The governor of california recommends the elderly should take shelter in their homes. New york city closes its schools. Many states close bars and restaurants. Hourly workers, in dire straits. The economy is grinding to a halt and we dont know how long this massive disruption will last. All right. Heres the financial reaction. This monday morning, stock futures are limit down and when we open an even bigger drop is expected. That may mean a trading halt. Travel and leisure stocks again beaten down. Airline stocks, decimated. Last night, the fed took emergency action, cutting rates to the lowest level since 2008 and pumping 700 billion into the Financial System. Were waiting for a rescue package from congress. Were waiting to see if the administration will put money directly into the hands of affected workers, helicopter money, for example, and into desperate industries. A kind of modern bailout. So whats next . We will find out in 90 minutes. At 10 30 eastern, Vice President pence holds a briefing. He will reveal quote, additional broadbased recommendations for dealing with the virus. A National Lockdown . The National Security council sent out a tweet last night denying speculation that a lockdown was imminent. Domestic travel restrictions . We dont know. You will see that briefing as it happens. Welcome to varney company. We are in a unique situation and its going to be like this for some time to come. Lets start with this rash of closures, shutdowns all across the country. Ash . Ashley begin with the cdc on the federal levelme. Recommending gatherings of 50 people or more in the United States be canceled or postponed over the next eight weeks. Thats two months. On the local level, new york city, the mayor limiting bar, restaurants and cafes to food takeout or delivery. No dining room should be open. Nig nightclubs, movie theaters, concert venues, playhouses closed. In hoboken, i know you are very familiar with this, they have a nightly curfew. The curfew lasts from 10 00 p. M. To 5 00 a. M. You are required to remain indoors during curfew except for emergencies and required work. Thats you. Illinois, ohio, the list goes on, california, massachusetts, washington, bars are closed, restaurants are closed, carryout or delivery only. This is the l. A. Mayor closing basically everything including the movie theaters and entertainment restaurants. The big question now becomes when do we shut down completely and you know, it feels like theres that movement in that direction but certainly, large restrictions in place already. Stuart the National Security council put out that tweet saying no. Ashley not yet. No. Stuart however, at 10 30 we do have this briefing from Vice President pence, and he will reveal new restrictions. Lets see how far those restrictions go. Got it. Doc siegel is with us, of course. The man of the hour, definitely. Doctor, what have you got for me . Want to start with this idea of what everything thats just been described is called flattening the curve. Theres a fire and you dont want to spread kindling so you separate people, close events, get it so people cant come together. Stuart have we got any idea when we flatten the curve, that is, enough with the sharp rise in new cases and you flatten that curve, when we get there . When . If we have other countries to go by, im talking hong kong, taiwan, singapore and south korea, which has done a tremendous job, i will talk about the testing in a minute, but they flattened the curve, it will take a couple weeks. It should be a couple of weeks. We should be, if this works, and people will comply and not go out to bars, if this really works and we can come together on this, we should be able to do it over a couple weeks. Stuart i have to ask about the testing. My information is that theres, what is it, one million whatever it is tests available this week. Is that accurate . Yeah, but let me talk about that in real terms. I talked to the admiral last night. Hes an intensivist, a great doctor, an assistant secretary of hhs, number two under azar, and he talked to me about what they have been doing. Hes been working 72 hours straight on this. They are doing a rollout now where theres going to be about 50 noeenormous mobile units goi to the hot spots with Health Care Workers, doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, in full gear, haz mat gear, protective equipment, and they are going to be testing people that basically go on a website and give their zip code and they will start with age, people over 65, people with high risk conditions, and they will test them and Health Care Workers because we are most at risk, test them first, then they are anticipating about 100,000 tests over the first week and then the other exciting news is that hospitals are now going to be able to send their tests right to labcorp and quest where Rapid Testing can be done, maybe 200,000 or 300,000 over the first week or two. After another week or two we might be able to get results on about 300,000 people. Let me tell you why thats really exciting. That would really flatten the curve if we can separate out the people who are infected from those who rrarent. That works better than anything else we are talking about here. Stuart only 300,000 tests or whatever the number is . Thats over one week. They are gearing up for larger and larger amount. Stuart we are going to flatten the curve in two weeks time or three weeks time we have to do a lot more testing real fast, havent we . Yes. But keep in mind oh, i want to talk about that in a certain way. Yes, i want the young people tested who have symptoms, too, not just old people, not just high risk people because you know why some because somebody thats 30 years old and sneezing or coughing from a coronavirus could be spreading it to their grandmother when they go home. If we really want to flatten the curve, we have to test everybody thats symptomatic, absolutely. Stuart we dont have the tests available now, do we . We dont. Were not there yet. Stuart no, were not. I was encouraged by what he said last night that we are finally getting wheels on the ground on this, literally wheels on the ground. Stuart okay. Do you think we should go to a National Lockdown . I think the same as dr. Fauci does, we are still not there yet. I think if we can get people to its really stuart were close . Close, but state by state, hot areas need to shut down. Hot areas. Stuart leave it to the states and municipalities . Not leave it to the states. We are in a National Emergency here. Its got to be overseen by the federal government. If it starts to work, i disagree with some other people. I think its still the testing thats the number one issue. If i can separate out sick people, thats the best way to flatten the curve. Youre right, we need that as fast as possible. Stuart im sure you will be with us throughout most of the day. We appreciate that. Thanks very much. Lets get to your money. If youre looking at your screen now, you are seeing bottom righthand corner, actually, there you go, theres futures. The downside move in futures is limited to about 5 . When the market opens, you can go down 7 and if that happens, then you close the market for 15 minutes. Okay . Thats the process. It looks to me like we will be halting the market shortly after the open of trading. Were down. Keith fitz gerald on the phone. Keith fitz, this looks to me like extreme capitulation selling. Is it . You know, stuart, i have been working with that all weekend almost nonstop as well. I dont think were there yet. I think this is the beginning of that process. Stuart do you think, now, there is some talk about closing the market. What do you say to that . You know, i got to tell you, that goes against every bone in my body as a free market guy believing the markets set the prices. However, unless we get the computers out of the equation, this is going to be a White Knuckle ride nobody signed up for. To me, i think it would be logical and prudent to close them for at least a few days, a la 9 11, so that everything can reset and we can reintroduce humans to the process. Stuart all right. Ray dalio, very famous investor, big hitter, i might say, says the coronavirus combined with longterm Interest Rates, zero longterm Interest Rates, quote, really worries me. I guess hes backing up what youre saying, keith. Well, tell you what, hes genius. I have learned a lot from him over the years, respect him immensely. At the end of the day, this is what we have to do. Investors shouldnt pick bottoms. They should pick perspectives. The question im encouraging people to ask themselves is, is the Business Case for owning apple still there. If it is, then the worry about whether its lower tomorrow, next week, a month from now is irrelevant if you are looking at a five to ten year horizon. If you need the money next year thats a different set of calculus. To me this is all about perspective. This is about caution. There are still going to be fundamental growth. It will slow but it will not stop. We have a resilient country. I think thats what people need to take comfort in, as hard as it is. Stuart i agree but m readiim between the lines of what youre saying and i dont think you are predicting a return to the old highs of just five weeks ago any time soon. No bounce back to the old highs any time soon. Is that what youre saying . That is correct, stuart. Stuart okay. By the way, are you out of selfquarantine yet . We are exiting selfquarantine but our entire community is going into lockdown so it may be for moot. Stuart stay on the phone occasionally throughout the day. Id be honored. Stuart judge Andrew Napolitano is here. Judge, you are in a different studio, not sitting right next to me as usual. Ive got this question. What power does the president have to drastically restrict our movement and restrict our behavior . Actually, short of martial law he has very little. The governor of your state has far more authority to restrict movement than the president does. By the way, President Trump has already done just about all he can do under the current state of the law which is a limited declaration of emergency utilizing tools that permit him and him alone to open up a flow of funds to the cdc and to the state and local Health Departments. Anything beyond that such as helicopter money about which you spoke earlier, or the physical restraint of people would require legislation from congress for which he has not yet asked. Stuart could he restrict Domestic Travel . In other words, say hey, seattle, you got to stay there, you cant leave, and you, you live in new jersey, you cant go to seattle. Does he have the power to say that . Yes. He can restrict interstate travel. He could stop someone, youre not going to like to hear this, he could stop someone traveling from new jersey to new york. He could certainly stop someone from traveling to new york to washington state. But he cant stop you from traveling within the state that youre located in because thats not interstate. That would be rather extreme and its never happened. It didnt even happen after 9 11. Stuart do local authorities have the power to say hey, you, stay in your home, dont go out, and if you do go out, we will arrest you . Or stop you in some way . Does the local authorities have that power . You know, its a very close call. For example, in hoboken where the mayor has said you got to be in your house after 10 00, well, why . If youre walking from your house to your place of work or your house to buy needed medication at a pharmacy or your house to a food store because youre hungry, how can he restrain that kind of movement . That type of restraint probably should be done on an individualized basis meaning if you have the disease and you are contagious and you refuse to stay away from others who do not have the disease, then your movement can be restrained. Stuart i know that you have real problems with any restraint on our individual lib rts and freedom. Do you think there should be some limited exceptions because this is a remarkably unique situation . I think there will be some limited exceptions. Look, we still have a constitution. The rule of law still applies and due process still applies. However, in a time of crisis like this, whether its 9 11 or now, the courts show exceptional deference to the judgment calls made by the executive branch when the executive branch gives good, rational basis for what it does. Were relying on scientific evidence. Were relying on what the physicians have told us. Were not doing this because we like getting into peoples faces or for governmental convenience. Were doing it to stop this disaster from getting worse. Stuart judge, excellent stuff. Thank you for joining us. No doubt you will be back either today, tomorrow, next hour. You will certainly be back. Thank you very much indeed. Now, we know bars and restaurants are being closed across the country, not in every state, but theres a movement there. I want to know about stores that dont sell groceries or pharmaceuticals. Whats the story there . Susan apple is probably the biggest one that announced this weekend they are closing all stores outside of china until march 27th. There are hundreds of stores involved. Nike, doing the same here in the u. S. , closing until march 27th. Under armour, lululemon, abercrombie fitch, thats a lot of stores. Stuart they are closing, too . Closed totally . Susan yes. Stuart not limited store hours, closed . Susan right. Limited store hours apply to walmart and target and the like. Starbucks says we are closing all high traffic stores and you can only do carryout service. You cannot drink your coffee within the actual cafes themselves. This is to limit exposure and social distancing that many people are promoting. But what about, we know apples and nikes of the world can afford to close their stores for two weeks. They will be fine. They have a lot of money and cash on hand, Big Companies. What about the small players and Small Businesses . You would imagine they probably cant afford to close their doors for two to four weeks. Stuart isnt that where the helicopter money comes in . Susan you would hope. Stuart i dont know what format the assistance takes but when youve got closures on this magnitude and scope and scale, the little guy is getting clobbered. You have to believe the government has a responsibility to come in and put a floor under them financially. Susan small and Medium Size Enterprises represent about 60 of the employment in this country. Its a big deal for them to get help and some sort of credit line amidst these closures and unknowns. Assist just stuart i have three people with me and i want to go around the block here. Doctor, you are a physician, for heavens sake. Whats the mood like in the hospitals . Whats it like on the streets . Fear. Fear and hysteria and worry and thats one of the reasons i want more numbers. If i have the numbers i can help calm fears. You are negative, you dont have it. Another thing i want to mention to you, your point about testing, they are working on a swab you can do to yourself. If they get that, and thats approved, that will be millions and millions of results quickly. Also, the vaccine, very good news today on the vaccine from moderna, the one dr. Fauci is most interested in, is starting Clinical Trials now. Stuart new york city, ghost town. Susan ghost town. I have never seen it like this. Im not scared but people are behaving like its the end of the world, thats when you get very scared. Stuart the responsible thing is keep social distance. Ashley i was out saturday and sunday in manhattan and there were still people in bars, mainly young people who seem to have this attitude of im not in the target group, im fine. But theyre not because they can be carriers, right . Right, and they get on planes and spread it to older people. Stuart i haeard you this morning, isnt there an example of a concert in boston . It started an explosion in the area . I have inside intel on that. In massachusetts, around boston, there were several concerts at the same time. It led to an outbreak of cases and has led to actual tragically, patients on ventilators in one of the medical centers up there, including a couple of young people. Its not only, only older people that are getting sick. Stuart this is an extraordinary story. Look on your screens. You will see the impact on the stock market. We are limit down. We will be limit down probably within a couple minutes of opening the market. We expect a closure if we are down 7 on the s p. Andy puzder is with us, former cke restaurant ceo. In china in the first part of this year, the Restaurant Business is down 43 . Thats gigantic. Do you expect something similar here . Im hearing from people in the Restaurant Industry, im hearing down 20 , 30 . Now, weve got a lot of restaurants that have delivery Curbside Service and drivethrough. As long as the states and cities allow Curbside Service, delivery and drivethrough to go on, i think most restaurants, most smaller restaurants will survive. The danger is for the Big Restaurants where you need a reservation or where they depend on dining, dining in for their profitability. Those restaurants will have a problem. Stuart do they need a bailout . I dont like to i donuse that w but im thinking more in terms of a rescue from the government . There is 50 billion out there in sba loans. I would think those funds should be made rapidly available to people in the Restaurant Industry or other industries that are affected. The sba loan process is complex, its difficult to get through. They ought to simplify it, make it very easy and make the Funds Available to businesses that are suffering today. Stuart in china, in the first couple months of this year, year to date, i should say, Industrial Production is down 13 , retail sales are down 20 . Thats their experience. I dont see how we can avoid a recession. In fact, i think we might be getting into one now. What say you . Gary cohn said over t