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Rise of GDP Despite Coming Elections; Countdown To Election Day; Biden For
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MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN: At New York's, LaGuardia Airport, everyone is ok. And on the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, heading to the swing state of Iowa today. Trump went on the attack yesterday while Secretary Clinton got an assist from First Lady, Michelle Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- the system is rigged and I think the biggest rigging of all is what's happened with the FBI and the Justice Department with all due respect to Hillary Clinton because she is so guilty in so many different ways that she shouldn't even be allowed to run for president.
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: The choice we make between those who divide this country into us versus them and those who tell us to embrace our better angels and choose hope over fear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Meanwhile, new reports this morning say that Vice President Joe Biden could be part of a Clinton administration. Find out which position he may hold, coming up. Making a plan B. Millions of Americans ditching Obamacare as premiums set to skyrocket next year. Could this be a death blow to President Obama's signature legislation? We are taking a closer look this morning and the EpiPen price increases, not only hitting families, the Pentagon reportedly adding millions of dollars to Defense Department's spending. The renewed outrage, coming up. The difference between, popularity and profits, Twitter taking new measures to cut costs by shutting down it's Vine App, we've got the details there, coming up. Meanwhile, Amazon's highflying stock coming back down to earth this morning, stock was down after the company posted, its lowest quarterly profit in a year, a result of higher expenses.
The reach out was however out looked also a disappointment, the stock tumbling ahead of the open, we will bring it to you.
Check Broader markets this morning, Amazon really set the tone, we are expecting a mixed market this morning for the broader averages, NASDAQ under some selling pressure. Right now, flat opening that we are looking for but we do get the GDP report for the third quarter and that will likely set the tone and direction for markets. In Europe, stocks are searching for direction as well. Take a look at the major averages there with the most of the Eurozone in the seas, trading lower. In Asia, overnight, mixed performances to show you, as you see there the NEKKEI averaging in Japan, the one winner, on the up side by two thirds of one percent. A different kind of costume, why SeaWorld put this penguin in a custom made wetsuit, we will show you that coming up this morning. All those stories coming up this morning and joining me to talk about it. Fox Business Network's Dagen McDowell, Riverfront investment group chairman and chief investment officer, Michael Jones, and Pollster, Lee Carter. Good morning.
(CROSSTALK)
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS RESPONDENT: Good morning.
BARTIROMO: Good to see you.
LEE CARTER, POLLSTER: Good morning.
MICHAEL JONES, RIVERFRONT INVESTMENT GROUP CHAIRMAN: Good morning.
BARTIROMO: Happy Friday.
MCDOWELL: Happy Friday. I wish I was allowed to wear sunglasses on set because I woke up with puffy face this morning.
(LAUGHTER)
BARTIROMO: Not at all. We have a lot coming up this morning and joining us to talk about all the stories you just heard, former Florida Congressman, Lieutenant Colonel, Allan West is with us. The co-host of Fox's news channel's The Five and author of Let Me Tell You About Jasper, Dana Perino is with us. An actor and brother of Alec Baldwin, Stephen Baldwin is with us this morning. To talk politics, former deputy chief of staff to president George W. Bush, Karl Rove is here and former speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich joins us as well. Big show coming up this Friday morning, so stay right there.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: I couldn't believe the line --
BARTIROMO: A close call for Vice President nominee, Mike Pence, meanwhile, at New York's LaGuardia airport last night. Where his plane skid off a rainy runway last night. Thankfully, governor Pence, everyone on board are fine but it was a scary moment. Passengers on board said that the plane made a bumpy approach then hit the runway hard before screeching to a halt on some grass. Concrete safety barriers stopped the plane from rolling any further. Police evacuated Pence along with the other 48 passengers and crew members on the plane. We will take a look at this after where the Indiana governor tweeted, "So thankful everyone on our plane is safe. Grateful for our first responders and the concern and prayers of so many, back on the trail tomorrow. " Donald Trump also expressed relief for his running mate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I just spoke to our future Vice President and he's OK, do you know he was in a big accident with a plane? The plane skidded off the runway and was pretty close to grave danger but I just -- to Mike Pence and he is fine, he got out, everybody is fine but what a great decision it was to get Mike Pence, what a great guy he is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Pence is on his way to New York from Fort Dodge, Iowa at the time of the accident, his flight was actually delayed because of the weather and he spend about 20 minutes tossing a football with his staff and secret service agents near the runway in Iowa. Well, there are of course, 11 days left until the election. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hit the trail in Iowa today with trump also headed to Maine and New Hampshire. The GOP nominee, continuing to fan the flames of WikiLeaks fall out for the Clinton Camp.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Before emails, WikiLeaks releases more lies between the Clinton Foundation, the Secretary of the States' office and then Clintons personal financers, they all get blurred.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: The latest hack illustrates more pay to play allegations, detailing how consulting firm Teneo, used their connections for Clinton Foundation donations and paid spaces for Bill Clinton. One described it as a running Bill Clinton Inc. He also wrote in a 2011 memo, "We also have solicited and obtained as appropriate and kind services for the president and his family. For personal travel, hospitality, vacations and the like. Joining us right now is former New York, Lieutenant Governor and Trump Supporter, Betsy McCaughey, also with us Chuck Rocha, he is a Democratic Strategist and President of Solidarity Strategies. Good to see you both, thank you so much for joining us. So these emails, Betsy. Give us your take here and the timing of it, obviously, important right before.
BETSY MCCAUGHEY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK, Well, very important. But this lays out the Clinton Triangle, how the Clinton family profiteered from Hilary Clinton's position at Secretary of State. Bill Clinton would break in millions of dollars and put it in his own pocket for speaking thieves and appointments of one sort or another and also making millions for the Clinton Foundation and then he would send his payers over to the state department for whatever they needed, access to Hillary Clinton, decisions, dinners and a lot of this is laid out in this WikiLeaks. Laureate University paying Bill Clinton 18 million dollars for advice -- that's more than the prices in Harvard University. So, this is really shocking and then in the process they also violated laws including tax by failing to report gifts from foreign governments, required by the IRS.
BARTIROMO: Chuck, obviously, this doesn't look good, not good timing with 11 days before the election for Hillary Clinton.
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I run campaigns for a living and obviously this is something you have to worry about and this does not look good. Of course, obviously, if they had broken any law they'd be in jail. What this thing shows you is what -- a lot of people think, right? and so, they have to be able to pivot from this and go and Donald Trump could've taken great advantage of this and just a strategist? Let me remind everybody that I have run a campaign against Hillary Clinton in the primary -- there are things out there that you can use to try to talk about the issues but a lot of his campaign has not been about talking about the issues because of things that Donald Trump has said or other folks has said, when we could've been talking about Obamacare and debating the issues, talking about the foundation and debating the issues. We never really got to have that debate this evening and nothing been much like my friend Dagen, that's why I got the puffy face because I got 11 days left and I don't know if I'm going to make it.
MCCAUGHEY: Let me tell you. I'm sure that the democrats don't want to talk about Obamacare but the fact is, it's very clear that whatever Hillary Clinton has done as Secretary of State, she's going to do it many more when she has the whole US Government to sell instead of just a State Department and that's part of the worry. She refused to have limits on this when she was Secretary of State -- the senate forced her to do it and she refused and now she has refused to close this foundation.
BARTIROMO: What do you say?
JONES: Chuck, yes, you sound like -- this is obviously a great gift to the Trump campaign when you think about Obamacare and these WikiLeaks and the whole Clinton Inc. Scandal but you sound like you don't think it's enough to change the narrative this close to the election?
BARTIROMO: Is that what you are saying?
ROCHA: Well, it's kind of like if a tree falls in the forest, when you run a campaign you have an organized structure of multilayered communication that goes on that -- if I was the opponent of Hillary we would've had a plan to lay this out, there would be TV commercials, there would be grabbed operations, where we would be knocking on people's doors of just those people who were targeted, undecided people, who we knew we could move -- we may feel a little untrustworthy, where you can move those people, one way or the other, through digital advertising with the layered march of that issue. It's kind of been out there some but not in the mainstream media and that's where you lost it this year on not having 11 days and we still aren't there.
DAGEN: Chuck, every one of the issues. You talked about untrustworthiness, how on earth are people supposed to trust Hillary Clinton right now?
ROCHA: I think you would see a different dynamic if she wasn't running against Donald Trump. When I was running Bernie Sanders' campaign, we never had to even say the Secretary's name, we never did any negative campaign and we almost won, we won 22 states. So, you knew there was an undertow out there. So, I think some people out there that are in the middle of the road are trying to pick the lesser of two evils.
DAGEN: Well, you're saying in the polls in terms of independence, in terms of Donald Trump in the new Fox News poll gaining (CROSSTALK).
BARTIROMO: He gained in the league.
CARTER: Yes, and I think it's just so important that people understand that it's not necessarily just about Donald Trump, this is about against the establishment. People want a big change at Washington D. C, this is not -- they're not working for me, they're working for themselves.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: Exactly.
MCCAUGHEY: We will never have the rule of law again if Mrs. Clinton is president and I will predict if she becomes the first woman president, she will also be the first president in the 21st century to be impeached because she is not leaving her corrupt ways behind.
DAGEN: Well, I'll just point to the Kimberley Straseel editorial which is in the Wall Street Journal which I watch every Friday and in her lead paragraph, "A Hillary Clinton presidency will be built from the ground up on self-dealing crony favors and then other disregard for the law. Last night, I was watching Charles Krauthammer on Special Report and he really hit it on the head in terms of this Doug Band memo. If people want to go and read the whole thing, that came out of the WikiLeaks hack, he said, "Now we know how they, the Clintons, got obscenely rich without visible work. "
MCCAUGHEY: That's right. Trump was building buildings and what were they doing? How did they amass well over a hundred million dollars in just a few years?
BARTIROMO: Yes, because Doug Band and Teneo were setting up speeches, setting up deals and obviously it did include access to the state department. Lee Carter, we are happy you are here today because you looked at this campaign highlight and you put them in to the dial test. Let's listen. Explain the yellow, green and red lines first, to make it real clear.
CARTER: Yes. So, the yellow line is independents and that's the most important one to watch right now because that's where this election is going to be won or lost. We've got the red line as republican and the blue line is democrat. They don't surprise as much as the yellow lines because we are seeing that independents of really breaking hard for Donald Trump again. We saw it earlier in the campaign, they lost him a little bit.
BARTIROMO: Right. This was when Hillary Clinton was questioned about WikiLeaks. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Secretary Clinton, can you tell us your concerns with Donald Trump who was trying to blame you (INAUDIBLE) and of one other issue. They were the WikiLeaks (INAUDIBLE) that the Clinton Foundation conference was now being labeled by some of critics would you comment on that as well?
CLINTON: No, I have nothing to say about WikiLeaks other than I think we should all be concerned about what the Russians are trying to do to our election and using WikiLeaks very (INAUDIBLE) influence, yes, on the election. And I have no concerns about the first question whatsoever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Secretary Clinton - CLINTON: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Lee, walk us to what was going on there. We saw the yellow line coming down.
CARTER: It was on the floor and this is really -- voters are reacting on a second by second basis, as you could see, as soon as Hillary Clinton pivoted to the response about -- and went over and started talking about this is an issue about Russia. Votes just dropped to the floor, independents are not buying that argument so they're reacting and as soon as they here that they say, "No way, I'm not buying it. " And so, we are just measuring how people are reacting on what we see -- we send this out ourselves and voters and that's the reactions that we see and frankly, you know, pivoting is a communication strategy that we see all the time, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This does not work; people want an answer.
BARTIROMO: This -- we saw them start this whole Russia narrative at the democratic national convention, Dagen. And then that's where there started it and they just have been driving it home, the whole election.
DAGEN: And Donald Trump done himself no favors because he piled on to it and made that joke about Russia. I want to ask Chuck one thing. Chuck, you look back, when you were working on the Sanders campaign and don't you wish these WikiLeaks, emails came out then.
ROCHA: Well, it would be interesting to see those in the days of the primary when I was a paid consultant for Bernie and I think they would've been a different election but I don't look back, I'd rather look forward and what I was thinking about when Lee was talking about the dial test in - - was right now in the elections, people are coming home and people are already voting, in Nevada 80 percent of people will have voted early before election day. So, the election is happening right now in my world and I'm doing phones and mail and reminding him to vote right now and remember, if you lean a little bit more conservative, you're going to be more, "I have to go that way. " So, I think a lot of good things are happening across the country today.
BARTIROMO: Alright, we will leave it here. Betsy McCaughey, Chuck Rocha, good to see you both, thank you so much. Coming up, EpiPens sticker shock hitting pentagon. And ho Department of Defense is getting hit by the skyrocketing of the lifesaving drug and twitter sheds employees and now one of its apps, it's killing the video sharing app, Vine, we'll be right back.
(COMMCERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Well, this is a big story. 98 federal inmates will return home sooner than expected thanks to president Obama. Cheryl Casone with the details now.
CHERYL CASONE: We keep that saying, Maria, the president commuting the sentences of 98 inmates yesterday continuing his efforts to release effort inmates sentenced today harsh prison terms for nonviolent drug offenses, nearly half of this group, 42 people have been sentenced to life imprisonment, this brings a total number of commutations by Obama's 872. that has more than the combined number of the last 11 presidents coming at 715 commuted sentences. Well, EpiPen price hikes have cost the pentagon millions of dollars, Mylan's auto-injection pens have added 57 million to the U. S. Department of Defense spending over the past year. The agency covers the cost of EpiPen at military treatment facilities but pays close to retail price. The average price of EpiPen coming in at 509 dollars, Mylan and Pentagon are discussing an extension of a military discount that would allow EpiPens to be filled via rebates. And looks like, Vine's six seconds of fame are over, Twitter announcing yesterday that it's shutting down the app after failing to capitalize on the popularity of it.
Vine withered to make competition from Snapchat, Facebook, even Instagram. Twitter also announcing plans to go lay off 9% of its workforce to try and carve a path for profitability in 2017. And then Apple is inching closer to its goal of paper thin laptop, Apple built a smaller and thinner line of MacBooks yesterday to fight declining sales, some versions of this new MacBook Pro is going to feature a thin touch screen above the keyboard that changes the functions depending on the program, these new Mac's are pretty expensive, guys. The average base price, 1600 dollars and those top of the line MacBook Pros starts at 2400 but still for a lot of kids, especially that love these, a little pricey. Apple unveiling TV app, which can search through all of your different streaming apps. you don't have to check them one by one for shows and movies, nice if you like apple TV, Maria. And there a few exceptions, you cannot search Netflix and Amazon and so you will have to click on apps directly and I know you got
Netflix, I think you'll like it.
DAGEN: Amazon fire will rock your world, trust me.
BARTIROMO: Just to circle back on Cheryl's top story there, you had these -- half of the inmates, more than 40 inmates, they were facing life in prison and now they're being taken out of jail by president Obama.
DAGEN: Why?
BARTIROMO: That's what I'm thinking.
JONES: Part of a narrative that there was an overregulation of prison sentencing got too long in the 90'S and 2000's and he feels like he's going to personally rectify that sort of --
DAGEN: Something that Hillary Clinton should be hit on the left about the crime bill that her husband passed in the 90'S and early 2000's and remember her super predator's
comments?
BARTIROMO: how do you get that so wrong facing life in prison and now the president says let's take them out?
DAGEN: Inexplicable.
BARTIROMO: Coming up, Amazon ending its streak of record Cordelieu profits. That is the story of the day in the stock market, the rising costs, weighing on the online retail joints factored down this morning. President Obama calls for reinforcement in his efforts to keep Obamacare afloat. What he plans to do is millions of people ditch the program to buy their insurance elsewhere. I've got a lot of stories to come, back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Merger mania continues, top story in the journal this morning, General Electric to combine its oil and gas businesses with Baker Hughes, this transaction could be worth $20 billion. Michael, this is a real change, it's going to GE hugely.
JONES: This is a fascinating strategic move by GE and I also think it has big implications for the American consumer because you've got the world's largest industrial conglomerate going into the oil field services, business, that means more R&D and more technology applied to fracking, that means lower costs and lower oil prices. Have some kind of ban on fracking in the next administration, we will be with low oil prices for a long time and this merger makes it almost sure.
BARTIROMO: It's also really interesting to look at just the level of deals that have been seeing, right Dagen? I mean, you see companies getting together in the couple of weeks before the presidential elections. they want to get as many deals as they can, just last week with AT&T and Time Warner.
DAGEN: It was a record month, actually. 4 deals in -- given all the mergers and combinations that we have seen, this is a bet on the health of the American energy business and it's a bet -- you know, is this the one kick off to what will be a lot more acquisitions and not just the oil services business but also all along the energy sector in terms a lot of these hard hit companies or at least companies that are well priced at this point, in spite the price tag on this.
BARTIROMO: I think you're right. We will probably see more deals within the oil.
JONES: Absolutely. I think, Dagen's point there got to be some cost reduction that is going to more efficiencies that are going to be applied to oil extraction. Again, I think, people who are expecting a 60-dollar- barrel oil next year, I think they're going to be disappointed, I think the cap is right around 50 because that's where they're making money in the frack fields putting oil down out into the market.
BARTIROMO: So watch the oil companies and oil services as GE pursues Baker Hughes, in this major deal on the oil-petrol. So, I'm watching the earnings, oil giants, Chevron set to report today, as well as Mastercard, it's been a busy session for technology. Amazon taking a hit this morning. Google Parent alphabet profit surge. Let's characterize the earning season to far. Michael, from your standpoint, third-quarter earnings?
JONES: Fantastic.
BARTIROMO: Really?
JONES: Yes, we actually -- we don't like to look at earnings relative to current expectations because companies have gotten really good at manipulating their earnings expectations. We look at expectations relative to what they were saying 6 months ago, this is the best earning season that we've seen since back right after the crisis in 2009. It's been great on earnings. About 70% of the companies are beating the earnings that they have put out six months ago. 52% are beating revenue.
BARTIROMO: How is the guidance, though? What are they saying as far what's to cost?
JONES: Forward guidance seems to be affirming that this trend is going to continue. People are seeing better revenue environment than six months ago and they are saying it's going to continue into the fourth quarter generally speaking.
DAGEN: And we have GDP coming out at 8: 30 this morning. And there are some economists who expect we could see three percent growth in the quarter we haven't had 2%, we have been growing at less than 2% since a year ago, third quarter of last year.
BARTIROMO: Two and a half percent is the estimate of GDP.
DAGEN: If we get 3, we are cheering that and that's sad too.
BARTIROMO: It is. Isn't it so interesting that 10 days before an election, all of the sudden GDP goes from 1. 4 percent to 3 percent. I'm sorry.
(LAUGHTER)
DAGEN: People make their minds of about six to 9 months about their own personal financial situation, about how they feel about the economy, they don't wait until this close to the election.
JONES: Dagen is absolutely right because remember with the Bush-Clinton one election, GDP soared like 4 percent right before the election.
DAGEN: And people still acted like we were in a recession even though the recession ended the year before the election year, early that year and Bush was still saddled with that.
JONES: My favorite headline, Time Magazine, Clinton isn't in office yet and they called it the Clinton recovery.
BARTIROMO: All right. Last this morning, Ok, so we have GDP, we got earnings and, of course, major deals happening if GE were to close the deal with Baker Hughes the oil patches is going to be hot today. Still to come Hillary Clinton imagining a new role for Vice President Joe Biden, how she plans to keep him in Washington, D. C. Should she become president? We will tell you the roll they've been talking about for Biden and then a new installment of the Da Vinci code series, hits the theatres this weekend, how Tom Hanks' latest work is expected to flair in the box office, that's coming up. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: TGIF. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Maria Bartiromo. Thanks for joining us. It is Friday, October 28th. Your top stories right now at 6:30 a.m. on the east coast.
Eleven days and counting, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton head back to where it all began, Iowa. But not before getting some last minute shots in other key swing states.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How do you speak so badly of someone? She speaks very badly of Putin and I don't think that's smart. You know, you could be very tough, but you shouldn't be doing what she's doing.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It just made me boil when Donald Trump disrespected a Gold Star file, Mr. and Mrs. Khan. He still hasn't apologized to them. He actually made it worse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: Meanwhile, from vice president to world traveller, why Hillary Clinton is reportedly eyeing Joe Biden for her former gig, secretary of state.
Another day another problem for Obamacare to report, the continuing fallout as millions are now eyeing options outside of the Obamacare exchanges.
More than 100 people arrested near a North Dakota pipeline, the intense images as protests reach a boiling point.
In broader markets this morning really being led by earnings. We are expecting a higher opening from the broader averages, but we are waiting on the GDP report. We'll get the first look of GDP for the third quarter in about two hours.
Investors are also waiting on earnings from some big names in the energy space including Exxon and Chevron. And deal flow continues to drive the markets as well.
In Europe, stocks are searching for direction. Take a look. We see the FT 100 down a fraction, but the CAC Quarante in Paris up a fraction.
In Asia overnight, mix performances as well as you there. The Nikkei average in Japan, best performer, up two thirds of 1 percent.