instructed to maintain social distancing even as we gather to have some fun in the sun. one place where bathers are not welcome is new york city where mayor bill de blasio has threatened to pull people out of the water if they violate his no swimming rules. just look at that. the new york metro area remains mostly in lockdown. doesn t expect easing in the city apparently until the first half of june. meanwhile, more and more pushback against the closures as the economic carnage mounts around the country. some business owners fearful that their livelihoods are being destroyed are openly defying orders saying they ll risk fines and imprisonment rather than keep their stores shuttered any longer. and we now have important information from a number of states that have had several weeks of experience with loosened restrictions, and it does seem to suggest their plans are working. so were the draconian lockdowns actually even necessary? more on that in a moment. also this week thou
a virus lockdown winner has emerged. it s walmart. they have had the advantage of remaining open and they fine-tuned their delivery and pickup services. they have done very well. look at this. same store sales, up 10%. huge. sam s club sales up 12%, even bigger. e-commerce, now, this is a big one, up 74%, online sales. that is remarkable. the stock, we are quoting premarket now, the stock is up nearly five bucks, 3.8%. okay. this is going to be a live action day. two top money guys head to capitol hill. speaker mnuchin, jay powell, they will be discussing what they think still needs to be done for the economy. you want my opinion, please give us liability protection. the president addresses the nation s farmers. what do they need and what s with the food supply chain. we will carry his speech live. that s in our 11:00 hour this morning. then there s the market. after yesterday s 900-point gain. that rally followed encouraging news on a vaccine from moderna and the rapid reope
strange this year as we are instructed to maintain social distancing even as we gather to have some fun in the sun. one place where bathers are not welcome is new york city where mayor bill de blasio has threatened to pull people out of the water if they violate his no swimming rules. just look at that. the new york metro area remains mostly in lockdown. doesn t expect easing in the city apparently until the first half of june. meanwhile, more and more pushback against the closures as the economic carnage mounts around the country. some business owners fearful that their livelihoods are being destroyed are openly defying orders saying they ll risk fines and imprisonment rather than keep their stores shuttered any longer. and we now have important information from a number of states that have had several weeks of experience with loosened restrictions, and it does seem to suggest their plans are working. so were the draconian lockdowns actually even necessary? more on that in a
pandemic. this week the senate passed a bill that will force chinese companies to follow the same accounting rules as u.s. companies listed on u.s. exchanges. the nasdaq is set to unveil new rules of initial public offerings, a move that could make it harder for some chinese companies to list on nasdaq. i spoke with larry kudlow,ing the white house chief economic head, about this a hard-line stance toward chinese companies as well as the white house s decision to halt money from the thrift fund going into chinese companies. watch. the solution here is for the chinese to open up their investment system and to play according to the rules set by longtime authorities in the usa, the sec being the key and the public accounting board being another key. we can t ask military retirees to invest in chinese companies that are operating against our own interests and in some cases with respect to this pandemic, we saw the president wrote an excoriating note to the world trade organizat
the s&p and nasdaq shaking off earlier losses closing near the highs of the day. there is optimism out there about a economic recovery and also about hopes for a vaccine. so, optimistic day. we will get to the launch. we ll spend a lot of the hour on it. first fox business team coverage of our top stories. lauren simonetti on the markets for us, blake burman in washington who has the latest for the president who is in florida for the launch and kristina partsinevelos joins us with news on disney. we start, blake, with you. reporter: connell, melissa, speaking of that launch who wouldn t want a front row seat to it. exactly where president trump and first lady, the vice president, section lady are right now in florida in advance of what we are expecting to be the historic launch about 31, 32 minutes from now at the kennedy space center. president trump taking a tour there. he was asked what his message is for those two astronauts who will be aboard the spacex rocket going up t