Countries, targeting the development of treatments and vaccines. You heard it here first, back in april, when senator tom cotton joined me on sunday morning futures. You believe that they are stealing intellectual property right now as we speak. I have little doubt that the Chinese Intelligence Services are actively trying to steal americas intellectual property as it relates to the virus that they unleashed on the world. Maria and now we have the of usual word. Breaking the official word. The u. S. Ordered china to close the consolate in houston as reports come in of documents being burned on the site. We have the late echt. Markets looking at a lower opening for the broader averages, futures indicating a decline at the start of trading, 88 points lower on the dow, nasdaq lower 17, s p 500 lower by 10 and a three quarters. The dow and s p 500 continued a winning streak yesterday. The nasdaq took a breather. The nasdaq was down. Its one of the busiest days for earnings this morning, big names reporting including microsoft and chipotle. Many are looking at tesla. The Company Reports earnings tonight. Federal agents are headed to chicago after another night of violence, as violent clashes continue in portland. Our weeklong look at instagram stars continues this morning. Today jack king is here, his astounding illusions have earned him 23 million followers. The magic behind his success, coming up. Mornings with maria is live right now. Global markets are under pressure. The fq100 is down 54, the cac down 53, the dax lower by 41. This as concerns of a coronavirus spike grows in europe. In asia markets were mostly lower with the exception of china, the shanghai composite up a third of a percent, the hang seng down 2 and a quarter percent. Some of the top stories right now. We begin with a fox business alert, the u. S. Ordered the Chinese Government to close the consolate in houston, hours after the announcemen announceme broke out at the building. A state Department Spokesperson said it ordered the closure to protect americas intellectual property and information. Local reports say classified documents were being burned at the cons late. Firefighters consolate. Firefighters itsconsidered chi. China is vowing to retaliate. President Trump Holding his first covid19 briefing in more than two months and issuing a warning about the pandemic which has killed more than 142,000 americans. It will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better. We are in the process of developing a strategy thats going to be very, very powerful. The world is suffering but were going to get it taken care of. Maria meanwhile, on capitol hill, lawmakers are hashing out the details of a new stimulus package, Mitch Mcconnell says the fourth round of assistance will include another round of direct payments to american families. Mcconnell and the Trump Administration said they want to target low income and Unemployed People with this next round. A violent night in chicago, 14 people were shot last night outside of a funeral on the citys south side. Police say an suv pulled up and just started firing. The shooting follows several days of gun violence in the city. The mayor said she will work with federal agencies to fight the violence but is vowing to keep officers out of the city. Unlike what happened in portland, what we will receive is resources that are going to plug into the existing federal agencies that we work with on a regular basis to help manage and suppress Violent Crime in our city. Ive been very clear that we welcome actual partnership but we do not welcome dictatorship. We do not welcome authoritarianism. We do not welcome unconstitutional arrests and detainment of our residents. Maria federal officers are under fire in portland this morning, accused of using unlawful tactics. Today a judge will consider a temporary restraining order to restrict federal Law Enforcement in the city. Investors are eyeing the busiest day for Second Quarter earnings this morning, futures indicating a decline at the start of trading. Later, microsoft and tesla will report after the close tonight. Tensions with china a focus this morning. Yesterday the dow industrials up on stimulus and vaccine hopes. But closing off of the highs of the session by 4 00. The nasdaq in the red after hitting an alltime high earlier in the day, a reversal of fortune by the close, dow industrials finishing up about 160 points, the nasdaq was lower by 86. Joining me right now is chief investment officer, steven auf. Also joining is dagen mcdowell, Cabot Phillips and Francis Newton stacy. Great to see everybody this morning. Thank you for being here. Steven, lets kick it off with you. Is earnings the focus or Something Else . Whats driving markets this morning and over the near term . Yeah, i mean, near term its going to be pretty choppy, maria, as ive been saying. Were not seeing a sharp recovery on the industrial financials, the value side of the market. Most of the earnings are coming out and people are a little disappointed, i think. On the other hand, its not falling apart either and everyone is looking forward to when we get through this crisis. We know that stocks are going to be worth a lot more, thats the challenge for investors right now, on a two to three year view, stocks are going a lot higher, pretty clearly. The problem is, in the near term, weve got a lot of chop. The growth side of the market has already had a great run and the stocks have to grow into the prices. So i think were kind of just chopping wood and then weve got to get through the election. So its a choppy market from here, i think, to at least november. Maria a lot of important events you just mentioned there. I want to ask you about valuations. You mentioned these companies are going to grow into their earnings. The shares in u. S. Companies right now are the most expensive that theyve been in almost 20 years. When you look at valuations, particularly in technology and biotech, is it time to less sense up . Is it time to start selling or do you say just hold on with this choppiness . Maria, weve been holding there. You know, weve cut our overweights on stocks in general, though were still overweight. Unlike the tech bubble in the 90s which you and i both managed through, these stocks actually have earnings and cash flows, theyre not like just clicks and things and so youve got a chance here. Maria a great point. I think the stocks are big growth compounders. We dont see them as being terribly expensive but theyre not cheap anymore, thats for sure. They were cheap back in march. So i think theyll grow into their prices easily enough. I wouldnt recommend people unload these stocks here, across the board. I mean, theres some that are maria i think you make a really good point. Francis newton stacy, jump in here. Because back in the 90s we were couldn counting clicks toe website. Now were actually counting revenue. Yes, or were counting unemployment or were counting the fed. My question to you is do you think with the recent uptick in Commodity Prices and decline of the dollar, do you think we have growth going down, inflation going up, or a deflationary risk Going Forward and how do you allocate given the two different scenes . Well, first of all, theres no risk of inflation here. Remember, all this money thats going into the economy globally from fiscal monetary is simply replacing money that would have been made. Its not like excess cash in the economy really. Its keeping the economy liquid. Inflation risk is very low. Look at whats gone on in the bond market. It tells what you the expectation is there. So i dont see inflation as a risk at all. And by the way, maria, with these rates so low, valuations on stocks could go quite a bit higher, actually. In fact, thats one of the reasons to like stocks here. Theyre probably one of the best investments around, particularly just the dividend story is attractive relative to bond veeldz. Yields. Maria the yield on the 30 of year, 1. 9 . When you try looking at dividend payers versus where rates are right now, its pretty extraordinary. Real quick, steven, is markets are markets worried about china. Obviously things are getting heightened here in terms of the discussion between the Chinese Communist party and this administration. I think, maria, markets expect continued back and forth with china here. You know, under the covers, things are moving along fine. U. S. Companies are doing okay over there. But chinas a big part of the Global Economy and weve got to at some point get to some kind of pox with them over the next few years. The News Headlines affect markets but i think longterm well be okay. Maria all right. We will watch that. Steven, its great to see you this morning, thanks so much. Thank you, maria. Maria as always. Have a good day. We are just Getting Started this morning. Coming up, Republican NationalCommittee Chair woman Ronna Mcdaniel is here, with the gop set to hold their convention in jacksonville next month. The ceo of petco is here. At 7 00 a. M. We have the top stories investors are watching this morning in the world on wall street. Connect get state treasurer sean wooden joins us on growing diversity. Phillip Morris International ceo is here on the companys Second Quarter earnings. At 8 00 a. M. We have House Intel CommitteeRanking Member devin nunes on the durham probe. Plus, marco rubio is here on the threat from china as the department of Justice Charges two chinese nationals with hacking data from u. S. Firms. It is insta star week, looking at one influencer whose visual tricks are leaving the social media world speechless. Dont miss it. All that coming up, right after this. This is decision tech. Find a stock based on your interests or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. Maria now this fox business alert, the u. S. Ordering the closure of the chinese consolate in houston. The state department issuing a statement saying we have directed the closure of prc consolate general houston in order to protect American Intellectual property and americas private information. The news coming after local reports overnight that consolate officials were burning documents in the courtyard upon learning of their eviction. China says earlier, saying earlier it will retaliate with, quote, firm Counter Measures should the u. S. Proceed with the move. Joining me right now is retired general and the author of the book stealth ha war, how china k over, general spalding. Thank you for being here. Good morning, maria. Thank you. Maria what an extraordinary story that they started burning documents. What is your reaction to what has taken place in terms of the u. S. Closing down, demanding that the china consolate close down in houston . Well, it seems when i originally saw this, i thought immediately they must be burning documents because theyre getting ready to be evicted and sure enough thats what it is. But i think the interesting thing that im hearing is that they were involved in some of the political activeism thats going on in the United States. So it is interesting to note that they had to call the Fire Department because they had so many documents that they were burning. Maria thats unbelievable. I means we are now cracking down on these hackers but we understand how this has been going on for so long. The u. S. Yesterday accused two former engineering students for allegedly Hacking Computers and stealing trade secrets for more than a decade. The hackers allegedly stole for profit for themselves and for the chinese intelligence, recently targeted firms involved in covid19 vaccine research. You know, we talked about this for some time and this has been going on for a while. I spoke earlier this year with senator tom cotton on sunday morning futures who pretty much predicted this and talked about the importance of protecting intellectual property. Listen to this. You believe that they are stealing intellectual property right now as we speak. Lets talk a bit about that because the whole world is looking for a vaccine and i wonder, is china trying now to come out of this trying to save face, look better than the rest of the world, while coming up with a vaccine before the United States. Whats happening right now with regard to that kind of science . Well, maria, the Chinese Communist party has been stealing americas intellectual property for decades and theyre not going to magically stop in the middle of a pandemic. In the middle of a pandemic, whats the most valuable intellectual property in the world . Its the research that our Great Companies are doing on prophylactic drugs, therapeutic drugs and ultimately a vaccine. I have little doubt that the Chinese Intelligence Services are actively trying to steal americas intellectual property as it relates to the virus that they unleashed on the world because of course they want to be the country that claims credit for finding those drugs or finding a vaccine and then use it as leverage against the rest of the world. Maria general, he was spoton, that was back in april. Our viewers knew this was coming. How are we going to stop china from continuing to steal intellectual property . Well, the whole point of the National Security strategy is to begin to decouple them from the innovation, technology, talent and capital of a free society. You know, everybodys worried about the Economic Impact of decoupling with china. But in reality, what you have is these things, these four incredible things that come out of democracies going into Stateowned Enterprises which are less efficient than marketdriven enterprises and also going into the graft of the Chinese Communist party. So were actually i believe going to see a net gain in our economy over time as we begin to get them out of our system. Maria well, you know, weve gone two andahalf years back and forth on a trade deal. The president has gone back and forth with u. S. Officials here and officials in china and every time they did another iteration of a trade deal, the chinese kept saying no, were not even admitting that were stealing intellectual property. They dont even admit it, general. Now youve got the rest of the world taking notice as well. Secretary of state mike pompeo continuing his trip this morning, his tour of europe, recently arriving in denmark. He spoke with british officials yesterday, speaking on the importance of pushing back on chinese influence. Let me ask you, general, in terms of the rest of the world, are they with us against china . So this is the thing that the media has completely missed. Starting in the First Quarter of 2018, we began a Diplomatic Campaign with our allies and partners. This u. K. Decision is not a flash in the pan. Its taken over two years to put into place. I was in europe last fall, in berlin, in brussels, talked to the german government, talked to the eu, talked to nato. They are all beginning to understand, because of this Diplomatic Campaign, the challenge the Chinese Communist party poses to their democracies. Maria yeah, i mean, look, youve got the u. K. Banning huawei from this 5g infrastructure. Youve got india banning particulabanning tiktokand 58 o. Youve got hong kongers pushing back on the overreach coming out of the ccp. Is this china versus the free world . It absolutely is. Were beginning to resolve into a bipolar world again. Whats happening is chinas gathering all of the authoritarian regimes to itself and a lot of the emerging market economies with the belt and road initiative. They recently signed a strategic agreement with iran. In the United States, what we have been doing slowly, methodically since the First Quarter of 2018 is beginning to gather the democracies behind us. What were looking at is the beginning of a free trade world and a not free trade world led by china. Maria yeah. Real quick, before we go, general, what about Corporate America . You know, companies out there still want to sell widgets and Everything Else to the population in china. Are they getting it, the National Security risks are real . No, theyre not. They still think that they need to be incentiveized by doing business in china, doing business with the communist party. Thats a problem. Maria yeah, it sure is. Its great to have you. Please come back soon, sir. 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