>> where are we as a country? you don't have to be a fan by

donald trump to think this thing. >> they should have been cutting rates already and shouldn't have got this high. i think if it was really dirty political, it wouldn't have been so tight in 2023. part of the new surrounding bidenomics is fed created. >> people say the border is on the bridge of collapse, what border? when people are free to come across and ask to come in and get released. where's your border? >> it's snake oil. it's not the real drug. be careful. there's all the online platforms and a lot of full-times you'll see them for a day or two ask they'll be taken down. >> if by any weird happenstance the supreme court allows this to go forward, we are talking massive election interference, talking truly undermining democracy. ♪ david: mercy me. that's a nice song. i like that.

not exactly a typical holiday song, but i like it anyway. 11:00 a.m. on the east coast, wednesday december 20. i'm david asman in for stuart varney. check the markets and the dow was momentarily in the green but remember it opened down over 100 points and all the indexes were down when we opened up. now the nasdaq and the s&p are just barely in the green, but it's good enough. show me big tech and algerine on the screen and positive markings, alphabet, amazon, meta all in the green. the yield is down a bit, 2.5 basis points, just barely. the yield is 3.9% right now for the 10 year. now to a fox news alert, the trump campaign already vowing to appeal the supreme court of colorado after they disqualified donald trump from the 2024 ballot, the court claims he is ineligible to be president based on the 14th amendment's

insurrection ban. perfect time for martha maccallum on the set with us. she's visually going over her notes. bottom line, what is insurrection and even jack smith has not charged trump with insurrection and he's not been convicted of insurrection and here the supreme court of colorado is calling hip out on insurrection. where does this come from? >> i think this will be a moment that is unsettling for people regardless of your political background and whether or not you support the former president in this. there's a lot about this this just smacking a feeling, very wrong, very undemocratic and this is a seven supreme court justice panel in colorado. they were all appointed by democrat governors, which in a perfect democracy and in a good situation, that shouldn't necessarily impact the way that they look at these things but of course it smacks of a very

political decision in this one. david: by the way, we should mention three of the democrats voted against the decision. there were democrats on that court that didn't like this decision. >> they were dissenting. thank you for pointing that out. looking at place where is these kind of decisions are still pending, colorado did not vote for the former president in 2016 or in 2020. this in and of it system if you're just purely looking at political outcome impact not likely to have a huge impact but could help him and a lot. back to graphs that show acceleration and separation between desantis and trump, there was a moment in the whole process early on when desantis was beating trump in early, early poling and now there's a spike effect and likely to add to it based on what we've seen and one person's "saying people

were speaking out against it and someone said there's 91 counts and that's really bad. he shouldn't run for president. this isn't the system that we live in. those are not adjudicated yet. he's not convicted on any of them and i done know why colorado thinks they can leapfrog and make their own decision. i would also mention real quick, arizona and michigan, very key states in electing presidents of the united states, both have pending cases on this kind of issue, and also in the process south carolina and nevada so -- david: well, the united states supreme court has to get in here quickly, very quickly before any other states try to do the same thing. if you believe this is wrong, the supreme court needs to adjudicate this, the u.s. supreme court. >> what is happening because the supreme court already has this rush to decide the other issue with regard to whether or not he can face the charges as a former president for something that happened while he was president.

the supreme courts can be very busy and as much as they want to keep some at arm's length, it's very tough. david: another issue because this is somebody you've interviewed very well in the past. randi wiengarten and schoolteacher union president saying school choice undermines democracy, listen. >> they have not one thing that they offer as a solution other than privatizing or voucherrizing schools, which is about undermining democracy and undermining civil discourse and undermining pluralism because 90% of our kids go to public schools still. they just divide, divide, divide, divide. david: i thought choice and democracy go together but she's saying otherwise. >> i guess she's saying in a democracy, there's no choice but to send your kids to failing schools. that's sad. david: that's taxation without representation. >> look at programs in west virginia and florida and a lot of states where your taxpayer

money is port and will you pay so much in the taxes to support the schools; right and, these programs say send to this school or that school and they're publicly-funded schools and 90% are in charter schools and public dollars sending them to the charter schools. i don't know why she's so terrified ovchoice. david: the thing is she's standing up for her members in the union and what's on the bottom of it. >> she's not talking about students but teachers and many cases she's talking about places like baltimore and chicago where kids that are there and proficient in reading and math. crisis failure and they're not exaggeration for what's going on and she should be working hard to get her people back to

teaching and the mission it was set out to do in the first place. david: martha, see you on the story coming up this afternoon on fox news. thank you very much. check the markets and they're not all in the green but two out of three are sports grill the dow jones barely in the green momenting ago and bring in mark tepper and economist harry dense said we could have the biggest crash of our lifetime next year. what do you say to that? >> i sure hope not. look, that's a pr pretty outrags claim and good way to sell books and get clicks and even a broken clock is right twice a day. i disagree though. look, i certainly believe that heading into 20 this, there's a lot of head winds and quite a few challenges but you still want to be positioned rather pullishly yet defensively into

next year. some of the biggest issues and first things first, earnings growth expectation next year are expected to be 12 pes and that's a little high and overly ambitious and i don't know that we'll hit that. second is look at companies in s&p 500, there's about $2 trillion of debt they have to refinance between 2024 and 2025 at higher rates and eating into profits and eating into margins and that's not good for stocks and third thing, david, invest sores are cheering the possibility of a cut and in actuality they should be fear ago cut and the market draws down over 20% from that point on average and would present a pretty challenging year for us next year. david: what areas are you

rejiggering your portfolio in for these questions? >> you want to be more defensive and go through every single sector and try to identify companies with very, very strong free cash flow. they've got pricing power so they're able to raise prices faster than inflation. they don't have a lot of debt that needs to be refinanced. dividend payers have underperformed this year. i think the defending champion denned aristocrats index is up maybe 6% year-to-date david, whereas the s&p is up 26% year-to-date. i think next year those companies that are paying dividends, which more often than not have strong free cash flow and all the other metrics i mentioned. i think they're going to outperform in 2024. david: all right, you and dave bahnsen say the same thing. happy holidays. >> same to you. david: lauren, looking at fed dex. lauren: down almost 11% and taking ups with it. fedex came out for the second time and cut full year outlook

and volume is declining faster than their cost cutting. major problem is the express unit, that's expensive. shipping their largest customer looking for cheaper options out there, and their largest customer is the usps. david: general mills. lauren: cut annual sales forcast and warning of slower recovery and demand following repeated price hikes on cereal and snacks and pet food. david: weight watchers, ww. lauren: yeah, thank you, oprah. she's a celebrity shareholder coming out saying i use ozempic for my weight manage p.m. now weight watchers will start to build this business around the super popular pharmaceutical thes. they're initiating the coverage with a buy of $14 price target and the quote is this is a high risk, high reward opportunity for ww. david: wow, 7% gain, that's good. lauren, thank you very much.

iowa going to reportedly play a key role in donald trump's 2024 election plan and he wants to dominate those caucuses and then steam roll the rest of the primaries. we'll break that down for you. and the demand for lab-grown diamonds on the rise and could be because they're up to 75% cheaper than a real diamond. we've got a full report from the diamond district and the u.s. has launched a task force to take on houthi rebels in the red sea. how is iran going to respond to that? we'll ask retired navy ship captain gene morand next. ♪ as an independent financial advisor, my promise to you is simple. as a fiduciary, i promise to put your interests first, always. i promise that our relationship will go well beyond just investment decisions. it's the intersection of your money and your life where we can make the biggest difference. [announcer] charles schwab is proud

to support the independent financial advisors who are passionately dedicated to helping people achieve their financial goals. visit findyourindependentadvisor.com my husband and i have never been more active. shingles doesn't care. i go to spin classes with my coworkers. good for you, shingles doesn't care. because no matter how healthy you feel, your risk of shingles sharply increases after age 50. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. shingles doesn't care

but, shingrix protects. shingrix is now zero dollars for almost everyone. ask your doctor about shingrix today. they're waiting for you. hey, do you have a second? they're all expecting more. more efficiency. more benefits. more growth. when you realize you can give your people everything, and more. thank you very much. [applause] ask, "now what?" here's what. you go with prudential to protect, empower and grow. with everything you need to deliver, you guessed it... more. one more thing... who's your rock? learn more at prudential.com

david: houthi attacks in the red sea are now threatening our own supply chain and shippers bracing for weeks without access to the crucial trade root and edward lawrence for the white house and should we prepare for higher gas price s? reporter: we may start to be seeing it and one cent up is what happened with the price of egg unledded overnight and price of oil is up but chipping companies are not convince that had process peer indian guardian will work and they're reships around africa and round trip from china to new york city is now 90 dais instead of 50 due to the long term rerouteing of ships. with oil, natural gas and goods made overseas could have significant impact on inflation. >> we rely on highly complex large and global supply chains

and americans will be impacked but not feeling the biggest and not the soonest. where the biggest impacts will be felt are in areas of oil and gas in europe. reporter: cost of added time at sea and insurance premiums and attacks and no way to back fill inventory because of the delay. the biden administration believe this is coalition with nine others patrolling the red sea getting houthis to stop attacking ships. >> it is clear the houthis are at the very least conducted a concerted effort to go after merchant shipping in the red sea. there's international security interests that play in the region influiding let to shipping and we that i can those responsibles seriously and we'll continue to do what we can to protect them. reporter: houthi spokesperson telling the news outlet that it doesn't matter who's patrolling

the red sea, they'll continue their attacks. david. david: edward, thank you very much. retired navy ship captain and national security expert gene merri morand is joining me now. this is all about how we are going to react to a iran, not the few hoot reigns leading hou. >> absolutely. we see third party actors being influenced by iran and we certainly need to do something about that. i think iran is taking ativan damage of the fact that the u.s. has so publicly state #-d that we don't want things to escalate. that may be what we wish for but we have to deal with the problem at hand. we have international straight being impeded and it's completely unacceptable. david: we have this task force now to stop what's going on in that key area and vessels being affected. is that enough? >> i think of its on, it's

inadequate and we'll find that quickly. as edward pointed out, 14 shipping companies made up their minds they're not going to pass through there. in order to make that safe, that's quite a challenge. a few ships protecting a few merchant ships at a time is what it would amount to, is not enough to sustain the flow required for the economic transfer of goods. i think we'll need to see some form of strike at the source, we have used tomahawk weapons in the past for example as a very tactical and effective way to take out a source of a problem without putting people at risk. david: forgive merch for interrupting. you say the source, is the source of attack iran? >> the source of drone attacks is really uncontrolled portions of yemen. we can deal with that problem initially. iran is certainly a largest piece of the puzzle. david: i want to talk again about iran but another issue and

major cyber attack has actually paralyzed gas stations all over iran nearly 70% of them were shut down by hackers on monday. whom do you expect was behind that attack? >> well, again, third party but they're certainly appear to have ties to israel. we're seeing change in complexion of war fair. cyber has been with us and a threat for over two decades now since the early 2000s these sort of attacks could take place. there's been hardening of the enstructure post-9/11 but appears it's not enough. we have companies in the u.s. that are susceptible to psychoer attack. it's a significant challenge. david: i'm wondering and of course we know there's hackers from iran affecting us here in various occasions. do you think that there might be reattribution and might they try to hit back on us with their own cyber attack? >> i think we should expect

that. we cannot have this sort of back and forth we're in the uncomfortable phase of neither side declaring and it's clear we don't really have control of president netanyahu's movement and how he's addressing the war with israel and we've seen iran strike at israel before. the u.s. needs to decide what is its role in the new world order. david: yeah, the bottom line is appeasement does not work, deterrence does. how to deter the iranians. captain, thank you so much for your service, thank you for being here. appreciate t captain morand. turning to the war in ukraine, vladamir putin says russia is ready to talk to ukraine, the u.s. and europe about the future of ukraine but, lauren, is there a catch? lauren: always is. this would be after the election to see who wins because do you remember, trump in talking about

a peace, he said ukraine might have to give up some territory to stop this war. putin reiterating "we will not give up what is ours". so i guess if you wait till november, you find out who you'd be negotiating with. david: yeah, check the markets one more time before we end this sergeant. markets -- well, they are all up again. now it's up 11 point-blank layupses, not a great deal but it's turned around and red on the screen so have all of the indexes and nasdaq up 51 and s&p up 5. coming up, more democrats are publicly calling out president biden is how he's falling behind in the polls. they want him to change his messaging. how would you do that? we'll tell you what they want to hear the president say coming up. and 102,000 people fled new york last year. that's more than any other state. what is driving people away from new york and from california and illinois for that matter? is it taxes, crime?

we'll tell you next. ♪ in a rocky mountain setting? spanning over 280,000 acres, three forks ranch is the destination for luxury and adventure. enjoy private skiing with 23 runs for every level. kick back for intimate performances from the best in country music. enhance your wellness and longevity through our mayo clinic programs, or plan your meeting for a memorable corporate retreat. discover the west kept secret. go to threeforksranch.com to book your luxury experience.

♪ you were always so dedicated... ♪ we worked hard to build up the shop, save for college and our retirement. but we got there, thanks to our advisor and vanguard. now i see who all that hard work was for... it was always for you. seeing you carry on our legacy— i'm so proud. at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner. setting up the future for the ones you love. that's the value of ownership.

did i recollect just can't keep investors down these dais. we're still in the midst of the santa claus rally and dow jones industrial up 18 and nasdaq up 41. s&p is up about 4 points and again, they all turned around from the red earlier this morning. big tech. all in the green. 10 year treasury down just a tick, 2.2 basis point-blank layupses and negative now and 10-year treasury yield 3.9. the price of oil is up heartly today and 1.5 percentage points up $1.18 to $75.12 a barrel. lauren, how fast does president trump think the can clinch this nomination?

lauren: mid march, right after super tuesday on march 5. it would be two months earlier than back in 2016 when he was able to cinch the nomination. the plan from a senior campaign official, win iowa by double digits, that's january 15th, then you take new hampshire, nevada, and south carolina you're coming into super tuesday pretty strong and guess what happens right around then. he will sit in a courtroom in the federal january 6 trial and, yeah, that's taking hip off the campaign trail a bit. david: l lauren, thank you very much. donald trump is considering a rally in the prongs in an attempt to win over more black voters and rikki schlott joining me now. you're a new yorker. do you really think donald trump could turn around the south bronx from blue to red? >> you know, i don't think he can turn around the state entirely. he only won 37% of the vote in

the last election, that would be a real tall order. however, i think he really can make in roads with black voters and midterm cycle compared to one prior and black voters that voted republican doubled and just over the past year, biden's support among black voters went down by 15%. it's still at 47%, but i do think he could make considerable progress on that front. david: people forget when a republican mayor rudy giuliani won in the reelection and in the first and followed by a businessman. new yorkers have gone for non-democrats in the recent past. >> yeah and also there is a city council seat in the bronx that nipped for the first time to republican in over 50 years. there could be considerable movement but whether the whole state changes i don't know. david: the question is how much i think, how much this migrant crisis costs new york and how

much that'll weigh on voters going into the 2024 elections because it could be that services like garbage pickup, police, firearm, et cetera are cut back to -- firemen are cut back because we don't have the money and the city would like like it's falling apart and some say it's already looking that way. >> yeah, and add on the concerns with crime and can't walk into cvs without having your tooth past in jail. feels like a dystopian world we're living in new york and i wouldn't be surprised if trump could get votes here. david: that leads me to this question and more people moved out of new york and people voting with their feet than any other state last year the census bureau says 102,000 people left. i'm just wondering what you think is the main reason why. is it the economy? is it crime, is it taxes? what do you think it is? >> i think that taxes certainly play a huge role as more and more companies are more permanently leaning into the remote work possibility and if you can potentially work

somewhere else and not paying the new york taxes somewhere like texas and florida that have the biggest gain this is year, it's very reason and will not the same offset of new people coming in and two reasons and first is the cost of liver here is exorbitant and if you can take a job educational where and not fork over your entire paycheck for rent and young women don't want to live here because of the crime rate. david: we've been mentioning the whole show the cost of new york to migrants and we don't have the money to pay for it. you can't print money in the state. you can in the federal government and issue debt, but can't do it in new york that well. what do you think will happen? how bad will it get in places and not just new york, the same thing happening in chicago and la and other blue cities. >> we're seeing a really marked change in tone from deputies

saying we're open arms and we are a city for everyone and anyone, and i think that that tone will change considerably and probably consider to see eric adams bus people up state and there's going to be a push to get people out of new york and the city and close down as many free resources we've been giving as only but i think it'll stretch the budget so thin and we'll see streets turns red. >> some people say i'm crazy to live here and friends and my son down in north carolina and don't pay as many in taxes and we can carry our own gun ifs we feel unsafe. you can't do any of that in new york but it's a wonderful city and good reasons to be here. just one of them doesn't happen to be in city hall right now. now this, democrats are pushing the president to change his

messaging lauren: poll numbers. they're not going up. they're only going down. here's one of them. >> they need to stop with their own voters saying we get it. if inflation is the biggest problem, weigert it. we know what we've been dealing with and we get it. lauren: they're saying things are not getting better and never speak to the cumulative harm from higher prices and inflation year after year. 30% increase for some essentials. his solution is tell voters we're doing something about it. going after the big bad companies for price gouging, but i'm not sure that works either because so many americans work for the big bad price gouging companies. david: that's a great point. lauren: their solutions aren't even working in this case. david: what do you think is going to happen? lauren: tone deaf. david: any way the president can turn arndt the image of people

on what he did to the economy? lauren: it becoming increasingly difficult. make a switch on the ticket whether it's him or it's the vice president, or deal with it. or something happens to your opponent and then you're in by default in other words. david: lauren, good to see you. we'll have a lot more with lauren coming up. in fact, we have a diamond segment coming up i'm looking forward to. still ahead, tomorrow is projected to be one of the biggest travel days of the year. is it too late to buy your ticket home for christmas. we'll ask the price line ceo brett keller coming up. this is a segment i was telling you about, can you tell the difference between a natural diamond and lab-grown one? lauren: probably not. david: in a few moments, this they are. one of these is lab grown. i can't tell the difference. we'll find out how you can tell the difference coming up. lauren: i know. ♪

you can't buy great conversations or moments that matter, but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price our strategic investing approach can help you build the future you imagine. t. rowe price, invest with confidence.

hi, i'm stacey, and i've lost 60 pounds on golo. (guitar music) i was surprised with the golo plan, i was not hungry. thanks to release, i don't feel the need to go for snacks or go back for seconds. give golo a try. this plan works.

david: we are thick in the middle of it. the engagement season, which mean as lot of couples are dishing out thousands of dollars for tens of thousands of dollars in diamonds and gerri willis joining me from the diamond district. gerri, tell us about the new trend in lab-grown die left-hand side. are they -- diamonds, are they real first of all? reporter: hey, david, if you're asking me whether lab-grown diamonds are baked underneath the earth's crust for 1-3 billion years. no, they're not the same but they're all made out of carbon. different yet similar. look, this is a growing segment of the diamond industry, 20% of sales now are i'm here with

gentlemennologist olivia lando. hhow much money could i save? what's the price differential? >> between a lab grown and natural, we only sell natural but give away a free lab-grown as a travel ring and purchasing wholesale, cut, polished and certified for about $100 a carat. a 4-carat natural is around $10,000 a carat, depends diamond to diamond and quality too, but lab-grown diamonds are very inexpensive. reporter: $100 for something that looks like it cost, i don't know. >> some are selling around $10,000 and it's important to know the true value. reporter: let's get to what consumers need to know. what do consumers need to know about the lab-grown diamonds.

you were telling me that some of the store owners are expensive and they're mass manufactured and mike high margin on the lab-grown, a lot of jewelry retailers are pushing to their consumers because they can make way more money on lab-grown because consumers are not knowledgeable about the true value. reporter: is this something to pass onto your kids? an h heirloom piece of jewelry d will it last, 10, 20, 30 year? >> we don't know how long it'll last because the technology is new and don't know if it'll hold its color and clarity and a lot of types treated for color and clarity and zero inherent value but might be sentimental value. reporter: always sentimental value. if you're buy ago diamond and want to make sure what you have is natural and not manmade, what do you need? >> there's several ways to

detect it in a lab but the easiest way is to get a gia certificate and make sure it says natural diamond grading report. they'll have their own serial numbers so you'll be able to tell that it is natural and not lab grown. reporter: david, i'm looking at the two here, i cannot tell the difference, but i can tell you these are real and i'm wearing what $50,000 worth of diamonds. david: nice, you wear it well. you wear it well, gerri. gerri willis, thank you very much. bring in the director of jewelers of america, amanda gizzi. we have, and maybe get a closeup of this, four diamonds here. you say by the way, i like the way you said it, they're all real but one is lab grown. >> correct. david: put up the picture of the four rings again. one of these is lab-grown. i'm going to turn it a little just so you can see the sparkles there. i don't know if either -- if anybody can tell. can you look at camera there and tell which one you think, number

one, number two, number three, or number four? lauren: one. david: you think it's this one that's lab grown? i hi it's this one based on the color. that's the smallest carat wise. who got it right? >> you got it right. david: i did? >> you did. david: holy mackerel. i said that because it's a little darker and doesn't sparkle quite as much as others. is that right? it sparkles wonderfully but not in the same way the others sparkle. >> the interesting thing about diamonds and lab grown is the way to educate yourself. all natural diamonds look different from one another and they're all individual and have different characteristics. some color is brighter, some sparkle more than others, and lab grown really are no different. they're graded on the same scale from gia as you heard olivia talk about so they all have different certify cases that come along with them. they'll all sparkle a bit differently. really what you need to understand is some of the things that olivia talked about. lab-growns are grown in a

laboratory, they're not grown inside of the earth so they are starting to become really abundant. that's why we're starting to see the prices fall for these lab-grown diamonds because there's so much coming into the market. david: are they as hard as diamonds? historically we've heard time and again nothing harder than a diamond. are they a little more fragile than the real diamond? >> they're a diamond so they're still the same hardness as a natural diamond. they are, you know, just created a lab versus in the earth. lauren: can i ask a question, etiquette wise, when one is proposing with a stone, do you say at the time, this is lab-grown and not natural? >> always say, the biggest thing for a lab-grown diamonds is all disclosure and starts from where you buy it and start with a representoutable jeweler and all are required by law to disclose what they're selling to you so you should know you're buy ago lab-grown and should go along to the person you're looking to propose to.

nothing worse than having her go into a store five years down the road and wanting to upgrade and them saying, you can't because this is actually lab-grown and not worth anywhere close to what you paid for it however many years ago. that's the thing about natural, they do because it is not a finite supply, there is a finite supply so, i mean, they're going to hold their value a bit longer. david: can i get costs from you? if we go back to the diamonds here, number one, the biggest. >> that's a 3.65-carat. you know, as olivia mentioned, they're all going to range in price so around $35 for that and a $2-carat stone prices are dropping quickly so -- david: the one that is lab-grown, how much? >> anywhere between $2,000 to $10,000 depending on the characteristics. about a 75% difference in price between lab-grown and natural. david: have a wonderful holiday season. busy time of year.

thank you for taking time for us. >> appreciate it. david: a young couple getting heckled online for the demands they were making about wedding and engagement rings. lauren, what was crazy about the request? lauren: the sheer price tag. so the woman said i want an engagement ring north of $75,000, how typical would that be? >> not very typical. lauren: and the wedding of $150,000 and then some. we're talking about over a quarter million just to have one day and then a lifetime together. david: all right. lauren: average cost of wedding nationally is not $150,000, it's a fifth of that. it's $30,000. david: not here in new york by the way. i can tell you that from experience. lauren: we were talking like $200,000 for the whole she bang here in new york isn't a big deal. but it's a nice wedding. david: thank you, amanda. thank you very much. the dow 30 stocks for a sense of what's happening with the markets. it's a calm day for traders and of course we're just few days away from christmas here. we do see some red in the screen

but again, it was a lot more red on the screen earlier today. things are turning around in the markets. now, if you're looking to get home for the holidays, you're going to want to avoid the crowds; right? when is the best time to fly and when should you be prepared to face major delays? we'll be asking price line ceo brbrett columbiaer coming next. brett keller coming next. ♪ they're waiting for you. hey, do you have a second? they're all expecting more. more efficiency. more benefits. more growth. when you realize you can give your people everything, and more. thank you very much. [applause] ask, "now what?" here's what. you go with prudential to protect, empower and grow.

with everything you need to deliver, you guessed it... more. one more thing... who's your rock? learn more at prudential.com ♪ students... students of any age, from anywhere. students in a new kind of classroom. ♪ using our technology to power different ways of learning. ♪ harnessing ai to plant new beginnings. ♪ so when minds grow, opportunities follow.

david: did you know we're five days away from christmas, just five days. lauren: i have to lot to do. david: tomorrow is projected to be one of the bustest travel days of the year and tsa expecting to screen more than 2.5 million people all over the country and 6% increase from last year, which was very busy and ceo of price line brett keller joining me now. brett, thank you for taking time. it's a very busy time. first question i've heard from a lot of people this week, is it

too late now to buy your ticket home for christmas? >> it's never too late. there's always tickets available. depends on what your connections may look like to get there though. it'll be a very busy holiday period. one of the busiest on record, i don't think we'll quite eclipse 2019 but we'll be very close and there'll be over 115 million travelers both driving and flying. if you're looking for airline ticket at this point, try to avoid friday and saturday. those will be the busiest days by far. and the most expensive. david: yeah, not surprising. what's the most popular destination this week? >> well, it depends on who you are. the most interesting destinations people are traveling to this year are back to major urban areas so new york is a very popular destination, chicago, and for those who want warm weather, absolutely flocking to florida. so orlando, miami, ft. lauderdale and on the west coast down to la. for those going out of the country, they're looking at top destinations now more in asia. so tokyo is a very hot one right

now as is bangkok. david: i would not expect asia to be up there and tokyo the most popular. ai is entering our lives in so many different ways. has it entered the travel industry? >> yeah, you're being -- you'll see different forms of ai pop up all over the place. we used ai for many years but generative ai and new hot topic is coming into the scene. where you're seeing it is at every stage of the travel planning, booking and servicing really funnel. at priceline, for example, it's inside the booking experiences and booking a hotel and have interesting questions about the hotel itself, gen ai is a great tool and our chat bot, penny, can answer any questions about the hotel, dining options et cetera. david: if i call up priceline, i'm not dealing with a real person? >> if you call on the phone,

it's a real person but chatting online, there's chat bots available that can answer your questions very effectively and quickly to try and help address the types of questions that don't require sophisticated amount of time to answer. david: i have a scary question, got to be quick, but covid, it is on the rise. i hate to say it. will that interfere with a lot of plans, particularly on cruises? >> you know, it doesn't appear to so far. bobbing patterns seem to be very robust and it's cautious about traveling with both covid and now the flu. it's moving around. it's not stopping people from traveling. david: okay, brett keller, that you can't thank you so much and best of luck for the holiday season. now to the wednesday trivia question, what's being the highest grossing christmas movie of all time, elf, home alone, polar express, or the grinch? the answer when we get back. ♪

(singing )i'll be home for christ .. you can plan on me. please have snow and mistletoe. and presents on the tree. right now all over the country kids at shriners hospitals for children are able to go home and be with their families for the holidays. and that's only possible because of the monthly donations from people like you. thanks to a generous donor every dollar you give can help twice as many kids like me and have double the impact.

with your gift of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day. we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue blanket as a thank you. and a reminder of the care you'll be providing so kids can be with their families. (singing) christmas eve will find me. where the love light gleams. it only takes a moment to call the number on your screen. or you can visit loveshriners.org. thanks to a generous donor your gift will go twice as far and help more kids like me. because every child just wants to be home for the holidays, and your gift makes that possible. your call is the best gift of all. your gift will be my favorite christmas present this year. thank you for giving. please call the number on your screen or go to loveshriners.org to give whatever you can. and when you do, your gift will have two times the impact.

ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com.

david: before the break we asked what is the highest grossing christmas film of all time. number one, health, number 2, home alone, number 3, the polar express, number 4, the grinch. they have come out with different additions. these are the first issue of

these movies. neil: as it elf number one? david: i don't know but i am going to be betting on the polar express. of all those i thought that was the best movie but i don't know. the answer, neither one of us got it. it is home alone. that was a fun movie. lauren: we have shown it a lot this week, clips of it. david: this christmas movie was made over $285 million, released in 1990. lauren: there are some bad words. started repeating. david: checking the markets doing pretty well, it was negative, now the dow is up, nasdaq, all up. all a. that's it for "varney and company". coast-to-coast begins as stuart would say, 2, one.