maria: welcome back. or we are 30 minutes away from the if opening bell on wall street. take a look at futures, indicating a mixed opening. dow industrials now down even though walmart is up 6.5%, mark tepper. >> great read on the consumer from walmart. sales gains are not ininflation-driven. it's been driven by higher-end consumers trading down. that sounds inflationary to me. maria: trisha mclaughlin. >> i'm getting my pop corn ready for the upcoming debate with, but with i think republicans need to not shoot themselves in the foot. don't set the bar so low for biden that he automatically supersedes it. maria: todd piro. >> bob costello, if he ends up testifying for the defense, this is the really over. maria: that testimony was incredible. ing that'll do it for us. have a great day, everyone. mark tepper, trisha and todd, thanks for being here. "varney & company" picks it up now. stuart: good morning, everyone. all-time highs across the board,

the value of all publicly-traded stocks has gone up by $10 trillion in the last 122 months. that is a wealth creation machine like no other, and there's no pullback this morning. the dow can, it's getting close to 40,000, real close actually, it's going to be not much change to start the day. same with the s&p and the nasdaq is up a point. a tiny bit of green after yesterday's record closes. as for interest rates, well, they're staying at lower levels. we'll start with the 10-year treasury, you're down to 4.35% this morning and the 2-career, that's a long way below 5%, 4.77 right now. bitcoin on the upside today, $66,000. gold holding around $2300, 2400, 2383, to be precise. oil still below $80 a barrel, $79.34. no change for gas. regular, $3.60. diesel is down one cent, $3.92. politics. the new fox poll shows trump

holding a narrow lead overall, but he has a growing lead with key voting groups. blacks, hispanic, suburban women and moderates. more detail emerging about the two candidates -- the two debates. the candidates have agreed to mics that turn off when time's up, no crowd, debate in a studio, moderators from cnn and abc news. strangely, trump agreed to this immediately without negotiating better terms. the biden team thinks the news of the debates has reinvigorated his campaign. uniin trouble, zelenskyy would could lose, hamas still holding out and many beijing, putin and xi shore up the new world order against america. we will ask, is biden responsible? another big with day. thursday, may 16th, 2024. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ she thinks my tractor's sexy.

♪ if it really turns her on ♪ stuart: this is my anthem, ladies and gentlemen, because i happen to have a track for to have or -- lauren: i was going to text, i had some questions about tractors earlier. stuart: love it. it's a beautiful song, and and that's a rath e misty, cloudy new york city. markets lead the show this morning, why not? we're coming off record closes for the dow, the nasdaq and the s&p 500. adam johnson with me to top out the show this morning. kudos to you, adam, because you saw this coming. now you've got to tell us where it's going. [laughter] >> that's right. well, let's just jump right in. we are seeing inflation come down. we have full employment. as a result, we have people who are spending money. that is driving earnings at companies. we have better than expected earnings. when you have that kind of combination, stu, stocks are going higher.

stuart: from here on out? >> yes. stuart: you've always said that. you've always been in the market. >> well, yes. i'm always in the market because stocks tend to rise two days out of three, and i do believe time in the market is more important than timing the markets. but i do think for people who have been on the fence and saying, gosh, i really don't know, last year was so miserable, they need to get back in. we've been talking about the $6 trillion of cash still on the sidelines, a record amount of cash. there are a lot of people who still don't believe. and what i am saying is it's time to believe. the train has left the station, but it's not too late to get on because it's going to continue going. in fact, i put new money to work this week. i bought several stocks yesterday. and it's hard to buy stocks that were up. one of them was up 8%. i bought in the middle of the day up 8% and sort of, you know, girded myself. well, the stock finished up 15%, right? so it's hard to do. it's hard to buy when they're going up. stuart: it really is. >> and yet the market is telling you you're doing the right

thing. ironically, it's easier to buy when something's going up than when it's going down because you don't know when it'll stop, but if it's going up, it's going your way. and my message to our viewers is it's okay that you've missed it, and it's t okay to mutt -- put your money to work with. stuart: stay there, please, you lucky guy. let's get to politics. brand new fox polling out this morning and, by the way, it's 173 days until the election -- lauren: an eternity. stuart: that's an eternity in television, surely. let's start with the biden-trump head to head. lauren: trump edges out biden, 49-48, slim lead but hefty improvement since march when trump was behind by 5 points. biden is down 7 points with black supporters, 79% for back voters polled for biden last election are, now it's down to 72. he's down with hispanics and and suburban women who arguably helped him win four years ago, and he doesn't even have a

majority. he's under 50% with voters under the age of 30. stuart: ouch. lauren: every group is backing off. stuart: kaylee mcghee white joins me now. my take and lauren's from these polls is that biden has lost support in all key groups. is that the most important thing here? >> absolutely. he's hemorrhaging these key demographics. can and i want to focus specifically on the young vote or ors under the age of 30, specifically gen-z voters. biden is down by double digits from where he was back before the 2020 election. that is a remarkable drop. and i don't see it improving before the november election because there are three main factors that young voters are concerned about that the really are not going to change between now and then. the first is his age. stuart, he's not getting any younger, and it's really up impossible to see how this concern fades among young voters. the second is his handling of the gaza conflict. now, i don't think this is a huge, motivating issue for most

young voters, but there is certainly a subset of radical young voters for whom this is a very big issue. and i'm telling you right now the kids out there on college campuses calling him genocide joe are not going to change their minds about him between now and november. and then the third is, like for everyone else, the economy. barring some extreme circumstance where inflation suddenly disappears and everyone has more money in their wallets, again, it's 'em possible to see how conditions -- impossible to see how conditions improve enough for vote ors to change their minds about how biden has handled this economy. stuart: trump and biden have agreed to two debate, one in june, one in september. chuck todd sayss biden needs these debates more than trump. watch this. >> look, you you don't do this if you're ahead. to me, there's a lot of person in and around biden world that have been wondering, do they accept that they're losing? do they the realize this isn't working, what's been going on, that they need to take some more risks? this is a risk. this is answering some of the

critics. this campaign as it's going now is losing. you have to change the trajectory. the eagerness with which trump accepted, i think the biden campaign's he can key that he accepted, because with i think the biden campaign needs this right now -- lucky. stuart: kaylee, who has more to gain from these debates in your opinion? >> trump. this is a massive political risk that he's taking in agreeing to these debates, and that's sad is, stuarting or because this should be the bare minimum for a presidential candidate to agree to a historical knowledge, deweight your opponent. and yet for a long time it really remain to be seen whether biden would do so. and i want to caution us not to, you know, set the bar too lower for biden. it's not enough for him to simply show proof of life as he did at the state of the union address. he's asking the american public to reelect him for another four years. if anything, the standard should be higher for him than it should be for the guy the vote is ors rejected four years ago.

stuart: all right, kaylee mcghee white, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. stuart: we've got to get back to the money side of this program. walmart earnings came out this morning. by the looks of the stock, they're doing okay. lauren: sure are. the lower income consumer is hanging in. walmart brings value for them. the higher income consumer loves the services that they offer, delivery, for instance, and they can buy fancier products that are sold through the third party marketplace if at wal-mart like dyson vacuum cleaners, for instance. if you look at seam-store sales -- same-store sales, up 4%. online sales rising up more than at christmas, up 22%, revenue topping $161 billion. i'm not done. today raised their full-year profit fore californias. stuart: i want to tell our viewers before we went on the air, i was talking with adam johnson about walmart. lauren: i heard. stuart: and he said i'm going to surprise you with my views on walmart. lauren: pressure's on.

>> well, this is an outen standing report. and, by the way, outstanding coverage from lauren. thank you for those numbers, they're powerful numbers. it's a brilliantly-run company. it's a stock that's starting to go up, and i will never own it. lauren: why? >> it's boring. it's boring. if you bought walmart, you don't make a lot of money. if you bought walmart fife years ago -- five years ago even allowing for today today's increase, you're up 77%. if you just bought the nasdaq, you're up 150 percent. if you bought a company like nvidia, you're up. 2300%. okay? yes, it's pine to the buy a company -- fine to buy a company like a walmart, but you're never going to get rich. in five years you still haven't doubled your money. i don't think that's great. stuart: that was a surprise. lauren: there's no risk. >> and, by the way -- lauren: little risk. >> okay, so what you're getting at is a very interesting point that the i do want to make clear for some of our viewers who are

saying i don't know about this adam johnson guy. [laughter] but, no, you have to understand what you're trying to achieve as an investor. are you, are you retired? are you looking for income? do you need dividends? do you want to make just a little bit, you know, every year? if that's fine. it's perfectly acceptable. and there's a place for walmart in those portfolios. if you are looking to grow your money, build wealth, walmart is not your way to do it. so it depends what you're trying to achieve, what you're trying to accomplish. i run the american ingenuity fund. i'm trying to find great growth companies that are changing the world. i don't think walmart's changing the world. it might make the world a little bit better by providing cheaper goods for us and that's wonderful, but it's not a company i'm going to own. stuart what was the name of your firm again? >> the bull's eye american inyes knewty -- stuart: that was a good commercial. [laughter] democrat dean phillips, he's worried about protests disrupting the democrat national

convention in august. roll it. >> 1968 was in chicago, the democratic convention. do you think it could hook a little like that? >> i think it can and, frankly, i think it would if be in the best interest of the democratic party to forgo the convention this year. stuart: whoa, forgo the convention. that's something. will we see a repeat of the '68 convention? ben domenech on. that more bad news for bind on the border, there's been more migrant gotaways in the three years of his presidency than the previous ten years combined. amazing. full story next. ♪ ♪ (husband) we just want to have enough money for retirement. (wife) and travel to visit our grandchildren. (fisher investments) i understand. that's why at fisher investments we start by getting to know each other. so i can learn about your family, lifestyle, goals and needs, allowing us to tailor your portfolio. (wife) what about commission-based products? (fisher investments) we don't sell those. we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in your best interest. (husband) so how do your management fees work?

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stuart: 14 minutes til the opening of the market. a little, tiny bit of red ink, but remember we had a lot of

green yesterday. number of migrant gotaways reached a new record high under president biden. william la jeunesse with us. take me through the numbers. >> reporter: stuart, for three years the white house claimed the border was secure. they knew that wasn't true, and now we do too thanks to new numbers on gotaways, migrants who cross illegally without getting caught can. figures show more gotaways cross canned since biden took office than the previous ten years combined. gotaways are detected by camera as and season to haves, but they're not ap apprehended -- sensors. in three years these numbers were secret, but as agents grew more frustrated with the open border policies, they occasionally shareed them with reporters, and now you can see why. migrants evading the border patrol if under president obama ranged from a low of 86,000 in 2011 to double that just two years later. umped president trump gotaways averaged 130,000 a year then

took off a, tripling in biden's first year to about 400,000, jumping again to over 600,000 the last two years. enter we don't know who these people are, and not to mention the ones on the terror watch list. that means that the 1.6 million gotaways could also include very dangers actorses -- dangerous actors whether it be murder orers, rapists, drug dealers, drug traffickers. >> reporter: figures show gotaways equal the pop laughs of new orleans if -- population of new orleans in biden's first year ins office, baltimore in his second year, boston last year. that's a total of 1.6 million in just three years under president biden, more than trump and obama combined. bill had to file a freedom of information request to get these numbers and, to be clear, these gotaways are in addition to the roughly 8 million migrants who were ap re4e7ed since the president took office, most of

whom were released and will never leave. stuart? stuart: got that. thanks, william. congressman pat fallon, republican from the great state of texas, joins me now. look, we've got 1.6 million gotaways under biden, but i've got to say there's nothing you or trump can do about it. they're here. we don't know who they are, and we do know they're not leaving. >> well, stuart, you make a very good point. in an open and free spoat e -- society, it's very difficult once somebody sneaks into your country to remove them. now, we can do some things mostly at the state level, the smart states anyway if you get arrested and convicted of a crime, you should be deported. but some of these sanctuary states don't even want to do that. i mean, these numbers are stark. it's startling if you consider the gotaways averaged 130,000 under president trump and now it's 530,000, stuart, under joe biden. that's insane. stuart: now, the administration's reporteddedly preparing to change the asylum

process. today want to speed if up the processing and the remuscle of migrants but, look -- removal of migrants. why are they doing this now, and is there the anything in these changes that will keep more people out? >> oh, they're doing it now, stuart, because in five months people are going to start voting for president, and he needs to say something when he debates president trump in june and september to say, no, we're doing something about it. the fact of the matter is if i were president trump and i'm going to see him on monday, i'd advise him to say, you know what you should do? reinstitute wait in mexico. that will reduce this by 70% just that one movement, you don't need congress for that. build border walls and barriers, that works. you should restrict migration from countries that hate us that have associations with terrorist e, and you should expedite removal. what he's doing is just window dressing for an election. stuart: but it could be an effective political a tactic to say, hey, look, this is what we're doing. we're trying to do something here. it's the republicans who are

stopping us. vote for me. that's going to be the spin, isn't it? >> it's going to be the spin, but you have to kick back and say, wait a minute. your secretary -- your homeland security secretary said that the border was no less secure than in prior administrations, but you, president trump and barack obama had about 11.8 million if -- 1.8 million illegal encount or ors in their presidencies in the first four years, you have 10 million. so don't tell me that -- why the fundamental difference? it's because of your policies and your signaling to migrants all over the world to come because we won't kick you out. stuart: i guess we have to accept that biden and his open border has a changed america forever. because it's not going to go back to whatever way it used to be. it's going forward. >> yeah, i think fundamentally he certainly has changed it. he's made every state a border state as well. that's why we need to fire him and hire donald trump who will at least secure the border once he's in office, and we can trend

very differently moving forward. stuart congressman pat fallon, republican from the state of texas, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, stuart. god bless. stuart: a adam johnson still with me. i want your -- opinion on these visas. i'm asking you about h-1b visas. >> happy to go there, stuart. there's a way for particularly smart and gifted people to come into this country, it's called an h-1b visa. you're a nuclear scientist, you are a doctor, you have an mba, you are a software engineer, etc., your application to get a e green card or at least come in and get a visa is expedited, all right? that's good news. the bad news, stuart, is these visas are capped at 655,000 per year -- 65,000 per year. stuart: per year? >> right? is isn't that amazing? we have 8,000 people crossing the border illegally, so basically we could get one week's worth of illegal migrants who are uneducated, may not even speak english, or we could get an entire year's worth of smart,

talented people who can improve this my and make a contribution. it's crazy it's backwards. we've got it completely upside down. stuart: that's the world turned upside down. that is crazy. quick check of futures, please. what, seven and a half minutes to go for the opening bell. just a tiny bit of red. please remember there was a huge amount of green yesterday. the opening bell is next. ♪ you should be dancing, yeah ♪

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♪ looking good, guys! thanks! vacations are better with the credit gods are on your side. i'm coming up! rewards once available to the few are now accessible to the many. earn points for travel with credit one bank, and live large. stuart: three and a half minutes to go til the opening bell. the dow is down a point -- i'm sorry, up a point. the nasdaq is up 6. d.r. barton joining us this morning. let's start with walmart. the stock is way up after a very solid report are. what does that report tell you about the state of the consumer in america, d.r.? >> i think lauren's number that she gave us so well, stuart, give us a couple of key insights. number one, much more online shoping from traditional brick

and mortar stores than we ever thought, up 20%. that's a huge bump. but we're also up 6% on overall sales for walmart, and that tells us that despite the inflation flower drift up -- inflationary drift up that we have seen, big, good retailers continue to capture their margins and grow their bottom line. stuart: we have adam johnson on the show this morning. just a few minutes ago, you may have seen this, he says he loves walmart, loves the company, but he won't buy the stock because it's boring. would you like to respond to that? [laughter] >> i would. adam has my utmost respect, and we're aligned on almost everything. and i agree that walmart is a boring stock but, stuart, some people need boring many if their portfolio -- [laughter] and adam said that as a caf adequate. caveat. if you can hang on to a stock that grows well or buy it in

those down cycles for when it's going to cycle back up like you and i talked about last november if after a very poor earnings report, then the you could be up 20-ish percent on the stock in about sick months -- stuart: if you catch the -- >> there are ways and reasons to hang on to a walmart if you like them and if you'll hang on to them and not sit on the sidelines. stuart: okay. you brought along two stock picks. you're going to have to do them real fast. nexterra are rah energy. >> yes. we talked about that just a short time ago ago. it's up 10% on a utility. this is the old florida power stock, stuart, and they're doing some good things managerially. i think they're throwing off a little bit of dividend for us, and i really think that these kinds of back door recessionary, anything for later in the year. this is a long-term hold, i'm thinking this is gone to be a stock that's going to be good.

tooth souther hope it's not boring. proctor and gamble, that's the last one. what have you got? >> yeah. they've really been able to pass forward a lot of price increases. they're at all-time highs, near all-time highs, stuart. they're also at a good place in their cyclical movements that says don't sell here when they're at the highs. happening on or add to the position. hang on or add to the position. stuart: d.r. bar withton, all good stuff today. we appreciate it. thank you s&p very much, indeed. would you like to do any kind of rejoinder on the boring walmart? >> i think he and i look at the world in a similar way. stuart: you do? >> yeah. i always a enjoy d.r. stuart: right. they're clapping and choring both sides there at the new york stock exchange, we're going to hope. that means you've got about 10 seconds to go. how am i doing with my tap dancing? lauren: are interest rates going to be cut this year and by how much, will that take the dow to 40,000? stuart: well, i'm expecting dow 40,000 right at the opening bell. we're not quite there.

80 points away from it but, you know, a solid rally today. you've got dow 40,000. >> love it. stuart: how about that? a majority of the dow 30 in the green. s&p 500, maybe slightly higher this miles an hour if being, yeah, ever, ever so slightly. that's an all-time high. 5312, and the dow at 39,9, that also an intraa day high. as for the nasdaq composite, on the upside -- no, got it wrong with. down the tiniest of tiny fractions -- >> i'm going to call that dead flat. stuart: i think i'm accurate saying that is dead gnat. >> you're on it. stuart: big tech the, please, microsoft and if meta platforms down. now, lauren, meta is being investigated. can i say investigated again by the european union? lauren: yes. stuart: that's it for this time? >> you have the new online privacy act, and they want to know if meta's, facebook, their instagram request, do they do enough to protect minors, right?

if are there algorithms stimulating addictive behavior, that rabbit hole effect where they just feed you those videos that the kids can't stopwatch, is their age verification strong enough. europe is hitting u.s. tech again, but i do want to point out that the u.s. and many states have filed lawsuits in the same vein. so this is just an investigation. if meta is found guilty, the stock is down 11.5% on this -- 1.5%, they could be fined up to 6% of their global annual sale. [laughter] >> i'll just weigh in quickly. this is totally absurd. they should go go after hershey for supplying our kids with too much sugar as well. it's the same idea. the nanny if state run amok. these governments spend more money hand they have so they need more money, let's go after them -- lauren: it's an old story. meta has made a lot of changes, what else do you want them to do? stuart: netflix, i believe, just hit a milestone? lauren: so you know their $7 a month if advertising tier to get the end cheaper service?

it hit 40 million subscribers, and a year ago it was 5 million. stuart: whoa! lauren: huge jump in one year. why? people want to save a buck, right? and netflix if owns streaming, first player advantage, etc. its rivals are starting to bundle their services just to compete. but i'm scratching my head because it was after their personnings can call that -- earnings call that netflix said we're not going to give you our subscriber numbers anymore because they're kind of plateauing. they have 270 million subscribers, so why are they giving us this number? stuart: because it's a very gad number. [laughter] lauren: maybe. >> yeah. if one metric isn't good, find another one. stuart: i discovered netflix recently -- >> oh, it's great. lauren: microsoft, netflix uses microsoft for the advertisements that go on their platte if form. they're getting rid of microsoft, and they're going to bring it in-house. sorry, i know. that the that in for you. stuart: deere & company, tractor people i've got one.

stock dropping showerly. lauren: i was going to text you this morning, how much is 300 horsepower on a tractor? stuart: a lot. lauren how much does it cost? hundreds of thousands of dollars? stuart: yeah. lauren: that's the problem. farmers aren't making that much money, interest rates are high, crop prices are low. deere cut their numbers for the full year. they're the largest equipment maker in the entire world, and they said sales of large ag equipment will decline between 20-25% this year with. stuart: ooh. lauren: stock's down 2%. actually, i thought it would have been down more. stuart: that's a big decline. that's why the stock's down. all right, lauren, what else have we got here? cisco. now, they're down a little bit this morning, 1.5% -- lauren: okay. i've got to do the preponderate ifationses. it was, i'm sorry, their revenue fell by 13%, but it was better than expected. so what do you want to look at? double-digit decline or better than expected? stuart: the stock price is -- lauren: i'll give you the good news.

they're seeing a pick-up in demand from businesses investing in building out their computer or systems once again. that is good news. stuart: okay. any comment on this? >> well, cisco -- stuart: you don't have to. >> you know, it's like ibm. they were king at one point, and along came juniper and then more recently arista networks, if they just feel old and stodgy. it's a fine company. it's like walmart -- [laughter] a little boring. stuart: okay. if i, if i could figure out how to do it, can i use uber eats to order items from costco? lauren: are you a costco member? zero soother you are -- no. i have relatives -- lauren: you borrow the card, got it. do you have the uber eats app? stuart: not. lauren: all you have to do is get it -- >> do you have uber? stuart: i do, actually. i've never used it. lauren: i'm not a costco member, and i'm able to order on uber

eats. you can get most items member or monominute. uber's doing one more thing. i said netflix owns streaming? uber owns ride sharing. they need to widen out their base. they have uber shuttle, i love this. if you are going to the airport or a concert, many other people might be, they have these shuttle vans that can fit 40 peoples and you get a -- people that you get a traction of a price -- fraction of a price -- stuart: if you're prepared to sit with other people. lauren: that's why you go to a concert, to be around people and the excitement. >> i'm with lauren on one. i'm okay with that. lauren: you could -- well, i'm not going to say it on t. you could preparty in the -- >> bring a roadie? is that what you said, lauren? [laughter] stuart: that's what she said. ing can we scroll up and change the subject? >> enough. for crying out loud. this is a business show. stuart: important part of the

show. you brought stock picks. >> i did. stuart: super microcomputer. >> tick or smci. remember, i said there was a stock that was up 8%, i bought with it and it finished the day up 15%? this is the one e was talking about. just buy it. this is the a wonderful company that has partnered with nvidia to created platforms for artificial intelligence. they combine servers and storage networks, they wire them together with nvidia chips. they'll even create an offsite for you. it's a wonderful company growing 40% and trading at 30 times earnings. it's another one of my a.i. plays. i love it. stuart: got it. delta airlines. you love that too. >> this one you probably have heard of, it's the best run airline out there. not only are they number one in the if fuselage, the seats and the way they maximize profitability of the seats, cargo is 10% of their revenues. servicing other airlineses' aircraft and the parts that they sell them, that's another 10% of revenues. they have a deal with am-ex

because they buy surplus seats to award to its members, right? your points. so it's got so many different moving parts. and, by the way, they own a refinery e in philadelphia a as a hedge on rising fuel prices. it's such a well run company and it's cheap trading at a, oh, call it about 7 times -- stuart: that's it? 7. times? adam, thank you very much. >> you bet. stuart: one voter in georgia says black voters feel like they have some commonality with trump. watch this. >> people see that there's some kind of commonality between himself and maybe all the black men that have been incarcerated in the families and the families that have been impacted by black male incarsuation. -- incarceration. stuart: dr. ben carson is going to get into that. 43% of voters say rfk or jr. should be included in at least one of the presidential debates, but one of biden's demands is no third party candidates.

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stuart: you've just got to follow that market. the dow, the s&p, the nasdaq all hitting all-time, intraday highs this morning. however, we're just a fraction shy of 40,000 on the dow, we're 1000 points away from 40k on the dow industrials. and then there's this, michael coen hen back on the stand today for donald trump's criminal trial. eric shawn is outs the courthouse. give -- outside the courthouse. >> reporter: hello, stu. well, it could be the bombshell that destroys the case against donald trump, the accusation that michael co-hen highed to

the jury here about a trump and the stormy daniels' deal. as you know on monday and tuesday, cohen -- trump's former fixer and close lawyer -- testified it was trump who organized and planned and approved the arrangement to keep stormy daniels quiet. but now a prominent new york lawyer says cohen told him he did it, that cohen -- that trump was not involved at all and did not even know about the payments to storm hu. that attorney is robert costello. he advised cohen in 2018 when cohen was raided by the fbi. the testimony before a house judiciary subcommittee yesterday costello told cohen told him, quote, he, cohen, thought the story would be embarrassing for trump and especially for melania, so he decided he would take care of this himself. when asked if trump had any knowledge of this, cohen told me, no. >> their target is donald trump. so i want you to think carefully now. i said, michael, the way this works is if you have truthful

information about donald trump, that's clearly what they're looking for, i can have all your legal problems solved by the end of the week. his response? i swear to god, bob, i don't have anything on donald trump. >> reporter: or well, trump's lawyer, todd blanche, could confront trump this morning -- confront cohen and ask him if he lied to the jury because cross-examination is going to reassume in a few moments. blanche has tried to portray cohen as a hateful adviser seek eking revenge on trump. blanchwith e asked him, quote, do you recall saying on the phone you really miss the boss? boss, i miss you so much, i wish i was down there with you. it's really hard for me not to be there. do you remember that? cohen said, i don't recall that. the former president when he arrived at court, he did not make any commence about what robert cans tell low -- comments about what robert costello claims. he has told fox news he has not

yet been subpoenaed, the final defense witness list has not been set, is we'll see what comes out of this new revelation about michael cohen and if todd blanche does confront and ask cohen if he lied to the jury. stu, back to you. stuart: thanks very much, indeed. elliot felig is a former manhattan prosecutor and joins me now. that material there from costello in d.c. yesterday, if that were in the trial, that's dynamite. so do you expect him to be in the trial? >> you know, it's not clear. the prosecution did allow costello to to testify at his own with request before the grand jury. the grand jury, the process is completely controlled by the prosecutors. so it would be difficult for the prosecutors to say we deemed him relevant for the grand jury, judge, but we don't want you to allow him in this trial. but that being said, one of trump's advisors this morning indicated they hadn't decided either way. so to be determined. stuart: should donald trump be found not guilty in your

opinion? >> gosh, i don't like to predict the process -- stuart: do it anyway. [laughter] >> i can say this, juries are inherently unpredictable. we don't know what they're thinking, but i'll say there are many potential hooks upon which a juror could find reasonable doubt starting with the very, very base misdemeanor charge, right? if whether these were actually false business entries. what are we talking about here? we're talking about reimbursement to an attorney pursuant to a legal contract that this attorney had negotiated in his conduct acting as the president's, as donald trump's attorney. and you're going to say that it's a false, criminally false, intentionally, criminally false to december -- designate them as legal fees? stuart: just doesn't make it, does it? last one. would you expect that trump testify? >> no, because as i mentioned, there are so many other avenues by which they could find reasonable doubt. it changes the whole dynamic

when a defendant testifies. it makes it about the defendant and in a jurisdiction where 85% of the voters voted for joe biden, you don't want to make it a referendum on donald trump. you want the jury to focus on the evidence. stuart: do you think this will be over by next week? >> yes, potentially. stuart: really? good stuff. elliott question e big, i'm sure we'll see you again next week. guaranteed. thanks, elliot. adam johnson, i want to get back to the market. we've got this great rally, and i want to know in your opinion is any part of this rally because of trump maybe winning in november? >> absolutely. and we can actuallien quantify that,s stuart. thanks to the team at morgan stanley research which has put together a gop basket of stocks and a democrat bass can debt of stockses. the finishing op basket is winning, and it's winning significantly and has been winning now for about two and a half months. and you say, well, what's the difference? in the gop basket, for example, you have oil stocks because biden doesn't want to drill, trump certainly would. you have industrials.

less regulation. you also have biotech companies, less regulation. meanwhile, in the democratic basket you would have insurance companies -- insurance companies because if they get higher medicare payouts, right? you can compare these different types of businesses and and companies and, again, the gop basket is pulling way ahead of the dem basket. that's the market's way of saying trump will win. stuart: coming up, foreign policy rarely a top issue in the presidential election, but when the commander in chief appears weak, voters take notice of the image our country is presenting to the world. it is not an image of strength. that's my take, top of the hour. of. a nightmare scenario unfolding in much of the south. severe thunderstorms could bring a half foot of rain within the next 24 hours. full report next. ♪ ♪

stuart: severe thunderstorms batter parts of texas and louisiana are. the two states are preparing for another round of what are described as destructive floods. fox weather's katie byrne is in liberty, texas, for us. katie, how long is this storm going to last? >> reporter: well, stuart, at least a day and a half, and

there's just nowhere for this water to go. with more rain on the way, take a look at this, home es and businesses are still surround ised by water from flooding that started more than a week ago. texas governor greg abbott says more than 600 texans were rescued after rivers flooded. they compared the flooding levels to hurricane harvey levels in some parts of the state. some of the rivers are still that high right now, and across east texas people are still stranded, their homes condemned after water came rushing many. some are still staying in shelters as the governor estimates the damages to cost around $58 million. in a letter just in the past day to the president asking for a federal disaster declaration. with this next storm, the problem is we're expecting several inches of rain, anywhere from 2-6 inches, but it's going to come down within 3-6 hours. and here you can see the trinity river. in the distance they've actually got trucks out right now trying to pull some of the debris. the trees that are left over from the river blocking any of

the drainage systems underwater, those are the priorities right now as we look for another round of rain in communities that just really can't handle this next one. stuart? stuart: katie, thank you very much, indeed. check the markets again. we're in business for 24 minutes right now. what have we got? we've got the nasdaq up 17, the dow is down a mere 8 points. adam, any comment on this? >> yeah. little digestion. we've been up now for several days in a row. dow's almost at 40,000. yesterday we had new highs across all of the indices. the one area that's lagging is small caps. interesting, small caps are still down about a 10-12% from their all-time highs as a function of interest rates, or right? little companies need money, and interest rates hurt them. stuart: yes with, and the market value of all stocks has gone up $10 trillion in the past 365 day. >> arguably, stuart, the stock market is the best hedge against inflation out there. [laughter]

stuart: funny you should say that, that's exactly what it is. >> yeah. stuart: adam, thanks for being with us. still ahead, ben domenech on whether democrats could see a repeat of the disastrous 1968 convention this year. dr. ben carson, reports suggest he's emerging as a strong option for trump's vice president. brent bozell, new information on why george soros is spending $80 million in the media, and senator roger marshall says his staff does not feel safe in washington, d.c., and he plans to do manager about it. 10:00 hour, next. -- to do something about it. ♪ ♪

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stuart: get ready for this. get ready for this. the second hour of this show.

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