MARIA-02
Released; $4 Billion IPO Plan for Snapchat; Race Tightens; Twitter Tops
Estimates; Moore: Why Trump Will Win; Trump And Blue-Collar Voters; World
Series Game 2 - Part 1>
Politics; Labor; Elections; Polls; IOP; Stock Markets; Donald Trump;
Sports; Economy>
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Listening to Donald Trump's campaign I truly doubt that he has ever read the constitution. Or if he did back in school he certainly doesn't remember it and he doesn't understand.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She makes a speech for 15 minutes. She goes home and goes to bed. Honestly, she has less energy than Jeb Bush.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN: Plus, a Michael Moore video goes viral. How this new anti-Trump documentary is actually rallying Trump supporters. It looks like it is for Trump.
The Defense Department finally taking action over making soldiers pay back reenlistment bonuses. But what will be done with the millions already returned? We will tell you -- coming up.
And Twitter set to report earnings momentarily. Investors are waiting for an update on the cost-cutting plan. What happens if there is in fact no bidder and take over of this company? Right now the stock is looking higher.
And the deal of the day on Wall Street -- Qualcomm acquires NXP Semiconductors in a deal that values NXP at $47 billion. NXP shares up better than 2 percent on the news right now. We will likely see that part of the market, semiconductor companies, trade up.
Broader markets looking like this. We have some volatility earlier but now we're at the highs of the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average expected to open up about 25 points today. Nasdaq, S&P 500 also in positive territory.
In Europe, stocks are trading very much near the flat line, not too far from where they ended yesterday. Some good news out of the U.K. -- the economy grew at a faster rate than expected. You have the first GDP reading there since the vote to exit the European Union. And it was better than expected; nonetheless, the market there, fractionally lower this morning.
In Asia, markets mostly lower. Disappointing economic data overnight out of China -- that weighed on markets. The Shanghai Composite in China down a fraction.
Arby's expanding beyond roast beef -- the chain now rolling out a venison sandwich. We will tell you where you can find that and bring you the details.
All those stories coming up this morning. And joining me to talk about it: Fox Business Network's Dagen McDowell; Recon Capital chief investment officer Kevin Kelly; and National Review reporter and Fox News contributor Kat Timpf.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FBN HOST: Those American giant sweatshirts -- I'm an owner.
BARTIROMO: You love it.
MCDOWELL: A proud owner. They are exquisitely made sweatshirts and they rock my world.
BARTIROMO: Wow.
KATHERINE TIMPF, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Originally made --
MCDOWELL: They're just -- it's just so great -- it's just one of those things you buy -- you're like, man, that's a great sweatshirt.
KEVIN KELLY, RECON CAPITAL, CIO: I don't know. I mean he could've brought some for us to wear. I could use one.
MCDOWELL: Maybe you need to go buy one.
KELLY: OK.
BARTIROMO: You made the right point. A hoody company and --
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: -- I thought he would be rocking it out.
We have breaking news on Ford just coming out in the tape, you guys. Ford Motors reporting on earnings moments ago. The auto maker reported revenue of $33.3 billion with an adjusted earnings of 26 cents a share -- that was above expectations.
Joining me right now is Ford CEO Mark Fields in a "First on Fox Business Interview". Mark -- good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.
MARK FIELDS, FORD MOTORS CEO: Good to see you.
BARTIROMO: Can you characterize the quarter for us. What were the highlights?
FIELDS: Well, the highlights for the quarter, we earned pre-tax of $1.4 billion. It was down from last year but it was as expected. In North America we had some unique items. We were launching our super duty. We had a large recall that we announced during the quarter on a door latch. And we had some F-150 stock changes because of the launch that we had the previous year.
But importantly we had improved -- significantly improve the earnings in Europe, record earnings in Asia Pacific and another strong quarter from our Ford credit operations.
BARTIROMO: Yes. Let me ask you about some of the items in the quarter. I want to ask you about credit. But first the production because we know that you have already announced trimming production in North America. I made a concern about cooling demand. What can you tell us in terms of demand out there and where the production stands, particularly with the Ford F-150?
FIELDS: Well, when you look at the overall market. The overall market -- car industry market still is relatively strong. But we are seeing some weakness in the retail end of the market. We did take some production adjustments during the quarter and that's very consistent with our strategy of matching production to demand.
And in terms of our F series, our F series demand is still very strong. We saw a number of our competitors get very aggressive during the quarter in terms of incentives. But our share in that segment is actually up year- over-year and we spend the least of all the major automakers in terms of incentives. So that brand and those sales are quite strong on our F series.
BARTIROMO: And you were among the first quarters ago -- several quarters ago to talk to the market about how things were looking weaker to you. Have things changed on terms of the broad demand story out there -- Mark? Can you go through the U.S., Europe -- what you're seeing throughout the world in terms of how it feels to you?
FIELDS: Well, it hasn't changed much since what we signaled in our second quarter earnings goal. In the U.S. here, again, the labor market still is growing. The economic fundamentals are still healthy.
The overall auto industry sales level is healthy but what we are seeing is retail softening. We're seeing a tougher pricing environment. But overall we're taking -- matching our strategy. We're matching production to demand and make sure our inventories don't grow.
In Europe, we're continuing to see moderate growth across the continent there. In the U.K. we've actually seen the industry not be too impacted by Brexit; but ourselves as well as others have started to price based on the weakness of the sterling and that will impact the market going forward.
In Asia, in China particular the market is very strong, particularly as we go into the last quarter as that last quarter of what they call the purchase tax reduction is in effect. And so we think Chinese consumers can continue to come into our show rooms. Our sales have done very well there.
And in South America, it still continues to be very tough based on the economic environment there but we are seeing signs of stabilization.
BARTIROMO: All of this while you have been investing a whole lot in well, autonomous cars, in new technology. Tell us where you are in that cycle in terms of investing in these things and what that will look like. How does Ford look different two years out?
FIELDS: Well, we are making a lot of investments in what you call the emerging opportunities while at the same time making sure our core business is very strong and vibrant. We mad a couple of announcements during the quarter. We announced a shuttle company in San Francisco and we will be rolling this dynamic shuttle company out over six cities over the next 18 months.
And so our approach very simply as a company, our strategy and we talked about this on Investor Day is to strengthen -- fortify our strengths around trucks and performance vehicles and utilities but also transform the underperforming parts of our business whether it be some, you know, small vehicles or some select emerging markets and then grow in these emerging opportunities which you mentioned which is really around investments in electrification, in mobility and autonomous vehicles.
And we made the announcement during the quarter that in 2021 we will have a fully autonomous, what they call a level 4 vehicle where the driver or the passenger doesn't need to take control in the market in a ride-sharing or ride-hailing service in 2021.
BARTIROMO: That's pretty incredible. What kind of an impact is that going to have, do you think? I mean when you look at the overall earnings story, what part of it is that in two or five years out -- two to five years out?
FIELDS: Well, when you look at five years out clearly we're going to be growing these emerging opportunities as a significant part of my business. Right now it's not material because we're making those investments.
But when you think about autonomous vehicles the impact that can have from a societal stand pack (ph), from an environmental stand pack and its safety impact, we believe that the automation of the vehicle is really going to be the story over the next decade and could have just as much fundamental change on society as Henry Ford's original moving assembly line.
BARTIROMO: Yes. It's pretty extraordinary.
Mark -- let me ask you about this election now, just 12 days away. I want to ask you about Donald Trump and his plans. He says it's companies like yours manufacture in Mexico. He's going to tax any cars coming back into the U.S. Filmmaker Michael Moore says Trump will win the election because he appeals to blue-collar workers on this issue.
I want you to listen to this. This is from Michael Moore. I'll get your reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: Donald Trump came to the Detroit economic fog (ph) and stood there in front of a Ford Motor executive and said if you close these factories as you're planning to do in Detroit and build them in Mexico I'm going to put a 35 percent tariff on those cars when you send them back and nobody's going to buy them.
It was an amazing thing to see. No politician, Republican or Democrat, has ever said anything like that to these executives. And it was music to the ears of people in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: He calls those the so-called Brexit states. So were you in that meeting when Trump said all of those things, by the way, Mark?
FIELDS: No, I was not in that meeting. I was not in that meeting but, you know, our stance is pretty simple. We invest heavily in our home market here. We've created over 28,000 jobs since 2011. We employ more hourly workers than any other automaker here in the U.S. We produce more cars than any other automaker here in the U.S. And we're going to continue to invest.
At the same time we are a global company. We've been in Mexico for 90 years. Regardless, you know, what's said on the campaign trail sometimes is different than when ultimately you govern. And I think we have a proven track record as a company of working with elected officials and policy makers from whatever party they come from and we will do that whoever is elected coming out of the election.
BARTIROMO: But you also have talked just recently about moving plants to Mexico to make it more attractive. What will you do specifically if Trump wins the election? Will you change your business model? If he does put a 35 percent tariff on cars.
Well, it's a big hypothetical question. And you know, right we are running the business for the long-term. As always we look at the business environment on a continuous basis and if we see the business environment change, clearly we are going to have to understand what that means for our business.
But, you know, it's a big hypothetical. Let's get through November 8 and let's see who wins and then we will go from there.
BARTIROMO: So in other words, if we were to see Trump win and him talk about that 35 percent tariff that's something that an automaker cannot swallow? I mean who's going to buy cars if their 35 percent higher in price.
FIELDS: Well, I think overall every business has to look at the business environment and look at what's going on. And we're like every other business in that regard. So, as I said, we will see what happens after the elections and again we have a very good track record of working with whatever administration is in office at the time.
BARTIROMO: In terms of the actual production, is it that much more profitable when you do have labor outside the U.S.? Explain that to the public because this is such an emotional subject. People get angry when they hear that jobs are going to Mexico, are going to China. Can you explain to us why this is so important for companies to be able to have some workers overseas? Explain to us what is happening right now?
FIELDS: Well, first off, I just want to clarify no U.S. jobs are going overseas. We're actually -- of the vehicles that we're taking out of the plant in Michigan, we're actually putting in two new very exciting plants. So that's actually going to be good news for our workers here in the U.S.
But overall, you know, customers want a certain amount of value when they're -- paying a certain level of price depending upon the vehicle that they're producing -- or purchasing. We want to make sure as a company we're providing that right value so that we can earn a return on it.
Those profits come back to here in the U.S. where we can then reinvest in the business and make those decisions to continue to invest here like the U.S. where 80 percent of our North American investment, of capital expenditures, is right here in the U.S. and over 95 percent of our engineering is done here in the U.S.
BARTIROMO: Understood. And those jobs are actually high paying jobs when you look at engineering jobs -- certainly given your technology.
FIELDS: Exactly.
BARTIROMO: Mark -- good to see you. Thanks so much.
FIELDS: Thanks -- Maria.
BARTIROMO: We appreciate it. Mark Fields joining us there -- CEO of Ford.
Coming up -- the Pentagon ends its fight to claw back enlistment bonus from California soldiers. The new plan to resolve the controversial issue is coming up.
Plus Arby's beefs up its menu with venison. But you'll have to go hunting for it. Which states will carry the new option?
Back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back.
The Pentagon suspending its efforts to make California National Guard troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan repay those enlistment bonuses.
Cheryl Casone now with the details. Wow --
CHERYL CASONE, FBN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
BARTIROMO: Reversal here -- Cheryl.
CASONE: Big time -- Maria.
You know, Defense Secretary Ash Carter is now bowing to criticism over Pentagon efforts to claw back enlistment bonus mistakenly given to California National Guard members during the Iraq war. Carter ordered the suspension following angry reaction from the public and Congress. The "L.A. Times" first reported the Pentagon was demanding the money back from about 9,700 California Guardsmen who received the payments between 2006 and 2008. This announcement suspends all collection efforts while the Pentagon and Congress look for a long-term solution.
Well, Wal-Mart unveiling new plans for this holiday shopping season. The company -- these are the outfits actually -- the company's going to make tens of thousands of additional online items for (inaudible) or pickup and they're going to be offering these greeters in all of their 4,000 plus stores.
They've got the yellow vest, the red Santa hat. They want to make it more of a fun experience for you to go to Wal-Mart and shop at Christmas. And they've been trying to fix up the stores, as you know, to compete with Target -- Maria. So this is one of the places they're going to be doing it.
Also, these brick-and-mortar retailers, you know, they have been competing at particular Wal-Marts and Target with Amazon. So they're really hoping that this new plan is going to really bring in folks and make things more fun. They're going to have a lot more lower price items, lots more deals and they also said that all customers should expect more consistent pricing within the stores. We'll see happy people in Wal-Mart -- there you go.
OK, Arby's marking the start of deer hunting season with a venison sandwich. They're testing it in several states in deer-hunting areas; heavy deer-hunting areas -- Wisconsin, Michigan Tennessee, Georgia. The meat is going to come from free-ranged farmed deer. One location in Tennessee is going to have the venison sandwich as early as next week. The others are going to get them in November. It's also got a cranberry sauce on top of it. Details nobody needs.
OK. And then listen up all you Pokemon fans. The Pokemon Company is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first release of its Pokemon trading cards with the reissue of the very first Pikachu card. And get this -- it's made out 24-karat gold. The card used 11 grams of gold, comes complete with an acrylic display. The price tag -- $1,900 for all of you Pokemon folks.
And if you're really in the mood to buy some Pokemon merchandise, check out this. This is the watch -- the limited edition Pokemon watch. Watch maker Romain Jerome is the name behind the time. They can be yours for just a $20,000. Maria - if you want it, you're going to have to move fast -- only 20 watches are going to be made. And you could get it from Nat for Christmas be (inaudible) in the studio all the time and plays Pokemon Go.
BARTIROMO: Yes. $20,000.
MCDOWELL: Would you like me to weigh in on the venison sandwiches from Arby's.
BARTIROMO: Yes. It makes me think of my cousin Vinnie movies. Go ahead.
MCDOWELL: They're very -- venison is very lean and if it's farm-raised it probably won't be that gamey. But certainly people who are from areas of the country where they hunt frequently they would certainly opt for venison.
TIMPF: I like venison but I don't --
KELLY: From Arby's though --
TIMPF: It seems like sushi at McDonald's.
KELLY: That seems like sacrilegious to me.
MCDOWELL: If you don't eat at Arby's anyway.
TIMPF: No. That's true.
MCDOWELL: There you go.
BARTIROMO: Thank you for that.
MCDOWELL: Venison is delicious, even though I'm a vegetarian now, I would tip my hat to some deer meat at Arby's --
BARTIROMO: Cool.
MCDOWELL: -- if I still did.
Next up, Twitter releases its latest earnings amid buyout and layoff rumors. We've got the numbers here -- it's better than expected -- 13 cents a share. Actually it's 9 cents a share.
Then a singer silenced. Why the 76ers canceled their national anthem performance during last night's game.
Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back.
Twitter just reporting third quarter earnings. The company says growth is slowing. It is confirming it will cut 9 percent of its workforce. Still the numbers are better than expected and the stock is trading up.
Kevin Kelly -- your reaction overall.
KELLY: Yes. I think the important thing today on the call is the post M&A guidance and where they're really going to take this company. They have had a very hard time growing users. Jack Dorsey said it himself that this is the people news network. It's not really a social media company.
People aren't really interacting. They're just posting and looking at other people's stuff so there's not really a big user engagement. They have about 314 million users. That pales in comparison to Facebook where a lot of people are getting --
BARTIROMO: A billion a day.
KELLY: -- yes, exactly. And people are logging in daily into Facebook. They're not doing that on Twitter. So we got to see what Jack Dorsey's going to do but the problem is he's actually the CEO of another company. And that's really hard --
BARTIROMO: Square.
KELLY: Listen --
BARTIROMO: He founded both.
KELLY: Yes, you have a fiduciary obligation to your shareholders to operate in its best interest and I don't think it's a good thing that he's the head of two companies. The last thing I would like to note is that Instagram for instance has 500 million users. So we're talking about they have to find a way to turn the growth on.
And so it's not good. And you're seeing in the share price especially because people thought it would've been better in someone else's hands. That's why the stock rose --
BARTIROMO: Not just growing the business but also figuring out a way to monetize the business.
KELLY: Right.
BARTIROMO: Dagen -- I mean this is an advertising -- the sector is an advertising business but we don't see the ads on Twitter.
MCDOWELL: And nobody does advertising -- targeted advertising better, in my opinion than Instagram, which by the way is owned by -- well Facebook owns Instagram. So that flows right through to Facebook's bottom line.
But because again, the engagement that an individual has on Instagram is altogether different than the way that people interact on Twitter. Twitter -- it's hard to tell based on an individual account what someone's interests are other than --
BARTIROMO: What they're going to buy.
MCDOWELL: -- maybe politics. Or what they would buy.
BARTIROMO: In 140 characters.
MCDOWELL: I had been served ads for like men's deodorant -- things like that on Twitter.
TIMPF: With Facebook it's like are you watching me at my apartment. I mean I know they have the search history but still the ads are always out there.
KELLY: Right. And Twitter's now trying to do --
BARTIROMO: -- exactly what you're doing or what you want to do.
TIMPF: Exactly.
KELLY: Twitter is trying to transform and do the live streaming so they've done that with NFL games, they've done it with the debates and those have gone over very well so they are trying to push and grow in that area and I actually live streamed one of the debates and it came off picture-perfect. It went really well and you got to see what people were talking about in the hashtags and it was actually pretty entertaining. But it goes back to monetizing this asset and they just don't know how to do it.
BARTIROMO: Meanwhile there's Snapchat. Let's take a look at these projections; Snapchat apparently looking to raise as much as $4 billion for an IPO. According to the reports, the company is going to go public -- it means the IPO could be valued at $25 billion.
Wow. Well, good thing they said no to a $3 billion takeover a couple of years ago -- right.
KELLY: Yes.
BARTIROMO: $25 billion -- they're valuing themselves.
KELLY: And the user engagement on this is spectacular. So you're seeing - - they're generating tons of revenue and they're actually dictating terms to their content providers and people are using this multiple times a day. And this really speaks to the value. It's worth more, this valuation is worth more than Twitter.
TIMPF: Some people use it all but day. You know I found out when somebody who's already got their Snapchat on all the time -- it's actually kind of annoying. But if you're out and all the time everything they're Snapchat - -
(CROSSTALK).
KELLY: Yes, you're like can you just enjoy life.
TIMPF: Like it just gets deleted so I feel I can post whatever I want. I can just --
BARTIROMO: But millennials in particular --
TIMPF: They use it all the time.
BARTIROMO: -- use Snapchat over a lot of other things. What's your favorite?
TIMPF: I love Twitter but I mean I work in media news so I think it's a little different. But most people like Snapchat.
BARTIROMO: And Instagram.
TIMPF: A little younger like my brother, my younger brother and sister who are in their early 20s they love Snapchat and Instagram.
MCDOWELL: I love Instagram.
BARTIROMO: I do, too.
KELLY: Yes.
BARTIROMO: I'm just completely obsessed with Instagram. And really goes to my personal interest -- photography, rock 'n roll and dogs. Pretty much politics. That's my life.
KELLY: Instagram could copy the Snapchat. They copy the stories so you're seeing a lot of copying happening in Silicon Valley because those users are worth so much. And they're going to fight --
TIMPF: There are so many young people too who are like me and my friends are so money. We should have our own reality show. Like, how many times have you ever heard someone say that? Now they actually start doing that.
MCDOWELL: That's the problem with millennials. They actually get jobs and then they come to work to think the camera should be following them around.
BARTIROMO: You're right.
We'll take a short break.
Then more on the election -- I mean literally. Michael Moore, the controversial filmmaker giving his take on why Trump will win the white house in less than two weeks.
Plus the Cubs come one step closer to breaking the curse. Chicago gets their revenge against Cleveland in game two of the World Series. We'll bring it to you -- next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back and good morning. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo and it is Thursday, October 27th. Your top stories right now, 7:30am on the East Coast. Here comes Trump, new Fox News poll show that the republican nominee is gaining on Hillary Clinton. Now with just two -- less than two weeks away from election day. Both candidates hitting the campaign trail, pushing for last second votes and piece swing states.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILARRY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: At the very moment that Donald Trump was making this unprecedented attack on our democracy we'd have millions and millions of people registering to vote -- this is really exciting.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My theme today is five words: Under budget and ahead of schedule, that's what we did, so I'm on board with it. We don't hear those words to often in endabberment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIROMO: We are breaking down the top issues on voter's minds this morning. As they get ready to head to those polls in less than two weeks. Twitter earnings just hitting the wire. The company beating on both earnings and revenue. But it did confirm it plans to cut 9% of its global workforce. The stock is looking higher. Border Markets this morning, look like this. Earlier we had some real volatility in the market and we are looking at a firm positive showing right now. With the highs of the morning after we saw another deal announced. Qualcomm acquiring NXP for 47 billion dollars, that helped U.S. markets that's when we saw the markets move to the highs of the morning. In Europe, stocks are trading near the flat line. Take a look. Good news for the UK this morning, the economy grew at a faster pace than expected, they had their first GDP rating out of the UK since they voted to exit the European Union. In Asia, overnight, markets mostly lowered, disappointing economic data out of China.
That weighed on markets as you see there it's fractional moves but larger to the downside. Looking to relocate? You might want to consider the Northwest, the region among the top emerging areas for real estate but it's not number one, the top city where you may want to look to buy coming up. And the Cubs take one in Cleveland. The highlights says, "They even in the world series at one game apiece." We will bring you the detail from last night's big showing. Plus, could we soon see a Facebook Field or Snapchat Stadium? Why one Silicon Valley investor is reportedly considering a big investment in the sports world. As political pundit's looks to poll numbers as a preview of Election Day, film maker Michael Moore is looking at the people behind the numbers. His new anti-Trump documentary, "Michael Moore in Trump Land" makes the case for Hillary Clinton but explains why Trump supporters are the reason more things the Republican nominee will actually win this election. Listen to this.