On the dow. Stocks now on pace to finish the week in the red. Those big name tech stocks we follow so closely every day, down again. We have news of a possible delay of the new iphone and apple was responsible for yesterdays market selloff as well. News on the virus. President trump says now is not the time to be holding a big event in florida, canceling the jacksonville portion of the Republican Convention. The rnc will join us in the 11 00 hour to talk about that. To chicago, where two Christopher Columbus statues came down overnight. Just as a way to appease the protesters. We will see what tom homan has to say about that in our next hour. But lets end on a positive note, shall we . It is feedback friday. Always fun. Theres stu smiling. Yes, baseball is back. Dr. Anthony fauci throwing out the first pitch of the baseball season. It wasnt great. You could say he flattened the curve with that one. Whoa. Just outside. The ceo of fox sports and Keith Hernandez joins us on baseballs return. Jampacked starstudded show as always. Im Ashley Webster. Varney Company Begins right now. Ashley lets take a look at the futures. We mentioned the trending lower after china closes an american consulate in that country in retaliation for the chinese consulate being closed in houston. As you can see, down. 33 on the dow, the s p down nearly 1 , though, on the nasdaq. Time to bring in jonathan hoenig, fox news contributor. Jonathan, could this whole spat, this tit for tat, derail the trade deal with china, the bigger trade deal . Well, it easily could, especially since this issue of whats going on with china and trade in particular affects the most important stocks in the market right now. You could almost say as goes big tech, so goes the nation, certainly so goes the stock market. Without the five biggest tech stocks we talk about, that we always talk about, the s p would actually be down year to date. Six tech stocks make up, what, 50 of the nasdaq 100 so those big stocks impacted by china in particular trade are starting to weaken and i think it has to give one reason for concern, when you see stocks like that give up 10 in just a few weeks, or apple as you talked about, down hard yesterday and now the target of government investigations. Lot of concerns over tech end up in concerns over the market. Ashley as the money comes out of tech, take a look at gold. Prices soaring. These are the tradesensitive premarket. Take a look at gold, up another 7. 50. Really moving in to 1900. Again, tensions with china. Are you buying gold, jonathan . Yeah. I think this is look, we have been talking about it for at least a year. Gold is up, what, 30 over that one year. Lot of things in golds favor right now. Tensions over china, certainly uncertainty over the virus and the government response, and in particular, a weakening of the u. S. Dollar. Not to get too into the weeds but the lower the value of the dollar goes, the higher the value writ large of commodities goes. Gold, silver. People forget, back in 20082009, gold was the bitcoin of that era. You are seeing a lot of money flowing to gold right now. 11 consecutive weeks of mutual fund money coming into gold and the trend given the chart i think probably continues. Ashley all right. As always, great stuff. Jonathan, thanks for joining us this morning on this friday. Moving on, the rising virus cases are obviously impacting not just the stock market but also the economy and the election. Lets bring in economist greg valliere. How concerned are you about the impact on the economy from as we see this growing number of virus cases and perhaps the potential for more closures . Fairly worried, ashley. Yesterdays Employment Data were not good. Unemployment claims rose. Beyond that, i do think we need a stimulus bill. We need something for state and local governments, something for businesses, liability reform, we need another check to individuals and the entire process has gridlocked. Its broken down. Mitch mcconnell will not have a bill ready until early next week. A lot of republicans have issues with his bill. I think were at least a week away before they even begin negotiating with nancy pelosi. Thats not a good story, either, for the overall economy. Ashley greg, where are you standing in this perhaps split gop . Would you prefer to see a payroll tax cut as per larry kudlow, or Steven Mnuchin, treasury secretary, says we need to get direct payments out there . Which one do you prefer . I think the direct payments would inject, infuse some capital right away. I understand the argument for a payroll tax cut. I get it. I get the wall street journal editorial this morning. But at the same time, the republicans are at risk of a Public Relations disaster, if this drags on for weeks and people have no unemployment aid, if the economy starts to really fizzle, the republicans will get most of the blame. Ashley do you see the economy just bumping along until we can essentially find a vaccine and a treatment for covid . Thats a good point. I think yes. We may have to wait until winter before we see anything that will bring us out of this. But there are things that can be done fairly soon. Im hopeful that before Congress Goes on its recess on august 7th, they will pass a bill. But its going to take another two or three weeks to get one. Ashley how, you know, every day is vital for a business trying to hang on. The damage being done as we sit here and talk is pretty substantial, is it not . Yes, it is. I understand the argument that the deficit has really exploded. Thats something we will have to deal with later in the decade. For right now, this is triage. We still have to save the patient and things dont look as good for the economy right now as they did even a month ago. Ashley all right. On that happy note, we have to leave it there. Greg valliere, thank you so much for joining us today. Telling it as it is. Thank you. Lets check apple, if we can. Bring in susan li. Susan, new report says they will push the iphone 12 event, i guess the launch, back to late october. Why . Susan instead of september, the last few years. Production delays which have been really welldocumented, is behind this. Especially as we head into the 5g super cycle. These are the first iphones with 5g capability so its a bit more complicated. We are hearing this from the Japanese Apple blog, and they are predicting four new 5g iphones will be available for release and sale in november, and analysts say as long as we get iphones ready to sell by the holidays it will all be fine. Apple shares falling yesterday by 4 , down in the premarket session this morning and losses really accelerated after that axios report in the afternoon that multiple states are probing apple for what they call Consumer Protection violations. I want to caution going through this report, they only mention texas, no other states, and texas didnt respond and it didnt specify what exactly the violations were. Apple didnt have any comment. Also, that big tech antitrust hearing in washington, d. C. On monday was cook, bezos, pichai and zuckerberg looks unlikely which is disappointing because how else are you going to get all four of these big tech ceos to come together once again. Ashley not easy task. All right, susan, thank you very much. Lets take a look at intel, if we can. Lets bring in lauren simonetti. Lauren, they had a big Second Quarter but the stock is getting absolutely hammered, down more than 13 . Lauren and set to shave about 52 points off the dow. Look, this is despite intel reporting a 22 increase in profit and 19. 7 billion in revenue. They are benefiting from work from home. Pc sales up 7 . Companies and employees demanding faster processing speeds and sales of its server chips rose 43 , but heres the problem. Intel is warning of significant delays of its newest, fastest chip. May even have to use a third party to make them and investors are worried about lost market share with the delay. So thats why shares are down 13. 5 today. Backlash on wall street. Ashley yeah. No kidding. Big backlash. Lauren, thank you. By the way, the faa is ordering emergency inspections for boeing 737 aircraft that have been in storage, who havent flown for seven days or more. The inspections were sparked by concerns over engine problems. Boeing this morning down almost 1 at exactly 175 or thereabouts in the premarket. Big Companies Reporting this morning, the earnings season goes on. First, american express. They reported a surprise bump in profits but their revenue was down last quarter because, well, a decline in credit card spending and a lower average discount rate. That stock down close to 1 . Check verizon, if we can. They say, the company says the pandemic impacted its ad spending. Revenue and profits, though, were still higher than wall street expected. That stock up marginally about. 25 , at 56. Lets take a look at those futures, if we can. We can see the dow now down triple digits, 118 points, before we actually open for real. The s p down half a percent. Now the nasdaq, that is down close to 1. 25 . Yes, baseball is back and we have two big hitters on the show today. Fox sports ceo eric shanks and twotime world series champion Keith Hernandez. Plus a live report from Wrigley Field. Dont miss that. Here we go again. Two of chicagos Christopher Columbus statues are now a thing of the past after being removed overnight. Looks like the angry protesters got their way. But is tearing down our history now the new norm . We will discuss that. President trump is praising elon musk after urging him to open the tesla plant in texas. Well have sound on that and you will hear it coming up. As china prepares to be evicted from its consulate in houston today, the Chinese Government orders the u. S. To close its consulate in chengdu. Is this payback . Of course it is. That story is next. Stock slices. For as little as 5, now anyone can own companies in the s p 500, even if their shares cost more. At 5 a slice, you could own Ten Companies for 50 instead of paying thousands. All Commission Free online. Schwab stock slices an easy way to start investing or to give the gift of stock ownership. Schwab. Own your tomorrow. Schwab. Apps except work. Rywhere. Why is that . Is it because people love filling out forms . Maybe they like checking with their supervisor to see how much Vacation Time they have. Or sending corporate their expense reports. Ill let you in on a little secret. They dont. By empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business. To learn more, visit paycom. Com ashley tensions with china are worsening, no doubt. The Chinese Communist party is retaliating, closing this american consulate in chengdu, china. Heres what secretary of state mike pompeo had to say. Roll it. This decision about the consulate that was made is consistent with a whole bunch of other actions that weve already taken, a whole bunch more that were going to continue to do until we get the change, until the Chinese Government will get to make its decisions about our diplomats there inside of china, well make sure that we do right by the American People. Ashley lets bring in fred pleitz, former National Security council chief of staff. Now the chinese say they wont leave, possibly wont leave the houston consulate. How is this all going to play out . Ashley, great to be here. Well, they will leave. This is simply international convention. A nation can only remain in a diplomatic facility in another country with consent of the host country. But what we see here, look, we all know that nations spy out of consulates and embassies. Theres an unwritten rule that thats something various nations put up with. But theres a certain line youre not supposed to cross, and apparently in houston, the chinese had some type of industrial scale operation to steal intellectual property. It may have been related to a nearby huawei facility. And the Trump Administration just said enough, were closing the consulate. Ashley its interesting, fred, secretary mike pompeo is urging the Chinese People to change the communist party but its not exactly not like you can look at the ballot and say im not going to vote for you this time, im going to vote for this party. How are they able to do that . Well, its something that the u. S. Government has to speak up against. You know, when we supported china joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, we thought this would lead to responsib responsible responsibility by china in international relations, global trade and maybe it would lead to greater freedoms for the Chinese People. President after president has ignored the fact that this hasnt happened. Well, this president , President Trump, has decided to speak out on it. Not just because of the oppression within china, which is just outrageous, but because of growing efforts by the Chinese Communist party under president xi to engage in an effort to dominate the world, and its something that, you know, we had to press our allies to also stand up to china. Ashley as this develops, fred, does this threaten to derail the trade agreement that is still hanging out there . I think the trade agreement is in trouble. I think this is something that President Trump has struggled with. But with the crackdown in hong kong, the outrageous images of the uighur muslims being persecuted and chinas criminal negligence in the way it mishandled the coronavirus, these are things the u. S. Has to first deal with and have china answer for, especially on the virus. We still dont know the origins of the virus. They still will not allow objective investigators to go to wuhan to find out what happened. Until we get those things resolved, theres going to be real problems in the bilateral relationship. Ashley all right. Have to leave it there. Certainly the tensions are rising, no doubt. Fred, thank you very much for taking time with us this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Want to take a look at moderna. They are down this morning. That stock down more than 7 . The company says their Coronavirus Vaccine might be delayed. Why . Well, because of a patent issue. The government says they do not have a claim over a patent held by a rival company. That is a problem. They need that patent for their vaccine development. Thats not a good piece of news and the stock is moving down in response. Lets check the other drug makers. President trump, by the way, will sign an executive order on drug pricing today. Lets bring Edward Lawrence in. Edward, what does that order say . Reporter yeah. That is basically going to push, try and drive down the cost of prices. The administration has already made a push for generic drugs in order to lower the cost and getting more generic drugs to the market, pushing the cost of drugs down. What this is going to do is its going to direct all departments to try and figure out other ways, other plans, to bring those drug prices down. The president also pushing for schools to reopen but now acknowledging that some School Systems may have to delay because of the surge in cases. The administration saying its no one size fits all when it comes to schools going forward. He says they may have to modify or some may have to modify to do insession inperson learning. Also today, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin back negotiating related to the coronavirus. Hes going to be talking with law makers about whats next in the cares four. The secretary and Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell yesterday laid out exactly what was going to be in that. Its 105 billion for schools, but part of that money if the school does not reopen, then the administration wants that money to go to parents so they can choose a private or Charter School that may reopen in that district. Also in the package, direct payments to americans, talking about Companies Getting another ppp loan as well as vaccines and money for hospitals, and Liability Protection for businesses, churches, nonprofits. Ashley . Ashley all right. Lot in that package. Edward, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Next case, sean hannity interviewed President Trump and the president says he pushed elon musk to build his new factory in texas. Roll that tape. I was with elon musk, i said elon, build a factory in texas. He Just Announced today theyre building one of the biggest plants in the world, auto plants, for tesla, and its going to be in texas. And you know, its great. He called me up just a little while ago to say i got it done. That meeting, he got it done but i was pushing that job very hard from elon. Ashley interesting. Susan, should texas be thanking President Trump there . Susan its a definite victory for austin and texas, no doubt. These 5,000 jobs, over 2,000 acres costing over 1 billion. Musk has said fremont in california, the other u. S. Car production plant, contributes around 5 billion to the states economy and this is one of the few major car plants to be built in the u. S. Over the past decade. It will make the cybertruck, the new semitruck and the model 3, the y, for the eastern half of north america, slated to start production next year. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that tesla didnt receive any state incentive to locate in texas, but we know that austin approved tax incentives totalling around 16 million over