MARIA-03
Lead; Ted Cruz Says He is Confident of a Win Because of the Delegate Count;
Newly Released E-mails Reveal Hillary Clinton Wanted to Use BlackBerry when
She Became Secretary of State; President Obama's Supreme Court Pick Merrick
Garland Schedules Meeting on Capitol Hill; A Cross Found on a Texas Highway
Sparks Outrage Among Residents; A Group of Inmates Hijack a Helicopter in
Canada; Caterpillar Sees Soft First Quarter Amid Macro Concerns; Electronic
Cigarette Catches Fire Inside a Delta Flight; U.S. Transportation
Department to Ban Electronic Cigarettes on Flights Starting Next Month;
Adam LaRoche Chooses Family Over $13 Million; Senate Republicans Fight
President Obama's Supreme Court Nomination; Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan Unite in Opposition to Confirming
Hearings for Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court; Newly Released E-
Mails Revealed Hillary Clinton Wanted Blackberry When she Became Secretary
of State; Uber is Adding Family Plans; Markets Expecting a Decline for
Stock Prices; Jobless Claims: The Expectation Was 268,000 Jobless Claims,
We Got 265,000; Second Largest Port in America Reporting Record Volume Last
Month - Part 2>
Dash, John Slangerup, Michael Block>
Garland; Texas; Canada; Caterpillar; Electronic Cigarette; Delta Airlines;
Adam LaRoche; Senate; Paul Ryan; Politics; Elections; Economy; Trade;
Business; Uber; Transportation; Families; Technology>
Why you might want to think twice about signing up to it. Back in a minute.
(MUSIC)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back, good morning, I'm Maria Bartiromo, happy Thursday, it is Thursday, March 17th.
Your top stories right now 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast. The GOP race down to three despite Donald Trump's lead in the polls and the delegates.
The establishment is still trying to take him down, finding another path. Holding a meeting on that later today.
But the candidates are still looking toward the convention.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think it would be, and I think I will be and you know, I do want to finish this off.
I'm dealing with two smart, tough guys and I want to make sure I end up winning. I'd like to get to the finish line.
CRUZ: Donald apparently is ducking, he's afraid of being challenged and I think that's because the race has shifted to a terrain that is not favorable for him.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: We are fighting for the future of this country, for the spirit of this country.
And you know, we're not going to get there by bashing one another.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Sixty five. New released e-mails revealed Hillary Clinton wanted a Blackberry when she became secretary of state, but she was denied that by the NSA. Outrage over a cross near a Texas highway, but get this, it's on church property, details on that coming up.
Uber taking a page out of cellphone companies playbook, why the ride sharing giant is adding family plans.
And on to markets we go, we're expecting a decline for stock prices that they headed trading this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial average really near the lows of the morning, down about 50 points right here, and the NASDAQ, S&P 500 also weaker. We just got readings on initial jobless claims, the expectation was 268,000 jobless claims, we got 265,000. So as you can see, not a bad number.
MICHAEL BLOCK, RHINO TRADING PARTNERS CHIEF STRATEGIST: No, it's fine. It's on trend. You know, these numbers were trending higher and now they're back. I think, you know, jobs additions, NFP is been good, the question is where is wages? This doesn't tell me anything.
BARTIROMO: More coming on that. To the campaign trail, we go both sides warning on protests around a possible Donald Trump nomination. The Republican frontrunner says if he's denied the nomination, people would be upset and could riot. This as pro-Bernie Sanders group, moveon.org, is threatening, quote, largest civil disobedience action of the century should Trump win. We want to bring in a Fox News contributor, Stacey Dash, right now on this. Stacey, it's great to see you.
STACEY DASH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you for having me.
BARTIROMO: Thanks so much for joining us. So what do you think about this, moveon.org, threatening this huge demonstration, biggest of the century.
DASH: Right. Well, I think that they can do it all they want, the fact is, the people that support Trump are very much like Trump and they're not going to stand for it.
BARTIROMO: Right.
DASH: If they want to do that and they got to have, you know -- Trump doesn't bring a knife to a gun fight and neither do his supporters. So if that's what they want to do. BARTIROMO: The whole idea of this push back against Trump even from the establishment, it's sort of like smacking the voters in the face.
DASH: It is a smack
BARTIROMO: . it is the will of the people.
DASH: Right, it is a smack in voters in the face. It just goes to show that the establishment is so against him that he is for us, that's all the more reason to vote for him, I believe.
STEVE CORTES, BGC PARTNERS SENIOR STRATEGIST: Right. I think you bring up a great point there because in a lot of ways it's not really Republicans against Democrats, it's Washington against the rest of the country, isn't it?
DASH: Exactly.
CORTES: And I think that this so-called conservatives, who by the way, we elect them on main street and they talk conservativism on main street and then they go to K-street and they sell us out immediately the second they get to Washington. The fact that they want to have a secret meeting, they want to have this star-chamber meeting of elite to usurp the will of the people, shows me even more.
DASH: Right.
CORTES: . so why it's important that Trump as a true non-Washingtonian.
DASH: I mean you said it, usurp the will of the people, and the fact that they're trying to do it a guy like Trump who has been on the other side. So he knows the game. He knows what they're trying to do.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
DASH: . which is, you know, to his advantage, I think.
BARTIROMO: Yeah. So, so -- Dagen.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: No, I was going to say that a lot of the organizers behind this march they're planning in Washington, they're calling it democracy spring, and you throw in moveon.org. If they were that powerful, why couldn't they get Bernie Sanders to move on back into the nomination in the Democratic Party. So they're going after Trump, but if you really want to make a change, you then you shouldn't been able to push Bernie Sanders to the front.
DASH: Right
MCDOWELL: . and they weren't able to do that.
BARTIROMO: No.
DASH: Well, because he's a socialist, I don't think anyone wants to really do that, you know, to really stand behind a socialist.
BARTITOMO: He said 92 percent tax rate.
DASH: Yeah. And, you know, no one wants that. No one wants Hillary either, I mean she's a lying criminal, but, you know, no one wants that. But Trump, I believe is fairly -- is not unfairly burdened with this threat of violence.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
DASH: It's not his fault.
BARTIROMO: I find this on the street, this is not -- somebody gave this to me on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, that, you know, they're trying to organize groups.
DASH: Yeah.
BARTIROMO: . to basically say, hey, come join us so we can take Donald Trump down. I don't want to see this around New York City, I mean, you know, this threatening bully activity.
DASH: There, bully.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
DASH: And see, the people that support Trump are not going to be bullied. We're tired of being bullied.
BARTIROMO: Let me ask you this because you mentioned Hillary. Donald Trump is looking ahead to the general election, he actually released a new ad targeting Hillary Clinton. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(DOG BARKING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: We don't need to be a punchline with Vladimir Putin laughing. What did you think of that?
DASH: I think it's hilarious.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
DASH: I mean, she shouldn't have gone on national television and started barking like a dog to represent Republicans.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
DASH: It's her fault. That's what she gets
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
CORTES: Well, I'll tell you, even if you don't like Trump, holy cow, he's funny. And this is going to be very entertaining election.
BARTIROMO: Yeah. So, I mean, he's got a lot to work with, right? Stacey, I mean, I want your takes on the new revelations in the Hillary Clinton e- mail scandal, and there's the foundation scandal. In 2009, she was secretary of state and she was -- she asked to use a Blackberry. She was denied the request to change the rules over her Blackberry by the NSA. So what did she do? She decided, OK, well then, I'm going to get a server.
DASH: Forget the skips. I'll use my own in a barn. I'll just put my e- mails in a barn, why? Why would you do that? You're the secretary of state. You're the person who decides what's confidential and what's not? What reasoning is there behind that?
BARTIROMO: Yeah. Well, it's obviously intent, right?
DASH: Right, exactly.
BARTIROMO: You know, we -- who's the actor that we have on a couple of weeks ago, and he said to us, he said to us, when you have conservative values in Hollywood you won't get the part.
MCDOWELL: Steven Bower.
BARTIROMO: Steven Bower has said that.
MCDOWELL: Scarface.
BARTIROMO: Do you get pushback for conservative ideas.
DASH: Of course I do.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
DASH: I get pushback for conservative ideas because I'm a minority and in Hollywood, but I've not -- it's not stopped me, I won't allow it to. And that's why, you know, people using all of these excuses about gender, race, whatever. They're excuses. If you want something bad enough, you go after it, you get it, you find a way. Where there's a will, there's a way.
BARTIROMO: Yeah. And that's why I think it makes your point, in terms of Trump supporters, they're not going to just go away.
DASH: No, no way.
BARTIROMO: Yeah. Do you think -- how do you think the election plays out?
DASH: I say he wins.
BARTIROMO: Big Trump wins?
DASH: Yeah. And I think Rubio should be his veep.
BARTIROMO: I don't know, he's been calling him big little Marco.
MCDOWELL: I predict it would be John Kasich.
DASH: Me too.
MCDOWELL: Because John Kasich on the campaign trail.
BARTIROMO: But he said he won't do it. What else he's going to say.
MCDOWELL: It's offered to him.
CORTES: We heard lots of things.
BARTIROMO: What is he going to say? Yeah. Because I feel like he needs - - like an adult in the room like you've saying, you know.
(LAUGHTER)
CORTES: And Ohio doesn't help.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: Stacey, good to see you.
DASH: Thank you
BARTIROMO: Thanks so much for joining us this morning, Great to have you, Stacey Dash. Up next, terror attacks around the world putting national security front and center. Staight ahead, we're talking to the CEO of one of the largest operating ports in the country about how he's keeping our country safe. Stay with us.
(COURT REPORT)
ANDREW KRASNY, TENNIS CHANNEL REPORTER: Hey, welcome back to another Tennis Channel court report, a special presentation for Fox Business. I'm Andrew Krasny in Indian Wells. After taking the opening set breaker, Zverev won just 9 points in the 2nd as Rafael Nadal handed the German a bagel to level their fourth round match on stadium one. But the youngest man in the ATP top 100 fired right back at the Spaniards and had a match point in the third set, but a combination of nerves and Nadal's magic dragged the 9 time French open champion across the finish line and into the quarter final. The master still had just enough to beat a very talented young apprentice. And don't forget Tennis Channel coverage of the BNP Paribas open continues Thursday, with quarterfinal action, it all starts at midnight Eastern. I'm Andrew Krasny.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back. A giant cross in Texas triggering a lawsuit from an atheist, Cheryl Casone with that story and the headlines right now, Cheryl.
CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: Well, this 230 foot tall cross is under construction alongside I-37 in Corpus Christie, Texas. And the man filed the lawsuit after he saw the mayor and other city officials attending a groundbreaking ceremony for the cross. He claims, city officials cannot show preference of one religion over another. By the way, Corpus Christi literally means body of Christ.
Well, wireless companies have family plans, now Uber has family profile that allows you to pay for rides for a group of up to 10 friends, family members, or co-workers. A group leader sets up it via the app. Uber says the idea came from feedback from riders. However, parents who sign their kids up could see their credit card bills skyrocket. You've been warned.
And finally this, a monkey mercilessly destroyed a smartphone. Take a look at the video, of course theirs video, a tourist in a zoo in China accidentally dropped the device, the monkey picks it up, proceeds to bites and smashed the phone repeatedly. It was destroyed. So take note, everybody, when you're taking pictures at the zoo, don't drop your phone into the habitat. Back to you
BARTIROMO: OK, good advice.
BLOCK: I used to work with that guy, wait a minute.
BARTIROMO: Thanks, Cheryl. Republican presidential candidate, John Kasich, breathing new life into his campaign with a win in his home state of Ohio. He's now taking aim at some of Bernie Sanders' top supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KASICH, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The one thing that we don't want to buy into, in my opinion, is this idea of socialism and free stuff, come on, that's just.
(APPLUASE) KASICH: You know that Bernie's biggest supporters are the -- you do know they're the owners of Ben and Jerry's, right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Well, you may remember when I spoke with Ben and Jerry about their support for Bernie Sanders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Are you prepared, if push comes to shove, will you be OK with paying 92 percent of your earnings to the government? Do you think that's fair? You're the highest earners, Ben and Jerry, come on, you've got to pay your fair share.
BEN AND JERRY'S FOUNDER: We'd be happy to. As ben described, it's the marginal tax rate, so up to a certain amount you pay up 15 percent. Over the next amount you pay 20-something percent, over the next amount. And so, you're only paying your highest rate when you're making over, I don't know, 300,000, 500,000, a million dollars. It's not 92 percent of your entire income.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: That would be $250,000, Dagen. Above $250,000, you pay 92 percent. It's not -- it's not hard.
MCDOWELL: No, it's not hard.
BARTIROMO: It's actually quite enough. They made marginal list, I mean, I don't know what they were saying.
MCDOWELL: Yes, and I just tweeted that, by the way, calling the abacus man on twitter. The point is that if Bernie Sanders' ideas were really resonating with a big chunk of the people in the United States, he would be on track to get the Democratic nomination and he's not. Because people, at the end of the day, particularly people who work and work hard, and they cherish every dollar, they know that dude right there, he's promising a lot of free stuff, he's raising new taxes, he's raising everybody's taxes.
BARTIROMO: And by a lot.
BLOCK: There's a middle ground here because, you know, first, you have Ben and Jerry, by the way, it was great that Jerry was talking and Ben was there looking like, I don't agree on this. And, you know, there's a middle ground between a fantasy land and Sanders is talking about, and then there's our friend Grover Norquist, who honestly I think has handcuffed anyone from coming up with any tax policy here. I know it's a little controversial we're saying here. But it's got to be a middle ground. Can any of the candidates in either party offer that? Sanders, isn't giving that. The Republicans aren't giving that right now. Come together.
BARTIROMO: I just wish we wouldn't point fingers and say, you have to pay your fair share to those in the highest income bracket when in fact, they are. I mean, you know, Federal taxes for the highest earners is close to 40 percent, and 55 percent when all is said and done.
MCDOWELL: To that point, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but to that point the highest income Americans are paying more in taxes than they have since the 1990's.
BARTIROMO: Right.
MCDOWELL: So the chunk of taxes that they pay into the system is the biggest amount it's been.
BARTIROMO: So I just wish the Bernie Sanders of the world would stop be so disingenuous.
BLOCK: Right.
BARTIROMO: I mean, yeah, you're right, carrying interest is probably a problem, you know. If certain -- a small portion of the population is able to deem certain income as capital gains versus ordinary income. Fine. But don't say anybody who is in the highest income bracket is not paying their fair share. That's what bothers me.
CORTES: Right. No, listen.
BARTIROMO: Earns divides it.
CORTES: . it's crazy to try to penalize your best performer. Its NCAA day today, it would be like saying as a coach our fastest players, we're going to put some weights on. No, as a matter of fact, we want our fastest players to run even faster.
BARTIROMO: That's a good analogy.
CORTES: Because its creates jobs, that's why, for the whole economy. Look, I don't give Bernie Sanders credit for this, I won't say a lot nice about him, but I'll say something nice, at least he is honest about being a socialist, most Democrats are closet socialist and won't be honest about it. Bernie is at least pointing it front and center and saying, here I am socialist.
BARTIROMO: Good point.
CORTES: . shine a light.
BARTIROMO: Yeah, shine a light. Still to come, more and more Americans thinks free trade will lead to fewer U.S. jobs. My next guest disagree, he will tell us why. And in case you missed it, take a look at my picks for this year's March Madness tournament. The action kicks off tonight, let's go Michigan State. Back in a minute.
(COMEMRCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back. We're about 40 minutes away from the opening bell on Wall Street. We're expecting a lower opening from the broader averages and we've got financials down, pretty much across the board this morning. Take a look at some stocks on the move today, shares of Caterpillar getting hit hard in the premarket. This is really setting the tone. The industrial giant and Dow component warning the first quarter sales, will come in below analyst expectations, they are looking at a decline of about 3.5 percent right now on Caterpillar. Big winner this morning, Michael's, the arts and crafts retailers beating expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter, also issuing an upbeat outlook for 2016, stock is up about 7 percent ahead of the open.
And it looks like we're going back to the future. Check this out. Nike debuting self-tying smart sneakers called the Hyper Adapt 1.0, you press the button and the shoes tie themselves. They hit shelves right before the holidays.
Sea World announcing it will stop breeding killer whales in captivities, saying its current generation will be the last. Instead, the park is opting, quote, new inspiring natural orca encounters to promote education, science, and research. Share of Sea World down 13 percent, year to date.
Real quick on market, we did had a pretty good numbers in terms of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, Michael.
BLOCK: Yeah, the Philly Fed came in nicely, just like the empire manufacturing number came in the other day, these are the regional diffusion industries. The thing that we note about the Philly Fed.
MCDOWELL: Wait, did you just say regional diffusion?
(LAUGHTER)
BARTIROMO: Proven your point, Block, proven you point about the outcome.
BLOCK: These are surveys that they do to assess the economy.
BARTIROMO: Alright, alright.
BLOCK: How is that? So, you know, new orders came in at plus 15.7 versus negative 5 something last month, and so, encouraging signs, so will see if it picks up. I'm skeptical.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
CORTES: I think, to connect the dots with the earnings you've seen this morning, Michael's versus caterpillar.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
CORTES: . I find this very interesting. So, Michael's is doing well which is an American story, a U.S. Story. Caterpillar though is based in Peoria, is a Chinese story, it's an emerging market story.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
CORTES: So, I think what we're seeing here is U.S. doing OK, not great, but OK. The rest of the world huge problem.
BARTIROMO: There you go, bingo. By the way, the central bank of Norway may join the others and go negative in terms of interest rates. Take a short break, the second largest port in America reporting record volume last month, handling nearly 300,000 containers unit in February. The port CEO will join us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back. It's one of the largest operating ports in the country. Handling $180 billion in trade annually and employing more than 300,000 people in the Southern California area alone. The port of Long Beach is the nation's primary trade point for goods bound for and coming in from China, Southeast Asia, and other points west. Joining us right now is the port of Long Beach CEO, John Slangerup. John, good to see you.
JOHN SLANGERUP, PORT OF LONG BEACH CEO: Good to be here, Maria.
BARTIROMO: First, characterize what you're seeing. Trade is such a good indicator on how the economy is doing. You were talking so much about the global economy slowdown.
SLANGERUP: What we're seeing about -- we're going to see about 5 percent growth this year. We've see about 5.5 percent last year. It's very strong. Continues to be strong. And it's really in volume, I mean, the actual value of goods is declining because it's so inexpensive now. So, it's good for the American consumer and everybody is -- everything is on sale.
BARTIROMO: Even with the China slowdown?
SLANGERUP: China slowdown, everything that you see is very slight, 3 percent. What we're actually seeing is a tremendous pickup in Southeast Asia, double digit growth throughout the region.
BARTIROMO: Southeast Asia like Vietnam?
SLANGERUP: Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, even North -- even South Korea, if you go north it's amazing.
BLOCK: What's driving that in terms of industries, products, what's with the big drivers here?
SLANGERUP: A big part of it is the shifting manufacturing centers, as China, you know, sort of levels out, and as we've seen it throughout history of Asia. It continues to move. So, manufacturing is moving. And we, of course, follow that very carefully, but Southeast Asia is coming on very, very strong.
MCDOWELL: Many of the people who are out supporting, say, Donald Trump, for example, feel that trade has not helped them, it hasn't helped them at all. They've lost jobs. They don't see the benefits of it. What do you say to them?
SLANGERUP: Well, you know, the facts are that trade drives jobs and high paying jobs. When we look at our port, for example, we directly impact about 320,000 jobs on a regional basis. About 1.4 million jobs on the national basis, and those are high paying jobs, many of them union jobs. So, it kind of debunks the myth that there's a job issue with trade because it drives jobs throughout the country.
BARTIROMO: So, what's your reaction to all of this upset over trade and free trade versus fair trade?
SLANGERUP: Well, I think free trade is, you know, it's all about competitiveness and the United States has always done very, very well on the trade side. What we're struggling with is the relatively high value of the dollar is making our exports struggle. So, that is a challenge because the rest of the world's economies are struggling right now, and while it makes everything inexpensive for importing, it makes it difficult to sell our goods abroad.
BARTIROMO: Putting the business aside, what about national security? Do you worry that, you know, our situation today is actually a negative for national security?
SLANGERUP: Well, I think, you know, the ports, given the economic impact of the ports on the nation, we are very, very focused on security. We have the most advanced security apparatus in the world. And we have to get it right every day. Bad guys have to be right one time. We have to be right every day. And so, I think that from a security standpoint, most of what we fear coming through the ports is in fact monitored very carefully. We have such a terrific inner agency structure, and we have all of, you know, homeland security, the coast guard, all of the typical local authorities, they're all in a team together and we monitor everything very carefully and continually.
BARTIROMO: I think the trade story has become, really, front and center and such a hot bun button issue in this election, does it surprise you?
SLANGERUP: It doesn't surprise me, but, you know, the struggle with elections is that people are always looking for some reason to, you know, to be angry or focus on something. Facts speak for themselves. Trade is growing, trade drives jobs, trade is in fact what this nation is about, and the fact of the matter is, we have to do everything we can to stimulate it abroad. Relationships with all of our trading partners are key, and we really have to be remained focused as we are in our port operations, very focused on a global basis. It's all about relationships.
BARTIROMO: It sure is. John, great to have you on the program.
SLANGERUP: Good to be here.
BARTIROMO: Thanks so much, John Slangerup, there. Thank you, Michael Block, Steve Cortez, Dagen, always great to see everybody. Have a great day. That will do it for us. Varney & Co., begins right now, and Stuart, take it away.
END
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