Announced, but the big story is surrounding big tech earnings like microsoft, facebook, and even comcast and qualcomm. It look like some of these companies were basically created for this moment if you didnt know, the microsoft quarter was just a thing of beauty a lot of that is because theyll have a product like teams or like azure that are incredibly strong linkedin doing very well facebook quarter was good, and boom, they say april is stabilization. One of the themes were seeing in tech, or you have service now, well have Bill Mcdermott later today. They have an unbelievable quarter. Maybe the best in the history of the company. So youre seeing companies that frankly not only do not have to make any excuses but are saying good things. You know, qualcomm, ill say, secular trend, 5g, and then highspeed internet is one of the most lucrative parts of comcast. Yes, of course, theme parks not going to happen, but theyll open up again. But high speed, it will never go back you dont switch to low speed. Even though the futures are indicating down, this was the best night for corporate earnings since the season began. And jim, you know, its funny. You never go back is what you say. It does appear when you look at facebook or you look at alphabet or microsoft, this is pulling Forward Trends that were already under way. Amazon, of course, is another example of that. So it becomes very difficult, i would think, for investors to really consider selling these companies that are able to play offense in an environment where so Many Companies are on the defensive. Theyre trying to protect their Balance Sheet. Theyre just worried about their very existence these companies are still seeing significant increases in sales and are able to play offense yes, theyre pulling back a bit. Facebook cut capx at least for this year to arrange a 14 billion to 16 billion, so that was about 2 billion, although they say theyll deploy the additional 2 billion in tw2021 we talk so often about the Broader Market its led by these names, its dominated right now by these large cap names. Theyre much more nimble than you think. For the last few days of the week, the story was, heres some companies that arent going under. The cruise ships arent going under. The airlines, apache, the southwest deal the oil doubles quickly, halliburton doubles. Were trying to figure out what nordstroms is worth. There was a note that said liquidity wasnt as bad as you think. We seemed to have a big short squeeze last night i want to ask you, david, are there some hedge funds that were very short a lot of these names that do badly in a pandemic . And had to cover last night . Did someone blow up . I dont know the answer, but it did feel like that. I was looking at some of the old media names i tend to focus on, and you saw the moves yesterday. There was no real explanation for that other than perhaps Short Covering giving the beating many have taken. I dont know is the answer, but it did appear to be a large amount of Short Covering late in the day. You see Royal Caribbean up five and every oil company hitting it out of the park royal dutch, First Time Since world war ii, cut the dividend carl, one of the things i have seen this week is a recognition that perhaps we trough ed i know the number we hit this morning in employment isnt a trough number. The trend line is down, but we have seen a number of companies that one way or another are saying the worst is over and i know that that seems to be antithetical for a lot of people at home, but thats been the theme. Its a good point, jim. Macys is one good example, opening 68 stores on monday. Were going to hear from jeff gennett later on this morning. He does admit we dont know how customers are going to respond to that. Some of the stores might be looking at traffic thats one fifth of normal, but theyre going to plow ahead anyway to your point about changes in operating leverage as these Companies Raise cash and lower costs, is right behind this upgrade of southwest today out of stifel, which argues in their mind theyre going to come out of this stronger to their peers on a relative basis despite everything we know about how long its going to take traffic to come back that deal, if you got in on that deal, the equity deal, wow. I think there are going to be others a lot of people were debating whether boeing is going to do an equity deal or not or straight loan but the secondary, so to speak, have been great places to be so i think we have to keep our eyes open if youre at home, keep your eyes open for when these Companies Want to get liquid, and remember the carnival deal at eight, and go look at the Carnival Cruise bookings theyre good and look at the deals. If you think theres a vaccine, okay, if you think theres a vaccine, its an interesting call on travel and i think some people are starting to get a little sense of the idea after the remdesivir yesterday. Maybe a year from now, life will be not great, but better than it is so lets book some things because it could be, lets just say, a more halcyon time, not necessarily great, but more halcyon. I want to ask you, jim, because we talked a lot about rem desafear yesterday for all the news, but now fauci on the today show this morning talking both about the treatment and this socalled operation warp speed, where they are looking to Fast Track Development of a vaccine and manufacturing of the vaccine, even though we wont know the e efficacy for quite a while in faucis view, this is sort of worth the cost given the ongoing damage to the economy. Its right in the bill gates school of thought that theres going to be some lost investment, but youll make it up in gdp, essentially you get back, theres some great books and articles written by doctors in the vietnam war. And in it, they said they used a lot of nonprotocol things to stem what they said were going to be certain death and things that no doctor would ever approve of in the United States. Certainly not lets say the back bentures who would say you cant do that, thats not the protocol dr. Fauci recognizes were at war. He used the magic letters. He said this is like azt the back benchaers dont realiz theres a global war against this fauci does fauci recognizes sometimes you have to break the rules when the world is ending, at least when you could have social unrest on a scale that is not seen since the 30s i appreciate what hes doing which said i have been very negative, but we have something to build on. Regeneron could be out of the cocktail we have to recognize its war time, and the people who are in the clinics and the professors, i think its time for them to start realizing it is a war. It is not peace. Well, jim, on that note, i think its appropriate to bring in our first guest of many this morning, of course, who does have a view of the World Economy and where things stand right now. Hes jim fitterlilinfitterling, chairman and ceo of dow. Nice to have you with us, jim. Good morning, david let me just good morning let me start off with a broad question given your viewpoint and your geography, which is quite expansive, what are you seeing right now around the world sort of give me a quick take in terms of, is china going to come back quickly, europe, the u. S. What are you seeing . Yeah, so david, we saw at the end of march and through the month of april china beginning to rebound the industrial sector, automotive, appliances are coming back. I would not say theyre 100 yet, but theyre in the 70 to 80 back range the consumer demand downstream is a little bit uneven, but it is starting to come back traffic is back on the roads in cars which is a sign, i think, that were going to see here, too, people feeling safer about taking cars than public transit. And in our offices and our labs, were back to full strength, theyre obviously taking a lot of distancing, ppe precautions, and you know, grab and go food service at our locations there were starting to see that in europe, in the month of may i think were going to see the Auto Industry come back. Germany, austria, switzerland seem to be leading the way in coming back in europe. And were starting to see states in the United States that have a Significant Impact on gdp such as michigan, starting to open up construction, and i think automotive is going to open up in midmay so it is rolling through obviously, the curve is getting flatter, but it isnt declining yet. So everybody is being cautious but going back in a safe way yeah. Oil demand, of course, very important part overall in terms of your business i realize on the call you said youre not predicting yet in terms of oil demand coming back fully for the future here. But what are your expectations you have talked already to us in the past and others about how you have positioned the company to be ready for these Lower Oil Prices to extend for some time well, one of the things that we do, so we dont just crack oil drivati atiderivatives, buta lot of flexibility we can move on the feed stock based on whats the lowest cost. And oil, obviously, has come down a lot and brought costs down with it, but ethane and propane in the u. S. Gulf coast are still the cheapest crack and thats what were continuing to crack today. Our flexibility allows us, if ethane gets tight, to move as much as 70 to propane and we can move to naptha is advantage. But one of the problems is with derivatives of naptha, c4s, and the Auto Industry being slow, theres no place for the byproducts what everybody is doing is really trying to balance rates and operating rates with demand until we see the demand signal that people are getting back to work and the demand is coming back i think well navigate through it i do think we will get back onto an Oil Consumption trajectory that was like it was precovid the question is just how long does it take us to get there right which, of course, is the key question youre preparing for that. You talked about having as much as 12 billion in liquidity. Youre also cutting capx. This has been a theme for compani companies, at least some we have been talking at, by at least 750 million year over year. Why is that the right number were preserving capx to keep our companies running, and keeping up with the consumer demand that is strong. In our Industrial Solutions business, which goes into soaps and detergents and cleaning materials, theyre very strong were continuing to expand there. Silicones downstream goes into a lot of those formulations as well as other things that help you make masks and gloves and other types of materials that will see Strong Demand well keep those projects going, but where we see the slowdown in the big industry, well push those projects out and well come back to that growth playbook when we start to see things get back to more normal precovid levels. So 750 million allows us to do the maintenance and keep our highvalue projects going, and then we can defer the rest into next year or beyond when we see that demand come back. 350 million of expenses, largely discretionary expense, as you can imagine, almost zero travel going on right now. People are working from home a lot of reduced expenses in operating facilities that we dont have people in today so thats how were getting to those numbers. Jim, you have been adamant that the dividend is safe. Came on mad money, said its safe this morning, world dutch shell cut its dividend for the First Time Since world war ii. You have enough oil exposure should we be concerned if a royal dutch cuts it, dow could cut it well, oil has dropped 60 , jim, in the quarter. And thats a dramatic drop and so the cash pressures there are very different our prices dropped 10 in the First Quarter, and we had pockets of very Strong Demand and good pricing in the quarter too, so we have a more consumeroriented downstream slate, and so to some extent, the lower oil costs help us because its an input cost for us we have gone through all of our cash and liquidity scenarios today. Today, we have 12 billion of liquidity. We have 3. 6 billion of cash onhand. We have 8 billion of committed lines that have been untapped. And so weve got several scenarios, including our worst Case Scenario that say well be able to support that dividend through the year our rating reliably, supporting the dividend, and any excess cash using to pay down dent, those are our top three priorities and what well focus on for the rest of the year. Jim, you came on mad money when the stock was 26 you made a big buy of stock. Most people didnt believe you, of course, were right i want to send your stock back to 50 given your cash position, its time to shut the 100 a barrel makes money kuwait saddam project. Bite the bullet. Enough is enough we would like to see 100 a barrel again, but more realistically, we would like to see a treatment and a vaccine for this covid virus so people would be more certain about going back to work, and we would be operating in an environment with a lot less fear were working safely were sharing those best practices with governments around the world we think it is safe to go back to work, and were going to start to demonstrate that. And so thats really our First Priority the health and safety of everyone jim, why do you think its safe to go back to work . Well, today were operating with 14,000 people in our plants we were deemed essential by the governments around the world because we supply so many materials that are in need today. We have 14,000 people going into work every day to keep product moving theyre doing it in a safe way theyre wearing ppe, theyre distancing theyre practicing good sanitation, good hygiene, and one of the most important things is were screening when people come to work when you come in to one of the gates at dow or into an office building, the Security Guard will ask you several questions about how you feel, who you have been in contact with, have you been outside the country, have you been exposed to anybody, and then theyll take your temperature. And what we found is that we can screen people and keep people from coming in to work if theyre not well and then we can also make sure that they get tested and get treatment. If someone has to stay home, we ask them to stay home for 14 days or until they pass the criteria to come back to work, and we continue to pay them through that time. This could happen to anybody and we need to make sure our practices reflect that in the way we treat people. Okay, so youre an early actor here in terms of sort of putting in place those kinds of procedures you just discussed. How long do you think its going to take the rest of the world to do what youre doing and to really get people back to work i think theyre going to come in gradually what we have seen is typically when people go back, theyll go back maybe with 20 , 25 of their workforce, wait a few weeks, get accustomed to how thats working, make sure theres no spike in any amounts of cases, and then bring the next wave in were focusing mostly on getting back into the plants and into the labs, so we have 14,000 people coming in every day but we have more that can come in to the sites. And then when we get spaces where theyre tighter like offices, that will probably come later. We want to make sure that were taking care of the basic functions of the people that are working effectively from home can continue to do that. Were sharing those with governors and with task forces at the federal and state level, not just here in the just, but around the world and were giving them really good, almost osha quality types of practices that we use that they can put into their practices for other industries and we share them widely with customers. All right a road map for reopening jim, appreciate you taking some time thank you. Jim fitterling, chairman and ceo of dow you guys stay safe. Thank you. Dow futures down about 300 here when we come back, well talk exclusively to the ceo of mcdonalds about the quarter, about comps, recovery in china and europe liquidity and lot more dont go away. Sometimes the challenges of todays world make it tough to take care of yourself, thats why you can rely on natures bounty. To give you the support you need. 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Costco is the name that jims focused on effective may 4th, you have to wear a mask if you go to costco now, costco, two things you need to know. One, the most lucrative retailer in history two, the most progressive. Certainly for its employees, but also for its members costco employees required to wear face coverings and now were asking the costco members do so too. We know some members may find this inconvenient or objectable, but under the circumstances, we believe the added safety if anybody think its not the safe, they tell you it is, you need it. Theres no more personal choice involved i think this will be the standard of care two weeks from now. I think we will not go anywhere without a mask i know you already dont well be wearing them and the only time well take them off is when were on air. Everyone Walking Around who is not wearing a mask is going to be considered a Health Hazard and costco is setting a standard, not the u. S. Government its not unusual they have d