china's economy. that could ripple out to the rest of the world. now, that's economics. politically, xi jinping faces a very big test. he holds maximum power and with it comes maximum responsibility. he must deal with this crisis and if he fails to perform, he's got a leadership problem. as far as our market is concerned, the virus may be holding it back just a little, but the impact seems to be fading, even as the crisis deepens in china. the dow is up 77 in premarket action. s&p up 6, nasdaq up 26. a modest bounce this morning. here's the story about america's stellar economy, which is not being recognized. larry kudlow told lou dobbs last night that european executives at davos were surprised at our economy's performance. they were not aware of trump's economic success, really? clearly, they don't get out enough or the hate trump media is alive and very well over there just like here, they only care about dragging our president and our country down. we'll deal with it. the friday edition of "varney & company" is about to begin. stuart: all right. the virus. here we go. susan li is in washington. the very latest, please? susan: we have one confirmed case in the u.s. but now authorities have reached out to 43 individuals that this patient may have come in contact with. also, we are hearing that ten are being closely monitored in california at this point. those that have recently traveled to china. one potential case in texas, a texas a & m student and the people he may have been in contact with over the last few days as well. now, this as cases have jumped by 30% overnight so 830 cases in china, 250 cases being reported, new cases being reported in just one day. as you mentioned, the death count has risen to 26. this is a really busy chinese lunar holiday season where people are traveling and then tourist spots are being shut down as well. the forbidden city in beijing is being closed. also parts of the great wall and china and beijing itself have now canceled the chinese new year celebrations. this as the virus continues to spread around the world. we have three confirmed cases now in singapore, vietnam has also been spread to and then as you mentioned, across hong kong, macao has two and the rest of the world. europe closely checking, australia possibly has a case. this is very concerning outside of chinese borders. i have to point out the w.h.o. yesterday refused to call this a public health emergency. stuart: as i understand it, there are 35 million people in china and i believe it's around hunan. susan: province, yes. stuart: that's a quarantine situation for a very large number of people, is that accurate? susan: very accurate. multiple cities, 35 million as you mentioned, from what i see, close to 12 cities are in some sort of lockdown quarantine mode. this is unprecedented, by the way, in china. can you imagine 35 million, that's a population of canada being locked down and not being able to travel. i think that's a very severe sign. stuart: drastic measures for a real crisis. susan, thank you very much indeed. staying on this virus, i want to bring in china watcher gordon chang. to me, this puts enormous pressure on xi jinping and he's pressured from all sides. >> certainly. especially after this crisis is over, then the blame game at the top of the communist party starts. it's not just this virus. it's also going to be the november 24 elections in hong kong, complete repudiation of china's candidates, a complete repudiation of china on january 11th in taiwan, you have the slumping chinese economy which is not being helped by this crisis, and you know, the list just goes on. he's got to be in trouble. stuart: he's got to perform, as the chief executive of the country, he's got to get this crisis under control. now, if he doesn't, do you think he loses a degree of power, or does he have some kind of revolt from the politburo? is that possible? >> almost anything is possible, including him being tossed out. now, china's political system tamps down dissent. wuhan was the first big city to have protests so it's not a happy place to start out with. there's rage and because of the clamp-down in the last three or four days in the communist party in the area, it is just, i think, creating a purcharessure cooker. stuart: am i going overboard if i say this is make or break weekend for xi jinping in china? is that going too far? >> i wouldn't say it's the weekend but it's certainly the make or break crisis, because remember, stuart, this crisis has been either caused or aggravated or both by the communist party. the daily mail is now saying, suggesting that this was created by a breakout from a level 4 lab which is only 20 miles away from the source of the outbreak in wuhan and you got to remember, it was only five days ago in wuhan that they had that banquet for 10,000 families because they wanted to get in the world record book, and this was on the eve of perhaps the worst epidemic in this century. so people are blaming the communist party for this, of course, because they were completely oblivious or almost oblivious to this until just about three, four days ago. stuart: fascinating. gordon, thanks very much. right on the ball there. appreciate it. thank you, gordon chang. how does this relate to us and our money? market watcher jonathan hoenig with us. jonathan, these events like this virus tend to be short-lived in terms of their impact on our market. what do you say? >> on our market, yes, but you have to be seriously concerned if you are in china or investing in chinese stocks. look, the good news is that these horrible types of whether it's sars or coronavirus, they tend to happen in third world countries. frankly, as gordon alluded to, in less capitalist countries. america, keep in mind we invented hand sanitizer so this isn't going to affect our markets as much as it's going to affect those emerging markets, places where this will spread and spread quickly. in fact, it could even help some american companies, a lot of those small scale and small cap virus manufacturers have shot up 40% and 50%, very small stocks, but they are already reacting on anticipated need for a virus to solve this issue. stuart: hold on a second. i will deal with a couple earnings reports and the impact on their stocks. first of all, american express. they reported early this morning and they reported higher revenue. let's see if we can get the stock up. this is premarket. it's up three bucks. that amounts to 2.3%. nice gain for amex. intel posted strong posts. they got a boost from personal computers and data center chips. look at them go, 5% up for intel. $3 higher at $66. broadcom sealing a deal to put components in apple smartphones. that's very very good news. the stock's up 3.5%, $11 higher. now let's switch gears for a moment. white house economist larry kudlow on lou dobbs last night, talking european executives saying they were surprised, european executives surprised by our economic success. watch this. >> we visited with a lot of the ceos at several dinners and lunches and whatnot. probably a couple hundred ceos. and what i heard again and again was oh, i had no idea of the facts, i had no idea of the achievement. i think one of the -- well, actually, there's something to that. i mean, again, this cognitive dissonance that's running around in the country with bad information. stuart: actually, it's distorted information if you ask me. how is it that european executives at that level had no idea about our success? what the devil's going on? >> i'm kind of surprised about that. european executives, they are very aware that america is where it's at. america is the strongest economy, the strongest market, probably in history, certainly in our lifetime, and european executives unfortunately i think don't understand why. that's of course we are the most free, the most prosperous economies are always the most free and so much of europe is suffering under decades and decades of an entitlement state, big taxation, big government and businesses oftentime are stuck in the middle of that. they are wondering why is america so prosperous, it's because america is so free. stuart: open your eyes, you socialists. gaze upon capital success. isn't it great, jonathan? ain't it great? >> god bless america. stuart: yes, sir. thanks for being with us. see you again next week. got it. check futures. still moving up at the opening bell. it's a friday morning. 60 up for the dow, 5 for the s&p, 25 for the nasdaq. happening later today, president trump attends the march for life rally in washington, d.c. he's the first president to do that. you are going to watch it and see it right here. coming up on your video screens, mexican security intercepting buses filled with hundreds of central american migrants. they were making their way to the u.s. mexico has sent them back to their home countries. in our next hour, i will talk to tom homan, the immigration guy. has the tide turned? good question. and we have this. a father confronting elizabeth warren over canceling student debt. she played defense on this one. he was mad. we'll be back. we're carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old, we want to buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate, answer a few questions, and our techno-wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot, and pick up your car. that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way-- at carvana. doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. stuart: a tense exchange between elizabeth warren and the father of a college student. watch this. >> my daughter [ inaudible ] i saved all my money. am i going to get my money back? you are going to pay for people who didn't save any money, who didn't do the right thing? >> [ inaudible ]. >> my buddy bought a car, went on vacation. i saved my money. he makes more than i do. i worked a double shift -- you're laughing. we did the right thing and we get screwed. stuart: whoa. jonathan hoenig, sorry to dismiss you a moment ago. come back in. the man's got a point. he scrimped and saved and everybody else gets it for free. what's going on? >> this is so inspiring, a very honest moment. it almost reminded me of 2008, the joe the plumber moment where barack obama said no, we're just going to spread the wealth around. a very honest question from a middle american, regular everyday working guy. his question is very spot-on. this is basic fairness, stuart. why are those who are responsible, who pay their debts, punished so others can just get the free ride from government. warren's response i think was just so disingenuous, such an insult, it just reeks of that collectivism, exactly like obama, that notion of we are all in it together so you got to sacrifice for the greater good. stuart: glad we held you over there. that was good stuff. thank you. now let's bring in senator mike braun, republican, indiana. mr. senator, i'm sure you heard that exchange. what's your reaction? >> that's just part and parcel of once we get through impeachment, the whole idea of green new deal, forgiving student debt, when you've got a father like that that makes a great point, analogous to folks that come into this country legally talking about illegal immigration. we got so many other things to talk about, we are being dominated now by a process that we will get through and we will get back to stuff like that but when you actually see president trump go up against the agenda of the democrats whether moderate or extremists, that's when the american public will really sit up and pay attention. stuart: i've got to ask you about the impeachment trial. i know you've got to be there. how are you holding up? because from a distance, i mean, i can't bear to much wa watch i television but from a distance it looks thoroughly boring and looks like it's degenerating into farce. >> the only way you can be enthralled by this is if you didn't listen to any of it in the house, and there were three versions there and i watched it closely, and there's not one new piece of information that has come forward. it's repackaged, remarketed, and you know what happens when you do that, that means it's a flimsy product in the first place and we are getting through that. one other point. a good friend from my hometown, jasper, indiana, president of the school board, i served with him for four years, or for ten years several years ago, says don't lose sight of what we see which is a partisan effort to take out a president, you know, to delegitimize the election in 2016 and he said that's what's going to drive the public as we get through this impeachment farce that's based on a flimsy circumstantial case, on a quid pro quo. there was not an actual quid pro quo so they are trying to build a circumstantial case. it's not going to work. stuart: i just want to carry this forward, because you have a news conference coming up in two hours with senator lindsey graham. give us a preview. what's this about? >> well, probably lindsey and i along with a few others, every other day or so, are going to get out there and make sure that the public is hearing, you know, what's happening here in impeachment. chuck schumer and many on their side have been trying to bolster the case and we heard it ad nauseam now for two days. finally it will be over. i checked the clock last night to see if they were going to use their full 24 hours. they had nine hours and 47 minutes left with exactly about an hour and 47 minutes to go so yes, we will hear another eight hours of it tonight. we are going to get our point of view out there so you don't possibly think that just by getting overloaded with informati information. time of possession is not going to win this. it will be the underlying issues and their case is flimsy. that's why they think they can swamp us with overload of information. stuart: senator, you just have to put that fidget spinner away, stop doing the crossword puzzle and don't try to sneak out for coffee. >> and have a stash of snacks maybe in your drawer there which i think all of us have found a way to get through this. stuart: we feel for you, senator. we do. senator braun, come see us again. thank you, sir. appreciate it. now this. bayer facing its fourth cancer lawsuit in the united states over roundup. ashley: yeah. the ingredient glyphosphate. they had other cases and in each case, the verdict was against bayer. this fourth trial scheduled to get under way today in st. louis which, by the way, is the headquarters of monsanto, that bayer bought in 2018. the case in this particular trial, there were four individuals who all claim they were diagnosed with nonhodgkin's lymphoma all because of roundup. from day one, from the very beginning, bayer denies all of these claims, saying that glytos n phosphate does not cause cancer. they say regulators around the world have approved this product. we have also seen big monetary awards against bayer in these cases. interesting to see how this works out. trial number four, bayer has lost the first three. there's more than 75,000 cases still out there. stuart: there is, i believe, talk of a settlement. ashley: possibly. stuart: looking at maybe $10 billion? ashley: the growing number of people who have brought suits decided i'm going to go through with the trial. for bayer this has been a complete nightmare. stuart: ash, thank you. check futures. we are still -- actually we moved up a little. now we will be up 90, nearly 100 points for the dow industrials at the opening bell. our president, yeah, he loves to tweet. you know that. yesterday, he broke his daily tweet record. you won't believe how many times he did it. we will tell you after this. wh? so. what's on your mind? we are a 97-year-old firm built for right now. edward jones. it's time for investing to feel individual. by consolidating your credit card debt into one monthly payment. and get your interest rate right so you can save big. get a no-fee personal loan up to $100k. get a no-fee personal loan ♪ g♪ i want to go, go,es go where my baby is ♪ hey. hey. you must be steven's phone. now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network. only with xfinity xfi. downlaod the xfi app today. some people say that's ridiculous. i dress how i feel. yesterday i felt bold with boundless energy. this morning i woke up calm and unbreakable. tomorrow? who knows. age is just an illusion. how you show up for the world, that's what's real. what's your idea? i put it out there with a godaddy website. make the world you want. stuart: president trump broke his daily record for tweets wednesday. how many? lauren: 142 tweets on wednesday when the impeachment trial was going on here at home and the president was touting america abroad at davos at the world economic forum. 142 is a lot of tweets but 124 of them were retweets, retweets of his message how he's trying to communicate that, a, i'm watching the impeachment trial and this is what i think about it. stuart: i don't -- i'm not surprised at this. the media in america gives him a very hard time, is not objective, they hate him, so he tweets, goes over the top of everybody and starts his own news service. what's wrong with that? ashley: he talks directly to the base. stuart: exactly. all right. it's friday morning. we open the market, four and a half minutes' time. we will go up. 80 for the dow, 6 for the s&p, 27 for the nasdaq. back in a moment. it's a thirteen-hour flight, that's not a weekend trip. fifteen minutes until we board. oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets? 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