a status symbol, there's a special starbucks lab coat that is hot pink so people outside target camping out to get this, target has to hand out tickets. i have no idea. it is mind-boggling. i'm not a stanley cup -- charles: is it an investment beanie baby kind of thing? charles: it is short-lived. we will be on to the next trendy water bottle. charles: they had rock money. may be -- >> stanley cup money. charles: i appreciate you have so much wisdom, thanks a lot. lauren:i thought my lululemon

water bottle was the next big thing. have a good weekend. look at this denuded response from investors after a shocking jobs report. wall street doesn't know what to do with the increase in the number of jobs added in december and that has resulted in choppy but mostly lower trading at the moment. the s&p is down three and the nasdaq lower by 18. what we saw in december at 46,000 more jobs, the more than wall street expected, total number 260,000. we look at the unemployment rate, stayed steady at 3.7%, that was the 24th consecutive month, and the 10 year yield spiked on this moon news, went up to 4. one% but started to back off. we got a separate report

showing the service sector of the economy where most people are employed, activity slowed a bit. activity at 3. 9% looking at the 10 year. for the week down. the 9 week winning streak wall street was celebrating for much of last year is over. all three major averages lower on the wii on the week, nasdaq is down 3% in the first week of the new year, down 3. 4%. %. the s&p is down 3/4%. another rough week for the company and moment to go breaking news from the new york times that apple could be facing an antitrust lawsuit from the department of justice, the doj is in late stages of their investigation that focuses on apple's hardware and software and how they use it to

maintain the dominance, apple down at $0.46 a share. at $0.46 a share. that's adding to major losses for the week. apple is down 6%. two downgrades due to the fact their moneymaker is losing its popularity, apple's market dangerously close, dangerously close is an overstatement because both companies have near 3 valuation but apple is close to microsoft. if you look at the gap the difference in valuation is one hundred million dollars. who will come out on top? we have our trader from the stock exchange, teddy weisberg. and we also have chief economist joe look guardia. let's start with the jobs report, good or bad? >> good news and bad news.

all the pundits predicting rate cuts and timing of the rate cuts, nobody knows. it's it a lot of wishful thinking and the markets the last few months of 23, the reality is nobody knows what the fed is going to do but as long as the economy stays strong, it is a little aggressive. lauren: i wonder if rate cuts are aggressive. i was looking at wage growth. there' s inflation in wages, 4.1% on the year and look at the labor force participation rate that starts to fall, fewer workers are available to work and that is inflationary in and of itself. >> i'm not a believer the market drives inflation, but earlier in the week, fell

again, that suggests wages moderate. the reason participation is down is 700,000 people lost their jobs according to household survey. when we look at the payroll data better than we expected but if you look at private jobs excluding healthcare which is related to the government private sector jobs are up 40,000. of the leading indicator of manufacturing at a record low. ism employment at a 14 year low. we've got a lot of weakness, pockets of strength but very ephemeral at this point and with the leading indicators down 20 months in the yield curve so deeply inverted, we get fed using. lauren: the recession comes in 2024?

>> more fiscal spending in light of the change in leadership. for school spending at the same time, the fed was really aggressive in cutting rates maybe we could stave off recession but this environment is similar to the 2,006-2,008 period where it took two years for it to roll over. >> i think one thing no one is talking about is this is an election year and the government will do everything they can to put lipstick on a pig. in spite of what probably makes sense in the numbers the government is going to do everything they can to get the economy pumped up and keep it going, is the fed political, your guess is as good as mine but there is some connection and enlarge step i think maybe we get rate reductions but on balance i think nothing will happen that will derail the

economy and make things look bad as elections come around in november which is good for the stock market. lauren: let's move on to apple. could the department of justice reportedly about to wrap up their investigation of the size of apple and how it abuses its dominance of the market to crowd out competitors, there are so many cases against apple at this point. >> probably a better question but from an administrative regulatory framework, i don't think we are doing the things necessary to get the economy moving in a strong way. the infrastructure act, inflation reduction act i don't look at those as moderating inflation.

it has been very anti-growth, tax policies very anti-growth. broadly speaking i would take issue with a lot of programs the administration has put in place. can't speak to apple specifically. lauren: wise apple a better question for you? i don't see you as the tech genus over here. i could be wrong. >> we finished the year on a very positive note and there is a tendency for folks not to take profits in 2,023 but take them in january if not a little later. for the simple reason they can postpone any tax liability not to this april but april 2025. the fact the market finished strong and we see general weakness in a couple days does not make a year. this is standard operating procedure. as far as apple, the government

spends a lot of time and a ton of money chasing these big tech companies. seems to be endless. the justice department has nothing else to do. it's not positive for apple but apple like many big tech companies deal with it, get through with it and do what they have to do but apple at the end of the day, made a lot of money for the last 10 years so maybe it gives a little back here but apple is not another polaroid. lauren: thank you for the time, have a good weekend. it is not going to be a good weekend for many folks in the country. the us is expected to battle a wave of extreme weather on this first weekend of the new year. let's start with the coast of california, pounded with another round of hazardous waves, 16 feet driven by strong

wind patterns, the southeast has been put on tornado watch. severe thunderstorms collide with humid air out of the gulf of mexico, that could generate tornadoes. the first snowstorm of the season barreling towards the northeast and with that we go to fox weather's rick reichmuth, who is monitoring the nor'easter. >> reporter: happy new year to you. first i have seen you this year. wish you all the best. this is a storm we are talking about causing snow across the panhandle of texas. we had some spots, 5 to 8 inches of snow in texas, 5 to 8 inches more than you have in new york city or philadelphia over the last couple years. this is the storm bringing rain across louisiana throughout the night, get ready for the threat for severe weather in the central and eastern gulf coast and by tomorrow that moves across much of florida, strong

wind and threat for tornadoes. we don't get a lot of this kind of weather generally this time of year in florida but we have to watch for this. another element of the storm is ice across the central and southern appalachians. around roanoke towards high point. be careful as you head out tomorrow morning. could be a coating of ice, power outages from this, winter storm warnings and happened had a really big storm across much of the northeast. that is how this plays out saturday. flooding concerns. snow on the northern side and through late evening tomorrow. interior sections of the northeast get a storm around this. coastal areas, more rain than snow. this is i-95 along the coast and anywhere west of that you

get more elevation and farther away to see the impact of the ocean, and a longer i-95, dc through baltimore and philadelphia, in new york, same story, we get the bull's-eye of this, and 5 or 6 inches. not that kind of nor'easter, it's impactful across interior sections around sussex, new york around the cut off, rain versus snow, they have, have nots. boston, 528 inches by the time all this is done. this active pattern is going to continue, the next storm towards monday talking about

storm in central plains. farther west track means a lot of rain across the northeast tuesday into wednesday and all those places that got this, 5 to 10 inches of snow melting quickly with a lot of rain this week, big flooding concerns tuesday and wednesday across the northeast. lauren: everything will be open. won't be so bad. good to see you. fox weather is your destination for the latest weather news and forecasts for the winter storm, you can watch a simulcast on fox weather on fox business sunday morning from 11:54 eastern time or stream on your favorite connected device, fox weather always on. will this blustery winter translate to higher heating oil and natural gas prices or will it increase tensions in the middle east push prices up? secretary of state antony

blinken heading to the middle east, what is ahead for commodity prices, we talked to diversified energy, 85% of its business involves natural gas spiking this week. energy stocks mixed bag, bp up, exxon flat and chesapeake is down 1%. more countdown coming up. what do you mean? these straps are mind-blowing! they collect hundreds of data points like hrv and rem sleep, so you know all you need for recovery. and you are? i'm an investor...in invesco qqq, a fund that gives me access to... nasdaq 100 innovations like... wearable training optimization tech. uh, how long are you... i'm done. i'm okay.

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c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. lauren: breaking news from the wall street journal. a potential tie up in the

natural gas space with southwestern energy and chesapeake energy close to our merger that could come as early as next week that would create a $17 billion oil natural gas company ranking as one of the largest in the country. this deal could come as soon as next week according to people familiar with the situation as they spoke to the journal, chesapeake stock, the talks could hitting last-minute snag. chesapeake produced gas, southwestern produced 4 billion. the two combined would leapfrog and likely become the largest gas producer. look at southwestern shares, fox business exclusive talking about the consolidation in the energy space, the diversified energy cofounder randa ceo

joining us from the stock exchange, thanks for coming on. your business, 85% natural gas. >> it is not surprising. we've been hearing about it. it is indicative of where the industry is going. 2024, we've seen several big mergers in the last 12 month, definitely more coming, there need to be more consistency on the drilling side keeping production at levels that make sense for the future and the demand, we will see more of these occur. lauren: you have the white house coming after you, your industry with methane emission rules and asking you to produce more and making it harder to

produce more. >> a tough dynamic to manage through. from my perspective in our company what we decided to do, that is noise around production but let's go produce it in a manner that is environmentally safe and sound and do it the right way and not give politics a reason to care how we are doing it. lauren: house democrats are probing your company. diversified energy, leaving thousands of marginal wells unplugged for decades to undermine efforts to fight climate change. how are you responding to them? >> we are reviewing it and crafting a response we say is

an open question we talked about in the past. we want to be transparent because we feel we are doing it the right way, working on programs to reduce emissions and safely retire wells at the appropriate time. we are the right company at the right time. who else would do what we are doing in terms of having a massive retirement company available, largest in the appalachian basin to take care of these assets over the long haul. we want to keep the wells in production. we need that production as a country, to fulfill the needs of export capacity we are bringing on the next couple years. lauren: if i could switch to crude oil it is a reason to celebrate. the united states of america has record crude oil production, 13.3 million barrels a day. that's the ingenuity of american drilling and drillers

in texas, north dakota doing it as an environmentally clean as they possibly can. we've seen that but we've seen gas prices. gas buddy is saying the national average could go under $3 a gallon in the next couple weeks but you don't hear that from anybody in the administration, does it frustrate you you are doing what you are supposed to be doing but no one is thanking you? >> we have this middle east tension, would have resulted in oil prices spiking to $120 easily over any kind of tension. we have the tension in the $70 range. that's the ingenuity of us producers, producing more efficiently and put supply in the market to offset these

dynamics taking place in the globe and would have caused spikes in the past. we need to be celebrated as an industry, it's not just for the globe but national security. at the end of the day we are doing what is necessary to keep our country safe and supplied the world with a viable source of energy, natural gas, and oil. lauren: we would have seen oil pass to hundred of this were a couple years ago but we have so much of our own. thank you very much. let's pivot back to equity, it's been choppy all day investors trying to figure out if we get a soft landing, how strong the job market is and what the fed will do about it. the s&p could change back to the positive. the dow is down 23 points. the high of the session the dow is up one hundred 80 points. a lot of volatility, nasdaq

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lauren: president biden making his first campaign speech of the new year in bluebell, pennsylvania making his 2024 election remarks near the side of valley forge where george washington's continental army faced blizzard like conditions in winter of 1777-78. washington spoke to his troops about the, quote, sacred cause of democracy. this is one day before the third anniversary of the violent riot at the us capitol, january 6, 2021. president biden is using this moment to make this argument the gop front runner, donald

trump will undermine america's democracy and freedom if he were to win another term. the latest real clear political average polling donald trump is up by 2.2 points in a hypothetical matchup between trump and biden. we will keep an eye on president biden's remarks and let you know. we have fox business alert. palantir technology is up 2. 6%. jeffrey's came out, they've cut the price target to 13 from 28 and downgraded the stock, the concern is they rally to unsustainable levels and the ai hype may be overblown. palantir is up 157% over the past year. shares of peloton are up after news of its partnership with tiktok with its dedicated hub to share its content on the apps.

investors are optimistic that peloton leads them. it is sharply down from their pandemic highs. costco stock reported a whopping sales increase in a superpopular shopping month of december, sales last month jumping 9.9% annually to $26 billion led by an 18% rise in online sales, fueled in december because you had an additional shopping day due to the timing of the new year holiday. cosco costco at $6.53 up four dollars. tesla calling back one. 6 million cars in china to fix problems with autopilot steering and the door locks, regulators said both issues can be repaired free over the air, you don't have to bring the car

to the dealership and in china, impact models 3 x,s, and,y. speaking of tesla. jeff flock spent the week in a white model-emac as he took the long way home from the christmas holiday by driving from chicago to new york. his sidekick is well-known, fox business starfield producer. they document of their trip including multiple stops along the way to get the ev fully charged. jeff flock joins us from the newsroom. have you ever driven ev or tesla before this experience? jeff: i test drove once long ago and managed to scrape it along the curb so i've been forgiven up to that point. we rented one for this trip.

dan and i in a car together, that was a trip in itself. look at the range, the rage and anxiety is one thing in town but on the open road, is the range what they say it is? i am not happy to report that you need to take a look at those numbers. watch this. chicago to new york in an ev. according to czeslaw's routing it should take 16 hours compared to a gas car which would be 13. 5. stuart: you were supposed to arrive friday, will you make on time? >> fingers crossed. off we go. our first charging stopping indiana we traveled one hundred 12 miles, the battery was supposed to take us 219 backing up skills required to access. a half-hour later we are back

on the open road, charging stop number 2 in ohio. the battery should have taken us 205 miles but we only got 127. we stopped for the night in o'leary, ohio not far from cleveland. 38 miles remaining, this morning, didn't do anything, 15 miles remaining. the tesla software around us to the nearest supercharger in sheffield, ohio. >> could have gotten another 15 feet. stopping off in gerard, ohio for the second charge of the dayco we traveled 87 miles since the last charge, 46 miles less than anticipated. we headed back to the highway,

three more stops to juice up, 58% to 69% mileage the car estimated. for two days, 808 miles of roads, and driving. an hour longer than the car estimated. 3.5 hours longer than a gas car would take. in fairness, tesla does say there are reasons the range is what we think it would be. if it is cold or hot got to run the ac, the heater. if you're going uphill are going really fast, they explain it that way but keep an eye where you are, you probably won't get as far as you go. lauren: my first expense with and ev was a tesla. i rented a car and that was the only car left. in the middle of the night, i did not know the city i was in and i said i don't know how to

use this thing. it was scary. there's a steep learning curve. jeff: i have covered the auto industry, it has to sit in the center console. i didn't know that so i am goofing around, how do i turn this on? feel like an old man which i am but a crotchety old man. lauren: you had three hours with stand. send my love. jeff flock, thank you. "the claman countdown" is going to vegas to cover the consumer electronics show. automakers will be showing off their automotive tech and liz claman is getting ready to showcase all the advancements in auto tech. much more. that was 2,022. that is very updated at this

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neil: we are three days from the consumer electronics show in las vegas. this year's powerful tech event will have 2.5 million net square feet of exhibits worth 4,000 strong and a goal of 30,000 people. one third of whom are from outside the us. "the claman countdown" team will be heading out for 2024,

broadcasting that live next week. joining us with a preview is gary shapiro. it is big but is bigger better? >> it is better when it comes to innovation and excitement. products that make a difference in people's lives. we see those exhibitors showing amazing stuff that will make us smarter, more educated, safer, healthier, more connected and do fun new things. lauren: do we have to believe the ai hypo. is there a company that is going to have something not ai related? can that happen? >> there will be many companies that don't have ai but many will and that will be exciting whether it is digital twins or solutions for safety, better way of keeping your healthcare records in a way to help you

stay healthier, those are so many things out there and we are seeing this deploy more forces and companies around coming to the consumer as well with all sorts of products. is the big story of the show, artificial intelligence. a year since generative ai and a lot of things companies will be talking about. lauren: 230 million phones and pcs will shift with ai capabilities in them. is that true? >> if you think about it you're smart speakers have ai embedded in them. the phones themselves, talk about him - having them -- having them separated out, helping with the learning and there's a difference between ai and generative ai. a fight -- ai has self driving cars, generative ai allows you to learn, not to take the same way it always takes, the way you like to go to get you home

in your car so there's a big difference. generative ai is kicking up innovation and accelerating through companies all over the world. lauren: any new categories you are excited about? >> we have lori all's ceo, agriculture technology which is huge, a lot of companies and construction companies as well but of course ar nvr or xor if you want to put them together, the kind of reality we are seeing in companies like hdc with vibe, magic leap where it could help a surgeon to get what they have to get in a more efficient way with practical applications as opposed to theoretical ones. lauren: i'm seeing lose claimant about to throw up and i don't know what that device

is. exar's vr and ar put together. >> it is a summary that describes everything with an are in it. speaking of liz claman i want to give her a shout out, she has been the greatest. we can't start the show without her and she's a great reporter. she was there during the omicron ces when a lot of reporters wouldn't show up. she knows what it means to be a great reporter. lauren: she will be there next week. i will give you a preview right now. i can't remember all these guests. tuesday through thursday. here's the lineup of the guests. put it on the screen. mercedes-benz usa ceo demetre skyworks solutions griffin and many more next week on "the claman countdown" live from vegas at the consumer electric show. i have this apps so you can get

around, walmart, big-box retailer is sponsoring it. go figure. take a look at bitcoin stumbling today, bracing for an upcoming decision on approval for an etf tied directly to the world's largest crypto currency. despite that, crypto stocks down 8. 9%. what's the buzz on wall street? charlie breaks that next. ♪ eryone. baby: liberty. oh! baby: liberty. how many people did you tell? only pay for what you need. jingle: ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ baby: ♪ liberty. ♪ a force to be reckon with. no, not you saquon. hm? you! your business bank account with quickbooks money, now earns 5% apy.

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♪ ♪ lauren: about to close out the first official trading week of the new year. a tough week. nasdaq selling off to the tune of 3% on the week, but look here, everything's positive. not by much. huge swings in volatility today as we got surprisingly strong jobs report and a surprisely soft services sector report. investors not sure what jay powell is going to do with all this, but nonetheless, decent news with a few minutes left before the closing bell sounds on wall street. the price of bitcoin, it's also been all over the place. it's up 3% on the week, but

pretty sharp swings in this week, various rumors about the imminent -- they's the best worn mark bitcoin spot etf approval that could potentially come from the securities and exchange commission. now in the final stages of whether they're going to approve that. the asset managers blackrock, grey scale and others are confident they'll get the green light from sec chairman gary gensler by next wednesday. charlie gasparino's been following it all. are you optimistic, charlie? >> you know, this sounds like that shakespearean sonnet tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, preaching at this petty pace from day-to-day, til the last syllable of time. lauren: i was surprised you didn't look down. you don't have a teleprompter, do you? >> i never use a teleprompt per. i'm a little bit dyslexics. in any event, it looks like it's not today. -- sec closes up early. i think we're going to hear

something, and i'm going to praise it -- phrase it this way, i'm not going to see it's happening until i see it, but i think we're going to see something. that's what we're being told, the guidance that's been given to the issuer, and there's, i think, 14 of them, big company, they're going to issue a spot bitcoin etf. the guidance is something along the lines of wednesday this starts rolling out. it's unclear if they're going to give it to all of them. they're probably not according to ellie, my price, who as i said in the past, she's the axe on this. front and center on this story. those are all the firms. you get the first ones, you'll probably get are the most -- the ones with the complete applications, and, you know, karat think wood's ark -- cathie wood's ark investment has been there from the beginning, she would get it first. blackrock -- i don't think blackrock has ever had an etf that was denied by the sec. so i think that probably will be among the first ones, and then you roll them out.

now, that's if they approve it. there's always a chance with gary gensler because he hates crypto -- lauren: is that why they're down today, the stock? >> it's not the stock -- lauren: the bitcoin and crypto-related stocks are mostly lower. >> i don't know, i think there's some profit taking here. i've always thought once they approve this thing, you know, you might see a little runoff, then it's going to trade off -- lauren: buy the rumor, sell the news. >> plus it went up so much on the rumor, you know, and we've been reporting that it was nearing a decision, and people felt really comfortable. so, again, you know, i don't give investment and trading advice. i would just say it looks like it's going to be next week. the best we can say it's probably going to be around midweek they'll roll this out. the likelihood, again, not definitely they're going to e approve this thing. and if they do, i mean, that's a seminal event in crypto. i mean, i don't think i can understate this. creating an etf, even though

it's got some funky characteristics to it, you can't exchange your bitcoin for the etf, you have to pay in cash, you have to -- when you cash out, redeem, you have to redeem in cash. so that's a little bit different than most etfs. but if it does happen, it means bitcoin is mainstreamed in a way because you can buy with it on exchange, go to the new york stock exchange, go to blackrock, a broker in a way that hasn't been done before. it's -- it'll be an interesting -- lauren: opens up to millions of nervous ors. >> yes, next week is going to be a big week if they approve this which we think they will. lauren: but, charlie, the late, great charlie munger called bitcoin -- >> what, crap? lauren: rat poison, right in. >> i thought he said crap. lauren: maybe he said that too. [laughter] >> listen, you know, every time i say this is garbage, it goes up, going, tennessee you know, a gazillion points, and people are like, see? i told you. lauren: it's been through a lot, a lot of drama with a lot of big people who have got in trouble, and it's still here.

thank you, charlie gasparino. >> you've got it. lauren: after a volatile end of 2023, how how did the hedge funds shake out? aqr capital management topped the charts with a return of, get this, 18.5%. ken griffin's citadel gained over 15.. steve cohen's asset management up about 10. 6%. easy england arers' e millenium management up 10% but bridgewater associates lost 7.6% last year. our countdown closer has a few plays to keep your portfolio on top this year. joining me now with $448 billion in assets under management, u.s. bank wealth management senior investment strategist rob hay worth. rob, thank you for joining us. >> great to be here. lauren: what's your investing advice for this we're? -- year? >> yeah, we're starting the year off at a fairly9 neutral

position where we think you need to own stocks and bonds. we've had people my grate away from cash over time. i think what we saw at the end of the or year is even though it looked at the beginning of the year like people wanted to own cash, they were better off owning stock, they were better off owning bonds and lower or quality bonds. and i think that story to some extent continues into the new year where migrating away from cash and into longer bonds, even certain credit instruments in your bond portfolio and continuing to build out your equity portfolio remains really important. liz: for the sake of time, rob, which sectors do you like, as in do owe sue what was a tech rally now broadening to other sectors? if so, which ones in and also any unique investment opportunities that you see? >> yep, great question. so we would look to other sectors to start the year. health care looks particularly interesting. utilities have been catching up as rates have been falling a little bit. we think there's probably some short-term opportunities there. in the long term, technology is

still attractive as the world keeps getting faster and innovation continues to evolve over that time. i think for us the unique sectors we'd look at are really nongovernment agency, residential mortgage-backed securities looking at that part of the bond portfolio where you can capture some extra that yield and insurance-linked securities for certain investors look very interesting particularly because with we saw reinsurance rates rise quite a bit in 2023, and that's really probably a tailwind for investors. lauren: fast forward to december 31st, 2024, where is the s&p 500 at the end of this this year? >> yeah, right now we're thinking about 4950. lauren: all right. >> a good return. lauren: i see a gain of a. 5% with that prediction. rob hayworth, thank you very much. "the claman countdown" will be on the road next week at ces. "kudlow." muck. larry: hello, folks, i'm larry kudlow are