his moves back. an alternative to pain pills voltaren is the first full prescription strength gel for powerful arthritis pain relief...

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86 degrees, partly cloudy and i guess muggy. intel says the semi conductor chip shortage could last until 2023. edward lawrence is at the white house. edward, the administration looking to open new factories in the u.s. we are told. aware? >> at the moment we don't know. there's a lot going on at the white house. we have a protest in over here we just heard the hail to the chief with the president speaking and we are talking about a chip shortage impacting pretty much the entire economy. micro technology is getting a boosted today because of the talk behind the scenes about this chip information, so senior administration officials tell me that the commerce department wants to help build six to eight factories to open in the united states within 18 months of after the president signs the innovation and competition act. the commerce secretary has already made moves

in the department to get staffing in place so then once the money comes than a can flow almost immediately through there . republicans and democrats have passed at this in the senate already among other things providing $52 billion for research design and manufacturing of semi conductors, but the senior administration official says the commerce department is at about 50-- has had about 50 meetings with customers who need the chip from gm to ge as well as medical supply company so she is trying to figure out who may be hoarding chips, which sectors may need to semi conductors the most all to remove our reliance on china and the official tells me that 12% of the worlds of semiconductor chips are made in the united states, 0% of those are the leading edge chips which is something the u.s. would like to see and in the meeting is the secretary had the 50 meetings talking with micron technology and global foundries specifically to american chip companies about what they need to open

factories in the united states quickly. this is all material loot-- reduce our reliance on china and with the factories and taiwan dark and some working at under capacity the chinese factories have started to ramp up production in chips increasing our reliance again on china right now. ashley: no easy solution there, but thank you. now this, tesla reporting earnings "after the bell" today, so susan, what should we be looking for? susan: i would be curious to hear what elon musk says about the chip shortage and how it's impacted his business and going forward for the rest of 2021. we already got the record number and the second quarter, 200,000 plus and that's good news last year-- profitability always key and interesting and the quality of profits as tesla has made most of their money over the

years of selling green credits to other companies and not necessarily from actually selling their cars. on interested and i think the market is on an update on the cyber truck and when that's going to roll off the production line to customers and we know elon musk has said this year end maybe an update on the berlin giga factory as timelines are very bullish from elon musk point of view but delivering on-time is a a different story. ashley: always. should be interesting report. thank you. let's look at this if we can, cnn panel agreeing that hunter biden art sales are a problem for the white house. roll the clip. >> obviously, this is a problem, and ethical problem, one of optics and also from a personal perspective. >> it's a huge optics and ethics problem. >> i find it hard to that there is a blind sale when you are purchasing art from the president's son as he went i find it hard to believe there is a

ethics problem. ashley: brian, good morning. even the left has issues with these art sales. what do you say? >> well, credit to cnn for doing that piece and they were very hard-hitting. they are not coming anywhere near the focus that this story needs to have. i am-- i am in disbelief over not just the magnitude, but the sheer brazen of both hunter biden and his father when it comes to scandals. you have charisma with $50,000 going to buy access with his father as vice president, go ahead mr. president, go ahead with hunter biden, sue me if you would like to and then the laptop with hunter biden is setting or trying to set up this secret company with the chinese to buy access with his father with 10% of the company

to his father. go ahead mr. president, go ahead hunter biden, sue me for defamation and now there is this art sale where suddenly hunter biden has become an artist and he selling for $500,000 and then they insisted to the public that it's an undisclosed buyer and now, we find out he's meeting with the guy or whoever it is, i mean, this should be in-- not to be serious, this really needs to be investigated what's going on with this family as they are so brazen in this kind of corruption. i've never seen anything like it. ashley: day after day donald trump was you know assailed to using his position to profit, day in and day out but silence for the most part on this. i want to move on. a new report says facebook will now allow users to post death to khamenei and mrs. amid

protest in iran but why does facebook need to be pressured into allowing free speech is my question to you. >> facebook is a mass. they don't know what to do next appeared to keep getting caught censoring conservatives and now you find out they are working with the biden administration to censor anyone who questions the vaccine. you are talking about tens of millions of people. as i have been saying this is not just a speech control. it's a thought control. they do that, but then they turn around overseas and do something completely different in iran. if it were just to get out of the censorship business altogether, just get out of that business altogether. let the public decide what to do on this except for egregious felonies, obviously, but get out of that business. they wouldn't be on the front page. ashley: absolutely. friend, as always great stuff. thanks for joining us this morning.

checking the markets, it's been a very flat start to the trading week with the dow jones flat, the nasdaq flat. the s&p flat either slightly lower or slightly higher, essentially treading water. meantime on the vaccine front, biontech is developing a new mrna vaccine to fight malaria , clinical trials begin next year. that stock is up to end a quarter precent pure chum astrazeneca and pfizer, a new study showing mixing those two coping vaccines could boost antibody levels by six times. as compared to people who took two astrazeneca shots. astrazeneca down nearly 2% and pfizer of a quarter of a percent. tom brady posting a new video showing off his incredible throwing skills. here he is. are you kidding me, but is that real?

we will get into it. i would suspect now. look at the price of gold. my next guest says it's time to short gold. i will ask him about it and still to come a wall street firm tells its entire staff to take the week off. no phone calls, no meeting, no work. we will tell you which company is doing it and why next. ♪♪ well, geico's 85 years isn't just about time, you know. it means experience. i mean, put it this way. if i told you i'd been jarring raspberry preserves

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♪♪ ashley: a little bit in kc and the sunshine band. hazy skies as you look at the statue of liberty, 85 degrees and sunny in new york city. looking at the markets with the major indices treading water slightly higher, but essentially flat. let's bring susan back and. susan, let's start with crypto. susan: bitcoin trust grayscale

active thousand bitcoin's. coinbase exchange is up over 7.5%. grayscale 17%. micro strategy up 20, i mean, these are pretty impressive balances and this goes along with the price at bitcoin which we know in a six rue week high and maybe amazon last friday they posted this crypto currency jobs so people anticipate maybe they will start accepting bitcoin as payment but you have to temper some of those timelines and expectations are on the other side, we did see yields go up a bit after the home numbers that just hit the tape about 90 minutes ago with amazon, we expect $100 billion sales quarter to be announced this week. zoom videos and palantir , as we had this recovery in the u.s. economy and also markets it looks like it's taking along the big tech high-growth names along with it. ashley: very good. thank you. let's bring in bill

baruch president of blueline capital. you say we have to own mega tech and i imagine everyone has a slice of the in their portfolio but you prefer google over apple, why? >> that's right. i own both so make no mistake there. what i'm looking at is we ci think you have apple that implemented this new apt tracking capability where we can turn it off with ios and i think you have seen some prized in ad spending that will weigh down apples and next year so i look at alphabet, i don't see that issue. alphabet in many ways is sort of the berkshire hathaway of technology so i think with growth about 30 i think you will see alphabet outperform over the next 12 months. ashley: let's move on. you say probably you should short gold. why? >> i am short gold for a

trade, but looking at about 18 20, 1830, the end of that is i expect 10 year yields to rise from this level. from the august low in yields we have given back about half of that. i think they yields should rise from here. i think we will see extra growth on the back half-- half of next year. i own a gold and portfolio long-term, but at these levels there was a washout in silver last week in silver is a bit more attractive to own at $25 relative to gold at 1800. if gold gets down to 1770 i will back up and flip on that trade. ashley: okay pure i'm fascinated to ask you about crypto. what is your take on that? >> listen, i was on your show about two weeks ago saying 32,000 is rare-- where i will get my first tranche of bitcoin and ethereum.

i own them, not as much as i like. there is good resistance out there, 42,500, if we can get there and bitcoin 46,500 from their so i'm treating it as a trade to. i don't think the low overall is in. i think we have a few months of choppiness. ashley: quickly, is amazon based on the rumor and speculation does accept bitcoin, that's a game changer, isn't it? >> i agree. that's for the long term and that's really why i think 90% of investors are in a bitcoin right now because they start and they expect adoption to take place over the immediate term and that is a sign that it's begun. ashley: very good stuff. bill baruch, so much information. we appreciate it. thank you very much. by the way, robinhood decide to go public this week. let's bring susan back in. teasing a new feature.

susan: crypto wallet, given the crypto now represents around 17% of robinhood's revenue. that was just a detail in their updated s-1 filing, their ipo filing so a third of that revenue that crypto trading goes back to virtually a monopoly that robinhood had over dogecoin trading in the first half of this year. we know dogecoin has been asking for a dogecoin wallet where you get interest back and that's really how crypto wallace work in general. robinhood is thinking of maybe offering for bitcoin and other crypto currencies as well. robinhood has been pretty unconventional in their ipo process. they had their roadshow pitch open to the public so that is democratizing investing in the ipo process right there. we are looking at $35 billion valuation possibly in its ipo. that's actually more than what-- double than what it raised emergency

going back to bitcoin i would say it may be a short squeeze because a lot of people had a lot of bearish call, possibly 25,000 or so. ashley: interesting. a susan, we teased this story, a wall street firm giving all of its employees the week off. why? susan: do you think we could get that? ashley: we could try. [laughter] susan: private equity firm, a 6 billion-dollar firm and that's what they are offering, no calls, e-mails, no meetings in the second week of august for all employees and the reason is because it's a globally competitive market for talent. you had goldman sachs raising pay, getting saturdays off to their overworked junior bankers and citibank doing free fridays. many paying out bonuses and jeffrey's handing

out peloton and apple devices. ashley: the country of france takes the entire month of august off so why not. susan: to months of medication. ashley: i know. we can dream. stuart varney i think still hangs onto that european vacation schedule but that's a whole another thing. susan, thank you. now this, the cleveland indians change their name to guardians. the fans are split about it so what does tiki barber think about it? i will ask him coming up, but first a new report shows president biden is spending $3 million a day for contractors to basically sit on their supplies and not build the border wall. that story next. ♪♪

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♪♪ ashley: you are looking at phoenix, arizona, sky harbor airport. it's 81 and believe it or not mostly cloudy. it's the monsoon season in the southwest desert and you get a chance of rain and thunderstorms, the only chance throughout the whole year. at there it is, phoenix, 89 degrees. a new report shows president biden is suspending $2 billion to suspend border wall construction. hilary vaughn is on capitol hill. hilary, it begs the question why is it so expensive to not build the wall? reporter: it's because they are government contracts and a lot of times it cost more money to terminate a contract early, so

it pays to let it run its course, but in this situation they are still paying these contractors to essentially babysit equipment along the border that has essentially been left at a standstill. senate subcommittee on border and management says putting construction on hold has cost $2 billion so far this year end it's continuing to cost $3 million a day to the government contractors when president biden took office they were 211 miles of border wall going up in border towns like san diego, el paso and tucson with a total of seven projects that have since been at a standstill under biden. the contractors are still getting paid to ride out to the project site and basically guard pallets of steel and other construction equipment appeared top republican on the subcommittee says this, quote our border patrol agents are doing their best to secure our border but they need additional barriers, resin technology to keep us safe. instead president biden is paying professional

construction contractors to babysit metal to the tune of 2 billion and counting on the biden administration says canceling the wall is a saving taxpayer money calling and a waste of money to spend in some cases 46 million to build a 1 mile stretch of wall. spokesperson with the office of management and budget giving me a statement quote we take our obligation to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars seriously, which is why we are stopping the prior administration's wasteful expenditure of 15 million on a needless wall and returning the remaining military funds to defending our nation and supporting our service members and their families. the white house basically making the argument last month that a wall is an outdated way to protect and secure the border so they are calling on congress to cancel the money they set aside for that so they can diverted to what they call a more modern approach to border management. ashley. ashley: whatever is happening now is not working. that's for sure. thank you, hilary.

let's check the markets. we have been open for over a couple of hours and we are meandering along with a dow jones, nasdaq and s&p in positive territory, but all marginally cell appeared then there was this story, goldman sachs just cut gdp estimates. come back in, susan is. susan: might be one percentage point lower because of the spread of the delta virus and delta variant, so q3, 248.5% and five and half-- 5%, part of me instead of nine and a half and 6% growth which isn't a big deal, i mean, 1% growth yes, it is significant, but not enough to derail a booming economy that we see for this year. overall, 2021, goldman and as you know goldman is the gold brandon investment bank on wall street so what they say carries a lot of weight and they savor 2020 when we are looking at gdp of 6.6% on a full year basis and that's the fastest rate going back to the early 1980s, so

yes slightly lower, but still fantastic recovery and economy. ashley: excellent. is so don't panic in other words. thank you. now show me the dow jones 30 stocks if you can. just kind of meandering along, more green than reading, certainly among the top 30 with chevron leading the unitedhealth and home depot are the laggards, but overall is pretty flat with a little over two hours in today's session. did you see this, the olympics opening ceremonies just brought in the lowest rating in a 33 years in the question is why aren't people tuning in? tiki barber will take that on next. ♪♪ i'm so glad you're ok, sgt. houston. this is sam with usaa. do you see the tow truck?

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sending out a warning to its unvaccinated players saying if a game must be canceled due to covid and cannot be rescheduled, the team will have to forfeit. let's bring in our good friend tiki barber, former new york giants running back and a star. a good morning. what do you make of the nfl's of rules on? >> you know, i think they are in their rights to do so. the nfl is a private organization. we remember last year, they lost $4 billion in expected revenue. that was not the player's fault, obviously but it was very complicated for them to manage the covid crisis while keeping teams socially isolated, the product is suffered a little bit and they realized that there is a way to limit the exposure of their teams, of their employees and is by getting vaccinated. we have seen a couple situations where coaches who are employees of the organization and not collectively bargain like the players have worked out agreements

because they don't want to get vaccinated, so it's dicey but understandable. any other private business that says you need to be vaccinated to work here we would not have an issue and because it's the behemoth that is the nfl there is a big deal made about it. ashley: got it. all right, tiki, let's change gears, cleveland indians are now the cleveland guardians. it's very hard to say because it just does not roll off the tongue. what you make of that change? >> it was interesting in real time. i don't love it at all. washington football team when they changed their name will from their offensive nickname people hated the washington football team and it's kind of grown on me too be honest. had they gone with the cleveland baseball team would i have been upset, absolutely not. one was suggested that i thought was cool, how about the cleveland rockers or whatever?

ashley: that's great. >> that was one of the suggestions, didn't happen now. ashley: they should have gone with it. also, the ratings for the tokyo olympics, a 33 year low. what you make of that? >> yeah, this is interesting because look, we all get excited for the olympics but it's such a tough year and to know that it was canceled. it was delayed and there is so much now going on in our country and across the world with the delta variant which is still scary especially because of the virility of eight and the load that's thrown on people and the breakthroughs that have happened for vaccinated people so our focus isn't on celebrating our country. may be over the fortnite we will start to get more involved with it, but i have to tell you, i did watch the opening ceremonies and it was odd, not because the athletes were just celebrated and i'm watching kevin durand and baseball players, but they are out there waiting and there's no one in the stadium to

wave to. [laughter] ashley: no one is waving back. >> exactly in the 13 hour time difference has a little bit to do with it, but i hope over the course of the two weeks it picks up a little bit. ashley: i am really impressed you use the term of fortnite. i don't use that unless i'm in england. how did you pick that up? >> i don't know ever since i started loving the olympics. [laughter] ashley: tiki barber, so much fun, great to have you with us. it thanks so much. >> always a pleasure, ashley. ashley: same here. fortnite, who would have thunk it. buccaneers quarterback tom brady posted a video showing off his passing skills. we shouted earlier, but susan the video went viral but there are many questions about it. susan: edited, i thought it was real. i was amazed i tom

brady's accuracy. he's the greatest of all time, he's about to go one-- of course he's one 100% accurate but apparently it was doctored by his own production company shadow alliance. it shows brady tossing three passes that perfect precision into what they call a jugs machine which spits back to football, but that is apparently not how a jug machine works. i didn't know this. you have to load it from the back but i checked and 10 million people watch the video and it kind of reminds me, remember that david beckham video on the beach where he hit four garbage cans with long kicks? ashley: yeah. susan: really fell for that one. ashley: is starting to wonder, but it makes for a cool video. i'm being told to reappear anyway, good stuff to here's a question for a monday, what temperature in fahrenheit can a bolt of lightning reach? that's a lot of degrees either way.

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ashley: did you put your thinking caps on? we asked you what temperature in fahrenheit can a bolt of lyft thing reach? the answer? the most extreme, 53,540 degrees. that, by the way is hotter than the surface of the sun which reaches about 10,340 degrees. the lesson here is, when you

hear a clap of thunder take shelter. you do not want to be on the bottom of a bolt of lightning. checking markets very quickly, since the opening bell, it is all treading water, if you like. the dow up 1/10 of a percent, nasdaq up a 1/10. it is a wait-and-see market. the fed gaining its two-day meeting tomorrow. my time is up, david asman in for neil cavuto. take it away. david: it is green. thanks for that, ashley. it is green. i'm david asman in foreneil cavuto. markets are weather that form for today? from growing inflation to stocks, to masks.