[laughter] maria: he was running for 45 minutes there and finally the new jersey transit alerted commuters and said so on x writing rail services subject to up to 45-minute delays between newark penn and new york due to police activity near newark penn station. michael lee, joe borelli, great to have you both this morning. let's point out this is about 30 minutes before the opening bell, and markets have reversed course. we've been talking about a rally, and now the dow industrials have just gone into negativity territory. final word, michael. >> yeah, look, i think the market continues toal rally into year end and probably into the beginning of next year. a lot of momentum going behind this, going to take something big to derail it. maria: okay. michael, joe, great to be with you. "varney & company" is up next. christie: stu, take it away. of. stuart: good morning, everyone. can you say rally?

stocks up six days in a row, the s&p up seven weeks in a row. you can call it a santa claus rally, a year-end rally, i don't care. if you're in stocks, you're making some money. and the rally, up until about an hour ago, continued this morning. unfortunately, we've had a bit of a turn around. the dow down a mere 20 points, dead flat on the s&p, but the nasdaq up another 36 points. interest rates have come down a lot this week, and that has clearly helped stocks. look at this, the yield on the 10-year treasury, 3.95. just a couple of minutes ago it was 3.91. and the 2-year treasury, 4.44 as we speak. that yield up a little bit but still way down from where it was a couple weeks ago. bitcoin holding on at $422 -- 42,000. 432,2 at this -- 42,2 at this moment. look at gas. i always like to focus on this because it keeps on gradually coming down. you're off 2 cents overnight. the national average for regular, $3.08. and look at this, 27 states now

have gas below $3 a gallon. diesel down another 2 cents overnight, $4.04. all right, politics. another bad week for the president. he's upset at the charges against hunter and the impeachment inquiry. he's reportedly snapping at his aides who try to avoid the summit. it's a good week for -- the subject. it's a good week for donald trump. a new poll shows he leads biden in head to head matchups in seven swing states. if those numbers hold up and trump is the gop nominee, he's the president. separately, the president is at odds with his vice president, kamala harris. he wants a tougher stand on israel. the white house deny cans there's any attention. stellar reporting by fox business' hillary vaughn. she reveals ten ieds have been found on the mention pecan side of the border -- mexican side of the border. our border patrol issued a warning about a them coming onto this side of the border. on the show today, melania trump will speak to newly-mustn'ted --

newly-mintedded american citizens. she is an immigrant herself. friday, december 15th, 2023. we'd like to wish happy hanukkah to all our viewers who celebrate the festival of lights. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ just having so much fun ♪ stuart: now, i think this is acceptable christmas music. yes. it's not what i would call christian music, but nonetheless, it's okay. ed sheeran and elton john. >> british and british. lauren: kind of like you. stuart: i happen to be an american. i'm going to start this morning on a positive note. we're off to a good start. let's start the morning with the rally because, okay, maybe tapering off a little bit this morning, but it's been just a great november and a pretty good

december too. kenny polcari with me now. is this a year-end melt-up, kenny? [laughter] >> well, it certainly feels like it. we've just gone up and up and up and up. look at the chart. it just goes straight up. it's not even an inch of a pullback, although we may start to get that as we kind of over the next couple of days because, look, at some point it's got to breathe. we were positive this morning, the dow was up nearly 100 points, we've swung negative, and i wouldn't be surprised to see us pull back. yes, i continue to think we will move higher, i remain bullish on the market, but i'm not surprised to see us pull bam. in fact, or i want to see us pull back a little bit. sphiewr stuart not a huge one or one that lasts. of a lot of us who are in the market, we've made some good market in 2023. set us at our ease. i don't want to see a big selloff anytime soon. can you reassure us? >> well, when you say a big

selloff, let's define it. are you talking about a 25-30% selloff? if yeah, i don't see that coming. stuart: no. 10, 15% down and it stays down. >> i'd like to see an # 8-10% move if lower and let it churn there for a little bit, catch up with itself because right now the market and investors are pricing everything in to perfection as if nothing could go wrong, right? double-digit earth in -- in earning, no recession, the economy is robust, we're going to cut rates, everything is great. and that's where i think you have to be a little bit course -- cautious. doesn't mean light your hair on fire, it just means understand it. yes, i would like to see it go 8-10% lower, churn and move higher again. stuart: okay. if that's your outlook, we'll stay with us. kenny polcari, have a great weekend. and, by the way, you sent some pizza to our folks here, and we appreciate that. [laughter] stuart: this is a message to all our other guests, we take pizza. send food. [laughter]

thanks, kenny. the white house is trying to brush off the biden impeachment inquiry. watch this. >> you know, what we're seeing from house republicans is a waste of time, and it is certainly, you know, baseless political stunt. house are republicans are leaving this week to go, you know, enjoy a nice holiday, right, as most americans should. there is no evidence9 that the president has done wrong doing. there's none, absolutely none. you've heard it from republicans themselves. so they are wasting their time instead of doing the work on behalf of the american people. they go after the president's family. that's, but that's a waste of time. stuart: well, well, well, lawrence jones join us this morning. he's at a diner in fort myers, florida, an area that i know very well. all right, lawrence, do diners there think impeachment is a waste of time? >> reporter: well, i think, stu, you've got to take it in

two baskets. i mean, if you ask the folks that are in the diner do you feel like joe biden is doing a good job, border, crime, economics, they already don't like him from that perspective. but impeachment is much different. it's about the corruption of the president, the link to his son, taking payments that when he wasn't doing any work because we know that from the filing from the special counsel. he was with prostitutes, wasn't paying his child support, was a deadbeat dad and doing drugs. so, and part of the reason why he was able to collect this money that he wasn't qualified before was because there was access to the then-vice president of the united states. he never had any experience, and he never did any work. so i think when you ask people here about that, they feel like there's a two-tiered justice system. stuart: in that dine or are they mostly -- diner, are they mostly trump people? >> reporter: yeah, they are. so it's interesting, i'm talking to these folks, and they love

their governor. they like ron desantis. they think he's done a tremendous job. but they just feel like trump is their guy on the federal level. they say they'll eventually support ron desantis one day, but right now the majority of people here are trump people. and there are some people that are kind of annoyed because they said desantis ran for governor and now he's already running for president, he just won re-election. i mean, that's reflective of the national policy as well as the state polls in florida. donald trump is winning by a lo- stuart: yes, he is. he is, indeed. lauren, i i want you -- lawrence, i want you to go south to names, the greatest city in florida. we'll see you next week, lawrence. >> reporter: i know someone that may have a pot if there, stu. stuart: yeah, it's a fine place. >> maybe he'll invite me over for a drink or two. stuart: if you're not careful, i will. >> reporter: thanks, brother.

stuart: new polling shows trump is leading biden in seven key swing statements. todd piro with me. the white house must be scrambling when they see numbers and polls like that. >> two things. one, where's my naples invite? two, you're exactly right about the white house. and why is this so def con five, right in here's why. if the polls said biden was losing in one to two states, three states, he would lose the election. seven states? that is on pace to be a landslide. now, i understand it's polls # 11 months out, and i respect that, and i understand polls change throughout the course of time. but if he loses all seven of those states, this could be, like, a mondale landslide, and that's a big deal for the white house. i think you asked lawrence a great question. i know a lot of people who a year ago a were just, like, ron desantis is getting my vote. a lot of those people are now back in the trump camp. of that's on the republican side. and on the democrat side, joe biden has not gained people in

the last year. he's lo a lot of people. -- lost a lot of people. that's why you see trump winning in the swing states. that's not saying what a he's doing in all the red statements where he's obliterating people. stuart: that's right. president biden, he's reportedly anxious and angry over his son's legal troubleses. "politico" say he's been snapping at aides when he suggested -- they suggest hunter could be a political liability. the white house is not a happy place. >> understandable. but i've "a problem with the report, okay? if your kid was in legal trouble, you would feel all those same emotions, right? so in the act of reporting, it's almost like the mainstream media, "politico," is trying to garner sympathy for the president. should we tone down our coverage of hunter? shuled we not be doing these informations? concern investigations? and the answer is absolutely not. the charges on both sides, the charges being leveled against hunter and the potential connections to joe biden are severe.

they're existential for our country, and we can't let his feelings and anybody's feelings get in the way of that. stuart: so let's move on to a natural follow-up question, lauren. will biden's impeachment vote hurt his campaign? lauren: not financially. the campaign is actually fund raising off of this successfully. there's a report that the vice president sent an e-mail attacking house republicans for voting to authorize that impeachment inquiry. he called them bad actors trying to destroy the record that she and joe biden have built. and it is believed that that fund raising e-mail, that pitch was the most successful yet. so now you have the democrats capitalizing on these political tbreerches cans similar to the way the trump campaign has also. this is how much money biden and the dnc have raked in. this is the third quarter, $71 million, that is a lot, and expect fourth quarter is looking to be almost as much. he did e that 15 million blitz through boston and los angeles

just a few days ago. stuart: so he's raising money on it. lauren: yeah. stuart: he'll need it. >> no matter what the policies are, you may think the republicans have the best policies, democrats are always going to be better at the fund raising and running the elections. republicans need to account for that. it's going to happen next year, republicans need to account for it. toure stouter message rereceived. border patrol warns agents to be on the lookout for explosive devices. the mexican military seized ten improvised explosive devices, ieds, at the border after a cartel gunfight. we have details on that. president biden and vice president harris reportedly at odds over the israel-hamas war. i'm not surprised. we have the report, we have the details next. ♪ ♪

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stuart: there is a rift in the white house over israel. vice president harris reportedly calling on president biden to be more sympathetic towards palestinians. jacqui heinrich's with me now. has the white house responded to this report? >> reporter: they have, stuart. officials here deny that there is any daylight between biden and harris on israel's mission to eradicate hamas, and moreover, they say if she was not offering advice to the president, that that would be a bigger story. but the news of this private push from the vp for biden and others in the administration to show more public concern for palestinians comes as the white house is also denying that national security adviser jake sullivan told israel they need

to end their high intensity kinetic campaign in gaza within weeks not months. officials here told me that that that's not true. sullivan attached no timeline to these discussions, and broadly, the u.s. has not been giving directions the israel, but asking questions and offering advice. sullivan said this morning the u.s. does expect a lower intensity phase will come in the future, and the u.s. is deeply involved in the discussion about the timing and conditions. >> what i heard the minister go on to say was with that the fight against hamas is going to take months and, of course, we agree with that. but there will be a transition to another phase of this war, one that is focused in more precise ways on targeting the leadership, on intelligence-driven operations that continues to deal with the ongoing threat that hamas poses. >> reporter: republican critics sounded off. >> this is pinball diplomacy. they just bounce from one bumper to the next depending on how the

polls look. we're confusing the situation. to go in and call for a timeline, to actually be dictating in the media when things would end, when they would not, to telegraph that to hamas, the enemy of israel? >> reporter: nikki haley also slammed the president saying, quote, this is why none of our enemies fear us, because they see what biden's done. either you're a friend or you're not. earlier this week though the president put it in his own words. >> reporter: do you want israel to scale back its assault on gaza? do you want them to tone it down, move to a lower intensingty phase? >> [inaudible] focused on how to save civilian lives. [inaudible] >> reporter: there was a lot of reaction this week to biden's comments at a campaign fundraiser saying that israel is losing international support over what he called indiscriminate bombing of gaza. stuart? stuart: that didn't help. congresswoman cath ca mack --

kat cammack joins me now. will the democrat split affect if our policy towards israel? >> well, good to see you, stu. and naples, the greatest city in florida? come on, stu -- [laughter] we've got to get you up to ocala, gainesville, you not to come up to the northern part of the state. we'll take care of you. [laughter] with regard to the report coming out of the white house, you know, or it's no surprise, honestly. we know this is an administration that a will literally, you know, put their finger up and see which way the wind is blowing. and in this case, they are driven by their political agenda. their base is leaving them in droves. this is just another example of where they have zero principles or loyalties when it comes to our national policy. so i am not at all surprised that there is a rift. we've seen the photos and the reports of white house staff that will go out and protest in front of the very building that they work in. and call for ceasefires. there is going to, certainly, be more of this reporting coming

out because as we know, anything that vice president harris touches turns to crap, and we can see that through her work as border czar which is a total disaster and now a.i., god help us all. stuart: tell us how you really think, kat, don't hold back here. let me move on. i want to talk about cop28. the administration agreed to ban coal, crack down on methane and pledge $3 billion taxpayer dollars to a u.n. environmental fund. are e moneys onboard -- are republicans onboard with all of this, and if you're not, can you stop it? >> you know, or stu, i serve on the energy and commerce committee in congress, and i can tell you we had a strong showing there the at cop28 pushing back against this ridiculous narrative that if you throw money at a problem, that it will go away. never mind the fact that china is the largest i mitter of co2 emissions in the world with no plans of stopping. we have got to step back from this ridiculous notion of so-called green technology which

has been proven to be a bigger emitter or of c co2 emissions in the production of the technology. long term it is not sustainable, has to be replaced at a more frequent rate. and so people who are really seeing the science for what it is, looking at the data, they're saying there's a way for us to be more efficient and and recognize that money at the problem is not going to solve it. take no further look than the ridiculous civilian climate corps that was part of aoc's green new deal initiative that biden's been pushing. billions of dollars for a propaganda team to talk about how we need to be better at things like getting rid of our gas stoves and and driving everything e vs which no one wants to buy. it's ridiculous. so we have a plan to be more -- but it has to make economic sense as well. stuart: kat cammack, enjoy the sunshine of northern there'll -- florida. see you soon. >> merry christmas to you. stuart: there is a bipartisan boost to -- push to boost our

production of green energy. what's this about? they're trying to counter china? what's that mean? >> it'sal about countering china on rare earth minerals. stuart: oh, that's it. >> two senators introducing legislation to fort tie if -- fortify the production of supplies vital for between energy, taking it away from china. it's called the rare earth magnet production tax credit act. we need to shore up the domestic supply chain for these rare earth magnets, key components for things like electric vehicles, computers and cell phones. here are the numbers, are you ready? stuart: i'm ready. >> 4% of the -- 14% of the world's rare earth minerals were mined in the u.s. last year, 700% in china -- 70%. corps or tez masto saying need to power our defense systems and drive our clean energy can economy.

the fact of the matter is they are here and they're also, these rare earth minerals are needed for the defense aspects of it. so they've got to make sure china doesn't have that kind of percentage, because they can handcuff us, hold us hostage. stuart: todd, thanks very much, indeed. the dow turned around, only just. up 1 point. look at the nasdaq, 57 points to the upside. the opening bell is next.

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stuart: well, well, well, we've got the dow down 30, the nasdaq up 38, and mark mahaney with us. we always look forward to this, mark, because so far you've done a lot of good for me. delivery apps. you say there's some good opportunities in delivery companies. why are the tons in -- opportunities in delivery companies? >> welsh i'm talking about names like uber, lyft and doordash. so there's actually a mixture of delivery and mobility names. these stocks have actually done very well, you and i have talked about uber many times. dash has been a good performer too, that's doordash, and lyft has started to come up. we've had a financial year for growth stocks, tech stocks. you know, or we were right to get, lean into the end of last

year. i now want to get a little bit more cautious, and i want to really stick with kind of the best quality assets out there. i want a free cash flow to go into next year, and i think uber gives you that. uber remains one of our top picks. we still keep our $75 price target. it's not dramatic upside, it's about 20, 25%, and that's okay. i just don't think you're going to get these 70% returns, at least not next year you're not going to get a 70% return on a name. but free cash flow companies buying back the stock, you can say stay with uber. stuart: you did recommend uber several weeks ago. it was in the low 40, and now it's in the mid 60s. do you think, i mean, can it go much higher than this? >> yeah, it can. but, you know, i want to, you know, the setup here is we had a dramatically positive setup because sentiment was so negative going into '23. now the spirits are alive and well on wall street going into next year for a lot of good reasons. inflation seems to be coming

down pretty aggressively. enter rates are coming down, good for long-duration assets, tech stocks, but the market the starting to bid up some of the kind of second and third tier assets. i think that trade probably works for, you know, a quarter or manager like that. i'm not sure it works for the year, so i want to be, kind of now get back to kind of the core best long-term tech assets. i think amazon's in there, uber 's and and meta are in there, and i'm find holding that hand. stuart: shall i sell my microsoft? >> you know, i don't cover microsoft, so i'll -- i just wan to be careful here. we've had a phenomenal year. tech stocks is one of the best rallies we've seen in a decade. that doesn't repeat going into next year, so let's just cool our jets a little bit and stick with good value companies. stuart: see, now you've got me worried, mark mahaney. have a great weekend, nonetheless are. >> you too, stu. stuart: the dow has opened sharply finish not sharply, down about 100 points. lauren: it's up 1,000 points

this week. stuart: that's rejecting that piece of information right there. [laughter] i'll stay quiet from here on out. the dow is now down 85 points, but it has, indeed, gained a thousand points this week, lest we forget. thank you very much, indeed. [laughter] one-third are up, two-thirds are down. a rather mixed market. the s&p 500, am i okay to say that that is a modest loss, down a quarter with percent? is that okay? lauren: i approve. stuart: thank you. the nasdaq composite, show me, please. that is down -- no, it's up. .117 # %. -- .17. do you happen to know how many points this week? lauren: 41% this year. stuart: that's a rally. >> i can weigh in and say it's up 23 points right now. tooth and you're accurate too. [laughter] all right, we're having fun. show me big tech. microsoft is up. thank you very much, indeed, 367. amazon, 148. but alphabet, apple and meta are down. let's start with intel, individual stocks.

are they -- they're trying to keep pace with nvidia. lauren: oh, yeah. stuart: looks like they're doing okay, up 2%. lauren: they've got a new, powerful a.i. chip, we've been mentioning the names of chips because they're so popular. it is a direct competitor to nvidia's h-100 and amd. that's not all. the ceo unveiled the core ultra the chip. that is the chip for the a.i. pc. the a.i. laptop and computer will be the talk of 2024. stuart: i'm dying to see that, actually. lauren: talking to our computers. to this, do that. stuart: six or seven weeks ago we were saying let's buy intel, and i didn't buy it -- lauren: you missed the 7-week runup in the -- >> to be clear, this is no relation to trey gowdy. stuart: no, it is not. costco reported earnings. the stock's up 2%, but hold on on to they still have the $1.50

hot dog? lauren: yes, and that is exactly why the customer come. i'm not joking. the food while you're there and the cheaper -- stuart: i eat lunch at costco on a regular basis. lauren: customers are paying for this. if you look at paid membership, up almost 8%, okay, in the quarter, most people are saying it's worth that 60 plus a year to be able to get these deals. jpmorgan calls their customer base fiercely loyal, and they are appealing to gen-z. they're selling hoodies, gen-z loves hoodies. they say costco on them and other such clothing. special cash dividend of $15 a share. stuart: whoa! >> 15 -- lauren: yes, $15. stuart stawt you saved the baas for last. lauren: well, you wanted to start with the hot dog. should i have said, well, there's also a special cash

dividend? stuart: one week from today i'll be at the costco in naples, and that's no lie. paypal. lauren: the former ceo, dan shulman, will leave the board on december 3 # #st, but he was supposed to depart next spring. that's a loss for paypal. he led e when it separated from ebay, the ceo from 20215 to this year, essentially, a couple months ago. stuart: not that big an impact, down a half percent. we talked about shein. lauren: correct. stuart: cheap clothing online retailer, got it. comes from china. could they go public soon and, if so, are they a threat to amazon? lauren: 100% on both. and if that is why amazon is speeding up its delivery speed here in the u.s. where it has the infrastructure and shein doesn't yet. and in china, amazon is setting up this innovation center, a major hub in the silicon valley

of china, shenzhen. so this is fresh fresh ea pile to chinese-based sellers which, quite honestly, bring in tens of billions of dollars a year. but they also increasingly sell on shein. so shein did file if paperwork to ipo here in the u.s. as early as 2024. how -- i mean, i've been on this app. it's beloved for its discounts. how do they get ethos prices so cheap? -- those prices so cheap in the secret sauce is they have about 55,000 plus -- 5,000 plus manufacturers, and they're all a tasked with doing one small order. make 100 of this, 200 of this, that's it. so there's the never any inventory. they make it, they sell it just like that. but because there's over 5,000 factories that are working for them, it's very difficult to police things like forced labor, for instance. so that's what we're dealing with when we're talking about shein and ip oing here in the

u.s. stuart: serious competition. talk to me about pfizer. they've had a rotten week. lauren: this is just about the lowest level in a decade, 26.13 would be. this was a company that was revered for the covid vaccine, what, just two years ago. they're laying off workers. they're i trying to buy growth, hence, trying to acquire a cancer company, seagen. they discontinued their obesity pill, tried to get into that market. that didn't work for them. stock's up a little bit because they're paying a 42-cent dividend in march. stuart: okay. they've hit -- i'm not going to say rock bottom, a 10-year low. that's kind of a bottom, if you ask me. lennar, they couldn't have done that well because they're down if % 3%. lauren:s. lauren: actually, they did great. they delivered 19% more homes, but they had to incentivize the buyers. and all those incentives pushed down their gross margins.

if you look at the average selling price, it went down by 4242,000 -- 432,000 in the past year with -- 42,000. so the average price went down. stuart: they build the houses, they can't sell them for those kind of prices, stock goes down. tractor supply, i know they got a downgrade. lauren: your perfect day would be costco followed by tractor supply. stuart: absolutely. yes. lauren: sorry, they were cut to sell -- stuart: with lunch at mcdonald's -- >> you have to have your hot dog at costco, come on. [laughter] lauren: bank of america cut them to underperform. they say demand and pricing challenges are pressure their earnings, but -- pressuring their earnings. but this is a problem in the farm and ranch industry. when you go into tractor supply, met me know if they're -- let me know if they're selling more cleaning products or more staples? because they're pivoting to that kind of thing. stuart: i don't usually ask about those kinds of things, i but next time i will.

lauren: i've never been in a tractor supply. stuart: oh, you don't know what a you're missing. lauren: do they sell carharts? stuart: yes, they do. a the audience doesn't know what carhart is -- lauren: yes, they do. stuart: the producers are telling me to move on now. [laughter] take a look at this. see that? they are anchors created by artificial intelligence. they could be on a tv screen near you starting next year. i don't know how i feel about that, to be honest -- lauren: they have perfect hair. stuart: we also want to know would you watch news from an a. i. anchor? e-mail us at varney viewers@fox.com -- >> after this first 37 minutes? [laughter] stuart: mortgage rates below 7%, and the stock market has rallied so people can buy cash if they made a lot of money on wall street. real estate guy mitch roschelle is here, he's next. ♪ i'men on my way, i'm on my wa-

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-hey there. -hey. -hi. hey there. how are you? i'm with disabled american veterans. i was wondering if you had a quick minute to thank america's veterans for their service and sacrifices -of course, why not? -oh, sure. -absolutely. -sure. all right. well, come on in here. i'm just going to hit record on this. i would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. i can't even think of the words to say of how grateful i am. i want to tell you guys how much, how much we appreciate.

but most importantly, i want to thank you for your courage and bravery. wow. thank you. someone here who'd like to say something to you? oh god, you guys are awesome! someone has something they want to say to you. oh my goodness! how's it going? awe! so i will let you know how much appreciate it. how much we appreciate it! just feel honored, for everything you've done. thank you for myself, thank you for everybody. i get to live every day, you know, in peace because of you. a lot of people thank us, but we want to take the time to thank you, honestly, for giving back. and when you gave to dav, you are supporting veterans like dave and myself. so thank you so much. thank you, you guys are amazing. thank you. thank you. you can say thank you to our nation's heroes,

by calling the number on your screen right now, and giving your monthly support of only $19. say thank you by going to helpdav.org right now, and give just $19 a month. when you do, we will send you this dav blanket as a thank you and a reminder that you support those who serve please call or go online to helpdav.org right now. your support says thank you to our nation's disabled american veterans (sfx: stone wheel crafting) ♪ the biggest ideas inspire new ones. 30 years ago, state street created an etf that inspired the world to invest differently. it still does. what can you do with spy? ♪

♪ stuart: you can feel this, monthly mortgage payments have soared under biden's presidency. you're going to tell us by how much. >> double. that's not good. he's only been president for three years. data from real estate investment firm cbre shows average payments on a new home soared to about $3,322 in the third quarter of this year marking a staggering 90% increase since late 2020 when it hovered at just $1,746 before joe biden took office. this is key, this example if uses a $430,000 home with a 30-year mortgage and a 10% down payment. we're not talking a million dollar home here we are talking the average a american home.

that is really bad for the average american. stuart: got that right. thanks, todd. real estate guy mitch roschelle joins me now. i see two maybe positives for the housing market; mortgage rates below 7%, the stock market's rallied so some people can buy cash for their homes. is there a glimmer or of hope for real estate now? >> oh, stuart, it's the holiday season, there's always a glimmer of hope. i would say this, and i said it on your program, i think, the last time i was on with you, if interest rates come down, beware. there's going to be a housing boom because there are so many people waiting on the sidelines. and i do think we're going to see mortgage rates come down subpoenaingly in 2024. so i think it's more than just holiday hope. i think we're going to see things happening again in housing. the problem is demand still exceeds supply, so if people sort of come, you know, out of their a homes looking for if new ones, we could see prices go up.

stuart: but interest rates down means home prices may actually start going up again next year. is that possible? >> right. and i think goldman sachs said the same thing. they said modest, and i think it could be more than modest. the other thing the i just want to attack is this stock market rally that's going on and sort of that fueling some, you know, enthusiasm about housing. i would say the house that todd referred to, the arm american home -- average a american home, that first-time buyer generally doesn't have money in the market. i would say they generally don't. but when you have a wealth effect from other investments, again, it's one of those things that fuels sort of enthusiasm and people taking that risk and buying that asset. so i have a feeling we're going to see, you know, not a stampede, but we're going to see people come out of the woodwork. if rates stay in the 70s, it's

still going to be out of reach for many, but if for some reason rates fell into the 60s, i think it's going -- 6s, i think it's going to be back to the future with the housing boom. stuart: this applies to the high-end stuff, dun it? a lot of high-end people have market.ry well in the stoc they've borrowed the money against their securities, against their stock holdings and buy like that, full cash. we saw a lot of that in -- a couple years ago. you think we're going to get back to that now? >> you mean besides you and i that did that? stuart: yes, besides you and i. [laughter] >> exactly. the problem is those rates that the brokerage firms are charging are now up to 8% for those portfolio lopes, and i -- loans, and i have not seen them come down. so we would have to see those portfolio loans, the loans when you borrow against your stock portfolio as opposed to selling a stock and paying gain cans on the sale -- gains on the sale,

we would have to see those loans come down dramatically. but if the prices hold in the market and the rallies continue, i would see the ubs, the morgan stanleys, merle lynches starting to offer those loans again. stuart: i bet they do. mitch roschelle, have a great weekend. see you again soon. lauren, here's a statement for you, rents are finally falling in manhattan. however, not by much. lauren: no, by very little. i guess you've got to chair what you can get. in manhattan the median price e to rent an apartment per month, $4,000. that's a 2.3% des crease from the same time last year according to douglas element. cheering in quotes, because it's actually the first yearly drop in more than two years. it doesn't mean things are going to continue to go down. it could, we don't know, but i can tell you there are still bidding wars. what are they for? studio apartments, the cheaper apartments. people willing to pay more up front to get a deal, right?

cheaper rent throughout the contract, throughout the lease. and more landlords are actually getting more than the asking price for the apartment. stuart: o.k.. todd, lower rates in manhattan, is it enough to bringing the city back to life? >> no. not with these numbers. we're talking a minuscule dip. and i think lauren really explained the nuts and bolts of what the numbers mean and how we get there. look, if you need to be in the city and you're young and you don't care as much about the crime and you're not as aware of what's going on, like, i don't think you care. you want to be here for the single life. somebody like me, i have two kids and a wife, i'm not coming back to the city forever. they could give the apartment for free, i'm not coming. i don't think that's the answer. stuart: i just don't want to pay the city taxes. you pay an extra city tax to live in new york city. why should i pay that? thanks, todd. coming up, another bad week for president biden, another good week for donald trump. we've been saying this every friday for weeks, the contest has really shifted. that's my take top of the hour.

retail sales came in strong, but shoppers are still looking for a bargain, and they're skipping -- so we are told -- big ticket pricing items. we have a report on that after after this. ♪ ♪

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start for free at godaddy.com i'm a little anxious, i'm a little excited. i'm gonna be emotional, she's gonna be emotional, but it's gonna be so worth it. i love that i can give back to one of our customers. i hope you enjoy these amazing gifts. oh my goodness.

oh, you guys. i know you like wrestling, so we got you some vip tickets. you have made an impact. so have you. for you guys to be out here doing something like this, it restores a lot of faith in humanity.

stuart: we are told that shoppers are not shelling out for pricey gifts in this holiday season. that's compared to previous years. madison alworth with us now. why are high-end items not selling? >> reporter: stuart, or they're not if selling because people are not willing to pay the price tag for luxury. shoppers, they're still spending, but they're looking for deals. so talking a look at retail sales, we did see those increase by 0.3% last month. that surprised economists that expected them to fall. a lot of that spending though is going on credit cards. credit card debt has soared to $11.3 trillion -- 1.3 trillion nationally, that is the highest it has ever bench and what we --

ever been. and what we find is when people are swiping on those cards, they're not using them at luxury stores. barclays shows that spending on luxury goods was down 15% in november year-over-year. analysts tell us they haven't seen a pullback like this in over 5 years. and -- 15 years. and it's not just the lack of american shoppers going into these stores that are giving the luxury stores this trouble. >> and what's normally offset when customer counts are light across america is that there's big luxury shopping contingent from russia which isn't here this year, big contingent from the middle east. for obvious reasons, not here this year. >> reporter: the struggling sales does mean that there is an excess of inventory, so this time of year across all retail you should really see balanced inventory. but what we're seeing is 10-15%

excess. so if you have been done your christmas shopping, that could be good news. there should be really good sales next week for those of you who still need to get last minute if gifts. stu? stuart: so procrastinate, you can get the bargain. >> reporter: there you go. [laughter] stuart: madison, thanks very much, indeed. todd piro, you've done your christmas shopping, guaranteed. >> nope. stuart, i'm a man. we'll just leave the answer at that. are you kidding me? stuart: are you allowed to say something like that? >> that i'm a man? i technically am according to the biology and parts finish. stuart: when i said the following, there was an uproar. women shop, men buy. is that sexist? >> you should get in trouble. i literally just said i don't buy things, my wife handles all that and asks me opinions. ultimately, he's the ceo of the household. i am merely an assistant the manager. the kids have more rank other me. lauren: oh, boy. stuart: you've been very feisty this morning. women shop, men buy.

will you disagree with that? lauren: i agree. for the most part with exceptions. stuart: excellent. still ahead -- [laughter] >> is this the last time i'm going to be allowed op your show following the "fox & friends" holiday party? stuart: if you're not careful. a new poll found republican voters like trump because he won't compromise. tammy bruce on that. -- bruce on that. did hunter biden's stump open up a new avenue for president biden's impeachment? i'm not sure what jimmy failla says about that, but i'm sure he won't agree with him. new york students say a cell phone ban helped improve their mental health. steve hilton doesn't even have a smartphone, but he's later on the show. 10:00 hour's next. ♪ angels we have heard on high sweetly singing work -- over the plains ♪

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