Will have issues producing energy so lets go out and buy 10 billion or 20 billion worth of oishlgs fil, fill up the res. The oil market has nothing to do with the coronavirus other than theres just a lot less demand at this point. But youre right, unprecedented issues. Maria yeah. No surprise, russia would pile on just in the middle of a crisis for the United States and say im not going to cut production. Secretary mnuchin, a pleasure to have you. Thanks very much for the clarity. We appreciate it. Thanks, maria. Great to be with you. Maria see you soon. Secretary mnuchin. We cut into varneys time. Stu, my sincere apologies. Varney Company Begins right now. Have a great day, everybody. Stuart good morning, maria. Good morning, everyone. If i may just say very quickly, the key sentence to me from listening to secretary mnuchin was we will destroy this virus and the economy will come roaring back. We will go back to a normal world. Good morning, everyone. Lets get going on the program. America actually is shutting down. The president has put the country on a war footing and the closures, like the virus, are spreading. Thats to be expected. More people are being tested, more people are testing positive. So the social distancing rules intensify. Napa the latest area ordered to shelter in place. In other words, you stay home. Towns and cities across the country look so different from just a few days ago. Ghost towns, really empty sidewalks. You are going to see Bank Branches close. Jpmorgan shutting 1,000 chase branches. Will they reopen in the era of electronic banking . Good question. Factories are closing. Seven auto makers announcing plant shutdowns. Harley davidson suspending production. Thats how america looks and feels right now. Its quiet, empty and shutting down. In washington, the president leads a support and rescue operation for the economy. 500 billion paid directly to individuals. The checks are going out april 6th, may 18th. 500 billion in loans to businesses and much more, we are told, to come. The Federal Reserve keeping the Financial System lubricated. Everybody wants cash. The fed is supplying it. You add it all up, we are spending much more than in the financial crisis of 200708. We are talking trillions, plural. Heres your market action. We are not limit down. The dow closed below 20,000 yesterday. That means most of the gains in the last three years have indeed been wiped out. This morning, futures suggest a loss of about 250 points at the open for the dow, 35 down for the s p, and the nasdaq down maybe 50 points. Limited losses but we were down big time yesterday. Some other crisis indicators for you. Oil off its lows but still at severely depressed prices, 22 per barrel. Gas down to a National Average of 2. 19 and falling fast. Its 1. 83 on average in oklahoma. But 3. 28 on average in california. As for the treasuries, tenyear yield, we are at. 475 . Not that many hours ago, we were around. 6 . Yesterday it was. 7 . So we have come down on the yield. That means money flowing into treasuries and that pushes the price up and the yield down. 0. 475 . This is important. The president leads the virus briefing at 11 00 a. M. Eastern this morning. It has become a daily event and it could move the markets. We begin, though, with what im calling unsettling news. Its a report. Of the 508 people hospitalized with the virus in america, 38 were between the ages of 20 and 54. Lets bring in dr. Marc siegel on this. Doctor, over a third who get it bad enough to be hospitalized are young. What do you make of this . This is a disturbing trend and its an emerging trend. It is not the news we got out of china when it was a huge problem there, cases have obviously flattened over there. I have been hearing this from around the country but its especially true in the northeast, new york and massachusetts. I have heard this. Not all of the patients have underlying medical conditions as well. Still the majority, vast majority, do have underlying medical conditions or are elderly. They are most at risk. People are underlying lung disease. It does bring to mind is there a coincidence of people that are smoking but we havent been able to determine that yet. One of the problems here is that theres going to be a lack of ventilators and the hospitals are being overwhelmed in new york and the cases have skyrocketed over the last week. So the hospitals are not prepared for this. There are diversionary tactics. They are training doctors like me, internists, to take care of patients with covid19. As you know, the u. S. Navy ship comfort is going to be coming here in early april and will bring a 1,000 bed hospital to off the shore here in new york city. That will not be to quarantine covid19 patients. It will be to take the overflow for other problems, emergency surgeries, 12 operating rooms on that ship. Incredible, incredible ship the u. S. Navy has. Stuart heres what im taking away from this. The young are at risk. If they get it, they can get badly hit by it. But the hospital ships are on the way. Got it. Stay there, please. I want to come back to you frequently. On this issue of ventilator production, we understand medtronic is doing something about it . Ashley this is a ventilator maker based in ireland. They are ramping up production to try and get as many ventilators out there as possible. They recognize that theres a tremendous demand for it. They say they cant totally fill the gap but they have literally decided to go 24 7 with their operations. They have already managed to increase production by 40 to date. They say they hope to double their capacity in the short term. Stuart whats this, ford and General Motors . Ashley General Motors in particular, word that perhaps gms mary barra, the ceo, has already looked into the possibility of using idle car plants to actually start manufacturing ventilators. Stuart General Motors and ford . Ashley absolutely. They are looking into that possibility. Also, ford said we are ready to help in any way, including the production of ventilators and elon musk of tesla says we will make ventilators if there is a shortage. A lot of people saying they will pitch in. Stuart okay. Ashley just like world war ii, when other factories were used to help in the war. Stuart the president put it on war footing and thats a wartime kind of approach, do this now. Got it. Lets go overseas and check whats happening there. I tell you now, weve got 475 deaths reported in one day in italy. But china, whats happening there, susan . Susan actually, china recorded zero, no new domestic cases of coronavirus for the very First Time Since this epidemic broke out. They said they saw 34 imported cases, with those that were traveling back from overseas into china. But its interesting because you mentioned italy. In china, 3200 deaths have stemmed from coronavirus. That actually less than what they see in europe. Europe has reported 4,000 deaths. As you mentioned, italy saw its highest number of fatalities just reported on wednesday. Stuart staggering number. 475 deaths in italy. Susan, thanks. Lauren simonetti is with us this morning. They are closing the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Lauren this is the First Time Ever that no traders will be on the floor on monday while electronic trading goes on. They are doing take because there are two cases that they know of coronavirus at the New York Stock Exchange, one person who works for the exchange, one person, a trader. They had temperature checks when they came in last week, they were sent home, they were tested for coronavirus. They tested positive, last in that building on friday. The question for investors, we will see this play out on monday, will there be disjointment or higher volatility particularly at the open and the close trying to find price points, thats when humans are pretty instrumental. But also, a lot of investors sitting at home trading electronically dont care if a stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange or nasdaq. They might not notice. Stuart to me the significance of this story is you get two people testing positive and everybody around them gets out. Lauren yep. Stuart any Group Situation with a positive test, you got a problem for the whole group. Thats whats making things shut down so rapidly, i think. Lauren, thank you. Stay there. Back to you shortly. Scott martin, Kingsview Wealth Management kind of guy. Look, weve got the cavalry coming in bigtime from the government, spreading the money around all over the place. Is that going to put a bottom on the market . Eventually it will, stuart. Youre right, the money is flying and flying fast out of many, many helicopters. They used to refer to ben bernanke as helicopter ben. This is going to be helicopters trump and mnuchin. But it is the right thing to do. I think one problem, though, that we have seen if we take a clue from the market so far is its not enough. It has not been impressive in terms of wall streets appetite and as they continue to maybe refine and readjust the notes that will be coming out of d. C. , i think thats when the market may realize that help is definitely on the way. Stuart what does wall street want . If theyre looking at the administration saying hey, what are you going to do for us, what do they want . I think they want one of two things. One of them is not very great but it might be the best. Ill tell you what that is in a second. I will bury that for a second. Wall street wants trillions of dollars of backstopping on some of these bank loans. Wall street wants trillions of dollars and i hate to say those words of backstopping in the mortgage market. I talked to a couple very very Smart Mortgage traders yesterday at some major, major Mortgage Companies in the country and mortgages just arent trading right now. Nobody wants to buy or sell stuart okay. We got a problem there. Okay. Ive got a problem with the transmission right there. We will try to fix that up. I do want to point out the Federal Reserve has just entered into its third emergency package, shoving liquidity into the market, big bucks, in other words. The third package in two days. I think thats the kind of help that might help wall street. Well see. We are only down 200 points on the dow before the opening bell. Now, weve got some developments to keep you in touch with. First, starbucks. Whats going on . Ashley trying to reassure investors. The ceo, chief executive Kevin Johnson saying you know what, we did learn from our experience in china, having to shut down some 50 of those stores in china. They lost at least 400 million estimated revenue in china alone. He says this is a quote, temporary business setback and again, learning from china, he says he is battling some i guess you could say some sort of mutiny from starbucks workers that are still working. Theres a letter going around, 16,000 signatures saying we shouldnt be working, we should not even through a drivethrough situation, i know you shut down the dining area but they say coffee is not a necessity and you shouldnt be risking our health. Thats in america. They are calling themselves the committee of concerned baristas and plan to walk out on monday because they believe their concerns are not being answered. Stuart thats a development. We noted it. Thank you very much. Now, the auto industry, seven auto makers are shutting some factories. Harley davidson is suspending operations. Susan, give me an update on tesla and their plans. Susan thats right, theres a shelterinplace order across california that includes Alameda County where the fremont factory is that makes most of the model 3s around the world and the new model y crossover. Yesterday there were reports in the parking lot thousands of cars were being parked, employees were still going to work and there is some confusion about whether or not this is violating the shelterinplace order. According to tesla, they have struck a deal with the county for now. They say the factory will stay open and reduce its work force from 10,000 to 2500 just in case. But some were confused as to whether or not elon musk was again going against the rules and laws. Stuart again. We will be back to you in a second. Lauren, come in, please. Two house members tested positive, house of representatives . Lauren a democrat and republican. Representative Mario Diazbalart and from florida, and ben mcadams from utah, both under selfquarantine. Some of those who had been in contact with them are also putting themselves under selfquarantine. This raises questions. My opinion here, law makers will act fast, over the phone meetings, get something done. Stuart its like the New York Stock Exchange. Two people test positive, everybody around them quarantine. Two members of the house of representatives test positive, does everybody have to leave . Quarantine for everybody . I dont know the answer to that question. Ashley i would say yes based on everything we know. How could you not . You could very well have been exposed. You have someone who definitely tested positive. Stuart if you are sitting around in a debate, close to him ashley what option do you have . Lauren we go with speed over perfection. What Mitch Mcconnell said yesterday is perfect. They are going to get stuff done a lot faster now because this is a wartime footing, a health emergency. We are trying to stay alive. Stuart got it. Thank you. Brad blakeman is with us. You heard that news about two house members testing positive. Does that seriously interfere with the operation of congress . Not at this point but it certainly could. This is a continuity of government challenge that we have. We cannot put our government officials at risk. We have three branches of government. They have to continue. The question is how will they. There are ways to do that. As Mitch Mcconnell said, theres ways to delay votes where the chamber is open longer, less members have to be there. Perhaps teleporting votes from remote locations is going to be the next step. But the first and foremost is we have to protect the American People and the continuity of government. We have to keep running the best we can and we have to be nimble enough to change with the times. Stuart how about this fight with china over the virus . Im referring now to a report in axios which details china covering up the outbreak. The report suggests that had china come out with it three weeks prior to when they did, admit what was going on, if it had done that three weeks prior, we would have 95 fewer cases and it wouldnt have spread around the world so fast. Thats the report. What do you have to say about that . China should not be inoculated from their own negligence. Im being kind. Negligence is not necessarily intended act act of intent, i think they intended to do this because they did not want to let others know what was happening in their country. They thought they could contain it. They could not. And what did they do . They waited until the very last moment until it was the point of no return to let us know what was going on. We offered help originally, as you remember, and it was rejected. We offered to send our best experts over there. They should be held to account and responsibility. They have a lot to answer for. We should not let them off the hook. Stuart we have a tit for tat situation going on here. President trump calls it the chinese virus and has repeated that a couple of times. Meanwhile, china has kicked out or removed the dreencredentials some reporters for the new york times, wall street journal, Time Magazine and voice of america. We have a tit for tat spat here. Seems to me like a new cold war. Look, we have to protect our own population. We also have to hold china to account so they dont do this again. China has a history of lying, cheating and stealing. This is just another example of what they have done to hide their bad activity. The president is right to call them out for it. We called the hong kong flu the hong kong flu. We called sars, sars for a reason. And we call lyme disease after the place it came from in connecticut. You dont see peoples hair on fire because of that. It is what it is. China is trying to deflect responsibility and they are not going to get away with it. Stuart 11 00 eastern time this morning, the president heads up another of the virus briefings. Hes taking a very much proactive leadership position here. It seems to me hes assembling the cavalry, that is the money. We keep hearing about more and more money going to be coming on board to stabilize the economy. Hes taking a leadership position right out front now. Absolutely. This is exactly the type of leadership we need. We are at a crisis point. We are at war. Its all hands on deck. The president has made it very clear. I have been on Conference Calls with the white house. They are sparing no expense. They are sparing any idea that is a good idea, they are listening to it. They have the best professionals in the world. We are going to get through this and be stronger from it. Stuart secretary mnuchin says we will destroy this virus and the economy will come roaring back. Thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it. Next guess, gregory rogano, adviser to Stanford Universitys school of medicine. Sir, please tell me more about this new study that what is it, you have the hcq, chloroquine, that actually works. Tell me about this as a treatment. Yes. Before we go into the study i want to reiterate that President Trump has the authority to authorize the use of hydroxycolhydrox hydroxychloroquine against coronavirus immediately. Based on this study out of the south of france, by the most eminent Infectious Disease specialist in the world, an md ph. D. He showed that 100 of patients were cured within six days taking a combination of hydroxychloroquine and zithromycin. Stuart so you get it, you treat it with this and you can be walking away, you can be cured here . Correct. Most importantly, these are two generic drugs that are very inexpensive, have been around for a very long time and have very quality safety profiles. This co