against the former president and he says on truth social this is political, why didn't she file these charges to and 1/2 years ago? lauren: one of our other guests made the point these cost money to defend. this is money that cannot be used to run a campaign. pay attention to that. cheryl: all right, pay a lot of attention to both of you this morning, thanks for being with me. maria will be back tomorrow. great to have you with me. my time is up as someone likes to say that i work with, the same is true. stuart: good morning. my time is just beginning. this program covers money and politics. we have big news on both. first off, the new trump indictment, the fourth in the last five months, the full in county georgia prosecutor says trump is a racketeer. trump and 18 codefendants will be together on tv.

there's a clash between four major trials early next year and trump's ability to conduct his campaign for the presidency. is that fair? trump calls it a politically inspired indictment tailored for placement in the middle of my political campaign. president biden is still catching heat for his no comment on the maui tragedy. he goes to lake tahoe this friday. to the big-money story, big trouble in china. they stopped issuing data after the jobless rate rises to 20% and more importantly cut interest rates. a sure sign of economic distress. separately, fitch says it may be forced to downgrade dozens of banks including jpmorgan chase. investors don't like trouble at the banks or big trouble in china. the dow is down 200 points in "the opening bell," maybe 285.

the s&p down 30, nasdaq down 80. interest rates rising again, that's not what investors want to see. the 10 year is close to 4% but look at the 2 year. moments ago it hit 5%. it backed off a little, 498. most investors don't like that. gas up, the average for regular, 306. diesel up another sent. the average is 432. on the show today, four indictment in five months and a string of trials in the middle of the potential election. is that fair? another scheme to change the ticket? the la times suggest removing kamala harris and making her senator to replace dianne feinstein. is that fair to harris? the cage match has descended into farce. musk says he will drive to zuckerberg's house for a fight, he says he's not home.

he is traveling. tuesday, august 15, 2023. "varney and company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ stuart: the fight song. that no doubt refers to trump fighting on the probable non-fight between elon musk and mark zuckerberg. let's start with breaking political news, donald trump indicted for the fourth time in 5 months. election meddling, racketeering are just the charges just laid in georgia. grady trimble in atlanta. take us through the latest. >> reporter: donald trump is facing 13 new felony charges,

from racketeering to multiple conspiracy charges and others. these charges stem from the former president, his staff and his lawyers's alleged attempts to influence or change the outcome of the 2020 election in georgia. among the former president's codefendants in this case are former chief of staff mark meadows and rudy giuliani and john eastman. district attorney willis announced her plans to trial 19 defendants including the former president together. here's the da discussing 41 total charges. >> many occurred in georgia, some occurred in other jurisdictions and our including because the grand jury believes a part of the illegal effort to overturn the result of georgia's 2020 presidential election. >> reporter: the former

president on truth social lashed out at the da, that this indictment like the previous three are part of the witchhunt against him. in an exclusive interview trump told fox news digital this politically inspired indictment which could have been brought close to three years ago was tailored for placement in the middle of my political campaign where i am leading all republicans by a lot and beating president biden soundly in almost all polls. across the board, republicans are coming to trump's defense. >> the timing is nakedly political. every time more bad news comes out about hunter biden or joe biden you can set a stopwatch within hours, some clown goes and indicts donald trump again. >> reporter: all of the defendants in this case have until friday august 25th. a week from this friday to turn themselves in. what is different about this

indictment to previous three is the sheriff in fulton county has indicated that donald trump will have a mug shot taken which we have not seen before. as for the trial's start date, the da wants to start in the next we 6 months, right in the middle of the election season. we want a mug shot. thank you very much indeed. byron york with me this morning. there is going to be a clash between trump appearing in court frequently and his ability to conduct his campaign. is this going to be perceived as fair? >> i think it will not. if this trial started six months from today, february 15th, that would be after the iowa, new hampshire and nevada primaries but before the south carolina primary, in the middle of the primary season. of this would be a televised

trial unlike the others. maybe there would be 19 people around desks, who knows? but i think the initial reaction to this even among people who want to see trump indicted is it might be too much, not only is it the fourth but you have a county prosecutor in georgia alleging this vast national conspiracy, indicting huge numbers of people with huge numbers of counts each. stuart: i've got to return to the fairness thing. when you look at the court calendar, trials in january, february march and may. that is impossible to conduct a presidential campaign if you are defending your self and four separate places on four separate trials. will voters see this as fundamentally unfair?

>> so far, republican voters have. there have been two reactions. after the first trump indictment in manhattan we saw trump's ratings among republicans go up quite a bit. 's lead over ron desantis virtually doubled. you haven't seen a lot of reaction in subsequent indictments about mar-a-lago, january 6th, we will see what happens with this one but there is one other thing, people are less interested in each subsequent indictment which is human nature. when something happens and it has never happened before there's a huge amount of interest in it. when it happens again and again and again, the interest diminishes and that is what we are seeing. stuart: thanks for being with us today. i will stay on politics. does the los angeles times want kamala harris to take a different job?

stuart: a columnist at the los angeles times does, he writes in a column that a strong shove is needed by biden to get two within out of two roles. senator diane feinstein is a problem. she is 90. she did vowed to finish. biden's problem is harris, she's a burden, a drag on his reelection prospects. feinstein could resign from the senate and gavin newsom could appoint harris to replace her. biden could find a more popular running mate. wasn't a few days ago the biden reelection campaign told donors that harris is a strong political force and an invaluable asset. those are quotes. the media is now sending a different message than the campaign is sending. stuart: a different message

from what they want to hear. lauren: will the media get their way? >> we will turn to the markets. that out is down 250, nasdaq 53 points, we have a lot on the dow coming up. here is my theory. the market is down because of china and fitch. is that hurting of a market this morning? >> you are spot on. look at the china issue. it is concerning what is coming out of china, three big issues, the first is the chinese currency is at the lowest level, down 5% year to date, in the currency world that a big move. the first time since february the unemployment rate is going up. it is above 5%. cpi prices going down.

china dealing with deflation. we are ready to see more volatility and demand for china -- less global growth so it's a big deal. that is why we see markets react this way. stuart: i want to bring in lauren to look at the retail sales numbers received at 8:30 this morning, stronger. lauren: there spending is resilient. retail sales rose 3.7%, the core retail sales up one%, much stronger. where are we spending, these are annual numbers. online you can bank amazon prime day for some of this, 3% year-over-year at restaurants and bars, up 12%, food 2. 5, this makes sense, spending less on furniture, less on electronics and even gasoline

down 20% annually despite the bottom line to the story. this is early third quarter, a soft landing with the consumer hanging on but we also see the consumer getting by by swiping the plastic and withdrawal from 401(k)s. >> i didn't see that affect the stock. >> you have china and the banks. >> coming up, 99 confirmed dead on maui, residents say they have been looted and even robbed at gunpoint. why are we not hearing from the president? brian kilmeade on that one. the biggest story of the day, trump indicted in georgia once the trial, six months, also trying all the defendants, judicial watch president tom fitton takes that on next. ♪

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stuart: those musicians, that is atlanta, the center of political attention, 80 degrees there. we may get back to the trump indictment. fulton county da, georgia, she wants the trial in six months, also intends to try all the defendants together. tom fitton now. why a 6 month timetable that seems politically motivated to me. how about you? >> in light of the other

prosecutions that are pending, i was going to the indictments, 45 if you count the superseding indictment appear in dc, that is an indictment every month practically speaking over the last 5 months and they have set it up in a way to have what looks to be in this case a circus of a trial, a show trial from 19 defendants, suggests she's not taking this more seriously than many commentators are in terms of legalities of what she is pursuing. you don't want to be on the wrong end of an commonly indictments all bets are off, whether donald trump is going to be free to campaign. without being harassed by this pursuit by the democratic party

in three jurisdictions or they claim him, and responsible officials, responsible individuals need to take action. >> is it fair to put a former president on trial, 4 times in the space of the year in the middle of a political campaign. how could voters see this as fair. >> voters use don't count. if you are a democrat, and and they're playing to a different audience. your vote doesn't count, your views don't count if you're a

critic of this regime politics was they want to make donald trump a political prisoner. what is disturbing is expanding the abuse to innocent citizens in georgia who by all accounts, by her own indictment were doing nothing other than engaging in electoral politics. stuart: why try them collectively? >> that the show trial. will be next put them in cages in a trial, and this is not a serious prosecution. the idea that a prosecutor in this day and age. and indicting for acts federal

government officials as president, chief of staff and senior official in the justice department. >> karine jean-pierre insists the investigation. this proves president biden did nothing wrong, the hunter business dealings, watch this. >> allegations over and over again. and they were investigating every single angle, and if you ask what we've seen from that. they are turning up documents and witnesses showing the president wasn't involved, never discuss these dealings, did nothing wrong. there's been 0 evidence showing this. that is what we've seen for the past several months so i will leave it at that. stuart: what do you make of that?

do you think -- go ahead. >> taxpayer defense lawyer for president biden, it is an exercise in unreality. the president has been caught lying repeatedly, publicly about his role with hunter biden. there's plenty of evidence he benefited financially from this directly and indirectly. you don't need to bribe someone directly to be involved in bribery with that person. the vice president says give the money to my son and did a favor, that's bribery too. there's evidence in the fbi that president biden was bribed by burisma and extorting money. when you have the vice president send a letter to hunter biden's business partner saying thanks for being in business with my son, that shows what the white house spokesman is saying is a crock.

stuart: we are going to leave it right there. come back soon because this is an extraordinary situation, unique in legal and political terms. come back soon. senator bernie sanders facing criticism after he transferred campaign donations to an organization founded by his wife and stepson. is it legal? lauren: at face value it is legal if the sanders campaign can show this donation to the sanders institute. it also paid his stepson's one hundred $50,000 salary was earned. what did the nonprofit produce? that's what they need to show. i was on the site for a while. it is unclear what work they did.

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stuart: big loss for the dow, minor loss for the s&p and the nasdaq. ray, you've got three stocks you are going to look at but how they benefit from ai, we start with google, how does ai help adobe? >> the fact is they are using it in creative cloud and experience cloud, two areas they were not put to use, people can go from building a campaign from three months to three weeks and gain that activity so that is why adobe

is in the lead on a i especially for marketing campaigns. stuart: on next one is nvidia. they make chips. is that the story basically? >> everyone is relying on them. gpus allow ai to happen. everyone is ordering them. the earnings come out next week. stuart: the earnings projection, the price/earnings down the road is astronomical. >> we are looking at $2 trillion ai market. they will play a big role. stuart: adobe is doing well. >> the thing people don't realize, google has better chips than the ai race and the processor unit, that you have right now in nvidia, those willpower the next generation of ai. you might see that at the google next event. stuart: all three of those stocks look solid do you? >> they look solid.

they will be on the base for a long time. stuart: the best performers of related stocks? >> microsoft, can't discount that. apple, stock is high at this point. stuart: stay there. i have more for you in a little while. they are about to open the markets. right hand side of the screen, the nasdaq. when someone reaches across, the market is almost open. five seconds, the bell rings 10 seconds before the opening. it is 9:30 and the market is open as we open, the dow was up 150 points. not a huge loss. . 42%. there you have it, the dow 30, not all of them open yet. now open lower. how about the s&p 500 on the

downside, to the tune of 15 points down, that is a mere one third of one%. same for the nasdaq, where are we now. 30 points lower. meta-is the only winner. microsoft and apple, 179. and we are with ubs. lauren: it is 2540 and they called nvidia a kingmaker in ai, a huge wave of capital chases it. morgan stanley name would then a topic and wells fargo with their price target too. stuart: with a chart like that you need a strong stomach to jump in at the top. lauren: the catalyst is there earnings, wednesday of next week, august 23rd. you could go to 540.

b1 don't ask me. look at fitch, they are preparing for another downgrade. showing what's happening. lauren: financials are down sharply. do you recall fitch lowered the score of us banks. it cited higher rates, higher costs. reportedly, fitch could lower the rating on this sector again affecting dozens of lenders including big banks of jpmorgan chase which was down 1.2%. it is a reminder this banking event a few months ago is still lingering, higher cost, higher rates. it's a concern for the institutions. if they pull back and there is lending going out to consumers who are struggling, not the best scenario for the market. stuart: problems rattling investors. home depot reported before the bell this morning, i see them up 2%. lauren: $15 billion stock

repurchase program, numbers were better than expected. the numbers were better-than-expected. if you look at same-store sales they fell by 2%, overall revenue fell $3 billion. the avenue decline since 2009. we are gun shy to pull the trigger on the big, expensive home project. a smaller project we are taking on. stuart: stock is up 1.7%, that adds 50 points. that helping the dow this morning. next case, tesla, more price cuts coming to tesla. >> the new model x, these are shorter range models being delivered in september and october, get less range so 320,

269 miles per charge respectively and they start at $78,000 which would be a decrease of $10,000. stuart: ray, you cover tesla, i don't like these price cuts. >> this one is interesting. delivering the same batteries but locking the batteries short range. and upgrading longer range, the software cuts off. stuart: sound like a trick to me. >> the second thing is the fact that tesla has manufacturing costs lower than everyone else. the $9000 profit margin versus everyone else and sitting at a negative number is the difference. this is showing us they have economies of scale to deliver this at a lower price point than people realize, even a $15,000 profit margin so they are squeezing out their competitors. stuart: scaring up for tesla.

lauren: hurting their margins in the process. stocks are down $0.15. stuart: thank you very much indeed. fine input today. goldman sachs, why is goldman sachs down 1.6%? lauren: it is down so lloyd blank fine --blankfein left the bank five years ago and offered to help the current ceo david solomon. he's not officially coming back. goldman sachs under fire for the ill-fated push into consumer banking. stuart: if he was coming back -- lauren: i would take you on that though disney has not gone up since iger's return. stuart: warren buffett. has he been buying the homebuilders? they are a lot.

lauren: he bought $800 for different home builders, dr horton, lennar, you see dr horton up 2.5%. the berkshire hathaway bet is low inventory sparks big demand to build homes. it makes sense, right? stocks are up because everyone looks at what omaha does. stuart: if you get the permitting people, they are not in my backyard people. they might build new houses but that is just my hope indian. check the big board, 6 minutes, down 190, that's just over half a percentage point. dow winners, home depot at the top, walmart is in there again, unitedhealth up. mcdonald's and merck down. the s&p 500 the winners please, dr horton, nvidia is up $10, 2. 3%. how about the nasdaq composite?

look at the big names. nvidia, fort net on the upside. the 10 year treasury yield has been going up recently. 4.21%. the 2-year treasury this morning yielded 5%. that a landmark. the price of gold, $19.32 per ounce. bitcoin 20 one thousand 3, is it? it has been there for days. price of oil, 80 one dollars a barrel. natural gas, 269. look at gas, keeps going up, 386. diesel up one sent overnight him a 432 the national average. coming up, hillary clinton reacted to trump's latest indictment. watch this. >> i don't know that anyone should be satisfied. this is a terrible moment for

our country to have a former president accused of these terribly important crimes. the only satisfaction may be that the system is working. stuart: didn't hillary called trump an illegitimate president when she lost him in 2020? bret baer will be talking all things indictment in the next hour. the cage match between elon musk and zuckerberg reaches a new level of absurdity. what are they up to now? we will tell you. is the chinese economy in danger of a downward spiral? that would not be good for us. john lansky ways and next. ♪

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stuart: the dow is not a couple of hundred points, nasdaq down 30. lots of red ink. president biden is moving forward with his plan to cancel student loan debt. edward lawrence joins us, how much is biden going to forgive? >> talking $39 billion, the process started today of forgiving 800-4000 loans, student loans by the department of education, this is part of the rule change the department of education made on the income driven repayment plans that went forward towards forgiveness. the new rules went back and counted months a partial payment and no payments, even loans that were delinquent. it adds up to $39 billion in student relief for someone. the mackinac center suit the department of education about

this, arguing the rule change is unconstitutional. >> the department of education is defining forbearance which is nonpayment as monthly payments and the statute clearly for bids that. the deal is you make a certain number of monthly payments and get your loan forgiven. >> reporter: the judge said the groups were not harmed but then did not rule on the merits of this rule change. it is an attempt by the biden administration to get around a supreme court ruling that blocked a large planter forgive $440 billion in student loans all at once. the president trying to piecemeal his plan together in time for the next presidential election. the white house press secretary telling me this last month about these plans. >> the reason we believe this has been done in a responsible way, we can afford to give middle-class families a little

breathing room as you hear from this president over and over again, the progress we have done we have done to make sure the deficit is coming down. >> the president still believes using taxpayer money to forgive student loans. stuart: for some. i've got that. not all. thank you very much. the other a significant financial story, china, unexpected the cut their interest rates. economists sounding the alarm on the confidence crisis. how serious is the china downturn? >> i think it is very serious for china and has applications for the united states. we have an interest rate cut in china. and the state of the world

economy -- stuart: could the chinese economy spiral downwards? they are taking action, interest rates, can -- it is a downward spiral? >> there will be a bottom to the downward spiral. the chinese economy for the first time in a while could contract significantly. the root cause of china's problems is a real estate bubble that is now being deflated, bursting if you like him. the crisis of confidence, you have real estate price deflation and a hint of cpi, consumer price deflation. stuart: how would that hurt us? >> reducing china's demand for exports from the united states. china seems to be very hungry for technology exports from the united states. they need our knowledge, our

know-how as it comes to microchips but they are not getting it like they did in the past, that worsens the outlook for china. china's basic problem, centrally planned economy and as a result it cannot respond all that flexibly, all that well to adversity. stuart: check the state of america's economy. treasury secretary janet yellen says the economy is back on the right track thanks to bidenomics. >> the past year the task has been to transition the economy from rapid recovery to stable growth. our path so far shows we are on the right track even as we remain vigilant about potential challenges and uncertainties. the labor market, americans are back to work. our historic, rapid jobs recovery has been a source of

strength as we made our way back from the pandemic recession. stuart: are we on the right track? >> no. we have 3.5% unemployment rate, historically low, seems to be good news. why is consumer sentiment so much lower than it was last time we had 3.5% unemployment? payroll is up but over the past 12 months we find that 51% of the newly created jobs are from relatively low paying occupations in private education, health, hospitality. let me emphasize how low the pay is. we find in the four categories i spoke about, the average weekly earnings are $880, that compares with $1260 for all other occupations. people are not happy with this job market because jobs growth is skewed towards unattractive jobs.

b1 thanks for being here. next case which a court in montana has ruled that young people have a right to protection from climate change. lauren: 16 kids age 2 to 18 at the time of the suit, sued montana. they said the state's energy policy violates their right to a clean and healthful environment and the state constitution guarantees them that right. some states have that in their constitution. the right to a healthful environment. the district judge ruled in their favor. this is the first setting precedent and it could influence many other climate change lawsuits and other states. stuart: opens the floodgates. trump's fourth indictment sets an extra ordinary situation, a clash between the political calendar of the campaign and the court calendar. that will be "my take" top of the are. wildfires, the deadliest natural disaster in the state's history with death toll rising to 99.

live report from maryland after this.

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wildfires on maui, 99 people confirmed that in the governor predict that number will rise 10 to 20 each day. max gordon in maui with the latest. >> the main focus has been as the death will continues to creep up. several fires burning on the island, we are standing next to a house destroyed by the upcountry fire. this has been especially difficult to put out. it is 65%, it is an area of destruction on an island that is experienced so much loss. the search continues for the dead. 99 people confirmed dead, among the missing, hundreds still missing in a town where 12,000 once lived. accord of the printout area has been searched. identifying the dead has been

difficult, and identified, people giving dna swabs to help identify them. >> it is incredible that our hearts are broken. 48 hours ago with the extra fatalities. you know that we are 2200 structures that have been destroyed. 86% were residential. >> reporter: there have been rumors of looting, law enforcement officials say there are 0 reports. air national guard and army personnel on the ground helping out. meanwhile no official answer to why these fires started. they are responding to criticism and a class-action lawsuit after they shut off power after wendy dry conditions. >> we will be doing our own investigation, the state will be doing an investigation.

we all believe it is important to understand what happened and we all believe it is important to make sure it doesn't happen again. >> in this area, the upcountry, the water is on trackable. stuart: bret baer on the extraordinary clash between donald trump and the courts. brian kilmeade on the white house's response to the maui wildfires. south carolina congressman rush will fly on the latest with hunter biden and to lighten things up, can golden is here with new auction items including a lien all messy jersey. then a talk 10:00 hour of varney is next. ♪

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♪ stuart: the name of this song is hit me baby one more type. has that got something to do with one more investigation, one more indictment of trump? it's a tenuous investigation