MARIA-02
Shows Trump, Cruz Leading the Pack; 2016 North American Auto Show Kicks off
Today; Shire Buys Baxalta For $32 Billion - Part 2>
Burman, Jeff Flock >
Mark Fields>
Autmotive Industry; Finance; Politics; Polls; Election; Mergers &
Aquisitions>
TRUMP: Yeah.
BARTIROMO: Right.
TRUMP: And I said if they don't behave, if they don't stop doing what they're doing with the devaluations in particular.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURMAN: Now, Dagen, on the Democratic side, the Fox News poll shows Hillary Clinton continues to hold a strong lead nationally over Bernie Sanders but Clinton is not completely cruising here. Sanders leads by 13 in New Hampshire. Questions also extend into a potential general election run for Clinton. When matched up against the top tier Republican candidates, take a look at that. Clinton loses to both Trump, by three, and Cruz, by seven. Marco Rubio fares best there, with a nine point edge. Over the weekend that is the point that Bernie Sanders has been pounding. Dagen.
MCDOWELL: Blake, thank you so much for that. Blake Burman in Washington for us.
Let's bring in former Club For Growth President and Marco Rubio supporter Chris Chocola. Chris, good to see you; I hope I pronounced your name right.
CHRIS CHOCOLA, FMR. CLUB FOR GROWTH PRESIDENT: You got it close enough, Dagen.
MCDOWELL: Chris, you recently endorsed the Senator's run for president and will be joining him at an economic forum later today. Please tell us why.
CHOCOLA: Well I met Marco Rubio back in 2009 when he was starting his senate bid in Florida and you know, my job used to be interview candidates all day, running for the house and the senate, and try to understand what they believed in economic policy, whether they understood what leads to economic growth. You can imagine how exciting that is; but one of the most exciting days I had is when I met Marco Rubio because he understands what he believes. He understands why he believes it. He can articulate those beliefs in a clear, convincing and persuasive way. He also can talk about the fact that free market principles are so important to raising people out of the poverty, increasing the standard of living better than any other candidate. There is a hopefulness to his candidacy, much like Reagan's shining city on the hill that I think sets him apart and will serve him well in this race.
MCDOWELL: Chris, but does he have to - because it seems like, based on the latest polling that Iowa is a Trump versus Cruz competition at the moment. Does Rubio really need to come in a very strong second, at least in New Hampshire? You can take a look at the New Hampshire polls there -- or there is the Iowa poll. If we can pull up the New Hampshire poll. Does he need to come in very strong second in that state to have momentum going into the south?
CHOCOLA: Well, I don't know that he has to come in as a strong second. I think that he will gain momentum over time. When the Club For Growth first endorsed Marco Rubio in 2009 he was at three-percent in the polls against Charlie Crist, here in Florida. When people meet Marco Rubio, when they hear his message, when they see his optimism, they like Marco Rubio and they will support him. The people of Florida did that as they got to know him and I'm convinced that the people of America will do that as they get to know him over these next couple months.
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FOUNDER, SKYBRIDGE CAPITAL: Chris, how do you feel about 45-percent tariffs on China? What is your reaction to that?
CHOCOLA: It's awful. It's not pro-growth policy. It's one of the worst things we could do to our economy right now, and that's why Marco Rubio understands the principles that really lead to creation of jobs, wealth and economic growth. Donald Trump says he is the jobs president but that would be about the worst thing you could do to jobs in America is to put a tariff like that into imported goods. so I think that people can see the difference. I think these things come out. I think that when people go into the voting booth they will recognize that there are candidates that understand how to create jobs and those that talk about it.
MORGAN ORTAGUS, CO-CHAIR, MAVERICK PAC: Chris, this is Morgan. How does Rubio really break out of the pack? I mean, right now we're seeing in New Hampshire, Donald Trump is leading by a huge margin, by 30-percent, and then we have about 45-percent of the republican electorate tied between Rubio, Bush, Kasich and Christie. How does he really break out of the establishment pack because I'm not see an early state that he is going to win yet?
CHOCOLA: Well, you know, I think that people have underestimated Marco Rubio as a candidate really throughout his career. Just talk to people who spent some time with him and have been to one of his town halls or been to one of his events. They come away as supporters of Marco Rubio. So, you know, the Rubio campaign, I think, has been smart. They've approached this in methodical way. They have confidence in the candidate's ability to connect with voters. I think they're on track to do that. I think the media makes a big deal out of polls in the early states but this is a long effort and there are a lot elections to be had and I think he will be just fine.
MCDOWELL: Chris, good to see you. Thanks so much for being here, Chris Chocola. Be well.
CHOCOLA: Thank you.
MCDOWELL: And tune in to Lou Dobbs tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. Lou is going to announce the lineups for the next Republican Presidential Debate. You don't want to miss that, 7:00 p.m. The debate is Thursday right here on the Fox Business Network. The earlier debate moderated by FBN anchors Trish Regan and Sandra Smith. The later one moderated by Maria Bartiromo and Neil Cavuto. You want to catch every minute of it, Thursday night, 6:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m. coming to you live, from Charleston. This, Anthony Scaramucci, was all over it. He put his phone under my nose to make sure we saw this.
Shire is a major deal in the biotechnology industry. Shire making it official, buying Baxalta $32 billion in cash and stock. You wanted a quick comment, Anthony?
SCARAMUCCI: Yes, no, this is just, again, a sign of continued merger activity which does put a floor on the market. As these companies have over $2 trillion in cash on the balance sheet, Dagen, you'll see more deals coming in 2016.
MCDOWELL: I'm curious to see -
SCARAMUCCI: Or the trillion last year.
MCDOWELL: Right, and I'm curious to see- we talked about it last week, what Apple does with that the $200 billion cash hoard. Does Apple commit and make a giant acquisition? But certainly in the biotechnology industry, with such incredible innovations in that space and life-saving drugs coming out of those companies, you're likely to see a lot more activity in biotech.
Coming up, we're going to talk about Hollywood royalty stepping on the red carpet last night for the 73rd annual Golden Globe Awards. The best and the most cringe worthy moments. It was uncomfortable what Ricky Gervais was doing, but also hilarious. keep it here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCDOWELL: Health officials in Utah investigating an outbreak of Hepatitis- C. Cheryl Casone has that story and other news you need to know right now. Cheryl?
CHERYL CASONE, FBN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Dagen. (HEADLINES)
MCDOWELL: Switching gears, the 2016 North American International Auto Show kicking off today in Detroit, Michigan. Jeff Flock is standing by with the CEO and President, somebody I know I Pretty know pretty well, Ford Motor Company's Chief, Mark Fields. Hey, Jeff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF FLOCK, FBN CORRESPONDENT: We thought we'd kick off our coverage right at the top. We've got Mark Fields. You know, Mark, we used to have fun walking around, looking at cars. Now, you have a big job. We've got to ask you the hard questions.
MARK FIELDS, PRESIDENT & CEO, FORD MOTOR COMPANY: Oh, well, it's the car business. We've got to have fun too, Jeff, come on.
FLOCK: I've got to ask you about this economy that you are in teeth of right now. You had a great year last year. The auto industry had a great year. There is worry out there, worry about China. You sell a lot of cars in China. Is it as slow as the fear is?
FIELDS: Well we actually project moderate growth this year China, in the car business. Part of that is the government reduced the purchase tax at the end of last year. We think that will support sales. Clearly, you know, China is going through a little volatility as it transitions from an investment - an industry-led economy to a consumer-led one. So we think moderate growth there. Here in the U.S., continued strong and moderate growth in Europe.
FLOCK: Are you worried about China dragging down the world economy, and consequently U.S. where you sell a lot of cars.
FIELDS: Well we're always on the lookout and keeping a lookout for any downturns, but what we see here in the U.S. economy is, you look at the employment report last week, wage growth is still good, labor growth is still good, low interest rates, low energy costs. Those things help fuel and support consumer spending.
FLOCK: Your competitor, GM, announcing today, actually, that it's going to take a vehicle made in China, sell it in the U.S. Any plans for Ford to make vehicles there, sell them in the U.S.?
FIELDS: Well our strategy right now is to produce where we sell. Obviously we've opened up a number of plants in China.
FLOCK: Ten in how many years?
FIELDS: We have a total of 10. We opened up 10 plants in the last three years overall, through Asia-Pacific; but we sold over a million units in China and right now we're producing for the domestic market there.
FLOCK: So no plans short term?
FIELDS: Not right now, short term, to do that.
FLOCK: Donald Trump, your friend and fellow New Yorker, talking about 35- percent tariff on vehicles made outside the U.S. that Ford brings into the U.S. Why is he picking on Ford?
FIELDS: Well, listen, it's politics season. It's presidential politics season and sometimes it's really unfortunate when the facts get clouded by politics. But, you know, facts are stubborn things and here in the U.S. we invested over $10 billion since 2011 into our U.S. plants. We've created over 25,000 jobs. In our new UAW Contract we committed another $8 billion. So when you look at that, we are doing our part to drive economic development here in the U.S., and we're very, very proud as a company.
FLOCK: You sent him an email to tell him all those things?
FIELDS: Well we just want to set the facts straight. What the candidates do with that is up to them, but we just want to make sure we just deal with the facts.
FLOCK: Love the facts. Well, you know, I miss those days when we talked around climbing in cars.
FIELDS: Can't we do a walk around? New Fusion, we're showing the new Fusion here; the new F-150 Raptor; our Ford Pass. We're showing a whole bunch of important stuff here.
FLOCK: You're too important to walk around with, we've got to stand in one place. Mark Fields, always appreciate the time.
FIELDS: Thank you.
FLOCK: Thank you, sir. There you go, Dagen?
MCDOWELL: The Ford Raptor, go shoot some of that. I want to check it out. Thank you, Jeff; and thanks to Ford CEO Mark Fields, coming to us from the Detroit Auto Show.
We're keeping an eye on stocks today coming off the worst starting week to a year ever. 54-point gain, 60-point gain for the Dow. The new news that Shire buying Baxalta, a multi-billion dollar deal in the biotech industry. And, tomorrow, don't miss Maria's exclusive sit down with JPMorgan Chairman & CEO Jamie Dimon. We have so much more to take care of, here, on Fox Business this morning, stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCDOWELL: Back to some market moving news that broke just a short while ago: The biotech company Shire making it official. buying Baxalta for $32 billion. There is a little bit of cash in there, cash and stock. it is an Ireland-based company, buying a U.S. company. Kevin your thoughts on this deal?
KELLY: My thoughts on this is getting back to the space, look at the health care space. I think this lends further credence to the market that the health care sector is still in its infancy of the bull market. we're seeing tons of deals happen, whether it's Allergan-Pfizer. This was really a defensive deal for Shire because they were actually approached in 2014 by Abvee (ps), for a $54 billion merger. So you're going to start to a see a lot of M&A happen throughout the year, whether it's defensive or companies trying to do some synergistic acquisitions in order to drive revenue growth, because we are in a slow-growth environment.
MCDOWELL: I want to bring in Anthony Scaramucci in this because such an incredible growth area; terrific drug innovations for treatments, say, in cancer; an FDA that has been very favorable to these companies but you have drug-makers, story in the "Wall Street Journal" today, still raising prices, Pfizer, Amgen, Allergan, Horizon and many others raising prices on branded drugs anywhere from nine to ten-percent. That's going to be a huge issue on the campaign trail and could it hurt these stocks?
SCARAMUCCI: Well, it already has. So we look at Valiant and some of the other stocks last year, Dagen. They got pounded by this. So for us, you know, on the hedge fund side we actually got this wrong. We had very big health care exposure. If you look where the beta was in our portfolio, we had misjudged it because of this sort of political debacle. So, if Bernie Sanders or Secretary Clinton become the president of the United States, these guys are going to get pounded by them. I don't think it's any chance that they will be able to survive these price rises.
MCDOWELL: So would you be long a lot of these companies? So you say the pricing headline risk is greater than the upside from acquisitions?
SCARAMUCCI: I think it's even. I think right now we would be in a neutral position on these companies because of the policy risk going forward makes the valuations uncertain to us.
MCDOWELL: We are going to talk more about this. Thank you, Anthony. Thank you, Kevin. Next hour I'm joined by republican presidential contender and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCDOWELL: Good morning. I'm Dagen McDowell; Maria Bartiromo is on assignment. It is Monday, January 11th. With me this morning this hour, Skybridge Capital's, Anthony Scaramucci; Maverick PAC National Co-Chair, Morgan Ortagus; Recon Capital's Kevin Kelly; and, joining the desk, Fox News Contributor and my friend, Meghan McCain. Let's check on these wild markets. (HEADLINES)
END
(Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2016 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2016 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.)
