stuart: this is a great question under a polar bear's white fur, what color is its skin? ash, we start with you. ashley: i have no ideament i'm going with black, just because i think that's interesting. stuart: ash says black, susan? >> grey. stuart: lauren says? lauren: white. stuart: i say black. let's see. the answer is black. yes. >> [applause] stuart: it's white so they can camouflage into the arctic environment. the skin underneath is black. have we got time for this? yes, we do. we told you earlier about that $500,000 hover bike from startup in japan. we couldn't get the video up in time but there it is. i think that's star wars. not bad at all, i'd say. >> that's a mock up. stuart: "varney" & company today , "coast to coast" starts now. neil: all right, you are looking live in washington, we're about to get a briefing from the

pentagon press secretary big a gear general pat rider, as china concedes that by the way this particular u.s. air space this balloon is over, yeah , that thing is ours. let's go right now to the briefing, and get a sense of where we stand on this , and what we're going to do about this. >> patience and flexibility as we work to install some long overdue upgrades to the pentagon press briefing room because we do not have internet or phone capability in this area, the pentagon for a variety of reasons, our normal call-in options will not be available so for those who have had to call in we apologize for the inconvenience however we will aim to get our briefing transcripts and the audio up as quickly as possible for reporting purposes. we'll also aim to answer your questions through our dod press desk when you send them to us. moving forward, we'll look at ways to improve our briefing operations and the facilitation and expect that our regular press briefings will resume back

in the press briefing room in middle-to-late may. so, again, we appreciate your patience and flexibility and extend our thanks to the department of the air force for allowing us to use airman's hall as our temporary briefing home. in other news secretary austin returned yesterday from a very productive series of meetings in the republic of korea and the philippines. the secretary and his korean counterpart jointly reaffirmed measures to enhance extended deterrence on the korean peninsula. the two leaders additionally pledge to closele regarding u.s. strategic assets in the future as well as further expand and bolster the level and scale of combined exercises and training. in the philippines secretary austin had his first in-person meeting with his counterpart secretary gavez, and reiterated that the u.s. commitment to phillipine security is iron clad the secretary expressed his appreciation

for the phillipine's approval of four new enhanced defense cooperation agreement locations and both secretary austin and secretary galvez noted that the edca is a key pillar of alliance cooperation and supports combined training exercises and inneroffer ability separately the department of defense announced today a significant new package of security assistance for ukraine including the authorization of presidential drawdown of security assistance valued up to $425 million as well as $1.75 billion in ukraine security assistance initiative funds. the presidential drawdown is the 31st such drawdown of equipment from dod inventories for ukraine. in total the u.s. has now committed $32 billion in security assistance to ukraine since 2014 and 29.3 billion since russia's unprovoked and illegal invasion nearly one year ago this month. today's announcement includes critical air defense capabilities to help ukraine

defend its people as well as armored infantry vehicles and more equipment that ukraine is using to so effective ly including javelin anti anti-tank missiles artillery am you mission and conventional and long range rockets for the u.s.. additional information on the security package can be found on defense.gov. in regards to our announcement regarding the high altitude surveillance balloon i'm not going to have much new information to provide other than to say the north american aerospace defense command continues to monitor it closely. while we won't get into specific s in regards to the exact location, i can tell you that the balloon continues to move eastward, and is currently over the center of the continental united states. again, we currently assess that the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time. we'll continue to review, excuse me, continue to monitor and review options. finally, secretary austin will host a bilateral meeting today here in the pentagon with australian deputy prime minister

and minister of defense richard marls. the secretary looks forward to discussing bilateral defense cooperation and our mutual security efforts within the indo-pacific region and beyond. a full read out will post later today to defense.gov. with that we'll move to your questions and start with ap. reporter: hi, pat. thank you for doing this. china has said this is just a weather balloon that has veered off course. why is the pentagon convince that this is a surveillance balloon and then can you give us a little bit more on the status of the balloon? you said it's in the central u.s.? what state? do you have any guidance for people as they see this balloon or trying to photograph it or maybe try and interfere with it? >> sure. thanks, tara. first of all, we are aware of the prc's statement, however the fact is we know that it's a surveillance balloon and i'm not going to be able to be more specific than that and we do know that the balloon has violated u.s. air space in

international which is unacceptable and so we've convey ed this directly to the p rc at multiple levels, and in terms of specific locations, i'm not going to be able to go into specific locations, again other than to say it's moving east ward at this time. yeah? you had a follow-up? reporter: just a quick follow-up , on as people start to see the balloon, do you have any guidance for , should they try not to interfere? not photograph? >> so the balloon is currently assessed to be at about 60,000 feet, so again, well- above the range of civilian air traffic or civilian air traffic would normally fly. certainly, aware that there are cameras, civilian-owned commercial cameras that could spot this balloon in terms of guidance to folks. again, this is something that no rad is closely monitoring we do assess at this time that it does not pose a physical threat, as i mentioned, to people on the ground, so we'll just leave it at that.

jennifer? reporter: general ryder, who is controlling this balloon right now? >> again, we know that this is a chinese balloon, but beyond that i'm not going to have specifics. reporter: but is it you say that it's moving eastward, and it's over the continental u.s.. it's not over montana anymore. is the chinese government controlling the movement of the balloon or is it just floating with air streams? >> thanks, jennifer. so i'm not going to go into any specific intelligence that we may have. again, we know this is a chinese balloon and that it has the ability to maneuver but i'll just leave it at that. reporter: once it's over a body of water, will you shoot it down >> again, right now, we're monitoring "the situation" closely, reviewing options but beyond that, i'm not going to have any additional information. tony? reporter: one quick one on the balloon. can you confirm the photos that are out there that this is not the man on the moon and that is the actual balloon?

>> thanks, tony. so certainly, aware of photos being posted online. i'm not going to get into the business of confirming whether or not those are, where those photos come from. again, i can tell you that the u.s. government norad is monitoring this closely and we will continue to review options. reporter: how close was the u.s. to ordering, it was the president, to ordering a shoot-down of the balloon? >> yeah, so again, i'm not going to get into discussions internal discussions within the white house again. right now, we assess that there is no threat, physical threat or military threat to people on the ground, so we're continuing to monitor and we'll just leave it at that thank you. jamie? reporter: thanks, i have two questions. in response to secretary austin 's recent remarks that the more the u.s. started the s s will come to south korea

north korea was stronger provoca tions in the near future. what is your comment on this? >> well it's certainly not surprising given north korea's track record of making belacose statements again what we're focused on is preserving peace, security and stability in the indo-pacific region so secretary austin's visit was an opportunity to again reaffirm our strong and close alliance with the republic of korea and so that will remain our focus. as i'm working with south korea and other nations in the region to deter aggression, and ensure a free and open indo-pacific. reporter: one more, south korea has announced that it will test the high-powered monster ballistic missile with nuclear warhead labor. this is a defense against north korea's nuclear warhead, how do

you do this? >> i'm sorry i missed the first part of your question. can you repeat that? reporter: south korea has announced that it will be a test of high-powered monster ballistic missile with the nuclear warhead. this is -- >> yeah, i don't have anything on that. i'd refer you to government of south korea. thank you. let me go to rio, and i'll come back here. reporter: okay thank you very much. two questions on the chinese balloon. so, there is speculation that this balloon is over japanese air space before reaching the u.s. continental u.s.. can you confirm that? >> i've seen those press reports. again, as we acknowledged in our statement that we posted last night, we have seen this type of balloon activity elsewhere before, but again, i'm not going to get into intelligence and i'm not going to have any further

information to provide. reporter: secondary, how will this incident affect the secretary's future engagement with chinese counterpart to maintain the open lines of communication? >> i think we've been very clear that we're always open to maintaining an open line of communication with the prc and in that regard, nothing has changed. thank you. let me go to phil and then i'll come over here. reporter: is the position of the balloon classified? >> phil, right now, what we're not going to do is get into a hour-by-hour location of the balloon. again we're monitoring it closely. as i mentioned right now, it's over the center of the continental united states. that's about as specific as i'm going to get. reporter: i understand it might be inconvenient but does the public not have the right to know? >> the public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is. thank you. reporter: general, you said the balloon is maneuverable, so does that mean that it's not drifting? >> so the balloon is maneuver

able. clearly, it's violated u.s. air space and again, we've communicated that fact to the pr c. reporter: if possible, can you tell us if the balloon, when it entered the u.s. air space, has it changed its course in any way >> the balloon has changed its course, which is again why we're monitoring it, but that's about as specific as i can get. thank you. go to matt. reporter: so you said at this point, the balloon doesn't pose to have any, to pose any risks to citizens. how is it that the u.s. can assess that, given that the balloon is at such an altitude without actually getting eyes on it up close and assessing the equipment that's on board, and secondly, are there any alternatives being considered to shooting it down? is there any option to take this balloon out of the sky intact to maybe get a better look at that equipment? >> yeah, so again, this is a surveillance balloon operating

at about 60,000 feet. clearly, we did a very close assessment in terms of what it's doing and as i mentioned, military commanders have assess ed that there is no physical or military threat to people on the ground, and so in that regard, we'll continue to monitor. in terms of way ahead, we will continue to review options but i'm not going to have anything further to provide on that, so thank you. matt? reporter: thank you, pat. you said this is violating our air space so why not take it down? >> yeah, so clearly, as we assess options, and considering the size of the pay load on this , looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians on the ground or property damage, again, running through the various factors and

looking at in terms of does it pose a potential risk to people while in the air and right now, as i mentioned, we assessed that it does not pose a risk to people on the ground as it currently is traversing the continental united states, and so out of an abundance of caution, cognizant of the potential impact to civilians on the ground, from a debris field, right now, we're going to continue to monitor and review options. reporter: if i may, you mentioned that we've seen this kind of activity before, so why are we sharing this one and why last night, if you were following it for a few days? is this some sort of sign that we should take from china ahead of blinken's visit or from the activity we had in the philippines? >> yeah, so in terms of any hypotheticals about messaging from prc, i'd refer you to them on that front. again, i think what makes this different is the duration and the length of which it has been over u.s. territory, but

beyond that i'm not going to be able to go into anymore specific s. mike? reporter: thanks, pat. yesterday, a senior defense official said that the intelligence gathering capability of this balloon will be no better than any chinese satellite in low earth orbit. if that's the case, why would beijing go through the trouble and expense to send this balloon on such a journey? >> yeah, i'd have to refer you back to the prc. again, look, we're monitoring this , as i mentioned. its violated u.s. air space. its violated international law. we've communicated that back to the government of china, but again, i'd refer you back to china in terms of -- reporter: but i assume that the pentagon is trying to figure this out itself, why they're bothering to do this if they can already, if it's offering no better intelligence gathering than from a satellite.

>> yeah, again, that's a statement, not a question, so -- reporter: the question mark was ending with it. again i won't have anything other to provide. go to her and then come back to nancy here. reporter: i was wondering, is there any way that the pentagon is able to gauge how long it could potentially loiter compar ing to balloons that have been in the past, and how long do you anticipate that it could loiter? >> sure. yeah, so as i mentioned, we'll continue to monitor it. right now, we assess that it'll probably be over the united states for a few days but we'll continue to monitor, review our options, and keep you updated as we can. thank you. let me go to nancy here. reporter: hi, general. i want to go back to a couple things you said. you said several times that the u.s. is reviewing its options.

i'd like some clarity. is the option of shooting down the balloon particularly as it's going over more populated areas off the table? is that still amongst the options that the u.s. military is considering , and if so under what conditions would it do so? >> yeah, thanks, nancy. so at this stage what i can tell you is again, we're reviewing options. i'm not going to go into more specifics than that and when and if there's any updates to provide we'll let you know. reporter: its been ruled out the shooting? >> again we're monitoring it and reviewing options. reporter: then a senior defense official yesterday said that similar incidents had happened under the previous administration and yet, some of those administration officials have come forward and said they aren't familiar with it. is there anyway you could give us more details on when its happened over whether it was over the continental u.s. or over u.s. territories? is that something you would potentially take to provide the public more details about the extent of these things happen? >> so what i would tell you right now is that information is

classified. i'm not able to provide it other than i can confirm that there have been other incidents where balloons did come close to or cross over u.s. territory. reporter: then i just want to reiterate something that phil said earlier that given that it's not classified and the public can see it, i'd just ask that you take the question that we have more specifics on where it is given that there's no clear security reason by your own estimation in terms of keeping that information from the public. >> sure, absolutely, and again, you know, we're just not going to get into an hour-by-hour where the balloon is. so we will do our best to keep you and the public informed in general terms on where the balloon is and try to be helpful in that regard. reporter: then we're in a guessing game where people think it's flying over and i think some fidelity be in everybody's best interest. >> understood and i think a key point here to make, and to purposefully belabor the point is that as this balloon

traverses the continental united states we assess that it currently does not pose a physical or military risk to people on the ground so we will continue to monitor. we will continue to review our options and provide information and updates as we're able to. jennifer? reporter: if it approaches washington d.c. will you shoot it down? >> again, juneteenth it ferricks, we're reviewing options but i won't get into hypotheticals or speculate on potential future actions so i'll go to the back of the room and come up here. reporter: thank you, general. thinking about the root of the balloon, was it impossible for the dod to deal with the balloon before it reached the air space of the united states? >> yeah, so we've been monitor ing the balloon. we are aware, again as i mentioned, it is a maneuverable craft and we continue to assess and make appropriate decisions based on how we're going to address, what we perceive as a

potential threat or not. the safety and security of the american people is paramount and so again, at this time, we assess that it does not pose a physical threat to people on the ground. we'll continue to monitor it and we'll continue to review options thank you. let me go ahead and go to joe and we'll come back to this side of the room. reporter: so you said that this is the first time we've, this isn't the first time we've seen a balloon fly over the continental u.s.. in the past, has it flown over other sensitive areas such as military bases? you've only, you haven't been very specific. it's just the continental u.s.. >> yeah, no i appreciate it. i haven't been very specific because that information is classified and i'm just not going to be able to tack about it so thank you. edris? reporter: the canadian defense ministry yesterday said they were tracking a second potential spy balloon. are you tracking a second potential incident? and when the balloon was coming, i guess what i'm confused about is when were there discussions

to shoot down the balloon? were there any discussions about shooting down the balloon when it was not over the united states when it was potentially over international waters or were the discussions only when it entered u.s. air space? >> yeah, thanks so on your first question, we are tracking one balloon. so in regards to statements by canada, i'd refer you back to them on that. in terms of the discussions about whether or not to shoot down this balloon. that was an option, right, and so that was something that was taken into consideration. again, because we assess that currently it does not pose a physical or military risk to people on the ground, for now, we're continuing to monitor and review options. thank you. go back to ellie and then come up here. reporter: thank you. how big is the balloon that you're tracking and is it, have you guys picked up, is it leaving anything in its wake,

like sensors? >> yes, so on your latter question, i'm not going to get into intelligence. we do continue to monitor the balloon. we do know that it is a surveillance balloon. in terms of the size, i'm not able to get into the specifics other than to say that it is big enough that again, in reviewing our approach, we do recognize that any potential debris field be significant and potentially cause civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage, so again, this is part of the calculus in terms of our overall assessment but again, we'll continue to monitor it. we'll continue to review our options and keep you updated as able. let me go here, and then over to here. reporter: thank you, following up on the balloon question. during your conversation with the chinese, have they indicated to you what is inside the balloon to prove the point that it's a civilian balloon and does that assessment differ from

your assessment of what is inside the balloon and what it's trying to do and secondly, on the question this week, india and u.s. launched a initiative on emerging technologies and this has quite a bit of defense component in it. can you give us more details on it and how it's going to build up your relationship with india? >> sure on your second question i'll have to take that because i just don't have that information in front of me. on the first question i appreciate it. as i mentioned, we have contacted the prc. i'm not going to get into their reaction. i'd refer you to them for that, but we have clearly communicated that this balloon is violating u.s. air space and international law and that this is unacceptable. thank you. over here and then over here. reporter: thank you, sir. is the pentagon looking at any possibility of maybe altering the course of the balloon, take us to a location where they could shoot it down in a rural area? >> again, monitoring. we're reviewing options but i'm not going to go into any further

specifics, thank you. sir? reporter: thank you, general. considering that this is a surveillance balloon as you said , does it have the ability to collect very sensitive data given that it flies over nuclear sites in the state of montana. >> yeah, so again, i'm not going to get into intelligence. as we mentioned in our statement last night, once the balloon was detected, we acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information and i'll just leave it at that. thank you. phil? reporter: is there any possibility that there's any nuclear or radioactive material on board the balloon or anything that makes you believe it could pose a risk if it were shot down? >> the short answer is no, but again, right now, we do not assess that the balloon and its current configuration at approximately 60,000 feet poses a physical or military threat to people on the ground. thank you. joe?

reporter: ukraine question. the small diameter bomb in the latest ukraine aid package has the potential to target crimea. is that the intent behind providing it now? >> so thanks for the question, joe. so yes. as part of the usai package we will be providing ground launch small diameter bombs to ukraine. this gives them a longer-range capability, long-range fires capability that will enable them , again, to conduct operations in defense of their country and to take back their sovereign territory and russian occupied areas. when it comes to ukrainian plans on operations, clearly, that is their decision. they are in the lead for those , so i'm not going to talk about or speculate about potential future operations but again, all along we've been working with them to provide them with capabilities that will enable them to be effective on the

battlefield. reporter: just as a follow-up to that. can you talk specifically about this particular group of capabilities. how are they tailored to what's happening in ukraine now? for instance, there's equipment that connects the various air defense systems. just can you speak to why the specific package now. >> yes, sure. so again, it's important to look at this from a evolution standpoint in terms of adapting to the conditions on the ground, and so we've been focused on several key areas in the last few months to support ukraine. specifically, air defense capabilities, armor capabilities , long-range fires capabilities, and then combined with training, in order to enable them to have the ability to conduct combined arms, and so looking at things like further enhancing and enabling their integrated air defense, which i think everyone continues to watch with horror as russia conducts aerial bombardment on

civilian targets throughout ukraine, so working with them in those areas, but also through the combined arms training enabling them to be able to change the equation on the front lines not only defend their territory but take back sovereign territory. thank you. tony? reporter: just to specify on that one, within the announcement there's one line that says pre cid-guided rockets. >> that is the ground launch small diameter bomb. reporter: thank you. >> yup. okay, tara? reporter: just going back to the ukraine package, can you talk a little bit more about integrat ing the air defense systems particularly all the systems that have been sent by different nato partners and how do you integrate -- neil: we are continuing to monitor the pentagon now the press briefing on this sight ing of a balloon that the chinese said is simply a weather balloon. we've got a couple of updates there even though the brigadier general, pat ryder was very cautious about giving too many

details. this thing is pretty big and right now it's over the mid-continent all united states. remember before some of the earliest images of which this might be one where when it was over montana, of course which is next to idaho which is next to washington and then you get out into the pacific if you're over the mid-continent all united states now you're talking around south dakota, nebraska, into iowa, presumably that is where this is now. it did not say exactly how fast it's going, but that it is a monster and that i mean, it's quite large. we're trying to get indications just how large, but to put it in some perspective, this thing could be the length of three city buses, some said three greyhound buses. that would put it at about anywhere from 120 to 150 feet wide, to put that in some perspective, the typical weather balloon and chain had argued this was that, is about 20 feet wide when fully extended to take samples of ar and all of that sort of thing, so by that

definition, it is 10 times or close to 10 times that size, and it is also flying at an altitude that is virtually unheard of. not only for weather balloons but for balloons, period. this thing is up at 60,000 feet. 60,000 feet. now, most weather balloons are up and around at 15,000 feet, if that, and that's generous. hot air balloons if going on a joyride or something like that can be no more than 3,000 or 4,000 feet, and just to give you an idea where commercial jet s and all fly, the highest they go is around 35,000 feet so think of that commercial jets going by and all of that stuff and this thing is almost double that from the ground. that is something that most balloons don't do, let alone weather balloons so it raises a whole lot of issues here and what's being intended here. the chinese now have said they in fact are responsible for this , but that it's a

weather balloon that just got took off by the wind. so believe that with some relative doubt. of course let's go to dave sears the retired navy commander seal, six member author of "smarter not harder." dave, a lot of this doesn't add up. as i said this thing is pretty big and you're more familiar with this technology if you call it technology although this seem s to be very sophisticated technology. what do you think? >> i think it's exactly as you said. a lot of this doesn't add up, and right now, the department of defense, their spokesman and other senior officers in there are not instilling confidence at all in me and the thought of their ability to handle this. i mean, how is it not detected earlier? was it a civilian who detected this thing? why didn't they shoot it down? you can't allow foreign, i don't care if it's a weather balloon, you don't cross into sovereign u.s. air space and it is a

threat. you know, there is a potential for a threat there. you could just drop something out of this. right now, a lot of this doesn't add up and, you know, brings to mind significant concerns. neil: you know, the chinese foreign ministry, david, put out a statement if i can quote here. "the chinese side regrets the un intended entry of the airship into u.s. air space" and in other words matters beyond its control. the chinese side will continue communicating with the u.s. side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by said force majure. how do we know that it's not them targeting exactly where this thing is going, and possibly, continuing to do so even now? >> yeah, exactly. the general did sort of begrudg ingly admit this is a maneuverable balloon, so force m ajure, could you not bring it down automatically and say we're going to cross into your air space, we're bringing

this thing down? we're going to bring it down in international waters or somewhere else and we'll recover it from there so they are controlling it. my other questions be i think it was jennifer who asked a very good question of how would you react if this was going over the white house or washington d.c.? is it a different reaction then? what are we going to see at that point? you can also take extend that farther. what if this is a russian balloon? how are we going to react to that? what if it's a russian balloon over nato? the things do not add up to me at all, and so we're not being told nearly the entire story and not getting great confidence in our ability of the department of defense or this administration to handle this right now. neil: you hit on a key point, dave, but as this moves over to the mid part of the continental united states and again it's a broad region but you're going into by definition more populated areas and certainly you were seeing when it was over over the skies of idaho or montana but what i find very very interesting is how we have officially responded this ,

acknowledging i guess that we have been spying off the chinese coast for many many years, not necessarily with this type of technology, usually using spy planes and the like, but this is a very different type of technology when it comes to balloon, from what i'm told, and you moo it know, in fact i guarantee you know far more than i but something this big, this massive , and that is able to fly this high is being propelled, you know, by things different than your typical weather balloon or for that matter, a hot air balloon so what do you make of that? >> the chinese have been using balloons for years, so they have been using them, you can go back to the mid-2000 definitely over india launching them out of tibe t, to monitor india piece s. they've monitored guam with them they've put them up there, they go back to actually thousands of years that the chinese initially were using balloons. we used them in the civil war. it's not always, to your advance

, to have super high technology. satellites can't sit in a stationary spot. they're in an orbit that is semi -predictable if not conceal able. balloons can stay on station for a long time and if you're going to allow this to enter and collect information directly above regions, it be very effective. neil: you know, they have acknowledged that it is the defense department that it is in the atmosphere. it is over u.s. air space. it is not in outer space. i don't know what delineates each level, but i do know at a height of that nature, you wouldn't be able to traditional ly catch it by the naked eye or other sources, and i don't know how this came to the defense department's attention, but it did, but the issue be when it did, right? if they knew about this for a number of days or were in communication with china or not in communication with china, so much we don't know, you would think that that would have been

over days and not just now. what do you think? >> absolutely. if they had been able to track it, and cross the alusian islands over alaska then it crosses open water for a while so you have time to figure out a response to this. it does bring up like you said a lot of unanswered questions that it seems the pentagon should be able to answer without going into this montra of this is classified details. we can't tell you this. we're concerned about shooting it down to civilians but we're extremely confident on the pay load and package on this that it's not a threat. those two things to me don't jive, at all. neil: yeah, but you know, dave, i was wondering. we clearly don't want to shoot it down yet. that might be considered, like you said if we get a very populated areas, but they clearly want to take a look at this thing, don't they? so that's what you've got to juggle. >> sure, absolutely, and you do it's called intelligence gain-

loss. you want to figure out what intelligence can i glean from this thing but we have aircraft. we are pretty modern that can fly over the water so if this is crossing from the alutians you can fly around it and gain a lot of intelligence from it without letting it transit the entire continental united states on a trajectory and path that you don't know with a pay load that you cannot be certain of. it makes no sense to me at all. neil: yeah, it doesn't add up here. dave, thank you very much, my friend, so good seeing you again thank you as well, dave for your service to this country. dave sears on that. you know, a number of you were e-mailing me and just sort of expounding on this and one fellow says that he is in the weather balloon business, and reminding me, neil, typical weather balloon is about 20,000 to 30,000 feet as you said. i have seen larger but your math is right, and this baby is 10 times that size potentially. in other words, 10 times that width potentially, so i don't

know if he's anymore of an expert than i am, but again just the shear size of this and maybe could explain some of the reluctance about automatically shooting it down, not knowing what the results be. something of that size, again, right now, at about 60,000 feet. let's go to chad pergram how all of this is sorting out on capitol hill and the reaction he's hearing. chad? reporter: well, neil, lawmakers are mad officials have already briefed aids for the top eight members of congress from both chambers. that's known as the gang of eight. gop members believe the administration should take more aggressive action. >> this is part of the lack of pushback, the total lack of pushback. >> well they own us. >> from taiwan. >> congressman? >> now they are over-flying our nuclear sites and keep getting away with it because we let them there's no consequence. reporter: house speaker kevin mccarthy described this as a brazen disregard for u.s.

sovereignty. gop montana representative ryan zinke demanded the u.s. shoot down the balloon and called this a clear provocation by the chinese. zinke is not the only one. >> why hasn't the biden administration shot this spy balloon down? it's very disturbing to know that it's still up there in the air, near our military installations. the time is now. let's get this thing out of the air. reporter: but china is surveiling the u.s. from above, all the time. >> i'm serious about any surveillance over the united states. the low orbit chinese satellites had been there for years. they're there all the time. i don't want the american people to think that this is something new and that all of a sudden we have a concern that we didn't have before. reporter: now, gop montana senator steve danes expressed concern to defense secretary lloyd austin. danes is worried about security at nuclear silos housed in

montana. neil? neil: we can only assume, chad, that this thing is snapping away pictures and images as it goes and god knows what other technology could be allowed with something that can operate pretty smoothly and effectively at 60,000 feet. that aside, now we're moving into the mid-continent all united states and then over more populated areas. while it is presumably still snapping away and doing whatever it's supposed to do. i would imagine, chad, at face value, some jets had gotten near or had a chance to look at this and know a lot more about it than either you and i do at this point. are you getting any wind of that that intelligence actually does have quite a bit of details on exactly what this is, how it's powered and how much information it's getting? reporter: yeah, nothing specific , but let me put this in context. historical context with two things, neil. remember, sputnik, back in the

late 50s? this is something that completely freaked out americans and almost psych psychological operations, not just what it was capable of doing just the fact it was there and americans could see it and this forced the united states into the space race. here is something else. i remember being an undergraduate school at miami of ohio and i took a class on the soviet union and one of the professors there, bill jackson, he showed a photograph from the 1960s from the technology they had at that point of looking at nuclear silos and you could see people on the ground and even in the 1960s, neil, the technology was so good you could see which side of the man's head he was parting his hair. so this is not new, just the fact that this is up there now, and everybody is alerted. that's why this is important right now to people on capitol hill. neil: well-put, my friend. you gave away your age there but i think you did a great public service. chad pergram on that, and as chad was also saying here, we have seen this before. we're getting reports right now that these type of balloons,

guidance systems, whatever you want to call them, have been detected, presumably from china over places like hawaii and guam this is what the u.s. intelligence officials are telling the washington post. this one stands out though for how long it has been staying over u.s. territory, quoting from the washington post defense officials saying "i think the thing that is different is the altitude, again, that 60,00e willingness to put it over the continental united states for an extended period of time ." we can guess, doing the math on the mileage and how much ground its covered, its been a few days its been doing this. more after this.

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expectations. 517,000 of them generated last month. let's go to nick timaros, the "wall street journal" chief economics correspondent crunching the numbers and the impact of all of this so nick, i've got to ask you since you're so well-connected to the financial and economic players in our country, you're on the federal reserve, you see a report like this. what do you do? >> yeah, well, neil, it was a great report and the question i think here is is this a case of good news is good news or a case of good news is bad news? so if you're at the fed and you were worried that maybe you had done too much and that we were going to slowdown the economy too much, then, you know, this is a good report, but i think the concern here at the fed be that you've been expect ing to see the economy slow down because you want to slow down demand, to make sure you've done enough to keep inflation coming back down, and this report is not at all

consistent with an economy that's slowing down and so i think that's where the heartburn could be. look it's one report. we'll get another report in a month. the fed will have another meeting a couple weeks after that, so you know, they don't have to makeup their mind right now on what this means, but i think it could be unsettling if you were expecting to see more of a slowdown and you're not getting one. neil: i wonder how much intention then jerome powell and the others will pay to the market reaction to this , that it is a goldilocks type report, it shows we might be achieving a soft landing. we've got some wage constraints there, so it's the best of all world's. now, i know sometimes jerome powell likes to come out and say don't get ahead of your skiis here. how do you think he thinks about the market response, albeit earlier than a few hours to go, nick, but what do you think? >> well, the interesting thing about the market's response has been, you know, we've had this rally over the last month where investors have been expect ing inflation to come down

faster, maybe because we have a recession, and so they've been expecting the fed to cut rates later this year, and so that's been behind this rally. that should reverse if you now think that the economies not slowing down, that it might take longer to get inflation down, and that we're not going to have a recession so the fed, you know , the fed chair on wednesday said we have a different outlook from the market and he wasn't going to try to pushback against that outlook and so he pretty much blessed the easier financial conditions that we've seen, but what you would want to see here, i mean, it should work both ways. if you now think that actually the fed isn't going to cut rates later this year and might have to take rates higher than you thought because the economy is doing better, then you shouldn't rally just on whatever news comes out, good news then you go up, bad news then you go up, and so i think that's where you could see some issues here. neil: got it. nick, always great catching up with you nick timaros on that report, meanwhile another surprise today is the technology stock reaction right now when so many of the big players like

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the closing bell yesterday from apple and google and amazon they all kind of disappointed in their own ways here, that we were going to have a shellacking in those shares. now look at the employment report today that showed 517,000 jobs added to the economy of 3.4 % unemployment rate, but there must be something here that is propelling these guys now, because that tech rally continues unabated. dan geltrude with us, john lonski through the cycle founder much more. dan, what is going on here? technology is doing just fine, thank you. >> well, i think everybody knew that they were going to miss earnings. so was that really going to be a surprise to anybody? no. i think what we're seeing now in these stocks ballooning a bit is -- neil: i see what you did there. >> pretty good, right? neil: no hot air. >> i think what we're seeing now is are those reports of all these jobs, neil, is that bad news? no, it's not.

perhaps we're moving towards fixing supply chains, getting people back to work. neil: so that's our soft landing >> exactly. neil: wall street might be celebrating. >> they may be and i think, on top of that, neil, listen. big tech has been right sizing for a while, right? they've been laying people off. tighter companies, lienor, doing more with less. it's probably a good sign. neil: what do you think, john? >> well, i think when we want to take into consideration that this report had some good inflation news contained in it and that is the jobs report show the average hourly wage is up by only three-tenths of a percent from the previous month. neil: so wage growth is clearly slowing down. >> its slowed down from 4.4% a year ago. once we get the year-over-year increase for the average wage down to 3%, then i think we could take the 2% underlying rate of inflation seriously, and the fed's job is finished. if anything at that point, the

fed begins to cut rates. ten year yield is up sharply today, but it's around 3.5%. 3.5% is well-under the 10-year treasury yield's peak of 4.25% back in late october, so not that bad and i think the market thinks that to a certain degree, this jobs gain is full of hot air. neil: okay, you copied him on the hot air thing. >> [laughter] neil: let me just get your take on how the markets are also perceiving the rate of increases that this quarter point followed up by another quarter point one at the march meeting, and they still sit tight at the may meeting. do you think that they sit tight at the may meeting? >> well if you listen to what jerome powell said and maybe these reports caught him off guard, and he didn't really expect that we're going to see these job numbers where they are. if you take what he said, we're not done yet. he gave every indication that they were going to continue to

bring rates up. now, is this going to make him stop and say listen, let's pause let's have a wait and see. neil: but is that data like this kind of hangs in the air for a while, doesn't it? >> neil just real quick, the problem is what happens if it changes? he's got -- neil: what do you think? >> i think that that 517,000 new jobs added in january is a gross exaggeration of the health of the u.s. labor market. neil: really? >> we've had company-after- company talk about planned layoffs and moreover, let's not forget -- neil: let's not get ahead of ourselves. >> equity analysts are looking for s&p 500 revenue growth of merely 2.6% in 2023 that's down from 10.5% in 2022 you've got sales slowing like that. neil: so just be one step at a time. gentlemen i want to thank you. we'll have much more after this.

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