seen a you don't expect those floaty things to start running after you. i would be scared too. >> a giant gingerbread man coming at you. i feel bad for him. >> my dog is a corgi. maybe i will run after people. maria: you can chase the mailman. that is funny video. i can't imagine what the guy was thinking. they do humans work delivering on holidays and everything else. thank you so much for joining us on this special edition of "mornings with maria". "varney and company" is up next. ashley webster is in for stuart, take it away. ashley: good morning, i am in for stuart varney today. start reporting it right, that's the message president biden has for the media. according to him the economy is doing much better than is being

reported but do voters agree? not if you look at any of the polls. we get into that story. mass of migrant caravan, 6,000 strong headed toward our border comes ahead of secretary blinken's meeting with mexico's president, the latest on that. our troops under attack again in the middle east. iran backed militants launching more attack, our military launched countless attacks but i will ask congressman michael walt's. this is a holiday shortened week, the dow, the s&p on nasdaq, let's look at the 10 year treasury yield. look at it now. 40. 9% up slightly but still under 4%. that too up 4.35%. take a look at what bitcoin is

doing, showing holiday cheer. down $1000, still at 42,703. to the weather,. 's and ice causing big issue in the planes. and brian brenberg, just today. december 26, 2023. "varney and company" about to begin. ♪ ♪ wake me up ♪ wake me up ♪ ashley: always time for wake me up. down sixth avenue. very festive looking on tuesday.

hope you had a great christmas day yesterday. let's begin with this op-ed from the washington post. it reads harvard's claudine gay should resign. it is from columnist marcus. charlie hurt joins me this morning, great to see you. we have more calls from the left or harvard's president to resign. does she survive this? >> hard to see how she does but i would have said that last week as well. they pulled off the stop trying to cover for her. you wonder if this might not be a more slamdunk case if we hadn't come off the heels of university presidents defending calling for genocide on campuses which is demonstrably worse than this. in a normal setting get, a college university president

let alone harvard's university president caught stealing material, plagiarizing, would be an open and shut case, she would be gone immediately. for some reason, don't know if maybe the waters were politicized because of the earlier kerfuffle about speech on campuses, for whatever reason, she is managing to survive. the fact that even committed left-wingers like ruth marcus at the washington post calling for her to resign. ashley: they are under pressure to resign. this will reach a crescendo. someone has to fall here. >> reporter: this is more than anything about money.

one of the wealthiest institutions on the planet, or corporation, monstrous amounts of money they don't have to pay taxes on. when someone like president gay starts costing harvard money, more than they protect their precious university president. ashley: the iowa caucuses, nikki haley has new life in iowa after dark super pac founded by the koch brothers, has the money to spend. according to real clear politics pulling average she trails donald trump by 35 points in iowa. the question is it too late for haley in iowa. >> don't know if it's too late or insurmountable from the beginning. at the beginning of all this,

whether or not republicans are exhausted of the trump, dealing with trump. and as has been for a few months, with the political system, they are appalled at the political system, not trump, and other huge money to get behind desantis, they want to safer pick, they are not is committed to trump as his supporters are. if everybody, whether iowa or new hampshire or south carolina, if everybody keeps coming in doing a respectable second place, at the end of it

you will be in second place, you will not be in first place. of donald trump gets the wins with 50 one%, at the end of the game it is slow death instead of quick death. ashley: that is one way of putting it. second place, well back in second place. desantis has visited 90 counties in iowa, spent a lot of time, third of his staff moved to iowa, doesn't seem to be making a lot of impact, doesn't get the traction i thought he would get. >> he established in florida, when you look at the mechanics of the way they spend money and raised money, it is the most disappointing campaign, that i have ever seen. ashley: that says it all.

great to see you, this boxing day in some parts of the world, happy new year to you. voters not excited for trump/biden rematch. according to the latest poll from the associated press, 56% of adults would be dissatisfied with biden as the democratic nominee, 58% say the same for trump. dependent candidate robert kennedy junior pulled in an impressive crowd in phoenix. all of this has some wondering if this is the year a third-party candidate has a chance to make some waves. we say that when these things come up but generally they don't. we have the latest report now from case-schiller on home prices. a reminder that this is a report based in october. two months prior. we saw 4. 9% rise in prices compared to october 2022.

the largest increase since november 2022. they are drifting alongside. the dow up 30 one points, nasdaq almost 2/10 of 1%. great time to bring in jeff, we've seen a very nice year end rally, what everyone is asking the next week or so, what is in store for the markets in 2024, what say you? >> a lot of us have been surprised the market did as well as it did. and for 7 names, now we are looking ahead to 2024 what is in store for 24 and i see yet again this will be a market focused on the fed. i would use three adjectives to

describe jerome powell, erratic, unpredictable, and probably a little incoherent, on the one hand, you had him come out and say vigilant, the markets were preparing for multiple cuts. then he pivots, the market explodes to the upside. investors looking at listening to every word he says, looking at whether or not the fed follows through with lowering interest rates because i have said before a lot of the upside in the market doesn't reflect the economy, certainly doesn't affect the consumer. it affect to the money supply. the money supply has been higher than it was only a few short years ago.

ashley: what will be the best performing sectors in 2024? a lot of talk about artificial intelligence, nvidia, the big tech stocks, will that be the same next year? >> the two main laggards which were energy and treasuries, look at the two main laggards, oddities, two main laggards, this, i think if interest rates do in fact decline, we are going to have an explosive year in real estate. if i were an investor i would be taking a close look, would have a good year, they have been lagging, still down, they were down as much as 20%, now down 10%, that is where the growth is going to be. i would pick away at the energy

stocks. i do think they have a chance of coming back but the commodities i would stay away from because we have a chance of going to a hard landing which will affect the consumer. ashley: extremely cautious. don't let that ruin your new year's eve celebrations. migrants travel through mexico and on their way to our southern border. it is believed to be one of the largest groups of this year. can the administration get this situation under control? than there is this. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu visiting troops fighting in northern gaza pledging that israel will not stop fighting until hamas is ended. we have the latest from israel next. they're all expecting more. more efficiency.

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ashley: smoke rising from gaza as the war in israel rages on. trey yingst on the ground in israel with the latest developments. >> reporter: good morning. much of the focus remains on gaza, the broader region looking out what took place overnight, president biden ordering the us military to strike a number of targets interact belonging to iran back to militia group, we understand three strikes destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of hezbollah militants. those strikes came in response

to a drone attack, that houses service mariska 3 americans were injured critically, this brings the total of attacks against american interests since mid-october and israeli forces remain on high alert after an airstrike in syria, and in response to that, the president saying this is a sign the zionist regime's frustration and weakness in the region for which it will certainly pay the price. is relapse defense minister speaking out about the current threat against israel saying this. >> in a multi-front world, coming into attack under several threats. jordan, samaria, iraq, and iran. i sit here in the most explicit way, anyone who acts against us

is a potential target. no immunity for anyone. >> reporter: amid the possibly of a broader war with iran we do know a top netanyahu advisor is in the united states to meet with the biden administration to discuss the next stage of the gaza war which is on point today. the past several days israelis have lost 17 troops in battles with hamas. ashley: thank you for the latest. is relapse president netanyahu dismissing calls for cease-fire yesterday, it will not stop until israel finishes off hamas. he said that from the beginning. will the us back israel no matter how long it takes at my follow-up to that, can hamas be wiped out? >> that's the key point.

what i said over and over again is as long as iran is flush with cash, exporting as much oil and currency reserves and pumping millions if not billions of terrorist organizations, i don't know that israel can be fully successful. they will be mowing the grass and it will grow back as long as we do not change our policy. we've got to return to maximum pressure, cut off the money from to ron to its proxies and we have to hit back. every time you see one of our bases attacked and the key administration official come to the microphone and tell the world that our main goal is not escalation the uranian's hear that as we are not going to back to things they care about and they can continue to get away with what they are doing. the best thing we can do for

israel is reversed course on iran, cut off the cash in here and back where it counts. ashley: i am glad you mentioned that. that's my next question for you. three service members injured by an uranian drone attack. we did respond with a strike of our own but over 100 attacks on us troops in the middle east since october so my question is has our response to these attacks been strong enough in your opinion? >> hasn't been nearly strong enough. we have pumped bombers, air defense systems, additional ships into the region. iran has not been deterred. at the end of the day we could have the most capable military in the world in the region and these forces are being diverted from places in the area near taiwan, brought home where they should be getting ready in case they are needed in a hot war.

there's an opportunity cost. as long as iran believes we don't have the political will or strategy to hit them, not there proxies in a rack or the houthis in yemen but to hit iran itself you can add all the forces in the world, it is not going to matter, they are not deterred and they will strike and i fear one of these hits will get through and be catastrophic. ashley: lines of communication between the us and chinese military leaders finally reopened after a year of silence. i've seen you talk about this, you want to know what we conceded to get china to talk. what do you think was conceded? >> we will continue to make those demands for transparency in a critical relationship from

the administration, but wasn't on tariffs, easing up on export controls? seems like this administration will do anything to get the chinese to stop building coal-fired power plants. they built more in the last year than the rest of the world combined, what did we concede? we humiliated ourselves on the international stage by allowing the chinese to lecture us on us soil and we are finding out xi told biden to his face, to take taiwan one way or another and administer she didn't tell us that. we had to find out through investigative journalism. what else happened in those stocks? what else was conceded? clearly there's an appeasement first strategy here is very dangerous to a dictator like xi jinping.

ashley: thank you for stopping by and joining us today. to the markets, they are all moving slightly higher, the nasdaq up 0. 2%. will will hold? "the opening bell" is next. ♪ trading at schwab is now powered by ameritrade, giving traders even more ways to sharpen their skills with tailored education. get an expanding library filled with new online videos, webcasts, articles, courses, and more - all crafted just for traders. and with guided learning paths stacked with content curated to fit your unique goals, you can spend less time searching and more time learning. trade brilliantly with schwab.

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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. 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. the men and women who serve this country. we appreciate you. i hope you know that. i appreciate you, one love. i've had a lot of people thank me for my service, but since i've gotten back, there are people who've served me by supporting disabled american veterans. these past few years have been challenging for our disabled veterans who are in need of critical health care and benefits. but thanks to you, dav has continued to work tirelessly to assist our wounded heroes in getting the vital benefits and support they need now more than ever. i support those who served for me. there's never been a greater time to show your support for our nation's greatest heroes.

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ashley: let's look at the markets, the dow drifted slightly negative, the s&p's let me higher, same with the nasdaq. keith fitzgerald joins us this morning. the s&p has had 8 straight weeks of gains. hasn't done that in 6 years. what is your prediction for the markets next year? that's the question everyone is asking this week. >> that's what we are being asked. i think we will have backup in one. we have to have that to move higher. the market is moving in 5200 this time next year. ashley: what about the fed? a lot of the hope is the fed will start cutting rates next year.

are you in that camp? >> i have a controversial opinion about the fed. i think the market is ahead of itself, jay powell cannot begin cutting rates at least through q1. i see the majority of gains i'm expecting in the second half once the fed gets taken to the woodshed. ashley: jeff was concerned about next year. he thought we could be in for a hard landing. are you in that camp? >> i love jeff. he is as smart as they come i disagree with him on this 100 the needle will get threaded not because of the fed. i see great companies continuing to move forward. they are the ones putting up the good numbers irrespective of what the fed is. ashley: you think the tech sector will be a big area to concentrate on next year, the ai stocks, nvidias?

>> i do. big tech will lead the way and people are making a critical mistake. they are assuming all tech is the same. big tech is where you want to see and also in those sectors big tech is going to benefit specifically ai so medical for example, ai driven medical oncology related treatments will come into their own next year. ashley: the state of the consumer which is so important to the economy? >> strapped, concerned but beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train. ashley: fantastically concise as always. we will talk about individual stocks but we are now up and running on this holiday shortened week, the final week of trading in 2,023. pushing the buttons, clapping, waving the confetti, at least digital confetti is flying, let's look at the dow 30

stocks, the dow off slightly down 10 points out of the gate. let's look at the s&p if we can. the s&p up 0.1%, 4758, the dow just turned positive. let's look at the nasdaq. upper quarter of one%, up 34 points above 15,000, not bad. big tech names, see what they are doing on this tuesday. they are all in the green but alphabets, meta-both up half of 1%. let's take a look at nvidia. it raised $50 million for nonprofits helping those affected in the israeli war. today it is up half of one%. half of one%. nvidia has had an enormous year up 230%. are you a holder? what do you think of it at this price?

>> i hope i am smart enough to buy more shares, it is getting started, 80% market share. i think it is plenty of room to play with but leadership position, great execution. i think it goes a lot higher and split in the next 12 to 24 months. ashley: let's move on to intel, scored a $3.2 billion grant from the government for a new $25 billion chip plant that it plans to build in israel. intel had a stellar run this year. do you see the momentum continuing in 2024? >> i hope so. pat gelsinger is super smart, the right guy at the right time. i got ahead of myself in intel. looking at intel coming off of the bottom here is making me

think the proposition again, the right guy at the right time works well for the company. ashley: intel up 2.5%. tesla has unveiled its latest humanoid robot, reportedly 30% faster, 10 kg lighter and has sensors on all the fingers. not sure that's good or bad. you own tesla? >> i do. that's another core holding for me. it is so much more than a car company. anyone thinking in terms of vehicles, electric generation. and love them or hate them. >> tesla up 155. >> just unveiled its flagship ev.

and anywhere else in this sector? >> i own the un have for quite some time. the thing that is interesting is not even messing with us markets, looking at europe, following toyota's playbook from the 60s and 70s. everyone thought toyota with cheap wheels, i think neil is on the same trajectory. ashley: i forgot about that perception of toyota. let's move on to the drug sector. they are both getting huge boosts from their weight loss drugs. do you buy into this weight loss boom at all? >> interesting to me. i have been a health nut for many years. but i don't think the weight loss is where it is going to

be. we are not hearing a lot about that which makes me interested in both of those names. ashley: how about this when? you will soon be able to add a car to your amazon cart. i am old-fashioned. i like to go to the dealership and kick the tires but is this the future of car buying? >> i don't think so. it's an interesting moment for the company, but like you, there are things that are tactile, if we suddenly go to boxes with wheels and they become commoditized that's different but it is not where we are as a society. an interesting exercise. neil: the first one is one that stuart varney will rave about

all day and night. costco. why does he like costco? >> if we buy in a strapped consumer, this is membership driven, driving people into the stores. it is only a matter of time before hike in revenue. it is a cash printing machine. i own it and have for a long time. ashley: here's a familiar nape to was all. apple, what can apple do they haven't already done? >> never thought about it. what can they do? fit back to where steve jobs was. the iphone, the thing that makes apple so special, they take needs consumers don't know they have, they change the world with those things which i think they will move into medical technology.

the wearables and consumables is where they are going to be. not the iphone. ashley: couldn't agree more. another party favorite, microsoft. >> this is a big one. this is a company that's not about software anymore, it is best positioned in the ai space for $50, you spend 75, maybe one hundred following a derivative industry. it is about bringing people together, the introduction of ai across the platform which is one of the most widely used today. that is in mind for the same reason. ashley: indeed we are. thank you, great job today. thank you for playing along with us and worthwhile insight into the market. a priest attempted to look at

the christmas story to the ongoing war between israel and hamas. roll the tape. >> what i'm so struck by is the story of christmas is about a palestinian jew born into a time when his country was occupied. can't make up the parallels to the current situation. ashley: a lot of people reacting to that, where did you get your history lesson? biden's democrat challenger, dean phillips, issuing a warning to the president saying trump will beat biden if it comes down to a rematch. if you have gifts to return this holiday season, you may want to get a head start. many retailers changing their policies to help cut costs. we will have the report next. ♪ ♪

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ashley: christmas is officially over and you may have gotten a gift that wasn't quite right. gerri willis is at a mall in new jersey. do we expect to see a lot of people in the return lines today? >> reporter: there will be lots of people, we have a return preview today. experts say one hundred $73 billion. amazing number, worth of christmas presents will be returned, that's 2 million more than last year and where will they be returned, some will go through the mail but some will be at a mall like we are in, in

new jersey, wayne, new jersey, where are the people? the mall opens in two hours and the senior general manager is here to tell us about how many people are you expecting to be here when you open? >> will be a busy day. the whole season, we have seen crowds that exceeded last year and we expect the same today. >> reporter: you said 50,000 the saturday before christmas, you can get the same number again? >> absolutely. everyone is ready to come out, may have been the most perfect thing for them. >> reporter: you say right now is me time because people aren't just returning gifts but also spending money. >> the focus has changed. before christmas it is all about the perfect gift.

and and now is when people treat themselves. >> reporter: there ready to take their turn. the numbers, 49% of retailers say they are anxious about the return season and they are shortening those return windows. one in seven retailers is offering a week to do returns. we are seeing higher fees and fewer companies giving you the money to return the gifts. back to you. ashley: interesting stuff. thank you very much. we talk about the economy in general. these record holiday returns, do they have a significant effect on the holiday? certainly the retailers. >> these businesses build all of that consumer behavior into

their business model and the official government metrics for things like gdp have the seasonality adjustments built in, that helps reduce the consumer spending numbers in december but boost them in january so it smooth this out a lot of abrupt changes. ashley: let's move on to the economy as a whole, president biden not happy with the media's coverage of his economy. i will get your comment? >> what is your outlook on the economy? >> president biden: all good. take a look. ashley: report it the right way. is the media over blowing biden's poor economic numbers? when you look at the polls, consumers who would know best are not happy with the economy. >> exactly right.

reported the right way, what exactly is the right way to report $1.1 trillion in credit card debt, what exactly is the right way to report the fact low performance, default and a link when sees are rising at the fastest clip since the global financial crisis. what is the right way to report the fact that almost every single month of this administration has seen real wages decline, not increase. we had four months where we actually saw an increase. what is the right way to report the fact people are demonstrably poorer under this administration. ashley: they unveiled this bidenomics, president biden doesn't understand what it is, they are trying to distance themselves from it but it's a too late.

he hitched his wagon, and into the election, he has to live and die by bidenomics. >> that's probably true for all presidents that they tend to get elected or not dependent upon how the economy is doing under their tenure. the fact that things have not gone well for the majority of americans bodes poorly for this administration but it's worth pointing out that you have a strahl percentage of americans who have done very well under biden. they tend to be individuals who have high incomes and high net wealth to start with. ashley: great conversation as always, thank you so much. now this. we talk about gift returns. ever wonder what happens to those holiday gift cards that don't get used?

back in july financial service company bank rate estimated there are 23 billion worth of unused gift cards and vouchers in the us with laws differing from state to state. many cards don't expire but that doesn't mean they last forever. those generic gift cards from visa or mastercard charge in activity fees, you don't use it you start to lose it. experts advise you to use gift cards quickly to avoid lost funds and if you don't see yourself losing it, sell it, but sites to offer cash for unwanted gift cards. coming up, the white house is reportedly deeply frustrated over media coverage of the bad polls for biden. the administration wants the focus to be on the economic improvements. people not mike huckabee will take that on.

heavy snow, blizzard conditions, freezing rain making travel almost impossible in some parts of the country. we have the weather report after this. ♪ 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 - wounded warrior project has been with me every step of my journey. - they've helped me realize it's possible to rise to the top again. - it's possible to get the help i need for me and my family. - it's possible to hate pushups again.

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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. here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie

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ashley: all things considered we had a smooth holiday travel season. don't want to jinx it. looks like it could be about to change. heavy snow blasting the middle of the country. katie burn joins me now. what does this mean for travelers trying to get home? >> reporter: it gets busy for travelers at this time of year. people driving, this is a story want to keep your eye on. cross-country moving across the country. it will impact 30 states when all is said and done and the snow started in the plains. a combination of snow coming down quickly and winds that were strong as fast as 50 miles an hour.

and they were a bit dangerous on the roads. some police responding to several overturned tractor-trailers with white out conditions for drivers and the snow is coming down in places like kansas and south dakota. south dakota in the lead for the most snow. 5 million americans under some type of winter weather alert but that number is going to grow in the coming days. that snow will start turning to a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain as it makes its way east towards us in the philly area in new york, dealing with some impact from this too. ashley. ashley: the dreaded freezing rain. as we head to the end of the first hour, we are modestly higher as you can see. the dow is up 29 points, the s&p up 0. 2%.

%. all very modest on this holiday shortened final week of trade on wall street. former arkansas governor mike huckabee, tom homan, brian brenberg and joe concha. the 10:00 hour of "varney and company" is next. i'm on a journey to discover the human story of gold.

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times times ashley: thank you, producers. boxing day for some around the world. it is 10:00 eastern. as you look down south, a festive scene. i am ashley webster in for stuart varney, straight to your