this weekend, but luckily, most people are boeing to be where they want to be. by the way, delta, talk about an about face, having to change their frequent flyer program. oh, there's pete butte individual. -- pete buttigieg. he did such a good job on that one last year, i'm kidding. real quick before we send it over to stu varney, obviously, a mixed start to 2024. right now, second day of trading, dow, a little bit of pressure here for the dow, 13 7th. nasdaq down 105. we are going to get fed minutes, 222 p.m. eastern time, ryan. >> yeah. look, nine weeks straight the up in the market, you're going to get a little bit of a selloff here. bottom lewin is inflation coming down, wages staying strong, economic growth's going to be positive this year. i'm going to say it again, i'm bullish -- cheryl: you were bullish last year, ryan payne. all right. thank you, "varney & company" is up next. stuart, take it away. stuart: i shall, indeed. good morning, ever. movement on all fronts.

stocks down again. claudine gay out. a hamas leader, killed. republicans descend en masse on the border putting biden on the spot. we're going to start with harvard. president claudine gay has resigned. the academic world is in turmoil. the intellectual religion known as diversity, equity and inclusion has been challenged. my opinion, hopefully, this may be a turning point where our universities return to academic excellence. more on that in a moment to the markets, more selling after another sharp drop tuesday. the dow looking for a loss of maybe 130, nasdaq down about another 100 points. here's the problem, the yield on the 10-year treasury closing in on 4% again. right now we're at 3.97, up another 4 basis points. 3.97 on the 10-year, move over to the 32-year, you're looking at 4.34. 4.34%. bitcoin selloff a, $4322-- 4222,500 -- 42,50 as of this

morning. gas, down one preponderanceny overnight. the national average 3.09. diesel actually moved up one cent to $3.98. all right, politics. trump extends his lead over other gop candidates with just 12 days til the iowa caucuses. he has more support than everyone else combined. trump will miss the next debate on cnn next monday. instead on the same night, he'll do a town hall on fox. who do you think republicans are going to watch? today 60 republican members of congress go to our southern border. they want a deal with the president. you get foreign aid if the migrant flow is sharply restricted. overseas a hamas leader killed in lebanon. israel's going after the people who poland the october 7th massacre. -- planned the october 7th. the israelis hunted down and killed athletes -- those who were responsible for killing olympic athletes. looks like they're doing the same thing. on the show today, the 10 most

overpriced real estate markets. five of them are in florida. the most overpriced? atlanta. wednesday, january 3rd, 2024th. -- 2024. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ i'll be there with a love that will shelter you ♪ stuart: i know you. that's the four tops. reach out and i'll be there. still a very sluggish start to the new year. midtown manhattan not back to pre-pandemic normal. it's wednesday morning. we start with the news out of harvard. claudine gay has resigned as president. lauren, good morning to you. lauren: good morning. well, she is still teaching at the school, and she is keeping her near $900,000 salary, stuart. but, yes, she's resigned as the president of harvard just six months into the job. look, she was under fire on two

fronts. there was almost 50 allegations of plagiarism in her own scholarly work, and she failed to condemn the anti-semitism at harvard. you're going to listen to congresswoman elise stefanik who led that blistering line of questioning against claudine gay reacting to her stepping talk about. >> as a harvard graduate myself, we have seen a failure of leadership from claudine gay, a failure of moral leadership but also a failure of academic integrity. it should not have headache taken the hard very -- harvard corporation board this long to demand her resignation. and i believe as we continue our congressional investigation that we will uncover what will be the greatest scandal in higher education, because the harvard corporation members themself are complicit in this cover-up of her plagiarism and, again, most importantly, their failure to protect jewish students on campus. lauren: so so this isn't the end of it for the congresswoman or for investor bill actman. he writes et, tu, sally.

meaning the president of mit. she has not resigned. stuart: thanks, lauren. former arkansas governor mike huckabee joins me now. all right, governor, claw gene bay no longer president. does this mark a turning point for the dei dominance of higher education? >> negotiation i hope so, stu. -- gosh, i hope so is, stu. ladies and gentlemen rich is a really serious thing. i get upset when people plagiarize one of my favorite personal speeches, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. people have been ladies and gentlemen if rising my statement for years. i'm sure you get the joke, stu -- stuart: it took me a while, governor, but i got this. >> you're a little slow on the uptick, the new year hasn't settled in. plagiarism is basically theft, let's just be honest. it's stealing other people's ideas and words, and it's as much theft as if you reached

into their pocketer took their wallet -- pocket, took their wallet, robbed them of their money and went out and spent if it as if it were your own. and that's why the harvard corporation was so stupid in not recognizing that claudine gay had disgraced herself and the prestige of harvard university by the many allegations of plagiarism. stuart: i want to turn to sport for donald trump -- support for donald trump. a popular radio host, charlemagne the god, he says he's, quote, learned his lesson and will not be supporting biden many 2024. he also says kamala harris has disappeared. biden is taking hit after hit after hit. >> his numbers are falling particularly with african-americans as well as with hispanics. there are a lot of reasons that donald trump's numbers continue to go up. it's not just because people think that he's being overwhelmingly treated differently than anyone if else

ever has been, and in a way that really violates due process and his constitutional rights and that of every american, but it's also because they've compared the two years plus of joe biden's administration, and they compare that with donald trump, and they realize we were energy dependent, we had a pretty much secure border, we didn't have wars going on all over the world, trump had kept us out of a shooting war, the first president since reagan to do that. we had a strong economy. we could afford gasoline, grocery, and people were buying houses. and people can for themselves, why would i vote for a person who has put my life in such a tail spin when i could go back to policies? all i've got to do is put up with a few tweets i don't like, and i think i can handle that. stuart stouter got it. governor, thank you very much for joining us. see you later. >> thank you. stuart: now this. donald trump says he's going to make a play for deep blue states

this year. lauren, which states is he going to try to flip red? lauren: new york, new jersey, minnesota, virginia and new mexico. it's going to be tough. but donald trump told breitbart he's going to make a, quote, heavy play e to try to flip those states. [laughter] for new york he says he might rent out marred. en, stuart, for a -- madison square garden for a big trump-style rally. he mentioned lee zeldin specifically. he said he's really encouraged by how close he came to winning the governorship of new york and since then things have only gotten worse with the migrant crisis. so the question is, i mean, can new yorkers or minnesotans flip for trump this year? stuart: if they flip for trump in new york, that would signal a revolution, in my opinion. [laughter] lauren: hey, i mean -- okay. i doubt it, but it could happen. he's going to make a heavy play. stuart: all right. let's move on to the markets. i'm seeing more red ink.

nasdaq down another 1110 points. lou lou bass news with me this morning -- lou basenese. 2023 was a really great year for stocks. 2024 hasn't started out well. >> it has not. two down days, let's just throw in the towel. what's funny is people think the next year's going to be bad, but the data says otherwise. when you have a 20% move in the s&p 500, the next year tends to be up 80 percent of the time by an average of 10 percent. so that bodes well. the other thing that workerses -- works in investors' favor is it's a presidential year. 20 out of 24 years the markets have been positive, so 83% of the time. the data and history on our side, but that doesn't mean that companies -- they have to deliver, right? they've got to deliver on earnings. stuart: does it make a difference who wins the election? let's suppose trump wins, does the market like that? >> absolutely. because i think you're going to see a reversal of tax policy, a reare versal of bureaucracy,

more pro-business stance, i think investors will applaud that even ones that might not vote for him but would be much more economically inclined and tax-incyrenned -- inclined to be in paver of a republican -- in favor of a republican president. stuart: you are very interested in biotech. what's so good about it? >> all the innovation in the world happens in biotech. we want to live longer, healthier, happier lives, and it's at the epicenter of creating those cures and discoveries. if you look at all the patents in the world, about 70% are signed in the bioit can, life sciences space. this is an industry that's been under pressure. smaller biotechs have struggled, the index has basically traded flat, but we're starting to see big farm that come back can -- pharma come back and buy smaller biotechs. next year is the jpmorgan annual health care summit, i've been

saying for about 3-months now, goldman sachs even just raised almost a billion dollar fund to take advantage of -- stuart: you have some kind of, not special deal, but a way of looking at smaller biotech companies and what they're up to and and what's in the pipeline? >> we do. our firm has one of only four globally-translated data bases, so it allows us to look at any pat tent and figure out is there anyone competing against, so it gives us a unique way to get an x-ray, to look at things whether it's treatments for parkinson and understand which companies are going to be the leaders and the laggards. stuart: okay, stay with me for the hour. back to the markets, big picture here, dow is off a 150, nasdaq's down again following big losses yesterday. former attorney general bill barr says efforts to kick trump off primary ballot will, quote, empower trump. we'll get into that.

60 republicans are going to visit the border today. border guy brandon judd deals with that 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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one of the biggest if not the biggest congressional delegations to ever visit the border. they're coming at a time when records are being shatteredded. been quiet out here in eagle pass the last couple days but not so quiet in arizona last night. take a look at this in lukeville, arizona. what you can see are masses of people crossing illegally, large numbers of them adult men from africa. some of the people we talked to from liberia, congo, senegal and guinea. and specifically about guinea, tucson sector agents are being warned to look out for fake passports from guinea nationals. take a look at this internal notice we on obtained from our sources in tucson sector warning agents they're seeing an influx of framing lent or altered passports, specifically adults who are changing their date of birth, based off of interviews the begin january government may be involved in telling them to do this.

it warns agents on what to look out for when it comes to those suspected fraudulent passports and says any passports issued after june of 2023 should be considered fraudulent. in the meantime, speaker johnson going to be here in eagle pass today, and he's pointing out how it's very quiet compared to what it was a couple week ago. take a look at this tweet yet. quote: here is eagle pass weeks ago versus yesterday. the biden administration decided toty e accelerate the flood of illegal immigrants to another location in order to keep them out of the camera a shots. don't be fool pd, they are still being released into with our country under president biden. our southern border or is a disaster. and we'll talk about those record-setting numbers. take a look at graphic here. cbp sources telling fox in december alone there were over 302,000 migrant encounters. that is the highest single month ever recorded blowing all records out of the water. and you can see how it compares to the previous four years. the numbers have exploded. there's a couple trump years in

there, you can see trump's last year in office, 2020, the numbers have quadrupled sins his last month in -- since his last month in office. absolutely staggering numbers. back9 out here live, some of these republican congressmen are out here, congressman matt gaetz, andy biggs and ely crane out here meeting with texas national guard. they're waiting for the rest of the group. to get out here. cbp sources tells us since october 1st there have been over 785,000 migrant encounters at our southern border. those numbers might start to make your head spin and eyes glaze over, but that's a population size bigger than the city of seattle coming across our southern border in just three months. back to you. stuart: just extraordinary. bill melugin, thanks very much, indeed. brandon judd with me now. 60 republicans head to the border. they want to stop the migrant flow. are they going to get it, brandon? >> absolutely not. this is an administration issue, and we're seeing exactly what

this administration wants. we have open borders, and all we have to do to understand why is look at the white house, looked at the activists that are the political appointees that are in the white house. they want open borders, and they're getting exactly what they want. and so a delegation of republicans is not going to change a democrat's mind. it never has. what it does do is it shines a spotlight on the issue. it forces the mainstream issue to look at this -- media to look at this issue. if we get that honest conversation, the vast majority of americans are going to agree we need secure borders. and if they agree with that, then they're going to show up at the ballot box, and they're going to vote that way. and that's what we want to see. elections are is are consequences, and with the proper or people in, we can get the proper border security policies. stuart: the mayor of chicago, brandon johnson, he's taking $9 5 million from -- 95 million from covid funds to build migrant housing. city council members are not happy with this.

this is ruining our major cities, and it shows no sign of stopping. >> well, and it's a magnet. it's what drives illegal immigration. anytime that we offer benefits to people that violate our laws, they're going to continue to come. it's everything is about what they can get. when you look at this administration talking about irregular migration, if that were a true phrase, you would have people going to canada, you would are is people stopping in costa' a ca, people stopping in any safe country, but they're not. they're coming to the united states because of the benefits that we offer. and when you have majors like johnson and adams that are constantly going to give to people who violate our laws, they're going to continue to come. johnson needs to call for border security, and if he were to do that, we could stop the flow of people coming in, and he wouldn't have to deal with this. he doesn't want to deal with the political ramify missions. he wants to pander to his base of support which want open borders. stuart: the president says just give me the money, and we'll work on the border. he said that as he arrived back

to the white house last night. i suspect if you do give him more money, he simply uses it to process more people more quickly, right? >> yeah. stuart, we don't need more money. we don't need more infrastructure or technology. we need policy. policy doesn't cost the taxpayer a dime. we should not be shifting the burden onto the taxpayer. if this administration would give us the proper policy, we could secure the border tomorrow. president trump proved that. i was there, i saw it, i worked with him on it. all we need is the proper policy and, again, stuart, it doesn't cost the taxpayer a dime. stuart: brandon judd, come back soon, please. we'll see you later, i'm sure. you've got to listen to this one, a new report claims that one maryland county may be looking to create a school board seat that only, only undocumented migrants can vote on. lauren, is this for real? lauren: i suppose so is. i mean, according to the washington times, that's howard county, maryland, and officials are arguing that the 14th amendment allows them to create

a student-appointed seat on the school board which is exclusively voted on by undocumented students. of course, this has drawn a lot of criticism from parents in that county who say it's unconstitutional on the basis of voting discrimination and, obviously, they are currently fighting it out in the federal appeals court, stuart. stuart: i guess it's for real. thanks, lauren. check those futures, please. we're zipping a little bit more. -- sinking a little bit more. down 160 on the dow, 114 on the nasdaq. the opening bell is next. ♪ ♪ you know what's interesting these days?

bitcoin. look for bitwise, my friends.

stuart: plenty of red ink, left-hand side of the screen. let's bring in shah gallon canny who used to be the king of dip buying. shah ghailani. this is a dip. are you buying it? >> not, we're not done yet. i think we can go a little bit lower, but, absolutely, i'm in buy the dip mode. s this is, to me, just a bit of overbought territory here as far as -- everything, bonds have been overbought, stocks have been overbought, a.i. hype has been overbought. there's a lot of overbought situations here. it's not unusual for the markets

to take a breath. we can't go up all the time. i think we are in positive bull mode. i think buy the dips is found to be the theme for 2024. and not unlike 2023, i think we'll probably end up having a solid january. so i think as one of the old wall street adages is as january goes, so goes the market. that was certainly true last year. and each though we had -- even though we had a lot of bumps, i'm not saying we're not going to have bumps in 2024, stuart, but i think at the end of the year we're going to have another spectacular year. stuart: whoa, whoa, wait a minute, a spectacular year. now, that tells me 15, 20% up across the board? >> yeah. stuart: would that be spectacular? >> right in my -- absolutely, right in my wheelhouse. i'm saying on the high end maybe 20 on s&p. i think the nasdaq can do a heck of a lot better than that. that's a feel around year in my book. stuart well, well, well well, you'll be back for -- before you mow e it, my friend. [laughter] apple, they've had several

downgrades. premarket, 184 many -- this morning. would you buy that on the dip? >> no, stuart. i made the mistake of we sold out of -- we got stomped out of our apple at 185, so i missed the rest of the year when it made new highs. the reason that we got stopped out, we had a stop in appling,ing we've been holding it for a long time. i didn't think the refresh cycle was going to be positive. i don't see a heck of a lot out there for apple. i'm just not seeing the application of a. i. in the smartphone or in the ecosystem that i would is have hoped to have seen already or at least talk about that. i think when we tart to see that, i think apple's going to be a buy. i think it's got lower to go. a lot of investors own apple. if it catches a bit of a downdraft, there's going to be a lot of stops that are going to be hit -- stuart: it was a very sudden turn-around, i can't remember which investment firm started it, it was yesterday. barclays, that that's right, put out a town grade, and it just

went down, down, down from there. any point that apple could reach on the downside where you would buy it? >> i haven't looked at it in terms of where i would buy it because i'm really just watching the action on it right now to see where it goes. for me it's probably going to be a technical bottom somewhere. i would like to see it be a fundamental bottom where tim cook come out and says we are now typing this with a.i., we're applying it in smartphones, but i think probably even more technical basis maybe around 120. now, that's a big drop, but some of my technical analysis says we could possibly get down there. stuart: okay. we'll dwell more on that at another time as well. you're not into apple, and that's a fact. that's the bottom line from this interview, you're not into apple. got it. shah gallonny, thank you very much, indeed. the market is about to open. as we usually do, left-hand side of the screen, the big board, new york stock exchange, right-hand side the nasdaq composite. have they hit the button yet?

if come on, hit the button, please. yes, they have, and the market is open. the dow on the downside, 100 points lower. that's at the opening bell. right now we're off 104. that's just over one-quarter of 1 is %. can we get the big pictures up there, or are we just going to have to do with the clappers? 37,600 on the dow, that is your level as as we speak. it is down 106 points. have question got the dow -- we got the dow 30 socks? show me, please. let's go to the s&p 500, down one-half of 1%. the nasdaq, i suspect that's down sharply too just as yesterday. a little slow on the technology this morning, but we're there. we're down 112 on the nasdaq, three-quarters of 1%. big tech, all of them down again. amazon below 150, microsoft below 370. meta is coming in there at 344. i've got apple at 1844 and and alphabet at $184 and alphabet at

13. let's get back to apple. lou bass with niece is with me this morning. would you buy this dip,1184? >> not yet -- 18. i love and respect -- 18. 184. i think right now the number you want to look at, the level is below 175 heading into the next earnings report. apple will report earnings beginning of february. they're expected to report $118 billion in sales. if they hit that, it'll be the first year-over-year growth in sales in, excuse me, 2-3 years. so i think that could turn this around. you have rotten analysts, not at rotten apple, in my opinion. i've held it almost as long as you've held microsoft, so -- stuart: you're not that old, son. [laughter] i want to take a look at rivian. they are, of course, an ev maker. they started the year down so 10%. what's going on, lauren? lauren: basically, they didn't deliver enough vehicles. the exact number, 13,972.

that's it. handed to customers in the final three months of last year. but that was 140 fewer than the street was expecting. but they only make two types of cars for customers, that's it, and a van for ham ash amazon. so just two types of vehicles, and today they're recalling more than 7800 of them for model year 2022. there was an issue with the accelerator pedal. stuart: and down they go again. here's another one. moderna, they've had a great start to the year. down a little bit today, but they were up yesterday. the story, please? lauren: yeah, up 13% yesterday. don't count them out after covid because they do have this promise promising pipeline. an rsv vaccine is expected this year, then a combined covid and flu if shot by 2025. so if you bring these new products to market, you bring down your r&d spending, so your sales grow, your profits grow, and that's all expected by 2025. so another look at moderna after

kind of the covid treason si died down just a little bit. stuart i want to take a look at bitcoin. they had a nice gain yesterday. i think they were at $a 4,000 a coin. today, 42 -- 45,000 yesterday. what's going on, lauren? lauren: look, the rally still has steam. this is kind of like dry january for a lot of asset classes. [laughter] so right now, i mean, you have regulators sitting on at least 13 applications for what's called a bitcoin spot etf. it's widely expected that it could be approved, at least one of them, by as early as next week. i keep hearing january 10th. and that's e what's fueled bitcoin's recent rise. i mean, we saw yesterday the best number since april of 20222. what an etf would do would throw open the market to millions more investors and billions of dollars of their investment money. stuart: got it. thank you, lauren. let's turn to nvidia. i'm not quite sure the

pronunciation. nvidia. they had a 400% runup last year. surely, lou basenese, they're not going to do that again, are they? >> i really hope not, because mysed it last year. no, they're priced to perfection. they had a phenomenal year. the a.i. hype train has left the station. it's very hard to put up those type it's of numbers year in and year out. i think you've got to row tate out and look for other compelling a.i. plays. one that i mentioned is inod, they provide services behind the scenes for all the big tech companies. look at the second tier, not the nvidias of the world to have a huge run -- stuart: this year a.i. has to show up on the bottom line of corporations which are using a.i -- >> it absolutely has. you get a peak of inflated expectations, that was 2023. we're headed right toward the bottom of the trough. that's coming in 2024. people are going to be

disappointed. what's the next new thing on our minds by the middle of the year. stuart: you always bring with stock picks with you, and you brought with you today mad arely gal. i believe that's e a biotech. >> remember, i'm stick thing to my knitting here of saying biotech is the epicenter of innovation. madrigal is a company that could have the first approved drug for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease which impacted over a million people per year. madrigal is up for approval on march 14th, on or before march 14th. this could be a blockbuster truck if they get that approval. it looks like a strong, compelling opportunity. stuart: is there a biotech etf that you into? >> xbi, which is the xbi etf holds smaller retail companies. it's rebounded about 30, 40% off the october lows. it could double from where it's at now just to get back to covid levels, so i think this is a compelling opportunity because you see big pharma coming in and

sweeping out some of these, about a hundred biotechs developing innovative therapies that are trading will less than cash on the balance shed. -- sheet. stuart: if you wanted to broaden out to lower cap stock, you'd go with the russell -- >> i do. again, this is a about tactical rotation. you saw large caps, shah shah gilani if thinks the mayor indexes could be up 20, 30% this year in i say hogwash. you've seen large capsty e verge from small cap toss a 20-year high. it's been unprecedented. we need to see the small caps rally back. and if you look back to the dot.com days when the market crashed in 1999 and 2000, small caps rallied for the next 12 years. i think we've got an interestin- stuart: we've got a battle of the regular isen -- regulars on our hands. almost 7 minutes into the session, the big board shows a loss of 136 -- 160 points. dow winners, have we got that

list, please? i believe we do. there you go. verizon, merck, unitedhealth, travelers, walmart on the list. top winners among the dow 30. s&p 500 winners, topping that list we have -- let me read it, please -- eli lilly, cardinal health, ameriprise, nickerson corporation and -- [inaudible] don't know that one. nasdaq winners, we have at the top t-mobile, o'reilly automotive, constellation energy, pepsico, amgen. there's your list. here's what's coming up, one california city's ban on natural gas appliances was just struck the down by the courts. that's not all. there's now a temporary hold on similar bans in other cities. [laughter] i like that. we've got a full report for you. seattle has the highest minimum wage of any major city, $19.97 an hour. what's that typing to price locally? jace the -- what's that doing to prices locally? jason rantz has that story. and the most overpriced real

estate in the country. we have the list, and we will be back. ♪ let me come home. ♪ home is wherever with you ♪

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stuart: 12 minutes in to the second trading day of the new year. nasdaq's come back a bit, it's only down 80. we talk a lot about the blue state exodus in '23. now, we know they left california and new york, but, lauren, do we know where they went last year? lauren: the same place the year before in 2022, texas. it's been number one for u-haul's top test nations for 6 of the pasting years -- destinations, with a net gain of 474,000 residents just last year. texas alone. folks also loving sunny and and low-tax florida. north and south carolina as well

as tennessee right there at number five. meanwhile, number 50 is california. they continue to bleed population, a net loss of 342,000 residents in 2023, stuart. stuart: and the governor wants to be the president of the united states of america. that's interesting. lauren: good luck with that. stuart: lou basenese still with me, hanging on. any of those states where people are moving to surprising? >> not at all. money goes where it's reit thered best. so do people, right? three of those are tax-free states, texas, florida and temperature. no income taxes in the state thes. not surprised at all. stuart: there's no state estate tax in florida either. >> no, there's not. the homestead exemption also allows you to segregate, what, i think 10-15 million of your own personal property as well, so there's a lot of tax advantages to being in these 3 of the top 5 states. stuart: florida especially. thanks, lou. florida atlantic university, they put out a list of the most overpriced housing markets in

america. five of them are in florida. and the most overpriced market is atlanta. our real estate guy is mitch roschelle, and she -- he joins me now. does it surprise you so many overpriced markets are in florida? it surprises me and i don't like it. >> welcome to florida virtually, stuart. [laughter] because i'm here. i'm living proof. i moved from new york to florida for those very reasons. but, no, i'm not surprised at all. one thing -- and i love fau, it's our local school down here in palm beach county. the one with thing i would say is they're comparing historical trends of sale prices of homes over, you know, decades to current listing prices, and that's how they're deeming home prices to be overpriced. but it doesn't surprise me at all. the one that surprised me, actually, was number one, atlanta. because atlanta is, you know, in georgia, and it's not one of those prime states. but what it tells you is that

there's growth in places outside of the big coastal cities like new york and california and why georgia and atlanta in particular is so is relatively inexpense -- expensive, because that economy is growing. and where economies grow, housing markets follow. stuart: got it. nearly a quarter of first-time home buyers lived with their parents before buying their own home in 2023. a quarter. what does that tell you about the real estate market or the housing market? if. >> well, it tells you that it's unattainable for most. interesting about that report is it actually dropped, i think, from 27% down to, like, 23%. so it's still roughly a quarter. but if you look at at the historical trends in housing, it's not uncommon at all for, you know, young couples to rent before they buy or even try to save money by living with their focus or living with family. so that -- folks or living with

family. that's not overly alarming. what's unique about it is we went through this whole period where millennials were sort of living on their parents' couches for a variety of reasons, and affordability really wasn't one of them. now we have this major affordability challenge for first-time home buyer, and that's the thing that worries me. because i think the ownership of a home for a family is probably the greatest wealth accumulator in their lifetime. stuart: but it's not going away, is it? prices remain elevated, shall we say that. >> not. stuart: mortgage rates remain elevated. that's going to take a long time to dissipate. we're going to have a lot of people living at home before they can buy their first home. this is not going away. >> no, it's not. and here i sit in florida, my kids are still here -- [laughter] they haven't gone back to their places. why wouldn't you when mom and dad pay for everything? i don't think it's going to go

away. what i will say, because i know you like predictions, i do think we're going to see housing prices continue to go up this year because mortgage rates are going to fall. and those folks who are living with mom and dad, their demand, they want to buy a home. and as soon as they see any kind of a crack like mortgage rates falling a point, point and a half, they're e going to jump into the housing market. and we've done nothing to create enough supply for all of those buyers. stuart: and mom and dad will have to chip in for the down payment, presumably. i remember those days. >> of course they will. [laughter] stuart: they will. if you can, you will. that's the way it is. mitch, thanks a lot. see you again soon. >> you bet. stuart: coming up, a university should be an academic her her tock racy, compete to be the best in your field. sadly, that's not what universities are about in america today. the mess of harvard is the most prominent example. that will be my take, top of the next hour. with $34 trillion in debt, all right, what happens now? we have a report from the white house on that. that is next. ♪

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♪ stuart: the federal government just hit another debt milestone. it's not a good milestone by any means. we're more than $434 trillion in debt. -- 34 trillion. edward lawrence with us. any plan for the white house to slow spending? >> reporter: yeah, none whatsoever. [laughter] this is not even a milestone that that the white house will celebrate with, $34 trillion in debt. it is a reminder that the u.s. is on an unsustainable financial path. we've heard that from the federal reserve chairman. so just last september we topped $33 trillion for the national debt can. here we are three months later, it passed $34 trillion. now, republicans want to cut spending, democrats want to keep the level of spending and raise money through irs enforcement as well as add other piece. both parties partly responsible for the spending. this is what president biden signed into law in his e first two years, the chips act, bipartisan infrastructure bill and omnibus spending bill. it had bipartisan support. all of this represents about $6 trillion in spending. the fiscal debt will play a big role in this year's presidential

election. listen. >> don't start with blast year's budget as the baseline and try to massage it around the edges. start with zero as the baseline and ask what's actually necessary. that's how you fight the national debt crisis in this country. >> reporter: the president of the committee for a responsible federal budget says we can be a weak divided country where our leaders fight, pander and take the easy way out while we become increasingly vulnerable, or we can do the hard work to become stronger, more secure and more prosperous in the long run. still, president biden vowing to keep going when it comes to student debt cancellation. he wants to cancel -- so far they've canceled $1323 billion in taxpayer $132 billion worth of student debt that was forgiven. the president says he will keep going, he wants to do a total of $433 billion worth with of student debt cancellation. again, no slowing down of spending at the white house,

stu. stuart: we hear you. and now this, a federal appeals court or strikes down berkeley, california's, ban on natural gas stoves. i want to hear more about this, please. lauren. lauren: if you recall, they were the first in the nation to pass this ban on natural gas in new construction. this was back in 2019. it went into effect in 2020. then you have this group of chefs that are literally sued the city because they didn't want to cook on an electric stove. they said it would impact hair business. it doesn't taste the same. [laughter] then the city appealed, and now the nine it circuit -- circuit rules that only the federal government has jurisdiction to regulate the energy being used by a business or a less eden, and such laws should be uniform and not determined by a certain city or a certain state. stuart: you know, that could be considered the good news of the day. lauren: well, i don't want to burst your bubble, but berkeley says they will appeal this again, and it could go all the

way to the supreme court. stuart: everything goes to the supreme court these days. lauren: they're very busy. [laughter] stuart: lauren, thanks. lou, you know, this country's not ready to ban gas stoves, is it? >> why should they? natural gas, wasn't it the clean air act of the early 1990s? and california ushered in the use of compressed natural gas buses, and here we are berkeley tries to ban natural gas piping. and the ninth circuit court of appeals, the most liberal court in the land notoriously, actually ruled in a logical fasmghts 2024 would be an amazing year. stuart: lou, thanks very much for joining us. thank you very much, sir. still ahead, liz peek says 2024 will be the year dei will lose its mojo. i agree with that. jackie deangelis on donald trump's appeal to maine's ruling keeping him off the primary ballot there. louisiana senator bill cassidy deals with his tate's new carbon storage wells. the greens are furious with.

and it seems to me that biden is under wraps while trump is way out in front. martha maccallum on that a little later. the 10:00 hour of "varney & company" is next. ♪ you can run and you can hide, but i'm not leaving until you come with me. ♪ we've had our problems, but i'm on your side. ♪ you're all i need ♪ a force to be reckon with. no, not you saquon. .. py? that's new! yup, that's how you business differently.