Charles the price of oil edging a little bit higher as iran is once again trying to cause international chaos. They are claiming they have dismantle ad cia spy ring, even sentencing some members to death. President trump throwing cold water on the story just moments ago. That is totally a false story. That is another lie. They put out propaganda. They put out lies. Lets see what happens with iran. Were ready for the absolute worse and were ready for sense too. Charles so there is no doubt iran is trying to instigate the west further but at what point does the west hit back . We have former state Department Advisor christian whiton. This is beyond sabre rattling, seizing ships, shooting down drones, where do you see the perhaps the dynamics of this changing where america becomes more offensive . Hard for us in the short term you need to take a stance against iran to set back its nuclear program. Capturing this british ship, hijacking it, taking this crew hostage, iran has done fairly something smart. Brit tape is weak. It sought to appease, calls it dee dee escalation. They took sailers hostage in iraqi wars. Said it was iranian waters. My guess they will eventually let it go. Trump cant be more catholic than the pope. You cant be more hawkish than the tanker whose people got taken hostage. Long term this is heading toward probably somewhat after crisis eventually involving military force. Charles the hms core wall youre referencing was a major embarassment to the uk. It showed how weak navy had become. It feels like they have taken a more robust, at least, they look more robust than their actions towards iran since then. Do you think, would it be in their west interest to swap these ships . No. I think in the best interests long term for the free world, especially the United States, saudi arabia, the u. A. E. , which are the three countries and israel, the four countries that matter most resisting iran but also the europeans should do their part. Britain is talking about european led Maritime Force that would be terrific if it happens. I have extreme doubts it ever would. There is also nato as a vehicle if they want to join together with the u. S. And other state to protect the shipping. Again they seem a little lost at sea. Theyre in the middle after leadership transition. They did one good thing recently with the one frigate that they have in the gulf. They did forestall a previous iranian attempt to take hostage but that is pretty limited. Charles of course the e uconn tins to give iran the benefit of the doubt. I have to ask you about the 17 cia spies. President trump sayings. Listen they werent spies but probably 17 people were arrested. Probably they will kill some of these folks. How do we deal with Something Like that that . If president had tightlipped, widely believed china rounded up a large u. S. Intelligence operation there where there is total silence here, the Quick Reaction from the president to me implies that these are some unlucky people that iran is going to you know, do something bad to as they have for thousands and thousands of their own citizens since this regime took power 40 years ago. Charles chris, less than a minute. Uk media, some in the uk media saying john bolton is trying to make this, you know, trying to start a war for lack of a better term here. Theyre putting pressure on their own government there. What do you make of the idea there is still so much media pushback against the efforts of the administration, even when theyre showing tremendous restraint . Theyre being encouraged by european governments. Thank god were getting a new british Prime Minister, talentless theresa may joined with germany and france arguing to trying to undermine u. S. Sanctions on iran. Trying to coach their companies to get around sanctions. Their companies chose to do business with us than iran. They were defeated this is question about nato, whether it is relevant to the defense of the free world and the press. It has not been a profile in courage. Charles no it hasnt. Christian, always appreciate your help. Thank you, charles. Charles how is the house handling this new provocation. We have House Foreign Affairs member scott perry. Thanks for joining us. Great to be here, charles. Appreciate it. What is the suggestion from your committee, the house at large, how to deal with increasing belligerence from iran . Unfortunately were divided. Weve become partisan it, shouldnt be. Americans, especially those in congress should know unity especially as we reach the waters edge against a hostile foreign actor is what is needed but we unfortunately are divided. It has become partisan. Look there are folks on the other side of the aisle unfortunately they seem to believe iran, tehran, the mullahs and tyrannical theecratic regime more than they believe this administration and this president. Charles are you suggesting that you have american members of our congress who are sort of leaning toward the idea maybe we are starting trouble in iran . Well that is some of the narrative, is that iran wouldnt be doing this if it werent for President Trump and this administration putting pressure on them. We should have just remained in this nuclear deal which gave iran everything including pallets of cash courtesy of United States tax ier in return for nothing, just extending the timeline which they reached the ability to deliver Nuclear Weapons around the globe. So this is the circumstances unfortunately i wouldnt say it is widespread but it is true. It does undermine to a certain extent the credibility of the country as a whole to push back against the greatest known sponsor of state sponsor terrorism around the world and the country that is literally responsible for killing of american servicemembers in the iraq, in the iraq war, the most recent iraq war, plus a million other things this is the unfortunately thing. Iran is known malign actor. They are liars, deceivers, interested in regional hegemony. Theyre not interested in the great things of western civilization and the United States and israel in particular. Charles there might be something we might find bipartisan agreement on. Lawmakers apparently according to many reports inching closer to a deal to raise the debt ceiling of course spending caps which put it off for another two years. Kicking the can down the road, this is one of these issues with the American Public says, pox on both parties. How much more spending, how much more higher can these deficits go . Well, apparently that is the one thing that democrat and republicans in the establishment, the elite leaders, thats what they agree on spending taxpayer money even when we dont have it. We have a great economy. Stock market is up. Wages are up. Up employment is down at record levels right now. While record levels of income, correction, revenues are coming into the federal government, spending is increased to offset that. And you know the president , we passed the tax cut jobs act, reduced regulation to get this economy going, to provide opportunity for people. That wasnt a license for congress to just squander it, spend even more money than we have, ask people to ask their member of congress charles is the white house going to push back on this . Or is it so critical we do things like fund the military the republicans will go ahead and take this hit and try to fix it somewhere down the road . Of course the election is looming and nobody wants to be in a shutdown mode. The one thing that the constitution says that we need to provide for is the military. As as i was going to say, each member of the audience should ask the member which one of you decided to go to congress to bankrupt the country. Were 22 trillion in debt. We have to fund the military after the last Administration Cuts to it. This raises military spending but same level on domestic level. 20 cents on dollar we spend, were only cutting 20 cents on the dollar. That is not recipe to get the fiscal house in order. You could not do that at home. Charles you cannot do that. The American Public has done a great job since the recession getting their own houses in order only to watch the federal government do this. Congressman, thank you very much. I appreciate it. My privilege, charles. Have a great day. Charles its a huge week for earnings. Facebook, alphabet, amazon will report. Plus was wall street too quick to write off the semiconductors . Wait until you see what theyre doing. President trump taking to twitter to set up a meeting with Chuck Schumer after the democrats trip to the border. What does it mean for washington, d. C. . Can we let go of politics and finally get something done to fix the border crisis . Well be right back. vo the ant mindlessly marches on. Carrying up to 50 times its body weight. It never questions the tasks at hand. But this year, theres a more thrilling path to follow. father kids. Change of plans vo defy the laws of human nature. At the summer of audi sales event get exceptional offers now prpharmacist recommendedne memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Hey i live on my own now ive got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. Unlike my parents. You rambling about xfinity again . Youre so cute when you get excited. Anyways. Ive got their app right here, i can troubleshoot. I can schedule a time for them to call me back, its great you have our number programmed in . Ya i dont even know your phone anymore. Excuse me . what . I dont know your phone number. Aw well. He doesnt know our phone number you have our fax number, obviously. Todays xfinity service. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Ill pass. Charles micron shares getting upgrade from goldman sachs, saying it is more bullish on memory stocks. Micron, google, are among companies invited to the white house to meet with secretary mnuchin, secretary of treasury. Larry kudlow will be there also. Joining me erin gibbs and hal lambert. Erin, let me start with you. Just on earnings season, were getting through it, were getting traction. Everyone knows about the netflix miss, but after that the numbers have been pretty remarkable. Weve gone from expecting negative 2 contraction, to today at zero being plat. That is amazing with just having basically 10 days of earnings reports. That is a big revision. And so were, not even halfway through. Were only 15 of the way through. By the time this weekends, well be well into positive territory if we see these kinds of beats. What does that mean for the market . Does that trigger, or a little bit, it wasnt a great week overall for broad indices, even though a lot of major names not only beat but the shares went up . It will not help because weve been worried about valuations and people getting a little ahead of themselves. How much the trade war will really impact companies. Were Getting Better guidance for the second half of the year. I would think, even though Second Quarter is backward looking but overall making investors reassured theyre not overpaying for stocks just yet. Charles right. Right now things are definitely looking a little more more rosey earlier. Charles founder of the maga index, hal, semiconductor etf is up 33 coming into today. Were in the cusp of doing alltime high. Doing pretty good. Amazing. What were starting to see right now. Were focusing on 2020. Upgrade by goldman. Which is a big move. Charles defacto by goldman, defacto, we think the trade thing will work out ultimately. I hope that is not what it is. I think huawei will be a problem. If anyone is counting on chips being sold to huawei, theyre misguided on that. This is more on a play the cycles are recovering. Inventories are Getting Better this was the worst decline in a decade as far as semiconductors, inventory being bad on semiconductors. It is starting to be bad. Earnings for the s p 500 are expected to be up 3 or so i agree. I think well go into positive territory for this quarter. Maybe 1 higher earnings. Charles that is significant . That is significant. From negative to positive 1 or so i think is pretty significant. Charles this week a focus on facebook, alphabet google, amazon, youre feelings on that, the fact is, 144 out of the 500 s p names are reporting. It is more than just three names. When you look at industries, there is a bunch of the big industrials that are really, the center of the u. S. Economy, right . Not so much moved the market. I think a real indicator for the u. S. Economy. I am looking for industrials for one of them. Some of your consumer staples, making sure were running on auto. The semis, they flattened out after the whole bitcoin collapse. Charles right. It is really about Global Demand, not just a trade war. If youre seeing positive inventories that is also a forward indicator what Global Demand and Global Growth might look like. Charles hal, what is the most important thing to look for . Earnings and important. Unfortunately they have driven 25 of the return in the s p 500 are driven by four or five stocks. They are important even only four or five stocks. Charles any names in the index, some big names reporting . The no the big tech names . Theyre mostly democrats. Charles really . As you can imagine, google is number one democratic supporter out there. Charles your fund would not own a stock if too many democrat are involved in the csuite . No. It is their political gives. How much they give politically. Charles how is it performing against the broad market . We really doing well. We own a lot of good stocks. Charles Railroad Stocks . Railroad stocks. Caterpillar. Defense stocks. That is something people should be thinking about right now. Well get reauthorization, the spending cap will be, spending cap will go away that will pass the congress. But the other thing is, they are going to spend more on defense as well. So i think the defense stocks is a place people want to look at here. Charles erin, hal, great having you in new york. Appreciate it. Folks, equifax, they will have some punishment. How about 700 million as far as a sell meant with the federal trade commission from the 2017 data breach. They exposed private information including Social Security numbers of 148 million people. The proposed settlement worth 400 million. Will go directly to consumers. It needs to be approved by a Federal District curt. Were two days away what im hoping is the official end to the mueller investigation. The former special counsel is set to testify before congress. Well have a preview. President warning powell and company not to mess things up again ahead of next weeks rate cut. What i think powell is trying to do right after the break. Driverless cars. All ground personnel. Or trips to mars. 4. 95. Delivery drones or the latest phones. 4. 95. No matter what you trade, at fidelity its just 4. 95 per online u. S. Equity trade. No matter what you trade, at fidelity cant see what it is yet. Re . What is that . Thats a blazer . Thats a chevy blazer . Aww, this is dope. This thing is beautiful. I love the lights. Oh man, its got a mean face on it. It looks like a piece of candy. Look at the interior. This is nice. This is my sexy mom car. I would feel like a cool dad. Its just really chic. I love this thing. Its gorgeous. I would pull up in this in a heartbeat. I want one of these. That is sharp. The allnew chevy blazer. Speaks for itself. I dont know who they got to design this but give them a cookie and a star. Charles President Trump once again blasting the fed ahead of next weeks fomc meeting, tweeting, with almost no inflation our country is being forced to pay much higher Interest Rate than other countries because of a misguided Federal Reserve. As good as we have done, it could have been so much better. It is far more costly for the Federal Reserve to cut deeper if the economy actually does in the future turn down. Very inexpensive. Productive to move down. This is the point where the Federal Reserve chairman jay powell, President Trump might agree, at least now. I think there has been a epiphany. It would be far more costly to fix a down turn than prevent one. I worry about the feds concerns of arresting inflation. That should drive policy. This is not a new concern. This is former fed chairman, ben bernanke before he was chairman in 2002, said the federal bank should act more aggressively. This is more preventative after cure. Joining me university of maryland economist. Peter morici. Wall street always think as rate cut is economic doom, but this inflation getting up is seems to be gnawing at the fed. What are your thought . The fed is worshiping a false god. 2 inflation was supposed to be a compromise, between the tradeoff of unemmoment and inflation. Now theyre behaving if we get to 2 everything will be dixie fine. In a globalized economy, core rate of inflation, less Energy Prices fluctuates between one and 2 whether Interest Rates or high or low, unemployment is low or high it fluctuates in that range. The fed really cant influence it very much. So it should be focused on the pace of economic activity, lending by banks and so forth. A lot of things the fed does are countier productive to accomplishing more lending by banks to boost the economy. Charles so i want to get to that in a moment because the shelton, she made comment. Let me jump through it, there are two comment she made, you hit on one. The idea, she said the fed should stop paying interest in excess of reserves, a practice she says is up healthy and results in the fed paying banks to essentially do nothing. Do you think the Federal Reserve should pay banks interests on reserves . No. This is again example of thinking on the fed. They need vault cash and reserves to the fed to back up their deposits, to have cash available when people want it, whether my wire or hard currency. They dont need to be paid for doing that. That is part of the cost of being a bank. As for excess reserves, by paying them interest on that, all this began in 2018, w