Transcripts For CNBC Fast Money Halftime Report 20240713

Jim, is it short answer is yes but lets qualify it just because today is a day to buy doesnt mean we cant go lower from here. Look, when you say is it a time to buy, it doesnt mean you pile into the market today. It means over the coming days. There are still Big Questions to be answered. We know theres an Economic Impact and we know theres going to be a profit impact. The question is how long does it last thats one question. Which we just simply dont know the answer to. The second question is what policy response . Now on that second question lets say this theres a heck of a lot of room for improvement and thats a good thing so, yes, it is a time to buy but for Goodness Sake please pace it out over the coming days steve, cramer today i dont want people to buy, cash is king, says he has a huge amount of cash. We would not be buyers until we take out mondays low which on the s p 500 was 2734 market feels very broken to me what do you think . I think hes right. Last week okay it was time to buy. Oscillators dont work against covid19 my view has been and remains were going to go at least 30 lower from where we were at the top. Off a couple of Percentage Points here and there, yes its too early to buy. Sure things look attractive. You know, the way you judge return, the most important thing is your point of entry sure your sale, point of sale but point of entry this point of entry is not good. Youll get a better point of entry by then. One main thing i look in the past the ceo of the s p is essentially the mostly cloudy skies president trump. And right now i wouldnt own a company that had a ceo that exhibits that kind of behavior and taking no action do you agree with these statements, is it affecting the market the market doesnt think were testing enough correct the market doesnt believe were on top of this correct the market is confused by mixed messages i dont think its confused the market doesnt know whether well stave off a deep recession. Correct. The market will see it before it believes it thats correct in the face of all of that, how do you stabilize this downfall you cant first question, market doesnt think were testing enough market is assuming we test more the incidents will pick up dramatically there could be a Million People infected in the u. S. We tested 8,000. We have 1,000 case when you roll out a million tests. What will you have vix is above 50 put call ratio is beyond any measure ive ever seen it feels terrible but those are contra contra contrarion indicators. They are telling you its close to bad ive had this conversation with people about all of these indicators, okay, that in normal times would tell you youve got to buy stocks. Well, these are abnormal times for a variety of reasons you have some suggesting that now is the time to pick up some stocks in the market to buy the s p when its down this far others are saying absolutely not. Stay away and its going down further. You used to run a large portfolio. What do you do now so, i think that theres some points in which you make a decision that the market is pricing in a recession which we believe to be the case and if were pricing in a recession and were pretty close to a multiple of about 15 times some number that for 2021 is a little bit of a rebound from a recession year, then you can say at these levels we can buy these stocks so i understand the concern. Im sitting in a state, massachusetts is in the state of emergency. I dont think thats very bullish. On the other hand, i can look at prices and say okay maybe this stock down 30 or 35 has discounted a lot of bad news and if we dont buy a big position you buy a small position, you add incrementally, when you have extra cash and to me that makes some sense by the way, steve, if next week there was an announcement that theres a cocktail of retroviral drugs thats effective against the coronavirus i think that millions of people would feel a lot better yeah. And many investors would feel better maybe so but we wouldnt even have any sort of vaccine, cocktail or otherwise for a year to year and a half, according to experts. Not a vaccine, but drugs that are on the market that are used for other viruses, even hiv. You can gilead and others have drugs in their arsenal and its possible that there will be something that can be tried and effective. Nothing is right now the other thing, to steves point of view, its shared by david costin at Goldman Sachs who takes his midyear target on the s p down to 2450 thats 15 below current levels. He takes his earnings expectations down again for the second time in pretty much a week, nine days, whatever you want to call it. 16 so 28 to 30 downturn from the highs. You take that but then also say at the year end he thinks its 3,200 jim and i have a very similar time frame we kind of look out and say if i want to get stuff cheaper ill start nibbling now ill tell you im not fast enough, nimble enough, maybe pulling the trigger when it goes down 10 one day and bounces back the next. 17 and stocks down 30 im going to start buy some of these stocks that i think will work a year, two years down im not going into speculation or high debt leverage models looking at High Quality Companies i want to own, disneys of the world, lowes of the world. Even jpmorgan. Lets go there. I said at the top i want to spend a lot of time to talk about actual stocks. I want to find out what you guys are doing if youre doing anything im surprised to see and maybe to some extent that you and carrie are adding a lot of names. Yes a lot of names. I have clients set upping with cash. Which we have been we talked about it since selling over the last three months im starting to go back in stages say these are the High Quality Companies that i think i want to own and i wasnt able to in the last couple of years have full positions in these companies. Youre youre adding to disney im adding to lowes. Ceo just bought some more stock. Im adding zimmer. High Quality Company low valuation. Im adding jpmorgan at 97, 98. Morgan stanley a solid Wealth Management trading below book. Cvs trading at eight times earnings which is so cheap, you know it has leverage but definitely manageable leverage. Aluminuma, thats not going away the stock has come off quite a bit off its high these are companies i want to own in a period like this. Carrie, i see the same thing from you even more names. But i want to zero in on this. Carrie you added today or in the last couple of days, lets say, can you give me more clarity on the time frame visa American Tower Sherwin Williams Facebook Paypal charter. Apple. Amazon booking. Schwab health equity. Alphabet and alibaba thats quite a list. You can pick all or some and tell me exactly why you decided to add to these names in this environment. So if you take American Tower, as an example awful stock really but cell phones are not going away in fact people have to stay inside they will use their phones more and so many people dont have a land line, they are just using a cellular tower. Sherwin williams for people who are in a house, you know, maybe they are going to repaint. I think thats the sort of expenditure that people will make in a difficult environment. Charter communications, again, a stayathome play. Its u. S its home centric. Apple, we added to because we own the position its come down, and for some new accounts we had very little of it so we get it at a low price amazon again is a play on the Delivery System and this stock is going to they are going to have better numbers than they might have otherwise and at this price we think its attractive so those are a few twilio, again all of them. Charles schwab of course their earnings are down. But its going a single digit multiple stock soon on next years earnings if it continues and the same with booking holdings this was a way for us to play whats really oversold for accounts that dont own them yet. So, john, that brings me to you. We sort have taken a longer term view from the investor base. Now lets talk trader base you tell me what youre seeing, tell me what youre doing on a shorter term basis all right, scott. Back in 2015, this is the last time we saw sustained levels over 40 in the vix and it lasted for about 30 days, scott. So just to give you a little Historical Perspective that was, of course, not during the time when we were seeing thousand point gyrations like were seeing new number one, scott, nerve turn a trade into an investment so if you bought on a big dip, then take some profits when you see that big rally i mean monday i was down in new orleans. We had that big down day i was buying into that yesterday we had the big rally and im selling. What im doing, scott, is im not saying im smarter than the market at all. Im saying i am, and i said this on our webcast last night, im not a buyer on a thousand point rally. Im doing the opposite because thats what i think youre supposed to do i think a lot of traders behind me in the vix pit as well as the s p 500 are doing the same sort of the thing youre not adding to positions on a 1,000 point rally in the dow or 1,000 point rally in the s p. Youre taking some off thats from a trading perspective. As far as the number of stocks that i have, i went from about 25 stocks a week ago, down to basically four stocks, one of them is too small to mention so i wont. Microsoft, apple and target. And ive added in on those just like carrie has done, and we didnt coordinate this i actually did the same thing as those guys i was taking some of that money from those stocks that were sold, scott, and putting it into what i think are the best stocks and apple is still now 23 off the lows that it put in on the 28th of february so for some people they would look at that and say wow should be taking that off and the for me im saying this is one of the best the stocks in the market right now. I want to own best of breed right here and i believe that is one thats trying to get a little more positive on the day. I want to talking to you about boeing in a second seema, you have a news alert on boeing which by the way as we speak is down about 11 . Barely holding on to 200. Reporter boeing Ceo Dave Calhoun sending a message to employees saying this year shaping up to be as challenging for our business as any in recent past citing the 737 max s grounding and coronavirus. Boeing is freezing any new personal acquisitions pending review of priorities and critical needs limiting travel and Discretionary Spending and limiting overtime to critical 737 max return to Service Report and other key efforts. The stock move as low as 10 here on the day. Youre in this stock. Theres another report that they are going draw down their whole credit facility, some 14 billion. What are you doing it goes below 200 bucks sometime today or next day. One of the biggest mistakes i made in modern times i was very disappointed naming calhoun the ceo. He was a board member. Lead independent director and he presided over this, what weve seen is one of the biggest corporate meltdowns in history for a company thats still solvent. He did that apology tour with the prior ceo, right, saying no things are great well have the plane in the air by december. Well have one foreign regulator approve it none of that came true when i started thinking about selling it when he did that article last week and he trashed his company, he trashed the former ceo you want somebody that has a steady hand on the wheel that has judgment not somebody thats complicit in the company meltdown because of that i sold it. Hes the wrong person for the company. You didnt sell the whole thing . I didnt sell the whole thing. I still think the plane will be launched by midyear and it will recover. The other reason i sold it frankly is that the airlines, their Balance Sheets are now pinched. You dont go out and buy these things for cash but do you have to continental if their Credit Ratings suffer they will be buying less and their cost goes up so for those reasons i sold it and today was just the icing on the cake jim ive got to agree with steve on everything. You agree let me just start with the mea culpa. I screwed this trade up big time this is embarrassing for both of us with the stock at 206 you say this is where i disagree with you i wont sell it. Im thinking back to the last time hang on hang on, hot shot last time i saw a manufacturer sell off halfway down like this was the automakers in 2008 you got to ask yourself are they similar or dissimilar . I say they are dramatically dissimilar no way that this country allows boeing to go down the path that those Companies Went down. You dont have the same labor relation problems to begin with. Yes, you got an engineering problem but i think they are actually well on their way coming out of it unfortunately as you pointed out steve they are in a perfect storm. The airlines are their biggest customers hurting big time they have to pay reparations for the Airline Customers who need that right now ate perfect storm but is something that i think they will survive and come out of. The damage is done i sold it yesterday when it popped i got you this is the first day i can remember frankly where, yes you have a number of notes coming out from strategists saying we think the s p is going here, there and every where else i dont find it useful today i dont remember a day when you have as many notes coming out with stock picks which tells you theres a thirst maybe to start getting into this market thinking theres bar begins abound, whether you believe that or not is your own personal view these are big names, alphabet, facebook, nike, starbucks, american express, capital one. Im not going read the whole banks. Some banks were putting them on the wall you can see them in front of you if youre watching i tend to agree youre down. You hit almost 20 yesterday or monday down 17, 18 now if you are going deploy capital might wait until steve says 25 or 30. If were right six months a year from now and markets are back to where it is, youll say did i miss some good opportunities and made some real High Quality Companies and can you choose and start nibbling at some of these to add what you want and look at your portfolio, can i upgrade my portfolio also where am i today and what can i buy that i think i didnt get buy or should have bought. Others are talking about walmart and target and costco. You have a defensive case for walmart at another shop as well, open e oppenheimer. Netflix. A lot of names i added to amazon last week i added to alphabet. I shaved a little micron but i increased my micron dramatically yesterday i increased my exposure and shorted more of the s and h. Im trying to hedge what im doing. Picking companies that i think is quality i added key site a very small position key site. Key site has not come down as much as others 5g gets moved up in terms of deployment because you do so much over private network with 5g lets distinguish between markets and stock. Some stocks, my portfolio is a lot higher than the market not a lot higher but higher. My stocks will go down more, i get a much better opportunity to buy. You dont know what the earnings are. Visa, which carrie added to, i own it i havent soiltld it. Visa cut their growth rate market traded up on the premise well have a return to growth this year. We didnt. So when that premise changes the market doesnt deserve where to be where should the market have been when it came down thats what my view is carrie . I want to make a point that addresses some of these companies but also what steve said before which he thinks the market would go down 30 now if we think about what happened in the financial crisis, the world stopped and essentially every bank was really in distress and the whole Housing Market globally had fallen apart. The market went down 50 it came back as we know. It came back a lot but if steve is saying this is 60 , as bad as the financial crisis i got to say thats really a tough measure at 30 , 60 , 50 hes not the only one if you take down the earnings that david costin has done you project 30 from the high before you start to rebuild were in the process of the great unknown. Nobody knows how bad the economy will be hit. I find it almost not saying you, i just say in general it seems to me somewhat irresponsible to try to make these calls when nobody knows what ethic will happen its a combination of trying to look at individual companies and what their earnings power will be starting six months from now and nine months from now and also if you just assume every industry, whether thats badly affected, airlines, hotels, casinos, restaurants, you big the type of business if they lose all of their business for three months its not going close to what the business was that was lost over years in the financial crisis. So i think putting that in some perspective, you have to do some analysis in order to couple with a price. Understood. Even buffett is putting it in perspective. He tells Yahoo Finance today its not even close. It was much more scary by far than anything that happened on monday with the big pull back. I get it i didnt see that. Its worth putting it in perspective. You mentioned a bunch of businesses that will be hurt most likely by this. The market focused on what fortunate and administration are going to do about that, whatever stimulus they can come out with. Eamon javers is live at the white house for us we got trickle out of some ideas. Where do we stand now . Reporter no new information from the white house today we didnt get that press conference yesterday that the president had promised unveiling his economic plan. We got larry kudlow in the Briefing Room suggesting that the centerpiece of the plan but not all the details and the centerpiece is this payroll tax cut. They want to go to 0 on employer and employee side on the payroll tax through the end of the year. If not permanently last night in the Briefing Room i asked kudlow where are you going replace that revenue thats money that goes to support Social Security and medicare youre talk about as much as a trillion dollars a year if you end up cutting the entire payroll tax. Kudlow said they dont have an answer to that question. They will try to get better answers in the days to come. No information from the white house yet on what sectors they think they need to support here but i think you can get some sense based on who is coming to the white house. We do have Health Companies here, hospitals here meeting with the Vice President today. We have wall street executives meeting with the president of the United States today and we also have cruise lines meeting with the treasury secretary today. Those are some areas where the administration is at least gathering some information from ceos who are on the front lines of this trying to find out how its impacting the economy and what sorts of things they need to do. They promised a plan they dont have a plan publicly at this point. Because you also may have some dissent within the president s own party as to which road is best to take i saw some commentary on the tape from senator grassley there was a report last evening from the Washington Post saying senator Mitch Mcconnell the majority leader wasnt hot about a payroll tax cut. Reporter yeah. Theres some dissent within the president s own administration not everybody agrees with the idea of a payroll tax cut. Peter navarro has been pushing that with fortunate. Others support that ad navarro is seen as the leader of that faction hes been triumphant in getting the president to embrace that idea this white house went from last week saying there was no need for an economic stimulus, no economic problem facing the country to friday targeting minimal response to affected areas to monday and tuesday embracing ande ining an enormou. They moved very quickly from zero to 60 what point response, what form that takes were not getting any information. Y said theres a believe in the market and big investors ive been speaking with the market doesnt believe were on top of this whole thing even yet. I appreciate it very much. Well be back to you as we needed throughout the rest of the day. I just dont think theres a chance that you get any real stimulus that comes out because youre not going to have democrats give Trump Victory in an Election Year like this when you got him on the rope. One heck of a negotiation right maybe messier and longer and more protract and uglier than people are thinking although go back to the depths of the crisis and the t. A. R. P. Vote when i dont think anybody in their right mind thought that would be voted down and the dow went down 777 votes. Did we learn or not thats the question. It wasnt that long ago. Not a century ago. 11 years ago 12 years ago has Congress Learned dont shoot this down right now because then youre going to have to pick the pieces up 10 Percentage Points later. This is what the market needs right now. You could say the tail shouldnt be wagging the dog, but if you dont listen to the markets youll have a much bigger problem. The markets are screaming out get your acts together do something heres the issue. Better late than never. Heres the issue. Back then it was a credit crunch make at any time last point a credit crunch if you give free money out you solve that credit crunch here thats not it you can lower rates to minus 5 . Nobody is leaving their house. Thats main issue right now. Youre tightening down businesses well take a quick break. Heres what else is coming up. Announcer the most important stock in this market down 15 from its highs but still up big over a year what the street as number one apple analyst is saying about the tech giant amid the selloff and buy risk fears Investment Committee is ready to answer your questions as the market turmoil continues to reach us go to cnbc. Com halftime. Or tweet us. The Halftime Report with sttco wapner and the traders is back in two minutes mmm. Good. So ive spent my life developing technology to help the visually impaired. We are so good. We built a guide that uses ibm watson. To help the blind. It is already working in cities like tokyo. My dream is to help millions more people like me. Its a day filled with promise and new beginnings, it is already working in cities like tokyo. Challenges and opportunities. At Ameriprise Financial we cant predict what tomorrow will bring. But our comprehensive approach to Financial Planning can help make sure youre prepared for whats expected and even whats not. And that kind of Financial Confidence can help you sleep better at night. With the right Financial Advisor life can be brilliant. No mthe most reliablere, xfinwireless network you to connect you with those who matter most. Its the network that gives you the best coverage and more flexible data that you can share, mix with unlimited and switch at any time. Youll save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus, get 300 off when you buy a new Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra. Xfinity mobile. Call, click or visit a store today. Welcome back everyone. Im sue herera heres your cnbc news update that hour. Hennyny stoier says capitol hill may be closed to visitors to prevent the spread coronavirus next weeks congressional recess could be extended. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announce ad 728 million Coronavirus Response fund. That money will help buy masks and other supplies for Health Worker as well as Fund Research for a vaccine. Here at home a biopharmaceutical conference has been linked to dozens of case. The outbreak helped the governor to declare a state of emergency to limit the spread of the virus. And right outside of boston a hospital there has set up a tent in the parking lot for coronavirus testing. The hospitals president says residents should not be alarmed and similar tents are being set up in other communities. Tests are only being given to those to be tested by local Health Officials youre up to date. Well european markets are just closing well take a look overseas, see how things are doing red across the board not quite as bad as our major averages ftse is down 1. 5 . A sea of red there the lets get to kate rogers with a news alert on starbucks. Reporter announced its offering catastrophe pay to workers who have been diagnosed or exposed to covid19 but also to employees who have come in close prolonged contact with someone in their stores or homes that have been diagnosed if an employee feels symptomatic but has not been digged, catastrophe pay is effective for any scheduled shifts over a three day period to assure employees can go get tested. It extends those the cdc has advise taking extra precautions given their age or Underlying Health conditions. The benefit is for 14 days additional pay replacement may be made up to 26 weeks in addition to existing sick pay and paid time off that the Company Currently offers weve seen changes trichbt rant world like darden offering sick leave. Mcdonalds will pay employees at corporate locations asked to quarantine for 14 days as all of this is going on as kate was speaking the market started moving lower yet again. Im wondering if its esponse the World Health Organization has now officially declared the coronavirus outbreak a Global Pandemic the Dow Jones Industrial average is now down by more than 1,000 points to 1,025. Not that it was unexpected just a reality, perhaps, of where we find ourselves dr. Anthony fauci who has been viewed as the preeminent voice on all of this has been speak on capitol hill today asked how bad could this get in the United States how many deaths could we see he said you could see perhaps if its not contained if we dont do everything to mitigate it you could see perhaps many millions in the United States those were his words if we dont get fully on top of this but i think what the w. H. O. Has just done is added to some of the weakness on wall street the dow right now is down by more than a thousand points. Not a great surprise we expected that this may occur at some point. Ate reality that here is where we fine ourselves. Its also interesting about whats going on right now we have yields actually moving higher so we had this one correlation for about a week or so as the ten year moved down and treasuries were below 1 now that they recovered you would think the market would move up or at least base a little bit it hasnt. This is all driven by the coronavirus. We had the primaries last night. Biden came out very strong you would think you would get a lift from that the market only cares about the coronavirus and is spelling out a recession. For me thats why you got time to buy meg tirrill has more. W. H. O. Has been hesitant to declare a pandemic but they see an alarming sense of inaction from some governments. Im not naming which ones. As they are making this declaration that this is a it can still be controlled so emphasizing governments really need to take strong actions here to try to move to containment, to be testing, to be tracing, isolating patient, emphasizing social distancing, everything that governments can do to potentially slow the spread here. Really fascinating to see this language that they are using, talking about inaction, spurring them to make this declaration. Ill reread you that quote, meg, i would like your reacshot in the just on this whole issue about reality versus some of the messaging thats come out of washington dr. Fauci today not that long ago when asked how many people will get and or die from covid19 in the United States said the following in a quote, if we are complacent and dont do really aggressive containment and mitigation the number could go way up. Many, many millions. Your reaction to what hes talking about. Reporter well that jives with what weve heard from Public Health experts at the cdc and from leaders around the world. Angela merkel citing experts saying that up to 70 of germanys population could be exposed, infected with this virus. We had no immunity to this virus. We have no vaccines for the virus. We have no approved treatments for the virus. Thats the level of concern. Why people are emphasizing we need to take these measures like social distancing and everything we can do right now to try to slow its spread before we have those kind of interventions ready. You have part of the messaging being the risk of contracting the virus is relatively low thats what the Vice President has been saying. Dr. Fauci yesterday made the following statement as a nation we cant be doing the kinds of things we were doing months ago that it doesnt matter if you were in a state that has no case or one case you have to start taking seriously what you can do right now. Reporter certainly the level of risk message is going up. While there are more than 1,000 case in the United States detected those are the ones detected were seeing each day more new cases being diagnosed and confirmed. So that is going to continue so what public Health Officials are emphasizing people at highrisk, the elderly, people with under lying Health Conditions we need to take precautions to care for the most vulnerable and make sure they dont get sick because they are most at risk. Well come back to you as we need Big Companies are making big decisions. Last night google has told 100,000 of its north American Employees to stay home dozens of other companies told their workers to stay home were keeping an eye on stocks like apple which came down apple is still 55 higher than it was one year ago. I want to focus on this stock for a number of reasons. Where it stands sort of in the market universe an important stock. A lot of you own it. John you want to talk to me about what you think of Something Like apple 278 down 2. 5 . A bellwether in many cases to a great number of people reporter sure, scott and lets also focus on what you guys talked about just at the top of the show with boeing. Thats clearly a 10 drop in boeing having much more an effect on the Dow Jones Industrials than 2. 5 in a stock thats much bigger, apple. But as i told you, february 28th i added to apple i kept liquidating a number of stocks the number of six to own is just four one of them too small to mention but i own call spread in disney and a host of others hilton and so forth that ive been buying on these significant dips i like apple i think the fact that its holding up here, scott, and the fact that the big institution are not using this as a source of funds is why this is another stock to own here. You got the price target reduced today. Reporter 30 bucks. By bank of america goes from 320 to 350 look 320 is still pretty good upside i havent sold any april p. M. We said or at least questioned hey some of these estimates on earnings, just across the board are too high. Are people still the too optimistic about apple and where it may it please trade i think they are too optimistic about where everything they trade because they dont know what the earnings will be so apple has come out and we hear like they sold only 500,000 phones in china. We know supply chains are not up and running like they had hoped they would be. Apple said that as well. So you have to decide whether youre looking at this on a six month basis or a year, five years or ten years the proper time frame is to look at it that long. Im not disputes markets and stocks will be higher than a year from now but also say i can get in at a low price and that includes apple i want to get another piece of news in here. The market and dow is down more 1100 points. Moments ago w. H. O. Has formally declared the coronavirus a Global Pandemic. Jonathan swan of axios closely fold reporter, he says congress inhouse doctor told capitol hill staffers this week that he expects 75 to 150 Million People in the United States, thats roughly a third of the population of this country, to contract the coronavirus its why people like dr. Anthony fauci said we have to start taking this more seriously he has said if you have to play nba games, for example, in arenas with no spectators in his words, so be it. You got an ncaa basketball tournament which is on the horizon. Thousands of fans every day pouring in to arenas across this country in four big region, right sitting shoulder to shoulder. Critical decisions have to be made in hours, days ahead that the market is going to be watching closely for it matters to the market what happens here forward so those numbers you said 75 to 150 million is that what you said according to the reporting from Jonathan Swan who is tweeting this out from Axios Congress doctor told staffers on the hill. I have no idea nor are you presuming whether that takes place with or without the ncaa tournaments or similar events happening but i think the news coming out is important in this regard it sort of slaps us all in the face once again that its highly likely, scott, highly like highly that a third to half the population of the United States are going get this and im not sure if cancelling the ncaa tournament or playing without fans changes that at all i just dont know. Thats the sort of question at the top of the show is it time to buy i said yes but i said this. We dont know how long this will last taking it to apple, yeah the earnings will hit. We dont know when they are coming back. We dont know if this virus goes dormant in the warm months if it does its likely people come out of their fox holes and start living their lives again the iphones not purchased in the month of april are deforward the month of july. Im suggesting by reading you the commentary from the report from swan about, you know, congress doctor saying natural many people could potentially be affected by this, you square that with the Vice President who is giving nightly news conferences repeating again last night that the risk to the average american for contracting the coronavirus remains low. I think thats a direct quote. Its been repeated multiple times, even when dr. Anthony fauci has said on the very same stage on the very same night or the day after or the next day or the next day after that, that its more serious than that. Its mixed messaging. The public is getting different messages from different people, from positions of authority. So i think thats confusion and markets dont like confusion on top of whats going on right now. The because you baby it at a point which you can fairly say containment is out of the bag at this point its time to mitigate the spread get enough tests dont tell us tests are on the way. Get enough tests get enough test and test enough people so we can get our hand around the situation and get a reality check on where this stand. I think its a mistake to say this and i said it earlier the credit part of the economy, lending debt is going to be fine because in having spoken to somebody today thats involved in this, if youre looking to factor a retail, you know, clothing line, looking to refinance a piece of real estate, if youre looking to lend to a new project, you got to change your assumptions and you dont know where those assumptions will be. So real estate was bought in the last five years based upon a return, and cap rate which was 0 to 3 you wont get that appreciation. That could cause a little slowing, maybe a freezing in certain elements of financing the economy as well. Oh, by the way, theres no bounce whatsoever to biden winning as big as he did in the states that he did yesterday it wasnt all that long ago remember we were suggesting that part of what was ailing the market was not only coronavirus, but the suggestion that Bernie Sanders may be the nominee for the Democratic Party to become president. That seems now a more distant view and in another period of time the market may be getting a bounce off of what would be deemed to be more favorable news for the stock market now you cant even get that. Now you have tissue of oil on top of Everything Else that buffett was talking about with yahoo today of a double, of a double gut punch the onetwo punch of these two and i think the uncertainty right now is causing to what youre saying the markets leading and we need some leadership to maybe in congress at this point say hey this is lets have a plan. Lets not say well have a plan and not have a plan. This news is gets out there these numbers are talking about it were not talk about whether they are real or not we believe they are real thats the unfortunate direction that were head in to get it out there allows the market to adjust to this news. You want to do that now with meg . Well the take a quick break well come back on the other side and continue our conversation here. The dow is down by 1150 points thats your story. Were back after this. Comcast business is connecting thousands of banks to technology that turns everyday transactions into extraordinary experiences. Hi there. How are you . Do you have any lollipops in there . laughing no, sorry. Were helping all kinds of businesses go beyond customer expectations. How can we help you . And when you open a new brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate. Thats why fidelity leads the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. Talk, talk should they downsize . N continesters now. 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Myww join for free and save 30 welcome back winter to get you up to date on whats happening in the stock market right now the Dow Jones Industrial average is at the lowest levels of this day, down by more than 1100 points a loss of almost 5 . The stock market taking a slide lower within the last tone 15 minutes on a headline from the w. H. O. Which formally declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic saying cases outside of china have risen 13 fold meg tirrill has been covering this story from the outset you want to recap how the w. H. O. Got to this point . A lot of people wont be surprised by this announcement although the w. H. O. May have tried to wait as long as could it many in the Public Health community said who should be declaring a pandemic weeks ago essentially saying now is the time for countries to get ready. The World Health Organization was worried it would cause panic by declaring this a pandemic clearly people are already at a high level of concern point however they said today that part of the reason they made that declaration is because of the inaction near seeing from some countries in stopping the spread really trying to use this declaration as a wakeup call to get governments to act the other story i want to talk to you about and give us some clarity on this is a story i saw about gilead using one of its experimental drugs in a morn the west coast what can you tell us about this drug they have, how it was initially being used at the outset of this crisis an enhow thats expanded now and what it means. There are a lot of hopes pinned on the back of this gilead drug. Its an experimental drug that the company developed years ago and tested in ebola. It wasnt as successful in human testing in ebola but there are reasons to hope that it could work here for covid19 now, there are two trials run in china in people, we should see data from those in april and some analysts think to see an interim look this month even. There is an nih trial run in the United States and gilead is starting trials as well. Cdc said multiple people treated on compassionate use of a drug very severe situations and gilead told us last night and discussed on the special with you, scott, they have given it to several hundred patients. We dont know about how they fared but we know about three patients and the first one published in new england journal of medicine and did recover. Another patient hay say recovered after 22 days and unfortunately a third patient did pass away even though they were treated with the drug and we have to wait for the data. Should have results in a month or so . Weshld from the china trialing people in the bio Tech Community saying this is a hugely moment for gilead and the market. No question about that. You have the ceo i believe of regeneron in here . Yes. How Many Companies right now are working on a vaccine for this dr. Fauci said at least ten vaccines in the pipeline he said it will be a year to a year and a half before any could be potentially deployed any anyone saying going faster than that he said is cutting corners. Mederma seem out ahead j j, santa fe, as well. Joining us on the phone right now is dr. Scott gottlieb, he is the former fda commissioner and a cnbc contributor and joins us on the phone we finally got the notification from the World Health Organization it is a pan demonstrating at this point. How should we be thinking about it this really met the definition of pandemic weeks ago. The w. H. O. Takes an unusual approach to how they characterize these infections but in terms of a classical definition, multiple continents and spread met the definition a while ago. I heard you comment on the estimates to infect tens of millions of americans. I think that really is a consideration in the context of if we dont do anything. If we take tough mitigation steps right now to try to stem spread here in the United States by engaging in social distancing, canceling the events you are talking about, asking businesses to have workers telework, closing down places where people congregate indoors, taking the measures right now we could be on a much different trajectory and look like south korea than iran allowing the infection to course through the population largely unchecked so we really have a window of opportunity. It is a narrow window but a window of opportunity to keep the figures down in terms of how many people become infected in the u. S. This go around and then the infection may come back in the future, may come back in the fall or the winter but by then to your point we may have a therapeutic and then avaccine. What i dont understand is people like you, very well respected, youre inside the administration and you were saying what you are right now. Tom bossert former head of Homeland Security within this administration ringing the alarm bells yesterday. I hear the same thing day after day. If we do this and that, things can be better. We can stop this are we doing enough as we have this conversation today . No, we are not. We are not taking the kinds of tough measures that we need to be doing in places where we know theres Community Spread and sustained Community Transmission seattle didnt doing enough. Northern california. Santa clara. If you look at new york, andrew cuomo taken tougher measures in new rochelle closing down local social halls and people congregate indoors. Canceling events we need to do that on a wider scale especially in areas with outbreaks. Businesses are stepping up to take action to start engaging in social distancing by asking workers to telework, canceling conferences. The governments also need to follow suit and i think it is difficult for some local governments to take these measures because they recognize the impact its going to have on the local economies and where Congress Needs to step in and fashion a package of fiscal support that isnt aimed at stimulating the economy but aimed at supporting states and localities that take the tough measures to break chains of spread knowing that its going to impact the local economies and supporting the individuals hurt by those measures people who are going to be out of work, people who cant telework or afford child care or cant afford meals for their children because the children get meals at school on assistance programs. We need to support the individuals so they can engage in the activities thats going to break the chain of transmission here. Do you think the administration has been truthful with the American People up to this moment about what the risk really is . Look. I think that this is an evolving story and an evolving message. I think early on some maybe some folks didnt fully appreciate what the true risk was of epidemic spread here in the United States and how long we could contain this for with some of the travel restrictions but i think where we are right now i think people understand the gravity of the moment that we are in and the fact we do still have a window of opportunity to try to mitigate something far worse in the United States, we need the do that now the risk is that if we dont adopt these measures well have rapid spread here in the United States and well have a surge in cases thats going to overwhelm the Health Care System and thats when the fatality rate starts to rise and saw in wuhan, china. When the Health Care System exhausted when you saw the case fatality rate start to spike up. We need to keep infections that we sustain here in this country below the point of which the Health Care System is exhausted so that we can properly care for the patients. Are we prepared to do what you suggest or not i think were certainly prepared to do it. It takes political will and organization i think you need to do two things at the federal level, you need to jawbone some of the municipalities to take tougher actions early and step in with assistance when they do the right thing. You need to be doing both things i dont think thats necessarily happening right now. I think it is starting to happen Congress Needs to step in and provide support of states and cities to tank the local economies. And i think we need a common systematic approach for when you close schools, when you require businesses to telework, when you shut down gatherings in a city seattle in my views past that point. They should have started to take the measures a week ago. It is always the case to adopt the strong measures people say youre overreacting. Why now . We only have 30 cases. You always have to act at a moment thats going to look like its too soon relative to the crisis because the epidemic is always further ahead than what you perceive at the moment. Doctor, how long is that window open in the United States to act its hard to say, meg i think that its probably the case that we have high thousands of cases here, maybe low tens of thousands at this point dispersed across the country seattle, santa clara, the pockets of outbreak we know about. Its possible there are other larger outbreaks in cities we are not allow aware of yet. Where you start to see really adverse outcomes and people start to come and nursing home or hospital. In wuhan it was when it got in the hospital they really began to recognize it. Seattle in a nursing home. It is possible to spread in other cities and not inside an institution. Where you have see a localized cluster of severe enough outcomes that it becomes self evident. Dr. Gottlieb, we have 30 seconds left before we turn it over to the next program but let me ask you this. The ncaa basketball tournament with thousands of fans in arenas around the country should they hold the tournament with fans . Should sports leagues from this day forward not have any fans at the sporting events . Is that the kind of thing you are talking about . Thats what we need to be doing now. To avoid a broader epidemic here in the u. S. , we can try to break the chain of transmissions, taking the tough measures. Gradeful for the time thank you for coming the phone talk to you again. Thank you. A cnbc contributor, meg, thank you so much. Thank you. Let joois check the market before we go at the lows of the day. The dow dropped more than 1200 well keep our eyes peeled on that next show will as well that does it for us. The exchange starts now. Thank you, scott welcome to next, everyone. Im kelly evans. Major indexes are sinking after the best day since december of 2018, at the lows the dow down 1218 just off the level right now theres the 10year treasury yield. Holding in at 85 basis points. More confusion and mixed messages of washington secretary mnuchin testifying on capitol hill with ideas but no plans. Just now the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus