treasury, the efforts to stimulate an economy in free fall jim, you got off a call or an interview -- it was a call as well -- with secretary mnuchin what stood out to you? >> that you shouldn't lay people off. i want to point out i got a correction, he said on small business payroll, two weeks, he meant two months two months means you do not lay people off without, i think -- i'm not saying it's irresponsible but everything is being done to keep businesses open small businesses open. david, with the fed, i think they've taken off to me anything involving credit the secretary talked about anything involving liquidity we can't produce demand. you keep people around for two months, but they won't be able to produce demand. there will still be a burden on small business not sure how that will be resolved >> that's an interesting point jim, we did -- we were watching the futures, which appeared to be limited down at different points in it the evening last night after japan opened as well then we got a fed announcement this morning just to go quickly into it taking off the size limit in terms of the treasuries, mortgage backed securities and i think importantly as well this direct business, main street lending program to support lending to eligible small and medium-sized businesses, complimenting efforts by the sba how important is that in your opinion? >> look, in the end, our economy is small business. in the end, those are the people that really are trying to figure out whether to open or close you can't be thinking about just now. you need to be thinking about when we beat this. if you wipe out small business, the whole country will be run by amazon and walmart we can't have that happen. the restaurant industry will not really survive remember, 50 -- we have more than 50 million people in service. most of them do not work at walmart. i think it's just really important to be able to make it so the average working person gets a job and keeps a job and that means you have to give the small business person money. and i think the dems and republicans favor that not sure -- i would love to hear from speaker pelosi and from senator schumer how far apart they are secoretary mnuchin indicates they're very close >> time is of the essence as we know, as we know watching the markets as well. the reversal today is on the fed. the expectation, as you say, that we'll get something out of congress in the near-term. jim, just to your point, i'm sure you had these conversations, i certainly did over the weekend with a lot of different people who run businesses, typically larger ones, but, you know, everybody is trying to figure out a day by which, all right, this is my first layoff round, that's coming this week most likely is what i'm hearing this is my second. my sales are down, 40%, 50%, 60%, and i know how long i can go this is happening in realtime. those layoffs are occurring in realtime that's not to mention, of course, as you point out the person -- the small businesses, whether it's the person who works at a hair salon, a nail salon. the dog walkers, the restaurant workers, the garage attendants, the personal trainers, the gym employees, and it goes on and on and on >> we all have one thing in common in this country, the person, the dry cleaner, where we get our hair cut, where we try to help local, it is -- i try -- i live in summit, new jersey we're trying to figure out this weekend how do we help local every business is closed it sounds like the treasury secretary understands that i have to believe that senator schumer and speaker pelosi understand that. that's why i don't think that far apart. i was hate to see -- we had the first -- remember t.a.r.p., we had the failed vote this weekend. i think that sent the market down limit i know it's also creating such havoc that we're going to get the layoff announcements today i expect big layoff announcements in the next half hour one thing that can happen, if they come together and make it so the small business feels like, okay, at least i can take care of payroll. the next thing is rent we have to be sure there's some sort of forgiveness on rent or else you will say it's not worth the effort i sure hope that isn't the case. >> yeah. i know you and i have talked for some time now, over a week, about forbearance up and down and how that would work. again, we hear things antidotically, but it doesn't make them less real. i'm hearing that rents are not being paid by the way, also by companies that are fairly large, they're saying we're not paying. the landlord has to turn to the bank and say we're not going to pay. you need the forbearance up and down we have not gotten there at this point. not quite sure how we do but that's sort of a very important component of this as money is not going to be flowing. >> we've all been getting the emails from tom barrick, he's on commercial mortgages if you go to the dems, i think commercial mortgages are really important. that's what steve liesman was talking about with the fed the fed should be able to, it sounds like, back pretty much anything so provide liquidity is what i can say. let's say you don't pay, it goes up the food chain. it sounds like that the bills of a major real estate company, how much would simon properties like to call in, those properties will not go under. so many of them are connected with the stock market. you saw a lot of companies that are say mortgage reits evaporate last week. because they had good dividends, you know that's where the elderly, the people with no other income, that's where they were what bothers me tremendously is not just the jobs side but the savings side given who we are at cnbc, we seem to have, i think, better call on how you have got to protect the seniors who don't have a job and won't have income if this thing keeps going away >> i know. your point is a good one we've seen dislocations, what is a lack of proper functioning in a number of markets. there's been so much coming at us over the last week, it's hard to focus on one thing at one time but our corporate bond market is not working particularly well. the municipal market got blown out. the feed appears to be trying to deal with that initiating liquidity facilities to ease that crunch on corporate bonds they'll be in the muni market, the short-term side of it. we have not even talked that much about some of these enormous dislocations that are going on in huge markets, jim, that are not related to stocks we can talk about etfs as well that are trading strangely >> you're so right there is a lack of liquidity to the point where people kind of, i think this opening will be met with heat seeking missiles people who need money so badly, david. what i want to caution people to do, when you buy up like this, remember you have to have that bill passed. then after the bill is passed, we have to start thinking about the numbers that will come out unemployment numbers people are talking about 30% unemployment that's a daunting number that exceeds -- you're talking about numbers that take out the great depression >> we have never seen anything like it. ever some of these numbers, as you say, 30% unemployment rate that down 24% print on gdp that goldman put out, last week, it may be higher now, and the earnings reductions that we're talking about for the second quarter, which are negative. so 100 plus percent decline in earnings, we've never seen anything like this >> you go back -- i spent more time reading about the depression this weekend than current events one thing that sticks out is the small banks. the small banks that provide the loans locally, they shut their doors. finally fdr said listen, let's have a bank holiday. that would work in a time where we had very slow reactions we're in lightning speed we have to make sure those banks are equally as protected there's so many entities in this complex economy. if you even leave one out, that could be the one that is like jenga. you pull it out and the thing falls. i think they're trying to cover every single base. if they don't get this legislative package passed, these gains are going to be something that i say could evaporate in seconds >> yeah. jim, we've spent about nine minutes talking about the economic crisis. let's move on to the health crisis, of course. it is not as though the virus doesn't continue to spread in various communities around the u.s. i did want to bring in on this topic specifically and obviously more broadly as well to talk about what's going on michael roman, the ceo of 3m they are the maker of those n95 respirators that are in such demand and short supply right now. he joins us on the phone it's good to have you. let's start off right away with where things stand in terms of your ability to produce the n95 respirators and get them to communities in need, particularly new york, seattle and a couple other areas around the country? >> good morning, david and jim that's is the top priority for us our highest priority at 3m is the safety of our people and the public our teams around the world are focused on supplying health care workers with safety products they need. here in the u.s. we have accelerated our production starting in january. we ramped up our production. we had a longstanding decision to invest in excess capacity, keep it idle and turn it on in times like this. that's what we did we doubled our output from 19 million respirators to 35 million a month. we are prioritizing health care workers and working 24 sh/7 to p to the front line health care workers. we are working to expand that capacity further in the near-term and long-term as well. >> is that u.s. capacity i wonder, there was a period of time when this crisis was centered in china. and the need was there you have manufacturing facilities there but were unable to manufacture because people were not coming to work or a lot of people weren't. is china manufacturing back on is that output going to end up back here in the u.s.? how does that work >> we actually are able to operate all through lunar new year, the extended shutdowns in china. we had special permits to operate because of the importance of the safety products we were producing we ramped up in china starting in january as well we served the market there out of our production in china we manufacture these respirators in every region of the world china was a great example where our team jumped on it, ramped up to full capacity and were able to meet the demand in the local market >> mike, thank you for coming on >> good morning, jim >> one thing disturbing to many americans was to see at target in seattle all the n95s on the shelf. i don't understand how that kind of dislocation occurs where we have the retail market have them and yet over -- ucsf they run out of masks certainly many of the new york hospitals really touch and go. how did that happen? >> we ramped up our production we came in the year, about 95% of our respirators go to industrial channels in a normal business environment when you have a crisis like this, we shift everything to health care. we were able to do that with the implementation in march of the emergency use authorization from the fda and also the u.s. prep act, all of that enabled us to shift what are normally industrial respirators over to health care workers. it allowed us and gave us the certification that we needed to be able do that. that happened. now, there was some inventory, as you would expect, throughout the supply chain from what was happening even as we came in to 2020 it's not -- it'sedy appoi edy g when you see that, but that changeover and that shift, and now everything is going to health care workers. we are producing and shipping directly to those health care workers around the u.s >> when our president contacted you, i believe mid-february, were you able to divert and get as many masks as possible here or was there a miscommunication where they did not request what they could have? >> well, we've been working closely with the vice president and the president and now fema to get respirators to where they're needed most. we've been doing that every step of the way it was -- it was this emergency use authorization and u.s. prep act that enabled us to shift everything to health care through all channels we have -- from the early stages in march we've been responding and shifting everything to health care. >> mike, i want to get to the specifics of the problem here. certainly a lot of it is in our hometown, new york city. a lot of people have seen this memo from the chief of surgery at new york presbyterian, usually they use 4,000 n95 masks a day, they're now up to 40,000 and he sees them going to 70,000 are they going to run out of masks or will you figure out a way to get these hospitals the masks they'll need at numbers they've never seen before? >> yeah, david, we have prioritized new york and washington state and over the weekend we shipped more than 500,000 respiratorers into those cities more than 350,000 are landing in new york today they are coming into use and we'll be able to prioritize and ship we are working broadly with partners it's impressive to see the way companies have stepped up. many companies are working in partnership with us to extend capacity we're working with other companies to help us in logistics, expedite. we're ready to expedite respirators to wherever they're needed new york is a priority in the near-term. as i said, we're getting respirators on the ground there. there are other respirators serving new york through health care distribution that we would normally be shipping to. this is an expedited shipment that is getting there today. >> mike, is there a way to get back just -- let's say if you go on right now, i think if you go on alibaba, there's tons of masks, any way to get the masks from china back? like a lease program from china which is doing so well and our company which is now bearing the brunt with you being the broker? >> yeah. we are working every angle to get additional respirators into the market in the u.s. we are working to really prepare ourselves for this -- we have to ensure that we meet the standards of the u.s. from the product -- the standards vary around the world our team now is doing that then as soon as we can bring capacity from international to the u.s., we're doing that >> what can we do with the other part you know everything about what goes into a health care worker a doctor right now in an emergency room what else can we get for them? i think everyone in america wants to help these people we want to help the health care workers first. if we can do anything, whether it's make it so they don't have to pay taxes or have a gown, what can we all do to help those people >> we are focused a lot on respirators, but we're working on ramping up hand sanitizers, we're working with many companies, it's amazing how many companies have come to the table with great ideas, and bringing together some capabilities we have in the broader health care business to support them i think there's a broad effort and a very focused set of teams that are working to do that right now. i think that -- supporting them really, supporting those teams is one of the best ways to do that keeping focus on the supply chain that serves those companies in order to continue to supply into health care, that's an important aspect of it even what we were talking about earlier, making sure we have the ability to move products and materials around the world that we don't see export restrictions come into play those are all aspects of what we can do to work together to solve that so that -- those are some things that -- from a company and business standpoint that we're working together to try to bring to the table >> mike, given your knowledge of what's going on in terms of what health care providers need, far beyond what your products are, ventilators being a key one, do you think the president should make sure of the defense production act to get needed supplies into the hands of these hospitals? >> the administration is encouraging industry to look at the defense production act as a tool to expand our capabilities. that's the response i've been talking about. we are -- we are building on our capabilities and working together to he arespond to covid-19 including personal protective equipment, vaccines, ventilators. that's been a positive part of the way the defense production act has been presented we're discussing this with the administration, working to partner in the supply chains we're working with fema to make sure that together we're getting our respirators to where they're needed most. all of those are positive steps forward as part of the discussions around the defense protection act that's a positive step in encouraging everybody to find a solution and get them to market. >> mike, this is a little bit of a theorial question. between dr. fauci and what i read online, there's some people who feel that 80% of the people in this country will get sick. do you think, as a business person, i can't ask you to be dr. fauci, do you think we're all going to get it? >> we're focused first and foremost on our -- on the safety of our people. we have implemented all remote working -- the social distancing, we're separating our people and focusing on their safety we implemented new operating procedures in our plants as we work to keep those running, so we can continue to produce respirators. i would say that's -- i think that's the preparation we need to really get to the best outcome here this is the critical time to act on those, prevent those worst case scenarios >> yeah. mike, finally on that broader point about preparing the company for a significant and steep economic downturn, perhaps the likes of which we have never really seen, you're obviously selling a lot of respirators, there are other parts of your company that one would imagine that would suffer as result of economic slowdown. what are you doing to prepare the company for that >> we activated our crisis teams in the company, one thing we do is every day we're looking at the business scenarios and what do we need to do to stay on top of that? that crisis team led by myself and our senior leadership, we're focused on people and delivering for the public health crisis and looking at business continuity and making sure we're considering the scenarios in front of us. we're very strong financial company. so we're really putting ourselves in position to manage through this well. >> mike, thank you for taking some time out from what i know is an unprecedented period of time here for all of us. mike roman is the ceo of 3m, appreciate him joining us. jim, any thoughts here in term of where we stand as we get ready for an open? >> before we go to steve, i know we want to go to steve liesman ge aviation planning to reduce approximately 10% of its work force. this is what we expect >> yeah. >> this is why the market is very odd in terms of its rallying ge is first, but there are going to be many more. steve, what have you got >> the fed is working hard on this main street lending program. what's clear is that to get this main street lending program going, jim, the fed will need the stimulus bill. i'm assuming there's an allocation in the stimulus bill, that stimulus bill will go -- that money will go to treasury treasury can use that as the back stop for the federal reserve to go out there and lend to small and medium-sized businesses we don't know more about it. the fed says they will announce it soon. more detail on the corporate bond program if a company decides to defer interest and principle after si months, they cannot pay dividend or conduct share buybacks. no particular restriction i can see on whether or not they can fire employees, the fed not saying -- fed saying that's not in there as you know, they have now said they will do as much as needed, which means they're going to keep buying treasuries, buying more dama mortgage backed securities and commercial mortgages until this is fixed, but no indication of when they'll stop. they'll keep going as much as needed jim? >> i keep hearing people in the markets say they're frozen, they're frozen i just think that can't be true. i mean, maybe that's just people wanting a better price the idea it's frozen -- >> the fed rolled these programs out step by step it's not a silver bullet situation is my understanding the way guys are talking to me in the markets they need to be in place today the critical money market lending facility will launch that should help markets trade it should provide critical liquidity. as we found, very much like the crisis, it's like whack a mole fed does this here, problem over there. does it here, problem over there. now it's providing liquidity and back stops for almost the entire credit market that's out there piece by piece these programs are going into place. we have only the slightest information or the slightest inkling that things have gotten better we'll see after today. i suspect some of these markets will perform better. >> steve, real quick you mentioned the crisis, of course we have never seen the fed do anything quite like this >> no. that's absolutely right. you were there step by step when the fed rolled out the programs. what happens now is the fed is going further down the risk spectrum taking risk it has not taken before >> steve, i know you'll be obviously filling us in as we get more and more details as this moves along steve liesman, going to a quick break here we have about five minutes before we get what we'll call an opening bell i think they may actually ring it at the new york stock exchange the floor is closed. jim and i, we remain right here ready to join us when "squawk on thstetcos ghbae re" merit ck people know aflac... aflac! ...but not what they do. so we're answering their 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companies advance how they serve even hard to reach customers. cool ♪ welcome back to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber along with jim cramer let's do a mad dash, jim, or let me tell you what i want it to be on, if you don't mind. let's talk more about ge as you pointed out, right before we went to steve liesman, we got news out of ge the aviation division planning to reduce by 10% the total u.s. work force there will be a temporary lack of work impacting about 50% of its u.s. maintenance, repair and yoef ha overhaul employees for 90 days they have a hiring freeze, cancellation of the salary and merit increase, dramatic reduction of nonascent initiess spending, and the ceo will forgo half of his salary >> and larry full salary for the rest of 2020 >> larry culp, right >> they are not asking for a bailout. i think there's --that term gets tossed around boeing not asking for a bailout. a lot of companies are very, very sensitive to the idea that bailouts, what the american people hated in 2008, they're trying so hard to be sure that people understand that it's not -- they don't have demand, but they're still not asking for the government to give them a handout. the 50% furlough, u.s. maintenance, repair and overhaul employees for 90 days, makes sense. so few of the airlines are flying both boeing and ge are faced with what i addressed to the treasury secretary is this demand issue you cannot create demand it's similar to the great depression, there was supply, but no demand. they have to stimulate something so there's demand. we don't want -- remember, the great depression ended when world war ii started that's the demand. it hung around it hung around because there were no people who figured out what to do i know you have to go to the opening bell i'll give you that >> all right let's get an opening bell in and continue our conversation on the other side of it this is highly unusual, as is so much else going on in the world. tom green, the vp of building operations, is ringing the bell at what will be an empty new york stock exchange. at the nasdaq, we can only show you sort of an outside shot of times square there's nobel ringer there we are going getting moving today we should point out that, jim, we looked like we would be down, then we looked like we might open much higher as a result of the fed action, and now i'm trying to figure out where things will stand. what are you looking at? >> i think that there are a lot of companies, particularly the retail -- all service companies. david, we always talk, we're a service economy. these companies, the workers could be bailed in the sense that they get the small and medium sized businesses get the money. again, you can't get outside in new york, very typical, we don't have the ability to be able to shop we don't have the ability to be able to go grab a beer i only mention that to say listen, you can keep workers, but it would be great to have that cash flow workers are only part of the equation there's rent, suppliers, and so they take their toll on the small and medium-sized business. you can't forgive rent throughout the whole food chain. then at the top people wouldn't be able to pay their bills either that's where the stocks are involved that's where you start seeing stocks in trouble. i think we'll be -- the world will be divided between companies that don't need credit, because they are basically worldwide, and have demand, and those who need credit and the ones who need credit, that's up to the fed i don't know whether there's going to be enough they may try to make it enough it's such a fractured system there were not a lot of big companies to worry about >> i know. to your point, how you get the money to where it needs to be in terms of at least preserving some sort of lifestyle for those workers who are paycheck to paycheck, and to stimulatemorni conversation with somebody who owned garages in new york city not something you think about, but not an insignificant business employs hundreds of people their numbers are down 40% and going down this week probably 80%. the question is how many of my workers do i furlough? who of my vendors do i pay or not pay? this is going on across the board certifiedly in k ll lly c key areas that are hit hard and across the country >> yeah. no matter what they do, you still get what phil lebeau is sending me now, average planes were 20%, 30% full you have industries that want to be bailed. you have the cruise industry the president said yesterday that's an important industry you have airplanes boeing, an important industry. aerospace, an important industry travel, an important industry. david, there's too many important -- nobody is unimporta unimportant. if cruises are important, who is unimportant? the whole economy has to be saved. that's why i'm glad secretary enough season talking about two months of payroll and direct money to a family of four. okay how about this who is more important? everything that we heard, the fed, the secretary, treasury, gilead or regeneron or doctor fauci or the drug that is -- the people that are -- the hydroxychloroquine -- the malaria drug the z-pak. those are more important let's keep tletting the scientists solve it. let's figure out how to get the people out of the hospital now len schleifer, the ceo of regeneron, is hopeful. he was not hopeful when this started. he was not i do not have a direct line into some of the companies that are, let's just say, on the exact front line of testing, i did get a note from mark casper, from thermo scientific. he says we ramped up production capacity to 2 million test kits and are ramping that up to 5 million in capacity per week as we get into april. the tests are running in a number of labs, results can be gotten in a short period of time test sites are utilizing our tests quickly. that's great we're starting to get this whole sense, there's a debate going on now, how do we make it so that perhaps we don't shut down the economy. do we quarantine those 60 and over and just test everybody who is below that and get the economy going again? i think that may be something that is going to be on the agenda once we have unlimited testing. right now we're just testing the people who seem to be -- needing to go to the hospital. it's imperative that we make it so that the people who are under 60 get back to work as fast as possible and not be worried about their health i think that's not stressed enough we have to start thinking about what happens on the other side >> listen, it is a conversation that is ongoing, jim a lot of people are having it, which is is the effects of the depression -- that's what we're talking about here greater than the impact of a widespread and deadly in some cases virus because what's the world going to look like on the other side of this if we endured month after month of massive unemployment and incredible declines in growth it's a worth while point but the key one you make as well is we need to rely on science. we have to hope there's going to be an anti-viral or some sort of combination, as you point out, that at the very least is going to modify, mitigate the effects of the virus to the extent that people will stop being concerned about getting it if you can get to that point, you can restart activity and we can sort of take it as it comes with the idea also of not overwhelming the health care system i don't know how many months will that be we're not talking about that happening next week. the layoffs are happening every single minute. >> right there's no -- if there's no capital, if no one is coming in the door, as much as you want two or three weeks as secretary mnuchin said to get the money, it is really difficult to try to figure out why you shouldn't just close your business you have 500 employees, you have a real company i don't mean to disparage the smaller companies. i own three of them. closed two of them, and it's just very tough. we're trying to give people pay, but the problem is, david, what happens three weeks from now how long can you go? that's why -- one thing that happened that's interesting, governor cuomo -- i don't know if people got to hear it around the country, he talked about how the president is making the hydroxychloroqui hydroxychloroquine getting it to the hospitals, we heard this works or at least the president feels good about it. do you want to be in the double blind test where you get the one that's the placebo no i would say i'm not going. i don't want the placebo i want the one that the president has a good feel for. it corrupts the test i think i understand why dr. fauci has been saying can we just slow it down? you have the french, everyone is excited about what happened in france unless you do a serious test, what happens is we create false hope yes. we all hope this works and this z-pak works with it. that starts tomorrow as someone who is trying to develop a drug, i know that you got to get this right or else what happens is you have a giant fiasco >> jim, let's step back for a minute and look and talk about the market action. of course, like everything else, it's been somewhat extraordinary. last night, before i was checking out for the night, we were looking like we would be limit down in the futures, potentially have a 15-minute halt early on. that changed this morning when we heard from the fed and, in fact, it was a huge reversal and the broader markets looked like they might be up as much as 2%, 3% on that as steve liesman told us, the actions of the fed. starting to buy cnbs, and as well unveiling this direct business or main street program to try to get money to small and medium-sized businesses. however we find ourselves sinking on the s&p to the tune of 3%. there's an absence of legislation at this point at least from the federal government and congress. you talk to secretary mnuchin at about 8:45 this morning, he indicated it's close, but we're not there as yet and by the way, we are also looking at adding, i don't even know what the numbers are, 3 trillion, 4 trillion to the national debt? take your pick >> it feels like we're throwing money at it more than -- look, no one wants to be president hoover who tried but didn't think big. people want us to be fdr, but fdr was trying to do anything. wherever you could throw money, he tried to do it. turned out to be something that made people feel better but it did not bring back demand. i was reading a piece written by owen west, he has some credibility, he was a partner at goldman, assistant secretary officials defense, served in the military there are 125,000 medical professionals in the military. i think a lot of people would feel good if those people were somehow more involved. it's time -- i think secretary mnuchin can do it, i would love to see someone defining the problem, i would love to see someone the head of a task force, someone who could say, you know what? this is not political. maybe that's what it takes after we get this deal i do wish the senate would stop dal dallying don't ask me to buy a stock. don't ask me to put money into this thing the senate can't even agree to anything i think that's part of the reason why we're getting selling. >> i know. jim, a lot of people for good reason listen to you in terms of at least your senses to the market and people are looking at their portfolios down 10%, 20%, 30%. i'm sure certain stocks, if they own individual stocks, more than even that. what do you tell them today? do we get to a point where you feel the prospect of enormous stimulus coming from the fed is enough to bottom us in terms of stocks even with the prospect of unemployment numbers and lack of earnings coming, the likes of which we have never seen >> i think the market is much more bifurcated. it's a shame we have all these different etfs, i did screen after screen, 500 stocks, 1200 stock, everything that you could imagine in terms of dividends, you come back to a lot of companies are in jeopardy here a lot of reits are in jeopardy retailers in jeopardy. a lot of banks in jeopardy unless they somehow say, listen, your bank is fine, we're also going to guarantee they'll be able to maintain their solvency, and the loans will be good we'll provide liquidity. i found so few stocks where i felt like, you know what it's time to get in. if they could get a bill passed so that people have some money and maybe they're a little more creative and saying listen, we'll provide money for people to eat i was thinking -- it's one of those things, in 1932 they had scripp you got scripp, so you could go buy food and go -- you could use contact lists to buy local they have to be more creative than they've been, or else what happens is you have -- i came up with about two-thirds of the s&p that's very hard to own. a lot of companies have to cut their dividend a lot. david, you want to bring in duncan >> yeah, you bring in duncan so we can talk about it -- again, these unprecedented times. just listening to you talk about scripp and people needing and finding a way to get ahold of food you know, it takes your breath away that we're having a conversation that includes that. >> could be my daughter in madrid where she's accompanied by a policeman when she goes to a grocery store, that's kind of extreme. david, we have someone who might -- who you have known for a long time. he can speak to the idea that we have a peopleless new york stock exchange duncan niederauer. duncan, fill us in on what it's like to make it so that you can have the new york stock exchange run like the nasdaq. >> good morning, first of all. it's been a long time. thanks for having me on. i think it's a historic day. most of the volume is already electronic i think this decision, as we say in our household sometimes, it wasn't a multiple choice question it was time to do this it was the only decision to make i think the exchange is more than prepared to do this so i don't anticipate issues with liquidity going back to hurricane sandy, the exchange was prepared to do this in an around sandy and operate the contingency plan i'm sure that plan is better now. so this is not a new thing that the exchange is trying at that time i wouldn't describe the banks and brokers nearly as well positioned as they are today to work remotely and work decentralized. so i think it should be pretty much business as usual and, you know, unlike sandy where we thought we might have to do it for a couple of days, we should assume this will be going on for quite some time >> does this mean that we can expect some things to change after we're through with this tremendous scourge where maybe people don't come back >> it's a good question. you have to ask the people running the exchange now my view from this vantage point would be that -- that even if it's a limited amount of the volume that doesn't trade electronically, there are moments in each day, the open, the close, pockets of turbulence where it's valuable. i would expect -- i would expect that you'll see -- that maybe it will be different. but i think a lot of the people who run their business from there will come back they'll probably go back to the model, the hybrid model we've had. we'll see how it goes and how long this lasts, as you guys were talking about before i came on >> duncan, the question becomes how will behaviors change in general as a result of this crisis after and hopefully as soon as possible when we're through it we just don't know a lot of times things do go back to the way they were, but oftentimes there are moments in history that do significantly change the way business is done. >> yeah. i think we'll -- it's too early to tell on this one. there's so many different scenarios. you could have a fairly quick v-shaped recovery, a long, drawn out issue around all this. when we know more, we'll be able to answer that question. but you're right, sometimes these events do create the opportunity to change a business model tied to the behaviors you're referencing we'll see how that goes. >> duncan, why do you think we have such illiquidity? what is going on that the equities market, i think you and i would say, is not really working? >> i think you were eluding to some of that when i was listening to you guys before i came on. i think a lot of the volume is -- is what i would call either speculative in nature or the unwinding of leverage. people are not finding a lot of reasons to come in to the market right now. i think you see a vix at 65, 70, 75, that tells you all you need to know about underlying liquidity. i was seeing the exchange heads united about keeping the markets open mnuchin's idea was interesting, you could make a case to have a shorter trading day so people had more time to consolidate liquidity, think about their positions more, do some more research, not watch the screens as much. but i think you made a good point last week, the thing i'm finding the mosttroubling and we can look no further than this morning and overnight for an example, the overnight futures market, just seems to be created a lot of stress, a lot of volatility i don't feel like it's adding to liquidity. i don't know what you think about that but i just think it's all over the place. i think it's giving -- people are watching the screens overnight and getting really nervous, and they're up and down and sideways with no rhyme or reason with how stocks open. >> duncan, real quickly also on this same subject, etfs. when you were running the nyse, they were coming to the fore in terms of something now which is kind of the way a lot of people invest we're seeing some weird stuff with some of these etfs to put a non-technical term on it are you concerned at all >> i think the etfs are a volume, we all have to be concerned. i'm sure people will analyze that more. they've become a part of so many individuals portfolios when you look underneath the covers on some of these etfs, we'll call them sector etfs, but in point of fact since they're cap-weighted, they're two, three stock bets disguised as a 15-stock company portfolio those will be looked at. i think first thing's first, as you guys were talking about before i came on, the next few days are all about the senate delivering package we can all get behind. >> well, i know we got to go to bob, but i just want to ask one thing to duncan. how can we repair for the new world? i know this is crying and people want money i think the new world should be talked about too in order to give people hope what would you want to see >> i think we've got to see a few things here coming up. i think number one, i think the fed and treasury are doing everything they can. i think that's bought time for a bipartisan solution out of congress, and i think they've got to deliver that asap i think we have to hope that the policies we're all putting in place to stay at home approach works. the virus peaks quickly and we can get back to business and life soon. i think we all know the americans collective resolve is unmatched anywhere else in the world, and when we think about it, we're not being asked for big sacrifices this is staying at home for a while and trying to stay healthy is really not a big sacrifice. and then i hope that everybody appreciates that the medical professionals today should be thought of the way we thought of first responders after 9/11. they're today's heros and as you guys were alluding to, i hope the next wave of heros comes out of the farm industry you can't imagine how hard they're working together on things you were referencing. i think if we follow the rules, we get policies we can all get behind that are bipartisan, and we just take a time -- take time to get through this, i think there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic if we can turn this around quickly given how good the environment was going into this >> yeah. good points. thank you, duncan. somebody else familiar with the new york stock exchange is bob pisani he hasn't seen it in a little while. >> good to see you again, david. of course, you want to take a look at the futures. it creates confusion we were down big overnight down at one point. we rallied at 8:00 a.m. eastern time on the treasury's announcement it was remarkable. went green, and then when we opened, we were positive and dropped down dramatically. the liquidity isn't necessarily very great preopen even with all the craziness and we would think there's massive participation, but, in fact, the futures gave us a deceptive look about how we were going to open if you look at sectors we sort of are all over the place throughout the morning tech was an early leader staples were down. energy the down. industrials, routes still not really bouncing. even though announcements of buyi buying mortgage-backed security helps a substantial amount of the route market look at the dow movers goldman sachs gave an aggressive look boeing on the up side. bouncing all over, 3m down united technologies, but they're not moving together recently even the consumer staples names are weak on top of that. i think the most important thing this morning from my porch as an etf watcher is the fed's announcement it looks like they're going to be buying investment grade corporate bond etfs that's a real difference there now, that's something japan has been doing for a long time but not in the united states so if you look at lqd, the biggest corporate investment grade corporate bond down 25%. rallying today you've got to be careful obvious you can't keep buying etf. you need bids for the underlying bo bonds. this is a separate issue more to say on that later on hanes is rallying. a remarkable turn around for them just about the temporary floor, i've been watching the action. everything appears to be operating fine all trading has gone electronic. they tweeted out normal market hours will apply talk you want about closing. that's not happening it doesn't look like shorter hours is happening any time earlier as well. note the financial services workers are essential workers, exempt from the new york order to stay at home. a lot of concern about that. finally the floor is part of the business plan. it's not part of something in a st nostalg nostalgic. it's there and i think it will come back. it's part of the business plan back to you. >> all right, bob. appreciate you talking about the corporate bond market. there is concern as well about some of the short-term bond funds. you know, you never know what's under the hood until a period like this. but important to point it out as you did the fed potentially moving into that market as well. speaking of that market, let's get to rick santelli he's not at the cme group, but he's out there somewhere >> hi, david i am at the cme group. i'm not on the trading floor at the corporate head quarters. the entire yield curve is under pressure the third year bond was off in a universe by itself look at two-year note yields 27 basis points. that's down five now, as you move down the curve, look at an intraday of 30 year bonds, 142 it's exactly unchanged it's unchanged, 142. they were higher on the day for most of the morning. we know that the notes over bonds spread was just under 70 basis points that's the anomaly on the long end. look at a long week of tens. tens at 73 they're down 12 basis points informal everything is under pressure they were at one point, they were at one point at 68 basis points and the equity markets have had positive volatility to the up side as we seem to hear more out of washington that they're going to put a lot of glitter back into the system and the glitter the liquidity is always viewed as a positive. even though exactly where it's needed, you know, there's a lot of questions as to that. we all can harken back to another time with tarp where votes were either put over the top or not put over the top. finally foreign exchange look at one week of the dollar index. it was flirting with 103 touches. we haven't closed above 103 since december of 2016 we've given up some ground but the dollar index remains strong and is one of the global issues. demand for dollar being able to satisfy it david, back to you >> rick, thank you from the cme, though not the floor. we'll take a break we have the s&p rebounding still in negative territory. down about 1.2%. a t resqwkn e street" right after this ♪ you should be mad they gave this guy a promotion. you should be mad at forced camaraderie. and you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. but you're not mad, because you have e*trade, who's tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. don't get mad. get e*trade's simplified technical analysis. when i lost my sight, my biggest fear was losing my independence. mmm... good. so i've spent my life developing technology to 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(laughing) no, sorry. we're helping all kinds of businesses go beyond customer expectations. how can we help you? good monday morning, everyone i'm sara eisen along with our panel. we're all coming to you live this morning from separate locations as we put social distancing into practice as a precaution we're about a half hour into the trading day. we're looking at declines for the dow and s&p. s&p down a little less than 1% the dow is down 192 points consumer discretionary is the only area in the green it looked like we were going to have an up day because of the fed just stepping in in a major way again to try and prop up the credit markets what do you make of the action we've seen this morning so far >> i actually don't think it's bad. i think there are a lot of companies, i know you and i both don't necessarily want to see the market led by zoom because that means once again that the stay at home economy is still really playing the biggest role. every time i see amazon up, i think okay, what happens to everybody in the mall? there's still tremendous pressure on health care. it surprises me. in the end health care does not need help from the government. they have fantastic balance sheets people want to go for something that's a complete bad news that might get better, boeing, or with technology where there's a secular growth story, 5g, or the coca-colas what they have going for them is they're not down today, but pepsico is up. people are saying -- people still have to drink and eat. we want real demand and we don't have it. >> pepsico keeps getting upgraded two upgrades today morgan stanley and rbc as a defensive play we need consumer staples i wonder how much today is about the fact that congress cannot get agreement? i know secretary mnuchin spoke optimistic when he spoke to you about getting something done today, but elizabeth warren is saying it's a slush fund for the treasury how are they going to come together >> they need 60. there are people who cannot come together when i listen to it, look, i know they're all going to be -- i'm not a legislator, but the emphasis over and over again from secretary mnuchin was the worker, the worker, the fed taking care of a lot of the big credit issues. i feel like that if everyone were in the room where there's negotiation, i think the worker is taking precedence on both sides. that's why a nancy pelosi, i can't possibly imagine why she wouldn't say the worker comes out on top let's get this done and then look at it later david? >> you know, jim -- >> i want -- >> i'm sorry >> go ahead, david >> i want to turn to kelly and get her take on things as well given your focus through the years as i always remember has been onto a certain extent the bond and credit markets as well and the fed. extraordinary measures this morning. the likes of which as steve said we've never really seen, and as sara referenced the market did seem to be on an up tick toward the open only to reverse again but what is your take on these moves at this point and what they will mean >> the only thing i was thinking was the timing this morning. it came after that vote yesterday. right? i mean, you had the bill not advance last night, and here comes the fed saying effectively to me saying we can't afford for this not to happen so if -- look at just the corporate bailout piece of this. you can either have the money coming directly from the federal government or not. if they get hung up on it, the fed said we're going to support the corporate debt markets and make sure the asset classes keep functioning. it take it as a sign of washington, if you want to maintain your leadership over this economy, you have to advance this bill or the federal reserve is going to do it anyway >> i don't know. i mean, i think this is david, the fed going all in this is qe infinity. we're going to buy whatever is necessary to make sure there's no liquidity problem in the market and if we're going to be on the other end of the train if nobody wants to do that information and that's a sign of strength. that's what the fed can do and should do during the crisis. and i just wonder even if we do get congress to pass 2 trillion of stimulus which is not a sure thing, we'll watch the votes we have a health crisis to deal with and the slope of the curve and the fact that it's not flattening, and how much of the nation is under lockdown right now and whether that's going to make an impact whether the doctors can get the ventilators or the masks they need these are the questions wall street is grappling with i think the biggest one is when is all of this going to end? it is unclear how long new york, california, major economies in this country are going to be on lockdown before people can feel confident. i was reading the new studies sort of like the new analyst notes for us this morning. talking about 20 days that people can still test positive for the virus without it leaving their system that's a long time >> yeah. i listened to that, and i keep thinking madrid, milan those are worse case we want singapore and south korea and japan. it keeps coming back to testing. that's why i'm glad that mark casper thinks he can do 2 million tests this week. the thing that i want to see, there's something that came out last night in israel they're quarantining elderly those are the ones who it's life and death for. you certainly they're people, the elderly who will die if you want to get the economy going, you test and you get the people back. and i think that the idea that we're going to forever keep the 45-year-old on the sideline who wants very much to go shop and has already been tested okay, that's a mistake and i think that the president has to be a leader here and say you know what? we are going to risk the -- now that we have all the tests, we're going to risk a quarantine for the people who if they get sick they die, and we're going to let everyone else go back to work and it's not irresponsible. i think it's important >> jim, it's going to be interesting to see what mix they end up using i just want to go back to what you said in speaking with secretary mnuchin this morning where he was throwing some big dollar figures around. he said 2 -- from the stimulus bill directly. he said 6 trillion if you leverage the 500 billion they're hoping for through the fed i don't know if we got anymore color on how that would happen it sounds like maybe through a variety of lending facilities. so it's more than just that kind of 2 trillion that's at stake here it's their plans to get up -- 2 trillion is 10% of the economy we're starting to talk about upwards of 50% here. at a time when the estimates are coming down 30, down 40 if you heard bullard for gdp in the second quarter >> we want to think there's a great bargain and if we have unlimited capital, you could make such buys you listen to people a note says it's the end of the world. when you listen to a lot of the retailers, they are it's the end of the world it's not the end of the world. absolutely the great depression is on the table, but you know what we will not need a war to get out of this. we need a bridge to be able to get hcq working or get regeneron working. and the idea that we somehow have to give up on the economy is wrong if regeneron calls in and says we have it, all this despair ends so yes, there are some levels where you have to buy. >> yeah. but the question, of course, becomes what the levels are. and i continue to see -- in terms of the dislocations in various markets as a result of liquidity needs, notwithstanding what the fed is doing now in terms of a lot of these markets, it's still an issue in terms of really determining a fundamental price here i just don't -- you know, there are a lot of situations where that's very difficult to do right now. >> yeah. i mean, i think that it's -- i don't mean to be too ironic but the chinese are the best source of demand, whether it's planes, whether it be all sorts of different parts that we make i look at the -- the united technologies raytheon, otis might be a buy it's heavily chinese chie these are through the pap south korea through the pipe japan, i don't know. we keep having to think about what's on the other side when we flatten the curve, are we still a -- just a nation that does no business and if that's the case, then -- and it's fundamentally a stay at home economy for the rest of our lives, then we're in trouble i think stay at home is a big part that's why i've been focussed on that on mad money" but look at technology today that's a belief that we are going to win and beat it the despair is so palpable the scaring is so palpable i mean, i almost kind of feel like when you hear reassurance, it's polly anna. it's peter pan it shouldn't be. we should be cut and dried here's what comes back when we get a anti-body that works against the virus. when put when in. not if because all i hear is if and i think that makes me feel like okay, let's just hunker down for the duration and be like my daughter in madrid with a month and a half of rice and beans because she's afraid to go outside. >> jim, do you think there's any reason why the economy is going to change coming out of this people were flying in airlines, are they not flying coming out are they staying at home permanently, or are they wanting out? >> we are a service economy, an economy of hope. if we knew that we were -- let's say if 80% of the people get a virus. we had the public health person say 100 % get it if they do, why didn't all the people in china get it i see testing. i see people going back. as long as everyone is tested on this plane and maybe we have to give people a star as they do in other countries, then we're back we're back but we need to have a leader who says -- maybe just someone who is just on this who says over 60, we're going to protect you under 60, this is your chance. get tested and shop and go out and do your part i know it's strange to have an economy where i say it's not nra, we do our part going back to work in 1933, 1934. it's do your part and go out do your part and have a beer >> all right, jim. we'll bring it back to this conversation in a moment meantime, new york city is one of the places hardest hit we coronavirus. it's starting to see a surge in patients as officials were expecting. the state of new york has become the epicenter of the outbreak in the u.s. local hospitals are sounding the alarm that they're running out of space and out of some supplies contessa brewer is on the west side of new york with the latest on this. contes contessa >> yeah. the convention facility behind me is about to become an emergency hospital with 1,000 beds the army corps of engineer says they have gotten money this is the biggest hospital they are putting up in new york city we need it at last report there were some 17,000 cases of coronavirus with 150 deaths in new york state and we know that new york city's emergency rooms are already seeing a spike in admissions i want to show you a graphic in october. the beginning of flu season. we see admissions for flu-like symptoms jump around march 1st the mayor told cnn the 11 public hospitals will run out of supplies within a week and in terms of this protective gear, we've heard from the head of surgery at new york presbyterian warning his co-workers about the shortages he says normally the hospitals use about 4,000 of those protective masks per day they're up to using 40,000 masks per day. that's estimated to reach 70,000 per day. new york presbyterian says they're issuing one mask per health care worker and charging the health care worker to keep the masks clean. unbelievable the governor of new york state has called on the president to nationalize the manufacture of these masks. he said in his news conference yesterday what's happening is states like illinois and california, florida and new york are competing to buy the masks, and it's driving the prices up and, of course, we're in the middle of a stay at home order that came into effect last night at 8:00. all nonessential workers are supposed to stay at home they are allowing grocery stores to open up the sidewalks are empty of traffic here the other states that have joined in, seven other states. that's one in three americans now under stay at home orders. we're expecting another news conference in a half hour. we expect a new update then. >> i'll take it, contessa. thank you. contessa brewer. let's get back to potential treatments for the virus and for that we're joined by distributed bio ceo jake glanville, the company among many others trying to develop an anti-body treatment. and partners with a number of important institutions to do that thank you for joining us this morning. why don't you start off by telling us what your efforts are centered on right now and whether you're making any progress >> right well, thanks for having me on. my company is focusing on creating an anti-body therapeutic. this is a medicine you'd inject into a patient and within 20 minutes the anti-bodies would protect a patient. it lasts about 8 weeks it could be administered to health care professionals to provide them protection while they're in a high risk work space. we're anticipating finishing the engineering of our anti-body on the week of april 13th or even the week of april 6th. at this point it goes to the u.s. military and they're evaluating the potency on live virus. >> well, now, forgive me ignorance here what is the difference between this and a vaccine or are we talking about the same thing you said eight weeks it's not a life-time immunization >> there are two pretty different medicines. they're both important with a vaccine, i would give it to you and then your body responds to the pieces of the virus in the vaccine, and after six or seven weeks your body would produce anti-bodies. i'm skipping the middleman i'm giving you the anti-body directly it works right away. it doesn't last for years like a vaccine, but it works immediately. the critical difference is vaccines because they take many weeks to work, you can't give them to patients it means when you run human studies you have to give them to a large number of healthy people and watch them for a long time that's why they're estimating it's going to take 12 to 18 months for the vaccine to become available. where this, you just need to do phase one/two human study, we can do it over the summer on about 600 subjects, and if it works we can release it by september. >> well, look, obviously watch that i know you worked on ebola you're a pandemic expert i'm curious if you think as a country we're doing enough to fight this, and what you think about the testing right now. >> sure. we are definitely caught a little flat footed in the first few months of the outbreak china did a great job of buying the world some time. we took a while to adapt as did other countries. at this point i'm glad we're applying strict social distancing measures. in california we have some of the strictest. it seems scarier, but we're safer. what we're going to see over the next month unfortunately is a continued growth in cases just because that's all the cases that are already out there catching up to us. this month is going to be tough. the good news is social distancing will slow the cases the bad news is china is going to have to start sending people back to work either you tell everyone to go home and slow the virus or you tell everyone to go back to work and fix the economy in which case there's more growth of infections that's what we'll see the rest of the year, i think >> doctor, have you seen any mutations in this coronavirus like we do see in the seasonal flu? >> so other groups are looking at that. we definitely see an accumulation of mutations happening across all the virus around the world scientists are doing a good job of preparing notes the question becomes is there enough mutation that you could become infected and if it stays around, by the next season are you reinfected we don't know that yet >> mr. glanville, how many other companies are you aware of working on a similar kind of a treatment, and what distinguishes your company in terms of your ability, perhaps to get there before others >> i'd say there's four or five companies i'm aware of working on this. what we're doing is pretty different. most of the companies are starting from scratch. they're taking blood from covid-19 recovery patients or they're immunizing mice and recoveri recovering anti-bodies there we went back to anti-sars anti-bodies. the sars virus is a cousin of the covid-19 virus we are using technology in our laboratory to create hundreds of millions of mutations on the anti-bodies to evolve them to catch up with the new covid-19 the advantage is suddenly we're piggie backing on years of research to bring them to become a strong therapy toward covid-19 in our estimation, this means we'll have the first anti-body that's optimized toward the target compared to other groups trying to find an anti-body in the first place. >> we keep hearing from a various sources whether it's in south korea, china, france, by a distinguished doctor that hcq with the z pac works, and the president has a good feel. dr. fauci, i respect, and he's saying please, don't get ahead of yourself. why do you think that there's such widespread use of that pack and obviously it's now in new york versus the skepticism is it because they haven't done the test i think it's a national emergency, and sometimes i feel that even though i know the rules and what the fda wants, let's throw the rules away for a few minutes. >> there's a mix there right? so the pack has been applied in china and south korea. but then there have been reports saying it's effective. but they didn't share enough data it is essential that when you have an outbreak you can start throwing all the spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks that's what happens. there's a chance the medicines could help they don't act as a total cure or we wouldn't have any of the problems in south korea where we still have cases but what we need are studies to test the effect now, to your question about can we throw the rules out we don't want to throw them all out. they serve to soften lives we can cut red tape. for the project i'm working on normally it would take a couple years through traditional development. but we have a couple steps of expediting production. and second setting up a phase one/two study that's done usually by oncology groups that enables us to work with the fda to prove the drug works quickly. and we have compassionate use used in the ebola outbreak and others where if there's nothing else out there that works, and something else does, you can start releasing it to people that need it >> i was just going to ask about the timeline we do interviews with people like you and i get instant feedback this is hopeful. this is good this is what we need to get this out faster you said what, september is the best case scenario is there any way to speed that up faster? >> it could be a little faster but it could also be worse so the september is the technical time it would take us to basically manufacture the material assuming all the red tape was out of the way and the fda worked with us aggressive. that's why i'm hopeful about my active partnerships. then you have to do one human study. you should do that it makes sure the drug is safe and it makes sure it works otherwise it's not productive. that's going to take -- it doesn't take that long because you can give it to patients already sick within ten days you know if the drug works that's better than a vaccine you have to monitor for six months after that, you have to scale up these things in principle could be out to september, but we need additional funding we need coordination with the u.s. government and the military and with other nations we want this to be available globally this is a global problem and we need everybody to have access to medicine >> mr. glanville, appreciate you taking time with us and good luck, of course. we're certainly all hopeful. jake glanville, the ceo of distributed bio. jim, we're dealing with two separate crisis that are linked. the health crisis where we're trying to get ahead, and focussed on any number of different therapies whether they're anti-virals that mitigate the effects of the virals to antibodies that help health care workers to a vaccine. at the same time we're dealing with a moment by moment economic crisis that is only worsening as more and more people lose their jobs >> david, it's really kind of strange. the stocks going down, are the let's call them the procter & gambles. those are the stocks going down in part because i think people are making -- when we do get the legislation, there's going to be a snapback rally in tech because tech is something where there's still demand if you're building for 5g, then what happens is you've got something cooking. there are people all over the world who feel like it's an inexrabble move to buy 5g. the idea that somehow you should throw away the drug stocks i think is a big mace take they have good yields and balance sheets just because you think there's going to be a bill passed, let's come back to the idea that where the bargains might be created are companies that have good growth where the growth isn't going to stop. and people are throwing away because they somehow expect some snapback rally that's going to make it so there's demand when there is no demand unless you're talking about a secular trend like 5g. >> jim, can i jump in here for a second i want to point out i know we've talked about this but zoom is up 18% today. it's incredible. the stock's at 154 i can't go a paragraph without reading about people saying join our small business zoom because cuban had ideas about letting businesses overdraft so they can keep going my neighbors said download the house party app. we're going a hangout tonight. >> i got a birthday party tonight. i don't know if i can attend i have a zoom party with my daughter too guy back and forth with the ceo. i always feel badly that he bothers to answer my email he has so much business and he's there doing the business this weekend. he has the product people want, and secondarily sysco has -- yeah i mean, it's become overnight like xerox >> the stock chart -- we remember the tesla stock chart in january i'm not saying zoom is the same thing, but that's a steep slope on the right there >> look, those are -- that's a parabolic move that's unsustainable, but tesla did get to 900 before 400. zoom is extraordinary. people when they find out hey, i want to stay at home, it's just the word that comes up is okay, well, zoom me. so i think it's really worth noting until zoom levels off, that's a great tell of where we are in the economy. you want to see it level off if only because people can go back to where they used to work >> love it's up 18%. isn't much assurance >> i want to be ptimistic. let's say hcq or gilead or regeneron works. let's say something works. i see so many people and it's driving me crazy you know what? china has it because they're a totalitarian society and we don't have the guts to do it we have the president and dr. fauci and governor cuomo we can do moral authority. what drugs -- how many nobel prizes do they have? what drugs did they discover i'm kind of tired of hearing we need a communist totalitarian thing to beat this we're all at risk and we're all going to get it. and jim with the gloves and the masks, who are you kidding i don't buy that i'm more optimistic. >> and when we look to your optimism, it's important i want to point out other things happening in the market. they're unusual. we have oil prices down. but they're down less than 1%. nothing extreme. energy stocks, worse performing sector on the s&p. we've looked at oil as a leader. also would note we have treasury yields lower after the fed came in with what some are calling the qe infinity, will do whatever it takes to stabilize the market, and gold and silver are higher today it's something a little different. you don't quite have that sell everything mentality that we saw on certain brutal days over the last few weeks it's a lot -- the action today is a little more subdued. >> what a great point. there's two numbers that we're worried about. confirmed cases and unemployment on thursday. if we saw any flattening of confirmed cases, we're not going to see good employment on thursday people would say it's not the end of the world it's older than 60 where the risk is. thank you, lisa, for constantly telling me that that i can't work anymore not going to happen. >> we hope not >> someone was supposed to ask me about my show >> hold on a second. i got something else to ask you first. i did want to reference sara's mention of oil prices. at some point at the end of this, we're going to see a lot of consolidation when it comes to oil, jim, a lot of those smaller oerperators are in deep trouble. reflelkted in the price of the bonds and the high yield markets. there is an expectation we may see a wave of consolidation. no surprise. at some point when we get to the other side in a lot of different industries certainly in oil and gas not clear there's going to be a buyer at all for oxi which we should point out there were some reports that perhaps they're getting closer to a sentiment with carl icahn, but given their debt load and properties, a lot of people tell me don't look for anything on that front certainly not in the near-term, even if in the longer term how are you viewing energy at this point >> chevron, the only guy with the fire power suspended buyback. bp is doing well, but i don't -- just like hey, i don't know what's going to happen but mike worth is the guy. and mike worth has -- this is chevron. he's going to come out on the other side exxon borrowed a lot of money. the bond yield, in order to pay the dividend that's not a worse problem worse is the cash. everybody else, i don't want to say everybody, but most others are strapped they need 30 to 35 that's why i thought the president, it was a move by the texas railroad commission. the president has to call saudi arabia and read them the riot act. he favors lower gas prices. >> jim, you've been saying that for weeks now. it hasn't happened either he's not doing it or it didn't work. >> i think we should say i'm wrong. for the petroleum reserve, that's about 5% to 7% of the production so no, i mean, debt fears, i don't know i mean, the president, he has his counsel. my advice was to call them my advice is not being heated. i have a tv show >> we see no evidence of that. >> none whatsoever, david. why don't you just rub it right in jim, that has not been a -- that's been a sup on the -- suboptimal strategy. >> the strategy might be correct, but it has not seem to have been employed, i think. >> sub on theal results. >> certainly if you're trying to get, operating the oil and gas business that's a connected story given the decline in demand, but also a separate story because of the fight between the saudis and the russians focussed on trying to hurt our operators all that said, what's coming up later tonight? >> every night i have a new work at home -- i try to get a new zoom so i've got cloud flair. then i also have, wow, i have teladoc. that's another like it has a zoom-like chart. and then at the heart of the issue right now in terms of credit and belief is our real estate investment trusts and deb carfaro runs venn toss it has a percentage that's senior living which we know is on the red hot griddle we have to find out. she did her distribution last week a lot of people thought she wouldn't let's see what she has to say. >> a great mix of stuff. it's been fun hanging out with you from a distance. >> we zoomed kelly is probably about 60, maybe 60 feet which is now the new distance 60 is the new six. >> i still have the math >> this has been fun jim, we'll see you later great stuff. we have time now for our coronavirus update sue herera joins us in the studio for that. >> i do. good morning, everyone here's what's happening at this hour worldwide cases have now topped 350,000. the death toll from the virus is above 15,300 in spain and they're reporting around 4500 cases. here in the u.s. there are more than 35,000 cases and 471 total deaths the hospital ship mercy is getting ready to leave san diego this afternoon it will be heading to los angeles where it will take care of noncoronavirus patients allowing local hospitals to focus more on the outbreak in eastern france, an army field hospital with 30 intensive care beds is being set up for coronavirus patients this as paris is extending a weekend ban on gatherings along around the eiffel tower. no date for the end of that ban has been given and the international retail h&m says more than two-thirds of its 5,000 stores have been closed the company is now looking at temporary layoffs that will likely effect tens of thousands of employees and as always, for more coronavirus coverage, you can always head to cnbc.com. back to you. all right. sue, thank you we'll turn back to the markets now. and nasdaq is positive s&p and dow are lower. cheta ahya joins us and jack an db ablin u.s. growth to a low in 2020 explain your forecast. >> essentially it's a significant decline in personal consumption expenditure as well as the business investment in the second quarter so this is definitely going to hurt our forecasts and we are now expecting this to continue into second quarter, and then expected recovery from the third quarter assuming that cases beat by some time in second half of april or early may >> what is the economy going to look like if we do peak by that time how strong can we rebound and what kind of unemployment numbers are we looking at? >> so we expect the unemployment numbers to rise to about 12.8% in the second quarter. so this is going to be quite a sharp and steep deceleration in growth, but we expect it to be relatively strong from third quarter. it really picks up from the fourth quarter in a meaningful manner to the extent to which we will get back to the normal levels sometime in 2021, but definitely the near-term looks very painful >> so jack, i mean, the market's off 30% from the highs happened quickly it happened painfully. how much of that bad news of that economic forecast is already in the market? >> i'm going to say most of it you know, the first phase of this selling was probably a lot of it forced you know, based on all thel algorithm related trading. also add to the fact that we had a lot of passive exchange traded strategies where we -- investors pretty much just gorged everything, baby and the bath water. i think now for investors who need to be long-term, we have to look past this valley, and there may be more to go to the downside, but probably not much more is really three things we're looking at and we're advising our clients to consider one, shift out of passive and into active. the fact is that while everything is down, we know that the coronavirus and this standstill will likely impact 30% of the economy pretty harshly. and then probably 20% to 30% almost no issue at all and so if you move to an actively managed equity portfolio, a manager has the wherewithal to pick through who will likely be the winners and losers that perhaps a passive investment won't the second is provide liquidity if you can the liquidity premium right now is enormous. so we have a private equity secondary strategy where we're providing liquidity for would be or limited partnership holders that just want to get out. and that is a great long-term strategy, because we can offer liquidity at a pretty sizable discount to fair value and then the last, of course, is distressed credit. we think now after that is probably the may tag repairman of the investment strategies over the last few years. they're going to start getting busy and i think providing them with dry powder could provide investors willing to look past the valley an interesting opportunity. >> thank you both for phoning in >> thank you >> appreciate your insight want to go to stacey cunningham, the president of the new york stock exchange on this historic day where the new york stock exchange is closed for floor trading and operating through computers for the first time in more than the 100-year history how is it going? >> it is a historic day for the new york stock exchange, but for the united states broadly. we are all battling this crisis and taking steps to protect people more broadly across the u.s. so we made the decision to move to electronic trading temporarily until we have a good sense of how to keep people safe >> and what are you seeing in terms of the market action is it interfering at all with liquidity? is it operating normally >> yeah. stocks opened normally this morning. the market makers that stand on the trading floor every day who aren't behind me today are remotely opening and closing stocks throughout the day using their technology systems to interact and provide liquidity into the market throughout the day. this is something and as we highlighted, a lot of trading is done electronically already. the people on the floor are using algorithms to trade. a lot of that is happening off floor now. and as soon as we can, we'll get the people back in the building. >> what are you looking for to see if that could happen some people are saying look, we might not see the new york stock exchange floor open ever if this proves to go well, why do we even need floor traders? >> because there's a level of service we can provide to our listed companies as well as their investors and to provide a premium offers just like restaurants offer takeout or delivery. once we have a sense we can protect the people we're working with, just like restaurants reopen dining rooms, we'll reopen the trading floor to provide full service to our customers. >> yes it's kelly here. does that mean it's a privilege for traders to get access to the floor, or can you explain that a little bit more? >> it's their customers. it's a privilege to the customer the customer is off the trading floor. those investors buying and selling stocks every day and those listed companies who are choosing the new york stock exchange choose because they have that additional level of service of having people at the point of sale providing human judgment importantly, those people aren't open trading each day. they're adjusting algorithms to respond to changing. we've introduced technology to scale their products and services and their businesses. that's why there are fewer people on the trading floor today. they're using technology to accomplish so much more, but that technology is a critical piece of it. so is the people any time you empower people with technology, and you get a much better result. that's what we see our stocks trade with less volatility as a result, and today we're taking that piece off the table just given the circumstances. it's a well-considered response. it's not a panic reaction. and i would challenge all americans to be thinking about their actions right now through that lens. right? this is a crisis but it doesn't give us the opportunity to make decisions based on fear or panic it's very important that we use this opportunity to become the best versions of ourselves make decisions that are good long-term decisions about how we can protect ourselves, our neighbors, and how we can be part of the solution just like we're seeing health care workers rise to the occasion every single day. every single person should be thinking about how they can help and how they can be a united member of this country >> many people are fearful and i know we've talked about this point before, but it still continues to be live and there are still calls for the market to close, for some period of time because people are emotional and they are scared. and there are worries. a lot of that is manifesting itself in the markets which is adding further pain to the economic and health crisis that we're seeing state your case of why it's important to keep the markets open versus say 9/11 where we saw the floor close for a few days but also the market >> those are different scenarios. i understand it's hard to not make emotional decisions, but we have to do that. people have to make decisions whether they're investments or personal decisions, people should be staying home and focusing on protecting their long-term investments. that means not to panic. the market was closed during 9/11 because it was not capable of opening the industry, the new york stock exchange, many of the clients, were not able to operate remotely we have since introduced that capability we've also i've heard referenced over the past few days back to world war i, the markets were closed for four months at that point the number of americans that had their life savings and money invested in the market was dramatically different. right now people are being stressed and many of them need access to the dollars in the short-term because of the trials that they're undergoing right now. we can't take that access away from them. we made adjustments to the market to deal with situations like that. and those situations have been designed well thought out, data driven, and actual responses to market conditions. not knee-jerk reactions to a selloff. i spoke a few times last week with former treasury secretary nick brady he was the treasury secretary following the 1987 market crash. he and the team designed market wide circuit breakers for situations like this when there is a major selloff in the market so we can have an informed slowdown that limits panic at moments in time to give people a moment to react and to think wisely about what they're doing and to not feed into a panicked selloff his point and his message to me has been consistently you need to make sure the markets stay open this is why we designed this it's easy for me to say don't worry. i also agree the markets need to say open they need to provide access to investors their money. that's number one. that's most critical it is also very helpful to understand and to highlight what the public sentiment is. that's the useful tool to have on its own, i think it's critical that people have access to their money but having the markets reflect back how americans are dealing with the challenge is a useful tool as well >> i see you're still at the floor. is there any thinking that the floor could open sooner than many think i believe in cuomo's order, financial services are part of the essential work force of new york >> financial services are an essential work force we will open the floor as soon as we're confident we can do so safely >> thank you for joining us. president of the new york stock exchange the coronavirus is taking a huge toll on the retail sector as major notable retailers like nike, nordstrom, my macy's and apple are temporarily shutting down stores across the nation. our next guest sent a letter to president trump last week seeking financial aid for retailers and small businesses the president and ceo at the international conference of shopping centers tom, it's great to have you here what do you say from people who say you are among those seeking a quote, unquote, bailout. >> we're not seeking a corporate bailout in any way 70 % of the tenants in shopping centers are small businesses we're facing an historic national crisis. the government has taken appropriate public herlt health actions that's put strain on our members. all we're really suggesting is that during this period of time when we all should be focussed on the health and safety of our fellow citizens that the government steps in and supports small businesses and quite frankly the economy as a whole we're reacting to appropriate actions taken by the government, and as a result, retailers and restaurants have closed their doors throughout this country. and so we're just asking for action we're focussed and hopeful today the act will pass. there's language in there around small business protection. and loans. we're hopeful that will be broadened to ensure the small businesses cannot only maintain their employees but cover all their operating expense pences during this period >> you're supporting this bill because it supports small businesses which are as you said people with less than 10 employees are critical to your shopping mauls alls and centers. what would the language in the bill do@tenants and you? what happens to people who own shopping malls >> i think to be clear, we believe this is an appropriate first step look, we're in the midst of an historic crisis. we don't know how long this crisis will last whether it's a month, two months, three months i believe that there will likely be other necessities for government action. but we believe right now it's urgent that the government step in and the act on the table right now, we applaud the administration and congress for taking action and putting legislation in play to discuss we think it needs to be passed immediately. i think what this act does is provides short-term liquidity into the marketplace it's necessary to ensure that businesses can maintain their employees and be positioned to recover from the crisis. and it's really important that companies are positioned to maintain their employees, because while i've heard some conversation around this being a sharp decline and we'll bounce back quickly, if companies don't have employees, whether it's in the retail industry or any other industry, once this crisis abates and it will abate at some point, if you don't have employees, it's hard the ramp up to get back to really be positioned to serve your customers is going to be a much longer one than it would be if you're able to maintain your employees. that's why i think government action is important. and we're supportive of tieing it back to employee base >> do you think the government can really save retail jobs in america? it's such a key part of the employment picture in this country. do you have faith that these kind of bills can really keep americans working in this sector for an extended period >> look, one out of every four jobs in the united states is retail-related if you want to save the u.s. economy, it's really hard to do that without leaning in to the retail segment i think every job that is saved is important obviously there has already been actions taken by many companies not just in retail but throughout the u.s. economy to adjust their head count. that's why i think time is of the essence. that's why i think passage of care today and then moving on to the next recovery bill. i think there will be a next we have been very -- and you mentioned the letter that i sent to the administration and congress last week we've been focussed upon suggesting that there should be a broad-based wholistic approach, something like a business disruption recovery fund that would operate similar to business interruption insurance that's quarantine grn guaranteed by the president. we're in the midst of something we've never experienced as a country before and we've fundamentally shut down the u.s. economy. i think this is the time for government a >> all right tom, we appreciate you joining us today again, be well through this. take care of everybody hope we can get this back up and going quickly. >> you too >> appreciate your point of view today. all the major averages are lower. the nasdaq has joined the dow and s&p wndo in negative territory. stay with us welcome back to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber along with kelly evans and sara eisen unique opportunity for me to use both of your expertise sara, we haven't talked about your beloved dollar of late but that figures into the equation here it's been quite strong even with the prospect of adding whatever the number may be, $3 trillion or more to our national debt >> right. so everybody's beloved dollar right now is really the story, david, and what we saw over the last few weeks of trading is there's been this rush into anything that is dollar denominated. that's a real sign of fear and of crisis and of the fact that, you know, companies and countries overseas, they've all borrowed in dollars. it's going to be pretty painful. it just adds to the economic pain the dollar got so strong last week it just had its best week since 2008 that you really began to hear speculation that u.s. and other central banks and treasuries around the world could actually intervene something like the plaza accord in 1985 where they did come together in a massive step in to the foreign exchange market to weaken the dollar to alleviate some of the pain we were getting to the point of that so you're seeing the dollar down about a percent so some of that pressure has been eased, whether it's speculation that we could see stepping in, actual intervention in the market perhaps, but also things today are a lot calmer and i think that the key is how the credit market and how the treasury market are functioning and if that goes okay the dollar hasn't been at the super strong levels. last week when looking dicey it was a mad rush into everything dollar based and that was a good sign of fear. >> there was a mad rush to cover trades or to get out of things where you had to buy dollars to do so was your point that did create demand for the dollar that did not necessarily have to do with rushing to a safe haven currency. >> right i would use that on your dashboard as sort of the levels of pain and sort of the alarm bells in the market. if you really start to see some notable dollar strength that's an oh, point we're not seeing that. i would use crude oil as well. crude has had some dramatic aggressive selloffs lately and that's been hard for the market to process and hard for the high yield market which we know has much more exposure to energy than the overall energy market those are sort of pain points to be watching. gold as well when gold was weakening and the dollar was strengthening it was a sign even the safe havens you traditionally go to were getting dumped in favor of just dollars. >> yeah. kelly, i know a number of people looking at the move in gold and sort of wondering what it meant given you would typically expect as sara referenced the idea of moving into gold that was not the case at this point. >> right the fact that people were saying i need to sell what i can in order to just raise cash and we saw everything do a draw down. david, i pointed out earlier but you asked me off the top what's happening in credit markets, i wish the news was better you know, guys who i really respect, the brian reynolds of the world, say the pricing is not that encouraging for equity investors yet. berkshire hathaway issued debt at higher yields than what it was trading, companies use them, but they did so -- they had to unfortunately investors really demanded a premium there are people out there saying we haven't seen equity prices catch up yet with those conditions the it fed is helping, it's back in a leadership position, you know, helping calm things down, but, you know, people are able to access the markets but it comes at a high cost right now on the credit side >> yeah. we're keeping a close eye -- >> david, i have a question -- >> you are as well. >> sure, sara. >> david, my question to you, what you're hearing out of hedge funds and how much pain and what sort of moves are being done to meet margin requirements and to liquidate and what their clients are doing with their money >> yeah. i mean listen, as you might imagine a lot of people have taken off an enormous amount of risk and in this environment, sara, you can't necessarily trust what you're hearing no hedge fund is going to tell you it's in extreme duress and they don't want other market participants to be aware of that you can expect that there are going to be a number of casualties here. although from what i'm hearing a lot have at least mitigated some of the risk, taken a lot off, taken the grosses way down at this point but i don't have a great feel in terms of where some of the real pain may be, sara we know it's out there and a lot of the moves we're seeing are a result of people taking off significant trades and sort of dislocating in certain markets as a result of that. >> well, we're keeping an eye on that thread as well as many others the dow down about 462 points right now. we got as low as down more than 600. so we're off the session lows. another day of extraordinary unprecedented intervention from the federal reserve to shore up the markets. s&p down 2.4%. losses picking up steam. quick programming note here, as we head to break, don't miss the ceo of quest diagnostics on the testing efforts, how many tests there are and how widely they can get them to americans coming up on "closing bell" at 4:00 p.m. eastern. we're going to take a quick commercial break here stay with us as we continue this breaking news, market coverage. ♪ yes i'm stuck in the middle with you, ♪ no one likes to feel stuck, boxed in, or held back. especially by something like your cloud. it's a problem. but the ibm cloud is different. it's the most open and secure public cloud for business. it can manage all your apps and data from anywhere. so it can help take on anything, from rebooking flights, on the fly to restocking shelves on demand. without getting in your way. ♪ ♪ ♪ good morning i am jon fortt with morgan brennan and kell